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Photos and videos of students venting their pressure before the gaokao, national college entrance exam, which falls on June 7 and 8, have caused heated debate recently.

The photos showed some grade three students at a senior high school in Xiamen, a coastal city in Southeast China's Fujian province, tearing up their textbooks and throwing them out of the windows of the school buildings.

While a video that went viral online showed a similar scene at a senior high school in Liupanshui, Guizhou province in Southwest China.

Amid deafening shouts and cries of "hurray", hundreds of used textbooks and old exam papers fell from the sky like snowfall.

The photos and video finally caught the attention of the authorities. On May 25, the Xiamen education authorities issued a directive, ordering schools to ban such activities and resort to other ways to effectively alleviate the pressure on students.

The directive, said to be the first official statement targeting the phenomenon, immediately made headlines nationwide.

The ban is actually long overdue.

Such student actions before the exam have been a recurring scene in recent years in some senior high schools around the country. It has even become a kind of tradition at this time of year.

Some schools have even acquiesced in such activities as a way to boost the morale of students.

But while students shouting at the top of their lungs may be interpreted as inspiring, depending on what it is they are shouting, tearing up textbooks and old exam papers should not be encouraged.

Books and papers are witnesses of students' hard work. Bitter or sweet, they are mementos that will help students recall precious memories of this special period in their lives.

And they are still valuable references that they will be able to use in college.

Tearing them up in impulsive group frenzies leaves nothing but piles of garbage that their schools have to clear up.

However, this way of releasing their pressure also reflects students' dissatisfaction with the current education system.

Academic performance remains the overriding priority throughout school education. A decent score outshines any other abilities in the eyes of teachers as there are often strict college entry rate requirements in many high schools.

Failure to ensure a certain number of students go to college can affect teachers' performance appraisals. That explains why at some schools teachers try and persuade the weakest students who have little chance of going to college to drop the gaokao to ensure a good enrollment rate from the school.

Like a sword of Damocles, the national college entrance exam hangs above students' head.

Considered a life-changing opportunity for students, due to its fierce competition, surviving the exam to enter a good university is described as "fighting to pass a single-log bridge against a legion of soldiers".

High expectations from parents, teachers and schools mean huge pressure for students.

The exam-oriented cramming method of teaching also fails to arouse students' interest.

After years of hard study for the sole purpose of taking the exam, the pressure builds up as it approaches.

Releasing the pressure is necessary for students to ensure they are in the best state both mentally and physically to sit the exam.

The official ban is a ban on extreme acts like tearing up books, not against student's releasing the pressure they feel.

In this sense, it is the responsibility of schools to guide students to relieve their pressure in more reasonable ways.

They could organize some group activities such as an outing to help students let off steam.

In the long run, though, the root problem still lies in the exam system.

Instead of deciding a student's fate through a single exam, the education authority should speed up its reform to diversify the exams for students with different talents.

Meanwhile, universities should be given more freedom to select the students they need.

Scores in the gaokao should be only a reference. A comprehensive evaluation system should be established to give students an objective chance to show their overall capabilities.

The writer is an editor with China Daily. lifangchao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/04/2016 page5)
When I was in Barcelona a few years ago, four friends and I made the near-fatal mistake of ordering a 5L tower of sangria at a bar that I can only assume is famous for attempting to murder idiot American tourists.

That sangria was responsible for a full night of belligerence and a very aggressive hangover, and soon you can experience the joy that is alcohol sucked from a towerBierhaus NYC in Midtown is now offering 100 ounce Mimosa Towers during their "Adult Daycare Brunch," probably because you need to be piss drunk to tolerate Midtown and/or something called "Adult Daycare Brunch."

The towers start at $40 and can be paired with one of the German eatery's brunch entrees, like a Bavarian waffle, Alpine pancake or sausage sandwich.

If you'd prefer to stay away from a tower full of champagne and orange juice, there's a Make-Your-Own-Bloody-Mary bar, or you can opt for one brunch drink with your meal for a total of $17.

Participants in "Adult Daycare Brunch," which runs from noon until 3 p.m. on Saturdays and all day Sunday, can also request games like Connect 4 and Giant Jenga so you can hit people with giant Jenga bricks to test whether or not alcohol really does dull pain.

Alternatively, you can make your own mimosa tower out of, say, a vacuum cleaner tube, and spend your entire weekend throwing up on your floor.
Kaleb Hagos was arrested by police on September 23rd, 2015, and had $2,931.68 in cash confiscated, along with an iPhone he was carrying in his pocket. Since then, the case against him has been terminated, and his lawyers at the Bronx Defenders have repeatedly tried to retrieve his phone and moneybut to date, the Bronx District Attorney's office has refused to return his property. Hagos, along with two other individuals who have had property seized and not returned by the NYPD, is now part of a lawsuit seeking class-action status that challenges the police department's practice of civil forfeiture, a policy based on a 135-year-old law that robs poor New Yorkers of millions of dollars every year.

The federal lawsuit, Encarnacion v. City of New York, was originally filed by the Bronx Defenders in January, but it's now been amended to seek class-action status on behalf of anyone who has been or will in the future be unable to secure the release of their cash or belongings from the NYPD in cases where the case is closed and the City hasn't indicated any reason to retain the property. The suit argues that in seizing and failing to return cash and cellphones to New Yorkers whose cases have been terminated, the City is violating their constitutional rights.

"Once a criminal case is over, the U.S. Constitution does not permit the City to withhold someone's personal property without justification," said attorney Eric Brenner. "This City's current policies violate the basic rights of individuals who need the cash and phones that the City is refusing to return."

In theory, if a person whose belongings have been seized presents identification, a property voucher, and a DA release, the NYPD has to turn over the property; similarly, the DA's office in theory has to issue the release within 15 days of the request, or else provide a written denial explaining why the property has to be retained. In practice, however, that deadline has been "brazenly ignored," this lawsuit alleges, and if the property owner can't get the release within 270 days of submitting a request, the NYPD can "dispose" of the seized belongings.

"We often represent low-income people whose phones and cash wages have been confiscated and spend months trying to get their money back after their case is over," said Molly Kovel, who is the legal director of the Civil Action Practice at the Bronx Defenders. "For people without access to an attorney, the hurdles they face to get their property back are simply too high, and they often give up. We hope this case leads to much-needed reform."

The City's law department said that it would not comment on the case while the litigation is pending.

Judges have twice ruled that the city's administrative code, which governs the NYPD's seizure of property from arrestees, is unconstitutional. Still, there's been little attempt to modernize that code, as many lawmakers are worried that doing so would make them appear to be soft on crime. City Councilmember Ritchie Torres, who represents the central Bronx, introduced legislation last year that would require the NYPD to give detailed annual reports on the items and money seized in arrests, but that legislation has been stalled since being referred to the council's Committee on Public Safety.

This lawsuit demands that judge declare the city has violated New Yorkers' constitutional rights in allowing the NYPD's current practice of civil forfeiture, and award damages to the plaintiffs currently listed, as well as anyone included if the suit is granted class-action status.
Grisel Soto was suffering from bacterial meningitis when she was rushed to Coney Island Hospital on January 31stbut rather than treat her infection, hospital staff misdiagnosed her as suffering from a K2 overdose, leading to her untimely death, a new lawsuit against the hospital alleges.

Soto's husband, Jorge Matos, brought attention to his wife's alleged mistreatment shortly after her death, leading to an investigation by the New York State Department of Health, which in April discovered that the hospital had violated the federal code of patient rights in six different ways. In March, a number of the hospital's officials stepped down from their positions, though the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation denied it was directly related to Soto's death.

Now, Matos is suing Coney Island Hospital, along with HHC and several of its doctors, nurses, and physician's assistants, alleging negligence, failure to obtain informed consent, and wrongful death.

According to Matos's lawyer, when Soto, 47, arrived in the emergency room on January 31st, she was seen not by a doctor, but rather only by a nurse and physician's assistant. That nurse allegedly determined that Soto's symptoms matched those of someone suffering from an overdose of synthetic marijuana, or K2, and had her strapped to a gurney and sedated. Shortly thereafter, Soto went into cardiac arrest and died, her family alleges.

The autopsy results from the medical examiner's office revealed that Soto had not been using synthetic marijuana, but rather, as her family initially suspected, had been infected with meningitis.

"To me, she was tortured," Matos told CBS.

A spokesperson said that "NYC Health and Hospitals is committed to patient safety and ensuring the best possible care and experience for every patient and their family. It's a new day with an entirely new leadership team at Coney Island Hospital."

But Matos's lawyer said that "while the administrative shake up at Coney Island Hospital (7 administrators transferred or retired) hopefully will result in improved patient care, the focus must now be placed on the damages this family is entitled to as the result of her wrongful death."
A man who was shot in the chest in South Williamsburg this morning died of his wounds just minutes after he was dumped outside of a Brooklyn hospital, according to police. The two men who dropped him off apparently sped away soon after they left him.

Police say they were called to Woodhull Hospital at around 6 a.m. this morning, where doctors informed them the 25-year-old victim had been dropped off outside the hospital. He had suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and died of his injuries only two minutes after he was delivered to the hospital, and the Daily News reports that the two men in a black Toyota SUV with Virginia plates who dropped him off left quickly.

Investigators say the unidentified victim was shot on South 9th Street and Berry Street at around 5:50 a.m. No arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing.
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Authorities say a 20-year-old Helena man played a part in stealing more than 80 knives. The knives, worth about $7,000, were taken in a home burglary earlier this year.

Devon Joel Morris faces a felony charge of burglary. He also is accused of violating his probation by not remaining law abiding.

A former girlfriend of an alleged accomplice of Morris went to the Helena police station this week with one of the knives she said was taken by her ex-boyfriend in a residential burglary in February, according to court documents filed Friday.

The former girlfriend told investigators three men "had broken into a veteran's garage south of the Capitol Complex and had taken two bags of knives and some alcohol," note the documents, filed in Lewis and Clark County Justice Court.

A police detective searched burglaries in the area at the time and found a report of a one at a Rhode Island Road home in which more than 80 knives were taken. The knife turned in by the woman matched a description on the list, the documents say.

Authorities allege they found a few other knives taken in the burglary at local pawn shops and several others at Morris' apartment. Morris admitted to the burglary, court documents note.

Morris is on probation for felony convictions of burglary, accountability to burglary and accountability to theft.
The operator of a coal-fired power plant in Colstrip is merging with a private investment firm.

Talen Energy announced Friday it has entered into a merger agreement with Riverstone Holdings for $1.8 billion in acquisition costs.

It's too early to say what the sale means for Colstrip, which is run by Talen. Last month the company told the plant's five owners they would need to find a new operator by 2018, if not earlier.

Talen owns half of two of the older units at Colstrip and 30 percent of a third unit. The other owners include Washington utilities Avista Corp., and Puget Sound Energy; Oregon utilities Portland General Electric and PacifiCorp; and NorthWestern Energy, a South Dakota company that is Montanas largest gas and electric utility.

Todd Martin, spokesman for Talen, said Friday morning he couldn't speculate on what the sale means for the plant's future.

"Right now our mission is a very simple one, which is to continue to grow value for this company and the way we do that is carefully operate these plants," he said. "We want to deliver reliable energy to our customers knowing that over the next several months there are going to be a lot of processes that are taking place."

Talen has been continuing to communicate with Gov. Steve Bullock and other stakeholders as well as employees, Martin said. Representatives from Talen will also attend an interim legislative committee in July to discuss its role in Colstrip.

"It would be premature to speculate about the future because we don't know," Martin said. "When we do we will do that in a transparent and forthright way, but what we don't want to do is speculate. When we have facts and information we will discuss them."

Earlier this year Talen CEO Paul Farr said his company will lose millions in terms of operating Colstrip through the balance of the year. Cheaper natural gas and states and the federal government pushing toward other power sources has significantly hurt the coal industry.

Martin said what happens next is a long process to get regulatory and shareholder approval. Riverstone, which already had a 35 percent stake in Talen, developed the merger plan and took it to the board of directors.

A spokeswoman for Bullock said Friday that Talen called to inform the governor about the news before the release went out.

Thats the extent of communication weve had with them about this particular acquisition, she said.

The Energy and Telecommunications interim committee has invited Talen and Puget Sound Energy to its July meeting to discuss the future of Colstrip.

In May, Kimberly Harris, CEO of Puget Sound Energy in Washington; Paul Farr, CEO of Pennsylvania-based Talen Energy; and Bob Rowe, CEO of NorthWestern Energy sat down with Bullock to discuss the future of the plant.

Any Talen stock not already owned by Riverstone will be sold for $14 a share.

The agreement provides for a "go-shop" period, during which Talen can enter into negotiations with parties that offer alternative proposals. The go-shop period is 40 days. The parties currently expect the transaction to be completed by the end of 2016.
BILLINGS -- Some state legislative leaders are frustrated by the silence from the FBI and the BIA on an investigation into a woman found badly burned in April on the Crow Reservation.

Leaders in the state Democratic party and local state legislators met with Crow Nation leaders recently to discuss the issues facing their community.

House Minority Whip Jenny Eck said during the meeting the fact that a badly burned woman was found on the reservation was news to her.

She and several other legislators expressed shock at the lack of information coming from the FBI and the BIA regarding the crime.

"If this had happened to a child in any other community it would be national news," Eck said. "Here we are, elected officials in Montana, and that was the first we had heard of it."

Rep. Carolyn Pease-Lopez is a Crow Tribal member and a state representative for the House District 42. She has served in the Montana Legislature since 2009. She said details are always scarce when it comes to crimes committed on the Crow Reservation.

"I want to know the FBI cares," Pease-Lopez said. "Why didn't they come forward and let the public know this terrible thing had happened?"

Pease-Lopez said the way information is kept from the public makes it look like the federal government believes human life has less value on the reservation. She said victims off the reservation are made human through stories about their families and friends. The way victims on the reservation are treated makes their deaths and assaults anonymous.

Native American women are 10 times as likely to be murdered as other U.S. citizens, and are sexually assaulted at 4 times the national average, according to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Indian Law and Order Commission.

Almost no information has been officially released about the victim, who was found between Lodge Grass and Busby, Pease-Lopez said.

"They don't investigate women being killed on the reservation," Pease-Lopez said. "We want to know one human being is worth as much on the reservation as off."

The FBI has released this statement about the incident.

"The victim is being treated for her injuries. The FBI and the BIA continue to conduct a joint investigation. We cannot release any further information due to the ongoing nature of the case."

When asked for the date of the incident and the location, the FBI said it was going to "stick to the statement" given. The FBI said to continue to check with them regarding more information in the future. That was almost a month ago.

Friday, the FBI said they could provide no new information but said the investigation was ongoing.

Melissa Hornbein, public information officer for the Montana U.S. Attorney's office, also said they could not provide any information.

Eck said Crow tribal leaders felt they were at the mercy of the drug cartels, who they said are trafficking drugs through their reservation.

"We need to pay attention and need to keep asking questions and pushing on these issues," Eck said.

Tribal members pay state taxes just like anybody in Montana and need to get more resources from the state to help them with the drug crisis they are dealing with, Eck said. The rest of the state is not immune to the problems on the reservations, she said.

House District 51 Rep. Kelly McCarthy said tribal leaders at the leadership meeting included Dana Wilson, vice chairman of the Crow Tribe, Sean Real Bird, a tribal council member, and C.J. Stewart, who handles energy policy for the tribe.

McCarthy said when he has contacted federal agencies involved with the Native American reservations, he has never had a call returned.

"I'm not saying I'm especially important, but the feeling I get is they are the Feds and I'm the state so they don't have to respond to me," McCarthy said.

McCarthy said the lack of information coming out about crimes committed in Indian Country hides how desperate and dangerous things are getting in those communities.

"They have one BIA agent to patrol the (Crow) reservation," McCarthy said. "So if you've got one guy on him, you can operate without any harm to you."

According to the 2010 Tribal Law and Order Act, fewer than 3,000 tribal and federal law enforcement officers patrol more than 56 million acres of Indian Country, which reflects less than half of the law enforcement presence in comparable rural communities nationwide.

McCarthy said the tribes are also hindered by the the General Crimes Act, which gives the federal government exclusive jurisdiction to prosecute all crimes committed by nontribal members against tribal victims in Native American nations. This excludes minor crimes.

Rumors have swirled within the Crow tribe about the woman's assault, Pease-Lopez said. Family members willing to come forward and make statements have now become silent. A GoFundMe page set up for the victim has a photo of the woman and a 241-character message.

"Our loved one was hurt and as family we want to help raise money for her recovery. ... She has 6 beautiful children. ... With the assault and burns she will require skin graphs (sic). ... Sorry not much detail. ... Thanks for your help, love and generosity."

The only information Pease-Lopez sees now comes from social media.

"That is supposed to be secondary," Pease-Lopez said. "I don't know what the rationale is for keeping this quiet."

McCarthy helped organize the conversations between leaders in the state Democratic party and local state legislatures. The legislators visited with Crow tribal leaders, Northern Cheyenne tribal leaders and people in the Colstrip community.

In 2014, of the 294 crimes investigated by the FBI on Montana Indian reservations, 169 reached federal court, according to the U.S. Department of Justice Indian Country Investigations and prosecutions report. That is 57 percent of crimes investigated by the FBI.
ST. LOUIS  A group representing Missouri municipal utilities has signed up for space on a transmission line that would carry wind power from western Kansas across Missouri and further east, despite a state commission's rejection of the proposed line.

The Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission, which represents municipal utilities that pool their resources to buy power, said Thursday it signed an agreement for up to 200 megawatts of transmission space on the 780-mile Grain Belt Express line.

The proposed $2.2 billion transmission line has been approved in Kansas, Indiana and Illinois but the Missouri Public Service Commission blocked the project last summer amid strong opposition from rural landowners who didn't want to sell easements, citing concerns about crops, pastures and maneuvering large equipment around towers. Commission members said the project wouldn't benefit Missouri ratepayers.

Texas-based Clean Line Energy, which is proposing the transmission line, has said it could deliver up to 500 megawatts of power in Missouri and would ship about 3,500 megawatts of electricity through the state to a grid further east, where prices are higher.

Clean Line President Michael Skelly said Thursday's agreement would give Missouri municipal utilities "low-cost access to really the best wind resources in the country."

"We heard the commission's concerns loud and clear, and one of them was they wanted to know there were actual Missouri customers for the line, and we've now proven that out," Skelly said.

The contract is contingent on the project being approved by Missouri regulators.

Skelly acknowledged many landowners will continue to oppose the project but said he's hopeful the state will consider the line beneficial enough reconsider its stance.

"We've had opposition in the past and we may in the future," Skelly said. "But we think this agreement is a very positive development for the project."

The Grain Belt Express would transmit electricity from Dodge City, Kan., across northern Missouri and Illinois to a substation in Sullivan, Ind.
DECATUR  The Decatur Park District is seeking to attract more children for free lunches in the parks this summer.

The district offers the lunch program on weekdays, with park leaders distributing the food to children in 12 neighborhood parks. The lunches are available to anyone 18 and younger.

The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered by the Illinois State Board of Education.

We're there, said Jamie Gower, director of recreation and facilities for the district. We want to see as many kids as possible at each of our locations.

The district also provides lunches at the Boys & Girls Club and at Decatur School District camps. Last year, a total of 35,820 lunches were served across the city.

This year, the district put a flier about the program in its Parks Insider newsletter, contacted principals at schools close to the parks and looked to partners for help in getting the word out.

Lunches will be served by park leaders at the following locations: Coates, Garfield, Grant, Hess, Jasper, Johns Hill, Knights of Columbus, Lions, Monroe, Mueller, Oak Grove and South Shores parks.

The lunches will also be offered at Galloway Park through a partnership with gtChurch. Volunteers, who will take the same training as the district's park leaders, will serve the lunches from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m..

Outreach pastor Beth Soares said the lunches are part of the church's efforts to reach out to the surrounding neighborhood.

We just try to be a blessing to them as much as possible, she said.
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The Mauston School District has passed numerous operational referendums the past seven years to keep its schools viable.
Your Right to Know: Ruling restores access to accident report data
Sometime in 2011, Antonio Guerrero decided he wanted a better life for himself, for his two small children, and for his beloved parents.

Guerrero, who was born in Mexico and came to America about 25 years ago, always worked hard, but drank harder, a relative said Thursday.

At the end of the summer in 2011, Guerrero packed a suitcase and told his family in Cicero, Illinois, that he was heading for a rehabilitation center in Wisconsin to defeat his drinking demons.

He felt like he needed to change his life, remembered Mereyda Santillan, Guerreros 23-year-old niece who lives in Cicero, a western Chicago suburb. He told us he was going to stop drinking. He had his problems, but he always, always came back home. It wasnt like him to not come back home.

Guerrero, whose last address was listed as Berwyn, Ill., never did come back.

At some point, somehow and some way, Guerrero ended up in Racine. On Nov. 12, 2011, a passerby discovered some decomposed skeletal remains wedged in rocks along the Lake Michigan shore near the Fifth Street boat launch. A forearm and hand were found three weeks later and those parts were matched to the remains.

On Wednesday, more than four years after the initial grisly discovery, Racine Police and the Racine County Medical Examiners Office said they had identified those remains as Guerrero, who was 31 at the time.

While the identification provided some comfort to Guerreros family, they now want to find out what happened to him in 2011 and why.

We understand that he is at peace now and the family knows where he is, said Santillan, reportedly the only member of Guerreros family who speaks English. We know hes not suffering, and we know hes not out on the street somewhere alone. But its still a mystery for us. Thats hard for us.

Answers sought

Santillan and the rest of her family are asking for any help they can get from anyone who might know details about what happened. Whatever anyone can offer would help so much, she said. Anything can help.

For local officials, the identification also was just the first step in what could be another long investigation.

Now we know who this person is and that is just the starting point, said Racine County Medical Examiner Michael Payne. The next part is to find out what exactly happened.

Guerrero was the second youngest of six children born to Antonio Guerrero and Maria Lupe Guerrero. He attended high school in Mexico, Santillan said.

In America Guerrero held a string of jobs over the years  cutting grass, pouring concrete and cement, helping at construction sites, Santillan said. He drank too much, she said, but didnt have any enemies.

He also didnt have any friends in Wisconsin as far as the family knew, Santillan said. When we first went up there, we actually didnt know where it was, she said. He didnt know anyone at all up there.

The family plans to cremate Guerrero and have a small, private memorial ceremony, Santillan said.

Anyone with information about Guerrero can contact his niece, Mereyda Santillan at 708-745-8570.
Prosecutors say an Onalaska man accused of beating his infant son cut off his GPS monitor, stole a shotgun, broke into the boys mothers home and confessed days after being released from jail.

Chad Parker, 29, was arrested May 26 after his 3-month old son was taken to the hospital with skull fractures and a possible brain injury. According to court documents the child had bruises on his chin, neck, chest and back.

Parker told police he had been drinking and passed out with the infant on the couch; he said he woke up on top of the boy but denied shaking him, according to court documents.

Parker was released from jail May 27 after posting bond.

The boys mother called police early Thursday to report that Parker had climbed through a bedroom window in her residence shortly before 5 a.m., saying he was upset and wanted to talk. He left on foot after giving her a letter, according to a criminal complaint.

According to the complaint, Parker wrote that he was feeling overwhelmed and had gotten little sleep when he flipped out and threw the boy on the couch, started smacking him on the butt really hard, and then bit him really hard on the hand.

After me doing something like that, I cant live the rest of my life, I dont deserve to live, Parker wrote.

Police went to the home where Parker had been staying. His parents had found his GPS ankle bracelet and a note saying he couldnt live like this anymore. They later discovered they were missing a 12-gauge shotgun, according to the complaint.

Parker was arrested Thursday in Jackson County with a loaded gun in the back seat of his vehicle. He was charged later that day in La Crosse County Circuit Court with physical abuse of a child, intentionally causing great bodily harm, which carries a maximum 40-year sentence.

Prosecutors charged him Friday with two counts of felony bail jumping for removing his bracelet and violating a no-contact provision of his bond.
A German company, MAGIX Software of Berlin, has purchased most of the audio and video production tools of Sony Creative Software of Middleton  products that were originally developed by Madison-based Sonic Foundry.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

MAGIX, which also creates its own video, music and photo editing software, bought Sonys Vegas Pro, Movie Studio, Sound Forge Pro and ACID Pro product lines.

These products from Sony Creative Software are the perfect addition to our portfolio, MAGIX CEO Klaus Schmidt said in a statement.

That leaves Sony Creative Software with the Catalyst Production Suite, with video preparation and editing tools aimed at professional broadcasters and film makers.

It also means a reduction in the staff of the Sony unit, at 8215 Greenway Blvd., to about 30 employees, said John Freeborg, vice president. He said about 35 positions ended in the past year, some from the MAGIX transaction and others from a reorganization of Sony Corp.s Imaging Products & Solutions business sector.

Some employees who lost their jobs with Sony will be working for MAGIX. The company plans to open an office at 2010 Eastwood Drive., just off Atwood Avenue on the East Side, by the end of June, said Aanor Roland, MAGIX public relations and social media manager.

Weve currently got about a dozen employees here, most of whom were involved as Sony Creative Software team members, Roland said. We hope to build our team in the future.

Sony Creative Softwares Middleton office, meanwhile, has transformed into more of an engineering group, collaborating with its counterparts in the Los Angeles and San Jose areas as well as in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and at Sony Corp. in Japan, Freeborg said.

Were developing professional video solutions and services for a worldwide market, he said. That includes products involving cloud computing technologies, wireless cameras and video standards for ultra-high-definition televisions with a wider range of colors than HDTV.

The software products purchased by MAGIX  Vegas, Sound Forge and ACID  were the flagship desktop editing and production tools for Sonic Foundry, which started in 1991 and rode the crest of the digital revolution.

In 2003, after the dot-com bust, the Sony division then known as Sony Pictures Digital, bought the software tools for $18 million and Sonic Foundry turned its focus to the Mediasite broadcast streaming and archiving hardware and software, products that continue to form the basis of Sonic Foundry.
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GREEN BAY  Sen. Bernie Sanders supporters scored a win Saturday at the state Democratic Party convention, as delegates heeded their call to request the elimination of so-called superdelegates who help pick the partys presidential nominee.

The nonbinding resolution asks national Democrats to abolish superdelegates, party insiders who can support whoever they want for president.

Another resolution also passed at the convention urges Wisconsins 10 superdelegates to vote in proportion to Wisconsins primary results, which gave Sanders a solid win over Hillary Clinton on April 5.

Outward signs of tension between supporters of Sanders and Clinton largely were absent at the convention, which ended Saturday afternoon. Speeches by top Wisconsin Democrats on Friday night rallied supporters of both candidates behind Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Russ Feingold  and against the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

Courtney Zambon, a delegate and student at UW-Green Bay, is a Clinton supporter. Zambon said she hopes Clinton and Sanders supporters recognize the importance of coming together in November.

The most important thing is we get a Democrat in office and keep Trump out, Zambon said.

The superdelegate resolutions do not change that system, which is put in place by the national Democratic Party. But they represent a call for change from the partys grassroots in Wisconsin.

Six of Wisconsins 10 superdelegates are backing Clinton. One, state Rep. David Bowen, D-Milwaukee, supports Sanders, while the remaining three are uncommitted.

Sanders and his backers have made reforming the superdelegate system a priority nationally. A handful of Democratic parties in other states have passed calls for change to the superdelegate system, including Maine, Utah, Vermont, Colorado and Alaska.

Superdelegates are party leaders and elected officials who vote as delegates for the partys presidential nomination at its national convention.

They are controversial because, unlike most other delegates, superdelegates are not bound or pledged by the results of state primaries or caucuses and may vote for their presidential candidate of choice. Critics say that means they do not reflect the will of voters.

Some superdelegates to this years convention have not signaled which candidate they will support, but the overwhelming majority of those who have are backing Clinton. Clinton also holds a commanding lead in pledged delegates  whose votes are linked to the results of state primaries or caucuses  headed into Tuesdays pivotal California primary.

The question of whether the Sanders and Clinton wings of the party can unite behind the nominee is vital for Democrats heading into the general election.

Julie Harvey, a Democratic delegate from Pulaski, sported a button with a picture of Sanders that said Not for sale.

Harvey said she thinks Sanders still can capture the Democratic nomination. If he doesnt, she said she wont vote for Clinton in a general election. She would cast a write-in vote for Sanders instead.

She has a history of not being trustworthy, Harvey said of Clinton. I cannot get behind a candidate I cannot trust.

Daniel Holzman, a Democratic delegate from Baraboo, has held house parties for Sanders and contributed to his campaign. But Holzman said he has been pleased to see Sanders nudge Clinton in a more progressive direction on issues such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

I will support the winner, and I have no problem supporting Hillary, Holzman said.
GREEN BAY --In a party split between presidential candidates, two things brought Wisconsin Democrats together Friday at their state party convention: a dislike of Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump and cheers for their likely U.S. Senate nominee, Russ Feingold.

The party's annual showcase event runs through Saturday afternoon. The tension underlying the convention centers on differences between backers of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who convincingly won the Wisconsin Democratic primary, and Hillary Clinton, who has a solid delegate lead in the national nomination process and support from many elected Democratic office-holders.

The reaction of Democratic delegates Friday night showed both sides could rally behind Feingold -- and a running criticism of Trump that was part serious, part humorous.

Keynote speaker and U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who has been floated as a possible vice presidential pick for Clinton, praised both Democratic presidential candidates in equal measure.

Then he implored Democrats to unite to defeat Trump.

"In the face of a demagogue, to be divided is to be defeated," Perez said.

Other speakers picked up the theme, albeit in lighter terms.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin sought to link Trump to Wisconsin Republicans, ridiculing him as Scott Walker with a spray-tan.

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore used a Trump bobblehead doll as a prop in her remarks. Rep. Mark Pocan's introductory video montage drew one of the night's biggest laughs with a clip of former GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush saying of Trump: "He needs therapy."

Feingold is vying to return to the U.S. Senate by challenging Republican Sen. Ron Johnson. In his speech Friday, Feingold called for raising the minimum wage, preserving and strengthening Social Security, and making broadband Internet service a public utility.

Feingold frequently invoked his recent tour of all 72 Wisconsin counties -- saying no one at those tour stops urged him to build a wall on the Mexican border, as Trump has vowed to do.

He also focused on the changes brought to Wisconsin by Walker and GOP state lawmakers, while rejecting the notion that the state has been hopelessly divided by the political battles of the last five years.

"What I hear from most Wisconsinites is that we are ready to unite again," Feingold said.

Feingold, speaking in a press conference after the convention, blasted Trump for his recent remarks that a California federal judge should recuse himself from lawsuits concerning Trump University over which he has presided due to a conflict of interest because that judge is of Mexican ancestry.

I think the language (Trump) is using in the context of this judge, the language he has used in other contexts, is disqualifying for him to be President of the United States, Feingold said.

Day two of the convention on Saturday is when Democratic delegates will debate resolutions and elect Wisconsin's four Democratic National Committee members for terms beginning after the Democratic National Convention in July.

In a sign that party officials may be skittish about the Sanders-Clinton dynamic, the website wispolitics.com reported Thursday that Wisconsin Democrats are banning the site from buying a table at the convention to conduct a straw poll of Democratic delegates -- which it has done regularly at conventions of both parties for 16 years.

A few Sanders supporters held a press conference at the convention Friday afternoon to charge national Democrats have "stacked the deck" in favor of Clinton winning the nomination.

Sanders supporters say they plan to propose resolutions Saturday urging the national party to end the system of so-called super-delegates, or party leaders who vote, as delegates, for the party's presidential nomination. Super-delegates are not bound by the results of states primaries or caucuses as most delegates are, leading critics to say they do not reflect the will of voters. Some super-delegates to this year's convention have not signaled which candidate they will support, but the overwhelming majority of those who have are backing Clinton.

Internal divisions notwithstanding, members of both camps gave a warm greeting to Feingold, who served in the Senate from 1993 to 2011.

Speaking Friday morning before the convention, Pocan, D-Black Earth, said the enthusiasm for Feingold stems both from the candidate and the role he could play in Democrats retaking the U.S. Senate this fall. Wisconsin is considered a virtual must-win state for Democrats if they are to do so.

Russ is going to be the star of the convention," Pocan said Friday morning. "Clearly the path to taking back the US Senate starts in Wisconsin.

Check back for updates Friday and Saturday as the convention continues.
Wisconsins water quality regulators failed to follow their own policies on enforcement against polluters more than 94 percent of the time over the last decade, the states nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau said in a report released Friday.

From 2005 to 2015, there was a general decline in state Department of Natural Resources enforcement activity to protect lakes, streams and groundwater from large livestock farms, factories and sewage treatment plants that discharge liquid waste, according to the bureaus 124-page report.

During a period when elected officials from both political parties have decreased DNR staffing, notices of violations were issued to polluters in just 33 of 558 instances serious enough for such citations under DNR policies, the audit found.

The DNRs record of meeting its goals for inspections of polluting facilities every two to three years has been uneven, with the standard being met for fewer than half of the places many years. And some inspections of concentrated animal feeding operations  6.5 percent of the total  took place after the agency reissued the farms permits instead of before, a violation of state and federal law aimed at ensuring CAFOs keep their huge quantities of manure out of water, auditors said.

Much enforcement is based on compliance reports polluters are supposed to file annually, but auditors found that DNR staff didnt have time to fully review the reports. Only 36 of 1,900 CAFO reports were electronically recorded as having been received by DNR field offices, making it impossible for supervisors to spot problems.

The report provides a pretty damning assessment, said Sarah Geers, a staff attorney for Midwest Environmental Advocates, a public interest law firm that has challenged the DNR to improve its performance. A lot needs to be done.

A co-chairman of the Legislatures audit committee said he wants to know how much funding the DNR needs to set things right, and the audit bureau called on the DNR to report in November on recommended changes in nine areas.

Adequate, consistent, and timely enforcement action is important to ensuring the integrity of the (water quality protection) program, the audit report said.

Heavy workloads and high turnover of DNR employees may have contributed to inaction when excessive toxins that are human health hazards were detected in wells set up at five CAFOs to check for groundwater pollution, auditors said.

Years later, one farm closed a manure pond and another shut down completely, but not because of any documented DNR action. In the three other cases the department said it was still evaluating the situation as many as 11 years after pollutants were found.

In pointing out that the DNR didnt follow its own enforcement policies, the audit appears to contradict previous DNR statements defending dwindling enforcement action in recent years by saying the agency was working hard to obtain voluntary compliance from polluters through informal negotiations.

The DNR can no longer hide behind the implication that facilities are just doing a better job of complying with their permits, said Jimmy Parra, a Midwest Environmental Advocates attorney. The reality is that DNR isnt inspecting facilities as it should be and isnt taking enforcement action in accordance with its own policy.

Auditors also examined how quickly the DNR renewed five-year pollution permits, legal documents that establish limits for waste water discharges, and found the agency usually missed its goal of renewing 85 to 90 percent of permits before they expire.

Over the 11 years the audit covered, the goal was missed six times for municipal waste water operators, twice for CAFOs and every year for industrial polluters. The audit found 41 incidents, or 2.9 percent of the total, in which it took the DNR six or more years to renew an expired permit.

Permit holders continue to operate under the conditions of the expired permit until a new one is issued, which means they may not be subject to new limits that are set based on the latest scientific research, Parra said.

A good example can be seen in the exacting phosphorus standards for waste water the DNR adopted in 2010 to control unnatural weed and algae growth that afflicts hundreds of lakes and streams, Parra said.

Because of the backlog many facilities still do not have permits that incorporate those standards, Parra said.

DNR spokesman Jim Dick said the audit covers several areas the DNR has been working on.

The DNR has recognized many of the issues identified by the audit bureau, and has already, or is in the process of, establishing systems to address them, Dick said in a statement.

In 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listed 75 deficiencies in state laws and administrative rules on water pollution. Among those were 64 deficiencies related to waste water regulation the audit reviewed. Of those, 33 had been addressed by the DNR as of April and the remaining 31 were in the process of being addressed, according to the audit report. The EPA said Friday four of the 75 deficiencies are resolved.

The DNR spokesman on Friday said the agency adopted six of eight planned regulatory rules packages designed to account for many of the 75 deficiencies.

Dick said enforcement activity related to the states growing number of industrial farms, or CAFOs, has increased from 2005 to 2015, and only 24 percent of municipal and industrial pollution permit applications were considered backlogged as of April, down from over 35 percent four years earlier.

DNR consistently meets its inspection commitments agreed to with EPA, Dick said. In addition, DNR appreciates (the) audit report finding that pointed out DNR performs more frequent inspections of CAFOs with previous violations  an example of how staff time is prioritized to focus our inspection efforts.

A member of the Legislatures Republican majority who has taken a leading role on environmental issues said he was troubled that DNR wasnt following its own enforcement policies.

This finding is troubling and I am awaiting further explanation from the agency on how they plan to address inspections and noncompliance Sen. Robert Cowles of Green Bay said in a statement.

Cowles, co-chairman of the Legislatures Joint Audit Committee, which requested the audit, said he wants the bureau to determine how much funding the DNR would need to address the issues.

In 2015 Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature cut the DNRs two-year budget, and department executives are currently conducting an internal realignment study to allocate staff to the agencys core mission at the urging of top elected officials and in anticipation of further reductions in 2017.

Walker and legislators havent said publicly what the core mission should be, but in the 2010 campaign season that brought Republicans to power, Walker promised to tame an out-of-control DNR, saying that regulators and scientists had slowed job growth.

The reality is that DNR isnt inspecting facilities as it should be and isnt taking enforcement action in accordance with its own policy. JIMMY PARRA

Midwest Environmental Advocates attorney
This State Journal editorial ran on June 7, 1866, as Irish-American fighters known as the Fenians invaded Canada, hoping to pressure Britain to withdraw from Ireland:

The Fenian invasion now seems more formidable than it first appeared. The most serious demonstration is on the Vermont line. A considerable force has already passed the border and is foraging through the thickly settled agricultural districts in the direction of Montreal.

The president has issued a proclamation (for) the immediate arrest and bringing to justice of offenders. The United States authorities are generally on the alert, and vigorously endeavoring to repress further disorders.

The movement may be productive of more injury to the Canadians than first believed. It will only end, however, in failure, in the destruction of life and property, and the impoverishment of innocent persons.

No possible good to the cause of Irish independence can result from it; nothing but mere wanton injury and outrage to the people of Canada, and ultimate defeat and disaster to those who lead or are led in an attempt which no amount of valor or enterprise can rescue from the stigma of criminal folly.
CBSE has advised schools to consult parents before taking any decision regarding fee hike.

By India Today Web Desk: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) warned schools on Friday, i.e. June 3, to adhere by the laws of the Board before making any decision on raising fee of schools.



The Board issued this notice after receiving several complaints from the parents and students about the functioning of managing committees of schools.



(Read: SRK's heartwarming speech at Dhirubhai Ambani International School will leave you awestruck )



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Reasons for raising the fee:



Generation of sufficient financial sources for the management is necessary

Maintenance of reasonable standard is important

Making payments to staff members and teachers of schools and keeping at par with development goals and necessities of private schools



Keeping at pace with promotion of the institution and its needs for the same

(Read: Odisha girl, with meagre family background, tops OJEE despite all odds )

Know what HRD Minister Smriti Irani has to say:

"We have through CBSE written to all schools saying that for hiking of fees in affiliated schools you have to take into confidence the parents-teacher association. Till such time they don't agree to a fee hike, and the fee hike is not in proportion to facilities that you are giving in schools"

"You are not allowed to hike fees in the middle of the year and you are not allowed to keep away receipts which are rightfully to be given away to parents. These are the initiatives and instructions that are going through the government to schools and states so that the interests of the students can be protected."



Schools must not use the money for mere profit: CBSE



"The accounts statement should be prepared as per rules and a copy of each of the Statement of accounts should be sent to the Board every year as per by-laws," CBSE was mentioned saying in TOI



"No capitation fee or voluntary donations for gaining admission in the school or for any other purpose should be charged/collected in the name of the school. In case of such malpractices, the Board may take drastic action leading to disaffiliation of the school"

The CBSE has also added that any school indulging in such contravention shall be punished and subjected to a fine ranging from Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 50,000

Stating that there must not be any revision in the fee in the mid session, the schools have been advised to consult the parents before taking any decision regarding fee hike.

Click here for more updates on India Today Education



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"We have made adequate arrangements to ensure an incident free Yatra," a top Border Security Force (BSF) officer said today.

By Indo-Asian News Service: A top Border Security Force (BSF) officer today said that there are intelligence reports about militants planning to attack the forthcoming Amarnath Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir.

At the wreath laying ceremony in Srinagar to honour three BSF troopers martyred in an attack by guerrilla's at Bijbehara on Friday, BSF Director General K.K. Sharma told reporters, "Yesterday's attack on our convoy was sudden and unexpected. That is why we suffered casualties."

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"There are intelligence reports that militants have plans to attack the forthcoming Amarnath Yatra but we have made adequate arrangements to ensure an incident free Yatra this year also."

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti also laid wreath at the coffins of the martyred troopers.

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Taking strict action against Bishun Rai College from where Saurabh and Ruby had topped the exams, the board suspended its registration till further orders.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: The Bihar School Examination Board today cancelled the results of Science stream toppers, Saurabh Shrestha and Rahul Kumar, after they failed in the re-examination that was conducted yesterday.

The board also cancelled the results of Science topper Rahul Kumar who too failed to clear the re-examination.

Issuing a press note within 24 hours of conducting the exam, chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh said that the board had cancelled the results of Saurabh and Rahul since they failed to impress the expert panels with their answers.

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"It was found that the performance of Saurabh and Rahul were not up to the mark and thereby their results have now been cancelled", Lalkeshwar Singh said.

Ruby Rai, the Arts topper who skipped the re-examination, has been given another chance to appear for the re-examination on June 11. Ruby informed the board that she was suffering from depression and was mentally not in a position to re-appear for the exam.

ACTION AGAINST BISHUN RAI COLLEGE

Taking strict action against Bishun Rai College from where Saurabh and Ruby had topped the exams, the board suspended its registration till further orders.

It may be noted toppers in last one decade have always been from this college and this has now led to doubts over the manner in which it has been operating. Incidentally, the owner of the college Baccha Rai is believed to have close links with the RJD.

The board also announced the formation of a three-member high level committee, to be led by a retired High Court judge and two other members - a retired IAS or IPS officer and one retired former Vice Chancellor of a University - to investigate the case.

"We have set up a three-member committee to find out how Saurabh and Rahul managed to top the exams," Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh said.

The series of developments came after an India Today expose showed how the toppers of Arts and Science, Ruby Rai and Saurabh Shrestha, respectively, were clueless about simple questions despite being a topper.

Also read: Bihar topper, who said political science is about cooking, skips re-examination

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However, the chief minister is yet to shift to the official bungalow and continues to reside in 7, Circular Road which was allotted to him after Manjhi had taken over as the chief minister two years ago.

By Giridhar Jha: It is a tale of two bungalows, both occupied by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Bihar. Nitish has been keeping two sprawling bungalows in Patna ever since his predecessor Jitan Ram Manjhi vacated the 1, Anne Marg house in June last year.

However, the chief minister is yet to shift to the official bungalow and continues to reside in 7, Circular Road which was allotted to him after Manjhi had taken over as the chief minister two years ago.

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OPPOSITION QUESTIONS NITISH'S DECISION



Allotment of two bungalows to Nitish by the state government has irked the Opposition in Bihar. Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushil Kumar Modi questioned the motive of Nitish in keeping the two houses. "What is the need for Nitish to occupy the two bungalows?" he asked. "Why two houses have been allotted to somebody who is averse to dynastic politics and lives with his only son?"

The former deputy chief minister wondered whether Nitish was apprehensive about the completion of his five-year term. "That is why he has got the 7, Circular Road bungalow allotted in his name as a former chief minister," he said.

Sushil said when 1, Anne Marg was already designated as the official bungalow of the chief minister, what was the rationale to allocate another bungalow in Nitish's name. He said that even Rashtriya Janata Dal president and former chief minister Lalu Prasad had been residing in a single bungalow with his wife Rabri Devi, a former chief minister as well as their two sons Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who happened to be the ministers in the Nitish Kumar government. The BJP leader said the chief minister had occupied two bungalows at a time when there was a scarcity of houses even for the ministers in Patna. He said that many old quarters meant for them and the legislators had been razed to the ground by the government to construct new ones.

The ruling Janata Dal-United, however, hit back at Sushil. Party spokesman Sanjay Singh said that the BJP leader had forgotten the fact that Chief minister Vasundhara Raje had also been occupying two bungalows in Rajasthan where their party was in the government. "Sushil Modi's dreams were not fulfilled in the Bihar elections," he said. "That is why he has started day-dreaming about the chief ministerial bungalow."

Accusing Sushil of having least knowledge about the rules and norms, Sanjay said that 1, Anne Marg was being used as the Chief minister's secretariat for disposal of work related to different departments now. "How can one live in a house where official work is done?" he asked. Bihar's deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who heads the building construction ministry which allocates the bungalows, said that Sushil had resorted to low-level politics after he failed to get the BJP's nomination for the Rajya Sabha seat recently.



Also read: Bihar topper, who said political science is about cooking, skips re-examination

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The couple's stint on The Kapil Sharma Show will be their first on-screen appearance post tying the knot on April 30, 2016.

By India Today Web Desk: Now that actors Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover are back from their honeymoon it's only fair to have them under the limelight yet again.

And who better to facilitate that than comedian Kapil Sharma.

The newly wed couple was recently seen on The Kapil Sharma Show where they seemed to have the time of their lives.

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Also Read: 5 ideas you should steal from Bipasha and Karan's wedding to make your guests go wow

A quote by a source from the sets reads, "While Karan and Bipasha shared interesting anecdotes from their wedding and honeymoon with Kapil, a member from the audience decided to test Bipasha on her home skills and asked her to do some regular household chores that wives usually do."

Also Read: Bipasha Basu, Karan Singh Grover have epic fun on The Kapil Sharma Show

Reportedly, Basu was asked to sew a button on a shirt (talk about stereotypes) and "tie a tie on Karan, who was seen teasing her endlessly," reports IANS.

The episode starring the glamarous couple will be aired on Saturday.



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A senior BJP leader and the party's only member of the Legislative Council (upper House) from Kashmir Sofi Yousuf told Mail Today, he would campaign for Mehbooba Mufti in Anantnag constituency.

By Naseer Ganai: In a major policy shift indicating growing closeness between the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally Peoples Democratic Party, the BJP is going to campaign for Mehbooba Mufti in Anantnag constituency, which is going for polls on June 22.

BJP-PDP TIE UP

A senior BJP leader and the party's only member of the Legislative Council (upper House) from Kashmir Sofi Yousuf told Mail Today, he would campaign for Mehbooba Mufti in Anantnag constituency.

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Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday filed the nomination papers for by-election to the Anantnag assembly constituency. A senior PDP leader Ajaz Mir, who is MLA from Wachi area of south Kashmir, said traditionally South Kashmir has remained the strong turf of PDP and Mehbooba would easily win the elections with a large margin. He dismissed opposition National Conference and Congress candidates as minions. "They have no political standing", he added.

Inspite of the confidence of the PDP that Mehbooba Mufti would win elections from the constituency hands down, the BJP wants to chip in to show that the alliance is working together at the grassroots level. "I am going to campaign door to door. In 2014 our candidate got 2,200 votes from the constituency. We can easily get support of 5,000 votes for chief minister and we will ask our voters to vote for Mehbooba Mufti", Sofi said. He said that the BJP believes in the vision of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, which Mehbooba Mufti has vowed to take forward and he would be seeking votes from the BJP workers on this account.

Sofi, who hails from South Kashmir's Srigufwara village, has remained with the BJP all along and has contested Assembly elections in 2002, 2008 and 2014, and Lok Sabha polls in 2004, 2009 and 2014 on tickets of the BJP.

Nine candidates have filed their nomination papers for the Anantnag constituency. The BJP has decided not to field any candidate

Also read: PDP lashes out at Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, separatists

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The BSP has 4 MLAs in the 230 member MP assembly and their vote was being seen as crucial ahead of the RS elections on June 11.

A release from the BSP said that the party can not win a Rajya Sabha seat on its own but will support the Congress candidate to weaken communal forces.

The Congress party's claims over one of the Rajya Sabha vacancies from Madhya Pradesh received a shot in the arm on Saturday with BSP Supremo Mayawati announcing that her MLAs will support the Congress candidate in the upcoming polls on June 11. The BSP has 4 MLAs in the 230 member MP assembly and their vote was being seen as crucial ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections on June 11. The Congress was one vote short of securing the Rajya Sabha seat.

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There are 3 vacancies from MP for the Rajya Sabha. While two seats are sure to go to the BJP, a contest is in place for the 3rd seat. The Congress has fielded senior lawyer Vivek Tankha and the BJP general secretary Vinod Gotiya has filed his nomination as a BJP supported independent.

FIGHT AGAINST COMMUNAL FORCES



A release from the BSP said that the party can not win a Rajya Sabha seat on its own but will support the Congress candidate to weaken communal forces. Recently, the BSP bailed out the Congress in Uttrakhand as well.

Senior Congress leaders in Delhi had been in talks with the BSP over the issue of support to the Congress candidate. The BSP's decision to support the Congress also seems to have been dictated by the upcoming assembly elections in UP as well where the party would not like to be seen hobnobbing with the BJP.

In the 230 member MP assembly, the BJP has 166 MLAs, the Congress has 57, the BSP has 4 and independents account for 3 seats. Each candidate needs 58 votes to succeed. While Anil Dave and MJ Akbar, the official BJP candidates would elected safely, the BJP still has 50 votes with it. With 3 independents supporting the BJP, the BJP needed another 5 votes for ensuring victory for the independent candidate. However, with the BSP pledging support to the Congress candidate, the Congress now is home and dry with 61 votes unless of course there is cross voting.

ALSO READ: Madhya Pradesh: BJP wins Ghodadongri bypoll



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Home Minister Rajnath Singh is expected to lead the crowd. Prominent diplomats, bureaucrats, Union ministers, MPs and the general public would stretch themselves out for the iconic Yoga demonstration.

Connaught Place is gearing up to celebrate the International Yoga Day on June 21. (Below) CP's Inner Circle and six radial roads - Janpath, Panchkuian Road, State Entry Road, Minto Road, Barakhamba Road and RR6 will host the programme.

By Baishali Adak: Connaught Place (CP) is gearing up to celebrate the second edition of International Yoga Day on June 21. Patronised and brought UN recognition by PM Narendra Modi himself, its national celebrations for 2016 are set to be held in Punjab's Capital, Chandigarh.

Meanwhile, Delhi's official function will be hosted by the pristine white arcades of CP. Over 10,000 people are expected to participate. The event will run for two hours, from 6-8 am.

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RAJNATH SINGH TO LEAD

Home Minister Rajnath Singh is expected to lead the crowd. Prominent diplomats, bureaucrats, Union ministers, MPs and the general public would stretch themselves out for the iconic Yoga demonstration.

CP's Inner Circle and six radial roads - Janpath, Panchkuian Road, State Entry Road, Minto Road, Barakhamba Road and RR6 will host the programme. New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Ministry of Ayush have joined hands to organise the mammoth function.

A huge stage is being set up from which Yoga teachers will convey postures to the attending. Yoga mats are being procured to carpet the designated area on the D-day. Huge digital 'cinema screens' are being installed, besides the purchase of T-shirts, water bottles, banners, bags, etc.

An NDMC official said, "It is a prestigious event. We are going all out to ensure it goes smoothly."

SCHOOL STAFF AND KIDS TO ATTEND

Volunteers from organisations like Art of Living, Patanjali, Raahgiri, Gayatri Parivar, Brahma Kumaris will participate. Also, Delhi Police officials and NDMC's school staff and kids will attend. The general public is also free to join as there will be no ticket or pass system, the official said.

Considering the scale of the event, NDMC is arranging for portable toilets, fire brigades, ambulances and doctors too.

"As full CP will be covered on June 21, appropriate traffic diversions are being worked out," a police official said.

Rajpath was the venue for the first International Yoga Day in 2015. PM Modi did yoga for 35 minutes on a Sunday morning, leading 35,985 Indian and foreign dignitaries from 84 nations, from the front row.

India set two new Guinness World Records in the process. However, the main venue was shifted to Chandigarh's Capitol Complex after expectations of a larger crowd this time. 'Yoga Day' was declared to be internationally recognised by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on December 11, 2014.

Also read: Yoga break soon to become a must for corporates in India

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The victim's sister Shilpa Mittal welcomed the board's decision and said that it was a first step towards getting justice.

By India Today Web Desk: The Juvenile Justice Board today allowed Delhi Police to try the minor accused of running over 32-year-old Siddharth Sharma as an adult in a trial court.

In its order, the board said that the accused was in no manner lacking mental and physical capacity to commit the alleged offence.



MENTALLY HEALTHY

The committee ruled that the accused was mentally healthy at the time of the incident and was aware of the consequences of driving fast.

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The board also said that the accused had the ability to understand the consequences of the offence.



NO ONE ABOVE LAW

The victim's sister Shilpa Mittal welcomed the board's decision and said that it was a first step towards getting justice.

"We know we won't get justice easily. We are fighting to set an example and to prove that no one is above the law," she said.



FIRST JUVENILE TO BE TRIED AS AN ADULT

The accused becomes the first juvenile to be tried as an adult under the new provisions of the law.

The development came after the Delhi Police submitted an application, seeking transfer of the case to a trial court to try the accused as an adult, since he turned major four days after the incident on April 4.

Siddharth Sharma was trying to cross a road near Ludlow Castle School in north Delhi when he was hit by a speeding Mercedes. The teenager behind the wheels surrendered few days later and was sent to a Juvenile Justice Home.

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It's official now. Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse has resigned after a series of investigative reports by the India Today Group. Khadse is the first BJP minister to resign on charges of misuse of office and corruption after PM Modi took charge of the party. Watch India Today for latest updates on #KhadseOut.

By India Today Web Desk: Controversial Maharashtra revenue minister today resigned from the post after he found himself isolated in the party over allegations of conflict of interest in the Pune land deal case.

India Today had relentlessly reported on Khadse's involvement in Pune land scam and about his links to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

Hitting out at Khadse, former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan said he should have resigned on the first day of reports. "Khadse didn't resign on his own, he was forced to resign," the minister said.

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Eknath Khadse addresses media: HIGHLIGHTS

- I did not make any international calls, my phone was hacked.



- This is a conspiracy to defame BJP.



- Nitin Gadkari, LK Advani have stayed out of posts.

- If anybody provides proof, I will quit politics.



- In a bid to frame, they forged documents.



- No one has been able to produce concrete proof against me.



- No media trial in 40 years like now.

- I worked for expansion of BJP for 40 years.



BJP Maharashtra president Raosaheb Danve addresses media:

- Raosaheb Danve says charges against Khadse are baseless.



- This is just an attempt to defame BJP and Khadse.

- Khadse resigned, till he comes clean.



HERE ARE THE TOP DEVELOPMENTS:



Khadse met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at his official residence and tendered his resignation. However, there was no official confirmation on this till 12 noon. Congress party says resignation is not enough, arrest Khadse. The party feels that the minister resigned due to media pressure. According to sources, BJP general secretary Ramlal called Khadse early morning and told him to resign. Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari had intervened in the matter and convinced Khadse to step down, a source said. BJP is slow in acting against corrupt, says Prithviraj Chavan. Earlier, BJP chief Amit Shah had sought report from Khadse over twin allegations of land grabbing and call records showing him interacting with wanted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. India Today exposed that Maharashtra BJP minister Eknath Khadse was on the most dialled list of Dawood Ibrahim's international call list. A Pune-based local builder Hemant Gawande has alleged that the minister purchased a land in Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) area of Bhosari near Pune in the name of his wife and son-in-law illegally. India Today sting even revealed that Khadse left no stones unturned to intimidate and silence whistleblower Hemant Gawande, who had red-flagged the land grabbing by the minister. Khadse becomes first BJP minister to resign on charges of corruption.

ALSO READ: Dawood-Khadse call link: Vadodara hacker files PIL against Eknath Khadse



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Prabhat Khabar, a Jharkhand-based Hindi daily, claims Rs 109 crore has been deposited in two of Baba's bank accounts in just three months.

By Mail Today Bureau: He has preached to millions on television and solved their problems in a jiffy. But now he himself is in trouble, coming under the scanner of the authorities for his immense wealth.

Nirmal Baba is in the eye of a storm after Prabhat Khabar, a Jharkhandbased Hindi daily, reported that Rs 109 crore was deposited in two of his bank accounts in just three months. After the disclosure, his bank accounts, where transactions are made from all over the country, have come under scrutiny.

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Denying any wrongdoing, Baba told Aaj Tak that he had more than double the assets of what was reported. "My annual turnover is Rs 234 crore and I have been paying income tax regularly," he said.

The newspaper said Baba asks for 10 per cent of the salary from all those who visit him for solutions to their problems. He also charges Rs 2,000 from every participant who wishes to be a part of his commune, the report said. The money is transferred directly into three of his bank accounts - with three different banks.

Prabhat Khabar claims Baba transferred Rs 53 crore from one of these accounts into a private bank. It also claims that he holds a fixed deposit of Rs 25 crore in a leading bank.

But Baba denied all the allegations. "I never asked people to deposit money to solve their problems. I never assured them of any magical solution to their woes," he said.

The daily claims the Baba holds two accounts - one in the name of Nirmaljeet Singh Narula (his real name), and the other in the name of Nirmal Darbar.

Sushma Narula, his wife, is registered as the nominee. The report claimed that Baba transferred Rs 53 crore from one of these accounts.

Baba, who was born to a Sikh family in 1950, is the brother-in-law of Inder Singh Namdhari, a former speaker of the Jharkhand assembly.

Before he took to preaching sermons, he was a failed businessman in Jharkhand in the Seventies. He disappeared from the scene in the early Eighties and is supposed to have acquired his divine powers and developed an inclination towards spiritualism then, people who know him from his earlier life say.

He advertises on 35 channels and has over three lakh followers on Facebook and around 42,000 followers on Twitter.

The father of two offered to undergo a lie-detector test to prove his innocence. "Our aim is not to spread superstition but to lessen it and we don't provide any amulet, talisman or good luck charm to our devotees," he added.

Meanwhile, two teenagers have filed a report against Baba at a Lucknow police station. Tanaya Thakur, 16, and Aritya Thakur, 13, said they wanted Baba punished for allegedly cheating ordinary people through his "impractical" solutions. The report says his activities fuel superstitious thoughts and are a "hindrance to modernistic thoughts".

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Reacting to the media reports, Baba Ramdev's aide Acharya Balkrishna on Saturday appealed to the people not to run behind various self-proclaimed godmen and instead, follow the good old principle of "Karma" (action). Referring to the recent controversy, he said people should believe in action and make efforts instead of running in the hope for miraculous relief.

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The senior BJP leader thought high command will not touch him being the most senior minister and the tallest OBC face of the party in Maharashtra.

By Kiran Tare: Former Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse has paid a heavy price for keeping wrong company. His office was full of unreliable people with dubious distinctions from the day he took charge of the office. There were complaints about wrong doings and malpractices from across the state but Khadse kept a mum on them.

He was convinced that the BJP high command will not touch him as he was the party's most senior minister and the tallest OBC face in the state. He continued saying that someone had conspired against him and he would nail the person soon. Many felt that he was referring to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis who had announced that one of Khadse's aids Gajanan Patil was on the police radar for three months for asking bribe on behalf of the minister.

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GADKARI DIDN'T SUPPORT KHADSE



On the night of June 3 when Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari told Khadse that he should meet BJP president Amit Shah in Delhi on June 7 and present his side on the allegation that he misused his position while purchasing a three acre piece of industrial land at Bhosari near Pune Khadse was again convinced that he might get a new lease of life. However, his only hope in the form of support from Gadkari vanished after he received a call from Shah at 11:45 am on June 4 asking him to step down.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST



According to a senior BJP minister Khadse's act to buy the land in name of his wife Mandakini and son-in-law Girish Choudhary was a clear case of conflict of interest. "It was a violation of the high court's ruling that a minister should not purchase property for himself or his family while he is in the government. Had bhau (as Khadse is called in BJP) purchased the land in someone else's name he would not have been in trouble at all," the minister says.

DESAI WANTED TO SETTLE SCORE



Khadse's trouble escalated on May 31 when industries minister Subhash Desai pushed him to a corner by declaring that the piece of land purchased by his kin belonged to the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC). The needle of suspicion pointed towards Khadse since then. Both Khadse and Desai knew that the MIDC had not acquired the land in question. Desai wanted to settle a score over Khadse for taking initiative in snapping the BJP's 27-year-old ties with the Shiv Sena in September 2014. When asked how Khadse's family manage to buy a land owned by MIDC, Desai had said, "I don't know. You should ask this question to him."

The Shiv Sena workers distributed sweets after Khadse stepped down. There is a feeling among them that he was the killer of their alliance. Had the BJP continued alliance with Shiv Sena the Shiv Sena would have got more seats and their chief Uddhav Thackeray would have become the CM. The Shiv Sena workers were also rejoicing the situation where corruption was "established" in form of Khadse's resignation.

PRAKASH MEHTA VS EKNATH KHADSE



BJP ministers Prakash Mehta and Vinod Tawde will be equally happy along with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray after Khadse's exit. Mehta was upset with Khadse as the latter had not cleared several files he had recommended pertaining to certain works in Raigad district for which he is the guardian minister. Both had heated arguments over phone on the issue. Tawde too was not happy with Khadse's dominating position in the government. According to a source in the BJP, Mehta played a key role in providing details on Khadse family's land deal to the opponents.

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The land deal was sealed on April 27. However, it became public in last week of May when the nominations for legislative council election were about to be finalised. The source says Mehta, who has good equations with Shah, wanted to stop Khadse from choosing his own men as candidates. Mehta wanted a ticket for his close friend R N Singh to whom Khadse had opposed. Finally, when Khadse was put in the dock Mehta succeeded in fetching a ticket for Singh. Subsequently, Singh, Pravin Darekar and Sujitsinh Thakur were elected unopposed to the council.

POLITICAL CONSPIRACY



Khadse believes that those were hurt by his stringent actions have conspired against him. He indirectly pointed fingers towards industrialist Mukesh Ambani. "I had served notices to several people who have encroached wakf board lands. They might be upset with me," he says. Ambani's Rs 6,000 crore house, Antilia stands on a land owned by the wakf board. According to law, a wakf board land cannot be sold.

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After he tendered his resignation Khadse went to his government bungalow Ramtek. His family members were weeping on hearing the news of his resignation. Khadse looked at them but did not say anything. He asked an attendant to call to the BJP workers in his constituency, Muktainagar in Jalgaon district. "Stop the violence. I am coming," he said and went to take rest.

ALSO READ: Pune land owner admits selling plot to Mrs Khadse, slams MIDC for delay in compensation



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This short film, titled Capture Your Love, portrays the struggle a father goes through when faced with his daughter's relationship with a woman.

By India Today Web Desk: "To not be able to love the one you love is to have your life wrenched away."

These words, penned by author Vikram Seth, set the tone for UrbanClap's latest LGBT campaign, Capture Your Love - Come out in support of true love.

The app-based service marketplace has tied up with Delhi-based startup agency Ufaan to promote LGBT rights, which has produced on a number of films on social issues earlier.

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Produced via this collaboration, this short film titled Capture Your Love portrays the struggle a father goes through when faced with his daughter's relationship with a woman.

How it ends is what makes the story soul-stirring.

UrbanClap Co-founder Abhiraj Bhal said, "We at UrbanClap are a simple bunch of people. We believe that everyone should have the right to love whoever they want to as it's the most basic human right."

Speaking about the campaign, he added, "We firmly stand with the LGBT community in India as they fight for their equal rights in the eyes of law, or society.

"Our past efforts with the NAZ foundation, and this film, are very small gestures towards furthering the cause of the LGBT community."

As a part of this campaign, UrbanClap is also offering to sponsor photoshoots for five same-sex couples in the country.

Watch the touching short film Capture Your Love here:

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Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today tweeted that Eknath Khadse's resignation letter has been forwarded to Governor C Vidyasagar Rao for acceptance and a retired high court judge will probe charges levelled against him.

By India Today Web Desk: After Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse tendered his resignation for his alleged involvement in the controversial Pune land deal, land owner Abbas Unkani's son Anis Ukani admitted that his father had sold the plot to Chaudhri and Mrs Khadse and criticised the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) for the inordinate delay in paying the compensation. However, the Ukanis refused to speak on camera.

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Speaking on the land row, Anis Ukani said, "We refrained from speaking to Media as our main and immediate concern was our father's health as he has been keeping unwell due to the situation. Yes, my father Abbas R Ukani sold the land to Chaudhri and Mrs Khadse on April 28, 2016".

"We have not received any compensation in the last 45 years regarding which the acquisition was started but the ownership remained with us and we have been fighting this case since then. MIDC needs to answer why it takes so long for any such cases and regarding the lawful entitlement to the land owners. We ran from pillar to post. We approached the court and our case is currently in the Mumbai High Court and due for hearing. Hence further we have no details to furnish," Anis added.

Khadse's wife Mandakini and son-in-law Girish Chaudhary had bought 1.21 hectares of land in Bhosari, Pune, for a mere Rs 3.75 crore against the RR price of Rs 23 crore.



Abbas Ukani moved to high court in October 2015 to reclaim his land. While case was still pending, Ukani reportedly sold the land Khadse's wife, Mandakini, and son-in-law, Dattaram Chaudhari on April 27, 2016.

According to the agreement signed between the Khadse's family and Ukani, the awarded compensation will be given to the purchaser.

Going by the land value in 1969 (Rs 6000/- per acre) the compensation should amount to Rs 23 crore. However under the new Land Acquisition Act the amount is expected to be anywhere around Rs 100 crore.

FADNAVIS ACCEPTS KHADSE'S RESIGNATION

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today accepted Eknath Khadse's resignation over the later's alleged involvement in the land deal. A retired high court judge will probe charges levelled against Khadse and his resignation forwarded to Governor C Vidyasagar Rao for acceptance, Fadnavis tweeted.

"Khadse ji has demanded an inquiry into allegations against him. A retired HC Judge will be appointed to conduct inquiry," said Fadnavis in a tweet.



KHADSE PLEADS INNOCENCE

Embattled Khadse today said that he resigned from his post to "uphold moral values" in BJP and that the party was standing firmly behind him over the "baseless" allegations.

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"For the last 40 years, I have been working in politics and the party but have not experienced a media trial like this before," Khadse told reporters at the state BJP office soon after he met CM Devendra Fadnavis to submit his resignation.

"There has been an unprecedented media trial against me.

I have demanded to Fadnavis that there should be a probe into the allegations.

"BJP is firmly behind me and even tomorrow it will stand behind me. The party has always abided by moral values. BJP is of the opinion that one should not continue to hold posts in face of allegations," he said.

On the allegations by a Pune-based builder Hemant Gawande that he purchased a land in MIDC area of Bhosari near Pune in the name of his wife, the BJP leader said, "The revenue department has said that no transaction regarding the MIDC plot purchase is illegal."

"Had the land really belonged to MIDC, the corporation's name would have been in the concerned documents. I suggested to police to file FIR against the person who was illegally trying to usurp Pune agricultural college land worth Rs 400 crore.

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"I issued a GR on taking back Wakf land illegally taken over by some people and they will naturally bear the brunt of that decision," Khadse said, in a veiled reference to allegations that bigwigs affected by that GR may have been behind the campaign to dislodge him.

"The allegations levelled by Congress and AAP are baseless. Allegations have been made against senior BJP leaders Advani and Gadkari in the past," he said.

"Police have said that no call was made or received on my mobile from Dawood Ibrahim," Khadse said referring to hacker Manish Bhangale's claim.

"A hacker means a thief and hacking is an offence of treason. If they can't furnish proof, action should be taken against those making such false charges," he said.

ANJALI DAMANIA TO CONTINUE HER FAST

On 3rd day of her fast, activist Anjali Damania said that she is happy to know that Khadse has put in his papers, however, she will not end her fast till Fadnavis announces an enquiry - preferably of three former judges of high court against Khadse.

She has been served a notice by Azad Maidan Police Station against her fast. The notice says that her fast is illegal and punishable. Meanwhile, Damania has returned the notice and challenged the police to do whatever they want against her.

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Damania has announced that she will travel to Ralegansiddhi and tell Anna Hazare about all the scams that Khadse has been involved in.

ALSO READ:

India Today Impact: Eknath Khadse resigns as Maharashtra minister, supporters stage protest

From Dawood calls to land grab: Defiant Khadse refuses to quit, Fadnavis to meet Modi, Shah



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Yadav was a resident of Raipur Bagpur village, under Mardah police station of Ghazipur district, and was leading the protesters under the umbrella 'Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah'.

By India Today Web Desk: According to the Uttar Pradesh Police, Mathura violence mastermind Ramvriksh Yadav is dead now and his body has been identified by his associates.

Family members of the Mathura cult leader, who clashed with the police on Thursday in Mathura, have been intimated to identify his body for final confirmation.

Yadav (55) was a resident of Raipur Bagpur village, under Mardah police station of Ghazipur district, and was leading the protesters under the umbrella 'Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah'. Originally a farmer, he had reportedly moved to Mathura with his family some three years ago.

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A violent clash between the police and activists of the Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi and the Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena, left 24 people dead in Mathura, including an SP and an SHO. Yadav was accused of leading the violence and running a camp backed by a private army divided into units which had taken over Mathura's Jawahar Bagh - a 280-acre-property.

Earlier, local administration claimed that Yadav got burnt in the fire set off by his followers and probably died in the same, but there was no official confirmation and teams were setup to search for him. Cops suspected that he was living in some neighbouring district around Mathura. It was also suspected that he might have returned to his native town Ghazipur.

Three injured rioters, including one identified as Mahesh of Siddharth Nagar, died in SN Medical College Agra today. The other two remain unidentified. The arrested rioters have been shifted from Mathura to Aligarh, Agra, Etah and Firozabad jails, while kids have been sent to Juvenile correction centers and women to the women shelter in Mathura.

ALSO READ: Jawahar Bagh was the personal fiefdom of rebel leader Ramvriksh Yadav

What the media says about Ramvriksh Yadav:

Ramvriksh Yadav (55) was a resident of Raipur Bagpur village, under Mardah police station of Ghazipur district Yadav used to get a monthly pension of 15,000 from Uttar Pradesh government as Loktantra Rakshak Ssenani. He used to call himself a member of Azad Hind Fauj and follower of Netaji Yadav brainwashed people into believing that Subhash Chandra Bose was alive Yadav owned property worth Rs 4000 crore and 250 cars. Arrest warrant was issued against Ramvriksh Yadav by Barielly court in a 2013. After spiritual leader Jai Gurudev's death Ramvriksha claimed to be his true inheritor. Ramvriksha-led Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, also being referred to as "Bose Sena," were demanding scrapping of elections in India for the post of president and prime minister. The organisation also demanded sale of 60 litres of diesel and 40 litres of petrol at Re 1 each and replacement of the current Indian rupee with "Azad Hind Fauj" currency.

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Amul, the major milk brand has hiked the prices of all variants of milk by Rs 2 a litre in Delhi and NCR areas.

The new price came into effect in the Delhi market on Friday while in Ahmedabad and regions of Saurashtra, the hike will be applicable from Saturday.

By Mail Today: Don't forget to keep a couple of bucks extra in your pocket while going to purchase milk. Amul, the major milk brand has hiked the prices of all variants of milk by Rs 2 a litre in Delhi and NCR areas. Meanwhile, Mother Dairy, another dairy major in Delhi-NCR has said it has no plans to raise the prices.

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MOTHER DAIRY HAS NO PLANS TO RAISE PRICES



"We are not increasing the consumer prices of liquid milk currently. The last price hike happened in May 2014 and we are striving to retain the prices even as we give competitive and remunerative prices to the farmers," said a Mother Dairy spokesperson.

AMUL MILK PRICE HIKE COMES INTO EFFECT FROM JUNE 4



Amul has claimed that it has increased the prices almost after two years and cited increase in production cost as the reason for this. The new price came into effect in the Delhi market on June 3 (Friday), while in Ahmedabad and regions of Saurashtra, the hike will come into effect from June 4. In Delhi-NCR, milk prices have been raised by Rs 1 per pouch - both half litre and one litre.

The move came as milk cooperatives associated with GCMMF saw 12 to 14 per cent increase in procurement compared to that of the year before.

Earlier, Amul had raised their prices twice in the year 2014, once in February, followed by another in May. Half litre pouches of full cream milk, which used to sell at Rs 24 will be available for Rs 25 now.

The price of milk has been on a continuous rise over last few years. A litre of full cream milk, which used to cost Rs 24 in the year 2009, will now cost Rs 50.



Also read: World Milk Day: 14 types of (non-cow) milk we bet you didn't know about!

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Six men from Delhi's Sonia Vihar left in an SUV, with two in the front seat and four in the back, for a drive to Haryana's Murthal area to have parathas.

By Mail Today: Amit Singh (30) dropped his pregnant wife off at a railway station for her train to their hometown Ambedkar Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, promising that he will soon join her there. But before she could reach home, the family got the information that he, along with five others, died in a road accident.

Amit was accompanied by his uncle Vikas Singh (30), who recently came to Delhi from Ambedkar Nagar and was about to return home. Before going back, he wanted Amit to take him to famous paratha eating joints in Murthal.

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ALL SIX PEOPLE DIED ON THE SPOT

Amit, along with his friends and business partner, planned to drive to Murthal early morning and left in his friend Deepak's car.

All six people in the car (between 25-37 years) died on the spot as their speeding EcoSport car rammed into a stationary heavy vehicle on National Highway 1 near Budhpur Village in Alipur around 4:30 am on Friday.

"Vikas came to Delhi for some work and was staying with Amit. He had requested Amit to take him to Murthal to eat paratha. Before going for a ride, Amit dropped his pregnant wife Gunjan to the railway station and said he will soon join her after finishing his work in Delhi. After dropping her, he planned a car ride to Murthal with his friends and they started the trip during the wee hours," one of the family members told MAIL TODAY.

RAMMED A STATIONARY HEAVY VEHICLE

Amit was a resident of Sonia Vihar and had a scrap business. He was also a Master of Computer Applications (MCA) and got married a year ago. His friend, Deepak Yadav, who was from Mahavir Enclave area and also had a scrap business, was driving the car while Amit's business associate Ansar Ahmed was sitting in the front seat.

They had barely travelled 15 kilometers from Sonia Vihar and were yet to cross the Delhi border when they failed to notice a stationary heavy vehicle and rammed it from behind.

"They failed to notice the truck which was stationary on the middle of the road as it got punctured. The driver of the car lost control over the wheels and hit it from behind. The car was at a very high speed when the accident took place. The impact of the accident was so high that debris of the car got thrown meters away. The entire bonnet and the front seat of the car got crushed due to the accident leaving air bags of no use," an eye witness said.

RESCUE TEAM HAD TO CUT OPEN THE DOORS

The vehicle lay there for nearly half an hour before someone informed the cops. The car was so badly damaged that the rescue team had to cut open the doors using a gas cutter to take out the bodies of the passengers.

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The victims were rushed to Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital but were declared brought dead. The deceased have been identified as Amit Singh (30), Vivekanand (26), Ansar Ahmed (33) resident of Sonia Vihar in East Delhi, Nishant (27) was from Loni in Ghaziabad and Vikas (30) from Ambedkar Nagar in Uttar Pradesh.

The driver of the car was identified as Deepak Yadav (35). The truck driver who had left the vehicle at the spot was detained a few hours later. He told police that he had come to Delhi to unload sand and was hurrying back to Karnal before the entry restrictions were put in place.

Police say that the truck didn't comply with the fitness standards mentioned in the MV rules

"The truck was parked wrongly. As it got punctured it should have been on the extreme left side of the carriage way but the driver had parked it on the extreme right side of the carriageway i.e towards the divider. No reflector or indicator was put in place leading to the accident," a senior officer said.

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It was difficult to identify the victim as they faces were crushed but the police team found a mobile phone of one of the victims through which they were identified. Police contacted Deepak's family after checking his detail through his car's registration number.

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After a vigorous search across the globe, Pakistan nationals Fidra Mehtab and her husband Mohammed Umar Anjum came to India to get their son Aayan treated for hearing loss. Aayan was operated on May 23 in Max Hospital, Saket, and is now responding to sound.

After a vigorous search across the globe, Pakistan nationals Fidra Mehtab and her husband Mohammed Umar Anjum came to India to get their son Aayan treated for hearing loss. Aayan was operated on May 23 in Max Hospital, Saket, and is now responding to soun

By Astha Saxena: Fidra Mehtab and her husband Mohammed Umar Anjum were happy with the birth of their first child. Born healthy, Aayan Anjum soon became the reason for their living. But three months after he was born, the couple realised that their son was not responding to any sound or noise around him. They also realised that his interaction with the outside world became minimal post the viral attack.

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"He had recovered from a viral fever and after that, he was not responding to any sound. We got worried and took him to every famous doctor around us," said his mother Fidra.

'DAMAGE WAS SO DEEP'

Hailing from Pakistan, the family kept running from pillar to post but none of the doctors assured a 100 per cent cure for their son. Eventually, some of the tests reflected a profound loss of hearing in both the ears. In addition to this, the shocked parents were informed that the damage was so deep that even hearing aids could not bring back their child's hearing.

"We searched the Internet to find the best doctors around the world to treat our son. Doctors here were not sure about the results," said boy's father Mohammed Umar. The family then decided to fly down to India for Aayan's treatment.

Seeing their distraught state, consultants in Pakistan and the neighbours helped them cross the border and come to Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket. "When the family came to us they were really worried. All they wanted to know was about the hearing loss of their son. They wanted him to be perfectly fine. The cost of treatment in Pakistan is 50 per cent higher than India," said Dr Sumit Mrig, senior consultant and head of the department, ENT, Max Hospital Saket.

'IT WAS AN EMOTIONAL MOMENT'

Dr Mrig in the last six years has treated 160 hearing loss patients from all over the world, out of which three were from Pakistan. An external processor was implanted in the kid's ear, giving the patient his ability to hear back. He was operated on May 23 and is responding to sound. He was put under a planned process called 'SWITCH ON'.

"The surgery was successful and our child was responding to all the noises around him. It was an emotional moment for us. We were thankful to the god and to the doctors for treating our son," said Fidra.

To ensure that the traumatic episode does not deter Aayan's growth in any manner, he will undergo speech therapy for a period of six months to a year. Post which, he will be back at home to attend school and enjoy his childhood with all his abilities intact.

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Also read: Government to provide hassle-free Indian citizenship to Pakistani Hindus

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Kulbhushan Yadav was arrested in Balochistan after he entered from Iran and has been accused by Pakistan of planning "subversive activities" in the country.

By India Today Web Desk: Pakistan today denied India consular access to former Indian Naval officer Kulbhushan Yadav, who was arrested on charges of espionage in Balochistan two months ago.

This came after Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar met his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Chaudhary in April and demanded consular access to the spy.

PLANNING 'SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES'



Kulbhushan Yadav was arrested in Balochistan after he entered from Iran and has been accused by Pakistan of planning "subversive activities" in the country.

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CONFESSIONAL VIDEO



Earlier, Pakistan Army released a video of Yadav purportedly "confessing" his "involvement" in terror activities in Balochistan at his country's behest. Kulbhushan Yadav in his six-minute long statement said he had been directing various activities in Karachi and Balochistan "at the behest of RAW", the Indian intelligence agency, and that he was still with the Indian Navy.

INDIA RUBBISHES CLAIM



However, the claim was immediately rubbished by New Delhi, which alleged that Yadav had no link with the government since his premature retirement from the Navy.



Also read:



Revealed: 'Spy' Kulbhushan Yadav not caught but abducted by extremist Sunni group Jaishul Adil

Arrested Indian 'spy' tutored, says India rejecting Pakistan's video

--- ENDS ---
Modi is scheduled to visit an Indian workers' camp later in the day. Of the around 630,000 expatriate Indians in Qatar, many are blue collar workers.

By Indo-Asian News Service: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today arrived in Qatar on a two-day visit on the second leg of his five-nation tour.

"Namaste Qatar! Its wheels down in Doha as PM Narendra Modi arrives for the second leg of his journey," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

This is the second prime ministerial visit from India to Qatar in eight years after then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit in 2008.

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ITINERARY



Modi is scheduled to visit an Indian workers' camp later in the day. Of the around 6,30,000 expatriate Indians in Qatar, many are blue collar workers.

He will also be hosted for dinner by Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al Thani on Saturday evening.

Modi flew in from Afghanistan, where earlier on Saturday, he, along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, also known as Salma Dam, in the western province of Herat.

On Sunday, he will begin his engagements in Qatar with a meeting with business leaders following which he will hold a restricted meeting with Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.

Bilateral trade between India and Qatar stands at $10 billion.

"It (Qatar) can also be a large economic partner as it has a large sovereign wealth fund," Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said on Friday ina pre-departure media briefing.

After Qatar, Modi will also visit Switzerland, the US and Mexico.

Also read: Modi, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani inaugurate India-built dam



--- ENDS ---
Police said they were investigating the reason behind the incident, which took place in Jorhat district

By India Today Online: A woman who had come to meet Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi during his Assam tour Wednesday, but stayed outside the venue, was burnt to death by her husband, police said Saturday.

Police said they were investigating the reason behind the incident, which took place in Jorhat district.

Superintendent of Police Amanjeet Kaur said a case of unnatural death had been registered. She said the victim, Bonti Chutia, died of burn injuries, while her husband, Someswar Chutia, had also sustained 35 percent burn injuries.

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Kaur clarified that the victim was not the who was shown on television kissing Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.

"We have talked to people and came to know that although she (the victim) came to the venue Wednesday to interact with the Congress leader, she stayed outside the programme for some reasons," Kaur said.

"We also came to know from the neighbours that both the husband and wife had a strained relationship for a long time and that could be one of the reasons for the incident," she said.

*An earlier version of the story had reported that the victim was one of those who had kissed Rahul Gandhi at a Congress event. The mix-up was clarified by others who attended the event who said the victim was at the event but was not among those who kissed Rahul. We regret the error.





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By Rajat Rai: It has been an endless wait for Mamta (21) and Sarita (19) who are waiting for the past 12 days to see their father Mahavir Yadav's face one last time.

THE ENDLESS WAIT

However, their father's body is still trapped amidst legal formalities and is being kept in a hospital in the Hofuf district of the eastern province of Saudi Arabia.

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57-year-old Mahavir Yadav died of a heart attack in the Hofuf district of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia on May 22 this year. Since then, the girls, who are now orphans, are trying their level best to get the body back to India.

Yadav, a native of Rautpar village of Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur district, went to Saudi Arabia in 2010 to work as a painter and never returned since then.

"He used to tell us that his employer (a rich sheikh) is very cruel and besides taking work for long hours, he has also confiscated his passport," Mamta said.

Adding, "Our father was unable to come to India even when our mother died in July last year." Yadav has five daughters and three of his elder daughters are married, leaving behind only Mamta and Sarita at home. "We used to run our house with the money our father sent. We were also breeding fishes in a small pond right in front of our house but it was encroached upon by villagers soon after our mother's death", said Mamta.

Talking about the unfortunate incident, Mamta says, "Our uncle, Sardar Yadav, also worked with my father in Saudi Arabia and he has informed us that the Sheikh is not willing to hand over the passport." Talking about the delay in getting her deceased father's body back, Mamta says, "My uncle told us that the Sheikh is saying he will hand over the passport only after the legal formalities are completed. "Some of our neighbours told us that we need to send a notary document to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to get back the body of our father. Accordingly, we sent it to the MEA but are yet to receive a response", said Mamta. "We would like to request Sushma Swaraj ji to help us out as we have heard that she is a very active and responsible minister," she added.

Also read: Dalit family bares it all after Greater Noida police fails to register their FIR





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Fighters of the Syria Democratic Forces prepare to fire a mortar shell towards positions held by Islamic State fighters in northern province of Raqqa, Syria May 27, 2016. Photo: Reuters

By Reuters: The Syrian army has crossed the boundary of Raqqa province after advancing in a major Russian-backed offensive against Islamic State militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war, said on Saturday.

RAQQA IS KEY TO ISLAMIC STATE

Heavy Russian air strikes hit Islamic State-held territory in eastern areas of Syria's Hama province, near the boundary of Raqqa province, on Friday and the army reached the edge of the province.

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Raqqa city, further east, is Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria and, along with Mosul in Iraq, the ultimate target of those seeking to destroy the group's self-declared caliphate.

Syrian army spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

The Syrian army offensive is the third big assault on the self-proclaimed caliphate in recent days after Iraqi forces attempted to storm a city and a Syrian militia advanced with U.S. support.

The three big offensives are some of the most aggressive campaigns against Islamic State since it declared its aim to rule over all Muslims from parts of Iraq and Syria two years ago.

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As Thursday's bloodshed in Mathura shook the nation, UP police chief Javed Ahmed acknowledged his men inspecting the seized grounds didn't know the occupiers were "so heavily armed."

By Anindya Banerjee: In little over two years, they built an arsenal of firearms and bombs in Mathura's largest public park. They blatantly stole electricity and water and virtually declared the 268-acre patch they have been occupying as a selfruled dominion.

Their criminal record in Mathura's police files is no state secret. Many of them face trials for murder attempts, assaults, abductions, threats and land grabbing. Squatting on government land is commonplace in India. But the occupiers of Mathura's Jawahar Bagh were no ordinary, docile encroachers. But police appear to have been complacently unprepared when they arrived at the scene to survey the situation before executing court-ordered evictions of the site.

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Occupiers espousing anti-establishment attitudes unleashed a bloody assault on the police team, firing shots from treetops and hurling grenades. Over the past two years, Jawahar Bagh had been turned into a personal regime of the activists of an obscure cult, who describe themselves as "Satyagrahis." Yet, the law-enforcers of India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh had little idea that the park had become a home to stockpiles of weapons and aggressive thugs.

As Thursday's bloodshed in Mathura shook the nation, UP police chief Javed Ahmed acknowledged his men inspecting the seized grounds didn't know the occupiers were "so heavily armed." In the bloody firefight that unfolded during police survey, Mathura lost its superintendent and a station house officer. "They attacked us without any provocation. The miscreants used explosive materials, including gas cylinders. There fired sitting on trees," Ahmed said.

FAILURE

Uttar Pradesh's additional director-general of police, Daljeet Singh Chaudhary, admitted failure in stopping what he called was a "gradual encroachment" of Jawahar Bagh. He, however, skirted a reply when asked whether there was also an intelligence failure that could have allowed them to attack police. Officers also flew a drone to film the area and make an assessment of the exact strength of the occupiers. But the device got stuck in trees and failed to sent back images. Still, police went ahead for their recce.

Meanwhile, there was somberness in the air when colleagues and citizens arrived to pay homage to slain SP Mukul Dwiedi. UP Police was represented by ADG law and order and Principle Secretary as UP government was conspicuous by its absence as casualty figures rose to 24.

UP DGP Javed Ahmed held a press conference in Mathura and said that "All those involved in the attack will be booked under NSA. More than 320 people have been arrested and the three main members led by the founder of this sect Ram Vriksha Yadav are still absconding." In the backdrop of the violence, politicians across parties launched a fierce attack on each other. Home Minister Rajnath Singh was first of the block when he tweeted that he had telephoned UP CM Akhilesh Yadav and offered assistance.

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But his deputy Kiran Rijiju was quick to signal that the gloves were off. He said that all this happened due to the lapse of the state government.

On the back foot, a defensive CM Akhilesh Yadav pledged an impartial inquiry.

Also read: Mathura violence: 11 rioters died in fire set to their own shacks

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As many as 51 per cent of the women respondents, who were from varied age groups, said they are confident to go make-up free on their first date.

By Indo-Asian News Service: So, you thought women always ensure they doll up for their first date? A new survey indicates that most women are confident even if they step out without make-up for the special meeting.

The nationwide survey, done with 500 women, was conducted by dating app TrulyMadly in collaboration with MSM Box (a beauty subscription box brand). It was done to find out from the users, various first date beauty secrets.

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As many as 51 per cent of the women respondents, who were from varied age groups, said they are confident to go make-up free on their first date.

The result gave Sachin Bhatia, Co-founder of TrulyMadly, a reason to cheer.



Also Read: 91 per cent women think men look the sexiest in these clothes

"I'm happy to know that the Indian woman doesn't need to rely on make-up for confidence, but it is a choice," he said.

According to the survey results, the one thing that 45 per cent of the respondents couldnt go out on a date without, was a lip gloss. Following closely behind was mascara at 31 per cent. The mattifying powder and blush got 16 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.



Also Read: Women use polite words, men most likely to swear and abuse on social media

When it came to the lip shade for the first date, 37 per cent of the women voted for Ruby Red, 32 per cent chose Hot Pink, while 20 per cent of them said they are keen on mixing two shades to come up with their unique colour.

As for the biggest make-up blunder on a first date, it's heavy foundation, said 54 per cent of the users. Even uneven eyeliner and a lip liner darker than the shade of the lipstick, are considered a no-no among the 46 per cent of the women.



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As AMD plans to focus on graphics, virtual reality, gaming and manufacturing, the IT minister briefed the officials about the state's initiatives in these sectors.

By Indo-Asian News Service: US chipmaker AMD has agreed to partner with VLSI Academy, proposed to be set up by the government of Telangana.

Telangana's Information Technology and Electronics Minister K.T. Rama Rao, who is currently on a visit to the United States, met AMD officials at the company's headquarters in Sunnyvale, California.

The delegation led by the minister held a meeting with AMD's Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster and Senior Vice President Ruth Cotter, a statement from the state government said on Friday.

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As AMD plans to focus on graphics, virtual reality, gaming and manufacturing, the IT minister briefed the officials about the state's initiatives in these sectors. He invited the company to partner with IMAGE, the gaming and animating city being developed by the state government here and explained why Hyderabad is an ideal destination for gaming and animation.

He also urged the chipmaker to partner with the premier academic institutions in Telangana like International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad and Bits Pilani for research.

Explaining the incentives being offered by the state for electronics manufacturing, Rao urged the AMD to manufacture their products in Telangana.

The AMD executives briefed the delegation about the existing chip design facilities in Hyderabad. They said their latest chip Zen was also designed in the Hyderabad facility. They hoped that more such innovations would come out of the centre.

The AMD officials pointed out that AMD with its chip technology designed graphics for Telugu blockbuster "Bahubali". They said they were ready to design graphics for more movies in Telugu and other languages.

Earlier, Rama Rao, who is son of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, met California Governor Edmund Jerry Brown.

The government of Telangana and California State entered into a memorandum of understanding for mutual cooperation in the field of non-conventional sources of energy.

Rama Rao elaborated on the new industrial policy ATSiPASS and also on information and communication technology policy of Telangana.

The minister also met with cloud computing company Salesforce's team led by Srinivas Tallapragada at its head office in San Francisco and explained to them the opportunities Telangana presents for the IT companies.

In the meeting with Reid Hoffman, co-founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn, the minister sought to know the professional social networking site's expansion plans in India and extended invitation to the company representatives to visit Telangana.

Reid accepted the invitation and said that his team would visit Hyderabad next year.

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Chinese communication company Huawei seemed to have confirmed that it is working on at least one more Nexus-branded device after last year's Nexus 6P.

By Indo-Asian News Service: While Android fans are eagerly waiting the new version of the operating system, a media report has hinted that a Nexus smartphone is in the making.

Multiple reports earlier this year said that Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC will build at least two devices for Google. But as per the new information, Chinese communication company Huawei seemed to have confirmed that it is working on at least one more Nexus-branded device after last year's Nexus 6P, US-based tech website BGR.com reported.

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A Huawei executive for South Africa delved out the information while discussing last year's Nexus 6P smartphone during an interview.

"The Nexus product is a very niche product, the techies love it, but there's a very small number of people that buy it. Hence, Cellucity (mobile company) only brought 300 units into the country," Huawei's General Manager for the Consumer Business Group in South Africa Charlene Munilall was quoted as saying.

"The operators generally do not take up the Nexus device," she continued.

Recently, Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai had said that Google would continue to release Nexus devices. The software giant will not manufacture its hardware, but Google plans to be more involved with Nexus device.

Pichai noted that the future Nexus devices "may not run stock Android, but rather Google would focus on building in more software tweaks to Nexus devices".

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For nearly a century, Harlan County, K.Y., has occupied an outsized place in the American consciousness. Coal is the lifeblood of Harlan, where miners fierce battles against deadly working conditions remain a symbol of union grit and militance. But Harlan is also an emblem of the hard times that have fallen on coal country.

Coal mining once provided a middle-class living. Mine workers in Harlan won living wages and benefits following a series of strikes and violent clashes with scabs and mine owners in the 1930s that earned the county the nickname Bloody Harlan.

Miners charted a risky path to economic security. Collapses, explosions and other accidents killed tens of thousands during the 20th century. Many who survived were still killed by coal, albeit more slowly.

Lifelong Harlan County resident Priscilla Stephens, 66, recalls the death of her father, Charlie Simpson, from black lung disease in 1966. Simpson spent 37 years in the mines to support his wife and 14 children. It cost him his lungs and his life, says Stephens. Sometimes he would cough and keep coughing, and it was just black-looking, like that old coal dust.

With King Coal now on its deathbed, residents wonder what will come next. On an overcast Friday in mid-March, Levi Burkhart watches from his hilltop home in Coldiron, Ky., as a stream of coal trucks rumbles by.

If you look at it from the road, youd think it was booming, says Burkhart, 56, a former coal tipple operator who has also developed black lung.

Those appearances are deceiving. The coal industry has been in decline for the past eight years, a development that many blame on Obamas war on coal and the EPAs tightening of environmental standards. Obama shut down the mines, former miner Robert Simpson, 58, says flatly.

Environmental groups say other factors, such as the abundance of cheap natural gas, are behind coals slump. And jobs in the industry have been vanishing since the 1980s, thanks to mechanization. Eastern Kentucky has been especially hard-hit: The number of miners employed in Harlan County fell from more than 3,000 in 1988 to fewer than 1,000 in 2014. No unionized mines remain in the state.

Whatever the reason, new industry has been painfully slow to materialize. Priscilla Stephens ticks off a list of companies that have come and gone: a furniture factory, a long-time furniture store, a sock factory.

About everything is moving, she says. All weve got down here is grocery stores and restaurants.

This presents young people with a hard choice. Many end up leaving families behind to seek factory work in cities or mining jobs in southern Illinois or Alabama.

The community is not only suffering, says Chester Napier, 75, a former mining company driver. Its dying.

Robert Simpson, 58, mined for about a dozen years in the 1980s and 1990s before becoming a carpenter. Four generations of Roberts family have worked in the mines, including his grandfather, Charlie Simpson, his father, Bobby Simpson (p. 28) and his son-in-law, Danny Stewart (p. 28). Robert and his wife, Judy, live on a plot of land off Route 568 in the tiny town of Cranks. Their daughter, Cherish, lives at the front of the property; their other three children, two of whom are from Roberts first marriage, live elsewhere in Harlan County and in Richmond. Work is often erratic for Robert, but he recently found three months work building a home. Things are good for the moment, says Judy, 52, who recently moved from part- to full-time status at Walmart.

Bobby Doyle Rowlettnamed after his grandfather, Bobby Simpsonleft Harlan County in 2015 for a position with the RJ Corman Railroad Group. He traveled as far as the Canadian border and worked as many as 12 days in a row. On breaks, he came home to see his fiancee, Lauren Blair.

Sitting on a couch in his grandfathers home, Rowlett explained that he had been willing to pay the physical price of working in the mines in order to be close to home. Blair talked him out of it.

I said [the work] would be gone in a year, and I was right, Blair said. Things are looking up for the couple. Rowlett moved back after securing a coveted position at the railroad company less than an hour away. He and Blair plan to marry in June. Most residents havent been so lucky. Some, like Danny Stewart, an unemployed fifth-generation miner, are placing their hopes in a Donald Trump presidency to revive the moribund coal industry. Others, like Bobby Simpson, draw on religious faith and a ceaseless work ethic to keep going.

All agree on the regions bleak present and dim future.

Its not good, says Napier. Some of the politicians say theyll bring the coal back, but the coal will never be back.
As Agence France-Presse noted in its coverage, these arrests come only about a week after it was announced that approximately 35 recent Iranian graduates had been arrested at a graduation party and immediately tried and sentenced to 99 lashes. In each case, the punishment was carried out within a day of the arrest. The identification of these offenses may be a testament to the success of the regimes recent deployment of thousands of plainclothes morality police officers, who are tasked with identifying instances of mal-veiling and other such violations, and reporting them to arresting authorities.

AFP also links these incidents to a sting operation that led to criminal charges against 29 individuals with ties to an online modeling network. Operation Spider II has helped to demonstrate how online monitoring and enforcement has increase right alongside the rise in incidences of public monitoring and politically-motivated mass arrests.

Ever since nuclear negotiations led to some expectations of expanded relations between Iran and Western powers, the Iranian authorities have taken aggressive steps to dispel the notion of internal change and to encourage persistent animosity toward the West. Toward this end, many of the recent arrests have been closely linked to rhetoric regarding supposed foreign infiltration. In the case of the graduate party arrests, a spokesperson for the judiciary even went so far as to say that not all of the participants were aware of the real driving force behind such parties, which he claimed were being led from other places.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has issued numerous statements over the past several months claiming that the West had not been adequately upholding the July 14 nuclear agreement and warning against offering cooperation or trust to the US and its allies. He repeated these sorts of statements once again in a televised address on Friday, referring to the United States by the familiar moniker of the Great Satan and describing the United Kingdom as evil.

Reuters reports that the supreme leader emphasized that Tehran would not cooperate with the United States on regional crisis such as the Syrian Civil War or the persistent presence of Islamic State militants there and in Iraq. Furthermore, he declared Iranian and Western interests in such matters to be 180 degrees opposed to each other.

The Hindustan Times adds that Khamenei also used the speech to issue much broader statements in opposition to any cooperation between Iran and its traditional enemies. Specifically, he said that if Iran were to rejoin the global economy, it would constitute loss and defeat. Such statements stand in apparent contrast to Khameneis repeated accusations that the US is standing in the way of Irans economic recovery in the aftermath of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

In other words, Khameneis statement indicates a desire for Iran to claim the economic benefits of that nuclear deal without having to adjust its behavior in any other ways, especially those ways that would facilitate its reentry into the international banking system. In a Senate Banking Committee hearing last week, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Treasury Department official Elizabeth Rosenberg agreed that instead of blaming the US for its lack of recovery, Iran could take such measures as ending its support for terrorism.

But this is something that Khamenei explicitly rejected in his remarks on Friday. The BBC noted that the supreme leader had claimed that the US and its allies were using terrorism and human rights as pretexts for maintaining pressure on the Islamic Republic and avoiding commitment to Irans success under the deal. But the language of the JCPOA is clear in its lifting only of nuclear-related sanctions. Sanctions on Irans human rights record and support for terrorism remain in place as long as those issues are still considered to be current.

Khamenei expressed his refusal to reconsider his countrys record on human rights and terrorism in the context of a speech marking the 27th anniversary of the death of founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Meanwhile, other figures in the regime used that opportunity not only to avoid responsibility for that record but to actively justify it. IranWire reported, for instances, that Khomeinis grandson Ali had made a speech on May 31 contradicting the growing criticism of mass executions that took place in 1988, mainly directed against members of the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran.

The PMOI reports that as many as 30,000 people were executed in a single summer, many of them after having already completed their prison sentences. IranWire notes that reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh issued a statement earlier in May saying that such arbitrary additional sentencing was illegal and that the Islamic Republic should ask for the forgiveness of the families of the prisoners who were executed in 1988.

Nonetheless, Ali Khomeini insists that the killings were justified, and IranWire argues that such statements are in keeping with efforts that recur every year around the time of Ayatollah Khomeinis death, seeking to sanitize his image and portray him as a moral and conscientious leader. Such efforts do not allow for the acknowledgement of past wrongdoing, and may not even allow for the acknowledgement of more recent wrongdoing under the system of absolute clerical rule that Khomeini established.

But the legacy of those mass executions and other human rights abuses remains alive to this day, especially in light of the fact that the rate of executions in Iran doubled between 2014 and 2015, with approximately 1,000 hangings having occurred last year alone. A separate IranWire report indicates that those executions, along with systematic torture and mistreatment make up a situation that led one prison-duty conscript to tell reporters that he will have nightmares about the horrible scenes he has witnessed at [Rajai Shahr Prison] for the rest of his life.
[June 03, 2016] IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch and Router Trackers Show Slight Growth Amid Diverging Regional Trends

The worldwide Ethernet switch market (Layer 2/3) recorded $5.48 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2016 (1Q16), an increase of 1.4% year over year. Meanwhile, the worldwide total enterprise and service provider (SP) router market finished at $3.47 billion in revenue in 1Q16, growing 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. These growth rates are according to results published in the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and Worldwide Quarterly Router Tracker. From a geographic perspective, the 1Q16 Ethernet switch market performed best in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan)(APeJ), which increased a solid 13.2% year over year. North America also grew in 1Q16, increasing 3.6% on an annualized basis. The United States was the primary driver of that growth, increasing 4.2% year over year. No other region saw a year-over-year increase in 1Q16. Japan was just below flat, decreasing 0.8% year over year in 1Q16, which represents substantially improved performance from 4Q15. Japan was the sole region to increase sequentially, growing 20.5% quarter over quarter. Results from the other regions were as follows: Western Europe was down 6.3% year over year in 1Q16; Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) declined 7.5%; Middle East and Africa (MEA) fell 8.2%; and Latin America was down 10.5%. "The first quarter saw its typical sequential downturn, with year-over-year growth just above flat levels," said Rohit Mehra, vice president, Network Infrastructure. "Macroeconomic uncertainty hampered the EMEA region, while North America and APeJ continued with infrastructure refresh cycles, preparing networks for digital transformation. In addition, price erosion played a role globally, especially in the 10/40GbE segments, as the industry prepares for 25/50/100 GbE shipments to commence in volume." 10Gb Ethernet switch (Layer 2/3) revenue was just above flat year over year, coming in at just under $2 billion, growing 1.2% year over year while 10Gb Ethernet switch port shipments grew a robust 29.8% year over year with more than 8.3 million ports shipped in 1Q16 as average selling prices (ASPs) continued to fall. 40Gb Ethernet revenue finished at $679.6 million in 1Q16, growing 32.9% year over year, while shipments reached a record 1.8 million ports, for an increase of 112.0% year over year. 10Gb and 40Gb Ethernet are expected to be the primary drivers of the overall Ethernet switch market in 2016. 1Gb Ethernet switch revenue decreased 5.1% year over year, despite a 9.7% increase in port shipments in the same period. The worldwide enterprise and service provider router market grew 3.3% on a year-over-year basis in 1Q16 with a 4.9% increase in the Service Provider segment and a 1.6% decrease in Enterprise routing. This will be a market to watch closely over the coming quarters as software-defined architectures start to take hold across the WAN, enabling enterprise network managers and service providers alike to benefit from these emerging capabilities. The combined enterprise and service provider router market saw a varied regional performance in 1Q16. APeJ was by far the best performing region on a year-over-year basisin 1Q16, increasing 30.6%. MEA followed with 12.2% year-over-year growth. No other region experienced year-over-year growth in 1Q16: Western Europe declined 1.9%, Japan fell 3.5%, North America contracted by 4.9%, and Central and Eastern Europe was down 7.9%. Counter to its leading market performance in the previous quarter, Latin America recorded the largest decline at 14.4% year over year in 1Q16.



Vendor Highlights Cisco (News - Alert) finished the quarter with a 4.0% decline year over year in the Ethernet switching market and market share of 59.0%, down from its 59.2% share in 4Q15. In the hotly contested 10GbE segment, Cisco held 55.7% of the market in 1Q16, down from 56.1% in the previous quarter. Cisco also saw its combined service provider and enterprise router revenue decrease 2.4%, while its market share came in at 48.8% in 1Q16.

On the heels of a very strong quarter, Hewlett Packard Enterprise's (HPE) Ethernet switch revenue rose 18.1% year over year in 1Q16. HPE's market share stands at 9.7% in 1Q16, up from its 9.2% share in 4Q15. Huawei (News - Alert) continued to perform well in both the Ethernet switch and the router markets. Huawei's Ethernet switch revenue grew 33.2% year over year in 1Q16, while its enterprise and SP router revenue increased 34.1% over the same period. Huawei commanded 16.3% of the total router market. Juniper had a down quarter in Ethernet switching with a year-over-year decrease of 7.3% in 1Q16. Juniper saw a 2.7% increase year over year in combined service provider and enterprise router revenues, with market share of 14.5%. "Vendors will need to continue to monitor shifting market dynamics as enterprises and service providers make plans to accommodate digital transformation," said Petr Jirovsky, research manager, Worldwide Networking Trackers. "The emergence of speeds such as 2.5Gb, 5Gb, 25Gb, and 50Gb Ethernet, along with 100Gb Ethernet to tackle emerging customer needs for cloud buildouts and digitization will lead to more transitions in the quarters to come." An interactive graphic showing the relative market shares of the top 5 vendors in the Ethernet switch market over the previous five quarters is available here. The chart is intended for public use in online news articles and social media. Instructions on how to embed this graphic can be found by viewing this press release on IDC (News - Alert).com. The Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and the Worldwide Quarterly Router Tracker provide total market size and vendor shares for the Ethernet switch and router technologies in an easy-to-use Excel pivot table format. The geographic coverage for both the Ethernet switch market and the router market includes eight major regions (USA, Canada, Latin America, Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), Japan, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, and Middle East and Africa) and 60 countries. The Ethernet switch market is further segmented by speed (100Mb, 1000Mb, 10Gb, 40Gb, 100Gb), product (fixed managed, fixed unmanaged, modular), and layer (L2, L3, ADC (News - Alert)). Measurement for the Ethernet switch market is provided in vendor revenue, value, and port shipments. The router market is further split by product (high-end, mid-range, low-end, SOHO), deployment (service provider, enterprise), connectivity (core, edge), and the measurements are in vendor revenue, value, and unit shipments. For more information about IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch and Router Trackers, please contact Kathy Nagamine ([email protected]). About IDC Trackers

IDC Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research processes, IDC's Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly excel deliverables and online query tools. The IDC Tracker Charts app allows users to view data charts from the most recent IDC Tracker products on their iPhone and iPad. The IDC Tracker Chart app is also available for Android Phones and Android Tablets. About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter (News - Alert) at @IDC. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160603005711/en/

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[June 03, 2016] Hadsell Stormer & Renick File Suit on Behalf of Hotel Employees Alleging Minimum Wage Violations

Hadsell Stormer & Renick LLP announced that seven hotel workers filed a class action lawsuit in L.A. County Superior Court this week, alleging their employer has shorted them thousands of dollars in wages. Six of the plaintiffs allege being paid less than the minimum wage while working at the Sofitel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. A former barback, as well as three housekeeping workers, a banquet worker, and a restaurant server, allege that management underpaid or have been underpaying them by up to $5.37 per hour. The Sofitel Los Angeles is subject to a 2014 city law requiring certain larger hotels to pay at least $15.37 per hour to all employees as of July 1, 2015. "I thought about how much money Sofitel owes me," said Maria Galvez, a housekeeper at the Sofitel, "and then I realized that I wasn't the only one. That's when I decided we had t do something." For a housekeeper like Ms. Galvez, the Sofitel Los Angeles has allegedly shorted her more than $575 since the minimum wage went into effect last July. The hotel employs about 40 housekeepers.



All seven plaintiffs also allege Sofitel Los Angeles has neither consistently paid them for all the hours they worked nor paid them the legally required premium for overtime hours worked beyond eight hours in a day, including for time housekeepers are assigned to clean rooms after they have clocked out and when false departure times are recorded so employees are not paid overtime. Finally, the plaintiffs allege that the Sofitel Los Angeles owes employees one hour of pay for each work day they were not provided their state-mandated meal and rest breaks. They say the hotel regularly gave them assignments they knew wouldn't leave them enough time to take their breaks and didn't hire enough people so they could cover each other during breaks.

"The Sofitel Los Angeles is ignoring their most basic obligation to pay employees the correct minimum wage, pay them for all the time they work, and pay a wage penalty for not providing legally-mandated meal and rest breaks," said Randy Renick, the plaintiffs' attorney. "My clients are taking a stand against companies like the Sofitel who break the law." View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160603005885/en/

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[June 03, 2016] Avant Partners With Effortless to Support Explosive Demand for Cloud Computing Services

CHICAGO, June 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- AVANT's portfolio of leading edge technology providers just got a little bigger today. The addition of Effortless signals not only a new partnership for the two companies, but also shows AVANT's readiness to fuel the rapidly increasing demand that small and mid-sized business (SMBs) have to offload the IT department's routine tasks, such as adding new users, upgrading software, and making changes to the individual users in the company. The private all-in-the-cloud model Effortless provides is one businesses claim not only saves them money on staffing, but adds additional security and freedoms they never thought possible. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160603/375305 Ian Kieninger, CEO of Avant, says, "Effortless brings the quadruple play to the table, meaning they are experts in Security, IaaS, DRaaS and DaaS." Kieninger went on to say, "They also offer great migration services which makes Effortless a very unique and important partner in our portfolio and an easy choice for our channel partners and their customers." The growth seen in the hosted desktop market is anticipated to continue its sharp rise as forecasted by IDC's projection of more than a 40% growth rate by 2018. As cloud desktops become the norm for SMBs, it is now more important than ever for the cloud providers to o the extra mile to win and keep clients. Kieninger is enthusiastic that Effortless does just that. He says, "Effortless is extremely flexible, creative, and does what it takes to help our partners be successful."



"The success of our clients and partners is our number one goal," said Benjamin Gayheart, Founder and President of Effortless, the cloud computing and security firm headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. "Clients love that we take care of the support with our 24-hour USA-based team standing by and our non-stop proactive monitoring of the entire business network. We got our start in one of the most regulated industries out there - the casino gaming industry. Even before it was mandatory, we were delivering our PCI, HIPAA, and HITECH compliant solutions to casinos up and down the strip. It was natural for us to expand to healthcare and legal with the compliance practices we have in place." And expand they have. As the demand for highly secure private clouds has grown, so has Effortless. The firm now serves clients across the United States and reaches industries not just in gaming, healthcare and legal, but also in retail, insurance, hospitality, construction, and manufacturing, just to name a few. Their rapid growth, however, is not at the cost of their clients. Says longtime customer and famed Vegas CIO Richard Faircloth, "I am thrilled to say that Effortless is vital to our all-new resort and remains a part of the new Tropicana Las Vegas family."

Effortless also offers a Security-as-a-Service product called Effortless Defense. This product provides an added layer of security that goes beyond the expected firewall, SPAM filter, and antivirus. Effortless Defense is included with every Effortless Desktop and is also available as a standalone Security-as-a-Service offering. Kieninger stated that, "As a leader in the security space, we retain the best technology by bringing on next-gen security providers that will give our partners the edge. We believe Effortless is one of those top providers, and we are excited to partner with them as they become a leading player in the market." 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/avant-partners-with-effortless-to-support-explosive-demand-for-cloud-computing-services-300279613.html SOURCE Effortless

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The second annual iScan student workshop and competition is today from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Mile High Ballroom 4. Student teams will show off their ultrasound skills across a variety of clinical circumstances. Come see the difference that point-of-care-ultrasound can make in your practice and join the pros in the hands-on ultrasound bullpen. See how easy it is to obtain, interpret, and implement ultrasound into your clinical practice.

Are you interested in writing for publication? Join JAAPA editors and editorial board members from 1-3 p.m. today in room 104 for a workshop on how to craft your manuscript to inform and educate your readers and successfully pass peer review and nitpicky editors. If becoming a peer reviewer is your thing, head to room 104 at 3 p.m. today for a 2-hour hands-on workshop on how to give constructive manuscript criticism. The peer review workshop is led by JAAPA editor-in-chief Reamer L. Bushardt, PharmD, PA-C, DFAAPA, and JPAE editor-in-chief David Asprey, PhD, PA-C.

Be sure to come out at 7 tonight to cheer your favorite team on at the National Medical Challenge Bowl. As part of the festivities, JAAPA will formally present awards to these winners of the 2019 Tanya Gregory Student Writing Contest:

 Clinical or research category: Post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans: Treatments and risk factors for nonadherence by Bradley Haveman-Gould, MHS, PA-C, and Chelsea Newman, Novmeber 2018 issue. Ms. Newman was a student in the PA program at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pa., when the article was written. Mr. Haveman-Gould practices neurology at Mercy Health Physician Partners in Grand Rapids, Mich., is an adjunct faculty member in the PA program at Drexel University, and is an assistant clinical affiliate faculty member in the PA program at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids.

 Humanities category: The truth about PA school, by Kathleen Di Simone, MS, PA-C, October 2018 issue. Ms. Di Simone was a student in the Touro College Manhattan PA Program in New York City at the time the article was written. She now practices emergency medicine.



Honorable mentions go to:

 Alanna M. Balbi, BS; Amanda A. Van Sant, PA-C, MSPAS; Eric W. Bean, DO, MBA; and Jeanne L. Jacoby, MD, FACEP, for their May 2018 article, Mumps: Resurgence of a once-dormant disease. Ms. Balbi is a medical student at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Fla. Ms. Van Sant practices in the ED at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Bethlehem, Pa. Dr. Bean is an emergency medicine physician at Lehigh Valley Health Network. Dr. Jacoby is assistant research director and an attending physician in the ED at Lehigh Valley Health Network and a clinical associate professor in the University of South Floridas Morsani College of Medicine.

 Emily Simpson, MMSc, PA-C, and Heather L. Brown, MS, PA-C, DFAAPA, for the August 2018 article, Understanding osteosarcomas. Ms. Simpson was a student in the PA program at Mercer University in Atlanta, Ga., when the article was written, and now practices urgent care medicine with Georgia Emergency Associates in Savannah, Ga. Heather L. Brown is an adjunct assistant professor in the PA program at Mercer University.


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Information for Authors and Peer Reviewers

Authors

Journal of the Academy of PAs (JAAPA) has specific instructions and guidelines for submitting articles. These author instructions and guidelines are readily available on the submission service site. Please read and review them carefully. Articles that are not submitted in accordance with our instructions and guidelines are more likely to be rejected.

If you are a potential author and would like to hear more about writing for JAAPA, please feel free to listen to a session on 'Writing for JAAPA' presented at the AAPA Annual Conference by Tanya Gregory, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Physician Assistant Studies, Wake Forest School of Medicine and former JAAPA editor.

Please note: JAAPA does not pay honorariums for articles published.



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Become a peer reviewer for JAAPA

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Peer reviewers are asked to review 3 or 4 manuscripts per year. Invitations to review a manuscript are sent via e-mail, and reviews are submitted via the manuscript management portal, Editorial Manager. The invitation to review e-mail provides an abstract, a direct link to access the manuscript, and additional instructions. Reviewers have the option of declining to review a manuscript if they feel the topic is unsuitable or circumstances at the time make completing the review impossible; however, reviewers who decline three manuscripts in a row are removed from the peer reviewer panel. If a reviewer does not acknowledge interest or decline a review (using the weblink provided within the invitation to review) within 7 days, the reviewer is automatically uninvited. Peer reviewers are not paid but are able to list their service on their CV.



Each peer review is evaluated for quality and thoroughness by an editor, then is score. High quality reviews earned qualified peer reviewers Category I continuing education credits. Our publisher is accredited to provide continuing education credits to PAs, nurses, and physicians. During the peer review, reviewers are asked several questions, including if they would like to receive continuing education credits. After a high quality review is completed, a certificate of continuing education is mailed to the address provided by the peer reviewer within Editorial Manager.

If you would like to join our peer reviewer panel, or you have questions before deciding, please e-mail Jan Enger. Volunteer reviewers should list their areas of expertise, so we know which types of manuscripts to send, and should attach a current CV to the e-mail as well.

Detailed information on ethical guidelines for peer reviewing are provided here [PDF].



A guiding rubric to focus and enhance reviews is also provided here [DOC].


Page Content

(Originally adopted 2005; revised 2012)

PREAMBLE

Between 2003-2004, the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) led an effort with three other national PA organizations (Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA), American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), and Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) -- formerly Association of Physician Assistant Programs (APAP)) to define PA competencies in response to similar efforts conducted within other health care professions and the growing demand for accountability and assessment in clinical practice. The resultant document, Competencies for the Physician Assistant Profession, provided a foundation from which physician assistant organizations and individual physician assistants could chart a course for advancing the competencies of the PA profession.

In 2011, representatives from the same four national PA organizations convened to review and revise the document. The revised manuscript was then reviewed and approved by the leadership of three of the four organizations in 2012; the AAPA House of Delegates will consider the new version in 2013.

INTRODUCTION

This document serves as a map for the individual PA, the physician-PA team, and organizations committed to promoting the development and maintenance of professional competencies among physician assistants. While some competencies will be acquired during formal PA education, others will be developed and mastered as physician assistants progress through their careers. The PA profession defines the specific knowledge, skills, attitudes, and educational experiences requisite for physician assistants to acquire and demonstrate these competencies.

The clinical role of PAs includes primary and specialty care in medical and surgical practice settings. Professional competencies for physician assistants include the effective and appropriate application of medical knowledge, interpersonal and communication skills, patient care, professionalism, practice-based learning and improvement, and systems-based practice.

Patient-centered, physician assistant practice reflects a number of overarching themes. These include an unwavering commitment to patient safety, cultural competence, quality health care, lifelong learning, and professional growth. Furthermore, the professions dedication to the physician-physician assistant team benefits patients and the larger community.

PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT COMPETENCIES

Medical Knowledge

Medical knowledge includes the synthesis of pathophysiology, patient presentation, differential diagnosis, patient management, surgical principles, health promotion, and disease prevention. Physician assistants must demonstrate core knowledge about established and evolving biomedical and clinical sciences and the application of this knowledge to patient care in their area of practice. In addition, physician assistants are expected to demonstrate an investigative and analytic thinking approach to clinical situations. Physician assistants are expected to understand, evaluate, and apply the following to clinical scenarios:

evidence-based medicine

scientific principles related to patient care

etiologies, risk factors, underlying pathologic process, and epidemiology for medical conditions

signs and symptoms of medical and surgical conditions

appropriate diagnostic studies

management of general medical and surgical conditions to include pharmacologic and other treatment modalities

interventions for prevention of disease and health promotion/maintenance

screening methods to detect conditions in an asymptomatic individual

history and physical findings and diagnostic studies to formulate differential diagnoses

Interpersonal & Communications Skills

Interpersonal and communication skills encompass the verbal, nonverbal, written, and electronic exchange of information. Physician assistants must demonstrate interpersonal and communication skills that result in effective information exchange with patients, patients families, physicians, professional associates, and other individuals within the health care system. Physician assistants are expected to:

create and sustain a therapeutic and ethically sound relationship with patients

use effective communication skills to elicit and provide information

adapt communication style and messages to the context of the interaction

work effectively with physicians and other health care professionals as a member or leader of a health care team or other professional group

demonstrate emotional resilience and stability, adaptability, flexibility, and tolerance of ambiguity and anxiety

accurately and adequately document information regarding care for medical, legal, quality, and financial purposes

Patient Care

Patient care includes patient- and setting-specific assessment, evaluation, and management. Physician assistants must demonstrate care that is effective, safe, high quality, and equitable. Physician assistants are expected to:

work effectively with physicians and other health care professionals to provide patient-centered care

demonstrate compassionate and respectful behaviors when interacting with patients and their families

obtain essential and accurate information about their patients

make decisions about diagnostic and therapeutic interventions based on patient

information and preferences, current scientific evidence, and informed clinical judgment

develop and implement patient management plans

counsel and educate patients and their families

perform medical and surgical procedures essential to their area of practice

provide health care services and education aimed at disease prevention and health maintenance

use information technology to support patient care decisions and patient education

Professionalism

Professionalism is the expression of positive values and ideals as care is delivered. Foremost, it involves prioritizing the interests of those being served above ones own. Physician assistants must acknowledge their professional and personal limitations. Professionalism also requires that PAs practice without impairment from substance abuse, cognitive deficiency or mental illness. Physician assistants must demonstrate a high level of responsibility, ethical practice, sensitivity to a diverse patient population, and adherence to legal and regulatory requirements. Physician assistants are expected to demonstrate:

understanding of legal and regulatory requirements, as well as the appropriate role of the physician assistant

professional relationships with physician supervisors and other health care providers

respect, compassion, and integrity

accountability to patients, society, and the profession

commitment to excellence and on-going professional development

commitment to ethical principles pertaining to provision or withholding of clinical care, confidentiality of patient information, informed consent, and business practices

sensitivity and responsiveness to patients culture, age, gender, and abilities

self-reflection, critical curiosity, and initiative

healthy behaviors and life balance

commitment to the education of students and other health care professionals

Practice-based Learning & Improvement

Practice-based learning and improvement includes the processes through which physician assistants engage in critical analysis of their own practice experience, the medical literature, and other information resources for the purposes of self- and practice-improvement. Physician assistants must be able to assess, evaluate, and improve their patient care practices. Physician assistants are expected to:

analyze practice experience and perform practice-based improvement activities using a systematic methodology in concert with other members of the health care delivery team

locate, appraise, and integrate evidence from scientific studies related to their patients health

apply knowledge of study designs and statistical methods to the appraisal of clinical literature and other information on diagnostic and therapeutic effectiveness

utilize information technology to manage information, access medical information, and support their own education

recognize and appropriately address personal biases, gaps in medical knowledge, and physical limitations in themselves and others

Systems-based Practice

Systems-based practice encompasses the societal, organizational, and economic environments in which health care is delivered. Physician assistants must demonstrate an awareness of and responsiveness to the larger system of health care to provide patient care that balances quality and cost, while maintaining the primacy of the individual patient. PAs should work to improve the health care system of which their practices are a part. Physician assistants are expected to:

effectively interact with different types of medical practice and delivery systems

understand the funding sources and payment systems that provide coverage for patient care and use the systems effectively

practice cost-effective health care and resource allocation that does not compromise quality of care

advocate for quality patient care and assist patients in dealing with system complexities

partner with supervising physicians, health care managers, and other health care providers to assess, coordinate, and improve the delivery and effectiveness of health care and patient outcomes

accept responsibility for promoting a safe environment for patient care and recognizing and correcting systems-based factors that negatively impact patient care

apply medical information and clinical data systems to provide effective, efficient patient care

recognize and appropriately address system biases that contribute to health care disparities

apply the concepts of population health to patient care

Adopted 2012 by ARC-PA, NCCPA, and PAEA

Adopted 2013 by AAPA
The chance to play Patsy Cline again proved be too enticing for Kyttra Burge.

The actress and her husband, David, live in Manassas, Virginia, and Burges plate was full raising three children, ages 8 to 13, and working as an interior decorator.

But when Robert D. Rook, managing director of TADA Productions Inc., called to gauge her interest in playing the title character in the Lincoln premiere of A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline, Burge was intrigued.

The last time she took to the stage was in 2010, in Lincoln, as Patsy Cline in TADAs production of the musical Always, Patsy Cline. She also played Cline two years earlier in TADAs first staging of Always.

Any opportunity to sing the music and portray (Cline) again is just great for me, Burge said.

A Closer Walk opens TADAs (The Arts Deserves Attention) 16th season. It begins its three-weekend run Thursday in TADA Theatre in the Haymarket.

Sanctioned by the Patsy Cline Estate, A Closer Walk chronicles her journey from small-town Virginia to Carnegie Hall, with a stop at the Grand Ole Opry along the way. Narrated by a radio disc jockey (Robert Williams), the musical features Clines greatest hits, including Walkin After Midnight, Crazy and I Fall to Pieces, as well as some that arent so well known.

There are three that were completely new to me, said Burge, 44.

Rook directs the production, which includes a three-piece band led by accompanist Graham House.

Unlike Always, which featured a story about a fan interacting with the music legend, A Closer Walk is more of a retrospective, Burge said.

It chronicles her entire recording career, from 1959 to her death in 1963, Burge said. This shows all the concerts she did.

The Burges left Lincoln in 2010 when David, who worked at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and was a local media celebrity -- he once finished second in a contest to guest anchor NBCs Today -- landed a job at Arizona State University. They moved to Virginia five months ago after he accepted a position at George Mason University.

Kyttra Burge, who earned a theater degree from Wichita State University, gave up acting to focus on her family and her new career as an interior decorator. But, she said, shes had no trouble getting back into the acting and singing groove.

Its been so very natural, she said. With Patsy, once shes in your blood, you naturally can go right back into it. Her songs  they lead you to where you need to go (mentally). They are so dreamy.
The first time Lincolns Rev. Mary Jensen had heard of peace advocate Abuna Elias Chacour was in 1986.

She was about to begin a seminary internship in Israel and Palestine.

Chacour, a Palestinian Arab Melkite Greek Catholic priest living in Israel, was speaking in her California town. Intrigued, Jensen and her husband attended Chacours presentation.

Inspired, they returned the next day to hear him again.

By then I had time to think about it: Im going there and hes telling his stories from there. I should let him know, recalled Jensen, retired pastor of Lincolns former Prince of Peace and Spirit of Hope Lutheran churches.

She drafted a letter and handed it to him the following night.

Later, Chacour recognized her in a crowd: Mary, you must see me in Ibillin.

He tells that to everyone, Jensen mused. I didnt take it as an ultra personal invitation.

That said, Invitations are very important in the Arab world, Jensen explained. They take the idea of being invited and wanted as a great honor."

So several months into her internship in east Jerusalem, Jensen traveled to Ibillin, a small Arab village in the Galilee region, and stopped unannounced at Chacours home.

They visited. Toured his Peace Building and schools. And Chacour, a great storyteller, talked and talked of becoming a refugee in his own country with the Israeli occupation in 1945, of becoming a priest, and of a father whose words are forever ingrained in his heart: We do not use violence ever, even if someone hurts us. The Jews and Palestinians are brothers -- blood brothers. We share the same father, Abraham, and the same God. We must never forget that.

You should write a book, Jensen told the priest. Chacour had a better idea -- Jensen should write it.

Such was the birth of We Belong to the Land: The Story of a Palestinian Israeli who Lives for Peace and Reconciliation.

First published in 1993, the book is in its fifth reprinting, and has been translated into more than one dozen languages.

Sunday it will be Chacours turn to visit Jensen, as he preaches at the 9 and 10:30 a.m. worship services at Saint Paul United Methodist Church, 1144 M St. He also will present What are the Things that Make for Peace? Building Peace in the Midst of the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict" at 6:30 p.m. at First Lutheran Church, 1551 S. 70th St. The evening program is free, but an offering will be collected to benefit Chacours peace building work.

His Lincoln visit comes on the heels of his June 2 keynote address at United Methodist Churchs Great Plains Annual Conference in Topeka, Kansas.

A three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Chacour has received numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the World Methodist Peace Award, the Marcel Rudloff Peace and Tolerance Award at Strasbourg, and the Niwano Peace Prize, Tokyo-Japan.

In 2006, he was appointed Archbishop of the Melkite Catholic Church of Haifa, Akko, Nazareth and Galilee.

He retired in January 2014, citing ill health and a desire to focus on public speaking about shared respect. His early retirement at 74 -- the mandatory retirement age under canon law is 75 -- came shortly after he was investigated on 5-year-old accusations of sexual harassment of a former employee, according to the Jesuit journal America.

Chacour, often referred to as Abuna (Our Father in Arabic), was born in 1939 in Biram. In 1947, Chacours childhood home was confiscated as the Palestine mandate became the State of Israel. Chacour and his family became refugees in their own land.

At the age of 12, he left home to study the Bible, traveling to France and Geneva. But the call to return to his homeland brought him to Galilee.

Chacour was ordained in 1965. The Melkite archbishop assigned him to Ibillin, with the preface: I must be honest; it may not be right for you.  Just go to Ibillin for one month. Either you like it and you stay, or you dont like it and well find another place for you. Remember, Elias, this assignment is only provisionary for a month, Jensen wrote in We Belong to the Land.

No one ever lasted long in Ibillin.

Chacour discovered why as soon as he set foot in the church. It had been stripped bare, as had the parish house, which didnt even have a door or a toilet.

The community seemed to be ruled by The Responsible, a man assigned to care for the church and its grounds. But he was more dictator than caretaker, making every attempt to keep Chacour isolated, the church pews empty and the fearful community uncongenial.

Like his predecessors before him, Chacour wanted out of Ibillin.

Instead, he prayed and an idea came to him. He would visit the people of Ibillin in their homes and systematically knock down the invisible walls.

Fifty-one years later, Ibillin is still his home. And Chacours legacy of building peace among enemies, of using love and kindness in place of rightful vengeance, continues.

Early on, Chacour noticed that despite the many differences that divided religious groups, all shared a common bond -- the love of children. But not all children had the same opportunities. Poverty and lack of quality education kept Palestinian students at a constant disadvantage.

This was something Chacour knew he could fix.

So he started a kindergarten in 1970, followed by a community center, elementary school, high school and a college, all gathered under the name Mar Elias Educational Institutions (MEEI).

One of his favorite phrases is Building peace on desktops, Jensen said.

MEEI does not discriminate on religion or ethnicity. Today, its enrollment tops 4,000 youth -- Christians, Muslims, Jews and Druze. More than half of the students are girls.

They are Peace Schools, which do not discriminate based on religion or ethnicity, and are known worldwide for their quality education, Jensen said. Students travel from miles around Ibillin to attend.

They carry back home the lessons of mutual respect, acceptance and understanding in the midst of great diversity.

Its always about peace and reconciliation, Jensen said of Chacours philosophy. He walks the walk in terms of practicing what hes talking about."

It's a walk that has not been easy.

He encountered considerable resistance from the Israeli government toward his schools, and vandals more than once disrupted construction -- sabotaging one site so severely that Chacour was badly injured by falling bricks, according to his biography on the Tannenbaum Peace Makers In Action website.

Once, while en route to Lebanon, Chacour was kidnapped and interrogated by members of the PLO. From Chacours appearance, they could not figure out his identity -- fearing he was a Jewish man masquerading as a priest set out to destroy Lebanons places of worship. He was only freed after he convinced them of his peaceful reconciliation efforts and pluralistic identity.

His life is guided by the message of Jesus: Get your hands dirty to build a human society for human beings; otherwise, others will torture and murder the poor, the voiceless and the powerless.

Jensen spent three months in Ibillin, recording his stories on miniature cassette tapes, transcribing her notes and gathering photographs.

Listening to his stories in the dimly lit room all I could think was: I am the luckiest person on earth, she recalled of their time together.

The continued success of We Belong to the Land stuns Jensen.

Its the little book that will not die, she said.

Perhaps that is because Chacours lessons of respect, peace and humanity in the face of adversity is timeless.
In the hallways of Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital, Sidney Doane is a star.

Patients, therapists and visitors alike call out her name, playfully tug on her ponytail as they come up behind her and gently touch her arm to say "hi" and offer a quick hug.

Doane, 25, has been a patient at Madonna since Jan. 5, 2015 -- just 2 weeks after her car careened off an icy interstate. Unable to move or even breathe on her own, a small army of therapists put a still-comatose Sidney on her feet in a standing frame for the first time on Jan. 6, 2015.

She could only stand for one minute before her blood pressure would drop, her mother Heidi Doane recalled. Movement is needed to make the brain work.

Time, repetition and dogged persistence paid off in small gains that were often far and few between, said Brooke Murtaugh, a Madonna occupational therapist.

Sidney encompasses the outcome we all hope to see in our patients, Murtaugh said during a speech at the rehabilitation hospitals Mettle of Honor awards ceremony this past spring. She has fought through and overcome barriers which is why she is where she is today.

And Sidney is not yet done.

Sitting around a table with her parents in a Madonna therapy room, Doane heard her full story for the very first time last week.

Still learning to speak again, she sat wide-eyed as her parents started from the beginning.

The second-year graduate student at the University of Kansas had just finished her winter finals. Her plan was to drive to Waco, Texas, where younger sister, Audrey, was taking classes at Baylor University.

After a nighttime snowfall, Doane delayed her departure to give crews plenty of time to clear the interstate, said her father Steve Doane.

Doane hit the road at 11 a.m.

At 1:20 p.m., the Doanes received a call from the Kansas Highway Patrol.

"Your daughter Sidney has been an accident," the patrol told the Doanes. "All we know is shes alive and they are working on her.

We were lucky she was within 30 minutes of a major trauma center in Wichita, Heidi Doane said. And lucky the accident occurred near a fire station, allowing paramedics to get to the scene within minutes.

The Doanes were three hours away in Downs, Kansas, about 107 miles straight south of Grand Island.

A chaplain met them at the door of the hospital.

Theyre working on her, he told the Doanes.

The first time they saw her was in the ICU -- nearly invisible through all the tubes, wires and equipment keeping her alive. Other than a small abrasion on her left cheek, she didnt have any visible injuries, Steve Doane said.

Doane's injuries were invisible -- hidden inside her brain. Her seatbelt no doubt saved her life, but it could not prevent her head and neck from whipping back and forth and side to side as her car skidded, flipped and rolled before landing nose down in a culvert.

Far more serious than an injury caused from blunt-force trauma -- such as a blow to the skull -- Doane suffered a diffuse axonal brain injury. The injury sheared tissues and damaged axons, the part of nerve cells that transmit messages to other neurons. Her brain cells were dying and sending out false signals for the body to create a deadly chemical attack.

Statistically speaking, 90 percent of patients with severe diffuse axonal brain injury never regain consciousness, and the 10 percent that do are severely impaired, according to brainandspinalcord.org.

All the Doanes knew and cared about was that she was alive.

For how long remained a constant question.

On Dec. 23 -- five days after the crash -- doctors told the Doanes that their daughter probably would live, Heidi said.

But how much she would recover was unknown. Tubes fed and breathed for Doane.

They said it is going to be a long road," Heidi Doane said. "She can recover but it will be very difficult.

The Doanes figured six months was a long road.

Its already been three times that.

But they never gave up, nor will they.

We wont quit until shes on her way, and taking care of us, Heidi Doane said, giving her daughter a hug.

Twelve days after her arrival at Madonna, doctors removed her breathing tube.

Shortly after her 24th birthday on Feb. 18, Doane showed small signs of awareness.

Unable to move anything but the front of her foot, therapists began asking her to kick in response to their questions.

It was your first real response, Heidi said to her daughter. You still had a hard time doing anything, but the therapists were able to start working with you.

The injury disconnected everything in Doane's brain. It could signal muscles to swallow, eyes to track, fingers to move and the mouth to speak -- but the message never got to the nerves that turned commands into physical actions.

Therapy got the neurons firing in her brain; the repetition remapped the connections.

Its quite a process, Steve Doane said. They kick-start that part of the brain to get it to do what it originally did.

As Doane became more responsive, she also became more agitated, Heidi Doane recalled. Unable to move anything but her right leg, Doane would kick and kick.

It lasted about six weeks, Heidi Doane said.

Then all of a sudden she came out of it and things took off right after that, Heidi Doane said.

Therapists turned kicking into communication.

One kick for yes; two for no.

Doane was still there -- trapped inside an uncooperative body.

Later she learned to blink her answers.

While her brain healed, her body rebelled. Muscles stiffened and spasmed from lack of use. Tendons tightened into contorted positions.

Botox injections helped relax the muscles in her left arm, shoulder and fingers.

As soon as her left arm relaxed, her right arm went up, Heidi Doane said.

Doane's time in the standing frame increased from one minute to 30.

Determined to walk again, an aide would hold her up, and her therapist would push her feet simulating the walking motion.

Therapists helped her retrain her eyes and taught her how to swallow.

She's very driven, Heidi Doane said. She always has been."

Today, Doane uses a walker for balance. But in the therapy pool she moves unassisted.

Outside of the rehabilitation hospital she takes yoga classes and rides horses through Windsong Equine Therapy.

She is relearning to speak. Nerve issues with her palate have made it difficult for her to push air out of her mouth to speak the words shes thinking. A dental retainer helps.

At Madonnas Mettle of Honor Awards, Doane not only wrote a speech, but said it in front a standing-room-only crowd.

You gave me my life back," she said. "It is a hard journey, but you have to do it. Thank you for never giving up on me.

At times, insurance companies wanted to give up on her, Steve Doane recalled.

But doctors and therapists at Madonna fought for Doane. And right about the time she was being denied, she would make progress -- proving what doctors have said all along: There is no timeline with a brain injury.

The biggest advantage is that her personality hasnt changed," Steve Doane said. "Her attitude hasnt changed."

In fact, all the knowledge she acquired through years of school -- algebra, calculus -- its all in there, just waiting for an opportunity to come out, as Doane has demonstrated in Madonnas learning center classes.

We see the light at the end of the tunnel," Heidi Doane said. "Every day we get closer. And each week we say this was just the best week.

Taking it all in, Doane had only one word to say: Wow!
An advocacy group for affordable health care this week sued the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of a 21-year-old Omaha college student denied Medicaid eligibility.

The Nebraska Appleseed Center is accusing HHS CEO Courtney Phillips and Calder Lynch, director of the division of Medicaid and Long-term Care, of violating the federal Medicaid Act.

In the lawsuit, attorney Sarah Helvey, Appleseed's Child Welfare Director, said Azar Webb should have been approved under a Medicaid category added by the Affordable Care Act for young adults up to age 26 who formerly were in foster care.

HHS's state plan authorizes federal funding until the age of 21.

Helvey is asking a Lancaster County judge to stop HHS from denying Webb coverage and to reimburse him or medical professionals for all medical care he received after he turned 21 in September.

He has significant health care needs, she said in the lawsuit.

Last summer, Webb entered foster care and a Douglas County Juvenile Court Judge found it in his best interest to participate in the Bridge to Independence Program.

A hearing officer later found him ineligible for Medicaid because he was not in foster care when he was 18.

In an email Thursday, Helvey said the case is the continuation of an appeal that started last fall.

"Appleseed has been working with DHHS to resolve the issues surrounding this case," she said, "but its in our clients best interest to get this resolved as quickly as possible so he can receive coverage for the important medical treatments he needs."

HHS has a policy against commenting on pending lawsuits.
WASHINGTON -- Part of Bernie Sanders' charm is that for all of his arm-waving jeremiads, he appears unthreatening. He's the weird old uncle in the attic, Larry David's crazy Bernie. It's almost a matter of style. Who can be afraid of a candidate so irascible, grumpy, old-fashioned and unfashionable?

After all, he's not going to win the nomination, so what harm can he do? A major address at the party convention? A say in the vice presidential selection? And who reads party platforms anyway?

Well, platforms may not immediately affect a particular campaign. But they do express, quite literally, the party line, a written record of its ideological trajectory.

Which is why two of Sanders' appointments to the 15-member platform committee are so stunning. Professor Cornel West not only has called the Israeli prime minister a war criminal but openly supports the BDS movement (boycott, divestment and sanctions), the most important attempt in the world to ostracize and delegitimize Israel.

West is joined on the committee by the longtime pro-Palestinian activist James Zogby. Together, reported The New York Times, they "vowed to upend what they see as the party's lopsided support of Israel."

Sanders seeks to permanently alter -- i.e. weaken -- the relationship between the Democratic Party and Israel, which has been close and supportive since Harry Truman recognized the world's only Jewish state when it declared independence in May 1948.

West doesn't even pretend, as do some left-wing "peace" groups, to be opposing Israeli policy in order to save it from itself. He makes the simpler case that occupation is unconscionable oppression and that until Israel abandons it, Israel deserves to be treated like apartheid South Africa -- anathematized, cut off, made to bleed morally and economically. The Sanders appointees wish to bend the Democratic platform to encourage such diminishment unless Israel redeems itself by liberating Palestine.

This is an unusual argument for a Democratic platform committee, largely because it is logically and morally perverse. Israel did in fact follow such high-minded advice in 2005: It terminated its occupation and evacuated Gaza. That earned it (temporary) praise from the West. And from the Palestinians? Not peace, not reconciliation, not normal relations but a decade of unrelenting terrorism and war.

Israel is now being asked -- pressured -- to repeat that same disaster on the West Bank. That would bring the terror war, quite fatally, to the very heart of Israel -- Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ben Gurion Airport. Israel is now excoriated for declining that invitation to national suicide.

It is ironic that the most successful Jewish presidential candidate ever should be pushing the anti-Israel case. But perhaps not surprising considering Sanders' ideological roots. He is old left -- not the post-1960s, countercultural New Left. Why, the man honeymooned in the Soviet Union -- not such fashionably cool communist paradises as Sandinista Nicaragua where Bill de Blasio went to work for the cause or Castro's Cuba where de Blasio honeymooned. (Do lefties all use the same wedding planner?)

For the old left, Israel was simply an outpost of Western imperialism, Middle East division. To this day, the leftist consensus, most powerful in Europe (which remains Sanders' ideological lodestar), holds that Israeli perfidy demands purification by Western chastisement.

The millennials who worship Sanders and pack his rallies haven't lived through -- and don't know -- the history of Israel's half-century of peace offers. They don't know of the multiple times Israel has offered to divide the land with an independent Palestinian state and been rebuffed.

Sanders hasn't lifted a finger to tell them. The lovable old guy with the big crowds and no chance at the nomination is hardly taken seriously (except by Hillary Clinton, whose inability to put him away reveals daily her profound political weakness). But when he makes platform appointees that show he does take certain things quite seriously, like undermining the U.S.-Israeli relationship, you might want to reconsider your equanimity about the magical mystery tour. It looks like Woodstock, but there is steel inside the psychedelic glove.
California voters are set to vote in their primary on Tuesday, and will suffer the consequences of a serious self-imposed mistake in how they run their state. No, it has nothing to do with the presidential race.

The disaster is its "top two" system, in which the candidates for state offices -- regardless of party -- go on to compete in the general election in November if they finish first and second in the primaries.

The likely perverse result? Voters in November will probably have a choice between two Democrats for an open U.S. Senate seat.

The motivation for the California system was to elevate more moderate politicians than the parties were producing on their own. In practice, at least in the first two election cycles since the change was carried out, the results have not matched reformers' hopes. Candidates have not been more moderate.

In part, that's because the parties have adapted: They made more formal endorsements before the June first-round election. This is consistent with a theme that political scientist Seth Masket has emphasized in his research: Political parties are resilient, and react to regulation by finding new ways to control their nomination.

The current Senate race illustrates the problem. Current polling has Democrat Kamala Harris at 29 percent, Democrat Loretta Sanchez in second with 20 percent and Republican Tom Del Beccaro third at just 8 percent. In other words, if the polls hold up, two traditional Democrats will survive the first round and face off in November.

How did this happen? Of the 34 (!) candidates on the ballot, Harris, California's attorney general, and Sanchez, a U.S. representative for almost 20 years, are the best known. There is no clear separation among the 12 Republicans. In part, that's because Republicans failed to recruit a strong candidate, but it's also because it's hard to emerge from a pack of 12. Had three strong Democrats chosen to run, they would have split the Democratic vote, and a Republican might have wound up advancing.

In this particular race, at least Californians will wind up electing a senator most of them support. But we've seen the opposite result too: In one Democratic-leaning House district in 2010 in Southern California, several Democratic candidates split the vote, and two Republican candidates wound up advancing to the final round -- leaving the majority of the district without a candidate to vote for.

There's more. Unlike Louisiana, which has a somewhat similar system but holds the initial vote on Election Day in November (with a runoff after that if needed), California holds its first round in June. This is months before most voters are focused on elections, meaning turnout is far lower for that election than for the final one. In 2014, 4.3 million people cast votes in June compared with 7.3 million in November.

Even worse is that, this year, the first-round election for the U.S. Senate and House, California Legislature and other offices takes place in the same June 7 election as the (partisan) presidential primary. This will likely favor Democrats because Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are still in a contest for their party's nomination, while Donald Trump has already sealed the deal on the Republican side. Turnout will likely be a lot higher on the Democratic side than among Republicans.

Granted, Democrats would almost certainly have won the U.S. Senate election under normal rules. But at least voters would have had a choice in November. And Republicans would have had an active effort to get their vote out, a drive that could matter a lot in some other races down the ballot.

Since Trump and the Republicans are unlikely to make any effort in California for the general election, since it is solidly Democratic, and since the two Senate candidates are likely to be Democrats, Republicans will be at a significantly worse disadvantage in November than usual. It's an unfair and flat-out foolish system.
In an era in which government overreach is a trigger for applause at political rallies, its important to cheer occasionally when the feds take action that is justified and in the public interest.

So kudos to the U.S. Attorneys Office in Nebraska for going after the owners of a now-defunct Lexington company that failed to comply with water pollution laws and then failed to pay a $2.3 million fine.

Half of that money was supposed to go to the federal government and half to the state of Nebraska.

The federal prosecutor filed a civil lawsuit against Leon and Ann Johnson, alleging they siphoned $8 million from Stabl, Inc. to personal investment accounts. The governments lawyers alleged that Stabl was insolvent at the time of the transfersor the transfers resulted in Stabl becoming insolvent.

Stabl owned a rendering plant in Lexington that discharged so much grease, oil and ammonia that the citys treatment plant had to shut down for days at a time.

The Nebraska made attempts to get the company to comply with pollution rules in 2006. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began its efforts in 2008.

The pollution violations continued, so the federal government and the state took the company to federal court. The company fought them every step of the way.

In 2014 U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp ruled that Stabl had violated the Clean Waters Act 1,533 times between 2006 and 2010.

She found that the company had boosted its income by more than $1.1 million by failing to comply with pollution rules, and doubled that amount as a penalty that would serve as an example to deter other companies from doing the same thing.

Stabl sold its plant in 2010 for more than $15 million. The company was dissolved in 2012 for nonpayment of taxes.

The case shows why government agencies need adequate funding and resources to go after companies that break pollution laws.

Its true that sometimes the EPA sets questionable priorities. Its attempt to broaden its powers to regulate wetlands with a new rule last year was met with a lawsuit by states including Nebraska which resulted in a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of the rule.

But staffing and resources in the Department of Justice Environmental Crimes Section and the EPAs Criminal Enforcement Division have repeatedly been cut by Congress.

As a substitute for criminal prosecution, the agencies frequently turn to civil action.

The Stabl case shows how laborious and time-consuming a process that can be. The stamina and resolve that federal officials have shown in the case deserves public appreciation.
Hooray for the 13 State Senators who put this misfit governor in his place ("Ricketts chided for partisanship," May 31)!

If he could read and understand Nebraska's Constitution he would learn that our Unicameral is expressly non-partisan. Non-partisan, Gov. Ricketts, means the senators don't take orders from a political boss, even a multibillionaire one.

I admire the senators who signed the letter and I admire all the ones who had the courage to vote to override his mean-spirited vetoes. They were right. He was wrong.

And Nebraskans should be furious that the governor recruited candidates to defeat senators who did their honorable duty. How much did he have to do with using shadow secret money to defeat them?

He shows himself unfit to grasp Nebraska's standards of fairness and good government. Let's get rid of him.

Joe T. Vosoba, former State Senator, Lincoln
Media access to inmates and to prisons in this state is not what it used to be.

With each revision of the Department of Correctional Services' media policy, that access has diminished, especially in the past 18 months, under a new governor and a new department director.

That is in spite of a pledge by Director Scott Frakes to make the department more transparent.

In this case, maybe translucent would be a better word, allowing light but not detailed images to pass through. In some instances, maybe opaque.

"It is hard to overstate the importance of covering prisons," Beth Schwartzapfel, a Boston-based writer who covers the criminal justice system, said in a 2013 article in the Columbia Journalism Review.

"To ensure accountability, the reporters who do take an interest in prisons need access," she said.

Even if you subscribe to a "lock 'em up and throw away the key" philosophy about people who break the law, more than 93 percent of them will sooner or later return to their communities in the state. Maybe to your block, your place of business, your school.

Reporters ask questions to enlighten readers on what's going on while the state has those inmates locked up.

What are conditions in those prisons, many of them crowded, some excessively so? A reporter allowed access could see that crowding and talk to inmates and corrections officers about the effects of those conditions.

Are inmates getting adequate health care? Are they learning positive life skills to help them cope? Are they getting drug and alcohol treatment? Mental health treatment? Anger control classes?

Are they able to maintain some sort of relationship with their children, and learn how to be better parents? Do they have access to training for jobs so they can become gainfully employed upon release?

What is the influence of gang activity behind the walls?

Is taxpayer money -- $417 million in state general funds in the past two-year budget -- being spent as intended, and to every Nebraskan's benefit?

Being able to get those answers from a variety of sources, including inmates, is now more difficult.

A policy in place as of September 2010 said recorded and non-recorded interviews of inmates were allowed, with permission of the inmate, but should be related to a news event.

The media access policy has been revised eight times since 2004, the last hitting the regulation books in September.

The most recent allows the media only the same access as the public. We can exchange snail mail, talk by phone for brief conversations and in person as a general prison visitor. But no notebooks, pens or pencils, recorders or cameras.

No interviews of inmates in restrictive housing are allowed.

As far as we know, there was never a hearing on this policy change so that we could voice our opinions or make our case for a less restrictive policy. I asked, but got no answer.

These questions emailed on May 27 also were not answered: How was the policy change developed, and what was the rationale behind the increased restrictions?

This email came Thursday from Andrew Nystrom, the department's Communications Director: The change in the regulation was clarifying in nature rather than a departure from previous guidance. Each facility interpreted the policy differently and applied it inconsistently.

The department has limited resources, he said, and media-requested interviews draw on those resources. So the decision was made to update the regulation.

Some other states give more access to reporters.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that members of the media do not have a right to insist on interviewing specific inmates. On the other hand, a prisoner's right to talk to the media is more well established, according to the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press. The Supreme Court has ruled that prisoners have First Amendment rights that must be taken into account, when they are the ones seeking the interviews.

In 2012, Jessica Pupovac, then a graduate student at the University of Missouri, compiled and analyzed media access policies to corrections departments across the country.

"What I found is a system that too often impedes journalists from reporting accurately, effectively and with any regularity on what goes on inside America's prisons," Pupovac said in an article in "Quill," a publication of the Society of Professional Journalists.

The last time I was allowed a face-to-face interview with an inmate was August 2014, when I talked to Abdul Al-Ameen, then 69, who had been released early due to the department's miscalculation of certain sentences, then was hauled back in after nearly a year on the outside.

During that time of release, he had reunited with his daughter and grandchildren and, in his view, had begun to turn his life in a good direction.

That was disrupted by another 20 months in prison.

State Ombudsman Marshall Lux, whose team is allowed in the prisons to talk to inmates and correctional officers, said the limits on media access are troubling.

"It's not the way we're supposed to be doing things," he said.

The answer to media access in Nebraska prisons, he said, is carved above the main entrance to the Capitol: The salvation of the state is watchfulness in the citizen.

"However, there is an implicit word that is missing from the sentence carved over the Capitol," he said. "What it really means to say is: 'The salvation of the state is INFORMED watchfulness in the citizen.'"

That is where journalists come in, he said.

In order for our system of government to work as it is intended, it is essential ("salvation") that our citizens be fully engaged in government, understand the issues, and develop opinions on what is happening, and/or needs to happen, to make the system work better, Lux said.

"The point is that we want the news media to have access to news, and (they) get to decide what's news. And if that involves interviewing people who are in the state's custody, in my view that should be facilitated, not limited," he said.

The system needs to be as open as possible, Lux said, "so that our journalists can give us the information that we need in order to do our jobs as citizens."
KEARNEY  At least one person has been shot and three others hospitalized after crashes and a chase that followed an officer-involved shooting
Creation of the railroads proved to be a major factor in Nebraskas westward expansion from the Missouri River. With the railroads came construction jobs, capital and cities with attendant buildings, businesses and banks. One central figure in all of these was John Fitzgerald, who ended up in Lincoln.

John Fitzgerald came to the U.S. from Ireland in 1848. With the beginning of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, Fitzgerald moved to Plattsmouth, the Nebraska terminus of the railroad, as a railroad construction contractor. The railroads major assets were huge land grants and local bond revenues. Because one bond grant had a construction deadline requirement, B&MR offered Fitzgerald one section of land, some say 1,000 acres, if he could finish construction of grade and tracks from Plattsmouth 60 miles west, or five miles west of the new state capital of Lincoln, before a certain date. Fitzgerald accomplished it with time to spare.

In the early 1870s, Fitzgerald opened the Brooks House Hotel in Plattsmouth, named for the president of the railroad; established a Plattsmouth bank; built the three-story Fitzgerald Block with the top floor open as a hall for meetings; and, in 1871, married Mary Kelly.

At some point in the 1870s he also built an elaborate house called The Brick on the land he received from the railroad about eight miles northwest of the new village of Greenwood. The Fitzgerald ranch included a large horse barn and a horse race track.

In 1878 or 1879, the Fitzgeralds moved to Lincoln and b built a mansion at Mount Emerald whose grounds were bounded, roughly, by A, D, 17th and 20th streets. By the 1880s Fitzgerald owned substantial interests in Lincoln, Crete and Plattsmouth banks, vast business interests in Lincoln and west Lincoln and large tracts of land in Lancaster, Gage, Cass and Jefferson counties.

The city of Lincoln authorized $50,000 in bonds for the railroad with the caveat that they reach the city before September 1870, while the state offered a huge land grant if the first 10 miles of track were completed west of Plattsmouth by Feb. 15, 1870, resulting in the bonus offer to Fitzgerald. On June 12, 1869, Gov. David Butler turned a spade of dirt in a groundbreaking ceremony at the depot grounds in Lincoln, initiating the infill for tracks to enter the city. That October the engine Hurricane was ferried across the Missouri to Plattsmouth.

On Feb. 4, 1870, three railroad commissioners appointed by Butler inspected Fitzgeralds initial trackage west of Plattsmouth finding them substantial, smooth and perfect." On July 4, 1870, the steam engine Wahoo pulled two flat cars fitted with benches and covered with cottonwood boughs as far as Newton station east of Havelock. The first train pulled by the Hurricane reached Lincoln and on Aug. 9, 1870, nearly 1,000 guests on two trains initiated in Plattsmouth arrived in Lincoln at 3 p.m. for a dinner at the Tiechnor House Hotel at 13th and K streets followed by a soiree at the state capitol. Lincoln had entered the railroad age.

B&MR acquired the land for what became the village of Greenwood. Some say B&MR purchased it from Smith Cogal Bethel for $1 per 100 feet of land along the right of way, others say for $1.50 to $4 per acre. Still others say a group of farmers sold the land and yet another source says the land was given to the railroad with the stipulation that the railroad invest $10,000 in local improvements. However the railroad acquired the land, it was turned over to the South Platte Land Co., a separate corporation controlled by the railroad, for ultimate sale to individuals. One substantiated account further says that John Fitzgerald built the first Greenwood depot in 1870.

The village name of Greenwood came from Greenwood Creek. The creek had been named for Silas Greenwood, not J. S. Green as one account has it. Silas Greenwood first visited the general area in the 1820s, then established a home with his wife, a Mandan Native, a decade later.

The village of Greenwood prospered with the railroad. By 1989, Fred Geiler and his wife occupied The Brick and began restoration though a windstorm had blown over Palace House and the carriage house had burned to the ground. It was reported at that time that the horse race track was still visible even though parts had been farmed over.

Fitzgeralds Lincoln mansion was destroyed by an explosion and fire in August 1907 with the grounds developed for homes in what is known as the Mount Emerald Historic District.
Puzzled Grandma in the South recently wrote to Dear Abby asking Why is there so much angst today over raising children, especially in young mothers? Grandma has observed that moms of her generation (baby boomers) did not agonize over raising kids, and neither did her mother or grandmother. She also rightly points out that todays moms seem to lean a lot on expert advice, which she thinks is a bunch of nonsense. Ironically, I agree.

Grandma is correct in her analysis of the problem which is that a generation or so back, moms began to elevate their children to top priority in the family over their husbands.

This shift of priorities took place because the standard message from the experts has been that good parenting is a matter of properly interpreting and responding to a childs feelings. In effect, progressive parenting authors claimed that childrens emotions were (a) legitimate expressions of internal states that cry out (literally) for parental attention and (b) barometers of the quality of the parenting they are receiving.

Im hardly alone in believing women to be, on average, much more emotionally intelligent than men  more attuned to and seemingly more intuitive when it comes to knowing how to respond to other peoples feelings. (I dont find many men who disagree with that, by the way.) In short, the books in question spoke to women, who began to conclude (and correctly so, if the premise is valid) that they were the only gender qualified to properly carry out the new parenting prescription.

In short order, women began to feel that (a) their childrens futures rested entirely on their shoulders and (b) their kids success in school was a measure of their worth as moms. Rather quickly, the fairly laid-back American mom (as testified to by Puzzled Grandma) was transformed into a stressed-out, anxiety-ridden, child-focused micromanager. Without intention, women ended up marginalizing their husbands, turning them into second fiddles. As parenting shoved the marriage aside, husbands began to compensate for the loss of relationship with their wives by, among other things, becoming their childrens buddies.

Dear Abby told Puzzled Grandma that moms are stressed because women want to work outside the home while at the same time they want their kids to succeed in an increasingly complicated world. She says that PGs peers and female ancestors didnt agonize over her kids because the world was a simpler place 50 years ago. In short, Dear Abby just doesnt get it.

Yes, the worlds a more complex place than it was 50 years ago, but 50 years ago the world was a more complex place than it had been 50 years before that, and so on. But theres no historical evidence to the effect that as the world became more complex from generation to generation, mother anxiety steadily increased. In other words, the world becoming more complex isnt new, but moms agonizing over their kids is.

Its the price they are paying for listening to experts tell us how to do something that is fundamentally simple. The experts made it sound very, very complicated. The new mom believes proper parenting is something she does solely for her child. Not so. Proper parenting is an act of love for your neighbor. But thats hard to see when youve got tunnel vision.
RACINE  Empty storefronts bother Marty Sturino. A lot.

So he decided to do something about them.

Last week, Sturino and his business partner, Ed Jenkins, unveiled a new look for three large storefront windows at 427 Main St., the former Main Marine & Ski.

Passersby may think theyre looking into a new Downtown phone store. But the reality is this: The windows are filled with a large, high-definition, 3-D graphic depicting a store inside what is actually vacant, available commercial space.

This year Sturino and Jenkins, both retired SC Johnson executives, formed the company they are now launching: Storefronts Matter. Their business offers large, high-definition graphics that are stuck onto commercial windows to make empty spaces appear to house real businesses. The one at 427 Main St. is their demonstration project.

Empty storefronts are an eyesore for the community, wasted space with no utility and do little to interest potential renters/buyers, Storefront Matters states.

Our storefronts improve the cityscape for residents, summer visitors and tourists by creating interest in otherwise ugly properties; provide information about the building; and create exciting promotional and advertising space for large companies, schools and civic organizations, Sturino and Jenkins write.

The graphics are created by a small Dublin, Ireland, graphic arts company called Virtual-Shopfronts; theyre sent to Storefronts Matter as large computer files and are printed here on vinyl sheets. The sticky sheets are applied professionally to the insides of windows.

Virtual-Shopfronts offers more than 25 basic graphic creations including restaurants, shoe stores, mens and womens clothing stores, coffee shops and a health food store, Sturino and Jenkins said.

However, Jenkins said, If you need something, they will create it. The graphic artists can also move the positions of people within a graphic or change the color scheme, as Sturino and Jenkins had them do with their Main Street phone store.

The building owner chose a phone store because that is what the company would like to attract to that space, Sturino explained.

The demonstration space is adjacent to the Downtown Racine Corp. office at 425 Main St., and DRC Executive Director Devin Sutherland is thrilled by what Storefronts Matter is doing in a Downtown space.

Storefronts Matter is one of the most exciting business startups we have worked with, he said. The concept of not only trying to enhance the aesthetics of a business district, but using this new approach to business attraction is very unique and innovative. The scalability of this is huge, and the applications for this product are endless.

Realistic

Virtual-Shopfront window graphics are used in Europe, but Sturino  who found that company through online research  and Jenkins said theyre bringing them to the United States for the first time.

The graphics are so realistic and three-dimensional that in Europe, Sturino said, people will often pull on a locked door handle, thinking they can walk into the shop they see inside.

He said their product would be appropriate and useful in many places: empty storefronts within Regency Mall, commercial areas, strip malls, Downtown and Uptown, as local examples.

They envision four different potential customers:

The building owner who is trying to sell or rent.

The real estate agent who has the listing on a commercial space.

The municipality that wants to raise civic morale and beautify its streets.

A sponsoring, civic-minded company.

Sturino said the graphics are sold partly by size, and the price works out to be about a months rent on a commercial space. If a Storefronts Matter graphic can get a space rented one month earlier than it would have otherwise, the cost is recouped by that extra months rent.

Every city has this problem, Jenkins said. Were providing a vision to show people what could be.
Downtowns Fifth Street will come alive with color and imagination next weekend when more than a dozen chalk artists plan to work their magic there.

The artists  coming from throughout the Midwest  will each be creating an original work of chalk art on a 4-by-4-foot Masonite panel as they compete in the Great Lakes Chalk Art Competition.

The competition is a new event, held in conjunction with the Monument Square Art Festival, which will take place in Monument Square Saturday and Sunday, June 11 and 12. Participating chalk artists will work on their pieces throughout the day Saturday, allowing the public to view their processes, ask questions and cast votes for their favorite work. And the finished pieces will be displayed along Fifth Street, between Wisconsin and Main streets, on Sunday, with an awards ceremony happening that afternoon.

Animation throwdown

For three of the chalk artists  all animators by profession  the competition might also involve a bit of a friendly cartoon war, according to Tim Decker, one of the three who is currently an animation/film instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Milwaukee Area Technical College, and has competed in chalk art for about five years.

Im excited about it, said Decker, whose career also includes time as animation director with Disney Interactive. Its going to be fun.

He is looking forward to sharing the experience with his friends and fellow animators Tom Ward of Caledonia, and Jon Brown of Milwaukee. And while Decker said they have not yet discussed the plans for their pieces, hes sure there will be plenty of very good artwork all around.

When it comes to his chalk creations, Decker said he doesnt usually know what hes going to do until the day before a competition.

That way it is fresh in my mind and Im really excited about it, he said.

Ward  now an interactive media design instructor at Moraine Park Technical College in West Bend who met Decker while working at Karen Johnson Productions  said his piece will have a lake surfing theme. Surfing on Lake Michigan is another of the New Jersey natives passions. And while this will be his first chalk art competition, Ward said he is confident in his ability to compete with Decker and Brown.

We each have different styles, and we all like to do well, Ward said. I think its going to be a fun competition.

Range of ideas

Other designs submitted for the chalk art competition range from abstract ideas to realistic reproductions of historic paintings, according to Denise Roberts McKee, executive director of the Racine Arts Council and an MSAF organizer.

Its a really interesting mix, McKee said.

In case of inclement weather  which McKee said wont happen because the MSAF used up all of its bad weather karma last year  the chalk art panels can be moved inside until the weather clears. And artists will be given extra time on Sunday morning to complete their work.

Well have some wiggle room, she said.

Those who cant make the festival will have another chance to see the finished chalk pieces, as they will be displayed at the Racine Arts Councils ArtSpace Gallery, 316 Sixth St., from June 17 through July 23. Each piece will be offered for sale, through a month-long public raffle, with proceeds benefiting the RAC. Raffle winners will be announced on the closing day of the exhibit.

Always new

In addition to the Great Lakes Chalk Art Competition, this years Monument Square Art Festival will offer the work of 70 artists, exhibiting a wide range of media including painting, photography, jewelry, textiles, sculpture, ceramics and mixed media.

The juried, fine art fair has been held in Racine for more than 50 years, and draws artists from throughout the Midwest and beyond. This years event not only offers a nice balance of different art forms but a good mix of new and returning artists, McKee said.

There are always new things to see, she said.

Live music will be performed throughout the two-day festival, featuring local groups in a range of genres (see accompanying box for schedule). And an awards ceremony for both the MSAF and the Great Lakes Chalk Art Competition will be held on Sunday afternoon.

Peoples choice awards will also be given for both the MSAF and the Chalk Art Competition and McKee said she hopes people will come Downtown and participate in both.

Its all about art, in all of its forms, she said.

Hours for the Monument Square Art Festival are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.

For more information, including a list of exhibiting artists and examples of their work, go to www.monumentsquareartfest.com.
Religion Today

Summer retreat offered at DeKoven Center

The Rev. Brian Hastings, rector of Church of Our Saviour in Chicago, will lead the Long Summer Retreat from June 19-23 at the DeKoven Center, 600 21st St.

The experience, a continuation of the tradition observed by the Associates of the Community of St. Mary, offers five days of retreat, celebrating Gods original language, silence. There is no imposed silence, but there will be exercises and a variety of approaches to increase our own comfort with this challenging but essential Christian language.

Canon Kitty Clark, former DeKoven spiritual director, will be in residence. For pricing and more information, contact the DeKoven Center at 262-633-6401, ext. 105, or go to www.dekovencenter.org.

Double anniversary celebration planned

A double anniversary celebration will be observed during the 9:45 a.m. service Sunday, June 5, at Beth Israel Sinai Synagogue, 944 Main St. First is the 100th year anniversary of the synagogue itself, and second is the 10th anniversary of the ordination of Rabbi Martyn Adelberg. A lunch and celebration will be held after the service.

Summer combined service at Yorkville UMC

Beginning Sunday, June 5 and continuing through Sept. 4, the congregation at Yorkville United Methodist Church, 17645 Old Yorkville Road, Union Grove, will try a new summer worship schedule with just one combined service at 9 a.m. The Rhythm & Praise a cappella group will sing Do Lord. The sacrament of Holy Communion will be observed.

There will be a variety of worship styles including the praise service accompanied by Russ Fanning on guitar, as well as the traditional service accompanied by either Mary Harmann or Kitty Friend on organ. The various soloists and musical groups of the church will offer their talents at the combined service.

Third Sunday after Pentecost celebrated

Third Sunday after Pentecost worship services will begin at 10:45 a.m. Sunday, June 5, at Faith United Methodist Church, 1013 Harmony Drive. The Rev. Dr. Don Francis will speak.

Youths affirm and parents confirm their UU faiths

Isobele McLane and Neenah Hershberger, graduating eighth-grade students, will give a short discussion on what their UU faith means to them, and their parents will respond as part of Affirmation Sunday during the 10 a.m. service on Sunday, June 5, at Olympia Brown Unitarian Universalist Church, 625 College Ave.

A presenter will describe the activities of the YWCA Southeast Wisconsin Dress for Success program, the churchs Offertory Outreach recipient for June.

Two congregations to switch worship times

Raymond Community Church and Union Grove Congregational Church, both United Church of Christ congregations, will switch worship times.

Beginning Sunday, June 5, Union Grove United Church of Christ, 1106 11th Ave., Union Grove, will worship at 9 a.m., and Raymond Community Church, United Church of Christ, 8217 W. Highway G, Raymond, will worship at 10:45 a.m. The sacrament of Holy Communion will be observed at both churches.

Siena Retreat Center schedules programs

The following programs are offered at the Siena Retreat Center, 5637 Erie St.:

Centering Prayer, 7-8 a.m. every Thursday. Start the day with 20 minutes of silent centering prayer, followed by 40 minutes of reading and discussion on prayer or spirituality. An offering will be accepted.

Held in Gods Abundant Love, June 16-19, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. This retreat is for those women who continue to heal from sexual abuse. Participants have the opportunity to move deeper into their own healing within a circle of kindred spirits on a similar healing journey. Both presenters are psychotherapists. Cost to attend is $255 including $40 non-refundable deposit, accommodations and meals. Financial assistance available.

For more information or to register for a program, go to www.SienaRetreatCenter.org or call 262-898-2590.
RACINE COUNTY  Bear is an escape artist of sorts.

The 8-year-old white shepherd-mix ran away from home on Thursday after he sneaked out of the garage while his owner, an Iraq War veteran, was away.

Thankfully, he was returned home quickly through the help of a Racine County Sheriffs Office deputy, the deputys wife and a website.

Jacob Dutton, 29, a truck driver, said he came home from work to accompany his wife to a doctors appointment and saw a door leading into the garage was open. His wife, Sarah, 29, said Bear had been in the garage while the Town of Dover couple was at work. She said the pooch must have jumped up and somehow manipulated the lever-style door handle, freeing himself from their garage.

Theres actually like teeth marks on the handle, Jacob said. He probably popped the lock on the door and probably started scratching till it was open  hes so smart, he just got out.

The couple then began to hunt for Bear.

They thought that he was out in a farm field and the coyotes are gonna get him, said Sarah, who is expecting the couples first child, a son, in September. They also feared he could have been struck by a car.

Jacob obtained Bear from the dogs prior owner after Jacobs second deployment in Iraq. He said he was an engineer in the Army from 2005 to 2009, serving two tours in Iraq before joining the Army Reserves, from which he was honorably discharged in January 2014.

Sarah, a sales representative, said her husband saw Bear tied to a tree in the former owners yard and he reportedly wasnt being cared for. The owners gave Bear to her husband in 2009, Sarah said, and the two became close.

He said he rescued the dog but the dog really rescued him, Sarah said. He was extremely upset (Thursday).

Bear on the lam

Racine County Sheriffs Deputy Ed Drewitz, who works as a K-9 handler, said he was driving on Thursday to the Racine County Jail to work an overtime shift when he spotted a white dog running down Highway 20. Drewitz had left his canine partner, named Friday, at home that day.

I think I got him (Bear) just as he was fleeing their residence, Drewitz said laughing, adding Bear was about 100 yards from home.

Drewitz said he called the number on the poochs tag, but it was disconnected. He took Bear to a vet to check for a microchip, but none was found. So Drewitz took Bear to his house and placed the dog in the cage in their yard, along with food and water.

He did not like that (cage), Drewitz said.

When Drewitzs wife arrived home about an hour later and let Bear into their home, he hopped right up on the couch and made himself right at home. I dont allow my dog on (that new leather) couch.

Drewitz called the countys dispatch center to see if anyone reported the dog missing, but the Duttons didnt yet know that Bear was on the lam.

Enter Drewitzs wife, Jennifer Muffick, a school counselor at Case High School.

I wanted to keep him. (But) as a dog lover myself, I know how heartbroken I would be if I lost one myself, Muffick said.

Muffick posted Bears picture on the Lost Dogs of Wisconsins website and within 10 minutes I got a call from (Sarah). Sarah Dutton had posted a message on the Buy Sell and Trade website to spread the message that Bear was missing, and said a woman spotted that message and sent her the found dog notice from the Lost Dogs of Wisconsin site.

The guys a big guy and he knelt down and started crying, Muffick said of Jacob Dutton and Bears reunion.

Lost Dogs of Wisconsin

Kathy Pobloskie, director of Lost Dogs of Wisconsin, said dogs and their owners routinely are reunited thanks to the website, and its not unusual for the reunion to occur on the same day the dog goes missing. The organization reunites an average of seven dogs per day with their families, Pobloskie said. Last year alone the organization reunited 2,850 dogs with their owners. Of those, 2,800 dogs were alive. About 5 percent of dogs that go missing will die before being reunited, Pobloskie said.

The nonprofit website launched in 2010 and has about 59,606 fans in Wisconsin, Pobloskie said. Lost Dogs of Wisconsin partnered in 2013 with a site launched by a Canadian man, www.helpinglostpets.com, which is a map-based, centralized database of all such pets.

Pobloskie said some dogs are reunited after being missing for two or three years. Recently, a dog and its owner were reunited in Milwaukee after six years, she said.

Some dogs live in the wild like foxes or coyotes, while some are picked up by good Samaritans and then either kept or taken to shelters. Some are adopted out from the shelters while some dont make it out of the shelter alive, Pobloskie explained.

We were very, very lucky, Sarah Dutton said. Were very grateful for the family who found him.
SOMERS  A pioneering professor at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, whose legacy is honored through a prestigious annual teaching award, has died, university officials announced Friday morning.

Stella C. Gray, emeritus professor of English, died Tuesday in Newcastle, Maine, at the age of 96, the university announced.

According to an announcement sent Friday to Parkside faculty, Gray joined the faculty of the former UW-Kenosha in 1958. When UW-Parkside was founded in 1968 through the merging of UW-Kenosha and UW-Racine, Gray served as the first chair of the Humanities Division in the College of Science and Society.

According to a UW-Parkside media release at the time of her retirement in 1984, Gray was among the first Parkside faculty members to be honored for teaching excellence. She was selected by UW-Parkside students to receive the Standard Dil Foundation Award for excellence in classroom teaching.

In recognition of her service to the university, the Stella C. Gray Teaching Excellence Award has honored UW-Parkside faculty members for more than 30 years, the university said in a release.

According to Grays obituary in the Boothbay (Maine) Register, Gray taught a year in 1948 at Westhampton in Richmond, Va., before being awarded a full scholarship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study for her Ph.D. in American literature. Grays dissertation on Constance Fenimore Woolson was the first comprehensive study of the 19th century American author.

Settling in Wisconsin

In Madison, Gray met her husband, Charles F. Gray, a Kenosha native, who was studying on the G.I. Bill. They married in 1953, and had two of their four children, Camilla and Clifford.

In 1959, the family moved to Kenosha, where the Grays had two more children, Robert and Peter. The family attended St. Thomas Aquinas Church, where Gray was the first female lay reader at Mass.

While at UW-Kenosha, Gray was instrumental in helping to develop the extension into the four-year institution, which became UW-Parkside.

During her time at Parkside, Gray taught English composition, speech, and literature. According to her obituary, many students remember Grays readings of literature during class. She also inspired many of her pupils to become teachers.
KENOSHA  WGTD (91.1 FM) is owned and operated as a public service of Gateway Technical College and is an affiliate of Wisconsin Public Radio. For an updated schedule, visit its website at www.wgtd.org.

The Morning Show airs every weekday between 8:10 and 9 a.m. Following is a schedule of show topics for the coming week:

Monday  A rebroadcast of a past interview with former University of Wisconsin-Parkside Chancellor Jack Keating, who recently passed away. In this particular interview, Keating discusses UW-Parkside and its commitment to first-generation college students and he also offers up some analysis of the governments response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Keating had extensive expertise in disaster response.

Tuesday  Scott Woolley The Network: The Battle for the Airwaves and the Birth of the Communications Age.

Wednesday  Gateway Technical College President Bryan Albrecht discusses Gateways Launch Box.

Thursday  Nan Calvert with Lynn Ketterhagen, Geneva Lake Conservancy.

Friday  A rebroadcast the final Morning Show visit of Dr. Jack Keating, former chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, recorded just as he was about to retire.

Saturday  Programming includes Financial Overview at 9 a.m., Breakfast Bytes at 9:45 a.m., Education Matters at 10:30 a.m. and Community Matters at 11:15 a.m.
Paddy output projected to fall 10pc

Nepals paddy output has been projected to fall sharply by 10.22 percent to 4.29 million tonnes this fiscal year, swelling the food deficit, widening imports and putting pressure on market prices.
LPG dealers warn of halting sales

Dealers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) on Wednesday warned they would stoop selling cooking gas if the government failed to provide security.
NOC to obtain bullets to bring gas from China

Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has planned to obtain bullets suitable for transporting liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from China as it is close to signing a commercial supply deal with the northern neighbour, officials said.
Prithvi Man Shrestha is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering the governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2009, he worked at nepalnews.com and Rising Nepal primarily covering the issues of political and economic affairs for three years.
Petroleum products supply to normalise from Friday, quota system scrapped

Supply Ministry is normalising distribution of petroleum products from Friday. The ministry said it would also be scrapping the quota system that the government has been imposing on the fuel supply.
Foreign trade declines by 29 per cent

The country's foreign trade shrank by 29 per cent in the first six month of the current fiscal year 2015/016.
Govt team seals Siddhartha Gas

A government team led by Supply Minister Ganesh Man Pun on Wednesday sealed Siddhartha Gas bottling plant based in Chalise, Dhading, on charge of misconduct.
PM to fly to China with Himalaya

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is likely to travel on a specially-reserved Himalaya Airlines jet to China on Sunday.
A forest of fine lines

The anthology is bound by solidarity between women; within these pages, you will come across a bone-deep recognition of all the important issues that confront us, as women and as people
A history of interruptions

A look at a few different forces, political and otherwise, that continue to shape Nepals educational landscape
Chand-led CPN Maoist banda affects life in 3 districts

Normal life was affected in Dhading, Nuwakot and Rasuwa districts on Friday due to banda called by Netra Bikram Chand-led CPN Maoist.
Cross-border oil pipeline project stirs back to life

The long-planned cross-border oil pipeline project which went into hibernation after India imposed a trade embargo against Nepal looks like waking up. The proposed pipeline will be 41 km long and extend from Raxaul, India to Amlekhgunj, Nepal.
Dont okay Ncells capital plan: Panel

The Parliamentary Finance Committee on Friday instructed the government not to approve Ncells capital increment plan and other business expansion schemes until outstanding tax liabilities related to its ownership transfer is cleared.
DPM Thapa to hold bilateral meeting with EA Minister Swaraj in New Delhi

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa will hold bilateral talks with his Indian counterpart Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj during his visit to India that begins on June 10.
Environmentalists ring alarm bells over Kathmandus poor air quality

Environmentalists have raised the alarm about the deteriorating air quality of Kathmandu Valley and urged the government to take immediate measures to reverse the problem.
Foreign tourist goes missing for the past two weeks

A foreign tourist, arrived for climbing Dhaulagiri mountain, has gone missing for the past weeks.
House endorses Education Act amendment bill

The Parliament on Saturday endorsed the bill on eighth amendment to Education Act-1972.
India to fund 25 community buildings in Sarlahi

India has pledged Rs49.98 million aid to Sarlahi district for constructing 25 community buildings in 24 VDCs.
Jhapa losing fertile farmland to rampant urban development

Rampant land plotting for housing projects has led to a sharp decline in land available for farming in Jhapa district, the countrys largest paddy producer.
Migrant crisis: Hundreds rescued from boat off Crete

About 340 migrants have been rescued and nine bodies have been pulled from the sea after a boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea, Greek officials say.
National politics takes centre stage at UML Standing Committee meeting

The Standing Committee meeting of the ruling party CPN-UML has begun in order to resolve the internal rift surfaced in the party.
Pokhara intl airport to gain speed after rains

The civil works of the regional international airport in Pokhara will pick up speed after the monsoon, the project office under the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) said.
Rift rearing its ugly head in CPN-UML?

As Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli continues to have a tiff with CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal over a so-called gentlemans agreement, he is facing strong criticism from some senior leaders from his own party, in an indication that some sort of storm is brewing within the governing CPN-UML.
SAC steps in to resolve officials transfer issue

The State Affairs Committee (SAC) of the Legislature-Parliament has stepped in to resolve the inter-ministerial differences over the transfer of chief district officers (CDOs) and local development officers (LDOs).
The Blatantist art of Baba Ram Dave Co

By creating a narrative that is both confusing and provocative at the same time, Duita Kukkur, is a tune you will not be able to easily un-listen
The foreign scarecrow

Our political leaders are taking a leaf from the rulebook of their predecessors to hold people on a tight leash
Wont accept PMs post without natl consensus: Dahal

CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said he will become the prime minister only of a consensus government.
Yes, its hard to to tell when one enters the city limits

Yes, they will make the city more inviting

Maybe ... does it really matter?

No, the signs in place are fine

No, it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars

Vote

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Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers overnight. Thunder possible. Low 52F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers overnight. Thunder possible. Low 52F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
In a February 2012 file photo, Paul Henry Gingerich sits inside a room at the Pendleton Juvenile Correctional on in Pendleton. The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled unanimously Tuesday that Gingerich had not received the due process to which he was entitled when the then-12-year-old boy accused of helping kill a friends stepfather was tried in adult court, and ordered a new juvenile court hearing.
A more than 80-year-old organization formed to support the countrys wisest pursuit will be the topic of the program at the Holmen Area Historical Societys May meeting. Mark Seitz will present a documentary he made about the history of the Wisconsin Farmers Union and its efforts to defend the states farmers and promote its agriculture sector.

The HAHS meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 4, at Holmen Village Hall, 421 S. Main St. The program is free and open to all.

Thomas Jefferson called agriculture our wisest pursuit, said HAHS program coordinator Lynne Valiquette, and yet it is becoming increasingly challenging to grow food as a way of life.

The Wisconsin chapter of the National Farmers Union, the WFU has a mission to enhance the quality of life for family farmers, rural communities and all others through educational opportunities, cooperative endeavors and civic engagement. Along with those engaged in farming, membership includes rural residents and consumers.

Seitz worked briefly for the WFU in 2005, commuting daily from Holmen to Chippewa Falls. During his employment with WFU, Seitz was surrounded by Wisconsin agriculture history.

At this point I knew almost nothing about agriculture or Wisconsin history, but as I learned more about the organization and its proud progressive history of working for a fair playing field for family farms, I knew that theirs was a story I had to tell, Seitz said.

Originally from Arizona, Seitz said his education on Wisconsin agriculture got a big boost from his wife, Carol.

My experience on the farm was limited to say the least, said Seitz. When I married my wife, who is from a family dairy farm in Florence County, I first learned of the hard work that goes into growing our food.

Regrettably, the commute to Chippewa Falls became too much for Seitz, and he left the position with WFU for other endeavors. However, an idea about documenting WFUs history stayed with him.

During my final year of graduate school in information and communications technology at UW-Stout, I decided the time was right and approached WFU about my idea for a short documentary, Seitz said. I learned quite a bit about the history of the progressive movement in the United States and how the inequities of the farm economy of the early 1900s shaped the Farmers Union and how responsible they are for Wisconsins proud heritage of co-ops.

The organization gave Seitz access to its historical photos, members and Kamp Kenwood, a youth camp located on Lake Wissota.

The organization also directed him to Jess Gilbert, a historian at UW-Madison. Gilbert provided necessary background as well as an introduction to Kat Becker and her husband, Tony Schultz. The young farmers from Athens allowed Seitz to shoot the work done during the course of a typical day at their community supported agriculture farm.

After nearly six months of research, shooting around the state and post-production, the film was finished in early 2015.

I think in many ways the reach of their (WFU) influence on the progressive movement in this country surprised me, said Seitz, a former Holmen Village Board member. In addition to their work on behalf of family farms, they have always been at the forefront of issues like civil rights, clean water and fair trade practices, which isnt really the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a farm organization, but they have held consistently true to their progressive roots.

Through the documentary, Seitz hopes viewers will become more knowledgeable about how their food is produced as well as WFUs work on farmers behalf.

I want audiences to have an appreciation for the work that goes into producing their food and the people that work hard to make that meal possible, but also the struggle that exists for family farmers and the proud history of an organization that fights for fairness, Seitz said.
Before Jesus ascended into Heaven on the 40th day of Easter, Jesus promised his disciples they would be filled with the Holy Spirit and become witnesses for him to the ends of the Earth. But first, they would have to wait (Acts 1:4-5) 10 long days. While many of us do not like to wait, even for just an hour or two, the first two chapters of the Acts of the Apostles are a reminder to all that almighty God acts on Gods time and not ours. In the time of waiting, sitting, and being still, believers in Jesus know that God is faithful, and as Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit does come, empowering people of many nations to live new lives in Jesus name.

During an electrical power outage, life as I know it quickly comes to a stop. A period of waiting begins until power is restored and I continue my daily living with a renewed sense of appreciation for the power supply I so easily take for granted. Such is the story of the last days of this season of Easter. After shouts of Christ is risen  He is risen indeed resounded from area churches on Easter Sunday 50 days ago, Christians celebrate that the joy of Gods victory over death through the resurrection of Jesus Christ was multiplied exponentially through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

Gods amazing grace happens to people daily simply because the promised gift of the Holy Spirit is multiplying Easter joy for people from many nations (Acts 2:1-21). This power is visible today in the millions of Christians around the world worshipping God in a variety of languages and worship styles all because the Holy Spirit is still at work opening up the kingdom of God to all who hunger and thirst for new life.

A recent conversation with a Pentecostal pastor was a wonderful reminder to me that in my eagerness to tell the story of Jesus and his love, I often overlook the powerful ways God is at work in the world today through the Holy Spirit. In our conversation, we both acknowledged that the church has not always been a good witness and that often people perceive a spiritual power outage in the lives of Jesus followers. Even so, we gave thanks that the transforming power of Gods great mercy and love for all types of sinners continues to bring forgiveness, healing and new life in the most unexpected ways.

Whenever you experience a spiritual power outage, turn to the last words Jesus spoke before he ascended into Heaven: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) Trusting in Jesus promise, may the gift of the Holy Spirit working in you empower you to live as a faithful witness to abundant life in Jesus name.

Johnson is the associate pastor at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in La Crescent.
This week was yet another primary election in the presidential race. Despite both Minnesota and Wisconsin having their primaries well over a month ago, the conversations online or in the grocery store do not seem to have died down. Many have strong opinions, and there seems to be a growing fear or hopelessness among those who believe that their preferred candidate will not be elected. Others have turned their displeasure into comedy, which I have to admit, I did get quite the laugh seeing Queen Elizabeth 2016: Make America Great Britain Again.

The church takes a bit more of a measured approach to the ever-changing winds of political power. We speak hope to the hopeless and those that are putting all their stock into one political leader, we speak a sobering, yet comforting reminder, in the words of the Psalmist, It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes, (Psalm 118:9) and Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish (Psalm 146:34).

We pray for whoever it is who governs us, no matter what letter may be behind their name, that they would govern justly, protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty. Yet we also know that they are not our savior. Jesus has already taken care of that. Jesus is our savior king.

When I teach the Lords Prayer, which includes the petition, Thy [Your] kingdom come. I teach that in this prayer surely Christs kingdom comes without our prayer, but in this petition Jesus invites us to pray that his kingdom, his rule comes among us.

How does this happen? Jesus doesnt rule by coercion or force, but by his word of Gospel. So we pray that we may hear that Jesus has atoned for our sins through his death on the cross, that we are forgiven.

This kingdom extends as we then show the same love and mercy that Jesus has shown us. We see the kingdom at work when we forgive others. We see the kingdom at work when we show kindness to our neighbor and help those in need.

This summer, our political parties are going to have their convention and choose their candidates. Pray for them.

But I also encourage you to be active in Christs kingdom. Go where you may hear the good news of the Gospel of Jesus, and then, as one who has been forgiven and loved, take part in the kingdom activity in this town. Help your neighbor out in one of the many ways that are available to you in this community. Find that person you havent spoken to because of a sin or a grudge and forgive them.

Praise the Almighty, my soul, adore him!

Yes, I will laud him until death;

With songs and anthems I come before him

As long as he allows me breath.

From him my life and all things came;

Bless, O my soul, his holy name.

Alleluia, alleluia!

Trust not in rulers; they are but mortal;

Earth-born they are and soon decay.

Vain are their counsels at lifes last portal,

When the dark grave engulfs its prey.

Since mortals can no help afford,

Place all your trust in Christ, our Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia!

Blessed, oh, blessed are they forever

Whose help is from the Lord most high,

Whom from salvation nothing can sever,

And who in hope to Christ draw nigh.

To all who trust in him, our Lord

Will aid and counsel now afford.

Alleluia, alleluia!

The Rev. Matthew Lorfeld is the pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church in La Crescent.
Good news, La Crescent motorists: the detours through Dresbach will soon be removed, as construction on the Interstate 90 bridge over the Mississippi River is predicted to stay on track to wrap up in November.

Mark Anderson, the project engineer for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, came to the La Crescent Chamber of Commerce membership meeting on May 18 to relay the news. Over lunch, Anderson said around the Fourth of July, northbound Hwy. 61 to eastbound I-90 will be detoured off, meaning traveling from La Crescent to La Crosse, or vice versa, wont require the detour to Dresbach.

There was a faint cheer murmured from the crowd upon hearing this news. The detour has added about 15 minutes to a relatively nonchalant drive, some in attendance said, and hasnt exactly been a fan favorite in the area.

In the next six months, construction crews will be chipping in the final $30 million to the total $187.5 million project, having the long-awaited behemoth of concrete completed for travel this winter. They expect to finish the westbound river bridge and the 85-805 bridge, which will carry traffic from westbound I-90 to southbound Hwy. 61. So, as Anderson said to the room of about 25, It will be easier for you guys to get home.

The project also includes the removal of the old river bridge  bridge 9320  which will take a little bit longer than the rest to finish. The completion date for this is June 1, 2017, but Anderson predicted it could be removed as early as December 2016, presuming a productive summer.

Construction for the project began in 2013, and ever since, the area has been a tangled maze of orange cones and detours. After three full years, it seems the residents are ready to see the project finished.

I was so ready for it that I moved, said Lynn Reynolds, a financial advisor from La Crescent, joked. It did not speed past. I traveled it twice a day, every day. Trust me, it was not quick.

Others, though, seemed undeterred by the construction time.

I dont think its taken that long, said Sarah Danielson of Merchants Bank in La Crescent. When you look at how massive the project is and how they have workers 24 hours a day, Ive been in awe at how much theyve been able to accomplish.

Theyve devoted massive resources here. If you dont drive there for a week, and then you go through, its amazing how much they will accomplish, she added.

The bridge over the Mississippi River was first built in 1967. It was deemed fracture critical, which essentially means it could either have been saved or risked to crumble. After the I-35W Bridge collapsed in Minneapolis in 2007, the state decided it was best to spend money to ensure no more fracture critical bridges followed suit.
The time has come for me to play my Woman Card.

A male Republican politician in my state of Wisconsin has introduced a bathroom bill like the one passed in North Carolina, which requires transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender they were assigned at birth.

He says its to protect women and children.

Oh, knight in shining armor, thank you for trying to protect me and my fellow women. But I fear you misunderstand the real issues women have in restrooms.

Here are a few laws you might propose instead to help us out:

Ban men from leaving the toilet seat up, so we dont fall in.

Mandate that public restrooms never run out of toilet paper, so were not left stranded in stalls, fishing through our purses on the off chance well find some tissues.

Require establishments to make more bathrooms available for women, particularly in places like theaters  where everyone gets up to use the restroom at the same time, and men hurry in and out while women spend 10 minutes or more in line.

But those are, relatively speaking, all quite trivial.

Perhaps instead, youd prefer to help with the bigger issues we women face. In that case, my biggest concern is that I will, on average, earn less than a man, even for doing the same job.

If youre still intent on legislating values, though, how about weighing in on some of these?

If I assert myself the way a man does, Ill be seen as shrill. Pursuing a PhD, as Im doing, hurts my dating prospects among men intimidated by my education  even as higher education is seen to make men prime marriage material.

I was raised in a culture that communicated to me continuously that my role as a woman is to be thin, beautiful, and passive, so that a man can rescue me. And when dating, Im forced to choose between seeming prudish or promiscuous  both of which carry a social penalty.

I want to live a world where young girls are taught to be strong and capable, just like little boys. Where a womans self-worth is not equal to her clothing size, or her sexual availability.

And then theres sexual assault, which brings us back to those bathroom bills. I can provide some womanly advice there as well.

Ive been sexually assaulted four times. On all four occasions, I was with a man I knew. None of these assaults occurred in a bathroom, and none of the assailants was transgender. They were simply people who wouldnt take no for an answer.

If you want to prevent sexual assault, dear knight, support comprehensive sexual education and other programs to teach men about consent. Have a talk with your male peers about not treating women like objects. Bullying transgender people will have no effect other than harming an already marginalized group.

In short, stop trying to legislate discrimination in the name of helping women. Instead, pass laws that actually help women.
Ive seen some selfish acts during my time in the Senate, but nothing like what I saw during the last minutes of the 2016 legislative session. Republicans and Democrats worked hard to get final agreements on a tax relief package, supplemental budget, and a bonding bill. While the tax and supplemental budget bills passed, the bonding bill was derailed at the last moment by metro-area Democrats who wanted light rail funding. This resulted in time running out before a final bonding bill could pass, which included more than $800 million for road and bridge projects in counties, cities and townships throughout the state. It also included more than $150 million for water and sewer infrastructure projects.

In addition to the significant investment for roads, bridges and water infrastructure projects, the Winona State University Education Village and Lanesboro Dam were both fully funded in the bonding bill. These are two important projects that are priorities for me.

Although I am extremely disappointed that the bonding bill didnt pass, I was pleased that the legislature passed a bipartisan tax relief bill and supplemental budget proposal.

The tax relief package includes a student loan tax credit, an expansion of the child care tax credit, substantial property tax relief for farmers and small businesses, an income tax exemption on military pensions for veterans, and a deduction for those contributing to college savings plans (529 Savings Plans). Also included are increases to Local Government Aid (LGA) and County Program Aid (CPA). Finally, the bill includes a new refundable tax credit for Minnesota-Wisconsin income tax reciprocity for those living in Minnesota, but working in Wisconsin. This is a vital provision for Minnesotans who live in areas that border Wisconsin.

The supplemental budget includes additional investments in education, the border-to-border broadband program, funding for the state grant program and open source textbooks for college students, workforce development programs, and a variety of other items.

I strongly encourage the governor to sign these two bills and then call the legislature back for a special session so we can pass the critically important bonding bill. I will continue to fight for the projects that are so incredibly important for our district and the state of Minnesota.
Debra J. LeTexier

NEW LISBON, Wis.  Debra J. LeTexier, 53, of New Lisbon, passed away Saturday, May 21, 2016, in her home surrounded by family.

Deb was born to Harold and Lois Aschenbrenner Sept. 29, 1962, in Marshfield. Her family moved to Black River Falls, where she grew up and graduated high school in 1980. In the spring of 1981, Deb joined the Army National Guard and served proudly for 35 years, including a tour in Iraq in 2009-10.

In 1983, Deb embraced the role of motherhood with the birth of her first daughter, Erin. In 1984, Deb was hired as a federal technician at Camp Williams and worked there until her retirement in 2015. She and Erin moved to New Lisbon in the summer of 1989. Deb met and married David LeTexier in 1995, and they welcomed daughter Taylor in 1996.

Deb was a mother first and foremost and loved her children and grandchildren fiercely. She always found crafts and activities to do with them and adventures to take them on. She never ran out of time or energy when it came to the kids. In her eyes, they could do no wrong.

Deb had many talents and loved taking on any number of projects, often starting many at once. She was an amazing baker and her cookie recipe is legendary (no, you cant have a copy). She always made more than her family could eat, and Daves co-workers often reaped the benefits. She was exceptionally thoughtful, and loved ones could frequently expect to receive a card or package, either to commemorate a special occasion or just because she was thinking of you. She especially relished any endeavor that allowed her to be outside in the sun, and enjoyed ending the day with a cold beer (or two).

She had a fantastic outlook on her world and a great sense of humor, as many who met her can attest, even through her cancer diagnosis and treatment. She touched many peoples hearts, and many touched hers. As Deb wrote in her journal, Our deepest gratitude to you ALL for such an amazing show of support. Words cannot express how truly grateful we are for your friendship.

We want to extend our thanks to friends and family, and to our Air and Army National Guard families for their outstanding show of support through these trying times. Also thanks to the staff at the Mayo Health System in Rochester, Minn., for the care and compassion always tempered by a realistic approach.

She is survived by her husband, David LeTexier; daughters, Erin (Daniel) Holt of Harrisonburg, Va., and Taylor LeTexier of River Falls, Wis.; father, Harold Aschenbrenner of Black River Falls; brothers, Paul (Peg) Aschenbrenner of Three Lakes and John (Mary) Aschenbrenner of Onalaska; sister-in-law, LuAnn Aschenbrenner of Black River Falls; grandchildren, Avery and Alden Holt; and many other family members and friends.

She was preceded in death by her beautiful mother, Lois Aschenbrenner; and dear brother, Raymond Aschenbrenner.

A funeral Mass was held at 11 a.m. Friday, May 27, 2016, at St. Pauls Catholic Church in New Lisbon, with military honors at church. Relatives and friends visited 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Hare Funeral Home in New Lisbon and 10 a.m. to the time of service at the church. Hare Funeral Home assisted the family with services.
Let the summer begin. Early deadline for this time of year means I am looking forward to the Memorial Day weekend as I am typing this, but by the time you read this, it will have already happened. Hope everyone will have and had a great weekend.

We were able to travel to Wisconsin Rapids with flowers for the cemetery earlier in the week. For the first time in a long time, we were able to time our departure with the blooming of our lilacs, and this year my moms resting place was adorned with a beautiful bunch of her favorite flowers, along with the other things we brought.

Also, it isnt a visit to the Rapids without a visit to my godmother and although Helen Ponczoch is in her 90s, she sure is a feisty one. We enjoyed our visit and left with a contribution of her famous homemade bread and a promise to come to visit again soon.

And as I am typing this, Hubby and his mom are on a circle trip to visit gravesites of various Johnson and Kyser family members. A nice mother and son day of remembering.

Hope to be able to attend more than one Memorial Day service over the weekend. In amongst all the fun activities planned, we need to remember those who gave all over the years, so we are free to celebrate.

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Jenn Johnson is part of the Wisconsin rugby team that recently won the eastern title. They are now off to Denver to defend their national title. Congrats and good luck.

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Debbie Pyka is home from a trip to Michigan where she traveled to award scholarships to Hannah Bortolini and Billy Ragio in memory of her son, Joseph Chernach.

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Recent Lincoln graduate, Darin Geske, was honored at a graduation party on May 28 at the Hixton Park.

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Blair -Taylor High School held its graduation on May 28, and we congratulate exchange students Hamza Ali and Veriko Patsinashvili on their commencement. Best of luck in their future as they travel back to their homes.

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Check out the new issue of Our Wisconsin magazine. Cains Orchard, with their wonderful blueberries, are featured in the June/July issue on page 85. The story was submitted by some Lori person, and you will note that photo credit belongs to Lisa Ripp. So thrilled when neat places in our area get recognized.

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Happy June birthdays to Kendra Ann Nelson, Dave Linberg, Jan Massman, Gary Sedelbauer, Jeannie Kelly, Jeff Lauters, Myah Osegard, Wynona and Serraphina Heard, Sharon Sampson, Gregg Mulry, Caiden Wm Lien, Anna Sophia Rowekamp, Melissa Gilles, Laura Pentecost, Julia Hart Carlson, Brielle Lien, Carter Johnson, Willie Mach, Megan Simonson Taylor, James Johnson III, Julie Johnson, Marilyn Diemer, Yvonne McRae Wille, Barb Geske and Barb Hart.

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Happy June anniversaries to Jerry and Jill Sweeney, Terry and Sue Mahlman, Amy and Ryan Bergerson, Kristina and Jonathan Smith, Jack and Mary Kleba, Emma and Matt Karls, Carmen and Derrick Heard, Barb and Dale Hart, Mike and Antonia Mageland, Kristina and Mike Hamilton, Steve and Roxie Mickelson and Mike and Pat Carlson-Congdon.

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That aging thing: We finally reached our wonder years  we wonder what day it is, we wonder where we parked, we wonder where our glasses are and, for me, I wonder if I shared this one with you all before.

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Ive Learned  Experience is what you get when you dont get what you want.

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Word of the Week: nonplussed  stunned or bewildered.

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Natural High: I repeat  let the summer begin.

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Tip of the Week: Reminders  now that picnic season is here, follow the two-hour rule. Keep track of the amount of time your food has been out of the refrigerator or oven, and after two hours wrap the food properly and put it in the frig or freezer. Also, when refilling platters or bowls, do not dump new food on top of old food and replace food on clean platters.

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Fun Fact of the Week: At the height of Rin Tin Tins fame, a chef prepared him a daily steak lunch. Classical musicians played to aid his digestion.

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Ive been in a cheesecake state of mind lately.

Oreo Cheesecake

30 Oreo cookies, divided

1/4 cup butter, melted

3 packages (24 oz) cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place half (12) of Oreos in a food processor and begin pulsing until finely ground. Drizzle in melted butter and pulse. If you dont have a food processor, place Oreos in a plastic bag, squeeze out all air and seal. Run a rolling pin over the bag to break up the pieces. Pour in melted butter, seal and mix together.

Transfer mixture to a 9-inch spring-form pan and press Oreo crust into the bottom. Refrigerate one hour. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until well blended. Add eggs individually, making sure to blend mixture fully before adding the next egg.

Place another 12 Oreos into the spring-form pan, over the Oreo crust. Its okay if theyre messy or overlap.

Pour cheesecake mixture into the spring form pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until almost set.

Remove from oven and refrigerate for four hours or overnight. Crush remaining Oreos and sprinkle them over the top of the cheesecake, then serve and enjoy.

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Blueberry Cheesecake Poke Cake

Make and bake one cake mix according to package directions. While still hot, poke holes in the cake.

Mix one package instant cheesecake flavored pudding mix with 1 1/2 cups milk and whisk until thickened. Pour over warm cake and cool. Spread one can blueberry pie filling over the top.

I personally like as is, but if desired, make a frosting with 8 ounces cream cheese, cream and powdered sugar and spread over the top of the cake. Refrigerate.

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Quote of the week: Feelings are much like waves; we cant stop them but we can choose which one to surf.  Jonatan Martensson
Women from the area discovered that laughter is the best medicine when they attended Womens Night Out event at Black River Memorial Hospital on Wednesday, May 11.

The hospital hosted 250 women who laughed with comedian C. Willie Myles who has appeared on HBO, Comedy Central and toured with Toby Keith, Aretha Franklin and the Temptations.

Myles shared every-day stories about life in the Midwest. His home state is Alabama and sharing his perspective on Wisconsin and Minnesota created non-stop laughter throughout the show.

Amy Yaeger, marketing and business development director for BRMH, said, the hospital was pleased with the turnout.

Were honored that 250 women took time from all the pressures and stresses of being a woman to slow down, laugh and to celebrate being a woman, she said. We were surprised to have all seats reserved, nearly a month ahead of the show.

After the comedians show, women took tours to learn about services available at Black River Memorial Hospital. Area vendors also provided information and services.
Married 58 years to Bob Staley, formerly with Trane, they raised four daughters in La Crosse, and St. Louis, lived in Asia, visited every continent, and loved 11 grandchildren. She was the first female president of Evanston High School, and awarded a full scholarship to Cornell University. She was the first woman on the La Crosse Board of Education, and Christian Education Director for several churches. For Cornell, she served on University Council, and established the Center for Student Support and Diversity Education. She created a program for Springfield area students and teachers to attend live theater, renewed the prairie on her farm, and raised buffalo and llamas.
RICHLAND CENTER, Wis. (AP)  When he was a kid growing up in Richland Center, Chris Pauls was fascinated with the A.D. German warehouse downtown. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, who was born in the Wisconsin town, the boxy building is most noteworthy for the elaborate Mayan frieze that tops it.

My mother used to take us to the grocery store across the street, Pauls said. I always used to ask her, Whats in there?

For their new young adult novel, Pauls and his longtime writing partner, Matt Solomon of Madison, decided to put something in there: A 20-foot-tall giant named Bruce.

The Giant Smugglers, which came out last month from Fiewel & Friends publishing, imagines that giants are real and living among us in secret. Richland Center is one stop on an underground railroad for giants being hunted by scientists who want to replicate their DNA and create armies of 20-foot-tall soldiers.

In Pauls and Solomons book, a teenage boy named Charlie stumbles across Bruce hiding inside the warehouse, and then must work to help smuggle him out of Wisconsin and down to Louisiana. Along the way, theyre hounded by scientists, teenage bullies and a mysterious giant wrangler known as The Stick.

Pauls and Solomon didnt intend on writing novels for young adults. But their last novel, Deck Z  an alternate history thriller about a zombie outbreak on the Titanic  became a big hit among teenage readers. They thought teens were a perfect audience for their fast-moving, larger-than-life tale.

Youve got to get the needle on the record right away and have things happen, Pauls said of young-adult plots.

As outlandish as The Giant Smugglers gets (at one point theres a duel between giants on the streets of Richland Center), the authors were careful to always keep at least a toe in reality. Pauls, in particular, wanted to make sure he stuck as much as possible to real locations in his hometown.

I can set up all the action sequences because I know the town, Pauls said. Theres almost like a Giant Smugglers walking tour you can take.

The pair have had the idea behind The Giant Smugglers percolating for years, and wrote 12 drafts of the story before sending it out to publishers via their agent.

Writing a novel together is unusual for two writers to do, but its a process that has served both well for years. They first met while contributing humor pieces to the Onion, and recognized a similar sensibility as well as a lack of ego.

Chemistry has to be part of it, Solomon said. In the comedy world, collaboration is much more common than in fiction. Screenplays are often written by teams, novels very rarely are.

If there is a delineation in what we do, Matt is the character guy, and Im the blow stuff up guy, Pauls said.

The process of collaborating on a novel is unusual enough that Pauls and Solomon will be guests at the Write-By-The-Lake writers retreat in June, talking about their process at the Pyle Center as part of the UW Center for Continuing Studies.

Pauls said the collaborative approach is especially helpful when it comes to working on the story, throwing out ideas and solving problems that come up as theyre mapping out the narrative. Once they have the story thoroughly worked out, they divvy up the writing between them.

We really talk it out ahead of time, Solomon said. I rarely get a chapter from Chris where Im like, Whoa, what happened here?

The pair said their background in comedy writing has taught them that its more important to make a story better than to make sure their own ideas are protected.

Our egos dont enter into it, Pauls said. A good idea is a good idea, and everything succeeds or fails on its merits.
GREEN BAY  Senate candidate Russ Feingold plans to blast his Republican political opponents while also pledging to be bipartisan, based on excerpts of the speech he planned to deliver at the Wisconsin Democratic Party convention on Friday.

Feingold, who is in a rematch against Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in the states top race this year, was slated to join other Democratic officeholders and candidates Friday night in addressing hundreds of party activists at the annual convention. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and U.S. Reps. Mark Pocan, Gwen Moore and Ron Kind were also among those scheduled to speak.

Portions of Feingolds speech were released by his campaign in advance.

We wont pay our bills with anger and insults, Feingold is expected to say. Complaining doesnt create good-paying jobs. Showing up on Fox News doesnt clean our drinking water. And sitting behind a desk deciding which ethnic or religious group to blame wont move Wisconsin forward, and frankly, the people of this state deserve better.

Feingold plans to say that he believes people in the state are ready to unite and not hopelessly divided.

I will do the hard work every day to reach across the aisle and get things done, Feingolds prepared remarks say.

Feingolds rematch against Johnson is one of the most closely watched races nationally and outside groups on both sides have already spent millions on television ads. Democrats are eyeing the seat as vulnerable in a presidential year, while Johnson argues that Feingold was fired six years ago and doesnt deserve his job back.

Wisconsin hasnt gone for a Republican presidential candidate since 1984, providing a bump for Democrats in down ticket races like the Senate.

But this is a presidential year unlike any other.

Republicans are divided over their presumptive nominee, Donald Trump. On Wednesday House Speaker Paul Ryan announced he was endorsing Trump, ending a weekslong stalemate, telling The Associated Press that he hoped the move would unite the party. Johnson has said he supports Trump, but does not endorse him.

Johnsons campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Feingolds remarks.

Democrats have had their own struggles, with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders still competing even though Clinton has a sizeable advantage in delegates. The split among Democrats seen nationally was expected to play out at the Wisconsin convention on Saturday when Sanders backers were pushing a resolution that calls for doing away with superdelegates. Those are the party insiders who can vote for whichever candidate they wish, no matter who won the states primary.

The resolution is advisory only and even if adopted would not require Wisconsins 10 superdelegates to change their votes. Six have said they support Clinton, one is for Sanders and three have not said. Sanders won Wisconsins April primary by 13 points.

Feingold has not said whether he voted for Clinton or Sanders in Wisconsins primary. This week he also voiced displeasure with the superdelegate system  a common complaint from Sanders backers  but said any changes should not take effect this year.

Tom Nelson, a former state representative running for Congress in the 8th District, which includes Green Bay, was also scheduled to speak Friday night. The keynote speaker is U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez.
McCabe will discuss what citizens can do to change their habits, how to find common ground with people who hold different political views, and the condition of the political landscape in Wisconsin and the nation. McCabe previously served 15 years as executive director of the nonpartisan watchdog group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
A commission studying health care is just one vote shy of endorsing a privatized Veterans Administration, a gathering of vets and VA employees in Tomah was told Friday.

The American Federation of Government Employees local that represents workers at the Tomah VA hospital organized the town hall meeting to warn that the national VA system is under attack.

Many members of Congress, some presidential candidates and commissions are calling for the reduction and, in some cases, the total elimination of VA health care, said Wisconsin Disabled Veterans of America legislative director Al Labelle.

At issue is a strawman document developed by seven members of the 15-member Commission on Care, which was created by Congress in 2014 as part of legislation aimed at reducing waiting times at VA hospitals. Labelle said the document calls for the total elimination of VA health care no later than 2035.

Commission on Care chairwoman Nancy Schlichting said via the commissions website that the report hasnt been finalized.

As the term strawman implies, the document was created by a subset of commissioners to describe their personal ideas, which ultimately facilitated and focused public discussion and prompted new proposals, she wrote. It was not presented as a final report.

The commission is divided equally among members appointed by the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate and President Barack Obama. AFGE spokeman Mike Rosenblatt said the final report due June 30 doesnt carry the force of law but has the potential to be influential in the light of recent negative publicity involving VA hospitals. He urged union members to get involved and make sure any privatization proposal is undermined and sits on the shelf.

Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, has openly called for privatization and blamed recent problems on a public-sector model that lacks accountability.

They are working within a single-payer, government-run bureaucratic health care system, Johnson said Tuesday in Tomah prior to chairing a hearing that presented a 359-page report detailing reckless prescription drug practices and abusive management practices at the Tomah VA.

Labelle rejected the criticism. He said the VA faces many of the same problems as private medicine but that the media has focused like a laser beam on the VA while the private sector is getting a pass.

He said the vast majority of VA patients are satisfied with their level of care.

The problem is access, not quality of VA health care, he said.

Rob Hilliard, who receives care at the Tomah VA, agreed. He blasted the private choice program created by the 2014 legislation.

The choice program has been a debacle from day one, Hilliard said. Once we get on the outside, were going to be just a number. The best therapy we get is being around other veterans while were waiting for appointments. If we lose the VA, thats going to go away.
About a dozen Wisconsin prisoners plan to launch a hunger strike beginning next week aimed at ending a form of indefinite solitary confinement that officials use to keep order in the institutions, according to an inmate advocacy group.

One Wisconsin prisoner, LaRon McKinley Bey, says he has been held in this non-punitive administrative confinement status for at least 25 years. McKinley Bey sued the state Department of Corrections in April, alleging that the long-term isolation has created or exacerbated mental illness among prisoners, including himself.

Ben Turk, with the Industrial Workers of the World in Milwaukee, said the effort is set to begin June 10 and is based at Waupun Correctional Institution but could spread to other prisons. The push will include rallies in Madison and Milwaukee, an online petition and a letter writing campaign, according to IWW, a worker advocacy group whose activities including supporting the rights of prisoners.

The overarching demand is to end administrative confinement  to not allow long-term solitary confinement, Turk said.

In addition, the prisoners are asking for a one-year limit on stints in solitary, also known as restrictive housing; increased oversight of the states use of isolation; improved mental health treatment for inmates in solitary; and a federal investigation into what some prisoners describe as a mind control program.

As of late April, 116 Wisconsin prisoners were held in administrative confinement, DOC spokesman Tristan Cook said. Such confinement is used for inmates who pose a threat to staff, self or other inmates or the security or orderly running of the institution.

Cook said the agency is aware of the planned hunger strike and will continue to evaluate and monitor the situation to ensure the health and safety of inmates.

In June 2015, the state Department of Corrections reduced the maximum stint in solitary confinement for violating prison rules from 360 days to 90 days, with longer stints possible under certain circumstances.

But those limits do not apply to inmates deemed to be violent or hard to manage who are in administrative confinement  a form of isolation that can go on for years, even decades. The status of each inmate in administrative confinement is reviewed every six months, but McKinley Bey charges in his lawsuit that those reviews are a sham.

Colorado has banned the use of such indefinite solitary confinement, as has California, which agreed to end it after a legal challenge and a large hunger strike.

In his handwritten lawsuit, McKinley Bey said he is held in a small cell at Waupun for four days a week, 23 hours a day. The other three days a week, McKinley Bey stays in the cell, alone, with meal trays slid through a slot in the door.

Contact with other people consists mostly of correctional officers who take him shackled to and from the shower and recreation in an indoor caged area or occasional sessions with mental health staff. Visits are done remotely by video screen.

McKinley Beys description of conditions in administrative confinement matches that of Cesar DeLeon, another Waupun prisoner who plans to participate in the hunger strike. Both say they are never allowed to go outside.

Constitutional challenge

In his lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, McKinley Bey charges long-term solitary confinement violates the U.S. Constitutions Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment. He cited a lack of meaningful human contact and severe environmental and social isolation and no bright-line criteria for how to get back to the general prison population.

Many mentally ill prisoners cry and act out because theyve been broken by the effects of isolation, the complaint states.

McKinley Bey also alleges in the suit that officer Joseph Beahm  whom he and two dozen other inmates at Waupun have accused of physical and psychological abuse  repeatedly subjected him and the other prisoners in administrative confinement to cold showers in November 2015. In 2014, a federal jury rejected an earlier lawsuit by McKinley Bey alleging that Waupun correctional officers, including Beahm, had mistreated him.

In his latest complaint, McKinley Bey argues he and other inmates in administrative confinement are suffering from a syndrome caused by prolonged solitary confinement.

Former Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Dr. Stuart Grassian, in a 2006 Washington University Journal of Law and Policy paper, Psychiatric Effects of Solitary Confinement, wrote that prisoners held in long-term isolation can develop a delirium that includes decreased alertness, fearfulness, paranoia and agitation and random, impulsive and self-destructive behavior.

The Department of Corrections has not yet responded to McKinley Beys latest suit. A message seeking comment on the suit was not returned.

History of violence

Self-described as one of the most dangerous people in prison, McKinley Bey is serving a 262-year sentence for crimes including robbing and tying up two elderly Madison women in their homes in 1984, and a 1987 escape in which he shot a sheriffs deputy and another was injured.

McKinley Bey, who added the name Bey after he was imprisoned, continues to be held in isolation because he is considered a threat to the institution after several violent encounters with staff and inmates, according to records from his unsuccessful 2013 lawsuit against the department. Most recently, he was convicted in Dodge County Circuit Court in 2014 with a felony for throwing feces on a Waupun correctional officer.

One clinician who examined McKinley Bey in connection with that case concluded he is a sociopath  a condition known as antisocial personality disorder which is difficult to treat.

Psychologist Brooke Lundbohm of Behavioral Consultants Inc., said McKinley Bey has demonstrated a long pervasive history of antisocial behaviors and attitudes for which he has been imprisoned throughout much of his adult life. However, Lundbohm concluded McKinley Bey understood the wrongfulness of his actions when he threw waste on the officer.

McKinley Beys long stint in administrative confinement began after a 1987 incident in which he convinced a female Milwaukee County sheriffs deputy to smuggle a gun to him in jail that he used to escape during a transfer to Dane County. According to news reports, he shot a Milwaukee County sheriffs deputy; a second deputy was injured when he jumped out of the squad car in which all three were riding.

Milwaukee County was ordered to pay $5.3 million to the two injured deputies. The deputy who smuggled the gun was sent to prison.

McKinley Bey is not the only prisoner claiming long-term administrative confinement is cruel.

Waupun inmate Norman C. Green, who also calls himself Prince Aturn-Ra Uhuru Mutawakkil, said he has been in solitary in Wisconsin for about 18 years. He described his long-term isolation in a 2012 blog post as a holocaust that leaves the body static but alive but incinerates the mind and spoils the soul.

Prisoner advocate Peg Swan of Blue River said she has found it difficult to generate sympathy for inmates in administrative confinement, some of whom are suffering from severe mental illness.

I think its the worst of the worst myth, Swan said. I have not been able to get anyone to look at them  to look at these guys.
State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, a darling among Wisconsin progressives who mounted a brief run for governor in 2014, spent much of this weekends Democratic Party of Wisconsin convention chatting up delegates, asking if they thought she should run again in 2018.

The answer, said Vinehout, D-Alma, was clear.

Pretty unanimously around here, they want me to run, she told the Wisconsin State Journal Saturday.

But Vinehout said its too early to say if shell join the race. Shell decide in early 2017, she said.

Im still doing my research, Vinehout said.

Vinehouts 2014 bid ended prematurely when she sustained serious injuries in a car accident, causing her to bow out.

Her populist tone and electoral success in her western Wisconsin district have caused some Democrats to view Vinehout as a candidate who can compete in areas outside of Madison and Milwaukee  much of which is swing territory in a statewide election.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker has hinted hes leaning toward seeking a third term in 2018.

Vinehout said Saturday that Walkers plans wont influence her own.

At this early stage, Vinehout is one of many Democrats thinking about a possible run for governor.

Other Democrats cited by party operatives as possible candidates include state Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca of Kenosha, Exact Sciences CEO Kevin Conroy, Congressman Ron Kind of La Crosse, Kenosha County Executive Jim Kreuser, state Rep. Cory Mason of Racine, Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi, state Senate Democratic Leader Jennifer Shilling of La Crosse and state Rep. Dana Wachs of Eau Claire.
It has been about 40 years since Hmong people began to relocate from refugee camps in Thailand to La Crosse. In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, thousands of Hmong were forced to flee Laos, and they spent many years in camps, where they re-created their village life as best they could, continuing traditional ways of living.

Skilled craftswomen  using little more than needle, scissors and thread  created fabric and decorative needlework called Paj ntaub, or flower cloth. These intricate masterpieces of embroidery and reverse applique were used to decorate clothing with traditional abstract designs.

Yet here in North America the most immediately recognizable Hmong needlework is something quite different: These are the story cloths, filled with recognizable imagery of people and animals, often engaged in activities that are part of a narrative.

The stories are filled with scenes of traditional Hmong village life and dangerous escapes from soldiers chasing them through the jungle and across the Mekong River to safety in Thailand. Some include the next chapter in their lives, such as a journey by airplane to the U.S. and life in a strange new place with more cars than animals, potatoes instead of rice, and English instead of the Hmong language.

These story cloths are a part of that process of learning to survive in a new environment. New styles of Paj ntaub were developed to be sold to tourists in Thailand and to Americans. No one knows exactly who made the first narrative story cloth, but it is often said that it was a man who first drew the figures on a cloth for women to embroider, and it is true that it became a mans job, while women did the actual embroidery. The soft blue or gray backgrounds are said to have been chosen to appeal to Western tastes.

Apparently both the colors and the stories have been very appealing, because these story cloths became extremely popular. They were made both in the camps and in the U.S. for sale on the market. They vary in size from very small  this one is 15-by-16 inches  to several feet in both dimensions. They can include hundreds of small figures engaged in activities ranging from feeding chickens and pigs, to hunting tigers, to crossing the Mekong on rafts, to flying in jumbo jets.

This little story cloth belonged to Betty Weeth, a resident of La Crosse who worked with social agencies to facilitate the resettlement process for the first Hmong people to make La Crosse their new home. It is easy to imagine that it was made by a person feeling homesick, with imagery restricted to domestic activities the new residents must have missed from their homeland  feeding livestock, processing their rice crop by hand and weaving at an upright loom.

The story cloth is an object caught in a moment in history: It filled a need at a specific time in the history of the Hmong people, but as younger generations assimilate, fewer women will engage in needlework. Story cloths may cease to be made, or they may tell different stories as the story of the Hmong people unfolds.
Floating in the Arctic Ocean while watching his only companion walk away into a 40-knot windstorm, Ferryvilles Rodney Luckasson knew he had one hope for survival.

Luckasson, a Coast Guard veteran, is thankful this Memorial Day he escaped his brush with death and looks back with reverence toward an Inuit man who was his friend.

Luckasson grew up in the Cashton area and graduated from Westby High School in 1971, after which he joined the Coast Guard.

Following his initial training, Luckasson spent two-and-a-half years doing drug interdiction and assisting the Secret Service out of Key Biscayne, Fla.

He was then transferred to a tiny 21-man outpost, the Cape Christian Loran Coast Guard Station, on Baffin Island above the Arctic Circle.

The day I left Miami it was 80 degrees outside, after three days of traveling I arrived at Baffin Island and with the wind chill it was minus 60 degrees, Luckasson, now 63, of Ferryville, said. I thought I had gotten shipped to the frozen edge of the world.

The base was located in Canada. It was a weather and radar station. The base often would provide guidance information to B-52 bombers. The nearest human settlement is Clyde River to the north, which is populated by less than 1,000 Inuit people.

Luckasson became friends with one of the Inuit residents in particular, Noah Apak. Noah was well known around the Coast Guard base and was allowed to use tools in the Coast Guards machine shop.

One day Luckasson saw Noah pulling a 10-foot qumutiik sled on the ice, over which the wind was howling at 40 knots. Luckasson knew this was odd. Noah was without his snowmobile and normally wouldnt pull the qumutiik without it. Noah suffered from asthma, Luckasson said.

Luckasson put on his arctic gear and went to talk to Noah. Noah was making an effort to save his snowmobile, which had broken down two miles from the base.

I helped him on his trek, pulling this heavy, 10-foot sled, Luckasson said. At this time of the year, the ice was cracking and slowly moving out to sea. So, Noah had to go after his snowmobile or lose it in the ocean.

Noah was in the lead when the pair reached a four-foot crack in the ice. Noah was ahead and cleared the gap. Luckasson pushed Noah the sled and Noah started pulling it toward the snowmobile. At this point the qumutiik was gliding along easily due to the sea water near the edge of the ice.

Luckasson, who was behind Noah, wasnt so lucky when he attempted to jump across the gap.

I slipped and fell in the ocean, Luckasson said. I tried get out, but I couldnt, I kept slipping back in the water. My arms were holding on the top of the ice. The ice wall was five or six feet thick. I thought I could get out and I tried and tried, but I couldnt get any grip with my feet on the side of the ice.

I yelled at Noah, but by this time he didnt hear me  it was so windy and the wind was blowing right in my face. He had walked far enough away that he couldnt hear me. With every step he was getting further away.

Luckasson said it was painful being in the freezing water, but he edged along the ice shelf about 40 feet to where it opened to a larger open area of water that was parallel to the path Noah was walking. He finally was facing Noah from the side  out of the wind.

I hollered Noahs name again and he turned around, Luckasson said. He yelled and then ran to me. Then he helped me out of the water.

That was a close one, Luckasson continued. I dont know how much longer I could have held on.

After getting his breath, Luckasson and Noah walked on and reached Noahs snowmobile, about one-half mile away. They loaded the snowmobile on the qumutiik and pulled it back to the station.

One would think Luckasson would have frozen to death in the wind and wet clothing. As it turns out, the dry air and physical exertion of pulling the qumutiik led his clothing to dry without taking it off.

By the time we got one-quarter mile from the beach by the station, my commander and chief engineer were coming out to help us, Luckasson said. My clothes had already dried.

Although he fell in the ocean, Luckasson didnt get as much as a cold as an after-effect from the experience. It was second of two life-threatening situations Luckasson had in the Coast Guard  the first occurred earlier in his enlistment near Miami after his ankle got tangled in ropes in the ocean adjacent to a boat that was being searched for drugs. The experience in the arctic, however, was the most enduring.

In short, I went to help someone and it turned out that he helped me in return, Luckasson said. I owe my life to an Eskimo by the name of Noah.

The United States sold its Loran station to Canada in 1974 and Luckasson finished his Coast Guard duty in the state of Washington working with a Search and Rescue Unit. He was honorably discharged in 1975.

Luckasson returned to Wisconsin after his Coast Guard enlistment was up and he served for six months in a National Guard unit based in Prairie du Chien.

Of all the places he went in the Coast Guard, his service at Baffin Island was the most unique. The native population would visit the base in the evening and watch reel-to-reel films with the Coast Guard servicemen.

You learned to live together with the Eskimos and help each other, Luckasson said. I learned a lot by just watching how they lived. When they were out on the ice, if they needed firewood, they would unlash part of their qumutiik and that was their firewood. It was ingenious.
If youre poor, many Americans think, its your own fault. Its a sign of your own moral failing.

I dont personally believe that, but the idea has roots in our culture going back centuries.

In The Wealth of Nations, the foundational work of modern capitalism, Adam Smith extolled the virtues of working hard and being thrifty with money. That wasnt just the way to get rich, he reasoned  it was morally righteous.

Sociologist Max Weber took the idea further in describing what he called the Protestant work ethic.

To Puritans who believed that one was either predestined for heaven or for hell, Weber wrote, working hard and accumulating wealth was a sign of Gods blessing. Those who got rich, the Puritans thought, must have been chosen by God for heaven; those who were poor were damned.

Even major American philanthropists have subscribed to this idea.

John D. Rockefeller, a religious Baptist, thought his extraordinary wealth was evidence from God of his righteousness. Fortunately, he took this as a sign that he should use his money for good. He gave it to universities and medical research centers, and his descendants used it for great art museums, national parks, and more.

But Rockefeller also believed that the poor were often deserving of their fate. If theyd just worked harder, or budgeted their money wisely, then they wouldnt be poor.

Plenty of Americans agree. Sadly, thats often not the case.

The first factor determining ones wealth as an adult is an accident of birth. If youre born to wealthy parents, youll go to better schools and get better health care. Your odds of success as an adult are higher.

If, on other hand, youre born to poor parents who must work multiple jobs instead of staying home to care for you  or who cant afford healthy food, medical care, or a house in a good school district  your chances of earning your way into the middle class as an adult plummet.

In fact, if your parents income is in the bottom 20 percent, theres a 40 percent chance youll be stuck in that low-income bracket for your entire life. Thanks to racism, that figure rises to 50 percent for black people born into poverty.

Indeed, racial disparities crop up even at the bottom of the ladder.

Due to historic racism and discrimination, data from the Economic Policy Institute shows, low-income white families tend to be wealthier than black families making the same income. Furthermore, whites are more likely to have friends and family who can help them out of a financial bind.

Finally, thanks to decades of discriminatory housing and lending practices, black families are more likely to live in poorer neighborhoods. That impacts the quality of the schools they attend, among many other things.

So why cant a hardworking family get ahead? For one thing, its expensive to be poor.

Try finding an affordable place to live. You need to have enough cash on hand to pay a deposit. Many apartments require you to prove your income is 2.5 times the cost of the rent.

Public assistance programs only help the most destitute, and often dont provide enough even then.

For the disabled, the situation is worse. In theory, Social Security provides for those with disabilities. In reality, getting approved for disability payments is costly (in both medical and legal fees) and difficult. Once you get approved, disability payments are low, condemning you to poverty for life.

In short, there are many reasons why poor Americans are poor. It doesnt help that our society thinks its their own fault.
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Amber Heard is suing comedian Doug Stanhope for defamation after he wrote an article for The Wrap that accused Heard of falsifying abuse claims against husband Johnny Depp.

On May 21 Heard told authorities that Depp had physically abused her. She filed for divorce two days later. Heard then showed up to court on May 27 with a bruise on her face and asked for a restraining order against Depp. Heard claimed that she'd gotten the bruise after Depp slammed an iPhone against her head. Following these allegations, Depp's friends and family, including his daughter, came out to speak in defense of Depp, saying that the claims did not match with the man they knew, reports Extra.

On May 29 The Wrap published a guest column penned by Stanhope. Stanhope, a friend of Depp's, said that Heard had threatened to blackmail Depp if he refused to comply with her demands during divorce proceedings.

Stanhope said that he and his girlfriend had visited Depp just hours before the alleged May 21 assault. Stanhope said that Depp had seemed distressed, and revealed to Stanhope that "Amber was now going to leave him, threatening to lie about him publicly in any and every possible duplicitous way if he didn't agree to her terms."

"Blackmail is what I would imagine other people might put it, including the manner in which he is now being vilified," Stanhope added.

Today, Heard has filed a lawsuit against Stanhope for defamation and infliction of emotional distress, reports The Hollywood Reporter. Heard also sent a letter to The Wrap through her lawyers, saying that Stanhope's allegations were "unequivocally false." She added, "It is highly offensive and disturbing that you would choose to publish it in the first place." Heard demanded that the article be removed, but it is still up.

In the lawsuit against Stanhope, Heard's lawyers say that Stanhope made the blackmail claims to "divert public attention away from the true facts regarding Depp." It also says that "Depp repeatedly abused Heard" and that "Heard gave Depp numerous chances to get and stay sober and change his violent behavior."

The full complaint can be found here.
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Remember him? Or at least those eyes? Jeremy Meeks, aka "Hot Felon," made quite a stir in June 2014 when the Stockton Police Department posted his Blue Steel-esque mugshot on Facebook after he was arrested in a gun sweep, and the internet went absolutely nuts over his chiseled cheekbones and crystal blue eyes. And now, like so many pretty faces before his, Meeks is headed to Los Angeles to try his luck in Hollywood.According to New York Magazine, who has a lengthy profile of Meeks and his Calabasas agent Jim Jordan in their latest issue, it was the realization after being arrested that he was "well and truly screwed that caused him, when he faced the camera for his mug shot, to pout ever so slightly, and cock his head in a way that not only emphasized his cheekbones but also played down the gang-related tattoos on his neck while rendering almost poignant the teardrop inked just below his left eye."

If Helen of Troy was the face that launched a thousand ships, Meeks' was the mugshot that yielded countless modeling offers, a Twitter #trending topic, Facebook groups, and even crowdfunding efforts. "Who took this mugshot? Annie effing Leibovitz?," New York Magazine quotes one Facebook commenter as asking.

Meeks plans to harness his viral power to become a bonafide cross-platform star. Heres how New York Magazine tells it:

Hes going to walk in the shows in Paris, Jordan says, noting that Meekss runway walk  which he saw him do over FaceTime  is spectacular. Meeks also wants to do movies: On his list, Jordan says, is interest from the producers of the upcoming Vin Diesel vehicle xXx: The Return of Xander Cage. To this end, Meeks has been reading The Power of the Actor and The Artists Way. Hes been doing his morning pages, Jordan tells me, adding that Meeks also makes use of his transitional housings gym. He works out three, four times a day.

The L.A. Times reports that Meeks was released from prison into a reentry program in March, and then remanded to house arrest with his family in Stockton. Although home now, he will technically remain in federal custody until July 7, at which point the sky's the limit.
On a warm first of July weekend, a bigger Fieldday could finally take place again. We spend this wonderful day together with our members, families and friends. Besides discussing great ideas and seeing new equipment we ate excellent pancakes, offered by our working group "Social & Events".


For more than 30 years, religious groups in many parts of the U.S. have provided refuge to immigrants who face possible expulsion from the country.

Today, religious groups are treating non-criminal immigration law violators and their families differently.

The effort to provide refuge for immigrants is called the Sanctuary Movement. It started more than 30 years ago at a time of civil and economic unrest in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

By the end of the 1980s, nearly 1 million refugees had fled north to the United States to seek asylum.

Religious congregations sheltered refugees who would have been denied asylum. They opposed the efforts by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to deport those people.

In 2014, something similar happened. Violence from the illegal drug trade and gangs, plus weak economic conditions in Central America, led to an increase of refugees and migrants, including children.

Also, an estimated 4.5 million children born in the U.S. have parents who are undocumented. They lack the paperwork required to live as legal residents.

The result has been a policy that has led to more than 350,000 removals" each year. The term removal means being expelled from the country or denied entry at the border. In many of these cases, family members are separated.

New sanctuary movement considers current policy unfair

A leader of the sanctuary movement 30 years ago was Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona. Recently, the church has restarted its efforts to provide shelter and legal assistance to immigrants facing deportation.

The Reverend Alison Harrington told VOA that a growing number of religious groups feel outraged and heartbroken over current U.S. policies. She said these congregations are opening their doors in hopes of keeping families and communities together.

Harrington said individuals and politicians are fueling a growing anti-immigrant nativist movement.

You kind of have this rising of people, who are people of faith, who will be conscious to say, This is not who we believe we are as a people, as an American people, Harrington said.

She added that she feels a moral imperative to help.

Southside Presbyterian Church is near the Sonora desert and the U.S. border with Mexico. Harrington said she often meets immigrants seeking assistance.

The 1980s was a period Harrington calls a nightmare. She said 80 people slept on the church floor at times, with about 14,000 receiving shelter over a period of 10 years. However, the church now shelters one family at a time, rarely for more than a month.

Harrington said she remembers the case of one family in 2014. A woman named Rosa, her husband and two sons remained at Southside Presbyterian for a record 461 days before Rosa's case was resolved.

We had to get into high-level negotiations on that one, Harrington said.

Groups work together to provide services for immigrants

Judson Memorial Church in New York City provides sanctuary in more ways than one.

It could be physical, it could be spiritual, it could be financial, it could be legal, the Reverend Donna Schaper said. But the most important term, she said, is accompaniment.

We accompany about 200 people a month, and we train volunteers to go to ICE so they know their rights, she said. ICE is short for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that deals with immigration issues.

Schaper said that ICE employees are not the enemy. But she said what they do terrifies people, and she does not morally respect it.

Miguel Angel Animas and his two U.S.-born daughters came to the Judson Memorial Church for help. His wife, the girls mother, was recently deported to Mexico.

Schaper says immigration, like other difficult issues, lacks a human face to inspire quick action or major reform.

I cant let myself say that [Americans] dont know or that if they knew, they would do something, she said. They take care of dogs and cats. These people are not dogs and cats.

However, Schaper still describes New York City as a very friendly city to immigrants. And, during her time at the church, she has seen results, especially at the local level.

The New Sanctuary Coalition of NYC is an alliance of congregations around New York City. In 2009, the coalition started an effort to support immigrants who were found guilty of minor offenses, or whose cases were dismissed. The group sought to prevent ICE agents from questioning and detaining these immigrants at city jails.

The church says that in 2011, the coalitions efforts resulted in then-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg signing a bill that changed some of those practices.

Im Mario Ritter.

Ramon Taylor reported this story for VOA News. Mario Ritter adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

congregation n. people who regularly attend religious services at a church

deport v. to send out of a country

nativist adj. related to people whose ancestors lived for a long period in a country and who oppose newcomers or immigrants to it

moral imperative n. a strongly believed idea or principle that causes a person to act

accompaniment n. the act of accompanying someone, going with someone to a place

inspire v. to cause someone to do, believe or feel something
From Sunday, May 15 to Sunday, May 29 Rex Adams was traveling across the country.

Adams and Nathan Masten joined two other men from California to form a crew of chaplains that supports motorcycle riders with Run For the Wall, a cross country ride by Vietnam Veterans to raise awareness for prisoners of war and those missing in action.

The group splits into three routes and rides motorcycles from Ontario,Calif., to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington,D.C. Our route had over 500 registered riders. When we entered DC we had 305 bikes in our group. This is its 28th year, its an awareness/healing trip originally for Vietnam veterans, said Adams.

He is the pastor of Calvary Assembly of God Church and serves as a fireman/chaplain with Lexington Volunteer Fire Department.

Along the way to Washington, towns en route hosted lunch, dinner stops and conducted memorial services for fallen soldiers,Adams said. Riders also stopped at many Vietnam memorials along the way, visited sick and injured soldiers at Veterans Administrations hospitals, and the group raised money along the way and donated almost $20,000 to an elementary school in West Virginia, he said.

As a member of the crew of chaplains that run with the pack of riders,Adams said his duty was to counsel riders along the way and help with accidents, etc.

Our church has helped support the chaplain crew financially for several years, and one of our church members (Don Masten) has been on the medic crew for several years. One of the chaplains spoke at our church last year, and I volunteered to help if needed. He contacted me back in January and asked if I would be part of the hydration team, and I agreed to help,Adams said.

Adams said the total trip mileage was 5,600 miles. He said his job was to be the hydration team leader.Adams said there were two trucks and trailers full of water, Gatorade and snacks (all donated by various companies) that ran with the team and kept the riders hydrated.

Todd Booth and Platte Valley Auto donated the use of one of their trucks for the Run. It was very generous of them. Their donation made it possible for us to serve these amazing veterans, he said.

Going on the trip allowed him to witness plenty of special moments of bonding and patriotism, Adams said.

It was amazing seeing people all over the country come out and support these veterans. There were people on overpasses, waving flags, cheering, holding signs that said "thanks for your service," it was really good for these Vietnam Vets who were treated poorly when they came back from the war, he said.

Adams said he saw one service member, a WWII veteran standing on an overpass in the middle of nowhere, in his uniform, saluting the entire pack. In Kansas City, riders endured downpour of rain, where one man was standing all by himself on an overpass holding an American flag.

One of the guys I talked to quite a bit choked up when he was telling me how much it meant to be honored so much. He said it really brought a lot of healing from the way he was treated after Vietnam. He said at the time he couldn't even where his uniform in public. That kind of thing made the whole trip worth it,Adams said.

For more information on the Run For the Wall, please visit www.rftw.org.
The only way to describe Me Before You is that if you liked such films as The Fault in Our Stars and various Nicholas Sparks novels, youll quite like this movie. Theres enough cutesy schmaltz and contrived terminal illness tearjerker moments to keep its target audience interested. But theres little else to look forward to.

Here we have a twenty something, extremely clumsy yet adorable girl named Lou Clark (Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones) who has recently lost her job. She luckily finds a new job as a caretaker for the strikingly handsome but physically handicapped Will Traynor (Sam Clafin) who is in deep depression because of his condition. Clark is hired only because Traynors mother just wants her son to have some company and help him around in the wheelchair. Clark soon finds out that Traynor is trying to kill himself via physician-assisted suicide and tries to get him to change his mind.

With that sort of a plot, debut director Thea Sharrock has plenty of room to explore the tearjerker side of things. Every scene in the film has this layer of forced cuteness that reminds you of the French comedy drama The Intouchables. It works especially during the early scenes when the bumbling Clark is at the wrong end of Traynors snootiness. And whenever the film soars into the amusing side of things its reasonably entertaining. The British twang adds just enough likability to keep you interested.

The problem is youre never really sure why Traynor wants to commit suicide and when the justification arrives it comes across as pretty ham fisted. It feels like a plot point cherry picked from a list of schmaltzy contrived problems that the protagonist could have to make the audience cry. If you have suffered some medical condition that left you incapacitated either temporarily or permanently you might be irritated at some of the fantastical proceedings in the film. Traynor being rich as hell also kind of stops you from completely empathizing with his problems  perhaps if he were a regular bloke the film would have been far more believable.

You also never really get to see the struggle from Traynors point of view  its like a brick in the face that yes hes a quadriplegic and he has issues, no clue why. The filmmakers simply expect you to be ok with the pure, ridiculous fantasy surrounding Traynors life and the angelic Clark swooping in to nurse his heart and save him. Though Clafin is fine as the depressed Richie Rich, the casting and performance brings her actual talent into question, that is it makes you wonder if she has any. She was terrible in the latest Terminator movie and her over the top performance in this one doesnt help things. Maybe she was born to only play Khaleesi.

If you enjoyed the simplistic Kal Ho Na Ho youll find some parallels in Me Before You. In any case you should expect a Bollywood remake considering how ripe the story is to tap into easily manipulated crowds. For those looking for a far more nuanced and interesting movie on a man contemplating physician-assisted suicide, check out The Sea Inside.
Private sector conglomerate Adani Enterprises Ltd may walk away from its proposal to build one of the world's biggest coal mines in Australia, citing long delays caused by legal challenges to the project by groups concerned about the environment.

Adani is battling multiple legal challenges from green groups opposed to its $10-billion Carmichael mine, rail and port project.

The Australian on Saturday reported that the company's founder and chairman, Gautam Adani had told the newspaper the company may abandon the project because of long delays due to legal challenges.

"You can't continue just holding. I have been really disappointed that things have got too delayed," Adani told The Australian.

Australia's Queensland state government in April gave Adani permission to mine coal reserves estimated at 11 billion tonnes and to build roads, workshops, power lines and pipelines associated with the mine.

Environmentalists, however, are still fighting the approval on numerous fronts, including lobbying banks not to provide loans. They cite potential damage from port dredging, shipping and climate change stoked by coal from the mine.

Environmental groups in late April asked the Supreme Court of Queensland to review the state government's environmental approval of the mine.

With coal prices stuck near nine-year lows and demand growth uncertain as governments have committed to curb carbon emissions, analysts have said lenders will be reluctant to back Adani's mega coal project.

Adani, which aims to start building the Carmichael mine in 2017, expects to be able to go ahead eventually as most of the coal is slated to go to its own power stations in India.
But this is paap, I found myself slipping into a language I dont normally use. We had stopped at a small village in Mahoba, and were asking people about their accessibility to subsidised food. The local ration shop owner (Kotedar) was present there, as was the food inspector  on orders from the district administration. The two evidently got along very well. Despite their best efforts to tutor everyone before our arrival, the unpleasant truth was tumbling out.

Many visibly poor families were being denied their quota of subsidised food-grain. Many poor women were agitated, while the Kotedar remained nonchalant. I thought it was pointless to use the language of law, entitlements or procedures, and tried to speak to the Kotedars sense of paap and punya. How could he possibly deny people food during a drought? He was unmoved.

Throughout the padyatra, the one subject that aroused maximum interest was food-grain through the public distribution system. Women would begin to focus on the proceedings as soon as we asked a question about ration. Every meeting was a revelation. We thought we were there to inform the people about how the apex court had added to their entitlements, under the National Food Security Act of 2013.

The Act mandates that every priority household (meaning a family eligible for ration, about two-thirds of the entire population) must get five kg of food-grain per person per month at a subsidised rate of Rs two per kg for wheat and Rs 3 per kg for rice. The Supreme Court order had extended this benefit to all households, not just those in the priority list. We were to discover that most villagers were not able to access even the existing entitlements.

Here is my quick list of the myriad ways in which the poor are deprived of their legal entitlement:

1) No card at all: Anywhere between one-tenth to one-third of people in each village do not possess any kind of ration card at all. The number could be larger in a Tanda (a hamlet of nomadic community) in Osmanabad, but smaller in more politically conscious UP villages.

Reasons could vary from legitimate (came back to my parental village last year after my husbands death) to mystifying (applied many times but got no response). Not a single village has universal ration card coverage.

2)No ration shop: Officially, each habitation is allotted a shop, but it need not be inside the village. It could be located in an adjacent village  far enough to dissuade some people from taking the trouble to obtain their ration. We found many shops closed. In one such case, the shop was closed for nearly a year, as the license of the previous ration shop owner was cancelled on charges of corruption. Those who suffered due to his corruption, were now suffering more from his absence.

3) No NFSA slip: As different states made the slow and difficult transition from the earlier system of Below/Above Poverty Line (BPL/APL) households to the Priority/Non-priority classification mandated by the National Food Security Act, they were required to issue a fresh slip of entitlement to the eligible households.

This has opened a fresh avenue for delay, denial and discrimination, not to speak of corruption. We discovered that in UP villages, most households had paid a service charge of Rs 50 for taking a printout of the computerised slip. (I am happy to report that in three of those villages, we got the contractor to return that money on the spot.)

4) Under process: This officialese covers all those cases where people have applied for ration cards, but are told that their documentation is not complete or has been sent to the tehsil office, and there is no response.

5) Technical fault: You may have completed the due process, given all documents and everything might be verified. Yet your name is not on the final list of eligible households published on the internet. It could be a name mismatch between your ration and Aadhar card, an incorrect data entry, or something else. As an official once said to me, kya karen, apka bad luck kharab hai.

6) POS machine: This is a high-tech version of the previous identification machines. Many states like Madhya Pradesh have introduced the bio-metric based Point of Service (POS) machines, meant to generate a coupon after verifying your entitlement and usage with the help of your finger print. Good idea. The trouble is that it needs an internet connection, electricity and a functioning machine. When even one of these conditions fail, it gives a perfect alibi, Machine kaam naheen kar raha.

7) Deletion of names: Your troubles dont end even after you have obtained the computerised slip of entitlement. In Uttar Pradesh (and Rajasthan I am told), the government is on an over-drive to cancel many of these slips. The reason: the state had exceeded its quota of cards. So if you have a tractor, or a gun license, or anyone in the family has a government job, your card will be taken away.

8) Not all members on the card: You finally get your card but find many names missing from it. Since the quantity of ration now depends on the number of family members, a family of eight could be entitled to ration meant for three persons. This is one of the most widespread complaints.

9) Skipping a month: You have everything but the ration shop owner says that the quota for this month has not been released. Even in an otherwise better functioning state like Maharashtra, there were umpteen complaints about skipping the quota every second or third month. In remote villages, you are lucky if you get it once in three months.

10) Inadequate supply: You go to the ration shop and are told upar se poora quota nahin aaya (the government has not released full quota this month)", so you have to make do with half or one-third of your entitlement. On the way back, you discover that your influential neighbor got his full due.

11) Under-weighing: Many shops in UP still use the old style taraju (weighing scale)  a perfect instrument to cheat (dandi marna is the local phrase) the customer of anything around one to two kg of food-grain.

12) Poor quality food-grain: You finally get your quota, but cannot take it to your kitchen. In a village in Maharashtra, women were waiting for us with a sample of wheat they received last month from the ration shop. "Can you feed this even to the cattle," they asked.

13) Over-pricing: Official prices are often not quite known and over-pricing abounds in many forms  in many places they charge Rs three per kg for both rice and wheat (against the official rate of Rs two per kg), or levy transport charges above the official figures. We are talking about blatant black sale of food-grain for as high as Rs 12 to 15 per kg.

PS: And here is the latest addition to the list: It's three weeks since the Supreme Court's historic order on food security. You would imagine that action would have already begun. But when last heard, the Central government and state governments were exchanging letters on who should pay for it!

Editor's note: Swaraj Abhiyan founder Yogendra Yadav is on a padyatra of drought affected regions of Marathwada and Bundelkhand. He will file dispatches for Firstpost about the drought and his march. This is the fourth story in the series.

Read Story 1: Narendra Modi's inaction speaks louder than his words

Read Story 2: There's water everywhere in Latur, but not a drop of it's free

Read Story 3: Bundelkhand battles cattle famine, but little action from govts
Srinagar: Five security personnel have been shot dead by suspected rebels in restive Indian-administered Kashmir in the past two days, police said Saturday.

Two police officers were on a routine patrol Saturday when rebels fired automatic weapons from a moving vehicle in southern Anantnag town, killing them on the spot.

"The attackers fled the area after the firing," Javid Gillani, inspector general of police, told AFP.

On Friday, three paramilitary soldiers from the Border Security Force were killed when militants fired bullets from automatic assault rifles at their moving convoy.

Friday's attack was claimed by Hizbul Mujahideen, one of the region's several rebel groups who have been fighting Indian forces for decades, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Overall violence in the region has declined during the last decade, but armed encounters between rebels and government forces occur regularly.

In recent months the region has witnessed an uptick in rebel attacks on security forces with many dying on both sides.

Tens of thousands, mostly civilians, have died in the conflict so far.
Singapore: On Saturday India called for a regional framework for security management to peacefully resolve disputes, threat and use of force in the Indo-Pacific region, amid China flexing its muscles in the area to advance its maritime claims against its Asian neighbours.

"Regional framework for security management must enshrine a commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes, the threat or use of force," said Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in his address at the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

He also called for collective efforts to tackle terrorism which remains the foremost challenge to the region.

"The security framework in our region still do not give enough attention to terrorism. This must change," Parrikar said.

"Collective action and cooperation is the way forward to deal with the maritime threat, like terrorism, piracy and natural disaster," said the minister, adding that such cooperation will build trust and confidence.

"We need to oppose terrorism resolutely everywhere," said Parrikar, calling for resolute efforts by all to destroy the terrorism.

Terrorism remains the foremost challenge to the region. Networks of radicalism and terrorism as well as the whole structure in the region and beyond continue to pose a threat to all peace loving societies.

Noting sensitivities of disputes and concern about growing tension, Parrikar highlighted India's blue economy initiative and prosperity of the region.

"We are also building economic cooperation with maritime neighbours to reap the benefit of blue economy," he said.

Parrikar said there is no doubt that the Indo Pacific region, from East of Suez to Asia Pacific shores, will remain the driver of global prosperity for decades to come.

"India's contribution as the fastest growing major economy in the world, will be a significant factor in ensuring this.

"I am equally confident that the countries of the region will rise to the challenge and tackle the security threat it faces," said Parrikar.

He also touched on the South China Sea and stressed "While we do not take positions on territorial disputes which should be resolve peacefully without the threat or use of force, we firmly uphold freedom of navigation and over flights in accordance with international law in particular the UN convention on law of sea."
The law of unintended consequences seems to be at work again. The government has found that the Finmeccanica helicopter bribery scam has found other unexpected targets. The torpedo deal for the Scorpene submarines (that India had so proudly deployed recently) has got stuck. Reason: they were to be supplied by a firm which is a subsidiary of Finmeccanica.

This is what happened with the Bofors deal as well. The guns had been supplied. Then came the information that someone in India had received a bribe. Bofors was black-listed. As a result, one of the best guns that India had purchased could not be used, because the ammunition for these guns also came from Bofors.

By blacklisting the bribe-givers without first prosecuting and convicting the bribe-takers, India was, in effect, cutting its nose to spite its face.

Somewhere, somehow, Indias legislators have not applied their minds to the basic flaw in the legal framework and process at work. They have forgotten to ask the question: who is more guilty? Should it be the one who gives a bribe? Or should it be the one who takes it?

Callous or criminal?

Consider the first possibility. Let us assume that the one who gives the bribe is guilty. Somehow the law does not take into account the difference between two categories of bribe givers. There is a class of people who give bribes to subvert an existing process. They voluntarily offer bribes. But more unfortunate are those bribe givers who know that they have no choice but to give a bribe if they have to lead a simple hassle free life.

For instance most people know that they will never get their application for a ration card, or a driving licence, cleared easily unless they pay a tout who in turn pays the authorities. Should that kind of bribe be equal to the bribe a person gives to queer the system?

Indias lawmakers have never bothered to make this distinction, possibly because they know that they are unlikely to face that inconvenience and hassle that common men face. If that is indeed the case, it is a pity. It would show how disconnected Indias lawmakers are from the difficulties common people face.

But there could be another explanation. Could it be that a part of the bribe that the authorities take for giving a driving licence or a ration card eventually finds its way into the pockets of the lawmakers themselves? Could it be that this system is abetted by legislators and bureaucrats alike primarily because they are themselves beneficiaries? This is a question that =demands answers, because that would let people know whether Indias lawmakers are merely callous, or even criminal in their acts of commission and omission.

Extortion or exploitation?

Then take the second possibility Is the victim of an extortion bid a criminal? If that were indeed so, would be akin to saying that the girl who is raped is as guilty as the rapist, right?

If a ransom has been demanded by a kidnapper, and the ransom is paid, should the person who pays the ransom amount also be held guilty? If that is indeed the case, the swap deal that the government of India finalised with the Kandahar terrorists for releasing the hostages on the IC-184 was also a case of bribery, nothing else.

In fact, when it comes to petty bribery, most bribes are nothing but extortionist bids. That is what the common man must pay the police, the shops and establishment Act inspectors, the food inspectors, the octroi inspectors and even officials of municipalities and government departments.

All these are instances of exploitation. They are nothing short of extortion. Obviously, the man who pays cannot be held guilty, because his own life and well-being was at risk.

Speed money and the oath of office

Take the third possibility. As a sales person, my job is to sell. I know that the government official will be willing to push the file a little faster if I buy a gift for his son. So I decide to buy a gift for the son on his birthday, or at the time of festivities  like Diwali.

I may be wrong in trying to corrupt a government officer. But I need my job. The government wont bail me out in case I am dismissed primarily because I could not get some work done by a government clerk.

But now look at the government employee. He is certainly not in the same boat as I am. I have a need. But he has a responsibility bound by an oath not to succumb to temptations, bribes or blandishments. If I do succeed in giving the gift, and the clerk accepts the gift, who is more guilty  the one who violates an oath of office, or the person who has made no such promise, and used this method just to clinch a deal?

Is the law an ass, or merely blind?

According to Indian laws, both the giver and the receiver of bribes is guilty. It remains (largely) silent on extortion, however.

As a result of this peculiar stand, everybody knows that neither will the bribe-giver come forward to complain, nor will the bribe taker admit that he has taken a bribe.

The giver of the bribe dare not complain because he know that he could get arrested for even saying that he has given a bribe. As a result he keeps quiet.

The receiver of the bribe too knows that it is best for him to keep quiet. After all, he has accepted the bribe. If he had objected to the bribe, and if he were a government servant, he could have filed charges against the bribe giver for trying to bribe a public officer. But he chose not to. That, by itself was a crime. And the fact that he has taken a bribe is also a crime. He will need to keep quiet, and even erase all traces of the bribe taken. You can be sure that he will not register a complaint, lest that complaint itself indicts him damningly.

The only time when things can take an ugly turn is when the bribe taker is being charged with something else  like owning assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. Upon sustained interrogation, he might confess that he has taken a bribe. At that time, if the bribe giver has concealed his tracks well, he will flatly deny the allegations. After all, it is his word against that of the squealing bribe taker.

If the charges fail to stick against the bribe giver, you can be sure that they will be dropped against the bribe taker as well. The only charge that will stick, however, is that of disproportionate assets. It will be a case of concealing sources of income. But the bribery charge will not longer be applicable.

Thus, you end up in a Kafka-esque world. This is where neither the bribe giver nor the bribe taker dare squeal against each other. The benefit invariably goes to the bribe taker  because he is left with money and benefits that he should not have.

In other words, Indian laws promote  even protect  bribery.

So what is the way out?

Next part: How to minimise bribe-giving and taking
Chandigarh: Ahead of the proposed Jat quota agitation from Sunday, security arrangements in Haryana have been tightened with the deployment of 4,800 paramilitary personnel and the administration is on high alert.

"Besides adequate deployment of police personnel, as many as 48 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed at various places in the state keeping in view the stir call from tomorrow. We have asked for 15 more companies from the Centre," Haryana Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Ram Niwas said on Saturaday.

He said, "we are not taking any chance," even though only one group was going ahead with the dharna.

He also said that police and paramilitary forces have been deployed to guard the Western Yamuna Canal in Sonipat district.

Protesters had disrupted water supply to the national capital by damaging the Carrier-Lined Channel (CLC) of Munak Canal during the earlier Jat agitation in February.

The administration has specified one spot in each district where people can peacefully hold dharna, officials said.

However, officials said they were wary of the fact that protesters may attempt to block national highways and rail tracks, like in February, and therefore they have put maximum security to prevent a repeat of the situation.

Haryana Police has cancelled leave of all personnel except in emergency cases till further orders.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPc have already been imposed in seven sensitive districts of Haryana barring gathering of five or more persons and paramilitary forces have been conducting flag marches during the past few days .

Police are keeping a close watch on anyone trying to spread rumours or make inflammatory statements through social media.

"Adequate security measures have been taken. We are fully prepared to deal with the situation," Additional Director General of Police Mohammad Akil said.

"The police stations are stocked adequately equipped to dead with any kind of protest," he said.

While Khap Panchayats have opted out of the proposed agitation and dharnas from 5 June, All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) has given a call for the protest.

Jat community leaders, however, have assured Haryana government that they will maintain peace during the proposed pro-quota protest.

The AIJASS Hisar district president Rambhagat Malik said, "We are committed to holding dharnas in a peaceful manner."

He also said that apart from quota for the Jat community, "We are demanding withdrawal of cases registered against our leaders and youths during the stir in February".

However, the head of Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, Nafe Singh Nain, yesterday said they will not participate in the protest slated for 5 June.

Thirty people were killed and properties worth hundreds of crores of rupees were destroyed during the February quota agitation by Jats.
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala has approached the External Affairs Ministry to press for early release of 19 Indian fishermen, including six from the state, who have been detained off the coast of Diego Garcia since 27 May for allegedly trespassing into its territorial waters.

"We have requested the External Affairs Ministry to rescue our fishermen. What we understood is that the ministry is already in touch with Diego Garcia authorities in this regard," Fisheries Minister J Mercykutty Amma told reporters.

In view of such incidents, the government on Saturday decided to strictly enforce colour-coding of sea-bound fishing boats.

Of the 19 fishermen detained in the British island, 12 were from Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari district, six from Kerala and one from Assam. The Keralite fishermen were those hailing from coastal hamlets Poovar and Poonthura near Thiruvananthapuram.

The Minister said if the state fishing boats are painted with particular colours, as prescribed by the Centre, the Navy and Coast Guard can easily identify them, give them timely alerts and save them when they are about to cross the country's maritime borders.

The colour-code provisions would be implemented during the upcoming trawling ban period, she said.

"It will not only ensure the safety of our fishermen but also check the presence of foreign trawlers in our territorial waters," she said.
A battle is brewing in the Madras High Court. Relations between the Bar and the Bench have taken a steady turn for the worse, especially in light of the repeated disruptions and instances of indiscipline by lawyers that judges presiding over the courts have been subjected to. Matters have now come to a head as the Madras High Court has promulgated amendments to Rules framed under Section 34 of the Advocates Act, 1961 giving itself (or the Principal District Judge) the power to debar advocates from appearing before the High Court. Some of the new grounds on the basis of which an advocate may be debarred are quite illuminative of the kinds of indiscipline that judges of the High Court have possibly faced.

Those who maybe debarred include:

An Advocate who is found to have tampered with the Court record or Court order;

An Advocate who is found to have sent or spread unfounded and unsubstantiated allegations/petitions against a Judicial Officer or a Judge to the Superior Court

An Advocate who actively participates in a procession inside the Court campus and/or involves in gherao inside the Court Hall or holds placard inside the Court Hall;



Before the reader concludes that these are peculiar to the Madras High Court or some other lower court, I can attest that I have witnessed this kind of misbehaviour myself in the halls of no less than the Supreme Court. In the one instance that such misbehaviour was brought to the notice of the Court (tampering of the Court order), it turned a blind eye and let off the advocate in question with just a warning.

The Bar has of course protested. The Madras High Court Advocates Association has issued a statement that calls upon the Chief Justice to withdraw the Rules or else face rallies and agitations against it. A smaller minority of lawyers have welcomed the move pointing out that it is only in furtherance of the Supreme Courts directions in Capt Harish Uppal and RK Anand cases, though they have expressed misgivings about some of the drafting in question. Do the advocates protest too much?

Legal basis for the Rules

Section 34 of the Advocates Act gives High Courts the power to frame Rules to determine who can practice before it and the lower courts under that High Court. In parallel, the power to lay down professional standards for practice and enforce such standards has been vested with the Bar Councils under Section 35 of the Advocates Act. On a first reading, it would seem that the Madras High Courts rules have tried to take over the Bar Councils power to discipline lawyers.

This very argument was raised at the Supreme Court in an earlier tussle between the Kerala High Court and the Bar Council of India. The Kerala High Court had framed Rule 11 which prevented advocates who had been held in contempt of court from practising before it or lower courts in Kerala until the contempt was purged. This was irrespective of whether such advocate had been disbarred by the Bar Council.

A three judge bench of the Supreme Court upheld the Kerala High Courts Rule in its judgment in Bar Council of India v State of Kerala. The Court clarified that in debarring an advocate from appearing before the Court, the High Court was not trying to discipline the advocate but upholding the dignity of the court. It relied on an earlier decision which had pointed out that misbehaviour by an advocate can be both professional misconduct and contempt of court, and consequences for one (from the Court) need not necessarily prevent consequences for the other (from the Bar Council).

While they dont prescribe the content of the Rules, the directions of the Supreme Court in the Harish Uppal and RK Anand cases are clear in re-affirming the power of the court to discipline advocates in order that proceedings in court may be carried out and that the dignity of the court is maintained. All the kinds of behaviour which can get an advocate disbarred under the amended Madras High Court Rules relate directly to a lawyers behaviour in court or with judges, and dont deal with say, lawyer-client relationships.

The Madras High Court rules are thus entirely within the Courts remit to manage court proceedings and dont really impinge on the Bar Councils power to discipline a lawyer for misconduct.

Failure of the Bar Council

Whatever be the legality of the Rules in question, the fact that the Madras High Court had to promulgate the same is a resounding vote of no-confidence in the capability of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu & Pondicherry to rein in misbehaviour by lawyers. Lawyers have long argued that self-regulation (statutorily codified and enforced under the Advocates Act) is the best form of regulation for lawyers, like other professionals. The powers vested in the State Bar Councils and the Bar Council of India to frame standards for professional conduct and punish advocates who engage in professional misconduct has, relative to the problem at hand, been little used.

The reason for this is structural  the members of the Bar Council are elected by lawyers themselves and have little incentive to go after instances of indiscipline when it affects their chances of re-election. This is especially true for those lawyers who have the backing of the local Bar Association (a private body of lawyers as opposed to the Bar Council which is a statutory body) which is usually more influential among lawyers. This also explains the proliferation of lawyer strikes and boycotts, and also the ugly violence in the Patiala House Court (under the very noses of Supreme Court observers) when Kanhaiya Kumar was produced.

The Bar Councils have themselves been embroiled in controversies. Whether it is corruption in the approval for law colleges or the manner in which the All India Bar Exam has been conducted, the conduct of the Bar Council has been less than entirely above board, if not criminal. It is perhaps no surprise that a body with such little credibility can barely enforce standards of professional conduct for the lawyers it is supposed to discipline.

The amended Rules of the Madras High Court are likely to be challenged shortly though the chances of success are dim. That will not however, put an end to the troubles. The real task before the Madras High Court will lie in enforcing the rules it has framed. The advocates it seeks to debar are not going to go quietly. As the resolutions passed by the Madras High Court Advocates Association suggest, they might even enjoy support for their antics  if not openly, then perhaps tacitly.

Make no mistake though, this is not the situation in the Chennai or the Tamil Nadu Bar alone. Across the country, save for a thin crust at the top, the practice of law is in a deplorable state and enjoys little by way of respect or remuneration. If the best and the brightest who graduate from the top law schools and colleges are no longer choosing to practice in courts, it is because they are being driven away from it by what they see with their own eyes. The coming confrontation between the Bench and the Bar over the Madras High Court Rules may therefore be well worth it.

The author is a resident fellow at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. Views are personal.
The demands of the Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagraha, the organisation the Mathura violence, were bizarre indeed. They wanted the election of the president and prime minister scrapped, replacement of rupee with currency notes of Azad Hind Bank and petrol and diesel at mind-boggling low rates among other things. Of course, they were no fools. The demands were an alibi; the core motive was land grab. The group was going by the familiar script followed by several denominations, religious or otherwise, in India to capture government land.

The modus operandi is uncomplicated. Have a thousand people at beck and call, ensure their loyalty through either enticement or a motivational message  it could be spiritual, religious, political or otherwise, prepare them to fight for you, arm them if possible, spread fear among locals through threat of violence and go about your task with little fuss. Such organisations often promote an armed wing or a team that could be called for violent action at short notice  in the case of Vidhik Satyagraha, it was Subhas Sena. The leaders flaunt their political connections unabashedly.

The administration, both civil and police, almost invariably buckles under pressure.

Afraid of consequences, officials evade action. With the administration neutralised and little threat from the local population, the groups earn the licence to operate unchallenged. The state acts only when the court intervenes or the groups get involved in acts which are too brazen to be ignored any more. Baba Rampal, the godman from Hisar in Haryana, was arrested by police from his Satlok Ashram in November 2014 following the order of the court. But this was achieved not before his supporters gave a tough fight to the police and held them off for two weeks. A fortnight later, the task force of Asutosh Maharaj, another godman, dead and kept frozen for months by senior members of his dera Divyajyoti Jagriti Sansthan, almost threatened a similar situation. Almost all deras and ashrams in North India are virtually autonomous power centres, complete with a military arm. Land grab charges against them are very common.

Too petrified to act given the political clout  remember how leaders of all political parties rushed to Dera Sacha Souda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim for his blessing before the 2014 general elections - and devotee supporter base, the administration looks the other way as they indulge in unlawful activities. In Mathura, the Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagraha squatted on government land for two years. No question was asked.

As organisations like this continue to flourish across the country, the bigger question that emerges is of the state abandoning its responsibility. It is worse that it does so under threat of private armies. The sufferers are ordinary citizens of the country. The motive need not be land always. Militant Hindutva forces, there are several of them, are driven by religion. The same is the case with several Muslim outfits. They are guided by limited agendas and coercion is an essential instrument to furthering it. That rationalists would be killed for being what they are, creative people of all hues would be attacked for expressing themselves and people would be branded anti-national for not in being sync with the limited worldview of these groups are examples of it.

The state vacating its legitimate space to private outfits is a dangerous sign for the democracy. It means the ordinary citizen can no longer repose faith in it for protection of life and property. Courts cannot be the only source of hope for them. Politicians are weakening the legitimacy of the state by supporting them for limited ends. Its high time the country took a tough look at the Senas and Vahinis sprouting everywhere.
A man who lived in a world of his own, with a strong belief in self-propounded theories and a hardcore conviction that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Baba Jai Gurudev were still alive.

This man was Ram Vriksh Yadav, the one held responsible for the violence in Mathura that led to the death of 24 persons, including two police officers.

The mastermind and cult leader that triggered the violent stand-off is now confirmed to have died in the clashes that occurred on Thursday. According to a report in NDTV, he was among the several bodies that could not be confirmed till late Saturday evening, as many of them were charred beyond recognition.

Ram Vriksh was the self-styled leader of Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah (SBVS), a movement that has made ludicrous demands in the past on behalf of all Indians  60 litres of diesel for a rupee, 40 litres of petrol for a rupee, 12 tolas of gold for a rupee, and the abolishing of the Indian currency. Another such strong demand by Yadav was to replace the Indian currency with coins bearing the image of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

Born in a humble family of the Rampur-Baghpur village, which falls under Marda police station in Gazipur district of Uttar Pradesh, Ram Vriksh Yadav studied up to class XII in the village school. He went on to complete his graduation from a college in the adjoining Mau district.

Yadav owned just two acres of land in his village, which he did not attend to, and is now being ploughed by local villagers. His small dilapidated house made of mud, lies neglected and locked now.

He joined the anti-emergency movement and landed up in jail along with two of his co-villagers  Sudama Yadav and Deena. All three were later issued an emergency-era political detainees pension of Rs 15,000 per person from the state government.

On being released from jail, he became a close confidant of Baba Jai Guru Dev, around the time when Baba founded his political outfit, the Doordarshi Party. Later, he even contested Assembly elections from the Zahoorabad seat in 1984, and again unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary elections from Gazipur in 1991. Both times, he contested under the banner of Baba Jai Guru Dev's Doordarshi Party, which used the 'rising sun' as its election symbol.

Yadav also authored a book titled 'Vidhik Satyagrah', in which he discussed a term he described as 'Financial Freedom Struggle'. He dwells on strange theories like banning the Indian currency, changes in the Indian constitution for the selection process of the President and the Prime Minister etc.

It seems that he had taken cues from the theories of Nathan Rosche Pound, a distinguished American legal scholar of the 20th century. But Yadav quickly lost the plot, and ended up publishing a book which was far from the ground realities and closer to 'Yadav and his wonderland'. His SBVS even boasts of a YouTube channel.

Read: Jai Gurudev to Ram Vriksha Yadav: Mathura clashes, an example of history as tragedy and farce

He left behind his wife, two sons and two daughters. But only two of his children had lived with him  elder daughter is married and living with her husband, one son is living away from the family. It was in early 2012, when the Akhilesh Yadav government was installed in Uttar Pradesh, that Yadav moved to Agra from an ashram of Jai Guru Dev, somewhere in Madhya Pradesh.

It was also in 2012, when under the banner of Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah, that Yadav held a one day dharna at the Jawahr Bagh in Mathura demanding, apart from other things, cancellation of the appointment of the president and the prime ministerial elections in India, and replacing the existing currency with that of the Azad Hind Fauj of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

But after the dharna was over, Yadav did not move from the 280-acre government land and, slowly and steadily, the population of his followers started swelling. The Jawahar Bagh became a mysterious township in its own right. With the blessings of a powerful minister of the state, even the local authorities could not muster the courage of getting the government land evicted.

Yadav's clout was on the rise and there were numerous cases when he openly misbehaved with police officials and district administration officers. Knowing about his political backing from Lucknow, no official wanted to get involved in any controversy with Yadav.

He had become the voice and face of the illegal encroachers who had come and settled in Jawahar Bagh with him. Freebies such as food and other facilities had attracted a large number of youth and Yadav, who had become a force to be reckoned with in Mathura, started moving around with rifle-totting bodyguards.

Locals say that within days, the population of Jawahar Bagh rose to almost three thousand, and the district administration simply chose not to take notice of that. But the bigger mystery is who was funding Ram Vriksh Yadav and his followers?

For over two years, all those staying there were being provided three meals a day, and this would be impossible without a strong financier. Also, it is no secret that Yadav himself did not have the financial capability to feed such a large number of people for over two years.

Not only this, the sugar sold in the market for Rs 35 per kg was being sold at Rs 25 per kg. Grapes, which cost Rs 60 per kg were being sold there at Rs 20 per kg. Who was bearing this subsidy on behalf of Ram Vriksh Yadav?

Insiders say that Ram Vriksh Yadav was part of a strategy to protect the empire of Jai Guru Dev, that was holding fort in the ashram in Mathura.

The distance between Jawahar Bagh and the ashram is hardly two and a half kilometers. And Yadav was camping there as a protection force for those holding fort at the Mathura Ashram, in case another faction tried to forcibly take control of the ashram.

The background to the whole story is quite interesting. Baba Jai Guru Dev, when alive, had transferred his powers of giving guru- deeksha and naamdaan to new disciples  to his closest lieutenant Umakant Tiwari. Everyone thought that Tiwari would succeed Baba after his death but this was not to happen. Baba died on 18 May 2012.

Surprisingly, Baba Jai Gurudevs onetime driver Pankaj Yadav was declared the next chief of Gurudevs Trust, which controls assets to the tune of Rs 12000 crore.

As per the letter, Baba Jai Gurudev  on 20 July 2010, had given this in writing to the Etawah civil court that Pankaj Yadav will inherit his assets. It was Pankaj Yadav who performed the last rites of the Baba.

Among the assets under the Trust is the sprawling ashram on the Delhi highway, besides a school and petrol station in Mathura. The Trust also, reportedly, had over Rs 100 crore deposited in banks at the time, besides land worth thousands of crore. Among other possessions was Baba Gurudev's fleet of cars, including many Mercedes Benz cars and BMWs. As per a report, the fleet in itself is worth more than Rs 150 crore.

The turning point came when former president of the Mathura Bar Association, advocate Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, moved a Public Interest Litigation in the high court, pleading for the eviction of illegal encroachers led by Ram Vriksh Yadav from Jawahar Bagh.

The high court passed an order asking the state government and the local administration to get the public property cleared of the encroachers.

Now, the police and the administration had no other choice than to comply with the order of the high court. On Thursday, the police force reached Jawahar Bagh to get the area evicted. This was the time when all hell broke loose and heavily armed supporters of Ram Vriksh Yadav, who were already perched up on trees, open-fired at the police, and also lobbed grenades at them.

The police were not prepared to battle this sort of an assault and one inspector and a Superintendent of Police were killed. Additional forces were called in to combat the violent supporters of Ram Vriksh Yadav and by the time the operation ended, 24 persons had lost their lives, including the cult leader. In the post-operation clean-up, 47 country made pistols, 184 cartridges and 178 hand grenades were recovered from Jawahar Bagh.

In the recent years, cult culture has been on the rise in India in almost all states of the country. One cult or the other is sprouting, and very soon they create their very own fiefdom with surprisingly large number of supporters.

Not to be missed is the point that they all enjoy political backing and are also used as an en bloc vote banks by the political parties. It is only when mass violence of this nature erupts, that the governments wake up to initiate cover up jobs.
40 Under 40: An Anthology of Post-Globalisation Poetry looks at the post-globalisation years through the eyes of 40 poets  all of whom are under that age as well  writing in English. It has been published by the Mumbai-based imprint Poetrywala. In order to get an idea about what to expect from the future, the anthology fittingly looks at our immediate past.

Here are six poems from the book, recited by the poets themselves.

....

The Difficulty with Mixing Two Languages Together by Mihir Vatsa

Unfortunately, there were no knights;

but we could do with insurgents. I met one

in a reverie. We sat under a banyan tree,

and talked about remorse. A million

raindrops lonely in a closet. He said he lived

where it was a custom for the children

to smoke coal-dust in joints. I wanted

to stop him, Dont go there, John!

Dont follow the traces of despair.

When he left, I thought about the past;

in its storehouse, the presence of three:

columns in the end of Hindi periodicals

encouraging pen friendship, English-medium

textbooks on the desk, and six unsent

letters, hidden together in a book,

to the first English name.

..............................

Karma & WWF by Dion DSouza

Leaning against the table

(one leg wobbly from

a WWF-inspired stunt

pulled by a burly boy upon his feeble classmate) the Marathi teacher,

very fair, very Brahmin,

said she did not believe in the afterlife:

Everything is settled in the here and now.

That still said nothing

of who is keeping score.

Who the anonymous, omnipresent referee,

who, amid much cheering and clanking,

announces the end of a round. And who

heaves up the breathless winners arm

upon thudding out the final count.

Or are the tussles without referee?

With us tumbling, free-falling

into the fray, into the ring,

with forces whose might we might

only reckon with, each miscalculated move

also an ingenious one, each wrong

turn also sharply correct

with life as one long house of levelled mirrors.

The wrestler and his hapless victim each marked time:

the former, a little shaky, dreading the hour

his handiwork would be discovered,

the other, slammed down and now

choking with emotion, awaiting that

when the tables would be turned.

The teacher stood, neck bare,

arms bare, as usual, unsuspecting, yellow

sari draped over her left shoulder, pale,

somewhat frail, speaking plainly, softly.

..............................

Diced into Circle by Linda Ashok

I was barely a teen. A happy face on mother as I stood

confident in my first bra, perfect fit, floral, ready for the

swim. Probably she wanted to freeze that moment, take a

selfie and so, she and I entered a sketch box in the village fair.

Faces placed side by side, cups too I noted hers were

celadon make, stapled with gold, and mine still aspiring for

the potters hands. Today, the sound of a Like wakes me up

with sugar in the eyes. I only doubt if it is father who calls

nostalgia a stupid geometry, even when hes circled in one.

..............................

Baba Yaga by Arjun Rajendran

No one but my cousin found it funny, my story about two boys

under the banyan tree being approached by a figure in white

at an ungodly hour; the apparition, as it turned out, was

Baba Yaga, asking if theyd like curd or tamarind rice? Whats

to laugh at, those around pondered, confounded by our inside joke as

we rolled on the floor, repeating the names of those Tamil dishes

Thayir Sadam. Puli Sadam in a possessed tone, not caring how

silly we looked. Id repeat the joke every summer I met him,

always creating the same effect, until a long silence-by then,

we were taller, mature. I moved to another continent

and like a returned bracelet, the witch became all mine to keep;

shed awaken after some rum, emerge from behind

an Oak, push tiffin boxes under my nose; trembling, Id bring

a spoonful of rice to my mouth, hear her chuckle in my boyhood voice.

..............................

Flashback Sonnet: B-Film Actress Seeks Lost Bastard Child by Ranjani Murali

You were conceived on a beach with flare lamps, fanfare,

rubber horns, bus-halt screech, the hero with a penchant for number-plate

watching, salt-rock, stiff nods from directors wiping

necks with blue-checked handkerchiefs, disco-ball shard light dancing

off haywards 5000s, sambrani plumes from nearby balconies, the clamor

of sundal boys cycle bells and aluminum cans,

and even a hunched man taking notes on suitable body

angles. Start roll camera was not a cue for extending bare knee, it was a precise

rupturing of polished prism by an eye of light flecked with raw silicacrystals

wrenched from sheerness, coating the love-scene with an opacity that your fetal,

forming eyes could have never known; you, a springing of cinematic effusions and silicate

songs in the rain, perhaps now bridge-layer, cement-mixer, glass carver, perhaps master

of straight edges or crenelle, or maybe just a construction worker passing by water, seeing

through sand, as my skin did that day: an observation of pure refraction, gaze in glass.

..............................

Back in the orchard by Semeen Ali

I bit into a green guava

Hard as it was

The seeds stuck between my teeth

As much as I tried to remove them

They held on

Firmly

I had bitten into my first green guava

Amrud

Amdud I had called it.

I had tried to climb a guava tree

In my mothers home

My home

The peeling trunk had been of no help

On afternoons that spoke to no one

When people pretended to fall asleep

A soft thud in the backyard

And I the self-appointed policeman

Rushing through long verandahs

To shoo away the  nasty children

Would pause to wake up someone

What if I was out numbered?

Evening would come softly

The last song of the koel

Sung while sitting on one of the branches

The futile attempts to climb the guava tree.

Another evening has arrived

The tree is laden with guavas

No appointed policemen required

The house is slowly emptying itself

The inhabitants disappearing

No longer does a koel sing its song here

I pluck a guava to take a bite

It does not taste the way it always did.
Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse resigned on Saturday from all his ministerial portfolios ending a week long speculation whether he would quit or not after he got simultaneously embroiled in multiple controversies.

Khadse, who is the senior most minister in the Maharshtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' cabinet and commands enormous clout, of late has been mired in controversies with a questionable land deal in Pune and an alleged demand for bribe by his close aide Gajanan Patil for a land allotment case in Kalyan. Apart from these doubtful real estate transactions, his mobile phone number allegedly appeared in the call records of most wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

Speculations over Khadse's fate reached a crescendo on Thursday after Fadnavis submitted a detailed report to BJP chief Amit Shah and also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi late in the evening.

Despite mounting pressure from the central leadership and BJP ideologue RSS, it was widely believed that Khadse would be a tough nut to crack as the initial signals indicated.

For a state like Maharashtra, where caste politics rules the roost in power games, it was expected that it won't be an easy road ahead for Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to exercise his authority on the matter. Fadnavis is from the Brahmin community, while Khadse belongs to the Levedar Patil community, which is part of the OBC list. After Gopinath Munde's death, there is no other senior OBC leader apart from Khadse in the party. Munde belonged to Wanjara community.

Apart from Khadse, state BJP president Ravsaheb Danve, Pankaja, Tawde and MLC Pandurang Phundkar are all Munde loyalist. In the Brahmin camp, Fadnavis, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Girish Bapat and Water Resources Minister Girish Dattatray Mahajan are among the prominent faces.

"Khadse has done nothing wrong or committed any irregularity. These are all baseless allegations against him. The party is with him but if the government or the party central leadership wants an enquiry then we have no issue. But at this stage Khadse will not lose anything. These are all speculations that the report is against Khadse. It might be positive on Khadse as well," BJP state president Ravsaheb Danve had told reporters in Jalna on Friday.

Khadse, who is also the OBC face of the party, was in the midst of massive turmoil as Shah had already indicated being firm in maintaining the "zero-tolerance for corruption" policy in the party.

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 was in all likelihood a matter of time or a mere formality for the Muktainagar MLA to lose his ministerial berth, sources confirmed. However, there was a section within the BJP who wanted Khadse's wings to be clipped and not entirely drop him from the cabinet. There were 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

"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.
Mumbai: Stating that Eknath Khadse was forced to resign as he was facing serious charges of corruption, Congress on day demanded a high level investigation into the allegations against the BJP leader.

"Only resignation will not do. We want a high level judicial inquiry into the scams involving Khadse. We don't

trust this government, which may sabotage the investigation," Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan told PTI.

"It is good that he has resigned. But it is a delayed decision. The BJP had no option since the charges against

Khadse like the MIDC land deal and Dawood call allegation are very serious in nature," Chavan, a former chief minister, said.

Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the resignation of Khadse was inevitable.

The real political decision, however, is how high a level the government would take the matter, he said.

Former AAP leader Anjali Damania, who is on a hunger strike demanding Khadse's resignation for the last three days,

said this was the initial victory for her after exposing Khadse's wrongdoings.

"I will continue my hunger strike till a time-bound inquiry is ordered against Khadse because there has been a

trend that such leaders involved in corruption cases are politically rehabilitated by making them governors of other states," Damania said.

AAP national spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon said, "We are relieved that finally, after he was totally exposed in

past few weeks, BJP removed Khadse from office."

"Khadse's resignation is a small development. What is important is ordering an inquiry into the wrongdoings of the

minister," Damania said.

Describing Khadse as "Bhujbal of BJP", she said if an inquiry was not ordered to probe Khadse's transactions, he

might be made the Governor of some state and everything would be forgotten.

"He should not go unpunished," she said.

Damania added that she has also planned to meet anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare who has been guiding her

in the campaign against injustice.

Pune-based developer Hemant Gavande had first highlighted Khadse's controversial land deal at Bhosari, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) which apparently clinched the issue with the BJP high command. He said he would continue his legal fight.

Welcoming Khadse's resignation, Gavande told reporters, "My fight is a legal one. If police do not file an FIR in the complaint given by me in connection with the Bhosari MIDC land transaction, I will file a PIL to press the matter."

He also demanded an inquiry into the irregular deal by a retired judge saying Khadse was involved in "misuse of

power" as state Revenue minister in unlawfully purchasing the government land.

It was Gavande's initial allegation that led to a series of disclosures in connection with Khadse's land deal in

Pune.

Gavande accused the minister of grabbing the industrial plot of MIDC at a very low price of around Rs 3.75 crore misusing his position when the market value of the land was to the tune of Rs 40 crore.

PTI
Facing heat over a string of corruption charges including irregularities in a land deal in MIDC, Pune, Maharashtra Revenue Minister and senior most BJP leader in the state Eknath Khadse resigned on Saturday. Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao accepted his resignation on the recommendation of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Now that Khadse is out of the Cabinet, Fadnavis has ordered a retired High Court judge to conduct an inquiry into the allegations.

Khadse has been accused of misusing his position so he could buy in the name of his wife and son-in-law, a plot at MIDC in Pune for Rs 3.75 crore when the market value of the plot was around Rs 40 crore.

Khadse had earlier demanded that an inquiry be instituted and proof of these allegations be provided. Now, Fadnavis has decided to appoint a retired HC judge to conduct the inquiry. Sources told Firstpost that if he is found to be not guilty at the end of the inquiry, then he will be reinstated into the Cabinet.

Fadnavis has called an urgent meeting of all ministers, including ministers of state, to finalise the code of conduct for ministers and probable discussion of Cabinet expansion. The meeting is slated to take place on Monday. Highly placed sources confirm that once Prime Minister Narendra Modi is back in India at the end of his five-nation tour, the green signal will be given to Fadnavis for expanding his Cabinet.

Khadse held 10 portfolios in the Cabinet. These included revenue, agriculture, excise, dairy development, wakf, minorities development, animal husbandry, fisheries, and relief and rehabilitation. Cabinet expansion is necessary as it is expected that these portfolios will be distributed among at least five MLAs.

Meanwhile, Congress' Ashok Chavan said that Khadse's resignation is not good enough and that the government may very well sabotage any investigation it orders. We want a high level judicial inquiry into the scams involving Khadse. We dont trust this government," he said.

Former AAP leader Anjali Damania, who went on a hunger strike three days ago to demand Khadse's resignation, said this was an initial victory. AAP national spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon said, We are relieved that finally, after he was totally exposed in past few weeks, BJP removed Khadse from office.

However, Khadse defended himself at a press conference and said that he was the one who asked Fadnavis to accept his resignation till the probe is complete. News of his resignation came to be known minutes after Khadse met Fadnavis at the latters residence.

"I have been saying since day one that if any allegation is proved against me then I will leave politics," Khadse told the media at the state BJP headquarters at Nariman Point. "I am not talking about resignation but talking about leaving my 40 years of political career. In 40 years this isn't first time I am seeing media trial. Since day one I have said that whatever allegations you are making please give all documents. They haven't been able to prove the allegations levelled against me."

Speaking about the controversial land deal due to which he had to quit, Khadse said, "It is being claimed that MIDC has acquired the land, but MIDC has not even given compensation to the land owner in the last 48 years. State government rules itself state that once the compensation is not paid to the land owner within two years of the land being acquired then the land goes back to the owner."

"I have asked the chief minister to initiate inquiry not only via Anti-Terrorism Squad  the enquiry is ongoing  but also enquire against all those who tried to defame me my name. Who went ahead and took help of a Pakistani agency? Unless and until I don't come clean I will not take these posts again. As a moral responsibility I have resigned on my own. I also thank BJP as a party who stood by me," said the former revenue minister.
Gender inequality leading to deprivation of power among women continues to be a political reality in India today. Women are perpetually excluded from decision-making at every step of the ladder, starting from the household to the top layer of policy making. Although the Constitution of India attempts to remove gender inequalities by interdicting discrimination based on sex and class, and enshrining fundamental rights for all citizens, women still have only de jure rather than de facto access to these rights.

There is no denying the fact that greater participation of women in the political process would be a pre-condition for their economic and social emancipation. However, even though a significantly large number of women vote in the country, yet only a few of them assume the reins of power. Paradoxically, though women have held the posts of President and Prime Minister as well as Chief Ministers of various states in India, the country ranks 20th from the bottom in terms of representation of women in Parliament, as per the World Economic Forums Global Gender Gap Report 2012.

To remedy the low participation of women electors, India in 1994 established quotas (reservations) vide the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments to reserve 33 per cent of the seats in local governments for women. The Womens Reservation Bill (108th amendment) has also been introduced in the national Parliament to reserve 33 per cent of the Lok Sabha seats for women, but the bill is yet to be passed. It is believed that though increasing the number of women in national government may not guarantee an impact on governance, a critical mass of women in power can bring about transformation in leadership.

A heartening outcome of the reservation bill is the subsequent rise in political participation by women, which went up from 4-5 per cent to 25-40 per cent among women, and gave millions of women the opportunity to serve as leaders in local government. A few states like Odisha established reservations even before the 73rd amendment and they had 28,069 women elected in 1992 and 28,595 women in 1997.

The robust health of Indias democracy is also reflected in the increasingly large turnouts of women voters in progressive elections at both the national and state levels in the country. In the 2012 elections to Legislative Assemblies, for instance, Uttar Pradesh reported a turnout of 58.82 to 60.29 per cent of the female voters. The states of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Mizoram, and the Union Territories of Daman and Diu, and Puducherry also reported higher turnouts among women than men in the 2013 Vidhan Sabha elections (Election Commission, 2013). The turnout of women during India's 2014 parliamentary general elections was 65.63 per cent, only marginally less than the male turnout of 67.09 per cent. In 16 out of 29 states of India, more women voted than men. This increased female participation was observed in both the rich and poor states in the country.

However, this enthusiastic participation in elections does not ostensibly translate into proportionate electoral power for women. In contrast to the encouraging figures pertaining to women voters, the statistics on womens participation in Parliament and Legislative Assemblies, on the other hand, present a grim picture. The recent Assembly elections in four states and one Union Territory bear witness to this fact more resoundingly than even in the past. Despite the remarkable showing by the two women Chief Ministers in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu in these elections, Mamata Banerjee and Jayalalitha, respectively, there was no significant rise in the number of women MLAs in any of the five Assemblies, which now have a female strength of merely 81 out of the total number of 823 MLAs, representing less than 10 per cent of the total legislators. This includes 8 women out of 126 MLAs in Assam, 21 out of 234 in Tamil Nadu, 40 out of 293 in West Bengal, 8 out of 140 in Kerala, and 4 out of 30 in Puducherry.

The figures at the national level are equally dismal. Table 1 depicts an overview of participation of women in the Lok Sabha (lower house) and in the Rajya Sabha (upper house). The participation of women in the Lok Sabha has, in fact, never exceeded 12 per cent since Independence. The proportion of women Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Lok Sabha has increased by only 6 percentage points over the past six decades. In the Rajya Sabha, it has been almost constant at 7 percent of the total seats, with the exception of the 1991 election where it rose to 15.5 per cent. In the 2009 election, only 59 women MPs were elected for a total of 543 seats, and this figure went up by merely 2 to touch 61 in the 2014 elections.

Comparisons at the international level reiterate the abysmally low levels of womens participation in political decision-making in India (see Table 2). Rwanda, which exhibits the highest participation by women in the latest elections to its lower house, was the first nation to cross the halfway mark for women in Parliament, 7 percentage points ahead of Cuba, which occupies the second position. Alarmingly, womens representation in Parliament in India is lower than even that of much smaller nations like Nepal and Afghanistan.

Paradoxically, political representation does not have any direct correlation with literacy or other related parameters. This is indicated by a comparison of female political participation in Kerala and Rajasthan, which lie at two opposite ends of the literacy bandwagon, with the female literacy rates being 92 per cent and 53 per cent in Kerala and Rajasthan, respectively, as per the 2011 Census. Although the women in Kerala enjoy greater freedom of movement along with cultural and educational advantages, this has not been converted into political participation. Even the proportion of women in the state assembly is only marginally higher at 11 percent in the present Assembly in Kerala as compared to 7 per cent in Rajasthan.

One of the key challenges faced by women is lack of education which hinders their political involvement. We recommend bridging this gap by providing quality education to women in the country. Awareness about their rights and privileges as mentioned in the Constitution can only be ensured once women are appropriately educated. The issue of gender-based violence and provision of safety and security of women should also be addressed on a priority basis to promote gender equality in the social and political arenas. Although the Government of India has initiated the National Mission of Empowerment of Women in 2014 with the broad objective of gender empowerment, the progress of this project is not up to the mark. It is thus imperative to strengthen its functioning and implementation. In addition, there is need for capacity building of prospective women leaders by imparting leadership training to the female members of political parties.
Herat (Afghanistan): Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Saturday conferred with Afghanistan's highest civilian honour, the Amir Amanullah Khan Award.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani conferred the award on Modi after the two leaders jointly inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, that was rebuilt with India's aid.

A true brotherhood is honoured. PM is awarded the Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistan's highest civilian honour pic.twitter.com/DdvASFSF62  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 4, 2016

Modi arrived in Herat on Saturday on the first leg of his five-nation tour.

He will leave for Qatar later in the day on the second leg of his tour.
ZURICH Austria's anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPO) is very likely to formally challenge the result of last month's presidential election and is calling for postal ballots to be abolished, its leader said on Saturday.

Asked how likely it is the FPO will formally challenge the result of the vote, which its candidate Norbert Hofer narrowly lost, Heinz-Christian Strache said in an interview with radio station OE1: "It is very likely ... over 50 percent."

He said the party would make its decision by Wednesday, the deadline for challenges.

"If the irregularities are confirmed by legal experts ... then we have a responsibility to democracy," Strache said.

The FPO has said it is examining several irregularities that have come to light in individual polling stations, ranging from postal ballots having been counted too early to the number of votes having been overstated.

"Postal ballots in their current form have to be abolished," Strache said in the interview, adding that voting by mail did not meet constitutional requirements for a secret ballot.

Former Greens leader Alexander Van der Bellen won the presidential election on May 22 with a narrow lead of roughly 31,000 votes.

(Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
SINGAPORE U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter urged China on Saturday to join a "principled security network" for Asia, saying that the United States would remain the world's most powerful military and the main guarantor of regional security for decades to come.

In an attempt to counter some concerns in Asia about U.S. staying power, Carter told a regional security forum in Singapore that the U.S. approach to the Asia-Pacific remained "one of commitment, strength and inclusion."

However, he said, any action by China to reclaim land in the Scarborough Shoal, an outcrop in the disputed South China Sea, would have consequences.

"I hope that this development doesn't occur, because it will result in actions being taken by the both United States and ... by others in the region which would have the effect of not only increasing tensions but isolating China."

Carter said tensions in the South China Sea, where China has been backing its vast territorial claims by building artificial islands, North Korea's nuclear program and violent extremism challenged regional peace and "forward thinking statesmen and leaders must ... come together to ensure a positive principled future."

He said the network he envisaged could also help protect against "Russia's worrying actions" and the growing strategic impact of climate change.

The United States and many Asian countries were stepping up security cooperation to ensure they were able to make choices "free from coercion and intimidation," Carter said at Singapore's annual Shangri-La Dialogue,

"Even as the United States will remain the most powerful military and main underwriter of security in the region for decades to come  and there should be no doubt about that  those growing bilateral relationships demonstrate that nations around the region are also committed to doing more to promote continued regional security and prosperity," Carter said.

Japan's defence minister, speaking at the same event, said his country would help Southeast Asian nations build their security capabilities to deal with what he called unilateral, dangerous and coercive actions in the South China Sea.

"In the South China Sea we have been witnessing large-scale and rapid land reclamation, building of outposts and utilization of them for military purposes," Japanese Minister of Defence Gen Nakatani said, without mentioning China directly. "No countries can be an outsider of this issue."

Carter said some "expansive and unprecedented actions" by China in pursuit of claims in the South China Sea, in cyberspace and in the air, had raised concerns about its strategic intentions. He urged Beijing to join the regional trend or risk "erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation."

"The United States welcomes the emergence of a peaceful, stable, and prosperous China that plays a responsible role in the regions principled security network. We know Chinas inclusion makes for a stronger network and a more stable, secure, and prosperous region," he said.

TRUMP COUNTER

Carter stressed the work the United States had undertaken to strengthen security ties with countries including Japan, India, the Philippines, Vietnam and Australia as part of President Barack Obama's so-called pivot, or rebalance, to the Asia-Pacific.

He said that for decades some had wrongly predicted an impending U.S. withdrawal from the region, but this would not happen.

"Thats because this region, which is home to nearly half the worlds population and nearly half the global economy, remains the most consequential for Americas own security and prosperity," Carter said.

In an apparent counter to "America-first" policies expounded by prospective Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, including suggestions that U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Asia, Carter stressed bipartisan support for continued engagement.

"Regardless of what else was going on at home or in other parts of the world  during Democratic and Republican administrations, in times of surplus and deficit, war and peace  the United States has remained economically, politically, and militarily engaged, as well as geographically located in the Asia-Pacific," he said.

Carter's speech comes ahead of a significant ruling expected in coming weeks on a case the Philippines in the International Court of Arbitration challenging China's South China Sea claims, which Beijing has vowed to ignore.

The United States has been lobbying Asian and other countries to back the judges' statement that their ruling must be binding. China has lobbied on the other side for support for its position that the court lacks jurisdiction in the case.

(Additional reporting by Masayuki Kitano.; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Lincoln Feast)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
SINGAPORE China came under pressure from the United States and Asian powers to rein in its actions in the South China Sea, with the U.S. defense secretary urging Beijing to join in on regional cooperation or risk erecting a "Great Wall of self-isolation."

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter encouraged China to participate in a "principled security network" for Asia to help counter concerns about its strategic intentions following "expansive and unprecedented actions" in the South China Sea.

Carter also told the Shangri-La Dialogue, a regional security forum in Singapore, that the United States would remain the main guarantor of regional security for decades to come and warned China against provocative behaviour.

Any action by China to reclaim land in the Scarborough Shoal, an outcrop in the disputed South China Sea, would have consequences, Carter said.

"I hope that this development doesn't occur, because it will result in actions being taken by the both United States and ... by others in the region which would have the effect of not only increasing tensions but isolating China."

The South China Sea has become a flashpoint between the United States, which increased its focus on the Asia-Pacific under President Barack Obama's "pivot", and China, which is projecting ever greater economic, political and military power in the region.

"The situation in the South China Sea continues to be viewed with concern," Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told the forum. "All countries in the region need to recognise that our shared prosperities and the enviable rate of growth that this region enjoys over past decades will be put at risk by aggressive behaviour or actions by any one of us."

The United States and many Asian countries were stepping up security cooperation to ensure they were able to make choices "free from coercion and intimidation," Carter said.

"Even as the United States will remain the most powerful military and main underwriter of security in the region for decades to come  and there should be no doubt about that  those growing bilateral relationships demonstrate that nations around the region are also committed to doing more to promote continued regional security and prosperity," he said.

Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani, speaking at the same event, said his country would help Southeast Asian nations build their security capabilities to deal with what he called unilateral, dangerous and coercive actions in the South China Sea.

"In the South China Sea, we have been witnessing large-scale and rapid land reclamation, building of outposts and utilization of them for military purposes," Nakatani said, without mentioning China directly. "No countries can be an outsider of this issue."

MOST POWERFUL

Trillions of dollars of trade a year passes through the South China Sea, which is home to rich oil, gas and fishing resources. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have claims in the area, and rising tensions have been fuelling a rising in security spending in the region.

"The uncertainty of China's future trajectory is arguably the main driving concern about possible military competition now and in the future," Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.

Carter said that for decades some critics had been predicting an impending U.S. withdrawal from the region, but this would not happen.

"Thats because this region, which is home to nearly half the worlds population and nearly half the global economy, remains the most consequential for Americas own security and prosperity."

In an apparent counter to "America-first" policies expounded by prospective Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, including suggestions that U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Asia, Carter stressed bipartisan support for continued engagement.

"Regardless of what else was going on at home or in other parts of the world  during Democratic and Republican administrations, in times of surplus and deficit, war and peace  the United States has remained economically, politically, and militarily engaged, as well as geographically located in the Asia-Pacific," he said.

The Shangri-La Dialogue is being held ahead of a significant ruling expected in coming weeks on a case filed by the Philippines in the International Court of Arbitration challenging China's South China Sea claims, which Beijing has vowed to ignore.

The United States has been lobbying Asian and other countries to back the judges' statement that their ruling must be binding, a call echoed by Japan on Saturday.

China has lobbied on the other side for support for its position that the court lacks jurisdiction in the case.

(Additional reporting by Masayuki Kitano and Paige Lim; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Lincoln Feast)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
In 2005, one issue that kept Indian and foreign media occupied for long was the United States denying Visa to the then Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. The US embassy denied a diplomatic Visa under the 214 (b) of Immigration and Nationality Act citing Modi wasnt coming there for a purpose that qualifies for a diplomatic visa. Modi was also denied a tourist-cum-business visa under Section under the 212 (a)(2)(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act that makes any foreign government official who was responsible or "directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religions freedom" ineligible for the visa.

Without saying so in as many words, the US was holding Modi responsible for the 2002 Gujarat riots that claimed over 2000 lives. The wounds of the massacre were still afresh.

Nine years later, when Modi rose to the national scene and became the Prime Minister post the 2014 general elections, the question yet again returned to everyones minds. Will the former Gujarat chief minister, now the PM, be given a Visa to worlds biggest economy? After two years of the NDA-Governments rule, Modi has today begun a five-nation tour that would include his fourth trip to the US and seventh meeting President Barack Obama since he became the PM. What is even more notable is that Modi is visiting US, this time, as Obamas closest international partners. Indeed a sweet revenge for Modi for the insult he had to receive from the same nation a decade back.

To be sure, even now, there isnt unanimity in the US for Modis policies on religious, communal tolerance and human rights. There are voices against Modi, including that of prominent US Senator, Ben Cardin, who is also on Senats foreign relations committee. Cardin has attacked Modi ahead of the latters US visit saying India still needs to address issues of extra judicial killings, human rights, religious intolerance, forced labor and human trafficking. These issues will be possibly taken up with Modi during the visit.

Cardins comments must be seen in the context of a US Commission on International Religious Freedom report accusing India with charges of rising occurrences of religious violence and a deterioration of religious freedoms in 2015. India is facing the threat of being portrayed as a hostile society on matters of religion and social conduct internationally.

Also, one should note that the USs new-found love to Modi is also because he is the PM of Indiaan emerging democratic and economic powerthat can no longer be ignored by the developed world as the global power shifts from the West to East. Having India on its side is both politically and economically crucial for US. Although not a formal ally yet, the US needs to have the backing of India to check the rising influence of China in the region besides to fight militancy in the middle-east. Modis growing acceptance in the US should be seen in this context not the Modi-Barack camaraderie. Personal relationships between leaders wouldnt certainly be a deciding factor for foreign policy success, particularly given that Obama is on his way out. But, the broader signals for India are good.

There are multiple issues one should watch out for clues from Modis five-nation tour, mainly from the US. These include the bilateral military co-operations, progress on the 2005 civil nuclear agreement that hasnt translated into material benefit for India yet, Indias prospects to join the nuclear supplier group--vital to the countrys interests and meaningful progress in the joint efforts to hunt down black money holders. It is unlikely that this visit, per say, will yield any major breakthrough in any of these matters, since diplomatic progress happens through continuous negotiations rather than through high-profile meetings. Till now, there arent any sign that India has accomplished major progress on most of the reached to the final lap on any of these issues. If this theory proves wrong, that will be big diplomatic victory for Modi. But big fireworks are unlikely.

Selling brand India

Undoubtedly, Modi has been the biggest brand ambassador of India in the recent times. It isnt easy to recall any PM who has hard-sold the India story to foreigners as Modi did. The PM manages to pull large, loyal crowds, who chant his name in the Madison squares or Wembleys with the same ease he does it in a political rally at Varanasi or Kanpur, where he lists his achievements and promises even greater results in the following days.

This time, as Modi boards his plane on the five-nation tour, he is reenergized with the commendable victory of his party in Assam and progress in other states, where the assembly polls were held last month. The 7.9 percent GDP growth would be surely highlighted so is the reform-progress his government achieved so farmost notably the subsidy reforms and bankruptcy code passage. There will be more promises on the ease of doing business and claims on why India is a good investment-destination.

But, Modis claims will be countered with questions on how effectively the 7.9 per cent growth has percolated down to the grassroots in a country, which is still tagged as lower-middle income economy by the World Bank and where the unemployment is still major challenge. Going by the Labour Bureau data, the employment growth plunged to a six-year low in 2015 across the eight key labour-intensive industries and only 0.1 million jobs were created last year, compared with the 0.4 million jobs created in 2014 and even worse than the 0.3 million figure in 2012.It would be a mistake to boast the 7.9 per cent growth.

As Cardins speech signals, there is a sense internationally about the widening religious, social divides in worlds largest democracy, especially since Modi has taken over. Modis challenge is to convince the world that India has a firm intent to reinstate the sense of social security in the society, continue with the economic reforms process and that the country has the ability to play a bigger role in the civil nuclear space.
ATHENS Migrants who survived a shipwreck on Friday off the island of Crete in the southern Mediterranean have told authorities their boat set sail from Egypt and carried about 350 people, the Greek coastguard said on Saturday.

On Friday, Greek authorities said 340 people were rescued and nine bodies were recovered about 75 nautical miles off southern Crete, in territory which falls under Egypt's search and rescue jurisdiction.

State broadcaster ERT carried unsourced accounts the vessel was carrying anything between 500 and 700 people.

More and more people are trying to cross to Italy from the African coastline in recent weeks as the weather improves, particularly from Libya, where people-traffickers operate with relative impunity.

Friday's incident was the third in a week involving migrant rescues or landings near Crete, Greece's southernmost island north of Libya and Egypt. A group of 113 mostly Afghan migrants who landed on a beach in Crete this week had set off from Turkey.

(Reporting by Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Singapore: Prime Minister Narendra Modi had opened a "window of goodwill and dialogue" with Pakistan, but it was slowly closing due to lack of sincerity by Islamabad, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday.

"Prime Minister Modi opened a window of opportunities when he visited Pakistan Prime Minister (Nawaz Sharif). I think that window is slowly closing. Before it closes, Pakistan needs to develop that trust with India on its sincerity on the approach," he said here at the Shangri-La Dialogue.

Noting that Pakistan separates terrorists between good ones and bad ones, he said, "They are after bad ones but the

good ones are promoted to operate in Afghanistan and India. I think that needs to be tackled at a diplomatic level."

Parrikar's remarks was in reference to Modi's surprise visit to Lahore in December 2015 to meet Sharif.

The India-Pakistan talks, which had started during External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's visit to Islamabad

for the Heart of Asia conference, was stalled after the 2 January attack on Pathankot airbase in which seven Indian

security personnel were killed.

India has accused Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group for the attack and has linked the resumption of the

dialogue process to the action taken by Pakistan against the group.
Vatican City: Pope Francis has established legal procedures to remove bishops who botch handling sex abuse cases, saying they can be kicked out of office if the Vatican finds they were negligent in doing their jobs.

In a law published Saturday, Francis answered a long-running demand by victims of abuse and their advocates to hold bishops accountable for failing to protect their flocks from pedophiles. Victims have long accused bishops of covering up for abuse, moving rapists from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police.

In the law, Francis acknowledged that the church's canonical code already allows for a bishop to be removed for "grave reasons." But he said he wanted to precisely state that negligence, especially negligence in handling abuse cases, can cost a bishop his job.

Bishops "must undertake a particular diligence in protecting those who are the weakest among their flock," Francis wrote in the law, called a motu proprio.

The statute alters the original proposal approved by Francis last year to establish a tribunal inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to hear negligence cases. Francis' sex abuse advisory board had recommended that the Congregation prosecute negligent bishops because it is already responsible for overseeing actual sex abuse cases against clergy.

But amid a host of legal and bureaucratic questions posed by that original proposal, Francis decided to streamline the procedure and task the Vatican offices that are already in charge of handling bishop issues to investigate and punish negligence cases.

In the law, Francis said a bishop can be removed if his actions or omissions cause "grave harm," either physical, moral, spiritual or financial, to individuals or communities.

The bishop himself doesn't need to be morally guilty: It's enough if he is purely lacking in the diligence required of his office. When the cases concern abuse, it's enough that the negligence is "serious," the law says.

The procedures call for the Vatican to start an investigation when "serious evidence" is provided that a bishop was negligent. The bishop will be informed and allowed to defend himself. At the end of the investigation, the Vatican can prepare a decree removing the bishop or ask him to resign within 15 days.

If he doesn't, the Vatican can go ahead with issuing a resignation decree.

Any decision to remove the bishop must first be approved by the pope, who will be assisted by a group of legal advisers, the law says.
MOSCOW More than 1,000 militants have begun an offensive against Syrian army positions southwest of Aleppo, the Russian ceasefire monitoring centre in Syria said in a statement on Saturday.

The centre also reported civilians in Aleppo as saying armed groups partly made up of Turkish soldiers had appeared north of the city.





(Reporting by Jack Stubbs; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
BAGHDAD An Iranian-backed Sh'ite Iraqi militia said on Saturday it planned to storm Falluja, Islamic State's stronghold near Baghdad, once civilians left the city, backtracking on earlier statements that it would leave this task to the Iraqi army.

"We will not enter Falluja as long as there are families inside," said Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the Badr Organization, the largest component of the Shi'ite paramilitary coalition known as Hashid Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization.

"Of course, we will go in and rid the city from the evil of this cancerous gland, with nobody preventing us," he said, when asked what would happen if civilians managed to flee the Sunni city that lies 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad.

Falluja is the first Iraqi city that Islamic State captured, in January 2014, and the second largest still under its control after Mosul in the north. Sunni politicians have voiced concern that the presence of Shi'ite militias alongside the army in the battle to retake the city could lead to sectarian violence.

Amiri was speaking to reporters while touring one of the frontlines near Falluja. Last week he said the militias would take part in encirclement operations but leave the army to storm the city.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on June 1 the offensive to dislodge the ultra-hardline Sunni militants had slowed down in order to protect civilians. About 50,000 are trapped in the city, with limited access to water, food and healthcare, according to the United Nations.

Falluja is a historic bastion of the insurgency against the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Shi'ite-led authorities who took over after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
AMMAN The Syrian army has crossed the boundary of Raqqa province, home to the de facto capital of Islamic State, after a major Russian-backed offensive against the militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.

The offensive is the third big assault on the self-proclaimed caliphate in recent days after Iraqi forces attempted to storm a city and a Syrian militia advanced with U.S. support.

The three big offensives are some of the most aggressive campaigns against Islamic State since it declared its aim to rule over all Muslims from parts of Iraq and Syria two years ago.

Heavy Russian air strikes hit Islamic State-held territory in eastern areas of Syria's Hama province, near the boundary of Raqqa province, on Friday when the army reached the edge of the province.

Raqqa city, further east, is Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria and, along with Mosul in Iraq, the ultimate target of those seeking to destroy the group.

The army was making its advances from the Athriya area of eastern Hama province, close to the provincial border with Raqqa. State media said on Friday the army had made territorial gains and inflicted heavy casualties on the militants.

Syrian army spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

State media has given no indication of how many troops are involved in the offensive, or what weaponry they might be using.

The Observatory also had no comment about numbers or weapons, but said at least 26 Islamic States militants had been killed along with nine from the Syrian and allied forces.

The war monitor said the army advance meant it was now almost 40 km from an area in which U.S. backed rebels were also waging an offensive to isolate the militants' strongholds in northern Aleppo from their territories east of the Euphrates river, where Raqqa city is located.

Should the army be able to reach the area where the rebels are also fighting Islamic State, that would leave the ultrahardline group hemmed in here - albeit by forces highly unlikely to work together as they are on opposing sides in the multi-faceted conflict.

The influential pro-Damascus Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar said on Friday the army operation did not aim to reach Raqqa city within the coming weeks, but was to reach Tabqa city and Lake Assad, which Taqba overlooks.

Islamic State captured Tabqa in 2014 at the height of its rapid expansion in Syria and Iraq. Tabqa, the location of an air base, is some 50 km (30 miles) west of Raqqa city.

The town is on a key route that links Raqqa with areas the ultra hardline militants control in northern Aleppo.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Alison Williams)

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Three prime ministers back, which is to say just three years ago, the federal opposition's communications spokesman, Malcolm Turnbull, was a pretty hot ticket at the Sydney Writers' Festival.

Turnbull had long been the favourite among non-Liberal voting liberals  an ex-leader loathed by reactionaries for his mix of economic liberalism, expressed through his commitment to a market solution to carbon abatement, and social liberalism, expressed through his support for multiculturalism, marriage equality, and an Australian republic.

Participating in a panel lamenting the decline of the landmark political speech in the era of social media, the loquacious Turnbull charmed the audience even as he delivered a trademark mini-lecture  by way of interjection  on "probably the greatest writer of English prose", Edmund Burke. It was a typically big call.

But it was the father of modern conservatism's famous 1774 discourse to the electors of Bristol on the nature of parliamentary representation, that Turnbull singled out among what he characterised as the classics of conservative thought.
NSW Fire will remove specialised fire trucks designed to combat high-rise fires and perform apartment building rescues from Sydney's north-west and south-west because of budget cuts.

The Sun-Herald has learnt that the "Brontos", capable of reaching 37 metres, will be removed from fire stations at Hornsby and St Andrews, near Liverpool, and mothballed to save money on staffing them with specialised crew.

NSW Labor's emergency services spokesman Guy Zangari has lashed the decision, which he says "doesn't make sense" when metropolitan Sydney was being transformed by high-rise apartment construction, particularly around railway stations.

"The government will save dollars but is that at the expense of community safety? There is the classic story of the fire in Bankstown  that could happen anywhere in Sydney. If the Bronto is not within distance it will put someone's life at risk," said Mr Zangari.
Rebels bikie gang member Michael Davey was known as the Prince of Penrith, a title that earned him the praise of friends and fellow bikies alike.

But it appears this sense of brotherhood may have faltered in his final hours: police are investigating whether his comrades were behind his execution.

Michael Davey, also known as 'Ruthless', was killed in Kingswood on March 30. Credit:Facebook

Mr Davey  nicknamed Ruthless  was gunned down on home turf in Sydney's west on March 30.

The 30 year old had been a stone's throw from the home he shared with his girlfriend in Stafford Street, Kingswood, when someone opened fire.
A Union Pacific train carrying crude oil derailed and caught fire along Oregon's scenic Columbia River gorge on Friday, forcing the closure of an interstate highway and the evacuation of a school in the first major rail accident involving crude in a year.

Union Pacific Corp., which owns the line, said 11 rail cars from a 96-car train carrying Bakken crude oil derailed about 70 miles east of Portland, near the tiny town of Mosier. It said oil spilled from at least one rail car. There were no injuries.

The crude from North Dakota was purchased by TrailStone Inc.'s U.S. Oil & Refining Co., bound for its refinery in Tacoma, Wash., about 200 miles northwest of the derailment, the company said.

Television footage showed smoke and flames along with overturned black tanker cars snaking across the tracks, which weave through the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.

"I looked outside and there was black and white smoke blowing across the sky, and I could hear the flames," said Mosier resident Dan Hoffman, 32, whose house is about 100 meters from the derailment site. "A sheriff's official in an SUV told me to get the hell out."

While rail shipments have dipped from more than 1 million barrels per day in 2014 as a result of the lengthy slump in oil prices, the first such crash in a year will likely reignite the debate over safety concerns surrounding transporting crude over rail.

"Seeing our beautiful Columbia River Gorge on fire today should be a wake-up call for federal and state agencies  underscoring the need to complete comprehensive environmental reviews of oil-by-rail in the Pacific Northwest," said U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon.

Officials from the Washington state Department of Ecology said there was no sign of oil in the Columbia River or Rock Creek.

Safety measures delayed

Since 2008, there have been at least 10 major oil-train derailments across the United States and Canada, including a disaster that killed 47 people in a Quebec town in July 2013.

The incident comes eight months after lawmakers extended a deadline until the end of 2018 for rail operators to implement advanced safety technology, known as positive train control, or PTC, which safety experts say can avoid derailments and other major accidents.

The measures included phasing out older tank cars, adding electronic braking systems and imposing speed limits, all meant to reduce the frequency and severity of oil train crashes.

The tank cars involved in Friday's crash were CPC-1232 models, which elected officials have raised concerns about in the past even though they are an upgrade from older models considered less safe. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon last year asked federal officials to look into whether the newer cars were safe enough.

Rail operators such as Union Pacific are required under federal law to disclose crude rail movements to state officials to help prepare for emergencies. The rule was put in place after a string of fiery derailments.

In its latest disclosure with the state, Union Pacific said it moved light volumes of Bakken crude oil along its state network, which includes the Oregon line. In March, it transported six unit trains, which generally carry about 75,000 barrels each.

In Oregon, Union Pacific hazardous materials workers responded to the scene along with contractors packing firefighting foam and a boom for oil spill containment.

As emergency responders descended on the crash site, Interstate 84 was closed, students were evacuated from the nearby Mosier Community School, and residents were ordered to leave the area.

Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director of the Columbia Riverkeeper advocacy group, said the crash should raise concerns about Tesoro Corp.'s proposed 360,000 barrels-per-day railport in Vancouver, Wash., which would be the country's largest.

"We are very concerned about additional oil trains passing through our community because of their safety record, the risk of fires, of explosions, the risks of spills," he said.

Reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault, Jarrett Renshaw amd Devika Krishna Kumar in New York, Erwin Seba in Houston, Curtis Skinner in San Francisco and Eric M. Johnson in Calgary, Alberta.
Alexei Navalny, the leading Russian opposition activist who heads the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and the unregistered Party of Progress, was interrogated by police this week, after which his office and home were searched. The police action was connected to a libel case against him brought by former Russian Interior Ministry investigator Pavel Karpov.

Karpov is among a group of people on whom the U.S. government imposed sanctions for their alleged involvement in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, the Hermitage Capital lawyer who died in a Moscow prison in 2009. The Kremlin's own human rights council said Magnitsky, who was arrested accusing Russian officials of involvement in a $230 million tax fraud scheme, was probably beaten to death.

Karpov filed suit against Navalny on May 19, accusing the anti-corruption activist of slandering him by posting a video that asked how an Interior Ministry officer with a modest official salary could have come into possession of expensive cars and apartments without engaging in corrupt practices.

Navalny has been the target of various criminal investigations and has been repeatedly interrogated. On May 17, Navalny and about 30 FBK members were attacked by a group of men wearing Cossack hats and uniforms at an airport in southern Russia. Navalny accused Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and his son Artem of being behind the attack. Back in December, the FBK published a report linking Artem Chaika to organized crime.

In an interview with VOA's Russian service, Navalny discussed his latest problems with Russian law enforcement agencies.

Q: What happened in the latest incident, and why are Russian law enforcement structures once again putting pressure on you?

A: On the morning of June 1, I was called in for questioning. The interrogation was rather formal. And then, after the interrogation, people entered the office and said, "Hello, we are [from] the criminal investigation department. We are going to search you personally." They patted down my back, lifted up my trouser legs, forced me to take off my shoes, checked to see if I had some terrible secrets in my shoes, and then declared that they were going to search my home.

This was, on the one hand, absurd, of course. Because it's ridiculous: What kind of search can you do in a libel case? The criminal case was launched the same day the libel case was filed: There is no indication of why it was [a] slander [case], what information the policeman Pavel Karpov does not like. ... In general, it's all absurd.

But, on the other hand, there is definitely logic in these actions. The logic is that, on the basis of this ridiculous and trumped up case, it is necessary to take away all the equipment, phones, confiscate all of the memory cards; to rummage through them and find something else. Because the task of the authorities is not even connected to this criminal case, or to defend Pavel Karpov of the Magnitsky List, but to fabricate a criminal case against me and guarantee my non-participation in the [September 2016 Russian parliamentary] elections, against the backdrop of the European Court of Human Rights having overturned earlier fabricated cases, one after another.

[In February 2016, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia's conviction of Navalny on embezzlement charges in 2013 was "prejudicial," and that he had been denied a fair trial  ED.]

Q: Pavel Karpov is indeed on the "Magnitsky List"  actually, on two of them, the European one and the American one. Why do you think the Russian state is so seriously protecting those accused of involvement in Magnitsky's death?

A: There has been no reasonable answer to this question.  It had seemed to me it was protecting them because, first of all, America is giving them a hard time, because some foreign senators adopted an act against Russia, so that means [they] have to protect them no matter what, even if they are notorious crooks. This is what I thought before the [Panama Papers] documents were published, which prove that the offshore accounts of the cellist [Sergei] Roldugin, who is an obvious "corrupt coffers" for Vladimir Putin, also received money under this scheme [i.e., the one uncovered by Magnitsky  ED]. These same firms and persons were involved.

[In late April, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which was involved in bringing the Panama Papers to light, reported that Roldugin, a friend of Putin's since the 1970s, "received money from an offshore company at about the same time it was being used to steal money from the Russian government in the notorious Sergei Magnitsky case."  ED.]

I'm certainly not trying to say that the murder of Magnitsky was carried out so that Putin could receive more money  he doesn't need it. It's just that there is a unified money-laundering infrastructure, or that [they] overlap. So, it turns out that the people who stole 5 billion rubles from the budget [which Magnitsky uncovered  ED], also replenished  fully or partially, we do not yet know  the Putin coffers. Therefore, the mechanisms that protect Vladimir Putin personally are involved here.

Q: What do you call a system that is part of the state  in fact, it wears epaulettes  while, at the same time, according to [Hermitage Capital CEO] William Browder, it is involved in a rather interesting way of making money?

A: There is an excellent word, known to everyone  "mafia." This "mafia" system is a merger of bandits and the state. It is a system that is built in part on family ties. Their children are already inter-married. Loyalty is based on the fact that these people grew up together since childhood, the same way it happens in the real mafia. So you have these people who grew up together, the way Roldugin grew up with Putin, [and who are] loyal [to each other]. This perfectly describes the system as a mafia. It is honed mainly to receive benefits for making money, but if, as a collateral effect, it is necessary to kill someone, it kills people.

Q: Was the latest criminal case against you launched because the authorities sense the previous ones failed, or simply because the system will never leave you alone?

A: In as much as this is being done very deliberately and very crudely, it is, of course, a signal to a certain circle of people that, look, nothing distracts us and we won't let up. But more generally, of course, it is the practical implementation of a political decision that I should not be allowed to participate in the elections. And, in general, that no independents should be allowed to run, and that to prevent us from participating in the elections, they will bring criminal cases against us. This concerns not only me. A lot of people  my colleagues from both the Party of Progress and the Anti-Corruption Foundation  can't run for office because they were put on probation, and several are in jail or political exile. A decision was made, and I'm trying to derail this decision from a formal point of view by having it overturned by the European Court of Human Rights, where I win. But they're simply inventing new cases.
Harassing phone calls, surveillance of the elderly, an apparent hack attack, detentions and a broad net of censorship online.



These are but a few of the tactics Chinese authorities have been using both at home and abroad in recent days and weeks to ensure there is little to no public discussion of the 27th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in China.



Anniversary event hijacked



Yang Jianli, a former Tiananmen activist, said that just as he was supposed to host an online forum on Friday to mark the anniversary, it was hijacked.



The forum was going to include participants from six cities worldwide, including Hong Kong, Tokyo and Paris. Nearly 1,000 people were registered to participate.



But in the end, we could only broadcast from Washington D.C. and only the participants from Washington D.C. could speak, Yang said. The others could watch and listen but could not speak because the system we tried to use was paralyzed. Hacked severely.



Yang said that at the same time he was about to begin hosting the conference the harassing calls began. More than 12 hours later they were still coming.



And as we have been speaking (during the interview) two more calls came in. And then another one, he said. Yang said that when he answers the call, no one says anything.



But the more the government tightens up (its controls), the more relevant Tiananmen is to the current situation, he said.



Testing authorities' resolve



Each year, and ever since the crackdown took place, Chinese authorities have been working tirelessly to enforce what some call a historical amnesia of the events of June 4, 1989. But each year, there are those who continue to test the resolve of the government both in China and overseas, demanding a full account of what happened or working to make sure that June 4 is not forgotten.



This year, as the anniversary was approaching, groups of activists have gathered in numerous locations throughout China and posted photos on social media urging the public to not forget. In some photos, citizens revealed their faces, in others they wore masks.



Four activists, including Qi Zhiyong, whose legs were maimed when a tank ran over them on the night of June 3, have been traveling around China taking photographs of themselves wearing T-shirts, which read June 4th Never Forget.



To this day, the number of students and citizens who were killed when tanks and troops rolled into the city to disperse peaceful protesters is unknown.



In one photo posted on Weibo, which has Tiananmen Square in the background and Mao Zedongs portrait, the post read: Li Xiaoling and Tiananmen victim Qi Zhiyong visit a familiar place to look for his left leg. The photo has since been removed.



In Chinas southwestern province of Sichuan, two individuals were detained after they tried to sell bottles of limited edition liquor commemorating the crackdown. The bottles featured an image similar to the iconic photo Tank Man of the man who stood in front of a column of military tanks near Tiananmen Square. On the bottle of liquor, however, there is a man sitting cross-legged on the ground with a laptop computer.



Tank Man UNESCO bid

Recently, Yang Jianli and his group, Initiatives for China, along with photographer Charlie Cole and the Newseum nominated images and video of Tank Man to be accepted into the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. The nomination includes material from five photojournalists and two cameramen who shot the images.



China of course is definitely going to push back. China has tremendous influence in the U.N. We all know that, Yang said. But we stand some chance.



A final decision on the matter wont be made until next year and Yang adds that it is likely that a final decision will rest on the shoulders of the director-general of UNESCO, Irina Bokova. The director-general is also in the running for the post of United Nations Secretary-General now held by Ban Ki-moon.



To this day the identity of Tank Man is still unknown, much like the total number of those killed in the crackdown.



Estimates from rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand.



Final verdict?



And while many of Chinas younger generation know little about the incident, China has ruled that its verdict on the bloody June 4 crackdown of peaceful protesters or what it calls a political disturbance is final.



But that has not stopped parents of those who were killed from pressing the government each year for three simple things: the truth, accountability and compensation. In return, authorities have ignored their requests and instead put many of the parents, some in the 70s and 80s, under surveillance.



In a statement released earlier, the group said that for the past 27 years they have been living in a state of white terror and suffocation. Members of the group they said are eavesdropped on, followed and even detained. Their computers are searched and confiscated.



The police use contemptible means such as making up stories, issuing threats, etc. against us, the statement said.



Earlier in March, Tiananmen Mothers co-founder Ding Zilin, 79, spoke with VOA about the surveillance she was under and her frustrations with authorities' arrogance and unwillingness to even respond to the groups annual letters.

She also talked about how angry authorities get whenever she is interviewed by Western media.



Its laughable that they would use such high-tech methods to keep me under surveillance. Isnt that such a waste, Ding said.



Ding, who lost her son during the Tiananmen crackdown, and recently her husband and daughter as well, has been barred, from April through the anniversary, from receiving any visitors that are not approved by the Beijing Public Security Bureau.



And if they are allowed to come, only one can visit at a time, according to the group Tiananmen Mothers.
The Syrian army reached the edge of the northern province of Raqqa Saturday, home to the defacto capital of the self-claimed caliphate of the Islamic State group fighting in Syria and neighboring Iraq.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Syrian troops reached the administrative border of Raqqa province, backed by Russian airstrikes.

It said that during three days of fighting at least 26 Islamic State militants had been killed along with nine from the Syrian troops and allied forces.

Syrian troops began to move toward the province Wednesday, the same day that U.S.-backed forces attacked the IS-stronghold of Manbij, some 115 kilometers to the northwest of Raqqa.

Troops with the U.S.-backed, predominantly Kurdish, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) advanced closer to Manbij Saturday. The observatory said that SDF fighters had captured 34 villages near Manbij.

It is unclear whether the attacks were coordinated.

IS Fighting 4 Battles



IS fighters are also engaged in fierce battles with the al-Nusra front for the rebel-held stronghold of Marea, a town nearly 70 kilometers west of Manbij, but so far has not captured the city.



While fighting continues in Raqqa province, Manbij and Marea, IS fighters are also coming under fire in their stronghold of Fallujah by Iraqi government forces that launched their offensive on the city almost two weeks ago.



Violence in and around the contested northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest and once commercial center, claimed more lives Saturday, according to Russian sources that put the number of killed at 40 and injured at 100.

The city has been the scene of fierce fighting, even during a cease-fire brokered by the U.S. and Russia that took effect in late February, but collapsed weeks later.
The U.S. secretary of defense and his South Korean counterpart discuss Asia region security issues, including North Korea and its controversial nuclear program.

Ash Carter and Han Min-koo met Saturday on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia's largest annual security forum.

They both strongly condemned the North's recent nuclear test and missile launches, calling on the North to abandon its nuclear program "in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner," according to a statement.

The U.S. "reaffirmed its ironclad commitment" to the defense of South Korea, the statement said.

Last month, the South dismissed a North Korean proposal to hold military talks in late May or early June.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said the North's proposal did not include a denuclearization plan, but was instead aimed at disrupting international cooperation on sanctions and splitting domestic public opinion.

The two Koreas share the world's most heavily fortified border since their war in the the early 1950s ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

About 28,500 U.S. troops are deployed in South Korea as deterrence against North Korea.
TWIN FALLS | Fishing is one of Idahos most popular recreational activities. Winning money is a favorite pastime, too.

And while the bright lights and big dollars of the Bassmaster Classic are probably beyond the reach of most weekend warriors, local anglers have ample opportunities to compete for cash right here in the Magic Valley.

Tournament competition puts a fun twist on the relaxation usually associated with fishing. With time winding down and money on the line, every fish counts  and one spit hook could mean the difference between winning big or going home empty-handed.

Its a lot of fun, said Zach Taylor, president of the Magic Valley Bassmasters club. Im a competitive person, and tournament fishing gives me an opportunity to compete while doing something Im really passionate about.

Competitive angling is easier to try than most fishermen realize, too. Between March and October, more than 150 sanctioned tournaments take place across the Gem State, and many of those are within shouting distance of the Magic Valley.

Tournament Fishing

Most fishing contests are bass tournaments, and most Idaho bass tournaments follow a similar format.

Anglers typically compete in teams of two and, using only artificial lures, attempt to catch a limit of five fish. The fish must be kept in an aerated live well over the course of the day.

Once a five-fish limit is reached, anglers try to upgrade to heavier fish until the allotted time is up. The five heaviest fish are taken to the weigh-in, where they are quickly weighed and placed in the release boat. Prize money is awarded to the winners, then the release boat sets the fish free. Penalties are incurred if fish dont survive.

Id say 99 percent of the fish we catch are released alive, Taylor said.

Most tournaments are available only to club members, but all three Magic Valley groups host open events where new anglers can give tournament fishing a try.

Fishing derbies are another option. They offer an inexpensive, laid-back and more family-friendly approach to competitive fishing. An upcoming example is the annual John McClatchy Memorial Tournament, set for June 18 at Magic Reservoir. The derby is open to all licensed anglers, and the entry fee is $30. Prizes are awarded to the three biggest fish of the day, which are typically rainbow trout.

Local Clubs

The Magic Valley is home to three bass clubs: Magic Valley Bassmasters, Mini-Cassia Bassers and Idaho Bass Hunters. All three host monthly tournaments and meetings, and membership dues are about $78 annually. Some local anglers participate in two or even all three clubs.

Mini-Cassia Bassers was founded in 1993 with three goals in mind: create better fishing opportunities in the region, help members become better fishermen and have fun. The club holds its meetings at 7 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month at Connors Cafe in Heyburn.

I think what I enjoy most is the people Ive gotten to know through the years, club president Phil Mai said. Its been a lot of fun, and weve caught a lot of fish.

Mini-Cassia Bassers is holding its annual open tournament June 4 at Milner Reservoir. The club currently has about 35 members, and Mai said the group would like to add some younger anglers.

Magic Valley Bassmasters meets at 7 p.m. on the first Wednesday of every month at Idaho Joe's in Twin Falls. The club, which has between 30 and 40 members, hosted its annual open tournament in mid-May at Milner Reservoir.

It gives people an opportunity to come and see if they like the competitive side of fishing, Taylor said. Our club is a close-knit group of friends, even though we are fishing against each other. We love to see new people join  its good for the club, and good for the sport.

Idaho Bass Hunters holds its monthly meeting at 7 p.m. on the second Thursday of every month, also at Idaho Joes. Club president Steve Stephens says that during his decade of membership, hes seen a huge increase in the quality of Magic Valley bass, which are almost exclusively smallmouths.

At our most recent tournament, the average bag (of five fish) was 14 pounds, Stephens said. When I first started fishing here, weights werent even close to that.

Idaho Bass Hunters will hold its open tournament Sept. 24 at Milner Reservoir. But Stephens encourages anglers to take advantage of the clubs unique join at the ramp policy before then.

You can show up wherever were fishing, pay your dues, and fish the tournament, Stephens said.

Get Involved

If tournament fishing piques your interest, its easy to get involved. Here is a look at next month's tournaments in and around the Magic Valley:

June 4: 5 a.m.-5 p.m. at Milner Reservoir (Riverside Boat Ramp), Mini-Cassia Bassers, Mcb.idahobassfed.com

June 4: 5 a.m.-4 p.m., at Anderson Ranch Reservoir (Curlew Boat Ramp), Idaho Bass Hunters, email steven.p.stephens@us.army.mil

June 18: 6:30 a.m.-1 p.m., at Magic Reservoir, John McClatchy Memorial Tournament.

June 25: 5 a.m.-5 p.m., at Anderson Ranch Reservoir (Curlew Boat Ramp), Idaho Bassmasters, Idahobassmasters.org

June 25: 4:30 a.m.-4 p.m., at Massacre Rocks State Park (State Park Boat Ramp), Snake River Valley Bass Club, Srvb.idahobassfed.com

Find the full list of upcoming tournaments with permits from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game: Fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/fish/?getPage=267
RUPERT  Police say a man convicted of felonies in Idaho and California was arrested when officers found a 9 mm handgun, 81 grams of cocaine and  ounce of marijuana while searching his Rupert home Friday morning.

The arrest of 59-year-old Melvin Tiner started with a traffic stop of another person who was driving what police called a suspicious vehicle on H Street.

That stop and arrest were the result of good police work, said Michael Tribe, Minidoka Countys deputy prosecutor.

The officer pulled the vehicle over and, after getting consent from the owner, searched it. He smelled marijuana and found a black leather bag that had a pipe that still had plant residue, court records said.

The officer reported finding a meth pipe with white residue, court records said.

The owner, who was arrested, said the meth pipe was Tiners and said officers could find a more drugs at Tiners house, court records said.

Because of cooperation with the officer, the cars owner and another person in the car were released from custody.

After a search warrant for Tiners home was approved, Rupert police searched the home just after 4 a.m.

One officer found a filing cabinet in a bedroom with three bags inside a black sock. Two bags with a white powdery substance had 28 grams written in black marker while a third had no writing, court records said. The substance inside it tested positive for cocaine and weighed more than 76 grams, court records said.

About 37 grams of marijuana was found on a desk along with several pipes and a loaded .45 caliber handgun, court records said.

Officers also found several unused bags like the ones that contained marijuana, a receipt for the bags, a digital scale, a plate, miscellaneous paraphernalia and objects with a gold-colored substance that tested positive for marijuana, court records said.

Tiner told police all of the items in the bedroom were his and that his was planning on moving back to California.

Instead, he was arrested and charged with three felonies: cocaine trafficking, possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and unlawful possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.

Tiner was also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to use, a misdemeanor.

He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Minidoka Magistrate Court on June 15.

Bail has been set at $25,000.
Cassia County

Felony sentencings

Michael Joseph Lacy; felony possession of controlled substance, guilty, $285.50 costs, $100 restitution, 36 months probation, one year determinate time, three years indeterminate time, 102 days credited, penitentiary suspended; misdemeanor possession of controlled substance, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor drug paraphernaliause or possess with intent to use, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.

Christian Albert Parke; felony malicious injury to or destruction of jail, guilty, $495.50 costs, 12 months probation, one year indeterminate time, 104 days credited, penitentiary suspended.

Austin James McFarland; felony possession of controlled substance, guilty, $535.50 costs, $208.34 restitution, 48 months probation, two years determinate time, three years indeterminate time, 49 days credited, penitentiary suspended.

Driving under the influence sentencings

Kelcy M. Hamilton; misdemeanor driving under the influence, guilty, $300 fine, $205.50 costs, 90 days drivers license suspended, 12 months probation, 90 days jail, 88 days suspended, one day credited, community service in lieu of jail three days.

Armando L. Tapia; misdemeanor driving under the influence, guilty, $300 fine, $202.50 costs, 90 days drivers license suspended, 12 months probation, 90 days jail, 88 days suspended, one day credited, two days community service.

Alvin J. Buschhorn; misdemeanor driving under the influence, guilty, $400 fine, $205.50 costs, 90 days drivers license suspended, 18 months probation, 180 days jail, one day credited, eight days community service.

Adam Lee Rowe; misdemeanor driving under the influence, guilty, $300 fine, $202.50 costs, 90 days drivers license suspended, 12 months probation, 90 days jail, 87 days suspended, three days credited; misdemeanor possession of controlled substance, dismissed by court.

Driving under the influence dismissals

Gene Roy Bailey; misdemeanor driving under the influence, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.

Consuelo N. Aguirre; misdemeanor driving under the influence, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.
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TWIN FALLS  Nearly 30 College of Southern Idaho students kicked off their summer by taking classes across the globe.

Students recently returned from two academic trips: field geology in Scotland and Wales, and marine biology and ecology in Belize.

The trips allowed students to gain hands-on learning experiences and broaden their perspectives of the world.

The whole point of these classes is to get students out into the field, geology professor Shawn Willsey said.

For about a decade, CSIs geology and biology departments have offered academic trips. But it was the first time in recent years college administrators gave the OK for international travel.

We hadnt really been able to leave the country for a while, said CSI biology lab manager Sarah Harris, one of two employees who led the Belize trip.

But Harris and biology instructor Carrie Espasandin took 18 students to Belize from May 25 through Thursday for the first time in 11 years.

Participants included four CSI students who are studying science and 14 people from the community education program, including several in their 70s. During spring semester, the group met once a week for class to learn about Belize and do a research project.

Once they arrived in Belize, they all got to see firsthand what they learned about in class, Harris said.

They stayed on the island of Ambergris Caye, where they spent every day snorkeling and exploring marine environments such as mangrove swamps, coral reef habitat and seagrass beds.

The group stayed at an upscale youth hostel, Harris said, with a freshwater swimming pool. It was two blocks from the ocean and about half a mile from a coral reef.

Guides were local Belize residents whove trained to be naturalists, Harris said, and pointed out various species and ecological processes. Students observed problems with the environment and the effects of warming ocean temperatures.

Meanwhile, Willsey led a field geology class May 13-22 in Scotland and Wales. To prepare, eight students met each week during spring semester to learn about the geology of the region.

They researched topics, made presentations and took a comprehensive exam. But a big portion of their grade was field journals, where they recorded scientific observations and hypotheses during the trip.

Geology major Will Froehlich, 22, was one of the class participants. He plans to graduate from CSI this fall with an associates degree and then transfer to Boise State University.

He decided to sign up for the class to get hands-on geology experience. Im really looking for some field work, he said. Shawn told me this class was right up my alley.

It was also a chance to experience a different culture. It was Froehlichs first time outside of the United States.

The course fee was $600 and students were responsible for buying their own plane tickets.

Each spring, the geology department offers a field-based class, with the location changing each time. Past trips have been to sites such as big island of Hawaii, Grand Canyon, Oregon coast, Death Valley and Yosemite.

For many years, the geology and biology departments offered a joint trip. This year, though, they decided to split up into two separate trips.

In the future, Willsey would like to take students to places such as Iceland, Baja, Calif., and the Canadian Rockies.

But Scotland is a particularly relevant place to take geology students. Many of the fundamental concepts and principles in geology have their origins in the country during the late 1700s, Willsey said, including James Huttons view of the Earths age and how rocks form.

Willsey  along with Jeff Cooper, a soil, environmental technology and water resource instructor  led the trip last month. Some participating students had never seen the ocean or been on a plane.

Their experiences outside southern Idaho are pretty limited, Willsey said. Students gain cultural experiences and life lessons you cant replicate.
NAMPA  State GOP officials adopted a resolution Friday at the partys state convention opposing the Obama administrations guidelines on bathroom use by transgender students.

The resolution, cleared by the Resolutions Committee run by party chairman Steve Millington of Buhl, said public schools would be directed not to implement the new directive that says schools must allow students to use the bathroom for the gender with which they identify. It also directs the states constitutional officers, like the governor and superintendent of public education, to develop a coordinated rejection response.

There was no discussion on the possible consequences if such actions were to actually take place  such as the potential loss of millions in federal funding  nor any mention on what to do with the Idaho schools that have already implemented the guidelines.

In Twin Falls and Kimberly, school officials have said theyre waiting to see what will happen in court systems nationwide. In the meantime, they work with individual students who request accommodations. In the Twin Falls School District, trustees adopted a new gender identity and sexual orientation policy in October.

It specifically includes language about bathroom access: Students will be allowed to use the restroom and locker room that corresponds to the gender identity they consistently assert at school.

But theyre not required to do so. And they have the option of using a private restroom if one is available.

The federal directive is being challenged by 11 other states, and Idaho Gov. C.L. Butch Otter has said hell submit an amicus brief supporting the states legal challenge.

In general, the Idaho Republican Convention was the picture of unity Friday, with action happening earlier in the committees that debated issues including bathroom use by transgender students and the credentials of some of the delegates. These smaller groups of delegates met in the morning in curtained-off rooms lining the concourse of the Ford Idaho Center, each named after one of conventions themes  Faith, Family, Freedom  Firearms.

The Resolutions Committee met in the Family Room and adopted six resolutions that will come before the full convention Saturday, including the school bathroom issue and one calling on the Legislature to change the state Constitution to allow the use of the Bible in public schools.

It rejected four, including the two Millington himself brought  one calling on the Legislature to strengthen some campaign finance reporting requirements, and denouncing bigotry, racism and xenophobia everywhere.

These party resolutions arent laws themselves, but they can carry some weight in such a heavily Republican state.

The Bibles in schools resolution noted a bill to allow its use for instructional purposes where relevant passed the Legislature overwhelmingly but was vetoed by Gov. C.L. Butch Otter after the session ended, when the Legislature couldnt override it.

Idaho schools still seem to treat the Bible as a censored document, said Evalyn Bennett, a delegate from Lemhi County who presented the resolution.

This was Millingtons third time as chairman of the Resolutions Committee. He said he tries to encourage debate and discussion, even if this sometimes means straying a bit from the rules to let people speak.

I think that creates an attitude of being more involved by the participants in the committee, he said.

Millington said he had hoped the anti-bigotry resolution would encourage civility in public discourse.

We should encourage one another to be helpful and considerate, he said.

Opponents said it would infringe on free speech or seemed like bowing to political correctness. Millington said he is not a fan of political correctness either, and thats not what he was trying to do.

If were doing the right things for the right reasons, we dont need political correctness, he said.

As for the campaign finance resolution, Millington pitched it as an alternative to the more comprehensive changes being proposed in the initiative the Keep Idaho Elections Accountable campaign is trying to get on the November ballot. Other delegates, though, worried the stricter reporting requirements would be too tough for candidates to follow.

Meanwhile, the Credentials Committee, which met in the Firearms Room, heard and rejected challenges to the delegates from Madison, Bonneville and Bannock counties. The Bannock challenge was led by Rick Martin, a Buhl resident who has been in the news recently for leading the fight against the refugee center in Twin Falls. Martin said he was asked to represent some Bannock County Republicans who had wanted to be delegates but didnt get the chance, and said the county party broke state party rules by voting to adopt a slate of delegates rather than voting on each individually and allowing for debate.

There wasnt a bit of rancor by the time all of the delegates met on the floor Friday afternoon. They unanimously adopted the Credentials Committees report, which means the conventions delegates are officially seated and the full convention can carry on other business, and they named Idahos delegates to the Republican National Convention in July. All of this stands in stark contrast to the 2014 convention in Moscow, which fell apart when the partys more conservative and more moderate wings couldnt even agree on seating the delegates, triggering a court battle that ended with Barry Peterson being removed as the party chairman.

The convention continues Saturday, when delegates will vote on matters such as a platform and party officers. Incumbent Chairman Steve Yates is running for re-election but is expected to face some opposition.

Yates in his speech on Friday focused on the partys gains, noting that 65,000 more people registered Republican to vote in the March presidential primary, bringing the number of registered Republicans higher than the number of unaffiliated voters in Idaho for the first time since anyone has been keeping track.

Yates said the party needs to find ways to engage and keep its new members, and unify behind Donald Trump to beat likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

How many times have Clintons slipped out of traps because we pulled punches? he asked. I have no doubt that our nominee wont pull punches between now and Election Day.

One of Fridays lunchtime speakers was conservative Wall Street Journal columnist Kim Strassel, who called for fewer campaign finance disclosure laws, saying they are being used by liberals to attack conservatives. For example, she said theres no reason to disclose the names of donors to campaigns for ballot initiatives.

Theres no threat of corruption in that, she said.

Strassels upcoming book, The Intimidation Game, includes a chapter on Idahos Frank VanderSloot, the billionaire Melaleuca CEO and major Republican donor. VanderSloot also spoke at lunch, and talked about his court battle with the liberal Mother Jones magazine, which he sued in 2013 in response to an article about VanderSloot buying an ad in the Idaho Falls Post-Register that referenced the homosexuality of one of the papers reporters as a way of attacking his coverage of sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts.

VanderSloot compared liberals use of public shaming against conservatives to the public executions and floggings of the Middle Ages.

If you do this, well make a public example out of you while the whole world watches, VanderSloot said. And the liberal press does their bidding.

VanderSloot lost his lawsuit, but the judges ruling was critical of Mother Jones as well, and VanderSloot cast the outcome as a moral victory because he made his point and cost Mother Jones more than $2 million. After the ruling came out he started a Guardian of True Liberty Fund, getting it started with $1 million, to defend conservatives who say they have been defamed by media.

Were not going to let you lie about us, he said.

VanderSloot, who backed Marco Rubio before he dropped out of the presidential race, said he now supports Trump, who, he said, would fight, and called on conservatives to push back when theyre being lied about.

Bullies dont like people who fight back, he said.
TWIN FALLS | Shelly Egbert was operating on three hours of sleep, but she was ready for Western Days.

Egbert lined up bows, ribbons and headbands inside her booth Baby Bling Boutique on Friday at Twin Falls City Park. Other vendors also readied their stands, arranging T-shirts and displaying necklaces and knives. The Twin Falls Band Shell occasionally blared music as its sound system was tested ahead of time before the night's opening ceremonies.

This is Egbert's sixth year selling her merchandise at Western Days. She's been attending the event since she was a child growing up in Kimberly.

"I like outdoor venues," Egbert said. "I like the ambiance and the coming together of the town."

The 34th annual Twin Falls Western Days kicked off Friday and continues through Sunday at Twin Falls City Park. This years theme is Get Fired Up For Western Days. Saturday's highlights include the Western Days Parade that starts at 9 a.m. and features more than 120 parade float entries. There will be opening ceremonies at noon at Twin Falls City Park and live music will start at 1 p.m.

The parade will begin at Falls Avenue and Blue Lakes Boulevard and will end at Second Avenue South in downtown Twin Falls. This years grand marshal is Doug Maughan, spokesman for the College of Southern Idaho. Pioneers of the Year are Bill and Donna Kyle, owners of McDonalds restaurants throughout the Magic Valley.

Last years Western Days celebration brought in an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people between the parade and the events at the park.

"Once the parade is over, I cannot breathe," Egbert said. "You can't even walk of out this aisle. It's so insane."

Egbert said Western Days wasn't always this big. When she was a child, it had a few arts and crafts booths and a couple of food vendors.

"This has expanded to such a huge venue," she said.

Sherry and Perry LaClair of Portland, Ore., have been coming to Western Days for 10 years. They operate Perry LaClair Sunglasses, a traveling business that specializes in sunglasses and knives. They discovered Western Days after setting up shop at the Twin Falls County Fair. They no longer attend the fair, though they always make a point to come back for Western Days.

"We like this little show," Sherry said. "We know a lot of people."

The LaClairs were standing inside their booth Friday as a few attendees milled around the park. Perry said they used to sell only sunglasses, but once the sun sets, no one want to buy shades. So they started selling knives, plus he also hand makes a few of them.

They stay in their motor home during the event and never have time to explore Twin Falls beyond the park's boundaries. At the conclusion of this year's Western Days, they will pack up and head back to Portland for another event.

On the designated food side of the park, Jerry Foote was serving up mugs of old-fashioned soda at his stand JC's Chuck Wagon Soda.

Jerry and his wife, Cindy, started their business seven years ago in Kanab, Utah.

They have been attending Western Days for three years after Cindy's sister moved to Twin Falls. Her sister is now planning to move to Utah, but the Foote's plan to keep coming back.

"We decided we will still come back here," Jerry said. "It's fun. It's extremely well run."

As customers approached their stand, they took turns leaving the shade to fill mugs of sarsaparilla, vanilla cream and orange cream. Friday is usually the calm before Saturday's storm of people.

Cindy said they are told to park their vehicles at the park before the parade. If you wait until after the parade, it's difficult to find an open spot.

"Before the parade, it's sit down and take it easy," Jerry said. "After 11 a.m. and on, it's very busy."

Egbert was also preparing for the rush of the weekend. Her three children were with their grandparents Friday. On Saturday morning, she would attend the parade with them. But as soon as it is over, she plans to book it back to the park.

"I'm probably going to go to bed early tonight," Egbert said. "Tomorrow is the big day."
Malnutrition has reached a critical point in landlocked Niger, the United Nations said on Thursday.

According to the UN, malnutrition among children in the west-African country has reached the maximum threshold.

The prevalence rate of acute malnutrition continues to fluctuate around 15%, corresponding to the emergency threshold set by the World Health Organization, the UN said.

The UNs Office of Humanitarian Affairs in Niamey revealed that between January and April, more than 176,000 children out of which 65,000 suffering severe malnutrition were hospitalized.

Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, is struggling to feed its own uprooted people as well as refugees from Nigeria.

Nigers president, Mahamadou Issoufou last week said, his nation is facing a catastrophic humanitarian situation trying to crush Boko Haram from across the border with Nigeria and tackle food scarcity at home.

The UN World Food Program says almost half a million people need food aid in Diffa region, including those at the refugee camps.

Nigers landscape makes crop production difficult, and its overreliance on the commodities sector resulted in a revenue shortage in the wake of lower prices on the world stage.
Karim Wade, son of former President Abdoulaye Wade, sentenced to 6 years in prison last year for money laundering could soon be set free according to the west-African nations President Macky Sall.

President Macky Sall who is pushing for political reforms in the country, told the media on Thursday that Wades possible release might happen before the end of the year, depending on the judicial process.

A special court in Senegal, last year sentenced the son of former president Abdoulaye Wade to six years in prison for corruption, dashing his hopes to run for the presidential elections due in 2017.

Karim Wade, a 46-year-old former minister who denies any wrongdoing, was found guilty of illicit enrichment and fined the equivalent of more than $230m.

According to the prosecutors, many of his assets were traced to bank accounts in Monaco and Singapore, and offshore companies in Panama and the British Virgin Islands. Karim Wade maintains that all his assets are gifts from his father and other friends.

President Macky Sall, who ended Abdoulaye Wades 12-year rule in a hotly contested election in 2012, said at the time his government would not tolerate any attempt to destabilize the West African country following the court ruling.
The death, last Tuesday, of Mohamed Abdelaziz who headed the Polisario separatist for almost 40 years has raised a number of questions as to the future of the movement, which owes its existence to Algeria that sheltered and supported it, militarily, financially and diplomatically, for decades to use it in a proxy war against neighboring Morocco.

For the optimists, the passing of Abdelaziz offers an opportunity for change. His successor can open a new page in relations with Morocco and end one of the worlds most pointless stalemates. Placing the interests of the population first, he can free them to choose their own futures. He can negotiate a reunification of the territory  and reunite families long separated by a border of lethality, stated Ahmed Charai, a Mid-East policy advisor in Washington, in a column published in the Huffingtonpost.com.

The decision may not be entirely in his hands: The Polisario is ultimately a proxy army of the Algerian military oligarchy  a pin they use to prick Morocco in an enduring, and equally tragic, Cold War. Here, of course, is where the courage of a real leader comes in  the true independence of conscience and mind that would serve his people and help secure the world, the columnist pointed out.

For the more pessimists, the passing away of Mohamed Abdelaziz will not bring forth any change, since the man was at the orders of Algerian Generals and rulers.

On the morrow of the death, a Moroccan official commented that the Polisario leaders death is a non-event from the political standpoint and will have no impact on the Moroccan Sahara issue.

Mohamed Abdelaziz was, as his successor will be, an extra and not the real actor in the Sahara issue, which was and which remains managed elsewhere, said the Moroccan official, alluding to Algiers that retains overall control of this conflict that it had created in connivance of Moamar Gadaffis Libya in the early 70s, during the cold war era.

And since then, the civilian and military rulers of Algiers have used the Polisario leaders as puppets and have repeatedly hampered any consensual political settlement of the conflict and even prevented any direct contact between the separatists and Morocco.

As outlined by Mohamed Ali El Admi, aka Omar Hadrami, a former founding member of the Polisario, who quitted the Front and returned to Morocco years ago, the Algerian military oligarchy never allowed Mohamed Abdelaziz to get in touch with Morocco.

Yet, on his deathbed, Mohamed Abdelaziz, who battled lung cancer for over a year, confessed to his physicians at the Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, in the United States, and to his inner circle, that he had realized that his own beliefs had become obsolete and that the long-simmering conflict in the region was pointless.

The confessions were reported by a number of US news websites, including US News & World Report and American Media Institute (www.aminewswire.com) as well as by Spanish news website lainformacion.com.

According to these websites, Mohamed Abdelaziz said on the eve of his death that he felt guilty to have been involved in the regional Sahara conflict and that he regretted his alliance with Algeria.

The dying leader also regretted his alliance with Algeria and felt guilty over the conflict, wrote the author of the story entitled Dying Sahara rebel leader regretted Algeria alliance. Algeria sheltered and supported the rebel Polisario Front for decades as part of a proxy war against the neighboring kingdom of Morocco, it recalled, pointing out that Algeria provided weapons, tanks, food, passports, and millions of dollars to the Polisario Front over the last four decades.

According to the US news website, in addition to his regrets, Abdelaziz reportedly made a surprising final request: that he be buried in Bir Lahlou, a small village in Morocco.

The request is not that surprising since Abdelaziz was born in Marrakesh, Morocco, and his parents and family are living in their homeland Morocco.

Abdelazizs father, Khalili Ben Mohamed Al-Bachir Rguibi, was member of the Moroccan Army and is active in the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs.

The Polisario Front will choose a new secretary general at the end of the 40-day mourning, but analysts say there will be a single candidate in the election, and of course, the candidate will necessarily have the blessings of the Algerian oligarchy.

Unfortunately, this oligarchy only cares about its hegemonic aims and does not seem ready to address the situation of the thousands of Sahrawis forcibly held in the Tindouf camps and the human tragedy unfolding in these camps, in contempt of all humanitarian conventions and international law.
Sweden, the country hosting this year's European Obesity Summit in Gothenburg (1-4 June) has always been associated with good health indicators. However new research presented at the summit shows that obesity has continued to increase across mid-Sweden since the start of the new millennium. The study is by Dr Anu Molarius, Competence Centre for Health, Vastmanland County Council, Vasteras, Sweden, and colleagues.

The area studied includes four counties with about one million inhabitants. It does not include any big cities such as Stockholm or Gothenburg but several smaller cities such as Uppsala (with about 200 000 inhabitants), and Vasteras and Orebro (with about 140 000 inhabitants each).

The simple aim of this new research was to investigate trends in the prevalence of obesityby age and level of education in the general population in mid-Sweden from year 2000 to 2012. A postal questionnaire was sent to a random population sample aged 25-74 years in years 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012. The overall response rates were 67%, 65%, 60% and 53%, respectively, and the study included 29017, 27385, 25910 and 24152 respondents, respectively. Obesity (BMI of over 30 kg/m2) was based on self-reported weight and height.

The researchers found that age-standardised prevalence of obesity increased from 13% to 17% in women and from 12% to 17% in men between 2000 and 2012. Obesity increased in all age groups from 2000 to 2008 and continued to increase among the middle aged (45-64 years) between 2008 and 2012. (see table below)

The socioeconomic gradient in obesity changed during the study period since the absolute increase in obesity was steepest at the middle educational level. In 2012, the prevalence of obesity was almost twice as high at both middle and low educational levels compared with high educational level. After making corrections to the data to adjust for potential errors in self-reported weight and height, the researchers estimated the "true" prevalence of adult obesity to be approximately 20% in 2012 for both men and women.

Dr Molarius says: "Obesity has continued to increase in the general population, but the increase among people of mid-educational level appears to have been the most rapid."

She adds: "The prevalence is about 2 percentage points higher in this area we studied than in national studies, where the population is more concentrated in big cities which have a lower prevalence of obesity in general. But we think that similar trends over time are probable. To verify this, however, national studies are needed."

"While obesity may be slowing down in some groups, it is not in the majority. The continuing increase among the middle-aged and among those with a middle level education, who represent half of the adult population, is a major public health challenge."

Explore further Obesity rates are not declining in U.S. youth

Provided by European Association for the Study of Obesity
@PatriciaMazzei

President Barack Obama gave a shout-out in Miami on Friday to U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, who faces a contested primary election.

Wasserman Schultz is chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, which hosted Obama for a fundraiser at the Coconut Grove home of attorney Robert Rubenstein. Her opponent, Tim Canova, has been endorsed by presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

Obama described Wasserman Schultz as "somebody who I don't know how she does it, because she's everywhere all the time, non-stop, and she's a mom and a wife and has been just incredibly supportive of my agenda."

"She's taken tough votes when they're the right thing to do, and she's somebody who I have counted on consistently," Obama said. "She's had my back. I want to make sure we have her back."

The about 90 donors gathered at the dinner gave her a standing ovation.

Obama also gave shout-outs to several other attendees, including former Gov. Charlie Crist, who is now running for Congress in St. Petersbur ("a great friend," Obama said). And he praised a candidate who wasn't there: U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy of Jupiter. Earlier Friday, Obama attended a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser for Murphy on Miami Beach.

"I think he's going to be outstanding in the United States Senate," Obama said.

Photo credit: Andrew Harnik, Associated Press
@PatriciaMazzei

President Barack Obama might have thought that, by this point, Democrats would have already settled on a nominee to try to follow him into the White House. That way, Obama would be free to traverse the country to defend his legacy and support his preferred successor.

Instead, its the first week of June, and Hillary Clinton is still fending off Bernie Sanders, at least until Tuesday, when shes expected to reach the magic number of delegates to make her the partys choice.

So when Obama traveled to Miami on Friday to raise money for Democrats, he couldnt devote himself to bragging about a specific presidential candidate who will be on the Nov. 8 ballot.

What he did instead was boast about his own record, particularly on the economy.

If what youre deeply concerned about is the state of the middle class and the ability of people to work hard and get ahead and pass on opportunities to your kids and your grand-kids  if thats what youre concerned about, then this election shouldnt be close, Obama said at a fundraiser held at the Coconut Grove home of attorney Robert Rubenstein.

Republicans, he continued, have not offered a coherent economic theory but rather rhetoric that is feeding resentments.

So being able to say that its immigrants or its gays or its somebody that is taking something away from you  thats the essence of the message that the Republican nominee is delivering, and frankly has been the message thats been delivered by this Republican Congress for too long, he said. And its divisive, and its factually wrong.

More here.

Photo credit: Andrew Harnik, Associated Press
As I begin to write this dispatch on a Thursday morning, journalist Rana Ayyub s self-published book Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up has shot up the bestseller list on Amazon India. Im still to complete it. All I can say is that it is a compelling read. And you got to give it to Ayyub for guts, as Salil Tripathi wrote in his review of the book in Mint.

That said, my mind is grappling with a problem nobody seems to have conclusive answers to.

1. I do something wrong right now.

2. I am convinced in the long run that wrong is for the greater good.

3. Did I do the right thing then?

This question has haunted humans forever. I tried to address it as part of this series in the past as well. It forms one of the central themes in the discourse between Krishna and Arjuna in the Mahabharata.

The immediate provocation to ask this question to myself yet again is Ayyubs book. The sum and substance of which are the findings from a sting conducted by her in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots. In trying to do that, she went undercover as an Indo-American filmmaker making a film on Vibrant Gujarat".

She gained access to people in all the right places through subterfuge to get them on tape, the outcome of which is the book. The consequences for those implicated in the book, which includes the current ruling elite, can be disastrous in the long run.

When she was done with her research, writing and ready to publish, nobody was willing to touch it. Ayyub ended up a nervous wreck, and took the self-publishing route. Sans any publicity, either in the news or by way of advertising, that the book is on the best-seller list in India and that it has overtaken fixtures there such as Chetan Bhagat, Robin Sharma and Paulo Coelho is, to put it mildly, amazing.

I listened in to the conversation at the book launch in New Delhi in two parts, with Ayyub anchored by the political editor of Caravan magazine, Hartosh Singh Bal, noted human rights lawyer Indira Jaisingh and Rajdeep Sardesai, now consulting editor at the India Today group.

It was an interesting one and at various points, the question was asked of Ayyub: The means that you deployed to accomplish your ends, did you not betray the faith of those who placed their trust in you?"

She was unambiguous in that when all other means to get to the truth had failed, she was left with nothing but subterfuge to get to it. That is one among the many reasons, she says, she ended a nervous wreck. But it had to be done in the interests of the greater common good. Now, what is the greater common good"?

This is a question all of us humans face in our lives. By way of personal example, I can think of a choice I was compelled to make in an earlier assignment, the details of which I do not intend to get into. I faced a choice. Either I toe a line that I disagree with, or get the boot.

If I toe the line, I continue to live the good life. If I dont, the boot followsthe consequences of which would be felt not just by me, but my family as well. By that yardstick, in my world, following the greater common good" would mean I toe the line. But if I did, when it is time to die, I know deep down that I will not forgive myself for giving in to the greater common good". What am I to do?

When extrapolated into the Bhagavad Gita, in some way, this is the kind of dilemma that stared the great warrior Arjuna of the Pandava clan as he got ready for battle against his cousins on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu and mentor to the Pandavas, argues with Arjuna and tells him his duty is to fight, irrespective of the consequences.

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen thinks Arjunas refusal to take a consequence-independent position is an admirable one. He discusses why in much detail in his book The Argumentative Indian. It earned him the title of a peacenik and his theories around the discourse have been the subject of much discoursewith the more popular being one penned by R. Jagannathan, the editorial director at Swarjaya magazine.

In an earlier avatar at Firstpost, Jagannathan posited his understanding of Krishnas message to Arjuna: When you have decided on war after all options for peace ended, you have a duty to fight. That is your dharma."

In trying to gain some more perspective, I thought it only appropriate then I call Sardesai. We spoke briefly over the phone. What did he think of Ayyubs operation?

As Bal describes it, when invited to be a panellist, most people chickened out at the last minute because they developed sudden travel plans" or something urgent just came up". But Sardesai turned up.

He is so often at the receiving end of trolls on social media as well that it took a personal toll on him. It compelled him to get off Twitter for a brief while because he couldnt handle the abuse any more. For every 10 people who abuse me, there is that one person wants to engage with me. I cannot let them down or be seen as running away," he said. And he got back.

I asked him where he stands on Ayyubs operation.

In my experience, there is a thin line between what constitutes a sting and what comprises an entrapment. So, I am wary of sting operations. Also, it must be done only when the public interest is overwhelming and there is absolutely no other way of getting to the truth. What you eventually want is justice. That is what has driven me through all of these years. You have to constantly push the system. The ends versus means arguments does not stand to scrutiny if you cannot provide justice eventually," he argued.

But who is to decide what is justice? What is justice to you may not be justice to somebody else," I said.

Yes, there is an element of subjectivity in what is justice. There is no denying that. But we must look at the context," he said. The reason Gujarat continues to remain in the minds of people is because the media hasnt let go of the case. But what about the 3,000 Sikhs who got killed in Delhi during the 1984 riots when the Congress was ruling? Why are so few of the killers and those who instigated them behind bars yet? In Mumbai, hundreds of people were butchered in 1992. How many were convicted? You start out thinking during the normal course of things, justice will get done. But it doesnt work that way in our country."

I thought he sounded cynical.

Yes, I have become cynical. But cynicism cannot become your way of life, nor should it stop you from shaking up the system every once a while," he said, I suspect, a tad pensively. To that extent, he said he is philosophically on Krishnas sidein that you have to do what is your duty because that is the right thing to do.

While on duty and the right thing to do, I was almost tempted to probe him on why he didnt run the tapes on the cash-for-votes scandal in 2008 when he was the editor-in-chief of CNN-IBN. Siddharth Varadarajan, now editor of The Wire, had then written in The Hindu, of which he was the editor at the time, that five days before the Manmohan Singh government faced a crucial vote of confidence on the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008, a political aide to Congress leader Satish Sharma showed a US Embassy employee two chests containing cash he said was part of a bigger fund of Rs50 crore to Rs60 crore that the party had assembled to purchase the support of MPs".

The tapes that allegedly contained evidence of the wrongdoing were with Sardesai, who had gone on air to announce a coup that these tapes would be telecast later in the evening. But it was pulled out and for inexplicable reasons wasnt broadcast until 20 days later.

Various accounts exist on why Sardesai didnt, including that he copped out. But because he has explained his position clearly in his book 2014: The Elections That Changed India, I thought asking him why wouldnt add any more value to the debate than what he had already written about.

In a separate email though, he wrote to me, It was aired after due diligence and legal scrutiny. We did not chicken out. When to air is a matter of editorial judgement, not for a political party to decide."

Now, if I were to coalesce all of these and argue from Krishnas position that I ought to take a consequence-independent position and simply stick to my dharma, or duty, I am not sure the greater common good" theory will hold good for me. But then, to a layperson like me, neither does Sens argument that Arjunas position is an admirable one.

To my mind, on the one hand, if I accept Krishnas position, then I ought to be plain dumb and incapable of independent thought. I refuse to accept that. On the other hand, if I accept Sens argument, it leaves me in a position of tamas (lethargy or darkness, as the Gita calls it, and one when a human needs informed and wise counsel of the kind Krishna offered Arjuna). The problem is, as humans, all of us are susceptible to foibles and may not always have access to wise counselor perhaps may choose not to seek it for whatever reason.

If it may interest you, may I point you towards a very nuanced paper on the theme that I stumbled across recently titled Consequentialism and the Gita (read here).

So, where does that leave simpletons like me who do not have much bandwidth left after the exigencies of life are done with? Much thought later, I have arrived at a position for my personal life. This is not to suggest it is not amenable to change.

But as things are, if money be the only variable by which the greater common good is going to be measured, count me out. My family and I need only so much and we are pretty damn happy with it. Everything else is a bonus.

I have read, re-read, and heard Clayton Christensens How Will You Measure Your Life? Though I do no subscribe to his Christian doctrine, my family does. But thats okay with me and Im not going to try to change them. If their faith makes them happy, then so be it. Every place else, what Christensen stands for resonates with me.

As for Rana Ayyub, I do not know her nor did I attempt to reach out to her for this piece. All I can say is: Youve got guts girl.

Charles Assisi is co-founder of Founding Fuel Publishing.

His Twitter handle is @c_assisi

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I had one fundamental question about economics: Why do some places prosper and thrive while others just suck? Its not a matter of brains. No part of the earth... is dumber than Beverly Hills, and the residents are wading in gravy. In Russia, meanwhile, where chess is a spectator sport, theyre boiling stones for soup. Nor can education be the reason. Fourth graders in the American school system know what a condom is but arent sure about 9 x 7. Natural resources arent the answer. Africa has diamonds, gold, uranium, you name it. Scandinavia has little and is frozen besides. Maybe culture is the key, but wealthy regions such as the local mall are famous for lacking it."

Thus begins American libertarian (and bitingly funny) journalist P.J. ORourkes 1998 book Eat The Rich: A Treatise on Economics. For those who havent read ORourkeor havent heard of himthe titles of three of his books will suffice: Give War A Chance, Parliament of Whores and Dont Vote!It Just Encourages The Bastards.

You get the idea. Cynical, iconoclastic, doesnt mince words, doesnt give a damn about good taste".

Oh, and one of his early pieces was titled How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink.

So, in the mid-1990s, after a decade of reporting from the worlds trouble spots (Holidays In Hell), ORourke decided to figure out what this whole thingumajig called economics was. The quote that appears on the first page of Eat The Rich is from Thomas de Quinceys Confessions of an Opium Eater: In this state of imbecility, I had, for amusement, turned my attention to political economy."

ORourke took his project seriously. He tried to read up on the subject, all the classic textsAdam Smith, Keynes, Samuelson. Unfortunately, he made little progress, and kept falling asleep while trying to penetrate prose that he found turgid and tedious.

So, he decided to travel around the world and attempt to figure out why some economies worked and others didnt: free market, socialist, and systems nobody could figure out... Id wander around, gape at things, and simply ask people..."

What he observed on the ground led him to classify economies into four basic categories: Good Capitalism (the USeven though what he saw on Wall Street terrified" him), Bad Capitalism (Albania), Good Socialism (Sweden) and Bad Socialism (Cuba).

Eat The Rich also has chapters on RussiaHow (Or How Not) To Reform (Maybe) An Economy (If There Is One)"; TanzaniaHow To Make Nothing Out Of Everything"; Hong KongHow To Make Everything Out Of Nothing"; and ShanghaiHow To Have The Worst Of Both Worlds".

(Note: Many of these economies are very different today from what ORourke saw in the late 1990s.)

The New York Times gave Eat The Rich a rather negative review. But it was written by an economist, and ORourke is, throughout, contemptuous of economistshe stops just short of labelling them as wankers. This particular economist, one Peter Passell, also seems to have approached the book as he would a PhD thesis. Alas," he complains, the pay-off to readers craving fresh insight into the core issues of economics is very modest."

Passell misses the pleasures and insights of Eat The Rich by several miles from at least two directions.

One, ORourke is a superb reporter. Much of the joy of reading Eat The Rich comes from the writers keen observation and the ability to put it all down in caustic prose.

Heres Shanghai in 1997: There was so much scaffolding in Shanghai that when I saw a framework of bamboo poles holding nets over a sapling, I thought, Christ, theyre building trees. Actually not. Miles of once-shady streets have been timbered to make way for steel and glass. Although new trees were being planted. I counted a dozen. And at least two parks hadnt been completely paved. Not that Shanghai has turned its back on nature. The downtown freeway overpasses, stacked four deep, had little flowering window boxes hanging from their guardrails."

Moscow in 1996: I visited a radio station on election night, a radio station still using vacuum tubes in its broadcast equipment. There was a Toshiba laptop in the studio. And this ordinary piece of journalistic equipment was alarming. The laptop, with its crisp design and neat finish, made the whole building look like it had been built by apes. Apes on the take. The place was no more than fifteen years old and the plastic was flaking, the floor tiles were buckling, the walls were crooked, the windows didnt fit... You could break down the doors with a blunt remark. And there, on a wobbly table with a veneer top wrinkled like a relief map of the Urals, sat the little Toshiba, doing the one thing that nothing made in the Soviet Union ever seemed to do. It worked."

If you need just one reasonand I can list manyto read Eat The Rich, it is the sheer quality of reportage and writing.

Two, the NYT reviewer doesnt seem to have read the last chapter of the book, which has no trace of humour or sarcasm, but a thoughtful essay on economic justice and how to measure it. Per-capita GDP is a tricky figure and doesnt tell us much about the well-being of individual people. But there are other statistics that dont present the same problems of averaging. Life-expectancy and infant-mortality rates do tell us how things are going for ordinary folks. No matter how rich a nations elite, its members arent going to live to be 250 and wildly skew the numbers. And a country cant fake a low infant-mortality rate by getting a few rich babies to live while letting all the poor babies die."

This is exactly the foundational logic of Amartya Sens work, which won him the Nobel Prize in 1998. ORourke hadnt read Sen; he reached his conclusions based on what he saw on his travels and poring over economic numbers.

Eat The Rich ends with an angry lament: Poverty is hard, wretched, humiliating... But what poverty is not is sad. Poverty is infuriating. These things dont need to happen. These conditions dont need to exist. We cant solve all the problems of life, but we can solve the problem of gross, worldwide material deprivation... We know how to get rid of poverty. We know how to create wealth. But because of laziness, fear, complacency, love of power, or foolish idealism, we refuse to do it."

Like all great satirists, from Jonathan Swift to Mark Twain to Charlie Chaplin, there beats an impassioned heart inside Patrick Jake ORourke. He tries hard to hide it beneath a nihilistic shell, but he fails.

Thats why you should read Eat The Rich.

Sandipan Deb is the editorial director of swarajyamag.com

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Before Jayant Kripalani coughed his way into millions of Indian households in the iconic ad that cemented Vicks as the reliable remedy for khich-khich" , the company that made it faced a circuitous journey to overcome bureaucratic hurdles and alter its perception as an allopathic medicine from the West.

Contending with hostile regulations, Vicks emerged as a classic example of how over-regulation may produce unintended consequences, some of which undermine the very purpose of governmental control.

The unvarying blue jar of Vicks VapoRub, a ubiquitous restorative for the common cold in homes across the world, evokes nostalgia and familiarity for many Indians. As a brand that has steadily gained the Indian market from the 1960s, it is difficult to dissociate the story of Vicks from that of the growing Indian middle class.

But Vicks reached the Indian masses nearly seven decades after its inception in the US, and by then it had developed both its unique identity and a global presence, and even an interesting bedtime storybook for children.

Vicks was introduced in India in 1964, through a public limited company called Richardson Hindustan Limited (RHL). The parent company, Richardson Merrell, had established an office in India in 1951, but it was only with the institution of a public limited company with more than 10,000 Indian shareholders in 1964 that the brand gained operational freedom.

In the 1960s, RHL was one of many subsidiary companies selling Vicks across the world. It was a remarkable feat for a drug conceived out of necessity at a downtown drugstore in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Lets go back a bit. The year was 1894, and Lunsford Richardson, a Latin scholar by training and a pharmacist by profession, was dissatisfied with the curative option of poultices and vapour lamps available to counter the common cold. (One version of the story has it that Richardsons baby was prone to catching colds; another suggests that three of his children caught the common cold simultaneously, exhausting his patience with existing remedies.)

Richardson had patented more than 21 drugs by 1894, but it was the salve, influenced by Eastern medicine, which broke the market.

The ingredients presented a mix of familiarity and mystery. Vintage advertisements declared the salve to be a combination of reliable old-fashioned" ingredients such as camphor, turpentine and menthol with a curious secret additive, which the company still refers to as a little-known Japanese ingredient".

When the salve is rubbed on the chest, body heat vaporizes the menthol, which results in the release of soothing vapours. It is suggested that Richardson christened the salve as the Vicks Magic Croup Salve in honour of his brother-in-law, Joshua Vick, a physician under whom he had trained as a pharmacist in Selma before setting up his independent practice.

But legend has it that Richardson was compelled to dedicate the salve to his brother-in-law by a cruel twist of fate: his name was simply too long and cumbersome to fit on the tiny salve jars. Whether this pickled Richardson is unknown, but vintage ads until 1906 loudly declare Richardsons name as the manufacturing chemist beneath the Vicks salves and ointments.

Selected happily or not, the name turned out to be propitious when Richardsons son renamed the croup salve as Vicks VapoRub in 1911. With a distinct appeal as a modern rub, in place of the traditional ointments and liniments that crowded the market, Vicks carved out a niche for itself as easy to apply and stainless, with a relaxing odour.

Vicks VapoRub went on to solidify its position as the prime remedy for sick children. Vintage adverts of the period directly address mothers, and offer Vicks as the easiest solution to common illnesses. A storybook released by the company in 1925 narrated the adventures of two elves, Blix and Blee, who reside in an empty Vicks VapoRub jar and must rescue a sick child from the clutches of common cold.

By 1930s, Vicks had grown to recognize adults as an equally crucial segment of users, and its adverts reflected a shift in focus towards the embarrassment of coughing and sneezing in public spaces, and the aid of a clear voice in romantic pursuits. Vicks Romantic Bachelor, a radio show featuring love stories interwoven with advertisements for various Vicks products, ran through 1933. The common cold, unsurprisingly, was as frequent among adults as children, and luckily for Vicks, this meant a hitherto unexplored market.

As a country of hot monsoons and dry winters, India was primed for the product. Gurcharan Das, who joined the Richardson Hindustan Bombay office in 1966, recounts how the organization was keen to develop the brand organically, through extensive visits to bazaars and long interactions with customers.

This approach was credited to Surin Banta, the managing director of Vicks in India, by both Das and Bharat Patel, who went on to become the chairman and managing director of Proctor and Gamble (P&G) India.

Bantas grassroots approach yielded indigenous insights that would refine the brands appeal to Indian households. In his book India Unbound, Das recounts how an encounter with a housewife during field visits in Surat introduced him to the practice of adding a spoonful of Vicks VapoRub to a vat of boiling water to infuse the steam with the drug. Das incorporated this method in the advertisements, which magnified the salves popularity.

The elasticity of the product, its amenability in usage and the ingeniousness of Indian customers to adapt products to local contexts allowed Das and his team to constantly innovate. Das coined the phrase wet monsoon colds" in ads playing during the months of July and September, to capitalize on the ubiquity of common colds during monsoons. Patel spearheaded the campaign for a tablet-based solution as well, resulting in Vicks Action 500.

But Vicks was operating in a climate of strict regulation, with restrictions on expanding operations and price controls that hindered profit margins. In 1964, the drug industry was regulated by the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), which came under Section 3 of The Essential Commodities Act, 1955.

The Act empowered the government to regulate and prohibit the production, supply, distribution, trade and commerce" of any commodity deemed as essential" and thus worthy of ensuring equitable distribution.

Drug prices were not regulated in India until 1962, but in the wake of Chinese aggression, the government feared an escalation in prices due to the scarcity of drugs. This led to the first instance of the control of drug prices in 1962 under the Defence of India Act, 1915.

The war eventually ended, but the DPCO remained. In its various iterations (including the 2013 version), it defined drugs as any pharmaceutical, chemical, biological or plant product including its salts, esters, isomers, analogues and derivatives, conforming to standards specified in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940".

In 1966, the DPCO made prior approval of prices by the government mandatory for the manufacture of drugs. For Vicks, which fell under the DPCO and was expanding rapidly, this was a time of reckoning.

C. Rajagopalan notes in International Marketing that by the 1980s, the sales of Vicks had reached a peak of 80 million units, but price and profit ceilings called for severe cost-cutting measures. In an effort to reduce production costs in India, the petroleum base of the product was replaced with locally sourced oils.

In 1983, a nationwide boycott by chemists placed the company under immense strain. The boycott was triggered, Das notes, by a fight for higher margins by the entire industry". Retailers and chemists, who sell drugs manufactured by pharmacists, dictate the availability of drugs in the market, and consequently, their price. Pradeep Mehta in Business Standard notes that for nearly 20,000 drug manufacturers, there are nearly 800,000 retailers.

Nationwide boycotts by chemists targeting individual companies were frequent in the early 1980s. Nestle products were boycotted by the Retail and Dispensing Chemists Association of Bombay in 1984. The boycott in 1982 by the All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists of pharma companies looking to expand stockists through state cooperative organizations had adverse implications on the drug market.

Between the DPCO and the boycott, Vicks was hard-pressed for solutions.

It was Patel who came up with the revolutionary idea of rebranding Vicks as an Ayurvedic product. Both Patel and Das describe this as the watershed moment for the history of the brand.

The DPCO applied to pharmaceutical, chemical, biological or plant products", leaving little scope for exception. However, in an effort to encourage indigenous and small and medium-scale industries and to further import substitution, it excluded three notable types of drugs. These were any medicines included in any bonafide Ayurvedic (including siddha) and unani (tibb) system of medicines; any medicine in the homeopathic system of medicines; any substance to which the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 (23 of 1940) do not apply".

Das writes in India Unbound that Patels suggestion was met initially with incredulity by the team. But as they played along to the possibility of his suggestion, it seemed, much like Vicks itself, the easiest remedy.

T. Rajagopalan, manager of research and development at the time, corroborated the ingredients of Vicks with ancient texts at the Ayurvedic library at Bombay University, and legally, Vicks was registered as a brand under the Indian system of medicine. Richardsons reliance on herbs and Eastern medicine ensured the ingredients held up to scrutiny.

The benefits of being a registered Ayurvedic product were enormous. As an Ayurvedic company, it was exempt from licences, excise duty and price control. Vicks could now freely be circulated in non-drug stores, and as Das notes, outlets carrying Vicks tripled to 750,000.

The company went on to establish a full-fledged Natural Products Research Centre at Kalwe, Maharashtra, in 1985. Under the supervision of Rajagopalan, more Ayurvedic products were introduced in the market and Vicks pitched an entry into Soviet markets as a natural, herbal, Ayurvedic product".

By the time P&G took over RHL in 1985, India was established as the leading producer of Vicks VapoRub among more than 130 countries. The DPCO continues to make the exception for Ayurvedic, Unani and homeopathic drugs.

As Das writes, over-regulation has bizarre consequences". In the case of Vicks, it resulted in the integration of a Western brand into the very fabric of Indian life.

This essay is part of a project based on videos, written stories, newspaper archives, and visual sources such as cartoons and advertisements collected by IndiaBefore91, a crowdsourced initiative to document and discuss life in a pre-liberalized economy.

IndiaBefore91 welcomes story submissions, photographs and narratives from readers that help enrich our understanding of the period. Submissions can be mailed to indiabefore91@ccs.in

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While countless eyes in America are focused on our presidential primary dramas, another rapidly approaching election has the potential to change the world in unforeseeable ways. Yet it barely garners attention in this country.

I refer to the June 23 referendum in the United Kingdom, which will determine whether or not the UK remains a member of the European Union.

So what? you ask. Why should I care about such an arcane matter?

The answer is twofold. Not only would a British vote to leave the EU be unprecedented, but a leave vote could set in motion a host of unpredictable and potentially disruptive events that would be felt in America and elsewhere.

First some background. The idea of European unity was forged in the aftermath of World War II, the second global conflagration with origins in Europe.

In 1952, six former adversaries  Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands  formed the European Coal and Steel Community, placing their heavy industries under common management. The goal? No member country could rapidly mobilize and make weapons to turn against the others, as in the past.

Next came the European Economic Community, ultimately comprising 12 countries. By binding themselves together through closer trade and economic ties, the thinking went, countries would be far less likely to go to war against each other.

The more comprehensive European Union was created in 1992-93. It aimed for a common foreign and security policy; closer cooperation on justice and home affairs; and economic and monetary union, including a single currency. It included four freedoms of movement  of goods, services, people and money.

The EU now has 28 members, of which 19 are Eurozone members, sharing the Euro currency.

European unity has, in many ways, succeeded beyond the imagination of its founders.

EU member countries have been at peace for longer than at any time in their history, and they rank among the worlds wealthiest. Their record of peace and prosperity has served as a model for many other countries, while Europes advanced economies have helped fuel our own and other countries growth and prosperity through extensive trade and investment ties.

Equally importantly, Europe shares many American values  including support for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. These shared values make European nations important partners in shaping global rules and norms for all countries to live by.

But many of those values, as well as the glue that has held Europe together, are being tested as never before. Europes economies still struggle to recover from the 2008-2009 global financial crisis and recession; the Eurozone faces ongoing threats to its existence; and the unprecedented flow of refugees from war-torn and other nations places serious strains on Europes emergency resources and its peoples tolerance.

Recent elections have strengthened far-right and far-left parties that previously struggled for respectability and votes. And critics of the EU say its bureaucracy has become too heavy-handed and unaccountable to people in member countries, saddling members with rules and regulations that stifle national prerogatives, growth and identity.

The UK referendum takes place in the midst of this turmoil. Voters will be asked a simple question: "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?"

British Prime Minister David Cameron negotiated a special deal giving the UK exemptions from some EU rules, including those involving payments to immigrants and their families. While public opinion polls show a narrow margin of support for the remain camp, much can change between now and the time of the vote.

Economists on both sides have issued prognoses of the impact of a vote to leave: either it will be dire, bringing recession and financial instability; or it will allow the UK economy to soar, free of burdensome regulations.

The economic impact is hard to foresee. What is easier to foresee is the political and psychological impact of a vote to leave.

The UK has been a key player in all aspects of EU life and often has used its position to push for closer alignment of EU policies with American initiatives. Losing that voice  potentially along with the EUs largest military  could weaken the EU as an American partner.

Moreover, leaving would likely strengthen other separatist or nationalist movements in Europe (Scotland/UK; Catalonia/Spain; National Front/France, etc.), putting more pressure on European cohesion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is working hard to provoke splits in European unity, surely would be delighted by a UK vote to leave the EU.

Joanna Shelton was deputy secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris; held senior positions in the executive branch and Congress in Washington, D.C.; and teaches at the University of Montana. You can reach her through her website, joannashelton.com.
Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, 130 S. Sixth St. E., invites kids of the Missoula community to "Filled with the Holy Spirit" Vacation Bible School from 9 a.m. to noon daily June 20-24.

Children will explore stories of fire within Scripture: the pillar of fire that led the people of Israel, Moses and the burning bush, tongues of fire at Pentecost, and theyll learn about the symbolism of fire within worship.

Children will enjoy music, Bible stories, science experiments, games and art, and will take a field trip. The week will be topped off with a 32-foot, misted, slip and slide and a dunk tank, plus a cookout, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over a fire in the courtyard.

Registration is $25, but financial assistance is available. Call or email Gretchen Strohmaier to sign up, 542-2167 or Gretchen.hsp@qwestoffice.net.
SCITUATE, Mass.  For more than 11 years, a core group of about 100 die-hard parishioners of St. Frances X. Cabrini Church kept their beloved parish open by maintaining an around-the-clock vigil in a peaceful protest of a decision by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to close it.

On Sunday, the parishioners' efforts came to an end as they vacated the Scituate church many of them have attended for decades. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear their final appeal, leaving them no choice but to end their fight.

The group held a final service Sunday, a "celebration of faith and transition," the parishioners said, before leaving the church. Dozens of parishioners gathered in the church's entryway ahead of the service, many of them embracing.

During the service, a handful of empty pews dotted a sea of churchgoers, many of whom openly cried. About a dozen quilts, some of them depicting each year of the vigil, decorated the church's walls. At the service's conclusion, families retrieved the quilts and formed a procession, carrying them down the aisles and through the church's doors.

The case was heard in civil courts and went all the way to the Vatican, but the parishioners were unsuccessful in persuading church officials to keep St. Frances open.

"This is a very sad day for us," Jon Rogers said after the Supreme Court declined the case. He is a spokesman for Friends of St. Frances Cabrini, a group that also pressed its case all the way to the Vatican. "I truly believe the archdiocese has stolen this from us  our spiritual home."

A Superior Court judge ruled that the archdiocese was the legal owner of the church property and had the right to evict the parishioners occupying the church building. That ruling was upheld by the state Appeals Court.

St. Frances X. Cabrini was one of more than 75 parishes closed by the archdiocese to deal with declining Mass attendance, a shortage of priests and deteriorating church buildings. The closings came after a clergy sex abuse crisis rocked the Catholic Church, starting in Boston but extending throughout the world.

Parishioners of some of the closed churches rebelled and held around-the-clock vigils in the churches. At one point, nine churches were occupied by parishioners. St. Frances X. Cabrini was the last church to remain occupied.

The parishioners plan to start their own independent Catholic church, outside the archdiocese, Rogers said.

"We will basically be transitioning into an all-inclusive, independent Catholic church that welcomes all," he said.

The archdiocese hopes the protesters will go to another parish within the district, archdiocese spokesman Terrence Donilon said.

"The parishes of the Archdiocese welcome and invite those involved with the vigil to participate and join in the fullness of parish life," Donilon said in a statement.

Rogers released few details on plans to start a new church but said the parishioners' group has two possible venues where they hope to hold services. He said the group has "a long list of clergy that are willing to basically join us on this new journey."
SUPERIOR  A glimmer of hope Thursday turned into a full-scale gleam Friday when the union representative of striking sheriffs office workers in Mineral County filed a request for state mediation.

Im really hoping we can get dates for Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, said Shawn Fontaine of Teamsters Local Union No. 2 out of Missoula. Its all based on peoples availability at the Board of Personal Appeals.

The Montana Department of Labor has two mediators for all of Montana. A spokesman for the state Department of Labor said that Fontaines request had been received Friday afternoon.

The mediator will be in contact with both parties to schedule the time and date for mediation, though that probably wont happen until Monday, said Jake Troyer via email.

Let's hope the process works fast for the sake of all the employees and the county, said Roman Zylawy, chairman of the county commission.

Union employees discussed calling off the strike and returning to work Monday.

We have talked about that, but were not comfortable going back to work until we have at least dates set for mediation," Fontaine said.

On Thursday, during the public comment period of a regularly scheduled commissioner meeting, Zylawy said the board was willing to work with a state mediator but would leave it to the union to request one.

We could do it too, but I think it would be better if they did it. Theyre the ones who chose to go on strike, Zylawy said.

***

Sixteen deputies, dispatchers and detention officers struck Monday morning after working without a contract since last July 1. They posted a picket line all week in front of the courthouse along River Street during courthouse hours, though Fontaine said they knocked off early on Friday.

Down five deputies, Sheriff Tom Bauer and Undersheriff Mike Boone have worked long hours with help when needed from two non-union reserve deputies.

I spoke with the sheriff today, Zylawy said. Theyre a little tired but theyre hanging in there.

Four retired dispatchers agreed to come back to work. Theyre being compensated either at the same rate current dispatchers make or at the rate they were making when they left the department.

Strikers also are receiving stipends from an International Brotherhood of Teamsters strike benefit fund, Fontaine confirmed. According to teamster.org, the IBF pays between $75 and $110 per week if a striking member earns less than $11 per hour and the equivalent of four times his or her monthly dues per week for all others.

Union sheriffs office employees are asking for better pay and two-year contracts rather than the longstanding one-year pacts. Fontaine said detention and dispatch workers start at an hourly rate of $9.41, while deputies receive 85 percent of the sheriffs base pay of $22.42  $19.06 an hour.

Commissioners on May 13, citing depleted resources, presented what they called their final offer  increases of 50 cents for detention and dispatch workers who make more than $10 an hour and 70 cents for those who make less. Union workers rejected those terms late last week by unanimous vote and notified commissioners Friday morning they would go on strike Monday morning.

Several said earlier this week they expected commissioners to file for a district court injunction to force them back to work while terms are worked out. That didnt happen, Zylawy said Friday, because theres nothing to go to court for, since the strike is legal by state statute. Fontaine disputed that.

Theres absolutely nothing that would prevent them from filing an injunction, he said. If I was breaking the law, they would file an unfair labor practice or something along those lines.

As it is, the county could ask for a temporary injunction or temporary restraining order on the grounds that theres an imminent danger to public safety posed by the strike.

***

Thursdays commission meeting turned heated and emotional at times. Zylawy said he found the need to deviate from the protocol of a public comment period, when commissioners listen to items not on the agenda but dont usually respond.

A sergeant with the Montana Highway Patrol, he responded to criticism that he and Duane Simon had full-time jobs along with their part-time commissioner duties by announcing he planned to retire from MHP at the end of 2016.

Zylawy, whos running unopposed for a second six-year term on the commission, said Friday his decision to call it quits after 28 1/2 years with the patrol wasnt spurred by the strike.

It was my plan all along if I was to get reelected in November, he said, adding he wants to spend more time working on the county's woeful financial plight with state and congressional leaders.
PLAINS  In the chaos that enveloped Sherwood Drive during a house fire during Memorial Day weekend, Janet Culver kept hollering.

There are four kids! There are four kids!

In the darkness, Tim Lane could only count three children he and other neighbors had gotten out of the burning duplex, along with their mother.

As Lanes visiting friend, Army recruiter Jerry Hayes of Missoula, directed CPR efforts by more neighbors on the rest of the family, the bare-footed Marine headed back into the duplex yet again, this time in search of the smallest child, a 2-year-old boy.

This is not a story with a happy ending  a 6-year-old child is dead  but it is one where the tragedy could have been almost incomprehensible.

Instead, neighbors on a block-long street of four duplexes here broke down the front door and saved the lives of the 6-year-olds mother and his two brothers, who are now recovering at two Seattle hospitals.

The neighbors got 6-year-old Richard out as well, but he didnt survive. The three boys 7-year-old sister escaped out a window at the rear of the duplex.

***

The neighbors believe the mother of the four children, Diana Lynn Elrod, was trying desperately to alert her children to get out of the house when she was overcome by smoke. Lane, neighbor Jake Glace and Plains Police Officer Christopher Reyna found her lying unconscious in a hallway by the bedrooms.

The two older boys, 8-year-old Stephen and 6-year-old Richard, were in their bedroom, and also unconscious. Neighbor Jasmine Brooks, Glaces girlfriend, was with Lane on a second sweep of the smoke-filled interior when they found the boys. Brooks grabbed Stephen; Lane picked up Richard.

Seven-year-old Hila, meantime, was able to climb out a window into the back yard. Lane says she may have had help from residents on a different street closest to the back of the duplex, who also rushed to the scene. In the darkness and confusion and thick smoke that clogged the interior, he knows there were other people inside, he just doesnt know who they were or what they did.

He does know those other neighbors broke through the back door while the residents of Sherwood Drive were breaking down the front.

As the mother and the oldest boys were carried out of the burning home and into the front yard, Hayes took charge.

He had three people on each person, telling them what to do, Culver, who lives in the other half of the duplex that caught fire, says. He had one person doing the heart, one person doing mouth-to-mouth and one talking to them, I guess hoping they could hear, even though they were all unconscious.

Were from different branches of the service, but wed had the same training and knew what we had to do, Lane says. While we brought them out, Jerry was directing people on how to do CPR on everyone.

The neighbors worked furiously on Diana, Stephen and Richard Elrod, while others tended to Hila.

But where was little R.J.?

***

It was about 11 p.m. on Saturday, May 28, when the small neighborhood went from quiet to chaotic.

Jake Glace and his children had gotten home from a movie just a short time earlier. Diana Elrods duplex was dark, he remembers, and there was no sign that a fire was burning inside.

Next door in the same duplex, Culver  she calls herself the single old lady of the neighborhood  was in bed watching TV.

All of a sudden my dog started going nuts, and then I heard an explosion next door and glass shattering, she says.

Culver grabbed a flashlight, went out her back door, saw flames inside the adjoining duplex, and ran back inside her home to call 911.

Across the street, Glace heard noise too, and walked outside to investigate. As soon as he realized the duplex was on fire he ran and tried the front door.

It was locked.

I tried to kick in the door about eight times, but all I had on was flip-flops, he says. Another neighbor joined him and they tried to break the door down with a 2-by-4, with no luck.

Glace ran back across the street, grabbed a chopping mallet leaning against his duplex, and returned. He began beating on the front door with the tool.

He doesnt know how many times he swung the mallet over his shoulder and crashed it into the door.

***

Tim Lanes wife, Jacklyn Deery, was at work at the Montana Mint Casino, but his buddy Hayes was hanging out with him in his duplex, also across the street.

They never heard an explosion, but the incessant banging noise  Glace hammering with his mallet  certainly caught their attention.

They, too headed outside to investigate. Lane didnt even have shoes on.

I saw Tim and told him, Im about out of breath,  Glace says. He took over, and one or two swings later he had the door open.

The smoke was immense and overwhelming, Culver says. Lane says it was so dense above his waist he couldn't see a thing.

Lane, Reyna and Glace got Diana out. More flashlights appeared out of the neighborhood, and Lane dropped them at strategic points on the floor to help guide rescuers inside the house.

Even at floor level, The visibility was very, very low, Lane says.

The flashlights helped Lane and Jasmine Brooks as they extricated the two oldest boys next.

The girl was safe, Lane saw after he exited with 6-year-old Richard. Even as Culver yelled that four children needed to be accounted for, the man who served as a Marine from 2008-10 was well aware the youngest one still must be inside the burning duplex. Lane lives directly across the street from the Elrod duplex. He knew the family, knew Diana and her boyfriend Robert Rasmussen had served as EMTs themselves; knew R.J. was Rasmussens son.

Thered been no sign of R.J. on Lanes first two trips into the duplex.

Where on earth was the 2-year-old boy?

***

Back into the suffocating smoke, for a third time, went the bare-footed Lane.

It was very difficult, he says days later, still hacking up phlegm from the time he spent inside the duplex. The two older boys wed found in the room closest to the living room, and the mom was in the hallway. I just started searching the place.

Finally, he discovered the toddler in the master bedroom.

R.J. had crawled underneath the bed. By now, he also was unconscious.

I honestly cant tell you how long it took to find him, Lane says. It seemed like forever.

In reality, people outside told Lane later, he, Brooks, Glace and Reyna  and any other neighbors who might have aided 7-year-old Hilas escape  had all five members of the family out less than five minutes after the front door was broken down.

As Hayes got CPR started on the youngest child, Lane went back into the duplex a fourth time, just to make sure all rescuers were out.

***

The first ambulance on the scene took Stephen and Richard to Clark Fork Valley Hospital in Plains.

Lane says he and Hayes rode in the second ambulance with Diana and R.J. They continued to perform CPR on both mother and son on the way to the hospital, and in the emergency room as well until doctors and nurses could take over.

Diana, Stephen and R.J. were quickly life-flighted to Seattle. Culver says Diana and R.J. wound up at Harborview Medical Center and Stephen was sent to Seattle Childrens Hospital. All, she and other neighbors understand, are expected to survive.

Hila, the 7-year-old, apparently did not require hospitalization. Sadly, 6-year-old Richard did not make it.

R.J.s father, Culver says, was visiting his parents in Trout Creek at the time of the fire. Hayes, she says, bought Rasmussen a plane ticket to Seattle the next day so he could get to his family.

Smoke provided the most imminent danger to all, Culver feels. Few flames were visible, she says, and yet another person  a woman visiting someone else in the little neighborhood  knocked those down with a fire extinguisher soon after the front and back doors were broken down.

The cause of the fire, and whether the duplex was equipped with working smoke detectors, apparently remains under investigation. Deputy State Fire Marshal Dawn Drollinger of Kalispell, whose investigative territory includes Sanders County, did not return a phone message this week.

The thing is, the neighbors and two of our military trained men saved most of this family, Culver says. One rescuer told me it appeared the oldest son might have succumbed (to the smoke) trying to help his younger brother, who might have fell and hit his head getting out of his top bunk bed. And the young daughter woke up hearing her mom yell to open her window and get out, before (Diana) succumbed trying to reach them all.
Jack Ward Thomas helped the U.S. Forest Service see beyond the trees.

A wildlife biologist who rose to the top of the agency during some of its most turbulent years, Thomas was remembered in Missoula as both a conservationist and friend.

His death is a great loss, said Chris Servheen, recently retired grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. His appointment to be chief was really the turning point in the Forest Service becoming more a multiple-use agency, transitioning out of that stereotype of all we do is cut trees. Thats what made him really unique  he wasnt a timber guy. He was instrumental in leading the Forest Service into that bigger view of things.

Thomas died of cancer on May 26 at his home in Florence. Current Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said Thomas faced several years of declining health the same way he did everything  scientifically, optimistically and straightforwardly.

I will miss Jack, not only for his dedication to science and his conservation leadership, but also for his stories, Tidwell said in an email. Even when he and I were in a lively debate, Jack would have me laughing before we were done.

***

Thomas joined the agency in 1966, and was Forest Service Chief from 1993 to 1996. In 1992, he led a non-laughing conference on how the agency should balance logging goals against the possible extinction of spotted owls in Pacific Coast forests.

That was where Jack hit the larger stage, said Jim Lyons, deputy assistant secretary for land and mineral management at the Department of Interior. Lyons had asked Thomas to put together the science panel exploring how cutting old growth forests affected watersheds and wildlife habitat  a concept that became known as ecosystem management.

Under the Reagan administration, there was a huge push to get the timber cut out, and thats what got us into the mess with spotted owls, Lyons said. We were making political decisions to keep cutting, cutting, cutting regardless of the biological consequences, and that led to court decisions enjoining timber sales. Instead of this one-dimensional view of success in timber harvest, Jack saw the forest in the context of multiple use.

The perspective impressed President Bill Clinton, and Lyons recommended Thomas to become chief of the Forest Service. It was a controversial move.

The rank and file did not want Jack to be chief, Lyons said. He was a wildlife biologist, and every chief before him was forester or an engineer. They fought his appointment, and in the end they tried to block his normal appointment as a senior executive, even though he was a senior scientist. We had to get the White House to appoint Jack as chief  the first and only time thats been done.

***

Thomas started with the Forest Service in 1966, working as a research wildlife biologist in Morgantown, West Virginia. He published more than 600 articles and books, including the frequently reprinted Invite Wildlife to Your Backyard in 1973 and Elk of North America in 1982.

We knew that as the Elk Bible, said Bob Munson, one of the founding members of the Missoula-based Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Jack was one of the biggest sparks to light the RMEF back when we got started in 1984. Weve now got more than 500 chapters and 220,000 members, and I attribute a lot of that to guidance right from the mouth of Jack Thomas.

After retiring from the Forest Service in 1996, he became the Boone and Crockett Club professor of wildlife conservation at the University of Montana. There he continued expanding his concept of melding strong research with landscape management  something he called bio-politics rather than political science.

Jack was somebody who was so good listening to all sides, and coming up with solutions that bridged what often was a wide divide between the science of conservation and public policy, said Dan Pletcher, retired director of UMs wildlife biology program and colleague of Thomas for a decade. UM awarded Thomas with an honorary doctorate this spring, but he was too ill to attend the ceremony.

Other awards and honors he received over his career included the USDA Distinguished Service and Superior Service Awards; Elected Fellow, Society of American Foresters; National Wildlife Federation, Conservation Achievement Award for Science; The Aldo Leopold Medal, The Wildlife Society; General Chuck Yeager Award, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation; and USDA FS Chief's Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer. He served as president of The Wildlife Society from 1976 to 1977.

Retired Lolo National Forest Supervisor Orville Daniels said Thomas tempered his approach by warning against the arrogance of science.

One thing he said to President Clinton was that the ecosystem is not only more complex than we think it is, but it may be more complex than we can think, Daniels recalled. We have to do the best we can because we probably will never fully understand how it works.
Faced with the decision between going to law school or med school, Ben Cory did the only thing that made sense: move to Costa Rica.

Cory, one of the lawyers in the Missoula office of Crowley Fleck, had just finished his undergraduate degree in psychology and pre-med at the University of Montana.

Growing up, he had influence from both the medical and legal worlds. His father was a pediatrician, but his grandmother, who had been a teacher in California, had put herself through law school when she retired and spent the rest of her career working entirely pro bono.

Cory keeps a photo of her on the desk in his office, taken when he was a child and was in a courtroom for the first time watching her work.

She was always very proud that she never had a single client who paid, Cory said.

What started as a three-week Spanish immersion program trip to Costa Rica with his sister became a job teaching English, which gave him the time to consider his future.

When he returned to Missoula nine months later, Cory worked drawing blood with the American Red Cross before he and his wife Kris moved to California, where he worked in a hospital.

It was a good experience, but it taught me that med school wasnt for me, he said.

So it was back to UM and law school. When he graduated, Cory took his first job working under Missoula lawyer Dan Cederberg, who he called an incredible mentor. In 2008, Crowley Fleck recruited him to join their office, and he made partner at the firm in 2012. The company is the largest firm in the region, with 11 offices and more than 150 attorneys spread across Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming.

The cases I get to work on are big enough where you can really be able to practice the law, he said.

At the start of this year, Cory was chosen by the partners to be one of a three-member firm management panel that oversees the entire company.

When he isnt working, Cory said he spends most of his time with his wife and their four daughters Wylie, Maddy, Lizzy and Bella, including getting away to the familys cabin on Placid Lake as often as he can. He said maintaining a strong work-life balance is very important to him.

Getting a break from work allows me to clear my mind and come into the office focused and motivated to do my job and get the best results possible for my clients, he said.
I'm confused, to say the least. Why would a member of an organization complain bitterly for four years concerning the excessive amount of money wasted on "legal costs," bring a lawsuit (seeking monetary damages and costs) against that very organization demanding they seat the "elected" results of a legally contested commissioner election while also suing to have the board declared illegal through what they term "an illegal reforming" after the organization was torn apart by two commissioners who were successfully recalled and two who disappeared into the ether?

You don't seat elected people to an organization that you claim doesn't exist. Oh, that's right, if you successfully dissolve the board, again, the organization breaks back down into the three original components and you gain control of the one you like.

It seems to be a case of "having your cake and eating it too," or "speaking out of both sides of your mouth." I guess when your family loses political control and influence over a public organization, you'll do whatever it takes to claw your way back up the heap, disregarding your friends and neighbors and bending the law to your will, through ignorance of the law.

As has been historically done with the Hellgate treaty, just incorporate the bits and pieces that fit your agenda and ignore the rest of it; no one will look or bother to understand what impact your actions will have, until it's way too late to do anything about it.

Why would this same individual, who is the elected leader of a political club, do everything within their power to remove the only candidate representing their party, from the ballot, leaving only the opposition candidate to inherent the political office - without contest?

None of this makes a bit of sense, in the world of "reasoning." So, if reasoning is no longer a valid tool in our world - what has replaced it, the incomprehensible sounds of the tower of babel?

Michael Gale,

Ronan
As a 73-year-old, I have voted for many Republican and Democratic presidential candidates in my lifetime, but have yet to see a more honest, straightforward and well-qualified presidential candidate than Bernie Sanders. I hope Sanders will remain in the race all the way to the convention and challenge Hillary Clinton for the nomination. Here's why:

First, if Clinton had not been given an unfair jump-start of 400 super delegates before Sanders even entered the race, I doubt Clinton would have enough delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot.

Second, Debby Wasserman-Shultz, the Democratic Party chairman, purposefully scheduled the Clinton v Sanders televised debates during obscure, non-prime times. This denied Sanders the national audience he needed to help him overcome the huge name recognition advantage enjoyed early on by Clinton.

Third, Clinton is quick to sell herself as a foreign policy expert. Yet, the fact that she voted to authorize the disastrous war in Iraq that cost hundreds of thousands of American and Iraqi lives and trillions of taxpayer dollars shows a serious lack of foreign policy judgement on her part. Sanders voted no. So, really, which of the two candidates has demonstrated sound foreign policy judgement on major issues?

Fourth, Sanders was at a disadvantage in states with "closed primaries" because independent voters who overwhelmingly support Sanders were unable to vote. Those independent Sanders supporters will not be excluded general election, however.

Fifth, so despite rigged debates, gratis" superdelegates and closed primaries that have favored Clinton, Sanders has gained huge momentum late in the contest. Poll after poll now shows that Sanders consistently beats Trump by a wide margin in a General Election while Clinton wins narrowly over Trump, often by just the margin of error.

So, here is my suggestion to Montana voters who do not want to see Donald Trump become President. Let's vote for Sanders and give him a huge landslide in the Montana Primary election. This, plus big wins in California and the other remaining primaries on June 7 may just give Sanders the leverage he needs to successfully derail Clinton's nomination at the Democratic National Convention and become the Democratic presidential nominee.

Bob Balhiser,

Helena
BILLINGS  Water is still for fighting out West.

A Carbon County couple has sued the former county sheriff and current county attorney claiming they violated several of the husbands constitutional rights by threatening to arrest him after he was cited for trespass during a 2013 water dispute with a neighbor.

The trespassing charge was dismissed in January 2014 in Carbon County Justice Court.

Roberts rancher William Burgan and his wife, Lynette, filed the lawsuit in Billings District Court last month and are requesting a jury trial to determine monetary damages against Carbon County Attorney Alexander Nixon and former County Sheriff Thomas Rieger.

Burgans attorney, Matthew Monforton of Bozeman, said the landowner involved in the trespass dispute, James Brien, had local law enforcement do his bidding.

Brien called the lawsuit baloney. Rieger referred all questions about the lawsuit to Nixon. Nixon had no comment on the suit and instead suggested his attorney, Raymond Kuntz, be contacted for comment. A message was left for Kuntz but had not been returned by press time.

***

In the lawsuit, the Burgans outline a dispute that has brewed for years.

Their neighbor to the south, James Brien, illegally denied them access to their irrigation headgate for the Hunter-Northey Ditch starting in 2012. Brien reportedly bought his property, located west of Highway 212 between Red Lodge and Roberts, in 2007. The headgate is accessed by a gravel road off of Teini Road.

The Headgate Access Road has been used by the Burgans, their predecessors-in-interest, and other users of the Hunter-Northey Ditch since 1894 as the only means of access   the lawsuit states. The Burgans bought their ranch in 1990.

Although William Burgan provided the sheriff and county attorney with documents supporting his right to access the property as early as April 2013, they repeatedly acknowledged that matters between Brien and the Burgans constituted a civil dispute, the lawsuit says.

That changed when William Burgan and his son used the easement to adjust their headgate on Aug. 15, 2013, the court document states.

We never would have had a problem if he hadnt drove through our driveway at 60 mph, Brien told the Gazette.

Brien reportedly called then-Sheriff Rieger and demanded the Burgans be charged with trespassing. Rieger reportedly consulted with County Attorney Nixon who agreed that the Burgans had committed a trespass, the lawsuit states.

***

The following day Burgan and his son were cited for criminal trespass and a deputy sheriff told the Burgans they would be arrested if they used the easement again.

Monforton claims that Nixon took action because he is friends with Brien.

Thats not a problem unless those friendships and relationships are being used to invoke law enforcement in an unconstitutional manner, Monforton said.

Thats the motive behind this, he added. This wasnt a situation where they didnt know. They knew months before that my client had a legal right to do what he was doing.

Given the situation, Monforton contends that Nixons actions are not protected by prosecutorial immunity. Likewise, he claims that former Sheriff Rieger is not immune from prosecution since he had been shown documents by Burgan prior to the citation verifying that Burgan has a legal right to access the headgate.

Monforton also suggested that the motivation to block Burgans access to the water may have been more nefarious.

Nixon and Briens refusal to allow Burgan to control water flow on his land temporarily diminished the value of his land and might have forced Burgan to sell his land at a reduced price, Monforton said. Access to water dramatically increases the price.

Burgan had recently listed his ranch for sale for $2.1 million but said he decided not to part with the property after the water dispute was settled.

***

The trespassing charge was later dismissed in justice court and the Burgans asked a state court to resolve the issue. In February 2015, District Court Judge Michael Moses of Billings reaffirmed the existence of the Burgans easement based on historical use.

The Burgans are now seeking compensation for the attorney fees they incurred as well as punitive damages from the county attorney and former sheriff for corruption of their offices in order to strongarm a Montana ranching family into selling or surrendering their property to (Brien)  

There were six other people on that headgate, but he was only trying to stop me, Burgan said.

Its just a bunch of crap what these rich people are doing.
KALISPELL (AP)  The mother of a 2-year-old boy who was beaten and died last year has been arrested in connection with his death.

Prosecutors charged 23-year-old Takara Juntunen with felony negligent homicide in the death of Forrest Groshelle. She also is charged with criminal possession of dangerous drugs.

Police had been searching for Juntunen since May 23. She was arrested Thursday in a home in Kalispell and is being held on $100,000 bail.

An autopsy found the boy died after suffering a lacerated small intestine. Juntunen's boyfriend, 22-year-old Brandon Newberry, is serving a 40-year sentence for mitigated deliberate homicide in Forrest's death.

Prosecutors allege Juntunen negligently caused her son's death by placing him in Newberry's care. Prosecutors allege she didn't seek medical care for her son, who had been throwing up in the days before his death.
DEER LODGE  The 21st Big Sky Draft Horse Expo July 1 through 3 in Deer Lodge is expected to be the biggest show yet, organizers said.

The show is usually held in September but was moved to July to avoid conflict with a new show in Utah and to attract more hitches, said Chairman Wade Thornley.

"We are expecting eight show hitches and five mule hitches in addition to the open class entries," he said.

Established in 1996, this largest, longest-running draft horse show in Montana offers three days of competition. Exhibitors from throughout the Northwest will compete in show hitch classes and teamster classes demonstrating their driving skills and the capabilities of their horses and mules during the fast-paced show.

Visitors will see Belgians, Percherons, Shires, Clydesdales, Fjords, mules and others performing in a variety classes that include unicorn, four-horse, and exciting six-horse and eight-hitches as well as antique vehicle, cart, Feed Team and Canadian Maze.

A weekend pass for all three shows is $30; kids under 17 are free; day passes are $8 Friday and $15 Saturday and Sunday each.

The judge is Scott Love from Defiance, Ohio, horse manager for Hammersmith Belgians, who drives an eight-horse hitch.

The fast-paced Crazy Eights Pony Driving exhibition and chariot racing from Washington will be a special attraction all three days. The Crazy Eights feature eight Shetland ponies on each wagon for a full-gallop unrehearsed free drive, so no two drives are the same, as well as four-abreast and two-abreast chariot racing.

Saturday, July 2, Kai Christensen of Polson will be honored as the newest inductee to the Montana Draft Teamster Hall of Fame.

Show schedule:

Friday, July 1, 6 p.m.  Crazy 8's, Pleasure Cart, Classic Series Six-Horse Hitch Conformation, Crazy 8's, and Four-Horse Driving.

Saturday, July 2, 8:30 a.m.  Master Teamster, Men's Cart, Mule Street Class, Crazy 8's, Hitch Team, and Four-Abreast.

This will be followed by a break to allow visitors to take part in other activities at the Old Montana Prison Museums and Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, visit with vendors under the grandstand, and lunch with the Hall of Fame honorees.

Pioneer Power Tractor Association will have a display of antique tractors and use some during the show.

At 2 p.m. staff and volunteers at Grant-Kohrs will demonstrate mowing hay with horses followed by a lesson in Draft Horse 101.

At 3 p.m. Black Powder demonstration will be held at Cottonwood City across from the Old Montana Prison.

Between 2:00 and 4:30 p.m. the barns will be open for visitors to see the horses up close and to talk with their owners.

The Feed Team Race preliminaries will begin at 3:30 p.m.

Saturday evening 5:30 p.m.  Grand entry and introduction of the Hall of Fame inductees followed by the Feed Team Race (top 10), Unicorn, Intermediate and Draft Horse Street Class, Crazy 8's, Kids Boot Race, Gambler's Choice Cart, Crazy 8's, Classic Series Six-Horse Conformation and Six-Horse Driving.

Sunday, July 3, 8:30 a.m.  Master Teamster, Junior Cart, Crazy 8's, and Junior Team, followed by a lunch break. At 12:45 p.m. the Grand Entry, Canadian Maze, Crazy 8's, Four-Horse Conformation Antique-Unique Vehicle, Crazy 8's, Ladies Cart, Kids Stick Horse Race, 8-Mule Driving and Conformation.
Its an office that gets little respect, yet more people are running for it than any other post in Butte-Silver Bow County this year.

One of those seven, Mike Tutty, said at a recent candidates forum that when he decided to run for county auditor eight months ago, people told him to make sure I could do decorations and knew how to cook.

He said this week he didnt mean any disrespect to longtime auditor Danette Harrington. It wasnt her fault, he said, that the duties of the office had been bleached. Other candidates use terms such as weakened and watered down and absorbed by the countys Finance and Budget Office.

The other auditor hopefuls are former county budget director Jeff Amerman; county code enforcement officer Hank Hockaday; Wendy McGrath, an accountant in the county budget office; Commissioner Sheryl Ralph; Kennedy School engineer and former commissioner Mike Sheehy; and attorney Mary Sorini.

Most say they would look after the taxpayer  return the office to being a true watchdog of the millions of public dollars that flow through local government here. The current annual budget, which includes revenue from all sources, is about $176 million.

The job itself pays nicely (though nobody is saying publicly that the $72,315 annual salary is why theyre running). But its importance has long been questioned. There has been talk of abolishing it the past three decades.

Harrington has held the post since 1991, and she hopes whoever replaces her gets the tools and resources she says the office has lost over the years. Many of the duties were taken over when the city and country merged in 1977 and a budget office was created, she said, and others have been stripped away since.

Before 1977, she said, the office was the financial hub of the courthouse. Shes worked there since the 1960s.

It took care of accounts payable; it took care of the payroll; it basically took care of all the timekeeping records, said Harrington, who is retiring after her latest term ends late this year. Any kind of financial transaction was basically generated in the auditors office.

Harrington was still able to perform a lot of the auditors duties  which are listed at length in the municipal code  but says county officials would not replace her deputy auditor after that woman retired years ago. A past chief executive  one Harrington did not want to name  didnt like the deputy, and repeated budget requests to fill the position since then have been ignored, she said.

Her ability to oversee accounts payable  the countys running tab of bills due and ensuring they are legitimate  was eliminated on the front end, she said. She can only review those payments after they are made  too late to stop those that are suspect or raise questions, Harrington said.

I can review, but I cant stop payment, she said.

But many powers and duties are still spelled out in city-county municipal code. They include:

Reviewing monthly bank statements by comparing government receipts and expenditures to ensure accuracy and report findings to commissioners and the chief executive each month.

Examining the propriety, legality, reliability and accuracy of transactions.

Ascertaining whether transactions have been properly recorded and all assets accounted for.

Performing post-audit reviews and reporting quarterly compliance of report recommendations, including implementation of corrective actions.

There are more, perhaps none more significant than the power to subpoena  to compel the attendance of witnesses to examine any matter deemed necessary.

Harrington said she performs some of those duties, but not large-scale audits.

Per state law, the county pays an independent auditing firm each year to examine the books, bidding procedures, past transactions, account balances, internal controls, and procedures. The third party cites shortcomings, weaknesses or discrepancies and recommends corrective actions.

But Harrington says she has done smaller audits for departments, including the treasurers office when longtime treasurer Pat Callaghan retired in late February. All the money was accounted for, she said.

She has reviewed accounts payable after they are paid, handles travel advances, and reconciles some internal accounts and petty cash funds. But even though she has other duties and authorities listed, she doesnt have the tools or resources to perform them, she said.

Sheehy, one of the seven auditor candidates, said he recalls discussions several years ago about the possibility of abolishing the office. He was a Butte-Silver Bow commissioner from 1990 to 2010, he said, and spent years reviewing the countys finances and expenditures.

He said if he gets elected, he would try to work closely with the budget department and chief executive to be another set of eyes on the countys finances. But he also would push for the money to hire a deputy, he said.

That would give it some teeth, he said.

But Amerman, who was the countys budget director for nine years before becoming chief financial officer for the Butte-based National Center for Appropriate Technology in 2014, said he has the education, professional background and knowledge of county finances to be a true watchdog without a deputy.

I say you definitely start without one, he said. One person has to, in my mind, prove that the office is in fact effective.

Amerman is a certified public accountant, was an internal auditor for NorthWestern Energy, and as county budget director, he said he improved bond ratings, received awards, and helped get a corrupt county official removed.

He provided documents and other information that helped convict Gary Lean in 2008 of stealing public money while serving as the countys facilities manager. Lean pleaded guilty to bilking taxpayers and nonprofit organizations out of nearly $40,000 from 2003 to 2006. He received a suspended sentence.

Amerman said the office can play a vital oversight function and ensure money is not wasted if the official puts taxpayers  not other officials  first.

It would be nice to have the support of the administration and have them just order their folks to cooperate, he said, but that didnt mean it would happen.

Ralph, the commissioner running for auditor, also said she would not need a deputy to have strong oversight of the countys finances and reporting. She is currently the financial manager at the Port of Montana and has a bachelors degree in economics with an emphasis on finance.

I think one person is sufficient at this position, she said. I keep hearing that her authority has been taken away, but the ordinances in the municipal code still give that authority. I think there are enough hours in a 40-hour work week to get the job done.

Tutty, who is payroll accountant for Butte-based Gilman Construction Co., said those familiar with the courthouse know Harrington has been limited in what she can do. He wants the office to remain but become stronger.

If you take away that elected position, there are no checks and balances, he said.

Harrington, who says shes had a wonderful career as auditor even though the role has been diminished somewhat, agrees with that.

She hopes whoever gets the job is able to establish a watchdog routine with more teeth to carry it out. The job is still very powerful in many counties, she said.

The auditors office is the only position that can question any expenditure with authority, because everyone else who handles the accounts payable or the budget office is owing to the chief executive, she said.
HELENA  Two more people have been charged as a result of an investigation into a drug smuggling ring at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge.

Rachel Leanna Ross, 25, of Collierville, Tennessee, and Lauren J. Hoskins, 26, of Somerville, Tennessee, were arraigned in federal court Tuesday on a six-count superseding indictment charging them with various drug distribution crimes.

Ross and Hoskins were the fourth and fifth defendants to be arraigned under the indictment. Three other defendants were arraigned on Tuesday, and an additional defendant was arraigned last month under a separate indictment. Both Ross and Hoskins were arraigned on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

From April to August last year, Ross and Hoskins along with Ian Scott Barclay, Cordero Robert Metzker and Erin Marie Bernhardt conspired to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and buprenophine at the state prison, according to court documents.

Barclay, a prisoner, had arranged with Bernhardt, a prison employee, for Bernhardt to smuggle the drugs in, documents state. Metzker, Ross and Hoskins, under directions from Barclay, helped arrange for the meth to be delivered to Bernhardt's home in Deer Lodge.

Bernhardt, who worked in the prison laundry, then smuggled the drugs into the prison and gave them to Barclay, documents state. Barclay then distributed the drugs to prisoners.

Bernhardt was paid $3,000 by other members of the smuggling ring, according to documents. Metzker, Ross and Hoskins collected the money from the distribution of meth and used it to bribe Bernhardt.

An additional 50 grams of meth was distributed through the jail between Aug. 9 and 14, 2015, court documents say.

Barclay pleaded not guilty on May 31 to conspiracy to two counts of possession with intent to distribute, distribution of methamphetamine, and accepting and giving bribes. Metzker is charged with the same and pleaded not guilty. He is out on release while awaiting trial. He was incarcerated at the prison from December 2011 to August 2012 and is on probation for drug possession and distribution in Missoula and Gallatin counties.

Bernhardt was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, possession with intent to distribute, distribution of meth, and accepting and giving bribes.

If convicted, each could face more than 100 years in prison and fines of over $15 million.

Court documents show Hoskins and Ross were arrested in Tennessee and are both out on $5,000 bond. They appeared in court in Montana via video.

Court documents say Ross lives outside Memphis, Tennessee, with her mother and suffers from Type 1 diabetes, anorexia and drug addiction. She was moving into a long-term residential treatment facility on May 31.

The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Inspector, the Montana Department of Corrections Investigations Division, Montana State Prison Warden Leroy Kirkegard and his staff, and the Montana Division of Criminal Investigations.

Last month Martin Reap, who at one time worked as a guard, denied charges he smuggled meth and marijuana into the prison from February 2015 until April this year in exchange for about $5,000. The indictment alleges Reap conspired with unnamed inmates to bring drugs into the prison.

A public information officer with the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday evening she wasn't able to provide more information about the case.
MUSCATINE, IowaBill and Ruth Hunt of Muscatine will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on June 11, 2016 with a family dinner.

Ruth A. Landmesser and William A. Hunt were married at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Estherville, Iowa.

They have three sons, Todd (Dee Dee), Corey (Tara), and Dan (Holly). They have nine grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

She retired from JCPenney after 17 years.

He retired from Monsanto Co. in 1999 after 33 years of service.
Civil #: 16-001018

Special Execution

Nationstar Mortgage LLC,

VS.

Midland Funding, LLC, Michael L. Martz AKA Michael Louis Martz, Parties In Possession, Michael L. Martz AKA Michael Louis Martz, Administrator Of The Estate Of Tina Marie Martz FKA Tina M. Staats, Deceased, State Of Iowa, Iowa Department Of Revenue And Finance, Matthew Orr And Cassandra Shelladay,

As a result of the judgment rendered in the above referenced court case, an execution was issued by the court to the Sheriff of this county. The execution ordered the sale of defendant(s) Real Estate Described Below. To satisfy the judgment. The property to be sold is

Lot 28, in Block 39, of Park Place Addition to the City o]f Muscatine, in Muscatine County, Iowa.

Property Address: 508 Jackson Street, Muscatine, IA 52761

The described property will be offered for sale at public auction for cash only as follows:

Sale Date: 07/19/2016

Sale Time: 9:30 am

Place of Sale: Muscatine County Jail Lobby, 400 Walnut Street, Muscatine

Homestead: Defendant is advised that if the described real estate includes the homestead (which must not exceed 1/2 Acre if within a city or town plat, or, if rural, must not exceed 40 Acres), defendant must file a homestead plat with the Sheriff within ten (10) days after service of this notice, or the Sheriff will have it platted and charge the costs to this case.

This sale not subject to redemption.

Property exemption: Certain money or property may be exempt. Contact your attorney promptly to review specific provisions of the law and file appropriate notice, if applicable.

Judgment Amount: $69,396.55

Costs: $7,503.00

Accruing Costs: Plus

Interest: $1,463.03

Sheriffs Fees: Pending

Date: 05/20/2016

Attorney:

Benjamin W. Hopkins

1350 NW 138th St., Ste. 100

Clive, IA 50325

(515)222-9400

C.J. Ryan

Muscatine County Sheriff

Melissa Hurlbut

Civil Deputy
MUSCATINE, Iowa The American Cancer Society's 27th Annual Relay for Life of Muscatine was held Friday night, and cancer survivors walked with friends and family to support cancer research.

The 72 survivors walked on the Muscatine High School track in the sun to songs like "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions," and after their lap, friends, family members, and supporters joined the walk.

Dale Jones and his wife Betty Jones, a survivor of breast cancer, said they were truly blessed.

"It's wonderful to have something like this," Dale Jones said.

Lupe Orr, who has been participating in Relay for Life for 10 years, said the event is especially important to her because her mother is a survivor of breast cancer, and she had other family members affected by cancer as well.

"This event really means a lot, cancer research is very important for us," Orr said.

A five-year survivor of breast cancer, Nancy Hurleut said Relay for Life is needed because it helps spread awareness.

"I think it's good because it helps bring awareness to the community of all the different cancers that are out there and the progress that they're making trying to find a cure," Hurleut said.

Penny Jones, last year's Relay for Life honorary, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2002.

"This event is really significant for our family, because three of the four of our family have been impacted by cancer. Each one of us has had a different type, and so finding a cure for us is very important," Jones said.

She and her family were selling "all the colors of cancer" crayons, which were made from crayons belonging to Jefferson Elementary students.

Jones said that after going through chemotherapy three times, her cancer is a constant in her life.

"It's a new way of life is what it is, a different normal," she said.

Holly Oppelt was named "Hero" this year, and Jones said she is looking forward to passing the honor on to her.

"Bob and I are really excited to pass the survivor to her because last year she was in our army of supporters, and she is also a 1971 classmate of ours," she said.

Muscatine High School cheerleaders chanted and danced in support of the survivors as they passed, and when they finished the first lap of the evening, the crowd of supporters stood and cheered before joining them on the track.

Bailey Stoneking, the Chairperson for this year's Relay for Life of Muscatine, said she was excited by the support from the Muscatine community.

"We're supporting our cancer patients and fighting back against this disease, we're working together to find a cure," she said.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  Contrary Brewing and the Clam Shell are now up and running in downtown Muscatine, and both said they are excited to operate as neighbors.

Mark Mitchell, the owner of Contrary, said that the Clam Shell and Contrary, although they are separate businesses, compliment each other.

"It works out well especially since it's right next door, we share deck space and you can be on the deck and enjoy the food. And there is a great view there from the deck but you can come inside and see the Mississippi as well," he said.

Jerry Vasquez of Muscatine is the owner of Mamis Authentic Mexican restaurant, which has locations in Muscatine, Iowa City, and Boulder, Colorado, and said as soon as he heard that Contrary was looking for someone to run the Clam Shell, he jumped at the opportunity.

It just really interested me because I personally like breweries, and it allowed me to do something a little different with the food, because Ive been doing Mamis for around 12 years now, so I havent ventured off from there, Vasquez said.

Some of that venturing includes what Vasquez described as a Mexican take on American seafood. Those foods include spicy crab cakes with avocado sauce, surf and turf tacos with both shrimp and steak, and sheet pan chicken bacon ranch nachos. The Clam Shell will also offer cocktails, something that Contrary is not able to do with their liquor license.

They are a brewery and theyre only licensed for certain things, but that allows us to be complimentary to each other. We wont be selling beer, but we will be able to do cocktails, do margaritas, Moscow mules, sangria, stuff that he cant do because of his licenses, he said.

People will be able to bring beer from Contrary to the outdoor porch of the Clam Shell, which, Vasquez said, will eventually include a cover so rain will not be a deterrent to customers.

Vasquez said he has always enjoyed breweries, and was excited to hear of one opening in his hometown.

I just love breweries, so that was attractive to me, and just the idea of giving Muscatine something rather unique  we now have both a craft brewery and craft food, he said.

Mitchell also said he enjoys the way Vasquez's food and his craft beer work together.

"It really does well, there's a lot of Mexican food in town, but this is a different kind, it's unique, I think it all pairs really well with our beer as well," he said.

Vasquez said he was also attracted by the view; Contrary and the Clam Shell sit directly across from the Mississippi.

This view is amazing, when I came and I saw it I knew it was an opportunity I couldnt pass up I mean its the best view in Muscatine next to the best brewery in Muscatine, in Iowa even, Vasquez said.

But really what drew him was the chance to branch out in his hometown.

I like the opportunity I love Muscatine, Ive lived in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, but I always come back to Muscatine because I love it, I grew up here, he said.

One local said she loves the options the two businesses provide.

"We've been down here multiple times just because we can sit out here and relax and enjoy, it's the perfect mix with fresh homemade beer and fresh homemade food," Lisa Baillie said.

The Clam Shell and Contrary, 411 W. Mississippi Dr., are open 4-10 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  A Muscatine man has been sentenced to not to exceed 10 years in prison on a drug conviction.

According to the Muscatine County Attorney's Office, Matthew Norwood, 26, was sentenced for delivery of a controlled substance, simulated methamphetamine.

Norwood was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. He has an extensive criminal history in the State of Indiana. The arrest and prosecution of Norwood was the result of an investigation by the Muscatine County Drug Task Force.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  The Elementary Education Open House is set for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, June 6 in Strahan Hall on the campus of Muscatine Community College.

A free lunch is included.

Learn the steps you take to make your dream come true. Professors and staff from the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) will provide detailed information at this event.

Sessions Offered:

Financial Aid/ Cost (Process in general, teacher loan forgiveness programs, scholarships)

Steps before you can have your own classroom (Prerequisites for the College of Education, classes in the program, student teaching, licensure requirement)

How to start at MCC and finish at University of Northern Iowa (transfer path, benefits to transferring)

The day in the life of a teacher (schedule, salary, career outlook and areas of need, How do you decide what subjects/ levels to teach?)

Putting it all together  Questions and answers

For more information or to register: Contact Elizabeth Medina, Admissions Coordinator, 563-288-6007 or email at emedina@eicc.edu
MUSCATINE, Iowa  The Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce & Industry is presenting the Annual 4th of July Parade on Monday, July 4 in downtown Muscatine. Participating in the parade is a perfect way to promote your business or organization to thousands of Muscatine residents.

Complete and return the parade entry application to GMCCIs office, no later than 4 p.m. Friday, June 17. Parade entry fees are $100 for Business/Advertisers and Free for Not for Profit Organizations. All applications received after June 17th will be subject to a $50 late fee. Participants are encouraged to showcase this years theme, Honoring Our Armed Forces. The chamber is encouraging veterans and active service men and women to be a part of the parade. If interested, please contact Shelley at 563-263-8895 or ssides@muscatine.com.

GMCCI is also seeking donations for fireworks. The cost associated with putting on a brilliant fireworks display is $20,000. Donations are the only funds that drive the success of this event. Sponsorship forms may be found online at www.muscatine.com and returned with your donations to GMCCIs office located at 102 Walnut St. Anyone that contributes to the fireworks at the $100 level automatically receives a free entry in the parade!

Applications for food or merchandise vendors at the Riverfront during the parade and fireworks are being accepted at GMCCI. Vendors must provide a copy of their certificate of insurance and permit from the City of Muscatine with their application no later than July 1.

All applications and forms are available on line at www.muscatine.com or at GMCCI located at 102 Walnut St. For more information, call Shelley Sides at 563-263-8895 or email ssides@muscatine.com.
Jason Walker, Lead Teacher in Continuing Education at MCC, spoke about future programming, We will begin an 8-week, quarter-based system with a 75 percent attendance policy on Aug. 22. We will do lengthier orientations preceding that date and before the beginning of each quarter. More info will be posted about HSE at https://www.eicc.edu/continuing-education/adult-basic-education-ged.aspx and our blog at: http://adulted-mcc.blogspot.com. Interested students can go to the first link to register for classes at any time during the year.
TOOLESBORO, Iowa  Louisa County is honoring six fallen brothers who served during the Civil War with a dedication event at the Littleton Monument at 4 p.m. June 14.

The event will be in Toolesboro to honor the six Littleton brothers, Kendall, George, John, Noah, William and Thomas, who served in the Union Army during the Civil War. All six died during those years through battle, illness, accident and as prisoner of war.

The heritage center will be shuttling visitors from either the Louisa County Heritage Center or Wapello High School starting at 2 p.m. There will be no parking available on-site.

Littleton Memorial Committee Co-Chair Tom Woodruff said the monument is made out of granite and was created this year.

The monument was approved for purchase in last November and they worked on it till the end of March, Woodruff said.

According to dedication chair Kathy Vance, the dedication will feature a performance by the Wapello High School Band, Elaine Pacha on the bugle, a color guard composed of members of the 39th Iowa Veteran Infantry and speeches from Governor Terry Branstad and Graceland Universitys Dr. Thomas Morain.

Vance said this event has significant meaning.

The brothers were locals and raised by their families in Louis County, Vance said. The six brothers died in the Civil War, which is pretty significant. How many families give up six of their sons?

Vance also said the event will be happening rain or shine because there will be a tent on-site.

There will be a reception after the dedication at the Heritage Center.
LETTS, IowaLetts TTT, Chapter T met May 12, 2016, at the Letts United Methodist Church with 13 members and 10 guests present.

A camp shower was held for the girls attending camp Wyoming in June in the first and second session. The girls received many nice things and presented a style show to show off their clothes, and other items they received.

It was noted that some of our former camp girls will graduate this year, and we need to see if they are going on to school and we will try to help them.

Plans for RAGBRAI will be discussed at the next meeting.

The committee, Kendra Lee, Janet Guldenpfennig, and Betty Houseman, served refreshments to the group.

The next meeting will be 9 a.m. June 18 with Vicki Beers, Judy Carlson, as hostesses. It will be a potluck brunch with the committee furnishing the main dish.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  The Muscatine Community College Student Center was eventful with the sounds of commerce as more than 60 students participated in MCC's Fourth Annual Market Expo.

"I'm using this as a venue for them to practice what they're leaning in the classroom," said MCC Instructor John Dabeet, who teaches economics and statistics and coordinate the business department at the college.

The students must create a business to run for three hours during the expo, with the goal to not only break even, but to raise money for MCC scholarships. The 60 students in Dabeet's class created 12 different businesses for the event this year.

Students raised $1,353.75 for MCC Scholarship Fund during the three hours event and presented the check to Vic McAvoy.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  Temp Associates scholarships were awarded to four Muscatine High School graduates.

The recipients of these scholarships were Enrique Aguirre, Travis Bogart, Jesus Torres, and James Woods. Through a gift from Bob and JoAnn Jensen and their family, four $3,500 scholarships were awarded to the MHS graduates to attend a college or university in the state of Iowa.

The scholarships will be renewable for three additional years for a total value of $14,000. These students have either worked for Temp Associates or had a parent employed by Temp Associates. The intent of this scholarship program is to provide an opportunity for students with financial need, good character and citizenship to continue their education.

In presenting these scholarships Bob Jensen said, Through these scholarships we can reinvest in the Muscatine community, which has been very good to Temp Associates and our family.

Temp Associates is a staffing company with locations in Muscatine, Burlington, Mount Pleasant, Marshalltown, Grinnell, Fairfield and Clinton.
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
The United States is warning about possible terrorist attacks in South African shopping malls and other areas frequented by American citizens.

The U.S. Diplomatic Mission to South Africa informed U. S. citizens that the U.S. Government has received information that terrorist groups are planning to carry out near-term attacks against places where U.S. citizens congregate in South Africa, such as upscale shopping areas and malls in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

This information comes against the backdrop of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levants public call for its adherents to carry out terrorist attacks globally during the upcoming month of Ramadan, said the U. S. Embassy.

The South African Police declined to comment to Reuters about the warning, but said they were studying the U.S. embassy statement.

Embassy spokesperson Cynthia Harvey said: Protection of U.S. citizens overseas is among our top priorities. When we receive specific, credible, non-counterable threat information, it is our worldwide policy for US embassies and consulates to share the information.

We are cooperating with local authorities, as we do in any investigation into terrorist threats around the world.

She said US citizens were advised to enroll their international travel plans on a government website.

There will be no change to operations at U.S. Embassy Pretoria or our Consulates in Durban, Cape Town, and Johannesburg, she said.

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation said the countrys security agencies were capable of protecting South Africas residents, including American citizens.

More government news

The highest-paid executive at a state-owned tech enterprise in South Africa: R5.045 million salary

We need to make sure the DA is a real political party: SABC
Napa planners have judged a cluster of 10 apartments to be a good match for a north Napa neighborhood  but neighbors attacked the development as an ill fit that will only become worse as more homes, schoolchildren and vehicles join it.

Two developers on Thursday gained the city Planning Commissions approval for the Byway East Apartments, a two-story complex that will occupy a vacant half-acre lot east of Highway 29 in the north part of town. Napas development authority cleared the project to move ahead despite numerous complaints from residents about the traffic congestion, littering and safety risks they predicted for the area, where other housing construction and an expanded gas station also are planned.

This does not fit in our community, said Marc Levin, the first in a string of neighborhood residents to speak out against the apartments planned for Byway East, next to the highway and Salvador Avenue. Our neighborhood is about to get the perfect storm; this project and others will completely change one of the great neighborhoods in Napa.

Although the projects 10 dwellings fit the sites zoning for up to 20 units per acre, opponents declared the apartments would add to the strain on traffic flow and parking supplies when combined with other developments.

Multifamily housing has been proposed to the north and east, the Salvador Elementary School farther north is slated to more than double its enrollment upon its conversion into a middle school, and the owner of the neighboring Chevron the last fuel stop on Highway 29 before the Upvalley  has applied to triple the stations size.

There has to be a little moderation in what to allow here, said Gerald Basford, a contractor who has lived in the neighborhood since 1957. Four big changes all at one time is overwhelming. I ask you to look at all of the changes as a package.

Such opposition failed to sway the four commissioners, all of whom voted to let developers Joe Rossi and Mike DeSimoni Jr. move ahead (Michael Murray was absent).

Taking every opportunity to expand housing within the city limits is a long-term necessity if Napa is to remain remotely affordable to future generations, planners argued.

Theres a development (planned) that would add 40 new homes near my house, said Paul Kelley. As for my house, at one time it was the new (neighboring) house that somebody else had to contend with.  Napa needs more housing, and we have to deal with it. Unless we want to send our kids out of town, more housing helps to mitigate prices and rents.

I hear this all the time  all the time, said Commissioner Gordon Huether. Its infill (construction); the character of neighborhoods is in constant transition. The population is growing, children are being born and people are moving in.

The neighborhood is not what it used to be  get used to it. When those houses were built, Im sure the neighbors who had an acre or two werent so excited about them either.

Byway East Apartments would consist entirely of two-bedroom, two-bath rental units, in two different layouts of 992 or 1,016 square feet. In November, shortly after filing a development application, Rossi said rents could range from about $1,500 to $1,800  below the countys average of more than $2,100 for similar-size apartments.

The contemporary design by Napa architect Chris Craiker features a variety of roof pitches and wall textures, mixing corrugated metal, stucco and wood.

The property was formerly owned by the family of Evert deLaat, a painting contractor who moved to Napa from Los Angeles in the 1970s and died in 2009. Title company records list the owners as Kulbir and Rajinder Dhillon.
OAKVILLE -- Genvieve Janssens, longtime winemaker for Robert Mondavi Winery, was chipper on Friday morning at the start of the Napa Valley Barrel Auction.

This year, the Barrel Auction was held at the Robert Mondavi Winery, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. "For us, it's special," she said. "For the Napa Valley, it's another great vintage, another great auction."

A group of vintners, including Robert and Margrit Mondavi, founded Auction Napa Valley in 1981. Since then, the auction has donated $150 million to Napa Valley nonprofits. In the past few years, proceeds have been directed toward community health and children's education nonprofits.

Bruce Cakebread, part of a longtime Napa Valley winemaking family, said his family has been involved in Auction Napa Valley since the beginning, 36 years ago. Although the weather was warm, everyone was excited to be a part of the auction "because everyone realizes how much money goes back to health care and education and what a good cause it is," he said.

There were 40 or more restaurants and food purveyors serving food and some 100 wineries pouring inside the ToKalon Cellar, where the temperature was a cool 55 degrees and where so many vintners, including Tim Mondavi, were pouring their cabernet sauvignons.

Mondavi marveled at the 50 years for Robert Mondavi Winery and nearly 100 years of winemaking for the Mondavi family. "Even though our family isn't here (at Mondavi winery), I'm still very proud of all the great things we accomplished and we created to help bring California along," he said.

He noted that 2015 is his 42nd vintage, adding, "I'm delighted to have our own Continuum to carry on at the very highest level."

Continuum is the name of the winery and property on Pritchard Hill that Mondavi now owns. He said it can been seen from the Robert Mondavi Winery. "If you stand at the arch of Robert Mondavi Winery, look through the crown of Opus One, look high on Vaca Range, ours is the highest vineyard you'll see there. It is in a straight line."

Honorary chairman Agustin F. Huneeus of Quintessa is hosting Auction Napa Valley 20 years after his father hosted the event. "It feels like a tremendous honor and it's exciting," he said. Huneeus said he was asked to be auction chairman about a year ago. It's taken a year to put the event together.

He has changed the choreography of the event a little bit. The live auction on Saturday will start later (3:30 p.m.) than in years past, with Argentine chef Francis Mallmann cooking Saturday night's dinner over open fires.

Meadowood Napa Valley Resort owner Bill Harlan allowed a 100-foot hole to be dug in the Meadowood fairway for the firepit, which is scheduled to be lit at 5 a.m. Saturday, some 14 hours before dinner will be served.

Napa Mayor Jill Techel said she has been attending the auction for more than a dozen years. "I know a lot of people working behind the tables, working security and making sure the guests have a great time. It's kind of fun. All the nonprofits are here, everyone is helping out."

Techel, who has been Napa mayor for 11 years, said the money raised from Auction Napa Valley goes to the nonprofits in the Napa Valley. "I have to say 'thank you' to the wine auction, to the vintners that donated $10 million to the City of Napa after the earthquake. Being a recipient of those funds and seeing the money go to people who really need it. We're really blessed," she said.

Napa volunteer Jane Kirkpatrick said she has been an Auction Napa Valley volunteer for the past 12 years. Her job was to be a go-to person. In the barrel room, for example, she emptied spit buckets, brought water to thirsty attendees and answered questions. On Saturday, she said she would be in the main tent, helping to set up for the live auction. "It's an annual event that I love," she said.
Wild West-era adventurer Jesse Whitton traveled to California with famed explorer John The Pathfinder Fremont and in a fit of rage almost stomped the life out of a political adversary.

He also sat on the very first Napa County Board of Supervisors.

That last distinction makes him of particular interest to Supervisor Diane Dillon. Since 2011, she has been compiling a history of the Board of Supervisors and all 115 men and women who have sat on it.

One chore is trying to complete the countys collection of photographs of each supervisor. On Friday, the county with a brief ceremony celebrated the unveiling of 79 photographs that now hang on the walls in the Board of Supervisors chamber.

But Dillons quest also involves piercing the haze of time surrounding many of these faded photos and capturing a sense of the living, breathing human beings. Some of these supervisors took their personalities, passions and quirks to the grave 150 years ago.

Its like solving a mystery, Dillon said.

Take Whitton. He served on the very first Board of Supervisors in 1852, a far more mysterious, information-sparse era than today, long before peoples lives became open books of selfies posted on Facebook.

Napa County has a photograph of Whitton. But whats going on behind that heavily bearded face, those lively eyes, that almost-smirk of a smile?

Dillon became a spare-time, late-night history detective. She delved into obituaries, history books and old newspapers, talked to descendants of the supervisors, anything to find a spark of personality and extra facts to go with the names.

Whitton had personality and backstory to spare. He was born in Kentucky in 1812 during the presidency of James Madison, who is known as the Father of the Constitution.

A mid-1840s journey as part of Fremonts third expedition brought him to California a few years before California became a state. He ended up in Napa Valley and in December 1852 sat down as supervisor for the very first Board of Supervisors meeting. Among the big topics was a $1,190 construction bill for a bridge over Napa Creek.

Whitton served on the Board of Supervisors again in 1856 and from 1858 until his resignation in 1862.

In September 1859, Whitton found himself at the center of an episode that the Sacramento Daily Union said stirred Napa to its very depth. The incident warranted a look back 30 years later by the paper.

The Sacramento Daily Union described Whitton as a big, strapping Missourian of intensely secession proclivities and a man of violent passions  a sort of David S. Terry, but on a smaller scale, his mental abilities being of a very common order.

The Terry comparison was telling. Terry was a Democrat and state Supreme Court justice who a couple weeks before the 1859 Whitton incident had killed a U.S. Senator in a duel with the combatants using hair-trigger pistols.

Whitton didnt get into a duel. Rather, he got into a political argument with Charles Marks on the streets of downtown Napa. The paper described Marks as an average-size, very peaceable, inoffensive German who ran a bakery and a candy store  he was a Republican, but not a noisy one.

But Marks political opinions offended Whitton, who knocked down Marks and nearly stomped him to death. A crowd gathered, Republicans talked about lynching Whitton, and Whitton holed up inside a brick building at Main and First streets.

A sheriff smuggled Whitton out the back of the building away from the mob, arrested him and put him in the county jail. Dillon said Whitton escaped serious punishment.

Whitton eventually went to live in Colusa County, then to San Juan in San Benito Township of Monterey County. A local newspaper story says he went to Arizona in 1878 and bought a silver mine near Tucson.

In a sense, Whitton seems to have simply faded into the ether of history. Dillon couldnt discover when and how he died. Still, she is grateful to have that photograph from an era when images were often made on metal plates and developed with deadly chemicals such as potassium cyanide.

Dillon discovered many other facts about the Board of Supervisors. It had only three seats from 1852 until 1874, when it transitioned to todays five seats. But for a brief period in 1874, it had eight seats.

Why eight seats? Dillon found that, during the transition period, the five new supervisors came in and the three already seated refused to go.

Just finding the name of every supervisor proved a chore. Dillon discovered the countys list was incomplete.

For example, the countys list said A. J. Raney filled the 4th District seat from 1893 to 1910 and then H.S. Greer from 1911 to 1912. Somehow, the county overlooked William Greenwood Raney, Frank Gordon and Frank Phillips.

Perhaps thats understandable. William Greenwood Raney took office in 1910, but served less than six months before dying of ptomaine poisoning after eating a bulls head breakfast in Monticello.

The governor appointed Gordon to fill the vacancy. But Gordon served only a few months before voters in November 1910 chose Greer to serve the remainder of the late William Raneys term.

Greer served only seven months before he died. The governor appointed Phillips to serve the remainder of the term.

That means the 4th District had a musical chairs that saw four people serve within a single term. Dillions detective work brought this long-forgotten, tangled tale to light.

Helping in the effort was JoAnn Melgar, who read aging Board of Supervisors minutes books and deciphered the handwriting from scribes who used fountain pens. Those books can reveal the identity of a heretofore unknown supervisor.

There is one fellow, he attended one meeting, Dillon said.

Dillon is working on short biographies of every man and woman who served on the Board of Supervisors. At some point, the county will post them on its website.

Some of these folks were extremely wealthy, Dillon said. They were among the wealthiest in the state of California. Others were just regular folks serving their community.

Dillon is continuing to sift through the evidence to find out more about them, even while realizing that not all sources are equal.

Obituaries back in the day, they wrote very glowing, laudatory obituaries, she said with a laugh. Usually, you can find something that speaks to their character.

Of course, theres one supervisor portrait that Dillon will have absolutely no trouble writing  her own.

Dillon has written an initial article on the history of the Board of Supervisors. People can find this first fruit of her efforts in the February issue of Tidings put out by the Napa County Historical Society.

To get a copy, call Nancy Levenberg, the societys executive director, at 707-224-1739, or visit the societys website, napahistory.org.
Nicholas Luiz, the Santa Clara firefighter who pleaded no contest to two charges of animal cruelty after killing his 6-month-old German Shepherd puppy, was sentenced to 210 days in jail in Napa County Superior Court on Friday.

The puppy named Woody was killed by Luiz at his former home on Massa Drive in Napa on Dec. 29 after months of being abused. The incident was reported by a neighbor who claimed to have seen Luiz beat his dog to death, according to the prosecutions sentencing brief.

The neighbor reported that Luiz had picked Woody up, thrashing his body on the ground seven or eight times, prosecution said. When police arrived that night, no one answered. They obtained a search warrant and found the animal the next morning wrapped in a plastic garbage bag in the laundry room. Luiz admitted that things got out of control and that he had been drinking, prosecution said.

Woodys supporters from Jameson Animal Rescue Ranch, who have been following the case since the beginning, took up nearly two rows of seats of the courtroom waiting to hear Judge Francisca P. Tishers sentencing decision.

But that would take two hours to get to.

Luizs defense attorney, Matthew C. Bishop, called Dr. Rahn Minagawa out of San Diego to testify as an expert in dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and as a doctor who had interviewed Luiz three times after the December incident.

Is there a link between Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and substance abuse? Bishop asked him.

Absolutely, Minagawa answered. Individuals who have been through or witnessed traumatic events will often turn to alcohol as a way to self-medicate, he said. Minagawa said that PTSD is more common among first responders than in the general public. I see PTSD with police officers, sheriffs deputies, paramedics, firefighters and federal agents, he said.

Minagawa said that Luiz suffered from PTSD, alcohol use disorder and a depressive disorder. Not only did Luiz have a traumatic experience as an adolescent  his father had a heart attack when he was 15 and he was unable to help him  but he also worked in a field where workers are often exposed to traumatic events, he said. Luiz has worked as a paramedic at the Santa Clara Fire Department since 2008.

Minagawa said that Luiz has been self-medicating for the last three years as he had issues at work and at home. As he began drinking more, Luiz had less control of his behavior, Minagawa said. He felt like he couldnt express his anxiety or other negative feelings due to the culture of his workplace, he said.

Is it culturally acceptable to complain of PTSD? asked Bishop.

No, not at all, Minagawa answered. In the first responder field, much like the military, he said that it is not culturally acceptable for people to ask for help because it could show weakness. If someone has an issue, they may be afraid that asking for help could cast doubt on their ability to perform the duties of the job, he continued.

Luiz was having trouble sleeping, and even having nightmares about some of the incidents he encountered on the job, Minagawa said. On the night he killed Woody, Luiz was in an almost dissociative state, he said. His ability to control his emotions were gone  basically, he snapped.

Is he salvageable? Bishop asked.

Absolutely, Minagawa replied. Luiz has lived a life of service and put his life on the line to help other people, he said. He has no prior criminal history and hasnt had any previous issues with aggression, Minagawa said.

Minagawa suggested that a more appropriate punishment would be to have Luiz serve time at a veterinarians office or other animal organization as opposed to being incarcerated.

Deputy District Attorney Katy Yount asked Minagawa if a link had often been found between people who abuse animals and those who go on to abuse humans.

Without treatment, Minagawa said, its possible.

Yount asked Minagawa about an incident that occurred several years ago in which Luiz received a demerit at work for being too aggressive with a new employee. Minagawa said that it should have been a red flag.

Werent there other red flags? asked Yount, bringing up the healing fractures that were found during the necropsy of Woodys body. These healing injuries indicated that abuse had been going on for months, she said.

According to the prosecutions sentencing brief, Woody had been severely traumatized in multiple locations over an extended period of time in his young life. The Jan. 5 necropsy showed bloody discharge emitting from his mouth and nose, and a red foamy fluid in his trachea. Woodys lungs had multiple areas of hemorrhage and/or contusion and his abdomen was filled with blood  the result of a severely fractured liver caused by fatal blunt force trauma.

The examination also showed older injuries to Woodys ribs and skull, including three healing fractures of the ribs, at least one of which was suffered two to four months prior to his death. His skull showed bruising over the frontal bones and a deep hemorrhage, two to five days old, and an older healing skull fracture or chronic head trauma that was likely one to two months old. The examining doctor said that Woody would have felt pain as a result of these fractures, and would have whined or whimpered if they were touched.

He committed these actions  and didnt know it (Woody) was dead, Yount asserted.

Luiz told officers that he thought Woody had passed out so he put him in the doghouse and went back out to check on him later, according to the prosecutions sentencing brief. When Luiz saw that Woody wasnt doing well, he put him in the laundry room, hoping that maybe hed come back in the morning.

During that time, he would have had the state of mind to render aid to that animal? Yount asked Minagawa.

Luiz may have still been recovering from the alcohol use, he said.

In this case, (Luiz) covered the gamut of animal abuse, from wounding Woody by breaking his bones, to eventually slamming his body so hard on the ground that his liver suffered numerous lacerations, and then leaving him to die what one could imagine was a torturous, painful death, reads the prosecutions sentencing brief. Instead of trying to resuscitate the dog, which he was presumably trained to do as a licensed paramedic, or rushing him to the veterinarian to either save Woody or end his suffering, (Luiz) left him to die.

Since the incident, Luiz has refrained from using alcohol and is receiving counseling, along with his wife, from his church pastor, Bishop said. He has done everything humanly possible to correct himself.

Bishop said he had been hesitant to take the case, figuring that Luiz is either a horrible, cold-blooded person or hes a person who snapped  and we need to figure out why. The explanation for his behavior has come in the form of a diagnosis, but it isnt an excuse, Bishop said.

Hes not an animal hater, Bishop said. If we believe what the People wrote, it would seem that hes a half-step away from being a serial killer. Since this incident, Luiz has had to sell his home and move  he has received death threats, Bishop said. Its horrible that the dog was an unintended casualty.

Bishop suggested that Luiz serve 90 days in jail plus some kind of community service  nine months less than what the prosecution had recommended. The Probation Department recommended 210 days in jail. Bishop also asked that the charges to be downgraded from felonies to misdemeanors.

Deep down, hes a good person  hes salvageable, he said.

This is obviously a very difficult case, Yount said. No one doubts the bravery and courage hes displayed in his profession, she said, but he did commit these crimes. Im not trying to make light of his PTSD diagnosis  however, there is, at the heart of this incident, a terrible crime.

Luiz could hear his dog crying  he knew he was suffering, she said. He did do these things  its not an excuse for making Woody suffer in his young life.

Yount suggested that the court consider downgrading the charges to misdemeanors only after he completes his probation. Yount asked that the court not allow Luiz to be around animals now.

Before being sentenced, Luiz addressed the court himself.

Id like to take this opportunity to let the court and the People know how sorry I am, Luiz said, trying to hold back tears. I stand before you broken and humiliated by what has happened, he said.

Luiz expressed feeling shame for what he had done, and admitted that Woody deserved to be treated fairly as a family pet. He said he appreciates animal rights groups and agrees that animals need them. Luiz said that when he sees commercials about animal abuse, he realizes that he was one of those people. I dont want to be that person, he said.

While I want to forget what happened, I must remember to not let history repeat itself. Luiz said he has sought help for his problems and that he hopes he will someday be in a position to help other people who may be experiencing some of the same issues.

This is certainly a very tragic case, said Judge Tisher. All the letters she has received on his behalf suggest that he is a very different person, she said. Luiz seems like he has been supportive of others through hard times and is a good person, she said.

Its just shocking, really, said the judge, noting that Woodys ribs were broken at different times and his skull was fractured. Since it was not an isolated incident and went on for such a long time, she denied the defenses request to have the charges downgraded to misdemeanors now.

Luiz was sentenced to 210 days in jail with one day credit and three years of formal probation. He was ordered to not own or be in care of any animals without permission of probation.

Luiz will be remanded into custody at Napa County jail on July 7.

Following the sentencing, Monica Stevens, founder and president of Jameson Animal Rescue Ranch, said that she was satisfied with Tishers decision, although she wished he couldve have gotten more time on probation.

Given the way this could have gone, I must say that we are grateful that the felony convictions stood and that the judge seemed recognizably upset about the situation, she said. That was important to Jameson and, I think, animal advocates everywhere.

Wendi Piscia, program administrator with Napa Humane, was also present during sentencing. We sincerely hope that Mr. Luiz receives the medical support he needs to help him handle the stresses in his life that lead to the abuse and death of Woody, she said afterward.

Yount was also satisfied with Tishers decision and said that the District Attorneys Office agreed with the courts assessment that the conduct in this case is egregious, disturbing, and deserving of felony punishment.

Animal victims are particularly vulnerable because they cannot call 911 or reach out for help when they are abused. The legislature has recognized animals as more than just property, and anyone with a pet would surely agree, Yount said.

Its a tragic event all around, said Bishop. People expect a lot from first responders, but theyre human, too, he said. As a community we need to understand that they can be fragile and that theres no weakness in seeking help, he said. If it causes awareness and helps somebody else out, then it wasnt all in vain.

I hope Nick will go on to find an occupation that helps first responders.

Bishop said that Luizs paramedic license will be revoked, and that he has been officially terminated from his position with the city of Santa Clara Fire Department.
ST. HELENA  A new proposal to develop a Pope Street property is already drawing positive reviews from neighbors who have been critical of previous plans.

Antonio Castellucci wants to build 51 housing units on the 10-acre lot at 567 Pope St., as well as establish a small winery on an adjacent 14.3-acre vineyard parcel at Pope and College Avenue.

His plan calls for 19 residential lots  each with a main house and a second home or granny unit  one lot that would be set aside for 12 farmworker housing units, and one house associated with the winery where Castelluccis family would live.

The 51-unit count is the minimum allowed by the propertys zoning of Medium-Density Residential. Castellucci said the plan complies with the zoning while minimizing the impact on neighbors.

George David, a neighbor who vocally opposed previous development proposals on the site, praised Castelluccis plan for its low density, sensitivity to neighbors privacy, inclusion of farmworker housing and a bike path, and for making the winery open by appointment only.

The generous size of the home sites speaks to quality, in an age when developers are cramming as many homes as possible into new developments, David told the City Council last month.

Our Town representatives met May 26 with Castellucci, who said hes optimistic that a deal can be reached.

At 51 units, Castelluccis project is less dense than previous plans for the site, which have ranged from the 66 units proposed by Our Town St. Helena to the 112 units (later reduced to 98) proposed by Mercy Housing.

Thats a concern for affordable housing advocates like Mary Stephenson of the nonprofit Our Town, which is negotiating with Castellucci to accept a 0.75-acre lot and develop 12 farmworker housing units on it.

Stephenson said the project is beautifully designed, but isnt dense enough for the zoning.

Building just 19 homes there  eliminates a lot of housing opportunities for moderate- to low-income people who are desperate for housing in our community, she said.

Stephenson also said there needs to be more affordable housing. We cant endorse land for 12 units at this time, she said, speaking for Our Town.

The site plan calls for vehicular access from Pope Street, with access from McCorkle Avenue reserved for emergency vehicles only.

Castellucci hasnt submitted an application to the city. The City Council held a pre-application review of the project on May 24.

City Attorney Tom Brown said that taking a strong position on the project at such an early stage would legally prevent councilmembers from considering the project later. Councilmembers generally agreed that the project deserves more discussion, and didnt say anything to dissuade Castellucci from pursuing the project.

The council identified potential concerns like traffic, water neutrality, visitation at the proposed 10,000-gallon winery and affordable housing.

The General Plan identifies the property as a key housing site, and Mayor Alan Galbraith said he might consider relaxing the citys water-neutrality regulations if the project produces enough affordable housing.

The counting of second units to meet the minimum density is also sure to generate discussion.

The second units would be built primarily above garages. Rob Anglin, a land use attorney representing Castellucci, said it would be up to individual property owners whether to rent out their second units or make them available for a family member or some other purpose.

Anglin said a price range has not been established for the developments 19 residential lots, where the main houses would range from 3,200 to 4,200 square feet and the second units would range from 400 to 600 square feet.
California voters are set to vote in their primary on Tuesday, and will suffer the consequences of a serious self-imposed mistake in how they run their state. No, it has nothing to do with the presidential race.

The disaster is its top two system, in which the candidates for state offices  regardless of party  go on to compete in the general election in November if they finish first and second in the primaries.

The likely perverse result? Voters in November will probably have a choice between two Democrats for an open U.S. Senate seat.

The motivation for the California system was to elevate more moderate politicians than the parties were producing on their own. In practice, at least in the first two election cycles since the change was carried out, the results have not matched reformers hopes. Candidates have not been more moderate.

In part, thats because the parties have adapted: They made more formal endorsements before the June first-round election. This is consistent with a theme that political scientist Seth Masket has emphasized in his research: Political parties are resilient, and react to regulation by finding new ways to control their nomination.

The current Senate race illustrates the problem. Current polling has Democrat Kamala Harris at 29 percent, Democrat Loretta Sanchez in second with 20 percent and Republican Tom Del Beccaro third at just 8 percent. In other words, if the polls hold up, two traditional Democrats will survive the first round and face off in November.

How did this happen? Of the 34 (!) candidates on the ballot, Harris, Californias attorney general, and Sanchez, a U.S. representative for almost 20 years, are the best known. There is no clear separation among the 12 Republicans. In part, thats because Republicans failed to recruit a strong candidate, but its also because its hard to emerge from a pack of 12. Had three strong Democrats chosen to run, they would have split the Democratic vote, and a Republican might have wound up advancing.

In this particular race, at least Californians will wind up electing a senator most of them support. But weve seen the opposite result too: In one Democratic-leaning House district in 2012 in Southern California, several Democratic candidates split the vote, and two Republican candidates wound up advancing to the final round  leaving the majority of the district without a candidate to vote for.

Theres more. Unlike Louisiana, which has a somewhat similar system but holds the initial vote on Election Day in November (with a runoff after that if needed), California holds its first round in June. This is months before most voters are focused on elections, meaning turnout is far lower for that election than for the final one. In 2014, 4.3 million people cast votes in June compared with 7.3 million in November.

Even worse is that, this year, the first-round election for the U.S. Senate and House, California Legislature and other offices takes place in the same June 7 election as the (partisan) presidential primary. This is likely to favor Democrats because Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are still in a contest for their partys nomination, while Donald Trump has already sealed the deal on the Republican side. Turnout is likely to be a lot higher on the Democratic side than among Republicans.

Granted, Democrats would almost certainly have won the U.S. Senate election under normal rules. But at least voters would have had a choice in November. And Republicans would have had an active effort to get their vote out, a drive that could matter a lot in some other races down the ballot.

Since Trump and the Republicans are unlikely to make any effort in California for the general election, since it is solidly Democratic, and since the two Senate candidates are likely to be Democrats, Republicans will be at a significantly worse disadvantage in November than usual. Its an unfair and flat-out foolish system.

Bernstein is a Bloomberg View columnist covering U.S. politics.
The California State Legislature, essentially those of the Democratic party, are approving very restrictive gun control laws that will take our guns away from the people based on design of the gun. The design is semi-automatic, being claimed as an assault weapon. This is a false claim by these legislators.

An assault rifle is a fully automatic firing rifle or pistol where many shots can fired in a row when a person pulls the trigger. A semi-automatic is one shot is fired when the trigger is pulled, then to fire another shot the trigger must be pulled again. Many high-quality hunting rifles are semi-automatic.

These laws are trying to outlaw, or take away ammunition for theses rifles from the people. We do have the United States Constitution, with the Second Amendment, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." The basic reason for this right is for personal defense, as well as national defense. If our county is invaded, we, the people, would be armed for the need to defend ourselves and the nation.

Also, should we be attacked by anther criminal and law enforcement is not immediately available, we would be capable of defending ourselves. A person would also be able to stop a criminal from home invasion.

We could be confident that our loved ones at home would have the necessary means to protect themselves. The gun provides the means of security. My family has experienced such an attack while I was away on a trip. I was grateful my wife had a shotgun when she once met an intruder in my own home. I am also glad her aim was off as she watched the intruder jump the fence, leaving our property. Just the sound of a fired shotgun is a great incentive to discourage intruders. Yes, some shotguns are semi-automatic.

These state legislators who support infringement of our Constitutional rights are all of the Democratic party. They all took an oath of office to defend the U.S. Constitution. The laws they bring to us are not in honor of their oath of office. They are creating laws that are a threat to our national security, and to our personal security. To me, this is an act of treason to We the People, and our nation. Please, I beg you the people to not return these traitors to the legislature.

David J. Ingraham

Napa
In response to Howard Haupts letter of June 1, "Measure Y Not?" I would like to offer a response to his argument that Measure Y is flawed.

The supervisors did not seek out an undeniable cause --our children to advance their cause. Childrens advocates had been in conversation for months with members of the Board about their desire to create a Napa County Fund for Children modeled after the highly successful San Francisco Childrens Fund that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars to address the needs of children and families since 1993.

Although a correctional facility and children seem like an unusual match, Measure Y was written to benefit our kids, our safety and our community in the future by investing in our children now to help them grow up to lead productive lives and avoid the criminal justice system.

At the same time, funds would be invested in programs and services for those currently involved in the criminal justice system to help them re-enter society safely, stay out of the system and lead productive lives.

As for the choice of a general sales tax as opposed to a dedicated tax, it was the only option available. Bonds cant be used for programs and services and dedicated taxes are only allowed to have one subject. The rules around general sales taxes also clearly state that you cannot guarantee specific funding for any one or more specific entities. Napa County has a proven track record of dedicating unrestricted tax revenue to where it is intended, and we have confidence that our Board of Supervisors will honor this commitment.

It is important to understand the correctional facility will cost in excess of $100 million. The new revenue raised through Measure Y will cover approximately 40 percent to 60 percent of the cost. The rest of the cost will be covered by other state and county funds, including county reserves and the sale of county surplus land. The county has done everything possible to minimize the amount of money that must be borrowed to build the facility.

As for waiting to see if the quarter-cent sales tax from Proposition 30 will expire in December 2016, we felt there was no reason to wait. Right now, with just a month left in the budget cycle and a few months left in the year, no one, especially Gov. Brown, is talking about continuing that tax. If it does go away, Measure Y will not impact our taxes at all. If it remains on the books, taxpayers will pay a little more to help ensure a healthy future for our children and enhanced safety for all our residents.

Additionally, the impact of the tax is lessened when we consider 30 percent of the revenue comes in from tourists.

Measure Y is far from a pie-in-the-sky effort as Mr. Haupt claims. It is a ballot measure that will benefit all Napa County residents today and for decades to come. To learn more about Measure Y, visit yesonmeasurey.com.

Michele Grupe , Campaign member

Yes on Y, Invest in Napas Future

Editor's note: The Register's deadline for election-related letters was Tuesday, May 31. Between now and June 7, we will run only letters that are answers to previously published letters or commentaries that, in the case-by-case judgement of the editor, require a response.
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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

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Azerbaijan prepares for peace with Armenia but dramatically increases military budget

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Putin's spokesman says building wall on Russian-EU borders is nonsense

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Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia, Aram I, talked by phone with Primate of the Armenian Diocese in Berio, Shahan Archbishop Sargsyan, regarding the developments in Syria and specifically Aleppo in the recent days, the press-service of the Great House of Cilicia reports.

Our people definitely follow the terrible shillings in the Armenian-settled districts of Syria generally, and Aleppo specifically, as a result of which Armenians have died and been wounded.

Aram I continues to closely follow the developments in Syria, specifically the difficulties that the Armenian community faces. The Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia continues to provide maximal support to the Syrian Armenians by means of the foundation established by it, the statement specifically reads.

It is also noted that during the recent days, Aram I has been in constant touch with Primate Sargsyan.

The number of Armenian population in Aleppo has somewhat dropped, but a significant number of Armenians have moved to Latakia, Tartus, Kessab and in the seaside districts of Syria. The national authorities are intensively working there, following the national and church life, the statement notes.

In this context, Aram I recalled the necessity of restoring the Syrian Armenian population. Its true that we have other priorities in our national life, but the support to the Syrian Armenians will remain a priority and urgent need. Therefore, it is necessary to support the Syrian Armenians, he stressed.




A Brevard County Public Schools principal was arrested this morning and charged with the possession of child pornography. Rick Ricky Delano Sheppard of Melbourne, Florida, age 59, was arrested after a federal warrant was issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security agents.



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Sheppard started his career as a teacher with Brevard Public Schools in 1981. He worked at Port Malabar Elementary from 1981-1984 and later taught at Creel Elementary from 1985-1989 and was promoted to the position of assistant principal. In 1995, he transferred to Gemini Elementary as only a teacher where he remained until 2003.





While at Gemini, Sheppard was investigated for inappropriate conduct with a student in 1999. As a result of the investigation, he was reprimanded for inappropriate gifts and comments made to a first grade student. Notwithstanding the reprimand, he remained employed with Brevard Public Schools.





Sheppard later taught at Freedom 7 Elementary from 2003-07, then was promoted to assistant principal in 2007. Sheppard transferred to Stevenson Elementary in 2009 as an assistant principal until 2015.





Despite having a questionable employment record regarding his interaction with children, Sheppard was promoted by the Brevard Public Schools administration to the position of Principal at Spessard Holland Elementary School in Satellite Beach, Florida in 2015.





In this video and following transcript, Sheppard thanks those responsible at Brevard Public Schools who helped him become principal:





[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWoMJos-m_E]





Congratulations to Mr. Rick Shepard on his recent re-classification and transfer from the position of Assistant Principal at Stevenson Elementary School to the position of Principal at at Holland Elementary, said Brevard County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Desmond Blackburn.





Thank you, Ricky replied to Dr. Blackburn. At the risk of sounding like an Oscar acceptance speech, I would certainly would want to thank the Board, [former] Superintendent [Brian] Binggeli, Superintendent Blackburn, [former Central Area Assistant Superintendent ] Mrs. [Kathryn Jane] Cline, and Mrs. [Central Area Coordinator Sherri] Bowman, for their confidence in me to lead Holland elementary school as this new school year begins. Id also like to thank my previous Area Superintendent Dr. [Laura] Rhinehart and [Debra DJ] Crannell whose support and leadership has been immensely helpful.





My two mentors, Mrs. Dorine Zimmerman, Principal at Freedom 7 Elementary, and Michael Corneau, the Principal at [Robert Louis] Stevenson [Elementrary], for providing me with the leadership opportunities, and opportunities to expand my knowledge to the Stevenson community. Its been a big part of my life for the past five years, and Ill certainly take a lot of that with me, Sheppard continued.  And to Tiffanny Fleeger, Assistant Principal at Holland, and the Holland community that has welcomed me with open arms and warmth since I arrived on July 1st, and help me confirm that I am right where I need to be. Thank you.





The arrest comes on the heels of allegations made by School Board candidate Dean Paterakis that the current School Board and administration are doing little to remove, and even promote, teachers with questionable sexually-related conduct around students.





During a recent School Board meeting , Paterakis had attempted to bring up 2014 incident where a BPS teacher was only suspended for 10 days for showing students a picture of his penis but still remains employed by BPS.





At the urging of School Board member Amy Kneesy, School Board Chair Andy Ziegler disrupted Paterakis three minutes of public speaking time about the teachers inappropriate sexually-related conduct. A BPS security officer then grabbed Paterakis by the shoulder and arm without his consent while pushing down a microphone to intentionally disrupt Paterakis allotted speaking time. Uniformed Brevard County Sheriffs deputies then removed Paterakis from the meeting and charged him with resisting arrests and disrupting a school function. The arrest made national headlines.





Photo and video credit: BPSTV












Lai Haraoba is retracing its glory. This Manipuri festival of sylvan gods had somewhat lost its soul, influenced by modernism. But efforts are on to revive the ancient rituals in their purest form. Through the decades, the Lai Haraoba festival was getting influenced by an extraneous religion. The age-old traditions were yielding space to frivolity that were not in tune with the spirit of this festival. Over the years, the priests and priestesses had deviated from the original rituals. Songs, dance with film music, marital arts and local games were added, perhaps to spice up the celebrations. But in the end, the rituals took a back seat; glitz and pomp overwhelmed the main purpose of this festival. But things are changing now. The group Umang Lai Kanba Lup or UKAL is striving to revive the festival. Formed by religious scholars and researchers, UKAL has been spearheading a movement to create awareness about the Lai Haraoba festival and what needs to be done to restore it. UKAL publicity secretary Longjam Arun said: "We have been trying to put the Lai Haraoba festival on the right track. There is no harm in organising some competitions after the rituals. But there are guidelines as to what things are allowed and what aren't. We have a written history of 2,000 years, our own language and script. We believe that Lai Haraoba is the mirror image of Manipuri society and it should be preserved in its original form." Keeping that in mind, UKAL activists have been interacting with village elders about the guidelines, he said. The response from the people has been encouraging. So now, the original rituals of Lai Haraoba festival are being gradually restored. It's not that the ancient religious practices had disappeared completely. For example, in Andro village of Manipur, the elders ensured that the rituals remained unaffected by any external factor. Outsiders are not welcome in the village, where pigs and wild animals are offered to Gods. The people of this village still recall how their forefathers had resisted the forcible spread of Vaishnavism in 1706 by a missionary called Shanti Das Gosai. In the recent past there was an attempt to bring the sylvan gods, Umang Lai, under the Govindaji Temple Board. In July 2014, the Manipur assembly had passed the Shri Shri Govindaji Temple (Third Amendment) Bill 2014 in this regard. But there was already a 1996 judgement of the Gauhati High Court on this matter in which it was observed that keeping Umang Lais under the Govindaji Temple Board amounted to violation of Article 26 of the Constitution. Eventually, Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh agreed to withdraw the bill in December 2014. So today, the festival is being spruced up with vigour. The deities are being worshipped with much fervour but certainly guided by the traditions that define the ethos of this pristine society. Simply put, Lai Haraoba is here to stay, ensconced in rich heritage and devotion. (Iboyaima Laithangbam can be contacted at imphalreporter@gmail.com) --IANS il/bim/vm/ky ( 517 Words) 2016-05-23-13:28:03 (IANS)
Following the NIA's alleged claim that there was no evidence indicating that Pakistan was directly complicit in the Pathankot terror attack, Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh on Friday sought to know from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval as to if it was not Pakistan then who the attackers were. "NIA has given a clean chit to Pakistan in the Pathankot terror attack. Would Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NSA (National Security Advisor) please tell us, if it was not Pakistan, who were the terrorists who attacked our Pathankot airbase," Digvijaya said. "My question to them is when they allowed Pakistan special investigative team which included ISI, Pakistan army intelligence also to be a part of SIT, why did they not have a quid pro quo arrangement that our team will also go and interrogate Hafiz Sayed and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar," he added. He also said that the NSA has been claiming there were six terrorists but the bodies of only four persons have been recovered. "If NSA and NIA are not even clear as to how many terrorists are involved what kind of investigation has NIA done?" he said. "It is a monumental failure of the internal security system of the country and not only the Indian diplomacy," he added. The reaction comes in the wake of Director General of NIA Sharad Kumar's interview to an English news channel where he said, "No evidence to show that Pakistan government or Pakistani government agency was helping Jaish-e-Mohammed or Masood Azhar or his aides carry out Pathankot attack." However, reports have emerged of the NIA chief rubbishing the entire interview asserting that he never gave a clean chit to Pakistan Earlier, the NIA had said that it has still not received any response from Pakistan on Supplementary Letters Rogatory sent to the neighbouring nation in connection with the probe on the Pathankot air force base attack. The Interpol had earlier issued a fresh Red Corner notice against JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar and his brother Abdul Rauf for their alleged involvement in the Pathankot attack. According to NIA sources, JeM suspect Shahid Latif is the main handler in the Pathankot attack and that his location at the moment should probably be in Pakistan. Latif was first arrested in 1994, convicted in 1995 and his jail term was over in 2010. He deported to Pakistan after that through the Atari Border. Masood Azhar, his brother Abdul Rauf and Latif are being touted as the main culprits into the deadly attack on the Indian Air Force base. 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 1-2. Seven security personnel were also killed during the 80-hour-long gun battle. (ANI)
With an objective to consolidate the progress made in diverse areas such as economy, energy, environment, defence and security and to intensify cooperation for the future, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a five-nation tour to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, United States and Mexico beginning this morning. On the first leg of his visit, Prime Minister Modi will reach Herat in western part of Afghanistan in the afternoon, where he will inaugurate India-Afghan Friendship Dam earlier known as Salma Dam, along with President President Ashraf Ghani. "Looking forward to my visit to Afghanistan tomorrow. I will join President Ashraf Ghani to inaugurate Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam in Herat. It is symbol of our friendship and would usher in hope, light up homes, nourish the fertile fields of Herat and bring prosperity to the people of the region," the Prime Minister posted on Facebook. Briefing the media, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said, "The Prime Minister will arrive in Doha, the capital of Qatar Saturday evening, where he will hold meeting with the Emir of Qatar to further strengthen bilateral relations. Jaishankar said apart from this, the Prime Minister will visit workers' camp and also hold meeting with business leaders. "Look forward to meeting His Highness Sheikh Tamim whose landmark visit to India last year had ushered in a new momentum in our relations. I will have the honour to meet Father Emir who personally guided our relations for nearly two decades. This visit will nourish the historical bonds of friendship deeply rooted in people to people contacts, energy, trade and investment partnership," said PM in the FB post. "I will interact with the Indian workers at the Workers' Camp and some of the members of over Six lakh Indians who have nurtured our relations through their sweat and toil. Will also speak to Qatar business leaders to realise the full potential of our trade and investment cooperation," he added. The Foreign Secretary said during his visit to Switzerland, the Prime Minister and President of the Swiss Confederation Johann Schneider-Ammann will hold discussions on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest. "In Geneva, I will meet prominent businesspersons. Our agenda will be to expand economic and investment ties. I will meet Indian scientists working at CERN. India takes pride in their contribution to exploring new frontiers of science in the service of humanity," posted Prime Minister Modi. Replying to a query on black money stashed in Swiss banks, Jaishankar said India has received support from the Swiss authorities on exchange of data and it hopes to engage with Switzerland in automatic exchange of information as early as possible. In the United States, Prime Minister Modi will address a Joint Meeting of the US Congress, besides holding meeting with President Barack Obama. He will also hold meeting with US India Business Council with interact with Indian community. "I will be reaching Washington DC on a bilateral visit in the evening of 6th June at the invitation of President Barack Obama. In my meeting with the President on 7th June, we will seek to build upon the progress achieved in providing new vigour and momentum to our strategic partnership in diverse areas." "Am looking forward to address the 40th AGM of the USIBC and meet US business leaders who have, over the past two years, shown renewed confidence in the India. I will exchange views with US think-tanks and attend a ceremony marking the return of Indian antiques. During my visit to Arlington Cemetery I will lay wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider and Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial, in which we lost an Indian origin astronaut, Kalpana Chawla," he said while elaborating about his programmes in the U.S. "On 8th June, I will address a Joint Meeting of the US Congress. I thank Speaker Paul Ryan for inviting me to speak to Congressmen and Senators. During my visit to the US Capitol, I will also interact with members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, many of whom have been valued friends of India and a strong votary of deepening India-USA ties," said the Prime Minister. Saying that India and the U.S. are natural partners, two vibrant democracies that celebrate their diversity and pluralism, the Prime Minister added: "Strong India-USA ties benefit not only our two nations but also the entire world." The Prime Minister will wind up his tour by visiting Mexico on 8th of this month and hold talks with leadership of that country. The focus of the visit will be on expanding economic cooperation. "Look forward to meeting President Pea Nieto on June 8 during his visit to Mexico, a privileged partner in the Latin American region. President Pea Nieto has ushered in far reaching reforms. I look forward to sharing our experiences. This is the first Prime Ministerial bilateral visit to Mexico after 30 years. Though short, the visit has a substantial agenda to take our partnership to new heights," the Prime Minister concluded. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi this morning departed for a five-nation visit to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico. On the first leg of his visit, Prime Minister Modi will reach Herat in western part of Afghanistan in the afternoon, where he will inaugurate India-Afghan Friendship Dam earlier known as Salma Dam, along with President Dr. Ashraf Ghani. "Looking forward to my visit to Afghanistan tomorrow. I will join President Ashraf Ghani to inaugurate Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam in Herat. It is symbol of our friendship and would usher in hope, light up homes, nourish the fertile fields of Herat and bring prosperity to the people of the region," the Prime Minister posted on Facebook. During the visit, focus will be to broaden bilateral trade, energy and security cooperation and push for India's bid to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). He is likely to seek support of Switzerland and Mexico for India's membership of the 48-member NSG as both these countries are key members of the grouping. India has formally applied for membership of the NSG on May 12. Briefing the media, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said, "The Prime Minister will arrive in Doha, the capital of Qatar Saturday evening, where he will hold meeting with the Emir of Qatar to further strengthen bilateral relations." Jaishankar said apart from this, the Prime Minister will visit workers' camp and also hold meeting with business leaders. The Foreign Secretary said during his visit to Switzerland, the Prime Minister and President of the Swiss Confederation Johann Schneider-Ammann will hold discussions on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest. "In Geneva, I will meet prominent businesspersons. Our agenda will be to expand economic and investment ties. I will meet Indian scientists working at CERN. India takes pride in their contribution to exploring new frontiers of science in the service of humanity," posted Prime Minister Modi. In the United States, Prime Minister Modi will address a Joint Meeting of the US Congress, besides holding meeting with President Barack Obama. He will also hold meeting with US India Business Council with interact with Indian community. "I will be reaching Washington DC on a bilateral visit in the evening of 6th June at the invitation of President Barack Obama. In my meeting with the President on 7th June, we will seek to build upon the progress achieved in providing new vigour and momentum to our strategic partnership in diverse areas," he said. Saying that India and the U.S. are natural partners, two vibrant democracies that celebrate their diversity and pluralism, the Prime Minister added: "Strong India-USA ties benefit not only our two nations but also the entire world." The Prime Minister will wind up his tour by visiting Mexico on 8th of this month and hold talks with leadership of that country. The focus of the visit will be on expanding economic cooperation. (ANI)
With energy security and a strong pitch for the membership of Nuclear Suppliers' Group top on his mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today left for a five-nation visit to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, US and Mexico. Several senior Cabinet Ministers were present at the Palam Technical Area to see off the Prime Minister. The first destination of his visit would be Herat province in Afghanistan where he is to jointly inaugurate Salma Dam, rechristened as India-Afghan Friendship dam, with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Successful completion of the project represents culmination of years of hard work by 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers. "It is symbol of our friendship and would usher in hope, light up homes, nourish the fertile fields of Herat and bring prosperity to the people of the region," Mr Modi said in his departure statement. After meeting President Ashraf Ghani, during which he is likely to discuss regional security situation and setting agenda for bilateral cooperation in the coming period, the Prime Minister will reach Doha for a state visit. In Qatar, Mr Modi will meet the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim and interact with the Indian workers at the Workers' Camp and some of the members of over 6 lakh Indians living in the Emirate. The Prime Minister's visit to the US and four other countries is taking place days ahead of a crucial meeting of the NSG in Vienna, where India's application for the elite group's membership is likely to come up. UNI MK ADG 1010 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0090-768370.Xml
Security forces burst teargas shells and resorted to lathicharge to disperse demonstrators who defied restriction and took to streets in Maisuma and adjoining areas of the city today.Traffic on the busy Budshah Chowk and other routes was disrupted for some time due to clashes between stone pelting demonstrators and security forces.The trouble started after people, mostly youths defied restriction in Maisuma locality, raising 'pro freedom' and anti security force slogans. They were protesting against security force raids in the area late last night. The demonstrators pelted stones on security forces, who had closed all roads to the locality since early this morning to maintain law and order.Security forces resorted to lathicharge which had no impact on the demonstrators who were pelting stones from narrow lanes and bylanes.Later security forces burst teargas shells and chased away the demonstrators in the locality, which is a strong hold of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik, who is living there.Due to disturbance business activities in Gantaghar and historic Lal Chowk were also affected.UNI BAS ADG PR1231 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-768492.Xml
Mathura is fast limping to normalcy today after death of 24 people, including two police officers, in a clash between so called ' Satyagrahis' and police at Jawahar Bagh area in the temple city on Thursday night. Though the toll now has sticked to 24, the police was still clueless about the main accused Ram Vriksh Yadav, with some claiming he is absconding while some others say that he was among the deceased. However, after the postmortem of SP(City) Mukul Dwivedi and SHO Santosh Yadav, it is clear that lapses on the part of the district authorities took the lives of two officials. While the postmortem report of the SP says that his death was due to multiple injuries as he was lynched to death the SHO sustained bullet injury fired from a sophisticated firearms. State Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Daljeet Choudhury, who is camping on the spot, told UNI here today that there was no increase in the death toll from 24, including two police officials. " The situation was fast returning to normal and police has totally cleaned up the Jawahar Bagh area," he said while adding that over 368 people have been rounded up for instigating the violence. The ADG , however, refused that the bullet shot at the SHO was from AK-47 but admitted that the SP(City) was lynched by the people. He also disclosed that several police teams have been made to nab the absconding main accused Ram Vriksha Yadav. Mr Choudhury did not comment on whether the main accused is alive or not. But some reports said that police shot him dead in the night of the operation though his body is yet to be recovered. He also ruled out involvement of naxalites in the act though said that a probe by the Divisional Commissioner would give the real picture. Meanwhile, the UP government is reportedly have sent a brief report to the Union Home Ministry about the Mathura incident, including the illegal act of the supporters of Ram Vrikahs Yadav and the police action on the directives of the Allahabad High Court. The Centre had sought a report from the State government on the incident while Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to UP CM yesterday and assured the state government of all necessary help. In the Thursday night clash 23 policemen were injured too and they are receiving treatment at different hospitals in the city. The cops so far arrested 368 persons including 310 for apprehension of breach of peace and 58 for violence besides recovering a huge cache of arms and ammunition during the search operation. A heavy police force is still patrolling in the area and both Director General of Police Javeed Ahmed and principal secretary (home) Devashish Panda had visited the spot yesterday. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav ordered a probe into the violence at Jawaharbagh where nearly 3,000 people had illegally set up camp on an over 260-acre plot for last two years. "There was 'unprovoked' firing by the encroachers who pelted stones and attacked the policemen with lathis as they arrived at the site for a recce to carry out the eviction, leading to the death of Superintendent of Police, City, Mukul Dwivedi and Station House officer, Farah, Santosh Yadav", revealed Javeed Ahmed here yesterday. He was narrating the sequence of event that took place since Thursday evening. ``The mob mercilessly beat the cops with sticks and rods and escaped after taking them as dead", he pointed out adding that even the women climbed at the trees and fired at police personnel. The DGP had said that the protesters set afire gas cylinders and ammunition stored there which led to several explosions. "22 rioters including a woman were killed in the violence. These include 11 persons who were killed in a fire started by the agitators,"he asserted. "We have recovered 53 guns including country made revolvers, rifles, and 178 live cartridges from the area," he said. ``If Ram Vriksha Yadav was not killed in police operation than we will arrest him at earliest", added Ahmed while replying whether Ram Vriksha was killed or escaped from the spot. Police has identified Ram Vriksh Yadav and his close associate Chandan Bose, Girish Yadav, Rinku, Dheeraj Singh, Amit, Rampal, Veeresh Yadav, Lakshman Pasi, Sunder Lal, Munni Lal and Rakesh Gupta as the main culprits out of the mob of over 2500 persons," IG Law and Order, H R Sharma said in Lucknow today. The encroachers, who were protesting under the auspices of Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, were being evicted on the directions of the Allahabad High Court. They were said to be members of splinter group of Baba Jaigurudev sect and had occupied the land 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 40 litres for one rupee.UNI MB ADG 1125 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-768402.Xml
The Congress Party on Saturday dubbed the resignation of Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse as a 'mere drama', and said a criminal case should be registered against him for misuse of public office. Khadse resigned from his post following allegations of impropriety with regard to a land deal and alleged calls from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. "Resignation drama alone will not do. There are clear cut charges that he was talking to the dreaded terrorist Dawood Ibrahim. The charge is that he has taken government land for a pittance of three crores, 21 lakhs when it is valued at nearly 30-40 crore of rupees. The charge is that he as a minister himself presided over a meeting and ordered double compensation for that land, direct beneficiaries of which were his own family members," Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told ANI. "Would these charges get washed away by mere resignation? The answer is clearly no. A criminal case should be registered against him for misuse of public office. A fair and independent judicial probe must be held into the terrorist links if any of Khadse," he added. Khadse today met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis amid reports that the BJP has begun the process to act against him. The most senior minister in the Fadnavis government is facing serious allegation over an illicit land deal and his cellphone allegedly appearing in the call records of most-wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim. Khadse has maintained the land was not owned by the government, that he bought it from a private party, and that he paid the stamp duty or tax on the market value of the plot which he says proves that the deal was above-board. The Maharashtra's Anti-Terror squad is investigating the alleged calls to the minister from Dawood Ibrahim. Khadse has denied any links to Dawood Ibrahim. (ANI)
Police said, two unidentified men called their victim last night from home and taken away to an unknown destination. Sk Khilafat's bullet riddle body was found today, some a km away from him home, police added.

Two deep holes were found beneath his ear.

Police said, they were investigating the crime as the victim was involved in an underground coal trade in the area.UNI XC-PC AKM SDR AS1408

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The BSF personnel were returning from home to join their duties after availing leave when they came under the attack by militants of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).

Ms Mufti paid floral tributes to all the three BSF martyrs at Humhama STC in the central Kashmir district of Badgam.

She had last night talked to BSF Director General K K Sharma and expressed condolence.

Mr Sharma, Additional Director General (ADG) Arun Kumar and Inspector General (IG) who rushed from New Delhi also paid tributes to martyrs.

Local senior officers of BSF, police and other paramilitary forces also paid tributes to martyrs.

The mortal remains of all the three ar being sent to their native places.UNI BAS AE AS1513

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Claiming that her party would be number one in the next Uttar Pradesh assembly polls with Samajwadi Party and BJP settling for second and third spot, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati today fired fresh salvo at the BJP for their recent Dalit programmes. " The BJP was just doing drama over dalits for their vested political interest even as atrocities against them has increased in the NDA regime while they are conspiring to end the reservation of the dalits," she alleged. " Dalit will never support the BJP even if their leaders have lunch or dinner with them as they know their vested interest," she added. Addressing a press conference here, Ms Mayawati also hit out at the BJP for showing their ' fake' love for Dr B R Ambedkar on his 125th birth anniversary by announcing several memorials just to appease the Dalits. " But still after several memorials by BJP, the Ambedkar Memorial constructed by the BSP government in the past still holds on the top and is the only place where the great leader has been given honest tributes," she said. Ms Mayawati's tough stand against the BJP over Dalit issues come just on the day when BJP president Amit Shah is holding a Dalit sammelan here after joining a lunch with Dalits in Varanasi recently. The BSP president spared nothing against the BJP while terming their second year of the rule at the Centre as a total failure."The NDA government has totally failed in all sectors with only the industrialists and capitalists have been benefited in this two years rule. The celebrations organised by the BJP to propogate their achievements was just a misuse of public funds to cover up their lapses," she claimed while adding that BJP is too running on the path of Congress at the Centre with corruption and other lapses rampant.'' She claimed that except for the Assam, where BJP came to power due to the wrong strategy of the Congress, in other states BJP was rejected by the people and non-congress government came to power." After 2014 victory, the BJP's countdown has started with Delhi elections as people have known their real face," she claimed. The former UP chief minister reiterated that BSP will again get absolute majority in UP polls like done in 2007 and SP and BJP would fight for the second and third spot with further claiming that, her government's main agenda would be law and order and development. "We would not go for memorials or parks this time but our main focus would be to control the crimes and ensure basic needs of the people like Bijli- paani-sadak along with medical and educational facilities," she clarified. UNI MB AE GC1620 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-768774.Xml
A two-day long high-level meeting of all senior officers of BSNL of the entire state that concluded here today had detailed discussions on how to implement the mission and vision of the new state government.

Discussions were held on providing infrastructure for each and every department such as e-governance and m-governance, smart city, tele education, WiFi hot spots etc. up to the village panchayats, a BSNL spokesperson said here.

In order to implement all the works of the state government, a team of BSNL officials is being put in place.

Connectivity to various banks throughout the state, providing vocational training, skill development to the youth students of universities, colleges, polytechnics and ITI were also discussed in the meeting.

Listing the recent achievements of Assam telecom circle, the BSNL spokesperson said Assam has been declared number one for provisioning of OFC to GPs - out of a target of 300 assigned, achievements is 589 in two months in February-March, 2016, and Assam has also beaten all time records in addition of bandwidth and addition of mobile, broadband, WiMAX and CDMA customers during last quarter.

Moreover, the principal and 10 meritorious students of government blind high school, Guwahati, were honoured by BSNL, Assam

circle, as a part of its corporate social responsibility with "Bharat Sanchar Samman". UNI SG AKM RN AS1639

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The meeting with the GoC 4 Corps that took place for the first time after Mr Sonowal took over as the Chief Minister, discussed several dimensions of State's security.

Lieutenant General Anbu apprised Mr Sonowal that security scenario in Assam has improved remarkably and the situation 'is well under control'.

The chief minister sought the cooperation from GOC 4 Corps and also assured to extend his Government's help on all fronts for the state's progress and prosperity.

Mr Sonowal also asked Lt General Anbu to extend the Army's outreach programme 'Sadbhavana' to establish Army's connectivity with the people of far-flung areas and ensure state's security in all spheres.

Chief Secretary VK Pipersenia, Director General of Assam Police Mukesh Sahay, Commissioner and Secretary, Home LS Changsan were also present at the meeting.UNI SG BM AE AS1658

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Paying tributes to three BSF personnel who attained martyrdom during a militant attack on their convoy at Bijbehara on Srinagar-Jammu national highway yesterday, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said the attack was senseless violence. The BSF personnel were returning from home to join their duties after availing leave when they came under the attack by militants of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM). Ms Mufti paid floral tributes to all the three BSF martyrs at Humhama STC in the central Kashmir district of Badgam. She expressed solidarity with Director General of BSF K K Sharma, who rushed from New Delhi and was present there. She also expressed solidarity with the families of the deceased BSF personnel and prayed for peace to the departed souls. Recalling the sacrifices of the security forces in combating militancy in the state, Ms Mufti said,'' such dastardly acts of senseless violence are against the basic tenets of humanity and they should be condemned by one and all.'' "My heart goes out to the families of the slain BSF personnel and I hope that the perpetrators will be taken to task soon," she said. The Chief Minister said such attacks are attempts by vested interests to derail the peace and reconciliation process started by the state government in Jammu and Kashmir which will also impact the economy at a time when the tourism activity had started picking up in the state. Three BSF personnel Head Constable G K Shukla of 1022 RT Regiment, Head Constable Dinesh Giri of 1022 RT Regiment and Constable Mahinder Ram of 64 Battalion were killed and seven BSF personnel --Inspector Dhanvir Singh, Constable Driver Santosh, DC Vinod Bhardawaj, Head Constable Bhagat Singh, Head Constable Bishember Nath, Head Constable Sikander Pal and Constable Mithlesh Kumar-- were injured in the attack. Director General Police, K Rajendra Kumar, IG BSF, Vikas Chandra, IG Police Kashmir, Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani, IGP, Muneer Ahmad Khan, DIG BSF, Rajendra Pandey, DIG BSF, A S Asthana, DIG BSF, Sudhir Kumar, DIG Police Central Kashmir Range, Ghulam Hassan Bhat, Deputy Commissioner Budgam, Mir Altaf Hussain, SSP Budgam Fayaz Ahmad and other senior officers of the civil and police administration were present while paying tributes.UNI BAS AE AS1706 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-768804.Xml
Two women and the motor bike rider were killed when they were run over by a speeding pick up van near Gokulpur village under Bihar police station, about 25 kms from Patna today. Police said the rider lost control over his bike after applying brake and smoched against the pickup van coming from the opposite direction.The van driver managed to flee leaving behind the vehicle. The bodies had been sent to Bihar government hospital for postmortem and the van had been seized, police said.UNI IS BM VS AE AS1900 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-769290.Xml
Legislative Assembly Secretary A M P Jamaludeen in a statement here today said Dr Rosaiah would deliver his address at 1100 hrs on June 16.

This would be his first address to the new Assembly, constituted after the May 16 Assembly elections, in which Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa broke the 32-year-old tradition and became the first incumbent CM to retain power by winning back-to-back elections, a feat achieved by MGR, who had won successive elections in 1977, 1980 and 1984.

The AIADMK, bucking the anti-incumbency trend and proving the pollsters wrong, retained power, winning 134 seats in the 234-member Assembly.

The DMK emerged as the strongest and largest opposition in the history of the Assembly with a strength of 89 members and its allies, the Congress and IUML won eight and one seats respectively.

After the Speaker's and Deputy Speaker's elections yesterday, the Assembly was adjourned to June 16.

Earlier, all the newly-elected members took oath asMLAs on May 25.UNI GV KVV AK 1935

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Two women died and more than 46 injured in separate accidents at different places of eastern Uttar Pradesh. In Gagha area of Gorakhpur district, a woman died and her husband was injured in road accident last night. Police sources said here today Bandu Devi (23) was going to take medicines from Badhal hospital with her husband. A speeding truck coming from opposite direction rammed their bike leaving the woman dead and her husband severely injured. Truck driver fled after the accident. The injured was taken to the hospital. In Kampierganj area of Gorakhpur, 40 devotees were injured when their bus overturned. They were taken to the hospital where the condition of three of them is stated to be critical. The bus driver, meanwhile, escaped. Police is investigating both the cases. In Santkabeer Nagar, a woman died while five others were injured in an accident under Khalilabad Kotwali area. Police sources said Dinesh Pal was travelling with his wife Bindu Pal (60) daughter Manisha, son-in-law Sanjay Shahi and grandsons Abhishek and Akshay Shahi. Their car overturned near Maghar police station after being hit by a speeding truck coming from opposite direction. Bindu Pal died on the spot while the family members were severely injured. They were taken to the hospital.UNI XC-MB SW AE 1920 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0440-769490.Xml
: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said Andhra Pradesh would become a hub for cargo movement and also a logistic hub to the country and announced that new railway projects are coming up in the state. Mr Prabhu came here to thank the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for sending him to Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh. Talking to newspersons, along with with Naidu here today, the minister said, the works of doubling and tripling of railway tracks for a length of 2,200 KM had been taken up for which Andhra Pradesh would be a major beneficiary. "We are planning for North-South, East-South corridor, If the project is materialised, Andhra Pradesh will get benefit, which ensure a new dimension in the growth of the state", he assured. "We are going to prepare an integrated task force plan on Road, Rail and Air transportation put together. This will be the first such a project for which the draft plan will be available for the consideration of Andhra Pradesh state government within two months" he informed. The Minister also announced that the rail connectivity to the new capital city of AP, Amaravathi, would happen soon in a fast mode on priority basis. "We are going to start Visakhapatnam-Chennai, Amaravathi-Bangalaore high speed rail lines. We are going through on which country can involve in the project. However, we initially requested France to take up the project" he assured. Mr Prabhu said that a new workshop for rolling-staff rehabilitation would be set up at Tirupathi at a cost of Rs.1,000 crore, which would generate employment. The Railway ministry decided to work with AP regarding the construction of sea Port connectivity, he pointed out. He said that 21 railway stations in Andhra Pradesh to be re-developed on the lines of airports and review meeting on the issue to be held soon. "Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is asking for various incentives. The Railway will provide as much support as the it can" he promised. Earlier, the Railway minister had a three-hour long meeting with Mr Naidu.UNI DP KVV AK 2105 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-769611.Xml
Five members of a Sheikh family were on way to Vishalgad Fort in Shahuwadi tehsil from Pune to offer prayers to Malik Rehanbaba on eve of the start of Roza fast.

Near Talwade village in Amba Ghat, the driver of car lost control on the wheel while taking a sharp turn and the car rammed in to a roadside tree this evening, police said.

In this incident, four members of the Sheikh family were killed on the spot while a ten-year-old niece succumbed at the Chhatrapati Pramila Raje Hospital during the treatment.

The deceased were identified as Imran Sheikh (38), his father Sharif (70), mother Salma (52), wife Shifa (35) and niece Liba (10), all residents of Mominpura, Ghorpadi Peth in Pune.

The Shahuwadi police are carrying out further investigation into the incident, sources added.UNI SSS SS PR RJ PM2221

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The critically wounded section engineer Samar Ghosh with head injuries admitted to a city hospital and Kamal Ghosh, also sustained multiple wounds was taken to a Baruipur hospital.

Tension ran high at busy Baruipur Junction under South 24 Parganas when hundreds of hawkers facing eviction erected a protecting human wall and hurled crude bombs to scare away the RPF jawans.

The situation took ugly turn during afternoon as the protesters refused to move away turned violent pelting stones and hurled some 15 crude bombs.

The Eastern Railway authorities had attempted to clean the station's platforms, which have been occupied by some 300 unauthorised hawkers, official sources said.

Baruipur station is connected with with Sealdah station in south section.

The eviction drive was finally halted by the protest of the hawkers, who demanded an alternate site for them.

Assistant engineer T S Mina at Sealdah alleged that the state government did not cooperate with the railway authorities in the eviction drive, which was already informed the matter to local police.

The hawkers drive was halted right now after some 2000 people assembled at the station waving party flags and erected a human wall, comprising women.

The hawkers alleged that the drive against them without any warning/notice was "illegal," said they would not move out of the station as they do not have any alternative business to sustain life.UNI XC-PC BM PR RJ AN2206

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Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi today dared Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to take action against the Principal of Bishun Rai college Bachcha Rai, a topper mafia who had earned notoriety in ensuring top positions for students of his college by using unfair means in Intermediate Examination. Mr Modi said here that Mr Rai, in connivance with chairman of Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) Lalkeswar Prasad Singh, had succeeded in using unfair means which fetched top positions for the students of his college in Intermediate examination. "Mr Rai has patronage of RJD top brass while Mr Singh is husband of a JD(U) leader," Mr Modi said and dared Mr Kumar to take action against both for their involvement in topper scam which brought bad name for Bihar across the country. It was easy to punish the students who were beneficiaries of the scam engineered by Mr Rai and Mr Singh but the main culprits should not be allowed to go scot free, he emphasised. Mr Modi said Mr Rai himself was in dock for his own career as he had failed twice in Intermediate examination. In less than 18 months after clearing the Intermediate examination in third attempt, Mr Rai obtained Post Graduate degree, he said and added that what could be the fate of students of the college where such a dubious principal was at the helm of affair.UNI KKS BM SHK 2225 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-769679.Xml
Accusing the ruling SP government of orchestrating the Mathura incident, Union Tourism and Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma today demanded a probe by a Central agency to ''nail the culprits''. The Union Minister, who was holding a Janata Durbar at the office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here, said that the state government has failed in Mathura, leading to death of two brave police officers."There is an urgent need to find out who were the persons grabbing the government land and who were supporting them," he said. Mr Sharma said there are question marks on the role of SP government in the Mathura incident and it has been proved of their association with the criminals, he added.UNI MB RJ 2244 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0105-769669.Xml
Once upon a time, settlers in the Fertile Crescent of West Asia domesticated few wild plant and animal species. To be precise, it was about 11-12 thousand years ago (kya) and nowadays, we name this behavior as, agriculture. The emergence of agriculture is suggested to have driven extensive human population growths, because food production by agriculture can support far higher population densities compared to hunting and foraging. Nevertheless, like the famous question "chicken or the egg," dispute between agriculture and initial population expansion in Neolithic Time exists for long. Despite historical and archaeological efforts, previous genetic work such as mitochondrial DNA analysis in worldwide populations found that most major maternal lineage expansions began after Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, about 15 kya) but before the first appearance of agriculture, and the increase of population size was likely the driving force that led to the advent of agriculture. There are also numerous studies on population expansion using paternal Y chromosome single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in the genealogical tree and rapidly mutating short tandem repeats (STRs) yet without an convincing result, owning to the fact that nonrandom sampling of SNPs can result in an ascertainment bias, and to choose whether the evolutionary rate or the genealogical rate of STRs in Y chromosome dating is controversial, since the result can be almost three-fold difference. As science and technology update rapidly, entirely sequenced Y chromosomes in numerous human individuals have only recently become available. With the next-generation sequencing technology, the 1000 Genomes Project has sequenced whole Y chromosomes from more than 500 males, which provides a wonderful chance to estimate population sizes through time from a set of globally distributed populations without ascertainment bias. To resolve the long dispute, researchers in Fudan University analyzed about 8.9 mega-base pairs on the unique regions of Y chromosome and whole mitochondrial genomes of 526 male individuals from three African, five European, three Asian and three American populations sequenced in the 1000 Genome Project. The correspondence between the coalescence age of most paternal lineages and the population growing periods observed in skyline plots suggested that the initial male population expansion began within the Neolithic Time, probably due to the advent and spread of agriculture. "Agriculture has provided a much more stable food supply than hunting and foraging, leading to higher population fertility and infant survival rate, more importantly, as agriculture has kept male away from dangerous hunting, the reduction in hunting-related mortality of males might contribute most to this sex-biased Neolithic expansion," they supposed. The study appears in Science China Life Sciences. (ANI)
A Union Pacific train carrying crude oil derailed and caught fire outside Portland, Oregon, forcing the closure of an interstate highway and evacuation of a school in the first trail accident involving crude in a year.Union Pacific Corp owns the line, environmental advocacy group Columbia Riverkeeper said. It was unclear who was shipping the product.Union Pacific said that 11 rail cars from a 96-car train carrying Bakken crude oil derailed just west of Mosier, Oregon. It said oil was released from at least one rail car, which was burning. It said there were no injuries.Black smoke and flames could be seen after the accident in the tiny city of Mosier along the Columbia River.As emergency responders descended on the crash site, Interstate 84 was closed and students were evacuated from the nearby Mosier Community School. Television footage showed several cars perpendicular to the tracks."I looked outside and there was black and white smoke blowing across the sky, and I could hear the flames," said Mosier resident Dan Hoffman, 32, who said he was ordered to flee his house."A sheriff's official in an SUV told me to get the hell out," Hoffman said yesterday.Since 2008, there have been at least 10 major oil-train derailments across the United States and Canada, including a disaster that killed 47 in a Quebec town in July 2013.Rail operators such as Union Pacific are required under federal law to disclose crude rail movements to state officials to help prepare for emergencies. The rule was put in place after a string of fiery derailments.In its latest disclosure with the state, Union Pacific said it moved light volumes of Bakken crude oil along its state network, which includes the Oregon line. In March, it transported six unit trains, which generally carry about 75,000 barrels each.It expected four trains in April and did not expect the pace to pick up, the company said.A railroad executive who owns a crude rail terminal said the tank cars in news photos of the accident were DOT 111s, the oldest models that the federal government is phasing off the country's network.State transportation and local fire officials said there were no immediate reports of injuries, and that the damage had been confined to the railroad.Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director of the Columbia Riverkeeper advocacy group, said the crash should raise concerns over crude-by-rail shipments and Tesoro Corp's proposed 360,000 barrels per day railport in Vancouver, Washington State, which would be the country's largest."We are very concerned about additional oil trains passing through our community because of their safety record, the risk of fires, of explosions, the risks of spills," he said. REUTERS DS RAI0421 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-768296.Xml
Police in Burundi shot and wounded a student and a taxi-driver during a protest by schoolchildren against the arrest of their colleagues for defacing President Pierre Nkurunziza's portrait, students and residents said.The incident took place in Muramvya province, about 50 km east of the capital Bujumbura. The schoolchildren, aged between 12 and 17 years old, were marching on the highway between Bujumbura and Gitega."We were in the streets to ask for the release of our colleagues who were unjustly arrested, then some police officers who were in a pick-up vehicle of the intelligence office opened fire on us, a colleague was hurt by one bullet and was taken to hospital for treatment," one student told Reuters.A police officer, who did not wish to be named, confirmed the student and the taxi driver had been shot.The five students had spoiled Nkurunziza's photo in a book, a school administrator said.Burundi has been mired in a year-long crisis in which more than 450 people have been killed since Nkurunziza pursued and won a third term. Opponents said his move violated the constitution and a deal that ended a civil war in 2005.Nkurunziza's camp says a court ruling had declared the former rebel-turned-president eligible to seek another term.Two weeks ago, more than 300 students of a school in the capital's Ruziba neighbourhood were sent home for the same reason.Due to concerns about the behavior of Burundian security forces at home, the United Nations in February said its peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic would repatriate three military officers on suspicion they committed human rights violations during political unrest back in Burundi.The world body went further yesterday, announcing that the country's police units would no longer serve in the UN peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic once their current tour is completed."In light of the current situation in Burundi, a decision has been taken at UN headquarters not to replace the units serving in the country when their tour of duty ends," UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in New York.Senior UN police adviser Stefan Feller of Germany later told reporters in New York that the decision had been a result of allegations of serious human rights violations by the police back home in Burundi. REUTERS DS RAI0630 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-768307.Xml
A Mexican judge has ordered properties of a former state governor in the ruling party seized as part of an investigation into fraud and other crimes, putting the spotlight on political corruption ahead of local elections this weekend.Ernesto Canales, the anti-corruption czar in the opposition-controlled region of Nuevo Leon, said yesterday that the order was against several officials, including ex-state governor Rodrigo Medina, for suspected embezzlement, breach of office and other crimes that cost the state 3.6 billion pesos (194 million dollars)."This is not a campaign against a group of officials," Canales said. "It's about highlighting conduct of a group of public officials that shouldn't have occurred."Canales said the seizure was related to the installation of a Korean plant in the state, an apparent reference to the 2014 deal between Medina's government and carmaker Kia Motors for a 1 billion dollars works in Nuevo Leon.Nuevo Leon's new government says the deal violated state law by offering "excessive" incentives; it is working with Kia to end the dispute.Senior Mexican officials say local officials profited from land deals anticipating Kia's arrival.Medina, who was governor of Nuevo Leon from 2009 to 2015, belongs to President Enrique Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).Medina said he was innocent of the charges, which he described as politically motivated attacks before regional elections this weekend, newspaper Reforma reported yesterday."We are, without a doubt, in the presence of a political persecution," Reforma cited Medina as saying.Canales said Medina and the other officials would have to respond to charges the state's anti-corruption authorities would be presenting to a judge in the next two months.Home to the industrial city of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon is one of the country's richest regions. Medina's record in office came under heavy scrutiny last year, when the state elected Mexico's first independent governor to succeed him.Jaime Rodriguez, a former PRI politician nicknamed "El Bronco" (the gruff one), won the Nuevo Leon governorship by a landslide last June after running an anti-establishment campaign that railed against corruption in Latin America's No. 2 economy.The PRI ruled for 71 consecutive years until it was voted out in 2000. By then it had become a byword for corruption.Pena Nieto returned the party to power in 2012, pledging a new era of clean government. However, his administration has battled allegations of graft during the past two years.In a statement, Nuevo Leon said 11 officials were targeted in the seizures. Canales initially spoke of seven officials.REUTERS DS RAI0728 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-768327.Xml
A Union Pacific train carrying crude oil derailed and burst into flames along Oregon's scenic Columbia River gorge in the first major rail accident involving crude in a year.While no injuries were reported, the train remained engulfed in flames six hours after the derailment, officials said yesterday. The accident has already renewed calls for stronger regulation to guard communities against crude-by-rail accidents.Union Pacific Corp, owner of the line, said 11 rail cars from a 96-car train carrying crude oil derailed about 70 miles 110 km east of Portland, near the tiny town of Mosier.Oil spilled from one car, but multiple cars of Bakken crude caught fire, said Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman Tom Fuller. Firefighters were still fighting the flames several hours later.The crude was bought by TrailStone Inc's US Oil & Refining Co and bound for its refinery in Tacoma, Washington, some 322 km northwest of the derailment, the company said.Television footage showed smoke and flames along with overturned black tanker cars snaking across the tracks, which weave through the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area."I looked outside and there was black and white smoke blowing across the sky, and I could hear the flames," said Mosier resident Dan Hoffman, 32, whose house is about 328 ft from the derailment. "A sheriff's official in an SUV told me to get the hell out."While rail shipments have dipped from more than 1 million barrels per day in 2014 as a result of the lengthy slump in oil prices, the first such crash in a year will likely reignite the debate over safety concerns surrounding transporting crude by rail."Seeing our beautiful Columbia River Gorge on fire today should be a wake-up call for federal and state agencies - underscoring the need to complete comprehensive environmental reviews of oil-by-rail in the Pacific Northwest," said US.Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon.Ecology officials from Washington state said there was no sign of oil in the Columbia River or Rock Creek.SAFETY MEASURES DELAYEDSince 2008, there have been at least 10 major oil-train derailments across the United States and Canada, including a disaster that killed 47 people in a Quebec town in July 2013.The incident comes eight months after lawmakers extended a deadline until the end of 2018 for rail operators to implement advanced safety technology, known as positive train control, or PTC, which safety experts say can avoid derailments and other major accidents.The measures included phasing out older tank cars, adding electronic braking systems and imposing speed limits, all meant to reduce the frequency and severity of oil train crashes.The tank cars involved in yesterday's crash were CPC-1232 models, which elected officials have raised concerns about in the past even though they are an upgrade from older models considered less safe. Yesterday, US Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon repeated his call from last year for federal officials to look into whether the newer cars were safe enough."It's clear with this crash - as it has been for years - that more must be done to protect our communities," Wyden said.Rail operators such as Union Pacific are required under federal law to disclose crude rail movements to state officials to help prepare for emergencies. The rule was put in place after a string of fiery derailments.EVACUATIONSUnion Pacific hazardous materials workers responded to the scene along with contractors packing firefighting foam and a boom for oil spill containment.In its latest disclosure with the state, Union Pacific said it moved light volumes of Bakken crude oil along its state network, which includes the Oregon line. In March, it transported six unit trains, which generally carry about 75,000 barrels each.As emergency responders descended on the crash site, Interstate 84 was closed and residents were ordered to leave the area.Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director of the Columbia Riverkeeper advocacy group, said the crash should raise concerns about Tesoro Corp's proposed 360,000 barrels-per-day railport in Vancouver, Washington, which would be the country's largest."We are very concerned about additional oil trains passing through our community because of their safety record, the risk of fires, of explosions, the risks of spills," he said.Reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault, Jarrett Renshaw, Devika Krishna Kumar, and Catherine Ngai in New York, Erwin Seba in Houston, Curtis Skinner in San Francisco and Eric M. Johnson in Calgary, Alberta; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Leslie Adler and Tom HogueREUTERS SDR PR0841 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-768337.Xml
China came under pressure from the United States and Asian powers to rein in its actions in the South China Sea, with the US defense secretary urging Beijing to join in on regional cooperation or risk erecting a "Great Wall of self-isolation."US Defense Secretary Ash Carter encouraged China to participate in a "principled security network" for Asia to help counter concerns about its strategic intentions following "expansive and unprecedented actions" in the South China Sea.Carter also told the Shangri-La Dialogue, a regional security forum in Singapore, that the United States would remain the main guarantor of regional security for decades to come and warned China against provocative behaviour.Any action by China to reclaim land in the Scarborough Shoal, an outcrop in the disputed South China Sea, would have consequences, Carter said."I hope that this development doesn't occur, because it will result in actions being taken by the both United States and ... by others in the region which would have the effect of not only increasing tensions but isolating China."The South China Sea has become a flashpoint between the United States, which increased its focus on the Asia-Pacific under President Barack Obama's "pivot", and China, which is projecting ever greater economic, political and military power in the region."The situation in the South China Sea continues to be viewed with concern," Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told the forum. "All countries in the region need to recognise that our shared prosperities and the enviable rate of growth that this region enjoys over past decades will be put at risk by aggressive behaviour or actions by any one of us."The United States and many Asian countries were stepping up security cooperation to ensure they were able to make choices "free from coercion and intimidation," Carter said."Even as the United States will remain the most powerful military and main underwriter of security in the region for decades to come - and there should be no doubt about that - those growing bilateral relationships demonstrate that nations around the region are also committed to doing more to promote continued regional security and prosperity," he said.Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani, speaking at the same event, said his country would help Southeast Asian nations build their security capabilities to deal with what he called unilateral, dangerous and coercive actions in the South China Sea."In the South China Sea, we have been witnessing large-scale and rapid land reclamation, building of outposts and utilization of them for military purposes," Nakatani said, without mentioning China directly. "No countries can be an outsider of this issue."MOST POWERFULTrillions of dollars of trade a year passes through the South China Sea, which is home to rich oil, gas and fishing resources. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have claims in the area, and rising tensions have been fuelling a rising in security spending in the region."The uncertainty of China's future trajectory is arguably the main driving concern about possible military competition now and in the future," Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.Carter said that for decades some critics had been predicting an impending US withdrawal from the region, but this would not happen."That's because this region, which is home to nearly half the world's population and nearly half the global economy, remains the most consequential for America's own security and prosperity."In an apparent counter to "America-first" policies expounded by prospective Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, including suggestions that U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Asia, Carter stressed bipartisan support for continued engagement."Regardless of what else was going on at home or in other parts of the world - during Democratic and Republican administrations, in times of surplus and deficit, war and peace - the United States has remained economically, politically, and militarily engaged, as well as geographically located in the Asia-Pacific," he said.The Shangri-La Dialogue is being held ahead of a significant ruling expected in coming weeks on a case filed by the Philippines in the International Court of Arbitration challenging China's South China Sea claims, which Beijing has vowed to ignore.The United States has been lobbying Asian and other countries to back the judges' statement that their ruling must be binding, a call echoed by Japan today.China has lobbied on the other side for support for its position that the court lacks jurisdiction in the case. REUTERS SDR PR1048 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-768390.Xml
Comparisons between Lucknow - capital of India's most populous state - and Moscow - capital of the world's largest country - don't come easy. Differences between the two are umpteen - but this one caught my eye over the others. Breaking traffic rules comes easily to us in Uttar Pradesh. Incidents happen, find a place in the news and then are given a quiet burial, yielding space to the "more happening news". And if you happen to be connected (as almost everyone is in Uttar Pradesh), much before the traffic guy hands you a ticket, the chances are that he gets a phone call from someone up above and is forced to let you off. Russia seems to be on a different trajectory however. A 20-year-old youngster, son of a top and powerful business executive in the country, has not only been sent behind bars for rash driving, troubling the police with a multi-hour chase but also seems to have spurred the traffic police into some sort of a "crackdown". Ruslan Shamsuarov, son of the Vice President of LUKoil, Russia's second largest oil producer, was on his way home on May 28 from a late night party with friends in his Mercedes Benz G-Class, speeding and breaking traffic rules. A video subsequently surfaced online showing Shamsuarov in a five-hour chase, as he zips around Moscow's streets in his high-end vehicle, with the police in hot pursuit. After he was hauled up and sent behind bars, the police here seem to have made a 'national villain' out of the lad, who is now subject of much debate and 'gup-shup' at roadside eateries and coffee shops. As my eyes zeroed in on a headline in a local daily on the topic, as a hack, I delved deeper into the subject. The receptionist at the hotel where I was staying supported the police action. "This is a must, we are a peace-loving city where even people walking by are given respect, allowed to cross the street first...how can we allow such youth on the streets?" he said in broken English. In Lucknow or for that matter most of UP, it's a routine affair and no one has the time to opinionate on it. Media reports suggest that many days before Shamsuarov's arrest, Moscow police chief Anatoly Yakunin had declared war of Russia's "golden youth", a term, a report goes on to elaborate, used for youngsters who not only inherited riches from their powerful parents but also a sense of "entitlement". Yakunin, in a video posted on the Interior Ministry's website, speaks of a zero tolerance policy towards such law breakers and asked his force to ensure that such people who "care a damn about Muscovites and their safety" be brought to justice so that they can very well understand that "money cannot buy everything and everyone." Contrast this to the daily happenings in the state capital of Uttar Pradesh. While traffic cops try to do their bit, every time they stop someone breaking the law, a phone call, or for that matter, a flag (likely of the ruling party) atop the car ensures a quiet slip out of the "long hands of the law". In UP, it is more likely that the top police officers give the traffic types at the city roads a call to let the law breaker off and to "mind your own business". As if he was doing something else! The National Guards were sent to bring the 'golden boy' to justice while in UP such youngsters are often escorted to safety by the cops. The streets of Moscow here are not flush with traffic policemen as you may find in Uttar Pradesh, but then, the drivers are more sober, stay in the lanes they are supposed to be, stop at red lights and drive within laid down speed limits. Some pleasant feeling this is, specially for someone from Uttar Pradesh, where breaking law seems to be a kink, a hobby or a display of power. (Mohit Dubey is in Moscow at the invitation of the 'Start-Up Village 2016' initiative. He can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in ) --IANS md/vm ( 702 Words) 2016-06-04-11:12:04 (IANS)
The annual U.S. State Department report has said that the reintegration of deradicalised terrorists into society remained a priority in Pakistan during 2015. The report, released on Thursday afternoon, pointed out that Islamabad despite various problems in counterterrorism strategy, remained a critical counterterrorism partner last year. The State Department said that the Pakistani government throughout last year operated a number of de-radicalisation camps in different parts of the country and offered "corrective religious education, vocational training, counselling and therapy." It also acknowledged that in 2015, Pakistan implemented a National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism, which seeks to prevent future terrorist attacks on its soil. "Also throughout 2015, the Pakistani military continued ground and air operations in North Waziristan and Khyber Agency to eliminate terrorist safe havens and recover illegal weapons caches," the Dawn quoted the report, as saying. The report, however, noted that Islamabad did not take substantial action against the Afghan Taliban or the Haqqani network in 2015 and did little to deter homegrown jihadi groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). "Afghanistan, in particular, continued to experience aggressive and coordinated attacks by the Afghan Taliban, including the Haqqani network, and other insurgent and terrorist groups," the report said. The report also alleged that a number of these attacks were planned and launched from safe havens in Pakistan and also complained that Pakistan had not taken sufficient action against other externally-focused groups either, such as LeT and JeM which continued to "operate, train, organise, and fundraise in Pakistan". It also noted that Hafiz Saeed, the leader Jamaat-ud-Dawa who is also an UN-designated terrorist, was able to make frequent public appearances in support of the organisations' objectives without Pakistan government raising a finger to stop him. The State Department in its report also underlined the "slow pace of trial proceedings" for the accused in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack and noted that Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of these attacks was released on bail in April 2015, though he remained under house arrest at the end of 2015. (ANI)
On the anniversary of China's bloody crackdown on student-led protests in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square, Taiwan's new president told China today that democracy is nothing to fear.Tsai Ing-wen said in a Facebook post on the 27th anniversary that Taiwan could serve as an example to China.Tsai said in the run-up to Taiwan's elections earlier this year she had seen people from from China, as well as the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, mixing with crowds in Taiwan."These many friends, after experiencing things for themselves can see that in fact there's nothing scary about democracy. Democracy is a good and fine thing," wrote Tsai, who took office last month.China sent in tanks to break up demonstrations on June 4, 1989. Beijing has never released a death toll but estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand.The subject remains all but taboo in China, where President Xi Jinping is overseeing a broad crackdown on rights groups and activists.Tsai also said in her Facebook post about the Tiananmen crackdown's anniversary that nobody could deny the material advances China had made under the Communist Party.However, China would win even more respect internationally if it gave its people even more rights, wrote Tsai, who is from Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.Taiwan is the only part of the Chinese-speaking world which holds free elections, and Tsai risks upsetting Beijing with her frank remarks on Tiananmen.China has never renounced the use of force to bring what it views as a wayward province under its control and is deeply suspicious of Tsai. Chinese officials have accused her of pushing the island towards formal independence.In Beijing, security was tight at Tiananmen Square, with long lines at bag and identity checks. The square itself was peaceful, with hundreds of tourists stopping to take photos in the early summer sun.While most state media made no mention of the sensitive anniversary, the English version of popular Beijing-based tabloid the Global Times wrote in a commentary that people in China had put the events of 1989 behind them."The annual hubbub around the June 4 incident is nothing but bubbles that are doomed to burst."Tsai said Taiwan understood the pain caused by Tiananmen because Taiwan had similar experiences in its struggle for democracy, referring to repression under the martial law enforced by the Nationalists over the island from 1949-1987."I'm not here to give advice about the political system on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, but am willing to sincerely share Taiwan's democratic experience," she said.People in Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule under a deal to preserve wide-ranging freedoms in 1997, will mark the anniversary later today. It is the only place on Chinese soil where June 4 commemorations are tolerated. REUTERS SDR PR1131 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-768449.Xml
A temple of democracy in the heart of Kabul to a strategic highway linking Zaranj to Delaram and now a huge dam on river Chist-e-Sharif are some of the shining examples of the success stories Indians writing in war-torn Afghanistan with its close neighbour Pakistan staring at the ongoing projects. Salma Dam, rechristened as India-Afghan Friendship Dam jointly dedicated by visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Herat province, is not a stand alone project which India is undertaking in the war-battered nation. India's involvement in reconstruction work dates back to those days when Afghan people started building their nation from scratches. Afghan people fondly talk about the strategic Delaram-Zaranj highway built by India's Border Road Organisation braving Taliban attacks in which some Indians were killed. Built at a cost of Rs 600 crore, the 215-km-long highway also symbolises India's developmental work in this country. The Zaranj-Delaram highway linked Zaranj on Afghanistan's border with Iran, Delaram and several other cities in Afghanistan on the 'Garland Highway'. The highway had also connected Iran with the Garland Highway, which links Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif Herat and Kunduz.The real fruits of the highway will now be more visible as India has recently concluded a landmark trilateral agreement with Iran and Afghanistan for the development of Chabahar port, which will give India an unhindered access to the land-country country, bypassing Pakistan. Last year saw the dedication of Parliament building which India constructed for the Afghan people who are learning a lesson of democracy after years of fundamentalist rule of Talibans. In the series of projects, Salma dam has its significance as the Multipurpose project is set to spurt development activities in the province in big way with its generating 42 MW of power will be used to irrigate 75,000 hectares of land, water supply and other benefits to the people of Afghanistan. The gross capacity of the Dam is 633 Million M3. The height of the dam is 104.3 Mt, length 540 Mt and width at the bottom is 450 Mt.The successful completion of the project represents culmination of years of hard work by 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers. India has altogether committed a development partnership of over 2 billion dollars. India-assisted projects like Doshi and Charikar sub-stations were on the verge of completion. India is also giving its support to Afghanistan for strengthening its defensive capabilities for preserving Afghanistan's unity and territorial integrity and ensuring security. India had provided Mi-25 helicopters to Afghanistan and their maintenance facility is also coming up. India is also expanding training opportunities for Afghan National Security and Defence Forces in relevant Indian institutions, based on the requirements of Afghanistan. Apart from big projects, India is involved in over 100 ongoing Small Development Projects (SDP) for creating community infrastructure at the local level. The total SDP outlay was envisaged to grow to 200 million dollar by 2020.More than 10,000 students from Afghanistan were engaged in studies in India. The existing scheme of 1,000 scholarships every year for Afghan students to study in India will be extended by another five years beyond 2017 with the possibility of one year vocational and skill training. India would additionally provide 500 scholarships for study of children of martyrs of Afghanistan National Defence and Security Forces in reputed schools and colleges in India and Afghanistan.UNI MK SW AE 1443 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0090-768680.Xml
Without naming Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the ''resistance and suspicion of others'' will not deter India from its unflinching commitment to the development of Afghanistan, as he inaugurated the ambitious Rs 1,400 crore Afghan-India Friendship Dam with President Ashraf Ghani in this Western province. ''We see the resistance and suspicion of others, but our resolve is strong and your faith and trust guides us forward,'' the Prime Minister said amidst applause from the audience just after he clicked the button to make the 42 MW hydroelectric project on river Harirud functional with a capacity of irrigating 75,000 hectares of land in the war-torn country. Mr Modi expressed the confidence that the ''brave people'' of Afghanistan with their inherent values would be able to ward off the force of violence and those who support them. Describing the inauguration of the dam as ''a historic moment'', Mr Modi said India-Afghanistan friendship was timeless and there was no sunset clause in the commitment of the country for the development of Afghanistan. ''Your friendship is our honour, and your dreams are our duty. Though our capabilities and resources are limited, our commitment is boundless,'' he said. ''Today, we are not just launching a project that will irrigate land and light up homes. We are reviving a region, restoring hope, renewing life and redefining Afghanistan's future. The dam is a generator not just of electricity but also of optimism and belief in the future of Afghanistan,'' the Prime Minister said. The Prime Minister flew here to inaugurate the dam just after arriving in the country on the first leg of his five-nation tour. More UNI XC NAZ AE 1451 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0091-768782.Xml
James and Ted Dresnok speaking in fluent Korean blamed "American imperialism" for the tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and asked the U.S. to withdraw its forces from South Korea.

"The United States must abandon its anti-North Korean policy. The U.S. needs to wake up, reach a peace agreement with us, and leave South Korea. That's the only way to save itself," CNN quoted Ted Dresnok as saying.

Both in their 30's said they are married with children and use the surname "Hong" in North Korea.

They revealed that their father is James Joseph Dresnok, an American GI who, according to the Pentagon, defected to North Korea in 1962.

According to Balbina Hwang, a visiting professor at Georgetown University, American defectors are considered a valuable propaganda tool by the North Korean regime.

However, it is unclear if the hour-long video appeared on the U.S.-based website Minjok Tongshin was made, or whether the men appeared under duress.

According to reports, the Pentagon acknowledged in 1996 that at least four American servicemen had defected to North Korea over the decades.

Meanwhile, officials for the State Department, CIA, and the office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the video.(ANI)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the Syria crisis on a phone call today, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement."Lavrov expressed concern about attempts to delay the resumption of political negotiations under various pretexts," the ministry said.REUTERS VS AS1725 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-769107.Xml
Around noon, the forces and allied paramilitary Shia and Sunni units, known as Hashd Shaabi, entered the town in the northwest of Fallujah, and recaptured the central part of it, Xinhua cited the source as saying.

The troops took control of the government building and raised the Iraqi flag while continuing to drive out IS militants from the town, the source said.

The advance in Saqlawiyah came after several days of clashes with the militants.

The troops are fighting to enter Fallujah, but were slowed down by heavy resistance from IS militants inside the city, in addition to hundreds of hidden bombs believed to be planted by the terrorists.

The forces also wanted to avoid heavy casualties among tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside Fallujah.

On May 23, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the launch of the offensive to claim Fallujah.

Government troops and allied militias have 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.

--IANS py/bg

( 220 Words)

2016-06-04-18:30:03 (IANS)
Amid growing concerns over the South China Sea controversy, India today batted in favour of firmly upholding freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law. Addressing at the Shangri La Dialogue, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar made it clear that even as India do not take a position on territorial disputes, which he said, should be resolved peacefully without the threat or use of force, but it firmly believe in freedom of navigation in the international waters, including the South China Sea. Calling the dispute as one of the most serious security challenges facing Asia Pacific, Mr Parrikar cautioned against showing aggressive behaviour or action. While not directly naming China, which of late has been increasingly showing assertiveness in the South China Sea, the Defence Minister said, "All countries in the region need to recognise that our shared prosperity and the enviable rates of growth that we enjoyed over the past decades will be put at risk by aggressive behaviour or actions by any one of us." On the issue of terrorism also, Mr Parrikar obliquely criticised China as it has scuttled India's efforts in the UN when New Delhi moved to get Jaish-e-Mohammad Chief Maulana Masood Azhar enlisted in the list of proclaimed terrorists. "We need to oppose terrorism resolutely everywhere, de-legitimise it as an instrument of state policy and cooperate unreservedly to locate, thwart and destroy terrorist networks. The security frameworks in our region still do not give enough attention to terrorism. This must change." said the Defence Minister. Mr Parrikar, who is on a two-nation visit, will head to Vietnam, a country which is also party to the South China Sea dispute. He described the traditional threat of disputes over territorial issues escalating to military conflict one of the major security challenges. "The way forward here is for the parties to these disputes to renounce the threat or use of force against other states," he said. UNI MK SW SHK 1842 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0090-769363.Xml
This is Mr Modi's first visit to Qatar, and first by an Indian Prime Minister in the past eight years. The last visit was in 2008 by Manmohan Singh.

The visit, which follows closely on the heels of Mr Modi's visit to Iran and to UAE and Saudi Arabia, builds further on Indians' relationship to the strategically significant Gulf nation and the Arab world as a whole.

Besides talks with the leadership of Qatar, the Prime Minister will also address top businessmen and also visit a campus of Indian workers.

Qatar has over six lakh strong Indian diaspora and its trade with India had exceeded 15 billion dollars in 2014-15.

The tiny Gulf nation is also the largest supplier of India's LNG needs and also one of the key sources of crude oil.

The Emir of Qatar had visited India in March 2015. Previously, the then Emir of Qatar had visited India in 1999, 2005 and 2012.UNI XC NAZ SW AE 1834

-- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0091-769367.Xml
Nigeria's government has recovered 9.1 billion dollars in stolen money and assets, its information and culture minister said on Saturday, as its corruption crackdown continues against the backdrop of the country's worst economic crisis in years.President Muhammadu Buhari, elected last year largely on his vow to fight corruption, has vowed to recover "mind-boggling" sums of money stolen from the oil sector and said public coffers were "virtually empty" when he took office last May.Since then the country has endured an economic crisis caused by the sharp fall in global oil prices, making the need to recoup lost money more acute. Crude sales account for around 70 percent of national income.In a statement, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said cash and assets recovered between May 29 last year, when Buhari took office, and May 25 this year totalled 9.1 billion dollars.The government has said it plans to generate 3.38 trillion naira (17 billion dololar) this year from non-oil sources to help fund the 30.6 billion dollar budget signed into law by Buhari last month.It was not immediately clear how much outstanding money in total is still being sought by the government."All these are monies recovered from individuals and entities who had either hidden, stolen, diverted or were in possession of monies belonging to the nation," the minister's special adviser, Segun Adeyemi, told Reuters."These recovered funds include monies withheld by past government officials, monies kept in private accounts, monies diverted to private pockets and monies in possession of government officials not disclosed after leaving government."The information minister told Reuters he could not name any individuals from whom money had been recovered for legal reasons.He said some of the money came after companies that had failed to pay taxes were forced to do so retrospectively.The ministry also said a total of 321 million dollar was yet to be recovered from Nigerians in Switzerland, the Britain, the United States and the United Arab Emirates or their assets held in those countries.Last month Buhari urged other countries and the United Nations to speed up the process of repatriating stolen money held abroad, which he said was becoming "tedious".REUTERS VS BD1825 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-769319.Xml
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in Doha on the second leg of his five nation tour, ended his first day here with a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al Thani. He also attended a banquet held in his honour by Prime Minister Al Thani. "1st day in Doha ends with a meeting with PM Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al Thani who also holds banquet in PMs honour," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Official spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted. Prior to the grand dinner, the Prime Minister interacted with Indian workers at a medical camp in downtown Doha, where he assured them of taking up problems faced by them during his talks with leaders of Qatar. "If you have some issues on changing some rules and regulations, I will work with you all to bring about these changes. Do work hard, but while doing so, please do focus on keeping your health and body fighting fit," the Prime Minister said in his brief address. Following his speech, he joined the workers for a quick bite as he moved from table to table interacting with them and asking them about their issues and problems. "It was like meeting someone from our family, it got me teary-eyed. This is definitely a first in Indian history and other politicians should wonder why this didn't happen sooner," a worker from the medical camp told ANI here after interacting with the Prime Minister. Prime Minister Modi arrived here today after concluding the first leg of his trip in Afghanistan and was greeted by Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al Thani at the airport. Upon landing in Qatar, Prime Minister Modi tweeted in Arabic saying that he was looking forward to the various programmes that will enhance the economy and relations between India and Qatar. Asserting that India gave high priority to Qatar, he added that through his visit, he would be looking to expand the bilateral cooperation between the two nations. While in Herat, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani conferred Prime Minister Modi with the country's highest civilian honour, the Amir Amanullah Khan Award. President Ghani and Prime Minister Modi also inaugurated the 'Afghan-India Friendship Dam', earlier known as the Salma Dam, which was rebuilt with India's aid. During his stay in Qatar, Prime Minister Modi is expected to sign a number of agreements with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. From Qatar, PM Modi will leave for Switzerland on Sunday. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today shared a meal with the workers of Indian origin, employed in the Qatar capital, at a camp. ''The character of Indians defines the image of India, you earn love and respect wherever you go,'' said Mr Modi, lauding the workers, while sharing a meal with them at a Workers' Medical Camp within hours of his arrival here.The Prime Minister congratulated all workers for their hard work and achievements and assured them that he was aware of their problems and doing his utmost to look for a solution, stating that he was raising these issues during his talks with the local authorities. Interacting with the workers, he referred to the brotherhood that bonded them, saying ''when you are outside the country, anyone from India feels like our own.'' Referring to favourable monsoon prospects for the country, he said news of good monsoon had instilled confidence in the economy. Mr Modi, who arrived here on the second leg of his five nation tour this evening, congratulated Indian workers in the country for their achievements, noting that Indian doctors were doing a good job in Qatar. UNI SD PR RJ 2310 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0105-769849.Xml
BEIJING, June 3, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping (3rd L) visits an exhibition on China's science and technology achievements during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015) in Beijing, capital of China, June 3, 2016. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called for greater confidence and perseverance from science and technology (S&T) practitioners to make China the vanguard of innovation-driven development.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks on a visit to an exhibition in Beijing on S&T achievements during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015).

The president lauded China's achievements and the influence they had on the reform and opening up drive, and socialist modernization.

The exhibition was held one day after the conclusion of the 9th National Congress of China Association for Science and Technology.

More than 800 items were on display in 10 exhibition areas, showing the best of China's major S&T achievements in the last five years.

The items included intelligent driving, deep-sea diving, robot surgeons, Tianhe-2 supercomputer, and Beidou navigation system.

Other senior leaders including Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan and Wang Qishan, also visited the exhibition.

Related:

Xi sets targets for China's science, technology mastery

BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping set the target of China becoming a leading power in science and technology (S&T) by the middle of this century as he addressed a major S&T conference on Monday.

China should establish itself as one of the most innovative countries by 2020 and a leading innovator by 2030 before realizing the objective of becoming a world-leading S&T power by the centenary anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 2049, Xi said. Full story

News Analysis: China pins hopes on scientific innovation

BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- China is stepping up efforts to seek growth impetus from innovation and build its overall strength in science and technology, according to an ongoing conference.
CAPE TOWN, June 3 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's main opposition, Democratic Alliance (DA), has laid "smuggling" charges against Minister of Defence, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, saying she has illegally brought a Burundian woman into the country.

Kobus Marais, a MP with the DA, on Friday accused Mapisa-Nqakula of violating the country's Immigration Act as he reported the case to Cape Town Central Police Station.

"While the minister may claim to have good intentions, it simply cannot be condoned that she broke the law," Marais said, demanding an investigation.

The DA says Mapisa-Nqakula illegally brought the Burundian woman, Michelle Wege, from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) to South Africa in January 2014 via the Waterkloof Air Force Base near Pretoria.

"The minister decided -- and she has confirmed that a couple of times -- against the law (to) negotiate for the release of a foreigner in a foreign country and then brought her into South Africa illegally without official documentation," Marais said.

"We truly believe that a criminal offence has taken place," he added.

In response to the charges, Mapisa-Nqakula said she will welcome any investigation into her conduct.

Mapisa-Nqakula admitted she had helped facilitate Wege's release from a DR Congo prison and had her flown to South Africa to save her from an abusive father.

However, in an interview with South Africa's Sunday Times, Wege's father Laurent denied he was abusive and linked his daughter to Mapisa-Nqakula's late son Chumani, saying they were engaged.

He also alleged he and Mapisa-Nqakula had a business relationship which went sour. Enditem
SINGAPORE, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Regional conflicts should be resolved through cooperation, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said in a keynote speech at the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue which kicked off here Friday.

Peace and stability are common interests of the region, and Thailand is willing to maintain peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific Region under the international law, the Thai leader said.

On the South China Sea issue, Prayut said Thailand supports peaceful resolution of the disputes in line with the international law including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

"Thailand considers that full and effective implementation of Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) will create an atmosphere conducive to resolution of the problem, and we support the early conclusion of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC)."

The three-day Shangri-La Dialogue attracts over 560 delegates from 52 nations and regions, including 32 official delegations.

According to the organizer, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think tank, participants comprise defense ministers, senior security officials, military chiefs, diplomats, executives from the corporate sector as well as academics and a significant media presence.

Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, is scheduled to deliver a speech themed "the Challenges of Conflict Resolution" on Sunday. Enditem
ADEN, Yemen, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Rocket attack killed 18 civilians and injured dozens of others in Yemen's southern province of Taiz on Friday evening, a security official told Xinhua.

In the latest violent incident that occurred in a busy market in Taiz, 18 civilians, mostly women, were killed and dozens of others injured while they were shopping, the local security source said on condition of anonymity.

"Fighters of the Shiite Houthi group indiscriminately fired Katyusha rockets and mortar shells that slammed into a residential area and a crowded market, leaving many innocent civilians dead and injured," the Yemeni source said.

Meantime, media outlets of the Shiite Houthi rebels rejected their involvement in firing any rockets and killing civilians in Taiz.

Local medical sources said that more than 35 people were injured when rockets hit a pre-Ramadan Shopping Bazaar in Taiz.

Hospitals in Taiz were calling for urgent blood donations and medical aids for the injured civilians, according to the local medics.

Yemen's province of Taiz, the most devastated by the ongoing conflict, has been besieged for more than ten months by Houthis who prevent the entry of humanitarian aids.

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 civilians.

The ongoing conflict has also displaced more than 2.4 million people in Yemen.

The warring parties have been in talks in Kuwait since April under the auspices of the United Nations to end the war, but no tangible breakthroughs have been made. Enditem
NEW DELHI, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Police action to evict thousands of squatters in northern India city of Uttar Pradesh killed 24 people including two police officers, officials said Friday.

More than 100 people, according to officials, were reportedly injured in the clashes.

The police action at Mathura, an ancient Hindu city of temples, about 160 km southeast of Indian capital city New Delhi, began late on Thursday.

"In the fateful incident 24 persons including two policemen and 22 rioters were killed," Uttar Pradesh Police Chief Javed Ahmad said at a press conference in Mathura.

According to Ahmad, the squatters fired from treetops and hurled stones in their attack on police during which two of police officers Mukul Dwivedi, superintendent of Police Mathura and his subordinate station house officer Santosh Kumar Yadav were "martyred in the line of duty".

The squatters at Jawahar Bagh were identified as former members of religious sect and supporters of Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi (Free India Legal Ideas Revolutionary Protesters) .

The group had illegally occupied over 100 hectares of government land by setting up makeshift tents to reside in. Their demands include drastic reduction on sale of petrol and diesel and the Indian parliament, the posts of prime minister and president be declared unconstitutional.

Police officials said the members used arms and ammunition and also detonated cooking gas cylinders to resist police action.

In April, the state's high court in Allahabad ordered the squatters to vacate and their refusal prompted Thursday's police action.

Police officials have rushed additional contingents to the city to control the situation. The police claimed recovery of huge arms and ammunition from the squatters.

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav told media that police should have gone fully prepared but admitted his government was not having information that they might possess that much.

However, the police said they had the information about the weaponry but never thought protesters would open fire on them.

India's federal government on Friday blamed the local government in Uttar Pradesh over the clash.

"There was lapse on the part of the state government and it should ensure that such unfortunate incidents do not recur," India's ministry of home affairs said. Enditem
BRUSSELS, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) said on Friday it had joined Mission Innovation, a global initiative on clean energy, becoming its 21st member, and vowed to scale up clean energy innovation.

Before the EU joined, Mission Innovation included major world economies such as the United States, China, India, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Britain. Between the members, the group represents 58 percent of the world population and over 80 percent of global clean energy research budgets. They've pledged to double their government investment in clean energy research and innovation over the next five years.

The EU joined Mission Innovation at the group's inaugural ministerial meeting in San Francisco on June 1 and 2, saying the initiative cohered perfectly with its own upcoming research, innovation and competitiveness strategy.

"The European Commission is honored to be part of Mission Innovation. Scaling up clean energy innovation is key to the success of the European Energy Union and to the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change," said Maros Sefcovic, European Commission vice-president responsible for the Energy Union.

The EU funds clean energy under the EU research and innovation program Horizon 2020, under which around 10 billion euros (11.3 billion U.S. dollars) funding is expected to be allocated to clean energy.

Countries joining Mission Innovation agreed to step up coordination on research and innovation projects focusing on breakthrough technologies.

Priority is given to technologies that can be flexibly adapted to varying economic and energy market conditions in the participating countries and the broader world.

Projects covered by the initiative will be designed and managed in a way to attract private investors who would help bring the new technologies to the market. Enditem
SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The militant attack on convoy of India's Border Security Force (BSF) on Friday left three border guards dead and nine others wounded, two of them critically, in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said.

The convoy was ambushed at Bijbehara town of Anantnag district, about 44 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

"Today militants attacked a BSF convoy at Bijbehara with heavy gunfire during which three BSF personnel were killed and nine others were wounded," a senior police official said. "Two BSF men died on the spot while the third personnel succumbed to injuries at a military base hospital in Srinagar."

The convoy of 11 vehicles following the two convoys of paramilitary and army was carrying border guards to Srinagar after their homestay.

Officials said militants believed to be three in number attacked the convoy.

Local witnesses said the BSF men retaliated the militant fire and the exchange lasted for more than 15 minutes.

The wounded BSF men were immediately rushed to a hospital in the town for first aid and later referred to Srinagar for specialised treatment.

Following the attack police and paramilitary troopers cordoned off the area and conducted house to house searches to trace the militants. So far there were no reports of any arrest. Reports said militants managed to escape after the attack.

Region's indigenous militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) has claimed responsibility of the attack. A Srinagar based newsgathering agency said the outfit's spokesperson called its office to claim responsibility.

Last year seven paramilitary troopers of India's Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and a civilian were wounded in a similar attack in the town.

A guerilla war is going on between militants and Indian troops stationed in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989. Gunfights between the two sides takes place intermittently across the region.

Kashmir, a region divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both in full. Since their Independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir. Enditem
RABAT, June 3 (Xinhua) -- European MP Gilles Pargneaux stressed here on Friday the necessity to reinforce counter-terrorism cooperation between the European Union (EU) and Morocco.

"As European MPs, we wish to intensify relations between the EU and Morocco in terms of the fight against terrorism," Pargneaux told the press following a meeting with Moroccan minister delegate for the interior Cherki Drais.

He insisted on the importance of the bilateral cooperation in fighting extremism and terrorism not only between Morocco and some EU member states, but also with the EU as a whole.

Morocco is a cornerstone in the counter-terrorism fight and the security in the Sahel region, he said. Enditem
UNITED NATIONS, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations continues with its efforts to get humanitarian aid to people in besieged and hard-to-reach areas in Syria, two senior UN officials said Friday.

The food aid delivery to Syria's besieged town continues as an inter-agency convoy on Friday returned to Moadamiyeh in Rural Damascus with food assistance completing the June 1 delivery for some 45,000 Syrian men, women and children in need.

The statement came as the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, and UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Stephen O'Brien, were briefing the UN Security Council on the current situation in Syria.

The United Nations also continues to strongly advocate for food aid to be delivered to Darayya as soon as possible to complete the June 1 delivery that provided medicine, vaccines and nutritional items for children, they said.

"The situation in Darayya is dire, characterized by severe shortages of food, medicine, medical equipment and supplies, health facilities and personnel," Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, told reporters here Friday.

Meanwhile, the United Nations also continues to call for unconditional, unimpeded and sustained access to all men, women and children in besieged and hard-to reach locations across Syria, particularly the 1.1 million people who the UN requested access to in June.

On Wednesday, inter-agency convoys delivered critical life-saving assistance to two besieged towns in Rural Damascus -- Darayya and Moadamiyeh. This was the first time that the UN has been able to deliver any assistance to Darayya since November 2012.

The Moadamiyeh convoy is the first of three planned convoys, bringing food for half of those in need, he said, adding that it is the fifth convoy to the town this year, but the first time the UN has had access since March.

Last week, Russia called for a 72-hour "regime of silence" in Eastern Ghouta and Daraya amid deadlocked efforts to turn a cessation of hostilities into a lasting peace in the war-torn Middle East country.

The United States and Russia are co-partners in the so-called Vienna diplomatic process of the International Support Group for Syria, which met last month in the Austrian capital but made no notable progress.

At least 280,000 people have been reportedly killed and more than half of Syria's population have fled their homes since the political crisis and subsequent armed conflict broke out in March 2011. Enditem
ANTANANARIVO, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Madagascar's government is seeking to development the tourism industry, an official has said.

"Tourism in Madagascar advances but we cannot yet speak about boom or explosion of tourism for the moment," Minister of Tourism, Rolland Ratsiraka, said on Thursday.

He made the remarks during the opening of a four-day International Tourism Fair Madagascar 2016 in the capital, Antananarivo.

The minister lamented the country's tourism industry was still weak.

"Our capacity is still weak, our infrastructure is being rehabilitated, and tourism is not yet understood by the entire population and by some officials," he said.

He said that since independence in 1960, Madagasca's airport infrastructure had remained "the same" until expansion work began last year.

He vowed to bring changes to his ministry to better support the private sector.

The minister also said he attended an international conference on tourism and development in Beijing last month and expected cooperation with China in order to attract Chinese investors.

He said Madagascar was planning to promote its tourism in countries including China, Kenya, Turkey and France.

He expressed his gratitude to Ms. Yang Xiaorong, the Chinese ambassador to Madagascar, who attended the opening ceremony, for "her touching commitment to the development of Madagascar's tourism."

The number of tourists coming into Madagascar was 255,000 in 2012 and it dropped to 222,000 in 2014, the minister said, adding the government aimed to increase the number.

"The contribution of tourism to Madagascar's economy currently represents 780 million U.S. dollar of foreign exchange earnings, or 5.5 percent of the GDP," he said. Enditem
BERLIN, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese home appliances giant Midea Group's bid for German robot maker Kuka is a business action and should not be interfered politically, cautioned Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Germany (CHKD) on Friday.

The Berlin-based institution said in a statement that it was paying great attention to actions of the German government and the European Union authorities, and was concerned about "political interference" in this bid.

German media reported that the German government was formulating a counter offer for Kuka from German and European companies, in order to prevent the Chinese enterprise from taking over a controlling stake of the leading industrial robot manufacturer.

"Midea Group's tender offer is an independent business action by a Chinese firm based on its development strategy and market rules,"said CHKD which represents Chinese business in Germany.

"We expect the German authorities to respect market economy principles, and allow investment actions according to market mechanisms without putting any political influence," the commerce chamber added.

Midea Group, which currently holds indirectly 13.5 percent stake in Kuka, announced on May 18 to offer 115 euros (130 U.S. dollars) in cash per share in a bid to increase its holding to at least 30 percent.

The Chinese company pledged to maintain Kuka's independence, saying that it has no plan to seek a domination agreement or delist Kuka, and will not change the headquarters or reduce the workforce. Enditem
A Syrian man carries a severely wounded baby following a barrel bomb attack on the opposition-controlled Saleheen neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on June 2, 2016. (AFP/Baraa Al-Halabi)

UNITED NATIONS, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations continues with its efforts to get humanitarian aid to people in besieged and hard-to-reach areas in Syria, two senior UN officials said Friday.

The food aid delivery to Syria's besieged town continues as an inter-agency convoy on Friday returned to Moadamiyeh in Rural Damascus with food assistance completing the June 1 delivery for some 45,000 Syrian men, women and children in need.

The statement came as the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, and UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Stephen O'Brien, were briefing the UN Security Council on the current situation in Syria.

The United Nations also continues to strongly advocate for food aid to be delivered to Darayya as soon as possible to complete the June 1 delivery that provided medicine, vaccines and nutritional items for children, they said.

"The situation in Darayya is dire, characterized by severe shortages of food, medicine, medical equipment and supplies, health facilities and personnel," Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, told reporters here Friday.

Bashar Ja'afari, Syria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, speaks to journalists after a Security Council closed consultation on Syria, at the UN headquarters in New York, June 3, 2016. The United Nations continues with its efforts to get humanitarian aid to people in besieged and hard-to-reach areas in Syria as an inter-agency convoy on Friday returned to Moadamiyeh in Rural Damascus with food assistance completing the June 1 delivery for some 45,000 Syrian men, women and children in need, two senior UN officials said. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

Meanwhile, the United Nations also continues to call for unconditional, unimpeded and sustained access to all men, women and children in besieged and hard-to reach locations across Syria, particularly the 1.1 million people who the UN requested access to in June.

On Wednesday, inter-agency convoys delivered critical life-saving assistance to two besieged towns in Rural Damascus -- Darayya and Moadamiyeh. This was the first time that the UN has been able to deliver any assistance to Darayya since November 2012.

The Moadamiyeh convoy is the first of three planned convoys, bringing food for half of those in need, he said, adding that it is the fifth convoy to the town this year, but the first time the UN has had access since March.

Last week, Russia called for a 72-hour "regime of silence" in Eastern Ghouta and Daraya amid deadlocked efforts to turn a cessation of hostilities into a lasting peace in the war-torn Middle East country.

The United States and Russia are co-partners in the so-called Vienna diplomatic process of the International Support Group for Syria, which met last month in the Austrian capital but made no notable progress.

At least 280,000 people have been reportedly killed and more than half of Syria's population have fled their homes since the political crisis and subsequent armed conflict broke out in March 2011.
RIGA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- NATO' s military equipment, including Abrams tanks, are expected to arrive in Riga on Saturday for a training exercise, the Latvian Defense Ministry said.

Convoys of allied military equipment will move from the port of Riga to a military training area in Adazi, outside Riga, to take part in Saber Strike military exercise, the ministry said.

Saber Strike is an annual U.S.-led exercise of land and air forces.

Saber Knight staff exercise, which has been integrated with Saber Strike, has already been held in Estonia, while the joint tactical field exercise is scheduled to take place in all three Baltic states -- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia -- on June 11-21.
HELSINKI, June 3 (Xinhua) -- A Somali man was detained in Finland on suspicion of financing and supporting the Al-Shabaab group in Somalia, said the Police of Finland on Friday.

The unit of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Oulu, northern Finland, carried out a pre-trial investigation into a case of supporting Al-Shabaab related terrorist activities and captured a middle-aged suspect, said the police.

The suspect was a Somali national who arrived in Finland in September last year.

Al-Shabaab is a militant group based in East Africa. According to the Finnish police, the organization is known to collect funds in the Nordic countries for supporting its operations in Somalia.

In September 2014, four suspects with Somali background were charged in Finland on suspicion of collecting and sending thousands of euros to Al-Shabaab. One of them was also suspected of recruiting his brother and nephew to join the group. Enditem
Cuba's President, Raul Castro (2nd L), and his Venezuela's counterpart, Nicolas Maduro (1st L), attend a May Day parade in Havana, Cuba, on May 1, 2015. (Xinhua/Joaqin Hernandez)

HAVANA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Cuba on Friday reaffirmed its support for the Venezuelan government while criticizing the Organization of American States (OAS) over its move that could have led to Caracas' suspension from the group.

The Cuban revolutionary government and people reiterate "once again their full support for the supportive and generous Bolivarian Revolution, President Nicolas Maduro, the civil-military union and its brave people," Cuba's foreign ministry said in a press release published in the daily Granma.

Cuba lambasted the OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro who sought this week to begin proceedings at the Washington-based body that could lead to Venezuela's suspension on grounds of violating democracy.

Cuban authorities have accused Almagro of "trying to serve obscure interests."

The Venezuelan government said on Wednesday the move by the OAS was an "imperialist" scheme to take the OPEC member's oil.

The Cuban government noted on Friday that Venezuela "fought a hard and victorious diplomatic battle at the OAS Permanent Council's Special Session, held on Wednesday, June 1, against imperialism and oligarchies' interventionist plan."

On Tuesday, the OAS head called for a special meeting to discuss the current situation of Venezuela.

Representatives of OAS nations met on Wednesday without taking up Almagro's proposal in an attempt to defuse the tension.

Cuba was expelled from the OAS in 1962 due to U.S. pressures allegedly aimed at smothering the socialist revolution.

The suspension was lifted years ago but the Caribbean nation refused to return to the organization, seeing it as a launching platform for Washington's attacks and the regional oligarchy against leftist governments in the region.
by Larry Neild

LONDON, June 3 (Xinhua) -- With just 20 days to go before the British referendum over EU membership, immigration, jobs and the economy continued to dominate the campaign trails across Britain.

The leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) said Friday that Britain could end up with a population of around 80 million by 2040.

Nigel Farage, who sits as a British member of the European Parliament in Brussels, heads the UKIP which was set up in 1993 with a mission to bring the country out of Europe.

Farage said on Friday that the continuing flood of people into Britain has opened up a great divide.

He has predicted if current levels of immigration continue, the population will reach 80 million by 2040, equivalent to a house needing to be built every four minutes.

Meanwhile, the Britain stronger in Europe campaign said Friday that leaders of service sector companies employing hundreds of thousands of people warned jobs in their booming sector would be put at risk by a 'leave' vote.

More than 25 million people in Britain work in a sector that includes retail, hospitality, transport, professional and financial services.

British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne warned 400,000 jobs in the sector would be lost within two years if Britons vote to leave the EU.

Describing the service sector as a great British success story, Osborne challenged the Leave campaign to admit that jobs would be lost if Britain leaves the EU and its single market, saying they should "come clean with the British public".

The Remain side also said an independent economic analysis published Friday demonstrated the importance of the EU single market, saying it was responsible for up to 87 billion U.S. dollars a year in services exports from Britain.

One of the world's biggest banks, JP Morgan Chase, warned it could be forced to cut its headcount in Britain and switch jobs to the European mainland if there is a leave vote.

The bank employs 16,000 people in Britain.The bank's chief executive Jamie Dimon warned jobs could be switched to Paris and Frankfurt, saying a leave vote would "be a terrible deal for Britain".

As voting nears, a deadline loomed for people eligible to vote to register, with a last-minute drive to encourage young voters to ensure they sign up. People must be registered on an official electoral roll in order to take part in the referendum.

Figures released by 10 Downing Street on Friday showed that on Thursday alone around 21,000 people aged under 25 registered to vote. Around 43 million people will have the right to vote in this month's referendum.


LOS ANGELES, May 6, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gestures as she campaigns at East Los Angeles College in Los Angeles, the United States, May 5, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhao Hanrong)

By Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Democratic front-runner Hilary Clinton has launched a blistering attack against Republican nominee Donald Trump as the war between the two rivals began in an election expected to be a knock-down drag out fight.

Clinton lambasted Trump in a foreign policy speech made Thursday in California, calling the New York mogul a "fraud" and is "temperamentally unfit" to be a president.

Observers said this was a departure from Clinton's usual stiff public persona, which has been a thorn in her side in her efforts to portray herself as someone who understands the struggles of ordinary Americans.

"Hillary Clinton is displaying more passion in attacking Donald Trump," Brookings Institution's Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

The recent fraud scandal over the Trump University gives Clinton an opening to characterize Trump as "a rich guy taking advantage of poor people," West said.

Some Trump University students claimed that they paid to the university a big sum of money but did not get the money's worth.

"That is a script she knows how to follow since that is how Obama beat Romney in 2012," West said, referring to U.S. President Barack Obama's win over Republican challenger Mitt Romney nearly four years ago.

Clinton is likely to continue that theme and extend it to other business dealings of Trump and argue that he is not pro-worker and has taken advantage of many people over the years, West predicted.

If Clinton can turn this into a more conventional race of herself standing up for the little guy and Trump enriching himself at the expense of average people, it moves the campaign onto more familiar turf for her and Democrats in general, West said.

"The race simply would play into common stereotypes about Republicans being out of touch and unfair to working people and it would hurt Trump's ability to win blue-collar support," West said.

Indeed, Clinton called Trump a "fraud", claiming that the Republican nominee is pulling the wool over the eyes of his supporters.

"The fraud argument works well for her because it puts a dagger through the heart of his central claim, that he is a great businessman and that he made his money through smart and effective leadership," West said.

Fraud creates an alternative narrative that says he got his money illicitly and that he cannot be counted upon to help the average person, West said.

Clinton's narrative is meant to counter that of Trump, who has taken to calling Clinton "crooked Hillary," referring to the many scandals she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have been tied to over the last 20 years.

Clinton is currently embroiled in a scandal over whether she jeopardized U.S. national security by using a private email account and server for official business while she was secretary of state.

A House panel is also investigating Clinton's responsibility for the 2012 terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens were killed, when Clinton was secretary of state.

Just six months ago, most political observers dismissed Trump as a flash in the pan, but he now stands out as the winner in the Republican nomination fight. And in many recent polls, Trump is tied with Clinton in the lead up to what experts said is sure to be a tight race.

Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua that much of the Republican establishment and voters are beginning to unify behind Trump despite concerns about his specific policies.

Indeed, House Speaker Paul Ryan, the top Republican politician, said Thursday that he will vote for Trump despite his initial reluctance to endorse the brash businessmen who is disliked by many of the Republican establishment politicians.

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News Analysis: Division within Democratic Party in spotlight, overshadowing Clinton's presidential run

NEW YORK, June 2 (Xinhua) -- With the final primaries of the 2016 U.S. presidential election approaching, a Quinnipiac University National poll released Wednesday finds the candidates most likely to lead their parties into the general election are locked in a much tighter race.

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton's small 45-41 percent lead over Republican Donald Trump contrasted sharply with her 13-point edge in a CNN/ORC poll released on May 4, just before the New York real estate billionaire locked up the Republican presidential nomination. Full Story

Economy top concern of U.S. voters: poll

WASHINGTON, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Nearly one in five U.S. voters named the economy as their top concern in the election year, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.
TBILISI, June 4, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli (L) meets with Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili in Tbilisi, Georgia, June 3, 2016. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

TBILISI, June 4 (Xinhua) -- China and Georgia agreed here on Friday to conduct deeper cooperation on China's initiatives of building Silk Road Economic Belt, vowing to speed up FTA negotiation.

The consensus was reached during Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli's respective meetings with president and prime minister of the Transcaucasian country.

In the meeting with Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili, Zhang hailed the traditional friendship with Georgia and the achievements scored on bilateral relationship since the establishment of diplomatic ties 24 years ago.

"It is in line with both countries' fundamental interests to develop bilateral relationship featuring equality, friendliness and mutually beneficial cooperation," Zhang said.

Speaking highly of the good geographical location and sound investment environment of Georgia, Zhang said the two countries are economically complementary to each other.

Georgia's national strategy of turning itself into a logistic and transport hub coincides with China's initiative of building Silk Road Economic Belt, said Zhang, encouraging both sides to take it as an opportunity to synergize each other's strategies so as to provide platforms for expanding substantial cooperation.

He called on both countries to explore cooperation on hydro-electricity, automobile, locomotive, mechanical and electronic products in the hope of cultivating a new growth point of production capacity cooperation.

Margvelashvili said the Silk Road Economic Belt initiated by China is of great significance to Georgia.

Georgia is willing to give full play to its unique geographic location and enhance cooperation with China in areas including railway transportation, port and road construction, the president said, adding that Georgia welcomes more Chinese enterprises to invest in the country.

During the talks with Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Zhang spoke positively of the progress made in building up Silk Road Economic Belt since the first forum on Silk Road was held in Tbilisi last October.

China would like to see Georgia continue to take the advantage of its location, resources and talents and be more involved in the construction of Silk Road Economic Belt, so as to promote regional cooperation and achieve common development and prosperity, Zhang said.

He called on both sides to strengthen top-level design, focusing on major projects, investment and financing, and enhancing production capacity cooperation.

Kvirikashvili, for his part, said Georgia appreciated China's long-term assistance to its economic development.

Calling China an influential country and one of the major economies in the world, Kvirikashvili said Georgia attaches great importance to developing ties with China.

On the free trade agreement (FTA) negotiation, Zhang urged for an early establishment of FTA and a better trade and investment environment.

The vice premier suggested both countries should focus on cooperation in the fields of transportation infrastructure cooperation, telecommunication, agriculture and wine trade.

Kvirikashvili said his country is ready to speed up negotiation process together with China in order to deepen cooperation in various fields.

After the talks, Zhang and Kvirikashvili witnessed the signing of a series of documents.

A memorandum of understanding was reached by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOC) and the Georgian Economic Department in December 2015 to begin the FTA negotiations.

According to China's MOC, China and Georgia have completed a second round of talks for an FTA on May 13 in Beijing.

The two sides discussed issues including goods and service trade, intellectual property rights and trade facilitation, reaching consensus on parts of the agenda, the MOC said. The third round is scheduled to be held in July in Tbilisi.

On the cultural and people-to-people cooperation, Zhang encouraged both sides to fully explore potentials on tourism, culture, education and science and technology in order to cement the foundation of public support.

The vice premier also called for close communication and cooperation on international and regional issues.

Margvelashvili said Georgia will adhere to the one-China policy.

Zhang arrived in Tbilisi on Thursday from Azerbaijan. He is scheduled to stay here for three days and leave for Armenia on Sunday.

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AMMAN, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Jordanian experts said Friday that China's New Silk Road project will help boost cultural ties between Jordan and China. Full Story

Spotlight: Turkey, China in joint efforts to revive ancient Silk Road

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Xinhua Insight: West China seeks fortune on modern Silk Road
RIO DE JANEIRO, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Friday participated in a political rally and addressed her supporters in Porto Alegre in her home state of Rio Grande do Sul.

The rally gathered some 10,000 people who oppose Rousseff's impeachment, which has led to the ascension of Vice President Michel Temer to the top office.

Rousseff spoke against the impeachment process, calling it a coup, an opinion shared by a significant number of Brazilians.

"After a long period of dictatorship, in which people could not express themselves, they want to destroy and violate our democracy. I was elected with the votes of 52 million Brazilians," she stressed.

"They want to stop me from talking on the streets, they do not want me to go around this country and denounce the coup," said Rousseff, referring to the edict issued earlier in the day by Temer, which limited her official trips to only between Brasilia and Rio Grande do Sul, where her home is.

As suspended president, Rousseff was forbidden from using president's official planes but retained her right to a government plane.

An impeachment, under Brazilian law, requires a conviction of crime of responsibility, but the allegedly illegal budget decrees leading to her suspension were never a crime, she reiterated on Friday to the rally.

On Thursday evening, a similar protest gathered thousands of participants, mostly women, in Rio de Janeiro, to express opposition against Rousseff's impeachment.

Rousseff was temporarily removed from office in May for up to 180 days after the Senate agreed to open an impeachment trial.

With no charges of corruption weighing against her, Rousseff is being judged for administrative misconduct and disregard for the federal budget as well as delaying payments to public banks.

Calls between politicians recently leaked to the Brazilian press indicate that the impeachment process was seemingly conceived as a way to quickly oust Rousseff from office and to halt a corruption investigation which is getting close to the country's high-profile politicians.


This photo taken on Dec. 11, 2015 shows uniquely beautiful winter scenery of the Zhaoshu Island in the South China Sea. (Xinhua file photo/Zhao Yingquan)

SINGAPORE, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The Straits Times, a daily newspaper in Singapore, recently carried a signed article that takes a dig at Uncle Sam over the South China Sea issue by exposing the nature of its so-called freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea.

The article was signed by Leslie Fong, a senior executive vice-president of Singapore Press Holdings and former editor of the Straits Times, imaging an open letter from a Ms. Oh Beigong, a fisherman's daughter in China's Taiwan region, to Harry B. Harris, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command.

"I would like to make it clear that I have not the faintest idea who Ms. Oh is but I do think she has a sharp elbow," Fong wrote in the article, saying that the letter somehow found its way into his mailbox.

"From the little that I know, what she has written is accurate but just so readers can judge for themselves, I reproduce here the e-mail in its entirety," he wrote.

The letter by Ms. Oh, which was also copied to U.S. Secretary of Navy Ray Mabus and U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter as well as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, begins by "congratulating" Harris over the recent freedom of navigation operations by USS William P. Lawrence.

In a clear violation of China's sovereignty, the United States sent the USS William P. Lawrence, an Arleigh Burke class missile destroyer, to within 12 nautical miles of China's Yongshu Jiao in the Nansha Islands without Chinese permission on May 10 to assert what the world's only super power says its "right to freedom of navigation."

But the Ms. Oh says that some of her friends are of the view that the destroyer made just a single pass, which would qualify the sail-through as innocent passage under Article 18 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

"In other words, they were telling me, the U.S. had made a big deal out of it as there was no real risk of the Chinese responding and going ballistic, literally or metaphorically. They also said you didn't need guts, or even brains, to dispatch the destroyer as you were just carrying out the orders of your political masters," the letter says.

It goes on to say that such a move by the United States, just like similar moves it made last year and earlier this year, risks collision just like the mid-air collision in 2001 in which a Chinese pilot lost his life.

"But displaying testicular fortitude is one thing and pushing your luck too far is another," the letter says.

"Let me get serious. The U.S. is playing with fire by repeatedly poking China in the eye. We in this region are going to be the collateral damage if this spins out of control. And why should we pay the price when the U.S. does not really have right on its side? As a thinking man, did you not feel discomfort deep inside you when the U.S. kept singling out the Chinese as the bad guys in the maritime disputes?" it says.

It also points out that Harris "must know better than most on this planet that the U.S. has not been able to cite one instance when China actually denied anyone the freedom of navigation or point to any statement by Beijing threatening that right."

"Of course Washington will sidestep that -- why let facts spoil a good excuse -- and say instead that it cannot allow China's claim to waters bound by that famous or infamous nine-dash line that it has drawn in the South China Sea to go unchallenged," it says.

The Ms. Oh says that the then government of China in 1948 went to the United Nations to lodge a claim using a map of the South China Sea with the dotted line and that it was not challenged till recently.

It also takes note of the U.S. finger pointing at China by alleging that the country is going to militarize the airstrips and other facilities to project force, thus threatening the region.

"Er, coming from a senior naval officer of a country that operates some 800 bases or military facilities in more than 60 countries around the world, several of them virtually at China's doorstep, that, sir, is a bit rich!" the letter says.

It points out that the United States, with 11 carrier battle groups circling the globe, "each with enough firepower to send four-fifths of the world's countries back to the Stone Age," has openly declared intention of not allowing any other nation to challenge U.S. power and supremacy.

The U.S. has ignored the "inconvenient truth" that other claimant states have engaged in activities in violation of multilateral agreements.

"I know, I know, the U.S. is not in the habit of admitting that it is or can be wrong. Thus not a word of apology for invading Iraq under the pretext of rooting out the non-existent weapons of mass destruction ..." it says.

The Ms. Oh sees U.S. moves as efforts to stymie the rise of China.

"We get that. So do us a favor, please stop talking about high principles and international law," it says.

She advises the United States to send vessels to assert the freedom of navigation within 12 nautical miles of an atoll in the Philippine Sea which the Japanese call Okinotori Island and claim as their territory.

Japan used the atoll -- not an island -- to claim the usual 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone that is larger than the entire Japan, but its claim is not recognized by others in the region.

"So, please, dear admiral, send the William P. Lawrence there and have some of its crew go fishing near the atoll. All who look askance at your dubious freedom of navigation expeditions in the South China Sea thus far will applaud you," says the letter.

Related:

Spotlight: China will not fall into trap of South China Sea arbitration: Chinese ambassador

JOHANNESBURG, June 2 (Xinhua) -- China will not give certain countries the satisfaction of tricking it into the trap of the South China Sea arbitration, Chinese Ambassador to South Africa, Tian Xuejun, said on Thursday.

In an article carried by Independent Media's nationwide newspaper The Star, Tian reveals the fallacy of the arbitration and reiterates the legitimacy of China's decision of neither participating in nor accepting the arbitration.Full Story

China-U.S. relations shouldn't be hijacked by South China Sea issue: Chinese ambassador

WASHINGTON, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The China-U.S. relations are too important that they should not be allowed to be hijacked by the South China Sea issue, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said Wednesday.
BRASILIA, May 11, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff (Front) takes part in the 4th National Conference of Policy for Women in Brasilia, capital of Brazil, on May 10, 2016. (Xinhua/Joel Rodrigues/FRAMEPHOTO/AGENCIA ESTADO)

BRASILIA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The defense team for Brazil's suspended President Dilma Rousseff announced Friday that they will file four petitions to the Supreme Federal Court concerning the impeachment process against her.

The head of the defense team, Jose Eduardo Cardozo, said in a press conference that these petitions would be filed to Ricardo Lewandowski, chief justice of the Supreme Federal Court.

The petitions mainly focus on the unfair treatment Rousseff and her supporters received in the impeachment process, including insufficient time for her defense team addressing all the filings against her and appointing a biased Senator as the rapporteur who, supposedly, should be impartial.

According to Cardozo, over 80 separate filings have been lobbied by the Senate against Rousseff but her defense team was only given 10 minutes to address them all.

"I am not good at math but I think we would have around 7 seconds to address each filing," said Cardozo, who was the country's attorney general during Rousseff's time in office.

Another important petition, according Cardozo, is asking the Supreme Federal Court to allow the inclusion of new evidence, including recently leaked recordings made by a former Petrobras executive.

In the recordings, several senators who have been pushing for Rousseff's impeachment seemed to say that doing so is the best way to shut down a high-profile corruption investigation involving members of Brazil's political class.

Related:

Rousseff meets with thousands of supporters in political rally

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Friday participated in a political rally and addressed her supporters in Porto Alegre in her home state of Rio Grande do Sul.

The rally gathered some 10,000 people who oppose Rousseff's impeachment, which has led to the ascension of Vice President Michel Temer to the top office. Full Story

Rousseff denies using Petrobras funds to cover personal expenses

BRASILIA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Friday categorically rejected allegations that some of the funds embezzled by the Petrobras corruption ring were used to pay for her personal expenses.
CARACAS, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Talks between the Venezuelan government and opposition parties should continue and not involve outside influence, said an official from the Venezuelan ruling party on Friday.

The reference to outside interference was directed at the Organization of American States, which called for a regional discussion on the economic and political crisis in Venezuela. Depending on the outcome, the South American country could be suspended from the group.

"They can't impose a political decision" of any kind due to the fact that the OAS "is not a supranational organization," said Roy Daza, a member of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela's International Commission. "It isn't above the (member states') governments," it depends on them, he said.

On May 27, the Venezuelan government and opposition began talks in the Dominican Republic to address the country's current political standoff amid a deepening economic crisis.

A dialogue in Venezuela is perfectly possible, Daza said, "but this should happen between Venezuelans, without anyone from the outside meddling and trying to impose conditions."
SYDNEY, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Australian authorities have disrupted an "unusual" Mexican and West African organised crime cartel that attempted to import 140 kilograms of methamphetamine into Australia.

Australian authorities have arrested four dual nationals from Mexico and Nigeria, aged between 35 and 60, for attempting to import a commercial quantity of methamphetamine hidden in 11 diesel generators from Mexico. They face life in prison if convicted.

"From an Australian Federal Police perspective, the teamwork between these two global organised crime syndicates is unusual," Chris Sheehan, the New South Wales state commander for the Australian Federal Police (AFP), told reporters in Sydney on Saturday.

The drugs with a street value of 80 million Australian dollars (58.92 million U.S. dollars) were hidden inside the generators in a bid to thwart the x-ray screening process at Sydney's container port.

While Mexican cartels had infiltrated Australia before with cocaine, Sheehan said that due to living "in a truly globalised world," they have now realised the potential profits that can be made by smuggling methamphetamine into Australia.

"It just proves the point that high-end organised crime groups will use any commodity to generate a profit for their activities," Sheehan said.

It's believed the two containers housing the 11 generators were transhipped via Singapore, and headed for local "Outlaw Motor Cycle Gangs."

Australian authorities are working closely with their partners in other jurisdictions, including Mexico and the United States in the ongoing investigation that has yet to arrest members of the cartel outside Australia.
HO CHI MINH CITY (VIETNAM), June 4, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chang Wei Jiun (Front), student at the Chinese Department of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy, celebrates after winning the first prize of the 15th Chinese Bridge, the annual Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students, in Ho Chi Minh City, southern Vietnam, on June 3, 2016. The competition attracted 16 students who are studying Chinese as their language major at universities in Ho Chi Minh City. (Xinhua/Nguyen Le Huyen)

By Dong Hua, Tao Jun

HO CHI MINH CITY, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Learning Chinese is fun, thought- provoking and popular, so mastering the language will make practical contributions to Vietnam-China relations, said Chang Wei Jiun, the first prize winner of the 15th Chinese Bridge, the annual Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students in southern Vietnam on Friday.

Themed "Dreams Enlighten the Future," the competition attracted 16 students who are studying Chinese as their language major at universities in Ho Chi Minh City. They competed in knowledge question and answer sessions, Chinese speech evaluations and a talent show.

"When taking university entrance exams, I considered choosing either English or Chinese. Eventually I chose Chinese because it is actually a wonderful and hugely popular global language," Chang, who is a second-year student at the Chinese Department of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy, told Xinhua after winning the top prize.

Chang said she has no specific know-how for mastering Chinese, but said she closely studies Chinese culture such as watching Chinese programs on television. "This competition creates a new driving force for me to sharpen my Chinese skills. Mastering the language helps make practical contributions to the relationship between Vietnam and China," she reiterated.

Chang's statement was echoed by Dr. Ho Minh Quang, dean of the Orientalism Department of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities under the Ho Chi Minh City National University. Quang told Xinhua that learning Chinese contributes to building closer ties between Vietnam and China, especially at a time when bilateral and multilateral economic cooperation is developing robustly.

"All students we train in Chinese here have jobs. This is not a movement of studying Chinese, but a response to increasing market demand. Enterprises directly come to our university to recruit all learners of Chinese," Quang said. However, to have better jobs, besides proficiency in Chinese, students should also have a deep understanding of Chinese and Vietnamese cultures, he added.

At the 15th Chinese Bridge, Nguyen Khac Canh, vice president of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, said: "Around 20 percent of the world's population currently use Chinese. Many researchers assume that Chinese will one day become the world's future standard language."

Vietnam and China are fostering cooperation in economy, trade, education, culture, tourism and other fields, creating more and more career opportunities for learners of Chinese. "Many Chinese enterprises are investing and doing business in Vietnam and if you know Chinese, you will surely have many chances to work in this environment and earn a good income and quicker promotion opportunities in the future," stated the vice president.

At the competition, Zhou Tong, Chinese deputy consul general in Ho Chi Minh City, said the Chinese Consulate General in the city always supports Chinese training in universities and colleges in Vietnamese localities, and has been creating more opportunities for Vietnamese youths to study in China to make practical contributions to cooperation between Chinese and Vietnamese universities and colleges.

"I believe that all students here through studying Chinese will find a bright future and make active contributions to the China-Vietnam friendship and comprehensive cooperation," Zhou said.

The competition was co-organized by the Chinese Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City and the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
NEW DELHI, June 4 (Xinhua) -- India Minister of Home Affairs Rajnath Singh has reportedly said he will visit the United States next month to hold talks on homeland security.

"More investments are needed for the police modernisation program. Homeland security is one of the important areas for the nation's economic development. If border management is proper, then only internal security is ensured," he was quoted as saying in the southern city of Hyderabad Friday.

He added: "There is a need to use technology for border management. The red tape and governmental procedures were minimised to attract foreign direct investments. Earlier, the government used to sanction security clearance for three years and now the same has been extended to 10 years."

Singh, who was there for the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce's National Conclave-2016, also said that "India and U.S. are natural allies and could transform the world with trade and trust."

"The U.S.-India trade value was 90 billion U.S. dollars during 2009-10. It rose to 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2014-15. Now we should focus on the goal to achieve the 500 billion U.S. dollars Indo-U.S. trade value soon," he said.
UNITED NATIONS, June 3 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday expressed shock at the scale of grave violations against children in such countries as Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

In his annual report on children and armed conflict covering the year 2015, the secretary-general noted the complex environments created by aerial operations by the armed forces of some member states and international coalitions, which killed and maimed many children.

In some cases, state-allied armed groups have recruited and used children and committed other violations, Ban said.

"Member states should consider, as a matter of priority, changes in policies, military procedures and legislation, where necessary, to prevent violations and protect children," he said, stressing that those who engage in military action resulting in numerous violations of children's rights will find themselves under the UN scrutiny.

The situation in Yemen was particularly worrisome with a five-fold increase in the number of children recruited and six times more children killed and maimed compared to 2014, the report said.

Violations committed by the Islamic State in Iraq and neighboring region continued to have a devastating impact on children, including persistent child recruitment and use and boys featured as child soldiers in social media and in some cases as executioners.

In Nigeria, Boko Haram increased suicide attacks, including through the use of 21 girls as suicide bombers in crowded public spaces. The armed group spread its activities from northeastern Nigeria to neighboring countries, causing a significant number of casualties among civilians and large-scale displacements.

In Syria, thousands of children have been killed during over five years of war there. Afghanistan recorded the highest number of child deaths and injuries since the UN started systematically documenting civilian casualties in 2009.

In Somalia, there was a 50 percent increase in the number of recorded violations against children.

In South Sudan, children were victims of gruesome violations, particularly during brutal military offensives against opposition forces.

"I am also gravely concerned by the increasing number of children deprived of liberty for their alleged association with parties to conflict," said Leila Zerrougui, the secretary-general's special representative for children and armed conflicts.

She called upon member states to treat these children primarily as victims to ensure the full protection of their human rights and urgently put in place alternatives to detention and prosecution of children.

However, the UN envoy was encouraged by the perspective of more constructive engagement with non-state armed groups this year. "I wish to remind everyone that it is crucial to ensure appropriate resources for the reintegration of all the children released, with special attention given to psycho-social support and the needs of girls," she said.
BANGKOK, June 4 (Xinhua) -- One tourist was killed and six others were trapped under debris on Saturday morning after a resort building in Koh Chang Island, east Thailand, collapsed following heavy rainfall, local media reported.

The accident occurred at around 6:00 a.m. local time in torrential rains. The Siam Beach Hotel on Koh Chang Island in Trat Province, 350 km away from Bangkok, tumbled down when the guests were sleeping.

The victim was killed instantly, and six others, including a child, were trapped under the debris.

According to police who raced against time to rescue the victims, the dead is a Thai tourist.

Koh Chang chief district officer Kamthon Waehon said the collapse might be caused by low construction standard as the building was on soft soil and near a cliff.

He said heavy downpours have been hitting the island for several days.

Rescuers have saved four trapped people and sent them to a hospital. They are Chinese tourists, local media mathichon said.
DHAKA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Confrontation over the South China Sea will take a "disastrous" toll on all the economies in the Asia-Pacific including the U.S. economy, a senior Bangladeshi economist has said.

Any armed hostile U.S. activity in the South China Sea will disrupt the main sea route in the region, which will be a disaster not only for the United States but also for the economies in the region, Muhammad Mahmood, former head of the School of Economics and Finance in Victoria University, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"I believe the economic reality will bring some degree of sanity for the United States to desist from taking any rash decision," he said, referring to the fact that China remains one of the most important markets for a very large number of U.S. corporations and that China can cut off their business.

"This creates an internal pressure within the U.S. If China continues to grow, it means more business for them. Therefore, it will be unrealistic for the U.S. to continue to intensify its aggressive confrontation with China in the South China Sea," he added.

The current thinking in Washington identifies the South China Sea and the East China Sea as an area the United States must maintain its hegemony, the expert said.

Washington, therefore, is setting a much wider net to destabilize East and Northeast Asia, he said, calling on it to consider the cost of providing material support to its proxies against the economic loss.

"The price of such material support can rather be very staggering. China must remain vigilant but must not react to U.S. provocations," he said.

He said the United States is not a party to the disputes, but it has always said it only wants to ensure freedom of navigation.

China for a long time has maintained very safe passage around the South China Sea, Mahmood said. "It's China's lifeline. China must keep it free in its own interest."

He said it seems that the United States does not want China to rise peacefully.

"I think the U.S. is not fully aware that China will not do anything other than trying to regain its position it lost over the last decades falling under invasion and occupation," said Mahmood.

"China is now a regional power... This is a reality. Better you (some of the claimants) accept the reality and resolve the dispute mutually. And accommodate each other's interests," he said.

"Multilateralizing dispute is only drawing outside forces into neighboring countries," said the economist, adding that the U.S. "pivot to Asia" is "not only an naked interference, but also a policy to clinically manipulate the situation to its favor."

According to the economist, the South China Sea islands and surrounding waters have always been considered as Chinese territory and the corridor linking China to the rest of the world.

"China's nine-dotted line was drawn in 1947 but no country opposed it at that time. The People's Republic of China in 1949 endorsed that claim. If they have had a case they should have raised it in 1947," he said.

There is no doubt that China wants to settle the maritime territorial disputes through negotiations, the economist said.

He said he hoped that good sense will finally prevail in all major parties including the United States and the impasse will be resolved peacefully through bilateral discussions. "I think at the end of the day they would avoid the path of confrontation."

Spotlight: China will not fall into trap of South China Sea arbitration: Chinese ambassador

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Commentary: Door always open for China- Philippines dialogue

BEIJING, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The door of dialogue between China and the Philippines is always open as long as Manila desires to resolve any dispute through negotiations.

Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte said his country would adopt an independent foreign policy from his predecessor. Incoming Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay also said he would like to resume bilateral talks with China. Full story

Facts show Taiping Dao is island, not rock, says FM

BEIJING, June 3 (Xinhua) -- History and facts show that Taiping Dao in the South China Sea is an island rather than a rock, said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Friday.

"China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and its adjacent waters, including Taiping Dao. China has, based on the Nansha Islands as a whole, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying. Full story

Admiral Sun Jianguo to expound China's stance on security issues at Shangri-La Dialogue

SINGAPORE, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, will deliver a speech elaborating China's stance on international and regional security issues at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a spokesman said on Friday.

Yang Yujun, spokesman of China's Defense Ministry, told the Chinese media that Admiral Sun will deliver a speech themed "the Challenges of Conflict Resolution" at the plenary session of the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue on Sunday. Full story

China is staunch force for peace, stability in South China Sea: ambassador

LONDON, May 20 (Xinhua) -- China is committed to peace and stability in the South China Sea, and desires to solve disputes peacefully through negotiation, Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming said Friday.

In a speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, Liu said China has long exercised "a high-level of self-restraint and forbearance" regarding the territorial disputes in the region. Full story

China calls for bilateral means to solve South China Sea disputes

BEIJING, May 20 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday called on the Philippines to settle disputes over the South China Sea through bilateral consultation and negotiation.

The Philippines has reportedly claimed arbitration was its last resort after all bilateral means had been exhausted. On the other hand, some people say China and the Philippines have never held negotiations over the Philippines' claims. Full story

Arbitration case ticking time bomb against Philippines: columnist

MANILA, May 15 (Xinhua) -- The South China Sea arbitration case the Philippines filed is like a ticking time bomb working against the country, a columnist wrote on Saturday.

Rod Kapunan, a columnist for the Philippines' daily newspaper The Standard, published an article named "Inciting to War with China."

According to Kapunan, bring the case to Permant Court of Arbitration (PCA) was a lose-lose proposition. Full story

China values free navigation in South China Sea more than any other country: senior military official

BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- China values the freedom of navigation and peace and stability in the South China Sea more than any other country in the world, said Fang Fenghui, a member of China's Central Military Commission (CMC), on Thursday.
MEXICO CITY, June 3 (Xinhua) -- More than 26 million Mexicans will vote in 14 states on Sunday for nearly 1,400 public officials, in what is considered a test for Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and his ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), according to political analysts.

Ahead of presidential elections in 2018, these elections, mainly for governors and mayors, will serve to mark the country's mood about the PRI and the opposition alliance between National Action Party (PAN) and Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

"The status of the political parties is in play in every position, they may slide or lose ground to rivals or new alliances," said Rodian Rangel Rivera, a faculty member of political and social science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, in an interview with Xinhua.

Of 32 Mexican states, the PRI currently governs 19, with nine of these holding elections on June 5.

According to Rangel Rivera, a number of PRI fiefdoms are unlikely to change hands, such as Hidalgo and Quintana Roo.

In other states, the analyst predicts far tighter races. In Aguascalientes, Tamaulipas and Chihuahua, which is ruled by a coalition of four parties, the PRI is facing stiff competition, although polls give it a slight lead.

The PAN-PRD alliance looks likely to win in Oaxaca, Durango, Zacatecas and Veracruz, predicted Rivera while stressing that the opposition alliance could prove very effective.

However, all indicators seem to show that independent candidates will not play a major role in this election due to a lack of impact in the race.

Faced with a potential backlash to his party, the PRI president, Manlio Fabio Beltrones, said this week that "there were no easy elections in Mexico" but that his party would fight for every position.

However, the president of PAN, Ricardo Anaya, on Monday called on citizens to cast votes for the candidates with the best chance of defeating the PRI.

"We cannot allow for a splintered opposition vote to allow corrupt and incompetent governments to remain in place," said Anaya.

As the electoral campaign has been marred by accusations between parties and candidates of vote-buying and electoral fraud, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Friday that he was confident voters in the 14 states would go to the polls in a peaceful and democratic atmosphere on Sunday.

According to the National Electoral Institute (INE), all is ready for an efficient day at the polls on June 5.

"The election is following the normal path it has to follow. Polls also lead the INE to expect a high voter turn-out than in 2015," said INE President Lorenzo Cordova at a press conference on May 29.
LONDON, June 4 (Xinhua) -- After the outbreak of the water contamination crisis in the U.S. city of Flint, Michigan, more U.S. cities have been exposed to have similar problems, according to an investigation by The Guardian newspaper.

At least 33 cities across 17 U.S. states have used water testing "cheats" that potentially conceal dangerous levels of lead over the past decade, the British newspaper reported on Thursday.

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 investigation found that big cities like Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee were among the cities using poor testing methods.

For 25 years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has required water utilities to test a small pool of households for lead contamination at least every three years.

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, said the report.

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, it said.

Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech scientist who first uncovered the crisis in Flint, described water testing in some of America's largest cities as an "outrage."

"They make lead in water low when collecting samples from EPA compliance, even as it poisons kids who drink the water," Edwards said. "Clearly, the cheating and lax enforcement are needlessly harming children all over the United States."

Flint, a city northwest of Detroit in Michigan, switched off Detroit's Lake Huron water supply in April 2014 and turned to the Flint River as an interim source while a new regional pipeline was being built.

Residents immediately complained about the water's color and odor, and independent investigators discovered elevated lead levels in the water and blood of children.

The State of Michigan initially downplayed people's concerns, but eventually confirmed finding lead in Flint water supply in October 2015 and began taking steps to address the crisis.

As a result, the state Department of Environmental Quality director and a department spokesman resigned and another official has been fired. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder called for an investigation into the state Health Department.

U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit started investigating into Flint water crisis in January this year, along with the EPA.

Eastern U.S. states are considered to have a high risk of lead contamination due to their aging infrastructure. Enditem
BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The latest adjustment to the calculation of the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for bank by China's central bank will help smooth liquidity and facilitate the offshore renminbi market, according to a research note.

The People's Bank of China announced Friday that as of July 15, the RRR calculation will be based on the average of their daily outstanding deposits, rather than the deposit level at the date of assessment.

Calculating the RRR on offshore renminbi deposits held onshore will also be based on the average of such deposit holdings in the previous quarter, not just the holdings at the quarter-end.

China International Capital Corp. (CICC) said Saturday in a note that the new refinement will help smooth liquidity, because RRR as a potential source of liquidity shock will be weakened.

The central bank started to monitor the average reserve holdings of banks last September, but still assessed the adequacy relative to their outstanding deposits at the assessment date. Liquidity shocks may come when commercial banks fight to meet the reserve requirement when the assessment date nears.

In the future, this assessment will be made against the average deposits, meaning that the volatility of deposits will not affect the required reserve level for banks, but the average will, the CICC said.

"The move suggests the central bank's cautious attitude toward liquidity management approaching the quarter-end," it said.

The move will also facilitate the functioning of the offshore renminbi market, the CICC said.

To contain regulatory arbitrage, the central bank imposed the RRR on offshore renminbi deposits held onshore from Jan. 25. At the end of the first quarter, offshore banks rushed to offload their offshore renminbi funds in order to reduce the reserves they would be required to hold in the second quarter.

This type of shock is less likely to occur again, when the average of offshore renminbi deposits starts to matter, according to the note.
BOGOTA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen Colombian students will travel to China to attend an information technology training sponsored by Chinese telecom giant Huawei, the company said Friday.

The training is part of Huawei's "Seeds for the Future" program, which brings young talent to China to get a grasp on China's telecommunications industry and put their knowledge to use in their home countries, said Xiong Yihui, Huawei's top official in Colombia.

The 15-day-training will take the students to China's capital Beijing and Shenzhen, where Huawei is headquartered. Courses such as broadband, voice services, data services, cloud computing and mobile technologies, among others, are offered to the students.

Maria Jaramillo, an official at the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies, told Xinhua that the Colombia government supports such training programs.

"We are fully aligned with Huawei's objectives and the ministry is keen to boost technological knowledge and talent in Colombia," she said. Enditem
MANAMA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Bahrain beefed up security measures in some parts of the country following a prison break, while a probe by the interior ministry is underway, said the ministry on Saturday.

The jailbreak happened on Friday night and over 15 inmates escaped, according to sources.

A local media reported that around 20 prisoners had escaped, adding that the prisoners managed to seize a bus and get away after assaulting warders and police and wounding several of them.

In a statement, the ministry said that the authorities have set up check points and roadblocks to catch the escaped.

"The Interior Minister has ordered the formation of an investigation committee to determine the circumstances and who was responsible in order for legal proceedings to be filed."
DAMASCUS, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army on Saturday entered the administrative borders of the northern province of al-Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State (IS) group, a monitor group reported.

The Syrian army backed by Russian air cover managed to cross the administrative borders of al-Raqqa, just days after unleashing a wide-scale offensive on the route between the town of Athriya in the central province of Hama, and the al-Tabaqa town in al-Raqqa countryside.

The Syrian forces are trying to reach the al-Furat lake and the road connecting al-Raqqa with the northern province of Aleppo, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Only 40 km separate the army forces from the targeted areas, said the UK-based watchdog group.

The battles, which broke out on Thursday, have so far killed 26 IS militiamen and nine government forces.

If the army succeeded, the IS will be besieged by the Syrian army in the south and southwestern parts of Aleppo, while the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) rebels will be besieging the terror group from the west.

On Thursday, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said the Syrian army and allied fighters unleashed a wide-scale offensive, aiming at capturing the town of Tabqa in countryside of al-Raqqa.

Even though there is no declared cooperation between the attacks by the U.S.-led forces and the Syrian government ones supported by Russia, but analysts believe Russia and the United States have apparently reached an agreement to weaken the IS.

Related:

U.S.-backed Syria rebel group says ready to attack IS de facto capital

DAMASCUS, May 22 (Xinhua) -- A U.S.-backed Syrian rebel group said on Sunday that it was ready for a battle to liberate Syria's northern city of al-Raqqa from the Islamic State (IS) group. Full story

U.S. eyes IS de facto capital, threatening IS leader of death
NEW DELHI, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Two policemen, including an officer, were killed in a militant attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir's Anantnag district Saturday, in the second such terror attack on Indian security forces in the area in the past 24 hours.

"The two policemen were deployed near a bus stand in Anantnag when militants suddenly opened indiscriminate fire on them, killing both on the spot. They were rushed to a hospital where both were declared brought dead," he said, on condition of anonymity.

This is the second major attack on Indian security forces in the past 24 hours in the district that is to go to polls on June 22 and from where the northern state's first woman Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is contesting for an assembly seat.

On Friday, three Indian border guards were killed and seven others injured when militants, said to be belonging to terrorist group Hizbul Mujahideen, ambushed their convoy at Bijbehara area. The border guards were returning from leave when the incident took place. Enditem
SYDNEY, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The Australian authorities have seized two Vietnamese fishing vessels and detained 30 crew members for allegedly fishing illegally in Australian waters.

The vessels, apprehended in an Australian marine reserve 600 km northeast of Cairns in Queensland State are now being escorted back to the Australian mainland for further investigation, the Australian Border Force (ABF) said in a statement on Saturday.

The authorities apprehended the vessels on Thursday after they were spotted by surveillance aircraft, the statement said.

The ABF alleged the vessels contained diving gear to support 10 divers in the water at once, and contained six tonnes of sea cucumber believed to have been caught illegally.

The australian authorities said the apprehension of foreign fishing vessels operating illegally in Australian waters is paramount for the sustainability and economic health of the nation's fishing resources.

"Australia's fisheries are some of the best managed in the world and as such they are the target of illegal fishers," Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) general manager for fisheries operations Peter Venslovas said.

"However, through regular surveillance, monitoring and patrols, those seeking to do the wrong thing will be caught."

The apprehension follows two other fishing vessels being apprehended in April, one in the Torres Strait suspected of fishing for sea cucumber, and another in Western Australia state suspected of fishing for shark fin.

Last month four Indonesian sailors were convicted for illegally fishing for shark fin in Australian waters. The fishermen were fined 19,200 Australian dollars (14,131 U.S. dollars) and their vessel was destroyed. Enditem
ISTANBUL, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Turkey seems to be moving away from its hardline Syria policy in a bid to build up its team of allies against the increasing threat of a possible a Kurdish state along its border, analysts said.

Early last week, Turkey's new Prime Minister Binali Yildirim described the civil war in Syria as "meaningless."

Yildirim's remarks came as quite a surprise as Turkey is among the countries that have been offering all sorts of support to rebel groups in their fight against the Syrian government.

"The fact that the emergence of an autonomous PKK region (in Syria) is now increasingly possible has pushed Turkey into taking such a stance," observed Celalettin Yavuz, a security and foreign policy analyst who is a former staff officer in the Turkish military.

The PKK stands for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has been fighting against Turkey since 1984 for an autonomous if not an independent Kurdistan in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Kurdish forces in Syria are organized under the People's Protection Units (YPG), which is seen as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK.

The Turkish premier underlined that Ankara would now seek to increase the number of its friends while reduce that of its enemies in the region.

"This meaningless war in Syria... has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of our coreligionists," he added.

It has been quite a while for the Turkish officials to demonize the Syrian government, and label Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as cruel murderer and terrorist.

Hasan Unal, the head of the department of international relations at Atilim University, feels that Yildirim's remarks about Syria boosts "optimism that there will come out a change in the government's policy."

"Because the current Turkish policy has faltered, to say the least," Unal said, noting that former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had usually been blamed, rightly or wrongly, for Turkey's foreign policy on Syria.

New steps need to be taken "seriously" regarding Russia, Syria, Israel and the European Union, said Numan Kurtulmus, the spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party, and deputy prime minister.

Kurtulmus, who indirectly admitted Turkey's incapability to impose how the conflict in Syria will be resolved, was quoted by the Hurriyet daily as saying on Wednesday, "In Syria, Turkey will back a process in which all segments of the people are included and could express themselves."

Yet not long ago, senior Turkish officials often vowed that al-Assad would have no place in the future of Syria.

After Russia got militarily involved in the civil war at the Syrian government's side in September last year and the United States dropped the idea of toppling al-Assad, it had become clear that Turkish efforts to oust the Syrian leader would only fail.

The YPG has established three autonomous cantons along the Turkish border since the civil war began in 2011. It also announced in mid-March the establishment of a de-facto federation composed of the cantons..

"Given the circumstances, Turkey has no other alternatives. It should mend ties with Syria and Russia," said Yavuz, who teaches international relations in Ankara's Ufuk University.

Ankara-Moscow ties have soured after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet in November last year, claiming the jet had violated the Turkish airspace.

The YPG currently controls more than two-thirds of Turkey's 911-km-long border with Syria.

The Syrian government, the United States and Turkey announced their refusal to recognize a federal system in the Kurdish-controlled area, but a leading Kurdish figure had warned that Kurds would seek independence if the demand for a federation is rejected.

Turkey should stop supporting Sunni groups against al-Assad if it is in favor of Syria's territorial integrity, Unal said, noting the current policy does not serve Turkey's best interests.

Nidal Kabalan, Syria's former ambassador to Turkey, recently told the BBC Turkish that Syria is ready to mend ties if Turkey would stop terrorists from entering Syria and cease helping rebel groups.

According to the BBC report on Wednesday, Kabalan also said that he would not be surprised if there had been indirect dialogue between Turkish and Syrian officials.

Kabalan is reportedly now the head of the Damascus-based think tank "Syrian Center of Strategic Turkish Studies."

A recent visit to Damascus by some leading officials of Turkey's Vatan Party seems to fit into Kabalan's perception about unofficial talks.

Beyazit Karatas, the deputy chairman of the party, implied at a press conference last Friday following the visit that the latest developments in Turkey had raised hopes of the Syrian government about possible improvement in ties with Turkey.

The Syrian government is ready to develop a joint combat strategy against terrorism with Turkey, should Ankara stop supporting rebel groups, said Karatas.

The Vatan Party delegation, which included three former generals in the Turkish military including Karatas himself, met with Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, several other cabinet ministers as well as high-level security officials during the visit.

Mekdad revealed at the meeting that Syrian and Turkish officials recently met in Geneva, according to Karatas.

The delegation was headed by Ismail Hakki Pekin, a former three-star general who headed the intelligence department of the Turkish General Staff.

Following the collapse of a de-facto cease-fire last July, the PKK resumed attacks on Turkish security forces particularly in the country's Kurdish southeast.

More than 500 members of the security forces have since lost their lives, while over 4,000 PKK militants were killed, according to official statements.

Turkey sees the YPG as a terrorist organization like the PKK. Washington, however, continues its military support to the YPG which it uses as ground forces against the Islamic State in Syria.

There have been indications in the past that a Kurdish state could get support from Israel, Saudi Arabia and some Western powers including the United States.

By mending ties with Syria, Turkey may also be hoping to get its neighbor's permission for a military intervention in case of YPG's attempt to unite the three cantons, some analysts said.

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Spotlight: Turkish intervention into Syria risks larger confrontations: analysts

ISTANBUL, May 20 (Xinhua) -- A unilateral military intervention into Syria, as threatened by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, may well put Turkey into head-on clashes with its rivals and drag it into the protracted civil war in its neighbor, analysts have warned. Full story

Turkish president threatens unilateral actions against IS group in Syria
A mother mourns on the coffin on May 6, 2016 in Kilis, during the funeral ceremony of her 5 years old daughter Nisa Done Sezer who was killed the day before after a rocket hit the house. (Xinhua Photo)

ISTANBUL, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Turkey seems to be moving away from its hardline Syria policy in a bid to build up its team of allies against the increasing threat of a possible a Kurdish state along its border, analysts said.

Early last week, Turkey's new Prime Minister Binali Yildirim described the civil war in Syria as "meaningless."

Yildirim's remarks came as quite a surprise as Turkey is among the countries that have been offering all sorts of support to rebel groups in their fight against the Syrian government.

"The fact that the emergence of an autonomous PKK region (in Syria) is now increasingly possible has pushed Turkey into taking such a stance," observed Celalettin Yavuz, a security and foreign policy analyst who is a former staff officer in the Turkish military.

The PKK stands for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has been fighting against Turkey since 1984 for an autonomous if not an independent Kurdistan in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Kurdish forces in Syria are organized under the People's Protection Units (YPG), which is seen as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK.

The Turkish premier underlined that Ankara would now seek to increase the number of its friends while reduce that of its enemies in the region.

"This meaningless war in Syria... has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of our coreligionists," he added.

It has been quite a while for the Turkish officials to demonize the Syrian government, and label Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as cruel murderer and terrorist.

Hasan Unal, the head of the department of international relations at Atilim University, feels that Yildirim's remarks about Syria boosts "optimism that there will come out a change in the government's policy."

"Because the current Turkish policy has faltered, to say the least," Unal said, noting that former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had usually been blamed, rightly or wrongly, for Turkey's foreign policy on Syria.

New steps need to be taken "seriously" regarding Russia, Syria, Israel and the European Union, said Numan Kurtulmus, the spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party, and deputy prime minister.

Kurtulmus, who indirectly admitted Turkey's incapability to impose how the conflict in Syria will be resolved, was quoted by the Hurriyet daily as saying on Wednesday, "In Syria, Turkey will back a process in which all segments of the people are included and could express themselves."

Yet not long ago, senior Turkish officials often vowed that al-Assad would have no place in the future of Syria.

After Russia got militarily involved in the civil war at the Syrian government's side in September last year and the United States dropped the idea of toppling al-Assad, it had become clear that Turkish efforts to oust the Syrian leader would only fail.

The YPG has established three autonomous cantons along the Turkish border since the civil war began in 2011. It also announced in mid-March the establishment of a de-facto federation composed of the cantons..

"Given the circumstances, Turkey has no other alternatives. It should mend ties with Syria and Russia," said Yavuz, who teaches international relations in Ankara's Ufuk University.

Ankara-Moscow ties have soured after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet in November last year, claiming the jet had violated the Turkish airspace.

The YPG currently controls more than two-thirds of Turkey's 911-km-long border with Syria.

The Syrian government, the United States and Turkey announced their refusal to recognize a federal system in the Kurdish-controlled area, but a leading Kurdish figure had warned that Kurds would seek independence if the demand for a federation is rejected.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a joint press conference with Somalia's President following the opening a new Turkish embassy in Mogadishu on June 3, 2016. (Xinhua Photo)

Turkey should stop supporting Sunni groups against al-Assad if it is in favor of Syria's territorial integrity, Unal said, noting the current policy does not serve Turkey's best interests.

Nidal Kabalan, Syria's former ambassador to Turkey, recently told the BBC Turkish that Syria is ready to mend ties if Turkey would stop terrorists from entering Syria and cease helping rebel groups.

According to the BBC report on Wednesday, Kabalan also said that he would not be surprised if there had been indirect dialogue between Turkish and Syrian officials.

Kabalan is reportedly now the head of the Damascus-based think tank "Syrian Center of Strategic Turkish Studies."

A recent visit to Damascus by some leading officials of Turkey's Vatan Party seems to fit into Kabalan's perception about unofficial talks.

Beyazit Karatas, the deputy chairman of the party, implied at a press conference last Friday following the visit that the latest developments in Turkey had raised hopes of the Syrian government about possible improvement in ties with Turkey.

The Syrian government is ready to develop a joint combat strategy against terrorism with Turkey, should Ankara stop supporting rebel groups, said Karatas.

The Vatan Party delegation, which included three former generals in the Turkish military including Karatas himself, met with Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, several other cabinet ministers as well as high-level security officials during the visit.

Mekdad revealed at the meeting that Syrian and Turkish officials recently met in Geneva, according to Karatas.

The delegation was headed by Ismail Hakki Pekin, a former three-star general who headed the intelligence department of the Turkish General Staff.

Following the collapse of a de-facto cease-fire last July, the PKK resumed attacks on Turkish security forces particularly in the country's Kurdish southeast.

More than 500 members of the security forces have since lost their lives, while over 4,000 PKK militants were killed, according to official statements.

Turkey sees the YPG as a terrorist organization like the PKK. Washington, however, continues its military support to the YPG which it uses as ground forces against the Islamic State in Syria.

There have been indications in the past that a Kurdish state could get support from Israel, Saudi Arabia and some Western powers including the United States.

By mending ties with Syria, Turkey may also be hoping to get its neighbor's permission for a military intervention in case of YPG's attempt to unite the three cantons, some analysts said.
SINGAPORE, June 4 (Xinhua) -- A high-ranking Chinese military official Saturday refuted U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter's "self-isolation" claims about China.

"Carter's claims are incorrect and do not accord with the actual situation," Guan Youfei, director of the Office for International Military Cooperation of the Chinese Central Military Commission, told the media.

Guan's comments came after Carter's claims at the ongoing Shangri-La Dialogue that China's military activities in the South China Sea would isolate itself.

Guan said the United States should learn lessons from the wars it had waged in the Asia-Pacific region after World War II and play a constructive role in the region.

Guan urged the United States to keep its security pledges, withdraw troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible, stop arms sale to China's Taiwan and refrain from holding military drills on the Korean Peninsula.

Guan said China has made great efforts in promoting international and regional security cooperation since its reform and opening-up, and China's achievements in areas such as peacekeeping, disaster relief and naval escort missions are obvious.

China will continue to enhance cooperation with other Asia-Pacific countries under the Belt and Road initiative in various fields, the Chinese military official added.

The U.S. defense secretary had earlier made similar accusations against China in a speech delivered at the U.S. Naval Academy. The Chinese Foreign Ministry had responded, saying such claims reflected "American-style mentality" and "American-style hegemony."

Related:

Pentagon chief's China "self-isolation" claims incorrect: Cambodia

SINGAPORE, June 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. defense secretary's China "self-isolation" claims are incorrect, Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Tea Banh said here Saturday.

Tea Banh made the comments at a meeting with Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, on the sidelines of the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue. Full story

Singapore paper carries article taking dig at Uncle Sam over South China Sea

SINGAPORE, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The Straits Times, a daily newspaper in Singapore, recently carried a signed article that takes a dig at Uncle Sam over the South China Sea issue by exposing the nature of its so-called freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea.

The article was signed by Leslie Fong, a senior executive vice-president of Singapore Press Holdings and former editor of the Straits Times, imaging an open letter from a Ms. Oh Beigong, a fisherman's daughter in China's Taiwan region, to Harry B. Harris, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command. Full story

China-U.S. relations shouldn't be hijacked by South China Sea issue: Chinese ambassador

WASHINGTON, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The China-U.S. relations are too important that they should not be allowed to be hijacked by the South China Sea issue, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said Wednesday.
NAIROBI, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) is seeking to extend its successful partnership with the Chinese firm, Great Wall Drilling Company, KenGen said Monday.

Picture taken on Oct. 17, 2014, shows the 140-megawatt Olkaria IV Geothermal Power Plant in Naivasha, Kenya. The Olkaria geothermal project, located in the Great Rift Valley area, is set to lower the cost of power in the country. (Xinhua/Zhou Xiaoxiong)

KenGen Managing Director Albert Mugo told Xinhua in Nairobi that the Chinese firm has been its main geothermal steam drilling contractor.

"We may approach the Great Wall Drilling Company so that we extend our current partnership due to their high efficiency in drilling for geothermal steam," Mugo said.

The Chinese Export Import Bank gave Kenya a 400 million U.S. dollar loan to finance the drilling of geothermal steam.

Mugo said that the financial assistance was for drilling 80 wells but due to the efficiency and expertise of the Great Wall Drilling Company, they were able to drill 90 geothermal wells.

"The drilling began in September 2012 and the last well will be completed next month. We are very pleased with the work of the Chinese and so we hope to enlist them to help expand geothermal electricity production in Kenya," Mugo said.

The steam obtained from the drilling efforts will be used to expand KenGen electricity production which currently stands at 1,617 MegaWatts.

Picture taken on Oct. 17, 2014, shows the 140-megawatt Olkaria IV Geothermal Power Plant in Naivasha, Kenya. The Olkaria geothermal project, located in the Great Rift Valley area, is set to lower the cost of power in the country. (Xinhua/Zhou Xiaoxiong)

KenGen plans to begin construction of 140 and 70 MW geothermal electricity plants by the end of 2016.

Kenya's long term goal is to reduce its reliance on fossil based electricity production by increasing power production from renewable energy sources such as geothermal.
BAGHDAD, June 4 (Xinhua) -- At least two soldiers were killed and five others wounded on Saturday in a suicide bomb attack targeting the Iraqi army at a town just north of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

The attack occurred around noon when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest at a checkpoint manned by Iraqi soldiers in the town of Tarmiyah, the source said on condition of anonymity.

No group has so far claimed the attacks, but the Islamic State (IS) militant group, in most cases, is responsible for such suicide bombings, targeting the security forces and areas where crowds of people gather, including markets, cafes and mosques across Iraq.

The Iraqi army and allied paramilitary units have been battling IS militants to recapture territories in northern and western Iraq that was seized by the IS since June 2014.

IS frequently carried out attacks against civilians and military across the country, causing huge number of causalities.

A report by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq estimated that 867 Iraqis were killed and 1,459 others wounded in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflicts in May across Iraq.




SINGAPORE, June 4, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Admiral Sun Jianguo (1st R), deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, meets with Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Petr Pavel (2nd L) in Singapore, on June 4, 2016. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey)

SINGAPORE, June 4 (Xinhua) -- A senior Chinese military official said on Saturday that China would like to see NATO play as an active contributor to regional and world peace and stability.

When meeting with Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Petr Pavel, Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, said China and the Chinese military attach great importance to the relations with NATO.

The Chinese admiral made a four-point proposal on future military exchanges between China and NATO. He suggested maintaining policy dialogue, enhancing personnel exchanges, strengthening multilateral cooperation as well as stepping up cooperation in unconventional security areas, such as coordination in escorting mission against piracy and anti-terrorism in Afghanistan.

Sun welcomed NATO's decision to participate in the upcoming 7th Xiangshan forum in Beijing in October.

For his part, Pavel said NATO is willing to conduct communications and dialogue with China, and appreciates China's support to Afghanistan where NATO has led a Resolute Support mission.

He said NATO holds positive attitudes toward the proposal made by China.

The two generals held their meeting on the sidelines of the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue.
Photo taken on April 5, 2016 shows the lighthouse on Zhubi Reef of Nansha Islands in theSouth China Sea, south China. (Xinhua file photo)

BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese foreign ministry on Saturday urged the United States and Japan to stop pointing fingers at China on the South China Sea.

"Countries from outside should honor their commitments and not make irresponsible remarks on issues involving territorial sovereignty," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in Beijing in response to remarks of U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatani at a security summit in Singapore.

According to a press release from the ministry, during the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday, Carter and Nakatani talked about the South China Sea issue and hurled unreasonable accusations at China.

"We have noted relevant remarks. They were mostly repeating their old tunes, which have no fact in them and are full of groundless accusations against China's legitimate construction activities on relevant islands and reefs." Hua said.

She added that they blamed China for the regional security issue when China is actually the victim and sowed discord between China and other regional countries.

"China is firmly opposed to that and the Chinese delegation attending the meeting has made our position clear." Hua stressed the following points:

First, China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and the adjacent waters, which is fully backed by historical and legal evidence. China has never acknowledged the so-called "status-quo" formed by other countries' illegal occupation of Chinese territory, and is not going to do so.

Second, relevant construction has taken place on Chinese own territory. it went against no international law. It is the intention of some countries who have deployed large amounts of advanced weapons and equipment to the Asia-Pacific region that should cause alarm among regional countries.

Third, the South China Sea arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines is not meant to resolve disputes, but to negate China's territorial right and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea. This arbitration case severely undermines the sanctity and integrity of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), abuses and violates international law. China has already made clear non-acceptance and non-participatory position on the arbitration case.

Fourth, speaking of rules-based order, China and ASEAN countries inked the DOC back in 2002. The DOC is regional rules, which shall be abided by all parties.

On Friday, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Shangri-La Dialogue that the maritime issue should not become a zero-sum game and regional countries should look beyond maritime border disputes and seek mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation.

Also,Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu said at the meeting that the UN Charter, the UNCLOS and the DOC shall be taken into full consideration and relevant disputes in the South China Sea be resolved step by step.

"We have noted the relevant statements." Hua said, adding that China always maintains that territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea shall be resolved peacefully between parties directly concerned through negotiation on the basis of respecting historical facts.

She said China supports and advocates the dual-track approach raised by ASEAN countries on properly resolving the South China Sea issue, that is, relevant disputes shall be resolved by countries directly concerned through negotiation and consultation, peace and stability in the South China Sea shall be preserved by China and ASEAN countries together.

"China upholds a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security outlook for the region and believes that regional countries shall work together to build and share a path of regional security that benefits all." Hua said.

She said, for regional countries, the challenges brought by non-traditional maritime security matters are more pressing.

All parties should enhance maritime practical cooperation, jointly address non-traditional maritime security threats, and maintain regional peace and stability on the sea. Hua said.

Related:

Facts show Taiping Dao is island, not rock, says FM

BEIJING, June 3 (Xinhua) -- History and facts show that Taiping Dao in the South China Sea is an island rather than a rock, said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Friday.

"China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and its adjacent waters, including Taiping Dao. China has, based on the Nansha Islands as a whole, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying. Full story

Admiral Sun Jianguo to expound China's stance on security issues at Shangri-La Dialogue

SINGAPORE, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, will deliver a speech elaborating China's stance on international and regional security issues at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a spokesman said on Friday.

Yang Yujun, spokesman of China's Defense Ministry, told the Chinese media that Admiral Sun will deliver a speech themed "the Challenges of Conflict Resolution" at the plenary session of the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue on Sunday. Full story

China is staunch force for peace, stability in South China Sea: ambassador

LONDON, May 20 (Xinhua) -- China is committed to peace and stability in the South China Sea, and desires to solve disputes peacefully through negotiation, Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming said Friday.

In a speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, Liu said China has long exercised "a high-level of self-restraint and forbearance" regarding the territorial disputes in the region. Full story

China calls for bilateral means to solve South China Sea disputes

BEIJING, May 20 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday called on the Philippines to settle disputes over the South China Sea through bilateral consultation and negotiation.

The Philippines has reportedly claimed arbitration was its last resort after all bilateral means had been exhausted. On the other hand, some people say China and the Philippines have never held negotiations over the Philippines' claims. Full story

China values free navigation in South China Sea more than any other country: senior military official

BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- China values the freedom of navigation and peace and stability in the South China Sea more than any other country in the world, said Fang Fenghui, a member of China's Central Military Commission (CMC), on Thursday.
KANCHANABURI, June 4, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Tiger cub carcasses soaked in chemicals as well as other animal products are displayed after investigators found them in Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua, or "Tiger Temple", in Kanchanaburi Province, central Thailand, June 3, 2016. The last batch of a total of 137 tigers from the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province of Thailand were relocated on Saturday, putting an end to the 6-day long tiger relocation while 5 suspects including 3 monks are now charged with wildlife possession. (Xinhua/Li Mangmang)

BANGKOK, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The last batch of a total of 137 tigers from the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province of Thailand were relocated on Saturday, putting an end to the 6-day long tiger relocation while 5 suspects including 3 monks are now charged with wildlife possession.

Thai wildlife officials from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation(DNP) removed the last batch of nine tigers from the famous tourist site to a breeding center in western Rachaburi province, putting an end to the six -day long relocation of tigers which was first resisted by temple operators.

The last tiger being dealt with is a male one named Sayfa (thunderbolt), with a weight of 300 kg.

The last batch of tigers are about 8 to 12 years old, and the hot weather made the relocation slower, Patrapol Maneeorn, wildlife veterinarian of DNP, told Xinhua on Friday.

According to the DNP, all 137 tigers are now in two breeding centers in Rachaburi province. Those Indochinese tigers that shared the same subspecies with wild tigers living in Thailand will be released to nature habitat later, while Bengal tigers will stay.

Other animals including peacocks, dears and wild boars living in the temple will also be relocated accordingly but it takes more time.

Officials have found a lot items made from tiger, bear and other animals in their raid on the zoo-like temple.

Besides the 40 dead cubs found in freezer on Wednesday, about 33 jars with tiger cubs and animal organs in them are found on Thursday.

Patrapol said there are about 27 tiger cubs in these jars, adding that it remains to be examined what is the purpose to do this.

He and another official opened one of the jars and formalin can be smelt at scene

On Thursday, wildlife officials intercepted a monk with two laymen in a truck leaving the temple and confiscated two full-length tiger skins, about 700 amulets made from tiger parts and 10 tiger fangs in the van, reports said.

A lots of amulets made from tiger parts are also found Friday in a van near the bedroom of the abbot, Phra Sutthi Sarathera, or Luang Ta Chan, who left the temple for Bangkok last Sunday but his whereabouts remain unknown.

Officials also found plastic bottles and labels saying "deer antler velvet supplement"earlier.

Since tourists around the world visited the temple, so it's hard to say where these products are sold to, said Adisorn Noochdumrong, deputy director general of DNP.

Skeletons of an Asian golden cat and a leopard are found Friday near the bedroom of the abbot, along with Stuffed Asian golden cat, leopard and Asian black bear, Thai media Thairath reported.

According to Adisorn, the wildlife department will not revoke the zoo license recently issued to the temple.

But the license may be revoked if anyone of the Luang Ta Bua Foundation, which asked for the license, is found guilty of animal trafficking, said Teunchai Noochdumrong, an official in charge of wildlife protection of DNP, adding that DNP has talked with Thai police commissioner Chaktip Chaijinda about the case.

"We are tracking on this topic very closely and will check if all wildlife products that were found in the temple are linked to the international wildlife trade or being stored for what purpose," Chakthip said on Friday.

Three monks and two laymen, some of whom were in the truck with 2 tiger skins, are now charged with illegal wildlife possession.

The temple is very famous among tourists around the world. There is a documentary called "The Tiger and the Monk", telling the story of the "legendary temple where tigers and monks live in harmony".

Adisorn said to Xinhua that they began to suspect the temple of animal trafficking two years ago when news came out that 3 tigers disappeared from the temple.

DNP said in a statement that the reason why they did not act earlier because the wildlife authority has to think about people's feelings as the abbot and the temple is respected by many.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha asked people of Thailand to learn from this case through his spokesman on Saturday.

"The people should tell right from wrong based on facts and truth rather than belief...don's draw the conclusion that every monk or every temple is doing good deeds", He said.




HOUSTON, June 4, 2016 (Xinhua) -- China's Deputy Consul General in Houston Zhao Yumin gives a keynote speech titled "Maintaining Peace and Stability in the South China Sea" at an event jointly organized by the Consulate General and Asia Society Texas Center in Houston, the United States, June 3, 2016. Bilateral negotiation is the best way as arbitration is not a choice for China and other claimants to settle their disputes over the South China Sea islands, Zhao Yumin said here Friday. (Xinhua/Zhang Yongxing)

HOUSTON, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Bilateral negotiation is the best way as arbitration is not a choice for China and other claimants to settle their disputes over the South China Sea islands, a senior Chinese diplomat said here Friday.

China has over the past few decades proposed putting aside disputes and seeking joint development as part of efforts to settle disputes over the South China Sea, China's Deputy Consul General in Houston Zhao Yumin said during a luncheon.

Zhao made the remarks in his keynote speech titled "Maintaining Peace and Stability in the South China Sea" at the event jointly organized by the Consulate General and Asia Society Texas Center.

To seek a win-win outcome through joint development and cooperation, both China and ASEAN member states should manage the disputes by establishing rules and mechanisms, Zhao said, adding that the Phillippines' unilateral initiation of the arbitration is against international law and China's lawful rights.

Despite territorial rows between China and other claimants, freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea have never been a problem. China also views the waters as being vital to global trade and its own development, he said.

"China wants freedom of navigation in the South China Sea the most as 40 percent of China's exports go through the South China Sea and 80 percent of China's imports of crude oil are shipped through the South China Sea," the diplomat said.

He stressed that China's final aim is to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.

Zhao's speech was welcomed by the more than 100 guests at the event, including U.S. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and Chairman for Asia Society Texas Center Charles Foster.

They believe that U.S.-China relationship is among the most important ones in the world, and that both countries, the largest developing country and the most developed country, should work together to safeguard regional and world peace.

Neil Bush, a private representative for former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, told Xinhua, "I hope the United States and China will work together to find a peaceful and constructive resolution to whatever confrontation stemmed from the South China Sea."

Peter Li, a professor at the University of Houston, said the South China Sea issue, which concerns China's territory and sovereignty, is part of China's core interests but not the United States'.

Outsiders should withdraw their meddling hands and allow the parties directly involved to give their wisdom and pragmatism a full play, Li said.

Li Qiangmin, China's Consul General in Houston, said that the aim of organizing such a luncheon is to make it clear that the South China Sea islands belong to China historically and legally, and there is no other way but to go bilateral to resolve the disputes.

Related:

China urges U.S., Japan to stop accusations on South China Sea issue

BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhua) -- China's Foreign Ministry on Saturday urged the United States and Japan to cease accusing China over the South China Sea issue.

Countries from outside should honor their commitments and not make irresponsible remarks on issues involving territorial sovereignty, spokesperson Hua Chunying said in Beijing in response to remarks by U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatani at a security summit in Singapore. Full story

China urges U.S., Japan to stop accusations on South China Sea issue

BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhua) -- China's Foreign Ministry on Saturday urged the United States and Japan to cease accusing China over the South China Sea issue.

Countries from outside should honor their commitments and not make irresponsible remarks on issues involving territorial sovereignty, spokesperson Hua Chunying said in Beijing in response to remarks by U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatani at a security summit in Singapore. Full story

Facts show Taiping Dao is island, not rock, says FM

BEIJING, June 3 (Xinhua) -- History and facts show that Taiping Dao in the South China Sea is an island rather than a rock, said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Friday.

"China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and its adjacent waters, including Taiping Dao. China has, based on the Nansha Islands as a whole, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying. Full story

Admiral Sun Jianguo to expound China's stance on security issues at Shangri-La Dialogue

SINGAPORE, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, will deliver a speech elaborating China's stance on international and regional security issues at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a spokesman said on Friday.

Yang Yujun, spokesman of China's Defense Ministry, told the Chinese media that Admiral Sun will deliver a speech themed "the Challenges of Conflict Resolution" at the plenary session of the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue on Sunday. Full story

China is staunch force for peace, stability in South China Sea: ambassador

LONDON, May 20 (Xinhua) -- China is committed to peace and stability in the South China Sea, and desires to solve disputes peacefully through negotiation, Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming said Friday.

In a speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, Liu said China has long exercised "a high-level of self-restraint and forbearance" regarding the territorial disputes in the region. Full story

China calls for bilateral means to solve South China Sea disputes

BEIJING, May 20 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday called on the Philippines to settle disputes over the South China Sea through bilateral consultation and negotiation.

The Philippines has reportedly claimed arbitration was its last resort after all bilateral means had been exhausted. On the other hand, some people say China and the Philippines have never held negotiations over the Philippines' claims. Full story

China values free navigation in South China Sea more than any other country: senior military official

BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- China values the freedom of navigation and peace and stability in the South China Sea more than any other country in the world, said Fang Fenghui, a member of China's Central Military Commission (CMC), on Thursday.
ANKARA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- At least 14 Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in Syria on Saturday in a joint operation by Turkey and a U.S.-led coalition, Anadolu news agency reported.

Airstrikes and artillery targeted IS positions near the Syrian town of Azaz after the Turkish military detected signs of imminent attacks on Turkey, the Turkish Armed Forces said.

An armored vehicle, a rocket launcher and three buildings of IS were destroyed in the operation.

Rocket attacks from IS-controlled Syrian districts killed 21 people and injured over 80 others this year in the Turkish border city of Kilis.
ANKARA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- A curfew has been declared in southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir for security concerns, the Diyarbakir Governor's office said on Saturday.

The move came after the anti-terror operations of Turkish security forces against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants, the statement said.

The curfew, which included nine neighborhoods of Lice town, started at 10:00 am local time (GMT 0700) on Saturday, according to the statement.

More than 450 members of Turkish security forces and thousands of PKK members have been killed in confrontations inside Turkey and in northern Iraq since last July.

More than 40,000 people were killed in clashes with the PKK since 1984, when the group started its first offensive.

The PKK is listed as terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.
DAMASCUS, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Over 40 people were killed Saturday by continuous rebel shelling against a Kurdish-dominated district in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's national TV said, citing a Russian monitoring base.

The shelling of the rebels, mainly the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, targeted the district of Sheikh Maksud, a predominantly-Kurdish district in Aleppo,which is controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units, otherwise known as YPG.

The incessant shelling also wounded 100 people, an escalation deemed as a breach to a recently-established and shaky truce, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the TV said 11 other people were killed, including a child, by similar shelling on government-controlled areas in Aleppo city, namely the Masharqa, Midan and al-Faid.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Right said the Saturday's shelling was intense.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces rebels are still trying to advance toward the city of Manbej, which is controlled by the Islamic State group, in the northern countryside of Aleppo, near Turkey.

The Syrian army is also engaged in battles against the Nusra and likeminded groups in the southern countryside of Aleppo, mainly near the town of Khan Tuman.

Aleppo, Syria's second largest city and once an economic hub, holds its significance due to its location near the Turkish borders. Each party of the conflict is now fighting to consolidate positions, and claim more territory in that key area.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (C) attends Peace Initiatives in the Middle East Conference in Paris, capital of France, on June 3, 2016. (Xinhua/Ye Pingfan)

PARIS, June 4 (Xinhua) -- China welcomes and supports all efforts conducive to easing tensions between Israel and Palestine and to an early realization of the two-state solution, China's Foreign minister Wang Yi said on Friday during the Middle East peace initiative ministerial conference here.

Wang said the question of Palestine is the fundamental issue to the Middle East. "We cannot allow the question of Palestine to be marginalized, we can not allow the Middle East peace process to be stalled, and we cannot allow the implementation of relevant UN resolutions to be delayed indefinitely," he said.

Wang added that foreign ministers participating in the conference should speak with one voice and take joint actions in order to make the conference become a new starting point for renewed efforts of the international community to foster peace.

During the conference, Wang said China stands for an early implementation of "three stops": stop the violence, stop the settlement expansion, and stop the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, he said China also invites concerned parties and the international community to work together to push for "three explores": explore a wider range of efforts conducive to peace, explore peace talk follow-up measures, and explore an incentive mechanism for promoting peace.

China has always supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights and the establishment of an independent sovereign state, the Chinese foreign minister stressed.

Earlier this year, Chinese President Xi Jinping during his speech given at the Arab League Headquarters called for efforts to resume peace talks at the political level and advance reconstruction on the economic front, Wang recalled.

The Chinese side has contributed to the capacity building of the Palestinians through humanitarian assistance, training, aid, etc, Wang explained, announcing that China will provide a humanitarian aid of 50 million RMB (7.61 million U.S. dollars) to Palestine.

As long as the international community continues to make concerted efforts to foster peace, and the Israeli and Palestinian sides persevere in the choice of peace talks, peace will be achieved, Wang said.




SINGAPORE, June 4, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Admiral Sun Jianguo (2nd R), deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, meets with Japan's Vice Minister of Defense for International Affairs Toru Mimura (2nd L) in Singapore, on June 4, 2016. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey)

SINGAPORE, June 4 (Xinhua) -- China on Saturday urged Japan to respect China's major interests and concerns, and not to intervene in or hype up the South China Sea issue.

The call came as Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo met with Japan's Vice Minister of Defense for International Affairs Toru Mimura here on the sidelines of the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue.

Sun, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, reaffirmed China's stance on the South China Sea, asking Japan to be prudent and take tangible actions to keep the improving momentum of the bilateral ties.

China attaches importance to the ties with Japan and would like to promote mutual understanding through dialogue and communication so as to manage and bridge differences, he said.

Echoing Sun on bilateral ties, Toru Mimura said Japan-China relationship is one of the most important bilateral ties for Japan.

Dialogue and communication between the two countries helps to boost mutual understanding, improve bilateral ties as well as maintain international and regional peace and prosperity, the Japanese official said.

On the same day, the Chinese admiral also met with Swiss Minister of Defense Guy Parmelin on cooperation.

Related:

Arbitration not a choice to settle South China Sea disputes: Chinese diplomat

HOUSTON, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Bilateral negotiation is the best way as arbitration is not a choice for China and other claimants to settle their disputes over the South China Sea islands, a senior Chinese diplomat said here Friday.

China has over the past few decades proposed putting aside disputes and seeking joint development as part of efforts to settle disputes over the South China Sea, China's Deputy Consul General in Houston Zhao Yumin said during a luncheon. Full story

China urges U.S., Japan to stop accusations on South China Sea issue

BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhua) -- China's Foreign Ministry on Saturday urged the United States and Japan to cease accusing China over the South China Sea issue.

Countries from outside should honor their commitments and not make irresponsible remarks on issues involving territorial sovereignty, spokesperson Hua Chunying said in Beijing in response to remarks by U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatani at a security summit in Singapore. Full story

Facts show Taiping Dao is island, not rock, says FM

BEIJING, June 3 (Xinhua) -- History and facts show that Taiping Dao in the South China Sea is an island rather than a rock, said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Friday.

"China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and its adjacent waters, including Taiping Dao. China has, based on the Nansha Islands as a whole, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying. Full story

Admiral Sun Jianguo to expound China's stance on security issues at Shangri-La Dialogue

SINGAPORE, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, will deliver a speech elaborating China's stance on international and regional security issues at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a spokesman said on Friday.

Yang Yujun, spokesman of China's Defense Ministry, told the Chinese media that Admiral Sun will deliver a speech themed "the Challenges of Conflict Resolution" at the plenary session of the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue on Sunday. Full story

China is staunch force for peace, stability in South China Sea: ambassador

LONDON, May 20 (Xinhua) -- China is committed to peace and stability in the South China Sea, and desires to solve disputes peacefully through negotiation, Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming said Friday.

In a speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, Liu said China has long exercised "a high-level of self-restraint and forbearance" regarding the territorial disputes in the region. Full story

China calls for bilateral means to solve South China Sea disputes

BEIJING, May 20 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday called on the Philippines to settle disputes over the South China Sea through bilateral consultation and negotiation.

The Philippines has reportedly claimed arbitration was its last resort after all bilateral means had been exhausted. On the other hand, some people say China and the Philippines have never held negotiations over the Philippines' claims. Full story

China values free navigation in South China Sea more than any other country: senior military official

BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- China values the freedom of navigation and peace and stability in the South China Sea more than any other country in the world, said Fang Fenghui, a member of China's Central Military Commission (CMC), on Thursday.
SINGAPORE, June 4, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Japan ese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani attends the 15th Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, on June 4, 2016. The 15th Shangri-la Dialogue entered the second day in Singapore on Saturday. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey)

SINGAPORE, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Defense ministers, military officials and experts called for cooperation between countries to combat terrorism during the ongoing 15th Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday.

During a luncheon hosted by Singapore Minister for Defense Ng Eng Hen for participating ministers and their representatives, the ministers had an in-depth discussion on the global threat of terrorism.

The ministers viewed terrorism as a clear and present threat that no country can single-handedly manage given its amorphous and transboundary nature. They also talked about the threat of home-grown terrorists, Islamophobia, the danger of marginalizing moderate Muslims, and the battle of ideology against Islamic State (IS).

They stressed that international and regional cooperation was necessary to effectively prevent terrorists from gaining a foothold in this region, especially given the threat of returning fighters.

At a forum on the same day, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the fight against IS has become "one of our greatest challenges today."

He added that combating terrorism needs cooperation between countries in a non-traditional way.

"The scale and economic capability of IS is stronger than al-Qaida. They have telecommunication and military facilities, so the conventional way of anti-terrorism no longer works," he said. "We need a different strategy, a more tailored approach that moves past outmoded forms of conventional warfare."

The minister also urged countries to promote the awareness of terrorism or extremism among the public, and work together to exchange expertise and enhance coordination.

Lt. Gen. Glorioso Miranda, acting chief of staff of the Philippines armed forces, said terrorism is "no doubt" the worst security issue in this generation. However, he stressed that terrorism in the Asia-Pacific region is different from IS in the Middle East.

"The social and political situation, which are much better than the Middle East, does not provide hotbeds for radical terrorism, so extreme terrorism will not take root in this area. But the ideology of Jihad does exist in the region," he added.

Therefore, he proposed countries enhance cooperation in areas such as transnational maritime cooperation as well as information sharing and social media.

"Terrorist activities aim to trigger fear of civil society, and also try to inspire other groups to follow suit. They spread their Jihad ideology on the internet, which all countries should pay attention to, and collaborate with each other to implement online sanctions," Miranda said.

Indonesian Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu also called on countries in the region to make a "more serious and concerted effort" to defeat IS.

"It's not easy because the threats are new ... but it can be done if we share good practices with those going through (radicalism) around the globe, networking and sharing intelligence among different agencies," he noted.

Over 560 delegates from 52 nations and regions, including 32 official delegations, attended the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue, an Asia-Pacific defense and security summit, which kicked off here on Friday.

Related:

15th Shangri-la Dialogue enters 2nd day in Singapore

Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar attends the 15th Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, on June 4, 2016. The 15th Shangri-la Dialogue entered the second day in Singapore on Saturday. More photos

Shangri-La Dialogue Sherpa Meeting held in Singapore
BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Total turnover on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), the market for Chinese startup companies to raise funds, continued to rise in the past week.

From May 30 to June 3, transaction volume on the NEEQ rose 6.86 percent from the previous week to 3.5 billion yuan (nearly 540 million U.S. dollars).

During the week, 85 enterprises debuted on the market.

So far, there have been 7,479 companies listed on the NEEQ with total market capitalization of more than 3 trillion yuan.

More small firms are turning to the NEEQ for financing as the government is promoting a multi-level capital market to satisfy growing funding demand from both large and small companies.
HAVANA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Presidents and heads of state of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) met here on Saturday to push up economic and political cooperation in tackling regional challenges.

The summit of the 25-member organization came at a time when economic difficulties were worsened by threats of "outside forces" to the political stability in the region, according to organizers.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who arrived early Saturday in the Cuban capital of Havana, said the summit should help seek stability in the region and lead to new cooperation projects.

"We have to continue building the path of sustainable development, peace and stability in the Caribbean," said Maduro after his arrival at the airport.

Carlos Zamora, deputy director responsible for Latin America and Caribbean affairs at the Cuban foreign ministry, told reporters that a statement on support for Venezuela will be discussed at the summit.

Climate change, economic cooperation, sustainable tourism and transportation were also on the agenda of the foreign ministers' meeting.

The ongoing political and economic crisis in Venezuela, as well as continued U.S. blockade of Cuba are among issues expected to be mentioned in the Havana declaration to be issued after the summit, in addition to an ACS joint action plan for the next two years to increase economic and trade cooperation between member states.

In another development, Saint Lucia's diplomat June Soomer was elected as the new ACS secretary-general after a four-year leadership of his Colombian predecessor Alfonso Munera.

Bolivia, Uruguay and Kazakhstan obtained the status of ACS observer, as well as the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).

The ACS was launched in July of 1994 with the aim of promoting consultation and cooperation between Caribbean governments to push forward regional integration.
A woman casts her ballot in a polling station at San Isidro District, Lima province, Peru, on April 10, 2016. (Xinhua/Oscar Farje Gomero/ANDINA)

LIMA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- No matter who wins the presidential election, Peruvians want the next president to focus on improving public security and taking more reforms, said a Peruvian official on Friday.

The new president has the obligation of bringing security back to Peru, Alfonso Miranda of the Peruvian National Society of Industries told Xinhua.

"Today, nobody knows when they will be caught in a shooting or be attacked," he said.

Miranda's remarks reflect what is likely to be a major issue to be tackled by either Keiko Fujimori or Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, the two presidential candidates who will compete in a runoff vote on Sunday.

In general elections held on April 10, Fujimori, the daughter of the disgraced former president Alberto Fujimori, garnered nearly 40 percent of the vote. Former Wall Street banker Kuczynski came in the second, grabbing 21 percent.

According to Peru's electoral law, a candidate must get more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round to get elected.

Security has become a huge concern in Peru. An official study shows 80 percent of Peruvians have seen a rise in crime in the last year, and 59 percent now fear for their own safety.

Besides safety, Miranda wants the next president to keep working to integrate Peru into the global commercial order.

The presidential candidate of the Party "Fuerza Popular", Keiko Fujimori, reacts during a press conference after knowing the extraofficial polls of the general elections, in Lima, Peru, on April 10, 2016. (Xinhua/Luis Camacho)

"The vast majority of Peruvians want a system which allows for more economic and industrial development in a fair way within the framework of globalization," he said.

Although Peru attracted around 8.75 billion U.S. dollars in foreign investment in 2015, such deals must attend to the environment, preserve the habitat of communities and involve the local people, he said.

"If communities properly participate in the development, they will feel valued and welcome foreign investments," he said.

Furthermore, Miranda said Peruvians expect their living standards to be gradually elevated to the level of OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries.

"In the first 100 days of the next government, we need to see a deep reform of public governance in order to make it more efficient and bring it in line with OECD levels," he said.

Moreover, Miranda believes that the two presidential candidates should be highly aware of Peru's malnutrition problem, now affecting 14 percent of the population, especially among children.

The winner of Sunday's presidential runoff will take office on July 28 and serve a tenure of five years.
FALLUJAH, June 4, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Smoke rises after the U.S.-led coalition warplanes struck Islamic State (IS) militants in Fallujah city, some 50 kilometers west of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 4, 2016. At least three people were killed and eight others wounded during the bombing. (Xinhua/Sami Jawad)

FALLUJAH, Iraq, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Saturday pushed into the besieged city of Fallujah and seized part of a district in southern the city after fierce clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants, a security source told Xinhua.

The troops have made a significant breakthrough in the day when they pushed into the al-Nuaimia district after defeating the IS defensive line in southern Fallujah, some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The latest advance put the troops in new positions at the edges of adjacent districts of Shuhadaa and Jubail in southern Fallujah, the source said.

"The troops still have more than three kilometers of urban areas to reach the government compound in the central part of Fallujah," the source added.

Meanwhile, the source said that U.S.-led coalition aircraft bombarded IS positions in Shuhadaa district and killed at least nine IS militants.

The alliance's warplanes also bombarded IS militants in Azragiyah area in northwest of Fallujah, leaving 16 extremist militants dead and four of their vehicles destroyed, the source added.

In addition, the security forces repelled an attack of dozens of IS militants in Albu Hawa area in south of Fallujah, on the western bank of Euphrates River, killing some 24 IS militants, the source said without giving further details about casualties among the security forces.

Earlier in the day, the security forces and allied paramilitary Shiite and Sunni units, known as Hashd Shaabi, entered around noon Saqlawiyah in northwest of Fallujah and recaptured the central part of the town, a security source anonymously told Xinhua.

The troops, backed by U.S.-led coalition aircraft, took control of the government building and raised the Iraqi flag, while fierce clashes continued to drive out IS fighters from the southern part of the town, the source said.

The advance in Saqlawiyah came after several days of clashes with the extremist militants.

The troops' advance into Fallujah was slowed down during the past few days by heavy resistance from IS inside the city, in addition to hundreds of hidden bombs are believed to be planted by the militants.

The security forces also wanted to avoid heavy casualties among tens of thousands of civilians who are reportedly trapped inside Fallujah.

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.

On Wednesday, the UN children fund 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 extremist IS militants from the city.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on May 23 the launch of a major offensive to claim Fallujah and surrounding towns and areas.

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.

Related:

Security forces repel IS attack, as battles continue in Iraq's Fallujah

RAMADI, Iraq, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Tuesday repelled an attack by Islamic State (IS) militants in south of the IS-held city of Fallujah in Iraq's western province of Anbar, leaving at least 32 IS militants killed, a security source said.
NIAMEY, June 4 (Xinhua) -- At least thirty soldiers from Niger and two others from Nigeria were killed on Friday night in an attack in Bosso, Diffa region in southeastern Niger, close to the border with Nigeria, according to an official statement on Saturday.

According to the statement of Niger defence ministry, hundreds of Boko Haram militants attacked the town of Bosso during the night.

Overwhelmed by the firepower, the Nigerian soldiers were forced to retreat.

During the fight, seven other soldiers were injured, the statement added.

The counter-offensive conducted by the Nigerien forces early Saturday morning has retaken all the positions in Bosso,"The situation is under control and calm has returned in this locality," the ministry said.

The eastern part of Niger, close to the border with Nigeria has witnessed since February 2015 repeated attacks launched by Boko Haram, who has claimed the lives of hundreds of Nigerien civilians and soldiers, the group has also displaced thousands of Nigerians as well as Nigeriens.
CAPE TOWN, June 4 (Xinhua) -- President Jacob Zuma on Saturday welcomed Standard and Poor's(S&P)decision to maintain South Africa's investment rating.

"I congratulate team South Africa constituted by government, business and labour for the sterling work that has been done over the last few months to turn our economy around," Zuma said in a statement.

On Friday, S&P affirmed South Africa's long and short term foreign and local currency bond ratings at "BBB-/A-3" and "BBB+/A-2" respectively.

The foreign currency bond rating remains one notch above sub-investment grade whereas the domestic currency bond rating remains three notches above sub-investment grade.

S&P maintained the negative outlook on the rating, citing concerns about economic growth and warned it could lower the rating by year-end or next year if policy measures do not turn the economy around.

S&P's decision, which follows on the footsteps of yet another encouraging decision by Moody's, "demonstrates that working together we can reignite our economy, attract investment and create jobs for our people", said Zuma.

In early May, Moody's also decided to maintain South Africa's rating, refraining from downgrading the country's sovereign rating to sub-investment grade.

"Let us use these positive developments to work even harder together to move South Africa forward," said the president.

Another rating agency Fitch will make its decision, probably on June 8.

The SA government has been working hard to avoid a downgrade to junk status, which would drag the country's economy into recession.
by Xinhua Writer Liu Yang

BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Within a week U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has repeatedly lobbied the idea of a "Great Wall of self-isolation" that China is supposed to be building, but such kind of claim cannot be further away from truth.

"China's actions in the South China Sea are isolating it at a time when the entire region is coming together and networking," Carter said during the ongoing annual Shangri-La Dialogue, which focuses on the security of the Asia-Pacific.

It is unclear which of China's actions Carter is referring to specifically are self-isolating, but he certainly chose to overlook the fact that China is the major driving force behind fostering ties with Southeastern Asian countries and consistently seeking to end disputes through dialogue.

China has been an active partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since the 1990s, establishing the "ASEAN plus three" framework and starting a new era of integration with its neighbors.

In 2013, China launched the "One Belt and One Road" initiative to further interconnect with Asian countries to promote trade, finance, security and infrastructure in the region.

Neither does China want to isolate itself nor do its neighbors want to isolate China, University of Macau assistance professor Chen Dingding, said.

Quite on the contrary, isolating China is rather the ambition of the United States, which through its "pivot to Asia" policy hopes to offset China's expanding influence in the region.

To pursue prosperity and security, it's logical for China to embrace the world and create win-win relationship models with other countries, while to contain China's growth, it's also logical for Washington to push China into isolation.

The United States' record of strengthening alliances, selling weapons, launching military exercises and internationalizing regional disputes are all attempts to drive a wedge between China and its neighbors.

"Ultimately, there is the danger of the United States becoming trapped in a conflict with China that it does not want in the first place," Chen said.

While China's foreign policy is featured with cooperation, mutual benefits and common development, U.S. diplomats seem to be fond of such rhetoric as containment, countering and intervention.

Given these two totally different approaches to global affairs, it's not hard to tell which set of mentalities is more suitable for the world.
JAKARTA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- A helicopter crashed in Papua of eastern Indonesia on Saturday, killing the pilot and injuring three others, senior local police officer said.

The accident occurred just after the copper landed on a gold mining compound in Degeuwo district, Deputy Police chief of Papua Brigadier General Rudolf Albert Roja said.

"Suddenly, winds blew strongly and hit the copper. The copper felt into a ravine, killing the pilot," he told Xinhua

"One passenger was badly injured on his chest and now are being intensively treated in a hospital in Nabire, and the two other passengers sustained minor wounds," the general said.
MOSCOW, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday said that the country is ready to agree on the deployment of additional armed mission to monitor the situation in East Ukraine.

"We are ready, if it will help, to accept the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe)'s decision that additional group of observers, who will monitor the demarcation line and heavy weapons' storage site, will have the right to carry personal weapons," Lavrov said.

The minister stressed in a televised interview with Rossiya TV channel that the weapons should be equipped for self-defense purposes and, most importantly, for the protection and monitoring of the stability in East Ukraine.

"We are ready for such a compromise. Now the ball is in the court of our partners," Lavrov said.

The minister added that Russia suggested the OSCE to further supplement the monitor mission in order to ensure security during Donbass's elections and coordinate with the pro-independence insurgents.

Meanwhile, Lavrov noted that Kiev should not ask the Donbass regions to observe the Minsk accord in advance.

The Ukrainian government should firstly grant amnesty and special status to the insurgent Donetsk and Lugansk regions, as well as carry out constitutional reform, Lavrov stressed.

"Based on information from various sources, the United States is applying more pressure to have the Ukrainian side observe its commitments under the Minsk agreement," Lavrov said.

Political settlement of the Ukraine crisis now depends entirely on how Kiev would negotiate with Donetsk and Lugansk directly, which was clearly written in the Minsk agreements, said the minister. Enditem
NAIROBI, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's First Lady Margaret Kenyatta on Saturday launched an anti-poaching campaign to save elephants from poaching which has been rampant in the East African nation.

The East Africa Grass-Root Elephant Education Campaign Walk dubbed, Ivory Belongs to Elephant, seeks to raise awareness on the importance of wildlife in particular elephants and rhinos.

"I look forward to witnessing the policy changes that emanate from this campaign. I hope that just as you have inspired us here today, you will inspire the entire East African Community towards collaboration that allows the region to more effectively address the urgent issue of elephant poaching and ivory trade," Margaret said in Nairobi.

The campaign brought together various stakeholders who participated in the walk to raise awareness on the value of elephants and rhinos, mitigate human-elephant conflicts and promote anti-poaching activities.

Margaret applauded the increasing support for activities geared towards protecting elephants. She said it is encouraging that ordinary individuals were now spearheading wildlife conservation efforts.

She praised Jim Nyamu, the Executive Director of Elephant Neighbours Centre, who is leading the new initiative to protect elephants and rhinos.

According to conservationists, elephant population in 1970 was at 167,000. The numbers stand at 26,400 elephants in Kenya today.

They warned that if this trend continues the national elephant population may decline given that mortality rate was 4 percent compared to a growth rate of 2 percent in 2011.

Over 80 percent of Kenya's elephants are found outside protected areas and the rest in National Parks and Reserves.

Poaching is an emerging challenge and if not managed now, it will lead to decline of elephant numbers and negatively impact the economy (GDP).

Margaret observed that engaging communities at the grassroots level to foster a spirit of harmony and peaceful co-existence between people and the ecosystems was one of the best ways to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts.

"I have been to a lot of events and a lot of meetings aimed at addressing the issue of poaching and ivory trade, but I can tell you I have never been to an event quite like this one! It is so encouraging to be here," she said.

Margaret expressed optimism that through individual and collective efforts, elephant poaching will be eradicated.

"Just one year ago, Jim began walking to save elephants and I understand that since then you have walked over 5,000 kilometres; which is simply astounding," she said.

The team led by Nyamu will take 135 days to cover about 3,247 km starting from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam (Moshi, Morongoro, Bukoba) to Kampala (Queens Elizabeth National Park, Jinja) and back to Nairobi through (Busia, Kakamega, Nakuru) in the three East African countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

The First Lady expressed hope that through efforts such as Nyamu's, the entire East African Community will be pulled towards addressing the issue of elephant poaching and ivory trade.

Environment and Natural Resources Cabinet Secretary Professor Judi Wakhungu said Nyamu's passion for conservation of wildlife showcases what Kenyans have been doing to address the poaching menace.

Nyamu challenged Kenyans to come out in large numbers to help in wildlife conservation.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter attends the 15th Shangri-La Dialog in Singapore, June 4, 2016. The 15th Shangri-La Dialog enters the second day in Singapore on Saturday. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey)

by Xinhua Writer Liu Yang

BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Within a week U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has repeatedly lobbied the idea of a "Great Wall of self-isolation" that China is supposed to be building, but such kind of claim cannot be further away from truth.

"China's actions in the South China Sea are isolating it at a time when the entire region is coming together and networking," Carter said during the ongoing annual Shangri-La Dialogue, which focuses on the security of the Asia-Pacific.

It is unclear which of China's actions Carter is referring to specifically are self-isolating, but he certainly chose to overlook the fact that China is the major driving force behind fostering ties with Southeastern Asian countries and consistently seeking to end disputes through dialogue.

Officials join hands with China's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Liu Zhenmin during the 11th ASEAN-China senior officials meeting of the Implementation of the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea in Singapore on April 27, 2016. (Reuters/Edgar Su)

China has been an active partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since the 1990s, establishing the "ASEAN plus three" framework and starting a new era of integration with its neighbors.

In 2013, China launched the "One Belt and One Road" initiative to further interconnect with Asian countries to promote trade, finance, security and infrastructure in the region.

Neither does China want to isolate itself nor do its neighbors want to isolate China, University of Macau assistance professor Chen Dingding, said.

Quite on the contrary, isolating China is rather the ambition of the United States, which through its "pivot to Asia" policy hopes to offset China's expanding influence in the region.

To pursue prosperity and security, it's logical for China to embrace the world and create win-win relationship models with other countries, while to contain China's growth, it's also logical for Washington to push China into isolation.

The United States' record of strengthening alliances, selling weapons, launching military exercises and internationalizing regional disputes are all attempts to drive a wedge between China and its neighbors.

"Ultimately, there is the danger of the United States becoming trapped in a conflict with China that it does not want in the first place," Chen said.

Admiral Sun Jianguo (L, front), deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, shakes hands with U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter (R, front) during the lunch of the 15th Shangri-La Dialog in Singapore, June 4, 2016. The 15th Shangri-La Dialog enters the second day in Singapore on Saturday. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey)

While China's foreign policy is featured with cooperation, mutual benefits and common development, U.S. diplomats seem to be fond of such rhetoric as containment, countering and intervention.

Given these two totally different approaches to global affairs, it's not hard to tell which set of mentalities is more suitable for the world.
UNITED NATIONS, June 4 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday condemned heavy weapons attacks on a busy market in the Yemni city of Taiz, which reportedly killed at least 17 civilians, and called for "an independent investigation to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable."

"The secretary-general condemns the attacks with heavy weapons, including rockets, mortars and artillery in Taiz," said a statement issued here by Ban's spokesman.

Rocket fire reportedly hit a busy market in the city, the statement said. "Attacks directed against civilians and populated areas, including markets, are strictly prohibited."

Ban underscored to all parties that "targeting civilian areas is a violation of international humanitarian law and urges them to fully respect their obligations in this regard," the statement said. "The secretary-general calls for an independent investigation to ensure that perpetrators are hold accountable."

The rockets were fired by Shiite rebels, known as Houthis who are besieging the city. They struck at around 3:30 p.m.(local time) on Friday, when Taiz residents were shopping in preparation for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is due to start next week. At least 30 people were wounded and the death toll was expected to rise, reports said.

"The secretary-general continues to urge all parties to the conflict to cease all military activities in accordance with the nationwide cessation of hostilities," the statement said. "He further calls on them to refrain from any actions that could result in further civilian casualties. It is particularly regrettable that Taiz continues to pay a heavy toll in civilian losses despite the cessation of hostilities."

Meanwhile, the secretary-general called on those participating in the peace talks in Kuwait "to negotiate in good faith and urgently work with" his special envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, "to bring a peaceful end to this devastating conflict," the statement said. "In this same spirit, he also urges the importance of the immediate release of prisoners and detainees."

The secretary-general expresses his sincere condolences and sympathies to the families of the victims and wishes a speedy recovery to those injured, the statement added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov receives interview with the Rossiya TV channel. (Picture by Russian Foreign Ministry)

MOSCOW, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday said that the country is ready to agree on the deployment of additional armed mission to monitor the situation in East Ukraine.

"We are ready, if it will help, to accept the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe)'s decision that additional group of observers, who will monitor the demarcation line and heavy weapons' storage site, will have the right to carry personal weapons," Lavrov said.

The minister stressed in a televised interview with Rossiya TV channel that the weapons should be equipped for self-defense purposes and, most importantly, for the protection and monitoring of the stability in East Ukraine.

"We are ready for such a compromise. Now the ball is in the court of our partners," Lavrov said.

The minister added that Russia suggested the OSCE to further supplement the monitor mission in order to ensure security during Donbass's elections and coordinate with the pro-independence insurgents.

Meanwhile, Lavrov noted that Kiev should not ask the Donbass regions to observe the Minsk accord in advance.

The Ukrainian government should firstly grant amnesty and special status to the insurgent Donetsk and Lugansk regions, as well as carry out constitutional reform, Lavrov stressed.

"Based on information from various sources, the United States is applying more pressure to have the Ukrainian side observe its commitments under the Minsk agreement," Lavrov said.

Political settlement of the Ukraine crisis now depends entirely on how Kiev would negotiate with Donetsk and Lugansk directly, which was clearly written in the Minsk agreements, said the minister.
The Russian Defense Ministry handout picture, given on May 27, 2016, shows the Russian mobile coastal defence missile system K-300P Bastion-P firing a missile. (Xinhua/Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation)

MOSCOW, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The export portfolio of Rosoboronexport, the Russian state arms exporter, has reached 48 billion U.S. dollars, the CEO of State Corporation Rostec, Sergey Chemizov, said Friday.

Rosoboronexport is the sole state intermediary agency for Russian exports and imports of defense-related and dual use products, technologies and services also form part of Rostec.

"It supplied arms worth 115 billion U.S. dollars to 116 countries within these 15 years," Chemizov said in an interview with Kommersant, a local Russian newspaper.

Rosoboronexport has about 50 offices around the world and is responsible for over 85 percent of Russia's arms and military technology exports.
CHICAGO, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Chicago' s homicide victims reached 66 in May this year. This is marks the deadliest May in the city since 1995, when 75 were slain.

Data released by the Chicago Police Department on June 2 showed that the total number slain in the city in the first five months of this year came to 243, the deadliest since 1999, when data put the death at 248.

Shootings also increased by more than 50 percent so far this year. Nearly 400 people were shot in May, bringing the number shot in the first five months to 1,500.

A Memorial Day weekend, when six were killed and 63 wounded, and a Mother' s Day weekend, when more than 50 people were shot with eight fatally, have added fuel to the deadly May, Chicago Tribune reported.

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson cited gang conflicts and the proliferation of guns for increased violence.

Social media also contributed to the violence, he said, where some young people "taunt each other, brag about their crimes and dare others to confront them" .
NAIROBI, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Criminal syndicates are currently generating an estimated 258 billion U.S. dollars from illegal plunder of the planet's natural capital, says a joint UNEP-Interpol report launched on Saturday ahead of the World Environment Day.

The "Rise of environmental crime" report reveals that illegal exploitation and trafficking of flora and fauna has spiked by 26 percent thanks to weak policing alongside lethargic enforcement of existing laws.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner decried the rise in environmental crimes terming it a threat to livelihoods, stability and sustainable development.

"The vast sums of money generated from environmental crimes keep sophisticated international criminal gangs in business, fuels insecurity and devastates ecosystems and local economies," Steiner said.

Environmental crimes have surpassed illegal trade in small arms in terms of profits accrued and the sophistication of perpetrators.

The joint UNEP-Interpol report reveals that illegal trade in small arms is worth 3 billion dollars compared to 258 billion dollars generated from cross border trafficking of species.

Steiner emphasized the need for global solidarity to bring an end to environmental crimes that have become pervasive in Sub-Saharan Africa.

"The world needs to come together now to take strong national and international action to bring environmental crime to an end," remarked the UNEP chief

Illegal trade in flora and fauna ranks the fourth largest criminal enterprise after drug smuggling, counterfeiting and human trafficking.

The joint report indicates the amount of money lost due to environmental crimes is 10,000 times higher than the amount spent by international agencies to combat it.

Jurgen Stock, Interpol Secretary General said innovative and collaborative approaches were an imperative to help root out illegal trafficking of species.

"Environmental crime is growing at an alarming pace. The complexity of this type of criminality requires a multi sector response underpinned by collaboration across borders," Stock said.

He added that Interpol will strengthen collaboration with member states to help identify and crack down on criminal syndicates involved in illegal trade in rare species.

The joint report notes that international criminal networks are involved in a series of environmental crimes that includes poaching, illegal logging, fishing and dumping of toxic waste.

It recommends robust public awareness, capacity building for law enforcement agencies, collaboration and adoption of state of the art technology to help minimize environmental crimes. Enditem
Students read books at the library of Somali National University in Mogadishu, capital ofSomalia, April 17, 2016. The university, which re-opened in 2014, now has 755 students, 6 faculties and a team of masters and PhD holders steering the academic and administrative functions. (Xinhua/Faisal Isse)

MOGADISHU, June 4 (Xinhua) -- More than two decades after it closed doors due to break out of civil war and disintegration of the state, the Somali National University is back on its feet and determined to reclaim its position as the premier institution of higher learning in Somalia.

The university, which re-opened in 2014 following the flushing out of Al-Shabaab extremist militants from Mogadishu, now has a student population of 755. It has six faculties and a team of masters and PhD holders who steer the academic and administrative functions.

The faculties include Education and Social Science, Health Science, Economics and Management Science, Law, Agriculture and Veterinary and Animal Husbandry.

The university's rector, Professor Mohamed Ahmed Jimale, told Xinhua in a recent interview that Somali National University (SNU) is fast resuming its position as the source of qualified human resource and research as well as a driver of change in the country.

Students study in Somali National University in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, April 17, 2016. The university, which re-opened in 2014, now has 755 students, 6 faculties and a team of masters and PhD holders steering the academic and administrative functions. (Xinhua/Faisal Isse)

"The aim of this university is to develop skilled professionals who can design and implement development programs for the rebuilding of the nuova Somalia (the new Somalia)," said Jimale.

He said given Somalia is a largely agricultural and livestock driven economy, the university is keen on training professionals in agriculture, animal husbandry and economists.

With a strong teaching fraternity, most of whom acquired higher education in China through scholarship programs, the rector says SNU is poised to offer tuition free quality education while at the same time contribute to peace and state building.

"The number of enrolment increased a lot because many young people that cannot afford to pay the tuition fee for private universities find a good chance here at SNU, the only public and tuition free university," he said.

Students study in Somali National University in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, April 17, 2016. The university, which re-opened in 2014, now has 755 students, 6 faculties and a team of masters and PhD holders steering the academic and administrative functions. (Xinhua/Faisal Isse)

Access to university education still remains a big challenge in Somalia since most of the secondary school graduates cannot afford private university education, a scenario Jimale says pushes the youth to illegal activities out of desperation.

But SNU, Jimale said, aims to reverse this trend by scrapping tuition fees.

"I believe that the revival and the expansion of Somali National University will contribute to the security, peace and the stability because a large number of desperate youth that now have no access to the higher education, because of economic reason, will access to higher education and that will strengthen their hope to a prosperous future," he added.

Chinese ambassador to Somalia Wei Hongtian, himself alumni of the university with a fluency in Somali language, has played a critical role in facilitating scholarships and providing equipment to the university.

Students stand in front of the main office of Somali National University in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, April 17, 2016. The university, which re-opened in 2014, now has 755 students, 6 faculties and a team of masters and PhD holders steering the academic and administrative functions. (Xinhua/Faisal Isse)

Through this, Jimale said China is contributing in building the country's human resource and ensuring peace and stability.

"We believe that the Ambassador is doing his best for granting Masters and PhD scholarships for the lecturers of our university. Also, the ambassador is helping our university in other areas such as donating teaching aid materials, furniture and other useful and necessary equipment," said Jimale.

Before its closure in the early 1990s, SNU had a student population of 15,672, with about 700 academic and non-academic staff, and consisted of 13 faculties.

But the university is determined to grow even beyond these numbers. Jimale said they intended to set up campuses in regional federal states such as Puntland, Jubbaland and Somaliland.

He said the introduction of the centralized grade 12 exam system and subsequently universal free primary school under the "Go to School" program, was re-institutionalizing formal education in Somalia.
AMMAN, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Jordan said Saturday that it will soon reach a new funding program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Jordan's Minister of Finance Omar Malhas said discussions are ongoing with the IMF. The volume of the new loan the IMF will extend to Jordan was not disclosed, according to a statement by the minister published on the state-run Petra news agency.

Last year, the IMF extended a 2 billion U.S. dollars loan to Jordan.

Under the new support Jordan will receive from the fund, the kingdom will carry out several reforms and work on enhancing business and investment climate, said Malhas.

Jordan will also work on reducing the ration of public debt to gross domestic product from 93 percent at present to 77 percent in the next five years.

Jordan also agreed with the IMF to reduce the losses of the state-owned National Electric Power Company.
by Larry Neild

LONDON, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Britain's cash-strapped National Health Service (NHS) could be handed an extra 100 million pounds (145.15 million U.S. dollars) every week, if the June 23 referendum decides the country should quit the EU, leading Brexit campaigner and Justice Secretary Michael Gove claimed Saturday.

He was commenting after winning widespread praise from Leave supporters after a live grilling before a television studio audience Friday night on Sky News.

His 60 minutes in the hot seat came just 24 hours after Remain campaigner, Prime Minister David Cameron had been given a tough ride in the same studio.

In another development Saturday former Labour Party Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown held hands with four former leaders of the main opposition party to back Britain remaining in Europe.

With just two complete weeks to go in Britain's battle for Europe, both leave and remain sides in the big referendum debate will be stepping up their campaigns to win over the millions yet undecided about how to vote on June 23.

Latest opinion polls continue to show both camps running almost neck-and-neck, with 12 percent of the public - accounting for almost 5 million voters - still to be won over.

This week's campaigning ended with Gove's big television showdown.

Commentators and supporters of both sides gave their verdicts Saturday of Gove's performance, winning praise from former London mayor Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP, the pro-leave United Kingdom Independence Party.

But the pro-EU camp was critical of Gove's performance with House of Lord's politician, Lord Falconer, describing Gove's performance as a fact-free zone.

Falconer, Labour's shadow justice secretary told Sky News that Gove had failed to once mention what the British economy would look like with a Brexit victory.

"My feeling is that the British people want the facts and Michael was a fact-free zone tonight," said Falconer.

One of the biggest issues in the debate is the claim by the leave campaign that Britain sends 350 million pounds a week to Brussels as its contribution to the European Union. It became a focal point during Gove's television grilling.

Although Gove agreed much of this comes back, Remain say the figures quoted by Leave are misleading.

Gove defended the figure, saying even though he agreed much was returned, there was no guarantee the rebate scheme would continue. Britain, he contended, was at the mercy of the EU.

He followed up his television appearance Saturday by insisting that leaving the EU would enable the British government to invest an extra 100 million pounds every week in the cash strapped National Health Service (NHS).

Cameron was also critical of Gove saying the Leave campaign was writing cheques it knew would bounce.

Cameron said Saturday: "Nine out of 10 economists say there'll be a profound shock if we leave the EU. That means there will be less money - not more."

All six former leaders of the Labour Party came together Saturday to say that Britain is stronger in Europe, and that the EU stands for the same values that Labour represents.

The six, Neil Kinnock, Margaret Beckett, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband, united "urging every person who seeks a progressive future for Britain to Vote Remain on June 23."

They argued the EU has delivered significant benefits for working people, including more jobs, protections at work, and lower prices.

"If we remain in Europe, these benefits will continue to pay dividends for British people. If we leave Labour communities would suffer most: from spending cuts, neglect for the needy and a bonfire of workers' rights," they said in their joint plea.

Leading Labour politicians are taking part in a number of weekend rallies across Britain to back the Remain campaign. At a rally in London Saturday, former leader Neil Kinnock urged young people to register to vote in the EU referendum, warning a low turnout could lead to Brexit "by default".
RIYADH, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Saudi-led coalition condemned on Saturday a United Nations report that list the Arab coalition in the blacklist of armed forces that violate the rights of children in conflicts and wars.

The coalition spokesperson Brigadier Ahmed Al Asiri told Al Arabiya local news on Saturday that the report contradicts with the UN's Yemen-related decisions.

"The main purpose of the coalition is to protect Yemenis, including children from Houthi militias, through cooperation with international organizations," he said.

He accused that the report sought information from the militias and not from the elected Yemeni government.

He asked the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund where the amount of 30 million dollars that was donated by Saudi-based King Salman Center for Reliefs and Humanitarian Works was spent.

According to the UN report released on Thursday, the coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries last year. It also highlighted that the coalition carried out half of the attacks on schools and hospital.

The coalitions launched its airstrikes since March 2015 in support to the Yemeni elected government against Houthis.
MANAMA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Bahrain's Interior Ministry on Saturday announced it foiled an attempt to smuggle eight fugitives convicted in terror cases via a boat heading to Iran.

The ministry said the trafficking attempt was foiled after the boat was spotted by the coastguard sailing off the coast of Northern Bahrain.

"The boat was chased and then interdicted when those onboard refused to stop," said the Ministry.

It released names and photographs of the fugitives who are jailed between 10 to 15 years in the Bahrain court in different cases.

The ministry in a statement identified the two masterminds operating from Iran, who were wanted by Bahrain authorities.

It further said the boat captain is a resident of Bilad Al Qadeem and his assistant is resident of Juffair, were also arrested.

"The arrestees' ID cards, money, mobile phones, personal belongings, a GPS and a large quantity of petrol were confiscated," stated the ministry on Saturday adding legal proceedings were taken.

In October last year Bahrain asked its ambassador in Tehran to leave immediately as it accused Iran of meddling in its domestic affairs and even expelled Tehran's envoy in Manama.

Bahrain authorities in the past have seized weapons shipments which they claim were sent by Iran to create instability in the Gulf.

In November last, a major counter terrorism operation was conducted by Bahrain's security authorities in which it foiled a terrorist network and the arrest of 47 suspects.

The Interior Ministry said a range of high-grade explosives, bomb making materials and weapons were seized from several locations within populated residential areas in Bahrain.

In addition to the materials seized, a bomb-making facility and an explosives laboratory were discovered.

Bahrain investigators had then said that as with previous terrorist incidents in 2015 the suspects arrested hold strong connections with terrorist organisations in Iran.

Bahrain is a close US ally and hosts its Navy Fifth Fleet, which in this year alone has stopped three dhows in separate incidents that were loaded with large cache of weapons which it claimed were destined for Houthi rebels in Yemen originated from Tehran.
CAPE TOWN, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Diplomatic Mission to South Africa on Saturday issued a terror warning to U.S. citizens in South Africa.

The U.S. Government has received information that terrorist groups are planning to carry out near-term attacks against places where U.S. citizens congregate in South Africa, such as upscale shopping areas and malls in Johannesburg and Cape Town, the mission said.

"This information comes against the backdrop of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's public call for its adherents to carry out terrorist attacks globally during the upcoming month of Ramadan," the mission said without giving further details.

The South African authorities have not responded to the warning. A call to the State Security Agency went unanswered.

The U.S. issued a similar alert in September last year, saying it had received information that extremists may be targeting U.S. interests in the country.

The warning put South Africa on alert, but Security Minister David Mahlobo said then that there was no need to panic as its information from the ground was that there was no imminent danger or threat that is being posed by any terrorist group to South Africa.

Fears for terror attacks on Western targets in South Africa have existed for some time. There have been reports that "White Widow" Samantha Lewthwaite was seen spying on Western embassies in South Africa before she allegedly masterminded the West Gate shopping mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya in 2013.

The 31-year-old Briton is known to have been in South Africa between 2008 and 2011, travelling under the assumed name Natalie Faye Webb on a fraudulently obtained South African passport.

In January and February 2013, she was allegedly caught on CCTV cameras watching embassies in the Arcadia area of Pretoria, including the British High Commission.

Arcadia is home to the Union Buildings and South African president's official residence, in addition to the U.S. embassy and many other foreign embassies.
by Mahmoud Fouly

CAIRO, June 4 (Xinhua) -- In a public passenger microbus in Faisal Street of Egypt's Giza province near the capital Cairo, the driver and one passenger were arguing about the food price hikes as the countdown ticking for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"When there are cheaper prices for rice, cooking oil, sugar and others, it means they are of the lowest quality," said the passenger, and the driver was trying to convince him that the government-supported marketplaces provide relief for citizens with cheaper and better goods.

Ramadan is a Muslim holy month marked worldwide by the main rituals of fasting during the daytime and breaking the fast usually by a family-gathering meal referred to as "iftar" (fast-breaking) at sunset.

Although Ramadan is meant for worship, special care for food and desserts are also given during the month in Egypt, the most populous Arab country.

"Food price hikes always happen before Ramadan, as some wholesalers monopolize the market with high priced goods," said Sahbaan, a 36-year-old Egyptian citizen at a coffee shop in Boulak el-Dakrour neighborhood in Giza.

While Shabaan was complaining about the price hikes, a medium-sized closed pickup, with a poster of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and the slogan "Anti Price Hike Initiative", was selling meat and chicken for lower prices in a main street nearby Shorbagi area.

"These initiatives are supported by members of the parliament in cooperation with the Supplies Ministry to fight price hikes," said the salesman, "we sell a chicken for 35 pounds (about 4 U.S. dollars) while it is over 50 pounds (5.68 dollars) in other places, and 50 pounds (5.68 dollars) for one kilogram of meat while it exceeds 80 (9 dollars) at the butchers'."

Shabaan, hoping for stronger government supervision over the market, said that the government-subsidized food sales are just temporary "pain killers" during Ramadan.

Still, it is a relief for low-income families in the country ahead of Ramadan. As prices of vegetables and fruits also hiking, a family meal could cost up to 200 pounds (22.75 dollars), which is too much for average citizens, a vegetable seller told Xinhua at the marketplace.

He added that the rising prices of vegetables are because of "wholesalers' greed."

The same opinion was shared by Mohamed, a fruit seller. "Look at the fruit prices! They are too high compared to last year. The government should supervise wholesalers monopolizing the market," he said.

The Supplies Ministry announced a state of emergency at the beginning of Ramadan and took actions to meet people's needs during the holy month.

In Nasr City exhibition center in Cairo, a government-subsidized marketplace, which is under the name of Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, sells meat, chicken, cooking oil, rice, sugar and others, at challenging, reasonable prices.

The place, with two floors of separate partitions of stores, was crowded by citizens storing for Ramadan.

"The marketplace is really good. One kilogram of high quality rice costs here 4.5 pounds (0.51 dollars) while it reached 8 pounds (0.91 dollars) outside," said Fawziya, a housewife from Giza, while packing frozen chicken, bags of rice and flour into her shopping cart.

"It will force wholesalers to be reasonable," said another lady, Samira, waiting in line to checkout. She praised the marketplace for being comprehensive and organized.

Similar state-sponsored marketplaces can be found in several provinces across the country, providing goods of fine quality and reasonable prices.

Sameh, a cooking oil salesman in a government-sponsored market said that many other oil stores are even cheating by selling smaller quantity than it is indicated on the package.

"Our bottle is 1 liter but theirs is 900 grams. Our cooking oil is made of corn, sunflower or cottonseed, which is of a higher quality than that of palm trees sold outside at a higher price," he said.
A vendor waits for customers at a fruit and vegetable marketplace in crowded Abbasiya district in Cairo, Egypt on June 3, 2016.(Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

CAIRO, June 4 (Xinhua) -- In a public passenger microbus in Faisal Street of Egypt's Giza province near the capital Cairo, the driver and one passenger were arguing about the food price hikes as the countdown ticking for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"When there are cheaper prices for rice, cooking oil, sugar and others, it means they are of the lowest quality," said the passenger, and the driver was trying to convince him that the government-supported marketplaces provide relief for citizens with cheaper and better goods.

Ramadan is a Muslim holy month marked worldwide by the main rituals of fasting during the daytime and breaking the fast usually by a family-gathering meal referred to as "iftar" (fast-breaking) at sunset.

Although Ramadan is meant for worship, special care for food and desserts are also given during the month in Egypt, the most populous Arab country.

"Food price hikes always happen before Ramadan, as some wholesalers monopolize the market with high priced goods," said Sahbaan, a 36-year-old Egyptian citizen at a coffee shop in Boulak el-Dakrour neighborhood in Giza.

While Shabaan was complaining about the price hikes, a medium-sized closed pickup, with a poster of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and the slogan "Anti Price Hike Initiative", was selling meat and chicken for lower prices in a main street nearby Shorbagi area.

"These initiatives are supported by members of the parliament in cooperation with the Supplies Ministry to fight price hikes," said the salesman, "we sell a chicken for 35 pounds (about 4 U.S. dollars) while it is over 50 pounds (5.68 dollars) in other places, and 50 pounds (5.68 dollars) for one kilogram of meat while it exceeds 80 (9 dollars) at the butchers'."

A butcher works at a government-subsidized marketplace in Nasr City exhibition center that sells all kinds of foodstuff, including meat, chicken, fish, cooking oil, rice, sugar and others, at challenging, affordable prices in Cairo, Egypt on June 3, 2016.(Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

Shabaan, hoping for stronger government supervision over the market, said that the government-subsidized food sales are just temporary "pain killers" during Ramadan.

Still, it is a relief for low-income families in the country ahead of Ramadan. As prices of vegetables and fruits also hiking, a family meal could cost up to 200 pounds (22.75 dollars), which is too much for average citizens, a vegetable seller told Xinhua at the marketplace.

He added that the rising prices of vegetables are because of "wholesalers' greed."

The same opinion was shared by Mohamed, a fruit seller. "Look at the fruit prices! They are too high compared to last year. The government should supervise wholesalers monopolizing the market," he said.

The Supplies Ministry announced a state of emergency at the beginning of Ramadan and took actions to meet people's needs during the holy month.

In Nasr City exhibition center in Cairo, a government-subsidized marketplace, which is under the name of Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, sells meat, chicken, cooking oil, rice, sugar and others, at challenging, reasonable prices.

The place, with two floors of separate partitions of stores, was crowded by citizens storing for Ramadan.

"The marketplace is really good. One kilogram of high quality rice costs here 4.5 pounds (0.51 dollars) while it reached 8 pounds (0.91 dollars) outside," said Fawziya, a housewife from Giza, while packing frozen chicken, bags of rice and flour into her shopping cart.

"It will force wholesalers to be reasonable," said another lady, Samira, waiting in line to checkout. She praised the marketplace for being comprehensive and organized.

Similar state-sponsored marketplaces can be found in several provinces across the country, providing goods of fine quality and reasonable prices.

Sameh, a cooking oil salesman in a government-sponsored market said that many other oil stores are even cheating by selling smaller quantity than it is indicated on the package.

"Our bottle is 1 liter but theirs is 900 grams. Our cooking oil is made of corn, sunflower or cottonseed, which is of a higher quality than that of palm trees sold outside at a higher price," he said.
MIDRAND, April 7, 2016 (Xinhua) -- South African President Jacob Zuma attends the launch of the eChannel Pilot Project of the Department of Home Affairs at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, near Johannesburg, South Africa, on April 7, 2016. South African President Jacob Zuma attended the launch of the eChannel Pilot Project of the Department of Home Affairs here Thursday. It is his first public appearance after a motion to impeach him, proposed by the opposition, was defeated in parliament on Tuesday in Cape Town. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)

JOHANNESBURG, June 4 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's economy is in safe hands, as can be demonstrated by successful efforts to avoid a downgrade to junk status by international rating agencies, President Jacob Zuma said on Saturday.

Addressing thousands of Africa National Congress (ANC) supporters gathering at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg for the ANC's manifesto launch for local elections in Gauteng Province, Zuma said Standard & Poor (S&P) Global Rating's decision to maintain South Africa's rating showed that by working together, South Africans can reignite the economy.

On Friday, S&P affirmed South Africa's long and short term foreign and local currency bond ratings at "BBB-/A-3" and "BBB+/A-2" respectively. The foreign currency bond rating remains one notch above sub-investment grade whereas the domestic currency bond rating remains three notches above sub-investment grade.

S&P maintained the negative outlook on the rating, citing concerns about economic growth and warned it could lower the rating by year-end or next year if policy measures do not turn the economy around. Alternatively, S&P said it could revise the outlook to stable if they observe policy implementation that leads to an improved business confidence environment and increased private sector investment and ultimately result in higher levels of growth.

In early May, rating agency Moody's also decided to maintain South Africa's rating, refraining from downgrading the country's sovereign rating to sub-investment grade.

On the upcoming local government elections scheduled for August 3, Zuma said the ANC was the only party that has been transparent in its selection of candidates for the elections.

While opposition parties may point to political battles linked to candidate selections, it shows the democracy within the party, he said.

It's important to remember that robust debate shows a democracy at work, Zuma said.

"We are the only organization in this country that is transparent with its processes on identifying and electing councillors," he said to the cheering supporters, numbered at over 80,000.

"In no way can we have any other party being in charge of Gauteng (Province) instead of the ANC," he said.

"We present the ANC again to the people of Gauteng to say this movement is ready, able and determined to improve municipalities," Zuma said.

"No other party must run Gauteng but the ANC. You have a responsibility to protect the home of this mighty organization" he added.

The ANC's provincial branch has set up a social media campaign with the hashtag "Fill up FNB Stadium" weeks before Saturday's manifesto launch.

ANC Gauteng provincial Chairperson Paul Mashatile called upon all ANC supporters to conduct themselves peacefully and adhere to the Independent Electoral Commission's (IEC) rules in the running up to the elections.

Mashatile told the crowd that the ANC will put the youth high on its priority list.

"For more than 104 years, the African National Congress has remained true to its tradition of being a Parliament of the people. As the ANC, we are here to make a solemn pledge that in the coming five years of local government, we will work even harder to build strong democratic transparent and accountable local government," Mashatile said.

He said that service delivery will be improved in ANC-run local governments.

One of ANC supporters, Johns Maluleke, 30, told Xinhua that he was prepared to die for the ruling party.

He said he expected a resounding victory for the ANC in the elections.

"There is no other party I can join. The ANC is my home," he said.

While conceding that the party had some difficulties, he said, "Even though there are mistakes, I want them to fix them because there is no use leaving the ANC."

Thuli Peta, another ANC activist, said: "The ANC is the only party that can improve living conditions in the townships and solve the problem of illegal dumping sites."

Wearing the ANC's regalia, Peta said her education is guaranteed, with Zuma in charge.

The Gauteng manifesto launch is one of the party's most ambitious event ahead of this year's local elections.

The national manifesto launch had been held in the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth earlier.

Many of the other provinces have already had their manifesto launches, including the Free State, North West and Northern Cape.
HAVANA, June 5, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Cuban President Raul Castro (front C) poses for group photos with guests during the opening ceremony of a summit of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) in Havana, capital of Cuba, on June 4, 2016. Presidents and heads of state of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) met here on Saturday to push up economic and political cooperation in tackling regional challenges. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)

HAVANA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Cuban President Raul Castro on Saturday slammed the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, for his recent statements on Venezuela and said the island "would never" return to that organization.

"The OAS since its foundation was, is and will be an instrument of imperialist domination and no reform will change its nature and history. That is why Cuba will never return to the OAS," vowed Castro at the opening of the VII Summit of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) in Havana.

Castro criticized the position taken last week by Almagro on Venezuela, which saw him call for the organization to invoke its Inter-American Democratic Charter, leading to the potential suspension of Venezuela from the bloc for alleged "human rights violations and lack of democracy" .

"It is of deep concern that there is an unacceptable attempt to apply the Inter-American Democratic Charter of the OAS to intervene in the internal affairs of Venezuela," said the Cuban leader.

He also reiterated Havana' s support for President Nicolas Maduro' s administration and said Caracas faces an "imperialist offensive" to topple its socialist government.

"We firmly oppose the destabilization agenda and economic war faced by Maduro' s government and support the revolution that has brought social changes to the Venezuelan people," he added.

ACS foreign ministers discussed several issues of importance on Friday, including the political situation in Venezuela, which led to a common declaration of support for Maduro' s government that will be evaluated by Caribbean leaders Saturday.

Castro also condemned the role of the OAS for suspending Havana in 1962 due to U.S. pressure.

The Seventh Summit of the ACS is being held at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana with the attendance of 19 Presidents or Prime Ministers of the 25 member states.

The members are expected to approve the Havana declaration, which touches on political issues such as the U.S. blockade on Cuba and the Venezuelan crisis as well as a joint action plan for the next two years, which seeks to increase economic and commercial cooperation within the bloc.

The Association of Caribbean States (ACS) was created in July 1994 in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, with the aim of promoting consultation, cooperation and concerted action among Caribbean countries.
ZAGREB, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Croatia's main ruling party Democratic Union (HDZ) on Saturday called for the resignation of Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic, or it would initiate an impeachment against him.

HDZ preferred to have a reshuffle, but an early parliamentary election was an option, Tomislav Karamarko, the president of HDZ and the first vice prime minister, said.

He ruled out the possibility of cooperation again with the MOST party, the partner in the coalition.

Also on Saturday, Bozo Petrov, the leader of MOST party and vice prime minister, said his party would never have any further cooperation with HDZ.

Meanwhile, Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS), a minor member of the Patriotic Coalition leaded by HDZ, decided to leave the coalition.

In addition, the opposition Croatian People's Party (HNS) and Labour Party on Saturday called on dissolving the parliament and urged President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic to call an early election as soon as possible.

Ivan Vrdoljak, the leader of HNS said that the parliament and government should be dissolved and an early election should be called because the ruling coalition has paralyzed the country in the last seven months.

On Friday, Croatian Prime Minister Oreskovic urged his deputies, Karamarko and Petrov, to step down as their relations had become too big a burden for his government and the country, but they rejected. Enditem
DAMASCUS, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army on Saturday entered the administrative borders of the northern province of al-Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State (IS) group, as jihadist groups in the northern province of Aleppo unleashed a wide-scale offensive against government troops' positions.

The Syrian army backed by Russian air cover managed to cross the administrative borders of al-Raqqa, just days after unleashing a wide-scale offensive on the route between the town of Athriya in Hama province in central Syria, and the al-Tabaqa town in al-Raqqa countryside, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Syrian forces are trying to reach the al-Furat lake and the road connecting al-Raqqa with the province of Aleppo, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on ground.

Only 40 km separate the army from the targeted areas, said the watchdog group.

The fighting, which broke out on Thursday, has so far killed 26 IS militants and nine security forces.

If the army succeeds, the IS will be besieged by the Syrian army in the south and southwestern parts of Aleppo, while the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) rebels will be besieging the terror group from the west.

The Observatory said the IS police, called Husbah, patrolled the city of al-Raqqa Saturday, threatening to execute anyone who disseminates news about the progress of the Syrian army in al-Raqqa.

It added that the IS is confused now that the Syrian army is advancing from the south and the SDF is advancing in the northern countryside of al-Raqqa and Aleppo.

If the Syrian army controlled the al-Raqqa-Aleppo international road, the IS fighters in Aleppo will be isolated, an achievement that would be in the interest of both the United States and Russia, said the Observatory.

Meanwhile, the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, which along with the IS, are both designated by the UN as terrorist groups, which are excluded from any settlements, unleashed an offensive against government troops positions in southern Aleppo and fired tens of improvised rockets on a predominantly-Kurdish district inside Aleppo.

Syria's national TV said over 40 people were killed Saturday by continuous rebel shelling against the Kurdish-dominated Sheikh Maksud district in Aleppo.

The incessant shelling also wounded 100 people, an escalation deemed as a breach to a recently-established and shaky truce, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the TV said 11 other people were killed, including a child, by similar shelling on government-controlled areas in Aleppo city, namely the Masharqa, Midan and al-Faid.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Right said the Saturday's shelling was intense.

Also in Aleppo, the SDF forces are still trying to advance toward the city of Manbej, which is controlled by the Islamic State group, in the northern countryside of Aleppo, near Turkey.

The Syrian army is also engaged in battles against the Nusra and likeminded groups in the southern countryside of Aleppo, mainly near the town of Khan Tuman.

The intensified battles in Aleppo also hit a new high when 1,000 fighters with the Nusra and likeminded groups mounted an offensive against Syrian military positions in southern Aleppo.

Aleppo, Syria's second largest city and once an economic hub, holds its significance due to its location near the Turkish borders. Each party of the conflict is now fighting to consolidate positions, and claim more territory in that key area.

The progress by the Russian-backed Syrian army and the U.S.-backed SDF reflects a US-Russian understanding on the need to isolate IS and weaken its abilities, analysts said.

Related:

U.S.-backed Syria rebel group says ready to attack IS de facto capital

DAMASCUS, May 22 (Xinhua) -- A U.S.-backed Syrian rebel group said on Sunday that it was ready for a battle to liberate Syria's northern city of al-Raqqa from the Islamic State (IS) group.
SRINAGAR, June 3, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Members of India's Border Security Force (BSF) stand guard near the militant attack site in Bijbehera town of Anantnag district, about 44 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, June 3, 2016. The militant attack on convoy of India's Border Security Force (BSF) on Friday left three border guards dead and nine others wounded, two of them critically, in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said. (Xinhua/Javed Dar)
Schnoor heads Scotias South, East Cbean interests

In addition to her current role, she will assume oversight of Scotiabanks South and East Caribbean operations, providing oversight to the Country Heads of Guyana, Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and Curacao.

This change will accelerate decision making in the Region and follows recent changes and realignment of the executive functions in Canada and the restructure of the Caribbean into geographic zones  North, South, East and Central Districts.

The Scotiabank group has over the years continued to refine its operations to ensure efficiency and best in class service throughout its banking operations in the Caribbean.

The bank has been able to realize these efficiencies through regional centres of excellence in order to remain competitive and sustainable. An example of this strategy is clearly demonstrated in the Banks Shared Services operations here in Trinidad which provides back-office support to 15 countries throughout the region.

This announcement does not change the governance or reporting structure of the local Bank. I am thoroughly excited at my expanded role and look forward to working with the wider Caribbean Region as we continue to look for opportunities to make our customers better off, said Schnoor, in a release issued by the bank.

Schnoor has over 24 years experience in investments and banking. Prior to joining Scotiabank in May 2006, as Executive Vice President, Wealth Management & Insurance, Anya held various senior positions including General Manager for Eagle Unit Trust and Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Pan Caribbean Financial Services.

She was appointed Managing Director of Scotiabank Trinidad and Tobago Limited on November 1, 2012 and was appointed to the Board on May 31, 2012.

Schnoor holds a Master of Business Administration from Barry University and a Bachelor of Arts in Finance and International Business from Florida International University.

Schnoor serves as a Director of all of the Banks subsidiary companies - ScotiaLife Trinidad and Tobago Limited (Chairperson), Scotia Investments Trinidad and Tobago Limited (Chairperson) and Scotia SKN Limited.

She is also a Director of the Scotiabank Trinidad and Tobago Foundation, Maduro and Curielss Bank, Scotiabank Caribbean Holdings Limited, United Way Trinidad and Tobago and the Vice President of the Bankers Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
Former Vindra accused walk free

Two others were set free at about 4.30 pm on Thursday while the remaining five were released from the Port-of- Spain prison late Thursday night.

These five  Shervon Buffy Peters; Keida Garcia, Marlon Mad Man Marlon Trimmingham; Ronald 22 Armstrong; Antonio Hedges Charles  who had been incarcerated at the Maximum Security Prison and the Golden Grove Prison in Arouca, were yesterday at home with loved ones.

Their release came after Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, SC, issued notice of discontinuance facilitating their release. Two of the men  Anthony Dwayne Gloster and Jamile Garcia  were being held in outstanding warrants for Naipaul-Coolmans murder while the other five still had on their records the outstanding charges relating to the womans abduction.

Gaspard earlier on Thursday told a High Court judge that he was no longer pursing criminal prosecutions of the men. Meanwhile, family members of the slain businesswoman are still remaining silent on freeing of eight murder accused. They have been reported as saying that it has been ten years of pain and they are yet to get closure.

At least one of the men who went on trial for her murder has called for justice for the womans family.

Naipaul-Coolman, then 51, was kidnapped on December 19, 2006 at her Lange Park, Chaguanas home, and later murdered.
Privy Council dismisses ArcelorMittal appeal

In a judgement delivered on August 6, 2015, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council dismissed the appeal by Arcelor Mittal Trinidad and Tobago Limited, in the process finding that workers supplied to the company by various contractors under so-called labour only contracts were in fact employees of Arcelor Mittal and the terms of the industrial contracts in force during the periods they worked at the company should have been applied to them.

The workers did not benefit from the terms of the industrial agreements because Arcelor Mittal took the position that the contract workers were employees of the contractors who hired them and not its own employees. The Privy Council judgement meant the company owed the workers some TT$1.5 billion, according to the unions reckoning.

The case was heard on March 24, 2015 by a Privy Council panel comprising Lady Hale; Lord Clarke; Lord Wilson; Lord Hodge and Sir Paul Girvan. Appearing for Arcelor Mittal (formerly Caribbean ISPAT Limited) were Peter Knox QC; Reginald Armour SC and Vanessa Gopaul while Douglas Mendes SC and Anthony Bullock represented SWUTT.

Mendes told Newsday yesterday, The effect of the judgement was that the company would have to pay those workers who they had on contract and who fell within the judgement the difference between what they were in fact paid and what they should have been paid under the collective agreement. The Industrial Court of Trinidad and Tobago had ordered that interest at the rate of eight percent be applied to the sum owed to the workers from the time the money became due until it was paid.

SWUTT President Christopher Henry said the union took up the matter way back in 1998 on behalf of contract workers who were hired by contractors on behalf of Arcelor Mittal on labour only contracts and held positions in the company that were within the unions bargaining unit. He said the industrial agreement between the union and Arcelor Mittal provided for workers who were employed on contract and showed up to perform a specific task and left after it was completed.

Arcelor Mittal was working these workers in these positions for years and they were not benefitting anything, they were working every day - no sick leave, no vacation, they were not benefitting from the collective agreement in terms of increases. We went to the (Industrial) Court on an interpretation of the collective agreement and the court would have ruled in our favour, stating that all these workers were permanent workers because of the length of time that they had been employed and had worked in the vacant position and in the bargaining unit positions. He said the Industrial Court also ruled that the workers should be paid the money they were denied in each of the collective agreements between SWUTT and Arcelor Mittal, that they should receive the benefit of any wage increases negotiated in the industrial agreements, any bonuses which would have been due to them and that they were entitled to vacation leave which they had not taken.

According to Henry, So the court said they were permanent workers so whatever the permanent worker got, they were supposed to get. Arcelor Mittal appealed the judgement claiming the company was denied the opportunity to argue on the basis of the costs the ruling would impose on the company.

Henry said Arcelor Mittal lost at the Appeal Court but it then took the matter to the Privy Council and in August last year the Privy Council ruled in favour of the union, upholding the decision of the Industrial Court of Trinidad and Tobago that each of the workers who had been employed in positions included in the unions bargaining unit were permanent workers and that they should have been treated as the Industrial Court ordered, benefitting from the increases agreed to for each collective agreement.

He said that over the years some 600 to 700 workers would have been employed in the positions covered by the judgement and the money due to them would have been about TT$1.5 billion. Henry said that it was only after losing that judgement that Arcelor Mittal began to argue that the downturn in the global steel industry and reversal in local business conditions made it impossible for the company to continue producing steel in this countr
Appeals Court sets sentencing guidelines

Fizul Rahaman had pleaded guilty to the 2003 murder of Caroni resident, Katie Sundar at her home. Sundar, a mother of four, was chopped to death at her home. In 2010, Rahaman was ordered to face a fresh trial after jurors failed to arrive at a unanimous verdict. He opted to plead guilty to Sundars murder under the felony murder principle on April 2, 2014.

After applying the one third discount on sentence for his guilty plea, Rahamans term of imprisonment was set at 30 years, from which the 11 years, seven months and 19 days he spent on remand was subtracted, leaving 18 years and five months. In their oral ruling, the judges recognised that the lexicon of starting point or appropriate sentence had been creeping into the local courts without a definition of what it meant being provided by judges in the sentencing process.

They suggested judges look at the guidelines handed down in the judgment of Nadia Pooran while also offering additional guidelines for judges in their ruling on Monday.

They suggested that judges first examine the aggravating factors and mitigating factors of the offence and then look at the aggravating factors and mitigating factors of the offender.

This cannot be a mathematical exercise, Justice Weekes noted.

Transparency does not mean setting a mathematical figure, she added, noting that a wide range of permeations made it impossible to arrive at a set figure.

She said then the discount for guilty pleas must then be arrived at. It is here the numerical figure will come in. Judges, she said, must specify which formulation of the discount for guilty plea is to be applied and provide a reason for any deviation from it, after which the time spent on remand should be subtracted.

In Rahamans case, Weekes noted that his victim died from horrific injuries with some 40 plus stab wounds to her head, neck and chest.
$48M loss as Tobago Jazz Flops

A Parliament committee heard that for the period 2011 to 2016, the event experienced a shortfall of $48 million.

In written submissions to the Joint Select Committee on Local Authorities, Service Commissions and Statutory Authorities, Tobago House of Assembly (THA) officials said while $17 million in revenue was made, $65 million was spent in the period.

Do you think it is feasible to continue with this event, asked UNC Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial, a member of the committee.

We have to look at it holistically, said Samuel Henry, Transport Coordinator of the THAs Division of Tourism and Transportation.

The benefit of the Jazz Experience goes way beyond the direct income. He said taxis, vendors and other small business operators gain.

But he provided no estimates of the extent of the fillip they get annually from the event.

The shortfalls keep increasing, Ramdial said. Henry said, There are plans to narrow the gap between revenue and expenditure. He said in some years, when the headline act was very popular, as was the case of John Legend in 2014, revenues are greater. Newsday understands from THA sources that even in 2014 there was a loss.

On the question of the Jazz Experience, THA Chief Administrator Raye Sandy was silent. We have people in designated portfolios and they are silent so far, committee chairman Ian Roach said.

Sandy said the current Division Administrator only recently took up the position and Henry had institutional knowledge.

$151M ON PROMOTION The committee also heard that the THA spent $151 million for promotion of the island over the same period.

Can you say where this is going? asked UNC Senator Daniel Solomon. Frederica Brooks-Adams, Director of Tourism, said the sum was spent on roadshows, training, career fairs, marketing, awareness as well as new and present marketing initiatives.

Are you satisfied that the promotion is to a satisfactory level, the Senator asked. Based on the money we work with, we know things can increase but what is needed is an increase in financial resources.

This is necessary to have sustained marketing. She said promotional spending lagged behind other Caribbean countries such as Barbados ($620 million or US$94 million) and St Lucia ($330 million or US$50 million).

Also appearing before the committee yesterday were officials of the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association.

Its President Chris James said more needs to be spent on marketing Tobago. He said at most the THA spends $30 million annually, while the Tourism Development Corporation (TDC) spends $40 million.

Obviously our budget is wholly inadequate, James said. We have to spend the money to market. He said a portion of a ten per cent hotel tax could be put aside in a rolling fund.

He said a similar iniative in 2003 was a success.

If Tobagos marketing budget lags behind, so too does its room occupancy rate.

Senior Research Officer Deokie Ramnarine said the rate was between 35 percent and 40 percent. Other Caribbean islands, though, report occupancy rates of about 60 per cent. This, even with the average cost of a room at Tobago of US$154 per night, when compared with higher prices in other destinations (an average figure of US$299 per night was given by Solomon).

So Tobago is lagging way behind, Solomon said. Can you give an explanation? A figure of $151 million on promotion yet we are below par. Henry said care had to be taken to not compare apples to oranges. He said the absence of an international hotel chain/brand was a factor. The only recognisable brands we have in Tobago are KFC, Wendys and Subway, Henry said. He said some matters were outside of the THAs remit. He said the CAL airbridge should be separated from CALs general business. On the issue of the inter-island ferry, while the TT Spirit has been drydocked for repairs, no alternative arrangements have been put in place.
PM Rowley takes charge of Tobago tourism

The committee was set up last month and will see the Prime Minister have oversight of a series of ministers and stakeholders in relation to tourism and Tobago affairs.

Newsday understands members of the committee include: Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe; Finance Minister Colm Imbert; Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister Ayanna Webster-Roy; as well as Tobago House of Assembly Chief Secretary Orville London and THA Chief Administrator Raye Sandy.

Word of the new Cabinet advisory committee emerged yesterday during the hearing of a Parliament oversight committee which was examining the Tobago House of Authority (THA)s stewardship.

THA Chief Administrator Raye Sandy told Parliaments Joint Select Committee on Local Authorities that the new Cabinet committee would deepen collaboration.

The conversation has started, Sandy said.

However, he said the Cabinet committee was yet to meet.

Attorney General Faris Al Rawi, a member of the Parliament committee, said the Office of the Prime Minister, has taken direct responsibility for improving Tobagos situation. He said several initiatives had not been done over the years.

The Parliament committee heard that while the Peoples Partnership introduced a rebate system and incentives for small hotels, these did not immediately benefit Tobago. The rebate took four years to reach Tobago, said Chris James, President of the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association, while banks were reluctant to provide financing for the second measure given falling room occupancy rates. He said a third measure for larger hotels was stillborn.

At the start of the Parliament committee hearing, Sandy apologised to the committee for the late submission of documents and for giving inaccurate information with regard to the auditing of THA accounts. Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial said while Sandy had previously told the Parliament committee that the THA had submitted audit documents to the Auditor Generals Department, her checks with that agency revealed only photocopies were submitted. Sandy confirmed accounts for previous years are still awaiting his signature.

If by chance I gave wrong information to the Parliament then I sincerely apologise but that is the information I have, said the Chief Administrator. Of the late submission of documents to the Parliament, he told committee chairman Ian Roach, I wish to offer my sincerest apology for not submitting. No disrespect was meant or intended.

I can assure you that this will not be repeated. The documents requested were due by May 23. They were received on Thursday.
Prison officer detained

According to reports, the officer who has less than ten years service, reportedly worked on Thursday at the Remand Section of the Portof- Spain Prison and was last in possession of the keys. However, when he left the prison on Thursday evening, the officer is said to have exited the facility still in possession of the prison cell keys and when the new shift took up duty, officers discovered the key missing and senior officers, including Commissioner of Prisons Sterling Stewart, were contacted.

The prison officer was contacted on a cell phone and asked about the missing keys and he promised to make contact with his seniors after carrying out a search for the keys in his bag. However, several subsequent calls to the officers phone went unanswered and it was only after the officer turned up for duty after 6 pm yesterday, the prison officer said he did not have the keys.

Officers of the Port-of-Spain CID were contacted and the prison officers was taken to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) where he was interrogated. Officers later accompanied the prison officer to his Cunupia home. Officers searched the house and found the bunch of prison keys. Police strongly believe the keys may have been cut (duplicates made).

The prison officer was questioned for several hours and senior police officers along with senior prison officers were in long discussions last night on how to proceed further with the investigation. Senior prison officers said last night that they have learned through intelligence gathering that there is a plot among high-profile prisoners to stage a jailbreak from the Portof- Spain Prison.

A senior prison officer said last night, We are not taking any chances. We do not know if this was a genuine mistake or a sinister plot to secure duplicate keys to be handed over to prisoners to stage a daring escape. Efforts to contact Prisons Commissioner Stewart proved futile. Investigations are continuing.
Cautious optimism as Govt finds backpay funds

General Secretery of the Prisons Officers Association (POA) Gerrard Gordon yesterday expressed relief that the Minister of Finance had finally released funds for the payment.

We are happy, but cautiously happy, Gordon said.

We know that the accounts department at the prisons would be under pressure  they would have to turn night into day  but we are confident that they would do what is necessary to forward the funds in time. The release sent by the Ministry said, that the Minister of Finance Colm Imbert took note of the officers concerns and advised the permanent secretery yesterday to process all outstanding payments.

It is now up to the relevent departments and agencies to complete paperwork required to make the payments.

Earlier in the week, heads of the Police, Prisons and Fire associations held a press conference to highlight officers extreme frustration and discontent over the non payment of the backpay despite assurances from Government to do so.
Sat writes AG on child marriage

In a signed letter yesterday to the Attorney General, Maharaj said he was contacted by staffers from the Ministry of the AG and Legal Affairs on Tuesday, to invite him to attend a meeting at Cabildo Chambers in Port-of-Spain, to discuss the issue of child marriage and related legislation.

Saying he was unable to attend, Maharaj told AG Al-Rawi that at the meeting, you apparently presented statistics, purporting to relate to child marriages over the past ten years. Maharaj further indicated he has been unable to, access this purported dated on the official AGs Office website or otherwise. He told Al-Rawi, it is of extreme importance to the Hindu community that you and your Govermment arrive at an informed position in this matter.

Maharaj said if Govermment proposes to bring any changes to the Hindu Marriage Act before Parliament, it is most critical that the Parliament has all of the actual statistics before making any amendments to the same. While information on child marriages was so generously volunteered to the National Council of Indian Culture, Maharaj observed that the Council is not a religious body. He continued, We do not anticipate that you will have any problems releasing the same information/ statistics to the SDMS, which is the largest Hindu organisation in TT. Maharaj told the AG he hoped he would appreciate the necessity of this request, as the SDMS continues its discussions, in order to contribute to the national dialogue in an informed and intelligent manner. On Wednesday, Al-Rawi said 548 child marriages took place in the country over the last decade.
Suspended Seale eyes PSWA presidency

Seale heads the Police Empowerment Party (PEP) which held its formal launch at the Marquis Restaurant in Tunapuna. Seale is being supported by PSWA incumbent head, Acting ASP, Anand Ramesar, who has already served his two-term limit as President over the past six years and who is now on Seales slate to contest the post of secretary, previously held by Seale. Seale told Newsday he hoped the PSWA membership would cast their votes so as to expression their views on his suspension.

Seale told Newsday he holds an MBA and is a qualified attorney, with over two decades experience in the TTPS, most recently serving with the Homicide Division at Arouca Police Station.

In his address, he said bad things he has experienced were due to his representation, that he has suffered a lot, but that is will soon end.

Nothing is going to come of anything that has been said out there, and I will be your President. He said those police officers who have been saying negative remarks about him have never come to the PSWA to inspect the accounts, of which the PWS A has some 74 persons acting as watchdogs on expenditure.

Seale spelt out his plans if he wins. He said it is unfair for the ACP to be paid compensation based on having five CSE C/CXC passes which he said is the same level set for a worker at a fastfood outlet, when in fact an ACP does the equivalent duties of a branch bank manager.

He vowed to push for a new job evaluation of police positions, which he said was last done in 2002 and which has since been overtaken by the need for police to use technology such as speed-guns and ICT.

Saying police pay must take into account their skill, responsibility, effort and work conditions, he said, The working conditions of every policeman is Hell. He explained that for a policeman to do escort duty for a WASA or TSTT crew in Laventille is an extreme condition, saying likewise also exists in Arouca and elsewhere. Nowhere in Trinidad s not an extreme condition for us, Seales said.

He hoped police officers would vote for PEP based on Ramesars achievement of successive pay-hikes of nine percent and 14 percent, plus the $1,000 grant, achieved under Ramesars leadership.

Seales said PEP will not run a vice president candidate, as he noted a difference of opinion with outgoing vice president, Roger Alexander.

Ramesar in his speech listed several issues relevant to PSWA members. He said the naming of a Police Commissioner is now by way of the government rather than by promotion, bemoaning, Anyone could become CoP. He advised that the PSWA must push, push, push until they get the job done, such as lobbying to help the absorption of SRPs into the TTPS which he expects to take place in August or September. He hoped the $1 million compensation to members of the protective services who are killed on-duty, will be extended to all cases, including off-duty deaths. We want to have it ($1 million compensation) as a part of your terms and conditions.
Blame crime on bad schools

The book, Inequality, crime and education in TT - removing the masks, was launched amid presentations by panelists Dr Gillian Paul, head of the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts (COSTAAT); sociologist Dr Nasser Mustapha; education lecturer Dr Winford James; educator Dr Eastlyn Mc Kenzie and TT Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) president, Davanand Sinanan.

Moderator was educator Dr Lennox Bernard. The audience included former minister of foreign affairs, Winston Dookeran, and former education minister, Hazel Manning.

While the panel generally agreed that sharp education inequalities can be a spur to send disadvantaged pupils into a life of crime, there were also calls for the book launch to be followed up by a conference of stakeholders to start work on righting such wrongs.

Sinanan ventured that certain elites in this society actually benefit from a system where pupils in government-run secondary schools perform worse than those in prestige/denominational schools, and alleged that the shortcomings in the former are no accident.

However he urged changes to allow a significant sector of the society to be able to make their contribution, saying We cant build more jails. Sinanan hailed Deosaran for presenting unpalatable truths in his book. Mustapha tried to identify the factors causing different outcomes between the two types of schools, asking aloud if it was the use of extra lessons by pupils in denominational schools, even as he reported government secondary teachers complain that they are starved for better students.

Mc Kenzie said unrealistically high expectations were placed on secondary schools whose intake of pupils had scored zero to two percent in Math at the SE A Exam, even as she hailed Roxborough Composite School in Tobago for trying to remedy pupil underachievement by providing remedial lessons.

Dr Paul noted Deosarans assertion that the education system supports a capitalist system. She said it is no accident that there are no studies done in TT on the link between race plus social class and the outcome of education.

Paul said Costaat supports social equity.

She alleged a complete misalignment between TTs education system and what the TT economy needs to diversify. For the latter, she cited culture, maritime, woodwork, food tourism and agriculture.

Paul said that unless key interventions are made in TTs education system, we will have to build more jails. Saying that in the United States the jails are a part of the economy, she said there is slavery, and there is slavery.

Winford James asked what are the factors that make denominational schools generally outperform the government schools? Yet he added that some denominational schools do poorly while some government schools do well.
No confidence debate on June 24

This marks what could be the start of a high period of parliamentary activity before Parliament takes its scheduled recess in July. According to Standing Order 14 of the House, there will be no sittings of the House from July to the first week in September unless there are extraordinary reasons for doing so. The House sits on June 10 at 1.30 pm to debate a motion filed by Attorney General (AG) Faris Al Rawi to approve the Privileges and Immunities (CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security IMPACS) Order. The order confers certain privileges and immunities on the members of IMPACS (Implementation Agency for Crime and Security) in this country.

Listed on the House Order Paper for debate is the motion against Al Rawi, filed by Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal. Robinson- Regis and Singh told Newsday agreement has been reached between Government and Opposition for the motion to be debated on June 24,the normal Private Members Day in the House. Private Members Day in the House normally takes place on the last Friday in every month.

Robinson-Regis previously indicated this motion will be debated in June. When the House last sat on May 20, Finance Minister Colm Imbert (who was acting Leader of Government Business then) indicated there was consensus between Government and the Opposition that debate on the motion against Al Rawi will take place this month. With Parliament due to begin its recess in July and return in early September, ahead of the presentation of the 2016/2017 Budget by Imbert, the no-confidence motion against the AG could be the last activity the House engages in before the recess begins.

There was no Private Members Day in the House on May 27 (last Friday in that month).

On that day, Moonilal observed, Today is supposed to be Private Members Day dealing with the no confidence motion in the AG. I am ready. Al Rawi has said he is ready for that debate. Last month, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said the Government as a whole was prepared to debate the motion. While Moonilals motion is the last of four private motions filed by the Opposition, it can easily be moved to the top of the list for debate on Private Members Day.

The Senate sits on June 7 at 1.30 pm to debate the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property (Amendment) Bill 2015. Imbert will open the debate on this bill which was passed in the House on May 20. Before the Senate sits, the Land and Physical Infrastructure joint select committee (JSC) meets at Tower D of the Port-of- Spain International Waterfront Centre from 10 am with representatives from the Land Settlement Agency (LSA).

On June 8, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) will hold public hearings at 10.30 am and 2.30 pm respectively. The Senates Privileges Committee will meet in camera at Tower D at 2 pm on June 9 to continue its deliberations on a matter of privilege raised against temporary Opposition senator Gerald Ramdeen for allegations he made against temporary Independent senator Justin Junkere. The Committee held its first meeting on this matter on Thursday at 2 pm at Tower D.
What you need to know about the Octagon Art Festival on Sunday in Ames

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Any global forum which does not include India has limited relevance: Vice President Addresses the Tunisian Institute of Strategic Studies

Tunisia, Sat, 04 Jun 2016 NI Wire

The Vice President of India, Shri M. Hamid Ansari has said that any global forum which does not include India has limited relevance. He was addressing the Tunisian Institute of Strategic Studies in Tunis, Tunisia, Yesterday on the topic 'India and the World'.

The Vice President said that as one sixth of the humanity and in keeping with the growing capacities and aspirations of our people, India has a much larger role to play in charting a more equitable and sustainable future for our world. Calling the 20th century a period of ''Megadeath and Metamyth, the Vice President said that although interstate conflicts have declined, the experience of the past quarter of a century shows that expectations of a more comprehensive corrective have been belied as the traditional security architecture has been slow to respond to these new realities. While emerging economies have secured a role in the global economic system, the Security Council of the United Nations remains a captive of its five Permanent Members, he added. Shri Ansari said that India is not a rejectionist power that stands outside the global order but that her interests lie in working to change reform and improve the global order, which demands increased external engagement within the ambit of a non-intrusive policy.

The Vice President said that India had vital stake in the stability, security and economic well-being of West Asia and North African region and was willing to expand its strategic and economic partnership. Flagging terrorism as an area of common concern, the Vice president said that even as some countries continued to use terrorism as an instrument of state policy, global terrorism had emerged as a principal global challenge and threat to pluralist and open societies. The Vice President said that International terrorism can only be defeated by organized international action, adding that we need to restructure the international legal framework such as by adopting a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism to deal with the challenges of terrorism. He also called for increased cooperation in intelligence sharing among societies that stand for peace and share values of humanism.

The Vice President said that relations between India and Tunisia have been friendly and free of discord and the countries share common principles and have a similar approach on many issued that he saw a prosperous and peaceful future as commercial and political interactions deepened.

Following is the text of the Vice President's address:

I thank the Tunisian Institute of Strategic Studies for inviting me here today.

Tunis is the city where, 700 years earlier, Ibn Khaldun was born. He wrote about the persistent human propensity to disregard changed conditions; in the process he told us a good deal about the rise and fall of political and military power. His formulation on the philosophy of history, according to Arnold Toynbee, was 'undoubtedly the greatest work of its kind that has ever yet been created by any mind in any time or place.'

My subject today is India and the world. Before delving into it, I wish to draw attention to a very disorderly world that all of us are confronted with today.

An eminent American strategic thinker and practitioner of the art of realpolitik describe the 20th century as a period of 'Megadeath and Metamyth- spawned false notions of total control, derived from an arrogant assertions of total righteousness'. More recently, he wrote that 'the world is now interactive and interdependent. It is also, for the first time, a world in which the problems of human survival have begun to overshadow more traditional international conflicts.'

Commenting in the same strain, but from a different perspective, a historian has observed that 'our world risks both explosion and implosion. It must change (since) the price of failure is darkness'.

You will recall that in the wake of the end of the Cold War, and the expectation of an era of global cooperation for common good, a comprehensive agenda for peace was enunciated focused on preventive diplomacy, peacekeeping, peacemaking and peace building. Other initiatives came forth for addressing human security questions pertaining to economic development, social justice, environmental protection, democratization, disarmament, respect for human rights and the rule of law. Together, they helped delineate a new paradigm of security, aptly articulated in 1999 by the then UN Secretary General Kofi Anan:

'We must broaden our view of what is meant by peace and security. Peace means much more than the absence of war. Human security can no longer be understood in purely military terms. Rather, it must encompass economic development, social justice, environmental protection, democratization, disarmament and respect for human rights and the rule of law.'

Although Interstate conflicts have admittedly declined, the experience of the past quarter of a century shows the manner in which the expectations of a more comprehensive corrective have been belied:

There has been a phenomenal increase in lower intensity civil conflicts;

There has been an increase in violence against unprotected civilians;

Some of these conflicts have spilled across State boundaries and their principal victims are civilians;

They have dislocated human populations and are endangering human security;

They tend to undermine the nation State, and are creating friction between neighbouring countries.

We have witnessed the ease with which regional and sub-national conflicts have spiraled into broader conflict and become a global security challenge. These threats are increasingly emanating from non-state sources such as organized crime, organized terrorist outfits and pirates. Even more disturbing is the trend where non-state armed groups appear as parties in violent conflict.

The traditional security architecture has been slow to respond to these new realities, even as the economic prominence of new players is remarkably well understood. While emerging economies have secured a role in the global economic system, the Security Council of the United Nations remains a captive of its five Permanent Members. This intransigence has constrained the ability of the established security systems to address the evolving nature of security challenges.

This is the global landscape in which India has endeavoured in recent decades to address its developmental challenges and its role in the world. Some of its salient features are:

25 years of economic liberalization, beginning in 1991, have transformed India's economy. The average annual growth rate of 7% has created wealth allowing millions of Indians to take part, and to benefit from, a globalised world. Despite this, about one-third of our population lives in extreme poverty and we face formidable challenges of education, training, human and infrastructure development.

Our total global trade grew from US $ 37.3 billion in 1991 to US $ 758.5 billion in 2016, a 20 fold growth in the last 25 years. There has been a phenomenal increase in India's industrial and agricultural outputs. A business friendly India is today one of the leading recipients of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in a range of sectors.

The availability of additional resources has allowed us to invest more in education and welfare of our citizens, which in turn has provided India with a wealth of scientific and entrepreneurial talent.

India is recognized as the world leader in the pharmaceutical sector and the Information Technology (IT) domain. Our capability in space technology and nuclear sciences has been recognized globally.

Strong growth has added to India's maritime and strategic capacity. Our defence capabilities have increased; so has our capacity to provide overseas security and humanitarian support to our friends and those in need. We like to resolve our conflicts peacefully through negotiations but at the same time would like to have an effective and credible deterrence capacity to protect our legitimate interests.

'India is not a rejectionist power that stands outside the global order. Instead her interests lie in working to change, reform and improve the global order'. This demands increased external engagement within the ambit of a non-intrusive policy.

A peaceful periphery is critical to our success and we believe that the entire South Asian region needs to grow with India for our sustainable prosperity. 'Neighbourhood first', has therefore been a key component of India's worldview with a strong sense of priority being attached to enhancing cooperation with immediate neighbours. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has been infused with new energy even as we have continued our bilateral cooperation with neighboring countries.

We have adopted an 'Act East' policy based on enhanced connectivity with maritime neighbours to the East. The deepening of strategic and commercial ties with the Indian Ocean Rim countries have been a priority. Our 'Link West' approach has invigorated cooperation with West Asia and the Persian Gulf littoral. We consider the Middle East Peace Process as the key to resolve long pending issues and prevent further radicalization of the region. We have sought enhanced connectivity with Eurasia through initiatives such as the Chabahar port and related infrastructure, and the Turkmenistan Afghanistan Pakistan India (TAPI) pipeline, a project whose initiation I personally attended last year with leaders from the other partner states.

Our relationships with the major powers have expanded exponentially in the last two decades. We share a strategic relation with the United States and our cooperation has deepened across a range of activities on the foundations of a convergence of our economic and political views. With Russia we have had traditionally good relations, which have expanded significantly in energy and defence co-operation sectors. With China, the bilateral trade has expanded considerably with new avenues of economic cooperation being created. With Japan a range of cooperation activities are being implemented, especially in the infrastructure sector.

We have reached out to our friends in Africa through initiatives such as India Africa Forum Summit, held last year in New Delhi. We convened a conclave of South Pacific islands to explore issues of mutual interest and define India's contribution in their growth and development goals. With other emerging economies we have collaborated, such as under the BRICS forum, to develop more equitable global governance systems.

The agenda of global issues, and of multilateral diplomacy, remains a matter of perennial interest to us. India has been a major contributor to international peacekeeping operations under the United Nations flag, has engaged with our partners in shaping the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda, and continues to work with like-minded countries to make the global financial and trade systems more equitable and transparent, and to address our common challenges such as environmental degradation. India took the lead at the recently concluded COP 21 at Paris to forge an international consensus and has become one of the strongest advocates of clean energy, particularly solar energy and energy innovation.

We do believe that as one sixth of the humanity and in keeping with the growing capacities and aspirations of our people, India has a much larger role to play in charting a more equitable and sustainable future for our world. For this reason we believe that any global forum which does not include India has limited relevance.

West Asia and North Africa is not an unfamiliar region to India. Historical ties, cultural bonds, shared interests and concerns characterize our relations. We have a vital stake in the stability, security and economic well-being of this region and are willing to expand our strategic and economic partnership. There are several areas where our interests converge. Our bilateral trade with the region in 2014-15 was about US $ 49.58 billion and is expected to grow further despite the economic slowdown. We also look to this region for ensuring our energy security and for commodities such as phosphates. This region, with its young population and natural resources, has tremendous growth potential. It can act as a bridge between three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe. Indian companies have started to increase their investments in the region. There is a considerable potential for expanding trade in the areas of automotive components, automobiles, engineering products, IT, pharmaceuticals, bio-technology and healthcare sectors.

There are also areas of common concern. Terrorism has emerged as a principal global challenge. Your country, like my own, has suffered the horrors of this scourge of humanity. Terrorism today has global reach, no city remains safe. There is a new level of threat to pluralist and open societies. Old structures of terrorism also remain. There are countries that still use it as an instrument of state policy. There can be no distinction between good and bad terrorists. A terrorist is a terrorist; one who commits crimes against humanity cannot have any religion, or be afforded any political sanctuary.

International terrorism can only be defeated by organized international action. We need to restructure the international legal framework such as by adopting a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism to deal with the challenges of terrorism. Societies that stand for peace and share values of humanism have to increase their cooperation in intelligence sharing. We should strengthen efforts to prevent supply of arms to terrorists, disrupt terrorist movements, and curb and criminalize terror financing. We have to help each other secure our cyber space, and minimize use of internet and social media for terrorist activities.

Relations between India and Tunisia have been friendly and free of discord. We share common principles and have a similar approach on many issues. India had extended strong support to the Tunisian struggle for freedom, and today, India stands ready again to provide all possible support as you embark on a path of freedom and democracy.

Tunisia can also be a hub for our trade with both Europe and Africa. Tunisia can leverage our expertise and proven capabilities in production of pharmaceuticals, especially generic medicines at affordable cost, advancement in healthcare sector, science & technology and provision of high quality education at reasonable cost to its advantage. I see a prosperous and peaceful future as our commercial and political interactions deepen. It will open a new era of peace and prosperity, not only for our two countries but the entire region.

I thank you for being such patient listeners. I will try to answer a few questions if you have any.

Thank You

Source: PIB
PM Narendra Modi upcoming visit to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, USA and Mexico

New Delhi, Sat, 04 Jun 2016 NI Wire

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi will be visiting Afghanistan, State of Qatar, Switzerland, United States of America and Mexico from June 4, 2016 to June 8, 2016. In a series of posts from his Facebook Account, the Prime Minister said:

Looking forward to my visit to Afghanistan tomorrow. I will join President Ashraf Ghani to inaugurate Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam in Herat. It is symbol of our friendship and would usher in hope, light up homes, nourish the fertile fields of Herat and bring prosperity to the people of the region.

Look forward to meet my friend President Ashraf Ghani and exchange notes on regional situation and setting agenda for bilateral cooperation in the coming period.

I will be visiting the State of Qatar on 4th & 5th June at the invitation of His Highness the Emir of Qatar.

Look forward to meeting His Highness Sheikh Tamim whose landmark visit to India last year had ushered in a new momentum in our relations.

I will have the honour to meet Father Emir who personally guided our relations for nearly two decades.

This visit will nourish the historical bonds of friendship deeply rooted in people to people contacts, energy, trade and investment partnership.

I will interact with the Indian workers at the Workers Camp and some of the members of over 6 lakh Indians who have nurtured our relations through their sweat and toil. Will also speak to Qatar business leaders to realise the full potential of our trade and investment cooperation.

I will reach Geneva in the evening of 5th June on a bilateral visit to Switzerland, our key partner in Europe. I will hold talks with President Schneider-Ammann to deepen our bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

In Geneva, I will meet prominent businesspersons. Our agenda will be to expand economic and investment ties. I will meet Indian scientists working at CERN. India takes pride in their contribution to exploring new frontiers of science in the service of humanity.

I will be reaching Washington DC on a bilateral visit in the evening of 6th June at the invitation of President Barack Obama.

In my meeting with the President on 7th June, we will seek to build upon the progress achieved in providing new vigour and momentum to our strategic partnership in diverse areas.

Am looking forward to address the 40th AGM of the USIBC and meet US business leaders who have, over the past two years, shown renewed confidence in the India.

I will exchange views with US think-tanks and attend a ceremony marking the return of Indian antiques. During my visit to Arlington Cemetery I will lay wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider and Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial, in which we lost an Indian origin astronaut, Kalpana Chawla.

On 8th June, I will address a Joint Meeting of the US Congress. I thank Speaker Paul Ryan for inviting me to speak to Congressmen and Senators.

During my visit to the US Capitol, I will also interact with members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, many of whom have been valued friends of India and a strong votaries of deepening India-USA ties.

India and USA are natural partners, two vibrant democracies that celebrate their diversity and pluralism. Strong India-USA ties benefit not only our two nations but also the entire world.

I look forward to meeting President Pena Nieto on June 8 during my visit to Mexico, a privileged partner in the Latin American region.

President Pena Nieto has ushered in far reaching reforms. I look forward to sharing our experiences. This is the first Prime Ministerial bilateral visit to Mexico after 30 years. Though short, the visit has a substantial agenda to take our partnership to new heights."

Source: PIB
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YEREVAN, JUNE 4, ARMENPRESS. On April 19 a 37 year old woman had filed a report to the Police stating her personal belongings, including cash and credit cards, had been stolen from a restaurant in downtown Yerevan.

Hours later the stolen credit card had been used to cash out 300,000 AMD from an ATM in downtown Yerevan.

The Police have apprehended a 40 year old woman in connection with the robbery.

The suspect has confessed and the stolen property has been confiscated.
YEREVAN, JUNE 4, ARMENPRESS. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations released 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.

The FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index declined 1.8 percent, as palm oil receded after three months of sharp gains. Import demand for the food industry mainstay was weaker than anticipated in China, India and the EU.

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 the 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.
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This week in the Next Generation Communications Community featured a diverse set of news along with a host of announcements from community host Nokia.

News

As I noted in my posting on the announcement from ETSI (News - Alert) of the creation of a new industry Specification Group, the Mobile and Broadcast Convergence (MBC) ISG, iIt commands attention because after years of the industry talking about the promise of convergence, now that it has become a reality that is looming large in the window, this is work to not just keep an eye on but hopefully become a participant in. Despite what sometimes tends to be a bad reputation, standards are important.





There a few more interesting opportunities in the next few years, as smart grids get deployed, the aforementioned convergence moves ahead and IoT takes hold, than those involving the connected home. Intel (News - Alert) understands that this is an area of growth for them as is exhibited by its showcasing of new gateway designs and chipsets to address connected home requirements at the Computex show in Taiwan.

In other news, because distributed denial of service (DDoS) is unfortunately become more sophisticated and prevalent, including being used as a distraction while the bad guys exploit other areas in their quest to monetize their mischief, it is noteworthy that those under attack are reaching out for solutions to protect again DDoS attacks. An example this week was PenTeleData replacing its legacy security system with Radware (News - Alert) Attack Mitigation Service.

Finally, one of the more closely watched markets in terms of getting a handle on how fast and far broadband networks are extending their reach, and for operator willingness to invest in upgrading their physical infrastructures is the optical equipment market. This is why the most recent analysis and commentary on the Optical Network Hardware Quarterly Market Tracker from the good folks at IHS is noteworthy.

Features

As noted above this was a significant week for host Nokia (News - Alert). In fact, it raised some eyebrows and more than a bit of speculation when it announced its acquisition of healthcare solutions provider Withings. Nokia itself said that this aggressive move into the digital healthcare solutions arena marks a new chapter in the companys history as it seeks to expand and leverage its brand in what is certainly a hot market with great growth prospects

In other Nokia-related features, as has been mentioned on this site a few times over the past several months, New Zealand has expansive national broadband ambitions. It is why the announcement of the expansion of the relationship between service provider Chorus and Nokia is more than a bit newsworthy. The deal extension will see Chorus using Nokia's broadband access, IP routing, and optical transport solutions to increase broadband capacity and accelerate its adoption in New Zealand an provide Chorus what it believes will be a true differentiated value.



In the last item, and continuing what has become an industry rush to make broadband connectivity ubiquitous via a variety of means, including drones and balloons, Nokia introduced its Ultra Compact Network. This is a secure 4G network whose components can fit in an ordinary backpack and is easily and inexpensively powered for use anywhere a 4G signal is required be it indoors or outdoors in a remote place.

Weekend Reading

This is the usual gentile reminder that the community home page has constantly up-dated news, whitepapers, videos, podcasts and case studies. It is designed to be your place to get caught up on industry buzz and insights.

A few choices I recommend are the following recent articles from TechZine:

Cloud interconnect  where network and cloud meet

Digital home opportunity for service providers

In addition, there are links to other outstanding community resources such as the Digital Ideas section, along with links to eBooks and blogs are there for your reading pleasure. And, as always if you have not yet signed up I highly recommend Nokias newsletter, Insight - Networks Perform.
People disabled by a stroke demonstrated substantial recovery long after the event when modified adult stem cells were injected into their brains.

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, according to a paper, published online June 2 in Stroke, that details the trials results.

My right arm wasnt working at all, said Coontz. It felt like it was almost dead. My right leg worked, but not well. She walked with a noticeable limp. I used a wheelchair a lot.

Not anymore, though.

After my surgery, they woke up, she said of her limbs.

Sonia Olea Coontz had a stroke in 2011 that affected the movement of her right arm and leg. After modified stem cells were injected into her brain as part of a clinical trial, she says her limbs woke up.

Mark Rightmire

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 procedures 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. Thats unprecedented. At six months out from a stroke, you dont expect to see any further recovery.

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.

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.

There was an overall 11.4-point improvement on the motor-function component of the Fugl-Meyer test, which specifically gauges patients movement deficits.

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.

The SB623 cells were provided by SanBio Inc., a biotechnology company based in Mountain View, California.

SOURCE  Stanford
Northrop Grummans space and mission systems business will provide support for the Solid State High Power Laser Weapon System Demonstrator program under a potential three-year, $91.1 million U.S. Navy contract.

The Defense Department said Thursday the cost-plus-fixed-fee contract has a base value of $53.1 million and base period of performance through Oct. 21, 2016.

Northrop will perform work in California in support of the Office of Naval Researchs efforts to further develop the weapon systems design and components as well as boost the lethality of its laser weapon systems, DoD added.

The obligated amount of $36.5 million at the time of award is from the Navys research, development, test and evaluation funds for fiscal years 2015 and 2016.

The US government believes that improvements in lethality may be achieved through maturation and optimization of a variety of system characteristics, including laser power, beam quality, beam director architecture, and other physical and optical aspects of the laser system design.

53 page description of the Solid State, High Power Laser Weapon System Demonstrator (LWSD) Design, Development and Demonstration for Surface Navy, USN

Government estimates indicate that systems with laser power of 100-150 kW may be supportable using ship power and cooling.

The Government is interested in an integrated TLCM, as demonstrated in Figure 1 below, which will

include, at a minimum:

 The high power SSL subsystem,

 The beam director subsystem (including accommodation for Mission Specific Modules described later in this document),

 The targeting and tracking subsystem,

 The fire control subsystem, and

 The necessary power or cooling subsystems to address interface or capacity issues that might be presented by the available ship utilities.



SOURCES  Navy, Office of Naval Research, Northrop Grumman
Shortage can be predicted, he said, explaining that in the USA refiners are required to issue a weekly summary of supply and demand.

As of Friday afternoon, the Aldersyde Petro Canada still had supply of gasoline and diesel.

An unexpected overnight outage at an Edmonton refinery on May 27 is also adding to the gas shortage at PetroCan stations in these regions. The country's fuels markets are comprised of two separate supply "orbits" - Western Canada and Eastern Canada.

Seetal said refinery was producing less fuel than normal in the past few weeks due to limited supply from the oilsands, she said.

"U.S. demand is going through the roof ..."

Michael Ervin, senior vice-president at energy consultancy the Kent Group Ltd., says the Edmonton outage has already led to a five cent differential in wholesale Western Canadian gas prices compared with Ontario.

The average price in the province is 115.8 cents per litre and the lowest price can be found at 104.9.

"We know this is a huge inconvenience for our customers and we apologize", said Sneh Seetal, spokesperson for Suncor, Petro-Canada's parent company. Dan McTeague, an analyst at Gasbuddy.com, believes recent problems at refineries in OH and MI that typically process large volumes of oil sands crude are the main culprits in the price jump in Western Canada.

Ms. Seetal said this week that the cause of the outage at the refinery unit is under investigation.

A shortage of gasoline that has been reported in B.C. and Alberta is also affecting Saskatchewan. He wasn't sure how many have closed in B.C. because of the issue.
YEREVAN, JUNE 4, ARMENPRESS. The Iranian Embassy in Armenia issued a statement denying the announcements which were attributed to the Iranian Ambassador in Baku, which were circulated by Azerbaijani media.

The embassys statement reads:

Regarding the publications on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict attributed to the Iranian Ambassador in Baku, we inform that the Iranian Embassy in Baku has not issued any announcement in this regard and during his recent interview the Ambassador highlighted that the official position of Iran on the NKR conflict is unchanged. The Embassy once again stressed the official position of Iran: conflict settlement by peaceful means  based on norms of international rights.
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.

(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.

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.

Officers didn't discover the boys' bodies until they started searching the whole home, Crump said. After speaking with relatives and learning Octavia also had an infant son, they went back in the home and searched until they found his body inside a suitcase in the closet. At least two of the bodies were in a closet.

Police officers went into the home and found that Rogers had allegedly killed her three sons, ages eight, five and approximately two months old.

Family members were cooperating fully with police and said the woman had no known mental illness, Crump said. Nobody wants to see this happen to a child, nobody'. First with training wheels, then a week later, without them.

Rogers will likely be charged in the murders of her sons if she does not succumb to her injuries, officials said.

"There were no red flags", Roberson said.

The mother was in critical condition at an area hospital with self-inflicted stab wounds to her abdomen and neck, but was expected to survive, Crump said. His sister had locked him out of the home, but he managed to get inside, and that was when he founded her wounded, police added. After making several calls, the brother forced his way inside, but his sister had already barricaded herself in another room. "It may have been a reason why she had self-inflicted stab wounds" in the abdomen, he said. When fire crews were treating the woman, she indicated that her children were with someone else, Crump said. Rogers was allegedly determined to commit suicide and tried to drown herself in the tub when her brother rushed to get more towels. That's when he called police for help.

The children have been identified as Jaikare Rahaman, 8, Jeremiah Adams, 5, and Avery Robinson, 2 months.

Next-door neighbor Shelley Severns said: 'I'm still processing all of this.

"My daughter knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would take her kids. because there were times she would talk to me about leaving for the summer", McCoy said.
Thirty-two soldiers are dead and dozens reported wounded after a Boko Haram attack on a military post in south-eastern Niger in a bid to occupy a border town, the country's Defence Ministry said Saturday.

During the attack, the Boko Haram fighters took control of the nearby town of Bosso for several hours. "The situation is under control", the defence ministry said in a statement.

That attack was also launched on Friday and a statement from the Nigerian army said that one of those killed was Ameer Abubakar Gana, a Boko Haram leader in the area.

He said a carefully planned and deliberate attack, comprising troops of 22 Brigade Garrison, 153 Task Force Battalion of 7 Division, 8 Task Force Division, Nigeria Air Force Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (ISR) and some Civilian JTF, was carried out.

On November 25, 2015, 18 people were killed and 100 homes torched in a Boko Haram attack against the village of Wogom close to Bosso.

Boko Haram has been trying to establish an Islamic state adhering to strict Sharia law in northeast Nigeria since 2009.

Reports say Niger has been a target for Boko Haram since early past year.

Niger's President, Mahamadou Issouou said its government has arrested scores of Boko Haram militants and would ensure they are been handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for trial.

Militants from the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group have staged repeated attacks in Niger's southeastern region of Diffa near Nigeria since February, leaving hundreds of people dead. About 2.1 million people have been displaced and thousands have been killed during the seven-year insurgency.

Along with Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Benin, Niger has contributed troops to a 9,000-strong regional task force dedicated to fighting the group that has so far survived attempts by African armies to destroy it.
Beijing insisted on Friday that the Taiwan-controlled small area of land known as Itu Aba, situated in the South China Sea, is an island - to rebut the Philippines' attempt to describe the contested feature as merely a "rock" ahead of an worldwide ruling. "We would be happy to see the new government in the Philippines make wise choices".

Most recently, China is reportedly setting the stage to establish an aerial defense identification zone in the area - a move the U.S. Defense Department said would be "provocative" and not recognized militarily.

Since China began in earnest to build up disputed islands and reefs in the strategic waterway several years ago, Beijing also has carried out an global propaganda and influence campaign created to sway world public opinion that its actions are not aggressive or destabilizing.

Bloomberg reports that China and countries squaring off against China are responsible for the unprecedented surge.

"The Duterte administration is bent on dealing with China through peaceful dialogue", Perfecto Yasay said with regards to the South China Sea disputes.

Resorting to third party dispute settlement is also not inconsistent with the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) as affirmed by the arbitral tribunal in the Philippines vs China case, which decided that the present DOC does not prohibit states concerned from resorting to third party dispute settlement.

"We are very excited about this cabinet", said Perry Pe, president of the Management Association of the Philippines.

Local fishermen had been barred from entering the waters around the shoal since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012. Its moves in recent months have led to angry protests from China.

In addition, Duterte expressed his gratitude and said he was "honored" to receive a congratulatory message from the president of China Xi Jinping and called him "a great leader" in a report.

Annual "Cobra Gold" war games organized by Thailand and the US on Thai soil, however, remain the largest joint military exercise in Asia, with the involvement of more than 8,500 troops including those from other Asian countries.

He, however, said that his country has this pact with the West to closely work together in handling the matters and bringing the issue for multilateral talks and arbitration.

Arguing that the nine-dash line carries "fundamental importance" to both the Chinese people and government in terms of sovereignty and historic rights, Wu, the head of the influential National institute for South China Sea Studies in China, said domestic politics made it virtually impossible for any sort of compromise. "We on the Chinese side are ready to work in a constructive manner - and we are hopeful that the USA will demonstrate the same spirit", Cui added.

"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.

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, they said.

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.
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RIP :(

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rest in power

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get a room you two

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damn i didn't think someone would pull out the receipts this early

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yes bc ppl never, ever change their behavior or opinions, ever. we are all born one way and die the exact same way, we never ever evolve. we never get better. determinism is a real thing!

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he said that a long time ago, I am sure his mentality changed. Also its really in poor taste, the man hasn't been dead for an hour and you're already on a witch hunt.



even in tumbr standards this is tacky.

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Fucking gross... But almost everyone was gross in the 70's so this doesn't surprise me.

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all men really are trash, the things he said about women. Wow.

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i don't understand the race to ~expose how problematic a public figure was once they've passed

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Damn. I did not know any of this.

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I don't get why people are mad at you... This isn't his funeral, it's a celebrity death post on a gossip site. Obviously any deplorable behavior can and should be exposed, it makes no sense to praise his stance during the civil rights movement while ignoring his homophobia and violent misogyny. Do people expect this post to have 3 pages of RIP comments and nothing else?

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holy fuck, that first video =(

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homophobia is wrong. period. but you were in the last post equating Muhammad Ali's homophobic words to Woody Allen's sexual assault of a child. plz get some perspective.

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I'm suddenly less sad lol

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Yeah, I'm not clicking on these but I'll take your word for it. How disgusting of him.

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RESTING MY BOOBS ON THE TABLE FOR THIS ONE

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Edited at 2016-06-04 06:31 am (UTC)

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Wait this thread and that Snapple person's paranoia is hilarious 

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I literally came in here to see his problematic views. Lol I knew I should've popped in before retweeting a bunch of shit.

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Can we add how terrible some of the things he said about Joe Frazier (calling him an ugly gorilla, idiotic Uncle Tom, etc) were too?

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this is so fucking ironic when one of his most famous quotes is about how a man should never view the world at age 50 that he did at age 20 - he openly advocated for changing how you view the world and how you see others!

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just because you hated him doesn't mean it's ok to post this. let others mourn

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Man you dug deep for receipts from 1967

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In my opinion, if he's going to be celebrated for what he did decades ago, it's fair to also bring up things he said at that time. I couldn't even get to the end of that first video, I was so angry. Bringing up what is or isn't "natural" for human beings gets real messy real fast

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Ali after being drafted into the US army for the Vietnam War. Greatest. pic.twitter.com/SDSfAI70nb  Ayron (@AyronHenry) June 4, 2016

" allah yirhamu. he was incredible.

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Oh man, that quote.

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disgusting white racist feminists will tell you this man is a scumbag because of his views in a certain era of time where turmoil and racism where everywhere.



How dare he say white people are the devil?

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I don't get why I have to be racist to point out his misogyny, which was also directed at black women. His stance during the Vietnam war was very positive and powerful, and that doesn't negate his homophobia and misogyny. A person can be a scumbag and still do a lot of good things, look at Sean Penn.

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damn

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This quote vs dick cheney...

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Really powerful quote.

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Wooow

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that's a great quote

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YUP. !!!!!. Y U P. i'll always remember this quote.

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I'll always respect him for this.

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Mannnnn, this quote.



Powerful stuff.





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This was and still is an epic quote.

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what a quote

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R.I.P. Ali



So many greats lost this year, so sad

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RIP the greatest!





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Yesss I wanted to make sure this was posted

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yassss this song <3

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Edited at 2016-06-04 05:42 am (UTC)

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Maybe it's him or maybe it's because we're so used to people getting a surgically-implanted new face every six months but he looks weirdly precisely the same from ages like 20-50.

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Black don't crack (only if u dun deny it)

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I'm literally heartbroken.

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parkinson's disease, dementia, ALS/MND and huntington's can all DIAF

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you forgot alzheimer's.

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Nah, Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia - people often get this confused!

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i had no idea he had huntingtons, that shit is so scary

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RIP.

It was a long struggle.

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Rest in Power

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god damn

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there were not a lot of muslim entertainers in western media and it was cool growing up to have that connection with him :(( rip

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yeah ia. even though I'm not religious anymore, it always made me feel proud and less different as a little kid knowing everyone knew him and knew he was muslim like i was

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ia

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I was wondering why he was all over my dash. So sad, Rip.

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RIP

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Khary Penebaker does not know what his mothers voice sounded like.

He also does not know what her favorite color was, what she smelled like and what it was like to hear her tell him that she loves him.

"I dont remember anything about my mother," Penebaker said emphatically as he held up her death certificate to the bright blue sky. "Thats a problem, and it is going to require every single one of us to stand up and say we had enough ... and we will do whatever it takes to fix the problem."

Penebaker, 38, who was 20 months old when his mother pulled over on the side of a road and shot herself to death in 1979, was one of the speakers during a National Gun Violence Awareness Day event in ODonnell Park in Downtown Milwaukee on Thursday.

"We can do simple things like making sure that we place a barrier between a person who may be mentally unwell and  a gun. We can save peoples lives," said Penebaker, a candidate for the 5th U.S. Congressional District seat. Penebaker is challenging incumbent Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner and a third-party candidate.

Khary Penebaker, a candidate for U.S. Congress, holds his mothers death certificate as he tells a crowd at a gun violence awareness rally about her suicide in 1979.

The rally took place underneath The Calling, an orange sunburst sculpture, and was attended by dozens of people who wore orange, a symbol of the campaign against gun violence, as they held signs such as "Moms demand action for gun sense in America."

Penebaker, along with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele and State Sen. Chris Larson called for better enforcement of laws that dictate gun ownership, restrictions on assault rifle sales and universal background checks.

"It is up to us to speak out," said Larson, noting that the majority of Americans support universal background checks. "This is the calling to end gun violence in our communities. Lets make it happen."

In Milwaukee, 145 people were murdered and 635 non-fatal shootings occurred in 2015, making the year one of the bloodiest and deadliest in recent memory, according to the Journal Sentinel.

"It does not have to be this way  we can do so much better," State Rep. Mandela Barnes said during the rally. "Every community deserves to be safe regardless of the ZIP code."

Barnes said that the gun lobby is to blame for turning "communities into war zones."

The National Gun Violence Awareness Day began in 2015 and is held each June 2, the birth date of Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old Chicago high school student who was killed by gunfire. Her friends and family decided to honor her life and campaign against gun violence by wearing orange, Pendletons favorite color.

"Peoples lives depend on this," said Penebaker, imploring the crowd to contact their lawmakers and demand gun control reforms. "I think about my mom every single day  until we fix this problem, someone else is going to be living my nightmare, and Im not okay with it. So today, enjoy it, wear your orange. But tomorrow, lets get to work."
Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has exploited and negated the structures of American democracy.

Given a record hostile to traditional Democratic party values, she's run a dirty campaign. It is now escalating as she and supporters manipulate key democratic (and Democratic) institutions. The media -- who have given millions to the Clinton Foundation -- say they'll call the election for her on June 7 during the California primary. They've also amplified calls for Sanders' strikingly successful candidacy to end. Why? Because he remains in a competitive election that will almost definitely go to the Democratic National Convention. Her best defense, she thinks, is for she and her supporters to subvert democracy by using institutions that should serve us to silence him, rather than showing she deserves the superdelegates' vote as the stronger general election candidate. This institution-amplified suppression alienates Sanders' supporters, building resentment. This prompts her acolytes to blame Sanders.

"Stop making me beat you," Clinton and her supporters practically tell Sanders.



And stop telling people I'm beating you, they might add. Joan Walsh in the Nation writes, "Bernie Sanders Is Hurting Himself by Playing the Victim" and warns of the dangerous consequences of him claiming the nomination process is "rigged," something echoed in numerous (sometimes misleadingly titled) columns. This is blatantly ahistorical, hypocritical, and annoying. It distracts from the role of extensive manipulation of key democratic institutions that have delivered the Secretary a "winning" margin among pledged delegates thus far. It also advances the absurd argument that if Sanders does not highlight failures -- of the media, electoral process, superdelegates and Democratic National Committee -- they will repair themselves and start working for the American people. Of course, their immense failures will not help progressive Democratic candidates or the public. And ironically her supporters now complain about the media coverage and electoral obstacles, recognizing corrupt institutions may weaken her campaign too.

How did we get here? The last few years have brought popular uprisings for fair wages and social supports, black lives actually mattering, and overdue environmental action. These culminated in Bernie Sanders' successes in stadiums, social media and our wallets, enthusiasm he's ridden to a 46- to 54-percent pledged delegate split. Now the race, which will almost certainly go to the convention, will be decided by the superdelegates. They are charged, broadly, with choosing the more electable candidate per the Hunt Commission that formed them, the media, the DNC and Hillary. (This is also beyond obvious, as there would be no role for them were they just charged with ratifying the popular vote.) As for now, superdelegates "shouldn't be included in any [delegate] count," says DNC Spokesman Luis Miranda. But the media continues to report them to improve Clinton's prospects.

Having superdelegates choose the more competitive nominee at the Democratic National Convention in late July is an almost impossible-to-ignore call for a substantive political discussion as to the merits of Clinton's candidacy. She's already employed numerous institutions to fight against open debate when she was on stronger ground. The freefalling candidate (Carl Bernstein reflecting White House views) isn't having it now either. Her weak policy positions -- except those recently stolen from Sanders -- are losers. So too are her political and the Clinton philanthropic record of scarfing up millions from corporations in return for numerous apparentquid pro quos. Her unbelievable electoral decline against Trump mirrors that against Sanders and the prospects of her job-title-based candidacy are poor. Speculation she will lose the nomination is widespread and growing. All pose problems as potential topics for discussion.

So the Secretary of State and her surrogates have amped up efforts to shut down public access to Sanders' issue- and record-based campaign. It's surprising to hear a woman running for president who has manipulated levers of power, bringing violence and suppression to millions, being portrayed as the victim for having to defend her political and financial records. But it's consistent with her entire campaign strategy.

Why revisit these old battlegrounds now? Because democracy matters. The same techniques used by her and those aligned with her to silence him and to steal his support are also used on those seeking to reverse great poverty, declining health, and planetary destruction.

This is about Sanders and his (and his movement's) changing the narrative of what a nation built on justice looks like. It is about potential changes to work, lending, inequality, the climate, the environment and prisons to reflect the public interest. But it's also about how Clinton and her supporters manipulate fundamental Democratic -- and democratic -- institutions. And why they barely allow what would be a center-left candidate in most developed countries to talk to the public, much less win the popular vote. Corrupt corporate powers, supported by Clinton, are petrified of an overdue movement for social and environmental justice that could challenge ill-gained profits.

How have democratic institutions been manipulated?

MAINSTREAM MEDIA -- MANY CLINTON FOUNDATION DONORS -- MOSTLY IGNORED THE BIGGEST STORY OF 2015 (MEDIA, PART 1)

The term "Fourth Estate" emphasizes the independence of the press and its service to the public. It has not served its purpose. One Democratic candidate was the former First Lady who ran for president in 2008, served as Secretary of State, and had a high profile foundation role: an extraordinarily well known figure. Her main competitor was an independent Senator with a low profile (if growing following due to his courageous stances on housing integration, the Panama "Free Trade" agreement , the 1994 Crime Bill , the Iraq invasion , and his filibuster of the extension of the Bush tax cuts.) He soared in the polls like Trump and packed stadiums, despite recurrent media blackouts. He articulated a new progressive vision that pulled Clinton leftward. His rise created the biggest, most important story of 2015. Yet the mainstream media networks generally ignored and occasionally belittled him. They gave Clinton as much coverage as Trump in 2015, and Bernie one-twenty-third the coverage of either. As his numbers soared when voters learned about him, the media's failure to cover Bernie fairly or significantly influenced early vote results (particularly impactful with Sanders ran even or improved election day results.)

CLINTON MANIPULATED MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE ELECTION (MEDIA, PART 2)

Choosing not to highlight the biased media coverage described above was a more passive act (albeit unforgivable in a presidential candidate, I'd argue). But the Secretary also actively sought to manipulate the media. "[T]he greatest story [a journalist] could ever possibly ever cover" was reported on by the mainstream corporate media "through the eyes of the Clinton campaign," per media guru Robert McChesney.

Hillary and her surrogates, at times with with undisclosed ties, have overwhelmingly shaped the news. They relied on the media promoting her misleading statements, changing the subject at her whim, and highlighting her successes. Her first debate used at least four carefully crafted deceptive answers. The compliant media, rather than fact-checking her or relying on focus groups and polling, declared her the "winner" which gave her crucial early momentum. Over time, Clinton and her supporters have deceptively mischaracterized Bernie's broad movement-based campaign as only being about the banks and his health care plan as causing millions to lose insurance.

If the issue at hand doesn't favor her or she or Bill are again chomping on their toes after being confronted with real people or their own records, in walks a new talking point or a shallow policy announcement. The corrupt media immediately changes their focus in full complicity with her anti-democratic media strategy.

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YEREVAN, JUNE 4, ARMENPRESS. Vladimir Vardanyan, expert on international rights of the Constitutional Court of Armenia, highlights the fact that the German Bundestag has finally given a concrete assessment via a legal document on describing the Armenian massacres of 1915 as Genocide.

According to him, to some extent this decision was also a response to the suspicious position of the European Court of Human Rights on the Perincek case, which was questioning the occurrence of the Armenian Genocide.

With the Bundestags decision rises the geography of the Armenian Genocide recognition process, which is a serious factor for carrying out the recognition process even more in the European continent, he said.

He stressed the importance of the fact that the Bundestag resolution includes the issue of the German responsibility.

Germany was not the country which had a concrete pro-Armenian position, and this recognition is in some extent a surprise for us. The fact that various representatives of different factions presented a united position was also a surprise, which is unprecedented, as the German Parliament is a very difficult Parliament, where various issues are being seriously discussed, he said.
See original here

"We need a foreign policy based on building coalitions... [not] perpetual warfare in the Middle East"

Bernie Sanders responded to Hillary Clinton's foreign policy speech on Thursday with a hit at her credentials, including her involvement in the Iraq War and so-called "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," he said in a statement. "That's what I will fight for as president."

Earlier Thursday, Clinton gave a speech that laid out her own foreign policy agenda and criticized presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump for his "thin skin" and "dangerously incoherent" ideas.

"Americans aren't just electing a president in November, we're choosing our next commander-in-chief, a person we count on to answer questions of war and peace, life and death," Clinton said. "The person the Republicans have nominated for president cannot do the job."

On that point, Sanders agreed.

However, he added, Clinton wasn't much better.

"I agree with Secretary Clinton that Donald Trump's foreign policy ideas are incredibly reckless and irresponsible," he said in his statement. "But 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."

His comments fell in line with much of the progressive sector's response to Clinton's speech, which included criticism from journalists and policy experts such as Jeet Heer of The New Republic, Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept, and Sam Husseini of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

As Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of The Earth Institute and a steadfast critic of Clinton's hawkish foreign policy record, tweeted after her Thursday speech:

On Friday, the Sanders campaign tweeted out a new campaign video, featuring Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), titled simply "Judgement." Gabbard, still on active duty for the U.S. Army and a veteran of the Iraq War, stresses in the ad that her support for Sanders stems from his proven reluctance to put lives at risk in overseas misadventures. "[Sanders] has foresight," she says, "when it comes to making these most critical decisions that affect us all about war or peace." Watch:
Reprinted from Gush Shalom

I recently mentioned the German word Gleichschaltung -- one of the most typical words in the Nazi vocabulary.

"Gleich" means "the same," and "Schaltung" means "wiring." The long German word means that everything in the state is wired up the same way -- the Nazi way.

This was an essential part of the Nazi transformation of Germany. But it did not happen in any dramatic way. The replacement of people was slow, almost imperceptible. In the end, all important positions in the country were manned by Nazi functionaries.

We are now witnessing something like this in Israel. We are already well into the middle of the process.

Position after position is taken over by the far-far right, which is ruling Israel now. Slowly. Very, very slowly.

IT STARTED right after last year's election. Binyamin Netanyahu was able to form a coalition of the far right, though only with a slim majority. As has so often happened in the annals of fascism, he needed one "center" party for that. He found it in the form of Moshe Kahlon's faction. Kahlon, an ex-Likud man, was popular because he promised cheaper housing. Instead, housing prices have continued to rise.

(Kahlon is the Smiling Man. He is very likeable. One columnist compared him to the Cheshire cat, the cat that disappeared and left only a smile behind. "Not a cat with a smile," as Alice said, "but a smile with a cat." But he is the cat that keeps the far right in power, even now.)

The new government included an assortment of incredible appointments. The most outrageous new minister is Miri Regev, a primitive woman known for her proud vulgarity, who is now Minister of Culture. Well, I suppose even vulgarity has a right to be represented.

Ms Regev is now in charge of the allocation of government funds to theaters, literature, ballet, opera and such. She has already made it clear that they had better toe the government line, if they want to be funded.

Her nearest competitor is the new Minister of Justice, Ayelet Shaked (literally: the Almond Gazelle.) Her proclaimed aim is the subjection of the Supreme Court, the pride of Israel. Though quite timid by now, the court sometimes objects to oppressive new laws. So Ms Almond wants to stuff it with new "conservative" judges.

The most dangerous of the bunch is the Minister of Education -- Naftali Bennett, one of the most extreme nationalist-religious politicians. Israel has three religious education systems. The sole "secular" system has already been steadily reduced throughout the years by earlier ministers. Putting Bennett, defined by many as a religious fascist, in charge of education means putting the fox in charge of the poultry house.

All these ministers, as well as the others of the same ilk, are now busy replacing the senior officials with persons of their convictions, a steady and extremely dangerous process.

THEN THERE are the keepers of the gate.

One of the most important persons in Israel bears the title "Legal Counselor to the Government." He is the highest legal official, superior to the Attorney General and independent of the Minister of Justice. His advice is legally binding, subject only to the Supreme Court.

Netanyahu has several personal legal problems. He and his family have traveled around the world on other people's money while in office. This and other affairs have been held up in the legal pipeline for many years, by the decision of the "Advisor."


Candidate for the Green Party nomination for President, Sedinam K.C. Moyowasifza-Curry

(Image by Sedinam Moyowasifza-Curry) Details DMCA



If the establishment of the Democrats has it's way and Secretary Hillary Clinton wins the party's nomination, it could not only be to the advantage of Donald Trump, but to the most developed left wing party in the country -- the Green Party of the United States. http://www.gp.org/

Much may depend not only on who the wins the nomination, but how. The more that supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders feel that their candidate has been treated unfairly, and that the leadership of the Democrats is resolutely and immovably against him, the more likely his supporters are going to take a long hard look at the Green Party. If Sanders pulls off the political upset of the century (or perhaps any century) and wins the nomination of the Democrats, then that opening will not be there for the Greens; and the party could face its most difficult election ever.

Most Greens, though not all, think that Sanders' army of volunteers and supporters are a much better fit for the Green Party than they are for the Democrats. They argue that the platform of the Greens has much in common with that of the Vermont Senator. Its strong commitment to social justice, an anti-war and non-interventionist foreign policy, reducing the military budget, civil rights, legalization of marijuana, and transitioning to renewable energy sources to combat global warming, make it a natural fit for Berners.

The Green Party is positioning itself to recruit Sanders' supporters who become disaffected from the Democrats. Dr. Jill Stein, the leading contender for the nomination of the Green Party for President, believes that the Green Party is ready to carry into the General Election the struggle for the "political revolution" which has inspired so many.

Stein sent an open letter to Sanders on April 21, praising him and requesting that he contact her to, "... explore an historic collaboration to keep building the revolution beyond the reach of corporate party clutches..." http://www.jill2016.com/stein_invites_sanders_to_cooperate_on_political_revolution?recruiter_id=674292

Stein followed her letter up with a tweet that read, " #SuperTuesday culminates the DNC sabotage of its latest revolutionary. Join us @BernieSanders in building a party where revolution can grow."

Some of Sanders' supporters, including quite a number of his most fervent, are urging Bernie to keep running in the General Election if he doesn't win the Democrats' nomination. Sanders is being urged to run as an independent, or a write-in candidate, or on a Green Party ticket with Stein. There are a number of petitions circulating on the internet and there is a concerted campaign called "Bernie or Bust" in which his supporters are urged to sign a pledge to either write-in Bernie or vote Green Party. https://citizensagainstplutocracy.wordpress.com/category/bernie-or-bust-pledge/

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Given that US military forces killed hundreds of civilians in the same city back in 2004 and bequeathed a deadly radioactive legacy to the population from depleted uranium munitions, such belated American concern for civilian life in Fallujah does not sound credible.

Could there be another agenda, such as preventing Iraqi forces from delivering a knock-out blow to the IS militants (also known as Daesh) holed up inside the city?

Although the US is officially waging a war to defeat these jihadists, the terrorists are, at the same time, documented to function covertly as Pentagon assets for regime change in neighboring Syria.

This week, US government-owned news outlet Voice of America ran this headline on Monday: "Concerns over civilian suffering as Iraqi forces surround Fallujah." The headline's wording was subsequently changed in later VOA editions after Iraqi forces actually began their offensive on the Daesh stronghold.

Other Western news media outlets also expressed alarm that some 50,000 civilians trapped in the battleground city might come to harm from the intense fighting, or be used as human shields by its terrorist defenders.



Daesh militants first occupied Fallujah in early 2014, and along with the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and eastern Syria's Raqqa, it formed part of the cross-border triangular axis of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Retaking Fallujah would thus be a crucial strategic victory for the Iraqi government forces against the extremist group. It is believed that Fallujah, which is only 50 km from Baghdad, has been a major source of suicide bombers who have killed hundreds of civilians in the Iraqi capital over the past two years. Three suicide attacks earlier this week reportedly killed at least 20 people in greater Baghdad.

The Iraqi military had surrounded Fallujah over the past week before launching their offensive. The delay was intended to give civilians as much chance as possible to evacuate.



What seems curious is the apparent concern for civilian safety in Fallujah as expressed in the US and Western media.

This is the same city that was almost razed to the ground by American and British forces during two major battles in 2004 -- one year after the US-led invasion of Iraq and the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The Fallujah resistance was then made up mainly of Sunni militia.

During the US-British assaults on Fallujah, it is estimated that more than 1,000 civilians were killed -- a disturbingly high casualty toll, similar to that incurred by the armed militants. The Americans spared no effort to crush the resistance -- deploying over 10,000 troops, warplanes, 2,000-pound aerial bombs, helicopter gunships, howitzers and snipers in what was reckoned to have been the fiercest fighting by US forces since the Vietnam War. The US military even blared rock music at deafening levels in order to draw out protesters who would then be cut down by sniper fire.

But the killing of civilians did not stop when those battles ended. Years after the artillery smoke cleared, the people of Fallujah have been battling alarming cancer rates and horrific birth defects as a result of the depleted uranium munitions that the American forces bombarded the city with in 2004. Millions of rounds of this highly toxic metal are believed to have been fired by US forces during their assaults on Fallujah.

Several scientific studies, conducted by Iraqi and foreign medics, have since reported that the rate of cancer, childhood leukemia and fatal birth deformities have increased several-fold in Fallujah since the US-British military offensives against the city in 2004. In one study, it was found that the incidence of birth defects in Fallujah were higher than those recorded in Hiroshima or Nagasaki -- the Japanese cities hit by US atomic bombs in 1945.

In addition to toxic uranium, US forces also indiscriminately used massive quantities of White Phosphorus as incendiary weapon against the city. One investigative Italian television documentary, The Hidden Massacre, confirmed numerous local reports that people had died from grotesque skin burns inflicted by the White Phosphorus.

At the time of the offensives, the US military claimed that the phosphorus was being used as illuminating flares in order to target combatants. A year later, in November 2005, the Pentagon finally admitted that the chemical was actually used as an "incendiary weapon." US troops on the ground callously referred to the White Phosphorus bombardments in Fallujah as "shake and bake" operations, because of the twin-effect of inciting terror in the target population and burning victims down to the bone. A victim's head could be completely incinerated while the rest of the body remained unscathed.

When the Americans and British were torching Fallujah and indiscriminately mowing down women and children, there was scarcely any expression of concern in the Western media about civilian casualties. It was justified as "collateral damage" in a "necessary war."



The question is: is this duplicitous Western focus on Fallujah, then and now a reflection of mere hypocrisy or double-think? Or is there a more nuanced agenda?
Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"Humans have spent 99 percent of our developmental time in the wild kingdom, which tutored us in what Rob Kall calls bottom-up values?small, local, interdependent, respectful, egalitarian and decentralized -- and which the world desperately needs in order to balance out some of the darker impulses of top-down values. His faith that bottom-up values represent a critical re-balancing act for humanity, if not an outright better mousetrap, is compelling and hard-won, and I offer him a high-five for his courageous inquiry into the deep wisdom inherent in our age-old intimacy with natural rhythms, native intelligences, and interconnectedness."



Gregg Levoy, author of Callings and Vital Signs
Those who still doubt that an elite group of Marxists and Fascists control American policy need to look no further than the announcement by Treasury Secretary Jack Lew of his intention to remove Andrew Jackson from the face America's $20 dollar bill. President Jackson established the most fiscally sound administration in American history and adhered to founding American principles more closely than most U.S. Presidents. As General Jackson, his forces won the key battle that defeated the final massive British invasion and ended the war of 1812.

General Jackson's Accomplishments

Andrew Jackson was born in 1767 and served as a 13 year old courier in the Revolutionary War. When he refused to shine the shoes of a British officer after being captured, the officer slashed him with a sword leaving permanent scars on his head and arm. His two brothers and mother who was a nurse, all died during service in the Revolutionary War.

Jackson was appointed major general of the Tennessee militia in 1802. In the 1814 Battle of Horseshoe Bend, his forces defeated "Red Stick" Creek warriors who killed over 400 settlers in the Fort Mims massacre in Alabama. The warriors had been encouraged by Shawnee Chief Tecumseh who was aligned with British forces during the War of 1812. Jackson led U.S. Army regulars including Davy Crockett and Sam Houston as well as Choctaw and Cherokee warriors. The resulting Treaty of Fort Jackson confiscated millions of acres of Creek land but provided humanitarian assistance until the Creeks could sustain themselves again.

Jackson gained immense popularity for commanding Americans to an 1815 victory over the British in the Battle of New Orleans that ended the War of 1812. The British Army and Royal Navy attacked with huge forces for two weeks after British officials signed the Treaty of Ghent that should have ended hostilities. The British attempt to control the Mississippi River at New Orleans could have made a dramatic difference in the outcome of the war if successful.

Jackson's forces included state militias, U.S. Army regulars, Jean Lafiite's pirates as well as Chocktaw, Cherokee and friendly Creek warriors. They were outnumbered 2:1 but repelled the 11,000 man British invasion. The British lost 2,000 killed, wounded or captured soldiers while the Americans lost roughly 60 in one of the most lopsided and amazing victories in American history. "The Battle of New Orleans" was memorialized in song and an annual national holiday for the January 8 final day of battle was established. The holiday was recognized until 1861 immediately after Americans in 11 states, including Louisiana voted to secede from the Union.

President Jackson's Accomplishments

Andrew Jackson is the only president in American history whose administration paid off the national debt. His administration was also the last administration in American history that operated with a true balanced budget. He also bravely prevented wealthy banking family cartels from gaining monopolistic control of the American money supply when he vetoed Second National Bank legislation in 1832. His unequalled legendary accomplishments make him the most fiscally sound president in American history.

In 1824, Jackson became the only man in American history to win both the popular vote and the Electoral College but not become president. Jackson defeated incumbent John Quincy Adams by 152,000 to 115,000 in the popular vote and 99 to 84 in the Electoral College. However, in the 4 way race that included House Speaker Henry Clay and Treasury Secretary William Crawford, Jackson had only about 43 of the total vote. Since no one had a 50% majority, Electoral College rules require that the House of Representatives elect the speaker. Elitist Henry Clay swung House votes to second place Adams and Adams appointed him as Secretary of State in what became known as "the corrupt bargain".

Jackson supporters then founded the Democratic Party and he won the 1828 election over his arch-rival Henry Clay in another showdown between Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian philosophies of government. Jackson was re-elected in 1832 and served though 1836 when his Vice President Martin Van Buren was elected. His wife Rachel died in 1828 after he was elected but before he took office. Jackson blamed her death on the brutal campaign conducted against both of them by Henry Clay.

As soon as he took office he was faced with a national crisis that he handled deftly. Just before his election in 1828 Congress passed the Tariff of Abominations, roughly a 62% import tax on most goods. The state of South Carolina complained that the federal government "has raised and collected un-necessary revenue for objects unauthorized by the Constitution;" When South Carolina voted to nullify the unconstitutional law and threatened to secede, Jackson unlike Lincoln, stuck to the Constitution and empowered Vice President John Calhoun to negotiate an agreement with his arch rival Henry Clay. They affected a compromise and reduced the tariff to about 20% over a 10 year period. Afterwards rates began to increase again culminating with the Morrill Tax Act that was passed in 1861. That act was a key factor that led to Americans in 11 states, voting to secede from the Union.

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Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"In Bottom-Up, Rob Kall offers important insights on why our society is in such disarray and what we must do to change it. He demonstrates how "top down" thinking is what has produced our current mess, and how bottom up thinking is much more efficient for solving problems and producing change. Rob shows how lasting change must come from the people themselves and not from the leaders. This was as true in the days of the Magna Carta as it was for the Bill of Rights as it was for the Union movement that first gave workers' rights and protection in this country, as it is today. Indigenous elders have told me, "if you want to change the world, start talking and keep talking." Rob is doing this with this book and with his OpEdNews, and he is making a difference. I recommend this book to all who wish to see lasting, human-friendly, compassionate change that will sustain humanity is this crazy world of today."



Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, author of the Coyote trilogy that discusses healing practices from Lakota, Cherokee, and Cree traditions and how they intersect with conventional medicine
Obama invited Modi

NEW DELHI: 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 US 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 re-balance 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 US 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 US, 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.



There are frustrations, too, on the US side.



The two countries reached a civil nuclear agreement in 2005, but it has yet to yield any contracts for US-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 US 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 US lawmakers, who extended his invitation to address Congress. But they criticise what they see as lingering unfriendliness to US 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 US 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 program, and the civil nuclear agreement with the US 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 US 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 US 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.
YEREVAN, JUNE 4, ARMENPRESS. Vanadzor city police responded to an emergency call stating there was an explosion outside the Tax Inspectorate Office on June 4 at 01:15.

According to the Police, an unidentified object exploded in the trash can near the entrance of the building.

Vanadzor city Police is investigating the incident.

The building sustained minor damages. No casualties are reported.
A drawing looking south along the Taupo Volcanic Zone showing the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the North Island of New Zealand. Uplift of the surface measured by satellite radar and GPS suggests the presence of a magmatic body beneath the Bay of Plenty coast at a depth of 9.5 km. Credit: Ian Hamling

Scientists say they've discovered a magma buildup near a New Zealand town that explains a spate of recent earthquakes and could signal the beginnings of a new volcanoalthough they're not expecting an eruption anytime soon.

Geophysicist Ian Hamling said that since 1950, enough magma to fill 80,000 Olympic-size swimming pools has squeezed up beneath the surface near the coastal town of Matata, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) southeast of Auckland.

A paper published Saturday in the online journal Science Advances outlines the findings. Hamling, the paper's lead author, said that while other parts of New Zealand have active volcanoes, there have been none near Matata for at least 400,000 years.

"It was quite a big surprise," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Using GPS data and satellite images, the scientists say they discovered an area of land about 400 square kilometers (154 square miles) has risen by 40 centimeters (16 inches) since 1950.

Hamling said a period of quick uplift between 2004 and 2011 likely triggered thousands of small earthquakes. Scientists had previously thought tectonic shifts caused the quakes.

Hamling said the magma remained about 10 kilometers (6 miles) below the surface, deep enough that he didn't expect a volcano to develop within his lifetime. He said a volcano could develop over hundreds or thousands of years, or the magma could eventually cool and harden.

Matata is home to about 650 people. Hamling said he hoped further study would allow scientists to develop a warning system for earthquakes in the area. He said the quakes are likely triggered by magma stressing and breaking rock.

Hamling said it was unusual worldwide to discover magma buildup in an area with no volcanoes. He said modern equipment allowed them to accurately measure tiny horizontal and vertical changes in the coastal land.

Just over half of the area studied is offshore, however, and Hamling said the scientists needed to rely on inferences from what happened on the land to gauge the changes underwater.

Victoria Miller, a volcanologist with Geoscience Australia who was not involved in the research, said the location was of interest because it was outside of an active volcanic area.

"The scientific analysis seems robust and notes the limitations of modelling an offshore source," Miller wrote in an email.

More information: I. J. Hamling et al. Off-axis magmatism along a subaerial back-arc rift: Observations from the Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand, Science Advances (2016). Journal information: Science Advances I. J. Hamling et al. Off-axis magmatism along a subaerial back-arc rift: Observations from the Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand,(2016). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1600288

 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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YEREVAN, JUNE 4, ARMENPRESS. Daniel Alves da Silva will spend the next season playing for Juventus.

Alves confirmed the news in an interview with Sport Italia.

I am very happy to join Juventus. I won every possible thing along with Barcelona and I enjoyed every minute, however its time for change. I want to achieve successes with Juventus in Europe. I will be in Turin soon to sign the contract, however, in the same time I will always remain a Barcelona fan, Alves said.
YEREVAN, JUNE 4, ARMENPRESS. Ruben Melkonyan, expert on Turkish studies and Vice-Dean of the YSU Oriental Studies faculty, says persecution of Turkish MPs of the Bundestag, who voted in favor of adopting the Armenian Genocide resolution, began in Turkey.

At least 7 out of 11 ethnic Turkish MPs voted in favor of adopting the resolution in the Bundestag.

For me, as an expert on Turkish studies, the fact that persecution of those MPs in taking place in Turkey is very interesting. Meaning, their relatives, family and villages are being located. Yesterday, photos and personal information of those MPs were disseminated in Turkey. Calls for lynching the MPs were made in the Turkish media, he said.

On June 2 the German Bundestag adopted the resolution on recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

The resolution was adopted by a near-unanimous vote.
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YEREVAN, JUNE 4, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Armed Forces Lieutenant-Colonel Shant Avetisyan has been charged with bribery.

Avetisyan is the head of the 2nd Department of the Yerevan Military Commissariat.

Preliminary investigation evidence suggests Avetisyan has demanded a large sum of money for issuing a 3 year deferment from military service to a civilian.

Avetisyan was earlier arrested red handed, upon receiving the bribe.

Investigation continues.
YEREVAN, JUNE 4, ARMENPRESS. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer ordered flags lowered to half-staff to honor Ali, ABC news reported.

"The values of hard work, conviction and compassion that Muhammad Ali developed while growing up in Louisville helped him become a global icon," Fischer said. "As a boxer, he became The Greatest, though his most lasting victories happened outside the ring."

A funeral will be held in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. The city plans a memorial service Saturday.

Ali had been at a hospital since Thursday with what spokesman Bob Gunnell had described as a respiratory issue.

"After a 32-year battle with Parkinson's disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74. The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening," Gunnell said in a statement. "The Ali family would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers, and support and asks for privacy at this time."

A tweet on Ali's official page posted a photo of the boxer and said simply, "Muhammad Ali. 1942-2016."
YEREVAN, JUNE 4, ARMENPRESS. Major-General Melsik Chilingaryan, who was arrested for abuse of power and misconduct, has been hospitalized.

The military hospital confirmed the information however denied providing further details on his condition.

Melsik Chilingaryan is among the other 2 high ranking military officials who were previously arrested for misconduct and abuse of power.
It can often be difficult to know where to begin when it comes to kickstarting a healthier lifestyle, so we are here to help you
SOUTH GLENS FALLS  The double-insurance plan that South Glens Falls workers are negotiating to keep is worthless, said village attorney Mike Muller.

The village currently pays for two medical prescription plans for all union workers. They were asked to voluntarily drop the second plan but would not do so. Now the village is negotiating and may have to offer other benefits to get the unions to drop the plan.

It costs the village $221 per day to continue the plan, even though no one can actually use it.

Benefit to the employee is zero, Muller said. You cant make a claim for the same medication on both plans.

He advised the village to negotiate anyway rather than unilaterally eliminating the plan, which he said could cause animosity and litigation.

So far, CSEA has responded to the negotiation with a counter-proposal, Muller said.

He would not detail what that proposal was, but some residents didnt like the sound of it.

I would hope, if theres no real benefit, that were not going to give the shop away, said resident and former town supervisor Harry Gutheil.

He also pushed for quick action, noting the cost per day to the financially stressed village.

I think its significant. I think time is of the essence, he said.

Muller has also opened negotiations on the issue with the police union.

Were not as far as we are with CSEA, he said. Theres been activity. I dont have a counter proposal from them.

Mayor Joe Orlow warned union members to not take any actions that could hurt them, and CSEA President T.J. Chagnon said he was taking that warning serously.

Non-union employees agreed to drop the duplicate plan in February. During the budget crunch, village board members also eliminated their own health insurance entirely, agreeing that any member who wanted coverage would have to pay for the full cost of their plan.

Residents wanted the union employees to also drop the duplicate plan for the 2016-17 budget, but that did not happen. It would have saved $80,600.
The year began well enough. Keith noted that many of the articles written by people awarded writing fellowships were being picked up by other media. Pat Levo of the Post Courier was using them in his weekend literary section and Amanda Donigi was doing the same in her new womens magazine, Stella. We were not concerned by the thought they were exploiting PNG Attitude as source of free copy; we were just happy to see some good writers getting further exposure.

FOR the superstitious, the number thirteen is particularly ominous. Some hotels skip the number in sequencing their rooms, even floors. Linked with a Friday it is said to become highly dangerous.

Fighting for a Voice: The Inside Story of PNG Attitude & the Crocodile Prize, scheduled for publication within the next few weeks, is Phil Fitzpatrick's no-holds barred account of the first 10 years of this pioneering blog. The book of nearly 400 pages weaves into its story the fascinating and sometimes dramatic events of Papua New Guinea over the same period. To give you a taste, heres an extract from Chapter 8, Problems of transition, 2013 - KJ

Another positive event in the years early months was a victory for one of PNG Attitudes most loyal contributors and supporters, Corney Alone. Corney had campaigned long and hard to scrap the outcome-based education (OBE) system and return to a more traditional objective-based curriculum in Papua New Guineas schools. Finally, as student performance measurements vindicated his stance, the Education Department abandoned the poorly thought out and badly implemented scheme.

In February, PNG Attitude reported the impending departure of Australian High Commissioner, Ian Kemish, who, Keith wrote, (had) proved to be the right person in the right place at the right time for both Australia and Papua New Guinea. Indeed, Kemish  who had been in Papua New Guinea as a school child - had also proved to be the right man on the spot for the introduction of the Crocodile Prize.

His lack of arrogance, ability to go the extra mile, willingness to engage with ordinary Papua New Guineans wherever they were and coolness in crisis were all noticed and appreciated in Papua New Guinea, Keith wrote. Within a couple of hours of the news spreading that Kemish was about to depart, the expressions of regret had already begun to pour in to PNG Attitude. One of them was mine.

When we were working to get the Crocodile Prize national literary awards up and running at the end of 2010, we were in desperate need of a strong, credible and resourced supporter in Papua New Guinea. Ian Kemish stepped forward with a commitment of finance, materiel and personnel. We did not know what Kemish had to contend with or argue against in throwing his weight behind a couple of blokes with no corporate or institutional backing who were trying to promote what they saw as a good idea. I can only assume that Kemish sniffed the air, rubbed his hands, rolled his eyes and decided to back his own judgement.

The result was a successful Crocodile Prize and hundreds of Papua New Guinean writers conveying their experiences, creativity and views on public affairs from a distinctly Melanesian perspective in the process gaining public recognition, publication and funding. Many thousands of Papua New Guineans now had the opportunity to read about their own country and its issues and stories as brought to them by their own countrymen and women. Keith and I were proud of this achievement and that pride could certainly be shared by Ian Kemish who was an Australian who understood Papua New Guinea.

Ians successor was announced a short while later by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She was Deborah Stokes, a senior career officer with the Department, most recently head of its international organisations and legal division. Her time in Papua New Guinea proved unkind for the Crocodile Prize and eventually ended in Ms Stokes mysterious and premature transfer after an imbroglio involving a proposed Australian diplomatic presence in Bougainville.

From the beginning, there was a sense of unease about Ms Stokes, who apparently had had no past experience of Papua New Guinea. PNG Attitude readers wondered about the selection criteria behind such an appointment. To top this off, Richard Marles had been replaced as Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs by Senator Matt Thistlethwaite, who also had no experience of Papua New Guinea. Marles tenure had been a disappointment, but at least he knew the place. In one fell swoop in early 2013, Papua New Guinea had lost contact with anyone in the higher echelons of the Australian government who had any association with the place. Keith Jackson and readers were scathing in their assessment. It seemed that a myopic Australian government  now led by Julia Gillard - was demonstrating its lack of interest in the region.

While these changes were taking place the new Society of Writers, Editors and Publishers (SWEP), under the leadership of Amanda Donigi, seemed to have the 2013 Crocodile Prize competition in hand and Bob Cleland, an ardent supporter of PNG Attitude and the Prize, began an innovative series of writers bungs in Port Moresby. The bungs were small groups of writers who were to meet regularly to read short samples of their own work and receive suggestions and comments. This was a common modus operandi of many writers groups in Australia and seemed to be a concept that would work well in Papua New Guinea.

The venue for the first bung was the Moresby Arts Theatre and members of the SWEP committee, notably Ruth Moiam, Steve Ilave and Regina Dorum, had arranged the venue, invitations, advertising and a light lunch. The meeting attracted 25 attentive and passionate participants. From where I spoke, sitting on the edge of the stage, Bob reported in PNG Attitude, the affirmative nods, the smiles and whispered comments showed that the idea was being accepted. This was confirmed by several speakers in the open session which followed.

Some participants spoke at length and raised interesting and relevant aspects of Papua New Guinean writing, including its linkages with social media. Bob was very happy with this first bung and impressed by the ability and good Papua New Guinean common sense of the writers. Bob Cleland is a fine man who is committed to Papua New Guinea. The son of a pre-independence Administrator, Sir Donald Cleland, and his wife Rachel, who had been a much loved and energetic force in colonial Papua New Guinea, Bob had served as a kiap for twenty-three years and was involved in the construction of the Highlands Highway, an experience chronicled in his book, Big Road.

While Bob was taking this initiative to promote and improve writing in Papua New Guinea, Martyn Namorong won an award for excellence for anti-corruption reporting. His success was reported by Radio Australia:

There were also positive things happening in the most unexpected of places. The Crocodile Prize was beginning to look as if it would sprout branches. Writer Jeff Febi wrote the inspirational story of 38-year old villager Joe Yagama:

In 1991, while still in Grade 8, Joe dropped out of Kundiawas Catholic run Kondiu Rosary High School. Like many young and vulnerable people, he roamed the streets until 2005, when he got a job as a kitchen hand at the Airways Hotel in Port Moresby. After nine months and numerous secret lessons from other kitchen staff, he managed to grace his bosss radar and was promoted to trainee pizza chef. In 2008 his success at Airways enabled him to secure a new job at the Shady Rest Hotel in Moresby. But after only a few months he found himself on the streets again  thanks to workplace lies, deceit and jealousy. But fate wasnt finished with Joe yet.. He applied for and was offered a position with Kutubu Catering Limited  the company that fed the entire Oil Search Limited operations in Kutubu and the surrounding project areas. He was posted to drilling rig 103 where currently he is night chef  a position that requires him to manage the camp at night apart from his kitchen duties. He has handled things well despite the camps mix of international inhabitants and their demands for peculiar dishes. What interests me about Joe is his recent revelation during a casual chat that he is sponsoring a literature competition at Giu Primary School in the Sina Sina-Yongomugl district of Simbu Province. Joe stated that through the competition he aims to motivate and spark passion in students from this rural school to focus on achieving and aim high.

It turned out that Joe was having trouble gaining internet access to PNG Attitude, which was sad to see. His dilemma reflected our concerns about many rural people missing out on what was an open and uncensored source of news, information and commentary. The consolation  for Joe and everyone else - was the rapid expansion of digital services, especially telephony, in Papua New Guinea.

Among the articles on the blog that drew more anguished responses, two types tended to attract the most: articles from the tabloid press canvassing subjects like sorcery and cannibalism; and hyperbolic reports of stone age tribes written for the faithful by missionaries whose Christianity was of a fundamental disposition.

In 2012 there was an account of a so-called ritual widow-killing that angered many Papua New Guinean readers. The article claimed that this custom, of dubious authenticity, was alive and well in the New Guinea Islands. A perusal of church blogs, especially the American fundamentalist missions like New Tribes, gave the impression that hideous pagan rituals and customs were rife in Papua New Guinea.

A common claim was that church evangelists were venturing into areas where no European has ever been. These pioneering treks were closely followed by the discovery of licentious behaviour that could be subsequently ameliorated through the power of prayer. One would be hard pressed to find anywhere in Papua New Guinea where Europeans have not been before and the only conclusion to be drawn was that the missionaries were very gullible or, more likely, lying. The motive for this deliberate deception was presumably to encourage recruits and to raise funds, most probably from the insular American bible belts.

Papua New Guinea is largely a Christian country and the mystical and colourful rituals inherent in Christian practise have wide appeal to a people traditionally saturated in magic, sorcery and ritual. Only among the educated elite does secularism reside, and even then there is frequently acceptance that traditional and modern religiosity can cohabit. Any writers who attack Christianity in Papua New Guinea do so at their own risk. The only other topic that assures such a virulent reaction is homosexuality.

However, these risks have not deterred everybody. A number of the most popular, innovative and influential writers on the blog, such as Martyn Namorong, Michael Dom and Leonard Fong Roka, are secularists, although they are rarely overt and dont go out of their way to be offensive to Christians. Instead, they tend to point out inconsistencies and hypocrisies in a more gentle way. It is a wise approach that is informed by the Melanesian spirit of non-confrontation and acknowledgement of the right of people to believe whatever they want.

Religion can have great value as a support and guiding light in the troubled passage through life; and life can be exceedingly harsh in Papua New Guinea. An atheist might believe the world would be a better place without religion and the seemingly never-ending and destructive wars that rage in its name. But, in a place like Papua New Guinea where the people have been failed so dramatically since independence, it must be acknowledged that, if anyone deserves to the gift of hope, it is them.

The Christian churches do not have squeaky clean hands when it comes to corruption and greed. Some church leaders have been guilty of the same bad behaviour as many politicians and public servants. But it must be acknowledged that the churches, especially the large established ones, provide much-needed essential services such as education and health that the government has consistently f ailed to deliver. There are many dedicated church people who work hard, unselfishly and with great dedication in Papua New Guinea and, a contribution that tends to be inadequately acknowledged.

Until the government wakes up to its responsibilities to the people and establishes equitable services and opportunities, the established churches will fill a crucial void. One day Papua New Guinea, like many western countries, will be in a position to decide where religion fits into its society. The time is not now but PNG Attitude and other similar blogs have a role in exposing the unscrupulous religious carpetbaggers who ply their trade around the country. PNG Attitude also provides significant coverage of church issues and activities, especially where these are consonant with the peoples welfare.

_________

'Fighting for a Voice'  Contents

Introduction

1  Papua New Guinea rediscovered

2  Connecting with the new PNG, 2006

3  The arrival of PNG Attitude, 2007-08

4  Smartening up & toughening up, 2009

5  Welcome to controversy corner, 2010

6  The first Crocodile Prize, 2011

7  Battling the bureaucracy, 2012

8  Problems of transition, 2013

9  Back on track, 2014

10  The end of the beginning, 2015

Prominent PNG Attitude contributors
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)  The average level of the toxic chemical PFOA in the blood of 2,000 Hoosick Falls residents was about 10 times that of the general population, the state Health Department said Friday.

The average level was 23.5 micrograms per liter, compared to 2-6 micrograms nationwide. By comparison, people living in a PFOA-contaminated area around a West Virginia DuPont facility had blood levels averaging as high as 228 micrograms per liter.

The chemical was used for decades in nonstick coatings and has been linked to cancer and other illness.

The Health Department said the blood PFOA level only tells about exposure to the chemical, not the likelihood of health effects. The level typically declines by half every 2-4 years after the exposure source, usually drinking water, is removed.

The Health Department has mailed test results and information packets to residents and is continuing testing as part of the state's investigation of the village's water supply contamination. The agency did not give a range of the highest and lowest levels found in the tests, which were done at the request of residents.

The Department of Environmental Conservation said Friday it has signed agreements with Honeywell International and Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics to pay for the investigation and cleanup of PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid, in public and private wells in the factory village near the Vermont border.

PFOA has been found in the tap water of dozens of towns near industrial sites where it was manufactured. DuPont, 3M and other U.S. chemical companies voluntarily phased it out in recent years.

New York started addressing PFOA contamination in Hoosick Falls in January under pressure from the Environmental Protection Agency. The chemical has also been found in nearby Petersburgh and North Bennington, Vermont.

The state has overseen installation of a temporary filtration system on the Hoosick Falls municipal water supply and filters at homes where private well contamination was confirmed.
A clash between galamsey operators and staff of AGA in Obuasi in the Ashanti Region led to the death of the companys top official in February.

The President of the Chamber, Mr Kwame Addo-Kufuor, noted at a West African Mining and Power Conference (WAMPOC) in Accra that the activities of illegal miners posed a danger to the investment of the mining sector.

Mr Addo-Kufuor, who is also the Regional Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of Newmont Ghana Gold Limited, said, the government must support us to help fight the menace of galamsey to foster confidence in the sector.

Speaking at the same forum, the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, said measures are being put in place to address illegal mining challenges.

Some interventions to address the illegal mining challenge include the passage of the Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2015 (Act 900). Act 900 provides for the confiscation of equipment used in illegal mining, as well as the products mined, Mintah Akandoh said.

He also called on traditional authorities to help build consensus in the mining firms to maximise economic benefits from the mine.
The institution which is one of the first universities in Ghana to offer fashion as degree has over the years churned out innovative and creative students who are making it in the fashion industry today.

The event saw each student from the graduating class showcase a look from their full collection each to be showcased at a spectacular fashion event at the Kempinski Hotel on the 2nd Of July, 2016 in the full glare of the media, family, friends, staff and sponsors.

Nana Dwomoh Sarpong, board chairman of the school who spoke at the event stated that, This event is to tell the world of something big that is coming up on the second of July at Kempinski. If you admired what happened here then be prepared to be thrilled

He added that the school is a model in the fashion industry due to the successes chalked by the alumnus of the school. He went on to ask Government and corporate bodies to invest and support fashion since it was a lucrative venture. This would in effect help the youth of today find something to do with their hands instead of going round looking for none existing jobs.

President of the University, Dr Paul Effah also reiterated the schools vision to produce students who are innovative, entrepreneurial and creative. This he believed had been showcased at the min-fashion show that took place at the event.

Speaking to Pulse.com.gh, Dr. Yvonne Ntiamoah, HOD of the fashion school congratulated her students for putting out an excellent job. She believed that her students were going to excel after four years of hard work, passion, creativity and innovation which she and her faculty members had instilled in the students. According to her, the four year program which ensured that students come up with ideas for the collection also included not only the practical but theoretical aspects where students write thesis for the collections theyve done. She advised the graduating class not to give up, keep pursuing excellence, work hard and stick to their school.

One of the graduating students of 2016, Steve Oduro who spoke to Pulse.com.gh said Its been fun, stressful and sleepless nights this four years but I think I love the results I am seeing. My collection was inspired by the mental asylum and I call it beautiful imperfection, for me growing up the general comment I received from sketches and designs pushed me to research into mental patients and what they wear. I think people should expect out of the norm from my collection

Students of the university have been in the news over the years for their exceptional creativity and out of the box-mentality. Two years ago, a student from their school made headlines by showcasing at the Milan fashion week which happens to be one of the biggest fashion shows in Europe.
For me, I think it probably made sense then when the levy was introduced because we all knew that things were not upright and we needed to squeeze for things to stabilise. But since then, things have changed and all the indicators show that the economy is beginning to show positive signs, he told the Daily Graphic Newspaper on the sidelines of a Stanbic Bank / Graphic Business Executive Breakfast Meeting in Accra.

We have some new taxes in the system, which are directed at the same private sector. So, if we remove the levy now, it will help the same businesses so that they are not too tight, he added.

The levy was to help reduce Ghanas growing deficit. The categories of companies selected to pay the levy include telecom providers, banks (excluding rural banks), insurance banks, non-banking financial institutions, breweries, shipping lines among others.

In April, the CEO of MTN Ghana called for the scrapping of the levy, arguing that it has outlived it usefulness.
In Northern Arizona, spring is an optimal time for home weatherization. Weatherization will help keep homes cool in the hot summer months. And with the monsoon rains right around the corner, its also a good time to check for roof leaks.

Red Feather Development Group, a nonprofit organization in association with Arizona Public Service is hosting a free home weatherization workshop in Tuba City, June 18 and 19. Participants learn how to weatherize their homes and improve the energy efficiency of their homes. The two day workshops are free and every attendee will receive a weatherization kit (valued at $150) upon completing the class. Advance registration is required.

During the class, members work on two of the attendees homes. They assess the challenges, plan the work, execute the work and measure the energy efficiency gained.

At a recent Shongopavi weatherization workshop, one family had a 36 percent increase in energy efficiency after completing the weatherization techniques of window sealing, door weather stripping replacement, and covering drafty holes where pipes and fittings went to the outside. Homeowner Marjorie Joseph said, We all had fun, and what a difference a small effort can make!

Weatherization is the process of identifying and sealing air leaks, and adding insulation to reduce a homes energy use. The result is reduced utility bills and less energy consumption which means less air pollution both in and outside the home.

Special attention is given to how to make the home healthier in the process of sealing it up tighter. The two weatherization measures that generate the most energy savings are sealing leaks and adding insulation. These measures are largely invisible and much of the work can be completed by any homeowner.

According to Red Feather Development Group, the average older, unweatherized home leaks air at a rate equal to a four-foot square hole in the wall. Low income households spend nearly 14 percent of their total annual income on energy costs. The average household can save $350 or more per year on energy after the home is weatherized.

For more information and registration, visit redfeather.org or call 928-440-5122.
Parkinsons is a complicated and devastating disorder that currently doesnt have a cure. But the good news is that scientists have recently taken some promising steps towards one.

Prevalence, causes and medication

Today, there are around 6.3 million people living with Parkinsons worldwide, and approximately 80 000 of these people reside in Australia. By 2030, its estimated the total number of people affected by this disease will have risen to eight million due to the ageing population.

Parkinsons affects both males and females, although males have a slightly higher risk of developing the disease. Most people are aged between 55 and 65 years when they are diagnosed, but you can be affected at any age.

The first symptoms are often trembling or shaking in one hand when it is at rest, or muscle stiffness in the limbs or whole body. But people without Parkinsons may also experience similar symptoms so dont jump to conclusions. Only neurologists who specialise in Parkinsons have the expertise to diagnose the disease.

Approximately one in ten people with Parkinsons have a family history of the disease, but the cause is not known for the other 90%. What we do know is that people with Parkinsons slowly lose cells called neurons in a region of the brain called the substantia nigra.

Neurons in the substantia nigra produce a chemical known as dopamine, which is responsible for movement. When these neurons die, theres not enough dopamine in the brain and this causes the four cardinal motor symptoms  tremor, slow movements, stiffness and loss of balance.

People with Parkinsons disease can be given a number of drugs that replace the lost dopamine in the brain to improve movement. The gold standard of these drugs is called levodopa and may be given alone or in combination with other drugs. Unfortunately, medications of this kind have severe and disabling side effects including nausea, vomiting, constipation and dyskinesias (involuntary movements).

Over time, the drugs become less effective for controlling motor symptoms and patients must take higher doses more frequently to get the same benefit.

What most people dont realise is that Parkinsons patients also suffer from a range of other symptoms unrelated to movement. These are commonly called non-motor symptoms and include loss of smell, anxiety, depression, impotence, fatigue, loss of motivation, sleep disturbances, hallucinations and dementia.

These symptoms are often ignored, but theyre very common and can significantly affect quality of life.

Current research

Research at Neuroscience Research Australia is looking at the role of inflammation in the brains of people with Parkinsons disease.

Cells called glia produce inflammation in the brain. Glia are very important because they perform a number of tasks that support and protect neurons from harm, including releasing chemicals that cause inflammation. But in those suffering from Parkinsons, its thought the glia may be responsible for progression of the disease by releasing an excess of inflammatory chemicals that cause the destruction of neurons.

In a review article published in the journal Movement Disorders, Professor Glenda Halliday and I propose that glia are not only involved in the progression but also at the very earliest stages of Parkinsons disease.

During these early stages, neurons are still alive and the motor symptoms of Parkinsons are not yet present. We think scientists must understand the causes of the early changes in glia to successfully prevent neurons from dying.

This work is supported by findings showing that people who take the anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen at least twice a week, are less likely to develop Parkinsons disease.

This is exciting because it might mean that ibuprofen protects the brain by reducing inflammation  but there are other possible explanations as well. And it also doesnt mean that people should immediately start consuming the drug because if taken regularly, ibuprofen can have severe side effects, such as gastrointestinal bleeding and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

More research is needed to fully understand what this finding means for Parkinsons patients.

People suffering from Parkinsons must endure a spectrum of symptoms ranging from motor problems, such as tremor and stiffness, to the less-recognised non-motor problems, such as dementia and hallucinations.
In a post on his Facebook page on Saturday, the President praised the numerous opportunities social media presents to users, including freedom of expression.

I love the new wave of social media because of my love for freedom of expression. It allows us to get in touch with each other more easily, to receive and spread information, and co-ordinate among ourselves without having to rely on already existing organizations, he said.

Last week, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) John Kudalor, announced that he was considering banning the use of social media during the November 7 polls as one of the measures to safeguard the peace within the country.

His announcement was widely criticized, as many considered it an infringement on human rights and a recipe for chaos.

President Mahama in his post acknowledged that through social media, we all get a voice in our democratic conversation.The President however cautioned that like any other type of freedom, persons who use social media to create and spread falsehood must desist from such practice.

While I do love creativity, I dont think this is the most useful way to be creative-false realities are a waste of time and energy.
Speaking on the theme: ''Accelerating Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development; Bridging Cultures to Achieve Peace and Development, the Deputy Director, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Paul Cudjoe said it was time ECOWAS leaders worked towards self-development of the youth to play a major role in development.

The summit, organised by the Concerned African Youth Forum, under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, brought together the youth, civil society actors, private sector and stakeholders to deliberate and share ideas on issues faced by Africa.

It was attended by 300 participants from 15 West African countries.

The Executive Director of Concerned African Youth Forum, Michael Opeyemi Ige, said the summit was to empower and build potentials of the youth to contribute to Africas development as well as inculcate in them a sense of nationalism.

The summit, according to him, provided an avenue where the youth of ECOWAS member states could convene and be empowered to achieve higher goals.

That is ensuring that the youth actively engage development partners, civil society and government to contribute to developmental issues through dialogue, he said.

He appealed to Chair of the ECOWAS Commission, President Marcel Alain De Souza, to integrate youth activities that would empower the youth through skills training.

The summit, which is a high research based programme, follows the format of the ECOWAS heads of state and government meetings.

The summit discussed issues such as promoting harmony through inter-religious and cross-cultural dialogue; the role of women in fostering peace and security, conflict resolution and peace-building; and the role of the youth in harnessing the positive power of social media to ensure peace and security.

The outcome of these discussions would be presented to the ECOWAS Commission for consideration and implementation.

The Leader of Ghanas Team, Fusena Aziz, said the summit would go a long way to build individual confidence and prepare the youth for future leadership roles.
Dr. Bawumia on Friday began a two-day tour of three Tema Constituencies.

He first paid a courtesy call of the Tema Mantse, Nii Adjetey Kraku II to officially seek his blessings and prayers before proceeding to tour the Metropolis.

The former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana outlined some policies of an NPP government under Nana Akufo-Addo which will revamp the economy and create jobs and prosperity for Ghanaians.

On Saturday, he undertook a house to house campaign in Klagon and Kiosk Estates in the Tema West Constituency.

He also addressed community durbars in each of these communities.
In his June 4 address at the commemoration of the June 4 uprising in Accra, the ex-President said: Developments over the past year on both the political and social front have once again exposed the extent of political and social disorder and dishonesty that is eating our country up like a malignant tumor.

The June 4 uprising is commemorate each year to remember the violent uprising in Ghana in 1979 that arose out of a combination of corruption, bad governance, lack of discipline in the army and frustrations in the army and among the general public.

I receive the he usual abuse and tribulations from cowards who in their delusion assume their ill-acquired wealth makes them untouchable regardless of the power and conviction of the ordinary hardworking and liberal people of this country.

Ex-President Rawlings indicated that bad governance has resulted in the pollution and destruction of the countrys environment which is affecting the lives of citizens.

He complained saying, in our country, the abuse has become dire because of the abuse of our water bodies through the dumping of non-degradable waste like plastics, metals, chemicals and other poisonous materials.

The senseless abuse of water bodies in the name of illegal mining has further exasperated by the senseless abuse of our rivers and lakes for the new found craze for illegal mining.
According to him, the recent attacks on government following the commissioning of the Komenda Sugar Factory in the Central Region.

Sometimes, we need to tamper our criticisms. It is not everything that needs to be criticised, he said during a panel discussion on Accra-based Radio Gold.

The countrys main opposition, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the founder of the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP), Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom have questioned how government will get the needed raw materials to feed the newly refurbished factory.

Where will the sugarcane come from immediately to provide raw materials for this factory? Why did the raw material project not come first? How will we ensure that the sugar produced will be competitive against imports? Will the government protect this factorys products and how? What measures have been put in place to insulate this factory against partisan politics so it is not abandoned when a party other than the NDC wins power? Dr. Nduom asked.

In response, Mr. Kwakye Ofosu said persons, including Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom who are suggesting that sugar cane plantations should have been set up before the factory was rehabilitated have no basis.

No farmer will go and grow sugarcane in anticipation of the setting up of a factory. It has taken two years to build this factory. It takes only six months or even less, between the time that you plant sugar cane and between the time that you harvest so assuming that sugar cane was planted before the commencement of the factory, it means that the sugar cane will be harvested and it will rot because there will be no ready market for it, he explained.

He argued that the first thing which needed to be done was to guarantee the producers of the raw material of a ready market for it to become the basis upon which they will go into a venture.
ALSO READ: Actor spotted with another woman amidst divorce battle

Jerry Judge who been Depp's security detail for about 15 years now, is reported to have been over heard making the accusations at the lobby of the hotel where the star actor had lodged in Denmark for a performance on Wednesday, June 1, 2016.

Mail Online reports that Judge was heard saying:

"The things she is saying are not true... She is making things up to hurt Johnnys reputation and make her look like the victim.

"She is exaggerating what she says he did to her to get a bigger divorce payout... thats the only reason. To say Johnny assaulted her is a lie. She is making it up.

"I dont believe her... Johnny wouldnt hurt her."

Judge joins a long list of friends and family members who have openly refuted Heard's domestic abuse claims, with a friend of Depp's, Doug Stanhope, going out of his way to write an explosive column on TheWrap.com, detailing how the actor had disclosed that his wife of 15 months was leaving him and planned to blackmail him.

Of course, Heard is now suing Stanhope for what her law suit filing on Friday, June 3, 2016, describes as a 'defamatory article', all the same things are looking bleaker for Heard everyday.

Although Heard had earlier requested for spousal support which had immediately been shot down, she still stands to gain as much as half of Depp's $400 million fortune in the divorce due to the lack of a prenuptial agreement, something the 52-year-old actor plans to avoid at all costs.
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Saturn, one of the more familiar and alluring features of the night sky, is now well-positioned to wow observers. While it will remain visible until lost in Novembers setting Sun, now is an ideal time to view Saturn because of its relatively close approach to Earth. The farthest planet easily visible with the unaided eye, this jewel of the solar system has no problem showing off its bling, capturing the imagination of viewers young and old.

For centuries, Saturn has been referred to as the ringed planet because of the brilliant bands circling it. Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, which with Saturn comprise the solar systems four gas giants, also have rings, but the tenuous nature and dusty composition of these features obscured their presence until the 1970s-80s.

The discovery of Saturns rings, on the other hand, dates back to 1610, when Galileo first observed and documented Saturn through a telescope. Using a crude, 1.5-inch-diameter instrument that magnified only about 20 times, Galileo noted to my very great amazement Saturn was seen by me to be not a single star, but three together, which almost touch each other. They are completely immobile and are situated in this manner, the one in the middle rather larger than the lateral ones.

Galileo figured the two smaller bodies to be satellites orbiting Saturn, but when he revisited the planet through the telescope two years later, the satellites were gone. Galileo concluded that the features he saw were some sort of arms. Not until the 1650s did Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens, using a much better telescope than Galileos and one that magnified 50 times, realize that the satellites were, in fact, a system of rings, and that the appearance of these rings changed regularly (Saturn does have moons, with the current count standing at 62).

Spacecraft in the 20th century revealed that what astronomers thought of as a few major rings around Saturn are actually thousands of thin, tenuous ones. While political satirist Mark Russell supported the hypothesis that the rings are composed entirely of lost airline luggage, astronomers know now that water ice is the main ingredient.

Saturn is named after the Roman god of agriculture and is the namesake of Saturday. Like Jupiter, Saturn is comprised of about 75 per cent hydrogen, 25 per cent helium, and only some traces of other elements. Its core is solid and perhaps the size of Earth. The rotation of this core creates a strong magnetic field that, like Earths magnetic field, interacts with charged particles emanating from the Sun to create aurorae.

Due to intense heat created in Saturns interior, the planet radiates more energy into space than it receives from the Sun, which is about 885 million miles awayover nine times the distance from Earth to the Sun. Because of this distance, sunlight that takes eight minutes to reach Earth needs another hour and ten minutes to arrive at Saturn. Its greater distance from the Sun also means that one Saturn year equals 29.5 Earth years (nearly 11,000 Earth days).

Saturn is easily visible as a point of light to the unaided eye; a magnified view through a telescope will reveal its rings, atmospheric features, and several moons. Throughout June, it will be the featured object to view during public observing sessions at Lowell Observatory.
The charity worker identified as Gogo Daniel Ume aka Full Payment, disclosed to the police that he usually donates food items and gifts to his church after every successful operation.

Shortly after the arrest of the suspects identified as Ume Ikadoi Michael Isere aka White Witch, and Ifeanyi Kalu, they confessed to their crime spree that had included numerous kidnappings and bank heists within the last three years.

The reports also revealed that during their interrogation, the suspects confessed to carrying out the two bullion van robberies which had reportedly taken place between 2014 and 2015 at a Diamond Bank branch at Trans Amadi, Port Harcourt, making away with N360m.

PUNCH Metro reports the gang also undertook series of kidnappings and car-jacking which had fetched them millions of naira.

Ume also disclosed the use of a mole in the the form an IT student who aided a robbery attack they had carried out on a Fidelity Bank in Port Harcourt, where the student had been attached for his Industrial Training.

The above listed are a few amongst many other robberies the gang had carried out over the last three years before meeting their water loo.
Saraki said In 2008, thousands of Nigerian children started taking a teething medicine that contained toxic chemicals. By February 2009 over 90 Nigeria babies had died from consuming the mixture. This is despicable and to say the least unacceptable.

He said the move by the lawmakers will ensure that those found guilty will pay a N2m fine.

Punch reports that the Senate President said this at the public hearing on a Bill for an Act to Amend the Counterfeit and Fake Drugs and unwholesome processed Foods Act.

He also said the properties and assets of those convicted will be seized by the Federal Government.

The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) has announced that the trial of Senate President, Bukola Saraki will resume on Thursday, June 7, 2016.
Reports say the police arrested leaders of the Oyo state chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) while they were protesting over the governments plan to privatise public schools in the state.

The President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba said the decision to privatise the public schools is unjust, adding that the children of the poor will not have access to education if the plan falls through.

Wabba also said These public schools were built with the blood and sweat of the people and not a few, including Your Excellency and members of your cabinet, were grand beneficiaries of this public school system.

To auction out these schools, lock, stock and barrel, to the highest bidders offends moral decency and social justice as it denies generations of the children of the poor access to education guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution as amended.

History, we dare say, will be reluctant to forgive you, if you impose it on the people using garrison powers.

The NLC President said the Governors decision to privatise the public schools without consulting the people is a breach of trust.

Adding that We wish to express our dismay at the harassment, arrest and detention of our members for peacefully protesting against governments policy of giving away public schools to individuals or organisations in the guise of Public-Private Partnership.

Please do permit us to state that the right to peaceful protest against a wrong is guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution (as amended), Labour Laws, ILO Conventions to which Nigeria is signatory, and Human Rights Laws and cannot be abridged by government.

Human rights lawyer, of the labour leaders.
The governor said this on Friday, June 3, in Ibadan when he received some officers of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS).

He bemoaned the attitude of labour leaders in the state, following the disruption of a stakeholders' meeting organised by the state government to share ideas on the policy.

The governor said those who came to disrupt the meeting should have come there to say no to the policy, rather than resorting to brigandage, destruction and passing innuendos.

"The era of brigandage, destruction and lawlessness is gone and we won't allow such again here.

"Many of those who participated in the protest have their children in private schools; they are not even in the services of the state government but derive pleasure in disrupting public peace."

He said the state government in 2012 held an educational summit, where certain findings were gathered.

"Our findings were categorised into school management system, infrastructure, quality and quantity of teachers, likewise quality of students, the governor said.

According to him, the government, based on the findings, has decided to rectify identified problems, for the citizens to get the best of the education they are paying for.

Ajimobi said that the PPP was just about a group of people partnering the state government in the development of some schools in the state.

Earlier, the General Secretary of NANS, Mr Olanrewaju Oloja, said the team visited the governor to seek clarification on the intention of the state government's PPP policy on secondary schools.

Oloja, who appreciated the governor for his usual support to the students in the state, called on him to support them with payment of bursary.

He appealed to the government to make education affordable, improve the quality, and ensure better welfare of workers.
The Governor said the soldiers behind the incident will be fished out and sanctioned.

Heavily armed gunmen reportedly invaded the Lagos residence of the Governor's mother, Mrs. Christianah Ambode, at 24 Oguntona Crescent, Gbagada Estate I at around 7.30pm on Friday.

The attackers were said to have disarmed Mrs Ambode's police detail in what neighbours described as an attempt to kidnap the Governor's mother.

But according to Ambode's Chief Press Secretary, Habib Haruna, the incident occurred between the security detail of the Governor's mother and unruly military personnel attached to Operation Mesa, a military patrol team in the state.

We would like to put on record that the disturbance was not a kidnap attempt on the Governors mother as nothing untoward happened to her, Haruna said.

What really transpired was that a man parked his vehicle in front of the residence of the Governors mother and the security detail attached to the building asked him not to park there so as not to block the entrance.

The statement explained that the unidentified driver who triggered the violence was a military man in mufti.

The man who claimed to be a military personnel was not in uniform as at the time of the unfortunate incident but he insisted on parking in front of the building on the ground that he was a military personnel.

He then went on to invite military personnel attached to Operation MESA to beat Mrs. Ambodes police details after he was advised not to park his vehicle outside the building, the statement said.

It was gathered that the attackers fled as a police reinforcement arrived the scene, and are yet to be unmasked.

At the moment, officials of the State Government are taking appropriate steps to sanction the unruly military personnel who joined their colleague to disturb public peace, the statement added.
It was the deadliest attack carried out in Niger by the Islamist group since April 2015, when at least 74 people, including 28 civilians, were killed at the Lake Chad island of Karamga.

"The counter-offensive conducted early this morning helped to retake control of all the positions in the city of Bosso. The situation is under control," the defence ministry said in a statement. "A sweep is ongoing in the area with the mobilisation of all land and air means".

Seven others from Niger and eight from Nigeria were injured in the attack that targeted a military post, according to the ministry, which reported "several deaths" among the assailants.

The town of Bosso is part of the Diffa region, where many refugees and internally displaced people have sought shelter from Boko Haram violence elsewhere. The region has been targeted numerous times in attacks blamed on the militants.

Around 200 people took the streets on Saturday in the capital Niamey to voice support for the population in Diffa and to ask for an audit of military spending as they denounced a "lack of results" from army action.

Along with Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Benin, Niger has contributed troops to an 9,000-strong regional task force dedicated to fighting the group that has so far survived attempts by African armies to destroy it.

"The terrorist threat remains a concern to our subregion," said Senegal's president Macky Sall, the incumbent chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).

"We must face it by combining all our resources in a comprehensive long-term perspective," he told an Ecowas summit in Dakar on Saturday.

"We must at the same time remove any confusion in terminology: there is no Islamic state in West Africa matching the terrorist aims of Boko Haram. Boko Haram remains Boko Haram and Islam has nothing to do with terrorism and its killing spree".
According to a statement issued by the DHQ spokesman, Rabe Abubakar, on Saturday, June 4, the terrorists plan to carry out the attacks during morning and evening prayers.

Information available to this headquarters indicated plans by terrorists to use the Ramadan periods which usually attracts gathering of large number of persons during morning and evening worships and prayers to carryout large scale bombings, he said.

Against this background, the defence headquarters (DHQ) wishes to once again advice the general public to be watchful of strange persons and objects in their localities particularly, around places of worships and to promptly report same to security agencies.

It is further to advice that adequate security and surveillance be evolved by respective places of worship to forestall any unwholesome acts by some unscrupulous elements.

The DHQ wishes to reassure law abiding citizens to go about their normal businesses while efforts are being made to eliminate the remnants of the terrorists from their hideouts as well as addressing other security challenges in the country, Abubakar.
This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Saturday, June 4, by the presidents Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina.

It said Buhari condoled with the husband of the deceased, Pastor Mike Agbaheme, the family and relations, praying that God would give them the fortitude to bear the loss.

The statement commended the law enforcement agents for apprehending the prime suspect in the killing.

It also commended the Kano State Government for summoning a meeting of Christian and Islamic leaders, widower of the deceased, and security agencies, as soon as the sad event occurred.

"The president assured that justice would be done in the matter, and urged the people not to take the law into their hands.

"He charged those who might want to use the development to fan the embers of religious or ethnic hatred to remember that two wrongs never make a right.

"When law and order breaks down, those who become victims are never distinguished on the basis of religion or ethnicity.

It stated that the incident at Kofar Wambai market, Kano city, was utterly condemnable, and the state government has been quite proactive.

"Let us ensure that we keep the peace, as justice will be done. Let us learn to respect each other's faith, so that we can know each other and live together in peace, the President said in the statement.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), recalls that the late Bridget Agbaheme, a mother of one, was murdered for alleged blasphemy against Islam.

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Col. Sani Usman, the Acting Director Army Public Relations said in a statement in Maiduguri that the operation followed the receipt of credible information on the presence of the camps and facilities of the insurgents in the village.

He said a carefully planned and deliberate attack, comprising troops of 22 Brigade Garrison, 153 Task Force Battalion of 7 Division, 8 Task Force Division, Nigeria Air Force Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (ISR) and some Civilian JTF, was carried out.

"While advancing to the location, the troops encountered Boko Haram terrorists ambush positions at Muskari, Gilam and Hausasi, before descending on their main objective at Chukungudu.

"During the encounter at the camp, the troops killed 19 Boko Haram terrorists, including their notorious leader in the area called Ameer Abubakar Gana,'' Usman said.

He said that the troops also uncovered and destroyed Improvised Explosive Devise (IED) making factory during the operation.

"They also discovered and destroyed the terrorists IEDs making factory, discovered and successfully detonated four primed IEDs.

"The troops also recovered two Anti-Aircraft Guns, one AK-47 Rifle, a Pistol, one Rocket Propelled Gun (RPG) Bomb, one AK-47 Magazine, 267 rounds of 7.62mm (NATO) metal links ammunition and 23 rounds of 12.7mm belt ammunition.

 Other recovered items include a Canter truck, 1 Gun truck, 1 Land Rover vehicle and a Toyota Hilux vehicle.,'' he said.

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He said he has opened up to labour leaders on the financial situation of the state, admitting that the situation might remain the same until the country finds a solution to the economic crisis due to the sharp decline in the price of oil.

I want to tell workers that I have placed myself on indefinite strike in solidarity with them. I share your pains, but it is rather unfortunate that a man cant give what he doesnt have, he said in a broadcast.

Presently, I am handicapped and there is nothing I can do. I appeal that you put the interest of the state above everything, because the present position affects everybody.

I have told you the true position of the finances of the state, of which you had played critical roles in allocation of federal allocations to relevant sectors which shows how well I had carried you along since the dwindling revenue to the state commenced.

During my first term, I mean, 2003 to 2006, I used to pay salary of workers by 21st of every month. But the present situation is very unfortunate and we have to learn how to live with it until the country wriggles out of it and things will change for better.

I want to say that I will be expecting you back to your offices when you are ready to return to work. I shall be expecting you, Fayose said.
Although the Presidency promised that the details would be released last Thursday, at the latest, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, made the revelation in a statement issued on Saturday, June 4.

The President Muhammadu Buhari administration said it has recovered the total of N78 billion from May 29, 2015 to May 25, 2016.

According to the statement, the recoveries under interim forfeiture (cash and assets) during the period is a total of one hundred and twenty six billion, five hundred and sixty three million, four hundred and eighty one thousand, and ninety five naira, forty three kobo; Nine billion, ninety million, two hundred and forty three thousand, nine hundred and twenty Dollars, fifteen cents ($9,090,243,920.15); Two million, four hundred and eighty four thousand, four hundred and forty seven Pounds, fifty five Pence (2,484,447.55 Pounds Sterling); and Three hundred and three thousand, three hundred and ninety-nine Euros, 17 cents (303,399.17 Euros)

The Minister also disclosed that the financial and assets recoveries made by the various government agencies from May 29 , 2015 to May 26, 2016, are still awaiting return from foreign jurisdictions.

He put the total of the funds at $321,316,726.1 (Three hundred and twenty one million, three hundred and sixteen thousand, seven hundred and twenty six Dollars, one cent); 6,900,000 Pounds (Six million, nine hundred thousand Pounds) and 11,826.11 Euros (Eleven thousand, eight hundred and twenty six Euros, 11 cents).

Mohammed further revealed that non-cash recoveries during the period totals 239, which includes Farmlands, Plots of Land, Uncompleted Buildings, Completed Buildings, Vehicles and Maritime Vessels.

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The Niger Delta Avengers militant group, which says its attacks have not killed anyone, also urged a group that said it has anti-aircraft missiles not to target any aircraft.

The recent spate of attacks in the Niger Delta, which is Nigeria's oil producing hub, have driven the OPEC member's crude output to a more than 20-year low and prompted President Muhammadu Buhari to send troops to the region.

The region is the source of most of the oil that provides 70 percent of national income. The Avengers group wants more of that wealth to be directed to the poor swampland region.

But "the war is on oil installations," it said in a statement which referred to "the daily emergence of new groups" and added: "Avengers will deal with any group that refuses and attacks military (personnel)."

The statement, entitled "Message to Our Brothers in the Struggle", added: "The high command is calling on all groups in Rivers, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom to not indulge in any act of kidnapping and attacking of soldiers."

The Avengers have claimed responsibility for most of the latest attacks, most recently three on Friday, but the insurgency is splintered into factions, with each group listing their demands. It is not clear whether the Avengers wield influence over other groups.

They have said they aim to cut Nigeria's oil production to zero. The oil minister said on Thursday that output was 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), down from around 2 million bpd at the start of the year.
Spokesman for the air force, Ayodele Famuyiwa, said the military is fully prepared to end militancy, economic sabotage and all forms of criminalities in the south-south region of the country."

The additional platforms, comprising fighter aircraft, helicopter gunship and surveillance aircraft, are intended to enhance the capability of the NAF to undertake offensive air operations and intelligence gathering in support of the surfaces forces, he said in a statement.

Since the recent deployment the NAF has increased air operations around critical infrastructure in Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom States. These include but not limited to Escravos, Forcados in Delta State; Bonga oil field, Agbami offshore and Brass in Bayelsa; Bony in Rivers; Qua Iboe Terminal in Akwa Ibom State, and Opuekeba in Ondo State.

Meanwhile, the NAF wishes to urge members of the public not to panic at the sight of low level flying aircraft but to go about their legitimate businesses. The NAF also enjoins any member of the public to avail it or other security agencies with useful information about the where about or activities of the militant group, Famuiwa added.

The military had deployed some arsenal to the region last week.

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King Godwin Giniwa, Chairman, Supreme Council of Ogoni Traditional Rulers, said his people were happy that President Buhari kept his promise of implementing the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report.

He said the failure of former President Goodluck Jonathan to clean-up Ogoniland was a mistake.

"I was very disappointed. I want politicians to keep to their words as President Buhari has done," he said.

The traditional ruler urged the President to ensure that the Bonny-Bodo road was constructed and the Ogonis axis of the East-West road completed.

He also urged the president to appoint of Ogoni people into positions of trust.

Ginwa thanked the Minister of Transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi, for standing for Ogoni people when it mattered most.

In his Remark, Mr Legborsi Pyagbara, President, Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) said the launching of the implementation of UNEP8 Report confirmed Buhari as a man of integrity.

"The flag-off of the implementation of UNEP Report is a clear testament to a leader whose word has become a bond and had set him apart from other leaders across the continent.

"President Buhari is the latest export of the African continent to the global community on issues of leadership, honesty, integrity and discipline," he said.

Pyagbara said environmental restoration of Ogoniland was a central plan of their struggle hence the launching was the beginning of victory.

"Our strategy of non-violence has been vindicated with the launching of the clean-up of our land initiated by the President," he said.

Dr Peter Medee, President of KAGOTE, an Ogoni elite group thanked Buhari for taking the bold step to kick-start the implementation of UNEP Report.

Medee said the people of Ogoni have been in environmental devastation for years, so it was a thing of joy that the clean-up had begun.

"Ogonis were mocked for using non-violent ways to drive our struggle to the shore but today we have been vindicated because non-violence has been rewarded.

"We are indeed very proud of President Buhari. Who else is your brother than who that will care for you", he said.
ALSO READ: Yvonne Nelson teases new TV series

The television series will reportedly feature prominent Nollywood actors, Desmond Elliot and Segun Arinze, amongst others.

The police force made the revelation today, June 4, 2016, while addressing journalists in Abuja on the subject.

Speaking at the gathering, the spokesperson of the Force, Mrs Olabisi Kolawole, revealed that the television series, titledBeyond your sight, will be effective in informing members of the public about the new police force while strengthening the bond between the masses and the Police.

Mrs Kolawole said:

Consequently, Beyond your sight documents, serialises and disseminates landmark operational intelligence, investigative exploits and processes of prosecution by the Force.

In so doing, the police TV series aims at bringing to the fore the concrete efforts of the Nigeria Police at preventing and unraveling crime; while educating and enlightening people."

She went on to add that the programme is aimed at informing citizens about their personal security as well as the collective responsibilities of the masses towards the national security.
The state Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Salisu Tanko Wusono, stated this while addressing newsmen in Kaduna on Friday, June 3.

Wusono was reacting to the inauguration of advisory council members for AKIDA group, a faction of the APCin the state backed by Senator Shehu Sani, Isah Ashiru, Dr Hakeem Baba Ahmed, among others.

He continued: We have given people enough time to adjust to the reality that they are not in a position to hold the party or the process of change to ransom just because of their personal interests," Wusono said.

In Kaduna State, Malam Nasiru Ahmed El-Rufai is making strides that are obvious even to the malicious. We pray Allah to strengthen our leaders, preserve their health and enhance them in the service of the people.

APC in Kaduna State is very proud of the successes recorded by Malam El-Rufai and his government. How can we not be pleased with a man who is using the APC manifesto as his guide in government? The achievements in the education sector are happening because the APC manifesto recognises education as a proprity and our APC governor is implementing that manifesto faithfully.

The school feeding programme is improving the nutrition of our 1.5 million primary school pupils who are fed every school day. This programme which aims to provide assist in the physical and mental development of our children is also creating jobs for the women are working as vendors and cooks.

The Kaduna APC welcomes the steps taken to recruit more teachers and to support current teachers to upgrade their skills. We register with utmost delight our appreciation to Malam Nasiru El-Rufai for the decision to allow teachers to reach Grade level 17 without having to abandon the noble professoon of teaching.

The APC government has energised the Kaduna economy with contracts for school renovations, provision of boreholes, supply of furniture and the sewing of free uniforms for secondary school students. We are seeing township roads, solar street lights and work to dualise some roads. The prudent displayed in achieving saving of N1.1 billipn on the Kawo road project is especially commendable.

The APC also notes and appreciates the impressive steps taken to move Zaria water project forward. We welcome the rehabilitation of waterworks across the state, and the revival of irrigation projects. We salute Malam El-Rufai for the fertilizer feat, and we look forward to further improvements to the agricultural sector.

The APC Kaduna wishes to commend the government for delivering on its promise of free healthcare for infants and pregnant women. We welcome the prizes and awards won by the health care workers in Kaduna. We are looking forward to the commissioning of the 255 modernised Primary Health Centres, one in each ward of our state.

Our party is very happy to note the job creation efforts and the initiatives to foster employment paths for our youths. We welcome the injection of 2,503 young people into KASTELEA, and we congratulate the government for KADSTEP, the Kaduna Start-up entrepreneurship programme, which is providing educated youth a chance for business training and access to funds.

Senator Sani and others who belong to the APC AKIDA faction had on Thursday, June 2, emerged as members of the party's advisory council members.

According to the state executive committee member who is part of the APC AKIDA said, Tom Mataimaki Maiyasje, we exist because our party structures do not exist or function in a manner prescribed by our party constitution or in the interest of our members and one of our key goals is to help to re-establish party structures at all levels."

Speaking to newsmen in kaduna on Thursday, Maiyasje stated noted that the APC in the state has deliberately hijacked and incapacitated, adding that members are deprived of a major asset to exercise their rights to be served by a party which put the El-rufai government in power.

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The official Bahrain News Agency said 11 of those who escaped on Friday, June 3 had since been recaptured, and six remained at large. Five others who aided in the planning and execution of the escape had also been arrested, it quoted police as saying.

The news agency said Interior Minister Sheikh Rashed bin Abdullah al-Khalifa, chairing a security meeting to review the circumstances of the escape from the Dry Dock Detention Center, warned Bahrainis against harbouring the fugitives.

The news agency did not say whether the escapees were prisoners jailed for anti-government demonstrations or attacks, or inmates convicted of ordinary crimes.

Thousands of mainly Shi'ite Muslim Bahrainis are in jail on charges ranging from participating in anti-government protests to armed attacks on security forces in the Western-allied Gulf kingdom, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based.

Social media users posted at least one photo of a road where traffic was backed up for miles, and said it was caused by police closing roads to search for the prisoners on the run.

Bahrain was rocked in 2011 by Arab Spring-style mass protests staged mainly by the Shi'ite community demanding political and economic reforms, including a bigger share in running the country.

The government, with backing from Saudi Arabia, put down the protests by force, but demonstrators continue to erupt from time to time, often drawing swift response from police.

Bahrain accuses Iran of fomenting unrest and backing militants who have been increasingly attacking security forces using improvised bombs. Iran denies supporting militants.

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The incident took place in Muramvya province, about 50 km (30 miles) east of the capital Bujumbura. The schoolchildren, aged between 12 and 17 years old, were marching on the highway between Bujumbura and Gitega.

"We were in the streets to ask for the release of our colleagues who were unjustly arrested, then some police officers who were in a pick-up vehicle of the intelligence office opened fire on us, a colleague was hurt by one bullet and was taken to hospital for treatment," one student told Reuters.

The five students had spoiled Nkurunzizas photo in a book, a school administrator said.

Burundi has been mired in a year-long crisis in which more than 450 people have been killed since Nkurunziza pursued and won a third term. Opponents said his move violated the constitution and a deal that ended a civil war in 2005.

Nkurunziza's camp says a court ruling had declared the former rebel-turned-president eligible to seek another term.

Two weeks ago, more than 300 students of a school in the capital's Ruziba neighbourhood were sent home for the same reason.

Due to concerns about the behavior of Burundian security forces at home, the United Nations in February said its peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic would repatriate three military officers on suspicion they committed human rights violations during political unrest back in Burundi.

The world body went further on Friday, announcing that the country's police units would no longer serve in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic once their current tour is completed.

"In light of the current situation in Burundi, a decision has been taken at U.N. headquarters not to replace the units serving in the country when their tour of duty ends," U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in New York.

Senior U.N. police adviser Stefan Feller of Germany later told reporters in New York that the decision had been a result of allegations of serious human rights violations by the police back home in Burundi.

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Spokesman Mohamed al-Gasri said the capture of the base, about 20 km (12 miles) from the centre of Sirte, was strategically significant since it cut off supply routes for Islamic State and "trapped them further" within the city.

The brigades, mainly made up from fighters from the western city of Misrata, have driven Islamic State back to the outskirts of Sirte from the west over the past three weeks. They counter-attacked after Islamic State had advanced towards Misrata in early May.

To the east, a separate force that controls oil terminals and is also loyal to the U.N.-backed government captured two small towns from Islamic State earlier this week.

Western states are hoping the U.N.-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, creating its most significant base outside Iraq and Syria, and gaining control over Sirte last year.

The U.N.-backed government's prime minister told Reuters on Friday that it was too early to give a timeframe for the battle for Sirte, but that he was confident that Libyan forces could unite to retake the city.

Most of Sirte's population of about 80,000 is thought to have fled, and Gasri previously said residents who remain would be given a chance to escape before the government-backed brigades advanced into residential areas.

"We are concerned now because Daesh (Islamic State) militants are hiding among civilians inside the city" of Sirte, Gasri said on Saturday.
The new Element Hotel by Starwood, which will adjoin The Q rail station in Moline, is part of an expansion that will double the hotel's footprint across North America over the next three years, company officials said.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. announced Element will open another 22 hotels by the end of 2018 across the United States and Canada, debuting in six markets including Moline. This will be the first Element hotel in Illinois.

"Element Hotels is experiencing unprecedented growth momentum throughout North America, as well as in a number of key global markets, due to the widespread appeal of the brand's distinct lifestyle positioning," said Brian McGuinness, global brand leader for Special Select Brands for Starwood. "Sustainability is no longer optional; it's become a requirement among a growing number of travelers worldwide."

The $13.5 million extended-stay Moline Element is being developed by the Amin Group as part of the multi-modal station now named The Q. The Belmont, California-based Amin Group also owns the nearby Radisson on John Deere Commons.

Both The Q and the hotel are being built in the former O'Rourke Brothers Building, built in 1917 as a Sears, Roebuck warehouse.

Ray Forsythe, Moline's planning and development director, said the hotel construction is expected to begin this month or by July at the latest. The Amin Group has hired Russell Construction for the hotel project.

The city's portion of the project, which includes the passenger rail station and the adjoining retail area, is at various points of construction. He said the exterior renovations and tuckpointing on the building are nearly complete. "We've done all the abatement of lead paint and asbestos and the general cleanup."

Another bid package, for an estimated $10 million to build on the Grand Hall and the interior buildout of the retail spaces, will go out to bid June 16. This portion is being funded by a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER II, grant. The federal monies must be spent by the end of 2017.

In the retail area, Forsythe said "We will build the walls and the Amin Group will finish the space."

"Our part is to be done in December," he said, adding that the hotel will be able to begin its addition on the east side of the building immediately. "The biggest coordinating is on the first floor (the retail area)."

The hotel has a target opening of April 2017, according to Starwood. The main floor will include the hotel lobby and 5,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and cafe space. It will share the main floor with the Grand Hall, which will be built on the east side of the building. There will be ticketing counters and a waiting area for the high speed rail terminal. The 90 guest rooms will occupy the second to sixth floors.
CORDOVA  Dave Duncan and Justin Wall share a history at Exelon Quad-Cities Generating Station, having started at the nuclear plant on the same day eight years ago.

Both men are radiation protection technicians who live in Morrison, Illinois, and are natives of the region. And now both are together in their deep concern for what could happen to the neighboring communities if the plant closes in two years, as Exelon Corp. announced Thursday.

"We've lived here all our lives; we know what this plant means to our communities," Duncan, 30, said. "When we were young there were four or five good places to work, Case IH, Deere, Exelon. But this place has stood the test of time. This has really been the economic engine of this area."

Wall, 35, a lifelong Morrison resident, also worries about the impact on Erie School District, which receives $4 million of almost $8 million Exelon pays in property taxes. His wife is a teacher in Erie.

"If we lose this, we'll never replace these jobs," he said.

In addition to 800 Exelon employees at the Cordova station, Duncan said another 200 contractors work there on any given day.

"It's not just on the outages; there are crafts here every day," he said. An outage will bring in another 1,000 to 1,500 workers.

Duncan suspects he will have to uproot his wife and four young girls to move to another Exelon plant if the closing happens.

"But my parents still live in Erie; they're retired," he said. "But think about what would happen to just the tax money (the plant pays). Erie would be in shambles if this places closes down."

In addition, a shutdown would mean an exodus of many Exelon workers from all the small surrounding communities, such as Cordova, Morrison, Fulton, Erie and Clinton in Iowa. Wall could face the same prospect of uprooting his family, including a 1-year-old son.

Both men also have been actively involved in campaigning for legislation that Exelon says it needs to keep the plant operating.

Wall told a group of retirees at the plant Friday that they could help by contacting AARP Illinois, which is against the energy reform bill.

"They are against it because of a 25-cent increase (on average monthly bills)," he said. "What opponents are not mentioning is the cost to the consumer will go up between $200 million and $300 million (if the plant closes). That's more than a quarter."

"We're not for or against anything renewable; we just want this one saved," Duncan said, adding the public needs to understand nuclear energy's reliability. "We produce at 95 percent capacity; wind operates at 25-30 percent, and solar is about 20 percent capacity."

But with wind energy being subsidized with tax dollars, it lower wind's production costs and drives power prices down.

"We have to match those,'' he said.
A bicycle zips through Davenports River Heritage Park with a swoosh Friday afternoon as the rider says, Beautiful day.

A man leans against a railing made to look like the nearby Government Bridge, taking in the Mississippi River view, while the Celebration Belle turns a loop in the pool above Lock and Dam 15 before cruising back to its Moline berth.

A woman parks her bicycle beside a bench in the park on East River Drive and rests for a while as a couple just upstream puts down fishing lines.

Little of this would have been possible decades ago.

Davenport has spent the past 30 years greening its nine miles of riverfront. Considering what it looks like today, it is hard to believe this same shore was once home to warehouses, grain elevators, rail yards and a landfill, according to some lifelong residents.

Former Mayor Thom Hart can remember rats that used to swarm the end of Marquette Street around the old garbage dump.

The 180-degree transformation from strictly utilitarian use to recreational haven has very nearly been realized. There is still the occasional industrial facility and crane blending into the background, and rail freight continues to scream its way along the riverfront. But the leisure seekers have clearly taken over, as city officials continue to vote for greenspace whenever land becomes available.

To that extent, the city shows no signs of slowing down. When the old Dock restaurant overlooking the lock and dam was torn down last year and a deal to erect a three-story office building there fell through, the city replaced the concrete patch with grass seed and left it open.

Now eyes turn to the foot of Main Street and what could happen after the riverboat casino sails away for good.

We really are starting with a nice, clean slate down there, said Karl Rhomberg, a member of the Davenport Levee Improvement Commission and longtime advocate for opening up the riverfront for public use.

The City Council is poised to approve spending $500,000 at its meeting Wednesday to rip out portions of the casino's parking lot and extend LeClaire Park farther to the east. Mayor Frank Klipsch has said the area is ripe for some sort of public use, and the timing could not be more perfect.

Rhythm City Casino, which is set to open its land-based complex out by Interstate 80 on June 16, has three months from that date to move its boat, service barge and porte-cochere off the riverfront.

Rhomberg thinks its time to dust off the 2014 RiverVision plan and invite its author, Hargreaves Associates, back to give it an update.

Fourth Ward Alderman Ray Ambrose, who has served on the City Council since the 1990s, adds that having a plan isnt good enough without the leadership to follow through. He has seen that first hand.

Controversial plan

Klipsch has brought up the RiverVision plan several times recently to push back on criticism the city is not moving fast enough to find a reuse at the soon-to-be vacant casino boat site. But long before there was RiverVision, there was Amphion.

Rhomberg, a former Davenport alderman, chaired the committee that came up with what was called the Amphion plan in 1986. It was named after its co-author, Amphion Environmental Inc., a California-based architecture firm.

It was very controversial with respect to the relocation of industries that once upon a time used to be located in what is now River Heritage Park, Rhomberg said.

If you read the plan, it says businesses are to be relocated at the expiration of their current leases, which, of course, certainly did not happen. I pressed for that language, which was contentious.

Companies such as River Gulf Grain and Builders Sand and Gravel were given extensions on their leases before relocating for good in the 2000s.

Ambrose was on the City Council when it took on the lease issue.

I didnt support running them off the riverfront because of the negative economic impact, Ambrose said. But when you look at the riverfront today, in hindsight, it was a good economic move.

Bill Ashton said he was on the Levee Improvement Commission at the "tail end" of the controversy, when the River Gulf Grain lease ultimately was terminated.

I would guess that today, with looking at what has happened, I would have been for it, Ashton said about ending the lease. Back then, I probably would have been against it.

Ashton, a professional engineer who moored both Davenports and Rock Islands casinos to their shores, said what has not been reflected in the Amphion or RiverVision plans and what the Quad-Cities needs is a port authority.

Many places, like La Crosse (Wisconsin), have a port authority to help manage commercial interests on the river, he said.

Prior to his work on the commission, Ashton was on the receiving end of some of the objectives laid out in Amphion. His firm, Ashton Engineering, designed the riverfront bicycle path, the Marquette Street boat landing and the set of steps immediately below the lock and dam that allows fishing access.

Closet full of plans

Ambrose said that when he first began serving on the City Council, there was a joke that a closet full of riverfront plans existed in City Hall.

He points to turnover on City Council and in the mayors office throughout the 1990s and early 2000s for not moving plans along more quickly.

Thats what happens when you get a mayor and a few council members with ideas on board, he said. The council buys in, they get a consultant and put something together. After two years, if the mayor is not re-elected, the council often goes in a completely different direction, and the best laid plans get shelved.

Ambrose said when the RiverVision plan first came along in 2004, the city had the leadership it needed in then-Public Works Director Dee Bruemmer and then-City Administrator Craig Malin to drive riverfront reuse.

Malin is a visionary, Ambrose said. He was able to see that through. And Dee Bruemmer is a great leader. Together, they were able to do great things for the riverfront.

Steve Ahrens, a former alderman and now director of the Levee Improvement Commission, said the development of Centennial Park, including the dog park, sprayground and skatepark just west of the Centennial Bridge, came out of the 2004 RiverVision plan.

Its hard to believe it hasnt been there longer than it has, Ahrens said.

As Amphion focused specifically on Davenport, the 2004 plan broadened the scope to include Rock Islands riverfront.

It brought the two communities together, Ahrens said. Schweibert Park (Rock Island) has been a huge success.

Like Amphion, RiverVision sought public input. Ideas like the bistate Red, White and Boom! Fourth of July fireworks show came out of the 2004 plan, Ahrens said.

An open sewer

As Davenport rushes to the riverfront to develop soon-to-be-available land, several in the city can remember a time when one would have been wise to head in the other direction.

Hart said that until the late 1930s, there was no sewage treatment in Davenport and everything got flushed right out into the river.

In my lifetime, that river was an open sewer, he said. It was not a pleasant place like it is today.

What now is Centennial Park and Veterans Memorial Park used to be the municipal landfill.

If you could see the old pictures, what a dump it was over the years, said Hart, who was a child in Davenport in the 1950s and 60s. After the 1965 flood, the city had a huge rat problem because the flood invaded the dump and all the rats ran out and went into the sewers. It was the most disgusting part of the city.

The environmental movement of the 1960s and 70s had a huge impact on Davenport, Hart said, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations would forever change the dynamics of the river.

It moved from being a utility to being a potential recreational area, Hart said.

The Amphion plan was an attempt in the 1980s to define what the riverfront could be, said Hart, who served as mayor at the time.

In the 80s, there was nothing park-like about that area, he said. The emphasis of Amphion was to have a more aesthetically pleasing development there.

Unfinished business

All the plans since the 1980s lay out some use at the foot of Main Street that has yet to be realized.

But the brains behind Amphion could never have imagined riverboat gambling and its impact because the Quad-Cities did not have casino boats until 1991.

We didnt dream of Iowa as a gambling destination, Rhomberg said. Nothing could be further from the mind.

Hart thinks the casino boat probably enhanced the downtown because it eventually spurred other growth, although not nearly the boon supporters of riverboat gambling initially predicted.

Ambrose said the casino boat didnt do much for downtown economically, but it did eventually lead to the building of the skybridge, which has become an iconic symbol for the city and a tourist attraction.

With the boat about to be gone, the city has an opportunity to start anew.

Things do take a long time to evolve, Rhomberg said. I wish it happened more rapidly than it has. I wish for the day it will be greater than it is. Im quite pleased with the progress weve made. Well keep chipping away at it.
Applicants ranging from a mid-career professional with two master's degrees to a teenager with no college at all went after 125 positions that still are open at the new Rhythm City Casino as of Saturday morning.

The casino will open to the public June 16 in its new gaming and hotel complex located where Interstates 80 and 74 meet in Davenport. Management is looking to fill a variety of mostly entry-level positions, including housekeeping, table dealers and food and beverage servers.

Saturday was the second time in two weeks the casino at 7077 Elmore Ave. hosted a job fair. Jason True, Rhythm Citys human resources director, said about 200 applicants were at the job fair two weeks ago and slightly more than that attended the one Saturday.

It is kind of what I expected, True said.

Turnout is not the only measure of interest. True said he has been getting about 40 to 50 applications a day in the past several weeks.

Were looking for guest-oriented individuals, he said. Once we get that, we can train them ourselves.

Joy Wolf, 19, of Eldridge filled out an application for a housekeeping job and was sitting with a group of dozens in a giant conference room waiting for an interview. A friend alerted her to the job fair.

She figured this would be a good job for me, Wolf said. I come from a big family, so Im used to cleaning, picking up after everyone and babysitting.

Wolf wants to go to college to become a social worker and has picked up a few jobs, including at a day care center, in the meantime.

Kimberly Storjohann, 46, of Davenport also applied for a housekeeping job, saying she needs extra money because she has a lot of financial things going on in my life.

Storjohann works part time doing patient transport at Genesis Medical Center-East Rusholme Street, Davenport.

Ben Bakeris, 20, of Davenport is planning to attend Scott Community College in the fall to work toward a business degree. Having done landscaping, painting and sales, he was applying to work on the gaming floor at Rhythm City.

Right now, Im saving money for the fall, Bakeris said, adding he brings people skills to the table.

Khaliah Hudson, 18, of Rock Island works at Hy-Vee and lives with her parents. She was applying for a housekeeping job because she needs more hours and she enjoys cleaning.

Sandra Larew, 50, of Bettendorf said she has been searching for a job for 10 years, ever since the company she worked for moved to New Jersey.

I have two master's degrees, and I cannot find a job in the Quad-Cities, Larew said while waiting to be interviewed for either a social media coordinator or network engineer position at Rhythm City.

She earned both her master's degrees  in health care administration and human resources management  from the University of Iowa. In 10 years, she said she has applied to hundreds of positions, including in the fast food industry.

Once you hit 40, its really bad, Larew said. They wont hire you because youre too experienced.

The age demographics represented among the applicants surprised True, who said he expected more recent college graduates because colleges just ended their spring semesters.
The West is suffering from what one leading strategist calls an "autoimmune disease" in trying to fight the Islamic State. The self-defense mechanisms championed by Donald Trump and his European neo-populist counterparts have gone into toxic overdrive -- weakening the West's body politic and making the jihadist fever far worse.

David Kenning, a British counter-radicalization expert, made this provocative argument in a telephone interview this week, and in recent research for various Western governments. His comments are part of a new wave of analysis that views the Islamic State more as an adolescent youth gang, driven by the identity politics of victimization than as a religious or ideological movement.

These skeptical analysts argue that many current messaging strategies against the Islamic State are backfiring -- and that polarizing politicians such as Trump have amplified the jihadists impact and been their best recruiting tool. Islamophobia helps the jihadists by fueling their narrative about embattled Muslims, Kenning argues. It creates a sense of wounded community -- a shared identity of having been wronged, which prompts violent revenge.

Watch the videos distributed by the Islamic State and you'll often see young men atop pickup trucks in Syria and Iraq, their hair streaming in the breeze, cradling 50-caliber machine guns in an almost sexual way. Kenning explains why the self-styled caliphate's appeal is so powerful with alienated, adolescent recruits:

"The Islamic State brand is empowering. It tells you you're a victim, and offers a license for revenge. And, through social media, it offers you celebrity, a chance to be somebody rather than nobody. Anyone who thinks a theological argument could counter this is simply naive."

Trump is the leading American example of the polarizing populist response to the jihadists, but it's in Europe where social cohesion is really beginning to crack. Politicians such as the "Brexit" campaigner Nigel Farage in Britain, the right-wing nationalist Marine Le Pen in France and the Muslim-bashing Geert Wilders in Holland are the faces of a Europe shaken by the dual onslaught of terrorism and Islamophobia.

Lapis Communications, a Middle East-based consulting firm that works with Kenning and other strategists, explains in a recent paper why Islamophobia helps the jihadists: "Instead of undercutting recruiting, it pumps value into the brand."

"We are dealing primarily with the adolescent mindset," contends Lapis, citing statistics that 90 percent of jihadists today are under 25. These militant youths want to see things in black and white. The only antidote, argues Lapis is "'the grey' of social compromise and tolerance, of nuanced and considered thoughts."

Another contrarian analyst who shares this perspective is Marc Sageman, a psychiatrist and former CIA case officer. In a forthcoming book titled "Misunderstanding Terrorism," Sageman explains the process of radicalization -- stressing that it's a community phenomenon, instead of an individual or religious one.

Sageman's hypothetical jihadist group emerges from a political protest community that is attacked by the state and, as society is polarized, becomes radical and violent. Sageman says his model explains more than 80 percent of the 34 campaigns of political violence he has studied over two centuries. It's a simple enough concept: People turn to violence when they feel their community is excluded and under attack.

What policies will best counter the Islamic State? I asked each of the analysts for suggestions. The common theme is that the counter-extremist campaigns should stop feeding the jihadists' dreams by treating them as a terrifying Muslim threat to the West. Such talk just flatters and motivates them.

"Radical Islam isn't the cause, it's the excuse," says Lapis. Messaging that feeds the sense of an isolated and aggrieved Muslim community is "the worst thing that can happen in the West," says Kenning.

Kenning argues that the best way to defeat Islamic State strategy is for the Trumps of the world to shut up. If they do that, the caliphate would quickly run out of steam.

"They're rotten at governing," he says. "The word on the street is that their caliphate is boring." And these days, it has become a dangerous place, too. Kenning thinks the best approach is to gradually pull the Islamic State apart -- by exploiting the fault lines among those fighting under its flag.

The "imagined community" of the Islamic State is far weaker than it may seem, argues Sageman. What gives it strength, paradoxically, is fear and hatred from the West. The Islamic State is a threat to our security, to be sure, but so is the response from Trump and his fellow Muslim-bashers.
BILLINGS, Mont. | A Wyoming teenager charged with slaying 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.

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 Mendoza's 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 Mendoza's 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 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, Wyoming, where authorities say he shot a man at a campground near the small town of Ten Sleep during a 2013 robbery attempt.
CASPER, Wyo. | The operator of the Salt Creek oil field will offer housing for some Natrona County residents as crews continue to search for the source of a gas leak.

The Casper Star-Tribune reports that the Casper-Natrona County Health Department says Fleur de Lis Energy will provide housing in Casper for people who do not feel comfortable staying in Midwest.

Oil field crews in still have not found the source of a chemical odor first noticed on May 25 that forced the closure of a nearby school.

Health Department official Audrey Gray says tests performed May 26 and 30 detected volatile organic compounds and showed higher than normal levels of carbon dioxide. She says the local department is reaching out to state and federal partners for help interpreting those readings.
FORT PIERRE | The number of prairie chickens and sharp-tailed grouse spotted on spring leks on the Fort Pierre National Grassland in central South Dakota is the highest in recorded history, an indication of a healthy grassland, officials say.

Leks are where male birds conduct mating displays to attract females. The Capital Journal reported that 491 male prairie chickens were counted this year, up from 413 last year. Sharp-tailed grouse went from 56 to 131. Both figures are the highest since records began in 1988.

"I think it's indicative that we've got good habitat that the birds really respond to," District Ranger Dan Svingen said.

Prairie chickens have been struggling throughout most of North America in the last half century, but on the Fort Pierre National Grassland they're thriving.

"This is like an island of birds," grasslands biologist Ruben Mares said.

The prairie chicken population has been trending upward since 1988, with the exception of a few years that featured bad winters or summer droughts.

"Prairie chickens are what we're most excited about," Mares said.

Sharp-tailed grouse lek counts on the grassland have been more steady. A dry spring coupled with a wet, chilly June last year seems to have impacted nesting success, Mares said.

This year, steady precipitation in May has led to an earlier greening of the grassland, benefiting hens that are laying and incubating eggs.

"I'm hoping the availability of green vegetation will improve nest success," Svingen said.
South Dakota small business retailer Gary Cammack of Cammack Ranch Supply in Union Center has received the National Retail Federations (NRF) 2016 Americas Retail Champion of the Year Award for his advocacy efforts on behalf of the retail industry.

He received the award on May 24 at NRFs annual Retail Advocates Summit in Washington, D.C.

Gary is a true grassroots advocate, and as a leader in the retail industry, he ensures that retails voice is heard in a wide range of policy discussions," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. By staying involved with all levels of government, Gary is helping to advance the public policy agenda for retailers, their employees and customers in communities large and small across America.

According to NRF, Cammack was selected by a committee of small retailers and state retail association executives from a group of five finalists who also included Ricky Bromberg of Bromberg & Co. Inc. in Birmingham, Ala.; Hillary Feder of Hillarys in Hopkins, Minn.; Jeff Joyce of Mieras Family Shoes in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Gary Novotny of Gary Michaels Clothiers in Lincoln, Neb.

A video featuring Cammack and the other four retailer finalists was shown at the event.

Cammack also serves as a South Dakota State Senator, Senate President Tempore and is President-elect on the South Dakota Retailers Association (SDRA) Board of Directors.

Our representatives and senators know there are issues out there but theyre not in the trenches every day. They want to know what solutions are possible, said Cammack.

Gary and his wife Amy have owned Cammack Ranch Supply since 1979. Their store is located in the heart of the Midwest in Union Center. While the community is unincorporated (population 50), it is the gathering hub for a large regional area of their farm and ranch customers.

I congratulate Gary Cammack on this well-deserved honor, said South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard. Gary has earned the respect of his colleagues in the State Capitol. He is an effective champion for retailers because he is a retailer himself.

The Cammack family exemplifies how entrepreneurs can be successful retailers anywhere. They have established several successful retail businesses in their hometown including a restaurant, post office, branch bank and beauty shop. The anchor remains Cammack Ranch Supply, a destination for agri-business retail as well as community support.

Senator Cammack is a staunch advocate at the Legislature for retail and small business issues, including Main Street Fairness, said Shawn Lyons, SDRA Executive Director. He is also an active participant in setting association policy and growth for our Board. NRFs recognition of his advocacy efforts for retail businesses at the state and federal level is well deserved.

The Americas Retail Champions program, now in its third year, honors retailers who make their mark on public policy debates directly affecting the industry. More than 100 retailers across the nation, from online sellers to mid-size and small retail store owners, have been nominated by state retail associations and their peers based on their engagement in public policy discussions on issues ranging from patent reform and online sales tax to data security and labor policy.

NRF is the worlds largest retail trade association, representing discount and department stores, home goods and specialty stores, Main Street merchants, grocers, wholesalers, chain restaurants and Internet retailers from the United States and more than 45 countries. Retail is the nations largest private sector employer, supporting one in four U.S. jobs  42 million working Americans.

Contributing $2.6 trillion to annual GDP, retail is a daily barometer for the nations economy. NRFs This is Retail campaign highlights the industrys opportunities for life-long careers, how retailers strengthen communities, and the critical role that retail plays in driving innovation. www.nrf.com
The South Dakota Army National Guard was presented with a first place gold finish in the 2016 Army Communities of Excellence Awards during a ceremony at the Pentagon, May 24.

The ACOE Awards recognize top performance within U.S. Army, National Guard and Reserve installations and communities and their approach to systems management.

The SDARNG placed second overall, just behind Wisconsin who is the overall winner among 36 applicants in the Army National Guard category.

"This award is proof positive that the South Dakota Army National Guard is a world class organization," said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Tim Reisch, adjutant general of the SDNG. "Every one of our soldiers should take great pride in the part they played in helping to achieve this milestone."

The ACOE Awards follow a 12-month evaluation and scored using the Malcolm Baldrige criteria for performance excellence.

"The first place gold finish represents our commitment to ourselves and our fellow South Dakotans to be the most professional, competent and reliable National Guard organization in the U.S.," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Orson Ward, SDNG director of human resources and lead coordinator for the award's submission packet.

In the northern Black Hills area, the Army National Guard has detachments in Belle Fourche, Sturgis and Spearfish.

Participants in ACOE are not judged against each other, but scored on how well they can demonstrate the maturity of key organizational processes and their ability to show results in key areas such as leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, work force management and operational effectiveness.

The assessment considers how senior leaders lead, how the SDARNG focuses on the future needs of its customers, how it creates knowledge to improve performance and learning, how it develops and guides its workforce to improve operational effectiveness and deliver the most value to its customers.

By using criteria established for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award as a framework for performance assessment, the ACOE program helps participating Army installations/communities focus on providing excellence in facilities and services in support of soldiers, their families and civilians.

"It's a responsibility we owe to our service members and their families to find more efficient and effective ways in doing business," said Ward. "We are trusted to make the most out of the resources we are provided."

Baldrige-based performance assessments provide opportunities to identify best practices in installation management and reveal potential opportunities to apply appropriate performance improvement tools.

"We redeveloped several of our key work processes that allowed for more clarity within their structure," said Ward. "We spent a great deal of time designing complex processes to be presented in a simplistic format that our team can better communicate and improve upon."

As a result of their gold finish, the ACOE Awards also presented the SDARNG with $50,000 to be used to further enhance the organization.

"This money was provided to our organization because we demonstrate a high level of return on investment," said Ward. "These funds will be used to support process improvement, specifically supporting workforce professional development."
The Indian Health Service will consult tribal leaders and Native American organizations over 90 days starting June 22 in reviewing the IHS Great Plains Area Office in Aberdeen.

IHS will host telephone sessions on June 22 and August 10, and hold group meetings July 13 at Aberdeen's Dakota Event Center and August 30 at Rapid City's Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn Convention Center.

Tribal leaders and urban Native organization representatives will be invited to discuss the organization and operation of the regional office. It serves 130,000 patients through 15 federal government facilities and 18 tribally-operated facilities in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota.

Topics will include the location of the office and whether to centralize or distribute office services. Staffing, budget, management accountability, monitoring of operations and other issues also will be discussed.

This consultation is part of a strategic discussion with tribal leaders about how the Great Plains Area Office can be more supportive and patient focused," IHS Principal Deputy Director Mary Smith said in a news release. "The priority here is to support the needs of the tribes in the Great Plains Area."

She added that she believes partnership is the key to transforming IHS.

Federal law requires IHS to consult tribes when there is a critical event that may impact tribal members, when policy changes are made and during a budget review.
After decades of a trade embargo against Cuba, there is little evidence that it had any impact on a change in policy or politics on the island nation. Its time to seriously consider a different approach, especially following a recent report that indicates lifting the embargo could be beneficial for the Northern Plains states that produce wheat, corn and soybeans.Engage Cuba and the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba, two leading groups working to end the embargo on Cuba, released a comprehensive report on the significant economic benefits for our region regarding increased trade with Cuba.Consider this: According to the report, of Cubas nearly $2 billion in agricultural imports in 2015, U.S. ag exports totaled $149 million, a drop of 48 percent from 2014. The U.S. share of total exports fell to less than 9 percent in 2015, down from 40 percent in 2009. In 2015, of Cubas nearly $2 billion in ag imports, 12 percent was wheat. Prior to the embargo, wheat was one of the top four ag exports from the U.S. to Cuba. In 2009 the U.S. had 43 percent market share but has not shipped wheat to Cuba since 2011 and has been surpassed by the European Union and Canada due to a law  the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000  that prohibits U.S. exporters from extending credit to Cuba. The U.S. had been the #1 or #2 supplier of agricultural products from 2003 to 2012 but is now Cubas #5 supplier after the EU, Brazil, Argentina, and Vietnam  countries that are able to provide financing. Cuba already imports up to 80 percent of its food and agricultural imports are expected to grow as increased tourism fuels demand for food products, especially those of higher quality.The groups are advocating for the bipartisan Agricultural Export Expansion Act of 2015 (AEEA). The AEEA would present opportunities for agricultural trade with Cuba which could benefit our farmers by allowing U.S. exporters to extend credit, export and technical assistance, and market development programs. It would also make our exports more competitive and allow our exporters to recapture lost market share.As stated in the report, there is considerable room for growth of exports to Cuba from North Dakota, and also Montana and Minnesota, if U.S. policies are changed, especially for wheat, as well as corn and soybeans.Wheat is a primary revenue source of the regions agriculture sector and a major economic driver. Cubas growing agriculture markets provides tremendous opportunities for our region to increase exports and strengthen its economy.As with wheat, the U.S. used to be a major supplier of soybeans and corn, but has lost market share to Argentina and Brazil. Soybeans, feed grains, corn, and soybean meal  all commodities produced in the region  will be increasingly important as Cubas livestock sector develops in the longer term.Changes in U.S. policies, which allow U.S. exporters to extend private credit to Cuba, can open opportunities for agricultural trade and, as the report states, there is significant room for growth of our regions ag exports.The report is the second analysis by Engage Cuba on the state specific benefits that U.S. agribusiness stands to gain in future trade agreements with Cuba. In addition to North Dakota, the report highlights benefits of increased trade to several other states.Significant opportunities exist for American agribusiness in Cuba, from exporters of agricultural commodities and food products to associated industries that will also benefit from greater market access.We need to urge Congress to pass legislation to remove restrictions on extending credit for agricultural exports to ensure that our farmers are able to take full advantage of Cubas growing agriculture markets.
Daly Elementary fourth-grader Anna Twardowski broke schools all-time reading record this year after finishing 137 books that were filled with a total of 8,000,927 words. On the subsequent tests on each book, she answered 97 percent of all the questions correctly. She ended the year with 1,329 points in the schools accelerated reader program. A regular chapter book with 300 pages is 10 points. Daly Librarian Ann Rupiper said Twardowski is exceptional. She did a phenomenal job, Rupiper said. Twardowski and other top readers were honored at last day of school assembly Friday that included a visit by University of Montanas Monte.
Colombo Telegraph - June 1, 2016

by Hilmy Ahamed

aVen. Ampitiye Sumanaratne Thero of Mangalaramaya temple in Ampara walks in to the residence of the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, Nazeer Ahamed and threatens him over the despicable incident in Sampur school functiona

Later, The venerable Thero leads a protest in Ampara shouting aPara Thambiya, Para Thambiyaa .

The Editor of aSUNDAY (IRIDA) DIVAINAa in his editorial on 29th May 2016 calls for the slaying of Nazeer Ahamed (Chief Minister) by the father of the child who was accidentally hit and offer the decapitated head to Governor of the Eastern Province a Austin Fernando.

What a wonderful world!!

What is wrong with Sri Lanka? Where are we heading as a nation? Has the saffron brigade been revived by aa? President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the architects of Yahapalanaya need to wake up from their deep slumber. Many risked their lives for regime change and do not want the same wine in a different glass. Do we need more violence than what we have seen during the 30 years of ethnic strife? The international community and Sri Lankaas vibrant civil society that has been supporting the reconciliation process with the Northern Tamil population is silent on the attack on the Muslim community. Aluthgama/Beruwela is a forgotten story.

The Yahapalanaya revolution in January 2015 that brought the oppositionas common candidate Maithripala Sirisena to power as President was celebrated as the end of the racist campaign of the Rajapaksa regime which nurtured extremist Buddhist monks to unleash violence with impunity against the Muslims and evangelical Christians. A large number of moderate Sinhala Buddhists and almost the entire minority communities voted against the racist regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa. President Mahinda Rajapaksa had the illusion that he could win elections by pampering to Buddhist extremism and alienated the minorities. He without a doubt was considered the savior of the nation by almost all Sri Lankans (including the Muslims) and was reelected for his second term with an unprecedented majority against another hero of the war against terror, Sarath Fonseka. He learnt his bitter lesson and miserably failed in his third attempt in January 9th 2015, due to his racist and dictatorial attitude towards the nation.

The Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), which was the creation of the Rajapaksa hegemony, went underground immediately after the elections because they lost the immunity that was offered by the Rajapaksa regime. The multiple court cases against Ven. Gnanasara Thero and BBS have kept them busy, attending to their legal battles. Their attempt to regroup has failed miserably, especially after their contempt of court charges filed by the bold Homagama magistrate.

This has given rise to a new lot of saffron robed extremist monks, who are attempting to come in to the limelight through a racist agenda. The desperate common opposition led by the Mahinda faction in parliament has started playing the racist card once more, provoking Buddhist extremism. They are using multiple fronts to attack minorities, especially the Tamils and Muslims after their dismal performance at the MAY DAY rally in Kirulapone, in the hope that they can harness the vote bank of the Buddhists.

These evil forces have now also been unleashed to create hate and target the Muslims and evangelical Christians with the hope that the international community and, especially the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) would notice it and impose sanctions on Sri Lanka that would lead to the collapse of our economy. A simple ban on the import of Sri Lankan labour to the Middle East would drive the majority of our population to the streets a literally begging for their next meal. The income from our aslavea labour is estimated to be around 6-7 billion US Dollars per annum.

The Buddhist extremists are forgetting that a number of Muslim nations came to the support of the Rajapaksa regime in their fight against the Liberation Tigers Thamil Eelam (LTTE). Libya, Pakistan and Iran played a major role in providing military hardware. It was even suspected that Pakistani pilots were flying sorties to destroy the LTTE arsenal. Many other Arab Muslim nations provided financial support. The only friends Sri Lanka had at the UNHCR in Geneva at the time were Muslim nations. Today, the Sinhala Buddhist extremists have forgotten the Muslim contribution to the governmentas war efforts and branded them as aliens to the nation. Many Muslim intelligence officers sacrificed their lives throughout the war. Only the security forces know their contributions, because most of them were intelligence operatives who could not be exposed to the public.

A few incidents involving Muslim citizens of Sri Lanka are being highlighted as crimes committed by the entire Muslim community. The irresponsible behavior of the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, Nazeer Ahamed, which was totally condemned by the Muslim community, is being presented as a Muslim person insulting the Sinhala forces of the Sinhala nation, implying that the Muslim citizens do not belong to Sri Lanka. A forgotten fact is the behavior of the army goon squad of Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sarath Fonseka and violence against public servants and forces by Mervyn Silva, Wimal Weerawansa and Nishantha Muthuhettigamage (amongst many others). Their insults of the police and armed forces have never been branded as Sinhala Buddhist excesses. Only Chief Minister Nazeer Ahamedas action is being branded as an act of treachery by a Muslim.

There has been numerous incidents of conflict and violence at parents teachers meeting in hundreds of schools, but a simple incident at Madawala Muslim Maha Vidyalaya, where a Sinhala teacher who had sided with the Muslim principal was ascreamed ata by a Muslim person. This had nothing to do with religion or race but today some news and social media platforms have twisted it as a racial attack on a Buddhist.

Muslim miscreants, who were drunk after a Perahara in Mahiyangana had damaged a Buddhist flag in their drunken stupor. This incident too is twisted as a racially motivated attack on Buddhism. It was the Muslims who had caught these youth and handed them over to the police. They have been remanded for two weeks and yet extremist Buddhists is branding it as a crime against Buddhism by the entire Muslim community.

Some Buddhist monks, who are going around intimidating Muslims, have formed themselves in to vigilante groups. One such group is demanding the cessation of the renovation of a mosque down Bhatiya Mawatha, Dehiwela. The building plans and the renovation has been approved by the local authority, the Dehiwela Mount Lavinia municipal council. Some local politicians along with these monks have marched in to the mosque under police protection and intimated the trustees of the mosque to stop the construction. The Police who are supposed to protect and maintain law and order are providing protection to this vigilante group. The complaint of trespassing in to private property has not been entertained.

Law and order in the country has been deteriorating since the decade long rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Majority of the Sri Lankans of all races expected the war winning President, Mahinda Rajapaksa to pave the way for a reconciled Sri Lanka in 2009. Regretfully, he pampered Buddhist extremism due to his greediness for continued political office. Racism has now been rooted out amongst a fair number of Sinhala Buddhists, who fear dominance of the minority community. The Muslims are even accused of strategically increasing their population to make Sri Lanka a Muslim state. The population ratio of Muslims has remained the same since 1891. There is no doubt that the majority of the Buddhists are peace-loving citizens, but they have no voice in the presence of these extremists. The behavior of some of these thugs is a disgrace to the noble teachings of Lord Buddha.

There is a need for the government to take the bull by the horns. No vigilante group should be allowed to intimidate anyone, law and order needs to be maintained. Their failure will force the country to be a divided nation that would have serious repercussions on the envisaged development and progress that all Sri Lankans hope for.

Religion should be a private affair and remain so. An elected government should not favour any religion to another. We, the people of Sri Lanka need to come forward as one Sri Lankan nation, devoid of differences in religion, race, cast or creed. This responsibility is not with the government alone but with every individual, religious and political leader. This is easily attainable if every citizen commits to this noble goal.

The new constitution making process needs to ensure that all communities in Sri Lanka have the same rights and religious freedom to practice the religion of their choice.
PEOPLEaS UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES

270-A, Patpar Ganj, Opposite Anand Lok Apartments, Mayur Vihar I, Delhi 110 091

Phone 2275 0014 PP FAX 4215 1459

Founder: Jayaprakash Narayan; Founding President: V M Tarkunde

President: Prof. Prabhakar Sinha; General Secretary: Dr. V. Suresh

E.mail: puclnat@gmail.com& pucl.natgensec@gmail.com

03rd June, 2016

Press Statement:

Stop Persecuting Lawyers Collective!

PUCL strongly condemns the continued persecution of Senior Advocates Indira Jaising and Anand Grover and the `Lawyers Collectivea organisation run by them, by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) using the coercive provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 in an arbitrary, biased and politically motivated manner.

The vindictiveness is evident from the fact that the Order dated 31.5.2016 of the Central Government suspending the FCRA registration of Lawyers Collective for 6 months was leaked to the Press even before it was formally communicated to them. Even earlier in November, 2015 media articles reported that Show Cause notices were issued to the Lawyers Collective for violation of FCRA even though no such Notice was received by the Lawyers Collective. Thus there is a pattern to the actions of the MHA by first launching a smear campaign tarnishing the image of Lawyers Collective even before an enquiry.

A plain reading of the alleged violations of FCRA by the Lawyers Collective do not reveal any evidence of financial fraud or defalcation having occurred. All the queries raised by the MHA appear to be technical in nature. Itas very clear that the MHA has launched a witch hunt against yet another NGO which has been consistently taking up in a principled manner issues of human rights violations in the State of Gujarat and accountability of the political leaders to excesses committed under their watch.

It is also pertinent to point out that Indira Jaisingh and Anand Grover have defended the cases of Priya Pillai of Greenpeace, Teesta Setalvad, Yakub Menon and Sanjiv Bhat, the former IPS officer from Gujarat. Anand Grover has also appeared in the case protesting the discharge of BJP National President Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin encounter case. The present action against the Lawyers Collective is calculated to create a climate of fear and intimidation in an attempt to silence anyone from challenging the present BJP Government.

Indira Jaising, Anand Grover and the Lawyers Collective team have for the last 4 decades stood for the rights of the most marginalised sections of society a from tribals to urban poor to rights of unorganised sector workers; from women to sexual minorities; from victims of communal violence to issues of HIV patients a they have been in the forefront of all major struggles to secure justice. Their contribution to the development of law and jurisprudence is unparalleled. Noteworthy is the role played by Indira Jaising and Lawyers Collective in the framing and implementation of the Domestic Violence and Sexual Harassment Acts. They have always enjoyed the fairest of reputations for their ethical and principled conduct inside and outside courts.

It is ironical that while there is a relentless plundering of national and natural resources by the corporates and unearthing of a regular stream of corporate scams exposing massive financial fraud and diversion of money to foreign lands, little or no action is being taken by the Central Government in this regard. In stark contrast, activists and NGOs fighting against the plundering and looting of national wealth and natural resources, environmental degradation and violation of rights of people are being targeted over frivolous charges. Lawyers Collective, Indira Jaisingh and Anand Grover are the latest victims to join the long list of people being targeted by the Central Government.

PUCL demands that the central government immediately drop the witch hunt against Indira Jaisingh, Anand Grover and the Lawyers Collective under the FCRA. We would like to remind the Central Government that such repressive actions meant to silence groups and suppress dissent not only destroys the democratic fabric of our society but also eventually damages the standing of India as a democratic country in the comity of nations of the world.

Sd/ -

Dr. V. Suresh, National General Secretary, PUCL

Prof. Prabhakar Sinha, National President, PUCL


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 "What Do Criminals Deserve?" | Main | "The Real Felony: Denying Prisoners the Right to Vote" 

June 4, 2016

Could criminal defendants try to use GOP Prez candidate Trump's bias claims to bollix up prosecutions?

I always try to stay open-minded about all people's political and personal perspectives, and I have thus to date been disinclined to think the worst about GOP Prez candidate Donald Trump and the prospect of him becoming the next President of the United States. But I am quite troubled by Trump's recent attacks on a federal judge, and those attacks prompt the provocative question in the title of this post. This new NPR piece, headlined "Trump Presses Case That 'Mexican' Judge Curiel Is Biased Against Him," provides the basic backstory:

Donald Trump is intensifying his attacks on the federal judge presiding over fraud lawsuits against Trump University. On Friday the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, dismissing criticism from legal experts on the right and left, pressed his case against U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, saying the Indiana-born judge is biased against him because "he's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico." Trump made the remarks, and others like it, repeatedly, in interviews with CNN and The Wall Street Journal, referring to Judge Curiel variously as "of Mexican heritage" or just "Mexican." But the message was always the same, that the judge had what Trump called "a conflict" because of his ethnicity. At a rally in San Diego last week, Trump characterized the judge as "a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He's a hater." And "they ought to look into Judge Curiel." In public, Trump has called repeatedly for the judge to recuse himself, but his lawyers in fact have not made any such request. That is undoubtedly because court precedents are unanimous in holding that race, ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual orientation are not themselves grounds for disqualifying a judge. If they were, lethal ethicists observe, the legal system would fall into chaos because no judge would be free from taint. The five Supreme Court justices who are Catholic could not rule on a case in which the Catholic church participated, but neither could the other justices who are not Catholic. Moreover, while Trump is free to say anything he wants about the judge, the lawyers in the case are bound by the professional rules of conduct and could be sanctioned for making such charges about Curiel without actual evidence of bias. Legal ethics expert Stephen Gillers notes in addition that litigants may not wait to seek a judge's disqualification; they must move to recuse the judge as soon as they know there is a conflict. Trump's lawyers, from the prestigious O'Melveny & Myers firm, however, have not done that. Indeed, some observers argue that the judge did the candidate a big favor by postponing the trial in the case until after the election. And Trump did not become bellicose about Curiel until the judge, at the request of news organizations, ordered the unsealing of documents in the case  documents that have proved embarrassing for the GOP presumptive nominee. "This is not really about rebutting accusations that Trump University defrauded its students," said NYU's Gillers. Rather, it is a kind of dog whistle to supporters, "a way to keep the subject of illegal Mexican immigration on the front page." Judge Curiel, appointed to the federal bench by President Obama, was born in Indiana, the son of Mexican-American immigrants. He served for 17 years as a federal prosecutor in California, rising to chief of narcotics enforcement in the southern district. In 1997 he was believed to be the target of an assassination attempt from a Mexican drug cartel, was put under 24-hour watch by the U.S. Marshall Service for a year, was moved to a military base and eventually to Justice Department headquarters in Washington, D.C.

I am not aware of any criminal defendants who have successfully sought disqualification of a judge (or a prosecutor) based solely on the basis of that judge's race, ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual orientation. That said, I certainly have heard criminal defendants assert, like Donald Trump, that a prosecutor or a judge is biased on one of the bases. And if repeatedly making such claims in public to serve a political or personal agenda is good enough for the GOP's Prez nominee, why couldn't a criminal defendant unhappy with how a prosecution is moving forward start making similar claims to serve his hew own agenda?

June 4, 2016 at 10:09 AM | Permalink

Comments

"That is undoubtedly because court precedents are unanimous in holding that race, ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual orientation are not themselves grounds for disqualifying a judge. If they were, lethal ethicists observe, the legal system would fall into chaos..."

Right...justice is so expensive we cannot afford it. Gotta love that logic, which is just a rendition of "too big to fail". It's interesting that we just had a death sentence overturned because prosecutors created a racist jury but a racist judge, that is entirely something else again. No problem with a racist judge.

FWIW I don't know if Trump's claims are true because I know next to nothing about either the judge or the lawsuit. Yet at a purely abstract level if a person promotes a public policy that has a disparate impact on a particular ethic group one wouldn't find it surprising that members of that ethic group would be biased against said individual.

Posted by: Daniel | Jun 4, 2016 1:05:50 PM

I basically see Trump's claims as his version of pounding on the table. Unfortunately for him (and us too, for that matter) he isn't any good at it.

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Jun 4, 2016 2:02:34 PM

Yeah, Trump is a master at shifting blame for his misfortunes and misdeeds to anyone other than himself. I hope his nomination blows the currently existing GOP right straight to hell.

Posted by: Fat Bastard | Jun 4, 2016 5:16:30 PM

YO! Yo no liko Donaldo. Yo liko la senorita Hilario porque me no wanna go homo to Mehico. Yo wanno livo in el lando del freeoh - whero I can criticiso el judgo. OKO?

Posted by: Abra K. Dabra | Jun 4, 2016 5:27:37 PM

the attacks on the judge are extraordinarily disturbing and makes me shudder at the thought of Trump's criteria for selection of supreme court justices. bruce

Posted by: bruce cunningham | Jun 5, 2016 7:33:44 AM

Threats to public officials or worse has tragically been far from unknown in recent years & various people (including Emily Bazelon) on Twitter, e.g., has worried the rhetoric here can be dangerous. It is not that Trump himself wants that; but when you use such rhetoric, including of illegitimacy, shame and calls that a person should be investigated/stopped ... at some point, the unhinged takes it another way.

Posted by: Joe | Jun 5, 2016 11:39:23 AM

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 "Conservatives should celebrate Obamas commutations" | Main | Weldon Angelos, poster child for need to reform federal mandatory minimums, apparently released after serving 12 years of 55-year sentence 

June 3, 2016

Prez Obama commutes 42 more federal prison sentences

As reported in this AP piece, this afternoon "President Barack Obama is commuting the sentences of 42 people convicted of drug-related offenses." Here is more:

Obama's latest round of clemency brings to 348 the total number of sentences Obama has commuted since taking office. The pace has increased substantially as Obama approaches the end of his presidency. Roughly half of the 42 receiving commutations Friday were serving life sentences. Most are nonviolent offenders, although a few were also charged with firearms violations. Obama's commutation shortens their sentences, with most of the inmates set to be released October 1. White House counsel Neil Eggleston says Obama will keep using his clemency power to give deserving individuals a second chance. Obama has pushed to overhaul the criminal justice system but a bipartisan effort has struggled to maintain momentum.

Via this blog post (which provides the graphic reprinted here), Prez Obama's counsel notes that that "President Obama Has Now Commuted the Sentences of 348 Individuals" and highlights that now "the President has commuted the sentences of more individuals than the past 7 presidents combined." Here is more from the blog posting:

Today, the President announced 42 additional grants of clemency to men and women serving years in prison under outdated and unduly harsh sentencing laws. The individuals receiving a presidential commutation today have more than repaid their debt to society and earned this second chance. To date, the President has commuted the sentences of 348 individuals -- more than the previous seven Presidents combined. He remains committed to using his clemency power throughout the remainder of the Administration to give more deserving individuals that same second chance.... Despite these important efforts, only legislation can bring about lasting change to the federal system. There remain thousands of men and women in federal prison serving sentences longer than necessary, often due to overly harsh mandatory minimum sentences. That is one reason it is critical that both the House and the Senate continue to cooperate on a bipartisan basis to get a criminal justice reform bill to the President's desk.

June 3, 2016 at 04:20 PM | Permalink

Comments

Keep going, Mr. President!!

Posted by: Michael R. Levine | Jun 3, 2016 4:31:06 PM

Former prisoner.

The claim that Obama has used clemency power more than previous 7 Presidents combined is only true if you ignore

the 14,000+ people who got relief (commutations and pardons) under President Ford's draft clemency board.

It is well documented and a great example for Obama to have emulated:

http://fusion.net/story/298158/obama-clemency-board-gerald-ford/

It would also be great if he granted clemency to people with 'violent'cases and not just non-violent drug offense.

Posted by: Daniel | Jun 3, 2016 4:57:19 PM

Mr. President

I just read where you commuted the sentences of 42 more non-violent criminals, bringing the total to 348. I commend and admire your compassion to give these people a second chance at life.

However, as I have contacted you on several occasions, I must question why you ignore and refuse to do the same for the estimated 100,000 innocent Americans who have been wrongfully incarcerated in this country? We know they exist. Do they not deserve the same time and money to vette their situation as you have spent on the non-violent criminals?

I just don't understand how or why you ignore this issue .. as has our entire judicial system for so many years.

All the talk, discussions and actions taken to reform the criminal justice system .. and not one word mentioned .. not one action taken to do anything for the innocent Americans we know that are wrongfully incarcerated in this country. Why?

Sir, if there is money available to vette, non-violent criminals for consideration of having their sentences commuted .. can't you do the same for the innocent who we know are wrongfully incarcerated? I just don't understand this.

For anyone who files a false claim .. they will be charged with perjury and obstruction of justice and lose all benefits they haved earned while incarcerated .. and forced to pay for any cost caused .. to deter false claims.

Sir, if you have compassion enough for the non-violent criminals .. can't you show the same for the innocent?

https://www.change.org/p/doj-create-a-federal-commission-on-wrongful-convictions

Posted by: Steve Gilmore | Jun 4, 2016 1:01:12 PM

just wondering how 1 person of a 2 person indictment can get clemency and the other does not when they both were involved equally. The female got it, the male didn't.

Posted by: curious reader | Jun 6, 2016 4:12:38 PM

Post a comment
 Prez Obama commutes 42 more federal prison sentences | Main | "What Do Criminals Deserve?" 

June 3, 2016

Weldon Angelos, poster child for need to reform federal mandatory minimums, apparently released after serving 12 years of 55-year sentence

Regular readers likely know the name Weldon Angelos and likely recall some of the details of his 55-year mandatory minimum federal sentence based on his convictions for low-level marijuana dealing and firearm possession. And regular readers likely will also be intrigued and heartened to read this new Washington Post story, headlined "Utah man whose long drug sentence stirred controversy is released," indicating that Weldon was released earlier this week. Here are the (somewhat mysterious) details:

One federal inmate who was released  but not under Obamas clemency initiative  is Weldon Angelos, 36, a father of three from Utah who was sentenced in 2004 to a 55-year mandatory minimum prison term in connection with selling marijuana. The specific circumstances of Angeloss release are unclear because court records in his case are sealed. But after a long campaign from his supporters, including Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Angelos was quietly released Tuesday after a federal court granted him an immediate reduction in sentence. He was able to immediately go home to his family without serving three months in a halfway house, as those who receive clemency are required to do. The release allowed Angelos to see the son he left at age 7 graduate from high school Thursday. Angelos is one of the nations most famous nonviolent drug offenders and became a symbol of what advocates said was the severity and unfairness of mandatory sentences. His case was championed by the group Families Against Mandatory Minimums, former FBI director Bill Sessions, conservative billionaire Charles Koch and others. Three years ago, more than 100 former judges and prosecutors, former elected and appointed government officials, and prominent authors, scholars, activists and business leaders signed a letter urging Obama to grant Angelos commutation. In February, former federal judge Paul G. Cassell, who sentenced Angelos, wrote a letter asking Obama to swiftly grant him clemency. Cassell said that the sentence he was forced to impose was one of the most troubling that I ever faced in my five years on the federal bench and that it was one of the chief reasons he stepped down as a judge. But Obama never granted clemency to Angelos. The granting of mercy instead came from the Salt Lake City prosecutor who charged him in the case, according to his lawyer. After three and half years of inaction on Weldons clemency petition, he is free because of the fair and good action of a prosecutor, attorney Mark W. Osler said. He returns to citizenship because of the actions of one individual  just not the individual I was expecting. Weldons freedom is a wonderful thing but remains just one bright spot among many continuing tragedies. A White House spokeswoman said that the White House cannot respond with details about any individual clemency case. Julie Stewart, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, called the release of Angelos fantastic news and past due.

I am inclined to guess, absent hearing any details to the contrary, that the Utah federal prosecutor agreed to what some have come to call a Holloway motion: a motion first engineered by former Judge John Glesson in the case of Francios Holloway (discussed here) by urging prosecutors to move to undo stacked federal gun charges that had resulted in acrazy-long mandatory minimum prison term.

A few of many prior related posts on Angelos and Holloway cases:

June 3, 2016 at 07:56 PM | Permalink

Comments

This is great news.

Posted by: George | Jun 3, 2016 8:13:01 PM

Prof. Berman:

All's well that ends well.

Posted by: Michael R. Levine | Jun 3, 2016 9:12:54 PM

I hope he does well. With re entry time, but 12.5 yrs is a long long time.

Im happy to see there mercy and good in the Ausa arena.

Boys, if you read this, it means the country is being restored, slowly. But hey if your one of them, all involved benefit greatly.

Posted by: MidWestGuy | Jun 3, 2016 11:35:08 PM

If it were a "Holloway" motion, ostensibly the PACER docket would reflect that. It doesn't. So he wasn't granted clemency, the law didn't change, so I suppose that leaves only a Rule 35(b) motion. Perhaps I'm missing something.

Posted by: ARD | Jun 4, 2016 9:24:42 PM

Must have been a sealed Rule 35 substantial-assistance motion if there is no entry on PACER. Still, the fact that an unspecified sealed motion was filed should at least appear on PACER. Weird.

Posted by: fed lawyer | Jun 6, 2016 6:16:26 PM

But then the District of Utah does have a history of maintaining secret dockets. See U.S. v. Mendoza, 698 F.3d 1303 (10th Cir. 2012).

Posted by: fed lawyer | Jun 6, 2016 6:28:32 PM

Post a comment
On Friday, the SFPD shut down 11th Street between Harrison and Folsom Streets starting around 3:30 p.m. due to a bomb threat at a specific business, which turned out to be DNA Lounge. According to a recap of the circus that ensued from the department Friday night, the individual claimed to be inside the business and to be "armed with a gun and a bomb."

Nearby office workers and adjacent buildings and businesses were evacuated, as was DNA, and multiple Muni lines had to be re-rerouted as a result. As a shelter-in-place order was given to the rest of the area, the situation began getting broad coverage on Twitter and broadcast media over the next several hours, as you can see from tweets below.

Ultimately, police were unable to re-establish contact with the individual, but not before the "SFPD Hostage - Crisis Negotiation Team, Tactical Unit, Bomb Squad, Specialist Team, and Explosive Detection K9's along with Tenderloin and Southern Police Station personnel and SFFD paramedics responded to the scene."

By 6:30, the building was searched and nothing and no one was found. At 6:50, the owner of DNA tweeted the following:

Today's stupidity is over -- they found nothing and nobody. Tonight's events will be going on as close to scheduled as possible!  DNA Lounge (@dnalounge) June 4, 2016

The Southern Station investigation team is hoping that someone can help them with any information about this person who made the threat, and you can do so by calling the SFPD's anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or by texting a tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD.

Below, the tweet evidence from Friday afternoon.

Street Closure Around the Area of 11th St and Folsom St Due to Bomb Threat. AVOID AREA #SFPD  San Francisco Police (@SFPD) June 3, 2016

SFPD has closed off 11th Street between Folsom and Harrison. Reportedly there's been a bomb threat at DNA Lounge.  Mr. Eric Sir (@mrericsir) June 3, 2016

Change of tactics, SFPD made us evacuate.  Mr. Eric Sir (@mrericsir) June 3, 2016

UPDATE: Due to #SFPD activity on 11th near Harrison, the 9, 9R, 12, 27, & 47 re-routing. Traffic in area is heavy, Avoid Area.  SFMTA (@sfmta_muni) June 3, 2016

Looks like SWAT(?) just entered the standoff at DNA Lounge @kron4news #SanFrancisco pic.twitter.com/OHIkikX6nj  Juliette Spirson (@spirson) June 4, 2016

Tactical team of 20 officers just entered DNA Lounge on 11th St in Soma neighborhood of San Francisco.  Kate Cagle (@KateCagle) June 4, 2016

This post has been updated throughout.




This is why we can't have nice things. It's been barely two weeks since the expanded SFMOMA reopened to the public, putting on display hundreds of wildly valuable 20th Century artworks from the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection, and already some poor soul has tripped and fallen into a Warhol and possibly caused some damage. As KRON 4 reports, the incident happened Thursday afternoon, and the museum doesn't seem to want to talk about it, saying there will be no official press release.

The painting, Warhol's "Triple Elvis," one version of which sold at auction for $82 million in 2014, is one of a series of 22 silkscreens the artist did of Elvis Presley, in a still from a movie, depicted as a cowboy shooting a gun.

According to reps for the museum, the painting was removed from the gallery to be examined, and conservators say that any contact the clumsy museum-goer's elbow made with the canvas was "minimal," per KRON 4.

Nice going, guy. (Or gal.) Because this would have been a far more expensive trip than when that kid in Taiwan tripped and punched a hole in a 17th Century Italian painting last August. That thing was only worth $1.5 million.
Antique tractors began arriving at Homestead National Monument of America Thursday evening and throughout the day on Friday in advance of the fifth annual Tractor Relay Across Nebraska beginning Saturday.

The relay will start at Homestead and end at Agate Fossil Bed National Monument near Harrison, on the other side of the state, with as many as 111 tractors expected to take part in the nine day drive.

"There were a number of discussions between the Nebraska Antique Farming Association (NAFA) and the Homestead so we would know how to accommodate them," said Homestead Superintendent Mark Engler. "We are anticipating 80-100 tractors to roll through by Saturday."

Though the tractor relay route changes each year, NAFA and the Homestead agreed to begin the 2016 event at the monument in celebration of the National Park Service's centennial year.

This year's theme for the tractor relay will be National Monuments in Nebraska, with stops at three national monuments along the way, including the starting and ending points and one in the middle.

"Organizers of the group (were) asked if they would consider a monument-to-monument theme this year and they did," Engler added. "I think it's appropriate and cool that they start at the Homestead with all its great ties to agriculture.

A participant from Lincoln, Joe Walsh, arrived at Homestead on Friday and said he plans on going to the first stop in Geneva before heading home.

"I like meeting the people and meeting the new drivers," said Walsh, who has done the relay the past few years. "No matter where you go they are the same kinds of people."

Walsh will be driving a 1945 tractor on Saturday that he said took a while to get up and running, but the parts were fun to find.

Dan and Dorris Marsh were also at the Homestead early Friday morning with their grandchild, preparing to go the whole way across Nebraska.

"We're excited to check out the National Monuments," Dorris said. The two Iowa residents had never been to Homestead before, though this will be their fifth year relaying across the state.

"We look forward to this every summer," Dorris said. "The friendships you make and the different spots we get to check out."

The relay will begin on June 4 and will include the following overnight stops:

June 4 -- Beatrice to Geneva

June 5 -- Geneva to Hastings

June 6 -- Hastings to St. Paul

June 7 -- St. Paul to Broken Bow

June 8 -- Broken Bow to Thedford

June 9 -- Thedford to Hyannis

June 10 -- Hyannis to Alliance

June 11 -- Alliance to Scottsbluff National Monument

June 12 -- Scottsbluff National Monument to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument

Donelle Moormeier, relay coordinator for NAFA, said the event started in 2012. The first year was patterned after the Pony Express and had just one tractor travel the entire distance across Nebraska, Donnelle and her husband Ron. Now there are over 25 participants set to travel all the way from Homestead to Agate Fossil Beds on their antique tractors.

Eight of us went on the first relay and it has become a big thing that continues to grow, Moormeier said. Weve become a tractor family.

The total length of the trek across Nebraska will be around 450 miles, Moormeier said. Although all the tractors will be antiques, the minimum speed limit is 12 miles per hour so that they can reach their intended destination by the end of each day.

Tractors will join and leave the relay each day depending on the leg of the journey. Moormeier expects to have at least 44 tractors and as many as 70 along any one stretch, with 111 expected to have participated by the end.

In 2014 NAFA added charitable fundraising to its drive and donated all the proceeds to Operation Comfort Warriors, an American Legion program that aids wounded warriors and their families. Last year they raised $10,700 for veterans in need, according to a press release from the National Park Service.

Those looking to catch the tractors in action should head to Homestead Saturday morning. The convoy plans to leave for Geneva by 9 a.m.


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Susan Sarandon can make frying an egg look interesting, and she does just that during a kitchen scene in writer-director Lorene Scafarias The Meddler. Sarandon stars as Marnie Minervini, a neurotic New Yorker worthy of Woody Allen transposed to Allens least favorite city, Los Angeles. Marnie moved there after the death of her husband to be close to her daughter, Lori (Rose Byrne). Only for Lori, mom has gotten too close. After Marnie invites herself to Loris friends baby shower, an event Lori skipped, the daughter decides its time to set boundaries. But mom is undeterred and indefatigable in her obsession to right all wrongs, solve all problems and be thereeven when unneeded or unwanted.

The Meddler is a consistently funny, even charming comedy about a mother who wont let go. Continually playing matchmaker, even with Loris ex-boyfriend, Marnie strides into her daughters home without knocking, bearing a bag of bagels and chiding her for letting the orchids die. After watching a TV news account of a serial killer, Marnie insists that Lori call whenever she leaves home and send a text when she returns. The irony is that Loris friends love Marnie and value her counsel. In one case, Marnie takes charge of an entire wedding party, even purchasing the brides gown. Her generosity extends beyond Loris circle. Discovering that the helpful African American clerk at the Apple Store is taking night classes to improve his prospects, she drives him to class three nights a week.

Its enough to send Lori to a therapistand sure enough, Marnie starts seeing that same therapist, complaining that her daughter seems angry for no reason. Calm and dispassionate as a statue, the mental health professional offers an opinion: Is all this generosity just a way of staying in peoples lives and feeling needed? However, The Meddlers screenplay suggests that, whatever the motivation, the results are largely positive.

Although Marnie hasnt really gotten over her husbands death, she attracts a couple of prospective gentleman friends. One is an affable retired cop called Zipper (the always on point J.K. Simmons) whom she encounters while stoned after swallowing a nickel bag of pot (dont ask). The dope doesnt cause her compulsive chattering to relent but only scrambles the output. I would kill my daughter if she died on a motorcycle, she tells Zipper, a Harley rider. And yet, throwing caution aside, she accepts a ride.

Sarandon plays an unforgettable character in Marnie, eclipsing all other players in a film that deals sensitively, humorously, with the emotions and frustrations of parents and their grown children.

The Meddler

Susan Sarandon

Rose Byrne

Directed by Lorene Scafaria

Rated PG-13
When we first meet him in The Man Who Knew Infinity, Srinivasa Ramanujan is furiously chalking equations onto the paving stones of a Hindu temple. He might have continued working out advanced math problems with only the Hindu pantheon as his audience if he hadnt written to one of the eminent mathematicians of his day, G.H. Hardy. A Cambridge University don, Hardy greeted the letter from an unknown Indian with aristocratic disdain until he glanced at the enclosed equations. Recognizing immediately that this was the work of a highly original mind, Hardy arranged Ramanujans passage to England in the months before the outbreak of World War I.

Math is hard to do on film but The Man Who Knew Infinity crackles with the excitement of the field when it advances beyond the arithmetic of everyday life into the calculus underlying reality. Based on Robert Kanigels biography of Ramanujan, The Man Who Knew Infinity stars Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) as the Indian prodigy whose work continues to astonish mathematicians (he is said to have anticipated superstring theory, among much else). Patel depicts him with fidelity as shy yet determined, a fish out of water at Cambridge who must swim upstream against the prevailing currents of racial prejudice and the smug satisfaction of mainstream science, whose minions at the turn of the last century believed all mysteries were solved and nothing was left to discover. Jeremy Irons (Reversal of Fortune) co-stars as Ramanujans mentor, Hardy. He is portrayed as coldly sympathetic, a cerebral man who understood numbers better than peoplebut understood them well enough to know that his Indian protege was onto something.

The film accurately distills the dynamic between Ramanujan and Hardy into a clash of worldviewsnot merely East versus West or India against Britain, but polytheism against atheism and intuition versus reason. Hardy demands proofs for Ramanujans theorems against the young Indians insistence on the power of creative inspiration (he claimed visions from Hindu deities as the source for many of his groundbreaking ideas). Ramanujan saw lengthy trains of mathematical equations in his head, much as Mozart is said to have heard entire symphonies before setting the notes on paper.

The Man Who Knew Infinity is a well-wrought biography of a brilliant figure who remains little known outside his own field. Although writer-director Matthew Brown trims reality to fit a two-hour format and allows the orchestral score to swell in key with the emotions, he has done fine work getting at the essence of Ramanujan and his outstanding insights. He is aided in every scene by a great cast.

The Man Who Knew Infinity

Dev Patel

Jeremy Irons

Directed by Matthew Brown

PG-13
Interviewing the noted French director Jean-Luc Godard, host Dick Cavett paused, ruminated a moment, and then asked, You are a great director but where are the great films? The same introspective query might be applied to the career of Orson Welles. His birth a century ago in Kenosha, Wis., was the occasion of new attention for this mercurial and inconsistent director. Where is the legacy so auspiciously anticipated after the masterful Citizen Kane? Where are the groundbreaking, compelling dramas augured by Citizen Kane? Where is the wonderful sense of cinematic architecture so superbly encompassed between a snowy paperweight and its forever tragically weighted symbolism in a sled?

Alas, this was not to be. The one-time thespian who electrified listeners with his infamous radio Martian attack received the singular distinction of being granted complete control over his first film, the legendary, one-of-a-kind masterpiece Citizen Kane. It would remain a solo triumph. Some would claim that The Magnificent Ambersons is the other great film in the Welles canon, but the Booth Tarkington tale remains a tidy parochial tale of turn-of-the-century Americana. For all of Welles proficiency as a filmmaker, the drama seems a cautiously wrought attempt at local flavor without the subtle insinuating power he had demonstrated so brilliantly in Kane.

Some maintain the The Lady from Shanghai and Touch of Evil must be included among the Welles greats, but both films seem disturbingly aberrational in their lack of an adhesive central concept. Welles increasing lack of discipline and freewheeling self-indulgence does not fully explain a disturbingly impatient sleight of hand. His cinematic but erratic expertise runs amok despite many brilliant moments.

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Lady from Shanghai is the more palatable but remains curiously out of joint. By removing his then wife Rita Hayworths signature auburn tresses and turning her into a close-cropped blond and then photographing her in glamorous, oddly detached close-ups, she is somehow intimidated into giving a flat nonperformance. Oddly distanced from the rest of the film, she subtly undermines the story that depends upon her devious manipulations to kill her husband. The lopsided quality of the film leaves us with a few high-powered set pieces that remind us of the directors skillthe most famous being the concluding shootout in the mirrored maze of a circus fun house.

Touch of Evil is considered the greater achievement. However, here we have a bulbously corpulent Welles blustering his way as a corrupt police officer trying to frame Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh on a drug charge in Mexico. Welles unpleasant growling obfuscates any sympathy. As a natural leading man Heston is badly miscast as a Mexican police officer, and this over-rated film seems like an unpleasant aberrational conflict of styles despite some stunning highlights.

Regardless of their turbulent analytic quality, many now find Welles Shakespearian ventures a more convincing claim to greatness. True Macbeth has a sepulchral tint to it and the heavily edited Othello plunges coldly into the verse, but Welles remains chiefly concerned with the stunning set pieces in both productions and the brilliant but detached cinematography seems like hollow tribute to the memory of Rosebud. The Bards verse serves only as an occasion for icy cinematic flair with occasionally stunning results. Brilliant camerawork in both films and some ingenious editing reveal all too sadly that Welles is more experimental filmmaker than a dedicated Shakespearian. The films are cold. Welles seems more taken with the melodramatic than the tragic aspects. His own performances seem tiringly monochromatic, low keyed and bombastic.

Nonetheless, these films are viewed as testimonial examples of Welles genius. Yet the best of the cycle, Chimes at Midnight, shows a pathetically gross Falstaff destroyed by the rejection of his onetime playfellow, now the king. A truly superb performance by Welles is somehow made more poignant by his grotesque bulk.

Perhaps Welles most appealing directorial effort was The Stranger. As an ex-Nazi in hiding, Welles was suitably ominous even when dealing with Edward G. Robinson as his pursuer. Some of his best performances were in films directed by others. He was completely riveting as the sardonic criminal in The Third Man, but that was director Carol Reeds triumph. He gave a moving performance in the underrated Tomorrow is Forever as the husband that Claudette Colbert forgot. For once, he had a leading lady of equal talent. His Jane Eyre performance was typically overblown as if he enjoyed browbeating Joan Fontaine. In later years he would play corpulent overripe cameos in such films as The Long Hot Summer and Moby Dick.

Welles career has a tragic overtone. Yet there is a monolithic grandeur to much of his output with many inspired moments of creative filmmaking, imaginatively conceived but indifferently executed poignant reminders of what might have been.
In the 1930s the painters of the Regionalist art movement responded to the hardships of the Great Depression by glorifying rural Americas people, traditions and values. Although the style is most famously embodied by long-faced Ma and pitchfork-holding Pa in Grant Woods American Gothic, Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) rivaled Wood as a central figure of Regionalism.

American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood (June 10-Sept. 5) is the first major exhibition of Bentons work in more than 25 years. The exhibit of nearly 100 works finds the artist channeling the grandeur of early Hollywood and retooling cinematic techniques in mural-like paintings.

Hollywoods influence on Benton had nothing to do with glitz, glamor, sex and celebrity. It was the storytelling techniques that Bentonafter returning from his art studies at the Academie Julien in Parisabsorbed while working on silent film sets between 1913 and 1917. By combining these techniques with his classical arts education, Benton became a master of mise-en-sceneorganizing his paintings with enough purposiveness and precision to capture in a single image what films required 24 frames per second to convey.

Central to the exhibit, Bentons painting Hollywood (1937-1938) epitomizes his narrative prowess. Life magazine had commissioned the artist to paint a movie mural that would disclose the world behind the scenes. The result synthesizes different moments of the production process and revolves around a scantily clad blonde goddess wielding a scepter and staring icily into the distance. A gentleman kneels as if proposing before her. Then the dynamism of Bentons composition catches the eye and swirls it around the perimeter of the canvas where production assistants toil with lights and fuss over hair and set false cities ablaze.

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If Bentons pictures tell stories, story is being used in a broad sense. But so much information is masterfully arranged on the canvasses that the viewer cant help but draw connections and speculate about details.

MAM is decking out the exhibition with programs, events and co-exhibitions that will dig deeper into different themes. Classic films including A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and The Grapes of Wrath (1940) will be screened on Friday evenings in July. American Seen! Regionalism from the American Art Collection will be displayed in the Godfrey American Art Wing concurrently with the Benton show. Despite the names overtones of provinciality, Regionalism is seen here to be a distinctly modern style that addressed contemporary issues and found inspiration in international influences.

For more information, visit mam.org.
It took a lawsuit filed by the Center for Media and Democracy and The Progressive to reveal the full truth about Gov. Scott Walkers involvement in trying to eliminate the beloved Wisconsin Idea.

The plan was scrapped after much public outrage over this clandestine effort to attack the goals of the University of Wisconsin System.

Contrary to Walkers denials at the time that the changes to the UWs mission statement in his last proposed state budget were a drafting error, the documents released in the court suit show that his office was behind it all. When faced with questions from state staffers, the response was, The Gov requested a simplified and clearer mission and purpose statements.

Gone were the high-minded ideals of our great-grandparents generation that urged Wisconsinites to improve themselves through education and public service and, above all, search for truth. If Walker had gotten his way, the states lauded university system would have been remade according to his vision as a glorified vocational school whose main purpose is training the workforce. Of course, we think that training workers for all sorts of jobs and professions is a laudable goal but an education is much more. So we dont think that Walker should have tried to gut the lofty goals enshrined in the Wisconsin Idea just so he could promote worker training in his budget to satisfy his corporate donors as he positioned himself to run for the Republican nomination for president.

Worse yet, Walker lied and totally misled Wisconsinites about his offices role in the death of the Wisconsin Idea. Then he tried to prevent the records release by claiming that the state open records law allowed him to withhold deliberative documents from the publics view. The lawsuit ultimately forced him to release the records.

Were disappointed that this preachers son and Eagle Scout couldnt do the honorable thing and tell the truth about his plans to gut the Wisconsin Idea. We should be used to Walkers lies by now, but for once we wish he would be honest with the public about his agenda. The search for truth in Wisconsin shouldnt have to involve a lawsuit.
Wisconsin now appears to have become a permanent member of a very special group of Republican-led, right-wing states that perhaps can best be described as Americas States of Ignorance.

The latest confirmation our state is a prominent member came when Wisconsin announced it would join 10 other states suing President Barack Obama to stop him from preventing schools from discriminating against transgender students using the bathroom.

It has become routine for Wisconsin to join hands with other extremist Republican states, many in the South with long histories of discrimination and others led by unusually bigoted governors like Arizonas Jan (Show me your papers, senor!) Brewer or Maines Paul (Bring back the guillotine!) LePage.

But most of the groups frivolous lawsuits pursue common Republican goals such as blocking expanded health care for their states poorest citizens or raising clean energy standards to clean up their air and water.

Its much more risky for 11 extremist Republican states to band together in support of North Carolinas discriminatory transgender bathroom law. Theyre inviting the same sort of disastrous backlash for their own states that North Carolina is quite deservedly experiencing.

Since North Carolina passed a law forcing transgender individuals to use public bathrooms matching the gender on their birth certificates regardless of their current sexual identities, all hell has broken loose there.

Corporations have cancelled relocation and job-expansion plans in the state. Organizations around the country are refusing to hold or attend conventions there. Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and other popular cultural attractions with a social conscience wont play there.

Wisconsin Bathroom Bill Flopped

Wisconsins coalition of the willfully ignorant specifically objects to a policy directive from the U.S. Department of Education warning schools that discriminating against transgender students could result in loss of federal education funds and legal action by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch charging North Carolina with discrimination.

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The odd thing about Wisconsins involvement is that when a couple of its goofier right-wing Republicans, state representatives Steve Nass and Jesse Kremer, introduced one of those dumb bathroom bills in the Assembly last fall, it went nowhere, despite Republican control of the Legislature.

School districts around the state are taking the anti-discrimination directive from the Department of Education in stride. More than 60 school districts have created non-discriminatory policies to accommodate transgender students.

It is not an overstatement to say people around the country who are upset about transgender use of bathrooms simply dont know what theyre talking about. Most likely they have never actually known a transgender person. Knowingly, at least.

Thats why they have bizarre images in their heads of savage male rapists with five-oclock shadow and possibly fangs throwing on dresses so they can go into womens restrooms and ravish little girls.

Surprise. A transgender woman identifies as a woman, not as a violent male predator. If any transgender bathroom safety issue exists, it would more likely involve the danger to a transgender woman in a male restroom.

Adopting a sexual identity different from the one a person was born into is not a decision anyone makes lightly. It can be a frightening, painful transformation, made even more so by hate laws rooted in ignorance.

But if theres any possibility of stirring up ignorant people over non-existent threats from racial or sexual minorities, Republicans are always eager to exploit it with nonsensical scare stories.

Perhaps whats most surprising about Wisconsins involvement this time is that Gov. Scott Walker is allowing Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel to take the lead.

When Walker was running for president, he wouldnt allow any other Republican to take a position farther to the right than his own, no matter how ridiculous. If Donald Trump wanted to build a huge wall along the Mexican border, maybe we should look at constructing one on the Canadian border too.

Walker kept an unusually low profile after Schimel consulted him before announcing on his own as attorney general he would be joining the multi-state legal fight on transgender bathroom use, which hasnt really been much of an issue in Wisconsin.

That raises some interesting questions. If Walker no longer wants to be out front on inflammatory right-wing issues, how serious is he about running for re-election at a time of declining poll numbers and anemic fundraising to retire his enormous $900,000 presidential campaign debt?

Maybe Walker is finally ready to give up his political dream and accept a lucrative job in the private sector, perhaps that pending opening as head of the right-wing Bradley Foundation now that its longtime chief, Michael Grebe, has decided to retire at the end of this month.

That could be good news for Wisconsin, though possibly not such great news for those hit by the collateral damage from the right-wing political battles Walker could fund around the country.

Wisconsin wouldnt necessarily be out of the woods yet either. Schimel is making it clear theres always another ambitious right-wing Republican eager to exploit public ignorance on inflammatory issues to see how far it can take him politically.
The Milwaukee County Mental Health Boards finance committee held an open meeting last Thursday to allow the public to weigh in on the 2017 budget for the countys Behavioral Health Division (BHD).

What the board got was feedback on BHDs potential $2.7 million deficit in 2017despite aggressively downsizing its in-patient operationsas well as the seeming lack of resources in the community and the tension in the Uncas Park neighborhood over the new county-contracted group home.

Few Details about Budget

The countys Behavioral Health Division administers the countys mental health and substance abuse programs. Since 2014, BHD has been governed by the Milwaukee County Mental Health Board, made up of appointed mental health experts, and not the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. The legislation that changed BHDs governance was backed by Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, who now appoints all of its members.

The boards goal is downsizing the countys psychiatric hospital and providing more resources in the community so those who are living with a mental health or substance abuse issue can live independently. The hospital shut down the last of its long-term care units last year and transitioned most of those patients into community placements. The board is also seeking a private contractorlikely an out-of-state vendor, since the local hospital groups seem not to be interestedto take over the countys hospital and emergency room.

The Mental Health Board follows a different budget process than the county board. BHD administrators craft the budget, which the board can alter via amendments. Health and Human Services Director Hector Colon presents the boards final budget to Abele, who can change anything. The board apparently cannot veto any of Abeles changes. Nor does the county board have any say in the BHD budget. It must be included in the countys overall budget with no amendments from county supervisors.

The Mental Health Board is allowed to set the property tax levy to support BHD services, but it must be within $53 million and $65 million, according to state law.

The current property tax levy supporting BHD is $59 million.

Randy Oleszak, fiscal administrator for BHD, told the committee Abele did not want to raise property taxes, which leaves BHD with a $2.7 million hole in 2017.

How to fill it?

Alicia Modjeska, a BHD administrator, suggested postponing a planned South Side community access hub, which would free up $1.2 million next year.

But Finance Committee Chair Thomas Lutzow countered that he didnt want to take money out of community programming and asked if the $3 million set aside for electronic medical records could be cut to fill the budget gap.

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Lutzow charged Oleszak with coming up with a budget that funded programming and gave him the freedom to increase the tax levy, tap reserves or shift priorities.

Protect programming wherever you can, he said.

Oleszak said the public can submit written comments on the budget to Lutzow until June 6. Lutzows board-related email isnt listed on the boards website, but the general email for the board is mhb@milwaukeecountywi.gov. Colon will present a detailed budget proposal to the Finance Committee on June 16 and to the full Mental Health Board for final approval on June 23.

Because Abele is beginning a new term of office, a few of his department directors need to be reconfirmed by county supervisors. Colon is one of the directors who needs the supervisors approval. Colons confirmation hearing hasnt yet been scheduled.

No Downsizing Dividend?

At the Thursday hearing at Washington Park Senior Center, members of the public stressed the need for more community resources. Reducing reliance on the hospital was supposed to free up money to support less-costly but effective community services. But there still arent enough community resources to meet the need for them, according to Thursdays testimony.

Barbara Beckert, director of Disability Rights Wisconsins Milwaukee office, said that while the community initiatives were welcomed, she said the board needed to do more.

I just feel that were at a crossroads here, Beckert said. Theres still a vision of transitioning to a community-based system but to date there hasnt been very much progress in that regard. We downsized quite a bit. Where is the downsizing dividend? Where is the opportunity to jumpstart a major expansion of community services?

AFSCME Council 32s Dennis Hughes questioned the boards priorities. The finance committee and the board approved in April an 18-month, $430,000 no-bid PR contract for Racine-based Kane Communications, which duplicates many services already provided by the county, Hughes said. Instead of spending money on a consultant hired to help raise employee morale and boost the departments image, Hughes said the money should have been spent on the employees themselves.

That money could be another 1% raise for our employees, Hughes said.

Tension over Uncas Park Group Home

Residents of the Uncas Park neighborhood, on the citys far South Side, raised their concerns about the new group home there. Last summer, the board had approved a no-bid contract worth $5.5 million to Matt Talbot Recovery Services for two group homesone on Uncas Avenue and one in Franklinfor former long-term residents of the countys psychiatric hospital. Uncas Park neighbors say HHS Director Colon and Matt Talbots Karl Rajani lied when they assured residents that no sex offenders would be placed there. Shortly before the facility opened last December, Colon admitted that at least one sex offender whod been a long-term patient at the hospital would live in the group home and that neighbors couldnt do anything about it.

Since then, civil war has broken out in the neighborhood, testified Supervisor Jason Haas at Thursdays meeting, between the neighbors and the facilitys workers. Neighbors told the Shepherd workers speed down the cul-de-sac, almost hit a dog and have gotten into shouting matches with the neighbors. Kids are afraid to go to the park. A promised privacy fence hasnt materialized. Teenager Kate Meyer testified before the Mental Health Board that when she took a tour of the facility she could see directly into her own bedroom window, and into her neighbors windows, from inside the facility.

At Thursdays Mental Health Board meeting, Uncas Park neighbor Tom Kotowski asked committee members if there were any plans in the 2017 budget to create more group homes throughout the county. After much back and forth, Amy Lorenz, deputy administrator of BHDs community services, said there were no planned facilities in the next budget but that there is funding for individuals who need housing assistance.

Uncas Park resident and Milwaukee Public Schools teacher Julie Meyer announced her candidacy for state Assembly. Policies related to the placement of group homes and sex offenders in the community seem to be a centerpiece of her campaign.

We can do better for our neighbors, for our families, and for the health of our community at large, Meyer said.
Pictured: Milwaukee s first Courthouse, built in 1836. Milwaukee s first two murderers were imprisoned in a small shack to the rear of the building.

This November will mark the 180th anniversary of a somewhat dubious milestone in city history  Milwaukee s first recorded murder. It was 1836, the midst of a boomtown for the little lakefront settlement known as Milwaukee (or Milwaukie ). What had been, two years before, a collection of about 20 people, was now a veritable metropolis of 1,200. The rapid growth of the village brought men from many walks to the area  financiers with money to invest, laborers hoping for plentiful work, and more than a few rogues and crooks who saw the western outpost as a place where the law wouldnt get in their way.

Two such men, hardened cases, per this 1883 history of Milwaukee, were Joseph Scott and Cornelius Bennett. The men ran a small rum-hole shanty (calling it as much as a saloon would be too generous) on North Water Street , near the corner of what is now Michigan Street . One November evening, a man known as Manitou  a member of one of the local Native American tribes  stopped in their place after having already indulged himself elsewhere. Accounts vary as to what happened next, but the proprietors of the house, upset either that Manitou was too drunk or had no money, threw him out. Headstrong, the young man reentered the place before being thrown out again.

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Scott and Bennett, so enraged by Manitous persistence and likely offended in the way that white men often were in the era when a Native refused to play the role of a submissive, followed him into the muddy street. Manitou had barely made it across the street when the two men attacked him. He was stabbed several times and died in a heap in front of a store at the southeast corner of Michigan and Water  present day site of the Mitchell Building .

Scott and Bennett were both quickly arrested for the crime. The arrest was a matter of public safety, but not over the threat that the two men posed. On the outskirts of village, some 300 Native Americans were camped. Relations between whites and the Natives were already strained, the settlers having averted armed hostilities just the year before after Byron Kilbourn had enraged the west-of-the-river tribes by jumping his lease on the land and evacuating them from the area a year ahead of schedule. City father Solomon Juneau himself delivered news of the murder to the camp and, according to pioneer historian James Buck, used his long-standing relationship with the tribe elders to avoid violent retaliation.

The office of County Clerk Albert Fowler, where the men were kept as the jail was built.

But the village had yet another problem. There was no jail in which to house their prize prisoners. A facility was, at the time, under construction, but not yet ready for occupancy. In the meantime, the two men were locked into the tiny office of Albert Fowler, who had recently become the first clerk of the newly-formed County of Milwaukee . After a few days in Fowlers office, the new jail was completed and the men were transferred. The new jail was an ill-constructed log building to the rear of the courthouse with a pair of cells, one ten feet by ten, the other ten feet by four.

Scott and Bennett remained there for nearly six months until, in April 1937, they escaped. The pair had used tools smuggled to them to pry oak boards from the wall and then used these pieces of wood to jimmy the cell door from its fastenings. After making it out of their cell, their escape from the building was quite easy  they climbed through a hole in its unfinished roof. A posse took out to search for the men but found nothing. Buck also noted that Juneau was so worried about the Native tribes blaming him for the loss of the murderers that he took to keeping two bears in the yard of his home, chained to trees, for protection.

Scott resurfaced about a year later in Indiana , when he was hanged for the murder of his uncle. Bennett was never heard of again.

See the site of Milwaukee s first murder and a score of sites of strange and terrible city history aboard the MONDO MILWAUKEE boat tour  Wednesday June 1, at 8 pm. Get tickets HERE.
The first time I met Deb Carey she was sharing her story at the craft beer bar, The Sugar Maple, to a crowd of people. She looked like a really cool Grandma, but swore like a sailor. I instantly needed to get to know her. As a Wisconsinite, I thought I knew the story of New Glarus Brewing Company, but Deb gives a different look into the struggles of starting a brewery, being a woman in the industry and how she overcame the difficulties from her childhood.

Deb as a child dealt with an abusive, alcoholic father that moved them around a lot, periods of time were spent living in city housing, on food stamps and sometimes sleeping in their car.

Deb shared that most people dont realize how much that contributed to her success. I really did grow up and work hard to be where I am, she says. A lot of my success is that I really am a street fighter.

Though Dan, her husband and business partners, career as a brewer didnt lead them directly to the town of New Glarus, Wisconsin; they eventually found their way about 23 years ago and started their brewery.

Getting a loan for a brewery was on par with getting a loan for an adult toy store. Hopefully you catch my drift here. Investing all of their time, money and efforts into starting New Glarus Brewing Co. came with struggles from local groups trying to sabotage them, creating problems within the town of New Glarus and raising two small children.

Deb talked to me about how hard the beer industry is and how its really something you dont realize until youre in it. You see things in bars, restaurants and other establishments that you really shouldnt and the everyday struggles some of those people face.

I want to win because I ran the race well; not because somebody else fell down, thats Deb on giving advice or direction to other brewers/breweries even though she knows the competitive nature of the industry. She says it, forces me to play my own best game.

When I asked Deb how she stays relevant and how she keeps New Glarus relevant she stated she is a very creative and independent person who is always thinking, listening to customers and watching trends in coffee and chocolate and always noticing new fruits in the produce department. Deb has spent at least the last three years creating new packaging and they are launching that very soon. Want to see? Because she showed me and apparently Im the first reporter to see it. Though, you may have noticed it on the new label for their new beer, Bubbler.

These are the new cans because NG will be canning Moon Man and Spotted Cow

When I asked Deb if it was hard being a woman in the industry, she replied, I dont know, Ive never been a guy. Then she went on to tell me a story about her at a conference (she couldnt remember which one) where she was listening to a gentlemen speak from Sierra Nevada on the distributors and difficulties, and she spoke up during the meeting because they were all telling stories and she said, I think its all that and worse because Im a woman. And he just jumped my shit. And he was like, this is a hard industry. This is just tough. This isnt because youre a woman, it is a bare knuckle, fist fight everyday, and if you think youre getting picked on because youre a woman, get over yourself. His response definitely startled Deb and was not what she was expecting, but after a moment of thought she knew he was right.

Within the last year and half Deb and Dan have transitioned the brewery to be employee owned so everyone can benefit from the wealth theyve created together. Though Deb does drink beer that isnt hers she mentions that 99% of the beer she drinks is New Glarus, and if you ask her to pick a favorite shell say, its like picking a favorite child.

Heard these first hand while grabbing a beer & lunch with Deb

I thought it important to ask the woman that inspires me what inspires her and in my head, I thought Id know the answer. Her answer was better than expected. Im inspired by the strength of everyday people around me, she said There are at least 100 people that work here now. They bring their best self here even through the everyday drama of daily life.

We spent about an hour together talking and then went to have lunch and a beer in the courtyard. I am forever grateful to her for allowing me two hours of her very busy day, and will remember it as I continue my journey in the beer industry. As always, if you love it or hate it, let me know at beerblog@shepex.com or you can find me on Facebook.

When shit hits the fan, are you going to fold or figure it out? -- Deb Carey
A summer staff member at Carol Joy Holling Camp near Ashland has the mumps.

A spokesperson for the camp said the virus was identified quickly when symptoms were noticed and the staff member was seen by a doctor and immediately quarantined at home.

The male staff member was vaccinated and will return to the camp when it is determined to be safe. The first summer camp session is to begin Sunday.

Health care staff at the camp have worked with the camps medical director, the Sarpy/Cass Health Department and the Nebraska Department of Healths Office of Epidemiology to ensure the safety of staff and campers.

The viral infection's symptoms include swollen salivary glands, fever, jaw pain and muscle aches.

Carol Joy Holling Camp, owned and operated by Nebraska Lutheran Outdoor Ministries, serves 1,600 campers and 20,000 other guests each year.
I get pretty wired when I talk about lighting, because lamps and light fixtures are key statement makers in a room, critical components of a well-designed interior space. Today's designers are pushing the boundaries, tapping into their reservoirs of 100-watt creativity to fashion lighting that truly makes a space brilliant.

More and more home furnishings companies we work with are adding light fixtures to their lines, proof positive that we are all embracing lighting as a central component of our interior spaces. And so many wonderful looks are in today that you can experiment and find the lamps and fixtures that are as unique as you and your home, telling your story with every flip of a switch. Here are some of my favorite ways to work lighting into my decor:

MIX IT UP

I've always loved interior spaces that look evolved, not staged or matchy. So I'm over the moon about the new freedom we're feeling to mix up the lighting in our homes. No longer are we handcuffed by the notion we should pick one style of lighting and use it exclusively throughout our homes. If you are tired of rigid design categories, like "traditional" or "contemporary," use your lighting to give your rooms a unique vibe that defies labels. How about hanging a modern pendant light over your traditional dining table? Or an antique chandelier in your contemporary kitchen?

It's exciting to see how many different materials and finishes are being used in light fixtures right now. All of us have a different sweet spot when it comes to mixology. In my home, I've kept my lights all traditional because that suits me best. But many customers I work with like a little bit of lots of different styles and looks. As with any decorating decision you make, listen to your gut, following what feels best for you and your home.

MAKE A BOLD STATEMENT

The more you scout for fixtures that tell the story of your home, the more playful and interesting your interior spaces become. Light fixtures that make a bold statement are trending in interior design right now, an approach to creating a room I'm sure is here to stay. We are loving all the variations on ceramic lamps, which come in about every shape and color imaginable, topped with interesting shade shapes.

A big lighting trend today is oversized lamps, pendants and chandeliers. Designers have taken all those rules about how big or small your light fixtures have to be, torn them up and thrown them out. I'm seeing overlarge, heavy pieces over tables now and they look smashing  talk about drama! But you don't have to go big for your light fixture or lamp to make a statement. Some light fixtures look more like hanging sculpture, intricate and striking. Others are noteworthy because of the interesting materials used to make them. Like the rustic industrial pieces that mix weathered metal, glass and feature Edison bulbs. Or the pickled wood framed lanterns that hint at French country.

WARMING TREND

The interior design world is smitten with the warm metallic finishes of gold, brass and copper. Truth be told, I never fell out of love with these soft finishes and have always liked to mix a variety of metals in my decor. Today's updated metal light fixtures are wonderfully and wildly diverse, from weathered and brawny industrial pendants that look like they were snatched from an early 20th century warehouse, to glitzy and glamorous chandeliers featuring gold, Lucite, crystals or baubles, a touch of Hollywood. Nostalgia is big right now, and designers are reimagining iconic fixture styles for nearly every decade of the last millennium.

It's hard for me to pick favorites when it comes to lamps. I see these beauties like artwork. They have to speak to you, and when you find one you love, you grab it, then work in into your home. One of our most popular styles right now is ceramic lamps that have either neutral, colorful or patterned bases, and structured drum or rectangle shades. Their clean lines and clear tones make them an ideal fit for just about every home.

This column was adapted from Mary Carol Garrity's blog at www.nellhills.com. She can be reached at marycarol@nellhills.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
LOS ANGELES | Comedian Mike Epps says theres no big statement being made by making TVs version of Uncle Buck black.

Believe it or not, theres an Uncle Buck in every race, he says. TVs version is merely speaking for all the Uncle Bucks in the world.

Although Epps has children of his own, hes known among his nieces and nephews as the money uncle  whatever that means.

His own children are likely to say hes the greatest dad, if I was standing there with them. If I wasnt, theyd start thinking about what I didnt do for them and theyd say, Hes OK. Theyve got me wrapped around their fingers.

On the series, Uncle Buck is the relative who steps in and helps his brother and sister-in-law with their children. Unfortunately, he knows nothing about child-rearing and often winds up using questionable tactics from the hood to raise children in the suburbs.

The series is based on the hit film which starred John Candy. Another series (with Kevin Meany) aired briefly in 1990 and was promptly cancelled. Producers say this incarnation should work because it feels very contemporary, very authentic, very organic.

Epps says the role is quite comfortable, particularly since hes used to being around children. When I walk out of my house and onto the set its something Im naturally doing.

Race, he says, shouldnt even be a consideration. This world is so crazy with terrorism that racism shouldnt be an issue. People of all colors are dying senselessly. Terrorism is the new racism.

Funny is funny no matter what color someone is, he adds. I was a fan of Benny Hill when I was a kidand nobody would ever know that.

To prove great humor lasts, the 45-year-old Epps is starring in a big-screen version of the life of Richard Pryor. Fifty percent of the script is performance, he says. A lot of his bits and routines that were all familiar with is what well be seeing.

Oprah Winfrey, Tracy Morgan and Eddie Murphy are also in the cast. Directed by Lee Daniels, Pryor is expected to tell the gritty, dark side of the comedians life.

For Epps, the role has been a crash course in his favorite comedian. I have learned so much about him, so much about comedy. I learned that Im not as crazy as I claimed I am. This dude was genius and he sacrificed himself to make everyone laugh in this world.

Uncle Buck, meanwhile, is a stroll in the park. When his own children see the kids in the cast, they bug him about helping them get jobs in show business. Thats very painful, he says. They dont understand how hard it is. I tell my daughter every day, Guess what? You have to grow up and learn how to be in the business. Its a constant battle.

While film and television are occupying much of his time, stand-up remains Epps first love.

I go out every weekend. I sharpen my tools doing stand-up. When Im not doing stand-up, Im not that great in film or television. I dont know why. I guess you get rusty. Stand-up is my acting workshop.

While writers on Uncle Buck will often resist when he asks to change a line, Epps usually offers a compromise.

Ill say it the way you want me to say and then let me say it the way I want to say it. Whichever comes out best, you can use. Most times, he smiles, his way works. Consider it the "Uncle Buck" he harbors inside.

Uncle Buck airs June 14 on ABC.
ATHENS, Greece  Christian Orthodox believers know Greece's heavily-forested northern peninsula of Mount Athos as the "Orchard of the Virgin Mary," but women have been strictly barred from entering it for more than a thousand years.

The autonomous monastic community is seen as a spiritual ark of Eastern Christianity, and thousands of male pilgrims visit its 20 fortified monasteries every year. Located a few miles away from busy seaside resorts in Greece's Halkidiki region, access is only allowed by sea, in tiny ferries for those carrying a permit to visit a specific monastery.

Last Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Monastery of St. Panteleimon, which is inhabited by Russian monks on the western coast of the peninsula.

Here are some things to know about Mount Athos:

The Russian Connection

Russians are Orthodox Christians, for whom Mount Athos is one of the most revered sites in the world. And this year marks the 1,000th anniversary of the first recorded settlement there by Russian monks, in 1016.

While most of Mount Athos' 1,500 monks are Greek-born, male Orthodox Christians are allowed to live on the peninsula as monks, which male followers of other religions can visit but not live on. The 20 monasteries on the peninsula include one Russian, one Serbian and one Bulgarian, while Romanians, Moldovans, Ukrainians and Georgians also live there.

The history of Mount Athos

Wars and pirate attacks left the peninsula largely deserted after the end of the ancient world. Monks first settled there before the 8th century, and the first monastery was founded in the 10th century.

Byzantine emperors in Constantinople  whose Patriarch still leads the Mount Athos community on religious matters  encouraged the settlement, heaping treasures, protection and privileges on the monasteries. The monks also managed to keep on the good side of Greece's Turkish rulers and to avoid interference during Greece's World War II German occupation.

Life in the monasteries on Mount Athos

Mount Athos still follows the Julian calendar, and is 13 days behind the rest of the planet. Monks  and visitors  start their day at 4 a.m., and monasteries bar their doors to all after sunset. Meat is banned, and monks spend their days in prayer and communal work, including agriculture. Mobile phones and Internet use are allowed.

Greek ties

The community was granted administrative autonomy when it was incorporated into the modern Greek state. Even Greece's European Union membership status contains provisions for Mount Athos to retain its special status. The EU has contributed substantial funds for the conservation and restoration of its buildings and their treasures, which include centuries-old wall-paintings and icons, manuscripts and religious artifacts.

Why no women?

The monasteries believe women might offer monks the fleshly temptations they renounced upon taking orders. Rumored breaches include one by refugees fleeing Nazi occupation forces, and a woman dressed as a man was caught shortly after World War II. The penalty is a maximum 12-month jail sentence. Greek human rights groups have failed to have the ban overturned in court.
Even though Douglas Wood grew up in the heart of Sioux City, he always had an affinity for the great outdoors.

Whether it was taking a hike at Stone State Park or just trekking in a secluded area, he felt at home in nature.

"Being in nature just seemed right for me," Wood, 64, explained. "This is where I wanted to be."

Now living in Minnesota, Wood is an artist, musician, naturalist and author of more than 33 books for children and adults, including 1992's critically-acclaimed "Old Turtle."

He will be performing a free concert of "Earth Songs" at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center, 4500 Sioux River Road, along with longtime guitar accompanist Steve Borgstrom.

"I try to come back to Sioux City every chance I get," Wood said. "It still feels like home to me."

Because you're involved in so many different types of projects, you've been described as sort of a Renaissance man. Do you feel like a Renaissance man?

"No. Everything that I've done has a common thread and that's nature. I draw influence from the world of nature and from the wild places I've visited."

Yet it all started in Sioux City. Did you dream of traveling the world and writing books when you were a kid?

"Not in the least. That's due to the fact I was never a good student. Everybody told me I had so much potential and I never really measured up. If it wasn't for my (Longfellow Elementary School) teacher Lois Little, I don't know what would become of me.

You wrote a book about your experiences with Miss Little, right?

"Yes, I wrote 'Miss Little's Gift' in 2009 and revealed in the book that I had ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). That explains why sitting at a desk all day was so difficult for me. Many years later, I discovered I also had dyslexia. This explained why reading was so challenging."

For someone with dyslexia, you seem to write a lot of books. Although you've written books for adults, it seems like your best-known and most critically-acclaimed works ("Old Turtle," "Miss Little's Gift" and 2000's "Grandad's Prayers of the Earth") are geared towards kids. Do you like writing for children the best?

"Oh, I don't know. I'd like to think of myself as still being a kid at heart. My wife thinks I'm too much of a kid sometimes."

Despite your difficulties in the classroom, you were a pretty literary kid. Do you remember your favorite books growing up?

"Yes and they were nature-based, beginning with (A.A. Milne's') 'Winnie the Pooh,' which, of course, took place in a forest. As I grew up, I got into Jack London ('Call of the Wild'), Henry David Thoreau ('Walden') as well as (author/environmentalist) Sigurd Olson."

Are you currently writing anything?

"Yes, I'm writing a memoir which probably won't be coming out for a while. (The memoir) is probably the favorite thing I've ever done."

Is there any type of writing that you would never tackle?

"Fiction. I don't think I'd be a very effective fiction writer."

But you're comfortable with writing and playing music. In fact, I understand you're pretty accomplished at playing the banjo, mandolin and 12-string guitar.

"Just like everything else, the music draws from the world of nature. When it comes to music, I like quoting something (composer and bandleader) Duke Ellington liked to say. Duke said if something sounded good, it is good. It's as simple as that."
The federal government has announced a program to provide $1.3 billion in debt relief for about 36,000 farmers who have fallen behind on loan payments or face foreclosure. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the farm loan relief program funded from $3.1 billion set aside in the Inflation Reduction Act allocated toward assisting distressed borrowers of direct or guaranteed loans administered by USDA. The law was passed by Congress and signed by Biden in August. The money anounced Tuesday is the first round of payments designed to help farmers hard hit by pandemic-induced market disruptions or climate-driven natural disasters including drought stay in business or re-enter farming. The USDA says additional programs are to come.
SIOUX CITY | Congressional challenger Rick Bertrand threw out charges of ineffectiveness against U.S. Rep. Steve King during a debate Friday night, while King asserted that he's done enough in D.C. to warrant an eighth term.

They sparred over whether King has delivered for Iowa's agriculture industry given his inability to rise to the House Agriculture Committee chairman post, whether there is a merit to likability in a representative and whether King has served too long with 14 years.

"If we send the same people back, what says we're going to get a different result? That's insanity," Bertrand asserted.

King said he's well-attuned to the the needs of Iowans, and hasn't lost vigor, so he should return to Washington in 2017.

"I burn the candle at both ends ... And when I run out of wax, I'll go home," King said.

Bertrand, a state senator from Sioux City, is making a rare challenge to a sitting Iowa congressman. The two Republicans are competing to become the party's nominee for the Iowa 4th congressional district, and voters will make the determination at the polls Tuesday.

The hour-long debate before 250 people took place at Eppley Auditorium of Morningside College. The debate was co-sponsored by the Journal, KSCJ radio and KTIV, the NBC affiliate in Sioux City.

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 made political waves 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 for corn-based ethanol. That caused Gov. Terry Branstad and others to publicly criticize King's pick, coming to defend an industry that is so important to the state.

King said his endorsement wasn't a mistake because he pressured Cruz to be open to a stance where energy sources were treated equally.

"I have voted for and supported the RFS," King said.

Bertrand said King's ineffectiveness was shown by his failure to have House Republican leadership move him into the Agriculture Committee chairmanship. He said when King puts his name on an amendment, the conclusion is known: "It is dead on arrival."

King said it is well known that he fought with former Republican House Speaker John Boehner, but now that Paul Ryan leads the chamber, he has a strengthened opportunity to become chairman if the position opens.

"I've had a pretty strong say on these Farm Bills" King added.

King has taken exception during the campaign with Bertrand questioning his likability. Bertrand was asked if he finds King likable.

"The fact that I challenged his likability doesn't mean that I don't like him personally. I just think he goes out there and runs a personal agenda," Bertrand said. He added that it is better when representatives, "be nice, be personable," in order to work well with legislative colleagues.

King criticized the fact that likability is a campaign topic.

"(Likability) is always in the eye of the beholder...(Bertrand) says he likes me. I like him a little less than I did before. I liked him before, so we are OK. And it shouldn't be a factor in a political election, it should be effectiveness and what are your principles, what's your ideology," King said.

Bertrand was asked to explain his change from opposition to a state gas tax increase to an eventual vote for a 10-cent increase in 2015. Bertrand said he was "voting my district," since the new gas tax money was needed to complete the four-laning of U.S. Highway 20 in western Iowa.

"I stepped up. I made the vote," Bertrand said.

King said he pushed the Highway 20 project ahead with his earmark of funding for an environmental study along the highway, specifically west of U.S. Highway 71 nearer to Sioux City. That 2003 earmark was for $1 million. The money directed by the state to complete the final 40 miles of the Highway 20 project through 2018 was $286 million.

The two candidates agreed on the need for a wall built at the Mexican border to halt illegal immigration, opposition to abortion and the need for tougher federal measures to halt terrorism in a time of what they called radical Islam.

People disagreed who performed better in the debate, with Jim Gengler, of Sioux City, siding with Bertrand.

"The issues that (Bertrand) was focused on were issues that resonate with the people of the 4th District ... King has simply become disconnected from people like me," Gengler said.

Jennifer Bennett, of Sioux City, said King won the event.

"It was more what Bertrand said that made me say, 'Oh my god.' He comes across as young and naive. He doesn't think about long-term ramifications," Bennett said.

King created a laugh in the debate when asked if he was participating in the debate because he was scared of losing to Bertrand. King said he thought taking part for an hour event was shorter than an extended back-and-forth with a son on whether he should participate in the debate.

"It is a time management thing," King said.
SIOUX CITY | Two women were uninjured Saturday after a deer leaped onto their vehicle as they were traveling north on Hamilton Boulevard, shattering the windshield.

The incident occurred shortly after 2 p.m. in the 3000 block of Hamilton Boulevard.

Sioux City Police Officer Justin Furgason said the white Chevrolet had been traveling in the right lane when a deer ran out from behind Faith Lutheran Church, crossed the median, leaped past the vehicle next to it and landed on its windshield, smashing the glass.

The two women in the vehicle weren't injured.

The deer ran away after the collision.

Furgason said car-deer accidents within city limits are rare during the afternoon hours.

"Not this time of day," he said. "Its kind of bizarre."

Sioux City Police, Sioux City Fire Rescue and Siouxland Paramedics assisted at the scene.
HINTON, Iowa | Four Le Mars women were transported to Mercy Medical Center -- Sioux City with injuries Saturday morning following a two-vehicle accident at the intersection of two county roads in Plymouth County.

According to a news release from the Plymouth County Sheriff's Department, the accident occurred at 10:11 a.m. when their car, heading south on K-49, stopped at the intersection with C-70 but failed to yield to oncoming traffic. While attempting to cross the intersection, the car collided with an eastbound pickup truck, the release said.

All four of the passengers in the white car were transported to Mercy Medical Center -- Sioux City. One of them was transported by Mercy Air Care.

The names of the injured are 20-year-old Sydney Mousel, 20-year-old Emily Meyer, 20-year-old Hannah Sitzmann, and 18-year-old Amy Isebrand, all of Le Mars, the release said.

Their conditions were not immediately available at Mercy Medical Center.

The driver of the truck, 31-year-old James Nash, of Kingsley, and a juvenile passenger were not injured, the release said.

Plymouth County Sheriff was assisted by the Kingsley Police Department, Woodbury County Sheriff's Office, Siouxland Paramedics, Kingsley Fire Department, Kingsley Ambulance, Hinton Fire Department, Hinton Ambulance and Mercy Air Care. Crews were on scene for several hours.
Iowa is a great state, but we can make it better  and I believe I can make a difference.

Having spent the past 12 years working on the staff of U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, I have the experience to hit the ground running and be effective on day one. And from my time working at the state Capitol in Des Moines, I have insights and relationships necessary to make a difference for the people of this district.

The Siouxland area has many unique benefits and challenges. House District 6 does, as well. To represent this district, one must understand this area and have both the experience and relationships to effectively advocate for our community in Des Moines. While there are a few districts that cover both urban and rural areas, House District 6 is the only one that borders on a state with no personal income tax. That, along with simply being a border community as well as a tri-state community, creates a set of challenges and needs that must be understood and advocated for within the Legislature.

For example, I have been told by local economic developers that they have lost businesses to South Dakota not because of corporate tax rates or property tax rates (although they are onerous, as well), but because of personal income taxes. Our 9 percent top rate is intimidating for small businesses looking to locate in this area.

I will propose that Woodbury County be allowed to determine its state income tax structure. I would like to study the impacts of a 3.5 percent flat rate as well as a simpler 1 percent, 3 percent, 5 percent structure. A more transparent tax structure, even at a lower rate, will likely increase revenue over time because people will have less incentive to escape the tax by building homes and moving businesses out of state.

But thats just one example. I will always be responsive to the people of House District 6 and strive to facilitate our participatory democracy through two-way communication. In Des Moines, I will put those concerns into action and advocate for common-sense solutions that benefit our community.

Jacob Bossman is a Republican candidate for the District 6 seat in the Iowa House of Representatives.
Whether youre building out your sales team or just your staff in general, the quality of your small business team can determine your companys success. To ensure that you put together the best possible group of employees, check out these team building tips from members of our small business community.

Overcome Objections When Building Employee Advocacy Programs

Employee advocacy can be a great way of reaching new audiences and communicating your brands message. But there are some things you need to overcome if you want an employee advocacy program to be effective. Michael Brito discusses more in this Content Marketing post.

Rely on Business Process Outsourcing

In todays business world, there are ways to get help with your business process without hiring actual hourly employees. You can outsource various functions to professionals who can make you and your business more productive overall. In this Redbooth post, Jennifer Riggins explains why many entrepreneurs rely on business process outsourcing.

Find and Interview the Right People for Your Dream Team

Building your dream team means finding the right people and conducting your interviews in a way that will help you really flush out the best candidates. Karen Repoli of Hit Virtual shares more here. And members of the BizSugar community share their thoughts on the post as well.

Use These Employee Retention Techniques That Actually Work

Building a great team isnt just about attracting talent. Its also about keeping it. To learn more about some employee retention techniques that actually work, check out this SteamFeed post by Steven Scheck.

Understand the Power of Business Attraction

When youre passionate and knowledgeable about your business, people are able to sense it. That can even have an impact on the people who you might want to work with or make deals with. In this Social Marketing Fella post, Vince Baiera explains the power of business attraction.

Hold Remote Team Meetings That Arent a Waste of Time

With more and more employees working remotely these days, its important that you know how to communicate and hold meetings with remote workers. Benjamin Brandall elaborates in this post on the 15Five blog. And BizSugar members weigh in too.

Show Your Employees That Your Small Business Cares

Employees want to know that they are not only doing good work and getting paid for it, but also that theyre working for a company that actually cares about them. In this SMB CEO post, Ivan Widjaya explains some ways you can show employees that your small business cares.

Use Effective Training Methods

No small business owner or team is perfect. You have to constantly learn and train your team to improve and keep up with the times. Brigg Patten shares more about effective training methods on the Cirrus Insight blog here.

Build a Culture Like Googles

Having a positive workplace culture can actually help you attract the best possible team members to your company. In this post from Select International, Bekah Regan details how you can create a culture like Googles, even when youre not Google. You can also see further discussion over on BizSugar.

Include Internal Culture in Your Branding

Branding involves more than just designing a new logo. In fact, the actual internal culture of your company is part of your overall brand. Nick Davies discusses more about building transparent brands and taking that internal culture into account in this post on the Pretty Pragmatic blog.

If youd like to suggest your favorite small business content to be considered for an upcoming community roundup, please send your news tips to: sbtips@gmail.com.
There are many fitness goals out there that we desire. Some of us want to be leaner and others wish to put on muscle mass. The thing is, for you to achieve your fitness goals, you need to
Plan would put five low-performing schools temporarily under state control, implement 'turnaround' measures at other struggling schools



Rep. Rob Bryan presents to the House Committee on K-12 Education a bill that would establish Achievement School Districts in North Carolina. (CJ photo by Kari Travis)

RALEIGH By a 60-49 vote, the state House on Thursday passed a bill that would temporarily remove five of North Carolina's lowest-performing public schools from their districts, placing them instead under the supervision of an Achievement School District that would allow charter-like flexibility and management. House Bill 1080 , which was hotly debated on the House floor and will be sent to the Senate, also includes provisions for two other school rehabilitation models to help failing schools that don't qualify for entrance into the ASD. Innovation Zones would allow a school board that has already entered one of its schools into the ASD to create a modified schedule with extra flexibility for up to three additional low-performing schools in its district. The school board then would be accountable to the State Board of Education, and would be required to meet specific goals and standards each year.The bill's other provision is a Principal Turnaround Model, which would allow a local school board to fire a school's principal and instead hire a "turnaround" principal with a proven record of success. Any hiring choices under this model would require approval from the state board.Several House members spoke out against the bill, saying that the concept has not delivered results in Tennessee and Louisiana - two states held out as models for the North Carolina project - and that money would be spent better on existing rehabilitation efforts within the Department of Public Instruction, which has assisted 75 out of 581 low-performing schools in North Carolina.Rep. Bobbie Richardson, D-Franklin, contended that - instead of voting for the ASD pilot program - House members should commit to provide more funding for DPI's efforts.Richardson said.Rep. Rob Bryan, R-Mecklenburg, who is the bill's primary sponsor, contested Richardson's claim, citing a Duke University study that has shown DPI efforts work in some schools while failing in others.Bryan also pointed out that DPI's efforts to help failing schools has been expensive.Bryan said.Bryan also said that his plan to establish an ASD would cost $400,000. He estimated that the combined cost of an ASD, Innovation Zones, and Principal Turnaround Model schools would total $1 million.Bryan added.Still, some House members remained unconvinced that spending money on a test program is wise for the state, saying that the issue can be solved by ensuring that high-quality teachers and principals are at work in every school."This bill reminds me of squinting at a gnat while we swallow a camel," said Rep. Joe Sam Queen, D-Haywood.The bill's supporters disagreed, pointing to a bipartisan belief in the need for quality education and opportunity for at-risk students as a reason to vote in favor of the bill.Rep. John Bradford, R-Mecklenburg, told House members that H.B. 1080 is a school turnaround bill rather than a takeover effort, reminding them that - as the bill is written - a failing school would spend only eight years in the ASD, after which the Local Education Agency would once again take control.Bradford said.
Press Release:

Contact: Attila Nemecz

Attila Nemecz (252)-940-6387

Graduating high school is often a huge relief for students. Years of studying, waking up early, staying late for band or sport practice are finally behind them and they look forward to the freedom of adulthood. For those continuing on to college, this freedom quickly fades as they are confronted again with studying and waking up early for classes, this time without a parent pushing them out the door.As a result, many students fail classes, change majors, and drop out altogether because they are not prepared to make the big commitments needed to get through college quickly and strongly. The decisions students make at 18 impact their lives decades later, but these choices do not have to be final. Community college offers a way for adults to redirect their career if the path they chose at 18 are no longer works for them. A new program called "Yes! You Can" now helps students return to college to finish their degree.Christine LeCompte just graduated from Beaufort County Community College at 47, receiving both an Associate in Arts and an Associate in General Education, finishing a journey she first began at 18. Planning to enroll at East Carolina University, she will continue her education while starting a new position as assistant to admissions and recruitment at BCCC.LeCompte reflects on her 18-year-old self. She took two semesters of classes at BCCC instead. During that time she met her first husband, a business owner. Not being very career-oriented at the time, she was happy to leave college and become a stay-at-home mother. She had two sons, Wayne II and Cole Woolard, with her husband. Wayne is now 25 and Cole is 20 years old.Her life changed when she married her current husband, Roland LeCompte. She obtained a number of certifications from BCCC, including nurse aide I and II in 2011, and even emergency medical technician in 2013. She worked as a phlebotomist, drawing blood at Vidant, but the late shifts were not conducive to raising small children. She transferred to a position in human resources that worked better for her family.Inspired by her grandmother, who got a college degree at 42, LeCompte decided to start the long road to getting a four-year degree at 46. She thought it was important for herself and her family that she get a degree, not just a certification.she said.Taking mostly online classes, LeCompte pieced together the schedule and the funding required for her to return to college. She still had to help sustain her family's income while attending college. At first, she worked full-time, with her classes often running until 9:30 at night. Having online classes meant that she could be employed and work around her family's schedule.She was nominated to be an ambassador for BCCC, an honor granted only to a handful of students. Ambassadors speak about their experience at the College at functions and help recruit new students in return for a year of tuition reimbursement. LeCompte also participated in work-study in the registrar's office during her final semester. Work-study allows students to earn income on campus while gaining work experience. The experience from the work-study position helped her gain the experience needed for her new position at BCCC.In addition to this, she received a number of scholarships through the BCCC Foundation. Throughout her attendance, she garnered the Louise and Dorsey Welch Scholarship, the Jarl and Grey Bowers Endowment Scholarship and the Archbell/Wilkinson Endowment Scholarship.In the end, she pieced enough funding together so her tuition and most of her cost of living were covered. She hopes that one day she can start a scholarship fund to return the opportunity she was given to another student in need.Attending BCCC has been a family affair for LeCompte. Her son Cole took classes at BCCC before transferring to UNC-Wilmington. The two had a public speaking class together. About Cole attending BCCC, she said,Her family is proud that she returned to college.Her step-daughter Laura LeCompte started at the Early College High School at BCCC in ninth grade. Last month, Christine and Laura walked together during their graduation ceremony.Going back later in life was a different experience than when she first attended. The face-to-face classes were somewhat awkward as she was much older than many of the students. Since she took many classes online, this was not a major issue. Her instructors often helped ease the awkwardness for her. A number of instructors would take the time to reach out to her and tell her she was doing a good job. "They are interested in the success and the lives of the students," she said. With all the distractions and obligations that come with being a working mother, LeCompte needed to be disciplined to succeed with online classes.she said. Her reasoning, too, is different. A large part of why she returned to college was to make her family proud and to set a good example for her children. She thinks anyone going back to school needs to have a strong foundation, including support from friends and family.she said.Her friends tell her,LeCompte often stayed up until 1:00 a.m. to make straight A's. She did this while homeschooling her youngest daughter, Madison.Now, for people in LeCompte's position, returning to college will be easier due to a new program at BCCC called "Yes! You Can." The program awards credit for prior learning to students who are returning to college or starting after spending time in the workforce. Previous training, certificates and veteran experience can count toward a degree. This means students can earn a degree faster and with less cost than before.LeCompte reports to BCCC for work now, not class. Along the way, she made friends with many of the faculty and completed her work-study in the office next door, making the transition easy. "It feels like home," she says. With just a few night classes a semester, it will be a while before she gets her bachelor's degree, but she is not deterred.
North Carolina families are hungry for school choice. To wit: the state's opportunity scholarship program has had more than 15,000 eligible applicants since its inception just two years ago. But only about 5,000 total scholarships were granted for the current school year. Thousands remain on waiting lists.Already far too many families are denied the opportunity to escape failing schools and take control of their child's educational needs. Disappointingly, legislation introduced last month would reduce funding for the opportunity scholarship program even further., would raid $11.8 million of the state funds designated for the opportunity scholarship program and redirect the money toward school construction. The state budget is slated to allocate a total of $24.8 million for scholarships in the coming fiscal year, so nearly half of those families hoping for a lifeline to a better educational opportunity would be denied under HB1095.There is a long line of North Carolina children desperately hoping and waiting on the chance to be awarded an opportunity scholarship. But is there really a shortage of funds for school construction? If so, why?Remember how the North Carolina Education Lottery was going to bring a windfall to the state's education needs? According to its website , the lottery has contributed nearly $4 billion to the state's educational institutions, primarily K-12, since 2007. More specifically, the lottery's funding formula designates 19 percent of funding earmarked for education go toward school construction.This translates into about $740 million in supplemental funding for new schools across the state in nine years - that's above and beyond the normal school construction funding amount. Where has that money gone?Opponents of school choice initiatives are loathe to cede any control over the education of our children. Education bureaucrats, and the politicians who benefit from their support, have too much to gain from the status quo.Because it would deny educational opportunity to the neediest children and families across our state in order to protect a status quo that is failing far too many of our students, House Bill 1095 is this week's Bad Bill of the Week.
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."
Well all remember May 31st, 2016 as the day we reached the cold brew singularity. Yesterday, Starbucks officially announced the launch of their nitro cold brew on tap, to be released in 500 stores across the United States by the end of the summer. Close your eyes with holy dread, for we on the nitro brew hath fed.

For those unaware of what exactly this now ubiquitous beverage is, the Starbucks press release has your back:

After handcrafting the Cold Brew recipe, baristas perfect the pour by pulling the tap and allowing the Cold Brew coffee to mix with nitrogen to deliver an entirely new cold coffee experience.

Cold brew coffee and nitrogen, a pour perfected by pulling a tap. Perfect. A tall is said to cost around $4.00 and has only five calories and zero grams of sugar. Thats 80 cents a calorie, which seems like a lot. But it really isnt when you consider this is an entirely new cold coffee experience, something repeated verbatim by Starbucks CEO and Chairman Howard Schultz in a different press release, so you know they mean it.

Nitro cold brew isnt exactly a new release for the Big Green Machine, though; it is already offered at the Starbucks Reserve and a few other Starbucks across Seattle. But the announcement of the nationwide campaign is pretty big news that has certainly riled up not only the coffee community but the world at large. Hell, even Buzzfeed plopped out a gifed out, infograph-tastic piece for those who want to read an article, just not the words. For press release rebloggers in the mainstream media or those nursing slow news days, its a big deal. For the rest of us, meh.

However, Starbucks has also released a sweet cream cold brew with a far different calorie metric. It sounds potentially delicious, but also potentially gross. My interest is piqued, and this story is developing

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network.

*gif via of Starbucks
Manila, June 3, 2016 (SPS)  The Philippine Communist Party has sent a message of condolences to Sahrawi Prime Minister Abdelkader Taleb-Omar over the passing of President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz.

The full text of the message:

The Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP-1930, the Philippine Communist Party) sends deepest condolences to the government of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), to the Frente Popular de Liberacion de Saguia el Hamra y Rio de Oro (POLISARIO Front), and to the revolutionary people of Western Sahara, over the untimely demise last May 31, at the age of 68, of H.E. Mohamed Abdelaziz, President of the SADR and General Secretary of the POLISARIO Front.

President Mohamed Abdelaziz, an outstanding Third World leader, will be remembered for his leading role in the founding in 1972 of the POLISARIO Front, the organizational expression of the struggle of the people of Western Sahara for freedom and independence from the Kingdom of Morocco. Since his election as SADR President in 1982, the SADR had won recognition from the African Union and from more than 80 countries from all over the world.

In this connection, we express our commitment to continue supporting the struggle of the Saharawi people for self-determination and independence, until the whole world recognizes the sovereign SADR.

Kindly extend our condolences to the family of President Abdelaziz.

Very sincerely,



ANTONIO E. PARIS



General Secretary (SPS)

062/090




Shahid El Hafed (Refugee Camps), June 4, 2016 (SPS) - Algeria will always support Western Sahara cause until Saharawi people fulfill their objectives, the speaker of the Council of the Nation (upper house of Parliament), Abdelkader Bensalah, said Friday in Chahid El Hafed.

"We will never stop backing the just Saharawi cause until the achievement of Saharawi people's expectations," Bensalah told reporters following discussions with the acting Saharawi president, Khatri Addouh.

Earlier, the speaker of the Upper House, had paid tribute to the memory of president of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and secretary general of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, passed away Tuesday following a long illness.

Bensalah recited Al-Fatiha, the first chapter of the Noble Qur'an, and signed the book of condolence. (SPS)

062/090/700
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  At least 33 people were killed and 22 sustained injuries as a passenger bus and a truck collided in the Algerian northern Laghouat Province early on Saturday, local media reported.

33 killed, 22 injured in deadly road accident southern Algeria https://t.co/SZvbSoVklr pic.twitter.com/pqD6nQW2tp  China Xinhua News (@XHNews) 4  2016 .

According to the Tout sur l'Algerie news website, the incident took place at about 2:50 local time [1:50 GMT]. The bus was en route from the northwestern Oran province to the eastern Ouargla Province.

A fire occurred after the collision.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  US diplomatic Mission to South Africa issued a security message on Saturday to warn US citizens about the possibility of terrorist attacks in the African nation conducted by the Daesh terrorist group.

"The U.S. Diplomatic Mission to South Africa informs U.S. citizens that the U.S. Government has received information that terrorist groups are planning to carry out near-term attacks against places where U.S. citizens congregate in South Africa, such as upscale shopping areas and malls in Johannesburg and Cape Town," the message said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Clashes near Nigers border with Nigeria claimed the lives of 30 Niger and two Nigerian soldiers, while 67 service members were wounded, the ministry said, as cited by Sky News channel.

The ministry said it launched a counter-offensive the following morning that helped the army recapture positions at Bosso and kill some of the attackers.

The Friday night attack was reportedly the worst since April 2015 when militants killed more than 70 civilians in the Lake Chad basin. Boko Haram has been launching frequent raids in neighboring Nigeria since its insurgency started seven years ago.
NEW YORK (Sputnik)  The icons are being returned at the request of the Russian Ministry of Culture, which seeks all Russian icons over 100 years be given a temporary export status and returned to Russia on a predetermined date for inspection.

"The Museum of Russian Icons is prepared to send the 16 icons back to Russia for inspection. They have been appropriately packaged and are ready for transport," Russell said on Friday.
After much reflection and soul-searching, the director of such cinematic gems as "The Island" and "Pearl Harbor" has decided to bless humanity with another Transformers movie. Entitled "The Last Knight," the films plot is unknown at this time  and likely unnecessary  but one tidbit about the 2017 guaranteed-blockbuster shows that Bay may be attempting to make up for his sins.

Freya, a six-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier, has lived in an animal shelter in Liverpool for nearly her entire life. Overlooked by over 18,000 potential owners, she was dubbed "Britains loneliest dog."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The construction of a fence on the border between India and Bangladesh will be completed by the end of 2016 as part of the Indian governmental efforts to stop individuals from illegally crossing the frontier in both directions, Indian Minister for Law and Justice DV Sadananda Gowda said Friday.

"A major initiative has been taken since the last six and a half decades in fencing the border, even to the extent of constitutional amendment being made on both sides," Gowda was quoted as saying by the NDTV broadcaster.

The completion of the fence will allow for "Bangladesh infiltration" to be stopped "within a very short period," the minister added.
TOKYO (Sputnik)  Speaking at a security summit in Singapore, Nakatani stressed, as quoted by Japan's Kyodo News Agency, that he was "deeply concerned" over the construction of military outposts in some of the disputed areas and emphasized that no country can be an "outsider" when it comes to regional stability.

Japan and China have rival claims to the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The conflict became aggravated in 2012 when China sent warships to the waters around the islands after Japan claimed to have purchased them from private owners.

In 2014, Japan and China agreed to reduce tensions over the disputed islands. However, Chinese vessels repeatedly intruded into Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in 2015.
CAIRO (Sputnik)  The Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee (HNC) will make a decision on a candidate, who will replace former HNC chief negotiator Mohammed Alloush in June, a spokesman for the HNC told Sputnik on Saturday.

On May 29, Mohammed Alloush announced his resignation from the office of HNC's chief negotiator.

"There is no possibility to take up Alloush's post, otherwise than as a result of the decision taken by the HNC. We will gather for this issue in June," Riyad Naasan Agha said.
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The US defense secretary however said he would welcome China's participation in a principled security network for Asia.

He gave further assurances that the United States will remain the most powerful military and main underwriter of security in the region for decades to come  and there should be no doubt about that.

Russia as the Guarantor of the Regional Security

Meanwhile, one of the most important agendas of the recent ASEAN-Russia Summit was reconstructing the Asia-Pacific security architecture.

The Association of Southeastern Asian Nations (ASEAN) is concerned about the ongoing US-China rivalry in the region.

The United States has been conducting its rebalance to Asia strategy, most notably by enhancing its role in maintaining the security order, The Diplomat magazine says in its analysis on the issue.

Despite statements to the contrary from Washington, many in the region believe this policy, coined by the Obama administration, was intended to contain Chinas growing power in Asia. The rivalry between the two great powers is undoubtedly shaping the security order in the Asia-Pacific, it says.
WASHINGTON(Sputnik)  US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter met with Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatani on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, and the sides agreed to enhance monitoring of the US military present in Japan under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), Pentagon said on Saturday.

The 15th Asia Security Summit, or the Shangri-La Dialogue, is currently underway in Singapore, bringing together regional defense officials and Western military officials to discuss the pressing security issues.

"Secretary Carter and Minister Nakatani decided to focus on the following areas: reviewing SOFA implementation practices related to U.S. personnel with SOFA status, including the civilian component; strengthening the monitoring of SOFA status of U.S. personnel, including the civilian component; and enhancing education and training for U.S. personnel with SOFA status," Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement.
Average dividend yield in Russias stock markets stood at 4.96% in late January 2016, resulting in income investors greatly benefitting from the combination of risks the nations economy is facing. Only Australia fared better, with average yield at 5.42%. Russia looks more appealing in terms of return-on-investment on its tocks than all other emerging markets, including mainland China (where avg. yield totals 3.56%) and India (1.47%), as well as most prominent advanced economies, with US shares yielding an average 2.23%, and a gauge of EU stocks yielding 3.75%.

A rebound in oil prices likely pushed Russian dividends higher; however, yields typically rise amid higher market volatility and negative expectations, which render investors pessimistic. Enterprises have to increase dividend payouts to keep them interested.

"On the top of the weaker ruble, Russian energy exporters got support from higher oil prices," Johan Elmquist of Tundra Fonder said. "The Russian investment case has changed. Its no longer enough for investors to buy cheap assets, they also want high dividend yields, and oil companies deliver on that."

Another reason that Russias investment appeal is rising might be the relative cheapness of Russias stocks. In the aftermath of investment capital erasure in 2014 and 2015, Russias markets provide many appealing deals, at low cost and higher yields. However, speculation regarding a possible value trap is brewing as well, but high-risk investors seem to be willing to take their chances.

"Russia is very cheap," Mark Mobius of Templeton Emerging Markets' said. "The problem is the sanctions. Many of us cannot invest because of the sanctions. Once sanctions are released, then the market is going to do very well."
Kunshan Nano New Material, the company which produces glass components for Apple and is a subsidiary of Foxconn Group, one of the world leading electronic component manufacturers, has signed an agreement to establish its R&D center at Skolkovo.

Russian mobile phone operator Tele2 has also signed an agreement with Skolkovo which, among other things, involves establishing a research and development facility there.

"Just like any other telecommunications company, we keep track of whats happening in the related areas and in the high-tech sphere," Alexander Provorotov, Tele2 CEO, said.
During her four years as Secretary of State under Obama, Clinton was the stand-out gung-ho senior member of the White House administration. It was she who pushed for the disastrous war for regime change in Libya and boasted after the murder of the countrys leader Muammar Gaddafi by US-backed jihadists in 2011. Clintons policy turned a once-prosperous North African nation into a charnel house, which continues to destabilize the entire region and Europe from terrorism and refugees, who are dying by the thousands as they attempt to cross the Mediterranean.

It was Clinton who colluded with the Central Intelligence Agency, and with Arab and Turkish despotic rogue states to ship weapons and terror brigades from Libya into Syria in order to instigate another war for regime change. That war has caused as many as 400,000 deaths and up to 10 million displaced people, compounding the mayhem of instability in the region and for Europe that was unleashed with Libya.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is also responsible for the lamentable downturn in relations between the US and Russia, after she began falsely accusing Moscow of trying to resurrect the Soviet Union and threatening its neighbors. Clintons reckless provocation of a new Cold War led to the Ukraine crisis, the US-backed coup detat in Kiev in 2014 and the ongoing bloody aggression against the ethnic Russian population in the east of that country. That in turn has created the worst tensions between Russia and the US and Europe in decades, to the point where many commentators fear that a nuclear war could break out.

If Clinton were to get elected to the White House in the November presidential contest, the prognosis for world relations is even grimmer. In her latest foreign policy showcase speech this week, in which she lambasted Trump, Clinton snidely referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a tyrant. She also said that if Trump should win the presidency, then the Kremlin would celebrate  inferring that Russia harbors irrational enmity towards the US.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Saleh A. lived in refugee housing in Dusseldorf suburbs starting from March 2015, according to Bild. In July of last year he robbed one person at a night club in the citys historic district. He has been detained by French authorities and has revealed plans of an attack in Dusseldorf to French investigators.

On Thursday, three Syrians suspected of planning an attack in Dusseldorf were arrested in Germany. According to the German Spiegel magazine, the arrested are members of Daesh (the Islamic State) terrorist group, banned in a range of states, including Russia.

At least two of them had come to Germany disguised as refugees via the Balkan route in September 2015, according to Bild. Saleh A. arrived in Germany in 2014 and used to be a member of the Jabhat al-Nusra (Nusra Front) terrorist group, the newspaper said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The debt was arranged for the purchase of military equipment and vessels for three state-backed Mozambique companies, the newspaper said on Friday. The deals included $622 million in loans to buy military equipment, $535 million in loans to build a shipyard and $850 million in bonds to buy a tuna-fishing fleet.

Mozambique has called in a debt-restructuring specialists to determine whether it should continue paying on some related loans, The Wall Street Journal said.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority is examining whether Credit Suisse Group AG and the Russian VTB violated any regulations concerning bond restructuring disclosures.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Finland remains one of the most popular destinations for the Russian tourists, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik in an interview.

"Although due to various factors, including the objective economic ones, the number of border crossings has reduced  from 13 million in 2013 to 11.4 million in 2014 and to 9.2 million in 2015  the Russian tourists continue to retain their leading position among guests of Finland, while Finland remains one of the key destinations of the Russian foreign tourism," Zakharova said.

According to the spokeswoman, Finnish tourists were the fifth largest tourist group to visit Russia in 2015 globally and the second largest group among the EU tourists to Russia.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Low oil prices and bilateral sanctions have kept trade flows between Russia and Finland down, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik in an interview.

"Bilateral trade figures have been falling steadily due to many objective macroeconomic factors, primarily a drop in prices of Russias main export commodity, which is oil  but also due to EUs negative sanctions policy and Russias counter-restrictions," Zakharova said.

In the first two months of 2016, trade between Russia and Finland dropped by 35.2 percent from the same period in 2015, but at the same time, Finland is Russias 15th largest trade partner and accounts for 1.9 percent of its foreign trade, according to the spokeswoman.
It should be noted that a considerable number of Germans used to live in Crimea since the times of Tsarist Russia, but all of them ended up deported from there during World War II.

"Some of them are displeased with the current refugee problem. And many are unwilling to put up with the dismantling of the Christian and family values," Gempel explained.

One of the would-be settlers, a Russian German named Willi Sdor, said that it is hard to find a decent-paying job in Germany when you have an accent which makes him feel himself as a "second-rate citizen" there.

"I raise my kids alone, and of course its not easy. But when I seek even a little help, the door is always closed for me. Refugees always come first in Germany, and the government doesnt have money to spare for anything else," he explained.

He also said that he considers Germany as his "second homeland" and Russia as his first because he was born there.

The prospects of a fresh start, along with a familiar feeling of protection and authority  this is what makes Crimea highly desirable for many Russian Germans, ZDF concludes.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia and Finland manage to retain constructive relations despite the negative political backdrop of the Russia-EU ties, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik in an interview.

"Even though the political backdrop and the European Unions policies in the context of the events in Ukraine, which Finland supports, do affect bilateral relations and practical cooperation, it can be stated that the potential of neighborliness allowed Russia and Finlands relations to maintain their constructive, pragmatic and non-confrontational nature," Zakharova said ahead of the June 6 Moscow visit of Finnish Foreign Minister Timo Soini.

She reminded that Moscow and Helsinki worked together in the United Nations, international organizations and regional formats in Northern Europe and the Arctic.
We in the West might have forgotten, but the Russians still remember how Nazi Germany invaded from that very direction and how the war took 27 million [Soviet] lives, Jens Jorgen Nielsen says.

Secondly, taking into account that George W. Bush withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty back in 2002, now there are no restrictions prohibiting the deployment of cruise and ballistic missiles on Russias borders.

They may be based on NATO warships in the Baltic Sea or in other locations, and it would take the Alliance less than five minutes to hit, for example, Russia's St. Petersburg, the author says.

Some of the Western countries which possess nuclear weapons might cherish illusions that the so-called defense missiles are able to neutralize Russias long-range strategic nuclear missiles and thus eliminate the so-called mutual deterrence.

As s result, the western strategists might be tempted to attack first, assuming that NATO could win the nuclear war with Russia. However, in reality this is nothing but a dangerous delusion, as Russias weaponry is far more advanced than for example that of Iraq, Nielsen warns.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Russia proposes to create a group of observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to monitor security of the forthcoming elections in Eastern Ukraine along with local militias, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"We proposed to expand the OSCE mission, or, more correctly, to create a separate group of observers for a period of elections, which would patrol along with militias of Donetsk and Lugansk and would monitor how the security is provided," Lavrov stated in a televised interview on Russia's Vesti v Subbotu weekly news program.

He added that at the moment the OSCE discussed the additional measures the organizations could take to ensure security of the vote in the eastern Ukraine.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia is ready to agree to have Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitors carry personal arms, but it is something that many OSCE members are against, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"I will repeat that we are ready for such a compromise," Lavrov said in a televised interview on Russia's Vesti v Subbotu weekly news program, stressing, however, that many members of the OSCE are against such a move.

According to the Russian foreign minister, OSCE and UN experience shows that oftentimes unarmed monitors are better protected than armed ones.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Moscow is not against Kiev trying to agree with the self-proclaimed peoples republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LPR) in Ukraines southeast on getting access to the Russian-Ukrainian border, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"In what concerns access to borders with the Russian Federation of republics within Ukraine: if Ukrainians agree with Donetsk and Lugansk, we are all for it. But it has to be specifically an agreement with them, because they have certainly not forgotten the threats that came and continue to come from Kiev," Lavrov told Russia's Vesti v Subbotu weekly news program.

The Russian Foreign Minister stressed that Kiev has signed agreements that direct talks must be held with DPR and LPR on a variety of issues.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Ankaras unwillingness to be a partner on a range of issues could be behind the German parliaments decision to acknowledge the Armenian genocide , Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"I suppose in the end, all of it comes from Turkeys unwillingness to be a real partner on a range of issues, from its periodic attempts to organize scandals, offend its partners, including in Europe. I think that their [Ankaras] reaction to Bundestags decision is absolutely inappropriate," Lavrov told Russia's Vesti v Subbotu weekly news program on the Rossiya television channel.

On Thursday, the German parliament adopted a bill recognizing the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman authorities as genocide. The Turkish Foreign Ministry called the move shameful.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia could agree to specific police functions of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission to Eastern Ukraine , Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"[Hand out] fire arms for self-defense. Such a practice exists. We can say that it is an element of [OSCE mission's] police functions, but, first of all, it is protection and monitoring of non-violation of the withdrawal line and [heavy weapons] storage sites," Lavrov told Russia's Vesti v Subbotu weekly news program on the Rossiya television channel.
KIEV (Sputnik)  The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine confirmed on Saturday the detention of a French national, who was reportedly carrying arms and explosives while crossing Ukraine's border to Poland.

Earlier in the day, French media reported that a French national, who was suspected of plotting terrorist attack in France was detained in May at the Polish-Ukrainian border with weapons and explosive materials, including three grenade launchers, several Kalashnikovs and more than 100 kilograms, or 220 pounds of explosive materials, in his car.

"I can confirm that it has taken place, but [the case] falls within the competence of Security Service of Ukraine," a spokesman for the service told RIA Novosti.
Poland, which had earlier pushed for the deployment of permanent US and NATO bases on its territory, has come to terms with the idea of rotating NATO battalions being stationed on its territory and in the Baltic states ahead of the NATO summit in Warsaw next month.

Earlier this week, Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz suggested that one rotating battalion of NATO troops deployed on Polish territory would be sufficient to halt any Russian invasion plans, clarifying that these troops could hold down the Russians long enough for reinforcements to arrive if it ever came to war. The minister did not make clear why Russia would decide to attack Poland, a NATO member, which would effectively mark the outbreak of World War III.

Commenting on the national guard-like initiative in Spiegel Online's comments section, German readers had their doubts about its logic. One reader pointedly asked: "Can someone explain to me how one should understand the idea that Russia is 'putting pressure' on Poland's eastern provinces? The article says nothing about this. Perhaps our colleagues have in mind the small border traffic with [the Russian exclave of] Kaliningrad, which is very beneficial to the Poles economically?"

Another reader suggested that "from the military point of view, this is meaningless. From the political point of view, it's irresponsible." Another noted that the measure will only serve to fuel a military buildup: "Later, when the Russians take the necessary countermeasures, the Poles will be surprised and will again feel threatened."

Finally, one user asked whether "they are all clear-headed over there in Warsaw or what? What's with this nasty baiting? This is open imperialism. They are working at the behest of the Americans, who want to destabilize Europe and save their own skins.
"In the capitalist world there is freedom, but no basis equality and not enough society. This (referendum) is an offer to everybody to think about this unconditional basic income. First, to be precise, it's just a basic income, not your whole income."

"There will be rich and poor, as today, there will be wages related to your performance as today, but the basic level will be protected for everyone," he explained.

Schmidt believes such a system will reveal to individuals their intrinsic motivation for work, instead of just working for money. He also thinks it would change social structures.

"It says that we trust everybody in society to decide for the best, that we are one society."

"When you have that, you can imagine what will happen  wages will be renegotiated, social benefits will increase above this amount. It's not a huge mass of more money, it's about the fact it is unconditional and I think this is a step forward particularly in our consciousness, and (forces us to) rethink our values," Schmidt said.
Ukrainian engineers are working on a new tank for the Ukrainian army that could be ready for action by the end of the year, journalist Sergey Zgurets revealed on Thursday.

"The "Azov" engineering group is working on a few projects. They are the modernization of the T-64 tank into a "T-Rex," the development of infantry fighting vehicles and the "Azovets" combat vehicle. Azovets is really a prototype, and aspects (of the vehicle) will be implemented in other projects including infantry fighting vehicles," said Zgurets in an interview with Ukrainian news portal Apostrophe.

Zgurets, editor of Ukraine's Defense Express magazine, said that T-Rex is the most promising of the projects, based on the Soviet T-64 battle tank, which was produced from the mid-1960s until 1987.
His resignation in disgrace followed that of Planning Minister Romero Juca, who resigned last month over the leak of another telephone conversation, this time discussing how to put Temer into office. Those audio recordings led to charges that the new government had effectively overthrown Dilma Rousseff in a coup.

Speaking to Sputnik on the problems facing the country and its political elite, Brazilian sociologist and career diplomat Paulo Almeida warned that together with corruption, the central problem facing Brazil today is the possibility of a great depression.

"Today, it's not only political corruption inside the Congress or the government; the problem is that the Brazilian economy is in the middle of a big recession coming probably to a big depression."

Almeida blamed the recession on the commodity boom of the past years, overspending and flawed economic policies.

"I would call the whole situation today 'the Great Destruction'," Almeida warned. "You have had the Great Depression in the 1930snowadays we are seeing the beginning of the Great Destruction in BrazilBesides the political side of the impeachment process, we are living in a big recession."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The first round on April 10 saw Keiko Fujimori, the 41-year-old daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, in the lead with almost 40 percent of votes.

Her key rival, Pedro Pablo Kuzcynski, 77, shored up support of slightly over 21 percent of the South American nation's 22 million eligible voters.

The recent opinion polls by CPI, Datum, CFK  Ipsos gave Keiko Fujimori an advantage of 4-9 percent over Kuzcynski. Fujimoris father is serving a jail term on charges of corruption and abuse of human rights.
These abuses came to light when one of the victims told his father. The accused, by way of defending his actions, said that managers and other employees also molested children. Others families were aware of this misconduct, but didnt report it for fear of being deported.The camp, called Nizip, located in southeast Turkey in a city called Gaziantep, houses about a tenth of Turkeys Syrian refugee population, which numbers about 2.7 million. It is run by the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, which claims that it was unaware that widespread molestation was taking place.

These revelations come as a shock to citizens in a country that prides itself on humanitarianism. German Chancellor Merkel visited the Nizip camp, along with European Council President Donald Tusk, on April 23, greeted by Syrian girls carrying a gift of flowers. Tusk praised the camp, saying "Turkey is the best example for the whole world on how we should treat refugees."
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  "We know that, of course, Baghdad is talking to the IMF and there is a discussion on a standby loan. We would, and we have expressed this to the IMF, and also to the United States and the Prime Minister of Iraq, we would expect that if Iraq was to get a loan from the IMF Kurdistan should receive its rightful share,," Rahman stated.

The same expectation holds for assistance from the World Bank, if and when there is a loan, she added.

Rahman argued that Iraqi Kurdistan should have the share from the expected financial assistance because the region is part of Iraq and because of the contributions it is making in the War on Terrorism and overcoming the countrys humanitarian crisis.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Iraqi Kurdistan is seeking to do business Japan, China and South Korea, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) representative to the United States Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman told Sputnik.

"We are trying to promote our economic future and investment opportunities all over the world," Rahman said, noting that the KRG endorses business relations with neighboring countries, Turkey, Iran and the Gulf states. "[W]e talk to [all] about investment and trade, but we have also always looked further afield both to Europe and the United States. Very recently weve also started to think about the Far East, and by that I mean Japan, China, South Korea."

Rahman noted that some Russian oil companies have concluded contracts in the Kurdistan region.
TOOBNE (Syria) (Sputnik)  Russian servicemen delivered some 4 metric tons of humanitarian aid to the southwestern Syrian province of Daraa , a spokesman for the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation at Hmeymim airbase said Saturday.

"[Russian troops] delivered 4 tons of humanitarian aid to residents and refugees of the settlement of Toobne, located in the province of Daraa," Col. Stanislav Ivanov told reporters.

He added that humanitarian activities in war-torn Syria contributed to the settlement of the conflict in the Middle Eastern nation.
HMEIMIM (Syria) (Sputnik)  The terrorist groups Daesh and Nusra Front have been conducting artillery target reconnaissance in Aleppo, Syria and the town of Handrat, a spokesman for the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation at Hmeymim Airbase said Saturday.

"Daesh and Nusra Front militants have been conducting artillery target reconnaissance in the Sheikh Maqsood and Zahra districts of Aleppo and the settlement of Handrat over a period of several days," the spokesman said.

He added that terrorists attack residential areas, administrative buildings and position of the Syrian army, as well as pro-government militias.
ALEPPO (Syria) (Sputnik)  About 40 Wahhabi preachers from Saudi Arabia arrived in war-torn Syria in order to convince local militants to fight during the holy month of Ramadan , the head of one of the settlements in Syria's Aleppo province said.

"Some 40 Wahhabi preachers  graduates of specific educational institutions located in northwestern Saudi Arabia  arrived in the region of Aleppo and eastern Qalamoun in the vicinity of Damascus Saudi preachers arrived with a mission to convince Nusra Front terrorists, as well as [militants] from Ahrar ash-Sham and Jaish al-Islam, who consider themselves part of opposition, that the limitations imposed on Muslims during Ramadan do not extend to jihad," the settlement head said.

He added that the militants plan to conduct a number of terror attacks and to capture several strategic positions controlled by Damascus.
DAMASCUS (Sputnik)  The Syrian Army on Saturday reached the borders of the country's northern Raqqa province, partially occupied by the jihadists from the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) militant group, a military source told Sputnik.

According to the source, the offensive of Syrian troops, supported by the Russian Aerospace Forces, aims at liberation of Tabqah town located to the west of Raqqa city.
DAMASCUS (Sputnik)  The Syrian Armed forces repelled the attack conducted by the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) militant group in the vicinity of a besieged city of Deir ez-Zor in northeastern Syria, a military source told Sputnik on Saturday.

"The Syrian army repelled the attack conducted by [IS] militants in two directions  toward south and southwest of the city," the source said.
"Armed units of the Al-Nusra Front terrorist group delivered a massive strike on the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsood, Al-Muhafaza and Al-Zahra and on Al-Nayrab airport in Aleppo. The terrorists also hit the Syrian Arab Army position in the city of Hndarat," the representative said.

Over 40 people were killed and at least 100 were injured when terrorists shelled residential areas of Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood of Aleppo, the representative said.

"A police station and a number of residential buildings were destroyed as a result of a shelling of [Aleppo's] Sheikh Maqsood quarter by militants from terrorist groups. More than 40 civilians, police and military personnel were killed and about 100 sustained injuries," the spokesman said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  At least six people were killed and 15 more injured in a suicide bombing attack near the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, media reported Saturday.

"# Iraqi Police  six killed and 15 wounded, as a suicide bombing took place north of Baghdad #," Al-Hadath news channel said on its Twitter account.
ANKARA (Sputnik)  Authorities of Turkey's Kurdish-populated southeastern province of Diyarbakir on Saturday announced the beginning of an anti-Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) operation and around-the-clock curfew in the province's district of Lice

"The [anti-PKK] operation will be carried out in Lice district In order to ensure safety of people's lives and property and to prevent [possible] damage to the civilian population, since June 4, 2016, 10:30 [07:30 GMT] it is forbidden to go outside in the area of the operation until further notice," the statement said.

According to the statement, local population will be notified about the end of the curfew by the authorities.
DAMASCUS (Sputnik)  A Czech plane with humanitarian aid for Syrians will arrive in the Damascus International Airport on Sunday, an informed source told Sputnik.

According to the source, at least one other humanitarian aircraft is expected to be sent to Syria from the Czech Republic next week.

In April, Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Tlapa said Prague approved two aid deliveries to Syria worth about $166,000.
The Iraqi Army and militias, backed by US airstrikes, launched the offensive to retake Fallujah on May 22.

"Fighters from a counterterrorism department broke into Fallujah from southern direction and established control over Nuaimiya district," the statement reads.


HMEYMIM (Syria) (Sputnik)Nusra Front militants attacked the positions of the Kurdish militia in the Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood of the Syrian Aleppo city on Saturday, a spokesman for the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation at the Hmeimim airbase said.

"After an intense artillery preparation fire, Nusra Front and Ahrar ash-Sham armed groups attacked the positions of Kurdish militia and volunteers from local residents in the neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsood in northern Aleppo," the spokesman said.

According to him, Kurds managed to destroy several armored vehicles of the adversary as fierce fighting in the neighborhood continued.


HMEYMIM (Syria) (Sputnik)Kurdish militia was forced to leave their positions in the Syrian Aleppo's Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood by a terrorist groups offensive on Saturday, a spokesman for the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation at the Hmeymim airbase said.

"Kurdish militia units left the defended positions in the neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsood in Aleppo and retreated as a result of intense artillery fire and non-stop attacks by the militants from Nusra Front and Ahrar ash-Sham terrorist groups on the positions of Kurdish militia and volunteers from local residents," the spokesman said.

The militants commenced the offensive earlier in the day.
BAGHDAD (Sputnik)  Iraqi soldiers on Saturday liberated the town of Saklaviya near the strategically important city of Fallujah, which has been occupied by the militants from the Daesh jihadist group, the Iraqi military command said in a statement issued on Saturday.

According to the statement, the liberated Saklaviya used to be the key Daesh defense point near Fallujah. The Iraqi military managed to take control over the most of the town in late May, but the central part of the town was occupied by jihadists until Saturday.
More than 270 civilians were killed and hundreds more were injured by militant groups' shelling of Syrian cities, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

"As a result of the Syrian cities being shelled by terrorist groups, more than 270 civilians were killed, hundreds were injured," the ministry said in a daily bulletin posted on its website.

Earlier in the day, the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation said that more than 40 people were killed and about 100 were injured in a shelling of the Kurdish Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood of Aleppo.
Trained combatants can then flee to join their militias, sometimes along with US-made weaponry intended for Iraqi regular army.

"We would transfer arms to units in those areas  and either because of corrupt commanders or outright robbery  they would end up in the hands of the militia groups," said one US officer, noting that despite all efforts to tighten up arms control, these leaks have not been stopped.

The militias have their influence among regular Iraqi army command, officials say. According to their estimations, 10-20 percent of the 300 officers who run the Iraqi military's Operations Command have an affinity or association with either the Badr militia or Shi'ite religious leaders.

The Iraqi military operations command in several provinces is believed to be dominated or directly commanded by various militia leaders. These leaders either have an affinity with third-party forces or have record of terrorist activity across the Middle East.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The leadership of Russia's Western Military District discussed military and technical cooperation with the delegation of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) , the districts spokesman said Saturday.

"During the meeting with the district's command the issues of military and technical cooperation of the two countries, as well as exchange of experience on the issues of military construction and training were discussed," Igor Muginov said.

He added that the visit had been planned beforehand within the framework of the PLA delegation's tour across friendly countries.
On Thursday, Loud & Clears Brian Becker sat down with peace activist Miko Peled and political analyst Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich to discuss whether the Paris peace talks are about peace or if they are a fig-leaf to justify the status quo of Palestinian displacement.

Do the Paris peace talks have any significance or hope of success?

"Frankly the answer is no," said Sepahpour-Ulrich. "Israel has never been interested in a political solution and the fact that we continue to hold these peace talks, with the first one in 1949, the Lausanne Conference, and many more since 1979."

"This whole thing reminds me of what Desmond Tutu said about the missionaries  'They had the bible and we had the land, they told us to close our eyes and then they had the land and we were holding the Bible,' and the same thing is true now with these peace talks," she said.

"Nothing ever comes out of these talks and it tends to buy Israel time to further occupy Palestinian land and engage in incremental genocide," stated the analyst. "All of these rounds of talks are just buying more time while the Palestinian land is shrinking and so is the number of Palestinian people."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Washington is building up pressure on Ukraine in order to ensure that Kiev fulfills its obligations under the Minsk peace agreement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"According to our evaluations that are based on information from different sources, the United States is indeed building up pressure on the Ukrainian side right now so that it fulfills the part of the Minsk agreements that concerns it. In that part the majority of political agreements are entirely dependent on how Kiev will negotiate with Donetsk and Luhansk," Lavrov said in an interview on Russia's Vesti v Subbotu weekly news program on the Rossiya television channel.
The cooperation at stake comes down, first and foremost, to the deployment of German Tornado reconnaissance aircraft at Turkey's Incirlik airbase. Earlier, Spiegel had reported that Berlin planned to spend 65 million on the construction of its own base there, including a mobile command post. The base is considered essential to the long-term German fight against Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) terrorism.

The German planes have been operating in Syria and Iraq out of the Turkish base for several months now, but formal negotiations on their deployment are still ongoing. Spiegel indicated that the negotiations have been slow, and the new diplomatic scuffle isn't likely to make the situation any easier.

Also under threat is the joint operation in the Aegean Sea to combat the illegal smuggling of refugees and migrants from Turkey to Greece. Berlin had earlier made a considerable effort to persuade Ankara on the necessity of this mission.

At the moment, several warships are patrolling, but only in a portion of the Aegean. And since it is Germany which formally heads the operation, negotiations on the mission's expansion might be even more problematic. In the worst case scenario, Spiegel noted, the operation could collapse entirely.
According to the statement, on Friday Bogdanov met with Samir Aita from the Syrian Democratic Forum party and Randa Kassis from the Movement of the Pluralistic Society in the French capital of Paris.

"During the discussions, there has been an exchange of opinions on the ongoing situation in Syria and around it with a focus on implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions 2254 and 2268, which make provisions for political settlement of the Syrian crisis and resolute struggle with terrorism," the statement said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged the soonest resumption of the intra-Syrian talks and separation of the groups of Syria's moderate opposition and Nusra Front militants in a phone conversation with his US counterpart John Kerry on Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"Besides emphasizing the urgency of the separation of 'moderate' opposition from Nusra Front militants, as it had been promised by the United States long ago, Lavrov expressed concern about attempts to delay the resumption of political negotiations under various pretexts, which was displayed clearly in a briefing at the UN Security Council on Syria on June 3," the statement reads.
Furthermore, a rapprochement between Ankara and Yerevan has remained impossible, precisely because the two sides could not come to an agreement regarding the Armenian genocide, Herzinger noted. The international recognition of the crimes of the Ottomans is one of the main goals of Armenian diplomacy today, he added.

In these circumstances, the analyst warned, the German parliament's decision can be mistakenly interpreted as a sign of solidarity with the Armenians and hence, with the Russians. Moreover, "the extremely critical attitude toward Turkey which prevails among the German public diminishes its attentions toward Moscow's machinations."

"And this concerns not only Russia's war in Syria on the side of the Assad regime, opposed by Turkey, which is driving more refugees toward Europe, but also Russia's continuing policy of aggression in Ukraine," Herzinger wrote.

The revelations of war crimes committed in eastern Ukraine, which the analyst attributed to Moscow and the 'Russian-occupied' regions, "no longer cause the same level of indignation among Germans as the Turks' persecution of journalists and other critics," he complained.

In other words, the analyst suggested, dissatisfaction with Erdogan's policies is profitable to those forces in Germany who are in favor of weakening anti-Russian sanctions and the normalization of relations with 'autocrat Putin'.
On Friday, the US State Department said that Washington was concerned with Beijing's human rights violations ahead of the 27 anniversary of the tragic events at the Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, when a protest in the Chinese capital was dispersed by the army, leaving hundreds dead and thousands injured, according to official estimates. Human rights activists claim the death toll reaches thousands.

"The Chinese government has issued its final verdict on the political turbulence that took place at the end of the 1980s, as well as other facts relevant to the event China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition," the ministry's spokesperson, Hua Chunying, said, as quoted by the Xinhua news agency.
Back during the days of the American occupation, the city was the scene of multiple bloodbaths and has been enshrined in the American consciousness as the most resistant of all of Iraqs cities. Now theres a different type of resistance, Daesh, and its definitely not fighting for anything admirable.

As the Iraqi Army and its allied militias roll into the outskirts of Fallujah aided by American advisors and airstrikes, the rest of the world is standing on edge to see if Daesh is ready for an epic battle like everyone expects, or if itll just retreat into the sand towards Syria and live to fight another day.

Kirill Koktysh, Associate Professor at MGIMO-University (studio guest); General Elias Farhat, General Retired, the former head of Lebanons armys Staff and Command College; and Israel Shamir, independent Middle East analyst (Moscow), joined us to discuss the issue.
YALTA (Russia) (Sputnik)  The issue of Crimea being a part of Russia will never be negotiated, as the peninsula's reunification was historical justice completed in full compliance with international law, the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament said Saturday.

"The reunification was carried out not only in compliance with international law but also was just from moral and historical point of view. We consider the issue closed, it will never be open for negotiations," Valentina Matvienko told the Livadiya international forum.

Crimea reunified with Russia in March 2014 following a political referendum in the region, in which 96 percent of those who voted did so in favor of rejoining Russia.
CHAUDA RANGE (Russia) (Sputnik)  The Russian Aerospace Forces will receive first units of the Sukhoi T-50 (PAK FA) fifth-generation fighter aircraft in 2017, Col. Gen. Viktor Bondarev, the Russian Aerospace Forces commander, said Saturday.

"There are five [T-50 fighters] at the [Russian] Chkalov's State Flight Testing Center, they are being tested, and beginning in 2017 they will be arriving to our service," Bondarev told reporters.

The commander stressed that there were no delays and the development of the aircraft had been carried out ahead of the schedule.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia launched on Saturday the Rokot carrier rocket with satellite for the needs of the country's Defense Ministry from the Plesetsk space center in northwestern Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"On Saturday, June 4, at 17:00 Moscow time [14:00 GMT], a crew of Space forces of Aerospace Forces conducted a launch of the light-class Rokot carrier rocket with a spacecraft from the third launch unit of the 133rd site of the Plesetsk space center (Arkhangelsk Region) on behalf of Russian Defense Ministry," the statement said.
YALTA (Russia) (Sputnik)  There is no such thing as international isolation of Crimea, imagined by the West, Russia's Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Crimean Federal District Oleg Belaventsev said Saturday.

"[International isolation of Crimea] does not exist Crimea receives guests from all over the world practically all the time," Belaventsev told the Livadiya international forum citing multiple visits of delegation from the EU states to the peninsula.

Crimea reunified with Russia in March 2014 following a political referendum in the region, in which 96 percent of those who voted did so in favor of rejoining Russia. Ukraine and the Western states have refused to recognize the vote, imposing economic sanctions against the peninsula that include investment bans and restrictive measures targeting Crimean individuals and entities.
Pyotr Stolypin, a well-known Russian politician and official, served as one of the key architects of Russian economic reforms in the early 20th century.

"In his own time, Stolypin was able to give a serious impetus to the development of Siberia and the Far East as a whole," Firsov noted, "but these initiatives were curtailed in 1911 following the statesman's assassination by the anarchist Dmitry Bogrov in a theater in Kiev. The reforms were then completely buried after the start of the Second World War and the ensuing revolution."

Stolypin's reforms, in turn, were borrowed from another political figure, this one from the United States, "who, by the irony of fate, was also killed in a theater, half a century before Stolypin."

"In the 1830s," the journalist wrote, the 'free soilers' movement was gaining popularity in the United States. They called for the transfer of land to anyone who might seek it in the territories purchased from France and ceded to the United States after the end of the war with Mexico."

"However, the movement was met with opposition from among the fragile union of northern industrialists and southern plantation owners. The former feared that the entire workforce would run away to tame the Wild West, while the second had their own plans for these territories, hoping to expand their system of slave labor there."

"In 1860," Firsov recalled, "the free soilers agreed that they would support Abraham Lincoln in the presidential race if he included their proposals in his program. In 1862, the president fulfilled his side of the bargain, and signed the Homestead Act. This law, which would come to shape modern America, really does have a great deal of common features both to the Stolypin reforms, and to today's Far Eastern hectare project."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  A Russian satellite for the needs of the country's Defense Ministry has been successfully put into orbit, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

"The launch [of the satellite] into orbit has been carried out in a normal mode," the ministry's press service told RIA Novosti.
However, Judge Aaron Persky determined that Turner's age and lack of criminal history warranted him a much shorter sentence.

"A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him," Persky said at Turner's sentencing on Thursday. "I think he will not be a danger to others."

Turner has voluntarily withdrawn from school and has been forbidden to enter the campus.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Many of the prisoners were convicted of drug trafficking or conspiracy to distribute drugs, according to the release. Most sentences have been commuted to expire on October 1.

"On June 3, 2016, President Barack Obama granted commutation of sentences to 42 individuals," the White House stated.

The United States has the largest prison population in the world with nearly 2.3 million imprisoned individuals and an additional 4.5 million placed on probation or parole.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The US government denounces the bombing of a Syrian American medical organization's building in the city of Aleppo, US Department of State spokesperson Mark Toner told reporters on Friday.

"The United States strongly condemns todays reported airstrike on the Syrian American Medical Society building in Aleppo," Toner stated.

The United States, Toner noted, is still trying to gather the facts around the circumstances of the attack.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to spokesman of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Capt. Andrew Neiman, cited by The Los Angeles Times on Friday, the vehicle was located at around 02:00 pm (21:00 GMT) on Friday on a residential street in Culver City, Los Angeles County. A bomb squad was sent to clear the parked car.

UCLA gunman's car has been located in Culver City https://t.co/vbGnvbghgX  FOX26Houston (@Fox26Houston) June 3, 2016

According to LAPD, Manak Sarkar, a former doctoral student, drove in the vehicle from Minnesota to Los Angeles, where he shot dead associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering William S. Klung at his UCLA campus office on Wednesday. The gunman then committed suicide.

Police have found a "kill list" written by Sarkar, which included Klung, another UCLA professor who was unharmed and a woman.
Sardar Jan Mohammad Khilji, 46, has three wives, who he says support his religious duty to have as many children as possible. Under Islam, Pakistani men are allowed to have up to four wives simultaneously, but they must get permission from their first wife and from an arbitration council.

Khiji maintains that it is very rare that he mixes up the names of his nearly three-dozen children, and that he juggles the large family by alternating who he attends events with. Studies have shown that children and wives in polygamous relationships often battle depression from fighting for the fathers attention. The Koran states that a man should only have multiple wives when he can do perfect justice for all of them.

"Well, perfect justice is impossible, and for this reason polygamy is never a good situation," Rafia Zakaria, a women's rights activist who campaigns against the practice, told AFP.
According to an editorial , the newspaper "can't endorse Trump for reasons documented repeatedly: belligerence, casual cruelty, incoherence on policy issues."

"We can't recommend voters don't vote at all because that's a waste, and we can't suggest voting for another candidate because it accomplishes nothing," states the editorial.

The opinion piece praises Reagan for famously urging the first President of the former Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to tear down the Berlin Wall. It refers to Trump as the "Great Excommunicator" and cites the brash entrepreneur's promise to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico as well as his call to ban Muslims from entering the country.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  has warned against violent expressions during the presidential campaign, particularly against supporters of billionaire Donald Trump.

"We saw in San Jose these protesters starting to pelt stuff at Trump supporters. Thats not what our democracy is about," Obama said as quoted by The Blaze on Friday. "Thats not what you do. Theres no room for violence. Theres no place for shouting. Theres no room for a politics that fails to at least listen to the other side  even if you vehemently disagree."

The US president stressed that peaceful demonstrations have more power than violent acts.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  US police has notified the Russian Consulate of the arrest of a Russian national, Olga Pimanova, in Chicago, a spokesman for the US Department of State said Saturday.

"The Cook County Police Department notified the Russian Consulate of the arrest. We refer you to Cook County authorities for further details," the spokesman told RIA Novosti.

At the same time, a representative of the Cook County Police Department told RIA Novosti that he had no information on the issue.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The Russian Embassy in the United States counts on receiving Washington's reply to the diplomatic note sent following the arrest of a Russian national, Olga Pimanova, in Chicago as soon as possible, the embassy's press attache told Sputnik on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, the US Department of State said that US police had notified the Russian Consulate of the Pimanova arrest.

"It is better to ask the American partners the question on when to expect the reply because they are preparing it. But we hope to get it the sooner the better. I am sure that as soon as our US counterparts will gather all relevant information, documentation, they will provide us with it," Yury Melnik said.
The change in the American president's tone was palpable, Polunin suggested. "On previous occasions at similar ceremonies, Obama had repeatedly advocated the use of US military power abroad, and endowed America the right to intervene in any conflict in the world."

In his 2014 speech before cadets at Military Academy at West Point in 2014, for instance, Obama proudly said that "America has rarely been stronger relative to the rest of the world" than it was at that moment.

"Regional aggression that goes unchecked  - whether in southern Ukraine or the South China Sea, or anywhere else in the world  - will ultimately impact our allies and could draw in our military. We can't ignore what happens beyond our boundaries," Obama emphasized.

At the same time, also in his 2014 speech, Obama made clear that America would not base its actions around the world on the opinion of the international community. "International opinion matters, but America should never ask permission to protect our people, our homeland, or our way of life," the president insisted.

But the real pinnacle of Obama's global aspirations, Polunin recalled, was his speech at the 2012 Air Force Academy commencement in Colorado Springs. It was in that speech, that Obama made his famous remark that "the United States has been, and will always be, the one indispensable nation in world affairs."
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Pimanova was arrested in the Chicago airport just upon arrival in the United States on May 20, allegedly for taking her daughter out of the country two years ago. She is currently under house arrest in the United States. The next court hearings are scheduled for Monday.

"On Monday we go back to the judge, Raul Vega, to ask to release Olga from house arrest and allow her to travel outside the United States. We hope that the release will follow," Alexander Tolmatsky told RIA Novosti.

He noted that it would be unlikely that the judge would let Pimanova "walk free," and she was unlikely to leave the US territory in the nearest future.
Since 2010, China's investment in research and development has more than doubled, and Chinese businessmen working in the scientific sphere told Russian business newspaper Vzglyad that China's aim is certainly achievable, if the economy continues to grow sufficiently.

"China's chances of achieving this aim are not huge, but they are there. It is well known that China has a high level of higher education. China is not lagging behind any of the world's R&D leaders in the quantity and quality of the country's scientists," he said.

"The Chinese economy is continuing to grow, which gives scientists the financial support they need, so the potential is there."

Strategy and technology analyst Vasiliy Kashin of Russia's Academy of Sciences (RAN) told Vzglyad that the market will provide the measurement of China's achievement.

"We need to see the same amount of innovative products developed in China by Chinese brands as we see from the US. The Chinese brands Lenovo and Huawei are well known, but for such a gigantic country, how many are there?" Kashin said.

"I think China can become a leader in certain areas which it believes to be of key importance for itself: atomic energy, aerospace, electronics and aviation."

Kashin said that discussion over China's progress in R&D is already ongoing in the US, where opinion is divided over China's ability to take over.

"There are some skeptical voices. There is still a range of weaknesses related to an investment climate that is not very good, not enough protection for property rights, including intellectual property, the inability of the education system to produce enough people who are capable of original innovation."

"But at the same time, massive progress has been recognized in a lot of spheres and it is recognized that China is in a leading position in local sectors like supercomputers, biotechnology and so on," Kashin said.
ANKARA (Sputnik)  The Armenian "issue" is being used to blackmail Ankara by Germany and other countries around the world, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday.

On Thursday, the German parliament adopted a bill recognizing the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman authorities in 1915 as genocide. The Turkish Foreign Ministry called the move shameful.

"I know in my heart that the main point is not Armenians. They are just being manipulated. The Armenian issue is just blackmail against Turkey around the world," Erdogan told a press conference in Istanbul.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)The issue of Nagorno-Karabakh will be raised by the Azerbaijani delegation at the July 1-5 Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assemblys (OSCE PA) session, an Azerbaijani parliament vice-speaker said on Saturday.

"Of course, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is one of the issues on the agenda, it will definitely be raised by our side [Azerbaijan] during the session," Bahar Muradova, who would head the national delegation to the OSCE PA, was quoted by the Trend news agency as saying.

She also recalled that OSCE PA Special Representative Kristian Vigenin had recently visited the conflicting region, and was likely to provide the relevant information at the upcoming session.
Regina Dewhurst's Pounce K ($10.80) sprinted clear and never looked back in the top-level $7,500 Miracle Mile Trot at Vernon Downs on Friday (June 3) evening.

Chris Lems vaulted clear with the six-year-old Donato Hanover gelding through a :27.1 quarter-mile, out-sprinting all five of his inside rivals. He would go unchallenged through a comfortable :58 middle half, sprinting clear off the far turn as the first-over Winding Hill (Jimmy Whittemore) worked into second ahead of Keystone Thomas (Robert Leslie), who gapped the pocket off the far turn. Pounce K held clear of Winding Hill by one and a half lengths in the end, completing the mile in 1:53.4 over fast going. Odds-on favourite War Hero (Howard Okusko Jr.) stalked Winding Hill's cover en route to a third-place finish.

David Dewhurst trains Pounce K. For driver Lems, the featured win was one of three on the nine-race program, with the other two aboard Reve Royale ($3.80, 1:55.1) and Winbak Meadow ($5.30, 1:57).

(Vernon Downs)
Saratoga Casino Hotel's first installment of the New York Sire Stakes on the 2016 campaign took place on Friday night (June 3).

Three-year-old pacing fillies took center stage on the evenings 13-race program and there were three divisions for the top flight New York-bred fillies that went for purses of better than $58,000.

The defending champion among the fillies is Dime A Dance (sired by Roll With Joe), and the sophomore made her 16 Sire Stakes debut on Friday as the races 1-9 betting favourite. Matt Kakaley piloted the Ron Burke-trained filly and moved her to the early lead. Dime A Dance faced a challenge in the stretch from Angels Rockn Pink (by Rock N Roll Heaven) before scoring in 1:54. She is owned by Our Horse Cents Stables, Blue Chip Bloodstock Inc., and J And T Silva Stables LLC.

The other two Friday Sire Stakes winners were Time On My Hands (by American Ideal), who scored with Jason Bartlett in the bike for trainer Chris Ryder, and No Clouds Bluechip (by Roll With Joe) with Mark Beckwith piloting for conditioner John Berger. Both of those fillies stopped the timer in 1:53.2.

New York Sire Stakes action will return to Saratoga on Friday, July 8 when two-year-old pacing colts are featured.

The weekly $15,000 Fillies & Mares Open Handicap Pace was won by the streaking post eight assignee Godiva Seelster in 1:52.2. Wally Hennessey drove the Camluck mare, now a 30-time career winner, to the half-length victory over Campanile for trainer Dan Hennessey.

(With files from Saratoga)
Dreamfair Van Dam has climbed his way up to the top class at Northside Downs in less than a month and remains undefeated in his 11-year-old campaign after earning his fourth straight victory on Saturday afternoon (June 4).

Racing from the Heather Hawkins stable, Dreamfair Van Dam rallied off the cover of Surrealist in the $1,100 Winners Over Pace and defeated that rival by half a length in 1:59.1. John Kennedy drove the 21-time career winner, who is a gelded son of 2015 Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductees Artsplace and J Cs Nathalie. J N J rounded out the top three finish order.

Earlier on the program, 18-year-old Brett LeBlanc celebrated his first career driving win aboard Manic Hispanic in just his sixth pari-mutuel start. Manic Hispanic, trained by LeBlanc's father Harold, fought off George Down and Loch Monster for the half-length victory in 2:04.1. A resident of New Waterford, N.S., LeBlanc was introduced to the sport of harness racing at a young age by his parents and first became an owner and groom at the age of 12.

To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Northside Downs.
In this week's Rewind Robert Smith takes a look back to the decade of the 1980's in the monthly feature 'Years Ago'. A 'trotting' theme seems to be present in most of the reminiscences.

1980 - Sunday Best





Sunday Chimes and driver Lloyd Spinks are home first to win the Invitational Trot on at Barrie Raceway on Oct. 8, 1980 for owner Mac Sewers of nearby Minesing.

In the stands that evening of Oct. 8, 1980 to view the action was The Hon. Earl Rowe, a man whose influence on the sport spanned many decades and several generations of both horses and horse people. He was no doubt pleased that the top three finishers in this race were all direct descendants of his famous trotting stallion of yesteryear, Van Riddell. The winner was sired by Admiral Riddell, while second place finisher Eldred Todd with Chas. Lawson aboard along with third place finisher Christy Riddell and Ken Fritsch were both sired by Riddell Todd.

The winning horse, Sunday Chimes was bred and raised by Mac Sewers and her name was inspired by the time she was foaled and also the name of an old family horse. When Mac went to the pasture on a Sunday morning and discovered the foal he could hear the ringing of Church bells off in the distance. This combined with the memory of a picture of an uncle driving a horse named Chimes that hung in his family home made the perfect inspiration.



Sunday Chimes was all business during a race but at times liked to perform a bit after a race, as shown in this 1979 picture Sunday Chimes was all business during a race but at times liked to perform a bit after a race, as shown in this 1979 picture

1982 - Bobbo Wins Maple Leaf Trot





The great trotter Bobbo in his distinctive headgear appears in the Greenwood winner's circle after taking top honours in the 1982 Maple Leaf Trot. Trainer and driver Norm Jones is on the left and owner Greg Coleman on the right.

The Maple Leaf Trot, which was first contested in 1950 at Thorncliffe Park, is now in its fourth decade and remains one of the sport's most coveted prizes. The winner of the 1982 version was the four-year-old sensation Bobbo. Purchased earlier in the year for a reported $130,000 from breeder-owner Betty Fasken of Port Credit, Ont. by millionaire New York State owner Greg Coleman, the fine trotter went on to pay for himself in short order. He earned just over $250,000 while winning 12 of his 30 starts in 1982 for the new owner.

This horse went on to win in excess of $900,000 lifetime and is a prominent member of one of the truly great Canadian trotting families as his dam was Hall of Fame member Flemingtons Jane. The name Bobbo came from a sort of 'pet name' Mrs. Fasken called her husband Bob.

1984 - Segriff Impressive in OJC Maturity Trot at Greenwood





June 15, 1984 - Segriff, a four-year-old daughter of Speedy Crown owned by Bill and Eileen Stuart of Ilderton, trotted a flawless mile to capture the $63,325 OJC Maturity for four-year-old trotting mares. Trained and driven by Gord Waples, she came into the event heavily favoured and did not disappoint her backers. Segriff led at every station and easily outdistanced her closest rival Glorious Vicki (driven by Steve Condren) with Tudy Tuck third. The winning time of 2:01.1 matched the fastest ever in this stakes race which dates back to 1966.

This was Segriff's second win in eight starts boosting her season's total to $42,507 and lifetime to just over $150,000. Previous to this event she had been racing with some of the circuit's best in the Free For All ranks. The Stuarts made a sizable investment when they paid $65,000 for her as a yearling in Kentucky, buoyed by their then recent sale of Brisco Herbert, and are now reaping a return. Shortly after this victory, this fine young trotting mare was shipped to Yonkers Raceway in New York to test her skills at that level.

1988 - Ride The Wave Dominates To Win Champlain



Members of The Wellwood Stable celebrate the victory of RIDE THE WAVE an outstanding two-year-old trotting colt who had just won the $122,460 Champlain Stakes at Mohawk to kick off Grand Circuit Week. Pictured from left to right - Lenore Armstrong, Paula Wellwood, Wm. Wellwood, Jean Wellwood, Tim Twaddle and Charlie Armstrong (holding the lamp) who co-owned the colt with Wellwood Stables. This marked the 7th win in a row for the son of Balanced Image - Hurricane Honey and established his supremacy for age and gait that season. A 2:01 clocking set a new lifetime record for RTW. (Smiley Photo) Members of The Wellwood Stable celebrate the victory of RIDE THE WAVE an outstanding two-year-old trotting colt who had just won the $122,460 Champlain Stakes at Mohawk to kick off Grand Circuit Week. Pictured from left to right - Lenore Armstrong, Paula Wellwood, Wm. Wellwood, Jean Wellwood, Tim Twaddle and Charlie Armstrong (holding the lamp) who co-owned the colt with Wellwood Stables. This marked the 7th win in a row for the son of Balanced Image - Hurricane Honey and established his supremacy for age and gait that season. A 2:01 clocking set a new lifetime record for RTW. (Smiley Photo)

Sept. 4, 1988 - Ride The Wave, an Ontario-bred two-year-old trotter sired by Balanced Image out of Hurricane Honey, keeps getting better and faster with each start. Undefeated in seven O.S.S. contests to date, the talented youngster trotted up a storm over the Mohawk oval in winning the Champlain Stakes, defeating some of the best American-bred youngsters in the process. A pupil of the Wm. Wellwood stable, he has blossomed into quite a performer, tasting defeat on just one occasion.

With a purse of $122,460 on the line, driver Wellwood apparently had a strategy in mind before the race started. As the field left, he gave up the chance at a pocket trip and opted to race in front as he had done in virtually all previous starts. The plan worked and RTW carved out all of the fractions, resulting in a new lifetime mark of 2:01, shaving better than a second off of his previous best.

Never one to overstate the attributes of his stable members, particularly the young ones, Bill did state "I don't want to say he's the best I've ever had, but I can tell you I am very pleased with him especially tonight. He gets quieter with every start and he can race anywhere I want; he's not a front runner in any way, shape or form. ... The plan for the remaining part of this season is to stay with the O.S.S. series until the final along with a start in the upcoming Helicopter Stakes."

Rideau Revisited

Further to the recent two-part Rewind chronicling the 1962 start up of Rideau Carleton Raceway I received the above photo that was taken at the track's 35th anniversary celebration in 1997.




While 20-year-old Jessica Turenne works towards making a name for herself in the harness racing industry with her own racehorse entered Sunday at Hippodrome 3R, the track will honour her late father with a race named in his memory during its All-Star Drivers Tournament.

This Sunday, June 5 will mark the 15th anniversary of the racing accident that claimed the life of Quebec horseman Serge Turenne and Hippodrome 3R has named the eighth race in his honour amidst the tournament.

Its a day thats still hard for us, but Im proud and want to continue in his path," Jessica Turenne was quoted as saying in a Montreal Gazette article by Paul Delean.

Currently a groom for Yves Tessier, Turenne is passionate about the sport and following in her father's footsteps to became a professional trainer and driver. She purchased her first racehorse named Shaelas Girl two years ago and that pacing mare -- who has provided her with her first training and fair driving wins -- will be competing two races prior to the memorial event on Sunday, with Quebec native Sylvain Filion listed to drive as part of the All-Stars Tournament.

To read the Montreal Gazette article in its entirety, click here.

(With files from the Montreal Gazette)
Real Artist, winner of the 1997 Woodrow Wilson Pace and popular stallion, passed away on June 1, 2016.

The son of Artsplace-Rodine Hanover, owned by Jules Siegel's Fashion Farms, was 21.

Real Artist banked $424,947 in his brief racing career. On the racetrack, he won two of nine starts and $424,947 for trainer Jim Campbell, whose brother John drove him for the Wilson win in 1:52 in The Meadowlands biggest race for juveniles.

As a stallion, Real Artist sired 744 starters whove collectively won $81.7 million.

His top performers included full brother and sister Ginger And Fred (the sister) who won $1.9 million and took a mark of 1:50.1f and her brother Fred And Ginger, with a mark of 1:47.3 and earnings of $1.05 million. He also sired 2007 Meadowlands Pace winner Southwind Lynx p,3,1:48.3 ($1,763,830).

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the connections of Real Artist.

(with files from HRC)
This Saturday (June 4), Kawartha Downs will be host to RUS Ontario's season opener. A field of six trotters has been assembled and will head behind the gate for Race 6 at roughly 8:40 p.m.

Four new horses will be making their first lifetime start under saddle, as well as one newly-licensed rider.

See R Chin Win will team up with rider Michelle Olson and trainer Ronda Markle over their home track from Post 1 for the trios debut to racing under saddle.

Gracies Harmony will be making her first RUS appearance and will be guided by the experienced hands of veteran rider Marielle Enberg for Jim Tropea. Jim is a past supporter of RUS Ontario and returns with his second trotter to compete in racing under saddle.

Schrodinger will pair up with MAD Barn-sponsored rider Sarah Town after two solid under saddle qualifiers over the Western Fair District and Clinton Raceway. He will make his first under saddle start for trainer Brianne Sloan and is owned by longtime RUS Ontario supporting owner John Patterson.

Southwind Alice will round out the fourth maiden starter under saddle for trainer Dave Dowling and the talented Evelyn Harmes after two impressive qualifying starts over Flamboro Downs and the Western Fair District.

Returning to racing under saddle is 2015's RUS horse of the year, Santo Domingo, who will challenge from Post 5 for trainer Mike Guitard. 2014's top rider, Marit Valstad, will be at the reins for the second start with the nine-year-old gelding.

Rounding out the field is Massive Muscles, last year's winner over the Kawartha oval for trainer Paul Walker. Karoline Nielsen, who recently made the move from Denmark to race in Canada, will be at the reins for her third Canadian start since 2015.

Riders will be present for meet and greet and poster signings inside the grandstand before and after the race, in conjunction with Kawartha Downs Celebration of the Horse Night.

Fans will have the chance to interact and take photos with a retired standardbred courtesy of Go and Play Stables.

The fifth race of the night will feature the Kids Club Pace, where one lucky Kid Club member will be drawn to make the race presentation and will take home a complimentary win photo.

Kawartha's usual Second Chance draw will be held throughout the night. Fans can deposit their non-winning ticket in the Raffle drum for a chance to win during the third, sixth and ninth race of the night. Prizes include a $50 betting voucher.

RUS Ontario welcomes all new trainers owners and riders to the 2016 season, and would like to thank everyone for their continued support.

(RUS Ontario)
It's Election season and our editor's mailbox is overflowing. Who do your neighbors support? Read about it here.
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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, whose accounting practices are under investigation by US regulators, is a difficult company for the United States to understand, Executive Chairman Jack Ma said in an interview to Chinese media on Friday.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched a probe earlier this year into the Chinese e-commerce firm's accounting practices to determine whether they violated federal laws. Questions about Alibaba's growth rate and its relations with affiliated companies have dogged the firm for years.

In the interview with China's official Securities Times, Ma said the investigation does not mean Alibaba has problems but that the SEC is just performing its duties.

"Alibaba's business model does not have any references in the US, so it's not just a matter of one or two days for the US to understand Alibaba's business model," Ma was quoted as saying.

The SEC focused on the accounting for affiliated logistics firm Cainiao Network, accounting practices applicable to related-party transactions in general, and operating data from its annual "Singles' Day" sale, according to Alibaba's annual report filed last week.

It was not immediately clear what prompted the SEC investigation. Alibaba said in May the SEC advised it the investigation should not be seen as an indication the company had violated federal securities laws.

"We want to thank the SEC for giving us an opportunity to interact," Ma said in Friday's interview.

Ma said he did not know when the results of the probe would come, but he hoped that afterwards the regulator would be able to give Alibaba a clear explanation, and a smoother system for communication could be established.

An Alibaba spokeswoman declined to provide additional comment.

Many US-listed Chinese companies have said that foreign regulators and investors do not understand their businesses.

Financial results of Cainiao, started jointly in 2013 by Alibaba, Yintai Holdings, Fosun Group, Forchn Holdings and five major delivery companies, have in the past not been part of Alibaba's financial statements, raising questions among some investors and analysts.

Alibaba said its latest annual report disclosed for the first time Cainiao's revenue, net loss, assets and liabilities.

Reuters
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Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan on Friday announced India's plan to double the investment for its clean energy research over the period of next five years.

This decision would hike India's current investment from $72 million to $145 million, a government statement said.

The minister who was in San Francisco, US, leading Indian delegation to the Mission Innovation also made formal announcement on new joint collaborations with the 21 Mission Innovation Countries, of which the European Union was the latest partner.

"Mission Innovation is the noblest mission which will help humanity. This has also touched the heart and soul of our Prime Minister ( Narendra Modi )," Harsh Vardhan said.

Vardhan announced India's collaboration with Britain by setting up a Joint Virtual Clean Energy Centre to address the challenges in solar energy and launching a new Research Track on Smart Energy Grids and Energy Storage under the India-US Partnership to Advance Clean Energy Research.

"With super-efficient air conditioners we can reduce the energy demand from 60 Giga Watts of energy to 40 GW, a saving of over 30 per cent. This translates to cost savings in consumer energy bills of $2.8 billion and GHG reductions of 20 million tons of CO2 equivalent," Vardhan said.

Mission Innovation was announced on November 30 last year by the leaders of 20 countries to accelerate public and private global clean energy innovation during Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris in the presence of Prime Minister Modi.

Commenting on India's LED lighting programme as one of the world's largest, the minister said," This programme has seen India lead the way by driving 12 per cent of global LED demand at present, up from 0.1 per cent a couple of years ago".

IANS
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Taiwan's premier donned virtual reality goggles in parliament Friday to discuss the future of the island's tech industry in what looked like a debate between robots.

Legislator Huang Kuo-chang of the opposition New Power Party (NPP), a former student protest leader who was also wearing the goggles, persuaded Lin Chuan to put on the chunky black headset covering his eyes.

Both then discussed the challenges for Taiwan's key tech industry, which is looking to virtual reality to breathe new life into the sector.

With straight faces, the pair debated for five minutes wearing the futuristic visors.

Huang said he wanted to highlight the difficulties ahead for Taiwan as a manufacturer for global brands.

"It's time for Taiwan's industries to transform, and I think one of the directions is VR," he said in a question and answer session.

Lin replied that his government was seeking to turn Taiwan -- which is focused on automation, Internet and artificial intelligence -- into Asia's Silicon Valley.

While some virtual reality goggles transport wearers into other worlds, these two had their feet firmly on the ground.

All they could see was a cartoon graphic made by the NPP which said young people could "hardly survive" due to low salaries.

Huang asked Lin to press the "yes" button on his goggles if he agreed, which he did.

Virtual reality is the buzz industry at this week's Computex tech fair in Taipei, with major brands including Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC displaying their headsets.

Acer Inc., a leading Taiwanese PC maker, has also branched out into the field, joining forces with Swedish game studio Starbreeze to develop a high-end VR headset designed for arcades and theme parks.

How to revive Taiwan's sluggish economy is top of the agenda for the new Democratic Progressive Party government, which was sworn in last month.

The island's top government budgeting body last week lowered its annual growth forecast to 1.06 percent, 0.41 percentage points lower than the previous forecast made in February.

AFP
Pranjal Kshirsagar

Customer Support is one of the most painful experiences for hassled consumers. In an effort to make it slightly more palatable, companies all over the world spend around $150 billion annually, on contact centers and all the underlying technology (Customer Relationship Management or CRM being the biggest part of this). Yet, companies struggle to provide adequate levels of service to their customers. This is the thought that sparked the idea of Helpshift. Speaking to Tech2, Helpshift's founder and CEO Abinash Tripathy shares that with the ubiquity of smartphones and apps, they saw the unique opportunity to change the status quo and deliver customer delight. "We saw this as an opportunity to disrupt a big industry," says Tripathy.

CRM forms a major part of Tripathy's career span. Prior to founding Helpshift, Abinash created and ran a number of early and growth stage companies where he was responsible for conceptualising and delivering the worlds first IP-based Voicemail/Unified communications, Mobile Photo Messaging (in Japan) and MMS products to the market. He started his career at Oracle where he wrote the first in-house CRM solution.

The current Helpshift team consists of 20 in their San Francisco HQ and 60 in Pune. "We are a B2B SaaS company with large clients like Microsoft, Supercell, Zynga, Virgin Media as customers and are considered leaders in the Mobile Customer Service market," defines Tripathi.

Talking about how their solution functions, Tripathy explains, "We believe that the reason CRM software has underperformed for customers is because all the data entry into CRM is manual. Since we are a mobile SDK that gets embedded in apps, we are able to collect information about the customer automatically in very large scale in the order of billions per day. We are investing heavily in applying machine learning and AI to make sense of this data to help our customers become efficient by augmenting their workflows. We invest heavily in making our product self-service and easy to consume like any best in class SaaS product."

The company raised $13.25 million in two rounds of funding from True Ventures, Intel Capital, Nexus Ventures and Visionnaire (all Silicon Valley VCs). Helpshift recently closed its Series B funding too.

Messaging is the most important channel on mobile for a consumer, believes Tripathy. "We power customer support for the largest mobile publishers on the planet like Flipboard, Microsoft, Zynga, Supercell etc. In India several apps like Gaana.com, Times of India group, Redbus, Commonfloor and Via use Helpshift as their primary CRM. Our mobile SDK is deployed on over 1.3 billion mobile devices worldwide. We plan to dominate the in-app messaging based support market (which we created). The roadmap is to provide AI based workflow augmentation to help our customers serve their customers better," he says.

The company's focus on mobile is what it believes to set them apart from competition. Tripathy shares they had the first mover advantage. "Some of the largest mobile brands on the planet use us. We have the extreme tech to handle mobile scale," says Tripathy. He adds that their tech is built on Clojure and Erlang which is incidentally used by WhatsApp to scale its service to billions of users.

"We have a truly global business focused on selling to large brands. Our sales team in Silicon Valley is comprised of people from Salesforce, Oracle, etc that have sold into this market. Our next milestone is to reach 2 billion mobile devices," reveals Tripathy.
Manna must get bail or be tried : Barrister Mainul

Staff Reporter :Eminent personalities at a discussion on Friday demanded immediate release of Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Convener of the Nagorik Oikkya, or he should be tried. "Manna has been in the jail for more than one year without any trial. It is clear violation of human rights. The government should release him immediately or hold his trial," said Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury, founder of Ganoshasthya, at the discussion in the city.Organised on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the Nagorik Oikkya at Dhaka Reporters Unity, the advisor of the Nagorik Oikkya, ASM Akram, presided over the programme.Dr. Zafrullah said that BNP observed Ziaur Rahman's death anniversary but the party could not make people conscious about their rights and the government's misrule. Barrister Mainul Hosein said that Mahmudur Rahman Manna must either be released on bail or tried. The courts are not for keeping anybody in jail without trial for political convenience.The government alone does not enjoy constitutional power, the courts are above the government, he said. The people empowered the judiciary with constitutional authority to protect their (people's) fundamental rights. The Supreme Court can declare any act of the government unconstitutional and illegal.Barrister Mainul Hosein emphasized the awareness that judiciary is not helpless or weak. As the allegation against Manna is treason, it is important that he should be tried so that the people know the truth. No allegation is true unless proved in court. He highlighted the need of the judiciary not to be used politically. Denying bail has made the rise of false cases easy and sheltering the dangerous criminals easier.It is a terrible weakness of the government that anybody can overthrow it. It is not too late for the government to change politics and have confidence in the peoples government. Khalequzzaman, General Secretary of Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, said that the national unity could not be formed despite Manna's effort. He said that a political programme of Hefajat-e-Islam foiled the move.Saiful Haque, General Secretary of Biplobi Workers' Party, said that the government had presented a glamorous budget in order to loot the public money, and sending democracy and good governance on exile. Elections in Bangladesh have become farce nowadays, he added.Asif Nazrul, a professor of Dhaka University, demanded immediate release of Mahmudur Rahman Manna, adding that detention without trial is nothing but sign of repression. This practice should go.
UP polls end amid sporadic violence; 3 dead

UNB, Dhaka: Voting in the in the 6th and final phase election to 698 union parishads (UPs) of 82 upazilas of the countrys 64 districts ended on Saturday afternoon amid sporadic violence that left three people dead in Noakhali, Feni and Mymensingh districts. The balloting in the polls to the lowest tire of the local government started at 8am and continued till 4pm without any break. Meanwhile, around 100 people, including 28 in Sonagazi upazila of Feni 20 in Gafurgaon of Mymensingh, 5 cops in Comilla, 2 in Noakhali, three in Sharsha upazila of Jessore district and an AL-backed chairman candidate in Satkania upazila of Chittagong, were injured in the election violence. Eight BNP-backed candidates boycotted the elections in Savar upazila of Dhaka and Pabna districts on allegation of various irregularities. Voting at a polling centre in Charkadira union of Kamalganj upazila was suspended as a clash took place between supporters of two member candidates in Laxmipur. According to reports reaching the UNB news desk, a man, Nur Hossain Shipon, 22, son of Abdul Karim of Dakkhhin Char Kandia union, was shot dead and eight people were injured in a clash between rival groups at a polling centre in Sonagazi upazila of Feni. Rezaul Haque, superintendent of police of Feni, said a clash erupted between the supporters of AL-backed chairman candidate Mosharaf Hossain and BNP- backed candidate Shamsuddin Khokan in Tofael Ahmed High School polling centre at Dakkhhin Char Kandia union in the morning. The rival party men exchanged gunfire during the clash, leaving Shipon dead on the spot. Four policemen, three Ansar members, two assistant presiding officers, two female polling officers also suffered bullet wounds during the clash. Besides, 20 people sustained injuries, including nine with bullet, in clashes at different polling centers of the upazila. In Noakhali, Arafat,22, was killed and another was injured critically in a clash between the supporters AL-backed chairman candidate Amir Hossain and rebel candidate Akbar Hossain at Bhelanagar madarasah centre in Newazpur union. Araft, a student of Dhaka Polytechnic Institute, sustained severe injures as rivals chopped him with sharp weapons during the clash. Later, he died in Comilla on way to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said Sudharam model thana officer-in-charge Anwar Hossain. Injured Zahid was admitted to sadar hospital. In Mymensingh, police opened fire during a clash between the supporters of two member candidates at Pukuria Government Primary School polling station in Shaltia Union of Goforgaon upazila at noon, leaving Shajahan injured with bullets. Shahjahan was declared dead when taken to upazila health complex. Twenty other people were injured in the clash. As in the previous five phases, no balloting is required against 27 chairman posts where ruling Awami League candidates have already been elected uncontested in this phase. Earlier, some 190 AL chairman contenders were elected unopposed in the first five phases of the violence-marred elections beginning in March last. Some 3,200 candidates contested the election for chairman posts, while some 30,000 others for member posts and reserved seats of the UPs. In the wake of election violence that killed over 100 people, the EC has taken a few preventive measures in the final phase election.
War of words escalates as Hillary knocks Trump

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton waves during a Women for Hillary organizing event at West Los Angeles College on Friday in Culver City, California.

AFP, San Bernardino :Hillary Clinton launched stinging criticism of Donald Trump on Friday, even suggesting her likely Republican presidential opponent wants to be America's "dictator," as she proclaimed she will be the Democratic flag bearer once California votes next week.President Barack Obama lent his voice to the denunciation, saying Trump's aggressive posture towards immigrants, Muslims and women is "feeding resentments" among Americans and urging them to seek out scapegoats for their frustrations and problems.Amid increasingly brazen attacks on both sides, Clinton and Trump are emerging as the two rivals who will do battle in the general election.Trump is already the presumptive Republican nominee, while Clinton has begun talking as if she is the Democratic flag bearer."We need everybody to show up on June 7," she told a few hundred supporters at a college in Culver City, California."If all goes well, I will have the great honor as of Tuesday to be the Democratic nominee for president," she said to loud cheers.Democrats in six states vote Tuesday, including California and New Jersey. Clinton is already on the cusp of securing enough delegates to defeat Senator Bernie Sanders for the nomination and she is certain to surpass the threshold on June 7.Sanders has been barnstorming California, hoping for a miracle in which he wins the remaining contests and many so-called super-delegates, senior party figures who can vote at the party convention for whomever they choose, switch alliances and support him.But Clinton barely mentioned Sanders's name, opting instead for a full-on assault on Trump during her four stops Friday, in Culver City, Westminster, Santa Ana and San Bernardino."Donald Trump is not qualified to be president and commander in chief," she said.Clinton added that she was appalled at the tenor of the political discourse, suggesting Trump was straying from democratic principles."We are trying to elect a president, not a dictator," she said in San Bernardino.She battered Trump over his character and his lack of coherent foreign policies, branding him "temperamentally unfit" and otherwise unprepared to lead the United States."He just engages in rants and personal feuds and outright lies, something our nation cannot afford in our commander in chief," the former secretary of state said.More than a dozen women -- Hollywood actresses, members of Congress, and civil servants -- joined her on stage in Culver City to offer their support."She is bad-ass, and she is ready to lead," US House Democrat Linda Sanchez boomed.While Clinton has upped her attacks on Trump as a fraud, Trump has drilled into Clinton as dishonest and "crooked."But Trump, who has faced repeated accusations of racism and xenophobia, waded deeper into controversy Friday after praising a black supporter as "my African American" at a rally in Redding, California."Oh, look at my African American over here. Look at him," Trump said. "Are you the greatest?"Campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said there was "no ill will intended, obviously."Trump also hit out at the protesters -- he labeled them "thugs" -- who clashed with his supporters in California the previous evening, the latest in a string of his rallies to be marred by violence.Hundreds of demonstrators insulted Trump supporters as they tried to leave the event in San Jose. People hurled eggs, and according to the Los Angeles Times a dozen or more people were punched.Crowds had earlier chanted "No hate in our state" and carried signs that read "Dump Trump" as they marched near the convention center.Hispanics outnumber whites in California, the most populous US state, and many have been shocked by Trump's characterization of Mexican immigrants as "rapists" and his pledge to build a wall along the southern US border.Trump stepped up attacks Friday against the judge handling a class action lawsuit of former students against the now defunct Trump University. The students claim the program was a scam.Trump insists the jurist's Mexican heritage prevents him from being impartial.The tycoon told the Wall Street Journal there was "an inherent conflict of interest" for Gonzalo Curiel to rule on the case. The judge was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants.Clinton sounded incredulous that Trump would insult and attack the judge. "What more represents the American dream than this family?" she asked.Trump's attack on the judge earned swift condemnation from House Speaker Paul Ryan, the nation's top elected Republican, who only a day earlier said he would vote for the billionaire in November after weeks of hesitation."I completely disagree with the thinking behind that," Ryan said in a radio interview.
India, US to identify new ways in defence cooperation: Carter

PTI, Washington :

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter today said he along with his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar will "identify new ways" to cooperate ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit next week.

"Minister Parrikar and I will identify new ways to cooperate in advance of Prime Minister Modi's visit to Washington next week," Carter told the annual Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore today wherein he reiterated India's eminent role in Obama's Asia Pacific rebalance.

Pentagon said yesterday that Carter will accompany PM Modi when the latter visits the Arlington National Cemetery to lay wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown. He is also scheduled to meet Modi during his three-day stay in the US.

India US military relationship is as close as it has ever been, he said.

"Through our strategic handshake, with the United States reaching west in its rebalance and India reaching east in Prime Minister Modi's Act East policy -- the two nations are exercising together by air, land, and sea," Carter said.

"And there's also a technological handshake -- we're moving towards deeper and more diverse defence co-development and co-production, including on aircraft carrier design and construction," he added.

Carter said while peace in the Asia Pacific region has led to the miraculous growth of countries like China and India, but tension of late persists in the region.

"Tensions in the South China Sea, North Korea's continued nuclear and missile provocations and the dangers of violent extremism felt worldwide, pose challenges to the region's stability and prosperity," he said.

"If we continue to cooperate on security we would one day be discussing a US-China-India multilateral maritime exercise, a Japan and Republic of Korea joint disaster response in the South China Sea and an ASEAN-wide security network," Carter said.

Over the last year, progress has been made towards that vision. "China and India will both participate once again in the US-hosted RIMPAC naval exercise this summer. Japan and the Republic of Korea are engaging with each other in new ways," he said.

In addition to the ASEAN centric security network, which is developing in Southeast Asia, nations across the entire Asia-Pacific are increasingly working together and networking security together, Carter added.




World leaders vow to push French-led ME peace plan

French Foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault (R) shakes hands with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris on Friday for talks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

AFP, Paris :

The international community committed Friday to try and push Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks under a French-led initiative, despite a decidedly lukewarm reaction from Washington and hostility from Israel.

Indirect peace talks between the two sides collapsed more than two years ago, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault warned that the diplomatic void meant the prospect of a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict was in "serious danger."

He repeated France's wish to organise an international conference, with both the Israelis and the Palestinians, before the end of the year.

Neither Israeli nor Palestinian representatives attended the talks in the French capital aimed at laying the ground for a fully-fledged peace conference to be held by the end of the year.

The Palestinians hailed the Paris meeting as a "very significant step" toward peace that sent a clear message to Israel about its ongoing occupation of lands they want for a future state.

But Israel lashed out, saying the initiative would only strengthen the Palestinians' hand and would go down in history as having "pushed peace further away."

At the meeting, representatives from 28 countries, the Arab League, European Union and United Nations discussed ways in which the international community could "help advance the prospects for peace, including by providing meaningful incentives to the parties to make peace," according to a joint statement.

But few believe genuine progress will be made.

Despite a widespread sense of scepticism that the French initiative will succeed where so many others have failed, Ayrault said the world could not "fold its arms and do nothing."

In their final statement, the participants agreed that "the status quo is unsustainable" and voiced "alarm" at the situation on the ground, citing continuing acts of violence and Jewish settlement building.

Washington, which has traditionally taken on a mediating role between the two sides, has not tried to initiate any fresh peace moves since the previous US-led round of indirect talks collapsed in April 2014 and has remained decidedly cool on the French initiative.

US Secretary of State John Kerry told journalists after the talks that while "we need to find some immediate kinds of steps on the ground that would make a difference... we can't impose a solution from outside, we need to have direct negotiations and I will continue to encourage that."

Earlier, in opening the conference, French President Francois Hollande had urged Israel and the Palestinians to make a "courageous choice" for peace.

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat said the Paris talks sent a "clear" message to Israel.

"The Paris meeting is a very significant step and its message is clear: If Israel is allowed to continue its colonisation and apartheid policies in occupied Palestine, the future will be for more extremism and bloodshed rather than for coexistence and peace," he said in a statement.

But Israel said the French effort would only cause the Palestinians to harden their positions.

"The Paris meeting will go down in history as having only hardened Palestinian positions and pushed peace further away," foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said in a statement after the meeting.

Ayrault said the talks were focused on the 2002 Saudi-led Arab peace initiative.

Under that proposal, Arab leaders offered to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied since 1967, and the creation of a Palestinian state.

At the time, the plan was largely ignored by Israel, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week he would be open to re-negotiating aspects of it with the Palestinians.

Speaking after the meeting, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir rejected this idea, saying the Arab peace initiative already "has all the elements for a final settlement."

"To argue that the Arab peace initiative should be watered down to accommodate the Israelis is not a wise approach," he said.

"It provides Israel with a lot of incentives and it's incumbent on the Israelis to accept that."

Analysts say Palestinian frustration of the deadlock in negotiations has driven a wave of violence that has left 206 Palestinians and 28 Israelis dead since October. Israel blames the bloodshed on incitement by Palestinian leaders and media.




Why programming is taught earlier

Jasmine Evans :

The words "computer programming" and "coding" may bring to mind an image of young men with wild hair and thick glasses glued to a bright computer screen, furiously typing in a strange language. But that image is quickly becoming an antiquated stereotype, and that strange language is quickly becoming the cornerstone of careers across the country.

Jobs in computer science are appearing at a rate twice the national average, and experts project that there will be more than 1 million unfilled jobs in computer science by 2020. Knowledge of coding can give your child more options when it comes time to decide on a career.

Code.org

Code.org is a nonprofit organization focused on increasing the quality and quantity of computer programming education, in and out of the traditional classroom. It's endorsed by an impressive lineup of politicians, businesspeople and celebrities, and backed by a who's who list of high-tech moguls, including Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, Max Levchin, the cofounder of PayPal, and Drew Houston, the CEO of Dropbox.

The organization's "vision" is that computer science and computer programming find their way into the core curriculum across the country, so that every student in every school is required to learn coding before setting foot on a college campus.

This would be no small change in education. Doubters may want to know what a school that embraces this vision would be like before jumping on the bandwagon. Is there a school that does this already? Why, yes, there is!

Beaver country day school

For most students, college is too late to take up computer programming, says Peter Hutton, the head of school at Beaver Country Day School in Brookline, Massachusetts. "Conventional education continues to embrace the myth that only certain kinds of kids can learn programming," he says. "By doing this, schools eliminate an important opportunity for the vast majority of their students."

His school, which serves grades 6 through 12, requires a computer programming course for graduation, but coding principles are taught throughout math classes at all grades, says the school's math department chair, Rob MacDonald. "Our students are learning the habits of mind that are central to coding even when they're not explicitly coding," he says. "We're confident that the coding skills they learn will apply to a wide range of other courses and disciplines."

This application of a school subject isn't uncommon. For years, schools have taught math concepts that many students don't necessarily need in the real world.

Even though we have calculators, for example, students across the country have to learn their multiplication tables and how to do long division. For forward-thinking schools like Beaver, coding serves a similar purpose.

The "Techie" Stereotype

Without the benefit of programming classes in high school, only "self-selected" students who pursue programming outside of school are ready, Hutton says. These eager, self-driven "techies" may have filled every computer science job back in the 1990s, but the field no longer makes up a remote subset of society. Only an institution as large as our educational system is big enough to possibly fill the rapidly growing demand of jobs.

"In conventional education, the strategy is to identify engineers at a young age and weed everyone else out, and then we wonder why there are not more engineers," Hutton says. His goal is to graduate more students who are interested in and able to pursue computer programming in college and beyond.

Women in computer programming

"Programming is seen as something boys do," Hutton says. While women have made headway in computer technology fields, they aren't doing so fast enough, in Hutton's eyes. In 2010, only 18 percent of computer- and information-technology degrees went to women, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology. And in 2012, just 23 percent of computer programmers were women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Beaver's focus on programming and coding doesn't just work on breaking the techie stereotype, but also a gender split.

What you can do

If you're convinced that your child could benefit from early exposure to computer programming skills, here are a few ways to take action:

Check and see what options your child's school has for computer courses. While many schools require no computer classes, there may be elective courses available.

Seek an extracurricular class. Code.org has put together a database of courses, online and in-person, that kids can take to learn coding.

Download programs, apps and games that teach programming skills. This is something you can do with your child. You can design basic computer games together or create your own website, or even a simple family blog.

Talk to the school. It can't hurt to ask your child's school to catch up with the times and offer elective computer courses. Starting a petition and speaking at a PTA meeting are both great ways to have your voice heard.

If recent history is any indication, computer technology isn't going away anytime soon.

It's only getting bigger. And exposing a child to advanced computer skills isn't only an opportunity for future success, but also a chance to bond over a new interest.
Human rights at risk of being forgotten in the Mediterranean

Magdalena Mughrabi-Talhami :

This week the EU announced plans on migration cooperation with Libya - extending its anti-smuggling naval mission in the Mediterranean, Operation Sophia, by a year and promising to train, build up and share information with the Libyan coastguard.

But by attempting to enlist Libya as a gatekeeper to help keep refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants out of Europe, the EU and member states also risk being complicit in the abuse and unlawful detention in horrible conditions of thousands of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers intercepted at sea.

Any migration cooperation with Libya must take into account the reality on the ground in the country which is still mired in armed conflict and where the authorities are ill-fitted to safeguard the rights of vulnerable people.

According to information available to Amnesty International, in most cases, foreign nationals rescued or intercepted at sea by the Libyan coastguard end up indefinitely detained in sub-standard immigration detention centres which lack basic necessities, including washing and sanitary facilities, as well as medical care.

Torture, ill-treatment and exploitation of detainees in these centres is widespread. Since 2011, Amnesty International has collected scores of testimonies from detainees reporting beatings with wooden sticks, hoses and rifle butts, as well as others speaking of electric shocks and being shot at with rifles. Migrant women and refugees also suffer sexual harassment and violence.

Those detained often stay in centres for months without access to their families, lawyers or judges and are unable to challenge their detention or access protection given Libya's lack of any national asylum law or system. The UN High Commission for Refugees' (UNHCR) ability to provide protection has been reduced even further since the withdrawal of its international staff in 2014.

Immigration detention centres are nominally managed by the Department for Combating Irregular Migration. But in practice they are often controlled by members of armed groups over which Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA), recently established after lengthy UN-brokered peace talks, has yet to establish control.

In 2014, armed conflicts across the country reignited as opposing armed groups fought for control. Human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, at times amounting to war crimes, are rife.

Since its establishment, the GNA has gained strong international backing as a means to effectively halt advances by the armed group known as the Islamic State (IS) and to tackle irregular migration to Europe. Foreign diplomats have visited Libya in the past few weeks as a sign of solidarity for the new government and to discuss, among other things, migration through Libya into Europe. But the GNA has yet to take full control of key ministries and Libya's internationally recognised parliament has yet to acknowledge its legitimacy.

In this context of instability and lawlessness, thousands of refugees and migrants outside of detention centres have also faced abductions for ransom, torture and sexual violence by armed groups, criminal gangs and networks of smugglers and traffickers. Many are systematically subjected to discrimination and exploitation by their employers. Religious minorities, in particular Christian migrants and refugees, are persecuted and are at a higher risk of abuse and summary killings from armed groups that seek to enforce their own interpretation of Islamic law.

The EU and the international community must not sidestep their obligations under international law nor ignore the scale of abuses and violations that are committed on a daily basis against foreign nationals in Libya.

Any agreements with Libya must respect the rights of asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants and must be based on the Libyan authorities' ability to demonstrate their respect and protection of these rights. Offers of assistance or proposals to control the flow of irregular migration must not perpetuate human rights abuses for those refugees and migrants trapped in abysmal and dangerous conditions in Libya.

Although states are entitled to control the entry of foreign nationals to their territories, there is a right to seek and enjoy asylum under international law, and asylum-seekers must not be punished for trying to reach safety. It is tragic and telling that the EU fears another spike in arrivals, whereas what they should be fearing is another spike in deaths at sea.

One year ago, when speaking after some 1,200 migrants and refugees had died at sea in one week alone, the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini reassured the world that the EU was "finally ready to take its own responsibilities". This meant, she claimed, "saving lives, welcoming refugees, addressing the root causes of the phenomenon, dismantling criminal organisations".

Sadly, since then, the EU has largely been focused on disrupting the "business model of smugglers" and securing its own borders, while ignoring its other promises. While smugglers have been reckless about exposing migrants and refugees to the risk of death at sea, they have often provided the only means of escape to desperate people fleeing abuses in Libya as well as conflict and persecution across sub-Saharan Africa. The EU must ensure that safe and legal alternatives are found for those in need of international protection.

It must increase the number of resettlement places, humanitarian admissions and visas for people in need of international protection and ensure that refugees have effective access to asylum at land borders.

As the international community bolsters its joint efforts to police Libya's waters-it must not overlook the fear that drives people away from Libya in the first place, nor turn a blind eye to the fate of those intercepted at sea by the Libyan coastguard or trapped in the country.



(Magdalena Mughrabi-Talhami is a researcher on North Africa for Amnesty International)


Ensure equal maternity benefits to all working women





WOMEN are becoming self-reliant through their involvement in various sectors such as government and non-government offices, private firms and garment factories, and this has tremendously lessened the burden upon the male classes in Bangladesh. Definitely it is such a positive scenario about their progress and for this, the country's financial managers deserve thanks as their multi-dimentional initiatives have propelled to create such a ground for improving lifestyle of the women. Granting maternity leave for the young employees is such an initiative. The New Nation reported on Saturday that due to effective initiatives by the government, maternal mortality rate in Bangladesh has declined by more than 66% over the last two decades. Data indicate that the numbers of women employees has increased in Bangladesh. It is mentionable that 13 lakh women are engaged in the formal sector and women employment rate is 5.8%. Due to job security, female workers of RMG do not discontinue from their jobs after child birth as RMG has ensured the provision of maternal leave for 6 months for women.

In spite of the positive scenario of women development, a working woman who becomes a mother still undergoes some perils  face discrimination in maternity benefits depending on the nature of profession and also between the government and private sector employers. This discrimination against women is uncalled for and in our view it must go. It is noticeable that working women in government offices and public sector banks are enjoying six months maternity leave with pay to prepare for motherhood and take care of newborn babies. But in private sectors they get less leave and lesser benefits. We know Bangladesh Labour Act-2006 has granted leave with benefits for working pregnant women as their right but lack of proper monitoring over the private sector deprives many of such benefits. The state must ensure equitable maternity rights and benefits to all irrespective of the nature of jobs and whether it be in the public or private sector.

According to the report, nearly three million female workers are working in the readymade garments sector and it is 80-85 percent of the total workforce employed there. The huge numbers of women are thus propelling the steering wheel of the country's economy. But it is also reported that many garment workers are denied of the benefits forcing them to leave the job while many others get only part of the benefits they are entitled to. We are against all form of gender discrimination and call for equal treatment of female workers in public and private sector workplaces.

The state must develop a mechanism to make sure that every woman at work can enjoy maternity leave so that a mother feels healthy at pregnancy to help build a healthy future nation.
NY Fed first rejected cyber-heist transfers, then moved $81m

Reuters :Hours before the Federal Reserve Bank of New York approved four fraudulent requests to send $81 million from a Bangladesh Bank account to cyber thieves, the Fed branch blocked those same requests because they lacked information required to transfer money, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.On the day of the theft in February, the New York Fed initially rejected 35 requests to transfer funds to various overseas accounts, a New York Fed official and a senior Bangladesh Bank official told Reuters. The Fed's decision to later fulfil a handful of resubmitted requests raises questions about whether it missed red flags.The New York arm of the US central bank initially denied the transfer requests because they lacked proper formatting for the SWIFT messaging system, the network banks use for international financial transfers, the two officials said.The Bangladesh Bank official said they lacked the names of correspondent banks, which typically receive wired funds. The Fed rejected the requests, which came from hackers who had broken into the SWIFT network through Bangladesh Bank systems. Later in the day, however, the cyber thieves resubmitted those 35 requests. On the second try, the messages had the proper formatting, the New York Fed official said. The requests had been authenticated by SWIFT, the first line of defence against fraudulent wire transfers. Despite the technical compliance, the New York Fed rejected 30 of the requests a second time. But the Fed did approve five requests - for a total of $101 million. Later, one of those five transfers - a $20 million request - was reversed because of a misspelling. The New York Fed has said it blocked the 30 resubmitted requests because they were flagged for economic sanctions review. Only afterward were they deemed potentially fraudulent.The Bangladesh Bank official and another source close to the bank said the New York Fed should have rejected all the requests on both the first and second attempts.The source close to the bank, who also had direct knowledge of the matter, said anomalies in the four transfers that ultimately went through should have raised questions at the New York Fed. They were paid to individual recipients, a rarity for Bangladesh's central bank, and the false names on the four approved withdrawals also appeared on some of the 30 resubmitted requests rejected by the bank, said the source close to the Bangladesh Bank. "Of course, we asked the Fed why the repetition of the names did not create red flags," the source said."They are saying they rejected 35 badly submitted ones," the source said. But when the requests were re-submitted, they "paid 5 of them and stopped 30. Why? They can give no answer."Bangladesh Bank and SWIFT declined to comment. The New York Fed has said there were no problems with its procedures for approving SWIFT fund transfers, and declined to comment on whether it missed any warning signs. The cyber theft from Bangladesh's central bank - and recent disclosures of other similar fraud attempts - have brought scrutiny on the SWIFT messaging system.SWIFT is a cooperative of global banks formally known as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, and its transaction system was used as a conduit for one of the largest cyber bank heists in history. In the United States, a congressional committee has launched a probe into the New York Fed's role in the bank heist.The Bangladeshi central bank might seek compensation for the funds from the Federal Reserve, and Bangladesh police have said that recent installation of a new SWIFT settlement system at the bank last fall may have provided thieves an opportunity to gain access to the bank's SWIFT servers. The New York Fed's reviews of payment requests that come over the SWIFT system are focused chiefly on guarding against money laundering and transfers to people and entities that are under US government sanctions, Fed officials have said.But requests often also are temporarily halted to fix typos and other formatting problems.The Fed branch has said its clients, including Bangladesh Bank, and SWIFT have primary responsibility for preventing unauthorised transfers. Fed employees queried Bangladesh Bank about the purpose of the payments requested on Feb 4 and again on Feb 5, according to a letter to congresswoman Carolyn Maloney by New York Fed General Counsel Thomas Baxter. The four transfers totalling $81 million went to accounts in the Philippines. The money wound up with casinos and casino agents and remains missing. An attempt to transfer $20 million to a foundation in Sri Lanka was reversed because the word "foundation" was misspelled.The source close to Bangladesh Bank said questions about the anomalies in the approved requests were discussed at a meeting in Basel last month between New York Fed President William Dudley, Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir and representatives from SWIFT. Congresswoman Maloney and Tom Carper, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, both have made inquiries to the New York Fed. The House Science Committee informed the New York Fed in a letter this week that it is launching a probe into its handling of the transfer requests.The committee plans to examine the New York Fed's response to the heist, the oversight of SWIFT, and whether additional measures are needed to address vulnerabilities to cyber attacks.SWIFT, which has come under scrutiny after the Bangladesh Bank heist and cyber attacks in at least three other cases, plans a new program to improve security and also wants banks to "drastically" improve information sharing.
Target no crime during Ramzan

Strong security steps taken

Staff Reporter :

The government is going to take strict security measures to make the prices of essentials stable and curb extortion in capital Dhaka as well as across the country during Ramzan, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said on Saturday.

"Strict security measures will be taken to prevent extortion, mugging and other crimes during Ramzan. Besides, strict security measures will be provided to all markets round the clock," he said at a views exchange meeting organized by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCIC) in the city.

He said the government will show zero tolerance against extortion on the highways during the month. Police will also work to curb extortion and ease the traffic system.

"As the Union Parshid elections ended on Saturday, the huge force is being brought in to the metropolitan cities, including capital Dhaka, from different districts in a bid to curb crimes and extortion," Kamal said.

Though it would not be possible to bring extortion at zero level, it can be controlled, he said. "Our ultimate target is to bring the extortion at zero level." The Home Minister said commercial banks adjacent to big shopping malls will operate till night.

"The Home Ministry will issue instruction to the banks in this regard," Kamal said, adding all out security measures will be provided to the businessmen for transaction of money with the banks.

Police teams will be deployed for 'foot patrol' at different points in eight crime divisions in the metropolitan area.

Moreover, mobile teams will patrol their designated areas by vehicles. There will also be motorcycle teams for patrolling the city areas.

In addition, block raids will be conducted at the city slums to nab criminals, he added.

Alongside the uniformed policemen, he said, plainclothes police detective teams will be deployed at the marketplaces during Ramzan to keep round the clock vigil and thwart crimes.
Four killed, 300 hurt

Massive vote rigging, centre occupying, ballot stuffing mark last phase of UP polls

Sagar Biswas :The election to the lowest tier of Local Government ended on Saturday claiming three more lives in Noakhali, Feni and Mymensingh and Sunamganj in clashes during voting in the country's 698 Union Parishds [UP] for the last and sixth phase.With three, more lives lost the UP elections - conducted for the first time under party symbol - witnessed death of 111 people in the six phases. Besides, the number of injured was 4,000 during the aforesaid period. At the same time, several dozens of houses and business establishments were gutted and hundred others either ransacked or demolished during the clashes between rival candidates in different areas. Like the previous phases, the last phase of UP election was also marked by massive vote rigging, ballot stuffing, fake vote casting, occupying of centres by applying force and series of clashes between the supporters of rival candidates. Of the three victims who died yesterday, one was identified as BNP supporter and the rest two were activists of ruling Awami League, local sources said.According to information received in Dhaka, an activist of BNP Nur Hossain Shipon, 25, son of Abdul Karim of Dakkhin Char Kandia, was killed when armed miscreants attacked Char Bhairob Hazi Tofayel Ahmed High School centre under Sonagazi Upazila in Feni. Police sources said a gang of armed hoodlums equipped with automatic firearms forcibly occupied the polling centre. The entire area was rocked when they exploded over a dozen of cocktails. Presiding Officer Md Joynal Abedin said: "Three police personnel, three members of Battalion Ansar and two Assistant Presiding Officers received bullet injuries during the attack. The victim was not a voter. After the attack, the voting was suspended there."In Noakhali, a leader of the Bangladesh Chhatra League [BCL] was killed in a clash between the supporters of two rival 'member' candidates outside a voting centre in a madrasa at Sadar Upazila's Noazpur Union. The victim, identified as Yeasin Arafat, 26, President of BCL Ward No. 3 of Neyazpur Union of the district's Sadar upazila, was hacked to death in a clash between supporters of two UP candidates yesterday noon. At least 15 people, were also injured in the incident three of them received bullet wounds.Additional Superintendent of Police [ASP] AKM Jahirul Islam said: "The victim was hacked by the miscreants during the clash. Later, he died on way to Dhaka."In Mymensingh, one person, identified as Md Shahjahan, 52, was killed during a fierce clash between the supporters of two rival 'member' candidates at Pukuria village Gaforgaon at about 3:30pm. He was cousin brother of 'member' candidate Mosharraf Hossain. He was allegedly attacked by other 'member' candidate Abdul Karim. Earlier on Friday, one person was killed in pre-electoral violence at Anwara Upazila in Chittagong. Meanwhile, about 21 candidates of BNP in Jhinaidah, Pabna, Iswardi, Natore, Savar, Keraniganj, Mymensingh, Noakhali, Gaibandha, yesterday boycotted election raising allegations of vote rigging, centre occupying and gross violation of electoral laws. Besides, four other independent 'chairman' candidates of Narail, Pabna and Bogra, boycotted election yesterday on the same ground. Especially, the force occupying of polling centres marked a sharp rise yesterday where activists of ruling party openly extended their support in favour of party-nominated candidates in different unions.Supporters of Awami League nominated candidate Saiful Isalm took control of Khadijatul Kobra Madrassa at Bongaon union in Savar yesterday early hours. "The supporters of Saiful Islam created pressure on voters to cast their votes in favour of Boat "symbol. His supporters harassed on-duty newsmen at that time," Presiding Officer Shahidul Islam said. The presiding officer halted voting of Ward-7 under Charti union of Satkania upazila in Chittagong when supply of ballot papers of 'chairman' candidate were stopped being allegedly pressured by ruling party men.Miscreants tied hands and legs of BNP polling agent Kamal Uddin and stuffed ballots in favour of Awami League candidate Al Amin Biplob at Hatemtai School centre of Longai union under Gofargaon in Mymensingh. Chief Election Commissioner, however, yesterday said that the election in all the six phases were fair and peaceful. "We've taken highest possible measures to keep the situation under control. And so, there was not any incident of ballot sealing on the previous night of voting," the CEC said yesterday in a satisfied tone.The CEC said: "I think, the overall situation has improved. To check violence and electoral irregularities, there must be a reform in the society first. For that reason, we've social responsibility also."Interestingly, the EC officials earlier had alleged that the Home Ministry did not take any effective step to check killings and violence in the UP polls, though it had sent letters several times in this regard. Not only that, no preventive measure was taken though the EC sent letter to Home Ministry asking to take initiatives even in the sixth phase, they had said.
2 electrocuted in city

Staff Reporter :

An youth and a child were electrocuted in two separate incidents at Mirpur and Gandaria on Saturday.

The deceased were identified as Nabin Khan (25), son of Ratan Khan, resident of Kadamtali Thana and the other as Mridul (12), son of Abul Kalam, resident of Mirpur area.

According to Mridul's family, he was electrocuted last night, and was rushed to the local hospital and then moved to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) as his condition was critical. There he was declared dead.

In another incident, electrical mechanic

Nabin was electrocuted when he was working at a house. He was rushed to DMCH in a serious condition. There he breathed his last.

Bachchu Mia, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) of DMCH police camp, informed that the bodies have been kept in morgue.
Speaker admitted to S'pore hospital for treatment

bdnews24.com :

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury has been admitted to Singapore's National University Hospital for treatment. The Parliament Secretariat released a media media on Friday saying she left Dhaka for southeast Asian city state on Thursday night. She is expected to return on June 10, it said.

Parliament Secretariat official Sadrul Ahmed Khan said she was admitted to the Kent Ridge Wing of the hospital. Chief Whip ASM Feroz, Whip Iqbalur Rahim, Parliament Secretariat Secretary Abdur Rob Howlader, among others, saw her off

at Shahjalal International Airport.

Chaudhury was admitted to Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka on May 28 with complications over high blood pressure. She chaired Thursday's session when Finance Minister AMA Muhith presented the budget for 2016-17 fiscal year. She left at the Asr prayers break and did not return.
1 AL, 3 BNP candidates boycott vote in Sailkupa Upazila

Jhenaidah Correspondent :

Three candidates from Sailkupa upazila in Jhenaidah have boycotted the UP polls. They brought allegation against the ruling party men and local administration because the ruling party men did not allow many polling agents of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and a large number of the voters to enter the poling centres.

Not only that, the candidate of the ruling party Mokter Ahmed Mridha too boycotted the elections in Abaipur union under the same upazila.

The announcement was made in the presence of the members of Sailkupa Press Club at Kabirpur Government Primary School around 11.00 AM where three candidates and some of their upazila level leaders remained present. The chairman candidates were Nazrul Islam Joarder of Hakimpur union parishad, Abdul Bari Mollah of Dhalaharachandra union parishad and Abul Hossain of Manaharapur union parishad.

The BNP candidates said, the ruling party men did not allow any of their polling agents to enter any polling centre. Further, a major portion of the voters could not be present for casting their votes. The matter was informed to the election commission office and the local administration, but that could not bring any fruitful result for them, they alleged.

The BNP leaders said, there was no environment for holding polls in their areas as ruling party men have already created panic inside the polling centres as well as in the fields.

As there is no security of lives and properties of the leaders and voters in the areas, they have no alternatives than boycotting the polls from 10.30 AM on the day. Vice-president of Sailkupa BNP Amjad Hossain along with the three candidates were present during the press conference.

Locals of Harihara village under Hakimpur union parishad alleged that the ruling party candidate and the incumbent chairman's supporters clubbed four of the BNP supporters at Harihara Government Primary School Centre at noon. The injured were sent to Sailkupa upazila health complex.

On the other hand, the ruling AL candidate Sabder Hossain Mollah's men have beaten an activist of the independent candidate Mijanur Rahman Baul at Garaganj high school centre in the noon.
UN to ask permission from Damascus to airdrop aid

Al Jazeera News :

The United Nations has said it will ask permission from the Syrian government on Sunday to airdrop or airlift humanitarian aid to besieged areas.

During a closed-door meeting of the Security Council on Friday, diplomats described airdrops as a "last resort" to reach thousands of civilians in need of aid.

Nearly 600,000 people are besieged in 19 different areas in Syria, according to the UN, with two-thirds trapped by government forces and the rest besieged by armed opposition groups and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS) group.

UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien said that out of 34 requests for June to deliver aid to besieged and hard-to-reach areas by land convoys, the Syrian government had turned down five.

"We continue to insist that we have absolutely, as a matter of law, a need to get to those people without hindrance," he told Al Jazeera. The US, UK and France have long been calling for air operations,

given the reluctance of Damascus to allow relief into rebel-held areas.

Syria announced on Thursday that it gave the UN and the Red Cross approval to send humanitarian aid convoys into at least 11 of the 19 besieged areas during June, as a response to the call for humanitarian airdrops.

But, several Western diplomats said the Syrian announcement is simply a ploy to deflect discussions on airdrops, noting that President Bashar al-Assad's government did not agree to permit full access to all besieged areas. "A very high number of humanitarian access requests made by the UN have been denied by the Syrian authorities," the French ambassador to the UN, Francois Delattre, told reporters after the Security Council.

"For the month of June Syrian authorities did not accept all the access requests made by the UN.

"So, on Sunday, the UN, in accordance with the ICRC's [International Committee of the Red Cross] request, will ask Damascus to authorise humanitarian airdrops to reach localities for which the land access was denied by the Syrian regime," he said. "And of course we call for the complete lifting of all sieges."

Matthew Rycroft, the UK's ambassador to the UN, said the Syrian government has done "too little too late" regarding the humanitarian crisis in the country and the international community will no longer tolerate stalling tactics. "Airdrops are complex, costly, risky, but we have now all agreed that they are the last resort and we must use them to relieve the human suffering in so many besieged areas in Syria," he said.

Al Jazeera's diplomatic editor, James Bays, said the important development is that the UN has said that it is going to make a formal request for airdrops to the Syrian government.

He explained that the UN has airdropped humanitarian aid to several besieged rural areas in Syria in the past by plane, but such high altitude airdrops are not suitable for urban areas .

"So instead they are going to send the aid in by helicopter. For this, they need the permission of the Syrian government," he said, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York. "They don't want those planes and helicopters to be shot down." Bashar Jaafari, Syria's ambassador to the UN, rejected accusations that the government was preventing aid deliveries.

"Humanitarian assistance or the humanitarian aid has never been denied by the Syrian government to any part of the country." Syrian opposition activists have circulated a list of the UN aid that has gone into rebel-held Daraya, a town besieged by government forces. They said the aid included mosquito nets, lice shampoo, wheel chairs and a small number of medical and nutritional packages for infants.

The head of the Media Council in Daraya, Hosan Ahmad, said more cars were guarding and protecting the aid convoy than were actually delivering supplies. He said people felt angry, humiliated and let down by the UN.

"These are luxury goods, not basic necessities for people that are desperate and eating grass."

The UN said the aid convoy that reached Daraya earlier this week was part one of a two-part delivery and the second part, which has food on it, is being delayed by Damascus.

Bays said he does not expect Damascus to change its attitude towards humanitarian aid to besieged areas, just because the UN is now talking about aid delivery by air.

"Towards the end of Bashar Jaafari's speech, I asked him repeatedly, 'yes or no, are you going to give permission?' He didn't answer the question."

As diplomats met at the UN on Friday, volunteer rescuers said Syrian government air strikes killed dozens of civilians in and around the northern city of Aleppo.
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Russian authorities have arrested a gang of 50 hackers suspected of stealing more than 1.7 Billion Rubles () from banks and other financial institutions in the country since 2011.The same criminal gang had tried to steal a further 2.273 Billion Roubles by issuing false payment instructions, but that were blocked.The group allegedly used a Trojan called " Lurk " to set up a network of bots on infected computers to carry out the attacks, according to Russia's FSB ().Initially identified in 2012, Lurk is a "fileless" Trojan that runs in RAM and has mostly been used for collecting banking credentials, especially for banks in Eastern Europe and the Russian Federation.The criminal gang allegedly seeded some of Russia's most popular websites with Lurk. Once infected, the malware downloaded more software modules, allowing the hackers to gain remote access to victims' computers.The hackers then stole login names and passwords for victims' online bank accounts, especially accounts held at Sberbank, Russia's largest bank in terms of assets held.Since Lurk was injected into the RAM, the malware made it difficult for security software to detect and analyze the malicious code once it had compromised a machine.Sberbank helped the Russian authorities to conduct a large-scale operation in 15 regions of Russia and detain around 50 people; 18 of those are currently behind bars in Moscow." a press release by the FSB stated.All of the 50 suspects were charged with the development, distribution and use of malicious computer programs.
Pre-purchase property inspection is a relatively new thing in the United Kingdom. Its not something that most people have heard about, but it has become increasingly popular over the last few years with the rise in property prices and increased demand for high quality homes.

What are the benefits of pre-purchase building inspection? What can you expect to find out when you pay someone else to inspect your home before you buy it? And what should you look for during an inspection?

Many people want to know if theyre buying a house thats been well maintained or if its had any serious problems. If youve found a place on the market that seems attractive, but then discover some issues after moving in, you may not be as excited about buying it as you thought you were.

Its important to do your due diligence when looking at properties. A lot goes into making a property appealing to potential buyers, from the landscaping to the flooring to the kitchen appliances. The same applies when inspecting a property  there are many things that need checking over to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Here are some of the benefits of performing a pre-purchase inspection:

You get to see exactly what will happen to your money

When you go shopping for a new car, youll probably be shown several different models. You might even be shown one that looks like a great value, but doesnt fit around all of the extra features that you want. When it comes time to actually buy the vehicle, however, you wont have seen how your money will be spent on it once you drive it off the showroom floor.

Likewise, when you shop for a new home, you dont really know what youre getting yourself into until you move in. In order to get a feel for whether the home youre considering is what you want, you normally have to spend quite a bit of time inside it. This allows you to learn more about everything that youre going to be spending your hard-earned cash on.

A pre-purchase building inspection gives you much the same kind of experience without having to spend thousands of dollars. Since youre paying for the service, you can expect to see exactly what youre paying for, instead of just seeing a vague idea of what you might end up with.

You find out about potential major repairs

Some buildings are very expensive to maintain, which means that owners often neglect them for the sake of saving money. While youre paying for a building inspection, youre also paying for a professional who knows how to spot signs of trouble and repair work that needs doing.

If you notice that a particular area of your new home needs fixing right away, you can call in an expert to take care of it quickly. If you find that theres something wrong with your boiler, you wont have to wait weeks for a plumber to come over and fix it. Instead, youll have access to a solution immediately.

You can save hundreds of pounds by finding out about potential problems early on

One of the biggest expenses when you first buy a home is the cost of moving in. Many people dont realize this until its too late. Buying a home involves not only paying for the actual house, but also for moving costs, furniture, and other items that have to be moved along with the home.

Having a good idea ahead of time of what youre likely to encounter can help you avoid these kinds of costs. If you know youll need to replace the plumbing system, for example, youll be able to put together a budget for the expense and plan accordingly.

You can protect your investment by finding out if the homes been well cared for

While there are plenty of people who think that houses always look better when theyre newly built, youd be surprised at how well maintained older residences can still look nice. Sometimes, though, those homes need some additional maintenance to keep them looking their best.

This could involve repairs that arent so noticeable or small improvements that you wouldnt consider otherwise. Even worse, some houses have fallen into disrepair without anyone noticing. This is why having a professional perform a building inspection prior to purchasing a home is such a big benefit.

Not only will it give you insight into the state of the property, but it will also give you peace of mind knowing youre not getting taken advantage of. As long as youre aware of the potential pitfalls, youll have less reason to worry about the state of your new home.

You can use information gathered during a building inspection to negotiate a lower price

If youre worried about buying a home because you suspect that it may need extensive renovation work, you may already have a rough idea of how much work youll need to do to bring it up to scratch. That knowledge can come in handy if you decide to buy the home.

You can use all of the details that you gather during a building inspection to present a realistic picture of what the home is worth to prospective buyers. If a potential buyer thinks that the home is worth more than what you paid for it, you can try negotiating a lower price.

You can sell your home faster and for more money

If you decide to list your home on the market soon after buying it, youll need to price it accurately in order to attract buyers. But if youve already done a thorough building inspection, youll know exactly what work is needed and what the current market conditions are.

In other words, youll be able to make a more accurate estimate of the amount of money youve invested in the home and how much its worth. If you find that youre selling your house for close to its full market value, you can use this information to convince the potential buyer that your home is worth the asking price.

Even if youre planning to stay in the home for a while before you decide to sell, the fact that you did a thorough building inspection will give you more confidence when listing it. Prospective buyers will know exactly what theyre paying for.

Your home will hold its value longer

As mentioned earlier, the value of a home depends heavily upon the condition of the building itself. If your home is in bad shape, potential buyers wont be interested in buying it. On the other hand, if youve performed a thorough building inspection and know what sort of repairs are necessary, you can offer your prospective buyer a compelling reason to invest in your property.

When you buy a home, youre essentially agreeing to have it inspected periodically to ensure that it stays in top shape. Not only does this allow you to avoid expensive repairs down the road, but it can also increase the value of your home.

You can make smart decisions about property investments

Buying real estate isnt as simple as just driving a couple of minutes to pick up a house. There are lots of considerations involved, ranging from location to cost. The same is true when youre investing in property.

If you find a house that meets all of your requirements, youll want to make sure that you have a solid understanding of where it stands with regards to the rest of the market. If you havent spent enough time researching the area, you could inadvertently end up with a bad deal.

There are lots of resources available online that can help you determine the overall level of competition in your area. They can also help you figure out if there are any properties that meet your requirements that you didnt know about.

If you own rental property, you can use the information to identify tenants who might cause damage

If you own rental property and youve noticed that certain tenants consistently cause damage, you can use the results of a building inspection to identify them. You can then contact them directly to let them know that youre watching them closely and that you dont appreciate the problem theyre causing.

They might start taking better care of their homes, which would be good news for everyone. It could also be the case that youll find out that theyre responsible for previous damages that werent caught during a previous visit.

You can make smarter decisions about hiring contractors

If youve hired contractors to build or repair your home, you might want to ask them for references. However, unless you perform a thorough building inspection, you might not know exactly what to look for.

For instance, maybe you only checked the roof for leaks or the walls for cracks. You might not have looked underneath the foundation for anything that could cause a future issue. By performing a building inspection, you can ensure that you hire reputable contractors who will be trustworthy with your money.

You can avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition

Of course, the main benefit of structural inspections perth is that it helps you avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition. Before you make the decision to buy a home, you should do whatever you can to find out about the state of the building.

You can also ask your realtor about what sorts of inspections are typically recommended. Some agents say that its standard practice to check the heating system, the roof, the electrical wiring, and the floors. Others will tell you that they recommend that you check the entire structure.

Either way, if you choose to hire an inspector, youll find out exactly what needs to be fixed and how much it will cost to do so.

As a result, it can be concluded that a pre-purchase building inspection is highly important for the buyers because it provides transparency regarding the current conditions of the structure. Additionally, the building owner is made aware of any upgrades or repairs that are required, which could lead to a fair deal throughout the purchasing and selling process.
The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now.

Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market.

In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender.

India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex.

Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted.

But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted?

Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner.

If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems.

I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now.

I want more variation in masturbation

I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own.

If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end.

What is sex toys for Indian?

Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation.

It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms.

They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable.

Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner.

The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner.

It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past.

In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping.

Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order.

In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing.

Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome.

Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own.

But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance.

More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around.

Sextoy situation in India

Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years.

In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India.

Mumbai

Kolkata

Bangalore

Delhi

Chennai

Hyderabad

These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India.

In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well.

If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too.

If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it.

What are Sextoys for beginner?

Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms.

Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy.

I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion.

I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy.

If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma.

Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it.

Advantages of using sextoy for Indians

There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians

You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways.

Can have stimulating sex

Can develop new sexual zones

If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern.

However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways.

You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation.

Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever.

There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure.

This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it.

When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems.

It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms).

For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles

[Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou...

Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India.

Sextoy for beginner men in India

So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners.

For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men!

The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men

Masturbator

Cock rings

Love Doll

Sex Lubricants

Toys for the prostate

Lets check each one in detail.

Masturbator

The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products.

It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands.

Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands.

They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.)

Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much.

Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! !

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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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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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How to choose a sextoy for Indian

Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one.

Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points:  Does the size fit you (the partner)?

Does the size fit you (your partner)?

Is the environment able to produce sound without problems?

Price range

First of all, the choice of size is quite important.

Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women.

For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage.

Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems.

Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise.

If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level.

Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it.

Finally, there is the price range.

The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest.

Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy.

Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy?

I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance.

For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics.

If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out.

How to buy sextoys in India

The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping.

For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below.

Sextoy is one of them.

Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping.

SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India.

They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry.

Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card.

To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy.

ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal.

Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on.

Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture.

Cautions for Indians using sextoy

When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind

Keep sex toys clean

Watch out for electrical leakage

Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy

As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone.

Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there.

It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case.

In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness.

Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful.

If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it.

You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly.

Summary

What did you think?

In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India.

The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future.

As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values.

However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health.

If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try?

Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women.

I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it.
CARTERVILLE  Robert Morwell knows that calling a competition "the smartest church" is speaking to a bit of vanity, one of those cardinal sins, but he'd like to think there is something larger at work here.

His church is hosting that competition in hopes of raising money from the participating churches  those hoping to lay claim to The Smartest Church in the area, or at least contribute funds to a worthy cause  to fund scholarships for a United Methodist Church university in Africa.

The Smartest Church competition is a fundraiser for Africa University, in Mutare, Zimbabwe. The competition will be 7 p.m. Sunday, June 26, in the fellowship hall of First United Methodist Church of Carterville, 301 S. Pine St.

The winner will be the church team able to correctly answer assorted trivia questions. The cost is $50 for a team of five people, and churches may have multiple teams representing them. Participating teams must register by 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 22.

One of the organizers said he had no idea how many people might be attracted to participate or attend as an audience.

"We have no idea, weve never tried this before," said the Rev. Bob Morwell, who is pastor of First United Methodist Church of Carterville, "Its kind of a new thing, but if we get a good representation, it would be a kind of fun thing to do annually." If it was to become an annual event, it could serve as a fundraiser for various causes, he noted.

The concept grew out of conversations he had with Jason Washington, a member of First United Methodist Church of Carterville, and a fellow trivia enthusiast. Washington once competed on the national television trivia game show "Jeopardy." Washington said the show he competed on aired in October 2014 and he walked away in third place, with $1,000 in winnings.

Calling all locals

This local competition was designed for church groups, but is also open to groups who are not connected to a church, Morwell said.

The questions will cover a range of trivia  current events, sports, TV, pop culture, space, and yes, Biblical information  accessing varying levels of knowledge, said Morwell, a self-described "space geek."

"Theyre just going to have to prepare for anything, he said.

"It will be a mixture" of intensity level of questions, Morwell said. "We know youre not going to have a Ph.D. or anything. We will try to keep it to a level where reasonably informed people can answer a few questions without ruining many neurons.

Competition to benefit Africa University

The money raised will benefit a scholarship fund at Africa University, which was opened in 1988. Organizers plan that the scholarship fund will be able to provide around 10 full scholarships each year, in perpetuity.

The university has a student body of about 1,200 people. It was created to help provide higher education to students unable to attend college in the United States or elsewhere. Bachelor's and master's degrees are awarded in six major areas of focus and it has an institute on Peace, Leadership and Governance.

Morwell noted that is has another purpose, as it helps to keep some of the country and continent's bright talent at home, as some people who travel abroad to study do not return home.

He also called the university program an investment against terrorism, noting that jihadists are not the biggest threat to freedom, but members of the group Boko Haram are.

The notorious Islamist terror group Boko Haram, hates schools like AU," Morwell said. "In fact, the name Boko Haram means Western Education is forbidden. They dont want to see students of all faiths and backgrounds coming together to learn ideas that go beyond their very constricted and oppressive ideology. Places like Africa University strike at the very heart of what the terrorists are trying to do.
Ive often quipped that craft beer drinkers tend to be a promiscuous lot. Im not referring to their personal relationship habits, but rather their beer drinking ones. Many go from beer to beer, style to style and brand to brand, seldom returning to the same beer twice. Breweries and the beers they produce are so prolific now that it makes playing the field exceedingly easy and trying the next new thing  the beer equivalent of speed dating.

Citing the desire to seek out whatever is different or trendy, beer consumers sip myriad IPAs, barrel-aged ales and, most recently, sour beers in their passion for pushing the flavor envelope. What is most interesting, however, is that the beer trends above are not really new; theyre just new again. IPA (India Pale Ale), as a broad style category, has been around since the late 1700s. Before stainless steel fermenters and bright tanks for fermenting and conditioning beer, all beers were barrel (wood) aged in one way, shape or form. Sour beers might just be the oldest of all, finding their origins as a defined style in the burgundies of Belgium produced in the Flemish region of that country for several centuries and in other parts of the world for much, much longer.

You might be asking yourself, sour beer?" People drink that on purpose?

Indeed, and it is becoming more popular all the time. We are just a little behind the curve here in the United States, but were doing our best to catch up with more and more breweries producing their own versions of traditional sour beer styles like Berliner Weisse, Flanders Red, Gose, Lambic and a whole batch of novel sour beers that dont fit neatly into a traditional parameters, but are categorized loosely as wild ales.

I believe we are experiencing the 'wild west' years of American sour beers on the national level with all the varied success you might imagine, said Dr. Matt McCarroll, director of Southern Illinois Universitys Fermentation Science Institute.

Sour beers are made sour by utilizing special yeast strains or bacteria added during the various phases of the brewing process via a controlled dose or by spontaneous fermentation, a means by which native, ambient yeast or bacteria comes into contact with unfermented beer in an open vessel. This may sound crazy, but its actually how all beer was fermented before we learned about yeast and began using controlled cultures. Probably the most well-known wild yeast strain used in brewing is called brettanomyces, or simply Brett. This wild yeast is known to impart unique and often intense aromas and flavors affectionately described as funky. This wild yeast is what has traditionally given Belgian-made sour beer, like lambic, its sour power. Another common addition is lactobacillus, a bacteria you might already be familiar with since its used in a variety of food products such as yogurt. This bacteria provides the tartness in traditional German beers like Berliner Weisse and Gose and tends to produce a cleaner, more specific tart character.

As popularity for sour beer grows, so does availability on local store shelves and taps.

In my beer class I teach at SIU, we go through 40 to 50 styles during the semester, McCarroll said. One of my favorite classes is Sour Day. When I first began teaching the class, it was challenging to find good examples of most of the styles, such as Berliner Weisse, and some historical styles, such as Gose, were unheard of. Fast forward to 2016, and Gose has gone gangbusters and many American craft breweries are culturing rather than sanitizing wild yeast and bacteria in their breweries.

A few prominent examples you can find locally are Perennial Artisan Ales Hopfentea (Berliner Weisse), Sierra Nevada Otra Vez (Gose), The Bruery Oude Tart (Flanders Red) and Goose Island Lolita (Wild Ale).

Speaking of local, our Southern Illinois breweries are trying their hands at sour beers as well, with Big Muddy Brewing in Murphysboro and Scratch Brewing in Ava leading the way. Scratch Brewing Company co-owner Marika Josephson said we have had amazing results fermenting sour beers with our sourdough culture. The yeast and bacteria at work in that culture create something that's not bone-dry, but has a refreshing lemon-like tartness. It's an entirely native culture. We created it with yeast and bacteria in our kitchen. So, it's especially fun for us to play around with it because it represents the microflora of this area, just as the many plants we use in our beer do.

Big Muddy Brewing owner Chuck Stuhrenberg echoed a similar idea when talking about his Sour Du Shawnee beer he produced for the first time a couple of years ago. The proximity of the Shawnee National Forest, along with the orchards throughout the area, creates an environment that is really interesting for capturing and using ambient yeast and bacteria to produce sour beers.

If a sour beer sounds like something you would only pour down the drain, convinced it was defective, you might think again. Sours have been around a long time, and anything that has withstood the test of time and palates for this long is probably worth a shot. Some are very subtle. Some are complex and challenging. But, theyre all interesting and that is the real draw of craft beer. Pucker up!
DU QUOIN  Melissa Jackson doesn't know of anyone in this area who has been or is currently being forced into labor or sexual traffic, but that's not stopping her from trying to raise awareness that it could be happening right under the community's very noses.

Jackson has applied for a permit to host a Walk For Freedom on Oct. 15, calling attention to the issue, which has gained increasing attention in recent years. The Oct. 15 walk is a part of a national movement organized by the A21 Campaign, which will have supporters organizing similar walks across the country.

She is being supported in this effort by members of her church, Vision Church, an almost year-old church in Du Quoin, and by members of the Propel Women of Southern Illinois, a chapter of a national group she recently started in January in Du Quoin.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security defines human trafficking as "a modern-day form of slavery involving the illegal trade of people for exploitation or commercial gain." This practice generates billions of dollars in profit and is second only to drug-trafficking as the most profitable form of transnational crime.

Those trafficking in humans use force, fraud or coercion to lure and force their victims into labor or commercial sexual exploitation, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website. Those being victimized rarely come forward because of language barriers, fear of the traffickers or fear of law enforcement.

Human trafficking is a civil rights violation and is a crime that is investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Jackson said she was not sure of whether this area had a problem or not, but pointed to data compiled by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center detailing the problem in Illinois.

So far this year, there have been 35 cases of human trafficking reported in Illinois, according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. The vast majority of those reports were of sex trafficking (28); and labor trafficking (5); followed by one each of sex and labor trafficking and an unspecified type of trafficking.

In the past year, 122 cases were reported; 140 cases in the year 2014; 142 cases in 2013; and 105 cases in 2012, according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. The vast majority of the cases in all those years were for sex trafficking.

Around the globe, 27 million men, women and children are believed to be forced into human trafficking, according to the A21 Campaign, a nonprofit with the goal of raising awareness about the issue and eliminate it in this lifetime. That group reports that only one to two percent of those victims are ever rescued.

Jackson is supported in her efforts by people like Yvonne Overton, a member of the Propel Women's group.

"We're just starting communications about it so that people will be aware of it," Overton said.

Jackson's interest

Over the past few years, a perfect storm of events have occurred to arrive at Jackson leading this Oct. 15 walk.

For the past few years, Jackson said she'd heard about human trafficking whenever she, her husband, Matthew Jackson, and his brother, Nathan, pastor of Vision Church, took a college-aged group to the Passion Conference each summer. Over and over, she'd hear the number: 27 million people, victimized by human trafficking. Even she admitted it was overwhelming.

Also during this time, she came to hear the stories of a colleague of hers who was from Syria and began to become aware of the situation with refugees; a significant percentage of those people, a vulnerable population fleeing persecution in their own homeland, are forced into human trafficking, she said.

"Theyre the most at-risk for human trafficking today because no one is looking for them," Jackson said. "Theyre bleeding a nation."

She had just finished reading "Undaunted: Daring to Do What God Calls You To Do," a book written by Christine Caine, the founder of the A21 Campaign. It was in information from A21 Campaign that she read the story of a 5-year-old girl in Thailand whose grandmother sold her into sex slavery.

Around the same time, one of her contacts with Propel Women sent her the information about A21 Campaign's walks; her church, Vision Church, paid for her insurance for the walk and the Du Quoin City Council awarded her a provisional permit for the walk. Registration would start at 9 a.m., with the walk starting at 10 a.m.; the walk would start and end at Keyes Park in the city's downtown.

Before October's walk, Jackson is hoping to find an actual survivor who can attend the walk and share his or her story.

"Hopefully, theyll be able to give their testimony and their story," she said, noting the impact the story of the 4-year-old girl had on her. "Numbers are overwhelming, but peoples stories can change your life.
MURPHYSBORO  A former Carbondale barbecue restaurant has opened up in Murphsyboro.

Owner Sidney Logwood opened Southern Que's Barbecue restaurant this past Saturday, hoping to find a more barbecue-friendly clientele in Murphyboro, while taking advantage of the city's new designation as the "Barbecue Capital of Illinois." He said his business did not fare as well as he'd hoped in Carbondale, in part, because of a higher price for rent and his business's dependence upon a student base that was in the city for about seven and one-half months of the year.

"The opportunities seemed to be better here in Murphysboro," Logwood said.

The restaurant is open Tuesday through Friday for lunch, 11 to 3 p.m., and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. The restaurant is closed on Sunday.

"So far, it seems that business is picking up," Logwood said.

For the past few months, he and his wife, Hope, who is co-owner of the restaurant, and other family members have been preparing the space at 1525 Walnut St., at the corner of 16th Street, to move in. Hope will manage the restaurant and four of their children and two other relatives will help out.

He's hoping to wow guests with his menu, which includes beef brisket, pulled pork, barbecue chicken, ribs, rib tips and pork links and something he calls "snoot"  which is a hog's snout, a specialty that is favored in the St. Louis area. Diners can also try his barbecue spaghetti, a favorite among patrons, and wings and catfish. He's also expecting to add steak and pork chops and his wife's zucchini bread to the menu. Plus, there is his "special" barbecue sauce.

The new space seats almost double the capacity for the old Carbondale location: seating 50 to 60 people versus 19.

Logwood said he was looking forward to joining the Murphysboro barbecue landscape, which includes Pat's BBQ and 17th Street BBQ.

"Good, better and best," Logwood said. "We are striving to be the best. I just believe that if people try our food, they will come back. We want to keep good food, good service and a good atmosphere so people will want to come back again and again."

His slogan fits, he said: "Southern Que Ribs for the soul."
WEST FRANKFORT  Joyce Fogelman was surprised when asked about paying more than what she bid in a silent auction for a charity.

I cant believe you knew that, she replied.

For someone who says she does not seek recognition for her philanthropy, the response is hardly a surprise.

Recognition has come her way  twice in the last month. The Franklin County Bar Association presented her with the Liberty Bell Award on Law Day, and she was inducted into West Frankforts Walk of Honor by the Old King Coal Committee.

Both awards recognized her community giving.

I have been very, very, very richly blessed, Fogelman said. You cant take it with you, and we are all just passing through.

She has decreed in her will that a foundation be established to continue giving after she dies, the 56-year-old businesswoman said. Fogelman owns J&S Professional Pharmacy Inc. in West Frankfort.

Shes not waiting, though.

Several causes have benefited from her giving, among them the high school music program, the fire department, Habitat for Humanity, the Salvation Army, the citys aquatic center and the West Frankfort Ministerial Alliance, the SIU Foundation and her alma mater, St. Louis College of Pharmacy.

She has served on several boards including the Rotary, Chamber of Commerce and the Community Council in West Frankfort and as a trustee for the College of Pharmacy.

The First United Methodist Church in Toledo, where her parents and grandparents attended, has a new house of worship in large part thanks to her, donating 75 percent of the cost for am 11,000-square-foot church. She also gives to her church, Benton First United Methodist Church.

She has purchased headstones for friends unable to afford them and has made trips abroad possible for many family members and friends, a profile story on Fogelman published in a booklet for this years Old King Coal Festival reported.

Fogelman recently returned from a trip to four European countries with several employees who have worked for her more than 20 years, paying their way. Shes planning another trip for other workers.

When she purchased the business in 1988, three people worked at the pharmacy. Today, there are 24. They have returned her kindness through their own with customers, often taking medicine outside to people waiting in what is often a long drive-thru line, of delivering prescriptions to peoples homes.

She has sworn off automated telephone lines and counting machines.

We need employees. West Frankfort needs employment here, she said.

By being added to the Walk of Honor, Fogelmans name will be added to markers of the 11 recipients given award since it was introduced in 2010. The markers can be found on the sidewalk in front of the Coal Miners Memorial Park.

The Old King Coal Committee hopes this will be a reminder to the citizens for years to come of the generosity of one of West Frankforts favorite citizens, the profile story stated.
SPRINGFIELD  The Illinois State Museum is preparing to reopen after being closed for eight months due to the state's ongoing budget troubles.

But plans for a July 2 reopening are contingent on an upcoming vote by state lawmakers on an admission charge. The Springfield-based museum used to be free for everyone, but will now charge adults a $5 admission fee.

Workers have been cleaning exhibits and reconfiguring the building's front foyer to make it more spacious, said Chris Young, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which oversees the museum.

"We need more space to update displays and bring in new exhibits and contents so when people come back to the museum in July, they can see new things," he said. "It's been a lot of work looking into what the museum would look like."

Workers also have been updating the museum's website and promoting it on social media, Young told the (Springfield) State Journal-Register (http://bit.ly/24mmHwJ ).

Gov. Bruce Rauner announced in September that the museum was closing as a cost-saving measure during the budget impasse.

When the museum closed, it lost about 30 workers, or roughly half its staff. But interim museum director Michael Wiant said the reopening shouldn't require additional workers.

"We have a core of staff members that remain with expertise in most of our territorial collections," he said. "I think the visiting public will still have a rich experience in the museum."

Wiant plans to hold biweekly special events after the reopening. He said the museum plans to use the money it collects from the new admission fee to programs and activities for the public.
Rep. Jerry Govan is being opposed by podiatrist Dr. Kevin Ray in the Democratic primary for the House District 95 seat.

The Democratic and Republican primaries will be held June 14.

Rep. Jerry Govan

Govan is an Orangeburg native who has represented House District 95 since 1993.

He ranks fourth in seniority in the General Assembly. He also served as chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus.

Govan obtained a bachelors degree in political science and a masters degree in teaching with a focus on early childhood education. He is just a few hours short of earning his pre-doctorate in educational leadership.

Govan is the Orangeburg County school attendance supervisor and the owner of Govan Insurance Agency.

During Govans time in the House, Orangeburg County has seen an expansion of sewer, water and wastewater services, he said.

Ive been a part of a lot of big things locally such as working with county and city council in terms of economic expansion and industrial parks, and worked on substance abuse treatment, education, economic development on a state level, Govan said.

In the past, he introduced legislation to expand pediatric trauma centers and create alcohol and other drug abuse centers.

Govan wrote the states law requiring financial literacy to be taught in the public school system.

He also successfully passed legislation which created the Higher Education Task Force.

I have proven leadership and have an extensive track record in leadership, education, public safety and economic development on both the state and local level, he said.

Govan said he will focus on roads, education and health care if re-elected.

Approximately 1,500 lose their lives each year as a result of having inadequate or lack of access to health care. It makes no sense that we have people that suffer as a lack of health care, he said.

In addition, I plan to continue to be a strong advocate and voice that makes sure rural areas dont fall through the cracks when it comes to education, he said.

He says he tries to be a bridge builder.

I work hard. I try to just simply do my job because of my love for the people of this community, Govan said.

Dr. Kevin Ray





Ray is a native of Charleston and lives in Orangeburg.

He earned a bachelors degree in biology from South Carolina State University and completed medical school at The New York College of Podiatric Medicine, which is a part of Columbia University, and completed residency training at the University of Pennsylvania.

The candidate is a podiatrist and managing partner for Carolina Foot Institute. It is the largest podiatric service in the state of South Carolina, serving one-third of the state.

Ive been working at that capacity for the last eight years, Ray said.

Ray says the slogan for his campaign is Change. Communication. Collaboration.

My skill set for accountability, strategic planning and assembling winning teams lends right into the political areas, he said.

Ray has said he wants to improve education in Orangeburg County by getting local colleges more involved in public and private schools. Focusing on science, technology, engineering and math will help prepare students for jobs and attract jobs to the area, he says.

If elected, Ray says he plans to recruit other lawmakers to support the issues that Orangeburg County is facing.

He hopes to change how Democrats are viewed by making sure bipartisan relationships are created.

Ray stresses the importance of maintaining communication with the 32,000 residents of House District 95, saying he will use his website and social media to keep constituents informed.

We will be able to supply information for the constituents so they know whats going on in Columbia, he said.

Ray says he will make sure elected officials are working together so House District 95 can get its fair share.

Its our time for us to change the status quo. For over 20 years, weve been trying to get there. Weve got to make sure that we have lawmakers in place that are about doing and problem solving as opposed to just being a lawmaker, he said.

I have a track record of getting the job done, Ray said.
State lawmakers approved a bill banning the use of ticket quotas by police departments on Thursday, the final regular day of the legislative session.

Rep. Justin Bamberg, who introduced the bill, called it a very big step in the right direction.

The bill, which still must be signed into law, states that a law enforcement agency cannot require its officers to issue a specific amount of citations during a set period of time.

Bamberg, D-Bamberg, is thankful for the help he received in the House and Senate.

There are hundreds and hundreds of bills and everyone wants a hearing on their bill, he said. I had to work to get it there. I literally got the committee hearing on the last day.

Bamberg has been pushing for the bill in the hopes that it will improve the relationship between citizens and law enforcement.

The public trust in law enforcement has been tainted, he said. Theres a lot of negativity.

Bamberg is an attorney representing the family of Walter Scott, who was shot and killed as he ran from a North Charleston police officer last year.

Officer Michael Slager was fired and charged with murder in the shooting of Scott, who he pulled over for a broken brake light. Slagers lawyer has said his client would never have pulled Scott over if not for a quota system that he claimed required officers to stop at least three drivers a day.

The bill provides whistleblower protections to officers alleging their bosses are requiring quotas.

It still allows departments to evaluate their employees based on points of contact with the community.

This is one step in what will be a continuing effort to not just improve the relationship between individuals and law enforcement but to improve the system, Bamberg said.

Bamberg is hopeful the bill will help everyone, including officers.

This removes a little bit of stress from a job thats already extremely stressful, he said.
The Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce has a new president.

Orangeburg native Melinda Robertson Jackson, 45, will officially become the business organizations new leader on June 20.

Jackson said her three priorities will be advancing education, increasing membership and enhancing retail opportunities in downtown Orangeburg.

Working with the city and the county as well as directly with the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, it will take a team approach with a unified focus on each of these areas, Jackson said. I am excited about the possibilities as the board of directors holds a wealth of knowledge in each area of industry in Orangeburg. I want to capitalize on their experience and education.

Jackson said she comes to the chamber presidency with an attitude of public service.

As a rule, I have set this goal as my primary focus, Jackson wrote in her cover letter for the position. This perception has helped me to find multiple successes throughout my career.

Jackson said her desire as new president is to build a stronger Orangeburg through education, awareness and community support.

With the right people in place and the synergy plus experience, there is no reason our county cannot continue to grow as it has and surpass even our highest goals, Jackson said, noting she is ready to set the bar high.

If you set the standard high, you definitely are sure to succeed.

Chamber board Chairman Josh Ridley said Jackson was the last candidate interviewed for the position.

We had encouraging candidates along the way and had started to narrow our list, Ridley said. But I think we can obviously say that we saved the best for last.

Ridley said the board was impressed with Jacksons extensive experience in education, business and health care, as well as her background as a small business owner.

Melinda epitomizes what wed envisioned for our chamber president, Ridley said. Her experience ties directly to our mission and it was evident during our discussions that shes passionate about moving Orangeburg forward.

Ridley expressed his appreciation to the chambers search committee for its work and dedication.

It took longer than anyone anticipated, but were so excited about Melinda in this role and it speaks to the importance of being patient and finding the right person  which we certainly did, he said.

The OCCOC nine-member presidential search committee recommended Jackson to the chamber board, which unanimously agreed with the decision.

The committee was made up of the chambers chairman, chairman-elect, five board vice presidents and two chamber members not on the board.

Melinda has so many desirable skills that make her ideal for this position, Ridley said, describing her as a natural leader, visionary and motivator.

These are qualities that we feel will foster a positive working culture and chemistry with the chamber staff, Ridley said.

Prior to starting in the new position, Jackson will be reviewing the chambers strategic plan, operating budget and event programs, Ridley said.

She definitely wants to hit the ground running on her first day, Ridley said, noting Jackson will also attend the chambers staff retreat next week.

Former President Dede Cook retired from the organization May 26. She and her husband Terry are moving to St. Augustine, Florida.

A total of 27 applications were received and vetted by the OCCOCs search committee.

Most applicants were from Orangeburg County, but there were several from other areas in South Carolina as well as outside the state.

The committee reopened the search for a new leader in April after the first round of interviews failed to produce a hire.

An Orangeburg native, Jackson graduated from Orangeburg Preparatory Schools before receiving her undergraduate degree in interdisciplinary studies in elementary education from the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Jackson earned a masters in education administration from USC in 1993.

From there Jackson worked at the South Carolina Department of Education as an education associate from 2000 to 2003 before becoming principal at John Ford Middle School in St. Matthews. Jackson later served as principal at Fairfax Elementary School in Fairfax.

Jackson was an owner for six years of Mimis Unique Boutique, a womens apparel, shoes and accessories store.

In 2010, Jackson joined Community Home Care and Hospice, where she served as a community educator.

Jackson is no stranger to service in the community.

She has served as on the chamber board and as chairwoman of the Regional Medical Center Gala, the Alzheimers Association Shagging for Karen and the Orangeburg Preparatory School Gala.

Jackson attends First Baptist Church of Orangeburg.

She is married to Kenneth Kevin Jackson. They have three children, Taylor Merritt, Reagan Merritt and Austin Jackson.
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From June 1-4 the Azerbaijani capital of Baku hosted the 23rd International Caspian Oil & Gas Exhibition and Conference.





The largest event in the energy sector in the Caspian region, the exhibition and conference has been identifying the main trends in the oil and gas industry in the region. Caspian Oil and Gas is not just a platform for communication, but a meeting place for the whole industry, annually bringing together senior industry executives to discuss key oil and gas projects in the Caspian region.





Caspian Oil&Gas 2016 brought together 240 companies from 30 countries including Azerbaijan, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Kazakhstan, China, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and others. Exhibiting companies present a wide range of equipment, services, innovative technologies for oil production and transporting energy resources, storage systems for oil and gas, platforms and floating drilling rigs, pipe laying and pipe security systems, and services. The Czech Republic, Italy and Germany arranged national pavilions at the event. This year`s newcomers included companies from the UK, Portugal, Romania and other countries.

Around 400 delegates from more than 30 countries attended the 23rd Caspian Oil & Gas Exhibition and Conference.





In his opening remarks at the exhibition, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev noted that the 23rd International Caspian Oil & Gas Exhibition and Conference is a very important and prestigious event both for Azerbaijan and for the whole world. The President said that Azerbaijan demonstrated its oil potential to the world at the first Caspian Oil & Gas Exhibition in 1994. Stressing Azerbaijans leadership and active involvement in the implementation of large-scale transnational projects, the head of state said that Azerbaijan had covered a successful and glorious path in all spheres, including the oil and gas industry and all our objectives have been met.





Noting that the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor was progressing on schedule, President Ilham Aliyev said seven countries had already become involved in the Southern Gas Corridor that stretched from Baku to the coast of Italy. He described the project as an economic and security one. The President said proven gas reserves in Azerbaijan constituted 2.6 trillion cubic metres. As a result of development of new fields gas production in Azerbaijan will increase even more. The Azerbaijani President especially outlined the countrys energy policy, and noted that it contributed to developing cooperation and ensuring stability in the region and beyond.





In his message of congratulations to the event participants, President of the United States of America Barack Obama hailed Azerbaijan`s role in the global supply of energy. 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. Over the past year, Azerbaijan and its partners have achieved significant milestones in making the Southern Gas Corridor a reality. Continued cooperation between Azerbaijan and its international partners will ensure the completion of this significant project, and the United States stands ready to assist and continues to underscore the importance of the Southern Gas Corridor with our international partners, he said. The U.S. leader applauded the Azerbaijani President`s efforts to develop the Southern Gas Corridor project and encouraged his continued steps to help achieve Azerbaijans full potential, including by promoting a diversified economy, enhancing the investment climate, strengthening accountability and the rule of law, and boosting the standard of living of the Azerbaijani people. Azerbaijan continues to have a committed partner in the United States, Barack Obama said in his message.





In his congratulatory letter, British Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the continued strong bilateral relationship between Azerbaijan and the UK. He noted that Azerbaijans energy resources will play a vital role in the European and world economy and in the energy security of Europe. The Southern Gas Corridor will play an important role in diversifying the EUs gas market and strengthening European energy security. He congratulated the Government of Azerbaijan on its role in the development of the Southern Gas Corridor and welcomed the recent ground breaking ceremony for the Trans Adriatic Pipeline on May 17. This is another significant development in delivering the Southern Gas Corridor on schedule, David Cameron said in his message.





/By Azertac/
National Iranian Copper Industries Company (NICICo) is close to securing international financing to invest in new mining and smelting capacity after the removal of sanctions, a senior official at the company told Reuters.



"We are reestablishing relationships with international banks and agencies. We are talking and there will be a conclusion soon," NICICo's sales and marketing manager Shahram Saeid said.



"We have had meetings with Chinese companies and they have made financing offers (but) we haven't yet come to an agreement."



Iran emerged from years of economic isolation in January when world powers lifted sanctions against the Islamic Republic in return for Tehran complying with a deal to curb its nuclear ambitions.



NICICo is looking to finance an expansion plan aimed at boosting its refined copper production to 400,000 tonnes a year by 2018 from 200,000 tonnes now.



It aims to produce 1.5 million tonnes of copper concentrate by 2018, up from 1.2 million, and 1.5 million tonnes of sulphuric acid versus just 60,000 tonnes a year currently.



The company sells about half of its output domestically.



"We sell copper cathode to Europe, Turkey, the UAE, Oman and China," Saeid said.



"Our copper concentrate exports mostly go to China, where they do their own refining ...We are looking at India as a potential market for our copper."



China consumes nearly half of the world's copper and in recent years has invested heavily in smelting capacity, despite tumbling prices, to reduce its imports of refined metal.



NICICo started life in 1897 and listed on the Tehran stock exchange in 2006. It is now one of the biggest mining companies in the Middle East, with more than three percent of the world's copper reserves.



Iran has 7,000 mines, of which about 70 per cent are operational, and mining employs more than 620,000 people.-Reuters
Mobily, a leading Saudi-based mobile services operator, has announced the addition of Dairy Queen Restaurants to its list of Neqaty partners as part of its loyalty programme for customers.



DQ is an unique and important addition to the program's partners, which offers the best added value to its subscribers and is considered as one of the best loyalty programs and customer retention in the region.



This partnership will work according to Neqaty program in its new attire which allows subscribers to exchange and earn points with the partners, said a statement from Mobily.



The subscribers will receive one point in their Neqaty account in return for each five Riyals they spend in ordering from DQ restaurants. The subscribers can also redeem their points upon their order from DQ restaurants if they have in their account 4,000 points or more, it stated.



DQ, which boasts 27 new branches spread across the kingdom at Riyadh, Khobar, Dammam, Al Ahsa, Jubail Buraidah, besides soon-to-open branches at Jeddah, is renowned for its meals and desserts.



It represents a versatile addition in terms of active partners of Neqaty, said the statement from Mobily.



At present, Mobily is offering the subscribers through Neqaty program, a wide and valuable range of bonuses and variable rewards to meet their desires and aspirations.



Accordingly, Mobily Neqaty program rewards are divided into two main types. The first type falls within Mobily provided services, such as the extra credit or paying part of the bill, calls, SMS and internet.



The second type includes cash discounts that can be obtained through Neqaty partners who are spread all over the Kingdom, covering all types of commercial and marketing activities, which in turn fulfills the needs of Mobilys subscribers in the Kingdom and abroad.-TradeArabia News Service
The UAE has been ranked fifth globally in the legal framework efficiency index 2016, according to the annual global competitiveness report issued by International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Switzerland.



Sultan bin Saeed Al Badi Al Dhahiri, Minister of Justice, said this advanced ranking reflected the important achievements scored by the UAE during 2016 in course of its comprehensive development that contributed to etching its position at the regional and international levels, especially in the legal and legislative areas, it stated.



The IMD index assesses the role and efficiency of regulatory and legal proceedings in the state, as well as institutional competitiveness.



The methodology of survey assesses views of individuals and institutions, and is also based on the statistical data on the economic and legal environment in the country.



Al Dhahiri said the Ministry of Justice is keen to improve the legislative and legal environment in the country through the issuance of legislation that promotes the state competitiveness at the global level and keeps pace with the tremendous development on various economic, scientific and social levels.



These laws have a profound impact in facilitating the economic cycle in the country and contribute to the achievement of happiness and well-being of its citizens, he stated.



Al Dhahiri pointed out that the ministry has contributed to the adoption of a number of key legislations during the past two years.



These have a significant impact on the business environment and economic movement in general, activation of judicial procedures, process of litigation, and an increase in customer confidence in the judicial system, and contributed to attracting internal and external investments.-TradeArabia News Service
UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan left the country today on a private visit, state news agency WAM reported on Saturday.



He was seen off by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and a number of Sheikhs,said the report.



However, it did not give any details on where he was travelling or for what purpose.



The pro-Western moderniser and head of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, the largest of the federation's seven emirates, has been president since the death of his father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, in 2004.



For much of the past decade, Sheikh Khalifa's younger brother Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, has led negotiations on behalf of the UAE in sectors ranging from energy and defence to investment and politics.



On the military front, the UAE has, since last year, been playing an important role in a Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting in Yemen, reflecting the Gulf country's growing role in Arab politics and its increasing military clout.-Reuters
Science fiction often speculates about robots that are virtually indistinguishable from humans. However, while there are examples of humanoid robots being developed, the majority of robots will not take after their creators, says GlobalData.
Russian oil billionaire Vagit Alekperov isn't easily swayed, but Saudi Arabia's new Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih achieved it this week.



Intense diplomacy by the soft-spoken Falih at his first Opec meeting - with his speech peppered by words such as "gentle approach", "no shocks" and "consensus" - has persuaded Alekperov that Opec is more alive than dead.



"The fact that Opec agreed on its new management shows they want to regain their co-ordinating role. The cartel will perform market management again," Alekperov, chief executive of Russian energy firm Lukoil, said after meeting Falih and Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh separately in Vienna.



On Thursday, Opec could not agree to set a clear oil-output target as Iran refused to limit its own production.



But the meeting was relatively peaceful and free of the usual clashes between political rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, with Falih promising not to flood the market and to listen to Tehran.



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. Oil prices stood flat at $50 a barrel on Friday, up 80 per cent from their January lows.



Falih, who in April succeeded veteran Ali Al Naimi, was the first Opec minister to arrive in Vienna.



He met most fellow colleagues on the sidelines, spent several hours with independent Opec analysts and held a long news conference with reporters.



"If you want to call it (Opec) a talking shop - I have no problem with that. But I think it's going to do a lot more than talking. We are going to do co-ordination and co-operation ... to achieve market objectives," Falih said on Thursday.



DRIVERLESS CAR



The nature of Thursday's meeting surprised many Opec watchers, who have grown used to acrimonious gatherings.



Falih's ultimate boss, Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, effectively scuppered plans to clinch a global production freeze in the Qatari capital of Doha in April.



Prince Mohammad said Riyadh would not agree to the deal, which would also have involved non-Opec Russia, if Iran didn't join in despite Tehran insisting it wants to regain market share after the lifting of international sanctions earlier this year.



"After Doha, oil markets were beginning to look like a driverless car. That needed to change," said a source familiar with Saudi thinking.



A non-Gulf Opec source said Riyadh realised it needed Opec unity because the group's fight for market share against higher-cost producers, such as US shale, was taking longer than expected when formulated in 2014.



"The Saudis trashed Opec in Doha. But they realised they don't want to throw away decades of Opec history and decided to be more co-operative," said Gary Ross, founder of US-based Pira consultancy, who came to Vienna together with other Opec watchers and analysts for meetings.



"The Saudis definitely decided to change tack after Doha as they were concerned that people were doubting the viability of Opec. I think this softer approach will last," said Amrita Sen, who also came to Vienna.



Falih acknowledges that Riyadh realised it needs Opec.



"The markets can ultimately balance themselves but as we have seen, when we rely on markets alone it is extremely painful for everybody," he said on Thursday.



"I think managing in the traditional way that we have tried in the past may never come again ... We will not go with setting a price target for Opec ... But (we should be) coordinating strategies and trying to understand what each of us can and cannot do."-Reuters
UAE-based Danube Group said its fashion and lifestyle division is set to open four new outlets of leading Turkish shirt brand Tudors in the UAE by the year end.



Danube Fashions, the franchise owner of Tudors shirts, hosted an event to mark the Turkish brand's success in the emirates. It currently operates six stores in the emirates.



The company is also the franchise owner of Spanish young fashion footwear brand Xti.



The event was attended by Mustafa Levent Bilgen,Turkish Ambassdor to UAE; Erdinc Erbay, the commercial attache for Turkish Embassy in Abu Dhabi; Serdar Fuat Kumbarac, the commercial attache for Turkish Embassy in Dubai and other senior company officials at the Tudors store at Dalma Mall, Abu Dhabi and City Centre, Al Shindagha, Dubai.



Adel Sajan, the director of Danube Group, said: "We have always championed affordability without compromising on quality, and once again with Tudors we plan to do exactly that and redefine the mens clothing segment."



"The brand equity and good synergy that we share with Tudors were the most important factors which led to this grand alliance. It has been a satisfying journey for everyone so far, in terms of a loyal customer base and operational capabilities," he added.



Yasar Ayaydin, the owner of Tudors, said: "It is named after the well-known dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms through a long time. The idea was to start a legacy and here we are, two years since inception and already present in 10 countries."



Tudors, he stated, offers shirts, knitwear- pullovers, cardigans, sweaters, vest besides accessories such as ties, belts, cufflinks, wallets, bow ties, scarf, socks, suspenders and T- shirts for formal, casual and sporty look.



"We plan to add 30 more countries as store location within next 2 years through franchising. It has been a great association with Danube and we look forward to enrich this partnership with customer loyalty and trust within the region," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Le Meridien Dubai Hotel & Conference Centre invites guests to enjoy a special Iftar at the Falcon Ballroom, as it unveils the Layali Zaman Ramadan majlis where traditional favourites and Middle-Eastern inspired cuisine will be served.

Representing the ideal ambience not just for UAE and GCC families but all cultures to commemorate the Holy Month, Le Meridien Dubai features a host of attractions providing an opportunity to create precious moments with family, friends and colleagues alike.



Transporting guests to a quintessentially Arabesque space, a plentiful array of Middle Eastern specialties with interactive cooking stations, traditional Hot and Cold Mezze, Slow Roasted Lamb Ouzi with Oriental Rice, a delightful variety of shisha, Arabic sweets and desserts can be enjoyed. Families and friends can relax and reflect while sipping Arabic coffee or mint tea, with soulful sounds of the Arabian Oudh in the background.



Featuring its own exclusive entrance accessible from the hotel's exterior along with the gracious interior, Falcon Ballroom will metamorphose into a majlis during Ramadan. Priced at Dh149 ($40.5) per person, with shisha at an extra cost, the Arabic buffet is open daily from sunset till 8:30pm, followed by an international buffet until 11 pm.



Accommodating up to 400 guests, Layali Zaman offers an authentic Arabian venue to celebrate the true spirit of the Holy Month. Every week, guests can win a host of exciting prizes from Emirates Airline and more. - TradeArabia News Service


Airlines want one global deal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from air travel despite higher costs, in order to avoid a patchwork of regulation that would be harder to manage, an executive of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) trade group said on Friday.



The market-based plan must win the support of the United Nations aviation agency's 191 member countries at a fall assembly, or risk the European Union's imposing its own emissions trading scheme on international airlines.



At its annual meeting this week in Dublin, the trade group said the deal led by the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO, should be the only agreement to reduce emissions from international aviation.



"It's really a top priority," said IATA Corporate Secretary Paul Steele. "It's dominated discussions here in our board meetings."



Steele expressed optimism that a deal would be reached at Montreal-based ICAO. The plan would allow airlines to offset their emissions by buying carbon credits from designated environmental projects.



Airlines recognize the deal would add costs. For example, the cost of fuel on an A380 flight from London to Beijing would be $45,000, and a carbon offset at the highest price would be 10 percent of that, Steele said.



"The industry hates costs," Steele said. "But this is a cost we believe needs to be built into system, and with that level and with a carbon offset scheme, we think it's the right way to go."



Countries remain divided over the proposed agreement on issues like the large number of exempted states. According to early drafts, at least a third of emissions from air travel would not have to be offset.



To help bridge the divide, Singapore recently proposed a pilot phase before the start of the global agreement, two sources familiar with the talks said.



IATA has said any pilot period should not delay the planned agreement's 2021 start date.



Steele said airlines wanted as much of the industry as possible to be involved in the program from the start.



Ahead of the fall assembly, ICAO's president and some countries will hold late August meetings before presenting a new draft to the governing council, the sources said.



Aviation was excluded from the landmark climate accord in Paris in December, when countries agreed to limit the rise in global temperatures to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.-Reuters
Qatar Airways has cancelled its first Airbus A320neo jet and remains at an impasse with the European planemaker over delays in deliveries caused by engine problems, its chief executive said on Friday.



Akbar Al Baker said the carrier would soon start talks with alternative engine supplier CFM, and had held talks with rival planemaker Boeing over switching to 737s, but was not yet walking away from Airbus.



"We will switch to the Max if we cannot resolve our issue. We will go to current option 737s and convert it to Max," he said, adding he was sure Boeing could find production slots if needed.



The airline announced in May it was reducing the frequency of more than a dozen regular routes from Doha because of hold-ups in the delivery of new planes from European manufacturer Airbus.



The delays are having an impact on Qatar Airways' bottom line, but the carrier said it is not seeking compensation, Al Baker told reporters on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association annual meeting in Dublin.



"We are 5 aircraft down this summer. This is why we are screaming because it is making a huge impact on my bottom line," Al Baker told journalists.



"We are still at an impasse. We have walked away from our first A320neo because it is more than a certain number of days late, so exercised a walk away clause," Al Baker said, adding the carrier would exercise walk-away clauses on the other four delayed planes when they reach the time limit.



He added he is also still waiting for deliveries of three A350 planes, which have been held up since February due to issues with cabin equipment.



He said he expects Airbus to deliver 10 of the planes as promised this year and that he had met with the CEO of Airbus's planemaking unit Fabrice Bregier and programme executive Didier Evrard yesterday to "iron out the issues".



"The ball is in court of Airbus. We will start delivery of the airplane delayed from February imminently, provided the issues we have are resolved," he said, adding the A350 problems were likely to be resolved before the A320neo issues.

On the 15 per cent stake in British Airways-owner IAG, Al Baker said it was a strategic rather than financial investment which helped purchasing and network planning. But Qatar Airways, he pointed out, was not seeking a board seat.



The Gulf carrier said in May it had increased its stake in International Consolidated Airlines Group to 15 per cent from 12 per cent amid a rapid global expansion.



"IAG is a strategic investment, not a financial investment," chief executive Akbar Al Baker told reporters at the International Air Transport Association annual meeting in Dublin, adding Qatar was "satisfied with 15.01 per cent."



"The benefit is really unlimited, joint purchases, joint insurance, joint component repairs, handling, joint catering," he said, adding that Qatar's Hamad International airport in Doha was a perfect hub to feed India, where IAG was not very strong.



He said he had "absolute confidence" in the management of IAG and that Qatar was not seeking a seat on the board.



Speaking to Reuters at the same conference, IAG chief executive Willie Walsh insisted that the Qatar Airways holding had no bearing on any operational tie-ups and any deepening of the partnership was "completely separate" to the equity holding.



While the airlines' cargo partnership, joint procurement and code shares were working well, "we would do these whether they (Qatar Airways) had a stake in us or not," he added.-Reuters
Computer basics

The Library will offer a Computer Basics class at 2 p.m., on Monday in the Tech Center. This class is designed for computer beginners and will take participants through a series of exercises to help learn how to use the keyboard and mouse, how USB drives work, and basics of navigating your computer. Feel free to bring your computer or use one of the library computers. Call 577-READ ext. 2 for more information. Call 577-READ ext. 2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information.

Housing info shared

Effects of the energy industrys downturn on central Wyoming housing and economy will be described at a free public session in Casper on Tuesday from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Natrona County extension office at the Agricultural Resource and Learning Center, 2011 Fairgrounds Rd., according to Hannah Swanbom, community development educator with UW Extension.

The Wyoming Multiple Listing Service and Casper Board of Realtors are joining with UW Extension to provide the session.

The number of houses on the market and in foreclosure has shifted.

Swanbom said a variety of speakers will attend the session to help provide information.

Contact Swanbom at 235-9400 or hswanbom@natronacounty-wy.gov for more information.

Free writing workshop June 13

The Natrona County Library will sponsor a free writing workshop, All the Water in Wyoming, by Lori Howe at 5:30 p.m., on Monday, June 13, in the Crawford Room. Join Wyoming landscape poet, Lori Howe, in writing on the meanings of water in Wyoming. Whether via poetry or personal essay, your knowledge, memories, and thoughts are the ink on the page in this workshop, which features a dedicated issue of Clerestory: Poems of the Mountain West.

Lori Howe is the author of Cloudshade: Poems of the High Plains and Voices at Twilight: A Poets Guide to Wyoming Ghost Towns. She has taught English and creative writing workshops for the last decade at the University of Wyoming and Laramie County Community College (Laramie and Cheyenne campuses). She holds a Bachelors degree in English and Spanish, a Masters degree in English, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from UW, and is a doctoral candidate in Literacy Studies at UW, with a focus on critical thinking skills and creativity for struggling writers.

Training for community educators

In conjunction with the Wyoming Center on Aging, the Wyoming chapter of the Alzheimers Association is presenting a class to train volunteers to take information about Alzheimers disease back to their communities.

After attending Training the Trainer: Alzheimers Instruction for Volunteer Community Educators, attendees will be able to present classes like The Basics of Alzheimers and Know the Ten Signs in their own communities.

The Training the Trainer program will be held on Tuesday, June 14, 2016 at the Agriculture Resources and Learning Center, 2011 Fairgrounds Road in Casper. The free class runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Continental breakfast and lunch will be provided and scholarships may be available to help defray travel costs.

No prior experience is required to attend, although participants are asked to take what they learn back to their communities and present programs provided by the Alzheimers Association. The Association programs include PowerPoint presentations, class handouts and teaching guides. Community Educators from more rural areas are especially encouraged to attend.

Space is limited, so those interested should register soon at http://www.uwyo.edu/wycoa

Those with questions can also call 307.766.2829 or 307.316.2892

Tips from a tech guru

The Library will offer a Tips from a Tech Guru class on Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the Tech Center. Come to learn some of the tips and shortcuts that make your computer work for you. This class will discuss password management, data backup, security settings, and more. Come learn how to use keyboard shortcuts, how to make the most of your mouse, and when to use cloud storage. Call 577-READ ext. 2 for more information. Call 577-READ ext. 2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information.

Prayer Walk June 11

Casper Vital Network hosts a Prayer Walk on June 11, 2016, at the Crossroads Park Gazebo. All activity levels are accommodated. Walk as you are able. Take a sack lunch and join the fellowship after the walk.

Buddhist teaching June 11

American Buddhist Monk, Gen Kelsang Rinzin, returns to Casper from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., on Saturday, June 11, at the Healthy Life Yoga Studio in the Sunrise Shopping Center, 4200 South Poplar St. to teach on Buddhist Tantra; Creating a Pure World. Tantra is the graduate level of Buddhist practice. This introductory lesson will not make us expert practitioners, but it is designed to introduce us to and spark our interest in this centuries old practice of creating a Pure World. Everyone of any religion or no religion is welcome. The class includes a guided meditation, the teaching and a Q & A period. A $15 donation is requested. No pre-registration required. Just come join us. Questions? Call Joe at 315-1987.

Family continues suicide support

Good Grief, Support will continue at 5:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at the 12-24 Club, 500 S. Wolcott, by request of attendees. The family of J.R. Hunter, who died from suicide in June 2015 began the support before the especially tough holiday season. Anyone who is grieving a suicide, death, or considering suicide is encouraged to attend. Attendance at the meeting, as well as the content, will be strictly confidential. The Fresh Start Cafe will be open, and you can eat during the meetings. This meeting place was offered by Dan Cantine of the 12-24 Club. You need not be a member to attend.

Plaster workshop at Art 321

We have great workshops lined up this June at ART 321/ Casper Artists Guild.

The first of two workshops, Plaster and Found Objects, will be presented by Linda Ryan. Linda is well known for her art and also as Casper College art instructor. This workshop will be held on Friday, June 10, 2016, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at ART 321/ Casper Artists Guild, 321 West Midwest Avenue. The fee is $65 for members/ $85 for non-members, plus a $15 supply fee. Open to all levels. Sign up by phone, in person, or on-line on our website: art321.org

Handgun/self defense class offered

Randy Cain is offering Handgun 101 at the Stuckenoffs Shooting Complex June 11 to 13. Cost is $600 each. Randy Cain is a world renowned self defense instructor and one of the last disciples of Jeff Cooper and the original Gunsite Academy. Handgun 101 is designed to drill down to the very basics of firearm safety, manipulation and marksmanship. It is suitable for the complete novice up through expert. A second follow-on class, Close Quarter Tactics, is offered June 17 to 19. CQT focuses on what really happens if a weapon is drawn. The class focuses on avoiding dangerous situations, but if Murphy has his way, then deflecting the initial attack, re-positioning and meeting the threat. Randy combines his lifetime of martial arts and firearms training to give his students the best chance for survival. Information and registration www.guntactics.com. Local contact Joe MacGuire 307-333-3653. Class enrollment is limited.

Portrait workshop at Art 321

Another great June workshop offered at ART 321: Drawing the Portrait in Pan Pastel and Charcoal. What a great opportunity to take this workshop by Justin Hayward, well known artist and art instructor at Casper College.

This workshop is offered on Saturday, June 25, 2016, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., ART321/ Casper Artists Guild, 321 West Midwest Ave. The fee for this workshop is $65 for members, $85 for non-members. Open to all levels. Goedickes will have a list of needed supplies for this class.

Parkinsons monthly support

Join us at 5:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month at Rocky Mountain Therapy, 2546 E. Second St., Building 500, Casper. The support group is open to anyone with Parkinsons or caring for someone with Parkinsons. To RSVP, call 577-5204 and ask for Jerri or Shannon. Upcoming meetings will be June 14 and July 12.

Parkinsons exercise

Rocky Mountain Therapy is offering a Parkinsons exercise program. Join us from noon to 1 p.m. Thursdays at Rocky Mountain Therapy, 2546 E. Second St., Building 500. These classes are open to anyone with Parkinsons or caring for someone with Parkinsons.

Thursdays class is tailored for the individual with more advanced Parkinsons and focuses on improving endurance, safety and managing symptoms. We are open to all ages and can tailor the class to meet varying exercise needs. The cost of the class is $5. To RSVP, call 577-5204 and ask for Jerri or Shannon.

Dog manners obedience class

Dog Manners Obedience Classes/STAR Puppy Classes will be held at the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds, sponsored by the Central Wyoming Kennel Club. Cost ranges from $40 to $100.

The Central Wyo Kennel Club is hosting classes for puppies and adult dogs focusing on Socialization, Training and Responsible Dog Ownership.

For more information go to centralwyomingkennelclub.org or call Charlene at 473-1614.

Celebrate Recovery every Friday

Looking for a nontraditional approach to recovery from your hurts, habits and hangups? Celebrate Recovery meets at 5:30 p.m. every Friday at Highland Park Community Church, just south of Elkhorn Valley Rehabilitation Hospital on East Second Street. We start with a family meal, followed by praise and worship. At 7 p.m., theres either a lesson from Celebrate Recoverys planned curriculum or a testimony by a person who has found recovery through Christ. Then, people go to gender-specific small groups until 8:30 p.m., when dessert and fellowship conclude the evening. Child care is available at no cost. For more information, contact Chris at 265-4073.

Self-transformation class set

Conscious Co-Creation/Self-Transformation & Healing, taught by Cathy Hazel Adams, is 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, June 25 and 26, at the Agricultural Resource Learning Center, 2011 Fairgrounds Rd. Adams is an Intuitive Quantum Transformation & Energy Healing Practitioner and Certified Matrix Energetics Practitioner. The class is also offered live via webinar. For more information, go to www.cathyhazeladams.com or call 797-9677.

Saturday morning watercolor

Art 321, Casper Artists Guild Saturday morning watercolor classes are 10 a.m. to noon, with the following lineup of classes: June 11, practice session; June 18, Holly Bryson, including figures in your paintings; June 25, practice session. For more information, please call Ellen Black at 265-6783.

Here and Now: Dementia-focused monthly art class

Classes are every third Tuesday of the month from 1 to 3 p.m. There is no charge. Here and Now is a program made possible through a collaboration between Wyoming Dementia Care and the Nicolaysen Art Museum. It is designed to provide a supportive environment for people with dementia and Alzheimers and their loved ones.

To register, contact Dani with Wyoming Dementia Care 265-4678, ext. 106, or at wyodementia@casperseniorcenter.com or Zhanna Gallegos at 235-5247 or at zgallegos@thenic.org
Wyomingites dont have to worry about the Zika virus coming to the Cowboy State. The Wyoming Department of Health considers such an event highly unlikely.

The virus, which has circulated throughout South America, has been known to cause birth defects in pregnant women. It is spread through mosquito bites, but the types of mosquitoes that carry the disease do not live in Wyoming.

Despite the low chance of the Zika virus reaching Wyoming, the state Department of Health still advises locals to be aware of the travel warnings associated with affected countries.

Anyone who lives in or travels to an area where Zika virus is found and has not already been infected can get it from mosquito bites. People who have sex without a condom with a man who has Zika may also be at risk, Katie Bryan, a Wyoming Department of Health epidemiologist, said in a press release.

Zika can be passed from moms to babies during pregnancy and there are strong links between the virus and a brain-related type of birth defect known as microcephaly. We want women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant to check whether their travel destination is affected by Zika virus and if it is they should consider postponing their plans. Their partners also need to know the risks.

Another mosquito-related virus that does circulate throughout Wyoming is West Nile virus. Symptoms include fever, rash, body aches, headache and swollen lymph nodes.

West Nile first appeared in Wyoming in 2002. Its sickened as few as two people in some years and as many as 393, according to a Health Department press release,

To prevent West Nile virus, wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts when outdoors, use mosquito repellent and avoid being outside during dawn and dusk, which is when mosquitoes infected with the virus prefer to feed.
Editor:

The AP fawningly reported from Hiroshima that Barack Obama continued his anti-nuclear crusade by calling on the world to abandon the stockpiling of nuclear weapons. Obama said: We must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without (nuclear weapons).

This from a man who rammed through a nuclear agreement with Iran despite U.N. warnings that Iran had been deceiving weapons inspectors since 2006. Obama stated that Iran wont pursue nuclear weapons because, according to their Supreme Leader, its contrary to their faith.

Obama administration officials recently admitted that a narrative had been manufactured and sold to the press (and, through them, to the American people) concerning moderates in Iran. Obama and his minions intentionally deceived Americans into accepting a dangerous agreement with a Death to America-chanting, terrorist-sponsoring Iranian regime which has publicly declared its intention to destroy both America and Israel.

And now, on the eve of Memorial Day, the Narcissist-in-Chief Obama has the nerve to lecture the world about the dangers of nuclear proliferation and the use of nuclear weapons!

President Ronald Reagan knew that the most effective and realistic way of avoiding war  including nuclear confrontations  was through strength. As with another appeaser  Neville Chamberlain in pre-war England  Obama has shown that he understands nothing about dealing with tyrants.

During the 1980s leftwing demonstrators paraded around the streets of Europe demanding a nuclear freeze with the USSR and opposing a proposed deployment of defensive missiles on the continent. A British clergyman remarked at the time that these folks reminded him of sheep who had forgotten that there were still ravenous wolves about in the world who dearly love the taste of mutton.

The problem with sweeping pronouncements containing lofty sentiments and flowery rhetoric is that so many innocent people die as a result of relying on them. While conservatives try to learn lessons from history, the left views the historical record as something which must be overcome if they are ever to create that illusive utopia theyve been ardently seeking since the days of the French Revolution.
Dear Jeanne & Leonard:

My wife and I arranged with another couple to rent a house on Cape Cod for a week in July, a house large enough to accommodate both couples and all of our children. The cost of the rental is $2,000, and each couple kicked in $500 toward the nonrefundable deposit. The remaining $1,000 is due next week, and heres whats happening: The other couple owns a liquor store, and the manager and a clerk just quit, so they need to stay home and tend the store.

Unfortunately, neither we nor they have been able to find another family to take their place on such short notice. Nevertheless, our friends feel they shouldnt have to pay the additional $500 they owe for the rental just so, as they put it, our family can have the place to ourselves. Well, my wife and I feel we shouldnt have to pay $1,500 in rent when each couple had agreed to pay $1,000. Whos right?  Nick, New York

Dear Nick:

You are. The fact that the balance of the rent hasnt been paid gives the other couple the right to walk away from the landlord, who presumably specified the payment schedule with the possibility of a cancellation in mind. But it doesnt give them the right to walk away from their commitment to you to pay half of the rent.

That said, your family will indeed be getting the place to yourselves. Surely that has to be worth something. So why not offer to split the disputed $500 with your friends? Isnt the friendship worth $250 to each of you?

Dear Jeanne & Leonard:

While visiting friends in Texas, a guy at work bought a T-shirt at a shooting range, and he sometimes wears it to work. The name of the place is on the front of the shirt, and on the back, in large letters, it says, Where the Second Amendment Comes First. Everyone understands that this guy is being ironic with the shirt  hes in favor of gun control  and nobody objects to his wearing it.

But it turns out that half of the $20 he paid for the shirt went to a gun-rights group. Wasnt he wrong to buy it when he knew some of his money would go to an advocacy group whose position he opposes?  Jessica, Los Angeles

Dear Jessica:

Were glad you work in an environment so enlightened that workers are able to tolerate the sight of political slogans with which they disagree ... at least when they know the slogans are displayed with irony.

More to the point, your co-worker did nothing wrong in buying the T-shirt, the built-in contribution to the rights group notwithstanding. Because just as hes free to hold whatever political positions he chooses, hes equally free to decide which issues hes not interested in having guide his purchasing decisions, right down to the T-shirt level.

Put another way, Jessica, being less passionate about gun control than you seem to be doesnt make your co-worker a bad person.

Dear readers:
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There once was a man

By jokeharmonica and hey pedro! (Piltdown Man Publishing, $10; available at Mostly Books, Antigone Books, and Revolutionary Grounds)

So ... how could you describe a 5-by 7-inch, 69-page, hand-lettered, witty, visual parable about the meaning of life (illustrated with colorful original ... collages ... re-assembled, re-worked, and re-created on a table in a sun room  using a Pentel Stylo, colored pencils, kitchen shears, a glue stick, masking tape, and a great deal of humor .... )?

In one word: Delightful.

Five more words: Buy one for a friend.

An American Soldier in the Great War: The World War I diary and Letters of Elmer O. Smith

Edited by John DellaGiustina (Hellgate Press, $21.95)

In 1916, Elmer O. Smith was a Michigan farm boy working in a restaurant and trying to study at night in town. The concerns in his letters home include the state of the farm, family health, and dance parties. In 1918, Smith was a 21-year-old Army private at war in France.

The concerns in his letters home include the state of the farm, his fathers health, and how the shrapnel embedded in his chest wont bother him. Remarkably, the tone in those letters hardly changes. What we see in An American Soldier in the Great War is an unassuming man who played a quiet part in a momentous event.

Tucsonan John DellaGiustina, a retired U.S. Army Military Intelligence officer, collected and edited the diary and letters of his mothers father for this work. To avoid being drafted, Smith joined the Michigan National Guard. However, his Guard unit was federalized, and he ended up in the 119th Field Artillery Regiment, which went to the front in the war against Germany. DellaGiustina situates Smiths diary and letters in the larger context of a World War I history, and the book ends up an informative, very readable portrait.

Dead and Dead for Real

By R. L. Clayton (R.L. Clayton. Print, $14.99; e-book, $3.99)

An unexpected character appears late in this thriller by Tucsonan R.L. Clayton: Conscience, and the question of good and evilin the form of disembodied voice.

Central characters Katherine (Kiki) Russell and Nick Sabino, veterans of the conflict in Afghanistan, have discovered a plot by terrorists to infiltrate and attack Americans within the country. It began with the murders of families of U.S. service personnel who fought in the Middle East  the family of Kiki, a top-notch sniper  being among the first. Initially to exact revenge, and later, to prevent further killings, Nick and Kiki develop an excruciatingly effective psychological technique for interrogating bad guys. A slip-up gets Kiki kidnapped, and Nick needs police help, but that then catalyzes the alphabet soup brigade  FBI, CIA, etc.and questions of motive, jurisdiction, and conscience arise.

Intuitive/Counterintuitive: The Structure of Religion and Science

By Richard C. Johnson, PhD ($37.52; $7. e-book).

In Intuitive/Counterintuitive, research chemist Richard C. Johnson further develops arguments he laid out in his two previous books, Religion: The Failed Narrative and The Human Identity Problem. Drawing on the writing of Daniel Kahneman, he posits the theory that religious belief is an outgrowth of instinct, a primitive drive necessary for human survival.

The human realm of reason  along with science  can be tapped to decipher the weaknesses in instinct that would drive human beings to adopt religion or believe in the Man-in-the-Sky. It is difficult to be an atheist in contemporary America, Johnson asserts, but reason and science are the atheists tools for support and making sense of life.

Journey to the Heart of the Condor: Love, Loss, and Survival

in a South

American Dictatorship

By Emily C. Creigh and Dr. Martin Almada (Casa Sartori, $17.50)

Hotel Guarani, a luxury hotel in Asuncion, Paraguay, serves as a pivot point for this compelling dual narrative. Its the venue for much-appreciated rest and relaxation for U.S. Peace Corps volunteers. Its also where prisoners from a clandestine prison are dispatched to scavenge leftovers to feed other inmates.

From 1975 to 1977, Tucsonan Emily C. Creigh was one of those Peace Corps volunteers. Paraguayan Martin Almada was an educator and political prisoner. In Journey to the Heart of the Condor, Creigh and Almada tell their separate stories in alternating chapters of life under the Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship. Almadas is harrowing, starting with his Kafkaesque arrest, interrogation, and sadistic torture over a thousand days of incarceration.

It continues with horrific accounts of torture and murder of innocents under the sanction of Operation Condor, an international anticommunist campaign supported by the U.S. Creighs tale  chirpy, guileless, patriotic, well-intentioned  exemplifies the American attitude toward anti-communist dictatorial regimes in the 1970s. Creighs and Almadas stories can each stand alone, but they are a devastating indictment read together.

The Ancient Southwest: A Guide

to Archeological

Sites

By Gregory McNamee with photographs by Larry Lindahl (Rio Nuevo, $16.95)

Its been out for a while (2014), but so have its subjects (tens of thousands of years), and this stunning book deserves a mention. The Ancient Southwest covers art, artifacts, and structures from the core Southwest  modern Arizona and New Mexico, eastern Utah and southwestern Colorado.

Writer Gregory McNamee and photographer Larry Lindahl take us through 50 sites  national and state parks, monuments, and significant locales  providing archaeological history and images of pottery, baskets, jewelry, weavings, and petroglyphs and pictographs organized by state. The striking colors (sunsets, reds, sky blues), the angles, and contrasts of Lindahls photographs rival the spectacular rock art of Nine Mile Canyon Petroglyphs or the pueblos of Mesa Verde hes captured.

An American Miner in Peru: A Lesson in Patience and Perseverance

By Chuck Preble. (Wheatmark. Amazon, $9.95 printed; 7.99 e-book)

In An American Miner in Peru, Chuck Preble chronicles his career working for the Southern Peru Copper Corporation, 15 of those as president and chief executive officer. Preble describes family life (he married a woman he met there, and they raised two sons in the camp and in Lima); challenges of copper extraction, pollution mitigation, and labor relations.

Preble organizes his book according to who was in power at the time, from democratically-elected presidents to military dictatorships. The fate of foreign-owned companies depended on the politics of the time.

The Cadet Nurse Corps in Arizona:

A History of Service

By Elsie M. Szecsy, with a foreword by Richard Carmona (Arcadia Publishing and The History Press, $21.99)

Former ASU academic professional Elsie M. Szecsy includes Tucsons St. Marys Hospital School of Nursing in this book highlighting the work of Arizona nurses during the Second World War. Szecsy was inspired by her mothers experience as a cadet to investigate the role of cadet nurses during the war.

She provides background the chronic nursing shortage since World War I, segregated training facilities, and increased need due to the war effort  that gave rise to the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps. She describes the establishment of five corps facilities in Arizona, their success rates, and profiles of Arizona women who participated in the program. She discusses issues of race and ethnicity in nurses training, addresses Japanese-American internment in Arizona, and includes photographs and rosters of Cadet Nurse Corps participants.

The Autobiography of Brutus Buckeye: As Told to His Parents Sally Lanyon and Ray Bourhis

By Sally Lanyon and Ray Bourhis (Orange Frazer Press, $19.95)

An anecdotal and pictorial retrospective of the Ohio State mascot, Brutus Buckeye from its conception in 1965 through its various versions to today.

A labor of love from Lanyon and Bourhis  Ohio State alumni and creators of the original Brutus  and of regional interest.

The Day Hal Quit

By Jim Christ (Joseph and Associates, $9.95)

Tara was a rebellious and independent teenager but after thugs bludgeon her mother during a robbery, she starts living with abandonment, shuffling her college studies with drug running. While making a drop, the last thing Tara and her Yaqui boyfriend Caje expect is running into a psychotic redneck who recognizes an easy score. What he doesnt realize is that Tara comes armed. In addition to a machine gun, she has another weapon  her friend Hal. But will his arsenal be enough to get her way out of this jam? A debut novel and fast ride through the desert and grass country of Southern Arizona.

The Knights at the Round Table: Lifes Funny Moments and Eclectic Recipes to Match!

By Judith Knight (Xlibris, $14.71)

Tucson author Knight serves up a main course of recipes with a side-dish of anecdotes, utilizing cooking and baking shortcuts including her favorite brand of mayonnaise and onions (Vidalia) in these user-friendly recipes sure to please any palate. The only missing ingredient is accompanying photographs.
The Racial Reconciliation Community Outreach Network will host the 30th annual Awakening Conference "Now is Our Time" to promote racial diversity and sensitivity within Christian churches and ministries, according to press materials.

The conference begins 7 p.m. Thursday, June 9 at St. Marks Presbyterian Church, 3809 E. Third Street. The Rev. Snow Peabody, executive state director of Teen Challenge of Arizona, Inc. will speak.

At 7 p.m. Friday, June 10, the conference will continue at St. Marks with a presentation of performance arts.

Saturday, June 11, the conference will move to the Sheraton Tucson Hotel & Suites, 5151 E. Grant Road. The first session, "Making Peace with Justice and Reconciliation with Justice" runs 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday. The second session from noon to 2 p.m. discusses the ability of fine arts to promote unity.

All sessions are free.

The weekend concludes with a banquet at the Sheraton 6 p.m. Saturday, with tickets at $65 each.
Many Muslims will recognize the beginning of Ramadan Monday, June 6.

The holy month of daytime fasting is based on the lunar calendar. The last day is Tuesday, July 5.

The Islamic Center of Tucson, 901 E. First Street, will mark the eve of Ramadan with prayers at 9:30 p.m. Sunday, June 5. The Muslim Community Center of Tucson, 5100 N. Kevy Place, will host prayers starting 9:15 p.m. Sunday, June 5, according to mosque Facebook posts.
Marilyn Malone loves learning.

Which is why the former teacher entered the police academy at age 45 and went on to become a detective. And why she took up flying and why, in retirement, she devoted years of her life to studying the tide pools of the Upper Gulf of California and then discovering the trials and tribulations of turning all that knowledge into a book.

If we had known the amount of work  although we enjoyed it  we probably wouldnt have done it, says Malone, 78, reminiscing from the couch in her living room that looks out over an expanse of west-side desert.

Malone and longtime friend Betty Hupp, 87, transformed four years worth of Rocky Point trips and research along with thousands of photos into their self-published The Edge of the Sea of Cortez in 2008. The book received praise for its generous use of color photos and conversational tone  a welcome change of pace from typically dry, light-on-the-pictures field guides. And that, the women figured, was the end of it.

Not quite.

After the book went out of print three years ago, people started asking for it. Not an avalanche of requests  Its such a niche book, Malone notes  but enough to consider another print run.

Weekly paper Ajo Copper News wanted to stock more books, and a real estate agent in Mexico said he never entered a condo that didnt have a copy on the coffee table. Turns out The Edge of the Sea of Cortez was the Rocky Point equivalent of a hotel-room bible.

So Malone and Hupp plunged their toes back into those waters teeming with sea life.

This go-round, they split up their efforts. Hupp is concentrating on an electronic version of The Edge, which works on different platforms and is expected to debut later this month. Malone focused on updating the print edition.

Im married to a printer, she says, referring to husband Ray Keck. I like ink and mess.

In fact, she likes it so much that she spends much of her spare time these days taking online art classes and creating sea-themed, block-print art that she hopes to turn into book tie-in merchandise like linens and housewares.

Malone, who says it cost $13,000 for 3,000 copies of the 102-page book printed locally by Arizona Lithographers, isnt expecting to make money. She just hopes the book  which includes a glossary and expanded information on conservation and shell archaeology  will be useful to people. Its the kind of guide she and Hupp wouldve loved to have had when they were moms visiting Puerto Penasco and their kids would rush up to them with a beach discovery, wondering what it was.

But, back then, they were too busy raising their families to tackle such an endeavor. It took retirement to create a book. In fact, Malone herself is book material.

Her father was a Navy pilot who was killed on the Japanese island of Okinawa during World War II, leaving behind three young daughters. Malones mother ended up marrying another Navy pilot.

I guess theyre addictive, laughs Malone, who has an identical twin.

The blended family  her stepdad had a daughter, too  moved around a lot. Malone landed at the University of Arizona to study art and archaeology and taught art and geography at Pueblo High School. Married at the time to Carl Hodges, one of the founders of CEDO, the Spanish acronym for the Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans and founding director of the University of Arizonas Environmental Research Lab, she left teaching to be able to accompany him on his many trips to the Sea of Cortez.

After 21 years of marriage and two kids, the two divorced and Malone entered the police academy. She worked as a beat cop before becoming a detective, first in sex crimes and then investigating child abuse and neglect cases. Though she loved the job and working with a team, the protective emotional armor the job required was tough to wear.

I could look at a dead baby and not feel any emotion, Malone, who has four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, says of her decision to retire. I thought, Im not going to lose my soul.

It wasnt easy transitioning into retirement  Malones husband jokes that she continued to jot notes when they were out to dinner with friends  but the project with Hupp soon became a full-time job.

The two women would spend days at a time in Mexico, lugging boxes of research materials. Most people bring beer, Malone says.

She and Hupp laugh when they recall how they walked around always holding hands for stability. Those reefs can be ankle-breakers, Malone says.

Locals assumed the two were a couple.

Though travel warnings have been issued for some parts of Mexico and people may be nervous about traveling south of the border, Malone says people should be sensible and alert, as they should be at home.

I wouldnt go out in the dark without a bunch of people. I wouldnt do that here in Tucson.

Throughout her travels in Rocky Point and other parts of Sonora, people were nice and so willing to share their culture and what they knew about the creatures calling the tide pools home.

Malone smiles. It is a very special place.
Filmmaker Charlie Minn is always looking for a victim. Fires, shootings, disappearances, you name it; if he hears of a victim without a voice, he wants to make a film about it.

Most of my films are victim-driven, Minn says. Ive done three films in Juarez about all the murders there: 10,000-plus between 2008 and 2011. I did a film about the 43 missing students in Ayotzinapa (in Guerrero, Mexico). That film actually played here in Tucson last November.

In all, Minn says hes made 20 films since 2009, and shown eight of them in Tucson. His newest, 49 Angels, is about the ABC day care fire that killed 49 children in Hermosillo, Mexico, on June 5, 2009, and injured dozens of others.

Marking the anniversary of that tragedy, Minn is hosting Q&A sessions after all showings of the film at the Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St., June 4 and 5.

The film runs through June 9.

What was the hardest part about making 49 Angels?

Getting the government to talk to us. And even if they talked to us, who knows what type of information they would have given. Maybe it really was corruption and there was no way out, because now its pretty well-known that someone was hired to destroy the paperwork inside the warehouse (next door).

It was the fire in that warehouse that spread to the day care, melting the ceiling over the room where 142 children were napping and causing the devastation. It was two hours before firefighters could quell the blaze. In May, 19 convictions in connection with the fire were announced, with sentences of 20 to 29 years.

Heres the thing with a tragedy, people want to blame someone for it. And I understand that because so many people are upset or angered and their lives are altered, and you wanna say whos the SOB who caused all this? Or the SOBs that caused this? This thing got so confusing because you dealt with a federally-funded establishment thats privately owned, and these people were government officials wives (who owned the day care). So that gets dangerous.

What have you learned about finding justice in Mexico?

Heres the interesting thing about Mexico, I mean the government says 95 percent of murders go unsolved. But the high-profile ones, the ones that are so political, tend to get solved because theres so much pressure. Certain cases are investigated, but I would say, generally, cases involving poor people are not looked at. People know they can get away with it, they know poor people cant go out and hire a big lawyer. They have no rights, theyre given no rights. Im sure Mexico is not alone in this, its a global pattern where if youre poor, you just dont have the political power. Your voice just tends to be not as significant.

How does filmmaking make a difference?

I think the masses have to come together. I remember five years ago there was a movement called the Kony movement in South Africa, and so many people came together that the U.S. government actually took administrative action. So at the end, its up to the people, its up to the masses. And with social media today, theres no excuse not to get behind something if youre passionate about it ... .

Most of my films represent innocent people who have been killed or murdered. And documentaries are meant to inform, educate, raise awareness for social change. But I cannot do this alone, I can only put it out there. So, its going to have to become a collaboration.

How did you start making movies?

I mean, gosh if I wasnt making films I just dont know what else Id be doing. It would be tough. I mean filmmaking actually saved my life, to be honest. In broadcasting, I burned out. I remember a moment in summer 2009 I just didnt know where my life was going. I really had reached a fork in the road, I had to go one way or the other, and the filmmaking, I dont know if I found it or it found me. It was just kind of a collision course. And when I made Nightmare in Las Cruces (in 2009) if someone told me youre gonna make 20 more films by 2016, I wouldve said you gotta be nuts. I just wouldnt have even fathomed that even as a remote possibility.

Currently, Minn is working on a film about the violent murders of women in Juarez, Mexico. He hopes to complete the as-yet untitled project in the fall.

Find more information about Minn and his films at charlieminn.com and about 49 Angels at 49angels.com
A 72-year-old man suffered "extreme heat exhaustion" while hiking in upper Tanque Verde Falls Friday.

Shortly before 4 p.m., the Pima County Sheriff's Department Search and Rescue unit, along with Southern Arizona Rescue Association, responded to the area for an "unresponsive man on the trail," said Deputy Ryan Inglett.

Search and rescue crews contacted the Arizona Department of Public Safety Ranger helicopter. The man was airlifted to Tucson Medical Center, Inglett said.

He is being treated for "serious heat-related injuries," Inglett said.

Friday's high was 107 degrees, and this weekend it is expected to top at 111 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Officials advise that outdoor activities be limited between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.  the hottest part of the day, said Inglett.

He said hikers should pre-hydrate, bring plenty of water, carry a cell phone and hike with another person. Outdoor activities should be done in the early morning hours.
Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus has confronted challenges since he took over the department in January. He has met them and said he looks forward to working to make the force one of the best in the country.

Magnus recently learned that the police department was among 15 agencies selected nationwide to become a model of best practices in law enforcement and in strengthening relationships between officers and the community.

The department was selected as part of an initiative to provide support in advancing the recommendations of President Obamas Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Experts will work with the department by providing hands-on assessments and technical support to advance its policing practices.

Law enforcement executives, including retired Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor, police labor representatives, criminal justice scholars and community activists recommended how policing could be improved across the country.

Among the focuses are building trust and legitimacy, policy and oversight, technology and social media, community policing and crime reduction, training and education, and officer wellness and safety.

We will be tracked for a year on how to implement it. Within that year we want to produce a template that will become a national model, said Magnus. We will work to make it real.

In an interview this week, Magnus also gave a synopsis of his major accomplishments  with the help of his command staff  during the past five months. Among the top was a reorganization of the force to beef up patrols so officers can work closely with neighborhoods to solve crime, and the purchase of new equipment, including cellphones for cops.

The cellphones will be distributed this month, and he said new patrol cars to replace an aging fleet are expected soon.

Under his proposed budget is a plan to save the city $14.5 million by mid-2017. It has the support of City Manager Michael Ortega, who he also has asked for a $7 million rebate from the savings, for department needs including new uniforms, patrol cars, cellphones and officer training.

The current police department budget is $168 million. On Tuesday, the City Council is expected to approve the proposed police operating budget of $160 million.

We worked really hard to make a significant reduction in our budget to help contribute to the larger fiscal health of the city, said Magnus. He said the department would drop from about 900 sworn officers to about 830 by fiscal year 2017.

Jason Winsky, government affairs director for the Tucson Police Officers Association, said the union understands why the decision was made to do the department reorganization, but the bottom line is when we get down to 850 cops or lower that simply will not be enough officers to effectively police the city.

We are looking forward to regrowing the organization as fast as we can, Winsky said. As a community we are going to have to prioritize public safety and a component of that is going to be competitive compensation for police officers, he said.

Magnus agreed with the importance of hiring more officers as soon as the budget allows.

The chief defines the patrol officer as the backbone of the department, and he said the reorganization has strengthened patrol  a necessary point for officer safety.

Starting in May, about 75 officers were placed back into squad cars patrolling the city. We have really been understaffed in our patrol function. This has been a source of frustration for many people and officers as well, Magnus said.

Detectives also began leaving their desks at the main station and moving back to divisions to work closer with patrol units in solving crimes. Lieutenants are also riding in patrol cars and working with officers on their beats.

We are making a real commitment to full service policing, which means not only responding to calls for service but also being much more proactive in neighborhoods and focusing on residents priorities, said Magnus.

We are trying to build our relationships at the street level with folks, neighborhood groups, schools, faith communities, businesses and nonprofit agencies who are partnering with us to help prevent and solve crime, the chief said. This all will take time, and we are working on it.

Magnus said he also is looking to get crime data into the hands of officers quickly. More crime analysis personnel need to be trained in using a new computer system that provides real time data, he said.

He cited property crime as an example that would be tackled through the computer system. It would show where the problem areas are and the data would be given to the officers so they could come up with a plan to combat the problem, including the use of extra patrols, undercover operations and talking to residents about prevention methods.

Data could also show who just got out of prison, or is on parole or probation and has a history of burglaries. The information would be shared with officers and sergeants who could pay people a visit, Magnus said.

This type of policing could be done to solve quality-of-life and traffic issues in neighborhoods. I want residents to have the best relationship with officers who are taking ownership of their beat, and who have the tools and resources to do problem-solving, he said.

Mental health and substance abuse issues also need to be tackled, the chief said. He said commanders are doing research to come up with models and proposed plans to work with social service agencies to aid people released from prison or jail.

They need resources, training skills and a change in lifestyle to keep them out of crime, or from becoming homeless, he said. Magnus said depending on the crime, some may qualify for innovative programs that would be an alternative to jail and provide substance abuse treatment.

Another concern, said Magnus, is Santa Rita Park on South Fourth Avenue at East 22nd Street. Two homicides  one last year and one this year  occurred in the park, and arrests were made in both crimes.

The longtime park, home to ball teams and to a skate park, is also frequented by homeless people  some with substance abuse problems.

People who live around there are freaked out about what is going on at this park. People who work there (parks and recreation employees) are extremely unhappy about it. We need to be involved in a bigger way. I cant do anything about those two murders. They are tragedies. My goal moving forward is how do I prevent that from happening again, Magnus said.
ATLANTA  From tropical rains to tornadoes, about half of the U.S. expected to see wet and at times severe weather this weekend, capping a week of scorching temperatures out West and flooding that killed nine soldiers when their military vehicle got caught in the rushing waters of a rain-swollen creek at Fort Hood, Texas.

People along the Gulf Coast kept a watchful eye on a system over the Caribbean Sea that was forecast to bring 5 to 10 inches of rain to parts of Florida. The storm is likely to develop into a tropical cyclone.

In the Mid-Atlantic region, the nation's capital and more than 17 million people braced for the possibility of severe thunderstorms, damaging winds and tornadoes Sunday.

Here's a look at what people are doing to prepare and recover from the various types of weather:

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TROPICAL RAINS

The hurricane season is just a few days old, and its third named storm may be developing near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says the system has a good chance of forming into a tropical cyclone, and even if it doesn't, it will still bring heavy rains along the Gulf Coast.

Police in St. Petersburg distributed sandbags to residents Saturday in anticipation of the drenching beginning Sunday night. Gov. Rick Scott was closely monitoring the weather and warned residents, tourists and businesses to be prepared.

Florida's emergency management director Bryan Koon said they expected a fast-moving storm, which means it could mature rapidly. The severe weather could last through Tuesday.

"Even if this system does not develop into a named storm, it still poses significant risks from flooding, damaging winds and tornadoes, and rip currents," he said.

If the storm does develop, it would be named Colin.

Last weekend, Bonnie formed off the South Carolina coast, inundating parts of the East Coast. On Saturday, Bonnie was weakening far offshore and posed no threat to land.

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TAKING AIM AT THE NATION'S CAPITAL

More than 17 million people in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Raleigh, North Carolina, are looking at an "enhanced" risk of severe thunderstorms Sunday, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center.

Damaging winds, a tornado or two and marginally severe hail are expected from the Southeast to as far north as New York.

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UNYIELDING TEXAS FLOODING

It's been several days since deadly flooding began in parts of southeast and central Texas, and the rain just started to let up Saturday.

In its wake, Army officials investigated a training exercise that went horribly wrong at Fort Hood, leading to the deaths of nine soldiers whose vehicle was swept into rushing waters of a rain-swollen creek. Three soldiers were pulled from the water and survived.

Coryell County emergency medical services chief Jeff Mincy told the Killeen Daily Herald that only the wheels of an Army troop-transport truck were visible after swift flood waters washed the 2-ton vehicle from a low-water crossing on the installation. He surmised the waters were about 8 feet deep.

Meanwhile, several counties in and around Houston were under a flash flood watch or flood warning Saturday due to days of rain that had creeks and rivers flowing out of their banks.

The Brazos River is causing trouble for communities in Fort Bend County, especially near where the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico. County Judge Robert Hebert said floodwaters are receding but warned some neighborhoods are still cut off and many local streets are impassable.

"As water levels recede we will be able to get into these inundated areas and assess the damage," he said.

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Countries value their national security above all else. Today, organized militaries employ nearly 200 million people worldwide  modern countries rarely lack a standing army. Armed services can be generally broken down into land-based armies, seafaring navies and high-flying air forces, though some countries do have additional branches such as the United States Coast Guard and Marines.

Using data from the World Bank, FindTheData, part of the Graphiq network, crunched the numbers to find the top 10 countries with the most troops. Rather than using aggregate troop count to rank the list, we ordered it by the percentage of a countrys total labor force represented by its troops. The World Bank defines armed forces as any active military personnel that have received some form of training and are properly organized. This includes paramilitary forces, such as private contracted defense agencies like Academi (formerly known as Blackwater) that have adequate training to qualify them to support or replace state troops. Labor force is defined as a countrys economically active population.
Mukhisa Kituyi, of Kenya, became UNCTAD's seventh Secretary-General on 1 September 2013. After serving an initial four-year term, he was reappointed by the General Assembly in July 2017 for an additional term that began on 1 September that year.

Dr. Kituyi has an extensive background as an elected official, an academic, and a holder of high government office. He also has wide-ranging experience in trade negotiations, and in African and broader international economics and diplomacy.

He was born in Bungoma District, western Kenya, in 1956. He studied political science and international relations at the University of Nairobi and at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, receiving a BA in 1982. He went on to earn an MPhil in 1986 and a doctorate in 1989 from the University of Bergen, Norway.

Dr. Kituyi served as a researcher at Norway's Christian Michelsen Institute from 1989 to 1991, and as Programme Director of the African Centre for Technology Studies in Nairobi from 1991 to 1992.

He was elected to the Kenyan Parliament in 1992, and was twice re-elected.

He was Kenya's Minister of Trade and Industry from 2002 to 2007.

During this period, Dr. Kituyi chaired for two years the Council of Ministers of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the African Trade Ministers' Council.

He also served as chairman of the Council of Ministers of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, and was lead negotiator for Eastern and Southern African ministers during the European Union-ACP Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations. He was convenor of the agriculture negotiations carried out at the World Trade Organization's Sixth Ministerial Conference held in Hong Kong, China in 2005.

From 2008 to 2012, Dr. Kituyi was a member of a team of experts advising the presidents of the nations of the East African Community on how to establish more effective regional economic links.

From 2011 to 2012, he was a consultant for the African Union Commission, where he helped to develop the structure for a pan-African free trade area.

Immediately prior to becoming Secretary-General, Dr. Kituyi was Chief Executive of the Kenya Institute of Governance, based in Nairobi. The Institute is a think tank and advocacy organization that focuses on linking academic research and the development of public policy.

During 2012, Dr. Kituyi also served as a non-resident fellow of the Africa Growth Initiative of the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. He was a resident scholar there in 2011.

Dr. Kituyi is married and has four children.
Paul Akiwumi is the director of UNCTADs division for Africa, least developed countries and special programmes.

He has a wealth of knowledge and extensive experience in the areas of political, diplomatic and development policy at the national, regional and global levels with governments, the private sector and civil society.

Previously, Mr. Akiwumi served as director of the economic, social and development affairs unit in the executive office of the secretary-general of the UN in New York. Prior to this role, he was the chief of staff in the office of the deputy secretary-general of the UN.

Before joining the UN, he was a senior advisor to the chief executive officer of the Global Environment Facility in Washington D.C. Earlier in his career, he served with the UN Environment Programme as chief of staff. He also worked for the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Economic Commission for Africa.

He holds a master's degree from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.
How start-ups are boosting investment in South-East Asia

The rise of start-ups in the region is a factor behind the dynamism of foreign direct investment there, an UNCTAD-ASEAN report finds.
As major new initiative for integrated policy support to advance the SDGs, a new pooled fund has been jointly developed, the Joint Fund for the 2030 Agenda.

The substantive focus of the Joint Fund reflects an area in which the UN, as a smart investor, expects to achieve the greatest impact by allocating its resources wisely. The Fund reflects the UN's financing approach, outlined in the UNDG companion piece, "Funding to Financing", including the need to use limited UN resources as a catalyst to influence much larger financial flows. The Joint Fund also underscores the UNDS's recognition of the need to put in place appropriate policy environments that catalyze investment by reducing risks.

This inter-agency pooled fund seeks to support Member States' efforts to accelerate progress in achieving national sustainable development goals through integrated and interdisciplinary policy support. It is expected that integrated policy implementation can trigger needed responses to help achieve the paradigm shift towards sustainable development.

The Joint Fund, as outlined in these Terms of Reference, will provide programme countries with catalytic policy support (as identified by national stakeholders with UN Country Teams and in their respective UN Development Assistance Frameworks, UNDAF) in response to specific, complex, and multi-dimensional policy challenges. To this end, the Joint Fund will draw on the multi-sectoral policy expertise that exists across the UN to enhance cross-sectoral government approaches to national and sub-national policymaking and policy implementation. It will also provide financing at a scale and duration that allows for deeper policy engagement and innovative approaches.
We were created by developing countries, for developing countries.

Every third day we receive a request for technical assistance from a developing country. In 2020, we implemented 218 projects valued at $41.7 million in 79 countries, many of them least developed.

Through our assistance, developing countries can better integrate into the global economy by transforming economies, tackling vulnerabilities, improving competitiveness, and empowering people.
The advancement of technology used in war is mind-blogging. A drone the size of a large insect was an integral part of the plot in the recent movie, "Eye In The Sky." Now comes word of the largest destroyer ever made, the USS Zumwalt.

Built for more than four years in a shipyard in Maine at a cost of $4.4 billion, the Zumwalt, after several years' delay, was recently formally presented to the Navy after months of testing at sea. It's being touted as the most technically advanced warship in history.

The Zumwalt will join the current array of about 430 ships in active and reserve fleets and designated as USS (commissioned), PCU (pre-commissioning unit), USNS (ships owned by the US Navy) and also chartered vessels, designated with the initials MV or SS.

The Zumalt's statistics are hard to comprehend. For starters, despite its mass, the Zumwalt has incredible stealth attributes. According to the Navy, current destroyer profiles are 50 times greater than the Zumwalt.

As a warship, the Zumwalt, 610-feet long, is unsurpassed. It features two 155-millimeter guns that fire projectiles with a range of 72 miles. That's three times farther the current destroyer gun range.

Arguably the most impressive trait of the Zumwalt is its two electric turbines. They will produce 80 megawatts of electricity that will operate the destroyers combat systems, propulsion and other systems.

USS Zumwalt named after former admiral

The latest addition to the U.S. fleet, named after Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr., a former Chief of Naval Operations, is actually a fleet of one.

It's expected to operate solo in sensitive areas. But it's also expected to be complemented by other war vessels, including submarines. The Zumwalt has a maximum crew of 130.

Despite its recent unveiling, the Zumwalt has a long way to go before its expected commissioning in October. The destroyer will have further testing and crew certification. If its current schedule is maintained, the Zumwalt will sail from Baltimore, Maryland to its homeport in San Diego, California. Its captain is James Kirk.
Understanding why the CPC endures Updated: 2016-06-04 07:33 By Robert Lawrence Kuhn(China Daily)

The Communist Party of China, the CPC, still mystifies foreigners. As the 95th anniversary of its founding on July 1, 1921 approaches, it's worth wondering why the lingering mystery. Two unambiguous facts confound the critics - the CPC has led China in its historic, sustained development, and the CPC continues to be, after 67 years, China's uncontested ruling party. The two facts are not unrelated.

In general, foreigners do not understand the CPC; worse, they feel no need to do so. This is a mistake, because in order to understand China today, one must understand the CPC.

Here are the kinds of questions that foreigners should ask. What are the CPC's philosophies and how do its policies reflect its philosophies? How is the CPC organized and how does its governance mechanism depend on its organizational structure? Why has China opted for what it calls multi-party cooperation under CPC leadership? Would China be more stable with a multi-party competitive system? What's the relationship between "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and both the market playing a decisive role in the economy and the non-public ownership of enterprises? Can a system with a single ruling party increase transparency, standardize decision-making, and establish credible checks and balances? What's the relationship between the ruling party and the rule of law? What challenges does the CPC face? What can be learned from the CPC's history - we know about its triumphs, what about its tragedies? Why has the CPC now increased its crackdown on corruption, extravagance, and abuses of power? Why must the CPC now be rejuvenated? Finally, how does the CPC as the ruling party claim legitimacy?

The CPC is reaching out to provide answers. I'm pleased to participate. My show Closer To China on CCTV News featured five episodes on "Understanding the CPC" that were broadcast in mid-2015 and five that are being broadcast in June/July (all online or to be online). Produced in cooperation with the CPC Central Committee's Organization Department, the series portrays the CPC's adaptation (keeping up with the times), philosophy (ideals and visions), governance (process of political leadership), personnel management (selection and training), and future challenges (facing problems).

From my experiences - including a recent, 12-day, in-depth study of environmental protection in East China's Zhejiang province and healthcare reform in Northwest China's Qinghai province, especially in mountainous areas - I explain why the CPC asserts that its leadership is optimum for China's development. Key reasons include: the CPC's adaptability to changing conditions, using experimentation and testing new policies in limited areas before rolling them out nationwide; the CPC's five-level structure - central, provincial, municipal, township and village - and how the CPC guides the government through the legislative National People's Congress and administrative State Council.

In making China's system work, the quality of CPC officials is especially important. The CPC allocates substantial resources to selecting, training, monitoring, assessing and promoting officials, and, when necessary, punishing, demoting or firing them. For well over a millennium, Chinese dynasties recruited the country's best and brightest into public service, a sophisticated and systematic process that the CPC has adopted and tailored for contemporary times. The process is rigorous and quantitative, with increasing focus on transparency, equity, breadth, and reducing all manners of favoritism. Training is intense and throughout one's career.

Rules of work style and personal behavior are now firmer. An eight-point regulation attacks extravagance and "empty talk" and reduces bureaucratic trips and meetings. A training campaign stresses strictness in morals, power and self-discipline, and honesty in decisions, business and behavior.

Looking ahead, no one doubts that the CPC is facing multifarious challenges. Economic reform and transformation are both vital and thorny. Social development, such as pollution control and healthcare, must meet escalating expectations. Moreover, public pressures are mounting for increasing transparency, strengthening checks-and-balances, and constructing institutions that are self-correcting.

To deal with these intricate, entangled and sometimes contradictory objectives, the CPC is seeking to involve citizens in the process of governance and the oversight of government, such as through social media and public polling. Party leader Xi Jinping states that the CPC must be governed by standardized rules and equitable procedures.

But to be the single ruling party, the CPC has a higher obligation to enhance standards of living and personal well-being, which includes comprehensive reform, real rule of law, transparency in government, public participation in governance, increasing democracy, increasing freedoms and human rights.

The CPC, as the single ruling party, must assess and adjust ceaselessly. That is its strength. Conditions change and so must policies. Only by such real-world grounding - monitored and modified continuously - can the CPC construct, in the mid-term, a moderately prosperous society, and, in the longer term, a fully modernized country.

The author is a public intellectual, political/economics commentator, and international corporate strategist.

(China Daily 06/04/2016 page5)
Let reason and cooperation prevail in South China Sea Updated: 2016-06-04 07:33 By Yi Fan(China Daily)

As the Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague ponders its ruling on the South China Sea arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines, the region and indeed much of the world will be wondering how it may affect the already strained relations between China and the Philippines and the larger picture in the South China Sea.

It is often easy to forget that China and the Philippines have been friendly neighbors for centuries. Many Filipinos have Chinese ancestry, including former President Corazon Aquino and her son, outgoing President Benigno Aquino III.

Since the 1970s when the Philippines illegally occupied eight of China's Nansha Islands and reefs, the South China Sea has become a source of friction between the two countries.

Yet, previous Philippine governments opted for dialogue and consultation with China, and each flare-up ended with reaffirmations of the two countries' joint commitment to addressing disputes through consultation and negotiation.

For example, in 1999, President Joseph Estrada ordered the vessel the Philippines stranded on Huangyan Island to be towed away. And in 2004, President Gloria Arroyo approved a joint marine seismic undertaking in the South China Sea between the two countries, which, upon the consent of both China and the Philippines became a tripartite one with Vietnam's participation the following year.

Bilateral relations flourished despite the disputes and trade grew threefold between 1995 and 2007.

However, things quickly slid into a downward spiral when President Aquino III presided over a serious confrontation with China over Huangyan Island in 2012, which culminated in the initiation of arbitration without prior consultation with China in January 2013.

The Philippines knows well that its submissions, which concern territorial sovereignty, are beyond the scope of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. As for maritime delimitation, the Chinese government made a declaration in accordance with UNCLOS in 2006, excluding disputes concerning, among others, maritime delimitation from the compulsory dispute settlement procedures of UNCLOS.

Furthermore, the arbitration move both breached the Philippines' bilateral agreement with China and its obligations under the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, which calls for negotiated settlement of disputes among the sovereign states directly concerned.

The Philippines' real motive is to challenge China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea and seek legal cover for its illegal occupation of Chinese territory. It is entirely lawful for China to take the position of not accepting or participating in the arbitration. As a matter of fact, the ruling has neither legal force nor binding effect.

The arbitration drama has much to do with the United States. Sometimes seen as an outsider, the US has loomed large in the South China Sea issue from the very beginning. After Japan's defeat in World War II, it was the US which provided military vessels for Chinese troops to take back the South China Sea islands pursuant to international legal instruments, including the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation. The US did not challenge the Dotted Line when it was publicized by the Chinese government in 1948.

Over the recent years, however, the US' stance has changed from somewhat tacit recognition of Chinese sovereignty to neutrality, and then to instigating trouble by proxy. Now it has become a protagonist itself by flexing its military muscles and challenging China's sovereignty.

Clearly, the US sees the South China Sea as an emerging frontline for geostrategic rivalry with China. Such a grim view only exposes the US' own strategic anxiety and risks evolving into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

China remains committed to upholding peace and stability and addressing disputes through consultation and negotiation. But for China, there is very little room for compromise on issues of territory and sovereignty. The US provocations will only create a real danger of a head-on collision with China.

Having said that, for all the saber-rattling by defense hawks in Washington, there is little appetite in the US for conflict with China over a few rocks in the faraway West Pacific. And China, which is pursuing a policy of good-neighborliness, has little interest in seeing relations further strained. The best way out for all sides would be to work toward an easing of the situation.

First, China should seek ways to work with the incoming Rodrigo Duturte administration to minimize the negative impact of the arbitration and achieve a turnaround in relations with the Philippines, especially when Duturte has indicated a willingness to engage China on the South China Sea issue.

Second, China should solidify mutual trust and cooperation with its neighbors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which will provide an anchor of stability in the South China Sea. We should promote the early conclusion of the code of conduct for the South China Sea with ASEAN countries based on consensus and work toward a rules-based regional order.

Third, China and the US should find a way out of their security conundrum. They should enhance crisis management mechanisms to avoid accidents, and engage in more candid dialogue at the strategic level to avoid misjudgment and build trust through cooperation.

Both US President Barack Obama and his successor should share the vision of Chinese President Xi Jinping: There is no such thing as the Thucydides trap, but should major countries repeatedly make the mistake of strategic miscalculation, they may create such traps for themselves.

The author is a Beijing-based observer of international studies.

(China Daily 06/04/2016 page5)
Exam puts too much pressure on students Updated: 2016-06-04 07:33 By Li Fangchao(China Daily)

Photos and videos of students venting their pressure before the gaokao, national college entrance exam, which falls on June 7 and 8, have caused heated debate recently.

The photos showed some grade three students at a senior high school in Xiamen, a coastal city in Southeast China's Fujian province, tearing up their textbooks and throwing them out of the windows of the school buildings.

While a video that went viral online showed a similar scene at a senior high school in Liupanshui, Guizhou province in Southwest China.

Amid deafening shouts and cries of "hurray", hundreds of used textbooks and old exam papers fell from the sky like snowfall.

The photos and video finally caught the attention of the authorities. On May 25, the Xiamen education authorities issued a directive, ordering schools to ban such activities and resort to other ways to effectively alleviate the pressure on students.

The directive, said to be the first official statement targeting the phenomenon, immediately made headlines nationwide.

The ban is actually long overdue.

Such student actions before the exam have been a recurring scene in recent years in some senior high schools around the country. It has even become a kind of tradition at this time of year.

Some schools have even acquiesced in such activities as a way to boost the morale of students.

But while students shouting at the top of their lungs may be interpreted as inspiring, depending on what it is they are shouting, tearing up textbooks and old exam papers should not be encouraged.

Books and papers are witnesses of students' hard work. Bitter or sweet, they are mementos that will help students recall precious memories of this special period in their lives.

And they are still valuable references that they will be able to use in college.

Tearing them up in impulsive group frenzies leaves nothing but piles of garbage that their schools have to clear up.

However, this way of releasing their pressure also reflects students' dissatisfaction with the current education system.

Academic performance remains the overriding priority throughout school education. A decent score outshines any other abilities in the eyes of teachers as there are often strict college entry rate requirements in many high schools.

Failure to ensure a certain number of students go to college can affect teachers' performance appraisals. That explains why at some schools teachers try and persuade the weakest students who have little chance of going to college to drop the gaokao to ensure a good enrollment rate from the school.

Like a sword of Damocles, the national college entrance exam hangs above students' head.

Considered a life-changing opportunity for students, due to its fierce competition, surviving the exam to enter a good university is described as "fighting to pass a single-log bridge against a legion of soldiers".

High expectations from parents, teachers and schools mean huge pressure for students.

The exam-oriented cramming method of teaching also fails to arouse students' interest.

After years of hard study for the sole purpose of taking the exam, the pressure builds up as it approaches.

Releasing the pressure is necessary for students to ensure they are in the best state both mentally and physically to sit the exam.

The official ban is a ban on extreme acts like tearing up books, not against student's releasing the pressure they feel.

In this sense, it is the responsibility of schools to guide students to relieve their pressure in more reasonable ways.

They could organize some group activities such as an outing to help students let off steam.

In the long run, though, the root problem still lies in the exam system.

Instead of deciding a student's fate through a single exam, the education authority should speed up its reform to diversify the exams for students with different talents.

Meanwhile, universities should be given more freedom to select the students they need.

Scores in the gaokao should be only a reference. A comprehensive evaluation system should be established to give students an objective chance to show their overall capabilities.

The writer is an editor with China Daily. lifangchao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/04/2016 page5)
At least two dead as heavy flood wreaks havoc in France Updated: 2016-06-04 07:55 (Xinhua)

Rescue workers from the French "Securite Civile" on small boats attend an evacuation operation for residents of the edge of the Seine River in Juvisy-sur-Orge, near Paris, France, June 3, 2016 after days of almost non-stop rain caused flooding in the country. [Photo/Agencies]

PARIS - The flood caused by torrential and prolonged rainfall has left at least two people dead in France where thousands have been evacuated and a state of emergency was declared.

In a statement, the French Interior Ministry on Friday said a 74-year-old man on horseback lost his life after being swept away by flood in Evry-Gregy-sur-Yerre, south of Paris.

According to the daily Le Parisien, the man had been trying to cross a flooded field.

Late on Wednesday, an 86-old-year woman was found dead in her house in the southwestern suburb of Paris.

Speaking to state-run France 2 TV, French Ecology Minister Segolene Royal said she feared more victims would be found as waters started to recede in the affected regions.

"What will be even more painful for the families who lost their homes, business leaders who lost their business, employees who are going to be laid off, is that water receding will be very slow. It will take several weeks," she added.

Parisians have been on high alert as the rising Seine River is expected to reach a peak of 6.50 meters on Friday evening, Royal said, adding that this was still well below the level on which it would pose a danger to inhabitants.

The river reached a record high of 8.6 metres in 1910, when thousands of Parisians had to flee flooded areas of the city

A continued rise of river could trigger the evacuation of residents in west Paris, according to the ministry.
Clinton vs. Trump war ramps up in race to White House Updated: 2016-06-04 10:32 (Xinhua)

A supporter of Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump sits on the airport tarmac during a campaign rally in Redding, California, U.S. June 3, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - US Democratic front-runner Hilary Clinton has launched a blistering attack against Republican nominee Donald Trump as the war between the two rivals began in an election expected to be a knock-down drag out fight.

Clinton lambasted Trump in a foreign policy speech made Thursday in California, calling the New York mogul a "fraud" and is "temperamentally unfit" to be a president.

Observers said this was a departure from Clinton's usual stiff public persona, which has been a thorn in her side in her efforts to portray herself as someone who understands the struggles of ordinary Americans.

"Hillary Clinton is displaying more passion in attacking Donald Trump," Brookings Institution's Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

The recent fraud scandal over the Trump University gives Clinton an opening to characterize Trump as "a rich guy taking advantage of poor people," West said.

Some Trump University students claimed that they paid to the university a big sum of money but did not get the money's worth.

"That is a script she knows how to follow since that is how Obama beat Romney in 2012," West said, referring to US President Barack Obama's win over Republican challenger Mitt Romney nearly four years ago.

Clinton is likely to continue that theme and extend it to other business dealings of Trump and argue that he is not pro-worker and has taken advantage of many people over the years, West predicted.

If Clinton can turn this into a more conventional race of herself standing up for the little guy and Trump enriching himself at the expense of average people, it moves the campaign onto more familiar turf for her and Democrats in general, West said.

"The race simply would play into common stereotypes about Republicans being out of touch and unfair to working people and it would hurt Trump's ability to win blue-collar support," West said.

A supporter of US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wears campaign supporting fingernails at a "Women for Hillary" event in Culver City, California, United States, June 3, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

Indeed, Clinton called Trump a "fraud", claiming that the Republican nominee is pulling the wool over the eyes of his supporters.

"The fraud argument works well for her because it puts a dagger through the heart of his central claim, that he is a great businessman and that he made his money through smart and effective leadership," West said.

Fraud creates an alternative narrative that says he got his money illicitly and that he cannot be counted upon to help the average person, West said.

Clinton's narrative is meant to counter that of Trump, who has taken to calling Clinton "crooked Hillary," referring to the many scandals she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have been tied to over the last 20 years.

Clinton is currently embroiled in a scandal over whether she jeopardized US national security by using a private email account and server for official business while she was secretary of state.

A House panel is also investigating Clinton's responsibility for the 2012 terror attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans including US Ambassador Chris Stevens were killed, when Clinton was secretary of state.

Just six months ago, most political observers dismissed Trump as a flash in the pan, but he now stands out as the winner in the Republican nomination fight. And in many recent polls, Trump is tied with Clinton in the lead up to what experts said is sure to be a tight race.

Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua that much of the Republican establishment and voters are beginning to unify behind Trump despite concerns about his specific policies.

Indeed, House Speaker Paul Ryan, the top Republican politician, said Thursday that he will vote for Trump despite his initial reluctance to endorse the brash businessmen who is disliked by many of the Republican establishment politicians.
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Vietnamese producers of consumer goods should invest more in improving product quality and develop close links among themselves to negotiate better with foreign-owned retailers, a seminar heard in HCM City yesterday.  Photo nld.com.vn

HCM CITY  Vietnamese producers of consumer goods should invest more in improving product quality and develop close links among themselves to negotiate better with foreign-owned retailers, a seminar heard in HCM City yesterday.

Pham Ngoc Hung, deputy chairman of the HCM City Union of Business Associations (HUBA), said recently many producers have complained that they are struggling to sell to foreign-owned supermarkets mainly because the latter demand excessive discounts.

Many businesses said they do not earn profits, even make losses from selling their products to supermarkets, but still strive to distribute their products through supermarket to sustain their brands.

Local retailers have also suffered from the massive influx of foreign retailers, who now control more than 50 per cent of the retail market, he said.

Le Thanh Lam, deputy general director of Saigon Food, said though the supermarket network has expanded rapidly in recent years, it remains inadequate compared to businessesneed to take their products to the market.

If one business wants to withdraw its products from a supermarkets shelves, many others queue up to offer theirs, leading to a lopsided relationship.

Local retailers ask producers for a discount of up to 10 per cent, but it is 10-30 per cent at foreign supermarkets, she said.

The lack of close links among local firms and their lack of experience in negotiating with foreign retailers always put them at a disadvantage to foreign supermarkets, she said.

Nguyen Phu Chien, general director of Bibica, said foreign supermarkets refuse to accept any changes in contracts with businesses, while the cost of transporting products are increasing relentlessly.

He, Lam and others at the seminar agreed that local producers should join hands to negotiate with foreign retailers.

Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, deputy chairman of the city Department of Industry and Trade, said producers should invest more in technology to make quality products with unique features that satisfy customers needs.

If your products are good, customers will seek your products when they go to supermarkets, and no retailer will dare to refuse your products.

He said businesses should be more dynamic in expanding both traditional and modern distribution networks, especially in rural areas.

Attractive market

Hung said that with its population of 90 million, of whom 60 per cent are young consumers, and modern trade channels accounting for just for 25 per cent of retail business, the country is an attractive retail market for foreign investors.

A lot of foreign retailers have entered the domestic market, he said.

Meanwhile, imports from countries like Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and Thailand are becoming more and more popular, threatening local producers, he said.

If the country does not have a suitable strategy for the retail market, it would be dominated by foreign investors, he said.

Foreign retailers in Viet Nam are obliged to go through an economic needs test before they are allowed to open a new store larger than 500 square meters. But in most places authorities have not implemented it well.

Hoa said the ENT would not slow down the entry of foreign retailers since they have other ways like mergers and acquisitions to penetrate the Vietnamese market.

The Government should intensify checks to crack down on unfair business practices in the retail market, quickly make a development scheme to develop the retail system, help local businesses find sites to expand their distribution networks and invest in improving their technologies, he said.  VNS
Viet Nam is expected to have a million active businesses by 2020. There are now about 900,000 registered businesses, but only about 500,000 are active.  Photo cafef.vn

HA NOI  Now that Viet Nam emphasises the importance of the private business sector, there is a chance for small- and medium-sized enterprises, especially female entrepreneurs, to have greater voices.

Layton Pike, Deputy Head of the Australian Embassy Mission to Viet Nam, made these remarks at an economic forum in Ha Noi yesterday, as Government officials, international economists and businesspeople discussed private sector development.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue said the private business sector, accounting for 95 per cent of the entire business community in Viet Nam, was the most important thing for the local economy.

The Government would work hard to create the best conditions for them to grow in a fair and competitive environment, he said.

Truong Gia Binh, chairman of technology corporation FPT, said the whole world was involved in the digital revolution, especially in the context of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other free trade agreements signed recently with developed countries.

Binh said the Government needed to support local businesses with shorter administrative procedures, especially in registering a business and tax policies.

The Government should help connect Vietnamese businesses with overseas Vietnamese people so that local businesses can tap their experience and investment capital, he said.

Better and faster money transfers overseas were also urged at the forum, as many local enterprises worked with overseas partners but struggled to transfer money, which delayed investment and lowered competitiveness.

Sandeep Mahajan, lead economist from the World Bank, said Viet Nam was striving to enter the higher reaches of the upper middle income status (US$22,000 GDP per capita purchasing power parity).

The economist said that in order to achieve the target, the country needs to boost productivity in the local private sector by enhancing micro institutions of the market economy, strengthening participation in global value chains, and commercialising and modernising agriculture.

Chairman of the Viet Nam Young Entrepreneurs Association (VYEA) Bui Van Quan said private enterprises created about 1.2 million jobs and contributed more than 40 per cent of Viet Nams total gross domestic product.

He said the private sector could adapt to challenges, had strong creativity and competitiveness. But it showed limited capacity related to capital, market knowledge and conjunction with international partners.

Yesterday morning, Deputy PM Hue met with successful local start-ups, where young entrepreneurs asked the Government to create a healthy playing field for private enterprises, State-owned enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises.

Most of the young entrepreneurs wanted Government support mechanisms and policies on capital, science and technology, human training and administrative procedures reform for fair competition and transparency.

Hue said the Party and the State encouraged all economic sectors to play on a level playing field, which was clearly stated in the Governments resolutions No 19 and No 35 on the support and development of enterprises by 2020.

He said the Government would develop policies to boost the growth of the private business sector by setting up national start-up funds.

However, he stressed, these policies could only benefit active and creative enterprises. Businesses have to take the right path, instead of only relying on Government support.

Hue said Viet Nam was expected to have a million active businesses by 2020. There are now about 900,000 registered businesses, but only about 500,000 are active.

Yesterdays forum, the first forum of its kind for the private business sector in Viet Nam, was held by VYEA with support from the Mekong Business Initiative and Australian Government.

More than 500 participants focused their discussions on areas such as the digital economy, agriculture, education and vocational training, logistics and distribution, capital and fund raising, and industrial and auxiliary industries.

VYEA Chairman Quan said the event established a mechanism for regular dialogue between the Government, private sector, and partners inside and outside the country.

It is a good chance to hear from the private community, Hue said.  VNS
Viet Nam is famous around the world for the food that people can buy, ready to eat, on the streets.

An American magazine has even called Ho Chi Minh City one of the worlds best cities for street food.

One problem, though, is that the places where they are sold are not always clean and free of disease.

A special plan is in place to make things better.

By Gia Loc

HCM CITY  Street food, for which Viet Nam is rightly famous, can be a financial boon to local communities, helping many people, especially the poor, increase their income.

However, hygiene at stalls has been a problem for years.

Seeking a solution that would benefit both sides, the city about two years ago launched a pilot programme in Binh Tan District and District 3 that provides food safety training and equipment to vendors in two wards.

The results have generally been positive, and the city has strengthened measures in recent months.

Vu, a resident of Binh Thanh District, stops at a street stall every morning to buy bread filled with chicken meat, pate and crunchy pickled vegetables for a quick and cheap breakfast.

I never tire of the food, Vu said, adding that he had once frequented a few favourite stalls until he suffered a few bouts of diarrhea. After that, he began to be more selective, and since then, has had no problems.

Nearly everyone in the city has sampled street food at one time or another.

More than 95 per cent of the citys residents have eaten street food, according the Nutrition Centre.

Foreigners are interested in street eats as well. The American magazine Food & Wine has listed HCM City one of the worlds best cities for street food.

Cary Vanderventer, a Canadian tourist, who visited Viet Nam recently, said that her favourite food on the street was com tam (broken rice),bun bo Hue (Hue-style spicy beef noodle soup), and banh xeo (Vietnamese crepes with shrimp, bean sprouts and crunchy garnishes).

Theyre wonderful, she said, adding that she liked to eat at street stalls instead of restaurants.

Ngo Thi My Anh, a specialist in charge of hospitality and restaurants at the citys Department of Tourism, said that international press often reported about street food in the country.

Independent livelihood

For the poor, HCM City is a magnet. It offers an opportunity to make a living, and one way is by setting up a stand on the street.

With just a small investment, food vendors can choose their location and work independently.

Du Phuoc Tan, a researcher at the HCM City Institute for Development Studies, told Cong An Nhan Dan (Peoples Police) newspaper that women aged 36-55 accounted for more than 63 per cent of food vendors.

Half of the women are migrants with a low academic level, according to the researcher.

Pham Thi Hue, 51, of the south-central province of Binh inh, moved to the city to sell food as a vendor more than 20 years ago.

At that time, I was teaching at my hometown and could not raise my two children on my income. My husbands income from farming was very low. So we left my hometown for the city, she said.

In the past, she and her husband sold glutinous rice balls on their bicycles in the neighbouring areas of District 6. Now, they sell fruit.

The money they make is enough to support their family and their childrens education.

Today, younger people, including students, are looking to the street as a way of earning money.

Le Anh uc, a student at the citys University of Economics, has opened a pavement stall to sell milk tea in front of his house.

I want to try to use what I learn at the university to do business. I also want to earn some income, he said.

According to the Health Departments Food Safety and Hygiene Division, more than 20,000 people have registered to sell street food.

Of these, 1,400 have failed to meet food safety and hygiene regulations.

Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai, deputy head of the food safety division, said that many vendors had not been trained in food hygiene and were not aware of food safety regulations.

Strict management

The deputy head of the citys Health Department, Nguyen Huu Hung, told local agencies in January to strengthen management and strictly impose fines on vendors and small street stalls that continue to violate regulations.

When someone sets up a street stall, they must ensure food safety and hygiene.

They had to follow 10 criteria. This included having a hygienic selling place, covering and storing food hygienically, and wearing gloves. They should also have tools to pick up food.

Local agencies offered guidance and inspect stalls frequently, Hung said.

Fines were seldom imposed, but violators were given warnings.

Selling food on the street is a long-standing feature of our culture. It is difficult to get rid of it. Its important that we manage it and ensure hygienic food for customers. This is the responsibility of city agencies, including the health sector, Hung said.

Each city district had been encouraged to select one or two wards to set up a standard management model of selling food on the street.

This occurred in Ward 2 in District 3 and An Lac A Ward in Binh Tan District. Hung said the programme should be expanded throughout the district.

Pilot programme

In November 2014, the peoples committees at the ward level in Binh Tan District and District 3 began working with the citys Food Safety and Hygiene Division to pilot the programme on forcing street food sellers to obey 10 criteria to ensure safety.

Mai said the street food sellers were given standard dustbins, face masks, gloves and other items.

They also attended training courses on maintaining food safety and hygiene during processing and selling, and were required to have health examinations.

The city gave the two wards several measuring tools that can rapidly test the safety of food.

By the end of 2015, an increased rate of sellers among the total of 203 street food vendors and shops in the two wards were obeying the 10 criteria, Mai said.

Total funding for the pilot programme is VN30 million (US$1,333) per year for each ward.

With a total of 322 wards, it is difficult to expand the model because of a lack of funds.

The districts, Hung said, would have to try to manage without the citys assistance.

In March, Tran The Thuan, the chairman of the Peoples Committee in District 1, said that a pilot plan for street food vendors was being carried out to ensure urban beauty and traffic safety and order in HCM City.

Under the plan, vendors gather on Nguyen Van Chiem and Ton uc Thang streets near Bach ang Wharf and sell food from 6am to 8 am, and 11 am to 1 pm.

Le Thi Tu Uyen, founder of the project 5000 Portable Bread Booths for Women to Earn a Sustainable Living on the Pavement, said that the citys plan was improper for vendors.

Phung Thi Hoi, a beverage vendor in District 1, said that selling at the designated time could not ensure an income for her family.

Le Dieu Anh of the Cities Alliance, a global partnership for poverty reduction and promotion of sustainable growth of cities, said the local government should develop solutions not only to promote urban civility but also to help food vendors earn a living.

Non-government organisations and non-profit enterprises will try to present some solutions to help the local government solve this problem effectively, Anh said. -- VNS

GLOSSARY

Street food, for which Viet Nam is rightly famous, can be a financial boon to local communities, helping many people, especially the poor, increase their income.

A boon is a time when things go well. If there is a financial boon, people make good money.

Your income is the money that comes into your bank account or into your pocket.

However, hygiene at stalls has been a problem for years.

Hygiene means the things that need to be done to keep a place clean and free of things that cause diseases.

Seeking a solution that would benefit both sides, the city about two years ago launched a pilot programme in Binh Tan District and District 3 that provides food safety training and equipment to vendors in two wards.

To seek a solution means to look for an answer to a problem.

If something benefits you, it helps you.

A pilot programme is a small project that exists to get an idea of how a bigger project like it would work.

Vendors are people who sell things in the streets rather than in formal shops.

I never tire of the food, Vu said, adding that he had once frequented a few favourite stalls until he suffered a few bouts of diarrhea.

To tire of food means not wanting to eat it.

To frequent a few stalls means to visit them quite often.

Bouts of diarrhea means short times of suffering from a type of disease that gives you a runny tummy

After that, he began to be more selective, and since then, has had no problems.

Selective means wanting to choose.

Nearly everyone in the city has sampled street food at one time or another.

To sample street food means to try it in small amounts.

For the poor, HCM City is a magnet.

A magnet is an attraction.

With just a small investment, food vendors can choose their location and work independently.

An investment is an amount of money you spend on something in the hope of getting more money back.

To work independently means to work on your own, without a boss telling you what to do.

Half of the women are migrants with a low academic level.

Migrants are people who move in great numbers from one place to another; in this case to Ho Chi Minh City from rural areas and smaller cities.

People with a low academic level are not well educated.

Of these, 1,400 have failed to meet food safety and hygiene regulations.

Regulations are rules.

The deputy head of the citys Health Department, Nguyen Huu Hung, told local agencies in January to strengthen management and strictly impose fines on vendors and small street stalls that continue to violate regulations.

To violate regulations means to break rules.

They have to follow 10 criteria.

Criteria are standards against which decisions are made.

Local agencies offer guidance and inspect stalls frequently, Hung said.

Guidance means help and advice.

They also attended training courses on maintaining food safety and hygiene during processing and selling, and were required to have health examinations.

Maintaining food safety means keeping up the standards of food safety.

Processing food means preparing it and changing from being raw food to food that is ready, or nearly ready, to eat.

The districts, Hung said, would have to try to manage without the citys assistance.

Assistance means help.

Phung Thi Hoi, a beverage vendor in District 1, said that selling at the designated time could not ensure an income for her family.

A designated time means a planned and arranged time.

To ensure an income for her family means to make sure that her family has an income.

WORKSHEET

Find words that mean the following in the Word Search:

People who break rules. Someone who sold rice balls with Pham Thi Hue. A place where Le Anh uc studies. Cary Vanderventers home country. Someone who never becomes tired of street food.

j r m g a b i f a o i a c v i o l a t o r s y f h o U t n k o a t n r l u n i v e r s i t y a r s r i h e k r m o a e n b o s j a m a i d a o a a r t v r g d a d n t p n m o h b e n n a d s z d l l y t a e t e t l f s t n u c o c y a e i n

ANSWERS:

 Duncan Guy/Learn the News/ Viet Nam News 2016

1. Violators; 2. Husband; 3. University; 4. Canada; 5. Vu.
Farmers in Tien Giang Provinces Tan Phu ong District are earning more income by switching to lemongrass to cope with drought and saltwater intrusion. Photo baotintuc.vn

HCM CITY  Farmers in Tien Giang Provinces Tan Phu ong District are earning more income by switching to lemongrass to cope with drought and saltwater intrusion.

The Cuu Long (Mekong) Deltas islet district faces a severe shortage of fresh water in the dry season, preventing cultivation of rice and other crops.

Truong Van Hung, the first farmer to switch to lemongrass in Tan Phu ongs Phu Thanh Commune, said saltwater intrusion occurred on the islet for six months every year, preventing the cultivation of rice.

Growing rice here has low yield, he said.

In 2013, Hung switched to lemongrass on his 2.5 ha paddy field as the herb has short-term cultivation and high yield, and is resistant to drought and extreme weather conditions.

In the first lemongrass crop, Hung harvested 60 tonnes of stalks and earned a profit of VN150 million (US$6,800).

The profit is three times higher than from rice, he said.

Lemongrass is suited to the soil of the islet, especially in Phu Thanh and Phu ong communes, said local farmers.

Many rice farmers have grown a lemongrass crop and one rice crop a year or have switched to grow two lemongrass crops a year in recent years.

Nguyen Tan Hung, chairman of the Phu Thanh Commune Peoples Committee, said the commune was severely affected by saltwater intrusion every year, so the development of lemongrass cultivation was beneficial for the restructuring of the communes crops.

Last year, prolonged hot weather damaged rice areas in the commune, causing many farmers to switch to lemongrass, he said.

The Phu Thanh Commune Peoples Committee is encouraging farmers whose paddy fields have low yield and are far from irrigation water sources to switch to lemongrass, he said.

Ongoing drought and saltwater intrusion in the delta have affected other crops, but lemongrass farmers said they still had a high income as the herb could grow in harsh weather conditions.

In addition, the demand for use as an essential oil and food item has increased in recent years so the price of lemongrass has risen, according to farmers.

Nguyen Van Hai, head of the Tan Phu ong District Agriculture and Rural Development Bureau, said most households that grow lemongrass have high income.

The district lemongrass growing area has increased to 800ha, up 200 ha against the same period last year, according to the bureau.

Tan Phu ong is the provinces largest lemongrass cultivation area, producing 20,000 tonnes of lemongrass stalks a year.

The districts lemongrass stalks are mostly sold to HCM City.

Hai said the district has named lemongrass, soursop, coconut and high-yield rice as its key plants in the 2015-20 period.

District authorities plan to develop the lemongrass area to 1,000ha.

To ensure outlets for farmers, local authorities have implemented several measures to boost sales.

The district is calling on companies from other places to sign sale guarantee contracts with farmers.

It is also creating the best conditions for companies to buy fresh lemongrass stalks and process them, to prevent traders from lowering the buying price, Hai said.

If outlets are guaranteed, lemongrass will contribute a large role to reducing poverty on this islet, he said.  VNS
HA NOI  oan Tran Anh Tuans animated film The Adventure of Egg, Lime and Chilly has won the first-place prize for the professions category at a cartoon contest held by the South Korean Cultural Centre.

The award ceremony was held yesterday to kick off the third Viet Nam-Korea Animation Cartoon Festival in Ha Noi.

Last year, the cartoon Lu and Robo earned Tuan a second-place prize and a one-week visit to Chuncheon Anitown Festival in South Korea.

The Adventure of Egg, Lime and Chilly was the shortest film at the contest, which draws about 23 works from both individual filmmakers and studios across the nation.

The cartoon is three-and-a-half minutes in length and tells the story of an egg, a lime and a chili who help each other escape from a kitchen.

I aimed to make a short cartoon that ended quickly, but was not boring to watch, said Tuan, who is chief executive officer of Colory Animation Studio. The studio was founded in 2011, and its debut cartoon Under the Tree Shadow was welcomed by the online community.

The Adventure of Egg, Lime and Chilly was produced to train young artists at Colory Studio.

Im happy with the first-place prize at the contest, Tuan said. I wish that Viet Nam could organise a similar contest.

This year marked the second time the cartoon contest was held. It awards two first-place prizes and two second-place prizes to professional and amateur filmmakers.

A cartoon entitled Bong Hoa Mat Troi (Sun Flower) by Viet Nam Animation Studio grabbed the second-place prize, and Nguyen Thanh Tuyen and Huynh Anh Kiet took first- and second-place prizes for the amateur filmmaker category. Both hail from HCM City.

The seven judges decided to give the first-place prize to Tuyens film in the amateur category because it was professionally done, according to one of the jurors. However, the cartoon was made four years ago when Tuyen knew little about animated filmmaking.

It was developed from motions illustrating curriculum software, which I made for the Software Development Company for students, Tuyen said.

Tuyen and Tuan will have the chance to attend Chuncheon Anitown Festival in Korea.

Nine Vietnamese and Korean cartoons will be screened over the weekend at Au Co Art Centre, 8 Huynh Thuc Khang Street. Free tickets can be picked up at 49 Nguyen Du Street. -- VNS
Hoang Trung, head of the Plant Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, speaks to Nong thon ngay nay (Countryside today) newspaper about fruit exports

Viet Nam has competitive fruit exports. However, our fruit often fails to meet international standards. What difficulties does Viet Nam face in exporting fruit?

We have troubles in exporting fruit. The biggest challenge is how to get phytosanitary certificates from countries we want to sell our fruit to. The challenge may become tougher due to the range of free trade agreements Viet Nam has joined, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, cutting many tariffs to zero. When the tariffs are cut to zero, countries will raise their phytosanitary standards.

Several countries including the US, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, issue stricter stipulations to imported plants, especially fruit. To meet their stipulations, we have to conduct complicated treatments for fruit, such as risk assessments or plant-quarantine programmes for each consignment before export.

Irradiation for fruit before export is costly. What do you think about it? What is the outlook for Vietnamese fruit?

The ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development and Science and Technology constructed an irradiation centre in the northern region. It helped cut the cost of irradiation for lychee exports. Thank to the centre, a company now saves about VN16 million (US$714) per tonne on irradiation fees.

There have been positive signs for the Vietnamese fruit export market, like the US allowing dragon fruit, rambutan, longan and lychee imports, with irradiation required, and soon mango and star apple are expected to be exported to the US. Japan has approved the import of dragon fruit and mango from Viet Nam. Our Plant Protection Department and Japan will soon finish procedures to export lychee, dragon fruit and longan. South Korea also agreed to import our dragon fruit and mango, we also hope to export star apple to South Korea soon.

Fruit export revenue this year is forecast to surpass US$1.8 billion, the record was set last year after several high-requirement countries decided to import our fruit.

What other difficulties does the market face?

Domestic fruit cultivation is still small scale and scattered throughout the country. For example, it takes time for the department to collect enough growers to issue an area code for lychees before exporting to the US.

Also, there are few companies participating in exporting fruit. The capability of several export companies is still limited, some even violated regulations and hurt the reputation of other fruit export companies.

How will our fruit quarantine efforts before exporting improve?

The department will work with localities to supervise plant quarantines before exporting. We will order the two plant-quarantine centres in both north and south regions to provide short training courses for plant-quarantine staff in localities based on the requirements of importing countries.

For the markets we have worked with such as Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, we will continue obeying all their requirements.  VNS
Upgrades on the Ha Noi Irradiation Centre are expected to pave the way for more Vietnamese fruit, particularly those from the northern region, to reach overseas consumers. Photo baocongthuong.vn

HA NOI  Upgrades on the Ha Noi Irradiation Centre are expected to pave the way for more Vietnamese fruit, particularly those from the northern region, to reach overseas consumers.

Director of the Centre ang Quang Thieu said the upgrade was approved last year, with funding of some VN20 billion (US$896,400).

Previously, the centre, founded in 1986 under the Viet Nam Atomic Energy Institute, could irradiate some agricultural products such as onions, garlic and dried medicinal herbs, but it operated on a small scale and not professionally.

The upgrades, which include adding a 200sq.m freezer storage unit, modern irradiation equipment and other technology, will allow the centre to irradiate fruit such as lychees and longans this year onwards, he said.

Irradiation is considered a safe technology that helps to kill all bacteria and microorganisms and keep fruit fresh for longer periods, even up to a few months. Major fruit importers such as Australia, Canada and the United States require fruit to be irradiated before they enter the countries..

Director Thieu said when fruits grown in the northern region were irradiated in Ha Noi, fruit firms were able to save some VN16 million per tonne, as they no longer had to transport them to the south for irradiation.

The centre can handle up to 10 tonnes of fruit daily, using techniques similar to those used in neighbouring countries.

The time needed for transportation has been slashed, the shelf life has increased and the fruit stays fresh longer, Thieu said.

He said the centre was considering offering a discount of some VN6,000 per kilogramme to fruit firms to get more of them engaged in the practice.

Le Son Ha, head of the Plan Quarantine Division under the Plan Protection Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said last year was the first year that Viet Nam had sent lychees to the United States and Australia, where there are strict quarantine regulations on fruit. At that time, firms in the north had to transfer their lychee crops to the south for irradiation treatment, which increased transportation costs.

The upgraded Ha Noi Irradiation Centre will help resolve that transportation issue.

Ha said the Plan Protection Department had sent the relevant documents and samples to Australia for verification.

If the Australian partners accept, this years lychee for export will be irradiated in Ha Noi, he said.

The irradiated fruits are also expected to attract domestic consumers who are growing more concerned about food safety and consuming high-quality produce.

According to the Viet Nam Fruit and Vegetables Association, last year, export revenue reached $1.85 billion for fruits and vegetables, an increase of more than 24 per cent over 2014.

Viet Nam exported more than 40 kinds of fruits and vegetables to over 40 countries and territories. Fastidious markets such as the United States, Australia, the European Union and Japan have opened their doors to Vietnamese fruits such as longans, lychees and mangoes.  VNS
HCM CITY  Salt farmers in HCM Citys Can Gio District are facing low prices, resulting in a stockpile of salt that cannot be sold.

Pham Hong Ha, who has 1ha of salt in Ly Nhon Commune, said he had just sold 400 tonnes of salt and faced a loss of VN80 million (US$3,600). The price in Can Gio is VN300-VN400 a kilo.

Pham Thi Kim Thoa in Ly Nhon Commune said her family had to borrow a bank loan of VN40 million ($1,800) to buy canvas sheets, a pump and other facilities to produce salt, but could not find buyers.

My family has nearly 100 tonnes of salt in stock, she said. I dont know if I will be able to pay the interest or the loan.

Last month, the HCM City Peoples Committee approved a programme to buy 30,000 tonnes of salt produced on canvas sheets, which yields cleaner salt than other methods.

The Southern Salt Corporation is buying salt from Can Gio farmers at VN470 a kilo, while the city offers farmers an additional VN181 a kilo.

The programme also supports farmers VN180-223 a kilo to transport salt to sell at the corporations warehouses.

As of May 9, salt farmers in the district had sold 31,000 tonnes of more than 130,000 tonnes of salt that farmers produced this year, according to the district Peoples Committee.

In addition, farmers still have 12,000 tonnes of salt in stock from last year.

The coastal district has 1,635ha devoted to produce salt this year.

Trieu o Hong Phuoc, deputy chairman of the Can Gio District Peoples Committee, said to support salt farmers the district would petition banks to extend the period of paying loans for salt farmers not able to pay loans on schedule and send their petition to district authorities.

Local authorities will manage salt production in accordance with the districts zoning plan, he said.

Unzoned salt production areas in Ly Nhon and Thanh An communes will be switched to aquaculture cultivation areas, he said.

Can Gio authorities are calling on companies to invest in salt processing plants in the district, he said.

Tran Van Canh, chairman of the Ly Nhon Commune Peoples Committee, said the commune is seeking measures to set up co-operatives to buy salt and find salt outlets for farmers.  VNS
The Peoples Committee of HCM City has also proposed relocating Kim Bien Market, which specialises in trading chemicals, from District 5 to another location. Photo zing.vn

HCM CITY  The Peoples Committee of HCM City has asked departments, agencies and districts to closely monitor the trading of chemicals in an effort to prevent fires and explosions.

It has also proposed relocating Kim Bien Market, which specialises in trading chemicals, from District 5 to another location.

Tran Vinh Tuyen, the deputy chairman of HCM City Peoples Committee, has appointed the Department of Industry and Trade to be responsible for mapping out a project to build a chemical trading centre in a suburban area with private investment, and submit a report about the plan before June 10.

Tuyen also asked the police force to conduct investigations and file criminal charges against violators of chemical trading rules.

Relevant agencies and district authorities must enhance inspections on the manufacturing and trading of chemicals, and revoke business licenses of violators.

The city authorities have banned the location of chemical depots in residential areas.

The Department of Industry and Trade and district authorities were told to conduct investigations and remove chemical depots located in the citys residential areas.

He said the chairman of the districts must be responsible for any fire and explosion caused by chemicals in areas under their adminstration.

HCM City authorities have asked District 5 Peoples Committee to require chemical traders at Kim Bien Market to sign a commitment on regulations of chemical trading.

Buyers of chemicals must show their papers such as ID cards and business licenses.

The District 5 Peoples Committee was told to inspect and punish illegal chemical bottling and packaging depots at Kim Bien Market, and to restore order for business activities in the area.

According to figures from the HCM City Department of Industry and Trade, chemicals are traded in many districts, especially at Kim Bien Market in District 5s Ward 13.

District 5 has 112 chemical trading depots, including 55 licensed facilities.

Called the Market of Death, depots at Kim Bien Market have stored large volumes of chemicals which pose a risk of fire and explosions, threatening the safety of residents.

Speaking at a meeting to discuss measures against illegal chemical trade on May 23, Phan Hoan Kiem, head of the HCM City market monitoring agency, said that 16 stalls at Kim Bien Market sell chemicals, including pigments, dairy and food additives.

In addition, there are 93 chemical retailers located near the market, with 59 of them selling industrial chemicals, 20 selling flavours and food additives and 14 trading both industrial chemicals and food additives.

Industrial chemical trading shops are primarily located on the streets of Van Tuong, Phan Van Khoe, Hai Thuong Lan Ong, Phung Hung, Go Cong and Kim Bien.

The city has about 600 organisations and individuals producing, importing and trading chemicals.

Illegal trading of chemicals has long caused concerns over food safety and posed fire and explosion risks in residential areas.  VNS.
HA NOI  Health insurance is compulsory under Vietnamese law - having health insurance is in everyones best interests and is everyones responsibility, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said. His made his comments while chairing a national teleconference on stepping up the implementation of health insurance for all people on June 3, 2016.

He spoke highly of the strong determination of ministries, sectors and localities to increase the health insurance coverage rate to 90 percent of the total population by 2020, from 76.5 percent in 2015.

But he noted several localities still have less than 75 percent of their population covered by health insurance. The application of information technology in health checkups and treatment, and in administrative procedures, remains slow. Prices of medical services are sometimes counted incorrectly, affecting the quality of services.

To reach 90 percent coverage, the Government leader asked Viet Nam Social Insurance (VSI) to propose measures and policies on expanding health insurance coverage to the Government, the Prime Minister, and relevant ministries.

The VSI was requested to coordinate with medical clinics nationwide to facilitate health checkups, treatment, and insurance payments.

He assigned the Health Ministry to steer hospitals and medical clinics to improve the quality of health checkups and treatment, and to avoid discriminating against health insurance card holders.

The health sector will be required to step up administrative procedure reform - and to improve the payment process for hospital fees.

The PM also asked Peoples Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities to include the rate of health insurance participation in their annual and five-year socioeconomic development goals, and to take responsibility for fulfilling the target before the Government does so.

He urged the Finance Ministry to renew State budget spending on health, to support health insurance subscribers.

The Ministry of Education and Training was also requested to ensure 100 percent of students get health insurance by 2017. And the ministries of Defence and Public Security were asked to help all armed officers and soldiers get health insurance by 2018.

A civilised society and a developed country need a good health insurance system, the leader said.

Speaking at the teleconference, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said that to increase the participation rate and the attractiveness of health insurance, the ministry has improved the quality of medical checkups and treatment, reduced hospital overload and punished more than 7,000 health workers who behaved badly towards patients. VNS
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Friday said the issue of automatic exchange of tax information between India and Switzerland was likely to come up for discussion when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits that country on June 5.
Disbelief gripped the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur as news broke that one of its alumni, Mainak Sarkar, killed a professor of University of California, Los Angeles (ULCA) and another woman, whom some reports identified as Sarkar's wife, before shooting himself dead.
Labors budget to make Australia more influential in congested world The Albanese Government will increase its aid to the Pacific region in a bid to form closer ties to island nations where China has grown its influence in recent years.

The budget explained: Chalmers message to Australians The message from Treasurer Jim Chalmers' first budget for every Australian family is clear, writes Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood.

Early education workforce in crisis 03:58 The Parenthood Executive Director Georgie Dent says the early education workforce right now is in crisis and they need something on...

Electricity prices to rise 50 per cent over two years 03:32 Average Australian electricity and gas bills may rise by $600 and $400 as forecasted by Treasurer Jim Chalmers in the newly announced budget,...
DES MOINES  The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship resumed inspections of state inspected egg handlers June 1, Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey announced Thursday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also announced that they were to resume inspection of federally licensed egg handling facilities June 1.

All Department inspectors have received additional training on appropriate biosecurity on visiting livestock and poultry farms and will continue to follow rigorous biosecurity protocols as part of the inspections to help ensure animal health.

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship inspects egg handlers that package eggs from licensed facilities that house fewer than 3,000 birds. Larger houses, with 3,000 birds and up, and their packaging facilities are FDA licensed and are subject to their inspections.

The FDA temporarily suspended inspection of federal licensed facilities last spring during the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak in Iowa and 20 other states. The department followed the lead of FDA and also suspended inspections last spring out of an abundance of caution to ensure that department employees would not serve as a potential source of disease spread.
WATERLOO  The Cedar Valley Chapter of Employers Council of Iowa will address the new workplace that has evolved to support the new worker profile at noon Wednesday at New Aldaya Lifescapes, 7511 University Ave., Cedar Falls.

Marc Reifenrath, CEO of Spinutech Inc., will speak.

Attendees will have the opportunity to network with other human resource and recruiting managers. Guests are welcome to attend the Lunch & Learn with local members of ECI.

Prior registration is required by Monday. To register, email sherryle@veridiancu.org.

For more information, call 235-2123 ext. 240.
DES MOINES (AP)  A 31-year-old man convicted of killing his neighbor in Des Moines has been sentenced to 50 years in prison.

A judge on Friday handed over the sentence for Patrick Kirwan. He was found guilty in April of second-degree murder in the death of 35-year-old Mark Hruska, formerly of Charles City.

Prosecutors have said Kirwan shot and killed Hruska because Kirwan suspected his girlfriend and Hruska were having an affair. Kirwan's attorney has said the March 1, 2015, slaying was driven by Kirwan's mental disorders, including a stress disorder related to his Army experiences in Iraq.
WATERLOO  Keven Techau, U.S. attorney of the northern district of Iowa, and Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson will hold a town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Waterloo Center for the Arts, 225 Commercial St.

They will focus on the rise of heroin use in the county

Officer Al Fear of the Cedar Falls Police Department and the U.S. Attorneys Office Heroin Initiative Midwest; Pat Reinert, assistant U.S. Attorney NDIA, drug chief; Lori Wilbourn Peter, guest speaker; Thompson and several others will hold a question-and-answer session and panel discussion. Treatment representatives alsowill be on hand to address issues.
WATERLOO  A Cedar Falls man has been sentenced to probation for torching a garage and three vehicles on Thanksgiving morning.

Nicholas Matthew Kollasch, 30, had been charged with first-degree arson and first-degree criminal mischief in the blaze behind 615 Iowa St., and trial was scheduled to begin this week. But Kollasch opted to plead criminal mischief and a reduced charge of second-degree arson on May 20 in Black Hawk County District Court in Waterloo.

He was sentenced to consecutive terms totaling 20 years, with the prison time suspended to two to five years of probation. He also will spend up to one year at the Waterloo Residential Facility and pay restitution.

According to court records, residents had spotted Kollasch near vehicles in an alley behind the home at about 2:30 a.m. Nov. 26. A physical altercation followed, and Kollasch left. Then at about 5:45 a.m., someone noticed the fire, which engulfed a Chevrolet van parked outside, spread to two cars parked nearby and destroyed the detached garage. Heat from the blaze also melted siding on the house.

Investigators said two fires had been started  one in the van and one in the garage  and they believed flammable liquids were involved.

Kollasch showed up while fire crews were still on the scene and talked to officials, court records state. He was taken to the police department where he admitted to starting the fire using gasoline, records state. Investigators searched his home and found two guitars that had been inside the van before the fire.
WATERLOO  A Waterloo woman who was found with $28,000 in cash and a handgun during searches in connection with the Operation Ice Pirates meth investigation will remain in jail until trial, a federal magistrate has ruled.

Deis Ray, 40, was named in a drug indictments issued May 26, and on Thursday Magistrate Jon Stuart Scoles ruled that no conditions available to the court could assure her appearance at trial if she was released.

Ray was indicted with Chad Weyland and others, and court records indicate investigators believe Weyland and Ray are romantically involved.

According to a FBI agent who testified at Rays detention hearing, authorities began to suspect Ray was involved with methamphetamine distribution in the Waterloo area in 2015 after intercepting communications through a wiretap that indicated someone was traveling to her house to purchase the drug.

Officers with the Tri-County Drug Enforcement Task Force searched her home on Dec. 16 and found $28,000 in cash, including $4,000 in marked bills from a controlled buy of eight ounces of meth earlier that day, court records state.

Two months later, in February 2016, another wiretap caught a drug-related conversation between Ray and Weyland that covered a possible discount for one of Rays family members, records state.

A May 5 search of her home uncovered more cash and a .38-caliber handgun. Ray allegedly told officers the weapon was collateral for a debt.

So far, 20 people have been charged in the investigation through three indictments.
DES MOINES  The path to control of the Iowa Senate in 2017 can be found in recently filed Statehouse fundraising reports.

Partisans are devoting resources to legislative races they think will be critical in determining which party holds the majority in the Senate next year.

For a third consecutive election, Democrats control the Senate by the slimmest of margins: 26-24.

For a third consecutive election, Republicans will attempt to gain control of the chamber by winning one more seat than Democrats. Should they do so, barring a change in the Republican-controlled House, the GOP would have complete control of the Capitol for at least two years.

Republicans are confident. They think they have closed the absentee ballot gap with Democrats to minimize the traditionally higher Democratic turnout in presidential election years. And in a half-dozen races, a Democrat faces re-election in a district with more active registered Republican voters.

The statistics and I think the fundraising show we put our money where our mouth is, so to speak, said Jeff Kaufmann, state chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa.

Republican voters outnumber Democrats in each of those targeted districts, but Mike Gronstal, the Democratic majority leader of the Iowa Senate, said other factors play into success at the ballot box. For instance, active voters who arent enrolled in a party outnumber registered Republicans and Democrats. Gronstal said his campaign team also looks at historical voting trends, such as whether voters in a district chose Barack Obama or Mitt Romney in 2012.

There appears to be, over time, a growing number of voters that choose not to ally with either party. So its really critical how those no-party voters break, and that varies by election season and by district, Gronstal said. We think weve got a very solid shot at keeping the majority in the Senate, and theres two or three seats we think we have an opportunity to pick up.

By looking at the way the state parties are giving money to Senate candidates, one can plainly see where leaders are drawing the battle lines for this years campaign.

Northern Iowa

Money has poured into Senate District 26, which includes Worth, Mitchell, Floyd, Chickasaw and Howard counties, and portions of Cerro Gordo and Winneshiek, where second-term Sen. Mary Jo Wilhelm, a Democrat from Cresco, will be challenged by Republican Waylon Brown, a farmer and small businessman from St. Ansgar.

Republican voters outnumber Democrats in this district, which Democrats have made a top priority. The Iowa Senate Democratic Caucus has made more than $21,000 of in-kind contributions to Wilhelms campaign over the past two years. She has more than $29,000 cash in her campaign account.

The Republican Party has given more than $5,500 to Browns campaign.

Cedar Valley

The Cedar Valley could have a couple of battleground Senate races if fundraising is an indicator.

Senate District 32 includes portions of Black Hawk, Bremer, Fayette and Buchanan counties and is represented by third-term Sen. Brian Schoenjahn, a Democrat from Arlington who will be challenged by Republican Craig Johnson of Independence. Once again, Republican voters outnumber Democrats in the district.

Schoenjahn has more than $18,000 in his campaign account, and Johnson has roughly $16,000.

The Democratic Party has made more than $21,000 worth of in-kind contributions to Schoenjahn, and the Republican Party has donated more than $6,500 to Johnson.

The Republican Party also donated nearly $7,000 to Bonnie Sadler, a Republican from Cedar Falls who is running against yet another Democratic incumbent in a district with more Republican voters.

But thats still a drop in the bucket compared to the more than $100,000 in the campaign account of Democratic Sen. Jeff Danielson, in his third term representing Black Hawk Countys District 30.

Central Iowa

Another targeted District  District 36  covers Marshall and Tama counties, plus a small southwest corner of Black Hawk County. There, second-term incumbent Sen. Steve Sodders, a Democrat from State Center, is up for re-election in another district where Republican voters outnumber Democrats.

Sodders challenger, Republican Jeff Edler, a farmer from State Center, raised a remarkable $36,000 in the first four months of 2016. The state party chipped in more than $3,000.

Sodders had a relatively quiet fundraising period during those months  most of which the Legislature was in session  raising just shy of $5,000. Sodders has more than $15,000 in his campaign account, and the Democratic Party, aware of the importance of his re-election, made nearly $10,000 worth of in-kind contributions to his campaign this year.
POLK CITY - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Cuban Agriculture Minister Gustavo Rodriguez Rollero spent Friday touring highlights of Iowa farming and searching for common ground with agriculture as a starting point for normalizing relations between two countries.

Vilsack and Rollero made stops at DuPont Pioneer's Johnston operations, an organic farm near Polk City, Iowa State University and a renewable fuels plant near Nevada.

"There is a tremendous opportunity for us to have a solid relationship between our two countries beginning with agriculture," Vilsack said.

Rollero, through a translator, agreed that the two nations have "a great deal to learn from each other" and he hoped a memorandum of understanding now in place will usher in cooperation in education, technology, research, genetics, science, water resources and climate change.

Vilsack, a former Iowa mayor, state senator and governor, drew parallels between Friday's event and a 1959 Iowa visit by former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, and quoted former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln for saying "the best way to eliminate an enemy is to make a friend."

Vilsack said President Obama is convinced that nearly 60 years of strained relations with Cuba has produced "little success" and the time has come for a "different approach." The president has visited the island nation and reopened the U.S. embassy in Havana.

Vilsack, who also has visited Cuba as part of his previous two meetings with Rollero, said he is "optimistic and hopeful" that Congress will lift the U.S. embargo and promote commerce.

Vilsack's comments were echoed Friday by members of a newly launched Engage Cuba Iowa State Council.

Council member Craig Hill, president of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, said Cuba needs to import 80 percent of its food, which presents a new market for Iowa.

"We all win by having this discussion," he said.
CEDAR FALLS -- The Hearst Center for the Arts will host the Iowa Watercolor Society Annual Traveling Show for 2015-2016  through July 28.

There will be an artist reception from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday with wine and refreshments. The reception is free and open to the public.

Internationally known artist Iain Steward juried and judged this years annual competition with 60 juried paintings, chosen from more than 140 entries.

This years show was held in Perry. The Iowa Watercolor Society is an organization made up of beginning, amateur and professional artists.
INDEPENDENCE  Up to 10 jobs at the Independence Mental Health Institute will be cut by the states decision to close a 15-bed unit at the facility, a state Department of Human Services spokeswoman said Friday.

But an Iowa union leader and a former congressman said the larger issue is the loss of services to troubled adolescents.

Layoff notices were issued Thursday to 10 state staff members at the 15-bed Psychiatric Medical Institution for Children Unit. DHS public information officer Amy McCoy said some affected staff may transfer to other positions based on their contract rights and qualifications.

McCoy said the closure will not impact acute psychiatric services for adults or children and adolescents. There are no patients being served in the PMIC unit, which has seen a 50 percent reduction in utilization over the past 5 years and had only 26 admissions in the 2015 fiscal year, she noted. In addition, there are no children in the MHIs Acute Inpatient Unit needing placement in the PMIC unit, which was established in 1999.

We understand that this is a difficult time for our staff that provided quality care to PMIC patients, and we thank them for their dedicated service, McCoy said in regard to the layoff notices.

Despite McCoys statements, Waterloo attorney and former U.S. Rep. Dave Nagle, who represented displaced workers at the now-closed Iowa Juvenile Home in Toledo, said Friday this most recent move only compounds the problem of providing acute psychiatric care to youths.

I wish now theyd have have kept the Iowa Juvenile Home open, because that facility would have handled kids in an acute condition that needed stabilization and long-term care, Nagle said. That decision is now coming back to haunt us.

This is a tragic, tragic decision, Nagle said of the Independence MHI cutback, which he said will further burden the limited number of pediatric psychiatric care beds locally and in the state, potentially forcing those youths out of state for care.

Regarding McCoys statements about under-utilization of the PMIC unit, Nagle the need is there and suggested the beds are under-utilized because patients simply arent being admitted. Its a self-fulfilling prophecy resulting from a very bad decision, he said.

The pending closure is due to the fact no state funding was recommended for the PMIC unit in the 2017 fiscal year that begins July 1, McCoy noted. There was no appropriation for continued operation of a unit that received a combination of state general fund dollars and federal Medicaid payments.

Nagle suggested Gov. Terry Branstad would have vetoed the funding even if it had been included in the budget.

Half the employees affected are members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Yeah we lost five jobs; another five jobs, AFSCME Council 61 President Dan Homan told the Courier. But the said thing is, what about the people and the kids that need the services?

This unit was created to provide treatment to a particular age group of young adolescents that were struggling, Homan said, suggesting admissions rules were tightened. Apparently this governor and the lieutenant governor (Kim Reynolds) and the director of DHS (Charles Palmer) dont believe we have any troubled kids in the state of Iowa that need that kind of treatment.

Just as when he closed the Iowa Juvenile Home and the MHIs in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant, this governor has shown he really does not care about mental health treatment in this state, Homan said.

The average cost at a private psychiatric medical institution for children is about $215 per day, McCoy said, while the average cost at Independence was more than $1,000 per day. Closing the unit would save about $820,000 in the coming fiscal year, she added.

McCoy also noted community providers in Iowa currently offer more than 475 comprehensive, licensed PMIC beds  and 385 of those receive Medicaid funding for mental health services.

Branstads administration previously closed state-run mental health institutions in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant with a stated goal of providing better services in a more modern setting.

Courier News Editor Pat Kinney contributed to this report.
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.

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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

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ELGIN, IL, June 04, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Michael Segreto, Emergency Services Lab Assistant at Elgin Community College (ECC), has been recognized as a Distinguished Professional in his field through Industry Experts Magazine. Michael Segreto will be featured in Industry Experts Magazine in 2016.



Currently serving as Emergency Services Lab Assistant, which includes Fire Science, Emergency Medical Technician - Basic (EMT-B), Criminal Justice, and 911 Operator responsibilities, Segreto's career at ECC began in 2007. Prior to his current role, his diverse career at ECC has included serving as Academic Support Tutor, Academic Support Presenter, Office Administration Technology (OAT) Instructional Center Assistant, and Business Division Substitute Instructor all prior to his current role.



Segreto's responsibilities include preparing the lab for daily use, assisting students with computer-related coursework, supervising students' use of lab equipment, troubleshooting lab equipment malfunctions, managing inventory, distributing supplies and equipment, creating and revising instructional and informational materials, promoting a positive learning atmosphere, and encouraging academic success.



"In addition to my instructors' recommendations, the praise I receive from students, colleagues, and peers, as well as my passion to learn, spawned desire for me to retain my career in education," Segreto said. "My academic activities, accomplishments, and recognitions have enhanced this desire.



Segreto's noteworthy accomplishments at ECC include presenting a lecture in 2007. The lecture, titled 'Hello, China!', walked through the process of visiting China to conduct business as a U.S. employee, highlighting the dos and taboos. In 2008, he co-presented a session, 'Technology is the Key to Engaging Student Learning', which demonstrated a PowerPoint game to engage students' learning and reviewing of course content while practicing soft skills such as communication and teamwork. Segreto has also co-presented multiple times at the Illinois Business Education Association, including one in 2013 titled 'Engage Students Using Innovative Techno-Activities', one in 2014 titled 'The T.E.A.M. Recipe', and one in 2015 titled 'Games Ready to Go!'.



Segreto believes in a 3-D success concept that includes: Decision - decide on the results you desire; Dedication - commit yourself to the mission of achieving your desired result; and Determination - uphold your commitment until you fulfill the mission of achieving your desired result. He also follows a famous quote spoken by Winston Churchill: "Never, never, never give up!"



"I live my life by remaining positive and professional," Segreto said. "This might seem easier said than done, but if you love your profession - i.e., your duties, your colleagues, and your peers, it's easier done than said."



About Industry Experts Magazine:

Industry Experts Magazine strives to continually bring the very best out in each article published and highlight Industry Experts in their chosen fields. Industry Experts Magazine's mission is to have a platform where professionals can grow, inspire, empower, educate and encourage professionals from any industry by sharing stories of courage and success.



Contact:

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Jun 3, 2016 | By Benedict

Today began with news of a bald eagle returning to the skies after 3D printing-assisted surgery. In actual fact, though, the whole additive manufacturing industry seems to be soaring at present. At the end of a particularly busy week in the 3D printing world, here are seven extra stories you might have missed:

1. Swiss 3D printing startup UrbanAlps receives 2016 W.A. de Vigier Award

UrbanAlps, the Swiss company behind the Stealth Key, a 3D printed security key that cant be copied, has won the W.A. de Vigier Award, Switzerlands most prestigious award for startups. UrbanAlps beat over 200 competing startups to scoop the grand prize of 100,000 Swiss Francs (around $100,000), which was handed over in the form of a giant cheque. Alejandro Ojeda, managing director of UrbanAlps, was particularly pleased to win the prize for a hardware product, in an industry which tends to focus more of its attention on software startups.

The Stealth Key is a metal key with all of its security features hidden on the inside instead of the outside, making it resistant to photographic key theft. As well as using 3D printing to make the Stealth Key, the company has consistently used additive manufacturing and 3D scanning technology to demonstrate the susceptibility of traditionally made metal keysby quickly making duplicates with an Ultimaker 3D printer. While recognizing the threat of 3D printing in the security sector, UrbanAlps is doing its best to turn the technology into an unlikely hero. 3D printed Stealth Keys can be made quickly and on-demand, reducing the amount of wasted metal to a negligible amount. Unlike electronic combinations, the Stealth key is the affordable solution to the lost sense of security of key duplication, Ojeda said.

2. Fuel3D announces first enterprise client scanning solution

British 3D capture startup Fuel3D, born out of Oxford University, has announced that its 3D scanning technology has been used in a new 3D foot scanning system for the orthotics industry. Just last week, the company secured 1.7M in EU Horizon 2020 funding for its 3D scanning eyewear solution, and can now claim to offer viable systems for two bodily extremities. The CryoScan3D foot scanner, which was first seen last week at the World Congress of Podiatry in Montreal, Canada, can capture high-resolution, full-color 3D models of the foot in a range of positions in 0.1 seconds, enabling medical professionals to make custom-fit splints and braces. The system was developed in collaboration with Cryos Technologies, an orthotics innovator with experience in the podiatry sector.

Were delighted to be working with a technology innovator like Cryos Technologies, which demonstrates the efficiency and competitive advantage that can be achieved at the point of sale to revolutionize traditional techniques, said Stuart Mead, CEO of Fuel3D. We are focused on delivering scalable hardware and software solutions by working with technology specialists across a broad range of sectors. This is the first of many enterprise engagements for us, and we are looking forward to sharing the news about our work on other projects in the near future.

3. Becoming 3D, ROBO 3D release 3D Printing STEM Education Kit for Boys & Girls Clubs of America

Becoming 3D and Robo 3D, two 3D printing startups, have joined forces to create a 3D Printing STEM Education Kit for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, a national organization of local chapters providing after-school programs for kids. The two 3D printing companies delivered the good news at the 2016 Boys & Girls Clubs National Conference in New Orleans, with the pilot program set to show students at both middle and high school level how to conceptualize their ideas before bringing them to life in 3D printed form, all the while strengthening their expertise in foster more in depth learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Becoming 3D, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, provides 3D printers, materials, and supplies for professionals, schools, and consumers, while Robo 3D, founded in 2012, designs, manufactures, and sells consumer-level desktop 3D printers.

The kit itself includes a 3D printer, a custom designed printer cart, 6 spools of PLA filament, software, a specially written curriculum, a 1-year warranty, and phone & online tech support; plenty for students to get their teeth stuck into. This 3D printer is giving our members an opportunity to really develop a skill set that helps them accomplish success in the future and be prepared for the job market our country is facing right now, said Christopher Sutton, director of operations at the Boys & Girls Club of the Capital City.

4. ORNL, Cincinnati Incorporated sign additive manufacturing patent license agreement

The Department of Energys Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Cincinnati Incorporated have signed a nonexclusive licensing agreement on ORNL patents which concern large-scale additive manufacturing. The deal with see Cincinnati Incorporated able to make, use, or sell the laboratorys patented advanced additive manufacturing tech, which uses a reciprocating platen to enable the manufacture of large and high-quality 3D printed parts. The laboratory noted that its next-generation additive manufacturing solutions could be used in the automotive, aerospace, and prototyping industries. Our goal is to demonstrate the potential of large-scale additive manufacturing as an innovative and viable manufacturing technology, said Lonnie Love, leader of ORNLs Manufacturing Systems Research group. We want to improve digital manufacturing solutions for the automotive industry.

ORNL has been at the forefront of many exciting additive manufacturing innovations. Last fall, the laboratory proved that its patented 3D printing technology really could make a difference in the automotive industry, as it showcased a 3D printed house and car capable of producing and sharing clean energy. For companies looking to take advantage of this technology, several ORNL patents are available for licensing on a nonexclusive basis, with Cincinnati Incorporated just the latest business to take advantage of the laboratorys offerings. Cincinnati Incorporated is a built-to-order machine tool manufacturer which has shipped over 50,000 machines over more than a century of operation.

5. Air Products to introduce new dew point monitoring system

Air Products, an international provider of industrial gases, is set to introduce a dew point monitoring system among its range of range of industrial gases, equipment, and technology solutions for powder metallurgy and additive manufacturing. The system will be showcased at POWDERMET2016, which takes place June 6-7 in Boston, Massachusetts.

In additive manufacturing and powder metallurgy, it is essential to maintain an appropriate atmosphere in order to achieve consistent quality across a sintered part. Air Products new dew point monitoring system helps to maintain that quality of atmosphere while helping manufacturers comply with CQI-9 and NADCAP requirements. According to Air Products, the system eliminates errors caused by drifting dew points, and requires minimal calibration and cleaning. Its features serve Air Products determination to improve product quality, reduce operating costs, increase yields, and enhance processing windows for metals processors around the world. Earlier this year, MarketsandMarkets estimated that the 3D printing gases market, in which Air Products is a prominent name, would be worth $45.12M by 2020.

6. Oerlikon Metco announces Twin 150 powder feeder for additive manufacturing

Oerlikon Metco, a global provider of solutions for performance-critical applications, has introduced a new multiprocess powder feeder, the Twin 150. The feeder, which can be incorporated into additive manufacturing systems as well as thermal spray and laser cladding, features three modes: Full Remote mode, in which the feeder is controlled by an external control system using UDP/IP or PROFIBUS protocols; Stand-Alone (manual) mode; and Remote On/Off mode, where an external mechanism turns powder feeding on or off.

The Twin 150 powder feeder uses two powder hoppers which can be used either individually or at the same time, giving users an added level of control over the function of the system. Additionally, several application-specific options are available with the feeder, suitable for a variety of powders under a range of conditions. Owners of many types of powder-fed systems will benefit from the ability of the Twin 150 to fully integrate into their automated system by allowing them to simplify their processing with better process control, said Omar Sabouni, product line manager.

Twin 150 powder feeder features:

Carrier gas: argon or nitrogen

Weight without hoppers: 110kg

Feeds powder of all types

Touchscreen interface

Powder hoppers available in 1.1L, 1.5L, and 5.0L capacities

7. 3D scanning market worth $6 billion by 2022

According to a report published by Global Market Insights, the 3D scanning market could be worth $6 billion by the year 2022. The market size was valued at $2.43 billion in 2014, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.5% between 2015 and 2022. 3D laser scanning, worth $1.5 billion in 2014, is expected to contribute in the majority of industry shares until 2022, while the market size of optical scanners will continue to rise with a CAGR of 11%. The market of short-range scanners is expected to occupy 46% of market share by 2022.

According to the report, increased adoption of 3D scanning for quality control, rapid prototyping, and reverse engineering purposes is contributing heavily to growth. 3D scanners can be used to quickly and accurately check the physical properties of components before they are sold or implemented, and are being used more and more frequently to create accurate 3D models of spare parts. By creating digital copies of particular components using 3D scanning tech, businesses forfeit the need to keep a large backlog of physical spare parts, saving manufacturing time and cost, and freeing up valuable storage space.

Technological advancements in the field of 3D scanning have served to reduce the complexity of hardware, making 3D scanners cheaper to produce and therefore more profitable for 3D scanner manufacturers. According to the report, major players in the 3D scanning market include Ametek (Creaform), 3D Digital Corp., Basis Software Inc (Surphaser), Maptek, Topcon and FARO Technologies.

Posted in 3D Printer Company

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Jun 4, 2016 | By Alec

Weather experts from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) have just successfully installed the first generation of low-cost 3D printed weather stations in the southern African nation of Zambia. All five stations have been built with the express purpose of providing local farmers with critical weather data, giving them the opportunity to greatly expand their agricultural productivity by optimizing planting and harvest times and avoiding storms and floods as much as possible.

This fantastic NCAR initiative, which is part of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), has actually been under development for some time. It was initiated by technologists Kelly Sponberg and Martin Steinson from the Joint Office of Science Support (JOSS) at UCAR, and has been on their agenda for years. While many farms in the developed world have access to state-of-the-art weather forecasting technology and are able to time their work around the weather (or avoid it altogether in greenhouses), rural farmers in Africa are still at the mercy of the elements. Sudden storms and floods can destroy complete harvests, making localized forecasting systems invaluable.

The only problem has been bringing that technology to those regions. Small weather forecasting systems are often too expensive, very costly to maintain and often impossible to customize or repair. This is exactly why the NCAR team turned to 3D printing: to develop custom stations that can be modified, are cheap to build and easy to replace if they wear out. As NCAR scientist Paul Kucera, one of the projects leaders, argued, this is a major breakthrough for farmers in the developing world. Its a major opportunity to provide weather information that farmers have never had before, he argued. This can literally make the difference when it comes to being able to feed their families.

This is perfectly reflected by life in Zambia. Like many African nations, it does not have many weather stations in operation. In fact, the density of these stations is eight times lower than recommended by the World Meteorological Organization. Each new station can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000, depending on the location, and that doesnt include maintenance costs.

But a 3D printed alternative can be built for just $300. Aside from the custom plastic parts, it is made with little more than off-the-shelf sensors and electronics. Most importantly, host countries can simply 3D print replacement components for next to nothing. If you want a different kind of wind direction gauge or anemometer, or you just need to replace a broken part, you can just print it out yourself, Steinson explained. Our role is to make this as accessible as possible. This is entirely conceived as an open-source project.

The first tests with these 3D printed weather stations were carried out last year, and those lessons have now been used to install five stations in Zambia. They are already transmitting data on temperature, rainfall, winds, and other weather parameters, providing local farms with the knowledge necessary to decide when to plant, fertilize and harvest crops. U.S. AID hydrometeorologist Sezin Tokar even went as far as calling this a life-saving 3D printing innovation. Not only can they provide countries with the ability to more accurately monitor for weather-related disasters, the data they produce can also help reduce the economic impact of disasters, Tokar said.

Three of these five stations were installed next to radio stations in collaboration with the Zambian Meteorological Department, and their data will be broadcast to local communities. Another is placed next to a rural hospital, and the last is located next to the HQ of the Meteorological Department. Later this year, that department will take the reins of this project, with the goal of building a network of 100 3D printed weather stations across the country. To do so, they will also be equipped with 3D printers and accessories.

These five stations currently in operation will be accessible for local meteorologists, as well as by NCAR over wireless networks. A system for one- to three-day regional forecasts for Zambia is currently on the agenda, which should help farmers and other residents prepare for impending floods or storms. The objective of the project is to transfer the technology so this will be run by Zambia, Kucera said.

But the 3D printed weather stations are already in demand elsewhere as well, and the NCAR team is looking to set up similar initiatives in other African nations and the Caribbean. Were hearing a lot of interest in using this technology in other countries, Kucera said. Its really quite a return on investment. Over time, this will also affect international forecasts, as more and more data about local weather situations is being gathered. The project is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the U.S. National Weather Service.

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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.
For hydrocarbon doomsayers, theres 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, and there are factors that may inhibit their growth in the next few years.

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, and renewable power capacity, including hydropower, increased by 148 gigawatts  another record  to 1.8 terawatts.

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.

One might think the energy revolution is fast displacing fossil fuels. Not really.

Although investment in renewables and in the oil industry are of comparable magnitude  $522 billion was invested in oil last year  sustainable energy is growing from a very low base.

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.

We read about the big successes  Costa Rica with 99 percent of energy generated from renewable sources, Uruguay with 92.8 percent, three German states with most of their energy coming from wind  but weaning the world off fossil fuels is 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. Its much harder to set up an equally effective mechanism in transportation, which uses the lions share of oil products.

Although solar and wind generation is already price-competitive with fossil fuels in many countries, modern electric vehicles are pricey, clunky (yes, even the Teslas) and far behind gas-powered competitors in terms of driving range.

It would be an expensive proposition for governments to subsidize them to a degree that would make them popular.

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.

This year, the growth is set to continue. And increases in renewables capacity may hit some obstacles soon.

Most of last years expansion came from additional wind and solar capacity. Countries such as Germany and Poland added a lot of wind power because their governments are about to end direct subsidies and move to tendering programs, which allow only the lowest bidders to build new power plants.

This is fair: European governments nursed sustainable energy producers when it was hard for them to compete with traditional generation on price, and now its time for a more market-based approach. The policy shift, however, will probably cause an investment slowdown starting in 2017.

Solar photovoltaic generation has another problem in markets where it has a large, established share, especially in Europe.

The more that solar PV penetrates the electricity system, the harder it is to recoup project costs, the REN21 report says. So an important shift is under way: from the race to be cost-competitive with fossil fuels to being able to adequately remunerate solar PV in the market.

Other markets, too, will eventually reach a point where government support has to be scaled back because its harder to justify, and the huge investments of today will become harder to recoup.

The current investment and growth rates in renewables are not quite natural, and they are not likely to last. Only major technological breakthroughs in energy storage, both for grids and for vehicles, could ensure another leap in sustainable energy use.

Without such breakthroughs, which will make traditional generation and powertrains vastly inferior to modern ones, demand for fossil fuels will remain strong for decades.

The International Energy Agencys projection for 2040, based on the current growth rate in renewables, has the share of natural gas used in power generation roughly at the same level as today. It doesnt predict any drops in oil demand.

Those who have predicted the end of the petrostates and permanently low oil prices are in for a long wait. Fortunes will still be made in fossil fuels, and oil dictatorships will probably keep squabbling and menacing their neighbors at least for most of our remaining lifetimes.

Leonid Bershidsky, a Bloomberg View contributor, is a Berlin-based writer.
The sisters stood in the wide, windswept fields of what had been a South Valley dairy farm and searched for that one spot they had come so far to find.

Somewhere here, their father, Navy Lt. Charles Bryant Dickson, had perished in the fiery crash of an AJ-1 Savage bomber on a practice run from Kirtland Air Force Base on June 8, 1951.

There had been little news reported on the crash. Military reports remained classified for decades. Like the bone and burning metal that had once been scattered in this field, information on the crash seemingly had been collected and quietly carted away.

But Diane Caralivanos and Gail Buchanan were persistent. The women, both from Marlton, N.J., eventually found people who knew about the crash. The military investigation into their fathers crash, which had also killed crew chief Alson Earl Prior Jr., 20, was declassified in 1991.

But documents were vague and memories were murky. And so here they were in this field, looking for an indication that they had found the right spot in what for them was sacred ground.

I told Gail, no, I need a sign, Caralivanos said. I dont want to leave without a sign.

Then, as if on cue, a jet raced high above them, etching its white contrail across the blue sky. And then another jet flew over, its contrail overlapping the first like a giant X above their heads.

Theres your sign, Buchanan said.

That was several years ago. Since then, the field where their father died is now part of the 570-acre Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge. The sisters and their husbands are now living in Rio Rancho.

I wanted to be with him, Caralivanos said. My fathers grave is in Arlington National Cemetery, but hes here in the South Valley.

Buchanan was 17 months old at the time of the crash, her memories of her father based on the stories told by her mother, also a Navy veteran. Caralivanos was 4 and remembers a little more  how her dad loved to fly, how on the day of the crash she had gleefully shouted Daddy! Daddy! when she saw her fathers Mercury drive up but someone else was driving it, how soon after that their mother had packed up and moved them back to New Jersey, without their father.

Over the years, the sisters started asking questions. But answers were hard to find.

It was a crash that had slipped through the cracks, Caralivanos said.

But answers, most of them, came. Through archived Journal articles, the declassified investigation into the crash and the eyewitness accounts of Adrian and Roger Straley, young farmhands at the time, the sisters began to piece together what had happened that day.

The best recounting came from Clayton Shepard, who survived the crash.

The 26-year-old was a field representative of North American Aviation, which manufactured the bomber, an aircraft designed to carry atomic bombs.

Shepard, who wrote his report for the military investigation, had been a last-minute substitution for the flight when the regular crew chief called in sick after having teeth pulled.

The bomber took off from Kirtland at 11:35 a.m., loaded with 16 100-pound water- and sand-filled practice bombs to be launched in the Los Lunas Bombing Range, about 22 miles southeast of the base.

All had been going smoothly until 11:58 a.m. when pilot Dickson noted that a fire warning light in the jet engine compartment had gone on.

It was like Fourth of July, Shepard wrote about what he saw in the compartment. I ran with all my might toward the cockpit, got up the stairs and screamed to the pilot, Abandon ship! 

The three men donned their parachutes and prepared to jump, the escape hatch door initially jamming.

Shepard was the first to jump. Prior was lined up behind him, followed by Dickson. It was high noon.

As Shepard floated to the ground, he noticed in horror that the others had not jumped.

I looked for chutes, he wrote. Why werent those men jumping?

Flames shot out of the aircraft, engulfing the bomber as it spiraled downward, upside-down, he wrote. Shepard hit the ground and watched as it crashed, exploding and disintegrating on impact.

It was 12:08 p.m.

I knew Charlie and Prior hadnt gotten out. I couldnt understand it. They had been right behind me, he wrote. I cried out for Charlie. Someone said, Never mind, hes all right now.'

The investigation concluded that the crash was likely caused by the electrical ignition of leaking gas fumes, though exactly how or from where could not be determined.

The investigation could not determine why Dickson and Prior had not jumped. Lack of evidence, it said.

Priors remains were identified by his wallet, Dicksons by the lieutenant bars attached to a portion of a khaki shirt.

Then, there had been no ceremony, no memorial, nothing.

That changes next week.

On Wednesday, the 65th anniversary, a ceremony will be held at Valle de Oro to commemorate the lives lost in the crash that slipped through the cracks until the sisters made sure it no longer did.

It is a long time overdue to honor the loss of those Navy men who died in the line of duty here, said Bernalillo County Commissioner Art De La Cruz, who was asked to step in by the sisters parish priest, the Rev. Daniel Gutierrez.

Eventually, its hoped that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages Valle de Oro, will grant permission to place a permanent memorial on the property, De La Cruz said.

So many people have helped this day arrive, the sisters say. But it was the sisters who would not let the memory of their father die with him, who searched the fields for him but found him instead in that place he loved, in the sky above their heads.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to ABQjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.

Remembering

A memorial will be held for Lt. Charles Bryant Dickson and Petty Officer 2nd Class Alson Earl Prior Jr. at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge, 7851 Second SW. The public is invited.
SANTA FE  Today is the last day of early voting for New Mexicos primary election on Tuesday, and the early turnout is already significantly higher than the last couple of presidential-year elections.

According to numbers released Friday by Secretary of State Brad Winters office, more than 88,000 New Mexicans had cast their votes at early voting sites by the end of the day on Thursday.

Thats well ahead of the early voting numbers recorded in the 2012 and 2008 primaries.

Were definitely seeing much more robust early voting turnout, said Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who oversees elections in the states most populous county.

Primary voters  registered Republicans and Democrats only  have been able to vote in county clerks offices since May 10. That was expanded as of May 21 to other early voting sites around the state. There are 126 of them, including the 33 county clerks offices.

After they close this evening  times vary by county  voters will have to wait until 7 a.m. on Election Day to cast ballots at New Mexicos nearly 600 polling places.

The two-day lull, required by law, gives county clerks an opportunity to prepare the final voter rosters and get the vote-tallying and other equipment to polling places for Tuesdays voting, state elections director Kari Fresquez said.

Absentee ballots, meanwhile, must arrive in the mail at clerks offices by Tuesday, or be dropped off at clerks offices or at a voters polling place on Tuesday.

According to figures from the Secretary of States Office, 88,009 people had voted early through Thursday, 58,842 Democrats and 29,167 Republicans.

In 2012, a total of 66,661 New Mexicans went to polling places before Election Day to vote in the primary; in 2008, that figure was 49,709.

In Bernalillo County, 33,454 voters had turned out through Thursday, compared to 25,581 for the 2012 primary and 17,151 for the 2008 primary.

About 70 percent of this years early voters in Bernalillo County were Democrats, and Toulouse Oliver attributed the spike in early voting to interest in the Democratic presidential primary  where Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are vying for the nomination  and a number of legislative and county-level contested Democratic primaries.

On the GOP side, Donald Trump has apparently sewn up the partys presidential nomination, although there are still five other candidates on the ballot.

This years primary election is not directly comparable to the previous two primaries. In 2012, there was an unopposed incumbent on the Democratic ballot, President Barack Obama. In 2008, the Democratic primary ballot didnt include the presidential contest  headlined by Obama and Clinton  because the party chose its nominee at a February caucus instead.

Fresquez said the lack of an incumbent in this years presidential primaries is contributing to the increased interest.

Theres just some excitement about getting to pick a brand new presidential candidate, she said.

Journal staff writer Dan McKay contributed to this report.
Members of the prison gang Sindicato de Nuevo Mexico, accused of racketeering, kidnapping, ordering a hit on the states corrections chief and other charges will get tablet computers to keep track of the thousands of documents being produced in the case.

Its a remedy suggested by the prosecution out of concern about having tons of paper floating around prisons, and available to prisoners with too much time on their hands and axes to grind.

The defense agreed to the arrangement, and to collectively hire a discovery coordinator whos loading the tablets.

But it is not without problems.

Various permutations of discovery issues consumed half a day Thursday in federal court for dozens of lawyers, law enforcement and security officials, court staff and 27 inmates in four different colors of jumpsuit  red, orange, yellow and green striped.

SNM, which formed after the bloody 1980 penitentiary riot, has expanded throughout the states prisons. The two indictments unsealed in December allege members and prospective gang members engaged in at least four murders, serious assaults and a hit ordered on the state Corrections secretary, as well as assault, kidnapping and conspiracy to distribute drugs and firearms.

U.S. District Judge James O. Browning is presiding over the case, indicted by a Las Cruces federal grand jury in late 2015. It was superseded this spring and more defendants and charges were added. The lead defendant, Angel DeLeon, is still at large.

Concerned about attorneys being able to take good notes and then fully explain what had happened later to their clients, Browning ordered defendants themselves and not their lawyers to inform the court if they wanted to skip the hearing.

Except for one defendant undergoing psychiatric testing out of state, all those who had been arrested thus far were brought from various corners of New Mexico, along with their impressive security contingents.

The place was packed. Cooperators were in the courtroom with others not cooperating. And additional threats have been made, the lead prosecutor said without offering specifics.

Besides the regular shackles, inmates had a black box over their handcuffs  a device that U.S. Marshal Conrad Candelaria said prevents any manipulation of the cuffs. At least one attorney complained that the black box coupled with his clients girth and a recent arm surgery meant his client was in pain.

But Browning said hed worn the cuffs himself for an hour the day before and found them uncomfortable, but not painful.

In addition to deputy marshals and state Corrections Department officers, there were members of the Security Threat Intelligence Unit in bulletproof vests and at least one K-9 officer. Defense attorneys and their clients occupied the jury box, all the seats at the defense table, and both sides of the spectator area save for a few spots reserved for news media.

An overflow courtroom had a video hookup so family members of the defendants could watch proceedings.

Although Browning used the largest courtroom, the lineup illustrated the difficulties of having a multidefendant case in which the death penalty is on the table. Death-eligible defendants are entitled to an attorney and a death specialist called learned counsel. Some of those attorneys participated in the hearing by phone.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Armijo, who is prosecuting the case and two related cases, one with overlapping defendants, said a decision from U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on whether the government would seek the death penalty against any defendant should come any day.

She said she expects to turn over about 10,000 documents in all. About half have been produced so far. But not all attorneys agree that documents should be on tablets.

Dean Clark, a Las Cruces attorney who represents defendant Leonard Lujan, is one of them. He said his client is listed in only the first two counts of a lengthy indictment.

The rumor mill is flooding in this case with so many defendants, he said, expressing concern about some witness statements being available to co-defendants.

Amy Sirignano, the attorney for Christopher Garcia, said although her client is not cooperating, prosecutors have released some statements that are putting defendants at risk.

Armijo told the court that the New Mexico Department of Corrections, which is paying for the tablets, needs to wait until the next fiscal year starts in July to order tablets for the handful of new defendants  but the lawyers dont want to wait.

They complained that no documents have been turned over since March.

Browning ordered discovery be completed within 30 days.

And to the consternation of some, he set a trial date for October, noting that it can be pushed back if necessary.
Albuquerque police Chief Gorden Eden in a letter to a city councilor gave a strong defense of his officers recent reverse sting operation, which appeared to target homeless and transient people, and drew criticism from multiple city officials and community leaders.

Eden said in the letter to City Councilor Pat Davis on Wednesday that the stings account for only about 4 percent of the narcotics units efforts and are one of the best ways to respond to complaints that focus on quality of life issues, such as people lingering in an area looking for drugs or people who appear to be under the influence. He said the narcotics unit gets complaints like those from residents, neighborhood associations and business leaders every week.

He also said seven of the eight people arrested during the recent sting had been arrested on suspicion of property crimes in the past year.

Thus, other criminal activity in and around District 6 may have been reduced by this reversal operation, he said.

Eden also said that people arrested on felony drug possession charges are offered substance and mental health assistance in jail, and most judges will include mandatory substance abuse treatment as part of a sentencing agreement.

This will often be the only reason these subjects will actually participate in treatment options, he said.

Eden said the narcotics unit does debrief after every operation, aimed at improving future efforts. Their focus was not to target the homeless population, he said.

The District Attorney, public defenders, city councilors and officials, and community groups have questioned a narcotics operation that narcotics officers held in southeast Albuquerque last month.

Undercover officers stood in a parking lot near Central and Pennsylvania SE, and then bartered with transient people and sold them crack cocaine for, in one case, $3 and a homeless mans jacket before arresting him.

Davis said he was surprised Eden offered such a strong defense of a practice so widely criticized.

I think were going back to square one  looking at what other options the council has to redirect our efforts, Davis said.

Previously, Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry said his office had no role in creating the tactical plan and said his administration has created several programs to help the homeless, such as offering them jobs and helping them find places to live.

District Attorney Kari Brandenburg questioned how valuable the arrests were and its unclear if her office will try to indict the eight people arrested.

Religious leaders were also critical of the practice, along with city councilors on both sides of the aisle.

I would expect the chief would listen to the concerns of the council, City Councilor Dan Lewis said. Obviously, there is better use of your, of our time, there is better use of our money.
LAS CRUCES  Was it a drunken night gone terribly wrong? A misunderstanding over an insensitive joke that cut a rift between two law enforcement officers deep enough to end in a fatal shooting? Was it cold-blooded murder or self defense?

There were only two people in Room 711 of the Hotel Encanto after midnight on Oct. 28, 2014, both Santa Fe County sheriffs deputies. One  Jeremy Martin  is dead and cannot tell his side of the story. The other is Tai Chan, who took the stand Friday to defend himself against first-degree murder charges.

The prosecution claims Chan killed Martin deliberately, shooting 10 rounds at his fellow deputy from behind. Martin, 29, was hit by five bullets in the back, buttock and arm.

The defense claims Chan, 27, was defending himself against aggression by Martin.

Chan testified for three hours on Friday. The cornerstone of his story is that Martin pointed a gun at him, punched him in the face and, as Chan struggled to wrest the gun from Martin, shots were fired  the first by Martin. The prosecution disputed those claims.

According to multiple witnesses, the night of the shooting started like this:

The two deputies stopped in Las Cruces after delivering a prisoner to Arizona. They got a room at the Hotel Encanto and headed out for a night of bar-hopping at Hooters, two hotel bars and a pub called Dublins. They drank a lot  pitchers of beer, vodka and Red Bull cocktails, Jagermeister and cinnamon whiskey shots.

According to witnesses, the night became tense when the deputies began talking about a double homicide that had occurred two days prior: the execution-style murders of 13-year-old AnaMarie Ojeda and her 18-year-old boyfriend, Venancio Venny Cisneros. Martin responded to the scene, according to a Santa Fe Sheriffs Office spokesman.

Chan told jurors that Martin brought up the double homicide while they were drinking at Dublins.

Chan said, Jeremy said, Those kids deserved to die because they were criminals.  And my argument was they did not deserve to die. They could grow up and change their lives. It was starting to get kind of heated, Chan said.

During that conversation, I said, Well, you killed them. You didnt get there fast enough. It was kind of to lighten the mood, to defuse the situation, Chan said, admitting to his counsel that, in retrospect, It was an insensitive comment.

The tension eased, then rose again. Martin walked away for a time. It was an up and down situation, as multiple witnesses described it. But when a cousin of Chans dropped the two men back at the hotel before midnight, they walked inside with their arms around each other.

According to Chan, once inside the room, Martin brought up the double homicide again  he was still angry. Martin punched him and tried to kick him in the groin, Chan said. Martin then went into the bathroom and Chan left the hotel, he said, walking across the street into the parking lots of the Red Lobster and what was then a Golden Corral restaurant.

Chan remembers calling his then-girlfriend, now-wife, Leah Tafoya-Chan, and being so confused and scared. Tafoya-Chan testified on Thursday that Chan was incoherent during the call, making strange statements.

Martin ultimately found Chan outside and accompanied him back inside, Chan said, the two men saying I love you, man to each other. But, once inside the hotel room, still apparently scared, Chan said he locked himself in the bathroom.

Chan said Martin banged on the bathroom door, screaming Open the (expletive) door repeatedly. Chan said he opened the door and yelled, Sit down, sit down, hoping that Martin would take a seat so we could talk it out. Martin walked toward a desk and chair, but did not sit down, according to Chan.

He turned around and he had a gun in his hand, Chan told the jury. It was in his left hand. He looked at me with this blank stare, like he was looking straight through me. I will never forget that look he gave me. And he just said, Im going to shoot you. Just a nonchalant, monotone voice. I just remember him lifting the gun up so fast and pointing it at me. I think I was just frozen. I thought that was it, and then I remember getting hit in the face.

The gun, according to numerous witnesses, was Chans own duty weapon, a Glock 31 handgun.

Chans recollection of events is spotty from this point, describing the scene as chaotic.

I started to struggle and grab and reach, and shots were going off, he said, momentarily breaking down during his testimony. I remember grabbing the gun and knowing I had the gun.  I turned around and I just started shooting.

Chan followed Martin out the door and kept shooting as Martin ran toward the elevators. Chan said, I didnt see if I was hitting him and when he realized Martin was running away, he stopped shooting.

He was going to kill me, Chan said. I had to defend myself.

The prosecution questioned Chans account of events.

Deputy District Attorney Gerald Byers asked, why would Martin grab Chans gun from his duffle bag when he was carrying his own duty weapon and a 9 millimeter Springfield pistol packed in his own bag?

James Martin, the victims brother, told the jury that his brother was right-handed and did not shoot with his left hand.

Police found Martin at the foot of the elevator doors, collapsed and bleeding on the lobby floor. He died of his injuries at a nearby hospital. Police found Chan at the top of a hotel stairwell, barefoot, and with blood on his hands and face.

Byers asked why, when apprehended by police, Chan never mentioned Martins name? Chan told police repeatedly there was danger inside the hotel and a bomb on the third floor  a claim he admitted to jurors was false, but which he repeated in order to get cops attention, he said.

Chan never asked police about Martin. He told jurors the first he heard about Martin was from a detective six hours after his arrest, that Martin was dead.

The Martin family declined to speak to the Journal, saying they would reserve comment until after the trial concluded. Martins widow, Sarah Martin, shook her head in silence during Chans testimony.

Closing arguments are expected on Monday.
WESTMINSTER, Calif.  Hillary Clinton said Friday that Donald Trump has lowered the bar with regard to keeping the peace at his rallies and creating an environment that encourages dialogue.

The likely Democratic nominee for president told CNN that the presumptive Republican nominee has set a very bad example by not condemning the violence increasingly associated with his rallies, whether by his own supporters or his opponents.

We must condemn all violence in the political arena, Clinton said.

Clinton once again hit Trump for the controversy surrounding his now-defunct Trump University, a real estate education program that some participants said made fraudulent promises, saying that the New York real estate mogul preyed on people.

He has taken them by asking them to max out their credit cards, to appoint financial despair and walked away. So I will let the lawsuits go on, Clinton said.

Trump University is the target of two lawsuits in San Diego and one in New York that accuse the business of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach secrets of success in real estate. Trump has maintained that customers were overwhelmingly satisfied with the offerings.

During a rally Friday in Westminster, Calif., Clinton attacked Trump for saying the federal judge presiding over a case has a conflict of interest because he is of Mexican heritage.

The judge is doing his job. Thats what he got appointed to do, Clinton said. And Donald Trump wants to change the subject like he does all the time. So instead of facing up to the facts that are coming out  he wants to change the subject and he is attacking a distinguished jurist.

Clinton also joked that, if Trump got into the White House, hes going to Trump you!

Just 70 delegates shy of clinching the Democratic nomination, Clinton now leads rival Bernie Sanders by 268 pledged delegates and her advantage grows with the superdelegates, party officials who can back any candidate. Both Clinton and Sanders were campaigning aggressively in California, which is among the states voting on Tuesday.

Sanders also dug into Trumps views on climate change during a rally in Fairfield, where temperatures soared past 95 degrees in a state dealing with drought, saying Trump concluded climate change is a hoax.
WASHINGTON  The West is suffering from what one leading strategist calls an autoimmune disease in trying to fight the Islamic State. The self-defense mechanisms championed by Donald Trump and his European neo-populist counterparts have gone into toxic overdrive  weakening the Wests body politic and making the jihadist fever far worse.

David Kenning, a British counter-radicalization expert, made this provocative argument in a telephone interview this week, and in recent research for various Western governments. His comments are part of a new wave of analysis that views the Islamic State more as an adolescent youth gang, driven by the identity politics of victimization than as a religious or ideological movement.

These skeptical analysts argue that many current messaging strategies against the Islamic State are backfiring and that polarizing politicians such as Trump have amplified the jihadists impact and been their best recruiting tool.

Islamophobia helps the jihadists by fueling their narrative about embattled Muslims, Kenning argues. It creates a sense of wounded community, a shared identity of having been wronged, which prompts violent revenge.

Watch the videos distributed by the Islamic State and youll often see young men atop pickup trucks in Syria and Iraq, their hair streaming in the breeze, cradling 50-caliber machine guns in an almost sexual way. Kenning explains why the self-styled caliphates appeal is so powerful with alienated, adolescent recruits:

The Islamic State brand is empowering. It tells you youre a victim, and offers a license for revenge. And, through social media, it offers you celebrity, a chance to be somebody rather than nobody. Anyone who thinks a theological argument could counter this is simply naive.

Trump is the leading American example of the polarizing populist response to the jihadists, but its in Europe where social cohesion is really beginning to crack. Politicians such as the Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage in Britain, the right-wing nationalist Marine Le Pen in France and the Muslim-bashing Geert Wilders in Holland are the faces of a Europe shaken by the dual onslaught of terrorism and Islamophobia.

Lapis Communications, a Middle East-based consulting firm that works with Kenning and other strategists, explains in a recent paper why Islamophobia helps the jihadists: Instead of undercutting recruiting, it pumps value into the brand.

We are dealing primarily with the adolescent mindset, contends Lapis, citing statistics that 90 percent of jihadists today are under 25. These militant youths want to see things in black and white. The only antidote, argues Lapis is the grey of social compromise and tolerance, of nuanced and considered thoughts.

Another contrarian analyst who shares this perspective is Marc Sageman, a psychiatrist and former CIA case officer. In a forthcoming book titled Misunderstanding Terrorism, Sageman explains the process of radicalization, stressing that its a community phenomenon, instead of an individual or religious one.

Sagemans hypothetical jihadist group emerges from a political protest community that is attacked by the state and, as society is polarized, becomes radical and violent.

Its a simple enough concept: People turn to violence when they feel their community is excluded and under attack.

What policies will best counter the Islamic State? I asked each of the analysts for suggestions. The common theme is that the counter-extremist campaigns should stop feeding the jihadists dreams by treating them as a terrifying Muslim threat to the West. Such talk just motivates them.

Radical Islam isnt the cause, its the excuse, Lapis says. Messaging that feeds the sense of an isolated and aggrieved Muslim community is the worst thing that can happen in the West, Kenning says.

Kenning argues that the best way to defeat Islamic State strategy is for the Trumps of the world to shut up. If they do that, the caliphate would quickly run out of steam.

Theyre rotten at governing, he says. The word on the street is that their caliphate is boring. Kenning thinks the best approach is to gradually pull the Islamic State apart  by exploiting the fault lines among those fighting under its flag.

The imagined community of the Islamic State is far weaker than it may seem, argues Sageman. What gives it strength, paradoxically, is fear and hatred from the West. The Islamic State is a threat to our security, to be sure, but so is the response from Trump and his fellow Muslim-bashers.

Email: davidignatius@washpost.com. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.
Thanks to a technology snafu, the University of New Mexico Hospital sent out medical information on more than 2,800 patients to where it was not supposed to go.

The hospital, in a news release, said that between Dec. 22, 2015 and April 2, staff erroneously sent 33 invoice documents  internal files that were meant for UNMH records  to 18 individual addresses.

Those documents included patient names, their providers names, dates when they received medical care and a brief description of the provided services, such as a flu shot or X-ray.

No financial, date of birth or Social Security information was included in the documents, said John Arnold, a spokesman for the UNM Health Sciences Center, which includes the hospital. UNMH is sending letters to the patients affected. In total, the names of 2,827 patients were released.

UNM Hospital is committed to protecting the privacy and confidential health information of all of our patients, and we take this incident very seriously, said Chief Privacy Officer Sarah Morrow in a statement. We have thoroughly investigated and identified the technical issues that led to the erroneous mailings, and we are monitoring the system to ensure this does not happen again.

Arnold said the issue arose when staff tried to integrate a new software system with an older one. The hospital learned of the issue when someone who received the documents contacted the hospital, That was in April, and Arnold said the issue has since been rectified.

They recovered some, but not all the documents, Arnold said. He also said the hospital will offer credit monitoring for the affected individuals.

Those with questions about the incident can call 877-216-4023 on Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Those who call should provide the reference number 59300051916.
Sandoval County voters head to the polls on Tuesday for the New Mexico primary election, with nominations for federal, state and county posts at stake.

Polls will open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.

As of Friday morning, the county bureau of elections had mailed out 1,918 absentee ballots and, as of Thursday, 7,572 people had voted early. Early voting ends today.

Registered voters in Rio Rancho who havent voted early or by absentee ballot will be able to vote Tuesday at any of 17 voting convenience centers located throughout the city.

Really, (voters) can vote anywhere, Sandoval County Bureau of Elections Manager Bernice Chavez said. Weve got 26 sites throughout the county. Say, like, if somebody was passing through Cuba and wanted to vote there, they can because Cuba has a VCC. Placitas does, too, Bernalillo and Corrales.

Candidates in several local state and county races are unopposed in their partys primaries, but several are contested.

Legislative races

In the Democratic primary for Senate District 9, incumbent John Sapien of Corrales faces a challenge from Jodilynn Ortiz of Placitas.

The Republican candidate for District 9, Diego Espinoza of Rio Rancho, is unopposed in the primary.

The candidates in Senate District 40, Republican incumbent Craig Brandt and Democrat Linda Sanchez Allison, both of Rio Rancho, have no opposition in the primary.

In House District 44, Republican incumbent Jane Powdrell-Culbert of Corrales is unopposed.

The Democratic challenger, Robert Benton Howell of Bernalillo is also unopposed.

In House District 57, Republican incumbent Jason Harper and Democrat Donna Tillman, both of Rio Rancho, are unopposed in the primary.

The House District 60 incumbent, Republican Tim Lewis of Rio Rancho is unopposed in the primary. There is no Democratic candidate.

House District 23 incumbent Paul Pacheco, a Republican from Albuquerque, and Democratic candidate Daymon Ely of Corrales have no primary opposition.

County races

Sandoval County Commission:

Republicans David Heil and Issach Martinez, both of Rio Rancho, are vying for their partys nomination for the District 4 seat on the Sandoval County Commission currently held by Glenn Walters, who cannot run again because of term limits.

The Democratic candidate, Alexis Jimenez of Rio Rancho is unopposed in the primary.

In District 5, Anna Messer and F. Kenneth Eichwald, both of Cuba, seek the Democratic nomination.

There is no Republican candidate in District 5.

In District 2, incumbent Commissioner Nora Scherzinger of Corrales and Republican Jay Block of Rio Rancho have no primary opposition.

Sandoval County Clerk:

In the race for Sandoval County Clerk, Donald Lemm of Rio Rancho and Pete Salazar of Placitas are bidding for the Republican nomination.

Democratic incumbent County Clerk Eileen Garbagni has no primary opposition.

Sandoval County Treasurer:

Seeking the Democratic nomination for county treasurer are James Baca and Eugene Rinaldi, both of Bernalillo, and incumbent Laura Montoya of Rio Rancho.

Republican Leroy Lovato of Bernalillo is unopposed in the primary.

  

Election info

For voting locations and other election information, go to ABQjournal.com/voter-guide.
A judge has decided to privately review the records of a state Senate ethics investigation of former Sen. Phil Griego, who has since been charged with public corruption crimes.

State District Judge Brett Loveless of Albuquerque will then rule based on the content of the records and legal arguments whether the documents must be turned over to the New Mexico Attorney Generals Office, according to Raul Burciaga, director of the Legislative Council Service.

A spokesman for the AGs Office said Loveless will rule based on the written legal arguments filed with the court and, if necessary, review the records.

The AGs Office, which is prosecuting Griego on bribery and other charges, has subpoenaed the investigation records, but the Legislative Council Service is fighting the subpoena, arguing the records are privileged and that the LCS is duty-bound to preserve and protect the independence and integrity of the Legislature. The LCS provides bill-drafting and legal services to legislators.

The AGs Office has argued that because the findings of the Senate ethics subcommittee were publicly released, the rest of the records should be released, as well.

Griego, a Democrat from San Miguel County who served more than 18 years in the Senate, is accused of using his position as a legislator to make money in the sale of a state building. He resigned from the Senate in March 2015 instead of facing possible discipline as a result of an ethics investigation into his role in the building sale.

The Legislative Council Service also fought a demand by the Attorney Generals Office for communications between Griego and aides who helped draft legislation authorizing the building sale.

But Griegos attorney, at a hearing Wednesday before Loveless, said Griego would agree to have the records released to the AGs Office, according to Burciaga. The records were later turned over, he said.
A 41-year-old Chaves County man was confirmed to have New Mexicos third travel-related case of Zika, a viral illness linked to severe birth defects, state health officials said Friday.

The man acquired the viral illness while traveling to Central America, the New Mexico Department of Health said in a written statement.

Zika is spread primarily through the bite of an infected mosquito. Two Aedes mosquito species known to transmit Zika virus have been found in Chaves, Dona Ana and Eddy counties.

There was no mosquito activity in Chaves County when the case occurred but it should serve as a reminder to people  to start taking precautions to reduce mosquito breeding sites on their property, said Paul Ettestad, the departments public health veterinarian.

Chaves County residents should empty out and scrub containers that have water in them to reduce mosquito breeding sites, he said.

Zika is especially dangerous for pregnant women because it can cause a rare birth defect called microcephaly, marked by a small head and cognitive disabilities. Zika virus usually causes a mild illness, often accompanied by a rash, joint pain and fever.

DOH confirmed the states second travel-related case of Zika on Wednesday in a Bernalillo County woman, 40, who acquired the virus in the Caribbean.

The states first case was confirmed in March in a Bernalillo County man, 46.

The CDC has issued travel warnings for anyone headed to specific countries where there is active mosquito-borne transmission of Zika virus. The latest list of affected countries can be found at nc.cdc.gov/travel/page/zika-information.
U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., joined local government officials Thursday to celebrate completion of the Lower Montoyas Water Quality Feature, a flood control waterway in the sandy desert hills between Rio Rancho and Corrales.

The first of its kind in the United States, the structure is designed to prevent sand accumulation and overflow using all-natural elements, including a living screen plant colony to filter out debris from storm water and barrier rocks to prevent sediment buildup.

It is intended to protect Corrales from floods during the upcoming summer rainy season.

The structure will preserve plant life and wildlife, preventing flooding while leaving the arroyo in its natural state. The area remains a functional open space for the surrounding community.

The Southern Sandoval County Arroyo Flood Control Authority project cost $2.1 million. SSCAFCA received a combination grant and loan award totaling $2 million for the project from the Environmental Protection Agency Clean Water State Revolving Fund. SSCAFCA funds for the project totaled $1.3 million, most of which were to guarantee the loan portion of the award ($1.2 million), SSCAFCA Executive Engineer Chuck Thomas said.

Other officials involved in the project included Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull, Corrales Mayor Scott Kominiak and U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M.

I just want to commit to all of you, that if you have projects like this  we will work with you, Udall said. He said he and Lujan are committed to assisting with future infrastructure projects and will ensure that adequate investments are made in the Clean Water State Revolving Fund.

Attendees recalled destructive instances of flooding in 2006 and 2013, which posed a danger to those living in the area.

As we all know, drainage is a major issue throughout the area  We saw what destructive power it can have in the desert, Hull said. I really appreciate the natural look of it (the new feature) and the attention to detail when it comes to green infrastructure. It just really looks nice and really blends well with the environment.
ATLANTA  Federal Bureau of Investigation officials say an alleged Gangster Disciple member indicted in Georgia has been arrested in Colorado.

FBI spokesman Stephen Emmett says 38-year-old Alvis ONeal was arrested Friday without incident by FBI Denvers fugitive squad and the Rocky Mountain Safe Street Task Force. ONeal was indicted April 28 in Atlanta on conspiracy charges related to his alleged criminal activities with the Gangster Disciples.

Authorities are still searching for 38-year-old Shauntay Lamarr Craig, another alleged board member of the street gang. He was also indicted April 28 on federal charges related to his gang related criminal activities. Hes the last remaining fugitive from the series of federal indictments.

Craig is described as 5-foot-10, 207 pounds with tattoos on his left and right arms, chest, right hand and left foot.
CORTEZ, Colo.  A researcher for the Colorado Water Conservation District says southwestern Colorado has a weather radar blind spot that makes it difficult to predict severe storms.

Forecasters say they are being forced to rely on radar installations in Grand Junction, Flagstaff, Arizona, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, and none of those stations can detect dangerous low-altitude conditions over hundreds of miles. Forecasters have to rely on satellite images, weather watchers and far-away radar images to make predictions in those areas.

Officials said several severe storms have hit the area without warning.

We cant forecast what we cant see, whether its water supply or extreme weather, said Colorado Water Conservation District researcher Joe Busto.

Jim Pringle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction, said none of the stations detect low-altitude, dangerous conditions in an area that reaches from Alamosa west to the Grand Canyon, and from Gallup, New Mexico, north to Moab, Utah.

We would like to see a radar station in that area, he said. On the weather maps, you can see the gap in your area where radar does not hit.

Scientists say the blind spots are caused in part by the curvature of the Earth. When straight-line radar beams reach southwest Colorado from the closest station in Grand Junction, theyre too high to do much good.

Last year, a winter storm hit San Juan County, Utah, as weather forecasts called for up to 16 inches of snow. That storm dumped up to 3 feet of snow in the northeast Navajo Nation, leaving residents struggling in waist-high drifts, forcing the tribe to declare a state of emergency.

Later that year, more than a foot of snow fell during a blizzard that caused whiteout conditions and closed U.S. Highway 491 from Cortez, Colorado, to Monticello, Utah, for 17 hours. The storm was blamed for a 19-car pileup that stranded motorists.

Meteorologist Jim Andrus, of Cortez, provides information for the National Weather Service in the blind spot, using the internet at the Cortez Public Library, the Cortez Journal reported (http://tinyurl.com/jy39ukh ).

Ive had several incidents where there were no radar echoes showing up on the weather channel, but its raining or snowing outside, Andrus said. Radar is not picking up low-level storms.

In 2014, Andrus alerted the weather service to a severe storm that approached Cortez from a blind spot near Ute Mountain. The weather service issued a warning based on Andrus report from the ground, and people were able to scramble to safety.

It hailed, and trees were blown down. Radar can tell you how intense a storm is, he said.

___

Information from: Cortez Journal, http://www.cortezjournal.com/
GREAT FALLS, Mont.  The Montana Department of Environmental Quality is asking a bankruptcy court to set aside more than $6 million from the owner of a Fergus County gold mine to ensure treatment of polluted water after the state said it does not have enough cash for the cleanup effort.

Colorado-based Atna Resources Inc. and six affiliates  Atna Resources Ltd., Canyon Resources Corp., CR Briggs Corp., CR Kendall Corp., CR Montana Corp. and Horizon Wyoming Uranium Inc.  filed for bankruptcy protection in Colorado in 2015.

The CR Kendall Mine is an open pit gold mine that closed in 1997. The company could not be reached Saturday for comment.

Mines are required to provide a bond for cleanup, but Montana officials say they need more money from the bankruptcy court to cover cleanup costs.

The department filed the latest claim with the court against CR Kendall Corp. last month as part of Atnas bankruptcy protection proceedings.

The department is requiring a long-term water management and treatment for 10 to 40 years for the removal of thallium and arsenic, beginning this year. The state says it has enough money for seven years of environmental protection, the Great Falls Tribune reported (http://tinyurl.com/j6gxvvs ).

Kendalls original bond is more than $2 million with interest. The state says it needs to make up the balance of $8.4 million.

The state says the company has also done a lot of cleanup on its own.

Bonnie Gestring, northwest program director for the environmental group Earthworks, said there is a big question about who will pay.

We have yet another mining company and another bond that is inadequate leaving taxpayers in a position of liability and leaving people living downstream having to worry whether they are going to have clean water, Gestring said.

___

Information from: Great Falls Tribune, http://www.greatfallstribune.com
Police have identified the people killed in a Friday morning crash on Interstate 25 near Algodones as a 21-year-old woman from Albuquerque and 60-year-old woman from Tennessee.

Elena Gonzalez, 21, was driving the wrong way on I-25 when her car collided with a truck carrying Peggy Christ, 60, of Columbia, Tenn. Both women died of injuries sustained in the crash, according to State Police spokeswoman Sgt. Elizabeth Armijo.

A driver and second passenger in the truck with Christ were transported to a local hospital, where they are in stable condition, Armijo said.

Police believe that Gonzalez was on drugs as she drove south in northbound lanes of I-25 just south of Algodones, Armijo said.

Armijo said the crash remains under investigation by the State Police Crash Reconstruction Unit.
FreeCharge, Indias fastest growing digital payments platform today announced its partnership with OYO, the largest branded network of hotels in the country. With this partnership, consumers can use the Freecharge wallet to pay across OYO platforms in less than 10 seconds for over 5500 hotels in a swifter and secure way. The partnership will also help OYO get access to FreeCharges robust partner network and bring more value to its consumers and partners.



With this partnership, Freecharge is further strengthening its partner ecosystem and expanding its footprint in hospitality segment. Freecharge had earlier announced its partnership with Cleartrip, it is now steadily making in-roads into travel and hospitality sector.



Speaking on the partnership, Govind Rajan, CEO, Freecharge said, OYO has brought about a real overhaul in the hospitality industry, providing travellers with a wide array of places to stay as per their requirements. With consumers getting access to over 5500 hotels and 65000 rooms, Freecharge will further enhance the experience of booking by providing travellers with a safer and swifter way to pay with our wallet anytime, anywhere. We are focussed on building habit commerce and are moving towards building a less-cash society. Our partnership with OYO marks another aspect of a persons life that will be made more convenient with our wallet.



Abhinav Sinha, COO, OYO added, At OYO, we focus on enhancing guest-experience through tech-powered solutions. Agility and innovation are factors that determine our choice of partners. Freecharge offers a fast and reliable payment option through which guests can book a room in any of our partner-hotels across 170 cities. This partnership undoubtedly makes the purchase experience on OYO more convenient and seamless.



The Freecharge wallet is the fastest growing wallet in the country with a reach of 30% as reported by Nielsen Informate Smartphone Panel study. With a 99% success rate, Freecharge has the best payments success rate in the country.



In the recent months, FreeCharge has expanded its footprint across 15 sectors and customers across India are using Freecharge to pay for various services. With each partnership, Freecharge is well on its way to make Freecharge wallet ubiquitous in both online and offline segment.





In the recent months, FreeCharge has expanded its footprint across 15 sectors and customers across India are using Freecharge to pay for various services. With each partnership, Freecharge is well on its way to make Freecharge wallet ubiquitous in both online and offline segment.


Lokmat, Countrys No. 1 daily today organized a conclave on Indo-Pak relations - 'India &Pakistan  A dialogue without borders'via the Lokmat Knowledge Forum. The conclave was organised with an intention to energize efforts to improve bilateral ties between the two countries. It provided a platform to discuss ways to strengthen the ties between India and Pakistan and move forward towards the path of growth. It was graced by High Commissioner of Pakistan, His Excellency, Mr. Abdul Basit; Senior diplomat and Ex--Ambassador Mr. Vivek Katju; Head of BJP Foreign Affairs Wing, Mr. Seshadri Chari; Senior Congress spokesperson Ms. Priyanka Chaturvedi and Jatin Desai, Senior journalist.

Mr. Rishi Darda, Editorial Director, Lokmat Media Pvt. Ltd., articulating the ups and downs in the relationship between the 2 countries since independence, shared, From Lokmat I am thankful to Mr Abdul Basit for attending todays event and w are privileged to host this special event. As the leading newspaper of the country, we have always voiced the opinions and concerns of our readers and todays Lokmat Knowledge Forum is a unique platform to help our readers experience a historic debate. We promise more such thought provoking debates will form the future content of our Lokmat Knowledge Forum. I take this opportunity to thank all participants for attending this special event. 

Delivering Key Note address for the Conclave, Mr. Abdul Basit said, "I would like to thank Lokmat for organizing this event and inviting me to be a part of the Knowledge Forum. We want to strengthen our relations with India and the only way to resolve issues is by discussing them. Peace with India can wait, dialogues can be put on hold for a while, but we can't afford any delay in restoring peace in Afghanistan which is affecting our growth and progress. Sky is the limit for India and Pakistan to coordinate and make progress, but to achieve that consistent efforts to solve the issues and political will is must. Small steps like this forum can help us improve relations. Non-discriminating market access, working towards enhancing connectivity by improving flight service, etc. can also be helpful."

It was followed by a panel discussion among the dignitaries on the topic: 'Dialogue without borders'. Panelists also discussed on ways to improve their neighborhood relationship by simplifying policies and trade ties that would boost economies of both the countries. The discussion centered around political challenges and issues between the countries and the need to resolve them.The members were nearly unanimous on the need to take confidence building measures and build the atmosphere of trust between both the countries.

Highlighting ways to settle down political issues Mr. Vivek Katju said that, " It is very vital to enhance the space of interest amongst the two countries is very important. Violence and war cannot provide us with any solution. Advocating talks can help us resolve issues, governments of both countries should focus on trade, connectivity and un- interrupted talks."

Talking on the occasion Mr. Seshadri Chari highlighted that, Disputes and issues can be resolved only by talking about them rather than stopping the dialogue . Indian delegates usually face challenge about whom to communicate in Pakistan authorities as there are changes in the authorities very often. Continuous dialogue can definitely lessen the differences, enhance economy and benefit both countries. Cultural give and take could be a key factor in enhancing relationship."

Ms. Priyanka Chaturvedi added, We need to move beyond talks, there's a need of engagement and connectivity between people of both the countries. We also need to identify common grounds and analyze the opportunities that can help build strong relations between India and Pakistan.

Providing his viewpoint, Mr. Jatin Desai said that, " There needs to be continuous dialogue, between nations like Indian and Pakistan. It is noticed that any unfortunate event disrupts the dialogue. Youth of both countries want to move ahead leaving behind the old disputes. Journalists should be allowed to report the events in both countries, no hard copy of Indian or Pakistani newspaper is received in both countries. "

This panel discussion was followed by a question and answer session with the audience. The relationship between India and Pakistan has been full of ups and downs post the independence. Divided by partition 69 years ago, people of both the nations have always wished to feel the lost warmth of camaraderie and brotherhood. This is the reason why the peace process between the two countries is most keenly watched development. This conclave organized by Lokmat provided a platform to know both the sides of the story on issues regarding the past and steps to improve their future together.
As the threat of infected mosquitoes reaching the U.S. climbs, the Air Force continues to closely monitor the emergence of Zika virus infections to help inform and protect Airmen and their families.The World Health Organization declared Feb. 1 that the Zika virus is a public health emergency of international concern. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all at-risk communities should prepare for possible Zika activity.Col. (Dr.) John Oh, the Air Force Medical Support Agencys chief of preventative medicine, explains that Zika is primarily transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. Unlike other mosquitoes, Aedes mosquitoes are aggressive day biters but can also bite at night.Almost all cases of Zika virus infection within the U.S. have come as a result of a mosquito vector obtained through living and traveling in Zika-infected areas , the colonel said.The number of countries and territories with Zika transmitted locally is growing. There are over 45 now, including countries in Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa, he said.It is also possible for the Zika virus to be sexually transmitted from males to females. Thus far, there have been no reported sexual transmissions from female to male.The symptoms of Zika virus infection are similar to dengue, another mosquito born infection, and include fever, skin rashes, headaches and joint pain, Oh said. However, unlike dengue, Zika symptoms are usually mild, and many infected people dont have any symptoms.Evidence now supports that there is a risk of birth defects from Zika virus, he continued. There is enough evidence that it is causal; however, there is still a lot we dont know about birth defects and Zika. Eighty percent of cases are asymptomatic.The colonel advises pregnant women to take every precaution to prevent mosquito bites, especially in the first trimester.In response, the Air Force has developed policy guidance for relocation of pregnant Air Force members and dependents from outside the continental U.S., in areas where there is active transmission of the virus When considering this policy, we really encourage pregnant women to consult with their health care providers, Oh said. Health care providers can help to assess individual risk of Zika infection, factoring in the home environment, for a shared decision between patients and their providers.He also encourages pregnant women diagnosed with Zika to enroll in the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry . The registry follows those enrolled and data collected helps improve prevention of Zika virus infection during pregnancy and updates clinical care recommendations."Everyone can help prevent Zika by getting rid of standing water where the mosquito vector can breed. We all need to pay careful attention to our surroundings, Oh said.According to the Air Force Integrated Mosquito Management publication, any container that holds water for five to seven days can breed mosquitoes.Breeding areas include:- Discarded cans and plastic containers- Glass bottles or any broken bottles- Tires and tarps- Obstructed roof gutters- Plant pot saucers- Holes in unused construction blocks or bricks- Pipes- Barrels (Rain barrels or other storm-water collection containers should be treated with mosquito larvicides or mosquito fish to prevent mosquito development)Outdoor equipment tips:- Bird baths should be drained and re-filled at least weekly- Pet food and water bowls should be emptied and filled daily- Flower pots with bases that hold water should have excess water drained if left outdoors- Yard equipment should be stored so as not to collect waterFeatures of Aedes mosquitoes:- Lives outdoors, but comes indoors- Egg to larva to adult in one week or less- May lay eggs indoors- Rests in low, shaded areas such as under tables and chairs- Silent flier, with no buzzingProtection:- Use Environmental Protection Agency-registered insect repellant, according to product label- Treat clothing with permethrin insecticide- Stay inside air-conditioned or screened buildings- Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants- Empty containers of water weeklyAny beneficiary who has a question about travel health or Zika is encouraged to visit public health, even before a planned trip.
Maharashtras revenue minister Eknath Khadse, who allegedly used black money to buy MIDC, reportedly resigned on Saturday. He is facing allegations of impropriety in a land deal.

Although there was no official confirmation at the time of filing this report, news agencies said that the decision to resign may have been a consequence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis briefing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah on the issue on Friday.

Khadse, who is the senior most minister in the Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis cabinet and commands enormous clout, of late has been mired in controversies with a questionable land deal in Pune and an alleged demand for bribe by his close aide Gajanan Patil for a land allotment case in Kalyan. Apart from these doubtful real estate transactions, his mobile phone number allegedly appeared in the call records of most wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

According to reports it is belived that, the resignation came after a phone call from Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari to Mr Khadse, conveying that he should obey the party diktat.

Earlier, speaking in Delhi, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said he had submitted the facts to BJP president Amit Shah on the allegations against Mr. Khadse.

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.

A delegation of NCP and Congress leaders had also met Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively and demanded Khadses resignation.








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A lot of people have been complaining about the way they got treated badly when they tried to purchase food from certain restaurants. These people claim to have been rudely treated at certain restaurants in Toronto. This was something that I found very hard to believe at first until I got a first-hand experience of such treatment at the Gabardine Restaurant  an experience I will never forget easily. It is therefore not surprising to find out that most people consider some of the restaurants in Toronto as being pretentious.

One very noticeable characteristic that is very prevalent among restaurants in Toronto when compared to restaurants in other parts of Canada is the apparent penchant for pretentiousness. There are restaurants in Toronto that really have very little or no regard for their customers and a clear example of this pretentious nature can be found at the Gabardine Restaurant. My recent experience at The Gabardine was enough proof of their potenital for rudeness to customers. I went there just at the beginning of the dinner hour when the restaurant was mostly empty.



Three servers/staff were standing near the door. I asked to get a slice of their German apple pie packaged as takeaway. Their response was "We don't normally do take-out during dinner1". So, I think to myself, "Excuse me, but it's not like you're running from table to table right now taking orders. In Toronto it seems that restaurants that aspire to be "exclusive" in some way try to integrate rudeness and an overall lack of customer service accessibility.



The restaurant industry is a very competitive business. But it seems that many restaurants in Toronto have opted for rude behaviour and poor customer services as a means of coping with a competitive environment for restaurants.

The attitude of staff at the Gabardine that day is just a tip of the iceberg as there are daily reports by people who patronize restaurants, giving accounts of how they got treated negatively at one restaurant or the other in Toronto. It is about time that something is done about this pretentious nature where certain restaurants are portrayed as being first class in terms of how they render their services to customers on various advertising sites whilst the direct opposite is done in reality. The Gabardine has had some nice customer reviews online where they are portrayed as being customer-friendly. However, that brief experience just brought to light how they can preach virtue but practice vice when it comes to rendering services to its customers.








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On the 4th of May, 2016, a retired aerospace engineer by name William Tompkins who served in the Navy for over 40 years was interviewed by a radio station. This interview was in connection with the much debated topical issue of alien existence on the Earth. With the elites in constant denial that there is nothing like alien life on this earth, William Tompkins side of the story begs the question, For how long have these Elite few been in contact with the Manipulative Aliens?

An article that was recently published by Dr Michael Salla on the William Tompkins interview gives a better timeframe with regards to when these manipulative aliens started contacting the high and mighty. Dr Michael Salla claims that these aliens were around before World War I and even supported the Nazis in the construction of underground bases in Antarctic. These bases were used in the construction of Space ships by the Germans with support from the aliens which Dr Michael Salla claims to be reptilian in nature. It would be recalled that there was a flurry of German/Nazi activities from 1911 to 1913 in the Antarctic which is commonly known as the Second German Antarctic Expedition. According to Tompkins it was within this same period that the Germans/Nazis started carting tools and supplies to their bases in the Antarctic. These claims by Tompkins were also later vilified when Karl Donitz, a German Grand Admiral, during his trial stated emphatically that they had, an invulnerable fortress, a paradise-like oasis in the middle of eternal ice. By this he was secretly referring to the underground bases that the Germans/Nazis had constructed with support from the reptilian aliens.

Further research conducted by Dr Michael Salla revealed that these German/Nazi activities were really being controlled by some few elite people who had formed a secret society which further buttresses the point that manipulative aliens have been living among us for a very long time now. The truth can never be buried and it is just a matter of time with regards to when the whole world will become aware of the existence of manipulative aliens on this Earth.
June 3, 2016

The German parliament's (Bundestag) recognition of the tragedy that had befallen Ottoman Armenians in 1915 as genocide was no surprise. Everyone knew it was coming.

And yet disbelief characterized the Turkish government's response to the German action. It was such a disbelief that Turkeys staunchly Erdogan-loyalist new Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, just a few minutes prior to the vote at the Bundestag, referred to his conversation with his German counterpart, Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"There is a vote at the German parliament  They intend to hold us responsible for the events of 1915. When desperate situations arise in politics, such bright ideas come to mind. This is one example. I told Angela Merkel, 'Germany is a strong ally of Turkey; as such, we hope it will not be involved in such an irrational act.' She said to me, 'We will do our best.' And I told her that nothing can happen there [the Bundestag] despite her wishes. We'll see what happens. Germany is passing through a real test of friendship," Yildirim said at a party meeting.

And Germany failed Yildirim's test.

Worse, Merkel proved to be a non-entity when it comes to confronting the Bundestag and diminished her reliability in the eyes of Turkish authorities, who are reluctant to work with the European Union (EU) in the future.

Only a day before the German vote, Yildirim had referred to what had happened to the Armenians in 1915 as an "ordinary event." President Recep Tayyip Erdogan went further. In an intimidating tone toward Berlin, he asserted that Ankara has no problem whatsoever with what he labeled "the so-called Armenian genocide." If the draft would pass the Bundestag, then all relations with Germany will be impaired.

Such intimidation by Turkish authorities may have been prompted by the signing of the refugee deal with the EU  the agreement was Merkel's brainchild. Especially Merkels "realpolitik," in which she appeared excessively appeasing toward Erdogan at home and abroad, probably motivated German legislators to pass the bill, which was postponed before and not discussed during the genocide's centennial anniversary last year.

The draft law that was put into vote only two months ago was brought to the Bundestag jointly by Merkels Christian Democratic Union; its main Bavarian ally, the Christian Social Union; its coalition partner in government, the Social Democrat Party; and the opposition Greens, whose co-chairman, Cem Ozdemir, is of Turkish origin. Originally, the draft had been prepared by former communists Die Linke (The Left).

For days, Turkish nationalists campaigned against the resolution and a planeload of them had traveled to Berlin to demonstrate in front of the Bundestag. Berlin is home to one of the largest conglomeration of Turkish people outside Turkey  almost 300,000 Turks (including those of Kurdish origin) reside in Berlin. The campaign against the draft law even involved Ozdemir's harassment, who disclosed publicly that he has been personally threatened.

That the Armenian genocide resolution was accepted in the Bundestag after such a heated contest is significant. There was only one abstention and a single vote against it.

This result, naturally, is a blow not only to Erdogan's standing in Turkey, but also to the prestige of Merkel and her Social Democratic Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, because both had implied that it would be unwise for Germany to adopt such a resolution at a time when they need the Turkish government's cooperation over the refugee deal. Merkel mentioned putting the resolution to vote at the Bundestag "an unfortunate coincidence."

In contrast to Merkel, Ozdemir  the Green of Turkish origin and leading pioneer of the resolution  emphasized how "historical facts should not be concealed because of possible consequences of passing such a resolution." The Bundestag's Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Norbert Rottgen from CSU, who is at the political opposite of the Greens, said, "When it is a matter of genocide, diplomatic sensitivities should come to an end."

German President Joachim Gauck, who enjoys a reputation for his conscientiousness and his work as a human rights advocate, had already called the events in 1915 genocide during its centenary in April 2015.

Although it is not legally binding, the resolution that the Bundestag passed not only recognizes the events of 1915 as genocide, but it also opens the way to modify how it is written in German textbooks.

Probably one of the most interesting and important aspects of the Bundestag resolution on the Armenian genocide is its mentioning Germany as "a partner in crime" of the Ottoman-Turkish government of the "Young Turks," and thus accepts to face its own history in a self-critical way  similar to the way it had done with acknowledging Germany's irrefutable responsibility for the Holocaust during World War II.

Consequently, the resolution  while underlining the "uniqueness of the Holocaust"  places the Armenian genocide in the same category and puts some of the responsibility on Germany's shoulders.

Hence, the Bundestag's genocide resolution serves as an important document and a reference point in transitional justice, elevating Germany to a moral high ground.

So far 23 countries  among them France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland  have adopted similar resolutions. But Germany's position is special in this respect, because it was the country that took part in atrocities that go back to 1915 as the major ally of Ottoman Turkey. Furthermore, Germany has a leading status within the EU, hosts more than 2 million Turkish nationals and enjoys other bonds with Turkey, especially as its largest foreign trade partner.

From the viewpoint of Armenians  especially those in the diaspora, who for decades have made the recognition of the genocide the main component of their identity and an almost existential issue  Germany's recognition is considered the "last exit before Washington."

Because more than anything else, the recognition of 1915 as genocide by the US Congress would be the crown jewel for Armenian efforts.

Could that happen one day? That's too early to tell, but obviously the German legislative body's decision will inform other Western countries' actions.

The repercussions from Turkey have been as predicted. Three of the four parties that are represented in the parliament  with the exception of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party  protested the Bundestag resolution.

Yildirim accused Germany of succumbing to the Armenian lobby. The Turkish ambassador in Berlin was recalled and returned to Turkey on the evening of the day the resolution passed.

Meanwhile, Erdogan said the resolution will have a very serious impact on Turkish-German relations at every level. As a first step, he reminded everyone of the ambassador's recall. Despite his well-known fiery rhetoric, his initial reaction could be termed muted.

On the German side, Merkel was quick to define the bilateral relations with Turkey as "strong." Understandably, she was trying to downplay the drama and preserve the refugee deal. Her political career is obviously tarnished from all her dealings with Erdogan; she probably wants to prevent further damage.

So how would the German parliament's resolution affect Turkish-EU relations?

A day before the vote, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, a Merkel protege, had warned the Turkish government not to overplay its hand and think twice before taking a dramatic step. The Europeans, it seems, calculate that Turkey does not have much room to maneuver in the bilateral game.

The first 24 hours displayed the predictable nervousness on the Turkish side, but nothing beyond that. Even Erdogan was not harsh and tough, which he usually is. The Turks might actually be thinking twice.

If in the coming days and weeks no dramatic moves come out of Ankara, the resolution of the German Bundestag will be registered as yet another defeat inflicted on Turkish foreign policy in 2016.
One of Birmingham's oldest public housing projects is moving forward with a massive renovation after receiving approval for $17 million in tax credits.

Loveman Village in Birmingham's Titusville neighborhood is expected to be a $79.6 million project. The Alabama Housing Finance Tax Authority has approved $17 million in credits.

The credits will help fund the first phase of the four-phase development, replacing the first 100 units at the current development. The 61-year-old site will be demolished and replaced with less-dense housing.

The federal Rental Assistance Demonstration, or RAD, is financing the project. The program allows housing authorities to mortgage its properties or use conventional private loans to finance redevelopments.

Loveman Village has 500 units, and the renovated project will have 220 units. The idea is that lower-density projects prevents higher concentrations of poverty. RAD requires replacing each unit, so the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District plans to add units to several existing sites, including 120 units off Sydney Drive in the Oxmoor Valley neighborhood.

"We want to be good neighbors and strong partners in growth and development throughout the city," Michael Lundy, President and CEO of the Housing Authority, said in a statement. "We are transparent and we're going to let the communities play a role in what we're doing."

Hollyhand Development of Northport is developing the project.

The Housing Authority's Board of Commissioners will hold its next regular board meeting at Loveman Village June 20 to share the project's details with residents and the public.
Mother Angelica was honored posthumously this week with the President's Medallion from the Catholic Academy of Communication Professionals.

Mother Angelica, founder of the Alabama-based EWTN Global Catholic Network, died on Easter Sunday, March 27.

The medallion was presented on June 2 during the annual Gabriel Awards gala at the Catholic Media Conference in St. Louis. EWTN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw accepted the award, the Academy's highest membership honor, in recognition of Mother Angelica's lifetime achievements and contributions to Catholic communications.

Warsaw thanked the Academy members for honoring Mother Angelica and told the audience that he had once asked Mother what she thought her legacy and the legacy of EWTN would be.

"She said her legacy, and the legacy of the Network, would not be what had been done, but how it had been done - by relying totally and completely on the Providence of God," recalled Warsaw. "So I would encourage everyone, particularly those in Catholic media, to follow Mother's example of relying upon God's Providence in your own lives as you work to spread the Gospel."

The Catholic Academy of Communication Professionals is an organization of broadcasters, communications directors, public relations personnel, and other professionals involved in using media to serve the Church. The Academy honored Mother Angelica in 1984 with its Personal Achievement Award for her efforts in founding EWTN.

EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 35th year, is the largest religious media network in the world. EWTN's 11 TV channels are broadcast in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to over 265 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories. EWTN also includes radio services transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and over 500 domestic and international AM & FM radio affiliates; a worldwide shortwave radio service; the largest Catholic website in the U.S.; electronic and print news services, including "The National Catholic Register" newspaper, and two global wire services; as well as a publishing arm.
A 16-year-old boy was killed and a teenage girl suffered life-threatening injuries in an early Saturday morning shooting in Birmingham.

Birmingham police received a report at around 2:45 a.m. of someone shot in the 200 block of 12th St. South, according to police.

On the scene, officers found a boy, later identified as Julius Kelvon, shot and unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The girl was transported to UAB Hospital for treatment of her injuries. She is now in stable condition, according to police.

Birmingham police say several men opened fire on the victims while they were waiting for a friend on the side of the road. The shooters fled the scene prior to the officers' arrival.

The motive behind the shooting is currently unclear. No suspect information was available for release.

"Mr. Kelvon lost his life this morning, and his family has a lot to deal with right now," Sgt. Bryan Shelton said. "Our job is to get them the answers they deserve and bring the suspects to justice."
A 45-year-old Birmingham man was arrested today in connection with a Tuscaloosa kidnapping and shooting in April.

Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit Assistant Commander Kip Hart said Charles D. Moore, 45, of Birmingham, has been charged with first degree kidnapping.

Investigators believe Moore assisted two other men in an incident that happened April 4.

Tuscaloosa police responded about 1:30 p.m. Monday, April 4, to a report of shots fired at Brookstone Apartments at 2300 Fifth Avenue East. When officers arrived on the scene, witnesses told them several suspects had kidnapped a 21-year-old man.

The men forced their way into the apartment and brought out the victim at gunpoint. At some point during the altercation, one of the suspects fired his weapon in the parking lot.

About 4 a.m. the next day, police received information that the victim was possibly at UAB Hospital. Investigators verified that he was there, and said it appeared the abductors brought the victim to Birmingham. He was found on a roadway, where a passerby picked him up and took him to a fire station.

Authorities said the victim knew at least one of his abductors through the drug trade, and believe acquaintances of the victim participated in the earlier drug deal, described as a "rip-off."
Birmingham police are looking into the shooting of a woman who drove herself to a service station near the airport.

Lt. David Rockett said the incident happened about 9:30 p.m. A 20-year-old woman told police she was shot in the foot during the course of a robbery and was able to driver herself in a gray Dodge to a Shell service station on Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard.

The woman called authorities from the station and was taken to St. Vincent's East.

Rockett said a detective will take a statement at the hospital as police continue to investigate at the scene.
An FBI accountant testified Friday that during a seven-year period Birmingham Health Care transferred nearly $12.7 million to its former CEO Jonathan Dunning and his companies.

The accountant testified in the federal fraud trial of Dunning, the former nonprofit CEO of both BHC and Central Alabama Comprehensive Health Inc. (CACH) in Tuskegee. Dunning faces 112 fraud and conspiracy charges in connection with diverting to his own companies millions of dollars in federal grant money 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 for lease agreements with BHC on buildings.

Craig Kolodjeski, who is a member of the FBI's Forensic Accounting Support Team, or FAST, testified Friday that he was asked to look at payments to Dunning and his companies from BHC for the years 2008 through 2014. Dunning had left his job as CEO in November 2008 to run companies he had set up to contract for services to BHC, which in turn also had a contract to manage CACH.

Kolodjeski, under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tamarra Matthews-Johnson, testified that over that period of time BHC paid Dunning and his half dozen companies $12,659,418. The companies included three different Synergy real estate companies, and management consulting and billing firms.

Some checks from 2007 were not included in his report for prosecutors, Kolodjeski said.

Kolodjeski, however, said that he was not called upon by prosecutors to make an opinion on whether any of the transactions were improper or involved theft.

Bill Athanas, one of Dunning's attorneys, asked Kolodjeski if he had looked at Dunning's expenses, such as utility payments on BHC buildings, or whether he looked at how much in federal funds BHC had received during those years. Kolodjeski said he had not looked at those things.

According to previous testimony, Dunning has claimed that BHC owed him money for past due rent. Before leaving BCH, Dunning bought BHC's building on Southside for $2.8 million and began leasing it back to the agency.

Allegations have included that the property was appraised for $6 million and that Dunning paid then board chairman Jimmy Lacey $25,000 prior to the board agreeing to the sale. The board also was later involved in two other real estate transactions with Dunning.

BHC was receiving about $5 million in federal grants each year when Dunning stepped down as CEO, a prosecutor said earlier in the trial. The BHC clinics also received revenue from charging poor clients for medical services on a sliding scale depending on their income.

Staff morale

Dr. Simona Dunlap, former medical director at BHC, also testified Friday about funding shortages and the decline in morale among staff at the BHC clinics. She was first hired in 2005 as a doctor for BHC's clinic to serve the homeless and in early 2011 became medical director over all five of BHC's clinics.

Dunlap testified about two letters she wrote to BHC's then CEO Jimmy Lacey. In the first letter months after she took over, Dunlap said she told Lacey that staff morale was "at an all-time low."

Dunlap said that there was a general feeling at the time that BHC was deteriorating with a chronic shortage of staff. Supplies, including copy paper, medications and oxygen also were low, she said. Vendors also were requesting payment at the time of delivery, she said.

Doctors also took their lab coats home to wash, Dunlap said.

The problems had led to rumors among the other doctors and staff that BHC may become insolvent.

Dunlap said in 2012 she read something in the newspaper about problems at BHC and that prompted a second letter to Lacey. "I personally wanted some answers," she said.

But Lacey accused her of lying and slander, Dunlap said. "He was quite angry," she said.

About six months later Dunlap stepped down as medical director and in 2013 took another job in Birmingham.

One of Dunning's attorneys, Charles Walton Prueter, asked Dunlap if she knew that when Dunning had taken over as CEO at BHC, years before Dunlap was hired in 2005 that there were zero doctors at BHC. She said she didn't know.

Dunlap, under questioning by Prueter, said she never missed a paycheck and the clinic and staff never lost their accreditation.

One of Dunlap's suggestions to Lacey in the first letter had been to hire foreign doctors who could get papers in order to work in the United States. Dunlap is from Romania, where she earned her medical degree. She had done her residency in New York and served as medical director over community health clinics in northeast Mississippi before coming to Birmingham.

Prueter brought up a document where Dunlap had complained about one foreign doctor on BHC's staff. The doctor had problems communicating with patients because of the language barrier, he said.

Credit union takeover

In other testimony, Robert Parrish an official with the National Credit Union Administration that insures and regulates credit unions, testified about the Oct. 27, 2011 takeover of the Birmingham Financial Federal Credit Union.

That credit union had originally served Birmingham Housing Authority employees but after a massive layoff at that agency in 2006, BHC took over so it could serve their employees as well as those remaining with the housing authority.

Lacey, Dunning and former BHC bookkeeper Sheila Parker served as officers in the credit union.

Parrish testified that the NCUA took conservatorship of the credit union in the wake of two incidents. One of those was when the credit union got a more than $3.7 million non-member deposit from Sutton Bank. Dunning wanted to use that money to loan out to others to make money for the credit union, according to previous testimony.

Parrish said they explained at a meeting with Dunning and the others that the deposit and the way they wanted to use it were not allowed under credit union regulations. If the credit union had taken a loss on the loans, the credit union would have failed, he said.

"He (Dunning) was upset," Parrish said.

Dunning at that meeting also treated NCUA staff like they didn't know what they were doing, Parrish said.

NCUA ordered the credit union to return the money to Sutton Bank, Parrish said. The credit union returned all but $200,000 it had already loaned to BHC and CACH, he said.

NCUA officials also had looked into the loan of $80,000 from the credit union to Dunning for purchase of a Jaguar in 2010.

Another NCUA official had told the credit union that at most, under an exception, Dunning would have qualified for a $50,000 loan.

The FBI, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, and Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melissa Atwood and John B, Ward also are prosecuting the case.

Attorney William H. Thomas also represents Dunning.

AL.com reporter Mike Oliver contributed to this story
Covenant Church International, off Montclair Road, was destroyed in a Saturday afternoon fire.

Birmingham firefighters continue to battle the blaze on Cooper Hill Road, behind Milo's Hamburgers and We Talk Dog.

A portion of the church collapsed in blaze, according to fire officials.

Fire officials have yet to say what may have caused the fire.

Neighboring businesses were evacuated as a precaution, but it appears the fire was contained to the church.

"I feel devastated, heartbroken," church musician Marius Jordan said as firefighters continued to work to extinguish the fire.

No one was in the building when the fire started, he said.

Jordan said the church, which has 40-50 members, would have been in its building for 20 years in July. Jordan said the church owned the building.

"Absolutely the church will be OK," Jordan said. "The church is not the building. The church is the people, the community."

He said the church's congregation was invited to meet at Christ Temple Deliverance Church on Avenue D in Ensley on Sunday.
The stepmother of Savannah Hardin pleaded guilty this afternoon to aggravated child abuse in the 2012 death of the Etowah County nine-year-old.

Jessica Hardin, 31, appearing before Judge Billy Ogletree, had originally been charged with felony murder. Her plea deal was agreed to after consultation with the parents of Savannah Hardin, prosecutors said.

According to the terms of the guilty plea, Hardin was sentenced to twenty years in the state penitentiary, according to Etowah County District Attorney Jody Willoughby.

That sentence was split, providing for a period of three years to be served. Hardin received credit for time she served in the Etowah County Detention Center prior to posting bond in the case, and the balance of the split sentence was diverted to the Etowah County Community Corrections Program.

Officials said Hardin will be considered a state inmate, but allowed to remain out of physical custody so long as she abides by certain rules and conditions. The split sentence will be followed by a period of five years supervised probation. Hardin was also ordered to pay various costs and fees associated with the case.

Hardin's murder trial had been set for Aug. 22.

Savannah Hardin died on Feb. 20, 2012, days after investigators said she was forced to run for more than three hours as punishment on a Friday afternoon. Investigators said Jessica Hardin did nothing to intervene on the child's behalf during the punishment, which came after the child lied about eating candy bars.

In March 2015, an Etowah County jury convicted Joyce Hardin Garrard, the child's grandmother, of capital murder in Savannah's death after hearing testimony over three weeks. She was later sentenced to life in prison without parole by Ogletree. Garrard died in February after she collapsed following a family visit in prison.

Jessica Hardin, who was pregnant at the time, was arrested along with Garrard in 2012. She gave birth to a son the same day of her arrest.

Prosecutors said Jessica, as the stepmother, was responsible for Savannah's well-being. However, she abused the child when she did not intervene as Garrard punished the child by having her run around the yard of their Etowah County property, toting wood, they said.

The investigation led prosecutors to believe Hardin was intimidated by her mother-in-law, "to the point of being frightened for her own safety," Willoughby said.

At the time, Hardin was living in a home owned by Garrard and her husband, while Savannah's father, Robert Hardin, was working overseas.

"From the beginning of the investigation in 2012, it was clear that Jessica Hardin was afraid of Joyce Garrard," Willoughby said. "While meeting with witnesses during preparation for Garrard's trial, we learned that Garrard had a history of threatening, overbearing and intimidating behavior toward other people as well.

"Taking that information into consideration, as well as information from the ongoing investigation, the State ultimately reached the conclusion that while Jessica Hardin was not blameless in this situation, her actions, or lack of actions, were not sufficient to support a conviction for felony murder," he said.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Marcus Reid said the punishment was appropriate.

"Each of us believed that this plea of guilty by Jessica Hardin would represent justice for Savannah," Reid said.
A Blount County man was struck and killed by a pickup truck Friday night while crossing U.S. Highway 231, Alabama state troopers say.

Rex Evans Fortenberry, 72, of Blountsville was pronounced dead at the scene.

The incident occurred at around 9 p.m. at the Alabama 67 intersection, about seven miles north of Blountsville.

Troopers say a 1999 Chevrolet Silverado hit Fortenberry as he was crossing the roadway.

The driver of the pickup wasn't injured and remained at the scene.

Troopers continue to investigate.
A Tuscaloosa man has been arrested in connection with a May 28 break-in at Woodlawn Apartments.

Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit Assistant Commander Kip Hart said Gregory Jermaine Woods, 23, has been charged with attempted murder and first degree burglary.

Hart said Woods is believed to have been involved in an incident involving a 56-year-old victim, who told investigators that a black man armed with a handgun broke into his apartment and demanded money.

The two men struggled and several shots were fired inside the apartment. The victim was not injured.
clif.JPG

The list of Listeria-related recalls keeps getting longer.

Clif Bar & Company, a California-based organic foods and drinks firm, is recalling its popular CLIF BAR Nuts & Seeds energy bars, CLIF BAR Sierra Trail Mix energy bars, and CLIF Mojo Mountain Mix trail mix bars. The products contain sunflower kernels from ingredient supplier SunOpta that may be contaminated with Listeria, a bacteria that can cause serious, sometimes fatal infections in certain people.

"Clif Bar has not received any reports of illness; however, the company is initiating the voluntary recall in an abundance of caution," the business said in a statement on the FDA website.

Short-term symptoms of Listeria infection can include high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. In pregnant women, the condition can cause miscarriage or stillbirth.

The company urges customers not to eat the products and throw them away. Any questions about the recall should be directed to 1-888-851-8456.
Many among the half million who escaped violence in Myanmar fear they may be pushed back once the survey is completed.

Coxs Bazaar, Bangladesh  The Bangladeshi government is conducting its first census of undocumented Rohingya refugees who have escaped violence in neighbouring Myanmar.

The United Nations describes Rohingya as the most persecuted minority in the world. Up to half a million have escaped to Bangladesh.

Many Rohingya, however, fear the ongoing targeted census will lead to them being sent back.

During the decades of Aung San Suu Kyis house arrest, when global interest in the plight of Myanmars refugees was at its peak, few were aware that the Rohingya Muslims even existed, let alone that they constituted the bulk of those who had fled the rule of the generals.

Think of refugees who have fled from Myanmar and those that usually come to mind are the Karen, the Shan and other minorities with ethnic ties to the Burmese people, seeking shelter in the misty hills of northern Thailand.

Few picture the fetid hovels here in southeastern Bangladesh where 200,000 Rohingya Muslims cram together for survival.

Today, with Aung San Suu Kyi holding a powerful role in Myanmars politics, many of the country ethnic groups are sensing a glimmer of hope, albeit not without significant reservations.

The same, however, cannot be said about the Rohingya.

Whether in western Myanmars Rakhine state, southeastern Bangladesh or Malaysia, this group remains the subject of almost universal hatred from their neighbours.

With Aung San Suu Kyi ascendant, the human rights communitys discourse has shifted a bit more towards campaigning for the Rohingya, especially after thousands of them were found drifting helplessly on boats off the coasts of Southeast Asia, and the discovery of mass graves of Rohingya trafficking victims along the Thai-Malaysia border.

But for whatever reason, the level of international interest and support  whether from the human rights community or the public, or from Aung San Suu Kyi for that matter  pales in comparison with her house-arrest days.

Now, as Bangladesh conducts its first census of the undocumented Rohingya population, government officials say the project is clearly a good thing, forming the basis of future initiatives to help the community effectively.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Alamgir Hossein, the census project director, said: If you are going to help them in any way, whether its through international aid assistance or medical assistance, whatever it is there is no alternative to getting the proper facts and figures.

Possible implications

Some Rohingya, too, are enthusiastic about the census. They are happy finally to be recognised as a community and hopeful that this will firm up their identity both in Bangladesh and internationally.

However, others have good reason to be apprehensive about the implications. After all, the Bangladesh government and the Bangladeshi people have not been their friends so far.

They have been denied education for their children and medical care for their ill.

Women and girls have fallen prey to sex traffickers while men and boys have been easy targets for human traffickers supplying slave labour to Southeast Asia.

Historically, a targeted census has rarely been good news for a vulnerable, persecuted community.

In Bangladesh, some Rohingya worry that once the government has conducted its survey, it will round them up and relocate them or, worse, push them back to Myanmar.

Mohammad Kalam, an ethnic Rohingya, eloped with his wife from Myanmar to Bangladesh eight years ago, but has found it impossible to register their marriage in Bangladesh.

Instead of sending us to Myanmar, it would be better if they killed us here, he told Al Jazeera.

My wife and I were able to get out last time. This time if we are sent back, they will see us as criminals and they will definitely send us to prison or kill us.

The Bangladesh census labels the Rohingya as Myanmar nationals and, as such, is sure to provoke opposition across the border, where people describe the community as foreign Bengalis.

Some aid agency officials speculate that as democratisation in Myanmar continues, Bangladesh will use the census result as the basis for declaring they have X number of Myanmar nationals  and that Myanmar should take them back.

At that point, the stage could be set for the Rohingya to find themselves in the middle of another quarrel, one they will once again have little control over.
Reporting on groups involved in confrontations with foreign patrol vessels in the South China Sea is proving difficult.

Tanmen, China  We had come to this fishing village on Hainan Island, Chinas southernmost province, because its home to one of the countrys best-known maritime militias  the Tanmen Maritime Militia Company.

Its recruits are mostly men from the fishing community. They are given basic military training, and their activities, according to the Hainan Daily, include collecting maritime information  and contributing to sovereignty defence in the South China Sea.

Chinese President Xi Jinping cited the Tanmen Maritime Militia as the model for maritime militia building, and honoured them with a visit in 2013.

But while they may be celebrated in local media, we soon found out filming the Tanmen Maritime Militia was not so straightforward.

It was by chance that we spotted them one sunny morning, as we drove past Tanmen Port  around 40 or 50 men, dressed in military fatigues, going through a drill.

What was to prove even more difficult, though, was getting people to talk about the group.

READ MORE: The scramble for the South China Sea

We asked a local official from the propaganda office whether the men we saw were members of the Tanmen Militia. He told us they were part of a film crew. That would have been a bit more believable had we not driven past the film crew just minutes earlier.

A fisherman we interviewed, Wang Shumao, denied knowing anything about the militia. He said the men we saw were just fishermen who  chose to wear camouflage to protect themselves from the sun.

But it turned out Wang was not telling the truth about how much he knew about the group.

We found out later that he was not just an ordinary fisherman. He is a deputy commander of the Tanmen Maritime Militia.

He was also on one of the 12 Chinese vessels involved in a standoff with the Philippine Navy at Scarborough Shoal in 2012. He had led an unsuccessful attempt to block Philippine vessels from approaching the shoal.

The Qionghai City Government website published a profile of Wang last year.

Wang did not reveal any of that when we spoke to him, and denied knowing anything about the group.

But why were the Chinese so reluctant to talk to foreign media about the Tanmen Maritime Militia?

READ MORE: Standoff at Scarborough Shoal

Perhaps because of the unflattering reports about Chinas maritime militias. These groups have been involved in confrontations with foreign patrol vessels in the South China Sea.

In 2014, boats belonging to maritime militias, together with Chinese coastguard and naval ships, helped form a cordon around an oil rig that the Chinese had installed in disputed waters, to prevent Vietnamese maritime authorities from approaching.





A year later, fishing vessels believed to be part of several Chinese maritime militias, were reportedly involved in harassing a US navy ship when it sailed near the Spratly Islands in October 2015.

Experts say the use of quasi-civilian forces is a tactic to avoid direct military confrontations, and allows the Chinese government some degree of deniability.

Andrew Erickson, professor at the US Naval War College, told Defense News: China is trying to use these government-controlled fishermen below the radar to get the bonus without the onus to support its South China Sea claims.

China, however, denied this. Its foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said: This kind of situation does not exist.

But China is increasingly assertive, aggressive even in pursuing its territorial claims.

A Pentagon report said that Chinas reclamation work has added 1,300 hectares of land on features in the Spratly Islands.

READ MORE: China wont budge on South China Sea sovereignty

The next phase would probably involve building substantial military infrastructure on the man-made islands.

Lin Yongxin, from the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, dismissed questions about Chinas militarisation of the region: Chinas goal is always to provide better public service, including meteorological service and medical help.

Analysts are in no doubt, however, that Chinas expansionist policies in the South China Sea would continue.

Alan Dupont, a non-resident senior fellow for the Washington-based Atlantic Council, said: It [China] now has the military capability, the political and financial clout to get its way and I think the Chinese have decided that after 100 years of weakness, they now need to assert themselves and claim their rightful position in Asia.

The fishermen we met in Hainan would have no trouble playing a role in this.

As one of them told us, echoing Chinas argument for much of the South China Sea: The sovereignty absolutely belongs to China. We dont know what laws should be applied, but our grandfathers grandfathers grandfathers fished there  We will never allow anyone else to take our ancestors sea.
Facts on the ground show Moscow may be justifying and paving the way for a large-scale offensive against al-Nusra.

Russia has sent three messages over the past week or so about the situation in Syria.

First, the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front is to be blamed for violating and jeopardising the truce.

The Nusra terrorist group is active in Aleppo and Idlib today and it is the main obstacle for the further extension of the cessation of hostilities, the defence ministry said, accusing the group of exploiting the truce to rearm and regroup.

Second, the United States is to be blamed for failing to separate the moderate opposition units they control from terrorists. That is why further postponing by our American partners in that effort doesnt only discredit the so called moderate opposition but leads to undermining the peace process.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned the deadline to back away from al-Nusra will expire this week.

And third, the Turkey border is still being used to smuggle weapons to terrorists in Syria.

The number of heavy trucks moving from the Turkish-Syrian borders to the region of Azaz [Aleppo province] and to the region of Darat Izza [Idlib province) has increased significantly, the defence ministry said.

READ MORE: Russian ground operation in Syria under discussion

The statements followed Washingtons refusal to take up an offer from Moscow to cooperate in the fight against terrorism in Syria. And the Russian authorities didnt hide their displeasure.

These statements are being made for a reason. Moscow may be justifying and paving the way for a large-scale offensive against al-Nusra.

Pro-Syrian government media is reporting a better understanding and better cooperation between the governments in Russia, Iran and Syria. And there are indications on the ground that lend credence to that claim.

There has always been cooperation but a few weeks ago they did not share the same goal of military operations on the ground.

The Kremlin wanted to shift the balance just enough to push the opposition into making compromises on the negotiating table.

WATCH: Syria under Russias fist

It wanted to work and cooperate with the US administration to push forward the political process. That is why it cut off aerial support to Syrian government troops and their Iranian and Hezbollah allies in Aleppo province.

And that is why no gains were made on the ground

Peace talks have all but collapsed.

Now, the Russian air force has clearly stepped up its engagement. Heavy air strikes in the northern province of Aleppo, particularly on and near the only road in and out of the rebel-controlled east of the city, has practically laid siege to the enclave.

Castello Road is now too dangerous to travel on.

Russia is sending a loud and clear message.

But al-Nusra, which is the leading force in the Jaish al-Fatah army, has sent a message of its own by launching an offensive in the southwestern countryside of Aleppo.

A few weeks ago it recaptured the rebel supply line between Idlib and Aleppo provinces. The goal now is to cut the Syrian governments main supply line to the areas under its control in Aleppo city

This battle has just begun.
The only museum in the world devoted to the Tiananmen Square massacre will have to close its doors soon.

Beijing, China  Anyone entering the June 4 Memorial Museum in Hong Kong must pass through a narrow corridor, one that gets increasingly narrower the further they walk. The passages are an intentional manipulation of space meant to recreate the sense of oppression that students and activists in mainland China felt and protested against during the Tiananmen Square protests in the summer of 1989.

Visitors stroll through the displays, visualisations echoing the events leading to the massacre, before reaching a replica of the Goddess of Democracy, a figure resembling the Statue of Liberty that was erected by the agitators in the final days of the protests only to be destroyed by troops on that fateful day of June 4.

When Xin moved to Hong Kong from mainland China to continue his graduate studies, he was resolute to visit the museum, the worlds first, and only, permanent exhibition space dedicated to the Tiananmen Square massacre.

A student of Chinese history, Xin remembers his parents telling him vaguely of an event in 1989 that had taken place in Tiananmen Square when they themselves were students. He wanted to visit the museum and find out what had really happened back then.

Memories materialise in the museum

The crackdown on the Tiananmen Square uprising  when civilian protesters demanded an end to corruption and a greater say in government, to which the state responded by sending army tanks down the wide streets of Beijing  reportedly resulted in more than 1,000 deaths.





The revolt is a taboo topic in mainland China and discussion of it is censored, often heavy-handedly. On its previous anniversaries, search terms related to the uprising had been blocked from social media platforms such as Sina Weibo, Chinas version of Twitter. There are no mentions of the incident in Chinese textbooks and, as a result, many young Chinese grow up unaware of the uprising.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China had been organising candlelight vigils in Hong Kong on every June 4, in memory of the victims of the Chinese governments crackdown, drawing in crowds of up to 150,000 people.

In 2014, as the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests neared, the alliance wanted to establish a permanent venue to commemorate the events of that day.

In Pictures: Remembering Tiananmen

Lee Cheuk-yan, a former chairman of the alliance and currently a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, says there was a need to educate people about their past and to ensure the event wasnt erased from memory. There seemed no better place for it than Hong Kong, which was returned to Chinese authority by the British in 1997 but, as a semi-autonomous city, enjoys more freedoms than the mainland.

The alliance purchased space in the Foo Hoo Centre, in the crowded shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui, for nearly $1.25m to make it possible, but troubles began concurrently.

Oppression

The corporation that owned the building complained that the land use deed issued to the alliance prohibited the use of the commercial complex for exhibition purposes. They served a notice to the museums owners, citing disapproval of the volume of visitors in light of safety regulations. A lawsuit was brought against the alliance to have the museum removed from the building.

According to Hong Kong law, all land belongs to the state and any lease is accompanied by detailed usage prescriptions. Professor Lou Jianbo of Peking University, an expert on the regions property law, explains that the building owners have a strong case since the museum violates the designated land use.

However, Louisa Lim, a professor of journalism at the University of Michigan who wrote the book, The Peoples Republic of Amnesia  an investigative look at the Tiananmen Square massacre, notes that the campaign against the museum began by complaining about the number of visitors before it had even opened.

Alliance members argue that the lawsuit has little to do with property regulations, as one corporation member, Yeung Cho-ming, had told the South China Morning Post that the [Tiananmen Square incident] is sensitive and contentious, and that the corporation fears the museum will bring it trouble.

Multiple attempts by Al Jazeera to reach members of the owners corporation for comment on the situation were unsuccessful.

Keeping visitors away

From April 2014 to January this year, the museum received about 20,000 visitors, according to museum officials.

In the first year of the museums existence, nearly half of the visitors were from the mainland.

Yet, in the second year of its opening, the number of mainland visitors dropped to 30 percent. The museum owners say that scaremongering by the owners corporation were keeping potential visitors away.

They instituted a policy of identification checks only for people on our floor of the building and asked them to state the purpose of their visit, says the present chairman of the museums alliance, Albert Ho. This inhibited and scared away mainland visitors.

Ho says security guards at the building demanded that the museum owners divide large tour groups into smaller ones, keeping some waiting outside. One security guard at the building told Al Jazeera that the owners corporation had ordered them to do so in adherence to fire safety regulations. To avoid dangerous crowding of the elevators and fire exits, they said they had to limit the number of visitors to 20 at a time.

Every time this happened, it was a losing situation for us, remarks Ho. Which guest is going to wait and see how the dispute is resolved? Theyd run away before that.

The alliance is now running a crowdfunding campaign with the intention of gathering approximately $400,000 to be able to change their venue. However, the response to their campaign has been tepid so far, and the organisers are lagging behind their target, museum staff told Al Jazeera.

The alliance hopes to use the money raised, along with the proceeds from the sale of the existing property, to move into a bigger, standalone space. We are very determined to ensure there is always a June 4 museum in Hong Kong, says Ho.

When Xin, the history student, visited the museum recently, he was also asked for his identification card by the building security guards.

He refused to fulfil the security guards requests, arguing on a technicality that, as a newly arrived student, he didnt have proper identification yet and muscled his way in.

While eyeing the numerous displays, he gapes at one showcasing a Peoples Daily editorial that had brandished the student protests as unconstitutional and chaotic.

Coming out into the sunlight after his visit, Xin says: Im going to urge all of my mainland friends to visit the museum while its still open.

It is an honour for me to live in the same country as those students who fought for my people.
Unlike nuclear power, renewable energy has the potential to create an enormous number of jobs.

Barack Obamas historic visit to Hiroshima reminds us of the inherent danger of nuclear weapons.

Many will counter that the peaceful use of nuclear power has done humanity a great deal of good. While numerous applications of nuclear technology, such as in medicine, deliver huge benefits and save lives, nuclear energy is a different matter.

Deriving energy from nuclear power is expensive, produces the most toxic waste imaginable and is extremely dangerous, as the Fukushima catastrophe and other disasters demonstrate.

Despite this, the Middle East finds itself at a nuclear crossroads, with governments across the region launching or reviving plans to construct nuclear reactors.

Nuclear Egypt?

The latest development in this regard was the recent announcement that Russia will lend Egypt $25bn to finance and operate a nuclear power plant which will be built by Russias state-owned nuclear giant Rosatom.

The Russian tender Egypt accepted was for the construction of a station with a capacity of 4,800 megawatts, at an estimated cost of $10bn.

This was a long dream for Egypt, to have a peaceful nuclear programme to produce electricity, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi said late last year.

And this dream dates back to the very dawn of the nuclear age, when then President Gamal Abdel-Nasser launched Egypts nuclear programme in 1954, and the first Soviet-built research reactor came online in 1961.

Since then, Egypts nuclear ambitions have stalled for a number of political, economic and technological reasons.

The revival of Egypts civilian nuclear programme has stirred a lot of debate and controversy, both in the media and in private  as I discovered during a long impromptu debate at a Cairo restaurant recently.

Those who support the initiative believe it presents a realistic solution to the countrys energy crisis, enhances its energy security, and bring us into the elite club of nuclear nations.

Like many experts, I have many doubts and misgivings about these claims.

Unstudied political decision

In addition to the risks of an Egyptian Chernobyl or Fukushima, there are the everyday dangers of radioactive leaks and seepage, not to mention nuclear waste, which is likely to outlive humanity.

If the safe disposal of nuclear waste in technologically advanced and wealthy Germany has proven to be extremely unsafe and dangerous, what chance does poor, inexperienced Egypt stand in averting a future radioactive crisis?

No Arab country possesses the scientific and technological knowhow to build their own nuclear facilities and to conduct the extremely costly research required to advance knowledge in this highly developed field. This will make Arab civilian nuclear programmes highly dependent on foreign technology and expertise. by

Then, there are the more subtle environmental costs. Nuclear power plants are extremely thirsty beasts  consuming the equivalent of a major metropolis  and Egypt suffers serious water poverty, by the governments own admission.

Weighing in on the debate, the renowned Egyptian-American NASA space scientist Farouk el-Baz called Egypts nuclear plan an unstudied political decision, fuelled by the desire to catch up with Iran which spurred Arab countries to enter the nuclear field.

But if anything, the folly of Irans nuclear programme should deter Egypt and the other Arab countries from pursuing nuclear energy, for geostrategic, economic and social reasons.

Irans Bushehr I reactor, which reportedly cost $11bn to build, provides less than 2 percent of the countrys electricity requirements, while sanctions may have cost the Islamic Republic as much as $500bn in opportunity costs, experts estimate.

In contrast, supplying all Irans electricity needs from solar power would cost a mere $94bn, according to one estimate.

More dependence

While Egypts non-pariah status will probably mean that its programme will be cheaper, nuclear power is still extremely expensive, especially in sunbelt regions such as the Middle East.

Egyptian solar energy expert Sherife Abdelmessih estimates that nuclear power plants are four times as expensive to construct as solar ones per unit of energy.

OPINION: Egypts pharaoh illusion

In addition, he expects that Egypt will pay about $150 per MWh for the power generated by the new nuclear power plant, while the equivalent price for Egyptian wind farms is $45 per MWh.

There are also persuasive geostrategic reasons for Egypt and other Arab countries not to invest in nuclear energy. While proponents believe it will enhance our energy security, it will actually diminish it.

No Arab country possesses the scientific and technological know-how to build their own nuclear facilities and to conduct the extremely costly research required to advance knowledge in this highly developed field.

OPINION: Tourism  Its more than a few umbrellas on a beach

This will make Arab civilian nuclear programmes highly dependent on foreign technology and expertise.

Moreover, the fuel required to run the power plants will have to be imported, making Arabs vulnerable to supply disruptions, which could be exploited for political arm-twisting.

In contrast, Egypt, and the wider region, is blessed with abundant sun and wind resources, and the renewable energy sector is still young enough for Egypt to become a major player and innovator in it.

Egypt recognises this opportunity and seeks to extract 20 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2022, but this is not enough.

Unlike nuclear power, renewable energy has the potential to create an enormous number of jobs and abundant business opportunities, including start-ups.

In addition, it is scalable, meaning that energy can be consumed close to where it is produced, and it paves the way to distributed energy generation, where each building or home can potentially produce its own power and sell its excess supply into the national grid.

Renewable energy technologies are also diverse. For example, a relatively small investment in solar boilers can save Egypt the huge amounts of electricity used to heat water.

I cannot help thinking that the $25bn Egypt is spending on a single nuclear power facility would have been better invested in pursuing these alternative energy options.

In fact, for the entire region, nuclear energy is pure folly and the only sunny future is in renewables.

Khaled Diab is an award-winning Egyptian-Belgian journalist, writer and blogger. He is the author of Intimate Enemies: Living with Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy Land. He blogs at www.chronikler.com.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
The fact that Bashar al-Assad is denying humanitarian access is precisely why its important to provide it.

James Denselow is a writer on Middle East politics and security issues and a research associate at the Foreign Policy Centre.

As the United Nations correctly says, Syria has become one of the most complex and dynamic humanitarian crises in the world today. The scale and intensity of the fighting has been accentuated by the targeting of critical civilian infrastructure, with hospitals, schools and bakeries regularly struck.

Humanitarian access to relieve people living in affected areas is extremely limited. There are 4.6 million Syrians in hard-to-reach areas and close to 500,000 people in besieged areas where stories of starvation are becoming depressingly frequent. This is not an accident but rather part of a deliberate ploy to use human suffering as a strategy of warfare.





In response to the continued challenge of getting aid to those who desperately need it and stopping people from starving to death, the idea of air drops has suddenly become a very real prospect.

At a meeting in April, US Secretary of State John Kerry explained: Starting on June 1, if the UN is denied humanitarian access to any of these designated areas, the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) calls on the World Food Programme to immediately carry out a programme for air bridges and air drops to all of those areas in need.

The ubiquitous barrel bomb

Syrian civilians have seen many bad things dropped on them from the air, including the ubiquitous barrel bomb, but could they now see more helpful supplies rain down upon them?

READ MORE: Where next for Russia in Syria?

Before the April ISSG decision UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura explained that while air drops were the most expensive, the most complicated, the most dangerous option  as a last resort we are getting close to it.

There is no doubt that air drops are no substitute for ground-based aid. by

They have been tried and failed before. In February, 21 pallets carrying 21 tonnes of aid were dropped over the eastern city of Deir az Zour. The difficulty in practically supplying aid this way was shown by the fact that ten of the pallets were unaccounted for, seven landed in no-mans land and four were damaged.

Following a petition signed by nearly 64,000 people calling for air drops, the UK government released a statement explaining that air drops are not a viable way of getting help to those in need.

There are real fears that the aid could land in the wrong hands and scenarios of videos of ISIL fighters enjoying UN rations cant be far from peoples minds.

Worse still, civilians could be harmed by the hard landing of the aid itself, especially considering the confined urban spaces that characterise many of those locations under siege.

At the end of May as the deadline approached, de Mistura seemed to walk back on the idea, explaining that for air drops to become concrete either by delivery at high altitude or by helicopters, there is a need for the cooperation of the government of Syria.

Of course a lack of cooperation from that government is at the centre of the problem as it is responsible for more than 90 percent of besieged areas.

There is no doubt that air drops are no substitute for ground-based aid. Yet as this is not forthcoming, there are powerful symbolisms, rather than a practical solution, that the tactic could yield.

So many red lines crossed

First, the fact that Assad is denying humanitarian access is precisely why its important to provide it. It would show many Syrians that the world has not forgotten their plight.

So many red lines have been crossed in Syria already and so much rhetoric has failed to translate into reality that the credibility of the international community is continuing to haemorrhage.

READ MORE: Aleppos reckoning

Showing that Assad doesnt control who does and doesnt get aid is an important gesture, although the air drops are unlikely to be of the scale needed to supply so many tens of thousands of people. While they cannot give aid to all, they may give hope.

Second, it shouldnt be forgotten that the Russians were one of the 20-plus countries in the ISSG that agreed unanimously in favour of the air drops if other access was not forthcoming.

If Russia cannot secure humanitarian access from Assad then, as the country with the biggest aerial footprint in Syria, it should be tasked with leading on the air drops themselves.

As Syrias peace talks continue to stall at the embryonic stage and the prospects of Aleppo continue to dim, there is a desperate need for new ideas and more positive actions to change the direction of the conflict.

While supplying aid from the air could only be a drop in an ocean of need, it could symbolise a renewed commitment to the humanitarian principles that the Syrian conflict has done so much to erode.

James Denselow is a writer on Middle East politics and security issues and a research associate at the Foreign Policy Centre.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Palestinians are routinely collectively punished by expulsion from their homes in Jerusalem into the occupied West Bank.

Occupied East Jerusalem  With a weary slump, Maisa Tamimi squeezed on to the living room sofa between her mother and husband.

It has been an extremely hard time, she said anxiously. I could never have imagined I would lose my son and then my home.

In recent months, Maisas life has changed dramatically. In early March, her eldest son, Foaud, was shot dead in occupied East Jerusalem after shooting and wounding two Israeli police officers.

In the hours and days that followed, her husband was arrested and detained by Israeli police, while Maisa and her eldest children were interrogated. After six hours of questioning, they were driven by Israeli police to the Qalandia checkpoint and steered into the occupied West Bank at gunpoint, she said.

READ MORE: How home demolitions threaten Palestinian statehood

After 11 days, Maisas husband, Kasef, was released without charge.

No one in the family has been accused of any crime  but they can no longer return home, and are living in temporary accommodation, with some of Maisas family members at her mothers apartment in Kufr Aqab and others at a relatives house nearby. Kufr Aqab is located in the so-called seam zone, technically within the boundaries of East Jerusalem, but on the West Bank side of Israels separation wall.

The kids come to visit us here a lot, but it is more than difficult to be split up like this from two of my children. But its the only choice we have right now, Maisa told Al Jazeera.

There is no other state that acts in the same way. Israeli law is tailored to undermine Palestinians' rights and existence. by Mohammed Mahmoud, Tamimi family's lawyer

Before Fouads death, the Tamimi family lived in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Issawiya. Maisa holds the blue ID card that Israel gives to Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, while her husband, who was born in the West Bank, does not.

Maisa and Kasef were years into a family unification process, which would have secured full residency status for the whole family. In the meantime, Kasef and the children were on temporary permits.

In the aftermath of Fouads death, when Israeli authorities saw that the familys application for unification was pending, the process was immediately frozen, and the family was forcibly transferred to the West Bank.

We are looking for another place to live [in Kufr Aqab], but right now we cant find a landlord who will rent to us. They know that we are the family of a martyr and they are afraid to rent to us, due to the possibility that Israel may come and demolish the house, Maisa said.

The speed of the familys transfer, just two days after Fouad attacked the police officers in East Jerusalem, was unprecedented, according to the familys lawyer, Mohammed Mahmoud.

I have never seen a case like this. Usually a family is given at least 24 to 48 hours to appeal a decision like this. But in this case, the family was thrown out immediately and were not given any time to appeal, he told Al Jazeera, noting that this type of punishment is reserved exclusively for Palestinians and has never been used against Israelis, even when they have been found guilty of serious crimes.

There is no other state that acts in the same way, Mahmoud said. Israeli law is tailored to undermine Palestinians rights and existence. The family cannot do anything to change the reality now that they have been thrown out of Jerusalem.

READ MORE: Palestinians defy Israels Jerusalem ban

Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to Al Jazeeras request for comment on the matter.

In March, Yisrael Katz, an Israeli member of the Knesset, submitted a bill to allow the state to deport family members of Palestinian attackers to Gaza. The bill has not been voted on yet. Israels attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, has previously suggested that such a policy would contravene international law.

At the same time, human rights groups say that forced transfers of Palestinians from Jerusalem have been going on for almost 50 years.

We have three groups of people who are forced out: Those who have their ID cards withdrawn; those whose family unification applications were rejected; and those who settled in Jerusalem before 1987, when it was easy to enter the city, but who were never given ID or residency cards, said Ziyad Hammouri, director of the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights.





Hammouris organisation has traced more than 14,900 cases in which Israeli identity cards were revoked from Palestinians since the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem began.

The current policy of forced transfer amounts to a demographic war against Palestinians in Jerusalem, Hammouri added, referring to the Zionist policy of maintaining a Jewish population majority within Israel since 1947.

For the family of Khaled Abu Arafeh, adjusting to their new life in the occupied West Bank has been a long and painful process.

In 2006, after being appointed minister of Jerusalem affairs in the new Palestinian government, he was told by Israeli authorities to quit his new role or give up his Jerusalem residency.

Abu Arafeh refused and four years later, having spent part of that time in prison and challenging the decision in the Israeli court system, Abu Arafeh was deported to the West Bank. In court, the Israeli prosecutor argued that Abu Arafeh and the politicians alleged association with the Hamas movement meant that they were not loyal to the state of Israel. He now lives with his family in a suburb of al-Bireh, close to Ramallah.

I experienced true pain when I was deported from Jerusalem, said the father of five. Although they still study in Jerusalem, our children have been uprooted and go through hardship living their lives. Every morning they have to cross the Qalandia checkpoint going to school and it is exhausting for them. They are not living the lives that children their age should be.

Despite having lived away from Jerusalem for six years, Abu Arafeh still hopes that he will be able to return to his home city in the future.

I dream about going back to Jerusalem and I cannot imagine being forced to live away from it forever. I cannot imagine not being granted a residency permit again and I tell myself to never lose the hope of returning to Jerusalem.
Attack kills 30 soldiers from Niger and two from Nigeria on countries border near city of Bosso, Niger officials say.

At least 30 soldiers from Niger and two Nigerian troops were killed in a Boko Haram attack on Nigers border with Nigeria, Nigers defence ministry said.

On Friday, hundreds of assailants of Boko Haram attacked the position of the army of Bosso, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday, giving a provisional toll of 32 soldiers killed and 67 wounded.

On the enemys side, several dead and injured were taken away, the ministry said.

The counter-offensive conducted early this morning helped to retake control of all the positions in the city of Bosso. The situation is under control, it added.

READ MORE: One million children forced from school by Boko Haram war

Local resident and former MP Elhaj Aboubacar told the AFP news agency that the gunmen drove up at twilight, shouting Allahu Akbar [God is great], they fired a lot of shots and torched many places in Bosso.

We dont know where our military went, but one thing is for sure, Boko Haram were able to do what they liked until dawn, Aboubacar said.

The town of Bosso is part of the Diffa region, where many refugees and internally displaced people have sought shelter from Boko Haram violence elsewhere. The region has been targeted numerous times in attacks blamed on Boko Haram fighters.

Around 200 people took to the streets on Saturday in Nigers capital Niamey to voice support for Diffas population, calling for an audit of military spending as they denounced a lack of results from army action.

Regional violence

Since February 2015, Niger has been plagued by Boko Haram attacks in its southeast region.

The armed group frequently stages cross-border raids from their stronghold in neighbouring Nigeria.

The war between Boko Haram and the Nigerian government has left at least 20,000 people dead in six years and made more than 2.6 million homeless.

The Lake Chad region  which borders Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger  has been frequently targeted by Boko Haram and all four countries have formed a coalition along with Benin to fight the group.
Turkish leader says Ankara will never accept such charges, in strongest reaction yet to German parliaments resolution.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said charges that the Ottoman Empire committed a genocide against the Armenians are being used as blackmail against Turkey, insisting that Ankara will never accept such accusations.

On Thursday, the German parliament voted to label the 1915 killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide, prompting Ankara to recall its ambassador.

In his strongest reaction yet, Erdogan said on Saturday the German parliaments resolution will have no impact on Turkeys position on the issue.





The Armenian issue is a useful blackmail opportunity against Turkey all around the world, and it is even starting to be used as a stick, he said in a televised speech.

I am addressing the whole world. You may like it, you may not. Our attitude on the Armenian issue is clear from the beginning. We will never accept the accusations of genocide.

Turkey 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.

Stop being a barrier

The dispute sparked alarm over the potential damage to relations between Turkey and Germany at a sensitive time when the two sides are working together to implement a deal seeking to stem the flow of refugees into the European Union.

Either we find solutions to our problems in a fair way, or Turkey will stop being a barrier in front of the problems of Europe, Erdogan said. We will leave you to your own worries.

Speaking after Thursdays vote, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who skipped the ballot due to public engagements, emphasised on the close ties between the two countries and said 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.

Q&A: Turkey looks beyond Armenian genocide debate

Yet, Erdogan expressed disappointment over Merkels stance, saying he wished she had taken part and cast her vote.

Now I wonder how, after such a decision, German officials will look me and our prime minister in the face, Erdogan said on Saturday in interviews published in several Turkish newspapers.

He added that Germany has no right to comment on genocide, given its own history during World War II and in Namibia.

The countries that are blackmailing us with these Armenian genocide resolutions have the blood of millions of innocents on their hands.

This is our difference

In his speech to Turkish businessmen, Erdogan also mentioned that Turkey is currently hosting tens of thousands of Armenian citizens as economic migrants. He claimed that Turkey can send them back to Armenia, just like Europeans are sending refugees back to Turkey.

Just like Europeans are doing now [to the refugees] we could have sent them [Armenians citizens living and working in Turkey] to Armenia. We can do that.

Is Europe taking in refugees at the moment? he added. Right now Turkey is hosting three million refugees. This is our difference.

OPINION: How the Armenians came to live among Arabs

But, at the end of his speech, Erdogan said that Turkey has no problems with the EU.

We cant nurture enmity towards a region that is home to five million people from Turkey, he said.

We do not demand positive discrimination, he said, We just want the EU to be just and principled.

Edward Nalbandian, Armenias foreign minister, said the German parliaments decision was a valuable contribution to the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian genocide.

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.
Tens of thousands of people have poured into central Hong Kong to mark the 27th anniversary of Chinas Tiananmen Square deadly crackdown  but many young activists turned their backs on the annual vigil because of disagreements over its aims.

Hundreds, possibly more, of people were killed on the night of June 3-4, 1989 as tanks and troops converged at the central Beijing square, where student-led demonstrators had staged a peaceful seven-week sit-in to demand democratic reforms.

Organisers of Saturdays candlelit vigil said 125,000 people gathered into Victoria Park to pay tribute to the dead, holding a minute of silence in the only large-scale public commemoration of the killings. Police did not immediately give a crowd estimate.

The vigil is organised by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China. It demands that Beijing overturn its verdict that the Tiananmen protests were a counter-revolutionary riot and also calls for one-party dictatorship in China to be replaced by democracy.

Yet, Hong Kong student groups that have been long-standing supporters of the event dropped out this year amid calls over greater autonomy from China.

Young activists from the new localist movement, say Hong Kong should push for its own autonomy, even independence, rather than the democratisation of the mainland.

READ MORE: Protests greet senior Chinese leader in Hong Kong

The move by the student groups underscores the widening rift that emerged between younger and older generations of pro-democracy activists over the idea of Hong Kongs identity following 2014 protests over the Beijings decision to restrict elections in the semi-autonomous city.

Al Jazeeras Rob McBride, reporting from the vigil in Hong Kong, said organisers were waiting to see what impact the students move to hold rival gathering in university and college campuses would have.

The student groups seem to be disillusioned with this Tiananmen movement and the calls for democracy in China, which they argue after nearly 30 years are no closer to being achieved.

Its far better, they say, to concentrate on local Hong Kong issues and political development here, but as the organisers of this rally would argue, Hong Kong politics and the politics of mainland China are so closely linked you cannot have development of one without the other, McBride said.

Spirit will not be crushed

In Beijing, authorities tightened security around Tiananmen Square, highlighting the enduring sensitivity over the events among the Communist Party leadership.





In Taiwans capital, Taipei, Wuer Kaixi, one of the student leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, was among about 200 participants gathered at Liberty Square for a memorial event.

The spirit of June 4 is an act of courageous humans pursuing the universal value of freedom, he said. This spirit will not be crushed under machine guns and tanks. It will not die because of (the Chinese governments) suppression.

Ahead of the anniversary, family members of those killed in the crackdown were placed under additional restrictions, either confined to their homes or forced to leave the capital.

China has never released a death toll from the crackdown and prohibits public discussion of the events.

Asked on Friday about the anniversary, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China had long ago reached a clear conclusion about the political turmoil at the end of the 1980s and other related issues.
Suicide attacks hit in and around Iraqi capital as Iraqs military reports gaining ground near city of Fallujah.

At least 15 people have been killed and more than 40 others were injured in bombings targeting a police checkpoint, a restaurant and two markets in and around Baghdad, Iraqi officials said.

The deadliest incident occurred when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a checkpoint in Tarmiyah, about 50km north of the capital, killing eight people and wounding 15 others.

Three of the dead were soldiers, army officials said.

Another five people were killed in two separate attacks on markets in Baghdad, and yet two more were killed in a bomb attack on a restaurant in the capital.

Police and hospital officials confirmed Saturdays tolls to AP news agency on condition of anonymity.





Fight for Fallujah

In a separate development, the Iraqi army reported that it had managed to chase out the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group from a suburb of Fallujah, which lies 50km west of Baghdad, after fierce clashes.

Government troops were backed by US-led air strikes as they retook Saqlawiya on Saturday, some 7km northwest of Fallujah, Colonel Mohammed Abd, an army commander in western Iraq, told DPA news agency.

Security forces raised the Iraqi flag in the suburb after pushing deep into the area and killing at least 27 Daesh elements, he said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIL.

READ MORE  Battle for Fallujah: Iraqi troops die in ISIL attacks

Also on Saturday, at least 34 Iraqi soldiers were killed in two separate attacks by ISIL in the same area.

The first attack occurred in the early hours of Saturday, as the armed group mounted an attack with a suicide car bomber targeting Iraqi army and Shia fighters to the south east of Fallujah city, killing at least 14 soldiers and 15 injuring others.





Later in the day, 20 Iraqi soldiers, including Sunni tribal fighters, were killed in an ISIL suicide car bombing targeting an Iraqi army convoy at the main road of al-Azrakiyah, northwest of Fallujah city, according to Iraqi military sources talking to Al Jazeera.

The blast was followed by an ISIL assault on the convoy which resulted in the destruction of 15 military vehicles.

On Wednesday, at least 130 Iraqi soldiers were killed by a series of suicide attacks in Fallujah.

Several bombings have hit Baghdad since the offensive on Fallujah started on May 23.

The operation for Fallujah has come at a dire human cost, with thousands of civilians trapped between ISIL fighters and the advancing Iraqi army.

Timeline: The battle for Fallujah

Up to 50,000 people are still stuck in the centre of the city, struggling with dwindling water and food supplies.

No aid has reached Fallujah since September last year and residents have been living on dates, dirty water from the Euphrates and animal feed, aid groups said.
Government troops backed by Russian air strikes cross into Raqqa province for the first time since August 2014.

The Syrian army has crossed the boundary of Raqqa province after advancing in a major Russian-backed offensive against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Heavy Russian air strikes hit ISIL-held territory in eastern areas of Hama province, near the boundary of Raqqa, on Friday to facilitate the Syrian armys advance, the UK-based observatory said on Saturday.

ISIL, which controls large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq, is fighting Syrian troops, US-backed fighters and other rebel groups in northern Syria and is facing an offensive by Iraqi government forces and its on their stronghold of Fallujah.

READ MORE: In Raqqa, support ISIL or die

Regime troops backed by Russian air strikes and Russian-trained militia entered Raqqa province on Saturday morning, Rami Abdel Rahman, the observatorys director, told the AFP news agency.

The observatory said that at least 26 ISIL fighters and nine Syrian government and allied troops were killed in the fighting.

It was the first time that government troops had entered Raqqa province since they were ousted by ISIL fighters in August 2014.

The Syrian army was making its advances from the Athriya area of eastern Hama province, close to the provincial border with Raqqa.

The offensive brought troops to within less than 40km of Tabqa, which is the site of an airbase and a big reservoir, the observatory said.

The Tabqa dam on the Euphrates, 40km upstream from Raqqa city, is also the target of a separate offensive launched by US-backed Kurdish-led forces advancing from the north late last month.

Raqqa city, further east, is ISILs de facto capital in Syria and also, along with Mosul in Iraq, the ultimate target of the international anti-ISIL coalition seeking to destroy the groups self-declared caliphate.

Al Jazeeras Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Gaziantep, on the Turkish side of the Turkey-Syria border, said that the push into Raqqa from was a significant development but there was a still a long way to go.

Raqqa is besieged by government troops from the west and Syrian factions from the north and from the east  the south is linked to the bordering province of Deir Az Zor which is still an ISIL stronghold, Ahelbarra said.

Now, whoever controls Raqqa will face a mammoth challenge, which is basically securing a vast territory, he added, noting that both the Syrian government and the Kurdish factions cannot maintain a significant presence of troops in the province as they are also involved in heavy fighting in different battlefields elsewhere in Syria.
Since early April, Macedonians have marched en masse to protest against alleged government corruption and mismanagement.

Skopje, Macedonia  Since early April, Macedonians have marched en masse through cities across the country, throwing paint-filled balloons and chanting anti-government slogans.

Dubbed the I Protest movement on social media, the demonstrators have marched against alleged corruption, the governments alleged wire-tapping of up to 20,000 people and presidential pardons given to 56 politicians and businessmen facing criminal charges.

READ MORE: Macedonia  Behind the Facade

In May, President Gjorge Ivanov revoked 22 of those pardons as pressure mounted.

The uprising has also been called the Colourful Revolution, a reference to activists splattering of paint on government buildings and state-funded statues that they view as emblematic of widespread corruption.

With the exception of Sundays, protests have continued daily for 53 days.

Though police have been restrained during protests, at least 64 activists were interrogated in the southwestern city of Bitola and seven others charged with felonies in the capital Skopje, according to activists.

As more than 500 people marched through the Macedonian capital on Friday night, Al Jazeera spoke to several demonstrators about what the I Protest movement means to them.

Ivana Zlatkova, 30, employee of a private company

Im tired, but Im still standing. I have been coming since the beginning. I was even hit by a police officer. We were protesting and the situation got out of control. I was not doing anything. I was just standing on the side. But he was just hitting everyone in his way. That was on April 13.

This all needs to stop. We want justice, freedom and democracy. Our president is incapable of doing anything because he is only taking orders from [Prime Minister Nikola] Gruevski.

He wants to save himself from the crimes that he commits and from accountability for the corruption in our institutions.

They want to destroy us because we are fighting for our rights. The [Macedonian] media is corrupt. Most of it is government-owned, and it only tells Gruevskis side.

Simona Spirovska, 30, actress

I havent been arrested yet, although there have been several occasions [I could have been]. We have been protesting every day for more than 50 days. The form of protesting has changed.

In the first few days, it wasnt organised and we were just going out in the streets. There was a bit of violence, but it was nothing compared to the rule of these people for the last 10 years.

Thats why I cant describe us as violent. We are just saying what we think about the government and the 10 years weve been oppressed by them.

The government is worried. If it wasnt worried, it wouldnt need to arrest people. Of course, we will be able to keep it up. I am optimistic.

Dushan Drankovic, 70, retired lawyer

I have been protesting for 32 months, since before the protests started. First, I was in front of the court and the Ministry of Justice, and now Im here. The government confiscated my land and building. They are going to build something else on top of my land.

There are thousands of people with cases similar to mine. I think as long as the current government is in charge, we are not going to get any justice. Im still optimistic for change.

Thats why Ive been standing here for more than two years.

Ismail Malici, 29, human rights researcher

I was charged with involvement in 3,400 euros worth of damage to the Ministry of Culture and an arch in the city centre. That was just for throwing paint.

I learned about the charges when I saw my name in the media.

The [officials] should be ashamed of themselves. They know what they are doing is wrong. It is a pity.

I am not trying to get personal gain out of this except for the freedom for all of Macedonians. I am proud of what we are doing and I hold my head up high.

Mihaela Ivanova, 23, law student

Im here every day from 6pm until the protest ends. Ill keep coming every day. Im hoping for a better future here in Macedonia, and for the rule of law and human rights.

I hope every criminal gets what they deserve, such as prison time. Im hoping for a better future in every way in Macedonia. Thats why we are fighting.

The [government officials] are criminals  and thats why this is very dangerous.

They dont want to show it, but they are scared. We know it because we see the fear in their faces when they give speeches about us.

I want to continue my studies in international law so I can represent my country in a way it deserves  as a free and democratic country.

Jakov Spasev, 25, acting student

They tried to arrest me a week ago. Fortunately, I was not home at the time. They accused me of throwing paint at the parliament.

From the beginning, I was fed up with people stealing from us and treating us like we are stupid. They say a fence next to the old bridge cost $4m  maybe if it was made out of platinum and gold.

They are stealing everything from this country. They are taking assistance from the International Monetary Fund, but I think they kept more than 70 percent of the money for themselves.

I started protesting last year when the wiretapping recordings came out. One recording was about the police covering up a murder. Before that, I was not really sure. But wouldnt you be motivated?

Follow Patrick Strickand on Twitter: @P_Strickland_
The best of Muhammad Alis quotes on boxing, success and civil rights that mesmerised people all over the world.

In his life, Muhammad Ali taunted opponents with razor-sharp rhymes and comical one-liners.

Wednesday, January 17 would have been his 76th birthday.

Here are his most famous quotes on achievement, social justice, religion and war.

On Boxing

Ali, before a fight with Sonny Liston in 1964.

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Rumble, young man, rumble.

Ali after beating Liston.

Im king of the world! Im pretty! Im a bad man! I shook up the world! I shook up the world! I shook up the world!

After his match against George Foreman, known as the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974.

Ive wrestled with alligators, Ive tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning. And throw thunder in jail. You know Im bad. Just last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalised a brick. Im so mean, I make medicine sick.

Ali at a news conference to announce a comic book in which he beats Superman.

All I can do is fight for truth and justice. I cant save anybody. Hes a science fiction character, and Im a real character.

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Rumble, young man, rumble by Muhammad Ali

Happy birthday to the The Greatest! Here is Muhammad Ali in his own words.https://t.co/cqE5dBVI3u  AJ+ (@ajplus) January 18, 2018

On Success

Ali at a news conference on October 28, 1984.

What I suffered physically was worth what Ive accomplished in life. A man who is not courageous enough to take risks will never accomplish anything in life.

Its hard to be humble when youre as great as I am.

Ali to heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson during the 1960 Olympic Games.

Hey Floyd  I seen you! Someday Im gonna whup you! Dont you forget, I am the greatest!

A man who is not courageous enough to take risks will never accomplish anything in life by Muhammad Ali

On war

Muhammad Ali spoke boldly against the war in Vietnam and refused conscription into the army. This is Alis famous explanation of why he refused to serve in the United States Army.

Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? Ali, February, 17, 1966.

On racism and Islam

Muhammad Ali was an outspoken Muslim convert, and he became the unofficial spokesman for millions of blacks and oppressed people around the world. In Seattle for a benefit for Sugar Ray Seales, he famously said:

People say I talk so slow today. Thats no surprise. I calculated Ive taken 29,000 punches. But I earned $57m and I saved half of it. So I took a few hard knocks. Do you know how many black men are killed every year by guns and knives without a penny to their names? I may talk slow, but my mind is OK.

Ali at a church in 1983.

Why are all the angels white? Why aint there no black angels?

My name is known in Serbia, Pakistan, Morocco. These are countries that dont follow the Kentucky Derby.  Ali in a New York Times interview, April 1977.

Since the Paris attacks, Muhammad Ali spoke out against the incrimination of Islam with ISIL attacks.

I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world. True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion.  Ali, 2015.

Why are all the angels white? Why ain't there no black angels? by Muhammad Ali




Severe weather has battered parts of eastern Australia.

The weather system pushed across southern parts of Queensland, intensifying as it did so.

Southeastern parts of the state were the worst hit. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, 382mm of rain was reported at Upper Springbrook on the Gold Coast and 357mm was reported at Mount Tamborine.

This vast amount of rain caused major flooding. Numerous roads were inundated and became impassable, including the major Bruce Highway.

As the rain strengthened, the winds also picked up. Thousands of homes suffered power cuts, the majority of which were on the Gold Coast. The strongest gust was nearly 100 kilometres per hour at Cape Moreton.

As the system pushed southwards into New South Wales, it continued to produce severe weather.

A gust of wind of 117kph was reported in Sydney Harbour, and across Sydney the winds were intense. More than 100 power lines were ripped down, the roof was torn off an apartment block and numerous trees were also brought down.

The system is expected to become even more dangerous over the coming hours, as an area of low pressure develops off the coast of New South Wales.

The winds will intensify and the wave heights are expected to reach up to eight metres in some areas.

Much of the coastline of New South Wales and areas near the coast can expect up to 300mm of rain by the end of the weekend.

The flooding is expected to be exacerbated by the high tide which is affecting the east coast. This is one of the highest tides of the year, and will effectively try to block the floodwaters escape to the sea and prolong the flooding.

Victoria and Tasmania are also seeing torrential downpours, and are bracing for conditions to worsen as the system slowly creeps southwards.
Last week, retailers across the world did not sell cigarettes and tobacco products for one day.

World No Tobacco Day was marked internationally on May 31 in order to highlight health risks associated with tobacco use and to advocate policies to reduce tobacco consumption. Tobacco kills an estimated six million people per year.

The tobacco industry has annual revenues of nearly $500bn. The number of cigarettes manufactured and sold has risen to six trillion every year worldwide  nearly double of what it was four decades ago.

Tobacco stocks outperformed the market in 2015 and have in fact done so for the past decade.

But even if you are not buying cigarettes, you may still be buying into them.

In May 2016, one of the biggest insurers, Axa, said it could not continue being a health insurer and supporting tobacco. It committed to stubbing out its investments in tobacco stocks and bonds and even called the tobacco industry a sunset industry. But is the industry really on its way out?

We examine how big tobacco players have shifted focus to the developing world to stay profitable; and how your pension money may well be tied up in the industry.

As there are also calls on pension funds to follow Axas lead, Counting the Cost talks to Jonathan Hoare, director of Policy & Investor Networks, Shareaction, about Big Tobacco and the politics behind it.

Al Jazeeras Step Vaessen gives an insight into the tobacco industrys focus on developing countries like Indonesia and its impact on the people. With 65 million smokers, Indonesia is a big market  one in five children start to smoke before the age of 10.

Also on this episode of Counting the Cost:

ISIL and oil: Even as the Iraqi army fights back, the armed group, also known as ISIS, is still strong and well-funded. An update on how ISIL controls the oil fields, how it sells the oil and why it is still finding customers for its contraband crude.

Greece on life support: The country is bankrupt, so how much more austerity is in store for Europes most depressed economy?

Made in Taiwan: About 90 percent of the worlds computers and one-third of mobile phones are from Taiwan. Its famous for its technology industry, but it may need to adapt if it wants to remain a high-tech hub.
Corruption and cover-ups: How the media cover Perus elections; plus, war and peace: Colombias unreconciled narratives.

On The Listening Post this week: Corruption and cover-ups  covering the elections in Peru. Plus, war and peace: Colombias unreconciled narratives.

Perus election: Media, money and manipulation

Peruvians head to the polls this week in a presidential election thats been marred by allegations of money laundering and media manipulation. We analyse the coverage, Perus powerful media conglomerates and the political battles playing out across the airwaves.

Talking us through the story are: Mirko Lauer, journalist, La Republica; Mayra Alban, former journalist, Las cosas como son, Panamericana TV; Miklos Lukacs, Esan Graduate School of Business; and Oscar Castilla, investigative journalist, Ojo Publico.

On our radar

The Philippines was already one of the worlds most dangerous countries to report on. And now the countrys president-elect is saying that journalists deserve to be killed if they dont behave.

The Philippines was already one of the worlds most dangerous countries to report on. And now the countrys president-elect is saying that journalists deserve to be killed if they dont behave. In Cairo, three leaders at the Egyptian Press Syndicate have been arrested and charged with harbouring fugitives and publishing false news.

Iran has effectively put the Berlin-based messaging app Telegram on notice: It has one year to transfer its servers into the country or the app will be out of business in the Islamic Republic.

War and peace: Colombias unreconciled narratives

After 60 years of fighting between the Colombian government and the leftist guerrilla group FARC  the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia  an historic peace deal could be in sight.

But as the story moves forward, are the mainstream news media willing to move forward, too?

Talking us through the story are: Hassan Nassar, director, LA FM, RCN; Marta Ruiz, journalist, La Semana; Maria Jimena Duzan, presenter, Semana En Vivo; Boris Guevara, presenter, New Colombia News; and Yadira Suarez, presenter, New Colombia News.
Britains former foreign secretary discusses the official UK investigation into the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The decision by the US and UK to invade Iraq in 2003 was met with condemnation around the world at the time  and is still haunting its principal architects.

After by Jack

posed a threat to international peace and security. These were agonising decisions, but we made the decision [to intervene in Iraq] in good faith  and on the best evidence that we had . What would have happened had we not taken the action we did  Iraq wouldnt have been a picnic, far from it.]

On the British side, it was Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Foreign Secretary Jack Straw who took their country to war. Ever since, there has been an intense debate about why they did so.

The long-awaited culmination of an official British investigation should bring insights into how Blair and Straw reached their decision.

The Chilcot Inquiry, named after its chairman Sir John Chilcot, will reveal its findings in July, seven years after it began its work.

Leaks from the final report, which is 2.6 million words in total, suggest that both the prime minister and foreign secretary come under severe criticism.

Jack Straw was a key witness at the Chilcot Inquiry, where he insisted that he supported an attack on Iraq for good reasons: to destroy Saddam Husseins weapons of mass destruction.

But the evidence that Saddam Hussein possessed such weapons was hotly contested at the time, and was shown to be false after the invasion.

Of course I regret the fact that the basis on which we made the decision, which was that there were extensive holdings of what we knew Saddam had had, holdings of very dangerous chemical and biological weapons, were not found, he tells Al Jazeera.

Jack Straw stayed on in the British Parliament until 2015. He is now campaigning for the UK to remain in the European Union in the referendum on June 23, and also lectures on international relations.

On this episode of Talk to Al Jazeera, the former UK foreign secretary talks about Turkish-Iranian relations, Western intervention in Syrias war; the threat of ISIL; Tony Blairs legacy; and the issues behind the most difficult decision of his life  the invasion of Iraq.

You can talk to Al Jazeera too. Join our Twitter conversation as we talk to world leaders and alternative voices shaping our times. You can also share your views and keep up to date with our latest interviews on Facebook.




           2005     ..        
OceanFirst Financial in Toms River, N.J., will start 2017 under new leadership  sort of.

John Garbarino will step aside as chairman of the $4.2 billion-asset company on Dec. 31, but he will turn over the job to a familiar face  Christopher Maher, who will remain president and chief executive, also.

Maher was appointed president and chief operating officer in March 2013 and joined the board that same year. He was named CEO in January 2015 when he replaced  Garbarino.

Maher was executive vice president of Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh in the New York area from 2005 to 2010, and president and CEO of Patriot National Bancorp in Stamford, Conn., from 2010 to 2013.

Maher was appointed to the board of the New Jersey Bankers Association in May.

Garbarino has been chairman of OceanFirst Bank since 1989 and its holding company since 1996, according to Bloomberg. Garbarino served as CEO from 1996 until Maher's appointment in 2015. He has worked for the company for 44 years.

"I plan to remain active on the board of directors and am pleased to be able to take this next step in furtherance of the company's succession plan," Garbarino said in a company news release Thursday that announced the change.

OceanFirst has 50 branches in central and southern New Jersey.


At its core, Europe has abandoned its Christian heritage in favor of the Canaanite side of the family tree.

One is amazed, when one studies history, how much of human conflict originates in a family or clan feuds. The present Mideast crises have their origins in the biblical feud between Jacob and Esau. Looking further west, we can see that the Punic Wars can be thought of as feuds between the Carthaginian Barca family and the Scipios of Italy. The wars between Scotland and England often involved feuding family claims on the Stone of Scone -- a rock of questionable origins, so steeped in myth that it is beyond the scope of this article to assess the veracity of any of the various and competing legends.

Yet, we know these myths are often based on a germ of truth. Troy did exist; and hence the Trojan War did occur, though Homer certainly exaggerated it for poetic effect. If there was a Helen, and if she was as beautiful as the myth says, she must have been a stunner. We are still singing about Helen, three millenia later. Beat that, Kim Kardashian! No one will be singing about your silicone-enhanced derriere ten years from now.

However, I am going to examine an ancient foundational myth that has present consequences today on the world stage; and may be central to our future.

According to legend, Europe was founded by a Phoenician princess named Europa.

Europa was the beautiful daughter of the Phoenician king of Tyre, Agenor. Zeus, the King of the gods according to Greek mythology, saw Europa as she was gathering flowers by the sea and immediately fell in love with her. -- Phoenicia.org

Zeus with his ever wandering eye -- Hera tried to keep him on a short leash -- decided to trick and rape this Phoenician Princess.

[S]uddenly, the bull... abduct[ed] Europa. Only then the bull revealed its true identity and took Europa to the Mediterranean island of Crete. There, Zeus cast off the shape of the white bull, and back into his human form, made Europa his lover beneath a simple cypress tree. Europa became the first queen of Crete and had by Zeus three sons: King Minos of Crete, King Rhadamanthus of the Cyclades Islands, and, according to some legends, Prince Sarpedon of Lycia. -- Phoenicia.org

...Zeus transformed himself into the form of a magnificent white bull... Europa spread flowers about his neck and dared to climb upon his back...

We do know from history that the Phoenicians brought literacy and civilization to the Europeans through trading with the early Minoans and Myceneans. Hence the myth credits the Phoenicians with the founding of Europe civilization.

The rather bizarre myth is celebrated through the ages in European art.

Herodotus cites Phoenica [sic] as the birthplace of the alphabet, stating that it was brought to Greece by the Phoenician Kadmus (sometime before the 8th century BCE) and that, prior to that, the Greeks had no alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet is the basis for most western languages written today. -- Ancient History Encyclopedia

The Phoenicians would later found colonies at Carthage, much of Sicily, Southern Spain, Corsica, Genoa, Malta, Marseilles, and possibly Ireland and Britain, though the latter two are suspect.

What is clear is that these Phoenicians shot out to the West, and jump started our civilization. Later on, migrating Indo-European (IE) tribes would absorb them. Oddly enough, willingly. The Celts got along well with the Phoenicians. Gaelic legends [Irish and Scottish] speak of a mixed European and Phoenician ancestry. How reliable they may be is open to debate; but what is fascinating is that, even if the claimed ancestry be false, that they would even claim Phoenician ancestry -- indicating that the Celts held the Phoenicians in high esteem.

But, let's get back to the bull legend. The Phoenicians may have brought bullfighting, or an early version, to Spain.

The spectacle of bullfighting has existed in one form or another since ancient days. For example, a contest of some sort is depicted in a wall painting unearthed at Knossos in Crete. -- spanish-fiestas.com

But remember that Crete's first queen, according to legend, was the Phoenician Europa. Also remember that...

...the Phoenicians who emigrated by ship from Lebanon to Crete around 2000 BC merged into the Minoan culture. -- Phoenician Blueprint

So, it is no small leap to conclude the Phoenicians/Carthaginians brought bullfighting to Spain when they migrated to Spain from Carthage, after having moved to Crete from Lebanon. They set up all over the Mediterranean.

What we notice is that Mediterranean European culture is heavily Phoenician in origin, and partially Phoenician in genetic bloodline as well, though obviously diluted into the Indo-European (IE) tribes.

This European Ur-myth -- the woman riding the bull - is now on some Euro coins.

More astoundingly, in front of the European Parliament is a statue of this woman [Europa] riding the bull. A celebration of a maiden being carried off to be raped by a deceptive god, Zeus.

Why would any modern polity embrace a mythological rape as their inspiration? There has to be something amiss in the European mind. Where are the leftist feminists? Why aren't they upset? Yet, Europeans have embraced this gruesome legend and plaster it all over their culture.

Europe is ostensibly Christian. Why not an image of a Crusader? Or a Cross? Or an ancient Roman senator or a Greek philosopher? They chose Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" as their official anthem. Great choice!

What possessed them to celebrate this atrocity of rapine bestiality for core inspiration.

The German News magazine, Der Spiegel has printed covers of this mythological woman riding the bull as a symbol of the European Union on more than one of its covers. This is a recurring theme, which seems to strike a chord in the European psyche.

The woman, clearly European, is waving a European Union flag as she sallies off to her degradation. The title translates: Good Morning Europe.

The Europeans could have picked Joan of Arc, or Marianne leading the charge of the French Revolution in Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, if they wanted female inspiration.

The Europeans could have chosen El Cid, Richard the Lionheart, or better yet, Leonidas I, the hero of Thermopylae. What is wrong with Europe?! Bestial Rape?

One of America's Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, wanted America's image to be Moses leading the tribes of Israel to liberty across the parted Red Sea. That alone sheds insight into the difference between European and American mindsets, at least two centuries ago. I suspect, the difference has eroded.

However, the myth has even darker implications, apart from the obvious. Just who were these Phoenicians who brought civilization, and this inspiration, to Indo-European (IE) tribes in Southern Europe?

They were the Canaanites, the ancient enemies of Israel.

The Phoenicians of the Iron Age (first millennium B.C.) descended from the original Canaanites who dwelt in the region during the earlier Bronze Age -- Phoenicia.org

The Canaanites had a very dark civilization. This is glossed over, as history books mention only their achievements; but there was a reason Moses wanted them obliterated. Yes, the Phoenicians brought the alphabet to Europe (probably learned it from the Hebrews, and took credit for it); and yes, they brought mercantilism, and seafaring knowledge; but they came with baggage, lots of baggage: child sacrifice, temple prostitution, and animal cruelty, at least to bulls.

Ancient histories show that the Israelites entering the Holy Land, up to the time of David, chased out the local Canaanites, many of whom fled into Europe. Now Europe was, by this time, being settled by migrating Indo-European (IE) tribes wandering in from the Caucuses; but they seem to have mixed with these Canaanites, apparently without exercising any discretion.

We know for example that the very IE Celts were quick to ally with the (Phoenician) Carthaginian Hannibal in his war with Rome.

The ancient Jews, and their sages, were quick to notice that European civilization had embraced much of the Canaanites' cultural affectations. These sages erroneously conflated Christianity with this influence; and hence to this day, some rabbis will call Christianity "Edom", a people related to the Canaanites. Being Christian, I would disagree with these rabbis' assessment of Christianity. The problem is that Europe's embrace of Christianity was only superficial -- they did not embrace Christianity strongly enough. Had they, the Canaanite Phoenician influence would not have survived.

There can be no doubt that many pagan influences have crept into Christianity [and sadly, Judaism as well -- don't even get me started on Qabbalah], and many of those are traceable back to the Canaanites. The exaggerated veneration of Mary by some Christian denominations is traceable back to the Canaanite goddess: Asheroth.

As for the European woman riding the bull, the foundation myth of Europe, well this should chill you:

Rev 17:3 I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast...

The prophesied Whore of Babylon, the final tyranny, from the Christian book of Revelation. This is what the Europeans are celebrating?!

Some Protestants conflate this image with Roman Catholicism. Maybe so, maybe not; but a deeper insight would indicate that at the time of the writing of the Book of Revelation, everyone who heard it would have immediately associated the image with the foundation myth of Europe. The Greeks at that time were all familiar with the legend of the Rape of Europa. However, one understands the verse and chapter, it certainly applies to European Civilization in general, not just Rome.

At its founding, Europe imbibed a cultural retro-virus from pagan Phoenician Canaanites which persists to this day. European culture, though eventually and nominally Christianized, retained this pagan core. This ancient feud between the Hebrews and the Canaanites would resurface between the Jews and the Europeans at times. This is no accident. It is a family rivalry, albeit attenuated by intermarriage. As Europe continues to de-Christianize, this pagan core will begin to reassert itself, like a dormant cases of herpes breaking out under stress -- and what an appropriate metaphor that is.

The last time this happened was under Hitler, who tried to re-paganize Germany. The shock of WW I had started to de-Christianize the continent and Hitler strolled in with his neo-pagan Nordicism. Europe is less Christian today, so the potential for even worse is there.

Under stress, the retro-virus has broken out again in Europe's abandonment of Israel.

These arcane myths are the subconscious echo of an ancient feud driving European policy. At its core, Europe has abandoned its Christian heritage in favor of the Canaanite side of the family tree. The result is frightening.

Mike Konrad is the pen name of an American who is neither Latin, nor Arab. He runs a website, http://latinarabia.com, where he discusses the subculture of Arabs in Latin America. He wishes his Spanish were better.
The next time Bernie Sanders does a sit-down interview with a major news anchor, he should be asked one simple question: why dont you ever mention the huge one-percenter salaries and pensions given to government bureaucrats who administer socialist programs?

After all, Bernie Sanders loves to rant against big corporations and Wall Street billionaires. His solution is to grow government, create more bureaucracy, hire more bureaucrats, and secretly give more bonuses to socialist bureaucrats. Today there are huge bonuses given to those who administer the hard-earned dollars of Americas middle class and poor workers. While many are familiar with the $90,000 bonus given to the former TSA security chief, even after his TSA agents failed to detect 95% of the weapons and bombs brought through airports to test detection procedures last year, there are many people, mostly in education, who receive salaries so large they are difficult to believe.

And because they are large, those who sing from the liberal socialist songbook that the rich are only those who run corporations or profit on Wall Street, the liberally biased media absolutely refuse to report on this transfer of wealth to the socialist class, particularly during an election year.

Examples abound. When the city of Stockton, Calif. filed for bankruptcy, the judge in charge of the bankruptcy, who was accused of persecuting government union employees, found that the fire engines of Stockton had been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent that every time a fire engine went out on a call, it had to be accompanied by a wrecker. This was, apparently, because fire department administrators had taken money out of the maintenance fund and given it to themselves as other pay. In 2012, Ronald L. Hittle, the fire chief, received regular pay of $132,000 but received other pay of $118,000 bringing his total for 2012 to $323,000. Stocktons community development director, whose job description reminds one of President Obamas career as a community organizer, had regular pay of $133,437 and other pay of $291,879, bringing his 2012 total pay to $458,156.

Apparently, ever since President Obama opened the spigot on national debt, the entire nation is on a binge to over-pay public servants. And since the public administrators, who control the budgets, have no accountability, they have given themselves big pay increases to the detriment of public safety, health, and education. And these three things are supposed to be the very reason we have government: to preserve public safety, health, and education.

Obamacare has led to some startling economic injustice. Thomas Wander of Californias public Beta Healthcare Group Risk Management Authority earned $2.7 million in 2014. Khalil M. Tabsch, an outstanding physician at the UCLA Medical Center, received a publicly funded salary of $2.34 million in 2014. There are 41 university employees who earned between one million and his $2.34 million. While no one doubts the credentials and competence of these health care professionals, their level of income, which they may get in retirement, is unaffordable to taxpayers.

In higher education, the abuse is more common. In Illinois, the top beneficiary is Leslie Heffez, an oral surgeon who retired from the U. of Illinois at Chicago (where Donald Trump had to cancel one of his rallies), receiving an annual pension of $547,000. If he lives to age 81, hell get $18 million from taxpayers. Today, 50% of the cost of tuition at Illinois public universities goes to pensions. This means half of the student loan debt goes only to support ex-university employees who no longer work and saved little for their retirement. While this is the highest pension, the average is $71,600, and each retiree will receive $2 million in retirement. In Illinois, from 2006 to 2015, the state added 8 billion new dollars to higher education, and every cent went only to pensions.

Socialism can be very expensive for the middle class and the poor.

And while Bernie Sanders shakes his finger and looks so concerned about helping the poor and getting money from Wall Street, he is fronting for the dirtiest secret in American politics: that liberal progressive socialist democrats arent about helping the people. Rather, they are all about getting wealthy from their scam, their big lie, that they are all about the people. The truth is, as soon as they get into power, they pass laws to keep themselves in power. They give contracts to their rich Wall Street friends (Chelsea Clinton worked for a hedge fund), then use your money in every conceivable way to make sure nobody can compete with them.

The most startling aspect of all this is that the liberal media go along with it, refuse to expose the bonuses, refuse to expose the big pensions. Only private watchdog groups, whose work rarely appears in mainstream newspapers, tell the facts about where the money really goes. The major media outlets wont give the big picture. They wont reveal the details about the nationally based exploitation of the middle class perpetrated by liberal Democrats and their wonderful programs.

Democrats always promise to take from the rich, but for some reason your taxes go up. The government workers get pay increases every year; their pensions grow; and you, without agreeing to this plan, are forced to pay for them.

And Bernie Sanders is behind this racket. He practices it; he promotes it. The greatest scheme of exploitation is not white privilege; its liberal socialist privilege.

It may be difficult for Sanders voters to understand why, in states such as Illinois, half of their college tuition goes to pay for the pension plans of university professors and administrators who earn up to $750K a year. Its difficult to understand why they get these pensions when the vast majority of college graduates will be forced to save for their own retirements in order to supplement their small social security. If graduates earning $60K a year can afford to save for retirement, why cant university administrators who earn $100K to $400K a year save for theirs?

Mr. Sanders should be asked to explain this. He should be asked to explain how he talks about economic justice and income inequality when his party forces the middle class to pay outrageously high pensions to socialists.

Since this is an issue of income inequality, he should certainly want to talk about it. Sanders and Hillary should both be expected to have a conversation with college-age Americans about this system of pensions and explain why they have to save for retirement while public university employees dont.

When it comes to big pensions that exploit the working middle class and the poor, somehow Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton remain silent. Their corporate greed and Wall Street rhetoric disappear. It should make voters wonder if they want this system to continue. They certainly cant say its fair.

Voters must consider this fall whether they want their country  and the public pension system supported by Democrats  to continue to erode their incomes and standard of living or make the changes needed to make a college degree affordable.
Historical arguments based on fantasy and a desire to present America as a villain have made the use of nuclear weapons to end World War II into a controversy. Ignorance of history is a very dangerous thing.

The President recently visited Hiroshima Japan, site of the first atomic bomb ever used in combat. The bombing took place on August 6th, 1945. It was followed three days later by a second bomb on Nagasaki. Although he was very careful not to explicitly apologize for our use of atomic weapons -- mindful of the harsh backlash that awaited him should his trip be perceived as yet another Obama apology tour -- the tenor of President Obamas remarks left little doubt as to where he stands on the issue.

For years, the estimated death tolls from these two events were put at approximately 70,000 and 45,000 respectively.* However, in recent years these figures have increased dramatically, often being cited as being in excess of 120,000 and 90,000. Perhaps recent historians, equipped with more data, are including the lingering radiation and burn-related deaths that can now be attributed to the initial attacks. Perhaps agenda-driven revisionists -- confident that the earlier numbers will never again come to light -- are simply intentionally exaggerating the casualty numbers for greater emotional impact, in service to an anti-nuclear or anti-American political goal.

No matter. They were devastating attacks and their stunning severity convinced an otherwise fanatical and totally detached-from-reality Japanese leadership to snap into some semblance of lucidity and surrender immediately. The formal surrender took place on the battleship USS Missouri on September 2, 1945.

The Japanese had displayed a zealous obsession to fight to the last man in their frenzied defense of the Pacific island campaign in 1944-1945. When the island of Tarawa fell to US forces after three days of unbelievably intense fighting, only 17 (!) Japanese soldiers remained alive out of their initial force of 4800. On Guam, after three weeks of fighting, the 18,000-man Japanese defensive force had fought with such ferocity that victorious U.S. forces took only 485 prisoners.

So it went, island after island, month after month. Total American casualties in the Pacific Theater were averaging 7000 per week. Try to put that into the perspective of our recent engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iwo Jima (the famous flag raising battle) saw the Japanese fight to within 4000 of their 22,000-man force, inflicting American casualties of 7000 dead and 19,000 wounded during the 36-day battle.

Okinawa, the final island battle before the invasion of the Japanese homeland was to commence, lasted three months from April-June 1945, with 12,000 American deaths and 80,000 wounded. Japanese combat deaths were estimated to be in excess of 110,000.

The rate of casualties in these Pacific engagements was and remains simply unprecedented and incomprehensible, even to this day. Defending their homeland, there is every reason to believe that the Japanese would be even more desperate and fanatic. Adult civilians and children were ready to join the battle. Estimates of the duration of the invasion were as long as 6 months to over a year, and casualty expectations were over 500.000 American dead and 5-10 million Japanese dead, figures made so high because of anticipated widespread civilian participation in the defense of the homeland.

To reduce the calculation of different warfare strategies to a cold analysis of projected casualty/death rates is indeed a horrifying proposition. Its a choice no sane person wishes would ever have to be made.

But it is equally insane for the emotionally/ideologically-obsessed but intellectually-stubborn/ignorant sect to somehow believe that some innocent deaths in war are worse or less morally-defensible than others. The March 1945 firebombing of Tokyo resulted in far greater casualties than either atomic strike in August 1945, yet the modern anti-nuclear war faction has let that one pass completely. Why? Are civilian deaths by conventional means somehow acceptable but death by nuclear weapons -- especially because of their longer-lasting and grotesque radiation/fallout effects -- somehow worse? Or is the anti-World War II nuclear bloc simply unaware of history?

Much -- most, actually -- post WWII analysis centers on how wrong the U.S. was to use atomic weapons, how America sacrificed its moral standing by employing them, how -- in the eyes of many modern-day historians -- we did it mostly to impress and intimidate the ever-strengthening Soviet Union, who we correctly saw as the major threat to post-WWII world stability, or how we could have brought Japan to its knees and forced them to surrender without such extreme measures.

Is any of that possible? Its possible. But unlikely. No credible evidence or documentation has ever been uncovered to support such a contention, although a lack of evidence certainly doesnt deter proponents of the we-did-it-to-intimidate-the-Soviets theory, no matter how far-fetched it may be. And in actuality, virtually all of todays criticisms and protests focus on Americas supposed moral transgressions, since many anti-nuclear protesters tend to be absolutely, completely unaware of any late-40s Soviet implications in past U.S. strategic deliberations.

Absent the atomic bomb, an invasion of the Japanese homeland was going to happen in November 1945. Six million or more would have died. But it didnt happen and they didnt die. As previously stated, ignorance of history is a dangerous thing. And while awareness of it may not make difficult historical passages any easier to absorb, such awareness is, at the very least, intellectually empowering.

*Famous Bombers of the Second World War,  1960 William Green, Doubleday & Co. P. 118 -- 70,000

Airwar Vol 2,  1971 Edward Jablonski, Doubleday & Co.; P. 210-211: 71, 379 ...still less than the number of casualties of the [U.S.] Tokyo fire raids and the [British] Dresden [Germany] attacks.

Air Force  1957 Martin Caidin, Bramhall House; P. 194 Hiroshima -- 80,000, Tokyo [March 1945] 130,000
As he dug in for ideological warfare with the establishment media, anarchists, Marxist terrorists, anti-war protesters, and other militants in 1969, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew said he felt as though he were "involved in a crusade" (1).

It was a fitting analogy, given that the groups then arrayed against the American sociopolitical system had adopted a kind of missionary zeal in their adherence to a variety of delusional, as well as deadly, causes.

They would become the Alinskyites, social justice warriors, multicultural indoctrinators, rabid environmentalists, and similarly aligned disciples of what author Lloyd Billingsley described as a "mishmash of conventional leftisms," waging "jihad" against those who dare challenge their views (2). Confrontation and demonization under the banner of political correctness are favored tactics.

De facto GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump has been combating P.C. fanaticism in a blunt, counterpunching style that's a throwback to Agnew, who unhesitatingly unloaded on provocateurs resorting to disinformation, obstructionism, and even harsher methods to stifle debate and subvert constitutional authority.

"A new violence is spreading in America, born not of covetousness for another's property, but for another's mind," Agnew told supporters in Phoenix, Arizona on Oct. 9, 1970.

"Freedom of speech is useless without freedom of thought," he'd said previously. "And I fear that the politics of protest is shutting out the process of thought" (3).

The veep was a firm believer that "civil rights are balanced by civil responsibilities"  that no one should be tendered veto power over another's right to speak freely within reasonable parameters.

Agnew reserved especially fierce criticism for those perpetrating destructive demonstrations on college campuses, denouncing them as "theatrical radicals" who were convinced they'd be "architects of a brave new compassionate world"  the costs and consequences of which be damned (4).

Emblematic of the era was '60s rabble-rouser Jerry Rubin, who proclaimed a desire to see "the United States self-destruct" (5). There were, of course, less strident  but nonetheless insidious  activists, whose number included a Wellesley College student by the name of Hillary Rodham. In one petulant outburst, the future first lady declared that she and fellow humanists of her generation would "practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible possible" (6). Hello, government is god.

As the Nixon administration's law-and-order line driver, Agnew was game for battle against campus radicals and rampageous mobs, with whom he first dealt as governor of Maryland.

Black Power militant H. Rap Brown fomented a riot in Cambridge in 1967, telling a crowd it was time "to burn America down" (7), and roughly nine months later, a race riot erupted in Baltimore, causing significant damage.

Agnew gave a tongue-lashing to black civic leaders who had refused to publicly oppose the Baltimore instigators. The episode prompted accusations of racism, though Agnew's candor also drew praise from many quarters (8).

Interestingly, it was the same city and the riots there in April 2015 that resulted in Trump taking heat for making what one wire service characterized as "racist and insensitive" remarks.

Like Trump today, Agnew could hardly utter a word that wasn't micro-processed by critics, fishing for any allusion to a "lack of mental and moral sensitivity" (9).

In speech after speech, Agnew fulminated against radicals and the "permissivist" parents and college administrators who stood by as academic institutions were turned upside-down. Mobs took over buildings, committed assaults, destroyed property, and engaged in other acts of aggression on more than 800 campuses nationwide.

The vice president pulled no punches, calling the would-be revolutionaries "childish, mindless, coercive and oppressive," likening their actions to "animal conduct" (10). The word "garbage" slipped from his lips in one heated exchange with protesters.

Big media commentators and other "nattering nabobs" sought every opportunity to cast Agnew in an unfavorable light as he led the fight against the "New Left revolution."

Editorialist Carl Rowan accused the vice president of pandering "to the prejudices of the most ignorant" in society, coming off as a "dumb joke" (11). A Las Vegas Sun writer compared Agnew's tone to that of Hitler (12). Not wanting to miss an opportunity to grandstand, the veep's political opponents joined in, deriding him as a "peddler of hate."

Virtually identical  and unsupported  condemnation has been heaped on Trump, who's been called a "clown," compared to Hitler, and accused of sporting hate speech for his positions on hot-button issues, including illegal immigration and Islamic fundamentalism. But the presidential candidate, like Agnew in his day, has refused to walk the P.C. tightrope in deference to his antagonists.

Trump: "I've been challenged by so many people, and I don't frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn't have time either."

Agnew: "I have an obligation to call things as I see them[.] ... I'm not going to go away just because some people are sucking in their breath with alarm over what I'm saying" (13, 14).

The chaotic demonstrations so pervasive in the first half of Agnew's term are a rarity nowadays, though speech disruptions remain a preferred tactic of the left.

Trump has contended with several organized protests, the most formidable at the University of Illinois-Chicago in March. The anti-Trump furor in the Windy City came as no great surprise, considering that it has long been a seedbed for what Agnew called "radical-liberal" activism.

Reputed domestic terrorists of the 1960s and '70s William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn make their home there, working as professors. (Barack Obama, likely the most blatant P.C. practitioner to occupy the White House, has reportedly had ties to the pair for decades.)

Along with Ayers and Dohrn, other entrenched leftists went from assailing the establishment to adopting its conventions, repurposing to gain positions in academia.

The permissivists Agnew so disdained eventually morphed into propagandists and P.C. sensitivity police immersed in a kind of multicultural, pan-sexual clannism, affording little tolerance for opinions with the faintest conservative flavor.

The animus now pervades to such an extent that the mere sight of a "Trump 2016" chalk drawing is considered a "microaggression" that drives afflicted parties to "safe spaces." While this P.C. ritual may seem tongue-in-cheek, others aren't.

Take, for instance, Project Veritas's expose on professors and administrators literally trashing the U.S. Constitution to quell the fabricated anxieties of students.

Freedom Center founder David Horowitz has compared today's left-wing popular front to a "totalitarian force," using whatever means necessary to isolate and vilify targets.

Black Lives Matter, La Raza, Move On.org, Occupy Wall Street, and similar groups, it could be argued, have taken the place of '60s factions like the Black Liberation Army, the Brown Berets, Students for a Democratic Society, and the Yippies.

These elements often seem passively or actively aligned with elitist politicians, segments of the Fourth Estate and Hollywood. Thus, little wonder that the likes of California Gov. Jerry Brown, the New York Times, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Sean Penn, and Stephen King have staked anti-Trump positions.

Agnew in his era weathered scalding winds from a comparable "effete corps of impudent snobs" but stood firm in the belief that he was representing the interests of "the forgotten American." The veep, however, was never under threat of diplomatic censure, as happened to Trump when the British Parliament in January actually engaged in a debate on whether to bar him from England. Why? Supposed "hate speech," or Islamaphobia, in his national security plank.

Such leftist histrionics may only magnify the cynosure of The Donald's campaign, but the broader implications of P.C. brainwashing remain.

"Our country is going to hell for being politically correct," Trump said at a February rally in Oklahoma City. Three weeks later, during an appearance in Fountain Hills, Arizona, he said it was past time to "stop with this political correctness. We have become so politically correct that we're totally impotent as a country."

In his political thriller The Canfield Decision, Agnew approximated the same theme in one passage: "The American resolve was shattered from within. The political geniuses, assisted by the news media, had emasculated the greatest power in the world. The United States had become impotent."

That was published exactly 40 years ago. Perhaps there's yet hope that the country's fortunes will change. One thing is certain: if Trump makes good on his campaign pledges, change won't come without a furor with which Agnew would be immensely familiar.

Notes

1. "Agnew Tells Why He Says What He Says." U.S. News & World Report. 17 Nov. 1969, p. 20.

2. Billingsley, Lloyd. Bill of Writes: Dispatches from the Political Correctness Battlefield. San Bernardino: Center Shot Press, 2016, p. 120.

3. Agnew's speech at the Governors' Conference. Washington, D.C., 3 Dec. 1969.

4. Agnew's speech to supporters in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. 28 April 1970.

5. Viorst, Milton. Fire in the Streets: America in the 1960s. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979, pp. 458-459.

6. Olson, Barbara. Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 1999, pp. 42.

7. Albright, Joseph. What Makes Spiro Run. New York: Dodd, et al., 1972, p. 173.

8. Witcover, Jules. White Knight: The Rise of Spiro Agnew. New York: Random House, 1972, pp. 170-171.

9. Agnew referencing his critics during speech at the Pennsylvania Republic Dinner. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 30 Oct., 1969.

10. Agnew's speech to supporters in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. 28 April 1970.

11. Agnew quoting during a speech at the Texas Republican Dinner. Houston, Texas. 22 May, 1970.

12. Coyne, John R. The Impudent Snobs: Agnew vs. The Intellectual Establishment. New York: Arlington House, 1972, p. 133.

13. Agnew's speech at the Texas Republican Dinner. Houston, Texas. 22 May, 1970.

14. "Agnew Tells Why He Says What He Says." U.S. News & World Report. 17 Nov. 1969, p. 20.
In the annals of immigration enforcement, this may be the low point.

Judicial Watch is reporting that the Department of Homeland Security is transporting and then releasing illegal aliens from Central America without giving them any notification of a court date nor making any effort to keep track of them.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is quietly transporting illegal immigrants from the Mexican border to Phoenix and releasing them without proper processing or issuing court appearance documents, Border Patrol sources tell Judicial Watch. The government classifies them as Other Than Mexican (OTM) and this week around 35 were transferred 116 miles north from Tucson to a Phoenix bus station where they went their separate way. Judicial Watch was present when one of the white vans carrying a group of OTMs arrived at the Phoenix Greyhound station on Buckeye Road. The OTMs are from Honduras, Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala and Border Patrol officials say this weeks batch was in custody for a couple of days and ordered to call family members in the U.S. so they could purchase a bus ticket for their upcoming trip from Phoenix. Authorities didnt bother checking the identity of the U.S. relatives or if theyre in the country legally, according to a Border Patrol official directly involved in the matter. American taxpayers pick up the fare for those who claim to have a credible fear, Border Patrol sources told JW. None of the OTMs were issued official court appearance documents, but were told to promise theyd show up for a hearing when notified, said federal agents with firsthand knowledge of the operation. A security company contracted by the U.S. government is driving the OTMs from the Border Patrols Tucson Sector where they were in custody to Phoenix, sources said. The firm is called G4S and claims to be the worlds leading security solutions group with operations in more than 100 countries and 610,000 employees. G4S has more than 50,000 employees in the U.S. and its domestic headquarters is in Jupiter, Florida. Judicial Watch is filing a number of public records requests to get more information involving the arrangement between G4S and the government, specifically the transport of illegal immigrants from the Mexican border to other parts of the country.

A rule of thumb; if government is doing something well, they make sure their PR flaks make it known to the media. If government is not doing its job or doing something illegal, they keep it secret.

If this is such a great idea, why isn't the Obama administration holding press conferences, giving reporters photo ops, allowing them to interview the happy illegals, or otherwise promote this policy as humane and necessary?

The fact that it is being done in secret without oversight by Congress or the media goes a long way in explaining their criminal negligence in enforcing the law. DHS does not have the authority to disregard laws put in place by Congress to deal with illegal aliens. Hence, they are acting above and beyond the law and should be called to account.

Bandon Judd, chief of the National Border Patrol Council, says that about 80% of illegals are dealt with in this manner. It's happening all across the border as illegals are released into unsuspecting communities.
The tail ends of past presidents' terms have usually consisted of scaling back their executive ambitions, working to frame their successes (or reframe their failures), and helping their parties appeal to the largest segments of the country by moderating their tones. This is quite obviously not the case with Barack Hussein Obama.

Barack Obama is intent on continuing his "fundamental transformation" of America.

In other words, we ain't seen nothin' yet.

Let me proffer a few scenarios, just beyond the scope of rationality. These conspiracies, along with what I hope are a few insights by fellow commenters, can thus become a time capsule of sorts. What is the most outlandish conspiracy? Which comes to fruition?

An Obama "ticket"

Barack Obama has never liked Hillary or Bill Clinton. While Hillary calculated that she could be a "good soldier" in Obamas State Department, Barack has no qualms with watching her be indicted by "his" Justice Department if it serves his agenda. Of course, he'll feign that he did all that he could.

Does this help Bernie? I cant see Barack Obama getting behind crazy Uncle Bernie.

Barack Obama's will be done. I can see him pulling the strings to have Joe Biden, John Kerry, or Elizabeth Warren enter the campaign, with...wait for it...Michelle Obama as his or her running mate. Or, and this one's out there, asking Bernie to place Michelle on his ticket, knowing that Bernie is older than dirt. When Bernie croaks months into his term, Michelle can make Barack her V.P.

Hiroshima: Past or prologue?

The moral equivalency in Barack Obama's speech in Hiroshima was painful, given the Japanese Empire's attack on our homeland.

Yet in the image of a mushroom cloud that rose into these skies, we are most starkly reminded of humanitys core contradiction. How the very spark that marks us as a species, our thoughts, our imagination, our language, our toolmaking, our ability to set ourselves apart from nature and bend it to our will  those very things also give us the capacity for unmatched destruction.

What if...hear me out...what if his apology wasn't for past wrongs, but to justify future attacks on our homeland? As we used the Bomb, doesnt this justify (in his mind) the use of such a weapon on us?

Days of Rage

This one is easier. Bill Ayers called for "days of rage" in Chicago in 1969. Attacks on police (sound familiar?). Attacks on military personnel. Attacks on college campuses (sound familiar?).

We are seeing the formation of various "armies" (#BlackLivesMatter, Occupy Wall Street, anti-Trump rioters, Concerned Student 1950 [Mizzou], The Nation of Islam). These are not disparate groups, appealing to specific grievances. They are one and the same, being inflamed by "community organizers," George Soros, and our own Community Organizer in Chief.

What will be the tipping point? Cleveland (RNC convention)? Philadelphia (DNC convention)? Possibly. The EBT system crashing?

This will be a very hot summer (global cooling notwithstanding)!

A few one-offs

A full-fledged attack on Israel?

Barack Obama being pre-emptively nominated for U.N. secretary general?

Martial law?

Individual retirement account poaching by the federal government?

Another Great Recession?

Student loan collapse? (Students demand bailout?)

Continued, intensified racial strife?

Jailing of pastors for teaching biblical principles?

Bureaucratic tyranny perpetrated against American citizens (EPA, IRS, DOJ, DOE, etc.)?
Well, Tamika Mallory, an angry, ideology-driven activist tied to Al Sharptons dull umbilical cord, rallied against gun violence with New York politicians Jumaane Williams and Vanessa Gibson.

It was another useless rally that would probably not stop one shooting and might indeed aggravate some future killings.

The angry utopian, useless activists turned against police commissioner Bill Bratton because of his recent negative comments about hip-hop.

The rally came less than a week after the shootings at Irving Square  and after Bratton called hip-hop performers basically thugs.

Tamika Mallory, who probably knows nothing about hip-hop, used the rally to insult the commissioner for his disparaging remarks.

Now, as a hip-hop artist myself, who did three albums  The Renegade Jew, Da Masta Plan, and Lifestylz  Id like to say Mallory doesnt know what shes talking about. One of my songs was called Gangbang. There was plenty of violence in my albums, and I was a white, middle-aged Jew. It is not disparaging to bear witness to the shootings in the hip-hop community  Tupac and Biggie Smalls, to mention two.

So give me a break, National Network Types. Keep throwing your own people under the bus by trying to make them look like innocent schoolboys playing in playground sandboxes. Many of them really are punks and thugs. Punish and discipline them with tough love rather than tender encouragement and forgiveness.

Mallory teams up with simpleminded, lyrically challenged Harry Belafonte to say, Unless you come to the streets, unless you support those who are standing here, unless you are working with our young people, you should shut up. And you should be ashamed of yourself to collect a check as a public official.

Well, I say, unless you have been in the rap community, unless you have been to jail and knocked another person out, unless you have been egged on to write more and more violent lyrics, you should be ashamed to defend an art form you know nothing about.

Clumsy, awkward, overly white Bill de Blasio disavowed Brattons characterization of rappers last week. Oh, thats right  hes the jerk who felt its wrong to search potential criminals for weapons. Dont stop and frisk; close your eyes, and let them shoot.

When our commissioner calls our hip-hop generation, which is a whole generation, thugs, it makes our young men that much more vulnerable. It makes our young women that much more vulnerable, said Brooklyn councilwoman Laurie Cumbo. And it creates an environment in our communities where we are afraid to love.

Cumbos got to be kidding. I was a hip-hopper, and I wanted to be called a thug, not some sort of softie. Jail psychology is to be tough, not soft. The only thing that can stop violence and encourage love is the creation of walls, values, and traditions. If you turn the other cheek, you end up with two scarred cheeks.

Ive been to jail. Probably unlike you. Punishment leads to reform. What moron decided that leniency leads to good behavior rather than repetition of the original bad behavior?

Cumbo couldnt help but throw a dig at the cops who are trying to protect them: we are also dealing with the loss of life at the hands of our police department. And gun violence is wrong no matter how it happens, no matter who has the gun in their hand.

You cant hide from blame by blaming the innocent. The cops are there to protect us from the punks.

I was once a hip-hopper. I am sick of the liberals pretending that cops are punks. Criticizing them leads to more murders of innocents.

Liberals are often behind these misunderstandings. They hate cops because they hate authority because they hate structure, tradition, and rules.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch sent a letter to Congress declaring that the Justice Department will not support a key provision in legislation designed to hold Veterans Affairs officials accountable.

The Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014 included a provision that limits the appeal of a decision to fire an executive employee. The law provides:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, including section 7703 of title 5, the decision of an administrative judge under paragraph (1) shall be final and shall not be subject to any further appeal.

Loretta Lynch sent a letter to Congress stating that the Justice Department will not support that provision because it is unconstitutional. There is no basis for this assertion, since the Constitution defers to Congress to determine the formation of the government. In particular, Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution includes the power of Congress [t]o make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces[.]

Somehow, the Justice Department appears to be inventing an inalienable right of government employees to keep their jobs forever. The Congress created the civil service system, which gives federal employees numerous rights and keeps politics out of hiring and firing of workers. Since then, there is a large body of law that addresses workers rights. But the foundation of the workers rights came from Congress, not the Constitution. Lynch is probably trying to protect government workers at all cost, since they are the backbone of support for Democrats.

The case in point refers to the firing of Sharon Helman, who headed the Phoenix office of the V.A., where employees covered up the long wait times for veterans. Helman was fired for both the wait time cover-up and for failing to report $50,000 in gifts from a lobbyist. Helman pleaded guilty to the failure to report charge in a plea bargain that includes probation, and she avoided a five-year prison sentence. She was not prosecuted for accepting the gifts, unfortunately.

When Helman appealed her firing before an administrative law judge, the wait time issue was tossed out by the ALJ, but the firing was upheld for the failure to report charge. She has now appealed that decision before the federal courts, and Lynchs decision will allow that appeal to move forward. But for the corruption charge, Helman would have been reinstated.

Even Bernie Sanders supports the firing provision in the act, stating:

The VA secretary would be given the authority to immediately remove incompetent senior executives based on poor job performance or misconduct.

The failure of this president to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed as the Constitution demands is one more reason why we need to reform the government starting at the top. Our veterans deserve first-class care for protecting and defending our Constitution, and the present administration is incapable of providing it. There is also little evidence that Hillary would do otherwise.
In this polarized season, it seems that leftists believe it is fine to hijack graduation ceremonies, which should be about the graduates, to score political points. Matt Damon, for instance, thought it fine to attack Donald Trump, Brexit, and bankers, while plugging Elizabeth Warren, while dropping an s-bomb on the assembled grads and parents at MIT.

By comparison, Michelle Obama was the soul of restraint speaking to the graduates of the City University of New York.

She made a thinly veiled reference to Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, by saying "some folks" don't value the diversity that City College embodies. "They seem to view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to be tapped," Obama said. "They tell us to be afraid of those who are different, to be suspicious of those with whom we disagree. "They act as if name-calling is an acceptable substitute for thoughtful debate, as if anger and intolerance should be our default state rather than the optimism and openness that have always been the engine of our progress."

Of course, Donald Trump never said any of these things, but then again, Michelle was slandering all conservatives.

And the First Lady, who lives behind a wall recently augmented, added:

"here in America, we don't give in to our fears. We don't build up walls to keep people out because we know that our greatness has always depended on contributions from people who were born elsewhere but sought out this country and made it their home."

No distinction between those who come her legally and those who violate our borders.

Ads far as I can remember the practice of hijacking graduations first became nationally prominent when Hillary Rodham graduated from Wellesley College in 1969, and, speaking to the graduates, attacked Republican Senator Ed Brooke, the first post-Reconstruction black senator, over the Vietnam War. For this, she was rewarded with a spread in Life Magazine, then the largest weekly magazine.
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His first book on politics deals with the inexplicably overlooked fact that liberal policies (criminal justice "reform," the CAFE standards, the DDT ban, etc.) tend to kill Americans by the tens of thousands. Provisionally titled Death by Liberalism, the book will be appearing later this year.

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One of the major inspiration to the Wright brothers was the work of German pioneer of aviation, Otto Lilienthal, who repeatedly and successfully demonstrated the possibility of heavier-than-air flying machines more than ten years before the American brothers took to the air. To demonstrate these flights, Otto Lilienthal built an artificial conical hill in 1894 near his home in Lichterfelde, approximately 600 meters north of Berlin city limits. Called Fliegeberg, or the Fly Mountain, it allowed Lilienthal to launch his gliders into the wind no matter which direction it was coming from. The hill is 15 meters high and still stands as a memorial to Lilienthal.

Lilienthal started building and testing gliders in 1891. Initially he used a hill near the villages of Krielow and Derwitz from which he used to jump and glide down covering distances of about 25 meters. Lilienthal was also able to use the updraft of the wind against a hill to remain stationary with respect to the ground.

Photo credit: Kaiser2102/Wikimedia

In 1892, Lilienthal moved to another hill formation in Steglitz, near Berlin. He built a 4 meters tall jumping platform at the top giving him an effective height of about 10 meters. In 1893, Lilienthal used another hill in Rhinow from which he was able to achieve flight distances as long as 250 meters  a record which remained unbeaten at the time of his death.

Lilienthal tried several other training areas outside of Berlin until he decided to build his own hill in Lichterfelde, on the site of a former brickyard, together with his brother Gustav. Lilienthal conducted more than a thousand test flights from Fliegeberg, attracting a regular crowd of people. His best recorded distance at Fliegeberg was 80 meters.

Otto Lilienthal. Photo credit: A. Regis/public domain

During his short flying career, Lilienthal developed a dozen models of monoplanes, wing flapping aircraft and two biplanes. His gliders were carefully designed to distribute weight as evenly as possible to ensure a stable flight. Lilienthal controlled them by changing the center of gravity by shifting his body, much like modern hang gliders. However they were difficult to maneuver and had a tendency to pitch down, from which it was difficult to recover. One reason for this was that he held the glider by his shoulders, rather than hanging from it like a modern hang glider. Only his legs and lower body could be moved, which limited the amount of weight shift he could achieve. This small design flaw proved fatal.

On 9 August 1896, Lilienthal was conducting tests at Rhinow Hills when his glider pitched forward and headed straight down to the ground. Lilienthal never got a chance to gain control of the glider. He fell from a height of 15 meters, breaking his neck. He died 36 hours later. His last words to his brother Gustav were "Opfer mussen gebracht werden!" (Sacrifices must be made!).

In 1932, the Fliegeberg was redesigned as a memorial to Lilienthal and his training ground became Lilienthalpark. On top of the hill, stands a bronze globe inscribed with Otto Lilienthals name and particulars of his famous flights.

Otto Lilienthal performing a test flight in 1894. Photo credit: www.dlr.de

Otto Lilienthal performing one of his gliding experiments, circa 1895. Photo credit: Public domain

Otto Lilienthal with his small wing flapping apparatus near to the "Fliegeberg". Photo credit: Ottomar Anschutz/public domain

Photo credit: curiously_unique/Flickr

Photo credit: Global Fish/Wikimedia

Photo credit: Peter Kuley/Wikimedia

Photo credit: Peter Kuley/Wikimedia

Photo credit: Jorg Kantel/Flickr

Photo credit: Thomas Siems/Flickr

Sources: Wikipedia / German Wikipedia
Today brought about a special treat worthy of any good exercise or general summer outing. Samsungs Gear Fit2 arrived at my door courtesy of FedEx, in a package that looks every bit as sporty as it does classy. Utilizing Samsungs black and blue color scheme from the Galaxy S7, the Gear Fit2 looks and feels like a Samsung device in every way, and these days thats a very good thing. Samsung has been in the wearables game longer than any other OEM out there, and it really shows in both their hardware and software designs of late. Samsungs Gear S2 is an excellent example of just how good the company has gotten at making wearable products, and after a full day with the Gear Fit2 Im already ready to claim another victory for the biggest smart devices manufacturer in the world.

Hardware

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While it might look similar to the original Gear Fit at first glance, Samsungs hardware design has evolved considerably since that initial product release. What youll find here is a product thats very uniquely shaped, one thats curved to you wrist both on the front and back, and as a result feels more ergonomic than a large smartwatch or some other fitness accessories Ive tried in the past. Theres no shortage of choices when it comes to fitness devices and their shapes, sizes and styles, but Samsungs feels very unobtrusive all while holding on to that distinct Samsung look. Initially I felt like it may be a bit large for its use, but its certainly not heavy at all. The body itself is made of a rather light plastic, although it does have a metal trim around the sides of the display for a more solid look and feel.

Given whats inside compared to some other fitness trackers its rather impressive that Samsung has kept this so light, especially with such a large display. This is using a 216 x 432 resolution 1.5-inch curved Super AMOLED display, which looks absolutely gorgeous as you would expect from a Samsung display. Its of course got those gorgeous infinite black levels, incredible colors and most importantly its ultra easy to see outside, even in direct sunlight. Being that this is a fitness tracker that last part is likely the most pertinent thing to whats vital to making a good display in a fitness tracker, and this one absolutely delivers.

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On the right side of the device is a pair of buttons that work as a back/action button and a home/app button. The band itself is incredibly comfortable, and was actually the first thing I noticed about the devices design and feeling when I pulled it out of its packaging. This is using a very soft TPU style material thats ultra light and less rigid than other TPU style bands Ive used on wearables before. It clasps around the back with a loop and pull system, followed by many adjustable holes and a simple push clasp. There are no flat overlapping parts inside to annoy your wrist, and even the heart rate sensors and charging ports on the underside of the unit are all flush to create less friction and irritation for your skin.

Software

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Thankfully Ive got a Galaxy S7 lying around here, because right now Samsung hasnt seemed to make the Gear Fit2 plugin available on the Play Store just yet. Likely due to the fact that the product doesnt even launch for another week and a half, but this means that just like the Gear S2, the Gear Fit2 will be compatible with basically every Android phone on the market right now. Samsungs own software will likely work best with the Gear Fit2, including not just the companion Gear app on your phone, but of course S-Health as well. If youd rather not use S-Health you can always rely on Google Fit or a handful of other supported apps that help track and store fitness data for later use.

The band itself is powered by Samsungs Tizen OS, and features a very custom UI that will be familiar to those that have used the Gear S2. Of course being a tall rectangular display this one navigates just a bit differently than the Gear S2, with pages of widgets on the screen ready to be used with a single swipe and tap. Out of the box the Gear Fit2 is ready to count calories burned, track your exercises and steps, climb stairs, monitor your heart rate through out the day and even help you keep track of how much water you drink, how much caffeine you consume and more. Samsung has continued to build their fitness repertoire over the years, and all that expertise and app design is here in a single neat package for you to use, and it takes almost no time to learn the UI Samsung has put together here.

Fitness tracking is even done automatically, which is incredibly impressive to say the least. On my initial test I went out for a nearly 4 mile bicycle right in the hot Florida summer heat. During this 28 minute session the Gear Fit2 constantly monitored my heart rate, tracked my GPS location and told me what the weather was during the course of my trip. All the information Samsung couples together to deliver a valuable and full picture of your workout is nothing short of impressive, and the organization of information on the screen is brilliant. Theres even full notification support here for phones as well, and I found that replying to messages through Google Hangouts worked exactly like I expected it to. I cant wait to dive deeper into the world of the Gear Fit2 over the next week, and will of course be delivering that review in the very near future.
As a word, Google for many has become synonymous with the Internet or at the very least, to conduct a search using the Internet. When the Google.com site stopped working for five minutes in August 2013, worldwide Internet activity dropped by forty percent. Almost half of Internet users assumed that if Google was down, so too was the Internet. As a word and as a business, Google has moved from obscurity to a household name in under two decades. One of Googles things is to try new ventures and move into new businesses: sometimes, these new business ventures work and sometimes they dont. Google Fiber, Googles ISP (internet services provider) is one example of a business that Google seemed to be dabbling in when launched. However, Google Fiber is still around  and better yet, it arguably has what it takes to disrupt and dislodge the two largest North American ISPs, Comcast and Time Warner.

Comcast and Time Warner are amongst the most hated businesses in North America today. Between them, the are the two largest ISPs and have a vice-like grip on the market. If they have the majority of customers, why are they hated so much? The reason for this is because the American fixed line broadband market  unfortunately as it is in many developed countries around the world  has high barriers to entry for competitors, which means the long-established providers can almost do whatever they want. Comcast and Time Warner do not directly compete against one another and so can charge whatever they want, with whatever level of customer service they can get away with, because customers feel they have no alternative but to keep on subscribing to their service. However, now that Google Fiber is on the scene, things could be able to change.

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Comcasts reputation within the industry is that they dont like competition, which is why they have in the past tried to buy Time Warner. What better way to rule a market than buying the competition? This is probably not going to happen with Google, and the high barriers to entry and a difficult regulatory environment are almost certainly not going to concern Google. Google being the company with revenues of around $15 billion and one that routinely invites politicians to be quiet. Furthermore, Googles business is not based around selling the Internet to customers, its business is around customer using its services to access the Internet and of learning about customer habits. This means it can afford to undercut the competition  this will not be a difficult task given Comcast and Time Warners high prices. Throw in a large number of customers who seemingly would be keen to drop their current ISP for a viable alternative and both Comcast and Time Warner should be concerned about Google Fiber.

It wont be easy for Google: their record in direct customer services is not the best in the industry, which is something the company would need to think carefully about. Turning customers away from Googles portfolio of products and services would be very bad news. However, if a business can disrupt the established North American broadband market, Alphabets Google has the deep pockets and a related, but different, business to fall back on.


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As the efforts to recover the flight data recorder and voice recorders goes on, Adel said the airline was operating full transparency when dealing with the foreign and domestic media. But at the same time the company was keen to communicate firstly with the families of passengers on the doomed plane and provide all the services to them and inform them of the latest developments regarding the results of its search and rescue teams while at the same time preserving their rights. The airline is receiving assistance from the world expert in crisis management to assist in supporting the families of the victims, he said.

As a pilot, Adel responded to all questions posed by many of the participants at the seminar where he stressed the need not to anticipate events nor rely upon speculation about this tragic incident. It requires all of us to wait so we can follow up and complete the mechanism in place, to deal with crisis currently undertaken by the Commission of inquiry," he said.

He was thanked by Tamer Al Najjar, chief executive of the Chamber for highlighting the role of Egypt Aviation in dealing with the accident


.

This week at the IATA AGM, the airline association called for an open approach on the specifics of how airlines will meet that 15-minute interval aircraft tracking requirement by a revised deadline of November 2018.

The original deadline was reconsidered after IATA and others questioned the timelines feasibility, and ICAO pushed it back by two years.

IATAs head of safety and flight operations, Gilberto Lopez-Meyer,(pictured above) said that the November 2018 is workable for the new tracking standard as long as there is not a specific technology requirement. We expect there will be new technology very soon, he said at the IATA annual meeting in Dublin this week. . In one or two or three years, we may have better technology and the industry should be able to switch to the better, lower-cost technology.

IATA is working with ICAO on developing guidance material and recommended practices for meeting the tracking requirement. Complimentary standards, spelling out more specifically how airlines can meet the requirement, are expected to be completed by March 2017.

This is a decision that has to be taken very carefully, Lopez-Meyer said. The cost to the industry is going to be enormous.

He warned that technology may overtake current efforts. The technology is changing so fast that in a few years, systems and technology may allow for global surveillance coverage, he said, suggesting it may not make sense for airlines to invest heavily while such technology is under development.




An RJ 787 Dreamliner  emblazoned with the Great Arab Revolt centennial logo on the bottom of the fuselage  performed in a flying display alongside the countrys aerobatic Falcon display team

The air show overhead King Hussein Park included two tours over Amman, where people from all over the kingdom came to attend the party. A large number of the airlines employees  in uniform - took part in the parade, preceded by a float featuring an RJ aircraft.

Since the start of the year the national carrier carried out a broad promotional campaign in celebration of this event. The logo of the Great Arab Revolt was printed on all RJ correspondence, magazines and publications throughout 2016, highlighting the importance of the occasion and the airlines keenness to be a part of the national celebrations of this and other events.

RJ also broadcast a movie in the Crown Lounge at Queen Alia International Airport, in recognition of this historical national event, presenting RJ as the national carrier of the kingdom for more than half a century.


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by Sumon Corraya

Radio Jyoti (Light) began broadcasting yesterday online, available on smartphones. The Diocese of Rajshahi has trained 25 youths to work at the station. For now, its air time is one hour a day.

Rajshahi (AsiaNews)  The Diocese of Rajshahi yesterday inaugurated Radio Jyoti (Light), Bangladeshs first Catholic radio, an online station that is also accessible on smartphones.

"The goal is to preach Gods message and spread Jesus Christs teachings through our radio programmes, Bishop Rajshahi Gervas Rozario told AsiaNews.

The broadcast studio is located at the Emmaus Catholic Church in Bogra, a district in the diocese. The goal is to raise awareness about Christ and the Church.

"Through the radio, we want to inform people living in Bangladesh and abroad, the bishop said. We want to teach the Churchs values , hymns and plays, moral and ethical principles. We want to enhance protection of children, women and the environment. We cherish Bengali culture."

Some 25 local Catholic youths, mostly from ethnic minorities, have been trained to produce and host radio programmes. At present, the radio broadcasts an hour a day, but plans are in the works for more.

We want to produce longer programmes so that listeners at home and abroad can hear the countrys Christian news, world Church news, as well as national news.

Catholics have enthusiastically greeted the new ratio station. For Shymol Gomes, a young Catholic, it was a timely initiative. Now I can listen to religious hymns, news, and Jesus teachings directly on my smartphone.
by Victoria Ma

Hong Kong (AsiaNews)  Thousands of people came to Victoria Park for the memorial vigil dedicated to young students and workers killed in Tiananmen Square on 4 June, 27 years ago.

As the largest of all commemorations, the Hong Kong vigil has drawn hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents, as well as, secretly, many mainland Chinese.

Over the years, it has also become a rally point for those who want to see Chinese authorities reverse their view with respect to the events of the fateful day, as well as those who would like to see China become a democracy.

Things are different this year because the Student Federation, one of most active pro-democracy groups, has decided to stay away from what it deems a futile fight for democracy in mainland China. Instead, it has turned its attention to the battle for Hong Kongs independence. Many Chinese dissidents have reacted to this stance by appealing to the students to reconsider and work together.

Before the vigil, Catholics held a prayer meeting around 7 pm. Card Joseph Zen, Hong Kongs bishop emeritus addressed the gathering, and along with Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing and other priests blessed the participants. Together, participants recited the rosary for justice and democracy in memory of those who died and those who saw the massacre, as well as the many human rights advocates, dissidents and persecuted people languishing in prison.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The heart of the priest "knows only two directions: the Lord and the people." "pierced by the Lord" he does not look to himself, but is open to God and to others. "It is no longer a fluttering heart, allured by momentary whims, shunning disagreements and seeking petty satisfactions. Rather, it is a heart rooted firmly in the Lord, warmed by the Holy Spirit, open and available to our brothers and sisters". Pope Francis centered his homily for the Mass of the Jubilee of Priests on the "heart" of the priesthood, celebrated in St. Peter's Square on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.



The Jubilee began Wednesday , yesterday the Pope led three meditations on the theme of mercy and today it closes with Mass concelebrated by Francis with twenty cardinals, 50 bishops and more than five thousand priests who came to Rome from around the world.

Speaking to them Francis returned to the model of the Good Shepherd who spends himself for his flock without "privatizing his time or space", is dedicates all of his being to his mission, excludes no one, is full of joy, "transformed by mercy that he freely gives.

He said: Contemplating the Heart of Christ, we are faced with the fundamental question of our priestly life: Where is my heart directed? A question we priests must ask ourselves frequently: every day, every week ... But where my heart is oriented? Ministry is often filled with many initiatives, which pull us in so many different directions: from catechesis to liturgy, to charities, pastoral and even administrative commitments. In the midst of many activities the question remains: Where is my heart directed? The beautiful prayer of todays liturgy comes to mind ... Where is our treasure? Because - Jesus says - "where your treasure is, there also will your heart be" (Mt 6:21). But there are weaknesses in all of us, even sins. But let's go deeper, to the very root. Where is the root of our weaknesses, our sins, that 'treasure' that distances us from the Lord? ".

To help our hearts burn with the charity of Jesus the Good Shepherd, we can train ourselves to do three things suggested to us by todays readings: seek out, include and rejoice.

Seek out. The prophet Ezekiel reminds us that God himself goes out in search of his sheep (Ez 34:11, 16). As the Gospel says, he goes out in search of the one who is lost (Lk 15:4), without fear of the risks. Without delaying, he leaves the pasture and his regular workday. He does not put off the search. He does not think: I have done enough for today; Ill worry about it tomorrow. Instead, he immediately sets to it; his heart is anxious until he finds that one lost sheep. Having found it, he forgets his weariness and puts the sheep on his shoulders, fully content. Such is a heart that seeks out  a heart that does not set aside times and spaces as private, a heart that is not jealous of its legitimate quiet time and never demands that it be left alone. A shepherd after the heart of God does not protect his own comfort zone; he is not worried about protecting his good name, but rather, without fearing criticism, he is disposed to take risks in seeking to imitate his Lord. A shepherd after the heart of God has a heart sufficiently free to set aside his own concerns. He does not live by calculating his gains or how long he has worked: he is not an accountant of the Spirit, but a Good Samaritan who seeks out those in need. For the flock he is a shepherd, not an inspector, and he devotes himself to the mission not fifty or sixty percent, but with all he has. In seeking, he finds, and he finds because he takes risks. He does not stop when disappointed and he does not yield to weariness. Indeed, he is stubborn in doing good, anointed with the divine obstinacy that loses sight of no one. Not only does he keep his doors open, but he also goes to seek out those who no longer wish to enter them. Like every good Christian, and as an example for every Christian, he constantly goes out of himself. The epicentre of his heart is outside of himself. He is not drawn by his own I, but by the Thou of God and by the we of other men and women.

Include. Christ loves and knows his sheep. He gives his life for them, and no one is a stranger to him (cf. Jn 10:11-14). His flock is his family and his life. He is not a boss to feared by his flock, but a shepherd who walks alongside them and calls them by name (cf. Jn 10:3-4). He wants to gather the sheep that are not yet of his fold (cf. Jn 10:16). So it is also with the priest of Christ. He is anointed for his people, not to choose his own projects but to be close to the real men and women whom God has entrusted to him. No one is excluded from his heart, his prayers or his smile. With a fathers loving gaze and heart, he welcomes and includes everyone, and if at times he has to correct, it is to draw people closer. He stands apart from no one, but is always ready to dirty his hands. As a minister of the communion that he celebrates and lives, he does not await greetings and compliments from others, but is the first to reach out, rejecting gossip, judgements and malice. He listens patiently to the problems of his people and accompanies them, sowing Gods forgiveness with generous compassion. He does not scold those who wander off or lose their way, but is always ready to bring them back and to resolve difficulties and disagreements.

Rejoice. God is full of joy (cf. Lk 15:5). His joy is born of forgiveness, of life risen and renewed, of prodigal children who breathe once more the sweet air of home. The joy of Jesus the Good Shepherd is not a joy for himself alone, but a joy for others and with others, the true joy of love. This is also the joy of the priest. He is changed by the mercy that he freely gives. In prayer he discovers Gods consolation and realizes that nothing is more powerful than his love. He thus experiences inner peace, and is happy to be a channel of mercy, to bring men and women closer to the Heart of God. Sadness for him is not the norm, but only a step along the way; harshness is foreign to him, because he is a shepherd after the meek Heart of God. Dear priests, in the Eucharistic celebration we rediscover each day our identity as shepherds. In every Mass, may we truly make our own the words of Christ: This is my body, which is given up for you. This is the meaning of our life; with these words, in a real way we can daily renew the promises we made at our priestly ordination. I thank all of you for saying yes to giving your life in union with Jesus: for in this is found the pure source of our joy.

For the three meditations that Pope Francis gave on the occasion of the Jubilee of Priests, go to the following links:

First meditation

Second meditation

Third meditation
Police remove 137 tigers from the temple after discovering the corpses of 40 cubs in a freezer. The temple vet said that animal corpses were frozen as evidence that the animals had died of natural causes and were not for sale on the black market. Police seized various animal skins, ten teeth and hundreds of amulets made from several body parts. The temple was a popular holiday destination.

Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Five men, including three monks, have been arrested in connection with the Tiger Temple scandal. The charge against them is that of illegal possession of animals and animal abuse.

The suspects were released on bail set at US$ 2,250 per person, pending further investigations. If they are convicted, they face a maximum penalty of four years in prison and/or a fine of ,100.

The Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok, is a popular tourist destination. For the past few days it has been embroiled in controversy after it was accused of illegal possession of tigers, and selling their skin and other parts on the black market.

On 30 May, Thai officials and staff from the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand and other NGOs arrived at the temple to start removing its collection of adult tigers, thought to number 137.

The monks refused them entry. The next day the group returned with a court order that allowed them to force their way in. Using tranquiliser guns, they sedated and relocated the animals.

On the second day, Thai wildlife officials came upon 40 tiger cub corpses and numerous body parts from other animals preserved in a freezer.

"From what I can see, those parts and newly born tiger bodies look like they are for medical study purposes, as they were kept in proper formaldehyde," said Tuenjai Noochdumrong, director of Thailand's Wildlife Conservation Office.

The temple vet said that animal corpses were frozen as evidence that the animals had died of natural causes and were not for sale on the black market.

However, on Thursday, Thai police stopped a truck as it was leaving the Tiger Temple. Inside they found two complete tiger skins, about 700 amulets made from tiger parts and ten tiger teeth.

Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple was founded in 1994. In 2001 local villagers brought the monks eight tiger cubs so that they could look after them. Eventually, the tigers became the temples main with thousands of tourists coming each year to take pictures with the cubs.

Given the press coverage that it has received, the Tiger Temple fired back on Facebook, denying claims that it possessed tiger skin.

"The recent discovery of the tiger skins and necklaces comes as a shock to us as well as the rest of the world. We are disgusted at this discovery and we don't condone this. We are looking forward to the authorities bringing the culprits to justice."
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USE THE WEB SITE AT YOUR OWN RISK. THIS WEB SITE IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS," WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. Lee BHM Corp. MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT ANY CONTENT CONTAINED ON THIS WEB SITE SATISFIES ANY APPLICABLE GOVERNMENT LAW, REGULATION OR REQUIREMENT. Neither Lee BHM Corp. nor its employees, agents, third-party information providers, merchants, licensors or the like warrant that the Web site or its operation will be accurate, reliable, uninterrupted or error-free. No agent or representative has the authority to create any warranty regarding the Web site on behalf of Lee BHM Corp.. Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right to change or discontinue at any time any aspect or feature of the Web site.

Exclusion of Liability

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, SHALL Lee BHM Corp. OR ANYONE ELSE INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING, STORING OR DISTRIBUTING THE WEB SITE BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES AND EXPENSES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOST PROFITS, AND DAMAGES ARISING FROM LOST DATA OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH USE OF THE WEB SITE, DELAY OR INABILITY TO USE THE WEB SITE, OR FOR ANY INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS OR SERVICES OBTAINED THROUGH THE WEB SITE, WHETHER SUCH DAMAGES ARE BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. YOU SPECIFICALLY AGREE THAT NO LICENSOR, SUPPLIER OR INFORMATION PROVIDER TO Lee BHM Corp. OR ITS AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS, OR ANY OF THEIR SUCCESSORS OR ASSIGNS, SHALL HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY REASON OR UNDER ANY THEORY WHATSOEVER, BASED UPON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON OR THROUGH THE WEB SITE. Because some states do not permit the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, some or all of the above limitation may not apply to you.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold Lee BHM Corp., its officers, directors, affiliated companies, employees and agents, licensors and suppliers harmless from and against any and all claims, actions or demands, liabilities and settlements, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees, resulting from, or alleged to result from, your use of the Lee BHM Corp. site, or any content, product or service offered through the Lee BHM Corp. site, in a manner that violates or is alleged to violate these Terms and Conditions. Lee BHM Corp. shall provide notice to you of any such claim, suit or proceeding and shall reasonably cooperate with you, at your expense, in your defense of any such claim, suit or proceeding.

Featured Links and Advertisements

The Web site may contain hyperlinks to Web sites offered by parties other than Lee BHM Corp.. Such hyperlinks are provided for your reference and convenience only. Lee BHM Corp. does not control such other Web sites and is not responsible for their content; nor does Lee BHM Corp.'s inclusion of hyperlinks to such Web sites imply any endorsement of the material on such Web sites or any association with their operators. Unless otherwise specifically stated on this Web site, Lee BHM Corp. does not endorse any product or service or make any representation regarding the reliability, quality or accuracy of any products or services featured in, or linked to, any advertisement appearing on this Web site.

Linking

Unless you are subsequently advised otherwise by Lee BHM Corp., you are hereby licensed to create hyperlinks to the content on the Web site, provided that the hyperlink accurately describes the content as it appears on the Web site. Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right to revoke this license generally, or your right to use specific links, at any time, and may normally break any hyperlink after 14 days. Under no circumstances may you "frame" the Web site or any of its content or copy portions of the Web site to a server, except as part of an Internet service provider's incidental caching of pages. Each page within the Web site must be displayed in full (including all trademarks, branding, advertising and promotional materials), without any accompanying frame, border, margin, design, branding, trademark, advertising or promotional materials not originally displayed on the page within the Web site.

Software Available on Web Site

Any software that is made available to download from this Web site is the copyrighted work of Lee BHM Corp. and/or its suppliers. Your use of the software is governed by the terms of the End User License Agreement, if any, that accompanies or is included with the software. You may not install or use any software without first agreeing to the terms of such End User License Agreement. For any software not accompanied by an End User License Agreement, Lee BHM Corp. hereby grants to you a personal, nontransferable, non-sublicensable license to use the software for viewing and other purposes within the scope of use of such software anticipated by Lee BHM Corp. in accordance with these terms and conditions, and for no other purpose. Any such software is provided to you subject to the warranty and liability exclusions set forth in these terms and conditions.

Copyright

Except for material in the public domain under United States copyright law, all material contained on the Web site (including all software, HTML code, Java applets, Active X controls and other code) is protected by United States and foreign copyright laws. Except as otherwise expressly provided in these terms and conditions, you may not copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, modify, rewrite, create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any material contained on the Web site without the prior consent of the copyright owner. None of the material contained on the Lee BHM Corp. site may be reverse-engineered, disassembled, decompiled, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, translated into any language or computer language, retransmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photo reproduction, recordation or otherwise), resold or redistributed without the prior written consent of Lee BHM Corp.. Violation of this provision may result in severe civil and criminal penalties.

You may make single copies of materials displayed on the Web site for your own personal and noncommercial use only, provided any copies include the copyright and other notices displayed with the materials on the Web site. You may not distribute such copies to others, whether or not for a charge or other consideration, without prior written permission from Lee BHM Corp. or the copyright owner of the copied material. Requests to reproduce materials on the Web site for distribution or other purposes should be mailed to:

Lee BHM Corp.

Contact us via e-mail

Trademarks

Trademarks appear on the Web site with permission from their respective owners. Your unauthorized use of trademarks appearing on the Web site may constitute trademark infringement, which could subject you to substantial civil penalties.

Termination of Privileges

Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right to terminate your privilege of using all or any portion of the Web site if you breach any of these terms and conditions of use. If Lee BHM Corp. receives notice or otherwise discovers that you have posted material that infringes another party's copyright or trademark rights or violates another party's rights of privacy or publicity, Lee BHM Corp. may terminate your access to the Web site, including all of your privileges or accounts that you may have established in connection with the Web site.

Copyright Infringement

Lee BHM Corp. will not tolerate copyright infringement of any kind. Lee BHM Corp. does not, however, monitor user-submitted materials for copyright infringement. If you believe that any material on the Web site infringes your copyright, you may seek to have the material removed by sending Lee BHM Corp. notice that includes all of the following information:

your full name, address and telephone number

your e-mail address

identification of the copyrighted work(s) that you believe is being infringed

identification of the infringing material and information sufficient for Lee BHM Corp. to locate the material

your statement of good faith belief that (a) the material infringes your copyrights, (b) the information provided in the notice is accurate and (c) under penalty of perjury, you are authorized to act for the copyright owner

your physical or electronic signature

Direct such notice to Lee BHM Corp. designated agent for receiving copyright infringement notices:

Lee BHM Corp.

1314 Douglas Street, Suite 800 Omaha, NE 68102-1811

Contact us via e-mail

Upon receipt of notice complying with the above requirements, Lee BHM Corp. will act to remove infringing materials and, if applicable, send notice to the user that posted such materials on the Web site.

If Lee BHM Corp. removes materials posted by you as a user due to alleged copyright infringement, you may seek to have the materials reinstated by notifying Lee BHM Corp.'s designated agent in writing and including the following information:

your full name, address and telephone number

your e-mail address

identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled, including its location before it was removed or disabled

your statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material

your statement consenting to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the district in which your address is located, or, if you reside outside of the United States, Omaha, Nebraska (where Lee BHM Corp. may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notice of copyright infringement or from such person's agent

your physical or electronic signature

Upon receipt of a notice meeting the above requirements, Lee BHM Corp. will send a copy of the notice to the copyright owner who initially claimed copyright infringement. Within 10 to 14 days following receipt of the notice, Lee BHM Corp. will replace or enable access to the removed material unless Lee BHM Corp. receives notice from the copyright owner who submitted the first notification that it has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain the user that posted the materials from engaging in infringing activity. Please note that parties who misrepresent that materials are infringing or were removed by mistake or misidentification are subject to substantial civil liability to Lee BHM Corp. and/or the copyright owner or Web site user.

User Content

Lee BHM Corp. may allow you to upload, post, transmit or otherwise provide content to Lee BHM Corp. Web sites, including, but not limited to, photos, video, audio, comments, articles, blogs, forums and any other such communication in which you provide content to the Web site ("User Content"). You agree that you are solely responsible for your communications and any content you provide.

Rules Governing User Content: In consideration for being allowed to post or contribute content, you agree that your failure to abide by the following rules in using the Web site shall constitute a material breach of these Terms and Conditions:

Do not disrespect the privacy and views of others, or use the service to stalk or harass another;

Do not use or provide User Content for commercial purposes, including but not limited to the promotion of any specific goods or services;

Do not provide User Content that is harmful to minors in any way;

Do not provide obscene, profane, sexually explicit, libelous, slanderous, defamatory, harmful, threatening, illegal or knowingly false User Content;

Do not provide User Content containing expressions of bigotry, racism or hate;

Do not provide User Content encouraging conduct that may constitute or contribute to a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or violate any national, state or local law, regulation or authority;

Do not impersonate another person, or permit any other person or entity to use your identification to post or view User Content;

Do not provide User Content that infringes on the copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other intellectual property rights of others;

Do not provide User Content that violates the privacy or publicity rights of others;

Do not provide User Content that supports or provides resources to any organization(s) designated by the United States government as a foreign terrorist organization pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act; and

Do not provide User Content containing malicious code, including but not limited to computer viruses, Trojan horses, or other programs designed to disrupt, damage or restrict the use of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment.

Respect the Intellectual Property Rights of Others. You may not post or transmit content belonging to any person or party other than yourself, without the prior written consent of such owner. Simply because material is available on the Internet does not mean it is in the public domain. The vast majority of materials on the Internet are protected by copyright and trademark laws. Lee BHM Corp. shall have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor any User Content areas of the Web site to determine compliance with these Terms and Conditions and any other operating rules that may be established by Lee BHM Corp. from time to time.

Lee BHM Corp.'s Right to Remove User Content. Lee BHM Corp. does not assume any responsibility for the consequences of any user-generated or contributed content on the Lee BHM Corp. site. If notified by a user of communications that are alleged not to conform to the rules set forth in this Section, Lee BHM Corp. may investigate the allegation and determine in its sole discretion to remove or request the removal of the communications. Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right to remove communications that fail to conform to these Terms and Conditions. In addition, Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right (but is not obligated) to delete any User Content posted on the Lee BHM Corp. site, regardless of whether such communications violate these Terms and Conditions.

Lee BHM Corp.'s Right to Use User Content. Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right to record, re-purpose or re-publish User Content on its Web sites, newspapers, broadcast stations or other publishing forums. By posting User Content, you are granting to Lee BHM Corp. and its licensees a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive and irrevocable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display any posting by you (in whole or in part) and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or hereafter developed.

Responsibility for User Content. You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Lee BHM Corp. and its officers, directors, affiliated companies, employees, agents, licensors and suppliers, from and against any and all claims, actions or demands, liabilities and settlements, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees, resulting from, or alleged to result from, your use of any User-generated or Contributed Content or use by others of any User-generated or Contributed Content with respect to you, including, without limitation, any claim of libel, defamation, harassment, violation of rights of privacy or publicity, loss of service or infringement of intellectual property or other rights, or violation of these Terms and Conditions.

NOTE TO USERS. Lee BHM Corp. does not represent or guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy or reliability of any User Content or endorse any opinions expressed by such users. ANY RELIANCE UPON USER CONTENT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Termination of Privileges

Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right to terminate your privilege of using all or any portion of the Web site if you breach any of these terms and conditions of use. If Lee BHM Corp. receives notice or otherwise discovers that you have posted material that infringes another party's copyright or trademark rights or violates another party's rights of privacy or publicity, Lee BHM Corp. may terminate your access to the Web site, including all of your privileges or accounts that you may have established in connection with the Web site.

General

These Terms and Conditions (including the privacy policy attached hereto, which shall be deemed to be a part of these Terms and Conditions) constitute the entire agreement and understanding between you and Lee BHM Corp. with respect to use of the Web site, superseding all prior or contemporaneous communications and/or proposals. These Terms and Conditions also are severable, and in the event any provision is determined to be invalid or unenforceable, such invalidity or unenforceability shall not in any way affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions. Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right to make changes to these Terms and Conditions immediately by posting the changed Terms and Conditions in this location. By continuing to use the Web site, you are agreeing to all changes made by Lee BHM Corp.. A printed version of these Terms and Conditions shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to use of the Web site to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form.

Jurisdiction

The Web site is controlled and operated by Lee BHM Corp. from its principal office at 1314 Douglas Street, Suite 800, Omaha, Nebraska, United States of America. Lee BHM Corp. makes no representation that materials on the Web site are appropriate or available for use in other locations. Those who choose to access the Web site from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable. The Web site is not intended to subject Lee BHM Corp. to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country or territory other than Omaha, Nebraska and the United States of America.

Lee BHM Corp. PRIVACY POLICY

For each visitor to the Web site, Lee BHM Corp.'s servers automatically collect information about which pages are visited and the domain name of visitors. This information is used for internal review, to tailor information to individual visitors and for Web site traffic audits. We also provide this information (as well as information from third-party market researchers) about our users on an aggregated, anonymous basis to our advertisers.

Lee BHM Corp. may place a "cookie" on the browser of your computer. The cookie itself does not contain any personally identifying information. A cookie may be used to tell when your computer has contacted the Web site. Lee BHM Corp. uses the information for editorial purposes and for other purposes such as delivery of features and advertisements, so Lee BHM Corp. can customize delivery of information to you without compromising privacy. For example, cookies may be used to ensure that you will not see the same banner advertisement too often in a single session.

Lee BHM Corp. may, in the course of providing services through its Web sites, ask you to disclose voluntarily certain information about yourself. This could include information that identifies you or your household. Any information in Lee BHM Corp.'s possession solely as a result of your use of the Web site and that is associated with you or your household is considered "Personal Information." It consists of both information supplied by you (e.g. name, address, telephone number and e-mail address) and information collected about how you use the Web site (e.g. the fact that you have bought merchandise through the Web site). 'Personal Information' does not include statistical data about large numbers of users, none of whom are identifiable, nor does it include information that you have posted for public view on the Web site or otherwise publicly disclosed.

Like many other commercial sites, our site may utilize an electronic file called a Web beacon to count users who have visited a page or recognize users by accessing certain cookies. Our site and/or the Web sites of advertisers and merchants with which we have a relationship may use Web beacons (a) for auditing purposes and to collect information from the Web sites of certain advertisers or merchants; (b) to report anonymous individual and/or aggregate information about our users from such advertisers or merchants. Aggregate information may include demographic and usage information. No personally identifiable information about you is shared with such advertisers or merchants. You may choose to opt-out by contacting us in accordance with the information set forth at the bottom of this policy.

In addition, Lee BHM Corp. service providers and third-party advertising service providers may use their own cookies, web beacons and other technologies to collect the information listed above. The data collected in connection with ad serving and ad targeting does not include your name, postal address, email address, telephone number, birthdate or gender unless you affirmatively provide information within the ad. However, it may include device identifying information such as the IP address, MAC address, cookie or other device-specific unique ID. These service providers also may assign an anonymous identifier to the tracking pixel or session cookie.

The collection of information by our service providers and third-party advertising service providers is governed by their relevant privacy notices, for which we have no responsibility or liability, and are not covered by our Privacy Policy. If you have any questions regarding the privacy notice of one of our service providers, you should contact the service provider directly for more information.

If you would like more information about the information collection practices of a particular third-party advertising service provider, or if you would like more information on how to opt out of a third-party advertising service providers information collection practices, go to www.aboutads.info, or for apps, at www.aboutads.info/appchoices.

Additionally, some of our third-party advertising service providers are members of the Network Advertising Initiative ("NAI"). You can obtain more information about these third-party advertising service providers' information collection practices, and opt out of such practices (and at the same time opt out of the collection practices of other, or all, NAI members) by following the opt out instructions on the NAI's website at http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.

Please note that one of our third-party advertising service providers is DoubleClick. You can opt out of the use of cookies by DoubleClick by visiting http://www.google.com/settings/ads.

How does the Web site use the information it gathers?

Information collected on the Web site, including traffic patterns and user behavior, is used primarily for the following purposes:

Internal research. The Web site is continuously assessing how visitors use the site. This data assists us in making decisions about how to improve the site and to better serve our users. Research data are aggregated and do not include data about specific individuals. We may share aggregated research (but not individual user information) with our advertisers or business partners. Additionally, the Web site may use your information to contact you to ask for your participation in a focus group, survey, or some other type of research effort.

To customize your experience on the Web site. As the Web site improves its service, it may offer users more opportunities to customize content and other aspects of the site. Information provided by you may be used to assist in the customization process, if you elect to participate in these features.

To tailor advertising efforts. Most of the information and services available to you at the Web site are free. In order to continue providing services free of charge, the Web site sells advertising. Advertisers prefer to target their communication toward audiences who are most likely to be interested in their products. The information gathered on the Web site helps us advise advertisers in general terms about certain aspects of site visitors (e.g. how visitors use the site, general demographic attributes of visitors, usage patterns on various parts of our site, etc.). This information helps both advertisers and the Web site make better decisions about where to place advertising. This information may also be used to send targeted marketing, such as emails, to users that we think would be interested in such marketing. Visitors who choose to conduct financial transactions with advertisers on the Web site may also provide specific data to those advertisers during the process of their transactions. Additionally, any information provided during the purchase on the Web site of products or services will result in the collection of certain information required to complete the transaction.

To use third party service providers. We provide some services and products through third parties. These third party service providers may perform functions on our behalf, like sending out and distributing promotional emails. We may share your personally identifiable information with such service providers as necessary to allow those service providers to fulfill orders, send mail or email, administer contests or sweepstakes, remove repetitive information on customer lists, analyze data, provide marketing assistance, provide search results and links, process credit card payments, operate the Web site, troubleshoot, or provide customer service. We may also collect personal information from individuals and companies with whom we have business relationships ("Affiliates") and may share your information with service providers to accomplish our administrative tasks. For example, when you order a service, the third party payment processor we use releases your credit card information to the card-issuing bank to confirm payment for the service. The use of your personally identifiable information by these third parties is governed by the privacy policies of these third parties and is not subject to our control.

More specifically, here is how the Web site may use information you provide:

E-mail addresses. If you supply the Web site with your e-mail address, either by registering on the site, by communicating with us via e-mail, or signing up for promotional offers or emails we may, from time to time, send you information that we believe would be of interest to you via e-mail. This information may be from the Web site or sent by us on behalf of one of our quality advertisers. Note: If we send you e-mail on behalf of another company, your personally identifiable information is not disclosed to that company unless you purchase a product or service from that company in which case it may need your information to fulfill your purchase. Rather, the company provides us with the information it wants to send, and we prepare and send the e-mail directly to you. We may use a third party service provider to manage or send emails on our behalf, but that third party is only authorized to use your information as necessary to send our email to you and it is not authorized to sell or transfer your information.

Postal addresses. If you supply the Web site with your postal address, we may send you periodic mailings with information on new products, coming events, surveys or other research materials, or other information we think might be of interest to you.

Telephone numbers. If you provide your telephone number or cell phone number, the Web site may call or text you regarding orders you have placed online, to tell you about new products, services, or coming events, or to offer other information that may interest you. Additionally, the Web site or one of its agents may call you for research purposes.

Sale transaction information. From time to time, we provide offers from our advertisers who, as part of their offer, request information on customers who purchased their offer in order to allow the advertiser to fulfill the purchase. In those cases, we share some of your personally identifiable information with that advertiser. Sharing this Information may allow that advertiser to market directly to you should it choose to do so. However, we will only share personally identifiable information with an advertiser if you provide us that information and enter into a transaction with that advertiser on or through our Web site. We are not responsible or liable for the actions of such advertiser.

Business transfer. We may also share your information in the case our business is sold or transferred. If this occurs, the successor company would acquire the information we maintain, including personally identifiable information.

Except as necessary to process your requests or orders placed with advertisers or merchants featured on the Web site, or as otherwise described above, Lee BHM Corp. does not rent, sell, barter or give away any lists containing Personal Information for use by any outside company. Lee BHM Corp. also respects the privacy of data on your personal computer and does not access, read, upload or store data contained in or derived from your private files without your authorization.

Prohibited Uses

This Site is not intended for use by persons located within the European Economic Area (EEA). We do not request or accept personal information concerning or supplied by persons who are located within the EEA at the time they access this Site. If you have accessed this Site from within the EEA, you should immediately discontinue your use. If you have supplied personal information to us in violation of this provision, whether through the registration of new user accounts or otherwise, please contact us via e-mail.

Facebook Connect

Our Web site may allow users to access Facebook Connect to interact with friends and to share on Facebook through Wall and friends' News Feeds. If you are logged into our Web site and Facebook, when you click on "Connect with Facebook" your profiles will merge if the email addresses match. If the email addresses don't match, we ask you if you want to merge them and you must enter your Web site password to validate that they control that account. If you are already logged into our Web site but not logged into Facebook, when you click on "Connect with Facebook" you will be prompted to enter your Facebook credentials or to "Sign up for Facebook." By proceeding you are allowing the Web site to access your information and you are agreeing to the Facebook Terms of Use in your use of our Web site. Similar access to your information may occur if the Web site allows users to access other social applications similar to Facebook.

Conversely, if you are not currently registered as an the Web site user and you click on "Sign in Using Facebook," you will first be asked to enter your Facebook credentials and then be given the option to register and join the Web site. Once you register on our Web site and Connect with Facebook, you will be able to automatically post recent activity back to Facebook. You have the option to disable Facebook Connect at any time by logging into "My Profile" and clicking on "My Facebook Profile." Further, you can edit privacy settings for the reviews that appear on Facebook or disconnect this service by visiting the Facebook Application Settings page.

Links

The Lee BHM Corp. site contains links to other sites. Lee BHM Corp. is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such Web sites, including any sites that may indicate a special relationship or partnership with Lee BHM Corp. (such as co-branded pages or "powered by" or "in cooperation with" relationships). Lee BHM Corp. does not disclose personally identifiable information or unique identifiers to those responsible for the linked sites. The linked sites, however, may collect personal information from you that is not subject to Lee BHM Corp.'s control. To ensure protection of your privacy, always review the privacy policy of the sites you may visit by linking from the Lee BHM Corp. site.

Opt Out Procedures

You always may opt out of receiving future mailings or other information from Lee BHM Corp.. If the mailing does not have an e-mail cancellation form, send us an e-mail the type of information that you no longer desire to receive.

You may opt out of any or all contacts from the Web site at any time. All e-mails sent to you from the Web site will allow you to opt out of any further e-mail from us. You may e-mail us to opt out of our email programs. You may also write or call us at the following address and phone number to notify us regarding use of your information: 333 Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23219; phone: 804.649.6588.

When you register on the Web site, you will be given the opportunity to opt out of further communication from us.

You may accept certain kinds of contact and decline others. For example, you may choose to accept e-mails, but not postal mail or telephone calls.

If, at any time in the future, the Web site decides to use information provided by you in a way not described here, we will contact you beforehand to explain the use of the information and give you the opportunity to decline that use.

Children's Privacy

The following additional terms, conditions and notices apply to use of the Web site by children under the age of 13 years whenever Lee BHM Corp. becomes aware that a user is in that age range:

Users under 13 years of age may not submit or post information on the Web site without the consent of the user's parent or legal guardian. Prior to collecting any personal information about a child under 13, Lee BHM Corp. makes reasonable efforts to obtain consent from the child's parent after informing the parent about the types of information Lee BHM Corp. will collect, how it will be used, and under what circumstances it will be disclosed.

Although Lee BHM Corp. will apply these children's terms and conditions whenever it becomes aware that a user who submits Personal Information is less than 13 years old, no method is foolproof. Lee BHM Corp. strongly encourages parents and guardians to supervise their children's online activities and consider using parental control tools available from online services and software manufacturers to help provide a child-friendly online environment. These tools also can prevent children from disclosing online their name, address, and other personal information without parental permission.

"Personal information" collected from children may include any of the information defined above as "Personal Information" with respect to general users of the Web site and may be used by Lee BHM Corp. for the same purposes. Except as necessary to process a child's requests or orders placed with advertisers or merchants featured on the Web site, Lee BHM Corp. does not rent, sell, barter or give away any lists containing a child's Personal Information for use by any outside company.

If a child enters a game, contest or other activity sponsored by Lee BHM Corp. on the Web site, the child may be required by Lee BHM Corp. to provide the minimum Personal Information reasonably necessary for the child to participate in such activity.

A child's parent or legal guardian may request Lee BHM Corp. to provide a description of the Personal Information that Lee BHM Corp. has collected from the child, as well as instruct Lee BHM Corp. to cease further use, maintenance and collection of Personal Information from the child.

If a child voluntarily discloses his or her name, e-mail address or other personally-identifying information on chat areas, bulletin boards or other forums or public posting areas, such disclosures may result in unsolicited messages from other parties.

Cancellation & Refund Policies

A subscription to any of our products can be cancelled at any time. Subscriber refunds will be issued within two weeks of cancellation for the entire credit balance on the account at the time of cancellation. Refunds will be issued per the original method of payment.

The Richmond Media Group will charge a $5 processing fee for refunds remitted to the customer.

Advertiser refunds will be granted upon cancellation of an entire run schedule if notice of cancellation is received from the advertiser prior to the beginning of the run schedule. Refunds will be issued per the original method of payment and will be processed within 10 business days of the request.

Account Setup Fee

All new subscriptions and restarts of subscriptions stopped for 30 days or more may be charged a one-time account setup fee of $5.95, this would shorten your subscription expiration date.

Mailed Subscription Renewal Charge

Mailed subscription renewal charge includes a $2.95 charge. Subscribers may avoid the fee by signing up for EasyPay or eBilling.

General

These Terms and Conditions constitute the entire agreement and understanding between you and Lee BHM Corp. with respect to use of the Web site, superseding all prior or contemporaneous communications and/or proposals. Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right to make changes to these Terms and Conditions immediately by posting the changed Terms and Conditions in this location. By continuing to use the Web site, you are agreeing to all changes made by Lee BHM Corp.. A printed version of these Terms and Conditions shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to use of the Web site to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form.

The Web site is controlled and operated by Lee BHM Corp. from its principal office in the Commonwealth of Virginia, USA. Lee BHM Corp. makes no representation that materials on the Web site are appropriate or available for use in other locations. Those who choose to access the Web site from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable. The Web site is not intended to subject Lee BHM Corp. to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country or territory other than the State/Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States of America.

Premium products

Added charges apply to premium products. All print subscribers, will receive the Thanksgiving Day edition, the largest newspaper of the year, for $3.50. In addition, some subscribers on occasion will receive premium editions. The extra charge will be $2 for each issue. This will result in a slightly earlier renewal date. If you do not wish to receive our premium products, please contact us. Your expiration date will be based on current pricing and is subject to change with any future price adjustments.

Vacation No Credit

We no longer offer vacation credit. All daily 7 day subscribers are eligible for All Digital Access, which will allow access to all on-line content, including the digital replica of the newspaper. To sign up for All Access, call customer service at (804) 644-4181 or (800) 468-3382.

Contacting Us

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of the Lee BHM Corp. site, or your dealings with Lee BHM Corp., you may contact us at:

Lee BHM Corp.

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By Simon Torok and Paul Holper

144 pages, CSIRO Publishing, June 2016, $24.95

ISBN: 9781486302727

Pitched at 913-year-olds

Were living in a rapidly changing world. Around the year 1900, the amount of human knowledge doubled every 100 years. It now doubles almost every year, and by 2020 could double every day. When most of todays students in primary school grow up, theyll have jobs that dont exist right now. Theyll be using technologies that havent been invented to solve things that we dont know are problems yet.

So you need to be ready  helped by the new book, Imaging the Future: Invisibility, Immortality and 40 Other Incredible Ideas, by Simon Torok and Paul Holper, published by CSIRO Publishing (http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/7344.htm).

A day in the life of your great-grandchild might start with them sending a thought to their robot servant to say that theyre hungry. The robot would print breakfast, which would taste perfectly delicious thanks to new artificial flavours. Thered be no need to clean up after the meal, because all the kitchens surfaces will be self-cleaning. After breakfast, your great-grandchild would fly to school, possibly in their driverless flying car. Or perhaps they could breathe through their...
ANDI HORVATH

Hi. I'm Dr Andi Horvath. Thanks for joining us. Today we get up close to the roots of altruism and the notions of goodness and empathy. Altruism is not just a human trait. Animals and insects also exhibit forms of it. Animals on the lookout for predators often raise the alarm call to their fellows but by doing so they draw attention to themselves, putting themselves at risk of becoming someone else's lunch. If you think about it the behaviour of altruism is diametrically opposed to the evolutionary imperatives of survival of the fittest and the notion of the selfish gene. So how do we explain altruism's adaptive role? What is the real utility of generosity of spirit?

To untangle this quandary and explore the evolutionary roots of goodness, empathy and justice is our guest evolutionary biologist, Professor Lee Dugatkin from the University of Louisville in the US. He is currently also a Miegunyah Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Lee welcome.

LEE DUGATKIN

Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here.

ANDI HORVATH

Now humans are capable of altruism. They can express the value of altruism to each other. But how does this express

itself...
Hello!My name is Marzena and I'm from Poland. Next year I'm going to move to Australia (Sydney probably) with 476 visa.So... Does anyone watch Wengie on youtube?Greetings
You can be in or outside Australia for visa grant: The regulation is below:



186.4 Circumstances applicable to grant

186.411

[LEGEND Comment - 186.411 (including Note) Substituted by SLI 2012, 256 with effect from 24/11/2012]



The applicant may be in or outside Australia when the visa is granted, but not in immigration clearance.



Note: The second instalment of visa application charge must be paid before the visa can be granted.
Me (29) and my partner (29) applied for an 820/801 Visa in February 2016. The health of our relationship is not great atm and was hoping someone could clear up a few questions that I have. My partner already completed a 2 year working visa before we completed this application. She is a German citizen and wants to stay in Australia threatening self harm if our relationship ends and she is sent back home. She is currently on a bridging visa awaiting a decision on the partnership visa which by processing times should be around February 2017. I am seeking professional physcological help to address the mental health side but it makes it extremely difficult as a bridging visa does not include any medicare benefits so costs will all fall on me.



If our relationship breaks down before a decision is made ie the first step of the application processed:



1) I believe there are extenuating circumstances mentioned in the visa application that allow your partner to remain here if a split up was to occur. Would mental health be a consideration in this?



2) Is there any other visa options for my partner that would allow her to remain in the country and work? I assume she would chase sponsored work but that is pretty unlikely as it took her around 6 months to even gain casual employment and to my understanding once an application is withdrawn she would only have a month to finalize everything and leave.



3) Is it possible to get a refund or partial refund if the application is withdrawn prior to any processing ie before the grant of the visa and any communication from the immigration department?

(in the partner migration document it says "This will usually not be refunded if the application is unsuccessful, or if you decide to withdraw your application after you have lodged it." It seems ridiculous that you would not be entitled to at least a partial refund if the department has not done any work on the application.



4) If we split up before the first part of the visa is granted will It still count towards my "2 partners you can sponsor within your lifetime and 5 years post application that I cannot sponsor anyone else"?





Thanks in advance I hope we can sort out our differences but appreciate the advice/information as I'm in a really tough spot.
The Boeing 707 that carried American presidents for nearly three decades will be among the highlights of the new exhibit building at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The 224,000-square-foot building, the museums fourth, will officially open June 8. The $40.8 million expansion allows more than 70 aircraft and other historic items to be displayed among four galleries: Presidential, Research and Development, Space and Global Reach, along with Learning Nodes for educational activities in science, technology, engineering and math.

The Presidential exhibit features the Boeing VC-137C that was flown as Air Force One for eight presidents. Another one-of-a-kind aircraft is the last XB-70 Valkyrie, an Air Force bomber capable of supersonic flight that was in service in the 1960s. The Global Reach exhibit will include a new display of the museums Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, which flew missions as the Hanoi Taxi during the Vietnam War era. Expanded spacecraft displays offer viewings of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft, artifacts from past missions and a Space Shuttle replica. Along with the historical aspects of the new building, the museum now has a new series of flight simulators featuring what the museum says is North Americas first Pulseworks Virtual Reality Transporter, offering an exclusive spaceflight experience.
Four ethnic Armenian civilians have reportedly been killed and dozens of others wounded in Syrias formerly largest city of Aleppo in continuing clashes between Syrian government troops and rebel forces.

According to local Armenian activists, they died on Thursday evening when an Armenian-populated government-controlled district of the war-ravaged city was shelled by insurgents. Three of the male victims were said to have been burned to death inside a small workshop that caught fire, while the fourth man was killed by a rocket moments later.

Zarmig Boghigian, the editor of the Aleppo-based Armenian magazine Kantsasar, said the shelling lasted for two hours, leaving several dozen other Syrian Armenians wounded.

Last past night was really bad. Armed terrorist groups fired around 40 rockets and gas tanks within two hours, Boghigian told RFE/RLs Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) by phone. The gunfire seriously damaged an Armenian church and a school, she said.

Boghigian claimed that the Armenian-populated Nor Kyugh district was deliberately targeted by pro-Turkish rebels.

Kantsasar reported earlier that an Armenian nursing home in Aleppo was shelled and partly destroyed last week. It said one Syrian Armenian, a woman, was killed and two others wounded as a result.

Aleppo was home to the majority of an estimated 80,000 ethnic Armenians who lived in Syria until the outbreak of the bloody civil war five years ago. Only up to 10,000 of them reportedly remain in the war-ravaged country now. Many are said to be unable to flee the war zone or simply have nowhere to go.

Fighting in and around Aleppo intensified in February as Syrian government troops backed Russian warplanes began making major gains there, sending tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing towards the Turkish border.
4 June 2016 10:00 (UTC+04:00)

Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Artur Rasizade has today met Turkish Premier Binali Yildirim, who is on an official visit in Azerbaijan.

Artur Rasizade congratulated Binali Yildirim on his election as the Chair to the ruling Justice and Development Party and his appointment as Prime Minister, and wished him success in state activities.

The Azerbaijani Premier said Binali Yildirims visit to Azerbaijan would certainly contribute to the further strengthening of cooperation between the two countries.

Artur Rasizade hailed the Azerbaijani-Turkish relations, noting there was huge potential for expanding these ties according to requirements of the present time and highlighted the importance of huge projects to be implemented jointly by the two countries.

The Azerbaijani PM also noted the importance of holding annual Efes Combined Joint Live Fire Exercises in terms of expanding the military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Artur Rasizade also noted there was no basis for the so-called Armenian genocide resolution adopted by the German Bundestag.

The Premier condemned the German Parliament as the Bundestag ignored the Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan, the bloody ethnic cleansing committed by Armenia against over 1 million Azerbaijanis in Armenias territory ousting them from their historical lands, the Khojaly genocide, as well as UN Security Councils four resolutions demanding unconditional and immediate withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories, and instead, adopted a resolution on a distorted historical incidence as the so-called Armenian genocide happened a hundred years ago.

Binali Yildirim thanked for hospitality and highlighted the significant role of the high level reciprocal visits in development of the brotherly relations.

The Turkish PM said his visit to Baku would contribute to expansion of the bilateral ties, noting the two countries carried out international projects like the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, TANAP, and would continue the cooperation even further.

Binali Yildirim expressed confidence that the bilateral ties between the two countries based on friendship and brotherhood would continue to expand in the years to come.

The Turkish Premier said the resolution adopted by the German Parliament meant nothing for Turkey.

Binali Yildirim noted Turkey always supported the countrys fair position on the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The two Premiers had comprehensive exchange of views on a number of other issues of mutual interest.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
Top 13 dealer tricks

Most car dealers arent really out to rip you off, but keep in mind that car dealerships are for-profit entities.
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.
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Heavy rain fell in Houston early Saturday, and more is in the forecast this weekend. Meanwhile, officials kept a watchful eye on rain-swollen creeks and residents were evacuated from flood-prone areas.

A flash flood watch is in effect for the Houston-Galveston region through Saturday evening.

Gov. Greg Abbott took an aerial tour of flooded areas Friday and received a briefing on the state's response with officials from Brazoria and Fort Bend counties. He urged residents to heed evacuation orders and not try to drive though high water.

Hang on Houston

The culprit behind this week's rain is a slow-moving. upper-level low pressure system that's near Waco, flinging off bands of rain toward Southeast Texas.

Some of the storms could produce heavy rain and exacerbate both street and river flooding.

On Saturday, rain chances for the Houston area are at 90 percent.

"... It might also be shipping off to the area southwest of Houston, like Edna east to Matagorda Bay," Lichter said.

Chances of rain diminish on Sunday to 80 percent as drier air begins to move into the region.

And while river flooding will remain a problem for days ahead, the weather finally shows signs of cooperating.

Forecasters say Monday will mark the beginning of a typical Houston summer pattern  warm temperatures with isolated thunderstorms riding coastal breezes.

Sunny skies are forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday and rain chances look to be minimal through Friday. By the last two weeks of June, the worst of spring floods are typically over in Houston.

And then hurricane season will be in full swing.

Abbott tours flooded areas

After an aerial tour of flooded areas Friday, Abbott pledged the state's full support for those in need.

"Texas is here to help," he said at a news conference in Angleton. The governor had already issued a disaster declaration covering 31 counties, a step toward getting federal assistance.

He cautioned residents of Brazoria and Fort Bend counties to heed the warnings of authorities.

"The Brazos River is flooded all the way up to north Texas," Abbott said, clad in a windbreaker and surrounded by local and state officials. "It is going to take a while for the Brazos River to drain out. Our urgent request for the citizens of Brazoria County, Fort Bend County and surrounding areas is this: The most important thing you have is your life. Do everything you can to protect your life and the lives of others."

Abbott said he was particularly concerned about recent incidents in which motorists have tried to drive through high water, in some cases by going around barricades, with tragic consequences.

"If you see barricades, they are there for a reason," he said.

Residents should heed evacuation orders, he said, because they mean "your life is in danger."

Abbott expressed sympathy for the nine soldiers killed after a truck carrying them overturned in a fast-flowing flooded creek during a training exercise at Fort Hood, north of Austin.

"It's so demonstrative of the need for everyone to understand the power of rising water and the danger it can pose to life," the governor said.

Brazoria County

Residents were evacuated, and animals were rescued, in Brazoria County on Friday as the coastal county prepared for floodwaters making their way down the Brazos River.

The Brazos was expected to crest near Rosharon at 1 a.m. Saturday at 52.8 feet. The crest would be the highest since it rose to 52 feet in 1962. The record crest was 56.4 feet in 1913.

Floodwater pushed a pickup off Texas 1462, leading to a dramatic rescue of the couple inside. The driver of the pickup drove it into floodwater washing across the highway about 10 a.m. near the Sun Creek subdivision, Trooper Jesse Matovina said.

The force of the water rushing across the road pushed the pickup off it and swamped the vehicle, Matovina said. An airboat operating in the area rescued a man, woman and a dog, the trooper said.

"Total terror, total terror," Alica Matura said after she was rescued Friday.

"Water was rushing in and I was freaking out, I was shaking," Tony Conte, who was in the truck with her, told Houston television station KTRK. "It's scary and it happens fast."

Near Rosharon, neighbors worried about the fate of at least 20 horses that were at risk of drowning when cowboys were unable to get permission to enter the property. But the horses were driven to high ground where there were about 20 rolls of hay that should keep them fed until the floodwaters subside, said Amanda Kaylor, a Brazoria County livestock deputy. "They should be all right," Kaylor said.

The city of Holiday Lakes was put under a mandatory evacuation order Thursday. The city of about 1,200 is threatened by the rising waters of Oyster Creek. "It's going to continue rising, and I think we are going to have houses under water," said Matthew Reed, city utilities supervisor.

Brazoria County had issued a mandatory evacuation order for an area west of Oyster Creek and east of the Brazos River on FM 1462 that affected between 300 and 400 families.

The county on Friday expanded that evacuation zone. It now covers an area bounded roughly by the Brazos River on the west, County Road 610 on the south, a curving line that parallels Highway 288 on the east and County Road 42 on the north.

Reed said earlier Friday that no houses in Holiday Lakes had been flooded but city officials wanted to evacuate before flooding cut County Road 30 and stranded the community. "We wanted to make sure we didn't have anybody trapped," Reed said.

Reed said he would remain in the city to keep the water system functioning and to shut it down if floodwater rose high enough to threaten its operation. He has a small boat with an outboard motor to travel between his house and the water plant if necessary.

"This flood is kind of unprecedented in the way it's happening," Reed said. "Nobody knows what's going to happen."

Most of the other areas affected by flooding as of Thursday were in low lying unincorporated areas near the Brazos River. Houses in the Old Colony de Brazos community were surrounded by water Thursday and most of the residents had evacuated.

The county emergency shelter in Angleton had 51 people registered as of early Thursday afternoon.

A number of families near the river had stockpiled supplies and intended to wait out flooding that could cut roads and isolate them for as long as two weeks.

State prison officials also evacuated about 1,700 prisoners from a correctional facility in Brazoria County. Some 2,600 inmates at two nearby prisons in Brazoria County were moved out Sunday.

Harris County

In the suburbs northeast of downtown Houston, road closures made it difficult for residents to get around as they also assessed the damage from days of rain and flooding.

The west fork of the San Jacinto River near Humble crested at 55 feet late Thursday but was expected to remain at flood stage through Sunday. Cypress Creek, Little Cypress Creek, Spring Creek and Willow Creek were high but within their banks.

Samuel Eby contemplated the floodwaters that rushed over the road to Rio Villa subdivision, watching a pickup drive through.

"I'm just watching this dude to see," Eby, 36 said.

On Friday, Eby was trying to get some of his four-wheelers and other belongings out of the subdivision, eyeing the waters to see if he could get through with his Dodge pickup. Last weekend, he said, the road was entirely washed out, a power line downed and sand and silt everywhere.

Now, the damage has lessened.

Justin Hutchinson, 37, said the impact in the subdivision was still apparent, with flooded cars everywhere, boats knocked off trailers. He had been living there for two years, and on Memorial Day weekend , the floodwaters were the worst he had seen.

"We haven't had a chance to clean it up," Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson drove across the road in a Ford Excursion, ready to begin some damage assessment. Everything in the first floor of his home, he said, was gone.

Jon Manning hadn't had a change of clothes since last Friday, when heavy rains caused the San Jacinto to swell and flood his Forest Cove town home.

On Friday, manning trudged through the flood waters, a walking stick in one hand to check for snakes and a black plastic bag slung over his shoulder: suits for his job as a real estate broker.

"They say it's gonna rain tonight," he said warily.

Manning bought the place last year and moved in in December. He bought the town home as an investment and as a place for his 23-year-old daughter, where he could fish and relax.

He wasn't phased by the floods. To him its an act of nature. "It is what it is," he said.

For Sharai Poteet, the prospect of more rain means it's time to move her chickens back up to the second floor of her Kingwood area home.

The whole neighborhood had been flooded for a week and Poteet said the water was rising. On Friday afternoon, the 46-year-old pulled her Jeep up to a Red Cross distribution center in Kingwood at Foster Elementary School.

"Can I tell my neighbors about this?" she asked. "They're all flooded."

Volunteers loaded a rake, bottles of water, flashlights and other gear into the back of the Wrangler.

For the most part, Poteet and her family were well-prepared. They moved their cars out, and an iron fence kept many belongings, aside from a chainsaw and some other garden equipment, from floating away.

But after the rain stopped and the water began to go down, Poteet lost several chickens as water skiiers' waves crashed over the back of her yard. She wasn't going to let that happen again.

The Red Cross was distributing cleanup supplies to families affected by the flooding on Friday until 6:30 p.m., and again from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

The agency said some 6,000 homes may have been affected by the latest round of floods. For information, call 800-REDCROSS or visit www.redcross.org/tx/houston.

Fort Bend County

The bleat of a goat was one unexpected sound in a flooded Fort Bend County neighborhood where not a whole lot else made sense right now and might not for weeks.

Floodwaters had engulfed a corner of Richmond  footsteps from a Brazos River bend called "the bottoms"  where numerous trailer homes and low-income residents populate the lowest-lying areas. Surrounded playground equipment in the community park was more reminiscent of the Schlitterbahn waterpark than jungle gyms in sandboxes.

Around noon Friday, Wyatt Sebesta and other volunteers were headed out in a pickup truck dragging a motorboat to rescue more horses and cows trapped in floodwaters. After all, the water in their community was going down, but they couldn't get started on their own recovery quite yet.

The sense that receding floodwaters were just the beginning of a long recovery was echoed Friday by county officials.

Commissioners extended County Judge Bob Hebert's emergency disaster order for another two weeks to provide time for the water go down and for residents to assess damages. Residents, business owners and government officials likely will need at least that long to determine their status and file for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

About 20 percent of the county's geography is underwater, said Jeff Braun, Fort Bend County's emergency management coordinator.

"We've had no more road closures. The water has crested in Richmond and is moving down toward Missouri City, Brazos Bend State Park and Rosharon," he said Friday.

There had been more than 700 water rescues over the last week. A few families that left pets behind at home authorized emergency animal personnel to enter their residences to evacuate cats and dogs, Braun said.

Historic flooding on the Brazos River is believed to have peaked on Thursday, but locations downstream  particularly in southern areas of the county such as Missouri City and Sienna Plantation  may see increased street flooding and a rise in water levels as the runoff flows downstream, Braun said.

"So far, we're dodging some of the rain. If that keeps happening, that's the best we can hope for," he said.

The road to Sebesta's home off a street aptly named Riveredge was its own waterway Friday. Neighbors trudged through a knee-high murky swill to reach their homes. Teenage boys sat on coolers and monitored fishing rods and other traps as they told tales of catching catfish, crawfish and water moccasins over the last week.

Sebesta said the water in his neighborhood "fell about 6 inches overnight." That still left moats around homes.

Larry Vargas, 45, said he had received commitments of food and money for his grilling effort to feed people folks.

He's also been finding clothes and diapers for people and babysitting Sebesta's rescued goat  who made himself at home in a backyard dog house.

On Thursday, the impromptu pitmaster fed more than 100 people in the neighborhood.

"We'll be cooking for the next two weeks," predicted Vargas, who has been off work from a TxDOT inspections subcontractor for the last few days.

The Brazos River hit a historic high on Thursday of nearly 55 feet. A "major flood stage" occurs at 50 feet, according to the National Weather Service.

By Friday morning, the Brazos had receded more than a half-foot at Richmond over the previous 24 hours and was projected to drop below 50 feet on Monday afternoon. This week's flood exceeded previous records including a 49.97-foot mark set in June 2015 and slightly over 50 feet in 1994.

Montgomery County

County officials said Friday evening that most of its rivers remained below flood stage. While Peach Creek was in minor flood stage, Peach Creek, Caney Creek and the west fork of the San Jacinto River were near flood stage. The San Jacinto was expected to crest a 2.1 feet on Saturday.

A new Red Cross shelter opened for those who need help. The shelter is at the Light Community Fellowship, 1314 Interstate 45 in Willis. The shelter in Conroe was closed Friday morning.

Many roads still closed

Receding water has been allowing crews to open some Houston-area roads and providing hope others could follow.

Midday Friday, as motorists managed without many thoroughfares in the Richmond and Rosenberg area, officials announced one lane of eastbound U.S. 90A was open. The news followed a 1-foot drop in San Jacinto River water levels, which with a lack of new rain was easing frontage road closures.

By 2:30 p.m., frontage roads along Interstate 45 at Texas 242 and FM 1960 had reopened fully.

Meanwhile, many routes in Richmond and Rosenberg remained closed, such as where the Brazos River topped Texas 36. One lane of the frontage road in each direction along U.S. 59 at the river was also affected.

Away from the Brazos, the most significant closing was of Texas 6 from Interstate 10 to Clay Road. The segment has only been open a few days since the April 18 floods, and was expected to remain closed until June 8.

This week's storms are the latest in a string of torrential rains since May 2015 that have put swaths of the state under water. Some areas now overwhelmed by water had run dry two years ago due to drought conditions.

Staff writers St. John Barned-Smith, Dug Begley, Norman Gomlak, Margaret Kadifa, Dale Lezon, Harvey Rice, Matthew Tresaugue and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Lord Mandelson and former Belfast Harbour chief Dr Len OHagan. Dr OHagan is non-executive director of INM, publisher of the Belfast Telegraph

Lord Mandelson has accused Secretary of State Theresa Villiers of "putting her fingers in her ears" on the issue of Northern Ireland border controls.

A leading Brexit campaigner, Ms Villiers has consistently said there will be no new frontier checks with the Republic if the UK votes to leave the European Union.

But speaking to the Belfast Telegraph during his visit to Belfast yesterday, the former Northern Ireland Secretary accused her of ignoring reality.

"Theresa Villiers is saying that because it's an inconvenient truth that she wants to brush it aside," said the veteran Labour politician.

"Of course the border will change if Britain leaves the EU. It would be done to stop or control the free movement of people.

"It's not conceivable that leaving the EU for the purpose of controlling migration could be done while you are leaving the back door open in Northern Ireland.

"It would have to be policed, otherwise people would simply arrive in the Republic from other countries, come across the border and pass freely into the UK."

Lord Mandelson - who was also Business Secretary and a former European Trade Commissioner - said border controls would have a "very substantial impact" both politically and economically.

"The Northern Ireland economy has been transformed and one of the reasons for that has been allowing an all-island economy to grow," he said.

"Some 18,000 people every day cross the border for employment, as well as around 4,000 students.

"I'm not saying they would all be stopped, but passports and identities would have to be checked and we would be operating a different Customs area.

"Trade would be impeded, slowed up and more costly.

"People in Northern Ireland need to look at the economic facts and see where their prosperity comes from, and that is chiefly from trade with Europe.

"Those on the Leave side who claim that we could turn our backs on the EU but continue to trade in the same way on our own terms are either openly lying or indulging in a fantasy."

He also dismissed suggestions from some on the Leave side that the Republic may follow the UK out of the European Union.

"I don't believe that. Why would they trash their own economy just to leave the EU over the issue of the border with Northern Ireland?" he said.

"It won't happen."

During his time at the Northern Ireland Office, from 1999 to 2001, Lord Mandelson was heavily involved in negotiations to maintain the peace process. He believes a Brexit would damage what has been achieved and would have a major political impact across the UK's regions.

He added: "People are saying that the consequences could be fresh division in Ireland and a move towards separation in Scotland. It would certainly sound the death-knell for the stability that we have worked so hard for and which has delivered so many benefits for all of us.

"The chief price we would pay is economic, but there would also be political ramifications."
Not many people read the obituary of French actress Madeleine Lebeau, who passed away a few weeks back, but if they had, they might have recognised her face.

Ms Lebeau, who died in Estepona at the age of 92, had spent most of her working life acting in films in France, Italy and Spain. Her credits included Fellini's 8 1/2 and the frothy Bardot comedy La Parisienne, but all that solid work was overshadowed by a small part she played when she was just 19.

Early on in Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart's swaggering and self-assured nightclub owner Rick Blaine is accosted at the bar by a drunk and emotional young beauty called Yvonne. "Where were you last night?", she asks him as he passes by. "That's so long ago, I don't remember," Rick replies. "Will I see you tonight?" she asks forlornly, but is again rebuffed. "I never make plans that far ahead."

The young woman was played by Madeleine Lebeau, who a few minutes later enjoyed a more memorable moment when she annoyed a table of Nazis by leading a rousing and rebellious rendition of La Marseillaise.

Ms Lebeau's part had originally been bigger, but constant script changes had reduced it to a few fleeting scenes. But she'd always be remembered for them and her death was given extra poignancy by the fact that she was the last surviving member of Casablanca's cast.

Like several other of the film's actors, Lebeau had recently fled Europe to escape the advance of Hitler's legions. And though she did manage to land more substantial roles in several other Hollywood movies before returning to France after the war, all would be eclipsed by Casablanca.

In later life she was a little bitter about the way her role had steadily diminished, but she was always proud of having been involved in such a special film.

Because Casablanca is special in many ways, a rousing and humorous melodrama that has wormed its way into the hearts of millions of movie lovers, many of whom can quote large sections of its witty script by heart. Its enduring appeal is all the more remarkable when you realise that it was made in a rush, its stars thought little of it and it was never expected to make much of a splash.

In fact it might have become just another pulpy studio melodrama if it hadn't been for a lucky collision of a good story, the perfect cast, a clever director and that extraordinary script.

Contrary to popular belief, Casablanca was not a B-picture: it had an A-list director in Michael Curtiz, great writers, and a million dollar budget which was generous for the time. But it was knocked out in just two months during the summer of 1942, and starred two actors who had yet to prove they could carry a picture.

Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman had been brought to Hollywood by producer David O Selznick in 1939 to star in the romantic drama Intermezzo. It was a hit, but Bergman didn't initially establish herself as a star. She was five foot nine, taller than a lot of Hollywood's male stars at the time, and that and her heavy accent made her difficult to cast.

Humphrey Bogart was 42 years old when he starred in Casablanca: by that time he was a Hollywood veteran who'd made his name playing treacherous villains in Warner Brothers gangster pictures.

He was kind of funny looking and not everyone's idea of a leading man. Producer Hal B Wallis, however, thought he had something different, and always saw him as the perfect actor to play a cynical Casablanca nightclub owner.

Bogart played Rick Blaine, a curmudgeonly American. Casablanca is notionally under the control of Vichy France, but realistically ruled by Germany, and is full of desperate European emigres who'll do anything to get their hands on a precious letter of transit to the United States, and freedom.

Rick has always stayed out of politics, but when an old flame called Ilsa Lund (Bergman) turns up in the company of a renowned Czech resistance leader called Victor Lazlo, Blaine is finally forced to choose sides.

Casablanca's screenplay was finished during production, which meant that the actors were handed lines on a daily basis and never knew what was going to happen in the end. Bogart and Bergman didn't exactly hit it off either.

The statuesque blonde was a good two inches taller than Bogie, who wore lifts and sat on pillows in order to make up the difference. Despite their on-screen chemistry, the pair didn't talk much during the shoot: Bergman's English wasn't great, and Bogart's unstable third wife Mayo Methot turned up on the set to accuse her husband of having an affair with the Swede. Casablanca was corny, as its stars were quick to point out, and smelt like a disaster in the making, but something magical was happening in spite of Bogart and Bergman's misgivings. And they were both superb as the star-crossed lovers Ilsa and Rick.

Claude Rains was his usual charming self as the cheerfully amoral Vichy police chief Renault, and Humphrey Bogart's chess buddy Peter Lorre played the unfortunate petty thief, Ugarte. Madeleine Lebeau's then-husband, Marcel Dalio made a charismatic turn as the nightclub croupier. Add Sydney Greenstreet as the portly rival club owner Ferrari, and Paul Henreid as Ilsa's husband Victor Laszlo, and you had a uniquely charismatic cast.

Casablanca's most famous scene is its finale, where Rick Blaine suddenly comes over all noble, forgoes Ilsa and joins the fight against the Germans. But the film very nearly didn't end like that at all.

Director Michael Curtiz was working off several screenplays, one by the Epstein brothers, the other by Casey Robinson, and at one point it was suggested that Rick escape from Casablanca with Ilsa, or that Rick himself be killed in an airport shoot-out. Happily, neither of these outcomes were used.

Although Humphrey Bogart is supposed to have ad-libbed the famous line "Here's looking at you, kid," most of Casablanca's finished script is credited to Julius and Philip Epstein. And what a brilliant script it is.

There are the famous lines, of course, like "of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine," "we'll always have Paris" and the "hill of beans" speech at the end. But Casablanca is packed with witty asides. When Rick says he came to Casablanca for the waters, Captain Renault says "what waters - we're in the desert". "I was misinformed," Rick calmly replies.

The film's unusual mix of propaganda, melodrama and cynical wit went down only moderately well with audiences when it was released in late November of 1942. It made almost $4m on its initial release, a decent return, but nothing to write home about, and critics were dismissive in the main.

What they couldn't have known was how fondly Casablanca would be embraced by future generations. It's more than that, though, because over time it's become a cherished artefact, a movie people watch for comfort as well as pleasure.

Maybe there are better films than Casablanca, but there are probably none better loved.
Shame: that's a word you rarely hear these days. It's unfashionable, an outdated idea. Nobody, it seems, feels shame any more, no matter what they have done.

Experiencing shame would require you to admit you had made a mistake, done something wrong. It requires you to take responsibility for your actions, to own up to the harm you have caused, and perhaps take steps to atone for it.

And who in the world does that? Apologies, if they happen at all, come with a get-out clause nowadays: "I am very sorry, if I have offended anyone." It's official: we don't do shame.

Even murderers are immune to it. Hazel Stewart, who callously helped to dispatch her husband and her lover's wife, then covered it up for 20 years - and indeed may have done so forever had Colin Howell not confessed to the crime - is not sorry for what she did.

In her mind she's not even guilty. Just a poor, soft, weak woman, led astray by a charismatic psychopath. As much a victim in her own way as the pair who ended up gassed in a car.

That's why she keeps on trying to challenge the verdict: in October last year she lost her appeal, but she's not giving up, and has since applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

But amid all these protestations of innocence, what is particularly unpleasant is Hazel's tenacious hold on her murdered husband's money. Stewart, showing a very different side to her personality from the one she'd prefer us to believe, is determined to hang on to the police pension benefits that she inherited from Trevor Buchanan.

In fact she plans to take High Court action over being refused legal aid to defend a bid to reclaim the pension cash. Yes, she'd like to use more of our money to help her keep her money.

The National Crime Agency, reasonably enough, is seeking an order compelling her to give the benefits back. Because there's something not quite right about killing your husband then reaping the financial benefits, isn't there?

Having been unanimously convicted of both killings in 2011, and her extraordinary actions exposed to full public view, you might think Hazel would be a little wary of hanging on so desperately to her victim's cash. Just for the dirty look of the thing, if nothing else, because any kind of moral stance clearly went out the window 25 years ago.

Not she. And there's only one word for it - shameless.

Following The Secret, the recent ITV dramatisation of the Coleraine murders and their aftermath, there has been much renewed discussion about Stewart's culpability.

People have questioned whether such a drama, even if it is closely based on real-life events, can ever give a faithful or accurate picture of the characters involved and their true motivations.

But let's remember that Hazel's role in the crime had already been laid out in full detail in court, and a judge had pronounced most severely on her actions.

We have the factual account, and it is entirely uncompromising. Stewart and Howell were, without doubt, "in it together".

Justice Hart said that Stewart knew what Howell planned to do, yet she did nothing to prevent the murders. She knew she had to make sure Trevor was sedated. She opened the garage door to let Howell in. When Howell went into the bedroom, she was aware he had already murdered his wife Lesley and that he was going to murder Trevor, yet she did nothing to stop him. Afterwards, she gave Howell clothes to dress her husband's corpse, and she cleared up the crime scene, burning the hosepipe that had been used to channel the exhaust fumes, and washing the bedsheets.

The judge said: "She could have told someone else, she could have told the police. Even after Lesley Howell had been murdered she could have prevented Howell from entering her house and killing her husband by any one of a number of actions, such as not opening the garage door to him, locking the door against him, waking her husband, ringing the police or alerting her neighbour, to mention but a few.

"While she knew Howell was murdering her husband in another room she waited and did nothing to save his life. Had she had a spark of compassion for her husband even at that late stage she would have tried to prevent his murder."

There have been other times that I have been struck by brazen behaviour on the part of people who have carried out terrible crimes.

Last year I was revolted to hear that IRA man Seamus Kearney, who murdered RUC officer John Proctor as he visited his newborn son in hospital, had reported his victim's widow to the police.

Kearney was mortally offended by some comments that June McMullin had made about him, so he went running to the cops to whine about it. Which is a particularly twisted irony, coming from the convicted cop killer.

Sometimes it's the sheer pettiness that gets you. Mass murderer Anders Breivik apparently complained because he didn't like the lukewarm coffee and plastic cutlery he was forced to put up with in jail. Indeed, he considered his microwaved meals to be "worse than water-boarding".

Playing on archaic ideas about women's supposedly softer, kinder, more pliant and nurturing nature, Hazel Stewart would like us to believe that she was nothing more than the dupe of Colin Howell. That it was Howell and Howell alone who bears the real responsibility for the crimes.

But astute Judge Hart knew better. He saw through the passive exterior to the ruthlessness beneath.

"While she had expressed sorrow and regret during police interviews, that was more about the effect of these events on herself, her children and her present husband than about the effects of the murders on all the others whose lives had been ended and blighted by the events," he observed.

"I consider that she has expressed little real remorse for what she did, rather the sorrow and regret which she expressed to the police was largely because of the situation in which she found herself, and not for the events in which she played her part."

And now she wants to cling on to her murdered husband's money.

Like I say. Shameless.
Able Seaman Patrick Lynas (front row, left) as a young man on board HMS Rodney, which played a key role in sinking the feared German battleship Bismarck

The spectacular rebirth of HMS Caroline brought back poignant memories of the Belfast man who took great pride in looking after the only surviving warship from the Battle of Jutland.

Able Seaman Patrick Lynas, who died in June 1994 aged 69, was senior shipkeeper on the Belfast-moored Great War vessel for 22 years until his retirement in 1987.

But it has now emerged that the Ballymurphy native was a naval hero himself during the Second World War when, as a teenager, he served on HMS Rodney, which played a key role in the sinking of mighty German battleship Bismarck.

Ironically, Mr Lynas had served for a short time on HMS Hood - the pride of the Royal Navy - which was sunk by Bismarck just three days before Rodney and other British vessels exacted ruthless revenge.

"We only found out about it after he passed away," said his son Patrick Jnr, one of 11 children born to Mr Lynas and his Italian wife Margaret (nee Velente), who died five years ago aged 86.

"He lost a lot of friends in the war and never liked to talk about it.

"He would have died for the Navy, though... and he would have been so chuffed and proud of how the refurbished Caroline is looking now, down at Alexandra Dock."

Patrick Lynas joined the forces when he was 15, just as war was breaking out in 1939.

"He bluffed his age, saying he was 16, in order to sign up," said Patrick Jnr, who added that his father spent most of the conflict as a range finder on Rodney.

"I'll always remember the photograph of the Rodney that my father kept at the top of the landing in our family home in Ballymurphy," his son said.

"Some people tried to get an OBE for him, but he resisted that because he was a modest man who didn't want his name in the papers. In the end, the Ministry of Defence sent a Royal Navy admiral from London over to HMS Caroline and they presented my dad with a parchment certificate of service in recognition of his efforts during the war."

Patrick Jnr recalled that, every Remembrance Day, his father would honour all those who died in those epic sea battles of the early 1940s. And although he played an integral part in the history of HMS Rodney, he was deeply affected by the catastrophic demise of the supposedly invincible Hood, which sank within three minutes with the loss of all but three of its 1,419-man crew.

The Hood's loss was one of the most demoralising for the British forces in World War II, although Patrick and his colleagues on the Rodney and three other British vessels went some way towards addressing that when they sent Bismarck - one of the most feared warships in maritime history - to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean on May 27, 1941.

"I know that my father cried when the Hood went down," said the retired Finaghy man.

"He knew that he could well have been on that ship.

"He always said it was God that popped him on the Rodney and God who got him back home again. He wasn't a man who complained about much.

"Indeed, one time when he was manning the Rodney's pom-pom guns he had his ears damaged by a shell and was flash-blinded in one of his eyes - yet he never mentioned it to anyone at the time."

The 67-year-old said he remembered how upset his father was when the IRA ordered him to desist from wearing his Royal Navy uniform while walking to the docks to look after HMS Caroline.

"My dad was a Catholic from Ballymurphy, but thought nothing of wearing that uniform when walking down to his work at Milewater Basin," he said.

"He was first threatened when the Troubles started, and from then on, until he retired, he had to wear ordinary clothes going to work.

"I know that incident about the uniform upset him a lot.

"He used to say to us: 'Hate nobody. Never, ever fall out with each other'."

If you knew Able Seaman Patrick Lynas, his son would like you to get in touch. Please email: cmcneilly@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
A former IRA director of intelligence said he is willing to give evidence to the new inquest into the Birmingham pub bombings if he receives assurances that he won't be prosecuted.

Solicitor Kieran Conway, who played no part in the bombings but learned information about them later, said he would travel to England if the authorities agreed that he would not be arrested for past IRA membership.

Mr Conway revealed that he was also prepared to give evidence via video link from Dublin where he now lives and works.

The inquest into the bombings in which 21 people died and 182 were injured is being reopened after allegations that the police failed to act on advance warnings about the November 1976 attack.

Mr Conway told the Belfast Telegraph: "I am willing to go to England if the British informally indicate that I won't be arrested and prosecuted for historic IRA membership as Ivor Bell has been in Belfast.

"I am glad the Birmingham families have secured a fresh inquest but I fear that it won't bring them any comfort.

"They understandably want people put behind bars and I don't believe that is going to happen because the evidence isn't there.

"I wasn't involved in the bombings in any way and I included whatever information I later learned about them in my book, Southside Provisional, two years ago. So everything I know is already in the public domain.

"The only bit missing is the name of the second man who debriefed the IRA's England OC (Officer Commanding)."

Mr Conway said he wouldn't name the man because he was still alive but he wasn't integral to the case anyway. The other man involved in the debriefing was Daithi O Conaill, a former IRA chief-of-staff who died in 1991.

Mr Conway, who was jailed for arms possession in Northern Ireland in the 1970s, left the IRA many years ago.

Members of the West Midlands counter-terrorism unit travelled to Dublin to meet him earlier this year. They provided a list of questions which were put to him by gardai.

Mr Conway has agreed to their request for a second meeting. He said several of the bombers were living in the Republic and their names were well-known.

"The only way they will be convicted is if one or more of them walks into a police station and confesses to involvement in the bombings and that isn't going to happen," he added.

Mr Conway called for a tribunal of inquiry "headed by the most senior and brightest High Court judge that can be found" to be established after the inquest.

"The judge should have full powers to compel witnesses and documents," he said.

"That is the very least that the State can do for the families given all they have suffered."

Mr Conway claimed that the British security services had an advance warning of the bombings from an informer in England which could have prevented the atrocity.

He said he wished to apologise for the attack.

"I know my apology is of little use to the families," he stated, "but I want to say sorry anyway because former IRA members bear a collective moral responsibility for what the IRA did.

"I believe Birmingham was the worst atrocity committed by the IRA and I have no hesitation in saying that I'm deeply ashamed of it.

"It was not legitimate to target civilians in that way."
Fly-tippers who dumped asbestos among eight tonnes of rubbish metres from a school have been branded "diabolical".

West Belfast DUP councillor Frank McCoubrey said the perpetrators had no regard for people's safety - particularly the children who attend Glenwood Primary and those who live in the local area.

A passer-by raised the alarm after spotting the cancer-causing substance lurking among rubbish on a patch of wasteland used as a playground on Lanark Way, off the Shankill Road.

It was illegally dumped amid rubble including builders' rubbish, old fridges, household waste and refuse that was to be used to build a bonfire.

Specialist workers removed the asbestos over two days.

Councillor McCoubrey said children often played on or next to the wasteland and also raised concerns that youngsters may have come into contact with the hazardous material.

He added it could have been "disastrous" if the waste had been set on fire because it would have released toxic fumes people could have inhaled or that could have wafted into homes, affecting entire families.

"Residents here are just disgusted," councillor McCoubrey told the Belfast Telegraph.

"It's diabolical that those responsible have put children's lives at risk by dumping here to avoid paying to dump it properly.

"A passer-by reported it to me, and then health and safety experts from Belfast City Council and the Housing Executive came straight out.

"Tests proved that it was definitely asbestos, so a specialist company had to be brought in at a cost of thousands to ratepayers to have it properly removed.

"It's a disgrace and has put a real dampener on the area."

The councillor revealed workers had found documentation linking the fly-tipping to a north Belfast contractor, who could now face prosecution.

"Those who were looking after the bonfire thought that it (the asbestos) had been dumped alongside wood that was to be burnt for the fire, and they were very helpful on giving information to help identify the culprits, including the vehicle that they were driving.

"Residents were put at risk and everybody is disgusted at those who have dumped it, so they have been very helpful.

"The authorities, including the PSNI and the Housing Executive were excellent in getting it sorted quickly.

"There were a number of letters found amongst the asbestos, so now the PSNI has leads and has linked it to a company.

"Hopefully, they will be prosecuted and others will get the message that fly-tipping will not be tolerated."
A controversial teacher recruitment programme which discriminates against those qualified for more than three years will not be introduced this year, the Department of Education has confirmed.

Teachers hit out in fury after former Education Minister John O'Dowd announced the 33m Investing in the Teaching Workforce scheme that proposed encouraging older teachers to retire and be replaced by brand new teaching graduates.

It was initially expected to be up and running by spring 2016.

It sparked a furious reaction from teachers who were qualified for more than three years and would have been barred from applying for the new jobs.

A lobby organisation, Equal Rights for All Teachers campaign group was set up to voice opposition to the proposals. More than 7,000 signed an online petition against the scheme. Following representations from teachers, Mr O'Dowd rowed back on the scheme and said the Executive would decide if the three-year limit should be increased.

New Education Minister Peter Weir says he will delay the introduction of the scheme.

In response to an Assembly Question, he said he plans to "take time to consider the detail of the proposed Investing in the Teaching Workforce Scheme".

He added: "I am mindful of the academic year and the importance of minimising disruption to the delivery of the curriculum to pupils. As such, an Investing in the Teaching Workforce Scheme will not run before the next academic year."

A spokesman for the Equal Rights for Teachers group has welcomed the move. "We hope it goes ahead without the caveat placed upon the scheme, ie, allowing any teacher to apply," he told the Belfast Telegraph.

The group said it has never called for the scheme to be scrapped, but simply wants the new jobs to be open to all. "We hope that the new minister and the new Assembly work towards making the scheme available to all unemployed teachers and allow our colleagues over the age of 55 to retire," it said in a previous statement.

The scheme had been proposed by teachers' unions. Avril Hall Callaghan, general secretary of the Ulster Teachers' Union, previously spoke out, calling for the scheme to be introduced.

"The teaching unions remain committed to this initiative which they believe is an innovative way to rebalance the age profile in schools.

"It is imperative that this 33m should not be lost to the education budget," she said.
The memorial which was vandalised in Woodvale Park

Sinn Fein activists have offered to clean a war memorial damaged in a sectarian attack.

West Belfast MLA Fra McCann said Sinn Fein Republican Youth members came forward because they were appalled by the vandalism in Woodvale Park this week.

Mr McCann, who said there was no justification for the act, added: "I was contacted by several youth activists expressing anger at the attack.

"They made it abundantly clear that under no circumstances did they want this attack to be viewed as an act carried out by, or indeed in the name of, Irish republicans.

"This led to them contacting a Shankill community group that had posted the images of the attack online, volunteering their assistance. It is a sincere and a mature offer that I believe must be commended."

Ryan McCrory, of Sinn Fein Republican Youth, said he thought the attack on the memorial and a similar one on the republican plot in Milltown Cemetery were "equally repulsive" and nakedly sectarian.

"Upon hearing about the attack on the memorial, we contacted a community group based on the Shankill, offering our support and assistance to them," he added.

"(We also told them) that under no circumstances was this attack in any way, shape or form associated with Irish republicans.

"Earlier this week, we also contacted the National Graves Association, offering our assistance to repair damage caused by vandals to the republican plot in Milltown. Both attacks are equally repulsive.

"It's important to state that the attack on the First World War memorial cannot be justified under the guise of reprisal. To attempt to do so is wrong. Both of these attacks were motivated by naked sectarianism.

"A core and fundamental aspect to Irish republicanism is anti-sectarianism, striving to unite the island and its inhabitants - Catholic, Protestant and dissenter.

"In no way does the attack advance that ideal. Instead it is completely counterproductive, only serving to heighten cross-community tensions at a time when we need working-class solidarity more than ever in the face of an austerity-driven government in Westminster."

The memorial in Woodvale Park in west Belfast was daubed with green paint by vandals who also destroyed wreaths dedicated to soldiers from across Europe in the incident on Thursday.

The graffiti included "Up the Springfield", as well as references to the IRA and mockery of soldier Lee Rigby, who was killed by Islamic fundamentalists in an attempted beheading in England three years ago.

It is the third time the memorial and adjacent peace tree, which was planted in 1919, have been desecrated and daubed with sectarian slogans.

Afterwards political representatives from across the divide came together to condemn those responsible.

Earlier this week, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness criticised those behind the "shameful" vandalism.

"It is as repugnant as the attack on the republican memorial in Milltown Cemetery," Mr McGuinness said.

DUP MLA William Humphrey added: "The memorial is there to mark both unionists and nationalists who fought side-by-side in the Great War.

"Those who did this have sick and depraved minds and are completely ignorant of their own history."
Northern Ireland has been basking in glorious sunshine for most of the week with temperatures hitting a sizzling 23 degrees.

And the good news is the weekend will bring only a slight change for us on the weather front.

Today will begin with a mostly cloudy morning, with some brighter spells developing in the afternoon.

Predictions for Monday and Tuesday is dry and bright, with plenty of warm sunshine, but some heavy showers around - and there's a chance we'll have the first summer thunderstorms early next week.
Work is well under way on the latest City Quays office development at Belfast Harbour estate.

Those behind the 20m City Quays 2 project say it should be finished by the middle of next year.

The nine-storey complex will sit alongside the already completed City Quays 1 building.

City Quays already houses companies including US technology firm Cayan.

Work is also expected to start soon on a new hotel for the area.

Accommodation giant Marriott is set to take on the new City Quays hotel project in Belfast with its AC Hotels brand.

The hotels are 'lifestyle' brands, with each designed to reflect the character of its urban location. It was given the green light by Belfast City Council in March.

There are also plans for yet another office development on the site.

Planners said the hotel development, which will sit alongside the City Quays 1 and 2 buildings, will "positively contribute to the ongoing regeneration" of the area.

It's understood Michael Burroughs Associates are the planning consultants behind the development.

Belfast Harbour is also seeking a lead architect for the City Quays 3 project, to prepare the design and plans for a building which could cover between 150,000 sq ft and 250,000 sq ft of space.

At the beginning of the year, Cayan, which was formerly called Merchant Warehouse, revealed it was taking up two floors of the City Quays 1 building.

The company is now finishing off its new sci-fi themed headquarters, which comes complete with Wi-Fi stations and an Xbox room fitted out with gaming chairs.

US-owned tech company MACOM Technology Solutions is also opening up a new Belfast office at the City Quays building, with plans to almost double its workforce this year.
Rose as a child on a skiing holiday with her parents

The coffin of Rose Neills mother Doreen Neill-Johnston is carried into Kilmood Parish Church yesterday

A hunting horn sounded in Killinchy yesterday for the funeral of Doreen Neill-Johnston, the mother of UTV broadcaster Rose Neill.

Around 200 mourners gathered in Kilmood Parish Church to pay their respects to the 85-year-old, who died two weeks ago after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Her family said she was an "amazing lady".

The funeral was conducted by the Reverend Stanley Gamble, and the hymns included Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, and Abide With Me.

While the service was kept private, towards the end a touching musical tribute - Andrea Bocelli's Time To Say Goodbye - could be heard clearly from the church.

The burial was held in the adjoining cemetery, and as the ceremony ended, close friend Declan J Feeney - dressed in traditional hunting clothes - sounded the hunting horn to say farewell.

Rose was comforted by members of her family and UTV colleagues after saying goodbye to her much-loved mother.

Last night, her husband Ivan Wilson said his wife was still too upset to talk about her mother, with whom she shared an incredibly close bond.

"It is still too raw and emotional for Rose," he added.

"She has been overwhelmed by the love and support around her in recent days.

"Her mum was an amazing lady who is going to be missed by everyone.

"We have a very wide circle of friends and family who are supporting us today."

Mr Feeney - who has the title of The Huntsman of East Down Foxhounds - explained that Ms Neill-Johnston had personally requested his hunting horn tribute.

"That was something she wanted me to do," he said.

"When I blew on the hunting horn, that indicated the hunt going away - when a fox goes away from cover and you blow gone away. A lot of people request that when they die.

"She loved her hunting and she was very keen that's what I do for her."

He explained that she remained active with the sport, retaining the title Master of the Foxhounds, into her 70s.

"She was a great woman," he said. "She didn't mess about. She would have gone where we went. She didn't just trot round the roads."

Describing the funeral service he added: "It was very emotional. My own mother now is at the first stages of Alzheimer's, and I know what we have in front of us and I know what this family have gone through. It's a very difficult time."

Remembering happier times, Mr Feeney said: "She liked a bit of craic and she knew how to throw a party."

Mourner Tom Edgar had also known Ms Neill-Johnston during her days with the East Down Hunt.

"I found her to be a homely and nice lady," he said.

"She was very interested and respectful in the countryside of other people's property. She was a real lady on the hunting field."

The family asked for donations to be made to dementia research being undertaken by Professor Passmore at Queen's University.

In a previous interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Rose spoke of how close she was to her mother and the painful experience of seeing her endure Alzheimer's.

Ms Neill-Johnston had been the wife of the late Roger HJ Neill and Edward I Johnston. She was also mother to Maxine and Peter as well as a grandmother.

Doreen's first husband Roger owned a shipping and coal importing company.

"My parents threw the most fantastic parties and they made sure that as children we really enjoyed our lives to the full," Ms Neill said in 2014.

"We were taken to the races, hunting, shooting, boating, fishing, travelling... it was idyllic."

She described her mother as "very glamorous and slim and always beautifully dressed and threw the most lovely dinner parties".

"She loved to snow and water ski, sub aqua dive, swim and ride horses," she added.

"She was exceptionally fit and she instilled in all of us that love for a physical, sporting life."

Rose previously described her mother's pride in her broadcasting career.

"Mum was my best critic," she said. "She was no more proud of my TV career than if I had become a dispensing optician or anything else."

And in a 2006 interview, she said: "Mum was always very close to all of us. Mum was a stay-at-home mum, but a very pretty, glamorous one.

"I suppose she remembered the war, when food and clothes were rationed, and then came the 60s, with all its high fashion and liberation and fun."
A total of 117 bodies have been pulled from the sea off Libya's shores after a smuggling boat carrying mainly African migrants sank in the Mediterranean.

Elsewhere, a separate massive search-and-rescue operation in the open sea saved 340 people and recovered nine bodies.

The two sinkings were the latest deadly disasters for refugees and migrants hoping to find better lives in Europe, and came in addition to the more than 1,000 people who drowned since May 25 while attempting the perilous, lengthy journey across the sea from North Africa to Europe's southern shores.

As traffickers take advantage of the improving weather, officials say it is impossible to know how many unseaworthy boats are being launching every day from Libya to Europe - and how many never reach their target.

A host of naval operations in the southern Mediterranean, coordinated by Italy, have been stretched just responding to the disasters they do hear about.

In Libya, at least 117 bodies - 75 women, six children and 36 men - were pulled from the waters near the western city of Zwara, Mohammed al-Mosrati, a spokesman for Libya's Red Crescent, said. All but a few were from African countries.

The death toll is expected to rise. No life jackets were seen on Red Cross photos of the bodies.

Authorities are uncertain when or how the people died. Libyan coast guards found an empty boat drifting on Thursday, Libyan navy Colonel Ayoub Gassim said, adding it was possible the vessel had capsized a day earlier.

Mr Al-Mosrati of the Red Crescent said the bodies were not "decomposed and therefore have drowned within the past 48 hours". He said the boat that was found might have been the one carrying the victims. But strong winds and currents can push bodies from one place to the other, he said, making it difficult for authorities to determine where the tragedy occurred.

Colonel Gassim blamed Europe for "doing nothing but counting bodies" in efforts to stop the massive illegal migration from Libya.

The situation in Libya has been particularly chaotic since the ouster and killing of the country's long-time autocratic ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The country has been split into rival governments and parliaments where each is supported by a loose set of militias and tribes. Smuggling gangs have taken advantage of the chaos to send waves of overcrowded boats toward Europe.

Aid officials said the last two weeks have been especially deadly because smugglers are using riskier tactics, bigger boats and even less-seaworthy vessels than before.

Frederico Soda, who heads International Organisation for Migration's Mediterranean office in Rome, said the increase in those making the deadly crossing was due "in part, to better weather, and in part to the use of bigger wooden boats that can carry more people than the rubber boats" used last year.

William Spindler, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, noted new and far riskier tactics being used by traffickers. He said until last week he had never heard of smugglers using an overloaded boat carrying hundreds of people to tow another vessel packed with hundreds more that lacked an engine. The second boat capsized on May 26, drowning what his agency estimated was around 550 migrants.

Another migrant boat sank elsewhere in the Mediterranean on Friday, with Greek authorities saying 340 people were rescued and nine bodies recovered in a massive search-and-rescue operation involving Greek helicopters, aircraft, patrol boats and passing merchant ships.

Greece's coast guard said the roughly 25-metre vessel, which resembled a large fishing boat, had been carrying an undetermined number of people when it was located half-sunk about 75 nautical miles south of Crete in international waters. It was not immediately clear where the boat was from, who it carried, or where it was trying to go.

Most survivors were picked up by the Norwegian-flagged Clipper Hebe tanker and were being transported to the Sicilian port of Augusta in Italy. Others were to be taken to Egypt and Malta. The coast guard said the operation was continuing to search for any potentially missing passengers.

"The information we have on the number of people on board the vessel is still unclear - we've heard that there were 400 or 500 people on board, but we cannot confirm that number," coast guard spokesman Nikos Lagadianos said. "There is a huge rescue effort under way."

Mr Lagadianos said it would be "very difficult" for divers to reach the wreck any time soon.

"A few hours ago, only the tip of the ship's mast was sticking out of the water. Now it's considered to have sunk," he said.

The short Aegean Sea crossing from the Turkish coast to Greek islands was the preferred sea route for migrants heading to Europe until Balkan countries closed their borders in March and the European Union reached an agreement with Turkey to send arriving migrants back. The deal has led to a dramatic decrease in the number of people landing on Greek islands from Turkey.

The Greek coast guard said it and European border patrol agency Frontex had rescued 164 people in four separate incidents on Thursday off the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios. Before the EU-Turkey migrant deal, thousands would arrive each day.

Many have speculated that the EU migrant deal could prompt Syrians and others to try the more dangerous Libya-to-Italy route, but authorities have seen no signs yet that any big shift is happening.
Last Sunday I listened to BBC Radio Ulster's Morning Service, when the address was given by the Rev David Gray of Portaferry Presbyterian Church. It was a thoughtful sermon, delivered in the classic stentorian tones of Presbyterianism.

Mr Gray was urging his listeners not to forsake the well-tested standards of their Christian forefathers but also to be prepared to move in new directions if they felt that God was calling them to do so.

My first reaction was that's easier said than done but Mr Gray's theme could apply to our modern society, where there are few enough important standards left.

The Rev Gray's advice could also apply to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland which is holding its annual General Assembly in Belfast next week.

The Presbyterians hold firmly to the old standards, but one wonders how far they are prepared to move forward in a way that makes Christianity attractive to a secular world that thinks it irrelevant and outdated.

The same applies to the other main Churches who are struggling to not only increase their numbers, but also to keep those members they have already.

The Churches have a difficult task today and they do not always receive the credit for their contribution to society at large - a point overshadowed by the unfortunate and unnecessary remarks of the commentator Jude Collins on the Boys' Brigade.

First Minister Arlene Foster was right to draw attention to the Churches' voluntary work in helping the young and old which would otherwise cost the taxpayer a fortune to subsidise.

That said, however, the Churches need to move with the times without diluting their central message of devotion and discipline, and that is not easy to achieve. How can this be done efficiently and effectively?

Take, for example, the subject of same-sex relationships that is not going away. Last year the Presbyterian General Assembly passed a churlish, childish and counter-productive resolution which prevented the Moderator, the Rt Rev Dr Ian McNie, from visiting the General Assembly in Edinburgh this year because of the more liberal views of the Scottish Church on the role of homosexual and lesbian clergy.

Will this year's Irish General Assembly take a more enlightened view on this, or will the same blinkered hardliners triumph again, while the liberals wring their hands helplessly? The outcome on the EU referendum might be easier to forecast.

The Presbyterians are still consistently ducking the issue of electing a woman Moderator, and, sadly, there is no indication that this will change any time soon, while the stiff-necked male clergy and elders continue to dominate this arcane process which remains a complex mystery in most of the pews.

Ecumenism, which is common around the ecclesiastical world, is still a radical concept for too many Irish Presbyterians, and the dwindling band of liberals will not be reassured by the comments of the incoming Moderator, the Rev Dr Frank Sellar, who said enigmatically: "I'm not a huge fan of ecumenical services, but I am interested in speaking with people from other Christian traditions."

One had hoped that Mr Sellar, with his experience of serving in Dublin, would be more outward-looking, so what does his view on ecumenism say to us as a leadership path for the future when the main Churches are trying to get closer?

It is good for the Presbyterians to adhere to the old standards, but that can also be an excuse simply for not moving forward.

The once-dominant Ulster Unionists were good at saying "not an inch" but look what has happened to them.
Indian police are pictured during a clash with members of a sect said to have been living illegally at the Jawahar Bagh Park in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, June 2, 2016.

Indian authorities said Friday they planned to crack down on a self-styled revolutionary sect, a day after 24 people were killed in clashes with police as officers tried to evict some 3,000 sect-members from a public park in Uttar Pradesh.

Two officers were among the dead.

The situation is under control. Several FIRs [First Information Reports] have been filed and more are in process against them. We are taking all possible action to bring them to justice, Mathura City Magistrate Ram Araj Yadav told BenarNews on Friday.

Superintendent of Police Mukul Dwivedi and Inspector Santosh Kumar Yadav were killed when a police team reached the Jawahar Bagh Park in the temple town of Mathura on Thursday, and were attacked by a crowd armed with guns, grenades, swords and knives, police said.

We knew they had arms but did not know they would fire at us, Uttar Pradesh police chief Javeed Ahmad said.

The police were following orders of the states High Court to evict some 3,000 members of the little-known group Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah from the park, officials said.

Soon after the attack, we got reinforcements and launched a counter-attack on the camp and successfully cleared the area, Agence France-Presse quoted Ahmad as saying.

During the police operation, some of the sects followers had set fire to huts that stored gas cylinders and explosives, he said.

Twenty-two of their people have died, out of which 11 have died due to burn injuries. One of the dead is a woman, Ahmad said told reporters, according to AFP.

Officers recovered a large cache of arms from the group, which claims allegiance to Indian freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose, police said. They added that they had arrested 368 members of the sect, but its leaders were on the run.

Law was nothing for them

The group, purporting to be social and political revolutionaries, had occupied the 260-acre government property since 2014, while making demands to remove the Indian president and prime minister and to replace the Indian currency.

These people claimed that they were living in Ghulam Bharat (Dependent India) and wanted freedom. Neither did they believe in the constitution nor the municipality system. Law was nothing for them. They collected huge funds under the guise of these activities from foreign countries. They did not see themselves as citizens of India, Yadav said.

Ahmad told reporters that the chief of the outfit, Rambriksh Yadav, who could not be located as of press time Friday, would be charged under the stringent National Security Act.

We knew they had arms but did not know they would fire at us, Ahmad said.

Police not prepared

A mistake has happened  the police went without full preparation. There was so much danger involved. No one knew how many explosives [they had], Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said.

Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, former president of the Mathura Bar Association who filed litigation against the group in 2014, told BenarNews: Members of this group had not only encroached on this beautiful park, but had also thrashed several horticulture staff and administration workers when they went there to evacuate it. They had felled several trees in the past and ruined this whole park.

When the administration did not act on the initial orders of the court, we filed a contempt petition on which the High Court issued notices to government agencies. It is on that they went yesterday but met with this kind of fate, he said.

Madhumangal Shukla, secretary of local NGO Braj Vrindavan Heritage Alliance, told BenarNews, We had complained several times about them in the past. It is strange that they got truckloads of ration supplies, free electricity. How did it all happen without political support? We lost Dwivedi, an honest and passionate officer. This needs to be investigated.
Malaysian graphic artist Fahmi Reza, who made waves in January by posting an image on Twitter that depicted the prime minister as a clown, is to appear in two different courts next week to face potential charges of violating the countrys internet law.

Fahmi has been summoned to separate courts on Monday and next Friday, where he may be charged under the Communication and Multimedia 1998 Act over allegations of improperly using network facilities and services to post satirical posters of Prime Minister Najib Razak and other Malaysian officials and institutions on his Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Fahmi was issued a warrant at the Dang Wangi district police station in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

I believe that in a country where artists, designers, cartoonists and satirists have been censored, arrested and charged in court for their art, it is important that this vital form of artistic expression  parody and satire as a form of political protest  is continued to be practiced and to be defended at all costs, Fahmi told BenarNews.

Fahmi, 38, has been lampooning a string of such arrests cited under the act, which he calls the #AktaSakitHati (#HurtMyFeelingsAct).

The first potential charge against him says he intentionally used his Instagram account to post his clown-face depiction of Najib on Jan. 31 with the intent of offending others.

The post, whose caption reads, In 2015, the Sedition Act was used 91 times. But in a country full of corruption, we are all seditious, caused a stir on Twitter.

In a second potential charge, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission claims that Fahmi intentionally posted a parody of an MCMC notice featuring a similarly altered photo of Najib, on his Facebook page on Feb. 8.

Fahmi said he did nothing wrong and only exercised his right to free speech.

He is scheduled to appear to answer the first charge on Monday at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court and on June 10 for the other charge at the Ipoh Sessions Court in the state of Perak.

If convicted, Fahmi faces up to two years in prison, or a 50,000 ringgit (U.S. $12,178) fine, or both for each charge.

Zunars trial approaches

The possible case against Fahmi comes as another Malaysian satirist, political cartoonist Zunar, nears the start of his trial on nine counts of sedition.

Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, is known for his biting cartoons that lampoon Najib and highlight themes such as corruption.

The co-recipient of the 2016 International Editorial Cartoons Prize is scheduled to stand trial on July 14, and he could be sentenced to more than four decades in prison if convicted on all nine counts under Malaysias Sedition Act.

Zunar has been jailed twice  for two days in September 2010 and for three days in February 2015. Five of his books have been banned and his office in Kuala Lumpur has been raided. Printers have been warned to not publish any of his cartoon books.

The latest charges against him stem from tweets he had sent that criticized the 2014 jailing of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges.
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First up, Joe Biden is thinking about dropping tariffs against China. But theres a spy in prison this morning that helps us understand why he shouldnt. Ill explain.





Your second brief, If youre looking for a good paying job, you might consider being a CEO for a health insurance company. One executive made $142M dollars last year. Let's talk about that.





And as always, Im keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put this one on your radar. Mexican cartels are grooming American kids online and paying them cash to traffic illegals or run drugs across the border. Ill share details.





If you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief, remember to subscribe and listen daily at podfollow.com/pdb.

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Jem's Birding & Ringing Exploits in the Eastern Province and elsewhere in Saudi Arabia
The Australian government recently released an ambitious Smart Cities Plan , which suggests that cities should be first and foremost for people:

Such statements are a good starting point  and should probably become central to Australias implementation efforts. A lot of knowledge has been collected over the past decade from successful and failed smart cities experiments all over the world; reflecting on them could provide useful information for the Australian government as it launches its national plan.

What is a smart city?

But, before embarking on such review, it would help to start from a definition of smart city.

The term has been used and abused in recent years, so much so that today it has lost meaning. It is often used to encompass disparate applications: we hear people talk and write about smart city when they refer to anything from citizen engagement to Zipcar, from open data to Airbnb, from smart biking to broadband.

Where to start with a definition? It is a truism to say the internet has transformed our lives over the past 20 years. Everything in the way we work, meet, mate and so on is very different today than it was just a few decades ago, thanks to a network of connectivity that now encompasses most people on the planet.

In a similar way, we are today at the beginning of a new technological revolution: the internet is entering physical space  the very space of our cities  and is becoming the Internet of Things; it is opening the door to a new world of applications that, as with the first wave of the internet, can incorporate many domains.

wilgengebroed/flickr, CC BY-NC

From a more philosophical point of view, one could refer to the great Xerox-Park computer scientist Mark Weiser, and his idea of non-intrusive  or calm  technology. Weiser wrote:

Ubiquitous computing names the third wave in computing, just now beginning. First were mainframes, each shared by lots of people. Now we are in the personal computing era, person and machine staring uneasily at each other across the desktop. Next comes ubiquitous computing, or the age of calm technology, when technology recedes into the background of our lives.

What should governments do?

In the above technological context, what should governments do? Over the past few years, the first wave of smart city applications followed technological excitement.

For instance, some of Koreas early experiments such as Songdo City were engineered by the likes of Cisco, with technology deployment assisted by top-down policy directives.

In a similar way, in 2010, Rio de Janeiro launched the Integrated Centre of Command and Control, engineered by IBM. Its a large control room for the city, which collects real-time information from cameras and myriad sensors suffused in the urban fabric.

Such approaches revealed many shortcomings, most notably the lack of civic engagement. It is as if they thought of the city simply as a computer in open air. These approaches led to several backlashes in the research and academic community.

A more interesting lesson can come from the US, where the focus is more on developing a rich Internet of Things innovation ecosystem. There are many initiatives fostering spaces  digital and physical  for people to come together and collaborate on urban and civic innovations.

In the US, the general idea of smart urban space has been central to the current generation of successful start-ups. One of the latest examples is Uber: a smartphone app that lets anyone call a cab or be a driver. The companys operations are polarising  Uber has been the subject of protests and strikes around the world (mainly in Europe)  yet it was recently valued at a stratospheric US$50 billion.

Beyond Uber, the Nest learning thermostat, the apartment-sharing website Airbnb and the recently announced home operating system by Apple, to name a few, attest to the new frontiers of digital information when it inhabits physical space.

Similar approaches now promise to revolutionise most aspects of urban life  from commuting to energy consumption to personal health. As such, they are receiving eager support from venture capital funds.

In such a context, governments could use their funds to develop an organic innovation ecosystem geared toward smart cities, similar to the one that is growing in the US. It is more about bottom-up innovation than top-down schemas.

This must go beyond supporting traditional incubators and aim to produce and nurture the regulatory frameworks that allow innovations to thrive. Considering the legal hurdles that continuously plague applications like Uber or Airbnb, this level of support is sorely needed.

So, any active smart city role for Canberra?

That isnt to say that governments should take a completely hands-off approach to urban development. Governments certainly have an important role to play. This includes supporting academic research and promoting applications in fields that might be less appealing to venture capital  unglamorous but nonetheless crucial domains such as municipal waste or water services.

The public sector can also promote the use of open platforms and standards in such projects, which would speed up adoption in cities worldwide.

Still, the overarching goal should always be to focus on citizens. They are in the best position to determine how to transform their cities and to make decisions that will have  as the Australian Smart Cities Plan puts it  an impact on their lives.


Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 04/06/2016 (2334 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Earlier this year, five Westman veterans received Frances highest distinction for their involvement in the countrys liberation during the Second World War. The men join more than 1,000 other Canadian veterans who have become Knights of the French Legion of Honour.

The French government launched an initiative to recognize Allied soldiers who took part in D-Day and the subsequent Normandy Campaign in 2013 ahead of the 70th anniversary of D-Day. The Legion of Honour campaign suffered poor promotion in Canada and hundreds of deserving veterans were missed during the initial intake.

Still, the medal is an important symbol that acknowledges the sacrifices made by millions of young soldiers so many years ago.

Colin Corneau/The Brandon Sun Kenton veteran Jack Houston.

In honour of the 72nd anniversary of D-Day, The Brandon Sun has compiled the wartime stories of these five local veterans. Weve also produced a series of short documentaries, titled Knights of D-Day, which features the men sharing their memories first-hand. The videos will be published Monday at brandonsun.com.

D-Day

Grey skies blanketed the French coastline and high winds whipped the English Channel into dark waves, as the first Canadian soldiers set sights on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

While not ideal conditions, the dreary weather offered a slight reprieve from an otherwise stormy forecast  giving the Allied forces a narrow window of opportunity to carry out an invasion plan that had been months in the making.

Approximately 14,000 Canadians, alongside British and American troops, stormed the beaches of Normandy in an attempt to recapture several coastal French villages held by German forces.

What would later be known as D-Day was a pivotal battle that allowed the Allies to crack Fortress Europe and change the course of the Second World War.

On June 6, Canadian troops were charged with delivering Juno  one of the five beaches that would create a continuous beachhead along the Normandy coast.

All that sounds good and easy when you look at a map  a lot was involved in getting the troops there, said Andrew Burtch, Canadian War Museum historian, post-1945. A lot of work and training in the months previous, (and) an enormous amount of secrecy went into it.

In reaction to the Dieppe Raid in 1942, the Germans dedicated a large amount of resources to shoring up defences along the French coastline. Tonnes of concrete were poured and guns and ammunition were moved closer to the Atlantic, creating a formidable seaside barrier.

Any fleet that dared enter within range would be subject to a very severe and withering fire, Burtch said. That indeed proved to be the case at Juno Beach.

Prior to the landings, the low-slung concrete barricades dug into the sand were targeted by heavy air and naval bombardment. However, the days poor weather meant that none of the emplacements were knocked out.

If it was a clear and bright sunny day, perhaps it would be a different story, Burtch said. The Germans had their heads down and were no doubt shaken by the bombardment, as were the seasick Canadians pouring out of the landing craft, but they were nonetheless unaffected.

According to Burtch, who stood on the Normandy beaches during a research trip in the 1990s, those soldiers spilling out of the landing craft had quite a slog ahead of them.

With the tide out, the run up to the emplacements was significant and the beach was covered with obstacles such as steel crossbeams and mines. Not to mention the near constant small arms and machine-gun fire coming from the German soldiers on the other side of the barriers.

That first wave really had to fan out on the beach and advance slowly, Burtch said. All the time suffering killed and injured.

At the end of D-Day, 359 Canadians were dead and 574 more were wounded. Yet, the battle was deemed a success because the number of casualties was actually half of what had been envisioned, Burtch said.

In the days that followed, optimism about the speedy liberation of Europe was turned to dust.

Ambitiously, the Allies thought they would be able to capture the city of Caen, an important German intelligence hub located 20 kilometres inland, within the first day. That target wouldnt be acquired for another month.

When you look to the sources and the first-hand accounts, you really get a sense of the momentous nature of the landing itself and just the slugfest that followed as they pushed south into France, Burtch said.

The summer ahead was marked by fierce German counterattacks and substantial casualties.

In some cases, every day was like D-Day  you had that same level of losses, Burtch said.

Still, the success of the Normandy invasion gave the Allies an important foothold that allowed them to eventually push Germany back inside its own borders  signalling the end of the Second World War on Sept. 2, 1945.

Without D-Day, the war wouldnt have ended when it did, he said.

Dieppe  The precursor to D-Day

The second youngest of five boys, Elmer Cole grew up on a farm six miles south of Roche Percee, Sask. On a whim, he and two friends decided to enlist in the war effort in 1939 when he was 20 years old.

I dont know why I enlisted, I was farming at the time, Cole said. I think we thought we could go over there and win the war right away.

He was sent to Brandon where he trained as a mechanic and met his late wife Isabel, before shipping off to England in July 1941.

One year later, Cole was taken prisoner  along with 800 other men in his South Saskatchewan Regiment, Royal Canadian Infantry Corps  during the disastrous Dieppe Raid on Aug. 19, 1942.

Of the nearly 5,000 Canadian soldiers who landed in the coastal French town, 505 were injured, 916 died and 1,946 were taken prisoner by the Germans.

Colin Corneau/Brandon Sun Brandon veteran Elmer Cole.

The raid was, in essence, a costly trial run of the amphibious warfare tactic that would later be used by the Allies on D-Day.

They knew we was coming, Cole said, adding that many of the tanks that landed broke tracks on the large rocks that covered the shoreline before they could make it to Dieppe.

Cole says that while he and his crew made it to town, it became obvious they werent making it back to England.

All the streets were blocked off and they wouldnt evacuate us because we had to stay and keep the Germans off the beach, he said. So we knew we was gonna get taken prisoner.

Some might expect a prisoner of war to become emotional when talking about his experiences, but Cole is very matter-of-fact about the whole thing. This pragmatism was even present on the day he was captured.

My co-driver  he said to me, You know, I dont think well make it back to the pub tonight. And I said, I dont care  I havent got any money anyhow. Yeah, so thats how casual we were, Cole said. Afterwards it kind of struck us and we were a little jumpy.

The biggest ordeal seemed to be the 10-day ride in a boxcar with 50 other men en route to a German PoW camp.

We couldnt all lay down at once  there was that many of us in there, Cole said. It was pretty degrading living in there.

Once at the camp, Cole and his comrades wore shackles around their wrists and ankles for 13 months, but were otherwise treated well.

It wasnt as bad as it sounds  we could still play cards, he said. We lived on mint tea  it was wonderful, I dont ever remember being thirsty.

We were never mistreated  We were just plain lucky.

Burtch says Coles treatment in a European PoW camp wasnt unusual.

Germans had a vested interest in treating PoWs, if not comfortably, at least humanely, Burtch said. They didnt want their own troops to be mistreated.

Coles camp was liberated nearly three years later.

Two years, eight months, nine days and so many minutes and so many seconds, we had it all figured out, he said. There was a little firing overtop of us and the Germans just disappeared and the Red Cross was right there.

We always kind of joked about it  the first thing they gave us was a toothbrush. In three years, we hadnt used a toothbrush and in all my life I hadnt used a toothbrush. Youd rather have something to eat than a toothbrush.

D-Day plus seven

Les Downing volunteered to be in the first wave of soldiers crashing onto the beaches of Normandy on June 6  but the offensive only had room for one gun crew.

They took the one gun crew and those boys never made it. So, Im just lucky I didnt go in the first gun crew, I guess, Downing said. It bothered me  I still think of the boys that are gone.

Downing grew up on a farm in Lenore with five other siblings and reluctantly joined up in October 1942 at the age of 21.

I didnt kind of want to go to the service to start with. But I got a call and took my medical and they wanted soldiers so they kept me in there, he said.

Downing split his basic training between Brandon and Petawawa, Ont., and says his quiet nature proved to be a bit of a hindrance early on.

I wasnt much for chumming with anybody. I was alone more or less, he said. This one boy come up to see me and he says, Youre gonna have to snap out of it and get out of the corner and join the boys and go for a beer or something or youre not going to make it  he helped me out. I finally got mixing with the boys.

By the summer of 43, Downing was in England to continue his training as a gunner with the 19th Royal Canadian Army Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery.

He and his comrades landed in Normandy one week after D-Day.

We were getting along all right until we got into the English Channel going across to the fighting range, Downing said. The boys were all pretty quiet.

Downing and his gun crew spent much of the war on the front lines providing support wherever it was needed. Daily life meant sleeping in dugouts and steel helmets for protection and few opportunities for bathing. It also meant a number of close calls.

Every once in a while, we could see the enemy planes coming across and we thought, Well, is this it or what? Downing said. I didnt think Id ever get out of it, it was pretty scary  maybe it didnt bother some of the boys, but it bothered me.

The 95-year-old veteran still tears up when he talks about the friends he lost during the war.

Colin Corneau/The Brandon Sun Kenton veteran John Carl Roseveare.

It brings you closer to people when you go through something like that, Downing said.

Marc George, former director of the RCA Museum at CFB Shilo, can attest to that sentiment based on his own experiences in the military.

You eat with them, you sleep with them, you laugh with them, you cry with them, you bury them, George said. Some of the best memories of your life with some of your closest friends are also tied up into that little package, along with all the horrid bits.

Luck of the draw

Like many Canadian soldiers, Kenton veteran Jack Houston was right in the action during most of his time overseas. He also says luck played a big factor in him returning home from the battlefields.

Born in Winnipeg, Houston was the youngest of five siblings, all of whom joined the army. He enlisted in January 1943 and ended up as a driver with the 12th Manitoba Dragoons, Royal Canadian Armoured Corps, when he arrived in England.

His troop landed in France eight days after D-Day, and instead of fighting in armoured vehicles as they had been trained to do, they were handed rifles and made to work as infantrymen for two weeks.

We had no infantry training at all  It was nerve-racking  thats when we lost our first casualty, Houston said of the troops first battle, which took place across a river.

The enemy was firing Moaning Minnies  so called because of the rockets distinctive wail  at the soldiers from across the water.

One (of the Moaning Minnies) happened to hit a branch and the fellow right beside me got killed and I didnt  by the grace of God, Houston said. We grew from boys to men in a matter of minutes.

Another close call happened after the battle at Falaise, France, when a group of Allied regiments were accidentally fired on by their own air force.

We saw these planes coming, you know, and we saw the green light where they were supposed to drop their bombs, Houston said, who assumed the planes would fly past without an issue. That didnt happen. We lost 14 men that day.

Houston found safety crouching in between his vehicle and a curb.

It couldnt have been any closer because I was down in behind the curb  and it was hitting the top of the curb and it was coming up through my uniform, he said.

While the war afforded a lot of hardship, Houston says there were good times as well.

When we would go into the town  the people were very, very friendly  especially in Holland, he said, adding that the soldiers would often share their rations with hungry children in towns.

Houston is open and rather nonchalant when talking about his wartime experiences  mostly because he believes storytelling is a way to foster remembrance.

Its 70 years ago now, its not going to hurt me anymore  but there are still men who wont talk about it, he said. But if youve got to tell the younger ones what it was like, youve got to talk about it.

Dangerous work

Geoffrey Casson grew up just outside Pipestone and joined the military in Brandon in 1942 when he was 20 years old.

During the Second World War, two of Canadas four artillery training centres were located in Westman.

About half of the people who joined the Canadian artillery during the war were trained in Brandon and Shilo, Marc George said. It was certainly much more common to see people in uniform on the streets of Brandon at the time.

Casson trained as a gunner and landed on Juno Beach with the 3rd Medium Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, more than a month after D-Day.

Of the five veterans interviewed by The Sun, Casson seems to have suffered the most injuries during his posting  including an injured leg and bits of shrapnel still lodged in parts of his body.

The shell was 100 pounds, the first ones we had, and you put a little bag of powder in it and screw the fuse on and then you took the cap off before you put it in the chamber, he said. We had a couple blow up.

In one instance, Casson was standing 15 feet behind a gun when one of the shells blew up.

I got a burned here and a piece stuck in my arm, he said, first motioning to his chest and then to his left bicep. Another guy had his face full of shrapnel.

The work of a gunner was exponentially dangerous because the Allied army was advancing so quickly  moving from France into Belgium, the Netherlands and finally into Germany.

Colin Corneau/The Brandon Sun Virden veteran Les Downing.

You didnt have time hardly to defuse the ammunition, Casson said, adding that there were times when they had to pack up and move live shells in truck beds. Pretty dangerous when youre out there  you dont know what the hell is going to happen.

After the war was over, Casson was stationed in Holland where he was hanging around with a number of other Manitoba soldiers  one of whom happened to be Les Downing.

Realizing the two were from the same part of Manitoba, they kept in touch when they returned home and Casson ended up marrying Downings sister Francis.

The wife always says to me, Why didnt you bring anyone back? Well, I met a girl in England I was going with for a while, but she had a boyfriend when I got back from Europe, so I didnt bother trying to fight over her, Casson said, laughing.

A fateful return

Like many of the veterans featured in this piece, John Carl Roseveare has poignant memories of his time in the Netherlands.

The second oldest of 11 children, Roseveare grew up in Sperling before enlisting in the artillery in 1942 when he was 21.

He arrived in England in 1943 and landed in France with the 23rd Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, nearly two months after D-Day.

They kept five armoured brigades in England until they had room to deploy us, Roseveare said, adding that his troop quickly became known as the Suicide Squad because they were often ahead of the front lines doing reconnaissance work.

While on duty in the Netherlands, his crew got a message to move to a city called Breda where they lodged with a local family. The next morning was New Years Day 1945 and the men were outside preparing to shave and get ready for the day.

There was two little boys in the house. One was about a year and a half and the other was about two and a half or something like that, Roseveare said.

The two boys were outside watching the men clean up when they heard a strange plane coming.

Hes coming straight down that fence line, just clipping the treetops, Roseveare said. Of course, the first thing I thought of was these two children. So, I grabbed one under each arm and I got around the other side of my half-track and I was trying to get underneath of it.

Their mother came running outside calling for her kinder  which means children in Dutch.

I told her, Kinder OK  you get in the house, so away she goes, Roseveare said. (The pilot) got out past a big bush and heres a whole tank brigade in there and all our artillery. What he mustve done is he thought to himself, I better get the hell out of here.

Roseveare returned to the Netherlands in 1995 to attend a 50th anniversary celebration of the countrys liberation when an amazing chance meeting occurred.

There was no seating left at the outdoor venue so Roseveare was watching the event from behind the crowd when a man approached him yelling, Welcome back, Canadians in Dutch. Roseveare asked if the man lived nearby.

He said, No, I come from Breda. Do you know where Breda is? I said, I sure do.  He says, My mother told me a wonderful story about Breda. How this Canadian soldier grabbed me and my brother, Roseveare said, tearing up. To think of all the men that should come and speak to me, it was (one of those boys).

While the end of the Second World War in 1945 was cause for celebration, Roseveare says the monumental day brought about mixed emotions.

Its an awful feeling having nothing to do when youve been in battle for 10 and a half months and then all of a sudden, bingo, she stopped  the jobs not here anymore, he said.

Worthy of honour

To mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the French government made a big push to recognize the Allied veterans who took part in the liberation of France.

The National Order of the Legion of Honour is the countrys highest civilian and military distinction awarded to those who have aided in the defence or prosperity of France. It was created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 and is divided into five degrees of increasing nobility: Knight, Officer, Commander, Grand Officer and Grand Cross.

In 2013, the French government, aided by Veterans Affairs Canada, invited veterans who participated in the Normandy landings and the campaign that followed, to apply for the award before Dec. 31, 2013.

Any Canadian, American, British and Australian veteran, still living, who fought in France between June 6 and Aug. 31, 1944, was eligible for nomination.

The Grand Chancery of the Legion of Honour is the official institution in France responsible for processing the medal nominations.

To award an (Allied) soldier, the institution needs the official proof he took part in the Landings and the Campaign of France, Grand Chancery communications director Alice Bouteille wrote in an email. These documents have to be collected by each country before transmission to the French embassies and assessment by the institution.

According to Bouteille, the French government originally decided to honour Allied veterans in 2004 for the 60th anniversary of D-Day. Since then, foreign veterans have been honoured annually, but the bulk of the medals were awarded in 2004 and 2014.

Marc George said even getting in touch with those who served so many years later can be difficult  something he endeavoured to do while working at CFB Shilo during the 2004 nominations.

Colin Corneau/The Brandon Sun Brandon veteran Geoffrey Casson.

Its tough to track them down, the former RCA Museum director said. Their records stop when theyre released  so their military files stopped in 1945 or 46, its put into the national archives and unless the regiments have kept track of them  theres no way to contact these people.

To date, approximately 10,000 Allied veterans around the world have received the Legion of Honour.

In Canada, the application process garnered criticism for the way it was rolled out.

The National Post reported in April 2015 that as many as 400 eligible Second World War veterans missed out on

the medal because their applications to Veterans Affairs had not been passed on to the French Embassy in Canada.

One month later, the federal government announced the deadline for nominations would be extended to July 10, 2015.

The Honorary Consul of France in Winnipeg says the number of veterans recognized more than doubled following the new deadline.

At the beginning, we had 600 and some and at the end of this year (2016), there will be over 1,200 that will receive this great honour, Bruno Burnichon said. To the best of our knowledge, there are more D-Day veterans still living in Canada.

Several of the Westman recipients who spoke with The Brandon Sun wondered why the French government waited so long to award the Legion of Honour  especially since it is not awarded posthumously.

I was back in France in the 1940s, Brandon veteran Geoffrey Casson said. When we got our other medals, we should have got it  its a bit late.

As of March 2015, there were an estimated 75,900 Second World War veterans still living in Canada according to statistics from Veterans Affairs  their average age being 91.

Stephane Schoroderet, press counsellor with the French Embassy in Ottawa, says the government of France realized time was running out and decided to incorporate the campaign with a milestone anniversary.

Most of them are very old people  so, its probably the last chance to congratulate, to thank them, Schoroderet said during an interview. Its a symbolic number, a symbolic date  the 70th anniversary.

Earlier this year, the Legion of Honour continued to make headlines as veterans finally received their medals and were recognized at local ceremonies.

Thirty-seven Manitoba veterans have received the honour.

On Jan. 19, five Westman veterans officially became Knights of the Legion of Honour at a well-attended ceremony at the Virden Legion. The event was officiated by Burnichon.

Through you, France remembers the sacrifice of all of your compatriots who came to help and liberate my country  often losing their lives during the fierce battle, Burnichon said during his address. The French people have never, and will never, forget the act of your bravery.

Burnichon, whose father was a Second World War veteran, said being able to pin the five-armed white and silver cross onto veterans lapels is a personal honour.

Its actually emotional for me, and I think its OK to be emotional when you do this because having the honour  to say thank you in person to these people is the best thing that I can do, he said. It should have been done before.

The Brandon Sun endeavoured to publish the names of all the Manitoba veterans who have received the Legion of Honour, but the French Embassy cited privacy concerns and for that reason did not release the information to the paper.

Marc George says that despite the controversy surrounding how the medals were doled out, the sentiment behind them is an important act of remembrance.

The really brilliant thing about giving out these medals  is that it recalls to mind in the present what all those men and women did so long ago now, George said.

So, you effectively are honouring each and every one of them because you are giving these last remaining veterans a voice and public prominence again  it does directly honour them all by doing this.

 ewasney@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @evawasney
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EDMONTON  Members of Albertas Wildrose Opposition have apologized for comparing the NDP governments carbon tax to a famine caused by Soviet government policies in Ukraine during the 1930s that killed millions of people.

The article posted on a blog says socialist collective mentality has failed around the world and the carbon tax will give people an incentive not to invest in Alberta.

The Holodomor was an atrocious and intentional act that saw the deaths of millions upon millions of Ukrainians, reads the apology released by the Wildrose party on Friday.

Any interpretation of the column collaborated on by the nine Wildrose MLAs as dismissing the Holodomor as a horrendous act was completely unintentional, and we unreservedly apologize.

Out of an abundance of caution and respect for Ukrainian Albertans, the post was removed and a revised version has been posted.

Wildrose members involved in the post included Rick Strankman, Grant Hunter, Dave Schneider, Wes Taylor, Ron Orr, Mark Smith, Dave Hanson, Don MacIntyre and Drew Barnes.

The post quoted American economist Thomas Sowell, who wrote that people do more for their own good than for the common good.

The Wildrose article refers to the famine, during which the Soviet government forced Ukrainian farmers to give up their own land to join collective farms.

The same situation existed in Russia during the 1930s resulting in the starvation of nearly six million people that lived on some of the most fertile land on the planet, reads the post.

The Alberta governments movement to remove incentives through taxation in the name of progressive policies is in fact taking Alberta backwards.

Economic Development Minister Deron Bilous called the blog post offensive and said Wildrose leader Brian Jean should denounce the actions of the nine members.

Bilous, who is of Ukrainian descent, said more than 300,000 Albertans are survivors of the Holodomor or are descendants of those who suffered.

When the Holodomor is used in such a callous way, without recognizing the pain this causes people of Ukrainian descent throughout the world and at home, we all have a responsibility to stand up and say it is not acceptable, he said in a statement.

Generations of Ukrainians overcame incredible hardships for a new start in Alberta. They and their descendants helped build this province and they worked hard to get recognition for Holodomor. I want them to always have the respect theyve earned and to honour our survivors and the memory of those we lost.

Albertas carbon tax comes into effect on Jan. 1 and is to be included in the price of all fuels that emit greenhouse gases.

Money raised by the levy is to be used to reward families, businesses and communities that take steps to lower their emissions.
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The Fort McMurray wildfire and an unplanned outage at an Edmonton refinery are leading to fuel shortages at Suncors Petro-Canada stations across Western Canada.

On Friday afternoon, the pumps at the Petro-Canada station at 26th Street and Victoria Avenue in Brandon were taped up and shut down with a notice attributing the shortage to a supply disruption.

The north end Petro-Can, located near the Trans-Canada Highway, was still selling fuel at about 2 p.m. An area manager said he wasnt authorized to talk to media about the how the shortage would play out at stations in and around Brandon.

Colin Corneau/The Brandon Sun Gas pumps at the Victoria Avenue Petro-Canada station were closed on Friday after gasoline shortages in Western Canada. Problems with a Suncor refinery in Edmonton as well as shortages in the oilsands region from recent wildfires have both raised prices sharply and left some stations without fuel to sell.

Suncor spokeswoman Sneh Seetal says the cumulative effects of lower crude production because of the fires and the Edmonton outage mean the company has been producing less diesel and especially less gasoline for its retail operations.

Given the prolonged duration of the fires and its impact on the supply for our refinery, as well as ongoing planned seasonal maintenance in the industry, our product inventories are greatly reduced, Seetal said.

The company is reporting temporary shortages at Petro-Canada stations in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as well as at sites in the British Columbia Interior.

To help fill the gap, Suncor is bringing in more gasoline and diesel by truck and rail from its own network as well as from third parties.

Seetal added that Suncor is prioritizing supplies to go to stations in areas it has deemed as critical were there are few or no other refuelling options. The company has also designated the town of Fort McMurray as critical.

The gasoline shortage comes as prices have spiked 10 cents a litre in recent days across the Prairies, says Gasbuddy.com petroleum analyst Dan McTeague.

The price increase is more related to two major refineries in the U.S. Midwest also being knocked out and record demand down south, but the Suncor outage isnt helping, he said.

This is really bad timing, he said. Theres three not so positive stories for motorists right now.

He said that while the Petro-Canada shortages might not have caused a spike in prices yet, it isnt helping.

It wont help bring them down. If you have a shortage in the system itll keep prices up artificially, said McTeague.

Michael Ervin, senior vice-president at energy consultancy the Kent Group Ltd., says the Edmonton outage has already led to a five cent differential in wholesale western Canadian gas prices compared with Ontario.

That, I think, is reasonably attributable to a tightness in the Edmonton market now, said Ervin.

But he said Suncors 142,000 barrel-a-day refinery is only expected to be out for another week so the wider impact should be limited.

The anticipated date for it to be back online is a matter of a few days, said Ervin. Given that I dont think theres going to be a wider ripple effect here.

Seetal said it was difficult to say when supplies would return to normal but that Suncor is working to restore the refinery and restart its oilsands operations to provide more crude oil input to its system.

 The Canadian Press, with files from The Brandon Sun
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The fiancee of a woman badly beaten during a night out at a Brandon nightclub says the couple is relieved that police have made arrests.

It definitely gives us peace of mind that something is happening, Desiree Fisher said during a phone interview Friday afternoon, 45 minutes after police informed the couple of the arrests.

Police announced that two men were arrested Friday in connection with an assault at Houstons Country Roadhouse in April, which left Nicole Fayant with a broken jaw.

Brandon Police Service crest. For any future file use. FileBrandon.

Police said a third suspect is still being sought, but is expected to be arrested in the next few days.

In a previous interview, Fisher described how Fayant was beaten by two men in Houstons as other patrons and bouncers did nothing to help. The men fled the bar and couldnt be found.

The police indicate that three men took part in the assault, which Fisher says is possible as it happened so quickly its hard to tell which men did what.

Police say a staff member provided the name of a potential suspect, and descriptions of their clothing provided by witnesses helped investigators identify three suspects on surveillance video who were seen leaving the bar.

Fisher said that she, Fayant and their friend, who was also at the bar, helped identify suspects during photo lineups prepared by investigators.

Police also issued photographs of three suspects, captured from video from one of the bars security cameras.

Fisher praised Brandon Police Service Const. Denis Dufault who investigated the case.

He did an amazing job, Fisher said. Were just so ecstatic, we couldnt thank him enough.

The two arrested men, who police didnt name, are 22- and 24-year-old Brandon residents. They have been released from custody to appear in court in August.

Fayant had her jaw fastened in place with bands and screws while it healed. Those were later removed, but a titanium plate remains screwed in place to reinforce the jawbone.

But Fisher says Fayant is doing better and is back on solid food. Fayant had spent time at her parents recovering, but the couple and their four-year-old son are now reunited in their Brandon home.

 ihitchen@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @IanHitchen
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TORONTO - A 10-year-old Toronto boy shot by what appeared to be a stray bullet while he was sleeping in his home is expected to make a full recovery, police said Saturday as they investigated what they called a brazen shooting.

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HALIFAX - One of Canada's submarines is returning to port due to a mechanical problem with one of its diesel engines.

We need your support!

Local journalism needs your support!

As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed.

Now, more than ever, we need your support.

Starting at $4.99/month you can access your Brandon Sun online and full access to all content as it appears on our website.

or call circulation directly at (204) 727-0527.

Your pledge helps to ensure we provide the news that matters most to your community!
Opinion

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Much to the chagrin of dyed-in-the-wool Conservatives everywhere, it seems like Canadians just cant quit Justin Trudeau. Either Trudeau is on a prolonged honeymoon or this truly is a relationship built to stand the test of time.

Close to seven months after the election where the Liberals rose to power, Trudeau and his party have inched 7.2 per cent higher in a recent opinion poll. The latest numbers have pushed the party to 46.7 per cent backing nationwide and positions Trudeau at 57.9 per cent popular support.

Looking closer, there are pockets like Atlantic Canada where the Liberal government is nearing 60 per cent popularity, but overall in each province the Liberals are doing quite well in polling numbers.

Support like this may be the norm for governments with a squeaky clean reputation, but to be clear this poll comes in the wake of the government debating a somewhat poorly drafted bill to address physician-assisted suicide, Trudeau being accused of elbowing a fellow member of Parliament while physically forcing another to his seat, facing scrutiny for costs associated with travel and his familys childcare needs, and finally his somewhat public day off in Japan recently.

Each of these events has barely produced but a flesh wound in the armour of the crowd-pleasing and camera friendly leader, causing many to liken his ability to deflect criticism to Teflon  nothing sticks.

Every time he has been challenged thus far Trudeau seems to emerge unscathed while his counterparts like NDP Leader Tom Mulcair come out looking dated, angry and out of touch with Canadians.

As Trudeau arrived this past weekend for the Liberal convention in Winnipeg, he entered the room to chants and cheers of his name, music, lights and banners. He was for lack of a better term the pop star of Canadian politics. It was calculated and made to look casual as Trudeau took to stage, sleeves rolled up, tie loosened and at ease with his message. He cracked jokes, mocked his opposition and engaged with a captive audience hanging on his every word.

The reach stemmed far beyond that room though as unlike most conventions before, Canadians could stream large swaths of it on their smartphones or computers through the partys multiple social media feeds. Trudeau and his team have harnessed this level of political awareness to a near masterful stage and it may be the reason for some of his popularity. They have changed the way Canadians consume their politics and the parties in opposition are frustrated, clunky and clearly behind the times on it.

A prime example of that social media effect was on display in bright colours Wednesday afternoon. Trudeau and fellow Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault stood on Parliament Hill to officially raise the Pride flag, kicking off festivities across the nation. It was a smaller ceremony with MPs flanking Trudeau along with members of the House behind the stage. Boissonnault, an openly gay MP from Alberta, used most of his time to champion Trudeau as a leader poised to embrace the LGBT community in this country.

Boissonnault wasnt just paying lip service, though; the prime ministers actions have backed up that fact. In the short ceremony that followed, the viewership on Trudeaus social media feed eclipsed 10,000 viewers and throngs of pro-Trudeau supporters attacked any instance of negative trolling in the comments section.

The prime minister went a step further by sharing with the audience his thanks for the support the party had received from his political opposition in making the day a reality. By co-opting their ability to criticize, he effectively silences his naysayers.

It may not be old school politics like so many Canadians rail against, but with this approach Trudeau was able to win the Liberal leadership and the federal election. It keeps his messaging in the press and even though he and his government have already had their fair share of bumps, it allows his supporters, and not the opposition the opportunity to write the headlines. It is calculated and it is tremendously effective.

As the opposition move further away from their current leadership, they need to prove they are learning a lesson right now. Canadians are responding well to what the big tent style Liberal government is doing and it is coming at the expense of their own numbers.

By Trudeau actively trying to include as many Canadians as possible under the Liberal banner, the question is whether there will be enough meat on the bone for the rest moving forward.
Opinion

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This article was published 04/06/2016 (2334 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This weeks edition of #businessbuzz is coming to you from the 900 block of Rosser Avenue because theres some big news with two of our favourite retail stores in downtown Brandon.

Ill start by introducing you to Sara Grexton and her family, who are the very proud owners of Abby Rose at 912 Rosser Ave.

Abby Rose is an art, gift, clothing and book boutique. The niche store was originally opened in 2012 by Bridget Shaw and her daughter, Miranda Stobbe  the family that also owns Lady of the Lake.

Justine Marie Photography Sara Grexton, second from left, worked at Abby Rose under previous ownership and when the business was put up for sale, she decided it would be a great opportunity for her family  husband Brian Pettigrew, left, and children Isla Pettigrew, second from right, and Renee Grexton. Brian helps with maintenance, while Renee works part-time with her mom at the Rosser Avenue boutique.

After being in the industry for more than 30 years, Shaw has decided to wind down operations and a few months ago put both Abby Rose and Lady of the Lake up for sale.

<t-3.5>Grexton, who had been working for Shaw at Abby Rose, fell in love with the business and decided it was a great opportunity for her family to take over this unique,

family-run business. Her oldest daughter Renee works with her in the business part-time and her husband helps with building and other maintenance projects.<t-1>

For the most part, Grexton doesnt have any plans to make significant changes to the store as shes happy to continue the vision of what began four years ago, including maintaining the quality consignment fashion department.

She is, however, connecting with Canadian artisans to provide them with an avenue to sell their handmade items. She has already acquired a selection of natural skin, body, bath and wellness products, jewelry, art and clothing.

One of our main goals is to have to a place for Manitoba artists to sell their products. I really like that I can help artists to put their stuff out there. Im excited about meeting new people, getting to know the different artists and building that community, Grexton said.

Grexton is a photographer and artist herself and also owns Third Storey Studios. She does wedding, family, maternity, portrait and commercial photography.

I also really love nature photography. I just recently put some of my own images on canvases and I really hope to eventually sell those in the store as well, Grexton said.

In terms of other product lines, Grexton has also expanded into metaphysical products that include tarot cards, oracle decks, related books and crystals, which she said has sparked some interesting conversations and have been very popular.

For more information on Abby Rose, check out their Facebook page or follow them on Instagram.

And just a few doors down 

Shoppers are in for a real treat this month because of a special celebration at Zekes Jewellers.

Local store owner John Zeke said they are proud to be celebrating 35 years in business in Brandon.

Zekes father, Walter Zeke, moved to Neepawa to open his first store in 1960. John and his brother Dave eventually got involved in the family business and opened the Brandon location (originally on 10th Street) in 1981. They then moved to their present location at 902 Rosser Ave. in 1986.

Zekes Jewellers carries a beautiful selection of diamond rings, necklaces and earrings, plus gold and silver necklaces and bracelets. They are the exclusive dealers for Movado watches, Pandora jewelry and of Canadian designer Noam Carver. They have two certified diamond graders on staff and are also dealers for Maple Leaf Diamond, which are Canadian diamonds mined in the Northwest Territories.

To celebrate their 35th anniversary, they are offering customers a fantastic deal on diamond earrings and are having a Dream Big Contest, where the winner will receive $1,000 toward a custom designed piece of jewelry.

Zekes Jewellers has two other locations, one in Yorkton, Sask., and another in North Battleford, Sask.

For more information and additional details on this months promotions, visit their Facebook page at /zekesbrandon.
Opinion

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This article was published 03/06/2016 (2335 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While @BetteMidler is an extremely unattractive woman, I refuse to say that because I always insist on being politically correct.

 Donald J. Trump

Why begin a column with such an odd quote? Simply put, if youre Hillary Clinton, and youre effectively tied in a race for the White House with this guy, maybe you need to take a good look at yourself.

Hillary, a former secretary of state, senator and first lady, is widely lauded for her intelligence and wisdom, two things that are seemingly in short supply in the political world these days. That being said, if shes so smart and wise, and the face of feminism in politics, why is it so difficult for her to win her partys nomination?

Dont be misled  her ascendancy to the leadership of the Democratic party is a given. The numbers dont lie. It would require nothing short of a miracle for Bernie Sanders to win the nomination, particularly since there are no winner take all primaries for Sanders to win. In other words, the race is essentially over in all but the most legalistic of terms.

In a recent conversation, it was observed that maybe Clinton was missing out on the overriding truth  people dont like her.

She already lost to an under-qualified first-time senator who had the limiting assets of being both black and having the middle name Hussein, and now she is having trouble finishing off a 74-year-old Jewish socialist from lightly populated Vermont.

Today, Clinton is running essentially even with Republican Donald Trump in popularity polls. That is a somewhat disingenuous remark on my behalf for several reasons, including the fact she is still engaged in her partys nomination race. However, to be running neck-and-neck with the buffoonish Trump, the most unpopular major party candidate ever  well, what does that say about her?

I dont doubt her brilliance. After all, she keeps telling us just how smart and qualified she is. I dont really know much about her, from her hobbies and pastimes to her core beliefs.

For example, she voted in favour of the Iraq War while a senator, but now disavows that vote. Does she disavow it because of how the war turned out or because it is politically expedient to take that position today? Does anyone really know?

My sense of Clinton is that people support her solely because of the concept of inevitability. Simply, it seems inevitable that she will win the nomination and, short of a miracle (?), win the presidency.

Her husband, former president Bill Clinton, remains a wonderful asset to her campaign, although he brings along some savoury history in his own right. Given his past, particularly with members of the opposite sex, Im not entirely sure how Hillary is viewed as the sole voice of feminism.

Trump has suggested Hillary enabled her husbands behaviour. While its far too early to comment on the efficacy of this attack, it may serve to blunt Bills contributions to the campaign.

In fact, Trumps outrageous attacks may turn Hillary into a sympathetic figure  not an easy achievement.

From my perspective, it could be as simple as this  Hillary may not necessarily be a good politician when it comes to getting elected, but would be far better at actually performing the job of president.

This, of course, is the opposite of Trump who, I believe, is all-consumed with winning, but his victory would be disastrous for the United States. Hillary, by comparison, could potentially be a fine president, something of an incrementalist like Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, but with none of the natural political skills that would ease her pursuit of the office.
Opinion

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This article was published 04/06/2016 (2334 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Its 70 years ago now, its not going to hurt me anymore  but there are still men who wont talk about it. But if youve got to tell the younger ones what it was like, youve got to talk about it.

 Second World War veteran and Kenton resident Jack Houston

More than six years ago, John Babcock, Canadas last veteran of the First World War, died at the age of 109.

The front page of The Brandon Sun on D-Day June 6, 1944.

With his death went the last living military memory of the first major world conflict that took away the youth  and many of the lives  of some 650,000 Canadian men and women who went to serve in the war to end all wars.

At the same time, this countrys involvement in that far away conflict signalled that Canada had gone beyond being merely a loyal member of the British Empire, and had become instead a strong nation all its own, brought together by an international emergency.

It was the Second World War, however, that cemented Canadas place in the world as a nation that could do more than just offer support to our Allies. This second  and ultimately more horrific  world conflict ultimately made Canada a better, stronger nation, economically, politically and socially.

But it came at a horrible cost. More than 1.1-million Canadians served in the various arms of the military, including the army, the navy and the air force. Of these, more than 44,000 people lost their lives and more than 54,000 were wounded.

Monday, June 6, will mark the 72nd anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy, more commonly called D-Day. The Canadian War Museum records that of the nearly 150,000 Allied troops who landed or parachuted into the invasion area along an 80-kilometre stretch of coastline in Normandy, France, 14,000 were Canadian.

D-Day is opened on coast of Normandy by huge liberation armada of Allies screamed the front page of the June 6, 1944, edition of The Brandon Daily Sun. Another article on the right side of the page touted the prominent part that Canadians played in the so-called liberation landings.

As the paper wrote, this was the largest task ever undertaken by the Royal Canadian Navy, as it contributed 110 ships and 10,000 sailors in support of the landings, while the Royal Canadian Air Force bombed targets inland to try to smooth the way for Allied penetration.

While the attack on Juno Beach was among our finest hours as a nation, as the manoeuvre hastened the end of the war one year later, it was also among the most costly endeavours of the conflict for all the Allied nations involved. As a result of the D-Day invasion, Canada suffered 1,074 casualties, including the deaths of 359 men.

Amazingly today, there are still thousands of veterans of the Second World War living among us who bore witness to this terrible conflict. As of March 2015, there were an estimated 75,900 Second World War veterans still living in Canada  their average age being 91.

As noted by Sun reporter Eva Wasney in her Knights of D-Day long form feature story in todays paper, its estimated that by the end of this year, more than 1,200 Canadians who participated in the D-Day liberation of France will have received the French governments highest decoration, the Legion of Honour. And 35 of those live in Manitoba.

Unfortunately and inevitably, the number of Second World War veterans continues to dwindle as these frail Canadian souls age and pass on. While this may not be a significant anniversary year  72nd, not the 70th the need to tell their stories becomes ever more urgent.

The Knights of D-Day was an effort by the Sun newsroom to give voice to five of our local Westman veterans who participated in D-Day so many decades ago  both in the pages of this paper, and also as part of an online video documentary, the very first filmed and produced by The Brandon Sun.

To the veterans and your families: Thank you for sharing your stories with us.
Anti Abortion campaigners will hold a rally in Dublin this afternoon - calling for the 8th amendment to be retained.

The law gives equal right to the life of the unborn child and the mother.
1pm

An Irish man has been fatally stabbed while on holiday in Turkey.

The body of the 64 year old was found at a sea-front apartment in the tourist resort of Bodrum yesterday.

Local media are reporting a knife was found outside the apartment building.

Earlier

An Irish man has died in Turkey.

The 64-year-old is reported to have been found at an apartment in the tourist resort of Bodrum yesterday afternoon.

It is understood he suffered a number of stab wounds.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that it is providing consular assistance to the family of an Irish citizen who died in Turkey.
Turkish police have launched a murder inquiry after a 64-year-old Irishman was stabbed to death in the resort of Bodrum.

His body was discovered yesterday afternoon at a holiday apartment after neighbours raised the alarm.
51 people have been injured in lightning strikes at a festival in Germany.

Police say they were attending the 'Rock am Ring' music event in Mendig, near Franfrukt yesterday when an electrical storm hit.

It follows severe weather conditions across central Europe in the last week - 15 people have been killed in floods in the country - while in Poland a man died last weekend after being struck by lightning.

Organisers of the Rock am Ring in Mendig say the three day event won't be called off - despite the risk of further storms.

Black Sabbath and Red Hot Chilli Peppers are headlining.
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Tuggeranong father of five David McMillan got sick of hand-written notes for his children's schools, so he did something about it.

"There were 11 absences that needed to be explained for my eldest son in 2013, and we had legitimate excuses," he said.

Appsence director David McMillan outside Lake Tuggeranong College, which has used his app for student absences and permissions since February last year. Credit:Rohan Thomson

"I thought there's got to be a better way."

Less than three years later, his solution, the Appsence app, is in eight ACT public schools.
Lovers of Moet & Chandon champagne will soon be able to have their own AbFab moment, with plans advanced to have a vending machine full of bubbles in Australia.

While it's early days as to the locations, but possibly starting at race tracks such as Randwick in Sydney and Flemington in Melbourne, it was trialled at the British retail institution, Selfridges, to much success.

A Havaianas thong vending machines in World Square shopping centre, Sydney Credit:Jessica Hromas

In 2013 the UK department store gave shoppers their very on Patsy and Edina moment  Champagne at the press of a button.

It offered the upmarket shoppers a chilled 200 ml bottle of Moet & Chandon at 18 a pop. The vending machine holds 350 bottles, each of which is coated in mini Swarovski crystals  without any of the more usual fizzy drinks in sight.
Politicians should stop proclaiming the falsehood that Australia is generous to refugees.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull tells us Australia is the second most generous participant in the United Nations resettlement program. But that program is but a tiny part of the refugee landscape. Of the 2million or so refugees who seek protection from persecution each year, fewer than 70,000 (3.5 per cent) find safety through that program. Australia participates by taking a miserly 5000 people each year. What about the other 96.5 per cent? They flee by whatever means, and to whichever country, they can. In most cases they go somewhere close to their home country, so they can easily return when the danger they have fled subsides.

The Australian government has been called on to raise the refugee intake to 50,000 per year. Credit:Angela Wylie

According to the latest figures, there are now 1.8 million refugees in Turkey, 1.5 million in Pakistan, 1.2 million in Lebanon (a country with a population of just 4.5 million), and so on down the list  Iran, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Uganda you get the picture. Australia doesn't feature anywhere near the top 10, or even the top 30 most generous countries  not even when you repeat the calculation on a per capita or per dollar basis. Australia currently hosts just 35,000 people seeking protection and grants visas to about 8000 of them each year. Most have been waiting for four years or more to learn their fate.

But what about the boat crisis? There's no such thing and there never has been. It has been manufactured by our politicians. We do not have hordes of boat arrivals threatening our borders. We never have. Australia accepts 190,000 new immigrants each year. Last year just 14,000 (7.5 per cent) of them were refugees. In the biggest year of so-called "unauthorised" boat arrivals, 2012-13, just 25,000 people arrived by boat  only about 13 per cent of our overall migration intake. The overwhelming majority of people who need protection don't want to come here, they want to (and do) go to Europe and the United States.
The ACL is not only displaying insulting and damaging prejudice against homosexual people, but the families of gay and lesbian couples. Mr Shelton makes the appalling and ridiculous argument that same-sex couples who raise children are creating a new "stolen generation". Such families  which are numerous, normal and have the same fundamental rights and responsibilities of any other family  are already facing the painful prospect of a national debate ahead of a plebiscite on marriage equality, should the Coalition government be returned. Such a needless debate will merely give added amplification to the ACL's extremist views.

On its website, the ACL, which receives donations of about $1 million a year, describes itself as "a grassroots movement of over 50,000 people seeking to bring a Christian influence to politics  We want Australia to become a more just and compassionate nation". They've got a hell of a twisted way of pursuing justice and compassion. The ACL's position on marriage equality lacks decency and fairness. By advocating the continuation of the denial of the right of two people in love to get married, the ACL is being needlessly hurtful and disrespectful to a large number of citizens. The majority of Australians support ending this legally and morally wrong situation, and most people understand the only thing that will happen when same-sex couples are no longer denied the right to marry is, well, same-sex couples will get married.

The ACL, particularly through its managing director Lyle Shelton, has been running two misguided, ideological and dangerous campaigns that trample the very values commonly associated with Jesus of Nazareth. I am not an adherent of any religion, but I respect many religious values. At the core of most religions is the notion we should treat others as we would seek to be treated. Associated with that unassailable principle are the concepts of respect, kindness, empathy, justice and compassion.

Were one to set out to besmirch Christianity, one might very well invent something akin to the Australian Christian Lobby, the Orwellian motto of which is "Voice for Values".

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, to appease supporters of the man he deposed, Tony Abbott, sold out on this issue, and has been comprehensively outflanked by Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who promises to just get on with passing legislation should he win on July 2. Mr Turnbull, who has disenchanted many who thought he actually would engender sophisticated and mature political debate, should not only show some leadership by robustly and repeatedly repudiating the ACL, he should match Mr Shorten's commitment and save the nation a jarring $160-million slanging match.

The ACL's egregious trashing of Christian values has been in focus in recent days with its latest attack on the voluntary Safe Schools program, a benign and enlightened buttress to the curriculum. It helps teachers and students understand the particular strains and difficulties many LGBTIQ young people face at school and generally. The core of the Safe Schools program is called ``All of US", eight lessons for year seven and year eight students. It encourages them to imagine what it can be like to be bullied and worse for being other than heterosexual. It is not, as the ACL and some others on the fringes of our society would have it, "social engineering". Fancifully, the ACL reckons the election will be "a referendum on whether or not radical gender theory would continue to be forced upon children at school".

Safe Schools is simply is about combating injustice by raising awareness. That's a good thing to do, rather like seeking to reduce domestic violence by educating the community, or seeking to save lives through public education campaigns to reduce drink diving. But in a disingenuous piece of writing on the ACL website, Mr Shelton is seeking to link the program, and, for that matter, marriage equality, to the evils of Nazi Germany. "The cowardice and weakness of Australia's 'gatekeepers' is causing unthinkable things to happen, just as unthinkable things happened in Germany in the 1930s." Really? That's a shameful conflation.

The ACL, Mr Shelton and other opponents of same-sex marriage and the Safe Schools program might do well to review their positions from first principles, rather than on the basis of ideology, prejudice or blind embrace of tradition. These issues are not about "tolerance", but equality, acceptance and progressing from discrimination towards a more decent society. Evidently, there still people in our community who do not fully comprehend that people who are not heterosexual are normal. Leadership is not about power or hierarchy, but about each of us recognising our duty to treat each other with respect and not to be bystanders to bigotry and injustice.

Lesbian, gay, transgender and intersex people have suffered injustice for far too long, and it's a life-and-death matter. A study by the Young and Well Co-operative Research Centre (disclaimer: I am on its board of directors), Growing Up Queer, estimated 16 per cent of LGBTIQ young Australians had attempted suicide and a third had harmed themselves, largely because of homophobic harassment. As many as two-thirds of them have been bullied about their sexual orientation. The report revealed widespread homophobic harassment and violence in schools, at work and at sporting events. It found 42 per cent had thought about self harm or suicide  making them six times more likely to consider taking their own life than heterosexual peers.
Frustration, she says, is mounting about the slowing of internet speeds as the telecommunications network gets overloaded as households' consumption of data rises dramatically. Dubbed the "Netflix effect", the amount of data sucked through the copper-based cable network, much of it driven by streaming services such as Netflix and Stan, has doubled in the past year or so, and continues to rise at record rates. Tanya Plibersek with Labor leader Bill Shorten - and the rat left at their feet while campaigning. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "It's huge, it's a very big issue in my electorate," she says. "There is the typical domestic user who is irritated but I've also got the creative start-up businesses, people who work from home ... They rely on a really good internet connection to be able to do business with the world. The operate globally and they need to send very big files." With the National Broadband Network  Australia's biggest infrastructure project  facing delays and cost blowouts and inextricably linked to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull due to his previous role as communications minister, it provides Labor with what Plibersek describes as a "potent" line of political attack. Tanya Plibersek's son Louis with the rat he and his siblings named Harry.

"It elicits an angry response about Malcolm Turnbull. He's telling everyone he understands about innovation and he understands what it takes to run a startup and build it into a big business," she says. "The personal experience [of start-ups and households] is they are dealing with all these frustrations because their internet is pathetic." While the NBN flared in the election campaign as an issue when the Australian Federal Police last month raided the office and homes of Labor staffers searching for leaked documents from NBN Co, Plibersek believes the problems with internet access and speeds will linger throughout the campaign. Only 2 million of 12 million homes have been connected to the NBN. The longer it's delayed, the worse the problem with internet speeds will get, says Mark Gregory from RMIT University's school of engineering. "You have all these providers that re-sell ADSL [the most popular form of delivering the internet for those without the NBN]. They are doing the bare minimum to upgrade the network because they know they are going to be eventually replaced by the NBN." The government maintains that its model for the NBN, which relies more heavily on delivering the NBN to "nodes" rather than taking the high-tech cable direct to homes, is cheaper and faster to rollout than Labor's "gold-plated" model, saving taxpayers $30 billion.

Along with the NBN, Plibersek cites the economy, health and education as the biggest issues of the campaign, revealing that candidates have a run-down on how much each school in their electorate will gain under Labor's policy of boosting funding in line with the recommendations of the Gonski report. It's the type of grass roots politicking that worked well with Queensland and Victorian state campaigns, where Labor surprised by upending first-term governments. Labor needs to pick up  as well as hold  a swath of seats in western Sydney if it has any chance of replicating those victories at the federal level. The $17 billion Westconnex motorway being built by the NSW government runs through many of those seats. It's a tricky political issue for Labor. Its western Sydney MPs are strongly in favour of the project, which aims to cut commuting times into the city dramatically. But the new network of roads and tunnels will disgorge many motorists in Plibersek's electorate, potentially creating gridlock. It is deeply unpopular among many inner-city dwellers. Plibersek attempts to walk the line between unsparing criticism of the project while not deviating from the party's position. "This is a road planning disaster on a grand scale. You are just moving the traffic jam closer to the city," she says. "Helping with western Sydney traffic congestion, that's something I can totally get on board for. Doing it with this ridiculously poor planning and very little community consultation, well, that I'm less enthusiastic about it." If it wins government, Labor won't  indeed, can't  withdraw funding, she says.
Privacy campaigners have accused the Liberal Party of an "appalling" sleight of hand for using what looks deceptively like an official government website to harvest people's personal information.

The Australian Privacy Foundation's David Vaile says the website, which spruiks the government's $840 million PaTH to Jobs internship program, appears to be deliberately misleading.

"An appalling approach to abusing the trust of gullible internet users," David Vaile says. Credit:Alan Brandt

It asks employers and jobseekers to register their interest in the program by submitting their personal details. But it's only in the well-hidden fine print that it makes it clear it is a party website rather than a government one.

The Coalition scheme is designed to encourage under-25s into jobs by giving them a $200-a-fortnight top-up over and above the dole to work 25 hours a week. It is a central plank of the government's jobs and growth agenda but it has drawn heavy fire from the unions, which have described it as a $4-an-hour "worker exploitation scheme".
A re-elected Turnbull government would establish a new fund to help local communities from the Top End to Tasmania protect Australia's most vulnerable wildlife.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt will make the $5 million Threatened Species Recovery Fund promise as part of World Environment Day on Sunday.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt.

The fund would provide seed money and community grants for local projects seeking to protect endangered animals as diverse as the Golden Bandicoot, the Mahogany Glider and the Helmeted Honeyeater bird.

"Across Australian local communities, environment groups and 'friends of' groups are working tirelessly to protect our vulnerable species," Mr Hunt said. "We want to support their efforts."
"In those parts of the world renting is not plan B, it is a very attractive place to be. That's obviously not the case here."

"We have a real imbalance between the rights of landlords and tenants in Australia compared to some other countries, particularly in Europe," she says.

It is fuelling calls for renters' rights to be overhauled to reflect that for a growing number of people it is not a transitory stage, but permanent.

Germany is sometimes held up as an ideal for renters, at the other end of the spectrum to Australia. Multi-year leases are common, rent increases are capped and new owners must honour existing agreements. Tenants are allowed to make alternations to the property, such as painting or hanging pictures, and to own pets.

In Australia, leases are mostly for a year, sometimes less, and pets are allowed only at the landlord's discretion. RSPCA Victoria says it accepted 700 animals last financial year  nearly two a day  from people who said they had to give them up because their landlords would not allow them.

One of those people was Naoimie Beveridge, who gave up Boo, an 11-year-old Maltese shih tzu, and Ollie, a purebred Burmese cat, when she moved into a larger place in Melbourne's outer-east with enough room for her three children. She had been through this before, having lost a Rhodesian ridgeback called Thai a decade earlier due to a similar rental agreement. Boo and Ollie found new homes, but she says Thai was put down.

The Victorian government is receiving submissions outlining stories such as Ms Beveridge's as it fulfils a 2014 election promise to review the state's Residential Tenancy Act. It will consider changes after receiving recommendations from Consumer Affairs Victoria. NSW is also looking at its residential tenancy laws, with a report due to be tabled in Parliament this month.

The reviews have heard renting horror stories that clearly break the law  moving into a house and finding a wall is missing exposing the driveway, landlords letting themselves in at 2am  but also everyday of people being forced to move with little notice or explanation. One Sydney family with three children told Fairfax Media they had moved 14 times in 11 years as houses they rented were repeatedly sold while they were in them. Others spoke of facing increases of up to 20 per cent without notice.
A 59-year-old man has died after crashing his car into the back of another vehicle in Sydney's east.

Police say the man was driving his Mercedes along New South Road in Double Bay at 10.15pm on Saturday when the accident happened.

The four occupants of a BMW, a 24-year-old male driver and three women aged 25, 62 and 57, were all trapped in the vehicle for some time.

They were taken to hospital with possible spinal injuries.

The driver of the Mercedes was taken to St Vincent's Hospital but died a short time later.
Rough and tumble play can improve learning and behaviour in young children, countering misconceptions that it can lead to violence in adult life, an early childhood academic says.

University of Sunshine Coast associate lecturer in early childhood education Dr Jennifer Hart, who will be leading two seminars in Queensland next week to inform educators about positive rough play, said it often happened within a group of children and was distinctly different to serious violence.

Superhero play and rough and tumble play can offer children opportunities that support self-regulation, motor skills and learning. Credit:Glen McCurtayne

"It is an imitation of true aggressions or true violence, it is fun for the players, it is pretending, it lacks the characteristics of serious aggression," she said.

"Although it appears to be the same there are distinct differences. One of the biggest ones is intent.
The owner of a canoe spotted in floodwaters on the Gold Coast hinterland on Saturday afternoon has been found safe and well.

After a public appeal, police were contacted with details of the owner, who was then contacted by police.

Police want to track down the owner of this canoe, seen in floodwater near Guanaba in the Gold Coast hinterland. Credit:Queensland Police Service

EARLIER: Police are concerned somebody could be missing after a canoe was seen being washed down the Coomera River near Guanaba in the Gold Coast Hinterland.

The canoe, described as an old single-person canoe with a green bottom, white top and pointed ends, was observed near the Birds Rd causeway about 2pm as heavy rain hammered south-east Queensland.
Two people have died and five have been injured on Queensland roads, and cars have been swept away by floodwaters as wild weather lashed the state.

Investigations are under way into whether the conditions contributed to a horror smash near Ipswich, west of Brisbane, that claimed the lives of a man and woman whose van collided with a semi-trailer on the Warrego Highway around 8am.

"It just brings home to all of us the need to make sure we drive to the conditions, and that any fatality on our roads is an absolute tragedy," Queensland Police Service (QPS) Acting Assistant Commissioner Peter Fleming said.

He pleaded with drivers to take caution even though the worst was over.
The 2016 Brisbane Times City2South presented by Westpac raised more money for charity than last year's event, largely thanks to one outstanding runner's campaign inspired by the passing of her partner.

Erica Williams raised just over $23,000 for the Brain Foundation after her partner, Andrew, died in January from a brain tumour diagnosed in July 2015.

"We had done a lot of training together and we used to do the Noosa Triathlon all of the time so I thought I would run in memory of him and try to raise some funds for research," said Ms Williams.

"People were just amazing, I sent emails out to friends who had been in touch during Andrew's illness and they were really happy to help and wanted to make a difference."
A teen has been charged with armed robbery and stalking following a string of alleged targeted attacks on two boys in the South Brisbane area.

The first incident occurred at a shopping centre on Kessels Road at Mount Gravatt on June 2 about 4pm when it will be alleged the man, aged 17, produced a replica firearm and demanded cash from a boy at a bus stop.

A teen has been charged with armed robbery and stalking following a string of alleged targeted attacks on two boys in the South Brisbane area. Credit:Tom Threadingham

It is alleged the boy complied and the man fled the scene with a sum of cash.

The second incident occurred near a high-school in Sunnybank on June 3 around 2.30pm where it will be alleged the same man approached another boy, who fled into the school grounds.
"I started with The Big Issue close to the beginning, in 1996. I was in England for about 20 years, then I came back home and obviously had no work. My relationship with my partner had broken down. I tried it because I wasn't qualified at much else. Because I'd had kids, the thought of going to TAFE or something like that was too lengthy. I seemed to have a knack for selling. I'm a people person, which I didn't realise at the time.

As The Big Issue celebrates 20 years of changing lives, we ask vendors what it's like pulling on the hi-vis vest and spruiking the magazine. Pictures by Justin McManus .

"Times were tough then. Housing wasn't easy, obviously, but then a commission flat did turn up. Things quickly picked themselves up, within a matter of weeks of starting with The Big Issue. I got out there  there were times when I wasn't feeling well at all, but you've just got to do what you've got to do at the time. You can pull yourself out of a rut if you try very, very hard. You've just got to get on with it; you've got to make the money somehow.

"I first started selling in Flinders Lane, and I was there for about five or six years. I was so popular, people used to call me their icon. It was some of the best times of my life; I met some great people there. It was a really nice community.

"Now I'm at Prahran Market, just out the front. It's usually once a week on a Saturday. The people have gotten to know me and I've gotten to know them. I've gotten to see children in pushchairs grow up, who still come by and give me the nod. It's more than just a job; it's a family there too.

"It's the longest job I've ever had in my life, and that says a lot. I've got a few vendors onto selling The Big Issue as well, but myself, I've outlasted most. You can still get your days when it's quite quiet, but a smile, that makes a big difference. When other people see how happy you are, they just come up to you automatically. It's like a chain reaction sometimes.

"I've been selling at Prahran Market every Saturday for so long, it's like a second home to me."
A Perth man has taken the humble kebab, usually reserved for those in need of a late snack after a night out, and transformed it into a mouth-watering dessert.

Happy Larry's was opened by Irish-born, Ned Russell in May - making it the first dessert kebab bar to launch in Perth.

Rather than a lamb rotisserie greeting you after you've made your way towards the trusted flashing kebab sign at 4am, Happy Larry's is a far more day-time friendly venue.

The bar, located in the Carillon City food court in Perth's CBD, is dream for anyone with a sweet tooth with two-10 kilogram rotating milk and white chocolate blocks.
Thessaloniki, Greece: Greek authorities have confiscated a huge shipment of painkillers in the country's biggest port after they were informed the drugs were destined for Islamic State group fighters.

The financial crimes squad said Friday that more than 26 million pills were found in a container registered as containing linen goods. It said Greek authorities received assistance from the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

Painkiller tablets. Credit:Louie Douvis

An official involved in the operation said the drugs were shipped from India to Piraeus in Greece, and had been due to be transported in another freighter to Libya.

He said Greece received information from foreign services that the Libyan company due to receive them was a conduit for the Islamic State group, which would either use the drugs for its fighters or sell them for a profit.
Chennai, India: Indian authorities have intercepted a truck in Tiruvallur near Chennai where they found 33 Sri Lankan refugees missing from four government-run camps. The refugees, including six women and six children, were planning to take a boat to Australia, police said.

It prompted refugee activists to call on the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu to ease restrictions on Sri Lankan refugees living in guarded camps.

An ethnic Sinhalese Sri Lankan man eats his lunch during a train ride. For the hundreds of thousands of minority ethnic Tamils, the Sri Lankan government's repeated promises of post-war reconciliation ring false. Credit:AP

Nadu

Campaigners said the case showed how desperate Sri Lankan refugees were to flee India where they have been confined to closed camps for years and have no right to work.
The driver caught up in the botched 60 Minutes plot to kidnap two children off a Beirut street has accused The Nine Network of abandoning him in jail, according to reports.

Khaled Barbour, a taxi driver who was driving Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner and men believed to include Craig Michael from Child Abduction Rescue International and Romanian operative Scott Bogdan at the time of the snatching, has spent almost two months languishing in jail in the Lebanese city of Tripoli, News Limited reports.

The Beirut courthouse compound that held the nine initial suspects involved in the abduction. Credit:AP

Mr Barbour maintains he is innocent and didn't know about the plot to kidnap Lahela, 5, and Noah, 3.

Speaking from the Ebbe jail in Tripoli, he said he had been offered $250 to drive some "tourists" around.
Latest News Westpac joins Home Guarantee Scheme Help for home buyers starts mid-2023

CBA-owned stockbroker acknowledges court decision relating to systemic compliance failures A total remediation of $6.5 million has been paid to affected customers

The effectiveness of the APRA's investor lending intervention has been further illustrated by the release of lending figures by the watchdog for the March 2016 quarter.According to analysis of the APRA figures by CoreLogic RP Data, at the end of March there was $906.7b worth of mortgages outstanding to owner occupiers and $501.3b outstanding to investors, with total lending up 8.7% compared to March 2015.The average outstanding mortgage balance was recorded at $251,900 at the end of March 2016, having increased by 4.8% year-on-year.While total lending is up by a relatively significant mark over the year, investor lending has risen by just 0.1% in the 12 months to March 2016 while owner occupier lending has jumped 14% over the same period.At the end of March the value of investor outstanding investor loans was 3.2% below the peak levels reached in June 2015 and investors accounted for 35.6% of outstanding loans, down from the peak 39% also recorded in June 2015.Over the March 2016 quarter alone, there was $81.7 worth of new mortgages written, which is the lowest quarterly total since the three months to March 2014.Of that, $25.7b was issued to investors which is 25.5% lower than the value of new investor lending in the March 2015 quarter and is the quarterly value of new investor lending in three years.New lending to owner occupiers was 16.1% higher in the March 2016 quarter compared to the March 2015 quarter.CoreLogic research analyst Cameron Kusher said the figures show investor demand for finance has moderated, however that could change now that lenders are meeting APRA requirements.The data indicates that there has been a significant pull-back in new lending to investors over recent quarters, Kusher said.The data also indicates that investor credit growth now sits significantly below the APRA imposed 10% pa speed limit. This could lead to a rebound in lending to investors over the coming quarters, he said.While lending to investors may bounce back, Kusher said the actions taken by lenders in response to APRAs desire to rein in investor lending have had some benefit, with higher risk lending practices seemingly on the decline.Interest-only lending which APRA and the Reserve bank have previously sounded warnings about is also starting to fall and is now at its lowest level since March 2013. Higher LVR lending which is associated with smaller deposits are also trending lower which indicates less risky lending, he said.The added benefit surrounding lower LVRs is that if a borrower has a deposit of more than 20% of the value of the property they can typically avoid lenders mortgage insurance (LMI).These emerging trends can only be positives for the stability and security of the Australian mortgage lending market.According to the APRA figures, the value of new lending for loans with LVRs above 90% fell 22.8% over the year to March 2016 and is at its lowest level since the March 2011 quarter.Lending for LVRs above 80% represented 22.4% of all new lending in March 2016 which was its lowest proportion on record.In the March 2016 quarter 34.9% of new lending was on an interest only basis, however value of new interest-only lending was the lowest since the March 2013 quarter.Mortgages with offset facilities account for a record-high 43% of all outstanding mortgages at the end of March and the value of these mortgages has increased 20.4% year-on-year.
New Adjacent Fest to take on Bamboozle next May in Atlantic City

music
March 4, 1976. The frantic cries of "Brakes, brakes, brakes" were like a silent cacophony that somehow eluded Commander Peter Debrass' ears. As he revved up the engines of his Sea Hawk and prepared to take off from INS Vikrant, somewhere in the Arabian Sea around noon, all Debrass heard was a clattering sound that he could not distinguish.
Askme Fin plans to expand its service portfolio. Apart from lending, the company wants to offer financial services like asset management and insurance to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Those who were amused by the flying car that knocked at the window of Harry Potter in J K Rowling's famous fantasy series, can now look forward to a real flying car knocking at their door in the future. The Netherlands-based PAL-V Europe NV has bagged a patent in India for the Personal Land and Air Vehicle (PAL-V), a flying car that can also run on roads.
Future Consumer Enterprise Limited (FCEL) is planning to raise around Rs 134 crore from the World Banks investment arm to help drive the food processing companys Rs 400 crore investment plan in various parts of the country and in neighbouring Sri Lanka.
(JLR) is suing Chinese automaker Jiangling Motor for allegedly copying the British firm's Range Rover Evoque, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said  a rare move by a foreign automaker to fight copycats in the world's biggest autos market.

A spokesman for JLR, owned by India's Tata Motors, said in brief emailed comments to Reuters that a court in Beijing's eastern Chaoyang district "served Jiangling with newly filed actions surrounding copyright and unfair competition." He declined to elaborate.

The suit relates to Jiangling's Landwind X7 sport utility vehicle (SUV) copying the design of the Evoque, JLR's first China-made model that went on sale last year, said the person with knowledge of the legal proceedings, who is not authorised to talk to the media and didn't want to be named.

A spokesman for Landwind declined to comment.

Despite widespread and often blatant copying, global automakers generally don't take legal action in China as they feel the odds of winning against local firms are low. Also, a lawsuit can be bad for branding if the Chinese public think a foreign company is bullying domestic competitors.

If JLR wins its case, it could prompt other automakers to also take legal action, said Chen Jihong, a Beijing-based lawyer at Zhong Lun Law Firm, speeding up a shift to stronger enforcement of intellectual property rights.

Close Resemblance

Landwind unveiled a new version of its X7 SUV in November 2014, drawing criticism for its striking likeness to the Evoque, an imported version of which was already on sale in China.

The two SUVs have a similar shape, with the roof and windows tapering from front to back, and near identical tail lights and character lines on the side panelling. The X7's front grille is slightly more rounded than the hard edges of the Evoque.

The slight differences between the two cars can be virtually eliminated using widely available kits that allow a Range Rover grille, logo and Land Rover badges to be put on an X7. Kits on Alibaba's Taobao shopping website cost around 128 yuan ($19.43).

The X7 costs around a third of the price of an Evoque, and is some way behind in technology and performance, said Yale Zhang, managing director of Automotive Foresight.

The JLR spokesman said that Jiangling has been barred by injunction from selling the X7 in Brazil, where it recently appointed an importer.

Separately, the source with knowledge of the newly filed suit said that the two automakers are also discussing what Landwind can and can't do in any X7 design update.

JLR sales fell by a fifth in China in January-March of last year  when it launched its China-made Evoque  after rising 36% in the same 2014 period. In the same period this year, JLR's China sales rose 19%.

A lawsuit could be a long and gruelling process.

It took Honda Motor, for example, 12 years to win a case in China against a little-known local automaker  for copying its best-selling CR-V SUV  according to a report by the official Xinhua agency, confirmed by a Honda spokesman.

Even then, the Japanese firm was awarded only 16 million yuan ($2.43 million) in compensation. It had sought 300 million yuan.
America's biggest mid-range department store, Macy's, has trained its guns on India. The store has been serving India through its website for the past two years. According to Macy's, it saw 29 per cent increase in walk-in Indian customers at its stores in the US, leading to 19 per cent growth in sales. India has moved up from being the 28th market in terms of in-store sales to 22nd in a short span of time. That's not all. India is now among the top three focus markets for Macy's, thanks to rising online sales.
Global pharma major Mylan Inc and Biocon have confirmed the efficacy and safety of MYL-1401O, a proposed biosimilar Trastuzumab co-developed by the firms, in comparison to Roches branded Herceptin used for treatment of cancer.

The companies will present data from a clinical study during the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting being held in Chicago from June 3-7, Biocon said.

As one of the first companies in the industry to successfully complete a confirmatory efficacy and safety study comparing a proposed biosimilar to a branded cancer drug, this is a significant milestone for Mylans biosimilar programme, Mylan president Rajiv Malik said.

There is an urgent, unmet need for more affordable versions of biologic products and through our collaboration with Biocon we are well-positioned to be at the forefront to help deliver these complex products to patients around the world, he added.

Trastuzumab is indicated for treatment of a type of breast cancer, Biocon said.

The positive outcomes of the global Phase III clinical study with our proposed biosimilar Trastuzumab for HER2-positive breast cancer patients are a significant milestone in our joint biosimilars development programme with Mylan, Biocon MD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said. The trial will enable regulatory filings of the product in the developed markets, she added.

Mylan and Biocon are exclusive partners on a broad portfolio of biosimilar and insulin products.

The proposed biosimilar trastuzumab is one of the six biologic products co-developed by Mylan and Biocon for the global marketplace, the company said.

In April this year, the Delhi High Court had prevented Biocon from calling its breast cancer medicine trastuzumab as a biosimilar of Roche's Herceptin but was allowed to market and advertise their products under the name CANMAb or Bmab-200 or Hertraz. Herceptin, a breast cancer treatment drug, is registered brand of Swiss pharma major Roche.
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Ahead of the proposed Jat quota agitation from tomorrow, security arrangements in Haryana have been tightened with the deployment of 4,800 paramilitary personnel and the administration is on high alert.

"Besides adequate deployment of police personnel, as many as 48 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed at various places in the state keeping in view the stir call from tomorrow. We have asked for 15 more companies from the Centre," Haryana Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Ram Niwas said today.

He said, "we are not taking any chance," even though only one group was going ahead with the dharna.

He also said that police and paramilitary forces have been deployed to guard the Western Yamuna Canal in Sonipat district.

Protesters had disrupted water supply to the capital by damaging the Carrier-Lined Channel (CLC) of Munak Canal during the earlier Jat agitation in February.

The administration has specified one spot in each district where people can peacefully hold dharna, officials said.

However, officials said they were wary of the fact that protesters may attempt to block highways and rail tracks, like in February, and therefore they have put maximum security to prevent a repeat of the situation.

Haryana Police has cancelled leave of all personnel except in emergency cases till further orders.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPc have already been imposed in seven sensitive districts of Haryana barring gathering of five or more persons and paramilitary forces have been conducting flag marches during the past few days.

Police are keeping a close watch on anyone trying to spread rumours or make inflammatory statements through social media.

"Adequate security measures have been taken. We are fully prepared to deal with the situation," Additional Director General of Police Mohammad Akil said.

"The police stations are stocked adequately equipped to dead with any kind of protest," he said.

Meanwhile, Nafe Singh Nain, President of Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, said they will not participate in the protest slated for June 5.

He said, "The government has assured the community of providing reservation and compensation to the families of those killed in the February stir."



"We trust the government and their is no need for agitation now and if someone still protest, we are not with them," the Jat leader said.
Intensifying attack on the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh over the Mathura violence, BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday demanded resignation of Cabinet minister and the chief minister's uncle Shivpal Yadav, holding him responsible for the incident.

"If even a little bit of self-respect is left in netaji (SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav), he should get the resignation of minister Shivpal Yadav immediately," Shah said at a booth in-charge meet of Kanpur and Bundelkhand regions.

"Akhilesh Yadav ji, if you have to maintain relation of chacha-bhatija, you should tell the public that you have no relation with them," he said.

His attack came against the backdrop of BJP state chief Keshav Prasad Maurya alleging that the attackers were "goons of PWD minister Shivpal Singh Yadav".

Shivpal has, however, denied the allegation and said police would not spare alleged key accused Ram Vriksh Yadav.

He said there should be no politics over the incident. "Politics should not be done over the dead," he said.

Virtually blowing the bugle for the 2017 state Assembly elections, Shah said law-and-order situation in Uttar Pradesh has been reduced to mockery.

"An SP is killed in broad day light, an SHO is killed, more than 200 people open fire on the police with rifles and explosives but minister sitting in secretariat in Lucknow give patronage to them and does not allow the police to retaliate," he said.

Shah also said that Mathura incident has defamed Uttar Pradesh across the country.

At least 24 people, including two police officers, died in Thursday's clashes between police and encroachers at Jawahar Bagh in Mathura.

BJP has already demanded a CBI inquiry in the matter.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Saturday demanded a Supreme Court monitored inquiry into the in which 24 people were killed.

"This incident clearly shows a very serious lapse on the part of the central and state intelligence. It is equally perplexing that this police action was a consequence of a directive by the judiciary and not on the basis of any information of our security apparatus," the CPI-M politburo said in a statement.

"The politburo of the CPI-M demands that a high-powered judicial inquiry must be constituted to identify and punish the guilty. It would be preferable if a sitting judge of the Supreme Court be entrusted with the task with a defined time frame," the statement added.

The party said that it also needs to be probed whether the "general atmosphere of intolerance" being spread in the country under the patronage of the BJP-led central government ignored and overlooked the growth of such "armed lumpen anarchy that was buttressed" by the state government.
Former chief minister Omar Abdullah today said the frequency with which security forces personnel were getting killed in militant attacks in the state was both "tragic and worrying".

"The regularity with which we have to tweet condolences for martyred security force personnel in J&K these days is both tragic & worrying," Omar wrote on Twitter.

Omar, who is the working president of the Opposition Conference, said that the government should be alarmed by the fact that two attacks have taken place along the highway in south Kashmir since yesterday.

"The realisation that both these attacks took place on the major highways of South Kashmir should have the powers that be sitting up in alarm," he said on Twitter.

"(Three) 3 BSF (Border Security Force) personnel yesterday and (two) 2 J&K police persons today. Once again my heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased," he added.

Two police personnel were today killed by militants in poll-bound Anantnag from where Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is contesting.

The attack comes less than 24 hours after an ambush by militants of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen on a BSF convoy, in neighbouring Goriwan area at Bijbehara, killed three BSF personnel.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is facing all-round criticism over the killings of senior police officials in Mathura violence, on Saturday, said his government stands by the families of the slain officers in this time of adversity.

"We stand by the families, we will provide the families all possible assistance. This was a decision taken by our government that if a police, paramilitary, military personnel dies on duty, the government would be giving Rs 20 lakh to the family," Akhilesh told the media here.

"Even if we need to do more, then we will do it; be it the job for any assistance, the government is with them. I feel the pain of these families. It has been a huge loss to them. We are giving Rs 20 lakhs and even after that they want the job or any other thing, we are ready to do that." he added.

Akhilesh, who has been facing rants from the opposition for failure of law and order in the state, said slain Superintendent of Police Mukul Dwivedi, hailed from his own area.

"I have met his family members many times, and I know them very well. The family of the SHO, who has been martyred, has a warm relationship with our people," he added.

Expressing grief over the violence in Mathura, the chief minister said it is very unfortunate that people lost their lives.

"The police while going for recce should have taken a bit more precaution, but again it is a matter of probe," he added.

Divulging the details of the Jawahar Bagh encroachment, Akhilesh said the land had to be evacuated after the High Court's order. "It was the land of Horticulture Department," he said.

"Moreover, there were women and children inside. There had to cautious efforts, so that no harm was caused to them," he added.

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also said there were several rounds of discussions to persuade people to evacuate the government land.

"We also cut the power and water supplies, but once police team went for recce, this attack took place. However, the picture will be clearer once the inquiry is over," he added.

Attacking the opposition for attempting to gain political mileage over the episode, Akhilesh said, "There shouldn't be any politics on it."

"If you want to gain mileage, there are other issues but cashing on other's pain is not good for democracy," he added.
Telangana government has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with California state of the US for cooperation in a number of sectors, including business innovation, alternative energy and education.

"This MoU will open new avenues for exchange of innovative ideas between startups in Telangana and Silicon Valley. I am confident that startups in both geographies would benefit immensely from this MoU," Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao said in a statement.

The southern Indian state and the California Governor's office have pledged to work together in alternative energy, environmental technology, health, agriculture, business innovation, technology-based industries, research and development, among others, for which a delegation led by Rao signed the MoU.

Panorea Avdis, director, California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) said India and California have strong economic ties that make our respective regions natural partners.

"The agreement with the Telangana government provides a framework for collaboration that will help innovative Indian companies invest in California and help innovative companies in our state access the Indian market," Avdis said.

"The MoU aims to connect the respective innovation programmes and help foster economic cooperation and development, facilitate joint industrial research and development through their respective innovation ecosystems, and enhance business relationships and educational opportunities in areas such as renewable energy, cleantech, smart cities, water conservation, biotech and agri tech," an official release said.

"Through this agreement, the companies that participate in the Telangana T-Hub will have access to resources and contacts within the GO-Biz Innovation Hub (I-Hubs) network, which stretches from Redding to San Diego (in USA) and includes 15 distinct I-Hubs, making it the largest state-sponsored innovation network in the US," the release said.

Likewise, this agreement opens opportunities for California companies to connect with the partners and companies within T-Hub network, it added.
Lauding Indian-American scientists and IT professionals working in the US, Minister has sought their contribution to India's growth.

"We want your positive suggestions, your constructive criticism, your knowledge and experience and your "Vivek" (wisdom) to contribute to India's growth," he said in his address to a group of Indian-American professionals at a reception hosted by the Global Indian Technology Professionals Organisation in the Silicon Valley on Thursday.

Vardhan, who was in the Silicon Valley to attend the ministerial meeting on energy, emphasised that the Indian government is dedicated to bringing the benefits of science to the people of India.

Sharing his vision of Digital India and the current long- term as well as short-term initiatives and achievements, the minister mentioned initiatives such as India's Mars Orbiter mission, re-usable Space Shuttle, support for the Thirty Meter Telescope, National Monsoon forecasting, Desalination, Earthquake Prediction, Genome Sequencing, vaccine research for Dengue and many others.

"I would like to congratulate you on being so well organised globally. Every time I visit the USA, my respect for all of you who live here grows because of your ability to come together for India's cause," Vardhan said in the presence of Vivek Agarwal, a senior bureaucrat from Madhya Pradesh.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP was on Saturday stopped from entering the violence-hit Jawahar Bagh area of Mathura district by police, citing security reasons and the ongoing combing operation.

Police said combing operations are underway in the area due to which entry of civilians is prohibited.

"This is not a big issue and there was no ulterior motive to bar the MP from entering the area. Combing operations are underway and the area is being examined by police teams and experts.

"The place has still not been declared safe. It would be difficult for us to answer if any further causalty takes place," police said.

In town to meet the victims of the violence, the Mathura MP, who had faced flak for uploading pictures of her film shoot as violence erupted in her constituency, met the injured policemen at the hospital.

She also condoled the death of Mukul Dwivedi, superintendent of police and Santosh Yadav, station house officer, Farah.

"I am grieved at the loss of two diligent and arduous police officers, the BJP MP said.

She slammed the District Administration for lapses and said there would not have been so much loss if the situation was handled properly.

The Mathura MP had gone to take stock of situation at Jawahar Bagh area where massive clashes claimed 24 lives, including that of an SP and SHO. She was also scheduled to take part in a 'dharna' at the Collectorate, called by BJP Secretary Shrikant Sharma.

Sharma was sent by Party President Amit Shah to assess the situation on Friday after tension escalated during an anti-encroachment drive on the orders of Allahabad High Court.

The temple town of Mathura was on edge after massive violence claimed several lives as police clashed with about 3,000 members of a little-known sect whose leaders fled while 368 people were arrested.
Only one in every 300 kidney patients in India receives a donated organ. This huge gap in demand and supply of organs has led to the creation of an illegal kidney transplant industry worth Rs 250 crore a year. No wonder, despite a stringent law with up to 10 years imprisonment, some doctors and middlemen are running clandestine operations across the country.
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter today said he along with his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar will "identify new ways" to cooperate ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit here next week.

"Minister Parrikar and I will identify new ways to cooperate in advance of Prime Minister Modi's visit to Washington next week," Carter told the annual Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore today wherein he reiterated India's eminent role in Obama's Asia Pacific rebalance.

Pentagon said yesterday that Carter will accompany Modi when the latter visits the Arlington Cemetery to lay wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown. He is also scheduled to meet Modi during his three-day stay in the US.

India US military relationship is as close as it has ever been, he said.

"Through our strategic handshake, with the United States reaching west in its rebalance and India reaching east in Prime Minister Modi's Act East policy  the two nations are exercising together by air, land, and sea," Carter said.

"And there's also a technological handshake  we're moving towards deeper and more diverse defence co-development and co-production, including on aircraft carrier design and construction," he added.

Carter said while peace in the Asia Pacific region has led to the miraculous growth of countries like China and India, but tension of late persists in the region.

"Tensions in the South China Sea, North Korea's continued nuclear and missile provocations and the dangers of violent extremism felt worldwide, pose challenges to the region's stability and prosperity," he said.

"If we continue to cooperate on security we would one day be discussing a US-China-India multilateral maritime exercise, a Japan and Republic of Korea joint disaster response in the South China Sea and an ASEAN-wide security network," Carter said.

Over the last year, progress has been made towards that vision. "China and India will both participate once again in the US-hosted RIMPAC naval exercise this summer. Japan and the Republic of Korea are engaging with each other in new ways," he said.

In addition to the ASEAN centric security network, which is developing in Southeast Asia, nations across the entire Asia-Pacific are increasingly working together and networking security together, Carter added.

He said two trilateral relationships  US-Japan-Australia and US-Japan-India, are growing thanks to the military exercises among these countries.

"We've agreed to hold and begun planning on additional US-Japan-Australia trilateral exercises," he said.

The secretary said through joint activities like this year's MALABAR Exercise, the trilateral relationship is starting to provide real, practical security cooperation that spans across the region from Indian Ocean to the western Pacific.

There are also trilateral cooperation around other initiatives. For example, the United States and Thailand included Laos in a successful bilateral program, and now our three nations are training together on explosive ordnance disposal.

Japan and Vietnam are collaborating on new joint maritime exercises. Japan is also working to build the capacity of the Philippine maritime forces. "And India is increasing its training with Vietnam's military and coast guard on their common platforms," Carter said.

"The Japan-Australia-India trilateral meeting last June was a welcome development and addition to the region's security network," he said adding Indonesia has proposed trilateral joint maritime patrols with Malaysia and the Philippines, including counter-piracy patrols in the Sulu Sea.

"The United States welcomes and encourages these burgeoning partnerships among like-minded partners who share our vision of a principled regional order," said the US defense secretary.
The encroachers at Jawahar Bagh, the scene of the deadly violence here, had set up their own system of administration by establishing "courts and jail barracks" and meted out torture and punishment to inmates for violating their rules as they refused to recognise the Constitution and laws of the country.

"They established a township and food items were provided there. They also started running a government. They started giving punishment to people and torturing them. They set up courts, jail barracks and also set up 'pravachan' centres and takhts," IG Agra Zone, Durga Charan Mishra said.

However, Commissioner Agra Division Pradeep Bhatnagar said that three or four groups of armed musclemen had been set up, which they termed as 'Battalion', but said it could not be dubbed as an army.

The IG said, "When a civilian or official went inside they would attack them. They did not allow the followers to step outside under any condition."

"They would be given written permits for going outside and they expected that the followers were only allowed outside if someone from outside came in. They would only be allowed to leave for 1-2 days and would be let inside quietly," he added.

Police had clashed with about 3,000 followers of obscure sect Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, which had encroached on 260 acres government land. Twenty-four people, including an SP and SHO, were killed in the violence which took place when the police went to evict the sect from the land.

On a question if there were people coming there from Naxal areas, the IG said, "Yes, there were people from Chhattisgarh there."

"Their aim was to take people towards religious extremism or religious terrorism, whatever you may call it. They were planning to start their own currency. They did not want to follow the Constitution or law of the country. They said they would not talk to officials and did not recognise their authority," he said.

District Magistrate Rajesh Kumar said that the plan for the eviction of encroachers from Jawahar Bagh was advanced after they attacked a recce party lead by SP city Mukul Dwivedi.

The sect, which claimed to be followers of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, had been making strange demands like removal of the President and the prime minister and discontinuation of the Indian currency.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday inaugurated a landmark dam built by India in Herat province. The Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, on river Chist-e-Sharif in western Herat, will irrigate 75,000-hectare land and generate 42-Mw power.
Prime Minister was conferred with Afghanistan's highest civilian honour, the Amir Amanullah Khan Award, today.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani conferred the award on Modi after the two leaders jointly inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, that was rebuilt with India's aid.

"A true brotherhood honoured. PM is awarded with the Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistan's highest civilian honour," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

A true brotherhood is honoured. PM is awarded the Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistan's highest civilian honour pic.twitter.com/DdvASFSF62  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 4, 2016

Modi arrived here earlier on Saturday on the first leg of his five-nation tour.

He will leave for Qatar later in the day on the second leg of his tour.
With an aim to bolster ties, Prime Minister today embarked on a five-nation visit to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico. The focus of which will be to enhance India's engagement in areas of trade, energy and security, besides pushing for its membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Modi is likely to seek the support of Switzerland and Mexico for India's membership to the 48-member NSG as both these countries are key members of the elite group. The issue is likely to figure during Modi's meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington.

India had formally applied for membership to the NSG on May 12.

"From our immediate neighbourhood to our trans-Atlantic partners. PM @narendramodi emplanes for a 5 nation tour," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted along with a photograph of Modi leaving for the five-day trip.

During his talks with the leadership of Switzerland, the prime minister is also likely to raise the issue of black money stashed by Indians in Swiss banks.

The prime minister's first destination is Afghanistan, where he will inaugurate the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, in Herat province today, along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Both the leaders will also hold talks on a range of issues, including the current situation in Afghanistan.

From Afghanistan, Modi will travel to energy-rich Qatar tomorrow itself and from there he will leave for a two-day visit to Switzerland on Sunday.

Asked, at a press briefing on the prime minister's visit, whether the issue of black money will be raised by Modi during his talks with Swiss leaders, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had said yesterday that both the countries are in touch on the issue.

"We are in touch with the Swiss government under the DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement) mandate and we have had some discussions on this and we have a few planned in the near future. We have received support from the Swiss authorities on exchange of information on tax data between the two countries," he said, adding, "We do hope to engage as early as possible in the automatic exchange of information with Switzerland and this has been conveyed to Swiss tax authorities."

On India's bid for NSG membership, Jaishankar said that India has been eyeing membership of the premier group for many, many years and that it has made "lot of progress" on that.
Assam Chief Minister has asked the Border Security Force (BSF) to ensure sealing of the Indo-Bangladesh border on a war footing.

Chairing a high level meeting with the top brass of the BSF led by its Director General KK Sharma on Friday, Sonowal asked the border sentinels to ensure erection of fencing expeditiously for a safe and fool-proof border with the neighbouring country.

According to a release issued by the Chief Minister's Office on Saturday, Sonowal asked BSF to make use of 'smart technological solutions' like laser walls and surveillance gadgets to keep security at the frontiers at all times.

The Chief Minister also asked the BSF to remove all challenges coming in the way of ensuring a secured border at the earliest.

Erection of fencing along the border including 'riverine' areas has to be dealt with resolutely "if we want to make our borders safe," he added.

Sonowal further said, "It is a part of our pledge that we will completely seal international border with Bangladesh in order to keep infiltration and smuggling from across the border at bay."



Referring to BSF's observation that 42 kilometres stretch in Dhubri sector is challenging, he assured all help from the state government to seal the border and keep the state free from infiltration.
The Ministry of is in talks with the World Bank for setting up a Railway Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) with a corpus of around $30 billion where the bank would act as the anchor investor. The fund will be utilised for implementing rail-based projects.
Union Textiles Minister inaugurates Apparel and Garment Making Centre in Mizoram Mizoram has all the potential to change the face of the textiles sector in NER: Union Textiles Minister Apparel Centres reflect the Union Governments commitment to create new opportunities for youth under Make In India: Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar Growth of garment industry will also provide fillip to traditional sectors: Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar I am happy to dedicate the Apparel & Garment Making center to the people of Mizoram. The Center has been set up to give an opportunity to local entrepreneurs to convert their ideas and designs into flourishing businesses. The Apparel and Garment Making centers are a reflection of the commitment of the Government to create new opportunities for the youth under Make in India scheme of the Government of India. The Centre will not only provide new avenues to the local entrepreneurs but also create additional employment opportunities for the local people. - - Union Textiles Minister Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, at the inauguration of the Apparel and Garment Making Centre in Mizoram, at Industrial Growth Centre, Luangmual, Aizawl, on 4th June, 2016. While dedicating the Apparel and Garment Making Centre to the people of Mizoram, the Honble Minister expressed hope that the Apparel Centre would promote entrepreneurship in the garment industry in Mizoram and open new avenues of employment for the local people. Congratulating the young entrepreneurs who would be running the facility, the Minister assured all possible support to them in making the units commercially viable and self-sustainable, and in setting up the requisite ecosystem for apparel manufacturing in the region. He said that they may also dovetail with other schemes of Government of India, in order to avail financial assistance to start the business. Apparel Centers are the first organized effort to bring modern ready-made garment industry in North East. Being an unconventional project and the first of its kind experiment in NER the apprehensions are genuine. But I am confident that the fashion savvy state like Mizoram has all the potential to change the face of the textile sector in the region if they are supported with enabling policies and an environment conducive for the growth of the industry. The growth of garment industry in Mizoram will also provide a fillip to the traditional sectors like handlooms, handicrafts and silk etc. and help them to convert the traditional designs into modern garments. - Union Textiles Minister Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, on the occasion. Mizoram has been sanctioned six projects across sericulture, handlooms and apparel & garmenting with a total project cost of Rs. 114.82 cr, with Government of Indias share being Rs. 102.90 cr. To maximize the benefits under the projects it is important to achieve convergence across all the projects so that an ecosystem of integrated value chain with requisite backward and forward linkages is created. The Minister said that the Union Government is committed for the development of NER states, while preserving the unique cultural identity and rich heritage of each of the states. He said that the Governments development model is Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas; he sought the peoples cooperation in realizing this vision. The Minister thanked the Government of Mizoram for its active support and cooperation without which the mission would not have been possible.

He appreciated the work of NBCC as well in constructing the Centre. He expressed hope that the remaining work as pointed out by the State Government will also be completed soon.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development, in association with Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting is organizing the first ever All India Women Journalists Workshop" on 7th June, 2016 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The Conference will bring together 250 journalists from all parts of the country together on a single platform. The women journalists represent print, electronic and online media across the country including small and regional media organizations. .

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This Conference will be a unique gathering of women journalists, who specialize in social sector reporting, coming together to understand, discuss and deliberate on issues concerning women and children.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development will be showcasing the achievements during the last two years and also obtain a feedback on a number of issues concerning women and children especially on the recently released Draft National Policy for Women, Draft Anti Trafficking Bill, Draft Regulations under JJ Act. The Ministry is also looking forward to new ideas/ areas concerning women and children which could be taken up in the coming months. .

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Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman will also address the participants. .

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Journalists from 30 States/UTs have already confirmed their participation and more participation is expected in the coming two days. The participating journalists represent several regional publications and regional channels of the country. .

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The WCD Ministry will also be putting up an exhibition of two of its large initiatives namely; Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao and Childrens Helpline-Childline. .

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First Lady took a veiled swipe at Donald Trump while delivering a passionate defense of immigration and diversity, in the final commencement address of her husband's presidency today.

"Infusions of new cultures and new ideas, generation after generation, created the matchless alchemy of our melting pot and helped us build the strongest, most vibrant, most prosperous nation on the planet," Obama told the 2016 graduating class of City College of New York.

"Some folks out there today seem to have a very different perspective," she said, appearing to allude to the presumptive Republican nominee for president, without using his name.

"They seem to view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to be tapped, they tell us to be afraid of those who are different," said the first lady, wife of Democratic President Barack Obama in remarks that appeared more pointedly political than usual.

"They act as if name calling is an acceptable substitute for thoughtful debate, as if anger and intolerance should be our default state."



Donald Trump has vowed to build a wall along America's southern border to keep out illegal immigrants, and has run a controversial campaign insulting women, Mexicans, Muslims, the disabled and journalists whom he dislikes, among others.

"In America we don't give in to our fears, we don't build up walls to keep people out, because we know that our greatness has always depended on contributions from people born elsewhere but sought this country," Obama said.

She deliberately chose CCNY, a public college and immigrant-rich New York for her final address to a university graduating class.

The school welcomes students who speak more than 150 different languages and come from every possible background in a city that for centuries was the gateway for immigrants striving for a better life in America, Obama said.

While she did not mention Trump, did reference ex-secretary of state Colin Powell, a CCNY graduate and son of Jamaican immigrants who served Republican president George W. Bush, calling him a role model for young people.
US Defence Secretary Ash Carter is proposing to accelerate and deepen defence cooperation in the Asia-Pacific by expanding a "security network" of countries whose militaries would train together and eventually operate together.

Speaking to an security conference in Singapore today, Carter said China would be welcomed in this network. But he also cited frequent American complaints about China unnerving its neighbours with expansive moves to build up reefs, islets and other land features in the disputed South China Sea.

Carter said that this security network would represent "the next wave" in Asia-Pacific security.

"It is inclusive, since any nation and any military, no matter its capability, budget, or experience, can contribute. Everyone gets a voice, no one is excluded, and hopefully, no one excludes themselves," he said, alluding to China.

A Chinese official reacted skeptically. Rear Admiral (Adm) Guan Youfei, director of the foreign affairs office of China's National Defence Ministry, said Beijing welcomes the US establishing close relations with Asian countries.

But he urged Washington to scale back its military exercises in the region and to reduce "provocations" such as operating military aircraft and ships in close proximity to other countries.

"I believe this will help the US play a better role in the region," he said, speaking through an interpreter.

Carter emphasised possibilities for cooperating with China while stating that the US will remain the pre-eminent power.

"America wants to expand military-to-military agreements with China to focus not only on risk reduction, but also on practical cooperation. Our two militaries can also work together," he said, bilaterally or as part of a broader security network to combat global threats like terrorism and piracy.

Tom Mahnken, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank, praised Carter's emphasis on developing partnerships.

"Secretary Carter was right to emphasise multilateral approaches in the Asia-Pacific region. Indeed, America's alliances and partnerships in the region give us an enduring competitive advantage," Mahnken said by email from Washington. "By contrast, China's actions have increasingly isolated it," he added.

At a news conference later, Adm Harry Harris, head of US Pacific Command, said that while his forces are ready to confront China if necessary, there have been few significant issues with China lately in the South China Sea.
China risks erecting a "Great Wall of self-isolation" in Asia over its actions in the disputed South China Sea, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a global defence forum in Singapore. "There is growing anxiety in this region, and in this room, about China's activities on the seas, in cyberspace, and in the region's airspace," Carter said on Saturday in a speech to the Shangri-La security dialogue. He called China's land reclamation in the South China Sea "unprecedented" and urged it instead to join the US in cooperating on security in ...
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has said that al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan are plotting to reunite with the Taliban for a comeback.

A NATO official asserted that the al-Qaeda affiliates by seeking partnership with the Taliban are trying to remain safe from U.S air strikes.

However, he said that the anti- state fighters and their backers will not be safe from Afghan security forces and their NATO counterparts.

"We think that they have tried to become closer to the Taliban, primarily because they recognize that if the Taliban can carve out some space, then al-Qaeda can move in under the

Taliban and they have got some freedom from U.S strikes, they have got the freedom and the ability to plan that type of thing," Tolo News quoted Brigadier General Charles Cleveland, deputy chief of staff for communications for Operation Resolute Support, the NATO mission in Afghanistan.? as saying.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary general said that the alliance is committed to overcoming the ongoing challenges in Afghanistan that threatens the nation's stability.

"What we do in Afghanistan ...what we are aiming at doing more often and that is to project stability not by deploying NATO forces into combat operations, but by projecting stability by training local forces," he said.

Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said asserted that the Taliban would have cut their ties with other terrorist groups and that they are already in touch with al-Qaeda, Haqqani network and other groups.

According to NATO statistics, a number of al-Qaeda affiliates are present in Kunar, Paktika, Paktia and Kandahar provinces, but they are not able to launch major attacks on the west.
Following the busting of a kidney racket gang at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in the national capital, all hospitals and nursing homes in Delhi where organ transplantation surgeries are performed, have been issued with an advisory calling them to follow the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act.

The Directorate General of Services, Delhi said in the advisory that the Act paved the way for promoting organ transplantation for therapeutic purposes in India.

"The basic premise behind the act and the rules has been to ensure that donation of organs (especially from a living donor) is purely for altruistic reasons, out of love and affection and it is free from any financial transaction or in lieu of its assurance in future in any manner between recipient and donor and there is no pressure or / coercion of any kind on the donor," the advisory said.

The advisory reiterated its directive that all the hospitals in Delhi where organ transplantation is performed must follow the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act and the Rules in letter and spirit.

On Friday, the Delhi Police, busted a kidney racket gang operating at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, which used to deal with the transplantation of the organ.

The gang also includes two women and two clerical staff from the hospital.

The staff present in the private hospital used to inform Asim, (who is allegedly the mastermind of the gang) about the need of kidney by the patients.

Asim, then used to find donors who could give the kidneys to needful patients and in exchange, huge amounts of money would be given to donors and the gang would get a cut from the profits.

The police arrested Asim and also questioned the doctors of the hospital in this regard.
Once upon a time, settlers in the Fertile Crescent of West Asia domesticated few wild plant and animal species. To be precise, it was about 11-12 thousand years ago (kya) and nowadays, we name this behavior as, agriculture.

The emergence of agriculture is suggested to have driven extensive human population growths, because food production by agriculture can support far higher population densities compared to hunting and foraging. Nevertheless, like the famous question "chicken or the egg," dispute between agriculture and initial population expansion in Neolithic Time exists for long.

Despite historical and archaeological efforts, previous genetic work such as mitochondrial DNA analysis in worldwide populations found that most major maternal lineage expansions began after Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, about 15 kya) but before the first appearance of agriculture, and the increase of population size was likely the driving force that led to the advent of agriculture.

There are also numerous studies on population expansion using paternal Y chromosome single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in the genealogical tree and rapidly mutating short tandem repeats (STRs) yet without an convincing result, owning to the fact that nonrandom sampling of SNPs can result in an ascertainment bias, and to choose whether the evolutionary rate or the genealogical rate of STRs in Y chromosome dating is controversial, since the result can be almost three-fold difference.

As and technology update rapidly, entirely sequenced Y chromosomes in numerous human individuals have only recently become available. With the next-generation sequencing technology, the 1000 Genomes Project has sequenced whole Y chromosomes from more than 500 males, which provides a wonderful chance to estimate population sizes through time from a set of globally distributed populations without ascertainment bias.

To resolve the long dispute, researchers in Fudan University analyzed about 8.9 mega-base pairs on the unique regions of Y chromosome and whole mitochondrial genomes of 526 male individuals from three African, five European, three Asian and three American populations sequenced in the 1000 Genome Project.

The correspondence between the coalescence age of most paternal lineages and the population growing periods observed in skyline plots suggested that the initial male population expansion began within the Neolithic Time, probably due to the advent and spread of agriculture.

"Agriculture has provided a much more stable food supply than hunting and foraging, leading to higher population fertility and infant survival rate, more importantly, as agriculture has kept male away from dangerous hunting, the reduction in hunting-related mortality of males might contribute most to this sex-biased Neolithic expansion," they supposed.

The study appears in China Life Sciences.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena will be visiting China later this year for a second time since assuming the office to further strengthen bilateral ties between both nations.

The announcement was made by the Vocational Training and Development Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, yesterday.

Asserting that Beijing has assisted Sri Lanka in a significant way during the recent natural disasters and donated a large shipment of goods, he said that Colombo 's growing relationship with the West will not be at the expense of China.

Reiterating Sri Lanka's commitment to long term partnership with China, he said that the President's visit will further strengthen the friendship between both the countries.

In recent years, China has emerged as one of Sri Lanka's key development partners.

President Sirisena visited Beijing in March last year at the invitation of China counterpart Xi Jinping.
Mystery Blonde Tina Deleuran who was reportedly spotted with Johnny Depp at a bar in Denmark, has opened up about her meeting with the actor at cafe Under Masken.

In a recent interview, the hair stylist said it was around 1.30 am and she was sitting and having a beer with her pals when she noticed the 'Black Mass' actor along with his group of friends there, adding that they all started talking and went outside with Depp, E! Online reports.

She continued that the actor had a bottle of champagne and shared it with them and he rolled out a cigarette and shared with her.

Deleuran also recalled that the 52-year-old actor was not very high on the drinks.

As far as Depp's allegations are concerned, she said she didn't know anything about it and neither the actor talked about it that night.
Prime Minister on Saturday afternoon left for Doha, concluding his first leg of five nation tour in Afghanistan.

During his visit in Herat on Saturday, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani conferred him with the country's highest civilian honour, the Amir Amanullah Khan Award.

The award was conferred after the two leaders jointly inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as the Salma Dam, which was rebuilt with India's aid.

The Afghan-India Friendship Dam is a multipurpose project planned for generating 42 megawatt of power, irrigating 75000 hectares of land, water supply and other benefits to the people of Afghanistan.

Prior to his departure, Prime Minister also visited Indian Consulate here.

Prime Minister Modi will be arriving in Doha, the capital of Qatar, Saturday evening.

Apart from holding meeting with the Emir of Qatar to further strengthen bilateral relations, he will also visit workers' camp and also hold meeting with business leaders.

"Look forward to meeting His Highness Sheikh Tamim whose landmark visit to India last year had ushered in a new momentum in our relations. I will have the honour to meet Father Emir who personally guided our relations for nearly two decades. This visit will nourish the historical bonds of friendship deeply rooted in people to people contacts, energy, trade and investment partnership," said PM in the Facebook post.

The Prime Minister in his post also added that he will speak to Qatar business leaders to realise the full potential of our trade and investment cooperation.
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday conferred Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the country's highest civilian honour, the Amir Amanullah Khan Award.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Vikas Swarup confirmed this on his official Twitter handle.

"A true brotherhood is honoured. PM is awarded the Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistan's highest civilian honour," he tweeted.

The award was conferred after the two leaders jointly inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as the Salma Dam, that was rebuilt with India's aid.

Inaugurating the Dam, Prime Minister Modi said the event marked a 'historic moment' of emotion and pride in the relations between Afghanistan and India.

Salma Dam is a landmark infrastructure project undertaken by the Indian government on the River Chist-e-Sharif, in Herat.

The Afghan-India Friendship Dam is a multipurpose project planned for generating 42 megawatt of power, irrigating 75000 hectares of land, water supply and other benefits to the people of Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here on Saturday afternoon, where . along with Afghanistan President Dr. Ashraf Ghani he will inaugurate the 'Afghan-India Friendship Dam', earlier known as the Salma Dam.

"Reached Herat in Afghanistan. Will attend the programme for inauguration of Salma Dam & meet President @ashrafghani," tweeted Prime Minister Modi soon after landing here.

The Afghan-India Friendship Dam is a multipurpose project planned for generating 42 megawatt of power, irrigating 75000 hectares of land, water supply and other benefits to the people of Afghanistan.

Salma Dam is a landmark infrastructure project undertaken by the Indian government on the River Chist-e-Sharif, in Herat.

The project is executed and implemented by WAPCOS Ltd., a Government of India Undertaking under Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

The project is located 165 kilometres east of Herat town and connected with earthen road. Due to security reasons Indian engineers and technicians involved with the project have been reaching the site once in a month by helicopter service provided by the Government of Afghanistan.

All equipment and material were transported from India to Bander-e-Abbas port of Iran via sea and then along 1200 km by road from there to Islam Kila border post at Iran-Afghanistan border and then further 300 km by road from the border post to the site.

The gross capacity of the dam is 633 Million M3. The height of the dam is 104.3 metre, length 540 metre and width at the bottom is 450 metre.

"I will join President Ashraf Ghani to inaugurate Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam in Herat. It is symbol of our friendship and would usher in hope, light up homes, nourish the fertile fields of Herat and bring prosperity to the people of the region," the Prime Minister had posted on Facebook ahead of his tour.

After the inauguration, the Prime Minister will leave for Qatar.
Following the resignation of Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse from his post, the Shiv Sena on Saturday asserted that such issues affected the Centre's 'good governance' policy.

Speaking to ANI, Shiv Sena leader Manisha Kayande said that Khadse, being a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had no right to be in his position, following the kind of allegations that were being levelled at him.

"The BJP has taken the right decision and there should be a detailed probe into the matter. Keeping in mind the Prime Minister's zero tolerance policy towards corruption, it is only fair for him to step down from his post," she said.

She further said that when an issue is no longer contained to the party but reaches the public domain, then it begins to affect the 'good governance' by the Centre.

Earlier today, Khadse resigned from his post following allegations of impropriety with regard to a land deal and alleged calls from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

He met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis amid reports, that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had begun the process to act against him.

Fadnavis said today that Khadse had demanded an inquiry into the allegations against him, adding that a retired High Court judge would be appointed for the same.

"Received the resignation from Eknath Khadse ji. I've accepted it and sent it to Hon'ble Governor," Fadnavis tweeted.

"Khadse ji has demanded an inquiry into allegations against him. A retired HC Judge will be appointed to conduct inquiry," he added.

The most senior minister in the Fadnavis government is facing serious allegation over an illicit land deal and his cellphone allegedly appearing in the call records of most-wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

Khadse, however, maintained the land was not owned by the government, that he bought it from a private party, and that he paid the stamp duty or tax on the market value of the plot which he says proves that the deal was above-board.

The Maharashtra's Anti-Terror squad is investigating the alleged calls to the minister from Dawood Ibrahim. Khadse has denied any links to Dawood Ibrahim.
A Jammu and Kashmir Police sub-inspector and a constable were killed on Saturday when terrorists attacked a police party in Anantnag district.

The incident took place a day after when two Border Security Force (BSF) jawans were killed in a terrorist attack in Bijbehara on Friday.

Lamenting the yesterday's killing, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti such violent incidents hamper peace efforts between India and its neighbour.

"If we create a conducive atmosphere, only then will the two countries be able to talk. If incidents like this and Pathankot happen then Pakistan should also think about it. They (Pakistan) are fighting this menace in their country. They say they have affection for the people of Kashmir, but what sort of affection is this," she asked.
U.S. Defence Secretary Ashton Carter has warned China of alienating regional neighbours and building a 'great wall of self-isolation' as it pursues its military expansion across the .

"China's actions in the are isolating it, at a time when the entire region is coming together and networking," the Guardian quoted Carter as saying said in a speech at an annual forum known as the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

He pressed that countries across the Asia-Pacific region continue to fret over Beijing's sweeping claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea, and its attempts to bolster these by creating military bases on reclaimed islets and increasing maritime patrols.

"Unfortunately, if these actions continue, China could end up erecting a great wall of self-isolation," he added.

While Beijing claims nearly the entire has angered Southeast Asian neighbours, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam have competing claims in the area which is believed to have significant oil and gas deposits.

The Philippines has already filed a case against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

A decision is expected in the coming weeks but Beijing has reportedly said that it will not recognise any ruling.

"The United States views the upcoming ruling ... as an opportunity for China and the rest of the region to recommit to a principled future, to renewed diplomacy, and to lowering tensions, rather than raising them," Carter said.

The defence secretary also suggested the U.S. and China would benefit from better military ties by building understanding and avoiding the risk of mishaps.

"America wants to expand military-to-military agreements with China to focus not only on risk reduction, but also on practical cooperation," Carter said.
Expressing his profound gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to the "compassionate people and competent Government of India", President Dr. Ashraf Ghani said, today, with your help, an old dream of our people (Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier Salma Dam) is realised after 40 years of waiting.

Thanking security forces, President Ghani "prays for souls of soldiers and engineers who lost their lives during the construction of the dam", reported TOLO News, Afghanistan's news television network.

The President also thanked India for completing the Salma Dam and praises security forces for ensuring security.

"Afghanistan and India have long and continued relations, and today millions of ties bind our nations together," he said, while speaking at the Ghazi Amanullah Khan Hall here.

"Herat is the cradle of culture, knowledge, wisdom and civilisation. And, the assistance of people and Government of India in constructing this splendid dam restitutes the ancient ties of Herat and India," President Ghani noted.

We can partake in spreading hope, light and sincerity, not fear, intimidation and ignorance. We are immensely thankful to India for presenting a new model whose essence is constructiveness, cooperation and participation. Today the name of India in our country and region brings back sweet, historic and cherished memories," said President Ghani before inaugurating the dam.

"Today our people know India through Salma, a source of light and joy for 1000s of our families. In addition, India has completed over 200 other small and big projects for our people. With scholarship assistance by India, over 17,000 Afghan youth were able to acquire education," he added.

Today, India represents brilliance, greenery and Nirvana, he said.

"With the inauguration of the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, the first generation of large Indian assisted projects is completed. Our hope is to see at the right moment the launch of the 2nd generation of such large and sustainable projects," he said.

"We, the two sides, have a firm conviction and resolve that prosperity and progress of one country means that of the other. Afghanistan will not be stopped here. We are determined to move forward despite the challenges and difficulties. With the passing of each day, we take a new step in the direction of development and prosperity," he said, adding that he wants to give the good news to his people that the Afghan-India Friendship Dam is prologue to construction of many dams.
The success of Afghanistan is the hope and desire of all Indians, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday after he and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani jointly inaugurated a dam built with Indian assistance.

"Afghanistan's success is a deeply held hope and desire of every Indian," Modi said after the inauguration of the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam.

"It comes from the love and admiration for Afghans in our hearts," he said.

"We want to see your democracy strike deep roots; your people unite; and, your economy prosper."

Modi said his visit to Afghanistan's Herat was not just about launching a project that would irrigate land and light up homes.

"We are reviving a region, restoring hope, renewing life and redefining Afghanistan's future," he said.

"The dam is a generator not just of electricity but also of optimism and belief in the future of Afghanistan."

Apart from irrigating the fields of 640 villages in Chiste, Obe, Pashtun Zarghun, Karokh, Gozara, Injil, Zindjan, Kohsan and Ghoryan in Herat province in western Afghanistan, the prime minister said the dam would also bring light to over 250,000 homes in this area.

"This dam has not been built by bricks and mortar, but by the faith of our friendship and the valour of Afghans and Indians," he said.

"And, at this moment of pride, we also stand in grief and gratitude for lives sacrificed so that Afghan people will have a future they so richly deserve and so deeply desire."

Modi said India has partnered Afghanistan in building schools, health centres and irrigation facilities for rural communities.

This partnership, he said, has empowered women with skills and the youth with education to shoulder the responsibility for Afghanistan's future.

"We have joined hands to build roads that bridge the distances of your country, from Zaranj to Delaram, and transmission lines that bring power to your homes," the prime minister said.

"Now, India's investment in the port at Chahbahar in Iran will give Afghanistan a new route to the world and a new path to prosperity."

India, Iran and Afghanistan last month signed a trilateral agreement in Tehran to develop the Chabahar poort in the Gulf of Oman for trade and transit corridor.

"The fruits of our friendship are not confined to Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar and Herat. They will never be," Modi said.

"Our cooperation will extend to every part of Afghanistan. Our partnership will benefit every section of Afghan society."

Originally constructed in 1976 on the Hari river basin, the Salma Dam suffered extensive damage during the Afghan civil war.

It was built at a cost of approximately Rs 1,700 crore by 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers, technocrats and other professionals.

Three turbines on the dam will produce 42 MW of electricity and the water will irrigate around 75,000 hectares of land.

The dam is a landmark infrastructure project undertaken by the Indian government and has been executed and implemented by Wapcos, an Indian government undertaking under the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

The dam is located 165 km east of Herat city and connected by an earthen road.

The dam symbolises India's continued support for developmental work in the violence-ridden nation.

In December last year, Modi and Ghani jointly inaugurated a new building of the Afghan parliament in Kabul built with Indian aid.

Modi arrived here earlier on Saturday on the first leg of his five-nation tour that will also take him to Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico.

--IANS

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Bahrain tightened security measures in some parts of the country following a prison break, while a probe by the interior ministry is underway, officials said on Saturday.

The incident occurred on Friday night, Xinhua news agency reported.

A local media report said that around 20 prisoners had escaped, adding that they managed to seize a bus and get away after assaulting warders and police and injuring several of them.

In a statement, the ministry said that the authorities have set up check points and roadblocks to catch the escaped inmates.

"The interior minister has ordered the formation of an investigation committee to determine the circumstances and who was responsible in order for legal proceedings to be filed," the statement added.

--IANS

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs on Saturday protested the killing of Border Security Force (BSF) troopers by the militants and demanded the Jammu and Kashmir assembly to pass a resolution condemning Pakistan and terrorists.

Led by MLA Ravinder Raina, the BJP MLAs staged a protest inside state legislative assembly demanding condemnation of Pakistan and terrorists by the house.

Speaker Kavinder Gupta told the BJP MLAs that the house shares the grief of the bereaved families and expresses sympathy with them.

Independent MLA from Langate constituency Engineer Rashid said the condemnation should not be restricted to acts of terrorism by non-state actors only and when security forces violate human rights, condemnation should be universal.

Three BSF troopers were killed and seven injured when militants attacked a BSF convoy in Bijbehara town of Anantnag district on Friday.

--IANS

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in the wake of a major kidney racket involving employees of a prominent hospital being busted, the Delhi government on Saturday directed its hospitals, where organ transplantation is being performed, to strictly follow the law on the process.

"The Health Department, of Delhi government hereby reiterates its directive that all the hospitals in Delhi where organ transplantation is performed must follow the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act and the Rules in letter and spirit," said the advisory issued by A. K. Saini, medical superintendent, Nursing Homes in the Health Department.

According to the advisory, the basic premise behind the act and the rules has been to ensure that donation of organs (especially from a living donor) is purely for altruistic reasons, and out of love and affection.

--IANS

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Bangladesh is keen to develop its industries in a joint venture with India and boost bilateral trade, Bangladesh Industry Minister Alhaz Amir Hossain Amu said here on Saturday.

"India can be an effective, important and liberal partner of Bangladesh in setting up of modern technology-based medium and heavy industries," the minister said while addressing an industrial investment summit here.

He said if Indian businessmen and investors come forward to set up industries in Bangladesh, the ongoing trade imbalance between the two neighbours would be reduced to a large extent.

Quoting the facts of the Bangladesh Investment Board, Amu said: "There are 98 direct investment and 212 joint investment projects, with the total volume of investment of $3,084.46 million operational in Bangladesh, making scope of employment of 63,300 people."

The visiting minister said that Bangladesh imported goods worth of $6 billion from India in 2013-14 while it exported to India commodities valued at $456 million in the same year.

In 2014-15, according to the minister, Bangladesh imported goods worth of $5.8 billion from India and exported 98 items including fish, egg, milk products, electrical goods, horticultural and agricultural items, fruits, plastic and ceramic goods worth $527 million to India.

Amu said: "Bangladesh imported over 3,000 items from India. If India increases its imports from Bangladesh with duty friendly regime then the friendship between the two neighbours would go to new heights."

"Bangladesh has already taken many steps to improve its rail and road connectivity and setting up of higher diplomatic missions in northeast India. The untapped vast natural resources available in the northeastern region of India would be utilised for the welfare of the people of both India and Bangladesh."

Stressing the need for Multi-Model Transport Connectivity, the Bangladeshi minister said that the natural resources of northeast India with their value addition can boost the economy of both sides.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) in association with the Tripura Industry Department organised the day long Investment Summit.

Amu in his written speech in Bengali said that there is enormous scope for setting up of many hydel-power projects in northeast India, and that this power could be exported to Bangladesh or other parts of India via Bangladesh.

"The Bangladesh government is also keen to set up joint venture hydel power plants with India," he said, adding that all problems in increasing trade and business ties between India and Bangladesh must be removed.

"With 1,741 km of Bangladesh's border with four of the eight northeastern states of India, the region due to its close proximity has huge scope for increasing trade, business and investment with Bangladesh," the minister added.

"Bangladesh led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has become an industrialised nation, currently making from readymade garments to ships. With a stable political situation and available raw materials, Indian investors can easily set up industries in Bangladesh," Amu said.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, in his speech also stressed the need to increase trade and business with Bangladesh.

He thanked the Bangladesh government for allowing India to transport heavy machinery, foodgrains and other vital goods to Tripura from other parts of India via that country.

Tripura Industry Minister Tapan Chakraborty, Chief Secretary Yashpal Singh, Industries and Commerce Secretary M. Nagaraju and Assocham Chairman for the northeastern region Sanjay Jhunjhunwala among others spoke at the meet.

--IANS

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Eco warrior Balbir Singh Seechewal, who hogged the global limelight by reviving the almost dead 160-km-long Kali Bein, a rivulet sacred to Sikhism, and developing low-cost community-managed micro-sewage technologies, is now a ray of hope to rejuvenate India's longest river - the Ganga.

Every week, village heads settled along the Ganga visit this village near Jalandhar town to understand the sewage technologies and to replicate them in their respective villages.

The visits are part of the central government's ambitious Rs.20,000 crore ($3 billion) Clean Ganga project.

"We are educating the visiting villagers on how to collect the domestic sewage for simple treatment in open ponds by natural methods and then reuse it for irrigating the fields," 55-year-old Sant Seechewal, as he is better known, told IANS in an interview.

Wearing his trademark maroon robes, the only Asian winner of TIME Magazine's Hero of Environment award explained that the cost of setting up the treatment tanks and supplying the treated water to the fields through a pipeline is low compared to the use of electrical water pumps that heavily drain out underground water.

Moreover, he said, the treatment techniques that have been adopted by more than 150 villages in Punjab, including 100 located on the Kali Bein, ensures that no polluted water flows into the surface water channels.

According to him, a village with a population of 14,000 to 15,000 requires a treatment plant on 27 acres of land.

However, for bigger towns and cities this model will not work. They need sewerage treatment plants.

Sant Seechewal said 1,657 villages located along the Ganga from Uttarakhand to West Bengal have been shortlisted by the Union Water Resources Ministry for field training.

These villages have been discharging their effluents directly into the Ganga.

So far, representatives of 375 villages from Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand have visited this village.

He said some villages in Jharkhand adopted this technology last week.

Srikant Tripathi, a visiting village head from arsenic-affected Kanpur district in Uttar Pradesh, told IANS that Seechewal and nearby villages have seen prosperity by adopting low-cost, community-managed waste water treatment tanks.

He said Sant Seechewal and his followers explained the model adopted to clean the Kali Bein rivulet and setting up and operating waste water treatment plant.

"Even the farmers admitted that there is noticeable increase in the crop yield as treated water boosts crop production," Tripathi added.

Fifty-two village heads from Kanpur and Unnao districts were in Seechewal on May 21-22. They blamed the local leather industry for polluting the Ganga.

"You cannot clean a river by setting up sewage treatment plants or stopping the inflow of sewage into it. You have to maintain natural conditions in the river like ensuring adequate flow. All rivers or rivulets have a self-cleansing ability," explained Sant Seechewal, whose feat of cleaning the Kali Bein rivulet, once a drain of domestic and industrial pollutants, also attracted global attention.

Besides cleaning the rivulet in just two years by deploying over 3,000 local volunteers in July 2000, Sant Seechewal has also played an important role in re-greening its banks by raising medicinal and fruit-bearing orchards.

The rivulet's revival has also recharged the local water table as the handpumps had gone dry for the past four decades and are now yielding water, he said, while pointing towards the fields.

Former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam visited the village twice in 2006 and 2008 to understand and acknowledge Sant Seechewal's technologies.

Delhi Water Minister Kapil Mishra visited Seechewal and Sultanpur Lodhi near here in the last week of May to understand the waste water management system and to seek help for cleaning the highly-polluted Yamuna river.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in <mailto:vishal.g@ians.in>)

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday told Indian workers in Qatar that the monsoon this year will be good for India.

"Maybe none of you know me. But you must be feeling good that somebody has come from India to meet you," said a smiling Modi as he addressed a gathering of workers dressed in bright yellow uniforms at a free medical camp organised by the Indian Community Benevolent Fund (ICBF) and the Indian Doctors Community (IDC) in this Gulf nation.

"I have good news for you. This year the monsoon will be good in India," he said.

Modi's visit - in the second leg of his five nation tour after Afghanistan - is the first to Qatar by an Indian Prime Minister since Manmohan Singh in 2008.

Of the around 630,000 expatriate Indians in Qatar, many are blue collar workers.

Modi will be hosted for dinner by Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al Thani on Saturday evening.

On Sunday, he will begin his engagements in Qatar with a meeting with business leaders following which he will hold a restricted meeting with Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.

After Qatar, Modi will go to Switzerland, the US and Mexico.

--IANS

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Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, the de facto No.2 in the BJP-led state government, quit on Saturday after getting embroiled in multiple controversies, including graft allegations in a questionable land deal and his alleged links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

Khadse, who also held nearly a dozen other major portfolios in the state government, met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and put in his papers to resign from all his ministerial portfolios, sources said.

The fast-paced developments happened a day after Fadnavis met Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah and submitted a detailed report in New Delhi on the issues confronting Khadse.

Fadnavis later followed it up by a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and apprised him of the row that was denting the BJP's "clean image" in the state.

Khadse, 63, has been under fire during the past few weeks from the ruling alliance partner Shiv Sena, as also the opposition Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, the Aam Aadmi Party and activists for various acts of commission and omission.

However, presenting a brave face, Khadse, who hails from Jalgaon, strongly refuted all the allegations against him and vowed to prove himself innocent.

Among the major accusations hurled at Khadse was alloting a prime industrial plot in Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) complex in Pune at a throwaway price and an allegation by an "ethical hacker" that his name figured on the regular call lists of absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim from his Karachi home.

The other charges against the minister related to an aide, Gajanan Patil, demanding a bribe of Rs 30 crore in connection with a land proposal file in Kalyan, Thane.

Former AAP activist Anjali Damania's allegations linked him to the multi-thousand crore rupees irrigation scam. The latest were graft charges leveled by a fishermen's society.

Once a claimant to chief minister's post, Khadse was assigned the departments of revenue, minorities development and Wakf, state excise, relief and rehabilitation, earthquake rehabilitation, agriculture an dhorticulture, animal husbandly, dairy development and fisheries.

--IANS

qn/sar/vm
Here's a heaven-sent opportunity for Indian investors: Africa's $1 trillion agriculture sector is seeking suitors and a report has already been drawn up on how India can benefit.

"The agricultural sector is regarded as one of the most critical industries for the African continent due to economic potential and is projected to become a $1 trillion industry in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by 2030," a Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) report said.

It came following a survey of respondents, 58.8 per cent of whom consider "investment in Africa as an opportunity for their businesses to expand". They named the top four countries they are planning to invest in as Zambia, Botswana, Tanzania and South Africa which all fall in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

And, as the Exim Bank of India is keen to direct more Indian investment to the SADC region, it looks like more emphasis would have to be put on agriculture and agribusiness.

The study has also identified natural resources, agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructure as holding potential for Indian investors in the SADC region.

The Exim study, 'Focus Africa: Enhancing India's Engagements with Southern African Development Community (SADC)' describes the region as of "strategic importance" as an investment destination for India. The community is made up of Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Madagascar.

The rest are Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, the Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Exim Bank said the 16 member states account for nearly 30 percent of Africa's GDP and is the second-largest bloc (in terms of the economy's size) in the continent, after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

"For India especially, the SADC region is of strategic importance, accounting for nearly 40 per cent of its total trade with Africa, and a substantial portion of India's investments, with major destinations like Mauritius, Mozambique and South Africa, among others," the Exim Bank said.

The study said Indian multi-national enterprises (MNEs) have ventured into both greenfield and brownfield investments in the SADC region spanning various sectors including manufacturing, mining, construction and energy.

The study said records from the Indian Ministry of Finance and the Reserve Bank of India showed that India approved cumulative investments $46.5 billion in the SADC region from April 1996 to March 2015. This means there is scope for further investments especially in areas that have not been considered in the past.

(Francis Kokutse can be contacted at fkokutse@gmail.com <mailto:fkokutse@gmail.com>)

--IANS

francis/vm
Film: "Housefull 3"; Directed by Sajid-Farhad; Starring: Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Boman Irani, Jackie Shroff, Lisa Haydon, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri; Rating: *

Nothing prepares you for the assault on all aesthetic consideration in this mirthless, and worthless, comedy.

Nothing at all. Not even the opening when Nikitin Dheer, Samir Kochhar and Arav Chowdhary loot jewellery like they had just seen "Dhoom: 2" for the third time.

Besides Akshay Kumar battling bravely to beef up the burlesque, there is no one to salvage the comedy about three losers (yes that's how they are described by their girl friends) eyeing a London Gujarati millionaire's wealth. Or maybe 'eyeing' is not the right word considering Riteish Deshmukh plays blind to obtain entry into the Gujarati's mansion and millions.

Later Riteish turns paraplegic (or apaahij, as he's called in this blissfully improper comedy) while Akshay turns blind, Abhishek turns?.well, let's just say he tries to mock some other human disability. One being interchangeable with another.

Perhaps one disability that Indian cinema needs to address is the failure to be funny in lowbrow comedies. Mocking the disabled, ridiculing skin colour (one dark skinned child is described as "single-screen type") and pervasively attacking good taste do not constitute the integral ingredients of comedy.

It gets worse when the purported humour chooses to get repetitive for no other reason except to keep the proceedings moving even after the plot has lost all its steam.

The second-half is dotted with unmistakable evidence of a writer's block. The gags virtually come to a standstill while the writers figure out ways to keep the spirit of comedy from collapsing completely. So in one post-interval sequence all the characters speak in Gujarati for a while.

Standing at the centre of this mirthless mess is Akshay Kumar trying to infuse life into irremediably dead scenes. He is saddled with the task of playing a split personality, a psychological vanity that the script is ill equipped to handle. The "comedy" is much better off insulting every minority and majority group of people.

While Akshay and his two partners in crime Abhishek Bachchan and Riteish Deshmukh manage to whip up a semblance of, shall we say, self-pleasuring in the chaos of conflicting interests, the three heroines vie for the honour of being the worst actresses.

Oh yes, Jacqueline, Lisa and Nargis playing three exceptionally stupid Londoners, get to dance to the vintage Cyndi Lauper track "Girls just wanna have fun".

Devoid of all laughter, this is that one dreadful moment in the history of Bollywood comedies that we had hoped would never arrive, where even Akshay Kumar mouths double meaning dialogues about nothing 'standing' in his life.

--IANS

skj/nn/bg
India is committed to restore hope and redefine war-torn Afghanistan's future, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday, after inaugurating a dam built with Indian assistance here.

Modi said he had not come to Afghanistan just to launch the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, also known as Salma Dam.

"We are reviving a region, renewing life, restoring hope and redefining Afghanistan's future," Modi said in a brief speech after the inauguration ceremony with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

He said the two nations have "come together to honour and celebrate Afghan determination to build a future of prosperity".

"This dam has not been built by bricks and mortar, but by faith of our friendship and valour of Afghans and Indians," said the Prime Minister.

Modi left early Saturday for Afghanistan, the first leg of a five-nation tour that will also take him to Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico.

--IANS

sar/rn/vm
A 23-year-old man, who was a part of an interstate firearm supply gang, has been arrested here with a cache of 27 semi-automatic pistols which he intended to supply in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, police said on Saturday.

Salamuddin alias Salamu, a resident of Mathura in UP, was arrested near Sarai Kale Khan Inter State Bus Terminus in south Delhi on Friday night when he went there to deliver the weapons, manufactured in Madhya Pradesh.

The investigators found that the gang has been supplying these weapons in Delhi, NCR, Mewat in Haryana and Mathura for several years.

"Salamuddin was assigned to provide the 27 pistols to a person in Delhi. Nine of the pistols were to be delivered to Dwarka-based Sonu and remaining 18 pistols to someone in UP through Mushtaq for which he has been working for several years," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) P.S. Kushwah.

He informed police that Mushtaq, a resident of Chhata in Mathura, is the main receiver of firearms who supplied it in Delhi, NCR and other parts of the country.

Salamuddin, who works as labourer in the local market, was earlier arrested by the Special Cell in December 2014 along with his two associates and 10 sophisticated semi automatic pistols were recovered from their possession.

After being released from jail, Salamuddin joined hands with Mushtaq, who gave him Rs. 5,000 for per trip of weapon delivery, the officer said.

The DCP said Salamuddin was lured into this illegal trade by his friend Ishtaq, a carrier of such weapons, and his brother Ibbar, main receiver of illegal weapons from Madhya Pradesh. Both are brothers of Mushtaq.

Citing last few years study of the investigators, he said these sophisticated firearms are manufactured in Khargone, Barwani and Dhar districts of Madhya Pradesh and smuggled to Delhi and NCR for the purpose to commit robbery, extortion and other henious crimes.

A police team led by two Special Cell inspectors-- Manoj Dixit and Shiv Kumar-- was specially entrusted to prevent this menace, said Kushwah.

"In the whole operation, the data about gangs of Delhi and NCR was collected and the team visited at UP's West and East areas along with Rajasthan and MP The modus operandi and area of operation of each gang was also established."

--IANS

rak/vd
Iraqi forces on Saturday pushed into the city of Fallujah and seized part of a district after fierce clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants, a security source said.

The troops have made a significant breakthrough when they pushed into the al-Nuaimia district after defeating the IS defensive line in southern Fallujah, around 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, Xinhua quoted the source as saying.

The latest advance put the troops in new positions on the edges of the adjacent districts of Shuhadaa and Jubail in southern Fallujah, the source said.

"The troops still have more than three km of urban areas to reach the government compound," the source said.

Meanwhile, the source said US-led coalition aircraft bombarded IS positions in Shuhadaa district and killed at least nine IS militants.

The alliance's warplanes also bombarded IS militants in Azragiyah area, leaving 16 IS militants dead and four of their vehicles destroyed, the source said.

In addition, the security forces repelled an attack by dozens of IS militants in Albu Hawa area of the city, on the western bank of the Euphrates river, killing around 24 IS militants, the source said without giving further details about casualties among the security forces.

Earlier in the day, the security forces and allied paramilitary Shia and Sunni units, known as Hashd Shaabi, entered Saqlawiyah around noon and recaptured the central part of the town, a security source said.

The troops, backed by US-led coalition aircraft, took control of the government building and raised the Iraqi flag, while continuing to drive out IS fighters from the southern part of the town, the source said.

The advance in Saqlawiyah came after several days of clashes with the militants.

The troops' advance into Fallujah was slowed down during the past few days by heavy resistance from militants inside the city, in addition to hundreds of hidden bombs believed to be planted by the terrorists.

Earlier, Brigadier General Yahya Rasoul, spokesman for the Joint Military Command, said about 400 to 600 militants are present in Fallujah, many of them foreigners.

He said about 50,000 to 70,000 civilians are expected to remain in Fallujah.

On Wednesday, the UN children's fund warned that at least 20,000 Iraqi children remain trapped inside the city.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on May 23 the launch of a major offensive to claim Fallujah and surrounding towns and areas.

--IANS

py/bg
Iraqi security forces on Saturday liberated Saqlawiyah town from Islamic State (IS) militants near the IS-held city of Fallujah in the western province of Anbar, a provincial security source said.

Around noon, the forces and allied paramilitary Shia and Sunni units, known as Hashd Shaabi, entered the town in the northwest of Fallujah, and recaptured the central part of it, Xinhua cited the source as saying.

The troops took control of the government building and raised the Iraqi flag while continuing to drive out IS militants from the town, the source said.

The advance in Saqlawiyah came after several days of clashes with the militants.

The troops are fighting to enter Fallujah, but were slowed down by heavy resistance from IS militants inside the city, in addition to hundreds of hidden bombs believed to be planted by the terrorists.

The forces also wanted to avoid heavy casualties among tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside Fallujah.

On May 23, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the launch of the offencive to claim Fallujah.

Government troops and allied militias have 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.
While Android fans are eagerly waiting the new version of the operating system, a media report has hinted that a Nexus smartphone is in the making.

Multiple reports earlier this year said that Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC will build at least two devices for Google. But as per the new information, Chinese communication company Huawei seemed to have confirmed that it is working on at least one more Nexus-branded device after last year's Nexus 6P, US-based tech website BGR.com reported.

A Huawei executive for South Africa delved out the information while discussing last year's Nexus 6P smartphone during an interview.

"The Nexus product is a very niche product, the techies love it, but there's a very small number of people that buy it. Hence, Cellucity (mobile company) only brought 300 units into the country," Huawei's Manager for the Consumer Business Group in South Africa Charlene Munilall was quoted as saying.

"The operators generally do not take up the Nexus device," she continued.

Recently, Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai had said that Google would continue to release Nexus devices. The software giant will not manufacture its hardware, but Google plans to be more involved with Nexus device.

Pichai noted that the future Nexus devices "may not run stock Android, but rather Google would focus on building in more software tweaks to Nexus devices".

--IANS

sku/vm
The defence ministers of Japan and India have agreed to boost their trilateral security cooperation with the US.

Japanese Defence Minister General Nakatani on Friday said that "it is very significant" for Japan, India and the US, who "share the same values", to strengthen cooperation to ensure the security of the vast Pacific and Indian oceans, The Japan Times reported.

Nakatani proposed that the three countries start organising regular high-level meetings, a Japanese official said.

Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said he will consider the proposal, according to the official.

The two ministers held talks in Singapore just before the opening of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier security forum.

This year, the Maritime Self-Defence Force will join the navies of the US and India in the annual Malabar naval exercise.

India and the US have been conducting the drill since 1992.

Japan, which has taken part in the exercise four times in the past, became a permanent participant following an agreement between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, in December.

Nakatani said the 2016 Malabar exercises will be carried out for a week from Friday in waters around Okinawa, close to the Japan-controlled, China-claimed Senkaku Islands.
It was a hero's welcome that new Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan received at his home town near here on Saturday morning.

This was the first visit that Vijayan made to his home town after being sworn in as the new Chief Minister of the state on May 25.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) swept the May 16 assembly polls winning 91 seats in the 140-member Kerala Assembly.

Vijayan arrived at the railway station here along with his wife on Saturday morning and was received by virtually the Who's Who of the CPI-M in Kannur district.

At a civic reception Vijayan assured that the people's interest will be taken care of.

"Over the years, I have been 'decorated' with lots of titles, but the people who are competent enough to choose between what's right and wrong, know everything. I assure that the people's interest will never be compromised," said Vijayan.

Incidentally, it was in 1996 that a person from north Kerala became the Chief Minister of the state when CPI-M veteran E.K. Nayanar was sworn in to the top post.

--IANS

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Claiming that most policemen had withdrawn their leave applications, Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara on Friday asserted that the mass protest by the state constabulary on Saturday was unlikely.

"We have received a positive response from most constables to our appeal to withdraw their strike proposed on Saturday, as evident from withdrawal of leave applications by many of them across the state," Parameshwara told reporters after a review meeting with top police officials here.

Lauding some of the constables who took oath not to go on strike, the minister said leave applications of those who did not withdrew have been rejected by the authorities concerned.

"In view of the appeal made by the chief minister (Siddaramaiah), myself and top police officers, including the DGP (Om Prakash), I am positive that there won't be any strike tomorrow (Saturday)," Parameshwara reiterated.

Noting that the state police force from constables to top officers was disciplined, the minister said attempts were being made to destablise the police department by outsiders, including those who were suspended, dismissed or retired from the service.

The Karnataka state police association, which the government claims to be unrecognised, has called upon its 60,000 members, comprising largely the constabulary, to go on mass strike on June 4 to protest against their alleged exploitation by senior officers, over work, under pay and inhuman working conditions.

To pre-empt the strike, the state government on Wednesday banned the proposed strike and invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (Esma) to maintain public order and safety across the state.

According to the association, of the sanctioned strength of 94,478 posts in the civil police department, 29,569 posts were vacant across the state, while 3,738 of the 12,575 posts in the armed reserve police department were also vacant.

Admitting that there were many vacancies in the state police department, Parameshwara said they were being filled up to reduce the work load.

"We have recruited 14,000 police personnel over the last three years and will be hiring 3,000 more to reduce the backlog from 16,000 vacancies that have been pending over the years," Parameshwara added.

--IANS

fb/tsb
Demanding a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe into the Mathura violence, BSP chief Mayawati on Saturday lashed out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, terming him the worst-ever chief minister of the state.

The former chief minister also trained her gun on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his promises of bringing "achhe din".

"There should be either a time-bound judicial probe or Supreme Court monitored CBI probe into the Mathura violence. This is required as the matter is very sensitive and serious in nature," Mayawati said here at a press conference.

Accusing the Akhilesh Yadav government of being insensitive towards the incident, she said: "How serious is the state government that the chief minister is touring Bundelkhand, rather visiting Mathura."

Akhilesh Yadav was an official visit to Mahoba in the Bundelkhand region on Saturday.

"This is the worst ever government in the state and Akhilesh Yadav is the worst ever chief minister," she added.

Describing the BJP as a party of industrialists and of rich people, Mayawati said that the Modi government has failed to deliver on its promises of bringing "achhe din".

"The NDA government has failed to keep its promises made during 2014 Lok Sabha campaign. Forget about 'achhe din', now the 'bure din' (bad days) of government are about to come," she said.

"The BJP is presenting its win in Assam as it has achieved a grand success while the fact is that after loosing elections in Delhi and Bihar the party lost badly in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry," she said.

Raking up the issue of reservation, Mayawati accused the BJP is trying to end reservations for Dalits and backward classes "from the back door".

She also demanded reservation for the minorities and other economically backward class people belonging to other religious minorities.

--IANS

bns/vd
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said he was confident that the voters in 14 states would go to the polls in a peaceful and democratic atmosphere on Sunday.

During a speech on Friday, the President said the interior ministry has been working with all state governments to ensure the elections take place in ideal conditions across the country, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to Pena Nieto, electoral authorities have inspected polling stations and coordinated with security forces for safe elections.

"On Sunday, we will see an exemplary display of civic actions in 14 states, which will reaffirm our democratic conviction and show that our citizens can vote freely and secretly," he said.

Despite his endorsement, the electoral campaign has been marred by accusations between parties and candidates of vote-buying and electoral fraud, and fears are high of vote tampering.

--IANS

pgh/vm
A top Border Security Force (BSF) officer said on Saturday that there are intelligence reports about militants planning to attack the forthcoming Amarnarh Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir.

At the wreath laying ceremony in Srinagar to honour three troopers martyred in an attack by guerrilla's at Bijbehara on Friday, Director General KK Sharma told reporters, "Friday's attack on our convoy was sudden and unexpected.

That is why we suffered casualties."

"There are intelligence reports that militants have plans to attack the forthcoming Amarnath Yatra but we have made adequate arrangements to ensure an incident free Yatra this year also."

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti also laid wreath at the coffins of the martyred troopers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday arrived in Qatar on a two-day visit on the second leg of his five-nation tour.

"Namaste Qatar! Its wheels down in Doha as PM Narendra Modi arrives for the second leg of his journey," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

This is the second prime ministerial visit from India to Qatar in eight years after then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit in 2008.

Modi is scheduled to visit an Indian workers' camp later in the day. Of the around 630,000 expatriate Indians in Qatar, many are blue collar workers.

He will also be hosted for dinner by Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al Thani on Saturday evening.

Modi flew in from Afghanistan, where earlier on Saturday, he, along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, also known as Salma Dam, in the western province of Herat.

On Sunday, he will begin his engagements in Qatar with a meeting with business leaders following which he will hold a restricted meeting with Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.

Bilateral trade between India and Qatar stands at $10 billion.

"It (Qatar) can also be a large economic partner as it has a large sovereign wealth fund," Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said on Friday ina pre-departure media briefing.

After Qatar, Modi will also visit Switzerland, the US and Mexico.

--IANS

ab/vd
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the Afghanistan city of Herat on Saturday where he will inaugurate along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, also known as Salma Dam, rebuilt with Indian assistance.

"Beginning with Afghanistan. PM arrives in Herat to launch Afghan-India Friendship Dam," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

Originally constructed in 1976, the Salma Dam suffered extensive damage during the civil war in Afghanistan. The dam reconstruction has been executed and implemented by WAPCOS Ltd, a government of India undertaking under the ministry of water resources.

"It was built at a cost of approximately Rs 1,700 crore," Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said ahead of Modi's departure.

The three turbines on the dam are set to produce 42 MW of electricity and the water will irrigate around 75,000 hectares of land.

Located on the Chist-e-Sharif river in Herat province of Afghanistan, the massive hydro electric project is located 165 km east of Herat town and connected with earthen road. Indian engineers and technicians involved with the project have been visiting the site by helicopter service provided by the government of Afghanistan.

The Salma dam is among the most important of reconstruction works launched in Afghanistan by India, besides building the Delaram-Zaranj highway, a power transmission line from Pul-i-Khumri to Kabul. India has built the new Afghan Parliament House, which was inaugurated by Modi during his visit to Kabul in December last year.

Modi will later attend a lunch hosted in his honour by President Ghani.

Thereafter, he will visit the Indian consulate in Herat where he will meet consulate staff and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel.

The consulate in Herat had come under attack in May 2014 by four heavily-armed terrorists.

All four terrorists were killed by the ITBP personnel and Afghan security forces.

Later on Saturday, Modi will leave for Qatar on the second leg of his five-nation foreign tour.

--IANS

ab/rn/vm
Pakistan has denied consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested earlier this year.

Pakistani authorities have charged Jadhav with spying and conducting subversive activities in Balochistan province and Karachi city of Pakistan.

"After due consideration, it has been decided not to grant consular access to Jadhav," Dawn online on Saturday quoted a top security source as saying.

The reason behind the decision was cited as Jadhav's involvement in "subversive activities" in Pakistan, the source said.

Pakistani forces had arrested Jadhav from Balochistan province in March this year.

It was said that the retired Indian navy officer was "a serving officer in the Indian Navy and deputed to Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)".

The Indian External Affairs Ministry said Jadhav formerly worked in the Indian Navy and Gautam Bambawale, Indian High commissioner in Islamabad, sought consular access to him.

"The said individual has no link with the government since his premature retirement from Indian Navy. We have sought consular access to him," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said.

The Pakistan army, however, said Jadhav was directly in contact with Anil Kumar Gupta, the joint secretary of RAW.

The source said Pakistan has documentary evidence against Jadhav which will be presented in the UN.

The Pakistani government had recovered travel documents and multiple fake identities from Jadhav, the source said.

The Pakistan government reportedly established the arrested man as an Indian spy who entered into Balochistan through Iran with a valid Iranian visa.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) aired a video of Jadhav in which he confessed to involvement in terror activities in Balochistan and Karachi.

"I am still a serving officer in the Indian Navy and will be due for retirement in 2022," he said in the video.

--IANS

py/bg
The Prime Minister House in Pakistan on Friday asked the meteorological department to submit a report explaining its failure in notifying the provincial government of a thunderstorm forecast that claimed dozens of lives.

Gusty winds and rains that lashed Islamabad and Rawalpindi killed at least 30 people and injured over 200 on Wednesday.

"The high intensity thunderstorm which hit parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Islamabad late in the evening of June 1, had started gathering in the sky by mid-afternoon. This was clearly visible even to the naked eye by 4.00 p.m," the statement from the PM House said.

Despite having access to latest equipment the department failed to inform the provincial governments of the storm, the statement added.

The slack shown by the Met office resulted in the loss of precious lives, the statement said.

--IANS

ahm/
Robots carry out their tasks more safely if they are controlled by another technology making them more suitable for use in the care sector, a study has revealed.

The study conducted at the Robotics and Mechatronics department at the University of Twente in Netherlands, said that soon the use of assistive robotics will become ever more important due to the increased ageing of the population and the steadily rising costs of care.

Researcher Stefan Groothuis noted in his study that the existing robots are not ideal for a care-support function because they carry out repetitive tasks in industry.

"These robots generally behave as rigid and less safe systems: the system that controls the electromotors (actuators) lacks the flexibility that is required in an unfamiliar domestic environment," the study explained.

Adding a kind of elastic spring to the actuator can make the robot, or the robot arm, much safer, as shown by research carried out by the Robotics and Mechatronics department.

This spring ensures that the robot behaves in a more elastic way: it yields when it collides with an obstacle. This technology (known as the variable stiffness actuator) has never before been used in assistive robotics.

"We believe this can form the basis of a new generation of robots in the care sector: robots that can carry out more everyday tasks in a safer way, while simultaneously remaining extremely precise," Groothuis said.

The material of the story was provided by University of Twente.

--IANS

sku/ask/vm
Suspended Brazilian president participated in a political rally and addressed her supporters in Porto Alegre in her home state of Rio Grande do Sul.

The rally on Friday gathered at least 10,000 people who opposed Rousseff's impeachment, which has led to the ascension of Vice President Michel Temer to the top office, Xinhua news agency reported.

Rousseff spoke against the impeachment process, calling it a coup, an opinion shared by a significant number of Brazilians.

"After a long period of dictatorship, in which people could not express themselves, they want to destroy and violate our democracy. I was elected with the votes of 52 million Brazilians," she stressed.

"They want to stop me from talking on the streets, they do not want me to go around this country and denounce the coup," said Rousseff, referring to the edict issued earlier in the day by Temer, which limited her official trips to only between Brasilia and Rio Grande do Sul, her home.

As suspended president, Rousseff was forbidden from using president's official planes but retained her right to a government plane.

An impeachment, under Brazilian law, requires a conviction of crime of responsibility, but the allegedly illegal budget decrees leading to her suspension were never a crime, she reiterated on Friday to the rally.

Rousseff was temporarily removed from office in May for up to 180 days after the Senate agreed to open an impeachment trial.
The defence team for Brazil's suspended president Dilma Rousseff said that it will file four petitions in the Supreme Federal Court on the impeachment process against her.

Defence team head Jose Eduardo Cardozo said at a press conference on Friday that the petitions would be filed before Ricardo Lewandowski, Chief Justice of the Supreme Federal Court, Xinhua news agency reported.

The petitions mainly focus on the unfair treatment Rousseff and her supporters received in the impeachment process, including insufficient time for her defense team to address all the filings against her and appointing a biased Senator as the rapporteur who, supposedly, should be impartial.

According to Cardozo, over 80 separate filings had been lobbied by the Senate against Rousseff but her defence team was only given 10 minutes to address them all.

"I am not good at math but I think we would have around 7 seconds to address each filing," said Cardozo, who was the country's attorney general during Rousseff's time in office.

Another important petition, according to Cardozo, is asking the Supreme Federal Court to allow the inclusion of new evidence, including recently leaked recordings made by a former Petrobras executive.

In the recordings, several senators who have been pushing for Rousseff's impeachment seemed to say that doing so is the best way to shut down a high-profile corruption investigation involving members of Brazil's political class.

--IANS

pgh/vm
The Russian military command in Syria on Saturday condemned new offensives by the jihadi group Nusra Front against Syrian regime forces in the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib and Latakia.

The jihadis used heavy weapons, including missile launchers, armoured vehicles and mortars, against the positions of the Syrian army and managed to gain control of two small towns in Latakia, Efe news reported.

The spokesperson for the Russian command at the province's Hmeimim base said the terrorists launched two offensives against the positions of government forces in northeast Latakia.

In Aleppo, the Nusra Front attacked neighbourhoods controlled by forces loyal to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and the airport, where fighting has intensified in recent weeks.

Elsewhere, some 1,000 jihadis concentrated in Idlib with batteries of missiles and large-calibre machine guns to launch an attack against the army.

According to the official, the terrorists, of whom 200 combatants have crossed the border from Turkey, also attacked populated areas in the provinces of Damascus, Homs and Hama.

The Russian spokesperson also reported that the Free Syrian Army may coordinate operations with the Islamic State to curb the offensive of Kurdish militias on Aleppo.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently warned that the opposition armed groups, which have not joined the truce, will be legitimate targets for Russian air power irrespective of whether they are included in the international list.

--IANS

ksk/bg
India's development assistance in Afghanistan scaled a new high on Saturday with the inauguration of the Salma Dam in Herat province, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani pressed a button to open the sluice gates of the Rs 1,700 crore mega dam built by India.

Modi, who arrived in Herat on Saturday, reiterated India's commitment to the development of Afghanistan.

Modi was also conferred with Afghanistan's highest civilian honour, the Amir Aminullah Khan Award, by President Ghani.

"Afghanistan's success is a deeply held hope and desire of every Indian," Modi said after the inauguration of the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, also known as Salma Dam.

"It comes from the love and admiration for Afghans in our hearts," he said.

"We want to see your democracy strike deep roots; your people unite; and, your economy prosper."

Modi said his visit to Afghanistan's Herat was not just about launching a project that would irrigate land and light up homes.

"We are reviving a region, restoring hope, renewing life and redefining Afghanistan's future," he said.

"The dam is a generator not just of electricity but also of optimism and belief in the future of Afghanistan."

Apart from irrigating the fields of 640 villages in Chiste, Obe, Pashtun Zarghun, Karokh, Gozara, Injil, Zindjan, Kohsan and Ghoryan in Herat province in western Afghanistan, the hydro electric project is expected to bring light to over 250,000 homes in the region.

"This dam has not been built by bricks and mortar, but by the faith of our friendship and the valour of Afghans and Indians," he said.

Modi said India has partnered Afghanistan in building schools, health centres and irrigation facilities for rural communities.

He said that India's investment in the Chahbahar port in Iran will give Afghanistan "a new route to the world and a new path to prosperity". India, Iran and Afghanistan last month signed a trilateral agreement in Tehran to develop the Chabahar port in the Gulf of Oman for a trade and transit corridor through Afghanistan to Central Asia and beyond to Russia and Europe.

President Ghani, speaking at the inauguration, welcomed Modi to his "second home" Afghanistan and said that with India's help a longstanding dream of Afghanistan has been realised after 40 years.

"The assistance of the people and the Government of India in constructing this splendid dam re-institutes the ancient ties of Herat and India," he said.

"Our people identify India with roads, dams and over 200 small developmental projects."

"Contrary to those who spread chaos and destruction, we two countries have taken the joint decision to build and grow," said Ghani.

Originally constructed in 1976 on the Hari river basin, the Salma Dam suffered extensive damage during the Afghan civil war.

It was built at a cost of approximately Rs 1,700 crore by 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers, technocrats and other professionals.

Three turbines on the dam will produce 42 MW of electricity and the water will irrigate around 75,000 hectares of land.

The dam is a landmark infrastructure project undertaken by the Indian government and has been executed and implemented by Wapcos, an Indian government undertaking under the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

The Salma Dam, which is 20 km in length and three km in width, started filling up its reservoirs in July last year, ahead of its completion. The event had been widely heralded by grateful residents of Herat, who took out joyful processions, beating traditional drums.

A group of local musicians had then gathered at the Indian consulate and sung Indian songs, including Bollywood number "Yamma Yamma", and presented flowers to workers of the consulate -- marking their gratitude to see waters flowing in the dam again.

In December last year, Modi had and Ghani had jointly inaugurated Afghanistan's new Parliament building, built by India at Rs 170 crore -- another key development project undertaken by India.

India's development assistance programme in Afghanistan stands at around $2 billion, making India the fifth largest bilateral donor.

Modi and Ghani later held a meeting after the inauguration programme.

"Thank you President Ashraf Ghani. We had fruitful discussions on enhancing ties between our nations," the Prime Minister tweeted.

He also visited the Indian consulate in Herat that had come under a terror attack in May 2014 and interacted with the consular staff

Modi arrived here earlier on Saturday on the first leg of his five-nation tour. This was his second visit to Afghanistan in five months, after his Kabul visit in December.

He later left for Doha, Qatar, on Saturday afternoon on the second leg of his tour that will also take him to Switzerland, the US and Mexico.

--IANS

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In a major loss of face for the ruling BJP in Maharashtra, Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, the de facto No.2 in the state government, quit on Saturday after getting embroiled in multiple controversies, including graft allegations in a questionable land deal and alleged links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

Khadse, 63, who held nearly a dozen major portfolios in the state government, met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and put in his papers.

BJP state president Raosaheb Danve told the media that Khadse has quit on "moral grounds" but the party stood solidly behind him.

Danve lauded the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from north Maharashtra for building up the party in the state for the past four decades.

On his part, Khadse defended himself saying he had "committed no wrong" nor "misused his official position". He said he was a victim of "trial by the media" in the past few weeks.

"I have done nothing wrong...when the allegations were made against me, I asked them (those levelling the charges) to provide evidence, which they did not give. I request the chief minister to conduct a thorough probe into the allegations and those making them," Khadse said.

Hitting out at his detractors within and outside the party, Khadse said this was "an attack on the BJP".

The fast-paced developments happened a day after Fadnavis met BJP president Amit Shah in New Delhi and submitted a detailed report on the issues confronting Khadse.

Fadnavis later followed it up with a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and apprised him of the row that was denting the BJP's "clean image" in the state.

Khadse had been under fire for the past few weeks from the ruling alliance partner Shiv Sena, as also the opposition Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, the Aam Aadmi Party and activists for various alleged acts of commission and omission.

Among the major accusations hurled at Khadse was allotting a prime industrial plot in Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) complex in Pune at a throwaway price and an allegation by an "ethical hacker" that his name figured on the regular call lists of absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim from his Karachi home.

The other charges against the minister related to an aide, Gajanan Patil, demanding a bribe of Rs 30 crore in connection with a land proposal file in Kalyan, Thane.

Former AAP activist Anjali Damania's allegations linked him to the multi-crore rupee irrigation scam. The latest were graft charges levelled by a fishermen's society.

Once a claimant to the chief minister's post, Khadse was assigned the departments of revenue, minorities development and wakf, state excise, relief and rehabilitation, earthquake rehabilitation, agriculture and horticulture, animal husbandry, dairy development and fisheries.

The opposition Congress leaders welcomed the resignation and demanded that other scam-tainted ministers should also be sacked.

"Khase should be arrested immediately and booked," Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam said.

State Congress general secretary Sanjay Dutt termed the resignation as "a cover-up drama by Fadnavis" and demanded a probe by a high court judge into the allegations against Khadse.

"If Fadnavis is really sincere on acting against corruption and upholding propriety, he should similarly sack his other corrupt ministers," Dutt said.

Senior Congress leader and newly-elected legislator Narayan Rane said the chief minister was playing games and "eliminating all backward classes leaders in the party and doing grave injustice to them".

"First the BJP ruined Khadse's image and after so many days of delay, they forced him to resign. Then, why did the state BJP chief Danve give him a clean chit only yesterday? Khadse is a victim of the internal strife and conspiracy between BJP-Shiv Sena. He should have immediately resigned after the charges were levelled against him."

Ridiculing Khadse's claims, opposition NCP senior leader Ajit Pawar said if the resignation was on "moral grounds", why did he delay it for so long.

Another NCP senior leader Jitendra Awhad said it was shameful that a minister with "connections to Dawood Ibrahim" was in the cabinet and the resignation was natural. He demanded a probe into the allegations.

--IANS

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In a major embarrassment for Maharashtra's ruling BJP, Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, the de facto No.2 in the state government, had to step down on Saturday after getting embroiled in multiple controversies, including corruption allegations in a questionable land deal and reported links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

Khadse, 63, once a claimant to the chief minister's post and holding nearly a dozen major portfolios including revenue, minorities development and wakf, relief and rehabilitation, excise, agriculture and horticulture, animal husbandry, and fisheries, met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday morning and put in his papers. Fadanavis later announced a probe.

Amid apprehensions of a potential sabotage bid by Khadse's substantial support among the BJP legislators, the development came after the biennial elections to six Rajya Sabha and 10 Legislative Council seats were completed on Friday with all candidates of different parties elected unopposed.

A Raj Bhavan official said following the chief minister's recommendation, Khadse's resignation was accepted.

Bharatiya Janata Party state president Raosaheb Danve told the media that Khadse has quit on "moral grounds" but the party stood solidly behind him and lauded the contribution of the OBC leader from north Maharashtra for building up the party in the state since four decades.

On his part, Khadse defended himself saying he had "committed no wrong" nor "misused his official position". He said he was a victim of "trial by the media" in the past few weeks.

"I have done nothing wrong...when the allegations were made against me, I asked them (those levelling the charges) to provide evidence, which they did not give. I request the chief minister to conduct a thorough probe into the allegations and those making them," he said.

Hitting out at his detractors within and outside the party, Khadse said this was "an attack on the BJP", even as some other worried ministers with different types of allegations against them went to meet Fadnavis.

Fadnavis tweeted this evening that since Khadse has demanded an enquiry into allegations against him, a retired Bombay High Court judge will be appointed for the probe.

Khadse's resignation followed after Fadnavis met BJP president Amit Shah in New Delhi and submitted a detailed report on the issues confronting Khadse.

He then met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and apprised him of the row that was denting the BJP's "clean image" .

Khadse had been under fire for the past few weeks from the ruling alliance partner Shiv Sena, as also the opposition Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, the Aam Aadmi Party and activists like Anna Hazre and Anjalai Damania for various alleged acts of commission and omission.

Among the major accusations against him was allotting a prime industrial plot in Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) complex in Pune at a throwaway price to family members and an allegation by an "ethical hacker" that his name figured on the regular call lists of absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar from his Karachi home.

The other charges against the minister related to his aide, Gajanan Patil, demanding a bribe of Rs 30 crore in connection with a land proposal file in Thane.

Former AAP activist Damania's allegations linked him to the multi-crore rupee irrigation scam. The latest were graft charges levelled by a fishermen's society.

The opposition Congress and NCP leaders welcomed the resignation and demanded that other scam-tainted ministers should also be sacked.

"Khase should be arrested immediately and booked," Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam said, while state Congress President Ashok Chavan demanded a judicial enquiry against Khadse.

State Congress general secretary Sanjay Dutt termed the resignation as "a cover-up drama by Fadnavis" and demanded a probe, while senior leader and newly-elected legislator Narayan Rane said the chief minister was playing games and "eliminating all backward classes leaders in the party and doing grave injustice to them".

"First the BJP ruined Khadse's image and after so many days of delay, they forced him to resign. Then, why did the state BJP chief Danve give him a clean chit only yesterday? Khadse is a victim of the internal strife and conspiracy between BJP-Shiv Sena. He should have immediately resigned after the charges were levelled against him."

Leader of Opposition in the Council Dhananjay Munde (NCP) said the MIDC scam was a serious issue and said it would be important to see whether the government would take action against other tainted ministers.

Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar meanwhile said if the resignation was on "moral grounds", why did he delay it for so long, while the party's Jitendra Awhad said it was shameful that a minister with "connections to Dawood Ibrahim" was in the cabinet.

--IANS

qn/vd
Three men in an inebriated condition were arrested in the early hours of Saturday for creating a nuisance and indulging in a brawl on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon (MG) road, near the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway, police said.

The arrested were identified as Udit Kumar, Pradeep and Raman.

They were arrested under section 160 of the Indian Penal Code (For committing affray - group fighting in a public place that disturbs the peace).

Udit Kumar hails from Gurgaon's sector 21, Pradeep from Ludhiana's Lodhi Club area and Raman from a colony in Haryana's Sirsa.

A senior police officer said the trio who were friends were creating a nuisance near IFFCO Chowk after they came out of a pub on MG Road around 1.30 in the morning.

The accused were carrying a bottle of wine and consuming it in the open.

A police patrol team arrived at the spot and told the trio to leave the place. However, Pradeep started quarrelling with the policemen.

A while later, more police was called to the spot and Pradeep was taken to Sector 18 police station.

Later, Kumar and Raman also surrendered.

--IANS

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Officials of the Centre and two state governments on Saturday met Reang tribal refugees, who have been sheltered in North Tripura district for the last 19 years, to persuade them to return to their homes in Mizoram.

The meeting, which took place in Kanchanpur in North Tripura, came amid Supreme Court's directives favouring repatriation of the refugees and the Mizoram government submitting a proposal to the central government onhow it plans to rehabilitate the displaced people.

The Union Home Ministry's Joint Secretary in charge of the northeast, Satyendra Garg, who arrived in Agartala on Friday, asked the refugees to return to their homes and lead a normal life.

Garg told reporters in Agartala that the Supreme Court had asked the Union Home Ministry and the Mizoram and Tripura governments to jointly work for the return of the tribal refugees to their homes in Mizoram.

The Mizoram government was represented in the meeting by Principal Secretary (Home) Renu Sharma, other home department officials and Deputy Commissioner (Mamit district) Lalbiaksangi.

The Tripura government was represented by District Magistrate (North Tripura) Sandeep Mahatame, Superintendent of Police Manik Lal Das and Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Kanchanpur) Nantu Ranjan Das.

About 31,300 Reang tribals, who call themselves 'Bru', have been living in seven makeshift camps in North Tripura's Kanchanpur areas adjoining Mizoram since October 1997.

They had fled ethnic violence in western Mizoram following the killing of a Mizo forest officer at the Dampa Tiger Reserve.

Despite several initiatives by the Mizoram government to bring them back, the refugees have been reluctant to go back to their villages unless their demands for food and security are met.

Mizoram's Additional Secretary (home) Lalbiakzama said in Aizawl that the state government submitted to the Union Home Ministry last month a detailed plan for taking back the tribal refugees.

"After the union home ministry approves the roadmap, a fresh initiative would be undertaken to bring back the Reang tribal refugees to their villages in Mizoram," he said.

The Mizoram government has sought Rs 68 crore from the central government to rehabilitate the tribals, Lalbiakzama said.

Several Mizo organisations, including powerful Young Mizo Association, have demanded deletion of names from the voter list of those tribals who are unwilling to come back to the state.

Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla also supported this demand.

Meanwhile, there was violence last month in Kanchanpur areas after a refugee Bhriguram Reang, 36, was beaten up by local people who accused him of catching fish from a pond without seeking permission from the owner.

The youth reportedly committed suicide later.

Angry tribal refugees burnt and damaged about 22 houses of local residents.

The Tripura government has been asking the Centre and Mizoram government to repatriate the refugees at the earliest as serious socio-economic and law and order problems have cropped up in the state.

Refugee leader Bruno Msha said the Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF) has been demanding financial assistance of Rs 150,000 per repatriated family, free rations for every repatriated family for two years, providing cultivable land, a political settlement of the ethnic problem and adequate security.

"We have, on a number of occasions, told the central and Mizoram governments that the refugees are willing to return to their homes in Mizoram if their 10-point demands, including security and rehabilitation, are met," he added.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh accompanied by his deputy Kiren Rijiju had visited the refugee camps in North Tripura in February last year and urged the Mizoram government and the refugees to end the stalemate.

--IANS

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Officials of the Centre and two state governments on Saturday asked Reang tribal refugees, sheltered in North Tripura district for the last 19 years, to return to their homes in Mizoram and take the benefit of the rehabilitation package.

The next phase of repatriation of 31,300 Reang tribal refugees is likely to resume after the monsoon in November.

"Union Home Ministry officials and top officials of Tripura and Mizoram governments in a meeting on Saturday with the leaders of the Reang tribal refugees have asked them to return to their homes in Mizoram and take the benefit of the rehabilitation package," North Tripura district's Kanchanpur Sub-Divisional Magistrate Nantu Ranjan Das told IANS over the phone.

He said: "Union Home Ministry's Joint Secretary in charge of the northeast Satyendra Garg very sincerely requested the refugees to go home as per the road map finalised by the Mizoram government. After their return the demands of the refugees would be fulfilled."

Das said that the Mizoram government officials told the meeting that they would make all arrangements to take back the refugees after the monsoon in November.

Garg, who arrived in Agartala on Friday from New Delhi, told the meeting that he would visit Mizoram next week to personally see the situation in Mamit district and adjoining areas where the refugees would be rehabilitated after their repatriation.

The crucial meeting, which took place in Kanchanpur in North Tripura, came amid the Supreme Court's directives favouring repatriation of the refugees and the Mizoram government submitting a proposal to the central government on how it plans to rehabilitate the displaced people.

Garg told reporters in Agartala that the Supreme Court had asked the Union Home Ministry and the Mizoram and Tripura governments to jointly work for the return of the tribal refugees to their homes in Mizoram.

The Mizoram government was represented in the meeting by Principal Secretary (Home) Renu Sharma, other home department officials and Deputy Commissioner (Mamit district) Lalbiaksangi.

The Tripura government was represented by District Magistrate (North Tripura) Sandeep Mahatame, Superintendent of Police Manik Lal Das and Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Kanchanpur) Nantu Ranjan Das.

About 31,300 Reang tribals, who call themselves 'Bru', have been living in seven makeshift camps in North Tripura's Kanchanpur areas adjoining Mizoram since October 1997.

They had fled ethnic violence in western Mizoram following the killing of a Mizo forest officer at the Dampa Tiger Reserve.

Despite several initiatives by the Mizoram government to bring them back, the refugees have been reluctant to go back to their villages unless their demands for food and security are met.

Mizoram's Additional Secretary (home) Lalbiakzama said in Aizawl that the state government submitted to the Union Home Ministry last month a detailed plan for taking back the tribal refugees.

"After the union home ministry approves the roadmap, a fresh initiative would be undertaken to bring back the Reang tribal refugees to their villages in Mizoram," he said.

The Mizoram government has sought Rs 68 crore from the central government to rehabilitate the tribals, Lalbiakzama said.

Several Mizo organisations, including the powerful Young Mizo Association, have demanded deletion of names from the voter list of those tribals who are unwilling to come back to the state.

Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla also supported this demand.

Meanwhile, there was violence last month in Kanchanpur areas after a refugee Bhriguram Reang, 36, was beaten up by local people who accused him of catching fish from a pond without seeking permission from the owner.

The youth reportedly committed suicide later.

Angry tribal refugees burnt and damaged about 22 houses of local residents.

The Tripura government has been asking the Centre and Mizoram governments to repatriate the refugees at the earliest as serious socio-economic and law and order problems have cropped up in the state.

Refugee leader Bruno Msha said the Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF) has been demanding financial assistance of Rs 150,000 per repatriated family, free rations for every repatriated family for two years, providing cultivable land, a political settlement of the ethnic problem and adequate security.

"We have, on a number of occasions, told the central and Mizoram governments that the refugees are willing to return to their homes in Mizoram if their 10-point demands, including security and rehabilitation, are met," he added.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh accompanied by his deputy Kiren Rijiju had visited the refugee camps in North Tripura in February last year and urged the Mizoram government and the refugees to end the stalemate.

--IANS

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said the German parliament's recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide was a "plot" against his country, but noted that conflict with Berlin would not affect relations with the European Union (EU).

The Turkish leader claimed media outlets were involved in the "plot" and that parliament's decision was taken after orders from a "superior authority", Efe news reported.

Erdogan, who has already warned that the decision will affect relations with Germany, pointed out that those who acted against the interests of Turkey "would lose an important friend".

He also harshly criticised German Chancellor Angela Merkel for not intervening to stop the decision.

The Turkish president added that while the issue was related to Germany, it would be wrong to tie it with relations between Turkey and the European Union.

On Thursday, German parliament approved, almost unanimously, a decision to acknowledge the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire a century ago.

The resolution described the deaths of between 800,000 to 1.5 million Armenian Christians in the 1915 massacres as "genocide" - a term that Turkey had rejected.

Turkey slammed the vote, recalling its ambassador in Berlin and threatening reprisals.

--IANS

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US Defence Secretary Ash Carter has warned China against aggression in the South China Sea, saying the nation is bucking positive regional cooperation in Asia in pursuit of its own ambitions.

Carter made the remarks on Friday at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, an annual conference addressing security in the Asia-Pacific region, CNN reported.

"China's actions in the South China Sea are isolating it at a time when the entire region is coming together and networking," Carter said, adding "Unfortunately, if these actions continue, China could end up erecting a Great Wall of Self-Isolation."

Beijing's claim to almost the entire South China Sea is a major source of tension in the region, as the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam have also claimed territory in the area, which is rich in natural resources and a key zone for navigation routes.

The US has protested China's shows of force in the region.

Asked by a Chinese professor in a question-and-answer session why the US was focusing on China, Carter said it should not be interpreted as a dispute between the two nations.

"What we stand for is the principle of the rule of law and abiding by international law," Carter said.

"It's not a focus on China. It's a focus on principle."

"It's China's actions that are causing that attention," Carter added.

Carter's speech follows a keynote speech also on Friday from Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha in which he also addressed the South China Sea, calling on rival claimants to "preserve peace and stability" in the region.

The Thai premier listed tensions in the South China Sea and East China Sea as the first of seven security challenges that should be addressed "in order to find a new equilibrium."

--IANS

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On May 22, a small number of tribal people assembled under the scorching sun in the sleepy town of Geedam in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district for a protest meeting. Their agenda: demand the representation of tribals in the state government and its departments.
In an article in The Hindu Business Line on July 2, 2002, the late Murli Deora, then a member of the Rajya Sabha and a long-standing friend of the late Dhirubhai Ambani, recalled that the latter, a few days before his final illness, had lamented that the country's surging foreign exchange reserves were unproductively deployed: "What is the use? The government is investing them in US Treasury Bonds which yield 2.5 per cent while borrowing at 11 per cent."



In a study on convertibility of the rupee on the capital account published in the Economic and Political Weekly in September 2006, I had drawn attention to a school of thought which contends that if the reserves exceed external debt, 10-25 per cent of the reserves should be invested in refined gold as a buffer against any exogenous shocks to the currency. In 2009, the Reserve Bank of India bought 200 tons out of 412 tons of gold offered for sale by the International Monetary Fund to its member countries. That helped enhance the country's gold holdings above 500 tonnes. The table alongside gives details of the gold holdings of major countries in the world.
Citing Investigation Agency (NIA) chief Sharad Kumar's reported statement that so far there was no evidence about Pakistani agencies having helped the terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad carry out the Pathankot attack, Congress today sought to know who were the attackers then.

"If the terrorists were not from Pakistan, then who were the terrorists who attacked the Pathankot base?" Congress General Secretary said.

The government needed to clarify its position on the NIA chief's statement, he said.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the security adviser need to answer who were these terrorists," the Congress leader said.

NIA's "clean chit" to Pakistan was a complete failure of Indian diplomacy, Singh said.

The Congress leader also took a swipe at Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, saying he was more concerned about Goa, his home state, than the country.

"Parrikar is hardly the Defence Minister. He is Super Chief Minister of Goa," he said.

Singh was here to participate in a function to release a book 'Public Matters', written by former Union minister of state for External Affairs Eduardo Faleiro.
Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Saturday condemned the militant attack on a Border Security Force (BSF) convoy in Bijbehara area that left three jawans dead and nine others injured.

"This is a genuine concern which the members have raised. The entire House condemns it (the attack)," Speaker Kavinder Gupta said in the Assembly.

The issue was raised by BJP MLA from Naushera, Ravinder Raina, at the start of the Question Hour.

"The House should pass a condemnation resolution against Pakistan for fuelling attacks like the one that took place at Bijbehara yesterday ...Three of our jawans have been martyred," he said.

The BJP MLAs briefly exchanged heated words with independent MLA from Langate, Sheikh Abdul Rashid, who criticised the ruling party members for not raising the issue of Handwara killings.

"Where is the magisterial enquiry report into the killing of five persons in Handwara? You do not talk about it," Rashid said.

Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists had attacked a convoy on Friday killing three personnel and injuring nine others near Bijbehara on Srinagar-Jammu national highway.
Anurag Kashyap's latest directorial venture, Raman Raghav 2.0, premiered recently at the 69th Cannes Film Festival, as part of the non-competitive Director's Fortnight. Starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vicky Kaushal, the film has been inspired by the true story of a serial killer who had Bombay of the 1960s in the throes of terror. Kashyap speaks to Avantika Bhuyan about shooting the film guerrilla-style in flat 20 days and his extensive collection of crime novels



Earlier with Bombay Velvet and now with Raman Raghav 2.0 you have time and again explored the era of the 1960s. What is your fascination with that period?



That era has inspired a lot of classic films and novels. It was the time of Prohibition. The British Raj hangover was still there. It was the time of smuggling, old-style night clubs, serial killers, people who didn't know how to solve crime. To me, the period is very interesting cinematically as it represented the coming of age of a city.
As the cameras started rolling on May 27 when Mamata Banerjee took oath as the chief minister of West Bengal for a second term, the question uppermost on people's mind was: what direction will the state take in the next five years?



In 2011, West Bengal was seething with anger against a 34-year Left Front regime; the embers of the land agitation movements in Singur and Nandigram were glowing; Lalgarh had transcended from an ideological battlefield between the Left and ultra-Left to a fierce battle scene; civil society represented by a motley group of artists, poets, actors was screaming Paribartan chai (we want change); and Banerjee became the face of the movement.
A 'panchaloha' idol of Lord Shiva, estimated to be worth about Rs 4 crore, has been found from possession of three persons at a village about 60 km from here, police said.

The seizure was made late last night near Pandiyur village



in Tirupur district by a police patrol team and the trio has been arrested, they said.

Police said the two-kg Panchaloha idol - made of five different metals - was about eight inches in height.

They said one of the three arrested persons had made the



idol few year back and they had hit on the plan of bringing it to Chennai where it could fetch about Rs 4 crore.

One of them knew an idol buyer to whom it could be sold.

They were allegedly on their way to Chennai in a car when



they were nabbed and idol seized.

Police said the trio were being questioned to ascertain if



they had any links to Deenadayalan, the kingpin of an idol smuggling racket, which was busted on May 31 at Chennai.
Main rivals of Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party today came down heavily on Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's government over the Mathura violence with BJP chief Amit Shah demanding resignation of state cabinet minister Shivpal Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati seeking a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the incidents.

Accusing Shivpal Yadav, Akhilesh's uncle, of being responsible for the violence, Shah said "if even a little bit of self-respect is left in netaji (SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav), he should get the resignation of minister Shivpal Yadav immediately.

Addressing a meeting of booth incharge of Kanpur and Bundelkhand regions, he said "Akhilesh Yadav ji, if you have to maintain relation of chacha-bhatija, you should tell the public that you have no relation with them."



His attack came against the backdrop of BJP state chief Keshav Prasad Maurya alleging that the attackers were "goons of PWD Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav".

Shivpal, however, denied the allegation and said police would not spare alleged key accused Ram Vriksh Yadav.

Shah said there should be no politics over the incident. "Politics should not be done over the dead."



Virtually sounding the bugle for the 2017 state Assembly elections, Shah charged law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh has been reduced to mockery.

"An SP is killed in broad day light. An SHO is killed. More than 200 people open fire on the police with rifles and explosives but the minister sitting in the secretariat in Lucknow gives patronage to them and does not allow the police to act," Shah charged.

The BJP President also alleged that the Mathura incident has defamed Uttar Pradesh across the country.

At least 24 people, including two police officers, died in Thursday's clashes between police and encroachers at Jawahar Bagh in Mathura.

BJP has already demanded a CBI inquiry into the Mathura violence.

Shah accused the state government of not implementing the Centre's programmes for welfare of the people.

He asked the party cadres to propagate about the central government's welfare schemes among the people and appealed to the people to help BJP secured two-thirds majority in next year's Assembly elections in UP.

Mayawati, addressing the media here, attacked Akhilesh Yadav accusing him of not taking the Mathura violence seriously and demanded a CBI or Supreme Court-monitored probe into the incidents.

"Rather than touring Bundelkhand, he should have been visiting Mathura today," she said.

Akhilesh Yadav, for his part, announced increase in the compensation amount to the next of kin of the two police officers, who were killed in violence in Mathura, from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 50 lakh, "extraordinary" pension to their families and job to one member from each family.

He said the state government would extend all help in rehabilitation of the two policemen's dependents.
Jammu and Kashmir DGP K Rajendra Kumar today led officers and jawans in paying homage to two police personnel who were shot dead by militants in Anantnag.

A wreath-laying ceremony was held at Anantnag district police lines for ASI Bashir Ahmad Ahanger and constable Reyaz Ahmad Sheikh who lost their lives in a militant attack in poll-bound Anantnag today, a police spokesman said.

The ceremony which was attended by Inspector General of Police, Kashmir SJM Gillani, Deputy Inspector General of Police, South Kashmir Nitish Kumar, SSP Anantnag Abdul Jabbar, SSP Kulgam Mohammad Irshad, SP Awantipora Shridhar Patil and hundreds of people, the spokesman said.

ASI Bashir Ahmad is survived by his wife and an 11-year-old son, while constable Reyaz Ahmad Sheikh is survived by wife, an 11-year-old son, two daughters aged seven and nine, aged parents and an unmarried sister, he added.

Scores of people attended the funeral of the two slain police personnel at Logripora-Ashmuqam and Uttersoo in Anantnag district.

Later, chairing a meeting at the Range Police Office, the DGP asked officers from the state police force and Central paramilitary forces to gear up all resources to apprehend the culprits.
The Andhra Pradesh government and Chinese telecommunications firm ZTESoft today signed a letter of intent to set up a 'joint incubation centre and smart city innovation hub' in the coastal city of Kakinada.

The letter of intent was signed by the state's Information Technology, Electronics and Communication Department with ZTESoft, a fully-owned subsidiary of ZTE Corporation, one of the largest telecom companies in the world, an official release said.

The innovation hub would be a joint collaboration between Shenzhen and Andhra Pradesh, it added.

Shenzhen zone is one of the biggest and most successful industrial zones in the world and contributes almost 20 per cent to the Chinese economy.

AP-Shenzhen Joint Incubation Centre will be an 85:15 venture between Innovation Society of Andhra Pradesh government and Qinhai Authority/ZTESoft.

The state government would invest Rs 13.60 crore, while ZTESoft would invest Rs 2.40 crore. The incubation centre would generate direct employment for about 670 people and indirect employment for 2,500 people in the next three years, it said.

Kakinada, known for its rich coastal resources and excellent institutional framework, is one of the top 20 candidate cities for development as smart city, the release added.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has expressed his intent to develop Kakinada as "Shenzhen style" coastal economic zone. Kakinada is the ideal location to host the AP-Shenzhen Joint Innovation Hub, it said.

The Department has signed the letter of intent with ZTESoft to develop the joint innovation hub and provide support to rise Rs 1,000 crore funding from China.

ZTESoft Technology Private Ltd and the Qianhai Authority of China proposed a three-year programme working with Andhra Pradesh's Innovation Society to establish the talent and support infrastructure needed for a world-class technology startup ecosystem, the release added.
Vice President Hamid Ansari returned home today after concluding his five-day visit to Morocco and Tunisia during which he met the top leadership of the two countries and discussed a range of issues of mutual interest.

On the last day of his final leg, Ansari yesterday addressed a gathering at the Tunisian Institute of Strategic Studies and called on Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi.

Ansari also met with two influential political leaders - President of the Ennahda Party Rached Ghannouchi and Mufti of the Republic of Tunisia Othmane Battikh.

Before leaving for home, Ansari also visitedCarthage Ruins situated on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis and Sidi Bou Said - a town located 20 kms from the capital.

Secretary (Economic Relations) Amar Sinha said during his visit to Tunisia, the Vice President focussed on India's role in Tunisia whose leadership recalled the visit of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.

India's past, including role of Mahatma Gandhi in the freedom struggle and visit of Indira Gandhi to North African region in 1984 has a lot of influence here, Sinha told reporters.

He said that the main challenge for Tunisia is to revive its tourism industry.

Currently, tourists from Europe visit the region, he said, adding that efforts would be made for Indian tourists to visit the region.

Sinha said that India would also help Tunisia in the industry sector. Already Tata, Mahindra and Dabur have started taking interest in the region, he added.

He said that Indian doctors and health institutions could also explore setting up their units in Tunisia which has lot to offer in the health sector.

Besides the pharma sector can also explore the region to capitalise on those coming to Tunisia for treatment.

Sinha said that during interactions, need was stressed for higher level of meetings at the political level.

India will like to explore the markets of Tunisia and Morocco, he said, adding that there is a lot of scope for Indian companies in this region.

He said that India can also learn from Moroccan capital Rabat as far as cleanliness is concerned.

In Rabat, Ansari met Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane and others including the Speakers of the two houses.

India and Morocco signed two MoUs on cultural cooperation and institutional training.

The Vice President and the Prime Minister also launched the India-Morocco Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Actor Anthony Hopkins has joined the cast of the new "Transformers" movie.

The 78-year-old "Silence of the Lambs" star has signed on to play a major character in "Transformers: The Last Knight."



Hopkins will join Mark Wahlberg, Isabela Moner, Jerrod Carmichael, and Josh Duhamel in the sequel, reported Ace Showbiz.

Announcing the casting news, a post on director Michael Bay's official Twitter account read: "The man, the myth, the legend - help us welcome Sir Anthony Hopkins to the #transformers universe."



The casting comes hours after Bay announced Freya, an epileptic six-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier that was last month dubbed Britain's loneliest dog, will also appear in the fifth "Transformers" movie when it hits theatres in June, 2017.

The dog has spent all its six years at an animal rescue centre in Merseyside, England, and a recent article about the sad pooch in a British tabloid gave animal lover Bay an idea.
Amid raging debate over verbal triple talaq, a top Muslim cleric today attributed the increasing confusion over Shariyat laws, especially those related to women, to the lack of adequate information and implementation of these laws.

All India Muslim Personal Law Board member Maulana Khali Rasheed Farangi Mahali said majority of the women were satisfied with Shariyat and there was no need to amend these laws.

Islami Shariyat was not meant to change with time and situation, he said.

Mahali said problems were cropping up as Muslims were not following the laws properly.

"Any change in Shariyat will not be tolerated. It is the responsibility of female members of the Board to take Islami Shariyat to women," he said.

The AIMPLB member said the issue of triple talaq was being raked up because of lack of information among Muslim women about rights given to them in Islam.

"No other religion provides so much rights to women like Islam. On certain issues, women have more rights than men and 99 per cent Muslim women were happy with the law," he said.

"Shariyat does not do injustice to anyone. In Islam marriage is an agreement, which is solemnised with the will of both the parties," Mahali said.

Regarding triple talaq, the cleric said that giving triple talaq at one go was wrong and they condemn it.

After recent court orders a fresh debate has started on women's right in Shariyat.

His statement assumes significance as All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board had said earlier said that Shariyat law would not work in India and it could only be followed in Islamic countries.

Held under the aegis of AIMPLB, a conference was organised



here today to address issues related to women's rights in the light of Muslim Personal Law.

A woman member Asma Zehra from Hyderabad said Muslim Personal Law is formulated in the light of Quran and Hadith (sayings and deeds of the Prophet).

She said that Islam was first to give equal and in some cases more rights to woman than men, example being the consent to accept in nikah which is first given by the girl/bride.

Similarly, just as a man can annul the marriage by saying Talaq, the woman also has the same right to exercise it through 'Khulaa' or Faskh e Nikah (right of a woman to seek a divorce from her husband).

Citing verses from Quran, she said it was not legal or justified for a husband and wife to live together after a man has said talaq thrice.

Zehra said India is a secular, democratic country and all citizens have the right to religious freedom.

Media was highlighting the issue of triple talaq to show that huge number of Muslim women were suffering because of this provision but the ground reality is that the divorce rate is least in the Muslim community, she said.

She said "letter head organisation" have presented false concocted data in their survey reports. "We strongly condemn such surveys. Muslim Personal Law is a Divine Law. There is no scope for any change or amendment."



The Muslim Personal Law is attacked for being gender biased and anti woman which is totally false and untrue, she said.
High-speed railway lines would be built between Visakhapatnam-Chennai and Bengaluru-Amaravati in collaboration with foreign countries, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said here today.

The foreign collaborator would be decided after talks with different countries, he said.

"I held talks with French officials yesterday but that was only a preliminary meeting. We will talk with other countries as well and choose a partner," the minister said.

Briefing reporters after a three-hour high-level meeting with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, he said a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV)\Joint Venture (JV) company would be formed by the railways with the state government in a couple of months for taking up major rail projects in the state.

"Through the proposed SPV, 21 railway stations in the state would be redeveloped as airports. The South-Central Railway General Manager would coordinate with the state government in this regard and review the works every month," Prabhu said.

The Railway Minister also announced an aggregate capital investment of Rs 1,000 crore for setting up two new railway workshops at Kurnool and Tirupati and a wagon overhaul facility at Visakhapatnam.

These facilities would create hundreds of jobs, he said.

Prabhu also announced that a major Rail Neer plant would also be set up in Andhra Pradesh.

Two special tourist trains would also be introduced in the state, one of which would be run by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), he said.

"The second tourist train would be modelled on the Palace on Wheels and the Deccan Odyssey. We would work with the state government on this," he said.
At least 33 people were killed and 22 others injured when a truck collided with a bus which burst into flames in Algeria early today, authorities said.

The accident took place near the city of Aflou, 400 kilometres south of the capital Algiers, the APS agency said quoting the civil defence.

The bus slammed into a rocky embankment after the collision and caught fire, with most of the passengers who were asleep at the time burning to death, it said.

Road accidents kill at least 4,000 people each year in Algeria.
is looking forward to becoming India's associate in technology-based industries, its Industry Minister Alhaz Amir Hussain Amu said today.

" wants to be India's partner in the technology-based medium-scale and large-scale industrial quest to make the country economically vibrant," Amu said while addressing the 'Invest Tripura: A Business Meet' at Prajna Bhavan here.

"The imbalance in bilateral business will be reduced if businessmen from India go there for setting up industrial units," he said.

Amu said that had received 96 foreign direct investments (India) and 212 joint-investment projects till June, 2015.

"A sum of Rs 3,084.43 crore has been invested by Indian businessmen in Bangladesh, which has generated 63,277 jobs," he said.

Calling upon the Indian entrepreneurs to invest in Bangladesh taking advantage of the congenial industrial climate there, Amu said, "if SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Area) comes into effect, then investors of Bangladesh will have a golden scope to harness the markets in India, European Union and Japan."

Amu also said that the Bangladesh government had been giving priority to improve connectivity with the North East and other parts of India.

"We have taken decision to strengthen road and rail connectivity with north eastern states. Works are in the pipeline to connect Agartala with Akhaura through rail link and Feni bridge that will ensure direct connectivity with Chittagong port in Bangladesh," he said.

Amu, however, strongly advocated simplicity in foreign trade rules to give a major push to Indo-Banlga trade.

"Bangladesh is importing around 3,000 items from India. Issues like customs surcharge, basic custom duty and addition duty must be addressed to create a win-win foreign trade," he said.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said that the days were not far when the state would become a gateway to the entire North East.

"Once Feni bridge is constructed, Tripura will be able to access Chittagong port in Bangladesh. This will obviously open up a new opportunity to explore markets of the South Asian countries," he said.

Lauding Assocham for holding such a meet here, the chief minister said Tripura might be a small state, but size was not always important.

Tripura Industry Minister Tapan Chakraborty, Chief Secretary Yaspal Singh and Assocham Chairman (eastern region) Sanjay Jhunjhunwala were present in the meet.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said it was unfortunate that post of Punjabi teachers in Rajasthan government schools are being abolished in Punjabi dominated areas of the state and he would take up the matter with his Rajasthan counterpart Vasundhara Raje.

Interacting with the media persons on the sidelines ofSangat Darshan programme here in Lambi Assembly Segment, Badal said that it was unfortunate that Rajasthan government has abolished post of Punjabi teachers in Government schools in Punjabi dominated areas of the state and was not providing free Punjabi text books to SC students besides not initiating recruitment process for Punjabi teachers.

The Punjab Chief Minister said that he would take up this issue with Rajasthan counterpart and seek its early resolution.

Replying to another query, the Chief Minister said that he was given robe of honour (Siropa) by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC) during his visit to Golden Temple yesterday.

However, Badal said that as a devout Sikh he had went to Sri Harmandir Sahib for paying obeisance and not for taking Siropa.

The Chief Minister said that he was a firm follower of tenet of Sikhism and was duty bound to pay obeisance at Sri Darbar Sahib.

Reiterating the firm commitment of the SAD-BJP alliance to maintain communal harmony, peace and brotherhood in the state, the Chief Minister said that nobody would be ever allowed to disturb the hard earned peace in the state.

Badal said that the state government was duty bound to maintain law and order in Punjab at any cost.

Asked to comment on Sikh Preacher Sant Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwala's demand for CBI enquiry regarding attack on him, the Chief Minister said that the state Police was competent enough to investigate the entire matter.

He said that the state Police must be allowed to complete its enquiry in a fair manner.
Bahraini security forces today captured 11 inmates who broke out of jail, leaving six others still on the run a day after their escape, the interior ministry said.

The ministry said a total of 17 prisoners had broken out of Al-Hadd jail near the dry dock on the island of Muharraq, east of the capital Manama, late on Friday.

Apart from 11 escapees, five accomplices were also arrested, it said, and a search was still under way for six other inmates aged 20 and 21.

There was no immediate word on whether the prisoners were common criminals or political activists jailed in a sweeping five-year-old crackdown on dissent among the kingdom's Shiite majority.

Bahrain's Akhbar Al-Khaleej newspaper had said earlier that around 20 prisoners escaped.

"They managed to seize a bus and get away after assaulting warders and police and wounding several of them," the paper said.

Police set up roadblocks on the causeways linking Muharraq to Bahrain's main island, where Manama is located, the paper added.

The tiny but strategic Gulf state has been shaken by unrest since its Sunni minority rulers crushed a month-long, Shiite-led uprising demanding reforms in 2011.

Despite the crackdown, protesters still frequently clash with police in Shiite villages outside the capital.

The kingdom, which is connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway, lies across the Gulf from Shiite Iran and is home to the US Fifth Fleet.
Actor Bill Skarsgard is in final talks to star as frightening clown Pennywise in the two-movie adaptation of Stephen King's novel "It".

Director Andy Muschietti is also trying to add Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, and Jeremy Ray Taylor to the horror project, said The Hollywood Reporter.

The Part 1 of "It" is scheduled to arrive in September 2017.

King's book revolves around children, battling a mysterious being known as "It" that takes the physical form of Pennywise. It further follows the group, when they group and the clown seems to have reappeared.
BJP state today hit out at DMK chief M Karunanidhi for questioning the timing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's congratulatory message to Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on May 19, saying he had greeted her only after trends indicated AIADMK's victory in the assembly polls.

"Modi greeted Jayalalithaa on her party's poll victory only at 11.15 AM on Twitter on May 19 and not at 10 AM as claimed by Karunanidhi. By this time trends had already indicated that AIADMK would win," BJP Tamil Nadu unit president Tamilisai Soundararajan said in a statement here.

She pointed out that even before greeting Jayalalithaa, Modi had congratulated Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal Chief Minister) at 11.14 AM, Sonowal (Assam CM) at 11.23 AM and the Kerala winners at 11.26 AM.

On Karunanidhi's charge that the PM's call had influenced the electoral outcome in Tamil Nadu, she said, "if election results can be influenced through greetings, why had Modi not done it in Delhi polls? How did Nitish win back power in Bihar?"



Karunanidhi had at a public meeting yesterday got up to celebrate his 93rd birthday had asked Modi the 'secret' behind him greeting Jayalalithaa at 10 AM on her victory and sought to know how he learnt by that time itself she was winning.

"Did you complete counting of votes even before the process had started?," he had asked sarcastically and alleged that Modi's greetings influenced the electoral outcome in Tamil Nadu.

The DMK patriarch had also termed the Election Commission a "dishonest" organisation and said a "fitting lesson" should be taught to the EC by "ensuring victory" for DMK candidates in Aravakurichi and Thanjavur Assembly constituencies.

He had alleged that election was rescinded in these two constituencies to prevent DMK from winning the seats and added if Modi failed to give an explanation it would mean that he had accepted his charges.

The BJP state president also hit out at Karunanidhi for saying there was no proper explanation for seizure of Rs 570 crore by the Election Commission, which SBI had claimed was its own.

"He says Centre should respond to the seizure though authorities have clarified that it belongs to SBI ... You have not given a true reply to the Rs 1.76 lakh Crore 2G scam," she said.

Soundararajan also hit out at Karunanidhi for his "sheep believes only the butcher" May 30 remark, a reference to people who voted AIADMK back to power.

"If DMK wins, they are people and if they don't, the people are sheep. If DMK wins the Election Commission officials are honest, if they lose, they are dishonest ... You opened up a bundle of lies," she said.
A British man was sentenced to 15 years in a US prison for conspiring to import 100 kilos (220 pounds) of North Korean methamphetamines into the United States.

Scott Stammers, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in August 2015, will be deported after serving his 181-month sentence.

Dressed in khaki pants and an olive top, Stammers declined an opportunity to address the New York court.

"No. I'm fine, thank you very much sir," he told US Federal Judge Andrew Carter yesterday.

Stammers had faced a sentence of up to 30 years, but the judge cited mitigating factors that included the fact that he has two children and was held in harsh conditions in Thailand before being extradited.

He said the defendant's "somewhat difficult upbringing" was another reason, as was his past use of alcohol, cocaine and methamphetamine, which "may have contributed to his involvement in this offense."



"Mr Stammers I wish you the best of luck. I hope you can get your life back on track," said Carter, expressing hope that the defendant can be the father that "your children need you to be."



He was one of five defendants arrested in Thailand in September 2013 on suspicion of preparing to ship the drugs by boat.

Two of his co-defendants belonged to a criminal gang, which claimed to have stockpiled a ton of North Korean methamphetamines in the Philippines for storage, according to US court documents.

Stammers lived in the Philippines prior to his arrest and was involved in operational details of criminal activity in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, US prosecutors said.

Court documents described him as a poor student and said he got first job in private security at 18.

Within a year he was stabbed on the job, but went onto make "a good living" handling security matters across Southeast Asia, according to court filings.

Despite difficulties at school, he developed a working knowledge of Tagalog, spoken in the Philippines, Thai and Cantonese, they added.
China today hit back at the US after Defence Secretary Ashton Carter's remarks that Beijing was building a "Great Wall of self-isolation", asserting that America should "learn lessons" from the wars it had waged in the Asia-Pacific region after World War II and play a "constructive" role.

"Carter's claims are incorrect and do not accord with the actual situation," Guan Youfei, director of the Office for International Military Cooperation of the Chinese Central Military Commission, told media on the sidelines of the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue here.

Guan said the US should "learn lessons" from the wars it had waged in the Asia-Pacific region after World War II and play a constructive role in the region," state-run Xinhua agency reported.

The top Chinese military official asked the US to keep its security pledges, withdraw troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible, stop arms sale to China's Taiwan and refrain from holding military drills on the Korean Peninsula.

Speaking at the security summit, Carter said that China risks further alienating regional neighbours and building a "Great Wall of self-isolation" as it pursues its military expansion across the South China Sea.

"China's actions in the South China Sea are isolating it, at a time when the entire region is coming together and networking...Unfortunately, if these actions continue, China could end up erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation," Carter said.

Guan said China will continue to enhance cooperation with other Asia-Pacific countries under the Belt and Road (Silk Road) initiative in various fields.

Carter had earlier made similar accusations against China in a speech delivered at the US Naval Academy.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry had responded, saying such claims reflected "American-style mentality" and "American-style hegemony".

The war of words came ahead of the high-level annual Strategic and Economic Dialoguebetween the two countries to be held here on June 6-7, which will be attended among others by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

China said besides highlighting its concerns over US-Asia pivot push into the South China Sea at the summit, it will also raise Tibet and Taiwan issues with US.
Chinese police have detained several activists while others were under surveillance on Saturday on the anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown, rights groups said.

Six human rights activists, including the poet Liang Taiping, have been held by Beijing police since Thursday after holding a private ceremony commemorating 'June 4', the date in 1989 of the brutal crushing of pro-democracy protests in Beijing, the Chinese NGO Weiquanwang said.

They were suspected of 'provoking quarrels and fomenting unrest', said the group, which also reported another activist had 'disappeared' in recent days in the capital.

Nearly three decades after the crackdown by the military, the communist regime continues to forbid any debate on the subject, mention of which is banned from textbooks and the media and censored on the Internet.

As in previous years, the 'Tiananmen Mothers', an association of parents who lost children during the violence, were placed under heavy surveillance.

Zhang Xianling, whose 19-year-old son was killed in 1989, told that when she went to a Beijing cemetery today with a dozen other parents to pay their respects at the graves of their children, they were surrounded by security forces.

"We have been under surveillance since last week... 30 (plain clothed policemen) were at the cemetery," said Zhang.

The Mothers of Tiananmen penned an open letter slamming the '27 years of white terror and suffocation' they have been subjected to by the authorities.

"We the victims' families are eavesdropped upon and surveilled by the police; we are followed or even detained, and our computers searched and confiscated," read the letter signed by the group's members and released the NGO Human Rights in .

"The government has ignored us, pretending that the June Fourth Massacre that shocked the whole world never happened in China, and refusing to respond to our appeals, while our fellow countrymen gradually lose the memory of the event," the letter continued.

The letter also said that the group had been warned that all visits to the home of the group's founder Ding Zilin, who is now 79-years-old and in poor health, would be restricted from April 22 to June 4.

"Those who want to visit her must apply for permission and may visit her only after approval by the Beijing Public Security Bureau, and they may not be accompanied by other victims' family members," the letter read.
China on Saturday silently observed the 27th anniversary of the rebellion, which witnessed a brutal military crackdown that led to a massacre of hundreds of students protesting against the ruling Communist Party.

Security was stepped up around the iconic here with police meticulously searching people entering the 109-acre area to ensure no posters and bills were carried to commemorate the event.

The massive square which became famous all over the world with an iconic picture of a young man standing before a row of battle tanks in 1989 was today filled with people.

The government defended the action saying that the "great achievements" made by China in the past three decades testify the righteousness of the path chosen by the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Every year June 4 is seen as a stark reminder of the day, when thousands of young people took over the streets of Beijing, challenging the might of the CPC and the military.

The riots followed the death of one CPC's reformist leaders Hu Yaobang, who was forced to resign as party general secretary.

The CPC, termed the protests counter revolutionary riots ordered the military to put down the rebellion following, which heavy violence ensued.

For its part the CPC and the government continued to reiterate that history has shown that the path chosen by the Party was right.

"With regard to political turmoil which took place in the 1980s the Chinese government has already reached a conclusion," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Friday when asked about the 27 years old events.

"Great achievements have been made by China in the past thirty plus years with reform and opening up. Facts have proven that the development we have chosen meets the fundamental interest of China and Chinese people and satisfy the aspiration of entire Chinese nation," Hua said, referring to China's becoming the world's second largest economy next only to the US.
has rejected a US report on terrorism, saying that it carried "false accounts" of its crackdown on East Turkistan Islamic Movement in the volatile Xinjiang province.

is "dissatisfied" with the false accounts relating to in a US State Department report on terrorism, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

In the "Country Reports on Terrorism 2015," the US blamed China for primarily focusing on East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) in its counterterrorism.

"China is dissatisfied with the false accounts relating to China, and regrets the unobjective remarks concerning China-US counterterrorism cooperation," Hua was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency.

"China does not accept the US making irresponsible comments about the counterterrorism policies of other countries including China," Hua said.

The report alleged that China had implemented stricter controls and curbs on religious practice in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and that there is a lack of transparency and information provided by it about violent incidents in China that the government characterised as terrorism.

Calling terrorism the "arch-enemy of human civilisation," Hua said joint counterterrorism efforts were a pressing task and the responsibility of the community and double standards will do little to help cooperation.

China has always attached importance to and participated in international counterterrorism cooperation, and will continue to have exchanges with other countries including the US, Hua said.

She called on relevant countries to respect China's efforts to combat East Turkistan forces, including the ETIM, which is listed by the UN as a terrorist group.

China blames al Qaeda-backed ETIM for the violence in Xinjiang and other parts of the country.

Xinjiang was on the boil for several years as Uyghur Muslims who constituted majority in the province were restive about settlement of Hans from other provinces.
China on Saturday said that it will ignore the decision of an arbitration panel in a Philippine lawsuit against Beijing's sweeping territorial claims in the .

"To put it simply, the arbitration case actually has gone beyond the jurisdiction" of a UN arbitration panel, said Rear Adm. Guan Youfei, director of the foreign affairs office of China's National Defence Ministry.

The Philippines has filed a case in the UN under the UN Convention on Law of the Sea, questioning China's territorial claim in the .

An arbitration panel is expected to rule on the case soon. The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled last year that it has jurisdiction over the case despite China's rejection. "Because the territorial and sovereignty disputes have not been subjected to the arbitration, we think the arbitration is illegal," Guan told reporters on the sidelines of an security conference here.

"Therefore, we do not participate in it not accept it." Guan's statement is a reiteration of China's longstanding position that it wants to settle its disputes with various countries on a bilateral basis and that it will not accept mediation.

Still, it gains significance because of the overtures made by Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, who said recently that he is open to bilateral negotiations with China.

This has given Beijing an opening that it hopes to leverage in the event the panel rules in favour of the Philippines.

China also has conflicting claims in the sea with Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam and Brunei, who all are looking for US help, much to Beijing's chagrin.

"The new Philippine leader also said that the Philippines hopes to conduct a dialogue with China," Guan said. "We hope the Philippines could get back on to the track of dialogue.The door to dialogue is always open.
Chinese meteorologists warned on Saturday that rainstorms will hit some southern regions over the next 24 hours, asking authorities to closely watch the weather and brace for any situations.

From Saturday to Sunday, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guangdong and Fujian provinces will be lashed by heavy rain or storms, with some areas to get caught in torrential rain up to 120 millimetres, according to the National Meteorological Centre (NMC) forecast.

The centre also issued a blue alert, the lowest on a four- tier warning system, for severe convective weather for the above-mentioned regions and some northern and central areas.

Provinces of Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi and Gansu will be pounded by thunderstorms on Saturday and some areas will also see hailstones, the centre said.

The NMC cautioned that local governments should take emergency measures against thunderstorms, strong wind and potential disasters, including mountain floods and landslides, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

has a four-tier colour-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
Ahead of Tuesday's key primaries, has exuded confidence that she will be able to secure enough delegates to become the Democratic party's presumptive presidential nominee.

"I believe, on Tuesday, I will have decisively won the popular vote and I will have decisively won the pledged delegate majority," Clinton told CNN in an interview.

After more than four months long presidential primary process, Clinton has 2,313 delegates and is short of just 60 delegates to reach the magical number of 2,383.

Even if she is defeated by her sole rival Senator Bernie Sanders, who has 1,547 delegates, in some of the key states like California on June 7, Clinton is all set to get 60 delegates to clinch the nomination.

"After Tuesday, I'm going to do everything I can to reach out to try to unify the Democratic Party, and I expect Senator Sanders to do the same. And we will come together and be prepared to go to the convention in a unified way to make our case, to leave the convention, to go into the general election to defeat Donald Trump," Clinton said.

The Democratic Party's convention is scheduled in July in Philadelphia where the winner of the primary season would be formally nominated as the presidential candidate for the November general elections.

At a rally in Los Angeles, Clinton continued with her anti-Trump campaign claiming that the real estate tycoon is unfit to be the president of the United States.

"President Lincoln said, 'a house divided against itself cannot stand'. Donald Trump seems to think that divisiveness is what we need in America, when I believe that is absolutely wrong. So I've had this privilege of seeing presidents, of knowing how hard this job is, whether I agreed with the decisions they made or not. And that's why I feel so strongly that we must stand up against this divisive, dangerous, hateful rhetoric coming from Donald Trump," Clinton said.

In an another interview, she described Trump as a demagogue.

"If our president doesn't believe in the rule of law, doesn't believe in our constitution with a separation of power with an independent judiciary, that is one of the most dangerous signals that we are dealing with somebody who is a demagogue," she told local KABC-TV.
Calling immigration a key issue in the presidential race, Hillary Clinton is attacking Donald Trump for talking in "hateful, very prejudicial, really unacceptable ways."



At a campaign event focused on immigration, Clinton continued her criticism of the likely Republican nominee, saying that when he "talks about deporting 11 million immigrants, he's talking about ripping apart families."



Clinton kicked off a long day of California campaigning at Los Angeles Mission College in Sylmar, where she addressed a largely Asian and Latino crowd.

Clinton listened to the personal experiences of several immigrants and stressed her commitment to immigration reform. Clinton has upped her attacks on Trump in recent days, starting with a speech slamming his foreign policy Thursday.

She is hoping to officially lock up the Democratic nomination in the coming days.
Stating that was forced to resign as he was facing serious charges of corruption, Congress on Saturday demanded a high level investigation into the allegations against the BJP leader.

"Only resignation will not do. We want a high level judicial inquiry into the scams involving Khadse. We don't trust this government, which may sabotage the investigation," Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan told PTI.



"It is good that he has resigned. But it is a delayed decision. The BJP had no option since the charges against Khadse like the MIDC land deal and Dawood call allegation are very serious in nature," Chavan, a former chief minister, said.

Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the resignation of Khadse was inevitable.

The real political decision, however, is how high a level the government would take the matter, he said.

Former AAP leader Anjali Damania, who is on a hunger strike demanding Khadse's resignation for the last three days, said this was the initial victory for her after exposing Khadse's wrongdoings.

"I will continue my hunger strike till a time-bound inquiry is ordered against Khadse because there has been a trend that such leaders involved in corruption cases are politically rehabilitated by making them governors of other states," Damania said.

AAP spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon said, "We are relieved that finally, after he was totally exposed in past few weeks, BJP removed Khadse from office.

"Khadse's resignation is a small development. What is important is ordering an inquiry into the wrongdoings of the minister," Damania said.

Describing Khadse as "Bhujbal of BJP", she said if an inquiry was not ordered to probe Khadse's transactions, he might be made the Governor of some state and everything would be forgotten.

"He should not go unpunished," she said.

Damania added that she has also planned to meet anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare who has been guiding her in the campaign against injustice.

Pune-based developer Hemant Gavande had first highlighted Khadse's controversial land deal at Bhosari, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) here which apparently clinched the issue with the BJP high command. He said he would continue his legal fight.

Welcoming Khadse's resignation, Gavande told reporters, "My fight is a legal one. If police do not file an FIR in the complaint given by me in connection with the Bhosari MIDC land transaction, I will file a PIL to press the matter".

He also demanded an inquiry into the irregular deal by a retired judge saying Khadse was involved in "misuse of power" as state Revenue minister in unlawfully purchasing the government land.

It was Gavande's initial allegation that led to a series of disclosures in connection with Khadse's land deal in Pune.

Gavande accused the minister of grabbing the industrial plot of MIDC at a very low price of around Rs 3.75 crore misusing his position when the market value of the land was to the tune of Rs 40 crore.
Haryana Congress Chief Ashok Tanwar today said the party will soon take a decision on whether to vote or abstain in the June 11 polls for two Rajya Sabha seats from the state as Congress has not fielded any candidate and two Independent candidates are in fray for the second seat.

INLD-supported lawyer RK Anand has been pitted against ruling BJP-backed media baron Subhash Chandra for the seat.

While Union Minister Birender Singh is likely to have a comfortable re-entry to Rajya Sabha, a keen contest is on the cards between Chandra and Anand when polls for the two seats to the Upper House of Parliament from Haryana are held on June 11.

Tanwar said though both the candidates were Independents, they were supported by rival political parties.

"We have accordingly given our feedback to our party's senior leadership. Our MLAs have also given their feedback. Whatever we decide to do, it will be a collective decision," he told PTI over phone, adding that the decision will be taken over the next few days.

Asked if Congress would participate in voting or abstain, Tanwar said, "At this stage, I cannot comment on that. We are yet to take a decision on this."



He, however, added, "We will do whatever is in the best interests of the state and our party."



Chandra had earlier said he had reached out to Congress and sought its support since none of its own candidates was in fray. He had also claimed that he had the support of the five Independent MLAs in the Haryana Assembly, the lone BSP MLA, while two INLD members too had offered their support to him.

BJP has 47 MLAs in the 90-member Assembly, INLD 19, Congress 17 (Kuldeep Bishnoi's two-member HJC merged with Congress recently), BSP one, SAD one and five are Independents.

The two seats, currently occupied by Union Ministers Birender Singh and Suresh Prabhu, will fall vacant on August 1. The two were elected following by-elections in December, 2014.
A constable was today shot at and injured by a chain snatcher at Geeta Colony flyover when a police team had gone to arrest him and his accomplice.

The incident took place at around 1.45 PM. When the 22-member team, deployed to nab the chain snatcher duo in the flyover connecting central Delhi with Geeta Colony, tried flagging down a suspicious bike-borne duo, they allegedly opened fire, a senior police officer said.

While the other officials ducked at the right time, the bullet hit Bhiwa Ram on his arm. The constable is posted at Daryaganj police station.

Ram was admitted to LNJP Hospital. His condition is stated to be stable now, said the official.

The police team, however, managed to nab Manoj (24), who was riding pillion and had fired the shot at the picketing team, but his partner fled the spot. Manoj is wanted in at least 24 criminal cases, the official said.

A case has been registered at Daryaganj Police station and efforts are on to neb the other accused, police added.
Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel today accepted his deputy Bandana Kumari's resignation.

Kumari had quit last week taking moral responsibility of defeat of AAP's candidate in the MCD by-poll in her constituency.

In a statement, Delhi Legislative Assembly said, Goel has accepted Kumari's resignation.

"With this, the office of Deputy Speaker of Legislative Assembly of NCT of Delhi has fallen vacant w.E.F. The fore-noon of Saturday, the 4th of June, 2016," the statement said.

Party sources said Mangolpuri MLA Rakhi Birla will replace Kumari and she is expected to be administered the oath of office during the up-coming Assembly session next week.

Kumari had sent her resignation to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal following defeat of Anvika Mittal, party's candidate in MCD by-poll from Shalimar Bagh. She was also upset over Mittal's nomination.

By making Birla the deputy speaker, AAP sources said, it wants to send a positive message to the dalit community. Birla was also a minister in the previous AAP government, but had not found any place in the Cabinet this time.
Special Cell of Delhi Police has arrested a gunrunner and seized 27 locally fabricated semi automatic pistols from him near Saray Kale Khan inter-state bus terminal.

The gunrunner Salamuddin, 23, was caught by a Special team acting on a tip off from Saray Kale Khan ISBT, on June 3 night, said AP Kushwah, DCP(Special Cell).

Salamuddin was earlier arrested for smuggling illegal arms in 2014 and 10 locally made weapons were seized from him by the Special Cell, he said.

Based on the investigations on use of sophisticated firearms in commission of robberies, extortion and other heinous crimes over the past few years revealed that in most of the cases, illegal weapons manufactured in Khargone, Barwani and Dhar districts of Madhya Pradesh were being smuggled into Delhi NCR, the officer said.

A team of Special Cell travelled to many areas in UP West, UP East, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh collecting information about the local manufacturers, suppliers and their clients.

The leads gathered by the team led to arrest of Salamuddin.

He was scheduled to deliver nine pistols in Delhi to a person Sonu who lives in Dwarka while remaining 18 pistols were to be delivered to someone in UP through Mushtaq belonging to Chata in Mathura, Kushwah said.

Mushtaq was the main supplier of illegal arms which were smuggled from Madhya Pradesh by Salamuddin in return of Rs 5000 per tip, he added.
As India stepped up its campaign to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), China tonight said that the 48-member nuclear club is divided on admitting new members and talks are still going on.

"Discussion within the NSG is still going on about the accession of non-NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) countries, and NSG members remain divided on this issue," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a written statement to PTI on a question on India's bid to get NSG membership.

Sticking to its stand that new members should sign the NPT, the Ministry said, "the NSG is part and parcel of the international non-proliferation regime".

"The international community has forged consensus long ago that this regime is rooted upon the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or NPT, which was reaffirmed in the New York NPT review session held in the mid of last year. This is exactly why the NSG has always made the 'NPT signatory status' a prerequisite to accept new members," it said.

About Pakistan's application which China, a key member of the group, is reportedly backing, the Ministry said, "China has noted Pakistan's official application for NSG membership. Pakistan is not a party state to the NPT."



Stating that divisions still persist in the NSG about the admissions of new members,it said, "this explains why China and many countries have always proposed thorough discussions on the accession of non-NPT countries so that agreement and final decision can be reached through negotiation."



"China's position applies to all non-NPT countries including Pakistan," the ministry said.

It, however, did not react to question about India signing Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation which seeks to prevent the proliferation of ballistic missiles, that can deliver weapons of mass destruction.

The response of China which is still averse to India's membership while the US and several other countries backed New Delhi's entry on the basis of its clean non-proliferation record came ahead of crucial NSG meetings this month.

The extraordinary plenary of NSG is due to be held in Vienna on June 9 followed by another meeting in Seoul on June 24 during which India's application is due to come up.

Ahead of the meetings, India stepped up its campaign with Prime Minister Narendra Modi paying visit to the US, Mexico and Switzerland which are key members of the grouping.
Police today nabbed five dacoits from Uttar Pradesh who they say were planning to target a village near here.

The armed men, hailing from Mahoba district in the adjoining State, were planning for commit dacoity at Binwara village, about 75km away from the district headquarters here, a police official said.

Those arrested are identified as Dilip Lodhi, Manoj Lodhi, Kallu Lodhi, Dharamsingh Lodhi and Milan Lodhi, Binwara Police Station In-charge Vinayak Shukla said.

Police seized three country-made pistols, a few live cartridges and a car from them.

The bandits were planning to target the house of Binwara Sarpanch, Anil Tiwari, he said.

They were earlier involved in dacoities in Niwari, Teherwa and Dhumhi police station areas.

A case was registered and further investigations were on.
A gramsevika working in Nakapardi village here has been arrested by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for allegedly accepting bribe from family of a deceased farmer in lieu of releasing a cheque in favour of the government scheme beneficiaries.

The accused, identified as Savita Anantrao Borkhede (40), was working as a gramsevika in Nakapardi village under Yavatmal Panchayat Samiti, and demanded bribe from the family members of the deceased farmer in lieu of releasing a cheque in their favour, Police Inspector (PI) of Ashmita Nagarele of Yavatmal ACB said.

The farmer's kin, who were beneficiaries of a farm related subsidy scheme of Maharashtra government, paid the gramsevika a bribe of Rs 3,000 for the cheque to be released, she said.

The victims approached ACB, following which the sleuths yesterday reached the accused's residence, where the gramsevika confessed to have taken the bribe from the complainants and was arrested, she said.

Statements of eyewitnesses were also recorded by the ACB, she said.

A case has been registered against the gramsevika under the Prevention of Corruption Act, she said, adding further investigation is on.

It may be noted that Savita Anantrao Borkhede was conferred with 'Best Gramsevak Award' by Yavatmal Zila Parishad and was felicitated at a function here recently.
The hacker who procured call record data of a Pakistani telecom firm, purportedly showing calls from gangster Dawood Ibrahim's Karachi house to the mobile of Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, did not turn up before the police here.

Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad which is probing the allegation that received calls from Dawood had summoned Gujarat-based Manish Bhangale who claims to be an 'ethical hacker'.

Bhangale's lawyer Sandesh Sawant said, "We told ATS that Bhangale would not come today to record his statement as a petition concerning the matter is before the High Court."



The Mumbai Crime Branch headed by Atulchandra Kulkarni had earlier recorded Bhangale's statement and eventually gave a clean chit to Khadse, following which Bhangale moved the HC, seeking a CBI probe.

"The same official (Kulkarni) is heading the ATS now, so there is no point in recording the statement again," the lawyer said.

ATS officials had asked Bhangale who was in Jalgaon for a press conference to go to Mumbai with them, but Sawant advised him against it so the ATS summoned the hacker today, the lawyer said.

Bhangale's petition, which also seeks protection for himself, would come up for hearing before the HC on Monday.

After facing a string of allegations, including irregularities in a land deal, resigned today, the first casualty in BJP since the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combine took over pledging zero-tolerance towards corruption.
In its drive to sensitise locals about issues concerning people from African nations living in the city, Delhi Police today held a meeting of resident welfare associations in south Delhi's Hauz Khas area.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Southeast) R P Upadhyay presided over the meeting, held at Delhi Police's south district office in Hauz Khas, which was attended by the Presidents of Resident Welfare Association of the localities in and around Hauz Khas area.

The objective of the meeting was to sensitize them about issues concerning African persons living in the colonies where they reside, a senior police official said.

Delhi Police had started sensitization programme following a series of alleged assault on Africans in south Delhi.

The first such big meeting was chaired by Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh.

Later, another sensitisation meeting, attended by Africans and locals both, was chaired by Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma among several other meetings chaired by senior police officials at local levels.

The police's efforts in this regard was also appreciated by Union External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj.
In a blistering attack on Hillary Clinton, Republican presidential presumptive nominee has termed his Democratic rival as a "thief" and alleged that she should be in jail for her "terrible" email scandal.

"Hillary Clinton is a weak person. Hillary Clinton is totally scripted. Hillary Clinton is a thief. And Hillary Clinton should be in jail for what she did to our national security," Trump said.

"I think she (Clinton) is pathetic. I think she should be in jail for what she did with her e-mails. OK?.. She should be in jail for what she did with those e-mails," Trump told his supporters at an election rally in California yesterday where the primary elections are scheduled on Tuesday.

Trump, 69, is assured of his presidential nomination as he has already got the required number of delegates, whereas Clinton is facing a tough battle from her Democratic primary rival Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont.

However, over the last few days the war of words between Clinton and Trump has reached a new height.

Yesterday at a campaign event in California, Clinton compared Trump to a dictator.

"We are trying to elect a president, not a dictator. I don't understand running a whole campaign based on nothing but denigrating immigrants. At some point you have to ask yourself, is this nothing but a political stunt?" Clinton said at a campaign stop in San Bernardino.

"It's all about him getting attention. All about him getting his name in the newspaper and seeing his face on TV. That is not a good enough reason to be president," she said.

Describing Clinton as a "very weak" candidate, Trump claimed that he can win in California, a Democratic bastion.

"What the hell are they talking about? We have to win, right? We have to win. We didn't come this far to lose. So we're going to play California, because I think Hillary is very weak," Trump said.

"I mean, the only problem is I'd like to run against her, if you want to know the truth. But she shouldn't be. What she's done is terrible," Trump said.

Trump alleged that by using a personal email hosted over a private server, Clinton risked the national security.

"For her to do what she did puts our country at risk. She's Secretary of state. She's got people like Huma (Abedein), she's the wife of Anthony Weiner. Now, how would you like Anthony Weiner to be having all these secrets? Well, guess what? She tells Anthony Weiner everything there is. I know Anthony Weiner. I don't want him knowing anything, folks. OK?" he said.
Haryana Government has constituted three committees for early operationalisation and monitoring of various works related to the Kalpana Chawla University of Health Sciences.

The university, named after late Indian-American astronaut is to be established at Kutail village in Karnal district in Haryana.

The committees included Concept Plan Approval Committee, Committee for Evaluation of Detailed Project Report and Monitoring Committee, a spokesman of the Medical Education and Research Department said here today.

He said the Concept Plan Approval Committee would be headed by Additional Chief Secretary, Medical Education and Research.

The functions of the committee would be to approve the concept plan so that necessary provisions as per norms of Medical Council of India are included in the concept plan and also the architectural designs and layout of the project.

The Committee for Evaluation of Detailed Project Report would be headed by Director, Medical Education and Research Department, he said.

The committee would ensure that necessary provisions in terms of infrastructure, machinery and equipment and other related services are carried out as per the detailed project report and Medical Council of India norms.

He said the Monitoring Committee would be headed by Director, Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College, Karnal.

The committee would be responsible for monitoring day-to-day physical progress of the project, design, construction procurement and installation of services as per detailed project report.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today came down heavily on Pakistan saying if the neighbouring country does not allow an NIA team to visit there for probe into the attack on the Pathankot airbase, it would be a "betrayal" to India.

Singh also said that Jammu and Kashmir has never been an issue between India and Pakistan and if there is an issue between the two countries, it is the issue of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Addressing a gathering of prominent persons and intellectuals here, the Home Minister said when the Joint Investigation Team of Pakistan proposed to visit India for investigating the Pathankot terror attack case, it was mutually agreed that after the visit of the Pakistani investigators to India, a team of National Investigation Agency would also visit the neighbouring country for probe and interrogate some people.

"But so far Pakistan has not given permission to the NIA to visit there. If the NIA team is not allowed to visit Pakistan, it will be a betrayal to India," he said.

Referring to the Jammu and Kashmir, the Home Minister said Kashmir has never been an issue for India and Pakistan. "If there is an issue, it is the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, not Kashmir, he said.

The Home Minister said Pakistan should prove that it was not supporting terrorism by allowing the NIA team to visit Pakistan.

Singh said it was established that the attackers of Pathankot airbase came from Pakistan and India has taken the issue very seriously.

(Reopens DEL37)



Addressing the gathering as part of "Vikash Parv" in the wake of two year completion of the Narendra Modi government, the Home Minister claimed that in last two years, the country has achieved the GDP growth of 7.6 per cent which was commendable.

Singh said through the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme, Rs 61,000 crore subsidies have been distributed among three crore beneficiaries.

Listing NDA government's achievements, the Home Minister said during 2013-14, work of 3,500 km national highway was awarded and in 2014-15, work of 8,000 km highway was awarded.

But during 2015-16, work order to construct 10,000 km national highway was issued and a target of awarding contract for constructing 25,000 km national highway was set for 2016-17.

Singh also highlighted the government's decision to end interview for the class C and D posts besides the elimination of attestation by gazetted officer and introduction of self attestation policy.
Unfazed by terror attacks on its missions and barriers of politics and geography, India will continue to extend cooperation in war-torn Afghanistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted today after dedicating a Rs 1,700 crore dam in strategically vital Herat province.

Modi said other countries may have a "sunset clause" but India's ties with Afghanistan remain "timeless".

"Our resources may be modest, but our will is boundless. For others, their commitments may have a sunset clause, but our relationship is timeless. We face barriers of geography and politics, but we define our path from the clarity of our purpose," he said in an address after inaugurating the Afghan- India Friendship Dam along with President Ashraf Ghani.

Modi hailed the people of Afghanistan for denouncing terrorism and said division among them will only help those seeking to "dominate" the nation from outside.

"It was a war not of Afghan making, but it was one that stole the future of an entire generation of Afghans," the Prime Minister said, adding that the brave Afghan people are today sending a message that the forces of "destruction and death, denial and domination" shall not prevail.

When Afghanistan succeeds in defeating terrorism, the world will be "safer and more beautiful", he said.

The dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, has been built by India at a cost of Rs 1,700 crore on river Harirud in Chist-e- Sharif in western Herat neighbouring Iran. It will irrigate 75,000 hectares of land and generate 42 MW of power.

"This dam has not been built by bricks and mortar, but by the faith of our friendship and the valour of Afghans and Indians. And, at this moment of pride, we also stand in grief and gratitude for lives sacrificed so that Afghan people will have a future they so richly deserve and so deeply desire," Modi said.

Resolving to stand by Afghanistan, the Prime Minister said India's cooperation will extend to "every part" of the war-torn country and that the partnership will benefit every section of Afghan society.

"In your clear eyes, I saw the deep well of affection for India. In your smiles, I saw the joy of this relationship. In the firmness of your embrace, I felt the trust in our friendship," Modi said.

In his around 25-minute-long speech, Modi touched upon the peace process in Afghanistan, the massive terrorist attack on Indian Consulate in Herat and reconstruction activities in that country.

"When our people are under attack, the brave Afghans guard us as their own. They put themselves in the line of fire so that their Indian friends are safe. This is the nobility of your heart and the strength of your friendship. I have seen this from the moment I assumed office as Prime Minister.

"For on that day, when terrorists launched a massive attack on our Consulate in this city of Herat, the heroic efforts of Afghan soldiers, and of our personnel, saved many lives and prevented a big tragedy," he said, referring to the 2014 attack on the Indian mission here.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and his American counterpart Ashton Carter today discussed the progress made on "a wide range" of defence issues, including the importance of a "networked security architecture" for peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific, the Pentagon said.

During their meeting in Singapore on the sidelines of the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue, the two leaders also reviewed the preparations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US next week.

"The two leaders exchanged views on the regional security environment, and discussed the importance of a principled, networked, security architecture to maintain peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific," Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement on the fifth meeting between the two within a year.

"They also discussed progress made on a wide range of bilateral defence issues and committed to further efforts to expand defence cooperation between the United States and India," Cook said.

They agreed to continue close cooperation, he said.

India and the US have been increasingly working together and networking security, Carter has said, adding that India-US military relationship is as close as it has ever been.

Apart from Parrikar, Carter also held meetings with his counterparts from Japan and Malaysia.

With Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani, Carter signed a Reciprocal Defence Procurement Memorandum of Understanding, which will increase defence technological collaboration and cooperation, Cook said.

Carter and Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin exchanged views on regional security in Southeast Asia.

"They discussed the need for peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea in accordance with international law, and Secretary Carter noted that the UNCLOS Arbitral Tribunal ruling on the Philippines-China claims will be binding on both parties," Cook said.
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter today said he along with his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar will "identify new ways" to cooperate ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit here next week.

"Minister Parrikar and I will identify new ways to cooperate in advance of Prime Minister Modi's visit to Washington next week," Carter told the annual Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore today wherein he reiterated India's eminent role in Obama's Asia Pacific rebalance.

Pentagon said yesterday that Carter will accompany Modi when the latter visits the Arlington Cemetery to lay wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown. He is also scheduled to meet Modi during his three-day stay in the US.

India, US military relationship is as close as it has ever been, he said.

"Through our strategic handshake, with the United States reaching west in its rebalance and India reaching east in Prime Minister Modi's Act East policy -- the two nations are exercising together by air, land, and sea," Carter said.

"And there's also a technological handshake -- we're moving towards deeper and more diverse defence co-development and co-production, including on aircraft carrier design and construction," he added.

Carter said while peace in the Asia Pacific region has led to the miraculous growth of countries like China and India, but tension of late persists in the region.

"Tensions in the South China Sea, North Korea's continued nuclear and missile provocations and the dangers of violent extremism felt worldwide, pose challenges to the region's stability and prosperity," he said.

"If we continue to cooperate on security we would one day be discussing a US-China-India multilateral maritime exercise, a Japan and Republic of Korea joint disaster response in the South China Sea and an ASEAN-wide security network," Carter said.

Over the last year, progress has been made towards that vision. "China and India will both participate once again in the US-hosted RIMPAC naval exercise this summer. Japan and the Republic of Korea are engaging with each other in new ways," he said.

In addition to the ASEAN centric security network, which is developing in Southeast Asia, nations across the entire Asia-Pacific are increasingly working together and networking security together, Carter added.
A 44-year-old Indian-American equity fund manager has been charged with wire fraud in the US for embezzling more than USD 54 million from the private firm for which he worked.

Iftikar Ali Ahmed, aka Ifty, was indicted on Wednesday by a 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 county while on pre-trial release, the Justice Department said.

The indictment alleges that between 2004 and April 2015, Ahmed embezzled more than USD 54 million from the private equity firm for which he worked as a general partner and fund manager.

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 firm for which he worked and the companies in which his employer invested, prosecutors alleged.

The indictment further alleges that Ahmed used the proceeds of his fraud to purchase a USD 9.6 million residence in Greenwich, Connecticut and a luxury condominium in New York for approximately USD 8.6 million.

On one occasion in November 2014, it is alleged that Ahmed recommended to his firm that it invest USD 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 USD 2 million, the Justice department said.

The indictment alleges that Ahmed then directed the private equity firm to wire USD 2 million to another company and the remaining USD 18 million to an account that Ahmed falsely claimed was the company's account, but actually belonged to Ahmed.

The indictment further alleges that on January 12, 2015, Ahmed transferred the USD 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.
Iraqi forces made progress today neighbourhood of the Islamic State group's bastion, commanders said.

An AFP photographer embedded with interior ministry SWAT teams said Iraqi forces had managed to enter the Shuhada neighbourhood, on the southern edge of the city centre.

"The security forces have advanced from Naimiya neighbourhood to Shuhada," Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al-Saadi, the operation's overall commander, told AFP.

"The clashes between the security forces and Daesh members were fierce," said another officer, using an Arab acronym for IS.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the launch of an operation to retake Fallujah on May 23.

After an initial phase of shaping operations aimed at cutting off the jihadists' last supply lines, elite forces on May 30 attempted to enter Fallujah from three directions.

They have not pushed deep into the IS bastion however, slowed in their advance by tough resistance and widespread concern over the fate of 50,000 civilians believed to be trapped inside the city.

The Norwegian Refugee Council, which runs camps for displaced people south of the city, said today that an estimated 12,000 residents of the area have fled their homes since May 21.

None of them however were from the city centre, where trapped civilians have little to eat, no safe water to drink and are at risk from intense shelling and bombardment.

The city has been besieged for months and no aid delivery has reached it since September 2015.
Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra today expressed grief over loss of three BSF personnel, who were killed and four others injured when terrorists attacked their convoy near Bijbehara on Srinagar-Jammu national highway.

The Governor conveyed his grief to Director General of BSF K K Sharma on the loss of three BSF personnel in yesterday's attack and also wished speedy recovery to those, who have been injured in the attack, an official spokesman said.

He said the DG BSF, accompanied by ADG BSF, Western Command, Arun Kumar, IG BSF (Int) Delhi Aditya Mishra and IG BSF Kashmir Vikash Chandra, met Vohra at the Raj Bhavan here.

The Governor and the DG BSF discussed the security scenario in the state, particularly in the aftermath of yesterday's ambush on the BSF convoy at Bijbehara, the spokesman said.
A 96-year-old Japanese man is potty at the prospect of breaking more records after being recognised as the world's oldest university graduate with his degree in ceramic arts.

Spritely senior Shigemi Hirata received his Guinness World Records certificate yesterday after earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kyoto University of Art and Design earlier this year, local media reported today.

Born on a Hiroshima farm in 1919 - the year the Allies and Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles - Hirata is something of a celebrity on campus.

"Students whose name I don't even know call out to greet me," he told Japan's Yomiuri newspaper.

"That gives me a lot of energy."



Hirata, who took 11 years to complete his ceramic arts course after taking up pottery as a pensioner, insisted he was not done setting records.

"My goal is to live until I'm 100," he said. "If I'm fit enough it might be rather fun to go to graduate school."



Hirata, who served in the navy during World War II and has four great-grandchildren, added: "I'm so happy. At my age it's fun to be able to learn new things."



Japan's perky pensioners regularly set eye-popping records as the silver-haired generation enjoy longer and healthier lives.

Last year, 100-year-old Mieko Nagaoka became the world's first centenarian to complete a 1,500-metre freestyle swim, 20 years after she took up the sport.

Many elderly Japanese remain physically active long after other people have given up the ghost.

Twinkle-toed sprinter Hidekichi Miyazaki, dubbed "Golden Bolt" after Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt, also set a world record last year, clocking 42.22 seconds for the 100 metres in the over-105 category a day after reaching the milestone age.

There were nearly 59,000 centenarians in Japan in 2015, according to government figures - which means 46 out of every 100,000 people is 100 or over.
Two days after four more fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention for their release besides 90 boats seized.

In a letter to Modi, Jayalalithaa apprised him of the latest arrest of four Indian Indian fishermen by the Lankan Navy in the early hours of June 2, who were then taken to Kankesanthurai.

She said the fishermen had ventured into the sea from Kottaipattinam in Pudukottai District on June 1.

"I am constrained to point out that despite my repeated requests, the seized boats and gear belonging to the fishermen of Tamil Nadu have not been released by the Sri Lankan authorities so far."



Earlier, on May 31, seven fishermen from Tamil Nadu were arrested the Lankan Navy.

She requested Modi to take urgent action to secure the release of the 11 fishermen and a total of 90 fishing boats without any delay.

"May I request your immediate intervention in this matter,?" she said in the letter, a copy of which was released to the media.

Jayalalithaa also reiterated the state's plea for a package for deep sea fishing at a cost of Rs 1,520 crore and a recurring grant of Rs ten crore per annum for maintenance dredging.
Jeff Brazier has shared a rare snap of his and late Jade Goody's eldest son Bobby.

Brazier posted the image of Bobby - sharing a striking resemblance to his mother - on the day of his 13th birthday, reported Digital Spy.

"Happy 13th Birthday to this not-so-little one," he wrote, revealing that Bobby would be a flag bearer at last night's international friendly between England and Portugal at Wembley Stadium.

Earlier this year, Brazier paid tribute to the late star on Mother's Day, saying that she was a "great mum" to their children Bobby and Freddie.

Goody passed away on March 22, 2009, after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation (JKSPDC) has initiated a fresh bidding process to engage a consultant for quantification of losses suffered by the state on account of Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan.

"Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation has initiated a fresh bidding process to engage a consultant for quantification of losses suffered by the state on account of Indus Water Treaty," Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh said in a written reply in the state Assembly here.

Replying to a question raised by CPI(M) MLA M Y Tarigami, Singh, who also holds the Power portfolio, said fresh bidding has been necessitated as the successful bidder of the first process refused to undertake the study.

Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank, was signed in Karachi on September 19, 1960 by the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru and then President of Pakistan Ayub Khan.

According to this agreement, control over the three 'eastern' rivers - Beas, Ravi and Sutlej - was given to India and the three 'western' rivers - Indus, Chenab and Jhelum - to Pakistan.

While the previous National Conference-Congress government had plans to seek compensation for the losses suffered by the state on account of the treaty, nothing concrete has come out of the process so far. The government does not have any figure based on scientific research about the losses suffered by the state.
A CBI probe has been demanded by the family members of a woman journalist, who allegedly committed suicide last month, and threatened to immolate themselves if their demand was not accepted.

The father of the woman journalist alleged that police was trying to save accused police inspector Amit Kumar. That is why they are demanding CBI probe.

"If our demand of CBI probe is not met then we will immolate ourselves at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi," he told reporters in a press conference.

The journalist's family members also accused Dr Anil Goyal, his wife Dr Archana Goyal, against whom she had allegedly done a sting operation, and another journalist of her death.

Her father claimed that she had not commit suicide but she was murdered.

A local woman journalist working with an online portal on May 2 allegedly jumped to her death from the fifth floor of a building here.
Ray Southworth, a military veteran and a newcomer to the Catholic faith, has found a way to blend two important parts of his life.

We need to help (vets) because theyve fallen through the cracks, Southworth, 62, said Wednesday, sitting in the fellowship room at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Billings. Thats what God is saying to me, that we need to serve others.

Southworth, who worked for BNSF Railway for 38 years, is now a handyman and owns SW Southworth Construction in Billings. The self-effacing man is willing to sit down for a talk not because hes looking to draw attention to himself.

Hes hoping others will recognize the value of reaching out to people in need, particularly homeless vets who need to know theyve got someone in their corner.

The Laurel native graduated from high school in 1972 and enlisted in the Army. He was a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division, and though he put in a request three times to go to Vietnam, he was never deployed there.

Instead, Southworth spent time in Europe. His battalion trained with NATO forces as part of the Southern European Task Force.

You learn to work with all kinds of people from all walks of life, and thats a really good thing, he said. Coming from Montana, you dont really know a lot about outside influences.

After spending three years in the Army, Southworth came back to Montana in 1975 and went to work for the city of Laurel. Six months later, he took a job with Burlington Northern, and spent more than three decades with BNSF doing a number of jobs.

By the time he retired, he worked in Havre as a telecom maintenance manager, overseeing a number of crews. He retired in 2014 and moved back to the Billings area to be closer to his father, also a military vet.

After Southworth had started his new business, he did some work for Clint Peck, owner of Yellowstone Cellars & Winery, both at Pecks business and home. The two had grown up together through grade school.

Through Peck, Southworth met the Rev. Wayne Pittard, priest at St. Pius.

Father needed work done in the day chapel  there was water damage in the Sheetrock, Southworth said. So I fixed it for him. Hes a great person.

Slowly, as Southworth met others in the St. Pius community, he started to feel a nudge. It was time to let God into his life.

I always figured I could do everything myself, and then when I needed him Id call for him, and then Id push him away, Southworth said. It was 62 years of being lost, really.

He started attending St. Pius, and then last fall enrolled in the parishs Right of Christian Initiation for Adults, which culminated at Easter in his official admittance to the Catholic faith. In between, Southworth brought up a lot of questions, which were answered by the course instructors.

In that class, you cannot sit there like a bump on a log, he said. They will get you to open up and talk about things.

Along with what he learned there, Southworth also was influenced by other people he met. A maintenance man at the church he nicknamed Otis told him a story about driving by a credit union, then feeling compelled by God to go inside the business and reassure one of the employees that everything would be OK.

Thats a moving thing, Southworth said.

He began to practice that kind of active listening, responding to Gods nudge to reach out to people in need. Many of those people are military vets that Southworth finds out on the streets.

I feel I have to stop and talk to them, he said. Im actually asking them hard questions.

He asks them their stories. He knows if theyre telling him the truth.

I say you need to help yourself first, Southworth said. I tell them the first thing is to be honest with yourself.

One disabled vet he met, Rob Cook, often frequents the corner at 24th Street West and Central in Billings West End where he greets drivers and holds up a cardboard sign, seeking aid. Southworth felt drawn to Cook, who he discovered had been an Army Ranger from 1987 to 1994.

He said 'Ive fallen on bad times and I cant stand up very long. My knee is very bad,'  Southworth recalled.

Cook, 48, whose wife is bipolar, told Southworth about the special ops he took part in while in the military. Now, he wasnt able to get the help he needed from the Department of Veterans Affairs to repair his knee.

With Southworths encouragement, Cook got in touch with Sen. Jon Testers office, which got the ball rolling for Cook to start getting the medical attention he needed.

Southworth helps him whenever he can. One day he asked Cook if he could go buy him some food, but Cook said he couldnt let Southworth do that.

He said I cant eat without having my wife eat,' Southworth said, growing emotional.

Now he buys the couple groceries once a week. He also tries to honor Cooks military service.

On Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, Southworth, who belongs to the American Legion, dressed in a white shirt, gray slacks and a burgundy beret, stood behind Cook holding up a flag.

It was another little nudge  to honor a homeless vets military service, to restore some of his lost pride.

We need to serve others and we need to be vigilant, Southworth said. Its like they said in class, youve got to keep your eyes open and pay attention to whats going on.
Holding out warnings of strict action and promises to meet their demands, Karnataka government today thwarted a planned protest by constabulary to go on a mass leave.

Police personnel who had threatened to go on leave protesting alleged "harassment" by senior officials, lesser pay and no proper leave were in attendance for work, officials said.

Taking no chances, Central forces, including CRPF, were deployed as a precautionary step.

Attendance of police personnel was "normal" across the city and similar reports have come from across the state, officials said.

Senior police officials and jurisdictional in-charges monitored the developments to ensure that there was no protest by the staff.

Karnataka Director-General and Inspector-General of Police Om Prakash said police are functioning "normally".

He said "in all districts, all commissionerates police have attended duty. There is no protest....Life is normal."



Speaking to reporters in Mysuru, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah thanked police for not going on strike and maintaining discipline.

Thanking police personnel, Home Minister G Parameshwara said there is almost about 100 per cent police attendance in the state today.

He said "they have some valid demands; government will openly consider and fulfill them. We only felt that that the procedure they opted to put forth their demand was not right."



Anticipating protest by the family members, security was deployed near police colonies and quarters at different places. Government had threatened to evict families from their quarters if they took part in the protest.

Ahead of the protest, the government promised to consider the demand for increase in wages to be on parity with their counterparts in neighbouring states and to recruit constables to overcome the dearth of police personnel.

However, some organisations held demonstrations at different places in support of the police protest.

Poornima Shashidhar, wife of Akhila Karnataka Police Maha Sangha President V Shashidhar, who was earlier arrested for spearheading the stir, has been taken into preventive custody, as she "tried" to stage a protest, backed by a few organisations, police said.

Bracing itself to deal with the threat, government had brought the state police and related services under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA).
Actress Kareena Kapoor, today congratulated a group of adolescent girls for their work in promoting improved menstrual hygiene in Uttar Pradesh.

Calling them "champions of change", Kareena, who is UNICEF's Goodwill Advocate, interacted and spent time with the adolescents, who hail from rural areas of the state.

The young girls are a part of 'Garima', a UNICEF-spearheaded project, which addresses and strengthens menstrual hygiene management in UP.

Supported by the IKEA Foundation, the project in three eastern UP districts -- Jaunpur, Mirzapur and Sonebhadra -- has demonstrated behavioural change and increased awareness and self-confidence among adolescent girls.

The project aims at piloting a social and behavioural change and communication strategy for menstrual health and hygiene management among rural adolescent girls in the age group of 10-19 years who have experienced or are about to experience menarche.

Impressed by their work, Kareena said, "All the girls I met today are brave and empowered adolescents. They are champions of change and without their contributions we can't break the silence around gender equality and the rights of girls and women."



MP from Kannauj Dimple Yadav said, "Today is a very special day, because we are talking about menstrual hygiene, publicly for the first time. Mother-daughter bonds are very strong and we talk about so many issues but often not about menstruation. We as mothers do not teach our daughters often as they might get scared. We need to talk about this issue and no longer should it be considered as a social taboo."



After meeting the girls, Kareena attended a felicitation event along with government officials, UNICEF and its partners.

"Given the social and cultural taboos around menstruation, addressing it is crucial towards impacting the well-being and empowerment of adolescent girls and also to reduce school drop-out among them," said chief of the UNICEF office, UP Niloufar Pourzand.
Actress Kareena Kapoor Khan was all praise for young girls, who are promoting menstrual health and hygiene in the Uttar Pradesh (UP), under UNICEF's "Garima" project.

The 35-year-old UNICEF Goodwill Advocate said the girls are "champions of change" and are contributing a lot in empowering women across the state.

"All the girls I met today are brave and empowered adolescents. They are champions of change and without their contributions we can't break the silence around gender equality and the rights of girls and women."



"We have countless number of empowered adolescent girls in India and I had the privilege to meet some of them from UP. I would like to thank UNICEF for supporting these girls in their journey. They are now champions of promoting a crucial cause," Kareena said.

"Garima," a UNICEF- spearheaded project addresses and strengthens menstrual hygiene management in UP.

It aims at piloting a social and behavioral change and communication strategy for menstrual health and hygiene management among rural adolescent girls in the age group of 10-19 years, who have experienced or are about to experience menarche.

MP from Kannauj Dimple Yadav said, "Today is a very special day, because we are talking about menstrual hygiene, publicly for the first time. Mother-daughter bonds are very strong and we talk about so many issues but often not about menstruation.

"We as mothers do not teach our daughters often as they might get scared. Talking about menstrual hygiene is a very important issue. We need to talk about this issue and no longer should it be considered as a social taboo."



After meeting the girls, the "Ki & Ka" star attended a felicitation event along with government officials, UNICEF team and its partners.

"Despite numerous interventions on sanitation and health, menstrual hygiene and management has not yet received adequate attention.

"Given the social and cultural taboos around menstruation, addressing it is crucial towards impacting the well-being and empowerment of adolescent girls and also to reduce school drop-out among them," said Niloufar Pourzand, chief of the UNICEF office, UP .
Kerala has approached the External Affairs Ministry to press for early release of 19 Indian fishermen, including six from the state, who have been detained off the coast of Diego Garcia since May 27 for allegedly trespassing into its territorial waters.

"We have requested the External Affairs Ministry to rescue our fishermen. What we understood is that the ministry is already in touch with Diego Garcia authorities in this regard," Fisheries Minister J Mercykutty Amma told reporters here.

In view of such incidents, the government today decided to strictly enforce colour-coding of sea-bound fishing boats.

Of the 19 fishermen detained in the British island, 12 were from Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari district, six from Kerala and one from Assam. The Keralite fishermen were those hailing from coastal hamlets Poovar and Poonthura near here.

The Minister said if the state fishing boats are painted with particular colours, as prescribed by the Centre, the Navy and Coast Guard can easily identify them, give them timely alerts and save them when they are about to cross the country's maritime borders.

The colour-code provisions would be implemented during the upcoming trawling ban period, she said.

"It will not only ensure the safety of our fishermen but also check the presence of foreign trawlers in our territorial waters," she said.
The sprawling and picturesque coastline of Kerala will soon become a "plastic and garbage-free" zone with the state government drawing up a comprehensive action plan to make the coastal areas clean and beautiful.

Addressing a press meet here, Fisheries Minister J Mercykutty Amma said steps would be taken to remove plastic and other garbage piled across the 590 km-long state coastline by the end of this month.

The project would be implemented by the Department of Fisheries with the support of various agencies, including urban local bodies, Clean Kerala Company, Suchitwa Mission, Kudumbashree and other NGOs, she said.

"Our state has a picturesque coastline. But garbage, especially plastic and solid waste dumped on the shores hamper its beauty. So we decided to make our coasts garbage and plastic free through a time-bound action plan," the minister told reporters.

As part of the programme, plastic and solid waste would be collected separately from coastal and inland areas and handed over to the Clean Kerala Company, under the state Local Self Government Department (LSGD).

"The company plans to crush the plastic waste and mix it along with bitumen and use it for road tarring," she said.

Mercykutty Amma said that steps would also be taken to treat sewage before discharge into the sea and other water courses in urban areas.

She also said the government unveiled a long-term programme to ensure house and toilet facilities for all in the coastal areas.

"The officials were asked to prepare a list of those who have no houses and other basic amenities in our coastal areas within the next three months," the minister added.
Facing heat over a string of corruption charges including irregularities in a land deal, Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse today resigned, the first casualty in BJP after Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combine took over the party pledging zero-tolerance to corruption.

With his options running out and the central leadership sending a clear and stern message to him, the 64-year-old veteran from north Maharashtra drove to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's official residence here this morning and offered his resignation.

The fate of Khadse was sealed two days back after Fadnavis briefed Modi and Shah in Delhi over the allegations against him, which were not only leveraged by Congress, NCP and AAP to embarrass the first BJP-led government in the state but even made ally Shiv Sena to come out seeking his ouster.

Considered "number two" in the Cabinet handling vital portfolios of Revenue and Agriculture, Khadse has been facing heat over a series of allegations including irregularities in a land deal in Pune and getting calls allegedly from fugitive Dawood Ibrahim's residence in Karachi on his mobile phone besides the alleged bribe sought by a personal aide.

He is in a spot over the purchase of a three-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) land in Pune 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.

Rubbishing the allegations, Khadse said he has been a victim of an "unprecedented media trial."



Addressing a press meet with the state party chief Raosaheb Danve after his meeting with Chief Minister, Khadse, seen as the OBC face of the party with a massive following in northern districts, said, "For the last 40 years, I have been in politics and the party but had not experienced a media trial like this."



"There has been an unprecedented media trial against me," he said, adding, "I have demanded Fadnavis that an inquiry be ordered into the allegations."



Stating Khadse was forced to quit as charges against him were "serious", Congress demanded a high level investigation into the matter.

"Only resignation will not do. We want a high level judicial inquiry into the scams involving Khadse. We don't trust this government, which may sabotage the investigation," Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan told PTI.

Former AAP leader Anjali Damania, who was on a hunger strike demanding Khadse's resignation for the last three days, said this was the initial victory for her after exposing Khadse's wrongdoings.

AAP national spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon said, "We are relieved that finally, after he was totally exposed in past few weeks, BJP removed Khadse from office.
Beginning his political career as a village sarpanch in north Maharashtra's Jalgaon district, in his four-decade long political career went on to become de facto no 2 in the first BJP-led government in the state.

It was due to the 64-year-old leader's political clout that he held nearly a dozen of portfolios in the current cabinet, including important ones like revenue, state excise, minorities development and Wakf.

Khadse, who quit as minister in the BJP-led government on Saturday amid a string of charges, had began his career as a sarpanch of his village Kothali in north Maharashtra's Jalgaon district.

His exit from the ministry follows allegations of corruption, impropriety and conflict of interest as well as questions about his connection with the underworld fugitive, Dawood Ibrahim.

It was Khadse who took the lead in breaking off the BJP-Sena alliance of 25 years ahead of the October-2014 state Assembly polls.

Hailing from Leva Patil community, Khadse had positioned himself as an OBC leader, especially after Gopinath Munde's demise while his clout in north Maharashtra was impressive.

Khadse was the leader of Opposition during the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party regime. He served as a cabinet minister in the first Shiv Sena-BJP government during 1995-99.
Delhi Police on Saturday conducted raids in Kolkata and Chennai in search of the kingpin of the kidney trading racket, and other members in connection with which five persons, including two personal secretaries of a Nephrologist in Apollo Hospital here, have been arrested.

While three of the arrested persons have been sent to judicial custody, two were, on Saturday, produced before a court which sent them on two days' police remand, a senior official said.

A 25-member special investigation team has been formed to crack the entire nexus. The team is looking out for other members and the racket's kingpin Rajukumar Rao, for which raids were conducted on Saturday at Kolkata and Chennai, a senior police official said.

Meanwhile, two more prominent private hospitals in the capital and some more staff in Apollo hospital have come under police scanner.

It is suspected that the racket had operated with the same modus operandi at two other hospitals here, which is being probed, the senior official said adding that no clean chit has so far been given to others in Apollo Hospital, which includes some prominent doctors.

From interrogation of the arrested persons, it has emerged that the racket was involved in at least 10 kidney transplants last year in Coimbatore alone. The racket is believed to be active in Punjab and Tamil Nadu, operating in prominent private hospitals there.

Five persons have been arrested on charges of running the kidney racket bringing donors from different parts of the country to the capital.

The arrest of the five accused has also led to recovery of fake ID proofs such as voter photo identity cards, Aadhaar cards and laptops.

The entire documentation and verification process for organ transplant was bypassed by using forged papers related with agreement of donor, relationship with donor, id and address proofs, proof of marriage and clearance of case by Hospital Internal Authorisation Committee.

All the necessary documents were made fraudulently by affixing donor's photo showing the person as recipient's relative using documents of a genuine relative.

Apollo Hospital denied involvement in the kidney racket emphasising that it was a "victim" of a well-orchestrated operation by the accused.

"The police in their investigation have identified secretarial staff of some doctors, who have been accused of being involved in the alleged racket. We reiterate that these are not employees of the hospital. While all due precautions were conducted, fake and forged documents were used for this racket with a criminal intent. The hospital has been a victim of a well-orchestrated operation to cheat patients and the hospital," the statement by hospital stated.

The hospital also claimed that in order to ensure compliance with the law and diligence in process, it has an independent body with external members also for according consent for any transplant surgery.
The Madras High Court has said compensation awarded by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal or the interest accruing therein cannot be subjected to tax deducted at source (TDS).

A civil revision plea was filed by the Managing Director, Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (Salem) Limited, Dharmapuri, against an order passed by Additional District Judge, Fast Track Court, directing the corporation to deposit the amount deducted as TDS to the MACT claimant.

"The question is whether the provisions of Income Tax Act,1961, and more specifically, whether the compensation awarded by the MACT to the victim can be classified as a taxable income under the Income Tax Law? The answer to this question in the opinion of this court is in the negative," Justice MV Muralidaran said, dismissing the petition.

The matter relates to Rs 4,23,271 as compensation awarded by the lower court to Chinnadurai and a memo was filed by the Transport Corporation deducting Rs 24,017 as TDS which was challenged following which the lower court directed the corporation to deposit Rs 30,774 in the victim's account.

Aggrieved by the order, the Transport Corporation filed the civil revision petition.

Counsel for the Corporation argued that as per section 194-A and 156 of the Income Tax Act,1961, interest awarded by the MACT should be subject to TDS and justified the deduction.

Justice Muralidaran, who referred to a order of Himachal Pradesh High Court, said, "The Motor Vehicles Act is one such legislation which has been passed with a benevolent intention for compensating the accident victims who have suffered bodily disablement or loss of life and the Income Tax Act which is primarily intended for Tax Collection by the state cannot put spokes in the effective and efficacious enforcement of the Motor Vehicles Act...."



"...This court arrives at the conclusion that the compensation awarded or the interest accruing therein from the compensation that has been awarded by the MACT cannot be subjected to TDS and the same cannot be insisted to be paid to the Tax Authorities since the compensation and the interest awarded therein does not fall under the term 'Income' as defined under the Income tax act, 1961."



The judge directed the Transport Corporation not to deduct any amount towards TDS and to deposit the same also inaddition to the amount that was already deposited on the file of MACT, Dharmapuri within a period of four weeks.
Facing a string of allegations including irregularities in a land deal, Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse today resigned, the first casualty in BJP since the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combine took over pledging zero-tolerance towards corruption.

Forwarding Khadse's resignation to Governor C Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced an inquiry by a retired high court judge into the allegations against him, assought by the senior leader himself.

With his position becoming untenable after the central leadership sent a clear and stern message, the 64-year-old veteran from north Maharashtra drove this morning to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's official residence to offer his resignation.

Later, after a point-by-point rebuttal of allegations at a press meet, Khadse went to Fadnavis's residence again to formally hand over his resignation.

"I have received Eknath Khadse's resignation. I have accepted it and sent it to Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao. A Retired High Court judge will be appointed to probe charges against Khadse," said Fadnavis.

The fate of Khadse was sealed two days back after Fadnavis briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah in Delhi about the development and its possible fallout on the image of the ministry.

Allegations against Khadse were leveraged not only by Congress, NCP and AAP to embarrass Maharashtra's first BJP-led government but even ally Shiv Sena had come out in the open seeking his ouster.

Considered "number two" in the Cabinet and in-charge of vital portfolios like Revenue and Agriculture, Khadse has been facing a series of allegations including irregularities in a land deal in Pune and of getting calls allegedly from fugitive Dawood Ibrahim's residence in Karachi on his mobile phone besides the alleged bribe sought by a personal aide.

He is in a spot over the purchase of a three-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) land in Pune 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.

Rubbishing the allegations at a press meet with state BJP chief Raosaheb Danve, Khadse said he had been a victim of an "unprecedented media trial."



Seen as the OBC face of the party with a massive following in northern districts, Khadse said, "For the last 40 years, I have been in politics and the party but had not experienced a media trial like this."



Protests erupted in Khadse's home turf Jalgaon and his constituency Mutainagar where people took to the streets in support of the stalwart.

The Congress, however, said mere resignation would not do and a criminal case should be registered against Khadse.

"Mere resignation of Eknath Khadse with a simultaneous clean chit to him wouldn't put the lid over or do away the need for an independent probe into alleged Dawood Ibrahim terror connection," party's chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said in New Delhi.More.
Quite a hailstorm we had a couple weeks ago. Windshields cracked, vehicles dimpled, shingles loosened, branches stripped.

Will insurance pay for all the damage? Or do hailstorms belong to a special category called Acts of God?

That may be a useful term for lawyers and insurance companies to avoid responsibility, but its really poor theology. God, the Great Destroyer!

Admittedly, many Christians believe that everything that happens is Gods will. Theyll explain, Everything happens for a reason, God is in control, and Well understand it by and by.

Sorry. I dont agree.

Then where do these ideas come from? Two suggestions: 1. Human beings often define God as the opposite of human. Tradition suggests three attributes of God  all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere-present. Notice, these are examples of what we humans are not, but maybe wish we were. Perhaps were imagining (inventing?) a God reflecting our human limitations: what we would want to be if we were God.

A whimsical way of saying this is based on Genesis, chapter 1:27. God created human beings in his image, and ever since, humans have been trying to reverse the compliment.

2. Our human desire for order, predictability, control. When something bad happens  a hailstorm, tornado, flood, death of a child, etc.  people often ask why. And if its something massive or tragic, we want to believe that somehow its all for the good, that God has some great, eternal plan, which well finally understand and then it will be all OK. Good luck with that.

For nonbelievers, it is one more reason to reject God, the Grand Puppeteer, holding the cords of everything on Earth, jerking us around willy-nilly. I would reject that kind of god, too.

Unfortunately, some Christians, especially some high-profile TV preachers, assume they have a license to diagnose which sin brought about a major disaster, like blaming homosexuality for the New Orleans hurricane. Such judgmentalism tends to drive away people from faith rather than toward it.

Writer Anne Lamott has famously written that when your God hates the same people you do, youve probably created a God in your own image. Thats an example of idolatry, self-justification. Dont go up and down your street judging your neighbors whose hail damage is worse than yours.

Were dealing with some serious religious questions here. Where does evil come from? How much responsibility do human beings have? Do we really have free will? Does God even exist? If so, what kind of God? If God doesnt control everything, then what good is He/She/It?

These are great questions with no easy answers. Deep down, I think God knows we wont be satisfied with a faith of easy answers.

So where is God then, especially in lifes hailstorms, in our questions and ambiguities, even hurts, losses, tragedies?

Ill offer a metaphor: Life is a journey, an experience, a story, an adventure, one which each of us is writing. One biblical image of God is as a kind of loving parent, helping us make life choices, but making them with us, not for us. Think of that wonderful Hebrew word Immanuel  God WITH us.

When our kids were little we could kiss their skinned knees and make them better. Dont try that with adult kids; theyll stop sharing their problems with you. They want compassion, not suggestions or easy solutions, and certainly not fault-finding. They want us to listen and love.

Maybe thats what we need, an age-appropriate, adult relationship with God. This way the primary attribute of God, biblically speaking, is love. The all-powerful, all-knowing stuff belongs more to philosophy than Judeo-Christian theology. Thus the main Act of God is also love, not some natural disaster. And the main theme of the life-book we are writing is also Love  Gods love for us, our love for God and neighbor, even loving ourselves  accepting, embracing who we are and what we can do to love Gods people (meaning everybody) and Gods creation. This is a relational faith, vibrant, living, creative, even unscripted. And sometimes I think God is as excited as we are to see how it turns out.
The fist-like appendage of mantis shrimp - a small, multicoloured marine organism - consists of a unique herringbone structure, that may be used to design super strong composite materials for variety of applications, including aerospace and armour, scientists say.

The mantis shrimp crushes the shells of its prey using a fist-like appendage called a dactyl club.

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside and Purdue University in the US describe for the first time the unique herringbone structure, not previously reported in nature, within the appendage's outer layer.

It is this tough herringbone structure that not only protects the club during impact, but also enables the mantis shrimp to inflict incredible damage to its prey.

The dactyl club can reach an acceleration of 10,000g, unleashing a barrage of impacts with the speed of a .22 caliber bullet.

In previous work, researchers identified several different regions of the dactyl club, including an interior region - called the periodic region - with an energy-absorbent structure that also filters out damaging shear waves, which travel through objects when they are under stress.

The current research describes for the first time a unique herringbone structure within the dactyl club's outer layer, called the impact region.

The impact region is a crack-resistant layer that shields the club as the mantis shrimp pummels its prey. It consists of crystalline calcium phosphate (the same mineral found in human bone) surrounding the organic chitin fibres.

Researchers found that these heavily mineralised fibres were compacted to form a "herringbone structure" that is significantly stiffer than the periodic region.

This unique herringbone structure not only protects the club from failure, but also enables the mantis shrimp to inflict incredible damage to its prey by transferring more momentum upon impact.

Researchers performed finite element analyses to understand the role of these structures. They also fabricated the herringbone structure using synthetic materials and a 3D printer.

They built computational models that replicate the local details of the herringbone structure.

These models explained that damaging stress can be more uniformly distributed, mitigating catastrophic structural failure.

Compression testing of the 3D printing biomimetic composite also helped prove that the herringbone structure makes the impact region even more effective than the periodic region in redistributing stress and deflecting cracks.

The discovery of the highly impact-resistant herringbone structure adds new inspiration as his team designs the next generation of materials for a variety of applications, including aerospace, automotive and armour, researchers said.

The study was published in the journal Advanced Materials.
Union Minister Babul Supriyo today attacked the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh over the Mathura clash, saying it appears to be a "case of negligence" on the part of local administration.

"Overlooking tension, which was brewing in the area for long and that too in a sacred place like Mathura, is not good. Even policemen lost their lives. Apparently, it appears that there was a negligence on the part of local administration," Union Minister of State for Urban Development Supriyo told reporters.

"If tension was coiling up over the issue of removing encroachment, UP government should have taken a note of it. What was the local administration doing?" the BJP MP asked.

As many as 24 persons, including an SP and an SHO, were killed in clashes between police and members of a sect who had encroached on a government land, during a drive to evict them in Mathura district on Thursday.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has already sought a report on the issue and now the time has come for the damage control. It was a matter of intelligence failure too, he said.

"It was a dangerous incident. An SP has lost his life. Who are responsible for the failure? It should be probed. It is also the responsibility of state government as law and order is a state subject," the minister said.

On BJP's performance in the recently-concluded state Assembly elections in West Bengal, Supriyo said, "Though party's vote share has come down to 10.2% from 17% in 2014 Lok Sabha poll, the spread of votes is homogeneous in nature and it got support of people from all parts of the state."
Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday raised compensation amount to the next of kin of two slain police officers in Mathura clash from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav also announced extraordinary pension to the families of two martyred policemen and job to one member from each family, an official release said.

The Chief Minister, who is in the eye of a storm over the violence that claimed 24 lives, said in Mahoba in Bundelkhand, "the government is with the bereaved families of two slain police officers, Mukul Dwivedi and Santosh Kumar in this time of sorrow."



He said the state government would extend all help in rehabilitation of their dependents.

"It is a terrible loss. It is a matter of great sorrow. Their family members are facing troubled times," Yadav said.

Earlier in the day, BSP supremo Mayawati charged the chief minister with not taking the seriously.

"Rather than touring Bundelkhand, he should have been visiting Mathura today," she said, and demanded a judicial or Supreme Court-monitored or CBI probe into the incident.

BJP President Amit Shah demanded resignation of Cabinet Minister Shivpal Yadav, who is also uncle of the chief minister and is highly influential in the Samajwadi Party.

Addressing a public function in Kanpur on Saturday, Shah indirectly held Shivpal responsible for the Mathura incident.
CPI(M) today demanded an inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge into the Mathura violence which claimed the lives of 24 people including two police officials.

CPI(M) said it wanted the probe to ascertain also if a "general atmosphere of intolerance being spread under patronage of BJP-led central government" has any role in the growth of an outfit, allegedly involved in Thursday's incident.

The Left party also alleged that the incident occurred due to a "very serious lapse" on the part of central and state intelligence agencies.

"The politburo of CPI(M) demands that a high powered judicial inquiry must be constituted immediately to probe into all these aspects, identify and punish the guilty.

"It would be preferable if a sitting judge of the Supreme Court be entrusted this task with a defined timeframe," the Left party said in a statement.

The party said 22 of the total deceased belonged to the outfit, Swadhin Bharat Subash Sena (SBSS), which it added, had settled at Mathura Jawahar Bagh in 2014, allegedly piling up arms, ammunition and crude bombs preparing for a battle.

CPI(M) said it is "indeed inexplicable" that the SBSS engaged in these activities for two years at a place in close proximity to the office of district administration and barely two km away from Mathura Cantonment.

"This clearly is a very serious lapse on the part of the central and state intelligence organisations. It is equally perplexing that this police action against encroachers was a consequence of a directive by the judiciary and not on the basis of any information or intelligence of our security apparatus," it said.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said the terror attacks in Anantnag district were an attempt to derail the peace and reconciliation process in Jammu and Kashmir as she paid homage to three BSF personnel who were killed in an ambush by militants near Bijbehara yesterday.

Mehbooba, who visited the frontier headquarters of BSF at Humhama here, expressed anguish over the killing of two policemen in Anantnag town of south Kashmir today and said the recent attacks once again show the "desperate levels" to which the militants can go to "disrupt peace and normalcy" in the state.

She laid wreaths on the mortal remains of the jawans - Head Constable G K Shukla of 1022 RT Regiment, Head Constable Dinesh Giri of 1022 RT Regiment and Constable Mahinder Ram of 64 Battalion.

"Violence is a zero sum game which does not solve any problem but gives rise to more complexities. Only the weak resort to killings," she said.

Mehbooba said the "perpetrators of bloodbath" must realise that political problems are not resolved through the gun and grenade.

"Dialogue and reconciliation are the only options for making headway in finding a solution," she said.

The Chief Minister expressed solidarity with Director General BSF, K K Sharma, who was present there.

She conveyed her condolences to the bereaved families and prayed for peace to the departed souls.

Recalling the sacrifices of the security forces in combating militancy in the state, Mehbooba said, "such dastardly acts of senseless violence are against the basic tenets of humanity and they should be condemned by one and all.

"My heart goes out to the families of the slain BSF personnel and I hope the perpetrators will be taken to task soon."



The Chief Minister said such attacks were attempts by vested interests to "derail the peace and reconciliation process" started by the state government in Jammu and Kashmir which will also impact the economy at a time when the tourism activity had started picking up in the state.

Director General of state Police K Rajendra Kumar, Inspector General of BSF Vikas Chandra, IG Police Kashmir, Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani, IGP Muneer Ahmad Khan, DIGs of BSF Rajendra Pandey, A S Asthana and Sudhir Kumar were present on the occasion.

Besides, DIG Police Central Kashmir Range Ghulam Hassan Bhat, Deputy Commissioner Budgam, Mir Altaf Hussain, SSP Budgam Fayaz Ahmad and other senior officers of the civil and police administration were also present.

"The security forces personnel and the policemen, who are performing difficult duties not out of choice but to earn bread and butter for their families, are losing their precious lives in such dastardly attacks," Mufti said, adding "one fails to understand why unsuspecting police men should fall prey to this senseless violence".

She also praised the security forces and the police for exercising restraint to ensure that the innocent civilians do not suffer due to any retaliatory action.

Hundreds of civilians, security forces personnel, policemen and militants have been killed in the state over the past two decades, leaving behind a trail of tragedies for the families of the victims, she said.

"My heartfelt condolences to the families of Assistant Sub-Inspector Bashir Ahmad and a Constable Reyaz Ahmad, killed in Anantnag today," she said.

These "dastardly acts depict the desperation on part of militant groups" and they are only adding to the miseries of Kashmiris, Mufti said.

She said such killings cannot deter the resolve of the government in moving ahead to bring peace and normalcy to the state and end the miseries of the people.
In a first, a teenager, who allegedly ran over a 32-year-old marketing executive while driving his father's Mercedes, will now face trial as an adult after the (JJB) said on Saturday the offence allegedly committed by him was "heinous".

The Presiding Officer of the JJB passed the order on the application of Delhi Police which had sought transfer of the case to trial court to try as adult the accused who turned major just four days after the April 4 incident.

It is the first of its kind case since the amendment in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, which allowed the Board to transfer cases of heinous offences by children to Sessions court.

As per section 2(33) of the Act, "heinous offences" include the offences for which minimum punishment under IPC or any other law for the time being in force is imprisonment for seven years or more.

The police had on May 26 chargesheeted the juvenile in the JJB for the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder entails a maximum of 10 years jail.

The JJB had reserved its order on Friday after hearing for over an hour arguments by Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava who had said the boy belongs to the age group of 16-18 years and this offence comes under definition of "heinous crimes" so his case should be transferred to the trial court.

The JJB today accepted the argument and allowed the plea of Delhi Police, Shrivastava said.

Initially, a case under IPC sections 304 A (causing death by rash or negligent act) was lodged against the teenager but later on he was booked for the alleged offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sent to the reform home.

Police had said in its charge sheet that the boy had fatally run over victim Siddharth Sharma with his father's Mercedes when Sharma was trying to cross a road near Ludlow Castle School in north Delhi on April 4.

The final report was filed for alleged offences under IPC sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 279 (driving on a public way so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life) and 337 (causing hurt by an act which endangers human life) against him.

The Board had on April 26 granted bail to the youth who sought the relief to appear in entrance examinations.

Police had said that the car was being driven at a speed of at least 80 km per hour and Sharma was flung several feet into the air by the impact of the crash and landed around 15 metres away from where he stood.

Police had said that after the incident, a group of youths stepped out of the vehicle and fled from the spot abandoning the car there.

It had said that the youth had been penalised four times for violating traffic rules relating to over-speeding, not wearing seat belt and involvement in a minor traffic accident at Maurice Nagar in north Delhi.

The police had earlier arrested a man who claimed to be the actual driver of the Mercedes at the time of incident but he did a volte-face after he got to know the victim was dead.

The driver and the boy's father, who was also arrested earlier, were also granted bail by the court.

The youth had appeared before a Delhi court to surrender and moved a bail plea which was rejected on the ground that it was a matter of JJB. He was then produced before the board.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on a brief visit to Afghanistan, was today conferred with Amir Amanullah Khan Award, the country's highest civilian honour.

He was awarded the honour by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani after the inauguration of the landmark Afghan-India Friendship Dam.

"A true brotherhood is honoured. PM is awarded the Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistan's highest civilian honour," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted along with a photo.

During his 25 minute-long speech after inaugurating the dam, Modi also invoked Chisht-born Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti who settled down in Ajmer and is venerated by thousands of people visiting his shrine.

"Khwaja Moiunuddin Chishti, the first of the Chishti saints in India, said that human beings must have the affection of the sun, the generosity of the river and the hospitality of the earth.

"He not only had the magnificent landscape of his ancestral land in mind, he could also be describing the Afghan people. So, when I came to Kabul in December, in the warmth of your welcome, I saw the kindness of your heart," said Modi in Chisht-e-Sharif in western Herat neighbouring Iran.

At the close of the speech, the Prime Minister also wished the people of Afghanistan and all Muslims across the world for the Holy Month of Ramzan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tonight held a meeting with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani, who also hosted a banquet in his honour.

The meeting with the Qatari Premier was the last of Modi's the engagements on the first day of his two-day visit here.

"Ist day in Doha ends with a meeting with PM Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani who also holds banquet in PM's honour," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

Earlier, Modi, who arrived here this evening, was received warmly by the Prime Minister of Qatar at the Hamad International Airport.

Modi's visit here is focused on giving a new push to the economic ties, particularly in the hydrocarbon sector, between India and the energy-rich Qatar.

He will hold detailed talks tomorrow with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and address the business community of Qatar, a country which is India's largest supplier of LNG requirements, accounting for 65 per cent of the country's total imports last financial year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming visit to the American capital will highlight the "deepening of the US-India relationship", the White House has said.

"The visit will highlight the deepening of the US-India relationship in key areas since the President's visit to New Delhi in January 2015," White House Deputy Press Secretary Jennifer Friedman told reporters abroad Air Force One while travelling with US President Barack Obama to Miami, Florida.

"Among the issues that the President looks forward to discussing are progress made on climate change and clean energy partnership, security and defence cooperation, and economic growth priorities," Friedman said.

"There is a whole host of issues where our relationship and partnership is robust and important -- everything ranging from climate to military steps we're taking, to a whole host of economic steps that we're working on together," she said.

Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to arrive in Washington DC on June 6 on a three-day visit.

This will be his fourth visit to the US.

He is scheduled to meet President Obama at the White House on June 7 and address a joint meeting of the US Congress on June 8.

He will only be the fifth Indian Prime Minister to address a joint session of Congress.

Meanwhile, a series of protests have been planned against Modi during the visit.

Several human rights groups and Indian Americans organisations representing minority community are planning to hold protest rallies in and around the White House and the US Capitol.

Sikhs organisations and separatist Kashmiri groups are also planning protests.
The Bahujan Samaj Party today decided to support Congress Rajya Sabha poll candidate from Madhya Pradesh Vivek Tankha following which his victory is almost certain.

The BSP in a release today said it has decided to support the candidature of Congress nominee (Vivek) Tankha in the biennial polls "with an aim to weaken communal forces".

Madhya Pradesh Congress President Arun Yadav expressed gratitude to BSP chief Mayawati for her support.

"The decision of Mayawati against fascist and communal ideology is a welcome step," Yadav said in a statement.

BJP has fielded noted journalist MJ Akbar and senior party strategist Anil Madhav Dave and both are set to win on the basis of the party's strength in the Assembly.

However, with this development, things seem difficult for Vinod Gotia, an Independent backed by BJP.

Opposition Congress has 57 MLAs and needs just one more vote to ensure victory for its candidate. And now with BSP's decision (4 MLAs), its victory is almost certain now.

For Gotia to win, BJP, which has 50 surplus votes, needs eight more votes.

In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly, BJP has 166 MLAs followed by Congress (57), BSP (4) and Independents (3).

A total of five candidates had filed their nominations for the polls initially but during scrutiny candidature of Jabalpur-based Shashi Stella was rejected.

Now, four candidates in fray for three seats from the state polls for which are scheduled for June 11.
BOISE, Idaho  Mountain biker Marc-Francois Bradley rode around a corner on a lightly traveled trail deep in the Boise Foothills on Saturday morning and discovered an unexpected oasis. He wondered if he was imagining the makeshift, trailside coffee stand that appeared.

Would you like a cup of coffee? Matt Bishop asked, surrounded by coffee supplies packed by his mule, Richard.

Yeah, but its too good to be true, Bradley replied. Its like youre a genie in the forest.

Bishop debuted his Cafe Mule concept near the intersection of the Five Mile Gulch and Orchard Gulch trails off Rocky Canyon Road, an obscure spot on the Ridge to Rivers map that fit his mission of attracting bikers, runners and hikers to trails they might not otherwise use and eluded a mess of permitting issues that have put the business side of his idea on hold indefinitely. Richard packed about 200 pounds for 1.5 miles and 500 feet of elevation gain to reach the location.

Bishop posted his plans on social media and offered to serve a free cup of coffee to a maximum of 73 people.

One trail user told him to expect about a dozen people to reach that location on a typical morning. More than 50 passed by between 8 a.m. and noon, with at least 30 accepting a cup of coffee.

Some, like Bradley, were surprised. Many others came searching for the coffee stand. Most stopped to chat  often for 15-20 minutes, with the Treasure Valley visible far below and Lucky Peak as a striking backdrop.

If I could hang out here all day, I would, Claire Gudmundsen of Boise said. This guys brilliant, to think of this idea.

And in an unfortunate way, ahead of his time.

Red tape

Bishop, who grew up in Sheridan, Wyo., graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and was a captain in the Marines and Army during separate stints in the military, landed in Boise three years ago so his wife could attend physician assistant school at Idaho State University-Meridian. He developed a quick affection for the Foothills, taking his three young children on the trails, and built a business around outdoor recreation. He has designed gear for ultrarunners and he acquired Richard  after shopping for a mule that could handle people and dogs  with a plan to offer trailside services to recreationists and for events.

His first meeting with Ridge to Rivers  the five-agency partnership that runs the Foothills trail system  was in December. Initial feedback was positive, but then it became clear that dealing with an organization run by the city of Boise, Ada County, Idaho Fish and Game, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service was going to get complicated.

Ridge to Rivers doesnt have a policy for permitting vendors. After much discussion, BLM was asked to make a final decision because it owns the land that Bishop most wanted to utilize  far enough from town to make the mule useful, close enough to draw a strong flow of recreationists.

The BLM rejected Bishops request on April 21.

The BLM decided not to issue a vending permit to provide services along the Ridge to Rivers trail system because the activity is not in conformance with current BLM land-use planning guidance for the Boise Foothills, said Larry Ridenhour, a recreation planner for BLMs Boise district. Additionally, the BLM did not want to set a precedent of issuing a vending permit prior to a formal Ridge to Rivers vending policy being established.

Business or pleasure?

The U.S. Forest Service also owns some land that would work for Bishop, but district ranger Stephaney Kerley reported at a Ridge to Rivers meeting on Feb. 4 that it would be a minimum of three years before she could look at (Bishops) pack mule proposal, according to meeting minutes.

The city, which is the lead agency in Ridge to Rivers, has started work toward creating a vendor policy for the trail system, Parks and Recreation Director Doug Holloway said. He hopes to have a policy in place by summer 2017. However, theres no guarantee that a global policy will be possible.

Even if a vendor system is created, Holloway expects it to be very limited.

What Matt is doing is totally cool, Holloway said. ... Its not a matter of the idea that he has. Its what comes after that. We just need to make sure that when we open that door, we are prepared to continue to serve the public. The public should weigh in on this, too. Do they really want to see services provided on the trails?

Parks and Rec has offered to allow Bishop to work in the parks this summer, at events like Movies Under the Stars or at the rafting takeout in Ann Morrison Park. He is hesitant to go that direction because it limits the usefulness of the mule  you can drive to those events  and there are additional insurance and health department requirements.

So for now, hes trying to prove that coffee in the Foothills works.

The U.S. Forest Service doesnt require a permit for noncommercial group uses involving fewer than 75 people. Bishops location Saturday was on Forest Service land and he marketed his coffee with the hashtag #73forFree  limiting the event to 73 customers and one coffee-making mule owner. Mules, like horses, are allowed on much of the Ridge to Rivers system. He expected to spend $50-$60 on the outing.

While this thing seems simple on the surface, Bishop said, the permitting thing is rough.

The Forest Service even disagrees with Bishops interpretation that he can provide free coffee.

Hes got to have a permit to do that activity, said Susan Blake, the acting public affairs officer for the Boise National Forest. Hes doing a particular activity. If Im a researcher going to the forest to do testing, I have to apply for a permit. It could be one person. I may not be making a profit off it but Im still doing a particular activity and I need to apply for a permit. Thats the difference between a gathering and doing an activity.

Mule model

As the 34-year-old Bishop told his story Saturday to curious coffee drinkers and posed for photos bound for social media (#RichardtheMule), his customers tried to troubleshoot his business model for him. Could he create a coffee membership, like Utah bars once did? Could he sell punch cards so folks dont need to bring money with them? Could he accept PayPal?

Others suggested trail locations that might work or other applications for mule-side delivery  although, technically, Richard was tethered 100 yards away while Bishop was serving coffee. At one point, there were so many ideas that Bishop joked, I just need to start buying mules right now.

He made pour-over coffee, boiling the water with a two-burner, Jetboil camp stove. He offered cream and sugar and was careful not to leave anything behind, even dumping leftover coffee into a reservoir and pouring that into an empty water jug to pack out.

He turned down multiple offers of payment and tips  preferring not to risk his status as a noncommercial activity.

Theres been a lot of offers today, which makes me feel good, Bishop said. ... Im legitimizing the operation right now. When youre trying to do mule-side coffee, people have to see it to believe it.

One of the most excited customers was Kim Tower of Boise, who was celebrating her birthday with a running group. The group included about 25 people. She knew Cafe Mule would be there.

This is so cool, Tower said as she arrived. Thank you for being here. ... This is a perfect way to spend a birthday.

Later, runner Rachel Rudeen visited the coffee stand. Her in-laws, visiting from out of state, hiked in with her husband to meet her.

I thought this would be a memorable experience, to hike for coffee, Rudeen said.

And then there was Hugo Fregoso of Boise, who was so tickled by what he found at the top of the hill that he promised to brag to my boys in L.A.

Is it coffee in the mornings and beer in the afternoons? he asked, still catching his breath.

Fregosos joke at once showed the potential in Bishops idea and why the Ridge to Rivers partners are taking a cautious approach.

For Bishop, the big picture didnt matter as much. He finally was able to execute his plan  and it worked.

Theres been some frustration getting here, he said, but it was worth it. Today was super fun.
Researchers, for the first time, have found that the level of blood metabolites, the building blocks of fats and proteins, are "testable indicators" of whether or not a cancer treatment is working accurately, an advance that could help in tailoring treatment for patients.

This new way of monitoring cancer therapy could speed up the development of new targeted drugs - which exploit specific genetic weaknesses in cancer cells - and help in tailoring treatment for patients, researchers said.

Scientists from the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in the UK measured the levels of 180 blood markers in 41 patients with advanced cancers.

They found that investigating the mix of metabolic markers could accurately assess how cancers were responding to the targeted drug pictilisib.

Pictilisib is designed to specifically target a molecular pathway in cancer cells, called PI3 kinase, which has key a role in cell metabolism and is defective in a range of cancer types, researchers said.

"The new study is the first to show that blood metabolites are testable indicators of whether or not a new cancer treatment is hitting the correct target, both in preclinical mouse models and also in a trial of patients," they said.

Using a sensitive technique called mass spectrometry, scientists initially analysed the metabolite levels in the blood of mice with cancers that had defects in the PI3K pathway.

They found that the blood levels of 26 different metabolites, which were low prior to therapy, had risen considerably following treatment with pictilisib.

Their findings indicated that the drug was hitting its target, and reversing the effects of the cancer on mouse metabolites, researchers said.

Similarly, in humans, scientists found that almost all of the metabolites - 22 out of the initial 26 - once again rose in response to pictilisib treatment, as seen in the mice.

Blood levels of the metabolites began to increase after a single dose of pictilisib, and were seen to drop again when treatment was stopped, suggesting that the effect was directly related to the drug treatment, researchers said.

"We have shown that assessing a patient's metabolites can be a quick and simple way of assessing whether a cancer drug is specifically hitting its intended target in the body," said Florence Raynaud from ICR.

"Our study is an important step in the development of new precision cancer therapies, and is the first to show that blood metabolites have real potential to monitor the effects of novel agents," said Raynaud.

The findings were published in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.
Listing out initiatives she has taken for development of Andhra Pradesh as the Rajya Sabha member from the state, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said she has utilised the entire amount under the MPLAD scheme and facilitated setting up of several projects.

"MPLADs, just for records: fully utilized both years' funds for developmental work...Had Bhimavaram and Vizag declared centers of export excellence. Money for building export infrastructure comes through," Sitharaman said in a series of tweets.

She was responding to a query on Twitter on what Andhra Pradesh got for sending "you to Rajya Sabha apart from spending Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds?"



Sitharaman, who has completed her term as Rajya Sabha member from Andhra Pradesh, is now contesting from Karnataka.

She said that land has been identified in Amravati for setting up National Institute of Design, which is temporarily housed in Vijaywada. Land has also been identified for a campus for IIFT, for which foundation stone would be laid soon.

As Andhra Pradesh shall be a logistics hub, the minister said soon a foundation stone would be laid for setting up Indian Institute of Packaging.

"Mega leather cluster all ready to be set up in Nellore district. The Vizag- Chennai Industrial corridor, with Asian Development Bank having completed their study shall see major activity creating investment and jobs.

"The Chennai-Bengaluru Corridor passes through Andhra Pradesh. Linking with it, have ensured Rayalaseema benefits from NIMZ (National Investment and Manufacturing Zone) also," the minister added.

Sitharaman said she has also worked for the cause of tobacco farmers when prices fell and procurements did not take off.

"Made Toorputallu and Pedamainavanilanka as the first villages to be run on solar power.

"All this in less than 2 years. Admit there is much more to do. Keep watching and questioning," she added.
Madras High Court Advocates Association today said it had great respect for Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, but could not accept his remark that they were parties to framing of amended rules as no agenda was placed before them on the issue and they were "kept in the dark."



"No agenda was placed before MHAA office bearers with regard to the amendments to the Advocates Act and we were kept in the dark," said MHAA President R C Paul Kanagaraj.

He said they welcomed the gesture of the Chief Justice that the process of consideration of suggestions from the Bar was not too far off, but at the same time could not accept that they were parties for framing of amended rules.

Stating that certain rules framed were lowering the image of advocates, he said their proposed rally would not be against the High Court or Supreme Court and be peaceful. "It is to show the unity of the advocates community and not against anyone."



Kanagaraj contended that no other state had brought in these types of amendments and said the rules now framed were based on a 2009 Judgement of the Supreme Court.

Alleging that the amendments are against independence of advocates, he said if any action is to be taken against erring lawyers, contempt proceedings are in existence and courts can very well take action by using contempt of court.

"We have great respect for Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and welcome his gesture that the process of consideration of suggestions from the Bar is not too far. But at the same time we cannot accept that we were parties for the framing of amended rules," he said.

The Chief Justice had yesterday said the proposed rally by the High Court Advocates' Association and Women Lawyers' Association on June 6 to protest against the amendments to existing rules under the Advocates Act was "unwarranted".

The amendments were not brought suddenly or it was not brought out in a single day, he had told reporters.

Kanagaraj said their June 6 rally would be as per rules andthere would be no untoward activities. The rally was not a boycott and MHAA does not want to compel or obstruct lawyers who would like to attend courts for their cases, he said.

The CJ had said no Association representative had given any suggestion, raised any objection or showed any apprehension over framing of rules and that the Judges Committee only implemented directions of the Supreme Court.

If any apprehension were there, the associations were well within their limits to approach the apex court.

The rules were framed after due deliberations, the committee placed the rules before the Full Court and finally approved it. Thereafter, the rules were notified in the Government Gazette on May 25. Now the advocates cannot claim that they are not aware of it. There is no question of ignorance, Justice Kaul had said.
US President Barack Obama has commuted the prison sentences of 42 people, most of them non-violent drug offenders, reflecting his calls for criminal justice reform.

Most of those pardoned yesterday were small-time drug dealers who received long sentences under a code shaped by the government's war on drugs.

The punishments were made under "outdated and unduly harsh sentencing laws," the White House said in a statement.

"The individuals receiving a presidential commutation today have more than repaid their debt to society and earned this second chance."



Some were serving life sentences. Held in various prisons across the country, they will be released between October 1, 2016 and June 3, 2018.

Obama has now commuted sentences for 348 people, more than the total amount issued by the previous seven presidents combined.

Obama has called for legislation to reduce sentences and provide alternative punishments for small-time offenders.

"There remain thousands of men and women in federal prison serving sentences longer than necessary, often due to overly harsh mandatory minimum sentences," the White House said.

Some 2.2 million people are behind bars in the United States, a quarter of the world's prisoners in a country with only five percent of the world's population.

They include legions of the mentally ill and drug addicts, often from disadvantaged minorities, in a prison system many experts criticise for encouraging high rates of recidivism.
US President has condemned the violence at a California rally of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying "that is not what our democracy is about".

"It is very important for us to remind ourselves of who we are and what is best about American democracy and not slip into some of the bad habits that currently manifest themselves in the other party," Obama said at a fundraiser in Florida.

"We saw in San Jose these protesters starting to pelt stuff on Trump supporters. That is not what our democracy is about. That is not what you do. There is no room for violence," he said.

"There is no place for shouting. There is no room for a that fails to at least listen to the other side even if you vehemently disagree because I believe if you have got the better argument, you do not need to do that. Just go out there and organise and persuade," Obama said referring to the violence against Trump supporters at a California rally.

Trump, 69, has denounced the protesters as "thugs" a day after another demonstration outside one of his rallies turned violent ahead of the state's presidential primary.

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, 68, also condemned the violence, saying this does not help anybody.

"I condemn all violence in our political arena. I condemned it when Donald Trump was inciting it and congratulating people who were engaging in it, I condemn it by those who are taking violent protest to physical assault against Donald Trump. This has to end," she told the CNN as she blamed trump for creating such an environment.

"He set a very bad example. He created an environment in which it seemed to be acceptable for someone running for president to be inciting violence, to be encouraging his supporters. Now we are seeing people who are against him responding in kind  it should all stop. It is not acceptable," she said.

"I do not think any of this helps anybody. I do not think his protests that were led by his supporters, beating up people who were peacefully protesting against Trump, helped Trump and I do not think that people who are protesting and using physical violence against people supporting Trump are helping anybody, so I want it to just end," she added.

"I do not want to parse it, I do not want to talk bout the political implications. I want it to end. The police have a hard enough job trying to make sure that we are able to gather and talk about the issues facing our country and Trump has lowered the bar and now, is it a surprise that people who do not like him are stepping over that low bar? I do not think it is. He needs to condemn all violence by everyone. I already have, I will continue to do so," Clinton added.
President Barack Obama is looking forward to discussing a number of issues including security and defence cooperation, economic growth priorities and climate change with Prime Minister during his visit here, the White House has said.

"The visit will highlight the deepening of the US-India relationship in key areas since the President's visit to New Delhi in January 2015," White House Deputy Press Secretary Jennifer Friedman told reporters abroad Air Force One while travelling with Obama to Miami, Florida.

"Among the issues that the President looks forward to discussing are progress made on climate change and clean energy partnership, security and defence cooperation, and economic growth priorities," Friedman said.

"There is a whole host of issues where our relationship and partnership is robust and important everything ranging from climate to military steps we're taking, to a whole host of economic steps that we're working on together," she said.

Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to arrive in Washington DC on June 6 on a three-day visit. This will be his fourth visit to the US.

Soon after his arrival, he is scheduled to lay a wreath at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery where he will be accompanied by US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter, Pentagon said on Friday.

He is scheduled to meet Obama at the White House on June 7 and address a joint meeting of the US Congress on June 8.

He will only be the fifth Indian Prime Minister to address a joint session of Congress.
A 26-year-old Nigerian woman has been arrested in connection with the alleged assault on an Ola cab driver by a group of African persons in south Delhi's Rajpur Khurd area earlier this week, the second arrest in the case.

A Rwandan woman, identified as Kefa, was arrested on May 30, the day the incident was reported, police said today.

"The second accused, Janet, who is a native of Nigeria, was arrested yesterday in Delhi," a senior official said.

Both Janet and Kefa were allegedly living here with expired visas. While Kefa was arrested once in Bangalore last year, records pertaining to Janet are being checked, the official said.

From preliminary investigation, it has emerged that Janet and Kefa had booked 51-year-old Nooruddin's cab through Ola services for Dwarka. Once he arrived at Rajpur Khurd, the same locality in which African persons were allegedly attacked by locals earlier, he saw that six persons -- four men and two women -- were waiting for him.

He had alleged that the group was drunk. As he refused to take more than four passengers, a heated argument broke out and he was allegedly thrashed by them on May 30.

The four accused men have also been identified. Efforts are on to arrest them, the official added.
In the wake of the arrest of five persons, including two staff of a prominent multi-speciality hospital here, for allegedly running a kidney racket, the Delhi government today directed all hospitals, carrying out organ transplantation, to follow the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act.

"The Health Department of Delhi government hereby reiterates its directive that all hospitals in Delhi where organ transplantation is performed must follow the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act and the Rules in letter and spirit," an advisory by A K Saini, Medical Superintendent, Nursing Homes in the Health Department stated.

The Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act was passed in 1994 paving way for organ transplantation for therapeutic purposes in the country. The rules under the Act were updated in 2014.

"The basic premise behind the Act and the Rules has been to ensure that donation of organs (especially from a living donor) is purely altruistic and it is free from any financial transaction ... And there is no pressure or coercion of any kind on the donor," the advisory said.
Pakistan today sought to downplay its nuclear physicist Abdul Qadeer Khan's remarks about his country's reported capability to hit Delhi in five minutes, saying he is a private citizen and too much should not be read into his remarks.

He is a private citizen and too much importance should not be given to his comments, Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit said at an interactive session with journalists and intellectuals here.

Basit was asked to comment on Khan's boastful remark that nuclear-armed Pakistan has the ability to "target" the Indian capital in five minutes. The 80-year-old father of Pakistan's nuclear programme made the remark in late May.

The Pakistan diplomat dismissed fears about his country's atomic weapons falling into the hands of non-state actors. "We have a multi-layered security (for nuclear weapons). Its foolproof and as per global norms."



Basit said not only the people of Pakistan, but also the political parties of his country are desirous of peace with India. "All political parties in Pakistan include promise of improving relations with India in their election manifesto."



He expressed hope that the Indo-Pak dialogue, stalled after the terror attack on Pathankot air base in January, would resume soon. The issue of Kashmir will figure during the discussion whenever the talks take place, the envoy said.

Confidence building measures have been initiated by both the countries and they should help in restoring good bilateral relations,the High Commissioner said.

Speaking on a range of issues, Basit said Pakistan had been fighting to overcome the menace of terrorism, drug and human trafficking. "We are fighting terror for the last 35 years."



To a query, Basit said he had no knowledge about presence of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan, wanted in India for terrorism and other crimes.
Some state lawmakers are frustrated by the silence from the FBI and the BIA on an investigation into a woman found badly burned in April on the Crow Reservation.

Leaders in the state Democratic party and local state legislators met with Crow Nation leaders recently to discuss the issues facing their community.

House Minority Whip Jenny Eck, D-Helena, said during the meeting the news that a badly burned woman was found on the reservation was news to her.

She and several other legislators expressed shock at the lack of information coming from the FBI and the BIA regarding the crime.

"If this had happened to a child in any other community it would be national news," Eck said. "Here we are, elected officials in Montana, and that was the first we had heard of it."

Rep. Carolyn Pease-Lopez is a Crow tribal member and represents House District 42. She has served in the Montana Legislature since 2009. She said details are always scarce about crimes committed on the Crow Reservation.

"I want to know the FBI cares," Pease-Lopez said. "Why didn't they come forward and let the public know this terrible thing had happened?"

Pease-Lopez said the way information is kept from the public makes it seem like the federal government believes human life has less value on the reservation. She said victims off the reservation are made human through stories about their families and friends. The way victims on the reservation are treated makes their deaths and assaults anonymous.

American Indian women are 10 times as likely to be murdered as other U.S. citizens, and are sexually assaulted at four times the national average, according to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Indian Law and Order Commission.

Almost no information has been officially released about the victim, who was found between Lodge Grass and Busby, Pease-Lopez said.

"They don't investigate women being killed on the reservation," Pease-Lopez said. "We want to know one human being is worth as much on the reservation as off."

The FBI has released this statement about the incident.

"The victim is being treated for her injuries. The FBI and the BIA continue to conduct a joint investigation. We cannot release any further information due to the ongoing nature of the case."

When asked for the date of the incident and the location, the FBI said it was going to "stick to the statement" given. The FBI said to continue to check with them regarding more information in the future. That was almost a month ago.

Friday, the FBI said no new information could be provided, but said the investigation was ongoing.

Melissa Hornbein, public information officer for the Montana U.S. Attorney's office, also said the office could not provide any information.

Crow tribal leaders said the felt they are at the mercy of the drug cartels, who they said are trafficking drugs through their reservation, Eck said.

"We need to pay attention and need to keep asking questions and pushing on these issues," Eck said.

Tribal members pay state taxes just like anybody in Montana and need to get more resources from the state to help them with the drug crisis they are dealing with, Eck said. The rest of the state is not immune to the problems on the reservations, she said.

Democratic Rep. Kelly McCarthy, HD 51, said tribal leaders at the leadership meeting included Dana Wilson, vice chairman of the Crow Tribe, Shawn Real Bird, a tribal council member, and C.J. Stewart, who handles energy policy for the tribe.

McCarthy said when he has contacted federal agencies involved with the Native American reservations, he has never had a call returned.

"I'm not saying I'm especially important, but the feeling I get is they are the Feds and I'm the state so they don't have to respond to me," McCarthy said.

McCarthy said the lack of information coming out about crimes committed in Indian Country hides how desperate and dangerous things are getting in those communities.

"They have one BIA agent to patrol the (Crow) reservation," McCarthy said. "So if you've got one guy on him, you can operate without any harm to you."

According to the 2010 Tribal Law and Order Act, fewer than 3,000 tribal and federal law enforcement officers patrol more than 56 million acres of Indian Country, which reflects less than half of the law enforcement presence in comparable rural communities nationwide.

McCarthy said the tribes are also hindered by the the General Crimes Act, which gives the federal government exclusive jurisdiction to prosecute all crimes committed by non-tribal members against tribal victims in Native American nations. This excludes minor crimes.

Rumors have swirled within the Crow tribe about the woman's assault, Pease-Lopez said. Family members willing to come forward and make statements have now become silent. A GoFundMe page set up for the victim has a photo of the woman and a 241-character message.

"Our loved one was hurt and as family we want to help raise money for her recovery. ... She has 6 beautiful children. ... With the assault and burns she will require skin graphs (sic). ... Sorry not much detail. ... Thanks for your help, love and generosity."

The only information Pease-Lopez sees now comes from social media.

"That is supposed to be secondary," Pease-Lopez said. "I don't know what the rationale is for keeping this quiet."

McCarthy helped organize the conversations with Crow tribal leaders, Northern Cheyenne tribal leaders and people in Colstrip.

In 2014, of the 294 crimes investigated by the FBI on Montana Indian reservations, 169 reached federal court, according to the U.S. Department of Justice Indian Country Investigations and prosecutions report. That is 57 percent of crimes investigated by the FBI.
The rain-swollen River Seine in Paris receded today for the first time in a week after nearing its highest level in three decades, triggering a scramble to save artworks in riverside museums.

The Seine stood at 6.06 metres above normal levels at 8:00 a.m. local time, down from a high of 6.10 metres overnight, the environment ministry's Vigicrues flood watch website said.

The level was the same as that recorded yesterday afternoon, when the river rose to levels last seen in 1982, prompting emergency measures.

The famed Louvre and Orsay museums shut their doors in a race to move art treasures from their basements, some metro stations were closed and Parisians were advised to stay away from the Seine.

But by today, as authorities were counting the cost of over a week of flooding in central and northern France, the spectre of devastating floods in the city had begun to ebb.

"We're now in the stabilisation phase, even if we could still get one or two centimetres more," said Bruno Janet, head of modelling at Vigicrues.

The environment ministry yesterday forecast that the Seine would remain high throughout the weekend, but still far off a 1910 record of 8.62 metres, before starting to subside.

Across Europe, at least 17 people have been killed in floods that have trapped people in their homes and forced rescuers to row lifeboats down streets turned into rivers.

The City of Paris said it had opened two gyms to provide shelter for the homeless.

Pieces of driftwood, plastic bags and other flotsam today swirled in the muddy waters which had inundated the city's famous tree-lined riverside walkways, a popular haunt of strolling couples.

Firefighters warned people to keep away from dangerous parts of the river, but crowds gathered undeterred on Pont Neuf and other iconic bridges to snap pictures of the fast-flowing waters.

"It is a reminder that nature is more powerful than man and we cannot do anything, only wait," said Gabriel Riboulet, a 26-year-old entrepreneur, as he took in the scene.

A small number of basement flats in the capital were flooded yesterday and a campsite in the Bois de Boulogne forest in the west of the capital was cleared but there was no order yet for any Parisians to evacuate.

Several metro stations were closed and workers piled sandbags on platforms to hold back the water.

Boat traffic has been suspended in the capital, as has a regional train line that runs along the Seine.

French President Francois Hollande said a state of "natural catastrophe" would be declared when the Cabinet meets next Wednesday, a necessary step to trigger compensation payments.

Losses across France could reach more than 600 million euros ($680 million), said Bernard Spitz of France's association of insurers.
In his second visit to Afghanistan in less than six months, Prime Minister on Saturday arrived here on a short trip to inaugurate a dam, a showpiece infrastructure project by India in the strategically important Herat province neighbouring Iran.

The Prime Minister will also hold talks with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on the current situation in the country and the peace process besides other bilateral and regional issues.

The Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, in western Herat district is built at a cost of over Rs 1,700 crore under India's development partnership with Afghanistan. The dam on the river Chist-e-Sharif will irrigate 75,000 hectares of land and generate 42 Mw of power.

"It is symbol of our friendship and would usher in hope, light up homes, nourish the fertile fields of Herat and bring prosperity to the people of the region," the Prime Minister said on Friday.

The Herat province lies on the ancient trade routes of the Middle East, Central and South Asia. Roads from Herat to Iran, Turkmenistan, and other parts of Afghanistan are considered strategically important.

Last month, India, Iran and Afghanistan signed an agreement to set up a trade and transport corridor with Chabahar in Iran as the hub.

Over 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers were involved in construction of the dam for several years in difficult condition.

Afghanistan is Modi's first stop as part of his five-nation tour which will also take him to Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico.

Modi had visited Kabul on December 25 last year during which he had inaugurated a swanky Parliament complex that was built by India at a cost of $90 million.

India has a strategic partnership with Afghanistan and is implementing projects worth $2 billion to help rebuild the country's infrastructure.

India has been supporting an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, broad-based and inclusive process of peace and reconciliation, and advocating the need for a sustained and long-term commitment to Afghanistan by the international community.
Ahead of the 32nd anniversary of Operation Bluestar, Punjab Police today detained several radical leaders in raids at various places in the state as a preventive measure to maintain law and order.

In Ludhiana, three Sikh hardliners, including Dal Khalsa leader Daljit Singh Bittu, were apprehended, police said.

Police also detained Sikh activist Manvinder Singh Giaspura and Jaswant Singh Cheema, local leader of SAD (A), they said.

The raids at the houses of various hardliners were carried out in the wee hours, they said.

However, some of the members of SAD (Amritsar) and Dal Khalsa managed to escape, police said.

"It is a preventive action before the (Operation) Bluestar anniversary to maintain law and order," police said.

In Bathinda, police arrested religious leader Hardeep Mehraj and United Akali Dal leader Gurdeep Singh in the wee hours.

Patiala police also rounded up a few activists of the SAD (Amritsar).

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee chief Avtar Singh Makkar said police had rounded up Jaskaran Singh Kahan Singh wala at Bathinda.

Police have stepped up vigil in Amritsar and areas around the Golden Temple.

In June, 1984, more than 1,000 people were killed in Operation Bluestar, the raid on Sikh's holiest shrine Golden Temple to flush out extremists led by Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale. Bhindrawale and his associates were killed in the operation.

Meanwhile, Amrik Singh, who was 'appointed' Keshgarh Sahib Jathedar by a Sikh conclave last year, urged Sikhs to reach Amritsar on June 6 to participate in 'ardass' (prayer meeting) organised by various Sikh organisations to pay homage to those killed in .

Addressing a gathering at Gurudwara Singh Sahib at Dharmkot in Moga district, he criticised Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for allegedly undermining and misusing Sikh institutions.

Police also cracked down on radicals in Moga district conducting raids at the houses of activists of Akali Dal (Amritsar) and Dal Khalsa.

Several activists were rounded up as a preventive measure, police said.
A day after he was elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh, Railway minister Suresh Prabhu today announced a number of major railway projects for the state, including a high-speed rail line between new capital Amaravati and Bengaluru.

He, however, remained non-committal on the establishment of a new railway zone with headquarters at Visakhapatnam, alleging that the erstwhile UPA government did not "specify" it in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

"It is incumbent upon us do as much as possible in this regard," Prabhu said after a three-hour-long meeting with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu wherein railway projects related to the state were reviewed.

The Railway Minister announced that two high-speed rail lines would be built between Visakhapatnam and Chennai and Bengaluru and Amaravati in collaboration with foreign countries.

The foreign collaborator would be decided after talks with different countries, he said.

"I held talks with French officials yesterday but that was only a preliminary meeting. We will talk with other countries as well and choose a partner," Prabhu added.

He said a Special Purpose Vehicle\Joint Venture Company would be formed by the Railways with AP government in a couple of months for taking up major rail projects in the state.

"Through the proposed SPV, 21 railway stations in AP will be redeveloped as (on the lines of) airports. The South Central Railway General Manager will coordinate with the state government in this regard and review the works every month," the Minister added.

The Railway Minister also announced an aggregate capital investment of Rs 1,000 crore for setting up two new railway workshops at Kurnool and Tirupati and a wagon overhaul facility at Visakhapatnam.

These facilities would create hundreds of jobs, he said.

Prabhu also announced that a major Rail Neer plant would also be set up in Andhra Pradesh.

Two special tourist trains would also be introduced in the



state, one of which would be run by the IRCTC.

"The second tourist train will be modelled on the Palace on Wheels and the Deccan Odyssey. We will work with the state government on this," Prabhu added.

Noting that he has now become "a citizen of Andhra Pradesh", following his election to Rajya Sabha from the state yesterday, Prabhu said he worshiped Lord Balaji atop Tirumala Hills today.

"AP has Lord Balaji, the biggest asset. I discussed with the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams authorities this morning about developing a world-class railway terminal in Tirupati under Public Private Partnership. I am informing the Chief Minister about this now," the Railway Minister said.

"Andhra Pradesh will not be lacking in terms of not having railway support. The state is facing transitional difficulties because of the state bifurcation. Railways will do everything to help AP," Prabhu promised.

Replying to questions on the promised new railway zone at Visakhapatnam, Prabhu pointed out that the Reorganisation Act only said "the government will explore the possibility".

"The UPA government had not clearly mentioned in the Act about setting up the railway zone. It only mentioned about exploring the possibility. It is now incumbent upon us to do as much as we can," he added.

But considering Visakhapatnam's importance and its potential for growth, the Railways would come up with many projects there, Prabhu said.

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said the Railway Minister promised to take up the railway zone issue with the Prime Minister.

He also requested the Union Minister to create a loop for the proposed Mumbai-Kharagpur Freight Corridor to connect Visakhapatnam.

"This will ensure east-west port connectivity. We have also requested him to prepare a comprehensive integrated logistics plan," Chandrababu added.

Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y Satyanarayana Chowdary, state health minister Kamineni Srinivas, MPs and top railway officials were present.
A hawker-eviction drive launched by Government Railway Police at Baruipur railway station in South 24-Parganas today turned violent with hawkers and police coming to blows leaving 7 persons, including police officials and journalists, injured, a GRP official said.

Four railway personnel, including a senior officer, Kamal Ghosh, and three photographers belonging to vernacular press, were injured in the incident, the official said.

The trouble started in the morning when GRP personnel began evicting hawkers who were illegally hawking their ware on the railway platform, the official said.

Nearly 3,000 hawkers, belonging to INTTUC, the trade union of ruling TMC, put up a stiff resistance pelting brickbats at the police and bursting bombs, the official said.

They squatted on the railway track to prevent normal functioning of trains, the source said.

However, the railway authorities used the adjacent track to run the suburban service, they added.

Ghosh, who tried to reason with the hawkers, was badly beaten up and had to be admitted to B R Singh hospital in Kolkata, the official said.

Three other railway personnel were also injured in the brickbatting.

The photographers who were beaten up by the mob were rushed to the local hospital where they were discharged after first aid, the official said.

The hawkers later moved to the adjacent maidan belonging to the railways and staged a sit-in there.

The eviction drive was called off for the day, the official added.

(Reopens CES6)



Reacting to the incident, the Eastern Railway authority, however, alleged non-cooperation on the part of state government in their eviction programme.

"We had informed the local administration much earlier about today's drive to evict all unauthorised hawkers from Baruipur station, but they did not cooperate with us," a senior railway officer said.

He also said that those responsible for the incident have been identified from the CCTV footage and action as per Railways Act would be taken accordingly.

"No unauthorised hawkers will be allowed on any rail station or over railway property," he added.

Meanwhile, the ADG (Law and Order) Anuj Sharma told reporters at the State Secretariat Nabanna that the local administration opposed such a drive, but the railway authority did not listen to them and continued with it which had led to the incident.

Sharma also said the state Home Secretary Moloy Dey was having talks with the high officials of Eastern Railway on the issue.
Mainak Sarkar, the Indian- American gunman who shot dead his wife and his former college professor before turning the gun on himself, acted on his own, the police said today.

"This was simply him," Captain William Hayes of the Los Angels Police Department told reporters.

"We have not been able to determine any trigger event that would lead to this or the murder of his wife," he said in response to a question.

Sarkar, 38, killed his wife Ashley Hasti at her Minnesota home, before driving to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) to shoot his former professor William Klug.

The police is still investigating into the possible motives of the shooting that has shocked the Indian-American community nationwide.

It is believed that Sarkar first killed his wife in Minneapolis after which he drove his Nissan to Los Angeles for killing Klug.

The Los Angeles Police Department's Deputy Chief Matt Blake said investigators have found a hand gun and several red gasoline cans in the car's trunk.

The police believes that the cans were used to refuel the tank on his way from Minneapolis to Los Angeles so as to avoid using his credit card at gas stations during his long drive.

It did not look like the cans were used "for anything nefarious", Hayes was quoted as saying by The Los Angeles Times.

Meanwhile, the police said they were having difficulties in identifying the body of Hasti, the wife of Sarkar.

They reportedly married in 2011.

"They didn't live together long - maybe a year," Charlane Bertsch, Hasti's great-aunt, told Los Angeles Times.

Hasti's uncle, Mark Fitzgibbons, told NBC the family was in shock.

"She was way ahead of her time," Fitzgibbons said of his niece, who had studied abroad in Taiwan and China during high school before heading to Scripps College in California for pre-med studies.

There is no evidence that Sarkar committed any other crime.
Mainak Sarkar, the Indian- American techie behind the UCLA murder-suicide, seems to have forced his entry into his estranged wife's home before shooting her dead and boarded a bus to the varsity to kill his former college professor, authorities said today.

The 38-year-old IIT-Kharagpur alumni is believed to have intruded into the Brooklyn Park residence in the nearby town where Ashley Hasti, who he married in 2011, lived.

Officers also found Sarkar's car, a grey 2003 Nissan Sentra with Minnesota license plate 720KTW, parked in his old neighbourhood. They also found a broken window they believe he used to enter Hasti's home.

Police had asked for the public's help to find the car and was spotted by a bicyclist parked on a residential street on the city's west side.

A bomb squad that inspected the vehicle found no explosives but police say a handgun and cans of gasoline were in the trunk.

Authorities said the fuel was apparently there so Sarkar did not have to stop on his trip from Minnesota, where he killed 31-year-old Hasti a few days ago.

Initially, there were conflicting reports about the status of their marriage but police today confirmed Hasti was still legally Sarkar's wife when she died of multiple gunshot wounds. Hasti had been separated for some time and lived separately, they said.

According to Los Angeles police, Sarkar finished his over 3,000 kms-long deadly journey by bus as he knew the bus route to the University of California, Los Angeles where he killed 39-year-old engineering professor William Klug, who he had accused of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else.

Police have also suggested mental issues with Sarkar, who later turned the gun on himself.

The motive for the twin murder and suicide is not very clear so far but authorities have said Sarkar acted on his own for the shooting, that has shocked the Indian-American community nationwide.

"This was simply him," Captain William Hayes of the Los Angels Police Department told reporters.

"We have not been able to determine any trigger event that would lead to this or the murder of his wife," he said in response to a question.

There is no evidence that Sarkar committed any other crime.
The Army's decision to dismiss a sepoy who refused to remove his beard on religious grounds has been upheld by the Kochi Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal.

An application had been filed before the Tribunal by Maktumhusen challenging the order of his discharge from military service for refusing to remove his beard.

Maktumhusen had joined as Sepoy in Army Medical Corps in April, 2001 and was transferred to 371 Field Hospital in 2010.

On his request, the Commanding Officer had granted him permission to grow beard on religious grounds. He was given directions to apply for fresh ID card imposing conditions that he had to give an undertaking in writing to keep the beard for remainder period of his service.

However, the permission was withdrawn later.

The Tribunal said the Commanding Officer issued him charge sheet, imputing that despite repeated verbal and written instructions he had refused to remove his beard.

He was tried on such charge, found guilty and sentenced to 14 days imprisonment in military custody.

He was then transferred to Command Hospital (SC) Pune. When he reported for joining duty, the Commanding Officer asked him to shave his beard overruling his submissions that he had been previously granted permission to grow beard and the pendency of a writ petition filed by him before the High Court questioning the withdrawal of the permission granted.

A preliminary inquiry was conducted in which findings were entered that he had misconducted himself by growing beard, defying the orders given for its removal. His misconduct was held to be unbecoming of a disciplined soldier, and hence he was to be treated as an undesirable soldier.

On the basis of the findings in the preliminary inquiry, he was discharged from service as an undesirable soldier under Rule 13(3)III (v) of the Army Rule 1954.

The Tribunal, comprising Justice S S Satheeshchandran and Vice Admiral M P Muralidharan, has found that Maktumhusen, who belong to Dharward district of Karnataka, was initially granted permission to grow and keep beard but later it was withdrawn.

"The applicant, despite being directed to remove his beard, continued to be adamant and declined to do so. He was rightly discharged from military service as undesirable soldier," the Tribunal ruled.

After pronouncement of the order, the counsel for the applicant requested for leave to appeal in the Supreme Court.

The Tribunal said that "in our opinion, no question of law of general public importance is involved in the matter. Hence, leave requested for is refused.
Various states and International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has set target of acreage of over 30 lakh hectares under hybrid pigeonpea by 2018.

Over 40 participants, including government officials from five states (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Odisha), state agricultural universities, farmer representatives and eight seed companies involved in the production of hybrid seeds attended a meeting at ICRISAT to discuss expansion of hybrid pigeonpea cultivation.

"ICRISAT and state officials chalked out the detailed strategy for the rainy season of 2016 for popularising hybrid pigeonpea cultivates in different states as well as the plans for seed production to cover larger areas during 2017-18.

The detailed work plan till 2018 aims to cover an area of over three million hectares under pigeonpea cultivation," a statement by ICRISAT said today.

Shobhana K Pattanayak, Secretary, Agriculture, Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DoAC & FW), among others also attended the meeting.

The meet recognised popularisation of hybrid pigeonpea across the country is one of the key solutions as the country is keen to be self-sufficient in pulse production and to overcome the under supply and export costs, the statement added.

"We need to popularise the pigeonpea hybrids in major pigeonpea producing states of India, and this action plan has to address the issue of seed production and availability of hybrid seeds to the farmers," said Pattanayak.

"In order to meet its ever-growing demand for pulses, India needs to achieve self-sufficiency in pulses. We need to make pulses production more profitable by reducing production costs through mechanisation, using hybrids and minimising the post-harvest losses," David Bergvinson, ICRISAT Director General said during his address to participants via video conference from USA.

Talking about ICRISAT's extensive research in pulses, Bergvinson said hybrid pigeonpea is the world's only hybrid among the legumes, which was developed by ICRISAT along with its partners in research over the last 30 years.
One of 16 stamps issued Thursday to honor the centennial of the National Park Service has a tie to Billings  at least to the guy the city was named for.

A crowd of up to 1,500 people is expected to gather Saturday at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock, Vt., for an event called Trek to Taste. The annual event honors, among others, Frederick Billings, whose carriage roads that were constructed between his Woodstock mansion and a prominent peak, Mount Tom, were also made available to the public.

A stamp celebrating a painting by Albert Bierstadt, Scenery in the Grand Tetons, hangs in the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller collection. Its one of the 16 stamps  one also honors Yellowstone National Park  to be issued Thursday.

Frederick Billings is remembered fondly because he really invested in areas all over town, said Christina Marts, deputy superintendent at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller, named to also honor George Perkins Marsh, known as the father of the American conservation movement, and conservationists and philanthropists Laurance Spelman Rockefeller and Mary French Rockefeller, Rockefellers wife and also Billings granddaughter.

We feel Billings connection equally with Billings residents, Marts said.

While Billings is known more as president of the Northern Pacific Railway and as the first attorney to hang his shingle in San Francisco, in New England hes known for his conservation efforts, said Kevin Kooistra, community historian at the Western Heritage Center.

Frederick Billings had a significant hand in the startup of the National Park Service, Marts said. While he was a San Francisco lawyer during the California Gold Rush, Billings fell in love with the Yosemite Valley, she said. He hired noted landscape photographer Carleton Watkins to create a photographic portfolio of that spectacular valley, which (Billings) sent to Congress, Marts said.

Billings' advocacy and Watkins handsome portfolio led to Yosemite being set aside as the nations first protected lands, and it was brought in when the National Park Service was formed in 1916, Marts said.

With 550 acres, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park is the oldest continually-managed forest in the nation. It represents the evolution of forestry in the U.S., Marts said.

Considering the nearness of Billings earning Outside Magazines top honors in the nation last week and the stamps issue Thursday, Billings is on a roll, Kooistra said.

According to Kooistra, whos visited both Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller and an agricultural museum across the street, Billings established a state-of-the-art dairy farm in his hometown, the site of the current museum.

The Western Heritage Center, Billings first public library, was constructed by money donated by Billings descendants. Frederick Billings, Jr., funded the first stage of the 1901 building, which was named for his brother, Parmly.

To me, the key about (the elder) Billings is the fact that he has history that spreads across the whole United States, said Kooistra, who noted Billings named the community of Berkeley, Calif., and allowed the residents in present-day Billings to name their fledgling community for him. People in (the Bay Area) dont always know his story, and the people in New England dont connect all the dots, either.

Even Billings himself seemed a little surprised and amused that folks in south-central Montana would choose his name for their town. In a Sept. 6, 1883 speech from the balcony of the Headquarters Hotel at the side of the railroad tracks near Montana Avenue, Billings told the crowd  Kooistra said he believes it may have been with tongue in cheek  this:

Ladies and gentlemen, I suppose you consider me the father of this town, but a father is supposed to know something of the child before it is born, and I knew nothing of this town before its birth. So I cant be its father 

Yet, Billings went on, I feel honored by having my name given to it, and proud of its prosperity. I am in hopes when we come out a year or two away later we may lay the cornerstone of the capitol of this great territory right here in Billings. I know of no spot so central and with so many elements in its favor, and so deserving to be the capital of Montana as this very town.

After his speech, Kooistra noted, Billings left town. He never spent the night in the city that bears his name.
Drug major Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has sold two of its US-based manufacturing facilities along with 15 products to Frontida BioPharm Inc for an undisclosed amount.

As part of its manufacturing consolidation in the US, one of the company's wholly-owned subsidiaries entered into an agreement with Frontida BioPharm Inc for divestment of two oral solid dosage manufacturing facilities located at Philadelphia and Aurora, along with 15 related pharmaceutical products, Sun Pharma said in a regulatory filing today.

"In connection with the transaction, Frontida has agreed to continue manufacturing certain products for Sun Pharma at these facilities on a contract basis for a predetermined period," it added.

The company however did not share financial details.

The US-based firm has also agreed to offer employment to all production, quality and administrative personnel at the sites.

During the divestment process, Sun Pharma was cognizant about ensuring the continued supply of quality products to patients and protecting the interests of its employees working in these units, the Mumbai-based firm said.

"The impact of this development on Sun Pharma's consolidated financials and operations is not material," it added.
Russian-backed Syrian troops pushed into the Islamic State group's bastion province Raqa on Saturday, threatening to catch the jihadists in a pincer movement as US-backed Kurdish-led fighters advance from the north.

The lightning advance from the southwest with Russian air support brought the army to within 40 kilometres of the Euphrates Valley town of Tabqa, site of the country's biggest dam, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said.

The dam, 40 kilometres upstream from the jihadists' de facto Syrian capital Raqa city, is also the target of the Washington-backed offencive which Kurdish-led fighters launched late last month.

It was the first time that government troops had entered Raqa province since they were ousted by IS fighters in August 2014.

Regular army troops were backed by militia newly trained by the regime's ally Russia, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told.

He said that the twin offensives which threaten to cut off IS-held Raqa from jihadist-held territory along the Turkish border raised suspicions that Moscow and Washington were covertly coordinating operations by their respective Syrian allies.

"It seems there has been an undeclared coordination between Washington and Moscow," he said.

At least 26 jihadists and nine government troops and militia were killed in the army's advance, according to the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on reports from medics and activists on the ground.

Tabqa dam has a huge reservoir named Lake Assad after President Bashar al-Assad's late father and predecessor Hafez.

When IS overran the area with its garrison and airbase in 2014, it summarily executed 160 captured regime troops.

The jihadists are facing counter-attacks on multiple fronts.

Arab and Kurdish fighters backed by Washington have launched an assault on the strategic Manbij pocket further up the Euphrates on the Turkish border, regarded as a key entry point for foreign jihadists.

Hundreds of kilometres downstream in neighbouring Iraq, elite Iraq troops have launched an assault on the emblematic IS bastion of Fallujah.

Washington has deployed more than 200 special forces troops in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which it regards as the most effective fighting force on the ground against IS in .

The SDF controls a large swathe of northeastern along the Turkish border and another border enclave in the northwest.

The SDF's offencive against the Manbij pocket is aimed at seizing the last stretch of border still under IS control and denying the jihadists any opportunity to smuggle in recruits and funds.

The US military said the assault had captured more than 100 square kilometres of territory from IS this week.
Russian-backed Syrian troops pushed into the Islamic State group's bastion province Raqa today, threatening to catch the jihadists in a pincer movement as US-backed Kurdish-led fighters advance from the north.

The lightning advance from the southwest with Russian air support brought the army to within dozens of kilometres (miles) of the Euphrates Valley town of Tabqa, site of the country's biggest dam, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said.

The dam, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) upstream from the jihadists' de facto Syrian capital Raqa city, is also the target of the Washington-backed offensive which Kurdish-led fighters launched late last month.

It was the first time that government troops had entered Raqa province since they were ousted by IS in August 2014.

Regular army troops were backed by militia newly trained by the regime's ally Russia, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

He said the twin offensives which threaten to cut off IS-held Raqa from jihadist-held territory along the Turkish border raised suspicions that Moscow and Washington were covertly coordinating operations by their respective Syrian allies.

"It seems there has been an undeclared coordination between Washington and Moscow," he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed Syria with US Secretary of State John Kerry in a telephone call on Saturday, the foreign ministry in Moscow said, without giving details.

The "main priority" for Moscow, Lavrov said in an interview this week, was "more direct, effective and forceful measures" against IS and Al-Nusra Front, whereas Western powers were opposed to the jihadist Nusra being targeted because of its alliances with "moderate" rebels.
Syrian troops reached the edge of the northern province of Raqqa today, home to the de facto capital of the Islamic State group's self-styled caliphate, in a push that leaves the extremists fighting fierce battles on four fronts in Syria and neighboring Iraq.

IS, which controls large swaths of territory in both countries, is fighting Syrian troops, US-backed fighters and opposition militants in northern Syria and is facing an offensive by Iraqi forces on their stronghold of Fallujah.

The Syrian government has had no presence in Raqqa since August 2014, when IS captured the Tabqa air base and killed scores of government soldiers. The provincial capital, Raqqa, became the militants' first city.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian troops reached the "administrative border" of Raqqa province under the cover of Russian airstrikes. It said that during three days of fighting 26 IS fighters and nine troops and pro-government gunmen were killed.

The media arm of Lebanon's Hezbollah group, which is fighting alongside government forces, said Syrian troops reached the border of Raqqa province after advancing about six kilometers this afternoon. The front line is around 80 kilometers from the city of Raqqa.

Syrian troops began their advance toward the province Wednesday, the same day that US-backed forces launched an attack on the IS-stronghold of Manbij, some 115 kilometers to the northwest of Raqqa. It is unclear if the attacks were coordinated.

The US-backed predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces advanced closer to Manbij, which lies on a key supply route linking the Turkish border to the city of Raqqa, today.

The Observatory said SDF fighters had captured 34 villages near Manbij. Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, said the fighting is now concentrated on the south of the town.

IS fighters are also engaged in fierce battles for the rebel-held stronghold of Marea, a town some 70 kilometers west of Manbij. IS has surrounded Marea on three sides but has failed to capture the city, which is under control of rebels and fighters from the al-Qaida affiliated Nusra Front.

"The fighting is very intense on three fronts in Marea," said opposition activist Baraa al-Halaby, who is based in northern Syria.

While battles rage in Raqqa province, Manbij and Marea, IS fighters are also coming under fire in their Iraqi stronghold of Fallujah. Iraqi forces launched their offensive on the city almost two weeks ago, and say they are on the edge of the town.

Violence in and around the contested northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest and once commercial center, claimed more lives today. The city has been the scene of fierce fighting, even during a truce brokered by US and Russia that went into effect in late February and collapsed weeks later.

Syrian state TV said the shelling of government-held parts of contested Aleppo killed 22 and wounded 23 people, while opposition activists said dozens were killed or wounded in rebel-held neighborhoods.
Taiwan's new president Tsai Ing-wen urged China to give its people more rights and "heal past wounds and pain" on the 27th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown today.

Her remarks came after the island's first ever Tiananmen commemoration in parliament on Friday, as lawmakers urged the government to address human rights issues in its dealings with China.

Ties with China have rapidly cooled since Tsai won the presidency in January, with Beijing highly distrustful of her traditionally independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Although Taiwan has been self-ruling since a split with the mainland in 1949 after a civil war, China still sees it as part of its territory.

In her first comments on Tiananmen as Taiwan's leader, Tsai said China must be open about the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing, which by some estimates left more than 1,000 dead.

The protests are branded a "counter-revolutionary rebellion" by Chinese authorities and many on the mainland remain unaware of what happened.

"Do not let June 4 forever be unspoken between the two sides. Only the ruling party on the other side can heal the past wounds and pain of the Chinese people," Tsai said in a post on her Facebook page.

Tsai said she was not pointing fingers at China and wanted to maintain cross-strait peace and stability.

"I'm sincerely willing to share Taiwan's experience of democratisation with the other side," she added and urged China to listen to different views.

By improving rights China would win international respect, Tsai added.
To provide new avenues to local entrepreneurs and create job opportunities in the North East, Union Textiles Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar inaugurated an apparel and garment making centre here today.

In Nagaland on December 1 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a project to launch apparel and garment making centres in each of the eight states in the North Eastern Region.

Under the project, one such apparel and garment making centre consisting three units of 100 industrial stitching and other garmenting machines have been sanctioned in each of the eight North Eastern states with the total cost of Rs 145.44 crore.

"The centre has been set up to give an opportunity to local entrepreneurs to convert their ideas and designs into flourishing businesses," the minister said.

"It will not only provide new avenues to the local entrepreneurs but also create additional employment opportunities for the local people," he said.

The minister expressed hope that the apparel centre would promote entrepreneurship in the garment industry in Mizoram and open new avenues of employment for the local people.

He has assured all possible support to young entrepreneurs who would be running the facility in making the units commercially viable and self-sustainable and in setting up the requisite ecosystem for apparel manufacturing in the region.

The entrepreneurs may also dovetail with other schemes of Government of India, in order to avail financial assistance to start the business, Gangwar said.

The growth of garment industry in Mizoram will also provide a fillip to the traditional sectors like handlooms, handicrafts, silk and help them to convert the traditional designs into modern garments, he said.

The minister further said that the union government is committed for the development of the states in the North East, while preserving the unique cultural identity and rich heritage of each of the states.

Each centre set up under the initiative is estimated to generate direct employment for about 1,200 people. Each state will have one centre with three units, each having 100 machines.
The police have arrested three persons including two Nigerians for allegedly duping a B Tech student through an online lottery fraud.

Karimnagar Superintendent of Police D Joel Davis said that Vodnala Sai Tej (19), a student of first year B Tech at Basanth Nagar village in Karimnagar district, was duped of Rs 15,000 by unknown fraudsters.

He was told he had won an online lottery named Chevrolet Auto mobile lottery, and needed to pay some 'processing fee' to claim the amount. After depositing the money, he realised that he had been cheated.

Police had sent out teams to Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh for investigation.

Police arrested two Nigerian nationals, namely, Teddi Milan and Kelvin, and another man called Mohammad Asim in Delhi and seized Rs 2.29 lakh cash, two laptops, nine mobile phones and several credit and debit cards. They were produced before the media here today.

Police were looking for some more persons, the DSP said.
Six months before he launched his presidential campaign, Donald Trump announced a new real estate project in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The partner was Anar Mammadov, the son of a government minister suspected by US diplomats of laundering money for Iran's military and described as "notoriously corrupt."



Eighteen months later, and only weeks after daughter Ivanka Trump released a publicity video of the nearly finished project, references to the Baku project have disappeared from Trump's website. Trump's general counsel, Alan Garten, told The Associated Press that it was on hold for economic reasons.

Trump often talks of hiring the best people and surrounding himself with people he can trust.

In practice, however, he and his executives have at times appeared to overlook details about the background of people he has chosen as business partners, such as whether they had dubious associations, had been convicted of crimes, faced extradition or inflated their resumes.

The Trump camp's vetting skills are important as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee turns to selecting a running mate. They would become even more crucial if he won the White House.

As president, Trump would have to name more than 3,600 political appointees to senior government jobs, including critical positions overseeing the national security and the economy.

In the Azerbaijani case, Garten said the Trump Organization had performed meticulous due diligence on the company's partners, and had hired a third-party firm that specializes in background intelligence and searching global sanctions, warrant and watch lists at home and abroad.

But Trump had not researched the allegations against the Baku partner's father because the father was not a party to the deal, Garten said.
The federal judge who's hearing a Trump University lawsuit is "a hater of Donald Trump" and ought to be removed from the case.

So says Donald Trump, in just one of the recent comments by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee that have legal experts worrying about his commitment to an independent judiciary and his views on presidential powers.

In the midst of a heated presidential campaign, Trump has expressed unusually personal criticism focusing on the judge's Mexican heritage though his lawyers have never actually sought to have the judge removed.

His comments are bringing overwhelming disapproval from politicians and lawyers in his own Republican Party. Yesterday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said of the statements about the judge: "It's reasoning I don't relate to, I completely disagree with the thinking behind that."



And conservative legal scholars say Trump's statements reinforce their worries that he seems to think he can do whatever he wants and disregard rules and conventions that constrain other political candidates.

"The concern is that he would act unbounded in the presidency, in a way that doesn't follow the law," said John McGinnis, a Northwestern University law professor.

Criticism of the Supreme Court and the rest of the federal judiciary has been a regular feature of recent Republican presidential campaigns, including proposals to strip federal judges of lifetime tenure and reduce the budgets of liberal-leaning courts.

Those ideas, though, did not single out judges or focus on race, ethnicity or religion.

"Here it's just about Trump," said Case Western Reserve University law professor Jonathan Adler.

More troubling, Adler said, is that the recent comments seem to fit a pattern of intemperate remarks Trump has made during the campaign.

"He said he would give military officers unlawful orders and expect them to comply," Adler said, referring to Trump's claim that the military would follow his orders to torture suspected terrorists. Trump has since backed off on that.

"He has repeatedly given indications he has no appreciation for the rule of law," Adler said.

Trump made his first reported comments about US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in February, linking Curiel's Mexican heritage with what Trump described as the judge's "tremendous hostility" over Trump's plan to build a wall along the Mexican border.

Trump has variously referred to Curiel as Spanish, Mexican and Hispanic and has called the judge "a hater of ." He told The Wall Street Journal that Curiel has "an absolute conflict of interest" because of his heritage as well as "an inherent conflict of interest" because Trump wants to build the border wall.
A court in Turkey has sentenced a Turkish man to 108 years in jail for sexually assaulting at least eight Syrian children at a flagship refugee camp, reports said today.

The 29-year-old man, identified only as Erdal E, worked as a cleaner at the tented refugee camp in Nizip in the southern Gaziantep province near the Syrian border.

He was found guilty of sexually abusing eight children in the camp's toilets in exchange for payments of between 1.5 and five Turkish lira (USD 0.50-USD 1.70/0.45-1.50 euros), the Dogan agency said.

His defence had asked for his acquittal, saying an earlier confession to police had been made under duress.

But the judges at the court in the southern city of Nizip rejected the arguments, sentencing him late yesterday to 108 years in jail. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 289 years.

The camp, which is home to some 10,800 refugees, has been visited by international dignitaries and is adjacent to the Nizip container camp for Syrian refugees which was visited by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in April.

During the trial, the accused claimed he had been made a "scapegoat" to cover up the crimes of others and prevent a wider scandal.

"I know very well the names of many managers and camp workers guilty of abuse... But I will not say them so as not to hurt my own family," the Hurriyet daily quoted him as saying.

Aid groups have warned that Syrian refugee children living in any host country are hugely vulnerable to sexual predators, with discussion of the issue largely taboo.

A team from the Gaziantep chamber of doctors visited the Nizip camp in the wake of the scandal, drawing up a report which sounded the alarm over sexual abuse and the risk of sexually-transmitted diseases at the camp.

Chairman Hamza Agca said there were problems with abuse of women and children, as well as early marriage and polygamy.

"We are worried about the risk of sexually-transmitted diseases due to the high rate of polygamy and early marriage at the camp as well as abuse of children," he said last month, according to the chamber's website.

Following the report, local opposition politician Mahmut Togrul of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) filed a series of parliamentary questions for Health Minister Recep Akdag, the MP said in a statement.

He requested information about the prevalence of sexually-transmitted diseases at the camp and what action was being taken to stop child abuse and child marriage.

"Do you think that marrying at between 7 and 15 years has a negative effect on a child's health?" he asked.
Two men were charged with burglary after two home invasions in the Heights.

Jordon Anthony William Kreuz, 20, and Garrett Alan Lee, 19, both appeared in Yellowstone County Justice Court on Friday. Each faced a felony count of aggravated burglary.

Judge Pedro R. Hernandez set bond at $20,000 for each man. They will both be required to receive drug monitoring if released.

According to court documents, there were two break-ins at the Steffanich Drive home. The first happened on June 1, when the 54-year-old resident and his girlfriend were in the house. The resident told police one of the men assaulted him.

Worried about a second break-in, the resident purchased bear spray and throw-snap fireworks to place on the ground in front of the door. After midnight on June 2, they heard the snaps popping.

One of the men approached the resident claiming to be police, charges state. The resident pepper sprayed the intruders, and they fled, leaving a knife on the ground.

Shortly after, police met up with Kreuz, who had checked into the hospital for treatment of bear spray to the face, charges state. Lee was outside with a car that matched the Steffanich Drive resident's description. Inside the car, officers found a black airsoft pistol, flashlights, black gloves, a bandanna, a knife and mace, charges state.

Lee and Kreuz told police that they broke into the home at the request of a third party, who said the resident owed money, according to court documents.

The two men are scheduled to appear in Yellowstone County District Court on June 10.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned today Turkey would never accept charges the Ottoman Empire committed genocide against Armenians in World War I, saying the accusations were being used as "blackmail" against Ankara.

In his most bitter reaction yet to the vote by the German parliament Thursday to recognise the killings from 1915 as genocide, Erdogan threatened to leave Europe "to its own worries" if such disputes were not resolved.

"The issue here is not the Armenians.... The Armenian issue is used all over the world as a convenient blackmail against Turkey and has even started to be used as a stick," he said in a televised speech.

"I am addressing the whole world. You may like it, you may not. Our attitude on the Armenian issue is clear from the beginning. We will never accept the accusations of genocide."



He said that during World War I, what remained of the Ottoman Empire was "under siege from all sides" and "of course a number of measures were taken to restore order in Anatolia".

Referring to Germany's guilt over the Holocaust, Erdogan scoffed that it was the "last country" to make such accusations.

He added Germany would also be better advised to re-examine the the slaughter of indigenous Namibians under the German Empire over a century ago, which Berlin has yet to officially term a genocide.

The vote in the German parliament added yet another bone of contention to Turkey's troubled relationship with the European Union, which it has sought to join since 1987.

"Either we find solutions to our problems in a fair way. Or Turkey will stop being a barrier in front of the problems of Europe. We will leave you to your own worries," Erdogan added to cheers, without specifying further.
Two cheats have been arrested by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police in a 25-year-old case of theft and cheating.

Rohtas Kanwar, 55, and Hari Narayan, 53, were apprehended recently by a team of Crime Branch, from Rajiv Chowk Metro station, said Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner (Crime) of Police.

The have been arrested in a 25-year-old case of theft-cum-cheating in which they allegedly stole bank cheque from the office of a travel agent and encashed it, added the officer.

They have been convicted in two other cases, one of which was also investigated by the CBI.

The first case involved "stealing" Kisan Vikas Patra(KVP) worth crores from a train.

"The duo along with their associates were involved in a case of theft of Kisan Vikas Patra worth crores of rupees, being transported to treasury, from a train in 1999. They also managed to encash the KVPs to the tune of Rs 1.50 crore," the officer said.
When an active shooter alert spread across the UCLA campus Wednesday, some students found themselves in a frightening predicament: They were told to go into lockdown but couldn't lock their classroom doors.

Images of students piling tables, chairs and printers against doors on social media sparked alarm and raised questions -- yet it was hardly the first time students at a university or school were unable to lock their doors during a shooting.

The same issue arose during other recent deadly attacks, including one at Virginia Tech in 2007 where students barricaded themselves inside rooms and at Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in 2012 where teachers did the same.

Some schools have installed locks in recent years following attacks, but experts say wider adoption has been hindered by the cost to retrofit doors and local fire codes that require doors to open in one motion during emergencies.

Yet once an active shooter is in a building, most security experts agree getting into a locked room is one of the most effective deterrents against getting injured or shot.

"How many deaths would it have taken for us to address this issue more seriously?" said Jesus Villahermosa, president of Crisis Reality Training, noting that an assailant, knowing police are on the way, usually won't bother trying to access a locked room.

The former deputy sheriff said UCLA was fortunate in that shooter Mainak Sarkar targeted professor William Klug and then committed suicide. If he'd gone on a rampage, he might have easily found students unable to defend themselves.

The university said yesterday it was "assessing safety measures" across the campus and will make appropriate changes. It's unknown exactly how many school and university classrooms don't have doors that can lock from the inside.

Villahermosa said the issue is more prevalent on college campuses than K-12 schools.

There are a variety of reasons why a school may not have classroom locks.

Older buildings constructed at a time when classrooms typically contained just desks and a chalkboard and not the expensive technology many have today frequently did not include them.

Fire safety regulations for rooms with 50 or more students typically require that doors swing outward and be opened in one motion, meaning a bolt that has to be turned first would be a violation.

Others worry locking doors from the inside in itself could pose a threat. If an attacker walked inside and locked the door, students would be trapped. And the cost of installing new doors and locks can stretch into the millions.
In the wake of the killing of a Congolese in India and a spate of attacks on African students in recent days, the UN has voiced concern over the incidents saying it encourages tolerance and inclusivity in every country.

"Well, we would be concerned of any information if that were the case. But...What we try to do wherever we go is to encourage messages to promote tolerance and inclusivity in every country," Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters here on Friday when asked about the murder of Masonda Ketada Oliver, 29, from Congo on May 20.

Haq said the UN weighs in on instances of fight against racism and xenophobia wherever it occurs.

"We have always tried to push for programmes that encourage tolerance and understanding. And a lot of the efforts by the educational parts of the UN system, whether it's the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) or the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), promote those messages of tolerance.

"And we would do that in India, as we do elsewhere in the world," he said.

Oliver was beaten to death in Vasant Kunj area of South Delhi following a brawl over hiring of an autorickshaw.

There has been a spate of attacks on African nationals in the last few days including assault on a 23-year-old Nigerian student in Hyderabad.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has reassured African envoys of the safety of their nationals.
A US court here has dismissed a case of torture and human rights abuses filed against Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) President Manjit Singh GK by two individuals, saying it does not have jurisdiction over the case.

In an order issued on June 2, US District Judge Andrew Carter in the Southern District of New York said the case against GK must be dismissed as the court lacks personal and subject matter jurisdiction.

Plaintiffs Harjit Singh and Janki Kaur had filed the case against GK in July last year and were being represented by the law firm of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is the legal advisor of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ).

SFJ has beeninstrumental in getting summons issued to top Indian political leaders invarious humanrights abuse cases filed in US courts.

The case against GK alleged that he used torture as a tool to wrest the control of DSGMC, a top Sikh body.

Harjit Singh alleged in the case that he faced death threats and torture at the orders of GK after he refused to extend support and campaign for him during 2013 elections of DSGMC.

In his order, Carter said the court "may not reach the merits of the claims" made by the plaintiffs because "it is clear from the complaint that the Court lacks jurisdiction to do so.

"The Court does not have personal jurisdiction over Defendant and it is less than clear whether the Court has subject matter jurisdiction over Plaintiffs' claims."



In a phone conversation with PTI from India, GK alleged that the case was filed against him by SFJ andthe "frivolous charges" levelled against him by SFJ have been proved wrong in a court of law.

He accused SFJ of being "habitual blackmailers", stressing that he and DSGMC stand for a united India.

He said even though there may be differences with the then Indian government over getting justice in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, "we believe in fighting for our rights under the Indian Constitution".

GK stressed that he will continue to fight to bring the "culprits" of the 1984 riots to justice.
In a blunt message to China, the United States (US) on Saturday said it would stand with its partner countries to uphold freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, which of late has seen rising tension in the region and also between Washington and Beijing.

"There is growing anxiety in this region, about China's activities on the seas, in cyberspace, and in the region's airspace. Indeed, in the (SCS), China has taken some expansive and unprecedented actions, that have generated concerns about its strategic intentions," US Defence Secretary, Ashton Carter told the annual Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore on Saturday where he reiterated India's important role in Obama's Asia-Pacific rebalance.

He said China's actions in the SCS are isolating it at a time when the entire region is coming together and networking.

If these actions continue, the country could end up erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation, Carter warned.

He said the US is not a claimant in the current disputes in the SCS. "And we do not take a position on which claimant has the superior sovereignty claim over the disputed land features."



"But, the US will stand with regional partners to uphold core principles, like freedom of navigation and overflight, and the peaceful resolution of disputes through legal means and in accordance with law," the Defence Secretary said.

"America's Freedom of Navigation Operations in the SCS have demonstrated that it will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever law allows, so that everyone in this region can do the same," he said.

Carter said the US will work with all Asia-Pacific nations to ensure these core principles apply just as equally in the vital SCS as they do everywhere else.

"Because only when everyone plays by the same rules can we avoid the mistakes of the past, like when countries challenged one another in contests of strength and will, with disastrous consequences for the region," he said.

He said the US views the upcoming ruling by the UN Arbitral Tribunal on the SCS as an opportunity for China and the rest of the region to recommit to a principled future, to renewed diplomacy, and to lowering tensions, rather than raising them.

"All of us should come together to ensure this opportunity is realised," he said, adding that the US remains committed to working with China to ensure a principled future.

Carter also said the US wants to strengthen military ties with China.

"America wants to expand military-to-military agreements with China to focus not only on risk reduction, but also on practical cooperation. Our two militaries can also work together, bilaterally or as part of the principled security network, to meet a number of challenges - like terrorism and piracy - in the Asia-Pacific and around the world," he said.

"The US expects and welcomes a China that plays a responsible role in world affairs commensurate with its wealth and potential influence.

"And the US wants to work with China to find solutions for the global problems we're both facing and seize the many opportunities before us. By networking security together, the US, China, and all others in the region can continue to ensure stability and prosperity in a dynamic region," he said.
In "Raman Raghav 2.0", Vicky Kaushal plays the role of a cop, who is into drugs, and in one of the scenes in the film, the actor snorted a mixture of corn starch and Glucon D, to pass it off as cocaine.

In the recently launched song, "Qatl-e-Aam", the "Masaan" star is seen snorting a powder before breaking into a dance in a club.

Vicky says a special healthy powder was made for him to snort in the scene.

"A very healthy powered was made for me to snort which was good for health. It was a mixture of corn starch and Glucon D. I practised that and snorted that," the actor told reporters here last evening.

"It did taste nice too leaving a sweet residue in my mouth after five seconds. It was a lot of fun," he added.

The song has been composed by Ram Sampath and sung by Sona Mohapatra with lyrics written by Varun Grover.

The "Zubaan" actor said there was no choreography for the particular song and he was asked to do freestyle "baraati" dance by the film's director Anurag Kashyap.

The thriller stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui as a serial killer. The film is scheduled to release on June 24.
A Vigilance court today ordered the state Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to register a case and probe the role of former ministers Adoor Prakash and P K Kunjalikkutty in a land allotment case involving controversial godman Santhosh Madhavan.

P Madhavan, Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, Muvattupuzha, rejected the recommendations of the Vigilance Director, who submitted a Quick Verification Report into the matter, to drop further proceedings, saying it was not based on facts which support allegations contained in the complaint filed by one Girish Babu, a social activist.

During previous UDF rule, Babu had approached the court seeking a direction to register a case against the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Prakash and four others, alleging that there was corruption behind the government order dated March 2, 2016, exempting 95.44 acres in Puthenvelikkara panchayat at Paravur and 32.41 acres at Madathumpadi in Kodungallur from some provisions of Kerala Land Reforms Act dealing with paddy and wetland.

Noting that the quick verification report (QVR) shows a lot of facts which support the allegations contained in the complaint, the court said it also brings out the involvement of the then Industries Minister in the matter and only a thorough investigation can bring out all the facts behind the issue.

"As a result, I am forwarding this complaint to the Director, VACB, Thiruvananthapuram, under Section 156(3)Crpc for registering a case against the public servants involved --Adoor Prakash, the then Revenue Minister, Kunjalikutty, the then Industries and IT Minister (whose role is brought out in the QVR), Santhosh Madhavan, and B M Jaya Sankar, Managing Director of RMZ eco world Infrastructure Ltd, Bangalore...," the court said.

The court said the case should be registered against them for offences under IPC sections 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), 409 (Criminal breach of trust by public servant or by banker, merchant or agent) and under Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.

The court also directed the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to file a final report at the earliest.
Mohamed Abdelaziz, leader of the Western Sahara independence movement Polisario Front who died of lung cancer this week, was buried on Saturday in the disputed territory.

The 68-year-old Abdelaziz, who died on Tuesday, spent more than 40 years fighting for independence for the territory, and was buried in part of the Western Sahara not controlled by Morocco.

A detachment of Polisario fighters presented arms to their former leader whose coffin was draped with the flag of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which the movement proclaimed in 1976.

Abdelaziz had been secretary general of the group for most of its decades-long struggle to win independence for the former Spanish colony, but succumbed to a "long illness" on Tuesday.

On Friday, his body was displayed in a camp for Sahrawi refugees in Tindouf, 1,800 kilometres (1,120 miles) southwest of the Algerian capital Algiers, to allow delegations and dignitaries to pay homage.

Algeria is the Polisario Front's main backer, and Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal was among those who paid tribute to Abdelaziz in Tindouf.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika decreed eight days of mourning after the independence leader's death.

Abdelaziz had led the Polisario since 1976, three years after the group was founded to struggle for independence for the territory, which Morocco annexed in 1975.

Local Sahrawi people are campaigning for the right to self-determination, but Morocco considers the territory to be part of the kingdom and insists its sovereignty cannot be challenged.

Abdelaziz's successor will be selected at an extraordinary conference within 40 days. The president of the Sahrawi National Council, Khatri Addouh, will lead the group in the interim, according to Polisario sources.
A federal judge recently ruled in favor of a Billings police officer and the city of Billings in a wrongful death lawsuit in which the officer fatally shot a man who was attempting to flee in the officer's police vehicle.

Senior U.S. District Judge Don Molloy of Missoula found that Billings Police Officer David Punt was entitled to qualified immunity and that the plaintiffs claim of municipal liability against the city lacked merit.

Molloy granted Punts and the citys motions for summary judgment in a 31-page order issued May 11.

While the judge ruled for Punt and the city, Molloy expressed frustration with case law on deadly force vehicle chases.

In my view, this case should be tried by a jury. However, in light of our Supreme Courts cases on deadly force in car chases, it wont be, he said.

The lawsuit initially was filed in state District Court in December 2014 by Billings attorney Brad Arndorfer on behalf of Heather Brawley. The case was later transferred to federal court.

Arndorfer said no decision had been made on whether to appeal the ruling. Attorneys for the city and Punt could not be reached for comment.

Heather Brawley alleged that Punt unlawfully shot and killed her husband, Daniel, as he was driving Punts police cruiser after getting loose from zip-tie-like flex cuffs and climbing into the drivers seat. Punt had taken Brawley into custody and placed him in the back seat.

Punts actions, Heather Brawley said, violated her husbands constitutional rights to due process and to be free from unreasonable or excessive force.

The Jan. 6, 2013, shooting occurred as Brawley tried to flee in Punts patrol car after being arrested in the wake of a three-hour standoff stemming from a burglary investigation on the 800 block of Miles Avenue. Punt had left Brawley in his vehicle, which had two loaded firearms and the keys in the ignition, to go talk to other officers at the scene.

When Punt realized Brawley was trying to flee, he ran to his cruiser, got hit in a glancing way as Brawley was backing up and fell to the ground. Brawley put the car into drive and tried to go forward. Punt got up, ran toward his cruiser and fired his service weapon nine times. Brawley was hit once and died from a single gunshot wound that struck him in the armpit.

Molloy ruled for Punt saying that even if the use of force was not objectively reasonable, the law at the time did not clearly establish that Officer Punts conduct would violate the Constitution.

The U.S. Supreme Court has always found that an officer is entitled to qualified immunity in a shooting involving a fleeing vehicle, Molloy said. And the high court always holds that the law in such cases was not clearly established, he said.

The law would only be clearly established for the Brawley case if the facts were so different from other case law as to make it distinguishable or if there had been a significant change in the law between 2010 and 2013, Molloy said. Neither is the case here, he added.

Qualified immunity protects officials from civil liability as long as their conduct does not violate clearly established law or constitutional rights. A clearly established right is one in which a reasonable officer would know that his actions would violate that right, the Supreme Court has said.

And in ruling for the city, the judge said that Billings Police Chief Rich St. Johns actions do not show that he made a conscious, affirmative choice to approve Officer Punts actions and to adopt them as City policy, both of which are necessary to establish municipal liability.

Molloy said the parties disputed Punts location to the cruiser at the time Brawley tried to escape. Punt, he said, insisted he was in the direct line of the vehicle and feared for his life.

Heather Brawley claimed the cruiser did not face Punt as it accelerated forward and was headed down the street, away from Punt and other law enforcement officers.

Video footage, the judge said, did not blatantly contradict nor affirm either parties view of the facts.

Molloy said the issue was whether Brawley posed a threat to Punt. Construing the facts in the plaintiffs favor insofar as they are consistent with the video footage  a jury could conclude that he did not, he said.

When Punt fired his gun, the cruiser was parallel to him as the first and fatal shot went through the passenger window and hit Brawley, Molloy said. Punt continued shooting at the right side and rear of the cruiser as it accelerated down the street before crashing.

None of the many officers on the scene drew a weapon or fired a shot despite seeing, or hearing, the whole incident play out, Molloy said.

Referring to similar situations in three other cases, Molloy said that a reasonable jury could conclude that Punt was not in immediate danger at the time he fired.

The next issue was whether Brawley posed an immediate threat to others.

Considering the circumstances of this case in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, a jury could conclude that Brawley was not an immediate threat to Officer Punt or others at the time he was shot and killed. Even if a jury determined that he posed a threat, it could find that Officer Punts response to that threat was unreasonable, Molloy said.

The judge said that while he disagreed, Punt was entitled to qualified immunity even if he was mistaken in the level of force reasonable under the circumstances.

Molloy also expressed his frustration with the case calling it vexing that applicable law in this all-to-common scenario remains unclear despite at least four Supreme Court decisions and over 30 circuit court decisions addressing the use of deadly force in vehicular flight situations.

Molloy said, A far better resolution is to let a jury decide if the fleeing suspect is fair game for the use of deadly force.
West Bengal is planning to set up a monitoring team to oversee private educational institutes and universities.

"We are planning to setup a monitoring committee. The private universities cannot sit back after getting the permission. They have to complete the projects on time," state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said at an education fair here today.

Chatterjee said the government is strengthening the online admission system that started last session and hoped there would be no problem this year.

Speaking at the event, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology director prof Ajoy Kr Ray said an industry-academia meet has been proposed in August in association with an industry chamber where President Pranab Mukherjee, Mamata Banerjee would be invited.

"We are inviting President Pranab Mukherjee and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the industry-academia meet where we aim to bring all higher education colleges and universities both state-owned and private to showcase talent," he said.

In West Bengal there is a lot of talent in engineering colleges both government and private and there is need for collaborative development of technology and products, he said and suggested joint patent for technology developed in Bengal so that with commercialisation all the stakeholders could benefit.

Techno India group chairman Gautam Raychowdury announced that 1000 students from weaker sections will be offered free admission in its colleges as a CSR effort.
The Women and Child Development Ministry will organise a workshop on June 7 for over 250 journalists from across the country to apprise them of its achievements in the past two years.

"This Conference will be a unique gathering of women journalists, who specialise in social sector reporting, coming together to understand, discuss and deliberate on issues concerning women and children," an official statement from the ministry said.

The ministry will showcase its initiatives of the past two years in the "All India Women Journalists' Workshop" and take feedback on issues concerning women and children especially on the recently released Draft National Policy for Women, Draft Anti Trafficking Bill, Draft Regulations under Juvenile Justice Act.

"We are also looking forward to new ideas/areas concerning women and children which could be taken up in the coming months," it said.

Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will address the participants. Journalists from more than 30 States and Union Territories are expected to participate in the conference. The workshop will take place on June 7.

The participating journalists represent several regional publications and regional channels of the country.
West Africa should "think harder" about developing a new anti-terror force, a top regional official said today, as Niger announced the latest deaths among its troops battling Boko Haram jihadists.

Over the past year West Africa has suffered terror attacks on nations previously untouched by jihadists, as well as confronting an Islamist insurgency that began in northeast Nigeria but has spread to several neighbouring countries.

That meant greater intelligence sharing and military co-operation is required, said the incoming head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) commission, which implements policy decisions agreed by its 15 members.

"The multiplication of terrorist hotbeds in our region compels us to share information on their activities, to communicate, co-ordinate and harmonise our efforts," said Benin's Marcel Alain de Souza at an ECOWAS summit in Dakar.

"This naturally makes us think harder about the creation of a regional intervention force against terrorism," he added, according to comments released by Senegal's state agency APS.

He was speaking after 32 troops were killed in a clash with Boko Haram fighters on Niger's border with Nigeria, one of deadliest tolls inflicted by the jihadists.

A multinational force from Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Benin and Cameroon already exists and is due to launch a major offensive on Boko Haram around Lake Chad.

But Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless, leading to calls for more support within the region.

Senegal's President Macky Sall, outgoing chairman of ECOWAS, said Muslim-majority states such as his own had nothing in common with Boko Haram, describing terrorism as an ongoing "source of concern".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tonight assured Indian workers in Qatar that he will take up problems faced by them during his talks with leaders of this Gulf nation.

Addressing Indian workers at a medical camp in downtown Doha, Modi said he is aware of the issues being faced by Indian workers and the companies that bring them here.

"I Am aware of the issues you are facing. I will talk about it when I meet the authorities," he said.

Modi will hold detailed talks with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani tomorrow.

Modi noted that his first engagement during his two-day visit to Qatar on the second leg of his five-nation tour was a visit to the camp of Indian workers here.

"I came to Doha in the evening and the first programme on my schedule was to meet you all," he said. Qatar is home to over six lakh people of Indian origin.

Modi also interacted with workers after his brief address and shared refreshments with them.

He shook hands with several workers during his 30-minute stay at the camp.

The prime minister said he wants to congratulate doctor friends for the good work they are doing in Qatar.

"Happy to see regular health check ups being conducted here," he said.

Modi also struck a chrod with the Indian workers when he said, "When someone from your land, speaking your language comes, I am sure that would make you very happy.

"If you have some issues on changing some rules and



regulations, I will work with you all to bring about these changes," he told the audience.

Modi said he believed that the leadership in the Gulf has a lot of love and belief in the Indian community in the region.

In this context, he spoke about the visit of Qatar's Emir to India last year and referred to his praise of the "unmatched contribution" of the Indian community to the development of his coutnry.

Modi also said India's global image is not made by its prime minister or its Ambassador but, "it's all of you through your behaviour, who earn India a good name."



"This global goodwill is the biggest international reserve currency," he added.

Modi told the Indian workers in Qatar that monsoon this



year will be good.

"This year the best is that it is going to be a good monsoon. When such come, they bring with them a lot of happiness," he said.

India Meteorological Department had said earlier this week that there is no possibility of a "deficient" monsoon this year and 96 per cent chances are that the rainfall would be "normal to excess".

The Prime Minister also appreciated the wellness centre for the workers, saying that it offered facilities like yoga and relaxation techniques.

At the event, Qatar's Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohammad Al-Kuwari and Finance Minister Ali Shareef Al Emadi were also present.

Modi said he enquired about the health problems being faced by the workers and found that counselling and diabetes were the two main issues of concern.

"Do work hard, but while doing so, please do focus on keeping your health and body fighting fit," he said.
Crowds gathered on Saturday for Hong Kong's commemoration of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown but many young activists turned their backs on the candle-lit vigil as calls grow for greater autonomy from China.

The vigil, which each year draws tens of thousands to the city's Victoria Park, has caused a widening rift in Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp between those who believe the victims of the crackdown should be remembered and those who see the event's message as increasingly irrelevant.

Semi-autonomous Hong Kong is the only location on Chinese soil to see a major commemoration to mark the military's brutal crushing of pro-democracy protests in central Beijing in 1989.

But young activists from the new "localist" movement say Hong Kong should push for its own autonomy, even independence, rather than the democratisation of the mainland, which is part of the vigil's main message.

Localism grew out of the failure of the 2014 student-led pro-democracy rallies to gain concessions from China on political reform for Hong Kong, and a growing number of student groups have now broken away from the event.

Students at a forum at Hong Kong University, one of several alternative events held to compete with the main vigil, said they felt little connection with the traditional commemoration.

"We're the new generation it is more meaningful for us to do this. We have to stand against the Chinese regime, but we also have to think about Hong Kong's future," said student Raven Kwok, 20, among around 200 who had gathered for the forum.

President of HKU's student union, Althea Suen, said the fight was now about democracy for Hong Kong.

Building a democratic China was "not our responsibility", she said.

The Hong Kong Federation of Students a founding member of the alliance that organises the vigil also stayed away this year, saying the event had "lost touch" with Hong Kongers.

The pro-independence Hong Kong National Party added that, while young people still feel sorry for the students killed in 1989, "they don't share the same memory of Chinese identity with the older generation."

were more acerbic in their criticism.

Shue Yan University student union likened the organisers of the vigil to "pimps and bawds who run a brothel after they got raped themselves" on a Facebook post.
A youth and a minor girl allegedly committed suicide by jumping in front of a moving train in Bassi town after their families found about their affair.

The mutilated bodies were spotted by locals in the morning who informed the police.

The youth and girl were relatives and were allegedly having an affair about which their family members found about, police said.

They were missing from their houses and were found dead on railway tracks today, it said.

The youth was the resident of a village near Bassi whereas the girl was a resident of Dausa district.

The youth was a student in Dausa, the police said, adding, that the bodies were handed over to family members after postmortem.
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 whether 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 sometime in 2015. Her attorney, Wendy Holton, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
GEORGE TULEY/SPECIAL TO THE CALLER-TIMES Eddie Franco with the Patriots' Band and Honor Guard of America played taps at the conclusion of a Memorial Day ceremony at Seaside Memorial Park and Funeral Home on Monday.

SHARE GEORGE TULEY/SPECIAL TO THE CALLER-TIMES Corpus Christi Police Chief Mark Markle serves as guest speaker at a Memorial Day ceremony at Seaside Memorial Park and Funeral Home on Monday. contributed photo Major General Warren Phipps, World War II Veteran and LEX Volunteer Mert Bobo and Congressman Blake Farenthold carry the wreath to be laid in the water according to Navy tradition. GEORGE TULEY/SPECIAL TO THE CALLER-TIMES Catherine Gorrell (left) and Greg Gorrell, Sandra Prince and Susan Luna stand at Memorial Day services at Seaside Memorial Park on Monday. contributed photo Troop 6 from Brownsville performs a Flag Retirement Ceremony on Memorial Day on the Flight Deck of the Lexington Museum on the Bay.

Residents from around the Coastal Bend spent Memorial Day honoring the memory of veterans who lost their lives in service of the United States.

Families gathered at the graves of loved ones at area cemeteries, including the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery, while a ceremony at Seaside Memorial Park and Funeral Home honored Gold Star Wives, Gold Star Families, Blue Star Families, veterans and veterans organizations, and current service members.

Corpus Christi Police Chief Mike Markle was the featured speaker, while the Patriot Band and Honor Guard, the Corpus Christi Fire Department Pipe and Drums, the Young Marines Drill Team and the Flour Bluff NJROTC performed. Corpus Christi Mayor Nelda Martinez, the South Texas Historians group and the Patriot Guard Riders of South Texas also attended.

The Lexington Museum on the Bay hosted a wreath-laying ceremony and flag retirement ceremony. Congressman Blake Farenthold addressed the crowd during the wreath laying. Boy Scout Troop 6 from Brownsville performed the flag retirement ceremony on the Flight Deck.
SHARE Contributed photo Bess Stone (from left), recording secretary; Liz Lomax, corresponding secretary; Tina Anastos, vice president; Wanda Sorrell, president; Karen Welder, treasurer; Barbara Head, publicity chairman; Debbie Layton, parliamentarian Contributed photo Tracey Barre (from left), Leslie McClanahan, Cherry Green, and Sally Wallace Contributed photo Debbie Layton (left) and Dr. Laura Petican

The ladies of Cotillion celebrated a successful year and installed new officers and members May 26 at a lively luncheon at the Corpus Christi Country Club.

The event began with the business at hand: new members for next year are Tracey Barre, Cherry Green, Leslie McClanahan, and Sally Wallace. New officers for 2016-2017 are President Wanda Sorrell, Vice President Tina Anastos, Recording Secretary Bess Stone, Corresponding Secretary Liz Lomax, Treasurer Karen Welder, Assistant Treasurer Beth Knolle, Publicity Chairman Barbara Head, and Parliamentarian Debbie Layton.

This was followed by a delicious lunch and the presentation of funds raised through the La Merienda Art Auction to Dr. Laura Petican and Dr. Rich Gere from the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Art Department. When the check was given to her, Petican was immensely grateful, "I can't say enough the impact this has had on our university students, they have been saturated with the best art of our community. We look forward to many more collaborations with our visiting artists, and all of this is able to happen because of your support."

I sat at the luncheon with outgoing organization President Debbie Layton and incoming President Wanda Sorrell and also the two professors from the university, so we joked that we were having lunch with Dr. Laura and Richard Gere (har, har.).

The collaboration of this old and prestigious organization and the fledgling University Art Department is inspiring to see, and I know it will continue to foster and encourage the growth of great artists here in our community.

A Luau Evening with Donavon Frankenreiter Benefiting the Texas Surf Museum

The Texas Surf Museum's second annual Fundraiser Luau at 7 p.m. July 30 at the American Bank Center will feature an evening of food, fun, surf, and serenades by professional surfer Donavon Frankenreiter, who began his musical career as a protege of Jack Johnson. His debut self-titled album was released in 2004 on Brushfire Records through Universal Music.

As a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit museum, the Texas Surf Museum aims to enlighten the world as to the unique culture and history of Texas surfing; encourage our community to experience the fun, accessible and healthy lifestyle of surfing and related board sports; and educate everyone in proper conservation practices to protect and preserve the beaches, bays, and waterways of the Texas Gulf Coast.

Funds raised at the Luau, with the support of the Harte Research Institute, will be put toward the development and implementation of an interactive and educational Gulf Coast-based curriculum called the "Science of Surfing" exhibit. Visitors will be able to learn an array of scientific concepts from discovering how waves are formed, understanding the science of surfboard shaping, to the impact of marine debris on the Gulf Coast ecology.

Cost: $75. Information: www.brownpapertickets.com/ event/2550145.

Big Wigs Winners Compete in  Big Wigs

The top players in the advertising industry were announced at Corpus Christi's American Advertising Awards in February. Now they will all compete in a wig fashion show to raise money for the charity of their choice at the Big Wigs Fashion Show at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center. Guests are invited to celebrate their favorite Big Wig and support the charity with the most compelling presentation.

Votes are made through donations that night and the winning charities win additional cash prizes: 1st Place, $1,000; 2nd Place, $750 and 3rd Place, $500.

Which Big Wig winner will bring the biggest, baddest wig? Here are the competitors and their charities of choice:

Best TV Sales Representative: Amanda Leal of the Gulf Coast Humane Society

Best Radio Sales Representative: Lorie Garcia of the Corpus Christi Metro Ministries

Best Newspaper/Magazine Sales Representative: Jordan Regas of the Goodwill Industries of South Texas

Best Media Buyer and Social Media Manager: Lexi Buquet of the Coastal Bend Wellness Foundation

Best Event Planner: D'Anne Buquet of the March of Dimes

Best Non-Traditional Advertising Outlet: Corpus Christi Ride-In Theater  Corpus Christi Ride-In Theater

Best Photographer: David Olds of Habitat for Humanity

Best Specialty Advertising Company: Sharon Sedwick of the Women's Shelter of South Texas

Most Likely to Be my Boss in 10 Years: Steven Alford of the Kieschnick Guest House of CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital

Most Likely to Be my Boss in 10 Years: Ashley Garza of the Ready or Not Foundation.

The event will have heavy hors d'oeuvres and cash bar and the attire is kitschy cocktail.

Cost: $25. Information: info@aafcc.club or 884-2992.
When is hurricane season? Here's what you need to know in South Texas
Roman Alexander

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By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times

A Portland man who is facing intoxication manslaughter charges is behind bars again.

Roman Alexander, 21, was arrested by Portland police Friday morning for public intoxication and evading arrest, Lt. Jon Quade said. Quade said a resident called police about a man staggering in a neighborhood.

When police and emergency medical personnel responded, Quade said Alexander took off running, but officers pursued him on foot and arrested him.

Alexander was previously arrested Jan. 12 by Portland police after witnesses told officers he drove his 2010 Nissan Sentra into the median on Highway 181, killing 35-year-old Justin Mazone, who was doing maintenance work contracted by the Texas Department of Transportation. Alexander, who police say was intoxicated at the time of the incident, continued driving north toward Gregory before his car broke down.

San Patricio County jail officials said Alexander's bail is set at $304,000. His bail on the intoxication manslaughter charges was set at $300,000 in January. Bail was set at a total of $4,000 for the charges of public intoxication and evading arrest.

Twitter: @Caller_Fares
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Juan S. Garcia

Awarding medals for a massacre

RE: Forum "Help your state honor its heroes," on June 2 which listed George Lloyd or Loyd  Co. I, 7th Cav., at Wounded Knee Creek, SD, Dec. 29, 1890 

Medal of Honor citation: "Bravery, especially after having been severely wounded through the lung."

Wounded Knee Creek  On the cold morning of Dec. 29, 1890 troops from the 7th Cavalry under the command of Col. James Forsythe massacred at least 150 members of the Lakota Sioux tribe who had come to give themselves up because they were starving and suffering from the bitter cold. The U. S. troops numbered about 500 and were equipped with four Hotchkiss guns. In the process of disarming the Native Americans there was a struggle with Black Coyote, a deaf Native American who did not understand the orders. When two soldiers grabbed Deaf Coyote from behind to take away his rifle a shot rang out. It was at this point that the soldiers commenced firing on the mostly disarmed Native Americans. As the Native Americans attempted to recover the rifles from the pile of confiscated arms, the troopers opened fire on them at close range. About half of the Lakota men were killed or wounded before they had a chance to defend themselves. Other soldiers used the Hotchkiss guns on the Lakota women and children. The women and children fled the camp looking for refuge in a nearby ravine. Others that tried to run away were pursued, some for miles, and killed. Many of the soldiers also finished off the wounded.

This has been called a "battle" but modern historians now classify this as a massacre of mostly defenseless Native American men, women, and children. Some of the soldiers later testified that many of the soldiers had been hit by their own friendly fire. In this so-called battle, 20 Medals of Honor were awarded. George Lloyd undoubtedly was one of these "brave" soldiers that went above and beyond the call of duty. If we apply the same Dec. 29, 1890 standards for bravery, maybe we should also award a Medal of Honor to Lt. William Calley for the 1968 My Lai Massacre.
HELENA  Two more people have been charged as a result of an investigation into a drug smuggling ring at Montana State Prison.

Rachel Leanna Ross, 25, of Collierville, Tenn., and Lauren J. Hoskins, 26, of Somerville, Tenn., were arraigned in federal court Thursday on a six-count superseding indictment charging them with various drug distribution crimes.

Ross and Hoskins were the fourth and fifth defendants to be arraigned under the indictment. Three other defendants were arraigned on Tuesday, and an additional defendant was arraigned last month under a separate indictment. Both Ross and Hoskins were arraigned on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

From April to August last year, Ross and Hoskins, along with Ian Scott Barclay, 28, Cordero Robert Metzker and Erin Marie Bernhardt, 48, conspired to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and buprenophine at the state prison in Deer Lodge, according to court documents.

Barclay, a prisoner, had arranged with Bernhardt, a prison employee, to smuggle the drugs in, documents state. Metzker, Ross and Hoskins, under direction from Barclay, helped arrange for the meth to be delivered to Bernhardt's home in Deer Lodge.

Bernhardt, who worked in the prison laundry, then smuggled the drugs into the prison and gave them to Barclay, documents state. Barclay then distributed the drugs to prisoners.

Bernhardt was paid $3,000 by other members of the smuggling ring, according to documents. Metzker, Ross and Hoskins collected the money from the distribution of meth and used it to bribe Bernhardt.

An additional 50 grams of meth was distributed through the jail between Aug. 9-14, 2015, court documents say.

Barclay pleaded not guilty on May 31 to conspiracy to two counts of possession with intent to distribute, distribution of methamphetamine and accepting and giving bribes. Metzker is charged with the same and pleaded not guilty. He is out on release while awaiting trial. He was incarcerated at the prison from December 2011 to August 2012 and is on probation for drug possession and distribution in Missoula and Gallatin counties.

Bernhardt was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, possession with intent to distribute, distribution of meth and accepting and giving bribes.

If convicted, each could face more than 100 years in prison and fines of over $15 million.

Court documents show Hoskins and Ross were arrested in Tennessee and are both out on $5,000 bond. They appeared in court here via video.

Court documents say Ross lives outside Memphis, Tenn., with her mother and suffers from Type 1 diabetes, anorexia and drug addiction. She was moving into a long-term residential treatment facility on May 31.

The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Inspector, the Montana Department of Corrections Investigations Division, Montana State Prison Warden Leroy Kirkegard and his staff, and the Montana Division of Criminal Investigations.

Last month Martin Reap, a guard at the prison, denied charges he smuggled meth and marijuana into the prison from February 2015 until April this year.

A public information officer with the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday evening she wasn't able to provide more information about the case.
Water is still for fighting out West.

A Carbon County couple has sued the former county sheriff and current county attorney claiming they violated several of the husbands constitutional rights by threatening to arrest him after he was cited for trespass during a 2013 water dispute with a neighbor.

The trespassing charge was dismissed in January 2014 in Carbon County Justice Court.

Roberts rancher William Burgan and his wife, Lynette, filed the lawsuit in Billings District Court last month and are requesting a jury trial to determine monetary damages against Carbon County Attorney Alexander Nixon and former County Sheriff Thomas Rieger.

Burgans attorney, Matthew Monforton of Bozeman, said the landowner involved in the trespass dispute, James Brien, had local law enforcement do his bidding.

Brien called the lawsuit baloney. Rieger referred all questions about the lawsuit to Nixon. Nixon had no comment on the suit and instead suggested his attorney, Raymond Kuntz, be contacted for comment. A message was left for Kuntz but had not been returned by press time.

Water fight

In the lawsuit, the Burgans outline a dispute that has brewed for years.

Their neighbor to the south, James Brien, illegally denied them access to their irrigation headgate for the Hunter-Northey Ditch starting in 2012. Brien reportedly bought his property, located west of Highway 212 between Red Lodge and Roberts, in 2007. The headgate is accessed by a gravel road off of Teini Road.

The Headgate Access Road has been used by the Burgans, their predecessors-in-interest, and other users of the Hunter-Northey Ditch since 1894 as the only means of access   the lawsuit states. The Burgans bought their ranch in 1990.

Although William Burgan provided the sheriff and county attorney with documents supporting his right to access the property as early as April 2013, they repeatedly acknowledged that matters between Brien and the Burgans constituted a civil dispute, the lawsuit says.

That changed when William Burgan and his son used the easement to adjust their headgate on Aug. 15, 2013, the court document states.

We never would have had a problem if he hadnt drove through our driveway at 60 mph, Brien told The Gazette.

Brien reportedly called then-Sheriff Rieger and demanded the Burgans be charged with trespassing. Rieger reportedly consulted with County Attorney Nixon who agreed that the Burgans had committed a trespass, the lawsuit states.

Citation issued

The following day Burgan and his son were cited for criminal trespass and a deputy sheriff told the Burgans they would be arrested if they used the easement again.

Monforton claims that Nixon took action because he is friends with Brien.

Thats not a problem unless those friendships and relationships are being used to invoke law enforcement in an unconstitutional manner, Monforton said.

Thats the motive behind this, he added. This wasnt a situation where they didnt know. They knew months before that my client had a legal right to do what he was doing.

Given the situation, Monforton contends that Nixons actions are not protected by prosecutorial immunity. Likewise, he claims that former Sheriff Rieger is not immune from prosecution since he had been shown documents by Burgan prior to the citation verifying that Burgan has a legal right to access the headgate.

Monforton also suggested that the motivation to block Burgans access to the water may have been more nefarious.

Nixon and Briens refusal to allow Burgan to control water flow on his land temporarily diminished the value of his land and might have forced Burgan to sell his land at a reduced price, Monforton said. Access to water dramatically increases the price.

Burgan had recently listed his ranch for sale for $2.1 million but said he decided not to part with the property after the water dispute was settled.

Counter claim

The trespassing charge was later dismissed in justice court and the Burgans asked a state court to resolve the issue. In February 2015, District Court Judge Michael Moses of Billings reaffirmed the existence of the Burgans easement based on historical use.

The Burgans are now seeking compensation for the attorney fees they incurred as well as punitive damages from the county attorney and former sheriff for corruption of their offices in order to strongarm a Montana ranching family into selling or surrendering their property to (Brien)  

There were six other people on that headgate, but he was only trying to stop me, Burgan said.

Its just a bunch of crap what these rich people are doing.
Have long locks? Fake an asymmetrical wavy bob like actor Emily Blunt with tips from hair guru Kevin Murphy.





"What makes Emily Blunt's style different is it's asymmetrical and a bit 80's with the chunk of hair falling out at the front," says Kevin Murphy.



Step 1: After towel-drying damp hair, apply an oil free volumizing product from roots to ends; choose a lotion if you have fine hair or a mousse formulation if your locks are thick and frizzy. Roughly blow dry using your fingers until the hair is completely dry.



Step 2: Divide your hair into two sections at the front and two at the backthough you may need to double this number if you have extra-thick hair. Using a medium-barrel curling iron, roll the first section, then hold for a minute to heat the hair. Release the iron and leave the curl to cool, repeating with each section. "Once you've set the hair, just let it go," says Murphy. Don't try too hard to make perfect waves.



Step 3: Create a side part, then place a small bobby pin in the front section want to leave hanging free. Next, lightly comb the rest of the hair behind into a low ponytail; secure with an elastic. Don't brush or rake your finger through ityou want to keep the look as sleek as possible.

Step 4: Roll the end of the ponytail under and secure the elastic to your hairline with a couple of jumbo bobby pins. Finish with a mist of a setting spray.







TOOL KIT







Schwarzkopf Styliste Ultime Biotin+ Volume Mousse, $13, schwarzkopf.ca.

Kevin.Murphy Anti.Gravity Oil Free Volumiser, $35, kevinmurphy.com.au.

Pantene Pro-V Style Series Airspray, $6, pantene.ca.

T3 BodyWaver 1.75" Styling Iron, $200, sephora.ca.



FINAL LOOK





Read more:

Celebrity hairstyles: 11 killer short hair 'dos

Your guide to pastel hair colour

The best multi-use makeup and hair products



This article was originally published in the June 2016 issue of Canadian Living magazine.
Friday, June 3, 2016 at 6:53PM

Its finally here and you cant escape it. Instagram is rolling out the algorithm-based feed, meaning you wont see posts in chronological order anymore. Instead, what youll see are posts based on factors such as popularity, your interests, and the like. This change was announced back in March but is now being implemented for all users this month. And it was met with a lot of resistance, especially with users that worry their posts wont be seen because of the changes. Instagram claims in a blog post that the users who now see the algorithm-based feed tend to be more engaged on the platform.

Source: Instagram | Via: Mashable
"The fate of those dogs isn't known as they went back to the trainer, but the world is taking notice. We are going to continue to shine a light on this and hopefully improve welfare standards for these animals until the Canidrome shuts down."
Of those with a new course work master's, and who were available for full-time work, 18.3 per cent had no full-time job four months after graduating. For a research master's graduate the figure was 24.1 per cent. Both figures were superior to the 31.9 per cent of bachelor's degree holders looking for full-time work (the majority without a full-time job across all categories had part-time or casual work).
"Our clientele were extremely happy to come to Kingston and not have to battle Civic traffic or car parking, so it's actually been really good for them and they love having their own space and windows that look out onto the street," Ticehurst said.
"If you are going to disrupt services to that many people for a year you would expect roadworks that would deliver a strategic advantage, such as an overpass or underpass, not just traffic lights," Sophie Wade of the Duplicate the Barton Highway Community Action Group said in March.
The motive behind Supabarn's continued legal action against Woolies at Giralang now that they have sold their Kaleen store, is now clear. A reduced-size supermarket will see Woolworths pull out of the Giralang deal. But Woolies still would like to expand in the local area, and Supabarn can then make a deal to sell their Crace store that the ACCC wouldn't allow them to sell to Coles.
MIDWEST  Frustrations continued to mount here Friday as the search for an elusive odor that closed Midwest School stretched into its second week and residents reported a spate of unexplained illnesses.

An 18-year-old mother, who graduated from the school last week, said she was suffering from hives and expressed concerns for the health of her newborn son.

Another woman said she too had hives and said her daughter, a Midwest student, had been complaining of headaches since the beginning of the school year.

And a longtime resident, who reported no health woes, said he was considering a move from this community of 418 out of fear over its air quality.

It seems to me no matter what you do youre getting some kind of contamination all the time, said Eolus Linville, an 18-year-resident of Midwest, in reference to the nearby Salt Creek oilfield.

State and local officials have said there is no threat to public health since Midwest School closed its doors May 26. The school has remained shuttered while its roughly 150 K-12 students finish the academic year at the former North Casper Elementary building.

No health problems had been reported to county health officials or school staff, they said Friday.

There hasnt been anything brought to Dennis attention or my attention, or those we work with, Natrona County School District Superintendent Steve Hopkins said, referring to the districts business and facilities director Dennis Bay.

Unexplained leak

The problems began May 25, when school staff first reported a gaseous odor.

Half of the building was closed, with students and staff sent to the other side of the school. Natrona County School District officials and representatives of Black Hills Energy, a utility, investigated and determined the odor was not the result of a natural gas leak.

The school then called FDL Energy, which owns and operates the adjacent Salt Creek field. The company took an air quality sample that identified abnormal levels of carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds. The schools windows had been opened at the time to allow the building to air out.

On Monday, the Department of Environmental Quality conducted a second test, which showed higher levels of carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The school windows had been closed throughout the weekend, said Audrey Gray, health preparedness manager at the Casper-Natrona County Health Department.

It was definitely higher than wed expect for normal carbon dioxide, and wed obviously do not want to see any VOCs, Gray said.

However, local and state officials dont have the ability to fully interpret those readings. It is unclear what type of VOCs might be present or the amount of exposure to students or staff. Local officials were meeting with their federal counterparts Friday in hope of finding more answers.

VOCs are a collection of chemicals that are emitted from solids and liquids as a gas. Sources can range from household items such as paints and aerosol sprays to industrial activities like oil and gas wells. Some can be highly toxic, while others have no known health effects.

Air quality monitors were also set up in the area around the school by a third-party contractor hired by FDL. Those monitors have not recorded any abnormal readings, said Justin Westmoreland, FDL health and safety director.

Three repair rigs continued to probe closed wells Friday in attempts to locate the source of the odor, he said.

Were working diligently to finding the source, Westmoreland said.

That proved little consolation to some residents, who pointed to a 2014 incident where two of the schools kitchen staff fell ill after smelling an unidentified odor. One had to be flown to Casper for medical treatment.

Local, state and and national health officials conducted what they described as an exhaustive investigation. They searched for methane, mold and VOCs, among other things.

We couldnt find anything, Gray said. It was inconclusive.

A news release from county and school officials late Thursday said no scientific evidence links the 2014 case with the present one. Hopkins said the odors were detected in different parts of the school.

Residents fearful

Yet the situation underpinned many of the worries expressed by parents and former students.

Skylar Baeriswyl gave birth four months ago and graduated from high school last week. She is upset about the potential of having spent the past year studying amid poisonous gases.

It is very frustrating that they let things go on as long as they did, she said.

Baeriswyl has suffered hives and worries about the health of her infant son, who has not experienced any unexplained ailments. She buys bottled water from Casper rather than allowing her family to drink the water in Midwest. She said shell pursue legal action if her son starts to become sick.

She found out about FDLs temporary housing offer in Casper through a Star-Tribune article. Company officials say they went door-to-door to homes near the school shortly after the odor was detected and offered to put residents up in a hotel if they felt uncomfortable with the situation. As of Friday, only one person had.

But Baeriswyl said FDL should hold a community meeting so locals can ask questions and gain a better understanding of what is happening.

They just need to make people aware of whats going on, she said.

Standing not far from the school, a woman blotted tears from her eyes with a tissue as she spoke about the situation.

The woman, who declined to give her name, has suffered saucer-sized hives on her skin for the past two years. They show up on her arms, legs, back, chest, stomach. They itch and they hurt to touch. She isnt allergic to anything that would cause them, she said.

Shes afraid its the water in Midwest.

Theyre not telling everybody whats going on here for a reason, she said.

The woman knows many parents who are seeking legal counsel after the gas leak was discovered in the school. She said on the day of the leak, she was notified about the situation by school officials at noon. However, they kept students in the building.

Our kids stayed in there the rest of the day, she said.

Though the energy company has offered to house Midwest residents in Casper, the woman said she doesnt want to move her family.

This is my home, she said. Thats what stresses me out about it the most. My daughter wants to go to school here. She doesnt want to go to school in Casper. She doesnt want to go to school in Kaycee. She wants to go to school here. That has been taken away from her at this point.

Chasity Taylor, the mother of two Midwest School students who often felt sick over the past year, said she had discussed her sons lethargy with their teachers. Though her 9-year-old and 6-year-old had complained of headaches, grogginess and a lack of appetite, she did not report it to the school because she didnt think it was due to the school environment.

I just thought it was normal afterschool things, Taylor said. But now that I know whats in there and the way that theyve been acting, it makes a lot more sense.

Oldest oilfield

The Salt Creek field is among the oldest and most productive in Wyoming. But more than a century of production has left a bevy of closed and abandoned wells in and around Midwest, which has long served as the heart of the field.

A closed well in the front yard of the Midwest School was drilled in 1925 and plugged in 1993, according to state well files. A repair rig has been working on that well since last Friday, said Westmoreland, the FDL health director.

There are at least four other closed wells in the immediate area around the school, Oil and Gas Conservation Commission records show. The earliest was drilled in 1921, the latest in 1987. All reported their last production in 2005 or 2007.

The OGCC does not conduct inspections of wells once they are plugged, said Kimberly Mazza, a spokeswoman for the commission. The well on the schools front lawn, for instance, was inspected at its closing in 1993, she said.
When Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was in Bismarck last month rallying supporters in advance of next weeks North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party caucus, he chose to utter a line that's not popular in an oil-producing state.

Weve got to ban fracking, he said.

Despite even many Democratic officials in the state being supportive of the oil and gas industry and hydraulic fracturing, the remark drew a loud roar of approval from the crowd in downtown Bismarck.

In a phone interview this week previewing Tuesdays North Dakota caucus, Jane Sanders gave a succinct explanation for her husbands remark. She acknowledged that such comments are unpopular in oil-producing states.

Bernie tells people what he believes wherever he is, she said.

She said her husband is honest about who he is and what he stands for, regardless of what crowd hes speaking to.

He believes climate change is a concern that needs to be dealt with, she added.

Sanders' presidential campaign has pushed a climate change plan to reduce carbon emissions and increase renewable energy use in the country. The plan includes a provision for tens of billions of dollars to aid communities, such as those in North Dakota, during a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

While her husband is concerned about moving the country in a different and perhaps not very popular direction in terms of energy, Jane Sanders said his plan is meant to be implemented such that it won't create a negative impact on people who work in existing industries.

His first priority is to ensure that people have the opportunity to be able to have a decent livelihood, she said.

Sanders is trailing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the nomination.

The North Dakota Dem-NPL caucus begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday, the purpose of which is to elect 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.

Absentee, mail voting picks up steam

Votes keep coming in by mail and absentee ballot at an increasing pace, and the first batch of early votes at precincts also came in this week.

A total of 148 early votes were cast this week.

Early voting precincts will be open in the coming week in several counties. Visit sos.nd.gov or your countys website for hours and precinct location.

Total votes cast prior to the June 14 primary election were approaching 20,000 on Friday.

A total of 15,954 ballots by mail had been cast out of 31,112 sent as of Friday, or 51.3 percent.

For absentee ballots, 3,406 of 6,880 had been returned, or 49.5 percent.

All together, 19,508 votes have been cast.

In the June 2012 election, there were 27,983 ballots by mail cast and 12,990 absentee ballots cast.
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.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.
The North Dakota veterans community is signing on to get a measure onto the Nov. 8 ballot to increase state taxes on tobacco and liquid nicotine products.

Wayne Paulson, North Dakota commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said he has helped gather some of the 13,452 signatures needed by July 11 to get the measure on the ballot.

The measure would bump the current tobacco tax from 44 cents to $2.20 for a pack of cigarettes. Only Georgia, Missouri and Virginia have lower cigarette taxes than North Dakota's current rate. In addition, taxes on liquid nicotine products would be increased from 28 percent of the wholesale purchase price to 56 percent.

The North Dakota Veterans Coordinating Council  composed of representatives from five major organizations: the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Amvets and Vietnam Veterans of America  voted unanimously last fall to join the coalition called Raise It for Health North Dakota, Paulson said.

The coalition's ballot proposal was approved by the secretary of state in March.

About $50 million in new tax revenue would be created through the measure, and those funds would be split 50-50 between a newly created Veterans Tobacco Tax Trust Fund and health-related programs in the states Community Health Trust Fund.

"We dont have and havent had adequate funding to take care of our veterans in North Dakota," Paulson said.

The money would go toward the governor-appointed Administrative Committee on Veterans Affairs, which oversees the state Veterans Home and Department of Veterans Affairs.

And both of those entities could use more funding," said Paulson, adding he hopes a $1.76 tax increase also might deter veterans and young people from smoking.

We know that a lot of veterans smoke; we also know that smoking is not good for you," he said. Many veterans were introduced to tobacco when they were in the service, because our C-rations had a pack of cigarettes in them.

Paulson didnt smoke until he joined the U.S. Army in 1954.

Most everybody else was doing it, and I thought it was a manly thing to do," he said, adding he quit after six months.

Paulson said he'll talk about the petition and ballot measure at the VFW State Convention in Bismarck this weekend, during which he hopes to gather some additional signatures.

So far, the petition has collected about half the signatures needed, said Paulson, who hopes to gather a total of 20,000 -- not only to provide a cushion in case any signatures are illegitimate, but also to show the public theres a lot of support.

Across the nation, the average tax on a pack of cigarettes is $1.61. In Minnesota, it's $3 per pack; in Montana, its $1.70; and in South Dakota, its $1.53. The tax in North Dakota hasnt been raised since 1993.

There are some that are against any tax increase, Paulson said. But when we havent raised our tobacco tax in 20 years, I think its time for us to step back and take a look and say: Yes, if this is what the veterans need, pass it.

Though there have been several unsuccessful attempts in recent years to hike tobacco taxes, Paulson said he's confident this petition will gather all the necessary signatures and the voters of North Dakota will raise those taxes and support our veterans.

Im confident well make it happen," he said. This is a good thing for everybody, although some people might not realize it."
The war on internal combustion engines is escalating, as Norway is allegedly planning to ban them by 2025.



Tesla CEO Elon Musk twitted out the headline of Norwegian newspaper Dagens Nringsliv , reading that Norways four main political parties have agreed to stop sales of diesel and gasoline-powered vehicles in 2025.

The subject has been in discussion for quite some time now. Although its not final, with representatives from two parties saying that they hadnt agreed on the rule, Musk couldnt contain his excitement: Just heard that Norway will ban sales of fuel cars by 2025. You guys Rock!!

According to Electrek, the nine-year timeline is the most aggressive of its kind for such a policy  especially as it comes from one of the worlds largest oil exporters  and its initiative could be the first made into law.

Whether or not Norway will ban the classic internal combustion engine as we know it in less than a decade remains to be seen, but the transition wouldnt be very dramatic as ~24% of the countrys cars are electric already. Moreover, Norways progressive transportation plans revealed an ambitious proposal to ban all private vehicles from downtown Oslo by 2019 in an attempt of making the city more livable.

Just heard that Norway will ban new sales of fuel cars in 2025. What an amazingly awesome country. You guys rock!! pic.twitter.com/uAXuBkDYuR Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2016

via CNBC

PHOTO GALLERY
Photo: UBC Okanagan

Engineers at UBCs Okanagan campus want people to a re-think summer camps.

Instead of campfire singalongs and Smores, School of Engineering faculty are suggesting 3-D modeling, laser engraving, Lego robotics and concrete like you've never seen it before.

The school is hosting several summer programs tailored to students from Grade 1 through to teenagers in high school.

The School of Engineering hosts a variety of summer programs for students of all ages, says School of Engineering Senior Instructor Yang Cao. Wed like to open our doors to young students to let them discover the many options an education in engineering can provide. The summer programs provide a fun way to do just that.

The purpose of the camps, says Cao, is to open the doors early to thoughts of an applied science education and encourage young students to think about careers in science, engineering, technology and mathematics.

The Geering Up programs, targeted specifically to children in elementary and middle schools, are all about making science technology and engineering hands-on fun. Along with a variety of activities, campers participate in demonstrations, tours, outdoor events and design challenges. The camps are taught by experienced university students who are filled with passion for their field of study.

Geering Up programming includes activities such as a CSI-themed day of the science behind crime scenes, building periscopes, a zip-line car design challenge, polymer bouncy balls, coding in Scratch, and building Lego Mindstorm robots.

There is also a program focused on computer science and one that will introduce young minds to chemistry and biology.

UBC Okanagan also hosts a Geering Up girls-only version to encourage young female students to discover and explore their love of science and engineering.

Meanwhile, high schools students can participate in the DiscoverE or the Stewards in Engineering Education (SEED) summer programs.

DiscoverE participants will be exposed to general design processes through civil, electrical and mechanical engineering projects. SEED students will participate in cutting-edge research projects with the goal that they will, in turn, share their experiences with their peers the following school year. Information about both these programs can be found online.
Photo: Kate Bouey

Six groups and individuals have been praised for their environmental leadership in the North Okanagan.

At a short ceremony at the regional district headquarters on Thursday, board chair Rick Fairbairn handed out the awards.

They included:

Youth Environmental Leadership awards

The Kala Star Academics and Outdoor School is very active in environmental initiatives across the North Okanagan region. This group of learners have been involved in numerous creek clean ups along Coldstream Creek as part of the RDNO Adopt-a-Stream Program and also in raising awareness about invasive quagga and zebra mussels, helping to protect water resources. The students are also raising Chinook salmon and participating in public education as mentors at the Kingfisher Interpretive Centre.

Okanagan Landing Elementary School students, with the support of their teachers and administration, planted a large habitat garden for pollinators (5,000 square feet) on school grounds. They are helping to maintain the garden, as well as spread the word throughout their community about the importance of creating habitat for pollinators.



Individual Environmental Leadership awards

Ed Columbus recently retired from Venture Training after 27 years. In his time there, he created and facilitated numerous R\recycling programs and community recycling partnerships with the RDNO and the City of Vernon. Ed was also vital in Venture Training's purchase of the Bottle Depot in Lumby and Venture's connection with EnCorp Pacific in becoming a R\recycling D\eepot. Ed has been very passionate about environmental stewardship and providing employment opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities during his time at Venture Training

Harold Sellers has made a tremendous contribution to our community in the development, promotion and maintenance of trails. As well he has promoted knowledge and appreciation of the flora and fauna of the area through the naturalists' nature walks to which everyone is invited and which he instigated. As a member of the North Okanagan Naturalist Club, Harold is the coordinator for many local nature walks from Swan Lake, BX Creek, Adventure Bay, Kalamalka Provincial Park and Middleton Mountain. His enthusiasm and communications skills have encouraged innovation and creativity.

Environmental Leadership by Group or Business award
Photo: Vernon Fire Rescue. File photo.

UPDATE: 2:15 p.m.

A Vernon man has been charged in connection with a string of arson cases dating back to 2014, RCMP report.

In 2014, the community of Vernon experienced a rash of arsons, where targets ranged from dumpsters, vehicles to boats and building structures. These fire incidents caused extensive property damage and a serious public safety concern for the Vernon RCMP and Vernon fire department, said Cpl. Dan Moskaluk, RCMP spokesperson.

While suspects were identified in some of the cases, a number remained unsolved.

On June 1st, Vernon RCMP investigators arrested 55-year-old William Munton, who has since been released from police custody for a future court appearance.

Munton faces four charges of intentionally or recklessly causing damage by fire or explosion to property, including a mini van, a new home in Coldstream, a duplex under construction in Vernon and tires and a trailer that belonged to the Go Kart Association. The incidents took place between June and November 2014.

It is the dedicated efforts of several investigators over the past two years that has resulted in charges being laid, stated Supt. Jim McNamara, commander of the North Okanagan detachment.

The Vernon RCMP are continuing their investigation and anticipate that evidence to support additional charges of arson will be forwarded for approval, said Moskaluk.

Meanwhile, police officers remain outside a residence on the 2300 block of 33rd Street which Moskaluk said is connected to the ongoing arson investigations.

Anyone with information about the noted arson cases or any other arson investigation is asked to contact the Vernon RCMP non-emergency line at 250-545-7171 or via Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

For two days, there has been a significant police presence at a house on Mission Hill.

RCMP patrol cars have been keeping watch 24 hours a day for at least two days at the residence, which sits at the corner of 23rd Avenue and 33rd Street, near Vernon Jubilee Hospital.

Investigators are present and holding the scene with respect to an ongoing investigation, said Cpl. Dan Moskaluk, RCMP spokesperson.

Moskaluk refused to give any details although he stressed the matter was not a public safety issue.

Moskaluk did not believe drugs were involved.
Photo: Contributed

The union representing transit drivers will hold a rally in Kelowna Wednesday to back demands for safer working conditions.

The Amalgamated Transit Union Canada, in a news release sent out Friday, said assaults on transit drivers are unacceptable, citing four Kelowna cases on one day, two weeks ago.

"Luckily, four assailants were apprehended in the Kelowna assaults, and ATU Canada is calling for those who were apprehended be sentenced to the full measure of the law," the union said.

That could include up to 10 years for an indictable offence or 18 months for a summary conviction.

Those limits were brought in a year ago as part of Bill S-221 which, in part, allows for stricter penalties for those who assault transit operators.

The union states transit operators should be afforded the same level of safety as pilots and train operators, who are provided enclosed workstations.

"ATU Canada supports protecting bus operators from the risk of assault by requiring all new vehicles, and vehicles in revenue service, (have) transparent partition enclosures around the bus operator seating area, capable of withstanding gunfire, and a door or window to the left of the operator seating area, allowing for safe, and rapid emergency egress," the email states.

The union also says drivers should have access to a panic button that connects directly to law enforcement.

Wednesday's rally will be held at 2 p.m. at the Queensway Bus Loop and at city hall.
Photo: Wayne Moore

Kelowna RCMP are hoping to reunite some missing money with its rightful owner.

Police came into possession of a sum of money Wednesday morning when a Good Samaritan turned it over to the front counter at the downtown detachment.

The person had been riding a transit bus from UBC Okanagan to West Kelowna when they discovered the money, cut short their trip and turned it over to police.

If you believe it's your cash, you will have to provide the exact total, including its denominations, as well as describe any unique markings on the envelope.

If you can prove you are the rightful owner, call Kelowna RCMP at 250-762-3300.
Photo: Google Maps

A couple didn't get far with a stolen U-Haul trailer in West Kelowna.

Thieves made off with the loaded U-Haul from a home on Glen Canyon Drive, just after 7:30 a.m. Sunday.

Shortly after the victim reported the trailer stolen, she contacted police again to say it was being towed by a Ford Windstar, northbound on Gellatly Road, toward Highway 97.

An officer intercepted the vehicle on the highway, near Desert Pines Avenue, where a man and a woman were taken into custody without incident.

The trailer contained personal belongings and furniture. The victim was in the process of moving.

The male suspect, a 37-year-old Peachland man, was held in custody and later released to appear in court at a later date.

The 33-year-old woman, of no fixed address, was held in custody on unrelated outstanding warrants.

Both suspects face potential charges including possession of property obtained by crime and theft over $5,000.
Photo: Contributed

The B.C. Court of Appeal has dismissed the case of a man convicted of sexual assault for shaving the body hair of a young man who passed out at his home.

A lower court heard that Michael Hume, of Lytton shaved the pubic area of a young man after a night of drinking in August 2013, then threatened him with an alcohol bottle, tossed $50 at him and warned him not to tell anyone.

The former community support worker was convicted of sexual assault, uttering threats and unlawful confinement in January 2015 and sentenced to three years in prison.

He appealed, arguing the judge should not have found the sexual assault "serious" because there was no penetration and that the sentence imposed was too harsh.

The three-judge panel unanimously dismissed the appeal, saying in a ruling released Friday that Hume's crimes were "highly invasive, humiliating and degrading."

Writing for the panel, Justice Nicole Garson Garson said it is not correct to say sexual assault is not "serious" if there is no penetration, and the sentence was appropriate because of the circumstances of the case.
Photo: Castanet Staff - File Photo

It seems this driver just doesn't get it.

A 53-year-old Kelowna man is accused of drunk driving three times in one week.

The man faces numerous charges after allegedly blowing four times the legal limit in mid-May.

Kelowna RCMP issued a press release Friday stating the same man had been investigated for impaired driving on two other occasions that same week.

In the first incident, the man was handed a 90-day driving ban after failing a roadside screening device test.

Four days later, he blew twice the legal limit of .08.

The driver was held in police custody for court following the third offence.

He faces several potential charges, including impaired operation of a motor vehicle, impaired operation while over .08 and multiple counts of driving while prohibited.
Photo: CTV Tyler Fritsen

Despite condemnation from the RCMP, a large majority of Castanet readers agree with a Penticton mans methods for catching creeps.

Tyler Fritsen is the president of the Penticton chapter of Creep Catchers, a loosely organized national organization that aims to catch child sexual predators, using dating apps like Plenty of Fish.

Fritsen recently released two videos of himself confronting men who thought they were meeting up with a 14-year-old girl, when it was actually Fritsen the whole time.

A Castanet poll found 70 per cent of respondents agreed with Fritsens methods, despite the RCMP saying the work should be left to police.

There are many stats to show that the police are fighting a losing battle and the ones that get caught are only a fraction of what's out there, wrote Still in the comments. It was only a matter of time before people started taking justice into their own hands.

Nineteen percent of people did not agree with Fritsens work, while 10 per cent were torn.

That kid is going to get hurt. He's not a cop and the people he confronted were not charged so what did he actually accomplish? wrote ACSLater. This wannabe is looking at a potential lawsuit - these creeps could end up owning his house.

The RCMP would not comment on whether an investigation has been opened into the actions of the men in Fritsens videos.
Photo: Wayne Moore - Castanet File Photo

A man is in police custody after allegedly swinging a hatchet at RCMP officers in Kamloops, Friday morning.

Prior to the incident, police, patrolling the bus loop at Tranquille Road and Sydney Avenue, near Northhills Mall, were informed two men were drinking alcohol at the bus stop.

The officers intervened, and, while one man was co-operative, the second became belligerent and started yelling. He allegedly went into his backpack, pulled out a hatchet and started swinging at the Mounties.

One of the officers Tasered the suspect, however, it had no effect. The man continued to swing the hatchet.

The suspect was then hit with a blast of pepper spray. He dropped the hatchet, but fled into the mall.

A third officer was finally able to zap the suspect and subdue him.

The man was taken into custody without further incident. He was expected to appear in court today on numerous charges.

Any time a police officer must arrest a violent person, it is a potentially dangerous situation, said Cpl. Jodi Shelkie.

But, in this case, where the violent person is in a very public place and other citizens could be injured, it is especially dangerous. Luckily, the officers were able to take the suspect into custody without the safety of any bystanders being compromised.
Photo: School District 83.

The Ministry of Education is taking a look at the report from a special advisor, who was called in after public outrage over the actions of North Okanagan Shuswap school district trustees.

"We have just received the report and are in the process of reviewing it," said a ministry spokesperson.

Special advisor Liz Watson, a Vancouver lawyer, was appointed in April to look at governance practises within the district.

The board itself actually made the request for an advisor. It followed revelations that trustees had voted to transfer millions of dollars in surplus operating funds into capital funding projects over the past five years, including the new $9.3 million board offices.

There was also controversy over plans to close or reconfigure a number of schools but many of those plans have since been put on hold.

Three trustees  Barry Chafe, Jennifer Wilchuk and Kelly Rowe - handed in their resignations.

There is no date set for a by-election.
Photo: Darren Handschuh

The B.C. Coroners Service has confirmed the identity of a man who died early Wednesday morning following a car surfing incident.

Justin Roger Martyn, 27, of Spallumcheen was a passenger, riding on the roof of the involved motor vehicle, when the vehicle drove off Tronson Road near the intersection with Garmisch Road, states a report from the coroner's office.

Martyn died at the scene.

Two men and a woman were inside the vehicle that rolled onto its roof.

An analysis of the scene was conducted by the coroner and police experts.

An investigation into the incident continues.
Photo: Jennifer Zielinski

A resident of Birch Manor in Rutland had just returned from an outing when she noticed smoke coming from under the hood of her car.

The woman called 911, and Kelowna firefighters arrived to find smoke and flames in the apartment building's underground parking lot and threatening an adjacent balcony.

Platoon Capt. Tim Light said at the scene the initial call came in as a structure fire on Leathead Road about 4 p.m. Friday. It was upgraded to a vehicle fire with structure exposure by the time fire crews arrived.

The incident closed Leathhead and Franklyn roads to traffic as residents of the building were evacuated with the help of RCMP members. They waited anxiously on the front lawn of the complex.

The building is operated by the Society of Hope, and Light said several residents would have needed special assistance so were "sheltered in place" while firefighters quickly knocked down the flames.

The vehicle was heavily damaged, and there was lots of damage in the parkade, said Light, with "a little melted vinyl siding on the building, but structurally, no damage."

Crews arrived to visible flames from the parkade. While the fire was quickly doused, firefighters ripped open the ceiling to ensure fire had not spread to the apartments above.

Residents were allowed back in to the building by 5 p.m.

 with files from Jen Zielinski
Photo: Contributed

Update: 9 p.m.

The estimated time of Highway 5 reopening is 10 p.m. following a fatal collision north of Kamloops.

Highway 5 is closed in Kamloops following a fatal collision.

Police were called to the scene of a crash on the Yellowhead bridge north of the city, just before 4 p.m.

Sgt Mike Pears said a utility trailer being pulled by a northbound pickup truck with three occupants collided with a southbound small SUV with a lone woman driver. The woman died at the scene.

Investigators will continue to investigate this collision to determine the cause. The highway is currently closed in both directions at this location; however there is a detour via Mount Paul Way.
Photo: Google Street View

The Kelowna Fire Department made short work of an excavator fire early Saturday morning.

Fire crews were called to a property in the 1600 block of Swainson Road about 4 a.m. Saturday for an excavator which was fully engulfed in flame.

Crews were able to quickly knock down the fire, preventing it from spreading to other buildings or property.

While the cause of the fire is still under investigation, platoon captain Eric Simpson offered a sage piece of advice.

"The Kelowna fire Department would like to remind people to dispose of any smoking materials in a proper manner."
Photo: Contributed Friends of Westbank Library president Keith Burton.

It was a great weekend for Friends of the Westbank Library.

The group raised more than $6,700 during its used book sale last weekend.

That was well over the $6,000 raised a year ago.

All of the monies raised by the Friends of the Westbank Library goes to support the local branch of the Okanagan Regional Library.

To date this support has included the continuing funding for the Adult and Childrens Programs, funding for the Speaker Series, furniture such as chairs and tables.

In 2012, they helped with the newly renovated library including a fireplace, tables, stools, misc. kitchen tools for the meeting room, a bar fridge for the meeting room, and chairs for the staff room.
Beloved husband, father, uncle and grandfather, Vince Feist, went to live with his heavenly Father June 2, 2016. Services will be held at 11:30 a.m. Monday, June 6, at First Lutheran Church, 800 N. Seventh St., Bismarck, with the Rev. Allen Wagner officiating. Graveside services will be held at 2 p.m. Monday at North Dakota Veterans Cemetery, Mandan.

Visitation will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Eastgate Funeral Service, 2302 E. Divide Ave., Bismarck.

Vincent Joseph Feist was born in Braddock, Dec. 9, 1931, to Catherine (Martin) Feist and Jacob C. Feist. Vince was the third of six children. The family farmed in Braddock until Vince was in grade school, then moved to Bismarck.

Vince graduated from Bismarck High School and then joined the North Dakota National Guard and was stationed at Camp Rucker in Alabama during the Korean conflict.

He married his high school girlfriend, Rose Ann Coats, in 1952. They were married for 64 years and raised three children in Bismarck.

When Vince returned to Bismarck from Camp Rucker, he was employed with the Bismarck Fire Department for 40 years. He was proud to be a firefighter. Vince conducted fire prevention training at local schools and businesses for many years. He also was a first aid and EMT instructor. Many of the ambulance and hospital staff in Bismarck attended his courses.

Vince was a member of the North Dakota Firefighters Association, the local AMVETS club, Eagles Club and Elks Lodge.

When not busy with work, Vince spent most of his time with his family. He and Rose liked to fish and spent most summer vacations at Lake Lizzie in Minnesota. During his off time, you could find Vince with his children or grandchildren fishing at Sweetbriar, the banks of the Missouri River or one of several other area fishing holes. The family will fondly remember the many road trips taken around the country to visit relatives and attend biennial Coats family reunions. No trip was complete without a visit to a national park and other nature or historical sights.

Vince took great pride and satisfaction in helping others. He was often the security guard/firewood chopper for Girl Scout and Boy Scout camp-outs. He was always quick to lend a hand to neighbors and strangers if they needed a ride, had car trouble, or needed help with a project around the house. In later years, Vince and Rose spent time giving back to their faith. You could often find them serving meals to the Bismarck High School students at lunch time. Vince also offered his skills and took great pride in making cedar hope chests for the parents of newborns in the congregation at First Lutheran Church.

He loved his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren very much and always made time to go to the park and play, go sledding, climb hills, or go camping. We loved him very much and we will miss him always.

Vince is survived by his wife, Rose Feist; his children, Veronica (Allen) Richard, Cheryl Feist and Terry (Marian) Feist; his grandchildren, Justin (Heather) Richard, Amber (Travis) Wilson, Michael (Tiffany) Richard, Jessica (Corey) Trinneer, Alexandra (James) Graham, Catherine LoCicero and Derick LoCicero; his great-grandchildren, Alexander Richard, Andrew Richard, Taylor Wilson, Hannah Wilson, Cooper Wilson, Jordyn Leighton, Jake Trinneer, Eli Richard, Jaxson Graham and Cali Lindsay; his brother, Joseph Feist; his brother, Jerome Feist; and his sister-in-law, Marlene (Ludwig) Feist.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Jacob C. Feist and Catherine Feist; his sister, Veronica Berger; his brothers, Thomas Martin and Ludwig Feist; a sister-in-law, Columbe (Joseph) Feist; and a great-grandson, Anthony Wiard-Richard.

Go to www.eastgatefuneral.com to share memories of Vince and sign the online guest book.
Photo: Wayne Moore - Castanet It's a big thumbs up for future pilot Noah Wiebe, 8.

Noah Wiebe has a dream.

The eight-year-old Kelowna resident wants to pilot a plane someday.

And, not just any plane.

"I want to be a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines," said Wiebe Saturday.

While he didn't get that chance Saturday, Wiebe and about 140 other kids age eight to 17, did get a chance to feel the sensation of flight.

They were all part of the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association event at the Kelowna Airport.

Pilots from the Kelowna Flying Club, and some from Vernon, Penticton and Summerland volunteered their time, and planes, to take to the sky with the wide-eyed group of youngsters.

"I just like Hawaii," added Wiebe when asked why he wants to fly for Hawaiian.

It's been a dream of his for about three years now to be a pilot.

"I just like to fly to all kinds of different places," he said.

Wiebe took his first flight when he was four days old, but his most vivid memory is a trip he took when he was a little older.

"Going to Panama."

Wiebe came to Saturday's event dressed for the part, wearing a sharp pilot's outfit.

This is the third year for COPA for Kids in Kelowna. Along with getting a ride in a small plane, the youngsters also took in a short ground school where they learned about the planes and were shown how to prepare for a flight.

"We have a mix of everything," said event organizer Pam Nelson.

"For some, it's a brand new experience. They've never been up and close to an airplane before. They get a chance to come on this side of the fence, the hot side, the apron."

Nelson said the event gives youngsters, and their families, a chance to learn about aviation, aviation in Kelowna and how it touches everybody's lives.

And, there's always something magical between kids and planes

"They're cool. They fly. They give us a freedom. They give us wings. That's not something we can get from any other place."

Events like this are held all over the country.

In B.C. alone, between 450 and 500 kids will get the chance to fly at events in Kelowna and Pitt Meadows this weekend and Boundary Bay next weekend.

Vernon and Penticton have also held successful events this year.

Next year, the Kelowna chapter of COPA will host a national event at the airport. About 200 planes will come to town for that event, the first of its kind ever held in Kelowna.
"What we're seeing right now is just lower numbers of everything. The river still provides quality walleye fishing, but not along the lines of what it did before."

 Paul Bailey, North Dakota Game and Fish Department fisheries supervisor for the South Central Fisheries District, on the impact of the 2011 floods on the Missouri River.

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I do remember telling my wife there had to be easier ways to make a living. It was very stressful.

 Todd Lindquist, Garrison Dam project manager, on the difficult times during the 2011 floods.

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"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 of bed. I couldn't walk across this room five years ago."

 Chad Meyers, of Bismarck, discussing how he became addicted to opiates after being injured in an accident.

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"The only thing we can do is watch them while they sober up. We have no recourse to help them, treatment options, referral options."

 Burleigh County Sheriff Pat Heinert, on how local law enforcement is limited when handling detoxification cases.

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"When I came into the infantry, nobody learns your name for several weeks because you're dumb and quickly killed."

 Art Dohrmann, 70, on his experiences in Vietnam.

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"The inmates did the majority of the work, and it was hard work. We saved taxpayer money doing it in-house, and it was a good project for the inmates. They did it safely with not one injury or incident."

 Loren Haid, plant director for the Missouri River Correctional Center, on how inmates cut and loaded cottonwood trees for the construction of a replica of Teddy Roosevelt's Elkhorn ranch cabin on the presidential library grounds in Dickinson.

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"He's a small man in stature, but he lived a large life. He believed in the spirit of compromise  well respected by both sides of the aisle."

 Chris Wagner, on his father, Vern, who died Tuesday at 89. Vern Wagner served in the Legislature from 1962 to 1983. Wagner served as speaker of the House during the 1979 session and as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in the 1975, 1977 and 1981 sessions.

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"We'd just like to get it in the rotation. So we're trying to win people over."

 Charley Johnson, president and CEO of the Fargo-Moorhead Convention and Visitors Bureau, on their efforts to lure the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference to Fargo.

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"We all breathed a collective sigh of relief when it was over."

 Sgt. Mark Buschena of the Bismarck Police Department, on how the police department handled Donald Trumps visit to Bismarck.

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"I was young and silly ... so I wanted to do something important, something good, so that's why I joined the Army. And I guess I was young enough to not know any better."

 Ruth Shephard , 93, on how she served as a nurse in London during World War II. Shes a native of Grafton.
During President Barack Obama's recent trip to Asian countries he showed his lack of respect of American veterans.

First, on his visit to North Vietnam he posed for a picture in front of a statue of Ho Chi Minh, the leader of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam War, American servicemen were heckled and spit on when they returned home. Obama is continuing this lack of respect for these veterans.

Second, on his visit to Japan Obama concentrated on the dropping of the two atomic bombs at the end of World War II. President Harry Truman made a difficult, but correct, decision to drop the two atomic bombs. Obama and others who disagree should Google Bataan Death March, battle of Iwo Jima and battle of Okinawa.

Finally, for everyone who plans to vote for Hillary Clinton this November, realize she will show the same lack of respect toward our veterans. Vote for Donald Trump, he believes in America and supports our veterans and servicemen.

Remember these two things about all of our veterans:

Land of the free, because of the brave.

All gave some, some gave all.
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PASCAGOULA, Mississippi--On Thursday, Judge Louis Guirola ruled in favor of the retirees of the Singing River Health System hospital, ending the two year debacle between the retirees and Jackson County.

Guirola approved a $150 million settlement that is to be paid over 35 years and would provide retirees the ability to recoup 100 percent of the money they are owed.

According to Guirola's ruling:

SRHS must deposit $149,950,000 into the retirement trust pursuant to a 35-year schedule agreed upon by both parties. Expert accountant Allen Carroll determined this payment will fully compensate the Plan for the 2009 through 2014 missed contributions.

Jackson County agreed to pay $13,600,000 to SRHS to support the indigent care and principally to prevent default on a bond issue by supporting the operations of SRHS in nine installments between now and September 30, 2024.

SRHS agreed to pay attorneys' fees and expenses.

SRHS Chief Financial Officer has agreed to provide quarterly to Stephen Simpson, the special fiduciary appointed by Jackson County Chancery Court to oversee the Plan. After Simpson receives those reports, he will provide those to the Chancery Court.

The proposed settlement provides Plan-wide relief. No specific monetary damages are awarded to any individual. The objectors' arguments that the proposed settlement will not treat class members equally are therefore without merit.

After the ruling came down, Chief Executive Officer of SRHS Kevin Holland issued this statement:

"We are very pleased with Judge Guirola's ruling that the proposed settlement of the Singing River Health System pension plan is appropriate and should now move forward. This has been a long and very difficult process that required a great deal of work from all parties concerned. Now the over 3,100 individuals who are members of the pension plan will know that their benefits will continue into the future. We are pleased that we can begin the process of closure for this matter, and we commend all who worked diligently to help bring it to this point. All through the process, it has been the goal and intention of Singing River Health System to bring a satisfactory conclusion to the retirement benefit situation for all concerned, and we are comfortable that today's court ruling has done that."

Pension issues within the county began in 2014 after the announcement was made that SRHS had not contributed to the retirees' pension fund since 2009. Since that time, retirees have picketed and shown up at numerous Board of Supervisors meetings in an attempt to hold the supervisors accountable and to participate during the public comment section to have their voices heard.
The Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors hosted the latest class in a series of self-defense workshops specifically tailored to the needs of real estate agents on Friday.



"With assaults on Realtors frequenting news headlines and contributing to an average of more than 25 fatalities each year since 2004, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, self-defense is becoming something of a job requirement," officials said. "An open house may not seem like a danger zone, but it is one of many situations that could make a Realtor a sitting duck for a violent attack."

For real estate agents, on-the-job, everyday scenarios can easily escalate into something much more dangerous, said Nathan Walldorf, Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors president. When youre showing an empty home to virtual strangers sometimes miles away from the nearest neighborand marketing yourself so openly in the public eye, having an escape plan and knowledge of how to defend yourself may very well be what saves your life. At the end of the day, you just never know exactly who youre opening the door to.

Forty percent of all Realtors surveyed in the National Association of Realtors 2015 Member Safety Report indicated they had at one point felt threatened on the job a fear that the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors sought to address head-on with its self-defense classes.

Each four-hour course is led by safety experts Jim Hogwood and Jon Fish from the National Self-Defense Agency, and participants learn to spot key warning signs while employing practical safety tips and self-defense techniques.



As a realtor in the area for more than a decade, Ive seen the landscape change  and its not as safe as it once was, said Carolyn Limerick, a Realtor with Keller-Williams Realty in Hixson. But after learning numerous self-defense techniques, I feel confident and in control of my own safety, which wasnt the case before today.



For added safety, realtors have also been encouraged to turn to technology with personal security apps like Guard Llama or StreetSafe, which can communicate an agents location and personal information with the swipe of a finger or push of a button. But when a 911 response is not quick enough, class instructors stressed there is no greater resource than a ready mind and trained body.



The goal of this training is to ensure realtors leave feeling confident that they can protect themselves during an attack no matter the setting or their aggressors stature, said Jon Fish, an instructor with the National Self-Defense Agency. Attackers typically dont take action if they expect to be defeated, thats why a target that fights back immediately has an advantage.



Interested realtors can learn more about GCARs ongoing self-defense courses at the events online information page.


Tennessee American Water announces that the companys 2015 Consumer Confidence Reports (Water Quality Reports) are available to customers online. In addition, Tennessee American Water has once again earned the Directors Award through the Partnership for Safe Water, marking the 16th consecutive year the utility has achieved this level of surpassing standards.The annual water quality report, also known as the consumer confidence report, is a performance measure of the quality of water.These measures are established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. The report describes local drinking water sources, testing conducted on the water, substances detected, and the levels of those substances.The Partnership for Safe Water is a voluntary utility program with the mission of improving drinking water quality by optimizing operations. In the state of Tennessee, nine utilities participate in the Partnerships treatment plant optimization program. Across the U.S., about 400 utilities participate in the Partnership.Since 1887 we have been the primary water provider for the Chattanooga area and have always been committed to the highest standards for water quality to our customers, said Tennessee American Water President Valoria Armstrong. In 2016, our goal is to be 18 times better than the U.S. average for water quality standards. Participating in the Partnership for Safe Water is one way we exceed standards.Messages on customer water bills provide a URL address to access a service areas specific water quality report. Customers may also search by zip code to find their report at www.tennesseeamwater.com. The URL addresses for specific Tennessee American Water service area water quality reports are as follows:Chattanooga: http://www.amwater.com/ccr/chattanooga.pdf Whitwell: http://www.amwater.com/ccr/sequatchievalley.pdf Suck Creek: http://www.amwater.com/ccr/suckcreek.pdf Printed copies of the report are available to customers who would rather receive their report in the mail or who do not have access online. To request a copy be mailed, customers may call the companys Customer Service Center at 1-866-736-6420 or email presidentarmstrong@amwater.com.
Lee Universitys School of Music will present its 12th Annual International Piano Festival and Competition June 12-18.The event, which began in 2005 as a competition for high school students, was expanded in 2011 to include opportunities for non-competitors to also study with internationally-acclaimed artists. At the same time, it offers the public a chance to take in some brilliant performances. This year, for the second time, the competition will be divided into two levels: pre-college and college."This years festival has attracted 19 outstanding young pianists to the Lee campus," officials said.The participants come from nine different states in the U.S. and one from Peoples Republic of China, and range in age from 11-26."Highly-praised performers and teachers Mack McCray, Enrico Elisi, and Shen Lu are the guest artists for this years festival. Lee faculty Ning An and Cahill Smith will also contribute to the festival, which is chaired by Lees Phillip Thomas," officials said.One feature of this annual event is that the guest artists offer concerts to the community. Mr. Lu and Mr. Elisi will present a recital on Monday evening, June 13, and Mr. An, Mr. Smith, and Mr. McCray will perform on Friday evening, June 17. Both recitals will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Squires Recital Hall of the Humanities Center on Lee's campus.Concerts on Tuesday and Wednesday evening will feature selected festival participants. All of the festival concerts will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Squires Recital Hall and are free and open to the public.Festival participants have the opportunity to learn from faculty and guest artists in masterclasses during the day. Faculty and guest artists will also offer private lessons.The competition will begin Thursday, June 16, at 10 a.m. Winners will be presented on the morning of Saturday, June 18, following the competitions final round which begins at 10 a.m.Mr. McCray, a faculty member of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1972, also serves as artistic director of the Zephyr International Chamber Music Festival in Courmayeur, Italy. He has performed with the Japan Philharmonic in Tokyo, on the all-Schubert series at famed Trinity Church in Manhattan, at the Carmel Bach Festival, and at the Los Angeles County Art Museum, as well as in Alaska and across the United States. Mr. McCray was the top prize winner of the International Enesco Competition in Bucharest and of the International Liszt Competition in Boston.Mr. Elisi is described by La Nueva Espana as a true musician and a master of elegance, refinement and fantasy. He has performed solo recitals and has been featured as soloist with several orchestras in the United States and abroad. Mr. Elisi leads a large class of international students as an associate professor of piano at the Eastman School of Music. An active chamber musician, he began a collaboration with violinist Federico Agostini, a former leader of I Musici. Mr. Elisi has performed in such prestigious venues as La Fenice Theatre in Venice, the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, and the Bibbiena Theatre in Mantua, among others. Mr. Elisi has given master classes, workshops, and lectures at colleges and conservatories throughout the world, held a guest professorship at the China Zhejiang Art School in Hangzhou, China, and taught at Penn State University and University of Nevada. He also founded Musica Domani Prize, an international composition competition he currently directs.A native of Jiangsu, Mr. Lu is a multiple award-winning pianist, acclaimed on four continents for his artistry, diverse repertoire and quietly charismatic performance style. Mr. Lu has appeared with orchestras and in concert halls around the world; has been a featured artist at the China International Piano Festival in Beijing, Piano Texas International Academy and Festival, and New Yorks PianoSummer at New Paltz; and has collaborated with the Sydney Trio and the Aurora and West Edge string quartets. Mr. Lu was awarded the gold medal of the 2014 Hilton Head International Piano Competition and the first prize from the 2002 Hong Kong Asia Open Piano Competition. He was awarded The French Music Prize for the best performance of a French work at the 2015 Dublin International Piano Competition.Mr. An has been hailed as a musician who combines a flawless technique and mastery of the instrument with an expressive power that is fueled by profound and insightful understanding (New York Concert Review). His top prizes from the Queen Elizabeth, Cleveland, and William Kapell Piano Competitions led to performances from Carnegies Weill Recital Hall, Salle Verdi (Milan), to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. An has also been a top prize winner of the Paloma OShea Santander Competition, the Tivoli International Piano Competition, the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition and the Alfred Cortot Prize winner of the International Chopin Piano Competition. A frequent guest lecturer, Mr. An has given masterclasses throughout the United States and Asia. He serves as the artist-teacher on the piano faculty of California State University, Fullerton and as a visiting artist at Lee.Mr. Smith, who started playing piano at age ten, earned his doctorate of musical arts in piano performance at the Eastman School of Music. He has performed in recitals at Carnegie Halls Weill Recital Hall and been featured as soloist with the National Ukranian Symphony Orchestra in Kiev. Mr. Smiths programming of works by Russian composer Nikolai Medtner has attracted the attention of audiences and critics. He has performed at numerous venues including the Royal Dublin Societys concert hall and the Aspen Music Festivals Harris Hall. Mr. Smith currently serves as an assistant professor of piano at Lee. While at the Eastman School of Music, where he earned his doctorate of musical arts, he held three graduate teaching assistantships and was awarded the Prize for Excellence in Teaching.Mr. Thomas has served as chair for the festival since its inception. He has studied piano, music history, and conducting at some of the worlds finest institutions and has also served as adjudicator for a variety of competitions on the local, regional, and international levels. He currently serves as the chair for the Department of Musicianship Studies at Lee and has appeared as harpsichord soloist with the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Thomas is listed in Whos Who Among American Teachers.For more information on the Lee University International Piano Festival and Competition, contact the Department of Musicianship Studies at 423-614-8264, music@leeuniversity.edu, or visit http://www.leeuniversity.edu/academics/music/piano-festival/
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China's Ministry of Commerce on Friday urged Malaysia to be cautious and restrained in choosing to adopt trade remedy measures against Chinese steel products.

"We hope Malaysia will take into consideration the sound cooperation in our steel sectors and the fact that Chinese steel has contributed to Malaysia's construction and manufacturing boom," a ministry statement said.

The statement came in after Malaysia began to investigate screw thread steel and wire rod imported from China.

China hopes the investigation will be fair and transparent, and Chinese exporters are guaranteed the rights to defend themselves, the statement said.

As the world's largest steel consumer and producer, China calls for unity in tackling the crisis in global steel market, saying protectionism will only compound the problems.
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Chinese Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu addresses the G20 Agriculture Ministers Meeting in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, June 3, 2016. (Xinhua/Mu Jialiang)

Friday's G20 agriculture ministers meeting in the northwestern city of Xi'an praised China's efforts to promote innovation and sustainable development in agriculture.

Han Changfu, Chinese Agriculture Minister, said China was working to increase grain yields, and, with partners around the world, striving for global food security. China's grain yield rose for a 12th straight year in 2015.

China's agricultural concepts, including integrated development of agriculture and secondary and tertiary sectors, were written into a communique of the meeting that will be submitted to the upcoming summit for approval.

China is willing to work with other countries to achieve a fruitful year in global agricultural development, Han said.

As part of a series of meetings prior to a G20 summit in Hangzhou in September, the agriculture ministers' meeting focused on issues including food security, nutrition, rural development and innovation.

There are still 795 million people suffering from chronic hunger worldwide and 2 billion in malnutrition, the communique said.

The meeting agreed that G20 countries will pay more attention to food security in developing countries, propel the realization of 2030 sustainable development goals and encourage sharing agricultural technologies.

G20 countries will also work to tame grain price fluctuations, promote agricultural innovation, support investment in developing countries and help small farms.

It was the third such meeting since the establishment of G20 mechanism.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (3rd L) visits an exhibition on China's science and technology achievements during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015) in Beijing, capital of China, June 3, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called for greater confidence and perseverance from science and technology (S&T) practitioners to make China the vanguard of innovation-driven development.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks on a visit to an exhibition in Beijing on S&T achievements during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015).

The president lauded China's achievements and the influence they had on the reform and opening up drive, and socialist modernization.

The exhibition was held one day after the conclusion of the 9th National Congress of China Association for Science and Technology.

More than 800 items were on display in 10 exhibition areas, showing the best of China's major S&T achievements in the last five years.

The items included intelligent driving, deep-sea diving, robot surgeons, Tianhe-2 supercomputer, and Beidou navigation system.

Other senior leaders including Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan and Wang Qishan, also visited the exhibition.

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Admiral Sun Jianguo (2nd R), deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, meets with Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov (2nd L) in Singapore, June 3, 2016. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey)

Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, met with Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov Friday and the two sides pledged to step up military cooperation.

Sun, who met Antonov on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, said that the two countries have seen a sound development trend in military cooperation, as the overall relations between the two sides are running well.

He said the two sides are both facing with a more complicated international security situation and closer mutual cooperation is in need.

Antonov praised the effective cooperation between the two defense ministries and expressed the willingness to join hands with China in the fight against security threats including terrorism.

Antonov also vowed to deepen the mutual military cooperation under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

He said the Russian military is keen to launch more joint maritime drills and anti-terror exercises with the Chinese side.

The 15th Shangri-La Dialogue, an Asia-Pacific defense and security summit, runs in Singapore from Friday to Sunday.

Sun, on the sidelines of the dialogue, met on Friday with defense ministers, military chiefs and high-ranking defense officials from countries including Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Brunei.
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U.S. Democratic front-runner Hilary Clinton has launched a blistering attack against Republican nominee Donald Trump as the war between the two rivals began in an election expected to be a knock-down drag-out fight.

Clinton lambasted Trump in a foreign policy speech made Thursday in California, calling the New York mogul a "fraud" and is "temperamentally unfit" to be a president.

Observers said this was a departure from Clinton's usual stiff public persona, which has been a thorn in her side in her efforts to portray herself as someone who understands the struggles of ordinary Americans.

"Hillary Clinton is displaying more passion in attacking Donald Trump," Brookings Institution's Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

The recent fraud scandal over the Trump University gives Clinton an opening to characterize Trump as "a rich guy taking advantage of poor people," West said.

Some Trump University students claimed that they paid to the university a big sum of money but did not get the money's worth.

"That is a script she knows how to follow since that is how Obama beat Romney in 2012," West said, referring to U.S. President Barack Obama's win over Republican challenger Mitt Romney nearly four years ago.

Clinton is likely to continue that theme and extend it to other business dealings of Trump and argue that he is not pro-worker and has taken advantage of many people over the years, West predicted.

If Clinton can turn this into a more conventional race of herself standing up for the little guy and Trump enriching himself at the expense of average people, it moves the campaign onto more familiar turf for her and Democrats in general, West said.

"The race simply would play into common stereotypes about Republicans being out of touch and unfair to working people and it would hurt Trump's ability to win blue-collar support," West said.

Indeed, Clinton called Trump a "fraud", claiming that the Republican nominee is pulling the wool over the eyes of his supporters.

"The fraud argument works well for her because it puts a dagger through the heart of his central claim, that he is a great businessman and that he made his money through smart and effective leadership," West said.

Fraud creates an alternative narrative that says he got his money illicitly and that he cannot be counted upon to help the average person, West said.

Clinton's narrative is meant to counter that of Trump, who has taken to calling Clinton "crooked Hillary," referring to the many scandals she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have been tied to over the last 20 years.

Clinton is currently embroiled in a scandal over whether she jeopardized U.S. national security by using a private email account and server for official business while she was secretary of state.

A House panel is also investigating Clinton's responsibility for the 2012 terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens were killed, when Clinton was secretary of state.

Just six months ago, most political observers dismissed Trump as a flash in the pan, but he now stands out as the winner in the Republican nomination fight. And in many recent polls, Trump is tied with Clinton in the lead up to what experts said is sure to be a tight race.

Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua that much of the Republican establishment and voters are beginning to unify behind Trump despite concerns about his specific policies.

Indeed, House Speaker Paul Ryan, the top Republican politician, said Thursday that he will vote for Trump despite his initial reluctance to endorse the brash businessmen who is disliked by many of the Republican establishment politicians.
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Police in Canada's biggest city said Friday they have arrested more than 50 people linked with a violent gang in a citywide guns-and-drugs crackdown.

A total of 53 individuals associated with violent gang Heart of A King, including a gang leader, were apprehended in the raids that led to 250 charges and the seizure of thousands of dollars' worth of drugs, weapons and jewelry.

The raids are part of an ongoing guns, gangs and drugs investigation dubbed "Project Sizzle," an operation carried out at locations across Toronto and Montreal.

Police said the dismantled Heart of A King gang, also known as HOK, was responsible for a string of violent crimes that took place mainly in Toronto downtown core, over the past few years including some notorious homicides.

Toronto police chief Mark Saunders said they were able to "eradicate" the gangsters as a result of the 43 raids. The majority of the arrests were made in Toronto. Four people were arrested in Montreal.

Police alleged that the organization's members and their associates were involved in numerous shootings, firearm possession trafficking, drug trafficking, fraud and prostitution.

Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash said they believed the arrests would have a "significant impact in reducing crime in the city."

So far, there have been 19 deadly shootings in Toronto this year, a 137-percent 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.
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The value of environmental crime is 26 percent larger than previous estimates, at US$91-258 billion today compared to US$70-213 billion in 2014, according to a rapid response report published today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and INTERPOL.

The Rise of Environmental Crime, released on the eve of World Environment Day (WED), finds that weak laws and poorly funded security forces are enabling international criminal networks and armed rebels to profit from a trade that fuels conflicts, devastates ecosystems and is threatening species with extinction.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said, Interpol and UNEP have joined forces to bring to the attention of the world the sheer scale of environmental crime. The vast sums of money generated from these crimes keep sophisticated international criminal gangs in business, and fuel insecurity around the world.

The result is not only devastating to the environment and local economies, but to all those who are menaced by these criminal enterprises. The world needs to come together now to take strong national and international action to bring environmental crime to an end.

Environmental crime dwarfs the illegal trade in small arms, which is valued at about US$3 billion. It is the worlds fourth-largest criminal enterprise after drug smuggling, counterfeiting and human trafficking. The amount of money lost due to environmental crime is 10,000 times greater than the amount of money spent by international agencies on combating it  just US$20-30 million.

INTERPOL Secretary General Jurgen Stock said, Environmental crime is growing at an alarming pace. The complexity of this type of criminality requires a multi-sector response underpinned by collaboration across borders. Through its global policing capabilities, INTERPOL is resolutely committed to working with its member countries to combat the organized crime networks active in environmental crime.

The report recommends strong action, legislation and sanctions at the national and international level, including measures targeted at disrupting overseas tax havens; an increase in financial support commensurate with the serious threat that environmental crime poses to sustainable development; and economic incentives and alternative livelihoods for those at the bottom of the environmental crime chain.

The last decade has seen environmental crime rise by at least 5-7 percent per year. This means that environmental crime  which includes the illegal trade in wildlife, corporate crime in the forestry sector, the illegal exploitation and sale of gold and other minerals, illegal fisheries, the trafficking of hazardous waste and carbon credit fraud  is growing two to three times faster than global GDP.

To combat the illegal trade in wildlife, the United Nations system and partners have launched their Wild For Life campaign, which draws on support from celebrities such as Gisele Bundchen, Yaya Toure and Neymar Jr. to mobilize millions to take action against poaching and the trafficking of illegal wildlife products.

Already, thousands of people and more than 25 ministers have chosen a species to show their commitment to protecting wildlife. The host of this years World Environment Day, the Government of Angola, has joined the fight, promising to shut down its domestic trade in illegal ivory, toughen border controls and restore its elephant population through conservation measures.

More than one quarter of the worlds elephant population has been killed in a decade. Some of worlds most vulnerable wildlife, like rhinos and elephants, are being killed at a rate that has grown by more than 25 percent every year in the last decade.

The report also looks at how money generated from the illegal exploitation of natural resources funds rebel groups, terrorist networks and international criminal cartels. In the last decade, for example, poachers have killed an average of 3,000 elephants per year in Tanzania. Thats an annual street market value for ivory traffickers of US$10.5 million, an amount that is five times greater than the entire national budget of the countrys wildlife division.

Organized criminal cartels

The report notes that transnational organized criminal networks are using environmental crime to launder drug money. Illegal gold mining in Colombia, for example, is now considered one of the easiest ways to launder money from the countrys drug trade.

International criminal cartels are also involved in the trafficking of hazardous waste and chemicals, often mislabeling this type of waste in order to evade law enforcement agencies. In 2013, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that the illegal trade in e-waste to Southeast Asia and the Pacific was estimated at US$3.75 billion annually.

Rebel groups

Criminal networks linked to the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have spent about 2 percent of their proceeds to fund up to 49 different rebel groups. According to some estimates by the UN, the illegal exploitation of natural resources in eastern DRC is valued at US$722-862 million annually.

Illegal logging

The value of forestry crimes, including corporate crimes and illegal logging, is estimated at US$50-152 billion per year.

White collar crime

The report looks at the rise of white collar environmental crime, from the use of shell companies in tax havens to launder money generated from illegal logging to transfer mispricing, hacking and identity theft. Carbon trading is the worlds fastest growing commodities market. Carbon credit fraud cases have involved sums of transfers and profits that stretch into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
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The European Union (EU) said on Friday it had joined Mission Innovation, a global initiative on clean energy, becoming its 21st member, and vowed to scale up clean energy innovation.

Before the EU joined, Mission Innovation included major world economies such as the United States, China, India, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Britain. Between the members, the group represents 58 percent of the world population and over 80 percent of global clean energy research budgets. They've pledged to double their government investment in clean energy research and innovation over the next five years.

The EU joined Mission Innovation at the group's inaugural ministerial meeting in San Francisco on June 1 and 2, saying the initiative cohered perfectly with its own upcoming research, innovation and competitiveness strategy.

"The European Commission is honored to be part of Mission Innovation. Scaling up clean energy innovation is key to the success of the European Energy Union and to the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change," said Maros Sefcovic, European Commission vice-president responsible for the Energy Union.

The EU funds clean energy under the EU research and innovation program Horizon 2020, under which around 10 billion euros (11.3 billion U.S. dollars) funding is expected to be allocated to clean energy.

Countries joining Mission Innovation agreed to step up coordination on research and innovation projects focusing on breakthrough technologies.

Priority is given to technologies that can be flexibly adapted to varying economic and energy market conditions in the participating countries and the broader world.

Projects covered by the initiative will be designed and managed in a way to attract private investors who would help bring the new technologies to the market.
Lufthansa Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr delivers a speech in front of an A380-800 aircraft at the Lufthansa Technik facility in Frankfurt, Germany.[Photo/Agencies]

Deutsche Lufthansa AG Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr will travel to Beijing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel next week in a bid to seal a joint venture deal with Air China Ltd seen as crucial to bolstering his company's access to the world's second-largest economy.

Spohr will meet with senior management from the Chinese flag carrier with the aim of making progress on the commercial pact, the CEO said in Dublin, adding that the talks are "complex".

Lufthansa is pursuing joint ventures as part of a plan to stem the loss of lucrative long-haul traffic to fast-growing rivals from the Persian Gulf. Such deals allow partners to coordinate capacity and share revenue and represent the closest accords possible in the industry short of full-scale mergers.

A final agreement with Air China would complete Lufthansa's roll call of accords covering all of its main long-haul markets, though the plan is running behind schedule, with the signoff having originally been targeted for last year.

Europe's third-biggest airline already has deals in place with Air Canada and United Continental Holdings Inc on trans-Atlantic flights and with ANA Holdings Inc in the Germany-Japan market, and in November announced a tie-up with Singapore Airlines Ltd from the city state to Germany and Switzerland.
Dassault Systemes SA -- a world leader in 3-D design software and solutionsplans to increase its investment in China in response to the Made in China 2015 initiative and in the process help Chinese manufacturers transform and upgrade.

Bernard Charles, president and CEO of the French industrial designing software company, said that even though the Chinese economy was slowing down, his group still witnessed a double-digit growth in China last year.

"We see huge development opportunities emerging from the Made in China 2025, a 10-year national plan designed to transform China from a manufacturing giant into a world manufacturing power," he added.

The Dassault CEO emphasized the company's 3-D experience platform would play an important role in boosting the transformation and innovation of China's manufacturing industry, and his company would carry out what he called deep strategic cooperation with more Chinese enterprises.

"The year marks a new starting point for Dassault in China. We will continue to invest more effort into channels, technologies, manpower, resources and finance," said Zhang Ying, managing director of the Dassault China operation.

Established in 1981, the French multinational software company uses 3-D technology to provide software applications and services, designed to support companies' innovation processes.

As a provider of what it calls product life cycle management solutions, the company has more than 210,000 customers of all sizes, in all industries, in more than 140 countries. Its revenue reached 2.88 billion euros ($3.2 billion) last year, up 23 percent year-on-year.

Its 3-D software and solutions have been applied to the automobile and transportation industries, as well as to aerospace and aviation, energy, industrial equipment and the marine industries in China.

Dassault also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Cybernaut, a Chinese investment group. It will focus on promoting 3-D industry park construction, 3-D talent cultivation and smart city projects.

The partners will cooperate to build 3-D industry parks to support the adoption by small and medium-sized companies of its 3-D experience platform. They plan to work together on education to cultivate more 3-D talent for the industry and promote the construction of a smart city in China.

Last year, Dassault launched the Virtual Singapore project with the National Research Foundation of Singapore to help the government, enterprise and research institute to handle the challenges that the country is facing.

Zhu Sendi, a consultant with the China Machinery Industry Federation, said: "Dassault's 3-D software and solutions are widely applied in the aviation industry in China. The market potential in China is huge, and with the Made in China 2025 initiative, Dassault is certainly unwilling to lose this golden opportunity."
Robots in the Kuka stand pour a beer into a glass at the Hannover Messe industrial trade fair in Hanover, Germany April 23, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

BERLIN -- Chinese home appliances giant Midea Group's bid for German robot maker Kuka is a business action and should not be interfered politically, cautioned Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Germany (CHKD) on Friday.

The Berlin-based institution said in a statement that it was paying great attention to actions of the German government and the European Union authorities, and was concerned about "political interference" in this bid.

German media reported that the German government was formulating a counter offer for Kuka from German and European companies, in order to prevent the Chinese enterprise from taking over a controlling stake of the leading industrial robot manufacturer.

"Midea Group's tender offer is an independent business action by a Chinese firm based on its development strategy and market rules,"said CHKD which represents Chinese business in Germany.

"We expect the German authorities to respect market economy principles, and allow investment actions according to market mechanisms without putting any political influence," the commerce chamber added.

Midea Group, which currently holds indirectly 13.5 percent stake in Kuka, announced on May 18 to offer 115 euros ($130) in cash per share in a bid to increase its holding to at least 30 percent.

The Chinese company pledged to maintain Kuka's independence, saying that it has no plan to seek a domination agreement or delist Kuka, and will not change the headquarters or reduce the workforce.
Fourteen Colombian students will travel to China to attend an information technology training sponsored by Chinese telecom giant Huawei, the company said Friday.

The training is part of Huawei's "Seeds for the Future" program, which brings young talent to China to get a grasp on China's telecommunications industry and put their knowledge to use in their home countries, said Xiong Yihui, Huawei's top official in Colombia.

The 15-day-training will take the students to China's capital Beijing and Shenzhen, where Huawei is headquartered. Courses such as broadband, voice services, data services, cloud computing and mobile technologies, among others, are offered to the students.

Maria Jaramillo, an official at the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies, told Xinhua that the Colombia government supports such training programs.

"We are fully aligned with Huawei's objectives and the ministry is keen to boost technological knowledge and talent in Colombia," she said.
President Xi Jinping visits an exhibition on China's science and technology achievements during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) in Beijing on Friday. He urged Chinese scientists to make China a vanguard of innovation-driven development. [Photo/Xinhua]

Xi and other State officials visit exhibition that displays nation's scientific achievements

China's top leadership showed on Friday its determination to encourage national technological development by appearing as a group at a major exhibition.

Four days previously, President Xi Jinping set a national target for the development of science and technology at the National Technology and Innovation Conference in Beijing.

On Friday, while inspecting the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) Technology and Innovation Achievements Exhibition in Beijing, Xi demanded that all S&T workers in China do their utmost to help restore the Chinese nation to its former glory.

The president spent the whole morning at the exhibition, looking through many booths, such as the displays of a smart-plant factory, robot for orthopedic surgery, and super computer, as well as new energy vehicles.

Six of the seven members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee went to the exhibition on FridayVice-Premier Zhang Gaoli was on a foreign trip.

The exhibition, which opened on Wednesday, runs through Thursday at the Beijing Exhibition Center.

An official at Aviation Industry Corporation of China who declined to be named said AVIC briefed Xi on the latest developments China's large aircraft project.

"He was pleased to hear that we conducted independent research and development in the process," he said.

Du Xiaoli, vice-president of Lenovo Corporate Research & Development, told the leaders that the use of Chinese-made computer technology made a great leap forward in the past five years.

"We are confident that by the end of the decade, 90 percent of desktop computers in government offices will be self-developed ones," he said.

Du said the leaders' group visit provided "great encouragement" to people working in technology.

Xi said on Monday that China should establish itself as an innovative country by 2020, as a leading innovator by 2030 and ultimately a world S&T power by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 2049.

The president stressed the role of S&T as the bedrock upon which "the country relies for its power, enterprises rely for success, and people rely for a better life".

Xi also warned that China faces a major S&T bottleneck and a large gap in innovation capacity.

"The situationin which our country is under the control of others in core technologies in key fieldshas not fundamentally changed, and China's S&T foundation remains weak," Xi said at the conference.

"Currently, the State needs the strategic support of science and technology more urgently than at any other time in the past."

Academies study selection reforms

The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering are looking into reforming the method of appointing members, a senior science official has said.

The academies have gathered suggestions to nominate candidate academicians on recommendations from existing members, said Bai Chunli, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at a plenary meeting of the Academician Conference in Beijing, which concluded on Friday.

"Many academicians have long urged us to do this, and they say they hope to see a unified approach adopted during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20)," said Bai, also executive chairman of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' academic division, which serves as an advanced think tank for the government on science and technology issues.

"We think it's a good idea and will create conditions to make it happen step by step."

Bai said there are currently more than 100 channels through which academicians are recommended and selected.

A reason put forward for using member recommendations is the thought that the nominations would be motivated by academic criteria. At the plenary session on Wednesday, Bai said the academy will work on building itself into a more advanced national think tank by making use of high-level resources both domestically and abroad.

"We will focus on important science and technology issues and grasping development trends in science and technology worldwide," he said.
File photo of Beijing No 2 Experimental Elementary School's Baiyunlu campus. An investigation will be carried out on the playground of the school after some students reported bloody noses, dizziness, coughs and rashes. [Photo/IC]

A primary school playground has been deemed off limits after some students at the school reportedly became sick.

An investigation will be carried out on the playground of Beijing No 2 Experimental Elementary School's Baiyunlu campus, the education commission of Beijing's Xicheng district said on Friday.

"Parents will be invited to work together with education experts and authorities, and findings will be released in a timely manner," the commission said on its website.

The announcement was made after some students at the school reported bloody noses, dizziness, coughs and rashes.

Parents of the sick students doubted these symptoms were caused by the recently renovated playground, according to a report by the Beijing News.

"Doctors asked me whether we were doing interior decoration at home," a parent surnamed Zhang, who took her child to hospital after the symptoms occurred, was quoted as saying.

"They asked me to take my child away from any irritating odor to avoid further sickness."

Some parents said the playground was renovated during the summer vacation last year and had been painted at least twice since, in April and May.

Students of the fourth, fifth and sixth grades had frequent events in late May, parents said.

Beijing No 2 Experimental Elementary School's Baiyunlu campus, formerly known as Baiyunlu Elementary School or Fuxinglu Elementary School, was established in the 1960s and now has more than 1,000 students.

Similar incidents were previously reported in provinces like Anhui, Henan and Jiangsu.

Wang Dinghua, an official in charge of basic education with the Ministry of Education, said at a previous news conference that the ministry has clear standards and requirements for schools constructing playgrounds and racetracks.

But the standards haven't been well implemented in some areas for lack of strict supervision, which is a major cause of these incidents, he said.

The education commission of the Xicheng district said medical departments will offer professional help and guidance to affected students to ensure they are healthy.

Inspections will also be conducted on other school projects constructed or renovated in 2015 to prevent similar incidents, the commission said.
Editor's Note:

As the Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu, draws near, people start to commemorate the death of ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan by eating zong zi (glutinous rice dumplings) and racing dragon boats among other colorful customs. The traditional festival is celebrated on the fifth of May in the lunar calendar. This year it falls on June 9. It could be traced back to 2000 years ago when Qu Yuan, an honest minister, was said to have committed suicide by drowning himself in a river.
Iran said on 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 Middle East neighbors, particularly after last year's deadly crush of pilgrims that killed at least 2,426 people, according to a count by The Associated Press. Teheran 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.
Visitors at an exhibition learn about the Beidou navigation system, developed by Wuhan Optics Valley Beidou Holding Group, that is one of China's iconic high-tech exports to Asian regions. Workers at a production line for Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Co in Wuhan. Cheng Min / For China Daily

By taking advantage of China's international production capacity cooperation initiative, which allows Chinese companies to use their specific advantages in cooperation with different parts of the supply chain in other countries, the government of Central China's Hubei province is encouraging more companies to go global with "certain plans, procedures and targets".

The initiative, which was championed by Premier Li Keqiang, can not only help the province cut industrial overcapacity, reduce inventory and lower costs, but also is conducive to improving the local industrial system to increase employment and tax revenues, the government said.

By the end of 2015, Hubei had more than 620 companies tapping overseas markets in some 70 countries and regions. About 43 global capacity cooperation projects were carried out at a contract value of $14 billion.

Of these projects, 40 were located in countries along the routes of the Belt and Road Initiative, and involved investment and contracting.

Investment projects covered more than 10 sectors, including chemicals, optical communication, automobile, agricultural products, steel, cement and new energies, and were distributed throughout 21 countries, including Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Thailand and Poland.

Contracting projects were located in 10 countries including Bangladesh, Iran, Mongolia and Myanmar, and had a contract value of $8.8 billion. The largest one, worth nearly $2.5 billion, is the construction of a hydropower station in Pakistan, contracted by China Gezhouba Group Corp, a leader in overseas contracting projects.

CGGC compared the project to China's hydroelectric Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest power station in terms of installed capacity. Construction is expected to be completed in 2018.

China Construction Third Engineering Bureau, another leader in the sector, undertook overseas contracting projects worth nearly $4 billion during the past decade.

For most of the local companies, "overseas factories will serve as a new growth point for corporate development", said Li Yeqing, president of Huaxin Cement.

Huaxin began its global strategy in 2013 by establishing a cement production line in Tajikistan, the first of its kind in the country, which helped end the central Asian country's dependence on imported cement.

As of January, the factory had produced 1.5 million metric tons of cement, paid almost 200 million somoni ($40.27 million) in tax and created 400 jobs.

Li said the company also has 10 cement factories in other countries, including Cambodia and Kazakhstan. The plants are scheduled to begin operations during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20).

China's Angel Yeast, the world's third-largest yeast manufacturer, has exported its products to over 140 countries and regions. The company set up its first overseas factory in Egypt in 2013, with an investment of $80 million.

The company said it chose Egypt because of the country's natural gas reserves, as well as its sugar cane and sugar beet crops, which are among the raw materials needed to produce yeast.

In July 2015, Angel Yeast invested $463 million to build its second overseas factory, which is in Lipetsk Oblast, Russia.

In addition, many companies in Hubei have increased their international competitiveness and mastered high-end technologies by purchasing related business sectors from established European and US enterprises.

In 2013, Wuhan Iron and Steel Group Co, one of China's biggest steel producers by capacity, signed a deal to buy the automotive-steel manufacturing unit from the German industrial giant ThyssenKrupp AG, with the aim of entering the high-end automobile laser welding market.

Following two years of development, the company currently occupies a 42 percent market share in Europe and the United States in the sector.

That same year, Chinese special-purpose vehicles manufacturer Tri-Ring Group bought Poland's largest bearings maker FLT Krasnik, acquiring its core technologies in car bearing R&D and production. The company is currently one of Daimler AG's global suppliers.

In 2014, Tri-Ring Poland generated about 560 million yuan ($84.9 million) in sales, an increase of 52 percent year-on-year.

Chinese pharmaceutical company Humanwell Healthcare Group established marketing teams and a research center in the US in 2009 and 2010, and in 2015 became the first company in the industry in Hubei to pass the inspection by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Last year, the firm became one of the top three suppliers of soft capsules in the US, with sales revenue hitting $50 million. This year, sales in the US are expected to exceed $200 million, said Wang Xuehai, chairman of the company.

Humanwell also built a production plant in Mali in 2013, which at the time was China's largest pharmaceutical plant in West Africa. "The Mali plant will serve the entire West African market," Wang said.

The company plans to invest 300 million yuan to build another factory in Ethiopia to serve markets in East Africa, Wang added.

haonan@chinadaily.com.cn

The Yangtze River and the Hanjiang River intersect in Wuhan. Photos Provided to China Daily

'Land of 1,000 lakes'

Located in the easternmost part of Central China, Hubei province covers 185,900 square kilometers, or 1.94 percent of China's total territory.

By the end of 2013, the population in Hubei was 57.99 million.

As the provincial capital, Wuhan is located at the central point of China's high-speed railway network, making the province an important transportation hub. The Yangtze River and its largest tributary, the Hanjiang River, run through Hubei.

Thousands of lakes also dot Hubei's Jianghan plain, and the water-rich province has been dubbed the "land of 1,000 lakes".

Hubei has a rich culture and history: Emperor Yan, who is said to be the first ancestor of the Chinese civilization, lived there. During the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), the state of Chu occupied Hubei for over 800 years and created the Chu culture.

Hubei has abundant resources in education and technology, which boost the development of the province.

It is also maintaining a rapid pace of development thanks to national strategies such as developing the Yangtze River Economic Belt, developing the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Rise of Central China Plain Strategy.

(China Daily 06/04/2016 page12)
Editor's note: China's "left-behind" children cannot spend Children's Day with their parents, who leave for cities in search of a better life. China has an estimated 61 million "left-behind" children who live alone or with elderly relatives. Who should care for these children? Forum readers share their opinions.

pimpernel2 (Expat in China)

In the UK and most of Europe, etc, it would be illegal for both parents to leave their kids behind without at least a grandparent that's capable looking after them and sending them to school. The kids (in the UK) would be taken into care and the parents would be searched for by the police and social services sector. Even leaving a young child at home unsupervised or fed for one day is illegal! The relatives, local community and the police should also hang their heads down in shame.
[Picture by Li Feng/ China Daily]

Dipping in Japanese hot springs opens the pores and the eyes.

A picture of three snow monkeys, those fascinating creatures that have bright red faces and look as though they could do with a haircut, was vivid in my mind when I and two friends suggested we visit Hakone, the hot spring town 85 kilometers southeast of Tokyo.

Leaving fascination aside, the first thing to consider about this destination, from which you get a spectacular view of the revered Mount Fuji, is the dress code. When I reminded my friends not to forget to pack their swimming suits, they mocked me gently, saying that onsen culture dictates that you wear the bare minimumthe emphasis being on the word bare. "What? Do you mean naked?" I asked nervously. At the last minute, wanting to cover all eventualities, I put my swimsuit in my suitcase before we left for Tokyo.

The geological features that give Japan its most fearsome aspectits tendency to be shaken by earthquakesalso provide it with a rich source of thermal water, and for centuries animals and humans have enjoyed soaking in its springs. As for Hakone, it provides some wonderful lessons in a very different culture relating to bathing.

The etiquette in all of this is quite different to that of China, the traditional onsen usually being shared by men and women, even those who are strangers to one another. Nevertheless, separate baths have apparently become more common in Hakone, too. Fortunately for us three, who regard ourselves as traditional Chinese women, what we had was a separate bath.

On a drizzly morning we arrived at the Green Plaza Hotel, a 35-minute drive from downtown Hakone, where we would be staying for two nights. We chose it because from its outdoor pool you can admire Fuji-san.

Its snow-capped peaks, the onsen, and the beauty of Hakone's natural surroundings make the area one of the country's top tourist attractions.

After an afternoon trekking around Lake Ashinoko we enjoyed a sumptuous dinner before preparing for our first onsen experience.

A hotel guide briefed visitors on the etiquette of bathing, the main points of which were wearing a kimono before entering changing rooms, having no cameras and being equipped with a smallish towel.

To avoid the embarrassment of seeing each other we three took off our gowns as quickly as possible and entered the bath area.

What I saw first was four fleshy backs coated in the steamy air. Each of us sat on a small plastic stool washing carefully. There was quite a large pool next to the showering area, and two people were soaking in it.
A pedestrian looks at the window display of a Gucci store in Milan, Italy.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Internet generation has more debt and more awareness of other brands.

Seducing hyper-connected "Millennials" poses an increasing challenge for luxury brands, which find their markets slowing as young, skeptical consumers force them to rethink strategies.

Goldman Sachs estimates that 92 million Americans are in the Millennial generationborn between the early 1980s and the 2000ssurpassing the famed cohort of postwar Baby Boomers who are now approaching a geriatric phase.

The huge pool of Millennial consumers grew up with the internet, smartphones and a sharing economy in which owning things like cars is seen as almost unhip.

Studies show many have different expectations than their elders, who were relatively better paid and less indebted at the same point in life.

Deloitte analyst Nick Pope spoke last week at an FT Business of Luxury Summit of "a structural worry" as to whether there would be the "same level of spending in product ownership and luxury as there was in their parents' generation."

A Deloitte study targeted Millennials as an opportunity for luxury brands, but warned that they require "a high level of investment" and are more "mercurial" consumers whose brand loyalty can quickly shift.

"Their engagement with digital technology has exposed them to more sources of information, a greater range of influences, and smaller brands," the study says of Millennials.

"To attract, excite and engage Millennials will require a high level of brand investment."

Luxury-sector sales, excluding the effects of currency changes, were up only one percent last year, and similarly tepid growth is expected this year, according to global management consulting firm Bain & Company.

US jeweler Tiffany recently announced a disappointing financial forecast, and the maker of the well-known British Burberry trench coat has embarked on a money-saving plan.

Digital panacea?

"The people in the luxury space, they got very spoiled, because there was a market of people who consistently spent," Sarah Quinlan of MasterCard Advisors told AFP on the sidelines of the FT luxury summit in San Francisco.

"That market is no longer there."
New York's first-in-the-nation legislative proposal to ban the declawing of cats has sparked a heated debate among veterinarians and cat lovers alike.[Photo provided to China Daily]

A proposal to ban cat declawing in New York is singling out a once-common procedure that veterinarians say is now on the decline amid a wider debate about how we treat our household pets.

For many decades, declawing cats has been a routine veterinary procedure, but this is no simple pedicure. There's anesthesia, pain medication and the amputation of the cat's toes back to the first knuckle.

New York's first-in-the-nation legislative proposal to ban the declawing of cats has sparked a heated debate among veterinarians and cat lovers alike, with some insisting it's inhumane and others saying it should be allowed as a last resort for felines that won't stop scratching furniture, carpets and their owners.

"None of us love the procedure," says Richard Goldstein, a veterinarian at New York City's Animal Medical Center and a former faculty member at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine. "But when the alternative is condemning the cat to a shelter or to death? That's why we do it."

The state and national veterinary organizations that say they oppose a ban on declawing do so because it's often the only way for cats with behavioral problems to keep from being abandoned or euthanized, they say. Such medical decisions should be left to the professionals and cat owners, not lawmakers, they add.

It's the reality of the procedure itself that has raised the backs of opponents. Unlike human nails, a cat's claws are attached to bone, so declawing a feline requires a veterinarian to slice through tendon and nerves to remove the last segment of bone in a cat's toes.

"It's amputation. It is the equivalent of taking a cigar cutter and cutting the end joint off," says Jennifer Conrad, a California veterinarian who traveled to Albany this past week to lobby lawmakers for the proposed ban.

Brooklyn elementary school principal Lisa Fernandez says she declawed her own cat before she knew what it entailed. Students at her school are now participating in a lobbying campaign to urge lawmakers to support the ban.

"When I found out what it was, I was horrified," says Fernandez.
US First Lady Michelle Obama walks with her dogs Bo and Sunny as she welcomes the Official White House Christmas Tree to the White House in Washington on Nov 27, 2015.[Photo provided to China Daily]

It's hardly a dog's life of just eating and sleeping for President Barack Obama's pets, Bo and Sunny.

The pair of Portuguese water dogsBo with his distinctive white chest and front paws, and the all-black Sunnyare canine ambassadors for the White House, very popular and so in demand that they have schedules, like the president.

"Everybody wants to see them and take pictures," Michelle Obama says. "I get a memo at the beginning of the month with a request for their schedules, and I have to approve their appearances."

The dogs have entertained crowds at the annual Easter Egg Roll and Bo has been at Mrs Obama's side when she welcomes tourists on the anniversary of the president's inauguration. The dogs also have cheered wounded service members, as well as the hospitalized children the first lady visits each year just before Christmas. In a sign of just how recognized Bo and Sunny are, authorities in January arrested a North Dakota man who they say came to Washington to kidnap one of the pets.

Bo, now 7, joined the Obama family in April 2009. He was a gift from the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., a key supporter of Obama's 2008 presidential campaign who became close to the family. Bo helped Obama keep a promise to daughters Malia and Sasha that they could get a dog after the election.

Sunny, nearly 4, came along in August 2013.

Bo already had a job as a "helper" to Dale Haney, the head groundskeeper at the White House, which happens to be a national park.

"He leaves every morning and he goes down with Dale ... and he's with all the National Park Service guys. And you'll see him, and he's like walking around with them, and looking at the plants," Mrs Obama says. "I think he thinks he has a job because he takes it very seriously. So if I go out and see him, he kind of ignores me when he's with his worker crew people."

The dogs have a pretty nice life. "They can sit on my lap, they sit on my chair, they cuddle with me," Mrs Obama says. "I like to lay on the floor with them and blow in their face. I like to make them run and chase each other. But they're so cute, I just love to just cuddle them and massage them."

Presidential pets are always popular and many presidents kept dogs as companions. President Harry S. Truman famously advised: "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog."

President George H.W. Bush's English Springer Spaniel, Millie, "wrote" the best-seller Millie's Book.

President Bill Clinton's chocolate Labrador Retriever, Buddy, helped Clinton weather the scandal over his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

President George W. Bush's Scottish Terrier, Barney, had an official web page and starred in "Barneycam" videos that were filmed from a camera hung around his neck. Like Mrs Obama, first lady Laura Bush was involved with the video scripts and the taping schedule.

President Lyndon B. Johnson angered animal lovers by lifting his pet beagle, Him, by the ears in front of news photographers.

Obama promised last year to "clean things up a little bit" before leaving the White House in January because the dogs "have been tearing things up occasionally."

Mrs Obama says her four-legged family members had been nice overall, but she exposes Sunny's naughtier side.

"You know what she does sometimes? She leaves the kitchen and she'll sneak and she'll go poop on the other end of the White House," the first lady says.
SINGAPORE - A high-ranking Chinese military official Saturday refuted US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter's "self-isolation" claims about China.

"Carter's claims are incorrect and do not accord with the actual situation," Guan Youfei, director of the Office for International Military Cooperation of the Chinese Central Military Commission, told the media.

Guan's comments came after Carter's claims at the ongoing Shangri-La Dialogue that China's military activities in the South China Sea would isolate itself.

Guan said the United States should learn lessons from the wars it had waged in the Asia-Pacific region after World War II and play a constructive role in the region.

Guan urged the United States to keep its security pledges, withdraw troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible, stop arms sale to China's Taiwan and refrain from holding military drills on the Korean Peninsula.

Guan said China has made great efforts in promoting international and regional security cooperation since its reform and opening-up, and China's achievements in areas such as peacekeeping, disaster relief and naval escort missions are obvious.

China will continue to enhance cooperation with other Asia-Pacific countries under the Belt and Road initiative in various fields, the Chinese military official added.

The US defense secretary had earlier made similar accusations against China in a speech delivered at the US Naval Academy. The Chinese Foreign Ministry had responded, saying such claims reflected "American-style mentality" and "American-style hegemony."
Giant panda Hao Hao holds her new cub in her mouth at Belgium's Pairi Daiza zoo. Provided to China Daily

BRUSSELS - A baby panda born in Belgium on June 2 will remain at the Pairi Daiza animal park in the south of the country for four years before returning to China, park spokeswoman Aleksandra Vidanovski told Xinhua on Saturday.

"The baby panda which Hao Hao gave birth to will remain for four years, the time to reach adulthood before leaving -- as China remains the animal's owner," she said.

She said the park will consult with China on what the panda should be called, but adding, "We are not in a rush (to choose a name) -- for now the most important thing is to ensure the baby's survival."

According to the Belgian press, it could be 100 days before the panda's name will be made public, in keeping with Chinese tradition, allowing enough time to ensure the baby is healthy.

At a press conference, Pairi Daiza animal park manager and main shareholder Eric Domb said: "All I can tell you is that it will be a Chinese name and it will evoke something poetic."

Hao Hao gave birth to her baby, weighing 171 grams, in Pairi Daiza at 2:02 am on the morning of June 2. A panda birth is an extremely rare event in Europe -- and Belgium is the third European country to have succeeded, with the help of Chinese experts. There are fewer than 2,000 giant pandas in the world.

The birth was made possible following an artificial insemination performed in February by a Sino-Belgian veterinary team. The sperm belonged to Hao Hao's partner, Xing Hui, who is also on loan from China.
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An honest essay has numerous characteristics: original thinking, a good structure, balanced arguments, and plenty more.

But one aspect often overlooked is that an honest essay should be interesting. It should spark the readers curiosity, keep them absorbed, make them want to stay reading and learn more. An uneventful article risks losing the readers attention; whether or not the points you create are excellent, a flat style, or poor handling of a dry subject material can undermine the positive aspects of the essay. The matter is that a lot of students think that essays should be like this: they believe that a flat, dry style is suited to the needs of educational writing and dont even consider that the teacher reading their essay wants to search out the essay interesting. You might want to have online essay editor service to boost your confidence in writing with an error-free output. Academic writing doesnt need to be  and shouldnt be  bland. The excellent news is that there is much stuff you can do to create your essay more attractive, while youll be able only to do such a lot while remaining within the formal confines of educational writing. Lets study what theyre.

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(Photo : Reuters) Didi's profitability in China is increasing. The company is now looking to invest in its technology.

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Didi Chuxing Technology Co., the largest ride-hailing company in China, has revealed that it is earning profits in more than half of the cities it is currently active in. The company is operating in about 400 cities in China.



Didi expects to achieve overall profitability in China "very soon."



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Speaking at the Converge Technology Conference hosted by The Wall Street Journal Zijian Li, Didi's senior director of International Strategy, said that the company is currently focusing on machine learning technology and big data.



"Now we have the ability [in some cities] to precisely predict 15 minutes in advance of the supply and demand mismatch in a certain area," he said.



Didi's biggest competitor is Uber, which recently raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabian investors. Didi also recently received $1 billion in funding from technology behemoth Apple. The company is looking to use the investment to upgrade its technology. Didi is being backed by other prominent companies such as Alibaba and Tencent Holdings Ltd.



Zijian said that Didi is not looking to expand directly to other countries. However, it is collaborating with other ride-sharing companies such as Lyft to provide a smooth experience to Chinese travelers when they are abroad.



Ride-sharing companies in China are likely to face challenging times later this year as the government seeks to introduce new regulations. Technically, private ride-sharing businesses in China are illegal. The country is likely to mandate these companies to obtain local licenses under proposed regulatory changes.



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TagsDidi Chuxing, Alibaba, Uber
(Photo : Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has said Washington is planning to urge China to pile more pressure on North Korea.

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The U.S. is planning to tell China to exert more pressure on North Korea to give up on its controversial nuclear program during next week's U.S.-China bilateral summit, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said on Friday.



"China has the ability to both create pressure and use that as a leverage that is a very important part of global efforts to isolate North Korea and get North Korea to change its policies," Lew said.



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Lew and several other important U.S. leaders including Secretary of State John Kerry will head to Beijing next week to attend the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. The annual summit usually focuses on strategic and economic issues affecting both countries.



Since China is North Korea's closest ally, the U.S. and other countries are relying on Beijing to exert pressure on Pyongyang. However, China's efforts did not deter North Korea from conducting a nuclear missile test earlier this year.



Meanwhile, earlier this week, the U.S. strengthened its punitive actions to further financially isolate North Korea. The U.S. enlisted North Korea in the list of "primary money laundering concern," under the Patriot Act. This means any financial institution would face heavy sanctions for processing dollar transactions on behalf of Pyongyang. Analysts have said that his move will invariably affect the China-North Korea trade ties.



Lew said that the latest punitive action from the U.S. is in line with the United Nations sanctions against North Korea. Experts say the sanctions are aimed at draining North Korea's financial sources, which would adversely affect its nuclear ambition. Some have described the current UN sanctions against North Korea as toughest sanctions till date.



China, which has backed the latest UN sanctions, has warned that financially isolating North Korea could politically and economically destabilize the country. Experts have noted that such a scenario could lead to refugee crisis along the China-North Korea border.



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Tagschina, North Korea, US, North Korea nuclear program
Thinking of wisdom.

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People demonstrate varying levels of wisdom and how wise we are seems to depend a lot on the situation we're in.



A study from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada shows people demonstrate different levels of wisdom from one situation to the next. This plus factors such as whether we're alone or with friends seems to determine how wise we are in a given situation.



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The study equates being wise with wise reasoning and defines this as a combination of abilities such as intellectual humility, consideration of others' perspective and looking for compromise. On the other hand, wisdom is the quality of having experience, knowledge and good judgment. It's also defined as the quality of being wise.



Conventional wisdom has it wisdom is a reward of old age and sages in popular culture are often portrayed as elderly persons. Being wise isn't the prerogative of the elderly, however.



"This research does not dismiss that there is a personality component to wisdom, but that's not the whole picture," said Professor Igor Grossmann, from the Department of Psychology at Waterloo and lead author of the paper.



"Situations in daily life affect our personality and ability to reason wisely."



Wisdom might not be as rare as we think, a conclusion drawn after observations that wise reasoning varies dramatically across situations in daily life. For different individuals, however, only certain situations may promote this quality.



"There are many examples where people known for their critical acumen or expertise in ethics seem to fall prey to lack of such acumen or morals. The present findings suggest that those examples are not an anomaly," said Grossmann.



"We cannot always be at the top of our game in terms of wisdom-related tendencies, and it can be dangerous to generalize based on whether people show wisdom in their personal life or when teaching others in the classroom."



Researchers and practitioners are learning more about situations promoting wisdom in daily life and recreating those situations by examining conditions and situations under which people may or may not show wisdom in their lives.



Grossmann and his team have plans to conduct the first-ever longitudinal study aiming at teaching people to reason wisely in their own lives. The work appears in Social Psychological and Personality Science.



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Tagswisdom, WISE, University of Waterloo, Professor Igor Grossmann
How to make a trillion dollars

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The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, a tiny country in the heart Europe less than 1,000 square miles in size, finally put its money where its mouth is by investing $225 million to back research and development projects that will eventually see it dominate the multi-trillion dollar asteroid mining business.



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Experts calculate a single asteroid can possess some $95.8 trillion in mineral wealth -- an amount larger than the GDP of all the countries in the world. This massive wealth is expected to exist in a 100 mile wide asteroid named 241 Germania that's currently too far away to reach because it's in the asteroid belt but should be in the coming century.



One study estimated the mineral wealth in the top five most potentially profitable asteroids will yield a profit of some $10.4 trillion.



But getting at this massive wealth is costly with existing technology. A forthcoming NASA mission to return just 60 grams from an asteroid to Earth will cost some $1 billion. Hence, the reason for Luxembourg investing in technologies that will slash this cost to the point where asteroid mining becomes profitable.



Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and Deputy Prime Minister Etienne Schneider jointly announced the investment and their country's partnership with two U.S. companies -- Deep Space Industries from California and Planetary Resources out of Washington -- that will mine asteroids for them.



Schneider clarified the $225 million is only an initial investment in space mining. He said his country won't limit itself to supporting only research and development. Luxembourg also intends to mine the Moon.



Schneider and Bettel said the government will pass a Luxembourg Space Act by the end of this year that will give legal protection to space mining companies recovering and exploiting for profit raw materials taken from asteroids, the Moon or any other celestial body.



The law will also be open to all investors unlike the similar 2015 U.S. Space Act that limits investors in the space mining business to American companies.



"There will be one big difference between the American Space Act and the Luxembourg Space Act. The American Space Act only allows this business to American companies, with at least a majority of American capital," he noted



"The Luxembourg Space Act will be open to all investors which will be located over here, in Luxembourg. That's a huge difference for investors -- also to American companies or startups, which one day will have to get new capital -- money to get really launched. If they don't find American capital they will have a problem and they will maybe look for another nation where they can have international capital and grow.



"I don't know why the Americans limited themselves to American capital, but we will not. We will be what we have been, an international place for international investment. Luxembourg has the ability to become the Silicon Valley for space resources. That is our aim for the years to come."



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TagsLuxembourg, asteroid mining, 241 Germania, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, Deputy Prime Minister Etienne Schneider, Deep Space Industries, Planetary Resources
(Photo : NIH) Scientists now plan to create and design human DNA from scratch.

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Scientists and researchers have successfully completed the human genome sequence which includes the entire human DNA with thousands and thousands of genes. Now, an ambitious new research will push the limits of human genome sequencing in this new study.



In this new, challenging initiative, a team of scientists will attempt to construct the longest stretches of human DNA that can span as long as the entire human genome.



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The first complete human genome sequence which is also considered as the original genome sequencing is known as the Human Genome Project, is considered to be "HGP read". In this new study, scientists are proposing a new process known as "HGP write", and instead of sequencing the human genome, the team will be building an entirely new human genome.



This team of scientists is composed of researchers from Harvard Medical School, University of California and New York University Langone Medical Center who believes that this new genome synthesis is the next frontier in genetics where they also aim to encourage more awareness for public discussion which will include the ethics behind this controversial technique.



Scientists explain that this human genome scale synthesis is now becoming more feasible which can lead to more scientific efforts to further study and understand, and form discussions that will ultimately lead to applications for large genome engineering technology.



Scientists also argue that the biggest focus of this new study can significantly bring down expensive costs for creating and writing extremely long sections of DNA in the next 10 years.



Why is building a new human DNA genome so important? This ambitious task aims to improve human health by helping in growing new human organs that can be transplanted that scientists hope to launch this year, which can cost significantly less, than the original Human Genome Project to sequence it.



This new study is published in the journal Science.



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TagsDNA, Human genome, human genome project, Genetics, genome sequence
(Photo : Sean Gallup) While Armenia rejoices over Germany's recent public acknowledgement of the genocide, Turkey remains furious

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Germany's Parliament was put under heavy criticism earlier this week by the Turkish government over its passing of a resolution, which officially recognizes the mass murders of Armenians on Turkish territory during World War 1 as "genocide."



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Turkish Minister of Justice, Bekir Bozdag, has now criticized Germany and accused them of hypocrisy, pointing out their alleged role in the holocaust during World War 2.



"They burned Jews in furnaces and now they slander the Turkish people by accusing us of some genocide. Why don't you look at your own history first," Bozdag said.



"Look back first at your own history... in our history, there is nothing that we can be ashamed of," he added.



The usage of the term 'genocide' has been up to debate between the Turkish government and the Armenian people, with the former claiming that the massacres that occurred during 1915 were one of the "biggest lies of history."



Bozdag was one of many Turkish officials who claim that the passing of the nonbinding resolution by Germany's Bundestag on Thursday was not only insulting to the Turkish people, but also irrelevant.



Bozdag went on to claim that even if all the parliaments of the world were to pass a motion recognising the genocide, it would not besmear the country or its history.



Before Germany recognised the genocide on Thursday, other nations fully acknowledged the massacre. However, Germany's recognition is more pertinent than others because of the recent refugee crisis, in which both Germany and Turkey play a major role.



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TagsGermany, Turkey, armenia, Armenian Genocide, refugee crisis, holocaust, Jews, Bekir Bozdag
(Photo : Getty Images) China's Admiral Sun Jianguo (L background), deputy chief of general staff of the PLA, and US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter (R foreground) attend the opening keynote address by Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha at the 15th International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 3, 2016.

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Asia's largest annual security forum Shangri-La Dialogue opened in Singapore on Friday with a keynote speech from Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha.



The annual three-day summit is attended by regional defense ministers as well as US and European defense officials in order to discuss and debate a wide range of security issues affecting the region.



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One of the main topics of discussion at this year's summit is China's increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea as it continues to carry construction and alleged military activities across the artificial islands.



Both U.S and China have dispatched large delegations of defense and military officials to the annual summit this year. Ashton Carter, the US Secretary of Defense and one of the key officials in US delegation, will be giving his first speech at the the summit.



Reports suggest that Carter would be raking up the South China Sea issue and defend the need for U.S freedom of navigation and operation in the disputed maritime territory during his speech.



Carter's stance is likely to be challenged by Admiral Sun Jianguo and other Chinese military officials. However, the Chinese delegation reportedly won't be speaking until the third day of the summit.



On the first day, India's Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar and Japan's Minister of Defense, Gen Nakatani, will open the discussion following Carter's speech. Both are expected to take a critical stance over China's territorial claims.



The Shangri-La Dialogue summit will be the last regional summit before the final ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at Hague in a case submitted by Philippines, challenging China's claim in South China Sea. Despite the increasing international pressure, China has maintained that it will not accept the judgment via an arbitration process.



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TagsShangri-La Dialogue, South China Sea, china, US, Asia Security Summit, Admiral Sun Jianguo, ashton carter, Shangri-La summit
(Photo : NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) Scientists from NASAs New Horizons mission used state-of-the-art computer simulations to show that the surface of Plutos informally named Sputnik Planum is covered with churning ice "cells" that are geologically young and turning over due to a process called convection.

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Almost one year ago, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft completed a successful flyby of Pluto as the probe is now transmitting a deluge of data and high resolution images back home. Now, this latest image revealing the dwarf planet's "heart" has more than meets the eye.



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Pluto's heart or Sputnik Planum can be seen as vast, frozen plains, which has a curious absence of impact craters where scientists reveal the mysterious geological processes that shaped this feature, as bizarre polygonal shapes appeared measuring at six to 24 miles in diameter.



In two new studies, scientists suggest that this frozen heart of Pluto might still be "beating" or replenishing its surface every so often with new ice which can also be considered as the youngest surfaces on any world in our solar system.



According to lead author of the study, William B. McKinnon from Washington University, for the first time ever, the strange welts that have been determined on the surface of Pluto are now identified.



These mysterious polygons on Pluto's heart are apparently generated by some rising bubbles created by a heating system below the surface, based on models created by two research teams. Across Sputnik Planum, which is mostly made from nitrogen ice, there are several hotspots that are being heated from several miles deep, by a very slow process that is caused by a convection of decaying radioactive elements deep within the core of the dwarf planet.



In Pluto, nitrogen is considered solid that can become malleable and can flow in a sluggish, viscous state like lava. When this flowing, frozen nitrogen is slowly heated, some parts of it rise to the surface similar to those blobs inside a lava lamp. After some time, these bubbles will cool down and sink below again which will be replenished by some new bubbles.



Researchers also say that these cells can also fuse together in sets before they sink to the bottom again, creating some sort of polygonal line shapes and patterns on the plains. They also add that these bubbles form in a very slow process, so slow, that it can take some 500,000 years or 1 million years to reform again however, in geological terms this is quite fast, since Pluto is so distant from the sun's energy.



These two new studies are published in the journal Nature.



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(Photo : Qilai Shen/Getty Images) Baidu is currently test driving such cars in China

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Chinese search engine behemoth Baidu is looking to diversify its portfolio. The company announced on Friday that it is looking to start mass producing self-driving cars in five years' time period.



The company is currently testing its models on public roads in China and plans to test-drive the cars in 10 different Chinese cities in order to review various factors such as driving conditions, roads and weather.



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Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's Converge technology conference, the company Senior Vice President Wang Jing said that the autonomous cars market is big enough for multiple players, which includes Google, who is expected to commercialize self-driving cars by 2020.



"The market right now is very early so it's big enough for many players. I don't think anyone can dominate this area," he added.



Baidu is currently carrying out tests on public roads in Beijing and tests are also underway in Wuhu, which is located in the southeastern Anhui province of China, as well as in shanghai, where the cars are being tested in a closed testing area.



The Beijing-based company is more interested in the software capabilities of such cars, instead of producing the actual physical vehicles and will be collaborating with various Chinese carmakers for this purpose.



The tech giant also plans to develop autonomous shuttles for China by 2018. However, the shuttle is likely to have limited routes in the beginning.



Baidu is among a handful of startups and automobile manufacturers who are developing driver-less cars. However, one of the biggest obstacles these players will face is laws and policies that will be set in place in order to regulate the presence of autonomous cars on roads.



For instance, in December, California proposed draft rules putting a ban on the use of cars that do not have a steering wheel or a brake pedal.



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TagsBaidu, Google, Baidu self-driving cars, Self-Driving Car, Autonomous Cars, china, 2021
(Photo : Getty Images) Despite opposition from US lawmakers, China has accepted the US Defense Department's invitation to join the world's largest naval exercise this month in the Pacific

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Amid the festering South China Sea issue between China and the United States, Beijing has agreed to join the US-led naval drills in the Pacific later this month along with other Asian countries.







The Chinese defense ministry announced on Thursday that it would send a fleet of five naval vessels, which include two warships and a hospital ship to the military exercise dubbed Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) .



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The defense ministry said the flotilla of ships would participate in numerous naval exercises such as search and rescue, live fire drills, anti-piracy exercises and other military drills.



The Rim of the Pacific is the world's largest multinational maritime warfare exercise and is held biennially during June and July of even-numbered years off the Hawaii coast.



Invitation



China was invited by the US defense department to join the naval exercises despite opposition from US lawmakers, including Senator John McCain, who urged Washington to ban Beijing from the drills.



McCain said the ban was a way of showing US' disapproval of Beijing's increasing military actions in the disputed South China Sea.



Tensions between the US and China continue to escalate in the South China Sea region over Beijing's increasing assertiveness in laying claims to almost the entirety of the disputed waters in spite of partial claims from Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Philippines.



The South China Sea is believed to have large deposits of oil and gas, through which $5 trillion worth of ship-borne trade passes every year.



Condemnation



Beijing has reclaimed several disputed reefs and islands and turned them into military facilities by constructing airstrips and missile launchers in the South China Sea, a move that drew criticism from the international community.



Last week, China responded to another word war with Washington when US defense secretary Ashton Carter said: "China's actions could erect a Great Wall of Self-Isolation."



Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday that Beijing will continue to defend its sovereignty and that it will not be threatened by any rhetoric of the US.



"China has no interest in any form of Cold War, nor are we interested in playing a role in a Hollywood movie written and directed by certain US military officials," she said.



"However, China has no fear of and will counter any actions that threaten and undermine China's sovereignty and security," she added.



Chunying said that Carter's remark was a way of covering up Washington's plans to militarize the region by deploying more ships and planes in the contested waters.



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(Photo : Getty Images.) Chinese authorities have warned people to be aware of fake series of medical cases involving the substance were reported in recent weeks.

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Chinese authorities have issued a stern warning to people against fake Botox injections in the wake of a series of medical blunders that have emerged in recent weeks as a result of the substance.



China Food and Drug Administration issued the warning on its website on Thursday, cautioning people against unqualified medical institutions' usage of fake Botox substance or inappropriate usage of the material.



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The warning comes following reports that several patients have been hospitalized after receiving Botox injections in non-medical facilities. These patients from Beijing, Shanghai and other provinces had reportedly sought the Botox treatment to make their faces and legs slimmer.



Local media outlets claim that cases of failed plastic surgery in Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital have drastically increased this year to an average of 18 cases during the first four months, which is more than double from the same period last year.



Earlier this year, the Nanjing public security bureau raided 10 illegal distribution points, arrested 16 suspects and seized counterfeit drugs worth more than 10 million Yuan. The seized counterfeit drugs included bottles of fake Botox, which were being sold for 8,000 Yuan on the black market.



Botox injections are used for cosmetic surgery, mainly for beautifying facial and body features. The usage of Botox injections as a cost effective alternative to plastic surgeries has become immensely popular across the world and even Hollywood celebrities are known to be using the substance to defy their age and prop up their glamorous look.



The increasing popularity of Botox has given rise to the use of fake variations of this material across the world.



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(Photo : Getty Images) Jaguar Land Rover has sued China's Jiangling Motor for allegedly imitating its Range Rover Evoque.

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British-based luxury car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover has sued Chinese automaker Jiangling Motor for allegedly imitating its Range Rover Evoque.



Jiangling Motor's Landwind X7 SUV, which was launched in November 2014, had received lots of flak in the Chinese media for its striking resemblance to Jaguar's Range Rover Evoque. Landwind X7 SUV's front and rear styling are said to look very similar to the Evoque, including its taillight and headlights. Evoque was Jaguar's first made in China model and hit the market before the Landwind X7 SUV was unveiled.



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According to Reuters, a local court in Beijing's Chaoyang district has issued "newly filed actions" against Jiangling Motor in the copyright infringement case.



Both companies are reportedly discussing what design features can or cannot be added in the updated X7 model, according to a source familiar with the matter.



Jaguar Land Rover's decision to sue Jiangling Motor is a rare move by a foreign automaker in world's largest auto market. Despite blatant copying across the car industry, most foreign car companies shy away from taking legal action against local companies as the odds of winning a case against a local firm is apparently very low.



There is also a perception among foreign car companies that taking on a local company to court may damage their reputation among Chinese consumers, eventually affecting their fortunes in the country.



Experts have noted that if Jaguar wins the case, it will set a precedence. Depending on the outcome of the case, any say other foreign automakers are likely to also legally challenge Chinese car companies for stealing their designs.



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(Photo : Getty Images) Taiwans Former President Ma Ying-jeou will make a historic visit to Hong Kong later this month.

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Taiwan's former president Ma Ying-jeou will visit China's autonomous city Hong Kong later this month, making him the most senior ex-leader from Taiwan to visit the autonomous city since 1949.



Ma is visiting Hong Kong to attend the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards, where he will be one of the keynote speakers.



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"I got the invitation in January and after thinking it over, I decided to attend the event in order to increase international society's understanding of Taiwan," he told reporters on Monday.



Ma's office has revealed that the former president will be speaking on the contentious issues of Cross-Strait ties and the South China Sea dispute in his speech.



"The former president will share his thoughts about cross-strait ties, the significance of the historic November meeting with his mainland counterpart Xi Jinping, East Asian relations, and the increasing tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea," a spokeswoman from Ma's office said.



Ma had visited Hong Kong in 2001 as Mayor of Taipei. Taiwan's former president shares a very deep relationship with Hong Kong as he was born in the city in 1950.



While Ma was known for his moderate approach towards China, Taiwan's new President Tsai Ing-wen is unlikely to follow his approach.



In November 2015, Ma met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore. This was the first time that leaders from both nations had met since the end of Chinese Civil War in 1949.



Many in China hailed this meeting as a watershed moment, while thousand of Taiwanese took to the streets in protest.



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Transitioning from being the youth pastor of a smaller-sized church with 14 students, to being the youth pastor of a group thats 10 times larger, comes with some unique challenges as well as new opportunities and lessons, says Pastor Arnold Kim.

Kim, who used to serve at Las Vegas Presbyterian Church, recently moved to California and currently serves as the youth pastor at Cerritos Presbyterian Church.

First, there was the emotional challenge of having to leave behind a group that Kim has invested in and built relationships with for three years.

It was like family, Kim recalled, who tears up even now as hes asked about the youth group in Las Vegas.

I was conflicted because I thought, How will they survive without me? What will happen to this church after I leave? Kim shared.

But talking to his colleagues humbled and comforted him, he recalled, especially as one asked, Do you really think that God will not take care of his own people?

The challenge of adjusting to the vast amount of administrative differences of leading a group of 14 versus 140 was another that Kim had to learn through and overcome.

For example, with the group of 14 at Las Vegas Presbyterian Church, much of the fellowship and events were done spontaneously, Kim explained. A youth kid once asked Kim several days before the weekend, Can we have a lock-in this Friday night?

Sure, I dont see why not? Kim recalled saying in response. It was as easy as that to organize events and to build more intimate relationships with the students.

With a group of 140 kids, this type of spontaneity is almost impossible. All of the events must be organized and planned in advance, and all of the volunteers and teachers must move together, Kim explained. Small tasks such as getting snacks for an event which used to be not so difficult with 14 students suddenly became a major challenge when faced with having to provide food for 140.

Relating to each and every student in the youth group and building relationships with them is also much more difficult, said Kim, and while before, he was able to teach the students about God and the Bible one-on-one, he now must delegate the teaching to several teachers for the bigger youth group.

The teaching influence that he now has on each student is no longer singular, but rather, divided to several people, Kim said. As he preaches on Sundays, he also trains youth group teachers, who then also help guide youth group students in small groups.

Its now a 50:50 ratio between the teachers and the students in terms of giving my effort and attention, Kim said. Every Sunday, I meet up with the youth group teachers and go over next weeks Bible study in advance.

And while with the smaller group, Kim was able to connect with each student personally, he now relies on the youth teachers feedback and updates to understand how the larger group is doing.

A benefit to having a larger group of students and serving at a larger church, however, is that there are many more hands to go around when in need of help during an event or missions trip. The group can receive more resources and even hire their own worship pastor for the event or trip.

But there are some things that dont change whether the group is small or large, Kim said, including his heart and vision for youth. Whether he is able to interact with each member of the youth group individually, or have more interaction with volunteers and teachers, Kims main objective when serving is to emphasize the what of the gospel and why a person believes in Jesus Christ.

Knowing who Jesus is and why they are able to trust in Jesus is important, especially in todays society, Kim explained.

Ministering in these different contexts and seeing how God can use me to glorify His kingdom  thats always a blessed thing, Kim said.
A seven year old boy who attends Desert Rose Elementary School has been reprimanded by a Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff in Palmdale for distributing Bible verses to other students, who said that the action could be viewed as offensive to a classmate.

Christina Zavala, the mother of the child, had always inserted an encouraging Bible verse in the lunch bag for her child, who has been identified only as C, every day. Her daily note reminders for her son has attracted other children, who were inspired by it, and begged C for duplicates of the note. Soon, the Bible verses expanded into additions of Bible stories.

A little girl who was so rejuvenated by it, exclaimed happily to the teacher, This is the most beautiful story Ive ever seen.

In response, the teacher stated that there should be a separation of church and state, and that the notes were prohibited during lunchtime. The teacher then proceeded to rebuke the boy in front of the entire classroom twice, and called his parents.

Regardless, the boy continued to evangelize outside the school gate. The schools principal then took action and told him and his parents that such activities were not allowed.

A nonprofit action organization, the Liberty Counsel, which specializes in protecting religious rights, has sent a letter on behalf of C to the Palmdale School District to reiterate the correct clarification of the clause of separation of church and state, disputing that students have the legal right to exercise freedom of speech through printed material.

The letter declared, It was improper to ban student religious discussion during lunchtime. The district cannot suppress and censor this discussion, or the one-page notes consisting of Bible stories and verses placed by Cs mother in Cs lunch for his own personal enjoyment and edification; which he voluntarily chose to share with his little friends during non-instructional time; which interested classmates were free to accept or refuse, at their own discretion.

Horatio Harry Mihet, Vice President of Legal Affairs and Chief Litigation Counsel of Liberty Counsel stated, This is a clear, gross violation of the rights of a child.

In addition, Mihet said, Students are permitted to pass out Valentine or birthday cards at school, or to talk about Superman and Captain America at lunch, they cannot be prohibited from sharing Bible verses and securing their faith during their free, non-instructional time.
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Nigeria diocese severs link with Liverpool over same-sex blessings bishop

The leader of worldwide evangelical Anglican Christians has accused the Church of England of "normalising" the "false teaching" of the US Episcopal Church over gay marriage.

Archbishop of Nigeria Nicholas Okoh, chairman of the Global South orthodox Anglican group Gafcon, says a "line has been crossed" with the appointment of an American bishop who supports blessing same-sex unions to a post in the Liverpool diocese.

The Akure diocese in Nigeria, which was twinned with the Liverpool diocese, has also formally severed its links following the appointment of Susan Goff, a suffragan in the Virginia diocese in the US Episcopal Church, as an honorary bishop in Liverpool.

In his pastoral letter, Archbishop Okoh says: "In the beginning, the focus of our concern was North America and we thank God that he has raised up the Anglican Church North America as a new wineskin in that continent.

"Now our concern is increasingly with the British Isles. A line has been crossed in the Church of England itself with the appointment of Bishop Susan Goff, of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, as an Assisting Bishop of Liverpool.

"The false teaching of the American Episcopal Church has been normalised in England and this divisive act has meant that the Church of Nigeria's Akure Diocese has had no alternative but to end its partnership link with Liverpool Diocese."

Archbishop Okoh writes that he is convinced Gafcon is a movement called into being and sustained by the Lord of the Church himself. "In every age, the devil is at work to destroy the Church, but we stand firm in the confidence that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," he says.

"We therefore preach the gospel, make disciples and commit ourselves to prevailing prayer, knowing that the most dangerous attack on the Church today is not persecution from the outside, terrible though that can be, but a globalised secular ideology which has established itself inside the Church."

The divisions which have been so destructive in recent years have come about because "some have chosen to abandon biblical doctrine."

He warns that it has become "increasingly clear" since the meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Lusaka last month that those traditionally entrusted with leadership in the Communion will do nothing to call them to repentance.

Gafcon, which began in 2008 with a conference in Jerusalem, is planning its next meeting for 2018.

The UK's own conservative evangelical group Reform has also objected to Goff's appointment.

In a separate letter to the Liverpool diocese, Bishop of Akure Simeon Borokini writes that the three-way partnership between the dioceses of Liverpool, Akure, and Virginia must now end.

"Susan Goff is in favour of blessing same sex unions and this has been a part of the litigation against the orthodox in Virginia," he says. "Therefore, in view of the above and being aware of the fact that Nigeria does not support same sex marriage, we in Akure Diocese cannot have any link with Liverpool diocese."

In a statement on the Liverpool diocesan website, Bishop of Liverpool Paul Bayes says he asked Goff over a year ago to become an honorary assistant bishop. As an overseas bishop, she will be able to minister but not take part in ordinations. Bayes says: "I remain delighted that our ministry here will be enriched by what Bishop Susan will bring to us as a teacher, pastor and disciple. She will also be able to hear and to engage with the wide range of views in our diocese on the way the Gospel is understood in these days.

"It seems that this invitation has caused the Diocese of Akure, Nigeria, which has been another of our link dioceses, to issue a statement indicating that they no longer wish to be in a link-relationship with Liverpool. I regret this. I would prefer to walk together with Akure as well as with Virginia, within the one Communion whose life we share.

"I have not yet received formal notification directly from the Bishop of Akure, but as and when I do I shall write to him expressing this regret. If our partners choose to close this door, this is a matter of sorrow for us but of course we respect their decision as free partners in a free relationship." He indicates that if this is the case, he might pursue the possibility of a link with another diocese, in Ghana.
Syrian army opens major new front against Islamic State

The Syrian army backed by Russian air strikes has opened a major new front against Islamic State, the third big assault on the self-proclaimed caliphate this week after Iraqi forces attempted to storm a city and a Syrian militia advanced with US support.

The week's three big offensives are some of the most aggressive campaigns against Islamic State since it declared its aim to rule over all Muslims from parts of Iraq and Syria two years ago. They signal apparent new resolve by the group's disparate foes on a range of fronts.

Heavy Russian air strikes hit Islamic State-held territory in eastern areas of Syria's Hama province, near the boundary of Raqqa province on Friday. Raqqa city, further east, is Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria and, along with Mosul in Iraq, the ultimate goal of those seeking to destroy the group's rule.

The Syrian army had advanced some 13 miles and was now near the edge of the provincial boundary, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war.

Separately, US-backed militias have been pressing a multi-pronged attack against Islamic State in other parts of Raqqa province and neighboring Aleppo province.

This week, they began a push toward the city of Manbij near the Turkish border, aiming to seize the last 50-mile stretch of Turkish-Syrian frontier under Islamic State control and cut the group's main external link for manpower and supplies.

The US military said on Friday its allies were advancing against heavy resistance from Islamic State. If successful, the Manbij campaign would free 40,000 civilians from Islamic State control.

The YPG and its Arab allies, who formed the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) last year, have proven to be the first force in Syria allied to the United States that has been effective in fighting against Islamic State.

The SDF has taken 28 villages from Islamic State in its push toward Manbij, the Syrian Observatory said, and had freed more than a dozen women from the Yazidi minority who were taken by Islamic State fighters from Sinjar in Iraq.

US President Barack Obama has authorized several hundred special forces troops to operate in Syria, some of whom are deployed as advisers in the latest advance.

The Kurdish fighters' progress has been limited in the past by Turkey, which considers them enemies. But Ankara has signaled its tacit support for the latest advance, saying it understands most fighters involved will be Arabs, not Kurds.

"RACE FOR RAQQA"

The Syrian army's new offensive was described in a pro-Damascus Lebanese newspaper as part of "the race for Raqqa" - with the government and its Russian allies trying to advance on Islamic State's de facto Syrian capital before it falls to the fighters allied to the Americans.

A Syrian military source played this down. Reports the offensive targeted Raqqa were only "expectations", he said, and both Raqqa and Deir al-Zor, another Islamic State-held city in eastern Syria, were possible targets.

Syrian government warplanes killed at least 15 people in air raids on the town of al-Boulil in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor on Friday, the Syrian Observatory said, saying four women and a child were among those killed.

Whatever its ultimate target, the offensive appears to be the biggest Damascus has mounted against Islamic State since it recaptured the city of Palmyra with Russian support earlier this year. In the past, the United States has accused Assad and his Russian backers of ignoring Islamic State to take on other foes.
Transgender bathroom debate: Lawmakers in Massachusetts pass bill allowing use of restrooms based on gender identity

The Massachusetts' House of Representatives has passed a bathroom bill on Wednesday that will allow transgenders to use restrooms according to their gender identity.

Voting 116-36, lawmakers passed the bill despite protests from people who went to the House to voice their concerns.

The bill requires public accommodations to open their restrooms and lockers rooms to persons based on their gender identity.

In the House version, the state attorney general is mandated to issue regulations for referral to law enforcement any person who asserts gender identity for improper purpose.

Republican Rep. Marc Lombardo expressed concern that the bill would allow men to enter a women's bathroom for nefarious purposes.

"This bill before us today is not a bill that would protect rights," he said, according to the Boston Globe. "This is a bill that would take away rights from more than 99 percent of the population  the basic right to privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms, the rights of our children to feel safe in a bathroom."

Rep. James Lyon expressed concern over the safety of kids.

"This has nothing to do with transgender. It has to do with the protection of our children," he said, CBN News reports.

Rep. Elizabeth Poirier warned that a perpetrator may take advantage of the law to harm a young man or woman, saying the bill is "opening the door to this happening."

The bill will now be reconciled with the Senate version before it is sent to Gov. Charlie Baker, who indicated that he will sign the bill because of the provision on penalising anyone who asserts gender identity and misuse the law.

"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. If the House bill were to pass in its current form, yeah, I would sign it," he said.
What is the one thing we can learn from Donald Trump?

Donald Trump's campaign to become the Republican nominee and, now, US President is one of those moments which can cause us to utterly reassess our social and political moment. It makes a mockery of the accepted wisdom on where we (or in this case the USA) are as a society, and on what we, as a nation, truly hope, fear and believe.

This is a reality TV star, with no political experience and a mixed business record, who insults vast swathes of the American electorate, and is now becoming the Republican nominee for President of the United States of America  despite being attacked by almost every high-profile member of the Republican Party.

Yes, Trump has not won the presidency or even been selected by the majority of voters in the process for the Republican candidacy. Yet, in open primaries 35-45% of voters back him. Polling in the past couple of weeks shows Clinton-Trump head-to-heads at 43:40 to Clinton. That is a huge level of support for Trump  in the UK's first-past-the-post system 35-40% would normally see a party voted into power.

Since we can no longer dismiss Trump's success as a brief or unrepresentative outlier, various new analyses are appearing. It is probably fair to say that a range of factors all played their part: increasing distrust of politicians and government; enduring changes wrought by the recent global economic downturn; the impact of globalisation on traditional industries, social cohesion and national identity; and fear caused by global terrorism.

Of all the analyses I have heard, however, the one I found most persuasive in articulating the central reason why people are not only looking for a different answer but also embracing an answer like Trump, came from the journalist Tom Slate. Speaking on the Spectator podcast recently, he said this:

"I was over in the US a couple of weeks ago covering the election for Spikd, and talking to [Trump supporters] you get a very clear sense that what is motoring them is not some sort of unreconstructed racism, it's not this sort of vitriolic bigotry - although I'm sure that plays a factor for some of them - it's the sense in which they feel that for a very long time politicians have either ignored them or smeared them when it comes particularly around issues around immigration, social issues, etcetera."

The people Slate spoke to didn't feel that politicians had simply disagreed with them. They felt that politicians had refused to listen to them and had even 'smeared' them just for having these concerns in the first place. They hadn't been told their views were wrong; they had been told their views were unspeakable. If Slate is right then, while Trump's abrasive and often insulting style gets him headlines, it is his willingness to embrace people's 'unspeakable' fears and concerns which gets him votes.

What this reveals is that debates around certain divisive topics  such as immigration  have not been won; they have been silenced. Many voters who have held strong concerns about the impact of immigration and social change have not, they feel, been allowed the space to continue to make their case and discuss solutions. They believe that the powerbrokers of public debate have simply narrowed the range of views which are permitted in society. They feel gagged. Slate suggest this has been done by both right and left; and now - almost regardless of whether they agree with Trumps policies (which are thin on the ground, and even contradictory)  these voters are hearing someone who takes their views seriously, and they are flocking to him. I would suggest that a similar analysis could apply to the rise of UKIP over the past few years.

Personally, I think many of the 'silenced' views that these Trump voters may have are misguided  which makes me all the more frustrated that they have been allowed to fester away from the glare of open and informed public debate, which alone can address these issues.

It may be too late for this US election campaign, but it is an invaluable lesson for any democracy at any time - not least us, now, as we address 'extremist' ideologies.

In the UK, the Government is increasingly embracing policy proposals which seek to shut down views which they strongly disagree with. Proposals include banning orders which may restrict an individual's ability to argue their views in public settings or perhaps on the internet, or to generally take part in public or civic life.

Now, many of the views mentioned I strongly disagree with  whether views which discriminate against women and restrict their freedoms, or anti-Semitic or anti-democratic teaching.

But this is the question: can we more effectively defeat these ideas by banning their proponents from speaking publically, or by engaging and defeating their arguments?

Stopping someone with these views from holding public meetings or being on the internet does not stop them believing what they believe, or from nurturing and spreading their ideas  even the most totalitarian regimes have struggled to do that.

These policies would certainly achieve two things, however.

First they would prevent the public debates which can defeat poisonous ideas, and which can arm those vulnerable to radicalization against such extremist views. Without airing these debates, impressionable young people (for example) will be less protected against such views.

Second, and partly as a consequence, you get what we see with Trump. You don't deal with these views; you let them fester. By telling someone who holds such a belief to be quiet, you don't persuade them they are wrong  you simply confirm to them that you are not taking their concerns and views seriously. That hardly makes people want to trust that you are right and they are wrong. All you are doing is storing up the problem for a few years down the line, when enough people start believing that view for it to burst out into public again  perhaps through a bold and charismatic leader who is not afraid to 'speak the unspeakable'.

If we really want to take on extremism, we must show why it is wrong, not push it underground.

In all the divisiveness and absurdity of Trump's rise, let's not miss the serious lesson here: shutting down a debate doesn't mean you have won, it just means you don't have the chance to tackle the beliefs you oppose  and you might not get that chance again until it's too late to defeat them.
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The man who was shot in the leg during Sunday's west Houston shooting rampage is hoping to collect $100,000 in donations to help cover his medical bills.

The victim, identified on his GoFundMe page as Byron Wilson, is trying to raise $100,000. Donations totaled more than $45,000 by Friday evening.

The Houston Police Department on Tuesday identified the victim as John Wilson. The GoFundMe page, which was launched on Wednesday, lists Wilson's first name as Byron.

RELATED: Police release new details in deadly west Houston shooting spree

"Byron was shot three times, while attempting to stop the mass shooter in west Houston on Memorial Drive," the page reads. "He may very well have prevented more shootings, in effort to stop the shooter and distract him. Unfortunately, now Byron is in the hospital, (severely) wounded with both legs shot and broken, and the third bullet wound in the shoulder."

Police say Wilson was wounded by 25-year-old Dionisio Garza III when he confronted him during the military veteran's shooting spree at a car wash at 13210 Memorial Drive.

Police told media gathered at Houston police headquarters on Tuesday that Garza fired off 212 rounds before a SWAT team sniper took him down at a car wash on Sunday.

At the same press conference, HPD told media that Wilson had initially been a suspect in the shooting. Police later learned Wilson was attempting to take down Garza but got shot.

SEE ALSO: Police ID gunman in west Houston shooting spree as military vet

Garza's family members told investigators that he showed signs of depression. He came to Houston during Memorial Day weekend to spend time with friends and look for employment, police say.

Garza killed one person and injured six others. Police suspect he spent the night in a tire store across from the car wash on Saturday.

He was eventually fatally shot by a SWAT sniper from more than 100 yards away on the roof of a home.
It's hard not to like perky Joanna Gaines and her affable husband, Chip, on their HGTV home makeover show, "Fixer Upper." The couple remodels homes in the Waco area and shows the results of their work in a way that makes you think you could do that too.

Now, Joanna Gaines new line of furniture, Magnolia Home, manufactured by Standard Furniture in Alabama,has arrived in Houston. It's sold exclusively at Star Furniture stores. The extensive line includes furniture and accent pieces for every room in your house: living and dining areas, bedroom, home office and kitchen.
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GALVESTON  Thunderstorms brought as much as 3 inches of rain to Brazoria County on Saturday as the Brazos River continued its slow but relentless climb out of its banks into populated areas.

"As it continues to rain it adds to our situation," said Sharon Trower, county emergency management spokeswoman. "Once it rains there is nowhere for the water to go."

The ground was already saturated when thunderstorms began dumping rain on the county overnight and the rain was expected to continue all day and into Sunday.

As disaster crept slowly across the county the number of families affected has swollen from hundreds to more than 2,0000, Trower said.

The emergency shelter in Angleton had 124 registered evacuees, more than double the number registered Friday, Trower said. The shelter is nearing its capacity of 140 and the county is considering opening a second shelter, she said.

Officials are monitoring the steady rise but are unable to predict exactly which communities will eventually be affected or when, Trower said. The county Office of Emergency Management has a map on the county website (http://brazoriacountytx.gov/home) showing that an area of about 200 square miles could be affected.

The Brazos rose to major flood stage of 51.3 feet Tuesday and has been rising every day since then. Forecasters have constantly pushed the date of the flood crest back from the original prediction. The river is now predicted to crest at 52.8 feet at 7 a.m. Sunday at the National Weather Service river gauge near Rosharon. As of 7:30 a.m. Saturday the Brazos was at 52.42 feet.

The river is at its highest level since it crested at 52 feet in 1965, but far below the record of 56.4 feet in 1913.

County Judge Matt Sebesta has issued a mandatory evacuation order for the area north of County Road 30S to Texas 1462. A mandatory evacuation order also remains in effect for the City of Holiday Lakes.

In other areas, Harris County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management returned to a level of "normal readiness" Saturday morning. A flash flood warning has been issued until 4:30 p.m. for the Baytown area.

In addition, a sitting for the SAT Saturday morning at Ball High School was cancelled due to power outages and high water in the area.
Each week, Crime Stoppers officials in Montgomery County release a new list of what they consider to be their most highly sought fugitives.

In Montgomery County, authorities are searching for what they call their "featured felons." Charges this week range from online solicitation of a minor to aggravated assault of a public servant.
Coast Guard officials said two men jumped into the water and swam to safety on Friday after their boat caught fire and exploded near the Galveston Causeway.

At about 5:30 p.m., workers at the railroad bridge spotted a 25-foot pleasure craft on fire and called in the sighting to officials. The Coast Guard sent a 45-foot response boat to offer assistance, officials said.
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Authorities hope new details released will shed light on what happened to a Houston couple who went missing in Austin more than two months ago.

Krislyn Gibson and Sidney Taylor, both 35, vanished after driving to Austin April 1 for the Urban Music Festival.

Austin police announced Friday that the last person seen with the couple was Harvey "Hootie" Cyphers, a 49-year-old acquaintance who joined the pair late April 1 at The Landing Strip, a club.

Surveillance video shows the trio entering together and then leaving together when the venue closed around 2 a.m. April 2. The friend the couple was staying with spoke to Taylor on the phone around 3 a.m. and Taylor mentioned that he was with Cyphers, who lives in Austin.

"That is the last contact that anyone had with Taylor or Gibson," according to the news release.

That friend continued to text Taylor into the morning and received no response, then reached out to their circle of friends, who had no information. The couple never returned to retrieve their belongings.

The friend, who was not identified, reported the couple missing on April 3. Austin police began investigating the disappearances as a missing persons case the following day.

Houston police notified Austin authorities that Taylor's 2010 Dodge Charger had been located in the 2400 block of Milam in downtown Houston the following day. Houston officials said that the vehicle contained "personal effects of Gibson and Taylor that people don't normally leave behind, and there was potentially blood and biological evidence in the car," the release said.

Austin police detectives interviewed Cyphers about his actions in early April, but later determined he had been "untruthful as to his whereabouts," the statement said. As a felon, Cyphers acknowledged having firearms  which he is not allowed to possess under federal law.

That's how Austin authorities secured the involvement of federal law enforcement officials to procure a search warrant for Cyphers' property in Caldwell County. Authorities recovered six firearms and ammunition from a gun safe there, according to a federal criminal complaint filed April 15 by a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent in the Western District of Texas. Cyphers is currently in federal custody on a firearms charge and is awaiting trial without bail.

In searching and processing a residence in the 6800 block of Montana in Austin, local investigators concluded that "an act of violence had occurred at that location and that the crime scene had been cleaned up," the release said.

Information obtained through 11 search warrants determined that the cell phones of Gibson, Taylor and Cyphers were all at the Montana address in the early-morning hours of April 2. Later that day, all three cell phone traveled together to Houston, where a call from Cyphers' phone was made to Megabus, a commercial bus line. Other calls were made within walking distance from where Taylor's Charger was found. Cyphers' phone alone then travels along the route Megabus takes for its Houston to Austin leg.

Gibson and Taylor both left children at their respective homes and abandoned steady employment, which friends and relatives said neither would do.

Texas EquuSearch, the Houston Police Department, the Texas Rangers and federal agencies have participated in the search and investigation.

Detectives are asking anyone who may have seen Cyphers or Taylor's Charger in the Houston area on April 2, may have ridden with Cyphers on the Megabus from Houston to Austin or may have related information to call the Austin Police Department at 512-974-5250 or Crime Stoppers at 512-472-8477 (TIPS).
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A U.S. Marine Corps veteran who was living in a transitional housing center has been arrested and charged with murder in the brutal killing of 11-year-old Josue Flores, who was stabbed to death last month while walking home from school in north Houston.

Andre Timothy Jackson Jr., 27, was charged Friday after being questioned by police about the May 17 attack. He is being held in the Harris County Jail on $100,000 bond.

Officials said Saturday there appears to be no connection between Josue and Jackson.

Police arrested a different man the day following the killing, but he was released two days later after providing a solid alibi.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said Saturday that Houston Police Department officials are confident with this arrest and commended the Near Northside residents for their patience and understanding during the investigation.

"We believe we have the person who is responsible for the death of Josue Flores," the mayor said during a morning news conference at HPD headquarters. "From the beginning, the call has been for justice for Josue. ... We cannot bring him back, but I hope today's announcement can perhaps bring a little bit of comfort to those who loved him. I hope it will also ease the fears of the community."

Court records list Jackson's address as 7329 Fannin, which houses the Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans.

Jackson was arrested at The Salvation Army, 2407 N. Main, where he had maintained a room since mid-April, according to HPD Homicide Lt. John McGalin.

Police believe Jackson is the man shown running in a surveillance video taken within one minute of the stabbing, a source told the Houston Chronicle. Tips began pouring in on Thursday after HPD released the footage and a still image from the video.

Josue's relatives, who did not attend the news conference, were comforted to learn that the man believed to be the killer had been arrested.

"They are relieved that this person is off the street and thankful that this person is off the street," HPD Homicide Sgt. Tommy Ruland said.

Jackson is the right person and a killer is no longer on the loose, authorities said.

"After hearing the evidence that they've collected over the last couple of weeks, I feel confident that we can secure a conviction in this case. We feel like we have the right guy," Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson said.

A murder conviction in Texas carries a penalty of five years to 99 years or life in prison.

Anderson said the charge could be upgraded to capital murder, which carries the death penalty as a punishment, "if there becomes some evidence that capital murder is a more appropriate charge."

McGalin also emphasized that this arrest was solid.

"We conducted an extensive investigation. We have video of him in the area," the lieutenant said. "He provided a statement that corroborated a lot of things that we knew to be true and led us to believe we have the right guy."

Jackson did not provide an alibi and investigators have no motive or reason why the killer attacked Josue.

A knife found Wednesday in a sewer near the crime scene is not believed to be connected to the stabbing. McGalin declined to reveal whether authorities have a murder weapon.

Video footage in various forms helped investigators track the suspect's movements from the murder scene.

"What we basically had to do is go back and track, from the scene of the crime, the path that we believe the suspect took. We had to go to each individual resident and each individual business to see if they had video," McGalin said. "People didn't know what they had until we went and knocked on their door. ... That took a lot of time. We had to build as part of our probable cause."

RELATED: Police release surveillance video of man running near stabbing scene

At 5'11" and 155 pounds, Jackson fits the general description of a tall, slender man provided by witnesses. He also has a goatee as described by witnesses. Video surveillance showed him wearing a distinctive jacket.

"We verified that he had a room at the Salvation Army. We went in and found him and arrested him at the Salvation Army. We conducted a search of his residence. He was taken into custody without incident," McGalin said, adding authorities recovered the jacket and that there was no indication that he had been trying to hide or evade arrest in the last 2 weeks.

The investigation by police and prosecutors continues and there is potential reward money to be distributed.

"We still have a lot of work to be done as far as witness statements. Our DNA stuff still has to be processed. Everything that we collected from the crime scene, everything we collected at the search warrant scene  all of that still has to be processed," McGalin said.

Josue wanted to become a physician. The sixth-grader was walking the seven blocks home from Marshall Middle School on May 17  after staying a little late for a Science Club party  when witnesses said he was accosted by a man who stabbed him repeatedly, then fled on foot.

"It was senseless, it was brutal, it was cold blooded and someone needs to pay the price for it so justice can be rendered," the mayor said on Saturday.

The video released Thursday shows a man running down a street near the shooting, wearing the same type of clothes that witnesses said the killer wore.

On Wednesday, Crime Stoppers of Houston increased the reward in the case to $45,000 for information leading to an arrest.

HPD officials are providing information to help the crime-prevention organization determine how to distribute that reward money.

"It's obviously going to have to go in front of the board of Crime Stoppers to determine who gets paid and who does not get paid," McGalin said. "We will be making recommendations to Crime Stoppers as to what we think should happen and who should be paid."

RELATED: Police recover knife near site where boy was killed

Jackson, who was discharged from the military in 2011, has been arrested twice before in Harris County. Both were misdemeanor offenses.

On March 4, 2016, he was apprehended on a misdemeanor trespassing charge. He reached a plea bargain with prosecutors to admit to the crime. He was sentenced to eight days in the Harris County Jail and given credit for four days served.

Last year, on May 2, 2015, he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully carrying a weapon  a handgun. He reached another plea bargain and was sentenced to 15 days in the Harris County Jail.

Court records indicate he was born in California.

Worried Near Northside neighbors have expressed concerns that a new light rail line that opened in the area in December 2013 brought homeless people and drug users into the community.

Turner emphasized that Jackson "is the individual who we believe committed the crime" and warned against "generalizing" about potential crime beyond him.

Acting HPD Chief Martha Montalvo said Saturday that her agency is working with law enforcement authorities who overlap in the area to provide more "visibility" and have made arrests. She added that Houston Independent School District police will be providing heightened security at Marshall Middle during summer school.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, said she is committed to working with the Northside and agencies like the Salvation Army to find better ways to protect the community.

"This vile act where a child was killed innocently coming home from school should never have happened and should never happen again," she said in a prepared statement. "The Houston community will always come together to insure that our innocent children are not murdered in the streets."
A swarm of Africanized bees killed two dogs in Midland and injured the dogs owner, stinging the man more than 50 times in a frenzied attack.

James Roy of Midland went outside to check on his dogs on Thursday and thought the two dogs were fighting, but they were in fact being attacked by a swarm of bees. The two dogs, Susie and Sammy, were stung more than 1,000 times, according to News West 9, and the dogs later died at a veterinarians office in Midland.
The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p.
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Calendar Girls.JPG

Chagrin Valley Little Theatre in Chagrin Falls is presenting 'Calendar Girls' on Fridays and Saturdays through June 25.

(Jeff Piorkowski/special to cleveland.com)

CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio -- Reading the plot of the play "Calendar Girls," one might wonder exactly what one is walking into.

The play, which opened Friday at Chagrin Falls' Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, is set in England and involves a group of middle aged women who seek to raise money to buy a settee for a hospital as a memorial gift after one of the women loses her husband to leukemia.

Their idea: To pose "nude, not naked," as the characters made clear, for a fundraising calendar. Such a thing is not at all considered proper for the women, who are members of a WI, a woman's institute. WI's were formed in England during World War as charitable organizations.

In past years, their WI had released calendars with oh-so-dull pictures of churches and bridges.

As things turn out, the calendar ends up gaining acclaim, the women receive fan mail and, let's just say they more than exceed their charitable goals.

If this all sounds far-fetched, it's not. It's all based on a true story that took place in 1998. Five years later, writer Tim Firth turned it into a film, followed by a play in 2008.

The cast is a large one, larger than seen in most local plays. There are six main characters who make up the WI women, and 13 in the cast, overall.

With so many characters for the audience to get to know, the first few scenes take some patience on the part of audience members. In fact, at two hours and 40 minutes (including the 15-minute intermission) patience is a requirement throughout.

The good thing is that patience is rewarded after becoming acquainted with the spirited Chris (played by Kate Williams-Bernardo); Cora (Sharon Lloyd); Annie (Micki McNiece-Yackin; Jessie (Linda Ryan); Celia (Rachel Roth); and Ruth (Bette Prendergast).

The actresses work well together, each showing a personality that allows one to see what they individually bring to the group.

Each speaks with a different English or Scottish dialect that, again early on, makes for a little difficulty in understanding what they are saying.

As for the part of the play about which most people are curious -- the calendar shoot -- Director Barbara Rhoades had to deal with the logistics of showing a little, but not a lot,which she does.

The women posed with desserts, or knitting yarn, or tea cups for their above-the-waist photos, shielded by each other in various ways as each prepares to be photographed.

This part of the play, needless to say, received the most reaction as the audience enjoyed immensely the characters' mix of awkwardness and daring do (and need for a few stiff drinks).

Annie's husband, John, is the jovial soul who succumbs to cancer and who gives the women the idea to take a chance. Just before passing, John (Andrew Beah), a sunflower aficionado, states of flowers, "The last phase is the most glorious."

That may be true, but character Chris notes before the shoot, "It's not like we're doing this to show off fantastic bodies."

What they do show is great heart. Yes, the calendar's notoriety may go to Chris' head, but a talk with Annie leads the play in to a soft, warm landing.

As a neat adjunct to the play, the cast actually made their own calendar, available in the theater's lobby for $10. The entire cost is going to the benefit of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Northern Ohio.

It may take some time getting acquainted with the WI woman, but it's a good bet you'll be glad you got to know them.

Chagrin Valley Little Theatre is presenting "Calendar Girls," a play by Tim Firth, at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through June 25. Tickets cost $18, and $14 for seniors and students. The play contains mild adult themes and partial nudity. Call 440-247-8955. To purchase tickets in advance, visit here.
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Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and City Council President Kevin Kelley are calling upon state and national leaders to stand with them against a proposal to set Cleveland's minimum wage at $15 an hour, while the rest of the state remains at $8.10.

(Lisa DeJong, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Council President Kevin Kelley are calling out state and national leaders - demanding that they publicly denounce a proposal to set the city's minimum wage at $15 an hour, while the rest of the state remains at $8.10.

Nineteen letters dated June 3 were sent to members of Congress, state legislators and others, including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, who is now running for the U.S. Senate. (Read the letters in the document viewer below.)

So far, most have been silent or have refused to commit to a position on the minimum wage proposal, which would affect only Cleveland, putting the city at an economic disadvantage and resulting in disinvestment and job loss, the letters argue.

The letters go on to point out that both Jackson and Kelley are clearly on the record opposing the proposal, and they're calling on others to join them.

"We continue to support a minimum wage increase if mandated by the state or federal government but not just for the City of Cleveland," the letter concludes. "Again, we are calling on you to stand with us in opposition to a Cleveland-only minimum wage."

Here's the complete list of public officials and others who received the letters Friday from Jackson and Kelley:

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown; U.S. Sen. Rob Portman; U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge; U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur; State Rep. Janine Boyd; State Rep. Bill Patmon; State Rep. Stephanie Howse; State Rep. John Barnes; State Rep. Nickie Antonio; State Rep. Martin J. Sweeney; State Rep. Nicholas Celebrezze; State Rep. Mike Dovilla; Ohio Sen. Sandra Williams; Ohio Sen. Michael Skindell; Ohio Sen. Kenny Yuko; State Sen. Frank LaRose; Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper; former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland; Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Cleveland.com has reached out to some of them.

Brown -- who sponsored a federal bill to phase in a $15 minimum wage by 2020 -- responded Saturday with the following written statement, echoing past statements on the topic:

"I believe we need to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour nationwide, and as a Clevelander, it makes me proud to see my neighbors pushing for a better wage for local workers. I hope the petitioners, the City Council, and Cleveland community members will work together to determine the best path forward in order to lift workers into the middle class and grow Cleveland's economy."

A spokeswoman for Fudge directed us to her earlier statement from May, in which she said she also supports "a path to a $15 minimum wage."

Like Brown's statement, Fudge's stops short of decrying the Cleveland proposal, but says that increasing the minimum wage should be done "in a fair and reasonable way ... that allows our region and city to remain competitive."

Cleveland's minimum wage proposal, which is pending before City Council, was the result of a petition drive headed up by Raise Up Cleveland, a newly formed organization backed by the Service Employees International Union. The group had collected enough signatures to compel council to introduce legislation on the topic last month.

If council rejects the proposed ordinance or adopts an amended version, the petitioners have the option of taking the original language to voters.

Council has held two hearings on the legislation so far. At the first, proponents of the measure argued that the current statewide $8.10 minimum wage was keeping families in poverty. At the second hearing, held on Tuesday, Kelley had invited two local economists to share their views on the impact that such a dramatic citywide minimum wage hike would have on businesses and the local economy.

In short, the wage increase would be too high, too fast and in too limited of a geographical area, they concluded, predicting that the net result would be a loss of jobs and businesses in Cleveland.

Stay tuned to cleveland.com today for more on this developing story.
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A $3-million-plus makeover for Cleveland Heights' Cedar Lee business district will put up new street lights and put down new pavement and improve safety. But where is the fun? The answer could be the ingredient that bolsters residents' connections with their hometown and whether a city can better attract visitors.

(Robert Higgs, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS - The $3-million-plus makeover for Cleveland Heights' Cedar Lee business district will put up new streetlights and put down new pavement and improve safety.

But where is the fun?

It's a relevant question, say people like Peter Kageyama, an expert on city development, because the answer could be the ingredient that bolsters residents' connections with their hometown and determines whether a city can better attract visitors.

Here's what you need to know and your chance to post your ideas.

Fun can translate to dollars

Kageyama argues that the factors that most resonate with people are the things that humanize cities - bike friendliness, walkability, dog parks or public art, for example. And those things that are fun will make a difference as cities are competing for visitor dollars.

A native of Akron with degrees from Ohio State and Case Western Reserve universities, Kageyama is an economic development consultant, lecturer and author of "For the Love of Cities."

When people have fun, he argues, they remember a city, they tell friends about a city and they spend money.

Niceties yet to come

The Cedar Lee project will replace high-level street lights with brighter lights atop lamp posts. Curb access for the handicapped will be improved. Crosswalks will be added.

The work, which began last month in the district that stretches a mile along Lee Road from Cain Park to the Cleveland Heights Public Library, is to be finished in December.

Those upgrades, done in the name of safety, are just the beginning. The project is expected to include new benches, planters, bike racks and bike repair stations to dress up the street and make it more inviting.

How much can be done will depend, in part, on what the street work ends up costing, said John Zagara, president of Zagara's Marketplace and the leader of the Cedar Lee Special Improvement District.

Capturing attention

FutureHeights, a non-profit community group that advocates for Cleveland Heights, commissioned a study by Cleveland State University's Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs seeking ideas that could be applied to the business district. City officials and merchants are to meet this week with students who put together the study.

The hope is to find affordable ideas that can make visiting the district a pleasurable experience, said Deanna Bremer Fisher, FutureHeights executive director.

"Not just a shopping trip or a chore that you have to do. Something that is enjoyable," she said.

One idea, she said, is to establish a series of mini parks in empty spaces that would be links to help make the mile-long district more walkable.

Possible attractions

Kageyama says "fun" doesn't have to be expensive. What's important, he says, is that play becomes a key part of relationships with other people. Adding opportunities for play helps cities.

That could mean efforts to make an area bike friendly or dog friendly. He cites one city that put figurines of mice around its main street as something for visitors to search for. Other possibilities include public art or events.

Two other business districts in Cleveland Heights already are trying out ideas. The Cedar Taylor business district, with FutureHeights' help, is pursuing a grant that would support public art. In the Coventry Village district there are plans to use signage and paint to create a Silly Crosswalk - one that encourages pedestrians to cross a la Monty Python's Minister of Silly Walks.

What would you suggest?

Cleveland.com came up with a handful of ideas for injecting fun into the Cedar Lee project:

Convert an area into a gathering space, perhaps with a stage for performances

Promote public art - murals or chalkboards that the public could use.

Put up street lamps designed to focus on a theme, such as movie characters that could be tied in with the Cedar Lee Theatre.

Create an open entertainment district that would allow people to have alcohol outside eating and drinking establishments in the evening.

Hold special events that will draw specific groups of people, such as cyclists, to the neighborhood.

Line the sidewalk with games, such as hopscotch or four square, that people could play when they visit the district.

Those are some of our ideas. What would you propose? Post your ideas in the comments below.

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Governor John Kasich, shown here in this 2013 photo with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson in the background, recently signed a state law banning local governments from requiring contractors on public projects to hire local residents.

(Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ohio Gov. John Kasich last week signed a law effectively shutting down Cleveland's longstanding requirement that contractors on public construction projects include local residents in their workforce.

House Bill 180, which was one of a dozen bills that Kasich signed last Friday, bans governments from enacting local hiring laws, such as Cleveland's.

Mayor Frank Jackson, who launched an impassioned campaign to torpedo the bill before it became law, has argued in letters to Kasich that the measure hamstrings the city's economic recovery and undermines efforts to reduce poverty and unemployment. The bill also further erodes the city's home-rule authority - a constant point of contention between city leaders and state legislators.

Jackson said in a statement Friday that the city's attorneys are reviewing the options on what to do next.

Here is what you need to know about the new state law, what it means for Cleveland and the issues that remain unsettled:

What is the city's "Fannie M. Lewis Cleveland Resident Employment Law?"

Named for the longtime Cleveland councilwoman, who died at age 82 in 2008, the city ordinance was enacted 12 years ago to help combat poverty and to ensure that residents participate in the city's economic development - and share in its prosperity.

The Fannie Lewis law requires that on projects of $100,000 or more, at least 20 percent of construction hours be performed by Cleveland residents, with at least four percent of that work done by residents considered to be low-income. Failure to meet the requirements results in a fine equal to 1/8 of one percent of the total contract cost for each percentage by which the contractor misses the goal.

The city could take other legal action, as well, including canceling the contract or blackballing the contractor from working for the city in the future.

Does the Fannie Lewis law affect the competitive bidding process?

No. The local law does not impose conditions on contract awards or requirements on competing bidders. It comes into play only after a contract is awarded and does not give a competitive advantage to any bidder.

How did HB 180 arise?

Ohio Rep. Ron Maag, a Lebanon Republican, introduced HB 180 last year, and Sen. Joe Uecker, a Miami Township Republican, sponsored Senate Bill 152, a companion piece that will expire now that the House bill has been signed.

Maag and Uecker argued that local hiring rules shut out workers in their regions from getting construction work in big cities.

The Ohio Contractors Association and others who felt hiring laws should be banned also contended that such quotas often make it harder for contractors to hire the most qualified workers.

How did Cleveland respond to those claims?

In a May letter to Kasich, calling upon the governor to veto the bill, Jackson pointed out that up to 80 percent of workers on any given construction project can come from outside the city.

Jackson also said that assertions that geographic-based hiring increases project costs or forces contractors to take on untrained workers are baseless. To the contrary, Jackson said, hiring locally eliminates transportation costs. And there are plenty of jobs on any construction project for entry-level workers, who will then gain the skills they need to play bigger roles on future projects.

Put plainly, hiring locally benefits contractors and opens up career paths for the people who need them most, Jackson argued.

Why did Gov. Kasich sign the bill?

Cleveland.com is still trying to answer this question.

In 2014, Kasich came to Cleveland to announce an historic pact with the city. The governor pledged that 20 percent of the $267 million in construction contracts on the Opportunity Corridor would go to minority and disadvantaged businesses -- and at least 20 percent of the workforce on the state-funded roadway would be residents of Cleveland wards adjacent to the project.

He made the announcement during a standing-room-only event in the heart of one of the low-income neighborhoods that hopes to benefit from the construction of the road, which will connect Interstate 490 to University Circle.

City Council President Kevin Kelley said in a written statement last month that signing HB 180 would fly in the face of Kasich's pledge to support local hiring on Opportunity Corridor.

Cleveland.com reached out to the governor's office this week to ask how Kasich reconciles his signing of the bill with his position on using a local workforce to build the Cleveland roadway.

The question got routed to a press secretary for the Ohio Department of Transportation, who issued the following statement:

"ODOT is proud of the tremendous progress we've made on the Opportunity Corridor, exceeding expectations. Our commitment remains unchanged and focused on creating opportunity through the completion of this vital project. The intent is to use the Opportunity Corridor to train and develop skilled workers from the area who can continue their careers on projects all over the state. Since federally-funded projects are prohibited from having any type of residency requirement and the vast majority of ODOT projects have some federal dollars involved, HB 180 focuses mainly on projects done at the local level."
Police Tape 3

Two men have been arrested and are facing charges in connection with the Thursday fatal shooting of a Columbus landlord and the subsequent evidence cover-up, police said.

(Cory Shaffer, cleveland.com)

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Two men have been arrested in connection with the Thursday fatal shooting of a Columbus landlord and the subsequent evidence cover-up, police said.

A 33-year-old man has been arrested and faces a murder charge, Columbus police said in a post on their Facebook page. Another 25-year-old man was arrested and faces a charge of arson.

Neither individual has been formally charged.

The arrests stem from a Thursday fire at a home on the 700 block of Lilley Avenue, police said. Fire crews found a detached garage with a car parked inside fully engulfed in flames.

After extinguishing the blaze, firefighters found 50-year-old Joseph Remlinger dead inside the car, police said. It was determined that Remlinger was shot and killed before the fire began.

Investigators believe that the 33-year-old man killed Remlinger after Remlinger attempted to collect past-due rent from the shooter. The 25-year-old man is accused of setting fire to the garage to conceal evidence.

Anyone with additional information about the shooting is asked to call Columbus police's Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730.

If you'd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section.
There are temper tantrums and then there are political temper tantrums.

Ohio Rep. John Barnes Jr. threw the equivalent of a political tantrum last week when he introduced a bizarre measure to abolish the Cleveland Municipal Housing Court. Given that Barnes is a current defendant in that very court, it was a blatant conflict of interest and self-serving piece of legislation.

It's important to say up front, though, that Barnes' anger is understandable.

The 12th District representative was either ripped off or played like someone fresh off a turnip truck in a questionable real estate investment he made nearly a decade ago. In addition, he watched as the city of Cleveland demolished his development dream with a bulldozer. Here's the back story:

Barnes paid $15,000 for an abandoned building on Lee Road in 2005. He planned to transform it into a commercial endeavor, complete with a coffeehouse and a few business offices. However, the building, formerly a church, was long past its prime. It had been condemned seven years earlier. No one bothered to tell him of its precarious status. Not the church, not a prayerful parishioner, not the city of Cleveland.

Since the church chose not to appeal the condemnation, a simple title search failed to inform Barnes that he had purchased a severely stressed structure. By municipal law, Cleveland need not record or advertise condemnations. That probably should change.

Barnes invested his business dreams in a building that Cleveland considered a public nuisance. Such buildings must either be brought up to code or destroyed. It's not always possible to restore them. When it is possible, it's generally expensive.

Barnes discovered this after he began working on the structure. He wanted to add a second floor. City inspectors returned to the site, 3902 Lee Road, and informed him that the building was condemned and would remain so until numerous violations were addressed. They told him to discontinue expanding the building since he didn't have proper approval or permits.

What followed was a series of permit applications, hearings, and denials. Barnes even retroactively challenged the initial condemnation.

The case then wound its way through municipal, state, and federal courts. Barnes lost; the city demolished the building around 2010, as litigation continued.

Which brings us back to Barnes' Cleveland Housing Court histrionics. The city is suing Barnes to recoup more than $25,000 that it says it spent to demolish the building in question, a total that includes interest and penalties on back taxes. A hearing is slated before Housing Judge Raymond Pianka on June 29th.

Early last week, Barnes introduced a bill that would eliminate the Cleveland Housing Court judge position and move all housing cases back to municipal court dockets. He rationalized by saying that the housing court and its staff had become too cozy with Cleveland housing and building officials.

"My intention with this legislation is to make a difference in how purposeful uniformity, efficiency, impartiality and common sense fairness is achieved for business and middle-class people," he said in a statement.

In a word: gibberish.

If Barnes' motive was to protect the state's citizens, he did a poor job of it. His bill would have surgically eliminated the Cleveland Housing Court while leaving untouched the other housing courts operating in Ohio.

"Many litigants, if they disagree with what a court's decision is, have the ability to appeal that decision. Not every litigant has the ability to put in a bill to eliminate the court," Pianka said in an interview with Jackie Borchardt of cleveland.com.

Barnes appeared to have returned to his senses near week's end. He pulled the bill after he said he spoke with an attorney. He didn't rule out reintroducing it later.

His disillusionment is understandable. He paid $15,000 for a dump, and now he's being dunned for another $25,000.

But Cleveland's Housing Court has been acknowledged for its innovation, efficiency and fairness. Raymond Pianka is a fine jurist, who has long embraced the challenge of presiding over housing adjudication in a city where thousands of abandoned commercial and residential structures continue to collapse.

Barnes has been living a nightmare. But the housing court didn't start it, and terminating the court wouldn't end it. In any case, it was a mistake for Barnes to try.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - An offstage scene change at Cleveland Opera Theater has led to the resignation of founder and executive director Andrea Anelli.

Citing the creation of an environment at the company in which it would be "impossible for me to continue," the soprano this week announced that she had stepped down from the troupe she launched in 2006 as Opera Per Tutti.

The board of directors later said it had appointed Scott Skiba, the company's artistic director, to succeed her with the new title of executive artistic director.

"This has nothing to do with a damaged ego," Anelli told The Plain Dealer. "I have no reason to continue."

Anelli, a significant player in most of the company's productions, said she had long been planning to step down and was anticipating a gradual process lasting six months to a year. "I felt I had brought the company as far as I could," she said.

Instead, Anelli said, board President Don Scipione informed her that that timeline had been compressed and that she had already been replaced.

"[T]hat situation became untenable," Anelli wrote in a media statement.

Scipione relayed a somewhat different version of the story. He said the company presented Anelli with the option of a long-term transition plan, but that she declined to take it.

"We were willing to try and accommodate a way for her to stay part of the organization," he said.

Scipione also offered a rationale for the change in leadership.

Since its rebranding in late 2014 from Opera Per Tutti to Cleveland Opera Theater, the company has experienced rapid growth, Scipione said. That impelled the company to transform from a "founder-driven" to a "board-driven" entity, he said.

"It's what was needed to build a sustainable company for generations to come," Scipione said, citing plans for increasingly ambitious presentations over the next six years, beginning with Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" and Puccini's "Madama Butterfly."

Scipione said it was not his intent for Anelli to leave so quickly, and that he has no wish to tarnish the director's legacy at Cleveland Opera Theater. On the contrary, he said, "I honor what she has done, and so does the board."

Anelli, too, said she harbors no ill will. Her professional future may be unclear, but when it comes to the past, she's certain she helped create something wonderful.

"I never dreamed it could become what it did," Anelli said. "It so far exceeded my expectations. It's been quite a journey."
"I thought that was an extraordinary thing for a candidate for the office of President of the United States to say," Johnson told CNBC in an interview on Saturday, "basically because America as I understand it is built on the ideal of welcoming people irrespective of their race, religion, color or creed."

Last year, the GOP frontrunner called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S.. Trump's comments, which followed the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino last year, were widely condemned.

Boris Johnson, the former London mayor, denounced comments about Muslims made by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, while blasting the U.K.'s campaign to exit the European Union as a pivotal "once in a generation" decision.

In a statement emailed to CNBC, Khan said that "London has proved him wrong."

Khan quickly responded, saying Trump and those around him "think that Western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam."

Last month, Trump told The New York Times in an interview that there could be exceptions to such a ban. He was asked if Sadiq Khan, London's new mayor and a Muslim of Pakistani heritage, would be allowed to travel freely to the U.S.

Johnson is a leading campaigner for Britain to leave the European Union, better known as the "Brexit" campaign. His position has put him in the crossfire of members of his own party who believe the U.K. should remain within the E.U.

On Sunday, former Tory prime prime minister John Major accused the Brexit camp of pushing "inaccurate and frankly untrue" information. He blasted Johnson as a "court jester" leading a campaign that was "verging on the squalid."

In April, U.S. President Barack Obama traveled to the U.K to issue a warning on "Brexit", arguing that "the European Union doesn't moderate British influence  it magnifies it."



However,Johnson insisted that Americans would not have tolerated the "loss of democratic control" that resulted from being in the EU.



"They (Americans) would never dream of subsuming,subordinating, subjugating their own democracy to the type of system that we have," he said. "In the end this is a decision for the British people."

The former London mayor denounced Europe's decision making as "profoundly sclerotic," and hit the continent for a system that perpetuates low growth.

"And that's partly, not just, because of the euro , but partly because of the massive legislation that comes from Brussels in a one size fits all way that is often for the benefit of big companies," he added.

'Once in a generation' vote

Johnson's "out" campaign has pitted him against fellow Conservative and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron who is campaigning for the U.K. to remain a member of the 28-country bloc.

The referendum, set to be held on June 23, has put investors on edge, amid warnings that both the stock market and sterling could see sharp declines in the event of a vote in favor of leaving the union.

"I see no reason, the pound's value will be determined according to the strength of the U.K. economy," he said. "And I have every reason to think that the U.K. economy would prosper mightily outside the European Union which is currently democratically and economically, I believe, holding us back."



He said the referendum was a "once in a generation chance to take back control from an institution that is out of control, spending ever growing quantities of British taxpayers' money."

U.K. Chancellor George Osborne, who is campaigning alongside Cameron to remain in the EU, has warned of an economic shock and long-term economic costs if the U.K. voted to opt out.

Johnson, however, argued that nobody can possibly say what will what would happen as a result of a so-called Brexit.

"I think that over time the U.K. economy would get a lot of dynamism from the removal of so much of the regulation and the inappropriate law that holds us back." Johnson told CNBC.

"It's making it impossible for us to do all sorts of things that you'd expect a country to be able to do, like control our borders, control our tax rates, help our energy companies, all sorts of things."



Recent data showing migrants continue to flock to the U.K. from the Continent have added political fuel to the fire of the Brexit debate, with the "out" campaign arguing that cutting ties with Europe will help curb immigration.

Regarding taxation, EU member states have the power to set their own tax policy, but there are standard EU rules on VAT, the value-added tax on goods and services which is set at no less than 15 percent. There is no maximum and EU member states can opt to apply reduced rates to certain goods and services.

Johnson said it was hard to predict the level of potential uncertainty following a "Brexit," but added "the prognostications of gloom that you're hearing now are wildly overdone."

"I think there would be a massive opportunity for U.K. business," he said.

He did not think the current government would need to step down in the event of a decision to leave, but "on day one...what they would then be able to do is set in train a process by which they could take back control of our immigration system, and institute a British version of the Australian point system for immigration - number one."

He added they could also "take back control" of the judiciary.

"The European Court of Justice would no longer be supreme," Johnson said. "You could very rapidly decide that the ECJEuropean Court of Justice in Luxembourgwas no longer able to intervene and and to tell us who could be on the streets of London and we'd be able to deport terroriststhose whose presence is not conducive to the public good."

--Reuters contributed to this article.

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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.
June 2, 2016 - From his offices overlooking AutoZone Park, Frank Ricks discusses receiving his AIA Fellowship. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal)

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By Thomas Bailey Jr. of The Commercial Appeal

Frank Ricks recalls about 15 years ago when his firm, Looney Ricks Kiss (LRK), helped plan how the huge FedExForum would fit in with the smaller, historic buildings of Beale and Third.

His contribution to that project may exemplify why the 60-year-old architect last month was named by the American Institute of Architects as a fellow, one of the highest honors given in his profession.

Some wanted to place the arena's big parking garage next to Third. "So you can imagine you're coming in on Blues Highway (Third) into Beale Street, and all of a sudden you line it with a parking garage?'' Ricks said.

"... We said no, let's push the garage back and let's line that parking garage with the office space for the Grizzlies on the upper floors and let's see if we can't get the Rock 'n Soul Museum... work a deal to pull them in on the ground floor of that liner building so we are actually making a music connection to the street on Blues Highway (Third) hitting Beale Street,'' Ricks said.

Today's vibrant street life outside FedExForum seems to affirm Ricks' influence on what went where.

A founding principal of LRK, Ricks can now put FAIA behind his name. He is one of only 14 living fellows within the AIA Memphis chapter. Nationally, he's one of 3,200 members distinguished by the honor out of the AIA's 88,000 members.

LRK has grown from its three principals in 1983 to about 100 employees today working out of eight offices: Memphis; Philadelphia; Princeton, New Jersey; Baton Rouge; Celebration, Florida; Dallas, Little Rock and New Orleans.

"I have been impressed by the exemplary vision and leadership he has demonstrated in pioneering the application of 'new urbanist' principles to community and urban redevelopment projects across the country,'' James F. Williamson stated in his letter nominating Ricks for the honor. Williamson is an architecture professor at the University of Memphis and is an AIA fellow himself.

"His holistic and collaborative approach to design sets him apart from many others in our profession,'' Williamson wrote.

He added that Ricks has given "unflagging'' support over 15 years to the U of M's architecture program.

AIA members can become a fellow in one of five categories. Ricks was chosen for having "advanced the science and art of planning and building by advancing the standards of architectural education, training and practice.''

One example of Ricks' efforts to educate the community about design was his support for the old Memphis Regional Design Center. Ricks would lead the first two sessions of the Urban Design 101 courses.

"I was always impressed with that,'' Charles "Chooch" Pickard said of Ricks' community involvement. Pickard was executive director of the center.

LRK is "a very good planning firm, and is very often involved in urban design issues throughout the city,'' Pickard said. "Most recently the Overton Park traffic and parking study.''

AIA developed the fellowship program to "elevate'' architects who have made an important contribution to architecture and society and who have achieved a standard of excellence.

"Being a fellow is an acknowledgment by peers and other folks who have been in the profession a while that work you've spent your life doing clears some bar, kinda of at an elevated level,'' Ricks told The Commercial Appeal.

"In my case it wasn't just about the work you're doing but the process of the work and the collaboration... The culture of the firm and how I've tried to help build the firm that's collaborative with all disciplines,'' he said.

"Because architects don't do it all by themselves. It takes a lot of different disciplines and different types of architects as well as engineers and planners and all of that to really design and build a city.''

Architecture, Ricks said, "is a team sport.''

His team stays busy. If there is some high-profile development or construction project in Memphis, there's a good chance LRK is involved.

Just Friday, Ron Belz of Belz Enterprises said LRK will help design the conversion of the old Peabody Place mall into offices for ServiceMaster's new headquarters.

Just some of the other local projects in which LRK was involved include:

Crosstown Concourse; Overton Square redevelopment and garage; Stax Museum of American Soul Museum; Memphis-Shelby County Public Library; National Civil Rights Museum expansion; Lenox Park; Old Dominick Distillery; Shops of Saddle Creek; Hope & Healing Center; AutoZone corporate headquarters; First Horizon headquarters; FedEx World Technology Center; Highland Row; Court Annex Two (CA2); Overton Broad Connector; Barboro Flats; Uptown Memphis; Memphis Ballpark Neighborhood; Harbor Town; Cleaborn Point at Heritage Landing; and Hernando West.

For all the design appeal those projects may convey, Ricks identifies himself most for helping build community in and around those buildings.

He said he's particularly proud of co-founding the Memphis chapter of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), which fosters collaboration, and of helping to build up the U of M architecture department.
June 3, 2016  The long-vacant Peabody Place will serve as the new ServiceMaster headquarters and 1,200 employees from East Memphis will be relocated to Downtown. The four-level building will be renamed One ServiceMaster Center. (Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)

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By Kevin McKenzie of The Commercial Appeal

The prospect of having 1,200 ServiceMaster employees working about a block away from B.B. King's Blues Club on Beale Street didn't have John Mahar singing the blues.

"We'll love it, it's a no-brainer, the more the merrier Downtown," said Mahar, operations manager for the restaurant and club.

That upbeat tune was repeated among several Downtown restaurants and merchants within an easy walk of the former Peabody Place mall where ServiceMaster Global Holdings Inc. will install its new corporate headquarters.

Rob Gillette, ServiceMaster's chief executive officer, and officials including Gov. Bill Haslam on Friday announced that the company chose to retain its corporate headquarters in Memphis.

Transforming for the digital age and the millennial generation, the Memphis-based company known for brands including Terminix and Merry Maids will move its corporate headquarters from East Memphis and scattered locations to the vacant Downtown mall adjacent to The Peabody.

Terence Patterson, chief executive officer of the Downtown Memphis Commission, moved from "big" to "enormous" to describe the impact of ServiceMaster's decision on the Downtown area.

"This is going to have an enormous impact on our residential market, it's going to have an enormous impact on our retail market and it's also just going to have a positive feel to it because now you're creating more vibrancy with 1,200 diverse individuals walking around and engaging Downtown," Patterson said.

More than 24,000 people live in the Downtown area and about 62,000 work there, according to the commission's data. Since the year 2000, more than $5 billion has been invested.

ServiceMaster's headquarters will be joining others Downtown including AutoZone Inc., with about 1,300, and First Tennessee Bank, with about 700 working Downtown, according to the companies.

The big win for Downtown comes about three years after the loss of as many as 600 workers when bankrupt Pinnacle Airline Corp. moved out of One Commerce Square.

At a "Made by Memphis" pop-up store near the corner of Peabody Place and South Main, Abby Phillips was impressed by the number of potential customers available Downtown.

"Based on what we've seen, the foot traffic Downtown is already more than I thought it would be and having these additional people, I think it will be huge for this area," Phillips said.

She is director of Memphis Fashion Week, which is operating the store featuring products by 15 Memphis designers through the end of this month.

At Aldo's Pizza Pies on South Main, Dan Saffer said that the additional foot traffic from ServiceMaster is an exciting prospect.

"I'm happy that people are coming back Downtown, big companies like that," said Saffer, general manager for the restaurant. "So then we'll have AutoZone, we'll also have ServiceMaster, that's good and more people walking around.

Like B.B. King's Blues Club, Saffer said that Aldo's Pizza Pies has the capacity to handle additional customers and won't need to expand to meet increased demand.

Velvet Graham, a 22-year employee at ServiceMaster, might have had one good reason not to like moving from the current corporate headquarters from Ridge Lake Boulevard to Downtown.

Graham, senior director of events and community relations, said she lives in Olive Branch and her commute to work will double from about 20 minutes to 40 minutes.

Still, she too said she's excited about working and walking in Downtown Memphis.

"I'm so excited because it's walkable, because for the first time in the history of the company we're all together," Graham said. "We're sharing space, ideas, thoughts, energy. It's going to be absolutely amazing."
June 3, 2016- Ray Terry was a young DOJ lawyer when he was assigned to Meredith march in 1966. He went, inspired by his Vicksburg mother's own battles with Ku Klux Klan. (Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal)

David Waters Columnist SHARE June 3, 2016- Ray Terry holds a photograph of his late mother, Alma "Blance" Smith Terry. Terry was a young DOJ lawyer when he was assigned to Meredith march in 1966. He went, inspired by his Vicksburg mother's own battles with Ku Klux Klan. (Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal) June 3, 2016- Alma "Blance" Smith Terry. Ray Terry was a young DOJ lawyer when he was assigned to Meredith march in 1966. He went, inspired by his Vicksburg mother's own battles with Ku Klux Klan. (Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal)

Lately, every new year seems to bring back an old, tragic one in the South.

The Birmingham church bombing in 2013. Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner in 2014. Selma in 2015.

This year it's James Meredith and the 1966 "March Against Fear" through Mississippi.

Are you tired of 50th anniversary commemorations and commiserations? Why do we keep dredging up the past?

Because we need to be reminded.

We need to remember that racists aren't born; they're made. That racism once was served with mother's milk and learned in Sunday school and civics class.

That history changes one courageous person, decision, moment at a time.

Ray Terry remembers.

"I was a little racist," said Terry, a retired Memphis attorney who grew up in Vicksburg, Miss., in the heart of Klan country in the 1940s and 1950s.

"It's what I knew. It's what my parents knew."

What Terry knew began to change when he was a high school senior and a teacher at his Catholic school challenged his racist assumptions.

It was a few months after Emmett Till was killed in a nearby Delta town and an all-white jury acquitted his openly racist killers.

The teacher expressed his outrage. Terry asked why everyone was so upset about one murder in Mississippi.

"Terry," the Sacred Heart Brother said, "whatever you think of Emmett Till, he was a child, and whenever a child is murdered it raises national indignation."

At that moment, the trajectory of Terry's life, and the lives of his parents, changed forever.

Terry began to rethink his racist views and challenge those of his parents. He went to seminary for a while, then switched to law school.

"I wanted to be the Atticus Finch of Mississippi," he said.

Instead, he went to work for John Doar, the Atticus Finch of the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division in the 1960s. Doar, an assistant attorney general, escorted Meredith when he integrated Ole Miss in 1962.

Fifty years ago this month, Doar sent Terry to watch over the "March Against Fear" through the Mississippi Delta.

Meredith had been shot on the second day of the march and taken to a hospital. Prominent civil rights leaders and thousands of others continued on his behalf.

Terry, who worked in Washington, arrived as marchers were gathering for a rally on court square in Grenada. He couldn't wait to provide protection and support.

"I knew what my parents had gone through trying to do the right thing, and, in some ways, because of me and the path I'd chosen," Terry said.

The year before, while Terry was starting his new job in the civil rights division, Terry's parents were caught in a civil rights battle in Vicksburg.

Terry's mother, Blanche, worked in a factory. Prodded by the federal government's equal employment efforts, the company agreed to desegregate its assembly line and cafeteria.

The local union leader asked the factory's white workers to boycott the cafeteria. Blanche Terry declined. "That's stupid," Blanche told historian Chistopher Waldrep in 1997. "We're just going in there to eat."

Blanche kept going in there to eat, even after the husband of one of her white lunch mates lost his union job, the son of another was shot at, and another found her water tank poisoned.

"Eventually, I was the only one on our time period going in there," Blanche said.

The pressure mounted. Terry's father lost his job driving a delivery truck. Blanche was shunned, harassed and threatened. Klan members threw acid on their car. Terry Sr. slept with a shotgun next to the bed.

One night a woman called Blanche cursing. Blanche heard children in the background and recognized the caller.

"You better get off this phone and tend to those kids," Blanche told the woman, "or they're going to turn out just like you."

Blanche kept eating in the cafeteria and working on the integrated assembly line. Her son kept working on her behalf.

Terry and his wife, Louise, moved to Memphis in 1979. He opened the local office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He later was appointed the EEOC's deputy general counsel. He retired in 1999.

Sixty years ago this week, he read that Meredith had been shot in his home state. A few days later, he was on his way back home.

That first evening in Grenada, he saw Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walk out of the courthouse and get into a car.

"I knew this man was going to be the Abe Lincoln of the 20th Century. I knew this might be my one and only opportunity to meet him. So I walked over to the car.

King was sitting in the front passenger seat. The windows were down. Terry was wearing a suit and tie, but he was still an unknown white man in Mississippi. He could feel the tension in the car as he approached.

King reached out to shake Terry's hand.

"Where you from?" King asked.

"Vicksburg," Terry said.

The tension rose. As he shook King's hand, he introduced himself as an attorney with the Department of Justice. The tension evaporated.

"I told Dr. King how much I admired what he was doing. Then I apologized for having to get back to work."

Terry never told his late father about meeting King.

"My dad was Archie Bunker," Terry said. "He was proud of me, but he wished I'd gone to work for the tax division, not the civil rights division."

Terry did tell his mother, who died in 2004.

"I admired my dad for standing by my mother, even though he didn't agree with her," Terry said. "I think he saw her courage. It's the same courage I saw in so many people then, black and white. I'll never forget it."

Neither should we.
My father just had his 84th birthday. Amazingly, he still works 40 hours a week, but recently he complained of getting tired at the end of the day. He has a hard time believing it might be because of his age.

When he was 22, he served in the Navy as a pilot and flew off of an aircraft carrier in the Korean War. His plane was shot down over North Korea, but thankfully he was rescued by the Marines. To this day, his favorite song is the Marine Corps hymn.

Although he has been remarkably healthy, from time to time my father has had cause to seek medical attention from the Department of Veterans Affairs. He has always been pleased with the service. In my family, the VA runs even deeper, since my stepbrother is a VA physician in Atlanta. For these reasons, I was taken aback the first time I treated a patient at the Church Health Center who was a veteran but was uninsured.

Joe was working, doing odd jobs. He had high blood pressure and diabetes. While this was exactly what I am trained to treat, I thought he should be treated at the VA. He had been a part of the initial invasion of Iraq, and he was still troubled by things that happened while he was there.

He was clear, "I went there first, and they told me my problems are not service-connected, so they wouldn't see me. ... My jobs don't offer health insurance. I can barely pay my rent."

I assumed that he could receive medical services at the VA and that he was just wrong. I got on the phone and called a friend who is a physician at the VA. She made it instantly clear: He didn't qualify to be a patient at the VA for purposes having to do with his chronic diseases.

Just serving in the military  fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam or Korea  does not guarantee former military personnel the status to receive medical benefits from the VA.

According to an article published in 2014 in the Lancet, there are 1.2 million veterans with no health insurance, including 31,000 in Tennessee. The reasons are complicated. To be eligible for VA health services, soldiers must serve 24 consecutive months of active duty, which means that for many in the Reserves, their active duty time is limited to 23 months. There is also a means test. Once a person earns above roughly $30,000 in annual income, the individual is not eligible for VA medical benefits, unless he or she has a service-related illness or injury.

Covering veterans who fall into this gap was something the Affordable Care Act was intended to do, but in states like Tennessee, where we have not expanded Medicaid, veterans are one of the groups that remain uninsured. Last Monday was Memorial Day, and Monday is the anniversary of D-Day. It is now commonplace at sporting events to stand and applaud servicemen and servicewomen, but do all of the people we cheer for have access to health care through the VA or other means if they need it? Surely that is the least we can do for such sacrificial service.

While in the past I was irritated by former soldiers who came to the Church Health Center for help, I now thank them for their service. Sometimes I send them to Alpha Omega house and other agencies that focus on the needs of struggling veterans. I doubt seriously most people know of this plight of veterans. The problem could be solved by setting aside politics and doing what almost everyone would agree is the right thing to do.

I recently asked my father why he doesn't go to the VA for his health care anymore. He said, "I don't want to take the place of veterans who might not be able to go anywhere else." I couldn't bring myself to tell him the facts about how many veterans have no place to go at all because they don't qualify for VA care. He wouldn't have believed me. I can hear him argue right now. "Our country wouldn't treat our veterans like that." If only that were true.

Dr. Scott Morris is the founder and CEO of the Church Health Center, whose ministries provide health care for the working uninsured. For more information, call 901-272-7170, or visit churchhealthcenter.org.
June1, 2016  Bass Berry Sims Managing Partner Richard Spore (left) with newly hired attorney Richard Mattern, who was recruited to the firm from Baker Donelson. (Mark Weber/The Commercial Appeal)

When the strategists in the Memphis office of the law firm Bass Berry Sims decided to muscle up their corporate practice, they did what any company in need of talent would do.

They looked at who was available, and narrowed their focus to two lawyers.

One was Oscar Thomas, a former Bass Berry securities lawyer who had left to become business affairs vice president for a tech company located near Los Angeles. And the other was Richard Mattern, a 12-year veteran of Baker Donelson, the largest Memphis law firm.

Mattern, a specialist in mergers, regulatory compliance and corporate finance, joined last month, Thomas during the winter.

Legal stars moving between well-established law firms and taking clients with them became far more noticeable in Memphis and America in the last two decades.

At the same time mid-tier cities like Memphis, home to about 1,800 practicing lawyers, were sought out for capable attorneys by clients resisting the escalating fees charged by law firms in major cities  rates for top New York lawyers surpassed $1,000 per hour a decade ago and have notched up to $1,200.

Charging hundreds of dollars less than New York peers, Bass Berry's lawyers in Memphis now count on clients in nearly 30 states, a feat enabled by sending documents over the internet. Expanding the client base throughout the nation also created a need for more sophisticated attorneys, especially as U.S. companies consolidated and demanded more nuanced legal work.

As business grew, often through word of mouth, the medium-sized law firm cultivated a national reputation but discovered new limits. Bass Berry could handle the legal aspects of the straightforward sale of Clark Tower, the 32-story East Memphis skyscraper purchased by Florida-based InRel Properties.

More complicated deals such as the $50 million purchase of a factory and a related private equity investment required deeper skills than the firm had in Memphis, although the office earlier had developed a reputation for real-estate deal expertise. A pair of ex-Bass Berry lawyers are now executives at publicly traded Memphis corporations.

John Good became president of Jernigan Capital Inc., a developer and financier of storage units that was moved to Memphis when Good declined relocating to the corporate head office in Miami. Robert DelPriore joined national developer Mid America Apartments Inc. as general counsel.

"We found ourselves where we needed to relaunch the team," said Richard Spore, managing director for Bass Berry in Memphis. "It was more a matter of not being able to fully capitalize on the opportunities in the market."

Americans tend to know more about pro ball players and rock stars than their attorney's intellectual caliber. Popular culture plays along, spewing jokes. Goes one: How many lawyer jokes are there? Only three. The rest are true stories.

Humor aside, lawyers' reputations matter. Spore notes 60 percent of Bass Berry clients are located outside the Mid-South. Most new business comes from people who learn of the firm from recommendations by current clients.

While a lawyer with a loyal following might be hard for a law firm to replace, and the revenue loss temporarily destabilizing as clients stay with the departing attorney, a departure is not often called a defection.

The legal industry likes the term "lateral" to describe moving to another firm. Indeed, both Good and DelPriore were once Baker Donelson attorneys whose own lateral moves brought them to Bass Berry.

"It's part of our DNA to attract and recruit great lawyers," said Ben Adams, chairman of Baker Donelson, which has about 690 lawyers throughout the nation. "It is incumbent upon us having a work environment and opportunities that are appealing."

Adams, who joined Baker Donelson in 1981, said it is considered unethical to require an attorney give up clients during a lateral move. That has favored Baker Donelson, he said, noting only about two dozen lawyers were in the office when he hired in. The firm, which now has about 100 lawyers in Memphis, has expanded substantially by being on the receiving end of lateral moves.

"There is certainly a lot of mobility now in our profession." Adams said. "There are situations where you understand it's the best thing for that person to go elsewhere. Plenty of people leave not to get a raise but think it is best for their practice. It could be a better fit for them someplace else. We recruit people all the time and it is really not a pay raise that is the biggest motivator."

"I really saw it as a particularly unique opportunity," Mattern said to grow his own corporate practice at a firm "that's not so big I can't have an impact on it."

The most noticeable law firm Downtown since its corporate sign recently went up on the outdoor wall of its offices in the Peabody Place building, Bass Berry has 32 lawyers here, about 200 in its Nashville home base and another 35 in Knoxville and Washington.

When the firm decided to scale up its corporate practice in Memphis, Spore reached out to Mattern, whom other lawyers in Bass Berry knew from working on legal projects with him including a Mid America Apartments capital raising project.

"Culturally we're not a huge office," Spore said. "Regardless of how large the office may be, you have to fit in."

Mattern, a bearded, 37-year-old attorney, fit in.

Adams said he is sure Mattern, who is his next door neighbor, will succeed.

"We're going to miss him," Adams said. "Richard is a close friend and a great colleague."

Ted Evanoff, business editor of The Commercial Appeal, can be reached at evanoff@commercialappeal.com and (901) 529-2292.
February 27, 2016 - Presidential candidate Donald Trump talks to a crowd of supporters at the Millington Regional Jetport during a campaign stop Saturday evening. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)

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By Michael Collins of The Commercial Appeal

WASHINGTON  The attorney Donald Trump has chosen to help select his vice-presidential running mate is known by friends and acquaintances as an unpretentious, easy-going Tennessee native who has moved for decades within Washington's power circles but prefers not to call attention to himself.

A.B. Culvahouse, they say, is the opposite of the bombastic, over-the-top New Yorker.

"He's a common-sense, get-it-done lawyer (who) knows Washington and government well and is as honest as the day is long," said Tom Ingram, a longtime political consultant in Tennessee. "I just can't think of anybody better for Trump to ask to play a major role like this."

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, who has known Culvahouse for years, said he can think of no attorney more accomplished in both law and in government than his fellow East Tennessean, who as White House counsel guided President Ronald Reagan through the dark days of the Iran-Contra scandal.

"If I were in trouble with the government or the private sector," Alexander said, "the lawyer I would want to hire would be A.B. Culvahouse."

In his new role, Culvahouse will be responsible for interviewing Trump's list of potential running mates, delving into their backgrounds to spot potential problems, then telling the presumptive GOP nominee who would make the best vice president.

Culvahouse heads into the job fully aware of its challenges and pitfalls. He has helped potential running mates navigate the vetting process in four presidential elections. He led the vice presidential vetting process for the 2008 GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain, and was soundly criticized when McCain, picked then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whom many considered woefully unprepared for the job.

"He was vilified, to a degree, over that," said longtime acquaintance Fred Marcum. "But you are always going to have people who may not like whatever choice you make. That's why there's chocolate and vanilla. Nobody likes the same thing."

Culvahouse, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment for this article, citing the sensitive nature of the vetting process.

But those who know him well say he's ideal for the job  not only because of his incredibly sharp legal mind, but because his years as a mostly behind-the-scenes player in Washington have given him a keen understanding of the kind of person needed to fill the vice presidency.

"His experience and his grasp of the bigger picture  the political process as well as understanding Washington and how government works  would be good for any nominee," said Susan Williams, former chairwoman of the Tennessee Republican Party.

Alexander described Culvahouse as "a good listener" with "unquestioned integrity."

"He is probably the smartest person in any room, but he doesn't let you know that," he said.

For all of his success in law and in politics, Culvahouse, 67, hasn't let Washington change him and still possesses the values instilled in him while he was growing up in rural East Tennessee, his friends say.

Culvahouse was born, fittingly, on the Fourth of July and raised in tiny Ten Mile, an unincorporated speck on the map that straddles Meigs and Roane counties and is a summer cottage community for nearby Watts Bar Lake. Over dinner recently, Culvahouse shared with Alexander that he was looking forward to returning to Ten Mile for his 50th high school reunion.

Culvahouse's entree to Washington came in 1973 when then-Sen. Howard Baker Jr.  a legend in Tennessee politics and a powerhouse in Congress  hired him as his chief legislative assistant and counsel.

The two formed a close and mutually beneficial friendship. Baker depended on Culvahouse's counsel "to make sure things were always done with the utmost integrity," said Marcum, who himself worked as a senior adviser to Baker.

Culvahouse, in turn, learned the ways of Washington by watching and working alongside one of the masters of the Senate.

When Reagan tapped Baker as his chief of staff in 1987, Baker announced that Culvahouse would join him at the White House as Reagan's counsel. That was news to Culvahouse.

"A.B. didn't know anything about it because he was on vacation in Mexico, and there was no phone service," Marcum said. "But A.B., having good sense and the relationship with the senator that he did, chose to accept. And I think he's grateful that he did."

Reagan and his administration were deeply entangled in the Iran-Contra scandal, and Culvahouse's legal guidance proved immensely important to Reagan's presidency and his legacy, Alexander said.

Reagan "ended his administration on a high note, and A.B. deserves a lot of credit for helping him make that happen," he said.

Just before leaving office, Reagan thanked Culvahouse by awarding him the Presidential Citizens' Medal, which recognizes Americans who have performed exemplary deeds of service for the country or their fellow citizens.

In his post-Reagan years, Culvahouse worked in a private law practice in Washington and served in various capacities on a number of government boards. He was back in the news in 2008 after interviewing Palin as part of a process that his defenders say unfairly targeted him for criticism. Culvahouse merely vetted possible vice presidential nominees, they note. It was McCain who picked Palin.

In a Wall Street Journal column, Culvahouse himself defended the Palin vetting process, which he described as "apparently the five most newsworthy days of my life." He recalled telling McCain that Palin wasn't ready to be vice president but "had the presence and the wherewithal to grow into the position."

"I summed up her selection as 'high risk, high reward,'" he wrote. "I stand by that advice."

Despite the grief he got over Palin, no one who knows Culvahouse was surprised that he agreed to take on the job of vetting Trump's possible running mates.

"A.B. makes decisions to do things like this because he thinks he can make a difference," Ingram said. "It's not just another political gig to A.B. It's more important than that."
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By Daniel Connolly of The Commercial Appeal

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam plans to visit the University of Memphis on June 9 to sign legislation that creates an independent governing board for the institution, university President David Rudd said.

Rudd made the announcement on Twitter on Friday afternoon: "Pleased to share that Governor Haslam will be on the U of M campus Thursday June 9th at 330 to sign the Focus Act," he wrote.

Efforts to reach the governor's office for confirmation and details about the visit were unsuccessful late Friday.

Under the act passed by the Legislature this year, the University of Memphis will be removed from the control of the Tennessee Board of Regents.

Several other state universities will likewise get their own governing boards: Austin Peay State, East Tennessee State, Middle Tennessee State, Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech.

The Tennessee Board of Regents will focus on two-year colleges. The University of Tennessee system already has its own board.
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By Jane Roberts of The Commercial Appeal

Starting late Sunday afternoon, Germantown Municipal School District board members will be in a retreat at the Westin hotel in downtown Memphis seeking ways to improve the way the five work together.

Team Trek, a private group that conducts team-building exercises, is charging $1,800 for its work, a series of sessions and discussions Sunday evening to improve teamwork and communication and help members see how their role differs from the superintendent's, board president Linda Fisher said.

The total cost of the event  which begins at 5 p.m. Sunday and ends at noon Monday  is $2,830.

"We could have stayed in Germantown," Fisher said. "I felt it was an opportunity to go somewhere, be on neutral ground with an outside expert, and let us work."

Board members will share rooms, district spokeswoman Kate Crowder said, noting that hotel manager Patrick Jordan, a GMSD parent, had offered to "treat the board well."

"It's not a financial deal," Crowder said. "They just are going to make them feel special because this parent cares about all the work these people (board members) are doing for free."

Jordan did not respond to an email. Posters on a private school-community Facebook page noted the Germantown Board of Mayor and Aldermen holds retreats in a firehouse and assumed Westin was providing the rooms for free.

The board last year approved a $10,000 budget for its development and "in-service," Crowder said, noting the balance before the retreat was $4,715.

Starting at 8 a.m. Monday, the board will turn its focus to Superintendent Jason Manuel's contract and performance review. This year, his work is being evaluated equally by the board and members of the cabinet, in part because the board did not have performance measures in place when the fiscal year began July 1.

"We did not feel it was fair to judge him on things he did not know ahead of time," Fisher said, noting that the board would also design a template for his future evaluations and whether he deserves a raise.

His salary is $160,000. He received a $10,000 bonus last year for navigating the district's first year.

This year, Manuel was evaluated on a list of skills Tennessee School Boards Association recommends, including a 1-5 ranking of his relationships with key constituencies.

Manuel's relationship with two board members was tested in the design of the addition at Riverdale Elementary and in the creation of the district's strategic plan. Members Mark Dely and Ken Hoover wanted tighter control in both cases.

The two are often on the losing end of 3-2 voting block that has characterized the board. The dichotomy may have shaped mindsets of several people who have pulled petitions for school board races. Of the four newcomers, three are considering multiple seats.

Amy Eoff, current president of Dogwood Elementary PTA, and parent Laura Meanwell, pulled petitions for positions 1 and 3. Those seats are held by incumbents Fisher and Natalie Williams. Suzanne Jones, also active in Dogwood PTA, pulled for positions 1, 3 and 5.

Melinda Fischer, outgoing president of the Germantown Municipal Council of PTA, also pulled for position 5. Hoover holds the seat, and he has not decided if he will run.

All seats on the Germantown Board of Mayor and Aldermen and school board are at-large positions, a strategy for avoiding elected officials whose interest is their own neighborhoods, Mayor Mike Palazzolo said.
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The announcement that ServiceMaster is relocating its headquarters from East Memphis to Downtown, instead of seeking greener pastures elsewhere, is a win for Downtown boosters and the city's economic development officials.

The company made the announcement Friday that it is moving its HQ and 1,200 employees from prime office space in the Ridge Lake area to the now-closed Peabody Place mall. The company's call center with 800 workers will remain in northeast Memphis.

An added plus comes with the move  a new venture for ServiceMaster. The former Tower Records space, 20,000 square feet on the ground floor of the four-level mall, will house a new technology and innovation center.

The company operates the American Home Shield, AmeriSpec, Furniture Medic, Merry Maid, ServiceMaster Clean and Terminix brands. Those brands employ about 13,000 workers throughout North America, and independent franchises employ another 31,000 workers.

ServiceMaster Chief Executive Rob Gillette told The Commercial Appeal Friday that the company started its search by considering 10 to 13 cities before narrowing the list to Memphis and another city he declined to reveal.

"It came down to the deal we could cut and how we could get everybody in one place, and this is a very special place,'' Gillette said.

The company will seek public incentives, but Gillette declined to describe what they would be until it is time to make them public.

News reports that ServiceMaster was exploring relocating out of the city had some skeptics wondering whether the talk about moving was a ploy to garner tax incentives to remain in the city.

Given Gillette's goal of changing the company's culture and having that quest made easier by having all the HQ employees under one roof, the closed retail mall fits what the company was looking for in terms of a new home.

And, while tax breaks are controversial, the fact that 2,000 jobs will remain in Memphis and Downtown gets a new corporate tenant, in our minds, justifies the government incentives. That does not take away from the fact that the ideal tax incentive should be used to attract new jobs. But consider this in ServiceMaster's case:

Downtown gets a boost, Memphis keeps the jobs and, according to economic development officials, the Ridge Lake area the company is leaving is desirable prime office space that likely will be filled fairly quickly.

This also works out for Belz Enterprises, which opened Peabody Place mall in 2001 next to its landmark Peabody hotel. But the mall substantially closed by 2008.

The new technology and innovation center promises to bring even more jobs and people to Downtown, and will be a big help to the moon mission of the Greater Memphis Chamber's Chairman's Circle to create 1,000 new entrepreneurs.

Greater Memphis Chamber President and Chief Executive Officer Phil Trenary called the ServiceMaster announcement a win-win.

When the city can keep 2,000 jobs from leaving and move 1,200 of those jobs to Downtown, adding to the vitality of what is already taking place there, it is a double win.

And, it would be a cherry on top of the cake if the chamber and the Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) of Memphis and Shelby County can attract brand-new, high-paying jobs to the space ServiceMaster is leaving.
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Anthony Tancredi

Memphis

A recent Rasmussen poll found that 71 percent of Democratic voters believe Hillary Clinton should keep running for president of the United States even if indicted. I read that headline over again many times, certain that my eyes were going bad.

What is happening to our country? Are we so biased in our own political views that common sense and decency, along with morality and ethical behavior, are easily cast aside in favor of winning? Lets knowingly put a felon in charge of our country?

While were at it, put the inmates in charge of the prisons and let the terrorists control the nuclear arsenal. Our citizenry needs to understand that it is responsible for the leadership it elects. If presidential candidates are not acceptable, seek new people. We cannot excuse unethical or dishonest behavior anywhere for any reason.

Our nation is tired of self-interested politicians, yet it fails to promote anything different. When we decide honesty and integrity mean nothing, we forfeit our right to demand anything from our leaders. Whether we admit it or not, our national leaders are a reflection of the people who voted them into office.
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By Chris Cillizza

On Thursday night, Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal that the Mexican heritage of the judge overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University was an "absolute conflict" because of the real estate mogul's proposal to build a wall along the border.

Where to start? That trying to disqualify judges based on heritage  the judge in question, Gonzalo Curiel, was born in Indiana to parents of Mexican descent  would effectively disqualify scores of jurists across the country from the bench? Or that the very idea of ethnicity, religion or some other characteristic being considered when discussing how a federal judge does his job is anathema to the foundational principles of our judicial system?

At this point, conversations about Trump's ability and willingness to offend are almost pointless. Trump does and says things that not only would be poison for any other politician  of either party  but also that play dangerously with racial and ethnic politics.

What is important is that the idea that Trump would adjust his rhetoric or his issue positions once he became the Republican nominee is totally false. There is no Trump 2.0, no re-invention of Trump as more inclusive or less combative. This is it.

Trump has said as much.

"You think I'm going to change?" he asked rhetorically during a news conference Tuesday at Trump Tower. "I'm not changing."

He has said some version of "Trump gonna Trump" for weeks now, even while occasionally promising to maybe be a little bit nicer and amid promises from chief campaign strategist Paul Manafort that the "new" Trump was coming soon. A placid debate here. A nice comment about a former rival there. But, generally, Trump can't escape  and doesn't seem to want to  from being exactly, unapologetically who he is.

Think about it from Trump's perspective. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, laughed at him when he got into the presidential race almost a year ago. They said he was nothing more than a reality TV star. A loud-talking know-nothing who wouldn't go anywhere. Then Trump won the GOP nomination. Convincingly.

What possible lesson could he draw from that? This one: That the people who say they know what works in politics have no clue. And that the people who matter  voters  love his over-the-top rhetoric and willingness to be controversial all the time.

Plus, remember that Trump is 69 years old. How many people of that age, particularly those who have lived as public and successful a life as Trump, make major changes in who they are and how they approach the world? The answer is very, very few.

If you are a Republican elected official *cough* Paul Ryan *cough* desperately hoping that a more cerebral, more serious, less I-will-say-whatever-is-on-my-mind-at-this-exact-second Trump is just about to emerge, I have some news for you: You're out of luck.

Trump is who he is. Republican voters, or at least a decent chunk of them, liked that person enough to hand him the party's presidential nomination. And that's the person Trump will be between now and Nov. 8, and the one the GOP has pinned its hopes on. Gulp.

Chris Cillizza writes The Fix, a daily political blog, for the Washington Post.
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By David Perdue

The Outrage Machine is regular Washington Post opinion column by voices from the left and right on Washington:

Republican voters have sent the Washington establishment a message in the form of our presidential nominee. It is loud, and it should be clear.

Yet, a small enclave of career politicians within our party is still struggling to understand the mass appeal of Donald Trump. These D.C. insiders are so caught up in the Washington bubble that they failed to realize the world around them has changed.

For too long, career politicians have overpromised and underdelivered. The constant gridlock and lack of results in Washington is unacceptable. We have a political system that protects those in power and leaves the American people behind.

Georgians sent a strong message to the establishment in my Senate race by electing an outsider to the political process. We now see that same movement sweeping across the country, and we should welcome it.

Two years ago, I was an outsider businessman campaigning for the first time and endured some of the same criticisms being leveled against Mr. Trump today. Through my own experience, I probably understand the Trump phenomenon and the new reality of this electorate better than most.

In my race, the establishment types said I wasn't Republican enough. They warned the party faithful that I hadn't paid my political dues and that voting for me would be risky. Never mind the fact I had spent my career running major companies and creating jobs, versus running for political office as a full-time job.

People listened when I spoke in business terms out on the campaign trail about the national debt and global security crisis  instead of reciting tired old GOP talking points. Instead of the usual Washington Beltway babble, I spoke plainly to people about their concerns with the economy and jobs, and their frustration with Washington.

The antiquated tactics that were used unsuccessfully against me have been deployed against Mr. Trump, and the voters responded in similar fashion. They ignored the preachy pundits, the ideology police and the Washington establishment. They chose a different type of candidate because they believe to get different results, you have to send a different type of person to Washington.

Mr. Trump's nabbing of the presidential nod embodies a dramatic shift in the political paradigm. Many voters are now more motivated by their frustration with Washington than their ideology. As I've said all along, this movement is bigger than party or ideology, or even, dare I say, Trump himself. However, I'm not dismissing the incredible skill set our nominee possesses.

Through straightforward, unapologetic criticism of the powers that be, Trump has tapped into the anti-Washington sentiment. Anyone who read "The Art of the Deal" shouldn't be surprised by his technique or his success.

The negotiation strategy outlined by Trump the Dealmaker in his signature book gives key insight into Trump the Campaigner. He is focused on the American people's shared frustration with politicians, bureaucrats and the media. He is bold and unpredictable, always keeping the opposition off balance. And he is a master of earned media.

The undeniable talent he displayed while navigating a massive 17-person primary will become even more evident in a head-to-head matchup this fall. One by one, he picked off the best and brightest the Republican establishment had to offer and motivated more people to go to the polls in the primary.

He is the only true outsider running for president. Now, he can focus on dismantling the Republican Party's real opponent, Hillary Clinton.

While unpredictability shakes those conditioned to protect their own power, anyone who still has doubts about Mr. Trump should stop agonizing for a minute, take a deep breath, and at least contemplate the value of having such a unique asset at the top of our ticket.

Fortunately for our party, Trump is a nominee unlike anything we have ever seen. Based on everything we've witnessed to date, Mr. Trump is not going to walk into the Democrats' traps or take their bait. He will play his own game, one he intends to win.

As Republicans, let's not lose sight of our shared mission to change the direction of our country. That's why we worked so hard to win the Senate majority in 2014. To affect real change, we must keep the Senate majority and win the White House in November.

Our country simply cannot afford four more years of the liberal, progressive policies that have failed the working middle class of America. Clinton has committed to doubling down on these failed policies. We certainly cannot withstand losing the Supreme Court for a generation.

We have a unique opportunity to finally change course. It is time for an outsider in the White House. It is time to let Trump be Trump, and to help him win this election.

David Perdue is a Republican senator from Georgia. Elected to the Senate in 2014, he is the only Fortune 500 CEO in Congress and previously served as CEO of Reebok Brand and Dollar General. He wrote this for the Washington Post.
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By Ramesh Ponnuru

Once upon a time, we called it "the character issue." It was a major part of the conservative attack on Bill Clinton in the 1990s: He was a draft-dodging adulterer and therefore unworthy of the office of the presidency.

Most conservatives are making a different judgment about Donald Trump. He too avoided the draft, and he has even bragged about affairs with married women. But conservatives are supporting him.

Charles Kesler, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and editor of the Claremont Review of Books, speculates about the cause of conservatives' tolerance for Trump.

"(H)is vices have been exhaustively condemned but never examined in comparative perspective. Do obscenities fall from his lips more readily than they did from Lyndon Johnson's or Richard Nixon's? Are the circumstances of his three marriages more shameful than the circumstances of John F. Kennedy's pathologically unfaithful one  or for that matter, Bill Clinton's humiliatingly unfaithful one? Have any of his egotistical excesses rivaled Andrew Jackson's killing a man in a duel over a horse racing bet and an insult to Jackson's wife? The point is not to extenuate Trump's faults but to understand how millions of voters see him."

What these voters are thinking, on Kesler's plausible explanation, is that it would be nothing new to elect a president with serious character flaws. Trump backer Robert Jeffress, a prominent pastor in Dallas, makes a version of this argument. Conservative Christians backed Ronald Reagan even though he had been married twice. Many of them supported the thrice-married Newt Gingrich even knowing he had committed adultery. To refuse to support Trump on character grounds would require "selective amnesia," Jeffress concludes.

This line of thinking itself represents a new lowering of public standards.

One difference between Trump and previous presidents  a difference that Kesler notes  is that the public had no way of knowing about most of their vices before voting for them. (Nixon's swearing on the Watergate tapes, while not the focus of public concern, was scandalous.) Many voters will be choosing Trump while knowing a lot about his.

And truly comparing Trump to those flawed presidents would not come out well for him. They had more virtues against which to judge those vices: Many of them had served in the military in wartime, and they had taken the time to learn the basics about government.

Then there are the dimensions of those vices. People often criticize Trump for "vulgarity," but that makes it sound as if he merely uses the wrong fork or decorates gaudily. To insinuate that a rival candidate's father was involved in assassinating a president, or to go after the candidate's wife's looks, or to attack a reporter for being disabled  and then lie about all of these offenses: These are novelties in a presidential race. So is a candidate's having established a business that is credibly alleged to have been an essentially fraudulent enterprise preying on the vulnerable.

A voter should care about a candidate's character for two reasons. The first relates to job performance. Would the candidate seek the common good and exercise mature judgment in office? No president hits those marks every time, but some people inspire more confidence than others.

The second concerns our culture. Trump's success in the presidential race so far reflects a cultural rot: It would once have been impossible for someone like him to win the nomination. But it also deepens that rot. If we elevate a man we know to be cruel, impulsive, insecure, vain and dishonest to the most powerful position in our country, that choice helps to define our own character and shape our expectations for one another. It also means that our political debate will be dumber, nastier and more content-free.

A candidate's character isn't everything. It has to be weighed along with his philosophy, his public-policy positions, his knowledge and intelligence. And it has to be weighed against the character of his opponent.

Weighing all of these considerations in the balance, most conservatives will conclude that Trump, for all his flaws, is better than Hillary Clinton. Any such judgment should be made with both eyes open. Conservatives who instead dismiss what we know about Trump because nobody's perfect are effectively saying that character does not matter at all to them.

Ramesh Ponnuru, a Bloomberg View columnist, is a senior editor for National Review.
Microsoft this week filed another lawsuit in federal court accusing unidentified individuals with stealing its software by illegally activating more than 1,000 copies of Windows 7, Vista and 8, and Office 2010 and 2013.

The suit, filed with a Seattle court on Wednesday, was the latest in a string of cases opened by the Redmond, Wash. company in an effort to quash piracy.

"Microsoft's cyberforensics have identified over one thousand product activations originating from IP address 66.51.73.111 ('the IP Address'), which is presently assigned to Earthlink Inc., and which, on information and belief, is being used by the Defendants in furtherance of the unlawful conduct alleged herein," Microsoft's lawyers wrote in the complaint.

Like many other software vendors, Microsoft uses a product key -- in its case, a 25-character alphanumeric string -- to lock a license to a device. Keys are a core component of Microsoft's anti-piracy technology.

The product keys used to activate the bootleg Windows and Office had been stolen from the company's supply chain, used more times than legal or were activated outside their intended geographic region, Microsoft claimed.

"On information and belief, Defendants have been and continue to be involved in installing counterfeit and infringing copies of Microsoft's software and/or related components," the company charged.

Microsoft has not identified the culprits, but simply tagged them as "John Doe" 1 through 10.

This week's lawsuit was similar to many others, including one filed in March asking permission to subpoena Comcast to name the subscriber at an IP address Microsoft said was the origin of thousands of product activation requests.

In a related filing, Microsoft noted that the June 1 lawsuit was linked to 10 other cases it had filed since November 2014, all alleging that pirates were or had illegally activated the company's software. Now at 11, the case list will be handled by a single judge.

Microsoft discovered the large number of activations through what it described as "cyberforensics," which the latest complaint defined as "investigative methods that leverage state-of-the-art technology to detect software piracy."

But it's almost certain that Microsoft wasn't forced to deploy some unusual technology to sniff out the alleged pirates in this, or any of the other, cases.

"As part of its cyberforensic methods, Microsoft analyzes activation data voluntarily provided by users when they activate Microsoft software, including the IP address from which a given product is activated," the lawsuit stated.

In other words, Microsoft tallies the number of activations traced to each IP address, much like a web server log can be mined for the IP addresses that request pages.

Most likely, Microsoft has a trigger point at which it deems the number of over-the-web activation requests as potential piracy.

Microsoft said as much in the complaint. "Cyberforensics allows Microsoft to analyze billions of activations of Microsoft software and identify activation patterns and characteristics that make it more likely than not that the IP address associated with the activations is an address through which pirated software is being activated," the company stated.

The alleged thieves who used the same IP address to activate more than a 1,000 copies of Windows and Office were no smarter than a bank robber who uses the same get-away car to hold up a dozen banks.

Microsoft asked the federal judge to enjoin the defendants from continuing their piracy, and for restitution of all ill-gotten gains.
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The Greatest

By Professor Francis A. Boyle

04 June, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Hitching back to UC north on Stoney Island

Through the Black Belt

Not very smart

But I was young,felt invulnerable, and had street smarts

A well off Black Businessman picks me up in a Lincoln

A White Boy like you should not be hitch-hiking through this Black neighborhood

Of course he was right

Maybe thats why he picked me up

To look out for me

A Black Angel?

Said nothing in response, just smiled

Said he was a business manager for Muhamed Ali



LOL I said to myself, but just smiled and said nothing

You see that Black Fleetwood up there coming south

Thats Ali



Up pulled a Black Cadillac Limo as big as a boat

Driving it was Muhamed Ali

Champion of the World

And hell no I wont go

A great fighter, and a great man

Simply the Greatest

He was driving with the right hand, left on the side of the car

Wearing white shirt

Young, Black, beautiful, charistmatic, dynamic

I was stunned, mouth agape



All traffic stopped on Stoney, now King

As the two of them shot the breeze

No one cared, it was Ali

Then he continued south

My driver told the truth

Shall never forget that day

When a White kid

Hitching through the Black Belt

Met Muhamed Ali

It was simply the Greatest

And he was and shall always be the Greatest.

Hell no, I wont go!

We all knew Ali was a great fighter

That made him a great man

The Greatest.

Professor Francis A. Boyle is an international law expert and served as Legal Advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization and Yasser Arafat on the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence, as well as to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations from 1991 to 1993, where he drafted the Palestinian counter-offer to the now defunct Oslo Agreement. His books include  Palestine, Palestinians and International Law (2003), and  The Palestinian Right of Return under International Law (2010).










Climate Change Censorship: Australia And UNESCO

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

04 June, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Censoring climate change and its reporting is a big business, notably among fossil fuel obsessives and those in denial. It continues to fulfil a role in the policies of Australias Turnbull government. Even after the demise of Tony Abbott last year, his successor continues to scrub his own environmental credentials from his profile. As he does so, an assortment of weasel words have found their way into the political argot: innovation, growth and a host of other empty treats.

Despite lauding various efforts to pursue clean energy (PM Malcolm Turnbull decided to reverse the previous leaders decision to scrap the Clean Energy Finance Corporation), environmental politics in Australia remains a dirty business.

Turnbull demonstrated as much in March by announcements that he would remove funds from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and replace it with a new, slogan rich Clean Energy Innovation Fund. Turnbull is particularly keen on copyrighting innovation, a substitute, he finds, for actual de-funding strategies for the essentially redundant environment portfolio.

As Giles Parkinson noted in March, the move to de-fund ARENA and create a new fund using money already allocated to the CEFC is nothing but a sleight of hand, and an elaborate ruse by Turnbull to save more than $1.3 billion and get his new pet word innovation included in a financing scheme.

This is only one portion of Turnbulls strategy. Another is a no mean effort at censorship in an attempt to minimise the effects of climate change on Australias environment. The current prime minister is, after all, a businessman, and while he lauds efforts of Australian innovation in solar energy, ironically much of it being done in other countries, he is also happy to remove references to climate change when needed.

Guardian Australia scored something of a coup on this tendency in obtaining the Unesco report on tourism and climate change at the end of last month. Titled World heritage and tourism in a changing climate, it was modified to incorporate Australian objections.

The draft report, to that end, looks somewhat different to its final form. One had just to ask the lead author of the report, Adam Markham of the Union of Concerned Scientists, who expressed profound shock at the reasons the Australian government gave for why they pressured Unesco to drop the Australian sites.

Portions removed in the final report include reference to the dangers posed to the Great Barrier Reef. The biggest long-term threat to the GBR today, and to its ecosystems services, biodiversity, heritage values and tourism economy is climate change, including rising sea temperatures, accelerating rates of sea-level rise, changing weather patterns and ocean acidification.

The section concluded that without a comprehensive response more in keeping with the scale of the threat, the [reef]s extraordinary biodiversity and natural beauty may lose its world heritage values.

In addition to this excision came two other sections. The Tasmanian wilderness, for one, receives no mention as being under threat, despite the appalling fires in early 2016.

David Bowman, professor of environmental change biology at the University of Tasmania noted the root cause behind the fire season as being the record-breaking dry spring and the largely rain-free and consistently warm summer, which has left fuels and peat soils bone dry. Far from seeing the Tasmanian fires in isolation, their severity had to be considered as part of a global pattern of increasing destructive fires driven by extreme fire weather.

Dr. Michael-Shawn Fletcher of the University of Melbourne would similarly observe in February that the frequency of bushfires in Tasmania had become exceptional. My conviction, he gloomily noted, is that the current trend is evidence of anthropogenic forces.

The response from the Tasmanian Liberal premier, one that Turnbull has aped, was to deny that there was any serious problem. The fire, he claimed in February, burned some 1.2 per cent of the world heritage zone. While not insignificant [] it could have been much worse.

Environmental groups disagreed in what became a public relations war of images on forest destruction. Its damn ordinary, shot back the premier, that youve got environmental activists almost gleefully capitalising on images, naturally caused, which could inflict significant damage on our brand, our reputation.

The deleted section on Tasmania in the Unesco report is cognisant of the 2013 assessment of climate change threat [which] identified the same habitats as at high risk from greater fire frequency and drier conditions, with likely catastrophic implications for fauna. The calamitous fires of January 2016 bore out those dire predictions.

Warnings about Kakadu national park similarly vanished in the penultimate report. Climate change threatens Aboriginal traditional use by altering the ecosystems of the vast wetlands of Kakadu and raising temperatures to a level likely to lead to more intense fire regimes.

Brands, reputations, labels, and management. Do not kick up a fuss and damage reputations. Those are the guiding words and principles in the Turnbull environmental protocol. Rather than providing genuine policy, these constitute the fundamentals of managing decline. And, in that universe, if profit can be made along the way, so much the better.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne: bkampmark@gmail.com










The Politics Around Kashmiri Pandit Rehabilitation

By Faiza Nasir

04 June, 2016

Countercurrents.org

The valley is seething with anger and distrust again, this time against the proposals of the government which cry of misadventure. An issue which required utmost sensitivity and maturity on the part of the government has taken a volatile turn owing to its ineptness in handling it. At the request of the centre, the PDP government in alliance with BJP has proposed setting up of a separate colony for the Kashmiri Pandit migrants in Kashmir. The mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits has and will remain a blot on the history of Kashmir no matter how contentious the whos and whys of it remain.



However there are a few things that need to be understood regarding this crisis at hand. First of all, the image that is being manufactured and projected all across the nation through mainstream media that Kashmiri Muslims are against the coming back of their Pandit counterparts, backing these stories with the video footages of the protests taking place in the valley is sheer twisting of truth. The people in the valley, and here I say people because it comprises of the Kashmiri Muslims as well as the Kashmiri Pandits residing in the valley, are not against the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits. Rather, people in the valley have expressed their happiness over the return of their Pandit brethren. What the people are against though is the idea of setting up of a separate colony for the kashmiri pandits. The backlash and resistance by the people in the valley should therefore be read along these lines.

When has ghettoisation helped any community or society is a question that the government needs to ask itself. History bears testimony as to how ghettoisation breeds hatred and never love, fear and never trust. Today, as the refugee integration is a major concern for Germany, the German municipal authorities have aimed to disperse refugees housing and shelters across neighbourhoods in order to prevent formation of ghettoes. I quote this as an example of the kind of maturity that is expected of a government, to integrate people across race, religion and other identities.

What the government is citing is security concerns for the Pandit community. True, the security of the Pandits should be a priority, but how can separate colony be a solution? Instead of working at building trust between both the communities, the chief minister comes up with statements like, we cant leave pigeons for cats. Hail sensitivity! If the minority community is being invited with statements like these, no matter how much their Muslim brethren make efforts to foster trust in them, it wont work.

On the part of the people back in the valley, though the popular aspiration being that of welcoming the Kashmiri Pandits, however, more sensitivity needs to be shown as a responsible majority. The lines between protesting against rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits in a separate colony and integrated rehabilitation shouldnt blur. Moreover, the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits should not only be on material lines as is being understood by the present government, it has to be social and psychological too. Mere providing land would not work until and unless they feel integrated as a community.

Here the Kashmiri Muslims have a bigger role to play. As the majority, it is their responsibility to make the minorities feel secure. Any action on the part of the majority community that instils fear in the minds of the minority would be failure of the society as a whole and the traditional harmony that Kashmir has always been known of. Coming back of Kashmiri Pandits would not change the demography of the state as is being raised by certain sections because they have always been a part of it. Right now this whole discourse has been given a communal colour by the right wing political group in consonance with the current government, thereby shifting the entire energy into an issue of Pandit vs. Muslims. Let us not fall into this trap. Let us prove these polarising forces wrong. Let us shift our energy towards building a harmonious Kashmir, the way it used to be.

Let the Kashmiri Pandits depose their confidence in their Muslim counterparts in the valley, and let the Kashmiri Muslims on their part see this as an opportunity to revive their age old culture of harmony and diversity back. And let some sense prevail in the current government which instead of implementing the polarising agendas of right wing group and proposing ghettoisation in the name of rehabilitation should do something substantial and genuine for the Kashmiri migrants and help them rehabilitate in the valley.

Faiza Nasir is pursuing masters in political science from University of Hyderabad, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir. She can be reached at faiza.nasir@rediffmail.com














Printer Friendly Version Re-Reading Dr BR Ambedkars Earliest Paper On Caste 100 Years Later By Dr K S Sharma 04 June, 2016

Countercurrents.org It is hundred years since Dr B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956) wrote, CASTES IN INDIA: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development, a Paper he presented on 9th May 1916 at an Anthropology Seminar at Columbia University. That was one of his earliest significant works, a scholarly work ; written by the scholar when he was 25, much before he became a politician. In fact , he was totally reluctant to be a politician at the time despite pleadings by some leaders of the freedom movement. This was regarded as an important, thorough though brief Thesis of 47 paras. Some of the most quoted, cited even in recent past, ideas and lines of Ambedkar are from this thesis . Ambedkar himself published his famous work, Annihilation of Caste, in 1936, and its third edition in 1944, in which he included this Thesis of 1916 thus basically upholding it, even subsequently. While reviewing some ideas on caste till then prevalent, he comes to some definite ideas . Ambedkar concludes his thesis with the following lines indicating his scientific method, his conviction, and open-mindedness as an young scholar: The primary object of the paper is to indicate what I regard to be the right path of investigation, with a view to arrive at a serviceable truth. We must, however, guard against approaching the subject with a bias. Sentiment must be outlawed from the domain of science and things should be judged from an objective standpoint. For myself I shall find as much pleasure in a positive destruction of my own ideology, as in a rational disagreement on a topic, which, notwithstanding many learned disquisitions, is likely to remain controversial forever. To conclude, while I am ambitious to advance a Theory of Caste, if it can be shown to be untenable I shall be equally willing to give it up. (emphases added throughout unless otherwise indicated.) Several of his famous ideas on caste are rooted and found in this Paper. We are not making a comprehensive review of the Paper here. It is educative and refreshing to remember a few points , which is presently our main aim here. Also because certain important ideas in this Thesis are not much remembered by some Ambedkarites. Rather they are forgotten or distorted. Views that are basically different from his ideas stated in this Paper are often spread as his own ideas. They often wallow in populist, vulgar and vulgarized depiction of social phenomena, if only as part of debased vote-bank politics. And they are not based on facts of history or society. They harp more on sentiment than on sensible treatment. They are more keen on exploiting the caste and sub-caste divide than on seeking serviceable truth, for uniting people against injustice. The re-reading should help a more objective and purposive analysis. For example , among his well-known and oft-quoted views we find : [11] This critical evaluation of the various characteristics of Caste leave no doubt that prohibition, or rather the absence of intermarriageendogamy, to be conciseis the only one that can be called the essence of Caste when rightly understood.  31As for myself I do not feel puzzled by the Origin of Caste in India for, as I have established before, endogamy is the only characteristic of Caste and when I say Origin of Caste I mean The Origin of the Mechanism for Endogamy. [31] .To say that individuals make up society is trivial; society is always composed of classes. It may be an exaggeration to assert the theory of class-conflict, but the existence of definite classes in a society is a fact. Their basis may differ. They may be economic or intellectual or social, but an individual in a society is always a member of a class. This is a universal fact and early Hindu society could not have been an exception to this rule, and, as a matter of fact, we know it was not. If we bear this generalization in mind, our study of the genesis of caste would be very much facilitated, for we have only to determine what was the class that first made itself into a caste, for class and caste, so to say, are next door neighbours, and it is only a span that separates the two. A Caste is an Enclosed Class. [40] This sub-division of a society is quite natural. But the unnatural thing about these sub-divisions is that they have lost the open-door character of the class system and have become self-enclosed units called castes. The question is: were they compelled to close their doors and become endogamous, or did they close them of their own accord? I submit that there is a double line of answer: Some closed the door: Others found it closed against them. .

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The two questions of spread and of origin of caste are not separated, he says :  This is because of the common belief among scholars that the caste system has either been imposed upon the docile population of India by a law-giver as a divine dispensation, or that it has grown according to some law of social growth peculiar to the Indian people. As is well-known, On 25 December 1927, the book of Manusmriti was publicly burnt with sandalwood by Ambedkar and his colleagues. The incident was recorded thus : At nine o'clock that night the Manusmriti was placed on a pyre, in a specially dug pit, in front of the pandal, and was ceremoniously burnt at the hands of Sahasrabuddhe, the Brahmin friend of Dr. Ambedkar. This explosive deed rocked all the charlatans, pundits, Acharyas and Shankaracharyas in India. In the pandal, it was reported, there was only one photo, and that was of Gandhiji. It was connected with Mahad Satyagraha of 19-20 March 1927, asserting the rights of dalits to use common waterbodies; Chavdar Tank of Mahad town was chosen for the agitation. The burning of Manusmriti was also in Mahad , as a sequel to the previous struggle. It was obviously a symbolic act , a protest, but was part of an earthly struggle for drinking water. However, his views on Manu and related issues were scientific, based on history, rather than sentiments.This was how, in his 1916 Paper, he deals with the ghost Manu: [34] I first propose to handle the law-giver of India. Every country has its law-giver, who arises as an incarnation (avatar) in times of emergency to set right a sinning humanity and give it the laws of justice and morality. Manu, the law-giver of India, if he did exist, was certainly an audacious person. If the story that he gave the law of caste be credited, then Manu must have been a dare-devil fellow.. It is unimaginable that the law of caste was given. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that Manu could not have outlived his law, for what is that class that can submit to be degraded to the status of brutes by the pen of a man, and suffer him to raise another class to the pinnacle? ..I may seem hard on Manu, but I am sure my force is not strong enough to kill his ghost. He lives like a disembodied spirit and is appealed to, and I am afraid will yet live long.  One thing I want to impress upon you is that Manu did not give the law of Caste and that he could not do so. Caste existed long before Manu. He was an upholder of it and therefore philosophised about it, but certainly he did not and could not ordain the present order of Hindu Society. His work ended with the codification of existing caste rules and the preaching of Caste Dharma. Then he goes on to say the same about role of Brahmins. In fact he says, it is incorrect in thought and malicious in intent :  The spread and growth of the Caste system is too gigantic a task to be achieved by the power or cunning of an individual or of a class. Similar in argument is the theory that the Brahmins created the Caste. After what I have said regarding Manu, I need hardly say anything more, except to point out that it is incorrect in thought and malicious in intent. The Brahmins may have been guilty of many things, and I dare say they were, but the imposing of the caste system on the non-Brahmin population was beyond their mettle. They may have helped the process by their glib philosophy, but they certainly could not have pushed their scheme beyond their own confines. To fashion society after one's own pattern! How glorious! How hard! 

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Those who upheld varna system claimed its basis in ancient sastras. He refutes that idea also.  There is a strong belief in the mind of orthodox Hindus that the Hindu Society was somehow moulded into the framework of the Caste System and that it is an organization consciously created by the Shastras. Not only does this belief exist, but it is being justified on the ground that it cannot but be good, because it is ordained by the Shastras and the Shastras cannot be wrong. I have urged so much on the adverse side of this attitude, not because the religious sanctity is grounded on scientific basis, nor to help those reformers who are preaching against it. Preaching did not make the caste system; neither will it unmake it. My aim is to show the falsity of the attitude that has exalted religious sanction to the position of a scientific explanation. He stresses scientific attitude and rejects idealist positions that claim religious sanction and assert that one or the other scriptures are decisive. No amount of preaching by the priests can create it, he says and adds , no amount of preaching by the reformer can unmake it! His approach is based on material facts, materialist outlook. The Indian Constitution, they say, is the new Sastra, the new Bhagavat Gita. It bans untouchability, as also several other evil practices, prescribes punishments too, but to no avail. It was preceded by centuries of preaching by social reformers from Basava to those of medieval era, from Phule, Narayana Guru and Periyar to the latest Guru, of the modern era. Preachings not only by social reformers but also political reformers of modern times from Gandhi to the latest leader. And now came this new manu-dharma in the form of the Indian Constitution. 66 years after it was proclaimed and invoked, and despite so many laws and rules, all these reforms and all these preachings could not and did not eliminate caste discrimination , not to speak of eradicating casteism. Thus Ambedkar, the scholar, in this Paper of 1916, pointedly and in a clear-headed manner proclaims : Preaching did not make the caste system; neither will it unmake it. Then what was the origin of caste? He writes: [47] Such attempts at reform, however, have aroused a great deal of controversy regarding its origin, as to whether it is due to the conscious command of a Supreme Authority, or is an unconscious growth in the life of a human society under peculiar circumstances. Those who hold the latter view will, I hope, find some food for thought in the standpoint adopted in this paper. **** ****

In an earlier para he wrote: 44) . Take India as a whole with its various communities designated by the various creeds to which they owe allegiance, to wit, the Hindus, Mohammedans, Jews, Christians and Parsis. Now, barring the Hindus, the rest within themselves are non-caste communities. But with respect to each other they are castes. Here he as a sociologist indicates how caste was a peculiar phenomenon in (British) India, which is by and large co-terminus with South Asia today. When we probe a little, we find many things : Even today, we can see in many villages how people of these religions other than Hindus are identified as another caste rather than as (merely) of a different religion. In particular , Muslims and Christians are treated as another caste in view of conversions of recent past. One can find some in the same kith and kin being converted as Christians , while others remaining as Hindus; there are marriages too among them, caste being the same; and post-marriage, there is informal reconversion too. Post-conversion too, they continue with customs they inherited from their past as Hindus and often with an added imprint of their caste. Christians of one caste do not normally marry Christians of another caste. That is, the real identification is more with caste rather than as Christians. That is why Ambedkar stressed endogamy. The same is found, less commonly and less clearly , rather more subtly, among some lower communities of Muslims also. For instance, a Khan would not normally marry a Quereshi. There were more than 100 castes, yes castes, listed among muslims of UP , Maharashtra etc. a few decades ago. Reservations were extended and implemented to some of these castes among muslims as backward communities in all the states of South as also in Bengal (OBC A and B), despite some legal hitches. Mulayams Samajvadi Party promised reservations for muslims . There are demands in other states too from sections of muslims . The Uttar Pradesh-based Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH) announced to launch a protest rally in Mumbai on April 26, 2015 against the BJP-led Maharashtra government for its decisions such as beef ban and scrapping five per cent reservation to Muslims. Thus caste is very much seen also beyond Hinduism, beyond Brahminism, and beyond Manu. If we see caste as merely linked to Hinduism, Brahminism or Manu, we in fact under-estimate its deep and vicious role in society and polity. Impressions that BJP, unlike some secular parties, is opposed to reservations on the basis of religion are there, as statements by their leaders indicate. But things are changing thanks to vote-bank politics. It is the same case with beef-eating that is linked with some communities. BJP Union Minister from North-east, Kiren Rijju defended and decalared he eats beef and none can stop it. The BJP of Kerala said they recognize that beef-eating is widely prevalent in some communities and they would not come in the way. Whether they clamour against beef or allow it, both are related to vote-bank politics. THE HINDU dated December 17, 2015 reported : Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday informed the Assembly that the government will not issue a notification to reinstate 5% reservation in educational institutes for backward castes in Muslim community, since no legal framework exists to support it. The Chief Ministers remark came after the States Minority Affairs Minister Eknath Khadse had assured the House that the government was positive on reservation demands of Muslim community. A year ago, the BJP-led State government had issued an ordinance ensuring reservations for both Maratha and Muslim communities in educational institutes and jobs. The ordinance was later challenged in the Bombay High Court, which put a stay on it. While the educational reservation for backward castes in Muslim community is cleared by the court, the issue of Maratha reservation is still pending. That is how rabid and provocative statements, vote-bank politics and opportunist stances go together even with respect to BJP. Things are simply not black and white. Even while it is alleged by some that BJP is against reservations, BJP spokespersons went on record to say that there is a valid ground for reservations in private sector also and it is noteworthy. In fact , they said the Congress and UPA did nothing in that direction, whereas BJP is seeking to create a favorable atmosphere for that. After all, it is the B team of Indias ruling classes.

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There are sections of anti-brahmin movements , particularly from Dravidian political forces , who weaved racist theories of Arya Vs Dravida, that Aryans created castes etc. Some Leftists also entertained such ideas, consciously or otherwise. By now it is evident how some Dravidian forces are indulging in brutal and brazen oppression of dalits in Tamilnadu , while others like of DMK and AIADMK are winking at it; and with sheer opportunism of vote bank politics, roped them into their alliances and they became Ministers etc. And all this in a state that was said to be a citadel of self-respect movement. PMK of Dr Ramdas has been indulging in anti-dalit politics brazenly , unashamedly. There has been worst violence too at many places in Tamilnadu. What was the origin of Vanniars PMK ? An old report indicates : All 15 of the DMK legislators elected in the party's first poll outing in 1957, and 35 of the 50 party MLAs in 1962 were Vanniars. Why, even as late as 1989, when the PMK stayed away and the DMK won the post-MGR assembly elections, nearly two-thirds of the party legislators were returned from the 'Vanniar belt'. . Ramadoss played the Vanniar atma-gouravam card against the DMK in the Lok Sabha polls of 1998 and won four of the five seats it contested, and contributed greatly to the AIADMK-BJP alliance. Then onwards DMK and AIADMK vied with each other to woo PMK, despite its brazen anti-dalit stance. Such is competitive opportunism. PMK general secretary and party ideologue 'Dalit' Ezhilmalai, a Minister in Vajpayee cabinet, was finally eased out and he decided to join the AIADMK. (http://www.rediff.com/election/1999/aug/30pmk.htm) Dalit or Ambedkarite parties of Tamilnadu, like PT and VCK openly allied with DMK and AIADMK who in turn allied with brazenly casteist, and anti-dalit PMK on the one hand and communal BJP on the other hand. Many of them mixed up racist theories of caste with Ambedkarism too. Obviously, they were schooled in dravidian politics of DMK, more so during turbulent 1950s and 1960s that led to DMK becoming a ruling party. And that very belt later became a stronghold of PMK. Obviously something is wrong with their ideological grooming. Some of the Ambedkarites have been hobnobbing with such forces, they speak of bahujan unity, and Mayavati installs statues from South. And allied with Manuvadis of BJP and shared power. Now Narayana Guru in Kerala is sought to be roped in by BJP, aided by his followers. What was Ambedkars view of these race theories about caste? In this Paper of 1916 , Ambedkar says : 46) But nothing can be farther from the truth, and Dr. Ketkar is correct when he insists that "All the princes whether they belonged to the so-called Aryan race, or the so-called Dravidian race, were Aryas. Whether a tribe or a family was racially Aryan or Dravidian was a question which never troubled the people of India, until foreign scholars came in and began to draw the line. The colour of the skin had long ceased to be a matter of importance" (History of Caste, p. 82). Again, they have mistaken mere descriptions for explanation and fought over them as though they were theories of origin. There are occupational, religious etc., castes, it is true, but it is by no means an explanation of the origin of Caste. But theories continue to be weaved mixing up caste and race, and that while claiming to be votaries of Ambedkar. Let us conclude with Ambedkars message in the 1916 Paper : Sentiment must be outlawed from the domain of science and things should be judged from an objective standpoint.

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Dr KS Sharma (born 1934), a Retired Professor of Law based at Hubli, Karnataka, has been a leader of working class for over 45 years now, focused on unorganized labor, and as Founder-President of Karnataka State Govt. Dailywage Employees Federation, successfully organized one lakh dailywagers of Govt of Karnataka who got regularized after 30 years of struggle that included street battles and legal battles going upto Supreme Court. He is a great teacher, poet, writer, dramatist, literary critic, columnist, publisher, orator, and an activist-social scientist who was a Vice-President of ISSA , Indian Social Science Academy, for some time. Post-retirement, he did his doctorate on Indian State : From Marxian Perspective. He is the Founder President of a group of Institutions including an ITI, Institute of Naturopathy and Yoga, Dr. Da Ra Bendre (Jnana Peeth Awardee) Research Institute ( which edited and published about 150 books by Bendre), Indian Institute of Marxist Theory and Practice, FMRRC- Fluorosis Mitigation Research and Resource Centre all located in Vishwa Shrama Chetana campus, Hubli. He may be contacted at : kssharmaji@rediffmail.com







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The Devil's Century

By Vincent Di Stefano

04 June, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Our present generation is living out of the spiritually vacuous philosophies of modernism and post-modernism, the cancerous ideologies of free-market economics and unrestrained economic growth, and the corporate and political tyrannies that have nurtured an energised ethos of transience. The triumphalism of modernity has effectively wiped from our collective memories a coherent view of just what has gone down in the flourish and flash of the late twentieth century. The immensity of human misery and the degree of cultural waste wrought over the past century have been largely forgotten.

We have succeeded in erasing from our consciences the terrible crimes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We have similarly glossed over the outpouring of vast torrents of radioactive elements into the earth's atmosphere. Every living human being now carries radioactive elements in their bodies as a result of the 520 atmospheric nuclear tests - with an explosive power equivalent to 29,000 Hiroshima bombs - that were conducted between 1945 and 1980. We also choose to ignore the insidious infiltration of radioactive elements throughout the biosphere from every stage of the nuclear cycle, from the mining and processing of uranium to the routine ventings of nuclear power plants. And despite the global dispersal of a devil's brew of long-lived radionuclides from the catastrophic accidents at Chelyabinsk, Chernobyl and more recently Fukushima, our technocratic minders and their political puppets continue to steer public opinion towards the embrace of a salvific nuclear renaissance that will put to rest all nasty prospects of runaway climate change.

One does not need an overheated imagination to conclude that the past century has been in the thrall of demonic forces that have somehow subverted our capacity for thoughtful evaluation and corrective restraint. Having witnessed the holocaust of the so-called Great War, William Butler Yeats wrote in 1919:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

A century later, some things seem not to have changed at all . . . .

Echoes from a Cathedral

There is a story told in certain circles that offers a most unusual view regarding the nature of the forces unleashed on the world during the twentieth century:

After celebrating a morning mass in 1884, Pope Leo XIII attended a mass of Thanksgiving, as was his practice. At a certain point, he lifted his head and began to look steadily towards the altar. He was staring motionlessly without batting an eye. His expression alternated between horror and awe and the appearance of his face was alternately flushed and pale. He seemed completely overtaken by what he was experiencing. As his facial colour returned and he became more settled, he rose from his seat and went straight to his office without speaking to anybody or giving any indication of what he had just experienced. When he emerged half an hour later, Pope Leo handed his secretary a newly composed prayer to Saint Michael with instructions that it was thenceforth to be read in Catholic churches after every mass. This practice commenced soon after and continued for many decades. It was only abandoned after the reforms of Vatican II during the 1960s.

Pope Leo later described how during the time of his entrancement, he had heard two voices emanating from the tabernacle. One was a deep guttural voice that boasted that he could destroy the Church if given enough time and power. A strong but gentle voice replied and asked how much time and how much power was needed. The other said that a century would be sufficient but that he needed greater power over those whose service he could avail himself of. Pope Leo then heard the reply: "You have the time. You will have the power. Do with them what you will."

The twentieth century has in fact seen not only the destruction of much within the Catholic Church that was held sacrosanct during the time of Pope Leo who held office from 1878 to 1903, but the unleashing of destructive forces on a scale never before witnessed on the earth.

Leviathan Awakens

The decades following Pope Leo's vision saw a consolidation and expansion of the new powers that the industrial revolution had spawned. But the high intelligence that brought forth the many innovations of the time carried its own dark shadow as an unshakeable companion. There were some with prescience who descried the oppression that lay hidden within emerging industrial developments. Among the first were the romantic poets who lamented the destruction of the natural world that invariably accompanied urban and industrial expansion. As early as the first decade of the nineteenth century, William Blake had envisioned the new forms of enslavement and the forfeitures of freedom that lay in wait in the nascent industrialism revealed by the dark satanic mills of Georgian England.

The development of new industrial methods of production enabled the exploitation of coal reserves, mineral deposits, and newly discovered petroleum fields on a hitherto unimagined scale. They gave rise to new dynasties of immense wealth and power. As factories began to proliferate, vast numbers of people found themselves subjected to lives of bondage in servitude to the Machine. In the United States, Andrew Carnegie's steelworks poured out thousands of kilometres of railway tracks that carried coal-fired locomotives and their heavy cargoes to all parts of a newly opened continent. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company drew forth the energy-rich black blood stored in ancient forests that had been hidden in the earth. Crude oil was progressively fractionated and manipulated by a new class of chemists to produce fuels and lubricants for internal combustion engines, fertilisers for agriculture, explosives for military and industrial use, and the building blocks of powerful new drugs that would completely alter the way medicine was practised.

This creativity was, however, shadowed by a destructive aspect of equal magnitude. This was made manifest in its tragic fullness during World War I that raged from 1914 to 1918. During those four years, some 17 million people died violently and a further 20 million were wounded. Even greater numbers of those who were not killed by bullets, mortars, bombs or chemical weapons were later taken out by the influenza pandemic of 1918.



Woman in Prayer at Hiroshima Memorial Park

Never before in the history of humanity had so much metal been used to such destructive purpose. Never before had such explosive power been so catastrophically released. Never before had so many young and old men in uniform been mobilised over such vast distances. Never before had so many people been destroyed in such numbers by fellow human beings. Yet the experience of World War I proved to be but a prelude to the far greater devastation that erupted a short 21 years later culminating in the dropping of two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

The dual nature of modernism had revealed its extremity.

Lengthening Shadows

The Great War was but a first manifestation of the unleashing of the prodigious powers and capabilities that would come to dominate the twentieth century landscape. These powers found expression in virtually all domains of human endeavour - economic management, political ideology and methods of social control, mineral extraction and utilisation, electricity generation and supply, and ways of land, air and maritime transport. The ingenuity and brilliance embodied in these developments were, however, accompanied step by step by forces that darkened all the visionary rhetoric promising the arrival of a new golden age, a tomorrowland of prosperity, freedom and happiness for all.

The opposing ideologies of capitalism and communism began to crystallise, the one marked by a philosophy and practice of unrestrained privately-owned production and a similarly unrestrained consumption, the other by a forfeiture of private property and the creation of state-owned enterprises built on totalitarian methods of social and political control. By the late 1920s, the seeds had been sown for a massive collapse in the economies of both the United States and Europe. By the early 1930s, millions of workers and tens of thousands of financial institutions in the so-called free world had been brought to ruin by the Great Depression.

The Soviet Union was declared by Vladimir Lenin in 1922. When he died two years later, Joseph Stalin consolidated his own power and outmanoeuvred his opponents to become supreme dictator by the late 1920s. Vast tracts of agricultural land were seized by the State and millions were imprisoned in an archipelago of labour camps. Stalin's suppression of all opposition in the Ukraine was merciless. Between 1929 and 1933, seven million Ukrainians - three million of whom were children - had been systematically starved to death.

Meanwhile, Adolph Hitler's rise to power had become irresistible, fuelled as it was by the growing resentment of a German people who had been subjected to regional dismemberment, economic degradation and deep humiliation by the Treaty of Versailles imposed in 1919.

Yet the party rolled on. America and Europe recovered, the Soviet Union continued to gain in power, and Germany became increasingly militarised. By the time World War II erupted in 1939, the machinery to both create and deploy technologies of destruction on an immense scale was fully in place. Under Hitler, entire populations were herded into mechanised death camps. Aerial warfare enabled a totally new level of devastation. In the latter stages of the war, it was directed to the complete destruction by fire of entire cities, as occurred in Hamburg in July 1943, Dresden in February 1945, and Tokyo in March 1945.

The deadliest fruit that ripened on the flaming tree of war was, however, that born of the Manhattan Project. In the final furious exhalation of hell's fire that drew the curtain down on World War II, 70,000 human lives were vaporised in just 4 seconds after Fat Man, a single bomb carrying four kilograms of plutonium, exploded above the city of Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945.

Opening the Portals



Uranium was discovered in the late 1700s. It took another century before the element had revealed its hidden fire to the French physicist Henri Becquerel in 1896. Becquerel discovered that salts of uranium not only glowed in the dark but darkened photographic plates when placed in contact with them. He concluded that the salts emitted some form of radiation. Ernest Rutherford also worked with uranium, and by 1911 had established the atomic structure of matter. He also discovered that certain elements were inherently unstable and underwent radioactive transformations into other elements. Within eight years, Rutherford succeeded in replicating these transformations by bombarding a range of elements with alpha particles, one of the three forms of radiation emitted by uranium. By the mid 1930s, particle accelerators had appeared on the scene and made easier the manipulation of atomic nuclei in the laboratory.

In 1934, it occurred to the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi that bombarding uranium with neutrons might create heavier atoms by the capture and transformation of the neutrons in the nucleus of uranium atoms. His hunch eventually proved to be correct. Others who were conducting similar experiments observed that neutron bombardment of uranium atoms could also produce highly radioactive smaller atoms that were approximately half the size of uranium atoms. It was soon understood that uranium was capable of undergoing fission, of breaking into smaller radioactive fragments, when its nuclei absorbed neutrons.

Building on these developments, Fermi constructed a nuclear pile at the University of Chicago in which such reactions, which were capable of generating enormous amounts of energy, could be produced. On the first day of December 1942, Fermi succeeded in igniting a controlled chain reaction. The mix of fast and slow neutrons that were produced not only tore atoms apart, but created the whole new litany of the man-made elements - which included plutonium - that Fermi had anticipated eight years earlier. Four weeks later, on the 28th December 1942, President Roosevelt authorised the Manhattan Project.

The portals of the nuclear abyss had been thrown open.

The Violent Century

One of the key signatures of industrial/technological civilisation has been its willingness to exercise an ever-increasing violence in the pursuit of its aims. That violence has been made shockingly manifest in the wars conducted over the past century. Seventeen million people died violently during World War I. By the time World War II was drawing to a close, sixty million people - some 3% of the world's population - had been killed. In the short period between the two wars, the instruments of death had changed from bullets and mortars to air-borne bombs and rockets. The final act of infamy was the killing of over 200,000 Japanese people by two nuclear explosions in 1945.

Within twenty years, the United States had constructed over 31,000 nuclear weapons. And by 1985, the Soviet Union possessed over 39,000 nuclear weapons. This feast of hubris and insane excess was made possible by the generation of enormous amounts of plutonium in nuclear reactors. That flush of militaristic madness began to subside once the situation came to be more widely known. The present time has seen some small retreat. Yet more than 15,000 nuclear weapons continue to grace the arsenals of nine nations.

Nuclear reactors themselves are another story. There are more than 440 operational nuclear power plants in 31 countries. Over 60 new reactors are under construction. And as I write, some 220,000 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel rods lie immersed in cooling ponds around the world. An additional 25,000 tons have cooled sufficiently to be stored in dry casks.

Thousands of tons of new high-level wastes continue to be produced by existing nuclear reactors each year. Meanwhile, the shadowy supporters of the nuclear project blithely champion an increasingly nuclearised future.

Olympic Dam Uranium Mine, South Australia

The shattering of atoms, whether cataclysmically in nuclear bombs or in controlled chain reactions within nuclear power plants is an inherently violent act. That violence is itself the end of a sequence of violence that begins with the extraction of uranium from the earth. Violence is inflicted on the many indigenous peoples whose ways of life and whose health and safety have been over-ridden by governments and mining companies determined to draw forth the power and wealth hidden within uranium ores. That violence is further contained in the slowly seething nuclear wastes that litter the hinterlands of Canada, the United States, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Namibia, South Africa, Jharkhand, and Australia among other places. The same violence is silently experienced by millions of people throughout the world who contend with the debilitating and often lethal effects of the assimilation into their bodies of radioactive elements released by atmospheric tests, nuclear accidents, and the slow bleed of radionuclides into the lands, airs and waters of the earth through the mining of uranium and from the operation of nuclear reactors.

Successive posts on Satan's Cauldrons will progressively reveal the many faces of the nuclear project during this time when the forces of nature begin to return the violence that has been exercised so recklessly against the earth and her creatures for so long.

Vincent Di Stefano is a retired educator and practitioner of natural medicine and author of Holism and Complementary Medicine. History and Principles (Allen and Unwin, 2006). He remains committed to exploring the nature of healing at personal, social, spiritual and environmental levels and maintaining a watching brief on the turbulent currents that course through the present times. He periodically posts on the blog-site  Satan's Cauldrons through which he can be contacted.










Power Projects: The Pride Of Possession

By Abdul Majid Zargar

04 June, 2016

Countercurrents.org

There should be no surprise in hearing opposing voices to demands from Kashmir Civil Society & general public for return of Hydro power projects particularly after Mehbooba Mufti was made to assume reins of power by New-Delhi empty handed. Though the return of two power projects was listed on the original agenda of Alliance between PDP-BJP, yet the Union Power Minster had the gumption to renege on the commitment lock, stock & barrel. On the fore-front of these opposants or thwarters are the people whose links with the establishment are too obvious to be ignored.

Let us put the issue in perspective bluntly without mincing words. Every occupation has four facets or dimensions-Military, Political, Culture & economic. The control of power projects by India through its corporate arm National Hydel Power Corporation (NHPC) falls under the last facet of occupation.

Let us also admit that occupying powers, world over, since times immemorial, have plundered & looted the natural resources of occupied people. To perpetuate the occupation, they need various species of people like collaborators, handlers, henchmen & pardners. That Corporates play a special role in occupying State resources is also well too known & documented. East India Company is one such corporate creature which entered Indian shores with the sole purpose of trade & commerce but ended up with occupying vast Indian resources including land, which generally is the first target in such covert operations. Post 1857 developments, power was transferred from this company to crown. This company was also bestowed with the title of Bhadur(Brave) which normally should be the sole prerogative of an individual with breath, bones & flesh.

Another instance is of United Fruit company (again a corporate) OF USA. In 1950 this company acquired & ran the whole of Guatemala as a private concern, owning the public infrastructure, including ports, railways, communications and banks. United Fruit owned 550,000 acres of Guatemalan land, some 85% of which was deliberately left permanently idle to keep prices high. That year Guatemala elected a reformist government which legalized trade unions and nationalized, with an offer of compensation, 400,000 acres of land held by the United Fruit Company. The US sponsored a coup which overthrew the local government and installed a pro-US dictator.

Israel exploited vast quarrying resources of its occupied territory West bank and went a step further. Its Supreme Court rejected a petition brought by an Israeli human rights organisation against the quarrying of stone by Israeli companies in the West Bank. The petitioner claimed that the quarrying was illegal under international law because it exploited the natural resources of the occupied territory for the benefit of the occupying power. The Court ruled that international law must be adapted to the "reality on the ground" of long-term occupation. Hence its companies are entitled to exploit the West Bank's natural resources for economic gain. India is following more or less, a Similar policy in Kashmir.

Coming to the merits of the issue, the thwarters contest it on two grounds. First- That these projects are not cash cows as perceived and hence not going to fatten coffers of the occupied State and second that the occupied people lack the technical competence to run these projects efficiently.

Before commenting on these grounds, it is in order to have a look how various occupiers have justified such issues in the past.

Britishers always invoked the theory of Division of labor to justify plunder of resources of their colonies. According to this doctrine, it is cost effective to process & convert the raw materials produced in their colonies into finished products in Great Britain and sell them back to the colonial people post conversion. For colonial people it was beneficial & economical to grow potatoes.

Israel never cared for opinion of others on the issue. They have been brazen & aggressive in looting the resources of its victims thinking it their divine right.

America has been more wily & diplomatic in this regard. They would give the victims ten reasons like technical know-how, availability of finances, providing its collaborators the much needed security etc. etc. to justify the control over their resources. More often than not, they would also convince the occupied about the necessacity of control in the interests global peace.

Now a word on the grounds taken by thwarters.

Whether these power projects are cash cows or not, has recently been settled through an RTI query and the astronomical amounts, NHPC is earning out of these projects should be an eye-opener for one & all.

As far the technical competence of our Engineers is concerned, they are undeniably, the best provided they are given a congenial atmosphere of working. Let us remember that they are the ones who operated our earlier power projects, though of lesser capacities. For argument sake, even if it is taken that they lack necessary expertise in handling the modern technologically advanced projects, the remedy is not to ignore or bye-pass them but to allow them to hone their skills through continuous professional education programmes & advance trainings. After all, if our police is not well equipped in crowd control measures, we dont outsource these operations to Delhi Police.

And finally Dudes- the issue is not as much about money or competence but the pride of possession which these power projects are going to give us, if returned.

(The author is a practicing chartered Accountant. Feed back at abdulmajidzargar@gmail.com)














As a newsman, one of the quickest ways to develop a really bad headache is to try to figure out why criminals do the things they do. Such is the case of two-state crime spree suspect Brandon T. Robinson, 33 of Mattoon, Illinois. Mr. Robinson is of course, innocent of all charges until proven guilty in a court of law.

If I could write this story for a half-hour television show, I'd call it "Mr. Robinson goes to Tennessee."Mr. Robinson's most recent episode started last Tuesday when he allegedly stole a pickup from his hometown of Mattoon and drove it to a very rural part of Edwards County, north of Albion. There, police say, Mr. Robinson dumped the pickup and stole a rather large farm truck with a huge water tank strapped to an attached gooseneck trailer. The stolen truck was left next to where the farmer's truck and trailer was parked. As you might suspect, the very alert Edwards County farmer noticed the switcheroo and alerted police.

Unless he had stolen a bright red replica of the Batmobile, I'm not sure he could have chosen a more conspicuous getaway vehicle. Within an hour or so, the suspect's newly acquired truck and trailer ran off the road and got stuck in a ditch down around Galatia, in picturesque Saline County.

A highly-trained Illinois State Trooper came upon the accident and quickly deduced it was likely the same truck and trailer combination stolen from Edwards County. The trooper said that as he approached the suspected stolen vehicle, Mr. Robinson fled on foot. The chase was on. Unencumbered by the extra weight of police radios, guns, bullets, badges and of course  a Smokey Bear hat  Mr. Robinson was able to outrun the cop and disappeared into a nearby woods.

At some point, police believe he stole another vehicle and headed south. The next day, deputies in Bedford County, Tennessee responded to a report of a traffic accident and encountered Mr. Robinson near a vehicle that had been reported stolen. Deputies said that Mr. Robinson gave them a false name and resisted arrest. In a press release, officials with the Bedford County Sheriff's Department stated, "After deputies arrested Robinson, deputies learned he had stolen a registered Tennessee Walking/Spotted Saddle Horse valued at over $10,000." Now, I have family in Tennessee. They will tell you that there are two things you don't want to mess with in Tennessee  a man's huntin' dog or his horse.

Mr. Robinson now faces multiple charges related to the alleged theft of no less than five vehicles in two states and of course that $10,000 Tennessee Walking/Spotted Saddle Horse. In summarizing the events of last Wednesday, folks with the Bedford County, Tennessee Sheriff's Department had this to say. "The horse is home and safe with minor injuries. We are very thankful for the help of the Wartrace Police Department and thankful our deputies and the horse weren't seriously hurt."

About those five stolen vehicles  I have no idea how banged up they are or when they will be returned to their owners. What I do know is that a $10,000 Tennessee Walking Horse might not be the best choice for a quick getaway.

All I've got to say about that is..Nayyy!
Stephanie Hunt at work in the hut, nailing up informational plaques about Myanmar. Provided photos

SHARE Stephanie Hunt, Tanvi Asthara and Sarah Renahan at work in the hut. Provided photos Tanvi Asthara at work in the hut Stephanie Hunt, Ashley Boyle, Sarah Renahan and Tanvi Asthara viewed through the window into the hut, resting after completing the project. EMILY BROUWER / EVANSVILLE COURIER AND PRESS Uncharted International is a non-profit organization that provides under-resourced orphans with educational, medical and economical assistance. At their headquarters you will find many fair trade items, handmade by adult orphans in Myanmar.

By Sara Anne Corrigan

Stephanie Hunt recalls her one and only visit to Myanmar, when she was in the First grade.

"It was known as Burma then  we had a long train trip up a mountain, and I remember seeing kids in huts  and I'm crying  and mom is throwing candy to the kids (who run up to and alongside the slow moving train to catch it).

"It still sits with me," Hunt said, forcing back her tears. "I still have family there; my Mom has friends there."

Hunt's early and indelible experience is one of the reasons she said she became involved, as a volunteer, at Uncharted International, when she was a sophomore at Evansville's Signature School.

The Evansville based nonprofit founded in 2010 by a collection of local churches, is dedicated to helping impoverished and marginalized people in Myanmar (the official name since 1989) through a network of orphanages (11 facilities caring for 550 orphans at this time) and a "restoration center" providing living quarters for adult survivors of the human trafficking industry that is rife in that region, said Betsy Hopkins, U.I.'s director of marketing.

Restoration center residents are educated and given practical skills to help them become self-sufficient. Evidence of that is available in the storefront that U.I. maintains at 400 S. Green River Road featuring hand woven blankets, clothing, jewelry and similar accessories in addition to volunteer opportunities.

Hunt graduated from Signature School last month.

As a senior there she  along with three of her friends, Tanvi Asthara, Sarah Renahan and Ashley Boyle  was required to complete an independent "CAS" project (Creativity, Activity Service) to qualify for an International Baccalaureate Diploma, she said.

Boyle also was familiar with U.I. through family friends. So the four hatched a plan to satisfy their CAS requirements by working with U.I.

The building had a small empty room off to one side visible from the sales floor that Hopkins said she was interested in seeing "something" happen there. So the hut project  an interpretive center the students call their "mini museum" that is dedicated to educating U.I visitors toward better understanding life in Myanmar  was born.

Hopkins was an easy sell.

"The girls came to us and asked if there was something we wanted to have done; we proposed the hut as an option," she said. It was something we felt strongly about having, but we had not gotten to it ourselves. We gave them a few parameters but a lot of freedom to decide what information was important and how they went about creating the hut. It was a gift, having them volunteer to do it for us."

The hut is now open to the public during regular business hours at U.I.

The project was overseen by Signature School instructor Cynthia Ahmed, who explained the CAS project is voluntary but that 95 percent of the students typically do it, and beginning next year, it will be a requirement for the IB diploma.

The range of CAS potential projects is fairly broad. Students can work alone or  as is often the case  in small groups. They must have their project approved and meet some specific criteria to get a passing grade, Ahmed explained.

Projects must include 50 hours of creative endeavor, 50 hours of action and 50 hours of service over a at least one month and up to a two-year period, Ahmed said, "and this is in addition to class work and any other activities the students might be involved in."

During the process, students are required to keep online journals that can include photos and personal reflections on their work that Ahmed is able to go through allowing her to go through and respond to thing and ask questions.

"We let the kids own their projects as much as we can," Ahmed said, but, bottom line, "there are goals that must be met: learning outcomes they have to demonstrate," she said, adding, that a CAS project is not the same as racking up volunteer service hours somewhere in the community.

The hut project "was more creative than some I have seen  more interesting  it took more initiative."

And coordinating time among four busy seniors? "They learned a hard lesson about scheduling," she said.

Boyle noted as much in her online journal: "This project required sufficient planning, and often times the execution of those plans proved to be a challenge, despite our efforts to plan for any problems that could arise.

Asthar agreed: "We ran into unforeseen difficulties and had to re-evaluate our plans as we overcame them; one of our strengths was working together to solve problems on-site."

Myanmar hut walls are generally made from woven strands of bamboo; the four substituted woven strands of burlap to approximate that look, and then produced them from scratch ...

"Other than developing creatively, I think our group developed professionally as well," she said.

Sarah Renahan offered that, "throughout this whole process, (we) learned quite a bit about the needs of people around the world.

"With my group members, we undertook the challenge of designing and furnishing a community space to spread knowledge of other cultures and knowledge of others' needs."

"It helped (us) to become more cognizant of the many things (we) take for granted," Boyle said.

"Overall, this project was a wonderful thing to begin and end (our) senior year with," Hunt said.

IF YOU GO

Uncharted International, 400 S. Green River Road, is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Staff and volunteers welcome school, church and other organizational groups who are interested in touring the facility and learning more about U.I's work in Myanmar. Call 812-402-1886 for information or visit unchartedinternational.org., or the Uncharted International Facebook page.
FILE - A parade of homes of cardboard houses kids made precedes a Habitat for Humanity home dedication on Garfield Avenue in Evansville Saturday. Habitat hosted a Rock the Block party celebrating the Jacobsville neighborhoods revitalization efforts. The home in the background was dedicated to owner Lacey Moss later in the day.

By Abbey Doyle of the Courier and Press

While there isn't a Blitz Build on the books for Habitat for Humanity of Evansville right now, it's something that may be in the works for the future.

The organization is no stranger to the concept, as it has participated in three Blitz Builds in its history, said Lee Jerstad, communications manager for the local organization. In 1992 Habitat of Evansville built 21 homes in just five days; in 1996, it built 26 homes in six days; and in 2000, in only six days, 25 were built.

The builds, while great for getting the word out about Habitat and getting homes up quickly, are chaotic and difficult logistically.

"The main reasons we don't do blitzes like we've done in the past  20 or more homes in a week  is to keep the build schedule as efficient as possible so families have sweat equity opportunities and we can start on their home as soon as they've completed that sweat equity milestone," Jerstad said.

Habitat for Humanity of Evansville, though, is looking to build 500 homes by 2018 in their "Transforming Lives, Changing Neighborhoods" campaign. They just dedicated their 447th home and plan to do their 448th next month.

To stay on target, she said, they need to complete about 18 a year. So far for 2016, they've just done four.

"At some point we may need to do some kind of blitz build to get on track," Jerstad said.

So although there will never be 20 homes built in a week again, the Evansville area may have a build similar to what the Causey family is experiencing in Henderson this week with their Blitz build. Or they may frame several homes at one time, Jerstad suggested.

There are several ways for area residents to get involved in Habitat, she said.

In addition to volunteering for one of the builds  local Habitat builds three days a week  residents can volunteer to be involved on a committee or with one of the homeownership, budgeting or parenting classes they offer. Jerstad said one of the lesser known ways people can ways people can get involved is to be an advocate for Habitat and affordable housing.

"Help us get the word out about the need for affordable housing and that we do provide affordable mortgages for working families and individuals," she said. "Help spread the word that homeownership can be achieved by helping us find qualified families ready to own their own home, just like through a bank but instead through Habitat."

Those interested in donating their time or funds or to apply for the program should call 812-423-5623 or visit evansvillehabitat.org.
Gov. Mike Pence, seen here visiting a local preschool, pushed a preschool pilot program through the state legislature in 2014.

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By Tony Cook and Chelsea Schneider, IndyStar / USA TODAY Network

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said Friday hell push to expand the state's publicly funded preschool program regardless of whether he can secure federal money.

In doing so, he has reignited a long-running debate over the value of such programs, particularly whether preschool for low-income children produces long-lasting benefits that justify the cost to taxpayers.

Early childhood education advocates say theres no doubt about it.

Children who enter kindergarten well-prepared are more likely to succeed throughout life, they say. As a result, the state saves money because those children are less likely to need remediation, less likely to end up in prison as adults and more likely to find employment, supporters say.

We know that there is a strong return on investment, said Ann Murtlow, CEO of the United Way of Central Indiana.

But critics say thats not the case.

They point to studies that show academic benefits of preschool programs are only temporary. Within a year or two, similarly situated children who didnt attend preschool catch up with their preschool peers. Tax money would be better spent elsewhere, they say.

Pre-K is not the magic bullet that its advocates portray it as, said Russ Whitehurst, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who led the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education under President George W. Bush.

Such concerns have long plagued efforts to expand early childhood education in Indiana. Indiana was one of only nine states not to provide some form of state-funded preschool until Pence persuaded lawmakers to authorize a pilot program for low-income children in 2014.

Even that program was a scaled-down version of the one Pence initially imagined, which would have served up to 40,000 Hoosier children. Instead, lawmakers approved a $10 million-a-year program that served about 2,300 children in the 2015-16 school year.

Pence later had a chance to accelerate the program with the help of up to $80 million in federal funding but decided against it.

Pence said Friday he turned down the money because he had promised lawmakers he would implement the pilot before seeking to expand it.

I gave them my word. I kept my word, he said. But now we are the better part of two years into that pilot. Weve learned a lot.

For one thing, the demand is there. 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.

Pence also said some providers werent up to standards set by the state. We had to help along several programs to help them meet that standard, he said.

Still, much remains unknown about the programs success. A legislative study that tracks participating students in the state program through third grade won't be completed for several years.

The results of a similar study of Tennessees state-funded preschool program published last year were not promising.

Researchers from Vanderbilt University found no significant differences in kindergarten or first grade between low-income students who attended preschool and those who did not. In second grade, preschool attendees actually scored lower on most measures.

An earlier study of the federally funded Head Start program found similarly disappointing outcomes.

The research shows by the end of third grade theres really no difference, said Micah Clark, executive director of the socially conservative American Family Association of Indiana. With limited education dollars, Id rather see money spent elsewhere.

He said publicly funded preschool has been oversold and attributed its popularity to the fact that such programs provide free child care for parents.

Pence is sensitive to such criticism and frequently adds a qualifier to his support for expanded pre-K.

I will always believe that the best pre-K program is a prosperous family that has the resources to be able to give enrichment in the home that every child deserves, he said Friday.

But what I came to realize in my first year in office, traveling around the state and sitting down on the floor in a lot of these pre-K programs, is that there are many children in Indiana who dont have that kind of enrichment and they start out in kindergarten behind and they fall back and in too many heartbreaking cases, they are the ones who drop out, he said. Im persuaded this is an idea whose time has come. I wanted to make sure we designed this in a way that was effective and responsible, and I think were in a position to do that in 2017.

Thats a significant shift in thinking at the Statehouse, said Michael OConnor, a lobbyist for Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co.

There is this reality of the world we live in today that has ultimately prevailed, he said. Whether someone does or doesnt like the reality, the fact that it is reality has begun to be accepted.

He acknowledged that some preschool studies show a phase out of academic benefits in later years, but others have shown lasting impacts  including positive social and behavioral benefits.

A well-known study of one group of low-income children who received early childhood education in Michigan during the 1960s found that they had higher earnings, were more likely to be employed and were less likely to commit crimes.

Advocates also say the quality of the program and the quality of the K-12 educational system into which preschool students move can play a key role in outcomes.

The key there is that the program has to be high quality, and not all programs are of a sufficient quality to see the kinds of gains we need to see, said Michael Conn-Powers, director of Indiana Universitys Early Childhood Center. When we see high quality programs, we see lasting effects.

Pence said the size and cost of any expansion are still being worked out. He will have to get approval for any new funding during next year's legislative session, which begins in January.

In that effort, he has support from legislative leaders.

Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, R-Fort Wayne, acknowledged that Indiana has been slow to jump into publicly funded preschool. But thats because policymakers want to make sure taxpayers are getting a good return on their investment.

When the state ventured into the preliminary funding of pre-K, there was an express agreement at the Statehouse that we would begin slowly, with a pilot, to make sure we got it right, he said. There was a history of failed experiments in other states, and those were expensive mistakes. We did not want this program to have the same experience.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, also cheered the governor's announcement, though there likely will be some pushback among lawmakers because of the cost.

Pence, though, made it clear Friday he wants to limit the program by continuing to target only low-income children.

"Its early on," he said. "What I want to do is, I want the program to grow along the lines weve defined it, which is really focused on disadvantaged kids, on making up for what they havent gotten in the home, so that they can start with an even shot at success."
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By Andrew Vailliencourt, andrew.vailliencourt@courierpress.com

Training and care of a new police dog for the Warrick County Sheriff's Department has been paid for by a recent fundraiser.

Fado joined the department from the Chandler Police Department after his previous handler left for private work during the winter.

"They thought that they'd be better served to give that dog to the county, where they would still be able to use it if need be in the city, but it would see more activity," Warrick County Sheriff Brett Kruse said.

On May 14, the Tennyson General Baptist Men's Brotherhood Association, in conjunction with several other Boonville-area churches and local businesses, had a barbecue to raise as much money as possible to be able to care for and train the dog and its new handler.

"Being a K-9 handler is pretty time consuming," Kruse said. "There's training and care for their dog each day; you've got vet visits, we've got to keep up on that, and it's about $14,000-15,000 to put one of those dogs out here to work."

The group presented a check worth $12,609 on Tuesday to the Warrick County Sheriff's Office K-9 unit to help pay for those expenses.

The training itself cost about $4,000. Fado needed to be trained for drug recognition, tracking and apprehension and his handler had to be trained as well.

Vanderburgh County got a new dog at roughly the same time, so both dogs went through the training together.

Prime Foods, a local Boonville company owned by Jay Kramer, donated $4,500 worth of meat for the barbecue, which sold out.

Kruse took the community support to heart.

"To me it's fantastic," Kruse said. "I've always said this is a great part of the country to live in. With everything going on in the world, especially in the United States, to know that the community that I represent supports the sheriff's office means a lot.

"This lets me know, and the deputies, not just the K-9 handlers, that the people in Warrick County support their sheriff's department and their local law enforcement and that they believe in what we do."

Kruse says all three of the county's dogs went through their yearly training just recently and are all in action. Fado is partnered with Deputy Derek Miller.

"(Fado's) doing real well," Kruse said. "He's been with the handler since the week that we got him. He fits in well with the family. They have a couple of kids that the dog gets along with really well."
SHARE Photo provided by Nancy Carr Curtis Wesley Campbell, Dorothy Cox and Jesse Campbell. Jesse Thurl Campbell PHOTO BY Jessie Higgins Tammy Cravens, Jesse Campbell's niece, looks through photos Jesse kept in his billfold. The billfold has remained largely untouched for more than 70 years. The Army returned it to his family after he died on D-Day. Tammy Cravens, Jesse Campbell's niece, looks through his billfold. The billfold has remained largely untouched for more than 70 years. The Army returned it to his family after he died on D-Day.

One brother survived, one perished

By Jessie Higgins of the Courier and Press

In Jesse Campbells last letter home, he didnt have much to say.

It was May 18, 1944, somewhere in England. The Nashville, Indiana, native was just fine, he wrote his father.

Tell everyone hello for me and write when you can.

There is no hint in the Army privates short note of the tragedy that was fast approaching.

Less than three weeks later, Jesse and tens of thousands of Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy. D-Day, as it would be known. The day the Allied forces launched their invasion of Nazi-occupied France.

The day Jesse Thurl Campbell, 24, died.

Like the thousands of other young men who perished on D-Day, Jesses story is quickly slipping away.

I met him one time, said James Campbell, Jesses oldest nephew. I was about 4. He came to visit my parents, his brother. He brought me and my sister both a gift. I think mine was a Tonka truck.

James may be the only person alive who remembers Jesse. The rest of the family knows him only through old stories, a few newspaper clippings, and a trunk full of letters and photos the young man left behind.

Jesse was born in 1920 in Brown County, Indiana, one of at least 10 brothers and sisters. He wasnt the youngest, but most of his siblings were many years older.

His mother died when he was 13. Currently, the family isnt sure exactly what his father did for a living. Alexander Campbell may have been a doctor or a teacher. One nephew heard he was a traveling farm hand, a niece thinks he owned a grocery store before the Great Depression wiped it out.

According to old newspaper articles, Alexander at one time served as Brown County assessor and was a Brown County commissioner. The family was certainly well known.

Jesse was 21 when war broke out. He and several of his brothers were inducted into the Army. Jesse was assigned to the 741st Tank Battalion and in the summer of 1943, he arrived in England.

I like it here just fine, he wrote his father after he landed. The country is sure pretty here and the people are swell. I can get all I need here. Tell everyone there hello for me and Ill write soon. Take care of yourself and write often.

In England, the last few months of his life, Jesse sent a flurry of letters, desperate to keep up with family and friends scattered across the world.

His older brother, Curtis Wesley, was also in England, assigned to the 2nd Armored Division. The two exchanged letters for months, and were finally able to meet in early April 1944. Their hometown newspaper published a brief article about the overseas reunion.

See newspaper clippings about Jesse in the Brown County Democrat (PDF)

It was the last time anyone from the family would see Jesse.

On June 6, 1944, Jesse was among the 741st Tank Battalions B Company. According to family research, his company was meant to attack Omaha Beach at 6:30 a.m. in tanks that were floated to shore with canvas sides and waterproofing.

They were released about 1,500 yards from the beach  way, way too far out, wrote Tom Carr, Jesses nephew by marriage. Five made it to shore, and 10 sank with most of the crewmen not surviving.

Its likely Jesse was aboard one of the tanks that sank. He would have died before he ever made it to the beach.

Curtis Wesley was supposed to be there with Jesse that day, Curtis daughter Tammy Cravens said.

But the ship he was on broke down somewhere, Cravens said. So he didnt make it.

The Army returned Jesses wallet and a few other possessions to his father. When Alexander died in 1952, Curtis Wesley took all Jesses things  the billfold and his letters home  and packed them into a toolbox.

Cravens still has the old box, filled with the carefully stored remnants of a man she never knew. His billfold remains exactly as Jesse left it, full of old IDs, some French money and a few pictures.

It needs to be taken care of, Cravens said. Its a piece of history now.
It seems like many addicts have similar stories, but there appears to be a sharp divide when it comes to how obvious your addiction is from the outside. The stumbling drunk, the strung-out crackhead, the gambler who has sold his children to the Russian mob ... they've usually got an intervention coming soon, even if it's just in the form of being yelled at by a judge. But when your addiction is slowly turning you into a sculpted Greek god, pity is in short supply. Not even Brian knew he had a problem, right up until he lost his job over it.

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"I was actually fired when I was at the gym powerlifting. ... I was an hour late for work and my only excuse was that I was exercising. My boss knew I was here a lot (my arm muscles were actually stretching out some of the company polo shirts), but she said it was the last straw and I was let go. I told my spotter and he shrugged and told me my job was keeping me back. The crazy thing was that, at the time, I believed him."

Antonio_Diaz/iStock

"So you're going to start paying my rent and grocery bills, right?"

"Nah, food and shelter are just holding you back, too."

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Obviously, getting fired because you spend too much time working out is better than getting fired because you passed out in a puddle of your own vomit for 48 hours after a heroin binge. But Brian was still just as fired, and this is surprisingly common among bodybuilding addicts -- home and work fall by the wayside as "users" spiral out of control. Jobs can become all but impossible to find because of the insistence that they not interfere with the insane training schedule.
Lloyds Register (LR) has given Approval in Principle (AiP) for a design from Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD) for a 6,600 m3 LNG bunker vessel. The design will be capable of supplying both small scale requirements and the current maximum expected requirements for large ships trading worldwide.

Compliant with the requirements of the revised IGC Code, the design incorporates two cylindrical type C tanks, reliquefaction plant, a new and sophisticated loading arm and high maneuverability for safe operations. The design is available in both single and twin screw with different propeller options.

According to HMD three prototypes of 6,600 m3 (single or twin screw) and 15,000 m3 Class Dual Fuelled LNG Bunkering vessels have been designed. They are targeted to operate from Zeebrugges small LNG terminal in order to develop a market for the LNG bunkering business.

The 6,600 m3 bunkering vessel is designed to have two cylindrical tanks and no-bulbous bow shape while the 15,000 m3 has three bi-lobe tanks and bulbous bow.

Leo Karistios, gas technology manager, LR, commented: This HMD design is another significant step in the requirements for safe, efficient gas bunkering worldwide. We are at the start of the LNG bunkering era. The industry is developing technical solutions to support commercial and regulatory requirements. No-one knows at what speed the commercial take-up of gas-fuelled shipping will now proceed, but concrete technical progress is being made.
American Samoa has been noted for having the biggest corals in the world in its six marine sanctuaries, according to the Visitors Bureau, citing Simon Mallender of Dive Planit of Australia.

Mallender said that American Samoa offers a variety of dive sites from shallow bays with healthy reef ecosystems, to reef walls that fall away to unfathomable depths. It is home to three marine sanctuaries. The longest established is Fagatele Bay, which has been a no-take area since 1986 with all the coral is in impeccable condition. Large numbers of reef fish keep the corals clean of algae, and hence healthy  an ecosystem in perfect balance, according to Mallender. Over the years, over 270 species of fish and over 150 species of coral, have been counted in the one bay.

The next bay over is Fagalua/Fogamaa which allows only for subsidence fishing by local villagers, is likewise home to pristine coral crowns and a myriad of reef fish. There is also a Marine Protected Area (MPA) on nearby Aunuu island. The MPA here is zoned into a multi-purpose zone and a research only zone. Mallender said this kind of sanctuary is important because it provides a baseline of what a coral reef, removing all the influence of mankind, should look and be like. A yardstick to measure how badly other reefs, which are subject to urban run-off, overfishing and pollution, are faring.

All the Marine Sanctuaries on Tutuila can be scuba dived, either from the shore or from a charter boat.

It is on the nearby island of Tau that the worlds largest corals have been discovered. Standing some 7 meters and 8 meters wide these large boulder corals, are thought to be more than 500 years old.

In addition, along with NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries second "Get Into Your Sanctuary" event hosted concurrently in all 13 sanctuaries and Marine National Monuments on June 25 - 26 across the U.S., will include American Samoa. The purpose is to raise awareness of national marine sanctuaries as iconic destinations for responsible recreation and sustainable tourism opportunities.

This years celebration at the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa on June 25 will be held at Fagalua/Fogamaa management area in Vaitogi with guided Eco-Tour hikes led by 10 Student Interpretive guides from the adjacent communities certified by interpretation training from the National Park of American Samoa and the sanctuary.
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The BA course in Public Policy (career officers) is part of a three-and-a-half-year training program for officers of the Swiss armed forces. Candidates can acquire the Swiss Federal Diploma for Professional Military Officers. The course is reserved exclusively for career officer candidates, admission being granted by ETH Zurich upon request submitted by the Military Academy at ETH Zurich (MILAK).

While ETH Zurich offers instruction in the humanities as well as social and political sciences, MILAK provides training in military studies and practical modules. It is also responsible for the professional military training that follows the completion of studies.

Courses

BA Public Policy

Further Information: external pagewww.berufsoffizier.chcall_made (in German) and external pagewww.milak.chcall_made
The external pageArmed Conflict Location & Event Data Projectcall_made (ACLED) provides the most comprehensive data thats available on the political violence and protest activities that occur in Africa and 10 countries in South and Southeast Asia. It contains information on the specific dates and locations of political violence and protest, the types of events that occur, the groups involved, the fatalities suffered, and any changes in territorial control that transpire. Additional information is available on battles fought, killings, riots, and the recruitment activities of rebels, governments, militias, armed groups, protesters and civilians.
Innovation und Uberforderung: Das Gesprach mit Andrin Hauri von der ETH Zurich zum Bundner Krisenmanagement.



How effective was the crisis management of the canton of Grisons during the pandemic? In which areas is the greatest need for action? How did internal and external communication go during the crisis? What was the greatest achievement of the crisis management in Grisons? CSS' Andrin Hauri answers these and other questions in an interview with SRF 1 Regionaljournal Graubunden.

external pageListen to the interviewcall_made (in German, from minute 10:35)
The ETH Workshops on Swiss Security Policy aim to deliver impulses for strategic thinking in Switzerland and to lay the foundation for revising and developing Swiss security policy. They are conducted in cooperation with the Security Policy sector at the General Secretariat of the DDPS. Around 30 participants from the spheres of academia, the administration, politics, and the armed forces participate in these events.
BRIDGEPORT  Mayor Joe Ganim has lost another attempt to undo a union contract and cancel scheduled raises.

But while his failed court battle earlier this year with the supervisors union impacted the general budget, this time public school finances are taking the several-million-dollar hit. And the school board is already struggling to close a projected $7.9 million budget.

In a decision that is still being finalized, the state Board of Labor Relations has backed a five-year collective bargaining agreement struck last year between the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and then-Mayor Bill Finchs administration.

The majority of AFSCMEs 750 members work in the school system as paraprofessionals, clerical employees, custodians, and in-home schooling and therapeutic and academic support.

Ganim inherited the contract when he took office in December. Ganim claimed Finch, whom he beat in last years Democratic Party primary, had also left a $20 million deficit. So, he convinced members of the City Council to reject the AFSCME deal in January as unaffordable, a week after the council voted down the deal with the supervisors on the same grounds.

AFSCME asserted the legislative body had long since missed its opportunity to act. Under state law, if the council does not reject a contract within a narrow window of time, it is automatically implemented.

In mid-December, AFSCME filed a complaint with the state labor department, alleging that by failing to acknowledge the deal, the Ganim administration had refused to bargain collectively in good faith.

The labor board held two hearings on the matter. AFSCME spokesman Larry Dorman said those resulted in the city agreeing to honor and implement the contract we reached.

John Bohannon, the city attorney handling the matter, could not be reached Friday for comment. A spokesman for the labor board confirmed an agreement in the case had been struck but declined further comment, because the final decision is still being drafted.

On the one hand, the AFSCME deal resulted in savings for Bridgeport. As he had done with other contracts negotiated during his final few years in office, Finch and his staff pushed for employees to take unpaid furlough days and for the unions to agree to eliminate costly retiree health benefits for new hires.

But the contract also provides two years of retroactive, 3 percent raises and three years of 2.5 percent raises. Interim Schools Superintendent Fran Rabinowitz could not immediately provide the total financial impact, but said the retroactive raises cost $2 million.

We could have done a lot with that money, Rabinowitz said Friday.

But she said an extended legal battle could have proven costly to the school district. And, Rabinowitz added, she recognizes that the union had been without a contract for a while.

It was going to be inevitable, she said.

Dorman said most of the union members are paraprofessionals earning $23,000 to $33,000.

Theyve made sacrifices time and again to protect the services they provide to the kids, Dorman said. That includes in this contract. And weve always been willing to have conversations about ways to achieve savings that protect educational programs and services.

They are incredibly important, Rabinowitz said of the paraprofessionals.

But the budget deficit may force her to lay off many of those staffers, Rabinowitz said.

Havent done it yet, she said. Were hoping for a miracle, but Im facing cutting many, many positions.

This marked the second time this year the Ganim administration lost what some called a futile attempt to turn back the clock on a contract. In late March, Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis upheld the pact negotiated between Finch and the 155-member supervisors, union that also included raises for non-union staffers.

Later, Finch and his aides walked out of office with retroactive pay hikes, and Ganim and his staff inherited higher salaries. Ganim and his advisers have been taking unpaid furlough days as they pursue labor concessions.
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BRIDGEPORT  Another vacancy has triggered another controversy for the city school board.

Efforts to replace departed Board of Education member David Hennessey with a Republican  the party Hennessey adopted a couple of months ago  may be challenged by those who say the replacement needs to be Democratic  the party Hennessey was a member of when he ran and was elected as in 2013.

Two years ago, when the board moved to replace John Bagley, its members were told by the city attorney and Secretary of States Office that the new member needed to be a member of the Working Families Party, which Bagley, a registered Democrat, represented.

The City Charter, however, calls for vacancies on the school board to be filled by members of the same political party as the members vacating such office.

City Attorney R. Christopher Meyer said Tuesday the plain language of the Bridgeport City Charter is legally controlling and the board must replace Hennessey with a Republican.

This is factually and legally distinguishable from the situation regarding the resignation of Mr. John Bagley, where the political makeup of the Board triggered application of the Minority Representation Statute, Meyer said in an email.

In an email to school board Chairman Dennis Bradley  reprinted in Lenny Grimaldis Only in Bridgeport online blog  fellow board member Maria Pereira promised to file an injunction in court over the matter.

Ben Walker, another board member, said that people who elected Hennessey did so because of his party affiliation.

If he resigns, I want a Democrat in there, Walker said. Its my constitutional right.

This comes after Bradley forged ahead with a process to replace Hennessey with a Republican, setting in place a calendar what would require interested candidates to apply by noon on Monday, June 6. That would be one day after the legal notice was to be put in the paper on Sunday.

The last two times the board advertised for a board vacancy, it attracted more than one candidate who thought they were applying for a paying job. The job involves long hours, but zero pay. The position would run through November 2017.

According to the proposed posting, qualified candidates have to live in Bridgeport and must have been a registered Republican for at least the last three months, Bradley said. The plan calls for a special meeting on June 13, at which the candidates would be interviewed in public  and a vote would be taken on a replacement.

Whether that would result in a winner remains questionable. The remaining eight board members are split, 4-4, on most major decisions, and the selected candidate would likely tip the balance of power to one side.

As it is, the deadlock divide cuts across party lines, with a Working Families Party representative and three Democrats on one side, and two Republicans and two Democrats on the other.

If the board does deadlock on a replacement for Hennessey, it would fall in the hands of the City Council and mayor to name a new board member.
There are some epigrams about the Connecticut General Assembly that Mark Twain did not live long enough to invent.

Its hard for an ostrich to scratch its tail feathers with its head in the sand.

Its nearly impossible to make law when youre worried about the political repercussions.

A bad law can get passed the same year it is first introduced, but a good law can take years to win legislative approval.

Lets face it: the General Assembly isnt a place to find visionaries.

Your average rank-and-filer somehow journeyed up through the local ranks back home, maybe as a Democratic school board member; a Republican zoning board member; an alternate on the sewer commission.

Theyve slogged through years of unpaid local panels, burning through nights of public hearings when they could have played bad softball or watched worse TV, just to review property setbacks, the width of parking spaces, fourth-grade test scores, the cubic-foot-per-second dispersal rate of storm water in catch basins.

Theyre likely on the local town political committee, and know how to make people believe they appreciate their opinions.

And since there are only Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly, the path for public service in the Legislature for people who havent bought into the standard donkey/elephant dogma is essentially blocked by state election laws created by, yep, Democrats and Republicans. One of my theories of why the General Assembly is so lackluster generally  there are big exceptions to the rule and they know who they are  is the boring, sometimes dangerous 3-to-1 suburban and rural ratio over urban lawmakers.

There are many levels of aptitude and ambitions in the General Assembly, ranging from what the writer H.L. Mencken called the booboisie to the semi-smart, and the articulate. Maybe they missed a town committee meeting and some wag nominated them to a long-shot House seat as a joke and they somehow won that $28,000-a-year part-time job in the Capitol. Each House district represents about 23,000 constituents, so with a little local reputation and the right party affiliation, you too can become a member of the state House of Representatives. The 36 Senate districts are just bigger, gerrymandered versions.

Very few of them seem to care about the hundreds of people, behind bars in pretrial detention on misdemeanors, who are stuck there because they dont have a few hundred dollars cash, or a support system that can bail them out.

On Thursday, after his Second Chance Society 2.0 became a three-time loser thanks to the neglect of House Democrats, Gov. Dan Malloy talked about the one guy in pretrial detention who is stuck there because he doesnt have a dollar. Thats one dollar.

Republican fading star Gov. Chris Christie fixed this in New Jersey. The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that the state cant hold poor people in jail. But in the supposed Constitution State, with a Constitution that says people are entitled to bail, in an election year the General Assembly came up short because Democratic lawmakers of a certain stripe thought they were more important than poor people stuck behind bars. Theres something upon which to base a re-election campaign.

It didnt help Dan Malloy that on the scale of legislative love, he is a tail feather in the ostrich.

While Malloy pushed the concept of the bill throughout the short, 13-week legislative session, leaders didnt actually give it a close look until there were 48 hours left. He got a tacit agreement from Democrats to include it as part of the budget, but by the time the General Assemblys May 4 deadline came and went, moving the budget negotiations into special session, leaders became detached, since it was never their idea anyway. Then, even legislative advocates were coming up with lists of crimes with scary titles that would be exempted from the free-bail portion of Second Chance. Forget that 90 percent of these non-violent defendants are already out in the community awaiting trial because they paid the nominal bail that is set to assure their return to court. In their reactive election-year logic, Democrats ignored the Constitution that could have provided their political cover.

Democratic staffers quaked with the possibilities of their lackluster rank-and-filers having to defend the dreaded soft on crime battle cries of Republicans who can taste the possibility of winning a legislative chamber this fall for the first time since 1995.

Among those 400 poor people who are clogging jails for no good reason, two-thirds of the men and three-quarters of the woman have mental health problems. Virtually all have serious substance-abuse problems.

Say what you want about the governor, but for the first time ever, people are focusing on how our bail system actually works and who is languishing in jail because theyre too poor to post bail. The next step, Second Chance 2.1, should include increasing bail amounts to keep violent defendants in pretrial detention, for public safety.

Ken Dixons Capitol View appears Sundays in the Hearst Connecticut Newspapers. You may reach him in the Capitol at 860-549-4670 or at kdixon@ctpost.com. Find him at twitter.com/KenDixonCT. His Facebook address is kendixonct.hearst. Dixons Connecticut Blog-o-rama can be seen at blog.ctnews.com/dixon/
Caribbean countries show interests in investing in Cuba

Submitted by: Juana

Caribbean

Havana

Business and Economy

06 / 03 / 2016



The Caribbean nations show a growing interest in having joint business with Cuba, after the coming into force of the Law on Foreign Investment in 2014, was reported today in Havana.

Jose Chaple, an official with the Cuban Foreign Trade and Investment Ministry delivered a keynote speech in the framework of the 7th Summit of the Association of Caribbean States, underway in Havana, where he analyzed the new trend.

He said large business delegations have come into Cuba from Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados and Guatemala to learn on the new investment opportunities.

The conference dealt on the existing business already operating in the Mariel Development Zone, west of Havana city, and on the advantages for Caribbean companies that could set shop in that area.

The countries that are together in the ACS are and important potential market for Cuba, with a combined GDP of 14 thousand dollars, and with almost 40 million tourists visiting them every year.

During the last two years, Cuba exported to other ACS members medicines, chemical reactive, seafood, rum, cigars and alcohol, and imported from them oil, herbicides, industrial and eatable oils and food.

(ACN)








Pa. is about to vote. Here's what to know about voting and ballot access in 2022
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.
The power suit has moved out of the office and onto the street in a variety of colours with the celebrity support of Julia Roberts and Cate Blanchett.

by Damien Woolnough
After the hysteria and scaremongering, this was the week the spotlight of truth finally shone on one of the greatest issues of our time.

Leave aside investors growing confidence in a post-Brexit UK economy (see below).

As found in poll after poll, mass immigration has long been the publics gravest concern.

Yet for decades, politicians and the BBC censored debate, branding as racist those who voiced anxieties about the erosion of our national identity or the pressure on jobs, housing, schools and healthcare.

A dinghy full of migrants is towed by a Turkish Coastguard boat following a failed attempt to cross to the Greek island of Chios. The mass exodus to the EU from the Middle East and Africa shows no sign of stopping

This week, they could avoid the subject no longer, as the campaign focused mercilessly on our impotence to control our borders under the EUs free movement rules and crazy human rights regime.

Prisons packed with foreign criminals we cant deport, thousands of others on our streets EU migrants flocking to the UK at a net 184,000 last year, bringing officially recorded immigration to more than three times David Camerons no ifs, no buts target (sorry, ambition)

Illegal migrants picked up by the boat and lorryload, suggesting many times more are undetected hundreds camped on the French coast, waiting to attempt the crossing... many of them openly contemptuous of UK border controls.

Meanwhile, the mass exodus to the EU from the Middle East and North Africa gathers pace.

No wonder the Prime Minister appears so uncomfortable in the migration spotlight, snapping at interviewers and changing the subject when questioned about promises he cant keep.

In his televised grilling on Thursday night, he even resorted to deception, claiming Britain has the right to deport jobless EU nationals after six months.

It was the German Chancellor Angela Merkel (pictured) who overruled David Cameron when he begged for Britain to get the right to deport jobless EU nationals

Has he so quickly forgotten that Angela Merkel overruled him when he begged for such restrictions on free movement?

How ironic that this was the week the German Chancellor warned countries at the bargaining table get better deals than those outside the room.

Is it cruel to point out that when the PM was inside that room, our partners simply ignored his modest requests?

Instead of fibbing and squirming, Mr Cameron should come clean. He should unequivocally declare that if we wish to retain EU membership, uncontrollable immigration is the price we must pay. Voters will decide if its worth paying.

Osbornes tainted ally

JUST when it seemed George Osborne could sink no lower in his scaremongering, he enlists the rapacious US bank J.P. Morgan to threaten 4,000 job cuts in the UK if we leave the EU.

Fined 26billion since the crash, in which it played a central role, this outfit is so tainted that Barack Obama barred its representatives from the White House.

Indeed, Mr Osborne demeans his office by consorting with a bank that, again and again, sells its integrity for the right price.

Elsewhere in the City, by contrast, investors in gilts are greeting the prospect of Brexit with perfect equanimity.

Despite all Mr Osbornes prophesies of economic catastrophe if we pull out, confidence in Britains ability to pay its debts is close to a record high.

The Chancellor should stop talking his country down  and start looking for more respectable friends.

Decisions that beggar belief

After a hugely welcome last-minute U-turn (under pressure from the Press), the families of British soldiers killed in Iraq will not have to pay for copies of the long-delayed Chilcot report on the war.

One question: who were the twits who decided the bereaved should be charged 767?
She is known for having one of the best relationships with the animals

Imagine trading in your life as a high-flying corporate executive to start a new one, unpaid, with elephants in Zimbabwe.

That's exactly what author and photographer Sharon Pincott, did in 2001.

Remaining in the Hwange bush for 13 years, Ms Pincott from Queensland dedicated her life to fighting for elephants, forming an immense, life-changing bond with them that has been described as one of the most remarkable relationships with wild elephants ever documented.

Life swap: Sharon Pincott (pictured) is a writer and photographer from Queensland who spent 13 years living in the Hwange bush

Former life: She traded her life as a high-flying corporate exec (pictured) to live with elephants

Remarkable relationship: Ms Pincott formed an immense, life-changing bond with the elephants (pictured), that has been described as one of the most remarkable relationships with wild elephants ever documented

Sharon Pincott's book Elephant Dawn documents her experience building relationships with wild elephants

While you might think that Ms Pincott is fearless, and some might imagine that her time spent in Zimbabwe was a crazy thing to do during one of the worst periods in the country's volatile history, she says that she is not a natural risk taker:

'I'm not someone who would go bungee jumping or anything like that,' she explains to Daily Mail Australia.

When I first got there, I will confess I felt surrounded by these great big grey things, but as I got to know them, they became friends to me

'It was more that the death of a close friend at age 38 made me think that life is too short, as cliched as it sounds,' she says.

'Seeing my first elephant was something I'd never forgotten, and so when the opportunity came about to go out there and help them, I grabbed it.'

Arriving in the Hwange bush totally untrained, Ms Pincott spent her early days establishing a friend base, getting to know the elephants and their various families, and getting used to her new life:

'When I first got there, I will confess I felt surrounded by these great big grey things, but as I got to know them, they became friends to me.'

Most days followed a regular pattern.

She would wake up early, do her washing and her cleaning, before going out in her 4x4 at around 10 to search for the elephants (Ms Pincott explains that elephants keep themselves to themselves in the early hours but that they also stay together throughout life).

Daily duties: Ms Pincott's day followed a regular pattern - she would wake up early, do her washing and her cleaning, before going out in her 4x4 at around 10 to search for the elephants (pictured)

Ties that bind: Arriving in the Hwange bush totally untrained, Ms Pincott slowly established a friend base, as well as getting to know the elephants and their various families

She would then find out what she could about each elephant's family by taking photographs of identifiers such as their ears and their tusks.

Once she had identified them as being part of different families, she gave each family a name:

'The M family, for instance,' she explains, 'would each have a name beginning with M. This meant that I could easily keep track of every elephant, and over time, I didn't even have to look at them to tell who it was.

'In the same way that we can identify friends by the way they walk, so too could I tell who each elephant was from a good distance.'

Documented diary: Ms Pincott would find out what she could about each elephant's family by taking photographs of identifiers such as their ears and their tusks

Happy family: Once she had identified them as being part of different families, she gave each family a name, alongside first names beginning with that letter - the M family all had M names, for example

After several years, Ms Pincott was accepted by the elephants, a moment she has not forgotten ever since:

They would come to my door and grumble like they did with other family members

'They would come to my door and grumble like they did with other family members,' she says.

'It took three or four years for them to start, but it was amazing insofar as the females would bring their three-day old babies to my door.'

One elephant who Sharon Pincott formed a particularly special bond with was one called Lady, who she spent a lot of time with over the years:

'I hold a special place in my heart for Lady,' Ms Pincott explains.

'She taught me so much about her kind. She was the first elephant I touched, and while I didn't go out to Zimbabwe saying that I was going to touch a wild, free-roaming elephant, after a couple of years, I touched her trunk, and would rub it by the end of it.

'Having a five tonne elephant let you do that, and accept me, was one of my highlights.'

Great friend: One elephant who Ms Pincott formed an extra special bond with was called Lady (pictured) - she was one of the first elephants who let Ms Pincott touch her trunk

Level of trust: By the end of her time in the Hwange bush, however, the elephants would come to her door and grumble as they would with family members

That doesn't mean that Ms Pincott's time in Zimbabwe was without danger and awful times, however.

'There were threats and harassment constantly,' Ms Pincott explains.

'People, whether they were government officials, or relatives of government officials, were out to make trouble for me and the elephants - for their land and their wellbeing.

'The most heartbreaking moments were when elephants from a specific family went missing and they were gone for more than a week. You knew then that they were gone for good.'

Meagre means: This was Ms Pincott's home for more than a decade - it has just one room

Good times and bad: While Ms Pincott had many good times, she also faced constant adversity - for people fighting against the elephants' wellbeing and their land

And by the end of her thirteen years there, Ms Pincott knew she had to leave Zimbabwe.

Describing the experience as like living in an 'abusive marriage', she says that the decision was devastating, but necessary:

'There's not a day that goes by where I don't think about the elephants,' she reminisces.

'There are times, especially when I was writing the book, where I couldn't look at photos, it was that impossible to be back.

'I'd love to go back at some point, when the political landscape has changed, but I feel I can't at this point. One thing is for certain, and that's that I know I will not go back to a 9-5.'

Memories forever: Ms Pincott says that there is not a day that goes by where she doesn't think about the elephants - sometimes she finds it hard to look at photos remembering

One day: While she says she'd love to go back one day, Ms Pincott feels as though she cannot currently

According to Sharon Pincott, there are currently 400,000 elephants in the world, which might sound like a lot, but means nothing when you hear that one is killed every 15 minutes:

'Some 30,000 elephants die each year,' she says.

'We all need to do what we can to stop this from happening.'

Ms Pincott advocates refraining from buying ivory, anything with elephant tail hair or elephant tusk:

'If there's no demand there's no need to kill them,' she says.

You can read more about Sharon Pincott's experiences by buying her book, available in all good book stores and here.

Dying breed: According to Sharon Pincott, there are currently 400,000 elephants in the world, which might sound like a lot, but means nothing when you hear that one is killed every 15 minutes
New mothers can work out with their baby strapped

New mothers looking to get in shape are doing so with their babies on board.

Queensland mothers Donna Hann and Angela Cullen have started baby-wearing dance classes for mums and bubs at their school Dance Kix.

Ms Hann told Daily Mail Australia she discovered the concept when she was pregnant with her second baby, and thought it would be a great way for mums to get their heart rate going.

Scroll down for video

Baby on board! Queensland mothers and dance teachers Donna Hann and Angela Cullen have started baby-wearing dance classes

In rhythm: The classes are done with bubs on board, allowing new mothers to work out guilt-free

I saw a belly dancing baby-wearing performance on YouTube, and I found it was fairly basic, Ms Hann said.

I thought we could probably mix it up a bit more, get the heart rate going and make it more of a workout for mums and obviously safe for the babies as well.

We went about making up some choreography and put it together.

Proud: Both Ms Hann, 34, and Ms Cullen, 33, who have two children each, have backgrounds as dance teachers

A full workout: Ms Hann said she saw belly dancing baby-wearing classes on YouTube, and decided to mix it up to get the heart-rate going

Both Ms Hann, 34, and Ms Cullen, 33, who have two children each, have backgrounds as dance teachers.

The mothers specifically designed the class with the bubs in mind, meaning there is not much leaning over or bouncing around.

The class has been well-received by new mums, who not only use it as an opportunity to work out but a time to share parenting tips.

Safe and sound: The classes have been specially choreographed with the babies in mind, so there is not much bending over or bouncing around

Guilt-free workout: Ms Cullen said the class was perfect for her as she had tried, and failed, so join a boot camp and gym with a creche while her children her younger

Ms Cullen, who has a two and a four-year-old, said the concept was great for mothers like herself who found it hard to leave their babies to work out.

She said when her children were younger she tried to join and outdoor boot camp class as well as a gym with a creche, each to no avail as her children did not like to be separated from her.

The baby-wearing classes allows her to keep her babies close, and enjoy her workout guilt-free.

For everyone: Ms Hann said the average age of babies in the class was about five months old, and parents could also bring their toddlers along to play with the other kids

But its not just the mums who are enjoying their time on the dance floor.

Ms Hann said about ten minutes in to the class a lot of the babies fell asleep.

What I found really interesting was it help with their body awareness and balance, Ms Hann said.

As the mums move from side to side, squatting or doing things like that the baby is developing a sense of overall body awareness in their arms and legs which isnt a natural thing when were born.

Feel-good: The class boost mothers' levels of oxytocin, and can also help combat post-natal depression

The classes are currently held in Calliope, a town in central Queensland, with plans to expand to Gladstone and Boyne Island and turn the business into a franchise.

Ms Hann said the average age of babies in the class was about five months old, and parents could also bring their toddlers along to play with the other kids.

Its a good release of oxytocin, known as the love hormone, she said.
A new study has shed light on why breast cnacer can return years after women appear to be free of it. A stock photo of a young woman self examining her breasts for signs of cancer

The 'Achilles heel' of breast cancer cells has been identified, according to scientists.

A study has shed light on why the disease can return years after women appear to be free of it.

Many invasive forms of breast cancer have too much of the protein HER2 on the surface of the cancerous cells, which leads to uncontrolled growth.

HER2 is present in all human cells, but unusually high levels are found in about one in five breast and stomach cancers, known as HER2-positive types.

The cancer drugs Herceptin and Perjeta  the brand names for trastuzumab and pertuzumab, respectively  recognise HER2 but they do not kill off the cancerous cells. Instead, they only render the cells dormant, which means they can become active again at any time.

This means many women can appear to be 'cured', only for their cancer to re-awaken years later.

In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers from Zurich University aimed to find out why these drugs merely slow the growth of tumours, rather than destroy them.

HER2 uses several signalling pathways at the same time to inform a cell that it should grow and divide. Currently available drugs block only one of those signalling pathways, while others remain active.

But now scientists believe they have developed a method to switch off all the signals, using a protein compound that binds to HER2 and changes its structure.

This prevents any growth signals being transmitted to the cell's interior, causing the cancer cell to die.

Crucially, the technique targets only cancer cells, leaving healthy ones unharmed.

Professor Dr Andreas Pluckthun, of Zurich University, said: 'Now that we have identified the Achilles heel of HER2-positive cancer cells, new opportunities are opening up for treating invasive tumour types like breast cancer more effectively in the future.'

Meanwhile, separate research has shown that up to 1,200 patients with one of the deadliest types of cancer could survive for at least five years using a different method of treatment.

It reveals that offering a combination of two chemotherapy drugs for pancreatic cancer is far more effective than one on its own.

Scientists from Liverpool University studied 732 patients who underwent surgery followed by chemotherapy at hospitals in the UK, Germany, Sweden and France.

About half were offered the standard chemotherapy of gemcitabine alone and half were offered a combination of gemcitabine and capecitabine.

The cancer drugs Herceptin (pictured) and Perjeta  the brand names for trastuzumab and pertuzumab, respectively  recognise HER2 but they do not kill off the cancerous cells

The study  which will be presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology cancer conference  shows 29 per cent of patients given the combined drugs lived at least five years, compared with only 16 per cent of patients given just gemcitabine. It suggests about 1,200 patients a year could benefit from the technique.

The findings were so compelling they have prompted experts to change the treatment guidelines for pancreatic cancer. From now on, doctors will be told to offer both chemotherapy drugs.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms and there are 9,400 new cases and 8,800 deaths in the UK each year.

Professor John Neoptolemos of Liverpool University said: 'This important trial shows that this drug combination could give pancreatic patients valuable extra months and even years and so will become the new treatment for patients with this disease.

'The difference in short-term survival may seem modest, but improvement in long-term survival is substantial for this cancer.

'Although pancreatic cancer is difficult to treat, finding drugs that will shrink the tumour enough to make it suitable for surgery will help in the fight against this disease.

'We've learnt a lot about pancreatic cancer from our clinical trials and now this drug combination will become the new standard of care for patients with the disease.'
BBC is accused of 'dishonesty' over Doctor Who finale by owner of Durdle Door - which says the corporation made 'no mention' they would portray the Tardis and Doctor on top of 200ft Dorset landmark
107 Symphonies Decca, out now

Rating:

Pavel Gomziakov: Cello Concertos Onyx Classics, out now

Rating:

Shai Wosner: Concertos And Cappriccios Onyx Classics, out now

Rating:

Joseph Haydn is every bit the equal of Mozart and Beethoven but loses out in popular appeal because he was so prolific.

Very few of his invariably excellent pieces stand out from the crowd the way Beethovens Ninth does, or Mozarts Don Giovanni.

Its extraordinary how few duds there are among his 107 symphonies (104 numbered ones, three others now attributed to him).

In Shai Wosner: Concertos And Cappricios, Wosner (above) couples one of Haydn's finest keyboard concertos, No 11, with the lesser known No 4

But, of course, when Richard Nixon said that if you put out a press release of more than 200 words, you compete against yourself for space, he was right.

So, most of Haydns symphonies hardly ever hit the concert hall. Even some of the 12 justly celebrated London Symphonies dont get much of a hearing.

But, happily, this is where CDs fill the gap.

Joseph Haydn is every bit the equal of Mozart and Beethoven but loses out in popular appeal because he was so prolific. Very few of his invariably excellent pieces stand out from the crowd

Its more than 40 years now since the Dorati/Decca complete cycle of Haydns symphonies came out, to huge applause, and there have been several since.

But Decca has now issued 107 Symphonies, the first complete cycle using period instruments, on 35 CDs.

It draws on two incomplete sets from the late, lamented Christopher Hogwood and his own Academy of Ancient Music, recorded between the mid-Eighties and mid-Nineties, and Frans Bruggen and another London band, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, from the Nineties.

It's extraordinary how few duds there are among Haydn's 107 symphonies (104 numbered ones, three others now attributed to him)

Neither conductor tackled Nos 78-81, so these have been specially recorded for this box (by the Accademia Byzantia, under Ottavio Dantone in Italy last summer).

Are there special insights only available in period-instrument recordings? I dont think so. Yet this excellent, handily priced set is well worth having, especially for those who dont yet get Haydns greatness.

By happy chance, two new recordings of Haydn concertos that further enhance his reputation have just become available from Onyx.

In Pavel Gomziakov: Cello Concertos Gomziakov proves a first-class soloist in both of the cello concertos.

He draws some lovely sounds from his King of Portugal Stradivarius, and also makes a good fist of directing the Lisbon-based Gulbenkian Orchestra.

Decca has issued 107 Symphonies, the first complete cycle using period instruments, on 35 CDs. It draws on two incomplete sets from the late, lamented Christopher Hogwood and his Academy of Ancient Music

In Shai Wosner: Concertos And Capriccios Wosner couples one of Haydns finest keyboard concertos, No 11, with the lesser known No 4.

He also finds room for two of Haydns capriccios for solo piano and stirs in some paprika with a piano concerto and some solo keyboard music from Gyorgy Ligeti.

Dont be put off by Ligeti; hes a very entertaining composer most of the time.
When NOEMIE LOPIAN translated the harrowing chronicle of her father Ernst, a Holocaust survivor, she realised his trauma had impacted on her life, too. She tells Angela Epstein why she will always carry the guilt of her fathers suffering

For years and years, I couldnt bear to look at it. I didnt have the emotional strength to face what my father had been through. I didnt want to know the pain he had suffered,' said Noemie Lopian

Noemie Lopian has a clear recollection of the bookshelf in the living room of her childhood home in Munich: it was empty save for a solitary title on the middle shelf.

Yet as a girl, she resisted any urge to read it because she knew that something terrible was documented within its pages.

Spool forward three decades and Noemie, 49, has finally delved into her fathers memoir of his experiences during the Holocaust: an account of appalling suffering and inhumanity in seven concentration camps and five transit camps.

His parents and two of his siblings  from whom he became separated in 1941  perished in Auschwitz. Of his immediate family, only one sister survived.

Moreover, Noemie, a former GP now living in Manchester, has spent the past four years translating Die Lange Nacht (The Long Night) into English from its original German.

Noemie's father Ernst aged 14. Three years later he was dragged away from his family and conscripted into forced labour

For years and years, I couldnt bear to look at it, she explains.

I didnt have the emotional strength to face what my father had been through. I didnt want to know the pain he had suffered.

Until the outbreak of the Second World War, Noemies father Ernst Bornstein lived with his happy, close-knit family in the Polish town of Zawiercie.

All that changed when the Germans invaded in 1939: the synagogue was locked, Jewish pupils were outlawed from schools and the Nazis began their sustained policy of cruelty and prejudice towards the Jewish community.

For 17-year-old Ernst, life would never be the same again. Dragged away from his family and conscripted into forced labour in March 1941, he spent the next four years enduring physical and psychological torture, starvation and sickness, all of which he documents in his unflinching memoir.

At one point he describes breaking down after receiving a letter from his parents, passed on by a kind German soldier, telling him that their town had been cleansed of Jews and that like other transports before us we are probably going to the extermination at Auschwitz.

In 1945, he was forced on a death march through Germany to evade the advancing Red Army; a friend who walked with him was shot dead by the SS when they arrived at the Gross-Rosen concentration camp.

Ernst and wife Renee in 1965

Ernst was finally liberated in Bavaria by American soldiers on 30 April 1945. But there was no celebration for him  he spent the day beside mass graves filled with friends who had been killed just 24 hours before the liberation.

Later he discovered that of his extended family numbering 72 in 1939, only six survived the war including himself and his sister Regina.

Yet despite all of his traumatic experiences and devastating family loss, Ernst went on to train first as a dentist and then as a doctor after gaining a university place in Munich.

He established a successful medical practice and married Noemies mother Renee after meeting her through mutual friends when he was 42 and she was 30.

He was also tireless in his work for fellow survivors, founding the Association of Ex-Concentration Camp Inmates in Munich and speaking every year at a memorial service at Dachau concentration camp.

I meet Noemie in her elegant Manchester home. Her parlour, with its family photos and restrained antiques, is redolent of a timeless European townhouse, despite being on the doorstep of the northern city she moved to 37 years ago.

Delicately pretty with wary, soulful eyes, she measures each word carefully as she reveals how she finally felt able to confront her fathers past.

As children, Noemie and her siblings  brother Alain, 44 (a lawyer living in London), and sister Muriel, 48 (who lives in Israel)  had a happy and comfortable upbringing in Munich.

Ernst, Renee, Noemie and Muriel in 1969

I adored my father, and even though he often came home late, I would leap out of bed when I heard his key in the lock.

'I loved spending time with him and relished our walks to the synagogue or to school, or Sundays in the park.

'Hed tell me about his work and spoke about the women he knew who practised medicine. He made me believe that I had potential, that I could do anything.

But even as children, Noemie and her siblings understood their father was different.

My mother was always protective of him, she recalls. If he was having a rest we had to be quiet so he wouldnt be disturbed.

'My mother, who is French, had also suffered at the hands of the Nazis  she had been arrested and I questioned by the Gestapo at the age of just ten. But she never told my father her story as she didnt want to burden him further.

My father was a kind, loving and brilliant man, who as a student had been prepared to sometimes go without food to fund his medical studies.

'He never spoke to us of the horrors of the Holocaust, yet I realise now that what he experienced  even before I knew the details in his book  always walked with me.

'It has shaped me, challenged me and, even though I sometimes lack courage and confidence, it has taught me about survival.

Noemie (left) with her parents, brother Alain and sister Muriel in 1974

Almost immediately after the war, Ernst began recording his wartime experiences. He wanted to chronicle the evils of the Holocaust while the details were still fresh in his mind.

Unlike many survivors of the time, whose wounds were too raw to revisit, he was driven by a need to educate young people in Germany, explains Noemie.

Especially since one of his young patients had thought  before meeting my father and being told the truth by him  that the gassing of women and children in Auschwitz was anti-German propaganda.

'He saw the need to warn future generations about genocide and how it must never be allowed to happen again.

Ernsts testimony was published in Germany in 1967  although it had previously been rejected by several publishers who exhibited little interest in revisiting their countrys bleak wartime past.

Yet it was well received on publication, netting a review in the Times Literary Supplement, even though it was published only in German.

In 1978, Noemies childhood was shattered when, at the age of 55, Ernst died suddenly of a heart condition  triggered possibly by the starvation and forced labour he had endured during his years of incarceration.

A year later, the Bornsteins moved to England and settled in Manchester, where Noemies mother believed the warm Jewish community would offer the bereaved family somewhere to begin anew.

While Renee devoted herself to her children as a stay-at-home mother, Noemie and her siblings found themselves forging a new life in a strange country.

Noemie (right) and Muriel with their father Ernst in the late 1960s. 'He never spoke to us of the horrors of the Holocaust, yet I realise now that what he experienced always walked with me,' said Noemie

I was 12, my sister 11 and my brother seven when our father died, and I couldnt wait to get away from Munich, recalls Noemie.

I naively thought that leaving Germany would mean leaving the pain of my fathers loss behind. But the thing about grief is its your travelling companion. It always comes with you.

Eventually, Noemie won a place at Manchester High School, one of the citys most prestigious girls schools, and went on to study medicine, as her father had done.

It was a significant achievement for a girl who had arrived in England unable to speak the language.

At the age of 20, while still at medical school, she married her businessman husband Danny, the son of a family friend, and less than two years later, in March 1988, she gave birth to their first child, daughter Orly.

As well as Orly (who now has three children of her own), Noemie and Danny are parents to 15-year-old twins Ella and Mia and to 13-year-old Nina.

In 2002, after Nina was born, Noemie gave up her job as a GP to become a full-time mother.

I just couldnt juggle any more  I was pushing myself to the limit. But I felt disappointed in myself.

'I thought of my father  how hed had to choose between books and food to find the money to complete his studies  and felt I had let him down.

'As a survivors daughter you bear the guilt of what they endured. I know so many survivors children who feel the extra pressure to succeed, to make up for what their parents had lost, but I just couldnt do it, I had to put my family first.

'Also, I couldnt ever be what he had been. He set the bar extraordinarily high. He was more than just a doctor. He had a calling to help anyone and was indefatigable in that.

One of the last pictures of Ernst, 1978. He died at the age of 55 suddenly of a heart condition  triggered possibly by the starvation and forced labour he had endured during his years of incarceration

Having given up work, Noemie found herself drawn to her fathers book. She felt the time had come to engage with him, adult to adult, and to hear his voice again.

Reading it in one sitting, she recalls, was gruelling, especially since Ernst recounts the horrors of the Holocaust and of his daily existence in unsparing detail.

But this narrative of human suffering has also helped Noemie see another dimension of the father she still misses.

For example, when I was a child, one of my fathers German patients, a non-Jewish lady, was widowed. So our family adopted her as a grandmother figure. I didnt think anything of it.

'As children you accept things as they happen. But now I realise the magnanimity of my fathers gesture.

'After everything he had been through, it would have been so natural to have antipathy towards Germans like this woman.

It made me understand my fathers humanity, which wouldnt allow him to do anything other than care for people. I really appreciated his faith in the goodness of others.

'To me, as a child, he had simply been a wonderful papa. As an adult I understood he had been an exceptional human being.

'There are so many questions that I would like to have asked him. How, for example, did he find the heart to treat his German patients so soon after the war  even when they often couldnt pay him?

After reading the book, Noemie felt she had to tell the world about her fathers experiences. So she secured the services of a co-writer, David Arnold, to help her translate it.

Ernsts father Usher Bornstein, who was murdered in Auschwitz. Of Ernst's extended family numbering 72 in 1939, only six survived the war including himself and his sister Regina

Weighing up every word my father had written was painful but cathartic. I could hear his voice in my head and it made me love, admire and miss him even more  it was like grieving all over again. His suffering has made me acutely aware of lifes challenges and fragilities.

'I realise that I have been so blessed with Danny, a wonderful husband and father, and with our four daughters and our grandchildren.

Even today, she has never lost the haunting fear that it could all be taken from her.

Now anti-Semitism has become more overt we have to make people aware of what happened to those like my father. I worry for my children and grandchildren being attacked simply because they are Jewish.

Whenever the translation work became so painful that she couldnt continue, one particular passage from the book always gave her strength. It relates to Ernsts little brother Yehuda who was murdered at Auschwitz.

Her father wrote: I will continue to write because my little brothers voice is still ringing in my ears; because you were suffocated, you with your happy heart, with your serious childs eyes with which you watched over my shoulder as I was reading.

'For you dear brother, with your innocent eyes which were barbarically extinguished in Auschwitz. You look at me in the darkness when I lie awake and your eyes warn me, Dont forget! For you I will have sleepless nights, my little brother. For you I will tell the story of the long, bloody night.

Noemie has done what she can to ensure the story continues to be told. She devotes her time to promoting Holocaust education  and is a key member of the committee that stages Manchesters annual community-wide Holocaust commemoration service.

I know I can never measure up to my father; but I can carry this baton of remembrance for the six million who were murdered by the Nazis.

This hasnt been about self-pity; it has been a journey of self-discovery. Commemorating the Holocaust isnt enough.

'We have to educate each new generation, so that such horrors never happen again, and we must continue to seek out and believe in the good of humanity. I learned this from my father years after I lost him.

'Its a message I want to spread in his memory and share with those who will listen.

The Long Night by Ernst Israel Bornstein is published by Toby Press, price 10.99




This piece is not about whether comedian Tanmay Bhat is right in spoofing people with crass humour or not.

This piece is about how our cops, or law enforcement authorities or the government respond to an online video that spoofs or mock people.

As we saw earlier last week, the authorities respond to these videos in a manner that just adds to the comedy  or is it the tragedy  of the situation.

Mumbai police asked Google and Orkut to block the controversial AIB video, without realising that Orkut has been shut down since 2014.

Last week, even as people took to social media to express outrage after Bhat posted his now infamous video, the police in Mumbai issued a statement.

They said they have asked Google, among others, to block this video online including at Orkut.

That is until you get to know that Orkut no longer exists. It was shut down by Google in 2014.

Unfortunately, its not just a simple lapse on the part of cops. Again and again the Indian government and its bodies have shown a remarkable level of ignorance, particularly for a country that counts itself among the IT superpowers, when it comes to dealing with the cyber world.

The problems are on two fronts  there is a general lack of awareness and good IT experts within the government bodies, and two, the norms, laws and policies related to the cyber world are incredibly vague.

This has created an environment where no one within the government seems to know how to deal with the world wide web.

Cops use whatever vague laws they find in the way they can interpret and most of the time this is the interpretation of convenience.

So we have cases like Tanmays video where cops asked Google to remove the video without even specifying under what law and which policy.

Then there is the case of hundreds of perfectly regular websites blocked in India but the whole process to block sites here is so arbitrary and based on whims and fancies of some people that no one even knows how many sites are actually banned.

Such is the nature of confusion related to tech policies in India that even the service WhatsApp is probably illegal here.

Its just that for now, no one is enforcing it. India needs to do a lot of catching up when it comes to tech policies and laws.
Following the arrest of five persons, including two staff of a prominent multi-speciality hospital in Delhi, for allegedly running a kidney racket, police are now investigating a money trail to trace the kingpin, as well as those who paid in lakhs to get an illegal kidney by getting forged documents to donors.

According to top police sources, legal action will be taken against all the recipients and the donors associated with the kidney racket.

This includes businessmen and other influential patients who got a kidney transplant via dubious means.

Cops are also tracking alleged kingpin Rajukumar Raos money trail by scanning bank accounts of his associates

According to a senior police official, Rajukumar Rao has stopped using his local contacts.

Numbers and mobiles used by Rao have been changed and he is continuously changing his location. He is no more contacting his local agents suspecting they might have been exposed after the syndicate was unearthed.

Cops are also tracking Raos money trail by scanning bank accounts of his associates.

According to police, Rao alias Raju has been running the kidney racket syndicate for the last 10 years and has expanded his network to almost all states, with his agents looking for potential donors in rural areas.

Rao is well connected with the hospital as well as the pathology staff, who helped him to source the details of the patients.

Rao used to keep one-third of the total deal as part of his commission while only 10 per cent reached the actual donor.

Initial investigation by the police reveals that this year alone five kidney transplant operations were conducted in a leading private hospital in Delhi.

During the initial probe, the police have identified a businessman from a posh locality in Ghaziabad along with locating addresses of other recipients in Jaipur and Hyderabad.

A police team will soon question these people and also verify documents submitted by them.

At present, five donors, including three women, are admitted at a leading hospital, who allegedly were in touch with the gang.

On Friday, Delhi Police busted a kidney racket gang operating at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, which used to deal with organ transplantation.

Commercial trade in organs is illegal in India and transplant donations to non-relatives must be approved by a special committee.

We will take legal action against both the donors and the recipients. We cannot disclose their identity at the moment, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East), Mandeep Singh Randhawa, citing section 19 (Punishment for commercial dealings in human organs) Transplant of Human Organ Act.

All recipients, whose donors belonged to the gang, paid over Rs 40 lakh for each transplant, using forged documents by the agents.

During the whole process, a nominal sum of Rs three to four lakh used to reach the financially weak donors, who mostly came from the slums or the rural areas, police said.
As the BJP gets closer to its stated goal of a 'Congress-mukt Bharat', (India free from Congress) with the victory in Assam, the question remains: what can the Congress do now?

Let me dedicate this column to a creative reimagining of Rahul Gandhis prospective political career.

The idea of this exercise is to figure what hes good at and what he isnt, so we can manufacture a new version of Rahul and send him out into the field, where he can play to his strengths.

By being a maverick rebel in his own party, Rahul Gandhi can be that daring usurper

Orator

There are things Rahul will never be good at. He is not the greatest orator. He doesnt have the fluency in Hindi that Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal and Kanhaiya Kumar have.

These guys can talk. But if youre not a born public speaker, theres no point in trying to be one.

Youll keep goofing up. Its best that Rahul sticks to English, a language hes relatively more comfortable in.

This is a linguistic handicap, which hes inherited from his father Rajiv, who once famously said: Chaahen ham jeetey ya losey

Much of the South and the North- East doesnt speak or understand Hindi, but that didnt prevent Prime Minister Modi from speaking in chaste Hindi while campaigning.

Language is not a barrier in reaching out to people.

If youve got a message, itll get through.

In the preface to Mother, Brother, Lover: Selected Lyrics, British pop star Jarvis Cocker writes: Turn your defects into selling points. Dont attempt to hide a fault - exaggerate it. Make it so big that no one can see it anymore.

Rahul doesnt need to be embarrassed about the privileged background he comes from - the Gandhi family, Doon School or for that matter, his hobbies: paragliding and drag racing.

In any case, he attended Doon for only two years, the rest of his schooling was done at St. Columbas and Convent of Jesus and Mary, which are the regular convent schools that middle class Indians either go to or aspire for.

Liberal Indians who will not vote for the BJP, no matter what, are looking for a national alternative.

Rahul can be that alternative. He needs to speak up more about issues that affect young urban India.

This will require Rahul to go against his own party at times.

He can begin by apologising for the Congress-led anti-Sikh pogrom in the aftermath of Indiras death.

Justin Trudeau recently formally apologised in the House of Commons for a 1914 incident in which a Japanese boat, Komagata Maru, carrying Sikh immigrants, was turned away from Canadian shores.

He should speak out against the ban culture in India -banning films, movies, books, documentaries, comedy roasts- including that practiced by the Congress.

Rebel

Mukul Kesavan has said that the Congress is waiting for a daring usurper who will set the Grand Old Party upright and walking again.

By being a maverick rebel in his own party, Rahul can be that daring usurper.

By playing the rebel, he will be seen to be carving out his own identity and destiny.

This should help him shed the baggage of dynasty. His views should not have any shades of ambivalence.

He should say what other politicians, across party lines, shy away from saying, whether it is decriminalising homosexuality, arguing against Prohibition or marital rape.

Most Indian politicians come across as stiff or avuncular -the uncle who never married.

Rahul needs to be sold as a young liberal westernised but desi politician who knows young India because he belongs to it (times running out).

He is often spotted sipping a latte in a coffee shop at Khan Market or eating at a south Delhi restaurant -all this reinforces the image of a regular guy rather than of a politician who inhabits an ivory tree house, if such a thing exists.

Indians have got tired of their politicians in ethnic wear.

Rahul should dispense with the khadi whites (he can continue wearing them at home if he so desires) and should be photographed more in black t-shirts, jeans and sneakers or in snappy dark suits.

Photographs

To sum up, this is what Im imagining for Pappu.

Contrary to what the song says, his PR team should be convincing us: Pappu can dance. We need more photos of Rahul: Rahul on the dance floor shaking a leg to Kanye West, Rahul driving a fast car, Rahul at the drag races, Rahul with his girlfriend, Rahul biting into a Gelato, sipping a beer, blogging about Jungle Book or listening to Prince, or attending his gay friends wedding.

Rahul-the Peoples Pappu. Rahul who doesnt care about power, who says whats on everyones minds but what regular politicians will not say, because they have a hundred electoral ifs and buts getting in the way.

Rahul can be charming one-on-one. We live in times where elections are won and lost on TV.

How you look matters. A straight-talking PM candidate who turns up for television discussions in Reeboks, Levis and a sexy stubble, looking more like a dot com millionaire than netaji, might cut through viewer fatigue and cynicism.

Sell him as the comeback-kid. And Im only half-joking.

Im not saying that all this will work but it might give Rahul at least a chance.

The moment is now because he has absolutely nothing to lose - the Congress having already lost most of what it had.
An Australian Defence Force cadet has been granted bail after facing court over charges involving the rape of a fellow cadet while she was sleeping at their base in Canberra.

Jack Toby Mitchell, 19, is accused of assaulting an 18-year-old woman after the pair travelled back to campus from Civic nightclub Mooseheads together, sharing a taxi with a third cadet, the Canberra Times reported.

Mitchell and the woman had been acquainted for four months and she had previously refused his advances, stating the two should just be friends, the court heard.

Defence Force cadet Jack Toby Mitchell is accused of raping a fellow female cadet in his room on campus

The woman told police she was intoxicated at the time of the incident and thought Mitchell was taking her to her own room.

But she alleged she was taken back to Mitchells room and raped while she was sleeping.

Special Magistrate Maria Doogan granted the male cadet bail, under the condition he stayed 100 metres away from the alleged victim and did not attempt to contact, intimidate, harass or assault the female cadet.

ADFA have agreed to arrange alternative accommodation for the accused in order to keep him away from the woman.

The prosecution strongly opposed bail and said it was likely Mitchell would interfere with evidence and use others to pressure the woman.

He has been granted conditional bail and the ADFA have agreed to arrange alternative accommodation for him. Above is the Australian Defence Force Academy

Ms Doogan said she took into account Mitchells age and lack of prior criminal history when granting bail.

The matter will return to court on June 23.

This comes after ADFA cadet Harlan Agresti was found guilty of raping another cadet in her quarters after a night out last year.

In 2011, the Australiam Defence Force was rocked by a Skype scandal, where a cadet filmed himself having sex with another cadet and broadcast it to their colleagues.
Arizona child welfare officials said they had previous contacts with the family of three young boys whose mother allegedly stabbed them to death and partially dismembered them.

Police have not yet revealed the woman's identity as she recovers from her injuries at a hospital, but court records and family members said 29-year-old Octavia Renee Rogers is the children's mother.

Authorities said due to her condition, they have not been able to interview her yet, but that she will face charges, according to CBS.

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Octavia Rogers, 29, of Arizona allegedly murdered and partially dismembered Jaikare Rahaman, eight, Jeremiah Adams, five, and two-month-old Avery Robinson (pictured)

Rogers (pictured left and right), who was identified by her mother, killed the children before stuffing them inside a closet and a suitcase, police said

State Child Safety Department said back in 2010, investigators could not locate the family to check reports of a boy with a small abrasion on his forehead.

They said they investigated cases in 2011 and 2016 involving marijuana allegations in which they found no legal grounds to take the children into emergency care.

One allegation was substantiated, and the other was not, the state's child welfare agency said.

The allegation that was substantiated accused the mother of giving birth to a baby exposed to marijuana, but investigators found the children to be safe, according toCBS.

The department takes seriously its responsibility to protect children, but its powers are limited, agency Director Greg McKay said.

'We cannot predict the future, and people can at times do awful things,' he said in a statement.

In 2006, Rogers had an order of protection filed against her for allegedly pushing her mother after Rogers was told to move out, court documents said.

Court records from that protection order said her mother wanted her to take part in domestic violence counseling.

Rogers twice went to court to make the fathers of her two oldest sons pay child support.

In 2010, the father of one of her children was convicted of disorderly conduct after police said he pulled out a gun while the married couple was having an argument.

Authorities due to her condition (Rogers pictured with Jaikare and Jeremiah), they have not been able to interview her yet, but that she will face charges

During that disorderly conduct case, Rogers told investigators at the scene that her husband had a gun, though his lawyer would later add he did not point it at anyone.

'He's got a gun,' she was quoted in a court document as telling police.

She later wrote a letter to the judge in the case seeking leniency for her husband.

Rogers, who married her husband in 2009 in Mobile, Alabama, sought a divorce in 2011, but her case was dismissed after she quit pushing the case in court.

Her sister, Voniticia Nickerson, said Rogers occasionally smoked marijuana but was not a big drinker, did not do hard drugs and stayed out of trouble with the law.

She said Rogers was happy to have recently moved back to Phoenix, her hometown, after spending about a year and a half in Virginia.

Nickerson also noted she saw no signs her sibling was trouble, and described Rogers as a devoted mother whose life revolved around her boys, ages two months and five and eight years old.

Police identified the baby as Avery Robinson, the oldest boy as Jaikare Rahaman and the other son as Jeremiah Adams.

Nickerson said she is at a loss for a reason her sister might have taken the boys' lives.

Law enforcement officials stand outside a home on Thursday in Phoenix where three boys were killed during a several hour period Wednesday night

A Phoenix police detective stands outside the home. The boy's mother was hospitalized in critical condition with self-inflicted stab wounds according to Phoenix police

Rogers sister, Voniticia Nickerson, said she is at a loss for a reason her sister might have taken the boys' lives

'She always made sure that they never wanted and they were happy, that they had the best,' Nickerson said.

The boys' bodies were discovered after the suspect's brother came home from work on Wednesday night to find her talking about God and saying she found the answer to life.

Then she went inside her Phoenix home and locked the door behind her.

The brother forced his way in and found the woman had barricaded herself in another room.

She eventually emerged with stab wounds across her abdomen and neck.

Police said the woman told her brother she hurt herself because she was pregnant, though they have not confirmed that.

Investigators later found the boys dead in a closet, with the baby inside a suitcase.
Donald Trump defended his temperament against Hillary Clinton's blistering attack that he's 'unfit' to be president because he has a 'thin skin' with the wrong temperament.

'Well first of all I don't have thin skin. I have very strong and very thick skin,' Trump told CNN's Jake Tapper.'

'I have a strong temperament- it's a very good temperament and it's a very in control temperament,' he continued.

Then Trump took the skin question to start plugging his business empire.

Thick as a brick: Trump disputed Hillary Clinton's claim that he is 'thin-skinned' and might get the country into a war

If he didn't have a good temperament, 'I wouldn't have built this unbelievable company I wouldn't have built all of the things I've been able to do in life. I mean number one bestsellers, one of the best selling books of all time. Tremendous television success,' Trump continued.

Trump made his comments a day after Clinton delivered a harsh indictment of him in a foreign policy speech in San Diego where she said it was a hazard to have him near the nation's nuclear codes and he might start a war over a personal vendetta.

Trump  using a calm demeanor  said she had him wrong.

'No, you can't have that success without good temperament. And I will say this. I was thinking about the word temperament, and we need a strong temperament in this country. We have been led by weak people, weak ineffective people. Countries have taken advantage of us whether it's militarily or otherwise,' Trump said.

Hillary Clinton raised the 'thin-skin' issue in a foreign policy speech in San Diego Thursday

'We have been taken advantage of by everybody. We have people with weak temperaments. I have a very strong temperament but I have a temperament that is totally under control,' he said.

'She mentions that I'll bring us into war  she's the one that wanted to go into Iraq,' Trump said, in reference to Clinton's 2003 Iraq war vote.

'I mean she raised her hand. She didn't know what the hell she was doing, she raised her hand. I said I don't want to go into Iraq, Iraq is going to destabilize the Middle East.'

Clinton said Thursday in her biting speech: 'Do we want him making those calls -- someone thin-skinned and quick to anger, who lashes out at the smallest criticism?'

'Do we want his finger anywhere near the button?' Clinton asked. She said Trump could start a war when someone 'got under his very thin skin.

Trump also repeated his criticisms of federal judge Gonzalo Curiel, who he continued to refer to as 'Mexican.'

'I think I'm going to do very well with Hispanics, but we're building a wall. He's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico,' Trump said.h

'This is a case that should have ended. This judge is giving us unfair rulings. Now I say why. Well, I'm building a wall, OK? And it's a wall between Mexico, not another country,' Trump continued.

'But he's not from Mexico. He's from Indiana,' Tapper responded.

'Mexican heritage. And he's very proud of it,' Trump responded.
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Two people are dead and five injured as violent storms lashed Australia's east coast on Saturday, causing widespread damage and flash flooding to New South Wales and Queensland during the first weekend of winter.

The eastern states woke to horrendous storms on Saturday morning with gale-force winds and heavy rain forcing the Bureau of Meteorology to issue severe weather warnings, including a flood-watch for the entire New South Wales coast - the first in 30 years.

The extreme system is being blamed as a possible cause of a horror smash near Ipswich, west of Brisbane, that claimed the life of a man and woman on Saturday morning when an out of control truck jack-knifed and ploughed into a mini-van.

The driver of the van died at the scene on the Warrego Highway while his female passenger died in hospital later in the afternoon. The truck driver escaped serious injury and was taken to hospital.

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The storms wreaked havoc across Sydney on Saturday, bringing down several trees in Napier Street, Paddington - resulting in thousands of dollars damage to parked cars

Another tree was uprooted in Sydney's inner-west at Petersham and crashed on to a red Mazda (pictured left) while a BMW was unfortunately struck by a fallen tree in Rose Bay, in the city's east (pictured right)

Brave swimmers prepare to test their strength against powerful waves crashing into the Bondi Icebergs on Saturday

The three swimmers grip tightly to the guard rail as a wave smashes into the famous Bondi Beach pool

They continue to hold on despite the immense power of the wave exploding over the pool's edge

The aftermath of the wave leaves the three swimmers holding on tightly despite being knocked over as seawater swirls in the Bondi Icebergs

Five people were injured in a separate crash at Woodlands, south of Gatton, while there have been multiple reports of cars being swept away by floodwaters.

Meteorologists have warned New South Wales residents to prepare for the worst of the wild weather on Sunday, as south-east Queensland suffered the brunt of the storm on Saturday.

Damaging winds with peak gusts of 90kmph were forecasted for coastal areas of Queensland and NSW, with rainfalls in excess of 250mm possible nearer to the coast.

Beaches on the Sunshine and Gold Coasts were closed due to strong winds and high seas, while more than 220mm of rain was dumped on Upper Springbrook, in the Gold Coast hinterland, by Saturday morning.

The Bureau issued a flood warning for the state that covers from Fraser Island, down to the NSW and Queensland border.

Saturday's wild storms caused widespread damage across Sydney with light outdoor objects being swept away by gale-force winds

Sydneysiders struggled to steer clear of the gale-force winds and heavy rains with umbrellas on Saturday

A 21-year-old woman was rescued after being swept off the Capricorn highway from flash flooding near Pine Hill Creek at Alpha, in Queensland's central west.

Queensland police urged motorists to take extra care during the severe weather and to stay vigilant on the roads.

'We have said it before, but it is really vital not to ignore road closure signs. Already we have had reports of people driving through flooded roads,' Inspector, Road Policing Command, Peter Flanders said in a statement.

'Not only is it extremely dangerous, but you can receive an on-the-spot fine of $683 or even face criminal charges for dangerous operation of a motor vehicle as well as running the risk of voiding insurance policies.

'We have a very simple message to motorists contemplating taking the risk. If it's flooded, forget it.'

A fisherman at North Avoca Beach on the New South Wales Central Coast braves the wild weather conditions on Saturday

He continues to stand his ground despite large waves crashing into the rocks he is standing on

A brave surfer tries his luck with vicious surf on Saturday at Terrigal Beach, on New South Wales Central Coast

The Bureau of Meteorology also declared a severe weather warning along the entire NSW coast for what meteorologists believe is the first time in 30 years.

BoM senior meteorologist Adam Morgan said it's unusual to see an east coast low tracking southward, and that it had brought about an unusual warning situation.

'We've got forecasters in NSW that can't remember in 30 years having a flood watch out for the entire NSW coast,' he said.

The east coast low is set to hit the metropolitan centres of Sydney, Wollongong and Newcastle on Saturday night, bringing heavy rain, damaging winds and king tides.

Heavy rainfall of up to 150mm is likely for much of the affected area, with localised rainfall of up to 300mm in some areas.

Two cars are pictured being swept down in the floods at Toombul shopping centre near Brisbane. Australia's east coast is being battered by gale-force winds, strong rains and floods

Queensland Police have confirmed that two unidentified people have died in a two-vehicle crash near Ipswich, south-east Queensland during the wild weather

Threats to public safety prompted Vivid Sydney organisers to cancel a majority of lighting installations around Circular Quay and Martin Place, and urge those intending to visit to postpone.

The weather has already knocked out power to parts of Sydney and the Central Coast.

Ausgrid said emergency crews were working on Saturday afternoon to restore power to about 800 customers across multiple locations in those regions.

Abnormally high tides are also predicted by the weather service, causing sea water to flood low-lying areas, and coastal wave heights could reach as high as five metres in some areas.

The NSW State Emergency Service said it received almost More than 1,100 calls for emergency assistance, mostly from residences in the state's north but also Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Maitland and Gosford.

The Queensland State Emergency Service's had received more than 500 calls for help.

North Steyne is closed due to storm damage at Manly Beach on Saturday. The Bureau of Meteorology has issued warnings for dangerous surf and flash flooding in some areas

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting up to 300mm of rain over the weekend as emergency services advise people to stay at home

Tourists keep smiling while experiencing strong winds at Manly Beach. The entire NSW coast has been placed on flood watch for the first time in more than 30 years

One unfortunate motorist at Manly beach had their car window smashed due to falling branches caused by the gale-force winds

Rough surf conditions have meant Manly beach was closed on Saturday. King tides expected on Saturday evening could cause evening more problems

A fireman walks past damaged windows at 'Sugar Lounge' restaurant at Manly Beach. The ground is covered with debris from fallen branches

A flooded car park at the Toombul shopping centre in Brisbane on Saturday. Hundreds of State Emergency Service crews are working to deal with the damage caused by wet and windy weather

Police have pleaded with drivers to never enter floodwaters as pictures show two cars being swept away by the floodwater at the Toombul shopping centre

Heavy rains and other issues are creating a dam-like effect in Fingal Head (not pictured) on the north coast of NSW. Residents are being warned they could be evacuated

Wild weather causes Vivid closures Severe storms and strong winds have forced the cancellation of Vivid light installations in Sydney. Heavy winds damaged some installations including the Cathedral of Light at the Royal Botanic Gardens, prompting fears forecast winds up to 90km/h could further damage lights Destinations NSW and Vivid executive producer, Sandra Chipchase, apologised but said public safety was the main priority. 'Vivid Sydney still has another 14 nights to run, so we suggest visitors delay their trip until weather conditions improve.' Light projections will continue on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Customs House and Opera House. Advertisement

The SES Queensland's Kevin Walsh told Sky News on Saturday morning that residents should 'stay homeit's probably safest.'

A flood watch warning was issued for river valleys in large parts of eastern NSW, including the Macquarie, Castlereagh, Cooks, Nepean and Hawkesbury rivers.

An evacuation warning has reportedly been issued for NSW residents at Fingal Head, south of Tweed Heads, because of concerns about the Tweed River breaching its banks.

'Heavy rain has been falling along parts of the northern inland overnight and along the coast, especially the Northern Rivers region, where falls of up to 188mm have been recorded in the Tweed Valley,' the NSW SES said.

Phil Campbell from the NSW SES told the ABC that heavy rain and other issues were creating a dam-like effect in the small coastal town.

'When you take into account the floodwaters that are coming down the Tweed, when you've got the tide  one of the highest in the year  coming in as well as those large waves that are helping to stop the floodwaters get out effectively,' he said.

The South Coast rail line has already been partially closed due to heavy rainfall at Port Kembla, while Sydney traffic approaching the international airport returned to normal on Saturday morning after earlier delays.

More than 100 power lines are down across Sydney and several houses have lost roofs, including a unit block evacuated in the eastern Sydney suburb of Vaucluse.

Australians have been advised by State Emergency Services to remain indoors and the Bureau of Meteorology has issued severe weather warnings for Queensland and NSW

A car drives through a flooded road in Brisbane, Saturday. The Queensland State Emergency Service's had received more than 500 calls for help. The NSW State Emergency Service said it received almost 1,100 calls

A flood watch warning has been issued for river valleys in large parts of eastern NSW, including the Macquarie, Castlereagh, Cooks, Nepean and Hawkesbury rivers

'A great day for a holiday' quotes one twitter user in these images taken at Shorncliffe, near Brisbane

Locals collect sand bags from a council depot in Brisbane on Saturday as they prepare their homes against the severe weather

Locals collect sand bags from a council depot in Brisbane, Saturday to prepare for flash flooding and to protect their properties

SES workers assist locals in Brisbane prepare for flooding by organising pallets of sandbags

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued severe weather warnings for Queensland and NSW and expects rainfall of up to 300mm in some areas over the weekend

High tide was only an hour away when this picture was taken. The wild weather is expected to last Saturday and Sunday

Beach-goers inspect conditions at Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast. Queensland police have urged motorists to take extra care during the severe weather and stay vigilant

Rough conditions are seen at Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast. Torrential rain and gale-force winds have battered south-east Queensland causing the deaths of two people on Queensland roads

New South Wales and Queensland emergency services have already responded to almost 300 call-outs overnight

A 21-year-old woman has already had to be rescued after being swept of the road from flash flooding near Pine Hill Creek at Alpha in Queensland's central west

More than 100 power lines are down across Sydney and several houses have lost roofs, including a unit block evacuated in the eastern Sydney suburb of Vaucluse

A large fig tree is seen toppled over at the beer garden of the Normanby Hotel in Brisbane. Damaging winds with peak gusts of 90kmph are expected in coastal areas of Queensland and NSW

A large fig tree is seen toppled over at the beer garden of the Normanby Hotel in Brisbane, causing damage to the front of the pub

FORECAST: WHAT THE WEATHER LOOKS LIKE AROUND AUSTRALIA MELBOURNE Saturday: Min 7, Max 16. Possible shower Sunday: Min 10, Max 16. Shower or two

CANBERRA Saturday: Min 5, Max 14. Showers Sunday: Min 6, Max 14. Shower or two PERTH Saturday: Min 12, Max 17. Morning shower Sunday: Min 9, Max 19. Cloudy

HOBART Saturday : Min 5, Max 14. Shower or two Sunday : Min 9, Max 15. Possible shower SYDNEY Saturday: Min 14, Max 21. Windy with rain Sunday: Min 13, Max 22. Heavy rain BRISBANE Saturday: Min 16, Max 21. Rain Sunday: Min 15, Max 21. Showers ADELAIDE Saturday : Min 10, Max 16. Mostly sunny Sunday: Min 11, Max 18. Shower or two DARWIN Saturday: Min 24, Max 32. Sunny Sunday: Min 24, Max 33. Partly cloudy Advertisement

Parts of Victoria are also on flood watch with rain and possible thunderstorms expected to develop across East Gippsland on Saturday, persisting overnight and through Sunday, the Bureau of Meteorology says.

Rainfall of 20 to 40mm is expected during Saturday and 50 to 100mm during Sunday.

Minor to moderate flooding is likely to develop on Sunday particularly in the Snowy, Cann and Genoa catchments.

The stairs for multi-arts centre Carriageworks located in Sydney turned into a waterfall from the downpour

The Queensland State Emergency Service's Kevin Walsh has advised those affected by the severe weather to stay at home

The entire NSW coast is put on flood watch for what meteorologists believe is the first time in 30 years
Donald Trump has thrice called for Hillary Clinton to be jailed in the past 24 hours, but for what crime he couldn't say.

'She's guilty of the server,' Trump said to 'Face the Nation' host John Dickerson in a preview clip released of Sunday's show. 'She's guilty of  you look at the confidential information, I mean, all of the information that probably has gotten out all over the world, and then you know what else she's guilty of?'

'Stupidity and bad judgement,' Trump said, answering his own query.

Dickerson pointed out, 'if that were criminal, we'd all be in jail.'

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Donald Trump couldn't say what Hillary Clinton would go to jail for - but has said three times in the last 24 hours that she should be sent to prison

Donald Trump pre-taped this Sunday's 'Face the Nation' and said that Hillary Clinton did far worse things than David Petraeus 'who essentially got a two-year jail term.' Petraeus got two years probation

'Face the Nation' host John Dickerson tried time and time again to get Donald Trump to articulate what crime Hillary Clinton committed that would land her in jail in regards to her email scandal

Dickerson started in on Trump asking the presumptive Republican nominee if he would have his attorney general go after Clinton, even if the FBI clears her name.

'OK, so I have spoken to and to and I've watched and I've read many, many lawyers on the subject, you know, so-called neutral lawyers. OK? Not even on one side or the other,' Trump began. 'Neutral lawyers.'

'Every one of them, without a doubt, said that waht she did is far worse than what other people did, like General Petraeus, who essentially got a two-year jail term,' Trump said.

General David Petraeus was sentenced to two years probation.

The former CIA director also received a $100,000 fine for leaking known classified information to his mistress and biographer Paula Broadwell.

Petraeus avoided prison time by pleading guilty to mishandling classified material.

'General Petraeus and others had been treated, I mean, their lives have been in a sense destroyed,' Trump said. 'She keeps campaigning, I mean, what she did is a criminal situation, she wasn't supposed to do that with the server and the emails and all of the other.'

'Now I rely on the lawyers,' Trump went on 'These are good lawyers. These are professional lawyers. These are good lawyers These are professional lawyers. These are lawyers that know what they're talking about and know  are very well versed on what she did.'

'They say she's guilty as well,' the billionaire stated.

Dickerson noted how it sounded like Trump was making a promise that his attorney general would go back and look into Clinton's use of private email as a public official at the State Department.

'Yes, I would,' Trump replied. 'Because everyone know that she's guilty.'

'Now, I would say this, she's guilty, but I would let my attorney general make that determination. Maybe they would disagree,' he continued.

'And I would let that person make the determination,' the Republican added.

When Trump couldn't name the crime she would be guilty of, Dickerson asked how she would go to jail.

'What's the difference here between rhetoric and law?' the CBS newsman asked.

Trump again brought up 'the lawyers.'

'What the lawyers are saying is what she did in terms of national security - they have very strict rules and regulations, she's broken all of them,' Trump said.

Dickerson tried one more time.

'So the classification issue?'

Trump just repeated his previous statement.

'She's broken all of them,' he said, adding, 'of course it is,' without giving more details.

Trump again attacked Clinton's judgment.

'But she's so-you know if you look at from the standard of why did she do it, judgment, the word judgment, this isn't criminal judgment, you make bad judgment,' Trump said.

'Although, actually, under those rules and regulations, judgment is even criminal. You know, you're not supposed to do it. If you make a mistake, they don't take that into account,' he continued.

'Why would a person and how can a person with this kind of judgment become the president of the United States?' he added.

Trump also noted how 'this is a cyber world.'

'If we're in a cyber world and she can't even handle her emails, how can she be president?' he asked.

'And she's being hacked all over the place by Russia, by China probably, I mean, to the best of anyone's knowledge, it seems to be,' he said.
Nine hundred and fifty years ago, between two hillocks at Hastings, an Anglo-Saxon king took an arrow in his eye and England surrendered her independence.

That was our last - should I say most recent? - defeat on home soil.

King Harolds forces fought valiantly but they had been exhausted by two earlier battles with invaders up north. A shrewd and ruthless Frenchman, Guillaume of Normandy, seized power and Londons Witan parliament was never heard of again.

In the shadow of Big Ben is a statue called Boadicea And Her Daughters. She was a legendary warrior of the Iceni tribe, which fought the occupying Romans in what is nowadays Norfolk

Within months Guillaume (today we call him William the Conqueror) set about taxing the English to pay for his court and army.

He stole the locals land, bastardised their language, changed their laws. He smashed their local councils and desecrated towns by forcing the inhabitants to build him castles. This process was called the Norman Yoke.

The English were worked like bullocks at a plough and they were pretty miserable for centuries to follow. Not until 1399, with the arrival of Henry of Lancaster, were we again ruled by a monarch who even spoke English as his native tongue.

That evolutionary process continued with the dissolution of the monasteries, land reform and the dismantling of corrupt patronage. Not until the end of the industrial revolution did the masses regain significant political power.

Which brings us to the EU referendum later this month. David Cameron keeps saying the referendum will be a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to decide whether or not to be part of the Brussels bureaucracy.

But might the Prime Minister, for once, be understating his case? Might this vote not be a once in a millennium moment? If we yield to Continental rule, as he proposes, the consequences for the way we think of ourselves as individuals and as a nation may be as long-lasting as those that followed defeat in 1066.

I have been contemplating poor King Harold a fair amount recently. As it happens, this has nothing to do with Leave campaigner Boris Johnson recently calling the pro-EU conspiracy between Whitehall and big business the biggest stitch-up since the Bayeux Tapestry.

Prime Minister David Cameron, (pictured right with the head of Sky News, John Ryley), has staked his political career on British voters not wanting to leave the EU. Is he right?

The Bayeux Tapestry celebrated Williams defeat of Harold and his men. As a schoolboy I visited the northern French town of Bayeux to see that tapestry and remember a sting of sorrow as I saw the needlework images of vanquished Anglo-Saxons.

It was always the same when I read history yarns about British chieftain Caractacus fighting the Romans on his hilltop and later being paraded in Rome as a chained captive; or gallant Boudicca (also called Boadicea), Queen of the Iceni tribe, charging towards the Roman lines in her chariot with swivelling blades in its hubcaps. In such accounts, I always rooted for the Brits.

When I read such romantic historical writers as RJ Unstead, Arthur Bryant and GA Henty, I always wanted the dwellers of our dank and foggy, sea-set isle to seize the day. Was it a nascent sketchwriters inate bias or inherited love of country from my fiercely patriotic parents? Was that love wrong? Is that love wrong? I still feel that way.

The likes of Mr Cameron and his fellow Europhiles Peter Mandelson and half-Dutch Nick Clegg presumably feel something different when they look at the Bayeux Tapestry. I suppose they experience a glow of quiet satisfaction that William and his forces of European integration overcame the locals.

When such superior creatures see a Norman castle looming over an ancient British town, they probably think approvingly of administrative control and political clout gubernatorial power being used to quell individualism and petty tribalism.

A deep-rooted part of me rebels against that. I cannot fully explain it but the feeling is surprisingly molten.

I grieve for the freedoms that were squashed. And I feel just the same when I look at a castle built by English lords to crush dissent in Scottish and Welsh territory. My sympathies lie with the invaded.

The reason my thoughts have recently drifted to King Harold and the Battle of Hastings has not, as I say, been because Boris mentioned the Bayeux Tapesty. It has been because I have just finished reading a remarkable novel called The Wake.

This Paul Kingsnorth book, shortlisted for the 2014 Booker Prize and written entirely in a cod Old English, is set in Lincolnshire in the aftermath of the Norman invasion.

It begins in 1087 and the central figure is a farmer called Buccmaster. This Buccmaster, who has his land seized, his house burned and his wife murdered by the Normans, is not exactly a hero. He is irascible, moody  a difficult so-and-so.

But there is something magnificent about his refusal to bend to the dominating ingengas (foreigners) who have taken his country.

Buccmaster was reared by his warrior grandfather to revere the old gods and to give allegiance to no man other than the English cyng (king). Even that was done reluctantly. Yes, Buccmaster is one of lifes cussing complainers. It is a trait still common in the English, and why not? How awful it would be to belong to a nation of obedient pushovers.

Buccmaster is proud of his standing as owner of three oxgangs (a measurement of land, each oxgang being about 20 acres).

He is a socman, a free farmer, inheritor of the ancient rights of Angland and thus at liberty to say what he likes, work as he wishes, and in his spare hours to row out in his little boat, onto the fenland waters, to spear eels with his three-pronged glaif and contemplate his forefathers and their gods.

Buccmaster resents being told what to do. Like todays British fishermen, he would not have enjoyed obeying EU fishing restrictions.

This stoical character, all the more convincing for the fact that Kingsnorth makes him flawed, becomes a green man (the term given to the independent-minded souls who, post-1066, continued to fight William).

Don't frighten the cows! Brexit king Boris Johnson tours a cattle auction in Clitheroe, Lancashire, as part of his tour of the country

Buccmaster grabs his ancestral sword and scramasax (dagger), and assembles a few comrades to form a werod (war band), albeit a pretty hopeless one.

The best-known of the 11th centurys green men was Hereward the Wake, another Lincolnshire freeman who is sometimes called last of the English.

Victorian novelist Charles Kingsley wrote a purple-prosed novel about him but Hereward was a real figure. Like Buccmaster, he had his lands taken by the Normans and decided to do something about it. For a few years after 1066, Hereward and his small army operated out of the Cambridgeshire town of Ely, then an island.

They were beaten only after a treacherous monk showed the Normans one of the secret paths to Ely through the fenland marshes.

It is at this point that my molten fury kicks in and, almost a millennium after the event, I feel a lively indignation on Herewards behalf. What a cur that monk was to betray him. What if Hereward had continued to oppose William? Could he have combined with the still-unconquered Celts and Northumbrians to drive out the ingengas? Or was Norman rule as inevitable as supporters of the EU now say their governing body is inevitable?

As for that treacherous monk, was he a sort of Roland Rudd of his day (Rudd is the City PR smoothie pulling strings for the Remain camp)?

Or was he merely a venal greaser, like so many of the corporate managers and public-service executives who have in recent weeks done the Establishments bidding and told the British people to surrender to Brussels?

My support for Hereward may reflect a surfeit of foolish romanticism. But it may also echo enduring truths about the importance of self-determination and of remaining true to ones ancestral heritage.

For what are we if we deny the past? What is the point of being British if we are not able to say who governs us?

And let there be no doubt: if we vote to stay in the EU, we will not be able to dislodge the elite that runs Brussels. They will be impervious to our democratic disapproval. They will be as safe as William and his shaven-headed Normans were in their mighty castle keeps.

The EU referendum campaign has, to date, been conducted largely on materialistic arguments. How mercantile, how nuts-and-boltish it has all been. Political strategists say that this is because voters are swayed by their wallets.

Those who wish us to remain in the EU swear that financial catastrophe will ensue if we leave that listing Titanic of an enterprise.

Chancellor George Osborne has come up with an incredible figure - literally incredible, for it is not believable  that families will take a hit of 4,300. No one I know in politics actually thinks that this figure is truthful.

David Cameron, for his part, claims that family shopping bills could rise by 200 a year if we Leave. Two hundred quid! He and his friends pay more for a single ticket for the opera at Glyndebourne. It is roughly the price of a double bedroom (with breakfast) at a middling hotel in London. What is it to be, folks? A night at the Thistle, Kensington, or our nations liberty for the next 950 years?

Decisions, decisions.

If only: Alan Johnson and David Miliband, both once tipped as leaders of the Labour Party, discuss who knows what while in Birmingham with the Remain battle bus

The Leave campaign, meanwhile, has urged voters to quit the EU for a range of reasons, again almost entirely practical.

They suggest we would have 50 million more per day to spend on our own hospitals and schools and housing. That figure, too, is open to question. The Leavers talk of immigration and treaties and security and of how the EUs open-border arrangements are like hanging a sign welcoming terrorists to Europe.

All this may well be the case and plainly needs to be said in order to rebut the Remain lots economic arguments. But is there not something more to this mighty decision we are about to take? Is the campaign not neglecting something deeper in our nations marrow?

Hereward the Wake and Paul Kingsnorths Buccmaster would have thought so. They would have heard Vote Leave talk of how we must take control and would surely have thought I dont really want control  I want liberty.

The word control is a politicians word. It is a concept relished by managers, by bosses, by big-shots. Control is something that appeals to organising minds.

I can quite see why Vote Leave chose it, for it is an efficient word; short, speedily conveying the idea of how the EU has astonishingly managed to be both dictatorial and chaotically incompetent.

This, after all, is a political system so nit-picking that it even presumes to dictate the tax on sanitary towels, yet is so disorganised that it cannot stop hundreds of thousands of migrants landing on its southern shores. Whatever they use all our tax on, it certainly aint naval patrol vessels.

It would obviously be good for us to retrieve national control of trade decisions, tax matters and, most important, immigration policy from this hopelessly undemocratic organisation in Brussels. I agree entirely. But where is the optimism in Leaves campaign? Where is the appeal to something more positive, more human, more ardent?

The hearts of Hereward the Wake and his green men would have burned for something greater; something more essential.

You could call it self-determination or independence but it is basically the right to plant your feet on the clifftops of Kent, raise your eyes to the cloud-scudding sky, and relish your ancient liberty as a free-born Briton.

A volunteer campaigning in Glasgow tries to persuade fellow Scots to vote to remain in the EU on June 23. SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is strongly pro-Europe and a vote for Brexit could trigger another Scottish independence referendum

It is, I would argue, your right to tell authority to bog off, to fail if you so please, to stand apart from this discordant world and owe allegiance to no one save, grudgingly, the cyng of Angland who represents us as a people.

Materially, much has changed since the late 1060s. The Cambridgeshire fens have been drained and Herewards Ely is no longer much of an island. The farmlands of Lincolnshire are ploughed now by vast tractors, not ox-gangs. But similarities persist. In the EUs expansionist plans there remains the ambition of Continental governors to conquer our island.

Just as King Harold had to see off a double invasion from north and south, so there have been concerted attacks from foreign citadels during this referendum campaign.

Only this week, the governments of Holland, Spain and Germany have waded into our affairs, telling us to cease our resistance to the suzerains of Strasbourg. How bloody well dare they? Like Buccmaster, we are free socmen of Angland.

But if the EU wins this vote, what will be the point of being British? What will be the point of having a national flag, an Army, even a Crown?

Already the first two words on the front of our passports are European Union. The Queens head on our stamps will become meaningless. The royal imprimatur on land documents, in our courts, in our Parliament, will become no more than symbols of a shrivelled power. The ingengas will have won.

Like Buccmaster and perhaps like Hereward the Wake, I think of my grandfathers. One was wounded three times on the Western Front in World War I. The other landed in Normandy -Normandy! - just before D-Day to clear the beaches of mines. They fought for king and country, yes, but they fought most of all for an idea: freedom.
Justice Secretary has been criticised on social media for his stance

Michael Gove, pictured, was criticised after his appearance on a Sky News debate over the EU referendum

Michael Gove was accused of being like a First World War general sending his men over the top with no idea what was on the other side as he faced a public grilling on the EU referendum.

The Brexit campaigner's failure to set out an economic plan for Britain pulling out of the 28-member bloc was likened by a voter to military top brass ordering out the troops without any idea of the casualty rate to come.

But in a more flattering assessment, one member of the audience at the Sky News EU: In Or Out? referendum set piece said the Justice Secretary was the 'poster boy' for the Tory backbenchers and pressed him on his leadership ambitions.

Andrew Carnegie, who runs a small business making parts for intensive care units, asked Mr Gove to set out a detailed economic plan for the UK's future outside of the EU.

He said: 'I think the answer is there is no economic plan. It appears to me that you are asking people to vote for a divorce and sort out the financial settlement afterwards and that makes no sense to me.

'With all due respect Mr Gove, it appears to me it's almost like a First World War general.

'You are waving the flag, you are saying 'over the top men' but you have no idea what's on the frontline or what the casualty rate will be in the conflicts to come.'

Mr Gove replied: 'It's certainly an arresting image, the First World War image. What I'm putting my faith in is the ingenuity, creativity and the strength of the British people.

'Many of those who are arguing we should remain are trying to frighten you by saying that it would be impossible for Britain to succeed.

Mr Gove was compared to a First World War General sending his troops over the top 'into the unknown' and was even pictured inserted into a scene from Blackadder Goes Forth

Gove was also mocked up to look like an admiral in the historic Royal Navy after being asked about any potential invasion of Gibraltar

'They are saying that Britain is too small, too poor and we are all too stupid to be able to succeed on the outside.

'I comprehensively reject that.'

Mr Gove was subsequently criticised on social media, with one tweet inserting him into a scene from Blackadder Goes Forth, set during the First World War.

Others said they 'refuse to live in a country where Michael Gove is thought of as reasonable' while some said 'Dear God help us' over his arguments.

It came as Mr Gove launched a savage attack on the 'sneering' elites trying to keep Britain in the EU as he urged voters to 'take back control'.

The justice secretary faced a deluge of criticism on social media following his appearance on television

Some said 'dear god help us' over Mr Gove's Brexit position and vowed to vote to remain in the EU

Others questioned those who support Mr Gove with one Twitter user quipping 'I refuse to believe I live in a country where Michael Gove is thought of as reasonable'

The Justice Secretary dismissed dire warnings about recession and job losses from organisations such as the Treasury and International Monetary Fund, saying the public was 'sick' of getting told what to do.

He said the EU was a 'job destroying machine' and insisted taxpayers' money should be going to the NHS rather than 'invincibly arrogant' Eurocrats.
More often than not on Friday and Saturday nights, the atmosphere at Deepcut became more akin to a Club 18-30 holiday camp than a British military base. Young teenage Army recruits hellbent on letting their hair down indulged in alcohol and drugs brought into the Surrey barracks.

The relentless discipline they faced while on duty descended into moral chaos and the mood became highly sexual  so much so that a room was set aside by senior officers where young male and female recruits, who were barred from each other's single-sex quarters, could go to sate themselves.

Young female recruits were regularly propositioned by both officers and instructors. Hundreds of used condoms littered the grounds outside the barracks.

Private Cheryl James died in November 1995 from a gunshot wound to the head. The Army has always maintained that she killed herself

Perhaps not surprisingly, given this orgiastic behaviour, a steady stream of female trainees regularly trooped off to the Deepcut GP to arrange morning-after pills, abortions or treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.

It was against this morally repugnant backcloth that 18-year-old Private Cheryl James died in November 1995 from a gunshot wound to the head. The Army has always maintained that she killed herself.

Her parents, who lovingly recall their 'happy' and 'bubbly' daughter, have fought long and hard to discover the truth about the circumstances leading up to their daughter's death while alone on guard duty.

Whether or not Cheryl took her own life remains a matter of much contention. Thanks to shoddy early investigations and a lack of proper forensic examinations, her death was treated as a suicide even before a hurried first inquest.

A second inquest, ordered by the Attorney General after pressure from Cheryl's family, the human rights group Liberty, as well as this newspaper, ended this week with a narrative verdict.

And yet while the precise circumstances of Cheryl's death appear to remain as obscure as ever, what is very clear is that in the weeks before her death, this young recruit from Llangollen in North Wales had become embroiled in a deeply twisted and highly sexualised culture at Deepcut Barracks, where three other recruits also allegedly took their own lives between 1995 and 2002.

Faced with overwhelming peer pressure and a desire to be accepted by her fellow soldiers, Cheryl indulged in risque behaviour, drinking alcohol with the rest of her peers and, according to one witness, even taking the drug speed on occasions. She became sexually involved with two different soldiers  and slept with both of them the weekend before she died.

But there is no doubt that the atmosphere at the barracks, where women had only begun training two years before Private James's death, was morally chaotic.

Anne-Marie Ellement, a 30-year-old corporal in the Royal Military Police, hanged herself at Bulford Barracks in Wiltshire in October 2011

If relationships took place between recruits and senior staff, power games and misuse of authority were also common, especially among instructors who saw female recruits as a 'sexual challenge'.

Several of Cheryl's contemporaries have complained of having to endure the unwanted attention of senior NCOs. On one occasion, Cheryl is said to have deliberately failed a shooting test so she could avoid a camp at which instructors planned to lead alcohol-fuelled drinking games.

On another occasion, she was said to have been forced to endure the unwanted attentions of a sergeant, who summoned her to his office, locked the door and chased her around his desk.

And according to one witness at the inquest, on the night before she died, Cheryl was ordered by a sergeant to have sex with another recruit  an allegation denied by both men involved, although the sergeant in question, according to another witness, 'made it very clear he didn't like female recruits  he didn't think we were up to the job'.

So who on earth was to blame for this despicable state of affairs, and to what extent did it contribute to Cheryl's tragic death?

In the immediate aftermath, senior Army officials were swift to point the finger at the presence of women at the barracks. Weeks after Cheryl died, a hasty internal review into the goings-on at Deepcut blamed female recruits for being 'extremely promiscuous', rather than senior officers for their abusive behaviour towards them.

Two decades on, that blame appears to have shifted towards an understanding that the Army failed in its duty to the young women entrusted into its care.

Speaking at the inquest at Woking Coroners' Court, Brigadier John Donnelly, the Army's director of personal services, accepted that there was a 'highly sexualised atmosphere' at the barracks and an 'abuse and misuse' of power.

The clear subtext was that what happened at Deepcut was firmly in the past; that life in the Army has changed in the two decades that have passed since.

Des James and wife Doreen (pictured at Woking Coroners Court yesterday) have been fighting for 20 years to reveal the truth behind their daughter's death

But serious concerns remain about the extent to which the Army has changed. Just two years ago, a survey of 24,000 servicemen and women found that 90 per cent of those who responded thought that the Army still had an overly sexualised culture, while 36 per cent said they had suffered an upsetting sexual experience  figures that Brigadier Donnelly admitted had been 'a wake-up call', though changes would 'not happen overnight'.

'The issue with women and sexual harassment or worse appears to be an intractable and long-lasting problem which the Army really struggles with,' says Emma Norton, solicitor for human rights group Liberty, which campaigned on behalf of Cheryl's family for a second inquest.

Indeed, as recently as April, the repercussions of another disturbing case involving the death of a second young female soldier again shone an unwelcome spotlight on the Army's over-sexualised culture.

Anne-Marie Ellement, a 30-year-old corporal in the Royal Military Police, hanged herself at Bulford Barracks in Wiltshire in October 2011. Her death followed two years of torment which began when she told a senior officer she had been raped by two fellow soldiers after a drunken evening at a barracks in Germany, during which she'd had sex with both of them.

Those two former corporals, Jeremy Jones and Thomas Fulton, were charged with rape and brought before a court martial in April this year at the same time as evidence at the inquest into Cheryl James's death was being heard.

Although the men were found not guilty of two charges of rape, the judge branded their conduct 'disgraceful' and 'extremely unpleasant' as well as 'truly dishonourable'  hardly surprisingly given the way the men spoke about Anne-Marie.

Adamant that she had consented to a threesome, Fulton said: 'I would never have slept with Anne-Marie on my own, but because it was Jez I thought it was funny. We were all laughing and joking all the way through.' Another soldier said Anne-Marie was not even seen as a 'good sexual conquest'.

Told that no charges would be brought against her alleged assailants (they were only charged after her death), Anne-Marie, from Bournemouth in Dorset, took her own life just three days after her 30th birthday.

Father of Private Cheryl James, Mr James, (right) speaks to members of the press with his wife Doreen in Woking yesterday

As with Cheryl, an initial hasty two-hour inquest, which recorded a verdict of suicide in March 2012, was overturned after her family sought a judicial review from the High Court. Two years later, a second inquest also ruled that Anne-Marie had taken her own life, but the coroner, noting that Anne-Marie was 'deeply and permanently affected' by the alleged rape and felt betrayed that the Army had taken no action, wrote to the Armed Forces Minister.

Likening the Army atmosphere, just two years ago, to a 'hothouse', coroner Nicholas Rheinberg said: 'That metaphor is likely to be applicable to any Army company where male and female soldiers are thrown into each other's company day and night, both in work and at leisure.

'The possibility of an allegation of serious sexual assault at some stage in these circumstances is not just foreseeable, it is inevitable.'

Anne-Marie's sister, Khristina Swain, adds: 'They need to start protecting women. The Army failed in its duty of care to Anne-Marie, but we won't be happy until those failures are accepted and lessons are learnt.'

According to the Ministry of Defence, those lessons have already been learned.

Describing the death of Cheryl James as a 'tragedy' this week, a spokesman said the Army had apologised to her parents for 'clear failings' that have been identified and 'has taken many steps to address these and a multitude of other issues in the last 20 years'.

POLICE QC USED 'RIDICULOUS TACTICS' TO DEFEND THE FORCE'S FAILURES Cherly James's family have criticised the 'ridiculous and unpleasant' tactics used by Surrey Police's barrister to defend the force's long list of failures. John Beggs QC, who is regarded as the 'go-to' barrister for a 'police force in a tight spot', repeatedly attacked the character of her parents Des and Doreen James and even went as far as to accuse them of hindering the police search for missing Milly Dowler by writing to officers. The Dowler family were so horrified to read reports that their daughter's tragedy had been used in such a way that her grandmother wrote to the James family to express her 'disgust'. Speaking after the verdict, Mr James said: 'My wife and I were made to feel as though we were on trial and we felt as though our family was undermined at every opportunity. 'This needlessly unpleasant line of questioning hurt both our family and the Dowler family.' He added: 'It would seem that the Chief Constable of Surrey Police instructed Mr Beggs to unashamedly pursue a suicide verdict. On occasions this verged on the ridiculous. It was extraordinary.' A Surrey Police spokesman said: 'Any additional distress caused to the family during the inquest was not intentional and we apologise for any ways they feel Surrey Police made the experience worse.' Advertisement

All Armed Forces training sites are now subject to independent scrutiny by Ofsted inspectors. Their recently published report, Duty Of Care And Welfare In Armed Forces Initial Training, found all establishments visited to be either good or excellent.

But others are not convinced that the problem can so easily be fixed. Relationships between male and female soldiers are allowed within barracks  although forbidden between soldiers of different ranks within the same chain of command.

Colonel Richard Kemp, a former Commander of British forces in Afghanistan, told the Mail this week that the Army did have a problem with a 'sexualised culture'.

Although Colonel Kemp has spoken out against allowing women to serve in the infantry arm of the Army, saying they 'lack the killer instinct', he insisted that issues surrounding the Army's 'sexualised culture' were not among reasons for his opposition and that breaches in discipline should be dealt with.

'When I first joined the Army, men and women were far more segregated than they are today, and perhaps the Army should look at returning to that. Certainly the opportunities that exist outside working hours to be together should be cut back within barracks.

'You have to accept that these things are going to happen if you mix men and women in the Army.

'It's easy for people to say that they should learn to control themselves, but we're talking about human beings.'

Major Judith Webb, who became the first woman to command an all-male field squadron, believes that young female soldiers suffered as a direct result of the disbandment of the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC) in 1992, just three years before Cheryl James's death.

'It came at the wrong time,' she said. 'It was there to protect women.

Brigadier John Donnelly outside Woking Coroner's Court in Surrey, after a coroner ruled that Private Cheryl James died as a result of an intentional 'self inflicted shot' while on guard duty at Deepcut barracks

'That was disbanded and women were thrown to the wolves, and there was nobody actually protecting their interests. It's about getting a balance between women wanting to be treated as equals; but there does need to be somebody protecting their interests as well.'

Major Webb, who is now retired, adds: 'If we had more women at the top of the Army, that would sort out a lot of the problems.'

The campaign group Liberty believes that changes in the way that allegations of sexual crimes are reported and dealt with in the Army are essential.

'Such allegations should be dealt with by the civilian police, not the military police,' says Emma Norton, solicitor for Liberty.

'There is still legislation in place which allows a commanding officer to investigate a sexual assault allegation and decide whether or not to refer it to the police.

'It sends a terrible message about the culture within the Army and about what kind of protection women can expect.'

Such changes will come too late, of course, for Anne-Marie Ellement and Cheryl James.

Both women thought the Army would provide the stability and focus they were looking for in their lives.

'Cheryl told one friend that she had 'no life' and was afraid that she would 'end up on drugs' if she simply gave up and went home.

It is hard to fathom that by staying in the Army, her life was at even greater risk.

Anne-Marie Ellement's sister Khristina, meanwhile, is adamant that the only way to cope with the loss of these women is if their deaths are the catalyst for change.

'To know that she's going to make a difference to other soldiers, to the way they are trained, that's the only thing that can give us faith and hope now.

'I feel now as if people have finally heard her voice.'
The Christian grandson of the founding member of terrorist group Hamas has been granted asylum in the United States after years of torture and death threats from his family.

John Calvin, whose name has been changed for his safety, won the ability to stay in the US in March, following years of living under the threat of deportation to the West Bank from Canada .

Calvin, 25, told VICE News: 'I've literally been to hell and back, so it's going to take a while for me to rebuild my life.'

John Calvin, whose name has been changed for his safety, fled the West Bank aged 14, to Israel where he was imprisoned for illegally crossing the border.

Calvin, grandson of a founding member or terrorist group Hamas has been granted refugee status in the United States after years of torture and death threats from his family. Pictured: Hamas militants

According to Israeli authorities his uncles are linked to several suicide bombings. Pictured, Hamas militants

He fled the West Bank aged 14, to Israel where he was imprisoned for illegally crossing the border.

When he returned home, Calvin said he faced violence when his family learned that he wanted to convert to Christianity.

According to Israeli authorities his uncles are linked to several suicide bombings.

In a June 2015 interview Harris told CNN that in 2011 he fled to Canada, after he learned his father was planning an honor killing, and was granted a student visa, while applying for refugee status.

While living in his new home Edmonton, Canada, Calvin converted to Christianity and also came out as gay.

But while he'd made a home there, the Canadian government rejected his application for refugee status on New Years Eve of 2014, citing his de facto membership of Hamas, which had been established only because of his family connections, and he was given a deportation date of November 4, 2015.

A report with the verdict seen by Christian Today stated: 'Having been indoctrinated by family does not excuse membership in a terrorist organization...Growing up as a 'Son of Hamas' does not relieve the respondent from responsibility for his actions.'

It argued that at the age of 14, he had the mental capacity to understand his family's wrongdoings.

Instead of waiting to be deported to what he described as 'certain death', he decided to flee to America.

After being imprisoned for fleeing West Bank (pictured), when he returned home, Harris said he faced violence when his family learned that he wanted to convert to Christianity

The Canadian government denied Calvin refugee status, citing his de facto membership of Hamas, which had been established only because of his family connections. Pictured, Calvin in his new home of New York

He fled his home and after being lost in the mountains for two days, he met with border authorities.

Harris was then detained at immigration for nearly seven months, while he fought for his freedom.

The immigration judge initially dismissed his application for asylum in America.

But in an admission made to CNN, his father said that Calvin would be 'under threat of torture and death' if he returned.

His father Jehad Salameh told the site: 'What he did is offensive to honor and to religion.

'And the family has the right to retaliate against him.'

Upon learning this, Calvin said he experienced 'intense disappointment' that his father would feel this way towards him. He said he always wanted a family but had never have one.

But Calvin said he was able to use this statement to grant deferred removal under the UN Convention against Torture.

Harris (pictured on New York's Christopher Street) said that he still believes in the American Dream, and one day hopes to go to law school, have a husband and two children and live 'happily ever after'

Eli Echols, immigration attorney with Socheat Chea, P.C., told CNNMoney: 'The judge has found it would be against our law to deport him, even though he's not eligible for any form of discretionary relief.'

Despite this, Calvin is not eligible for any form of discretionary relief and cannot become a permanent resident.

He can, however, apply for a work permit on a yearly basis, enabling him to get a social security number.

Calvin said that he still believes in the American Dream, and one day hopes to go to law school, have a husband and two children and live 'happily ever after'.
The excited crowd had waited hours to see the condemned woman meet her end on the gallows erected outside Dorchester jail  and their patience would soon be rewarded by a macabre twist in the proceedings.

Despite the rain falling on the Dorset town that August morning in 1856, all had seemed set for as dignified an exit as was possible for someone about to be hanged by the neck.

Certainly, the prisoner, Martha Brown, showed no signs of protestation as the mournful toll of the prison bell announced that it was time for her to face 'the drop'.

Then 45, and described by one witness as a 'wonderful-looking woman with beautiful curls', Martha had murdered her husband after years of violent abuse at his hands.

She remained remarkably calm as the executioner pinioned her hands in front of her and placed a white hood over her head.

Unfortunately, it was then the custom for a corpse to be left dangling from the gallows for an hour before being taken down and buried within the prison grounds.

When Thomas Hardy was 16 Martha Brown, 45, murdered her husband after being abused for years

And after Martha had plummeted through the trap door to her death, the rain-sodden hood began to cling to her face. Through it, the spectators could see her pretty features  now horribly contorted, but still a reminder that the lifeless object swinging from the creaking scaffold was once a living, breathing human being.

The sight would haunt many who were there that day  not least novelist Thomas Hardy, then a 16-year-old trainee architect, who was born in the nearby village of Higher Bockhampton.

In a letter written to a friend some 70 years later, he wrote of the shame he still felt at having witnessed the gruesome spectacle.

'My only excuse being that I was but a youth, and had to be in town at that time for other reasons.

'I remember what a fine figure she showed against the sky as she hung in the misty rain and how the tight black silk gown set off her shape as she wheeled half round and back.'

So struck was Hardy by this lasting memory of Martha that she became the inspiration for his penultimate novel, Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, in which the comely young heroine is hanged for killing her cruel lover, Alec D'Urberville.

When that much-loved classic was first published in 1892, it became an instant bestseller with its themes of frustrated love and unfair treatment of women. These recur throughout Hardy's writings and resonated all too tragically in the real-life story of Martha Brown.

A reminder of her fate came this week with news that plans to turn Dorchester jail into a housing development have been put on hold while archaeologists remove the bones of 50 prisoners found in the old burial grounds there.

The delay has been welcomed by writer Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey and president of the Hardy Society.

As yet, it is not clear whether it will be possible to identify individual remains but, if not, Fellowes has called for them all to be reburied in a single grave elsewhere, with a headstone stating that among them lie those of Martha Brown.

That would be some kind of justice, at least, for a woman who knew hardship from her earliest days.

She met her end on the gallows on an early August morning in 1856 near where Hardy lived in Dorset (pictured his cottage in Dorchester)

Her father, John Clark, was a farm labourer who was forced to move around the Dorset countryside looking for work and taking his wife and 11 children with him.

With their worldly possessions loaded onto a cart, they rarely stayed for long in the same place, so Martha received little schooling. But what she lacked in education, she apparently made up for in personality and looks.

Aged 20, in 1831, she caught the eye of local butcher Bernard Bearn, who was almost twice her age.

When they married, he signed the register with the neat, flowing hand of an educated man who brought to the marriage a large house with outbuildings and its own orchard.

As for Martha's signature, she could only manage a cross, the mark of a woman who was illiterate.

But beyond the prosperity and security he offered his young wife, Bernard appears to have been a kindly man, teaching her the rudiments of reading and writing  when she witnessed the marriage of one of her sisters in 1840, she signed her name in full.

Martha's life might have continued in an unremarkable vein, had her husband not died of pneumonia the following year, leaving her a modest fortune of 50 (the equivalent of around 3,000 today).

Hardy, here aged 19, used Martha as inspiration to write Tess Of The D'Urbervilles

For the next ten years, she worked as housekeeper to farmer brothers John and Robert Symes, who clearly held her in high regard. John described her as 'a most kind and inoffensive woman'.

But it was he and his brother who were inadvertently responsible for introducing her to John Brown, the man who would prove her real-life equivalent of Thomas Hardy's fictional Alec.

They met when Brown was employed as a shepherd by the Symes brothers, and it is easy to imagine what attracted Martha to him.

By all accounts tall and good-looking, he was 20 years her junior and came into her life at a time when a widow of her age, and in that era, might have despaired of ever finding another love.

However, it quickly became clear that Brown was interested only in the money she had inherited from her late husband.

After their wedding in 1852, they moved to Birdsmoorgate, a hamlet in a picturesque part of Dorset known as Marshwood Vale. While Martha opened a small grocery shop there, her husband used her inheritance to set himself up in business as a carter  work which frequently took him away from home.

Before long, Martha would rue her decision to marry him. He often came home drunk and beat her up in vicious alcoholic rages.

She also suspected him of having an affair with Mary Davis, a flirtatious 28-year-old who lived in Birdsmoorgate and had married a man 40 years her senior.

She had good reason to be jealous. One local later recalled that Mary was a 'lustful woman' who followed John into the stable whenever he was putting his horses away at night.

On one occasion, Martha peered through Mary's window and saw her sitting on John's knee as they talked and laughed together.

That was upsetting enough but, according to Nicola Thorne, author of the biography In Search Of Martha Brown, the real tipping point may have come when Martha discovered Mary was pregnant.

'Given the age of Mary's husband and his poor state of health at the time, there are strong grounds for speculating that this could have been John's child and this may well have fanned the flames of jealousy burning in Martha,' she explains.

If so, this might explain Martha's reaction when her husband staggered home drunk in the early hours of Sunday, July 5, 1856.

As he swayed about the house, demanding the supper that she had made for him hours previously, she made the mistake of confronting him about his affair with Mary Davis. His response was swift  and brutal.

'He struck me a severe blow on the side of the head which confused me so much that I was obliged to sit down,' she recalled in her subsequent confession. 'He then reached down from the mantelpiece a heavy hand-whip and struck me across the shoulders with it three times.'

When the much-loved classic was first published in 1892 it became an instant best-seller with its themes of frustrated love and unfair treatment of women

After kicking her in the side and snarling that he hoped to find her dead in the morning, Brown stooped down to lace his boots  at which point Martha seized the small axe that they used to break up coal for the fire.

'I struck him several violent blows on the head  I could not say how many  and he fell at the first, with his face to the fireplace and he never spoke or moved afterwards.

'As soon as I had done it, I would have given the world not to have done, but when he hit me so hard, I was almost out of my senses and hardly knew what I was doing.'

When she called for help from neighbours, Martha insisted that her husband had been kicked in the head by his horse and had staggered home to die in her arms.

This story was quickly disproved when it was shown that, although there was no sign of blood in the horse's stable, there was plenty on the walls of their house.

But Martha stuck to her version of events following her arrest and throughout the hurried one-day trial, which took place on July 21  barely two weeks after her husband's death.

With only two days to go before her execution on August 9, she finally made a full confession.

Even in those grim days, when the law still tolerated husband-on-wife domestic violence, albeit with limits on how hard he could hit her, Martha's description of the beatings she had endured might have won her clemency.

With this in mind, the prison chaplain hurried to London to persuade the Home Secretary, Sir George Grey, to grant a reprieve, on the grounds that Martha had been severely provoked.

Alas, Grey was away in Ireland at the time and his deputy had no means of contacting him, nor the authority to stay the execution himself.

So it was that the world said goodbye to Martha Brown, a woman who would now be long forgotten, had not the young Thomas Hardy been watching silently from the crowd.

As she stood on the scaffold that day, she could have had no idea that her death would move him to create one of the best-loved of all English novels.

But she might well have asked the question that Tess puts to her mother after being raped by the villainous Alec D'Urberville.
TV presenter Kate Humble (pictured with her dogs Bella and Badger) said children should be encouraged to climb trees and be adventurous

Children must be encouraged to climb trees and be adventurous  and their parents should fend off social services if they get cuts and bruises, TV presenter Kate Humble said yesterday.

The former Springwatch star, 47, claimed that too many parents were afraid to let their children play outdoors because they feared being investigated or facing criticism from other parents.

She revealed that social workers once even visited her own parents because she and her brother, Charlie, were always getting bashed  which her mother thought was hilarious.

Miss Humble said it was a great sadness that modern childrens play areas had to be risk assessed, and that parents were too fearful to let their children climb trees and graze their knees. Speaking at the Hay Festival of arts and literature in Powys, she added: I think its really important that you do bash yourself about a bit.

Im not a parent, but I have friends who I suspect think the same way as a lot of us  that kids should be given the freedom, they should be given the opportunities to go and test the boundaries, they should end up with a Band-Aid on their knees.

Parents are almost more worried about the criticism they will get if their children end up in hospital, or in trouble or lost.

My parents were visited by social services because me and my brother were always getting bashed and scraped.

I was very little, but my mum just thinks its hilarious. We had a proper childhood and somebody came and checked up.

Miss Humbles comments come as figures revealed that one in five pre-school children were being referred to social services.

Researchers said scandals involving youngsters had led to a climate of fear among midwives, health visitors, nursery workers and members of the public.

They were passing their concerns on to social workers, who ended up checking almost all the warnings over fears that a child could die on their watch.

An investigation by experts at the University of Central Lancashire found that of more than half a million children born in 114 local council areas in 2009-2010, 115,735 had been referred to social services by last year.

This equates to one in every five youngsters, and illustrates widespread nervousness over child protection issues.

Of the 150 councils contacted under the Freedom of Information Act, 114 responded, the study published in the British Journal of Social Work reveals.

The former Springwatch star (pictured), 47, claimed that too many parents were afraid to let their children play outdoors because they feared being investigated or facing criticism from other parents

When extrapolated to cover the whole of England and Wales, more than 150,000 children born in 2009-10 had been brought to the attention of child protection teams by the age of five.

Researchers said that, while public and professional vigilance was welcome, the number of alerts received by social services meant they were wasting valuable time on innocent families.

Miss Humble, who lives on a farm in the Wye Valley with her husband, TV producer Ludo Graham, also praised a brilliant playground built in trees near her home.

She said: There isnt a swing and a slide. Kids can feel natural materials, get a bit of a scrape, know I dont want to do that  its a little bit scary.

Its encouraging kids to play in a natural way and give them that inkling of what its like to do something a bit edgy. They find their own boundaries.

Its a great sadness that everything has to be risk assessed.

Speaking of her new book, Friend For Life, about the relationship between humans and dogs, the naturalist also called for puppy farms to be banned.
The Libyan coastguard yesterday accused the EU of enticing migrants to their deaths as more than a hundred bodies washed up on its beaches in a single day.

An EU-backed naval flotilla  stationed in the Mediterranean to rescue migrants who attempt the crossing and then ferry them the rest of the way to Italy  has been blamed for a surge in numbers.

More than 13,000 migrants have been rescued from dangerously packed fishing boats and dinghies in the past week alone, but an estimated 1,000 have drowned.

Yesterday, at least 117 bodies, including 75 women and six children, were discovered near the city of Zuwarah in western Libya, the port that overlooks the main migrant sea route.

Rescue workers remove the dead bodies of migrants washed up on the Libyan coast

Authorities are uncertain when or how the people died.

But Mohammed al-Mosrati, a spokesman for Libya's Red Crescent charity, said the bodies were not 'decomposed and therefore have drowned within the past 48 hours'. The children found dead were between seven and ten, according Bahaa Al Kwash, another Red Crescent worker.

'It is very painful, and the numbers are very high,' he said, adding that the dead were not wearing life jackets  something the organisation had noticed about bodies recovered in recent weeks.

'This is a cross-border network of smugglers and traffickers, and there is a need for an international effort to combat this phenomenon.' Libyan coastguards found an empty boat drifting on Thursday, according to Libyan navy colonel Ayoub Gassim.

He added that it was possible the vessel had capsized a day earlier  and that the boat might have been the one carrying those who later drowned.

The EU's Operation Sophia has ships including Britain's HMS Enterprise patrolling just inside international waters ready to pick up those who are attempting to get to Europe.

Mirwan Issam Abudib, the deputy commander of the coastguard in Zuwarah, accused Brussels of causing the rise in the number of drownings.

'I blame Nato and the EU for many of these deaths,' he told The Times. 'Their rescue ships from Operation Sophia and suchlike now push to the 12-nautical-mile limit of our territorial waters.

'The migrants respond to this by trying to cross in greater numbers, and the smugglers respond by sending them to sea in s****ier and s****ier craft, designed to stay afloat for a few hours only.'

He added: 'The more are drawn, the more try. The worse their craft, the more they die.'

Colonel Gassim blamed Europe for 'doing nothing but counting bodies' in efforts to stop the massive illegal migration from Libya.

The country has been particularly chaotic since the ousting and killing of its long-time autocratic ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Libya has been split into rival governments and parliaments  and each is supported by a loose set of militias and tribes.

Smuggling gangs have taken advantage of the unsettled political situation to send waves of overcrowded boats toward Europe.

Libyan Red Crescent personnel retrieve the body of a migrant that washed up on a Libyan beach on the coast of the northwestern port city of Zuwarah on June 2, 2016

Aid officials said the past two weeks had been especially deadly because traffickers were using riskier tactics, bigger boats and even less seaworthy vessels than before.

Frederico Soda, who heads the International Organisation for Migration's Mediterranean office in Rome, said the increase in those making the deadly crossing was due 'in part, to better weather, and in part to the use of bigger wooden boats that can carry more people than the rubber boats' that were used last year.

William Spindler, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, noted that new and far riskier tactics were being used by people smugglers.

He said that until last week he had never heard of traffickers using an overloaded boat carrying hundreds of people to tow another vessel, packed with hundreds more, which lacked an engine.

The second boat capsized on May 26, drowning what his agency estimated was around 550 migrants.

Hadi Al Zowaghi, a Red Crescent representative in the Libyan town of Sabratha, criticized local security forces for not trying to stop the human trafficking and failing to properly document those who die.

'These are real people  they had families,' he said.
Hillary Clinton said Friday Donald Trump bears responsibility for the violence outside his rallies.

Clinton condemned physical assaults on Trump supporters by protesters but said, 'He set a very bad example.

'He created an environment in which it seemed to be acceptable for someone running for president to be inciting violence, to be encouraging his supporters,' she told CNN on Friday. 'Now we're seeing people who are against him responding in kind -- it should all stop. It is not acceptable.'

Today at a press conference a reporter told Clinton's opponent for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders, that some of the protesters said they planned to vote for him in Tuesday's primary.

'Violence is absolutely and totally unacceptable,' Sanders said. 'And I do not want anybody...if people are thinking about violence, please do not tell anybody you are a Bernie Sanders supporter, because those are not the supporters I want.'

Hillary Clinton said today that Donald Trump bears responsibility for the violence outside his rallies. Clinton condemned physical assaults on Trump supporters by protesters but said, 'He set a very bad example

Bernie Sanders said 'violence is absolutely and totally unacceptable' and 'if people are thinking about violence, please do not tell anybody you are a Bernie Sanders supporter, because those are not the supporters I want'

Thursday night, protests against Trump got out of hand outside his rally in San Jose. A gang of anti-Trump demonstrators reportedly beat a man up. One woman had eggs and water bottles thrown at her.

Protesters also attacked police, throwing signs, water bottles and traffic cones at them, news reports indicate.

Four protesters were arrested. CNN said that some held signs that read 'We need socialism,' suggesting they are backing Sanders, a democratic socialist.

Sanders said today during a news conference on jobs and the economy at the University of California, Berkeley, he gets why so many Americans are disgusted with Trump - but violence isn't the answer.

'I understand how reprehensible and disgraceful Donald Trump's positions are, how ignorant they are....and I can understand the anger, I surely can, because I feel it,' Sanders said. 'I feel the bigotry that is coming from his mouth, the insults.

The U.S, senator said,.'I understand the anger, but we are not going to defeat Trump...by throwing eggs or getting involved in violence of any kind.'

The way to defeat him, Sanders said, is to 'stand together as one people and fight for a progressive agenda, educate, organize,' and bring out large numbers of people to vote.

'We will defeat trump, but the way to defeat him is not by violence of any kind, not by personal harassment,' Sanders proclaimed.

Clinton, the leading Democrat running for president, told CNN's Jake Tapper today that she condemns 'all violence' in the political arena and scolded Trump for 'lowering the bar' for appropriate behavior at campaign events.

'I condemned it when Donald Trump was inciting it and congratulating people who were engaging in it, I condemn it by those who are taking violent protest to physical assault against Donald Trump. This has to end.'

Police form a line to contain protesters outside a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday in San Jose

A gang of anti-Trump demonstrators reportedly beat a man up. One woman had eggs and water bottles thrown at her

Protesters are seen kickick and jumping on a car leaving the Trump campaign rally on Thursday. Trump called them thugs on Friday

Tapper suggested that the violent protests against Trump outside his rally might be helping the Republican candidate for president 'by showing his opposition in such a horrendous light.'

Clinton disagreed, telling him, 'I don't think any of this helps anybody.'

'I don't think his protests that were led by his supporters, beating up people who were peacefully protesting against Trump, helped Trump,' she said, 'and I don't think that people who are protesting and using physical violence against people supporting Trump are helping anybody.'

She again told Tapper that she just wants it to end, not because it makes her own voters look bad, but because 'police have a hard enough job trying to make sure that we're able to gather and talk about the issues facing our country.'

Clinton bashed Trump again and said he 'has lowered the bar.'

'Is it a surprise that people who don't like him are stepping over that low bar? I don't think it is. He needs to condemn all violence by everyone. I already have, I will continue to do so.'

Last night Clinton's campaign chair, John Podesta, said on Twitter: 'Violence against supporters of any candidate has no place in this election.'

Speaking this afternoon in Redding, California, Trump derided the protesters for attacking his supporters as they left the venue yesterday evening.
A file lying in the drawer of the manager's office at a small French seaside hotel provides intriguing clues about the gangsters who smuggle migrants across the Channel to Britain.

It contains the passport details of four shadowy men who booked in for a night to pull off an audacious crime by trafficking 30 Pakistanis and Albanians by sea into the UK.

Gangs of people smugglers now operate along all 450 miles of the north French coast  from Calais on the Belgian border to Cherbourg and beyond  as 20,000 migrants wait to get to England for a new life.

During the past week they have used small fishing vessels, private yachts and speedboats to slip migrants onto England's South Coast beaches under cover of darkness.

Pictured (left to right) IT computer graduate Mahyer Marco, 23, forklift truck driver Seyyed Khalik Khalili, 28, and Saeid Dakrooh, 24

Early last Sunday, 18 migrants were rescued in Dymchurch, a coastal village in Kent, after their rubber dinghy began to sink offshore.

The same morning, eight migrants were rescued by a lifeboat in Portsmouth harbour as they floated adrift in a fishing boat.

The determination of migrants and the greed of traffickers has not been diminished by the French government's demolition in March of the 'Jungle' migrant camp in Calais, an unhygienic shanty town of 4,000.

The migrants simply moved on  initially 30 or so miles away to Dunkirk, where thousands live in a camp near the port, paying traffickers to cross the Channel, and then spreading further along the coast.

The fact the British government has spent 63 million in the past year beefing up security at Calais has only encouraged the diaspora.

Yesterday, the Mail revealed that 150 Albanians had set up camp on cliffs at Dieppe  and that many of them had already been deported at least once from the UK.

Migrants are trying their luck in all eight ports with ferry services to England, from Dunkirk to Roscoff, and any harbours with small boats. Smugglers are taking advantage of calmer summer seas to take their customers to Britain at fees of up to 12,000 a head.

Nowhere in recent years have the criminals been more active than in the port town of Ouistreham in Normandy, on whose beaches Allied forces made the D-Day landings.

The town has the second busiest ferry port in northern France  confusingly, it is called Caen terminal, after the city seven miles inland  with cars, caravans, and freight lorries crossing to and from Portsmouth.

Cheerful hotels line the front at Ouistreham, and nearby are campsites where Britons stay before setting off on road tours of Europe.

Early last Sunday, 18 migrants were rescued in Dymchurch (pictured), a coastal village in Kent, after their rubber dinghy began to sink offshore

It was in one of these hotels that four gangsters ushered migrants up the stairs one night at 11pm while staff slept, and into their 'family' suite. Four hours later they led them out again and smuggled them onto a ferry waiting for the early morning sailing to Portsmouth.

The traffickers then disappeared. All they left behind were their passport details, copied by the manager when they booked in.

The manager  who asked me not to identify him or his hotel for fear of reprisals from traffickers who may still operate on the coast  showed me copies of the passports. The revealed that the men, in their 20s or 30s, were born in Albania.

'We were amazed,' he says. 'It happened under our noses. The smugglers were confident, certain of what they were doing. We think the migrants were driven here by the gang in a van from elsewhere in France.'

In the outskirts of Caen itself, we found 200 Iranian, Afghan and Iraqi migrants living in a dishevelled former industrial unit.

They told us Albanian gangs hire the boats of fishermen or yacht owners who will skipper a vessel the 40 miles across the sea from Ouistreham to Portsmouth.

'Everyone wants to get there,' said 28-year-old Iranian Seyyed Khalik Khalili at the makeshift migrant camp as he offered me a tea and a piece of chocolate.

'Most of us have family in London or Manchester, even Portsmouth,' added the former forklift truck driver, who arrived here last year. The migrants sleep on blankets on the floor, have a Union Jack flag on the wall, and portable gas cookers. Outside are bicycles given by local charities. And there they wait for their chance to get to Britain.

'We will get through, somehow,' added 27-year-old Hamed Farzaneh, an Iranian engineer.

'We keep trying to get to your country night after night. We would not do it if the route was closed completely.'

Their desperation is obvious and the traffickers trade on this.

At Caen railway station, Albanian agents wait to offer their smuggling services to new arrivals from other parts of France and Europe.

Gilles Debove, of Calais Police Union, warned recently that since his port had tightened security, the Albanian gangs in France were 'changing their strategies and their routes' to England. And Caen is one of their bases.

Some of the migrants make their own way.

I met a 17-year-old migrant from Caen who reached England on Tuesday night in the back of a Spanish lorry full of shoes bound for Zara stores in Britain as it stopped at a petrol station before heading for the Ouistreham to Portsmouth ferry. Mohsen Rafrezadeh had been waiting for his chance for months and took it. But once he reached Portsmouth he was spotted in the lorry, and put in a police cell for the night.

Then, because he was carrying papers showing he was an asylum seeker in France, he was sent back to Ouistreham on a ferry the next morning  with a British police escort  where he was released.

The 18 Albanian migrants were rescued when the vessel they were in started to sink in the English Channel

Back at the Caen camp on Wednesday afternoon, he was cheerful. 'I will go on a ferry, in a fishing boat, in the bottom of a car,' he said. 'I will get to Britain one day soon, and my friends will too.' The same sentiments were being expressed up the coast at Dieppe, where the 150 Albanian migrants had set up home after being provided with 17 large tents, rugs and blankets by the Medecins Sans Frontieres charity. Food is being provided by local charities.

'This is a good temporary situation and we are smiling,' said one. 'But, of course, we cannot stay here for ever. The UK is our goal.'

Just as in Caen, many of the migrants in Dieppe had already reached England, only to have been sent back. One 24-year-old, who called himself Jimmy Korbi, said he was caught working illegally on London construction sites by immigration officials and returned to France. Now he was trying again.

Humanitarian aid, though well-meaning, only encourages more migrants to join the quest to cross the Channel. And while many civic leaders and mayors of port towns enlist charitable help, and put up migrants in churches or sports' halls, in Ouistreham the mayor, Romain Bail, takes a very different approach.

Last winter, some time after the incident with the traffickers at the local hotel, he launched an extraordinary offensive to stop Albanian smugglers targeting his town which was a hub for migrants.

'A few days after the authorities tightened security at Calais last winter, a wave of 200 more migrants came here all at once,' he explained.'

He stopped charity hand-outs and made clear that if migrants committed criminal damage breaking into buildings for shelter they could receive a prison sentence.

He warned fishermen and yacht owners that co-operating with traffickers risked jail. More police put a security watch on the port and patrolled the streets where they picked up Albanian youths of 16 and 17 carrying wads of euros paid to them for the migrants' journeys.

'We rely on tourism here,' he explained. 'The people's livelihood would disappear if we became like Calais, where it started with a small centre to help migrants and the numbers soon overwhelmed the place.'

The action enabled Mayor Bail to seize back his town from traffickers. Migrants hanging around largely vanished. Albanians who had plagued the area for years went with them.
Nigel Farage: Bodies will be 'washing up' on British beaches this summer

Ukip leader Nigel Farage last night claimed bodies will be 'washing up' on British beaches this summer if asylum is given to 18 Albanians caught trying to sneak into the country by boat this week.

The Albanians were saved from a stricken vessel in the English Channel, off Dymchurch in Kent.

He said: 'There were 18 people from Albania, they are currently in Dover as I understand it.

'Five of the 18 are now claiming asylum and I fear if we grant asylum status to people from a prospective member of the EU, we send a signal to traffickers and gangs  take that risk come here and you have every chance of staying.

'I can promise you the straits of Dover is a risky place.

'If we don't make sure all 18 are deported we will have drownings and bodies washing up on Kent beaches all summer.

'We must, must, must deal with this,' he told a referendum debate on the Express.co.uk website. Mr Farage has also announced he is to lead a flotilla of boats up the Thames to Westminster later this month to call for Britain to leave the European Union.

Mr Farage said: 'On June 15 I will be boarding a small trawler in Southend-on-Sea at 5am, so not much point going to bed really.

'We will catch the flood tide, and there will be 60 boats in a flotilla coming up the Thames and we will arrive outside the Palace of Westminster at midday.
A woman who was driving a car when it crashed in Queensland, killing her sister, cannot speak about the incident, with her family reportedly worried about her mental health.

Candice Chmieluk, 29, and her sister Sammy-Jo, 24, were celebrating Sammy-Jo's move to the Gold Coast at the Currumbin Surf Life Saving Club on May 29 before deciding to leave about 5.30pm, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported.

Just minutes after they left the club they were involved in a car accident at Palm Beach, where Sammy-Jo was killed instantly.

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Sammy-Jo Chmieluk, left, with her older sister Candice, right. The sisters were involved in a car accident on Sunday afternoon in Palm Beach on the Gold Coast

Sammy Jo was killed instantly, when the vehicle she was a passenger in collided with a pole

The twin's older sister Kristy, who spoke to the Gold Coast Bulletin said Candice 'hasn't stopped crying'.

'Shes lost her best friend. They just adored each other. And the circumstances around it  were just so worried about her mental state.

'Shes not talking about it. She cant even bring up the words.

'They were two peas in a pod  it was always Candice and Sammy against the world.'

The car was completely crushed by the crash which left Candice in the Gold Coast University Hospital with serious injuries

Candice, pictured, was removed from the wreckage by witnesses before it burst into flames

Investigations suggest Candice, who was driving, lost control of the vehicle and it ploughed into a pole.

The Jeep the young women were travelling in split in half as it collided with the pole, then moments later the wreckage burst into flames.

Police say 'excessive speed' was a factor in the accident, with the car appearing to have been travelling at more than 100km/h in a 60km/h zone.

Sammy-Jo died on impact but witnesses were able drag Candice from the tangled wreckage.

Forensic police reportedly said it was one of the worst accidents they had seen.

Candice is recovering from two fractured legs in the Gold Coast University Hospital.

Sammy-Jo's funeral is being held in Armidale on Saturday.

Candice, who has undergone routine checks for drugs and alcohol, could face criminal charges over the incident.

After the crash, an unnamed witness told news.com.au: 'All we could see was this tiny pod of fire that slowly got more explosive,'

'There were a few explosions and then some screams from people.

'One woman was screaming for dear life at the top of her lungs.

'Everyone did a good job getting here really fast but it was too late.

'I've never seen anything like it, it's the worst I've ever seen.'

Police have credited the onlookers for their quick thinking, and Inspector Karen Shaw from Queensland Police told Channel Nine the incident 'could have been a double fatality'.

Paramedic Ricky Arnold said Candice was conscious when emergency services arrived.

'She was in shock and couldn't really talk to us,' he said.

Sammy-Jo, pictured, was unable to be saved. She was on holiday from Armidale and had been spending time with her sister before the accident

The funeral for Sammy-Jo (pictured) is being held in Armidale, New South Wales, on Saturday

The Gold Coast Bulletin reported that friends and employees at the club told the girls not to leave in the car.

A relative who lives in Armidale, where the girls grew up, says the family are distraught and 'trying to come to terms with the news'.

The force of the accident left glass, plastic and twisted metal strewn across the street. Among the debris a child's dummy and a P-plate could be seen.

Relatives, including the twins' mother Sharon Blore, flew from Armidale and Tamworth to visit Kristy and Candice, who have lived on the Gold Coast for nearly 10 years.

Kristy is reportedly caring for Candice's two young children while she recovers in hospital.

Kristy said they were a strong country family and would eventually pull through  even without 'Sammy sunshine'.

Police have said excessive speed was a factor in the crash, with the car reportedly travelling at more than 100km/h in a 60km/h zone
The Lebanese taxi driver used by 60 minutes in its botched child abduction says Sally Faulkner was in the van when her children were kidnapped.

Speaking from Ebbe jail in Tripoli, Khaled Barbour said Ms Faulkner was in the van with two men when her kids were snatched from their grandmother on a Beirut street.

'I swear to you it was Sally and as we drove she would hide every now and then so she couldn't be seen but it was her,' he told the Herald Sun.

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Sally Faulkner (centre) was reportedly in the van when her children were snatched from the street in Lebanon

Ms Faulkner went to Beirut to try bring her two children Lahela (centre) and Noah (right) back to Australia

Mr Barbour said Ms Faulkner wore a grey scarf over her head and would occasionally slip below the window as they were driving.

When the kids were in the van she spoke to them rapidly in an attempt to calm them down.

Ms Faulkner went to Beirut to try bring her two children Lahela, five, and Noah, three, back to Australia.

They were taken to Lebanon by their 32-year-old father Ali Elamine in 2014.

Faulkner was forced to return to Brisbane following the botched kidnapping attempt but now she has no contact with her children.

Mr Barbour, who was jailed for his part in the incident, said he was unaware what he was getting himself into.

He said he was asked if he would like to earn US$500 in cash to drive foreigners around Beirut for two days, but given no idea of what that would involve.

Tara Brown (left) and the Nine Network's 60 Minutes crew were in Beirut with Ms Faulkner to film the 'child recovery'

'I didn't know anything about this before, I had never met any of them until like an hour before and I was just offered money to drive and pick people up and drop them off,' he told the Herald Sun.

He said he was innocent and wanted Australians to help him get out of prison.

Ms Faulkner spent two weeks in the Lebanese prison alongside Tara Brown and the 60 Minutes crew after the kidnapping attempt before she was released.

In exchange for the charges against her being dropped Ms Faulkner was forced to sign over the custodial rights of their children.

Following the kidnapping attempt Ali Elamine (centre) forced Ms Faulkner to exchange her right to the children for charges to be dropped

Tara Brown and her 60 minutes crew spent time in prison following the bungled kidnapping

Ms Brown was pictured being shoved into a police car after a court hearing in April. She was flew home to Australia later that week

Ms Brown looked as though she was being manhandled when she was led out of Baabda Palace of Justice
Logan said he will not trade the cap for another or take it off at school

He also got to meet the GOP presumptive nominee last week at a rally

Administrators say they fear for Logan's safety because of tense talks

He refuses to take the cap off despite school officials banning the cap

Logan Autry, nine, has worn a Donald Trump hat to his

Logan Autry, nine, (pictured) had to leave school early on Thursday for wearing his red 'Make America Great Again' cap

A nine-year-old in California has been banned from wearing a Trump-supporting 'Make America Great Again' hat at his elementary school.

Logan Autry had to leave Powers-Ginsburg Elementary School early on Thursday because administrators felt his hat was a safety concern.

Students began confronting Logan and having tense conversations with him about the presidential election, officials said.

'The vice principal came up to me and told me to take my hat off because it brings negative attention from other students. And I said no a few times and then the principal told me again and I still said no and refused,' Logan Autry told ABC 30.

Logan wore his cap to school for three days and every day more students confronted the nine-year-old.

Logan is passionate about politics and American history and moved to Fresno, California, recently.

He says he's keeping the hat - no matter what the school or other students think.

'I still want to keep my hat. It's not the hat that draws attention, it's just my personality that the other children do not like,' Logan said.

Logan had the chance to meet the man behind the hat.

He skipped school and went to a Trump rally last week, where he purchased the cap.

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Logan (pictured, right) wore his cap to school for three days and every day more students confronted the nine-year-old

Logan's family is trying to find other hats for him to wear - but there's only the one bearing the phrase 'Make America Great Again' that Logan will put on

He even shook Trump's hand and felt his famous hair.

'I felt his hair too, and it's actually real. On the TV it looks not real, but it like, has a blur but when you see it in real life it looks a lot different,' Logan said.

Logan's guardian, Angela Hoffknecht, said the elementary school student wants to be a politician when he grows up and already wears button downs and ties.

'I still want to keep my hat. It's not the hat that draws attention, it's just my personality that the other children do not like,' Logan said

Logan got the hat at a Trump rally last week when he met the Republican presumptive presidential nominee

He also practices speeches about Trump during recess.

'I've told them his policies on illegal immigration, and our second amendment, and our first amendment and all of our amendments that need to be protected which are not going to be an amendment at all if Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders gets elected,' Logan sid.
Michael Gove, thick-rimmed spectacles like Austin Powers, voice as dark and moist as a goodish Dundee fruit cake, last night gave an EU debate performance of almost prime ministerial quality.

He then  oh no!  insisted he was completely uninterested in succeeding David Cameron. Count me out, he said firmly near the end of the Sky News debate.

He was absolutely not considering a leadership bid. Normally, of course, we disbelieve anything a politician says about leadership hopes.

They always lie, dont they? But Govey made his denial of ambition so forcefully, and in front of a rolling TV camera, that it is going to be hard for him ever to wriggle out of it.

Michael Gove, centre with Faisal Islam, left, and Kay Burley, right, gave a Prime Ministerial performance during his appearance on Sky News debating the EU referendum, writes Quentin Letts

Across the country, trenchant Righties who had just tattooed Gove for PM on to their foreheads suddenly had to ask their Staffordshire terriers to pass the laser-gun eraser.

This Brexit campaign becomes more intriguing by the day.

The wind seems to be in the Leave camps spinnakers. The Remainers have been caught exaggerating their case and the public plainly does not like it.

Justice Secretary Gove submitted himself to exactly the same format his friend (and deadly rival) Mr Cameron had done 24 hours earlier.

But whereas Mr Cameron became tetchy and was heckled repeatedly by the audience, Mr Gove was reasonable, civilised, good-humoured, optimistic. The Cameron programme was like a prolonged Anadin advert: tense, nervous headachey.

The Gove affair had moments of levity. At one point he even started flirting outrageously with a female lawyer in the front row. That Sarah Vine lass (aka Mrs Gove) should watch out!

Yes, he took a few whacks from the studio audience. (By the way  has Sky News not produced much more balanced audiences than BBC1s Question Time usually manages?)

But although last nights spectators had sharp criticisms of Mr Gove, their attacks felt less pointed, less personal, less vengeful than those on Mr Cameron the night before.

Maybe that is because DC is PM and therefore an MM (marked man).

But maybe it is because Mr Gove is a skillful debater, listens to the questions and comes across as rather less patronising.

You could never imagine Michael Gove snapping at nice Kate Garraway from ITVs breakfast telly, as happened yesterday with Mr Cameron.

Before the show began, Sky grandee Adam Boulton did some pre-match interviews in which he said there was a danger of Mr Gove looking like a swivel-eyed loon.

He also described the Justice Secretary as a true anti-European zealot. Might the word enthusiast not have been fairer?

Skys political editor Faisal Islam, so brutal with the Prime Minister on Thursday, then again had first dibs at the guest of honour.

Mr Islam, until recently one of the milder fellows at Westminster, has plainly been at the Shredded Wheat of late.

He fired up his chainsaw and started pressing it against Mr Goves shins. He tore into him over the Leave campaigns claim that 350million a week of our money goes to the EU. Mr Gove defended it as best he could.

Young Faisal was scoring quite a lot of runs until Mr Gove got on to his personal story  how his Aberdeen fish-merchant father had lost his business as a result of the EU and how 24 workers had thus lost their jobs.

Quentin Letts said Mr Gove, pictured, was reasonable, civilised, good-humoured and optimistic

The Sky man tried to push this aside, saying his own dad had lost a business, but Mr Gove shot back: Do not skate over their misery, Faisal. Dont belittle the misery caused by the job-destroying EU.

That felt like a big moment, and Mr Gove was soon teasing his interviewer adroitly.

That was feisty, Faisal, said the mighty Kay Burley. The woman is a poet, I tell you. During the audience questions, Mr Gove not so subtly applied his toecaps to Mr Camerons family silver, saying: What we heard last night was depressing  an exercise in trying to scare you.

For Gove to attack his patron Cameron like that was unusual.

He must have said we must take back control 20 times. I started to scream each time the slogan was uttered.

But immigration (refreshingly) was little mentioned. Does Mr Gove perhaps realise that it sounds angry? Instead he flapped his eyelashes at Lin Chandler, an elegant lady (shall we say late 50s?) with a home in France.

She was worried she would be booted out of it if we left the EU. Mr Gove, in tones worthy of Clifford the Listerine dragon, assured her that would never happen.

And he told her he was sure that retirement was many years hence for her. You old charmer, Gove. She blushed!
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A doctor who bought a Connecticut home that's a replica of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello says he's a history buff and an admirer of the Founding Fathers.

Dr. John Papale lives in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. He made the high bid of $2.1 million for the home in nearby Somers at auction this week.

He told the Hartford Courant newspaper he plans on moving his family into the home this year.

He first saw the interior of the 10,000-square-foot mansion at a charity event a month ago and visited several more times.

Friendly's restaurant chain co-founder S. Prestley Blake is a longtime admirer of Jefferson and had the home built for $7.7 million in 2014 just before his 100th birthday. The 101-year-old ice cream magnate has never lived in it, but held functions inside.

A mansion modeled after Thomas Jefferson's Monticello plantation (pictured) has sold at auction for $2.1million

The 10,000 square foot replica house (pictured) in Somers, Connecticut, was built by Friendly's Ice Cream co-founder S. Prestley Blake

The stunning property originally went on the market for $6.5 million about 18 months ago, but failed to sell

But the selling price for the five bedroom, four bathroom estate was dropped to $4.9 million last July. Pictured, marble top counters give the kitchen a luxurious feel

Blake has never lived in the house but celebrated his centennial birthday there with more than 250 guest, as the kitchen (pictured) provides plenty of space to host

 Slide me  Left: Replica in Connecticut. Right: Original Monticello mansion that was built by Thomas Jefferson in Charlottesville, Virginia

Blake (left) said after the auction in remarks reported by the Hartford Courant that he was happy the new owner would occupy the home but he was surprised by the amount of the winning bid. New owner Dr. John Papale is pictured right

Papale told the Courant: 'When I went in for the first time, I was impressed by how much work and detail went into the house under Mr. Blake's guidance. He had a fantastic vision, and it was something I could really appreciate.'

Papale says he's inspired to see the real Monticello in Virginia, telling the newspaper: 'That's on my bucket list. It will be as soon as possible.'

The home originally went on the market for $6.5million, but was dropped to $4.9million last July and sat unsold for 18 months according to the Hartford Courant.

Blake said after the auction in remarks reported by the Hartford Courant that he was happy the new owner would occupy the home but he was surprised by the amount of the winning bid.

'I'm glad that they got it,' Blake said. 'But I don't see how they got it so low.'

Blake, who lives a few doors down on adjacent property connected by a horse trail, said in 2014 when the house was built that he hoped it would be a source of pride for the town on the Massachusetts state line.

Nestled in nine acres of land, the property has seven fireplaces (pictured) and a three car garage and cost a cool $7.7 million to build

Blake - who is a big fan of Jefferson - completed the project just before 2014, when he turned 100. He said: 'This is the last thing I'll leave for posterity. I want this to be an asset to the community'

Blake said he is 'selling it for the good of the community to have a historical piece to look at' and added that 'everybody [who] goes by looks at it.'

For its construction, Blake flew his contractor, Bill Laplante, to Virginia to study the original. Laplante said he used photographs and a book with original architectural drawings to help him build the replica

'This is the last thing I'll leave for posterity,' he said. 'I want this to be an asset to the community.'

Other than a three-car garage, the house was built to mimic the original Monticello from the outside. That includes the decorative railings on the roof and the handmade bricks imported from Virginia, laid in the same Flemish bond pattern used by Jefferson.

For its construction, Blake flew his contractor, Bill Laplante, to Virginia to study the original. Laplante said he used photographs and a book with original architectural drawings to help him build the replica.

The five bedroom, four bathroom estate is nestled on nine acres of land, as the property has seven fireplaces.

The mansion, which also has three helicopter landing spots, combines an up-to-date interior with Jefferson's classic exterior design.

Papale told the Courant: 'I know Mr. Blake feels that I got a very good price. I hope he's right.

'We don't plan on putting this on the market for a very, very, very long time, so it may be decades before we know the answer to [that] question.'

The house was built to mimic the original Monticello from the outside, including the decorative railings on the roof and the handmade bricks imported from Virginia, laid in the same Flemish bond pattern used by Jefferson

The mansion, which also has three helicopter landing spots, combines an up-to-date interior with Jefferson's classic exterior design




People left homeless due to bushfires or other natural disasters will be able to stay in Airbnb homes in a new agreement.

The Victorian government has signed a deal with the accommodation website which will provide housing for Victorians and emergency workers during natural disasters.

In an emergency Airbnb will contact hosts within its network in Victoria to see who can provide accommodation for affected residents or emergency service workers.

The Victorian government has signed a deal with Airbnb (inset) to provide shelter to those affected by bushfires or natural disasters (stock image)

Premier Daniel Andrews said in a statement from the US on Saturday.

'What this partnership with Airbnb does is connect people who are willing and able to help with those who are in their greatest hour of need.'

The Age reports the the Victoria Premier met with Airbnb's Head of Global Disaster Relief and Recovery, Kelly Bentz.

'We've created a disaster tool and we activate it in the event of an emergency because you never know if a host already has a reservation'

A similar deal was made during the recent wildfires in Alberta, Canada that forced 90,000 people to evacuate their homes.

There are around 10,000 properties in Victoria listed on Airbnb, many of which are located in regional and bushfire-prone areas.

There are around 10,000 properties in Victoria listed on Airbnb, many of which are located in regional and bushfire-prone areas (stock image)

A similar deal was made during the recent wildfires in Alberta, Canada that forced 90,000 people to evacuate their homes (stock image)
About 1,000 have been identified to be still working in the armed forces

A female soldier from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) who was assaulted by one of her superiors has spoken out about the demeaning behaviour that she had to cope with.

Private Jade Jones, a name that has been used to protect Ms Jones real identity, was licked on the face, slapped on her buttocks and pushed up against a wall by Former Sergeant Shawn Macey in 2011.

The ADF has been under scrutiny for a decade of sexual abuse cover-ups and Maceys case cast doubts over the effectiveness of recent efforts to reform military culture, reported The Sydney Morning Herald.

A female soldier from the Australian Defence Force who was assaulted by one of her superiors spoke out about the incident while her case cast doubts on efforts to change military culture (stock)

Ms Jones joined the ADF in 2010 and in 2011 was victim to a series of inappropriate actions from Macey including slaps on the bum, a public face lick and dry humping.

On December 7, 2011, Ms Jones claims Macey professed his love for her before having sex with her  which he told police had been consensual.

Ms Jones said that she had felt shocked and frightened by the behaviour and felt unable to report Macy for fear of jeopardising her career, reported The Sydney Morning Herald.

The allegations came to light six months later when Ms Jones admitted to the series of assault to the units psychologist who she had been seeing because of a dramatic change in her behaviour since the alleged rape, reported The Sydney Morning Herald.

An investigation into the incident found several women at the barracks had experienced uncomfortable moments with Macey including inappropriate touching and propositions for sex

An investigation into the incident found several women at the barracks had also allegedly experienced uncomfortable moments with Macey including inappropriate touching and propositions for sex, reported NT News.

Ms Jones was unable to bring her case before the Defence Abuse Response Taskforce because the assaults took place months after the April 2011 cut-off for submissions.

She was not able receive any compensation from the incident and has since left the force.

Macey received eight months imprisonment which was suspended after 14 days due to his time working in the army, reported ABC at the time of the hearing.

Eighty cases have been referred to police and more than $30million has been given to victims in compensation

The taskforce, which recommended a royal commission, received more than 2,400 complaints and identified more than 1000 alleged abusers still working in the armed forces.

Eighty cases have been referred to police and more than $30million has been given to victims in compensation.

On Friday, another cadet from the Australian Defence Force Academy was charged with rape.

Ms Jones told the Sydney Morning Herald that she hoped her story would be considered as a cautionary one and lead to change in the force.

She said: Forewarned is forearmed.
Bernie Sanders checked an essential box in California today as he continued his mad dash across the state before Tuesday's primary: he ate an In-N-Out Burger along Highway 80 in the town of Pinole.

Sanders was a hit inside the California-based restaurant chain, especially with a group of small children who he greeted early on and invited to share his fries once his meal was served.

They eventually absconded with most of his side, but the 74-year-old senator didn't seem to mind.

Happy to be out of the 98 degree heat that beat down on the Democratic presidential candidate and his supporters in Fairfield half an hour before, he scarfed down a cheeseburger and took photographs with the fast food restaurant's young staffers before hitting the road again.

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Bernie Sanders checked an essential box in California today as he continued his mad dash across the state before Tuesday's primary: he ate an In-N-Out Burger along Highway 80 in the town of Pinole

A pint-sized patron who met Sanders in the restaurant earlier, Cobe, offered the senator a fry while he waited for his food. Sanders returned the favor later, sharing his food with Cobe and his friends

Sanders was a hit inside the California-based restaurant chain, especially with the restaurant's young wait staff

As Sanders entered the Pinole, California, establishment, he was met with fanfare from staff.

He told reporters travelling with his campaign that it was his first time at the California staple before walking up to a booth of diners and introducing himself.

'How are you doing?' Sanders asked a little boy, identified by his mother Bettina Taylor told reporters as Cobe. Sanders spoke to Cobe and sister Nacha' and their two friends before taking his seat.

The U.S. senator spent a few minutes on his i-Pad until his food arrived.

His server told him, 'I'm not old enough to vote but I hope you enjoy your food,' eliciting a laugh from the presidential candidate.

As he finished his cheeseburger Cobe and his pals approached the senator at his booth, and Sanders offered them a few of his fries. A few minutes later, they came back for more, eventually eating most of his side dish.

They were soon led out by their guardian, and Sanders departed moments later himself.

Taylor told reporters before she left that she knows that 'everybody is for Hillary' but she'll likely vote for Sanders.

'I don't feel Hillary Clinton,' the former Arkansas resident said. 'I didn't feel her husband.'

Taylor said Bill Clinton didn't 'do a good job' when he was in office. Asked if she was voting for Sanders in the Democratic primary, Taylor said, 'I probably will. I think he's about the best thing running.'

Sanders has been traveling up and down the state of California for the last two weeks, rustling up votes wherever he can find them, in hopes of upsetting Hillary Clinton in the populous state's Tuesday primary.

It's his last chance to overtake her in pledged delegates. Even if he can't do that, Sanders believes the momentum a California win would bring to his campaign could help him flip superdelegates into his column.

'How are you doing?' Sanders asked a little boy, identified by his mother Bettina Taylor told reporters as Cobe. Sanders spoke to Cobe and sister Nacha' and their two friends before taking his seat

Sanders ordered a cheeseburger and fries. He stayed just long enough to eat them, and then hit the road again

His operation has been hamstrung by a thinning of donations at a time when he needed to purchase air time in California's expensive media markets.

It also cut down on the amount of air travel he could do in the final weeks of the campaign. Five other states vote on June 7 aside from California, but Sanders hasn't made it to any of them in the last two weeks.

Clinton hasn't visited them either in that time period, with the exception of New Jersey, which borders her home state of New York. It's her race to lose, though, as she's less than 100 delegates from securing the nomination when her superdelegate support is included in her tally.

Sanders spent his first full week in California in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. He's since moved on to San Francisco and its suburbs.

He held two rallies on Friday in Fairfield and Cloverdale and a press conference at the University of California in Berkeley.

Two supporters passed out at the Cloverdale rally his campaign held outdoors at the local airfield in the 89 degree heat.

In Fairfield, in the middle of the afternoon, temperatures rose to 98 degrees as he spoke outdoors at the community college.

As he took the stage there, Sanders acknowledged the heat and said, 'You are a dedicated fierce group of people!

'See we're from Vermont, and we don't know about weather like this,' he said, acknowledging that he 'probably should have had the rally inside.'
She admitted going 90 mph, but denied using Snapchat

A teenage girl from Georgia is facing multiple charges after crashing her Mercedes and seriously injuring another driver, while allegedly using the Snapchat app's 'speed filter'.

Christal McGee, 19, was charged Wednesday with felony serious injury by vehicle, among other charges, by a Clayton County judge following the conclusion of a police investigation.

Clayton County Solicitor Tasha Mosley says McGee was speeding on a rainy road on September 10, when she crashed into driver Wentworth Maynard, who spent weeks in a coma and suffered brain damage.

Christal McGee (left) is facing multiple charges after crashing her Mercedes and seriously injuring another driver, while allegedly using the Snapchat app's 'speed filter'. Pictured right: An example of Snapchat's speed filter

McGee is accused of speeding on a rainy road on September 10, when she crashed into driver Wentworth Maynard (pictured) who spent weeks in a coma and suffered brain damage

Maynard and his wife filed a lawsuit in April against McGee and Snapchat, saying the app's filter tempted McGee to speed.

The speed filter allows users to gauge how fast they are going and then their post shows up with the speed over the photo.

Citing court records, WSB-TV reports McGee admitted going 90 mph, but denied using Snapchat at the time of the crash.

But McGee's passengers told the station that she was using the speed filter and trying to reach 100 mph when her car crashed last September.

Clayton County Solicitor Tasha Mosley said that the teen had shown a 'true disregard' for public safety and added: 'For any other young person out there that's thinking about doing this, they can see that we're serious about pursuing charges when you hurt somebody to this extent.'

Injured driver Maynard had just turned right out of his apartment complex on to Tara Boulevard - where the speed limit is 55 mph - when the crash happened.

Snapchat released a statement saying: 'No snap is more important than someone's safety.'

It also added that the app discourages use of the speed filter while driving by 'including a warning message when you first use it'.

All of them - including ex-boyfriend Henry Williams who originally defended her - say that she was reaching a speed of nearly 100 and using Snapchat. Pictured: McGee's damaged Mercedes

Injured driver Maynard had just turned right out of his apartment complex on to Tara Boulevard - where the speed limit is 55 mph - when the crash happened. Pictured: The wreck of Maynard's car

Michael Neff, the Maynard family attorney said: 'We look forward to pursuing justice against Snapchat and Ms. McGee.'

In a court filing obtained by CNN Money, a statement read: 'Snapchat contends that the Activity Logs demonstrate that McGee was not in fact using the Snapchat Application at the time of or immediately prior to the collision.'

But the lawsuit also claims that Snapchat has been aware of previous accidents caused by people using the app while driving at high speeds but the company still chose not to remove the speed filter.

The officer who originally assessed the crash was unaware that McGee was using the Snapchat app until after Channel 2 Action News had spoken to passengers.

The Lovejoy Police Department had instead attributed the cause of the crash to Maynard.

But following an open records request by the reporter, the patrol officer was directed to re-interview McGee's three passengers.

All of them - including ex-boyfriend Henry Williams who originally defended her - say she was reaching a speed of nearly 100 and using Snapchat.

McGee's former co-worker Heather McCarty has maintained from the beginning that McGee was driving more than 100 mph, but police initially overlooked her statement.

Michael Neff, the Maynard family attorney said: 'We look forward to pursuing justice against Snapchat and Ms. McGee.'
A former Australian Islamic radical who once supported ISIS has revealed that terrorists told him to carry out lone wolf attacks on home soil.

An Australian Muslim known as 'Ali' was a vehement supporter of ISIS and wanted to join the terrorist group in Syria.

'I considered it very often. Very often I thought I should go, it's something to aspire to,' he told SBS's Radical Rewire program.

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An Australian Muslim known as Ali, pictured, was once a vehement ISIS supporter and was told to carry out terror attacks on home soil

Ali said he seriously considered joining ISIS fighter in Syria. 'I considered it very often. Very often I thought I should go, it's something to aspire to,' he said (stock)

Ali, who now opposes the group but still supports Sharia law, said he rejected calls from ISIS fighters in the Middle East to carry out terror attacks in Australia (stock)

'The reason I supported them was because of their slogan which is very emotional, very emotional language, emotional terminology, and because of my general ignorance of Islam.

'Their outward appearance was very nice. They claim for one that... they're bringing back Sharia to the world and they're fighting the enemies of Islam.'

Ali, who now opposes the group but still supports Sharia law, said he rejected calls from ISIS fighters in the Middle East to carry out terror attacks in Australia.

'There was many people in Daesh at that time who are just calling for lone wolf attacks in Australia,' he said.

'There was many people in Daesh at that time who are just calling for lone wolf attacks in Australia,' Ali said

The former extremist said ISIS terrorists told him that Allah would 'question him on the day of judgment' for refusing to carry out attacks in Australia (stock)

'Many people... saying you should do this attack, you should do that, just general calls.'

The former extremist said ISIS terrorists told him that Allah would 'question him on the day of judgment' for refusing to carry out attacks.

Ali was in regular contact with Australians fighting for ISIS in Syria via social media, including 'Jihadi' Jake Bilardi.

He claims that he was one of the last people to speak to the 18-year-old suicide bomber from Melbourne, who died in Syria last year.

He was questioned by intelligence agencies because of this connection, and agreed to take part in a terrorism intervention program.
A father who leaped over a table as he tried to attack the man who murdered his teenager daughter has revealed he lunged at the serial killer because he smiled at him in court.

Van Terry was speaking about the loss of his 18-year-old daughter, Shirelda, when he suddenly charged at her killer, Michael Martin, in court on Thursday.

Martin was seen laughing as Mr Terry was dragged away by police, but the father says he has no regrets.

'He looked at me and smiled. I thought that was so disrespectful,' he told Fox 8.

'I was thinking how he mutilated my child, cut my child. You did all this while my child was still alive, so you caused my baby great pain. I don't know if I thought about leaping or what have you, I just know I wanted him.'

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 said he did not care if he got charged for the attempted attack because he believes he did the right thing.

His sister, Sonya Richardson, told Cleveland 19 that Shirelda was her father's 'slice of heaven' and that Mr Terry was enraged by Martin 'sitting over there smiling'.

Martin, 38, was given the death penalty for murdering Shirelda, Angela Deskins, 38, and Shetisha Sheele, 28, in Ohio in July 2013.

The bodies of the three women 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

The scuffle happened just minutes after Madison was sentenced.

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.

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.
Police have seized 140kg of crystal meth and busted an international drug syndicate supplying Australia's outlaw bikie gangs.

Four people were arrested after police found $80million worth of methamphetamine in the western Sydney suburb of Rossmore.

The shipment was the result of an 'unusual' co-operation between Mexican and West African organised crime gangs, the Australian Federal Police said.

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Four people were arrested after police seized a 140kg shipment of methamphetamine in the western Sydney suburb of Rossmore

The $80 million shipment of drugs was the result of 'unusual' co-operation between Mexican and West African organised crime gangs, the Australian Federal Police says

AFP NSW state manager Chris Sheehan said federal police suspected the Mexican and West African syndicates were working together to supply outlaw motorcycle gangs in Australia.

He said it wasn't the first time they had co-operated to carry out shipments, and wouldn't rule out further arrests.

'This is not the first large-scale importation we believe these syndicates have been involved in,' Mr Sheehan said.

The seizure began in March, when two Mexican sea cargo containers were intercepted by the Australian Border Force in Sydney.

140kg of crystal meth was found concealed in 11 diesel generators (pictured)

AFP NSW state manager Chris Sheehan said federal police suspected the Mexican and West African syndicates were working together to supply outlaw motorcycle gangs in Australia

Inside the containers were 11 diesel generators found to be concealing crystal meth.

The AFP then traced the delivery to a warehouse in Rossmore before making their arrests.

Three of the four men were charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.

The three people who were charged include a 60-year-old Nigerian-American, a 45-year-old Nigerian-Mexican and a 48-year-old Nigerian-Australian.

The fourth person, a 35-year-old Nigerian-Australian, was expected to be charged later on Saturday.

The AFP traced the delivery to a warehouse in Rossmore in western Sydney before making their arrests.

The three men were to face Parramatta Local Court on Saturday. The maximum penalty for the offences they are charged with is life imprisonment

Mr Sheehan said the 'tyranny of distance' no longer worked in law enforcement's favour as international transportation and networking became increasingly simple.

'This is a case of Mexican organised crime co-operating with West African organised crime in a global syndicate supplying large, commercial-scale quantities of methamphetamine,' Mr Sheehan said.

'From an AFP perspective, the teamwork between these two global organised crime syndicates is unusual.'

Border Force NSW regional commander Tim Fitzgerald said: 'They have gone to great lengths to defeat or circumvent our activities at the border, (but) in this instance they haven't been able to do that.'

The three men were to face Parramatta Local Court on Saturday.
Friends and family of a 14-year-old girl who died after being hit by a car have shared their grief on social media.

Jessica Vowles from Elanora in Queensland was killed after being struck by a car on the M1 at Palm Beach last Saturday at around 8:30pm.

She had walked into the path of oncoming traffic, mygc.com.au reported.

Jessica Vowles, 14, died after being hit by a car on the M1 at Palm Beach last Saturday at around 8:30pm

The death of the teenager has led to an outpouring of grief on social media.

'Another young life taken too soon, rest in paradise to one of the most generous, selfless and forgiving girls I've known,' wrote one friend on Facebook

'The last day of school before you left for NZ was the last time I gave you a hug and wished you good luck for the future, I can't believe you're not here with us anymore, fly high beautiful'

Another added: 'Didn't know you well but what I know is that they took you away way too early, always in our hearts, fly high.'

The death of the teenager has led to an outpouring of grief on social media

A friend of the teenager called her one of the most generous, selfless and forgiving girls they've known

The 14-year-old's funeral was at St Andrews Lutheran Church at Tallebudgera on Saturday morning

Jessica's funeral was at St Andrews Lutheran Church at Tallebudgera on Saturday morning.

No one has been charged over the crash and police are currently preparing a report for the coroner.
Their actions were deemed 'unlawful' and suggested Ms Ward be reinstated

Roz Ward was reinstated on Friday and will return to work on Monday

The manager of a national organisation who was suspended after calling the Australian flag 'racist' has returned to work and all allegations put against her of misconduct have been dropped.

Safe Schools Coalition co-foudnder Roz Ward made the comments last Tuesday after a ceremony in Victoria where the Rainbow flag symbolising LGBTI pride was raised over Parliament House.

Ms Ward said on Facebook: '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.'

La Trobe university reinstated Ms Ward just hours after they received a legal letter which argued it was 'unlawful' to suspend someone over a private Facebook post, reported The Age.

Safe Schools manager Roz Ward (left) was reinstated after after she resigned for calling the Australian flag 'racist' in a Facebook post

If the university chose to ignore the law firms warning of re-instating Ms Ward by 10am on Monday the matter would be taken to the Federal Court, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers said.

But La Trobe Vice Chancellor John Dewar stood by the Universities actions noting that the best interests of the Safe Schools program was at the forefront of their decisions.

'This decision has been characterised in the media and elsewhere as an attack on academic freedom, and as a response to an expression of political opinion ... this is not the case.'

Ms Ward has since said she is excited about returning to work on Monday.

'I love my job, and all the people I am privileged enough to work with,' she said. 'I am looking forward to continuing to do what I think is a really important job.'

Ms Ward made the comments after the Rainbow flag - an international symbol of LGBTI pride - was raised above Victoria's Parliament House

Ms Ward resigned las Friday night before saying: 'These were private comments that were never intended for the public domain,' reported The Age.

Victorian Liberal MP Nick Wakeling said Ms Ward's comments about the flag were 'appalling'.

The Safe Schools Coalition is made up of schools working together to create safe and inclusive environments for same sex attracted, intersex and gender diverse students, staff and families.

In response to Ms Ward's resignation, the Victorian Gender and Equality Commissioner said the government would continue to proudly support the program.

'Ms Ward has acknowledged that the post was inappropriate and may have caused offence, even if meant in jest, and posted in private.

'The Safe Schools program is not about any one person, it's about providing safe and inclusive environments for all LGBTI kids at school,' Commissioner Rowena Allen said at the time the comment was made.
A New Zealand Idol winner yelled 'tell the boys I love them' as he was taken into custody for a string of offences.

Matthew Saunoa, 29, who won the third series of New Zealand Idol in 2006, failed to appear for a court date on the Gold Coast last month.

Police tracked down the father-of-three on Thursday night and he was refused bail when he faced court on Friday.

Matthew Saunoa, (pictured) who won the third series of New Zealand Idol in 2006, failed to appear for a court date on the Gold Coast last month

Saunoa's lawyer said he came to court under 'unfortunate circumstances' and there was a great concern leaving him in custody, The Gold Coat Bulletin reported.

But the magistrate said police could not verify he was able to live with his parents and refused his bail application.

When he was leaving court he told his aunty, 'Tell the boys I love them', according to the paper.

In 2007 Saunoa was banned from Auckland's SkyCity casino after he was seen handing cash to another man.

'They tried to tell me that I passed over money and he passed something back,' he said at the time.

'I said, "Look, I owed him money", and my story is true'.

Police tracked down the 29-year-old on Thursday night and he was refused bail when he faced court on Friday

In 2007 Saunoa was banned from Auckland's SkyCity casino after he was seen paying cash to another man

Saunoa's music career spiraled after his 2006 Idol win.

His one and only single, Hold Out, debuted on the New Zealand charts at number one, but he wasn't offered a contract to record an album.

'I got to release a single, and that was it. I just felt I was left to rot,' he told the Manawatu Standard in 2010.

'After climbing what seemed an impossible mountain it felt like I had fallen and landed flat on my face.'

Saunoa will be able to apply for bail again when he faces court on Tuesday.
A five-year-old boy in New Zealand has been hospitalised after he was mauled by four pig hunting dogs this afternoon.

The boy suffered multiple bite wounds in the attack and family members had to drag the dogs off him, The New Zealand Herald reported.

'The boy had just been dropped off at the house by a family member and was entering the gate on the front deck when the four dogs burst on to the deck and attacked him,' police who attended said.

A five-year-old boy was attacked by four pig dogs at this property in Gisborne, in New Zealand's North Island

Emergency services and animal control staff were called to the house on Emily Road around 1pm.

St John Ambulance staff rushed the boy to hospital in a serious condition, while animal control staff and police seized the four dogs, which were American staffordshire bull terrier crosses.

'Three have already been signed over by the owners for destruction, and the fourth will be held in the pound pending court action,' a spokesman for Gisborne District Council told the New Zealand Herald.

The council spokesman said the three dogs will be euthanised next week and police are likely to lay charges against the owner.

The boy is now in a stable condition in Gisborne Hospital's children's ward

The dogs that attacked the child were reportedly American staffordshire bull terrier crosses (stock image)




Police have released images of the custom made van

The van was chained and the wheel was clamped when it was stolen

The three tonne trailer was noticed missing by the victim's father at 10am

An $80,000 Kebab van was stolen from outside a home in Melbourne

One customer took a takeaway kebab a bit too far after they decided to leave with the entire $80,000 kebab shop.

The custom made kebab van was stolen from outside a home in Mordialloc, Melbourne, onSaturday morning.

The van trailer was reportedly chained to a fixture and the wheel was also clamped.

A custom made kebab van valued at around $80,000 was stolen from outside a home in Melbourne

But that didnt seem to deter the robber who took off with the three tonne trailer.

Abra-kebab-raand it was gone, wrote Victoria police after releasing images of the van in hopes someone would recognise it.

The van was last seen at around 2.30am on Saturday morning and was noticed missing at 10am by the victims father.

The van bears the registration number W90 664.

Police are urging anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.
A woman who lost a leg on the infamous Alton Towers rollercoaster, The Smiler, has found love and put the trauma behind her.

Vicky Balch struck up the romance with Jay Barker on dating app Tinder after becoming single earlier this year.

She was one of five people seriously injured in June last year at the Staffordshire attraction.

Vicky Balch struck up the romance with Jay Barker on dating app Tinder after becoming single this year

Tinder brought her and Jay, 24, who works at a Blackpool hospital, together

Vicky said that she wasn't looking for a relationship but now admits that she has found love

The 20-year-old had been dating long-term friend, fitness trainer Dan Hatton, 25, for a few months from November.

He supported her through operations and exhausting physio but the romance didn't develop.

In April, Vicky revealed some of the weird messages she had received on Tinder, including one man who said he 'always wanted sex with a person with one leg'.

But the app did bring her and Jay, 24, who works at a Blackpool hospital, together. And now after two months of dating they have gone public.

They are said to be 'very much in love' and visited the Lake District for a romantic weekend away.

Vicky told The Daily Star: 'I wasn't looking for a relationship, I just wanted some reassurance.

Vicky, pictured (left) during her dancing days before the crash and (right) today with her new prosthetic leg

Vicky Balch, pictured with her new motorised leg walking with Good Morning Britain's Susanna Reid, revealed she had joined dating app Tinder after she lost her right leg in the Smiler accident

But she added: 'We hadn't been together long when we told each other we love each other.'

On Thursday she posted a lengthy message on Facebook about her roller coaster ordeal on the one year anniversary.

She said: 'I cannot believe it has been a year since not only my world was turned upside down but many others, including people involved in the accident, families, friends and employees of Alton Towers.

'I took so many things for granted before; my entire life, friendships, family, walking, any physical activity, easiness and access to everything, even sitting comfortably.

'This time one year ago I was in absolute agony. Unfortunately at points I did not even want to be alive because of the pain and I saw no hope of a future.

'That did not last long. I luckily gained the strength from somewhere to get through the ordeal and 1 year later I have grown as a person, for the better I believe.'

The former dancer took her first steps unaided in April since she was given a new motorised bionic leg, made by German company Otto Bock.The 70,000 prosthetic has allowed her to start exercising again and attempt to return to the life which was shattered by the horrific crash.

Five people were seriously injured in the horror crash which left Miss Balch and another women, Leah Washington, both needing to have their a leg amputated.
Kerry Roberts (left) left behind a boyfriend Tommy Lane, who wrote today on Facebook: 'i love you so much im so heart broken'

The first photograph has emerged of a British tourist who fell to her death from a high-rise holiday apartment in Tenerife.

Kerry Roberts, 25, from Bristol, died instantly after plunging from the 12th floor of the building in the resort of Adele in the early hours of yesterday morning.

She is understood to have been on holiday with her ex-boyfriend, their five-year-old daughter and his parents.

Her boyfriend Tommy Lane wrote on Facebook: 'R.I.P babe im going to miss you so much my heart is with all your family that place you had in my heart is always going to be there. Fly high and proud with the angles i love you so much im so heart broken.'

According to reports in Spain, police detained a man after detectives viewed footage from CCTV cameras which showed her returning to the flat.

Ms Roberts' death is now being treated as suicide but her former partner was being questioned by police about events leading up to the incident.

The couple are believed to have been on holiday with their five-year-old daughter as well as the man's father and his partner.

The older couple were staying in a neighbouring apartment, although the father's partner is believed to have been in the bathroom of the flat where the death occurred when it happened around 2am on Friday.

Ms Roberts is understood to have fallen onto a lawn below the apartments, and her body was found by a security guard who was alerted by her ex-boyfriend and his father.

Paramedics rushed to the scene but could do nothing to save her life.

She was believed to be holidaying with her ex-partner, their daughter and his parents when tragedy struck

A British tourist has been arrested in Tenerife after his ex-girlfriend fell to her death from their high-rise holiday apartment in this block, Apartments Paraiso del Sur, in the resort of Adele

It is believed the woman fell from an apartment (pictured, the view from a balcony) where she was staying with her partner

The couple are believed to have been on holiday with their five-year-old daughter as well as the man's father and his partner at the hotel complex (pictured)

The 25-year-old woman, who is also believed to be British, died instantly after plunging from the 12th floor of the building in the south of the island in the early hours of yesterday morning

The man was arrested after the three British adults were interviewed and Guardia Civil investigators looked through CCTV footage of their return to the holiday apartment.

But a police source said: 'He was arrested because a woman had died in strange circumstances and officers needed to determine what if any level of involvement he may have had in that.

'The police investigation has subsequently determined he was not in the same spot as the woman when she fell to her death.'

No-one was immediately available for comment this morning at Apartments Paraiso del Sur, the apartment block in the popular resort of Adele where the incident happened.

The complex, which boasts a year-round outdoor pool and overlooks the Atlantic, is a short drive from the well-known Playa de Las Americas.

Ms Roberts is believed to have jetted to the island last month with her ex-boyfriend and their child.
The mother of a pregnant woman found dead in a hotel bathtub hopes a British inquest will finally reveal the truth surrounding her daughter's mysterious death.

Charmain Adusah, 41, was found dead in Koforidua, Ghana, in March last year with heroin in her system despite having 'never taken drugs in her life' according to her mother Linda Speirs.

Her husband, Eric Isaiah Adusah, a self-proclaimed prophet and evangelical preacher, was arrested for her murder but the court case in Ghana collapsed last October.

Following an investigation by Essex Police, an inquest into her death will be held in the UK in August - and her mother hopes the probe will finally shed light on the tragedy.

Charmain Adusah (right) was found dead in Ghana, in March last year. Her husband, Eric Isaiah Adusah (left) was arrested for her murder but the court case in Ghana collapsed last October

Linda Speirs (pictured) hopes the inquest set to be held in the UK will finally shed light on her daughter's tragic death

The findings of a post mortem conducted in Ghana concluded Charmain died of acute heroin poisoning - though her family insist that she would never voluntarily take drugs.

Charmain, 41, who had a son from a previous relationship, was three months pregnant when she died.

Her body was discovered by staff at the Mac Dic Royal Plaza Hotel in Koforidua, the eastern capital of Ghana.

Her husband, leader of Global Light Revival Ministries Church, was also staying at the hotel but left two days earlier after reportedly telling staff Charmain was not well and not to disturb her.

Charmain's body was returned to Britain in November and a series of post mortem tests were conducted in Essex, where she lived, before her parents from Arbroath, Scotland were able to lay their daughter's body to rest.

Charmain's mother Linda Speirs said she had been informed the initial findings of the British post mortem also found heroin in her daughter's system.

The couple pictured together: Following an investigation by Essex Police, an inquest into the 41-year-old's death will be held in the UK in August

She said: 'The coroner phoned me up a fortnight ago to say there was definitely heroin found in her body. But how it got there, they don't know

'How was heroin able to get into a woman's body who had never touched drugs in her life?

'The coroner said they are still waiting on results from a couple of tests.'

The inquest is due to take place on August 11.

A letter Mrs Speirs received last month from the coroner's office states Essex Police had received the post mortem report, police report and Attorney General's report from Ghana.

The letter adds Essex Police had made several attempts to 'elicit further information from the Ghanaian authorities without success'.

However, last week, Mrs Speirs was informed by a police liaison officer based in Dundee that more information was now being sent from Ghana after Essex Police's requests were turned down five times.

Left, a Global Light Revival poster featuring an image of the couple, and right, pictured on a Christmas card

Mrs Speirs added that she was still to be interviewed by Essex Police.

'You've got to wonder why Ghana would refuse a request for information five times in a murder case before finally agreeing,' she said.

'I hope that Essex Police are investigating this properly and that the inquest will get to the bottom of what happened.'

An Essex Police spokesman said: 'Essex Police has received the results of specialised tests following the post mortem that took place in November 2015.

'Enquiries are on-going with the authorities in Ghana and an inquest will be held in due course.'

Charmain Speirs grew up in Arbroath in the Angus region of Scotland before moving to Swansea, where she studied photojournalism and then worked as a radiography assistant for the NHS.

In 2014 she married Eric Isaiah Adusah, leader of the Global Light Revival Ministries church based in Tottenham, North London.

He had been active as a preacher in Britain since 2010. The couple travelled to Ghana early in 2015 so Mr Adusah could preach at a three-day religious rally.

On March 16 following the rally the couple checked in to the upmarket Mac-Dic Royal Plaza Hotel in Koforidua for five days.

But when Mr Adusah left at dawn on their second day, he reportedly told reception staff not to disturb his wife as she was 'fasting and praying', and left a Do Not Disturb notice on the door.

Hotel managers became concerned when Ms Speirs would not respond when they knocked.
An education expert has claimed that it isn't unusual for parents in Japan to abandon their children as a form of punishment after seven-year-old Yamato Tanooka was found nearly a week after his parents left him in dense bear-infested woodland.

University professor Naoki Ogi said he he had been told by many adults in Japan that abandonment is common disciplinary procedure.

Writing on his blog, he said: 'The parents who put him in this situation must be harshly condemned'

Yamato Tanooka was found after being missing for nearly a week yesterday, and an educational expert has claimed abandonment is a common form of discipline in Japan

Yamato was taken straight to hospital after being found in a disused military base, but was only found to be suffering dehydration and exhaustion

Yamato trekked three miles through dense bear-infested woodland to reach the military base on the island of Hokkaido

'Surely, they will be arrested soon,' he added.

But he also said that many adults had told him they too as children were abandoned by their parents as a form of punishment.

'This is apparently not unusual!!' he wrote on his blog.

Yamato was found safe and well yesterday in a disused military facility, three miles from where he went missing on the northern island of Hokkaido.

He had remained alive by sleeping in between two mattresses and surviving off water from a tap outside the facility.

His first words when he was found were: 'I'm hungry' to a soldier who gave him bread and rice balls

Takayuki Tanooka, Yamato's father, was widely criticised for leaving his child but apologised unreservedly for his actions

The military base at the Ground Self-Defense Force Komagatake exercise area where Yamato was found

He had made the trek after his parents disciplined him by abandoning him - only to find him missing when they returned to collect him minutes later.

Japanese reacted with outrage on social media after news emerged of what happened last Saturday, with the actions of the parents roundly condemned as 'abuse' and them being described as 'stupid' for what they had done.

And though there was a national sigh of relief after the boy's rescue, opinions remained harsh.

'Missing boy was found and that's all wonderful, but the parents must be disciplined such as being abandoned on an uninhabited island,' read a Japanese-language tweet.

The father, Takayuki Tanooka, admitted that what he did was wrong, apologising in front of reporters after being reunited with his son, and decrying his own action as 'excessive'.

While many social critics, television personalities and others have condemned the parents, some were quick to sympathise over frustration related to child-rearing and discussed their own experiences of tough parental love.

'Should we call all forms of strict disciplining abuse?' said one tweet.

Hundreds of people were involved in the six day long search to find Yamato after he went missing last Saturday

'If you were his parents, would you never keep a distance from your child or even abandon them?

'This case could be a chance to think about how we engage with children.'

Another Twitter user expressed sympathy with the father, whose impulsive decision to momentarily punish his son turned into a nightmare.

'Many say the father in the Hokkaido abandonment case is scum, but he was not going to go home without the child.'

Ogi on Friday softened his tone somewhat, recognising that the entire family needs psychological care as they start the healing process after their ordeal.

'How much distrust is Yamato feeling toward his parents?' Ogi asked in a fresh blog post.
More than 70 festival goers were struck by lightning at a major music event in Germany.

Dozens of medics have treated people at Rock-am-Ring festival after severe storms caused heavy flooding.

The organisers said acts will continue to perform over the three-day event as Saturday night headliners, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, prepare to play.

One man suffered burn holes and scorch marks after being hit by lightning.

Spokeswoman for the festival Katharina Wenisch said: 'We are not considering cancelling the festival.'

Emergency services attending to a man at Rock-am-Ring festival, It is believed the man was hit by lightning when a storm passed over the festival

Dozens of medics have treated people at Rock-am-Ring festival after severe storms caused heavy flooding

The organisers said acts will continue to perform over the three-day event as Saturday night headliners, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, prepare to play

The more than 90,000 festival-goers have been warned to expect 'strong rain and thunderstorms' on Saturday night.

German police, local authorities and the organiser were planning to hold a news conference later to discuss the incident.

It was reported on early Saturday morning that at least 42 people were injured, eight seriously.

But the numbers rose as more fans reported injuries in the early morning hours, according to a police spokesman.

Thirty-three people were injured at the festival last year by lightning strikes, according to German media.

More than 90,000 festival-goers have been warned to expect 'strong rain and thunderstorms' on Saturday

Torrential rainfalls in various regions of Germany (the town of Simbach am Inn pictured) in the previous days had resulted in flash floods and mud slides

The festival, now in its 31st year, is based at Mendig airfield, near the Nuerburgring motor racing track in western Germany.

Metal legends Black Sabbath will headline on Sunday night, with Biffy Clyro and The 1975 also on the bill.

More than 10 people have died because of the severe flooding and weather in Germany.

Heavy rain in northern France has seen the Seine in Paris near its highest level in three decades.
A mob of teenagers have been caught on camera kicking a teenager in the head before relentlessly bashing him as he cowered on the floor.

Footage shared on Facebook shows Haydyn Wilson, 14, being set upon by a group of five older teenagers in the unprovoked attack at Woodgrove shopping centre, in Melbourne's north-west, on Wednesday.

The victim narrowly avoided serious injury after suffering a brutal kick to the face and then a flurry of further attacks on the floor, Herald Sun reported.

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Haydyn Wilson, 14, suffered a kick to the face before five older teenagers relentlessly bashed him on the floor

Eyewitness Joel Hamilton said Haydyn tried to flee his attackers before the sent him onto the floor and assaulted him again.

'He was on the ground bleeding so much, his nose was all pushed back it didn't look too nice,' Mr Hamilton said.

The video was shared by one of the attackers on Facebook, where it amassed 64,000 shares.

The victim's father, Travis Wilson, voiced his outrage on the social media site after the footage went viral.

'You guys have no idea what it's like watching this 5 on to 1 kid unaware with hands in his pockets,' he said.

One of the attackers has not been back to the school since police began investigating the incident.

The victim narrowly avoided serious injury after suffering a brutal kick to the face then a flurry of further attacks on the floor
The U.S. government has received information that terrorist groups are planning to carry out near-term attacks against places where its citizens congregate in shopping areas in South Africa, its embassy said on Saturday.

'This information comes against the backdrop of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's public call for its adherents to carry out terrorist attacks globally during the upcoming month of Ramadan,' it said in a statement posted on its website.

Upscale shopping areas in Johannesburg or Cape Town are considered areas ripe for terrorism, says the State Department.

Upscale shopping malls in South Africa (such as the Maponya Mall in Soweto, above) are the target of plotting ISIS terrorists, says the State Department

An upscale shopping mall in Sandton City in Johannesburg, South Africa (above) may be exactly the type of place terrorists could target during Ramadan, says the State Department

On Friday, the Pentagon announced that it had conducted several strikes  some of them kept secret until now  against Islamic extremists outside of Iraq and Syria, according to USA Today.

In 2016, U.S. attacks in Yemen have killed more than 100 militants, according to U.S. Central Command, reports the outlet.

The State Department suggests those traveling in South Africa enroll in the Smart Traveler program, which texts warnings, and can 'make it easier to locate you in an emergency.'

In Germany on Thursday, three Syrian men were arrested on suspicion of planning an ISIS-ordered attack in the old town in Dusseldorf in western Germany with suicide bombings, guns and explosives.

In November 2015, ISIS unleashed brutal attacks throughout Paris, killing 130 people

In December 2015, Germany allowed approximately 360,000 Syrian refugees into the country.

Thirty-people were killed in Brussels on March 22 and 130 people were killed in Paris on November 13, 2015 in a series of attacks orchestrated by ISIS.

In 2002, there was a string of terrorist attacks in Soweto, South Africa. A white supremacist group, Warriors of the Boer Nation, claimed responsibility.
Gemma Cowling was born as a boy but said she had never felt that way.

Now at 19, she has become Australia's first transgender model.

'It was abundantly clear to me that something was off but I wasn't exactly sure what that was,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'There were a lot of times where I sort of looked around and thought something wasn't right and I didn't fit together.'

Gemma Cowling, 19, was signed to Adelaide-based modelling agency Azalea Models in March

She was born a boy, but always felt she 'something wasn't right' and she 'didn't fit together'

The Adelaide-born model said it was not until transgender women became accessible in mainstream media and modern society that she was able to put her own identity in to words.

'It was at a time when Laverne Cox was on the cover of Time Magazine and people like Caitlyn Jenner were starting to be an accepted reality,' she said.

'They gave me a word, a name and an idea behind what was going on in my life.

'Before that it hadn't been something I'd heard of or interacted with in anything but a negative way.'

After finally coming out as a woman in November last year, Gemma began the transition process almost immediately.

In December she began to take a contraceptive pill and a 'blocker' - a tablet to stop her natural hormone progression - scientific developments the 19-year-old is very grateful for.

The 19-year-old came out as a woman in November last year, and is pictured here with her sister Faith

Gemma describes her last seven months as a 'very surreal whirlwind'

She posts updates about her modelling career and life to her instagram account, @iamgemmacowling

Since then, she said she had noticed rapid changes in her body.

'I'm at people's faces every five minutes with every tiny development,' she said.

'Today, my boobs kind of hurt because I ran down the stairs. I was like "guys, guess what?" It's really cool.'

Gemma said she had been 'learning her body all over again'.

'Every little change feels like the biggest, most exciting thing ever,' she said.

'It's been a very surreal whirlwind.'

Just three months ago, she was scouted while helping a friend at the Creative Centre of Photography studio in Marleston, Adelaide, by Stacey Hendrickson of Azalea Models.

'She was there helping out a friend on her photography project as posing as a model, this was her first shoot,' Ms Hendrickson said.

'I was there test shooting some new faces and she caught my eye.

'It was her height and bone structure that first grabbed my eye, she also has the most gorgeous blue eyes and great skin, she reminded me a little bit of Julia Nobis.

'I'd already decided that she would make a perfect Azalea girl, and then I heard her story and was so inspired.

'I see Gemma walking the runways in Paris and London, shooting campaigns with huge international brands, and meanwhile teaching and inspiring people to have more of an open mind.'

The blonde beauty says since her transition began, her body has changed rapidly

Gemma takes a contraceptive pill and 'blockers' to stop her natural hormone progression

She says it wasn't until transgender women such as Laverne Cox were celebrated in mainstream media that she was able to put her own identity in to words

Stacey Hendrickson, creative director of Azalea Models, scouted Gemma while she was helping a friend on a photography project

For Gemma, modelling was something she had always thought about but before March it felt like more of a pipe dream.

The eloquent 19-year-old said she had been interested in fashion from an early age, and was planning to break in to the fashion industry before she was scouted.

When Gemma is working on set, she said she did not feel the need to disclose her former gender.

'I don't consider it to be important, because it wouldn't be if I was a banker or a baker or anything else,' she said.

'When I'm on set or walking a runway, I'm just another one of the models.'

The blonde beauty said she had been lucky in her transition as her family have all been incredibly supportive.

Ms Hendrickson said she sees Gemma 'walking the runways in Paris and London and shooting campaigns with huge international brands'

Gemma says she doesn't consider her transition to be relevant while she is working and says 'when I'm on set or walking down a runway, I'm just one of the models'

Gemma says her family have 'rolled with the punches' during her transition, and she is happy they are around

'I have people around me backing me up and making sure I get what I need to be happy and healthy,' she said.

'The reality for a lot of trans people is that it's a big struggle to transition.

'My family are all rolling with the punches. It's not to say they're perfect, sometimes they p*** me off with the things they say, but that's to be expected and I'm just happy that they're around.'

As for role models, Gemma said there was a large community of transgender models who she looked up to and one day hoped to meet.

'I don't think any [other trans models] know who I am yet,' she said.

'I would probably have a bit of a fangirling experience if I ever was contacted by one of them. I'm looking forward to meeting them if my career takes off in the way I hope it does.
Boxer Amir Khan has been blasted by fans after posing with a machine gun in Pakistan.

The role model posted a short video clip of himself with an MS5 gun on Instagram, as well as a photograph captioned 'Get ready for the new Terminator'.

But rather than impressing his thousands of Instagram followers, the 29-year-old was roundly criticised by many who said that he had failed to live up to his role-model reputation.

Amir Khan has posted a video of him firing a machine gun with the caption: 'Get ready for the new Terminator'

The world-famous boxer can be seen shooting at a target five times before being applauded by his instructor

Jonboyrussell wrote: 'Not a good role model for kids who follow you'.

And Mujooo wrote: 'There is enough war in the world, stop posting such pics.'

In the short video, Khan is applauded by his instructor after he fires five shots at a target.

But many of Khan's Instagram followers have slammed him for the video, which they say glamorises guns

Two days ago, it was revealed that Khan's support in Britain could dwindle following the announcement that he wants to represent Pakistan at the Rio Olympics.

And the boxer has come under fire before for his glamorisation of guns.

In 2014 he was widely slammed for posing with a shisha pipe shaped like a AK47 rifle.

He wrote on his Facebook page: 'AK with an AK Shisha. I don't smoke it. But I saw it and decided to take u all a pic.'

And he also posted a picture of a huge blade on his social media accounts, despite being an anti-knife crime ambassador.

MailOnline have contacted a spokesman for Amir Khan for comment.




The plan to move has been labelled 'appalling' by the Greens

Students of a small inner-city primary school will be relocated to a 'pop-up' school to be built in a greyhound track that is already heavily used in Australia's most densely populated park.

Ultimo Public School, in Sydney's inner-city, is set to be demolished and rebuilt with students to be moved to a temporary new campus at Wentworth Park greyhound racetrack for three years, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

But the move has been labelled 'appalling' by The Greens and a local action group has voiced concern for disruption to students education.

Ultimo Public School (pictured), in Sydney's inner-suburbs, is set to be demolished and rebuilt with students to be moved to a temporary new campus at Wentworth Park greyhound racetrack for three years

Several trees are expected to be cut down as part of the plan and park access will be minimised.

The Wentworth Park Sporting Complex Trust and the City of Sydney have both vowed support for the plan, set to be funded by the NSW Education Department.

A City of Sydney spokeswoman said the plan would have minimal impact on the park.

'There are two small trees in poor health that may be removed and replaced with new trees,' a City of Sydney spokeswoman said.

But Greens MP for Balmain Jamie Parker condemned the decision, saying it was 'appalling' students were to be housed in portable buildings while a high rise campus was built at the original site, according to the news report.

Wentworth Park (pictured) lies within Australia's most densely populated areas - Ultimo and Pyrmont - and is used frequently by local sporting clubs and residents

Greens MP for Balmain Jamie Parker (left) and Greens education spokesman David Showbridge (right) do not agree with the plan

'It isn't the best solution for the education and wellbeing of the students,' he said.

'It's the cheap option.'

The Greens education spokesman David Shoebridge said the use of Wentworth Park could have been avoided if initial plans for a larger school site had gone ahead.

He expected a decision to be made on the plan this year and has called for an inquiry into the collapse of a deal between the City of Sydney and the Baird government which would have seen the initial plan go ahead.

Local group Pyrmont Action's spokeswoman Elizabeth Elenius said parents were concerned the temporary facility would disrupt their children's education for three years.

The prized inner-city green space lies within Australia's most densely populated areas - Ultimo and Pyrmont - and is used frequently by local sporting clubs and residents.
A woman whose partner burst into flames while dousing their backyard with petrol to kill fleas thought he was going to die after his heart stopped twice on the operating table.

Colin Hill, 46, was engulfed in flames after a spark from the outdoor hot water cylinder set the petrol alight in Croydon South, in Melbourne's east.

Mr Hill sustained burns to a quarter of his body and was in such agony that he was put into an induced coma when he reached hospital.

Croydon South man Colin Hill, 46, suffered severe burns to 25 per cent of his body after he was engulfed in flames

Describing the March 27 incident, Joanne Robinson told Daily Mail Australia how she thought her partner was going to die.

'We were planning on going out for my fortieth that night. I was on the phone talking to Colin's sister,' she said.

Joanne Robinson (left) rushed outside after hearing a massive bang, finding her partner Colin (right) scorched and in agony

'I heard this massive bang and ran out the front of the house. This lady was hosing Colin down.'

Ms Robinson said her partner was totally engulfed in flames for about three seconds and was in complete agony by the time he reached The Alfred Hospital in Windsor, Victoria.

'The hospital had to put Colin in a coma he was in that much pain,' she said.

'Then I had to give the hospital permission for them to perform skin grafts on him.'

Mr Hill had to be revived by surgeons two times as he lay on the operating table waiting for emergency skin grafts.

'When he was in the theatre they had to restart his heart twice,' Ms Robinson said.

'I thought I was going to lose him.'

She said the father of young daughter Tehgan, 1, could barely move when she went to visit him in hospital following the incident.

He has since had six skin grafts and is still undergoing intensive rehabilitation.

I went in to see him in the hospital and his face was puffed up, his legs were in plaster and he had a tube in his mouth for feeding,' Ms Robinson said.

Mr Hill was dousing the lawn of his Blossom Walk property with petrol to kill fleas. The petrol caught alight with a spark from the hot water cylinder

Mr Hill was in such agony that he was put into an induced coma when he reached The Alfred Hospital in Windsor, Victoria

Mr Hill said he could not remember much about the moment he went up in flames or the subsequent rush to save his life.

'I was on fire for about three seconds. I can't remember too much about it to be honest,' he said.

'When I was in the coma I don't really recall anything.

'I want to give a big thanks to The Alfred Hospital for everything they have done for me.
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The Queen enjoyed a nail-biting finish to Derby Day today where Harzand overcame a last-minute scare to clinch victory from the race favourite.

Clad in a sky blue coat, a white and blue patterned dress and complimentary accessories, the Queen braved gloomy but improving weather to watch rider Pat Smullen hold off a late challenge by the US Army Ranger in the final metres.

Harzand becomes the fifth winner for owner Aga Khan, despite his horse being a doubtful runner earlier in the day. This morning he had lost a shoe and even had blood coming out of his foot as a result.

The winner is the son of 2009 champion Sea The Stars and after losing a horseshoe his front foot needed to be iced.

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The Queen nervously bites her nails watching Harzand overcome a last-minute scare to clinch victory in the Epsom Derby on Saturday

All smiles: She stood on the balcony to watch the Derby Day races along with members of the royal family and over 100,000 spectators

Queen Elizabeth watches from the races from the balcony with Sir Michael Oswald (left) and Bloodstock and Racing Advisor John Warren

Smullen also held off Idaho, who led into the final furlong, but the horse came third to complete a 1-2-3 for Ireland in the blue riband event.

Wings of Desire, Humphrey Bogart, Red Verdon, Algometer, and Cloth of Stars made up the 4th-8th places respectively.

Harzand's trainer, two-time Melbourne Cup winning Dermot Weld, said it was 'wonderful' to win especially after the problems the horse had faced.

Even before this morning on the journey over from Ireland it emerged the horse had a spread plate which meant his participation was in doubt.

The Queen presents the Investec Derby trophy to Pat Smullen who rode Harzand and saw off a late challenge from US Army Ranger

Veteran jockey Smullen enjoys a warm handshake with the Queen after riding 13-2 Harzand to victory against the 7-2 favourite

Harzand stayed strong in the final metres giving spirtual leader The Aga Khan his fifth win and a first prize of $1.27 million

From left to right: Investec's Bernard Kantor, His Highness The Aga Khan, Queen Elizabeth II, groomer Patrick Murray, jockey Pat Smullen and horse trainer Dermot Weld pose with the trophies

Yet the 13-2 chance was given the all clear and held off the 7-2 favourite when US Army Ranger came storming down the middle of the track at the end of the race.

Smullen said: 'The trouble we had with him this morning, I didn't know if he would get here but it's a great team effort.'

Harzand stayed strong in the final metres giving The Aga Khan his fifth win  including with Shergar in 1981. The first prize was $1.27 million in a total pot of $2.25 million.

Clad in a sky blue coat, a white and blue patterned dress and complimentary accessories, the Queen was wrapped up and ready to cheer on the horses and riders at the Epsom Derby Festival

Despite a grey start to the day's activities Her Majesty was happy to soak up the atmosphere at the popular horse racing event

The Queen arrived with the Duke in tow for Derby Day of the 2016 Investec Epsom Derby Festival at Epsom Racecourse in Surrey

The Queen joined several members of the Royal Family and an estimated 125,000 spectators to cheer on the horses. After wrapping up warm under an overcast sky at the Epsom Derby Festival, she presented the trophy for the first time in a race she has never one.

The Aga Khan, a spiritual leader of some 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims, said: 'Obviously this is a major gift for everyone that works with me,' before collecting the trophy from the Queen.

The weather is set to improve overnight, with much of the UK set to bask in sunshine and warm weather tomorrow as temperatures reach highs of around 26C.

Queen Elizabeth II points towards something at Epsom Racecourse, before presenting the trophy she has never won for the first time

Prince Philip sits with his son Prince Andrew, Duke of York, looking rather stern faced as they watch the races from up high

Jockey Andrea Atzeni poses in the Winners Enclosure following his emphatic victory in the Coronation Cup on Derby Day

From left to right: Roger Weatherby, owner Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, jockey Andrea Atzeni, trainer Roger Varian, guest and Eleanor Tomlinson celebrate their horse Postponed's victory

At the Epsom Racecourse in Surrey, Met Office forecaster Greg Dewhurst said temperatures started at 18C but were expected to reach around 23 C in the afternoon.

With winnings of 1.325m, the Investec Derby has one of the biggest prize in money in UK racing.

And this weekend's hotly-anticipated action saw Frankie Dettori riding Wings of Desire at Epsom today, who at one stage was the 9-2 favourite, the longest odds since 1999.

Yet ultimately he could only manage fourth, failing to win a second successive Derby, as the 1-2-3 was secured for Ireland.

Meanwhile, jockey Sean Levey, who had his first Derby ride on Richard Hannon-trained Humphrey Bogart, was believed to be the first black jockey to ride in Britain's top Flat race.

The Met Office's Greg Dewhurst said that while today's derby may have been a rather damp affair, the conditions do look set to improve across the UK over the next 24 hours - with temperatures soaring.

Parts of the UK could see highs of around 25C in the sun tomorrow, with clear and sunny spells across much of the country. In London, highs could reach 26C tomorrow.

There was high hopes for Frankie Dettori riding Wings of Desire at Epsom today, but in the end he could only manage fourth

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of the United Arab Emirates, and Princess Haya bint Al Hussein were in attendance

The Sheikh is Emir of Dubai and was pictured wearing a red tie next to the Princess wearing a hat with white flowers

Terence Beesley (left), and actor known for his role in the film Human Traffic, and Ashley Jensen, a Scottish actress and narrator

Ex-cricketers Phil Tufnell (left) and Graeme Swann look dapper as they suited up to enjoy the Derby Day festivities

Kate Reardon was also in attendance joining in to celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday with a white dress and an elegant hat

Prince and Princess Michael of Kent joined other members of the Royal Family as they arrived in the royal enclosure for today's race meeting

Prince Andrew (left) and Princess Alexandra of Kent (right) were among the well-known figures to turn out for Derby Day

The damp derby: According to the Met Office, temperatures in Epsom are currently 18C but later on the afternoon could reach around 23C

The Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh arrive in the Royal enclosure on the second day of the Epsom Derby Festival in Surrey

Radio and television presenter Jeremy Kyle was also seen at the race meeting, arriving with a glamorous female friend

Actress Eleanor Tomlinson, star of BBC drama Poldark, was unveiled as ambassador for the 2016 Investec Derby.

Tomlinson plays the role of Demelza, the feisty servant who falls in love with Captain Ross Poldark, played by Aiden Turner.

She was named a Screen International Star of Tomorrow 2014, and has a racing connection - her father Malcolm is a horse racing racecourse commentator.

She said: 'My father is a commentator and I grew up in the saddle so it's a real honour to be part of one of racing's most prestigious events.'

The second ambassador for this year's Derby is the sport's best known jockey Frankie Dettori, who won the 2015 race on Golden Horn.

The Duke of Edinburgh was his usual jovial self, in high spirits at the event which boasts one of the biggest prizes in money in UK racing -with winnings of 1.325m

Actress and one of this year's Derby ambassadors Eleanor Tomlinson, looked spectacular as she arrived at the racecourse - before enjoying a cold beverage

Eleanor Tomlinson: The star of BBC drama Poldark, is an ambassador for the 2016 Investec Derby. Her father Malcolm is a horse racing racecourse commentator

Prince Michael of Kent (left) and the Duke of Edinburgh (right) appear deep in conversation as the action takes place on the track below

Princess Michael of Kent (left) and Prince Philip (right) watch the exciting action from the comfort of the Royal enclosure

Racegoers donned their finest suits, hats and dresses to enjoy an afternoon at Derby Day at the Epsom Derby Festival

Revellers sat back and enjoyed today's race meeting in Surrey - but they were still forced to wrap up against the chilly wind

While the weather may not have graced the racecourse today, Britain will finally step into summer tomorrow as temperatures soar in to the mid-twenties.

After a week of cloud and cool temperatures in the south and east of the country, the mercury will rise from this afternoon onwards.

In the North, the unseasonably warm temperatures of the last week will continue.

Sunday is set to be a scorcher with any clouds quickly burning off to the coast leaving 'prolonged warm sunny spells' for most, according to the Met Office.

The good weather is expected to carry on into the beginning of next week when it will feel very warm. In the South and West there may however be some thundery showers.

Forecaster Mr Dewhurst said: 'Looking back at this morning there was a grey start across most parts of the UK. But the cloud is starting to break this afternoon and we will see sunny spells across the UK.

'The best sunshine is most likely across eastern parts of Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland.

'But most noticeable is the increase in temperature across eastern parts of England in comparison to the last few days. It will feel much warmer.'

Racegoers prepare for the afternoon's action - which will see Frankie Dettori riding Wings of Desire at Epsom as the 9-2 favourite - the longest odds since 1999

Racegoers in their finery for the meeting, which will today see jockey Sean Levey, who has his first Derby ride on Richard Hannon-trained Humphrey Bogart. Levey is believed to be the first black jockey to ride in Britain's top Flat race

The Met Office says the conditions will improve overnight and into tomorrow, with tempratures warming up and the sun coming out across much of the UK

Meanwhile at Brighton beach in East Sussex, people braved the gloomy skies to sit by the sea - where temperatures could soar to around 25C tomorrow

A hen party took to the sea (pictured, left and right) as people flocked to Brighton this weekend in the hopes of enjoying some hot weather

Fish and chips on Brighton pier: Temperatures in the seaside town reached around 18C today - but could be set to soar even higher tomorrow

The Met Office forecaster added: 'Further west, it has been much nicer this week. Western parts of Scotland, England and Wales will see the best temperatures of around 24-25 degrees C this weekend and possibly even 26 degrees C in the north west.'

'There is a risk later on this afternoon and this evening of heavy showers in the north west of England and Wales. But this should ease through the night.

'Overnight it will be humid, with temperatures reaching double figures - around 12 or 13 degrees in the south and 10-11 in the north.

'Tomorrow morning will start off bright and sunny first thing, and dry for most.

'Most places across the whole of the UK will see sunny spells tomorrow.

'In the best of the sunshine highs could reach 22-23 degrees C and in the highest spots in the north western parts of England, around 24-25 degrees.'

In the capital tomorrow, mist or cloud is set to clear throughout the morning, turning warm and humid in the afternoon, with temperatures reaching around 26C.

Coastal parts of the UK - including Kent and Brighton - could see highs of around 25C by tomorrow afternoon.

Taking a nap by the sea: Sunday is set to be a scorcher with any clouds quickly burning off to the coast leaving 'prolonged warm sunny spells' for most, according to the Met Office

Brighton beach: While the weather may not have graced the racecourse today, Britain will finally step into summer tomorrow as temperatures soar in to the mid-twenties

Trooping the Colour: Elsewhere, members of the British Military prepared for the Queen's birthday celebrations in London

The Colonel's Review is the second rehearsal for Trooping The Colour, the annual ceremony which commemorates the Queen's official birthday
A Melbourne jeweller faced its third robbery as three men attempted to rob the store armed with a shotgun, an axe and a knife.

Workers at Najaf Jewellers in Coburg, in Melbourne's north, activated the security system, which stopped the men from entering.

The men approached the store just after 2.15pm on Saturday.

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Three men attempted to rob a jewellery store in Coburg, Melbourne on Saturday afternoon

A man in the shop at the time said the robbers had threatened an employee with a shotgun

CCTV footage from one of the store's 25 cameras shows the would-be burglars trying to smash in the front doors.

'One of the workers here tried to confront [the men] and they pointed a shotgun at him,' one of the store workers told 7News.

After the men realised they would not be able to break through the door, the footage shows them running away.

Police said they left the area in a car.

The men were captured on tape by some of the 25 CCTV cameras in the shop

After realising they would not be able to rob the store, the would-be-burglars ran off and fled the area in a car

It is the third robbery the store has endured since it opened on Sydney Road.

Staff and customers inside at the time were not injured in the frightening attack.

Detectives are investigating the incident and anyone with information is encouraged to contact Crime Stoppers.
This is the moment US warplanes took off on a bombing run against ISIS as military chiefs say they are raiding bomb stockpiles around the world for explosives to keep up their relentless assault.

Launching from the deck of the Harry S Truman aircraft carrier, a squadron of FA-18 Super Hornets made their way to Fallujah to carry out bombing runs as the Iraqi army fights to retake the city.

The attacks came as ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani called on followers of the terror group to carry out a 'month of conquest and jihad' across Europe and America for Ramadan.

Keeping up the pressure: An FA-18 Super Hornet launches from the deck of the Harry S Truman aircraft carrier to carry out bombing raids against ISIS in Iraq

Give 'em hell: America and the rest of the coalition fighting ISIS are carrying out an intense air campaign against Fallujah as Iraqi forces fight to retake the city on the ground

Ongoing fight: Since August 2014 coalition planes have flown more than 12,000 raids against ISIS, dropping 41,000 bombs, with the U.S. carrying out almost three quarters of them

Adnani implores followers to 'get prepared, be ready  to make it a month of calamity everywhere for nonbelieversespecially for the fighters and supporters of the caliphate in Europe and America.'

The State Department issued a warning over the message ahead of Ramadan, which begins on June 5, because Adani's previous message preceded three major attacks last year.

Ramadan, when Islam commemorates the Koran being revealed to Mohammed, holds special significance for terrorist fighters who believe a sacrifice during this month is more valuable.

While the State Department said it is not aware of any specific threats, and has not seen an increase in attacks during this month before, authorities added that Adani's message could prove tempting to some.

Meanwhile Air Force Lieutenant General Charles Brown revealed that he is raiding stockpiles of old smart bombs to use against the terrorists because the military is running out of new ones.

Brown told Government Executive: 'We have to do some analysis of where we take risk.

'What I mean by that is: where do we pull some weapons from that we were saving for other contingencies. And do we use them now or do we save them for later?'

In total, Brown said, the coalition has carried out 12,453 in Iraq and Syria since August 2014, almost three quarters of which have been by American planes or drones.

During those strikes more than 41,000 bombs were dropped, while the U.S. has also been lending explosives to allies to carry out their own strikes.

Relentless: Military chiefs have revealed they are now raiding bomb stockpiles around the world in order to keep up their assault against ISIS

Pressure: As well as coming under attack in Fallujah, the Iraqi army has announced another push to retake Mosul, while Assad's troops backed by Russian strikes are closing in on Raqqa in Syria

Carrier Air Wing Seven, the group stationed aboard the Truman, dropped more than 1,100 of those bombs in the first four months of this year, surpassing the previous record set by aircraft aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

The Truman, a Nimitz class carrier, is currently stationed in the Mediterranean, and the sorties launched on Friday mark the first time the U.S. has launched strikes on the Middle East from that sea since the start of the Iraq War in 2003.

Colonel Mohammed Ibrahim, a Iraqi command spokesman, told CNN that the airstrikes ha hit ISIS command centers and tunnel networks inside Fallujah.

Bombs also struck a meeting of ISIS leaders in the south of the city, Ibrahim said, which was being attended by a military leader known as the 'Emir of the Fallujah State.'

It is not yet known whether he was among those killed, Ibrahim said, because ISIS fighters are still trying to remove the bodies of the dead from under rubble using cranes.

Iraqi army units, pushed back by ISIS throughout most of last year in a series of humiliating defeats, are now said to have surrounded the city, the first taken by the terrorists in Iraq in January 2014.

The military, backed by Shia militias, are now preparing for a final assault to retake the city in a move that would rob the terrorists of a major staging post for operations in the region.

En route: Before launching the sortie yesterday, the Truman and its fleet of Super Hornets crossed the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean (pictured)

Flashback: Yesterday's raid marks the first time that the U.S. military has launched strikes on the Middle East from the Mediterranean since the Iraq War in 2003

Losing Fallujah would also deal a major blow to ISIS's claim to have established a functioning Caliphate in the Middle East, which serves as a strong recruitment tool for the group.

Perhaps realizing the enormity of the loss, the terrorist commanders are becoming increasingly desperate in their attempts to keep hold of the city.

Around 50,000 civilians still left inside Fallujah, including 20,000 children are effectively being used as human shields according to the United Nations.

Men of fighting age are being forcefully recruited into the terrorists' ranks or killed if they refuse.

Thousands are attempting to flee the city by wading across the Euphrates River or sailing across on makeshift ferries.

Target acquired: Iraqi military leaders say the strikes on Friday hit a meeting of ISIS senior personnel in the south of Fallujah (pictured), though it is not known if any important commanders were killed

Bombardment: Meanwhile in Fallujah the Iraqi military claims to have surrounded the city and is pressing to retake it two years after it fell into ISIS hands (pictured, an attack helicopter launches missiles)

Under attack: The Iraqi military is carrying out a sustained bombardment of the city to soften up ISIS defenses before they attack, including artillery bombardment

Meanwhile in Syria, Assad-backed troops have started recapturing ground en-route to Raqqa, the group's de-facto capital, ahead of a push to retake it.

Soldiers loyal to Assad retook Zakiyah Crossroad which straddles the border between Hama and Raqqa provinces on Friday, according to Al-Masdar News.

Troops also reportedly took the town of Abu Al-Allaj, with the next goal being the city of Tabqah which will be used to stage the attack on Raqqa itself.

Kurdish peshmerga alongside U.S.-backed rebel forces have also retaken crucial supply routes along the Syria-Turkey border.

Peshmerga have also been fighting ISIS forces close to their Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, the next target for government forces there once Fallujah is back under their control.

Desperate: In a bid to keep hold of the city, ISIS is attempting to use the estimated 50,000 civilians remaining there as human shields as hundreds attempt to flee across the Euphrates River
Mark Greenall, 26, pressurised a girl, 12, to have sex with him and when she refused, threatened to hand out explicit photos of her at her school

A paedophile travelled 100 miles to rape a 12-year-old girl and threatened to circulate explicit pictures she sent him at her school, a court heard.

Mark Greenall, 26, persuaded her to send him indecent images of herself with 'a relentless tsunami' of requests after they met on an online chatroom and swapped mobile numbers.

When she refused to send him pictures of herself in her underwear or topless, he threatened to print images she had already sent and hand them out to her classmates.

He pressurised her to have sex with him and when she refused, he posted a topless picture of her on a website and sending her a screengrab to show her he was serious. He even threatened to kill himself in order to manipulate the girl.

She eventually agreed and Greenall travelled 119 miles from his home in Liverpool to a hotel in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, where he raped and orally raped her on February 12.

Greenall pleaded guilty to two charges of rape and one of oral rape earlier this year but the case was adjourned to give the prosecution time to consider charging him with further offences.

He has now also admitted making indecent images of the girl, distributing images of her and disclosing a 'private sexual photograph' with intent to cause her distress.

Greenall is currently in custody and was due to be sentence on Friday but the judge refused after he was haded a detailed report saying he poses a danger to children too late to be properly considered.

Warwick Crown Court Recorder Michael Burrows QC said: 'Ten to six on a Friday and I am handed a report which says he's a high risk of [causing] sexual harm.

'I am troubled by the issue of dangerousness. I need time to consider this. I'm not going to start to sentence at ten to six, having been handed a report like this.'

The judge adjourned the case until later this month but rejected an application for Greenall to be granted bail.

He added: 'We are only talking about the length of the sentence not the nature of it. I think it's best he starts that today.'

The court heard Greenall first made contact with the girl, who lives with her family in north Warwickshire, through a chat site and they then also began exchanging text messages.

Prosecutor Delroy Henry said there were over 2,000 pages of texts between Greenall and the victim, with 80 pages containing messages of a sexual nature.

He added: 'What then happens is that the defendant embarks on a relentless tsunami of requests for images of her.

Greenall was due to be sentenced at Warwick Crown Court (pictured) on Friday but the judge was given a report saying he was a danger to children too late in the day. He was not granted bail so is still in custody

'On some days there are persistent requests for images of an indecent nature, despite her reluctance, and when she refuses he becomes manipulative.

'Matters persist in which this defendant introduces explicit sexual language which is very graphic and very detailed and he seeks to encourage her to get her friends to take images as well.'

The court heard to encourage the girl to send pictures Greenall told her he would send her presents.

He sent her a picture of a diamond ring and on one occasion he falsely claimed to have taken an overdose because of her reluctant attitude.

Prosecutor Mr Henry said Greenall then moved on to introduce the topic of them meeting and going to a hotel room for sex.

Evidence included 2,000 pages of text between the girl and Greenall (pictured) and 80 of them were of a sexual nature

To punish her for her reluctance to 'meeting and f*****g me' he posted a snap of the girl exposing her breasts on a website and sent her a screen-grab to show what he had done.

He persuaded the girl to meet him for sex and booked a room at a hotel in Bermuda Park, Nuneaton, which he travelled to from Liverpool by train on February 12.

Mr Henry added: 'She had told her mother she was staying at a friend's house, a lie he had encouraged her to tell, and they checked into room 418 where they spent the night together.

'He undressed her and raped her both orally and vaginally and the next morning he asked her for sex again, and they embarked on intercourse before showering together and getting dressed and leaving the hotel room.'

The court heard Greenall was caught after the girl's mother saw a Facebook message to the effect that she was no longer a virgin, having slept with her boyfriend in a hotel.

Police were called and were able to identify the paedophile from CCTV footage of him checking in and the credit card he had used to pay for the room.

When he was arrested Greenall accepted he had had contact with the girl but maintained she had said she was 16 and that although he knew she was at school he thought she was in her final year.

Mr Henry also said Greenall had entered his pleas to the rape charges on the basis that he didn't know she was only 12 and it was accepted she had 'informed him or allowed him to believe she was 16'.

Charles Crinnion, defending, said Greenall had begun using the internet to find a relationship with someone younger than himself because he had been 'mistreated' in relationships with women his own age.

He added: 'He understands he will be receiving a considerable custodial sentence today.

'The basis of plea is that he always believed her to be 16, and the Crown do not dispute that.
A young guilt-ridden pinecone thief decided to return the cone to its original owner - the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks - with a heartwarming apology letter.

The park was pleased when the unidentified cone thief, apparently a child, sent the stolen goods back to the park with a note apologizing for taking it in the first place.

'To whom it may concern,' read the handwritten note. 'I took a pinecone out of the forest and I wanted to return it. I hope it will be replaced near the General Grant tree because that is where I took it. I am sorry for my decision. Thank you.'

Cone conscience: A young cone crook took this sequoia cone from a national park but he or she returned it with a contrite letter

The General Grant giant sequoia (above) is one of the largest trees in the world, standing 267.4 feet tall

The national park, located in the southern Sierra Nevada east of the San Joaquin Valley in Visalia, California, posted a photo of the letter to its Facebook wall and explained why this was a good decision on the part of the cone pilferer.

'Have you ever wanted to take a pine cone home from the park? It's actually against park rules to do so. Why? It's a tough environment here. The animals need their nibbles and the area needs the seeds and vegetation. Also, cones and other plants deteriorate and help to create soil in this rocky environment,' the page's administrator wrote.

The Squoia and Kings Canyon National Park (above) in California showcases thousands of acres of natural wilderness

'Check out this note that we received from a young visitor. It isn't a pine cone - it's a Giant Sequoia cone, of course. But we are so glad this young person thought about the park's preservation messages. Thanks for leaving Sequoia and Kings Canyon Parks as you found them. And, thanks for sending this back, buddy!'

The park, spanning 404,064 acres, showcases pristine wilderness, mountains, canyons, wildlife, and plenty of the world's largest tree, the giant sequoia.

The General Grant tree referenced in the letter is the largest giant sequoia in the General Grant Grove section of the park. It is 267.4 feet tall and recently estimated to be 1,650 years old.

The reaction on Facebook, where the picture of the letter has received over 1,000 shares, was extremely positive, with most commenters praising the parenting of the repentant cone thief.

'Great parenting! You are raising a good and responsible citizen!' enthused one commenter.
A Brisbane man charged with rape after going home with a 15-year-old girl has been granted bail, claiming she showed him a fraudulent over-18 identification card while clubbing.

The 19-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, met the girl at the Royal George Hotel in Fortitude Valley, in Brisbane's inner-city, on Thursday night before going back to his Sherwood home about 3am.

His lawyer, Patrick Quinn, told the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Saturday the girl showed him an over-18 card and told him she was 15 only in a message the next day after he had dropped her off at a train station.

The pair met while clubbing at the Royal George Hotel, where the defence alleges the 15-year-old girl showed the accused an over-18 card before they left together at 3am

'My client blocked her and that seems to have been the catalyst for the events that followed,' Mr Quinn said.

The man was charged with three counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16, one count of unlawful sodomy of a person under 18 and four counts of rape.

Mr Quinn said his client agreed there had been sexual activity but maintained all acts were consensual.

Police Prosecutor Sergeant Scott Pearson formally opposed bail, arguing there was evidence the man had texted friends to tell them he knew the girl was under the age of consent.

The 19-year-old Brisbane man has been released on bail, with conditions to report to a police station three times a week and not leave his house at night except to work

Sgt Pearson said the next day a friend had texted the defendant advising him to 'get rid of the evidence'.

Magistrate John Costello granted bail on several conditions, including that the man not contact the complainant, report three times a week to a local police station and not leave his house at night except for work obligations.

'There is a contest as to evidence presented to the defendant with respect to the complainant's age,' he said.

'There is also a contest as to consent.'
Victoria could lose its second minister in a year after Premier Daniel Andrews motioned he would finalise a controversial deal with the United Firefighters Union.

The state's Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett is on the brink of quitting over the mounting dispute, which has infuriated thousands of Country Fire Authority volunteers.

Tensions are expected to continue soaring on Sunday at a large scale Melbourne rally protesting against the Andrews Government's handling of the deal,The Age reported.

Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett is on the brink of quitting following news Premier Daniel Andrews could go ahead with a controversial deal with the Firefighters Union

Ms Garrett claimed she would prefer leaving cabinet than accept the deal which critics claims could undermine the role of firefighting volunteers and give more power to the union.

If she steps down she will be the second minister to do so in 11 months after Adem Somyurek's left cabinet tin July 2015 over allegations he was bullied.

The rally, set for an unnamed Melbourne location at 1pm on Sunday, is expected to draw in thousands of volunteers and community members who oppose the deal.

The Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria made a plea for CFA volunteers to join the mass gathering and send a clear message to Mr Andrews.

Government sources have pointed to the deal's value sits at $160 million, while the CFA estimated it cost $1.2 billion.

The issue is set to be debated in a cabinet meeting next week after Mr Andrews returns from an American tour on early Monday morning.

The Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria are planning a mass rally over the issue, which they believe could undermine the role of firefighting volunteers

The CFA estimated the deal with United Firefighters Union cost a staggering $1.2 billion.




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The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks shook the US, the world even, as many mourned the loss of nearly 3,000 lives, while one president had to address a terrified nation.

Newly released photos from the US National Archives show the moment when former president George W Bush learned the US was under attack.

While Bush was widely criticized for his response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, these photos capture the resounding resolution and resiliency of a president in a time of crisis.

White House photographers captured the horror and heroism, the courage and compassion surrounding 9/11.

Bush began his schedule that day at the Emma E Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, where he participated in a second-grade reading demonstration.

He was informed by his Chief of Staff that 'America is under attack'.

As events unfolded in New York City, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania, Bush directed the nation's response from Air Force One as he flew from Sarasota to Barksdale Air Force Base to Offutt Air Force Base and returned to Washington, DC, where he addressed the nation from the Oval Office.

From the initial moments to his address later that night Bush vowed to 'find those responsible and bring them to justice'.

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Newly released photos from the US National Archives now show the moment when President George W Bush learned the US was under attack. Bush confers with staff via telephone from his office aboard Air Force One during the flight from Sarasota to Barksdale Air Force Base

While Bush was widely criticized for his response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, newly released photos shed more light on the former president's immediate reaction on that fateful morning

As events unfolded in New York City, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania, President Bush directed the nation's response from Air Force One as he flew from Sarasota to Barksdale Air Force Base to Offutt Air Force Base and returned to Washington, DC, where he addressed the nation from the Oval Office

On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the US. Two of the planes were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City (pictured), a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, DC, and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania

The attacks resulted in extensive death and destruction, triggering major US initiatives to combat terrorism and defining the presidency of Bush

Bush began his schedule that day at the Emma E Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, where he was reading to a second grade class when an adviser discreetly informed him the country was under attack

Nearly 3,000 people were killed during the attacks in New York City and Washington, DC, including more than 400 police officers and firefighters. As Dan Bartlett, Deputy Assistant to the President, pointed to news footage of the World Trade Center, Bush gathered information about the attacks from a classroom at the elementary school

Bush called New York Governor George Pataki, FBI Director Robert Mueller and Vice President Dick Cheney while at the elementary school. White House Chief of Staff Andy Card talks on a cell phone

Bush watched television coverage of the attacks on the World Trade Center during a briefing in a classroom at Emma E Booker Elementary School

The former president took notes as he listented to news coverage of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks

Bush and his staff looked out the windows of Air Force One at their F-16 escort while en route to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Pictured from left are: Andy Card, White House Chief of Staff; Ari Fleischer, Press Secretary; Blake Gottesman, Personal Aide to President; Karl Rove, Senior Adviser; Deborah Loewer, Director of White House Situation Room, and Dan Bartlett, Deputy Assistant to the President

Bush delivered remarks to the nation regarding the terrorist attacks on US soil from Emma E Booker Elementary School

Senior staff huddled in Bush's office while he talked on the telephone aboard Air Force One

Bush is pictured delivering remarks on the terrorist attacks from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, before departing for Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska

White House Chief of Staff Andy Card (left), Bush (center) and Adm Richard Mies conducted a video teleconference at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska

Bush talks with Vice President Dick Cheney in the President's Emergency Operations Center after returning to the White House from Offutt Air Force Base

Working with his senior staff, Bush reviewed the speech that he will deliver to the nation the evening of 9/11 from the Oval Office. Pictured from left are: Alberto Gonzales, White House Counsel; Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser; Karen Hughes, Counselor; Ari Fleischer, Press Secretary, and Andy Card, Chief of Staff

Bush is pictured (left) reviewing notes with Karen Hughes before addressing the nation from the Oval Office. He's pictured (right) delivering his address to the nation
Passengers feared they were going to be blown up in a terrorist attack when a man shouted 'Allahu Akbar' and 'Boom' aboard a flight to Birmingham.

Families and children were left distraught after Shehraz Sarwar's outburst on the Emirates Boeing 777 plane.

The 38-year-old caused panic aboard the flight when he became animated and started throwing food around.

Families and children were left distraught after Shehraz Sarwar's outburst on the Emirates Boeing 777 plane

He had earlier repeatedly refused to fasten his seat belt as the plane was taking off but then settled down and slept for hours on the Dubai to Birmingham flight.

But as the pilot lined the plane up to land he threw food and towels around the plane. He also shouted phrases related to terrorist attacks.

There was also severe turbulence on the plane when Sarwar became aggressive.

Prosecuting Sarwar in Birmingham Crown Court, Patrick Sullivan QC told the Birmingham Mail: 'The behaviour before these words was obnoxious.

'He fell asleep for about three quarters of the flight and when he woke up he threw a towel back at a member of staff who had offered him one. He also threw a scone behind him although it did not land on anyone.

The 38-year-old caused panic aboard the flight when he became animated and started throwing food around. He was prosecuted at Birmingham Crown Court (pictured)

'He was also hitting his head with his hand. People were distressed and upset by his behaviour.'

One passenger said they were happy to have survived the landing but thought Sarwar was going to set off a bomb aboard the flight.

Sarwar of Wright Road, Saltley, Birmingham, shouted 'Allahu Akbar' and 'Boom' whilst on the flight.

He pleaded guilty to using threatening words and behaviour.

Judge Simon Drew QC adjourned the case for sentencing on July 1. He warned all sentencing options would be considered.

Balbir Singh, defending, said Sarwar had been affected by the death of his grandmother and hadn't taken his medication methadone.
The body of a bride who was swept out to sea with her husband and family days after her wedding ceremony has been returned to her mourning family.

Lestari Williams and her Australian husband Brad were walking along a beach on the Balinese island of Nusa Penida when a rogue wave swamped them from behind and washed them out to sea, reported Nine News.

Mr Williams made it back to shore but Mrs Williams and her eight-year-old niece vanished in the surf.

The distraught husband was seen on Saturday bringing the body of his wife into her family compound in Bali, according toThe Daily Telegraph.

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Lestari Williams and her husband Brad, pictured on their wedding day, were in Indonesia for a traditional ceremony when tragedy struck

Mr Williams and wife Lestari were honeymooning on the Indonesian island of Nusa Penida after their traditional wedding in front of Lestari's Balinese family

Mrs Williams body was reportedly covered in a brown sarong as it was carried from the ambulance.

Nusa Penida police chief, Gede Arianta, said the couple and the group of people were walking 50 metres from the water when the unexpected wave swept them out to sea, according to the news report.

'When the incident happened there were many people enjoying the place. But suddenly extremely high waves came and swept all people away. The two victims could not be saved,' Mr Arianta told The Daily Telegraph.

'Indeed the waves in Bali are currently extremely high. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency have reminded all the Bali residents to be alert about the high waves.'

The couple, from Two Rocks, Perth, married in Australia in 2015 but travelled to the Indonesian island of Nusa Penida, Bali, to celebrate a traditional Balinese wedding.

Days after the ceremony they were walking along the rocks near Angel's Billabong beach alongside Mrs Williams' eight-year-old niece when the freak incident occurred.

The pair were walking the beach on the island of Nusa Penida, Bali, when a rogue wave hit them from behind. Mrs Williams' eight-year-old niece was also swept out to sea. Mr Williams managed to swim to safety

The family was separated as the wave swept them out to sea and Mr Williams had no choice but to swim to safety without his new bride or her niece.

After less than 24 hours of frantic searching for the women, the body of Lestari was recovered by police.

The body washed up in the beachside region of Manggis on the main island of Indonesia - about 20km from where Mrs Williams was swept away.

Indonesian Police believe that the body of Lestari Williams washed up in the region of Manggis, about 20km of where she was swept into the sea

The body of Lestari Williams was discovered less than 24 hours after she vanished. Her niece has not been found

The couple, along with Mrs Williams' young niece, were walking along the rocks on Angel's Billabong beach when a freak wave swept them into the sea

Lestari Williams, 24, moved to Australia from the small Balinese region of Klungkung where her family still live.

She is believed to come from a relatively large family with five other sisters.

Mr Williams, 40, works for Australian mining company BHP Billiton.

Neighbours said the couple were planning to renovate their home upon their return from Bali and even had plans to start a family of their own.

The couple were married in Australia last year but visited Indonesia to celebrate a traditional Balinese wedding

Lestari Williams comes from the Balinese region of Klungkung and returned to the island to celebrate her marriage with her family

Mrs Williams' - or Tari to her friends - death was met with heartfelt tributes on social media.

Friend Angelia Novita wrote: 'RIP for my best friend in Perth. Hope you have good place there.

'We love you babe...'

Laura Inglis said: 'RIP Tari. Your beautiful smile will be missed and massive hugs to Brad Williams.

'Life is just not fair, my thoughts are with you mate.'

Tributes from Mrs Williams' friends poured into social media following news of her death. One friend said her beautiful smile would always be missed

Friends of the couple said they were devastated by the news. Angelia Novita described herself as Mrs Williams' best friend

The couple's neighbour Rosemary Ellis told Channel Nine she was devastated by the news.

She said: 'It's so sad. Brad's going to be devastated, everybody in the street will be devastated.
A remote community store has fried up a fresh batch of controversy after they were caught selling reheated KFC at an inflated cost.

The Nguiu Ullintjinni Association store on Bathurst Island, off the coast of the Northern Territory, is believed to have flown the chicken in from Darwin to sell it at $5 a piece.

The state's Health Department in investigating the incident while KFC Australia has condemned the resale of their products, NT News reported.

Pushing the hen-velope: A remote community store has been caught selling reheated KFC an an inflated cost

An unnamed source was reportedly given a flyer at the store advertising the food.

'KFC Chicken From Darwin!!! Only $5.00 each! Hurry while stocks last,' the flyer read.

The matter has been referred to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

KFC Australia warned of the dangers of eating reheated products which don't abide by their and food safety standards.

'KFC Australia does not condone the resale of its products,' a statement said.

'Our products should only be purchased directly from our restaurants where they have been cooked and handled in accordance with our quality and food safety procedures.
Cops say 'significant evidence' was found at his home and call the ex-principal 'demented'

He was arrested at his home in Melbourne as part of a child pornography sting

Elementary school principal Ricky Sheppard was arrested on child pornography charges

A Florida elementary school principal who was promoted despite a questionable record with children was arrested on possession of child pornography charges on Friday.

Ricky Delano Sheppard, 59, of Melbourne, was promoted to Principal at Spessard Holland Elementary School in Satellite Beach, Florida in July 2015 despite being reprimanded as a teacher in 1999 for inappropriate behavior around a six-year-old in his class.

Sheppard bought the boy several gifts and talked to him about having him move into a bedroom in his house, reports Florida Today.

Despite that, Sheppard continued to thrive professionally in the Brevard Public Schools system. An employee since 1981, he was promoted last year to principal after working for seven years as assistant principal at Stevenson Elementary.

While authorities would not say the exact nature of Sheppard's crimes, he was arrested as part of a child pornography sting and Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said that 'significant evidence was found at his home' and that the charges were 'relative to possession.'

In 2015, Sheppard was promoted to principal despite a questionable track record of behaving inappropriately with at least one child

Police say Sheppard was arrested at his home in Melbourne (above) and that 'significant evidence' was found

Back in 1999, Sheppard landed in hot water after it was revealed he had lavished a six-year-old in his class with gifts over a six week period, which the boy's mother complained about. According to the letter of reprimand, Sheppard had also made comments to the child along the lines of wanting to take him home with him and having a room set aside for him.

Subsequently, the teacher was not allowed to have private contact with the boy and was ordered not to give him any gifts or make inappropriate comments, but Sheppard's career did not suffer for the incident.

BPS Superintendent Desmond Blackburn, who said Sheppard was relieved of his duties on Friday and he will seek to have him permanently fired, said, 'Obviously words can't adequately express how saddened and disgusted I am by what the Sheriff just shared with you.'

Sheppard thanked Blackburn earlier in the year in a videotaped speech at the announcement of his promotion. 'Holland community that has welcomed me with open arms and warmth since I arrived on July 1st, and help me confirm that I am right where I need to be,' he said at the time.
Celebrity lawyer Christopher Murphy has shared a hilarious list of 'typical' answers that was displayed at the front desk of a Sydney police station.

Mr Murphy posted a picture of a sign he said hung at Paddington police station for more than a decade to his 15,000 Twitter followers.

The sign was entitled: 'Police Responses To Typical Questions From Arrested Persons'.

Chris Murphy tweeted a picture of the sign to show his 15,000 followers that police officers can have a sense of humour

It dryly answers questions commonly asked by people in police custody, such as 'Do you know who I am?'

Mr Murphy is also named personally on the sign as answer, which reads: 'Yes, you can telephone Chris Murphy'.

Other notable answers to 'typical questions' include: 'No, I don't have anything better to do', 'Yes, you do pay my salary' and 'No, I don't have the phone number for the Police Royal Commission'.

The picture was widely shared on Twitter, earning more than 100 retweets and almost 300 likes, with a large number of responses.

Mr Murphy has represented celebrities such as Matthew Newton, Jodhi Meares and The Rolling Stones

The Sydney-based lawyer is described on his website as being a 'gruff, no-nonsense legal advocate', with a long list of high profile clients.

Some of these well-known clients include The Rolling Stones, Matthew Newton, James Packers' ex-wife Jodhi Meares and, for a day in 2009, Sydney Siege gunman Man Monis.
The 'prison Casanova' who had sex with his jail psychologist and famously escaped custody to see his girlfriend has been denied bail on sexual assault and drugs charges.

Wade Bartz, 42, was arrested on February 17 and charged with indecent assault and supplying methamphetamine.

He was refused bail despite telling Queensland Supreme Court his life was in danger in jail because he helped the police investigate a prison murder in 2014, The Courier Mail reported.

'Prison casanova' Wade Bartz has been denied bail on charges of sexual assault and supplying ice

Bartz gained notoriety for having sex with prison psychologist Vanessa Bailey inside north Queensland's Lotus Glen jail in 1998.

Bailey was jailed for the act in 2002, when it also emerged in court that she had sex with another prisoner and supplied inmates with alcohol and drugs.

Bartz gained further fame for escaping prison twice in 2001 to meet his girlfriend, Marian Scholes.

He also escaped from Borallon prison, near the city of Ipswich, during a State of Origin game in 1994 by using a pair of bolt cutters to slice through the outside fence.

Bartz gained notoriety for having sex with his prison psychologist Vanessa Bailey and infamously escaped prison twice to see his girlfriend

In his bail application, Bartz said he was not safe inside Wolston prison where he is being held because he had previously cooperated with police murder investigations.

It is understood that Bartz gave evidence during a hearing in 2014 in relation to the murder of Clayton McFadzean inside prison in 1998.
Icon: This poster of Lord Kitchener helped recruit troops to fight in the trenches of the First World War

To a nation, he was the ultimate symbol of British military dominance and represented the power of the Empire - but 100 years on the death of Lord Kitchener is still shrouded in mystery.

Thanks to the iconic recruitment posters bearing his determined stare and penetrating pose, Field Marshall Horatio Herbert Kitchener will always be associated with World War One.

But by the start of the conflict his illustrious career had already seen him serve in Sudan, Egypt, South Africa and India during a 40 year tenure.

At the outbreak of the Great War he would be appointed the Secretary of State for War, but while on a diplomatic mission to Russia, in June 1916, the 66-year-old Kitchener died after the ship he was travelling on sunk.

It is widely believed HMS Hampshire hit a mine off the Orkney Islands in Scotland, but that has not stopped numerous far-fetched rumours circulating about Kitchener's death.

Such tales include: he was assassinated by a German spy, he was the victim of a nefarious plot by Winston Churchill and that Kitchener survived the sea disaster and travelled to Russia to become communist leader Joseph Stalin.

However, while some may enjoy the theories, historians are less than convinced.

History professor Brad Fraught, who has just released a book named 'Kitchener: Hero and Anti-Hero', told the Mirror: 'The conspiracy theories were partly a result of the shock the nation felt and a result of the secrecy about Kitcheners mission and the remote location of his death.

'It was also largely about the inability to produce a body. They could never prove he died.'

Lord Kitchener was extremely popular with the British public and it is easy to see why considering his glittering military career.

He rose up in the British Army and achieved the rank of captain at 33, fighting in the Sudan, and later became the governor of the British Red Sea territories.

His ability and leadership would also see him handed the role of commander of the Egyptian Army.

However, there was a dark and ruthless side to Kitchener's persona and while fighting in South Africa during the Boer War he became famous for a particularly cruel, but effective tactic.

To break the resolve of the guerrilla Boer fighters he ordered their women and children to be rounded up and placed in disease-ridden concentration camps.

Kitchener was later posted to India where he worked on structuring the army to prepare the British military forces to meet a possible rebellion.

As Britain was called in to fight in World War One Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, appointed Kitchener as war secretary and he wasted no time in warning his colleagues of the danger that the nation was in.

Kitchener famously told fellow ministers that the conflict would be decided by the million men Britain could throw at their enemy.

Military leader: Lord Kitchener was admired by the public for his service in the army which saw him posted in the Sudan, Egypt, South Africa and India. Pictured, during his time as Secretary of State for War

His face was printed on posters that would later make him an icon, with the phrase 'Your Country Needs You'.

The thousands of troops recruited by Kitchener's posters would go on to be known as 'Kitchener's Mob'.

Such was the popularity of the powerful image, designed by illustrator Alfred Leete, that it would also go on to be copied James Montgomery Flagg for an Uncle Sam poster used by the American military also in the First World War.

While the British military icon may have won the hearts of the nation, he was not as popular with his colleagues.

It is believed his distaste for working within a team ruffled the feathers of other ministers who eventually relieved him of his responsibility to lead Britain's industrial mobilisation.

However, he refused to step down from Cabinet.

One of the ministers who he particularly clashed with was future Prime Minister David Lloyd George and he once said: 'The trouble with politicians is they are sworn to secrecy, then go home and tell everything to their wives. Except Lloyd George who tells everyone else's.'

It is perhaps no surprise that when Lloyd George was forced to cancel a diplomatic mission to Russia, due to the conflict in Northern Ireland, Kitchener jumped at the chance to take his place.

Doomed vessel: HMS Hampshire sank in just 20 minutes when it was travelling through Scapa Flow off the Orkney Islands in Scotland. It is believed the ship hit a mine left by the Battle of Jutland

Sadly it would be a decision that would cost him his life.

HMS Hampshire's route would take it through Scapa Flow where the British had just fought in the only major naval battle in the Great War - the Battle of Jutland.

While the battle kept the German navy at bay, it was a costly fight with 14 ships lost and over 6,000 men dead.

During the Hampshire's journey, tempestuous weather forced its escorts to turn back.

This move left the ship exposed and on June 5 there was a massive explosion. The ship sank in just 20 minutes, with only 12 survivors.

Lord Kitchener's body was never recovered from the wreck with many using this as an opportunity to come up with their own sequence of events.

One such tale was that of Fritz Joubert Duquesne - a Boer War soldier who claimed that he killed Kitchener while spying for the Germans.

Duquesne said he boarded the ship by posing as a Russian Duke and then signalled to a German U-Boat to attack, before he escaped the Hampshire on a lifeboat.

Lord Alfred Douglas, an English poet and former lover of Oscar Wilde, claimed that Winston Churchill had been part of a plan to assassinate Kitchener and say that Britain's bloody victory at Jutland was in fact a defeat.

Lord Douglas said the future's Prime Minister's plan was concocted so that when news of Jutland broke British stocks would collapse - allowing his business associates to buy up shares at a profit.

Rumours: Lord Alfred Douglas claimed Winston Churcill had been part of a plan to assassinate Kitchener and claim that Britain's bloody victory at Jutland was in fact a defeat. Pictured, a German warship during the battle

Churchill strongly denied the claims and sued Douglas for libel, resulting in him serving six months in prison.

Others rumours included Lord Kitchener surviving the explosion and making it to Russia where he would become Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union from the 1920s to his death on 1953.

Another conspiracy theory is that the military leader was a member of the Freemasons and that the secret organisation helped him start a new life.

All of the rumours have been rubbished by Professor Fraught, he told the Mirror: 'The Battle of Jutland had just ended so he was sailing into a high risk area.
Photographs show the drug lined up on a warship before it was destroyed

More than a tonne of heroin worth an astonishing 160 million was seized in the Indian Ocean in a successful drugs bust led by the Royal Navy.

Operation Shirikisho targeted four fishing boats heading to East Africa and stopped the high-grade drug reaching the continent and then Europe.

Boats and helicopters were deployed during the operation and both the French and Australian Navy were heavily involved in the seizure.

An astonishing 160 million was seized in the Indian Ocean in the successful drugs bust led by the Royal Navy

Uk-led Operation Shirikisho targeted four fishing boats and stopped the drug reaching Africa and then Europe

After the illicit cargo was recovered it was lined up on a warship - as these astonishing photographs show - before it was taken away to be destroyed.

Commander of combined task force, Commodore Guy Robinson said: 'This has been a highly successful operation to prevent a very significant amount of heroin from reaching the shores of Europe.

'It is also an excellent example of the impressive co-operation across CMF contributing-nations, at sea, in the air and ashore. We will continue to tackle this menace whenever, and wherever we can.'

The first haul of narcotics was made by the Royal Australian Navy when HMAS Darwin's boarding team targeted a fishing dhow in May.

Following an eight-and-a-half hour search, the team uncovered 380kg of heroin, packed in bags.

Then 12 hours later, the same crew boarded another suspect dhow and found a further 512kg of drugs. A third suspect dhow was later boarded and another 60kg was discovered.

Personnel from the Royal Australian Navy prepare to destroy the seized heroin pictured on HMAS Darwin

Commodore Guy Robinson said the operation highlighted the co-operation across CMF contributing-nations

A few days later a French Marine Nationale ship patrolling off the coast of East Africa sent a boarding team to search another vessel and 130kg of heroin was recovered.

UK-led CTF 150 is part of Combined Maritime Forces, a multi-national naval partnership, which covers 3.2 million square miles of the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and the Gulf region.

Captain John Craig, the Deputy Commander of CTF 150, said: 'In addition to the successful seizure of such a large amount of drugs, operations like Shirikisho help us refine our tactical skills as we coordinate extensive air searches over enormous areas of ocean to locate traffickers in very small dhows.

'The opportunity to work with French and Australian ships and aircraft also improves our collective understanding of each other's operating capabilities, to make sure that we are as prepared as we can be for operations in the future.

'Multi-national co-operation has been vital to the success of the operation.'

Captain John Craig, Deputy Commander of CTF 150, said operations such as Shirikisho help refine tactical skills
Police in Magaluf have arrested a 6ft 4ins man who allegedly targeted British tourists, squeezing them until they lost consciousness.

The suspect, a Senegalese immigrant, is accused of attacking tourists in the brash Punta Ballena area, approaching them from behind before wrapping his arms tightly around their chests in a bear hug.

Once in his grip, the alleged victims - all of whom are British - were then squeezed until they collapsed on the pavement.

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Police in Magaluf have arrested a 6ft 4ins man who allegedly targeted British tourists in Punta Ballena, squeezing them until they lost consciousness (file photo)

The tourists are said to have been targeted after drinking in bars in Punta Ballena, which is popular with holidaymakers and known for its nightspots.

The man, 30, is suspected of being behind at least four attacks, including an assault on a holidaymaker who suffered severe face wounds after resisting the attempt to rob him.

Police are still hunting two accomplices who are accused of rifling through the tourists' pockets as they lay on the ground.

Guardia Civil investigators held the man in Punta Ballena after identifying him as the suspect in a series of similar muggings which began last summer and resumed this year.

He has also been accused of a drugs-related crime after cannabis resin he is thought to have been selling to holidaymakers was found on him.
Aspiring models are being tricked into paying thousands of pounds for portfolios by scam agencies who 'prey on their vanity' and emotionally blackmail parents.

These companies are advertising for models and reeling in clients with free make-up and photo shoots, telling them that their pictures will win them commercial contracts.

But after charging up to thousands to compile the portfolios, they admit that they are only and 'introduction service' and cannot find them work, leaving them out of pocket.

One girl, who shares a likeness with Kendall Jenner (pictured) was told she had the perfect look for high street stores such as Topshop and Zara

There have been a huge number of recent complaints, despite changes in the law that were supposed to make the practice of charging clients if they fail to find work for illegal in 2010.

One boy, 15, went to a shoot in London's West End, tried to kill himself after paying 3,000 for a photo and portfolio package to an agency that then disappeared.

His mother, said they had been told he had a 'really good look' for commercial modelling, but his confidence was destroyed by the scam, reports The Times.

Modelscams, an organisation that advises young models for free, says that Orange Models - previously Apple Models - has received one of the highest number of complaints.

One woman took her daughter, 16, to Orange Models, and asked before she arrived if they would then be given a bill but claims she was lied to throughout.

She says they then told her daughter she would be the next Kendall Jenner and was perfect for high street brands Zara and Topshop as they spent all day in the studio.

But she said staff at Orange then told the family - who paid a 50 deposit - that they must pay 700 for a portfolio, or the photos would be instantly deleted.

The woman told MailOnline: 'It is a very professional racket and it is incredibly hard to say no as a parent.

'You have someone telling your daughter that she is going to be the next Kendall Jenner and her life will be set, then all of that isn't going to happen because her mother won't pay for the photos.

'The atmosphere changed so suddenly to this very passive-aggressive sell. Also, we had been there all day, She looked the best she had ever looked, and we had to tell her no.

'I was adamant from the beginning that we wouldn't pay but even my husband, who is one of the shrewdest men you'll ever meet, said he might have been swayed had I not been so certain.

'But they prey on people's vanity and some people are taken in. Since I have spoken out about it, people have got in touch with me to say how stupid they feel - but it's easy to be taken in.'

The company allegedly asks people to submit pictures online, then tells them they have a look with 'huge potential' that is in great 'demand', and invites them in for an assessment.

They have a photoshoot then wait to hear if they have been accepted, but comments online suggest that everyone passes the test.

The woman said there was a 55-year-old woman also being photographed when they went to the studio, and a young girl who was very short and slightly overweight.

After a barrage of compliments, former customers say they then embark on the hard sell, telling them to pay for the photos or their profiles will be deleted, and emotionally blackmail parents.

The company claims to be a 'modelling platform', advising people on how they start their career, rather than finding them work.

It says they are there to 'assess their modelling abilities on the bases of their measurements and characteristics and provide impartial advice and guidance on the best options'.

However, the mother said they were told that they have links to major agencies which scout their clients using the photographs they take.

The law changed in 2010, making it illegal for companies to charge clients if they don't find them work, although they they can bill them for publishing them online or in other publications.

However, Orange, registered to Irishman Oliver James, 34, appears to be exploiting a loophole by claiming that they are a platform, rather than an agency.

The woman added: 'What I can't quite understand is how they have all these bubbly people working there who stand and lie to people's faces all day.

'There are people who spend their life savings on these things or go into debt, and I don't know how the staff sleep at night.'

On Google, the first page of results for Orange models is dominated by positive and professionally written reviews of the company, and even a blog addressing modelling scams.

However, lower down in the results are more negative reviews, including one which urges others to 'scroll past the fake blogs peeps and delve deeper - find the real stories'.

It says: 'Don't get sucked in! You will only need to pay a 50 deposit for a "test shoot" to see if you are successful and it is optional to purchase the portfolio [but] is a load of bull!

'It's all about getting you there and then applying maximum pressure to get you to part with you cash! DON'T DO IT! They are fake!

'A lady sitting next to me... (no way, shape or form would she be a model EVER) told me the exact same story as what I was spun about my 10-year-old YES 10 YEARS OF AGE, they are even doing this to innocent kids!
A young black bear was found on a California highway with its paws and gallbladder removed, say authorities.

The 150-pound yearling was only two years old and had injuries consistent with being hit by a car, however, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said that someone had then removed the bear's gallbladder and cut off its paws, according to The Guardian.

Bear gallbladder and paws are considered medicinal, aphrodisiacs, or delicacies in some cultures. Asian communities consider the gallbladder of a bear to have medical powers, while bear paws are often cooked and eaten, said the department's spokesman, Andrew Hughan.

Hughan described the scene as 'pretty disheartening.'

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Bears are common in Canyon Country, where one young black bear was found on the highway with its gallbladder and paws removed - authorities think the bear was first hit by a car and killed

The bear was likely struck Wednesday or Thursday and removed by the wildlife warden from Highway 14 at Sand Canyon Road in Canyon Country, Santa Clarita.

But Hughan is convinced this was a 'crime of opportunity' and not the work of someone who killed the bear on the spot, though it is suspected that the driver or passenger of the vehicle in question is the culprit.

'There were no signs of a gunshot, broken legs or hip, Hughan told the Los Angeles Times. 'We are very confident it was hit by a car. This desecration of the body was done afterward.'

He also noted that bear poaching is 'fairly common' in the area, with at least 12,000 bears killed last year.

He noted that bear gallbladders can sell for $1,000 on the black market.

Bears are often poached for their organs and limbs, and 12,000 were killed last year, said the CDFW

Bear paws are considered a delicacy in some cultures. Above, smuggled bear paws seized in China, 2013

In 2005, the San Francisco Chronicle published an expose on the black bear underground market, reporting that bear bile was freely offered in Chinatown shops.
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Summer is finally set to arrive tomorrow, with most of the country bathed in sunshine and the good weather is set to last for several days.

It may come too late for those who took a break during the school half term holidays but conditions are set to improve overnight, with much of the UK set to bask in sunshine and warm weather tomorrow as temperatures reach highs of around 26C.

The Met Office's Greg Dewhurst said that while today's derby may have been a rather damp affair, the conditions do look set to improve across the UK over the next 24 hours - with temperatures soaring.

Parts of the UK could see highs of around 25C in the sun tomorrow, with clear and sunny spells across much of the country. In London, highs could reach 26C tomorrow.

This brave soul stripped off on the beach in Brighton but he was pretty much the only one. Tomorrow bring on the bikinis and surf shorts

People flocked to Brighton on Saturday but the sun failed to break through the clouds. But tomorrow's forecast is better and some are even predicting a long hot summer

People enjoy the warmer weather on Brighton beach today as Britain is set for the hottest summer in 40 years from tomorrow with temperatures soaring to 26C

Dreaming of summers long gone by: A jacket and a pullover was still required on Saturday but tomorrow it will be T-shirt and shorts weather for all of us

Two women from a hen party take to the sea in Brighton on Saturday. Tomorrow a proper summer's day is predicted

It will come as a welcome relief after a miserable few days of chilly temperatures and grey skies that has blighted the country.

While the weather may not have graced Epsom racecourse for The Derby today, Britain will finally step into summer tomorrow as temperatures soar in to the mid-twenties.

After a week of cloud and cool temperatures in the south and east of the country, the mercury will rise from this afternoon onwards.

In the North, the unseasonably warm temperatures of the last week will continue.

Fish and chips on Brighton pier with no sun in sight - could you get any more English? But tomorrow the sun might make an appearance

Sunday is set to be a scorcher with any clouds quickly burning off to the coast leaving 'prolonged warm sunny spells' for most, according to the Met Office.

The good weather is expected to carry on into the beginning of next week when it will feel very warm. In the South and West there may however be some thundery showers.

Forecaster Mr Dewhurst said: 'Looking back at this morning there was a grey start across most parts of the UK. But the cloud is starting to break this afternoon and we will see sunny spells across the UK.

Racegoers enjoy a picnic on the Epsom Downs on Derby day but the sun failed to shine. But Sunday is expected to be much better

'The best sunshine is most likely across eastern parts of Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland.

'But most noticeable is the increase in temperature across eastern parts of England in comparison to the last few days. It will feel much warmer.'

The Met Office forecaster added: 'Further west, it has been much nicer this week. Western parts of Scotland, England and Wales will see the best temperatures of around 24-25 degrees C this weekend and possibly even 26 degrees C in the north west.'

'There is a risk later on this afternoon and this evening of heavy showers in the north west of England and Wales. But this should ease through the night.

'Overnight it will be humid, with temperatures reaching double figures - around 12 or 13 degrees in the south and 10-11 in the north.

'Tomorrow morning will start off bright and sunny first thing, and dry for most.

'Most places across the whole of the UK will see sunny spells tomorrow.

'In the best of the sunshine highs could reach 22-23 degrees C and in the highest spots in the north western parts of England, around 24-25 degrees.'

In the capital tomorrow, mist or cloud is set to clear throughout the morning, turning warm and humid in the afternoon, with temperatures reaching around 26C.

Today the sun broke through only in eastern England and parts of Scotland but tomorrow most of the country should get sunshine

Coastal parts of the UK - including Kent and Brighton - could see highs of around 25C by tomorrow afternoon.

Britain will also experience considerable schadenfreude as Germany suffers unseasonable storms - several people were hit by lightning at a rock festival near Frankfurt and the bad weather is expected to plague the Germans for the rest of the week.

And Down Under 'Stormageddon' lashed Australia's east coast on Saturday, causing widespread damage and flash flooding to New South Wales and Queensland during the first weekend of their winter.
A 14-year-old boy has been found with a kitchen knife, drugs and 700 cash strapped to his waist, police revealed today.

The teenager, from Bath, was stopped by officers who uncovered 'a large quantity' of class A drugs on him as well the bladed weapon and cash.

He was arrested in Chippenham, Wiltshire, and detained in custody, as police on Saturday condemned the increasing use of young people to carry out dangerous drugs exchanges.

A 14-year-old boy from Bath was found with a kitchen knife, drugs and 700 cash strapped to his waist and is being detained at Melksham police station (pictured)

Officers described the youth as a 'worrying example' of the increase in young people becoming involved in drugs networks by being exploited because of their age and naivety.

The boy was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply class A drugs and possession of a bladed article before being detained in Melksham police station.

A spokesman for Wiltshire police said: 'This is a very worrying example of how Dangerous Drugs Networks are increasingly exploiting young vulnerable people in order to further their drug businesses.

'This young boy was sent from out of his home county, in possession of a large quantity of class A drugs and a large kitchen knife.

'The inherent risks of this kind of activity both to him and the wider community are huge and it is fortunate that we were able to locate and detain him before anybody was seriously injured.'
A Utah music producer who was ordered to spend 55 years behind bars for bringing guns to marijuana deals has been set free, after 12 years in prison and national outcry over the mandatory minimum sentencing laws that forced a federal judge to impose the lengthy term.

Weldon Angelos, 36, was freed Tuesday. He says he kept his release quiet for a few days because he wanted to spend time with his three teenage children, who were much younger when he was sentenced in 2004 aged 24.

'It's amazing,' Angelos told KUTV-TV on Friday at his home in Sandy, a Salt Lake City suburb. 'I just keep hugging them every time I get a chance.'

Weldon Angelos (above at the Federal Correctional Institution Mendota) was sentenced to 55 years in prison after selling marijuana to an undercover cop, but he's been released early

Weldon Angelos, center, holds his sons Anthony, left and Jesse, right, after his release from prison

Angelos' children (Jessie and Anthony above) were just tykes when their father went to the big house

The three were just children when Angelos was sentenced in 2004, the youngest just a baby. Now, his son Anthony is 19, Jesse is 17 and his daughter is Meranda 13, according to Fox 13 Salt Lake City.

'They were just crying, hugging me, saying they love me and that they're glad it's over. They wouldn't let go of me,' he told the outlet, which was there to cover the shocked looks on the teens' faces as their dad walked in the door of his sister's home.

His lawyer says the prosecutor who charged Angelos was eventually crucial in getting his release.

Emotional: Angelos's sons, Jesse and Anthony (above), grew up without a father - but it could have been a lot worse, he's now out of prison and determined to spend as much time with them as possible

Angelos founded Extravagant Records in Utah, producing hip-hop and rap music. He had no criminal record before he was convicted of selling $350 worth of marijuana to a police informant three times.

Prosecutors said he was a gang member who carried a gun during two of those deals, though he was not accused of using or showing a weapon.

Angelos denied being in a gang and having a firearm, but police found several guns while searching his apartment.

He was convicted in federal court of 16 counts of drug trafficking, weapons possession and money laundering.

The penalty for possessing firearms during a drug transaction carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for the first offense and 25 years for each subsequent deal. The federal system does not have parole.

Former federal judge Paul Cassell said he was troubled by the 55-year sentence he was required to hand down.

'I thought the sentence was cruel, unjust, and irrational,' Cassell told KUTV. 'Everybody in the courtroom knew that was too long for this particular crime.'

Cassell, now a law professor, sent a letter to President Barack Obama in February asking him to commute Angelos' sentence.

Even the judge who sentenced Whelon thought 55 years was too harsh, but he was constrained by mandatory minimum sentencing laws

Angelos is seen above in an old photograph before he was jailed. Now he has been released he said he's making up lost time with his family and is not sure about his next steps

It echoed a similar effort in 2013, when more than 100 high-profile figures petitioned the White House, including an ex-FBI director, prosecutors and celebrities.

In the end, it wasn't Obama that granted clemency. Angelos' lawyer, Mark W. Osler, told The Washington Post that the move for release came from the Salt Lake City prosecutor who charged Angelos in the case.

'After three and half years of inaction on Weldon's clemency petition, he is free because of the fair and good action of a prosecutor,' Osler said, according to the Post. 'He returns to citizenship because of the actions of one individual - just not the individual I was expecting.'

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah didn't immediately respond Saturday to a request for comment.

Cassell told KUTV that he hopes for changes in the law 'to make sure these kinds of injustices don't occur more frequently.'

Meanwhile, Angelos said he's making up lost time with his family and is not sure about his next steps.








The PFA: June 4, 2016 - Gareth Bale believes Wales are capable of stunning England by winning their Euro 2016 group.





The party line since the Wales squad met up before France is how the first priority is to progress from a group featuring England, Slovakia and Russia into the knock-out stage.





But Real Madrid star Bale, who is expected to figure in Wales' final Euro 2016 warm-up game against Sweden on Sunday, is not afraid to set his targets higher.

"We're not going there just to make up the numbers," Bale told a BBC Wales documentary entitled, "Gareth Bale: Euro Star."





"We want to win every game that we play, we want to win the group and give ourselves the best chance.





"No matter who we play we feel confident in our abilities we can win.

"We'll go out there and try and do that."





Bale has not played for his country since Wales' qualification for a first major tournament for 58 years was crowned with a 2-0 victory over Andorra in October.

The 26-year-old missed friendlies against Holland, Northern Ireland and Ukraine through injury - all games which Wales failed to win.





But he has kept in touch with his team-mates on a Whats App group the players use.





Cardiff-born Bale came through Wales' youth teams alongside many of the current senior side, including Aaron Ramsey, Chris Gunter and David Edwards.





And Bale says it is that special bond which will give Wales an advantage when their Group B campaign kicks off against Slovakia in Bordeaux on June 11.





"We all feel like brothers and will literally do anything for each other," said Bale, fresh from winning a second Champions League title in three seasons at Real.

"We've all been together for such a long time and get on really well.





"We know each other's games and we all fight for each other on the pitch."





Wales' trip to Stockholm is their solitary friendly before the Euros, whereas England have played Turkey, Australia and Portugal in the last fortnight.





But Wales manager Chris Coleman explained it was a deliberate decision to play just one game on the back of a five-day training camp in Portugal.





"The reason we didn't have two friendlies like other teams was that we wanted to use part of the time to remind them," said Coleman.





"Players are coming to us playing different styles at clubs and we don't play a conventional 4-3-3.





"We play a slightly different way."





Coleman said Wales had the same policy before beating Belgium 1-0 last summer, the result which turned hope into expectation that they could finally end the long wait for qualification.





"We used the first week as training then on the pitch to re-emphasize things to players," said Coleman.





"What we want to do, how we want them to work in the system.





"We used the week in Portugal to give them that reminder about what we need from them.





"We want them to know the demands in this formation and the challenge in front of them."




The West Coast is in the grip of a 'life threatening' triple-digit heatwave that is set to continue well into next week, raising the risk of wildfires.

The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings for southeastern California, southern Nevada, western and southern Arizona, western Oregon and far southwest Washington.

From Oregon to Nevada temperatures are set to top 100F tomorrow and into Monday, with Phoenix, Arizona, predicted to top out at 116F. Phoenix typically sees its first day above 110F in mid-June.

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The West Coast is in the midst of a crippling heatwave that has seen temperatures soar above 100F everywhere from Portland down to Phoenix

Residents are being warned to drink a lot of water, wear light-colored and loose-fitting clothes, and take regular breaks in the shade as the heat continues into next week

Authorities have also warned of the risk of wildfires across the Sierra Nevada mountains on Sunday night as thunderstorms could ignite the tinder-dry vegetation.

A plume of high pressure arching up from the West Coast and across neighboring states is keeping cloud cover away and allowing warm air to fall and settle.

If Portland reaches 100F tomorrow, as is forecast, then it will be the second-earlier triple-digit day in the city's history, only narrowly missing out to May 28, 1983, according to AccuWeather.

On Friday a dozen cities along the coast set record daily highs, including in Reno, San Francisco, and Death Valley, which hit 120F, a nation's first 120F high of the year.

As well as posing a health risk, the heat may also cause wildfires across the Sierra Nevada mountains on Sunday night because of the chance of thunderstorms igniting dry vegetation

Dought-hit California, which experienced one of its worst fire seasons on record last year, could be hit with another summer of wildfires if the temperatures stay this high

Highs in Seattle could top the 90-degree mark Sunday which is exceptional in a city that averages only three days of 90-degree-plus heat each year, The Weather Channel reports

Last summer, the Emerald City sweltered through a record 12 days of 90s, which could easily be broken this year.

City officials, particularly in places like Seattle while air conditioning is not the norm, are warning residents of the potentially life-threatening conditions and issuing advice on staying safe in the heat.

People are being told to drink plenty of water, even if they're not thirsty, and to wear light colored and loose-fitting clothing.

Those without air conditioning can seek relief from the extreme heat at local libraries, malls and designated cooling centers.

Pet should not be left for any amount of time in a sealed car, authorities said, while dog owners are told that filling a paddling pool with water may be needed in addition to a bowl to keep them cool.

A ridge of high pressure firmly in place over the West Coast and neighboring states is driving away cloud cover and allowing warm air to settle, causing the hot weather

Southern California, Arizona, southern Nevada and parts of Oregon and Washington have all been issued with warnings as authorities say the heat could well prove fatal

For those able to escape the city for the coast, temperatures should be considerably cooler there, with highs in the 60s and 70s.

Hikers are also being asked to properly discard matches and cigarettes to avoid causing a wildfire, and to never leave campfires unattended.

The potentially record-breaking summer heat comes after an exceptionally warm start to the year which saw previous February highs surpassed.

Across the Golden State, Desert Southwest and other parts of the West many locations rose into the 80s and 90s, between 15 and 25F above average.

Phoenix recorded its earliest 90-degree day on record on Feb. 10, more than a full week ahead of the previous earliest occurrence on Feb. 24, 1986 and 1904.
The Russian-backed Syrian army has crossed the border into Raqqa province, the heartland of ISIS, and there are reports they have promised to team up with US-backed rebel forces who share a common hatred of Daesh.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said ISIS was retreating following Russian air strikes but there has been no confirmation from Moscow or the Assad regime in Damascus.

Some reports say the Assad regime has agreed to join forces with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a rebel group dominated by the Kurdish Popular Protection (YPG) militia.

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ISIS forces swept into Raqqa two years ago (pictured) but now they are said to be in retreat with the frontline only about 50 miles away

The SDF are said to have 30,000 fighters coming down from Kobani in the north.

ISIS is said to have around 5,000 fighters in Raqqa province and the city of the same name has been its de facto capital since it was taken in 2014.

The Syrian troops are said to be aiming at the Tabqa air base, 30 miles west of the city of Raqqa, which would give a base to Russian fighter jets.

The pro-Damascus newspaper Al-Akhbar in Lebanon said the short-term objective was Tabqa and nearby Lake Assad.

Malek Barghout (second from left) mourns the death of his father, who was killed in an air strike by Syrian government forces on the rebel-held neighbourhood of al-Sakhour in Aleppo. The fighting is extremely complex with the Assad regime, ISIS and other rebel forces at war with each other

ISIS is under attack on all sides.

In Iraq it is struggling to retain control of Fallujah following major advances by the Iraqi Army and allied Shia militias.

And in northern Syria the SDF rebels have advances towards Manbij, potentially closing off ISIS access to the Turkish border, which is a key supply line for them.

ISIS has lost 34 villages to the SDF and they are engaged in fierce battles for Marea, a town 50 miles west of Manbij.

'The fighting is very intense on three fronts in Marea,' said opposition activist Baraa al-Halaby.

Firemen douse the flames after Syrian government air strikes in Aleppo on Saturday

On Friday Russian jets bombed ISIS territory in neighbouring Hama province as Assad regime troops moved east.

Damascus radio said Syrian army troops gained ground and inflicted heavy casualties.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 26 ISIS fighters had been killed along with nine from the Syrian army.

But the Syrian civil war remains hugely complex with the Nusra Front, an Islamist offshoot of al-Qaeda, having made gains against the Assad regime near Aleppo.

And dozens of people were reportedly hurt by Syrian government air strikes in Aleppo.
At least eleven U.S. military service members have been infected with the Zika virus since January, according to the Pentagon.

A health report published on Friday revealed that Zika has infected four Army soldiers, three Airmen, a Marine and three members of the Coast Guard, reports USA Today.

Additionally, four dependents of service members, which can include children or spouses, and two retirees were infected.

A Pentagon health report revealed on Friday that 11 service members, 4 members dependents, and 2 retirees have been infected with Zika

Troops are at higher risk of contracting the Zika virus due to being stationed in hot zones, frequent travel, and prolonged outdoor exposure

The first case was diagnosed in late January. Fifteen of the 17 cases had traveled to South America or the Caribbean, including four who visited Columbia, three who went to the Dominican Republic, three who visited Puerto Rico, and one person had traveled to Brazil.

Of the infected, four were women but none were pregnant.

The mosquito-borne virus is especially dangerous for pregnant women, with women infected in the first trimester having about a one to 13 percent chance of developing microcephaly, characterized by an abnormally small head caused by incomplete brain development.

The virus has also been linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, a serious condition of the peripheral nervous system which can cause muscle weakness and paralysis.

All infections have so far been due to travel, and there is no known organic outbreak of Zika in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hot spots include Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, Brazil, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa.

An infant born with microcephaly in Recife, Brazil shows the classic symptom of an unusually small head

Zika is usually transmitted by mosquitoes but can also be contracted through sex, with semen as the carrier

Service members are more at risk because of their frequent travel and long periods spent outside.

The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes). The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week after being bitten by an infected mosquito.

Usually symptoms are transitory and most people don't get sick enough to seek medical care, thus never knowing they have acquired the infection, and could possibly pass it on.

While its thought that the virus can only be transmitted through the bite of a mosquito, sex with an infected man (through semen), or a blood transfusion with an infected person, doctors in France are looking into the possibility of transfusion through saliva or oral sex after a woman came down with the virus apparently after having oral sex with her boyfriend, who had contracted the virus while in Brazil.

A city worker fumigates in an effort to eradicate the mosquito which transmits the Zika virus on February 4, 2016 in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil (above). Over 100,000 have been infected in Recife, the epicenter of Brazil's epidemic - the Rio Olympics are set to start in two months despite the health crisis

Doctors are trying to figure out if she got the virus from oral sex or kissing, since apparently the man never ejaculated while they had intercourse. In the case of sex, the virus is only transmitted while there are symptoms present, though there has been one report of it happening a few days before symptoms were manifest.

In the U.S. 618 people have been reported to have the virus, including 195 pregnant women, according to the CDC.

Mosquito repellents are 'essential' for troops, said Dr. Jose Sanchez, deputy chief of Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch.

In March, the Pentgaon ordered heightened monitoring for certain mosquito species at military installations in 27 states and the District of Columbia, according to USA Today.
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Vladimir Putin's air forces put on a breathtaking show of skill with attacker helicopters and fighter jets in a Crimean aviation competition.

Stunning pictures from the Aviadarts 2016 contest captured jets showing off their accuracy and aerobatics as they soared in perfect symmetry and darted between dozens of spectacular glowing flares.

The national leg of the annual competition, which was first held in Russia in 2013, was hosted in Crimea for the first time in history by the Russian Defense Ministry.

Stunning pictures showed a Kamov Ka 50 helicopter soar above dozens of flares in the Aviadarts 2016 competition in Crimea

Sukhoi Su 27 fighter jets from the Russkiye Vityazi (Russian knights) aerobatic team showing off their accuracy as they flew in perfect symmetry

Vladimir Putin's air force put on a breathtaking show of skill, with a Kamov Ka-52 Alligator helicopter dipping down as a flurry of smoke enveloped it

The national leg of the annual competition was hosted in Crimea for the first time in history by the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday

This year's competition, which is designed to test flight skills and precision shooting, is being held at Chauda testing ground in the eastern part of the Crimean peninsula.

The airshow saw helicopters showcasing their skill as they flew nose-first at the ground before dipping back up, mock cargo landing softly on the ground and aerobatic teams of jets soaring in unison at impossible angles.

Aerospace Forces Commander Col.Gen. Viktor Bondarev said the decision to host Aviadarts in Crimea was a 'tribute' to its citizens as it is the place Russian aviation was born.

He told Sputnik News: 'The decision to hold such competition at the peninsula was made not coincidentally. This is a tribute paid to Crimea and its citizens, because this is the place, where Russian aviation has originated.'

He added that Chauda would be the first sea testing ground of Russian Aerospace Forces and would be used for both competitions and military drills.

'We will test this ground now, we will see how it will show itself during the competitions, to work in future both from the ground in direction of the naval targets, and from the sea in direction of the ground targets.'

Mil Mi 8 helicopters carried the national Russian flag (far left), and the Russian air force flag (far right)

Sukhoi Su 27 fighter jets put on a display of precision as they dived out in all directions during the airshow

This year's competition, which is designed to test flight skills and precision shooting, is being held at Chauda testing ground in the eastern part of the Crimean peninsula

One image showed mock cargo being dropped by an Ilyushin Il 76 and landing softly on the ground

Nine Sukhoi Su 27 fighter jets from the Russkiye Vityazi [Russian knights] aerobatic team tore through the skies

This year's competition on the national level is taking place until June 8, while the international leg of the contest will be held in August.

Commander Bondarev revealed that the winners of the national leg would represent the Russian Aerospace Forces at the international point in the western city of Ryazan.

Crimean residents as well as visitors of the peninsula watched the spectacular free air display at the Chauda range.

Access and security were organised by officials, meaning spectators could enjoy the action in striking high definition.

This year's competition on the national level is taking place until June 8, while the international leg of the contest will be held in August

Crimean residents as well as visitors of the peninsula watched the spectacular free air display at the Chauda range

Aerospace Forces Commander Col Gen Viktor Bondarev said the decision to host Aviadarts in Crimea was a 'tribute' to its citizens as it is the place Russian aviation was born

He added that Chauda would be the first sea testing ground of Russian Aerospace Forces and would be used for both competitions and military drills

A majestic Kamov Ka-52 Alligator helicopter swept through the skies at the contest, which was originally held in Russia in 2013

The competition comes as Putin warned that Romania and Poland could be caught in the 'crosshairs' of Russian rockets for hosting elements of a U.S. missile shield that Moscow considers a threat to its security.

The Russian president said at the end of May that Moscow would be 'forced to carry out certain measures' against the European nations, at an Athens conference.

Earlier this month the U.S. military - which says the shield is needed to protect from Iran, not threaten Russia - angered Russia by switching on the Romanian part of the shield.

Work is also going ahead on another part of the shield, in Poland.

'If yesterday in those areas of Romania people simply did not know what it means to be in the cross-hairs, then today we will be forced to carry out certain measures to ensure our security,' Putin told a joint news conference in Athens with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

'It will be the same case with Poland,' he said.

Putin did not specify what actions Russia would take, but he insisted that it was not making the first step, only responding to moves by Washington.

Proving to be a display in patriotism, three Mil Mi 8 helicopters carried the national Russian flag and the Russian air force flag

Sukhoi Su 27 fighter jets looked striking as they flew at an impossible angle, silhouetted against the smokey white skies

The pilot of a Kamov Ka 50 helicopter showed off their precision and accuracy as they flew between a flurry of flares

Four Sukhoi Su 27 fighter jets, decked out in the national colours of blue, red and white, were just visible at one point through a thick cloud of smoke

Putin's latest warning comes as Russia successfully tested an anti-satellite missile capable of wiping out U.S. navigation, communications and intelligence devices.

The Nudol direct ascent missile was launched from a facility in Plesetsk, 500 miles north of Moscow, and was monitored by U.S. intelligence.

It is unknown whether the Nudol was fired at a target or just launched on a suborbital trajectory but the successful test represents a major milestone for Russia as it continues to modernise its strategic arsenal under President Vladimir Putin.

The developments have been shrouded in secrecy but Russian state reports have insisted that the Nudol is for defence purposes, describing it as 'a new Russian long-range missile defence'.

Access and security were tightly organised by officials, meaning spectators could enjoy the action in striking high definition

The fighter jets even flew at a steep vertical angle - while maintaining an effortless symmetry - during the air show
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The East Coast is braced for an incoming storm that could see up to seventeen million people hit with tropical rain, thunderstorms and even tornadoes.

People from New York through North Carolina could be affected, as thunderstorms were expected to blast winds of up to 55 miles per hour later on Sunday.

The Governors Ball and Kanye West's headline performance in New York City was cancelled for safety reasons after organizers saw the forecast for lightning.

From the Great Lakes to the Ohio Valley and all the way to the Eastern seaboard, thunderstorms, hail and damaging winds are expected.

Tropical storm warnings have also been posted for portions of the Gulf Coast of Florida, from Tampa to Apalachicola, as a storm builds up near Mexico. The system is set to build up and develop into tropical storm 'Colin' by Sunday night.

In Texas, 16 people - including nine soldiers at Fort Hood Army Base - have died in widespread flooding.

The Sunday of the New York music festival, Governors Ball, has been cancelled for safety reasons as severe weather headed for the Eastern seaboard. Music fans are pictured watching bands perform on Saturday

The rain started pouring on Saturday night, forcing revelers to use umbrellas or cover themselves in sweaters as the acts took to the stage

Four teenagers tread through the puddles wearing ponchos on Saturday night as they leaved Governors Ball

Kanye West was spotted out in New York City on Sunday after his highly-anticipated performance at Governors Ball was cancelled because of the impending bad weather. He looked tired as he stretched out while on the phone

The rapper posed for a photo and signed an autograph with a waiting fan before walking out into the street as he left his Manhattan hotel

Music fans braved the rain on Saturday as they partied on Randall's Island during what should have been a weekend-long event

Two rain-soaked fans enjoy a moment in front of the stage at the End of Day 2 at Governors Ball

Forecasters said the rain would let up in Texas at the end of the weekend, but more heavy showers are due next week.

It does mean that some of the flood waters could recede as the weather dries out.

Music fans in the Big Apple were told to stay home from Governors Ball, fearing lightning could hit the arena on Randall's Island.

The organizers released a statement saying: 'Sunday, June 5th of Gov Ball 2016 has officially been cancelled, due to severe weather and a high likelihood of lightning in the area.

'The safety of fans, artists and crew always comes first,' they said in a statement on their website.

Kanye, who was due to headline the event on Sunday night, braved the rain and was spotted walking out of his hotel in Manhattan.

He signed autographs and posed with waiting fans before walking out into the street.

Sunday was also due to feature an appearance, announced only the day before, by Prophets of Rage, the politically charged new supergroup with members of Rage Against the Machine and frontman Chuck D of rap legends Public Enemy.

A weather system moving across the United States is seen in a NOAA GOES satellite image taken. It was taken using a wavelength sensitive to water vapor in the atmosphere

Alternative rock favorites Death Cab for Cutie and rising Australian indie songwriter Courtney Barnett were also on Sunday's lineup.

It comes as authorities in Germany cut short one of the country's most popular music festivals after 72 people went to hospital when they were injured by lightning strikes.

Fox News reported that lightning and heavy rain stuck Rock am Ring near Mendig, 62 miles west of Frankfurt on Friday. The German Red Cross said 72 people were hospitalized.

The festival was suspended after the incident but briefly reopened Saturday night before it was closed completely on Sunday.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's office had already issued a weather advisory for Sunday, warning of the possibility of flash floods and encouraging New Yorkers to consider staying inside.

The weather cut short a U.S. women's national team game against Japan in Cleveland, Ohio. They were leading 2-0 when the severe weather prompted the referee to take the players off at 76th minutes.

The match was delayed in the second half by rain and lightning, which sent fans in FirstEnergy Stadium, home of the NFL's Browns, scrambling for cover. With more rough weather expected, officials decided to call the match following an hour delay.

On other parts of the East Coast, Sterling, Virginia-based meteorologist Chris Strong says the primary threat in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area is from damaging wind gusts, and there's a lesser threat for tornadoes.

Wakefield, Virginia-based meteorologist Lyle Alexander says the threat on the Eastern Shore is from winds and more localized heavy rain.

The weather service warns that heavy rain in central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley could mean flooding in areas that received rain Saturday. Flash flood watches are in effect until evening.

Mount Holly, New Jersey-based meteorologist Lance Franck says in Delaware the threat is from high winds and torrential downpours bringing flooding to urban areas and areas with poor drainage.

Severe thunderstorms were predicted to strike multiple cities, including Savannah, Georgia, and New York

People along the Gulf Coast kept a watchful eye on a system over the Caribbean Sea that was forecast to bring five to 10 inches of rain to parts of Florida. The storm is likely to develop into a tropical cyclone.

On its current track, the center would land around the Big Bend region near the Panhandle, the agency said.

The storm could dump as much as eight inches of rain on the state, with the potential for one to three feet of flooding if storm surge occurs at high tide, the hurricane center said. Sandbags were being made available in the Tampa area.

Florida heightened the response level of its State Emergency Operations Center on Sunday to provide emergency planning and support, but had not fully activated all emergency functions.

'As we continue to closely monitor this tropical depression, Floridians should remain vigilant and have an emergency plan for their families and businesses in place today,' Florida Governor Rick Scott said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the western United States sweltered under a heat wave that was expected to bring record high temperatures.

The National Weather Service predicted temperatures well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) for parts of southern California, Arizona and Nevada, with unseasonable heat also afflicting inland areas of the Pacific Northwest.

Low pressure will produce a chance of showers and storms over parts of the West and Rockies

Southern Arizona could see record high temperatures again.

The National Weather Service says if Phoenix hits 114 degrees on Sunday, it will mark the third day in a row setting record high temperatures in Arizona's Urban Heart.

Much of Southern Arizona, from Phoenix to Nogales, is under an excessive heat warning.

Other western and southwestern U.S. states are experiencing above-normal temperatures in the triple-digits.

Officials are warning residents to stay hydrated and avoid the outdoors between 10am and 4 pm, when temperatures are highest.

The Arizona Department of Health also says that neither people nor pets should be left in cars. It takes only 10 minutes for a car to reach deadly temperatures.

Here's a look at what people are doing to prepare and recover from the various types of weather:

Tropical rains

The hurricane season is just a few days old, and its third named storm may be developing near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says the system has a good chance of forming into a tropical cyclone, and even if it doesn't, it will still bring heavy rains along the Gulf Coast.

Police in St. Petersburg distributed sandbags to residents Saturday in anticipation of the drenching beginning Sunday night. Gov. Rick Scott was closely monitoring the weather and warned residents, tourists and businesses to be prepared.

Florida's emergency management director Bryan Koon said they expected a fast-moving storm, which means it could mature rapidly. The severe weather could last through Tuesday.

'Even if this system does not develop into a named storm, it still poses significant risks from flooding, damaging winds and tornadoes, and rip currents,' he said.

If the storm does develop, it would be named Colin.

Last weekend, Bonnie formed off the South Carolina coast, inundating parts of the East Coast. On Saturday, Bonnie was weakening far offshore and posed no threat to land.

Taking aim at the nation's capital

More than 17 million people in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Raleigh, North Carolina, are looking at an 'enhanced' risk of severe thunderstorms Sunday, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center.

Damaging winds, a tornado or two and marginally severe hail are expected from the Southeast to as far north as New York.

Unyielding Texas flooding

It's been several days since deadly flooding began in parts of southeast and central Texas, and the rain just started to let up Saturday.

In its wake, Army officials investigated a training exercise that went horribly wrong at Fort Hood, leading to the deaths of nine soldiers whose vehicle was swept into rushing waters of a rain-swollen creek. Three soldiers were pulled from the water and survived.

Coryell County emergency medical services chief Jeff Mincy told the Killeen Daily Herald that only the wheels of an Army troop-transport truck were visible after swift flood waters washed the 2-ton vehicle from a low-water crossing on the installation. He surmised the waters were about 8ft deep.

Meanwhile, several counties in and around Houston were under a flash flood watch or flood warning Saturday due to days of rain that had creeks and rivers flowing out of their banks.

The Brazos River is causing trouble for communities in Fort Bend County, especially near where the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico. County Judge Robert Hebert said floodwaters are receding but warned some neighborhoods are still cut off and many local streets are impassable.

'As water levels recede we will be able to get into these inundated areas and assess the damage,' he said.

Germany, France and Belgium have been hit by severe storms in recent days which have left 16 people dead.

Homes surrounded by floodwaters are shown in this aerial view in Rosharon, Texas. Parts of Texas have been inundated with rain in the last week, and more than half of the state has been under flood watches or warnings

A total of 16 people - including nine soldiers from Fort Hood Army Base - have died in flooding across the state. This picture shows an isolated home in Richmond cut off because of the floodwaters

The Brazos River flows out of it's banks Saturday, June 4, 2016, in Simonton, Texas

Horses are forced to wade in flood waters next to bails of hay after heavy rain drenched Texas farmlands

Another home is seen surrounded by floodwaters in Holiday Lakes, Texas. More heavy rain is expected to hit the area

Dozens of roads across the state, including this one in Rosharon, were closed after they were engulfed with the rising floodwaters

This family home in Rosharon is completely surrounded by floodwaters. The lawn surrounding has been completely submerged

Residents in Rosharon travel by boat to get to different homes hit by the floods. Only the top of a speed limit side can be seen

A man carries a bicycle on his head as he and a woman walk through floodwaters near Holiday Lakes, Texas

A home and a barn are separated by swathes of flood water that has ravaged Texas in the last week

LA wildfires

Wildfires have been roaring through southern California. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West left their Calabasas home on Friday just before a third-alarm brush fire sparked up on Saturday in the area, causing a mandatory evacuation.

As that fire started three others broke out in southern California, NBC 4 reported, burning 200 acres of land and threatening 3,000 homes.

The fire forced mandatory evacuations in the Highlands, Eddingham and Adamsville neighborhoods, fire officials said.

'Three thousand homes are evacuated, which is about 5,000 people,' Tony Coroalles, city manager of Calabasas, told CNN.
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An anti-Donald Trump protester man chased down one of the Republican candidate's supporters and tackled him to the ground at a San Jose rally on Thursday.

The Twitter user with the handle 'Houdini' @sizzle_seyf, who identifies himself as a black Muslim, claims to be the person who was seen on video chasing and tackling a young white male Trump supporter.

'Houdini', who has now deleted his social media accounts, posted a news video that showed him suddenly coming up behind the guy, who was wearing a red shirt, grabbing him and throwing him down on the ground.

The young man pulled himself to his feet and ran through a crowd of people who directed him to the police.

The incident happened as a group of protesters attacked Trump supporters who were leaving the candidate's rally in San Jose Thursday night.

A Black Muslim man (left) chased a white Donald Trump supporter (right) and tackled him to the ground at the Republican candidate's San Jose rally Thursday

The Twitter user with the handle 'Houdini' @sizzle_seyf claims to be the person who was seen on video chasing and tackling a young white male Trump supporter (pictured)

'Houdini' posted a news video and tweeted about him chasing and tackling the young man

The incident happened as a group of protesters attacked Donald Trump supporters who were leaving the candidate's rally in San Jose Thursday night. The man who calls himself 'Houdini' is pictured at the protest standing on top of a car

A man is seen punching who he believes is a Donald Trump fan outside his rally in San Jose, California. He later discovered he was actually a fellow protester

A dozen or more people were punched and knocked to the ground by protesters during the melee, as anti-Trump demonstrators grabbed the candidate's signature hats from off of the heads of his supporters in order to set them on fire.

And at one point, a mostly male mob that was five to six people deep even surrounded a female Trump supporter and began to pelt the defenseless woman in the face with eggs and watermelon.

That woman, who was wearing a 'Trump' jersey, responded by smiling and pointing right back at the group as they screamed and waved Mexican flags, before eventually making her escape thanks to a nearby door.

Many of the protesters carried the Mexican flag during the demonstration, which was eventually diffused once local police made the decision to move in and make some arrests.

A few of the demonstrators also burned an American flag outside the convention center.

Outside Trump rally protestors chased down this kid and tackled him. When he got up we pointed him to police. pic.twitter.com/83O2oNzcMx  Tom Llamas (@TomLlamasABC) June 3, 2016

A woman wearing a Trump shirt is pelted with eggs and pinned in against a door after leaving a rally in San Jose

The supporter is left rubbing raw egg from her eyes and hair after being attacked by Trump protesters

A woman is knocked over as she walks towards a police line outside the Trump rally in California

She lies on the ground after falling during the demonstration against the presumptive Republican U.S. presidential nominee

Watch: The moment a Trump supporter, surrounded by protesters, is egged in the face, hit by other food. pic.twitter.com/qYFdwJWvrS  Jacob Rascon (@Jacobnbc) June 3, 2016

The protest came just hours after Trump slammed a judge presiding over a case involving Trump University, saying he should be recused from making a decision in the legal matter because of his Mexican heritage.

Trump said that US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel has 'an inherent conflict of interest' because of his plans to build a border wall between Mexico and the United States should he be elected president.

Curiel was born in Indiana, and appointed to the bench by President Obama in 2011 after a lengthy career working as both a federal prosecutor and judge in the California state judicial system.

San Jose Police Sgt Enrique Garcia told NBC News that several protesters were arrested during the fracas and one officer was assaulted.

Police waited until about 90 minutes after the rally had ended to begin moving into the remaining crowd and try and disperse those who were showing no signs of going home.

This immediately sparked clashes between demonstrators and police, and it is not clear if any of those anti-Trump supporters were injured during the scuffle.

The rowdy and angry crowd of around 300 protesters had thinned significantly by that time, but those who remained on the scene managed to fill an entire city block right by the San Jose Convention Center.

Some banged on the cars of Trump supporters as they left the rally and others chased after those on foot to frighten them and try and grab their hats.

Police kept their distance from the crowd as things initially began to play out, but did step in to stop protesters from advancing any further once they neared the convention center.

Anti-Trump protesters set about a supporter of the Republican candidate in a street outside the rally

An altercation between the two rivals begins and the man in the white shirt ends up being punched in the face

The man is sparked out by the punch and ends up lying face down on the floor as two officers come to help

The police officers on motorbikes go to the aid of the punched man and help him on to his feet

'Our police officers have done an extremely courageous and professional job so far,' San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said after the eventful evening.

'We're all still holding our breath to see the outcome of this dangerous and explosive situation.'

The mayor, a Democrat and Hillary Clinton supporter, criticized Trump for coming to cities and igniting problems that local police departments had to deal with.

Lan Hoang, one of the Trump supporters who had his hat stolen during the demonstration and set on fire, spoke about how upset he was on Thursday night.

'It was unbelievable. I've never seen anything like that in America before,' Hoang told NBC Bay Area, adding that he saw 'a lot' of Trump supporters getting attacked outside the venue.

Clinton campaign chair John Podesta also condoned the events of the evening, saying that 'violence against supporters of any candidate has no place in this election.'

One of Trump's trademark hats was set alight on the ground by a group of angry protesters

One of the angry mob stomps on a burning Trump hat surrounded by people carrying Mexican flags

Inside the convention center, the presumptive GOP nominee spoke for about 50 minutes at the rally, sniping at Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and calling her speech on foreign policy earlier in the day 'pathetic' and 'sad to watch.'

Protesters before the speech included Adam Rivas, a 22-year-old community college student who was born and raised in San Jose, who held a spray-painted sign that read 'Dump Trump.'

Rivas said he was particularly disturbed by Trump's remarks about Mexicans.

'For any one Mexican here he bashes, there are about 20 Mexicans out there who are hard-working and just doing their job,' he said.

Protesters climb on to the roof of a car outside the Trump campaign rally in San Jose. It's not known whether anyone was inside at the time

Another anti-Trump demonstrator kicks a car as it leaves a parking garage near the venue

Heavily-armed police were forced to push back some angry members of the crowd as they waved placards

Police officers were forced to form a line to contain the protesters outside the rally in San Jose, California

A Trump protester holds his hands up in the air as he tells a police officer how he has been harassed by demonstrators

Trump supporter Debbie Tracey, a US Navy veteran from San Jose, said she came to hear the presidential hopeful speak and left the rally with two hats, a T-shirt and a handful of signs that said 'Veterans for Trump'.

Passing in front of a wall of protesters, many chanting in Spanish, she said she supported Trump's call for a wall along the US-Mexico border.

'I'll go help build the wall because if you are going to come to this country, land of opportunity, you should be here legally,' she added.

Trump seemingly ignored what was going on an applauded as he addressed the crowd

Donald Trump waves to the crowd as he is surrounded by Secret Service agents after a rally, just before the violence outside the venue began
A father shot and killed his one-year-old daughter while she was in her crib then attempted to shoot his girlfriend, the child's mother, before killing himself at a home in Ohio, authorities said.

Investigators said Timothy Harewood, 35, was at his father's house near Hillsboro on Friday afternoon when a fight escalated.

Deputies responded to reports of a shooting and found Harewood dead in the front yard with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound shortly after 3pm, The Highland County sheriff's office said.

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Timothy Harewood, 35, shot and killed his one-year-old daughter while she was in her crib then attempted to shoot his girlfriend, the child's mother, before killing himself at a home (pictured) in Ohio, authorities said

Investigators said Timothy Harewood, 35, was at his father's house (pictured) on Friday afternoon when a fight escalated. Deputies found him dead in the front yard with apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound

Investigators said they also found his daughter dead inside the home with what appeared to be a single gunshot wound after she had been shot in the head while sleeping in her crib.

Witnesses told authorities Harewood shot his daughter before going outside to where his girlfriend and family were was sitting, and struck the woman in the face, who is the child's mother.

He then allegedly tried to shoot her, however, the gun misfired. Deputies said that is when Harewood turned the gun on himself.

The woman and the child's names have not been released at this time.

The woman was taken to Highland District Hospital and has since been released, according to WCPO.

Neighbor Lawrence Turner, who lived across from Harewood for years, said the little girl had just started walking and that the couple was planning to get married, according to the station.

He recalled Harewood seeming to be 'pretty easy going' but noted that he would have never expected the shootings to happen.

Investigators said they also found his one-year-old daughter dead inside the home with what appeared to be a single gunshot wound. Witnesses told authorities that Harewood shot his daughter and then tried to shoot the girl's mother, who was sitting outside, but the gun misfired. He then turned the gun on himself

Barrera said Harewood had a conceal carry permit and was an instructor for conceal carry permits, WLWT reported.

'We got a lot of the officers that arrived on the scene today have children the same age,' Sheriff Donnie Barrera said.

'It's a tragedy that something like this happens, and it puts the family and everybody at risk of going into something like that and having to see something like that.'
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Travellers were seen soaking up the early summer sun and cooling off in the River Eden as the busiest day of the Appleby Horse Fair kicked off.

Appleby, held in the Westmorland area of Cumbria, is the biggest gipsy gathering in Europe - attracting 30,000 visitors from across Britain and the continent each year.

The festival is a celebration of the community's love of horses and is an opportunity for people to buy and sell the animals as well as parade them through the streets of the village.

Another staple tradition of Appleby, which has been held in the area for around 200 years, is the washing of the horses which takes place in the shallow waters of the Eden.

Riders splashed out in the river today as temperatures reached the mid 20s with young and old jumping on their beloved pets and launching themselves across the water.

Visitors to Appleby stay in huge campsites on farmland around the village and while many opt for the mod-cons of contemporary mobile homes, others stay in beautifully decorated traditional wagons.

The festivities at the fair, which also includes food and drink stalls, will continue to flow until Wednesday when the celebration will finish until next year.

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Making a splash: A young woman guides her beautiful black horse through the River Eden during the busiest day of Appleby Horse Fair

Giddy up! Travellers race down a road on traps as crowds of spectators watch on at Appleby, the biggest festival of its kind in Europe

Wear and tear: Appleby is a chance for travellers to buy and sell horses and pictured, a blacksmith gives a horse a new set of shoes

Gripped: A young man has to hold on tight as he rides his horse across the waters of the River Eden - a staple tradition of the Appleby Fair

Clean up: The guiding of horses through the Eden is a tradition called 'washing' and pictured, a group of horses are led into the shallows

Looking the part: This woman does not appear to be bothered about getting her clothes wet as she keeps on her bright purple tracksuit - and sunglasses - for her trip across the Eden

Lead the way: A young traveller boy takes a group of horses down the road and looks the part in his flat cap and farmer's gillet

Spectators: These two women appear to be more than happy to watch the festivities rather than join in during the Appleby Horse Fair

Splash down: One man is sent crashing into the Eden as his disgruntled horse decides it has had enough of a ride in the brisk waters

Squeeze on: Three riders managed to fit on this trap as they go for a ride down a road in the village on the fair's busiest day

Rare sight: For many, this view would be enough to make you double-take - but such a scene has become part of summer life in Appleby

Graceful racer: This horse looks to be in fine condition as it gallops down a road while its owners show it off, as is custom at Appleby

Traditional: While many opt for the mod-cons of a contemporary mobile home, others stay in the beautifully crafted traditional caravans at Appleby (left) and (right) a teenage boy rides his horse without a saddle, as is common at the festival

Summer Strut: Appleby also offers travellers from communities across Britain to socialise and pictured, a group of teenage travellers walk together as a man whizzes along the road in a trap

Congestion: This man seems completely content as he rides on a trap behind his horse - perhaps less than impressed are those waiting in the car and van travelling behind him

Seasonal sight: Visitors flock to the banks of the River Eden to watch the local summer tradition unfold as horses plunge into the water

Safety first: Members of the RSPCA watch on as the horses are led across the river - officers play a role in preparing for the festival by clearing debris from the Eden's bed

When your ready: This man has to wait for his horse as it takes a drink before crossing the River Eden, as spectators watch from a bridge

Young and old: A little traveller boy, dressed for the occasion, grips on to the mane of his horse as he crosses the River Eden
Nigel Farage has claimed that British women will be at risk of mass sex attacks by gangs of migrants if we vote to stay in the EU.

The UKIP leader said he believes that a failure to control our borders from an influx of migrants from North Africa and Eastern Europe will result in an increased vulnerability for the female population, reports theSunday Telegraph.

Farage claimed that a difference in 'cultural' issues would contribute to the attacks and paid reference to the rapes and sexual offences alleged to have been carried out by a gang of migrants in the German city of Cologne last New Year's Eve.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage (pictured) urged the nation to vote for Brexit at a rally in Bristol on Saturday

When asked if such attacks could happen in the UK Mr Farage said: 'It depends if they get EU passports. It depends if we vote for Brexit or not. It is an issue.'

Farage also claimed that police agencies said 5,000 jihadists have entered Europe by posing as migrants in recent years and EU countries are now experiencing more migrant-based crime.

He told the Sunday Telegraph: 'In London 41 per cent of crimes last year were committed by people who don't have British passports.'

Justice Secretary and Vote Leave campaigner Michael Gove said: 'He's made those remarks and I haven't made remarks like that and I won't make remarks like that.'

The 52-year-old also launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister David Cameron, calling him 'Dishonest Dave' and accusing him of lying to the British people.

He said people have seen that Mr Cameron has not followed through with his pledge to reduce migration and cut a new deal for the UK EU membership.

Mr Farage said: 'He is 'Dishonest Dave'. The honesty and straightforwardness of the Prime Minister are now being questioned.'

He added: 'David Cameron has basically said things to get votes. He won office in 2010 and 2015 by telling the British public things that he knew not to be true.'

The comments come as Farage warned Britain's national security was at risk if the UK remained in the EU because 'ISIS promise to flood the Continent with jihadists'.

He suggested that open borders have led to migration that has been 'bad for social cohesion' as he stated his case for Brexit at a rally in Bristol on Saturday.

Leading Vote Leave campaigner Michael Gove, pictured today on the Peston on Sunday programme, distanced himself from the remarks

Attack: Farage said Prime Minister David Cameron had lied to the British people over promises regarding migration and Britain's membership in the EU

Farage said that the level of migration has also 'damaged the quality of life for millions of ordinary British people' who have seen their 'wages compressed'.

He was joined by former Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox MP as he hosted a Grassroots Out rally and stressed that 'we must take back control of our borders'.

North Somerset MP Mr Fox, 54, said the security of Britain depends on 'military strength and our intelligence gathering', neither of which 'are dependent on our membership of the EU'.

Farage said: 'The risk to our national security is remaining inside the EU with open borders as ISIS promise to flood the Continent with jihadists.

'EU open borders are not just a security risk but have led to a level of migration never seen before in our country that has been bad for social cohesion, damaged the quality of life for millions of ordinary British people who have seen their wages compressed and Britain's infrastructure placed under huge strain too.

'We must leave the EU, take back control of our borders and make June 23rd our Independence Day.'

Farage was joined by North Somerset MP Liam Fox (pictured) who said that the UK depends on 'military strength and intelligence gathering' - neither of which 'are dependent on our membership of the EU'

Mr Fox, speaking during the hour-long event at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, he said: 'The security of the British people is dependent upon our military strength and our intelligence gathering and cooperation.

'Neither of these are dependent on our membership of the European Union.

'Our military strength comes from both our own military budget, the fifth biggest in the world, and our membership of NATO.

'The transatlantic alliance means that we are tied into the military strength of the United States which has a defence budget equal to the next 11 in the world combined.

'The European members of NATO, by contrast, have consistently failed to live up to their defence obligations, with the EU countries who are members of NATO contributing only 24 per cent to this year's defence budget.

'Without Britain this would falter only 17 per cent and shows what a dangerous delusion the EU's defence pretensions are.

'When it comes to intelligence, our primary relationship is with the so-called 'five eyes community', comprising the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

'We cooperate with European Union nations on the basis that it is in our mutual interest to do so.
Tipple: A group of Belgian beer fans will be able to enjoy a free bottle a day for the rest of their lives

For many, the idea of receiving a free bottle of beer every day for the rest of their lives sounds like a dream and for a handful of ale drinkers in Belgium that fantasy has become a reality.

Brewer Xavier Vanneste could no longer stand the idea that hundreds of his trucks were damaging the medieval streets of his beloved Bruge and decided to hatch an audacious plan.

Mr Vanneste proposed to build a beer pipeline from his city brewery to a bottling plant outside of town two miles away.

The idea may have seemed mad, but after all, his beer is called the Madman of Bruges - or Brugse Zot in Dutch.

What at first seemed like an outrageous dream, began to seem possible when the brewer started talking to local beer enthusiasts.

'Jokes were coming in fast, with people saying 'we are willing to invest as long as we can have a tapping point on the pipeline,' Vanneste said.

'That gave us the idea to crowdfund the project.'

However, while some poked fun, others were happy to put their hands in their pockets.

'You have to be a bit crazy - like the beer - to do such a project.

'I just had the money for that, and I liked it. So I went crazy and gave the money to the brewery,' said restaurant owner Philippe Le Loup, who poured $11,000 into the pipeline.

Thanks to Le Loup and others, Mr Vanneste is now staring at one end of the pipeline, which by autumn will start pumping some 1,060 gallons of beer an hour toward the bottling plant.

'That is a lot of beer, more than you can drink in a lifetime,' said the owner of De Halve Maan brewery, which in addition to Brugse Zot is also famous for its Straffe Hendrik brand.

Sending the pipeline along streets where customers could siphon off their favorite suds was too big a promise even for Vanneste, but he came up with the next best thing: IOUs with a lifelong drinking guarantee.

Xavier Vanneste (pictured) has built a pipeline to transport his beer from the brewery to the bottling plant

Pictured, Recently crafted pipes disappear into a wall in the cellar of the Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges

'We have several formulas: bronze, silver and gold,' he said. 'If you put in 7,500 euros ($8,350), you will receive for the rest of your days, every day one bottle of Brugse Zot.'

For many, that offer was hard to refuse. About 10 percent of the total 4million (3million) investment for the pipeline has been financed through crowdfunding.

A warren of municipal, regional and federal laws govern the picturesque city, meaning building approvals are often laborious to get.

Mr Vanneste proposed to build the pipeline to stop his trucks (pictured) from damaging the medieval streets of Bruge during their daily journeys

Not, however, for a beer pipeline - as authorities realised the whole community was backing it.

The city also stood to gain. In between the city's beguinage houses and Our Lady's Cathedral, the De Halve Maan brewery has given the sometimes overly touristy city a sense of real life.

Mr Vanneste could have done what so many others have - moved out of the city with its canals, gabled Gothic houses, horse-drawn carriages and restaurants with menus in six languages.
plea to the media today not to declare Clinton the nominee until the superdelegates have had their say

Bernie Sanders made an impassioned plea on Saturday to superdeledates and the media not to write him off on Tuesday before the polls close in California.

Blasting what he called an 'anointment process,' Sanders said he has a chance to win California, possibly by a large margin, but turnout could be depressed if the media calls the race for Clinton when the polls close on the East Coast.

With superdelegate support, she'll cross the threshold to become the Democratic nominee after New Jersey is called, three hours before the deadline for Californians to cast their ballots.

'It is extremely unlikely,' as Sanders argued today, that Clinton will have enough pledged delegate support to win the nomination at that time. Yet, she's likely to declare victory, and the national media can be counted on to follow suit.

Bernie Sanders made an impassioned plea on Saturday to superdeledates and the media not to write him off on Tuesday before the polls close in California

The media will declare, 'It's all over,' he said. 'That simply is not accurate.'

Sanders said Clinton would need to win two-thirds of the pledged delegates available on Tuesday to win the nomination, he said.

'Frankly unless I am very, very mistaken, that is not going to happen.'

Clinton will need the support of the superdelegates to win, and they don't vote until the convention in Philadelphia.

It is a fact that it will be a contested convention, he said, reaffirming his plans to stay in the race until Clinton is formally award the nomination by party officials.

The superdelegates could still change their minds about supporting him, Sanders contended.

He pointed to a statement from the Democratic National Committee's communications director stating that the superdelegate count should not be used when determining the nominee on primary and caucus nights because their support is not firm.

'He is exactly right,' Sanders said. So for the media 'or anyone else' to declare her the Democratic nominee on Tuesday night would be 'inaccurate.'

The come-from-behind senator clashing with the Clinton operation, which has already produced one president and is on its way to winning the White House again, said, 'I understand the battle that I am waging, is a very, very steep climb.'

'We have come a very, very long way, and steep climbs and challenges are not something that this campaign shies away from,' he stated.

The current process for determining the Democratic nominee, which comes down to the votes of 712 party officials across the country, is 'absurd,' he emphasized.

'I don't use the word rigged, because I knew what I was getting into,' he explained.

But the process does work against candidates like himself, who haven't spent decades courting the party elites, he said.

'I will do everything I can to change it,' he said.

That Clinton won over 400 of them last summer, before any votes were cast, 'That is called an anointment process.'

The Democratic establishment essentially said it does't matter who is running against her, that is our candidate, as soon as the race began, he opined.

'Whether I like it or not, those are the rules,' Sanders acknowledged, and so he must make his case to the superdelegates that he's the better choice.

The come-from-behind senator clashing with the Clinton operation, which has already produced one president and is on its way to winning the White House again, said, 'I understand the battle that I am waging, is a very, very steep climb'

Sanders spoke to supporters at a Get-Out-the-Vote event this afternoon in Hollywood after his news confeence

His campaign has the energy and enthusiasm needed to beat Donald Trump, Sanders said, and that is clear not just from polling, but by their turnout at his rallies.

Both Trump and Clinton have 'very, very high' negative rating with voters, he said.

And while Clinton may be able to beat the Republican nominee in November, he's offering 'a choice not just to vote against somebody, but to vote for a vision.'

Sanders teared up during the media avail as he talked about the poor and working class Americans his campaign is affecting. So many of his donors are impoverished and still they give because they believe in his vision for the country.

The proud independent senator has been critical of the Democratic Party's reliance on Wall Street and other wealthy individuals to finance national campaigns.

'The Democratic Party has got to be a party that's more than candidates going to wealthy people's homes to raise outrageous sums of money,' he said at a rally in Santa Cruz on Tuesday.

He hit on the topic again today, after NBC News' Kelly O'Donnell made reference to a DNC fundraiser Friday in Florida where President Barack Obama was the guest of honor.

Sanders was about to bash the party for its reliance on big donors when a gentleman sitting in the first row who had earlier asked him why he didn't run a Libertarian or Green Party candidate interrupted him.

'So leave it,' he declared, interrupting Sanders.
An Australian migration control system proposed for post-referendum Britain uses brutal island refugee camps that horrify human rights groups and are compared by asylum seekers to Guantanamo Bay.

Brexit leaders Boris Johnson and Michael Gove want to import Australia's hard-line points regime and let in a sharply reduced number of skilled migrants if Britain votes to leave the European Union on June 23.

But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that it costs Australia a staggering 200,000 per refugee per year to keep them on remote islands in Papua New Guinea, with detainees offered payouts of 3,500 to give up their claims and return home.

Under the controversial policy, hundreds of migrants, including political dissidents and war refugees, are flown to camps on Manus and Nauru, islands thousands of miles off the Australian coast, where high rates of disease, death and suicide have shocked aid workers.

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Hundreds of migrants, including political dissidents and war refugees, are flown to camps on Manus and Nauru (pictured).

One 23-year-old Iranian migrant burnt himself to death in April, shortly after complaining about intolerable conditions. Other migrants have been murdered and injured in attacks by resentful locals or by disease and poor hygiene.

Speaking from Manus, Iranian dissident writer Behrouz Boochani, 32, told The Mail on Sunday that the camp where he has been held since 2013 was 'a living hell'.

'This is a place of torture and pain,' he said. 'It is worse than prison. It is Australia's Guantanamo Bay.

'Australia is a liberal democracy and I thought I would be welcomed. But they handcuffed me and put me on a plane to Manus a month after I arrived on Christmas Island.

'From the moment I touched down on the island, I have been treated like a killer or the worst kind of criminal.'

A friend of Boochani was beaten to death when locals attacked the camp in which he is held. The riot left 100 other inmates injured, while another fellow detainee died from a leg infection.

Campaigners have made signs and urged their country to close the camps on Nauru and Manus

The horrendous conditions have persuaded some migrants to give up their claims and accept resettlement payouts to go home, with some returning to war-torn Syria or Iraq.

Those payoffs pale by comparison to the staggering 200,000 per refugee per year the Australian Refugee Council estimates it costs to keep them in the leased Pacific island camps.
His funeral in April brought together hundreds of tattooed gang members

The 31-year-old father of one reportedly wanted to leave the Rebels

A feared Rebels bikie known by gang members as the 'Prince of Penrith' and shot down in a driveway 100 metres from his house reportedly could have been killed by his own brotherhood.

Michael Davey, 30, died from gunshot wounds in Stafford Street, Kingswood in western Sydney just after midnight on March 30, but police are now investigating the possibility that Rebels bikie members turned on him in the hours before his assassination.

The heavily-tattooed bikie - nicknamed 'Ruthless' - had reportedly told his girlfriend he was meeting a friend in front of the house just moments before he was gunned down.

According to the Sun-Herald, Mr Davey had been looking to get out of the bikie fraternity, and homicide detectives reportedly believe that may have been reason enough for the execution.

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Michael Davey (pictured) who was shot dead when he stood on a driveway after he allegedly received a phone call from a friend, 'could have been killed by his own brotherhood'

His Instagram profile said he came into the world covered in blood and wasn't afraid to leave the same way

Police are now investigating the possibility that Michael Davey (pictured with former girlfriend Sarah Gerrard) was killed by members of his own bikie gang after trying to leave the fraternity

Bikini model Sarah Gerrard, posted a tribute on social media saying Mr Davey was a 'massive part of her life' and later shared a video of the pair joking about her being 'the most annoying girlfriend ever'

The casket of murdered gang member Micky 'Ruthless' Davey was brought in on a sidecar. The white casket had a plaque with 'Rthlss' on it

Mr Davey was reportedly respected by fellow bikies, earning him the titles 'Prince of Penrith' and 'Ruthless'

Mr Davey, who fixed motorbikes for a living, described himself as a "revhead" on social media accounts, which show a heavily tattooed man with a passion for the gym.

His Instagram includes the statement: 'I came into this world kick'n n scream'n while covered in some1 elses's blood no I'm not afraid of leavin the same way' alongside a gun and explosion emoji.

The father of one - who was well known to police - was believed to have escaped uninjured after a shooting at a Penrith shopping centre last April, which resulted in a 24-year-old man being charged.

His funeral on April 8 brought together droves of black-suited Rebels bikies wearing club colours and leather jerkins with woman wearing black.

Under tight security with undercover police filming from a hill above the west chapel, bikies from Rebels chapters from all over Australia gathered with Davey's family to farewell their 'brother.'

Wearing jackets with the letters 'RFFR' - which means 'Rebels Forever Forever Rebels' - and T-shirts printed with an abbreviated 'Rthlss', they formed a guard of honour outside the chapel.

According to the Sun-Herald, Michael 'Ruthless' Davey may have been looking for a way out of the bikie gang

His funeral on April 8 brought together droves of black-suited Rebels bikies wearing club colours

Hundreds of Rebel Bikies turned up on their bikes to pay their last respects to Davey and his family

Dozens of black-suited Rebels bikies wearing club colours and leather jerkins with women wearing black converged on a cemetery in Sydney's west for the funeral

The crowd of bikies could not all fit in to the chapel to hear Davey's father, Will, and brother Geoff deliver eulogies

At the time, his former girlfriend and bikini model Sarah Gerrard posted a tribute to social media saying he was her 'best friend' who was a 'massive part of her life'.

She also shared a video of the pair joking about her being 'the most annoying girlfriend ever'.

'Rip Micky. You've been a massive part of my life and you'll always be in my heart we were best friends,' she wrote on Facebook.

'I'll never forget the things you've done for me and taught me over the years.'

The Sydney chapter of the Rebels offered condolences to his family.

'You will be truly missed brother you were one of a kind. May you ride in the Forever Chapter,' the page says.

Ms Garrard's video showed the pair joking about Mr Davey's 'neck wrinkles' before he threatens to 'throw her f***ing phone'.

Mr Davey reportedly had a young son who was living at the home with himself and current girlfriend Sky when the shooting took place, The Daily Telegraph reported.

'Rip Micky. You've been a massive part of my life and you'll always be in my heart we were best friends,' Mr Davey's former girlfriend Sarah Gerrard wrote on Facebook

Bikini model Sarah Gerrard shared a video of the pair joking about her being 'the most annoying girlfriend ever'

People were inside the home at the time but Supt Peters would not confirm if it was Mr Davey's home.

A neighbour told AAP she had seen him mowing grass at the property before and believed he lived there alone.

She said family who lived in the street were woken by the shots but believed they were fireworks and were shocked to hear of the killing later in the morning. It is believed five or six shots were fired.

Other witnesses told police a vehicle was seen leaving the scene a short time after the shooting.

Superintendent Greg Peters earlier confirmed the victim had a criminal history, The ABC reported.

'Rip Micky. You've been a massive part of my life and you'll always be in my heart we were best friends,' she wrote on Facebook

Friends and fellow Rebels members have paid tribute to their friend 'Micky', who was also known as 'Ruthless'

A neighbour told AAP she had seen him mowing grass at the property before and believed he lived there alone
Married father-of-two, 28, was reported by the woman he sent the video to

He used Army mess tins, cables and household batteries to create 'bomb'

Trooper Danyal Davies (pictured), 28, sparked a terror alert after apparently trying to make a Taliban-style bomb in a British Army base less than a mile from Windsor Castle

One of the Queens guards has sparked a terror alert after apparently trying to make a Taliban-style bomb in a British Army base less than a mile from Windsor Castle.

Trooper Danyal Davies, 28, was arrested by military police as Army bomb disposal experts wearing protective clothing stormed his accommodation block and searched it for explosive materials.

The raid came after the married Household Cavalry soldier sent a video of himself apparently making an improvised explosive device (IED) to a woman with whom he was having an affair.

He is also under investigation for allegedly creating illegal firearms, including a rocket propelled grenade launcher.

In one video posted on YouTube, and believed to have been filmed at Combermere Barracks, Windsor, Trooper Davies is seen using Army mess tins, cables and household batteries to replicate the electronic circuitry of a pressure plate IED  a device used by the Taliban to kill British troops in Afghanistan.

He then demonstrates how the IED works by pressing down on the mess tin, an action mimicking how a UK soldier would activate an IED by stepping on it while on patrol.

The father-of-two also sent the woman a text message which read: IED number one made Found a place that delivers the explosives. They are actually movie pyrotechnics what are better quality.

Military police are also studying photographs and videos of Tpr Davies testing what appears to be a Russian-made RPG-22 launcher and apparently posing with an AK-47 rifle, with sharp-shooter sight and grenade launcher attached.

In another video, Tpr Davies is shown testing the RPG launcher. When he pulls the trigger, smoke comes from the barrel, but it is not clear if this weapon was capable of firing live ammunition.

The woman was concerned Tpr Davies posed a terror threat and reported him to the Army.

The Royal Military Police then arrested Tpr Davies, an armoured personnel carrier driver, while he was on a combat exercise.

Police have also been given other text messages in which he discusses buying replica handguns and rifles.

The Ministry of Defence said it could not comment because the RMP probe is ongoing.

The married father-of-two was seen using Army mess tins, cables and household batteries to replicate the electronic circuitry of a pressure plate IED at a base believed to be Combermere Barracks, Windsor

The arrest comes amid rising concern about criminals turning replica weapons into live guns. Tpr Davies met the woman while he was engaged to another woman, whom he has since married. He was allegedly involved in the affair from March to September 2015.

Subsequently, the woman is alleged to have sent sexual images of Tpr Davies to his then-fiancee. Last month, the woman was charged with a revenge porn offence.

The raid on Tpr Davies accommodation took place in January. Last night, a friend said he should be cleared because he only intended to use replica weapons in a game of Airsoft  an activity similar to paintball in which players fire plastic pellets at each other.

He said: The firearms were made out of plastic which fire rounds well within the legal limit.

I thought he was a bit of an idiot for posting the IED video. But theres nothing illegal about making an electric circuit.
Rae'Laurin Gates (pictured), 20, had only been in the Army for about seven months before her death in the Fort Hood flood on Thursday

One of the nine soldiers, who died after an Army truck overturned in a rain-swollen creek at Fort Hood, has been identified by her family.

Rae'Laurin Gates, 20, had only been in the Army for about seven months before her death on Thursday.

Her family confirmed she was among the dead on Saturday.

'She put someone else before herself,' her father, Eddy Renard Gates, told CBS News.

The family was notified of Rae'Laurin's death on Friday, he said.

The 20-year-old was a former homecoming queen at Triton High School in Erwin, North Carolina.

'She wanted to serve her country with a smile. She wanted to serve in 20 years in the service,' he father said.

An investigation has been launched into the circumstances that caused the death of the nine soldiers on Thursday.

Five soldiers were found dead on Thursday after the two-and-a-half ton truck flipped over in Owl Creek at the Texas Army base.

Four more soldiers were unaccounted for after the tragic accident, but their bodies were found further downstream on Friday - taking the death toll to nine.

Their remains were discovered after a lengthy search by military helicopters and boats.

Three other servicemen were injured in the incident.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter gave his condolences to RaeLaruins family and the families of those killed in Thursdays accident.

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Rae'Laurin's family confirmed the former homecoming queen was among the dead on Saturday after they had been told of her death on Friday

The Combat Readiness Center's experts will examine the scene of the Fort Hood accident and evaluate the factors that caused the deaths

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter gave his condolences to RaeLaruins family and the families of those killed in Thursdays accident

The Combat Readiness Center's experts will examine the scene of the Fort Hood accident and evaluate the factors that caused the deaths.

They will then send a report to the commanding unit, which will become public after 90 days.

However, it could take months for the investigation to be completed.

A Fort Hood spokesman said the dirt road near Owl Creek was not known to be flooded and soldiers are used to passing through weather conditions like the one experienced.

"In this case, we see that there can be something learned in the way of future prevention," said Michael Negard, spokesman for the Army's Combat Readiness Center.

The bodies of four missing soldiers have been found after an Army truck overturned in a rain-swollen creek at Fort Hood, killing five other servicemen. Search boats are seen scouring the water for the missing troops

A Texas DPS helicopter flies over Lake Belton near the scene of the accident as part of the search operation

A Fort Hood spokesman said officials were in the process of closing roads on the sprawling Army post when a truck carrying 12 soldiers was swept away by high water on Thursday.

Post spokesman Chris Haug said the soldiers were being trained how to operate the two-and-a-half ton truck when it overturned Thursday morning along Owl Creek.

Haug says the portion of road where the Light Medium Tactical Vehicle overturned was not known to be overrun by water during past floods.

The vehicle resembles a flatbed truck with a walled bed and is used to carry troops.

Emergency crews searched through the night for the four missing soldiers before their bodies were found on Friday afternoon.

Three others pulled from the water are in a stable condition in hospital..

Emergency responders talk near a regional command center in Fort Hood. Floods have ravaged Texas for the last few days

Officials told KWTX that the deceased soldiers were found downstream.

The four soldiers who were found on Friday are from the 3rd Battalion, 16th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.

Army aircraft, canine search teams, swift-water rescue watercraft and heavy trucks were used in the search for the missing soldiers.

The names of the dead are being withheld until their relatives can be notified.

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.

'Our thoughts and prayers go out to the soldiers, their families and the Fort Hood community,' Texas Governor Greg Abbott said.

A park ranger looks in the flood waters where the soldiers are said to be missing

Texas has been ravaged by floods in the past week. A driver is seen trying to get across a low-water crossing near New Braunfels

Meanwhile, a third Texas prison is being evacuated because of flooding.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice on Friday began moving about 1,700 inmates from the Ramsey Unit in Rosharon, about 30 miles south of Houston.

They are being placed on buses for transfer to other prisons in East Texas that have room.

Some 2,600 inmates at two nearby prisons in Brazoria County, the Terrell and Stringfellow Units, were moved out Sunday.

Agency spokesman Jason Clark says additional food and water has been delivered to the prisons receiving the displaced inmates.

Nearly the entire eastern half of Texas is under a flash flood watch or warning as the effects of days of heavy rains linger in creeks and rivers.

Chance Morgan canoes past flooded townhouses in the Forest Cove neighborhood as he tries to get home

Storms off the southeast Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico are threatening to worsen flooding in places like Brazoria and Fort Bend counties, southwest of Houston, where residents near the Brazos River have been forced from their homes.

Gov Abbott is scheduled to tour the area Friday afternoon.

Fort Bend officials said 20 per cent of the county's land area has been affected by flooding.

Parts of Texas have been inundated with rain in the last week. More storms were on the way that could dump up to 10 inches of rain through Saturday and worsen flooding caused by rivers and other waterways that already have risen to record levels.
Tony Fadell, a well-known Silicon Valley executive who was once expected to play a central role in Alphabet's hardware efforts, has stepped down as chief executive of the search giant's Nest unit, the company said.

Fadell will remain an adviser to Alphabet and Google co-founder Larry Page.

He will be replaced at Nest, which makes smart thermostats and smoke detectors, by Marwan Fawaz, who had prior stints at Motorola Mobility and Charter Communications Inc .

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Ex-Apple and now ex-Alphabet employee Tony Fadell (pictured), known as the 'father of the iPod', the inventor of Nest revealed he is leaving the company he created and sold to Google.

Google bought Nest in 2014 for $3.2 billion, one of the company's largest acquisitions ever.

In a blog post announcing his departure, Fadell said Nest's revenue is growing 50 percent a year and boasted that 'the connected home went mainstream because of Nest.'

'We've created a hardware + software + services ecosystem, which is still in the early growth stage and will continue to evolve to move further into the mainstream over the coming years,' Fadell wrote.

'Although this news may feel sudden to some, this transition has been in progress since late last year and while I wont be present day to day at Nest, Ill remain involved in my new capacity as an advisor to Alphabet and Larry Page.

'This will give me the time and flexibility to pursue new opportunities to create and disrupt other industries  and to support others who want to do the same  just as weve done at Nest.

'We should all be disrupters!'

Fadell invented the Nest (left) a smart thermostat. The $555 million acquisition of webcam startup Dropcam (right) did not go well, with Fadell openly criticizing the quality of the team in a news report earlier this year in the trade publication The Information.

Fadell started Nest in 2011 after a high-profile run at Apple, where he was an important player in the development of the iPod and the iPhone.

Top-tier venture capital investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers and Google Ventures backed Nest, which set out to build a smart thermostat and related products.

But Fadell and Nest have had a bumpy ride under Alphabet.

Nest had to recall a smoke detector in 2014 for a software defect that caused a safety risk, and critics said it was slow to roll out new products.

The original headset (pictured) was launched in a beta version and gave software developers the chance to buy Glass for $1,500 (990)

The $555 million acquisition of webcam startup Dropcam did not go well, with Fadell openly criticizing the quality of the team in a news report earlier this year in the trade publication The Information.

The story aired numerous complaints about Fadell's allegedly abrasive leadership.

Dropcam co-founder Greg Duffy responded with a blistering blog post in which he accused Fadell of 'blatant scapegoating' and said he regretted selling the company.

Duffy also said there had been a huge exodus of employees from Nest.

Fadell said in his blog that he had been planning to leave since late last year.

He did not say what he intended to do next, though he recently unveiled a new company, Actev Motors, that makes a smart go-cart for kids.

In a statement Friday, Page called Fadell a 'true visionary' and praised his accomplishments at Nest.
A US company has patented a product that will stop flowers wilting by altering their DNA.

Monsanto, an agricultural biotech firm, are using reverse genetic engineering to stop the natural destruction of cells that occurs once a plant is cut and extend their lifespan.

The company filed a patent earlier this year for the product, which muffles the plant's DNA and stops the production of ethylene gas, which ripens fruits and rots petals.

Monsanto, an agricultural biotech firm, are using reverse genetic engineering to stop the natural destruction of cells that occurs once a plant is cut and extend their lifespan

The patent document talks specifically about roses, petunias and carnations, which could be an enormous boost for florists by dramatically reducing the significant waste int he industry.

It will also be welcome news for flower enthusiasts all over the world, who will see the blooms poking from vases on table tops and windowsills stay fresh and colourful for longer.

According to the patent filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, the product, called RNA, can be fed into flowers through the water in the vase.

It then gets into the plant's DNA and strangles the EIN2 gene, which would otherwise trigger the production of ethylene.

It's been developed by Monsanto, a company famous for its work to genetically engineer crops, which is controversial all over the world after a documentary highlighted pitfalls in the future

The patent reads: 'Flowers of many species produce ethylene in a response to pollinatin amd this ethylene then serves as a signal to induce senescence and/or abcission (shedding) of the metabolically expensive petals once they're no longer needed to attract pollinators.'

The product uses a process called RNA interference, which was discovered two decades ago but is only now transforming the way plants are grown.

USES FOR RNAi SO FAR RNA interference is a natural process cells use to turn down, or surpress the activity of specific genes. Today, research for the use of RNAi in agriculture spans a variety of areas; including traditional areas of plant protection from weeds and bugs to novel new approaches to increasing yields. While research continues, uses so far in plants include the development of allergy-free peanuts and decaffeinated coffee beans. Monsanto has used RNAi in the development of improved oils in soybeans and as a new way of protecting plants from pests that attack the roots of corn plants underground. Monsanto Advertisement

It was first noticed in petunias, when researchers tried to introduce a pigment producing gene that would intensify the plant deep purple colour.

It is a form of genetic modification, but the changes made to a plant's DNA are temporary, so it avoids criticism directed at other products, which could lead to unexpected problems in the future.

Monsanto's work in genetic modification has been incredibly controversial after documentary Food Inc highlighted the potential pitfalls it could create.

Last month, thousands of protesters marched all over the world - from Switzerland to Brazil - to demonstrate against its genetic engineering and the pesticides it makes.

Although they are used by commercial farmers to make their crops more profitable. RNAi is already used to make some weeds susceptible to herbicides and to kill parasites that harm honey bees.

But Professor David Baulcombe, head of plant sciences at the University of Cambridge, said that if it works, it is 'quite an exciting innovation,' reports Oliver Moody from The Times.
Gazing at a frigate bird as it perches on a ship's rail just six feet from your head, it's impossible not to think of pterodactyls  and you start to get the strange feeling that you've strayed into The Land That Time Forgot.

With its fierce, hooked beak, vast angled wingspan and beady eye, the bird exudes primitive scorn.

And as our ship meanders its way around the Galapagos Islands, you notice that wildlife even rules in the sparse human settlements: sprawled on one town bench, hogging the shade, a sea lion waves a lazy flipper of ownership.

And take a hike on the ragged black lava and you'll probably have to step around a 3ft iguana dozing on the path.

The startling landscape of the Galapagos Islands, which sit 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador

Dream come true: Libby Purves during her wildlife-packed trip to the Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos, 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, are a Pacific outpost born of immense volcanic eruptions. Sailors, privateers and eccentrics have settled here sporadically over the past 400 years, sharing these islands with 4,000 species of wildlife  nearly half of them unique to this place, and all unafraid of Man.

There are snakes that go fishing, and immense tortoises whose shells have evolved and now have a rakish uplift to allow high grazing.

Where but on lonely Floreana, one of the islands that makes up the archipelago, can you nose past mangroves and skeletal-white incense trees in a rigid inflatable to see flamingoes  seemingly so African  amiably sharing a rock-pool with neat little penguins?

And what other ecosystem would produce huge iguanas that can stay underwater for an hour feeding on algae and then sneeze the salt out through their noses?

And they produce urine so clear of salt that small birds gratefully drink it during droughts.

The islands blow your mind, not least because the wildlife is so famously fearless: virtually all the land here has been designated a national park and, according to the rules, you should not get closer than 8ft to the wildlife, but those rules are insouciantly ignored by the animals and birds.

During my stay, blue-footed boobies did their mating dance next to a track, a rare mockingbird pecked our shoelaces, and a curious sea lion pup galloped up to inspect us on the beach.

To visit this World Heritage Site was the fulfilment of a lifetime dream  and just reaching the islands is no mean feat. It's a 24-hour journey on three planes from Britain.

We first flew to the Ecuadorian mountain city of Quito: given more time, we would gladly have spent several days there under the Cotopaxi volcano, roaming Spanish-colonial squares and taking day trips up the Andes or down into the Amazon.

Hitching a ride: A lava lizard cheekily perches on the head of a marine iguana

But after one elegant night in the historic Patio Andaluz hotel, we flew to the island of San Cristobal to board our new home  the Origin, the newest and smartest of the Ecoventura fleet.

It is an informal, very comfortable super-yacht for 20 guests staying in smart cabins.

Fine meals are served at marble-topped tables, and the packed itinerary around the islands is led by highly qualified naturalists.

It has to be that way: you don't go to the Galapagos to lounge all day on beaches (no food or drink apart from water may be taken ashore, and there are no 'rest rooms' or visitor facilities on most islands).

You don't go ashore in flip-flops either, because many of the living treasures can be found along rough, rocky trails. You go with stout shoes and respect, to marvel as Charles Darwin did.

Every hour produces excitements and fresh gasps, from seeing that the blue-footed booby does indeed have feet so electric-blue that they are almost neon, to swimming with penguins and turtles while frigate birds soar overhead.

Even glancing over the rails of the Origin produces a few surprises: on the final night, three enormous sharks circled the stern, just inches below the clear surface.

On another occasion, a sea lion clambered aboard for a nap.

On the tiny island of Espanola, we saw a single albatross and gathered for a 'unique' moment. But ten minutes later, the plateau was covered with them: one pair guarding their egg, and two more twining necks in a mating-dance.

Albatrosses roll their eggs before they hatch: if they roll in a circle, it's a female, and if it goes in a straight line, it's a male.

Nobody knows why. Our guides, Cecibel and Billy, said they have to go on regular refresher courses because scientists keep finding new facts.

A tired lion sprawls out along a bench in the shade beneath a sign stating 'preserve what is ours'

Purves said it is 'impossible not to think of pterodactyls' when looking at the enormous frigate birds

The brain spins in the heat, but even the clumsiest smartphone-snapper can get the most incredible photographs.

It's like Eden. As the young Darwin wrote: 'Both in space and time, we seem to be brought somewhat near to that great fact  that mystery of mysteries  the first appearance of new beings on this Earth.'

Indeed, on our first trek ashore  a steep, rocky scramble at Punta Pitt on San Cristobal  the most moving thing we saw was not lounging sea lions but our first Darwin's finches.

It was the diversity of beak and claw shapes on different islands that first led Darwin to propose his theory of natural selection.

Out of sheer need and innate determination, the birds remodelled their feeding habits and beaks. It was the first hard evidence of evolution.

Survival for some means death for others. On Espanola, Billy showed us the sea lion nursery in the shallows, where the young stay safe from sharks while mothers hunt at sea.

As he said that, a very thin, lone pup flopped towards us, its ribs showing under the glossy coat. It actually nosed my black shoe hopefully.

'The mother will have been shark food,' said Billy. 'The pup will die.'

We were lucky that our slots to visit the national park were early in the morning when it was a little cooler.

We would wake at 6am, have breakfast on the Origin, and by 7.30am we were powering ashore in a rigid inflatable.

After exploring the various rocky trails, we would take a coffee break before going snorkelling or swimming amid big, brown-striped fish.

After lunch and a snooze, we were free to roam along a vast white- sand beach, or snorkel or swim as pelicans dived into the sea just feet away from us.

There are few things more disconcerting than suddenly seeing through your snorkel mask that one of the rocks is moving  then realising it is, in fact, a turtle the size of a car bonnet.

It was also rather a shock four days into the trip to see the busy jetty at Santa Cruz, complete with shops, trees, imported plants and flowers.

On one of our jaunts, we took a trip into the highlands to walk woodland paths full of giant tortoises, which Darwin himself called 'antediluvian'  dinosaurs in shells.

They looked at us casually, then returned to their pursuits. One vast male managed to chase a reluctant female until she escaped into a shallow pond.

The breathtaking Origin is the newest and the smartest of the entire Ecoventura fleet

The distinctive blue-footed booby has feet so electric-blue that they are almost neon, Purves states

The ship melded our disparate group together, to the point that the final farewells were celebratory embraces.

There were more Americans than Britons on board (cheap flights abound from the US to Quito) and some brought expertise: in this volcano country, we were fortunate to have a geomorphologist among us, to whom the guides gladly deferred as he explained the deep lava tunnel we crept through and the sharp flakes underfoot.

On a beach on Espanola, a bleached whale skeleton was laid out amid the sea lions, so a learned debate flared between a US army doctor and a retired vet about whether the vertebrae were lined up correctly.

Amiable companions from 23 to 80, we were all pleasingly grown-up: there was not a single selfie-stick to be found.

The walking was varied, never technically difficult but sometimes exhausting. The jagged lava rocks and boulders meant that some of the group liked using sticks.

The oddest conditions were on the islet Sombrero Chino, a chaotic mingling of rough lava, lumps of white coral and sea-salt crystals: God's equivalent of a builder's rubble. But what a builder! Off its pristine white beach tiny penguins swam and darted.

Magical.
Last month, the High Court effectively ruled that it wasn't illegal to take children out of school during term time for a holiday when they have a good attendance record, and parents shouldn't be fined for doing so.

With the cost of trips made in term time much cheaper than those in school holidays, this will be welcome news for some.

Yet for educational or logistical reasons, the vast majority of parents will still want to stick to going away during the school holidays. And while prices for travel and accommodation are higher then, there are ways to minimise costs.

Here are some of my money-saving tips

There are savings of 40 to 45 per cent on packages to all-inclusive hotels in the Antalya region in late July

Avoid long-haul

Long-haul flights cost a packet in July and August  typically upwards of 3,500 return to, say, Barbados for a family of four. Thats likely to be about 2,000 more than for flights to the Med, where it may be just as hot and the pool just as appealing.

Head for the Med

Terrorist attacks and safety concerns mean holidaymakers are not going to Tunisia this year, while many others are also shunning Egypt and Turkey. This has led to steep rises in bookings to those countries perceived to be safe, most notably Spain and Portugal. Sales of packages to these destinations for this summer are up by nearly a third compared to last year.

By contrast, bookings to Turkey are down by a third. So, with Thomas Cook (thomascook.com), there are savings of 40 to 45 per cent on packages to all-inclusive hotels in the Antalya region in late July. There have been no recent terrorist incidents in Turkeys Med resorts, and the Foreign Office is not advising against travel. However, read the FOs advice (gov.uk/ foreign-travel-advice/turkey) and make up your own mind.

Other bargain-hunting grounds in the Med are Greece and Malta, where bookings have risen only slightly this summer.

Take the ferry

Flying accounts for a large chunk of the cost of an overseas break, so why not consider taking a ferry from Dover? Return midweek crossings from the Kent port to Calais with P&O Ferries (poferries.com) will cost from 120 in August.

Flying accounts for a large chunk of the cost of an overseas break, travellers should consider taking a ferry

Timing is everything

Fly midweek, minimise the number of bags you check in, and dont pay for allocated seats. Heres why. Last week, Ryanair quoted me 1,437.92 for a family of four travelling from Stansted to Majorca in early August. This was for Saturday flights with four checked-in bags and allocated seats. In contrast, flying Wednesday to Wednesday with one checked-in bag and no allocated seats, the price quoted was just 602.72.

Try a city break

Flights to many European cities are often no more, or hardly more, expensive in the school summer holidays than at other times. Dont head somewhere like Rome that will be sweltering in July or August, but opt instead for a northern city such as family-friendly Amsterdam. Budget airline easyJet quoted me flights costing 64 return for midweek trips from London in late July.

Happy camping
The bus judders along a corrugated strip of furious red dirt that passes for a main road.

Apparently, this is as good as it gets.

During the wet season, the unpaved stretch of the Cape Leveque Road in Western Australia can become an unpassable quagmire, thanks to the floodwaters and potholes.

But the mail bus has to get up it three times a week, travelling 135 miles from the coastal town of Broome. Drop-offs are made at a few remote communities, and then the bus heads straight back.

Its a long, brutal slog of a day, but it seems theres a substantial pool of masochists content to join postman Anthony Benaldi on his round  even if it means a 5am start.

The mail bus has to get up the unpaved Cape Leveque Road three times a week, travelling 135 miles from the coastal town of Broome

Theres nothing like red dirt baked in the blazing sun to wake you up, though. One of the key reasons for joining the Cape Leveque mail run is to get a taste of the Outback.

The other, of course, is to glimpse the bizarre spots where post is delivered.

The first is the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm, where the technique of cultivating pearls  previously known only to Japanese technicians and kept a closely guarded secret by their government  was finally cracked by Aussie Lyndon Brown.

The oysters found in these parts are the biggest in the world, and produce the largest pearls, too.

But the chaps at Cygnet Bay cant afford to rest on their laurels and have started a high-tech hatchery aimed at breeding out disease.

Bruce Brown  Lyndons brother  can be persuaded to show visiting amateur posties around if hes on site.

The mail run then moves on to the Aboriginal community at One Arm Point, before arriving at eco-camping spot Kooljaman.

Here, the views out over a tantalisingly out-of-reach white-sand beach and starkly rugged red cliffs are enough to make fervent tent-haters think that camping might be worth a try after all.

First class males: Postie Anthony Benaldi (right) is helped by a trainee before a postal run

But the delivery run must go on, and next stop is the police station.

Its the only one for hundreds of miles, and like so many buildings in the area, it is a glorified corrugated iron shack.

Its all about transport costs, says Anthony the postie.

When youre more than 1,200 miles from the nearest city, you want lightweight construction materials that lie flat on a single truck.

There is one glorious exception to this rule.

The Beagle Bay community was set up as a mission by French Trappist monks, and during the First World War a church was constructed.

The monks modelled the Sacred Heart on a photo of a church in the Bavarian countryside, making 90,000 bricks themselves, and burning shells to create mortar and plaster.

Inside they were even more creative.

The altar dazzles from afar, and a closer inspection shows that it is covered in mother of pearl. Its a rare bit of razzle-dazzle in the Outback.

And its also the last stop before the long, bumpy ride back to base across the giant sandpit masquerading as a road
No UK attractions made the list, with Big Ben and Buckingham Palace failing to feature in the coveted top 10

Other unmissable landmarks include the Acropolis in Athens, the Alhambra in Granada and Notre Dame in Paris

Ranked highly by guests is Milan Cathedral, which some consider to be the 'most beautiful church in the world'

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Steeped in history, Europe is blessed with an array of attractions spanning the centuries and a variety of cultural influences, from Hagia Sophia to the Vatican City.

But have you ticked all of the continent's highlights off on your bucket list?

Through millions of online reviews and ratings, TripAdvisor has compiled a list of their 10 best-rated tourist landmarks in Europe.

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1. St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Italy

A must-see for anyone visiting Rome, St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City welcomes over four million tourists annually

From the 'awe-inspiring' exterior mosaics to the 'amazing' architecture inside, TripAdvisor users are absolutely in love with this ever-important building

A must for anyone visiting Rome, St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City is the most important church in the Catholic world.

Thanks to the impressive Piazza San Pietro, on which it's situated, and its stunning Renaissance interior, which was principally designed by Michelangelo and Donato Bromante, more than four million tourists visit each year.

Described by TripAdvisor users as having 'awe-inspiring' exterior mosaics and 'amazing' architecture inside, the attraction is the highest rated in Europe on the site.

2. Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba, Cordoba, Spain

Many flock to witness the breathtaking Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba in Spain with its famous red-and-white arches

The Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba in Spain has a history as fascinating as its exquisite decoration, with its horseshoe arches and pillars.

Originally called the Great Mosque of Cordoba, the Islamic holy building was converted into a Christian cathedral in the 13th century.

Today many tourists come to wander among the 856 pillars of jasper, onyx, marble, and granite. Most famous of all are the alternating red and white arches which were inspired by those in the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

3. Church of the Savior on Blood, St. Petersburg, Russia

Coming in at number three on the list of must-see landmarks is Church of the Savior on Blood in Russia, which was built on the site where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March 1881

The Church of the Savior on Blood is a spectacular, multi-coloured church in St. Petersburg that has golden domes and intricate mosaics which dazzle in the sunlight.

The Church was voted as the third top attraction in Europe on the TripAdvisor list.

It was built on the site where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March 1881, with funds donated by the Imperial family and thousands of private donors.

Its stunning architecture has made it one of the main tourist attractions in St. Petersburg.

4. The Alhambra, Granada, Spain

The impressive Alhambra in Granada in Spain was made a Unesco World Heritage site in 1984 - and it is clear to see why many come to explore its preserved rooms

The impressive Alhambra in Granada in Spain was originally built for military purposes, but it also held the function of a Christian court in 1492.

Later, various structures were built including garrisons, a church and a Franciscan monastery. During the 18th century and part of the 19th, the castle fell into disrepair and many of the rooms held the new purpose of dungheaps and taverns that were frequented by thieves.

The castle was named as a national monument in 1870. After that it was restored and has been preserved over the years. In 1984 it became a Unesco World Heritage site and continues to be a popular tourist attraction.

TRIPADVISOR'S TOP 10 TOURIST LANDMARKS IN EUROPE 1. St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Italy 2. Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba, Cordoba, Spain 3. Church of the Savior on Blood, St. Petersburg, Russia 4. The Alhambra, Granada, Spain 5. Milan Cathedral (Duomo), Milan, Italy 6. Hagia Sophia Museum / Church (Ayasofya), Istanbul, Turkey 7. Grand-Place, Brussels, Belgium 8. Eiffel Tower, Paris, France 9. Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France 10. Acropolis, Athens, Greece Advertisement TRIPADVISOR'S TOP 10 TOURIST LANDMARKS IN THE UK 1. Big Ben, London 2. Tower of London, London 3. Tower Bridge, London 4. Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh 5. Houses of Parliament, London 6. The Roman Baths, Bath 7. Westminster Abbey, London 8. Royal Yacht Britannia, Edinburgh 9. The Cavern Club, Liverpool 10.Buckingham Palace, London Advertisement

5. Milan Cathedral (Duomo), Milan, Italy

Milan's duomo has been described by some TripAdvisor reviewers as the 'most beautiful church in the world'

The capital city's cathedral has been described by some TripAdvisor users as the 'most beautiful church in the world'.

And the best vantage point from which to experience the stunning architecture? From the roof, which requires a ticket to access.

The Gothic building, which took nearly six centuries to complete, is also the seat of the Archbishop of Milan: Cardinal Angelo Scola.

6. Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey

Famed landmark: Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, was the greatest church in Eastern Christendom for almost a thousand years

Commissioned in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, was the greatest church in Eastern Christendom for almost a thousand years.

It was converted to a mosque in the 15th century when four minarets were added and it is now a museum.

Its style was influenced by Georgian and Seljuk design, but inside its wall paintings and mosaic floors adhere to the Constantinople aesthetic of the time of construction, 1238 and 1263.

7. Grand-Place, Brussels, Belgium

The Grand Place is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the city and the most memorable landmark in Brussels, helping it to rank seventh on the list of Europe's must-sees

The Grand Place, the central square of Brussels, is surrounded by guildhalls, the city's Town Hall and the Breadhouse and is a Unesco World Heritage site.

Every two years in August, a giant 'flower carpet' brightens up the front of the Grand Place for a few days.

The square is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the city and most memorable landmark in Brussels, helping it to rank seventh on the list of Europe's must-sees.

8. Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

The iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris was completed on March 31, 1889, and held the title of the worlds tallest man-made structure for 41 years until it was succeeded by the Chrysler Building in New York in 1930

It comes as no surprise that the world-famous Eiffel Tower in Paris is one of the most beloved landmarks for tourists on TripAdvisor.

The iconic structure was completed on March 31, 1889, and held the title of the worlds tallest man-made structure for 41 years until it was succeeded by the Chrysler Building in New York in 1930.

Around seven million people visit annually, making it the most visited paid-for monument in the world.

9. Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is one of the most widely-known churches in the world, and is popular with TripAdvisor travellers

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is one of the most widely-known churches in the world, and is popular with TripAdvisor travellers who flock there.

Many praise its French Gothic architecture, and the beauty of its stained glass windows, which juxtapose earlier Romanesque architecture.

The popular attraction was begun in 1163 and mainly completed by 1250, and typically beats the Eiffel Tower for visitors, welcoming around 13 million guests each year.

10. Acropolis, Athens, Greece

One of the most recognisable landmarks in Greece is the Acropolis, which stands watch watch over Athens atop a rocky outcrop. Pictured is the breathtaking Parthenon temple

The magnificent Acropolis stands watch over Athens in Greece atop a rocky outcrop, and is visible from nearly everywhere in the city.

It contains the remains of several ancient buildings, the most recognisable being the Parthenon, with its gleaming white pillars and stone steps.

Nearly 6,000 TripAdvisor users have ranked the World Heritagelisted site as Excellent, with many saying it is a 'place you have to go before you die.'
This is the dramatic moment a cruise ship packed with sightseeing tourists crashed into a dock in Alaska, causing as much as $3 million (2 million) in damage.

The 965ft Celebrity Infinity was mooring in the city of Ketchikan, on the Inside Passage on the states southeastern coast, when it scraped along the dock and knocked a barrier into the water.

Miami-based Celebrity Cruises, which owns and operates the ship, blamed inclement weather and said no one on board was injured. The ship was forced to remain at port overnight while it was repaired.

Footage shows the Celebrity Infinity crashing into a dock and scraping along a barrier in Ketchikan, Alaska

Celebrity Cruises said the ship sustained 'minor scraping damage' to its hull above the waterline

Witnesses remarked that the ship was 'coming in high' before it slammed into the pier and toppled a barrier

Celebrity Infinity, which has a capacity for 2,170 passengers, was docking in Ketchikan yesterday afternoon as part of a seven-night cruise between Vancouver and the Hubbard Glacier.

A Celebrity Cruises spokeswoman told MailOnline Travel the damage to the ships exterior was minor and repairs began last night.

She said: While docking in Ketchikan, Alaska, the Celebrity Infinity struck the pier due to inclement weather.

Initial assessment shows minor scraping damage to the ships hull above the waterline. Our crew is in the process of completing repairs to the ship.

No injuries were reported on board the ship or on the pier.

Celebrity Infinity, which has a capacity for 2,170 passengers, underwent repairs after the mishap

The cruise ship was on a seven-night cruise between Vancouver and the Hubbard Glacier

In the video, people on board a much smaller vessel nearby note that the cruise ship 'is coming in high, as passengers watch from their balconies.

A woman asks: Why are all those people running?

Moments later, a man says Brace yourselves and a woman shouts Oh s*** as the cruise ship slams into the pier.

City officials estimated the damage at between $2 million and $3 million, the Alaska Dispatch News reported.

Steve Corporon, director of Ketchikans ports and harbors, told the newspaper that longshoremen, port security personnel and Celebrity employees moved out of the way before impact when they realised the ships approach wasnt correct.

He said it will take one to two months to repair the dock.

Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Shawn Eggert told the newspaper that no pollution spilled into the water, and strong wind gusts were reported at the time.

According to an online itinerary the ship was scheduled to leave Ketchikan, called the Salmon Capital of the World, last night.

It didn't leave the Alaskan city until early this morning, but is still scheduled to return to Vancouver on Sunday, a Celebrity Cruises spokeswoman said.

Celebrity Infinity, a Millennium class ship, launched in 2001 and underwent an $8 million refit in 2007.
An airline passenger whose flight was delayed nearly 24 hours became so angry that he claimed he had a bomb in his luggage shortly before the plane was about to finally take off.

The 27-year-old tourist, from China, was supposed to fly out of Taipei, Taiwan, on Thursday but his flight was pushed back to Friday morning due to severe thunderstorms and flooding.

Police took the threat seriously and removed the man from the Beijing-bound flight, which eventually took off without him on board.

The man told an Air China crew member he had a bomb in his luggage, causing an even further delay

More than 30,000 passengers had their flights delayed or cancelled due to torrential downpours in northern Taiwan, Shanghaiist reported.

More than 200 flights were delayed at Taiwans busiest airport on the outskirts of Taipei.

They included Air China flight CA186, which was delayed even further when the man told a crew member there was a bomb in his luggage.

More than 200 flights were delayed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport due to severe storms and flooding

As a precaution, all passengers were forced to disembark and go through a security check, while the plane was moved away from the terminal and inspected by a bomb disposal unit.

They did not find any explosives on board.
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Long gone is the golden age of air travel when well-to-do passengers wore their best clothes and holidaymakers were enticed by posters of exciting destinations that were previously out of reach.

But it lives on in these vintage photos and adverts which have resurfaced as Aer Lingus, Irelands flag carrier, celebrates the 80th anniversary of its first flight.

In 1936, five passengers boarded a de Havilland DH84 Dragon at Baldonnel, Aerodrome an Irish Army Air Corps base outside Dublin, and flew across the Irish Sea to Bristol.

Called Iolar (Eagle), the airlines first and only aircraft was soon joined by two more with the addition of Londons Croydon Airport and a summer service route to the Isle of Man.

Since then the Dublin-based airline, now owned by International Airlines Group, which also owns British Airways, has grown into a company with 62 aircraft and 10 transatlantic routes.

In 1936 the airline had three routes and carried just under 900 passengers. Eighty years later, it has 117 routes and carries more than 12 million travellers a year.

Passengers wore their best clothes - and had plenty of personal space - on transatlantic flights in the 1950s

The six-seater Iolar (Eagle), a de Havilland DH84 Dragon, was Aer Lingus' first aircraft and was used on its inaugural flight in 1936

Flight attendants pose outside a plane (left, circa 1946). A flight attendant welcomes a young girl and her mother (right, circa 1950).

Aer Lingus used these posters to convince holidaymakers to book flights to destinations such as Manchester, New York and Paris

Dublin Airport remains Aer Lingus' main hub. Passengers can still fly direct to New York, although the trip is now much faster

Aer Lingus added this de Havilland DH86 Express in 1936. It was used to fly passengers from Baldonnel to London Croydon

By the late 1950s Aer Lingus had added Lockheed Super Constellation aircraft and introduced Paris as its first route to continental Europe

The Dublin-based airline, now owned by International Airlines Group, which also owns BA, has grown into a company with 62 aircraft

An Aer Lingus Carvair unloading a car and other cargo (picture taken in the 1960s). The aircraft could also transport 25 passengers

Aer Lingus was the third airline to introduce the Viscount (left), the world's first turboprop airliner

Like other carriers, Aer Lingus' posters promoted the glamour of air travel to sell seats to holidaymakers

Aer Lingus flight attendants model uniforms from the past. The original uniform is pictured in the back row, second from right

Aer Lingus cabin crew members wear the carrier's current uniform. The airline now flies to more than 100 destinations
Ryan Stokes has long been one of Australia's most eligible bachelors.

However, it looks like the handsome 39-year-old media heir is officially off the market, after reportedly becoming engaged to girlfriend Claire Campbell, 31.

A friend of the pair told The Daily Telegraph 'both families are really happy with the news', with the brunette beauty believed to have won the seal of approval from Ryan's father, Kerry Stokes.

She must be Stoked! Claire Campbell (left) is reportedly engaged to Seven West Media heir Ryan Stokes (right)

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to the couple for comment.

The news comes just six months after they made their debut as a couple at Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Christmas drinks at Kirribili House in Sydney last December.

It was the same week his ex-girlfriend Jodi Anasta announced the end of her three-year marriage to Braith Anasta.

While it's not known how long the private pair have been an item for, it's understood Claire came into the media mogul's life following his split from girlfriend of four years, Laura Weston, in mid-2015.

The PM's party wasn't quite the first time the pair have been spotted together in public, with the couple posing for photos together at the Lexus Ball in October as well.

'Final day of 2015!!' Claire excitedly captioned a shot of the pair warmly rugged up as they rang in the New Year together in Las Vegas

There were also reported sightings of the couple back in September at the AFL grand final and also at the Broome Cup in August.

Following their appearance at the Prime Minister's Christmas drinks, the loved up duo rang in the New Year together in Las Vegas - uploading a selfie to Instagram to capture the special moment.

'Final day of 2015!!' Claire excitedly captioned a shot of the pair warmly rugged up.

Prior to this, there are no shots of the couple on her social media.

Fashionista: Ryan's new squeeze Claire is the director of Brisbane-based shoe company Maryons established by her mother Maryon Campbell

Contacts: Claire is well connected in the fashion industry just like Jodi, the beauty pictured here with Marie Claire Australia publisher Jackie Frank

Ryan's big news means there's set to be two weddings in the stokes household, after younger brother Bryant, 38, announced his engagement to Dominique Lomas in July 2015.

This will be Bryant's second marriage and Ryan's first.

And the media heir's bride-to-be seems to be the perfect match - combining both beauty and brains.

The leggy lady is director of Maryons Shoes, a design boutique business built up by her mother Maryon Campbell, with four stores in Queensland.

Multidimensional woman: On social media, Claire describes herself as a 'director, buyer, shoe obsessor, bag accumulator, traveller. wine drinker (and) tango dancer'

On social media, Claire describes herself as a 'director, buyer, shoe obsessor, bag accumulator, traveller. wine drinker (and) tango dancer'.

Meanwhile his famous ex-girlfriend Jodi, whom he dated for two years, is currently separated from her husband.

Jodi and Braith share custody of their two-year-old daughter Aleeia and the former Home and Away actress is set to makes a return to TV on rival soap Neighbours.

In 2009 Ryan and the former Channel Seven actress split after she was found in an apartment with alleged biker gang member Mark James following a 'weekend bender'.
Jennifer Garner showed no signs of jet lag on Thursday.

The mom-of-three, who just returned to Los Angeles after visiting estranged husband Ben Affleck, was spotted sporting a bright smile at the Brentwood Country Mart later the same morning.

The 44-year-old actress looked laid-back chic in a plaid button-up and skinny blue jeans.

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No jet lag! Jennifer Garner, who just returned to Los Angeles after visiting estranged husband Ben Affleck, was spotted sporting a bright smile at the Brentwood Country Mart later the same morning on Thursday

Jennifer appeared to not have gained any weight on the Italian getaway as she looked ultra slim in her skintight denim pants.

Her white Rails blouse featured a navy tartan pattern and draped loosely on her fit physique.

Jennifer's effortless yet stylish look included a pair of flat light-colored loafers.

The Miracles From Heaven star accessorized with a rose gold watch and a coordinating dainty necklace.

Happy! The 44-year-old actress looked laid-back chic in a plaid button-up and skinny blue jeans as she talked on her cell phone and carried a car key and a small red and black coin purse in her free hand

The brunette beauty pulled her long locks away from her face in a ponytail bun and opted for minimal make-up behind her brown over-sized shades.

Jennifer looked happy as she talked on her cell phone and carried a car key and a small red and black coin purse in her free hand.

Her return home comes amid reports that she and her estranged husband, Ben, 43, are thinking about getting back together - almost a year after they split in June 2015 following 10 years of marriage.

The reconciliation rumors come despite claims that he cheated on Jen with the family nanny.

Home sweet home: The brunette beauty pulled her long locks away from her face in a bun and opted for brown over-sized shades on her first outing since returning to LA

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, Jennifer and their children, Violet, 10, Seraphina, 7, and Samuel, 4, have been spending a lot of time together as a family away from the stresses of Hollywood.

And, according to Us Weekly it's helping their relationship, especially after yet another quick getaway.

Reconciling? Jennifer's return to Los Angeles comes amid reports that she and her estranged husband, Ben Affleck, 43, are thinking about getting back together - almost a year after they split in June 2015 following 10 years of marriage. Above, the pair attended the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in 2013

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 have 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 an 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.'
Michelle Collins has become a household name over the past year thanks to her co-hosting duties on The View.

But after only one season on the daytime talk show, ABC executives have made the decision not to renew the comedian's contract, according to Variety who broke the news on Friday.

Not long after the quick-witted 34-year-old joined the panel full-time last July, rumors began to swirl regarding how long her stint would last.

In December, Daily Mail Online exclusively reported that the network was quietly planning to revamp the cast yet again in January after returning from its winter hiatus.

Axed: Michelle Collins has gotten the boot from The View as ABC executives have decided not to renew her contract after only one season on the talk show, according to Variety. Michelle attended the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival in April in NYC

However, ABC isn't yet admitting to the host shake-up that would affect Season 20 when the show returns in September.

A network spokesperson told Variety, 'Michelle is smart, opinionated and funny.'

The representative continued, 'Shes been a great addition to the panel this year. When we are ready to make an announcement about next season, we will.'

Michelle joined the ABC round-table after a lengthy trial period last summer, once the fresh face impressed higher-ups with her impromptu commentary.

Axed from daytime? ABC isn't yet admitting to firing the 34-year-old comedian. Whoopi Goldberg, Michelle, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Paula Faris hosted the ABC round-table in May

But according to Variety's sources, ABC executives have not liked Michelle sidetracking the Hot Topics debates with her personal asides.

In addition, the publication sited that during an election year, political savvy is more important than Michelle's areas of expertise which are in pop culture, social media and The Bachelor -- the TV personality is a contributor on The Bachelor Live.

Lately, Michelle is rarely seen on the round-table, as ABC News has reduced her to one appearance a week.

While Michelle, who moved to New York City from Los Angeles for the gig, is currently on vacation in Europe, Variety reports that she is expected to stay on the panel through the end of the summer.

No official announcement yet': A network spokesperson told Variety that Michelle has 'been a great addition to the panel this year. When we are ready to make an announcement about next season, we will'; Michelle and Joy are photographed above during a show in February

On June 15, she is set to perform her stand-up act Magic Mich XXL in NYC.

The View will air new shows through August 5 and then break for its summer hiatus.

In recent seasons, the struggling morning program has undergone multiple talent changes. Departures included Rosie ODonnell, Nicolle Wallace and Rosie Perez, as well as Barbara Walters who retired in 2014.

Despite rumors of Whoopi Goldberg leaving The View, the moderator of the long-running ABC talk show has signed a new contract to return for Season 20, Daily Mail Online can reveal.

Whoopi, who's four-year $5 million-a-year contract ended this year, has signed a new one-season deal with the Disney-owned network to return for $2.5 million, half of her previous salary.

Reduced TV time: Variety sited that during an election year, political savvy is more important than Michelle's areas of expertise which are in pop culture, social media and The Bachelor. Lately, Michelle is rarely seen on the round-table, as ABC News has reduced her to one appearance a week

A source close to the show tells Daily Mail Online that the current plan is to have the 60-year-old comedian remain on her four-day work schedule, leaving the live Friday broadcasts for original The View co-host Joy Behar to continue moderating.

Meanwhile, Candace Cameron-Bure is returning to the Full House reboot for Netflix, Fuller House, for season two and is unavailable for the first three months of the show.

The New York Daily News reported that the 40-year-old conservative Christian also hates commuting between New York City where the show is live and Los Angeles where her family still lives.

Season 20 shakeup? The View will air new shows through August 5 and then break for its summer hiatus. Only time will tell which ladies will surround the round-table when the ABC show returns for it's 20th season in September. Jimmy Kimmel joined Michelle, Joy, Whoopi, Paula and Sunny on the show in May

'She hates the commute and being away from the family. Between Fuller House and those Hallmark Channel movies she does, she'd rather focus on being an actress,' offered the source.

Lastly, Raven Symone, 30, has been one of the most controversial hosts of The View in the show's history.

Fans have heavily criticized the former child star's uninformed opinions on the talk show and her constant reminder that she's 'not good with her words'.

Viewers of the show even started a petition to have her removed from the panel, which has 139,463 signatures to date.

Only time will tell which ladies will surround the round-table when the ABC show returns for it's 20th season in September.
She's not afraid to show off her youthful figure, and has even posed recently in just a bikini for a magazine cover.

So Lorraine Kelly was naturally hurt when internet trolls claimed that her latest sizzling snap may have been photo-shopped.

However, the 56-year-old made sure to defend herself against the comments as she revealed that the mark on her leg was actually caused by a horse riding accident.

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Fighting back: Lorraine Kelly was hurt when internet trolls claimed that her latest sizzling snap may have been photo-shopped

The TV presenter took to Instagram to post a photo of herself and Maxine Jones by the poolside in a striking pink two-piece.

However, after seeing the photo, one fan tweeted: '@reallorraine @realmissfiona Anyone else notice the disfigurement to Lorraine's right leg (inner though) due to airbrushing.'

But the Scottish beauty was quick to confront the rumours, as she wrote: 'This is a scar on my leg from a serious accident when I was trampled by a horse. Pics are untouched.'

Daring to bare: Last year Lorraine posed in a bikini for a magazine cover (pictured) and she recently launched another body confidence campaign

She added: 'I'm not as self conscious about it now - but remarks like that do sting a bit!'

This isn't the first time that Lorraine has opened up about her dramatic ordeal with the animal, as last year she told The Mirror: 'I fell off and it reared up above me, sending its front hooves crashing down on my right thigh.

'I lay there in shock but I remember looking at my leg and seeing blood pouring from the wound.'

Last month the star stripped down to daring pink swimwear, which made the most of her long legs and generous cleavage for a new shoot for her show, Lorraine.

On the Club Tropicana-themed shoot for her new Bikini Promise + One campaign, she lies on a lilo as she's pushed around a pool by her hunky TV chefs James Tanner and Dean Edwards.

Setting the record straight: The Scottish beauty was quick to confront rumours that she edited her photos as she said that any unusual marks were caused by a serious accident

Talking about how she appeared on the small screen in just her swimsuit last year, the TV favourite says: 'For the finale of the Bikini Promise last year, I danced on the banks of the River Thames in my bikini with a fantastic group of women also in their bikinis. Who knows what will be in store for this years finale!

'I never thought I would feel confident enough to wear a bikini on national TV but if I can do it then you can too.

This plan is all about feeling healthy, fit and happy. This year we want you to get your plus one involved as well. It could be your partner, relative or best friend.'

The drive encourages people to involve their loves ones in a motivational drive to get fit and healthy for the summer.

At the beginning of the year, the star launched her fitness DVD after a huge interest from fans into how she kept in shape.

She admits that it's taken years to feel confident in her body - and reveals she's feels better than she ever did in her 20s and 30s.

Lorraine explained: 'Ive just turned 56 but I dont feel it. I was looking recently at pictures of me taken 20, 30 years ago and I honestly think I look better now than I did back then.

Im in much better shape. But its more than that: I feel better, I feel more healthy. Its taken me a long time but I finally feel Ive arrived at my ideal body.
It's certainly not the sort of accusation you would expect to be hurled after a party thrown for some of the wealthiest names in society.

But Lady Victoria Hervey has claimed that a friend of a friend stole her 400 mobile phone during a taxi ride home from a star-studded Gucci bash.

The 39-year-old, who is the daughter of the late 6th Marquess of Bristol, shared an Uber cab from 106 Piccadilly in Mayfair, London, on Thursday night with her friend American actress Lindsay Lohan and other partygoers.

Lady Victoria Hervey, 39, shared an Uber cab from 106 Piccadilly in Mayfair, London, on Thursday night with her friend American actress Lindsay Lohan and other partygoers when she claims her phone was stolen

Stolen: Lady Victoria Hervey says her Samsung Galaxy S6 phone was stolen by a friend of a friend

But when the group arrived home in Chelsea, she realised the Samsung smartphone, which holds personal photos and the contacts of her VIP friends, had disappeared from her lap.

In the early hours of yesterday she told her 6,900 followers on Twitter: I got robbed tonight in the back of my own Uber leaving Gucci. I felt it get ripped off me and then was made to feel like I had lost it.

She later tweeted: It was for sure the guy sitting next to me in the car. I am going to the police today if its not returned.

When one of her followers asked why she had got into a taxi with someone she didnt know, she said: It was a friend of a friend.

Lady Victoria has had the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge phone since January and is worried about it falling into the wrong hands.

She said last night: I got everything blocked this morning and I have a fingerprint lock.

I just feel it was a planned thing and feel violated that it happened right in front of my eyes.

She added that Miss Lohan had also experienced trouble during the evening, writing: Lindsay said someone ripped off the handle from her Gucci bag too.

During the 1990s Lady Victoria was a regular on the London social scene, alongside Tamara Beckwith and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.
They have watched 38 other cities rock out to their favourite band.

And the Helsinki, Finland, fans of 5 Seconds Of Summer turned out in force when it was their turn to experience the bands massive world tour.

Dozens of screaming fans showed up to the Australian pop punk groups hotel on Friday to meet band members Luke Hemmings and Michael Clifford ahead of their show at Hartwall Arena.

Cameras ready: Helsinki fans of 5 Seconds of Summer turned out in force when it was their turn to experience the bands massive world tour

They were greeted by a gaggle of teenage fans with phone cameras at the ready, one of whom carried a homemade sign reading you are hotter than a sauna.

Two of the boys worked the rope line in casual dress, stopping for hugs and selfies with fans as they stepped out of the Hilton Hotel.

Guitarist Michael, 20, showed his love of motorcycle brand Harley Davidson with his entire outfit emblazoned with the companys distinctive logo.

Complimentary fans: They were greeted by a gaggle of teenage fans with phone cameras at the ready, one of whom carried a homemade sign reading you are hotter than a sauna

He wore a very faded grey t-shirt under a black jacket and blue jeans, with a fraying light grey trucker cap.

Rhythm guitarist and vocalist Luke, 19, dressed in the groups traditional all black with a simple long sleeved t-shirt and jeans combo with a black Deus-branded cap.

Arriving in the Finnish capital from neighbouring Sweden on Thursday, 5SOS is nearing the halfway point of its 101-date world tour and the end of its European leg.

Adored: Two of the boys worked the rope line in casual dress, stopping for hugs and selfies with fans as they stepped out of the Hilton Hotel

The gig in Helsinki is the 45th stop, with only half a dozen more to go until they move on to North America.

After Friday nights show the tour immediately rolls on to Tallinn, Estonia, for a Saturday night show before three stops in Germany and two in Spain.

The boys will eventually make their way home to Australia on September 29 for three shows to close out their year-long odyssey.
Her social media feed is regularly filled up with snaps of her cuddling animals.

And on Friday Ruby Rose shared a sweet flashback image on social media as she pulled herself out of a swimming pool as her black and white pig, Hazel trotted up to her.

The 30-year-old Australian actress flashed her tattooed arms as she rested her forearms against the pools edge as she emerged from the water dripping wet.

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Having a great swine: Ruby Rose shared a sweet flashback image on social media on Friday as she pulled herself out of a swimming pool as her black and white pig, Hazel trotted up to her

With her cropped dark locks slicked back she looked into the camera with a stern face as she soaked up the sunshine.

The androgynous beauty wore a simple black swimsuit that showed off her svelte frame and tied up around her neck.

Captioning the image she simply wrote '#FBF' in reference to the image of Hazel the pig, who she owned with ex-fiancee Phoebe Dahl.

Pooch pals: The 30-year-old model and television personality is an avid animal lover and last week shared adorable snaps as she cosied up with her dogs, planting a kiss on one of them

Getting cosie: In another image the Orange Is The New Black star cuddled up with her other pet dog in bed and gushed 'dragon gives the best hugs'

The model and television personality is an avid animal lover and last week shared adorable snaps as she cosied up with her pooches.

One image shows Ruby planting a kiss on the dog's head as she clutches him in her arms and flaunting her naturally striking looks with minimal makeup.

A second image shows the Orange Is The New Black star laying in bed with her pet dog who snuggled up to her under the sheets.

'I'm trying to get up but my luck dragon gives the best hugs,' she wrote underneath the image.

Working hard: It's been a whirlwind year for the actress who has been filming for her roles in the action packed block busters John Wick: Chapter Two and xXx: Return Of Xander Cage and hit the gym to buff up for the roles

It's been a whirlwind year for the actress who has been filming for her roles in the action packed block busters John Wick: Chapter Two and xXx: Return Of Xander Cage.

She has thrown herself into her fitness in preparation for the two demanding roles and most recently filmed scenes with Vin Diesel in Canada for the xXx sequel.

Ruby plays the role of Adele Wolff in the movie which is set to be released is scheduled for release in January 2017, will also star fellow Australian actress Toni Collette and Samuel L. Jackson.
They're always happiest when they're spending time together.

And Ola and James Jordan were all smiles as they led the celebrity arrivals at the Rainbows celebrity charity ball on Friday night at The Dorchester Hotel, London.

The professional dancers were suitably dressed for the glamorous occasion, with Ola, 33, wowing in a cleavage-baring black dress with glitzy gold detailing.

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Happy couple: Ola and James Jordan were all smiles as they attended the Rainbows celebrity charity ball on Friday night at The Dorchester Hotel, London

The Polish beauty produced a dazzling white smile as she posed in front of the cameras with her hand resting on her hip.

Her complexion looked flawless and her make-up application classy, with her chestnut peepers decorated with a smoky eyeshadow and lashings of mascara.

She wore her hair in a middle-parting and scraped it back into a ponytail which fell neatly down her back.

Stunning: The Polish beauty produced a dazzling white smile as she posed in front of the cameras with her hand resting on her hip

Belle of the ball: Ola's complexion looked flawless and her make-up application classy, with her chestnut peepers decorated with a smoky eyeshadow and lashings of mascara

Putting in an appearance: Former TOWIE star Amy Childs joined the couple at the bash

Glammed up: Amy dazzled in a sequin-embellished dress with a fitted blue skirt

James, 38, looked dapper in a traditional black suit complete with a bow tie and white shirt. Both of the Jordans pinned a white flower to their outfits for the occasion.

They put on a loving display as they posed with their arms around one another at the entrance to the hotel.

When it comes to keeping the spark alive James and Ola Jordan have explained brutal honesty is the best policy.

Dapper dude: Union J singer JJ Hamblett was dressed to impress in a smart black suit

Beaming: Vanessa Feltz was looking lovely in a white maxi dress with a bejewelled bodice

All glammed up: Love Island's Cally Jane Beech was dressed to impress in a flesh-coloured dress

Smitten: Cally Jane cosied up to her hunky football player boyfriend, Luis Morrison

Toast for two: The pair were seen gazing deep into each others' eyes over a glass of bubbly

Locking lips: Cally Jane and Luis weren't shy about packing on the PDA at the event

Speaking to new! magazine last year, Ola explained the secret to her happy relationship was simple, saying: 'We're not afraid to say things to each other. We're honest.

And the honesty that Ola and her husband abide by appears to have helped them no end - even with the prickly subject of weight.

Following her exit from Strictly and a nasty accident on series two of The Jump, Ola was forced to rest and recuperate, but had to dismiss pregnancy rumours after piling on the pounds.

But following ten years on Strictly, putting her body firmly in the limelight, the dancer admitted she was used to the 'criticism' over her looks.

Ola and James were joined by a motley crowd of celebrities at the event, including

All that glitters: Singer Samantha Harvey dazzled in a glitzy gold dress with a side split

Posing up a storm: Samantha and JJ bonded over a glass of bubbly at the charity ball

Cheers! Coronation Street Bill Roache was also in attendance at the star-studded event

X Factor reunion: Andy Abraham was in attendance alongside warm-up act Ian Royce
He is the exuberant founder of one of Australia's preeminent makeup brands.

And Napoleon Perdis certainly played the part as he strolled through Sydney airport on Saturday wearing a bright orange tracksuit set.

Clad in peachy-toned jumper emblazoned with the word 'diamond', the 46-year-old completed his out-there ensemble by throwing on a pair of metallic silver sneakers and a bright green backpack.

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A splash of colour! Napoleon Perdis, 46, strolled through Sydney airport on Saturday wearing a bright orange tracksuit set on Saturday as he and Lianna, 16, returned from a trip to Greece

He also added an extra splash of colour by accessorising his look with a tangerine-hued leather wrist band and a gaudy green and white cap.

Napoleon, was joined by his 16-year-old daughter Lianna, both of whom had just arrived from a trip to Greece, where Lianna currently goes to school.

Brunette Lianna looked trendy in a shimmering emerald bomber jacket paired with navy leggings.

Ecclectic: He also added an extra splash of colour by accessorising his look with a tangerine-hued leather wrist band and a gaudy green and white cap

She completed her look with a pair of white sneakers and a matching white T-shirt.

Lianna, a model, is set to appear on the upcoming front cover of Girlfriend magazine.

Napoleon and his wife Soula-Marie also share three other daughters, Athina, Alexia, Angelene and Lianna.

It's a family affair! Napoleon, was joined by his 16-year-old daughter Lianna, both of whom had just arrived from a trip to Greece, where Lianna currently goes to school

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia recently about his daughters' ambitions to join the family business, he said: Theyre proud of what we do, and if a couple of them want to be a part of it Im open to it, and if a couple of them want to do something else thats perfectly acceptable.

Lianna previously told Daily Mail Australia she lets her father know what's hot and what's not', and planned to continue her involvement in the business.

'I want to explore every aspect of the business and be involved as much as I can,' she said.

'Dad is always encouraging my sisters and I to learn as much as we can and work our way from the bottom up, just like he did.

'Im so inspired by my Dads work ethic and Ive seen first-hand how hard he has worked to be where he is today.'

Fashionable brood: Brunette Lianna looked trendy in a shimmering emerald bomber jacket paired with navy leggings
Phoebe Tonkin was certainly dressed to impress when she arrived at the Chanel Fine Jewellery event on Thursday.

Stepping out at at The New York Public Library, the 26-year-old Australian actress stunned in a gorgeous black ensemble that showcased her slender frame perfectly.

Phoebe's outfit featured a black strappy blouse splashed with bold floral embellishments, neatly tucked into a long leather skirt.

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Stylish: Phoebe Tonkin was certainly dressed to impress when she arrived at the Chanel Fine Jewellery event on Thursday

A pair of strappy black heels accentuated her model height on the day, and she added a few more striking accessories to take her look to the next level.

With her brown tresses worn out in loose waves, Phoebe sported a pair of delicate gold earrings.

Her gorgeous green eyes were highlighted with a slick of bold black eyeliner, while her pout was painted a luscious pink on the night.

Proving she's a professional in front of the camera, The Originals star Phoebe knew exactly how to work her best angles for the photographers at the event.

Glamazon: Stepping out at at The New York Public Library, the 26-year-old Australian actress stunned in a gorgeous black ensemble that showcased her slender frame perfectly

Sleek in black: Phoebe's outfit featured a black strappy blouse splashed with bold floral embellishments, neatly tucked into a long leather skirt

And it's clear that the stunner had a fantastic time with fashion's elite, as she shared a snap from the evening on her Instagram account, along with the caption: 'Magical night'.

Not by her side on this occasion was her boyfriend Paul Wesley.

On The Originals, she plays werewolf Hayley Marshall-Kenner.

The star - who is originally from Sydney - is also known for previous roles including mermaid Cleo on Australian show H20: Just Add Water.

Before heading to Hollywood, she also appeared on Australian shows including Home and Away.
She's no stranger to showing off her impeccable bod.

And Friday was no different as Sharon Stone arrived at the LAX airport in a racy ensemble that left little to the imagination.

The 58-year-old star suffered a wardrobe malfunction as she went braless in a semi-sheer top which she paired with skintight leather pants.

Fashion flaw! Sharon Stone, 58, suffered a wardrobe malfunction when she went braless at the LAX airport on Friday

The Casino starlet looked chic in the monochrome ensemble, slipping into a pair of black trousers which showcased her endless stems.

She teamed the sexy skinnies with a lightweight knit top that was partially see-through and exposed a bit of her ample bosom beneath.

Her newly cropped 'do that she debuted on Thursday was covered beneath a Panama hat with black trim.

Revealing: The Basic Instinct star wore a semi-sheer top that exposed a bit of her ample bosom beneath

The ageless beauty went with minimal makeup, opting for a touch of rosy blush and soft pink lip gloss.

Adding height to her already statuesque 5ft 9in frame, the Oscar nominee stepped out in a pair of strappy platform wedge heels.

Stone rounded out her chic style with a long silver cross necklace, retro shades and an oversize brown crocodile skin handbag.

Fan-atical! The Oscar nominee made time to sign autographs for admirers

Leggy blonde! She paired the lightweight knit top with skintight black leather pants which showcased her endless stems

The Basic Instinct star's outing comes shortly after she posted an Instagram throwback with rapper Snoop Dogg, 44.

'He is the nicest person!' she gushed of the Drop It Like It's Hot hit-maker.

Stone added: '#FlashbackFriday with #SNOOP! Kelly and me with @snoopdogg on a flight from Paris.'

The rapper stood tall between Sharon and her sister Kelly when they met years ago.

Final touches: Stone rounded out her chic style with a long silver cross necklace, retro shades and an oversize brown crocodile skin handbag

The mother-of-three has been married twice, once in 1984 to TV producer Michael Greenburg, and another in 1988 to Phil Bronstein, a former executive editor of San Francisco-based publications.

It was with ex-husband Phil that Sharon adopted her first son, Roan Joseph Bronstein in 2000. The former couple split four years later.

The year following her breakup, Sharon adopted son Laird Vonne Stone in 2005 followed by Quinn Kelly Stone in 2006.
It appears red may be her color.

On Friday Selena Gomez wowed in two amazing garments sporting the crimson hue for a photo shoot in New York City.

The 23-year-old Hands to Myself hitmaker started the day in a thigh-skimming number that showed off her amazingly toned legs.

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Confident: Selena Gomez, 23, started the day in a thigh-skimming number that showed off her amazingly toned legs

The sparkly, sequined wrap dress featured a plunging v-neck and long sleeves, but still managed to show off plenty of skin thanks to a very short hemline.

A pair of delicate silver strappy stilettos and some very large triangular bejeweled earrings completed the head-turning look.

Her wavy brunette tresses were style to perfection, as they were parted in the middle and left to cascade perfectly past her bust line.

Selena was definitely camera ready with some deep peach-colored lipstick, eye-liner and some purple tinged eye-shadow.

Hard to ignore: The sparkly, sequined wrap dress featured a plunging v-neck and long sleeves, but still managed to show off plenty of skin thanks to a very short hemline

As the shoot progressed, she may not have been happy with her silver pumps, and switched to a pair of black peep-toe platforms.

Later, she donned dress number two, which was a full length satin frock with spaghetti straps and a low-cut neckline.

For the slightly dressier look, the starlet wore a pair of gold strappy heels and upped the bling factor a tad with a sizable bracelet on her left wrist.

On a roll: Later, she donned dress number two, which was a full length satin frock with spaghetti straps and a low-cut neckline

Besides the shoot, Justin Bieber's ex was also in New York for several gigs that are a part of her Revival Tour.

She kicked off Revival in the U.S. earlier this week in Boston, to the excitement of fans who made posters declaring their love for her.

Her tour will continue on Thursday when she hits the Newark, New Jersey before venturing out to Washington, DC and Cincinnati, OH over the weekend.
She splits her time between Australia and her native Bali.

And as Lindy Klim lounged by a swimming pool on Friday, she certainly appeared to be living a dreamy existence.

Sharing a snap to Instagram, the 38-year-old put her incredible beach body on display in a white swimsuit as she looked calmly out to sea.

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She's a bit of all white! Lindy Klim put her incredible bikini body on display in a white swimsuit as she looked calmly out to sea

Wearing a printed scarf around her head, the mother-of-three shielded her eyes with a pair of over-sized rounded sunglasses by Cutler and Gross.

In the caption, she wrote: 'Kicked the weekend off to a great start,' with an accompanying palm tree emoji.

Lindy is enjoying some down time in her native Bali after a whirlwind trip to Australia for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia.

Rest and relaxation: Lindy is enjoying some down time in her native Bali after a whirlwind trip to Australia for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia

Her children, whom she shares with her estranged husband and former Olympic swimmer Michael, Stella, ten, Rocco, seven, and Frankie, four, attend school in the Indonesian island.

Speaking with Daily Mail Australia in February, she said that while she takes trips to Australia regularly, she ensures there is always someone home to look after the kids.

'If [Michael]'s not there then my mum is there...They're at school and they are super happy.'

She said even her youngest child Frankie is in school and will join her siblings at the Green School in Ubud next term.

Michael and Lindy, who tied the knot in 2006, announced their separation in a joint statement after months of speculation in February.

The pair's management told News.com.au: '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.'
Bio-pics when it comes to musicians can be a little hit-and-miss, experiencing both critical acclaim and criticism.

So when Don Cheadle approached executives to fund a film based on the legendary jazz composer and trumpet player Miles Davis, he struggled to say the least.

A project ten years in the making, the 51-year-old Oscar nominee told the Sydney Morning Herald in an article published on Friday that it was nothing short of 'exhausting'.

'Everyone wanted to be the second person to say yes': Don Cheadle says getting the green light for his directorial debut on Miles Davis biopic was a struggle

'Everyone wanted to be the second person to say yes,' he said.

'That whole dance was exhausting and I would have at some point been relieved if it had gone away.'

But the decision to persevere was made partially due to the fact that if he didn't make the film, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

'I had to make this': But the decision to persevere was made partially due to the fact that if he didn't make the film, he would regret it for the rest of his life

Co-stars: The film features powerful performances from Ewan McGregor as Rolling Stone writer Dave Brill

'I imagined myself at 70 years old, and looking back and saying "I never got that movie off" and feeling I had missed out... Then it felt like it was a mandate, at all costs, I had to make this.'

Having first approached the Davis family in 2006, and it was decided from quite early on that he would be the actor that would portray the iconic musician.

The time spent back and fourth with producers meant he had time to develop his skills on the trumpet, having learned saxophone since he was a child.

Legendary: Don spent 10 years working on the project that told the story of legendary jszz musician Miles Davis (pictured)

But there was also the issue of finding a director, and when no-one put their hand up, Don took it upon himself despite having never sat behind the camera before.

The film features powerful performances from Ewan McGregor as Rolling Stone writer Dave Brill and Emayatzy Corinealdi as Frances Taylor, Miles' first wife.

Miles Ahead opens in Australia on limited release on June 16.
She plays the pregnant girlfriend of John Krasinski's character in The Hollars.

And Anna Kendrick was a vision at the LA premiere of her film, which previously debuted at The Sundance Film Festival in January.

The 30-year-old star skipped a traditional dress in favor of a chic jumpsuit with a cutout back.

Raw beauty: Anna Kendrick, 30, was a vision at the LA premiere of her film, which previously debuted at The Sundance Film Festival in January

Anna's navy ensemble featured a high neckline that formed a T-shape in it's back.

The beauty cinched in her waist with a thin, red belt and accessorized with a matching clutch.

The Up In The Air actress modeled a bold lip and rosy cheeks; her hair was styled straight and tucked behind her ears.

The right choice: The star skipped a traditional dress in favor of a chic jumpsuit with a cutout back

Decorative: Anna's chic ensemble featured a high neckline that formed a T-shape when she turned around

Costars: The Pitch Perfect star plays the pregnant girlfriend of costar and director John Krasinski's character in The Hollars

Dressing comfortably: Co-star John dressed down in black-and-white sneakers

Co-star John, 36, showed displayed his playful side when he chose to dress down his evening attire with black-and-white sneakers.

The actor, who both stars in and directed the comedic drama, paired a black button-up with a set of grey trousers.

In the drama, the 13 Hours actor plays John Hollar, a man who returns to his small town when he learns of his mother's illness.

Anna plays his pregnant girlfriend Rebecca, whom John still hasn't asked for her hand in marriage, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The details: The beauty cinched in her waist with a thin, red belt and accessorized with a matching clutch

Since her days starring in the ever-popular Twilight film franchise, Anna moved on from small, supporting role to leading lady.

The pretty brunette made waves with her performance as Beca in another popular collection of films, the Pitch Perfect series.

The actress is set to return to her role in the third installment, set to hit theaters this Christmas season.
She had a ball soaking up the sun and breathtaking scenery on her glamourous jaunt to Italy last year.

And now bikini blogger Natasha Oakley is excited to be just hours away from doing it all again.

The 25-year-old posted a throwback photo from her August trip, the latest in a series of snaps counting down to her return to the Mediterranean holiday spot.

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Countdown! Natasha Oakley posted a throwback photo from her August trip, the latest in a series of reposted photos counting down to her return to Italy

The flashback snap shows her reclining by the pool at the Belmond Hotel Splendido in the picturesque fishing village of Portofino on the Italian Rivera.

The scantily clad model flaunted her perfectly toned legs in the revealing black one-piece, which also showed off her ample cleavage and sun-tanned skin.

Tomorrow IT! she wrote to her 1.8 million Instagram followers, accompanied by two excited emojis and a bowl of pasta  to which she is particularly partial.

Roaming the harbour: When she wasnt sunning herself in the resort, Natasha spent a lot of time relaxing by the harbour in one of her many bikinis, showing off her perfect abs

Luxury: The almost $4,000-a-night hotel included spectacular views of the Ligurian Sea and a nearby marina

She posed holding a glass of French rose, gazing out towards the cool blue water through designer sunglasses, having pulled her golden locks back into a bun.

The blonde beauty spent about four days in the gorgeous town staying at the top-class resort that costs 2,550 (almost $4,000) a night for the cheapest room.

It has spectacular views of the Ligurian Sea and a nearby marina, and out her hotel room window she could see the beautiful world-famous harbour and the colourful apartments surrounding it.

Splashing out: The blonde beauty spent about four days in the gorgeous town staying at the top-class resort

Relaxing: Natasha spent plenty of time lunging around wearing hotel robes

In addition to the great view and luxury wine, Natasha also devoured plates of pasta while dressed in hotel robes  one of her favourite foods and attractions of Italy.

Despite many beauties in the modelling industry swearing off carbs, she told Womens Health Australia in December that she dined on it every day of her trip.

'I'm not the type who needs to restrict myself. [Pasta is] the devil, but I do love it. Then I would just eat a salad for lunch and a smoothie or juice, she said.

'I actually love being a tourist': She got out and see the sights on at least one day, pictured exploring the cliffs around the harbour in a pair of tight white jeans and matching jacket

Delicious! Natasha also devoured plates of pasta while dressed in hotel robes  one of her favourite foods and attractions of Italy

When she wasnt sunning herself in the resort, Natasha spent a lot of time relaxing by the harbour in one of her many bikinis, showing off her perfect abs.

But she did get out and see the sights on at least one day, pictured exploring the cliffs around the harbour in a pair of tight white jeans and matching jacket.

I actually love being a tourist, ain't nothing wrong with it in my eyes, she wrote at the time.

Natasha was joined for at least some of her trip by her boyfriend, French model Gilles Souteyrand, who first appeared on her Instagram a few weeks before when they were in the south for France.

The two had been secretly dating for months beforehand, and he was not introduced as her boyfriend until November.

Romantic! Natasha was joined for at least some of her trip by her boyfriend, French model Gilles Souteyrand, who first appeared on her Instagram a few weeks before when they were in the south for France
She's a successful actress, producer, and director.

And Elizabeth Banks, 42, proved that she's also one of the best-tressed people in the business on Friday, before joining Hillary Clinton at a campaign event in Los Angeles.

The Hunger Games star's trip to a salon in Beverly Hills came as Variety reported she will no longer be directing Pitch Perfect 3.

Lady in red: Elizabeth Banks, 42, proved that she's also one of the best tressed people in the business on Friday

Resplendent in red, the beauty kept it summer fresh in a scarlet cut out dress which flashed her shapely legs.

She covered her eyes with mirrored dark glasses and was busy listening to her phone on ear-phones.

A casual edge was added with white sneakers and a blue denim jacket - which she threw off after her visit.

Stitch perfect: Resplendent in red, the beauty kept it summer fresh in a scarlet cut out dress which flashed her shapely legs

The 30 Rock star carried her belongings in a giant navy tote - and after her visit to the salon her loose golden locks were expertly blown out into waves and a messy up-do.

Elizabeth then joined Hillary Clinton on stage in Culver City, California, in the same outfit.

The busy star will no longer be directing the highly anticipated movie Pitch Perfect 3, according to Variety.

Curled: The Hunger Games star looked stylish as she stopped by a salon in Beverly Hills and emerged restyled

The beauty, who directed Pitch Perfect 2, will continue to serve as producer, a job she has held since the first film, according to the publication.

It's reported that the exit is 'amicable', says Variety, and as a result of her 'increasingly packed schedule.'

She will, however, reprise her role as Gail, while Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, and Brittany Snow are all confirmed to return to the franchise and writer Kay Cannon will be penning the script for the third time.

Elizabeth helmed the most recent installment which grossed $285 million worldwide including $183 million domestically.

The third movie was just given a new release date of December 22, 2017.
Shes regularly spotted at the races sporting demure and feminine looks in classic dresses.

But on Saturday Erin Holland decided to be a bit daring, appearing at the Ladies Oaks Day in Brisbane in a Gothic-inspired, black asymmetric dress and lace boater hat.

The striking outfit was certain to have turned heads the 27-year-olds way, but it was the plum  almost to the point of being black  lipstick was the biggest departure from her usual look.

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'Dramatic': Erin Holland appeared at the Ladies Oaks Day in Brisbane in a Gothic-inspired black asymmetric dress and top hat

Her frock, by Australian label Manning Cartell, featured a textured raffia bodice and tapered lace skirt that fell halfway down her calves.

It included a triangular cut-out detail at the waist in a mesh design lace with an open weave that showed off her trim pins, toned arms and slender shoulders.

The former Miss World Australia teamed it with Tony Bianco high heels and a $429 guipure lace boater hat.

Erin called the look dramatic in the caption to the photo shared with her 163,000 Instagram followers.

Hanging with the boys: She was there to judge fashions on the field alongside Myer model Kris Smith and DJ Didier Cohen at the Eagle Farm Racecourse, calling them handsome devils

Shady lady: The blonde beauty cast an intricate shadow across her decolletage in a shot posted to Instagram showing off her lace boater hat

She was there to judge fashions on the field alongside Myer model Kris Smith and DJ Didier Cohen at the Eagle Farm Racecourse, who she called handsome devils.

The boys both wore dark blue lounge suits with white shirts, Kris jazzing up his outfit with a striking green and white striped tie and white rose boutonniere.

Kris black Oxford shoes were also so shiny he could probably see his reflection when lacing them up.

Sadly the frocks and fascinators were no match for the east coasts torrential weather, which forced the cancellation of the race day.

Stylish stars: Erin and Anna mingled earlier that day at The Hardy Brothers Doomben Cup Day last month

Erin has been out and about frequently in the past month, hitting numerous sunnier race days as part of her duties as ambassador for the Brisbane Racing Club.

She was spotted hanging out with former The Bachelor couple Tim Robards and Anna Heinrich at The Hardy Brothers Doomben Cup Day last month.

She was snapped sporting a frock by Australian designer Manning Cartell, which featured a graphic lace fabric in a mixture of round and square patterns.

By nightfall were ready to keep the party going as they changed into devilishly dark attire for the Seven Sins Carnival Ball in Brisbane.

Erin had changed into a glamorous gown from Darb Bridal Couture, writing 'Having a #BlackSwan moment in this incredible @darbbridal gown,' on Instagram.
She's a reality TV star-turned-travel blogger, currently enjoying a whirlwind lifestyle spent between her native Australia and adopted home of LA.

But it seems ex-Big Brother housemate Tully Smyth isn't completely against the idea of settling down one day, as she shared an adorable snap to Instagram on Friday, admitting she was feeling 'clucky'.

The 28-year-old can be seen staring lovingly at a tiny bub sleeping contently in her arms.

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Feeling clucky? Reality TV star-turned-travel blogger Tully Smyth admitted she felt clucky after spending time with her friend's baby boy, Teddy, in a post to Instagram on Saturday

The blonde beauty appeared mesmerised by the gorgeous baby in her arm, as he dozed sweetly in what appears to be a cafe.

Tully has captioned the snap: 'Meeting tiny Teddy for the first time. If I wasn't clucky before...'

She also congratulated her friend and mother of the baby, adding: 'He is perfect'.

Rock 'n' Roll: Tully found fame when she starred on the tenth season of Big Brother Australia in 2013

Her blonde locks look preened to perfection while she sported a black and white off-the-shoulder top.

A friend of the reality TV star's commented on the photo, saying she 'looked beautiful holding a bub', to which she replied with a series of kissing emojis.

The Young Blood Runs Wild blogger was recently back on home soil to attend various shows throughout Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia.

Finding her feet: The fashionista now runs her own blog, titled Young Blood Runs Wild and has a large social media following

Stepping out at the Bondi Bather and Swimwear show, Tully donned a very revealing Shakuhachi dress.

The blonde-beauty flashed the crowd her underwear in the white crochet frock, which ensured every inch of her tanned and toned physique was on full display.

The completely sheer dress was layered over a pair of high-waisted underwear and a matching black bra, which preserved some of her modesty, and she added a pair of white lace-up sneakers.
More than an inch of rain fell on Bondi on Saturday, but that didn't stop Pixie Curtis from going out to play.

The daughter of PR maven Roxy Jacenko braved the wild Sydney weather armed with a cute white zippered rain jacket adorned with a floral pattern.

Lousy weather complete with something like a cyclone outside will not stop me heading off out - rain jacket and all! Roxy wrote on behalf of her little girl on Pixie's Instagram account.

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'Lousy weather will not stop me': Pixie Curtis showed off her cute white zippered rain jacket adorned with a floral pattern as she prepared to braved the wild Sydney weather on Saturday with mum Roxy Jacenko

Sporting her trademark red bow, the famous four-year-old gave a pout to her mothers camera as she stood ready to walk out the front door.

Pixie was headed out for a playdate with another young boy referred to as her best friend in a snap posted to her Instagram later in the day.

The two children held hands and smiled sweetly while wearing matching blue jeans.

The redheaded cutie had ditched her bow and let her ginger hair flow freely and even twirled a few strands in her right hand.

Letting her hair down: Pixie joined another young boy referred to as her best friend for a playdate later in the day and posed together for a snap, uploaded to Instagram

On Friday, Pixie and her brother Hunter gobbled up some very decadent gold-leafed doughnuts in celebration of National Doughnut Day.

Dressed in their pyjamas, Pixie forewent the use of her hands, while her two-year-old brother looked to be equally enjoying a mouthful of the extravagant gold-leaf icing off the top of his after-dinner dessert.

The limited edition doughnuts were available for one day only from popular chain Doughnut Time, who is signed to Roxy's PR agency, Sweaty Betty.

Dessert decadence! Roxy Jacenko's two children, Pixie and Hunter, didn't seem to have a care in the world as they enjoyed a very decadent Friday treat of gold leaf doughnuts

Days before, the adorable tot transformed her usually copper-coloured locks into a pink hairdo for an outing with her brother.

She donned pastel pink tights, a pink tutu and a knitted pink cardigan, and she has added a pink cape and a glittery mask to complete the fancy dress.

The caption for the photo, written by her mum, noted: 'She said I could wear anything I wanted, I don't know if she knew that included my hair.'

She added: 'Thanks @labelmau this pink hair colour is an excellent addition to today's look.'

'She said I could wear anything I wanted': Pixie shared this photo to Instagram on Sunday evening, revealing her trendy new pink locks

On Thursday her husband of four years, Oliver Curtis, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit insider trading.

The PR guru was spotted shedding tears while leaving the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney, separately from her spouse.

In an all-black ensemble, the mother-of-two emerged outside of the court, keeping her head down and not speaking to the press.

Oliver is due to be sentenced on June 17.
They're genetically blessed, boast a joint multi-million dollar business portfolio and are completely smitten with each other.

And Jennifer Hawkins and husband Jake Wall have yet another thing to celebrate - their third wedding anniversary.

The loved-up couple couldn't hide their happiness on the momentous day, both sharing snaps to Instagram on Saturday.

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Goofing around: Jennifer Hawkins and her husband Jake Wall both shared snaps to Instagram on Saturday, celebrating their third wedding anniversary

Jake uploaded a romantic black and white throwback shot of the two on their glamorous wedding day in Bali in 2013.

The former rugby league player turned carpenter added the caption: 'Three years ago today... Here's to many more fun adventures together... Happy anniversary babe x'.

While Jennifer, 32, uploaded a goofy selfie of the two, with the model pouting her plump pink lips as she went to plant a kiss on her husband's cheek.

Success: The former Miss Universe and former rugby league player-turned-carpenter own a myriad of companies together, boasting a multi-million dollar business portfolio

Meanwhile, Jake is seen sticking his tongue playfully, while his face is partially covered by a black cap.

The image appears to be taken mid-work out, with the blonde beauty sporting a pair of beige headphones and her long blonde locks are pulled away from her face, revealing her piercing blue eyes and stunning complexion.

The Myer model has captioned her snap: 'Pretty damn thankful to have this one in ma life', adding the hashtag: 'happy3rd'.

Wedding day: The couple wed in a lavish Bali wedding in 2013 after eight years together

Young love: Jennifer and Jake met in Newcastle prior to the Myer model winning the 2004 Miss Universe crown

Jennifer and Jake have become regular fixtures on the social scene and the couple wed in a lavish Bali wedding in 2013 after eight years together.

It's been a busty few months for the blonde beauty, who is gearing up to appear on the forthcoming instalment of Australia's Next Top Model, where she is returning as the host.

Jennifer met her handsome beau in Newcastle, just prior to winning the 2004 Miss Universe crown.

Business partners: The couple recently expanded their empire into the tequila business

In the years since, they have managed to grow an impressive, multi-million-dollar company, J Group, which they operate jointly.

Their $10 million portfolio ranges from beauty products such as J Bronze, swimwear in the form of COZI by Jennifer Hawkins, and property development.

Most recently, they added tequila to their ever-growing empire, creating Premium Tequila company Sesion, which Jake said had been a 'pipe dream' of his for a long time.
They recently launched their swimwear range for Topshop.

And now Kendall and Kylie Jenner have revealed the inspiration behind their exclusive swimwear collection.

Kylie, the youngest of the successful sibling duo, said their Los Angeles upbringing had a huge impact on the range.

California girls! Kendall and Kylie Jenner said their Los Angeles upbringing had a huge impact on the inspiration behind their swimwear range for Topshop

'Being raised in California our whole lives, we definitely love the beach and the sun,' she explained to The Daily Telegraph on Saturday.

'We wanted to capture the beachy LA summer vibe but put our own special twist on it,' she added.

Kylie also explained that the collection largely reflected her and Kendall's similar sense of style and taste in fashion.

'Even though Kendall and I have different personal styles, we actually have very similar tastes,' she said.

'Being raised in California our whole lives, we definitely love the beach and the sun,' Kylie explained to The Daily Telegraph on Saturday

'We actually have very similar tastes': Kylie also explained that the collection largely reflected her and Kendall's similar sense of style and taste in fashion

'We wanted to capture the beachy LA summer vibe but put our own special twist on it,' Kylie said of the range which she designed with Kendall (pictured)

Kylie, 18, and Kendall, 20, recently gave fans a sneak peek of their sexy new swimsuit line, which will launch in Australia next week.

The reality TV stars showed off their curves as they modelled a range of bright bikinis from their Kendall + Kylie Topshop line on Instagram and Snapchat in April.

'Shooting Kendall&Kylie swim for TopShop,' Kylie captioned a selfie as she posed in a skimpy neon bikini from the studio.

'Coming soooon,' she added with a smiling emoji.

'We definitely love the beach and the sun': Kylie Jenne showed off her figure in a gold bikini as she gave fans a glimpse the upcoming Kendall + Kylie swimwear collection for Topshop in April

Supermodel: Kylie shared a Snapchat video of sister Kendall Jenner modeling a white bikini and gold body chain

Think pink: The teenager also showed off a salmon bikini top with black zipper on the front

Bey fan: Kylie shared a selfie and the lyrics to Beyonce's new song Hold Up, from Lemonade

Kylie put her figure on show in the neon green bikini, which featured bottoms with the 'Kendall + Kylie' logo on the black waist.

And she shared a Snapchat selfie in a skimpy, gold monokini with black straps over her stomach.

'KENDALL + KYLIE bikinis coming soon,' she wrote.

She also shared Snapchats of her supermodel sister Kendall posing in a white bikini at an outdoor shoot, which appeared to be taken in Los Angeles.

Kendall wears a gold body chain as she flicks her hair over her shoulder in the clip.

The model also shared Snapchat videos of the sisters wrapped in white robes as they had their hair and makeup done.

In one clip, Kendall wears a bright blue one piece and smiles as the makeup artist powders her cleavage.

Strike a pose: Kylie seems impressed with the fake beach setup

Ready for her close up: The reality star flashed her cleavage in a video selfie from the set

Bright look: Kylie's neon bikini showed off her thigh tattoo

Kylie modeled a number of sexy looks, including bright salmon pink bikini top with a black zipper, during the photo shoot.

'This is so cool, fake sand,' Kylie is heard saying, before laying back and striking a sultry pose in her neon bikini.

The reality star also shared some close-ups of her thigh tattoo, which is the phonetic spelling of 'sanity.'

The swimwear line is the latest joint fashion project from the sisters, who have teamed up with Topshop in the past.

Fashion empire: The Keeping Up With The Kardashians stars shared a selfie as they got their hair and makeup done before their photo shoot

Just a little touch up: Kendall smiled in a bright blue one-piece as a makeup artist powdered her cleavage
He's rarely seen without his trusty skateboard.

So Rocco Ritchie seemed to be in his element as he performed some tricks under Manhattan Bridge on Friday.

Back in New York after reuniting with mum Madonna, the 15-year-old wasted no time getting back into his favourite hobby, as he met up with his friends and treated them to a show.

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Just roll with it: Rocco Ritchie seemed in good spirits as he performed some tricks under Manhattan Bridge in New York City on Friday

Clad in an oversized navy polo top and blue cargo trousers, the teenager seemed comfortable and at ease.

Concealing his shaven head with a black cap, the star may have been protecting his head from the sun, but not from injury as he failed to wear a helmet.

But Rocco didn't seem to be feeling too concerned as he pulled off a series of impressive and dangerous looking tricks.

Catching air: Back in New York after reuniting with mum Madonna, the 15-year-old wasted no time getting back into his favourite hobby, as he met up with his friends and treated them to a show

Rocco flew back to his hometown of New York last week after making amends with his mother Madonna.

The teenager had been living in London with his father Guy Ritchie and reportedly refused to jet back to America amid the parents' bitter custody battle.

The deliberations between Madonna and her ex-husband began in December when it was revealed that Rocco was refusing to fly home to be with his mother over claims that he had grown tired of her strict parenting.

Risky: Concealing his shaven head with a black cap, the star may have been protecting his head from the sun, but not from injury as he failed to wear a helmet while performing the dangerous tricks

Madonna and Guy finally had their day in court in March, where a judge ruled the two would privately work together to figure out a custody arrangement for their son.

The following month Madonna traveled back to London to see her son, and revealed to her fans that they had reconciled by posting a series of sweet selfies of the pair.

A source told the Daily Mail: 'Everyone is happier than they have been for weeks and it's great for all of them that life is getting back to normal.'
She appears to be following in her celebrity make-up artist father's footsteps, launching her own 'Total Bae' cosmetics range last month.

And on Saturday night, Lianna Perdis and her father Napoleon Perdis glammed up together as they attended the 2016 Annual Kytherian Debutante Ball in Sydney.

The 16-year-old, who is keeping a very busy schedule on her short visit back to her native Australia, looked stunning for the event in a red cocktail dress created specially for her by Athens-based designer Dimitris Petrou.

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Belle of the ball! Lianna Perdis wowed in a short red bespoke dress as she headed to the 2016 Annual Kytherian Debutante Ball in Sydney with her celebrity makeup artist father Napoleon Perdis

The heir to the multimillion-dollar Napoleon Perdis brand complemented the gorgeous dress with a pair of nude Gucci Runway Collection platform shoes and a perspex Charlotte Olympia clutch.

The young model left her long bronde locks down, styled straight and sleek in a middle part.

And of course, the teenager's make-up was applied to perfection, with her father creating a dark smokey-eye and a soft bronzed complexion with a dark red pout.

Stylish family! The 16-year-old and her father both put on a glamorous display as they prepared for event, where Napoleon was a guest of honour for the evening

Helping hand: The doting father helped his eldest daughter get glammed-up for the event

Her flamboyant father, who is one of Australia's best-known makeup artists, looked dapper in a miss-matched suit, featuring a plum-coloured jacket with black lapels and black pants.

The proud father, who clearly enjoyed helping his beautiful daughter get ready for the evening out, added a pair of hard to miss leopard-print boots with a block heel to complete his unique look.

Lianna, who was born in Australia and raised in the US, is now based in Athens, Greece with her parents and three younger sisters.

Beauty: The brunette, who is undoubtedly used to having her make-up done, sat patiently while an artist worked her magic

Natural: The 16-year-old opted for neutral tones and a soft bronzed glow, complementing her complexion

A professional: The stunner, who has released her own range of makeup, is no doubt well-versed in what suits her looks best

'Both give great tips': Lianna revealed to Daily Mail Australia that both her mother and father inspire her look

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia ahead of the event on Saturday night, the confident teen said living with her make-up king father and incredibly stylish mother has many benefits.

'Everyday my mum does her make-up and gets dressed beautifully and she inspires me everyday,' she said.

'For special occasions, sometimes my dad does her make-up. He teaches her some tips then she may take the tips and make them her own as well.'

She added: 'They both give great tips, it's kind of a combination.'

Designer look: She wore a pair of nude Gucci Runway collection platform shoes, accentuating her height

All done: As well as her high-end shoes, the beauty was wearing a dress specially created for her by Athens-based designer Dimitris Petrou

Lianna also spoke about her decision to enter into the family business and whether she thinks her younger sisters will follow suit.

'Not everyone wants to work with the business,' the teenager said.

'I hope they do, but for right now, that's what I like doing and they're all really proud of me and supportive.'

'If you're doing something that you enjoy, then it's not necessarily hard or stressful for you.'

The teen, who still goes to school, launched her very first make-up range - in collaboration with her father's cosmetics company - 'Total Bae' in April.

All-important accessories: She was also carrying a trendy perspex clutch by Charlotte Olympia

Father-daughter outing: The close pair looked fabulous as they prepared to head out to the event together

And her short trip to Australia coincides with the release of Girlfriend magazine's July issue, of which she is the cover star.

The young model also attended a meet and greet with her father at Westfield Parramatta in Sydney on Saturday, chatting about her cover girl look with fans.

She spoke about her excitement at being on the front of one of her favourite Australian magazines.

'While I was growing up and living away from Australia for the past 12 years, my Dad would always bring Girlfriend Magazine home so I could keep up to date with what girls in Australia were up to, as well as all the latest Aussie celeb, fashion and beauty news,' the rising star said of her accomplishment.

'To be on the front cover is an incredible honor and something I couldnt have imagined in my wildest dreams,' Lianna admitted

Cover star: The teenage model is the cover star of Girlfriend's July issue, out on Monday, which she said is 'an incredible honour'
They split in February and are currently undertaking proceedings to finalise their divorce.

But despite deciding to go their separate ways, it seems Lindy and Michael Klim are determined to maintain an amicable front, not just for the sake of their kids but also for their lucrative beauty business Milk And Co.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Sunday, the former Olympic gold medal swimmer explained that they planned to continue running the joint venture due to all the hard work they have already put into it over the past eight years.

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No crying over spilt Milk: Despite going their separate ways in February, it seems Lindy and Michael Klim are determined to maintain an amicable relationship for the sake of their lucrative beauty business Milk And Co

'It is our baby that has grown, so we are mature and professional enough to focus on the longevity of the business to make sure we can reap the rewards one day,' the 38-year-old sportsman explained.

'We've worked very hard to get where we are as a business and put a lot of time and effort into it,' he added.

Michael also revealed that the company's structure had altered little, if any, since the couple decided to end their relationship, saying: 'At this stage it is unaffected, it is business as usual.'

'We've worked very hard': The former Olympic gold medal swimmer explained that they planned to continue running the joint venture due to all of their hard work they have put into it over the last eight years

Amicable: Explaining that the business would remain under the one umbrella and he didn't 'foresee any changes,' Michael assured the publication that Lindy was still very much an important part of the business

New direction: While Michael plans to assert more control over the men's products, naturally, as he revealed his plans to launch a new range of skin products with a more masculine vibe in the very near future

Explaining that the business would remain under the one umbrella and he didn't 'foresee any changes,' Michael assured the publication that Lindy was still very much an important part of the business.

In terms of management, it appears Lindy would continue to have more influence over the women's and children's ranges.

While Michael would assert more control over the men's products, naturally, as he revealed his plans to launch a new range of skin products with a more masculine vibe in the very near future.

Over: Michael and Lindy, who tied the knot in 2006, announced their separation in a joint statement in February, after months of speculation

Happy families: The pair have three children together - two daughters, Stella, 10, and Frankie, three, and son, Rocco, seven

Michael and Lindy, who tied the knot in 2006, announced their separation in a joint statement in February, after months of speculation.

The pair's management told News.com.au: '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.'

The pair have three children together - two daughters, Stella, 10, and Frankie, three, and son, Rocco, seven.

Meanwhile, both have already entered into new relationships over recent weeks.

Lindy is seeing British builder Adam Ellis, while Michael is dating Bali-based Australian beauty Desiree Deravi.

New flame: Meanwhile, both have already entered into new relationships over recent weeks, with Michael now dating Bali-based Australian beauty Desiree Deravi
He's vehemently denied being the father of Stephanie Davis' unborn child, taking to social media to blast his ex-girlfriend's claims over the past few weeks.

And Jeremy McConnell proved his former Celebrity Big Brother love interest couldn't be further from his mind as he cosied up to a mystery girl on Friday night.

The Irish hunk shared a Snapchat of himself posing with a pretty blonde during a club appearance in Colchester.

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Mystery companion: Jeremy McConnell proved Stephanie Davis couldn't be further from his mind as he cosied up to a pretty blonde on Friday night

The cheeky chappie cryptically captioned the snap: 'Me and the accountant'.

Just the corner of Jeremy's face can be seen in the image as he takes the selfie, while his female friend pretends to plant a kiss on his cheek.

With her false lashes and heavily contoured cheekbones, she bears a resemblance to Jeremy's ex Stephanie.

MailOnline has contacted the CBB star's representative for comment.

Bitter break-up: Jeremy has denied being the father of Stephanie's unborn child, taking to social media to blast his ex-girlfriend's claims over the past few weeks

Last week, Jeremy insisted that Stephanie is not pregnant with his child and has even called for a DNA test if she gives birth to prove she is lying.

The reality star called Stephanie's claims 'ridiculous,' and added she would look like a 'mug' when it is revealed any child is not his after a paternity test, Ireland's TV Now Magazine reports.

Following a bitter war of words between the former couple last week, the 26-year-old again said: 'I'm not going to be a dad. If she is pregnant, it's not mine.

'If I was a dad, I'd be 100% no, 110%, the best dad in the world. But you'll see in the future that it's not my kid, and she'll look like a mug,' he added.

No love lost: The Irish hunk has insisted that Stephanie is not pregnant with his child and has even called for a DNA test if she gives birth to prove she is lying

A representative for Stephanie said in a statement to MailOnline: 'Our client is categorically pregnant. We do not need to continue repeating this.'

Despite their strained relationship, Jeremy showed he still cared for the former Hollyoaks actress and dismissed her behaviour as a tactic to secure media coverage.

'I still love Steph and Id never bad mouth her, but I just think the whole thing is a media approach and its ridiculous,' he said.

Just over a week ago Stephanie, 23, alleged her ex had a serious drug problem and begged him to go to rehab.

War of words: The former Celebrity Big Brother contestant called Stephanie's claims 'ridiculous'

In response, Jeremy denied he was abusing narcotics and accused Stephanie of having an affair with her ex-boyfriend Sam Reece during their rocky four-month romance.

The former Beauty School Cop-Out star also denied Stephanie's claims again that he is the father of her unborn child.

Posting a lengthy statement on Twitter, he wrote: 'Was gonna stay quiet about the whole thing and just let it come out normally, first of all I'd like to let people know I'm perfectly healthy mind and body and have took the break up privately, but when me and my family are effected by what I'd call a person with no shame, she is slandering me and trying to portray me in a certain light for a reason, to make me look like a terrible lad.

'People can choose to believe or not. I do not care. For months she was seeing Sam behind my back and now in Ibiza together. It will all unfold in time.

'Healthy mind and body': The Irish male model posted a lengthy statement on Twitter last week, denying he had a drug problem and accusing her of having an affair with her ex Sam Reece

'People don't know what I put with in that relationship. I was never perfect but please, don't believe 90 per cent of what she says. I've messed up but I'd never be as evil. This will be my last message about her #bookclosed.'

The night before his lengthy post, he tweeted: 'I'm as shocked as all you are at this whole saga, I'm sure you can join the dots yourself #letmelive.

'She's not pregnant with my child come on. It's all lies I've been told by her friends.'

The following morning, an angry Steph hit back: 'Tell me I'm not pregnant and keep denying your child, and I#ll throw u right under that bus as the s**t I have in u, u would never survive!'

Responding to Jeremy's claims she's in Spain with her ex - who she dumped on TV after falling for Jeremy on Celebrity Big Brother - Stephanie posted a photo of her legs on a balcony in Liverpool.

She wrote: 'Sorry does his tweet not show how f**ked he is... I'm in Ibiza with Sam.......... Sure I'm in Liverpool.

Concerns: The former Hollyoaks actress accused Jeremy of being a drug addict and urged him to go to rehab

'Let's look positively he needs this to sort his life out , for all u to understand what I've been through with his crazy mind. It's all good.'

Jeremy's statement came an hour after Stephanie posted her own lengthy essay, accusing her ex of failing to turn up for baby scans.

She wrote: 'I think it's disgusting that Jeremy hasn't turned up for scans and is constantly drunk and partying, the stress he has had me under. I've already been in hospital once with pains and stress.

'I don't hate the lad I feel very VERY sorry for him the fact no one is getting him the help he needs. His management should have him in rehab and sorting his life out so he can then be there for his child before he dies.

'I wouldn't mind but don't WANT to get someone pregnant and have a family. To not be there. I'm happy doing it alone. Off for a chilled week away with bump.

'Been doing this since his act from Big Brother was over after sleeping with what 9 girls now? Boy need help. Sort it out and be a dad. Bye for now, Steph.'

The night before the post, Stephanie shared a brief video clip - believed to taken in April during their holiday in Cape Verde - of a bloodied Jeremy.

Former flame: Jeremy accused Stephanie of having an affair with her ex-boyfriend Sam Reece, who she dumped to date the Irish male model in January

In the nine second clip, Jeremy is heard to say: 'This is going straight on Twitter and you're going to watch it go on Twitter. You're going to watch this go on Twitter. You don't think I will? You don't think I will?'

A voice that sounds like Stephanie is heard off camera, saying: 'Get off me. Get the f**k off.'

Tweeting afterwards, she declared: 'U all give me s**t... U have no idea what I've put up with, with that man, now, I'm going to look after me & my baby. Now u know! #dontjudge.'

Responding to the video posting, Jeremy tweeted: 'We were in Africa , I videoed it, I never once outed her for the abuse, she done it herself #truth.

After someone tweeted him 'there was video evidence of the behaviour', he replied: 'I took the video.'

At the time of their visit to Cape Verde, Jeremy was reported to have been hospitalised and needed six stitches in his hand during a row with his girlfriend.

A source told The Sun in April: 'Jeremy and Stephanie had a huge fight last night which ended with him having to get six stitches. They were both screaming foul language and a number of guests complained as they had small children with them.

'When the hotel's security came to the room the place was trashed. Stephanie verbally attacked them too and they eventually had to call the police to calm things down. Reception staff have described them as the worst guests they've ever had.'

MailOnline reached out to Jeremy's reps for comment, while Stephanie's spokesperson declined to comment.

Moving on: Stephanie, pictured last weekend, claims she is pregnant with Jeremy's baby, which he has vehemently denied

Following a week of speculation and deleted tweets, the actress confirmed her pregnancy in an interview with OK! magazine on Monday.

She said: 'My pregnancy was a shock but I can't wait to be a mum. I hope that Jeremy will want to be a part of this baby's life, but if he decides not to then I am prepared to raise our baby on my own.

'I'm so excited to be a parent, I couldn't be happier.'

Meanwhile, The Only Way Is Essex star Danielle Armstrong has denied having a private message conversation with Stephanie back in February, which was shared on Twitter on Thursday.

Steph shared a conversation appearing to be between the two women discussing Jeremy and Megan McKenna following a night out at Sheesh in Chigwell, Essex, which also included what seemed to be Danielle's mobile phone number.

However, Danielle's rep told MailOnline that the conversation was fabricated and it isn't even the TOWIE's star phone number.

He said: 'Danielle is completely shocked that Steph would take to social media to fabricate an entire conversation that never occurred and in turn, a Twitter profile to corroborate it alongside a fake phone number.

'It is clear that Stephanie is a distraught and unstable woman at present and Danielle hopes that she seeks the necessary help to recover.'

On-screen romance: Stephanie and Jeremy fell for each other on Celebrity Big Brother in January - while she was still dating Sam Reece

Innocent: Stephanie tried to drag Danielle Armstrong (pictured with Jeremy and Megan McKenna in February 2016) into the row by sharing a fabricated conversation with TOWIE star on Twitter
He's got a keen eye for what's hot.

And on Friday evening Nick Cannon showed off his favorite new accessory, the turban, as he was seen leaving Hollywood hot spot The Nice Guy.

The 35-year-old donned the head piece as he was seen leaving the popular restaurant - where he had been hanging out with Kanye West - while showing off a wide grin.

Showing off his fashion credentials: Nick Cannon donned a trendy, two-toned jacket to hit up Hollywood hot spot The Nice Guy on Friday

Nick wore a fitted, white tank top, sported underneath a stylish, grey, collared jacket with black, leather sleeves.

He coupled the chic, two-toned jacket with a heavy, gold chain and the top of his black underwear could be seen peeking out from his jeans.

The father-of-two - five-year-old twins Monroe and Moroccan with ex Mariah Carey - wore a pair of distressed, dark wash jeans.

Can't forget that: The star also sported his new favorite accessory, a turban in a green camouflage pattern

He accessorized with a pair of tan boots, and showed off his sweet tooth as he left the restaurant carrying a green and orange lollipop.

Nick finished off Friday night's look with a green, camouflage turban, and accessory he has become quite taken with of late.

And the star looked to be in good spirits as he was seen leaving the popular restaurant, where he reportedly hung out with Kanye.

In good spirits: Nick showed off a big smile as he left the popular restaurant, where he was said to have been partying alongside Kanye West

Earlier that same day Nick had been spending some quality time with his children as he shared a snap of one of them on Instagram.

Monroe can be seen sitting at a colorful table in a Menchie's Frozen Yogurt shop in the photo, while an array of treats in both cups and cones sit in front of him.

'Guess what Ice cream is mine??? Lol,' Nick joked alongside the photo, showing one treat absolutely filled with toppings, while two others had already been devoured.

The doting dad can be seen on the 11th season of America's Got Talent, which recently premiered on NBC, and airs Tuesdays at 8pm.
They played the roles of two down and out heroin addicts in Trainspotting twenty years ago.

But Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller's characters Mark 'Rent Boy' Renton and Simon 'Sick Boy' Williamson looked to have kicked their habits and adopted a professional demeanour as they shot scenes for the highly-anticipated sequel on Saturday.

The actors were were joined by director Danny Boyle, 59, and the crew outside the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh as the sun shone down.

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Hard at work: Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller shot scenes for the highly-anticipated Trainspotting sequel in Edinburgh on Saturday

The pair were business-like in appearance, with Ewan wearing a khaki coat over a black suit as he carried a bundle of paperwork.

Meanwhile, Jonny, 43, wore a grey suit with a black shirt and tie and carried a black laptop case in his right hand.

The stars' faces held serious expressions, no doubt they were heading to the government building for matters of importance.

Three amigos: The actors were were joined by director Danny Boyle, 59, and the crew outside the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh as the sun shone down

Twenty years later... The pair were business-like in appearance, with Ewan wearing a khaki coat over a black suit as he carried a bundle of paperwork

Suited and booted: Jonny, 43, wore a grey suit with a black shirt and tie and carried a black laptop case in his right hand

Jonny and Ewan came face to face in the square, before heading side by side towards the government building. Jonny's peroxide locks shone in the light while Ewan sported a short back and sides.

In between takes the duo spoke with award-winning Boyle who tried to pass on his vision for the scene.

Onlookers couldn't help but trying to capture the actors at work as they watched on from a distance and took pictures with their cameras.

Stand off: Jonny and Ewan came face to face in the square, before heading side by side towards the government building

Job done: The pair had mischievous looks on their faces as they exited the building

Through gritted teeth: Jonny's peroxide locks shone in the light while he wore a pained expression on his face

All together now: Jonny and Ewan posed for a fun selfie together in their matching baker boy caps

The new film is based based on novelist Welsh's follow-up book, Porno, which is being adapted by screenwriter John Hodge for the big screen.

The sequel is set ten years after Trainspotting and sees the characters cross paths again, but with an alternative gritty backdrop of the pornography business, rather than heroin use.

In Porno, Renton owns a nightclub in Amsterdam, Begbie is being released from prison, and Spud is actually trying to kick his drug habit.

Spud also has love woes as his relationship with his partner Alison is strained and he feels like he has become a burden on her.

Creator Welsh is set to appear in the role of Mikey Forrester in the follow-up.
Oh dear  it seems there could be something of a bust-up brewing in the Tindall household.

In a move that could well upset his wife Zara, Mike Tindall has robustly insisted that he will not send their daughter Mia away to a boarding school such as Gordonstoun.

The move flies in the face of Royal tradition as many of the family have attended the elite school in the north of Scotland, including Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Zara herself.

Im certainly not keen on sending Mia away to a boarding school at the other end of the country,

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Mike Tindall, left with daughter Mia, risks a rift with wife Zara, right, after stating he will not send their child away to a boarding school such as her mother's, Gordonstoun

The private school in Scotland, pictured, was also attended by Prince Philip and Prince Charles

Tindall told me at Londons famous Abbey Road studios, where he was supporting a fundraising event for childrens charity Hope and Homes.

I know many people who say boarding was the making of them because they forged great independence from their parents, but I dont really want her to be distanced from us.

The former England rugby captain, who attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield, added: My school was a public one and plenty of my mates lived in, but I was just a day student and it definitely didnt do me any harm. If anything, I enjoyed the best of both worlds.

'Personally, Id rather she attend a school thats nearby, where well always be on hand if she needs us. Anything else goes against my instincts.

Two year-old Mia melted Royal watchers hearts in the Queens 90th birthday portrait by flashing a cheeky grin as she clutched her great-grandmothers handbag.

There are a number of top-notch schools near the Tindall home on the Gatcombe Park Estate in Gloucestershire that Mias father may consider more suitable for her.

Insiders suggest that Dean Close pre-preparatory school in Cheltenham may be the first choice, while in later years Mia could become a day girl at Cheltenham Ladies College.

Tindalls concerns are not new in Royal circles.

In a series of letters from 1961 the late Queen Mother warned against packing Charles off to Gordonstoun, a place he later dubbed Colditz in kilts, because she feared hed be terribly cut off and lonely in the far north.
Jodie Foster won her first Oscar as a 27-year-old for her lead role in The Accused.

Now, the 53-year-old actress appears to be focussing on her passion for directing and has hinted at her hopes to add to her Academy Award collection with a trophy for her work behind the camera.

However, the Money Monster director and two-time Oscar winner admitted to E! News Australia host, Ksenjia Lukich: 'It's definitely not something you can aim for'.

In an interview from the movie's Australian premiere on Monday, which aired on Saturday, the film veteran suggested her priority was in her choice of projects over possible awards.

'I'm young as a director - I've really only made four films,' Jodie said, adding: 'I get to have a different kid of career as a director really, to make movies that are really meaningful to me'.

The actress and director also detailed the mood on the set of her financial thriller, noting: 'It's never been tense on-set for me, no matter what kind of movie I'm making.

'It was a big jigsaw puzzle, so I was busy, I was very busy. It's hard to make a movie where it all happens in real time - where one experience is experienced by so many people at once,' Jodie added.

First win: Jodie won her first Oscar as a 27-year-old for Actress In A Leading Role in The Accused

Second win! The actress followed up with another Academy Award in 1992 for her role in Silence Of The Lambs

The two-time Oscar winner was recently in Australia promoting her new film Money Monster, starring big names George Clooney and Julia Roberts.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on the red carpet at the premier in Sydney on Monday, Jodie discussed the casting process, saying Jack OConnell was not her first choice.

The 25-year-old, who plays a disgruntled investor who takes George Clooneys character hostage, has to do his audition over Skype to get the role.

Down Under: The two-time Oscar winner was recently in Australia promoting the film Money Monster, which she directed

Money maker! Money Monster, is Jodie's fourth turn directing and stars big names George Clooney and Julia Roberts

Hes very British and hes very young and my idea for the role was someone from Queens [New York City] who was 35 or 40, Foster said.

But the second I saw him I was blown away and couldn't imagine anybody else.

The industry veteran, who began acting as a three year old, marks 50 years in showbusiness this year, with the child star accepting her star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in May.
Some of his most iconic roles have seen him as a clean-shaven hunk with impeccable dress sense.

But Christian Bale, 42, was worlds apart from his Bruce Wayne and Patrick Bateman alter-egos when he stepped out for a coffee in Los Angeles on Friday.

The A-list star cut a rugged figure as he exited Le Pain Quotidien with a full beard and a messy hairdo while wearing casual attire.

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Out of character: Christian Bale, 42, was worlds apart from his Bruce Wayne and Patrick Bateman alter-egos when he stepped out for a coffee in Los Angeles on Friday

He looked relaxed in his sportswear, rocking a classic black Adidas jacket open over a plain grey t-shirt with a pair of shades tucked in the collar.

Christian matched the items with a pair of black Puma shorts and added a touch of colour with some bold red Skechers.

The Batman actor walked with a wooden stirrer hanging out of his mouth and remained straight-faced.

Dressed down: The A-list star cut a rugged figure as he exited Le Pain Quotidien with a full beard and a messy hair do while wearing casual attire

In a recent interview with Contact Music, the star opened up about his time filming Terrence Malik's experimental 2015 film Knight of Cups.

He said: 'You might do something where you'd normally think, "Wow, man, I did a really good scene," then you'd look up and the camera's looking over that way instead.

'You learn, right, just do it for yourself and then if he does decide to turn the camera around, don't try to repeat what you did. Alright, so it might not be as great, or dramatic, or memorable but, just keep it truthful.' That was all that he ever looked for.'

Iconic: The star played the iconic role of Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan's critically-acclaimed Batman trilogy

In shape: He boasted an impressively muscular physique for his role as the psychopathic Patrick Bateman

The movie follows Christian's Hollywood screenwriter character as he prances around a Los Angeles beach in an Armani suit, attends star-studded parties and get chased around hotel rooms by scantily clad models while despairing at the futility of it all.

The BBC's Nicholas Barber described it as a 'ludicrous self-parody - somewhere between a Calvin Klein aftershave advertisement and a coffee-table book about the modernist mansions of the rich and famous.'

Thankfully Christian does not have any such existential worries of his own however, as he is married to a beautiful woman, has sired two wonderful children and has an estimated net worth of $80 million.
They're known for turning heads on a red carpet.

So it came as no surprise that Elizabeth Olsen and Rose Byrne came dressed to impress as they arrived for the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic on Saturday.

The 27-year-old Godzilla actress and the Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising star, 36, looked stunning in summery, white ensembles for the Liberty State Park event.

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Ready for summer: Rose Byrne (L) and Elizabeth Olsen (R) looked stunning in lightweight, white ensembles as they arrived for the Ninth Annual Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic on Saturday

Star in stripes! Elizabeth showed off her fashion credentials in a well-tailored blazer with a subtle pinstripe pattern, which she coupled with a pair of coordinating shorts

Elizabeth wore a form-fitting, low-cut white top, which she sported underneath a well-tailored, white blazer.

The stylish jacket featured a subtle pinstripe design, as well as two black buttons to add a bit of contrast.

The blonde beauty coupled the jacket with a pair of coordinating shorts, which showed off the star's toned pins.

Putting her best foot forward: The sister of Full House stars Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen accessorized with a striking pair of black and white striped sandals

Keeping it simple: The blonde beauty wore her hair pulled back into a sophisticated updo, and sported natural make-up for the event

Happy to be here! Elizabeth showed off a big smile as things kicked off at Liberty State Park in New Jersey on Saturday

She finished off the high-fashion look with a pair of black and white striped heeled sandals, and accessorized with statement rings.

Elizabeth also wore a small, gold necklace, as well as a pair of chic, tortoiseshell clubmaster-style sunglasses.

The Captain America: Civil War actress accentuated her lips with a peach lipstick, and wore her blonde tresses pulled back into a sophisticated updo.

Pretty as a petal! Rose - toting a silver M2MALLETIER clutch - donned a sleeveless, white patterned dress with lacy, floral embellishments along the top in red and black

Smitten: The Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising actress looked blissful as she stood for photos alongside her longtime partner - and father of her four-month-old son Rocco - Bobby Cannavale

Can't hide their smiles! The pair put on quite the loving display as they arrived together on Saturday

Keeping her close: Bobby, who wore a pink button down and fitted, grey trousers, kept close to his girlfriend as they enjoyed the day's festivities

She looked to be in good spirits for the outing, showing off a big smile while posing for photos, especially as she looked on at the day's events.

Rose wore a sleeveless, white patterned dress with a cinched-in waist that highlighted the star's trim figure.

The flattering dress also featured a dreamy skirt that fell to just below her knees, as well as lacy, floral embellishments along the top in black and red.

Blue belle: Pregnant Nicky Hilton showed off her growing baby bump as she arrived in a polka dot sundress

She knows her angles! The mom-to-be showed off a smile as she posed while gently caressing her baby bump

Her caramel tresses were worn in a side part for the event, and styled in soft curls, and she sported a mauve lipstick.

The mother-of-one accessorized with a pair of chunky, peep toe black heels that showed off her red pedicure, and carried a silver M2MALLETIER clutch.

Rose was joined by her boyfriend - and father of her four-month-old son Rocco - Bobby Cannavale, who looked laid-back in a pink, button down shirt.

On trend: Nicky accessorized her summery look with a pair of strappy, peep toe heels, and a wide-brimmed hat

Showing off her personality: The 365 Style author accessorized with a playful charm necklace

He wore the top with the sleeves rolled up to just above his elbows, and coupled them with a pair of fitted, grey trousers and white, low-top sneakers.

The Vinyl star hid his eyes behind a pair of black sunglasses, and looked to be thrilled to be joining Rose for the nice day out.

Nicky Hilton, 32, showed off her growing baby bump as she arrived to the polo event in a bright blue, ruffled sundress with red polka dots.

Model behavior: Shanina Shaik looked lovely in an off-the-shoulder peasant dress

Comfortable style: The model's loose fitting dress allowed room for comfort

Standout: Jaimie Alexander turned heads with her unique, halterneck romper, which featured a sheer, green and white skirt attachment

Daring to bare: The Blindspot beauty accessorized the revealing look with a pair of chunky, white sandals that showed off a dark pedicure

The off-the-shoulder mini dress fell to just above the expectant mother's - with husband James Rothschild - knees, and she coupled it with a pair of strappy, tan heels.

She accessorized with a silver charm necklace, covering her long, wavy blonde tresses with a stylish, wide-brimmed hat.

She accentuated her eyes with liner and sported a bit of pink lipstick, while carrying a straw handbag.

Also at the event was former reality star Olivia Palermo and husband Johannes Huebl.

Summer style: Olivia Palermo and model husband Johannes Huebl also attended the polo classic

Fashionable: Olivia wore a paisley print dress belted in at the waist, and added mirrored sunglasses

Relaxed: The reality star added ballet flats and a gold watch for a chic look

The 30-year-old looked stylish in a pink paisley dress with ruffled sleeves.

The former The City star added mirrored sunglasses and nude ballet flats.

, while model Johannes, 38, looked sharp in a navy blazer and white jeans.

Showing off her fashion credentials: Jourdan Dunn looked chic in a double-breasted, off-the-shoulder, white romper

Quite a figure! The form-fitting number featured an asymmetrical hemline and showed off the model's toned physique

Victoria's Secret model Shanina Shaik, 25, sported an off-the-shoulder, peasant dress in a light shade of purple with a floral pattern.

The flowing number billowed in the breeze, showing off the Australian model's toned pins as she walked.

She accessorized with a pair of heeled, blue sandals, also donning a few statement rings for the event.

Guest of honor: All eyes were on Jourdan as she ran out to toss the first ball

In good spirits: The model showed off a smile as she got to take her part in the games on Saturday

Lady in white: Jamie-Lynn Sigler looked elegant in a sleeveless, white sundress which she coupled with a pair of tan, leather sandals

Glamorous: The Sopranos alum accessorized with a pair of dramatic, dangling earrings, as well as a chic wristwatch

Her long, brunette tresses were worn in a deep side part, and styled in dramatic curls that cascaded over her shoulders.

Jaimie Alexander, 32, showed off her unique style in a halterneck, white romper with a flowing, green and white sheer skirt embellishment.

The high-fashion look highlighted the Blindspot actress's toned pins, and she coupled it with a pair of white sandals and a coordinating clutch.

Pretty in blue: Actress Phoebe Tonkin delighted in a nautical-themed navy patterned frock

Dappled shade: Phoebe's hat shielded her fair skin from the sun

Everything's rosy: Rose Byrne and Phoebe Tonkin got a chance to chat at the classy event

She showed off a dark manicure, and highlighted her eyes with a bit of liner for the event, balancing the bold look with a lighter lipstick.

Model Jourdan Dunn, 25, also opted for a romper, sporting a chic, white, off-the-shoulder number as she arrived on Saturday.

The double breasted, form-fitting romper featured an asymmetrical hemline and showcased the star's lithe pins.

Fabulous trio: Shanina Shaik, Jaime Alexander and Nadine Leopold linked arms for a group hug

Best party ever: Michael B. Jordan looked amazed to be standing among so many beautiful ladies

Mellow yellow: Riley Keough looked like a rare flower in her pale yellow number

Perfect: Models Tobias Sorensen and Jasmine Tookes struck a glamorous pose together at the annual event

She coupled it with a pair of gold, heeled sandals, and wore her shoulder-length tresses in a center part, and styled in soft curls.

Jourdan looked to be enjoying herself at the Polo Classic, and was later seen tossing the first ball at the event.

The Sopranos alum Jamie-Lynn Sigler, 35, looked elegant in a sleeveless, white sundress which she coupled with tan, leather sandals.

Suave: Girls star Andrew Rannells looked stylish in a striped suit, worn with a red and blue striped tie

All eyes on him! The performer later headed onto the field to kick things off by singing the national anthem

Dapper: Model Tyson Beckford - who reportedly sparred with ex-girlfriend Shanina Shaik's new man DJ Ruckus recently in front of a NY club - looked suave in a fitted, purple suit, worn with a white button down

She wore her long, brunette tresses in a center part and styled straight, and accessorized with a chic, gold wristwatch.

Girls star Andrew Rannells, 37, also took part in the festivities on Saturday, sporting a fitted, striped suit as he sang the national anthem.

Meanwhile, Tyson Beckford, 45, made a splash in a fitted, purple suit, which he coupled with a white button down - left with the first few buttons undone - and black loafers.

Tyson looked calm just weeks after reportedly brawling with ex-girlfriend Shanina Shaik's new man DJ Ruckus in front of a club in New York City.

Laid-back: That 70's Show alum Danny Masterson went a bit more casual, sporting a short-sleeved button down with fitted, grey trousers

High-fashion: Coco Rocha stunned in a white cape, worn with a satin black top, coordinating trousers, and strappy, black leather heels

Danny Masterson, 40, looked laid-back in a short-sleeved button down and fitted, grey trousers as he arrived also sporting a pair of tortoiseshell sunglasses.

Coco Rocha, 27, on the other hand, looked high fashion in a white cape worn with a satin black top, form-fitting, black trousers, and strappy, black heels.
Kim Kardashian has her hands full with a baby and a toddler who's nearly three

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star fortunately had a nanny to assist her for a family flight out of Los Angeles' Van Nuys Airport on Saturday.

Kim, 35, was seen minding North on the tarmac and then carrying Saint into the private jet and all of this while wearing spike-heeled boots.

Family flight: Kim kept an eye on daughter North as the family arrived to LA's Van Nuys Airport for a flight out of town on Saturday

While Kim was busy minding the children, husband Kanye West, 38, appeared to be wrapped up in a cell phone conversation.

Kanye kept his phone pressed to his ear while crossing the space between the chauffeured black SUV and the aircraft.

Kim, however, appeared to take Kanye's self-involvement in stride and took care of the parental duties with aplomb.

Baby on board: The 35-year-old reality star carried baby Saint up into the plane

Important call? Kanye West stayed glued to his cell phone as Kim minded the children

Happy for the help: Kim fortunately had a nanny to help watch North

North was a happy excited girl as she zoomed ahead of her mom while watched by the nanny.

Saint may have been sleeping through all of this in his carrier with a cosy white blanket tossed over it.

The reality star's travel attire included a light denim jacket over a low-cut white top and ripped jean cut offs with tattered ends dangling.

Travel attire: Kim was double denim all the way in a jacket to match her cut-off jeans plus sexy lace-up boots

Where we going mommy? North seemed extra excited ahead of the family's trip

Easy does it: Kim tread the steps leading up into the private jet carefully in those spike-heeled boots

Kim topped off her casually chic outfit with lace-up high-heeled caramel-brown boots.

Her long dark hair was pulled back in a hassle-free ponytail and a pair of large-framed shades concealed from view.

Earlier in the day, Kim shared via Snapchat her morning workout routine and a tight-fitting, heavily embellished Balmain dress that she intends to squeeze into.

On the phone: Kanye was engrossed in his phone conversation as he crossed the tarmac to the aircraft

Kisses for her fans: The mom-of-two must have been feeling more relaxed as she sat back and blew kisses to her social media fans in this Snapchat

The exercise to-do list included 'Running 4 miles, planks, 1000 jump ropes & abs,' as stated in the caption.

Various props to assist her routine included a blue stability ball, an exercise mat, jump rope and a very large cup with a straw for water, which she would definitely need.

Kim has been keeping her fans well informed of her weight loss success and earlier this week announced she was down to 132 lbs with another 12 lbs. to go before reaching her 120 lb. target weight.

During those workouts, her mental focus probably included a recurring image of that Balmain mini-dress with high neck, long sleeves and thigh-skimming hemline.

'1 of 1,' read Kim's dress caption.

Nap time: Kim may have taken this opportunity to enjoy a little shut-eye




Featuring explicit romps, nudity and gay sex, its a scene that makes controversial bodice-ripper Versailles look positively tame.

As controversy engulfs the BBC2 drama about French king Louis XIV and sexual intrigue in his court, gangland drama Peaky Blinders, also on BBC2, last week sent pulses racing even faster with an orgy scene featuring gangsters, whores and Russian Cossacks.

But it went largely unnoticed because of the row surrounding the sex scenes in French-produced Versailles, which is broadcast on BBC2 on Wednesdays at 9.30pm.

Nudity galore: The cavorting in last week's episode of Peaky Blinders was described as 'one big orgy'

In one scene a Russian aristocratic beauty assures the shows anti-hero Tommy Shelby, played by Murphy, that her aunt only employs the best whores

This is despite the fact that the sex and nudity in the British show, starring Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy and Helen McCrory, was far more gratuitous.

The orgy scene in Peaky Blinders, which is screened at 9pm, ran for several minutes and at one stage a shocked male character, surveying the debauchery before him, exclaimed: Its a f****** mad house.

In another scene, a Russian aristocratic beauty assures the shows anti-hero Tommy Shelby, played by Murphy, that her aunt only employs the best whores.

Spectating: Duchess Tatiana and (Gaite Jansen) and Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) survey the frolicking

The episode was overshadowed by raunchy sex scenes in BBC2 drama about French king Louis XIV (above)

The steamy episode generated a frenzied debate on social media with one fan describing it as one big orgy. He expressed his embarrassment at watching the show with parents and family.

The one night my family decides to watch Peaky Blinders with me the episode is basically one big orgy, he pointed out.

Another added: Bad time for your mum to walk in. COVER YOUR EYES.
Australian model Miranda Kerr took a break from her busy schedule on Saturday to enjoy some down time with 'love' Evan Spiegel.

Taking to Instagram, the 33-year-old runway sensation shared a natural selfie of the pair, wishing the Snapchat CEO a happy 26th birthday while she was at it.

'Happy Birthday to my love!!! I feel so incredibly blessed to have you as my partner,' Miranda captioned the sweet image, which attracted over 86,000 likes in a matter of a few hours.

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Sweet: Australian model Miranda Kerr shared this snap of her and love Evan Spiegel on Saturday, wishing the Snapchat CEO a happy 26th birthday

In the sun-soaked snap, seemingly captured at a music festival, mother-of-one Miranda exuded a natural glow.

The former Victoria's Secret model seemed to sport minimal makeup, while wearing a sleek black blouse for the occasion.

A pair of gold-rimmed sunglasses were propped on her head and she completed her accessories with a few delicate necklaces.

The lovely social media snap comes after the pair made a rare public appearance at the Obama's Nordic state Dinner at the White House last month.

Celebrity couple: The lovely social media snap comes after the pair made a rare public appearance at the Obama's Nordic state Dinner at the White House last month

Clad in a floor length blush gown, Miranda looked every inch the supermodel as she strode through the hall, whilst Evan cut a dapper figure in a black tuxedo.

It was a rare red carpet appearance for the couple, despite almost a year of dating and numerous low-key dates solidifying their relationship in the public eye.

Orlando Bloom's ex - with whom she has a son, Flynn - recently explained how she met the businessman, who she's been linked to since September 2015.

'We met at a dinner in LA for Louis Vuitton and became friends,' she told the Sydney Morning Herald. 'We were really good friends for a long time before we started dating.'

She added: 'We've just been having fun together and sharing our time amongst friends and family.'
US vows 'actions' if China builds new S. China Sea structures

Chinese construction on a South China Sea islet claimed by the Philippines would prompt "actions being taken" by the United States and other nations, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned Saturday.

Speaking at a security summit in Singapore, Carter said Beijing risks building a "Great Wall of self-isolation" with its military expansion in the contested waters, but he also proposed stronger bilateral security cooperation to reduce the risks of a mishap.

"I hope that this development doesn't occur because it will result in actions being taken both by the United States, and actions being taken by others in the region that will have the effect of not only increasing tensions but isolating China," Carter said when asked about Scarborough Shoal in a forum also attended by senior Chinese military officials.

Crew members of China's South Sea Fleet taking part in a drill in the Xisha Islands, or the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on May 5, 2016 STR (AFP/File)

Rear Admiral Guan Youfei, who heads the Chinese office of international military cooperation, quickly attacked the Pentagon chief's remarks, telling journalists they reflected a "Cold War mentality".

He said any sanctions against China will "definitely result in failure".

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post has reported that China plans to establish an outpost on the shoal, located 230 kilometres (140 miles) off the Philippines, which considers it part of its exclusive economic zone.

Beijing claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea and has developed contested reefs into artificial islands, some topped with airstrips.

Manila says China took effective control of Scarborough Shoal in 2012, stationing patrol vessels and shooing away Filipino fishermen, after a two-month stand-off with the Philippine Navy.

Carter declined to elaborate when later pressed on what "actions" Washington might take.

The US warning comes ahead of a ruling from the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague on a case brought by the Philippines against China, which has shunned the proceedings and says it will not recognise any ruling.

In a prepared speech, Carter said the US views the upcoming ruling "as an opportunity for China and the rest of the region to recommit to a principled future, to renewed diplomacy, and to lowering tensions, rather than raising them".

- 'Great Wall of self-isolation' -

The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam have competing claims in the sea, which encompasses vital global shipping routes and is believed to have significant oil and gas deposits.

Beijing's territorial claims, based on controversial historical records, have also pitted it against the US, which has conducted patrols near Chinese-held islands to press for freedom of navigation.

"Unfortunately, if these (Chinese) actions continue, China could end up erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation," Carter said in his speech.

He suggested the US and China would benefit from better military ties to avoid the risk of mishaps.

Pentagon officials say two Chinese fighters last month conducted an "unsafe" intercept of a US spy plane in international air space over the South China Sea.

Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US Pacific Command, said in Singapore that such incidents were rare, and noted that US and Chinese naval vessels generally have "positive interactions".

Carter's attendance at the summit is part of a broader US diplomatic push, known as the "rebalance", to boost alliances in the Asia-Pacific region.

In a report last month, the Pentagon said China put its land reclamation efforts on hold in the Spratly Islands chain at the end of 2015. Instead, it focused on adding military infrastructure to its reclaimed features.

Another regional security concern at the Singapore forum is North Korea's nuclear program and its so-far unsuccessful missile tests.

Seoul and Washington want to deploy the US' sophisticated Terminal High Altitude Area Defence System (THAAD), that would protect against North Korean missiles, though Beijing worries about the system being deployed on its doorstep.

"It's not about China," Carter said. "It's about the North Korean missile threat, which is a clear threat to South Korea, to our forces there and to our allies in Japan."

Delegates also discussed ways nations could cooperate to counter the threat of Islamic extremism across the region.

Map showing China's potential aircraft and radar range in the South China Sea Adrian LEUNG (AFP)

US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter speaks at the 15th International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 4, 2016 Roslan Rahman (AFP)

Alleged on-going reclamation by China on Mischief Reef in the Spratly group of islands in the South China Sea, west of Palawan, on May 11, 2015 Ritchie B. Tongo (AFP/File)
Tens of thousands at Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil despite boycott

Tens of thousands gathered Saturday for Hong Kong's commemoration of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown despite many young activists turning their backs on the candlelit vigil as calls grow for greater autonomy from China.

The vigil, which each year draws huge crowds to the city's Victoria Park, has caused a widening rift in Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp between those who believe the victims of the crackdown should be remembered and those who see the event's message as increasingly irrelevant.

Semi-autonomous Hong Kong is the only location on Chinese soil to see a major commemoration to mark the military's brutal crushing of pro-democracy protests in central Beijing in 1989.

A young girl holds her candle at a vigil in Hong Kong on June 4, 2016, during the commemoration of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown Anthony Wallace (AFP)

But young activists from the new "localist" movement say Hong Kong should push for its own autonomy, even independence, rather than the democratisation of the mainland, which is part of the vigil's main message.

Localism grew out of the failure of the 2014 student-led pro-democracy rallies to gain concessions from China on political reform for Hong Kong, and a growing number of student groups are now boycotting the vigil to hold alternative gatherings.

A small group of pro-independence activists ran onto the main stage in Victoria Park before the vigil began, demanding Hong Kong break away.

But the park still became a sea of candles as residents paid tribute to the Tiananmen victims -- organisers estimated 125,000 had attended, down from last year's 135,000.

They sang protest songs and chanted "Fight to the end" as footage of the bloody crackdown was shown on big screens.

One young student who took the stage said those boycotting the event did not represent the entire younger generation, to loud applause.

"This is a question of righteousness, so we persevere in coming here," a tearful Tong Hiu-yan, 21, told the crowds.

However, students at a forum at Hong Kong University said they felt little connection with the traditional commemoration.

"We're the new generation -- it is more meaningful for us to do this. We have to stand against the Chinese regime, but we also have to think about Hong Kong's future," said student Raven Kwok, 20, among hundreds who had gathered for the forum.

The president of HKU's student union, Althea Suen, said the fight was now about democracy for Hong Kong.

Building a democratic China was "not our responsibility", she said.

The Hong Kong Federation of Students -- a founding member of the alliance that organises the vigil -- also stayed away this year, saying the event had "lost touch".

- 'Never forget' -

Some in the park said the event could be improved by seeking more discussion with newly emerged groups, but that without it the memory of Tiananmen could die.

"I feel really sad about this, even though I wasn't born (then)," Cecilia Ng, 19, told AFP. "Many of my classmates don't know or understand what happened."

Despite lower numbers than last year, organiser Albert Ho said there was no such regular protest gathering "in the history of mankind".

After the vigil, scuffles broke out as around 300 protesters marched to China's Hong Kong liaison office.

The confrontation happened when police tried to prevent the group walking in the road, but the march resumed peacefully.

They threw a placard demanding China free all prisoners of conscience over the wall of the liaison office compound and burned paper effigies of former mainland officials blamed for the Tiananmen crackdown.

Hundreds -- by some estimates more than a thousand -- died after the Communist Party sent tanks to crush demonstrations in the square in the heart of Beijing, where student-led protesters had staged a peaceful seven-week sit-in to demand democratic reforms.

The protests are branded a "counter-revolutionary rebellion" by Chinese authorities and many on the mainland remain unaware of the crackdown.

On the mainland, police detained several activists linked to commemoration events while "Tiananmen Mothers" -- an association of parents who lost children during the violence -- were surrounded by security forces as they visited the graves of their loved ones on Saturday.

Tiananmen Square itself was also heavily policed.

An activist sits in front of a poster of the "Tank Man" photo at his stall in Hong Kong on June 4, 2016, ahead of the commemoration of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 Anthony Wallace (AFP)

Participants hold candles during a vigil for the 27th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, at Victoria Park in Hong Kong on June 4, 2016 Tengku Bahar (AFP)

Beijing students protesting in Tiananmen Square around a "Statue of Liberty" on May 30, 1989, and (R) visitors walking near the same location 25 years later
US army probes death of nine soldiers in Texas base floods

A probe has been launched into the death of nine soldiers caught in a flash-flood during a training exercise in Texas, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said Saturday.

Authorities recovered the bodies of four soldiers Friday, a day after their vehicle flipped over in a rain-swollen creek at the vast military base of Fort Hood, Texas.

"We now know that nine soldiers died in the training incident at Fort Hood, and based on initial reports, it was a troop carrier that overturned in a stream," said Carter, speaking after a security summit in Singapore.

There are nearly 41,000 US soldiers stationed at Fort Hood Army base around 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of Houston Joe Raedle (Getty/AFP/File)

"The investigation's under way -- we will get to the bottom off this incident and others that occurred this week," Carter said.

Bodies of the other five victims were recovered Thursday.

The troops were on a training mission at the base when their light truck was caught in flash flooding, Christopher Haug, chief of media relations at Fort Hood military base, told AFP.

Major General John Uberti told reporters on Friday that three soldiers were rescued and are in stable condition "due to the quick action of some other soldiers that were training."

Texas has seen several days of severe storms, including in the area around Fort Hood, where the Light Medium Tactical Vehicle the soldiers were traveling in overturned.

An aerial search, canine units and swift water rescue boats were all deployed in response to the accident.

The Fort Hood Army base is located approximately 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of Houston.
Photographer Tunick plans nude demo against Trump's 'hate'

American photographer Spencer Tunick, famous for his pictures of huge crowds of naked people, is not a fan of Donald Trump.

In fact, when the presumptive Republican presidential nominee travels to Cleveland next month for the party's convention, Tunick plans to greet him with 100 nude women holding up mirrors in a form of art photography-turned-protest.

"There shouldn't be a rhetoric of hate in a presidential election," Tunick, 49, said of the billionaire tycoon's campaign, which has featured virulent diatribes against Mexicans, Arabs and women journalists, among others.

US photographer and artist Spencer Tunick said he felt a duty as a husband and father of two daughters to speak out against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Guillermo Legaria (AFP)

Speaking in Colombia, where he plans to assemble 4,000 naked people Sunday in what he calls a message of "peace and unity," Tunick said he felt a duty as a husband and father of two daughters to speak out against Trump.

"I can't just vote. I have to do something," he told AFP.

"I think every artist in the US should make an artwork before the election and get it out there."

His plan is to line up 100 nude women at sunrise on July 17, the day before the Republican national convention starts, wielding mirrored discs to capture the blinding light of the sun -- and expose what he calls The Donald's misguided policies.

Volunteers can sign up online at spencertunickcleveland.com to pose for the shoot, which the artist says will take place on private property near the arena.

"Republicans, Democrats and all other political parties are welcome to take part," says the website.

"It's an artwork, not so much a protest but an action to heat up the city... (and) show that women have power," Tunick said.

"Women in the city should look themselves in the mirror, and mirrors should shine back at them and they should see the language of hate that is coming from the Republican party."

Tunick accused the GOP, whose leadership long resisted the seemingly unstoppable Trump nomination, of "heading backwards" on women's and minority rights.

- 'Body as art object' -

The New York-based photographer, who has completed major installations around the world, is in Colombia as the conflict-torn country closes in on a peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

"It's an honor to be here at this moment when life is changing and hopefully a peace agreement will be signed," he said.

Tunick said his Bogota installation -- the largest he has done in six years -- would feature unclothed Colombians sprawled out across a government square at different elevations.

He said the aim was "to work with the body as an art object as opposed to an object of crime or violence, just show the body as a beautiful organic entity that transforms the space, the governmental space of the square."

The Colombia conflict, which began in the aftermath of a peasant uprising in the 1960s, has killed 260,000 people and uprooted 6.6 million over more than half a century.

In this diverse country with deep inequalities and roots in Europe, Africa and the Americas, Tunick said he was hoping his photo shoot would attract "an alphabet soup of skin tonalities, ethnicities, people from all walks of life."
China detains activists on Tiananmen anniversary

Chinese police have detained several activists while others were placed under surveillance for the anniversary of the bloody 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square, which was heavily policed on Saturday.

On June 4 1989 military tanks rolled into the square in the centre of Beijing to crush pro-democracy protests, killing hundreds of unarmed civilians -- by some estimates thousands.

Nearly three decades after the crackdown, the communist regime continues to forbid any debate on the subject, mention of which is banned from textbooks and the media, and censored on the Internet.

A Chinese paramilitary guard stands in Tiananmen Square under portrait of Mao Zedong in Beijing on June 3, 2016, on the eve of the 27th anniversary of the June 4, 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests Fred Dufour (AFP)

Six human rights activists, including the poet Liang Taiping, have been held by Beijing police since Thursday after holding a private ceremony commemorating June 4, the Chinese NGO Weiquanwang said.

The detained activists were suspected of "provoking quarrels and fomenting unrest", the group said, adding another activist had "disappeared" in recent days in the capital.

As in previous years, the "Tiananmen Mothers", an association of parents who lost children during the violence, were placed under heavy surveillance in the lead up to the anniversary.

Tiananmen square in the centre of Beijing was also under tight security on Saturday, with guards at the entry points into the iconic tourist spot checking the IDs and passports of visitors more closely than usual, an AFP photographer at the scene said.

Around a dozen parents from the Tiananmen Mothers visited a Beijing cemetery on Saturday where many of those killed in the crackdown are buried.

They said they were outnumbered by security forces as they paid their respects at the graves of their children.

"We have been under surveillance since last week... 30 (plainclothes policemen) were at the cemetery," said Zhang Xianling, whose 19-year-old son was killed in 1989.

A resident of Sichuan was also arrested this week for selling alcohol with labels that read "89-4 June" and images of tanks, according to Hong Kong-based media.

- '27 years of white terror' -

The Tiananmen Mothers penned an open letter slamming the "27 years of white terror and suffocation" they have been subjected to by the authorities.

"We the victims' families are eavesdropped upon and surveilled by the police; we are followed or even detained, and our computers searched and confiscated," read the letter signed by the group's members and released the NGO Human Rights in China.

The letter also said they had been warned that all visits to the home of the group's founder Ding Zilin, who is now 79-years-old and in poor health, would be restricted from April 22 to June 4.

Ding was under increased surveillance at her home and the police had cut the household telephone line, Hong Kong-based media reported.

Calls to Ding's telephone number on Saturday were met with a recorded message: "The user you have contacted does not have the right to receive calls."

Meanwhile, the state-run Global Times newspaper ran an editorial in its print edition describing June 4 as "a normal day".

"This does not mean Chinese people have all forgotten about the turmoil. It is simply that most Chinese people tend to agree that no more debate is necessary over that incident," the editorial read.

The piece pointed to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the unrest in the Middle East that followed the Arab Spring as evidence that China is "lucky that the rioters did not succeed at that time".

In Hong Kong, a planned vigil for those killed in the 1989 crackdown -- which is held annually and usually draws tens of thousands of people -- has exposed a rift within the city's own pro-democracy camp.

Young activists from the new "localist" movement, which grew out of failed pro-democracy rallies in 2014, boycotted the vigil, saying Hong Kong should push for its own autonomy, even independence, rather than the democratisation of the mainland, which is part of the event's main message.

The Hong Kong Federation of Students -- a founding member of the alliance that organises the vigil -- also stayed away this year, saying the event had "lost touch" with Hong Kongers.

Taiwan's new Beijing-sceptic president Tsai Ing-wen used the anniversary to urge China to "heal the past wounds and pain of the Chinese people".

"Do not let June 4 forever be unspoken between the two sides," Tsai said on her Facebook page, in her first public comments on Tiananmen as Taiwan's leader.

There were mass rallies in Taiwan in 1989 to support the pro-democracy movement in China, and Taiwanese civil groups will commemorate the 27th anniversary with a candlelight vigil in downtown Taipei later Saturday.

A child holds the national flag in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 3, 2016 Fred Dufour (AFP/File)

Pro-democracy students face police outside the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square 22 April 1989 in Beijing Catherine Henriette (AFP/File)
MH17 criminal probe results due within months

Initial results from a criminal inquiry into the downing of a Malaysia Airlines flight over war-torn eastern Ukraine nearly two years ago will be available within months, Dutch prosecutors have said.

The results are expected to shed light on the exact type of missile used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board, and exactly where it was fired from.

"After this summer, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) will present the first results of the criminal investigation into the crash of flight MH17," the public prosecutor said in a statement released late Friday.

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)

"It concerns the weapon which was used to shoot down the aircraft and the exact launch site of the weapon," it said, noting that the inquiry was at "a very advanced stage".

However, investigators on the Dutch-led team, which includes experts from Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine, were still awaiting information from Moscow about BUK missile installations, it said, noting that they were expecting an answer "within two months".

In October, an international inquiry concluded that the Boeing 777, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down by a Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile fired from a zone held by pro-Russian separatists, but stopped short of saying who was responsible.

Results of the latest investigation will not be published in a report, however, but will be included in a criminal file "which is intended for the hearing of the case in a court or a tribunal," the prosecutor said, indicating this was normal procedure in criminal cases.

Earlier this week, families of six Malaysian crew members filed suit against the airline for negligence and breach of contract, their lawyer said, and the carrier could also face similar action from more MH17 next-of-kin over loss of earnings as well as compensation for the "psychological" trauma of losing loved ones.

Last month, relatives of victims from Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia launched legal action against Russia and its President Vladimir Putin in the European Court of Human Rights, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Syria army pushes into IS bastion as Kurds advance from north

Russian-backed Syrian troops pushed into the Islamic State group's bastion province Raqa Saturday, threatening to catch the jihadists in a pincer movement as US-backed Kurdish-led fighters advance from the north.

The lightning advance from the southwest with Russian air support brought the army to within dozens of kilometres (miles) of the Euphrates Valley town of Tabqa, site of the country's biggest dam, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said.

The dam, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) upstream from the jihadists' de facto Syrian capital Raqa city, is also the target of the Washington-backed offensive which Kurdish-led fighters launched late last month.

Syrian soldiers stand on a tank as they hold a position near the ancient city of Palmyra on May 5, 2016 Vasily Maximov (AFP/File)

It was the first time that government troops had entered Raqa province since they were ousted by IS in August 2014.

Regular army troops were backed by militia newly trained by the regime's ally Russia, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

He said the twin offensives which threaten to cut off IS-held Raqa from jihadist-held territory along the Turkish border raised suspicions that Moscow and Washington were covertly coordinating operations by their respective Syrian allies.

"It seems there has been an undeclared coordination between Washington and Moscow," he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed Syria with US Secretary of State John Kerry in a telephone call on Saturday, the foreign ministry in Moscow said, without giving details.

The "main priority" for Moscow, Lavrov said in an interview this week, was "more direct, effective and forceful measures" against IS and Al-Nusra Front, whereas Western powers were opposed to the jihadist Nusra being targeted because of its alliances with "moderate" rebels.

At least 26 jihadists and nine government troops and militia were killed in the army's advance, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on reports from medics and activists on the ground.

Tabqa dam has a huge reservoir named Lake Assad after President Bashar al-Assad's late father and predecessor Hafez.

When IS overran the area with its garrison and airbase in 2014, it summarily executed 160 captured regime troops.

- IS under multiple attack -

The jihadists are facing counter-attacks on multiple fronts.

Arab and Kurdish fighters backed by Washington have launched an assault on the strategic Manbij pocket further up the Euphrates on the Turkish border, regarded as a key entry point for foreign jihadists.

Hundreds of kilometres downstream in neighbouring Iraq, elite troops have begun an assault on the emblematic IS bastion of Fallujah.

Iraqi security sources said army, police and Shiite militia forces gained new ground from IS on Saturday in the Saqlawiya area west of Fallujah.

In Syria, Washington has deployed more than 200 special forces troops in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which it regards as the most effective fighting force on the ground against IS in Syria.

The SDF controls a large swathe of northeastern Syria along the Turkish border and another border enclave in the northwest.

The SDF's offensive against the Manbij pocket is aimed at seizing the last stretch of border still under IS control and denying the jihadists any opportunity to smuggle in recruits and funds.

The US military said the assault had captured more than 100 square kilometres (40 square miles) of territory from IS this week.

IS has hit back with an offensive against two towns held by non-jihadist rebels further west in a bid to enlarge the territory it holds on the border.

Washington has dropped ammunition to the rebels defending the town of Marea in a bid to stop jihadists overrunning it, a US official confirmed.

The supply lines from neighbouring Turkey have made the northern border region one of the most contested battlegrounds of Syria's five-year civil war.

The region is now controlled by a myriad of rival armed groups, although IS and the SDF have put other rebel groups on the back foot.

Washington's support for the SDF has strained relations with NATO ally Ankara as its largest component is the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

Ankara regards the YPG as an arm of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

The increasingly complex front lines have left hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped by fighting or living under siege.

Damascus said on Friday that it was ready to allow desperately needed relief convoys into 12 besieged areas, but the United Nations said it was preparing to seek the government's permission to organise air drops.

The battle for Raqa Omar Kamal (AFP)
Clinton goes nuclear in bid to unpick 'Teflon Don'

Hillary Clinton this week revealed a formula she hopes will help beat presidential rival Donald Trump in November: a not-so-subtle suggestion he is unhinged.

A string of 2016 presidential hopefuls have tried to land a punch on "The Donald" with little effect.

Trump has brushed off earnest-sounding accusations that he is not presidential, largely because many Americans seem to be clamoring for an unconventional leader.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on June 3, 2016, in Culver City, California ahead of the crucial primary in the state on June 7 Robyn Beck (AFP)

Democratic strategists privately admit that casting Trump as a "loose cannon" similarly misfired -- that tack, they say, only played to the Republican's tough man brand.

So in San Diego on Thursday Clinton tried a new formula.

Trump, she argued, is not just unpresidential and unpredictable, he's too unhinged to be in power, or as she put it -- "temperamentally unfit" to be commander-in-chief.

"This is not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes - because it's not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because somebody got under his very thin skin."

She even suggested psychiatrists explain his "affection for tyrants."

You could call this Clinton's "Daisy strategy."

- Echoes of '64 -

In 1964, incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson faced a challenge from a tough-talking Republican nominee.

Barry Goldwater was a US Senator and friend to Democrat John F. Kennedy, but he was also from the right fringe of the political mainstream.

Goldwater was endorsed by the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, campaigned on a platform of withdrawing from the United Nations, and advocated the use of tactical nuclear weapons against north Vietnam.

His nuclear position prompted Johnson's campaign to build and unleash "Daisy."

A minute long, and only broadcast by Johnson's campaign once, the attack ad would become one of the most famous in US political lore.

It starts with an angelic young girl counting as she picks petals of a flower.

Then, suddenly, an ominous sounding voice from mission control begins a countdown to zero -- which brings a boom, blinding light and a mushroom cloud that would be unmistakable to voters so soon after the Cuban missile crisis.

"These are the stakes" says Johnson, playing narrator. "To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other. Or we must die."

A caption fills the screen: "Vote for President Johnson on Nov. 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home."

The message was unmistakable: Vote for crazy Barry Goldwater and the little girl gets it.

Johnson was criticized for the ad, but he nevertheless won by a landslide.

This line of attack, particularly when linked to security, is one that Trump may find difficult to parry.

Trump's response so far has been to suggest Clinton should go to jail over an email scandal and asserting he has a "good temperament."

"I don't have thin skin," Trump told CNN. "I have very strong and thick skin."

Some believe that won't wash.

"He has obviously shown himself to be a non-traditional candidate, but this is an area where ad hominem attacks aren't going to work," said Geoffrey Skelley of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Trump's personal attacks on Clinton "may work with his base, but they will hurt him in the long run," Skelley said.

"He can't just resort to that. You need to put on a real presidential posture."

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally in California on June 2, 2016 Josh Edelson (AFP/File)
India's Modi inaugurates $290 mn dam in Afghanistan

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Afghanistan on Saturday to inaugurate a $290 million hydroelectric dam with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the latest Indian investment which highlights strengthening ties between the two countries.

The 42 megawatt Salma dam in western Herat province, bordering Iran, is the second major Indian project after a new parliament complex built under New Delhi's robust development partnership with Afghanistan.

Modi and Ghani jointly pressed the button on a remote-controlled console, sending torrents of water gushing down the dam as celebrations erupted with balloons released in the colours of the Indian flag.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C) arrives ahead of the inauguration of the Salma Hydroelectric Dam in Herat on June 4, 2016 Aref Karimi (AFP)

"I want to give the good news to my people that 'Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam' is the prologue to construction of a series of dams that we have undertaken so that our provinces have access to electricity, water, food and work," Ghani said at the ceremony.

Construction on Salma dam, which will boost Afghanistan's power capacity and help irrigate thousands of hectares of farm land in a parched landscape, had been stalled by decades of conflict.

"Afghans and Indians dreamt of this project in the 1970s," Modi said.

"Today the brave Afghan people are sending a message that the forces of destruction, death, denial and domination shall not prevail. It is a historic moment of emotion and pride in the relations between Afghanistan and India."

India, the fifth largest bilateral donor in Afghanistan, has been a key supporter of Kabul's government and has poured more than $2 billion into the country since the Taliban was toppled from power in 2001.

- 'Building prosperity' -

New Delhi's active engagement has led analysts to point to the threat of a "proxy war" in Afghanistan between India and its nuclear-armed arch-rival Pakistan.

Pakistan -- the historic backer of the Taliban -- has long been accused of supporting the insurgents in Afghanistan, especially with attacks on Indian targets in the country.

In December, Modi inaugurated Afghanistan's new parliament complex in Kabul, built by India at an estimated cost of $90 million.

A few days after his visit militants launched a 25-hour gun and bomb siege near the Indian consulate in Afghanistan's Mazar-i-Sharif city.

And in March, Taliban militants fired a barrage of rockets at the parliament complex.

"Destroying is easy and building is difficult. Contrary to those whose main art is destroying and sending messages of destruction, we have taken the difficult responsibility of building prosperity," Ghani said in a veiled reference to the Taliban.

"We resolutely believe that... prosperity triumphs over destruction. Hope is right and hopelessness is wrong; seeking peace is right and seeking war is wrong."

Diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Kabul have grown despite a series of attacks on Indian installations in Afghanistan.

The two countries recently signed a three-way transit agreement with Iran to develop its southern port of Chabahar, as Modi visited Tehran last month.

The deal, bypassing Pakistan to connect Iran, India, and Afghanistan to central Asia, would boost economic growth in the region, Modi said at the time.

The Salma Hydroelectric Dam pictured at Chishti Sharif in Afghanistan's Herat province on June 2, 2016 Aref Karimi (AFP/File)

An Afghan guard of honour stands under a poster bearing the images of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) and Afghan president Ashraf Ghani ahead of the inauguration of the Salma Hydroelectric Dam in Herat on June 4, 2016 Aref Karimi (AFP)
Turk gets 108 years for sex assaults on Syria children

A court in Turkey has sentenced a Turkish man to 108 years in jail for sexually assaulting at least eight Syrian children at a flagship refugee camp, reports said on Saturday.

The 29-year-old man, identified only as Erdal E., worked as a cleaner at the tented refugee camp in Nizip in the southern Gaziantep province near the Syrian border.

He was found guilty of sexually abusing eight children in the camp's toilets in exchange for payments of between 1.5 and five Turkish lira ($0.50-$1.70/0.45-1.50 euros), the Dogan news agency said.

A security forces officer stands guard on an official vehicle as German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (L) visit a child protection centre on April 23, 2016 on the Turkish-Syrian border in Gaziantep

His defence had asked for his acquittal, saying an earlier confession to police had been made under duress.

But the judges at the court in the southern city of Nizip rejected the arguments, sentencing him late Friday to 108 years in jail. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 289 years.

The camp, which is home to some 10,800 refugees, has been visited by international dignitaries and is adjacent to the Nizip container camp for Syrian refugees which was visited by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in April.

During the trial, the accused claimed he had been made a "scapegoat" to cover up the crimes of others and prevent a wider scandal.

"I know very well the names of many managers and camp workers guilty of abuse... but I will not say them so as not to hurt my own family," the Hurriyet daily quoted him as saying.

- Sexually-transmitted disease risk -

Aid groups have warned that Syrian refugee children living in any host country are hugely vulnerable to sexual predators, with discussion of the issue largely taboo.

A team from the Gaziantep chamber of doctors visited the Nizip camp in the wake of the scandal, drawing up a report which sounded the alarm over sexual abuse and the risk of sexually-transmitted diseases at the camp.

Chairman Hamza Agca said there were problems with abuse of women and children, as well as early marriage and polygamy.

"We are worried about the risk of sexually-transmitted diseases due to the high rate of polygamy and early marriage at the camp as well as abuse of children," he said last month, according to the chamber's website.

Following the report, local opposition politician Mahmut Togrul of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) filed a series of parliamentary questions for Health Minister Recep Akdag, the MP said in a statement.

He requested information about the prevalence of sexually-transmitted diseases at the camp and what action was being taken to stop child abuse and child marriage.

"Do you think that marrying at between 7 and 15 years has a negative effect on a child's health?" he asked.

- Afraid to complain -

In another sign of concern, a cross-party delegation from parliament's human rights committee also visited both the tent and container camps in Nizip on May 25.

Turkey is hosting over 2.7 million refugees from the conflict in neighbouring Syria. Only a quarter of a million live in refugee camps, with the rest living in Turkish towns and cities.

The leftwing Birgun newspaper said the accused was suspected of assaulting 30 children but only went on trial over the abuse of eight as the other families were afraid of being sent back to Syria if they filed complaints.

It said all the victims were boys aged between 8-12.
Mystery Indian cult 'had its own government, army': police

A mysterious cult at the centre of deadly clashes in India was running its own pseudo-government, army, court and a prison where torture was the norm, a senior police officer told AFP Saturday.

Some 3,000 followers of the sect clashed with police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh during an eviction operation, leaving 24 people dead, including two senior officers.

The secretive sect had occupied a 270-acre (109-hectare) stretch of parkland since late 2014, with the site almost entirely closed off to the outside world, the top police inspector general of the region said.

Members of a sect said to have been living illegally after they were evicted from the Jawahar Bagh park in Mathura on June 2, 2016

"They set up a township of sorts with all kinds of people. Gradually, they started running a self-government," D.C. Mishra said, after officers seized documents and other evidence from the camp.

"They set up a court which pronounced punishments and jail barracks where inmates were tortured."

"Children as young as eight years old were being given training in arms."

Police in the city of Mathura came under fire overnight Thursday from members of the sect, who were armed with automatic weapons and hurled crude explosive devices during the violence.

Mishra said the cult was being run by self-styled Hindu godmen whose aim was to drive followers towards a kind of "religious terrorism".

"They were also planning to come out with their own currency soon and they did not believe in the Indian constitution," he said.

Later Saturday, the state police chief said Ram Vraksha Yadav, one of the key leaders of the Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah sect, had died during the clashes Thursday.

"Yadav's body identified by associates. Family intimated for final confirmation," Javeed Ahmed tweeted.

In postings on social media, the sect's followers describe themselves as political and social revolutionaries. Their demands include the abolition of elections and cheaper fuel for everyone.

In several videos posted on YouTube, Yadav can be seen pledging allegiance to Indian independence hero Subhash Chandra Bose and the Azad Hind Fouj (Indian National Army), a rebel movement founded by Bose to combat British colonial rule.

"The leaders duped their followers into believing that they will attain nirvana and get to meet an incarnation of Bose," Mishra said.

Bose disappeared in mysterious circumstances in 1945.

Police have arrested more than 300 people following the bloody raid, although the sect's four main leaders are still believed to be on the run.

The state's Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav announced compensation of two million rupees ($30,000) each for the families of the slain policemen.

The government will ensure speedy prosecution of all those accused in the violence, his office posted on Twitter.

India is home to hundreds of semi-religious sects which are often led by charismatic self-styled "godmen".

In 2014, hundreds of armed supporters from another sect clashed with police in the northern state of Haryana during a raid to arrest their leader who faced murder allegations. At least six people died in the violence.

Indian police carry a colleague injured during clashes with members of a sect said to have been living illegally at the Jawahar Bagh park in Mathura on June 2, 2016
Iraq forces gain ground from IS west of Fallujah

Iraqi forces gained new ground from the Islamic State group Saturday in a key area west of the jihadist bastion of Fallujah, security sources said.

Fighters from the army, the police and from the Hashed al-Shaabi -- a paramilitary organisation dominated by Tehran-backed Shiite militias -- entered the centre of Saqlawiya.

The town lies around 10 kilometres (six miles) northwest of Fallujah and control of the rural area around it is key to cutting off the city which Iraqi forces are trying to retake.

Iraqi government forces take a position outside al-Shuhada neighborhood, south of Fallujah, during an operation to regain control of the area from the IS group on June 3, 2016 Ahmad Al-Rubaye (AFP/File)

"The Iraqi army's 14th division and Hashed al-Shaabi stormed the centre of Saqlawiya town from the highway and raised the Iraqi flag," a statement from the Joint Operations Command said.

Federal police moving from a different direction were also involved in the operation to retake Saqlawiya.

As elite forces are trying to push into the centre of Fallujah, other forces have continued to clear areas around the city to ensure it is completely isolated.

The operation in Saqlawiya is aimed at cutting off Fallujah from Jazirat al-Khaldiyah, an area to the west which IS has been passing through to reach its positions elsewhere.

The Joint Operations Command said a US-led coalition air strike had hit a boatload of IS fighters attempting to flee Fallujah along the Euphrates river, killing all on board.
32 troops killed in Niger clash with Boko Haram

Thirty-two troops have been killed in a clash with Boko Haram fighters on Niger's border with Nigeria, Niger's defence ministry said on Saturday, one of deadliest tolls inflicted by the jihadists.

In neighbouring Nigeria, the army meanwhile said it had killed 19 Boko Haram militants in separate fighting in northeast Borno state, while two soldiers suffered gunshot wounds.

In the Niger fighting, "hundreds of assailants" attacked a military post in the town of Bosso on Friday evening, the defence ministry said in a statement that gave a "provisional toll" of 30 Nigerien and two Nigerian soldiers killed and 67 wounded.

Nigerien soldiers pictured patrolling near the Nigerian border in 2015, when the country was first plagued by Boko Haram attacks in its southeast region Issouf Sanogo (AFP/File)

"On the enemy's side, several dead and injured were taken away," the ministry said.

"Boko Haram elements effectively took control of the town temporarily, but now they were dislodged," a security source said.

Local resident and former MP Elhaj Aboubacar said: "They drove up at twilight, shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Great), they fired a lot of shots and torched many places in Bosso."

"We don't know where our military went, but one thing is for sure, Boko Haram were able to do what they liked until dawn," Aboubacar said.

"The situation is under control and calm has returned," the defence ministry said, adding that a "mopping up" operation was underway by land and air.

- 19 Boko Haram fighters killed -

Since February 2015, Niger has been plagued by Boko Haram attacks in its southeast region.

The Islamists frequently stage cross-border raids from their stronghold in neighbouring Nigeria.

Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency has devastated infrastructure in Nigeria's impoverished northeast region and forced around 2.1 million people in Nigeria to flee their homes, according to the UN's refugee agency.

The unrest has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless.

In the latest clashes there 19 Boko Haram militants were killed in Borno, according to the military.

Acting upon an intelligence report on the presence of Boko Haram fighters in the militants' Chukungudu camp, Nigerian troops and civilian JTF (joint task force) members launched the attack on Friday.

"During the encounter at the camp, the troops killed 19 Boko Haram terrorists including their notorious leader in the area, called Ameer Abubakar Gana," the army said in a statement.

The two soldiers who suffered gunshot wounds were said to be responding to treatment.

The troops destroyed an improvised explosive devices (IED) making factory, detonated four primed IEDs, recovered two anti-aircraft guns and other weapons and vehicles.

There was no independent confirmation of the army statement.

The latest clashes came as a multinational force from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon prepared to launch a major offensive on Boko Haram around Lake Chad.

Nigeria has struggled to acquire military hardware for troops fighting Boko Haram, with Western governments reluctant to provide weapons partly because of its army's human rights record.

- ECOWAS and jihadist threat -

In the Senegalese capital of Dakar, a summit of the 15-nation regional grouping ECOWAS -- the Economic Community of West African States -- spelt out its determination to aid states fighting the jihadist threat.

Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad and Ivory Coast have also seen bloody attacks.

"The multiplication of numerous terrorist hotbeds in our region compels us to share information on their activities, to communicate, co-ordinate and harmonise our efforts," said the new president of the ECOWAS commission, Benin's Marcel Alain de Souza.

"This naturally makes us think harder about the creation of a regional intervention force against terrorism," he said in remarks released by the Senegalese news agency APS.

"The threat of terrorism remains a source of concern for our sub-region," said Senegalese President Macky Sall, current ECOWAS chairman.
Taiwan's Tsai urges China to heal Tiananmen pain

Taiwan's new president Tsai Ing-wen urged China to give its people more rights and "heal past wounds and pain" on the 27th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown Saturday.

Her remarks came after the island's first ever Tiananmen commemoration in parliament on Friday, as lawmakers urged the government to address human rights issues in its dealings with China.

Ties with China have rapidly cooled since Tsai won the presidency in January, with Beijing highly distrustful of her traditionally independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen greets supporters during her inauguration ceremony in Taipei, on May 20, 2016 Sam Yeh (AFP)

Although Taiwan has been self-ruling since a split with the mainland in 1949 after a civil war, China still sees it as part of its territory.

In her first comments on Tiananmen as Taiwan's leader, Tsai said China must be open about the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing, which by some estimates left more than 1,000 dead.

The protests are branded a "counter-revolutionary rebellion" by Chinese authorities and many on the mainland remain unaware of what happened.

"Do not let June 4 forever be unspoken between the two sides. Only the ruling party on the other side can heal the past wounds and pain of the Chinese people," Tsai said in a post on her Facebook page.

Tsai said she was not pointing fingers at China and wanted to maintain cross-strait peace and stability.

"I'm sincerely willing to share Taiwan's experience of democratisation with the other side," she added and urged China to listen to different views.

By improving rights China would win international respect, Tsai added.

She also pledged to ensure Taiwanese people's identity as "democratic and free people".

"Hopefully one day the two sides will have the same views on democracy and human rights," she said.

- Dissident criticism -

But one former protest leader criticised Tsai as hundreds gathered in Taipei Saturday evening to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown.

Chinese dissident Wu'er Kaixi, a prominent student leader in 1989 now living in exile in Taiwan, said Tsai should have used the word "massacre" rather than the more diplomatic "incident" in her June 4 statement.

"If June 4 is not a massacre, there is no massacre in the world...however, I understand the heavy political pressure she is under," he told reporters.

There were mass rallies in Taiwan to support the protests in 1989 and the government has routinely urged Beijing to heed lessons.

On last year's anniversary, Taiwan's former president Ma Ying-jeou of the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang party called for China to "redress the wrongs" of June 4.

Tsai came to power after voters turned against Ma over his rapprochement with Beijing. She won the presidency by a landslide, promising to restore Taiwanese pride.

Beijing has since been pushing her to adhere to its "one China" concept.

She has never endorsed the ideology accepted by Ma that there is only one China, with each side allowed its own interpretation of exactly what that means.

Tsai's government this week dropped what were criticised as "China-centric" changes to the high school curriculum which triggered protests last year.

Beijing hit back, saying Taipei would "shoulder the consequences" of provoking tensions.

Tsai visited a naval base in the north of Taiwan Saturday where she boarded a warship and honoured hundreds of naval officers and soldiers.

The ship is named after one of four Taiwanese gunboats involved in a bloody sea battle with Chinese forces off the southern mainland in 1958.

Students gather at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on May 14, 1989 Catherine Henriette (AFP/File)
Muguruza stuns Serena to win French Open

Garbine Muguruza won her first Grand Slam title at the French Open on Saturday defeating top seed and defending champion Serena Williams in the final.

Twelve years younger than the American at 22, and playing in the first clay court final of her career, the Venezuelan-born Spaniard upset the odds to win 7-5, 6-4.

She is the first Spanish woman to win a Grand Slam title since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in Paris in 1998 and she is the third straight first time Grand Slam winner after Flavia Pennetta at last year's US Open and Angelique Kerber at the Australian Open.

Spain's Garbine Muguruza wins her first Grand Slam title at the French Open on June 4, 2016, beating Serena Williams in two stunning sets Philippe Lopez (AFP)

"I am so excited to play the final of a Grand Slam against one of the best ever players. It's the perfect final and I am so happy," she said.

"I grew up on clay so for Spain and me this is just amazing.

"Serena is a very powerful player and I just tried to fight as hard as I can."

For Williams it was a second straight loss in a Grand Slam final and it wrecked her hopes once again of winning a 22nd Grand Slam title to draw level with Steffi Graf for most wins in the Open era, since 1968.

She will now turn her focus on Wimbledon where she will be the defending champion and a six-time former winner.

"Congratulations to Garbine, she played really well today," said Williams, who confirmed that she had been slightly troubled by an adductor problem.

"I could have served better, made a lot of errors on return, but I did try hard out there."

The players took contrasting routes to get to the final.

Fourth seed Muguruza breezed through, losing just the one set, in her opening match, while Williams struggled past the quarter- and semi-finals amid talk of an injury or illness.

But with weather conditions improving after one of the rainiest Roland Garros tournaments on record, it was a different, more focussed Williams that got the final underway with a love service game.

Muguruza replied in kind as two of the biggest and best servers in the women's game went head to head.

The 22-year-old Spaniard had to battle hard to level at 2-2, saving two break points along the way, but she then grabbed the first break of the final thanks to a loose game from the American culminating in a double fault.

Muguruza, who lost to Williams in the Wimbledon final last year, moved 4-2 ahead, but she lost her range two games later to allow the American to level the score.

The tall Spaniard was matching Williams for power and when the title-holder opened the 11th game with a double fault she seized the opportunity to apply some added pressure on her opponent.

Her tactics paid off with Williams failing to cope with a series of explosive baseline groundstrokes.

Muguruza's second break of the final allowed her to serve for the set and she duly managed that staving off two break-back points along the way.

A top quality first set had taken 56 minutes with Muguruza winning 41 points to 40 for Williams underlining the closeness of the contest.

Muguruza maintained her level of play and composure to start the second set with a third break of serve, but she then struggled on her own serve, coughing up a seventh double fault to hand back the advantage.

- Scream of defiance -

Williams though was struggling and this time it was the quality of her opponent's play rather than her own misgivings that were responsible for her struggles.

Muguruza made it three straight breaks of serve in the next game and moved out into a 3-1 lead.

Williams dug deep to get back to 3-2 sparking a scream of defiance from a player who had been in 26 Grand Slam finals dating back to 1999 and lost just five of them.

But Muguruza was solid on her serve despite the occasional double fault and the Spaniard went 4-2 and then 5-3 up.

Williams saved four match points in the next game to stay alive, but Muguruza stayed calm to serve out for the biggest win of her fledgling career, clinching it with a lob that landed smack on the baseline.

Garbine Muguruza was playing the first clay court final of her career at the French Open on June 4, 2016, facing Serena Williams, who has been in 26 Grand Slam finals and lost just five of them Thomas Samson (AFP)

Garbine Muguruza is the first Spanish woman to win a Grand Slam title since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in Paris in 1998 Miguel Medina (AFP)
Nigeria recovers $580 million in stolen funds

Nigeria has in the past year recovered $580 million stolen from government coffers, the information minister said Saturday, part of a fight against corruption instigated by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Buhari, who marks one year in office on Sunday, has embarked on a widespread anti-corruption campaign although his critics accuse him of a political witch hunt.

Dozens of politicians, former military top brass and other officials are currently on trial for corruption and money laundering running into hundreds of millions of dollars.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, pictured on May 12, 2016, has embarked on a widespread anti-corruption campaign that has recovered $580 million stolen from government coffers in the past year Dan Kitwood (Pool/AFP/File)

Information Minister Lai Mohammed said in a statement that most of the recovered money was in foreign currency.

The statement did not disclose the identities of most of the individuals, companies or groups from whom funds and items were recovered or seized.

Mohammed said that Nigeria was still awaiting the return of hundreds of millions more, allegedly stashed in Britain, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

Nigeria has in recent months made legal and diplomatic contacts and agreements with a number of countries over the return of looted funds.

Non-cash recoveries have included farmland, buildings, vehicles and maritime vessels.

Four vehicles were recovered from the office of the former national security adviser, the statement said.
Nigeria's Buhari condemns mob killing of Christian woman

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday strongly condemned the mob killing of a Christian woman trader in the country's Muslim-dominated north and pleaded for more religious tolerance.

Bridget Abahime, 74, an ethnic Igbo trader and wife of a pastor, was "mobbed and extra-judicially murdered" on Thursday at a market in Kano, Nigeria's largest northern city, police said.

Two key suspects have been arrested, according to Nigeria's police chief Solomon Arase.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, pictured on May 14, 2016, called the killing of a 74-year-old ethnic Igbo trader "utterly condemnable" and vowed that the perpetrators would be brought to justice Stephane De Sakutin (Pool/AFP/File)

Buhari in a statement called the killing "utterly condemnable".

He vowed that the perpetrators would be brought to justice and urged people not to take matters into their own hands.

"Let us ensure that we keep the peace, as justice will be done," he said.

"Let us learn to respect each other's faith, so that we can know each other and live together in peace."

Kano state governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and prominent community and religious leaders on Friday held a meeting over the incident and issued a joint statement condemning the killing.

Kano city has been blighted by religious violence in the past.
West Africa anti-terror force tops summit agenda

West Africa should "think harder" about developing a new anti-terror force, a top regional official said Saturday, as Niger announced the latest deaths among its troops battling Boko Haram jihadists.

Over the past year West Africa has suffered terror attacks on nations previously untouched by jihadists, as well as confronting an Islamist insurgency that began in northeast Nigeria but has spread to several neighbouring countries.

That meant greater intelligence sharing and military co-operation is required, said the incoming head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) commission, which implements policy decisions agreed by its 15 members.

A multinational force from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon already exists and is due to launch a major offensive on Boko Haram around Lake Chad Stefan Heunis (AFP/File)

"The multiplication of terrorist hotbeds in our region compels us to share information on their activities, to communicate, co-ordinate and harmonise our efforts," said Benin's Marcel Alain de Souza at an ECOWAS summit in Dakar.

"This naturally makes us think harder about the creation of a regional intervention force against terrorism," he added, according to comments released by Senegal's state news agency APS.

He was speaking after 32 troops were killed in a clash with Boko Haram fighters on Niger's border with Nigeria, one of deadliest tolls inflicted by the jihadists.

A multinational force from Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Benin and Cameroon already exists and is due to launch a major offensive on Boko Haram around Lake Chad.

But Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless, leading to calls for more support within the region.

Senegal's President Macky Sall, outgoing chairman of ECOWAS, said Muslim-majority states such as his own had nothing in common with Boko Haram, describing terrorism as an ongoing "source of concern".

As expected during the session, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was named the new chairman of ECOWAS, the APS agency reported, for what is also expected to be her final year as Liberia's president.

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh did not appear at the meeting, after months of harsh words for hosts Senegal due to a border dispute.

There was also a palpable nervousness at the regional gathering with the news that Guinea Bissau's sacked prime minister Domingos Simoes Pereira might attempt to make an appearance along with his recently appointed replacement.

Although the new premier Baciro Dja appeared alone, a group of around 40 protesters appeared to denounce his presence, which is viewed as unconstitutional by some lawmakers in his own PAIGC party as he was named by the president.

"We are here to show we don't agree with the president's decision," said Badile Domingos Sami, a youth leader of the faction-ridden PAIGC.

Sall called on Guinea Bissau to "preserve the democratic achievements" of the country, which has been plagued by coups and instability since its independence from Portugal.
US warns of terror attacks in South Africa

The United States on Saturday warned its citizens in South Africa of possibly imminent terror attacks by Islamic extremists in the country's major cities.

"The US government has received information that terrorist groups are planning to carry out near-term attacks against places where US citizens congregate in South Africa, such as upscale shopping areas and malls in Johannesburg and Cape Town," the local embassy said on its website.

The warning came against the background of the Islamic State group's "public call for its adherents to carry out terrorist attacks globally during the upcoming month of Ramadan," the embassy said.

The United States cautioned its citizens in South Africa that terrorist groups are planning to carry out "near-term" attacks in places where US citizens gather, such as upscale shopping areas and malls in Johannesburg and Cape Town Gianluigi Guercia (AFP/File)

South Africa's foreign affairs ministry played down the threat.

"The state security agency and other security agencies in this country are very much capable of keeping South Africa safe and everybody in this country, including Americans," spokesman Clayson Monyela was quoted as saying by local media.

"The last time they did this, towards the end of last year, nothing came out of that advisory."

In September last year the US advised its citizens in South Africa to be on heightened alert against attack, saying extremists may target American interests in the country.

The US regularly warns its citizens around the world to beware of terror attacks, but Saturday's note was specific about the targets and the imminence of the threat.
Kinshasa rally in support of DR Congo's Kabila draws thousands

Thousands of supporters celebrated Congolese leader Joseph Kabila's birthday with a rally in Kinshasa Saturday, at which a party supremo floated the idea of holding a referendum to extend the president's rule.

The suggestion is likely to fuel opposition suspicion that Kabila, in power since his father's assassination in 2001, is preparing to remain in office beyond his two-term limit which ends in December.

In a show of support for Kabila, some 5,000 people marched through the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo in a carnival-like atmosphere before gathering at a stadium to mark the leader's 45th birthday, an AFP reporter saw.

Supporters of Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila celebrate his 45th birthday in the popular Kitembe neighbourhood of Kinshasa on June 4, 2016 Junior D. Kannah (AFP)

"Happy birthday, comrade president, founder of the party," read a giant banner next to a portrait of Kabila.

Political unrest has plagued DR Congo for months over fears that Kabila will postpone elections due to be held late this year.

His supporters have said they want the polls to be delayed for at least two years because of logistical and financial difficulties, despite Western pressure to stick to the schedule.

Tensions rose further when the country's Constitutional Court ruled in May that Kabila could remain in a caretaker capacity beyond December until elections are held.

Addressing the crowd at the birthday rally, Henri Mova, the secretary general of the ruling PPRD party, accused Kabila's opponents of seeking "to destabilise" the country.

He also raised the prospect of a referendum to allow the Congolese to have their say on presidential term limits.

"The Congolese people are sovereign and their will shall not be questioned," he said.

"If the people decide on a referendum, they will do it," he said. "The people of Congo-Brazzaville did it, the people of Rwanda did it," he added.

President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo won re-election this year after a constitutional referendum ended a two-term limit.

In Rwanda, a referendum last year led to constitutional changes that could see President Paul Kagame rule until 2034.

Both leaders faced criticised at home and abroad over their legal manoeuvres to cling to power.
Ex-Oppenheimer & Co. employee faces insider trading charges

NEW YORK (AP)  A former Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. financial adviser accused of teaming up with a childhood friend who worked at Pfizer to trade on secrets about acquisitions the drugmaker was considering was arrested on insider trading charges Friday.

David Hobson was arrested at his home in Providence, Rhode Island, and later was released after an appearance in federal court in Providence. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors said Hobson had carried out the insider-trading scheme between 2008 and 2014 by working with his childhood friend Michael Maciocio, who worked for Pfizer Inc.

Federal authorities allege that Maciocio obtained confidential business data about other pharmaceutical firms that Pfizer was considering acquiring and then used the nonpublic information to trade in their stocks, making about $116,000 in illegal profits. Maciocio is accused of tipping off Hobson, a stockbroker, who officials said then used the information to rake in about $187,000 for himself and $145,000 for his customers.

Maciocio, whose job at Pfizer had him evaluate whether the company could manufacture certain drug compounds in-house, was not usually provided with the name of the company Pfizer was planning to acquire and relied on the information he received from the company, including the drug's chemical structure, the phase of any clinical trials and the company's code name, to identify the companies, prosecutors said.

Maciocio, of Wakefield, Rhode Island, pleaded guilty two weeks ago to conspiracy and securities fraud charges, according to federal prosecutors. His attorney did not immediately respond to a comment request Friday.

A spokeswoman for Pfizer said the company had cooperated with authorities and fired Maciocio as soon as it learned of the allegations. Oppenheimer said it also cooperated with law enforcement and would continue to do so.

Besides the criminal charges, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against the two men, who are in their 40s, seeking an unspecified monetary penalty.

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Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister contributed to this report.

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General: Israel should implement new security system

NEW YORK (AP)  An Israeli general says Israel should start implementing a new multi-layered security system that could help pave the way to a two-state peace deal with the Palestinians and address the fears of many Israelis.

Retired Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni, co-author of a new study on arrangements to provide better security for both Israelis and Palestinians, said its proposals include the phased redeployment of Israeli security forces with target timetables, and can create more incentives for peace.

Shamni briefed several reporters Thursday along with retired Maj. Gen. Amnon Reshef, a fabled Israeli war hero who chairs a group of more than 200 generals behind another recent report outlining a plan to improve Israel's security.

The reports were issued against a backdrop of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in a deep freeze and a recently appointed Israeli defense minister who is an outspoken skeptic of peace efforts. They were coordinated by the nonpartisan U.S.-based Israel Policy Forum which advocates for a two-state solution and is campaigning in the U.S. to promote them.

A call to the Palestinian U.N. Mission seeking comment on the report was not answered.

The plan by Commanders for Israel's Security which Reshef heads calls for separation from the Palestinians and completion of the border fence in the West Bank, a freeze on settlement building, the acceptance in principle of the Arab Peace Initiative and the recognition that east Jerusalem should be part of a future Palestinian state "when established as part of a future agreement."

The Israeli opposition and much of the international community have long argued for these proposals.

The report Shamni worked on, entitled "A Security System for the Two-State Solution," says its purpose is to demonstrate that security measures "can provide Israelis and Palestinians with a degree of security equal or greater to that provided today by Israel's deployment into the West Bank, and that such measures can be consistent with Palestinian needs for sovereignty and dignity."

The report proposes a multi-layered security system with better relations with the Arab world including countries like Saudi Arabia as a first layer, stronger relations with Egypt and Jordan as a second layer and a border security system on the Jordan River as a third layer.

It also calls for a non-militarized Palestinian security force, a small highly trained Palestinian counterterrorism unit, a joint Israeli-Palestinian operations center, and a long-term U.S. commitment to the security of both countries and their neighbors.

U.S. Col. Kris Bauman, another co-author who was chief of staff to Gen. John Allen when he was helping Secretary of State John Kerry with Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that ultimately failed, said the proposals were designed to show that fears over security can be addressed.

"What we're proposing here is a group of 300 to 800 Americans that would be involved in training, in equipping, and monitoring this whole arrangement, which gives Palestinian forces not just the training they need, not just the equipment they need but also kind of the backbone they need when they know somebody is watching over their shoulder," he said.

Ilon Goldenberg, the director of Middle East security at the Center for a New American Security which produced the report, said under its proposals "Israel still retains the ability to defend itself by itself in cases of emergency."

Shamni said Israel is "strong enough" to take the risks to implement the new security system.
Oregon train derailment spills oil, sparks fire

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  A train towing a highly volatile type of oil derailed Friday in Oregon's scenic Columbia River Gorge, igniting a fire that sent a plume of black smoke into the sky and spurring evacuations and road closures.

Eleven cars derailed Friday in the 96-car Union Pacific train and the railroad said several caught fire. The crash released oil alongside tracks that parallel the Columbia River.

All the cars on the train traveling to Tacoma, Washington, from Eastpoint, Idaho, were carrying Bakken oil, which is more flammable than other varieties because it has a higher gas content and vapor pressure and lower flash point.

In this frame from video provided by KGW-TV, smoke billows from a Union Pacific train that derailed Friday, June 3, 2016 in Oregon's scenic Columbia River Gorge. The accident sparked a fire and an oil spill near the Columbia River. No injuries were reported. (KGW-TV via AP)

The accident immediately drew reaction from environmentalists who said oil should not be transported by rail, particularly along a river that is a hub of recreation and commerce.

"Moving oil by rail constantly puts our communities and environment at risk," said Jared Margolis, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity in Eugene, Oregon.

It wasn't immediately clear if oil had seeped into the river or what had caused the derailment. No injuries were reported.

Aaron Hunt, a spokesman for the railroad, did not know how fast the train was traveling at the time, but witnesses said it was going slowly as it passed the town of Mosier, Oregon, about 70 miles east of Portland.

Response teams were using a drone to assess the damage, said Katherine Santini, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Forest Service. Crews were working to suppress the fire, which they expected to continue doing into the night.

Officials in Mosier closed about 23 miles of Interstate 84 and evacuated a half-mile radius around the spill, including 200 school children who were later picked up by their parents and 50 homes in a mobile home park.

Silas Bleakley was working at his restaurant in Mosier when the train derailed.

"You could feel it through the ground. It was more of a feeling than a noise," he told The Associated Press as smoke billowed from the tankers.

Bleakley said he went outside, saw the smoke and got in his truck and drove about 2,000 feet to a bridge that crosses the railroad tracks.

There, he said he saw tanker cars "accordioned" across the tracks.

Another witness, Brian Shurton, was watching the train as it passed by the town when he heard a tremendous noise.

"All of a sudden, I heard 'Bang! Bang! Bang!' like dominoes," he told The Associated Press.

He also drove to the overpass and saw the cars flipped over before a fire started and he called 911.

"The train wasn't going very fast. It would have been worse if it had been faster," said Shurton, who runs a wind surfing business in nearby Hood River.

Matt Lehner, a spokesman from the Federal Railroad Administration, said a team of investigators had arrived at the scene from Vancouver, Washington.

Union Pacific said 11 cars had derailed, but a spokesman from the Oregon Department of Forestry, which helped extinguish the blaze, said 12 cars had been involved. The discrepancy could not immediately be resolved.

Including Friday's accident, at least 26 oil trains have been involved in major fires or derailments during the past decade in the U.S. and Canada, according to Associated Press analysis of accident records from the two countries.

The worst was a 2013 derailment that killed 47 people in Lac-Megantic, Quebec. Damage from that accident has been estimated at $1.2 billion or higher.

At least 12 of the oil trains that derailed were carrying crude from the Northern Plains' Bakken region  fuel that is known for being highly volatile. Of those, eight resulted in fires.

Since last spring, North Dakota regulators have required companies to treat oil before it's shipped by rail to make it less combustible.

A May 2015 derailment near Heimdal, North Dakota, involved cars carrying oil that had been treated to reduce the volatility, but the crude still ignited. At least one train wreck involving treated Bakken oil did not result in a fire, when 22 cars derailed and 35,000 gallons of oil spilled near Culbertson, Montana, last July.

Reducing the explosiveness of the crude moved by rail was not supposed to be a cure-all to prevent accidents. Department of Transportation rules imposed last year require companies to use stronger tank cars that are better able to withstand derailments.

But tens of thousands of outdated tank cars that are prone to split open during accidents remain in use.

It's expected to take years for them to be retrofitted or replaced.

Hunt, the Union Pacific spokesman, did not respond to questions about whether the Bakken oil in Friday's derailment had been treated to reduce volatility. It also wasn't clear if the tank cars in the accident had been retrofitted under the new rules.

To get to refineries on the East and West coasts and the Gulf of Mexico, oil trains move through more than 400 counties, including major metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia; Seattle; Chicago; Newark, New Jersey; and dozens of other cities, according to railroad disclosures filed with regulators.

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Associated Press Writers Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana; Steven Dubois in Portland, Oregon and Alina Hartounian in Phoenix contributed to this report.

In this photo provided by Silas Bleakley, a train towing cars full of oil sends up a plume of smoke after derailing Friday, June 3, 2016, near Mosier, Ore. The accident happened just after noon about 70 miles east of Portland. It involved eight cars filled with oil, and one was burning. Highway 84 was closed for a 23-mile stretch between The Dalles and Mosier and the radius for evacuations was a half-mile. (Silas Bleakley via AP)

In this photo provided by Silas Bleakley, a closed sign is seen outside a store as a train towing cars full of oil sends up a plume of smoke after derailing Friday, June 3, 2016, near Mosier, Ore. The accident happened just after noon about 70 miles east of Portland. It involved eight cars filled with oil, and one was burning. Highway 84 was closed for a 23-mile stretch between The Dalles and Mosier and the radius for evacuations was a half-mile. (Silas Bleakley via AP)

A train towing cars full of oil sends up a plume of smoke after derailing Friday, June 3, 2016, near Mosier, Ore., by the scenic Columbia River Gorge. The accident happened just after noon about 70 miles east of Portland. It involved multiple cars filled with oil, and one was burning. Highway 84 was closed for a quarter-mile near the site, and the radius for evacuations was a half-mile. (Mark B. Gibson/The Dalles Chronicle via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

A train towing cars full of oil sends up a plume of smoke after derailing Friday, June 3, 2016, near Mosier, Ore., by the scenic Columbia River Gorge. The accident happened just after noon about 70 miles east of Portland. It involved multiple cars filled with oil, and one was burning. Highway 84 was closed for a quarter-mile near the site, and the radius for evacuations was a half-mile. (Mark B. Gibson/The Dalles Chronicle via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

In this photo provided by Silas Bleakley, tank cars, carrying oil, are derailed Friday, June 3, 2016, near Mosier, Ore. The accident happened just after noon about 70 miles east of Portland. It involved numerous cars filled with oil, and one was burning. Highway 84 was closed for a 23-mile stretch between The Dalles and Mosier and the radius for evacuations was a half-mile. (Silas Bleakley via AP)
US defense secretary offers closer security ties to China

SINGAPORE (AP)  Striking a notably positive tone, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Saturday offered closer U.S. cooperation with China in pursuit of a deeper and broader Asian security network. He said he intends to visit Beijing this year.

In a speech to an international security conference in Singapore, Carter repeated frequent U.S. complaints about China unnerving its neighbors with expansive moves to build up reefs, islets and other land features in the disputed South China Sea. But he did not explicitly accuse China of militarizing those areas.

He emphasized possibilities for cooperating with China while stating that the U.S. will remain the pre-eminent power.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter delivers a speech titled "Meeting Asia's Complex Security Challenges" at the 15th International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-la Dialogue, or IISS, Asia Security Summit on Saturday, June 4, 2016, in Singapore. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

"America wants to expand military-to-military agreements with China to focus not only on risk reduction, but also on practical cooperation. Our two militaries can also work together," he said, bilaterally or as part of a broader security network to combat global threats like terrorism and piracy.

"The United States wants to work with China to find solutions for the global problems we're both facing and seize the many opportunities before us," he said.

Tom Mahnken, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank, praised Carter's emphasis on developing partnerships.

"Secretary Carter was right to emphasize multilateral approaches in the Asia-Pacific region. Indeed, America's alliances and partnerships in the region give us an enduring competitive advantage," Mahnken said by email from Washington. "By contrast, China's actions have increasingly isolated it."

Carter called for establishing a "principled security network" across Asia, which he defined as "nations building connections for a common cause, planning and training together, and eventually operating in a coordinated way." He said that in September he will co-host, with his Laotian counterpart, a meeting of defense ministers from across the Asia-Pacific, to find new ways to broaden and deepen a regional security network.

In raising the prospect of conflict in the South China Sea, Carter said China is isolating itself by building up man-made islands there. The Chinese in some cases are erecting airfields that will extend Beijing's military reach. He said for the second time in a week that China's actions could erect a "great wall of self-isolation."

"There is growing anxiety in this region, and in this room, about China's activities on the seas, in cyberspace, and in the region's airspace," he said. "Indeed, in the South China Sea, China has taken some expansive and unprecedented actions, that have generated concerns about China's strategic intentions."

He also noted a coming ruling by a U.N. arbitration tribunal on the Philippines' challenge to China's claims in the South China Sea. He called this ruling, which is expected this summer, "an opportunity for China and the rest of the region to recommit to a principled future, to renewed diplomacy, and to lowering tensions, rather than raising them."

During a question-and-answer session with his audience, Carter was asked why the U.S. attaches such importance to exercising its right to fly and sail military aircraft and ships near other countries' coasts, including China's.

"What we stand for is the principle of rule of law and abiding by international law in the commons," Carter said. "It's not a focus on China. It's a focus on principle."

Sen. John McCain, who was attending the Singapore conference as part of a U.S. congressional delegation, said Friday that the arbitration outcome will present sent a chance for China to show its acceptance of international norms.

"This decision should not be viewed by China as a suggestion, but as a law that China must acknowledge, abide by and uphold," he said in his prepared remarks. "The region and the world will be watching to see what choice China makes. In short, China can choose to disrupt the rules-based order. Or it can choose to become a vital partner in maintaining it. I fear the consequences if China chooses the path of disruption."

In his speech, Carter mostly emphasized the positive.

"The United States welcomes the emergence of a peaceful, stable and prosperous China that plays a responsible role in the region's principled security network," he said. "We know China's inclusion makes for a stronger network and a more stable, secure and prosperous region."

He also made clear, however, that the U.S. intends to maintain, even expand, its military presence in the Asia-Pacific.

"The Defense Department maintains its world-leading capabilities because the United States has made incomparable investments in it over decades. As a result, it will take decades or more for anyone to build the kind of military capability the United States possesses," he said.

He mentioned only in passing North Korea's defiant pursuit of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles.

China did not send its defense minister to Singapore, and Carter held no meetings with members of Beijing's delegation. But at a conference-opening dinner Friday evening Carter shook hands and spoke briefly with the senior Chinese representative, Adm. Sun Jianguo, according to a U.S. official who was present.
7 years after war's end, Sri Lanka on cautious path to peace

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  For seven years, the ethnic Tamil housewife has waited for news of a son who vanished near the frenzied end of Sri Lanka's quarter-century-long civil war. After so much time, she has little faith that the Sinhalese-majority government will help solve such mysteries and heal old wounds.

"There is no place I haven't gone in search of him," said Shantha, who like many people in this teardrop-shaped tropical island nation goes by one name. She last saw her son in March 2009, when he was 23 years old and injured in the crossfire of fighting. The military promised to take him to safety. She never heard from him again.

"The government just talks about good governance, but no good seems to be coming," she said, weeping.

FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2015 file photo, a family member of an ethnic Tamil detainee cries during a silent protest in Colombo, Sri Lanka. For the hundreds of thousands of minority ethnic Tamils, the Sri Lankan governments repeated promises of post-war reconciliation ring false, even as authorities take tentative steps toward fulfilling some of them. Many expected a new era of healing and atonement when President Maithripala Sirisena took office in 2015, but progress has been slow as he cautiously balances the Tamils anguished demands with the persistent fears of the Sinhalese majority. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, File)

For the hundreds of thousands of minority ethnic Tamils like Shantha, the government's repeated promises of post-war reconciliation ring false, even as authorities take tentative steps toward fulfilling some of them.

Tamil rebels demanding self-rule fought the government from 1983 to 2009 before being crushed by Sri Lanka's army. While the U.N. counts some 100,000 people killed in the fighting, rights groups believe the number was much higher, including some 40,000 civilians believed to have been killed in the war's final months.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa led the military in crushing the rebellion and continued to rule until last year, when he lost an election to Maithripala Sirisena. Many expected a new era of national healing and atonement, but more than a year later, there has only been slow progress as Sirisena cautiously balances the anguished demands of the Tamils with the persistent fears of the Sinhalese majority.

"It's very difficult. It's very challenging," Sirisena said during last month's ceremony in Colombo honoring soldiers on the seventh anniversary of their victory over separatist rebels.

His government has handed back some of the property seized by the army, discontinued the military's involvement in civil administration and policing, and lifted bans on some Tamil expatriate groups that had previously supported the rebels' separatist cause, with the aim of opening communications with them. Sinhalese nationalist groups are already rallying against these moves.

"Building reconciliation aimed at non-recurrence of violence can never be done with bricks, cement, iron, sand or any other material," Sirisena said. "It's about bringing people's minds together; uniting hurting minds; uniting minds full of hatred."

Changes are not coming fast enough for many Tamils, tens of thousands of whom have been homeless since the military bombed their homes or took their land. Jobs are hard to come by. Families are desperate for news on missing relatives. Many have refused to accept death certificates offered by the previous government and wait for information on what actually happened to them.

The mistrust between Tamils and Sinhalese goes back centuries, to when Tamil kings invaded from present-day southern India. Sri Lanka's Tamil-majority northern region was among the first to embrace English schools set up by British missionaries. Tamils dominated high-level jobs in government, medicine and law, creating a notion among the Sinhalese that they were being marginalized.

After Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain in 1948, Sinhalese took control of the country and it was the Tamils who felt marginalized, setting the stage for the rebel movement.

During the fighting, both sides were accused of committing war crimes, though the allegations have never been investigated.

When he was president, Rajapaksa refused international oversight over any war-crimes inquiries and denied allegations that troops had executed prisoners, targeted civilians and hospitals and blocked food and medicine shipments to civilians living in rebel-held areas. Rebels, meanwhile, were accused of recruiting child soldiers, using civilians as human shields and killing people who tried to flee their control.

A documentary aired in 2010 by Britain's Channel 4 TV station showed scores of naked, blindfolded prisoners being executed by soldiers. The video was apparently captured by troops on their mobile phones as souvenirs. Rajapaksa said the documentary was a fabrication, but Sirisena's foreign minister, Mangala Samaraweera, said last month that it was authentic, in what was seen as a major step toward acknowledging crimes.

Observers said part of the problem is that Sinhalese were fed a heavy dose of triumphalism after the war.

Among the Sinhalese, "there is hardly any awareness of the need for special measures for reconciliation," said Jehan Perera, head of the local peace activist group National Peace Council. And those measures "will create apprehension in the southern people, which is why the government is progressing slowly."

In the next U.N. Human Rights Council sessions starting June 13, the High Commissioner for Human Rights is set to brief on Sri Lanka's progress toward reconciliation.

Sri Lanka won praise last year for finally promising a war-crimes investigation with international participation. The government also set up a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution likely to grant Tamils more political power, rights and protections against discrimination.

The Cabinet created an office to find missing people, though rights groups say it is being set up without consulting victims' families as promised. The government has also promised various reforms intended to prevent a return of hostilities, but several have yet to be implemented.

The delays feed frustrations among Tamils waiting for the return of their land, for justice for war abuses or for knowledge of what happened to missing loved ones.

In the Tamil-majority Jaffna Peninsula in the north, 68-year-old Kasuthuri is impatient to regain her house and land where her family grew vegetables and reared cattle. The military declared it part of an off-limits high-security zone nearly three decades ago.

"When the president visited us, he promised we can go back home within six months," she said. That was five months ago, and nothing has been said since.

But she is glad she can now at least air her grievances. "If it was the previous government," she said, "I would have ended up being abducted."

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AP writer Maryathas Newtan contributed to this report from Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

FILE-In this April 6, 2015, file photo, Sri Lankan ethnic Tamil women sit holding placards with portraits of their missing relatives as they protest out side a railway station in Colombo, Sri Lanka. For the hundreds of thousands of minority ethnic Tamils, the Sri Lankan governments repeated promises of post-war reconciliation ring false, even as authorities take tentative steps toward fulfilling some of them. Many expected a new era of healing and atonement when President Maithripala Sirisena took office in 2015, but progress has been slow as he cautiously balances the Tamils anguished demands with the persistent fears of the Sinhalese majority. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, File)

FILE- In this Feb. 4, 2016, file photo, Sri Lankan school children sing the national anthem in Tamil as President Maithripala Sirisena, second right, along with Navy commander Vice Adm. Ravi Wijegunaratne, left, Air Force Commander Air Marshal Gagan Bulathsinghala, second left, and Inspector General of Police N.K. Illangakoon salute during the Independence Day celebration parade in Colombo, Sri Lanka. For the hundreds of thousands of minority ethnic Tamils, the Sri Lankan governments repeated promises of post-war reconciliation ring false, even as authorities take tentative steps toward fulfilling some of them. Many expected a new era of healing and atonement when President Maithripala Sirisena took office in 2015, but progress has been slow as he cautiously balances the Tamils anguished demands with the persistent fears of the Sinhalese majority. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, File)

FILE- In this May 18, 2015 photo, file photo , Sri Lankan ethnic Tamil political activists observe silence near a makeshift monument, where thousands of people were killed in fierce fighting between the army and Tamil Tiger rebels, in Mullivaikkal, northeast of Sri Lanka. For the hundreds of thousands of minority ethnic Tamils, the Sri Lankan governments repeated promises of post-war reconciliation ring false, even as authorities take tentative steps toward fulfilling some of them. Many expected a new era of healing and atonement when President Maithripala Sirisena took office in 2015, but progress has been slow as he cautiously balances the Tamils anguished demands with the persistent fears of the Sinhalese majority. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 2, 2015 file photo, a Sri Lankan police officer stands by a banner of President Mahinda Rajapaksa outside an election campaign venue in Mannar, an area with majority Tamil inhabitants, Sri Lanka. For the hundreds of thousands of minority ethnic Tamils, the Sri Lankan governments repeated promises of post-war reconciliation ring false, even as authorities take tentative steps toward fulfilling some of them. Many expected a new era of healing and atonement when President Maithripala Sirisena took office in 2015, but progress has been slow as he cautiously balances the Tamils anguished demands with the persistent fears of the Sinhalese majority. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, File)

FILE- In this Oct. 12, 2014, file photo. an ethnic Sinhalese Sri Lankan man eats his lunch during his train ride to north from south in Vavuniya, Sri Lanka. For the hundreds of thousands of minority ethnic Tamils, the Sri Lankan governments repeated promises of post-war reconciliation ring false, even as authorities take tentative steps toward fulfilling some of them. Many expected a new era of healing and atonement when President Maithripala Sirisena took office in 2015, but progress has been slow as he cautiously balances the Tamils anguished demands with the persistent fears of the Sinhalese majority. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

In this June 3, 2016, photo, a Sri Lankan ethnic Tamil woman prays at a Hindu temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, June 3, 2016. For the hundreds of thousands of minority ethnic Tamils, the Sri Lankan governments repeated promises of post-war reconciliation ring false, even as authorities take tentative steps toward fulfilling some of them. Many expected a new era of healing and atonement when President Maithripala Sirisena took office in 2015, but progress has been slow as he cautiously balances the Tamils anguished demands with the persistent fears of the Sinhalese majority. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
Hong Kong students split from Tiananmen anniversary vigil

HONG KONG (AP)  While Hong Kongers crammed into a park Saturday to remember the victims of China's bloody crackdown on protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square 27 years ago, many student groups held rival events in a sign of the widening rift in the city's pro-democracy movement.

The annual evening vigil at Victoria Park is the only large-scale public commemoration on Chinese soil of Beijing's brutal crackdown. About the only sign in Beijing that it was the anniversary of the event was the tightened security around Tiananmen Square.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people were killed as tanks and troops converged on Beijing on the night of June 3-4, 1989. The topic remains taboo in China and any form of commemoration, whether public or private, is banned.

Tens of thousands of people attend a candlelight vigil at Victoria Park in Hong Kong, Saturday, June 4, 2016 to commemorate victims of the 1989 military crackdown in Beijing. China's bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests was a pivotal moment in the country's political development. Despite the Communist Party's efforts to erase memories of the event, every year its anniversary triggers heightened security and surveillance on the mainland, along with furtive commemorations by a handful of activists. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Organizers in Hong Kong, a semiautonomous city that enjoys many civil liberties not seen in mainland China, said 125,000 people attended Saturday's vigil, but the crowd appeared to be smaller. Police gave an estimate of 21,800.

Missing from the crowd were the student groups that had been longstanding supporters of the annual vigil. Instead, a dozen student organizations held discussion forums on Hong Kong's future. The move underscores the split that emerged between younger and older generations of pro-democracy activists over Hong Kong identity following 2014 protests against the Chinese government's decision to restrict elections in the city.

Student leaders decided to abstain from the vigil after they quit the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China  the vigil's organizer  in April because they felt one of the alliance's main aims, fighting for democracy in mainland China, was no longer realistic.

Vigil leaders on Saturday evening laid a wreath at a makeshift memorial. The crowd, holding candles that turned the park into a sea of flickering lights, observed a minute of silence. The start of the event was briefly disrupted by activists, some wearing masks, who tried to storm the stage. They yelled slogans and carried flags calling for Hong Kong's independence. Police said they arrested a 24-year-old man.

Lily Wong, a 21-year-old legal assistant, attended the vigil with her friend Cecilia Ng, 19, a recent high school graduate. They didn't disagree with some of the criticisms leveled by the student groups, such as a format that is repeated every year and doesn't appeal to the younger generation, but they said it remained vital for the pro-democracy movement.

"This is not a perfect event, but there are some meaningful things for us," Wong said. "It is very important for Hong Kong."

In Taiwan's capital, Taipei, Wu'er Kaixi, one of the student leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, was among about 200 people who gathered at Liberty Square for a memorial event.

"The spirit of June 4 is an act of courageous humans pursuing the universal value of freedom," Wu'er said. "This spirit will not be crushed under machine guns and tanks. It will not die because of (the Chinese government's) suppression."

In Beijing, police checked IDs and searched the bags of anyone seeking to enter the environs of Tiananmen Square, where thousands of students, workers and ordinary citizens gathered in 1989 to demand political reforms. Journalists from The Associated Press were stopped, filmed and ultimately forced to leave the area, ostensibly for lacking proper permission.

Ahead of the anniversary in China, family members of those killed in the crackdown were placed under additional restrictions. At least half a dozen people were reportedly detained in recent days for attempting to commemorate the events.

The U.S. State Department called for a "full public accounting of those killed, detained, or missing and for an end to censorship of discussions about the events of June 4, 1989, as well as an end to harassment and detention of those who wish to peacefully commemorate the anniversary."

Asked Friday about the anniversary, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China had "long ago reached a clear conclusion about the political turmoil at the end of 1980s and other related issues."

China's explosive economic growth in the years that followed "proves that the path of socialism with Chinese characters we chose to follow ... is in line with the fundamental interests of the Chinese people, and it represents a wish shared by them all," Hua told reporters at a daily news briefing.

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Associated Press journalists Christopher Bodeen in Beijing and Johnson Lai in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.

Tens of thousands of people attend a candlelight vigil at Victoria Park in Hong Kong, Saturday, June 4, 2016, to commemorate victims of the 1989 military crackdown in Beijing. China's bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests was a pivotal moment in the country's political development. Despite the Communist Party's efforts to erase memories of the event, every year its anniversary triggers heightened security and surveillance on the mainland, along with furtive commemorations by a handful of activists. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Tens of thousands of people attend a candlelight vigil at Victoria Park in Hong Kong, Saturday, June 4, 2016, to commemorate victims of the 1989 military crackdown in Beijing. China's bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests was a pivotal moment in the country's political development. Despite the Communist Party's efforts to erase memories of the event, every year its anniversary triggers heightened security and surveillance on the mainland, along with furtive commemorations by a handful of activists. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Tens of thousands of people attend a candlelight vigil at Victoria Park in Hong Kong, Saturday, June 4, 2016, to commemorate victims of the 1989 military crackdown in Beijing. China's bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests was a pivotal moment in the country's political development. Despite the Communist Party's efforts to erase memories of the event, every year its anniversary triggers heightened security and surveillance on the mainland, along with furtive commemorations by a handful of activists. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Tens of thousands of people attend a candlelight vigil at Victoria Park in Hong Kong, Saturday, June 4, 2016, to commemorate victims of the 1989 military crackdown in Beijing. China's bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests was a pivotal moment in the country's political development. Despite the Communist Party's efforts to erase memories of the event, every year its anniversary triggers heightened security and surveillance on the mainland, along with furtive commemorations by a handful of activists. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

A boy walks past the statue replica of the Goddess of Democracy at the June 4th Museum in Hong Kong, Saturday, June 4, 2016. Security was tightened around Tiananmen Square on the 27th anniversary Saturday of China's bloody military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests, pointing to the enduring sensitivity over the events with the Chinese leadership. Memorials were planned in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong and in self-governing Taiwan, where some former student leaders have found refuge. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

A photograph of Tank Man, the lone protester who stood to block the way of a line of several tanks during the 1989 pro-democracy movement in Beijing, is displayed at the June 4th Museum in Hong Kong, Saturday, June 4, 2016. Security was tightened around Tiananmen Square on the 27th anniversary Saturday of China's bloody military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests, pointing to the enduring sensitivity over the events with the Chinese leadership. Memorials were planned in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong and in self-governing Taiwan, where some former student leaders have found refuge. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Visitors walk across Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Saturday, June 4, 2016. Saturday marks the 27th anniversary of Chinas bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests centered on Beijings Tiananmen Square. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

A police officer stands guard on the sidewalk of a street adjacent to Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Saturday, June 4, 2016. Saturday marks the 27th anniversary of Chinas bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests centered on Beijings Tiananmen Square. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Members of a Chinese tour group walk along a street next to Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Saturday, June 4, 2016. Saturday marks the 27th anniversary of Chinas bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests centered on Beijings Tiananmen Square. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

A pair of visitors walk near the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Saturday, June 4, 2016. Saturday marks the 27th anniversary of Chinas bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests centered on Beijings Tiananmen Square. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Former Chinese student leader in the protests of 1989, Wu'er Kaixi speaks at Democracy Square during a vigil in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday, June 4, 2016, to mark the 27th anniversary of the June 4th Chinese military crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Beijing. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Former mentor UCLA gunman targeted had helped him graduate

LOS ANGELES (AP)  The kindly professor whom the gunman blamed for his ruin had, in truth, quietly seen to his academic success.

As a shy graduate student struggling to secure his Ph.D., Mainak Sarkar had bristled at the doubts expressed by professors at UCLA's engineering department. His dissertation, they told him, simply was not good enough.

Sarkar's mentor had his own doubts, but after Sarkar submitted a new document professor William Klug asked his colleagues to wave his student through to graduation.

"We could easily have said, 'It's not enough, you need to do more,'" said professor Jeff Eldredge, Klug's colleague and close friend. "We just said, 'Ugh, let's get him out of here.'"

That was 2013. This week, Sarkar returned.

After killing his estranged wife in a Minneapolis suburb, Sarkar packed two guns, drove from Minnesota to Los Angeles, parked in his old neighborhood, took a bus to campus and shot Klug in the professor's office Wednesday before taking his own life.

Though Sarkar seemed to have genuine affection for his mentor while in school, more recently an animosity grew. In March, Sarkar posted online that Klug had "made me really sick" after stealing computer code from him. Colleagues said only a deranged person could conclude someone of Klug's character would defraud a student.

"That's what's so frustrating about this. He turned into a completely different person in these last few days or weeks or whatever," Eldredge said.

Sarkar's descent may go back further than that. He held his last known job in 2014  the same year he separated from his wife, Ashley Hasti, according to Hasti's grandmother.

Sarkar, 38, had entered mid-life with a foundation of success, a wall's worth of academic degrees from top universities and a new wife in his chosen country.

He came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2001 after earning a degree in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur.

In India, former classmates and teachers described a solid student who gave no indication of aggression.

He attended Stanford University from fall 2003 until spring 2005, when he received a master's degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering.

A year later, he moved south to the University of California, Los Angeles and began working under Klug.

Even before his death, Klug had been hailed as a caring father and gifted educator who inspired his students. Hundreds gathered to honor him at on-campus vigils.

Klug's outgoing personality contrasted with Sarkar's introversion.

"He was a little bit of a loner," said Ajit Mal, an engineering professor who taught Sarkar in one of his earliest classes at UCLA.

As Klug's career and family blossomed in his native Southern California, Sarkar struggled to finish his studies.

While at UCLA, Sarkar was "a nice guy going through the same anxieties and struggles as anyone else," recalled Eldredge, the mechanical and aerospace engineering professor who helped review and later approved Sarkar's dissertation.

Eldredge called Klug an exceptional person and teacher who had a gentle way giving feedback to students. Even so, Sarkar "didn't take criticism well" when he submitted a dissertation that advisers returned, requesting significant revisions.

"He was rather combative in his responses," Eldredge said. "He'd say, 'I don't know how to answer that' or 'I don't know what that means.' He was just very stubborn."

The deaths this week left behind devastated families, a shaken university community, and many unanswered questions.

Chief among them is what led him to violence.

"Apparently he's harbored those feelings (against Klug) over the past three years since his graduation but we've not been able to determine any trigger event that would have led to this or his murder of his wife," Los Angeles police Capt. William Hayes said.

Sarkar also left behind a "kill list" that included the name of another professor who was not on campus when Sarkar arrived. Investigators haven't said why he apparently held a grudge against that instructor.
Concerns in GOP over Trump's verbal attacks on federal judge

WASHINGTON (AP)  The federal judge who's hearing a Trump University lawsuit is "a hater of Donald Trump" and ought to be removed from the case. So says Donald Trump, in just one of the recent comments by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee that have legal experts worrying about his commitment to an independent judiciary and his views on presidential powers.

In the midst of a heated presidential campaign, Trump has expressed unusually personal criticism  focusing on the judge's Mexican heritage  though his lawyers have never actually sought to have the judge removed.

His comments are bringing overwhelming disapproval from politicians and lawyers in his own Republican Party. On Friday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said of the statements about the judge: "It's reasoning I don't relate to, I completely disagree with the thinking behind that."

FILE - In this May 31, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks in New York. Trump is getting increasing attention for his abusive stance toward judges as well as his professed disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution and separation of powers. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

And conservative legal scholars say Trump's statements reinforce their worries that he seems to think he can do whatever he wants and disregard rules and conventions that constrain other political candidates.

"The concern is that he would act unbounded in the presidency, in a way that doesn't follow the law," said John McGinnis, a Northwestern University law professor.

Criticism of the Supreme Court and the rest of the federal judiciary has been a regular feature of recent Republican presidential campaigns, including proposals to strip federal judges of lifetime tenure and reduce the budgets of liberal-leaning courts.

Those ideas, though, did not single out judges or focus on race, ethnicity or religion.

"Here it's just about Trump," said Case Western Reserve University law professor Jonathan Adler.

More troubling, Adler said, is that the recent comments seem to fit a pattern of intemperate remarks Trump has made during the campaign.

"He said he would give military officers unlawful orders and expect them to comply," Adler said, referring to Trump's claim that the military would follow his orders to torture suspected terrorists. Trump has since backed off on that.

"He has repeatedly given indications he has no appreciation for the rule of law," Adler said.

Trump made his first reported comments about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in February, linking Curiel's Mexican heritage with what Trump described as the judge's "tremendous hostility" over Trump's plan to build a wall along the Mexican border. Trump has variously referred to Curiel as Spanish, Mexican and Hispanic and has called the judge "a hater of Donald Trump." He told The Wall Street Journal that Curiel has "an absolute conflict of interest" because of his heritage as well as "an inherent conflict of interest" because Trump wants to build the border wall.

Curiel is a native of Indiana whose parents emigrated from Mexico. He received undergraduate and law degrees from Indiana University and served as a federal prosecutor and a judge in the California state judicial system before being nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2011.

Trump University is the target of two lawsuits in San Diego and one in New York that accuse the business of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach secrets of success in real estate. Trump has maintained that customers were overwhelmingly satisfied.

The school emerged as an issue in a February Republican presidential debate, after which Trump made his first comments about Curiel.

The judge seemingly raised Trump's ire anew last week when he ordered the release of documents that had been sealed. Trump's campaign and private lawyers handling the lawsuits did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.

Trump's contention that Curiel is biased against him because of Trump's border plan is "ridiculous," said Josh Blackman, a young conservative law professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston.

"If that's the new standard for recusal, every judge in the federal judiciary who has some ethnicity or religion or race that affects a case has to recuse," Blackman said.

American Bar Association President Paulette Brown said personal criticism of a judge undermines judicial independence.

"Anyone running for the highest office in the land should understand that the independence of the judiciary is essential for an effective and orderly government and justice system," Brown said.

Federal judges have repeatedly rebuffed calls to step aside from cases over race, religion and ethnicity. U.S. District Judge Paul Borman, who is Jewish, turned down a request to withdraw from a case of a Palestinian immigrant accused of lying about her role in a fatal terrorist attack. "Like every one of my colleagues on the bench, I have a history and a heritage, but neither interferes with my ability to administer impartial justice," Borman said.

He later did step aside from the case, after discovering his family had an investment in the Jerusalem supermarket the woman helped bomb in 1969. Financial interests often are involved when judges withdraw.

The prospect of a choice between Trump and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton leaves some conservative scholars cold.

Former federal appeals court judge Michael McConnell, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said he is not encouraged by the behavior of the leading candidate of either party, citing Clinton's troubles over the private email server she used when she was secretary of state.
Environmental crews worked on Saturday to contain a sheen of oil that appeared in the Columbia River along the Washington-Oregon border after a Union Pacific train derailed and caught fire.

However, officials have said there was no immediate indication of harm to wildlife.

Sixteen of the 96 tank cars on the train derailed on Friday near Mosier, Oregon, about 70 miles east of Portland.

Four burned, sending a thick plume of black smoke into the sky before firefighters were able to extinguish the flames a little after 2am on Saturday. No injuries were reported.

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An oil train burns near the Oregon town of Mosier, about 70 miles east of Portland, after derailing on Friday

Smoke billows from the derailed oil train near. Environmental crews worked on Saturday to contain a sheen of oil that appeared in the Columbia River along the Washington-Oregon border after the derailment

This aerial view shows scattered and burned oil tank cars on Saturday in the aftermath of the derailment

There was no immediate word on the cause of the derailment, which forced the evacuation of about 100 people from a nearby mobile home park, as the site remained too hot to examine.

Officials said they would consider lifting the evacuation order on Saturday evening.

'I want to apologize to the community,' Union Pacific spokeswoman Raquel Espinoza said at a news conference, adding that the company would pick up the tab for the response costs.

'This is the type of accident we work to prevent every day.'

The derailment, in the scenic Columbia River Gorge, manifested the fears of environmentalists who have long argued against shipping oil by rail  especially through populated areas or along a river that's a hub of recreation and commerce.

The tank cars were carrying especially volatile crude from the Northern Plains' Bakken region, which has a higher gas content and vapor pressure than other types of oil.

More than 100 people rallied and marched in nearby Hood River, Oregon, on Saturday to call for a halt to the practice.

The derailment involved eight cars filled with oil, and one was burning. Highway 84 was closed for a 23-mile stretch between The Dalles and Mosier and the radius for evacuations was a half-mile

Tank cars, carrying oil, are pictured in the aftermath of the derailment. No injuries were reported

The accident happened just after noon about 70 miles east of Portland, Oregon

Emily Reed, the city council president in Mosier, joined them.

In a telephone interview, Reed said her son was evacuated from school because of the derailment.

Her husband, a firefighter, was a first responder. The family evacuated their house, and her father was unable to ship the first crop from his small cherry orchard.

'I've just listed four major risks that I have, and I don't see the benefit I'm getting in exchange for this risk,' Reed said.

'There is no safe way for these fossil fuel trains to come through our town, and I'd like to see them stopped until there are standards and we know it's safe.

'This isn't a one-off,' Reed said. 'It's happening in my town, but next time it'll be somebody else's town.'

At first light Saturday, crews noticed a light sheen in the Columbia at the mouth of Rock Creek.

Responders deployed about 1,000 feet of boom to contain it. It was not clear how much oil had spilled from the trains.

Lane Magill, Wasco County Sheriff, spoke at a press conference on Saturday. He addressed Friday's oil train derailment and subsequent fire and oil leakage

There was no immediate word on the cause of the derailment, which forced the evacuation of about 100 people from a nearby mobile home park, as the site remained too hot to examine

The derailment, in the scenic Columbia River Gorge, manifested the fears of environmentalists who have long argued against shipping oil by rail  especially through populated areas or along a river that's a hub of recreation and commerce

This photo shows an oil containment boom place at the site where the train carrying oil derailed sparking a fire

By Saturday afternoon, three of the cars had been re-railed. Crews had been waiting for the cars to cool before transferring the oil into tank trucks.

Union Pacific officials said on Saturday the company had inspected the section of track where the derailment occurred at least six times since March 21.

It was most recently checked last Tuesday, and within the past month, the company had used checked for imperfections and inspected the ground along the track.

To get to refineries on the East and West coasts and the Gulf of Mexico, oil trains move through more than 400 counties, including major metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia; Seattle; Chicago; Newark, New Jersey; and dozens of other cities, according to railroad disclosures filed with regulators.

Including Friday's incident, at least 26 oil trains have been involved in major fires or derailments during the past decade in the U.S. and Canada, according to Associated Press analysis of accident records from the two countries.

The worst was a 2013 derailment that killed 47 people in Lac-Megantic, Quebec. Damage from that accident has been estimated at $1.2 billion or higher.

An aerial-view photo shows the containment booms placed around an oil slick on the surface of the Columbia River on Saturday

The tank cars were carrying especially volatile crude from the Northern Plains' Bakken region, which has a higher gas content and vapor pressure than other types of oil

Responders deployed about 1,000 feet of boom to contain it. It was not clear how much oil had spilled from the trains

At least 12 of the oil trains that derailed over the past decade were carrying crude from the Northern Plains' Bakken region. Of those, eight resulted in fires.

Since last spring, North Dakota regulators have required companies to treat oil before it's shipped by rail to make it less combustible.

Reducing the explosiveness of the crude moved by rail was not supposed to be a cure-all to prevent accidents.

Department of Transportation rules imposed last year require companies to use stronger tank cars that are better able to withstand derailments.

The tank cars that derailed in Oregon were newer model CPC-1232s, said Union Pacific spokesman Justin Jacobs.

Critics say the upgraded models still aren't safe enough to transport volatile Bakken oil.
Trump has testy relationship with accountability

WASHINGTON (AP)  Donald Trump, meet public accountability.

The real estate magnate turned presidential candidate is fussing over probes into his promises  whether they match his deeds and whether his deeds were legal. But scrutiny is a fact of life for any aspiring public official, even more so for those who win office. Multiply that, should Trump win the presidency.

Probes into Trump University and Trump's promise to raise money for veterans' groups and calls for him to release his tax records are mere whiffs of the prodding he'd receive as president making decisions that involve taxpayer money. And presidents face no shortage of second-guessers, many empowered by open government laws  and the Constitution. The courts and Congress, for example. Watchdog groups. And yes, journalists.

FILE - In this May 26, 2016, file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Rimrock Auto Arena, in Billings, Mont. Trump, meet public accountability. The real estate magnate-turned presidential candidate is fussing over probes into whether his promises match his deeds and whether his deeds were legal. But scrutiny is a fact of life for any aspiring public official, even more so for those who win office. Multiply that, should Trump win the presidency. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

A look at Trump's testy relationship with scrutiny:

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"NOBODY'S BUSINESS"

Trump says he has no objection to scrutiny. He gives interviews almost daily, as well as long, rambling news conferences, opening himself to questions in ways Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton does not. But on some matters  which other public figures know come with the territory  "nobody's business" is his approach toward disclosure. He's deployed that concept against efforts to find out if he really raised the $6 million he'd claimed in January for veterans groups. (He raised nearly that amount, but distributed much of the money only after reporters pressed  and said reporters should be "ashamed" for asking). He also declared his tax returns were no one's business, in response to calls from public interest groups to release them as others running for high office do. (He says won't release them until an audit is finished.)

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CASH FOR MILITARY VETERANS

Trump's veterans' fundraiser grew from his feud with Fox News, which led to him boycotting one of the network's debates and throwing a splashy rally to benefit veterans before the leadoff Iowa caucuses. Under pressure from The Washington Post and other outlets to disclose recipients of the money, Trump's campaign refused for months to say which charities had received the money, leading to questions about whether the money raised was less than he had said. In the last week of May, Trump sent more than a dozen big checks to veterans' charities. On Tuesday, he announced he had made good on his pledge and raised $5.6 million for veterans groups  including $1 million of his own. But he spent much of the time griping about "sleazy" and "dishonest" reporters  while yielding to the pressure and telling the public the names of all 41 groups that received money.

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TRUMP UNIVERSITY

Trump University is the target of two lawsuits in San Diego and one in New York that accuse the business of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach secrets of success in real estate. Trump insists that customers were overwhelmingly satisfied with the offerings, and he's not happy about the judicial scrutiny.

From the campaign stage, Trump has gone after U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who last week ordered documents from the case unsealed. Curiel, according to Trump, is "a Donald Trump hater" and "hostile" to the mogul. He also raised questions about Curiel's ethnicity. "The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great, I think that's fine," Trump said of Curiel, who was born in the U.S.

It was the second time Trump has brought up the judge's ethnicity as he complained about his treatment.

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THE PRESS

Trump's 40-minute harangue against reporters probably cost him nothing in terms of support from his fans  they boo journalists at his rallies. What was significant was Trump's apparent point: The veterans groups that received money from his effort have millions more dollars than they did without his help, but that became clear only when he finally told Americans where the money actually went and when.

Trump made clear that he sees little value in the press' oversight role  but lots of value in the public praise he felt was due.
US Pentagon chief proposes Asia-Pacific 'security network'

SINGAPORE (AP)  U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter is proposing to accelerate and deepen defense cooperation in the Asia-Pacific by expanding a "security network" of countries whose militaries would train together and eventually operate together.

Speaking to an international security conference in Singapore on Saturday, Carter said China would be welcomed in this network. But he also cited frequent American complaints about China unnerving its neighbors with expansive moves to build up reefs, islets and other land features in the disputed South China Sea.

Carter said this security network would represent "the next wave" in Asia-Pacific security.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter delivers a speech titled "Meeting Asia's Complex Security Challenges" at the 15th International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-la Dialogue, or IISS, Asia Security Summit on Saturday, June 4, 2016, in Singapore. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

"It is inclusive, since any nation and any military - no matter its capability, budget, or experience - can contribute. Everyone gets a voice, no one is excluded, and hopefully, no one excludes themselves," he said, alluding to China.

A Chinese official reacted skeptically. Rear Adm. Guan Youfei, director of the foreign affairs office of China's National Defense Ministry, said Beijing welcomes the U.S. establishing close relations with Asian countries. But he urged Washington to scale back its military exercises in the region and to reduce "provocations" such as operating military aircraft and ships in close proximity to other countries.

"I believe this will help the U.S. play a better role in the region," he said, speaking through an interpreter.

Carter emphasized possibilities for cooperating with China while stating that the U.S. will remain the pre-eminent power.

"America wants to expand military-to-military agreements with China to focus not only on risk reduction, but also on practical cooperation. Our two militaries can also work together," he said, bilaterally or as part of a broader security network to combat global threats like terrorism and piracy.

Tom Mahnken, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank, praised Carter's emphasis on developing partnerships.

"Secretary Carter was right to emphasize multilateral approaches in the Asia-Pacific region. Indeed, America's alliances and partnerships in the region give us an enduring competitive advantage," Mahnken said by email from Washington. "By contrast, China's actions have increasingly isolated it."

At a news conference later, Adm. Harry Harris, head of U.S. Pacific Command, said that while his forces are ready to confront China if necessary, there have been few significant issues with China lately in the South China Sea.

"We've seen positive behavior in the last several months by China," Harris said, adding, "I'm encouraged by the activities" between the U.S. and Chinese militaries. He noted that China plans to attend the Rim of the Pacific exercise this year, with U.S. and Chinese warships operating together from Guam to Hawaii.

Adm. John Richardson, the Navy's top admiral, said "more and more" interactions at sea with the Chinese navy are safe and professional.

In proposing a "principled security network" across Asia, Carter said it would include "nations building connections for a common cause, planning and training together, and eventually operating in a coordinated way." He said that in September he will co-host, with his Laotian counterpart, a meeting of defense ministers from across the Asia-Pacific, to find new ways to broaden and deepen a regional security network.

In raising the prospect of conflict in the South China Sea, Carter said China is isolating itself by building up man-made islands there. The Chinese in some cases are erecting airfields that will extend Beijing's military reach. He said for the second time in a week that China's actions could erect a "great wall of self-isolation."

"There is growing anxiety in this region, and in this room, about China's activities on the seas, in cyberspace, and in the region's airspace," he said. "Indeed, in the South China Sea, China has taken some expansive and unprecedented actions, that have generated concerns about China's strategic intentions."

He also noted a coming ruling by a U.N. arbitration tribunal on the Philippines' challenge to China's claims in the South China Sea. He called this ruling, which is expected this summer, "an opportunity for China and the rest of the region to recommit to a principled future, to renewed diplomacy, and to lowering tensions, rather than raising them."

During a question-and-answer session with his audience, Carter was asked why the U.S. attaches such importance to exercising its right to fly and sail military aircraft and ships near other countries' coasts, including China's.

"What we stand for is the principle of rule of law and abiding by international law in the commons," Carter said. "It's not a focus on China. It's a focus on principle."

In his speech, Carter mostly emphasized the positive.

"The United States welcomes the emergence of a peaceful, stable and prosperous China that plays a responsible role in the region's principled security network," he said. "We know China's inclusion makes for a stronger network and a more stable, secure and prosperous region."

He also made clear, however, that the U.S. intends to maintain, even expand, its military presence in the Asia-Pacific.

"The Defense Department maintains its world-leading capabilities because the United States has made incomparable investments in it over decades. As a result, it will take decades or more for anyone to build the kind of military capability the United States possesses," he said.

China did not send its defense minister to Singapore, and Carter held no meetings with members of Beijing's delegation. But at a conference-opening dinner Friday evening Carter shook hands and spoke briefly with the senior Chinese representative, Adm. Sun Jianguo, according to a U.S. official who was present.

---

AP reporter Annabelle Liang contributed to this report.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter listens to the keynote speech during the Opening Dinner of the 15th International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-la Dialogue, or IISS, Asia Security Summit on Friday, June 3, 2016, in Singapore. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter delivers a speech titled "Meeting Asia's Complex Security Challenges" at the 15th International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-la Dialogue, or IISS, Asia Security Summit on Saturday, June 4, 2016, in Singapore. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Indian PM, once a pariah to US, set to address Congress

WASHINGTON (AP)  After years of being denied entry to the U.S., Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become a welcome guest in Washington, forging a surprising bond with President Barack Obama and deepening ties with America.

A new defense agreement and a possible announcement on U.S. investment in nuclear power in India could be in the cards on his latest visit. He will meet with Obama on Tuesday and have the honor of addressing a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday.

Modi has shaken off allegations that he was complicit in anti-Muslim violence when he served as a top state official before becoming prime minister two years ago, but he could face pointed questions from lawmakers about India's human rights record.

FILE - In this March 31, 2016, file photo, President Barack Obama talks with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a working dinner with heads of delegations of the Nuclear Security Summit in the East Room of the White House, in Washington. After years of being denied entry to the U.S., Modi has become a welcome guest in Washington, forging a surprising bond with President Barack Obama and deepening ties with America. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

It will be his fourth visit to the U.S. since his Hindu nationalist party swept elections in May 2014. Between 2005 and late 2013, during his tenure as chief minister of Gujarat, the U.S. government avoided official contact with Modi over suspicions about his possible role in communal rioting that killed hundreds.

"He's gone from someone who was basically a pariah to someone who is going to be celebrated by official Washington," said Milan Vaishnav, an expert on South Asia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Modi will become the fifth Indian prime minister to address both houses of Congress. He'll also have lunch with congressional leaders and attend a reception hosted by the House and Senate foreign relations committees, where there's strong support for closer ties, but also some disappointment over what's been achieved on Modi's watch.

On the plus side of the ledger, defense ties have gotten closer. The U.S. and India share concern about the rise of China, and while New Delhi steers clear of a formal alliance with Washington  in fact, with any country  the two militaries conduct more drills together than with any other nation.

The U.S. has become a key supplier of defense equipment to India  with about $14 billion in sales contracted in the past five years  and the two nations are looking at joint development of technologies for jet engines and aircraft carriers. A defense logistics agreement is likely to be finalized when Modi visits.

Progress has been more elusive on opening the way for the U.S. nuclear industry to invest in India, eight years after the George W. Bush administration reached a landmark civil nuclear agreement with India, rolling back export restrictions in place since India's first nuclear test explosion in 1974.

The prime obstacle has been a 2010 Indian law on liability in case of accidents at nuclear power plants, but a workaround solution involving an Indian-supported insurance scheme means Westinghouse Electric Co. is closing in on a contract to build reactors in Andhra Pradesh state  a deal potentially worth tens of billions of dollars.

Arun Singh, India's ambassador in Washington, told reporters Wednesday that negotiations between Westinghouse and the Indian nuclear operator were at a "very detailed and advanced" stage. He said the main issues to be resolved concern cost and financing, not insurance. He did not say if a contract announcement was imminent.

Westinghouse declined to comment Friday. Another U.S. player, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, said it is still concerned about the Indian law, which could make nuclear suppliers, not just operators of nuclear plants, liable for accidents.

While U.S. lawmakers praise the progress in defense ties, they grumble about continuing restrictions on American investment in India, notwithstanding some liberalization on Modi's watch. Bilateral trade in goods and services has expanded from $60 billion in 2009 to $107 billion in 2015.

"In the case of U.S.-India relations, the hopeful rhetoric has far exceeded actual tangible achievements," Republican Sen. Bob Corker, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a hearing last month.

Lawmakers of both parties also criticized India's failure to curb growing religious intolerance and human trafficking, and are likely to raise those issues with Modi. An Australia-based activist group estimates that India has around 18 million modern slaves, or 40 percent of the global total.

The world's two largest democracies have a surprisingly acrimonious relationship when it comes to human rights, and what India views as overbearing U.S. scrutiny. India has refused visits by a U.S. commission on religious freedom and by an envoy on LGBT rights.

It also objects to a House commission holding a hearing on human rights in India on the same day Modi meets Obama.

"Normally in India we would not want to embarrass somebody when they are our guest. But I guess each society is different," Singh, the ambassador, said.
Obama cuts prison sentences for 42 drug offenders

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Barack Obama has shortened the sentences of 42 people serving time for drug-related offenses, continuing a push for clemency that has ramped up in the final year of his administration.

Roughly half of the 42 receiving commutations Friday were serving life sentences. Most are nonviolent offenders, although a few were also charged with firearms violations. The White House said many of them would have already finished their sentences if they had been sentenced under current, less onerous sentencing guidelines.

The latest group of commutations brings to 348 the total number of inmates whose sentences Obama has commuted  more than the past seven presidents combined, the White House said. The pace of commutations and the rarer use of pardons are expected to increase as the end of Obama's presidency nears.

President Barack Obama walks across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Friday, June 3, 2016, before boarding the Marine One helicopter for the short ride to nearby Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Obama is traveling to Miami for a pair of Democratic fundraisers.(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

"He remains committed to using his clemency power throughout the remainder of the administration to give more deserving individuals that same second chance," White House counsel Neil Eggleston wrote in a blog post.

Eggleston added that the offenders receiving commutations had "more than repaid their debt to society and earned this second chance."

One of the offenders, Douglas Ray Dunkins Jr. of Fort Worth, Texas, had been held up by civil liberties groups as one of the most egregious examples of over-sentencing. Dunkins had only a minor shoplifting conviction on his prior record in 1993 when, at age 26, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiracy to possess and distribute crack cocaine, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a report. No drugs were found, but prosecutors used testimony from co-conspirators who testified in exchange for lighter sentences, the ACLU said.

The ACLU said Dunkins had worked for nearly a decade as a paralegal helping other inmates with legal work and wanted to mentor youth if he ever got out. Dunkins is slated to be released in October.

"The day-to-day of prison is taking an even greater toll on me. ... I wake up every day and pray in a cell that's white and grey with little room to move around in between me and my cellmate," Dunkins wrote in an opinion piece last year in The Guardian. "Clemency is something that I long for  not just for me, but for a lot of inmates who have served well over 20-plus years for crimes involving crack cocaine."

Though there's wide bipartisan support for a criminal justice overhaul, what had looked like a promising legislative opportunity in Obama's final year has mostly lost steam. As with Obama's other priorities, the chaotic presidential campaign has increasingly made cooperation among Republicans and Democrats in Congress difficult to achieve this year.

Obama has long called for getting rid of strict sentences for drug offenses, arguing they lead to excessive punishment and sky-high incarceration rates. With Obama's support, the Justice Department in recent years has directed prosecutors to rein in the use of harsh mandatory minimums.

The Obama administration has also expanded criteria for inmates applying for clemency, targeting nonviolent offenders who have behaved well in prison and would have received shorter sentences if convicted of the same crime a few years later. Civil liberties groups hailed that move but have since raised concerns that too few are actually receiving clemency under the policy.

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Online:

Obama clemency initiative: https://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemency-initiative

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Storm provisionally into 1st place in National Rugby League

SYDNEY (AP)  The Melbourne Storm won their sixth consecutive match and moved provisionally into first place in the National Rugby League with a 24-6 victory over the Penrith Panthers on Saturday.

The Storm, who trailed 6-0 early, are two points ahead of the Cronulla Sharks, who will have a chance to pull level on points with the Storm when they conclude the 13th round on Monday against the Canterbury Bulldogs.

Earlier Saturday, the defending champion North Queensland Cowboys moved past their state rivals Brisbane and into third place with a 46-16 win over Newcastle, their seventh straight win at home. It was Newcastle's seventh loss in a row.

The Cowboys had four players in the lineup, including halfback Johnathan Thurston, who were playing on just two days of rest after Queensland's 6-4 win Wednesday over New South Wales in the first State of Origin match.

The New Zealand Warriors handed Brisbane its worst loss of the season, beating the Broncos 36-18. The Warriors led 18-0 after 25 minutes at Auckland's Mt. Smart Stadium, where a minute's silence was observed before the match to honor Muhammad Ali, who had died a few hours earlier in Phoenix, Arizona.

On Friday, Canberra beat Manly 30-18, winning for the third time in a row and handing the Sea Eagles their fourth consecutive loss.

The Sydney Roosters play the Wests Tigers and the South Sydney Rabbitohs take on the Gold Coast Titans in matches Sunday.
Egypt begins trial for head of journalists union, 2 members

CAIRO (AP)  The trial began Saturday for the head of Egypt's journalists union and two board members charged with spreading false news and harboring reporters wanted by authorities, with one defendant saying it was part of a government plan to create a "state of fear."

Union head Yahya Qalash and board members Khaled el-Balshy and Gamal Abdel-Rahim showed up at the downtown Cairo court with some dozen defense lawyers led by former presidential candidate Khaled Ali.

In a 10-minute hearing, the defense requested a postponement to allow them time to study the case.

Yahia Kalash, the head of the journalists' union, is surrounded by cameramen as he arrives at Cairo south court in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, June 4, 2016. The head of Egypt's journalists union and two of its board members are on trail over allegations that they harbored journalists wanted by authorities and spread false news. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

The trial will resume on June 18.

The defendants were greeted with chants of "Long live the struggle of journalists!" and "Hold your head high, you are a journalist!" by about two dozen supporters when they came out of the courthouse, where scores of riot police were deployed, backed by armored vehicles.

Amnesty International condemned the case last week, describing it as part of a "draconian" crackdown on freedom of expression.

"We are dealing with a case that must be seen in the wider context of a society where there is an all-out attack on freedoms, closure of public sphere and efforts to establish a state of fear," el-Balshy, who heads the union's freedoms commission, told reporters before Saturday's hearing.

The three were questioned for hours by prosecutors last Sunday. On Monday, they initially refused to post bail of 10,000 pounds ($1,100) each and were detained at a police station in central Cairo. They were released the next day following their referral to trial and after bail was posted.

The move against the three came less than a month after Qalash called for the interior minister's resignation and a presidential apology over the arrest of two journalists wanted for inciting protests who had taken refuge inside the union's downtown headquarters.

Authorities deny that police forcibly entered the building, saying they had an arrest warrant and coordinated in advance with board members. Qalash later sought to defuse tensions, dropping his demand for a presidential apology and not repeating his demand for the minister to step down.
Crowdfunded beer pipeline to protect medieval city of Bruges

BRUGES, Belgium (AP)  The idea may have seemed mad, but after all, the beer is called the Madman of Bruges  or Brugse Zot in Dutch.

With the help of crowdfunding efforts among some 400 Madman fans, the dream of building a beer pipeline through the Belgian city of Bruges is becoming real.

"You have to be a bit crazy  like the beer  to do such a project. I just had the money for that, and I liked it. So I went crazy and gave the money to the brewery," said restaurant owner Philippe Le Loup, who poured $11,000 into the pipeline.

Glasses of Brugse Zot beer stand on a serving tray at the Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. The brewery has recently created a beer pipeline which will ship beer straight from the brewery to the bottling plant, two kilometers away, through underground pipes running between the two sources. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Brewer Xavier Vanneste got the idea four years ago to pump beer from his Bruges brewery to a bottling plant outside of town in a pipeline instead of having hundreds of trucks blighting the cobblestoned streets of the UNESCO-protected medieval city.

What at first seemed like an outrageous dream, began to seem possible when Vanneste started talking to local beer enthusiasts.

Jokes were coming in fast, with people saying "we are willing to invest as long as we can have a tapping point on the pipeline," Vanneste said. "That gave us the idea to crowdfund the project."

Thanks to Le Loup and others, he is now staring at the one end of the pipeline, which beginning in the fall will start pumping some 4,000 liters (1,060 gallons) of beer an hour toward the bottling plant, 3 kilometers (2 miles) away in an industrial zone.

"That is a lot of beer, more than you can drink in a lifetime," said the owner of De Halve Maan brewery, which in addition to Brugse Zot is also famous for its Straffe Hendrik beer brand.

Sending the pipeline along streets where customers could siphon off their favorite suds was too utopian even for Vanneste, but he came up with the next best thing: IOUs with a lifelong drinking guarantee.

"We have several formulas: bronze, silver and gold," he said. "If you put in 7,500 euros ($8,350), you will receive for the rest of your days, every day one bottle of Brugse Zot."

For many, that offer was hard to refuse. About 10 percent of the total 4 million euro ($4.5 million) investment for the pipeline has been financed through crowdfunding. With it came a popular surge of support that has stood Vanneste in good stead.

With a warren of municipal, regional and federal laws governing the picturesque city, building approvals are often laborious to get. Not, however, for a beer pipeline as authorities realized the whole community was backing it.

The city also stood to gain. In between the city's beguinage houses and Our Lady's Cathedral, the De Halve Maan brewery has given the sometimes overly touristy city a sense of real life. Vanneste could have done what so many others have  moved out of the city with its canals, gabled Gothic houses, horse-drawn carriages and restaurants with menus in six languages.

Now, he looks forward to the best of both worlds  a historic brewery in a gorgeous location and an environmentally friendly way of transporting his brews out to the bottling plant, which will allow him to continue to grow without damaging the city.

But it's not only Vanneste's family business that is growing. The generous contributor to the project, Le Loup, sighed as he glanced at his own paunch.

In broken English, he said, "You can see that in my belly, I am a bit more beer fan."

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Follow Raf Casert on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rcasert

Cases of beer and vats full of beer at the Halve Maan bottling plant on the outskirts of Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. The brewery has recently created a beer pipeline which will ship beer straight from the brewery to the bottling plant, two kilometers away, through underground pipes running between the two sources. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

A newly crafted group of pipes disappears into a wall in the cellar of the Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. The brewery has recently created a beer pipeline which will ship beer straight from the brewery to the bottling plant, two kilometers away, through underground pipes running between the two sources. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

A worker pours a glass of beer for customers at the Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. The brewery has recently created a beer pipeline which will ship beer straight from the brewery to the bottling plant, two kilometers away, through underground pipes running between the two sources. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

A worker pours glasses of beer for customers at the Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. The brewery has recently created a beer pipeline which will ship beer straight from the brewery to the bottling plant, two kilometers away, through underground pipes running between the two sources. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Tourists ride in a boat down a main canal past the Hospital St. Jan in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. Running trucks down the narrow streets and over the bridges of the Unesco protected Medieval city will soon be a thing of the past as The Halve Maan Brewery has recently created a beer pipeline which will ship beer straight from the brewery to the bottling plant, two kilometers away, through underground pipes. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Brewer Xavier Vanneste walks down a spiral staircase toward underground pipes at the Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. The brewery has recently created a beer pipeline which will ship beer straight from the brewery to the bottling plant, two kilometers away, through underground pipes running between the two sources. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

A sculpture of a face in a half moon made of metal stands at the entrance of the Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. The brewery has recently created a beer pipeline which will ship beer straight from the brewery to the bottling plant, two kilometers away, through underground pipes running between the two sources. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Brewer Xavier Vanneste stands near a brewing vat at the Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. The brewery has recently created a beer pipeline which will ship beer straight from the brewery to the bottling plant, two kilometers away, through underground pipes running between the two sources. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

A horse drawn carriage rides down a narrow cobblestone street in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. Running trucks down the narrow streets will soon be a thing of the past as The Halve Maan Brewery has recently created a beer pipeline which will ship beer straight from the brewery to the bottling plant, two kilometers away, through underground pipes running between the two sources. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Vintage beer bottles on display at the Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. The brewery has recently created a beer pipeline which will ship beer straight from the brewery to the bottling plant, two kilometers away, through underground pipes running between the two sources. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Russia agrees to allowing observers in Ukraine carry pistols

MOSCOW (AP)  Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to agree to allowing additional international observers in warring eastern Ukraine to be armed with pistols.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has said it wants to send an armed police mission to eastern Ukraine to ensure that local elections can take place in a secure atmosphere. The 2015 Minsk accord on resolving the conflict in the region between Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian forces calls for elections to be held there.
Italian oil company Eni's CEO meets with Libyan premier

MILAN (AP)  The CEO of Italian oil giant Eni has traveled to Tripoli for the first time since July 2014 to meet with the new head of Libya's U.N.-backed government.

Eni said in a statement that the meeting Saturday between CEO Claudio Descalzi and Libya's new prime minister, Fayez Serraj, underlines Eni's commitment to continuing operations in Libya and to support the National Oil Corporation's efforts to increase production.

Eni was the first international oil company to resume operations in Libya in 2011 after months of civil war and currently produces 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. Eni has maintained operations in the country, continuing both its exploration activities offshore as well as helping supply gas for local power plants for domestic consumption.
The Latest: Hong Kong student groups quit Tiananmen vigil

HONG KONG (AP)  The Latest on the 27th anniversary of the Chinese military's bloody June 4, 1989, crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square (all times local):

8 p.m.

Hong Kong student groups that have been longstanding supporters of the annual candlelight vigil for the victims of the Chinese military's bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square have dropped out this year because of a disagreement over the vigil's aims.

A man walks as wreaths and a banner featuring Tiananmen Square are set up for a candlelight vigil at Hong Kong's Victoria Park, Saturday, June 4, 2016. Security was tightened around Tiananmen Square on the 27th anniversary Saturday of China's bloody military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests, pointing to the enduring sensitivity over the events with the Chinese leadership. Memorials were planned in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong and in self-governing Taiwan, where some former student leaders have found refuge. The Chinese words read " To Mourn June 4 Victims." (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Instead, university and college students were holding discussion forums on the future of Hong Kong on Saturday evening, the 27th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The move underscores the widening rift that emerged between younger and older generations of pro-democracy activists over the idea of Hong Kong's identity following 2014 protests over Beijing's decision to restrict elections in the semiautonomous city.

It follows the decision in April by student leaders to quit the Hong Kong Alliance because they believe one of its main aims, fighting for democracy in mainland China, is no longer realistic.

They also think the vigil's formulaic format fails to appeal to the younger generation.

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7:45 p.m.

People are starting to filter into Victoria Park in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay district as the city prepares to hold an annual candlelight vigil on the 27th anniversary of the Chinese military's bloody crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Organizers are expecting 100,000 people to attend, though the threat of rain may keep numbers down.

The annual event is the only large-scale public commemoration of Beijing's brutal crackdown held on Chinese soil.

The vigil is organized by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China. It demands that Beijing overturn its verdict that the Tiananmen protests were a counterrevolutionary riot. It also calls for one-party dictatorship in China to be replaced by democracy.

A statue of Goddess of Democracy is displayed at Hong Kong's Victoria Park, Saturday, June 4, 2016. Security was tightened around Tiananmen Square on the 27th anniversary Saturday of China's bloody military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests, pointing to the enduring sensitivity over the events with the Chinese leadership. Memorials were planned in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong and in self-governing Taiwan, where some former student leaders have found refuge. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

A boy walks past the statue replica of the Goddess of Democracy at the June 4th Museum in Hong Kong, Saturday, June 4, 2016. Security was tightened around Tiananmen Square on the 27th anniversary Saturday of China's bloody military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests, pointing to the enduring sensitivity over the events with the Chinese leadership. Memorials were planned in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong and in self-governing Taiwan, where some former student leaders have found refuge. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

A boy watches a film showing victims of the June 4 crackdown at the June 4th Museum in Hong Kong, Saturday, June 4, 2016. Security was tightened around Tiananmen Square on the 27th anniversary Saturday of China's bloody military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests, pointing to the enduring sensitivity over the events with the Chinese leadership. Memorials were planned in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong and in self-governing Taiwan, where some former student leaders have found refuge. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

A photograph of Tank Man, the lone protester who stood to block the way of a line of several tanks during the 1989 pro-democracy movement in Beijing, is displayed at the June 4th Museum in Hong Kong, Saturday, June 4, 2016. Security was tightened around Tiananmen Square on the 27th anniversary Saturday of China's bloody military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests, pointing to the enduring sensitivity over the events with the Chinese leadership. Memorials were planned in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong and in self-governing Taiwan, where some former student leaders have found refuge. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
Tale of Trump and partner in Azerbaijan real estate project

WASHINGTON (AP)  Six months before he entered the presidential race, Donald Trump announced a new real estate project in Baku, Azerbaijan. His partner was the son of a government minister suspected by U.S. diplomats of laundering money for Iran's military and described as "notoriously corrupt."

Eighteen months later, and only weeks after daughter Ivanka Trump released a publicity video of the nearly finished project, references to the Baku project have disappeared from Trump's website. Trump's general counsel, Alan Garten, told The Associated Press that it was on hold for economic reasons.

Trump often talks of hiring the best people and surrounding himself with people he can trust. In practice, however, he and his executives have at times appeared to overlook details about the background of people he has chosen as business partners, such as whether they had dubious associations, had been convicted of crimes, faced extradition or inflated their resumes.

FILE - In this Feb. 19, 2016, file photo, The Trump International Hotel, the highest building, is seen in Baku, Azerbaijan. Just six months before he launched his presidential campaign, Donald Trump announced a new real estate project in Baku. The partner: the 35-year-old son of an Azerbaijani minister suspected by U.S. diplomats of corruption and laundering money for Irans military and described by them as notoriously corrupt. Now, only weeks after Ivanka Trump released a publicity video of the nearly finished project, references to the Baku project have disappeared from Trumps website. (AP Photo/Aida Sultanova, File)

The Trump camp's screening skills are important as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee turns to selecting a running mate. They would only become more crucial if he won the White House. Then, Trump would have to name more than 3,600 political appointees to senior government positions, including critical jobs overseeing national security and the economy.

In the Azerbaijani case, Garten said the Trump Organization had performed meticulous due diligence on the company's partners, but hadn't researched the allegations against the Baku partner's father because he wasn't a party to the deal.

"I've never heard that before," Garten said, when first asked about allegations of Iranian money laundering by the partner's father, which appeared in U.S. diplomatic cables widely available since they were leaked in 2010.

Garten subsequently said he was confident the minister alleged to be laundering Iranian funds, Ziya Mammadov, had no involvement in his son's holding company, even though some of the son's major businesses regularly partnered with the transportation ministry and were founded while the son was in college overseas. Ziya Mammadov did not respond to a telephone message the AP left with his ministry in Baku or to emails to the Azerbaijan Embassy in Washington.

Garten told the AP that Trump's company uses a third-party investigative firm, which he did not identify, that specializes in background intelligence gathering and searches global watch lists, warrant lists and sanctions lists maintained by the United Nations, Interpol and others.

Trump has described his background research as presidential in quality. Asked in a 2013 deposition why he had not performed formal records of due diligence on a business partner  a man Trump later deemed "a dud"  Trump said he considered word-of-mouth inquiries to be adequate.

"We heard good things about him from a couple of different people," he said of his partner in the deposition. "That's true with the president of the United States. You get references and sometimes it's good and sometimes it's not so good."

Trump's lawyer, Garten, who was in the room at the time of Trump's statement, told the AP that it was unreasonable to expect Trump to know the full range of the company's diligence efforts.

Any American contemplating a business venture in Azerbaijan faces a risk: "endemic public corruption," as the State Department puts it. Much of that money flows from the oil and gas industries, but the State Department also considers the country to be a waypoint for terrorist financiers, Iranian sanctions-busters and Afghan drug lords.

The environment is a risky one for any business venture seeking to avoid violating U.S. penalties imposed against Iran or anti-bribery laws under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Trump's choice of partners in Baku was Anar Mammadov, the son of the country's transportation minister. Anar Mammadov did not respond to AP's emails or messages sent to his social media accounts or messages left with his company.

Garten said the Trump Organization had performed background screening on all those involved in the deal and was confident Mammadov's father played no role in the project.

Experts on Azerbaijan were mystified that Trump or anyone else could reach that conclusion.

Anar Mammadov is widely viewed by diplomats and nongovernmental organizations as a transparent stand-in for the business interests of his father. Anar's business has boomed with regular help from his father's ministry, receiving exclusive government contracts, a near monopoly on Baku's taxi business and even a free fleet of autobuses.

"These are not business people acting on their own  you're dealing with daddy," said Richard Kauzlarich, a U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s who went on to work under the Director of National Intelligence during the George W. Bush administration.

"Whatever the Trump people thought they were doing, that wasn't reality," Kauzlarich said.

Anar Mammadov, who is believed to be 35, has said in a series of interviews that he founded Garant Holdings' predecessor  which has arms in transportation, construction, banking, telecommunications and manufacturing  in 2000, when he would have been 19. Anar received his bachelor's degree in 2003 and a master's in business administration in 2005  both from a university in London.

Mammadov's statement that he founded the business in 2000 appeared in a magazine produced by a research firm in partnership with the Azerbaijani government. In other forums, he has said he started the business in 2005, though several of its key subsidiaries predate that period.

Garten declined to discuss specific background research on Anar but said such checks were "comprehensive." The file for the Baku project would not have included anything on Ziya Mammadov, Garten said, because the Trump Organization concluded that he would play no role in the project.

"The younger Mammadov did not build his business empire simply by delivering newspapers," said Matt Bryza, a former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan. He served on the National Security Council in George W. Bush's administration and was appointed ambassador from 2010 to 2012 under President Barack Obama.

Ziya Mammadov was described in March 2009 in leaked U.S. diplomatic cables as "notoriously corrupt, even for Azerbaijan" and accused of working closely on government highway construction contracts awarded to a former senior Iranian military official in the Republican Guard, Kamal Darvishi. "We assume Mammadov is a silent partner in these contracts," the State Department cable said.

Though the Baku hotel project has not been completed, it has earned Trump a significant payday. He earned between $2.5 million and $2.8 million in hotel management fees from a hotel that has never opened, according to the financial disclosures filed by his campaign. Trump licensing details generally involve the receipt of a significant minority stake in the property, too.

The Azerbaijani case is not the only one involving partners with unusual pasts.

At least twice, Trump has been involved in development deals with convicted criminals. In 2001, Trump announced he was partnering with developer Leib Waldman to build a massive condo and hotel tower in Toronto.

Two months later, Canadian newspapers revealed that Waldman had fled the United States after pleading guilty to bankruptcy fraud in the mid-1990s. His extradition sent the project into a tailspin. Another developer eventually stepped in: Alex Shnaider, a former Ukrainian metals trader who survived the often violent privatization of the post-Soviet steel industry in the 1990s.

"We heard fantastic things about (Shnaider)," Trump told Forbes in 2005. "But sometimes people say wonderful things whether they mean them or not."

Trump and Shnaider's development company are now in litigation. Trump alleges that Shnaider was an incompetent developer and bilking condo owners; Shnaider wants to remove Trump's name from the building.

In the early years of the last decade, Trump also struck an alliance with Bayrock Group LLC, an upstart property development firm that had recently moved into the Trump Tower.

As a partner, Bayrock didn't have much of a track record. The firm was created in July 2001. Its two top officials were Tevfik Arif, a former Soviet hospitality minister whose previous development experience had been in Turkey, and Felix Satter.

Digging into the background of Satter wouldn't have turned up much because Satter did not actually exist. But a man with a similarly spelled name, Felix Sater, had been sentenced to prison for stabbing a man in the face with a broken margarita glass and barred for life from selling securities. A subsequent complaint by federal prosecutors named Sater as an unindicted co-conspirator, and prosecutors also disclosed that he had been convicted in a mafia-linked stock fraud scheme.

The New York Times revealed in 2007 that Satter was Sater and had historical ties to the Mafia. Trump pleaded ignorance.

"We do as much of a background check as we can on the principals," Trump said.

Garten said Sater was merely an employee at Bayrock, not an owner. "There would have been no reason to perform any diligence on Mr. Sater," Garten said, though Sater has described himself variously as Bayrock's founder and a top executive.

Sater publicly separated from Bayrock in 2008, but Trump named him a senior adviser and gave him an office in Trump Tower in 2010.

"I don't see Felix as being a member of the Mafia," Trump said in a 2013 deposition in a case over a failed Fort Lauderdale, Florida, condo deal in which Sater had been involved. "I don't think he was connected to the Mafia."

"Do you have any evidence or documentation to back that up?" the lawyer taking the deposition asked.

"I have none," Trump responded. Trump said he did not recall having asked Sater about it.

In addition to possible oversights related to his real estate partners' background, Trump has sometimes brought people with shaky pasts into Trump-branded business ventures. In 2006, Trump helped launch Trump Mortgage, an ill-fated attempt to sell subprime loans. Trump appeared on stage alongside E.J. Ridings, billed by Trump Mortgage as formerly "a top executive at one of Wall Street's most prestigious investment banks."

Ridings' actual resume was more modest. He had been an entry-level broker at Morgan Stanley, for a total of six days, as Money Magazine first reported. Ridings resigned. He did not return a message from AP that was left on his cellphone or respond to contacts on active social media accounts.

Similar problems affected hires for Trump University, a defunct real estate investing seminar company. Though the instructors were supposedly "hand-picked" by Trump, he left the selection to others, who didn't successfully vet all of them, either.

Some of the instructors had filed for bankruptcy protection. Others were unqualified.

"He defrauded us, OK?" Trump said of one former instructor's declaration that he knew little about real estate.

Garten said Trump's organization performed background checks on every instructor, mentor and employee it hired for Trump University, and said some instructors were affiliated with a third-party licensee.

In the deposition, Trump was sanguine about his hiring process.

"In every business, people slip through the cracks," he said. "No matter how well-run a business, people come in and they're not good, and you wonder, you know, how did they get there, et cetera."

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Associated Press writer Desmond Butler contributed to this report.
Scanners that could catch weapons can't be used at Rikers

NEW YORK (AP)  Sophisticated X-ray body scanners that could curb widespread smuggling of scalpels and razors at New York City's notorious Rikers Island jail have sat unused for years, shelved by a state law barring such devices that emit low doses of radiation.

The city instead is using weaker metal detectors that investigations have shown can allow blades to slip through if they are simply wrapped in duct tape.

"It's absurd," said Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, who chairs a legislative committee overseeing the correction department. "They have these scanners and they paid a lot of money for these scanners and they're not getting used."

In this undated photo provided by the City of New York Department of Investigation, scapels seized in September, 2014 from Corrections Officer Kevin McKoy are displayed. Sophisticated X-ray body scanners that could put a dent in widespread smuggling of scalpels and razors at New York City's notorious Rikers Island jail have sat unused for years, shelved by a state law barring such devices that emit low doses of radiation. The city instead is using weaker metal detectors that investigations have shown can allow blades to slip through if they are simply wrapped in duct tape. (City of New York Department of Investigation via AP)

City officials say they purchased the seven airport-style body scanners in 2012 and 2013 for more than $1 million, putting them in operation at the jail complex for about a year before they learned of a state law that prohibits non-medical uses of machines that emit small doses of radiation. Federal law allows similar scanners to be used at airports and in some federal prisons.

Department of Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte told legislators at a budget hearing last year that the machines, which were the subject of a handful of lawsuits by prisoners at Rikers, were pulled from service in early 2014.

Since then, they have sat in storage while the city lobbied lawmakers to try to pass legislation that would allow them to use the machines.

"They cite some law, but I don't know that any lawsuit or judge would say that the department is hurting somebody's physical well-being by allowing these scanners to be used," Crowley said. "I personally think they should use them with or without the state law."

For now, the majority of screening points at the 10 Rikers' jails are equipped with walk-through metal detectors, known as magnetometers. But the commissioner of a city agency that has led a sprawling investigation into corruption in the city jail system says the machines can be easily tricked and have repeatedly failed to catch people who admitted smuggling weapons.

"There's no comparison," said Cameron Lindsay, a former federal prison warden who now works as a jail security consultant. "The body scanners are much better. The technology is exponentially better, and you can see the entire person's body without strip searching them."

A city report issued in February said that more than 2,200 weapons were recovered inside city jails last year and that the number of slashings and stabbings at city jails rose 66 percent from the prior year. In November, a correction officer was slashed across the face by an inmate wielding a scalpel and needed more than two dozen stitches to close the wound.

A Rikers Island correction officer was indicted last month after authorities said he smuggled seven scalpels that were stuffed inside a package of synthetic marijuana and wrapped with duct tape. The officer, Kevin McKoy, had told investigators he was able to smuggle scalpels into the jail previously by walking through the magnetometers undetected, Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters said in announcing the charges.

McKoy has pleaded not guilty; his attorney has declined to comment on the case.

In 2014, a Department of Investigation probe found that an undercover investigator was able to smuggle a razor blade into the jails on Rikers Island in each of six attempts.

Ponte said the correction department is "taking aggressive steps to stem the flow of contraband," including increasing visitor searches and overhauling the process for recruiting correction officers.

The city says it has also purchased 10 new scanners that are designed to catch cellphones that may be smuggled into the jail and officials say those machines are also helpful in finding small wrapped weapons because of the sensitivity of the machines.

The city's top financial officer said the purchase of the body scanners was "an example of how a lack of due diligence can cost taxpayers money."

"The Department of Correction doesn't have to put these X-ray scanners up on eBay, but there's no point in having them sit there and depreciate down to nothing," New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said.

Norman Seabrook, president of the union that represents rank-and-file correction officers, said union officials need to learn more about the body scanners to verify there are no health risks to officers who may be posted at the scanners every day.

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This story has been corrected to show the Rikers Island correction officer was indicted last month, not earlier this month.

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Associated Press writer Jake Pearson contributed to this report.

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Pope donates scooters to homebound elderly couple in Rome

VATICAN CITY (AP)  The pope has donated a pair of scooters to an elderly couple in Rome who lost their mobility due to the consequences of diabetes and hypertension.

Vatican Radio says the scooters were delivered on Saturday by Monsignor Konrad Krajewski, the pope's chief alms-giver.

It says the couple has been housebound due to their ailments, and the woman recently had a leg amputated. The non-profit association Medicina Solidale, which helps disadvantaged people get access to medical care, was raising money to help the couple, but the pope beat them to the punch.

Pope Francis meets with cardinals at the end of a Jubilee mass for priests in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Friday, June 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Kansas food pantry helps low-income families with allergies

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  The Kansas City area is home to a new food pantry that aims to help lower-income people with food allergies deal with the costs of specialty foods they can safely eat.

The ReNewed Health Food Pantry opened in Overland Park, Kansas, about a year ago, the brainchild of Emily Brown and a friend; they also started a nonprofit to help low-income residents with food allergies. Brown believes it was the first such pantry in the U.S., and a similar one has since opened near Philadelphia. Brown also plans to help open another allergen-free pantry later this year in Missouri.

For Brown, it was personal. Her young daughter is allergic to milk, eggs, wheat, soy and peanuts, and the specialty food she could eat  a $6.99 loaf of gluten-free bread, for example  pushed the family's budget "through the roof" and eventually contributed to their decision to seek federal food assistance, the former preschool teacher said. But the allergen-free food options in the federal Women, Infants and Children assistance program (corn tortillas instead of bread, and rice instead of pasta) were less than ideal.

Jan DeMoure, right,looks at a checklist while shopping on Wednesday, May 18, 2016, at the Food Equality Initiative with the assistance of food bank manager, Karen Miller, at the New Haven Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Overland Park, Kansas. The food pantry serves families, like Demoure, coping with the high costs of food safe for children with food allergies or Celiac disease. (Allison Long/The Kansas City Star via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

"I was really just kind of disappointed to discover that the assistance that I needed wasn't there either," Brown said. Her daughter is among about 15 million people in the U.S. that the national advocacy group Food Allergy Research and Education estimates have food allergies. That includes about one in every 13 children, according to FARE.

Low-income families with children with allergies spend more than twice as much on visits to emergency rooms and hospitals than mid- to high-income families, recent research from Northwestern University found. And about 40 percent of those children surveyed also reported experiencing life-threatening reactions to food, such as trouble breathing and a drop in blood pressure.

"The fact that they were able to open up a food pantry for kids who can't afford the special foods for food allergies  incredible," said Dr. Ruchi Gupta, an associate professor of pediatrics who led the Northwestern study, which was published in April. Until there are treatments for food allergies beyond prevention, Gupta said "the bottom line is we have to do everything we can to help keep these kids safe. And it's not asking a lot."

Food allergies have helped spur the multibillion-dollar allergen-free food industry, but Gupta would like to see regular grocery stores with one aisle of lower-priced allergen-free foods.

The ReNewed Health Food Pantry, which opens once a week by appointment in an Overland Park, Kansas, church, has so far provided more than 12,000 pounds of allergen-free food free of charge to about 20 families. Provisions, which include gluten-free breads and alternatives to dairy, egg and peanut products, are largely provided from manufacturer donations, food drives and other contributions. Clients must have a doctor's order saying the allergen-free foods are medically necessary and show their income is at or below 250 percent of the poverty level, Brown said.

Brown, who recently addressed the annual conference of the nonprofit National WIC Association, has been advocating for the agency to make some allergy-free adjustments.

"I always say we could not have existed 10 years ago because the market wasn't there," Brown said. "The free-from food market I think is like a $23-billion industry. ... Now is the time to kind of look and think about the least among us."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the WIC program, said WIC serves a large population and has about 8 million participants each month, including 49 percent of all infants in the U.S.

The USDA also said it doesn't know how many WIC participants have food allergies, nor does it require state or local agencies that administer WIC to provide allergen-free alternatives. But if a WIC participant has food allergies, local agencies may help devise a food package that could include alternatives like dried beans as a substitute for peanut butter or a soy beverage to replace milk, the USDA said. WIC also has special infant formulas and medical foods for infants who require them.

Jan DeMoure, a nursing student from Liberty who has three children with food allergies, has been a client of the ReNewed pantry since October 2015. She estimates she gets about $100 worth of food each month.

"Without the pantry, we would probably be a little hungry," she said.
Prosecutors charge man with kidnapping of Detroit boy

DETROIT (AP)  Prosecutors charged a man Saturday with kidnapping in the case of a 13-year-old Detroit boy who was found dead in a vacant lot this week after being abducted from a city street.

Earnest Coleman, 26, was charged with kidnapping and will be arraigned Sunday, Wayne County Prosecutor Kim Worthy said in a statement.

Coleman and other people allegedly kidnapped Deontae Mitchell at about 11:15 p.m. Tuesday outside an east side market, Worthy said. She did not provide further details, except to say that the investigation is ongoing.

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)

Three other people have been arrested, including a 45-year-old Detroit man who is waiting to be extradited from Ohio.

Deontae's body was found Thursday on Detroit's east side, and an autopsy found no indication that he was shot. The manner and cause of death are under investigation.

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. Surveillance video shows Deontae being pursued by a man, who grabbed the boy by his arm and forced him into a car.

The boy's mother, Crystal Mitchell, told the Detroit Free Press that Deontae and his cousin were going to the market to buy pop or juice.

A large group of young people were outside and picked up the money that dropped from the man's pocket.

The man walked into the market, but returned outside with a gun drawn after realizing his money was missing, Crystal Mitchell told the newspaper Friday.

"The kids, when they saw the gun, they ran, and when they ran, Deontae was the one he grabbed," she said. "And he threw my baby in the back of the car."

Police believe the man in the store's surveillance video was 45-year-old Gregory Walker, who was arrested Thursday with a woman in Toledo, Ohio. Walker is being held on a probation violation warrant.

"The alleged facts in this case explicitly show that the lives of some of Detroit's children continue to be less important than everything else  in this case a few dollars dropped from a pocket," Worthy said in her statement. "May we all re-examine the worth of our children and we in the criminal justice system will handle the senseless murder of Deontae."

This image made from a surveillance video provided by the City of Detroit Police Department shows a man police are looking to question about the kidnapping of 13-year-old Deontae Mitchell. Police say the surveillance video from a neighborhood market shows a man abducting Deontae. An Amber Alert was issued earlier Wednesday, June 1, 2016. (City of Detroit Police Department via AP)

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

Crystal Mitchell, the mother of Deontae Mitchell is comforted by family and friends when she arrives where a body has been found, Thursday, June 2, 2016 in Detroit. Detroit Police Chief James Craig said the medical examiner will determine whether the body found in a field is Deontae Mitchell, who disappeared Tuesday night. (Regina H. Boone/Detroit Free Press via AP) DETROIT NEWS OUT; TV OUT; MAGS OUT; NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT DETROIT FREE PRESS

In this Thursday, June 2, 2016 photo, people gather for a vigil on at Nino's Market in Detroit, where Deontae Mitchell was abducted by a man on Tuesday. A fourth person was arrested Friday in connection with the abduction and death of the teenage Detroit boy, whose body was found this week in a vacant lot, police said. (Salwan Georges/Detroit Free Press via AP) DETROIT NEWS OUT; TV OUT; MAGS OUT; NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT DETROIT FREE PRESS
A 27-year-old ex-Marine from Houston has been charged with murder in the stabbing death of an 11-year-old boy who was walking home from school last month, police said Saturday.

Andre Timothy Jackson Jr. was arrested Friday afternoon at the Salvation Army in downtown Houston and charged later in the day, Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a news conference Saturday.

Jackson is being held in the Harris County Jail on $100,000 bond. It wasn't immediately clear whether he had an attorney.

Jackson, who police said was discharged from the Marines in 2011, is accused of stabbing Josue Flores as the sixth-grader walked home from school May 17. Josue was only a few blocks from home when he was attacked.

Andre Timothy Jackson, Jr, left, has been charged with murder in the stabbing death of 11-year-old Josue Flores, right, who was walking home from school last month, police said Saturday

'We cannot bring him back, but I hope today's announcement can perhaps bring a little bit of comfort to those who love him,' Turner said.

'Our minds search for answers that just aren't there. What we do know is it was senseless, it was brutal, it was cold-blooded. And someone needs to pay the price for it and justice needs to be rendered.'

There is no motive in the slaying and no known connection between Jackson and Josue, Lt. John McGalin said Saturday.

Jackson is a veteran who had lived at the Salvation Army since mid-April, McGalin said.

Earlier this week, authorities released surveillance video featuring a 'person of interest.' The 36-second video showed a man running down a street not far from the scene wearing a green jacket with a partially obscured word containing the letters 'LYMEN' on the hood of the jacket.

The video brought a tip about another video, which led investigators to Jackson, McGalin said. Jackson had the jacket with him when he was arrested, McGalin added.

Authorities initially charged a 31-year-old man with a long criminal history days after the killing, but that charge was dropped when detectives found evidence to support his alibi.

Questioned Saturday about how he was sure the right man has been arrested, McGalin said that Jackson's alibi could not be verified and that he 'provided a statement that corroborated a lot of things we knew to be true and led us to believe we have the right guy.'

There is no motive in the slaying and no known connection between Jackson and Josue, Lt. John McGalin said Saturday

Earlier this week, authorities released surveillance video featuring a 'person of interest' in the slaying of Josue Flores

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.

Investigators reconstructed the suspect's trail using video from residents' homes and businesses, McGalin said, though some of the surveillance footage came in slowly.

'People didn't know what they had until we went and knocked on their door and actually caught them at home,' McGalin said. 'We pieced it together. We believe we know the track that the suspect walked.'
House primaries in Ga., Calif., show pressures buffeting GOP

WASHINGTON (AP)  In two House Republican strongholds  a Georgia district sprawling from Atlanta's exurbs to the Alabama line and another in California's Central Valley  upcoming elections illustrate the sharp elbows and vigilance that this anti-establishment moment demands of GOP candidates.

Dentist and former local mayor Drew Ferguson is vying for the Republican nomination in a July runoff for the open Georgia seat, calling himself "a conservative outsider" and boasting of spurring economic development. He sometimes sounds like presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying that border fences are "not mean-spirited" and supporting halting refugees from nations "whose populations mean us harm."

Yet many religious conservatives and Washington-based conservative groups such as the Club for Growth prefer state Sen. Mike Crane. His opposition to narrow tax breaks led him to vote against lowered state levies for filmmakers  even though television's "The Walking Dead" films in the area  and he's taken hard-line views against gay marriage and for making English Georgia's official language.

FILE - In this Dec. 8, 2015 file photo, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif. speaks with a reporter on Capitol Hill in Washington. Approaching elections in two House Republican strongholds illustrate the sharp elbows and vigilance that GOP candidates require in this anti-establishment time. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

In California, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy should easily dominate Tuesday's primary, in which candidates of all parties compete for two spots on November's ballot. The $6.4 million McCarthy amassed for his own campaign  he's also provided plenty more for GOP colleagues  crushes the $31,000 raised by his best-financed opponent, conservative Republican Ken Mettler.

McCarthy aides say he travels home most weekends anyway and scheduled a half-dozen Memorial Day events. Unforgotten is 2014, when the congressional career of the previous majority leader, GOP Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, ended after a primary ambush by an unknown, underfunded college professor, Dave Brat, who's now in the House.

Republicans are virtually assured of keeping the Georgia and California seats in November's general elections, but these preliminary battles underscore the stakes for the party. Races like Georgia's will help determine whether a fresh influx of ideological rebels will make the already rambunctious House GOP even harder for its leaders to steer, while McCarthy's contest shows a lingering unease from Cantor's fall.

"When you're head of an organization that has a 15 percent approval rating, you worry," said Tom Davis, a former Virginia congressman and head of the House GOP campaign committee.

Not one House GOP incumbent has been ousted this year in primaries, even as the public seems intensely unhappy with Washington. Their survival has surprised some, just eight months after conservatives drove House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, into retirement, and as Trump vanquishes political professional rivals.

At least one Republican incumbent will lose Tuesday: Redrawn lines pit Reps. Renee Ellmers and George Holding against each other for the nomination in one North Carolina district. With congressional primaries remaining in more than half the states, other incumbents in Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma could tumble too, and groups from competing ends of the party's ideological spectrum are engaging.

The American Action Network and Congressional Leadership Fund, aligned with party leaders, helped House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania and Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas survive primary scares.

According to figures from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $1.8 million helping Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., defeat a tea party challenger in a March primary and helped an ally win the nomination for an open Kentucky seat.

On the other side, the Club for Growth spent $1.1 million to help conservative businessman Warren Davidson capture the GOP nomination for Boehner's vacated seat, a symbolic triumph, and disbursed $800,000 against Ellmers, according to the center. The House Freedom Fund  run by conservatives in the rebellious House Freedom Caucus  spent more than $100,000 to help businessman Jim Banks win a Republican primary in Indiana.

Potentially vulnerable GOP incumbents have survived primaries in Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Alabama and Georgia. Party operatives credit lawmakers' heightened attention to home-town concerns since Cantor's defeat.

"Our members are doing their job and talking to their people," said Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, a leader of the House GOP political organization.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has his own long-shot conservative challenger in an August primary. Businessman Paul Nehlen's shoestring effort is far outgunned by Ryan's well-funded campaign and his popularity, but Nehlen is backed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Ryan has become a fundraising behemoth for his party, raising more than $30 million since becoming speaker last fall, according to Spencer Zwick, his national finance chairman.

Ryan has appeared at 53 fundraisers in 36 cities this year and attended dozens of others in Washington, campaign aides say. These have included helping raise money and writing checks for colleagues facing primary challenges, including Georgia Reps. Barry Loudermilk and Doug Collins and California's Doug LaMalfa and Paul Cook.

"That's part of protecting the working majority" Republicans have in the House, a key Ryan goal, Zwick said.

Republicans control 247 of the House's 435 seats, including a vacancy sure to go Republican, and it's the party's high-water mark since 1931. But the presidential election should draw added Democratic voters, perhaps costing GOP seats in moderate districts in Florida, Virginia, Nevada and Illinois.

While Democrats nurse hopes of capturing the chamber, the likelier outcome is a smaller Republican majority with a greater proportion of hard-edged conservatives reluctant to compromise. Top Republicans and conservative leaders say that is not a worry.

"We're consistent with Republican positions," said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. "Why is that a concern?"

FILE - In this March 3, 2014 file photo, Georgia Sen. Mike Crane, R-Newnan, speaks on the Senate floor in Atlanta. Approaching elections in two House Republican strongholds illustrate the sharp elbows and vigilance that GOP candidates require in this anti-establishment time. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Planned auction of items from reservations raises questions

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  Tribal leaders are questioning the ethical and legal implications of an auction featuring more than 100 items collected on two Native American reservations, including guns from the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre and a ceremonial pipe that belonged to one of the most respected tribal chiefs.

Bidding for items gathered from the late 1880s through the early 1900s on South Dakota's Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations opens June 11 through Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. Similar auctions have spurred condemnation by many Native American tribes whose leaders believe sacred and ceremonial items, such as pipes, should be returned to the tribes, and most recently, prompted the federal government to intervene.

Three guns to be auctioned were salvaged from the site of the Wounded Knee massacre, where on Dec. 29, 1890, about 300 Native American men, women and children were killed by the 7th Cavalry in the final battle of the American Indian Wars. And at the center of the collection is a ceremonial pipe once owned by the legendary Lakota Chief Red Cloud.

This April 2016 photo provided by Heritage Auctions, HA.com, shows a ceremonial pipe of Chief Red Cloud. It is one of more than 100 items collected from the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations in South Dakota that will be auctioned on June 11, 2016. (Mark Roppolo/Heritage Auctions, HA.com via AP)

"I find it very insulting," said Trina Lone Hill, the historic preservation officer for the Oglala Sioux Tribe. "It was a massacre; it wasn't just a skirmish. It was women and children being killed."

The entire collection belongs to Paul Rathbun, a Colorado resident whose grandfather and great-grandmother gathered the items back when the family owned a general store near Pine Ridge, a sprawling expanse of badlands on southwestern South Dakota and home to the Oglala Sioux. Rathbun said the items have been "sitting in trunks or plastic containers," and he hopes they will end up in the hands of a group or individual who can properly take care of them.

"I'm just a regular person; I don't have a vault or really I guess I don't have the means to care for it the way it should be," Rathbun said. "And there's, of course, a bit of an economic factor."

He added that the collection "has not been a secret over the years" for the tribe, and added that none of the items "were purchased at a disadvantage or taken" from tribal members.

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, enacted in 1990, allows tribes to reclaim human remains and objects that are sacred, funerary or of exceptional cultural or historical importance from federally funded museums and research institutions. On Monday, an auction house in Paris withdrew from sale a ceremonial shield from a Native American community in New Mexico, days after the Department of Interior had asked French authorities to prevent the sale.

Rathbun said his grandfather and great-grandmother salvaged the three guns after they arrived at the site of the Wounded Knee massacre and found many of their Native American friends dead. The collection's description explains that Rathbun's grandfather, Raymond, as a teen developed a friendship with Chief Red Cloud, an Oglala Lakota who signed the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty peace agreement with the United States. Red Cloud gifted to Raymond the ceremonial pipe heading to auction.

However, Lone Hill said, a ceremonial pipe should never be auctioned because it is considered a sacred item. While the auction house's consultants have concluded that the collection can be auctioned, Lone Hill said the tribe will consult with its own attorneys to try to determine whether federal law could prevent the sale.

"I would object to the sale," Lone Hill said. "It would be like me selling any item of the pope, any possession of his or anything from the church. They would say it is a heresy."

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Follow Regina Garcia Cano on Twitter at: https://www.twitter.com/reginagarciakNO

HOLD FOR STORY BY REGINA GARCIA CANO TO RUN SATURDAY, JUNE 4 - This April 2016 photo provided by heritage Auctions, HA.com, shows a vintage Pennsylvania-style percussion rifle. The rifle, salvaged from the battlefield of the massacre at Wounded Knee, is one of more than 100 items collected from the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations in South Dakota that will be auctioned on June 11, 2016. (Kevin Gaddis, Jr./Heritage Auctions, HA.com via AP)
Tanker carries 221 shipwreck survivors to safety in Italy

ATHENS (AP)  A Norwegian tanker carrying 221 migrants who survived a shipwreck Friday is expected to arrive shortly at the Italian port of Augusta on the island of Sicily.

The Greek coast guard says Saturday the unnamed ship is also carrying the body of a migrant who drowned in Friday's shipwreck of a smuggling boat that sank in the southern Mediterranean Sea.

The other 97 survivors of the shipwreck and the bodies of 9 other victims are being taken back to Egypt by Egyptian ships.

A local Zwara resident views the body of a victim, laying in the surf at centre, as more than 100 bodies are pulled from the sea near the western city of Zwara, Libya, Friday June 3, 2016, after a smuggling boat carrying mainly African migrants sank into the Mediterranean. Libya's navy spokesman Col. Ayoub Gassim says that the bodies of more than 100 migrants have been retrieved, but the death toll is likely to be higher. (APTV via AP) TV OUT

According to information from survivors, about 350 people boarded the smuggling boat that sank off Egypt. Egyptian authorities are still searching for those missing.

The human trafficking route from North Africa to southern Europe has claimed the lives of over 1,000 migrants in the last two weeks.

The lifeless bodies of migrants are scattered along the beach near the western city of Zwara, Libya, Thursday June 2, 2016, as rescue workers begin to retrieve some of the more than 100 bodies pulled from the sea, after a smuggling boat carrying mainly African migrants sank into the Mediterranean. Libya's navy spokesman Col. Ayoub Gassim says, Friday June 3, that the bodies of more than 100 migrants have been retrieved, but the death toll is likely to be higher. (APTV via AP) TV OUT

The lifeless body of a migrant lays on the beach near the western city of Zwara, Libya, Thursday June 2, 2016, as rescue workers begin to retrieve some of the more than 100 bodies pulled from the sea, after a smuggling boat carrying mainly African migrants sank into the Mediterranean. Libya's navy spokesman Col. Ayoub Gassim says, Friday June 3, that the bodies of more than 100 migrants have been retrieved, but the death toll is likely to be higher. (APTV via AP) TV OUT

EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT - The lifeless bodies of migrants lay on the beach near the western city of Zwara, Libya, Thursday June 2, 2016, as rescue workers begin to retrieve some of the more than 100 bodies pulled from the sea, after a smuggling boat carrying mainly African migrants sank into the Mediterranean. Libya's navy spokesman Col. Ayoub Gassim says, Friday June 3, that the bodies of more than 100 migrants have been retrieved, but the death toll is likely to be higher. (APTV via AP) TV OUT

Afghan migrants backed by an Anti-racism activist group protest outside the abandoned old airport which is used as a shelter for over 3,500 refugees and migrants, in southern Athens, on Friday, May 3 ,2016, as Afghan migrants protest against the EU- Turkey deal chanting "open the borders and the cities" (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Hundreds of Afghan migrants backed by an Anti-racism activist group protest outside the abandoned old airport which is used as a shelter for over 3,500 refugees and migrants, in southern Athens, on Friday, May 3 , 2016. A search-and-rescue operation across the Mediterranean saved 340 people Friday and recovered nine bodies, while in a separate incident over 100 bodies have been recovered from the Mediterranean coast of Libya after a smuggling boat overturned. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Nigeria says it seizes $10.3 billion in looted money, assets

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP)  Nigeria has seized more than $10.3 billion in looted cash and assets in the past year under President Muhammadu Buhari's anti-corruption campaign, the information minister announced Saturday.

In addition, the government is expecting the repatriation of more than $330 million stolen from the public treasury and stashed in banks abroad, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said in a statement. He said most of the money is in Switzerland.

Mohammed did not identify former and current officials accused of looting public funds, though the government had promised to publish them. He also did not say how much of the money has been returned voluntarily by former officials hoping for forgiveness or a plea bargain.

FILE- In this Tuesday, Sept.1, 2015 file photo, Nigeria's former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki attends a hearing to face charges of possessing weapons illegally, at the Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria. Dasuki is accused of diverting $2.1 billion meant to fight the Boko Haram Islamic insurgency. Nigeria has seized more than $10.3 billion in looted cash and assets in the past year under President Muhammadu Buhari's anti-corruption campaign, the information minister announced Saturday June. 4, 2016. (AP Photo/File)

He said the funds include $583.5 million recovered in cash and $9.7 billion in cash and assets under interim forfeiture including sea-going vessels, buildings and land.

Hundreds of people have been arrested and many court trials are ongoing, including that of retired Col. Sambo Dasuki, who was former President Goodluck Jonathan's national security adviser. He is accused of diverting $2.1 billion meant to fight the Boko Haram Islamic insurgency. Jonathan instructed that the money be paid to bribe party officials to help him win his party's presidential nomination, Dasuki has told the court.

Jonathan lost the March 2015 elections to Buhari, who succeeded him a year ago and said he inherited state coffers emptied by massive corruption.

Dasuki's financial director, Shuaibu Salisu, told the court that $47 million in cash was stuffed into 11 suitcases and taken at night from the Central Bank of Nigeria to Dasuki's residence.
Harzand shrugs off pre-race scare, wins English Derby

EPSOM, England (AP)  Harzand overcame a pre-race scare to win the English Derby for owner The Aga Khan on Saturday, holding off fast-finishing favorite US Army Ranger for a length-and-a-half victory in Britain's richest horse race.

Harzand, a 13-2 shot and the son of 2009 winner Sea The Stars, had his front foot iced after losing a horseshoe on the way to Epsom racecourse for the country's most prestigious flat race.

There was a doubt whether Harzand would be included in the 16-horse field, but his team got him to the start line and he ran the perfect race in front of Queen Elizabeth II and an estimated 125,000 spectators.

Harzand ridden by jockey Pat Smullen wins the Derby during Derby Day of the 2016 Epsom Derby Festival at Epsom Racecourse, southern England. Saturday June 4, 2016. David Davies /PA via AP) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES

"The trouble we had with him this morning, I didn't know if he would get here," jockey Pat Smullen said, "but it's a great team effort."

Harzand kept out of trouble in the middle of the field before hitting the front with more than a furlong to go. He shrugged off Idaho alongside him but came under fierce pressure from US Army Ranger, who launched a late attack from the back of the field.

Harzand stayed strong in the final meters, giving The Aga Khan his fifth Derby win  including with Shergar in 1981. The first prize was $1.27 million in a total pot of $2.25 million.

"Obviously this is a major gift for everyone that works with me," The Aga Khan, who is a spiritual leader of some 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims, said before he went to collect the trophy from the queen. He has been breeding and owning horses since the early 1970s.

had a front foot iced after spreading the plateUS Army Ranger, the 7-2 favorite, was one of five runners from the yard of trainer Aidan O'Brien. In his first big race, he left his charge for the line too late under jockey Ryan Moore.

"He was a bit babyish early on," O'Brien said, "but we're not making any excuses."

Idaho was third.

Queen Elizabeth II arrives with her husband the Duke of Edinburgh for Derby Day of the 2016 Epsom Derby Festival at Epsom Racecourse, southern England, Saturday June 4, 2016. (John Walton/ PA via AP) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES

Queen Elizabeth II presenting the trophy to the winning connections of Harzand, ridden by jockey Pat Smullen after winning The Derby during Derby Day of the 2016 Epsom Derby Festival at Epsom Racecourse, southern England. Saturday June 4, 2016. David Davies /PA via AP) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES
Sanders predicts Democratic convention will be contested

LOS ANGELES (AP)  Nearing the end of the primary season, a defiant Bernie Sanders predicted Saturday that the Democratic presidential process would lead to a contested summer convention against Hillary Clinton, pushing back against the likelihood that the former secretary of state will soon declare victory.

Speaking to reporters three days before the California primary, Sanders showed few signs of surrender, vowing to take his bid to the Philadelphia convention in July. He urged news organizations not to anoint Clinton as the presumptive nominee through a combination of pledged delegates and superdelegates.

"It is extremely unlikely that Secretary Clinton will have the requisite number of pledged delegates to claim victory on Tuesday night," Sanders said. "Now I have heard reports that Secretary Clinton has said it's all going to be over on Tuesday night. I have reports that the media, after the New Jersey results come in, are going to declare that it is all over. That simply is not accurate."

In this May 26, 2016 photo, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign rally at Ventura College in Ventura, Calif. With the end of the primaries looming, Bernie Sanders is focused on victory in California yet offering signals about what he will do next to shape the party's platform at the convention, help down-ballot Democrats and defeat Donald Trump (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

By nightfall, Sanders was rallying supporters outside the entrance of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where he pointed to his differences with Clinton on super PACs, the federal minimum wage and the Iraq War.

"Hillary Clinton wants small, incremental changes. We want to transform this nation," Sanders said as the Coliseum's flaming cauldron torch lit up the sky.

Sanders told reporters by the end of the primaries on June 14 neither candidate would have enough pledged delegates to declare victory and would be dependent upon superdelegates to reach the magic number. "In other words, the Democratic National Convention will be a contested convention," he said.

Clinton currently leads Sanders among pledged delegates by a count of 1,769 to 1,501, an edge of 268 pledged delegates. An Associated Press count of superdelegates shows Clinton leading 547 to 46. Clinton is currently 67 delegates short of clinching the nomination through the combination of the two and is poised to cross that threshold in the coming days.

Sanders wants Democrats to break with tradition. In 2008, then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama clinched the nomination against Clinton through a mix of both types of delegates. And superdelegates have historically backed the candidate who wins the most delegates from primaries and caucuses, a threshold Clinton is likely to cross this week.

The Vermont senator is seeking a victory in California, New Jersey and four other contests on Tuesday. A win in the Golden State, where polls show a tight contest, would be an embarrassment for Clinton and embolden Sanders to aggressively lobby superdelegates to switch their support to him, arguing he's the best candidate to take on presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Clinton has begun forcefully attacking Trump on national security and his overall temperament for the White House and has largely looked past Sanders, hitting hard at the GOP real estate mogul. She told supporters Friday that "if all goes well, I will have the great honor as of Tuesday to be the Democratic nominee for president."

Sanders is expected to return to his Vermont home on Wednesday and advisers say he intends to ramp up his courtship of the party's superdelegates, a process that is already underway, pointing to polls showing him faring better than Clinton in head-to-head matchups with Trump.

He will compete in the District of Columbia primary on June 14, the final contest. Beyond that, Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver said they are considering whether Sanders might appear at more rallies around the country after the primaries and speak in Chicago at a gathering of Sanders' activists on June 17-19.

But a loss in California, the nation's most populous state, would undercut his case against Clinton.

"Once the numbers come in, I think we can begin a serious discussion among ourselves about what the right path for us is," said Tad Devine, Sanders' senior adviser. He added: "If he wins California and a lot of states, he'll want to make a closing argument to the superdelegates."

Sanders is pushing for his policy views to be included in the party's platform and wants the party to become more inclusive of independent and working-class voters.

Recalling her own campaign against Obama in 2008, Clinton's team has avoided urging Sanders to leave the race. But if Sanders loses California, he's likely to face pressure to drop out.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada told The Associated Press in an interview earlier this week that "sometimes you just have to give up," a sign of what could come next.

Sanders has said he will work "day and night" to defeat Trump, whom he repeatedly assails as a divisive figure. Yet few expect Sanders to quickly follow the example set by Clinton, who campaigned extensively for Obama after suspending the roll call vote at the 2008 convention and later, became his secretary of state.

Said Weaver: "Given what he has said, I suspect there will certainly be a roll call vote at the convention."

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On Twitter follow Ken Thomas: https://twitter.com/KThomasDC
The Latest: 14 cars on oil train derailed, 4 caught fire

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  The Latest on a train derailment in Oregon's scenic Columbia River Gorge (all times local):

10:45 a.m.

Oregon's Transportation Department now says it was 14 oil tank cars that derailed in the scenic Columbia River Gorge, and four that caught fire.

In this frame from video provided by KGW-TV, smoke billows from a Union Pacific train that derailed Friday, June 3, 2016 in Oregon's scenic Columbia River Gorge. The accident sparked a fire and an oil spill near the Columbia River. No injuries were reported. (KGW-TV via AP)

Earlier reports said 11 cars derailed Friday, and it was not immediately clear how many had caught fire. The fire was extinguished a little after 2 a.m. Saturday.

Officials say a light sheen of oil was observed about 6 feet offshore in the Columbia River at the mouth of Rock Creek. Responders deployed about 1,000 feet of containment boom. Environmental crews are working to identify and control the source of the sheen.

The Transportation Department says operations Saturday will include removing rail cars from the site. They're waiting for the cars to cool before transferring the remaining oil from the rail cars to tank trucks.

___

10:20 a.m.

Union Pacific Railroad says it had recently inspected a section of track where an oil train derailed in Oregon.

Spokesman Justin Jacobs said Saturday the track near Mosier, about 70 miles east of Portland, had been inspected at least six times since March 21. It was most recently checked last Tuesday, and within the past month, the company had used a detector car to check for imperfections as well as a geometry car to inspect the ground along the track.

Jacobs said the inspections met or exceeded federal requirements.

He also says the tank cars that derailed were newer model CPC-1232s, designed to be safer than the legacy DOT-111s.

Some have criticized the upgraded model as not safe enough to transport volatile Bakken oil. That's what the train that derailed Friday was carrying.

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9:40

Washington state officials say there's a small oil sheen on the Columbia River where a train derailed and caught fire near Mosier, Oregon, 70 miles east of Portland.

The state Ecology Department says it has just completed a fly-over to get a better sense of the extent of the sheen, but it has oil booms in place that are capturing the substance.

Eleven cars carrying volatile Bakken oil derailed Friday, igniting a fire that sent a plume of black smoke into the sky. It forced the evacuation of a mobile home park with about 50 homes, though federal officials say they expect that order to be lifted later Saturday.

Authorities also closed part of Interstate 84, but reopened the highway at 11 p.m. Friday.

The river is the border between Oregon and Washington.

___

This story has been corrected to say I-84 reopened at 11 p.m. Friday, not on Saturday

___

9 a.m.

Federal authorities say crews have extinguished a fire at the site of an oil train derailment in Oregon's Columbia River Gorge, but evacuations remain in place.

Eleven cars carrying volatile Bakken oil derailed Friday, igniting a fire that sent a plume of black smoke into the sky. It forced the evacuation of a mobile home park in Mosier with about 50 homes, though federal officials say they expect that order to be lifted later Saturday.

No injuries were reported, and authorities said they had no reports of oil reaching the Columbia.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard are monitoring the site.

In this photo provided by Silas Bleakley, a train towing cars full of oil sends up a plume of smoke after derailing Friday, June 3, 2016, near Mosier, Ore. The accident happened just after noon about 70 miles east of Portland. It involved eight cars filled with oil, and one was burning. Highway 84 was closed for a 23-mile stretch between The Dalles and Mosier and the radius for evacuations was a half-mile. (Silas Bleakley via AP)

In this photo provided by Silas Bleakley, a closed sign is seen outside a store as a train towing cars full of oil sends up a plume of smoke after derailing Friday, June 3, 2016, near Mosier, Ore. The accident happened just after noon about 70 miles east of Portland. It involved eight cars filled with oil, and one was burning. Highway 84 was closed for a 23-mile stretch between The Dalles and Mosier and the radius for evacuations was a half-mile. (Silas Bleakley via AP)

A train towing cars full of oil sends up a plume of smoke after derailing Friday, June 3, 2016, near Mosier, Ore., by the scenic Columbia River Gorge. The accident happened just after noon about 70 miles east of Portland. It involved multiple cars filled with oil, and one was burning. Highway 84 was closed for a quarter-mile near the site, and the radius for evacuations was a half-mile. (Mark B. Gibson/The Dalles Chronicle via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

In this photo provided by Silas Bleakley, tank cars, carrying oil, are derailed Friday, June 3, 2016, near Mosier, Ore. The accident happened just after noon about 70 miles east of Portland. It involved numerous cars filled with oil, and one was burning. Highway 84 was closed for a 23-mile stretch between The Dalles and Mosier and the radius for evacuations was a half-mile. (Silas Bleakley via AP)

In this photo provided by Silas Bleakley, tank cars, carrying oil, are derailed Friday, June 3, 2016, near Mosier, Ore. The accident happened just after noon about 70 miles east of Portland. It involved numerous cars filled with oil, and one was burning. Highway 84 was closed for a 23-mile stretch between The Dalles and Mosier and the radius for evacuations was a half-mile. (Silas Bleakley via AP)

FILE - In this Dec. 30, 2013 file photo, a fireball goes up at the site of an oil train derailment near Casselton, N.D. A fire engulfed tank cars loaded with oil on a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train after a collision about a mile from Casselton. No one was injured, but more than 2,000 residents were evacuated as emergency responders struggled with the intense fire. (AP Photo/Bruce Crummy, File)

FILE - This Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015, file photo, train cars remain on the scene following a derailment near Mount Carbon, W.Va. The 109-car CSX oil train derailed and caught fire near Mount Carbon, West Virginia, leaking oil into a Kanawha River tributary and burning a house to its foundation. The blaze burned for most of week. (Chris Jackson/The Register-Herald via AP, File) MANDATORY CREDIT
President Castro says Cuba won't return to OAS

HAVANA (AP)  President Raul Castro says Cuba will not return to the Organization of American States after the regional group's secretary called for possible sanctions against Venezuela.

Castro spoke Saturday at a summit of Caribbean countries being held on the island.

He extended "our most firm solidarity to our brothers the Venezuelan people, to the legitimate government of President Nicolas Maduro."

Cuba's President Raul Castro, right, arrives with his grandson Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro for the inauguration of the 7th Summit of the Association of Caribbean States at Revolution Palace in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, June 4, 2016. (Alejandro Ernesto/Pool photo via AP)

The Cuban president called the OAS "an instrument of imperialist domination" that will never change and "because of that Cuba will never return."

The U.S. pushed for Cuba's departure from the OAS in 1962.

OAS Secretary General Luis Almargo has cited human rights concerns in asking the region's nations to apply the group's "Democratic Charter" against Venezuela, which could lead to diplomatic isolation and commercial sanctions.
UCLA shooting renews concerns about classrooms with no locks

LOS ANGELES (AP)  When an active shooter alert spread across the UCLA campus Wednesday, some students found themselves in a frightening predicament: They were told to go into lockdown but couldn't lock their classroom doors.

Images of students piling tables, chairs and printers against doors on social media sparked alarm and raised questions  yet it was hardly the first time students at a university or school were unable to lock their doors during a shooting.

The same issue arose during other recent deadly attacks, including one at Virginia Tech in 2007 where students barricaded themselves inside rooms and at Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in 2012 where teachers did the same.

This photo provided by Pranasha Shrestha shows a photo of the UCLA engineering building classroom door that was barricaded during the school lockdown after a shooting on Wednesday June 1, 2016, in Los Angeles. Doors open outward with no locks so they had to improvise their own locking mechanism. In the minutes and hours following a shooting at a UCLA engineering building Wednesday, some of the most gripping images to emerge on social media were of students using belts and other items to try to secure doors they said didn't lock. (Pranasha Shrestha via AP)

Some schools have installed locks in recent years following attacks, but experts say wider adoption has been hindered by the cost to retrofit doors and local fire codes that require doors to open in one motion during emergencies.

Yet once an active shooter is in a building, most security experts agree getting into a locked room is one of the most effective deterrents against getting injured or shot.

"How many deaths would it have taken for us to address this issue more seriously?" said Jesus Villahermosa, president of Crisis Reality Training, noting that an assailant, knowing police are on the way, usually won't bother trying to access a locked room.

The former deputy sheriff said UCLA was fortunate in that shooter Mainak Sarkar targeted professor William Klug and then committed suicide. If he'd gone on a rampage, he might have easily found students unable to defend themselves.

The university said Friday it was "assessing safety measures" across the campus and will make appropriate changes.

It's unknown exactly how many school and university classrooms don't have doors that can lock from the inside. Villahermosa said the issue is more prevalent on college campuses than K-12 schools.

There are a variety of reasons why a school may not have classroom locks.

Older buildings constructed at a time when classrooms typically contained just desks and a chalkboard  and not the expensive technology many have today  frequently did not include them.

Fire safety regulations for rooms with 50 or more students typically require that doors swing outward and be opened in one motion, meaning a bolt that has to be turned first would be a violation.

Others worry locking doors from the inside in itself could pose a threat. If an attacker walked inside and locked the door, students would be trapped. And the cost of installing new doors and locks can stretch into the millions.

Even when there is a lock, the shooter has often been a student with access to the classroom or building.

"We should be spending more time on prevention than door locks," said Dewey Cornell, a forensic clinical psychologist at the University of Virginia.

The National Fire Protection Association's life safety code adopted in 38 states does not prohibit putting locks on doors, division manager Robert Solomon said. But there are certain types of locks schools must install.

Solomon said the types of locks found in many hotel rooms are an effective example. The door can be bolted from the inside but it opens in one motion when the handle is turned. Locks like those can cost up to $500 to install.

The price rises when the entire door has to be replaced, he said.

"Schools usually don't have a lot of extra capital money sitting around," he said. "But it's something that they're thinking about now."

After previous shootings, some universities have enacted some measures.

Lawmakers in Oregon recently approved $6 million for improvements at Umpqua Community College, including installing additional locks. In 2015, a 26-year-old man shot and killed nine people at the school.

This year, the University of Connecticut announced it was installing new locks on classroom doors. Purdue University, where a student killed one person in a classroom shooting in 2014, has installed locks for all classrooms, a spokeswoman said.

Students and faculty complained about not being able to look doors in both the Purdue and Umpqua shootings.

California State University Fullerton has also started installation of classroom locks.

"If we're asking students and our faculty to shelter in place," CSU Fullerton Police Department Capt. John Brockie said, "we feel that it's important to give them the tools to effectively do that."

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Follow Christine Armario on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cearmario
The Latest: UN urges probe after Syrian drowns in Hungary

ATHENS (AP)  The Latest on Europe's migration crisis. (all times local):

9:20 p.m.

The UN refugee agency is urging authorities to investigate the death of a 22-year-old Syrian man reported to have drowned while trying to cross a river from Serbia to Hungary.

A local Zwara resident views the body of a victim, laying in the surf at centre, as more than 100 bodies are pulled from the sea near the western city of Zwara, Libya, Friday June 3, 2016, after a smuggling boat carrying mainly African migrants sank into the Mediterranean. Libya's navy spokesman Col. Ayoub Gassim says that the bodies of more than 100 migrants have been retrieved, but the death toll is likely to be higher. (APTV via AP) TV OUT

The UNHCR said Saturday that others in the group claimed they were pushed back into the Tisza River from Hungary. The agency is also concerned about allegations of the abuse of asylum-seekers by Hungarian officials, including excessive use of force.

Hungarian police rescued an Iraqi family, including three children, from the river Wednesday and said they had alerted their Serbian counterparts about the man in the river who was missing. His body was found Friday.

The UNHCR said Hungarian policies, including razor-wire fences on its borders with Serbia and Croatia, "leave people with little choice but to put their lives in the hands of ruthless smugglers, often with tragic consequences."

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6:45 p.m.

A Norwegian tanker carrying 221 migrants who survived a shipwreck Friday is expected to arrive shortly at the Italian port of Augusta on the island of Sicily.

The Greek coast guard says Saturday the unnamed ship is also carrying the body of a migrant who drowned in Friday's shipwreck of a smuggling boat that sank in the southern Mediterranean Sea.

The other 97 survivors of the shipwreck and the bodies of 9 other victims are being taken back to Egypt by Egyptian ships.

According to information from survivors, about 350 people boarded the smuggling boat that sank off Egypt. Egyptian authorities are still searching for those missing.

The human trafficking route from North Africa to southern Europe has claimed the lives of over 1,000 migrants in the last two weeks.

The lifeless bodies of migrants are scattered along the beach near the western city of Zwara, Libya, Thursday June 2, 2016, as rescue workers begin to retrieve some of the more than 100 bodies pulled from the sea, after a smuggling boat carrying mainly African migrants sank into the Mediterranean. Libya's navy spokesman Col. Ayoub Gassim says, Friday June 3, that the bodies of more than 100 migrants have been retrieved, but the death toll is likely to be higher. (APTV via AP) TV OUT

The lifeless body of a migrant lays on the beach near the western city of Zwara, Libya, Thursday June 2, 2016, as rescue workers begin to retrieve some of the more than 100 bodies pulled from the sea, after a smuggling boat carrying mainly African migrants sank into the Mediterranean. Libya's navy spokesman Col. Ayoub Gassim says, Friday June 3, that the bodies of more than 100 migrants have been retrieved, but the death toll is likely to be higher. (APTV via AP) TV OUT

EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT - The lifeless bodies of migrants lay on the beach near the western city of Zwara, Libya, Thursday June 2, 2016, as rescue workers begin to retrieve some of the more than 100 bodies pulled from the sea, after a smuggling boat carrying mainly African migrants sank into the Mediterranean. Libya's navy spokesman Col. Ayoub Gassim says, Friday June 3, that the bodies of more than 100 migrants have been retrieved, but the death toll is likely to be higher. (APTV via AP) TV OUT

Afghan migrants backed by an Anti-racism activist group protest outside the abandoned old airport which is used as a shelter for over 3,500 refugees and migrants, in southern Athens, on Friday, May 3 ,2016, as Afghan migrants protest against the EU- Turkey deal chanting "open the borders and the cities" (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Hundreds of Afghan migrants backed by an Anti-racism activist group protest outside the abandoned old airport which is used as a shelter for over 3,500 refugees and migrants, in southern Athens, on Friday, May 3 , 2016. A search-and-rescue operation across the Mediterranean saved 340 people Friday and recovered nine bodies, while in a separate incident over 100 bodies have been recovered from the Mediterranean coast of Libya after a smuggling boat overturned. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Ex-Stanford swimmer's jail term decried as too lenient

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP)  A six-month jail term for a former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman on campus after both attended a fraternity party is being decried as a slap on the wrist.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced 20-year-old Brock Turner to six months in county jail and three years' probation after the woman who was assaulted read the court an emotional statement that has gone viral. Turner must also complete a sex offender management program and register as a convicted sex offender for the rest of his life.

In her statement, the woman described how the attack left her emotionally scarred.

In this June 2, 2016 photo, Brock Turner, 20, right, makes his way into the Santa Clara Superior Courthouse in Palo Alto, Calif. The six-month jail term given to Turner, the former Stanford University swimmer who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman after both attended a fraternity party, is being decried as a token punishment. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group via AP) MAGS OUT NO SALES

"My independence, natural joy, gentleness, and steady lifestyle I had been enjoying became distorted beyond recognition. I became closed off, angry, self-deprecating, tired, irritable, empty," she said.

District Attorney Jeff Rosen said he was disappointment that the judge did not sentence Turner to prison.

"The punishment does not fit the crime," Rosen said in a statement after the sentence was announced Thursday. "The sentence does not factor in the true seriousness of this sexual assault, or the victim's ongoing trauma. Campus rape is no different than off-campus rape. Rape is rape."

A jury in March found Turner guilty of three felony sexual assault counts for the January 2015 attack, which was interrupted by two graduate students who saw him assaulting a partially clothed woman behind a trash bin. Turner tried to flee, but the students tackled and pinned him down until police arrived and arrested him.

Turner had a blood-alcohol level that was twice the legal limit, the San Jose Mercury News reported (http://bayareane.ws/1UoYhNk). The three-time All American high school swimmer from Dayton, Ohio, withdrew from Stanford after his arrest.

The San Jose Mercury News did not identify the woman. The Associated Press does not generally identify victims of sexual abuse.

The woman, who was not a student, told investigators she drank about four shot glasses of whisky before going to the fraternity party, and then drank vodka there. The next thing she said she remembered was waking up at a hospital in San Jose, where a deputy told her she may have been a victim of sexual assault.

"I stood there examining my body beneath the stream of water and decided, I don't want my body anymore. I was terrified of it," the woman wrote in a letter to Turner and Judge Persky that she read in the courtroom during the sentencing. "I wanted to take off my body like a jacket and leave it at the hospital with everything else."

In an editorial, the San Jose Mercury News called the six-month county jail sentence "a slap on the wrist."

"Brock Turner's six-month jail term for sexual assault of an intoxicated, unconscious woman on the Stanford campus last year is a setback for the movement to take campus rape seriously," the newspaper said. "If Turner's slap on the wrist sentence is a setback, activists can take some comfort that the jurors at the trial in March saw what happened as a very serious crime."
Clinton attacks on Trump fire up supporters

FRESNO, Calif. (AP)  Hillary Clinton's savage takedown of Donald Trump in her recent foreign policy speech has her supporters fired up.

As the likely Democratic nominee toured California Saturday, crowds burst into applause at the mere mention of Thursday's speech, in which Clinton cast Trump as dangerously unqualified to be president. Supporters say they feel more confident and excited in the wake of the address  which could benefit Clinton, who has struggled to inspire enthusiasm throughout the drawn-out primary contest.

"I loved it. I was waiting for that," said Leslie Milke, 56, of Woodland Hills, a professor at Los Angeles Mission College, who saw Clinton. "I knew she was capable of that kind of speech....It really made me feel energized. It made me feel like we can win."

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at an event at the Culinary Arts Institute, Saturday, June 4, 2016, in Sylmar, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Clinton's speech in San Diego previewed her intention to mount an aggressive campaign against the real estate mogul. In it, she said Trump would lead the nation toward war and economic crisis, contrasting it with her long years of diplomatic experience and public service. Looking to the November general election, Clinton, who is expected to clinch the Democratic nomination in the coming days, said that electing Trump would be a "historic mistake."

Since then Clinton has only increased the heat.

"I think it is time to judge Donald Trump by his words and his deeds. I think his words and his deeds disqualify him from being president," Clinton said in Oxnard, Calif., on Saturday. She later mockingly cited some of Trump's past remarks, saying: "One of my personal favorites is he said he knows how to deal with Putin because he took the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow."

Later in the day, a raucous crowd of more than 1,400 in Fresno started chanting "Hillary, Hillary," when Clinton mentioned her speech.

"Donald Trump is not qualified or temperamentally fit to be president of the United States," Clinton said amid applause.

As she shifted her focus almost entirely to the presumptive Republican nominee, her rival Bernie Sanders continued his quest for the Democratic nomination, defiantly declaring Saturday that Clinton will not have enough pledged delegates after Tuesday's contests, and the Democrats are headed toward a contested summer convention.

Still, Clinton supporters like Walter Guzman, 44, of Oxnard, said it was time for her to turn to Trump, saying "she needs to stop concentrating on Bernie and start concentrating on Trump."

Of course, engaging with Trump  who has shown little restraint with negative campaigning and is skilled at sucking up media attention  has its risks. Many of Trump's GOP primary opponents sought to take him on unsuccessfully, most notably Sen. Marco Rubio, whose Trump attacks were viewed as out of keeping with his inspirational message.

Sandy Emberland, 72, of Thousand Oaks, said she knew the race was "going to be dirty and bad," but said "I think she will stay above the fray."

Meanwhile, Sonia Prince, 60, of North Oxnard, said that while she is confident Clinton can fight fire with fire, she'd prefer not to hear about Trump at all.

"Because bad publicity or good publicity, it's publicity for him," she said.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, center, speaks at an event next to Eunji Kim, left, and Italia Garcia at the Culinary Arts Institute, Saturday, June 4, 2016, in Sylmar, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Veronica Villano, second from right, holds Brenda Gonzalez as they listen to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speak at an event at the Culinary Arts Institute, Saturday, June 4, 2016, in Sylmar, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, center, speaks at an event at the Culinary Arts Institute, Saturday, June 4, 2016, in Sylmar, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton meets with people at an event at the Culinary Arts Institute, Saturday, June 4, 2016, in Sylmar, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, poses for photos at an event at the Culinary Arts Institute, Saturday, June 4, 2016, in Sylmar, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton arrives at a rally at Hueneme High School, Saturday, June 4, 2016, in Oxnard, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton meets with supporters at a rally at Hueneme High School, Saturday, June 4, 2016, in Oxnard, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)

People cheer as Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at Hueneme High School, Saturday, June 4, 2016, in Oxnard, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Guatemala seeks international help as wildfires char north

GUATEMALA CITY (AP)  Guatemala is soliciting international financial and equipment support to battle wildfires that have already charred nearly 20,000 acres in the northern department of Peten.

Presidential spokesman Heinz Heimann says that more than 350 firefighters are battling the blazes on foot because the area is inaccessible to vehicles. He says another nearly 500,000 acres are at risk and they include the Maya Biosphere Reserve bordering Mexico and Belize.
Blue Angels pilot's body has been flown home

SMYRNA, Tenn. (AP)  The body of an elite fighter jet pilot who was killed in a crash near Nashville Thursday has been flown home.

The Tennessean reports (http://tnne.ws/1t8LRnv ) that a Navy C-130 "Fat Albert" plane flew out of Smyrna Saturday morning with the body of Capt. Jeff Kuss. People braved the rain, some carrying American flags, others wiping tears away as a police procession guided a white hearse from Murfreesboro to the Smyrna Airport, which are just southeast of Nashville.

One who watched the procession was JoyKarin Winter.

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) MANDATORY CREDIT

"I just think of his kids," Winter said, wiping away a tear.

Kuss, 32, was a member of the Blue Angels, an elite fighter jet performance team, and a married father of two. He was practicing for an air show when his F/A-18 jet crashed just after takeoff. The incident took place on the same day that a member of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, another elite jet performance team, crashed in Colorado after a flyover for the Air Force Academy graduation where President Barack Obama spoke. That pilot was able to eject safely.

Both incidents are under investigation.

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) MANDATORY CREDIT

Smoke billows from the crash of a Blue Angels F/A-18 fighter jet in Smyrna, Tenn., Thursday, June 2, 2016. Officials said the pilot, Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss, was killed. The Navy said in a news release that Kuss was taking off during an afternoon practice session for an air show when the crash happened. (Becca Cullison-Burgess via AP)

In this May 19, 2016, photo Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss lands his plane 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) MANDATORY CREDIT
Ex-Puerto Rico beauty queen's mother shot to death

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)  A former Puerto Rican beauty queen is calling on the public to help police find those responsible for the shooting death of her mother.

Police said that Elena Santos Agosto, a 59-year-old nurse, died Friday night in her living room in Puerto Rico after being struck by gunshots to the head and chest that were fired into her residence from a passing vehicle.

"This crime cannot go unpunished, a crime without cause, without reason. Those responsible have to pay," ex-Miss Puerto Rico Alba Reyes said in a statement Saturday. "They killed an angel in life, and they killed me with her."

FILE - This May 27, 2004 file photo shows Alba Reyes, Miss Puerto Rico, arriving to a hotel in Quito, Ecuador to compete in Miss Universe. The former beauty queen is calling on the public to help police find those responsible for the June 3, 2016 shooting death of her mother in the town of Cidra, south of San Juan. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa, File)

The 34-year-old represented Puerto Rico in the 2004 Miss Universe pageant, finishing 2nd runner up and winning the Miss Photogenic award. She said her family was "not involved in anything negative" and called on anybody with information to contact police.

Reyes was at home with her mother at the time of the shooting, according to local media reports.
David Cameron warns of mortgage hikes if UK votes for Brexit

Mortgages are set to rocket by nearly 1,000 a year if Britain quits the European Union, David Cameron has warned.

Short-term uncertainty caused by a vote in favour of leaving the 28-member block would tighter credit conditions and fuel a rise in interest rates, according to Treasury analysis.

But the Leave campaign claimed that voters "cannot trust" Government on the EU.

David Cameron has attacked Michael Gove and Boris Johnson "writing cheques they know will bounce"

In a robust letter to the Prime Minister and Chancellor, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove warned that remaining leaves the country "dangerously and permanently exposed to being forced to hand over more money and accept damaging new laws".

Remain campaigners dismissed the letter as "reckless nonsense" and accused the Brexit camp of "misleading" the public.

Stronger In said the average new mortgage will cost 920 a year while first time buyers, who generally have lower value loans, face paying 810 more annually.

"Nearly all experts agree there will instant shocks to the economy if we leave the EU and there is a clear and present danger of higher mortgage rates," the Prime Minister told The Mail On Sunday.

Combined with predicted higher unemployment and lower wages following a Brexit, the hike in mortgages would make it much tougher for first time buyers to get onto the housing ladder, they warned.

But Mr Johnson, the Justice Secretary and Labour's Gisela Stuart branded Treasury analysis previously released by the government predicting Brexit would hit households by more than 4,000 as "indefensible" and "bogus".

Setting out detailed claims about the "dangers" of the EU, they criticised the Prime Minister's renegotiation package for failing to secure real change.

Britain will be forced to bow to the will of eurozone nations if it remains in the bloc and will be pushed into funding future bailouts for ailing members states, they warned.

"If we stay, we are tying ourselves to a broken Eurozone economy while simultaneously accepting unlimited migration of people trying to escape that broken economy," they wrote.

"British taxpayers are already paying nearly 2 billion for Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey to join the EU. The European Commission recently announced an acceleration of these plans and is already extending visa-free travel to the border with Syria and Iraq. This is dangerous. The Government's claim that Britain has a veto is meaningless if it is simultaneously trying to 'accelerate' this process."

Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive of Virgin Money, said: "Even if the base rate stays flat after a vote to leave the EU, mortgage prices could rise considerably - leading to more expensive monthly mortgage payments for everyone."

A Britain Stronger In Europe spokesman said: "As any credible expert will tell you, this letter from Leave is reckless nonsense - they are now guilty of actively misleading the British people.

"The Leave campaign cannot produce a single expert who believes there is any prospect of Turkey joining the EU. The UK retains a full veto over any new member.

"We have clear guarantees we will not contribute to bail outs and protections against Eurozone integration."

Boris Johnson speaks to the media ahead of a at Vote Leave rally

Boris Johnson says around 300,000 new jobs will be created if Britain leaves the European Union
Failing to vote in EU referendum risks 'lost generation'

Failing to vote in the EU referendum risks creating a "lost generation" of young people, Paddy Ashdown warned ahead of a campaign blitz urging people to register for the poll.

The Liberal Democrat former leader accused Brexit campaigners of having a vision that would leave Britain "divided and weakened", and s aid the risks of not having a say over the country's future in the 28-member bloc were "very clear".

Around six million residents have yet to fill out the forms that will allow them to take part in the June 23 vote - and more than one million of those are under-25.

Former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown is encouraging people to register to vote in the EU referendum

Lord Ashdown is joining forces with high profile figures from across the political spectrum in a push across the UK to boost turnout.

"The risks of not registering, and not voting are now very clear," he said. "The Leave campaigns' vision of Britain is one that is divided and weakened. We cannot let them succeed.

"If we do not now pull out every stop to get people registered and get them to vote, then we risk a lost generation for Britain's young people outside the EU."

Britain Stronger In Europe is staging 30 rallies across the UK in the major voter registration drive.

Labour former leader Neil Kinnock, Green MP Caroline Lucas, Labour's Harriet Harman and Vernon Coaker and Conservative minister Anna Soubry are among those urging the public to register by the June 7 deadline.

Lord Kinnock said: "Time is running out for people to have their say in this referendum and that's why we are mobilising grassroots volunteers and leading public figures in every region and nation on Saturday to drive up registrations and encourage postal votes.

"It is crucial that as many people as possible have their say on the future of this country, rather than leaving it to others to make the choice for them.

"That's especially vital for young voters who will live longest with the Referendum outcome.
Andy Murray expecting 'big battle' against Novak Djokovic in French Open final

A new name will adorn the Coupe des Mousquetaires on Sunday and Andy Murray hopes it is he rather than Novak Djokovic who will handle the weight of history better.

The French Open title has been dangling tantalisingly out of reach for Djokovic ever since he reached his first grand slam semi-final here nine years ago.

He has since amassed six Australian Open trophies, three Wimbledons and two US Opens crowns but at Roland Garros the closest he has come is three final defeats.

Andy Murray, pictured, and Novak Djokovic are both chasing a first French Open title

Should he win at the 12th attempt, it will have taken him longer to get his hands on the prize than any other champion in history.

While Djokovic has long known this is a title he could win, Murray only started to believe it might be possible for him last year.

The Scot's development into a true clay-court player has been one of the most impressive feats of his illustrious career and it could yet see him become the first British men's singles champion at Roland Garros in 81 years.

"It's obviously a very big match for both of us," said Murray. "Novak is trying to win the career slam, it's obviously a huge match for him, and me trying to win my first French Open.

"Neither of us know how many more chances we'll have to win here. It took Roger (Federer) a long time to win this one. It's a very tough event to win. There is a lot riding on the match for both of us. I hope we can both play a good match.

"We have had some really big battles in the slams before on all the other surfaces. I'm sure it will be the same again on Sunday."

Spectators have been thin on the ground this week at a cold and damp Roland Garros but sporting and showbiz royalty in the shape of Eric Cantona and Leonardo Di Caprio witnessed Murray's hugely impressive 6-4 6-2 4-6 6-2 semi-final victory over Stan Wawrinka.

Cantona posed for pictures with Murray and his team afterwards, and the Scot said: "He was an i ncredibly talented guy, fun to watch. It was nice to meet him. He's a legend in British football."

History does not favour Murray given he has won only 10 of 33 previous meetings with his former junior rival Djokovic and just two in the last 14.

Murray did win both his slam titles by defeating the Serbian, at the US Open in 2012 and then Wimbledon a year later, but Djokovic has won all four of their finals in Australia, including the last two years.

Both men have had their ups and downs during the tournament, particularly Murray, who needed five sets to defeat Radek Stepanek and Mathias Bourgue in his first two rounds.

He was also in trouble against Richard Gasquet in the quarter-finals but recovered well.

Djokovic's only dropped set came in the worst of the wet conditions against Roberto Bautista Agut and he has only spent 12 hours and 54 minutes on court compared to 17 hours and 50 minutes for Murray.

But the difference will be cancelled out somewhat by Djokovic having had to play four times in a four days between Tuesday and Friday while Murray had a day off between his matches.

What is clear is both men hit top form in the semi-finals, Murray ousting defending champion Wawrinka with the best clay-court performance of his career while Djokovic dispatched 22-year-old Dominic Thiem 6-2 6-1 6-4.

Murray feels his improvement can be put down to finally adjusting to the conditions.

"The conditions aren't that easy," he said. "It's been cold, wet, slow - much, much slower than what we played in the last few weeks. I made some changes to my racket tension, which I don't often do.

"Obviously getting through difficult matches, you can find your rhythm. I spent a lot of time on court at the beginning of the event. I'm starting to feel better every day."

Murray's record against Djokovic may not inspire much confidence but he only has to look back three weeks to find his last win over his fellow 29-year-old.

That came in the final of the Rome Masters, when Djokovic was the one ranting and raving as Murray brilliantly executed a 6-3 6-3 victory.

It was the world number two's first victory over Djokovic on clay in five attempts and came just a week after he had lost in another Masters final in Madrid.

The pair also played for the first time here last year, when Djokovic held off a Murray fightback across two days to win the semi-final in five sets.

Murray said: "It was raining for quite a lot of the match (in Rome), so it was heavy and not as easy to penetrate the court. You had to be very patient in the conditions.

"I got off to a good start. Novak got off to a good start in Madrid. That helped both of us in the respective matches."
Gareth Bale talks up Wales' chances at Euro 2016

Gareth Bale believes Wales are capable of stunning England by winning their Euro 2016 group.

The party line since the Wales squad met up before France is how the first priority is to progress from a group featuring England, Slovakia and Russia into the knock-out stage.

But Real Madrid star Bale, who is expected to figure in Wales' final Euro 2016 warm-up game against Sweden on Sunday, is not afraid to set his targets higher.

Gareth Bale believes Wales can win their Euro 2016 group at the expense of England, Slovakia and Russia

"We're not going there just to make up the numbers," Bale told a BBC Wales documentary entitled, "Gareth Bale: Euro Star."

"We want to win every game that we play, we want to win the group and give ourselves the best chance.

"No matter who we play we feel confident in our abilities we can win.

"We'll go out there and try and do that."

Bale has not played for his country since Wales' qualification for a first major tournament for 58 years was crowned with a 2-0 victory over Andorra in October.

The 26-year-old missed friendlies against Holland, Northern Ireland and Ukraine through injury - all games which Wales failed to win.

But he has kept in touch with his team-mates on a Whats App group the players use.

Cardiff-born Bale came through Wales' youth teams alongside many of the current senior side, including Aaron Ramsey, Chris Gunter and David Edwards.

And Bale says it is that special bond which will give Wales an advantage when their Group B campaign kicks off against Slovakia in Bordeaux on June 11.

"We all feel like brothers and will literally do anything for each other," said Bale, fresh from winning a second Champions League title in three seasons at Real.

"We've all been together for such a long time and get on really well.

"We know each other's games and we all fight for each other on the pitch."

Wales' trip to Stockholm is their solitary friendly before the Euros, whereas England have played Turkey, Australia and Portugal in the last fortnight.

But Wales manager Chris Coleman explained it was a deliberate decision to play just one game on the back of a five-day training camp in Portugal.

"The reason we didn't have two friendlies like other teams was that we wanted to use part of the time to remind them," said Coleman.

"Players are coming to us playing different styles at clubs and we don't play a conventional 4-3-3.

"We play a slightly different way."

Coleman said Wales had the same policy before beating Belgium 1-0 last summer, the result which turned hope into expectation that they could finally end the long wait for qualification.

"We used the first week as training then on the pitch to re-emphasize things to players," said Coleman.

"What we want to do, how we want them to work in the system.

"We used the week in Portugal to give them that reminder about what we need from them.
Southampton boss Ronald Koeman agrees Everton deal - report

Ronald Koeman has agreed a deal with Everton to become their new manager, his agent has reportedly told Dutch media.

Agent Rob Jansen said, according to the popular Voetbal International website, that it was now down to Southampton and Everton to agree a compensation pa ckage for the Dutchman, who has a year remaining on his contract at St Mary's.

Manuel Pellegrini, Unai Emery and Frank de Boer were all linked with the Everton job which became vacant when Roberto Martinez was sacked last month.

Ronald Koeman could be on his way out of Southampton

Jansen is quoted as saying: " We have reached an agreement with Everton. Now it is up to the clubs."

Koeman, who this season steered Southampton to sixth-place finish in the Barclays Premier League, hinted following the 4-1 home win against Crystal Palace on the final day of the campaign that he would like to see signs of ambition from the club before he committed to a new contract.

He said: "It is important to know what we can do to be stronger because in my opinion that's ambition.

"If you don't have that ambition, you start to be sloppy and that is not what I like to be."

Should Koeman complete a switch to Everton he would be reunited at Goodison Park with Arouna Kone and Steven Pienaar, whom he managed at PSV Eindhoven and Ajax respectively.
Turkey's Erdogan says U.S.-backed Syrian force largely Arab, in tacit approval

NAIROBI, June 2 (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 organisation 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.
S.Korean, US missile defence talks continue, but not at Asian forum

SEOUL, June 3 (Reuters) - South Korea said on Friday the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defence system to counter the growing threat from North Korea would not be discussed when defence chiefs meet at an Asian security forum at the weekend.

The United States and South Korea began talks on deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and launched a long-range rocket a month later.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said en route to the Shangri-La Dialogue, a three-day Asian security meeting being held in Singapore from Friday, that recent North Korean missile tests showed the need for improved missile defences, even though the latest test launch on Tuesday was a failure.

"There is no plan for discussions on THAAD at the Shangri-La Dialogue," a South Korean defence ministry official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said separate talks on the missile defence system were continuing between South Korea and the United States.

"When the issues are coordinated, there will be an announcement," the official said, without indicating when that might be.

A senior U.S. defence official said earlier there were still "a lot of technical issues to get through" but a public announcement would be made "soon."

China and Russia oppose the deployment of THAAD, which operates powerful radar capable of penetrating deep into their territories. South Korea and the United States say it is needed in response to the heightened missile threat from North Korea.

Carter waved aside concerns expressed by China that deployment of the THAAD system's radars on the Korean peninsula could upset the balance of power by reducing the strategic deterrence of China's ballistic missile system.

"The implementation will be a series of decisions that we take together and it's for our own protection against North Korea. Everybody should understand that," Carter said.

North Korea's attempt to fire an intermediate-range missile on Tuesday failed, South Korea and the United States said, following three earlier failures to launch a Musudan missile, which has a design range of more than 3,000 km (1,800 miles).

In February, a North Korean rocket launch put an object into space but that was seen as a cover for intercontinental ballistic missile development.
Germany not organising consortium for alternative Kuka offer - ministry

BERLIN, June 3 (Reuters) - German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel is not trying to organise an alternative offer for Kuka after Chinese home appliance maker Midea Group Co Ltd made a 4.5 billion euro bid for the German industrial robot maker, a ministry spokesman said on Friday.

"The minister is not organising a consortium for an alternative offer in the Kuka case," spokesman Andreas Audretsch told a regular news conference.

The spokesman said that Gabriel would appreciate a German or European bid, but he added: "To make this clear: Such processes are corporate decisions and the government is not interfering."
Britain's insurance sector warns of business shift under a Brexit

By Huw Jones

LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - European Union insurance business written from London would shift to the continent if Britain votes to leave the bloc in a June 23 referendum on EU membership, industry groups said on Friday.

Around 16 percent of London's insurance business comes from EU countries other than Britain, or 9.6 billion pounds ($13.8 bln), the International Underwriting Association of London (IUA), Lloyd's of London, and Fidelis Insurance said in a joint paper.

France, Germany, Spain and Italy have been the main markets in Europe for London's insurance business.

Negotiating trading terms with the EU would take years if Britain were to leave, the paper said.

British insurers would almost certainly have to lodge large sums of money in EU states, report to local regulators and comply with regulations that are as tough as those in the bloc, it added.

"For the London market, it seems likely that, over time, EU insurance business now underwritten in London would migrate to a company within the EU."

Separately on Friday, the head of U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase , Jamie Dimon, told British staff that a decision by Britain to leave the European Union could mean "fewer" jobs with the bank there and more jobs in Europe.

Backers of leaving the EU, or Brexit, say the move would cut the regulatory burden for British firms and, given the size of its economy, Britain could negotiate speedy and attractive trading terms with other countries.

The insurers' joint paper said at least six of the IUA's 46 members, which are predominantly non-British companies, would reconsider the legal status of their London operations if there is a Brexit. Only four of the IUA's members have their international head office in the British capital.

Over time, capital coming into the London insurance market would head for another EU country, and access global markets from a rival hub such as Bermuda, Zurich or Singapore.

"This latter threat is more immediate than the emergence of a rival hub within the EU, although the rise of a new EU insurance hub is a potential longer-term danger," the paper said.
NorthStar Asset Management, Colony Capital, NorthStar Realty to merge

June 3 (Reuters) - Commercial real estate manager NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc, REIT NorthStar Realty Finance Corp and private equity firm Colony Capital Inc have agreed to an all-stock merger that would create a company with $58 billion of assets under management, they said on Friday.

NorthStar Realty Finance shares fell 5.8 percent to $12.70, while NorthStar Asset Management dropped 6.5 percent to $11.51.

NorthStar Asset Management shareholders will own about 32.85 percent, Colony Capital shareholders about 33.25 percent and NorthStar Realty Finance shareholders about 33.90 percent of the combined company - Colony NorthStar Inc - on a fully diluted basis, the companies said.

NorthStar Asset Management was spun off from NorthStar Realty Finance in 2014.

Colony Capital Chief Executive Richard Saltzman will become CEO of Colony NorthStar, while the PE firm's founder Thomas Barrack will become the executive chairman.

The companies said they expected about $115 million in total annual savings from the merger, likely to close during the first quarter of 2017.

The deal, which would create an internally managed equity REIT, has been approved by the committees and the board of all the companies.

Colony Capital was working with NorthStar Realty Finance for a "tri-party all-stock" proposal, the companies said in May.

NorthStar Asset Management was advised by Goldman Sachs, while UBS Investment Bank was adviser to NorthStar Realty Finance.

BofA Merrill Lynch is the lead financial adviser to Colony, and Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are also providing financial advice in connection with the merger.
Russian hopes for Iran trade boom run aground at Caspian port

By Svetlana Burmistrova

ASTRAKHAN, Russia, June 3 (Reuters) - When sanctions on Iran were lifted in January, Russia might have expected to be near the front of the queue for business opportunities. Moscow, after all, was one of Tehran's oldest allies and is now its partner on the battlefield in Syria.

On the evidence of the commerce passing through the Caspian Sea port of Astrakhan, the main jumping-off point for Russian sea-borne trade with Iran, it's not playing out like that.

The value of goods shipped from the Astrakhan region to Iran in the first four months of this year was down 16 percent on the same period last year, according to the regional government.

"There's a pause with grain, timber products are being loaded, metal gets shipped very rarely and then only in very small consignments," said Artyom Ulyanov, commercial director of Astrakhan's central cargo port. "Overall, we're loading less that we did in previous periods."

That, according to traders and shipping industry sources, is partly because Russian red tape is choking trade at a time when Iranians can do deals with Western countries that were effectively closed off to them before because of sanctions.

To be sure, the port at Astrakhan is only a snapshot of the state of Russian-Iranian ties. But it could point to the limitations of a relationship that is forged from a convergence of interests in areas like Syria rather than a shared world view.

The mood around the wharfs and dockyards at Astrakhan, Russia's biggest Caspian Sea port, is sour.

On a visit late last month, a Reuters correspondent found that cranes in several sections of the port were standing still because there was no cargo to move.

"Before, we had to search for ships" to carry cargo to Iran because the volume of the trade was so high, said the owner of a grain-exporting company that supplies Iran, speaking of trade before the international sanctions were lifted.

Now, said the businessman, who asked not to be identified so he could speak candidly, ship operators came knocking on his door looking for business.

Last month, Russia's ministry for economic development organised a Russian-Iranian business forum meant to take place in Astrakhan. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak was scheduled to attend.

It was called off, with the local government citing "circumstances that have arisen". Some participants only found out the event was off when they were already on the way there.

"We and another thousand people from Iran got tickets and visas, but they called off the forum two days before it starts," said Taban Tizgush, president of the chamber of trade and industry in the Iranian province of Gilan, on the Caspian Sea.

"That causes us a lot of damage."

MIDDLE EASTERN PARTNERS

How Iran and Russia get along with each other matters globally.

The joint operation between Russia's air force, Iran's military and the Iranian-allied Hezbollah militia turned the tide of the Syrian civil war in favour of President Bashar al Assad's administration, frustrating Western efforts to push him out and testing U.S. influence in the Middle East.

What happens next in Syria depends in large degree on whether the Russian-Iranian partnership holds together and keeps backing Assad.

The port at Astrakhan gives one perspective on ties between the countries. Elsewhere, deals are being done.

Russia's government said last year it had agreed joint projects with Iran worth $40 billion. A Russian shipbuilder won a contract in May worth nearly $1 billion to build five offshore drilling rigs for Iran. Moscow is also selling sophisticated weapons to Tehran, including S-300 air defence missiles.

But the mood at the port chimes with a more general atmosphere of tension in ties between Iran and Russia.

Some Iranian officials are wary of getting too close to Russia, which occupied Iran twice in the 20th century. Russia for its part is wary of Iran becoming too powerful and of alienating Iran's rivals in the Middle East.

Interactions between the Kremlin and Iranian officials can, at times, be fraught.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Tehran in November last year for a gas exporters' forum, Iranian security officials barred reporters travelling with Putin from entering the venue.

That sparked an argument between Iranian security and Kremlin press service officials, and in the scrum that resulted, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Novak, the energy minister, were jostled, according to a Reuters reporter who was there.

NEW COMPETITION

In an interview with Reuters, Alexander Zhilkin, the Astrakhan region governor, said grain exports this year would be lower than in 2015 because Iran was enforcing temporary grain import restrictions.

But he said he expected trade to double within 18 months of all the international sanctions being lifted on Iran.

"Petrochemicals, paper, glass, wood, wood products; there is demand for all of that," he said. "This year, unexpectedly, we've had requests from Iran for potatoes and onions."

However, local business people say the deeper problem is not demand.

Traders who move goods through Astrakhan to Iran talk of layers of red tape that can hold up cargoes for months, of corrupt officials withholding permissions, and of import and export regulations changing without warning.

"That's why our share of trade with Iran is pitifully small," said Alexander Rybakov, finance director of RusIranExpo, an exporters' union.

Despite those issues, during the years of sanctions trade was healthy. That was in part because Russian companies were prepared to take the risk of doing transactions with Iran, while many other countries were not.

The main exports via Astrakhan - wheat, timber and scrap metal - were not banned by sanctions. But the international restrictions imposed over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme effectively barred Iran from international financial systems, so settling bills was complicated.

Russian firms found ways around that, by using intermediary banks in third countries. Grain exports from Russia to Iran grew while sanctions were in force.

But with sanctions gone, business people in Astrakhan predict that big global grain traders will now move into the Iran market, squeezing out Russian players.

The big global traders will have lower costs because they can deliver grain on vessels of up to 70,000 tonnes via Iran's Gulf ports, while the maximum size of vessels in the Caspian is 6,000 tonnes, said Hossein Lotfi, owner of a trading firm.

"If Russia does not take steps to hold onto its trade with Iran, it could lose 20 to 30 percent of grain exports," said Lotfi, who is also a consultant to Astrakhan's chamber of commerce with Iran.

"Once payments are simplified new players could come into the south of Iran, and they can offer lower prices."
Honduras gang violence uproots thousands a month - UN

By Anastasia Moloney

BOGOTA, June 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Gang violence is forcing thousands of Hondurans to leave their homes every month to seek safety in other neighbourhoods and provinces of the Central American nation, a problem that is invisible but growing, says the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR).

Honduras is one of the world's deadliest nations. It is estimated there are around 23,000 gang members involved in turf wars and almost daily shoot-outs with police.

The Honduran capital Tegucigalpa and the country's industrial city of San Pedro Sula have the highest murder rates outside a war zone, the UNHCR said.

The country's two most powerful armed gangs known as maras - Calle 18 and their rivals the Mara Salvatrucha - control entire city neighbourhoods.

"The number of people fleeing violence inside Honduras has seen a constant rise since December 2015," the UNHCR said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Many of these people are fleeing urban violence fuelled by a war between gangs or maras, widespread extortion, threats, forced recruitment, sexual violence and insecurity in general."

In May around 360 families - at least 1,000 people - fled their homes because of gang violence in one neighbourhood of the capital alone and sought refuge in other areas of the country, the UNHCR said.

The government estimates 174,000 Hondurans were internally displaced across the country because of gang violence between 2004 and 2014.

The UNHCR said it had helped 41 people who were uprooted within Honduras during the first five months of this year, nearly double the number in 2015.

"The problem is invisible as most people don't report being forcibly displaced for fear of reprisals," UNHCR spokeswoman Francesca Fontanini told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "This is just the tip of the iceberg."

HIDDEN IN SLUMS

Rights group say families can be forced to leave their homes within a matter of hours, often following direct threats from gang members. This can include gang members demanding extortion payments or that children join their gangs.

Families seek refuge in other neighbourhoods in the same city or town, usually moving from one slum area to another.

This means many uprooted Hondurans remain hidden and are not registered as being displaced, the UNHCR said.

Others move to different provinces and rural areas within Honduras, often staying with friends and relatives until they can find rented accommodation.

Pupils and teachers are also caught up in the gang warfare, the UNHCR said.

In recent weeks non-governmental groups report that schools in the country's northeast have received around 100 requests from parents asking for their children to be transferred to schools elsewhere in Honduras to escape gang violence and threats, the UNHCR said.

Chaloka Beyani, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced people, said in a report in April that internal displacement in Honduras was a precursor to migration.

The UNHCR said increasing numbers of Hondurans were seeking asylum in Latin American countries and in the United States.
Argentina mutual funds could see 'explosive' growth

By Jorge Otaola

BUENOS AIRES, June 3 (Reuters) - Mutual funds, whose assets comprise the largest share of investment vehicles in Argentina, will expand "explosively" once regulatory changes are put in place by the pro-business government of President Mauricio Macri, an industry leader said on Friday.

Free markets champion Macri has promised to update laws that heavily restricted mutual fund activities and take other measures to open and restart the stagnant economy. Financial markets were stifled under the previous center-left government.

Valentin Galardi, president of the Association of Argentine Mutual Investment Funds, said in an interview that fund assets of $16 billion represent the equivalent of 2 percent of the country's gross domestic product, compared with as much as 20 percent for other Latin American countries.

"Right now we have an industry with certain restrictions," Galardi said. "But the world changed and Argentina is seeing it happening and that's what the current government is taking notice of."

Fund managers in the country's small capital market hope the government will modify regulations to expand their investment options and allow Argentines repatriating money from abroad to escape penalties if they buy into mutual funds.

Only 140,000 Argentines, out of a population of 41 million, invest in mutual funds. Chile has some 2 million investors, Colombia 1.5 million and Brazil 20 million, Galardi said.

"The executive branch sent a law to Congress where mutual funds are included in a fiscal amnesty ... and another that would modernize to international standards, which Argentina has not done," Galardi said.

In April the country sold international bonds, worth $16.5 billion, for the first time since its record 2002 default, marking a rare bright spot in gloomy emerging markets.

Most proceeds of the sale are set to go to settling the country's messy legal dispute with investors over unpaid debt stemming from the $100 billion default that plunged millions of Argentines into poverty.

"We are at the precursor of an explosive development in the industry. In the short term it would be risky to predict growth, but the numbers may be surprising given measures that could unblock current regulations," said Galardi.
Pro-Brexit minister: I'm glad most economists are not on my side

By Estelle Shirbon

LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - A government minister campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union said on Friday he was glad not to have economic authorities on his side because they had been wrong about the euro and had failed to predict the global financial crisis.

Justice Secretary Michael Gove also branded the 28-member bloc a "job-destroying machine" that had hollowed out communities across Britain, citing the failure of his own father's fishing business which he attributed to EU quotas.

Britons will vote in a referendum on June 23 on whether to remain in the EU, a choice with far-reaching consequences for politics, the economy, trade, defence and migration flows in Britain and far beyond.

The debate has split the ruling Conservative Party, with Prime Minister David Cameron leading efforts to keep Britain in the club, and senior figures like Gove and former London mayor Boris Johnson heading the campaign for a "Leave" vote.

The International Monetary Fund, Bank of England, Confederation of British Industry and numerous other organisations have warned a British exit, or Brexit, would harm the economy.

Challenged on why the "Leave" camp had not received similar backing from economic authorities, Gove said those warning against a Brexit had once advised Britain to join the European single currency. In Britain, the euro is widely seen as an experiment gone badly wrong that the country did well to avoid.

"I'm glad that all these organisations are not on my side," Gove said during a live interview and question-and-answer session with members of the public on Sky News television.

Gove's appearance mirrored a similar programme featuring Cameron on Thursday night, during which he was grilled on his failure to achieve his target of bringing immigration down to below 100,000 arrivals per year.

IMMIGRATION V ECONOMY

Immigration is a major concern for many voters and the "Leave" camp argues that Britain cannot control it because of EU freedom of movement rights. The issue is seen as the main weakness of the "Remain" camp.

The economic argument, on the other hand, is widely perceived as a problematic issue for "Leave" campaigners like Gove, who was quizzed during the programme by voters on what would happen to jobs and house prices if there was a Brexit.

"The truth about the European Union is that it is a job-destroying machine," he said, arguing that Britain would have enhanced opportunities for growth and for trade deals with the likes of China, India and the United States outside the bloc.

A long list of foreign leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, have said they wanted Britain to stay in the bloc, but Gove dismissed those interventions, saying those leaders would never cede sovereignty in the way required of EU members.

"Don't pay attention to what they say, pay attention to what they do," he told the audience.

Gove also attacked U.S. banks Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, which have donated funds to the "Remain" campaign, saying they were doing very well out of the European Union and portraying them as part of an elite that cared little for ordinary people.

"Banks like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs said that Greece could enter the euro and they knew that that was wrong. Banks like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs spend millions lobbying the European Union in order to rig a market in their favour."
Trump campaigns in California, denounces protesters at rally as 'thugs'

By Julia Love

REDDING, Calif., June 3 (Reuters) - Presumptive Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump on Friday denounced protesters in California as "thugs" a day after another demonstration outside one of his political rallies turned violent ahead of the state's presidential primary.

Demonstrators traded blows on Thursday evening in the street outside the San Jose Convention Center, videos posted to Twitter and online by media showed. Hundreds of protesters waved Mexican flags, chanted anti-Trump slogans and burned Trump hats and at least one U.S. flag.

Speaking before a packed crowd in the northern California city of Redding on Friday, Trump described the previous night's rally as "a love fest inside. No problems whatsoever." But then his supporters "walked out and they got accosted by a bunch of thugs," he said.

The protesters, many angry over Trump's rhetoric against illegal immigration, have gathered at Trump rallies for months. Trump, now the Republican Party's likely presidential nominee for the Nov. 8 election, canceled a rally in Chicago in March after clashes broke out between his supporters and protesters.

The San Jose Police Department reported 300 to 400 protesters had gathered outside the Trump rally on Thursday, where police formed lines to protect attendants exiting the convention center.

A number of the skirmishes occurred beyond police lines on nearby streets and at a parking garage, a Reuters photographer said. One sergeant suffered minor injuries after a protester struck him with a metal object. Police reported four arrests.

Over 250 officers staffed the "all-hands on deck event," said San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia.

"In hindsight, we'd say that wasn't enough," said Garcia. For future events of that scope, "we would need more officers with an absolute, number one goal of keeping both parties separate as much as we can."

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, a Democrat, told the Associated Press that Trump needs to take responsibility for his supporters' conduct at the rallies.

But Trump, speaking in Redding on Friday, made light of the mayor's concerns.

"You know what I say when we have a protestor, which isn't very often, I say, 'Be very gentle, please don't hurt him ... If he punches you in the face, smile,'" Trump said.

Violence has peppered Trump's recent rallies in New Mexico and California, the U.S. state with the largest immigrant population, in advance of primary elections there on Tuesday.

The latest violence followed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton's scorching critique of Trump in a speech on Thursday in which she derided the real estate developer as a dangerous man with an angry, fearful world view.

Clinton told CNN on Friday that Trump had set a "low bar" regarding violence at poltical events. "Now is it a surprise that people who don't like him are stepping over that bar? I don't think it is," Clinton said.

But Friday afternoon's rally was peaceful as supporters from Redding and neighboring towns gathered as early as 8 a.m. local time (1500 GMT) to catch a glimpse of the candidate, many wearing hats emblazoned with Trump's signature slogan: "Make America Great Again."

Despite the unrest in San Jose, attendees said they felt at ease at Friday's event.

"We're both retired law enforcement," Heather Jimenez, a 45-year-old Cottonwood resident, said of herself and her husband. "No worries."

Although no formal protests broke out in Redding, the event attracted some who disapprove of Trump, but wanted to witness his high-flying campaign style in person.

"We've been hearing his nonsense," said Rachel Ochoa, a 57-year-old Redding resident who teaches English as a second language. "All we hear is him attacking the opponents and others."

Trump has accused Mexico of sending drug dealers and rapists across the U.S. border and has promised to build a wall between the two neighboring countries and make Mexico pay for it.

"We're gonna build that wall, folks," Trump said on Friday as the crowd chanted its support.

Trump also lamented the loss of American jobs to other countries, a key theme in his campaign. The message resonated in Redding, which residents say has been hit hard by the economic downturn.

"We've got a lot of people here out of work," said Joyce Tausch, a 78-year-old retiree who lives in Redding. "Trump is gonna do things for us."
Bombardier faces discount headache as CSeries sales take off

By Tim Hepher and Allison Lampert

DUBLIN/MONTREAL, June 3 (Reuters) - Bombardier performed a high-stake sales pitch for its CSeries jet at 30,000 feet on Friday, hoping to persuade more than two dozen airline bosses to buy the industry's newest fuel-saving model while reining in discounts.

The Canadian planemaker flew Star Alliance bosses on board its 110-seat CS100 between airline gatherings in Europe where it sought to preserve momentum after winning a lifeline order for the money-losing jet from Delta Air Lines.

"We are in a good place today. We have the contracts ready for you as you exit the plane," Bombardier Chief Executive Alain Bellemare joked to the 28 leaders on board.

Just over a year ago, Bombardier might have had trouble rounding up as many CEOs after seeing Canada's aerospace ambitions waver under the pressure of cash shortages.

But while the project survived a near-death experience with Delta's discounted order, Bombardier's rivals and others in the industry predict it will remain on the rack a while longer as others demand equal bargains, keeping the CSeries in the red.

"I want the best deal, better than Delta," said Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam.

He probably won't get that, having expressed interest in 10-15 jets rather than 75 bought by Delta. But his remark illustrates Bombardier's challenge in narrowing CSeries losses.

"The question is whether or not Bombardier will be successful in raising prices," said Bertrand Grabowski, a managing director of Germany's DVB Bank.

"For this to happen, it needs a few conditions and one of them is a steady growth market."

Bombardier's task is not made easier by an outbreak of transparency in the secretive jet market after it was forced by Canadian accounting rules to take a $500 million charge for the Delta deal and two others totalling 127 planes.

Rival jetmakers and analysts quickly calculated Delta had paid $22-23 million a plane, a whopping two-thirds discount.

Macquarie analyst Konark Gupta wrote Bombardier could have difficulty getting the CSeries to breakeven by 2020-21 if it keeps selling at such prices. Others say it has limited choice.

"I think they have got their work cut out trying to convince others to pay maybe $10-15 million more (than Delta) - why would they?" said Airbus executive vice-president Chris Buckley.

'IMPOSSIBLE' STANDARD

Bombardier additionally faces accusations of price dumping from rival Embraer, which it denies.

"We have to show the market that this price level is unsustainable," said commercial chief Paulo Cesar Silva said.

"No company can be viable under the conditions that Bombardier offered in the Delta campaign. That won't be the market standard. It's impossible."

Industry sources say Airbus leased jets as try-outs for as little as $1 a month to enter the U.S. market in the 1980s, but found itself trapped at low prices for years after that.

But deals are usually kept secret and Bombardier's provision has shed unusual light on its flexibility.

"The next big guy Bombardier talks to is going to say 'will you be taking a $500 million loss for me'?" an industry source said.

Bombardier executives respond that in the cut-throat airliner world, negotiations always start far apart.

They acknowledge using 'one-off' price tactics to reboot the troubled project but deny discounting as much as reported, and say others' estimates fail to reflect shifting costs.

Bombardier seeks new customers in every continent including a major low-cost carrier to diversify its order book and demonstrate it can serve different business models.

While chasing new customers, it must also prevent existing ones delaying or cancelling.

Industry sources estimate as many as 100 of the 325 orders are at risk owing to the patchy finances of early customers.

But the recent order boost does give the company more visibility on production and strengthens the profile of its order book: two other parameters watched by investors.
Mexican judge orders property of ex-ruling party governor seized

By Gabriela Lopez

MONTERREY, Mexico, June 3 (Reuters) - A Mexican judge has ordered properties of a former state governor in the ruling party seized as part of an investigation into fraud and other crimes, putting the spotlight on political corruption ahead of local elections this weekend.

Ernesto Canales, the anti-corruption czar in the opposition-controlled region of Nuevo Leon, said Friday that the order was against several officials, including ex-state governor Rodrigo Medina, for suspected embezzlement, breach of office and other crimes that cost the state 3.6 billion pesos ($194 million).

"This is not a campaign against a group of officials," Canales said. "It's about highlighting conduct of a group of public officials that shouldn't have occurred."

Canales said the seizure was related to the installation of a Korean plant in the state, an apparent reference to the 2014 deal between Medina's government and carmaker Kia Motors for a $1 billion works in Nuevo Leon.

Nuevo Leon's new government says the deal violated state law by offering "excessive" incentives; it is working with Kia to end the dispute.

Senior Mexican officials say local officials profited from land deals anticipating Kia's arrival.

Medina, who was governor of Nuevo Leon from 2009 to 2015, belongs to President Enrique Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Medina said he was innocent of the charges, which he described as politically motivated attacks before regional elections this weekend, newspaper Reforma reported on Friday.

"We are, without a doubt, in the presence of a political persecution," Reforma cited Medina as saying.

Canales said Medina and the other officials would have to respond to charges the state's anti-corruption authorities would be presenting to a judge in the next two months.

Home to the industrial city of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon is one of the country's richest regions. Medina's record in office came under heavy scrutiny last year, when the state elected Mexico's first independent governor to succeed him.

Jaime Rodriguez, a former PRI politician nicknamed "El Bronco" (the gruff one), won the Nuevo Leon governorship by a landslide last June after running an anti-establishment campaign that railed against corruption in Latin America's No. 2 economy.

The PRI ruled for 71 consecutive years until it was voted out in 2000. By then it had become a byword for corruption.

Pena Nieto returned the party to power in 2012, pledging a new era of clean government. However, his administration has battled allegations of graft during the past two years.
Burundi police shoot at students protesting against colleagues' arrest

NAIROBI, June 3 (Reuters) - Police in Burundi shot and wounded a student and a taxi-driver on Friday during a protest by schoolchildren against the arrest of their colleagues for defacing President Pierre Nkurunziza's portrait, students and residents said.

The incident took place in Muramvya province, about 50 km (30 miles) east of the capital Bujumbura. The schoolchildren, aged between 12 and 17 years old, were marching on the highway between Bujumbura and Gitega.

"We were in the streets to ask for the release of our colleagues who were unjustly arrested, then some police officers who were in a pick-up vehicle of the intelligence office opened fire on us, a colleague was hurt by one bullet and was taken to hospital for treatment," one student told Reuters.

A police officer, who did not wish to be named, confirmed the student and the taxi driver had been shot.

The five students had spoiled Nkurunziza's photo in a book, a school administrator said.

Burundi has been mired in a year-long crisis in which more than 450 people have been killed since Nkurunziza pursued and won a third term. Opponents said his move violated the constitution and a deal that ended a civil war in 2005.

Nkurunziza's camp says a court ruling had declared the former rebel-turned-president eligible to seek another term.

Two weeks ago, more than 300 students of a school in the capital's Ruziba neighbourhood were sent home for the same reason.

Due to concerns about the behavior of Burundian security forces at home, the United Nations in February said its peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic would repatriate three military officers on suspicion they committed human rights violations during political unrest back in Burundi.

The world body went further on Friday, announcing that the country's police units would no longer serve in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic once their current tour is completed.

"In light of the current situation in Burundi, a decision has been taken at U.N. headquarters not to replace the units serving in the country when their tour of duty ends," U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in New York.
Carter urges China to join 'principled security network' for Asia

By David Brunnstrom

SINGAPORE, June 4 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter urged China on Saturday to join a "principled security network" for Asia, saying that the United States would remain the world's most powerful military and the main guarantor of regional security for decades to come.

In an attempt to counter some concerns in Asia about U.S. staying power, Carter told a regional security forum in Singapore that the U.S. approach to the Asia-Pacific remained "one of commitment, strength and inclusion."

He said tensions in the South China Sea, where China has been backing its vast territorial claims by building artificial islands, North Korea's nuclear program and violent extremism challenged regional peace and "forward thinking statesmen and leaders must ... come together to ensure a positive principled future."

He said the "principled security network" he envisaged represented "the next wave in Asia-Pacific security" and could also help protect against "Russia's worrying actions" and the "growing strategic impact of climate change."

Carter said the United States and many Asian countries were stepping up security cooperation to ensure they were able to make choices "free from coercion and intimidation."

"Even as the United States will remain the most powerful military and main underwriter of security in the region for decades to come - and there should be no doubt about that - those growing bilateral relationships demonstrate that nations around the region are also committed to doing more to promote continued regional security and prosperity," Carter said.

Carter said some "expansive and unprecedented actions" by China in pursuit of claims in the South China Sea, in cyberspace and in the air, had raised concerns about its strategic intentions. He urged Beijing to join the regional trend or risk "erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation."

"The United States welcomes the emergence of a peaceful, stable, and prosperous China that plays a responsible role in the region's principled security network. We know China's inclusion makes for a stronger network and a more stable, secure, and prosperous region," he said.

Carter, who spoke at Singapore's annual Shangri-La Dialogue, stressed the work the United States had undertaken to strengthen security ties with countries including Japan, India, the Philippines, Vietnam and Australia as part of President Barack Obama's so-called pivot, or rebalance, to the Asia-Pacific.

TRUMP COUNTER

He said that for decades some had wrongly predicted an impending U.S. withdrawal from the region, but this would not happen.

"That's because this region, which is home to nearly half the world's population and nearly half the global economy, remains the most consequential for America's own security and prosperity," Carter said.

In an apparent counter to "America-first" policies expounded by prospective Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, including suggestions that U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Asia, Carter stressed bipartisan support for continued engagement.

"Regardless of what else was going on at home or in other parts of the world - during Democratic and Republican administrations, in times of surplus and deficit, war and peace - the United States has remained economically, politically, and militarily engaged, as well as geographically located in the Asia-Pacific," he said.

"That's because U.S. engagement in the Asia-Pacific is in America's interest, not the policy of any one political party."

Carter said that in the hope of building confidence with China through military-to-military cooperation, he had accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Beijing this year.

At the same time, he said the United States and Laos had agreed to co-host and informal meeting of defense ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Hawaii in September to follow up on commitments made at a summit in February that territorial disputes should be resolved peacefully and through legal means.

Carter's speech comes ahead of a significant ruling expected in coming weeks on a case the Philippines in the International Court of Arbitration challenging China's South China Sea claims, which Beijing has vowed to ignore.
IMF approves $1.5 bln loan to back Sri Lanka's economic reforms

COLOMBO, June 4 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) executive board has approved a three-year $1.5 billion loan to support Sri Lanka's economic reform agenda, the global lender said on Saturday.

"The arrangement aims to meet balance of payments needs arising from a deteriorating external environment and pressures that may persist until macroeconomic policies can be adjusted," the IMF said in a statement.
NY Fed first rejected cyber-heist transfers, then moved $81 million

By Krishna N. Das and Jonathan Spicer

DHAKA/NEW YORK, June 3 (Reuters) - Hours before the Federal Reserve Bank of New York approved four fraudulent requests to send $81 million from a Bangladesh Bank account to cyber thieves, the Fed branch blocked those same requests because they lacked information required to transfer money, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

On the day of the theft in February, the New York Fed initially rejected 35 requests to transfer funds to various overseas accounts, a New York Fed official and a senior Bangladesh Bank official told Reuters. The Fed's decision to later fulfill a handful of resubmitted requests raises questions about whether it missed red flags.

The New York arm of the U.S. central bank initially denied the transfer requests because they lacked proper formatting for the SWIFT messaging system, the network banks use for international financial transfers, the two officials said.

The Bangladesh Bank official said they lacked the names of correspondent banks, which typically receive wired funds. The Fed rejected the requests, which came from hackers who had broken into the SWIFT network through Bangladesh Bank systems.

Later in the day, however, the cyber thieves resubmitted those 35 requests. On the second try, the messages had the proper formatting, the New York Fed official said. The requests had been authenticated by SWIFT, the first line of defense against fraudulent wire transfers.

Despite the technical compliance, the New York Fed rejected 30 of the requests a second time. But the Fed did approve five requests - for a total of $101 million. Later, one of those five transfers - a $20 million request - was reversed because of a misspelling.

The New York Fed has said it blocked the 30 resubmitted requests because they were flagged for economic sanctions review. Only afterward were they deemed potentially fraudulent.

The Bangladesh Bank official and another source close to the bank said the New York Fed should have rejected all the requests on both the first and second attempts.

The source close to the bank, who also had direct knowledge of the matter, said anomalies in the four transfers that ultimately went through should have raised questions at the New York Fed. They were paid to individual recipients, a rarity for Bangladesh's central bank, and the false names on the four approved withdrawals also appeared on some of the 30 resubmitted requests rejected by the bank, said the source close to the Bangladesh Bank.

"Of course, we asked the Fed why the repetition of the names did not create red flags," the source said.

"They are saying they rejected 35 badly submitted ones," the source said. But when the requests were re-submitted, they "paid 5 of them and stopped 30. Why? They can give no answer."

Bangladesh Bank and SWIFT declined to comment. The New York Fed has said there were no problems with its procedures for approving SWIFT fund transfers, and declined to comment on whether it missed any warning signs.

The cyber theft from Bangladesh's central bank - and recent disclosures of other similar fraud attempts - have brought scrutiny on the SWIFT messaging system. SWIFT is a cooperative of global banks formally known as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, and its transaction system was used as a conduit for one of the largest cyber bank heists in history.

In the United States, a congressional committee has launched a probe into the New York Fed's role in the bank heist. The Bangladeshi central bank might seek compensation for the funds from the Federal Reserve, and Bangladesh Bank police have said that recent installation of a new SWIFT settlement system at the bank last fall may have provided thieves an opportunity to gain access to the bank's SWIFT servers.

RED FLAGS?

The New York Fed's reviews of payment requests that come over the SWIFT system are focused chiefly on guarding against money laundering and transfers to people and entities that are under U.S. government sanctions, Fed officials have said. But requests often also are temporarily halted to fix typos and other formatting problems.

The Fed branch has said its clients, including Bangladesh Bank, and SWIFT have primary responsibility for preventing unauthorized transfers.

Fed employees queried Bangladesh Bank about the purpose of the payments requested on Feb. 4 and again on Feb. 5, according to a letter to congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) by New York Fed General Counsel Thomas Baxter.

The four transfers totaling $81 million went to accounts in the Philippines. The money wound up with casinos and casino agents and remains missing. An attempt to transfer $20 million to a foundation in Sri Lanka was reversed because the word "foundation" was misspelled.

The source close to Bangladesh Bank said questions about the anomalies in the approved requests were discussed at a meeting in Basel last month between New York Fed President William Dudley, Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir and representatives from SWIFT.

Rep. Maloney and Tom Carper, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, both have made inquiries to the New York Fed.

The House Science Committee informed the New York Fed in a letter this week that it is launching a probe into its handling of the transfer requests. The committee plans to examine the New York Fed's response to the heist, the oversight of SWIFT, and whether additional measures are needed to address vulnerabilities to cyber attacks.
Democracy is nothing to fear, Taiwan tells China on Tiananmen anniversary

By J.R. Wu

TAIPEI, June 4 (Reuters) - On the anniversary of China's bloody crackdown on student-led protests in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square, Taiwan's new president told China on Saturday that democracy is nothing to fear.

Tsai Ing-wen said in a Facebook post on the 27th anniversary that Taiwan could serve as an example to China.

Tsai said in the run-up to Taiwan's elections earlier this year she had seen people from from China, as well as the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, mixing with crowds in Taiwan.

"These many friends, after experiencing things for themselves can see that in fact there's nothing scary about democracy. Democracy is a good and fine thing," wrote Tsai, who took office last month.

China sent in tanks to break up demonstrations on June 4, 1989. Beijing has never released a death toll but estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand.

The subject remains all but taboo in China, where President Xi Jinping is overseeing a broad crackdown on rights groups and activists.

Tsai also said in her Facebook post about the Tiananmen crackdown's anniversary that nobody could deny the material advances China had made under the Communist Party.

However, China would win even more respect internationally if it gave its people even more rights, wrote Tsai, who is from Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.

Taiwan is the only part of the Chinese-speaking world which holds free elections, and Tsai risks upsetting Beijing with her frank remarks on Tiananmen.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring what it views as a wayward province under its control and is deeply suspicious of Tsai. Chinese officials have accused her of pushing the island towards formal independence.

In Beijing, security was tight at Tiananmen Square, with long lines at bag and identity checks. The square itself was peaceful, with hundreds of tourists stopping to take photos in the early summer sun.

While most state media made no mention of the sensitive anniversary, the English version of popular Beijing-based tabloid the Global Times wrote in a commentary that people in China had put the events of 1989 behind them.

"The annual hubbub around the June 4 incident is nothing but bubbles that are doomed to burst."

Tsai said Taiwan understood the pain caused by Tiananmen because Taiwan had similar experiences in its struggle for democracy, referring to repression under the martial law enforced by the Nationalists over the island from 1949-1987.

"I'm not here to give advice about the political system on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, but am willing to sincerely share Taiwan's democratic experience," she said.
Sahrawis, officials pay tribute to Western Sahara leader

By Hamid Ould Ahmed

RABONI, Algeria, June 4 (Reuters) - Chanting slogans for independence, hundreds of Sahrawi people joined diplomats and government officials in southern Algerian camps to pay their respects to Western Sahara independence leader Mohamed Abdelaziz who died this week after illness.

Abdelaziz, 68, will be buried on Saturday. On Friday his coffin arrived in the southern Algerian camps where his Polisario Front movement has been based since a 1991 ceasefire that halted their conflict with Morocco for independence.

He died after more than three decades as leader of the Sahrawi people's Polisario Front movement fighting for self-determination for the disputed territory, and as president of its self-declared Sahrawi Republic.

Many of those who gathered outside the presidency to greet his coffin on Friday wore military uniforms of their Polisario forces who fought a guerrilla war against Morocco until the 1991 ceasefire. Since then the dispute has been at a stalemate over how to hold a referendum on its future.

"The Sahrawi people will remain united and will continue the battle until independence," said Bachir Hella, Polisario's deputy parliament speaker. "The death of our leader will not affect the Sahrawi people. All Sahrawi will stand in his place."

An honor guard carried his coffin, and women wept along the roadside leading to the presidency in an area between the Algerian town of Tindouf and the Moroccan protective berm that the Polisario calls "liberated territory".

Attempts to end the Western Sahara conflict have been blocked over how to carry out the vote, first proposed after the U.N. ceasefire deal. Polisario has pushed for the referendum, but Morocco is offering an autonomy plan it says satisfies the U.N. resolution for a "mutually acceptable" solution.

Morocco took over most of the territory in 1975 after the end of Spanish colonial rule. That sparked a guerrilla war with the Sahrawis who say the territory belongs to them. Polisario has been based in southern Algerian refugee camps since then.

Polisario Front declared 40 days of mourning for Abdelaziz after which they will hold an extraordinary session to chose a new leader, who must keep the referendum proposal in the spotlight while managing frustrations of younger generation of Sahrawi who have spent their lives in refugee camps.
Syrian army enters provincial boundary of Raqqa province - monitor

AMMAN, June 4 (Reuters) - The Syrian army has crossed the boundary of Raqqa province after advancing in a major Russian-backed offensive against Islamic State militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war, said on Saturday.

Heavy Russian air strikes hit Islamic State-held territory in eastern areas of Syria's Hama province, near the boundary of Raqqa province, on Friday and the army reached the edge of the province.
Syrian army presses offensive against Islamic State

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN, June 4 (Reuters) - The Syrian army pushed into Raqqa province, home to the de facto capital of Islamic State, after a major Russian-backed offensive against the militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.

The offensive is the third big assault on the self-proclaimed caliphate in recent days after Iraqi forces attempted to storm Falluja in central Iraq and a Syrian militia advanced with U.S. support towards Manbij in the north near the Turkish border.

The offensives are some of the most aggressive campaigns against Islamic State since it declared its aim to rule over all Muslims from parts of Iraq and Syria two years ago.

Friday's assault saw the army reach the edge of Syria's Raqqa province after heavy Russian air strikes hit Islamic State-held territory in eastern areas of neighbouring Hama province.

Raqqa city, further east, is Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria and, along with Mosul in Iraq, the ultimate target of those seeking to destroy the group.

State media said on Friday the army had made territorial gains and inflicted heavy casualties on the militants.

Syrian army spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

State media has given no indication of how many troops are involved in the offensive, or what weaponry they might be using.

The Observatory also had no comment about numbers or weapons, but said at least 26 Islamic States militants had been killed along with nine from the Syrian and allied forces.

The war monitor said the army advance meant it was now almost 40 km from an area in which U.S. backed rebels were also waging an offensive to isolate the militants' strongholds in northern Aleppo from their territories east of the Euphrates river, where Raqqa city is located.

Should the army be able to reach the area where the rebels are also fighting Islamic State, that would leave the ultra hard line group hemmed in, albeit by forces highly unlikely to work together as they are on opposing sides in the multi-faceted conflict.

ALEPPO OFFENSIVE

The U.S.-backed rebels also continued to make rapid advances in an offensive against IS-held areas in Aleppo province, beginning with the Manbij area where they continued to seize more territory, according to Kurdish sources and the monitor.

That thrust, supported by U.S. special forces, aims to deny Islamic State any access to the Turkish frontier, which is crucial for supplies of arms and food.

The Observatory said that these forces were able to reach nearly 5 to 6 km from Manbij town, further tightening the noose around the militants by cutting the town's main supply routes with Raqqa and laying siege to their fighters dug in the city.

"We made big progress and we are trying to ensure the safety of civilians before we begin our assault on the town," Sharfan Darweesh, a spokesman for the Military Council for Manbij, a tribal group affiliated with the U.S. backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) was quoted as saying.

The influential pro-Damascus Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar said on Friday the army operation did not aim to reach Raqqa city within the coming weeks, but was to reach Tabqa city and Lake Assad, which Taqba overlooks.

Islamic State captured Tabqa in 2014 at the height of its rapid expansion in Syria and Iraq. Tabqa, the location of an air base, is some 50 km (30 miles) west of Raqqa city.

The town is on a key route that links Raqqa with areas the ultra hardline militants control in northern Aleppo.

Separately, militants from radical Islamic groups led by al-Qaeda offshoot Nusra Front consolidated gains in the last 24 hours in southern Aleppo, according to rebel groups.

More than 1,000 militants have begun an offensive against Syrian army positions southwest of Aleppo, the Russian ceasefire monitoring centre in Syria said in a statement on Saturday.

The centre also reported civilians in Aleppo as saying armed groups partly made up of Turkish soldiers had appeared north of the city.

The insurgent advance will make it more difficult for the army and its allies to encircle rebel-held parts of Aleppo city where intensified bombing in the last 24 hours has killed scores of civilians mainly by barrel bombing of residential areas.

An attack last month by Nusra Front in southern Aleppo delivered one of the biggest battlefield setbacks yet to a coalition of foreign Shi'ite fighters, including Iranians and the Lebanese Hezbollah fighting in support of Syrian government forces.
Japan, South Korea to set up direct line between defence ministers

SINGAPORE, June 4 (Reuters) - Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said on Saturday that Japan and South Korea agreed to expand an emergency communication system between their defence ministries, including adding a new direct line between defence ministers.

Tensions have been high in the region since early January when North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test. It has followed that with a satellite launch and tests of various missiles, most recently a failed launch on Tuesday.

"What it means is that we will make use of phones for emergency communication, when security-related emergencies such as a missile launch occur, and communication and coordination between the defence authorities of the two countries are needed," Nakatani told reporters at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a regional security forum in Singapore.

He said such emergency phone lines would be expanded to include a new direct link between the two countries' defence ministers.

Nakatani said talks would continue on sharing and safeguarding sensitive information on Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programmes.

Under the framework, South Korea would pass relevant information to the United States, with which Seoul already has a legally-binding pact to share and safeguard intelligence called General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA). The United States would then pass the information on to Japan.

It would work similarly the other way around since the United States has also signed a GSOMIA with Japan.

Some South Koreans have voiced concerns about signing a security pact with Japan, their one-time colonial ruler.

Besides historical issues stemming from Japan's annexation of the Korean peninsula that ended in 1945, ties have been chilled by a long-running territorial dispute over a group of tiny islets.
Coalition strikes, Turkish shelling kill 14 Islamic State militants in Syria

ISTANBUL, June 4 (Reuters) - Cross-border shelling by the Turkish army and air strikes by U.S.-led coalition aircraft killed 14 Islamic State militants in Syria, state-run Anadolu Agency cited Turkey's military as saying on Saturday.

Eleven Islamic State targets were hit by Turkish artillery and by nine air strikes as they were believed to be preparing to fire on Turkey, the armed forces was reported as saying. It was not clear when the military action occurred.

The strikes targeted several areas near the Syrian town of Azaz, west of a U.S.-backed operation against IS militants and directly south of the Turkish border town of Kilis, which has been repeatedly hit by Islamic State rockets.

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", further east near the Turkish border, which Islamic State has used as a logistics hub.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday the U.S.-backed offensive was largely being carried out by Arab rather than Kurdish fighters, in a sign of tacit approval for the operation.
Vietnamese general says first purchase of U.S. weapons some way off

By Greg Torode

SINGAPORE, June 4 (Reuters) - The recent lifting of the U.S. arms embargo against Vietnam boosted trust between the former enemies, but significant weapons purchases are some way off, a senior Vietnamese military official said on Saturday.

Deputy Defence Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh told Reuters possible weapons buys were part of a long-planned strengthening of Vietnamese-U.S. relations across economic, political, cultural and security fronts.

"We are not sure what we can buy from the U.S. or what we want to buy," Vinh said in some of the first public comments from a Vietnamese defence official since U.S. President Barack Obama lifted the embargo in Hanoi last month.

"It is at a very, very first step, I should stress," he said.

"The removal of the embargo is not just significant in terms of trade, but also in terms of improving high-level trust and confidence."

An evolving military relationship between the United States and Vietnam is being closely watched across the region as Hanoi seeks to deter its giant neighbour China over its more asserted stance on claims in the disputed South China Sea.

The United States is eyeing closer military relations with Hanoi as it seeks to expand its so-called strategic pivot back to Asia amid concern over China's rising power in the region.

Vietnam has rapidly increased military spending over the last decade, relying on its Cold War-era patron Moscow for purchases of state-of-the-art submarines, jet fighters and advanced missile systems.

U.S. weapons manufacturers are eager to tap a new market in Vietnam but regional security experts believe Hanoi will move only gradually in easing its dependence on Moscow.

The relatively high cost of U.S. weapons is another factor but regional military sources believe Vietnam is keen to first acquire improved surveillance and communications equipment to help it keep a better watch on China.

This could include maritime patrol aircraft.

Speaking privately, U.S. officials say Vietnam has yet to start detailed discussions with Washington about its specific needs and gaps in its capabilities, a factor which they believe reflects decades of habitual secrecy.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Shangri-la Dialogue security summit in Singapore, Vinh did not detail Vietnam's first planned U.S. procurements but repeatedly stated Vietnam's military improvements were defensive.
South Africa's investment grade rating still vulnerable after S&P reprieve

JOHANNESBURG, June 4 (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's decision to maintain South Africa's investment grade credit rating has taken some pressure off President Jacob Zuma ahead of elections in August, although analysts said the country is still vulnerable to a downgrade to "junk" status.

S&P kept its negative outlook on South Africa's BBB- rating after a review on Friday, warning a downgrade to "junk" status could be on the cards later this year, or the next if policy measures did not turn around an ailing economy expected to grow by 0.9 percent at most in 2016.

Zuma, in a statement on Saturday, said the S&P review was the result of "the sterling work that has been done over the last few months to turn our economy around".

"The decision ... which follows on the footsteps of yet another encouraging decision by Moody's demonstrates that working together we can reignite our economy, attract investment and create jobs for our people," he added.

S&P, Moody's and peer Fitch, whose own review is expected in the next few days, have all warned of possible cuts to South Africa's credit standing after Zuma rattled investors by changing finance ministers twice in less than a week in December.

Analysts said S&P's decision, which came after Moody's also held its Baa2 rating on Pretoria last month, was a nod to extensive firefighting efforts by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, reappointed in December to calm jittery markets after a previous stint in 2009-2014.

But they also said any policy slip-ups or political rhetoric that backs the rising speculation that Gordhan does not enjoy Zuma's full support, could induce a downgrade by year-end.

"We still firmly believe that South Africa's propensity to make policy mistakes, the lack of key reforms, and uncertainty in the economy mean that we are on a near inevitable path towards sub-investment grade," Nomura analyst Peter Attard Montalto said.

"The politics just don't allow National Treasury the space to be 'good' at growth-boosting reforms."

Zuma has faced increasing opposition accusations of mismanaging the country ahead of key local government elections on Aug. 3.
Austria's Freedom Party likely to challenge presidential election result-OE1

ZURICH, June 4 (Reuters) - Austria's anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPO) is very likely to formally challenge the result of last month's presidential election and is calling for postal ballots to be abolished, its leader said on Saturday.

Asked how likely it is the FPO will formally challenge the result of the vote, which its candidate Norbert Hofer narrowly lost, Heinz-Christian Strache said in an interview with radio station OE1: "It is very likely ... over 50 percent."

He said the party would make its decision by Wednesday, the deadline for challenges.

"If the irregularities are confirmed by legal experts ... then we have a responsibility to democracy," Strache said.

The FPO has said it is examining several irregularities that have come to light in individual polling stations, ranging from postal ballots having been counted too early to the number of votes having been overstated.

"Postal ballots in their current form have to be abolished," Strache said in the interview, adding that voting by mail did not meet constitutional requirements for a secret ballot.
Boko Haram attack in southeastern Niger kills 32 soldiers

NIAMEY, June 4 (Reuters) - Thirty Nigerien soldiers and two Nigerian soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram attack on Friday night against the southeastern town of Bosso, close to the border with Nigeria, Niger's defence ministry said on Saturday.

"On Friday, hundreds of assailants of Boko Haram attacked" the position of the army of Bosso, the ministry said in a statement.
Russia says more than 40 killed by Al Nusra shelling in Syria's Aleppo

MOSCOW, June 4 (Reuters) - More than 40 people have been killed and around a hundred injured by Al Nusra militants shelling in the Syrian city of Aleppo, Russian news agencies cited the Russian ceasefire monitoring centre in Syria as saying on Saturday.
Nigeria says it has recovered $9.1 bln in stolen money and assets

ABUJA, June 4 (Reuters) - Nigeria's government has recovered $9.1 billion in stolen money and assets, its information and culture minister said on Saturday, as its corruption crackdown continues against the backdrop of the country's worst economic crisis in years.

President Muhammadu Buhari, elected last year largely on his vow to fight corruption, has vowed to recover "mind-boggling" sums of money stolen from the oil sector and said public coffers were "virtually empty" when he took office last May.

Since then the country has endured an economic crisis caused by the sharp fall in global oil prices, making the need to recoup lost money more acute. Crude sales account for around 70 percent of national income.

In a statement, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said cash and assets recovered between May 29 last year, when Buhari took office, and May 25 this year totalled $9.1 billion.

The government has said it plans to generate 3.38 trillion naira ($17 billion) this year from non-oil sources to help fund the $30.6 billion budget signed into law by Buhari last month.

It was not immediately clear how much outstanding money in total is still being sought by the government.

"All these are monies recovered from individuals and entities who had either hidden, stolen, diverted or were in possession of monies belonging to the nation," the minister's special adviser, Segun Adeyemi, told Reuters.

"These recovered funds include monies withheld by past government officials, monies kept in private accounts, monies diverted to private pockets and monies in possession of government officials not disclosed after leaving government."

The information minister told Reuters he could not name any individuals from whom money had been recovered for legal reasons.

He said some of the money came after companies that had failed to pay taxes were forced to do so retrospectively.

The ministry also said a total of $321 million was yet to be recovered from Nigerians in Switzerland, the Britain, the United States and the United Arab Emirates or their assets held in those countries.
U.S. warns Islamist militants planning attacks in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG, June 4 (Reuters) - The United States warned its citizens on Saturday of possible attacks by Islamist militants on U.S. facilities or shopping malls in South Africa during the upcoming month of Ramadan, but the South African government said the country was safe.

It was the second such warning in under a year from the embassy, which issued a similar alert in September in a country that has a significant expatriate and tourist population but has seldom been associated with Islamist militancy.

The U.S. embassy said up-market shopping areas and malls in the commercial hub of Johannesburg and Cape Town, widely regarded as South Africa's tourism capital, were the main target areas in the suspected planned attacks.

"This information comes against the backdrop of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's public call for its adherents to carry out terrorist attacks globally during the upcoming month of Ramadan," it said in a statement posted on its website. http://1.usa.gov/1UkdY8R

Last month, a new message purporting to come from the spokesman of Islamic State called on followers to launch attacks on the West during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins in early June.

South Africa's foreign affairs department said the country's security agencies were capable of ensuring the safety of its residents, noting that no incident or attack had taken place after the previous warning by the U.S. embassy last year.

"The state security agency and other security agencies in this country are very much capable of keeping South Africa safe and everybody in this country, including Americans," foreign affair's ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela said.

"The last time they did this, towards the end of last year, nothing came out of that advisory," he added.

South African police were not available to comment.

Following a similar warning in 2009, the U.S. closed its embassy and consulates in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town for several days.

On Saturday, the embassy said it would remain open.

"This will not affect operations at the U.S. embassy Pretoria or our Consulates in Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban," U.S. embassy spokeswoman Cynthia Harvey said.
South African security agencies capable of keeping country safe -spokesman

JOHANNESBURG, June 4 (Reuters) - South African security agencies are capable of ensuring the safety off all people residing in the country, its foreign affairs spokesman said on Saturday after the U.S. embassy warned of attacks against its citizens.
UAE leader leaves country on rare trip since 2014 stroke

RIYADH, June 4 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan has left the country for a private trip abroad, state news agency WAM reported on Saturday, a rare report on the leader's movements since he suffered a stroke in 2014.

It did not give any details on where he was travelling or for what purpose.

The pro-Western moderniser and head of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, the largest of the federation's seven emirates, has been president since the death of his father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, in 2004.

For much of the past decade, Sheikh Khalifa's younger brother Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, has led negotiations on behalf of the UAE in sectors ranging from energy and defence to investment and politics.

The UAE is an ally of the United States, a major oil producer and a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council alongside Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.
14 missing after boat overturns in southwest China

SHANGHAI, June 4 (Reuters) - Fourteen people are missing after a leisure boat capsized in strong winds on a lake in southwest China's Sichuan province on Saturday, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing the local government.

Rescuers have pulled four people from the lake since the boat carrying 18 passengers capsized in the afternoon in "strong gales", the local district government said in a statement.
Nigerian militant group urges others not to attack soldiers or kidnap people

YENAGOA, Nigeria June 4 (Reuters) - A militant group that has claimed responsibility for several attacks on Nigeria's oil infrastructure urged other groups on Saturday not to attack soldiers or kidnap people.

The Niger Delta Avengers militant group, which says its attacks have not killed anyone, also urged a group that said it has anti-aircraft missiles not to target any aircraft.

The recent spate of attacks in the Niger Delta, which is Nigeria's oil producing hub, have driven the OPEC member's crude output to a more than 20-year low and prompted President Muhammadu Buhari to send troops to the region.

The Delta is the source of most of the oil that provides 70 percent of national income. The Avengers group wants more of that wealth to be directed to the poor swampland region.

But "the war is on oil installations," it said in a statement which referred to "the daily emergence of new groups" and added: "Avengers will deal with any group that refuses and attacks military (personnel)."

The statement, entitled "Message to Our Brothers in the Struggle", added: "The high command is calling on all groups in Rivers, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom to not indulge in any act of kidnapping and attacking of soldiers."

The Avengers have claimed responsibility for most of the latest attacks, most recently three on Friday, but the insurgency is splintered into factions, with each group listing their demands. It is not clear whether the Avengers wield influence over other groups.

They have said they aim to cut Nigeria's oil production to zero. The oil minister said on Thursday that output was 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), down from around 2 million bpd at the start of the year.
Democracy is nothing to fear, Taiwan tells China on Tiananmen anniversary

By J.R. Wu

TAIPEI, June 4 (Reuters) - On the anniversary of China's bloody crackdown on student-led protests in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square, Taiwan's new president told China on Saturday that democracy is nothing to fear.

Tsai Ing-wen said in a Facebook post on the 27th anniversary that Taiwan could serve as an example to China.

Tsai said in the run-up to Taiwan's elections earlier this year that she had seen people from China, as well as the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, mixing with crowds in Taiwan.

"These many friends, after experiencing things for themselves can see that in fact there's nothing scary about democracy. Democracy is a good and fine thing," wrote Tsai, who took office last month.

China sent in tanks to break up the demonstrations on June 4, 1989. Beijing has never released a death toll but estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand.

The subject remains all but taboo in China, where President Xi Jinping is overseeing a broad crackdown on rights groups and activists.

Tsai also said in her Facebook post about the Tiananmen crackdown's anniversary that nobody could deny the material advances China had made under the Communist Party.

However, China would win even more respect internationally if it gave its people even more rights, wrote Tsai, who is from Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.

Taiwan is the only part of the Chinese-speaking world which holds free elections, and Tsai risks upsetting Beijing with her frank remarks on Tiananmen.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring what it views as a wayward province under its control and is deeply suspicious of Tsai. Chinese officials have accused her of pushing the island towards formal independence.

In Beijing, security was tight at Tiananmen Square, with long lines at bag and identity checks. The square itself was peaceful, with hundreds of tourists stopping to take photos in the early summer sun.

While most state media made no mention of the sensitive anniversary, the English version of popular Beijing-based tabloid the Global Times wrote in a commentary that people in China had put the events of 1989 behind them.

"The annual hubbub around the June 4 incident is nothing but bubbles that are doomed to burst."

China dismissed a statement by the U.S. Department of State on the political turbulence in 1989, urging the United States not to harm bilateral ties, the official Xinhua news service reported.

Tsai said Taiwan understood the pain caused by Tiananmen because Taiwan had similar experiences in its struggle for democracy, referring to repression under the martial law enforced by the Nationalists over the island from 1949 to 1987.

"I'm not here to give advice about the political system on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, but am willing to sincerely share Taiwan's democratic experience," she said.

In Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 and is one of the only places on Chinese soil where June 4 commemorations are tolerated, around 125,000 people attended the main candlelight vigil in Victoria Park, according to organizers' estimates, which local broadcaster RTHK said was the lowest attendance since 2008.

The police estimated attendance at 21,800.

In a sign of persistent tensions around Hong Kong's future and its relationship to mainland China, an activist shouting for Hong Kong independence tried to rush the stage at the vigil.

A number of university students boycotted the main vigil and instead held separate on-campus events discussing the city's current political situation instead of just commemorating the events of 1989.

Reuters estimated about 2,000 people attended events at local universities.
Polish power grid operator confirms it is limiting power imports from Lithuania

WARSAW, June 4 (Reuters) - Polish electricity grid operator PSE confirmed on Saturday that it had imposed nightly limits on importing power supply from Lithuania, saying the decision was for technical reasons and only temporary.

Reuters had reported on Friday that energy market regulators in Poland and Lithuania are investigating whether PSE is breaking European Union rules by limiting Lithuanian imports.

Their investigation followed a request by Estonia's state-owned power group Eesti Energia.

"In response to the technical restrictions that - for the sake of safety of the national electricity system - PSE must impose at night time, they are of indiscriminatory character, proportional (...) and temporary," PSE said in a statement.

"PSE's intention is to eliminate those restrictions as soon as possible."

Legal experts say the restrictions, which are adding to tensions between Poland's eurosceptic government and the European Commission, could be in breach of EU market rules.

The EU wants to see electricity flowing freely across the bloc without technical or regulatory barriers, to help reduce prices for consumers and ensure security of supply.

Lithuania and Poland started power transactions on their first 500-megawatt link in December.
Seventeen detainees escape from Bahraini prison

DUBAI, June 4 (Reuters) - Seventeen detainees escaped from a prison in Bahrain, police said on Saturday, and the government warned citizens against giving them shelter.

The official Bahrain News Agency said 11 of those who escaped on Friday had since been recaptured, and six remained at large. Five others who aided in the planning and execution of the escape had also been arrested, it quoted police as saying.

The news agency said Interior Minister Sheikh Rashed bin Abdullah al-Khalifa, chairing a security meeting to review the circumstances of the escape from the Dry Dock Detention Center, warned Bahrainis against harbouring the fugitives.

The news agency did not say whether the escapees were prisoners jailed for anti-government demonstrations or attacks, or inmates convicted of ordinary crimes.

Thousands of mainly Shi'ite Muslim Bahrainis are in jail on charges ranging from participating in anti-government protests to armed attacks on security forces in the Western-allied Gulf kingdom, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based.

Social media users posted at least one photo of a road where traffic was backed up for miles, and said it was caused by police closing roads to search for the prisoners on the run.

Bahrain was rocked in 2011 by Arab Spring-style mass protests staged mainly by the Shi'ite community demanding political and economic reforms, including a bigger share in running the country.

The government, with backing from Saudi Arabia, put down the protests by force, but demonstrators continue to erupt from time to time, often drawing swift response from police.
Italy and France are urging caution over bank capital-minister

TRENTO, Italy, June 4 (Reuters) - Excessive capital requirements can backfire, Italy's economy minister said on Saturday, defending a joint French-Italian proposal to cap the amount of reserves that euro zone banks should have to wipe out before they can be rescued.

Rules in force since the beginning of this year require euro zone banks to respect a minimum requirement for their own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) in order to qualify for access to a bank-financed rescue fund in case of failure, and avoid full liquidation.

In a joint paper, seen by Reuters, Paris and Rome raised doubts on the rationale of introducing a floor for MREL and urged instead a cap that should not exceed 8 percent of banks' debt.

Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan told an economic conference on Saturday there was a risk banks could be asked to raise too much capital too quickly, which would leave them vulnerable if tough markets made it hard to raise funds.

"Instead of stronger banks we end up with weaker ones," he said.

"The French-Italian initiative at this very delicate stage of the creation of a banking union is a voice calling for caution. We're all going in the same direction, a stronger banking system, let's do so at the right pace, let's not exaggerate please."

Following the euro zone debt and banking crisis, EU countries have designed a banking union meant to strengthen lenders' financial stability, but have not yet brought the plan to completion.

Germany, the dominant power in the euro zone, is dragging its feet on a European bank deposit guarantee scheme, widely regarded as a missing link in the project.

"If we don't accept risk-sharing why are we wasting our time with the euro?," Padoan said.

Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco on Tuesday warned that incomplete progress in establishing a banking union risked making the euro zone more vulnerable because authorities may be unable to stop contagion in a crisis.

Padoan also saw potential contagion risks from 'bail in' rules hitting bank investors and large depositors before public money can be tapped to rescue a bank.
Clinton, Sanders vie for pro-immigrant vote in California race

By Mike Blake

LOS ANGELES, June 4 (Reuters) - Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigned across California, stopping in immigrant communities, big cities and the agricultural heartland on the final weekend before Tuesday's primary in the nation's biggest state.

Clinton is expected to sew up the party nomination in Tuesday's six state nominating contests, but needs a win in heavily Democratic California to solidify her campaign for the Nov. 8 election against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Though Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, faces nearly insurmountable odds to become the Democratic nominee, he has invested heavily in California, where a win could pressure the party to adopt some of the populist policies that have driven his campaign.

Polls show Sanders has chipped away at Clinton's lead in the state, where the former first lady and her husband former President Bill Clinton have built a vast network of supporters, including increasingly powerful Hispanic voters.

Clinton used a stop at a Los Angeles area college Saturday to criticize Trump for making "hateful, very prejudicial" statements about immigrants.

The New York billionaire businessman has vowed to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

On Friday, Trump escalated his attacks on a federal judge, who is Mexican American, suggesting his heritage was influencing his opinion on a lawsuit involving fraud at a failed Trump business, Trump University.

But the former secretary of state also hit Sanders, a Democratic socialist, for voting against a 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill.

"I was in the Senate then, so was President Obama and so was Senator Sanders. President Obama and I voted for it, Senator Sanders voted against it. And that ended it," Clinton said.

"It was heartbreaking," Clinton added.

California is home to one-fourth of the immigrant population in the United States, with around 10 million people, and also to one-fourth of the 11.3 million illegal immigrants in the country.

Clinton, with 2,312 delegates, needs 71 more delegates to reach the required 2,383 for the Democratic nomination. Sanders has 1,545. California, the most populous U.S. state, has 548 delegates who are awarded proportional to the vote.

Recent tracking polls showed Clinton having a 2 to 10 percentage point lead over Sanders in California, the last major primary.

The other states holding nominating contests on June 7 are New Jersey, New Mexico, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Clinton will travel to the strawberry growing town of Oxnard, the affluent city of Santa Barbara and the agriculture hub of Fresno later Saturday, while Sanders will hold a town hall at the Casa del Mexicano cultural center in Los Angeles.
This is my fifth June 4 in Beijing.

Twenty-seven years ago today, residents of the Chinese capital were waking up in a state of shock. The night before, blood flowed on the streets of this old city, as Deng Xiaoping, remembered today as the architect of China's economic reforms, sent in the tanks of the People's Liberation Army to clear Tiananmen Square of student protesters.

That entire summer, the young and idealistic students had taken to the streets - not just in Beijing but across China, as is often forgotten - to call for an end to corruption and for democratic reforms.

Every June 4 sees remembrances of the 1989 protests, and the lives lost in their brutal denouement, in Hong Kong and Taiwan, in New York and London.

A few years ago, I witnessed thousands gather in Taipei to remember the students. Wu'er Kaixi, the exiled student leader who fled China in 1989 - and is number two on China's most-wanted list of student leaders - told me then that the flame of remembrance was still being kept alive.

Wu'er Kaixi, the exiled student leader who fled China in 1989. (Reuters)

But not in Beijing or elsewhere in China. Today, there is no media coverage, remembrances, or vigils to mark an event that changed the course of history.

A common perception that explains this silence is that people in China simply don't know about what happened on the night of June 3, 1989. (I've often noticed that Indian tourists in Beijing seem to get a thrill from asking their tour guides about whether they know about 1989. They are usually met with an uncomfortable silence and a shrug of the shoulders.)

In my more than five years in Beijing, I've had dozens of deep conversations about Tiananmen with Beijingers. The Chinese are no doubt reluctant to speak about it - especially to strangers, which is certainly understandable - but that doesn't mean that people are unaware about what transpired that night.

I've heard so many stories from older Beijingers about that summer, including memories of how they would cycle every day to the square to give the students boxes of dumplings to show their support.

Tiananmen Square today. (Reuters)

And for young Chinese, who easily scale the "great firewall" of internet restrictions in China with widely available software, access to uncensored information about Tiananmen is no longer difficult to find. So reluctance to speak about Tiananmen certainly doesn't mean ignorance of the event.

One reason for the silence is certainly fear. Since 1989, the Communist Party has waged a relentless campaign to prevent remembrances of the event.

Every year, many Chinese human rights activists are placed in house arrest in the lead-up the anniversary, especially those like Ding Zilin, who started the group Tiananmen Mothers to remember the children they lost that night.

As Louisa Lim, author of an excellent book on the fading memory of Tiananmen called The People's Republic of Amnesia told me in an interview a few years ago, "fear and survival all play a part, but I think it's also a very pragmatic choice. For the vast majority of people, the clear calculation is that there is nothing to be gained from remembering, in fact there is a price to pay for any overt acts of remembrance."

But as Lim writes, even that is only part of the explanation. As much as it may be easier to understand the silence as a result of suppression and fear, the reality is in some ways more complex - and more discomfiting.

In many conversations with young Chinese students, I often hear ready acceptance of Deng's actions, even from those fully aware of what transpired that night. To hear Chinese students say without hesitation that he was right to gun down girls and boys of their age is, to put it mildly, unsettling.

A common argument one hears is that the Chinese people are "afraid of chaos". But that is a fear that the Communist Party has carefully cultivated over decades.

A case in point was the recent 50th anniversary of the decade-long disaster that was Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution (1966-76), which was marked by editorials in state media that stressed that the main lesson was the danger of a descent into chaos.

As one editorial cautioned, China needed to "remain vigilant against the danger of all kinds of disorder". "Nobody fears turmoil, and desires stability, more than us," the editorial said.

Chinese communist revolutionary and founding father of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong.

As the historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom writes this week, "The Party likes historical episodes to resemble black and white struggles between heroes and villains, with the latter role played in (the Cultural Revolution) by the Gang of Four and to a certain extent an aged and misled Mao Zedong. A full accounting of the Cultural Revolution would be one in which blame for many incidents would need to be apportioned to individuals who were victims and then later perpetrators, or perpetrators and then later victims, as well as to some people who now hold positions of power or are related to those who do. As a result, moving toward a full reckoning with the past is verboten; partial memory rather than amnesia remains the order of the day."

That's more or less the same argument I hear today from students rationalising the events of 1989, saying that "chaos" would have been a far worse outcome.

That the decades since Tiananmen have seen China's ascent into the world's second-largest economy, and 27 years of stability, further reinforce this view. As Lim writes, "People shifted focus devoting their energies to buying apartments, setting up companies, and navigating the myriad of new opportunities offered by the economic liberalisation that was changing the world around them".

Perhaps what is most discomfiting, as she argues, is that "all this happened not despite Tiananmen, but because of it". So the result is a continuing amnesia, and a wide acceptance of the party's verdict that 1989 was simply a "counterrevolutionary riot" that would have brought China chaos.

For Chinese more focused on bettering their lives, rehashing that verdict makes little sense, and that is, to some extent, understandable.

But not so for those who lost their loved ones on this day 27 years ago; for dozens of mothers like Ding Zilin who not only lost their children but had to bear the burden of seeing them vilified unjustly as rioters, despite the fact that they saw themselves as patriots trying to better their country.
Aditya Chopra, who last helmed SRK-Anushka Sharma starrer Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, is making his comeback as a director after seven years.

Mumbai: The shoot of Ranveer Singh-Vaani Kapoor starrer Befikre came to a grinding halt in Paris. The rains are said to have played spoilsport in the shooting of Aditya Chopra's film.

According to reports, the team was shooting a romantic scene near the Eiffel Tower when it started raining. The downpour continued over the span of two days, leaving the cast and crew helpless.

Watch: Ranveer Singh gets in the 'beast mode' for Befikre

The last schedule of the Yash Raj production which was supposed to be wrapped up by the end of this month, will be extended by a few days due to the weather.

The film has been in the news ever since it was announced. After all, the filmmaker, who last helmed SRK-Anushka Sharma starrer Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, is making his comeback as a director after seven years.

Read: In between Befikre shoot, Ranveer Singh makes time for his fans

Ranveer recently said that he is attending dance classes to learn the Tango and is also learning the American hip-hop dance routine. Talking about the film Ranveer said, "It's a light romantic film. One can't imagine that there is so much prep (preparation) for light romance, but apparently there is."


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Recently Homi Adajania posted some cute photos of himself and fat cheeks Deepika on social media when the actress flew down to Budapest to shoot for a special song in Raabta. Buzz is that those photos didnt go down too well with Ranveer Singh. Deepikas rumoured boyfriend, who is shooting for Befikre in Paris, had a minor argument with her on the matter.

On her return to Mumbai, Deepika was asked to comment on the Befikre poster, where Ranveer and Vaani are engaged in a passionate lip-lock. However, she simply said that she has not seen it yet. Now we hear things have cooled down between the lovebirds and they are likely to go on a holiday soon. Last year, Ranveer and Deepika had escaped to Maldives to ring in the New Year and later her mother and sister had joined them. This time, it seems the two will be accompanied by Ranveers family.
We are used to seeing actors change their looks from time to time and their mane plays a very important part of their transformations. Slicked, spiked, side parted, combed back or trimmed very short  the audience have seen their favourite actors do this and more to get into the skin of their characters.

Most actors are obsessed with their looks and this extends to their crowning glory too. So it takes a deep dedication to their profession as well as a resolution to take their roles seriously to make them go the extra mile and go completely bald. Actor Jayaram has completely tonsured his hair for his upcoming debut in the Telugu film Bhagmati. Scheduled to commence on June 20, Jayaram does not want to reveal much about his role.

He doles out the bare minimum information, There are three central characters Anushka, either Tabu or Raveena and me! This is my first film in Telugu and the makers wanted a different look so they decided on a fully-shaven head and a salt-and-pepper beard  the reason I went bald is that I could get the desired look by the time the film starts.

Asked if this look could impact his Malayalam offers, Jayaram opines, No, I have a Malayalam film Satya after the Telugu project. Right now Jayaram with family, wife Parvathy and children Kalidas and Malavika are in a holiday mode discovering some of the famous tourist spots in North India. The busy father and son have taken time off from their film commitments to enjoy family time doing what they all love best travel. Jayaram is a huge travel buff and takes off to exotic travel destinations whenever time permits.

Jayaram says, We have travelled abroad, but never seen the whole of India. This time my children highlighted this anomaly and so we decided to remedy that by visiting some famous tourist spots in India. We zeroed in on Rajasthan for a 10-day trip. Currently, we are staying at the Rambagh Palace which was once the residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur and from there, we are planning to visit the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve.

Jayaram is a talented wildlife photographer who has gone on various safaris worldwide to capture animals in all their glory through his lens. This time though all of them are very excited. He says, We are hoping to see and click photos of tigers. I have heard about the good population of tigers in this reserve and for four days, we will be staying in the forest. The reason I am excited is that I have seen and captured on film almost all wildlife, but never the elusive and shy tiger.
The parents of the conjoined twins are too poor to afford proper medical treatment for the children. (Credit: YouTube)

A pair of twins  a boy and girl  who were born in India are so conjoined that they share almost every vital organ. In fact, they are so fused to the waist that only the genitals of the girl are visible.

The mother of the twins, Shivrajo Devi, 24, had delivered the children at a private clinic in a village in Buxar, Bihar on Wednesday evening. But soon after birth, the condition of the twins began to worsen and they were shifted to the neo-natal intensive care unit at Sadar hospital in the city .

The twins' mother - 24-year-old Shivrajo Devi. (Credit: YouTube)

Dr. Raj Kumar Gupta, who is a paediatrician at Sadar Hospital, told the Daily Mail, Even though the second genital is missing, we suspect the face of the second baby is a boy, which makes this case even more rare as conjoined twins are usually of the same gender. After the condition of the twins stabilised, they were again sent to a bigger hospital three hours away.

The twins' father - 30-year-old Chhota Singh. (Credit: YouTube)

The twins father, Chhota Singh, 30, is a factory worker and is unable to afford costly medical treatment and long travel expenses. They told us the babies would be needed to be kept in a glass box and we should take them to a big city like Delhi for their treatment, he says.

Apart from the twins, Singh and his wife are also parents to two other children: a 4-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter. The babies parents are still in shock about how the twins serious condition was never detected before birth despite regular check-ups during pregnancy apart from ultrasounds.
The gender gap has soared from 1.2 percent last year, according to the survey of 1,202 children and 575 parents. (Photo: Pixabay)

London: British girls receive on average 12 percent less pocket money than boys  a tenfold jump in the pay gap since last year, according to a study by the Halifax bank published Friday.

On average, boys aged between 8 and 15 years old receive 6.93 ($10, 8.95 euros) per week compared to 6.16 for girls of a similar age, but are more likely (44 percent) than girls (39 percent) to think they should receive more.

The gender gap has soared from 1.2 percent last year, according to the survey of 1,202 children and 575 parents. British children now receive 6.55 per week on average from their parents, a nine-year high and an increase of almost six percent over the last year.

Children in London receive the most (8.21), and those in East Anglia the least (4.96). Women in Britain on average earn 19.2 percent less than men, according to official statistics.

Critics argue that using average pay and bonuses does not take into account differences in occupations, positions, education, career breaks to have children, job tenure or hours worked per week. According to recent official figures, British women between the ages of 22 and 29 earn on average 1,111 per year more than men, but begin earning less once they hit their 30s.
At 96, world's oldest graduate, Shigemi Hirata, says 'learning is always fun at any age'.(Photo: AFP)

Tokyo: A 96-year-old Japanese man is potty at the prospect of breaking more records after being recognised as the worlds oldest university graduate with his degree in ceramic arts.

Spritely senior Shigemi Hirata received his Guinness World Records certificate on Friday after earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kyoto University of Art and Design earlier this year, local media reported Saturday.

Born on a Hiroshima farm in 1919  the year the Allies and Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles  Hirata is something of a celebrity on campus.

Students whose name I dont even know call out to greet me, he told Japans Yomiuri newspaper. That gives me a lot of energy.

Hirata, who took 11 years to complete his ceramic arts course after taking up pottery as a pensioner, insisted he was not done setting records. My goal is to live until Im 100, he said. If Im fit enough it might be rather fun to go to graduate school.

Hirata, who served in the navy during World War II and has four great-grandchildren, added: Im so happy. At my age its fun to be able to learn new things.

Japans perky pensioners regularly set eye-popping records as the silver-haired generation enjoy longer and healthier lives. Last year, 100-year-old Mieko Nagaoka became the worlds first centenarian to complete a 1,500-metre freestyle swim, 20 years after she took up the sport. Many elderly Japanese remain physically active long after other people have given up the ghost.

Twinkle-toed sprinter Hidekichi Miyazaki, dubbed Golden Bolt after Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt, also set a world record last year, clocking 42.22 seconds for the 100 metres in the over-105 category a day after reaching the milestone age.

There were nearly 59,000 centenarians in Japan in 2015, according to government figures  which means 46 out of every 100,000 people is 100 or over.
New Delhi: A 26-year-old Nigerian woman has been arrested in connection with the alleged assault on an Ola cab driver by a group of African persons in south Delhi's Rajpur Khurd area earlier this week, the second arrest in the case.

A Rwandan woman, identified as Kefa, was arrested on May 30, the day the incident was reported, police said on Saturday.

"The second accused, Janet, who is a native of Nigeria, was arrested on Friday in Delhi," a senior official said.

Both Janet and Kefa were allegedly living here with expired visas. While Kefa was arrested once in Bangalore last year, records pertaining to Janet are being checked, the official said.

From preliminary investigation, it has emerged that Janet and Kefa had booked 51-year-old Nooruddin's cab through Ola services for Dwarka. Once he arrived at Rajpur Khurd, the same locality in which African persons were allegedly attacked by locals earlier, he saw that six persons -- four men and two women -- were waiting for him.

He had alleged that the group was drunk. As he refused to take more than four passengers, a heated argument broke out and he was allegedly thrashed by them on May 30.

The four accused men have also been identified. Efforts are on to arrest them, the official added.
Kolkata: The former student who killed his estranged wife and then drove 2,000 miles (3,200 km) to shoot dead a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, was known at home in India as calm, smart and unassuming by former teachers and classmates.

Mainak Sarkar, 38, shot himself dead after this week's killings. He studied at one of India's elite engineering institutes where admission is fiercely competitive and there is huge pressure to excel, and may have been demoralized by the long struggle to earn his doctorate in the United States.

Read: Student kills professor, commits suicide in shooting at UCLA campus

"My initial reaction was one of shock and disbelief," said Gautam Biswas, who taught Sarkar in the 9th and 10th grades of St. Michael's School in Durgapur, West Bengal.

The industrial township lies just over two hours' drive northeast of the state capital Kolkata. Biswas, shaken, said he was also a private tutor to Mainak and remembered him well.

"How could he do this? That was the question that raked my mind for long hours," Biswas said.

Read: UCLA murder-suicide: Gunman Mainak Sarkar had planned third killing

"In school days, Mainak was a very level-headed, intelligent student and never did give any indication of abnormal behaviour."

Friendly, Nice

The woman shot dead in her Minnesota home by Sarkar was identified by her sister on social media on Friday as Ashley Hasti. The sister, Alex Hasti, said Ashley Hasti's "life was cut short much too soon by her estranged husband."

Sarkar shot her dead before driving to Los Angeles to kill Professor William Klug, 39, police said on Thursday. Police found a "kill list" at his home in St. Paul, Minnesota, that included the name of another professor, who was unharmed.

Read: US police identify Indian student as man who killed professor at ULCA

Sarkar graduated in aerospace engineering in 2000 from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur - also in West Bengal.

Like Sarkar, many of his IIT "batchmates" went on to study and work in the United States.

"When I knew him in IIT he was a very friendly, nice, smart and ambitious guy with dreams to go for higher studies to the USA," said Manish Kumar, who studied with Mainak in Kharagpur and now works in the United States.

"Nothing in his behavior indicated that he would ever contemplate or carry out anything like this. Something has to have drastically impacted his mental balance in later years during his PhD for him to become so unhinged."

Read: UCLA students struggled with unlocked doors during shooting

Intense competition among students to succeed in India has drawn social criticism and even featured in Bollywood movies like "3 Idiots", starring Aamir Khan, in which a sadistic professor drives an engineering student to attempt suicide.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said that UCLA faculty members were aware that Sarkar, who graduated in 2013, harboured a grudge against them.

"There was some harsh language - but certainly nothing that would be considered homicidal," Beck told reporters on Thursday.

Local police said they have not been able to trace Sarkar's immediate family in Durgapur.

Read: UCLA murder-suicide: Mainak Sarkar's 'kill list' included wife

At St Michael's School in Durgapur the double murder-suicide cast a shadow over plans to celebrate its forthcoming 50th anniversary with an alumni reunion.

"It's difficult to believe actually because he was a very good student and was working abroad," said Sumita Mukherjee, a former teacher at the school. "He should have been a pride for Durgapur and the students of this school."
They were produced before the juvenile board and then shifted to a rescue home. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: Four school-going students who targeted pedestrians and an autorickshaw driver and snatched away their mobile phones were arrested by the Musheerabad police on Saturday.

Police seized 10 mobile phones, together worth around Rs 11.5 lakh, and a scooter from the gang of boys.

DCP Central Zone V.B. Kamalasan Reddy said the boys were residents of Amberpet area and aged around 16. They started committing thefts to make easy money for a luxurious life.

They used to ride a scooter at night targeting pedestrians and autorickshaw drivers sleeping in their vehicles. At times they also approached strangers to make an urgent phone call, and sped away with their mobile phones, the DCP said.

The gang was involved in two similar offences in Musheerabad and one each in Amberpet and Chikkadpally police stations.

The bike (TS 13ED 4196) used by the boys for committing offences has three fines pending on it since January. Based on the CCTV footages and the IMEI tracking system, police apprehended the four boys and seized 10 mobile phones from them.

They were produced before the juvenile board and then shifted to a rescue home.
NEW DELHI: The Delhi Government on Saturday issued an advisory to all hospitals and nursing homes carrying out organ transplantation to follow the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act in the in the wake of the arrest of five persons, including two employees of a prominent multi-speciality hospital on Thursday night.

Delhi Police have traced at least three recipients and five donors in connection with the international kidney racket linked to Apollo Hospitals here, even as the investigators sought legal opinion regarding slapping charges on them.

Five persons, including two personal secretaries of a nephrologist in Apollo Hospital, have been arrested in connection with the kidney racket which is believed to have its ramifications in countries including Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Prima facie the recipients shelled out over Rs 40 lakh for each transplant, of which not even 10 per cent reached the donor, police said.

Police are investigating a money trail which can lead them to Rajukumar Rao, the alleged kingpin of the international kidney trading racket busted here, who was last traced at Agartala in Tripura. Police have got vital leads from the two bank accounts of accused Aseem Sikdar and transactions to the tune of several lakhs can potentially lead them to Rao.
New Delhi: The 17-year-old boy who allegedly knocked dead a man with his father's Mercedes in Civil Lines in Delhi has now been charged with culpable homicide considering his past record of negligent driving, police said on Saturday.

"On examination of CCTV footage, the possibility of knowledge to the accused juvenile offender that his extremely fast driving in a residential area can cause a death cannot be ruled out," DCP (North) Madhur Verma said.

"Further, during investigation it emerged that it was not the first offence of rash and negligent driving by this accused juvenile. In the past too he was found driving in a rash and negligent way, thereby causing a road accident with another vehicle," he said.

We went and got our own evidence clearer version Posted by Mercedes Hit & Run on Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Last year, the minor was also challaned thrice  for over-speeding in April and June and wrong parking in February. "In view of these facts, the death of Siddharth Sharma is a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and, hence, section 304 of IPC has been added in the FIR," said Verma.

Video: Speeding Mercedes, driven by 17-year-old, knocks down man in Delhi

The last time Delhi Police booked someone under culpable homicide in such a matter was in the Sanjeev Nanda BMW case 17 years ago, a senior official said.

On January 10, 1999, six persons, including three policemen, were killed by a speeding BMW car allegedly driven by Nanda in the wee hours in south Delhi's Lodhi Colony area. Similar stand was also taken by Mumbai Police in the Salman Khan case.

Delhi Police yesterday arrested the juvenile's father, an Old Delhi-based businessman who lives with his family at a posh apartment in Civil lines area, under Sections 109/304 (abetment to culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC.

Read: Delhi hit-and-run: Father of teen driving the Mercedes arrested

"There has not been a single step taken by the father of the accused in prohibiting him from taking the vehicle. This is an act of criminal omission, thereby abetting the crime of the said juvenile," the official said.

Meanwhile, the investigating officer of the case was also changed after the victim Siddharth Sharma's sister met Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma yesterday and urged him to take strict action against the perpetrators.

The incident took place on Monday when Sharma was trying to cross a road near Ludlow Castle School in Civil Lines and the speeding Mercedes hit him.

The car was being driven at a speed of at least 80 km per hour and Sharma was flung several feet into the air by the impact of the crash and landed around 15 metres away from where he stood.

After the incident, a group of youths stepped out of the vehicle and fled the spot, abandoning the car there.
Police inspect the accident spot where a multiple collision involving a truck, two cars and a private bus took place at Melumalai in Krishnagiri distrcit on Friday. (Photo: DC)

Krishnagiri: As many as 17 people were killed and 25 others injured in a multiple collision involving a truck, two cars and a private bus in a terrible road mishap in Krishnagiri district on Friday afternoon.

Police said a private bus from here heading towards Malur in Karnataka was rammed in by a truck at Melumalai, on Chennai-Bengaluru national highway, killing 10 males, six females and one girl child.

The sources said that six people died on the spot and others after being taken to the Krishnagiri government hospital. With that, the death toll has increased to 17 so far.

As many as seven among the 25 injured people were given first aid in the Krishnagiri government hospital before they were shifted to other government hospitals in Salem, Dharmapuri and Bengaluru.

The six people who died in the accident were identified as Anjala (30) of Kuttampatti, near Tharamangalam in Salem district, Ganesan (17) of Alasanatham in Hosur of Krishnagiri, Gowramma (40) of Varatanapalli, near Krishnagiri, Mahendiran (40) of Bommidi in Dharmapuri, Nirmala (38) and Maathammal (40), both native of Denkannikottai in Krishnagiri district.

Mahendiran was shifted to the Dharmapuri government hospital but he died on the way, while the ambulance vehicle transporting him was at Kaveripattinam, 15 km from Krishnagiri.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the truck heading towards Krishnagiri from Hosur jumped off the lane after hitting a SUV car while scaling down a low gradient road at the place.

Later, the truck rammed into the private bus moving towards Malur from Krishnagiri. Another car that was tailing stopped after hitting the truck.

Luckily, the occupants in the SUV with Maharashtra registration and another car moving towards Bengaluru from Chennai escaped unhurt. Police believe that the truck driver, who also died in the mishap, was under the influence of the alcohol. Police inferred this from the recovery of the liquor bottles from the mangled remains of the truck, which police searched for the victims during the rescue

operation.

The district collector C. Kathiravan visited the accident spot to review the rescue operation and also came to the Krishnagiri government hospital where the injured people have been admitted.
Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has asked the Border Security Force (BSF) to ensure sealing of the Indo-Bangladesh border on a war footing.

Chairing a high level meeting with the top brass of the BSF led by its Director General KK Sharma on Friday, Sonowal asked the border sentinels to ensure erection of fencing expeditiously for a safe and fool-proof border with the neighbouring country.

According to a release issued by the Chief Minister's Office on Saturday, Sonowal asked BSF to make use of 'smart technological solutions' like laser walls and surveillance gadgets to ensure security at the frontiers round the clock.

The Chief Minister also asked the BSF to remove all challenges coming in the way of ensuring a secured border at the earliest.

Erection of fencing along the border including 'riverine' areas has to be dealt with resolutely "if we want to make our borders safe," he added.

Sonowal further said, "It is a part of our pledge that we will completely seal international border with Bangladesh in order to keep infiltration and smuggling from across the border at bay."

Referring to BSF's observation that 42 km stretch in Dhubri sector is challenging, he assured all help from the state government to seal the border and keep the state free from infiltration.
"Don't fall prey to the catchy slogans of Modi government. NDA has failed to keep its promises made before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections," Mayawati said. (Photo: PTI)

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Saturday lashed out at the Modi government at the Centre, saying it was just tom-tomming its "hollow" programmes to mislead the people and said "bad days" are on the anvil for the BJP dispensation.

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also targeted her guns at the SP government for the Mathura violence and demanded a CBI or court-monitored probe into the deadly incident.

Read: Mathura violence: Policemen to donate salary to kin of slain cops

During a nearly hour-long interaction with mediapersons in Lucknow, the BSP chief slammed Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for not taking the Mathura violence seriously.

"Rather than touring Bundelkhand, he should have been visiting Mathura today," she said, and demanded a judicial or Supreme Court-monitored or CBI probe into the incident.

Yadav is on an official visit to Mahoba in Bundelkhand. 24 people, including an SP and SHO, were killed in clashes between police and members of a sect who had encroached on government land in Mathura on Thursday.

Read: Mathura violence: Now, Hema Malini slams media in Twitter rant

Slamming the programmes to celebrate two years of Modi government, she said the BJP-led dispensation had nothing to take credit for and was just tom-tomming its "hollow" programmes to mislead the people.

"Forget about achche din, now the bure din of government are coming (forget the promise of good days, now bad days are on the cards for the government)," she said.

"Don't fall prey to the catchy slogans of Modi government. NDA has failed to keep its promises made before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections," she said, adding its sympathy towards the poor was "artificial and just on paper".

The BJP's countdown has begun while in Uttar Pradesh the fight between ruling SP and BJP would be for the second spot as her party would storm to power in 2017, she said.

Describing BJP and Congress as two sides of the same coin, she said the NDA government's policies and programmes were same as those of the UPA.

Criticising BJP President Amit Shah for sharing food with Dalits in Varanasi, she said such "gimmicks" do not work or get translated into votes.

"BJP should dismiss such ideas from its mind," she said. Mayawati claimed that atrocities on Dalits were increasing in Uttar Pradesh as well as all over the country and cited the Rohit Vemula case where, she said, justice has not been given to the family so far.
Nagpur: With media reports replete with information on whereabouts of India's most wanted criminal Dawood Ibrahim, hinting at him being in Karachi, Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit on Saturday said there is no question of handing over the underworld don to India, as Islamabad was not aware about his location in the first place.

Abdul Basit, interacting with the media at Patrakar Bhavan, first evaded the question on the Dawood, but later said that there was no question of handing over to the Don, as he was not in Pakistan.

"Don't know where he is. He is not in Pakistan. Please don't expect someone who is not in Pakistan to be handed over to you. How is it possible to hand over someone whose whereabouts we do not know," he said.

Basit, who is on a three-day trip to Nagpur, said that talks are the only way to ensure peace and stability in the region.

"Unless the meaningful and uninterrupted dialogue is held, nothing is going to work. Usually, focus is on terrorism and Kashmir. But there are other issues, too, that deserve discussions," he said.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had last month said that India's most wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim will be nabbed soon and brought to India.

The Union Minister, however, has not mentioned any specific time duration for this.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had earlier reiterated that it will continue to pursue Pakistan to handover Dawood after a television channel claimed that it has tracked his location.
Dabholkar, a doctor, was at the forefront of a campaign to persuade the Maharashtra Government to pass an anti-superstition and black magic bill. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) will now take the help of Scotland Yard to figure out whether anti-superstition activist Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, veteran CPI leader Govind Pansare and rationalist writer M.M. Kalburgi were murdered by the same group, sources said.

Read: NIA's accused on CBI radar in Dabholkar murder case

The move comes after the Bombay High Court last month pulled up investigating agencies over the slow progress in the probe of the murders of veteran Pansare and Dabholkar.

The Bombay High Court had then said that it was 'not satisfied' with the progress in the cases, and asked the investigating agencies to submit a progress report by June 23.

Read: Pansare murder case: Court to frame charges against fifth accused

Pansare's family had last year sought a SIT probe, alleging that the Maharashtra Police had failed to make any progress in the investigation of the CPI leader's murder.

Pansare and his wife were severely injured after unknown assailants fired on the couple on February 16, 2015, while they were out for their morning walk at Sagarmala area of Kolhapur city. Pansare later succumbed to his injuries on February 20 in the hospital.

Read: Kalburgi killing: Scotland Yard to verify cartridges, reports

Dabholkar, a doctor, was at the forefront of a campaign to persuade the Maharashtra Government to pass an anti-superstition and black magic bill. Right wing Hindu groups, including certain sections of the Warkari Sect and political parties, had been opposing the bill.

The Bombay High Court had transferred the probe of the case to CBI on May 9, 2014 on a PIL filed by former journalist Ketan Tirodkar on the plea that there was no headway several months after the killing of Dabholkar.

Eminent Kannada writer, scholar, rationalist and academic, MM Kalburgi, was shot dead by two unidentified assailants near his residence at Dharwad in north Karnataka.
Mumbai: The hacker who procured call record data of a Pakistani telecom firm, purportedly showing calls from gangster Dawood Ibrahim's Karachi house to the mobile of Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, did not turn up before the police here.

Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad which is probing the allegation that Khadse received calls from Dawood had summoned Gujarat-based Manish Bhangale who claims to be an 'ethical hacker'.

Bhangale's lawyer Sandesh Sawant said, "We told ATS that Bhangale would not come today to record his statement as a petition concerning the matter is before the High Court."

The Mumbai Crime Branch headed by Atulchandra Kulkarni had earlier recorded Bhangale's statement and eventually gave a clean chit to Khadse, following which Bhangale moved the HC, seeking a CBI probe.

"The same official (Kulkarni) is heading the ATS now, so there is no point in recording the statement again," the lawyer said.

ATS officials had asked Bhangale who was in Jalgaon for a press conference to go to Mumbai with them, but Sawant advised him against it so the ATS summoned the hacker today, the lawyer said.

Bhangale's petition, which also seeks protection for himself, would come up for hearing before the HC on Monday.

After facing a string of allegations, including irregularities in a land deal, Khadse resigned today, the first casualty in BJP since the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combine took over pledging zero-tolerance towards corruption.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi commenced his five-nation tour to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, United States and Mexico on Saturday morning.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to inaugurate India-Afghan Friendship Dam earlier known as Salma Dam, along with President President Ashraf Ghani later today. This will be followed by lunch hosted by Ghani.

#WATCH: PM Narendra Modi leaves from Delhi for Afghanistan on the first leg of his five-nation tour.https://t.co/j50a73TkUO  ANI (@ANI_news) June 4, 2016

Modi, in a series of Facebook messages revealed details of his six-day tour. "Looking forward to my visit to Afghanistan tomorrow. I will join President Ashraf Ghani to inaugurate Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam in Herat. It is symbol of our friendship and would usher in hope, light up homes, nourish the fertile fields of Herat and bring prosperity to the people of the region," the Prime Minister posted on Facebook.

Briefing the media, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said, "The Prime Minister will arrive in Doha, the capital of Qatar Saturday evening, where he will hold meeting with the Emir of Qatar to further strengthen bilateral relations. Jaishankar said apart from this, the Prime Minister will visit workers' camp and also hold meeting with business leaders.

"Look forward to meeting His Highness Sheikh Tamim whose landmark visit to India last year had ushered in a new momentum in our relations. I will have the honour to meet Father Emir who personally guided our relations for nearly two decades. This visit will nourish the historical bonds of friendship deeply rooted in people to people contacts, energy, trade and investment partnership," said PM in the FB post.

"I will interact with the Indian workers at the Workers' Camp and some of the members of over Six lakh Indians who have nurtured our relations through their sweat and toil. Will also speak to Qatar business leaders to realise the full potential of our trade and investment cooperation," he added.

The Foreign Secretary said during his visit to Switzerland, the Prime Minister and President of the Swiss Confederation Johann Schneider-Ammann will hold discussions on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest.

"In Geneva, I will meet prominent businesspersons. Our agenda will be to expand economic and investment ties. I will meet Indian scientists working at CERN. India takes pride in their contribution to exploring new frontiers of science in the service of humanity," posted Prime Minister Modi.

Replying to a query on black money stashed in Swiss banks, Jaishankar said India has received support from the Swiss authorities on exchange of data and it hopes to engage with Switzerland in automatic exchange of information as early as possible.

In the United States, Prime Minister Modi will address a Joint Meeting of the US Congress, besides holding meeting with President Barack Obama. He will also hold meeting with US India Business Council with interact with Indian community.

"I will be reaching Washington DC on a bilateral visit in the evening of 6th June at the invitation of President Barack Obama. In my meeting with the President on 7th June, we will seek to build upon the progress achieved in providing new vigour and momentum to our strategic partnership in diverse areas."

"Am looking forward to address the 40th AGM of the USIBC and meet US business leaders who have, over the past two years, shown renewed confidence in the India. I will exchange views with US think-tanks and attend a ceremony marking the return of Indian antiques. During my visit to Arlington Cemetery I will lay wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider and Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial, in which we lost an Indian origin astronaut, Kalpana Chawla," he said while elaborating about his programmes in the U.S.

"On 8th June, I will address a Joint Meeting of the US Congress. I thank Speaker Paul Ryan for inviting me to speak to Congressmen and Senators. During my visit to the US Capitol, I will also interact with members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, many of whom have been valued friends of India and a strong votary of deepening India-USA ties," said the Prime Minister.

Saying that India and the U.S. are natural partners, two vibrant democracies that celebrate their diversity and pluralism, the Prime Minister added: "Strong India-USA ties benefit not only our two nations but also the entire world."

The Prime Minister will wind up his tour by visiting Mexico on 8th of this month and hold talks with leadership of that country. The focus of the visit will be on expanding economic cooperation.

"Look forward to meeting President Enrique Pena Nieto on June 8 during his visit to Mexico, a privileged partner in the Latin American region. President Pena Nieto has ushered in far reaching reforms. I look forward to sharing our experiences. This is the first Prime Ministerial bilateral visit to Mexico after 30 years. Though short, the visit has a substantial agenda to take our partnership to new heights," the Prime Minister concluded.
Herat: In an apparent reference to the opposition attacks on him back home, Prime Minister Narendra Modi quipped on Saturday, "I am used to the noise of democracy. He made the remarks when Afghan National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar suggested to him to wear earmuffs after he boarded a helicopter for travelling to the Herat Governor's House from the airport after his arrival from New Delhi.

"I come from the world's largest democracy. I am used to the noise of democracy," Modi said with a smile, according to one of those aboard the helicopter.

He went to the Governor's House to inaugurate the Afghan- India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam power project, built by India at a cost of Rs 1,700 crore.

From the chopper, the Prime Minister noticed a micro irrigation project and remarked that it reminded him of Gujarat.

"This is reminding me of Gujarat," said Modi, who as Chief Minister for 12 years, had focussed on micro irrigation schemes.

"Thanks to you, the irrigation project is providing power and water to so many families of Herat," the delegate said.
Chennai: Two days after four more fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Saturday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention for their release besides 90 boats seized.

In a letter to Modi, Jayalalithaa apprised him of the latest arrest of four Indian Indian fishermen by the Lankan Navy in the early hours of June 2, who were then taken to Kankesanthurai.

She said the fishermen had ventured into the sea from Kottaipattinam in Pudukottai District on June 1.

"I am constrained to point out that despite my repeated requests, the seized boats and gear belonging to the fishermen of Tamil Nadu have not been released by the Sri Lankan authorities so far."

Earlier, on May 31, seven fishermen from Tamil Nadu were arrested the Lankan Navy.

She requested Modi to take urgent action to secure the release of the 11 fishermen and a total of 90 fishing boats without any delay.

"May I request your immediate intervention in this matter," she said in the letter, a copy of which was released to the media.

Jayalalithaa also reiterated the state's plea for a package for deep sea fishing at a cost of Rs 1,520 crore and a recurring grant of Rs ten crore per annum for maintenance dredging.
BENGALURU: He reportedly called it a Sepoy Mutiny, and posted images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the WhatsApp messages, while shooting them to police constables in Karnataka, even as he exhorted them to go on mass leave to protest against government and bureaucratic apathy against their poor working condition.

Shashidhar Venugopal, founder of Akhila Karnataka Police Mahasangha and the alleged mastermind behind the proposed June 4 strike by the policemen reportedly launched the campaign early last month with fiery and highly emotional messages that instigated thousands of constables to sign up for one day mass leave.

His (Shashidhar) messages smacked of political conspiracy. The illegal use of PM's image on a conspiracy and police revolt against the State is nothing short of sedition. He had earlier posted PM's image with slogans on other social media platforms. All the WhatsApp messages are now subject to State scrutiny. The messages hit the weakest nerve of the constabulary; on their long working hours; their pathetic living condition and the lack of pay parity with police in other states. In return the respondents started posting messages to each other that they were educationally over qualified to lead the menial life of a constable. Some of them stated that they were research scholars and post graduates. The messages went viral and there was a huge downpour of emotions, anger and angst, said an official source. The government has asked the police top brass to compile all the messages on WhatsApp and other social media platform to sieve out common and genuine grievances so that they could be duly addressed.

Charges against Shashidhar

Yelahanka New Town police have registered a case under sections 124A 166 read/with 109 IPC along with section 4 police forces (restriction of rights) Act 1966 section 4 police (incitement to disaffection) Act 1922, section 5 KESMA read/with 120-B IPC. Shashidhar was arrested and produced before a court that remanded him to judicial custody until June 16.
Mumbai: Facing a string of allegations including irregularities in a land deal, Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse resigned on Saturday, the first casualty in BJP since the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combine took over pledging zero-tolerance towards corruption.

Forwarding Khadse's resignation to Governor C Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced an inquiry by a retired high court judge into the allegations against him, as sought by the senior leader himself.

With his position becoming untenable after the central leadership sent a clear and stern message, the 64-year-old veteran from north Maharashtra drove this morning to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's official residence to offer his resignation.

Read: Eknath Khadse resigns amid charges of corruption, links with Dawood

Later, after a point-by-point rebuttal of allegations at a press meet, Khadse went to Fadnavis's residence again to formally hand over his resignation. "I have received Eknath Khadse's resignation. I have accepted it and sent it to Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao. A Retired High Court judge will be appointed to probe charges against Khadse," said Fadnavis.

The fate of Khadse was sealed two days back after Fadnavis briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah in Delhi about the development and its possible fallout on the image of the ministry.

Read: Quit to uphold moral values, says Khadse; alleges media trial

Allegations against Khadse were leveraged not only by Congress, NCP and AAP to embarrass Maharashtra's first BJP-led government but even ally Shiv Sena had come out in the open seeking his ouster.

Considered "number two" in the Cabinet and in-charge of vital portfolios like Revenue and Agriculture, Khadse has been facing a series of allegations including irregularities in a land deal in Pune and of getting calls allegedly from fugitive

Dawood Ibrahim's residence in Karachi on his mobile phone besides the alleged bribe sought by a personal aide.

Read: Maharashtra BJP chief dubs charges against Khadse as 'political'

He is in a spot over the purchase of a three-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) land in Pune 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.

Rubbishing the allegations at a press meet with state BJP chief Raosaheb Danve, Khadse said he had been a victim of an "unprecedented media trial."

Seen as the OBC face of the party with a massive following in northern districts, Khadse said, "For the last 40 years, I have been in politics and the party but had not experienced a media trial like this."

Read: Devendra Fadnavis behind Eknath Khadse's exit, says former Maharashtra CM

Protests erupted in Khadse's home turf Jalgaon and his constituency Mutainagar where people took to the streets in support of the stalwart.

The Congress, however, said mere resignation would not do and a criminal case should be registered against Khadse. "Mere resignation of Eknath Khadse with a simultaneous clean chit to him wouldn't put the lid over or do away the need for an independent probe into alleged Dawood Ibrahim terror connection," party's chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said in New Delhi.

The state BJP leadership is expected to meet next week to decide on re-allocation of portfolios after Khadse's exit and also to work out strategies to counter opposition onslaught over the development during the ensuing assembly session.

Read: Retired High Court judge to probe charges against Khadse: Devendra Fadnavis

Elated over the departure of the first minister from the BJP-led cabinet under cloud of corruption, the Congress demanded a judicial inquiry into the allegations against him. "Only resignation will not do. We want a high level judicial inquiry into the scams involving Khadse. We don't trust this Government, which may sabotage the investigation," Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan said.

"It is good that he has resigned. But it is a delayed decision. The BJP had no option since the charges against Khadse like the MIDC land deal and Dawood call allegation are very serious in nature," Chavan, a former chief minister, said.

Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said resignation of Khadse was inevitable. The real political decision, however, is to how high a level the government would take the matter, he said.

Read: Arvind Kejriwal dubs Khadse a 'traitor', supports Hardik Patel

Seeking to drive a wedge into the BJP, Congress leader and former chief minister Narayan Rane alleged Fadnavis was behind the ouster of Khadse and sought to know as to why only backward class leaders are facing trouble in the ministry.

"Fadnavis took Khadse's wicket," Rane said, adding "on the one hand, you (Fadnavis) give him a clean chit and on the other, you go to Delhi and request the party to take Khadse's resignation and also announce that the (BJP) president will declare a decision in this regard," Rane said.

"BJP is targeting 'bahujan' community leadership," Rane said. So far,only ministers of bahujan community have been targeted, Rane said, in a veiled reference to corruption charges against other ministers like Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde.

Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan, however, said there is no need to bring caste or comunity angle in the Khadse episode.

Starting his career as a sarpanch of his village Kothali in Jalgaon district, Khadse was virtually the number two in the Fadnavis cabinet, holding as many as 10 portfolios.

Significantly, it was Khadse who took the lead in breaking off the alliance with Sena ahead of the October 2014 Assembly polls, paving the way for the first ministry in the state under the party.

Hailing from the Leva Patil community, Khadse has positioned himself as a backward class leader, especially after Gopinath Mundes demise. He had served as leader of the Opposition during the Congress-NCP rule and a minister in the first Shiv Sena-BJP regime during 1995-99.

Khadse's supporters staged protests at Muktainagar in Jalgaon district and they burnt tyres at some places. The protesters blocked roads at Nahata College Square in Bhusaval tehsil and pelted stones at MSRTC buses at Sekri toll booth.

Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil claimed there was a 'deal' between Khadse and BJP leadership, under which he will be 'acquitted' of all charges in a year.

"As per the deal, it has been decided that Khadse should not split the party and in return, he will be re-inducted into the ministry by the year-end," he said.

Meanwhile, Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao accepted Khadse's resignation, based on the Chief Minister's recommendation, a Raj Bhavan official said.
Investigators inspect the situation inside a park where clashes between police and squatters claimed several lives in Mathura. (Photo: AP)

Mathura: Ram Vriksh Yadav, the chief of the violent encroachers in Jawahar Bagh, is among those killed in the clashes, police said on Saturday as the toll mounted to 27 with three more persons succumbing to injuries.

Uttar Pradesh DGP Javed Ahmed said on twitter that the body of Yadav and some others have been identified by his associates and his family has been intimated for confirmation.

60-year-old Yadav was the leader of Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, an outfit claiming to owe allegiance to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose whose members had encroached on Jawahar Bagh area for two years and clashed with police on Thursday when they tried to evict them.

Read: Mathura violence: Sect set up 'courts' at Jawahar Bagh, tortured inmates

IG (Law and Order) S R Sharma said Yadav was among the 11 charred to death in the fire that was caused by gas cylinder explosions set off by the encroachers.

The death toll has risen to 27 with three more among the injured encroachers succumbing, IG (Agra) Durga Chandra Mishra said. Chief Medical Officer Vivek Mishra said several other bodies have not been identified as yet.

Read: Godman Jai Gurudevs Rs 12,000 crore empire led to Mathura violence

The bodies have to be kept for 72 hours in the mortuary, which will end tomorrow evening, and later postmortem will be done, he said. 18 bodies are in Mathura district centre and seven in Agra, he said.

Tight security arrangements remained in place with police preventing BJP MP from Mathura Hema Malini, who led a protest by the party, from entering the violence-hit area, citing ongoing probe and combing operation. Sharma said the situation "is normal in Mathura and the ground has been cleared".

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav raised compensation to the next of kin of the two slain police officers from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 50 lakh even as opposition stepped up attack on him, questioning why he did not visit Mathura.

Read: Mathura: Dwivedi died of brain haemorrhage, Yadav shot dead, says post-mortem report

Mukul Dwivedi, Superintendent of Police and Santosh Yadav, Station House officer, Farah, were killed in the violence.

The Chief Minister also announced extraordinary pension to their families and job to one member.

However, BSP chief Mayawati accused him of not taking the issue seriously and demanded a judicial or CBI inquiry or a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the violence.

Attacking Akhilesh, who is on an official visit to Mahoba in Bundelkhand, she said, "Rather than touring Bundelkhand, he should have been visiting Mathura today."

Read: Mathura violence: Policemen to donate salary to kin of slain cops

BJP president Amit Shah demanded resignation of Cabinet minister and the Chief Minister's uncle Shivpal Yadav. "If even a little bit of self-respect is left in netaji (SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav), he should get the resignation of minister Shivpal Yadav immediately," Shah said.

His attack came against the backdrop of BJP state chief Keshav Prasad Maurya alleging that the attackers were "goons of PWD minister Shivpal Singh Yadav".

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala questioned why the Chief Minister did not visit Mathura.

BJP MP Hema Malini, who is facing flak for sharing pictures of her film shoot as violence erupted in her constituency, also sought to target the Akhilesh Yadav government over the incident, saying it needs to look into the law and order situation.

Hema said police wanted to remove encroachments but were not getting orders from the state government to do so. "They wanted to do it but they were not getting orders from the state government to remove this. This is state government's issue. Why they are after me?" she said.

City Magistrate Ram Araj Yadav said forensic experts were examining the area and nobody has been allowed to enter there till the investigation is completed. "There was no ulterior motive to bar the MP from entering the area. Combing operations are underway and the area is being examined by police teams and experts," an official said.

Police said that so far 67 persons have been arrested in connection with the violence and 310 apprehended for breach of peace.
"We are working on a plan for repatriation of the Brus, they have been here for long," MHA official Satyendra Garg said.

Agartala: A senior official of the Ministry of Home Affairs arrived in Agartala on Friday to discuss the repatriation of the Mizoram Bru displaced people sheltered in seven camps in North Tripura .

Satyendra Garg, Joint Secretary of MHA in charge of Northeast, met Tripura's Chief Secretary YP Singh and DGP K Nagaraj before visiting the Bru refugee camps at Kanchanpur where over 34,000 Brus are presently sheltered since they fled Mizoram in 1997 following a communal violence over dispute with the majority Mizos.

"We are working on a plan for repatriation of the Brus, they have been here for long. Government of India , Mizoram and Tripura are working for the repatriation. I am visiting the Bru camps at Kanchanpur and monitor how much prepared we are for the repatriation and state government officers of Tripura and Mizoram are joining me at Kanchanpur. I also want to see the condition in the camps and work out a plan so that this repatriation takes place faster," said Garg.

He informed that the schedule for repatriation was supposed to be over by August but for some reason it could not take place. However, the effort at present is to start the repatriation process again and as per the new revised repatriation plan submitted by the government of Mizoram and which is time rigid.

Garg said that the recent incident of attack on security forces especially in Manipur crossing across from Myanmar , the India government has decided to increase security in this unfenced bordering area to stop cross border insurgency.

"Northeast has more international border than national and Myanmar is the most sensitive border at this moment and there are certain issues like in Manipur there was an encounter recently. So government of India is working on a plan to increase security along the Indo-Myanmar border," he added.

He expressed his concern over Arunachal Pradesh being used as a corridor and safe shelter by militants of Nagaland.

"Arunachal has got spread over of insurgency and next to Nagaland. Certain areas of Arunachal are next to Nagaland and there is real insurgency situation there but corridors or insurgents moving for hideouts, shelter or crossover those concerns are there, however, we are addressing them," he added.

He also said that to stop trans-border movement of arms, ammunition and of militants the India government is in regular touch with all its neighours in the Northeast.

"Government of India takes it up with everybody whether it is Bangladesh , Myanmar , China or Bhutan and everyone where strategic interest are there," said Garg.

He informed that to bring long-lasting peace in the region the government of India has take an initiative to continue peace talk with various insurgent groups in the region and for which there should be a congenial atmosphere.
The BSF chief said more troops have been inducted along the borders to strengthen the security grid to foil any infiltration attempt by militants.

The BSF on Saturday said there were intelligence inputs about militants across the Line of Control (LoC) waiting to infiltrate into India but the force was taking steps to ensure "nearly impregnable" borders with the induction of newer technology and integration of the existing ones.

"I am told there is a concentration of militants on the other side waiting to be pushed into India for infiltration. These are the intelligence reports we have," Director General of BSF KK Sharma told reporters in Srinagar.

He was talking to the media persons after the wreath laying ceremony for three jawans who lost their lives in a militant attack on their convoy near Bijbehara on Srinagar-Jammu national highway on Friday.

The BSF chief said more troops have been inducted along the borders to strengthen the security grid to foil any infiltration attempt by militants.

"We are in the process of strengthening our fences and borders through induction of newer technology and the integration of the ones that already exist. Hopefully, the borders are going to become nearly impregnable," he said.

Sharma also warned of a threat to the upcoming Amarnath yatra, scheduled to begin in south Kashmir Himalayas but said they are "ready for the task" to ensure safe yatra.

"There are inputs about possibility of attacks on the Amarnath yatra. We are ready for the task as we have done in the past," he said adding "I want to assure you that this yatra will be incident free".

Referring to Friday's attack on the BSF convoy, Sharma said "it is a very unfortunate incident as three of our brave soldiers have lost their lives".

"As I understand, such incidents are random in nature. As we have seen, militants are targeting security forces in general and almost all forces bear the brunt of their activities. So this is to my mind a random incident," he said.

The BSF chief said the force has taken a number of remedial steps to prevent such type of attacks.

"As militants are attacking security forces, we become a natural target. We have taken a number of remedial steps," he said adding "We will see how we can further strengthen the security of our convoy movement".

The BSF DG said "we are not directly involved in counter-insurgency operations but our convoys move regularly because we have roughly 18000 troops on the border and for the purposes of leave, regular convoys ply between Srinagar and Jammu."

On Friday's attack, Sharma said "after such incidents, an inquiry is conducted and we will see what is the outcome," he said.
Modi will be accompanied by Afghan President Ghani in the country's Herat province. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday inaugurate the Rs. 1,700 crore Salma Dam, also called the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, accompanied by Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani in that country's Herat province.

The multipurpose project, undertaken by Indian Government on river Chist-e-Sharif in the province concerned, is expected to irrigate 75,000 hectares of land and generate 42 megawatt of power, besides ensuring water supply and other benefits to local people.

Touted as a "landmark" infrastructure project, the dam is located 165 km east of Herat town and connected with earthen road, the Union Water Resources Ministry said in a statement.

"Due to security reasons Indian engineers and technicians involved with the project have been reaching the site once in a month by helicopter service provided by Government of Afghanistan," the statement said.

The Ministry said that all the equipment and material required for the dam work were transported from India to Bander-e-Abbas port of Iran via sea and then along 1200 km by road from there to Islam Kila border post at Iran-Afghanistan border and then further 300 km by road from the border post to the site.

"Cement, steel reinforcement, explosives etc were imported to Afghanistan from neighboring countries. The gross capacity of the Dam is 633 Million M3. The height of the Dam is 104.3 Mt, length 540 Mt and width at the bottom is 450 Mt," it said.

Funded by Indian Government, the successful completion of the project represents culmination of years of hard work by 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers and other professionals in "very difficult" conditions, the Ministry said.

The project is executed and implemented by WAPCOS Ltd, a public sector enterprise under the Water Resources Ministry.
New Delhi: Listing out initiatives she has taken for development of Andhra Pradesh as the Rajya Sabha member from the state, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said she has utilised the entire amount under the MPLAD scheme and facilitated setting up of several projects.

"MPLADs, just for records: fully utilized both years' funds for developmental work.Had Bhimavaram and Vizag declared centers of export excellence. Money for building export infrastructure comes through," Sitharaman said in a series of tweets.

7. @skscsekhar ...mega leather cluster all ready to be set up in Nellore district. The Vizag- Chennai Industrial corridor, with Asian Dev...  Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) June 4, 2016

She was responding to a query on Twitter on what Andhra Pradesh got for sending "you to Rajya Sabha apart from spending Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds?"

Sitharaman, who has completed her term as Rajya Sabha member from Andhra Pradesh, is now contesting from Karnataka.

She said that land has been identified in Amravati for setting up National Institute of Design, which is temporarily housed in Vijaywada. Land has also been identified for a campus for IIFT, for which foundation stone would be laid soon.

As Andhra Pradesh shall be a logistics hub, the minister said soon a foundation stone would be laid for setting up Indian Institute of Packaging.

"Mega leather cluster all ready to be set up in Nellore district. The Vizag- Chennai Industrial corridor, with Asian Development Bank having completed their study shall see major activity creating investment and jobs," she said.

"The Chennai-Bengaluru Corridor passes through Andhra Pradesh. Linking with it, have ensured Rayalaseema benefits from NIMZ (National Investment and Manufacturing Zone) also," the minister added.

Sitharaman said she has also worked for the cause of tobacco farmers when prices fell and procurements did not take off.

"Made Toorputallu and Pedamainavanilanka as the first villages to be run on solar power.

"All this in less than 2 years. Admit there is much more to do. Keep watching and questioning," she added.
Panaji: Citing NIA chief Sharad Kumar's reported statement that so far there was no evidence about Pakistani agencies having helped the terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad carry out the Pathankot attack, Congress today sought to know who were the attackers then.

"If the terrorists were not from Pakistan, then who were the terrorists who attacked the Pathankot base?" Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh said.

The government needed to clarify its position on the NIA chief's statement, he said. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the national security adviser need to answer who were these terrorists," the Congress leader said.

NIA's "clean chit" to Pakistan was a complete failure of Indian diplomacy, Singh said.

The Congress leader also took a swipe at Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, saying he was more concerned about Goa, his home state, than the country. "Parrikar is hardly the Defence Minister. He is Super Chief Minister of Goa," he said.

Singh was here to participate in a function to release a book 'Public Matters', written by former Union Minister of State for External Affairs Eduardo Faleiro.
BENGALURU: Its not official, but the threatened mass leave protest on Saturday by some 50,000 constables and other lower ranks of the police force may have just been called off.

On Friday, policemen from the ranks of constables up to the ranks of ACP/DySP were ordered to sign an undertaking that they would not participate in the proposed protest.

We were all ordered to sign the undertaking. Senior officers threatened disciplinary action against those who refused to. We had no option but to sign," one policeman said.

Senior officers have also asked all policemen to be present at work on Saturday by 8 am in uniform. Even those in non-executive postings like CID, Intelligence and Internal Security Division have been directed to come in uniform, an official said.

And for good measure, even family members of policemen have been warned against taking part in any protest.

Lower rung policemen, however, said the 'mass leave' threat had had some effect. We have been browbeaten, but we have been assured that we will at least get compulsory weekly offs and better residential quarters, they said.

Police top brass douse strike fire

The mass leave protest planned by the police constabulary across the state has already started to bear fruits by the way of home department announcing compulsory weekly-offs and restricted working hours for the constabulary with immediate effect.

Senior police officers held roll-call parades at their respective divisions on Friday morning and lent an ear to the grievances of the constabulary. Senior IPS officials after taking an account of all grievances, later visited police quarters that needed immediate attention. The officials also interacted with the family members of the constabulary and assured them that they would resolve all their problems.

Officials also appealed to the family members to keep away from protest and send their men to work on June 4. The officials also warned the family members that if they resort to protest, after sending their men to work, stringent action will be taken against them as well.

DCPs and ACPs of various police divisions along with their senior officials visited police quarters on Mysuru Road, Anand Rao Circle, Adugodi, Magadi Road, Halsooru, and Vijayanagar. Senior police officers who visited the police quarters on Magadi Road were gheraoed by the family members of the constabulary questioning the officials - why did it take so long for them to come and address their grievances?. There are around 430 houses in the Magadi Road quarters, which are in a bad shape. The constabulary of CAR, city police and drivers live with their families.

Family members told the officials that their men had to slog at work for over 14 hours a day with meagre salaries and no proper leave policies. They lived in police quarters that are dilapidated with no proper water supply or electricity. The family members poured out their woes and demanded better infrastructure from the senior officials, who patiently heard their problems and assured them of action.

The wretched working condition is also taking a heavy toll on the health of the constabulary. Several constables are suffering from hypertension and diabetes and spending for their medical bills from their meagre salary, a family member said.

It took for a dismissed constable outside police department to form a non-registered organisation to highlight the issues inside the department and now the senior police officials are running around to rectify everything in a days time after arresting that man, quipped a constable who did not want to be named.
A student objected that the paper had been prepared by someone with a particular political leaning, and that it was ideologically biased. (Photo: File)

Jaipur: An MA final-year question paper in the University of Rajasthan asked students to write an essay to discuss the ideology and programmes of the Bharatiya Janata Party, causing at least two students to complain.

According to a report in the Indian Express, at least two out of 20 students, who appeared for the paper of the MA course in Rajasthani Language, Literature and Culture, objected to question number 16, though they finally completed the examination.

Read: Jawaharlal Nehru erased from new Class 8 textbooks in Rajasthan

One student objected that the paper has been prepared by someone with a particular political leaning, and that it was ideologically biased, said Dr Gopal Sharan Gupta, a research assistant at the Centre for Rajasthan Studies. He asked the students to report any objections to the authorities.

Meanwhile, Congress slammed the BJP on the issue. Congress spokesperson Archana Sharma said the BJP government has been trying to impress its ideology on students.

Read: After Nehru, now RTI Act scrapped from Rajasthan textbooks

Indian Youth Congress (IYC) spokesperson Sadiq Chauhan said that they will protest against the question paper.

University Vice-Chancellor JP Singhal was quoted as saying that if students had objections, they could approach the grievance committee.

Earlier, the Rajasthan state school syllabus for Class 8 had been in the news for 'erasing' former PM and freedom fighter Jawaharlal Nehru's name from the textbooks.
Over 20 thousand Swayamsevaks are expected to witness the event on October 11, in presence of Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat. (Photo: File)

Nagpur: Thousands of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers will gather for 'shastra pooja' on the occasion of Vijay Dashami at Nagpur, sporting their newly adopted brown-pants, instead of their traditional khaki half pants, that remained the symbol of the right-wing group for decades.

Over 20 thousand Swayamsevaks are expected to witness the event on October 11, in presence of Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat.

The Sangh had in March this year decided to do away with Khaki shorts, trademark dress for their cadres for 91 years, at the three-day annual meeting of Akhil Bhartiya Pratinidhi Sabha, the highest decision-making body of RSS, held in Nagpur.

Read: Meet Suket Dhir, the man who made RSS wear trousers

The day chosen for adopting the new outfit is significant, as the RSS was formed on Vijay Dashmi in 1925. (27 September 1925). At the time of its inception, Khaki shirt, Khaki shorts, leather belt, black cap and black shoes were included as the uniform for the cadres. Since then, there have been three major changes in the outfit of the cadres.

The first change was brought about in 1939, when the Khaki shirt was replaced with white shirt. KB Hegdewar was the Sangh chief back then.

The second change was made in 1973 when heavy boots were replaced with normal ones, while the third change was made in 2010 when leather belt was replaced with a belt made of cloth.
Vijayawada: A day after he was elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh, Railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Saturday announced a number of major railway projects for the state, including a high-speed rail line between new capital Amaravati and Bengaluru.

He, however, remained non-committal on the establishment of a new railway zone with headquarters at Visakhapatnam, alleging that the erstwhile UPA government did not "specify" it in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

"It is incumbent upon us do as much as possible in this regard," Prabhu said after a three-hour-long meeting with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu wherein railway projects related to the state were reviewed.

The Railway Minister announced that two high-speed rail lines would be built between Visakhapatnam and Chennai and Bengaluru and Amaravati in collaboration with foreign countries.

The foreign collaborator would be decided after talks with different countries, he said. "I held talks with French officials yesterday but that was only a preliminary meeting. We will talk with other countries as well and choose a partner," Prabhu added.

He said a Special Purpose VehicleJoint Venture Company would be formed by the Railways with AP government in a couple of months for taking up major rail projects in the state. "Through the proposed SPV, 21 railway stations in AP will be redeveloped as (on the lines of) airports. The South Central Railway General Manager will coordinate with the state government in this regard and review the works every month," the Minister added.

The Railway Minister also announced an aggregate capital investment of Rs 1,000 crore for setting up two new railway workshops at Kurnool and Tirupati and a wagon overhaul facility at Visakhapatnam. These facilities would create hundreds of jobs, he said.

Prabhu also announced that a major Rail Neer plant would also be set up in Andhra Pradesh. Two special tourist trains would also be introduced in the state, one of which would be run by the IRCTC. "The second tourist train will be modelled on the Palace on Wheels and the Deccan Odyssey. We will work with the state government on this," Prabhu added.

Noting that he has now become "a citizen of Andhra Pradesh", following his election to Rajya Sabha from the state yesterday, Prabhu said he worshiped Lord Balaji atop Tirumala Hills today.

"AP has Lord Balaji, the biggest asset. I discussed with the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams authorities this morning about developing a world-class railway terminal in Tirupati under Public Private Partnership. I am informing the Chief Minister about this now," the Railway Minister said.

"Andhra Pradesh will not be lacking in terms of not having railway support. The state is facing transitional difficulties because of the state bifurcation. Railways will do everything to help AP," Prabhu promised.

Replying to questions on the promised new railway zone at Visakhapatnam, Prabhu pointed out that the Reorganisation Act only said "the government will explore the possibility".

"The UPA government had not clearly mentioned in the Act about setting up the railway zone. It only mentioned about exploring the possibility. It is now incumbent upon us to do as much as we can," he added.

But considering Visakhapatnam's importance and its potential for growth, the Railways would come up with many projects there, Prabhu said.

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said the Railway Minister promised to take up the railway zone issue with the Prime Minister.

He also requested the Union Minister to create a loop for the proposed Mumbai-Kharagpur Freight Corridor to connect Visakhapatnam. "This will ensure east-west port connectivity. We have also requested him to prepare a comprehensive integrated logistics plan," Chandrababu added.

Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y Satyanarayana Chowdary, state health minister Kamineni Srinivas, MPs and top railway officials were present.
Hyderabad: Telangana government has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with California state of the US for cooperation in a number of sectors, including business innovation, alternative energy and education.

"This MoU will open new avenues for exchange of innovative ideas between startups in Telangana and Silicon Valley. I am confident that startups in both geographies would benefit immensely from this MoU," Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao said.

The southern Indian state and the California Governor's office have pledged to work together in alternative energy, environmental technology, health, agriculture, business innovation, technology-based industries, research and development, among others, for which a delegation led by Rao signed the MoU.

Panorea Avdis, Director, California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) said India and California have strong economic ties that make our respective regions natural partners.

"The agreement with the Telangana government provides a framework for collaboration that will help innovative Indian companies invest in California and help innovative companies in our state access the Indian market," Avdis said.

"The MoU aims to connect the respective innovation programmes and help foster economic cooperation and development, facilitate joint industrial research and development through their respective innovation ecosystems, and enhance business relationships and educational opportunities in areas such as renewable energy, cleantech, smart cities, water conservation, biotech and agri tech," an official release said.

"Through this agreement, the companies that participate in the Telangana T-Hub will have access to resources and contacts within the GO-Biz Innovation Hub (I-Hubs) network, which stretches from Redding to San Diego (in USA) and includes 15 distinct I Hubs, making it the largest state-sponsored innovation network in the US," the release said.

Likewise, this agreement opens opportunities for California companies to connect with the partners and companies within T-Hub network, it added.
The post-mortem report said the girl was strangulated to death, but was not raped.

THIRUVANNAMALAI: A 15-year-old girl barely managed to ward off a rape bid by an agriculture worker, but was killed on Thursday evening in Mazhuvampattu village in Tnandarampattu taluk of Thiruvannamalai district.

Police said the victim and her father, who is a blind, went to the paddy field to fetch coconut and mango leaves and some sticks to decorate a pandal for the marriage of the victims elder brother, fixed for June 9.

Venugopal, the victims father, had reportedly asked his daughter to bring all the materials to the house and was waiting for her in a far off place. Meanwhile, a farm hand, Pandarinathan (36), of the same village who helped the duo gather the materials, took the girl to a secluded place and sought to misbehave with the girl.

Even as the girl raised an alarm, the agriculture worker choked her to death and fled the place, police said. When Venugopals wife Murugayee did not find their daughter return home, they informed the police who mounted a search. They found the body of the girl lying on a paddy field. The police, after recovering the body, sent it for post-mortem in Thiruvannamalai general hospital.

The post-mortem report said the girl was strangulated to death, but was not raped. Police nabbed Pandarinathan who is married and has two children. On Friday Pandarinathan was produced before the judicial magistrate who remanded him to 15 days police custody. Further investigations are on.

Meanwhile, the CPI (M)s district unit condemned the attempted sexual assault on the poor girl and her subsequent murder.
The photos were uploaded on the official page of the Bengaluru City Police and on their Twitter handles, along with the number of police staff in attendance during the roll-call parade at each of the police stations.

Bengaluru: In an image-building exercise, inspectors from almost all the police stations sent photos of their entire staff in full attendance at their respective stations to City Police Commissioner N.S. Megharikh.

The photos were uploaded on the official page of the Bengaluru City Police and on their Twitter handles, along with the number of police staff in attendance during the roll-call parade at each of the police stations. The top brass of the state and city police claimed full attendance throughout the state on Saturday, reiterating that the earlier threat of policemen going on mass leave did not have any impact as they attended in full force.
Lucknow: Mafia dons from Uttar Pradesh  both slain and jailed  are active on social networking sites, mainly Facebook. The slain dons are being kept alive by their friends and supporters who keep connecting with the people through the social networking sites and revive memories from time to time.

Jailed dons are also active on Facebook though they insist that it is their sons/nephews who manage their pages because the people from their constituency want to remain connected.

Virendra Pratap Shahi, the erstwhile don from Gorakhpur who is said to have built the city into the crime capital of north India in the 70s and 80s, was shot dead in 1997 in Lucknow.

His Facebook page cover photo screams Bahu Bali and greetings on various festivals are extended to his supporters on his behalf. Eighteen years after his death, his page has managed 520 likes and over 3,300 friends.

Another slain don on Facebook is Shri Prakash Shukla who was one of the most dreaded gangsters in the history of Uttar Pradesh. Shuklas activities in the underworld had led to the creation of the Special Task Force in Uttar Pradesh in 1998 and in the same year, the gangster was shot dead by STF in Ghaziabad.

His Facebook page is names as Shri Prakash Shukla Don and has a cover photo that was published in a newspaper and was taken from police records.

For some strange reasons  either for a lack of knowledge of English or as a deliberate move  the people managing the FB page make it seem that the don is alive.

He is said to have started studying in January 2015, got into a relationship in January 2015 and also got married in January 2015. The significance of January 2015 is not yet known.

He is introduced as Leader of Gangster Group (GG2) and the lone post on his FB wall says, I am a gangster and gangsters dont ask questions. Every human being has a bit of gangster in him.

Another don who recently made his debut on the social networking site is Brijesh Don, who was arrested from Odisha in 2008 and is presently lodged in Varanasi jail. Recently he was elected member of the UP legislative council. His Facebook page has 1,895 followers and 4969 friends and is managed by his nephew Sushil Singh, also an MLA.
Mumbai: Bowing to pressure from all quarters, Maharashtra revenue minister Eknath Khadse resigned from his post on Saturday. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has announced that a retired high court judge will conduct an inquiry into the allegations made against Mr Khadse.

Mr Khadse has himself demanded that an inquiry be conducted to prove the allegations against him, including the calls allegedly received on his cell phone from fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahims residence in Karachi and the questionable land deal in Bhosari, Pune.

There are also allegations that his PA, Gajanan Patil, had sought a bribe.

A senior BJP minister, requesting anonymity, said Mr Khadse tried till the last moment to get the state leadership to support him. When he realised that BJP president Amit Shah was not ready to back him, he tried to convince Union minister Nitin Gadkari and called him on Saturday morning.

Chief minister Fadnavis was not ready to ask Mr Khadse to tender his resignation as he has taken political lessons from him and is also very junior to him. So he asked Mr Gadkari to convince Mr Khadse to resign, the senior minister said, adding, Mr Gadkari then requested Mr Khadse to meet the chief minister and tender his resignation.

Quit to uphold moral values, says Khadse

Party leaders at the Centre were not happy with Mr Khadse as the partys image was taking a beating. He (Mr Shah) said the party would not tolerate it if it has to bear the brunt of allegations against Mr Khadse while he chose to keep silent, the senior BJP minister said.

Mr Khadse addressed the media at the BJP office and challenged Aam Aadmi Party leaders Preeti Menon and Anjali Damania and Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant to prove the allegations levelled against him. 

Mr Khadse said he would wait till he was exonerated of all charges. Unless and until I come out clean, I will not resume any post. I have resigned on my own, considering it my moral responsibility to do so. I also thank my party, BJP, which stood by me, he said.
Family members of SP City Mukul Dwivedi who lost his life during Thursdays encroachers-police clash, mourn in Mathura on Friday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi/Lucknow: The violent clashes in Mathura, which claimed 26 lives, have given the BJP the foothold in Uttar Pradesh that it has been desperately seeking.

With Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled for early next year, the issue will become part of the BJPs armoury for use against the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP).

Criticising the SP, BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday said if SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav had a little bit of self-respect left, he should sack his brother, the Cabinet minister Shivpal Singh Yadav, who is accused of supporting the main accused in the incident, Ram Vraksh Yadav.

Mr Shivpal Singh Yadav has denied the allegations. Mr Shah, who was in UP for a party-related event, also said that the SP government has no right to remain in power. The death toll in the violent clashes between encroachers and the police at Jawahar Bagh, Mathura, on Saturday reached 27.

UP Govt raises compensation

Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday raised compensation amount to the next of kin of two slain police officers in Mathura clash from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav also announced extraordinary pension to the families of two martyred policemen and job to one member from each family, an official release said.
Police personnel have decided to give up their one day salary to the families of deceased Mathura cops. (Photo: PTI)

Mathura: Thursdays violence at Jawahar Bagh in Mathura has brought into focus the thriving nexus between the sect, Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena, the Uttar Pradesh administration and some influential politicians of the state.

The leader of the sect, Ram Vraksh Yadav, allegedly had a direct line to Lucknow. The leader, who was declared dead by the police this evening, was receiving a monthly pension of Rs 15,000 from the ruling Samajwadi Party government as Loktantra Rakshak Senani.

Yadav had continued with his activities, including hoarding of arms and ammunition, with complete impunity from within the park complex despite the sprawling 260 acre Jawahar Bagh being surrounded by the office of the Mathura superintendent of police, the tehsil office, the office of the district magistrate and the Mathura district court.

The police control room, the reserve police line and Mathura jail are not far from the Jawahar Bagh area. It all started on March 15, 2014 when Yadav, with 40 people, staged a dharna in front of the Mathura DMs office demanding cancellation of elections, 60 litres of petrol for one rupee and introduction of Azad Hind currency in place of the existing Indian currency.

The DM then told them to sit on a dharna inside Jawahar Bagh for two days. Since then Yadav not only never moved out of the park, but also took over the entire area.

For the last two years, neither the local Intelligence units nor the police were able to enter the Jawahar Bagh area. Incidentally, Jawahar Bagh belonged to the state forest department.

Yadav had put up a blockade at the entrance of the park and the 3,000 squatters there were his disciples and called themselves satyagarahis. He had also set up a school for children inside the premise and had a morning yoga session and chants of Subhash Chandra zindabad.

Mathura clash mastermind is dead: Cops

More than 24 hours after the clashes in Mathura took place, the UP police on Saturday announced that the mastermind of the Mathura clashes Ram Vraksh Yadav had died in the violence.

DGP Javeed Ahmad tweeted that the body of Ram Vraksh had been identified by his associates who had been arrested. We are intimating his family for the final confirmation, the DGP said.

Earlier in the day, the DGP had said that he was not in a position to confirm or deny if Ram Vraksh Yadav was absconding or had been killed in the clashes.

The 11 charred bodies that have been recovered from Jawahar Bagh after the incident, will be sent for DNA sampling and only then can we confirm the identities of the deceased persons, he had told reporters. Meanwhile, the family members of Yadav in village Raipur Baghpur in Ghazipur district are unconcerned about his whereabouts.
Upto 10 acres will be allotted to those planning centres for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE). (Representational image)

Hyderabad: Land will be allotted on a 33-year lease basis for tourism projects in Andhra Pradesh.

This is as per the land lease policy announced by the government on Friday to promote tourism in the state. Lands allotment will be through a bidding process.

Styled as the Land Lease Policy for Tourism Projects, 2016, this is a supplement to the existing Andhra Pradesh tourism policy 2015-20, as notified on June 12 last year. It shall be applicable to allotment of government land for any tourism projects such as hotels, resorts etc.

The maximum extent of land a hotel (3-Star or above as per the guidelines of the Union ministry of tourism) can get is upto 5 acres.

For resorts, including beach resorts, jungle resorts, hill resorts etc. (3-Star or above) will be upto 10 acres.

Upto 10 acres will be allotted to those planning centres for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE). Wayside amenities will get 1 acre. Other tourism projects, as decided by the government, will get up to 10 acres.

A transparent bidding process shall be undertaken to select a developer for the various projects and the selected developer will be allotted the lands.
Ballari: Put a minister on hold and you get transferred. Put a stop to an illegal building, and you run the risk of mob anger! Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP), Kudligi sub-division of Ballari district, Anupama Shenoy who made the headlines after she was transferred in January for putting a call from district in charge and labour minister P T Parameshwar Naik's on hold, has reportedly tendered her resignation here on Saturday.

Early Saturday morning, a group of people had gathered in front of her office in Kudligi town, protesting the arrest of three people on Friday evening over the construction of a building allegedly to open a liquor shop.

When protesters raised slogans against her alleging that she assaulted the three people who had been taken into custody, she reportedly told the protesters that she could not do her duty in a such an atmosphere and was going to resign.

Sources said she rushed into her chamber, wrote out her resignation letter, summoned an inspector to whom she handed over an envelope saying that it was her resignation letter and asked that it be forwarded to her superior officer.

Ms. Shenoy should have submitted her resignation to Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ballari Range through the Superintendent of Police, Ballari, but instead, handed over her resignation letter to her junior officer, circle police inspector Nagappa Bankali. Ballari SP R Chetan meanwhile confirmed that Ms Shenoy had submitted her resignation through her subordinate officer.

"I don't know the reasons for her resignation. I'm yet to see the letter. Decision on her resignation letter will be taken after following due procedure", he said.

According to sources, a couple of days ago, leaders of Dalit organisations had complained to her over the construction, by the local Congress leader Veerendra Kumar who owns a couple of liquor shops in the town, of a building that would serve as a liquor shop.

Dalit leaders who opposed a liquor shop coming up next to Ambedkar Bhavan, said the construction of the building would also close the approach road to Ambedkar Bhavan. Ms Shenoy had asked building owners to stop construction activity until it is proved whether construction of the building was being carried out on land owned by Mr Veerendra Kumar.

However, defying the orders of the DySP, construction activity continued with the owner stating that it was his own property and his family had some years ago donated a piece of land for the construction of Ambedkar Bhavan.

On Friday evening, police took three people from the building construction site into custody for defying the DySPs orders. The arrest triggered tension in the town, the next day. Sources said, senior officials took the officer to task. Upset, the officer reportedly tendered her resignation.

The officer was also in the forefront of stopping illegal liquor mafia in her jurisdiction, when she was abruptly transferred on the day the Election Commission announced the code of conduct for Zilla and Taluk Panchayat elections in the State.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a significant statement, the Devaswom minister Mr Kadkampally Surendran on Saturday said the LDF government was ready for a referendum on the entry women into Sabarimala temple. At a press conference here, Mr Kadkamapally said the government would initiate discussions with all stakeholders and seek their opinion on allowing entry of women in the age group of 10 to 50 years into the famous hill shrine.

We are not going to impose our decision on the temple administration and devotees. Our idea is to evolve a consensus on the issue after wide ranging discussions. The discussions will revolve around the reasons for preventing the entry of women at a time when they are attaining laudable achievements and moving forward in all spheres of society, the minister said.

The devaswom minister said that the outcome of the referendum, discussions and consultations with stakeholders will be conveyed to the Supreme Court which is currently looking into the matter. All channels will be used for seeking the opinion of devotees, social leaders, religions groups and political leadership through all party meetings and public debates.

The LDF government has taken a proactive stand on the issue. The previous UDF government had refused to interfere with the conventions at Sabarimala shrine. The government will not intervene in such matters just as it does not interfere with Christian and Muslim places of worship, the former chief minister Oommen Chandy had pointed out.

Replying to the Supreme Courts query on whether the devaswom had the Constitutional right to prevent womens entry at Sabarimala shrine, the former CM had also pointed out that devaswom system which governed Hindu temples started during monarchy. The government had so far interfered only in the administrative affairs of devaswom boards, he said and added that there was even a view that the government should keep off even devaswom activities.

Meanwhile, the high-level meeting presided over by Mr Kadakampally Surendran reviewed the functioning of devaswom boards. The minister said all boards had supported the government decision to route devaswom recruitments through PSC.

The minister asked the Travancore Devaswom Board to review the recently announced hike. Even though the hike was announced during the UDF period, propaganda has been unleashed holding us responsible for it. Such campaigns on social networking sites are being deliberately carried out to fan emotions against our government. However, people will see through their designs, he added.
Thiruvananthapuram: Notwithstanding the claims made by O Rajagopal that he voted for LDF Speaker candidate P Sreeramakrishnan because of the similarity of his name with RamaKrishna and his charming personality, it is clear that the decision could not have been taken without the consent of party state leadership.

But a section of BJP leaders are upset over Rajagopal's decision. Those leaders who were trying to defend Rajagopals stand saying it was the veteran leaders personal decision taken as per his conscience, they were struggling to sound convincing. Many found it hard to believe that a national party like the BJP with a strong RSS ideological base, would take the Speakers election as a non political event.

Rajagopals vote is being seen as a calculated move of the BJP to divert peoples attention from the allegations that it had tied up with the Congress in many constituencies. Besides, it also wants to send across a false message that the party is not averse to CPM.

Sources said Rajagopals decision may have been with the consent of the leadership, but it has clearly embarrassed the party workers who are fighting pitched battles with the CPM out in the field.

They were not convinced by the BJP veteran's statement that he voted for LDF as Ramesh Chennithala had categorically stated that the UDF didnt require his vote. The BJP veteran leaders courtesy call to AKG Centre to meet Pinarayi Vijayan had also evoked similar sentiments among the workers.

Support is based on merit, not politics

BJP MLA O. Rajagopal has defended his voting in favour of LDFs Speaker candidate P. Sreeramakrishnan on Friday and said he will continue to vote based on merit and not on politics. BJP is not anti-communist or anti-Congress but we will stand for dharma. Our actions will be issue-based and we will support things that benefit the public. The Speaker should be a person who can view every lawmaker as an equal and I feel Sreeramakrishnan will fit the post better, Mr Rajagopal, 86, told reporters at the Press Club here.

Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala had said that he will not need the BJP MLAs vote. So I was obviously not going to vote for him. I cannot be part of all the blind criticism that the Opposition might use against the government, he said. The BJP had not opposed Somnath Chatterjees candidature when he was named for the Lok Sabha Speakers role, he said.

When asked about the ongoing violence in Kannur, which the BJP claims the CPM is unleashing, he said that the CPM-led government should ensure dharma by ending the violence by its own workers.
Mumbai: In the eye of a storm over allegations of corruption including irregularities in a land deal, Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse resigned from the post on Saturday.

The move came after the central leadership of the BJP sent him a clear and stern signal that he had no option but to quit since his continuance would damage the image of the ministry led by the party.

Read: Maharashtra BJP chief dubs charges against Khadse as 'political'

Khadse handed over his resignation to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis whom he met at his official residence 'Varsha' here, two days after the latter briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah over the issue.

Considered "number two" in the Cabinet handling some vital portfolios, Khadse has been facing heat over a series of allegations including irregularities in a land deal in Pune and calls allegedly received from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's residence in Karachi on his mobile phone besides the alleged bribe sought by his "PA".

He is in a spot over the purchase of a three-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corp land in Pune 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.

Read: Fadnavis meets Amit Shah, says BJP to take appropriate action on Khadse

An unfazed Khadse had till last evening said that he has not received any directive from the BJP central leadership on the charges against him which he dubbed as "baseless".

However, the central leadership sent him a clear and stern signal that he had no option but to quit since his continuance would damage the image of the ministry led by the party and give leverage to the opposition to challenge the BJP's commitment to provide corruption-free rule.

Read: Eknath Khadse rubbishes allegations, says facing media trial

Not only the opposition Congress and the NCP, but ally Shiv Sena also demanded that Khadse be forced out of the cabinet.
B.R. Patil, an MLA from the Karnataka Janata Party, protests against a TV sting operation which dragged his name into the alleged cash-for-votes scam, in front of Vidhana Soudha, in Bengaluru on Friday. (Photo: DC)

BENGALURU: On a day when one leader demanded a CBI probe, another offered to quit politics if proved guilty of offering lucre, and legislators cried foul 24 hours after two television channels telecast sting operations of how they allegedly negotiated for cash in return for their votes ahead of next weeks polls to Rajya Sabha, the question of whodunit and which individual or party won brownie points in this sordid episode plagued all politicians.

On Friday, the last day for withdrawal of nomination papers, five candidates  three of the ruling Congress, and one each of BJP and JD (S)  continued to vie for four vacancies in Rajya Sabha. While BJP seems to be sitting pretty with Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman set to return for another turn, three Congress nominees and one of JD (S) are contesting for three vacancies. Leaders of JD (S), who were banking of second preference votes of BJP MLAs, were cold-shouldered by state president B.S. Yeddyurappa. His disdainful response set off speculation that the BJP and Congress had teamed up to wreck the prospects of Dals wealthy candidate M.B. Farookh. A similar stand vis-a-vis the overtures of Dal leaders for an understanding in polls to the Legislative Council added credence to talk of a secret pact between the BJP and Congress.

Going by the floor strength of these three parties in the Legislative Assembly, JD (S), which has 40 MLAs, requires the support of only five other legislators, for Mr Farookhs entry into Rajya Sabha. On the other hand, former IPS officer K C Ramamurthy of Congress must muster 11 more votes in addition to 34 of his party to pip the Dal contestant. Former Union ministers Oscar Fernandes and Jairam Ramesh would make it without any hiccups as the party has adequate number of legislators to ensure a smooth sail.

Election Commission seeks tapes

Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha said, Weve not sent any report nor has the Election Commission asked for a report. The Commission has sought for unedited tapes of the sting operations carried out by TV channels. Those will be viewed and then the Election Commission will decide. The petition filed by JD(S) leaders is vague, so I asked the returning officer to look into it and submit a report. Then we will decide.

Not part of our culture, says Dr G Parameshwar

Denying any role of the ruling Congress in cash-for-votes controversy, KPCC president Dr Parameshwar said: Quoting a section of MLAs or any candidate over seeking or giving assurance on behalf of the state government does not mean that the Congress is involved. It can be blamed only if anyone from the cabinet makes such promises, adding those who are contesting (candidates) may have assured that he will strive to get more funds to those MLAs who support him in Rajya Sabha polls. How could it be considered an illegal or wrongful act?

He said cash-for-votes was not part of the party's culture. Yes of course, we (Congress leaders including himself) have appealed to independent MLAs as well as all those like-minded MLAs to exercise their franchise in favour of our party's third candidate, he added.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As AICC is preparing for a generational change, the call for a change in the present Kerala leadership is also getting louder. KPCC vice-president and North Paravur MLA, V. D. Satheeshan was the first to demand a leadership change at the two-day KPCC camp executive meeting at Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Research Studies at Neyyar Dam on the outskirts of the capital city convened to discuss the poll debacle.

Ever since the Congress received a drubbing in the Assembly elections, a majority of the KPCC leaders had come down heavily on the three senior leaders  former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, KPCC president V. M. Sudheeran and Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala. But Congress Working Committee member A. K. Antony was also not spared at the meeting citing that he did not intervene at the right time.

The present leadership has lost its secular face. Corruption allegations against leaders have tainted the image of the party. The alleged land deals during the last period of the government turned against us, and the main reason for the defeat was corruption, he said.

He also added that the party was not able to defend corruption allegations levelled against many, including the ministers. Another KPCC vice-president and Chadaya-mangalam Congress candidate M. M. Hassan who lost by close to 22, 000 votes to CPI candidate showed his ire against Mr Sudheeran.

Mr Hassan alleged that Mr Sudheeran was solely responsible for the partys poor showing. Mr Sudheerans stand on the selection of candidates snowballed into a major crisis. I am ready to quit my post following the debacle, and other leaders should also do the same. Like Mr Chandy, who refused to become Opposition Leader, Mr Sudheeran should also step down, said Mr Hassan.

The leaders who spoke in the first session said the prohibition policy of the UDF government had boomeranged. The leaders did not spare the AICC leadership too. When leaders vented ire on Mr Antony, Mr Sudheeran asked to avoid personal criticisms.
BENGALURU: With rebel MLAs launching an open attack against JD(S) leadership, leaders of the state unit of BJP do not have to sweat in order to obtain the magic number of 29 votes to ensure the victory of partys second, candidate Lehar Singh, in next weeks elections to the Legislative Council.

In fact, BJP leaders are confident of the support of rebel MLAs of JD(S) and the surplus votes of Congress as part of the strategy to defeat the second candidate of JD(S). Therefore, Mr Lehar Singh stands a better chance of returning to the upper House than JD(S) candidate Dr. Venkatapathy.

JD (S) rebel MLAs, Zameer Ahamed Khan, N Chelvarayaswamy, H C Balakrishna, Iqbal Ansari and Akanda Srinivasamurthy are unlikely to Dr Venkatapathy in view of their strained relationship with state unit president H.D. Kumaraswamy.

The party has 11 surplus votes for its second candidate, but if these MLAs rebel, the number would be reduced to six. In such circumstances, it would be very difficult for the party to garner 29 first preferential votes to ensure Dr Venkatapathys victory.

On the other hand, BJP has 14 to 15 surplus votes after electing its first candidate V. Somanna. With the help of KJP and BSR Congress, the number would go up to 19 to 20.

For remaining 10 to 11 votes, BJP has established contact with independent MLAs. If party the candidate fails to obtain adequate number of first preference votes, then the returning officer would consider second preference votes.

Sources in BJP said state unit president B.S.Yeddyurappa has already drawn up plan B to ensure the victory of his diehard supporter Lehar Singh by seeking surplus votes of Congress if required.

As Mr. Arun Kumar has withdrawn from the contest, the Congress has three to four surplus votes in its pocket after electing its four candidates. With both Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and energy minister D.K. Shivakumar determined to ensure the defeat of JD (S) in both Rajya Sabha and Council polls, the BJP would stand to benefit, sources added.
BENGALURU: Leaving nothing to chance, leaders of the ruling Congress are holding separate parleys with each independent MLA as part of their strategy to secure adequate number of votes for former IPS officer and third contestant K C Ramamurthy ahead of next weeks elections to Rajya Sabha.

Speaking to this newspaper, sources in the party disclosed that their party leaders were successful in extracting a promise about their support to the Congress candidate from three such legislators - B. R. Patil (Aland), Satish Shail (Karwar) and Ashok Kheny (Bidar) and in return assured them that their demands would be met.

While Mr Patil and Mr Shail reportedly sought Congress tickets to contest from their respective constituencies for polls to the Legislative Assembly in 2018, Mr Kheny reportedly sought protection of his business interests.

Sources added that party leaders seemed to have agreed in principle to their demands for the numbers are not adequate at this juncture. Energy minister D. K. Shivakumar, who has been deputed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to ensure that the numbers add up on the polling day, has been working over time to convince independents and rebel JD (S) MLAs and extract a promise on their support as all their votes would be critical for the victory of Mr Ramamurthy.

At the same time, the leaders are also striving to get the Math right to help former Union ministers Oscar Fernandes and Jairam Ramesh return to Rajya Sabha as their names were among those approved by senior central leaders and included in the first list of the party.

Senior leaders Oscar Fernandes and Jairam Ramesh are likely to be allotted two or more votes than that required to win the Rajya Sabha polls by the state unit of Congress.

These extra votes would ensure that these two leaders do not suffer the ignominy of defeat as was the case with the official candidate, Iqbal Ahmed Saradagi, in elections to the Legislative Council four years ago.

Two independent candidates won at the cost of Mr Saradagi, prompting central leaders to set up a committee to probe the cause for such a fiasco. Mr Saradagi, a confidant of veteran leader M Mallikarjun Kharge, was subsequently nominated to the upper House last year.

More than the victory of our third candidate, our first priority will be to ensure the victory of both Mr Fernandes and Mr Ramesh. We do not want to take any risk, so we are preparing a list of names of confidants of Mr Oscar Fernandes and Mr Ramesh in order to group them in one vote block and assign the respective group to each leader in order to avoid last minute confusion, sources in the party told Deccan Chronicle.

Returning Officer gets copy of sting operation on cash-for-money

The Returning Officer for Rajya Sabha elections Karnataka will on Monday submit to the Election Commission a report along with an unedited copy of the "sting operation" that purportedly showed MLAs negotiating money deal in exchange for their votes.

"The Commission has asked for an unedited copy of the 'sting operation' I have received from one channel now. The other channel is yet to submit. "I will send a report along with the unedited copy to the Commission and Chief Electoral Officer Karnataka on Monday," Karnataka Legislative Assembly Secretary S Murthy, also the Returning Officer, told PTI.

The Returning Officer had submitted a prima facie written report to the Election Commission with some paper cuttings and clippings on the very next day after the "sting operations" were aired by two private TV news channels on Thursday.

The footage of "sting operation" by one channel showed a JD(S) MLA purportedly talking about money in crores of rupees for supporting a candidate. A parallel "sting" operation by another channel showed Congress candidate K C Ramamurthy and Independent MLAs purportedly speaking about getting increased development funds for the constituency from the government in return for votes.
Although Congress circles are constantly abuzz with talks about party vice-president Rahul Gandhis elevation, media reports on the Nehru-Gandhi scions coronation last week had an unusual urgency about them. While the speculation raged on through the day, senior party leaders, including those who are usually in the know of such matters, feigned ignorance about these reports. According to Congress insiders, these reports were actually put out by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in an effort to put an end to recent speculation that she is set to join politics and that she will begin by undertaking an extensive campaign in next years UP Assembly polls.

Ms Vadras office apparently swung into action following the growing demand from party cadres for her induction into politics. This was her way to put an end to these demands and to send out the message that Mr Gandhi is the partys heir-apparent. The pro-Priyanka camp in the Congress will certainly be disappointed as they have been pitching for her in the interest of their own political survival. There are others who believe these reports were meant to deflect attention from the revelations about Robert Vadras suspected benami property in London.

The annual meeting of all Indian heads of mission posted across the world, which concluded in Delhi recently, was initially slated to be held in Mussoorie. Preparations for this meeting began months in advance as Prime Minister Modi and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj were to address the Indian envoys. The venue was decided when Uttarakhand was under Presidents Rule and the ruling BJP was hoping to form its own government in the hill state. However, it was subsequently decided to shift the meeting out of Mussoorie.

No explanations were offered for this change of plans, but according to the grapevine, the decision was taken after the BJP suffered a huge embarrassment when it lost the court-monitored trust vote in the Uttarakhand Assembly. The BJP, especially Mr Modi, apparently wanted to use the annual heads of mission meeting to make a splash in Uttarakhand as the party was working on a plan to advance next years Assembly election in the state. In fact, the BJP was desperate to wrest Uttarakhand from the Congress in an early poll in a bid to keep the momentum going in the run-up to the 2017 Assembly poll in UP.

Former Chhattisgarh CM Ajit Jogi, who has been on the warpath since he fell out of favour with Congress leadership over a decade ago, has been toying with the idea of floating a third front for some time now, but he held off in the hope that the party would nominate him for the lone Chhattisgarh seat for the June 11 RS election. He realised that early rehabilitation is not on the cards as neither he nor his camp follower was nominated for this seat. Consequently, the former CM declared his intention to chart an independent course.

Mr Jogi wants the Congress to declare him as the partys CM candidate in Chhattisgarh and rehabilitate his MLA son Amit Jogi who was expelled following reports that the father-son duo had allegedly offered money to a Congress candidate to withdraw from a bypoll in Chhattisgarh two years ago. Prime Minister Modi has promised to deliver a Congress-mukt Bharat. While he may succeed in fulfilling this promise in the months ahead, one state has already become Congress-mukt. After losing all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 election, the GOP has no representation from Rajasthan in the LS.

After the June 11 RS election, the Congress will have no member from the desert state in the RS either. With only 21 legislators in the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly, the Congress is in no position to get its candidate elected to the RS. However, it has decided to create problems for the BJP by backing Independent Kamal Morarka. The Congress is hoping that Mr Morarka will be able to win the support of seven independent MLAs as well as some rebel BJP legislators.
The Election Commission of India is a prisoner of circumstances. While it must be seen to be fair in offering a level playing field in all elections, the commission has also to cope with the reality of India, which is to do with corruption. The peculiar case of allegations of large-scale corruption in the Rajya Sabha elections throws up very knotty questions because the EC, with residuary constitutional powers in the conduct of indirect elections in which representatives of the people vote for persons to become members of the Upper House, must decide what to do in a situation involving horse-trading.

While the EC has asked for details of the sting operations run by some television channels on Karnataka legislators, who are preparing to vote on June 11, the question arises as to what exactly the EC can do in this regard, apart from revoking the polls now and rescheduling. The allegations against legislators may be a subject of police investigation and the EC can be expected to pass on such information and ask the authorities to act. But what happens when legislators are seduced to vote for ruling party nominees on the offer of several crores of rupees in development funds for the constituencies of the MLAs of Opposition parties?

It takes no great stretch of imagination to conclude that such sweet deals would also mean the legislators have something to gain personally, but they cannot be held guilty of direct graft. If the election in Karnataka proceeds as schedule, there is every fear it will be rigged. There is also the question of how effective the EC is when it comes to tackling corruption.
There are three critical Rajya Sabha seats up for grabs and one Legislative Council seat, that all the three parties  the Congress, the BJP and the JD(S) -- want to win at any cost. Its cash-in time for some, and the time to redeem the IOU for others. With every passing election, this festival of give and take is taking on ever more alarming proportions. While the political stakes are clearly high, the economic dividends are bigger.

To be fair to the current players in this messy game, their predecessors have set high standards, wooing elected representatives from smaller parties, rebels and independents. The practice has now become rampant and widespread. The elected representatives caught on tape in the sting operation have clearly decided that that they are going to make the best of every opportunity to rake in as much as they can before they themselves go before voters again in two years time to seek re-election. This problem of grabby hands is compounded when larger parties need surplus votes and elected representatives from smaller parties and independents rule the roost. Each time such unsavoury practices are exposed, there are questions raised on the logic and validity of these elections, and even the very need for the Upper House comes under question.

In this context, three issues merit attention. Firstly, all discussion on money power in elections focuses on the symptom and not the disease. It needs to be recognised that elections, like the one to the Rajya Sabha and Legislative Councils, provide a useful outlet for the release of black money. No legislation or regulation is likely to curb the menace so long as the sources of that money are available. Unless the root cause is dealt with, all other remedies would be merely cosmetic and superficial.

Secondly, these elections raise questions on the rationale of the Rajya Sabha and Legislative Councils and their membership. As the name suggests, the Rajya Sabha was conceived as a Council of States. In a federal system, the Upper House of Parliament is supposed to represent and protect the interest of the states. This explains the difference in the nature of composition of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Given the fact that the Rajya Sabha was to represent the interests of the states, the Constitution-makers provided for a bulk of the Rajya Sabha members to be elected by the state Legislative Assemblies. It was the pious hope of the Constituent Assembly that those elected to the Rajya Sabha would use the platform of the Upper House to represent the interests of the states they are elected from.

The reality over the last six decades has been vastly different. Political parties have used the carrot of Rajya Sabha nominations to reward loyalists, rehabilitate defeated politicians, accommodate defectors and provide political sinecures to loyal retired civil servants. A study of the profile of the 1,800-odd who were elected to the Rajya Sabha over the last six decades were active in the politics of the state they were elected from or held important organisational positions in the party at the district or state levels. For many, the Rajya Sabha entry is the first election that they contested ever. Proximity to the party leadership, rather than understanding and reflecting the public perceptions in the state, and the capacity to win votes in a tight race seem to be the key factors that help aspirants secure tickets.

It is thus no surprise that a review of the proceedings of the two Houses would indicate that issues linked to the states are raised more often in the Lok Sabha than in the Rajya Sabha. It is becoming increasingly clear that the original intention of having an Upper House in a federal system has been lost sight of and the Rajya Sabha has become a space for political accommodation for those who cannot win a direct election or for affluent political entrepreneurs whose principal qualification is their money power.

Thirdly, if the Rajya Sabha has to authentically represent the states, a modification of the experiment tried out in Germany may be useful. In Germany, the Bundesrat is not even referred to as the Upper House but as the Other House, in order to avoid hierarchies. Each of the federal states (Landers) has a fixed quota of seats in the Bundesrat. The state government nominates the members to sit in the Bundesrat. Very often, ministers from the state attend the sessions of the Bundesrat and articulate, project and protect the interests of their states. It may be useful to consider if half the Rajya Sabha members could be selected on this basis. The rest could be elected from the state legislatures with a strict qualification norm that should include hailing from that state, proof of active involvement in state politics/government for at least a decade and/or having held an elected position at the state level. If such a change is not introduced, we will continue to see Rajya Sabha tickets being rewards for loyalty and/or a reflection of the candidates ability to buy votes.

Political institutions are the bedrock of democracy. Any slippage between their design and delivery, their promise and performance, their rationale and reality will strike at the root of public faith and confidence in political processes. We need to rescue our institutions from the trust deficit that the actions of those coming into them have caused.
Indira Jaising, senior Supreme Court lawyer, activist and former assistant solicitor-general, speaks to Olga Tellis about her NGO, Lawyers Collective, which has been barred from receiving foreign funds for six months and has had its licence suspended by the home ministry for alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.

According to some news reports, one of the charges against you is that while you were additional solicitor-general you accepted a salary from the Lawyers Collective. Does this mean that you were also attending to LC work besides the ASGs work?

The main charge against me is that during the period 2009 to 2014, I was an additional solicitor-general of India and during that period I was getting paid for the services that I was performing for Lawyers Collective. Yes, it is true I did get paid and all this is disclosed to the funders and to the government in our returns. Nothing was kept back. The funders have no grievance in relation to that. The project for which Lawyers Collective was given a grant was on issues of gender justice.

To begin with, I was not a government servant as ASG. Our appointment is a political appointment and we hold office only so long as the government has confidence in us. We do have a tenure of office. No law officer is a government servant, they advise the government. I was the first woman ever to be appointed as ASG by the UPA government and I appreciate that appointment and am grateful to them for ensuring that women got appointed. The NDA was forced to follow with the appointment of a woman as an ASG. Who knows, one day a woman will be the Attorney General of India as well.

Do you feel that government is targeting your NGO? If so, why?

Yes, we are being targeted, or to put it legally, persecuted. This is a case of the government misusing and subverting its own laws instead of upholding them. All governments are known to persecute their opponents. In a democracy governed by a Constitution, every one has the right to political activity, everyone has a right to a political opinion. They know that they cannot legally stop that so they use illegal means.

These illegal means include leaks to the press of defamatory materials without giving the person an opportunity to deal with them first. This is what they have done to us. There is an abuse of process going on here. They are foolish; they should understand that there will always be people who will oppose the government whether they get funds or not. People speak from behind bars, who can stop them? Money does not make you speak, people give you money because they appreciate your work.

The general perception is that you are being targeted because of the cases that you have been taking up against the government, including Amit Shah, BJP president. How many cases have you fought against the government?

The first showcause notice was released to the press on the day Anand Grover was due to appear in Bombay high court challenging the discharge of Amit Shah in a triple murder case. They know the case was on board as Mr Shahs lawyer was appearing in the case on that day. As you know, the CBI did not appeal against the order. When we pointed out that we had not been given any opportunity to be heard, they quickly removed the notice from the website of the MHA. But how could they withdraw the news reports?

The second one has been issued two days after I spoke at the launch of Rana Ayubs book launch  Gujarat Files  at which I mentioned that we would be filing an appeal against the discharge. I refuse to believe this is a coincidence. I have represented Sanjiv Bhatt, the police officer who alleged that he was at a meeting in 2002 where the then chief minister of Gujarat indicated that the police should go slow against the rioters. He has also produced emails to show that S. Gurumurthy was drawing the affidavits of the state of Gujarat, which he had no business to do being an outsider to the government.

The Supreme Court rejected the case, but the very fact remains that the emails showing the complicity of the state of Gujarat with the accused are now in the public domain. I have also successfully represented Priya Pillai of Greenpeace when she was off-loaded and prevented from travelling abroad to the UK to meet parliamentarians to protest against the investment of Essar in coal mines since Essar did have collaboration with British companies. Anand represented Yakub Memon when he was on death row, when no one was willing to represent him, and for that he has been called anti-national.

Is their problem really with the Ford Foundation also? The MHA said that a foreign hand was behind your anti-government agitations  trying to destabilise the government. Your views.

They did have a problem with Ford Foundation. I dont know why since they are the biggest beneficiaries of Ford Foundation, their organisations and several universities are funded by Ford, why they do not complain about them? Why only when it comes to people like us, who they know are opposed to their politics? Just because we accept grants form Ford Foundation, it does not mean we suspend our own political imagination.

Ford funded us only for doing work on gender justice and for work in HIV, not for representing anyone in court pro bono. We dont cease to be professionals just because Ford funds us on social issues. We have delivered on the issues we were funded for. We have worked on the domestic violence law and also on the law prohibiting discrimination based on HIV which is now pending before Parliament.

In one of your TV interviews you mentioned that if political parties can get foreign funding, why not NGOs. The BJP said there was no comparison between the two. What is your view? Are there many political parties getting foreign funding? Who are they?

All political parties are recipients of foreign funds form corporates. Remember, a political party is also registered as a society, just as any other NGO, and the law for them is the same. On the contrary, the law for them is more stringent.

What are your plans going forward?

This battle for us is not about money. We do not mourn the loss of foreign funding, we speak not because we are funded but because we stand for constitutional values. The government will be opposed with or without foreign funding. After all, when the farmers of this country opposed the land acquisition ordinance which the government was forced to withdraw or allow to lapse, the farmers did not do so on foreign funding.

The government must understand that this is the normal democratic process which they cannot suppress under any circumstances. It is deeply rooted in the Indian psyche. We will not tolerate the Indianised form of Presidents Rule that is creeping into the country unannounced but is highly visible and tangible. Lawyers Collective is a victim of this form of invisible presidents rule  the rule of the president of the party maybe.
Washington: Astronomers thought they had a handle on how the universe ticks, but the cosmos may be toying with them. A team of astronomers has calculated that the universe seems to be expanding faster than what scientists previously figured. If the new research is right, then science's basic understanding of what's been happening to the universe in the past 13.8 billion years after the Big Bang could be just a bit off kilter. "This is really an end-to-end test the universe gives us; it's sort of our final exam," said Nobel laureate and study lead author Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute . "We get a D-plus probably because things don't match up."

Astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to measure the distance of 2,400 stars to calculate the rate the universe is expanding. The number they came up with is 5 to 9 percent faster than other scientifically accepted measurements that calculate the expansion rate based on cosmic background radiation from 380,000 years after the Big Bang. The new study was released Thursday by NASA and is to be published in The Astrophysical Journal. Either one set of calculations is wrong  which outside scientists say is the most likely possibility, though they can't find something wrong yet  or the expansion rate has speeded up since 13.8 billion years ago. And if that's the case, as Riess advocates, then our understanding of the universe is not quite right.

It's as if we're looking for someone and we're in the right room, but looking at the wrong wall, said Riess, who won the 2011 Nobel in physics for proving in 1998 that the universe is accelerating. So now Riess and many of the same scientists are trying to figure just where astronomy made a wrong turn. Riess and co-author Alex Filippenko of Berkeley said there are many possible explanations for why the universe is expanding faster now: It could be that there's a mystery particle, what scientists call a sterile neutrino, which hasn't been seen but could change calculations to make the cosmic calculations balance out. It could be that dark energy is increasing. It could be the universe is more curved than theorized. And it could be that Einstein's General Relativity just isn't quite right when we look at the whole universe.

Or it could be the measurements are off. "There's potentially something very exciting, very interesting that the data are trying to tell us about the universe," Filippenko said.

NASA astrophysicist John Mather, Princeton astrophysicist David Spergel and California Institute of Technology physicist Sean Carroll say while it's possible that we have to go back to the cosmological drawing board, it's far more likely that one of the two expansion rate measurements was calculated wrong somehow.

"It's far too early to jump up and down to say the universe is messing with us," Carroll said, but then he added that both measurements were by solid and careful scientists.

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Dogs were the first domesticated animal, the only one to appear before people settled down to be farmers.

New York: The long-debated question of where dogs first appeared has always been complex, and now a new study suggests it may have two answers. Dogs arose from the domestication of wolves, and the new work suggests this happened twice, once in Asia and also in either Europe or the Near East.

"We were slightly surprised," since domestic animals usually have a single origin, said lead study author Laurent Frantz of Oxford University. In a paper released Thursday by the journal Science, he and co-authors stressed that their conclusion is only a hypothesis, and that more work is needed to assess it.

Dogs were the first domesticated animal, the only one to appear before people settled down to be farmers. They evolved from wolves that had begun to associate with people, perhaps drawn by food the people left behind. The study drew on genetics and archaeological records. It included a complete genome from a dog that lived in Ireland about 4,800 years ago and more limited DNA from 59 European dogs that lived 14,000 to 3,000 years ago. The ancient DNA was compared to genetic data for 685 modern dogs. The complex analysis led to this proposed scenario: Dogs arose from wolves in Asia and from a different wolf population in Europe or the Near East. Then, the Asian dogs traveled west along with humans. They arrived on the turf of the other dogs between about 6,000 and 14,000 years ago and partially replaced them or interbred with them, establishing a new population that is genetically different from Asian dogs.

Many dogs today show some genetic heritage from both the eastern and western groups of dogs, Frantz said. Adam Boyko of Cornell University, who has proposed a central Asia origin for dogs but didn't participate in the new study, said he found the dual-origin idea intriguing. More samples of DNA from ancient dogs will be needed to support it, he said.

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Elon Musk also says he plans to go to space himself in about four to five years, but only into orbit around Earth.

Ranchos Palos Verdes: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says if things go according to plan people will be on Mars 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.

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Google has warned that the beta version of Google Maps may have bugs. (Photo: AP)

Google has opened a Play Store testing program for Android users that will allow them to test the beta version of Google Maps. However, Google in advance has warned that beta builds of Google Maps may have bugs or could be unstable.

Considering the App was updated to 9.26.1 version a week ago, the new beta 9.27 version is still at its testing stage. On the upside, Google hopes beta testers will provide feedback about the new version which would further help them to improve and debug faster.

If interested, you can click here to become a beta tester.

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Trump, 69, is assured of his presidential nomination as he has already got the required number of delegates, whereas Clinton is facing a tough battle from her Democratic primary rival Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont. (Photo: AP)

Washington: In a blistering attack on Hillary Clinton, Republican presidential presumptive nominee Donald Trump has termed his Democratic rival as a "thief" and alleged that she should be in jail for her "terrible" email scandal.

"Hillary Clinton is a weak person. Hillary Clinton is totally scripted. Hillary Clinton is a thief. And Hillary Clinton should be in jail for what she did to our national security," Trump said.

"I think she (Clinton) is pathetic. I think she should be in jail for what she did with her e-mails. OK?.. She should be in jail for what she did with those e-mails," Trump told his supporters at an election rally in California yesterday where the primary elections are scheduled on Tuesday.

Trump, 69, is assured of his presidential nomination as he has already got the required number of delegates, whereas Clinton is facing a tough battle from her Democratic primary rival Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont.

However, over the last few days the war of words between Clinton and Trump has reached a new height.

Yesterday at a campaign event in California, Clinton compared Trump to a dictator.

"We are trying to elect a president, not a dictator. I don't understand Donald Trump running a whole campaign based on nothing but denigrating immigrants. At some point you have to ask yourself, is this nothing but a political stunt?"

Clinton said at a campaign stop in San Bernardino. "It's all about him getting attention. All about him getting his name in the newspaper and seeing his face on TV.

That is not a good enough reason to be president," she said.

Describing Clinton as a "very weak" candidate, Trump claimed that he can win in California, a Democratic bastion. "What the hell are they talking about? We have to win, right? We have to win. We didn't come this far to lose. So we're going to play California, because I think Hillary is very weak," Trump said.

"I mean, the only problem is I'd like to run against her, if you want to know the truth. But she shouldn't be. What she's done is terrible," Trump said.

Trump alleged that by using a personal email hosted over a private server, Clinton risked the national security. "For her to do what she did puts our country at risk.

She's Secretary of state. She's got people like Huma (Abedein), she's the wife of Anthony Weiner. Now, how would you like Anthony Weiner to be having all these secrets? Well, guess what? She tells Anthony Weiner everything there is.

I know Anthony Weiner. I don't want him knowing anything, folks. OK?" he said.
Pentagon said yesterday that Carter will accompany Modi when the latter visits the Arlington National Cemetery to lay wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown. (Photo: AFP)

Washington: US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter on Saturday said he along with his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar will "identify new ways" to cooperate ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit here next week.

"Minister Parrikar and I will identify new ways to cooperate in advance of Prime Minister Modi's visit to Washington next week," Carter told the annual Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore today wherein he reiterated India's eminent role in Obama's Asia Pacific rebalance.

Pentagon said yesterday that Carter will accompany Modi when the latter visits the Arlington National Cemetery to lay wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown. He is also scheduled to meet Modi during his three-day stay in the US.

India US military relationship is as close as it has ever been, he said.

"Through our strategic handshake, with the United States reaching west in its rebalance and India reaching east in Prime Minister Modi's Act East policy -- the two nations are exercising together by air, land, and sea," Carter said.

"And there's also a technological handshake -- we're moving towards deeper and more diverse defence co-development and co-production, including on aircraft carrier design and construction," he added.

Carter said while peace in the Asia Pacific region has led to the miraculous growth of countries like China and India, but tension of late persists in the region.

"Tensions in the South China Sea, North Korea's continued nuclear and missile provocations and the dangers of violent extremism felt worldwide, pose challenges to the region's stability and prosperity," he said.

"If we continue to cooperate on security we would one day be discussing a US-China-India multilateral maritime exercise, a Japan and Republic of Korea joint disaster response in the South China Sea and an ASEAN-wide security network," Carter said.

Over the last year, progress has been made towards that vision. "China and India will both participate once again in the US-hosted RIMPAC naval exercise this summer. Japan and the Republic of Korea are engaging with each other in new ways," he said.

In addition to the ASEAN centric security network, which is developing in Southeast Asia, nations across the entire Asia-Pacific are increasingly working together and networking security together, Carter added.

He said two trilateral relationships -- US-Japan-Australia and US-Japan-India, are growing thanks to the military exercises among these countries.

"We've agreed to hold and begun planning on additional US-Japan-Australia trilateral exercises," he said. The Secretary said through joint activities like this year's MALABAR Exercise, the trilateral relationship is starting to provide real, practical security cooperation that spans across the region from Indian Ocean to the western Pacific.

There are also trilateral cooperation around other initiatives. For example, the United States and Thailand included Laos in a successful bilateral program, and now our three nations are training together on explosive ordnance disposal.

Japan and Vietnam are collaborating on new joint maritime exercises. Japan is also working to build the capacity of the Philippine maritime forces. "And India is increasing its training with Vietnams military and coast guard on their common platforms," Carter said.

"The Japan-Australia-India trilateral meeting last June was a welcome development and addition to the region's security network," he said adding Indonesia has proposed trilateral joint maritime patrols with Malaysia and the Philippines, including counter-piracy patrols in the Sulu Sea.

"The United States welcomes and encourages these burgeoning partnerships among like-minded partners who share our vision of a principled regional order," said the US Defense Secretary.
Police have also suggested mental issues with Sarkar, who later turned the gun on himself. (Photo: Facebook)

Los Angeles: Mainak Sarkar, the Indian-American techie behind the UCLA murder-suicide, seems to have forced his entry into his estranged wife's home before shooting her dead and boarded a bus to the varsity to kill his former college professor, authorities said on Saturday.

The 38-year-old IIT-Kharagpur alumni is believed to have intruded into the Brooklyn Park residence in the nearby town where Ashley Hasti, who he married in 2011, lived.

Read: Student kills professor, commits suicide in shooting at UCLA campus

Officers also found Sarkar's car, a grey 2003 Nissan Sentra with Minnesota license plate 720KTW, parked in his old neighbourhood. They also found a broken window they believe he used to enter Hasti's home.

A Los Angeles police bomb squad member investigates a car matching the license plate of UCLA gunman Mainak Sarkar's car in Los Angeles. (Photo: AP)

Police had asked for the public's help to find the car and was spotted by a bicyclist parked on a residential street on the city's west side.

Read: UCLA murder-suicide: Gunman Mainak Sarkar had planned third killing

A bomb squad that inspected the vehicle found no explosives but police say a handgun and cans of gasoline were in the trunk.

Authorities said the fuel was apparently there so Sarkar did not have to stop on his trip from Minnesota, where he killed 31-year-old Hasti a few days ago.

Initially, there were conflicting reports about the status of their marriage but police today confirmed Hasti was still legally Sarkar's wife when she died of multiple gunshot wounds. Hasti had been separated for some time and lived separately, they said.

Read: US police identify Indian student as man who killed professor at ULCA

According to Los Angeles police, Sarkar finished his over 3,000 kms-long deadly journey by bus as he knew the bus route to the University of California, Los Angeles where he killed 39-year-old engineering professor William Klug, who he had accused of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else.

Police have also suggested mental issues with Sarkar, who later turned the gun on himself. The motive for the twin murder and suicide is not very clear so far but authorities have said Sarkar acted on his own for the shooting, that has shocked the Indian-American community nationwide.

Read: UCLA students struggled with unlocked doors during shooting

"This was simply him," Captain William Hayes of the Los Angels Police Department told reporters. "We have not been able to determine any trigger event that would lead to this or the murder of his wife," he said in response to a question.

Read: UCLA murder-suicide: Mainak Sarkar's 'kill list' included wife

There is no evidence that Sarkar committed any other crime.
Sarkar, 38, killed his wife Ashley Hasti at her Minnesota home, before driving to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) to shoot his former professor. (Photo: AP)

Washington: Mainak Sarkar, the Indian-American gunman who shot dead his wife and his former college professor before turning the gun on himself, acted on his own, the police said on Saturday.

"This was simply him," Captain William Hayes of the Los Angels Police Department told reporters.

"We have not been able to determine any trigger event that would lead to this or the murder of his wife," he said in response to a question.

Sarkar, 38, killed his wife Ashley Hasti at her Minnesota home, before driving to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) to shoot his former professor William Klug.

The police is still investigating into the possible motives of the shooting that has shocked the Indian-American community nationwide.

It is believed that Sarkar first killed his wife in Minneapolis after which he drove his Nissan to Los Angeles for killing Klug.

The Los Angeles Police Departments Deputy Chief Matt Blake said investigators have found a hand gun and several red gasoline cans in the car's trunk.

The police believes that the cans were used to refuel the tank on his way from Minneapolis to Los Angeles so as to avoid using his credit card at gas stations during his long drive.

It did not look like the cans were used "for anything nefarious", Hayes was quoted as saying by The Los Angeles Times.

Meanwhile, the police said they were having difficulties in identifying the body of Hasti, the wife of Sarkar.

They reportedly married in 2011. "They didn't live together long maybe a year," Charlane Bertsch, Hasti's great-aunt, told Los Angeles Times.

Hasti's uncle, Mark Fitzgibbons, told NBC News the family was in shock.

"She was way ahead of her time," Fitzgibbons said of his niece, who had studied abroad in Taiwan and China during high school before heading to Scripps College in California for pre-med studies.

There is no evidence that Sarkar committed any other crime.
United Nations: In wake of the killing of a Congolese national in India and a spate of attacks on African students in recent days, the UN has voiced concern over the incidents saying it encourages tolerance and inclusivity in every country.

"Well, we would be concerned of any information if that were the case. But what we try to do wherever we go is to encourage messages to promote tolerance and inclusivity in every country," Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Deputy

Spokesman Farhan Haq said reporters here on Friday when asked about the murder of Masonda Ketada Oliver, 29, from Congo on May 20.

Haq said the UN weighs in on instances of fight against racism and xenophobia wherever it occurs.

"We have always tried to push for programmes that encourage tolerance and understanding. And a lot of the efforts by the educational parts of the UN system, whether it's the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) or the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), promote those messages of tolerance. And we would do that in India, as we do elsewhere in the world," he said.

Oliver was beaten to death in Vasant Kunj area of South Delhi following a brawl over hiring of an autorickshaw.

There has been a spate of attacks on African nationals in the last few days including assault on a 23-year-old Nigerian student in Hyderabad.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has reassured African envoys of the safety of their nationals.
The jets departed from the USS Harry S Truman after the aircraft carrier moved into the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, according to the Navy. (Representational Image)

Washington: US fighter jets on Friday launched the first strikes against ISIS targets from an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea since the start of the two-year campaign against the militant group, the US Navy said.

The jets flew from the USS Harry S Truman after the ship moved into the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, marking the first air strikes conducted by a carrier group in that region since the Iraq war began in 2003, Navy officials said.

Previous strikes were launched solely by US and allied pilots from carriers in the Gulf or from land bases in Bahrain, Turkey and other countries.

The Navy said the raids targeted Iraq and Syria, but gave no details on how many and what type of targets was hit.

The United States is increasingly concerned about Russia's growing military presence in the region, and the air strikes also send a message to Turkey that the US military has other ways to conduct its air war over Syria than from the Turkish air base at Incirlik.

Navy officials said the actions were also meant to dispel concerns raised by some lawmakers about the Navy's decision in recent months not to maintain a constant carrier presence in the Gulf.

Currently, the US Navy is operating three carriers: the USS Dwight D Eisenhower, which will head to the Gulf in late June or early July, the USS John C Stennis, which is operating in the South China Sea, and the Truman, which just left the Gulf.

The Truman and other ships in its strike group served as the principal asset in the US fight against ISIS targets while it served in the Navy's 5th Fleet area of operations, which includes the Gulf, and they will continue that support role from the Mediterranean, the Navy said.

"This shows that one carrier strike group can cover two areas of operations," said one senior US Navy official. "It also adds an element of unpredictability. We're going to do our best to spread the presence we have and take advantage of the reach that our naval assets give us."

Similar actions could be taken by other ships in the strike group, for instance with Tomahawk missiles, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The Navy's decision to launch the strikes from the Mediterranean, or its 6th Fleet area of operations, also positions the carrier group for any potential action in Libya.

"It sends a message to friends and foes alike that we can affect both theaters at the same time because of the reach of the naval assets that we have," said the official.
Manohar Parrikar speaks about "Managing Military Competition In Asia" at the 15th International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-la Dialogue, or IISS, Asia Security Summit in Singapore. (Photo: AP)

Singapore: Prime Minister Narendra Modi had opened a "window of goodwill and dialogue" with Pakistan, but it was slowly closing due to lack of sincerity by Islamabad, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday.

"Prime Minister Modi opened a window of opportunities when he visited Pakistan Prime Minister (Nawaz Sharif). I think that window is slowly closing. Before it closes, Pakistan needs to develop that trust with India on its sincerity on the approach," he said here at the Shangri-La Dialogue.

Noting that Pakistan separates terrorists between good ones and bad ones, he said, "They are after bad ones but the good ones are promoted to operate in Afghanistan and India. I think that needs to be tackled at a diplomatic level."

Parrikar's remarks was in reference to Modi's surprise visit to Lahore in December last year to meet Sharif.

The India-Pakistan talks, which had started during External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's visit to Islamabad for the Heart of Asia conference, was stalled after the January 2 attack on Pathankot airbase in which seven Indian security personnel were killed.

India has accused Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group for the attack and has linked the resumption of the dialogue process to the action taken by Pakistan against the group.
Researchers at The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park saw a "telegram machine" for sale on the auction site and believed it may have actually been a Lorenz machine. (Photo: AFP)

London, United Kingdom: The machine Hitler used to send coded messages to his generals met the supercomputer that revealed its secrets on Friday, watched on by veteran operatives whose painstaking work helped bring World War II to an end.

Scientists at Bletchley Park in southern England, the WWII code breaking headquarters, fired up the valves, whirring wheels and spinning tors of the two machines to recreate how German military chiefs sent secret messages and how they were deciphered.

Hitler's Lorenz machine boasted 1.6 million billion possible coding combinations thanks to a series of twelve rotors, a million times more complex than the more feted Enigma machine.

Through luck and the ingenuity of engineer Tommy Flowers, scientists were able to deduce how the machine operated and then build a machine to work out the settings of Lorenz's rotors.

"Colossus" is regarded as the world's first programmable, electronic digital computer, but received little attention as the project was kept secret for decades, depriving those responsible of due accolades.

Among those watching at the National Museum of Computing were Margaret Bullen, who helped build Colossus, and some of the remaining operatives who fed encrypted German messages into the machine, including Irene Dixon, now in her nineties.

'Impossible Task'

It was only decades after the war that Dixon discovered she had been processing the most sensitive of information.

"We found out we were intercepting coded messages sent by Hitler to his generals," she said.

"Hitler would've been furious if he had known, we were decrypting the messages even before his generals were".

Information gleaned using Colossus helped the Allies confirm that Hitler mistakenly believed the D-Day landings would target Calais, and experts believe the supercomputer may have shortened the war by two years.

Dixon and other "Wrens" from the women's branch of the Royal Navy were sworn to secrecy, and even other workers at Bletchley Park were unaware of the existence of the massive computer, which took up a whole room.

"Some of the Wrens did ask why it was so hot (close to the Colossus room), and some used to dry their washing next door," recalled Dixon.

The main Lorenz cypher machine is on loan from the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo, but the special keyboard used to send the message to the rotors is a recent discovery.

Museum researcher John Wetter saw a "telegram machine" for sale on auction site eBay and realised it was actually a Lorenz teleprinter.

He travelled to the southern English town of Southend and found the machine on the floor of a shed, covered "with rubbish".

"We said 'Thank you very much, how much was it again?' She said '50 pound', so we said 'Here's a 10 pound note -- keep the change," he said.

The 10 Colossus machines are believed to have been destroyed in order to maintain secrecy, but late scientist Tony Sale dedicated his life to rebuilding one as part of efforts to protect the Bletchley Park complex from developers.

"I'm glad that my late husband's dream is being carried forward," his wife Margaret said.

"The last 25 years, life has been Bletchley Park. Quite a lot of people said it was an impossible task."
Vatican City: Pope Francis has established legal procedures to remove bishops who botch handling sex abuse cases, saying they can be kicked out of office if the Vatican finds they were negligent in doing their jobs.

In a law published on Saturday, Francis answered a long-running demand by victims of abuse and their advocates to hold bishops accountable for failing to protect their flocks from pedophiles. Victims have long accused bishops of covering up for abuse, moving rapists from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police.

In the law, Francis acknowledged that the church's canonical code already allows for a bishop to be removed for "grave reasons."

But he said he wanted to precisely state that negligence, especially negligence in handling abuse cases, can cost a bishop his job.

Bishops "must undertake a particular diligence in protecting those who are the weakest among their flock," Francis wrote in the law, called a motu proprio.

The statute alters the original proposal approved by Francis last year to establish a tribunal inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to hear negligence cases. Francis' sex abuse advisory board had recommended that the Congregation prosecute negligent bishops because it is already responsible for overseeing actual sex abuse cases against clergy.

But amid a host of legal and bureaucratic questions posed by that original proposal, Francis decided to streamline the procedure and task the Vatican offices that are already in charge of handling bishop issues to investigate and punish negligence cases.

In the law, Francis said a bishop can be removed if his actions or omissions cause "grave harm," either physical, moral, spiritual or financial, to individuals or communities.

The bishop himself doesn't need to be morally guilty: It's enough if he is purely lacking in the diligence required of his office. When the cases concern abuse, it's enough that the negligence is "serious," the law says.

The procedures call for the Vatican to start an investigation when "serious evidence" is provided that a bishop was negligent. The bishop will be informed and allowed to defend himself.

At the end of the investigation, the Vatican can prepare a decree removing the bishop or ask him to resign within 15 days.

If he doesn't, the Vatican can go ahead with issuing a resignation decree.

Any decision to remove the bishop must first be approved by the pope, who will be assisted by a group of legal advisers, the law says.
he man, who worked as a cleaner at the Nizip Camp in Gaziantep in southeast Turkey, assaulted boys aged between 8 and 12 for at least three months until the start of this year, Dogan and other media reported. (Representational Image)

Istanbul: A Turkish cleaner at a camp for Syrians fleeing the war was jailed for 108 years on Friday for sexually abusing boys, in a case that has highlighted the vulnerability of child refugees.

The 29-year-old man did not deny the charges, but said many employees and managers in the camps were involved, Dogan News Agency reported. He said he paid the children 2-5 lira ($0.70-$1.70) before assaulting them in the toilets.

The man, who worked as a cleaner at the Nizip Camp in Gaziantep in southeast Turkey, assaulted boys aged between 8 and 12 for at least three months until the start of this year, Dogan and other media reported.

He was convicted of abusing eight Syrian boys whose families had filed complaints, the local bar association said. Local media said the families of other victims had kept quiet out of fear of deportation.

The case has caused widespread outrage in Turkey, which prides itself on its humanitarian response to the Syrian civil war, sheltering 2.7 million refugees. The camp, home to about 14,000 people, was visited by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in April.

Around a tenth of the Syrian refugees in Turkey live in camps run by the government's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority which said last month it was taking all necessary measures in light of the case.
Scott Stammers was one of five defendants who pleaded guilty last year in a case stemming from a US Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation. (Representational Image)

New York: A British citizen who worked for a Philippines-based global criminal organization was sentenced on Friday to over 15 years in a US prison for conspiring to import 100kg of North Korean methamphetamine into the United States.

Scott Stammers, 47, was sentenced by US district judge Andrew Carter in Manhattan. He was one of five defendants who pleaded guilty last year in a case stemming from a US Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation.

His case is one of several prosecutions to flow out of the 2012 arrest in Liberia of Paul Le Roux, the head of a multinational drug and weapons trafficking enterprise who turned into a top government informant.

On Monday, Joseph Rambo Hunter, a former US Army sergeant who prosecutors said oversaw contract killings for Le Roux, received a 20-year prison term for conspiring to kill a federal drug agent and an informant.

Prosecutors said Stammers, while living in the Philippines, managed drug and weapons trafficking for an organization led by Zimbabwe-born Le Roux, who participated in the sting that resulted in his arrest.

Prosecutors said in 2012, Le Roux tasked Stammers and British citizen Philip Shackels with storing and protecting a large amount of North Korean-produced methamphetamine obtained from members of a Hong Kong-based organization.

Law enforcement in Thailand and in the Philippines later seized the methamphetamine.

In 2013, the same members of the Hong Kong organization, Ye Tiong Tan Lim and Kelly Allan Reyes Peralta, agreed to supply 100kg of the methamphetamine to purported members of a South American drug cartel, prosecutors said.

The South American cartel members were actually DEA informants, prosecutors said.

Tan Lim and Peralta agreed to deliver the North Korean-produced narcotics in Thailand, where Stammers, Shackels and another defendant, Adrian Valkovic, would provide security, transportation and storage for the drugs, prosecutors said.

The five men were arrested by Thai law enforcement in September 2013 while working on the deal, after Stammers reported to Le Roux that all main players are now on the ground, prosecutors said.

Like Stammers, who received a 181-month prison term, the other defendants pleaded guilty to conspiring to import methamphetamine into the United States.

Valkovic was sentenced in January to 113 months in prison, Peralta in April received a 91-month term, and Shackles was sentenced to 85 months. Tan Lims sentencing is set for Tuesday.
The town that Iraqi forces have entered lies around 10 kilometres northwest of Fallujah. (Photo: AP)

Near Fallujah: Iraqi forces gained new ground from the Islamic State group Saturday in a key area west of the jihadist bastion of Fallujah, security sources said.

Fighters from the army, the police and from the Hashed al-Shaabi -- a paramilitary organisation dominated by Tehran-backed Shiite militias -- entered the centre of Saqlawiya.

Read: ISIS halts Iraqi army at gates of Fallujah, civilians trapped

The town lies around 10 kilometres (six miles) northwest of Fallujah and control of the rural area around it is key to cutting off the city which Iraqi forces are trying to retake.

"The Iraqi army's 14th division and Hashed al-Shaabi stormed the centre of Saqlawiya town from the highway and raised the Iraqi flag," a statement from the Joint Operations Command said.

Federal police moving from a different direction were also involved in the operation to retake Saqlawiya.

As elite forces are trying to push into the centre of Fallujah, other forces have continued to clear areas around the city to ensure it is completely isolated.

The operation in Saqlawiya is aimed at cutting off Fallujah from Jazirat al-Khaldiyah, an area to the west which IS has been passing through to reach its positions elsewhere.

The Joint Operations Command said a US-led coalition air strike had hit a boatload of IS fighters attempting to flee Fallujah along the Euphrates river, killing all on board.

Fallujah lies just 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad and is one of IS's most emblematic bastions. Iraqi forces launched a major offensive to retake the city on May 22-23.
Raqqa city, further east, is Islamic States de facto capital in Syria and, along with Mosul in Iraq, the ultimate goal of those seeking to destroy the groups self-declared caliphate. (Photo: AFP)

Beirut: Syrian troops pushed into the Islamic State group's bastion province Raqa on Saturday for the first time since 2014, in an advance towards the country's largest dam, a monitor said.

The Tabqa dam on the Euphrates River, 40 kilometres (25 miles) upstream from Raqa city, is also the target of a separate offensive launched by US-backed Kurdish-led forces advancing from the north late last month.

"Regime troops backed by Russian air strikes and Russian-trained militia entered Raqa province on Saturday morning for the first time since August 2014,", Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The lightning advance from the southwest brought government troops to within less than 40 kilometres (25 miles) of Tabqa, which is also the site of an airbase, Abdel Rahman said.

"It seems there has been an undeclared coordination between Washington and Moscow," he added, referring to the pincer movement by the two governments' respective Syria allies.

At least 26 jihadists and nine government troops and militia were killed in the advance, according to the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on reports from medics and activists on the ground.

Tabqa dam has a huge reservoir named Lake Assad after President Bashar al-Assad's late father and predecessor Hafez.

When IS overran the area in 2014, it summarily executed 160 captured regime troops.

The jihadists are facing counter-attacks on multiple fronts.

Arab and Kurdish fighters backed by Washington have launched an assault on the strategic Manbij pocket further up the Euphrates on the Turkish border, regarded as a key entry point for foreign jihadists.

Hundreds of kilometres (miles) downstream in neighbouring Iraq, elite Iraq troops have launched an assault on the emblematic IS bastion of Fallujah.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani during the inauguration of the Afghan- India Friendship Dam (Salma Dam) in Herat, Afghanistan. (Photo: PTI)

Heart: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani today jointly inaugurated a landmark dam, a Rs 1,700 crore showpiece infrastructure project by India in strategically important Herat province, reflecting India's strong commitment to reconstruction of the war-ravaged country.

The Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, on river Chist-e-Sharif in western Herat neighbouring Iran, will irrigate 75,000 hectares of land and generate 42 MW of power.

Modi is here as part of his five-nation tour and it is his second visit to Afghanistan in less than six months. Touted as a "landmark" infrastructure project, the dam located 165 km east of Herat town, is expected to significantly boost the agricultural economy of the province.

The project has been executed and implemented by WAPCOS Ltd, a government of India undertaking under ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

In his address at the inauguration ceremony, Ghani welcomed Modi to his "second home", Afghanistan, and said a "long standing dream" of the country has been realised after 30 years with help from India.

"Today, we come together to make eternal India Afghan ties and friendship. This Dam will chart a new course of cooperation and Prosperity," said Ghani adding "Our people identify India with roads, dams and over 200 small development projects."

"Contrary to those who spread chaos and destruction, we two countries have taken the joint decision to build and grow," said Ghani.

After the inauguration of dam, Narendra Modi was conferred with Afghanistan's highest civilian honour, Amir Amanullah Khan Award.

In an address after inaugurating the Afghan-India Friendship Dam along with President Ashraf Ghani, Modi hailed the people of Afghanistan for denouncing terrorism and said division among them will only help those seeking to "dominate" the nation from outside.

Modi said India will extend cooperation to every part of war-torn Afghanistan despite facing barriers of politics, geography and terror attacks on its mission.

"It was a war not of Afghan making, but it was one that stole the future of an entire generation of Afghans," the Prime Minister said, adding that the brave Afghan people are today sending a message that the forces of "destruction and death, denial and domination" shall not prevail.

When Afghanistan succeeds in defeating terrorism, the world will be "safer and more beautiful", he said.

"This dam has not been built by bricks and mortar, but by the faith of our friendship and the valour of Afghans and Indians. And, at this moment of pride, we also stand in grief and gratitude for lives sacrificed so that Afghan people will have a future they so richly deserve and so deeply desire," Modi said.

Resolving to stand by Afghanistan, the Prime Minister said India's cooperation will extend to "every part" of the war-torn country and that the partnership will benefit every section of Afghan society.

"In your clear eyes, I saw the deep well of affection for India. In your smiles, I saw the joy of this relationship. In the firmness of your embrace, I felt the trust in our friendship," Modi said in presence of Ghani.

In his around 25-minute-long speech, Modi touched upon the peace process in Afghanistan, the massive terrorist attack on Indian Consulate in Herat and reconstruction activities in that country and said Afghanistan's success is a deeply-held hope and desire of every Indian.

"It comes from the love and admiration for Afghans in our hearts. We want to see your democracy strike deep roots; your people unite; and, your economy prosper. We want to see your art, culture and poetry thrive. And, we want to see your cricketers join the ranks of test players and also seek glory in IPL.

"But, it also comes from the recognition that when Afghanistan succeeds, the world will be safer and more beautiful. When the values that define Afghans prevail, terrorism and extremism will be in retreat.

"Because we know that extremism and terrorism cannot stop at your border or end at the boundaries of our region," the Prime Minister said.

India will remain a trusted partner of Afghanistan because of the time-tested "values that Afghans and Indians seek each other, not because they harbour designs against another", Modi said.

The Prime Minister said there has been "resistance" and "suspicion" of others about India's role in Afghanistan but its resolve was strong that will guide it forward in ensuring the country's prosperity.

"I said then (during the last visit), and I will say it again, your friendship is our honour; your dreams are our duty. India's capacity may be limited, but our commitment is without limits.

"Our resources may be modest, but our will is boundless. For others, their commitments may have a sunset clause, but our relationship is timeless. We face barriers of geography and politics, but we define our path from the clarity of our purpose," said Modi.

Without naming any country, Modi said India drew strength and confidence from Afghanistan's deep commitment to "protect" the partnership from the "designs" of others.

"With resolve and patience, courage and belief, we have together overcome distance and hurdles, threats and violence," said the Prime Minister.

Talking about the dam, Modi said the fields that produce the finest fruits and saffron shall once again "come alive" with the clear waters of the river. "The homes that lived through dark nights of dread will now be lit by the power of hope," the Prime Minister said, adding that "the blood, sweat and tears of our people are mixed into this earth and have formed between us an eternal bond, written into the soil of this land."

In his address, the Prime Minister invoked the Holy Quran to say that "river is central to the image of Paradise" and cited India's ancient scriptures in which "rivers defined our nation and were celebrated as the giver of life".

"Today, we are not just launching a project that will irrigate land and light up homes. We are reviving a region, restoring hope, renewing life and redefining Afghanistan's future.

"The dam is a generator not just of electricity but also of optimism and belief in the future of Afghanistan," Modi said, insisting he is here to renew India's pledge for the partnership.

The Herat province lies on the ancient trade routes of the Middle East, Central and South Asia. Roads from Herat to Iran, Turkmenistan, and other parts of Afghanistan are considered strategically important.

All equipment and material required for the dam were transported from India to Bander-e-Abbas port of Iran via sea route and then along 1200 km by road from there to Islam Kila border post at Iran-Afghanistan border and then further 300 km by road from the border post to the site.

Over 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers were involved in construction of the dam for several years in difficult condition.

Afghanistan is Modi's first stop as part of his five-nation tour which will also take him to Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico.

Modi had visited Kabul on December 25 last year during which he had inaugurated a swanky Parliament complex that was built by India at a cost of USD 90 million.

India has a strategic partnership with Afghanistan and is implementing projects worth USD 2 billion to help rebuild the country's infrastructure.

Complementing resolve of the Afghan people in defeating terrorism, Modi said the world will be safer and more beautiful if the country succeeds in its path of peace. "When the values that define Afghans prevail, terrorism and extremism will be in retreat... we know that extremism and terrorism cannot stop at your border or end at the boundaries of our region," he said.

Afghanistan's success, the Prime Minister said, is a deeply held hope and desire of every Indian, adding "It comes from the love and admiration for Afghans in our hearts.

He further said the values that give the "great Afghan people the patience and persistence to seek peace with their own who have chosen the path of violence and also with those who support them".

The Prime Minister also talked about India's investment in Chahbahar port in Iran and said it will give Afghanistan a new route to the world and a new path to prosperity. "The fruits of our friendship are not confined to Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar and Herat. They will never be. Our cooperation will extend to every part of Afghanistan. Our partnership will benefit every section of Afghan society," the Prime Minister said.

Striking an emotional chord, the Prime Minister also referred to Herat's great Sufi Poet Hakim Jami, to say whatever happens, in a bright or a dark moment, "we will always experience, the freshness and happiness of the gentle breeze of friendship."

In his speech, Modi also quoted Khwaja Moiunuddin Chishti, the first of the Chishti saints in India, to say human beings must have the affection of the sun, the generosity of the river and the hospitality of the earth.

"Where some doubt your future, we are certain that no force or power can deny the Afghan people the destiny they have chosen, however long and hard the journey may be.

"So, on international platforms and in regional forums, we will speak in one voice for the Afghan right to a peaceful, prosperous, united, inclusive and democratic nation.

"And, in the fields, villages and cities of Afghanistan, we will work together for that future," Modi said.

The Prime Minister also talked about attack on Indian missions in Afghanistan and said when Indians were under attack, the brave Afghans guard them as their own. "They put themselves in the line of fire so that their Indian friends are safe. This is the nobility of your heart and the strength of your friendship," he said, referring to the terror attacks on Indian missions in Jalalabad, Herat and Kabul.

Modi also wished the people of Afghanistan and all Muslims across the world for the Holy Month of Ramzan. In his address at the inauguration ceremony, Ghani welcomed Modi to his "second home", Afghanistan, and said a "long standing dream" of the country has been realised after 30 years with help from India.

India has been supporting an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, broad-based and inclusive process of peace and reconciliation, and advocating the need for a sustained and long-term commitment to Afghanistan by the international community.

Earlier, Modi was welcomed by a group of children at Governor's Office in Herat.
Herat: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on a brief visit to Afghanistan, was on Saturday conferred with Amir Amanullah Khan Award, the country's highest civilian honour.

He was awarded the honour by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani after the inauguration of the landmark Afghan-India Friendship Dam.

"A true brotherhood is honoured. PM is awarded the Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistan's highest civilian honour," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted along with a photo.

During his 25 minute-long speech after inaugurating the dam, Modi also invoked Chisht born Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti who settled down in Ajmer and is venerated by thousands of people visiting his shrine.

"Khwaja Moiunuddin Chishti, the first of the Chishti saints in India, said that human beings must have the affection of the sun, the generosity of the river and the hospitality of the earth.

"He not only had the magnificent landscape of his ancestral land in mind, he could also be describing the Afghan people. So, when I came to Kabul in December, in the warmth of your welcome, I saw the kindness of your heart," said Modi in Chisht-e-Sharif in western Herat neighbouring Iran.

At the close of the speech, the Prime Minister also wished the people of Afghanistan and all Muslims across the world for the Holy Month of Ramzan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi sets off today on a five-nation visit to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico during which the focus will be to broaden bilateral trade, energy and security cooperation and push for India's bid to become a member of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).





Modi is likely to seek support of Switzerland and Mexico for India's membership of the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group as both these countries are key members of the elite grouping. The issue is likely to figure during Modi's meeting with Obama in Washington on June 7. India has formally applied for membership of the NSG on May 12.



During his talks with the Swiss President Schneider- Ammann the Prime Minister is also likely to raise the issue of black money stashed by Indians in Swiss banks.The Prime Minister will first travel to Afghanistan where he will inaugurate the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, in Herat province, along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Both the leaders will also hold talks on a range of issues including current situation in Afghanistan.



"Looking forward to my visit to Afghanistan tomorrow. I will join President Ashraf Ghani to inaugurate Afghanistan- India Friendship Dam in Herat. It is symbol of our friendship and would usher in hope, light up homes, nourish the fertile fields of Herat and bring prosperity to the people of the region," said the Prime Minister.



Modi said he will exchange notes with "friend" Ghani on regional situation and "setting agenda" for bilateral cooperation in the coming period.



From Afghanistan, Modi will travel to energy-rich Qatar tomorrow itself and from there he will leave for a two day visit to Switzerland on Sunday.



About the Qatar visit, Modi said, "This visit will nourish the historical bonds of friendship deeply rooted in people to people contacts, energy, trade and investment partnership."



"I will interact with the Indian workers at the Workers' Camp and some of the members of over 6 lakh Indians who have nurtured our relations through their sweat and toil."



The Prime Minister will also interact with business leaders in Qatar with an aim seek investment and realise the full potential of trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.



In Qatar, the Prime Minister will hold talks with his counterpart Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani and Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on a host of issues which may include trade and security.From Switzerland, the Prime Minister travels to Washington on June 6 where he will have a packed schedule including an address to a joint session of the US Congress. He will be the fifth Indian Prime Minister to do so. Modi is visiting the US at the invitation of President Barack Obama.



"In my meeting with the President on June 7, we will seek to build upon the progress achieved in providing new vigour and momentum to our strategic partnership in diverse areas," he said.



Modi will begin his US visit on June 6 by paying tributes at the Arlington National Cemetery. He will then meet heads of a number of American think tanks and will attend an event to repatriate Indian antiquity by the US.



Modi will address the 40th AGM of the USIBC (US India Business Council) and meet US business leaders who he said have, over the past two years, "shown renewed confidence in India."



"I will exchange views with US think-tanks and attend a ceremony marking the return of Indian antiques. During my visit to Arlington Cemetery I will lay wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider and Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial, in which we lost an Indian origin astronaut, Kalpana Chawla," he said.



About his address at the Joint Meeting of the US Congress on May 8, Modi said, "I thank Speaker Paul Ryan for inviting me to speak to Congressmen and Senators."The Prime Minister said he will also interact with members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, "many of whom have been valued friends of India and strong votaries of deepening India-USA ties."



"India and USA are natural partners, two vibrant democracies that celebrate their diversity and pluralism. Strong India-USA ties benefit not only our two nations but also the entire world," he said.



About his visit to Switzerland, Modi described the country as India's key partner in Europe.



"I will hold talks with President Schneider-Ammann to deepen our bilateral and multilateral cooperation.



"In Geneva, I will meet prominent businesspersons. Our agenda will be to expand economic and investment ties. I will meet Indian scientists working at CERN. India takes pride in their contribution to exploring new frontiers of science in the service of humanity," he said.



Asked at a press briefing on PM's visit whether the issue of black money will be raised by Modi during his talks with Swiss leaders, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said both the countries are in touch on the issue.



"We are in touch with the Swiss government under the DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement) mandate and we have had some discussions on this and we have a few planned in the near future. We have received support from the Swiss authorities on exchange of information on tax data between the two countries.



"We do hope to engage as early as possible in the automatic exchange of information with Switzerland and this has been conveyed to Swiss tax authorities," he said. On India's bid for NSG membership, Jaishankar said India has been eyeing membership of the premier group for many, many years and that it has made "lot of progress" on that.



"I think we have made lot of progress and that has led us to formally apply for the NSG membership some days ago. We are engaged with all NSG members regarding this issue and Switzerland is definitely an important member and definitely, I would expect it to come up," he said.



About his Qatar visit, Modi said he was looking forward to to meet Sheikh Tamim "whose landmark visit to India last year had ushered in a new momentum in our relations."



The Prime Minister will arrive in Maxico from the US on June 8. He will have extensive talks with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on key bilateral issues including India's membership bid at the NSG.



This will be the first bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister after 1986 when then PM Rajiv Gandhi had visited that country. Then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited Mexico in 2012 to attend G 20 summit.



The Prime Minister will leave for India on the evening of June 8.



"I look forward to meeting President Pena Nieto on June 8 during my visit to Mexico, a privileged partner in the Latin American region.



"President Pena Nieto has ushered in far reaching reforms. I look forward to sharing our experiences. This is the first Prime Ministerial bilateral visit to Mexico after 30 years. Though short, the visit has a substantial agenda to take our partnership to new heights," he said.



Switzerland is India's fifth largest trading partner of India. The European country is also the 11th largest foreign investor in India.
Teachers from various universities across the national capital including JNU, Jamia, IGNOU and Ambedkar on Friday joined the ongoing agitation by DU faculty members in protest against the new UGC criteria to ascertain their academic performance.





DU teachers have been boycotting the evaluation of undergraduate exams for last eleven days 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.



Joining the protest on Friday were teachers Associations of Jamia, IGNOU and Ambedkar University besides JNU Students Union along with other students organisations such as AISA, AISF, CYSS, DSU, NSUI, and SFI.



A fund-granting authority has no right to effect unilateral changes in the number and proportion of lectures, tutorials and practicals as it constituted an attack on the academic autonomy of the varsities.



Moreover, each university has its own special character and needs and the mindless, bureaucratic mechanism laid down in the Academic Performance Indicators (API) could not be applied to all, Gopal Pradhan, member of Ambedkar University Teachers Association said at a joint press conference.



Musser Ahmad from Jamia said, the sharp increase in the workload by excluding tutorials and counting only half the practicals in the teaching hours, that would lead to massive retrenchment and degradation in the quality of teaching, learning and research.



Ajay Mahurkar (IGNOUTA) said the UGC amendment is an attack on academic freedom and creativity by the stipulation of publishing only in UGC-prescribed journals. This would adversely affect research in critical, non-mainstream areas, and could be used to manipulate content and suppress inconvenient and dissident voices.



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.
Six men were killed in a road accident early Friday morning when their car rammed into a stationary dumper truck in NH1, near Alipur area of Outer Delhi.





The six deceased, all in their late 20s were partners in a scrap dealing business and were allegedly heading towards Murthal in Haryana for a business related work.



They were rushed to Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital where the doctors declared them brought dead. One truck driver, Santosh was arrested from the area, said a police officer.



The deceased identified as Vivekanand, 21, Amit, 30, Nishant, 37, Vikas, Ansar Ahmed and Deepak Yadav, 30, had left from their homes in the night around 10 pm for some work. Apart from Vivekanand rest all are married, said police.



Amit Singh, a resident of Sonia Vihar had left his residence with his uncle Vikas Singh. They had reached Timarpur petrol pump where Nishant and Hamid Ansari had parked their cars near the vicinity. The group left in Deepak Yadavs Ford Ecosport car, which was driven by Deepak, said a police officer.



Around 2-2:30 am, when the car reached near Jain Mandir at NH1 it rammed into a truck which was stationed at a corner in the road.



The truck driver was trying to fix his punctured tyre when the car came in from the behind and rammed into the truck. The driver fled the spot and the car was decimated beyond recognition due to the impact of the crash, the police officer said.



We still dont know the exact sequence of events and why did they leave in their cars in the middle of the night. We have apprehended the driver from the spot and are questioning him to ascertain the exact sequence of events, he added.



The investigators are also looking into the reason of the late night road trip. The police was informed about the incident around 4:30 am. We received a call regarding an accident on NH 1 around 4.30 a.m. The Ford Ecosport hit a loaded punctured stationary truck, all six people were declared brought dead by the hospital, added the police officer.



Police sources claim that the investigators are trying to find out if the occupants in the car had consumed alcohol or whether the driver fell asleep on the wheel. However, the family of Deepak Yadav who was driving the car during the time of the incident has claimed that Deepak was not an alcoholic.

Deepak was a family man; he had a lot of responsibilities. He was not a drinker, there must be some other reason for the accident, said Santosh Yadav, a relative of Deepak.



The police have arrested the truck driver who had fled from the spot after the accident. We have also arrested the truck driver, Santosh, 35, who fled with his vehicle from the accident site to Bakauli village of Alipur area, the officer added. A case was registered at Badli police station under Section 304A (Causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code.
In a blunt message to China, the US today said it would stand with its partner countries to uphold freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, which of late has seen rising tension in the region and also between Washington and Beijing.





"There is growing anxiety in this region, about China's activities on the seas, in cyberspace, and in the region's airspace. Indeed, in the South China Sea, China has taken some expansive and unprecedented actions, that have generated concerns about its strategic intentions," US Defence Secretary, Ashton Carter told the annual Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore on Saturday where he reiterated India's important role in Obama's Asia-Pacific rebalance.



He said China's actions in the South China Sea are isolating it at a time when the entire region is coming together and networking. If these actions continue, the country could end up erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation, Carter warned.



He said the United States is not a claimant in the current disputes in the South China Sea. "And we do not take a position on which claimant has the superior sovereignty claim over the disputed land features."



"But, the United States will stand with regional partners to uphold core principles, like freedom of navigation and overflight, and the peaceful resolution of disputes through legal means and in accordance with international law," the Defense Secretary said.



"America's Freedom of Navigation Operations in the South China Sea have demonstrated that it will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, so that everyone in this region can do the same," he said.



Carter said the US will work with all Asia-Pacific nations to ensure these core principles apply just as equally in the vital South China Sea as they do everywhere else.



"Because only when everyone plays by the same rules can we avoid the mistakes of the past, like when countries challenged one another in contests of strength and will, with disastrous consequences for the region," he said.



He said the United States views the upcoming ruling by the UN Arbitral Tribunal on the South China Sea as an opportunity for China and the rest of the region to recommit to a principled future, to renewed diplomacy, and to lowering tensions, rather than raising them.



"All of us should come together to ensure this opportunity is realised," he said, adding that the US remains committed to working with China to ensure a principled future.



Carter also said the US wants to strengthen military ties with China. "America wants to expand military-to-military agreements with China to focus not only on risk reduction, but also on practical cooperation. Our two militaries can also work together, bilaterally or as part of the principled security network, to meet a number of challenges  like terrorism and piracy  in the Asia-Pacific and around the world," he said.



"The United States expects and welcomes a China that plays a responsible role in world affairs commensurate with its wealth and potential influence.



"And the United States wants to work with China to find solutions for the global problems we're both facing and seize the many opportunities before us. By networking security together, the United States, China, and all others in the region can continue to ensure stability and prosperity in a dynamic region," he said.




Modi is likely to seek support of Switzerland and Mexico for India's membership of the 48-member NSG as both these countries are key members of the elite group.





The issue is likely to figure during Modi's meeting with Obama in Washington. India has formally applied for membership of the NSG on May 12.





"From our immediate neighbourhood to our trans-Atlantic partners. PM @narendramodi emplanes for a 5 nation tour," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted along with a photograph of Modi leaving for the five-day trip.





During his talks with the leadership of Switzerland, the Prime Minister is also likely to raise the issue of black money stashed by Indians in Swiss banks.





The Prime Minister's first destination is Afghanistan where he will inaugurate the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, in Herat province today, along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Both the leaders will also hold talks on a range of issues including current situation in Afghanistan.





From Afghanistan, Modi will travel to energy-rich Qatar tomorrow itself and from there he will leave for a two-day visit to Switzerland on Sunday.





Asked at a press briefing on PM's visit whether the issue of black money will be raised by Modi during his talks with Swiss leaders, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had said yesterday both the countries are in touch on the issue.





"We are in touch with the Swiss government under the DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement) mandate and we have had some discussions on this and we have a few planned in the near future. We have received support from the Swiss authorities on exchange of information on tax data between the two countries.





"We do hope to engage as early as possible in the automatic exchange of information with Switzerland and this has been conveyed to Swiss tax authorities," he said.





On India's bid for NSG membership, Jaishankar said India has been eyeing membership of the premier group for many, many years and that it has made "lot of progress" on that.





From Switzerland, the Prime Minister travels to Washington on June 6 where he will have a packed schedule including an address to a joint session of the US Congress. He will be the fifth Indian Prime Minister to do so.



Modi will begin his US visit on June 6 by paying tributes at the Arlington National Cemetery. He will then meet heads of a number of American think tanks and will attend an event to repatriate Indian antiquity by the US.



On June 7, the Prime Minister will hold wide-ranging talks with President Barack Obama on the entire gamut of bilateral ties. The meeting will be followed by a lunch to be hosted by Obama for Modi.



In the afternoon, Modi will meet business leaders and address the US-India Business Council during which he is expected to highlight measures taken by his government to ensure ease of doing business.



On June 8, Modi will address a joint meeting of the US Congress which will be followed by a lunch to be hosted by the Speaker. A reception is also being organised for Modi by the House and Senate Committees on foreign relations and the India Caucus. The Prime Minister will attend a community reception as well.



In Qatar, the Prime Minister will hold talks with his counterpart Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani and Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on a host of issues which may include trade and security.



The Prime Minister will also visit a workers' camp in Doha and also interact with the Indian community.



The size of annual bilateral trade between India and Qatar is around USD 10 billion and both the countries would like to expand it significantly. Qatar has a major sovereign wealth fund and India is eyeing to attract investment from it.



During his visit to Switzerland, the Prime Minister will hold talks with President of the Swiss Confederation Johann Schneider-Ammann on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest.



Switzerland is India's fifth largest trading partner of India. The European country is also the 11th largest foreign investor in India.



The Prime Minister will arrive in Maxico from the US on June 8. He will have extensive talks with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on key bilateral issues including India's membership bid at the NSG. The Prime Minister will leave for India on the evening of June 8.

With an aim to bolster ties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today embarked on a five-nation visit to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico focus of which will be to enhance India's engagement in areas of trade, energy and security, besides pushing for its membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
Mainak Sarkar, the Indian- American gunman who shot dead his wife and his former college professor before turning the gun on himself, acted on his own, the police said today.





"This was simply him," Captain William Hayes of the Los Angels Police Department told reporters.



"We have not been able to determine any trigger event that would lead to this or the murder of his wife," he said in response to a question.



Sarkar, 38, killed his wife Ashley Hasti at her Minnesota home, before driving to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) to shoot his former professor William Klug.



The police is still investigating into the possible motives of the shooting that has shocked the Indian-American community nationwide. It is believed that Sarkar first killed his wife in Minneapolis after which he drove his Nissan to Los Angeles for killing Klug.



The Los Angeles Police Departments Deputy Chief Matt Blake said investigators have found a hand gun and several red gasoline cans in the car's trunk.



The police believes that the cans were used to refuel the tank on his way from Minneapolis to Los Angeles so as to avoid using his credit card at gas stations during his long drive.



It did not look like the cans were used "for anything nefarious", Hayes was quoted as saying by The Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile, the police said they were having difficulties in identifying the body of Hasti, the wife of Sarkar.



They reportedly married in 2011. "They didn't live together long  maybe a year," Charlane Bertsch, Hasti's great-aunt, told Los Angeles Times.



Hasti's uncle, Mark Fitzgibbons, told NBC News the family was in shock. "She was way ahead of her time," Fitzgibbons said of his niece, who had studied abroad in Taiwan and China during high school before heading to Scripps College in California for pre-med studies.



There is no evidence that Sarkar committed any other crime.
Facing a string of allegations including irregularities in a land deal, Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse today resigned, the first casualty in BJP since the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combine took over pledging zero-tolerance towards corruption.



Forwarding Khadse's resignation to Governor C Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced an inquiry by a retired high court judge into the allegations against him, assought by the senior leader himself.



With his position becoming untenable after the central leadership sent a clear and stern message, the 64-year-old veteran from north Maharashtra drove this morning to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's official residence to offer his resignation.



Later, after a point-by-point rebuttal of allegations at a press meet, Khadse went to Fadnavis's residence again to formally hand over his resignation.



"I have received Eknath Khadse's resignation. I have accepted it and sent it to Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao. A Retired High Court judge will be appointed to probe charges against Khadse," said Fadnavis.



The fate of Khadse was sealed two days back after Fadnavis briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah in Delhi about the development and its possible fallout on the image of the ministry.



Allegations against Khadse were leveraged not only by Congress, NCP and AAP to embarrass Maharashtra's first BJP-led government but even ally Shiv Sena had come out in the open seeking his ouster.



Considered "number two" in the Cabinet and in-charge of vital portfolios like Revenue and Agriculture, Khadse has been facing a series of allegations including irregularities in a land deal in Pune and of getting calls allegedly from fugitive Dawood Ibrahim's residence in Karachi on his mobile phone besides the alleged bribe sought by a personal aide.



He is in a spot over the purchase of a three-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) land in Pune 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.



Rubbishing the allegations at a press meet with state BJP chief Raosaheb Danve, Khadse said he had been a victim of an "unprecedented media trial."



Seen as the OBC face of the party with a massive following in northern districts, Khadse said, "For the last 40 years, I have been in politics and the party but had not experienced a media trial like this."



Protests erupted in Khadse's home turf Jalgaon and his constituency Mutainagar where people took to the streets in support of the stalwart.



The Congress, however, said mere resignation would not do and a criminal case should be registered against Khadse.



"Mere resignation of Eknath Khadse with a simultaneous clean chit to him wouldn't put the lid over or do away the need for an independent probe into alleged Dawood Ibrahim terror connection," party's chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said in New Delhi.



The state BJP leadership is expected to meet next week to decide on re-allocation of portfolios after Khadse's exit and also to work out strategies to counter opposition onslaught over the development during the ensuing assembly session.



Elated over the departure of the first minister from the BJP-led cabinet under cloud of corruption, the Congress demanded a judicial inquiry into the allegations against him.



"Only resignation will not do. We want a high level judicial inquiry into the scams involving Khadse. We don't trust this Government, which may sabotage the investigation," Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan told PTI.



"It is good that he has resigned. But it is a delayed decision. The BJP had no option since the charges against Khadse like the MIDC land deal and Dawood call allegation are very serious in nature," Chavan, a former chief minister, said.



Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said resignation of Khadse was inevitable. The real political decision, however, is to how high a level the government would take the matter, he said.



Seeking to drive a wedge into the BJP, Congress leader and former chief minister Narayan Rane alleged Fadnavis was behind the ouster of Khadse and sought to know as to why only backward class leaders are facing trouble in the ministry.



"Fadnavis took Khadse's wicket," Rane said, adding "on the one hand, you (Fadnavis) give him a clean chit and on the other, you go to Delhi and request the party to take Khadse's resignation and also announce that the (BJP) president will declare a decision in this regard," Rane said.



"BJP is targeting 'bahujan' community leadership," Rane said. So far,only ministers of bahujan community have been targeted, Rane said, in a veiled reference to corruption charges against other ministers like Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde.



Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan, however, said there is no need to bring caste or comunity angle in the Khadse episode.



Starting his career as a sarpanch of his village Kothali in Jalgaon district, Khadse was virtually the number two in the Fadnavis cabinet, holding as many as 10 portfolios.



Significantly, it was Khadse who took the lead in breaking off the alliance with Sena ahead of the October 2014 Assembly polls, paving the way for the first ministry in the state under the party.



Hailing from the Leva Patil community, Khadse has positioned himself as a backward class leader, especially after Gopinath Mundes demise.



He had served as leader of the Opposition during the Congress-NCP rule and a minister in the first Shiv Sena-BJP regime during 1995-99.



Khadse's supporters staged protests at Muktainagar in Jalgaon district and they burnt tyres at some places.



The protesters blocked roads at Nahata College Square in Bhusaval tehsil and pelted stones at MSRTC buses at Sekri toll booth.


The Army's decision to dismiss a sepoy who refused to remove his beard on religious grounds has been upheld by the Kochi Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal.





An application had been filed before the Tribunal by Maktumhusen challenging the order of his discharge from military service for refusing to remove his beard.



Maktumhusen had joined as Sepoy in Army Medical Corps in April, 2001 and was transferred to 371 Field Hospital in 2010.



On his request, the Commanding Officer had granted him permission to grow beard on religious grounds. He was given directions to apply for fresh ID card imposing conditions that he had to give an undertaking in writing to keep the beard for remainder period of his service.



However, the permission was withdrawn later.



The Tribunal said the Commanding Officer issued him charge sheet, imputing that despite repeated verbal and written instructions he had refused to remove his beard.

He was tried on such charge, found guilty and sentenced to 14 days imprisonment in military custody.



He was then transferred to Command Hospital (SC) Pune. When he reported for joining duty, the Commanding Officer asked him to shave his beard overruling his submissions that he had been previously granted permission to grow beard and the pendency of a writ petition filed by him before the High Court questioning the withdrawal of the permission granted.



A preliminary inquiry was conducted in which findings were entered that he had misconducted himself by growing beard, defying the orders given for its removal. His misconduct was held to be unbecoming of a disciplined soldier, and hence he was to be treated as an undesirable soldier.



On the basis of the findings in the preliminary inquiry, he was discharged from service as an undesirable soldier under Rule 13(3)III (v) of the Army Rule 1954.



The Tribunal, comprising Justice S S Satheeshchandran and Vice Admiral M P Muralidharan, has found that Maktumhusen, who belong to Dharward district of Karnataka, was initially granted permission to grow and keep beard but later it was withdrawn.



"The applicant, despite being directed to remove his beard, continued to be adamant and declined to do so. He was rightly discharged from military service as undesirable soldier," the Tribunal ruled.



After pronouncement of the order, the counsel for the applicant requested for leave to appeal in the Supreme Court.



The Tribunal said that "in our opinion, no question of law of general public importance is involved in the matter. Hence, leave requested for is refused."
Embattled Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse today said that he resigned from his post to "uphold moral values" in BJP and that the party was standing firmly behind him over the "baseless" allegations.



"For the last 40 years, I have been working in politics and the party but have not experienced a media trial like this before," Khadse told reporters at the state BJP office soon after he met CM Devendra Fadnavis to submit his resignation.



"There has been an unprecedented media trial against me. I have demanded to Fadnavis that there should be a probe into the allegations.



"BJP is firmly behind me and even tomorrow it will stand behind me. The party has always abided by moral values. BJP is of the opinion that one should not continue to hold posts in face of allegations," he said.



On the allegations by a Pune-based builder Hemant Gawande that he purchased a land in MIDC area of Bhosari near Pune in the name of his wife, the BJP leader said, "The revenue department has said that no transaction regarding the MIDC plot purchase is illegal."



"Had the land really belonged to MIDC, the corporation's name would have been in the concerned documents. I suggested to police to file FIR against the person who was illegally trying to usurp Pune agricultural college land worth Rs 400 crore.



"I issued a GR on taking back Wakf land illegally taken over by some people and they will naturally bear the brunt of that decision," Khadse said, in a veiled reference to allegations that bigwigs affected by that GR may have been behind the campaign to dislodge him.



"The allegations levelled by Congress and AAP are baseless. Allegations have been made against senior BJP leaders Advani and Gadkari in the past," he said.



"Police have said that no call was made or received on my mobile from Dawood Ibrahim," Khadse said referring to hacker Manish Bhangale's claim.



"A hacker means a thief and hacking is an offence of treason. If they can't furnish proof, action should be taken against those making such false charges," he said.



On allegations by fishermen's associations who accused him of favouring the purse seine net fishing vessels and claimed that there was a deal of Rs 15 crore to tweak the rules in favour of these purse-seine net fishing vessels, Khadse said he had taken no such decision.



Referring to the state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arresting his personal aide Gajanan Patil for allegedly demanding a Rs 30 crore bribe from a Mumbai-based social entrepreneur over a land allotment matter, the senior BJP leader said, "I had rejected the concerned proposal. So, how can one claim that Rs 30 crore was demanded by Gajanan Patil."



"I have been saying that if there is even an iota of truth in the allegations, I won't stay in the post," Khadse added.


Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is responsible for Eknath Khadse's exit from the state cabinet, former chief minister Narayan Rane said today.



"Fadnavis took Khadse's wicket," Rane said while responding to the Revenue minister's exit from the 17-month old BJP-led ministry in the state.



"On one hand, you (Fadnavis) give him a clean chit and on the other, you go to Delhi and request the party to take Khadse's resignation and also announce that the (BJP) president will declare a decision in this regard," he said.



"CM should have told him to resign and informed him that an inquiry will be conducted into the charges. But this public humiliation was unwarranted," Rane, a senior state Congress leader, said.



"BJP is targeting 'bahujan' community leadership," Rane said. So far, only ministers of Bahujan community (OBC) have been targeted, he said, in a veiled reference to corruption charges against Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde.



"BJP can no longer claim that it is not embroiled in corruption. Had Khadse resigned earlier itself, more charges would not have been made," he said.



Congress leader and ex-CM, Prithviraj Chavan, however, said there was no need to bring caste or community angle in the Khadse issue.



Maharashtra BJP president Raosaheb Danve told reporters there was no truth in the allegations and that Khadse resigned to uphold moral values.



Khadse has informed CM Devendra Fadnavis that he will stay away from the ministry till charges against him are proved false, Danve said.



Meanwhile, Khadse supporters staged a protest at Muktainagar in Jalgaon district of north Maharashtra. They burnt tyres at some places.



Khadse, who is facing a host of allegations, handed over his resignation to Fadnavis whom he met at his official residence 'Varsha' here today, two days after the latter briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah on the issue.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on a brief visit to Afghanistan, was today conferred with Amir Amanullah Khan Award, the country's highest civilian honour.





He was bestowed the honour by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani after the inauguration of the landmark Afghan-India Friendship Dam.



"A true brotherhood is honoured. PM is awarded the Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistan's highest civilian honour," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted along with a photo.



During his 25 minute-long speech after inaugurating the dam, Modi also invoked Chisht-born Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti who settled down in Ajmer and is venerated by thousands of people visiting his shrine.



"Khwaja Moiunuddin Chishti, the first of the Chishti saints in India, said that human beings must have the affection of the sun, the generosity of the river and the hospitality of the earth.



"He not only had the magnificent landscape of his ancestral land in mind, he could also be describing the Afghan people. So, when I came to Kabul in December, in the warmth of your welcome, I saw the kindness of your heart," said Modi in Chisht-e-Sharif in western Herat neighbouring Iran.



At the close of the speech, the Prime Minister also wished the people of Afghanistan and all Muslims across the world for the Holy Month of Ramzan.
Pakistan has turned down India's request for consular access to Kulbushan Jadhav, who has been arrested by Pakistani agencies claiming he was a RAW spy, media reports said today.



"After due consideration, it has been decided not to grant consular access to Jadhav," a top security source was quoted as saying by DawnNews.



The source said the decision was taken due to Jadhav's involvement in "subversive activities" in Pakistan.



The Pakistani security forces had arrested Jadhav from Balochistan in March and alleged that he was "a serving officer in the Indian Navy and deputed to the Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)."



Jadhav has been accused by Pakistan of planning "subversive activities" in the country.

India has acknowledged that Jadhav had served with the navy but denied that he has any connection with the government.



"The individual has no link with government since his premature retirement from Indian Navy," the External Affairs Ministry had said in a statement.
I had no particular intention of becoming an artist, reveals veteran artist Madhvi Parekh. I was solely prompted by the idea that if I was engaged in some creative activity during my pregnancy, it would benefit the child I was carrying in some way.



Today, this National award-winning artist with no formal training in art has had nearly a 100 solo/group shows in India and outside to her credit. Critics have observed how her art is characterised by a distinctive style of energetic lines, vibrant colours, lively forms, and soulful themes; and how it has evolved by absorbing in equal measure aspects of traditional folk art and works of modern masters such as Paul Klee and Joan Miro.



Madhvis artistic journey is the subject of the coffee-table book A World of Memories (2010/Penguin), which includes a selection of 70 paintings in various mediums that she has worked in. The art of Madhvi Parekh seems to hover independently between genres, styles and cultural constructs, writes gallerist and art promoter Peter Nagy in his introduction. She may not be consciously making an art of socio-political statements but through her work she occupies a valuable position with the dialectics of society and its politics.



The beginnings



Born in 1942 in Sanjaya village, Gujarat, Madhvi was in her early 20s when her artist-husband Manu Parekh gave her a Paul Klee exercise book, which triggered her interest in art. Starting off by making simple triangles and squares with pen and ink, she had, before long, taken up drawing animals and human forms.



As she matured, her work drew extensively from childhood memories. My paintings are based on memory, stories I had heard as a child, as well as my immediate surroundings. I spent my childhood in a small village where we used to celebrate many festivals... As a child in rural Gujarat, I have seen the most brilliant lights of nature. The setting sun (for instance) seemed to set the whole world around on fire, and swamp it in a shimmering golden light. Such colours became an integral part of me, and they come out quite naturally in my work as well.



Instead of a straight-forward representation, Madhvis paintings intertwine her personal memories with elements of fantasy and surrealistic symbols. I never pre-plan my work, she says about her art-making process. I paint what comes naturally to me. The dotted lines in my paintings are like the running embroidery stitches which I used to do as a child. The vibrancy of the many things that surround me is the source of all my works. They represent different aspects of life as I see and experience. So, every work of mine tries to tell a story.



Labels dont matter



Madhvis work is often bracketed with child art or folk art, but the artist is undistracted by such labels. I have an instinctive feel for design, she says. I have grown up with decorative floor designs, wall decorations and embroidery. All these forms and colours seep through my work naturally. I am expressing what I am, a woman from India. So whether one calls it folk or not does not really matter.



Madhvi regards her husband to be her guru. An alumnus of the Sir J J School of Arts, Manu Parekh not only provided support and encouragement, but also the initial training and mentoring to Madhvi. Even today, I only do my paintings. He takes care of everything else, whether its framing, packing, transport or display.



Incidentally, Manu Parekh had a long-term association with the Weavers Service Centre (under the ministry of textiles), which saw him posted in several cities including Mumbai and Kolkata. Madhvi acknowledges that the experience of living in different cities and witnessing their unique traditions and culture helped her evolve in her art. When we were in Mumbai, we used to go to Marine Drive regularly and also visit Jehangir and other art galleries, which was great education, recalls Madhvi. The city of Kolkata nourished my art immensely. My first solo exhibition was held there way back in 1968. Financially it was a testing time for us, but our pleasures were simple. Kolkata also brought me close to the fascinating imagery of Durga. No wonder it features prominently in my work.



As they got established as important artists, Manu and Madhvi were able to travel widely and visit some of the best cultural and artistic centres of the world. Travelling has been a huge source of inspiration, says Madhvi. My journeys through vast open spaces surrounded by mountains in Bhutan changed my colour palette. The experience of visiting some iconic churches and museums in Moscow and Jerusalem inspired me to develop a life-long passion for the figure of Christ. The Holocaust museum and memorial in Israel was quite disturbing and left a deep impression on me. Later, when I took a break at a nearby church, the feeling was totally different, filling me with a sense of peace and calm.



In recent years, Madhvi has worked extensively on acrylic sheets using the reverse painting technique. The reverse process is difficult to work with, particularly controlling lines on the slippery surface. I had to work hard in the beginning, but now I enjoy the medium immensely. In 2011, she employed the technique to create a large work based on Leonardo da Vincis The Last Supper; the monumental piece comprised 5 painted panels, each measuring 6 feet by 4 feet.



Art lovers of Bengaluru should not miss the opportunity of viewing Madhvi Parekhs exhibition, The Last Supper, which is currently on at the National Gallery of Modern Art.

On display is a series of reverse paintings on acrylic panels rendered by the artist in her typical style and gusto, on the life of Christ. The centrepiece of the exhibit is the magnificent The Last supper, installed in a separate room for exclusive viewing. The show concludes on June 26.




In Dankos Burning Heart, a short story by Maxim Gorky (1868-1936), a group of people are lost in a forest at night. Danko wants to lead them to safety. His heart burns with such desire that it catches fire. He rips it from his chest and uses it to light the way.





Theres a bit of Danko, an element of self-sacrifice, in the lives and work of Russias best journalists. Im thinking of Anna Politkovskaya, who was assassinated on Vladimir Putins birthday in 2006. Im thinking too of Svetlana Alexievich, born in Ukraine, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature.



Alexievich is an investigative journalist who compiles, in Studs Terkel-like fashion, dense volumes of oral history about postwar Russia. Her books bring her trouble. Zinky Boys (1992), for example, about Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan, led her to be put on trial for defaming the Soviet army. (She was acquitted.)



When she won the Nobel, Alexievich was little known in the West. Her major books are slowly making their way into English. Here now is her newest, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, a sprawling examination of life in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of a feral brand of capitalism.



You can open this document anywhere; its a kind of enormous radio. It offers a flood of voices: doctors and writers, deli workers and former Kremlin apparatchiks, soldiers and waitresses. Alexievich gives these people space. There are few interpolations from the author. When she does insert a comment, its in brackets and often unbearably moving, like She no longer wipes her tears or Shes practically screaming or And both of us cry.



A freight of catharsis is on display. People gather around Alexievich to speak about their lives  here is another way she is like Danko  because shes a conversational hearth.

Most of the stories in Secondhand Time are about the promises of the Gorbachev and Yeltsin eras, promises that have been betrayed. Instead of tolerance and opportunity people were presented with a thuggish form of capitalism, one that divided people into winners and losers. Instead of peace, after the 1991 breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics into independent states, vicious racial hatreds re-emerged.



This book is thick with longing for old times, terrible though they might have been. One former Communist Party secretary tells the author: Socialism isnt just labour camps, informants and the Iron Curtain, its also a bright, just world: Everything is shared, the weak are pitied, and compassion rules. Instead of grabbing everything you can, you feel for others. About leaders then, she adds, They werent building themselves yachts with champagne showers.



Part of the longing is for Russias old intellectual life. One woman says: In one arm, my baby is dying, and with my free hand, Im holding Solzhenitsyn. Books replaced life for us. They were our whole world.



A man comments: We stepped out of our kitchens and onto the streets, where we soon discovered that we hadnt had any ideas after all  that whole time, wed just been talking. Completely new people appeared, these young guys in gold rings and magenta blazers. There were new rules: If you have money, you count  no money, youre nothing. Who cares if youve read all of Hegel? Humanities started sounding like a disease.



Alexievich takes us into a lot of kitchens, once the soul of Russian dissident life. A section of this book is titled Snatches of Street Noise and Kitchen Conversations (1991-2001).

For us, the kitchen is not just where we cook, its a dining room, a guest room, an office, a soapbox, the author is told. Kitchens are where we could criticise the government and, most importantly, not be afraid, because in the kitchen you were always among friends.



The implication in Secondhand Time is that todays Russian kitchens are often soulless places, filled merely with knockoffs of high-end appliances. Less talk happens. So does less cooking. One interviewee talks about the opening of a McDonalds: Educated, intelligent adults saved boxes and napkins from there and would proudly show them off to guests.



In an introduction to this book, Alexievich writes about her method. I dont ask people about socialism, she says, I want to know about love, jealousy, childhood, old age. Music, dances, hairdos. The myriad sundry details of a vanished way of life.



In this lucid translation by Bela Shayevich, she gets these details onto the page. But the stories in Secondhand Life can also be baggy and repetitive. Occasionally, you are made to feel adrift in narrative Siberia, left to dream about condensation and editing, about the knife skills an oral historian should have in her kit.



This book can leave you lost in time, as well. The interviews were collected over many years, but dates are rarely supplied. This book is dense on a macro level, but one sometimes misses the sentence-by-sentence density of the best fiction.



These are quibbles. Secondhand Time is an avalanche of engrossing talk. The most ancient grievances are churned up. So are the freshest longings. One young woman is all for the new capitalism. She scorns Tolstoy for Jackie Collins. I liked Western novels better because of the bitches in them, the beautiful bitches that men would shoot themselves over and suffer for, she says.



Many people throw themselves under trains in this book. Incredible suffering is recounted in stories from Stalins concentration camps and the front lines of ethnic conflicts. A sense of uncertainty about Russias future blends with a sense of resiliency and Danko-like yearning. One woman says to Alexievich, My memory grows weaker, but my soul has not forgotten a thing.



How much impact will Alexievichs brave books have on Russia and the world? In Gorkys story, Danko falls over and dies. Someone steps on his heart, to put it out.



Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

Svetlana Alexievich, Translated by Bela Shayevich

Random House

2016, pp 496, Rs 1,846




How about a buss up shut for lunch? I had flown 30 hours over seas, oceans and continents into Port of Spain (Trinidad), and a question plonked on my lunch plate. Famished.





That is what I was. In a typical Trini drawl, a busted shirt turns into buss up shut. But who eats a busted shirt for lunch? Perhaps I looked a tad fatigued, perhaps a dark circle forming under my eyes, but I sure did not look so emaciated that I could stuff my stomach with a frayed shirt. Id rather die hungry. Or jump into the Caribbean Sea for salt water.



Say that again?



Kim Ambrose, involved in the field of tourism, was smiling in the crisp Trini air. Perhaps a doubles. Or a cow heel. A pigs tail. A phoulorie. Bake & Shark, he was rattling names off a menu and I was dropping jaws in the capital of Trinidad and Tobago.



In the organic Green Market, a name rang nostalgia. Phoulorie. I had often heard Ma utter it in her dulcet tone. Dumplings made of lentils, fried and simmered in yogurt/gram flour batter. A typical Sunday lunch served with rice. But nearly 14,000 km away from home, phoulorie was an unexpected treat. A woman with her head covered and a son as an assistant were deep frying lentil dumplings served with chilli sauce, a sauce so hot that it could light a fire in the pit of the stomach.



A Bihari dish on the menu is no surprise  in late 19th century, several Biharis spent months on the sea to find livelihood as indentured labourers in the sugarcane fields of Trinidad. Slavery has been forgotten and sugarcane fields lie fallow, but the Bihari influence on Trini cuisine is still being rustled in kitchens.



Phoulorie was easy to decipher off the menu but the busted shirt still intrigued me. Ambrose took what looked like a large paratha, tore it into pieces and chuckled: This is a buss up shut. Pray, why the name? Because the tender, torn white flour paratha resembles a torn or tattered shirt. No one knows who coined the term. Whoever did had a wicked funny bone!



Remember, when in Trinidad, speak like a local. Never ask for busted shirt. Say buss up shut. Pick that essential drawl.



Not merely Bihari, the cuisine of the twin islands of Trinidad & Tobago is a melting pot of Creole, African, Caribbean, European, Chinese and Lebanese culinary influences. Some sailed in, invaded and ruled; others sailed in to work. Everyone bringing along their culinary preferences and lending this Caribbean island an unparalleled culinary delight.

Do not get surprised if the mango chow has no Chinese noodles in it. This chow is julienned near-ripe mango mixed with finely chopped garlic, lime juice, salt, and chilli. Throw in diced pineapple, if you please. A side dish, mango chow is a summer staple. Hot in, hot out, Ambrose explains in Trini-speak.



Drive around Port of Spain and youll find more Chinese restaurants than local eateries. And keep an eye out for Peoples cow heel soup. A thick, gelatinous soup made by simmering cows heel overnight in a crock pot, with a dash of potatoes, carrots and herbs including chandon beri, a distant cousin of cilantro.



An early start



A Trini begins his day with ladles of cow heel soup or a doubles, a local dish comprising fried bread topped with chickpea curry, mango sauce and tamarind chutney. Doubles might not be on restaurant menu  the eateries open very early and vanish as soon as the days takeaway is over.



If you are flying out of Port of Spain airport early, step into the food court and slurp on doubles. Get ready to get your hands dirty  doubles are served on a sheet of paper. No porcelain here.



Porcelain and traditional meld in Native Abode, a Tobago homestay where the family serves traditional breakfast in style. In the orchard, the air is heavy with the whiff of ripe mango. Its where brown chikoos hang from the boughs like a bunch of mischievous kids, where fish is deep fried, pumpkin is chopped and turned into dainty salad, and chocolate tea is made out of balls of chocolate cooked with nutmeg and vanilla. The tea might leave you tipsy  theres a good ounce of sugarcane dark rum in the cuppa.



In Trinidad and Tobago, theres a food ritual. Liming with the locals. Yes, lime. This is no whitewash lime or the citrusy lime. This liming is merriment, with pints of beer and boxes of scrumptious food. And add to it peppy music. The zing of a typical Trini!



Liming is another word for hanging out. A picnic with alcohol. One can lime in a shack, in ones backyard, or in Ariapita Avenue, the capitals night-club strip. But lime you must, like the locals of Trinidad and Tobago, with joy in the heart, song on the lips, spring in the foot and beer in the hand.



Must-eats



Cow heel soup: A thick soup made of cow heel, potatoes and herbs.

Buss up shut: Flatbread torn into smaller bits.

Doubles: Fried flat bread topped with chickpea curry, mango/tamarind sauce.

Pigs tail: Barbecued pigs tail.

Mango chow: Julienned near-ripe mangoes with lime juice, garlic, salt and chilli.

Chokha: Roasted eggplant or tomato mash.

Bake & Shark: Shark fillets served in puffed white-flour bread called bake.

Cassava pie: Baked, cheesy pie of diced cassava.



Where to eat



Port of Spain: Town; Chaud; Green Market; Doubles; roti & aloo pie at the airport food court.



Tobago: Native Abode, Kalinas, Sea Horse Inn Restaurant, Cafe Havana.








Prime Minister Narendra Modi tonight assured Indian workers in Qatar that he will take up problems faced by them during his talks with leaders of this Gulf nation.



Addressing Indian workers at a medical camp in downtown Doha, Modi said he is aware of the issues being faced by Indian workers and the companies that bring them here.



"I Am aware of the issues you are facing. I will talk about it when I meet the authorities," he said. Modi will hold detailed talks with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani tomorrow.



Modi noted that his first engagement during his two-day visit to Qatar on the second leg of his five-nation tour was a visit to the camp of Indian workers here.



"I came to Doha in the evening and the first programme on my schedule was to meet you all," he said. Qatar is home to over six lakh people of Indian origin.



Modi also interacted with workers after his brief address and shared refreshments with them. He shook hands with several workers during his 30-minute stay at the camp.



The prime minister said he wants to congratulate doctor friends for the good work they are doing in Qatar. "Happy to see regular health check ups being conducted here," he said.



Modi also struck a chrod with the Indian workers when he said, "When someone from your land, speaking your language comes, I am sure that would make you very happy."



"If you have some issues on changing some rules and regulations, I will work with you all to bring about these changes," he told the audience.



Modi said he believed that the leadership in the Gulf has a lot of love and belief in the Indian community in the region.



In this context, he spoke about the visit of Qatar's Emir to India last year and referred to his praise of the "unmatched contribution" of the Indian community to the development of his coutnry.



Modi also said India's global image is not made by its prime minister or its Ambassador but, "it's all of you through your behaviour, who earn India a good name." "This global goodwill is the biggest international reserve currency," he added.

Modi told the Indian workers in Qatar that monsoon this year will be good. "This year the best news is that it is going to be a good monsoon. When such news come, they bring with them a lot of happiness," he said.



India Meteorological Department had said earlier this week that there is no possibility of a "deficient" monsoon this year and 96 per cent chances are that the rainfall would be "normal to excess". The Prime Minister also appreciated the wellness centre for the workers, saying that it offered facilities like yoga and relaxation techniques.



At the event, Qatar's Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohammad Al-Kuwari and Finance Minister Ali Shareef Al Emadi were also present.



Modi said he enquired about the health problems being faced by the workers and found that counselling and diabetes were the two main issues of concern. "Do work hard, but while doing so, please do focus on keeping your health and body fighting fit," he said.
Sikh priest Balbir Singh who yesterday refused to offer 'Siropa' (robe of honour) to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during his visit to the sanctum sanctorum of Golden Temple, today resigned from his religious services.





Balbir Singh said today, he got his transfer orders for Machiwara Gurdwara in Ludhiana but he preferred to resign from his services.



Singh said he joined services in Golden Temple in 1986 and since then he had been serving there but at the end of his service he would not prefer to go to Ludhiana and therefore chose to resign today.



He had earlier refused to honour Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal with 'Siropa' on January 20 this year, alleging that Punjab government had failed to curb the series of sacrilege of holy Guru Granth Sahib in the state.



Badal was yesterday refused the traditional 'Siropa' by the Sikh priest on duty at the Golden Temple.

Badal, accompanied by the senior Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) official, reached the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple to pay obeisance but the priest on duty Balbir Singh refused to offer 'Siropa' to the CM.



The senior SGPC officials, who were present on the spot, tried to coerce the priest but he refused to budge
A project on menstrual awareness anchors itself on openness in discussions



Are we, finally, done with the hushed tone in our discussions on menstrual hygiene? Is there a sign of change that could challenge the ignorance on and taboos around menstruation, shaped by our own socio-cultural influences? Jinoj K, vice-president of the Centre for Hygiene Research and Development (CHRD), doesnt have all the answers but he tries to make his point by narrating an incident.



Jinoj, a Kochi-based consultant on absorbent hygiene products, found out that branded sanitary napkins he bought for testing were packed without even following the basic standards of hygiene. I went back to the shop and told them they shouldnt be selling those products. The owner of the shop, while acknowledging that there was an issue, said I was the first customer  in the 28 years since the shop opened  to raise a complaint of this nature, says Jinoj.



He feels that a general reluctance to talk about menstruation has contributed to alarming levels of ignorance and the entry of sub-standard sanitary pads in the market. Through Project Ritu, an initiative anchored along with the Advanced Research Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy, the CHRD is trying to get more people to talk; openness could be the way forward in these times in which political and cultural spins threaten to derail the debate.



Project Ritu campaigners have been involved in awareness programmes conducted in different parts of Kerala. As part of the campaign, the team is addressing the issue of lack of privacy which leaves many working women and students unable to avail facilities like sanitary pad vending machines. In Kerala, hundreds of schools and colleges have been installing these vending machines but Jinoj feels that not much thought has gone into their effectiveness.



We noticed that in some of the schools, the machines are kept in the staff rooms. Students refuse to change the pads  even after the prescribed usage limit of three hours  because they still dont want to be seen getting the pads. These are issues we are dealing with, both through awareness campaigns to effect a change in attitude and through vending machines installed in bathrooms, says Jinoj.



The project covers serious implications of poor menstrual hygiene. Screening for Poly-Cystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) done by the team has revealed 10 % prevalence. Project Ritu also addresses PCOS and its effects on infertility, cardiac disorders and anxiety disorders and menstrual ailments, including Fallopian tube infection, and their psycho-social consequences.



A concept note from the CHRD team quotes a World Health Organisation statistics  83% of women experience some form of infection during menstruation; 62 % of them affected due to inappropriate usage of sanitary napkins.



The project team conducted sessions in schools in Kochi on May 28 as part of the Menstrual Hygiene Day programmes, covering topics ranging from usage of napkins and eco-friendly disposal to awareness on lifestyle changes. When it comes to awareness on the prescribed standards and stipulations, we have a long way to go. Perfumed napkins are being avoided in many countries but they continue to be used widely in India, says Jinoj.



In 2008, curiosity triggered by a report about low usage of sanitary napkins led Jinoj to take up extensive research on the subject. Visits to countries, including China, expanded the scope of his work, resulting in a design which, he says, ensures production of top-quality sanitary pads with all prescribed standards met in critical features, including air permeability.



The companies Jinoj works with as a consultant supply the napkins for top brands on an original equipment manufacturer agreement. With Project Ritu, the team tries to ensure that well-packaged napkins at an affordable price reach the consumers. More than 100 vending machines have been installed, free of charge, in schools in Ernakulam district and the programme is picking up the pace in other districts as well.



Companies under their corporate social responsibility initiatives have associated with the CHRD in the project. Community organisations like Sakhya, which focuses on issues of women and children, are also involved in the project which provides sanitary napkin incinerators and counselling to handle psychological issues related to menstruation and PCOS.



The project has run into a new glitch  some of the students are using money given by parents to get pads from the vending machines to buy cosmetic products or pastries. We are trying to address the issue by designing pre-paid cards which could be used to purchase the napkins. Through these cards, the CHRD will be able to track the number of products dispensed; it will help us study the effectiveness and reach of the project. We are also looking at possibilities of giving out some of these cards free of charge, to students from poor families, says Jinoj.



The CHRD team is also developing a comprehensive menstrual kit which will include, along with pads, anti-infection products and pain relief patches.



The CHRD is lining up plans for collaboration with Kudumbashree, the government-backed woman empowerment project, to manufacture napkins on a larger scale. We are looking at a public private partnership model with a majority stake for Kudumbashree members. With a projected target of 600 napkins per minute, this initiative could be a major step forward, says Jinoj.



In its full potential, the project envisages a scenario where myths around menstruation are dispelled and even a semi-literate girl in a remote village anywhere in India could follow the right steps of menstrual hygiene.




Facing flak for sharing pictures of her film shoot as Mathura witnessed pitched battles, actor-turned-politician Hema Malini on Saturday rushed to her Parliamentary constituency.



The MP went there with an assurance for the citizens and a dare for the Uttar Pradesh government.

Two days after 24 people were killed in a clash between the police and members of a little-known sect, the incidents in this temple town became centre for political battles.



Hema, who represents Mathura in the Lok Sabha, led a protest march against the Uttar Pradesh government, visited the residence of the deceased Superintendent of Police Mukul Dwivedi and enquired about the injured policemen at a city hospital.



I have reached here within 24 hours after I heard about the incident, but where is the Chief Minister ? Hema asked after she was stopped from venturing into Jawahar Bagh, the epicentre of Thursdays violent clashes.



Hema said she had asked the district magistrate to remove the encroachments about two months ago. She had faced flak on social media as well as from political opponents on Friday for sharing pictures of her film shoot as Mathura remained tense because of the clashes. The BJP has high stakes in Uttar Pradesh which goes to polls early next year.



Staging a sit-in protest at the Collectors office, local BJP leaders accused Uttar Pradesh Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav, the uncle of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, of sheltering the alleged mastermind  Ram Briksh Yadav  who had forcibly acquired the 280-acre Jawahar Bagh for the past two years.



The state government should have evicted the encroachers on its own, but it woke up only after getting orders from the Allahabad High Court, Hema said.



BSP supremo Mayawati attacked Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav saying instead of touring Bundelkhand, he should have visited Mathura. The BSP and the CPM demanded a Supreme Court-monitored inquiry into Thursdays clashes. Congress leader Pramod Tiwari also visited Mathura.
The residents of this temple town are slowly picking up threads of their daily lives trying to put behind the horrific turn of events on Thursday evening that has left 27 people dead.





The sprawling Jawahar Bagh area that was illegally occupied by members of an obscure cult claiming allegiance to Subhas Chandra Bose was out of bounds on Saturday as police scoured it for crude weapons.



Residents of the surrounding areas claimed the so-called Satyagrahis also had land mines. We have to look at the area closely, Tejpal Singh, a state police constable, standing guard at the entrance of the 280-acre orchard told DH.



The local court, a stones throw away from Jawahar Bagh, was buzzing with activity and shops around the area were also open. People went about their daily lives but the incidents of Thursday were still talk of the town.



The sprawling orchard has the Police Lines, residential quarters for low-ranked government employees and even a Judges Colony on its fringes. As media personnel descended at Jawahar Bagh in hordes, police officials directed occupants of the colonies against sharing any pictures or videos they might have shot on their mobile phones. This reporter ventured into the Jawahar Bagh Colony where residents recounted tales of their encounters with the members of the Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi.



Every evening their leader Ram Briksh Yadav used to give discourses over the public address system and make strange demands such as charging Re 1 for 40 litres of petrol and 60 litres of diesel, said Kapil Sharma, a resident of the colony. Many residents refused to be identified as they were in government service and feared some adverse consequences for speaking with the media.



An elder in the colony that serves as the residential quarters for the Class III and Class IV government employees said the residents feared venturing into the Jawahar Bagh, which once was a favourite morning walk destination for most of them. But for the past two years it has been out of bounds for us. The so-called Satyagrahis had built make-shift toilets along the boundary wall of the colony. It used to stink, said Hitendra Chaudhary.



On an earlier occasion when the police had contemplated action, Ram Briksh Yadav and his associates had used the womenfolk residing with them as a shield knowing fully well that police will not use force against them.



A resident showed videos to this reporter of Yadav arguing with the police and even questioning their nationality.



Maya demands probe

BSP supremo Mayawati on Saturday alleged that the Mathura violence smacked of a ''conspiracy'' and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe into the incident, DHNS reports from Lucknow.



''Both the state and the central governments have done nothing to bring the culprits to book... it shows that there is something fishy behind the violence,'' Mayawati said while addressing a press conference here.



The BSP leader said that the violence in Mathura was a ''blot'' on the state government and proved that there was no law and order in the state.



Mayawati said that the Narendra Modi government had not done anything worthwhile during its two-year tenure and the celebrations by the government were only aimed at covering up the failures.
In a second attack of its kind in less than 24-hours, militants on Saturday attacked a police party in south Kashmirs Anantnag district killing two personnel including an officer.



Reports said two motorcycle-borne militants opened fire on a police party near the Anantnag Bus Stand, 52 km from here, killing assistant sub inspector Bashir Ahmad and constable Riyaz Ahmad. The spot is barely some metres away from a police post.



Eyewitnesses told DH over phone that the firing created panic in the area with people running for safety. They said the militants taking advantage of the melee managed to escape from the spot.



Immediately after the attack, the area was cordoned off to nab the assailants. However, reports said, no arrest was made till late in the evening.



No militant group claimed responsibility for the attack. This was the second attack in the district in last 24 hours.



On Friday, three Border Security Force (BSF) personnel were killed and seven others injured after militants ambushed their convoy on Srinagar-Jammu national highway in the same district. Hizb-ul-Mujahideen had claimed the responsibility of the attack on the BSF convoy and had warned of more such attacks.



A senior police officer said they have inputs that the militants may carry out more strikes on security forces in south Kashmir, particularly on the National Highway between Anantang and Pampore.



Anantnag Assembly segment is slated to go for bypolls on June 22. The polls were necessitated after the death of former chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed in January. Incumbent Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is contesting the bypolls against Congress and National Conference candidates.



J&K DGP K Rajendra Kumar rushed to Anantnag after hearing the news of the latest attack. Later, chairing a security meeting, Rajendra asked the officers from police and central paramilitary forces to gear up all resources to apprehend the culprits.



DH News Service
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has taken an initiative to highlight on national television life in the Northeast region.





The ministry has already commissioned a 13-episode programme, with each one highlighting various success stories. These would include how the all-girl band Hurricane Girls came to be and the efforts undertaken by Dr Ilias Ali in persuading rural populace, mostly Muslims, to opt for family planning.



The programme will start rolling out on Doordarshan in the second week of June. If successful, the North East Division in the MHA may look at the possibility of extending it to 26 or 52 episodes. It is also considering airing the programme on private channels.



"Many people are not aware of the success stories in the Northeast. This programme will show how these people are changing life in the region," a senior ministry official told Deccan Herald. The programme also aims to help change the way Northeasterners are treated in other parts of the country.



One of the most awaited episodes is on Dipa Karmakar (23) from Tripura, the first Indian woman gymnast to seal an Olympic berth. The episode is likely to go on air before the Olympic Games in Brazils Rio de Janeiro in August. The MHA is also planning episodes on boxers Shiva Thapa and Mary Kom, the official said.



Another episode would highlight the efforts taken by Meghali Bora, an entrepreneur, to train women taxi drivers in the region.



Striking the right note

In the episode featuring the Hurricane Girls, the all-girl rock band from Guwahati, members talk about the journey so far. Talking about their first programme, one of the members recalls how she was initially promised Rs 2,000, but the organisers did not pay anything. Now, she says, they earn a few lakhs for their performance.

DH News Service
Maharashtra Congress leaders and former chief ministers - Prithviraj Chavan and Narayan Rane appear to differ on the reasons behind Eknath Khadses exit from the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government.





Rane, an outspoken leader, said that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis made Khadse a scapegoat. On one hand, you (Fadnavis) give him a clean chit and on the other, you go to New Delhi and request the party to take Khadses resignation and also announce that the BJP president (Amit Shah) would take the final call, he said, adding that the bahujan community leaders are being targeted.



Prithviraj Chavan, however, said that caste and community should not be brought in. There are several charges. If we look at the charges related to the call logs of Dawood Ibrahim, they are very serious, he said, adding that the phone calls of Dawood Ibrahim are under constant observations and the government must throw light on this.



On the other hand, another former chief minister Ashok Chavan demanded a high-level judicial probe against him.



Senior NCP leader and former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar said that because of constant media reports, Khadse had to go. TV channels went after Khadse with full force....Khadse...Khadse...Khadse and he had to resign, he said.

DH News Service



Hacker fails to show up

The hacker who procured call record data of a Pakistani telecom firm showing calls from gangster Dawood Ibrahim to Minister Eknath Khadse, did not turn up before the police on Saturday, reports PTI from Mumbai.



Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad which is probing the charge that Khadse received calls from Dawood, had summoned Gujarat-based Manish Bhangale who claims to be an ethical hacker.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay homage to Indian-American astronaut Kalpana Chawla during his visit to Arlington National Cemetery near Washington DC on Monday.





Modi will pay tribute to Chawla and other US astronauts who were on board the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia and perished when it disintegrated during re-entry to earth on February 1, 2003.



During my visit to Arlington Cemetery I will lay wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider and Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial, in which we lost an Indian origin astronaut, Kalpana Chawla, Prime Minister said in a statement issued before leaving New Delhi on Saturday for a tour to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, United States and Mexico.



Prime Minister will visit the Arlington National Cemetery soon after landing in Washington DC on June 6.

Modi will first lay wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier  a memorial of US Army soldiers martyred in the World War I, World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War. He will then pay homage at the memorial dedicated to the US astronauts, who were on board the space shuttle Challenger that exploded soon after launch on January 28, 1986.



He will then move to the memorial dedicated to Kalpana and her colleagues on space-shuttle Columbia. Kalpana, who was born at Karnal in Haryana, moved to the US in 1982 to pursue her studies in aerospace engineering. She became the first woman of Indian origin in space in 1997 when she first flew on US space shuttle Columbia as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator.


India is nudging the members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to consider its plea for a berth in the cartel on the basis of its own merit.





India will not overtly oppose Islamabads bid for entry into the NSG, but will rather seek support of the members of the cartel on the basis of its own impeccable non-proliferation track-record, officials told the DH.



New Delhi, however, is of the view that the NSG would surely take into account Pakistans history of clandestine nuclear proliferation to countries like North Korea and Iran. India submitted its application for membership of the NSG on May 12. Pakistan did the same on May 19. Both the pleas are likely to be discussed when the 48-nation cartel will hold its annual plenary in South Korea later this month.



The US has since 2010, been supporting Indias bid to enter the cartel that controls the global nuclear commerce. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama are likely to discuss the issue when they meet in Washington DC on June 7.
The state government and police brass heaved a sigh of relief on Saturday as the much-hyped protest by the constabulary failed to evoke any response.





Constables, who had threatened to go on mass casual leave across the state demanding fulfilment of various demands, reported to duty on Saturday.



CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP and home guards were not deployed, though they were kept ready with specific duties to handle any situation.



The constables did not protest and I thank them for being disciplined. The government will fulfil all demands of the constabulary within a stipulated time, Home Minister G Parameshwara told reporters here on Saturday.



Some demands are administrative in nature, while others need consent from the Finance Department. The government will initiate measures within a week and fulfil administrative demands in consultation with senior officers, the minister said, without giving further details.



Parameshwara justified slapping sedition charges against Akhila Karnataka Police Mahasangha (AKPM) president V Shashidhar, saying his observations were anti-national.



Ramesh Gowda, who wore a constables uniform and staged a protest in front of the deputy commissioners office in Ramanagaram, was booked for impersonation and arrested. Ramakrishna, a District Armed Reserve (DAR) constable in Mandya tried to protest alone and was detained. Action will be taken against him after an inquiry. Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha leader Vatal Nagaraj was also detained and will be booked for impersonation for trying to protest in a constables uniform, Parameshwara said. AKPM president V Shashidhars wife Purnima and Shivashakthi Sanghas Umadevi and Girija were taken into preventive custody in Bengaluru.



The government thanked the constables, retired senior officers, Karnataka Rajya Police Sangha and leaders of political parties for respecting the governments decision.



Some of the demands

Administrative:

n Proper maintenance of quarters

n Provide cash instead of rations and shoes

n Separate rooms and toilets for women staff

n Fix maximum service period in every unit for DySPs and inspectors

n Transfers based on counselling and requests.

Financial:

n Fill up vacant posts

n Regular promotions

n Hike in wages for doing bandobust and election duties

n Constitution of separate pay commission for police

n Abolish orderly system

n Free medical treatment to family members under Arogya Bhagya scheme

n Correct disparities in salaries

n Additional pay of one month to inspectors and

SIs for serving during holidays/festivals

n Special allowances for ACPs and DySPs.


Members of the Karnataka Schools Parents Association, along with other parents associations across the state, are planning to take legal recourse over the issue of fee hike in private schools.





Following a discussion with a parents association from Dharwad, members of the Karnataka Schools Parents Association are contemplating on filing a Public Interest Litigation to have several other issues, besides the unreasonable fee hike by private schools, addressed.



Speaking to Deccan Herald, one of the members of the group said that in the absence of a law to monitor/regulate the fee hike by the private schools, they would approach the court for the same. The association had earlier met Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane Rathnakar and submitted a memorandum seeking him to take appropriate steps to put a curb on the menace.



There are about 6,000 members in the parents group. They have put on hold, temporarily, their plan to stage a protest as they are awaiting necessary permissions from the Bengaluru police. Recently, a group of parents had staged a protest in front of a private school in Whitefield and had claimed that there was a tuition fee hike by 80% and 100% increase in transportation fee. Meanwhile, the Karnataka State Child Rights Protection Committee members had also written to the CBSE and the ICSE schools in the state, seeking that they display the fee structure in a prominent place.


Friday nights rain in southern Bengaluru led to heavy frothing in Subramanyapura lake which is already on the verge of extinction due to unrestrained dumping of raw sewage from nearby apartment blocks.





A six-foot-high layer of foam appeared in the lakes waste weir on Friday night and Saturday. The foam from the highly contaminated lake stretched to the middle of the road and was carried into the air by a thunderstorm. Office-bearers of the local BHCS Layout Residents Welfare Association said the civic agencies complete neglect of the lake had led to its pathetic condition.



Pradeep Rudrapatna, an officer-bearer, said the lake had pristine water until six years ago but was now full of weeds due to sewage. The tank bund next to the waste-weir was damaged just a few years ago. Rainwater no more stays in the lake. It has become a big septic tank for the mega residential complexes nearby, he said.



Rudrapatna said the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) had drawn an action plan of Rs 1.10 crore for diverting sewage from the lake. The BBMP and the BDA deposited their share of funds with the BWSSB, but the water board is yet to complete the work even after four years, he added.



The association members said they had made representations to the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) but to no avail. When contacted, KSPCB chairperson Lakshman said he was aware of the problem and had directed his staff to look into the matter. Our officials have visited the lake and taken water samples. We are serious about saving this lake, he said.



BBMP Chief Engineer (Lakes), B V Sathish, said the civic agency had taken over the lake from the BDA and got funds sanctioned by the state government. We will develop this lake. The work will start in November, he said.

DH News Service



Drain water enters slum

The heavy rainfall gave a sleepless night to residents of Srirampura slums in Thurahalli as water from a nearby stormwater drain gushed into their homes. Blame the poor planning of the BBMP.



Engineers in its stormwater drain division linked the major stormwater drain to the shoulder drain next to the slums. As a result, the shoulder drain was clogged and the water from the stormwater drain entered the homes. Slum dwellers said the blame would lie on the BBMP if any untoward incident happened and any child fell into the overflowing shoulder drain.


A 1947-model Banashankari bus, the oldest pre-Independence era public transport vehicle in Karnataka, has been brought back from oblivion and restored to its previous glory. The bus will be kept on display at the KSRTCs central office in Shanthinagar from Monday onwards.





Manufactured under the Bedford brand by a Canadian firm, the bus was used to ferry devotees to the famous Banashankari Devi fair in Badami, Bagalkot district, and the Yellamma fair in Saundatti, Belagavi district, and that is how it got its name, an official in the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) said. It remained with the Bombay State Road Transport Corporation until the unification of Karnataka in 1956. During the Raj, Bijapur and Belgaum districts were part of the Bombay Presidency. Later, the Bedford bus became a property of the Mysore State Road Transport Corporation. It was used as a passenger vehicle till 1968, after which the operations were withdrawn.



The bus remained dumped in the KSRTCs Kengeri depot, with few officials being aware of its vintage value. KSRTC managing director Rajendra Kumar Kataria spotted it during a recent inspection of the depot. He learnt that the bus was the last passenger vehicle from the pre-Independence era in Karnataka. He decided to get it restored and put it on public display at the corporations central office in Shanthinagar.



Officials, however, were unsure about the original colour of the bus. They took a gamble and got it painted in bright red. Mechanics toiled for a week to give the bus, whose engine was still in working condition, a fresh look by fitting new headlights and seats.



The heritage value of the bus has to be preserved for posterity. Those who visit our office will get a glimpse into the history of Karnatakas public transport, Kataria told Deccan Herald.



The bus will be inaugurated by Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Monday. Thereafter, people will be allowed inside the bus to take a look at its interiors.




As the polls to the Rajya Sabha and the Legislative Council from the state inch closer, the rebel group in the JD(S) seems to have got more vocal.





Dissent JD(S) MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan, who has pledged, along with four other JD(S) MLAs, to vote for the Congress Rajya Sabha candidate K C Ramamurthy, on Saturday hit back at his party leadership for merely patronising Muslim leaders in the party.



Khan said JD(S) leaders H D Deve Gowda and H D Kumaraswamy had yet again taken a unilateral decision to field B M Farook to the Rajya Sabha polls. Danish Ali has been a loyal party worker and has been seeking a ticket for several years now. Has the party not given him the ticket because he is poor? he said.



Another JD(S) MLA Iqbal Ansari told this newspaper that his vote will be for the Congress candidate in the Council, if the party continued to sideline him. According to the sources in the BJP, the party is in touch with the five rebel JD(S) MLAs seeking their support for its second candidate - Lehar Singh - in the Legislative Council polls.



While the BJP and the JD(S) can ensure victory for their first candidate V Somanna and K V Narayanaswamy, respectively, there were talks between the two parties on supporting their second candidate.



As no consensus could be arrived at, the BJP is now approaching the nine independents and also the JD(S) rebel group, sources said. Besides its quota of 15 votes, the BJP needs 14 additional votes to ensure victory to Singh.



However, Khan denied he had been approached by the BJP. How can I ever support BJP? Its impossible. These are rumours spread by Kumaraswamy. If my party fails to reach out to me, my vote is for Rizwan Arshad (Congress candidate), he said.While the polls to the Legislative Council will be held on June 10, the Rajya Sabha elections will be held on June 11.
Former chief minister and JD(S) State President H D Kumaraswamy has stated that the party senior leaders have taken up the anti-party activities by the dissidents seriously and action would be initiated against them.





Speaking with mediapersons here on Saturday, Kumaraswamy stated that it has come to the notice of the party that some of its leaders have revolted against the party decision and are making anti-party remarks before the media and the public.



This kind of activity will no longer be tolerated and stern action will be taken against them, he warned. Without naming MLA Jameer Ahmmad, Kumaraswamy said: Even if the dissident is an influential person he has to face the music.



To overcome dissident activities and chalk out a route map for the 2018 Assembly election, the JD(S) will be holding Legislative Party meeting in Bengaluru on June 12.



At the meet, the dissident MLAs who have reportedly made remarks against the party or its leadership will be dealt with severely. Kumaraswamy said unlike any other political party, more freedom is enjoyed by the MLAs and MLCs in JD(S). However, some of them are misusing these privileges and are speaking in favour of the Congress.



To bring in more discipline into the party, the Legislative Party meeting would implement several new rules for its candidates, Kumaraswamy added.



Kumaraswamy made a serious allegation that the Congress and the BJP are involved in compromising politics. Congress leader and Energy Minister D K Shivakumar held a meeting with BJP State President B S Yeddyurappa on seat-sharing for the Rajya Sabha and the Council polls.



Accordingly, both the parties have come to a conclusion that the BJP would help the Congress in getting both its members elected to the Rajya Sabha and in return, the Congress has agreed to help the BJP win more seats in the Legislative Council polls, he added.
Recurring fishkills in lakes across Bengaluru have literally raised a stink. But the dramatic scenes of lakhs of dead, floating fish have brought to the fore the extreme pollution of these water bodies. At stake is not just the environment but a food chain dependent on a growing market for freshwater fish sourced from within the city. This delicate ecosystem is now under serious threat.





Reports that these dead fish, obviously contaminated and decayed, found their way to the markets for sales are shocking enough. But this also raises questions about the quality standards internalised by the network of fish breeders, suppliers and retailers. Is it safe to consume the fish grown in lakes fed by untreated domestic sewage and industrial effluents?



The fishkill in Hebbal lake recently and similar episodes in the Ulsoor and Devarabisanahalli lakes earlier have been attributed to asphyxiation due to sudden and considerable fall in the Dissolved Oxygen (DO) levels. Scientists have also blamed ammonia toxicity. To make it worse, most lakes have no Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs), and the few ones that exist are not fully functional.



Exotic fish factor

Analysing the fishkill in Ulsoor lake, an Indian Institute of Science (IISc) study had drawn attention to another cause: Indiscriminate introduction of exotic fish species such as African Catfish and Tilapia, threatening the survival of the fish native to a particular lake. The exotic species, the study had found, eliminates the native biota and affects the local biodiversity.



High density of fish beyond sustainable levels is another critical factor, say fisheries experts. Greedy fish farmers try to grow more in a limited space, drastically depleting the available DO. The sensitive ones die first, before the massive fishkill strikes. The farmers have been reportedly asked not to do this, but they dont listen, complains a fisheries department official.



To understand why a conducive ecosystem is essential for fish culture, a closer look at the entire breeding process is critical. As the department official explains, fish could be grown either in lakes and tanks or in irrigation tanks that are 4-5 ft deep. Upto 15-20 tons per hectare can be grown in this form of culture. Some species could go upto 40 tonnes.



In natural water bodies such as lakes, the fisheries department either leases out the rights or issues licences at a nominal prices. The licence is valid for a year, renewable every year upto a maximum of five. Fast growing fish seeds are sourced from different parts of the State or even Andhra Pradesh. Once harvested, most fish are sold in markets and fish outlets across Bengaluru.



By one estimate, the Rohu variety constitutes almost 60% of the freshwater fish retailed in the city. About 20% are Catla, while Mrigal Carp, Common Carp, Grass Carp and other smaller species make up the rest.



Discrete buyers

Fish harvested in the city lakes do find their way to hotels, retail outlets and some big markets. But many buyers are now discrete enough to spot the difference. I look at the excretion point of the fish and can see the colour change. Fresh fish are reddish, notes Rohijit Sinha, an IT executive from Murugeshpalya. He frequents the HAL fishmarket for his weekly purchase.



Fish retailer, SA Rasheed notes that freshwater species sourced from the city lakes do not retain their freshness beyond a day. The decay starts from the intestine and quickly spreads to the entire body. We dont stock them. Our fish comes from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu, he explains.



Freshwater fish is much sought after by Bengalureans of Bengali, Odisha and Assamese origins. But most Keralites and Kannadigas from coastal areas such as Mangaluru prefer marine fish even if it is much more costly than the freshwater variety.



A kilogram of the marine fish Pomfret costs about Rs 650 to 700 and the marine Sear fish could get as expensive as Rs 1,200 a kg.



The cheapest marine fish, Sardine now costs about Rs 160/kg. In comparison, freshwater species such as Rohu and Catla can be bought at Rs 160. But the big picture is this: The consumer has greater choice, a factor that has boosted fish consumption in the city. All the more reason for the fish to be fresh and hygienic, not a health hazard!




The returning officer for the Rajya Sabha elections in Karnataka has asked two media houses to provide unedited footage of the cash-for-votes sting aired by them.





The Election Commission of India (ECI) had on Friday sought a report on the sting operations by two news channels on corrupt practices in the elections.



Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Anil Kumar Jha, on directions of the ECI, has instructed returning officer S Murthy, who is also the secretary of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, to collect unedited video footage of the sting operations from the two channels and also compile any other related material.



The sting videos showed four MLAs reportedly discussing the sale of votes for the Rajya Sabha polls, creating a political furore on Thursday.



Jha, who has been appointed the official observer for the Rajya Sabha polls, said it would be difficult to set a timeframe for sending the report to the ECI. We are looking at all aspects. Once the returning officer sends us the details, we will prepare the report and forward it to the ECI, Jha said.



The Rajya Sabha elections in Karnataka, with MLAs forming the electoral college, are scheduled for June 11.



Murthy said he had already compiled newspaper reports on the sting, including reactions and views of various political parties and politicians. The four MLAs showed in the sting  B R Patil, G T Devegowda, Mallikarjun Khuba and Varthur Prakash  have denied any involvement.



Murthy said he had written to the two television channels to provide unedited video footage of the sting operations. One of them submitted the footage in a CD on Saturday.

He said there had been no communication from the ECI on the postponement of

elections. As of now, elections will be held as scheduled, he said.




How are Black residents here doing compared to rest of U.S.?

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Japan's transport ministry raids Suzuki headquarters

Japan's transport ministry raided small-car maker Suzuki's headquarters yesterday, which had admitted recently that it used improper fuel-testing methods for years, affecting millions of cars.

Officials raided the company's base in Hamamatsu city, around 250 kilometres (155 miles) southwest of Tokyo, for documents related to the under-fire emissions and fuel-economy testing.

"We are raiding Suzuki's headquarters to confirm the information that the company supplied" to the ministry, an official in charge of automotive safety told AFP.

Raids were also conducted on rival Mitsubishi Motors after it revealed in April that it had cheated on fuel-efficiency tests for decades (See: Mitsubishi admits to manipulating fuel consumption figures). Suzuki, which had been led by its 86-year-old chairman Osamu Suzuki - a direct descendant of the company's founding family - had admitted to employing a testing method not approved by Japanese regulators.

However, the company maintains that it had not meant to deceive users.

The company said in a statement it will "fully cooperate" with the transport ministry, but did not specify what kind of financial penalties it could face.
With supply glut, Chile giving away power for free

Chile's solar industry has expanded so quickly that it's giving electricity away for free.

Spot prices reached zero in parts of the country on 113 days through April, a number that's on track to beat last year's total of 192 days, according to Chile's central grid operator. While that may be good for consumers, it's bad news for companies that own power plants struggling to generate revenue and for developers seeking financing for new facilities, says a Bloomberg report.

Chile's increasing energy demand, pushed by booming mining production and economic growth, has helped spur development of 29 solar farms supplying the central grid, with another 15 planned. Further north, in the heart of the mining district, even more have been built. Now, economic growth is slowing as copper output stagnates amid a global glut, energy prices are slumping and those power plants are oversupplying regions that lack transmission lines to distribute the electricity elsewhere.

''Investors are losing money,'' said Rafael Mateo, chief executive officer of Acciona SA's energy unit, which is investing $343 million in a 247-megawatt project in the region that will be one of Latin America's largest. ''Growth was disordered. You can't have so many developers in the same place,'' he told Bloomberg.

A key issue is that Chile has two main power networks, the central grid and the northern grid, which aren't connected to each other. There are also areas within the grids that lack adequate transmission capacity.

That means one region can have too much power, driving down prices because the surplus can't be delivered to other parts of the country, according to Carlos Barria, former chief of the government's renewable-energy division and a professor at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, in Santiago.

"Michelle Bachelet's government has set the energy sector as a priority,'' said Carlos Finat, president of the country's renewable association, known as Acera. ''But planning has been focused in the short term when it is necessary to have long term plans to solve these type of issues."

The government is working to address this issue, with plans to build a 3,000-kilometer (1,865-mile) transmission line to link the two grids by 2017. It's also developing a 753-kilometer line to address congestion on the northern parts of the central grid, the region where power surpluses are driving prices to zero.

''Chile has at least seven or eight points in the transmission lines that are collapsed and blocked, and we have an enormous challenge to bypass the choke points,'' energy minister Maximo Pacheco said in an interview in Santiago. ''When you embark on a path of growth and development like the one we've had, you obviously can see issues arising.''

Solar capacity on Chile's central power grid, known as SIC, has more than quadrupled to 770 megawatts since 2013. Much of that comes from the grid's northern sections, the Atacama region that's home to the copper industry. Total installed capacity increased 5 per cent in the past year, with half coming from solar farms, according to the grid operator, Cdecsic. SIC supplies power to the regions where 90 percent of the country's residential demand is located.

The country is expected to install almost 1.4 gigawatts of solar power this year, up from 371 megawatts in 2015, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

When power companies aren't giving away electricity, it's cheap. At the Diego de Almagro substation in the Atacama region, for example, prices didn't exceed $60 a megawatt-hour for most of March. That's less than the $70 minimum price for companies that won long-term contracts to sell solar power in Chile's energy auctions in October and March.

The issue may limit future development because the uncertain revenue means banks will be reluctant to finance new power plants, according to Rodrigo Violic, head of project finance at the Chilean lender Banco Bice. ''It's a big problem,'' he said.
India poised to become clean energy capital of the world: Piyush Goyal

The government is focused on increased use of clean technologies and renewable power generation as it has embarked on a mission of making India the Clean Energy Capital of the world, minister of state for power, coal, new and renewable energy, Piyush Goyal, said.

Speaking at a function to release NTPC's book on bio diversity, 'The Good Earth', Goyal said the Indian economy will grow by leaps and bound and so will NTPC fulfilling the aspirations of all Indians. He also planted a sapling along with students to commemorate Environment Day at a function held in Noida today.

NTPC, which has the largest number of coal-fired polluting power stations, is also taking a lead in setting up renewable energy projects like solar and wind power projects.

The minister emphasised the need to restore forest cover that has depleted over a period of time through massive tree plantation.

He urged NTPC to increase its tree plantation target and keep a proper record reflecting ownership of the activity. He suggested NTPC nurturing a green patch in all the states it has operations.

NTPC, he said, has successfully demonstrated its ability to deliver large projects and producing power in an efficient reliable and affordable manner.

He said the power sector in India is focusing on environment sustainability and NTPC has taken a lead by preserving flora and fauna in and around its power stations. The book released on Friday captures the long term efforts of NTPC in the direction and shall be an inspiration for all corporate to care for environment.

He congratulated NTPC family on its 4,670 MW largest power station Vindhyachal achieving 100.05 per cent PLF generating 114 MUs in a day on Thursday.

Gurdeep Singh, CMD said NTPC is deeply committed to environmental sustainability and has taken many initiatives for its betterment.

The company is focused on mitigating the impact of its operations and pursues progressive environment systems and practices, he said.
After bagging the deal for the strategically important Chabahar Port in Iran, the government is now in discussions with Bangladesh to develop a similar facility in Payra. India Ports Global, the joint venture between state-run Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Kandla Port for overseas ports, has invited in expressions of interest for construction of Payra port in Bangladesh, the shipping ministry said in a release on Friday. "Talks are on between our foreign ministry and them (Bangladesh). Dhaka also wants us. We have sent a team there for studies," shipping minister Nitin Gadkari told reporters. A media report in February had said China had evinced keen interest in building the Payra port. In what was taken as a reflection of the growing Indo-Bangladeshi ties, Dhaka had cancelled the deal. The Narendra Modi government has been talking about an 'Act East' policy, as against the previous regime's 'Look East' policy, and the moves to build maritime infrastructure in Iran in the West and Bangladesh in the East seem to be part of that approach. The move can also be construed as a response to the aggressive expansion by China, which is developing a port in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Gwadar in Pakistan. "The shipping ministry is closely following the developments in regard to the Payra port so as to secure our national and strategic interests," the release added. China has embarked on what is referred to as 'string of pearls' strategy, under which it is creating such assets across the circumference of the Indian Peninsula in the Indian Ocean Rim region. Gadkari's comments come soon after New Delhi secured a deal to build the strategic Chabahar port in Iran with an initial expenditure commitment of $500 million, which will help serve our interests in the Gulf country coming out of sanctions, and in the broader region as well. The minister on Friday said an immediate benefit of developing the Chabahar port will be cheaper gas availability, which can help reduce the urea subsidy bill by Rs45,000 crore. There is also a possibility of investments of up to Rs1 lakh crore in the Chabahar port region jointly by the ministries of petroleum and fertilisers, and the private sector, Gadkari said. He said Chabahar will benefit both the state-run Kandla Port Trust as well as Mundra Port in Gujarat through higher cargo volumes. The Mundra Port is owned by the Adani Group. Eight new ports The minister said his ministry is also planning to build a major port at Belekeri near Karwar in Karnataka, which will entail an investment of Rs4,000 crore. Work on the ports at Wadhvan off the Dahanu coast in Maharashtra, Sagar in West Bengal, and Colachel in Tamil Nadu will begin this year, he said. At present, the country has a dozen state-run major ports and is targeting to add eight more, including these four. Without giving the exact locations or investment details, Gadkari said of the remaining projects, two ports each will come up in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, and one in Karnataka, which will be a major port. He said the government is planning to channel investments of Rs12 lakh crore into shipping, ports and allied sectors over the next five years, which will create 10 million direct and indirect jobs. To smoothen the finances for these ambitious projects, Gadkari on Friday met top bankers in Mumbai. At the state level, Gadkari said Tamil Nadu will get Rs90,000 crore investments in ports, Karnataka and Goa will attract Rs10,000 crore investment each, and over Rs95,000 crore investments will be made in Maharashtra. He also said a meeting of heads of major ports is scheduled in Goa on Saturday to deliberate on various issues affecting them. On Mumbai port land redevelopment, he exuded the confidence of presenting a draft plan before representatives of the local people and the state administration over the next 20 days. He added the Mumbai Port Trust will be making a presentation on the same before the ministry in eight days. Gadkari said his ministry is targeting to increase the profits of state-run Dredging Corporation, Shipping Corporation and Cochin Shipyard to Rs8,000 crore this fiscal, from Rs6,000 crore registered in 2015-16.








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Home Four wheelers Honda To Bring Accord & Civic To India; But Why? oi-Kennedy

Honda has been concentrating on the mass-market models like the Amaze, Brio, City and the newly launched BR-V. Why did they discontinue the premium models like the Accord and Civic? Read to find out why it wants to bring it back to India.

The Honda Accord and Civic are still sought after cars even till today in India. The reason being its sheer performance and really didn't care about the mass market requirement, be it mileage, price tag or being compact in nature; which has become the norm nowadays.

Both the Accord and the Civic went off the road in 2010 and Honda never confirmed if this will make a comeback in India. With the Accord and Civic gone, companies like Skoda, Volkswagen, and Toyota took this vacant space and have lapped it really well.

Honda is getting ready to launch the Accord and CR-V later this year, the only reason being it wants the premium tag back with it, which it once ruled. The models of Accord and Civic might not bring numbers in terms of sales or market share, but it will surely increase its brand value.















Currently, SUV's are the favorites, be it compact or the actual SUV itself, most of the manufacturers have launched a model with the SUV design and are reaping benefits. It's the premium segment which has taken a hit and Honda could put the sensation back in the premium segment.

The Accord and the Civic came with the petrol engines and never in the diesel engine, this has been addressed with the diesel engine in the Amaze, Mobilio, and BR-V. The Honda CR-V will be next to get the diesel engine and we can expect the Accord and Civic to follow as well.

Honda is in India for nearly two decades and has understood the market sentiments, it will continue to push models in the mass market, at the same time will look to re-establish its premium brand image.






























Home Four wheelers New Petrol, Diesel Cars Banned From 2025 In This Country; Is India Next? oi-Dennis

The Northern European country of Norway is reportedly set to ban the sales of new diesel and petrol powered vehicles by the year 2025.

The Norwegian proposal is quite similar to the one that was passed by the lower house of Parliament in the Netherlands, two months ago.

However, unlike the Dutch proposal, the Norwegian proposition doesn't seem to have any roadblocks ahead, as the proposal has the approval of all four major political parties in Norway.

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, has already congratulated Norway, despite the fact that no law has been passed as of yet. He tweeted out his congratulations.

Just heard that Norway will ban new sales of fuel cars in 2025. What an amazingly awesome country. You guys rock!! pic.twitter.com/uAXuBkDYuR  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2016

What makes the move even more surprising, is the fact that Norway is actually an exporter of crude oil, which is refined to make the petrol and diesel that goes into present day fossil fuel powered cars.

India could soon follow suit and become fully electric by 2030 if the proposal by Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independant Charge) for Power becomes law.
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Hes much more afraid of being known as a fraud than a racist



You know the 2016 election is getting to you when Donald Trumps bigotry starts to make sense.

Continuously confronted with most outwardly bigoted major candidate since George Wallace, you could easily to forget that Trumps use of racism is strategic, as it seems as haphazard and spewed as his tweets often do. But we cant deny that it has worked.

His birtherism and rants against Mexicans and Muslims won him the GOP primary and this week. And this week, as hes continued his outrageous attacks on Judge Gonzalo Curiels Mexican heritage, weve learned that he thinks bigotry is still his path to the presidency.

It comes down to this: Trump is much more afraid of being marked as a fraud and a failure than he is of being known as a racist. This is his actual strategy and its not as crazy as it sounds.

White people are Trumps path to the presidency for two reasons:

He cant do much worse with minorities than Mitt Romney did in 2012, when turnout of non-white voters skyrocketed. Sure, he could turn Latinos away from the GOP the way Goldwater sent them fleeing forever in 1964  as the GOPs best strategist Mitch McConnell suggested he might. But thats not Trumps problem. He has to outperform Romney with white voters by considerable numbers. And that isnt happening yet. Actually, hes doing far worse with college-educated Republicans than Romney did. And hes only barely outperforming Romney with white working class voters, winning about 65 percent when he needs at least 70 percent of their votes.

His best path to winning over white voters  and possibly, he believes, the minority men reluctant to elect the first woman president  is his business record.

Thats why Trump University is such a devastating story and could be his undoing, as The New Republics Brian Beutler suggests:

Trump University will dramatize the truth about Trump for those voters in the same way Bain Capital dramatized Romneys stone-heartedness. Trump says that heand only hehas all the answers for the ailing middle class. That he will ply his business acumen on behalf of the everyman and turn his good fortune into theirs. All they have to do to secure his beneficence is fork over their votes. But its all a scam. All lies. And when his victims and former employees testify to this for the country, it will be devastating.

The wealth of testimony released by Judge Curiel this week might be enough to make that case. Heck, Democrats might have enough material already to prosecute Trump in the public mind.

Trumps attempt to poison the well against the Judge in the most offensive way possible shows him employing the same strategy hell use against Hillary Clinton, drowning her in vile personal attacks. These attacks are not haphazard and have now been joined in a somewhat more substantive way by George W. Bushs disgraced Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Will these obviously ridiculous and racist attacks work against a jurist with the nerve to take on Mexican drug cartels? Probably not.

But could they taint the discourse to lessen what could be Democrats most effective attack on his business record? He obviously hopes so. And its better than Romneys defense on Bain, which was to basically shout You did build that! all summer.

Its also important to remember that this could be a stupid gamble.

Greg Sargent has been imploring the left not to be caught up in the myth that Trump has magical powers. Trump won a primary by being willing to act out the repulsive impulses that make the GOP a dying party nationally. That wont win him the presidency.

This week, he stuck his finger meat grinder waiting for him in the general election.

Hillary Clinton pointed out that Trump is dangerous fool when it comes to foreign policy. The press loved it and no serious figure on the right seemed to disagree.

Even more promising? Shes starting to find a way to beat him at his own game.

Whats remarkable about this tweet below, isnt that its great. Its that it has twice as many retweets as Trumps:
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(Disney/Lucasfilm)Season 3 of "Star Wars Rebels" will arrive this fall.

The first two episodes of "Star Wars Rebels" season 3 will debut at the Star Wars Celebration Europe happening in London this July.

According to an official announcement posted on the Star Wars website, "Star Wars Rebels" showrunner Dave Filoni will not only give avid viewers of the Disney XD show the privilege of seeing the first two episodes in advance, but he will also bring special guests to the event. Together, they will all talk about what fans can expect from the third season of "Star Wars Rebels."

The upcoming season of "Star Wars Rebels" will pick up right after the events of season 2's conclusion. In "Twilight of the Apprentice," the final episode of the show's second season run, Darth Vader caught up to the Rebels and his former apprentice, Ahsoka Tano. After a tense duel, Ashoka Tano managed to splice off Darth Vader's mask, which revealed him being Anakin Skywalker.

The finale also featured Darth Maul blinding Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger getting tempted to the dark side of the Force. However, what viewers really want to find out in the next season of "Star Wars Rebels" is the fate of Ahsoka Tano after her battle with Darth Vader.

However, based on the report from Comicbook.com, the upcoming season of "Star Wars Rebels" may not immediately tackle the fate of Ahsoka Tano. Instead, the first two episodes of the new season might show how Kanan Jarrus is getting by after losing his sense of sight. The first few episodes could also show how the team's mission will be affected by Ezra Bridger's ability to think like a Sith and his connection to the dark side.

The upcoming Star Wars Celebration Europe will be the second time that "Star Wars Rebels" has chosen to introduce its next season to the public via the fan event. Last year, attendees of the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim were also treated to the one-hour premiere of season 2.

"Star Wars Rebels" returns to Disney XD this fall.
(Photo: Canton Ticino State Archives)A postal services bus crossing the Alps in the early 20th Century showing how the mountain range can be an obstacle to communications between northern and southern Europe.

It's the world's longest and deepest rail tunnel operating to Switzerland, after almost two decades of construction work and it was completed on time.

It will ease traffic congestion, increasing trade and tourism.

Swiss voters approved the $12.5 billion project in 1992 and it took 17 years of meticulous construction and it's a focal communications point for Switzerland, Italy and Germany.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Swiss Federal President Johann Schneider-Ammann, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande rode through the tunnel for the opening.

They were present for an extravagant celebration at which musical bands, dancers, took part with a tunnel theme song and yodellers added a Swiss touch.

Represenatatives from Christianity, Islam and Judaism attended a blessing inside the tunnel.

CUTS TRAVEL TIME

The route will slash travel times, making roadway traffic easier and cut the number of lorries disgorging pollution between Europe's north and south.

Passenger trains will be able to travel up to 250 km/h (155.3 mph) through the tunnel, reducing travel times for trans-Alpine train journeys by 50 minutes.

The two-way tunnel will open for commercial service in December taking up to 260 freight trains and 65 passenger trains a day.

Switzerland has many tunnels intersecting the mountains on its borders and there are already two passes through the Swiss Alps.

The first was also a railway tunnel, built in 1882, which the president of Switzerland at the time, Simeon Bavier, enthused was, "A triumph of art and science, a monument to work and diligence! The barrier which divided nations has fallen, the [Swiss Alps] have been breached. Countries have moved closer to each other, the world market is open!".

The Gotthard Base Tunnel overtakes Japan's 53.8 kilometer (33.4 mile) Seikan Tunnel as the world's longest and is the deepest, running some 2.3 kilometers (1.4 miles) underground at its maximum depth.

Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, but had a strong turnout from EU political leaders as the tunnel is a key shortcut for traffic in the region.

(Photo: www.swisstravelsystem.com)

"Switzerland leaves Germany looking old," was the headline in Die Welt newspaper in Germany, Swissinfo reported.

By finishing the Gotthard Tunnel on time, "a small country has shown how to achieve something great", alluding to the never-ending construction of Berlin's new airport.

Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted, "Little Switzerland has once again put the rest of Europe to shame with its professionalism." The country had proved "there is no law of nature according to which costs for large construction projects must multiply".

The Swiss Berner Zeitung wrote of the symbolism of a structure that brings European countries closer together "at a time when Switzerland's relationship with the EU has never been so open and unclear."

It said the main reason for the tunnel is getting freight off roads and onto rail tracks, "but this shift will only work if our neighbours keep their side of the bargain."

The Nordwestschweiz also focused on the European Union. "Switzerland opened the new tunnel yesterday with plenty of self-confidence.

"It should look after its interests with Europe with the same self-confidence  not only concerning the approach routes to the tunnel, but also our bilateral relations and the rules of immigration."

Switzerland's fame may be relatively short-lived, however, The Irish Times reported.

Austria's 64-kilometer (39.75 miles) Brenner Base tunnel is set to open in 2026. And a proposed 80-kilometer (50 mile) underground train link connecting Helsinki in Finland and Tallin in Estonia is awaiting approval.

And then China says it plans to build a 123-kilometre (76 mile) tunnel underneath the Bohai straits to reduce journey times between the port cities of Dalian and Yantai from eight hours to 45 minutes.
Considered to be the Ten Best UFO Photos Ever Taken I am sure that we could add more pictures to this list but these are considered ten o...
In addition to data appearing in Education Week, the EdWeek Research Center produces stand-alone studies featuring the results of original surveys and data analyses. Topics have included the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on educator morale, educational technology, and early reading instruction.
To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020.
Class of TT 2016 join forces with police for charity

TT stars of 2016 have joined forces with the police in a bid to raise money for local charities.

They've signed an iconic white police helmet which will be raffled off at the TT prize presentation night on June 10th.

Tickets can be purchased from local police stations and the '38th Milestone' shop behind the TT Grandstand - money raised will go to the TT Riders Association and the ACU Benevolent Fund.

Inspector Derek Flint says it's a 'one off' opportunity:

Media

Derek Flint
Doreen Massey (1944-2016), the feminist geographer who passed away recently, rued that space was always treated like a residual category in the social sciences. The time has come to engage with her multidimensional oeuvre and reclaim space as a strictly political category.

The centrality of politics in Doreen Masseys intellectual and institutional life makes her a scholar extraordinaire. Her work, spanning nearly half a century, combined academics and activism in an exemplary manner. Massey belonged to the generation of Marxist scholars in the United Kingdom who enlivened the intellectual debates in the 1970s. She was born to parents with little formal education in Manchester in 1944 and as a gifted student went to the St Hughs College at Oxford. In her professional academic life she remained the professor of geography at the Open University in London from 1982 to 2009 and as an emeritus professor until her death in March 2016.

Not Belonging
CHICAGO : Louis C. Argenta, MD, FACS, received the 2016 Jacobson Innovation Award of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) at a dinner held in his honor this evening in Chicago, Ill. Dr. Argenta is professor and chairman emeritus, department of plastic and reconstructive surgery, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, N.C. The prestigious Jacobson Innovation Award honors living surgeons who have been innovators of a new development or technique in any field of surgery and is made possible through a gift from Julius H. Jacobson II, MD, FACS, and his wife Joan. Dr. Jacobson is a general vascular surgeon known for his pioneering work in the development of microsurgery.



Dr. Argenta, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), was honored with this international surgical award in recognition of his work with Wake Forest bioengineer Michael Morykwas, PhD, in the development of Vacuum-Assisted Closure (VAC), a paradigm-changing approach to the treatment of difficult wounds and burns.



VAC, which utilizes negative pressure wound therapy, is widely recognized as the most important advancement in wound healing in the past 25 years. By clinically applying a controlled vacuum through a special device to a wound, the body can be induced to develop new tissue and wounds that previously could not heal are made to heal spontaneously.



VAC is estimated to have prevented one million amputations and has been used in the treatment of over 14 million patients around the world. It has been used by U.S. military medical personnel for almost all battlefield injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan, dramatically reducing wound infection and complications, and significantly improving the outcomes of wounded soldiers.



Dr. Argenta is an internationally recognized expert in mechanobiology--the application of controlled mechanical energy to induce biological changes in living tissue--and its applications in clinical medicine. He helped develop and popularize the surgical technique of tissue expansion to generate living tissue for reconstruction. Tissue expansion is now used throughout the world for complicated breast, facial, and scalp reconstructions.



The work of Dr. Argenta has also been instrumental in allowing infants with skull deformities to develop normally while avoiding major cranial surgery. In 1995, Dr. Argenta and Lisa Renee David, MD, FACS, recognized that children who remained in one position while sleeping on their back developed skull deformities due to the mechanical force placed on the malleable neonatal skull. Drs. Argenta and David demonstrated that the resulting deformity could be corrected with helmet therapy rather than a surgical procedure because there was not a true bony fusion in the skull.



Dr. Argenta has published over 280 clinical articles and book chapters. He has trained numerous surgeons who have gone on to practice throughout the world, and he has delivered more than 500 presentations at national and international meetings.



Throughout his career, Dr. Argenta has received numerous awards, including the 2015 Wake Forest University Medallion of Merit Award, the 2013 American Association of Plastic Surgeons Achievement Award for Clinical Research, and the Plastic Surgery Foundation 2012 Outstanding Achievement in Basic and Translational Research Award, among many others.



Note to Editors: A photo of Dr. Argenta is available on request from the ACS Office of Public Information as of Monday, June 6. Email: pressinquiry@facs.org.



About Louis C. Argenta, MD, FACS

Born in Detroit, Mich. to Italian immigrant parents, Louis C. Argenta studied zoology and chemistry earning a bachelor of science degree from the University of Michigan before going on to earn his medical doctorate (MD) at the University of Michigan School of Medicine. After a surgical internship at Michigan, Dr. Argenta served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, during which time he attained the rank of Lt. Commander. After three years of military service, Dr. Argenta returned to the University of Michigan where he completed a general surgery residency under the aegis of transplant surgeon Jeremiah Turcotte, MD, FACS, and a plastic surgery residency under William C. Grabb, MD, followed by a highly coveted craniofacial surgery fellowship working with Dr. Paul Tessier at Foch Hospital, Paris, France.



Dr. Argenta returned to the U.S., serving on the University of Michigan surgical faculty for seven years, and rising to the rank of associate professor and interim head of the section of plastic surgery until 1988. He next accepted an invitation to establish a freestanding department of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Wake Forest University as professor and chairman. During his tenure at Wake Forest the department rapidly evolved into one of the leading programs in America. The clinical faculty was greatly expanded and has developed an international reputation for quality and innovation. Although Dr. Argenta stepped down from the position of Howell Professor and Chairman at Wake Forest in 2008, he continues to be academically active and devotes two days weekly to research and one month annually to overseas surgical work.



Dr. Argenta has been married to Ginger Argenta for 48 years. The have eight children, three of whom work in medicine. For the past 20 years they have traveled extensively with their children throughout the world and provided medical care to the medically underserved. The family has established and continues to support multiple hospitals, clinics and orphanages in developing nations.



About the American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for all surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 80,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. For more information, visit http://www.facs.org.



View a list of all Jacobson Innovation Award Recipients.

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AN expandable tube that unblocks the bowel before surgery could lead to fewer cancer patients -- diagnosed as emergencies -- needing a colostomy bag. The Cancer Research UK-funded CReST trial presented at the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago today (Sunday)* found that less than half (45 per cent) of those who had their bowel unblocked by the tube, which uses body heat to expand, needed a colostomy bag.

But more than two-thirds (69 per cent) of those who had emergency surgery to remove the tumour and the blockage were fitted with bags. Around 41,100 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year in the UK with up to 20 per cent diagnosed as emergencies -- with some of these patients having their bowel blocked by the tumour.

One in six of those diagnosed need emergency surgery to relieve the blockage, but this is more likely than planned surgery to lead to complications such as needing a colostomy bag or spending time in intensive care after the surgery. The risk of death is also higher for emergency surgery -- around 12 per cent compared with two per cent for planned surgery.

In the study almost 250 bowel cancer patients who were diagnosed as emergencies with blocked bowels were divided into two groups and either had emergency surgery or the expanding tube -- also known as a stent -- followed by surgery between one to four weeks later.

The expanding tube worked in 82 per cent of cases and patients who had it survived as long as those who didn't.

Doctors insert an endoscope -- a small camera -- into the bowel which guides the tube to the tumour and helps place it through any remaining gap in the blocked bowel. When inserted the tube is just three millimetres wide but expands in response to the heat of the body over 48 hours to become two and a half centimetres wide -- about eight times larger. This pushes the bowel open and allows the contents of the bowel to pass.

Trial lead Professor James Hill, from the Central Manchester University Hospitals, said: "Traditionally doctors have worried that unblocking the bowel in this way could increase the chance of cancer spreading, but our early results don't show this. We're also pleased to see that this could be a way of reducing the risk of patients needing a colostomy bag after their surgery - which is a huge improvement to patients' day-to-day lives. "These are early results and we'll need to follow-up our work for three years in full to find out if this technique affects survival and end-of-life care for bowel cancer patients."

Martin Ledwick, Cancer Research UK's head information nurse, said: "This treatment isn't suitable for everyone, but for those who are it could have a huge impact on their lives after surgery. Not needing a colostomy bag is likely to significantly improve the quality of life of patients. If longer term follow up and larger studies confirm these results it is great news for bowel cancer patients who come to A&E with bowel blockages."

###

For media enquiries contact Emily Head in the Cancer Research UK press office on 020-3469-6189 or, out of hours, on 07050-264-059.

Notes to editor:

More information about the CReST trial available here: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/find-a-clinical-trial/a-trial-looking-at-relieving-a-blockage-caused-by-suspected-bowel-cancer-with-a-tube-inside-the-bowel and here: http://abstract.asco.org/176/AbstView_176_169602.html

About Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.

Cancer Research UK's pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives.

Cancer Research UK receives no government funding for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on every pound donated.

Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival in the UK double in the last forty years.

Today, 2 in 4 people survive their disease for 10 years or more after a cancer diagnosis. Cancer Research UK's ambition is to accelerate progress so that by 2034, 3 in 4 people will survive their disease for 10 years or more after a cancer diagnosis.

Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.

Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.

For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 0300-123-1022 or visit http://www.cancerresearchuk.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
HAVING radiotherapy once a day for six and a half weeks or twice a day for three weeks -- when combined with chemotherapy -- is equally good at treating small cell lung cancer that hasn't spread.

These results -- from a Cancer Research UK-funded clinical trial presented at the ASCO cancer conference today (Sunday) -- mean patients and doctors can choose together which treatment suits them best.

The CONVERT clinical trial* -- the largest trial ever completed in this group of patients -- looked to find the best way** of giving radiotherapy alongside chemotherapy for patients with small cell lung cancer.

The trial also found that small cell lung cancer patients live longer and with fewer side effects than previous studies suggested which is likely to be because of the modern radiotherapy techniques used.

Around 550 patients from around the world were split into two groups -- one receiving radiotherapy twice a day over three weeks and the other once a day at a higher dose over six and a half weeks. All patients also had chemotherapy.

Scientists from the University of Manchester and the Christie Hospital with others in France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and Canada compared survival and side effects for both groups.

They found that survival in both groups was similar with 56 per cent of patients who had radiotherapy twice a day surviving for two years compared with 51 per cent of those given it once a day.

Importantly, the majority of side effects from radiotherapy were similar in both groups, apart from neutropenia -- weakening of the immune system - which happened more often in twice daily treatment group (in 74 per cent of the patients who had twice daily radiotherapy compared with 65 per cent of the once daily group).

The trial results support the use of either once daily or twice daily radiotherapy with chemotherapy as standard treatment for small cell lung cancer that hasn't spread. This means that individual patients' treatment can be planned with their doctor according to what works best for them and their hospital.

Previously there was no agreed dose for giving radiotherapy once or twice a day, but this trial has identified the best amounts as 66 grays once a day and 45 grays twice a day.

Although the trial will still be followed up for the full five years, the results have already changed clinical practice within the UK and internationally.

Professor Corinne Faivre-Finn, trial lead and Cancer Research UK-funded scientist from the University of Manchester and the Christie, said: "Before this study it was unclear whether having radiotherapy once or twice a day helped more patients survive for longer and what level of side effects was expected with modern radiotherapy techniques.

"We're pleased to provide answers to these questions and our results have already begun to change practice around the world. Based on our findings, small cell lung cancer patients will be able to choose between a shorter course of radiotherapy given twice a day and a longer course given once a day."

Jane Jepson, a 51 year-old grandmother from Southport, who took part in the CONVERT trial four years ago and had radiotherapy twice a day for three weeks, said: "It's great to hear the good news from this trial, and I'm really pleased to have been involved in something that will change how other patients like me are treated. I was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer in August 2012 -- I was initially admitted to hospital with a kidney infection but an X-ray showed something on my lung.

"Since my treatment I have got married, my granddaughter has turned four and I've got another grandchild on the way. I shouldn't be here really but I am, and I'm eternally grateful to everyone involved in my treatment."

Dr Ian Walker, Cancer Research UK's director of clinical research, said: "Finding the most appropriate way to give treatments like radiotherapy is a crucial part of treating cancer. Before this study began there had been few large clinical trials of this type in small cell lung cancer. "Outcomes for lung cancers have been very poor for a long time, so at Cancer Research UK we're dramatically increasing the amount we're spending on research in this area, and we're delighted that the CONVERT trial is making a real difference in how we treat these patients."

The cancer strategy for England called for national funding to urgently update and replace outdated radiotherapy equipment, but the Government and NHS England are yet to commit to this.

###

For media enquiries contact Emily Head in the Cancer Research UK press office on 020-3469-6189 or, out of hours, on 07050-264-059.

Notes to editor:

More information about the CONVERT trial available here: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/find-a-clinical-trial/a-study-to-find-the-best-way-to-give-radiotherapy-for-people-with-small-cell-lung-cancer and: http://abstract.asco.org/176/AbstView_176_165387.html

** Usually small cell lung cancer patients are given a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to treat the disease, but some patients have radiotherapy once a day for six and a half weeks while others have it twice daily for three weeks. The dose is also not clear for radiotherapy once or twice a day.

About Cancer Research UK

Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.

Cancer Research UK's pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives.

Cancer Research UK receives no government funding for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on every pound donated.

Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival in the UK double in the last forty years.

Today, 2 in 4 people will still be alive 10 years or more after a cancer diagnosis. Cancer Research UK's ambition is to accelerate progress so that by 2034, 3 in 4 people will still be alive 10 years or more after a cancer diagnosis.

Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.

Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.

For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 0300 123 1022 or visit http://www.cancerresearchuk.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
CLEVELAND: Researchers from University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine will present data from several new studies, including a study that built an online tool used to estimate individualized survival for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GBM), at the 52nd American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago. ASCO 2016, held June 3-7, will be attended by 30,000 oncology professionals from around the world.

Jill Barnholtz-Sloan, PhD, Associate Director for Bioinformatics, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and Associate Director for Translational Informatics, Institute for Computational Biology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, will present data from a study aimed at building and independently validating a nomogram to estimate individualized survival probabilities for patients with newly diagnosed GBM, using data from two independent NRG Oncology/Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) clinical trials. GBM is one of the most common and fatal forms of primary brain cancer, and current options for outcome prediction in patients with glioblastomas are based on inexact measures that can make therapeutic decision-making a challenge.

"Clinically there is a utility to arming physicians with a way to discuss survivability with patients," says Dr. Barnholtz-Sloan, who is also Associate Professor at the School of Medicine. "Survival is a common question that glioblastoma patients pose to their doctors, and this tool will help doctors to have answers for their patients."

In order to make this tool easy to use and clinically accessible, Dr. Barnholtz-Sloan and a team of researchers have established an easy to use online tool for assessment of individualized survival probabilities (at 6, 12, and 24 months) for patients with newly diagnosed GBM. The online tool can be found at: http://cancer4.case.edu/rCalculator/rCalculator.html

Also at ASCO 2016, Michael K. Gibson, MD, PhD, is co-investigator in an oral presentation on findings related to a promising new treatment for patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) after platinum and cetuximab failure. The research team presented preliminary data from a national study - KEYNOTE-055 - showing that pembrolizumab may benefit patients with this aggressive form of cancer, for which current treatments have limited efficacy.

Dr. Gibson is a medical oncologist with UH Seidman Cancer Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Neal Meropol, MD, will present an education session titled "Are Clinical Trials Right for Me? Creating an Online Decision-Making Tool for Patients". Dr. Meropol will discuss shared decision-making in the care of patients as a strategy to increase participation in and knowledge about cancer clinical trials.

"Although clinical trials are the key to developing new, better cancer treatments, very few cancer patients participate in them," says Dr. Meropol, Chief of Hematology and Oncology at UH Seidman Cancer Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "To increase participation, we need to improve patients' knowledge and attitudes, and better facilitate treatment decision-making."

"The studies our faculty members are presenting at ASCO illustrate the remarkable advances in oncology taking place at our clinical and research centers," says Stan Gerson, MD, Director of UH Seidman Cancer Center and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve. "These studies are representative of the tremendous level of innovation each researcher brings to their respective fields."

Presentations by UH Researchers at ASCO 2016 include:

Individualizing Care for Older Adults Across the Cancer Care Continuum: Emerging Evidence and Collective Wisdom

Predicted benefit of alternative post-treatment surveillance strategies in stage II and III colon cancer survivors

Preliminary Results from KEYNOTE-055: Pembrolizumab after Platinum and Cetuximab Failure in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC)

Randomized phase II study of cisplatin and etoposide versus temozolomide and capecitabine in patients (pts) with advanced G3 non-small cell gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine carcinomas (GEPNEC): A trial of the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (EA2142)

An independently validated nomogram for individualized estimation of survival among patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma: NRG oncology/RTOG 0525 and 0825

Opportunities for Collective Decision-Making in Clinical Practice

HCRN GU14-188: Neoadjuvant pembrolizumab (P) and gemcitabine (G) with or without cisplatin (C) in muscle invasive urothelial cancer (MIUC)

Predictors of unplanned hospitalizations among older adults receiving cancer chemotherapy

Complex association between social support and chemotherapy-related toxicities in older cancer patients

Phase I/II study of niraparib plus pembrolizumab in patients with triple-negative breast cancer or recurrent ovarian cancer

Education Session: Cynthia Owusu, MD, MSPresentation: Assessing and Minimizing Functional Decline During and After ChemotherapyJune 4 8:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m., McCormick Place, S103Abstract 3623: Johnie Rose, MD, PhDPoster Session: Gastrointestinal (Colorectal) CancerJune 4, 8:00 - 11:30 a.m., Hall AAbstract 6011: Michael Gibson, MD, PhDSession: Clinical Science Symposium: Harnessing the Immune System in Head and Neck Cancer: Evolving Standards in Metastatic DiseaseJune 4, 8:00 - 11:30 a.m., Hall AAbstract TPS4149: Jennifer Eads, MDPoster Session: June 4, 8:00 - 11:30 a.m., Hall AAbstract 2007: Jill Barnholtz-Sloan, PhDOral Abstract Session: Central Nervous System TumorsJune 5, 8:00 - 11:00 a.m., S100aEducation session: Neal Meropol, MDPresentation: Are Clinical Trials Right for Me? Creating an Online Decision-Making Tool for PatientsJune 5, 11:30 - 11:50 a.m., S404Abstract TPS4578: Chris Hoimes, DOPoster Session: Genitourinary (Nonprostate) CancerJune 6, 1:00 - 4:30 p.m., Hall AAbstract 10057: Cynthia Owusu, MD, MSPoster Session: Patient and Survivor CareJune 6, 1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., Hall AAbstract 10036: Cynthia Owusu, MD, MSPoster Session: Patient and Survivor CareJune 6, 1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., Hall AAbstract TPS5599: Shaveta Vinayak, MDPoster Session: Gynecologic CancerJune 6, 1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., Hall A

###

About University Hospitals

Founded in May 1866, University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of 18 hospitals, more than 40 outpatient health centers and primary care physician offices in 15 counties throughout Northeast Ohio. At the core of our $4 billion health system is University Hospitals Case Medical Center, ranked among America's best hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. The primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, UH Case Medical Center is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research programs in the nation, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopaedics, radiology, neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, digestive health, transplantation and genetics. Its main campus includes UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University. UH is the second largest employer in Northeast Ohio with 26,000 employees. For more information, go to http://www.UHhospitals.org.
Its not for nothing that Discovery Institutes Center for Science & Culture is called that. Ideas about nature and about culture  the way we live, how we think about right and wrong, about meaning in life  go together, inextricably.

Scientism is the notion that science can tell us everything we need to know about ethics and about how to order a flourishing society. Another view is that nature itself represents merely the fulfillment of a design conceived outside the material world. In this latter perspective, rather than imagining that science  a limited, human endeavor  can inform us in all things, we reasonably seek the guidance of the intelligent source of natures design.

In an essay in The Human Life Review, historian Richard Weikart offers a case in point. He asks, Does Science Sanction Euthanasia or Physician-Assisted Suicide? (You can download the entire issue of the journal for free, here.) Eugenic thinking, we know, has its roots in 19th-century evolutionary science. Less familiar is the extent to which advocacy for euthanasia, mercy killing, shares these Darwinian origins. Thats the theme of Dr. Weikarts fascinating article. (For more see Weikarts new book, The Death of Humanity: And the Case for Life.)

It goes back, not surprisingly, to Haeckel:

In Germany the first serious proposal to kill people with disabilities came from Ernst Haeckel, a leading Darwinian biologist. In the 1870 edition of his popular book on biological evolution, The Natural History of Creation, he proposed killing infants with disabilities. He worried that modern medicine and humanitarianism would allow the weak and sick to survive to reproduce, thus subverting humanitys evolutionary progress. To prevent such an outcome, he suggested various eugenics proposals, including infanticide. By 1904, Haeckel was publicly supporting the killing of disabled adults. He thought decisions on who should be killed should be left to the physicians, not the patients.

These ideas found their way to England:

In 1870, the same year as Haeckels book, Samuel D. Williams wrote an essay entitled Euthanasia for the Essays of the Birmingham Speculative Club, setting off the British debate over euthanasia. Despite the journals small circulation, Williams essay attracted attention and provoked discussion in other British journals in the 1870s. Like Haeckel, Williams wished to replace the Judeo-Christian sanctity-of-life ethic with a secular, scientific ethic. Both men stressed euthanasias beneficial role in the evolutionary struggle for existence. Williams pointed out that the struggle for survival in nature results in the continuous crushing out of the weak, and the consequent maintenance of what is called the vigour of the race.'

From there it was an easy leap across the Atlantic to the United States. Other scholars acknowledge the role of Darwinism in making this possible:

What brought about this shift  a minority shift, but very significant nonetheless  in thinking about suicide, assisted suicide, and killing the disabled in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? Ian Dowbiggin and Nick Kemp in their fine studies of the history of the euthanasia movement in the United States and Britain, respectively, both emphasize the role of secularization in general and Darwinian theory in particular in mediating this transformation. Dowbiggin states, Trends such as eugenics, positivism, social Darwinism, and scientific naturalism had the effect of convincing a small yet articulate group in the early twentieth century that traditional ethics no longer applied to decisions about death and dying. He concludes, The most pivotal turning point in the early history of the euthanasia movement was the coming of Darwinism to America.

Nazi Germany drew inspiration from the American example. Weikart chillingly recalls how under the Third Reich, The physicians and staff at Hadamar were so enthusiastic about their mass murder of those with disabilities that they threw a party celebrating the death of their ten-thousandth victim. By the end of World War II, the figure had reach 200,000 murdered.

Killing the disabled, not merely sterilizing them, has made a comeback since then, as our other colleague Wesley Smith voluminously documents. And the overall project is still justified in Darwinian terms  Richard Dawkins, notes Weikart, has dismissed the pro-life position as deeply un-evolutionary.' About that, at least, Dawkins is right.

The picture of human life as cosmic flotsam not only should permit but should positively demand a cavalier attitude to taking life, where eliminating the weak and vulnerable suits societys other purposes. On the other hand, recognizing that a human being  or indeed even a gorilla  reflects a designers creative purpose implies a very different view.

Everything in ethics, every single weighty cultural issue I can think of, hinges on the question of biological origins. The stakes are tremendous for us, whether as individuals or as a society. Why more pro-life advocates have not recognized this  or if they recognized it, fail to emphasize it  is a good question.

Photo: Gas chamber, Hadamar Euthanasia Center, by Frank Winkelmann [GFDL or CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
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The Swiss Franc to South African Rand exchange rate (CHF ZAR) as of 26 Oct 2022 at 1:59 AM.

Save 3-5% on your Swiss Francs to South African Rands money transfer today

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Exchange Rate Today for CHF to ZAR Below you can see the chart for the South African Rand rate today compared to the Swiss Franc. 1 CHF = 18.3102 ZAR 1 Swiss Francs = 18.3102 South African Rands The CHFZAR rate as of 26 Oct 2022 at 1:59 AM 1 CHF to ZAR IntraDay Range: 18.3066 - 18.3117 Convert CHF to ZAR 1 5 10 50 100 500 18.31 91.55 183.1 915.51 1831.02 9155.1 INVERT currencies?

See INVERT currencies? South African Rands to Swiss Francs See Live CHF to ZAR rate data, statistics, full historical charts and exchange rate comparisons

Historical Charts & Data for Swiss-Francs to South-African-Rands The best CHF to ZAR rate over a historical period can be determined using the history chart and prices below: Chart: 7D | 1M | 3M | 6M | 9M | 1Y Tuesday 25 October 2022 1 CHF = 18.3107 ZAR Monday 24 October 2022 1 CHF = 18.4175 ZAR Sunday 23 October 2022 1 CHF = 18.0745 ZAR Saturday 22 October 2022 1 CHF = 18.1274 ZAR Friday 21 October 2022 1 CHF = 18.1292 ZAR Thursday 20 October 2022 1 CHF = 18.2317 ZAR Wednesday 19 October 2022 1 CHF = 18.2148 ZAR For full history please visit CHF/ZAR exchange rate history page

To convert Swiss Francs to South African Rands or determine the Swiss Franc South African Rand exchange rate simply use the currency converter on the right of this page, which offers fast live exchange rate conversions today!

Q: What is the Swiss Franc worth against the South African Rand? A: One Swiss Franc is worth 18.3102 South African Rands today

Q: Is the Swiss Franc going up or down against the South African Rand? A: Today's exchange rate (18.3102) is lower compared to yesterday's rate (18.3107).

Q: What is 50 Swiss Francs in South African Rands? A: 50 Swiss Francs buys 915.51 South African Rands at interbank exchange rates.

Handy Conversion Data Table

Swiss-Francs to South-African-Rands South-African-Rands to Swiss-Francs 1 CHF 18.3102 ZAR 1 ZAR 0.0546 CHF 2 CHF 36.6204 ZAR 2 ZAR 0.1092 CHF 5 CHF 91.551 ZAR 5 ZAR 0.2731 CHF 10 CHF 183.1021 ZAR 10 ZAR 0.5461 CHF 15 CHF 274.6531 ZAR 15 ZAR 0.8192 CHF 20 CHF 366.2041 ZAR 20 ZAR 1.0923 CHF 25 CHF 457.7552 ZAR 25 ZAR 1.3654 CHF 50 CHF 915.5103 ZAR 50 ZAR 2.7307 CHF 100 CHF 1831.0207 ZAR 100 ZAR 5.4614 CHF 500 CHF 9155.1034 ZAR 500 ZAR 27.3072 CHF 1000 CHF 18310.2067 ZAR 1000 ZAR 54.6143 CHF 2500 CHF 45775.5169 ZAR 2500 ZAR 136.5359 CHF 5000 CHF 91551.0337 ZAR 5000 ZAR 273.0717 CHF 10000 CHF 183102.0674 ZAR 10000 ZAR 546.1435 CHF

Latest South African Rand News, Predictions and Forecasts from Our News Team

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The 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse that killed 13 people and the recent lead water crisis in Flint, Michigan show shocking evidence of the nations decaying infrastructure.

The Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C. think tank, published a 100-plus-page report last month that presented some stark truths on the U.S. infrastructure system.

The nation needs an estimated $2 trillion to update existing highways, mass transit, ports, schools, utilities, civic buildings, railroads and waterways, the report said. Government funding capacity can only address about half the amount. The other $1 trillion must come from somewhere else. Theres basically only one apparent alternative source - the private sector.

The old system of local, state and federal governments planning projects and funding them with bonds or public funds is as outdated as much of the nations infrastructure is.

Many local and state government have spending caps they must observe by law, said former San Antonio Mayor and ex-U.S. Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros, who sits on executive council on infrastructure at the Policy Center. To bring in private capital, a profit motive must be incorporated as public-private projects are planned.

Under the new vision outlined in the council report, laws in some states must be updated to allow private companies to participate in public-oriented projects. The report advocates that all states set up new offices aimed at creating public-private partnerships so that projects can be financed in a combination of profit-making private investments and limited government funding.

The private-sector opportunities could be enormous. The immediate red flag many people will see in this, especially in San Antonio, is the hated specter of toll roads. Yes, that is part of this, Cisneros said, noting that toll roads have wide acceptance in other parts of the nation, and even in the Dallas and Houston areas.

Projects with private participation must be financed with revenues that can be derived by the projects themselves. The projects pose risks, and the private sector wont enter the financial picture unless there are rewards.

For example, a new or modernized airport can generate revenue for the private-sector partners through landing fees. A seaport that dredges a deeper channel to accommodate larger container ships, the bigger ones that now can pass through the widened Panama Canal, can charge higher docking fees.

The construction costs still would trickle down to the public as much as the old, government-only system does with tax revenues. Higher landing fees means more expensive airline tickets. Docking fees would factor into product prices. Toll roads are the price of less traffic congestion.

Cisneros naturally advocates for this shift in financing. Since he was a City Council member in the 1970s and as mayor in the 1980s, he always said the questions should be: Who pays? Who benefits?

With private-sector participation, the users and consumers who benefit more precisely are the ones who pay. Old-style taxation can ding people who dont necessary benefit.

With better cooperation between the public and private sectors, especially in the planning stages, costs over the life cycle of infrastructure projects can be reduced, the councils report states.

In the old system, a contractor in a publicly funded project might use cheap materials that would require more maintenance later by the government operators, such as for civic buildings. With private participation, better materials would be used to reduce maintenance costs later because that is when the profits would materialize.

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San Antonio has experienced versions of public-private partnerships before. Cisneros recalled the private landowners who donated land for State Highway 151 in West San Antonio. The state built the highway, which made SeaWorld San Antonio possible, along with hotels and office buildings.

The policy council Cisneros belongs to did not disband with its report next month. Cisneros reports that he is one of four council members who will continue to work on financing water system improvements and expansions nationally. The other council members are American Water CEO and President Susan Story, former Texas congressman Steve Bartlett and Suzanne Shank, Siebert Brandford Shank & Co. LLC CEO and president.

Cisneros added he believes that infrastructure will be a top priority of the next U.S. president. Democrat frontrunner Hillary Clinton has a $250 billion infrastructure plan, he said, while the presumed Republican candidate, Donald Trump, is a builder. He grew up in the construction industry.

This is something we need to think about, Cisneros said. We could be coming into a golden age of infrastructure construction, one that would create jobs.

dhendricks@express-news.net
COLUMBUS, Ohio  Ohio stands on the brink of becoming the 25th state to legalize medical marijuana, but workers who use the drug even during off hours and under a doctors prescription will risk losing their job and may not be able to collect unemployment insurance.

The many restrictions of House Bill 523, passed by the General Assembly last week, have raised questions about how accommodating employers will be toward workers with serious illnesses who are prescribed marijuana for pain.

Not only are workplaces allowed under the legislation to enforce policies that regulate drug activity, including use of marijuana, but marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

About 80 percent of Ohio employers have policies designed to ensure their workplaces are drug free, and those employers are under no mandate to change those policies once HB 523 is fully implemented.

Employers can still have drug-free workplace policies, said Karen Pierce, managing director of Working Partners in suburban Columbus, which works with companies on drug safety programs. They can be zero tolerance and terminate someone who tests positive.

Pierces advice to workers who may want to use doctor-recommended medical marijuana? Check your workplace policies and with your employer before you start.

And she has some advice for employers, too: Make sure your drug-free workplace policy is clear and follows state and federal law, educate your workers, train your supervisors, implement drug testing and offer assistance to workers who need it.

There is going to be some confusion, I would think, for both employers and employees, Pierce said. So that employee education is going to be incredibly important. There is going to be confusion about What Im allowed to do outside of work? versus What Im allowed to do at work? and those lines can be pretty blurred.

The legislation was designed to head off a more expansive ballot issue, and in that sense it may already have succeeded.

Ohioans for Medical Marijuana, which was trying to collect 306,000 valid voter signatures by July 6, announced that it was suspending the campaign.

The reality is that raising funds for medical marijuana policy changes is incredibly difficult, especially given the improvements made to the proposed program by the Ohio General Assembly and the fact that the governor is expected to sign the bill, campaign manager Brandon Lynaugh said in a statement.

The proposed constitutional amendment was much less restrictive than the state bill, though the workplace language in the amendment itself was relatively thin. The amendment may not be construed to regulate or affect the employment relationship between an employer and a (medicinal marijuana) cardholder, create a cause of action against a private employer, or affect eligibility for benefits under an insurance program or policy, a summary of the amendment stated.

In the legislation, protection for employers was made much more explicit.

Christopher J. Lalak, a labor and employment attorney with Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff in Cleveland, said employers not only are allowed to enforce their drug-free workplace policies under the bill, but workers fired for violating those policies wont be able to sue their employer  even if the marijuana was prescribed by a doctor and used during off-work time.

Dismissing an employee for violating the drug policy is considered just cause and the worker then doesnt qualify for unemployment benefits, Lalak said.

Employees who test positive for medical marijuana following a workplace injury may not get workers compensation benefits either, Lalak said, though the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration issued an advisory May 12 that discourages blanket drug testing following workplace injuries.

OSHAs concern is that such practices could lead to an underreporting of injuries.

Lalak said the confusing and conflicting laws require a thorough policy review in Ohio.

Employees should absolutely be checking with their employers, he said. Employers should really be taking a look at their policies as well.

Experts say confusion in the workplace is inevitable if Ohio legalizes medical pot.

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It may affect turnover rates or hiring because of confusion, said Jen Erb, president of the Human Resources Association of Central Ohio. Workers might be confused and ask, What is the law?

Erb said issues might arise if job candidates or employees misinterpret the meaning of the bill. Thats where the importance of a detailed workplace drug policy comes in, she said.

There might be more confusion in what employees think they can do, she said. They might think, Now, I can smoke marijuana any time or off duty.' Then they try to get a job or go to their current job and violate drug policy. Its because they dont have an understanding of what the policy is.

Kevin Burch, president of Jet Express, a Dayton-based trucking company, led the Dayton Regional Employers Against Marijuana Coalition during the November 2015 elections. His concerns about workplace safety havent changed, he said.

Its estimated that 1 million professional truck drivers will be needed in the next 10 years, he said. Were an aging workforce. Were going through a major shortage of skilled workers, and it only makes it harder to find qualified professional drivers when there is marijuana use.

Burch said the trucking industry has worked to reduce drug-related accidents in the past 10 years. Federal regulations prohibit substance use among drivers, which is enforced by random drug testing.

Burch said his truckers are mandated by federal law to test drug-free, and that wont change because of any state law in Ohio.

Whatever the state comes up with, it makes no difference, he said. Weve had drivers who go out to Colorado for vacation, and ask, Can I smoke? If you get pulled out for a random drug test, your job is in jeopardy.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich will carefully consider House Bill 523 in deciding whether to sign it into law, Kasich spokesman Joe Andrews said late last week.

The bill identifies some 20 diseases and conditions in which people could be legally prescribed marijuana in edible, oil or plant form for vaporization. Smoking would not be permitted.
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POPLAR GROVE, Ill.  The stallion kicked out, nostrils flaring.

In the ring, it faced off against a 32-year-old former infantryman.

Months ago, Mitchell Reno was sitting in a hotel room with a half-gallon of vodka and dark plans.

But this April afternoon found him serenely still as a stallion kicked up sawdust in an arena in Poplar Grove.

Slashes across the horses heaving belly and back revealed fights in the Wyoming wild.

The horse zeroed in on Reno, who wrestles with PTSD and knows a thing or two about scars, the kind you can see and the kind you cant.

Whenever I get in the ring, its just me and the horse, said Reno, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003. Nothing else matters.

An explosion in Iraq left him with a traumatic brain injury, ending the Texas natives military career.

Mustangs help him in a way, he said, that years of therapy, medication and turning to alcohol couldnt.

Reno and the mustangs are part of BraveHearts, the countrys largest free equine-assisted services program for veterans, says Meggan Hill-McQueeney, BraveHearts president.

Re-acclimating to life after combat isnt easy. Finding a footing takes time. Many veterans struggle with battlefield injuries  physical and mental.

Reliance on medication and alcohol can lead to addiction. And deployment experience doesnt always translate to civilian employment, which only adds to the strain for veterans and their families.

Many veterans arrive at

BraveHearts after trying medication and therapy. The program provides work and hope for vets who are looking for purpose  a goal to work toward.

Veterans gentle the stallions  themselves traumatized by being relocated  acclimating them to things like saddles and halters.

The veteran doesnt want to change because of what Im telling them, said Patrick McKevitt, BraveHearts director of operations. They want to change because youre going to help the horse. And the horse ends up helping you.

Reno is sober now. He can sleep at night.

But not everything is perfect  its hard to be away from his wife and the kids whose grinning faces fill his iPhone photo stream.

The horses, though, he says, make life worth living.

BraveHearts, serving soldiers since 2007, partners with the federal Bureau of Land Management to corral wild horses from Wyoming in an effort to curb population growth.

Veterans work with the horses, and McKevitt and Hill-McQueeney help them train.

McKevitt and Hill-McQueeney pull people right out of the gutter, says Reno.

The gutter has been a familiar place for Reno. Earlier this year, he was in a downtown hotel room with the half-gallon of vodka, making a noose out of parachute cord.

Hed already used the vodka to swallow his wedding ring. Hed tossed his cross necklace into the Chicago River.

The suicide attempt capped rocky years when he was arrested for assault, divorced twice and often drunk.

I came back, and I hated myself, he said. The pills didnt fix anything. The booze just hid the feelings of guilt.

Reno said he finds calm with the tense, distrustful animals and knows he can help.

I have a lot of the same feelings, he said.

The idea of working with stallions almost seems counterintuitive. Wouldnt the best animals for veterans seeking stability be gentle and reliable?

Hill-McQueeney has found its the wild ones.

Mustangs dont trust humans, said Steve Mantle, who runs a wild horse adoption facility in Wheatland, Wyo.

They dont want anything from you. They were fine on their own, said Mantle, who shared his mustang-training techniques last year at BraveHearts.

The vets maybe come from that same position of needing to trust someone, but not sure they can, he added. So the two meld together.

Reno readily acknowledges that people who knew him years ago would not recognize him today  hes chosen a calmer life and talks openly about his feelings.

Im starting to have a little bit of patience for myself, he said.

Corrine Reno said she saw the difference earlier this month, when the couple saw each other at a horse event BraveHearts attended in Texas.

It was hard and good, she said. Because the man I saw that left, I wouldnt be caught dead in a room with him. And the guy I saw last week was a guy I recognized.

Many advocates hope that bringing veterans to stables will be as common a treatment for PTSD as medications and therapies offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Last year, the House passed a bill to research alternative treatments, including horse therapy.

And in March, during a House Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing addressing opioid prescription and abuse, testimony touched on finding nonpharmacological options  such as equine-assisted rehabilitation.

Back in the arena, McKevitts soft, Irish brogue encouraged Reno.

Gentle, gentle, he repeated. Bring your hand down, but just so. Dont get too close. Youre in the strike zone. Watch his left hoof.

Hes kind of like you, McKevitt said. Hes a tornado.

Two steps forward, one step back. A delicate dance of hoofs and work boots.

After inching close enough to touch Boo-Yahs cheek  a successful moment with a stallion whod only the day before been haltered  Reno climbed the fence, grinning.

He said, I feel like I just had a massage.

You get a sense of peace like no pill they could put down your throat, he said. Im starting to look forward to the next 20 years of my life.
REYNOSA, Mexico  A year ago, 37-year-old Israel Castillo Mendoza lost his well-paying job with an oil company. He landed another job, but it was at half the salary. His wife had to go to work at one of this industrial citys maquiladoras.

Now theyre barely scraping by, and Castillo and his family also must contend with the frequent bursts of drug cartel violence that for years have plagued his community across the border from McAllen.

Fed up, Castillo said that when it comes time to cast his vote for a new governor Sunday, his decision will be simple.

Im voting for the PAN, he said, referring to the conservative National Action Party. Im sure the PAN has its problems, but I believe its leaders will improve the economy, and deal with criminal groups head on.

On Sunday, voters in 12 Mexican states will elect new governors. For the past 86 years, voters in Tamaulipas have chosen the candidate from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. But if recent national polls are any indication, a change could be on the horizon.

Francisco Garcia Cabeza de Vaca of the PAN has been polling slightly ahead of PRI candidate Baltazar Hinojosa Ochoa. In many ways, the close race for governor of Tamaulipas, which shares several hundred miles of border with Texas, reflects the national mood and the dismal approval rating of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

From the moment the campaigns kicked off in early April, the rampant kidnappings, extortion and thousands of disappearances have taken center stage, representing a shift in a state where few have dared speak openly of the violence.

How do we explain to our kids why Tamaulipas is first in kidnappings, one of the worst in the nation for extortion and first in theft of gasoline? Cabeza de Vaca said in McAllen. Theres one explanation: Its due to the bad governments we have had.

Hinojosa, for his part, has acknowledged the problem, but hes having to tread carefully because its his party that has been in power as crime has surged in recent years.

Its wearing to have these types of events, Hinojosa said in Reynosa, referring to a spate of deadly gunfights between the Mexican military and drug cartels. He added, however, that he believes that the military is doing its job.

Cabeza de Vaca counters that the state must rein in those warring factions of the Gulf Cartel and their one-time enforcers, the Zetas, if Tamaulipas is going to be able to attract new investment to improve the economy. His crime-fighting plan includes providing training in Texas for at least 20 percent of the state police force.

Hinojosa has promised to return municipal police forces in Reynosa and other parts of Tamaulipas. The federal government disbanded city police forces in the state over corruption charges. Hinojosa also is calling for the creation of groups of residents, including business and community leaders, similar to others that have been credited with helping to reduce violence in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso.

More details are not forthcoming from Hinojosa; he didnt respond to requests for an interview.

Cabeza de Vaca, 48, was born in McAllen, went to high school there and has touted his bicultural roots. He studied business administration and marketing at Houston Baptist University. Hinojosa, 52, lists Matamoros as his hometown and holds a degree in economics from the Universidad de Monterrey.

Despite the difference between the candidates, there are some similarities. They both were mayors of large border cities  Reynosa and Matamoros, respectively  and both own homes in Texas.

In addition to fighting crime, Cabeza de Vaca has targeted public corruption. By way of example, he denounced the mayor of Reynosa when 120 cartel cameras were discovered positioned in strategic areas of the city.

Theres no way those cameras were installed without the help of a local authority, he said.

Cabeza de Vaca has also hammered at Hinojosas affiliation with former PRI Govs. Tomas Yarrington and Eugenio Hernandez, who face criminal charges in courts in Texas and are fugitives from U.S. justice.

Yarrington has been accused of taking bribes that enabled the Gulf Cartel to smuggle cocaine into the United States, while Hernandez is accused of conspiring to launder monetary instruments. Yarrington was governor between 1999 and 2005, followed by Hernandez, who held the governorship from 2005 to 2010. Both men have denied any wrongdoing.

In response, Hinojosa has accused Cabeza de Vaca of having his own ties to criminal groups in Reynosa.

Observers say a possible democratic transition to another party and the states importance in the energy sector make the gubernatorial race in Tamaulipas an intriguing one to follow. But for residents, security is the most pressing issue.

Kidnapping, this is what people are concerned about, said Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, chairwoman of the government department at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley. Its what they have lived, its what they have paid.

The dangers in Tamaulipas also affect many Texas residents who visit family or do business in the Mexican state, prompting some Texas officials to call for a greater emphasis on security in the state.

The severity of the security situation in Tamaulipas at this point in time is so bad, that this election is critical, said U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela Jr., D-Brownsville. Not only is it critical to those who live on the border, but to U.S.-Mexico relations as a whole.

Even as Cabeza de Vaca has gained momentum on a message of change, many remain unconvinced. And unimpressed.

He says hes going to improve security, but where is his plan, how will it be accomplished? asked Santiago Pena, a 52-year-old manager of a stationery story in Reynosa.

Pena typically votes PRI, and he plans to cast his vote for Hinojosa. The years of turbulence had opened him to the idea of something different, but none of the other candidates managed to convince him that they are capable of real change.

There just arent other options, he said.

anelsen@express-news.net

Twitter/@amnelsen
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This story has been edited to correct the reasoning behind the stance of Fort Hoods commanding general and add his statement.

A migratory songbird that nests only in Central Texas faces too many threats from human destruction of its habitat to take it off the endangered species list, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.

On Thursday, the USFWS denied a petition to delist the golden-cheeked warbler, a 5-inch, black-and-white bird with a bright yellow face.

Every February and March, it flies from wintering grounds in Mexico and Central America to build nests in thick forests of oak and Ashe juniper, also known as cedar, in the Texas Hill Country. It was first listed as endangered in 1990.

A petition to remove the bird, filed last summer by former Texas Comptroller Susan Combs, her political action committee called Texans for Positive Economic Policy, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the libertarian think-tank the Reason Foundation, did not present substantial information that delisting is warranted, the USFWS said.

Habitat destruction, fragmentation and degradation remain a real and significant threat to the continued existence of the warbler, it said, adding that 29 percent of the warblers breeding habitat was lost between 1999 and 2011 as the number of people in its range grew 50 percent from 1999 to 2010.

Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation are mostly driven by rapid suburban development and human population growth in Travis, Williamson, and Bexar counties, the finding states.

A drive on Interstate 10 or U.S. 281 north of San Antonio shows exactly what is happening to the Hill Country, Bexar County Audubon Society President Greg Pasztor said.

Warbler sanctuaries like Government Canyon State Natural Area and Friedrich Wilderness Park are becoming islands as developers bulldoze oak-juniper forests to make room for neighborhoods, he said.

Honestly, I dont see how (the USFWS) could have come to any other conclusion, Pasztor said. If you look at the conditions when it was initially listed as endangered, everythings gotten worse.

In December, the USFWS approved a plan by Bexar County and the city of San Antonio aimed at preserving more warbler habitat. The plan also covers the endangered black-capped vireo and seven cave-dwelling invertebrates.

Under the plan, developers who want to build on warbler habitat can pay $8,000 per acre into a fund to buy conservation land in Bexar, Comal, Blanco, Kendall, Kerr, Bandera and Medina counties. Otherwise, they must continue to seek USFWS approval for projects on a case-by-case basis.

Bexar County spokeswoman Laura Jesse was not able to answer questions Friday about the plans progress.

Around 160 such plans are in place throughout the 35 counties where the warblers breed. Still, these and other voluntary efforts are not enough to stop the destruction, the USFWS said.

Given the projected population growth, the loss of warbler habitat is projected to continue, it said.

Even the legal protections under the Endangered Species Act cannot save the warblers habitat if people fail to link intact Hill Country landscapes with clean water and clean air, Pasztor said. Preserving warbler habitat often comes with the added benefit of protecting the recharge zone of the Edwards Aquifer, the main water source for 2 million people.

If we dont protect those, were going to lose a lot of services that we take for granted, Pasztor said.

In their bid to delist the bird, the petitioners relied on studies that show there are more birds in Texas than scientists originally thought.

Robert Henneke, general counsel and director of the Center for the American Future at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, cited Texas A&M University research that estimated the population of warblers is 19 times higher than biologist thought 25 years ago.

The action of the service to deny the opportunity to fully examine the resurgence of the warbler in light of nonpartisan, academic study strongly indicates that this decision was political, not based on valid scientific nor objective data, he said in a statement.

The USFWS said petitioners used the best available body of science for the number of warblers that may exist in the wild but failed to adequately consider its habitat loss.

Henneke and the petition referred to a June 2015 report by the Texas A&M Institute for Renewable and Natural Resources. That report cited peer-reviewed studies by biologists that expanded their search to private lands with the help of satellite imagery and cooperative landowners.

This is fairly common for a lot of species that are endangered, Texas A&M IRNR director Roel Lopez said. Many times, its when you start to put in effort to look for them that you actually find them.

A campaign finance report filed by Texans for Positive Economic Policy shows the group paid nearly $190,000 to Texas A&M in July 2015 for unpaid incurred obligations. Lopez said the IRNR did not receive funds or specific requests from the PAC.

Combs, a West Texas rancher who served eight years as Texas agricultural commissioner before moving to the comptrollers office from 2007 to 2015, has long opposed federal oversight of endangered species. She gained more control over the issue in 2011 when the Legislature shifted control on federally listed species from Texas Parks and Wildlife to the comptrollers office.

In 2012, Combs and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service jointly approved a plan to keep the West Texas dunes sagebrush lizard off the endangered species list, instead relying on voluntary conservation measures overseen by the Texas Habitat Conservation Foundation.

An August 2015 Austin American-Statesman investigation also found that Fort Hoods public affairs office issued a statement in favor of delisting the warbler hours after mission support director Ron Perry was in contact with Combs and a staffer for Land Commissioner George P. Bush. The statement was attributed to Fort Hood commander Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland. A Combs spokeswoman told the Statesman she wants decisions based on accurate data and not passions.

Fort Hood supports U.S. government efforts to protect the environment and wildlife species on the installation, Fort Hood spokesman Lt. Col. Kirk Luedeke said in a statement. (MacFarlands) view on the delisting of the warbler is based on the most current available data on training impacts. That remains his position despite the recent finding, and was/is not influenced by outside pressure."

The warbler fight may continue if the petitioners decide to challenge the USFWSs decision in federal court.

bgibbons@express-news.net

Twitter: @bgibbs
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During a forceful, even mocking address on foreign policy, Hillary Clinton lit into some of Donald Trumps past comments, including one in which he recalled the time he held the Miss Universe pageant in Russia in 2013.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, says he has foreign policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia, Clinton said during her address Thursday.

Is that correct? We found that the attack is pretty close to the mark, though somewhat overstated.

Clintons barb stemmed from an interview Trump did with Fox News Bret Baier on May 6.

At one point in the interview Baier asked Trump about whether he had ever met Russias president, Vladimir Putin, which is an issue Trump had been coy about in previous interviews. Trump told Baier that once again he would have no comment on the question, in order to protect Putins confidences.

Trump went on to say, however, I know Russia well. I had a major event in Russia two or three years ago, Miss Universe contest, which was a big, big, incredible event. An incredible success. (Trump sold the pageant in 2015.)

We wont gauge whether experience putting on a beauty pageant can give someone important foreign-policy insights  something Clinton was clearly skeptical of during her speech. But it is true that Trump mounted the event in Russia in 2013. (As Politicos Michael Crowley reported, Trump watched 86 contestants don shimmering evening gowns and skimpy swimsuits for what he would call the worlds biggest and most iconic beauty contest.)

So Clinton certainly has a point that Trump referenced his leadership of the Miss Universe pageant as a credential, and we didnt notice any subsequent efforts by Trump to backtrack on what he said.

However, Clinton overstated the case modestly when she accused Trump of claiming the pageant as foreign policy experience.

Trump definitely cited his pageant experience as evidence that he could work with Russia and Putin  but the discussion with Baier never broadened out to foreign policy generally. Later in the exchange, for instance, he said that they (Russia) want to be friendly with the United States  (but) they really dislike Obama.

So Trump didnt say that the pageant helped him understand foreign policy overall. But he did say that it would help him get along with Russia.

Our ruling

Clinton said that Trump says he has foreign policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia. Trump did cite that as evidence of how he could navigate a relationship with Russia and work with its president, Putin, but he didnt go so far as to say it bolstered his foreign policy experience more generally.

We rate Clintons statement Half True.
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Iris Rodriguez, 7, was walking back from a West Side store with her mother, Eva Juarez, and Juarezs boyfriend Wednesday night after a run to grab candy.

The three were approaching the fence of Iris grandmothers home in the 5500 block of San Fernando Street when a group of people arguing among themselves gave the boyfriend one warning to take Iris inside, her grandmother Josephine Juarez said.

They started saying, You better run and take her inside. But they didnt give her a chance to take her inside. They just started shooting, her grandmother said.

Iris was struck in the head. Her mother, grazed by a bullet in the arm, cradled Iris until police arrived. At 6:08 p.m. Thursday, Iris died as a result of her injuries, police said.

On Friday night, police arrested Frank Gomez, 28, on a capital murder warrant in connection with Iris death.

According to police, Gomez was being questioned by investigators late Friday. No further details on his arrest were available.

After the shooting, four people were spotted leaving the scene in what police described as a white Chevrolet Impala with a spare tire in the front right seat. Police believe Gomez was one of them.

Officer Douglas Greene, spokesman for the San Antonio Police Department, said officers worked minute-to-minute to find him.

Iris mother was still recovering in the hospital Friday, the girls grandmother said.

That is her only child. These people destroyed my daughters life completely, Juares said. Shes like, Mom, I dont want to live anymore. My daughters gone.

Juarez said her granddaughter was so close to making it to the house.

Maybe if she ran a little bit faster. It was 2 feet to run inside, she said.

Iris was transported to University Hospital, where she remained on life support in the intensive care unit until she died.

One room away, another girl, just 5 years old, also was on life support, the victim of a separate shooting an hour after Iris was wounded. She had been lying in bed at her home in the 800 block of Pecan Valley Drive when four men in a vehicle backed into a car in the driveway, according to preliminary information from a police report.

A relative of the girl walked outside to confront the men, who pulled out guns as they began arguing, police said. The gunmen shot and injured the man confronting them and continued shooting at the house, investigators said.

He was taken to San Antonio Military Medical Center in critical condition. His condition had improved only slightly Friday.

One of the rounds entered the house and struck the girl in her head, police said. She was still on life support Friday, according to police.

Iris loved to play and cook with her family, Juarez said, adding that she always brought a smile to everyone in her family.

Even when we were sad, she would always bring smiles, the girls grandmother recalled

Margil Elementary School Principal Maria Avila said Iris was an A and B student following in the footsteps of her mother, aunts, uncles and grandmother, each of whom had attended the school.

She had a very supportive family system, Avila recalled. The grandmother, the aunt, the uncles.  Anytime we needed them, they were here for her.

Avila said Iris had been looking forward to the end-of-the year party. The school year came to an end Friday.

She was one of those students always in a good mood and helping others in the classroom, Avila said. She was excited for the last day of school, talking about her party. She didnt get to experience that.

Juarez said a candlelight vigil is planned for 8 p.m. Monday where Iris was shot. On Friday night, neighbors and passers-by were offering stuffed animals, candles and condolences to the family at a makeshift shrine.

University Hospital is planning to put a flag up to honor Iris for being an organ donor.

I hope all four of em do get caught and get just what they deserve, because an innocent child had to leave her family over some stupid person that did that, Juarez said.

jbeltran@express-news.net

Twitter: @JBfromSA
Bexar County staff has recommended that commissioners not renew a controversial contract held by Willie Ng, chief investigator for the district attorneys office, instead tapping a Corpus Christi company for the job.

County commissioners will consider the recommendation at a meeting on Tuesday.

Late Friday, commissioners court agenda material revealed the recommendation to award the lucrative contract to AMTEX Security rather than Blue Armor Security Services, Ngs company. Commissioners still could vote to renew Ngs contract.

The contract is worth more than $1,188,000 annually, according to the agenda material.

After the interviews were concluded, discussion ensued and AMTEX Security Inc. was considered the most eligible for recommendation of award, with Blue Armor Security Services coming in a close second, an agenda coordination form stated.

Ngs company has provided security for the county despite a clause in his contract that bars county employees from doing so  a provision blasted as illegal by Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood, Ngs employer.

Ng won the contract in 2013. LaHood hired him about two years later.

Ngs company provided security guard services at 15 locations across the county, according to the contract. As chief investigator for LaHood, he coordinates criminal investigations and prepares cases for prosecution.

Last month, Bexar County Commissioner Kevin Wolff cried foul, criticizing Ngs dual role as both county employee and contractor as a conflict of interest and a violation of the contract. LaHood blasted back, calling Wolff a liar and arguing that state law allows county employees to hold county contracts.

In March 2013, commissioners court entered into an agreement with Ngs company that stated, in part, no officer or employee of COUNTY shall have financial interest, direct or indirect, in any Agreement with COUNTY 

LaHood hired Ng in January 2015. Two months later, Assistant District Attorney Edward Schweninger told commissioners that Ngs contract should be amended because the clause prohibiting him from holding the contract violated state law.

The contract, however, was not amended. Instead, commissioners put it out for bid again.

Before the recommendation of AMTEX became public, Denise Nicholson, CEO of Pro Security Group, said on Friday that she was dismayed by the conflict of interest in Ngs bid.

As a woman in the security industry, this would not be the first time that the good old boys network has made it more challenging for me to get contracts, she said.

A competitor should not have inside knowledge of the evaluation process, Nicholson added.

Whether it was intentional or accidental, he would definitely be privy to information that I would not be privy to, as well as just water cooler talk, she said.

Whether its OK by law for a county employee to have a county contract is beside the point, Nicholson added, because it specifically says in this contract that county employees cannot have the contract.  By signing the bid and submitting it, you are agreeing to the terms of the contract. He should not have been allowed to bid on the second term of the contract.

bchasnoff@express-news.net
Kimberly Wright is a public servant who seems to be living in her own private Idaho.

For one thing, Wright, a first-term city councilwoman in Windcrest, doesnt recognize the existence of the country in which shes living.

In a 2015 application for a place on the Windcrest ballot, Wright was asked to affirm her U.S. citizenship. She pointedly crossed out United States on the form, and replaced it with Texas, so that the sentence read: I am a citizen of Texas.

In a March 16 federal tax filing with the Internal Revenue Service, Wright crossed out a line next to the space for her signature. The line stated, U.S. Citizen, but she replaced it with Texas resident.

At council meetings, Wright refuses to participate in the pledge of allegiance, according to City Hall sources.

Wright did not respond to an interview request for this column.

If Wright, 56, disregards the validity of the federal government, shes also not too sold on Windcrests municipal power. During her first seven months in office, Wright has fought against a Windcrest ordinance prohibiting residents from keeping hens in their backyards.

During a recent online discussion with Windcrest residents about the issue, Wright made the confounding argument that the city of Windcrest only has jurisdiction over property the city owns. Therefore, the city of Windcrest cannot tell you what to do on your property.

Wright added, Do you see anywhere on your deed where the city of Windcrest owns your property? If no, then you have every right to have chickens.

Ultimately, she dismissed the importance of the city ordinance by stating, Codes are not laws.

In fact, thats exactly what codes are: systematic collections of laws. If Wright considers ordinances passed by the City Council to be invalid proclamations meant to be flouted, then why did she bother running for a seat on that council?

Wright, a self-employed geologist who defines herself as part of the Ron Paul, liberty-loving wing of the Republican Party, is viewed by her opponents as a stubborn obstructionist. For the past three years, Windcrest has sprayed for mosquitos, and this year the issue has more urgency because of concerns about the spread of the Zika virus. Wright objects to the idea. She also has opposed an increase in funding for city parks.

The biggest controversy surrounding Wrights short stint on the council, however, has nothing to do with City Hall business.

Last month, Wright responded to a constituents email regarding the quality of education in Windcrest.

Doubling the population of the elementary was a very bad idea, Wright wrote back. As a result, Windcrest Elementary has plummeted from an exemplary school to merely acceptable because the new population has come from undesirable neighborhoods outside of our city.

Is there any way to read that undesirable neighborhoods reference other than to conclude that Wright is blaming minority children from blue-collar families for lowering the standards of her local elementary school? Is there any interpretation by which her email is anything other than shameful?

I guess she wants that school to be all-Windcrest, all-white, said Rick Cockerham, a Windcrest resident and outspoken critic of Wright. I think even people who voted for her are really disappointed and wondering what they can do.

Gerd Jacobi, Windcrests Place 1 councilmember, said Wrights email was detrimental to the community she represents.

Its putting down the people that are coming to our school and saying that theyre basically scum, Jacobi said.

Wrights statement was not only insensitive, it ignored the demographic realities in Windcrest.

The town, which has a population of approximately 6,000, is a popular community for senior citizens, and therefore has a small pool of school-age kids.

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, only 15.8 percent of Windcrest residents are under 18 (compared to 26.8 percent for the city of San Antonio). So Windcrest Elementary depends on an infusion of children from outside Windcrest to get enrollment levels up to satisfactory levels.

Id like to visit with Wright and talk about these issues, but Im not sure shed want to sit down with an undesirable like me.
Hocking College will integrate some winemaking skills into its agro-ecology courses this fall, once approved by the state, The Athens Messenger reports.

This spring, one-day classes about winemaking and establishing a vineyard were offered. The college hopes to create classes that will be offered for-credit in the future. Once the vines are mature, Hocking Colleges culinary program may offer wine-making, too.

Located in southern Ohio in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the area surrounding Hocking College is fit for growing grapes.

Read about the wine degrees offered by Kent State University Ashtabula.

Read more: The Athens Messenger > Hocking College ventures into wine industry

More about Ohios wine industry:
China has confirmed that it is lifting its import ban introduced 4 years ago on bovine & ovine genetic material from Denmark, France, Germany and United Kingdom due to Schmallenberg virus.

The decision  preceded with joint efforts of various Commission services and EU Member States - was announced by the Chinese Minister of Agriculture Minister HAN Changfu during the visit of EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan to China this week.

The decision was announced by the Chinese Minister of Agriculture Minister HAN Changfu.

Speaking after the meeting, Commissioner Hogan said: "The Commission together with EU Member States and EU business have been working towards re-opening of the Chinese market for exports of bovine and ovine genetic material from all EU countries interested in exports and we welcome the lifting of this ban that should allow now for real trade starting to take place rapidly.

"We look forward to seeing China opening its market for these safe products from the rest of the EU in the near future."

In May 2012, China introduced an import ban on imports of bovine semen, bovine embryo, ovine semen and ovine embryo produced after 1 June 2011 from several EU countries, referring to an alleged risk of Schmallenberg virus (SBV) which can cause birth defects and stillbirths in cattle, sheep, and goats.

This measure went beyond the international standards set by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), which considers that the virus does not meet the OIE requirements for setting an international standard, meanings therefore that trade measures for this disease are not required.
The Farm Animal Genetic Resources Committee (FAnGR) has released a statement on the cloning of farm animals.

The FAnGR provides advice to Defra on all issues relating to farm animal genetic resources particularly its conservation and sustainable use.

The Committee recognises that science is continually evolving and that cloning is part of a continuum of developments in reproductive techniques.

Cloning involves the removal of the nucleus from a somatic cell (any body tissue) of an animal and its transfer into an enucleated egg (an egg cell that has had its own nucleus removed) of a donor female of the same species.

This is then stimulated to generate an embryo for transfer into a surrogate mother.

Cloning methods being used in farmed animals do NOT involve genetic modification: the intention with cloning is to reproduce an existing animal, rather than to create one with novel DNA that has not existed before.

Animals have the vast majority (>99%) of their DNA (containing its genes) in the cell nucleus and a minute fraction (<1%) in the mitochondria within cells but outside the nucleus.

A cloned animal receives its mitochondrial DNA from the donor of the recipient egg, and the nuclear DNA from the donor of the somatic cell nucleus, and is therefore essentially an identical copy of the animal providing the somatic cell.

Both will be copies of DNA already existing in the population.

Conserving rare breeds

Cloning has a potential role in conserving rare breeds that would otherwise be at risk of extinction following a disease outbreak, or in the case of a severe decline in a population.

These boosted populations could then continue using conventional breeding to multiply further.

Genetic diversity of these breeds could also be increased by breeding from clones of unrelated castrated males, or unrelated females unable to breed successfully unaided.

However, in those species in which embryo transfer is effective, the cryopreservation of embryos, ova and semen are more desirable methods to be used for conserving rare breeds, as combined they conserve all the DNA (nuclear and mitochondrial) of the breeds in question

There is a theoretical benefit that by reproducing copies of desirable animals, it is possible to allow more farmers to access animals of high genetic merit (for improving food production, food quality, disease resistance etc.) more quickly.

However, the cost and the success rates make this commercially unfeasible in the EU at present.

In the past cloning would also have been a necessary step to allow implementation of approaches such as genome editing that could be used to overcome challenges presented by inherited diseases in small populations.

However, the Committee notes that recent advances in highly targeted genome editing approaches mean that cloning is no longer a necessary step to achieve this.

The Committee notes that substantial work has been carried out by the European Commission and by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on food safety in relation to cloning, while the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is responsible for food safety in the UK.

All bodies share a similar view that the current evidence suggests that meat and milk from healthy clones and healthy offspring of clones is as safe as that from conventionally bred animals.

Dolly the Sheep

The first viable cloned farm animal from an adult somatic cell was Dolly the sheep, born in the UK in July 1996.

Since then, cloning techniques based on using adult cells have developed, although it remains a young technology.

Cloning is expensive and is likely to remain confined to niche uses in agriculture for many years to come.

The farm livestock most likely to be cloned are high value cattle and pigs. There are very few cloned cattle and pigs relative to the size of the worlds cattle and pig populations.

There are only a small number of elite bulls in the world and it is mainly these that are being commercially cloned.

Risks of cloning

The Committee has found that the main risks from cloning relate to ensuring that: animal welfare requirements are met; any differences between clones and conventionally bred animals are understood and addressed; high level use could result in higher inbreeding and reduced levels of genetic variation in populations which could undermine biodiversity and progress using conventional selective breeding approaches; and that consumer confidence is maintained.

However, cloning has proved to be a very decisive subject, with many farmers and organisations criticising the practice.

The Green Alliance in Europe have been in favour of a ban on cloning as it has 'strong negative impacts on animal welfare and biodiversity.'

"It does not offer any advantage to citizens, nor does it have any beneficial effect on food security, food safety or breeding improvement.

"New legislation on cloning will make sense only if it includes a comprehensive ban on cloning, and on the placing on the market of food from clones and their descendants.

"The principal purpose of cloning is to produce multiple copies of animals with fast growth rates or high yields.

"On the other hand, creating a livestock population that is genetically identical due to cloning reduces genetic diversity, putting the entire livestock population at a higher risk for disease (e.g. leg disorders and cardiovascular malfunction in fast-growing pigs, and lameness, mastitis and premature culling in high-yielding cattle), and potentially wiping out entire herds.

"Currently, animal breeding of different species is already based on only a few genetic lines.

"Cloning would narrow these lines even more and restrict the possibilities for adaptation to a changing environment."
"We also recognise that in certain circumstances a collective boycott may be seen as necessary to achieve some of the efficiency benefits from collective bargaining.
More than half of employees who work for CCS make $43K or more a year
While writing a novel like The Body Under The Bridge - a "supernatural mystery" - it's easy to reflect on the many films that have influenced the ideas that permeate the world of Father Louis Gilbert. Herewith are ten - or so - worth mentioning.

The Body Under the Bridge

The Uninvited (1944), featuring Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp.

Until Lewis Allen's The Uninvited came along, the trend was to make the supernatural a frightening encounter, not an investigation into the whys and wherefores behind the . The Uninvited redirected the traditional haunted house story and introduced a mystery that, if solved, would put the dead to rest. It's a quirky film, with a film-noir look mixed with elements of humor. But the scary bits are truly scary - and inspired hundreds of films afterward.

The Innocents (1961), featuring Deborah Kerr, Megs Jenkin, Michael Redgrave.

Based on Henry James' The Turn of The Screw (with Truman Capote contributing to the adaptation), The Innocents raises a lot of powerful questions. Is it the story of a haunted house? Possession? Or is it about the psychological breakdown of a high-strung woman? Critics and fans have argued the answer for years. But there's no denying the atmospheric scares that come with this film.

Rosemary's Baby (1968), featuring Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon.

As with Deborah Kerr's character in The Innocents, Mia Farrow's Rosemary may be suffering from delusions or something truly nefarious is happening in her apartment building. Either way, Roman Polanski makes the most of the ever-growing tension in Rosemary's Baby.

The Exorcist (1973), featuring Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair.

This film is to horror what Lord of the Rings is to fantasy: a definitive effort that integrates the best elements of what came before it, and becomes the standard by which everything is judged afterward. And this one not only has horror, but introduces an actual detective who is trying to solve the peripheral cases created by the demon. The biggest shock upon its release was that William Peter Blatty's story effectively treated the supernatural as a fact, not as a psychological mystery.

The Changeling (1980), featuring George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas.

Little known and under-appreciated, The Changeling was fresh and original in its presentation of a haunted house and the inherent mystery behind the ghostly activities there. Owing a lot to The Uninvited, this film introduced a new intensity in the character played by George C. Scott and his quest to find out why he's being haunted.

Angel Heart (1987), featuring Mickey Rourke, Robert DeNiro, Lisa Bonet.

Unlike the other films in this list, where the mystery is an extension of the horror, Angel Heart is structured around a mystery - in which a private detective is hired to find a missing man. Alternately graphic and subtle, this film has enough twists and turns to require a second viewing. For another approach to this kind of supernatural mystery, check out Rinne (Reincarnation) a 2005 Japanese story that twists horror and film-making conventions.

The Haunted (1995), featuring Aidan Quinn, Kate Beckingsale, Anthony Andrews.

Not many people know Lewis Gilbert's British-made film, but should. It was ahead of its time in a lot of ways as it tells the story of an author dedicated to debunking supernatural phenomenon coming up against forces he can't easily explain. At the time of its release, few could have predicted the twist at the end.

Stir of Echoes/ The Sixth Sense (1999). Stir of Echoes, featuring Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Zachary David Cope.

The Sixth Sense, featuring Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette. Unfortunately for its producers, Stir of Echoes came out the same year as The Sixth Sense, and was overshadowed by the latter's success. Both present mysteries within well-crafted horror, along with psychological twists and supernatural turns. Though, admittedly, few films accomplished a final twist as successfully as The Sixth Sense.

The Blair Witch Project (1999), featuring Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard.

The first of the "found footage" films introduced the formula that would influence films like Paranormal Activity and Insidious - with present-day jolts and shocks occurring against mysterious back-stories that often manifest themselves to the audience long before the protagonists figure them out. (Sometimes I also wonder if the film-makers themselves have figured them out.) Sometimes it's a person, sometimes it's a house, an asylum, a hotel, or even a cave. The real mystery is how-long this particular approach will last before it completely exhausts itself.

The Ring (2002), Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox.

Intelligent and innovative, The Ring took a whole new spin on an investigative supernatural mystery, integrating classic and Japanese horror styles with creepy technological, even Dahliesque, imagery.

There are many other large and small-screen investigators who've impacted my writing, from Carl Kolchak ( The Night Stalker) to Mulder and Scully ( The X-Files), and from C. Auguste Dupin ( Murders In The Rue Morgue) and Sherlock Holmes ( Hound of the Baskervilles) to Harry D'Amour ( Lord of Illusions) and Odd Thomas.

Paul McCusker is the author of the recently-released Father Gilbert Mysteries: The Body Under The Bridge , published by Lion Books.
We're up to our penultimate theory in our week of Game of Thrones theories, and today we're looking at something that hasn't gained as much ground or speed as the rest of the theories we've looked at so far. Could there be an Ice Dragon in the Seven Kingdoms ready to take flight?

Credit: HBO

Where did this theory come from?

Well, for some time Ice Dragons have been mentioned. They make an appearance in all of the books, whether it's the constellation 'Ice Dragon' or something else entirely. For example, in one of Jon Snow's chapters in A Dance With Dragons, the book reads: "The road beneath the Wall was as dark and cold as the belly of an Ice Dragon and as twisty as a serpent." There's also one referenced 'in the tales Old Nan used to tell', and Old Nan seems to be one of the wisest characters in the entire series.

Fans know now how easy it is for the Night King and the White Walkers to raise the dead to fight alongside them. So is it really that difficult to imagine that at some point in time following the Night King's 'birth', a dragon died far north of the wall and then was raised as a wight?

Now take that idea and multiply it by, say, three. The Wight Walker army could potentially have access to one or more than one ice dragon and suddenly, Daenerys' three dragons don't seem as threatening to that army as they once were.

There's also the possibility that one of Daenerys' dragons could be killed by the Wight Walkers and then brought back to life as a Wight 'Ice Dragon'. Not something we love the idea of as the dragons are supposed to be some of the most powerful creatures around.

Credit: HBO

George R R Martin has written a children's book called The Ice Dragon. There's speculation that it may exist in the same universe as Game of Thrones, but there has never been any confirmation. As powerful as fire-breathing dragons may seem, the one in this story took on and defeated three fire dragons - so if one makes its way to Westeros, it could be a major force to be reckoned with.

And finally there are those who simply believe The Ice Dragon will turn out to be a nickname for Jon Snow. As the potential son of Rhaegar 'Fire' Targaryen and Lyanna 'Ice' Stark it's not that hard to imagine... But we personally prefer the idea of an ice dragon or three rising from the ground for the ultimate battle...

How plausible is it?

It's certainly possible but not a theory that has gained momentum for reason. Ice dragons have always been hinted at but never outwardly confirmed. If they were to make an appearance at some point, they'd better hurry it up.

Game of Thrones continues Sundays in the US on HBO and Mondays in the UK on Sky Atlantic.

Theory #1 - 'R+L=J'

Theory #2 - Tyrion Targaryen

Theory #3 - Bran Stark the Three Eyed Raven Builder

Theory #4 - Bran Stark is the Night's King

Theory #5 - The Grand Northern Conspiracy

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Name: 1441 Pizzeria

Location: Ground Floor, 5, 58/64, Hari Chambers, S B Road, Fort, Mumbai



Ambience: As we walked past the charming green door, we were greeted with a piece of interesting trivia. 1441 is named after the co-ordinates of Naples in Italy, where the first wood-fired pizzeria originated. The pizzeria brings a bit of Italy to Mumbai, with its warm red brick interiors and its state-of-the-art brick oven imported from Italy.



What we ate: The restaurant, under the guidance of Masterchef Renato Viola of Italy boasts of a fine selection of pizzas baked to perfection. All the recipes are curated by the chef himself.

What caught our attention was the fact that 1441 is based on the concept of make-your-own-pizza, which is great. You head straight to the chef to place your order and move on to start customising your pizza with unlimited (and exotic) toppings.

Our pizza had a thin,crunchy, crispy crust, made right in front of us, which we topped with oodles of cheese and a number of toppings (we had to choose from a variety of over 50 toppings, 4 cheeses and 4 sauces).

For the pizza, you can choose between classic and gourmet. We chose a half and half gourmet pizza, which allowed us to pick a variety of sauces and toppings for each half.

Once we were done, off the pizza went into the oven. And we must say, we were surprised by the quick service. We had our pizza in under 10 minutes flat!

And what is a pizza without Coke? We loved the fact that 1441 followed the American system of unlimited refills.

We were recommended the Nutella pizza for dessert, it was served with fresh fruits, which included marshmallows, mango, kiwi, banana. We thought they could have been a bit more generous with the portion size of those toppings, but they more than made up with the nutella.

1441 also offers salads and starters (we had dough balls, which were soft, cheesy and yummy!) But we would recommend heading straight for the pizza!

Price points: Rs1000 (meal for two)
AHMEDABAD: Breast lesions should not be ignored and it is advisable to consult a general physician, immediately, when one comes across its early appearance. At GMERS Hospital, Sola, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, doctors at the surgical OPD examined women with breast inflammations.



Nearly 100 women were part of the study and they found that 69 % were benign, 18 % malignant and the remaining 13% were inflammatory. Among all the cases, the benign breast disease, fibroadenoma (where the glandular tissue and ducts grow over the lobule and form a solid lump) was most common accounting for 54% of total cases.



This was followed by 9 % fibroadenosis, which is usually fibrosis, or a cyst formation. It is usually present during the reproductive age of a women. While there were 2% sebaceous cyst over breast, 3 % fibrocystic disease, and 1% Gyanecomasia and in the inflammatory lesions.



Among malignant lesions, 17% were ductal adeno carcinoma, 1% paget's disease of nipple. The examination was carried out by assistant professor of surgery department, GMERS medical college, Dr Hemang Panchal. He says, "In the age group of 15-30, fibroadenoma comprised of 79.6 % of the cases.



"The youngest age of carcinoma breast in our study is 32 year, and older age is 75 year," says Panchal.



His colleague Dr Ashish Desai adds, "Fibroadenoma of the breast is a common cause of a benign breast lump in pre-menopausal women . Illiteracy, social taboo, unawareness generally result into delay in diagnosis in both benign and malignant lesions. Such delay in malignant lesions is associated with poor prognosis."





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Have you ever seen colours so brilliant, you refuse to believe your eyes? This may just be one of the many wonders Seychelles may bestow upon you. Seychelles, the group of over 100 islands in east Africa will welcome you with its pristine beaches, amazing carnivals and unusually happy people. We visited the group of islands and fell in love, of course!

Youll find the cleanest beaches here: From Anse Royale beach in Mahe that offers you secluded coves and prime snorkelling spots to Anse Lazio in Praslin that is known for its crescent shape and soft white sands, the beaches at Seychelles are straight out of Neverland. Also, it is home to the most photographed beach in the worldAnse Source dArgent at La Digue island.


Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Md. Siddiqur Rahman thanked the government for keeping some industry-friendly provisions in the budget proposal like tax-free import of pre-fabricated materials and capital machinery.But at a media briefing in Dhaka, he expressed surprise on the budget proposal of increasing source tax from 0.6 per cent to 1.5 per cent for the RMG industry.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Md. Siddiqur Rahman thanked the government for keeping some industry-friendly provisions in the budget proposal like tax-free import of pre-fabricated materials and capital machinery. But at a media briefing in Dhaka, he expressed surprise on the budget proposal of increasing#

Rahman urged the government to keep the source tax like that of the 2014-15 fiscal which was 0.3 per cent and keep the corporate tax for garment industry at 10 per cent as it was.The government envisions to secure 8 per cent GDP growth to earn the middle-income country status which will be only be possible if the readymade garment industry grow because its contribution to national GDP is about 13 per cent, he added.BGMEA also requested the government to earmark at least Tk 5000 crore as incentives for the RMG industry for ensuring its smooth growth.Earlier on Thursday, Finance Minister Abdul Muhith in his budget speech proposed to reduce corporate tax to 20 per cent from the existing 35 per cent for the country's export-oriented readymade garment industry.Muhith acknowledged that the RMG sector is one of the main exporting sectors of Bangladesh. This sector is making important contribution to the GDP growth and employment generation.He said during July-April of current fiscal year, Bangladesh's garment export earnings stood at $27.6 billion compared to $25.3 billion during the same period of the last fiscal year.Muhith said the government is providing substantial tax benefits to the apparel sector acknowledging its contribution to the economy. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
The percentage of online retail sales made through mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) in the UK fell in Q1 2016, according to the latest results from the IMRG Capgemini Quarterly Benchmark.

This is the first time that the percentage of online retail sales made through smartphones and tablets recorded a decrease in since the tracking started in 2010.



IMRG or Interactive Media in Retail Group specializes in market tracking and insight, benchmarking and best practice sharing.



According to the survey, just under half (49.6 per cent) of online retail sales were completed through mobile devices during Q1 2016, compared with 51.3 per cent in the previous quarter. There was also a slight fall in the percentage of visits to online retail sites through mobile devices  at 64.6 per cent in Q1 2016, down from 65.6 per cent in Q4 2015.



This fall is likely to have been influenced by a marked split that has been recorded in growth rates on tablets and smartphones recently. While sales through smartphones were up 83 per cent in April for example, growth in sales through tablet devices slowed down to a record low of just 3 per cent.



There was also a continuation of a recent trend, with the percentage of click and collect orders for multichannel retailers remaining steady at 22 per cent in Q1, unchanged from Q4 2015 and has been consistently around this mark for around a year now.



Tina Spooner, Chief Information Officer, IMRG, said, These latest results appear to track the effects of some displacement activity we are seeing in relation to sales made through mobile devices. While the majority of these sales still come through tablets, shoppers are increasingly using their smartphones in situations where they would previously have used a tablet  the screen sizes have become larger, retailers have focused on optimising the experience for smartphone users and consumers are becoming increasingly confident in using these devices for a wide range of activities.



Speaking about the decrease of online sales made through mobile devices, Bhavesh Unadkat, Management Consultant in Retail Customer Engagement Design, Capgemini, said, This is predominantly due to tablet penetration which we have seen tailing off. We would usually expect this to be offset by a rise of sales on smartphones, particularly given the number of 'phablets' now in the market, but this hasn't occurred to such an extent. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
New Zealand's wool marketer, the New Zealand Merino Company, has signed $45 million deal to supply fine wool to Italian luxury fabric manufacturer Successori Reda over a five-year period.This is the longest-ever contract for the New Zealand Merino Company which markets the country 's wool to customers on behalf of suppliers. The extended contract is expected to relieve farmers of boom-or-bust commodity volatility. Previously, NZ Merino's longest contract period covered three years, it said in a press release.

New Zealand's wool marketer, the New Zealand Merino Company, has signed $45 million deal to supply fine wool to Italian luxury fabric manufacturer Successori Reda over a five-year period. This is the longest-ever contract for the New Zealand Merino Company which markets the country's wool to customers on behalf of suppliers. The extended contract is#

Successori Reda is a textile leader which has been in the industry for 150 years, concentrating on high-end suit fabrics and more lately active product ranges.The fixed-price contract for 2,500 tonnes of fine wool in the 15.8 to 19.2-micron range effectively locks up supply for all of the qualifying wool that New Zealand will produce over the five-year period, said NZ Merino Chief Executive John Brakenridge.New Zealand sheep farmers benefit from the deal by gaining higher fixed-price certainty to underpin production, avoiding the potential volatile spot market pricing for commodities."We are bringing more and more business out of commodities and into this relationship between growers and the end brands," Brakenridge said. "That's very good for us as a business and it's very good for the growers in this country."For Reda, which reportedly supplies fabric to luxury brands including Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Tom Ford and Hugo Boss, renewing its contract for New Zealand wool enables it to secure supply of high-quality fibre that meets its specifications, and provides end consumers with a link back to growers, enhancing its brand.Reda "get the volume of high-quality wool they require and growers get the certainty of good prices for their wool for longer," Brakenridge said. "It just really removes the whole commodity volatility. New Zealand primary sector needs to do this because volatility destroys markets."It's renowned globally for wool suiting fabrics and has diversified into activewear, with their fabrics used in sportswear, as lining for ski boots and helmets, in boardshorts, and waterproof jackets and footwear.Reda's global procurement director Fabrizio Botto Poala said the deal with NZ Merino addressed significant supply issues for the company, allowing it to continue expanding its product range, and guaranteed quality and traceability. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Veteran actress-politician Hema Malini has lashed out at media reports and people who criticised her over posting images from a film's shoot on social media while Mathura was engulfed by violence and tension.

Below are the pictures of Hema Malini from the film photoshoot, which received flak on social media and also see in the slides, what Twitteratis have to say about her photoshoot posts amidst Mathura clashes:

She took to Twitter on Saturday to clarify her stance and in a series of tweets, here's what she wrote:

"In Mathura and condoled with the bereaved families. I still can't understand how the great media thinks the sansad (parliament) is responsible for law and order.

"They seem to be diverting attention from the main issue - that law and order is purely the state government's responsibility. Why target me? I'm doing my job."

"Anyone in Mathura will vouch for my sincerity - I'm improving living conditions, providing roads and drinking water... A sansad's duty is not to head the police force or quell rebels or evict encroachers. Development is my line of duty and I'm sincere in my job."

She also invited the accusers to visit Mathura and see her work themselves. "I'm dedicating so much time to Mathura. Sometimes it is days before I even see my family or my house. I'm attending to public needs sincerely.

"What do I get in return for my sincerity? Brickbats and loud accusations. I sincerely thank all of you who have supported me in this controversy," she tweeted.

"Just visited Nayati hospital to enquire abt the welfare of the injured police personne," tweeted and posted a few pictures of herself from the hospital which you can see above in the slides.

"Met the family members- father, wife, brother & son of SP City Mukul Dwivedi & expressed my deep grief at their loss"
NEW ORLEANS, LA--(Marketwired - June 03, 2016) - Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, the former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until July 18, 2016 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT), if they purchased the Company's securities between February 27, 2013 and May 19, 2014, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.

What You May Do

If you purchased shares of Target and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com). If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by July 18, 2016.

About the Lawsuit

Target and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

The alleged false and misleading statements or omissions include, but are not limited to, that: (i) when Target opened its first group of stores in Canada, it had significant problems with its supply chain infrastructure, distribution centers, and technology systems, and inadequately trained employees; (ii) these problems caused significant, pervasive issues, including excess inventory at distribution centers and inadequate inventory at retail locations, forcing Target to heavily discount products and incur heavy losses; and (iii) these supply-chain and personnel problems were not typical of newly launched locations in Target's traditional U.S.-based market.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com

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OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/04/16 -- Saputo Inc. is recalling Neilson brand Partly Skimmed Chocolate Milk from the marketplace due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination. Consumers should not consume the recalled product described below.

The following product has been sold in Ontario and Quebec.

Recalled product

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brand Product Size UPC Codes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Neilson Partly Skimmed 4 L 0 66800 00047 3 Bag clip: 1590JN01H8 Chocolate Milk, Inner bag: BB/MA JN 01 2016 1%m.f. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 findings by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) during its investigation into a foodborne illness outbreak. The CFIA is conducting a food safety investigation, which may lead to the recall of other products. If other high-risk products are recalled, the CFIA will notify the public through updated Food Recall Warnings.

The CFIA is verifying that industry is removing recalled products from the marketplace.

Illnesses

There have been reported illnesses that may be associated with the consumption of this product. Further lab testing is underway to confirm the link.

More information

-- CFIA: www.inspection.gc.ca/contactus

Product photos are available at http://bit.ly/1O8fzCl

Contacts:

Media enquiries

CFIA Media Relations

613-773-6600




Whill, a San Francisco, CA-based personal mobility and wheelchair startup, raised $17.5m in Series B funding.

The round was led by Eight Roads Ventures with participation from Mirai Creation Investment Limited Partnership, Golden Asia Fund II, L.P., and others. In conjunction with the funding, David Milstein, Head of Japan and Partner at Eight Roads Ventures will join the board at Whill.

The company, which has raised $30.2m to date, intends to use the funds to expand its presence throughout the U.S. and into Europe later this year, as well as to accelerate its research and development programs for autonomous driving, remote device management system, and rental program at airports (currently run with Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport).

Founded in 2012 by CEO Satoshi Sugie, an ex Nissan Designer, Junpei Naito, an ex Sony Mechanical Engineer, and Muneaki Fukuoka, an ex Olympus Electrical Engineer, Whill recently received FDA clearance for its Model M, which provides physicians with a modern wheelchair for their patients.

The companys Model A (not considered a medical device and thus not submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for review or clearance) is currently available in the U.S. and Japan while Model M (to sale by or on the order of a physician) is scheduled to be available for sale with a prescription in the U.S. this summer.

FinSMEs

04/06/2016
New Delhi: Reflecting substantial financial stress, diversified Jaypee Group companies have defaulted on loans and other payments worth Rs 4,460 crore.

The group has on a consolidated basis failed to repay Rs 2,905.6 crore in principal amount to banks and another Rs 1,558.93 crore in interest payments.

"Overdue principal repayment of loans borrowings...outstanding on 31 March, 2016 wherein the period of delay ranges from 1 day to 269 days" include debt of Rs 2,183.17 crore on Jaiprakash Associates, Rs 688.48 crore on Jaiprakash Power Ventures and Rs 33.95 crore on Jaypee Cement, as per latest disclosures.

As far as overdue interest in borrowings is concerned, it includes Rs 837.45 crore dues on Jaiprakash Associates, Rs 152.18 crore on Jaiprakash Power Ventures and Rs 63.13 crore on Jaypee Cement Corporation, according to figures disclosed by Jaiprakash Associates to the exchanges.

Besides overdue interest included Rs 193.08 crore on Jaypee Infratech, Rs 3.01 crore on Jaypee Agra Vikas Ltd, Rs 308.66 crore on Prayagraj Power Generation Ltd, Rs 0.75 lakh on Madhya Pradesh Jaypee Minerals Ltd and Rs 0.67 lakh on Bhilai Jaypee Cement.

Jaiprakash Associates, the group's flagship company, saw its net loss widen to Rs 3,345 crore in the last fiscal on a consolidated basis. In 2014-15, the same stood at Rs 1,735.10 crore.

Earlier this year, in one of the biggest deals in the domestic cement industry, debt-ridden Jaypee Group had announced part sale of its cement business to Kumarmangalam Birla-led Ultratech for Rs 15,900 crore.

The transaction will see Ultratech become possibly the biggest cement player in the country after gaining an overall capacity of 21.2 million tonne per annum from Jaypee's cement plants in five states and a grinding unit in Uttar Pradesh.

Post this deal, the capacity of Ultratech will rise to 91.1 MTPA, including its overseas operations, while that of JAL will come down to 10.6 MTPA spread over Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

The group's firm, Jaiprakash Power, had earlier sold off its hydro power projects to JSW Energy for Rs 9,300 crore and Bina power project to JSW for Rs 3,500 crore.
Though there are notable exceptions, most movie pin-ups who join politics frequently mix up reel world with the real. On silver screen, everything goes in accord with the screenplay. Don't like it? Scrap the script or force the director to make changes. In real life, however, there are no retakes. One could be hauled over coals for posting pictures of a movie shoot while violent shootouts break out in their constituency.

Let's face it, Hema Malini, the BJP MP from Mathura, has been incredibly callous. She was clueless about the tragedy which erupted on Thursday night and continued to remain so throughout the morning on Friday when she happily posted pictures from Mumbai's Madh Islands on an upcoming film. In fact, even when she was apprised of the fatal clash, she initially seemed to have misread the enormity of the tragedy.

So so upset by ths news frm a place which is so dear to me Will go there again if my presence is required.My heart goes out to the bereaved  Hema Malini (@dreamgirlhema) June 3, 2016

Hema Malini's tweets on the movie (which she deleted later after facing flak) were deemed inappropriate and the entire fiasco left the actor-turned-politician looking careless, inconsiderate, insensitive and even tactless. While handling questions during the media conference later, she appeared hurt and indignant over people accusing her of being tactless.

The BJP MP has looked out of depth and sorely lacking in realpolitik while handling the aftermath of a disaster.

But here's the thing. Is Hema Malini culpable for the cataclysmic tragedy that occurred at Jawahar Bagh in Mathura on Thursday night that left 24 people  including two senior police officers  dead and over 40 injured?

If a Lok Sabha MP is held responsible for the implementation of law and order in a state, why on earth did people of Uttar Pradesh elect Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his entire troupe of Samajwadi Party MLAs? To hold annual mega bashes on party chief Mulayam Singh's birthday?

Hema Malini goofed up but making her the scapegoat  as Congress party and a section of the media has done  is a convenient and malicious step to divert attention from Akhilesh Yadav's incompetence as an administrator and his government's abject failure on multiple levels.

If there is no complicity from the state government, how is it possible for a group of squatters to forcefully claim 300 acres of prime land in Jawahar Bagh as their own for more than two years and run what seems to have been a parallel administration?

Reports say the land grabbers, who call themselves Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi and the Swadheen Bharat Subhas Sena (the latter might even be Satyagrahi's militant arm)  an obscure band of violent madcaps  apparently transformed the vast green square into a "kingdom" with over 2,000 "residents", a hospital, a school, streetlights with electricity back-up, kacha and pucca houses and had round-the-clock security with over a dozen chowkis keeping an eye on the area. They wanted their own currency and cheaper fuel.

It seems as if in the middle of the bustling temple town, there is a rabbit hole which leads to this decidedly dodgy 'wonderland'. How on earth could they have performed their stunt without the knowledge of the administration?

Was the law and order machinery at Akhilesh Yadav's command sleeping? Or does this case of willful slumber have something to do with vote bank politics?

The opposition, while demanding the resignation of the SP government, has alleged that the fringe group enjoyed Akhilesh government's sponsorship.

"Illegal encroachment at Jawahar Bagh proves that the encroachers had been given high-level government patronage and it is an example of jungle raj in the state. The discovery of huge cache of firearms and ammunition proves that the ruling party was patronising criminals to use them during the upcoming UP Assembly polls," BSP chief Mayawati was quoted, as saying.

State BJP leader Keshav Prasad Maurya blamed Chief Minister's uncle Shivpal Yadav, a minister in Akhilesh's cabinet, for backing the cult which is dominated by Yadavs.

Leaving aside the political charges and counter-charges, it is inexplicable why the state administration waited for two years for the Allahabad High Court to order an evacuation of the land grabbers. And when ultimately forced by the court (which was acting on a PIL) to do so, why did the police appear unprepared when they went in to launch the eviction drive?

Does it not point to a massive intelligence failure that, as this Firstpost report points out, the cops had no input about the presence of firearms such as guns, pistols, rifles, and ammunition, swords, knives, bombs and even hand grenades within the park premises?

The police, which started the anti-encroachment operation with a small team, has admitted that the scale of the resistance took them by surprise and that they didn't know protesters were "so heavily armed".

If that is indeed the case, whose failure is it? Akhilesh Yadav has since blamed it on his police force, saying: There were some lapses. Police should have gone with full preparation and after holding talks, but there was no information that they would be having so much arms and ammunition.

The UP CM must know that the final blame for this tragic incident which resulted in loss of so many lives, lies with him.
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.
Maharashtra's Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse on Saturday finally gave in to the massive pressure created by the BJP central leadership and resigned from all ministerial portfolios but not without demonstrating a show of strength at a press conference later in the day.

"I had said since day one that if any allegation is proved against me then I will leave politics. I am not talking about resignation but talking about leaving my 40 years of political career. In 40 years this isn't first time I am seeing media trial. Since day one I am saying that whatever allegations you are making please give all documents. They haven't been able to prove the allegations levelled against me," Khadse said at a press conference held at the Maharashtra BJP headquarters at Nariman Point in Mumbai.

"I have asked the chief minister to initiate inquiry not only via Anti-Terrorism Squad  which is ongoing  but also enquire against all those who tried to defame me my name. Who went ahead and took help of a Pakistani agency? Unless and until I don't come clean I will not take these posts again. As a moral responsibility I have resigned on my own. I also thank BJP as a party who stood by me," said the former minister.

The presence of top functionaries of the Maharashtra BJP including state party chief Ravsaheb Dadarao Danve, Education Minister Vinod Tawde, Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, Co-operation Minister Chandrakant Bacchu Patil and Housing Minister Prakash Mehta at the press conference was perhaps a strong message to the top brass to reflect on the clout he still commands within the party.

"Since the last few days, there have been allegations against Eknath Khadse. There is no truth in these allegations. We are confident about it. It is a move to defame the BJP. Khadse himself asked for proof on the allegations, but no one could give any proof. Khadse said he would want to resign until allegations are proved wrong," Danve told reporters.

On Friday, before Khadse's resignation, his tough stand had put Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in a fix. As he was the seniormost minister in the state cabinet and also the OBC face of the BJP, the chief minister had reportedly asked BJP President Amit Shah to allow Khadse an honourable exit.

By making Khadse quit, the BJP central leadership sought to reaffirm its "zero-tolerance for corruption policy". For a state like Maharashtra, where caste politics rules the roost in power games, it was expected that it won't be an easy road ahead for Fadnavis to exercise his authority on the matter.

Fadnavis is from the Brahmin community, while Khadse belongs to the Levedar Patil community, which is part of the OBC list. Gopinath Munde and Khadse were the only senior OBC leaders in the party. After Munde's death two years ago, Khadse emerged as the OBC face both in the BJP and the Maharashtra government. Apart from Khadse, state BJP president Ravsaheb Danve, state ministers Pankaja Munde, Vinod Tawde and MLC Pandurang Phundkar are all from the OBC category. In the Brahmin camp, Fadnavis and ministers Girish Bapat and Girish Dattatray Mahajan are among the prominent faces.

Saturday morning was a busy one for the former Maharashtra revenue minister as he had a chat with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. The union minister told him in no uncertain terms that he had no other option left but to quit from the cabinet in order to prevent further damage to the party's image. The union minister, who left for Goa later asked Khadse to meet Fadnavis and submit his resignation.

Recently, Khadse's 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 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.

Speculations over Khadse's fate reached a crescendo on Thursday after Fadnavis submitted a detailed report to Shah and also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi late in the evening.

In April 2016, the alleged sale of government-owned land to Khadse's wife and son-in-law for about Rs three crore, at a time when the market value of the plot is estimated to be Rs 40 crore, had raised eyebrows. However, Khadse has maintained that the land is not owned by the government and that it was bought 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 was in all likelihood a matter of time or a mere formality for the Muktainagar MLA to lose his ministerial berth, sources had confirmed. However, there was also a section within the BJP who only want Khadse's wings to be clipped and not have him be dropped entirely from the cabinet.
Frankly speaking, Eknath Khadse who handled as many as 10 ministries in Maharashtras Devendra Fadnavis government, went out kicking and screaming, though at the press conference on Saturday he made it out that he was bowing out after asking the chief minister to probe the scandals involving him, and that it was a voluntary resignation.

The man, who rose from a sarpanch to twice become minister, and won as many as six elections from his constituency, showed remarkable composure under his self-created trying circumstances. Brazenly he said, he was not asked to quit but he was leaving. This is a given with experienced politicians who will not let a muscle twitch.

If, however, that were so, he would not have waited till Nitin Gadkari conveyed a message from the no-nonsense Amit Shah, the BJP chief. If someone quits after a word from the top, it is never voluntary. But the press conference this afternoon was to give him a respectful exit and he promptly accused the media of a trial, unprecedented in his long political career.

He flogged the point that right from the start  with his aide whom he later disowned seeking a Rs 30 cr bribe, the alleged calls between his number and Dawood Ibrahims, and then the purchase of a plot in an MIDC campus in Pune at a deeply discounted price  that he had been asking that documentary evidence be produced to nail him and if proven, he would quit.

He quit nevertheless on Saturday.

The call numbers the ethical hacker pulled out from the Pakistani telecom entity is a document, and so are the documents reviewed by newspapers, especially The Indian Express, and lo and behold, some relevant papers vanish, as The Times of India reported. The papers in question are specifically related to the acquisition of the land in 1966.

Why should a set of papers relevant to pin down an accusation or a claim suddenly disappear, when two departments are involved in it? One is Revenue, which Khadse handled in this government, and the other is Industries which is a portfolio with Shiv Senas Subhash Desai who has insisted the land in question belonged to Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation.

The purchase of the land at a throwaway price from a person who did not get compensation for 40 years, is quite plausible because the original owner may be in distress, and has moved court. If it was a bargain price, but registered at the circle rates, there is a possibility that the new owners would get compensation at a higher slab.

Khadse made an important point, citing a government rule, that if a land was acquired but the process not completed in two years, the acquisition lapses. Possibly the clue to why it was bought could be in this provision. And since lands come under Revenue, possible the original owner could not refuse the Khadse offer. Everyone stood to gain, and that was good business sense.

However, it would be far too optimistic to expect that the probes sought by Khadse would be quickly set in motion and a conclusion arrived at, because, wheels move ever so slowly when investigating a colleague from the same party. Probing Chhagan Bhujbals alleged disproportionate assets is also a hit at a rival political party. Concluding, if it were so, that a party peer was corrupt or misused his office, also diminishes the party he belongs to.

Remember, the Maharashtra police had given Khadse a clean chit, and within a day at that, and now when the matter went to the Anti-Terror Squad, it has asked the hacker Manish Bhangale to join the probe. Apparently he is ahead of the police, and the latter needs help. But Khadse smartly said that hacking was a chori  theft  and doing so of numbers in Pakistan was anti-national. So every possible defence is being built.
Agartala: Bangladesh is looking forward to become India's associate in technology based industries, its Industry Minister Alhaz Amir Hussain Amu said on Saturday.

"Bangladesh wants to be Indias partner in the technology based medium and large scale industrial quest to make the country economically vibrant," Amu said while addressing the 'Invest Tripura: A Business Meet' at Prajna Bhavan in Agartala.

"The imbalance in bilateral business will be reduced if businessmen from India go there for setting up industrial units," he said.

Amu said Bangladesh had received 96 foreign direct investments (India) and 212 joint investment projects till June, 2015.

"A sum of Rs 3084.43 crore has been invested by Indian businessmen in Bangladesh, which has generated 63,277 jobs," he said.

Calling upon the Indian entrepreneurs to invest in Bangladesh taking advantage of the congenial industrial climate there, Amu said "if SAFTA comes into effect, then investors of Bangladesh will have a golden scope to harness the markets in India, European Union and Japan."

Amu also said Bangladesh government had been giving priority to improve connectivity with the North East and other parts of India.

"We have taken decision to strengthen road and rail connectivity with north eastern states. Works are in the pipeline to connect Agartala with Akhaura through rail link and Feni bridge that will ensure direct connectivity with Chittagong port in Bangladesh," he said.

Amu, however, strongly advocated simplicity in foreign trade rules to give a major push to Indo-Banlga trade.

"Bangladesh is importing around 3000 items from India. Issues like customs surcharge, basic custom duty and addition duty must be addressed to create a win-win foreign trade," he said.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said the days were not far when the state would become a gateway to the entire North East.

"Once Feni bridge is constructed, Tripura will be able to access Chittagong port in Bangladesh. This will obviously open up a new opportunity to explore markets of the South Asian countries," he said.

Lauding ASSOCHAM for holding such a meet here, the chief minister said Tripura might be a small state, but size was not always important.

Tripura Industry Minister Tapan Chakraborty, Chief Secretary Yaspal Singh and ASSOCHAM Chairman (eastern region) Sanjay Jhunjhunwala were present in the meet.
Washington: The federal judge who's hearing a Trump University lawsuit is "a hater of Donald Trump" and ought to be removed from the case.

So says Donald Trump, in just one of the recent comments by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee that have legal experts worrying about his commitment to an independent judiciary and his views on presidential powers.

In the midst of a heated presidential campaign, Trump has expressed unusually personal criticism focusing on the judge's Mexican heritage though his lawyers have never actually sought to have the judge removed.

His comments are bringing overwhelming disapproval from politicians and lawyers in his own Republican Party. On Friday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said of the statements about the judge, "It's reasoning I don't relate to, I completely disagree with the thinking behind that."

And conservative legal scholars say Trump's statements reinforce their worries that he seems to think he can do whatever he wants and disregard rules and conventions that constrain other political candidates.

"The concern is that he would act unbounded in the presidency, in a way that doesn't follow the law," said John McGinnis, a Northwestern University law professor.

Criticism of the Supreme Court and the rest of the federal judiciary has been a regular feature of recent Republican presidential campaigns, including proposals to strip federal judges of lifetime tenure and reduce the budgets of liberal-leaning courts.

Those ideas, though, did not single out judges or focus on race, ethnicity or religion.

"Here it's just about Trump," said Case Western Reserve University law professor Jonathan Adler.

More troubling, Adler said, is that the recent comments seem to fit a pattern of intemperate remarks Trump has made during the campaign.

"He said he would give military officers unlawful orders and expect them to comply," Adler said, referring to Trump's claim that the military would follow his orders to torture suspected terrorists. Trump has since backed off on that.

"He has repeatedly given indications he has no appreciation for the rule of law," Adler said.

Trump made his first reported comments about US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in February, linking Curiel's Mexican heritage with what Trump described as the judge's "tremendous hostility" over Trump's plan to build a wall along the Mexican border.

Trump has variously referred to Curiel as Spanish, Mexican and Hispanic and has called the judge "a hater of Donald Trump." He told The Wall Street Journal that Curiel has "an absolute conflict of interest" because of his heritage as well as "an inherent conflict of interest" because Trump wants to build the border wall.
A 17-month U.S. effort to retrain and reunify Iraq's regular army has failed to create a large number of effective Iraqi combat units or limit the power of sectarian militias, according to current and former U.S. military and civilian officials.

Concern about the shortcomings of the American attempt to strengthen the Iraqi military comes as Iraqi government forces and Shiite militias have launched an offensive to retake the city of Falluja from Islamic State. Aid groups fear the campaign could spark a humanitarian catastrophe, as an estimated 50,000 Sunni civilians remain trapped in the besieged town.

The continued weakness of regular Iraqi army units and reliance on Shiite militias, current and former U.S. military officials said, could impede Prime Minister Haider al-Abadis broader effort to defeat Islamic State and win the long-term support of Iraqi Sunnis. The sectarian divide between the majority Shi'ite and minority Sunni communities threatens to split the country for good.

Critics agree that there have been some military successes, citing the continued victories of American-trained Iraqi Special Forces, who have been fighting Islamic State for two years. But the presence of 4,000 American troops has failed to change the underlying Iraqi political dynamics that fuel the rise and growing power of sectarian militias.

Retired U.S. Lieutenant General Mick Bednarek, who commanded the U.S. military training effort in Iraq from 2013 to 2015, said the Iraqi army has not improved dramatically in the past eight months. He blamed a variety of problems, from a lack of Iraqis wanting to join the military to the resistance of some lower-level Iraqi officers to sending units to American training.

The Iraqi militarys capacity hasnt improved that much - part of that is the continuing challenge of recruitment and retention, said Bednarek. Our (officers) train who shows up, and the issue is we are not sure who is going to show up.

Two senior U.S. military officers and Bednarek said that with few exceptions, the most effective and only truly non-sectarian Iraqi government fighting force is the Iraqi Special Forces, sometimes called the Counter-Terrorism Service. American officials expressed worry that the Special Forces units may burn out after nearly two years of continuous combat.

MILITIA INFLUENCE

Across Iraq, regular Iraqi army units have largely watched from the sidelines as Iraqi Special Forces and Shi'ite militias have reclaimed land from Islamic State, current and former U.S. military officials said. Militias have repeatedly taken advantage of the power vacuums that have emerged after Islamic State defeats.

The Iraqi military operations command of Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad, is dominated by a Shi'ite militia leader, Abu Mehdi Mohandis, according to a current U.S. military officer, an Iraqi security official and three Iraqi officials who monitor the province.

Mohandis serves as the chief state administrator for Shiite paramilitary forces. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned him in 2009 for allegedly attacking U.S. forces in Iraq. He was also convicted in absentia by Kuwaiti courts for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait.

The Fifth Iraqi Army Division in eastern Diyala province is considered to be under the command of the Badr group, a powerful Shiite militia and political party with strong ties to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, according to four current and former U.S. military officers.

In Baghdad, U.S. military officers estimate that 10 percent to 20 percent of the 300 officers who run the Iraqi military's Operations Command have an affinity or association with either the Badr militia or the Shiite religious leader Muqtada al Sadr.

And after Iraqi Special Forces, aided by U.S. air strikes, captured a strategic oil refinery in the town of Baiji in October, Shiite militias looted all of its salvageable equipment, according to a senior U.S. military official and three Iraqi government officials.

Over the past year, U.S. military officers have struggled to ensure that militias do not seize American weaponry delivered to the main Iraqi army supply depot in Taji and to a brigade in the Saqlawiya region.

We would transfer arms to units in those areas - and either because of corrupt commanders or outright robbery - they would end up in the hands of the militia groups, said one U.S. officer. The officer noted, however, that controls have been tightened and the number of cases was small. "You can't eliminate it entirely. It's just not realistic."

"AN OFFICIAL BODY"

Iraqi government and senior paramilitary leaders said the reports of poor training and Shi'ite militia dominance in the military are false. They said the militias follow the orders of the prime minister and his military commanders.

Iraqi defense ministry spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool called the militias an official body connected with the office of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces." He said they take their orders only from government officials and "have a great role in supporting the army forces and the federal police.

Mohammed Bayati, a former human rights minister and senior Badr group leader, now commands forces in northern Salahuddin Province. He said the Shiite paramilitaries fall under the army, police and regular military chain-of-command. Bayati told Reuters that any reports of militias operating on their own were false.

Yesterday, I was in the Salahuddin Operations Command, he said. "All orders are coming from the police and army leadership." The Shi'ite militias "are supporting the army and police.

The spokesman for the government umbrella body that oversees the militias, Ahmed Al-Asadi, said the Shi'ite forces did not loot the Baiji refinery. "I deny totally such allegations," he said. Islamic State, he said, stole and destroyed equipment.

The office of Prime Minister Abadi and the Iraqi Embassy in Washington didn't respond to requests for comment.

AMERICAN CONCERNS

But current and former U.S. military officials and local Sunni leaders say the militias continue to take advantage of the vacuums that emerge in predominantly Sunni areas after Islamic State forces are defeated. A lack of strong regular army units allows the militias to remain the dominant players.

Norman Ricklefs, a former U.S. government adviser to the Iraqi interior and defense ministries, said the state has still not filled the void in most areas retaken from ISIS. He said militias are the most powerful they have been since Iraqi government forces defeated them in a series of battles across Iraq in 2008. Ricklefs regularly visits Iraq and maintains ties with the Iraqi security apparatus and Shiite and Sunni politicians.

In the cities the militias occupy - Samarra and Tikrit and significant parts of eastern Baghdad - they are the most powerful force, Ricklefs said. "For the first time since 2008, the government has lost control of large parts of cities" to Shiite militias.

One senior U.S military official said the setbacks call into question the Obama administration's overall strategy in Iraq. He said any military training effort would fail until the U.S. put more pressure on Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni political leaders to strike a genuine power-sharing agreement.

"We need to accelerate the reconciliation piece to make Sunnis feel they are part of the government, said the official, who asked not to be named. Are we really in any way focused on that?"

Obama administration officials said the U.S. strategy is succeeding and Iraqi forces have steadily grown stronger with American support.

U.S. advisers have helped train existing units and set up two new Iraqi divisions, according to American and Iraqi officials. They achieved this despite struggling with shortfalls in Iraqi funding to hire new soldiers and a shortage of Iraqi Shiite volunteers.

But there has been little improvement in overall Iraqi army combat readiness, according to a U.S. civilian official, one ex-official, a former general and three current senior U.S. military officers.

Last October, American military officials estimated that only five Iraqi army divisions were ready for battle and put their combat readiness at only 60 to 65 percent. Today, those figures have increased only marginally, the officials said.

'LION'S SHARE' OF PROGRESS

The U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Colonel Chris Garver, said that despite the difficulties, U.S. forces have seen Iraqi army units improve after training. He also cited advances by army brigades in areas around Falluja as signs of success.

But Garver acknowledged that the lions share of military offensives has been spearheaded by the Special Forces, and that two years of battle are taking a toll on Iraqs elite soldiers.

The Government of Iraq has relied heavily on the Iraqi special operations forces and the potential for these forces being depleted into combat ineffectiveness is a real concern, he said.

Garver said the regular Iraqi army continues to struggle with increasing its ranks. Recruiting and funding have both been well-documented challenges for the GOI," or Government of Iraq. "These are areas the GOI must address.

Brigadier Rasool, the Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman, rejected any suggestion that the regular Iraqi army was not an equal partner to the Iraqi Special Forces.

We have troops who were able to retake land from Daesh, Rasool said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. After the fall of Mosul, the Ministry of Defenses joint command has resupplied and retrained the Iraqi security forces.

The current and former U.S. officials contended that the Falluja offensive is again exposing the weakness of regular army units.

"The regular army does not seem to have been rebuilt," Ricklefs said, "and its a real pity.

(Reported by Ned Parker in New York and Jonathan Landay in Washington. Warren Strobel and Yara Bayoumy contributed reporting from Washington; Edited by David Rohde and John Walcott)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
AMMAN The Syrian army has crossed the boundary of Raqqa province after advancing in a major Russian-backed offensive against Islamic State militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war, said on Saturday.

Heavy Russian air strikes hit Islamic State-held territory in eastern areas of Syria's Hama province, near the boundary of Raqqa province, on Friday and the army reached the edge of the province.

Raqqa city, further east, is Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria and, along with Mosul in Iraq, the ultimate target of those seeking to destroy the group's self-declared caliphate.

Syrian army spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

The Syrian army offensive is the third big assault on the self-proclaimed caliphate in recent days after Iraqi forces attempted to storm a city and a Syrian militia advanced with U.S. support.

The three big offensives are some of the most aggressive campaigns against Islamic State since it declared its aim to rule over all Muslims from parts of Iraq and Syria two years ago.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Alison Williams)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Beijing: China tightened security around Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Saturday on the 27th anniversary of the bloody military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests, pointing to the enduring sensitivity over the events among the Communist Party leadership.

Police checked IDs and searched the bags of anyone seeking to enter the environs of the vast public space in the center of the capital where thousands of students, workers and ordinary citizens gathered in 1989 to demand political reforms. Journalists from The Associated Press were stopped, filmed and ultimately forced to leave the area, ostensibly for lacking proper permission.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people were killed as tanks and troops converged on Beijing on the night of 3-4 June, 1989. The topic remains taboo in China and any form of commemoration, whether public or private, is banned.

Memorials were planned in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong and on the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan, where some former student leaders have found refuge.

The Taiwanese Cabinet office responsible for ties with China issued a statement urging Beijing to "face up and heal the historical scars of 4 June."

"We look forward to the Chinese mainland reevaluating the history of 4 June, valuing the will of the people and creating a fair, just and harmonious society through the building of institutions," the Mainland Affairs Council said in a news release.

Ahead of the anniversary, family members of those killed in the crackdown were placed under additional restrictions, either confined to their homes or forced to leave the capital. China's government has rejected their calls for an independent accounting of the events and those killed and maimed by soldiers.

At least half a dozen people have reportedly been detained in recent days for attempting to commemorate the events, although a small group wearing T-shirts condemning the crackdown converged on the square last Sunday. Among them was former house painter Qi Zhiyong, whose leg was amputated after he was shot by troops.

In Washington, the US State Department called for a "full public accounting of those killed, detained, or missing and for an end to censorship of discussions about the events of 4 June, 1989, as well as an end to harassment and detention of those who wish to peacefully commemorate the anniversary."

In a statement, it also urged the Chinese government to respect the rights and freedoms of all its citizens.

Asked Friday about the anniversary, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China had "long ago reached a clear conclusion about the political turmoil at the end of 1980s and other related issues."

China's explosive economic growth in the years that followed "proves that the path of socialism with Chinese characters we chose to follow ... is in line with the fundamental interests of the Chinese people, and it represents a wish shared by them all," Hua told reporters at a daily news briefing.
WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said a U.S. jobs report on Friday that showed the weakest hiring in more than five years proved that Democratic economic policies are pushing the country in the wrong direction.

The report gave Trump his biggest opening yet to target Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on the economy, after months of mostly solid economic indicators.

Its going the wrong way folks. Theyve been kidding themselves, theyre playing games. Its going the wrong way," Trump told a rally in Redding, California.

Clinton, the front-runner to be the Democratic nominee for the November 8 election, has credited President Barack Obama for reviving the U.S. economy after the 2008 recession but has also said that the recovery is not over.

In a CNN interview, Clinton acknowledged the figures were "disappointing to anybody."

"I think President Obama inherited a terrible situation and Ive said that repeatedly over the past year and weve come a long way out of the ditch we were dropped into by failed Republican policies," Clinton told CNN's Jake Tapper.

The unemployment rate in May fell three-tenths of a percentage point to 4.7 percent, the lowest level since November 2007, but that was in part due to people dropping out of the labor force. Overall, nonfarm payrolls increased by only 38,000 jobs in May.

If disappointing jobs reports continue, Trump could use Clinton's pledge to build on Obama's work against her to woo working-class voters in states such as Ohio. The state has lost well-paying manufacturing jobs and is also a key presidential battleground - closely competitive because it does not lean heavily Republican or Democratic.

CLINTON LEADS IN POLL

Clinton, a former secretary of state, is likely to finally clinch the Democratic nomination over challenger Bernie Sanders on Tuesday when six states hold nominating contests. One is California, the most populous U.S. state, with the most Democratic delegates of any other state and where both candidates have been campaigning heavily.

In a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday, some 46 percent of likely voters said they supported Clinton, while 35 percent said they supported Trump, and another 19 percent said they would not support either. The survey of 1,421 people was conducted between May 30 and June 3.

Trump, a real estate developer, has already sewn up the Republican nomination. In the general election campaign, job creation plans are expected to be a priority, particularly in states that have been hit hard by manufacturing-sector job losses.

Trump has promised to toss out international trade deals to revive U.S. manufacturing and sweep away a slew of environmental regulations to bolster the ailing energy sector.

Job creation in the manufacturing and construction sectors fell sharply in May, according to Friday's jobs report.

Trump has already begun working economic numbers into his stump speeches. He has said he could put 15 states that have voted for Democratic presidents in recent elections in play, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, which have all lost manufacturing-sector jobs.

Peter Morici, a conservative economist and professor in the business school at the University of Maryland, said the poor jobs numbers reflected trends that have driven voter frustration and fueled the populist campaigns of both Trump and Sanders.

He said Trump needed to add detail to his economic policies, such as detailing changes to social programs like Medicaid, which provides healthcare for the poor. "We can't just turn around and cut income taxes without doing something about those things," Morici said.

Republican strategists agreed that Friday's jobs report created an opportunity for Trump to differentiate his policies from Obama's or Clinton's.

"It allows Donald Trump to tout how he would do things differently as president and focus on some of the job-creation plans that he has," Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said, adding it would also allow Trump to talk about his record as a businessman.

Trump has been fleshing out his foreign policy ideas and has released a tax plan, but he has been light on other details, such as how he would oversee the U.S. financial system.

(Additional reporting by Chris Kahn in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Alistair Bell)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey Turkey declared a round-the-clock curfew in rural areas near the city of Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey on Saturday, ahead of a planned military operation targeting Kurdish militants, the provincial governor's office said.

The move came a day after Turkish security forces called an end to operations targeting Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters in the town of Nusaybin near the Syrian border and in Sirnak near the border with Iraq.

More than 1,000 people, mostly PKK fighters, have been killed in three months of clashes in those areas, security sources say. The fighting resumed in the largely Kurdish southeast last July after the collapse of a two-year-old ceasefire.

The latest curfew was declared at 10:30 am (0730 GMT) in 10 areas of Lice, in Diyarbakir province, where PKK militants including senior operatives were believed to be active, the statement said.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, launched its insurgency in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, now at its most intense level in two decades.

(Reporting by Seyhmus Cakan; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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2000 - 2022   24 .-   .       focus-news.net,                 () .                  24 .                 24      .       .       24 .
Costco Wholesale Corporation is one of the leading success stories in the retail industry today, but does that make its stock a buy? There are three reasons to think that it does and one to think that it doesn't.

There are few things more important than earnings when it comes to selecting stocks. But it's not necessarily how much a company earns that matters most; it's rather how quickly a company's earnings per share grow.

It's for this reason that Costco's stock comes across as so much more attractive than its principal brick-and-mortar peers Wal-Mart and Target . Costco's earnings per share have grown by an annual average of 13% over the past five years. That compares to 5.8% at Target and 0.44% at Wal-Mart.

COST Normalized Diluted EPS (TTM) data by YCharts.

Added to this, Costco still has a lot of room to run. You can see this by looking at its market capitalization -- the market value of its outstanding shares. Costco's market cap is $65 billion. That's nothing to shake a stick at when you consider that Target's market cap is $41 billion, but it's nevertheless a fraction of Wal-Mart's $223 billion.

Because it's so much harder for big companies to grow, this suggests that Costco's rapid expansion could continue. The consensus estimate among analysts calls for Costco's earnings per share to grow by an average of 12% annually over the next two years. That's almost twice the expected 7% annual growth rate for Wal-Mart and comfortably above the forecasted 9% growth rate for Target.

These three points make a strong case for Costco's stock. Added to this, its business model seems to be more immune to competition from online retailers relative to either Wal-Mart or Target. By selling in bulk, keeping margins as narrow as possible, and focusing heavily on foodstuffs, Costco has thus far been able to avoid a head-on competition with Amazon.com.

As the old adage goes, however, there are no free lunches. If you want to pick up Costco's stock, you're going to have to pay up for it. Its price-to-earnings ratio is 28.5, meaning that you have to pay $28.50 for every $1 in Costco's earnings.

By this measure, Costco's stock is meaningfully more expensive than either Wal-Mart or Target's. The former's P/E ratio is 15.6 while the latter's ratio is 12.7. This is the reason some investors might choose to avoid Costco stock.

It's hard to deny that Costco's stock is expensive. Even if you factor in its faster growth rate, it still trades for a pretty penny. Yet, it you're looking for a long-term play on the American consumer, it's hard to find a better way to get the desired exposure without the concomitant risk that Amazon will someday syphon off that growth for itself.

The article 3 Reasons to like Costco's Stock, and 1 Reason to Avoid It originally appeared on Fool.com.

John Maxfield has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon.com and Costco Wholesale. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
There's been plenty of buzz about chipmaker Qualcomm making a big acquisition to diversify its core business away from mobile chips, where it has beenlosing market share to cheaper challengers like MediaTek and first-party chips from Samsung, Huawei, and other OEMs.

Two potential targets that analysts have frequently suggested are Xilinx and NXP Semiconductors . Let's discuss how feasible it would be for Qualcomm -- which finished last quarter with $30 billion in cash andmarketable securities -- to acquire either company.

Image source: Qualcomm.

Why should Qualcomm buy Xilinx?

Xilinx, which has an enterprise value of $10 billion, is the biggest maker of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)inthe world. FPGAs are more flexible than traditional application processors, since they can be reprogrammed for a wide range of devices like servers, connected cars, smart appliances, and airplanes.

Xilinx's only meaningful rival in the FPGA market was Altera, which Intel acquired fornearly $17 billion last year. Buying Altera strengthened Intel's data center and Internet of Things (IoT) business, because pairing FPGAs with its x86 processors accelerated workloads and made its chip combinations more customizable for customers.

Qualcomm plans to challenge Intel in both the data center and IoT markets. Qualcomm recently unveiled 64-bit ARM-licensed data center chips to challenge Intel's industry-standard Xeons, which command about 99% of the market. To counter Intel's pairing of Xeons with Altera FPGAs, Qualcomm partnered withXilinx to pair its data center chips with the latter's FPGAs.

In the IoT market, Qualcomm has already launched a wide variety of chips for wearables, connected cars, drones, cameras, smart appliances, and other gadgets. Qualcomm acquired IoT chipmaker CSR last year for $2.4 billion to accelerate that expansion, and over1 billion IoT devices are now powered by its chips. Pairing Xilinx's FPGAs with these chips canenhance their overall security and allay fears about hacked cars and smart homes.

Why should Qualcomm buy NXP?

NXP, which has an enterprise value of $31 billion, would be a much bigger acquisition. The Dutch chipmaker becamethe world's largest manufacturer of automotive chips after its $12 billion acquisition of rival Freescale last year, which puts it in a solid position to capitalize on the growth of connected and driverless cars. NXP also recently launched BlueBox, a turnkey computing platform for autonomous cars. NXP's platform consumes much less power than its closest competitor, NVIDIA's Drive PX platform.

Image source: NXP.

NVIDIA gained an early lead in the connected-car market by pivoting its Tegra mobile chips away from smartphones and toward car infotainment systems. It's now trying to build upon that first-mover advantage with end-to-end autonomous solutions like Drive PX. Qualcomm recently launched a new line of Snapdragon A-series chips with integrated LTE modems to counter NVIDIA, but it needs a game-changing boost -- like buying NXP -- to truly knock NVIDIAoff balance.

Qualcomm and NXP are already partnered in near-field communication (NFC) chips, which generate a large portion of the latter's secure connected devices (SCD) revenue. The partnership focuses on integrating NXP's NFC technologies into Qualcomm's Snapdragon SoCs. NXP also sells NFC chips to Apple, so buying NXP would boost Qualcomm's content share in iPhones beyond baseband modems, where Intel has emerged as a potential threat.

But which acquisition makes more sense?

Qualcomm generated $25.3 billion in revenue in 2015. Buying either Xilinx or NXP would immediately beef up its QCT (chipmaking) business, which generated $17.2 billion of that total. Xilinx's revenue is expected to improve 5.5% to $2.3 billion this year, while NXP's revenue (boosted by the Freescale acquisition) isexpected to rise 56.3% to $9.5 billion.

Analysts expect Xilinx to grow its annual earnings about 4.6% over the next five years, which gives it a five-year PEG ratio of 4.8. NXP is expected to post 24.8% annual earnings growth during that same period, which gives it a much cheaper five-year PEG ratio of 0.6. Since a PEG ratio less than 1 is considered undervalued, Qualcomm could get a good deal on NXP today even if it has to pay a big acquisition premium.

Moreover, Qualcomm already holds a key FPGA partnership with Xilinx, so it could already reap those benefits without buying the company. But if it buys NXP, it would gain the ability to bundle various automotive chips and solutions together to undercut ambitious competitors like NVIDIA. I'm not saying that Qualcomm will buy NXP anytime soon, but it certainly looks like a smarter purchase than Xilinx for now.

The article Will Qualcomm Inc. Buy Either of These 2 Companies? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Leo Sun owns shares of QCOM. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends AAPL, NVDA, NXPI, and QCOM. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on AAPL and short January 2018 $95 calls on AAPL. The Motley Fool recommends INTC. 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.
Everybody loves a cheap stock. Everybody loves a stock that earns big profits.

It's finding the cheap stock that also earns the big profits that is the real trick. Birds of these two particular feathers don't often flock together. But if you know where to look, and how to look, you just might get lucky enough to find one.

And in fact, I just found five.

Earlier this week, I was handed the not-easy task of digging up five stocks, each costing less than $5 per share, that might be worth an investor's time to take a look at, with an eye to buying. Not much came immediately to mind, but fortunately, I knew where to look for some ideas.

You see, the bright lads over at finviz.com have developed a free stock screener that's tailor-made for this purpose. Inputting parameters, I instructed the screener to show me stocks of reasonable size ($300 million in market capitalization and up), positive growth projections, and positive free cash flow as well. I was quickly presented with a list of five stocks that might fit the bill. Here they are for your review, in order of (how I perceive) their attractiveness.

Seadrill Partners LLC

Seadrill Partners owns and operates offshore drilling units in the employ of oil and gas companies. Given the state of the oil market, you won't be surprised to learn that the stock doesn't cost much today. Seadrill Partners stock is cheap, in fact, because it's lost 68% of its value over the past year. And yet, the company is both profitable and paying a dividend -- currently estimated at the probably unsustainable rate of 39.7%, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

So why do I place it first (and therefore worst) on this list? Here's Lesson 1 in using a stock screener: You'll sometimes be surprised not so much by the stocks that your screen generates, but by the things you forgot to screen for. In Seadrill's case, the "thing" in question is debt. Seadrill looks cheap because it has a market cap of only $450 million. But it's not as cheap as it looks because the stock also carries $3.6 billion in debt -- nearly nine times its own market cap.

Next stock, please.

Cliffs Natural Resources

Bachelor No. 2 on today's list is another beaten-down commodities play, this time an iron miner by the name of Cliffs Natural Resources . Cliffs flew high when the commodities boom was in full swing and China's economy was firing on all cylinders. Neither of those is the case today.

Profitable and generating plenty of cash like Seadrill, Cliffs also resembles Seadrill in a less savory respect: It has suffered a steep decline in stock price, losing 43% of its value over the past 52 weeks. Also like Seadrill, Cliffs carries a heaping helping of debt -- $2.6 billion in this case, against a $530 million market cap.

Plus, Cliffs pays no dividend at all. Pass.

SUPERVALU

We're halfway through our list now, and things are finally starting to get interesting as we drive up to wholesale and retail grocer SUPERVALU. Like Cliffs just above, SUPERVALU is a dividend-less, debt-laden mess of a company. Unlike either Cliffs or Seadrill, however, it's in a business much less topsy-turvy than commodities.

SUPERVALUboasts respectable profits, a low P/E ratio of just 7.1, and strong free cash flow of $163 million for the past 12 months -- enough to back up more than 91% of reported GAAP earnings. Analysts surveyed by finviz see the company growing its profits at only 3.5% annually over the next five years, but more current data from S&P Global shows that growth rate beginning to perk up to perhaps as high as 6% over the next five years.

The stock's not an obvious bargain yet, but it's worth keeping an eye on. With a bit less debt, and a bit faster growth -- or an even lower stock price -- this one could become a contender.

AU Optronics

Moving now into the tech sphere, things begin to get even more interesting as we arrive at AU Optronics , a Taiwanese maker of flat-panel displays for use in televisions, computer monitors, and electronic devices.

AU Optronics has been hit hard by worries that the smartphone market is slowing, and by the fact that folks aren't buying new TVs and computers as fast as they once were. That said, the company's balance sheet is in fine fettle with $3.3 billion in debt largely covered by $2.3 billion in reserve cash.

AU Optronics isn't currently profitable, as GAAP accounting standards calculate such things. Regardless, the company generated $565 million in positive free cash flow over the past year. At $2.5 billion in market cap, that means the stock sells for just 4.4 times FCF. Analysts on S&P Global see the stock growing profitability at about 10% annually over the next five years, which suggests the stock is really cheap today. Even if they're wrong about that, though, the company's 4.1% dividend yield is almost enough to justify the price even if earnings grow not at all.

Sirius XM Holdings

And finally: Sirius XM . On the up side, this is the stock with probably the best name recognition of any of the five stocks discussed so far. It's also -- and perhaps for that very reason -- arguably the priciest. At least from a P/E perspective, the stock is valued at nearly 40 times earnings.

Sirius has several advantages over the other stocks discussed above, however. For example, it's both incredibly free cash flow positive and GAAP positive, in contrast to AU Optronics. Reported earnings for the past 12 months come in at $575 million, and real free cash flow is roughly twice that at $1.2 billion. Valued on its free cash flow, Sirius sells for a multiple of just 16.8, comfortably below its 26% projected long-term growth rate.

Of the five stocks suggested by finviz's screener, I think it's a toss-up as to whether AU Optronics or Sirius XM is the best bet for investors. AU Optronics will probably appeal more to value investors, and its strong dividend kicker is attractive to folks seeking a steady income. Sirius, on the other hand, is by far the faster grower -- and its valuation looks pretty attractive, too.

Depending on whether you're looking to add value, income, or growth to your portfolio, I think either stock could make a very nice candidate.

The article 5 Top Stocks Under $5 originally appeared on Fool.com.

Rich Smithdoes not own shares of, nor is he short, any company named above. You can find him onMotley Fool CAPS, publicly pontificating under the handleTMFDitty, where he's currently ranked No. 299 out of more than 75,000 rated members.The Motley Fool owns shares of Cliffs Natural Resources. The Motley Fool recommends Supervalu. 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: AGRIUM CORPORATE WEBSITE.

In October 2014, activist hedge fundValueAct Capital disclosed a 5.7% stake inAgrium.

Since then, the company has rewarded shareholders with mounting cash flows, growing dividends, and massive share repurchases. With $2.1 billion in EBITDA last year, Agrium was able to return over $1 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends, nearly 10% of its market cap. Since 2013, it's roughly doubled its free cash flow generation.

With multiple secular tailwinds behind it, this could be just the beginning.

Diversified profit streams

Agrium has built a unique business in what historically has been a volatileagriculturalcommodities market. Many of Agrium's competitors are reliant on a single product source that constitutes a majority of sales. For example, a large majority of bothPotashCorp andMosaic Co.'s sales come from potash alone.

Agrium, meanwhile, is much more diversified, with no single product constituting a majority of sales. In 2015, earnings were split fairly evenly between nitrogen, potash, crop-protection chemicals, and other nutrients. The company also has exposure to seeds, phosphates, and other services.

Since 2008, potash prices have fallen by over 50%, pushing most producers close to breakeven territory; PotashCorp posted a $1.2 billion profit last year, its lowest in over five years. Accordingly, shares of less diversified agricultural input producers fell by 60% or more. Agrium, meanwhile, saw its net income grow to $988 million from $798 million a year before, pushing its stock price to new highs. The company benefited from strong earnings in crop protection chemicals, seeds, and high-margin agricultural services.

In today's volatile commodities environment, Agrium's diversified operating model is paying off big.

An extensive distribution network

Agrium's diversified portfolio makes it the largest global retail distributor of crop inputs in an industry where scale matters. The company has over 1,500 retail and wholesale locations spread across both Canada and the United States. It also has a sprawling network through some of South America and most of Australia. These locations are able to offer crop inputs and services for over 50 different crops.

This network is a unique advantage; fertilizer production peers such as PotashCorp and Mosaic lack an existing retail distribution network. Whereas Agrium management has observed peers spending a significant amount of capital to build new distribution centers, Agrium can rely on its industry-dominating connection of existing infrastructure to serve customers faster and more fully.

Sustaining capital expenditures are expected to fall from a 2014 high of $2 billion to just $550 million next year. This situation should open up an additional $1.5 billion in additional cash flow to be doled out to shareholders.

Room to grow

In the U.S. retail market, Agrium has a leading market share of 17%, with the nearest competitor coming in at only 7%. The company's international operations have even greater market shares closer to about 30%.

While Agrium is the clear market leader, there are still significant opportunities for the company to grow both organically and through acquisitions. For example, 30% of the U.S. market is serviced through small, independent providers. Another 25% is serviced by farmer co-ops. This means that over half of the market could benefit by connecting to Agrium's sprawling, full-service retail locations.

Agrium has also been able to buy a significant amount of smaller competitors, unlocking value by connecting themto its existing distribution network. Since 2010 the company has purchased 272 locations, adding $1.7 billion in sales and $174 million in EBITDA.

IMAGE SOURCE: AGRIUM CORPORATE PRESENTATION.

Just the beginningAll of the benefits Agrium currently enjoys should only strengthen in the coming years. The company has plenty of room to continue consolidating the fragmented retail market, adding to its leadership position. Meanwhile, demand for crop nutrients has never been higher, and Agrium's diversified model mitigates the effect of price swings in any one commodity.

Long-term investors of any style should view Agrium as a strong option. Mounting free cash flows should allow for consistent dividend increases, while growth tailwinds and share buybacks should continue to grow earnings per share for years to come.

The article Agrium Inc.: It's Only Just Beginning originally appeared on Fool.com.

RyanVanzo has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
When the final investment decision was made for Gorgon in 2009, the outlook for LNG was bright. China was growing furiously and needed clean energy for its environment. Other nations with major economies but few energy resources also needed natural gas. The big supermajors all wanted in. Chevron became the operator of the project and owns 47.3%. ExxonMobil owns 25%, while Royal Dutch Shell owns 25%.

However, Gorgon has experienced substantial setbacks. Because of its geography, located 60 kilometers off of Australia's coast, the engineering challenges associated with the megaproject have been enormous, and Gorgonis $17 billions of dollars over budget, with an estimated cost of $54 billion versus the originally anticipated $37 billion.The project also recently ran into some mechanical issues in Train 1 that might cost operator Chevron an additional $50 million to $100 million to fix and cost its owners an opportunity cost of $250 million to $300 million in delayed revenues. With its costs growing, can Gorgon still deliver value?

Australia's Gorgon LNG is one of the largest liquefied natural gas projects in the world. When complete, the Gorgon is expected to produce 15.6 million metric tons of LNG a year and last for 40 years. For Australia, the Gorgon was supposed to add hundreds of billions of dollars to Australia's GDP and employ thousands of people. For the companies that invested, Gorgon was supposed to be one of the cornerstones of their LNG portfolios and deliver long-lasting shareholder value.

Seven years later, the outlook for LNG is not as great. Demand from China is no longer as strong because of the country's economic slowdown. Japan's demand might decline as nuclear reactors come back online. Meanwhile, the low U.S. natural gas prices caused by horizontal drilling have led to the potential for massive U.S. LNG exports.

The confluence of factors has caused LNG spot prices to decline to under $5 per Mcf from the previous double-digit-dollar marks. Making matters worse is that the previous promising environment caused a massive amount of supply to be commissioned, and much of that will come onto the market over the next few years. The additional supply could send LNG spot prices even lower.

The spot-price declines have made selling the long-term contracts harder.Due to the challenging environment, some of the new long-term contracts will provide less revenue. Chevron's older contracts were estimated at 25 years in length and benchmarked to 14.85% of a barrel of Brent crude, with an additional $0.50 to $1 premium.

Now the terms are less generous. Chevron's new deals since December are estimated to be 12.2% to 12.3% of crude oil in addition to a small fee. The deals are estimated to have a floor price and be 10 years in duration.

Higher crude prices will save the project

There is still a case for optimism, however. Although the LNG spot price and crude prices have dissociated, the majority of LNG sales from Gorgon are indexed to crude. The higher crude prices go,the more that those oil-indexed long term contracts earn. Although crude prices are still low, crude prices could rebound substantially because the supply and-demand picture for the commodity has improved. U.S. oil production has fallen around 100,000 barrels per day while OPEC production has dropped because of geopolitical disturbances. Goldman Sachs noted on May 15 that the market is currently in deficit because of the geopolitical disturbances in Nigeria and elsewhere. When excluding the disturbances, many market participants believe the market will reach balance by the end of the year.

The long life of Gorgon is also a positiveMany in the industry believe that demand for LNG is favorable in the long run because of emerging-market growth.Although prices aren't favorable now, the market will improve, as many proposed LNG projects have been canceled and as economic growth in Asia-Pacific countries accelerate again.

The bottom line is that although Gorgon is troubled, the project's long life and the rising crude prices will eventually justify its full-cycle costs. Because much of the capital expense for Gorgon has already been invested, the subsequent cash flow realized when Gorgon comes online this year and next will be very welcome for the three supermajors that currently either barely cover or don't cover their dividends with their cash flow at current Brent prices.

The article Can This Troubled LNG Project Still Deliver for Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Royal Dutch Shell?
Image source: Universal Orlando.

The incentive to plan ahead on your next theme-park outing just got a bit more lucrative. Universal Studios' parent Comcast jacked up its one-day admission prices for Universal Orlando last weekend if you're a procrastinator. Folks who buy their tickets at the front gate will now be paying $119 for adults and $114 for young kids, $14 more than the Comcast-owned resort was charging before.

Tickets that include access to both Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure -- a necessity for anyone wanting to check out the Hogwarts Express train ride that connects both Harry Potter-themed areas -- also went up $14, to $169 for adults and $164 for children.

This is part of Universal's shift to demand-based pricing, something that larger-rival Disney did a few miles away at Disney World in late February, breaking up its operating calendar into different pricing tiers based on seasonality. The move was seen as a dramatic increase -- and it's for summer and holiday visitors who will be paying as much as 18% more now -- but it's ultimately about supply, demand, and ideally shifting cost-conscious tourists to visit on days when the parks aren't as crowded.

The park is worse than its bite

An important distinction here is that this particular increase at Universal Orlando is only going to hurt the pocketbooks of day guests who just show up at the park without pre-purchased tickets. The new pricing doesn't come into play for folks buying their tickets online, or multi-day tickets. That wasn't the case at Disney, where the prices went up to reflect the new tiers no matter how they were purchased.

This doesn't mean that Universal Orlando is being modest. In fact, it already pushed its admissions higher four months ago. This would be Comcast's second increase in 2016; though again, it doesn't apply to folks who will be buying their tickets ahead of time.

Comcast can afford to be cocky. Universal Orlando has been growing a lot faster than Disney World in recent years. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter -- introduced at Islands of Adventure in 2010, and expanded into Universal Studios Florida two years ago -- has been a game changer.

Feature 2009 Attendance 2015 Attendance Change Magic Kingdom 17,233,000 20,492,000 18.9% Epcot 10,990,000 11,798,000 7.4% Animal Kingdom 9,590,000 10,922,000 13.9% Hollywood Studios 9,700,000 10,822,000 11.6% Universal Studios Florida 5,530,000 9,585,000 73.3% Islands of Adventure 4,627,000 8,792,000 90%

Data source: Themed Entertainment Association.

The bottom line is that, both Disney and Comcast stand to make a lot of money this summer by charging substantially more for day guests. Disney and Comcast have big problems to tackle with their larger subsidiaries. Disney investors are concerned about ESPN subscribers defecting, and Comcast is struggling to keep its cable-television subscribers satisfied.

However, both companies are going to have a strong season on the theme-park front. You can hear the registers ringing already.

The article Disney World Isn't the Only One Raising Prices This Summer originally appeared on Fool.com.

Rick Munarriz owns shares of Walt Disney. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Walt Disney. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Converting fleets of forklifts to function on fuel cells is no easy task -- somethingPlug Power knows well. Since its IPO in 1999, the company has yet to electrify its investors' returns. Nonetheless, the company is powering on in pursuit of profits. Let's look at some of the competition standing in its way.

In control

Plug Power has made some inroads in proving the viability of its fuel-cell solution formaterial handling equipment, signing deals with large companies such asHome DepotandWal-Mart.

Image source: Enersys.

But to continue doing so, the company must overcome stalwart power companies that are deeply entrenched in the market -- companies such as Enersys . Producing traditional lead-acid batteries, Enersys is a well-known name in the industry. Of the $2.5 billion in net sales that Enersys reported in fiscal 2015, about 44%, or $1.1 billion, came solely from sales to the forklift market.If Plug Power's plight in the face of Enersys is an uphill challenge, it could grow to an up-mountain challenge should a particular rumor come true. In late 2015, speculation arose that power specialist Johnson Controls was in talks to acquire Enersys. Although Johnson Controls doesn't service the material handling equipment market, it does specialize in lead-acid batteries for other applications. Furthermore, it's working to expand its power-solutions segment following its exit from the automotive-interiors business.

Fuel-cell foe

Perhaps Plug Power's most direct fuel-cell competitor is Hyster-Yale Materials Handling , which in late 2014 acquired Nuvera Fuel Cells. Like Plug Power, Nuvera develops fuel-cell systems, hydrogen storage and delivery systems, and aftermarket solutions.Whereas Plug Power began commercializing its products years ago, Nuvera is still wet behind the ears. According to Hyster-Yale, Nuvera began early stage production of its PowerEdge unit in late 2015. The company secured its first total power-solution agreement with a company in Q4 2015, and it expects to begin shipping PowerEdge units to the customer in the first half of 2016.

Image source: Nuvera.

There is one noteworthy difference between the two companies. Unlike Nuvera, Plug Power is much more reliant on third parties for its operations: Ballard Power Systemssupplies the fuel-cell stacks in Plug Power's GenDrive units; Praxair supplies the hydrogen. Nuvera's ability to be more self-reliant mitigates risks to which Plug Power is exposed. In addition, Nuvera's vertical integration may afford it lower production costs than Plug Power, thereby enabling it to eventually offer a more cost-competitive product to prospective customers.

Everyone else

Plug Power's task -- deploying its fuel-cell systems -- is daunting in light of the various competition it faces. In fact, the company identifiesvirtually all businesses tangentially related to energy and power as potential competitors: major oil companies, specialized electronics firms, and universities, just to name a few.Enersys and Hyster-Yale are two significant challengers, but these are just the big dogs; Plug Power has plenty of smaller dogs nipping at its heels as well.

Lead-acid battery manufacturers are one group with which Plug Power is competing. With firm footholds in the market, these manufacturers provide the security of a traditional energy source that is familiar and trusted. According toIan McClenny, a research associate with Navigant Research,"The use of lead-acid batteries for Class 1, 2, and 3 forklifts trucks often presents a lower first cost price point for materials handling decision-makers." Undoubtedly, some businesses are reluctant to invest in newer technologies -- unwilling to wait for an adequate return on their investments.There is a variety of smaller lithium-ion and fuel-cell suppliers that also represent competition. But it's not just the battery and fuel-cell manufacturers; there are numerous companies that just offer recharging solutions. For example, AeroVironment , mostly known for drones, also provides solutions for forklift operations. According to the company's website, the PosiCharge ProCore Series is a "premium intelligent charging family that supports and charges any forklift battery -- regardless of type, brand, chemistry, voltage, or size."Granted, the efficient energy systems segment, where the PosiCharge business is found, accounts for a small portion -- 15% in fiscal 2015 -- of the company's overall revenue, but it is just one of many businesses that is vying with Plug Power.

Tale of the tape

Simply put: No, Plug Power is not blowing away the competition. Though it deserves praise for what it has accomplished -- presenting fuel-cell technology as a viable option for powering forklifts -- the company still has miles to go before well-established companies like Enersys perceive it as a threat.Of the companies that provide fuel-cell solutions, Plug Power is certainly one ofthe leaders, and, as it's a pure play in the fuel-cell market, some investors may find the company compelling. However, one would be remiss to consider an investment in Plug Power without taking a thorough look at its competition. Varied as this competition may be, the companies have one thing in common: They represent a material threat to Plug Power's success whereas Plug Power doesn't do thesame for them.

The article Is Fuel-Cells Leader Plug Power Overpowering the Competition? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Scott Levine has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Johnson Controls, Inc.. The Motley Fool recommends AeroVironment, Home Depot, and Hyster-Yale Materials Handling. 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: SolarCity.

Solar leases, or power purchase agreements, have been the dominant financing method for years now in the residential solar market. And they were a great idea when the cost of a solar system could run $30,000, $40,000, or more -- few consumers had the cash to pay for a system that expensive. In the early days, few banks wanted to finance small solar projects, and even fewer homeowners could adequately use the tax benefits associated with solar in the U.S.

The solar lease was an answer to all of those problems, and it drove companies like SolarCity , Sunrun , and Vivint Solar to rapid growth and the 1 million solar installations we have in the U.S. today. But the lease doesn't make sense long term, and its days are numbered, which could cause a lot of upheaval in the solar industry.

Why the solar lease is doomed

Solar industry observers have been pondering the future of solar financing for years. In 2014, GTM Research said leasing was hitting its peak in terms of market share and would eventually be overtaken by loans or cash purchases. I've been questioning the leasing model for years now. And now The Wall Street Journal is sayingthe future is loans.

To understand why this transformation is happening and what it means for the solar industry, let's look at a few keys to solar financing models and why loans will win long term.

Customers can now finance their own solar. Under lease agreements, you don't own your solar system, you often can't choose components, and customers are usually agreeing to pay for solar energy for 20 years. Loans give flexibility on components, make the process more competitive for installers, and allows for the solar system to be an asset rather than a liability in a home sale (which I'll cover in a moment). Leases were all about educating customers and providing access to go solar, and loans are all about choice, which is what will win long term.

Under lease agreements, you don't own your solar system, you often can't choose components, and customers are usually agreeing to pay for solar energy for 20 years. Loans give flexibility on components, make the process more competitive for installers, and allows for the solar system to be an asset rather than a liability in a home sale (which I'll cover in a moment). Leases were all about educating customers and providing access to go solar, and loans are all about choice, which is what will win long term. Self-financing solar is cheaper than a lease. One of the reasons a small number of solar installers became very big over the past few years is because leasing requires scale. Investors providing tax equity, aggregation facilities, or securitization financing want hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to make the investment worth their while, squeezing smaller players out. Plus, installers have to cut solar systems into pieces and sell the pieces to different investors, making the value components complicated. Loans are much simpler, come with low rates(as low as 2.99% for SolarCity's new loan), and are ultimately lower cost than 20-year leasing agreements.

One of the reasons a small number of solar installers became very big over the past few years is because leasing requires scale. Investors providing tax equity, aggregation facilities, or securitization financing want hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to make the investment worth their while, squeezing smaller players out. Plus, installers have to cut solar systems into pieces and sell the pieces to different investors, making the value components complicated. Loans are much simpler, come with low rates(as low as 2.99% for SolarCity's new loan), and are ultimately lower cost than 20-year leasing agreements. Smaller installers can bring lower costs to rooftop solar. I mentioned large players dominate residential solar, which is very strange in any construction business. The construction industry, which is what residential solar installation business will become, is dominated by small, local companies who are nimble, have lower overhead costs, and know the local landscape. They're already starting to bring lower costs to the solar industry in many places, and that will likely continue, putting pressure on national companies with a lot of overhead.

I mentioned large players dominate residential solar, which is very strange in any construction business. The construction industry, which is what residential solar installation business will become, is dominated by small, local companies who are nimble, have lower overhead costs, and know the local landscape. They're already starting to bring lower costs to the solar industry in many places, and that will likely continue, putting pressure on national companies with a lot of overhead. Who want to buy a home with an old solar lease?Many solar companies would point to the fact that they have little trouble transferring leases today as a sign that defaults on solar leases will be low long into the future, but that's a questionable assumption. The cost reductions solar companies have experienced lately have mostly led to them expanding their markets, not passing savings on to customers. Loans will likely lead to lower costs (as I mentioned above) for customers, and as costs come down in the future, those savings will continue to be passed onto customers. Other than for the environment, if you're buying a home, why agree to take on a 10- or 15-year-old lease at rates decided when the original contract was signed and get old equipment, when you could pay less for a brand-new solar system today? Especially when you consider you have absolutely no equity in the solar lease. An owned solar system is an asset, while a lease is a liability to new homeowners. That will be a big part of the lease downfall.

Logically, it makes sense that loans will be the dominant financing method for rooftop solar long term, just like they are with automobiles. And it'll help make the industry more price competitive, which will be good for buyers as well.

Image source: SunPower.

Where the big boys will play a role in solar

What solar loans really do is level the playing field in rooftop solar. A small, local installer can compete with a large national company for customers, something it couldn't usually do with leases. And that's notable. It also makes pricing and component quality much more transparent, something that wasn't the case with leases.

This could be a huge negative for SolarCity and Vivint Solar, who use commodity equipment that local installers can use as well. Ironically, working with local installers was Sunrun's original strategy until the last few years, when it began building up its own installation team, something that may backfire.

I think component companies that provide differentiated solutions to these local installers will be the biggest winners. SunPower has always used local installers and provides quoting tools along with fully engineered systems, making their jobs easier. About 70% of SunPower's residential installations have been cash or loan sales in recent years, so this could be a positive trend for the company. I could see Canadian Solar taking a similar strategy with micro-inverters and a more complete design solution, but it isn't quite as advanced as SunPower in that space today.

New product offerings in solar will be worth watching as well. Where a company like SolarCity or SunPower may develop an advantage is in integrating energy storage and demand response into their systems. Maybe that will be a way to differentiate on more than price?

Prepare for the end of the solar lease

If leases decline significantly over the next few years, as I think they will, it will cause a major strategic shift within the solar industry. And companies too reliant on leases could be left in the dust. That's something to consider as you look at earnings reports from residential solar companies throughout the year. Not everyone will adapt quickly enough to survive.

The article The Next Solar Shakeup: Death of the Solar Lease originally appeared on Fool.com.

Travis Hoium owns shares of SunPower. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends SolarCity. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Oil barely budged this week, closing down less than 2% and just below $48.50 per barrel. That was actually a surprisingly tame response to another failed OPEC meeting, after the organization couldn't come to an agreement on a production ceiling. OPEC's failure didn't seem to faze oil stocks, many of which rallied sharply this week.

According toS&P Global Market Intelligencedata, among the best-performing energy stocks this week wereEXCO Resources , Energy Transfer Equity , NGL Energy Partners , Enerplus , and Capital Product Partners .

There wasn't one specific catalyst that fueled these strong gains. Energy Transfer Equity, for example, jumped because its merger partner is reportedly open to considering a restructured deal to save their failing merger. Meanwhile, Enerplus closed on its equity offering, which brought in some much-needed cash to pay down debt and fund capital expenditures.

EXCO Resources and NGL Energy Partners, on the other hand, seemed to rally mainly due to a follow-through from news announced last week, though NGL Energy Partners was also upgraded by an analyst. That said, Capital Product Partners really didn't have any specific catalyst fueling its big move, other than the fact that the oil and capital markets are starting to show signs of improvement, which bodes well for the company's future.

To learn more about why these stocks moved so sharply, check out the following slideshow.

Oil & Gas Stock Roundup: Who Needs OPEC? from

The article Oil & Gas Stock Roundup: Who Needs OPEC? (XCO, ETE, CPLP, ERF, NGL) originally appeared on Fool.com.

Matt DiLallo has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Retiring comfortably, and on your own terms, is the quintessential American dream. Unfortunately, this dream is seemingly becoming tougher than ever to achieve.

According to a survey commissioned by Wells Fargoand conducted by Harris Poll in 2014, the median middle-class household has just $20,000 saved for retirement. This also includes the 34% of respondents who weren't contributing anything to retirement savings plans, and were instead choosing to simply work longer or save later. You could arguably say that Americans, as a whole, may have a retirement problem on their hands.

The perfect retirement strategy for seniors in their 60s

There's a simple, but perfect, retirement strategy that can be implemented to ensure that people in their 60s stay on track, regardless of whether they're readying to retire, or they've hung up their work gloves for good. Best of all, while this perfect retirement strategy has five critical components, the path you take remains unique to your financial needs.

Here's what the perfect retirement strategy looks like.

1. Retirement/transition budget laid out

The first thing seniors in their 60s need to have in place is a working monthly budget.

Image source: Pixabay.

A budget should be something you've prepared on a monthly basis for decades, but it keeps its importance during retirement, even if you're not necessarily looking to funnel a lot of money toward investment accounts. The reason for this is that your income during retirement will likely drop off from what you were earning when you had a job. For some retirees, it can be difficult to make this sudden transition to a lower-income environment, causing them to potentially burn through their retirement savings at a faster rate than they'd anticipated.

The solution is twofold. First, you should use budgeting software, as well as a handful of these pertinent tips, to improve your saving habits. Avoiding the temptation of overspending and thinking long term are especially important tips during retirement, with the average 60-year-old having a life expectancy of greater than two decades lying ahead.

Secondly, consider a transition into your retirement budget from the budget used during your working years. This might mean slowly adjusting to a lower spending environment months, or even years, in advance. However, when you do decide to retire, you'll remove the income shock that can sometimes accompany leaving your job.

2. Continue investing for the future

Secondly, you'll really want to consider continuing to invest for your future. Life expectancies have risen by nine years over the past five decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, thanks to improved health education and pharmaceutical products. If we're living longer than ever, it means we need our money to last longer, too. This means continuing to build upon what we've been saving and investing for decades.

What's the best way for seniors in their 60s to invest? There's certainly no one-size-fits-all strategy, because the answer to this question depends on your risk tolerance and lifestyle; but a smart strategy is likely going to include at least a portion of your retirement nest egg remaining invested in high-quality stocks. While the stock market does have its moments of volatility, it's also been one of the best historical wealth creators, with an average annual rate of return of roughly 7%, including dividend reinvestment. If the stock market continued to return 7%, you may be able to double your money twice during retirement.

Curious about what stocks could be right for retirees in their 60s? Here are three examples of solid companies that could offer everything a senior in their 60s could be looking for in an investment.

3. Withdrawal plan firmly in place

The perfect retirement strategy also needs to take tax implications into consideration. On top of saving and investing, you'd like, in theory, to keep as much as possible of the money you earn via wages, Social Security, and/or your retirement accounts. The optimal way to do this is to have a clear withdrawal plan in place prior to retiring.

What should you know? The key factors to keep in mind include how much you plan to withdraw from your retirement accounts each year, as well as what your federal and state tax implications might be. For instance, all 50 states seemingly have different rules regarding what sort of retirement income is taxable. Some states give retirees a pass, while other states have no income exemptions when it comes to taxing retirement income (which can include Social Security benefits).

Additionally, withdrawing money from a tax-deferred retirement account, such as a 401(k), can directly impact how much you owe the federal government come tax time. While it might seem like fun to take out large sums, it could come back to bite you in April every year. Having a withdrawal plan which works hand-in-hand with your retirement budget will allow you to optimally withdraw your money so as to avoid paying more in taxes than you need to. This helps your money stretch even longer.

One final note here: A Roth IRA remains a smart consideration at pretty much any age. Money invested in a Roth IRA over the long term doesn't count toward your annual income, making it a completely tax-free retirement tool. Plus, with a Roth IRA, there are no age restrictions on contributions, or minimum-distribution requirements.

4. Social Security strategy chalked out

Another key aspect of the perfect retirement strategy is understanding the ramifications of your decision on when to file for Social Security benefits. With 59% of current retirees claiming that Social Security makes up a major source of their incomes in Gallup's Oct. 2015 poll, it's arguably one of the most-important decisions you'll ever make -- and it's all based on your financial needs.

Consumers really have three choices to make: file early (age 62-64); wait for their full retirement age (FRA) (age 65-67); or wait until after their FRA (age 68-70). Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Filing for benefits early means gaining access to added income as early as age 62. For seniors looking to pay down debt, wealthier individuals who want to travel and aren't reliant on Social Security benefits, or sicker folks, claiming benefits early might make sense. However, those people claiming early need to understand that they'll be receiving less than 100% of their FRA for life, which isn't necessarily optimal if Social Security is your primary source of income.

On the flip side, waiting until after your FRA can really juice up your monthly payment potential. Social Security benefits grow by 8% for each year that you hold off on signing up, culminating in a maximum benefit payment by age 70. Waiting can be a smart strategy for couples with a higher-earning spouse, or persons with very little in retirement savings. Of course, if you're not in good health, then waiting until age 70 may not make sense.

There's always the option of taking benefits around your FRA, as well, which sort of softens the negatives and positives of these aforementioned strategies a bit.

5. Make your Medicare vs. Medicare Advantage decision

Finally, seniors in their 60s need to decide how best to handle their medical care during retirement. Upon turning 65, seniors become eligible for Medicare or Medicare Advantage, an alternative plan to Medicare offered by private insurers. Understanding which route better suits your needs can be just as important as deciding when to file for Social Security benefits.

Original Medicare has been around for more than 50 years, and its greatest allure is that more than 90% of doctors and hospitals around the country accept it. If you enroll in original Medicare, you probably won't have to change doctors, which can be important when establishing a medical history with your primary care physician. Additionally, no referrals are needed to see specialists with original Medicare.

The downside to original Medicare is that it's not one encompassing plan. You have to enroll in separate components, including Plan D, a prescription drug plan. You'll also find that basic care for vision, hearing, and dental isn't covered by Medicare, and that there are no annual out-of-pocket limits for medical expenses.

Medicare Advantage plans do have annual out-of-pocket limits, and they may offer all-encompassing plans that roll all the services original Medicare offers, along with prescription drug plans, and basic hearing, dental, and vision plans, into one neat package. You'll also have plenty of choices when it comes to Medicare Advantage, because it's run by private insurers.

The downside is that Medicare Advantage plan networks can change year to year, meaning your physician isn't guaranteed to stay in your network. It's also possible these more-encompassing plans could cost more.

As noted throughout, there are no right or wrong choices as a whole; just a right choice for your needs. Ensure you're getting everything you deserve in retirement by sticking with this perfect retirement strategy.

The article The Perfect Retirement Strategy for Seniors in Their 60s 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 owns shares of and recommends Wells Fargo. 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.
For more than five decades OPEC has ruled the oil market with an iron will. It decided how much oil to supply to the market, which would all but guarantee a fair price for its members. However, the first warning sign that the mighty OPEC had started to lose its grip on the oil market showed up in late 2014, when it broke from its previous practice of protecting a fair market price for oil by instead focusing on protecting its share of the oil market. Now, after two failed meetings at which the organization couldn't come to an agreement on a coordinated effort to stem the oversupply, it has become clear that the OPEC the oil market once knew and feared is no longer in existence.

No longer in control

For decades OPEC had controlled the market and its members through quotas, which were the maximum output levels each member country was allowed to produce. That was intended to keep the oil market well supplied, but not so well supplied that it had a negative impact on the price. However, with the shift from price protection to market protection, OPEC relaxed its practice of policing quotas. As such, many of its members have routinely exceeded their production quotas in recent months, with OPEC's production often as much as 2 million barrels per day above its 30-million-barrel-a-day output ceiling.

The problem with relinquishing some control over quotas is that it has become impossible to regain that control. That became clear in the past week when OPEC failed to reach an agreement on a new production ceiling. This marks the second time in nearly as many months that OPEC failed to reach an agreement on a coordinated effort to deal with the persistent oil glut that has hampered the market for nearly two years.

With this latest failure it has become clear that OPEC is no longer able to meet its objective to "co-ordinate and unify petroleum policies among Member Countries, in order to secure fair and stable prices for petroleum producers." That, in effect, signals its demise as an entity that can drive the oil market. It is a demise that has been made clear by the fact that the price of crude barely budged after each of its past two failed meetings.

Cause of death: greed and American ingenuity

OPEC's decision in late 2014 to back off on protecting oil prices stems from its desire to control a large enough share of the oil market to be relevant. Those market-share concerns were stoked as OPEC was starting to lose share in the oil market, due in part to the emergence of U.S. shale production. In fact, it was also losing what was once its top customer:

US Crude Oil Field Production data by YCharts.

As that chart shows, the surge in U.S. oil production directly displaced OPEC's oil, with its exports to the U.S. falling by more than half.

Given that this production surge was fueled by triple-digit oil prices, OPEC reversed course and pumped at nearly max capacity in order to impair this upstart rival. While that has clearly worked with U.S. imports from OPEC rising as U.S. production declines, it has created a longer-term problem for OPEC, which is the fact that shale production no longer needs triple-digit oil to thrive.

Image source: ConocoPhillips.

Instead, thanks to falling costs and some good old American ingenuity, shale drilling's breakeven point has plummeted. Wells that once needed oil over $75 a barrel to break even are now doing so at as little as $30 a barrel. This has come thanks to a combination of efficiency and productivity gains as well as technological improvements.

EOG Resources is a prime example of this. The company is now getting 95% more oil per lateral foot on a horizontal well than just two years ago. Meanwhile, EOG Resources' completed well costs dropped by as much as 42% in the Permian Basin and 30% in the Bakken, with two-thirds of these costs savings estimated to be sustainable at higher oil prices. Furthermore, not only does EOG Resources have more than a decade of what it terms "premium drilling locations," which are profitable to drill at a $30 oil price, but the company's enhanced oil recovery projects in the Eagle Ford shale have nearly doubled the recovery factor of legacy wells, while being solidly profitable at $40 a barrel.

Meanwhile, global producers like ConocoPhillips have shifted their focus to become much more flexible. ConocoPhillips can ramp its production up or down in response to oil-market needs thanks to the short-cycle nature of shale wells. Furthermore, the company continues to lower its costs through efficiency gains, which has it well positioned for a future likely driven by greater oil price volatility.

In a lot of ways U.S. shale has become the new swing producer in the oil market, which was the role that OPEC used to play. As such, it no longer seems to matter if OPEC freezes, lowers, or increases its output, because market-driven factors will determine whether companies like EOG Resources and ConocoPhillips increase or decrease investments that will add or hold back production growth.

Investor takeaway

OPEC had a great run, but it would appear that it has become irrelevant in the oil market. In some ways it caused its own demise, because its decision to push down oil prices caused American producers to reduce their costs to survive. Many did just that, with a growing number of shale plays now globally competitive at lower oil prices. This is putting the American oil industry in position to overtake OPEC as the new swing producer in the oil market.

The article R.I.P. OPEC: 1960-2016 originally appeared on Fool.com.

Matt DiLallo owns shares of ConocoPhillips. The Motley Fool owns shares of EOG Resources, Inc. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
As you may recall Lockheed Martin ) was forced to bow out of an Air Force competition to launch a GPS III satellite into orbit last year. ULA's withdrawal was partly Congress' fault around the Russian RD-180 engines.

The International Space Station. Both Boeing and SpaceX want to send astronauts there -- but only one of them can get there first.

And over at Boeing , "history" looks like it's about to rhyme with "misery" for the one-time space monopolist.

Ultimately, Boeing and Lockheed were able to convince Congress to lift the ban on RD-180swere awarded to SpaceX instead

CST-100... and still counting

You see, back in 2014, NASA awarded twin contracts

In exchange, both companies were asked to launch"at least one crewed flight test per company with at least one NASA astronaut aboard" sometime in 2017. Subsequently, after each company has demonstrated its ability to perform the mission, each contractor stands to be awarded anywhere from two to six additional Commercial Crew missions.

Trouble brewing for Boeing

The "subsequently" part of that deal is still fine. It's the initial launch date of 2017 that could prove problematic for Boeing. You see, last month, Boeing admitted that it won't have its CST-100 capsule ready to test-fly before February 2018at the earliest. That's four months laterthan Boeing had previously promised NASA.

Boeing has already fixed one problem that was holding up its launch, removing extra weight from its CST-100 capsule. The company's still working on getting the aerodynamics of flying CST-100 atop an Atlas V rocket just right, however, and also struggling to incorporate additional software requirements imposed by NASA. Despite these issues, Boeing Executive VP Leanne Caret says she still expects that Boeing will beat SpaceX into orbit, and that "the CST-100 will be the first of the new American capsules to take astronauts to space."

SpaceX would beg to differ. While its schedule, too, appears to have slipped a bit, at last report, SpaceX is still planning to put an astronaut in space by Q3 2017 -- as originally contracted with NASA.

What this means for investors

Losing the GPS III contract to SpaceX last month was a double blow to Boeing. The company's ULA joint venture missed out on at least $82.7 million in revenue for the GPS III work -- and probably more. In awarding the contract to SpaceX instead of ULA, the Air Force noted that it had been expecting to pay something closer to $140 millionfor the contract.

Now, Boeing stands to lose even more revenue when SpaceX gets paid for one Commercial Crew launch next year -- or potentially for two, if two are needed and Boeing can't get its CST-100 ready in time.

More important than just the lost revenue, though, is that ULA's reputation for invincibility is eroding. Last year, ULA gave SpaceX a chance to surprise the Air Force with how much less it charges for work identical to what Boeing and Lockheed have been performing. Next time the Air Force gets a bid from Boeing, they're going to have to ask: "Do you think we could get this cheaper from SpaceX?" And now, with the CST-100 delay, the Air Force will have to ask: "Why is SpaceX so much faster than Boeing?" too. And maybe even: "Why are we paying Boeing more money for slower work?"

As one half of the former oligopoly provider of space launch services for the Air Force, Boeing is not used to being asked these sorts ofquestions. And now that they will be asked, I predict they will have a serious and ongoing effect on Boeing's prices -- and profits.

Danger: Beware falling profit margins ahead.



Boeing's CST-100 space capsule (left) and SpaceX's Dragon V2. They look pretty similar, so why does the first picture cost 61.5% more than the second? Image source:NASA

The article SpaceX to Boeing: Thanks for All the Free Money!
Image source: Tesla.

Some interesting revelations came to light this past week in the automotive space. Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty and her team estimated that the burgeoning shared mobility market could be worth $2.6 trillion by 2030.You can read that number again if you need to. I'll wait.

Shared mobility refers to a broad market where users are shuttled around in autonomous vehicles that they don't necessarily own or tapping into ride-hailing or ride-sharing services for their transportation needs.

And here's where Tesla comes in. The electric-car maker already has some of the most advanced semi-autonomous cars on the market and CEO Elon Musk has made it very clear that one of Tesla's goals is to release a fully autonomous car in the coming years.Tesla's been focused on selling its vehicles to individuals so far, but if the company ever decided to begin selling some of its vehicles to companies in the shared mobility space, it could potentially be very lucrative.

You may remember that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said last year that if Tesla were to release a fully autonomous vehicle by 2020, his company would buy all of them. Tesla wasn't interested, and Uber recently signed a deal with another semi-autonomous car leader, Mercedes-Benz, for 100,000 vehicles by 2020.But other companies could come along after Uber and do the same with Tesla.

The shared mobility opportunity

Huberty believes Apple has ramped up research and development spending over the past three years to focus on shared mobility. She also estimates that Apple's revenue potential could reach $400 billion by 2030.

Apple is already rumored to be releasing its own car before 2020, and just invested $1 billion in the China-based shared mobility company Didi Chuxing last month.If Apple pursues this automotive market, it could certainly be a game-changing move for the company, but the potential could be just as important for Tesla.

Tesla is certainly very capable of selling the cars, and drawing plenty of interest for its new ones. The upcoming Model 3 already has nearly 400,000 pre-orders. And the company aims to produce 500,000 vehicles per year by 2018 (two years ahead of its original schedule).

So far, Tesla has focused entirely on sales to individuals, but there's no reason why the company couldn't fulfill orders for Uber-like companies in need of driverless cars (unless it can't make enough cars to meet its own demand -- more on that later).

The fact is that with Apple inching closer to shared mobility services, Mercedes-Benz selling semi-autonomous cars to Uber, and Google working with Fiat Chrysler on a driverless minivan, it would be unwise for Tesla to rule out selling some of its future vehicles into shared mobility market.

Tesla's second-largest market, China, is already hurtling toward shared mobility. Didi Chuxing's private car-hailing app (similar to Uber) completes 11 million rides in the country every single day. China's response to the Model 3 has also been overwhelming. RobinRen,Tesla'svice president and president of its Asia-Pacific region, recently said that many of the Model 3's pre-orders have come from Chinese customers. China is second only to the U.S in the number of Superchargers, which will hit 100 later this year. If Tesla started setting aside some its vehicle production for shared mobility, it seems it would definitely find a market to sell them in China.

Tesla's roadblocks

Of course, there are some roadblocks Tesla faces in entering this new market, the first of which is Tesla's ability to produce enough cars.

As I mentioned earlier, Tesla says it will make 500,000 cars per year by 2018. While production ramp-up is two years ahead of schedule, it may not be enough vehicles to meet demand for the Model 3 (which stand at 400,000 remember) Model S, Model X, andsales to companies for shared mobility purposes.The company has to prove itself when it comes to vehicle production, and it could be a year or two before we see how well it has met its goals.

The other thing to consider is that Tesla simply may not be interested in pursuing this nascent market just yet. It is doing just fine focusing on sales to consumers right now, and it may not want to get sidetracked with a new market.

But with Tesla's strong position in semi-autonomous vehicles right now and a growing shared mobility demand in China, it appears the company is in a perfect position to benefit -- if it ever decides to move in that direction.

The article Tesla Hasn't Even Begun to Tap This $2 Trillion Market originally appeared on Fool.com.

Chris Neiger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple and Tesla Motors. 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.
The oil market downturn left a wave of destruction in its path, not sparing any company that operated in the sector. While plunging oil prices hit producers the hardest, energy infrastructure companies also saw their values plummet despite the fact that most generated steady fee-based cash flow throughout the cycle. Thanks to the sell-off, many of these companies now trade at ridiculously cheap valuations, including CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust (NYSE: CORR), Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI), and EnLink Midstream Partners (NYSE: ENLK). Those discounted prices provide investors with a chance to lock up an appealing income stream that appears poised to grow now that the oil market is getting back to normal.

The worries have lifted, but its stock price hasn't fully recovered

CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust is unique in the energy sector in that the company is a real estate investment trust (REIT) as opposed to a master limited partnership (MLP). CorEnergy leases its assets to one tenant while MLPs typically lease theirs to multiple customers. The single-tenant focus of CorEnergy weighed on the company's value during the downturn because two of its primary customers declared bankruptcy. However, because its assets are critical to the operations of customers, these leases survived the bankruptcy proceedings.

As a result, CorEnergy expects to generate about $4 per share in adjusted funds from operations (FFO) this year, which is a proxy for cash flow. That number is worth noting for two reasons. First, it means the company can easily cover its $3-per-share dividend, putting its current 8.5% yield on solid ground, especially since the company's leverage ratio is below its target range. Second, with the stock trading for around $35 a share these days -- which is more than 20% below where it was trading before the downturn -- CorEnergy sells for less than nine times FFO, a dirt-cheap price for a REIT. Put it all together, and this stock is crazy cheap and surprisingly safe. Meanwhile, with a healthy financial profile, the company is on the prowl for acquisitions that can diversify its revenue streams and increase cash flow so that it can eventually start growing the payout.

One company that everything it said it would do

Natural gas pipeline behemoth Kinder Morgan's stock plummeted in late 2015 as credit tightened in the energy sector, which fueled fears that the company would need to reduce its dividend. Those concerns came to fruition when the company announced a 75% dividend reduction toward the end of the year, with plans to reallocate its steady cash flow toward debt reduction and internally financing capex. The company said that once it shored up its financial situation, it would begin returning more cash to shareholders.

It reached that point earlier this year, which enabled it to announce a significant dividend increase for 2018 followed by two substantial boosts in 2019 and 2020 along with a multibillion-dollar stock buyback program. One of the drivers of the buyback is the fact that Kinder Morgan's stock trades for less than 10 times distributable cash flow (DCF) these days, which is well off the more than 20 times DCF it traded at before collapsing in 2015, and below the mid-teens rate of its peers. Investors can buy Kinder Morgan for an excellent price, which will enable them to collect a rapidly growing income stream over the next three years.

Getting better every day

Shale giant Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN) created EnLink Midstream Partners and its parent EnLink Midstream (NYSE: ENLC) a few years ago to grow its midstream business so it could focus on expanding its oil and gas production. Devon, however, had to slow down when oil prices collapsed, which took EnLink down with it. While units have bounced off the bottom, they still sell for 46% below where they were three years ago. Because of that, investors are only paying a little over 10 times DCF, which is well below the mid-teens rate most rival MLPs trade at these days. That low price is one reason why EnLink Midstream Partners yields an eye-catching 9.4%.

While EnLink's distribution coverage ratio is a tight 1.02 times at the moment, the company expects its cushion to build in the coming quarters as producers on its systems like Devon ramp up their volumes, and it completes some expansion projects. The increased cash flow from those two initiatives should eventually enable EnLink to grow shareholder distributions. However, in the meantime, investors can buy a high current yield for a low price and get paid well while they wait for the upside to materialize.

These bargain income streams might not last much longer

While investors sold off these stocks due to the oil market downturn, all three continued to generate stable cash flow. As a result, they currently sell for dirt-cheap valuations, which enables investors to lock in very compelling dividends. However, those ridiculously low prices might not last all that much longer considering that market conditions are on the upswing, which should eventually bring in more buyers -- especially once this trio begins increasing investor payouts.

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Matthew DiLallo owns shares of CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust and Kinder Morgan and has the following options: short January 2018 $30 puts on Kinder Morgan, long January 2018 $30 calls on Kinder Morgan, and short December 2017 $19 puts on Kinder Morgan. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Kinder Morgan. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Image source: Tesla.

One of the most prominent criticisms of Tesla is the idea that the company relies heavily on government subsidies, incentives, and other forms of support. This is a common bearish argument, since it stands to reason that those incentives will eventually be phased out. Once that happens, Tesla is doomed, according to the bears.

But Tesla doesn't actually receive much direct support from the government.

Show me the money

At Tesla's annual shareholder meeting last week, the company pointed out how little it has received from state and federal governments over the years. The vast majority of Tesla's funding has come from growing revenue and external capital raises from investors.

Image source: Tesla annual meeting.

By far the most prominent instance was the Department of Energy (DOE) loan that Tesla received way back in 2010 as part of the government's Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program, which was enacted during the Bush administration in 2008. Tesla repaid the loan nine years early in 2013, including a prepayment penalty.

Tesla used funds from a 2013 capital raise to pay back the loan, so essentially the company refinanced the loan with public investors. Elon Musk has framed this decision as a moral one, since he'd rather have Tesla investors support the company instead of taxpayers. Additionally, it was a loan, not a grant.

To be clear, the chart does not include indirect forms of support that do benefit Tesla. There are two notable sources of indirect government support.

ZEV's not dead

First, Tesla earns zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) credits in states that have adopted California's emissions regulations standards, and then sells those credits to other OEMs who are either unwilling or unable to meet the requirements on their own. Over the past four quarters, Tesla has generated a total of $118 million from ZEV credit sales, or about 2.8% of total GAAP revenue.

Within California (which is just one of many states where Tesla sells ZEV credits), Tesla sold over 1,500 ZEV credits between Oct. 1, 2014 and Sept. 30, 2015, according to California Air Resources Board, or CARB. CARB doesn't break out specific company transfers, but Toyota was the largest overall purchaser of ZEV credits in California for that time frame.

But the important thing here is that ZEV credit revenue comes from other OEMs, and not any government entity. Tesla's ability to earn ZEV credit revenue is a function of how seriously these OEMs take tightening emissions regulations, since if they were able or willing to meet the requirements on their own, they wouldn't need to purchase ZEV credits from Tesla.

While it appreciates the extra cash, Tesla doesn't need it and its business is not predicated on these credits, which is why the company excludes ZEV credit revenue from its non-GAAP metrics.

Consumer-based incentives

The other prominent incentive in the U.S. is the federal tax incentive of up to $7,500. But that incentive is not specific to Tesla, and is available to all OEMs (subject to volume limits). It's a categorical incentive designed to support the burgeoning market for a wide range of alternative fuel vehicles, including traditional hybrids. Toyota hit its limit for the Prius many years ago, for instance. Tesla is expected to hit its limit in early 2018.

The incentive absolutely helps stimulate demand for EVs at large, which does help Tesla sell more vehicles. But again, Tesla does not receive this money directly -- it goes to the consumer. Various countries around the world, as well as certain states in the U.S., may also have EV incentives.

It's also worth noting that Tesla does not attempt to capture any of these incentives in the form of price increases. The company prices its products based on its gross margin target of 20% to 25%, which then helps cover operating expenses. Tesla vehicle prices are standardized worldwide (subject to foreign currency fluctuations), and the company does not increase the price in regions where incentives are present.

The article This Is How Little Government Support Tesla Motors Actually Receives 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.
This week Comcast Corporation got a big, fat "no" from the state of Oregon, after the media juggernaut applied for a tax break for its gigabit internet in the state.

The ruling came from the state's Department of Revenue and overturns a previous ruling by Oregon's Public Utility Commission that said Comcast qualified for the tax breaks.

Under the state's tax laws, companies have to pay a property tax for data-transmission services, which is based, at least in part, on the value of the company's brand (that doesn't seem difficult to calculate at all!).

An exemption from the law was created in order to lure Alphabet's Google in bringing its ultra-fast 1 Gbps Google Fiber to Portland -- and Comcast wanted in on the break.

The ruling could end up costing Comcast tens of millions of dollars in taxes, according to The Oregonian.

Gigabit internet stifled for everyone

What's interesting about the ruling is that even Google was denied the tax break, which was the very reason why it was created.

So while this could certainly hurt Comcast's wallet, it doesn't necessarily mean Google will have an advantage in the gigabit market in Oregon.

Of course, it's still worse for Comcast because it already has gigabit service in Oregon, so it will have to pay the taxes unless it wins an appeal.

What's Comcast going to do?

Comcast has't said whether or not it will appeal. But the ruling only stands for a year, so it's possible the company could try again later to seek the tax break.

All of this matters because of the increasing competition in the gigabit internet space. Speeds of one gigabit are about 100 times faster than average home broadband speed in the U.S., and Google's expansion of its Fiber service is forcing internet providers to both increase their speeds and drop their prices.

Google charges just $70 per month for 1 Gbps upload and download speeds, and now Time Warner Cable, Comcast and others match both speeds and pricing in cities where Fiber is present.

Gigabit internet connections will hit 10 million by the end of this year, according to Deloitte, and 70% of those will be residential connections. By 2020, the firm expects the number of connections to climb to 50 million to 100 million worldwide.

I say all this because Comcast having to pay tens of millions in taxes not only hurts the company as it expands further into gigabit internet services, but it does so at a time when traditional internet providers are being challenged like never before.

Google is taking its Fiber internet service seriously, even if it is a slow rollout. Comcast and other traditional internet providers will begin to feel even more pressure from Google as the tech giant expands its service across the country.

Comcast might be able to pay the taxes without a problem, but as Google grows into a formidable internet foe, it's likely Comcast would rather spend that money expanding its internet services.

The article This Ruling Could Cost Comcast Millions originally appeared on Fool.com.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Chris Neiger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares) and Alphabet (C shares). Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Image source: Michael Vadon via Wikimedia.

Although he isn't a Trump supporter, Warren Buffett made it abundantly clear that he's not too worried about the effects of a Donald Trump presidency on Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE: BRK-B) (NYSE: BRK-A) business, or on America's future in general. Here's why Buffett won't lose too much sleep over the results of the presidential election -- and why you shouldn't, either.

Let's be clear: Buffett supports Clinton

Warren Buffett has publicly and repeatedly endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, so I don't want anyone to think that I'm implying Buffett wants Trump to be president.

In December 2015, Buffett endorsed Clinton at an event in Omaha, while calling for increased taxes on the highest earners. The top 400 wage earners make 7 times as much as they did in 1992, but pay a tax rate that's one-third lower than they did at that time, according to statistics Buffett shared.

Then in a March 2016 video, Buffett offered some more insight into the reason behind his endorsement. He pointed out that real GDP per capital in the United States is 6 times greater than in 1930, the year he was born. And, even with that kind of growth, 15% of Americans live in poverty and many who work a 40-hour week can't provide a decent quality of life for their families -- facts which Buffett clearly finds unacceptable. His message, and rationale for his endorsement, was that Clinton is the best candidate to ensure America works for those who are willing to work.

America is stronger than any one president

In his most recent letter to Berkshire Hathawayshareholders, Buffett made some comments on the election cycle and how all of the candidates can't seem to stop talking about all of the country's problems.

In a nutshell, Buffett says America will be fine, even with slower-than-ideal economic growth. "For 240 years it's been a terrible mistake to bet against America, and now is no time to start," wrote Buffett.

During Berkshire's annual meeting in late April, Buffett was directly asked what would happen to the U.S., the economy in general, and Berkshire under a Donald Trump presidency.

While Buffett didn't offer any specific predictions, the overall theme of his answer is that America and Berkshire Hathaway will be just fine no matter who wins. He pointed out that the company has operated profitably under adverse political conditions before, saying that "we've operated under price controls, we've had 52% federal taxes applied to our earnings...we've had regulations come along." He went on to remark that if Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton wins, Berkshire will do just fine.

The Foolish bottom line

Although many people disagree about what names belong on the list, virtually all Americans would agree that we've had bad leaders in the past. And, we've managed to grow our productivity and prosper over the long run despite any political and economic climates. Berkshire Hathaway in particular has really managed to prosper no matter what -- just check out the company's track record of growth on the first page of Buffett's letter to shareholders(link opens PDF).

Despite some political environments that were less than advantageous, Berkshire managed to grow its book value per share in 48 of the past 50 years, so it's no wonder Buffett isn't worried about his company operating in a Trump presidency. So, while Buffett is far from being a Trump supporter, the Donald may not have as much of a negative lasting impact on the economy as lots of people think he will. As Buffett said in his letter, "The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history."

The article Warren Buffett's Not Afraid of Donald Trump originally appeared on Fool.com.

Matthew Frankel owns shares of Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Auto parts retailer has serially disappointed investors in the last year, while peers such as and have powered ahead in terms of operational performance and stock price.

Advance Auto parts is having difficulty integrating an acquisition that was supposed to transform the company's fortunes. Meanwhile, senior management have left and company guidance has been slashed for 2016. Is it madness to consider buying the stock? I don't think so, and here's why.

AAP data by YCharts.

I see three reasons to be positive on the stock:

End markets remain favorable, and the industry remains relatively recession-proof. Valuation versus peers remains very attractive, provided Advance Auto can improve operational performance to something like its peers. Turnarounds and retail integrations take time, but new management is highly experienced and may have sandbagged expectations.

The auto parts market distinguished itself in the last recession by producing same-store sales growth throughout. The reason is simple: When times are hard, consumers are reluctant to purchase new cars, and older cars mean more demand for replacement parts. Not only is the industry relatively recession-proof, it's also experiencing favorable secular trends as well. For example, the average age of the U.S. automobile has continued to rise despite the post-recession recovery in auto sales.

Data source: U.S. Department of Transportation.

Moreover, as you can see below, although Advance Auto Parts' same-store sales growth has lagged its peers -- largely because of its difficulties integrating Carquest -- its peers are still reporting good growth -- an indication that the market remains favorable.

Data source: Company presentations.

Also, consider that Advance Auto Parts has, in common with O'Reilly Automotive, a well balanced mix of faster-growing but lower-margin Do It For Me (DIFM) sales and Do It Yourself (DIY) sales -- AutoZone sees around 80% of its sales from the DIY market.

What's more, the stock is relatively cheap compared to its peer group.

AAP EV to EBITDA (TTM) data by YCharts.

In addition, the company has an opportunity to play catch-up to its peers in terms of generating free cash flow from its assets and operating margin. Incidentally, note the kink in O'Reilly's metrics in 2008 as it dealt with integrating the CSK acquisition; in a similar way, Advance Auto Parts's metrics dipped following the 2013 acquisition of General Parts International (owner of Carquest and Worldpac).

AAP Operating Margin (TTM) data by YCharts.

The stock is cheap, at present, for a reason. The integration has proven a lot tougher than expected (see the same-store sales chart above), and following a disappointing first-quarter results presentation, management announced it was no longer targeting $500 million in free cash flow and adjusted operating income margin of 12% for 2016.

More detail on the integration difficultiescan be found here. Advance Auto Parts is undergoing an ongoing process of consolidation (Carquest stores are merging with existing Advance Auto stores) and conversions (Carquest stores turning into Advance Auto stores), and the near-term negative effects are hitting same-store sales growth.

Indeed, on the first-quarter earnings call, newly appointed CEO Tom Greco was candid on the issues: "We continue to experience shortfalls on execution, driven by availability and service levels." Clearly, he has much work to do, but there are three reasons to believe current management can turn things around.

First, a new management usually means a new approach. Greco's appointment in April follows the departure of Darren Jackson in January. In addition, activist investor and CEO of Starboard Value Jeffrey Smith is now the Advance Auto Parts Chairman, and the current CFO has agreed to leave the company.

Smith is well known for his deep-value investing activism, and Greco's 30 years at (as CEO of Frito-Lay North America) stand him in good stead. Pepsico's "Power of One" strategy (whereby snacks and beverage are marketed and promoted together) requires extensive awareness of inventory management, logistics & distribution, and an integrated approach to in-store selling -- all qualities that will serve Greco well as he comes to grips with Advance Auto Parts's dual-store (DIY & DIFM) strategy.

Second, given that Greco as been on the job for little more than a month, it would not be surprising if he has low-balled expectations in predicting full-year same-store sales guidance of negative 3% to negative 5%.

Third, as discussed previously,the experience of O'Reilly Automotive shifting to a dual-store model is a good marker for what Advance Auto Parts can achieve.

All told, the investment proposition is an attractive one, provided the new management can turn things around. On a risk/reward basis, I think the stock is a good value for investors looking for a deep value stock whose prospects are favored by attractive end market growth. Now the new management needs to execute, because if it does, the stock could soar.

The article Why Advance Auto Parts, Inc. is a Turnaround Stock to Buy Today originally appeared on Fool.com.

Lee Samaha has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends PepsiCo. The Motley Fool owns shares of O'Reilly Automotive. 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: Mike Mozart via Flickr.

What:According to data fromS&P Global Market Intelligence, shares ofWeight Watchers International surged 17% last month. The company posted a strong first-quarter earnings report and the stock got a boost later in the month thanks to an analyst buy rating.

WTW data by YCharts.

So what:As the chart above shows, Weight Watchers shares dipped early in the month despite a promising earnings report. Fresh off a partnership with Oprah Winfrey, the stock spiked as high as 16% on May 5 and finished the day up 3% in response to the first-quarter earnings report. Subscriber growth rebounded to a 5% increase globally and 11% in North America, thanks to the media mogul's influence.

Later in the month, the stock jumped 6% on May 24 after Sidoti initiated coverage with a buy rating and a price target of $25. Analyst Frank Camma said he expected the company to return to more profitable revenue and earnings growth, and saluted the more holistic approach of its new "Beyond the Scale" program.

Now what:In addition to the strong subscriber growth, Weight Watchers also raised its full-year earnings per share guidance from $0.70-$1 to $0.80-$1.05. The weight loss business is a fickle one, but the investment and partnership with Winfrey should help boost the company's performance. If it can deliver on its increased guidance, the stock could keep climbing.

The article Why Weight Watchers International Soared 17% Last Month originally appeared on Fool.com.

Jeremy Bowman has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
What: Shares of Xenoport, Inc., a commercial-stage biotech struggling to expand its pipeline, jumped a whopping 61.1% last month, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. A generous buyout offer from Arbor Pharmaceuticals, LLC sent the stock soaring.

XNPT data by YCharts.

So what:Privately held Arbor Pharmaceuticals threw the drowning Xenoport a life preserver last month in the form of a buyout offer at about a 60% premium to where it was trading at the time.

Arbor agreed to pay $7.03 per share for a total equity value of about $467 million.The main asset Arbor is after is Horizant, a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2011 for the treatment of restless leg syndrome.

Now what:The $7.03 per share offered is far below Xenoport's peak of more than $60 per share at the beginning of 2009, but I don't think there will be too many ungrateful shareholders when the deal closes, which will probably happen in the third quarter.

Since Horizant was expanded to the management of shingles pain in 2012, Xenoport shareholders have had little reason to cheer in recent years other than a $45 million up-front offer from Dr. Reddy's Laboratoriesfor exclusive U.S. rights to develop and commercialize XP23829,a drug Xenoport had intended to develop for multiple sclerosis.The late-stage failure of XP23829 in 2013 set the company back several steps as it switched gears and tried to develop the same compound for treatment of psoriasis. The sale of the multiple sclerosis-turned-psoriasis candidate left it with little else to offer Arbor but Horizant.

Sales of the restless-leg drug have been growing, mostly through price increases, to an annual run rate of $54.7 million based on first-quarter sales.

Without R&D expenses, growing Horizant sales might have pushed Xenoport into profitable territory, but without anything coming through the pipe, the company would have suffered in the long run. The sale to Arbor is probably best for everyone involved.

The article Why Xenoport, Inc. Stock Jumped 61.1% in May originally appeared on Fool.com.

Cory Renauer has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. You can follow Cory on Twitter @TMFang4apples or connect with him on LinkedIn for more healthcare industry insight. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
A New York City man could be facing a manslaughter charge for defending his wife against a would-be rapist.

Mamadou Diallo received a frantic call from his wife.

Click here to join Todds American Dispatch: a must-read for conservatives!

A man identified as Earl Nash forced his way into the Diallos' apartment, according to the brave husband. The intruder took off his pants and attacked Mrs. Diallo, tearing off her clothes and telling her she was about to be raped, according to reports.

Mr. Diallo told police he found his naked wife in the hallway -- and saw that Mr. Nash was trying to escape.

So he grabbed a tire iron and made sure that Mr. Nash would never harm another woman again. Authorities say Nash died from severe head and body trauma.

Police tell the New York Daily News the would-be rapist had 19 prior arrests -- 19.

In 2003 he pleaded guilty to stabbing, beating and sexually abusing a 17 year old girl.

But instead of thanking Mr. Diallo for taking a predator off the streets - the police put him in handcuffs.

Click here to get your primer on how to restore traditional American values!

He's now charged with assault - and could face a manslaughter rap.

A cheering crowd of friends and neighbors gathered outside Bronx Criminal Court after a judge freed him on his own recognizance.

Neighbors are calling Mr. Diallo a good man - an upstanding citizen - who did what any husband would do.

I hope the district attorney comes to his senses and drops all the charges. This man did the community a public service.

Mr. Diallo should be hailed as a hero -- not a criminal.
Editor's note: Dana Perino recently sat down with Alexandra Smith, National Chairwoman of the College Republican National Committee, to talk with her about her teams newly released report, Growing Up GOP.

1. DP: What did you want to learn when you came up with the report, Growing Up GOP? And what surprised you the most?

AS: What we were hoping to gain from this project is a broad understanding of what young voters want from candidates and political parties in the upcoming election. Young voters decided the presidential election in 2012, and will be key to determining the outcome of the 2016 race, so it is of critical importance that our candidates figure this out. What surprised me  but dismayed me  the most was millennials belief that luck rather than hard work are how people succeed in America today. What a stunning indictment of both the Democrats old, top-down approach that concentrates power in Washington, and Republicans failure to make this known.

2. DP: Has the Republican Party failed in reaching millennials?

AS: Yes, and everyone is to blame. When young voters make up nearly a fifth of the electorate, and have the political power to reverse the decision the rest of the country makes in an election, but our dollars and time are still spent away from campuses and online media.

3.DP: How do conservative principals meet millennial goals, if at all? Where do their values match?

AS: and the good news is, after all of the talk about our failures as a Party, we win in the most critical way: our principles! Everything that works for a millennial  the way we learn, shop, communicate, and interact with each other  depends on bottom-up, free market principles to succeed. The Democrats old, factory-style way of governing is fundamentally at odds with the kind of freedoms a young person today demands.

4. DP: Millennials communicate and consume news differently than any other generation. How can the GOP adapt so that theyre at least on the radar screen? And is there anyone you think does it well?

AS: The first step is showing up to where young voters are. If you make a call to a landline phone, place an ad on live television, or send a letter to a mailbox, youre not reaching a younger person. I do think, however, most Republicans are coming to to this realization. But its only half the battle. If, for instance, you make it as far as placing an ad on Spotify, simply running the same ad you were going to run on television isnt going to cut it. This generation values authenticity more than anything, so those dark and stormy ads dont really pass the test with them. Theyll just take out their headphones and wait for the music to come back on. So, the second step is speaking to them in a way thats relevant to them. Freedom is present in everything we do as a generation, but we just dont use the language of the Greatest Generation to describe it. Finding lighthearted ways to connect, or metaphors that describe how open systems empower us to make our own choices is crucial.

5. DP: As a millennial, why are you a Republican  did you always know that you were conservative or was it a gradual realization?

AS: Growing up, I was just fascinated by politics  period. Any chance I had to watch Meet the Press or listen to talk radio, I did. My parents were news junkies and were good about keeping interesting books around. Theyre conservative, but they always forced me to defend my positions and explain my conclusions. So, Id say it was a gradual realization, but one rooted in careful study and conversation.

6. DP: Based on conversations you have had with your friends, and your own personal experiences, what do you see as the greatest challenge the Republican Party faces in their attempt to gain millennial support?

AS: Id say that its the same issue that was raised in our report: the perception that we are unkind. Young voters are starved for an alternative, and they largely agree with our principles, but in our absence with these voters, weve allowed Democrats to come in and tell them that we dont care about people like them. That doesnt mean compromising what we believe in; that means showing up, starting a conversation, and showing them that our principles have lifted more people out of poverty and oppression  more than any other set of governing principles throughout time.

7. DP: Time for the lightning round:

a. Which social media platform do you visit the most daily: Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram?

I use all four of those almost equally!

b. Where do you go to get your news?

Twitter and Fox News.

c. What is your differential in your percentage of news consumption on social media vs. via online news publications?

Roughly equal.

d. What is your favorite iPhone App?

Uber.

e. If you could only use one social media platform and delete the rest, which one would it be?

For work, Id say Twitter, because I like having a constant stream of news and commentary when Im on the go.Personally, I love Instagram  and particularly the Explore option  because one moment you could be looking at a press conference and the next be mesmerized by someone decorating a cake.
I am five years younger than Muhammad Ali. I first saw him fight as Cassius Clay, in the 1960 Olympics. I loved his style in the ring and out of it.

Clay became Ali, the first truly famous American Muslim. He refused, on religious grounds, to be drafted into the military. Ali paid a huge price--he lost his title at the peak of his abilities. Worse, he had every reason to think that he was permanently sacrificing his art and his livelihood for principle. It was a breathtaking act of moral courage.

During his exile from the ring, Ali became a darling of the European Left. He was often invited to speak out against the war in Vietnam and American racism, which he did, eloquently. But he was too honest to become anyone's propagandist.

Shortly after the Six Day War, Ali was interviewed by a snarky French journalist who invited him to denounce Israeli aggression. Ali declined. "I got nothing bad to say about Israel," he said (I paraphrase from memory).

Ali paid a huge price--he lost his title at the peak of his abilities. Worse, he had every reason to think that he was permanently sacrificing his art and his livelihood for principle. It was a breathtaking act of moral courage.

Clearly nonplussed, the interviewer repeated his question in simpler words. How could Ali--a Muslim follower of the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam, not hate the Zionist aggressor?

Ali countered with a right cross to the mouth. "You think I'm nothing but an uneducated so-called Negro who's gonna say words you put in my mouth. But I've got nothing against Israel or any Jewish people. Allah doesn't teach hate."

After his final retirement, already noticeably impaired by Parkinson's Disease, Ali was misquoted by "guerrilla journalists" on Zionism during a trip to Lebanon. He denied it and he was believed. When he arrived in Israel, he was welcomed as a hero.

As his disease grew more profound, Islamic activists occasionally exploited Ali's near inability to speak by putting words in his mouth. But his actions spoke for him. One of his last public appearances was in a Philadelphia synagogue where he attended the bar mitzvah of his Jewish grandson, Jacob Wertheimer.

As a fighter, Ali famously dubbed himself "the greatest." So he was, the greatest of all time. But he was an even greater man--one of the finest and most inspirational men of my generation.
The most powerful man in the world sure seems to get a lot of information about what's going on inside his administration from outside news reports.

The latest example was President Obama saying in an interview aired over the weekend that he learned of his former secretary of state's personal email use from the media.

Asked when he first found out Hillary Clinton was using a non-official system to conduct government business, Obama told CBS News: "The same time as everybody else, through news reports."

It wasn't quite that simple, as the White House soon clarified. Press Secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged Monday that Obama and Clinton did exchange emails.

"The president, as I think many people expected, did over the course of his first several years in office, trade emails with the secretary of state," he said.

Presumably, that means the president would have noticed Clinton was not using a ".gov" account. But Earnest said Obama nevertheless was unaware of Clinton's personal email server and how she was following federal records law.

This, of course, is hardly the first time Obama has claimed he was in the dark about a scandal in his administration until it surfaced in the news.

Here's a look back at other news flashes delivered to the White House on his watch.

1. VA wait-time scandal

When news reports broke that dozens of veterans died while waiting for care at a Phoenix VA facility, then-White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked about the claims at a May 19, 2014, briefing.

"I believe we learned about them through the reports. I will double-check if that's not the case. But that's when we learned about them, and that's when, as I understand, Secretary [Eric] Shinseki learned about them and immediately took the action that he has taken, including instigating his own review ... but also requesting that the inspector general investigate," Carney said.

Shinseki resigned several days later, and was replaced.

2. IRS targeting

Then-IRS senior official Lois Lerner admitted in May 2013 that her agency had conducted inappropriate targeting of conservative groups, by singling them out for additional -- often drawn-out -- scrutiny when applying for tax-exempt status.

Obama was asked about the revelation during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

"I first learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this," Obama said. "I think it was on Friday. And this is pretty straightforward."

The president was asked again about the issue during a press conference with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- specifically whether the White House knew about the IRS actions before April, when his counsel's office first learned of them.

"I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the IG report before the IG report had been leaked through the press," Obama said, referring to a highly critical IG report that helped drive the IRS' public admission. "Typically, the IG reports are not supposed to be widely distributed or shared."

3. DOJ press subpoenas

Around the same time as the IRS controversy, it was revealed that the Justice Department had issued subpoenas for Associated Press phone records.

Asked on May 14, 2013, when Obama found out, Carney said: "Yesterday. Let me just be clear. We don't have any independent knowledge of that. He found out about the news reports yesterday on the road."



4. Fast and Furious

Obama was asked in a March 22, 2011, interview with CNN Espanol about the Fast and Furious scandal, where federal law enforcement officials allowed guns to be illegally trafficked across the Mexican border and tried to monitor them. The weapons later showed up at numerous crime scenes, including when border agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010.

Obama said at the time:

"I heard on the news about this story that Fast and Furious, where allegedly guns were being run into Mexico and ATF knew about it but didn't apprehend those who had sent it. Eric Holder has -- the attorney general has been very clear that he knew nothing about this. We had assigned an IG, inspector general, to investigate it."

Carney reiterated that point again at a press briefing in June 2012.

"Everyone knows the president did not know about this tactic until he heard about it through the media; the attorney general did not know about it," he said. "The tactic itself was employed by the previous administration in a different operation. This was a field office tactic that was flawed. And when the attorney general learned about it, he took action to ensure that it was no longer used, and he directed the inspector general at the Department of Justice to investigate."

5. Air Force One flyover

Early on in the Obama administration, in April 2009, an Air Force One flyover was staged over New York City as part of a photo op and exercise. But local officials had not been notified, and, in a city still shaken by the 9/11 attacks, the flyover caused public panic.

Asked about it on April 28, Obama said: "It was a mistake, as was -- as was stated. It was something we found out about along with all of you and it will not happen again."
Fridays demonstration at the Donald Trump rally at the Redding, California, airport was a far cry from the turmoil that erupted outside the San Jose Convention Center the night before.

Rather than a loud and rawkus event marked by clashes with police and violent encounters with Trump supporters, this rally saw only a few attendees wearing Bernie Sanders t-shirts, and no trouble at all.

Its possible the organized protest groups did not want to brave the triple digit heat, or maybe they decided it wouldn't be worth the trouble.

Redding is in Shasta County, Republican strong hold of about 180,000 in Northern California, and the county seat of Redding is very conservative.

However, there was a protest of sorts among some Trump supporters. About 40 residents showed up in green t-shirts calling for a  State of Jefferson.

That's a reference to a long simmering movement by residents of 21 California counties north of San Francisco to create their own state, and make their own rules.

The 21 counties have just 6 state lawmakers in Sacramento, out of a total of 120 assembly and senate members. Resident Tom Mohler said he wanted to tell Trump the interests of this rural area are often ignored or defeated.

We have no control over mining or logging or any of those things or water that are plentiful in the north state, said Mohler. We are not in a drought and we haven't been in a drought in a long time, but the south wants our waterand has the votes to take it."

In calling for their own new state, some of these protesters shouted out, "the time has come for 51. While there have been several efforts to secede from California, all have failed. Mohler said currently, a team of constitutional lawyers is working to bring the issue before a judge.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, a day after throwing his support behind Donald Trump, already has had to distance himself from one of the presumptive Republican presidential nominees comments.

The controversial remarks focused on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who's hearing a Trump University lawsuit. Trump told The Wall Street Journal that Curiel has "an absolute conflict of interest" because of his Mexican heritage as well as "an inherent conflict of interest" because Trump wants to build the border wall.

Asked Friday morning during a WISN radio interview about those comments, Ryan called them out of left field.

"It's reasoning I don't relate to, I completely disagree with the thinking behind that," Ryan said.

The speaker noted hes had to speak up from time to time and said hell continue to do so, adding: I hope its not necessary.

The pushback comes a day after Ryan announced he would be voting for Trump, an announcement his office said amounts to an endorsement. This ended a tense period during which Ryan held back his endorsement amid reservations about the presumptive GOP nominees policy stances and past comments.

Even as he chided Trump for the judge comments, Ryan called Trump a willing partner for implementing a conservative agenda.

The Hillary Clinton campaign, meanwhile, slammed Trump for his remarks on the judge, saying: The fact that Donald Trump doesn't see Judge Curiel and his family as Americans makes him unfit to be president of this great nation, a nation of immigrants.

Curiel is a native of Indiana whose parents emigrated from Mexico. He received undergraduate and law degrees from Indiana University and served as a federal prosecutor and a judge in the California state judicial system before being nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2011.

Trump University is the target of two lawsuits in San Diego and one in New York that accuse the business of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach secrets of success in real estate. Trump has maintained that customers were overwhelmingly satisfied.

The school emerged as an issue in a February Republican presidential debate, after which Trump made his first comments criticizing Curiel.

The judge seemingly raised Trump's ire anew last week when he ordered the release of documents that had been sealed. Trump's campaign and private lawyers handling the lawsuits did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.

Federal judges have repeatedly rebuffed calls to step aside from cases over race, religion and ethnicity. U.S. District Judge Paul Borman, who is Jewish, turned down a request to withdraw from a case of a Palestinian immigrant accused of lying about her role in a fatal terrorist attack. "Like every one of my colleagues on the bench, I have a history and a heritage, but neither interferes with my ability to administer impartial justice," Borman said.

He later did step aside from the case, after discovering his family had an investment in the Jerusalem supermarket the woman helped bomb in 1969. Financial interests often are involved when judges withdraw.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A federal judge ordered the man who set up Hillary Clintons private email server Friday to produce the immunity agreement he had reportedly struck with the Department of Justice as part of her investigation.

According to The Hill, the judges order postpones Bryan Paglianos deposition with the watchdog group Judicial Watch indefinitely. The interview had been scheduled to take place Monday.

Pagliano planned to assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refuse to answers questions over an open records lawsuit, according to court documents obtained Wednesday by Fox News. His lawyers also asked a federal judge to block Judicial Watch from recording his deposition, stating that a written transcription should be enough.

However, Judge Emmet Sullivan declared that his lawyers need to file a legal memorandum to outline the legality for him to plead the Fifth including requisite details pertaining to the scope of Mr. Pagliano's reported immunity agreement with the government, The Hill reported.

Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, called Sullivans order an important step to getting more answers from Mr. Pagliano about Hillary Clinton's email system.

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.

Click for more from The Hill.
First lady Michelle Obama on Friday jumped into election-year politics by criticizing leaders who engage in name calling  anger and intolerance, a clear reference to presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Obama made the remarks in a commencement speech at City College of New York, in Harlem, praising the school for having a diverse student body, which she said some folks fail to value.

"They seem to view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to be tapped," she said. "They tell us to be afraid of those who are different, to be suspicious of those with whom we disagree.

She also said Americans don't build up walls to keep people out because we know that our greatness has always depended on contributions from people who were born elsewhere but sought out this country and made it their home."

Trump has vowed, if elected, to build a wall along the entire southern U.S. border to keep out illegal Mexican immigrants, including rapists" and drug dealers.

The first-time candidate, in the aftermath of a series of recent terror attacks inspired by radical Islamists, also called for a temporary ban of Muslims entering the United States.

Trump has also used derogatory names for his primary opponents to help him win the GOP race and is now targeting Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, whom he calls Crooked Hillary.

The first lady on Friday also said some people act as if name-calling is an acceptable substitute for thoughtful debate, as if anger and intolerance should be our default state rather than the optimism and openness that have always been the engine of our progress."

City College is the flagship school for the City University of New York, and among its graduates are Jonas Salk, the son of Polish immigrants and who discovered the vaccine for polio, and Colin Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants and who became secretary of state.

Obama said she is reminded of such American stories every single day when she wakes up in a house built by slaves.

On Wednesday, her husband, President Obama, also entered the 2016 debate in a speech in Indiana, saying the Republican nominee has crazy ideas, including one to deport the roughly 11 million immigrants now living illegally in the United States.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are spending their final weekend in California, before the states big primary Tuesday, rallying voters over immigration issues and warning the states diverse electorate about the perils of electing Republican Donald Trump.

On Saturday, Sanders expressed confidence that he could win a majority of votes next week in California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota and North Dakota.

However, the Vermont senator acknowledged that hell need a high voter turnout, like those that have helped him win previous state contests.

Its going to be an uphill battle Sanders said a press conference in Los Angeles, repeating what he has said many times recently.

Still, a report Friday by the state that a record 17.9 million Californians, or 72 percent of eligible state voters, are registered to vote in the primaries could help Sanders.

Sanders on Saturday also repeated that the front-running Clinton will not have enough pledged delegates after polls close Tuesday to secure the nomination.

He said she will have to instead rely on super-delegates, or those who have previously committed to Clinton, to claim the nomination and that he will continue to try to win over those delegates to take the nomination at the partys convention in July.

We look forward on Tuesday to doing very well, Sanders said. There will be a contested convention.  Super delegates can and have changed their candidate choice in the past.

He also focused on the issue of immigration, as Clinton did earlier in the day in California, a state that borders Mexico and where Hispanics will be a key voting bloc.

Sanders argued that Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, should not be elected because his bigotry against Mexicans, Muslims, African-Americans and others cannot be tolerated.

Donald Trump cannot be elected president, Sanders said. He also spoke Saturday to supporters at his campaign headquarters in Los Angeles.

Clinton, in a panel discussion in Slymar, Calif., expressed optimism about passing legislation to overhaul federal immigration law.

Clinton argued that as U.S. senators she supported bipartisan Senate reform legislation while Sanders did not.

It was heartbreaking, she said. There were people from every part of the planet who were so hopeful.  I believe that after this election, if all goes well, we will have a chance to pass immigration reform.

She also said Trump plans to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, calling such talk the most unfair and dangerous kind of conversation that has veered off toward anger and fear.

Other scheduled events for Clinton this weekend included a stop Saturday in Oxnard, Calif.

Trump campaigned this week in California, despite having enough delegates to secure the GOP nomination, but held no events Saturday.

Some of those events brought violent protests outside the venues.

One of Californias most influential daily newspapers, The San Francisco Chronicle, this weekend endorsed neither Clinton, Sanders nor Trump.

That the Chronicle wouldnt endorse Trump was not surprising, consider the editorial board for the paper, in liberal-leaning Northern California, had previously expressed its distaste for what it calls his low-substance, high-insult candidacy.

The paper was also highly critical of the front-running Clinton, pointing out her refusal to meet with the board and her many fundraising forays in the state.

However, the Chronicle declined to back Sanders in the neck-and-neck primary Tuesday, suggesting his aggressively progressive promises can never be realized with so many Republicans ruling Congress.

Two other major California dailies -- The Los Angeles Times and The San Diego Union Tribune -- have endorsed Clinton. The Tribune this weekend sarcastically endorsed Ronald Reagan over Trump.
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.
Authorities in Maryland said Friday that a bicycle left as a memorial where a retired U.S. Navy SEAL was struck and killed by a vehicle last year has been stolen.

Montgomery County police said the all-white Ghost Bike draped with an American flag had been in Bethesda and is believed to have been stolen sometime between May 26 and May 30.

Fox 5 DC reported that a metal award that was in a zip-lock bag at the memorial site is also missing.

The bicycle was placed on the 6100 block of Massachusetts Avenue where Timothy Holden was struck by a 22-year-old motorist last August. Holden, an avid cyclist, was a highly-decorated Navy SEAL. The 64-year-old man was on his way to meet his daughter when he was hit.

Peter Klosky, a family friend, bought and painted the bicycle after Holdens death and was heartbroken after hearing that it had been stolen.

Puzzled by the disrespect, Klosky told Fox 5 DC. Tim was a great guy. He was a great dad. He was a great husband. He was a great Navy SEAL. The message is that symbols are important and we deserve to be able to have a memorial by the side of the road. Tim Holden's death shouldn't just be completely forgotten. The message is that bicyclists are people too.

Fox 5 DC reported that Holdens Ghost Bike wasnt the only one stolen in Montgomery County.

Holden was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Hes survived by his wife, five daughters and three grandchildren.

Police urge anyone with information about the theft of the bicycle to call police at 240-773-6710 or leave an anonymous tip at 240-773-TIPS.

Click for more from Fox 5 DC.
The Christian version of The Onion is facing fire and brimstone for a satirical article on an famous evangelist published the day she died.

The Babylon Bee, a religious satire news site known for its biting parody, took the joke too far when it mocked Trinity Broadcasting Network co-founder Jan Crouch, say critics. The article poked fun at Crouchs role in the so-called "prosperity gospel movement," which embraces wealth, as long as one tithes.

As the nation mourns the sudden and unexpected loss of TBN co-founder Jan Crouch, various baffled prosperity gospel preachers have begun offering theories Tuesday on how Crouch could possibly have passed away, given her overabundance of faith, her supernatural ability to name and claim health and wealth at will, and her decades of collecting donations while promising that Gods will is for everybody to be wealthy and healthy, reads the lead paragraph from farce news article.

Crouch, who was 78, and husband Paul Crouch, who died in 2013, were well-known for being leaders within the prosperity gospel movement, according to ChristianExaminer.com.

The article also included mock quotes from well-known evangelists like Joel Osteen.

"Maybe she read a really mean tweet or some criticism of her theology, and she spoke the words out loud and gave them life, Osteen was quoted as saying. How else can you explain someone who possessed supernatural health from God dying four years before the average female life expectancy in the U.S.?"

The articles snark enraged some from the religious community.

"I have been a fan of the Babylon Bee. I have appreciated their sometimes irreverent and stinging satire, Barry McCarty, professor of preaching and rhetoric at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, told the Christian Examiner. I would also say that ordinarily I appreciate wit and satire and I am no fan at all of prosperity gospel and televangelists  but this struck me as being beyond the pale today."

Others took to the websites Facebook page to express dismay over the article.

"Being in the funeral industry, the Bee has lost me on this one," wrote one reader. "She does have a family who is grieving her loss. Pray for her family that they may see the truth and be brought closer to God. Don't make fun of her after she passed. What would Jesus do? I love ya Bee, but you crossed the line this time."

"I normally think everything BB posts is gold.... but this was completely insensitive. Satire and jokes are fun, but this crossed the line," wrote another.

Some took to the social media page to defend the Bee, which has not removed the article.

"Satire works because it offends and in offending shocks our senses to the reality behind the joke," wrote one defender of the article. "It is in the very moments of life and death and pain and suffering that the hellacious Prosperity Gospel does its most damage.

So this is the perfect time, there can be no other. Go BB."
A six-month jail term for a former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman is being decried as a slap on the wrist.

A California judge sentenced 20-year-old Brock Turner to six months in county jail and three years' probation after the woman who was assaulted read the court an emotional statement that has gone viral.

She described how the attack left her "closed off, angry, self-deprecating, tired, irritable, empty."

Prosecutors had asked for a six-year prison sentence.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky said in handing down the punishment that a longer sentence would have a "severe impact" on Turner.

Turner is a three-time All-American high school swimmer from Dayton, Ohio. He withdrew from Stanford after his January 2015 arrest.
Thomas E. Schaefer, a retired Air Force colonel who was the ranking military officer among the 52 Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 days before being released in 1981, has died in Arizona. He was 85.

David Schaefer said Friday that his father died of congestive heart failure Tuesday at a hospice in Scottsdale.

Schaefer was a military attache at the U.S. embassy in Tehran when militants seized the compound on Nov. 4, 1979, and 66 people were taken hostage.

From the first day of the takeover, Schaefer was singled out for special attention. As the ranking U.S. military officer in the embassy, he was accused of running a "nest of spies."

His captors paraded him blindfolded in front of television cameras and threatened repeatedly to put him on trial and execute him.

He spent 150 days in solitary confinement and began his captivity enduring 14 days of relentless interrogation in a freezing prison cell with damp floors and only a thin blanket for warmth.

"I could see my breath the entire time," Schaefer said in a 2004 interview. "They were breaking me down both physically and mentally. I could feel myself losing it."

He said he used a pin to punch a code into his Bible daily to get through the hostage ordeal.

Schaefer was among the last hostages who were released on Jan. 20, 1981. Just before the aircraft bringing the hostages home entered U.S. airspace, the co-pilot invited Schaefer to take his seat in the cockpit.

Schaefer retired from the Air Force less than two years later and was a professional speaker for decades.

His family said he spoke to more than a quarter-million students and adults about facing adversity.

"Really, he was a positive guy," David Schaefer said Friday. "He tried to educate and help people deal with really bad situations in their lives."

In 1998, Schaefer said the United States should re-establish relations with Iran for strategic reasons. But in 2013 he denounced the Iran nuclear deal as "foolishness," saying he didn't know of any Iranian leaders who could be trusted.

Born in Rochester, N.Y., Schaefer was a bomber pilot for the Air Force  first flying B-47s and then B-52s before he switched to administrative positions.

In retirement, Schaefer and his wife lived in Arizona for the last 30 years, first in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria and then in Scottsdale since 2013.

Schaefer is survived by his wife of 63 years, Anita; two sons, six grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

There will be a service at Arlington National Cemetery this fall.
Houston police arrested a man Saturday in connection with the May stabbing death of an 11-year-old boy who was walking home from school.

Andre Timothy Jackson, 27, was charged with murder, according to Fox 26 Houston. Jackson is being held on $100,000 bond. Police will hold a press conference later Saturday morning.

The arrest comes one day after police released surveillance video of a man running in the area of the stabbing. A source told the Houston Chronicle that police believe Jackson is the man in the video.

Josue Flores was walking home from Marshall Middle School when he was attacked at around 4:40 p.m. on May 17. According to Fox 26 Houston, witnesses told police a man approached the boy and repeatedly stabbed him.

The man was described as weighing about 200 pounds, nearly 6-feet tall and wearing black pants and a green jacket with some sort lettering on the back.

Jackson had been convicted of a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespassing in March and was arrested in 2015 for unlawful carrying of a weapon and was later convicted of that misdemeanor.

Detectives originally found physical evidence to support the contention that Che Calhoun, 31, had murdered Josue since he was in a suburb south of Houston at the time of the killing.

According to the Associated Press, court documents showed three people described Calhoun as the man seen fleeing the scene. Police obtained an arrest warrant and federal marshals arrested Calhoun on days after the murder.

Houston Homicide Lt. Robert Blain said his detectives "don't rely solely on eyewitness identification," noting that Calhoun was identified by a witness presented with a photo lineup.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from Fox 26 Houston.
An Ohio babysitter is facing a murder charge after cops say she gave an infant what turned out to be a fatal dose of an allergy medicine to stop his fussing, according to reports.

After Reynoldsburg police arrested Lori Conley, 43, Friday in the death last month of 8-month of Haddix Mulkey, the babys heart-broken mother told reporters she doesnt know how she will ever get over the loss, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

I will always have a broken heart because a piece of me is gone, Katie Mulkey said at a news conference at the Reynoldsburg Police Department, according to the paper. We had so many hopes and dreams for him and now it's all gone.

Cops said Conley, who is being held in the Franklin County Jail, admitted she gave Benadryl to the baby because he was acting up, Fox 28 Columbus reported.

She indicated the child was fussy and she was trying to calm him, Reynoldsburg Officer Nikki Riley said, according to the station. She admitted giving him an adult dosage of Benadryl to the child.

At the time, Conley was babysitting Haddix and seven other infants and toddlers in her home which was not a licensed daycare, according to The Dispatch.

Reynoldsburg Police Lt. Ron Wright told the paper a neigbhor called 911 after Conley found Haddix unresponsive in his bouncy seat.

The boys mother said she was talking about her son to raise awareness of the dangers of using medication for unintended purposes.

This is a common practice that people thinks its okay to give your babies medicineto help them sleep, Mulkey said, according to the Dispatch. This didnt have to happen."
In the predawn hours of May 1, thieves towed away a World War I-era cannon from outside the Veterans Memorial Hall in Richmond, Calif. -- where the artillery piece had stood for 70 years -- and later sold it to an unsuspecting buyer.

It was an audacious caper, but not an uncommon one. American war memorabilia is so hot that thieves are robbing VFW halls, museums, and even graves to supply a black market that operates online, in flea markets and through a murky network of rabid collectors, according to law enforcement and dealers tasked with identifying stolen items -- some worth thousands.

"There's definitely a market for it," said Pat Chaisson, of Scotia, N.Y., a retired Army National Guard officer, history buff and longtime collector of military and war memorabilia.

"The buyer has to be very careful," Chaisson warned. "All of the collectors I know are very sensitive that theres a black market out there  that what youre buying could very well have been stolen."

"And it's difficult to identify sometimes," he said. "How do you prove that a musket ball or cannon wasnt stolen from an armory or a collection?"

The 5-foot-tall iron and brass cannon taken from the Veterans Memorial Hall in Richmond was returned after the buyer, who purchased it for $1,200, saw a news story about it and contacted police.

"This act is about stealing a piece of our country's history, and stealing from our war veterans who fought bravely for our country and our freedom, the Richmond Police Department said in a statement.

"This gentleman was more than helpful and felt absolutely horrible he had inadvertently bought a stolen piece of American history," police said.

The cannon theft is one of many around the country involving priceless military and war memorabilia -- from tanks in front of small-town VFW halls to medals displayed in unguarded government buildings. Shady middlemen and collectors need not worry about provenance, say experts.

"Theres no way to track it," said Rick Brumby, the historian at the of the Museum of Military History in Kissimmee, Fla. "There are no serial numbers on this stuff."

Brumby noted that while a market exists, it's very difficult to sell such items on reputable auction sites, like eBay.

"The real stuff has a tendency to go into private collections," Brumby said. "People get greedy and, if the price is right, theyll buy it and keep it in their home.

"When they die, it comes out," he said.

Vermont State Police are actively hunting for Civil War memorabilia stolen in October from a Shrewsbury man's home, items that were passed down through generations. The valuables taken from George Lincoln's home include a 6" flintlock pistol with a small leather powder horn, a post-Civil War-era bayonet and a distinctive Civil War Union soldier's leather ammo case.

The theft followed another Vermont case from 2015, in which thieves stole World War II memorabilia from the family of a nurse who served in the U.S. Army.

Det. Sgt. Benjamin Katz of the Vermont State Police told FoxNews.com it's challenging to recover such items and described dealers of second-hand goods as "the driver of these type of crimes."

"Not all dealers are shady, of course, but all it takes is a couple," he said. "In Vermont, if they know its stolen, they have to call police. But it's impossible for us to prove they knew it was stolen.

"Its basically an honor code," he said. "There's very little regulation when it comes to the purchase of antiquities."

In February 2015, investigators with the Sacramento County, Calif., Sheriffs Department said they discovered a "trove" of military medals and memorabilia during a probation search.

The items, which were reported missing in 2014, belonged to the family of an Air Force pilot who served during World War II. The belongings included a Purple Heart medal, photographs and the mans personal diary, written while he was a Prisoner of War. Authorities said they were able to return the collection of priceless goods to members of the pilots family who live in another state.

The most egregious example of war collectible theft, say law enforcement, is the desecrating and looting of soldiers' graves. Such was the case in Burke County, Ga., in 2013, when two men allegedly raided the graves of five Confederate soldiers inside the Old Church Cemetery in search of heirlooms.

Antique brokers say these historic war relics can sell for a hefty price: An officers sword from the Civil War is valued between $20,000 and $30,000, while uniforms and medals can go for $500 to several thousand dollars.

In 2011, copper thieves struck Abraham Lincoln's burial site in Springfield, Ill., stealing a 3-foot-long sword from a statue atop the tomb. A guard used to be stationed at the tomb overnight, but the position was cut over budget problems.

Cristina Corbin is a New York-based reporter for FoxNews.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaCorbin.
Defense Chief Ash Carter said at an international security conference in Singapore on Saturday that Chinas military activity in the South China Sea could lead to a great wall of self-isolation.

"There is growing anxiety in this region, and in this room, about China's activities on the seas, in cyberspace, and in the region's airspace," he said. "Indeed, in the South China Sea, China has taken some expansive and unprecedented actions, that have generated concerns about China's strategic intentions."

Carter also called an upcoming ruling by a U.N. arbitration tribunal on the Philippines challenge to China claims in the contested region an opportunity for China and the rest of the region to recommit to a principled future to renewed diplomacy, and lowering tensions, rather than raising them.

Carter also defended the importance to exercise its right to fly and sail small military aircraft and ships near other countries coasts, including Chinas, in a question-and-answer session with the audience.

"What we stand for is the principle of rule of law and abiding by international law in the commons," Carter said. "It's not a focus on China. It's a focus on principle."

Meanwhile, Carter said a security network would represent the next wave in Asia-Pacific security.

"It is inclusive, since any nation and any military - no matter its capability, budget, or experience - can contribute. Everyone gets a voice, no one is excluded, and hopefully, no one excludes themselves," he said, alluding to China.

He emphasized possibilities for cooperating with China while stating that the U.S. will remain the pre-eminent power.

"America wants to expand military-to-military agreements with China to focus not only on risk reduction, but also on practical cooperation. Our two militaries can also work together," he said, bilaterally or as part of a broader security network to combat global threats like terrorism and piracy.

Tom Mahnken, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank, praised Carter's emphasis on developing partnerships.

"Secretary Carter was right to emphasize multilateral approaches in the Asia-Pacific region. Indeed, America's alliances and partnerships in the region give us an enduring competitive advantage," Mahnken said by email from Washington. "By contrast, China's actions have increasingly isolated it."

At a news conference later, Adm. Harry Harris, head of U.S. Pacific Command, said that while his forces are ready to confront China if necessary, there have been few significant issues with China lately in the South China Sea.

"We've seen positive behavior in the last several months by China," Harris said, adding, "I'm encouraged by the activities" between the U.S. and Chinese militaries. He noted that China plans to attend the Rim of the Pacific exercise this year, with U.S. and Chinese warships operating together from Guam to Hawaii.

Adm. John Richardson, the Navy's top admiral, said "more and more" interactions at sea with the Chinese navy are safe and professional.

In Carters speech, he asserted that the U.S. intends to maintain its military presence in the Asia-Pacific.

"The Defense Department maintains its world-leading capabilities because the United States has made incomparable investments in it over decades. As a result, it will take decades or more for anyone to build the kind of military capability the United States possesses," he said.

China did not send its defense minister to Singapore, and Carter held no meetings with members of Beijing's delegation. But at a conference-opening dinner Friday evening Carter shook hands and spoke briefly with the senior Chinese representative, Adm. Sun Jianguo, according to a U.S. official who was present.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The USS Harry Truman, a Navy aircraft carrier, is now in the eastern Mediterranean conducting air strikes against the Islamic State, a Navy official confirmed to Fox News.

This is showing the U.S. Navy can conduct flight operations (against ISIS) from other locations, not just the (Persian) Gulf, the official said Friday.

USS Harry Truman conducting strikes against ISIS from Mediterranean Sea, a @USNavy official confirms to Fox News. pic.twitter.com/20sd2qySnf  Fox News (@FoxNews) June 3, 2016

F/A-18 Hornets launched from Truman conducted strikes against ISIS targets in Syria, according to a senior defense official familiar with the operation.

The Navy strike fighters flew over Turkey for a majority of the flight, the official added to minimize exposure to Russian air defenses now operational in western Syria along the Mediterranean coast, the official added.

The U.S. Navy did not alert Russian or Syrian officials before conducting the strike operations against the Islamic State, Fox News is told.

The Russians have set up an S-400 fourth-generation surface-to-air missile system in Syria late last year.

Truman and her escort ships transited the Suez Canal, Thursday according to the Navy.

It was the first time the Navy conducting strike missions in the Middle East from the Mediterranean Sea since flying operations against the Iraqi military in 2003.

Truman will be relieved by another aircraft carrier, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower next month.

"While the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group is in the 6th Fleet area of operations, they continue to project power ashore against terrorists and violent extremists," said Vice Adm. James Foggo III, Commander, in a statement from U.S. 6th Fleet. "This exemplifies our Navy's mobility, flexibility and adaptability, as well as our commitment to execute a full range of military operations in concert with our indispensable European Allies and partners," he added.

The strike group consists of USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), the embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7, Commander, Carrier Strike Group 8, USS Anzio (CG 68), Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 28, USS Bulkeley (DDG 84), USS Gonzalez (DDG 66) and USS Gravely (DDG 107).

Truman has been launching fighter jets to conduct strikes against ISIS from the Persian Gulf since December.
ServiceMaster to Relocate Headquarters to Downtown Memphis

Leading Home and Commercial Services Provider Selects Former Urban Mall Site and Joins City's Revitalization Plans; Will Convert to Class A Office Space

MEMPHIS, TN - (Marketwired - June 03, 2016) - ServiceMaster Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SERV), a leading provider of essential residential and commercial services, today announced that it will move its global headquarters to downtown Memphis and occupy Peabody Place, joining the revitalization of the city's downtown and bringing approximately 1,200 people to the renovated building by the end of 2017.

ServiceMaster and Belz Enterprises, the property's owner, won enthusiastic support from city and state officials for their plans to repurpose the former downtown mall into Class A and LEED-certified office space. The company's plans were unveiled today inside the building's atrium before a gathering of public officials, community partners and company executives.

"We're thrilled to be joining the downtown business community and being a part of the city's ongoing downtown revitalization efforts," said ServiceMaster Chief Executive Officer Rob Gillette. "We're excited to start the process of creating a new headquarters that reflects our winning culture and will help us attract and retain great talent in Memphis."

In addition to moving ServiceMaster's headquarters downtown, Gillette also announced plans to create a new technology and innovation center inside the building. The 20,000-square-foot collaborative workspace will serve as a hub for the company's efforts to showcase its businesses and transform the residential and commercial services industry through digital-mobile technology. It will also serve as an incubator for local entrepreneurs and IT developers to create an innovation engine that can attract high-tech talent and investment to Memphis, and will offer rentable co-working space. The center is expected to open in early 2017.

Gillette noted that over the past 87 years, ServiceMaster has built an exceptional service organization that stands for expertise and trusted professionals who maintain and protect 75,000 homes and business each day.

"Now it's time for us to focus on the future and our next great wave of innovation, customer service and performance," he said.

Since moving its corporate headquarters from Downers Grove, Ill. to Memphis in 2007, the company has celebrated several major milestones, including its 85th anniversary and publicly listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014. Earlier this year, ServiceMaster relaunched its corporate brand and was named one of Fortunemagazine's World's Most Admired Companies.

"We want to thank ServiceMaster for its commitment to Memphis and the future economic development and growth of the state's largest city. Downtowns are the heart of our communities, and ServiceMaster's new headquarters and technology and innovation center will be a great addition to downtown Memphis," Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam said.

"ServiceMaster's choice of Memphis clearly illustrates our city's momentum. That ServiceMaster decided the best place to build its future is in Downtown Memphis, by reactivating this one-of-a-kind property, shows how the future of our city -- particularly our core -- is bright," said Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland.

"The Greater Memphis Chamber welcomes ServiceMaster to downtown Memphis, which is booming with new business and great talent," said Phil Trenary, president and CEO, Greater Memphis Chamber. "ServiceMaster has been a vital corporate citizen for our community and to our business leadership. We are thankful for their commitment to Memphis and look forward to that continued relationship."

ServiceMaster's new downtown corporate offices will be home to all three of its business segments: Terminix, American Home Shield and its Franchise Services Group, which includes well-known brands ServiceMaster Restore, ServiceMaster Clean, Merry Maids, Furniture Medic and AmeriSpec. The four-level, 328,000-square-foot structure is adjacent to the historic Peabody Hotel.

Overall, ServiceMaster employs approximately 2,200 of its 13,000 employees in the Memphis area, including call center and field-based employees. An additional 33,000 employees are part of the company's extensive franchise network.

"The downtown Memphis community is going to get a great neighbor," said Mark Luttrell, Mayor of Shelby County. "ServiceMaster employees are known for going above and beyond in their community service. We've all seen their dedication to making Memphis and the Mid-South a better place to live and work."

Gillette noted that the company will continue to build on its legacy of service to the community, both in Memphis and in its other locations. In 2015, ServiceMaster employee volunteers accounted for more than 14,000 volunteer-hours and hundreds of in-kind donations. Its annual We Serve Day, held in August, unites employees across the United States to support local nonprofits through volunteerism.

About ServiceMaster

ServiceMaster (NYSE: SERV) solves the homeowner's dilemma. Every day, we visit more than 75,000 homes and businesses through our extensive service network of expert professionals. Technology powers our trusted experts to engage with customers so they can order, buy and receive services when, where and how they want them. Our well-recognized brands include American Home Shield (home warranties), AmeriSpec (home inspections), Furniture Medic (furniture repair), Merry Maids (residential cleaning), ServiceMaster Clean (janitorial), ServiceMaster Restore (disaster restoration) and Terminix (termite and pest control). Like, follow or visit us at facebook.com/ServiceMaster,linkedin.com/ServiceMaster, twitter.com/ServiceMaster orservicemaster.com.

SOURCE ServiceMaster

Media Contact:

Peter Tosches

O: 901.597.8449

C: 901.692.2220

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The teacher crisis is real, and were not going to work our way out of it simply by making it easier to hire teachers.
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--

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Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia was among the right people enshrined on the memorial wall on Saturday, Oct. 21.
LEBANON  Corvallis resident Sea-oh McConville, 34, will take more than a freshly printed medical diploma with her as she begins a residency program in family medicine at St. John Medical Center in Westlake, Ohio.

Shes also going to take a new husband along for the adventure  fellow College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific-Northwest graduate Dr. Tyler Andrea, from Kenosha, Wisconsin.

McConville took a year off after graduating from Oregon State University with degrees in biology and chemistry, and then applied to a half-dozen medical colleges around the country.

But as soon as she met Dr. Paul Aversano, associate professor of internal medicine at COMP-Northwest, she knew it was the school for her.

It immediately felt like home, McConville said Friday morning as she and 104 other members of the Class of 2016 began lining up for the schools second annual commencement program on the Samaritan Health Sciences campus.

McConvilles instincts were spot-on about the school and her classmate. She and Andrea, 29, will be married today in Walton, Oregon.

We rented an entire summer camp, McConville said with a broad grin.

Andrea said he will miss the Pacific Northwest, which reminds him a lot of Wisconsin.

I drove 36 hours from Wisconsin and ended up in Wild Rose, Wisconsin, only with a better view, he said. The Pacific Northwest has definitely won my heart.

To round out their hectic weekend, the couple also closed on the purchase of a new home in Ohio, where she has a residency in family medicine and he has a residency in internal medicine at Case Western Reserve University Hospitals.

Dr. Richard Bond, chairman of Western Universitys board of trustees and of 31 members of its first graduating class in 1982, said this years class is composed of 65 men and 40 women, whose average age is 30.

About 65 percent of the class are from states in the Pacific Northwest, and 25 of them will complete their residencies in Oregon and Washington.

Several were greeted by spouses and children after receiving their diplomas.

They have varied and interesting backgrounds, Bond said. One was a firefighter, one an interior designer, a musician and a former police officer. They become part of 13,437 graduates from Western University programs.

He encouraged the graduates to be lifelong learners and to make certain that humanism is always the focus of your actions.

COMP-Northwest Dean Dr. Paula Crone and interim president Gary Gugelchuk presented Lori Sobelson, director of corporate outreach for Bobs Red Mill Natural Foods, with an honorary diploma for her lifelong commitment to nutrition and healthy living for all.

Sobelson also was the keynote speaker and encouraged the new doctors to develop long-term relationships with their patients.

Sobelson said the doctors can learn much from the 4-H motto, which stands for head, heart, hands and health.

Crone also presented Dr. Ethan Allen with a Distinguished Service Award for his 64 years of service to osteopathic medicine. Allen is a founding member of the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Board of Trustees in 1977. The 92-year-old practiced medicine in Southern California for more than six decades. He continues to serve on the Western University of Health Sciences board as treasurer.

He has led a life of service, dedication and leadership, Crone said.

Corvallis resident Erin Guiliano predicted she was going to cry during commencement, but the single mother of four sported a broad smile as she hugged Dean Crone and shook hands with President Gugelchuk upon receiving her diploma.

Guiliano, a Medford native, is one of four members of the Class of 16 who will begin residency programs with Samaritan Health Services. She will be working in family medicine at the Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.

Fellow graduates who will remain in the mid-valley are: Cristina Capannolo, family medicine; Ian Ledford, internal medicine; Eric Vinceslio, family medicine.

Several others will be working in Oregon and Washington.
This log includes incidents in which there might have been a public disturbance or a risk to the public. Information comes from the Corvallis Police Department, the Benton County Sheriffs Office and Oregon State Police. It does not include all calls for service. The status of incidents might change after further investigation. Locations are approximate. People arrested or suspected in crimes are considered innocent until proven otherwise.

Corvallis Police Department

THURSDAY, JUNE 2

DUII: 10:26 p.m., Northwest Ninth Street and Grant Avenue. An officer arrested and charged Kaitlyn M. Fretwell, 21, of Corvallis with DUII following a traffic stop. Fretwell had a reported blood alcohol content of 0.20 percent.

THEFT: 1:56 p.m., 777 N.W. Kings Blvd. Officers responded to a report of a man believed to be Michael Felix Sandoval, 61, of Corvallis stealing malt liquor from Fred Meyer. Officers later contacted Sandoval, who had one of the beverages in his possession and tried to consume it when officers questioned him about it. Sandoval was arrested and charged with first-degree trespass and third-degree theft. He was later booked and released from the Benton County Jail.

BIKE THEFT: 7:30 a.m., 400 block of Southwest Fifth Street. A man reported that his blue/gray bicycle worth about $2,000 was stolen from his garage during the day. The garage was padlocked but the man reported that other tenants at the building have access and could have taken the bicycle and locked the door behind them.

SATURDAY, MAY 28

CAR PROWL: Midnight, 3400 block of Southeast Third Street. An officer responded to a report of a theft with the suspect on scene. The officer later arrested and charged Cheryl Anne Thomas, 46, of Albany with unlawful entry into a motor vehicle and second-degree theft. The officer reportedly discovered that Thomas was in possession of a bag that was stolen from a car near the residence.
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
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Protecting the worlds oceans  an important goal of Germanys climate diplomacy

The worlds oceans are vital to our survival. They regulate the global climate and are a source of food and income for billions of people. Only a very small part of the seas enjoys legal protection, however. Our diplomats are working in New York right now to change this state of affairs.
LeEco all set to create ripples in India market with its disruptive technology News oi -GizBot Bureau

LeEco, the multinational internet ecosystem company is gearing up to leap into the future, just a month from its last launch event in Mumbai.

The theme of the grand event is, "2Future" indicating that the company will be announcing the launch of products or services that are industry firsts and ahead of their time.

SEE ALSO: Another Brick in LeEco Ecosystem Cycle: Ushering in LeMall in India?

The event will be held at Siri Fort auditorium in New Delhi and is expected to be attended by over 1500+ people including media, Superfans and industry veterans.

The upcoming event has already whipped up a lot of excitement and anticipation among Indian consumers, going by the grand scale of this event.

SEE ALSO: LeEco announces CDLA Audio Standard Technology with USB Type-C output

There are numerous rumors taking rounds about what the company will launch at this grand event. While some industry experts believe that LeEco will bring in the next generation of products in India, others are hazarding a guess that June 8th will mark the company's entry into the e-commerce space in India.

If we're to believe the rumours that LeEco will roll out its next generation of Superphones in India, then the timing couldn't have been better! This is because the battle for smartphones has now reached new heights in India.

SEE ALSO: LeEco rumored to unveil its next generation Super products on June 8

Price range and hardware specs have given way to experiences like the resolution of photos clicked, quality of audio system, touchscreen, and video quality.

Amongst these, camera quality has become a top priority for smartphones buyers as capturing moments on the go has become critical, thanks to the evolving needs of users to share memories across their social media platforms, real-time.

Responding to these evolving needs and demands, brands are continuously improvising the quality of their cameras.

As reported, LeEco's second generation Superphones launched in Beijing at the end of April come equipped with PDAF (phase detection auto focus) feature that enables fast focusing on the image.

Le 2 flaunts a 16M PDAF primary camera and Le Max2 comes with industry beating 21MP plus OIS feature that capturing the best moment of your life.

Given that the "Selfie culture" refuses to die down across the globe, the power of the rear camera has shifted to the front camera, thus making it one of the most important USPs that users consider while buying a smartphone.

LeEco's new Superphones are most likely to come with high resolution compact cameras that will be having a front camera of 8MP. These superlative camera specs make these two Superphones a delight for camera lovers.

Security is another focus area as more and more users store critical data on their smartphones. All of LeEco's Superphones come with fingerprint recognition technology ensuring safety, but the next generation phone - Le Max2 goes one big step further.

This phone supports the revolutionary ultrasonic fingerprint sensor that helps users to unlock their devices faster, besides making them safer and is the perfect combination of functionality, performance and aesthetics.

LeEco is rapidly expanding in the global market and has big plans for India which is clearly reflected in all the announcements the company has made so far in the country. Five days from now, LeEco will reveal what the tech savvy Indian consumers can lay their hands on!

Best Mobiles in India
'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.
Update: air strikes against Daesh

2 June 2016

British forces have continued to conduct air operations in the fight against Daesh

Latest update

- Tuesday 31 May  Reapers, Typhoons and Tornados all provided close air support to the Fallujah offensive, as well as destroying other Daesh targets in northern and western Iraq.

- Wednesday 1 June  Tornados struck three Daesh strongpoints on the southern outskirts of Fallujah, whilst Reapers destroyed a terrorist check-point and a rocket launcher in western and northern Iraq respectively.

Detail

With Iraqi ground forces continuing operations to liberate Fallujah, Royal Air Force Tornado GR4s, Typhoon FGR4s, and Reapers joined other coalition aircraft in providing intensive close air support.

On Tuesday 31 May, Tornados used Paveway IV guided bombs to destroy two heavy machine-guns that were threatening the advancing Iraqi forces; one, mounted on a truck concealed in a palm grove north of Fallujah, the second in a building on the southern outskirts of the city. In northern Iraq, a Typhoon and a Reaper provided assistance to the Kurdish peshmerga and Iraqi forces. The Typhoons destroyed the headquarters of a local Daesh commander to the south-east of Mosul, using Paveway IVs, while the Reaper assisted a coalition aircraft in targeting an engineering vehicle used for constructing defences near Qayyarah, then used its own Hellfire missiles against two terrorist mortar teams. Both the Typhoons and the Reaper then flew south to add their weight to air operations over Fallujah. The Typhoons successfully attacked a third heavy machine-gun position. The Reaper kept close watch on a group of terrorists test-firing and loading weapons, including a heavy machine gun, onto a supply truck. The reaper then destroyed the truck with a direct hit from a Hellfire missile.

Further west, along the Euphrates, near the recently liberated town of Hit, a second Reaper provided support to Iraqi forces consolidating the security of the surrounding area. The Reaper destroyed both a machine-gun team and a vehicle carrying a recoilless anti-tank gun with its Hellfires.

Reapers were in action again on Wednesday 1 June. One patrolled the skies above Qayyarah, where a camouflaged set of loaded rocket launch rails were spotted and destroyed with a Hellfire missile. A second Reaper patrolled over eastern Syria and western Iraq, and located a terrorist check-point on the Iraqi side of the border, west of Al Qa'im, which was stopping the free movement of traffic. Again, a Hellfire missile was employed and the check-point successfully attacked. Two Tornado missions provided reconnaissance and close air support to Iraqi forces around Fallujah. One pair of Tornados used Paveway IVs to conduct simultaneous attacks on two Daesh-held buildings close to a canal to the south of the city; one building housed a terrorist sniper team, the other a recoilless anti-tank artillery piece. Both targets were destroyed by direct hits. The second Tornado flight successfully silenced a heavy-machine-gun positioned in a third Daesh strongpoint after it opened fire on the advancing Iraqi troops.

Previous air strikes

2 May: Typhoons provided further support to the Iraqi forces near Fallujah, striking a machine-gun team in a bunker and a 23mm anti-aircraft gun. In northern Iraq, Tornados used two Paveways to destroy a Daesh-held building and a nearby weapons store north of Mosul, then flew south to the Qayyarah region where Iraqi forces were engaged in a firefight with a group of terrorists manning a fortified position. Despite the close proximity of the friendly forces, very precise strikes with two Paveways and two Brimstones helped destroy the Daesh group.

3 May: An RAF Reaper remotely piloted aircraft conducting reconnaissance over the village of Batnay, north of Mosul. A truck-bomb was identified inside a compound and struck using a Hellfire missile, resulting in a very large explosion. The Reaper then provided targeting support to a successful strike by coalition fast jets against a group of Daesh fighters and their vehicle. Two Tornados were also tasked to operate over Batnay, and they successfully destroyed a further Daesh vehicle with a direct hit from a Brimstone. In western Iraq, Typhoons provided further close air support to Iraqi forces near Fallujah, striking a mortar team and their vehicle hidden under trees south of the city.

4 May: A Reaper identified a truck-bomb, concealed underneath a tarpaulin, next to a road in western Iraq. The crew checked that there were no civilians or friendly forces at immediate risk and used a Hellfire missile to score a direct hit on the vehicle, detonating the explosives safely. South of Fallujah, a pair of Typhoon FGR4s used a Paveway IV guided bomb to destroy a building where a group of extremists, armed with a heavy calibre automatic weapon. In the same area, a Tornado GR4 flight dropped four Paveways on a weapons stockpile, two Daesh-held buildings, and a tunnel entrance. RAF aircraft also supported Kurdish forces in the north of the country, where another Tornado flight bombed a group of Daesh fighters and a mortar team, the latter positioned in a small copse of trees.

5 May: Tornado missions in support of Iraqi and Kurdish operations demolished a terrorist position north-east of Mosul on around Mosul and Fallujah, while Typhoons bombed a tunnel and a mortar south-west of Fallujah.

6 May: Daesh terrorists were spotted unloading rockets and mortar projectiles from a number of small boats and a barge on the Euphrates in Anbar province. A Tornado reconnaissance patrol, armed with Brimstone missiles, was first on the scene and prevented the initial load of weapons from being driven away, hitting the terrorists' truck with a Brimstone while they were still loading it. A Paveway-armed flight of Typhoons then arrived and used its bombs to destroy the weapons on the shore, and sink the barge. The same Typhoon flight also attacked a mortar position south-west of Fallujah. A second Tornado flight destroyed two heavy machine-gun positions on the north bank of the Euphrates, downstream from the recently liberated town of Hit. In northern Iraq, Typhoons struck another mortar, north-west of Mosul.

8 May: Typhoons were active south of Fallujah, where a rocket launcher was identified in the open with three known caches of ammunition stored nearby. All four targets were struck with Paveway IV guided bombs and successfully destroyed.

9 May: RAF Typhoon FGR4s, armed with Paveway IV guided bombs, conducted successful attacks against a group of Daesh extremists hiding in a tunnel network dug into a riverbank north-west of Kirkuk and against two rocket launcher positions north of Mosul.

Other Typhoons, and Tornado GR4s provided close air support to the Iraqi troops operating in the Euphrates valley. The Typhoons struck a mortar position north of the Al Asad airbase, while the Tornados destroyed a terrorist command post situated nearby in a riverside building in the midst of a palm grove.

10 May: RAF Sentry airborne command and control platforms have also been playing their part in the overall direction of the air campaign against Daesh. A typical Sentry mission saw it controlling some 40 coalition aircraft operating over Syria and Iraq, including several RAF reconnaissance missions.

11 May: Tornados again assisted Iraqi ground forces in the Euphrates valley, when they came up against a heavily defended Daesh building, which was demolished with a Paveway.

12 May: A Typhoon flight used three Paveways to hit Daesh positions ahead of a Kurdish offensive to the south-west of Kirkuk.

13 May: Two RAF Reapers provided close air support to the peshmerga as they advanced, conducting a total of four attacks with three Hellfires and a GBU-12 guided bomb. They destroyed mortar teams and a Daesh supply truck, as well as providing surveillance support to a coalition air strike which destroyed a terrorist strongpoint. Tornados were meanwhile again assisting Iraqi ground forces in the Euphrates valley, and destroyed two Daesh-held buildings on the northern bank of the river.

15 May: A pair of Typhoons conducted successful simultaneous attacks north-west of Fallujah, which destroyed a bunker and an engineering vehicle.

16 May: RAF support to Iraqi ground forces along the Euphrates continued when Tornados used a Paveway bomb to destroy a small Daesh bunker containing ammunition supplies.

17 May: Tornados operated north of Mosul and conducted a successful attack with Paveways on a group of three buildings near Bashiqah, which housed weapon stockpiles. The same day, a Typhoon flight used a pair of Paveways to destroy two machine-gun positions which Daesh were attempting to establish on the northern bank of the Euphrates near Hit following their recent defeat by the Iraqis in the town.

18 May: Flights of Typhoons and Tornados both participated in a series of attacks on Daesh installations north of Tal Afar. The Typhoons employed eight Paveways to attack a cluster of buildings used by the terrorists for command and control, accommodation, and vehicle and weapon storage. The Tornados delivered four Paveways to destroy a further command post and three ammunition stockpiles.

19 May: Tornados from RAF Akrotiri patrolled the Mosul area. North of the city, they used a Paveway IV guided bomb to destroy a tunnel in which a group of Daesh extremists were based, then moved to the east of Mosul where 15 rocket launchers had been stored by the terrorists. Three Paveway IVs were used against ammunition stockpiles, before three Brimstone missiles were used to destroy the rocket launchers. The small warhead and high precision of the Brimstones avoided any structural damage being caused to the surrounding buildings.

Typhoons were also active over northern Iraq that day, operating north of Tall Afar where they employed a pair of Paveways to demolish a large weapons store, then two more Paveways against two other Daesh-held buildings.

20 May: Intelligence analysis pinpointed two Daesh headquarters in north-west Syria, located 10 and 25 miles respectively north of Aleppo near the fighting along the Mar'a Line. A pair of Tornado GR4s were tasked with their destruction. One of the command posts was in a very solidly constructed building, this was targeted with two Enhanced Paveway II 1000lb bombs. A pair of 500lb Paveway IVs were used against the second headquarters. Both targets were destroyed by direct hits.

With the Iraqi ground forces preparing to launch their offensive to liberate Fallujah, Typhoons provided close air support to their operations around the outskirts of the city. A stockpile of components for improvised explosive devices was destroyed with one Paveway and a terrorist strong-point with a second.

22 May: Further close air support was provided around Fallujah, when Tornados bombed a tunnel complex where weapons and ammunition were stored.

23 May: Tornados used a Brimstone missile against a further mortar team near Fallujah. Not far away, Iraqi ground forces were in close combat north of Habbaniyah assisted by a pair of RAF Typhoons that struck a mortar team and a rocket position with Paveways. In the north of the country two more Typhoons contributed to a coalition strike on Daesh installations west of Mosul, a workshop preparing truck-bombs was assigned as the RAF target and successfully demolished by a Paveway. Across the border, in eastern Syria, an RAF Reaper identified a terrorist checkpoint north-west of Dayr az Zawr and destroyed it with a Hellfire missile.

24 May: A Royal Air Force Reaper remotely piloted aircraft patrolled near Bayji, where Daesh terrorists were engaged in combat with Iraqi forces. The Reaper used one Hellfire missile to destroy an artillery gun that was firing on the Iraqi troops, it then used a second Hellfire to break up an attempted Daesh attack along a gully. In northern Iraq, Tornado GR4s attacked a Daesh-held building near Qayyarah with a Paveway IV guided bomb. With the Iraqi offensive to liberate Fallujah well under way, a pair of Paveway-armed Typhoons provided close air support west of the city, where they destroyed three stockpiles of terrorist weapons and ammunition.

25 May: Typhoon operations west of Fallujah continued, when they patrolled the area leading to Habbaniyah and on to the outskirts of Ramadi. They conducted a series of Paveway IV attacks, accounting for two Daesh positions, including a heavy machine-gun team, as well as an artillery piece and a bunker.

26 May: They returned to the same area the following day, hitting an ammunition cache that had been spotted near the destroyed bunker. They then struck a building north-east of Fallujah where a large group of terrorists had been reported massing for a counter-attack. In the north, Tornados bombed two terrorist-held buildings and a tunnel near Mosul. Later in the day, a Typhoon flight was tasked with eliminating a group of suicide bombers who had been spotted north of Baghdad, preparing for an attempted diversionary attack on the security cordon around the city; a Paveway IV demolished the building in which they were hiding.

27 May: Intensive air operations along the Euphrates valley around Fallujah and the wider area continued. Typhoons silenced two sniper teams with Paveway strikes, then intervened in a closely fought combat between Iraqi troops and Daesh near Habbaniyah; particular care and precision was needed to avoid causing casualties to the Iraqi forces, but three successful Paveway attacks were accomplished. A second Typhoon flight destroyed a light anti-aircraft gun that was firing on Iraqi personnel near Hit, whilst a pair of Tornados used a Brimstone missile to destroy a truck-bomb in the same area. A Reaper was also active over the Euphrates, using a Hellfire to destroy a vehicle-mounted terrorist team, armed with rocket-propelled grenades, on the outskirts of Fallujah.

29 May: Despite these efforts around Fallujah, the Kurdish forces in the north were not neglected: Tornados bombed a mortar position near Mosul. There were two further attacks near Mosul on Sunday 29 May, conducted by Typhoons against another mortar position and a large truck-bomb that was being prepared for use. In the south, near Hit, a Tornado patrol destroyed a Daesh vehicle with a Brimstone missile.

30 May: Intelligence work had identified two factory sites in northern Syria, between Al Bab and Manbij, producing improvised explosive devices. A pair of Tornados, armed with 1,000lb Enhanced Paveway II bombs, conducted a deliberate strike on the two sites. A Tornado reconnaissance patrol near Mosul used a Paveway to attack a group of terrorists, and a Brimstone to destroy their support vehicle. Typhoons also destroyed three weapon stockpiles to the east of Mosul. Another Typhoon mission maintained a close air support presence over Fallujah, and, working very closely with a coalition surveillance aircraft, used Paveway IVs to attack an armed truck and a Daesh fighting position.

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Britain helps train record number of Afghan Army officers

2 June 2016

The Afghan National Army Officer Academy (ANAOA) has now trained over 1,300 Afghan officer graduates, the Defence Secretary has announced.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon made the announcement during a visit to the academy in Kabul today.

Since the ANAOA held its first graduation in September 2014, the academy has played a crucial role in developing the next generation of Afghan officers. With more female officers than ever, graduates from the facility are playing an active role in shaping the security of the country.

The UK, along with NATO partners, are providing essential support in helping development of the institution, mentoring the Afghan instructors.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said:

"Afghan forces are now leading security for their country and hundreds of British troops are providing crucial support."

"Our long term commitment to help build a more secure and prosperous Afghanistan will make the region more stable and the streets of Britain safer."

While the UK's combat mission in Afghanistan ended in 2014, 450 British troops - our second largest operational deployment - continue to play a vital role in the country. In addition to our work with the ANAOA, British troops provide advisors to the Afghan Security Ministries and support NATO's Resolute Support Mission through the Kabul Security Force.

Before travelling to Kabul the Defence Secretary met the UAE Minister of State for Defence Affairs, Mr Mohammed Ahmed Al Bawardi, and Deputy Chief of Staff of the UAE Armed Forces Maj Gen Essa Saif Mohammed Al Mazrouei in Abu Dhabi.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said:

"The UAE is an important partner in the campaign against Daesh and promoting security and prosperity across the Gulf."

"As part of our longstanding defence relationship we will continue to enhance our military co-operation across all areas."

The UAE plays a key role in the campaign against Daesh, making an important contribution to this allied effort.

The Gulf is one of the most visited regions in the world by Royal Navy ships, and the UAE plays an important role in supporting these operations and activities.

As part of our strong military relationship, the UAE is a partner of choice for bilateral training exercises and we look forward to operating alongside them in future events, including Ex SEA KHANJAR, a major joint amphibious maritime exercise due to take place next year.

The UK remains committed to the defence of the UAE through the UK/UAE Defence Agreement.

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Ready to receive: B-52s touch down in England

By Tech. Sgt. Jarad A. Denton, U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa Public Affairs / Published June 03, 2016

ROYAL AIR FORCE FAIRFORD, England (AFNS) -- With the sharp screech of rubber meeting asphalt, two B-52 Stratofortress bombers from Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, touched down June 2 at Royal Air Force Fairford.

For the third year in a row the bombers have deployed to RAF Fairford to participate in bilateral training exercises. This year marks an integration with allied military forces through U.S. European Command's exercises Baltops 16 and Saber Strike 16, as well as U.S. Africa Command's exercise Just Hammer.

"During this short-term deployment, the strategic bombers are scheduled to conduct training flights with ground and naval forces around the region and participate in multinational exercises," said Air Force Col. Kieran Denehan, the 5th Expeditionary Operations Group commander. "The bombers will integrate into several exercise and real-world activities, including air intercept training, mining operations, inert ordnance drops and close air support."

Using RAF Fairford, which normally operates as a lean base within the scope of the 501st Combat Support Wing, as a strategic hub for these exercises, the bomber crews have a unique opportunity to integrate and train with U.S. service members, allies and partners in a multitude of operations.

"The ability to integrate strategic bomber forces in a variety of missions is key to ensuring the U.S. is able to honor our security commitments," Denehan said. "This deployment to RAF Fairford is about participating in long-standing exercises and conducting necessary training within the region."

RAF Fairford's unique strategic location, capabilities, facilities and ability to transform from a lean base to an active, operational installation, makes it a key location for large-scale exercises and readiness operations.

"With the second longest flightline in the United Kingdom, we have an airfield that can accommodate a B-52 with no stress on the pavement," said Frank Dailey, the 420th Air Base Squadron site director at RAF Fairford. "Out of our 55 wide-body parking spots, 43 have the ability for on-the-spot hydrant refueling, which allows for quicker sortie turnarounds."

Throughout the exercises, RAF Fairford will host the bombers, along with about 250 Airmen from Air Force Global Strike Command, and U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa.

The training is designed to build and strengthen partnerships across the continent, as well as ensure interoperability with NATO allies and partners to remain strong and focused on a shared commitment to peace and global security.

U.S. Strategic Command routinely deploys bombers to both the EUCOM and U.S. Pacific Command areas of responsibility to train and integrate with 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.

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Military Strikes Continue Against ISIL Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, June 03, 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

Bomber, ground-attack, attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 14 strikes in Syria:

-- Near Raqqah, three strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL oil pumpjack.

-- Near Manbij, 10 strikes struck five separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL fighting positions, two ISIL cave entrances, two ISIL caves, and an ISIL-used bridge.

-- Near Mar'a, a strike destroyed an ISIL artillery system.

Strikes in Iraq

Bomber, attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 15 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:

-- Near Fallujah, four strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 11 ISIL fighting positions, three ISIL recoilless rifles, five ISIL heavy machine guns, two ISIL weapons caches, and two ISIL staging areas.

-- Near Habbaniyah, two strikes struck two separate large ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL mortar system.

-- Near Hit, a strike produced inconclusive results.

-- Near Kisik, three strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and an ISIL headquarters and destroyed an ISIL mortar system and an ISIL weapons cache.

-- Near Mosul, four strikes struck two ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL weapons cache, an ISIL mortar system, and an ISIL vehicle and damaged a separate ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike struck an ISIL vehicle bomb-making factory.

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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Fights to Retake Fallujah, Manbij City From ISIL Begin

By Terri Moon Cronk DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, June 03, 2016  The fights started last week aimed at wrenching control of two major cities in Iraq and Syria from the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant are expected to be difficult, U.S. Central Command spokesman Air Force Col. Pat Ryder said today.

Giving his weekly counter-ISIL campaign operational update to Pentagon reporters by teleconference, Ryder said local forces in Iraq and Syria, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, are allowing movement to retake Fallujah, Iraq, and Manbij City, Syria.

Since Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of Fallujah operations last week, Ryder said, the city has been further isolated and Iraqi forces continue operations to clear the outskirts of the city enabled by coalition airstrikes.

Retaking Fallujah A Challenge

Fallujah lies roughly 43 miles west of Baghdad and is the second-largest city in Anbar province. Covering an area of 53,476 square miles -- a region about the size of North Carolina -- Anbar is the largest of Iraq's provinces and shares borders with Syria, Jordan and Kuwait. Ryder said ISIL's continued fight to hold control of Fallujah is marked by three factors:

First, Fallujah is the first Iraqi city over which ISIL took control, and Ryder said it's "symbolic" to ISIL. The terrorist group seized the town in January 2014, he said, and "Though it's been increasingly isolated over the last year, it remains one of their last major strongholds in the Anbar province."

Second, Anbar's population centers are a source of ISIL money and the organization's operations base, Ryder said.

Finally, Anbar's road networks, which stretch from southern and central Syria to Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, connect ISIL- held territories, he said. With ISIL losses in Rutbah, Ramadi, Haditha, and other towns along the Euphrates, "ISIL has lost those revenue sources and  its ability to connect its territory," Ryder said.

Coalition Leads With Airstrikes

As of this morning, the coalition has supported the Iraqi-led operation with 65 airstrikes in the Fallujah area, striking 20 weapons caches and more than 300 enemy fighters, Ryder said.

Ryder noted that urban fighting is always difficult and the Iraqis have met with heavy ISIL resistance as its fighters use networks of trenches and tunnels, homemade bombs, suicide bombers, heavy machine guns and small-arms fire, he said.

"We're watching the intensity of their resistance carefully, as this is an indicator of how hard they intend to defend and try to keep Fallujah," the Centcom spokesman said of enemy tactics, including ISIL trying to distract and delay Iraqi forces and the Iraq government from the Fallujah offensive by conducting high-profile terror attacks against Baghdad civilians.

Syria's Manbij Fight Led by Locals

In Syria, operations to expel ISIL fighters from Manbij city and surrounding areas began May 30, with U.S.-led coalition forces operating in support of Arab counter-ISIL forces largely comprised of local leaders and fighters, Ryder said.

"The operations are led by the Manbij Military Council of the Syrian Arab Coalition, an indigenous Arab force from Manbij seeking to reclaim their hometown from ISIL," he added.

Since the Manbij offensive began five days ago, more than 55 coalition airstrikes have supported Arab-led forces as they secured western lodgments on the Euphrates River, and extended the forward line of troops over 38.6 square miles, he said.

More ISILSetbacks

Liberating Manbij will cut further into ISIL's territorial hold in the region and take out its key route to hinder the Islamic terrorists from moving fighters, finances, weapons and supplies in and out of Syria and Iraq, Ryder said.

Retaking Manbij would also impede ISIL's ability to threaten Turkey and the rest of Europe while freeing 35,000 to 40,000 people from ISIL control, he added.

The coalition's building partner capacity program has helped Iraqi forces generate combat power with sufficient capabilities to maintain operational momentum, sustain security gains and enable future stability, Ryder said.

Since training began, several thousand coalition trainers, advisors and support personnel have trained more than 23,000 Iraqi forces that include "individual soldier skills, small arms and indirect fire weapons, obstacle breaching, medical training, and law and order," he said.



This U.S. Central Command graphic, 'Isolating the Islamic State of Iraq and The Levant,' released June 3, 2016, depicts how retaking Manbij, Syria, will further cripple the terrorist organization, U.S. Central Command spokesman Air Force Col. Pat Ryder told Pentagon reporters. DoD graphic

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Release

No. NR-195-16 June 03, 2016

Readout of Secretary Carter's meeting with Indonesian Minister of Defense Ryamizard Ryacudu

Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook provided the following readout:

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter met with Indonesian Minister of Defense Ryamizard Ryacudu today in Singapore, on the margins of the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue.



The two leaders exchanged views on the regional security environment in Southeast Asia and recent progress in multilateral security cooperation. Secretary Carter also discussed opportunities for increased regional operational cooperation, and expressed his appreciation to Minister Ryamizard for Indonesia's continued contributions to regional security.

They discussed the need for peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea in accordance with international law, and Secretary Carter noted that the UNCLOS Arbitral Tribunal ruling on the Philippines-China claims will be binding on both parties.

Finally, Secretary Carter reiterated the importance of continuing to strengthen defense ties with Indonesia in combating transnational threats.

Secretary Carter and Minister Ryamizard looked forward to the U.S.-ASEAN Defense Informal that is planned for late September in Hawaii.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/790490/

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Transcript

Presenter: Secretary of Defense Ash Carter June 03, 2016

Joint Press Conference with Secretary Carter and Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen at the Ministry of Defense in Bukit Batok, Singapore

[*]

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ASH CARTER: Please do.

SINGAPORE DEFENSE MINISTER NG ENG HEN: Well, I'm very delighted that Secretary Ash Carter is here for the Shangri-La dialogue. I hosted him breakfast today and two others, I brought him to visit our imagery analyst team which is the formation in which the IATs have been deployed in Kuwait against the anti-ISIS Counter Terrorism Groups.

Secretary Carter invited me kindly to take a flight on the P-8 and it was a good experience.

Let me just say some general remarks and then pass it on to Secretary Carter. I would view the defense relations between Singapore and the U.S. as very strong. As you know in the last 25 years since the signing of the MOU in 1990, and again the Strategic Framework Agreement in 2005, as well as last year in celebration of our 50th diplomatic anniversary, we signed - both of us signed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

These agreements over the last 25 years underscore Singapore's belief that the U.S. presence in our region has contributed - and will continue to contribute greatly to our stability in this region. And this was in the context which in recent years the LCSs, the Littoral Combat Ships as well as the P-8 that we've deployed in rotations in Singapore.

We took a flight around Singapore and I would say that it underscores I think our shared belief that the waters around this region are critical. Thirteen million barrels of oil flow through the Straight of Malacca, second only to the Strait of Hormuz. On the eastern side of the South China Sea, it sees equal if not greater traffic.

Any instability in these critical sea lines of communication will be an enormous impact, not only in the economy and ASEAN but globally. So it underscores our shared belief in maritime security, and again, I'm extremely pleased that Secretary Carter this year called the Shangri-La dialogue. And I thank him again for the invitation to plan the meetings.

Thank you.

SEC. CARTER: Thank you very much.

This is my good friend and host here, and I'm very grateful. It's wonderful to see you again. It's wonderful to be hosted by you here in Singapore, and wonderful to see some of the host team of our military personnel here.

We are so grateful, the United States is now and has been for decades to have as capable and as principle security partners as Singapore. One that stands as we do for cooperation and inclusiveness, and principle in the conduct of international affairs. One that is among the countries of the world that embody those principles. We have no better friend than Singapore. So I'm grateful for that.

Before I say anything about our visit here, I need to however reflect on the sad fact that yesterday, Thursday, the United States was a tough day for the U.S. military. A Navy Blue Angel, an F-18 crashed in Tennessee. Unfortunately, the pilot was lost in that incident.

And down at Fort Hood, a troop carrier overturned and there were casualties also in that incident. I can't confirm at the moment the number that were killed and the number that were wounded. And we would refer all of you for more details to Fort Hood. But I just did want to signify while I was here that our hearts and thoughts are with the family of those who lost.

And with respect to the fact that both of these were lost as safety issues in training, we're going to make sure that we learn lessons that we can from the investigations we conduct after these incidents. And that we take accidents in the future to prevent such accidents and keep our people safe.

Once again, thank you Minister Hen for having me here. You're right 2016 is the 50th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations between the United States and Singapore.

When we met in December together in Washington, the minister and I signed the, as he had mentioned, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which was yet another step in the long and enduring cooperation between the United States and Singapore in Security affairs. That agreement inaugurated the rotational deployment, as he noted the P-8s here similar in structure in the way the combat system ships are rotated. We're very grateful for that.

Their purpose is of course maritime security and there's no country in - and no geography in the world that compares to Singapore for it's - the importance it has in the field of maritime security, which all of our countries everywhere in the world depend on. So we're grateful to have a partner here in that field.

When we flew over the Strait of Malacca which is always miraculous to me to see just the density of international shipping flags from all countries, all sorts of origins, all sorts of destinations. A great sign of the global commons at work, which is one of the things that we try to protect with our militaries.

I should say that the P-8 is only one example of Singapore's wonderful hospitality to us. There are more than 100 U.S. Navy ships and more than 800 U.S. aircraft transit through Singapore every year. We're very grateful of that.

And of course, that's just the beginning. We've collaborated in many areas; counter-terrorism which has been mentioned, including counter- ISIL, where Singapore plays an important role. And the Minister explained how I had the opportunity to visit one of the units that has made a very significant contribution to the counter-ISIL campaign. And I'm grateful for the opportunity to do that.

But initially in counter-terrorism, there is piracy, humanitarian assistance and disaster response, maritime security, which I already mentioned, cyber-security, and other areas. So it's very wide ranging cooperation. We're very grateful to it.

I look forward - I should say also - to discussing these matters further with the Prime Minister this afternoon. I'm grateful for the opportunity to meet with him. And of course, we the United States look forward to welcoming him to Washington shortly.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

Q: (Inaudible) How important is it for the United States to boost military cooperation with regional countries in the South China Sea? Question, and does boosting that cooperation perhaps bear our China's contention of U.S. cyber-militarizing the dispute, and using it to increase its own military footprint in the region?

SEC. CARTER: Well, there are a lots of reasons to boost cooperation among the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.

And our cooperation in Singapore which is just one example of that provides the reasons for that, I just gave them. They range from counter-terrorism to counter-piracy. All of these common interests that we as countries share, so it does make sense for us all to do more together.

And with respect to the second part of your question, I'd just say two things. One is, this is a long standing practice of the United States, and so, this is something that is well known in the region and well understood. And the other thing is that the American approach to - and this is shared by most countries in the region, is an inclusive one in which everyone participates in the collective defense of our peoples from today's threats.

That's the ideal. That's the objective of the U.S. military presence out there. It's been that way for decades and it will be that way for decades. It's based upon principle, and non-exclusion, cooperation, and common interest.

Q: (Inaudible) How do you think the world thinks about to further boost cooperation through China and the U.S. given how those (inaudible) are friends with all parties, and the U.S. continues it's presence in this part of the world is often seen by China as trying to contain China? So how do you think it's going to play out?

SEC. CARTER: Well, there's a lot more than I think of what we can do together, including with China and Singapore.

And our view is, the more everyone works together, the better. So activities that are not just from between one country and another but between - among three countries, or more countries, or all countries; like ASEAN plus others around here. That's all very welcomed to the United States and that's the way we've been doing things for a long time.

It's not directed at anyone, including China. It is inclusive of everyone, including China. And we can't -- we can only suggest that China participate. But we do stand for the principle of cooperation and a rules-based order, and standing up for the rule of law together.

And that's the basis of the U.S. presence in this region, has been the basis for decades. And it has been a contributor to the stability of Asia, which has allowed the Asian miracle of economic and human prosperity that we've witnessed over the last few decades, through that climate -- which the United States contributed to, and other countries contributed to as well.

That climate of peace and stability is very important, because that's essential to continuing the human progress that is so wonderfully exemplified by this very city-state that we're in today.

MINISTER HEN: I'll just add three short ones.

Singapore's position is very clear, vis-a-vis the U.S. presence in this region. U.S. presence as preeminent power in -- globally in this region for -- (inaudible) -- for the last seven decades has provided conditions of stability.

It has always been here, it's here -- and for peace, for the foreseeable future will continue to be a global power.

At the same time, you recognize that situations change, China is rising. And all of us agree it's not a zero-sum game. There is no question of containment. The question is, how do you accommodate a security architecture for both a resident power and a rising power?

And our -- our meeting not only Singapore, but ASEAN, and I think also the Plus partners in the ASEAN Plus is that there has to be an inclusive architecture, and there has to be clear rules of the road, where all of us understand how we resolve disputes, whether we have the political will to resolve disputes.

Finally, on -- a direct response here, how does Singapore play a role? We have no fantasies or delusions about the size of our influence. What we can do is try to speak truth to power, to say what we see as accommodating for both interests -- both interests of small and large countries, and how we can continue to play, to maintain stability in this region. And we do it through a various foray, including the Shangri-La Dialogue, which refined, I think is very beneficial in discussing the issues and the problems that we have.

STAFF: -- (Inaudible) -- from the Wall Street Journal.

Q: Secretary Carter, as we're here today, the Kurdish and Arab offensive against the city of Manbij, Syria is still underway.

And you said yesterday, that in addition to the foreign fighter flow issue, the other reason that this offensive is crucial is that there is external plotting that's going on from Manbij against U.S., Europe and Turkey. Could you elaborate on the nature of that body, why it's taking place in Manbij now, as opposed to Raqqa or Mosul? And -- and just give us a sense of the -- sort of the civic nature of the threat.

SEC. CARTER: It has been going on for some time in Manbij, as well as Raqqa.

Obviously, Raqqa has been a major focus of our campaign, because it is the self-declared capital of the self-declared state, based upon this ideology, which will be defeated by the rest of the world.

And so, it's not different in kind from the kind of thing that goes on in Raqqa. But there are people there, and I can't go into any details, who aspire to inspiring or even directing plots outside of Syria. And that, along with the fact that is, as you mentioned, a transit hub for foreign fighter flows in both directions is a reason, why it's an important objective there.

We're pleased towork with local forces, which these are, who basically want to take back their own territory from ISIL, which is -- is tyrannizing it. And we're supporting them very strongly, and they're making progress.

Q: And did any evidence of --

STAFF: Sir, we have time for one more -- (inaudible).

MINISTER HEN: Let me just add to Secretary Carter's point, the threat of terrorism is global, and that there are people within Iraq and Syria plotting in Iraq and Syria against their home countries.

As you know, the Jakarta attack, which occurred recently, was purportedly masterminded by Indonesian in -- terrorists Iraq and Syria. And in the last ADMM-Plus, as well as the recent ASEAN defense minister's meeting, there was a reason for the joint declaration.

The problem of terrorism is a global one.

STAFF: I have a question from Bob Burns.

Q: I'm going to ask a question to you, Secretary Carter.

A few minutes ago, you said with regard to China, "We can only suggest that China participate." Wondering whether you were referring a sense of participating in what?

And then, I wanted to ask to Minister Hen. Has Singapore attempt to form or conduct joint air patrols with the U.S.?

SEC. CARTER: Well, in a cooperative, inclusive and principled network security here -- and that's true not only of China, but that's true of any country.

Countries make their own choices based upon their own interests. And their -- their circumstances change over time, as Singapore's has and -- (inaudible) -- risen.

The minister mentioned that China is rising, Japan is rising, India is rising. There are a number of countries. And in a sense, all of the countries of Asia are rising together, and they all make their own choices.

And so, I was simply saying that China, like other countries, will make its own choices. Obviously, we hope it makes a choice to one that is cooperative with the system of security that has served this region so well for so long.

Q: -- (Inaudible) -- exercise it?

SEC. CARTER: Sure, yes. And of course, China will be participating in RIMPAC. That's a perfect example.

That -- and China and a number of other countries. That's a perfect example of countries working together, their militaries working together for common purpose. And we'd like to see more of that.

MINISTER HEN: Well, let me give you a practical answer for a theoretical question.

Singapore believes that in global commons critical waterways that we ought to do our part.

And if you remember the Straits of Malacca, was classified the same risk as it was on risk by lawyers, because of piracy. To address that, we enunciated a number of principles, actually, at the Shangri-La Dialogue in 2005. I think then Prime Minister Najibwas a defense minister. That the -- (inaudible) -- states should be primarily responsible, that user states could contribute, that it would not go against the sovereignty of the policies in the process.

And that's how we are joint patrols. Eyes in the Sky, or Straits of Malacca. Joint patrols on water. And as a result, which piracy was a problem addressed, and it was declassified.

That is the same reason, the same raison d'etre, that we are in the Gulf of Aden, that we have to come together to cooperate, to preserve and protect our global commons. And I think that would apply to the Straits of Malacca, or South China Sea, or any other water body that is critical for global commerce.

STAFF: Thanks, everyone.

SEC. CARTER: Thank you.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/790509/

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SPMAGTF-SC conducts pre-deployment Certification Exercise

US Marine Corps News

By Sgt. Adwin Esters | June 3, 2016

Marines and sailors with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force  Southern Command put months of pre-deployment training to the test during a three-day Certification Exercise aboard Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, May 11-13.

The exercise involved all elements of SPMAGTF-SC, the second iteration of the newly formed unit set to deploy to Central America, and tested the command's response to a natural disaster scenario. The SPMAGTF consists of a Logistics Element, Aviation Element, Ground Element and a Command Element.

"The certification exercise is a field test to examine how prepared the organization is to deploy and accomplish the mission," said Col. Thomas Prentice, the commanding officer of SPMAGTF-SC.

During the certification exercise, SPMAGTF-SC was tasked with responding to a natural disaster in an effected area. The exercise incorporated role players acting as displaced civilians, which required each element of SPMAGTF-SC to play an important role.

The Logistics Element was tasked with organizing the transportation of personnel and civilians left stranded by the natural disaster. The Logistics Element consists of Marines and sailors and is mainly focused on engineering projects. They can also provide support that includes supply, maintenance, transportation and water production

"Acting as the maneuver element, any sort of situation where there might be a natural disaster, whether it be an earthquake or heavy storm, we would tap into our capabilities and respond to that scene and remove any individuals that need to be evacuated from that situation." said Capt. Damon Bailey, officer in charge of the SPMAGTF-SC Logistics Element.

The Aviation Element, in coordination with the Logistics Element, helps make it possible to evacuate those affected by the natural disaster in situations where roads and other transportation may be unavailable.

The Aviation Element is composed of Marines from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 772, 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Forces Reserve.

"We bring helicopter support," said Maj. Eric Rodriguez, Aviation Element operations officer and CH-53E Super Stallion pilot. "During the pre-deployment training we conducted recovery operations, casualty evacuations and external operations to lift gear slung underneath the helicopter both under daylight and low light conditions. We can bridge the gap where the roads stop."

The Aviation Element also has the capacity to move Marines and sailors along with food, water and various supplies using the powerful CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters to and from an affected area depending on the needs of the operation.

The Ground Element's advisor teams also played an important role during the exercise by providing security, which was coordinated and led by the host nation's military.

"Our mission during the certification exercise is the same as in country, which is to build relationships and to be a responsive force should an emergency arise," said Maj. Patrick Temple, officer in charge of the Ground Element of SPMAGTF-SC. "We have a 'be prepared to' mission, which is to provide a maneuver element to contribute to the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief effort."

While in Central America, the advisor teams serve as subject matter experts who advise, mentor, and train partner nation counterparts to improve interoperability and to help build their capacity to plan for and conduct missions. These interactions help to further enable our partners to provide security and prosperity to their citizens.

"The Marines were absolutely spectacular during the certification exercise," said Prentice. "I have no doubt whatsoever in my mind that if the commander of U.S. Southern Command has a mission that takes place, our Marines and sailors will be very well postured to execute that mission successfully, whatever it may be."

Composed of nearly 300 Marines and sailors, SPMAGTF-SC will focus on building relationships and partner nation capacity in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Belize while being prepared to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief if asked to do so. Sourced mainly from Marine Forces Reserve, the Marines and sailors came from 42 different units across 20 states and are scheduled to deploy from June until December.

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Secretary General thanks France for being a strong NATO Ally

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

03 Jun. 2016

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with French President Francois Hollande in Paris on Friday (3 June 2016) to discuss current security challenges and the Alliance's agenda for the Warsaw Summit in July. Mr. Stoltenberg commended France for being "a strong NATO Ally, building security in Europe and beyond - from Mali to Syria."

Mr. Stoltenberg thanked France for its contributions to NATO's deployment in the Aegean Sea and for its important role in the Global Coalition against ISIL. He also welcomed that France will take the lead of NATO's high-readiness Spearhead Force in the coming years. Mr. Stoltenberg further expressed appreciation for France's efforts, along with Germany, "to find a peaceful solution to the crisis in Ukraine".

The Secretary General and President Hollande reviewed the Alliance's agenda for the Warsaw Summit, including plans to enhance NATO's forward presence in the eastern part of the Alliance. "This is a defensive and proportionate response to Russia's actions in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine", Mr. Stoltenberg said. "Defence and dialogue are the two tracks of NATO's approach to Russia, and we are moving forward on both tracks."

The leaders also discussed how NATO could do more to project stability in the Alliance's neighbourhood. "Turmoil and extremism in our neighbourhood can have a direct impact on our security here at home, as the barbaric terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels have recently shown us all," said Mr. Stoltenberg.

Mr. Stoltenberg and President Hollande also addressed the Alliance's plans to take cooperation with the European Union to the next level at the Warsaw Summit. This should include increased cooperation in supporting partners, countering hybrid and cyber threats, and increasing maritime security.

During his two-day visit, the Secretary General also met with the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development Jean-Marc Ayrault. On Friday, he is also meeting Patricia Adam, President of the National Defence and Armed Forces Committee, and with parliamentarians.

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Deputy Secretary General previews NATO Summit at Wroclaw Global Forum

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

03 Jun. 2016

NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow previewed the agenda of the NATO Summit in Warsaw, outlined the next steps in the Alliance's adaptation and discussed NATO's future at the Wrocaw Global Forum on Friday (3 June 2016).

"The Warsaw Summit is shaping up as one of the most consequential in NATO's history. We have to step up to meet security challenges from the East and the South," Ambassador Vershbow said in front of an audience of policy-makers and entrepreneurs. "To respond, NATO has to be a full-spectrum alliance more than ever before. We have a 360-degree approach", he said.

He elaborated on NATO's plans for the Warsaw Summit: from strengthening defence and deterrence, through projecting stability by working with partners, to sharpening the Alliance's toolbox to deal with hybrid threats. He pointed at cooperation between NATO and the European Union as an area where the Summit will deliver a substantial step ahead. "Because none of us alone has all the tools to tackle the complex challenges we face," Ambassador Vershbow explained.

"At Warsaw, you will see a strong display of Alliance unity and a commitment to concrete steps to strengthen the security of our 28 Allies and the partners along our periphery," Ambassador Vershbow concluded.

He participated in a panel on NATO's Future and the Warsaw Summit, alongside other high-level speakers from Poland and the US. Poland's Secretary of State and Head of the National Security Bureau Pawe Soloch presented the views of the host nation ahead of the Warsaw Summit. US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller, Deputy Commanding General of the 4th Infantry Division of the US Army Brig. General James J. Mingus and The Hon. Joe Manchin of the US Senate spoke about the US commitment to transatlantic security and presented their own analysis of the security challenges that NATO has to tackle.

Defence expenditure, cooperation with partners, the need for transparency and predictability in military relations and Russia's more assertive behavior were among the issues raised at the panel.

The Wrocaw Global Forum is a leading transatlantic conference in Poland, which brings together leading figures from government, business, media and civil society.

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US Navy Conducts Counter-ISIL Sorties from Mediterranean

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160603-09

Release Date: 6/3/2016 11:31:00 AM

From Headquarters, United States European Command

STUTTGART, Germany (NNS) -- The U.S. Navy's Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group conducted combat sorties from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea June 3, in support of Operation Inherent Resolve over Syria and Iraq.

The Carrier Strike Group transited the Suez Canal June 2 and flew multiple combat sorties June 3 in an effort to degrade ISIL resources and leadership.

"While the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group is in the 6th Fleet area of operations, they continue to project power ashore against terrorists and violent extremists," said Vice Adm. James Foggo III, commander, U.S. 6th Fleet. "This exemplifies our Navy's mobility, flexibility and adaptability, as well as our commitment to execute a full range of military operations in concert with our indispensable European Allies and partners," he added.

The strike group consists of USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75); the embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7; Commander, Carrier Strike Group 8; USS Anzio (CG 68); Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 28; USS Bulkeley (DDG 84); USS Gonzalez (DDG 66); and USS Gravely (DDG 107).

The strike group brings multi-mission capable platforms to the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) area of responsibility and the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations with strike, ballistic missile defense, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. These resources further serve to support European Allies and partners, deter potential threats and to conduct combat operations in support of the counter-ISIL mission.

After conducting operations in the 5th Fleet area of operations, the strike group's deployment has been extended to support dismantling and rolling back terrorist networks from the 6th Fleet area of operations before it will return home to Norfolk.

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VP-4 Participates in Maritime Domain Awareness Exercise in Romania

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160603-03

Release Date: 6/3/2016 8:36:00 AM

By Lt. j.g. Matthew Johnston, Patrol Squadron (VP) 4 Public Affairs

CONSTANTA, Romania (NNS) -- The "Skinny Dragons" of Patrol Squadron (VP) 4 participated in a Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) exercise in Constanta, Romania May 26-30.

One P-3C Orion aircraft, with Combat Aircrew (CAC) 5 flew two missions over the Black Sea in support of MDA.

Quotes:

"These routine operations and interactions with our allies are a vital part of our mission to enhance maritime safety and stability in the Black Sea. We are extremely grateful to our Romanian hosts for their hospitality and assistance in ensuring our continued success operating in the region." - Lt. Greg Syers, CAC-5 Mission commander and detachment officer-in-charge

Quick Facts:

U.S. P-3C operations provide support to our allies and partners in the region and enhance the combined maritime operational picture in the Black Sea. While in Constanta, the P-3C will conduct a bilateral training engagement with the Romanian navy and offer familiarization flights to Romanian personnel in order to increase combined anti-submarine warfare capabilities.

VP-4 is conducting naval operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe and Africa.

U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied, joint, and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa.

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Ivanishvili Suggests Georgia Must 'Patiently Wait' For Russian Approval On NATO

June 03, 2016

by RFE/RL

Former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili says the South Caucasus nation "must absolutely" join NATO and the European Union, but cautioned that it will first have to overcome Russia's disapproval.



"We must patiently strengthen our democratic institutions, we must make our economy flourish and wait for the right time, when Russia realizes, and when our allies see that it's time for Georgia to become a member of NATO and the EU," Ivanishvili said in a televised interview for RFE/RL and the Georgian Public Broadcaster on June 2. "We must patiently wait for all of this."

He said that Georgia's Western ambitions "do not contradict Russia's interests, although Russia's current leadership considers that this is dangerous for their state."

Ivanishvili, Georgia's richest man, is seen as wielding vast political influence in Georgia despite stepping down as prime minister in November 2013. He is the founder and figurehead of Georgian Dream, the leading party in the former Soviet republic's ruling coalition, and is widely believed to exert control over current Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili.

His $5.5 billion fortune is equal to half of the country's gross domestic product.

Russian Veto?

His remarks about Georgia's NATO and EU aspirations were striking because they seem to suggest Russia has a veto on its small southern neighbor's entry into the transatlantic institutions  something Western officials say is not and must never be the case.

Russia strongly opposes NATO membership for Georgia. Analysts say one of Moscow's main motives in its five-day war with Tbilisi in 2008 was to keep the nation out of the Western military alliance.

Unlike former President Mikheil Saakashvili, a staunchly pro-Western figure whose party was ousted from control of parliament by Georgian Dream in 2012, Ivanishvili has maintained a conciliatory tone toward Russia over the years.

The interview came weeks ahead of the next NATO summit, which will be held in Warsaw on July 8-9, and months before Georgian parliamentary elections in October.

Georgian Defense Minister Tinatin Khidasheli has voiced hope that the Warsaw summit will put Georgia on a firm path to joining the alliance and that Georgia's bid will be "judged on its own merits" -- meaning that Russia's views on the matter should not be a factor.

At its 2008 summit in Bucharest, NATO said that Georgia would eventually become a member, but that appears unlikely to happen any time soon.

In December 2015, NATO dealt a blow to Georgia's membership aspirations by requiring that the country complete a Membership Action Plan (MAP) -- a stage of accession that Tbilisi had actively lobbied to skip.

The alliance, however, has yet to offer Georgia a MAP.

One stumbling block on the path to Georgian accession to NATO is the Russian troop presence in its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia recognized both of them as independent countries after the war in 2008.

In his interview with InterVIEW, a weekly talk show run jointly by RFE/RL's Georgian Service and the Georgian Public Broadcaster, Ivanishvili said that Moscow's actions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia "run against the strategic interests" of Georgia.

While noting what he described as "positive steps" in bilateral relations, he said the conflict prevented both countries from restoring ties.

Diplomatic relations between Russia and Georgia were severed shortly after the 2008 war.

Written by Claire Bigg, based on reporting by RFE/RL Georgian Service correspondent Salome Asatiani.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/georgia-ivanishvili-nato-russia-approval/27778208.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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Sudan: Five years on, refugees still fleeing conflict in South Kordofan, UN reports

3 June 2016  The United Nations refugee agency today warned that tragically people are still fleeing violence in Sudan's South Kordofan State, most crossing into neighbouring South Sudan, as the conflict marks its fifth year this weekend.

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nearly 250,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to South Sudan, mostly to Unity and Upper Nile, since the start of the war in the Nuba Mountains in 2011.

"A solution to the conflict and an end to the suffering are needed more than ever, as South Sudan is itself home to some 1.69 million internally displaced people," UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva.

So far in 2016, more than 7,500 refugees have arrived in Yida in South Sudan's northern Unity, nearly 3,000 in May alone. The area is already home to some 70,000 refugees.

"With the conflict intensifying, thousands more are expected in the coming weeks," Mr. Edwards said.

Refugees, mainly from Heiban, Um Doreein and Al Boram Counties, speak of escalating violence, including ground attacks and aerial bombings.

Mr. Edwards noted that the recent arrivals also cite lack of food and no access to schools for children as reasons for leaving, especially in and around Um Doreein.

According to refugees who have arrived this week, the conflict has recently shifted to the north-east part of South Kordofan, with some people trapped in conflict areas and unable to escape.

90 per cent of new arrivals women and children

Nearly 90 per cent of new arrivals are women and children. One child in every 10 is alone or without a family member.

At the Yida transit centre, UNHCR and its partners are providing immediate assistance to the arrivals, including a hot meal, water, a measles vaccination, and a place to rest.

From Yida, refugees are transported by bus to Ajuong Thok, a camp established in 2013 to help ease some of the pressure.

There, they are provided with plastic sheeting and poles to build a temporary home, as well as cooking pots and pans, mosquito nets, blankets, sleeping mats and food. Children who are unaccompanied or separated from their families are reunited with their families or placed in foster care.

With nearly 41,000 Sudanese refugees already living in Ajuong Thok, the camp has almost reached its capacity of 46,000 people. UNHCR and its partners have been expanding camp infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing population.

A new camp is underway at Pamir, some 50 kilometres south of the border, to receive new arrivals and refugees who have been living in Yida for the past five years.

As the refugee influx continues, services are becoming overstretched. In the past four weeks, available water has dropped from 19 litres per person per day to 16. Schools have become extremely overcrowded with more than 100 students sharing the same classroom. With UNHCR's operations in South Sudan funded at just 17 per cent, services and service quality are inevitably threatened, Mr. Edwards said.

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In Paris, Ban calls for 'courage and legitimacy' to achieve peace in Middle East

3 June 2016  Terror, violence and the incitement that fuel them, along with the ongoing settlement enterprise and the lack of unity between Gaza and the West Bank are all obstacles that must be overcome on the path towards achieving peace in the Middle East, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed today, calling on the international community to exercise its influence to help reach this goal.

"With the support of the international community, the leadership of Israel and Palestine must pull back from the brink by undertaking serious efforts to create the conditions which will enable a return to meaningful negotiations," said Mr. Ban at a French Ministerial Conference Meeting on the Middle East Peace Process, being held today in Paris, France.

"Meaningful negotiations require leadership on both sides with the courage and legitimacy to reach an historic compromise, and the political will to implement it," he added.

Noting that participants had gathered out of "deep concern" over the inability to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after nearly 50 years of occupation, the Secretary-General reiterated that everyone agreed that a two-state solution is the "only viable option for a sustainable peace."

Yet, he highlighted, everyone could see that the two-state solution is at "great risk" and "threatened."

For its part, Israel must cease its policy of expanding settlements, legalizing outposts and demolishing Palestinian structures. As settlement activity is illegal under international law, such actions raise legitimate questions about its commitment to the two-state solution and to its obligations as the occupying power, Mr. Ban said.

At the same time, the UN chief stressed that the Palestinian leadership must "unequivocally" combat violence and incitement, including by clearly condemning all acts of terror. It must also reunite all Palestinians under a single, legitimate and democratic Palestinian governing authority, in line with Palestine Liberation Organization principles.

"Both parties must ensure that their actions reflect their stated commitment to a two-state solution. Both parties need to stand up to extremists who are committed to derailing the peace process and seeking to hijack the agenda," Mr. Ban said.

The Secretary-General underscored that changing regional dynamics and shared security concerns provide an opportunity to revisit the Arab Peace Initiative, with its vision of a comprehensive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab conflicts.

Welcoming recent "encouraging" statements by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Ban encouraged them to "seize this opportunity with concrete and timely action."

The Secretary-General also reaffirmed his commitment to working with fellow members of the Middle East Quartet and with key stakeholders, including regional countries, to achieve a "comprehensive, just and lasting settlement" to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

He noted that the Quartet on the Middle East process will soon issue a report reviewing the key obstacles to realizing that goal and recommending actions which, if taken now by both sides could create the conditions for a return to negotiations.

"Members of the international community must exercise their collective and individual influence to help reach the common destination: they are an end to the occupation which began in 1967, and the establishment of two states for two peoples living side by side in security and mutual recognition," the Secretary-General said.

In that regard, he told participants that he is planning to visit Israel and the State of Palestine towards the end of the month to follow up on the discussions today.

Earlier today, the Secretary-General met with the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, during which they discussed a range of issues including the loss of a Chinese peacekeeper in Mali, the Middle East peace process, and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

Mr. Ban noted that the situation on the Korean Peninsula remains of "grave concern," and discussed with Mr. Yi ways to break the current cycle of provocations. They also discussed recent developments surrounding the Korean Peninsula, with the Secretary-General expressing his readiness to support efforts towards a peaceful and denuclearized Korean Peninsula.

In addition, the Secretary-General met with John Kerry, United States Secretary of State, discussing international peace and security issues, including efforts to address the political crises in Syria, Libya and Yemen. They also discussed progress on the upcoming Quartet report and the importance of the Arab Peace initiative as a platform for advancing Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli peace.

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US Reveals 4 Strikes in Yemen

by Carla Babb June 03, 2016

The U.S. military has announced several counterterrorism strikes in Yemen that were previously unreported and that killed a total of 15 al-Qaida militants.

That brings the total number of U.S. counterterrorism strikes in Yemen this year to nine, according to the Pentagon.

Col. Pat Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command which overseas military operations across the Middle East, told reporters Friday one of the airstrikes occurred May 19 in the Shabwah Governorate of central Yemen.

A February 3 strike in the same governorate killed six al-Qaida operatives. Two other strikes, one in February and one in March, targeted al-Qaida militants in eastern and central Yemen.

Ryder said al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, remains a significant threat.

He added the disclosure of the strikes was part of a decision by the military to "be more transparent," particularly when the military has been highlighting strikes in Iraq and Syria.

"Going forward, our intent is to do this similar kind of thing," he said.

The spokesman said delays might occur for future strike announcements to allow for intelligence gathering and operation assessment.

"Sometimes the chatter that comes after the strike allows us to collect more intelligence on adversaries and conduct future strikes," Ryder said.

Intelligence officials have long considered AQAP as the most dangerous of the al-Qaida affiliates.

In 2010, AQAP attempted to send explosive-laden packages to the U.S. The year before, it sent Nigerian-born Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate a bomb hidden in his underwear on a Northwest Airlines flight.

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Afghan Defense Official: Helmand Province Out of Taliban Danger

by Ayesha Tanzeem June 03, 2016

After days of heavy fighting, Afghan forces have regained control of parts of Helmand province previously in the Taliban hands.

Neither the province of Helmand, nor its capital, Lashkar Gah, was in danger of falling to the Taliban, according to the Afghan Ministry of Defense.

General Daulat Waziri, the spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense, told reporters in Kabul Friday that the Taliban suffered heavy casualties during recent clashes, with 160 insurgents killed and 65 others wounded in several districts.

He said Afghan forces managed to break the Taliban hold of Marja, the district that had fallen into insurgent hands last year.

He also said Afghan forces managed to reopen a 10-kilometer stretch of road between Lashkar Gah and Marja that the Taliban had blocked for months.

Taliban militants overran several security checkpoints and killed dozens of police officers in Helmand late last month. Heavy fighting in multiple districts including Gereshk, Nad Ali, Sangeen and Marja led to fears that Lashkar Gah would fall to the Taliban.

Fighting in the province was so fierce last year that NATO-led forces had to send hundreds of additional troops in support of Afghan forces.

General Waziri said Afghan forces also reopened another key highway between Kandahar and Terenkot, the provincial capital of Uruzgan province.

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Major Powers Struggle to Revive Mideast Peace Talks

by Nike Ching June 03, 2016

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that both Israel and the Palestinians needed to take immediate steps to demonstrate the will to seek lasting peace.

"We need to find some immediate kinds of steps on the ground that will make a difference," Kerry told reporters in Paris. "Everybody agreed today that you can't impose a solution from outside and you need to have direct negotiations."

Ministers from more than 20 countries who gathered in Paris welcomed France's offer to coordinate efforts to convene an international conference by year's end. Neither Israel nor the Palestinians attended.

"A negotiated two-state solution is the only way to achieve an enduring peace, with two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security," conference participants said in a joint communique after their meeting.

Participants underscored that the status quo was not sustainable. "Actions on the ground, in particular continued acts of violence and ongoing settlement activity, are dangerously imperiling the prospects for a two-state solution," the communique said.

Participants discussed possible ways in which the international community could help advance the prospects for peace, including by providing meaningful incentives to the parties to make peace and end the Israeli occupation that began in 1967.

Hollande approach

French President Francois Hollande called on Israel and the Palestinians to "make the courageous choice of peace" as he opened Friday's conference.

"The discussion on the conditions of a lasting agreement between Israelis and Palestinians must take into account the whole of the region," he said.

Hollande said international powers should play a key role in facilitating the peace process, but that ultimately it would be up to the two sides to work out their differences.

"The threats and priorities have changed. The changes make it even more urgent to find a solution to the conflict, and this regional upheaval creates new obligations for peace," he said.

Washington's response to the French effort has been tepid, with Kerry agreeing to attend simply to listen to ideas proposed by France and others. Still, senior U.S. officials stressed the sense of urgency about working toward a negotiated two-state solution.

"We're not here to propose any kind of specific agenda," a senior State Department official said. "While the U.S. is open-minded about ideas, we haven't made any decisions about what, if any, our role would be in that initiative going forward."

Despite the recent escalation in violence between Israelis and Palestinians and their absence at the conference, the swearing in Monday of ultranationalist Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who said he supported a two-state solution, has provided a glimmer of hope.

After a meeting that included U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, Kerry told reporters he would possibly be open to holding an international conference later this year with Israeli and Palestinian representatives in attendance, but he cautioned that the talks were just getting started and that such a meeting was far from set in stone.

"We'll see. We'll have that conversation. We have to know where it's going, what's happening. We're just starting  let's get into the conversations," he said while shuffling between meetings.

Poor prospects

Experts caution that the chances of a genuinely open-minded discussion are dim.

"I think June 3rd could produce something in terms of moving the process forward," regional expert Natan Sachs of the Brookings Institution told VOA. "There's a lot of will, especially among the powers  the U.S. and now France  to get something going. They might get Israel to acquiesce somewhat to this kind of idea, but [the likelihood of] a major breakthrough, a major movement in the peace process  that remains quite low."

Sachs noted that the Israelis rejected the idea of an international conference because it was viewed as one that was intent on imposing a solution upon them.

The French-led peace initiative included ministers and delegates from the so-called Middle East Quartet (the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations) and the Arab League.

Isabela Cocoli and Josh Fatzick in Washington contributed to this report.

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Iraqi, Syrian Sunni Tribal Leaders Seek Influence in Post-IS Scenario

by Sirwan Kajjo, Rikar Hussein June 03, 2016

Some Sunni tribes in Syria and Iraq, driven from their ancient lands by Islamic State (IS), are planning their return in a post-IS scenario.

VOA has learned that dozens of tribes, whose ancestors date back to Biblical times, are waiting in Iraqi and Syrian areas outside of IS control, weighing strategies and hoping to return home more powerful than ever.

"Arab tribes cannot do much currently, given that [IS] controls all aspects of life," Qussai Hwaidi, a Syrian activist who closely works with tribal leaders in IS-stronghold Raqqa, told VOA. "They can play a huge role in bringing peace and order once IS has been pushed back."

IS is facing an onslaught as a U.S.-led coalition is backing Iraqi and foreign troops to drive them from the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Mosul. In Syria, Kurdish and Arab forces are moving toward the IS de-facto capital of Raqqa.

Tribal leaders have been meeting with local authorities to map out plans. Tribes have had difficulties under IS rule, with some leaders fleeing and others left behind in IS territory.

Allegiance or persecution

Since the rise of IS, many Arab tribal leaders in Iraq and Syria have pledged allegiance to the group, fearing persecution and repression and hoping to remain on their lands. Those who have refused loyalty have faced persecution.

In 2014, IS allegedly killed 700 members of a prominent Syrian tribe called al-Shaitat when the tribal leaders refused to pledge allegiance.

IS tried to keep tribal differences in check as it established a networking infrastructure of the Diwan al-'Asha'ir (Council of Tribal Outreach), which is responsible for tribal affairs in Iraq and Syria. It prevented in-fighting among tribes while under IS control.

"IS has successfully maneuvered conflicts among tribes," Hello Najat, the head of the Iraqi security office in the city of Kirkuk, told VOA.

Earlier this year, clashes erupted between tribes in Iraq over how to detain people fleeing from IS territories.

"They started shooting each other over why someone from Jbour [tribe] at checkpoints can arrest someone from Obeid [tribe] and vice versa," Najat said. "IS removed tribe members from the checkpoints and replaced them with foreign fighters to resolve the problem."

Post-IS scenario

The U.S. and its allies have trained and armed thousands of Sunni tribal members of Iraq and Syria in the last two years, but could not put together a cohesive tribal force.

While Sunni tribes can be crucial to hold the traditionally Sunni areas after IS, their participation in the fight against IS also helps to bring an effective Sunni presence in the operation, Michael Knights, an Iraqi expert at the Washington Institute, told VOA.

"We have to essentially recruit Sunni tribal members either directly into the armed forces like the [Iraqi] army and the federal police," he said.

Alternately, he suggests that the U.S. should help develop them as a support group where the Iraqi army would carry the main fighting along with Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

"The Sunni tribal forces will really be there to help to hold liberated areas and to provide a sort of Sunni face to the operation," Knights said.

Ahmed Mahmood of the al-Hadidi tribe, one of the largest Sunni tribes in Iraq's Nineveh province, met last month with 25 leaders from other tribes to discuss their role in the liberation of the city of Mosul from IS militants.

"We ask the president of Kurdistan region, Masoud Barzani, to support us in forming a tribal mobilization force to participate in the liberation of Mosul," said Mahmood, referring to the Iraqi Kurdish leader who has often called for preserving the rights of Sunni tribes.

Non-Sunni groups in Iraq and Syria make efforts to mobilize those Sunni tribes and enlist them into their respective forces as a legitimization tool to attack IS-held Sunni territories, experts say. Sunni tribes, in return, demand control over their affairs and local security  a call that will change the balance of power between them and their governments after IS.

But analysts say only a consensus within the Shi'ite-dominated government in Baghdad can straighten out its strained relations with Sunni tribes.

The central government will continue to govern the areas, but there needs to be negotiations on balance of power at all levels, Knights said.

"There is no way the federal government is going to be completely excluded from any of the areas outside of the Kurdistan region, but it can change the way it operates in these places," he said.

"Typically, they [tribes] don't want outsiders to come in policing them and arresting them."

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Junta Leader Assures Thailand 'Will Return to Democracy'

by Steve Herman June 03, 2016

The head of Thailand's military-dominated junta, Prayuth Chan-ocha has defended seizing power two years ago to avoid further unrest "or even civil war."

Prayuth, who, as army commander-in-chief, led a bloodless coup in May 2014 and has since become prime minister, Friday told those attending a regional security summit, "I can assure you that Thailand will return to democracy."

The military takeover, which ousted a weakened civilian government, was needed "to put the country on the track of reform" and prevent further damage to the economy of the kingdom which "had lost equilibrium."

The junta remains in power at a time of continuing concern about the health of highly-revered King Bhumibol, who at 88, is the world's longest reigning monarch. He has spent nearly all of his recent years in a Bangkok hospital.

Rebutting international criticism of the junta's sweeping power and clamping down on civil liberties, Prayuth said, "We do not have any intention to violate human rights ...all of our measures have been based on the rule of law."

Overseen by the junta, a new constitution has been drafted and is to be voted on by the people in August, but debate about the charter  criticized across the domestic political spectrum  is muzzled.

Prayuth recently stated that a rejection of the constitution would delay elections for a new government and that he might have to remain in power "despite how much you hate me."

Thailand, a reliable U.S. military ally during the Cold War era and Vietnam War, under the current military junta, has had warming security and trade ties with both China and Russia following Washington's criticism of the coup and its explicit concerns about repression of rights and the lack of a quick restoration of democracy.

Thailand and other small and medium-sized countries are "avoiding the trap of having to choose sides," said Prayuth.

His speech at the opening dinner of the gathering, better known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, is a prelude to the annual main event here, the sometimes acrimonious exchanges between senior military officials of the United States and China.

Official delegations, security analysts and academics from more than 50 countries on Saturday will parse the remarks of U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army, or PLA, about China's militarization of the disputed islets in the South China Sea.

Sun, who is in charge of international relations for the PLA, on Friday was said to have met separately with security officials from eight nations ahead of the Asia Security Summit.

The talks come amid increasing nervousness among most ASEAN members about what is perceived as increasingly aggressive actions and militarization of the Paracels and Spratlys.

The moves have been seen as the primary catalysts for the Vietnamese and the Americans  former enemies  to bridge closer security ties, underscored by U.S. President Barack Obama's visit last month to Vietnam, which also has conflicting maritime territorial claims with China.

Beijing accuses the United States of militarizing the South China Sea with its increasing "freedom of navigation" passages in the sea and overflights.

This conference in Singapore comes just ahead of an international arbitration ruling on the Philippines' claims against China's maritime claims.

Beijing has already indicated it will not abide by The Hague tribunal's findings and regards the process as illegitimate.

An influential U.S. lawmaker, Republican Senator John McCain, who chairs the Senate's Armed Services Committee, said in Singapore on Friday that there could be consequences should Beijing make good on its threat to reject the U.N. court ruling.

The senator urged states in the region to back Washington's statements that The Hague's findings should be binding.

"America and the world are counting on the nations of Southeast Asia to recommit their power and resolve to upholding this system on which our shared security and prosperity depend," McCain said in a speech at Nanyang Technological University.

International lawyers do not expect the tribunal to actually rule on the legality of the Chinese "nine-dash line" encompassing the major part of the South China Sea claimed by Beijing, said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor of politics at the University of New South Wales.

Thayer, at the Shangri-La Dialogue, in response to a query from VOA News about concerns China is poised to declare an "air defense identification zone" (ADIZ) in the South China Sea, said, "There's no capability for China to carry it out ...they're just playing mind games."

An ADIZ is an area, publicly announced, extending beyond national territory where unidentified aircraft face interrogation via radio and could be intercepted for identification prior to crossing into sovereign airspace.

In 2013, China imposed an ADIZ in the East China Sea covering Japanese-controlled islands, known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese.

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3 Somali-Americans Guilty of Conspiring to Help IS

by Harun Maruf, Abdi H. Mahamud June 03, 2016

A jury in Minnesota has found three Somali-Americans guilty on all charges of conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State militant group.

U.S. federal prosecutors had accused Mohamed Farah, Guled Omar and Abdirahman Daud, all in their early 20s, of planning to travel to Syria to fight for IS. The full indictment can be read here.

The men were also found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder overseas, a charge that carries the possibility of life in prison. The defendants, who will be sentenced at a later date, showed little emotion when listening to the verdict.

The case captured the attention of Minnesota's Somali-American community, which has seen about a dozen of its members join Islamic State, a few years after losing about 20 young men to Somalia-based al-Shabab.

Farah, Omar and Daud are among a group of Somali-American men the FBI tracked for a period of months starting in March 2014. That month, a 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.

The case relied heavily on audio recordings made by a friend of the men, Abdirahman Bashir, who turned into an FBI informant. Bashir told the court that the FBI paid him over $100,000 for his cooperation.

Bashir, who had also once plotted with the defendants to join Islamic State, cried when he testified in court against his former friends.

Two other men who pled guilty to the charges, Abdullahi Yusuf and Abdirizak Warsame, also testified against their former friends.

Defense lawyers tried to counter the testimonies by arguing the FBI informant entrapped the defendants, encouraging them to engage in the incriminating recorded conversations.

The defense witnesses included one of the defendants, Guled Omar, who told the jury that the men were not serious when they were recorded talking about traveling to Syria. "We all boast," he said.

The other two co-defendants, Mohamed Farah and Abdurahman Daud, decided not to testify.

Parents worry about prejudice

In giving the case to the jury Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis told the group of seven women and five men to reach a "just verdict," to rely on evidence and to conduct their deliberations without prejudice.

Still, the parents of the defendants questioned if the all-white jury could 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's Somali service.

She said she had confidence in the lawyers but added, "Whatever happens is Allah's will."

Ayan Farah, mother of Mohamed Farah, said that if the jury finds her son guilty, she will continue to press his case in court.

"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," she said. "But if it ends here, and our kids are let go and they come home, that is all we want."

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China FM Scolds Journalist for Asking Human Rights Question

by William Ide June 02, 2016

It is no secret China's 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 China's constitution guarantees the protection and promotion of human rights.

"Let me tell you who best understands China's human rights situation," he said. "It is not you, but the Chinese people. You have no right to speak about China's human rights. It is the Chinese people who have the right to speak about China's 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 China's 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, they've 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 Beijing's 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 China's human rights.

Cao Shunli, a Chinese activist who was trying to participate in China's 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 China's 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 Beijing's Public Security Bureau.

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Chinese navy to join 2016 RIMPAC naval drill

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 10:01, June 03, 2016

BEIJING, June 2 -- The Chinese navy will participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) multinational naval exercises, said Liang Yang, the navy spokesperson, on Thursday.

Attending the drill will be a missile destroyer, a missile frigate, a supply ship, a hospital ship, a submarine rescue vessel and two helicopters.

As previously agreed by the Chinese and U.S. navies, China will take part in a series of exercises, including damage control and submarine rescue, said Liang.

Sports events and exchanges will be held between the two sides, Liang added.

Naval forces from China will join a U.S. warship in the west Pacific in mid-June and then sail to Pearl Harbor in formation.

In 2014, the Chinese navy participated in RIMPAC multinational naval exercises for the first time.

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Deliveries of huge aircraft expected soon

People's Daily Online

By Zhao Lei (China Daily) 09:56, June 03, 2016

The domestically developed Y-20 heavy-lifting transport plane will soon be delivered to buyers, a project manager said on Thursday.

The manager expects that China will need at least 1,000 of the huge aircraft.

"I can't tell you the exact time planned for delivery, but ... it will be carried out very soon," Zhu Qian, head of Aviation Industry Corp of China's Large Aircraft Development Office, said at a technology exhibition in Beijing.

"More than 1,000 Y-20s will be needed," he said, adding that the figure was calculated based on the experience of the United States and Russia. Both countries have used heavy-lifting transport aircraft for years.

Zhu said the military and many civilian sectors will benefit greatly from delivery of the Y-20.

The plane's engines will initially be imported, but it is only a matter of time before the Y-20 is equipped with domestically developed engines, he said.

China will also develop transport jets that are even larger than the Y-20 and comparable to the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy from the United States and the Antonov An-225 Mriya, designed in the former Soviet Union.

Wang Ya'nan, deputy editor-in-chief of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, said prototypes of the Y-20 have completed all planned tests, and AVIC will begin mass-production.

"Once the Y-20 joins the military, it will enable the Air Force to move closer to its goal of building a strategic air power," he said.

The Y-20, with a crew of three, made its maiden flight in January 2013, making China the third nation after the US and Russia capable of developing strategic transport aircraft.

The plane has a maximum payload of 66 metric tons and a maximum takeoff weight of more than 200 tons, according to military sources. The high payload means it can carry the PLA's heaviest tank, the 58-ton Type-99A2.

According to a technical evaluation in Aerospace Knowledge, the Y-20 when fully fueled and carrying a payload of 51 tons can fly for 5,200 kilometers. This means it can reach everywhere in Europe and Asia, the US state of Alaska, Australia and North Africa.

With its maximum payload, it has a range of 3,700 km, enabling it to fly nonstop from Harbin in Heilongjiang province to Lhasa in the Tibet autonomous region, the report said.

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Chinese Military Team Dispatched to Mali

People's Daily Online

(CRI Online) 08:15, June 03, 2016

Chinese military has sent a specialist medical team to Mali on Thursday to join Chinese peacekeepers there and help deal with casualties from a Tuesday terrorist attack.

Led by a senior Defense Ministry official, the team will work with the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali and the Mali government to ensure the safety of the attacked peacekeepers.

On Thursday, the Defense Ministry confirmed that First Sergeant Shen Liangliang, 29, was killed in the attack, and another five soldiers were injured, including Lieutenant Liu Liang, two first sergeants, a sergeant and a corporal.

Chinese surgeon Wang Hongyi has been working on one of the soldiers. Wang said, "There is a big open wound on his left thigh, roughly 20 by 20 centimeters squared, to which we did a radical debridement during the surgery. We've also done a manual reposition to the fracture on his right calf, with plaster for external fixation. There will be further surgical treatment."

Meanwhile, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the country supports discussions led by the UN Security Council on capacity building for the UN peacekeeping mission.

The UN Security Council announced it will be working on recommendations on capacity building for the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali as well as increasing its troop levels.

Spokesperson Hua Chunying said China strongly condemned the attack that targeted UN peacekeepers, saying the Mali government and the UN should immediately carry out measures to protect the safety of peacekeepers and prevent recurrence of similar incidents.

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H-6K bomber, ace of PLA Air Force

People's Daily Online

(People's Daily Online) 14:26, June 03, 2016

The new H-6K bombers of the PLA Air Force flew several thousand kilometers for nearly 10 straight hours during a recent drill. They set a new record for continuous flight time and range while flying over the sea. But what are the special characteristics of these bombers, and will they fly over the South China Sea?

Upgraded fuel economy and range

The H-6K bombers boast low fuel consumption and lightweight engines, with a targeted redesign performed on the inlet. The significantly increased air intake of their engines boosts the thrust by 30 percent, while cutting down on fuel consumption by 20 percent.

Improved ground attack capability

The H-6K has hardpoints under its wings, which can carry six cruise missiles and a maximum payload of up to 15 tons, effectively improving the attack capability of the aircraft.

Latest electronic equipment

The front of the fuselage of the aircraft has been redesigned to be narrower and shorter. Closed streamlined fairing is used, and the bombers are equipped with a new fire control radar and search radar.

Improved onboard experience

The H-6K can carry four crew members in two rows. It has an independent ejection seat, a glass cockpit and six digital multifunction displays, which greatly simplify the operation of the aircraft.

What role will the H-6K bombers play at sea?

Among China's domestically built bombers, the H-6K features the longest range and maximum bomb capacity. It will play a significant role in safeguarding China both at sea and in the air. Because of its long flight time, it can fly over the Nansha Islands for reconnaissance, surveillance and patrols. During wartime, it is capable of dropping bombs and launching missiles, according to Cao Weidong, a military commentator.

In early May, British magazine Jane's Defense Weekly wrote that if the H-6K bombers fly over the South China Sea, it will show China's willingness to deploy strategic forces in the region.

The recent appearance of the H-6K over the South China Sea was the consequence of normal training, while U.S. aircraft carriers, bombers and anti-submarine aircraft in the region demonstrate real militarization, said commentator Du Wenlong.

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Supreme Leader: Trusting the US a big mistake

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, June 3, IRNA -- Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Friday that having confidence in the US is a big mistake as most hostilities against Iran come from the 'US and the evil Britain.'

Addressing a ceremony to mark the 27th anniversary of the sad demise of the Father of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khomeini at his Mausoleum southern Tehran, Ayatollah Khamenei added that experience of the nuclear talks should not be forgotten.

'This is an experience that even if we give up, the US will never stop its destructive role,' Ayatollah Khamenei said, noting that despite the fact that Iran has fulfilled its commitments based on the nuclear deal, the US broke its promises.

After the July 2015 nuclear deal, said the Leader, Americans said that Iran's economy should be merged with global economy. 'Merging a country's economy with the global economy is not an honor, but a damage.

'Now they want to swallow Iran's economy by the global economy headed by the US.

'Economic independence will only be achieved through the Economy of Resistance.'

Ayatollah Khamenei further noted that sanctions were aimed at paralyzing Iran's economy.



Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Khamenei referred to Father of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini as a 'pious and revolutionary figure' and said that the late Imam believed in divine goals and people and always considered himself as a believer of the Almighty.

Stressing the need to move based on revolutionary principles, the Leader said, 'It's wrong to think that remaining revolutionary means extremism. These are double standard souvenirs of aliens and enemies of Iran which should not find a place in our culture.

They consider a revolutionary person as a hardliner and a non-revolutionary as a moderate. This is a dichotomy made by aliens.'

The Leader urged all Iranians to 'remain revolutionary' noting that it is wrong to think that only those who accompanied the late Imam Khomeini were revolutionary. Revolution belongs to all and the youth are and can be revolutionary too.

Ayatollah Khamenei referred to five major characteristics for being a revolutionary.

'I will mention five characteristics for being revolutionary and we have to create and maintain them in ourselves,' said the Leader referring to the characteristics as, 'Commitment to the basic values of the (Islamic) Revolution; setting aspirations of the Revolution as targets and striving to achieve them; adherence to the country's all-out independence; not complying with enemies; and exercising the Greatest Jihad (combat with the self) and adopting religious and political piety.'

Referring to himself as an 'old revolutionary' person, Ayatollah Khamenei said, sticking to these characteristics of being a revolutionary, 'now every modern youth can become even more revolutionary than me.'

Stressing the need to move based on the revolutionary principles in order to make further progresses in the country, the Leader said that as long as the people moved based on the revolutionary principles they made progress while wherever they ignored those principles they lagged behind.

'Imam was the Imam of Revolution. The anger shown by the powers of the material world towards Imam and their fear from him was mainly due to his revolutionary characteristics,' Ayatollah Khamenei said.

The material powers are basically afraid of the word 'revolution,' said the Leader noting that the late Imam dragged the country out of cesspool through the Revolution. 'Imam changed our path towards great objectives which are summed up in ruling of the divine religion,' the Leader stressed.

Iranians marked the 27th anniversary of the sad demise of the late Imam at his mausoleum, southern Tehran.

The occasion is annually observed by Iranians in a bid to renew their allegiance to the Founder of the Islamic Republic.

It is also marked in other countries by both Iranian and non-Iranians.

8072**1394

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Chafing At Sanctions, Moscow Pokes And Pries At EU Unity

June 03, 2016

by Charles Recknagel

Standing before a classical Greek frieze at a press conference in Athens last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented his visit in terms suggesting a thinly disguised quid pro quo.

He promised to expand Russian investment in Greece's hard-hit economy and asked for Athens' support in lifting EU sanctions on Moscow. "Greece can affect [Russia's] relationships with the European Union," he said, before adding with a verbal wink, "even if we don't expect the Labors of Hercules in the courtyard of the European bureaucracy."

The Russian leader got the response he wanted. Standing beside him, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said, "Everyone recognizes that there cannot exist a future for the European continent with the European Union and Russia at loggerheads."

The exchange was notable for its timing. It came just weeks ahead of an EU heads-of-state summit where the bloc's leaders will consider whether to renew the trade and financing sanctions they slapped on Moscow in 2014 over its actions in Ukraine, where it seized Crimea and has allegedly lent military support to separatist fighters.

There is slim hope for Moscow that the EU leaders meeting in Brussels on June 28 and 29 will opt not to renew the sanctions, which expire in July.

Diplomats in Brussels tell RFE/RL privately that EU leaders are so confident that their countries will agree beforehand to do so that they've scheduled only a very brief time for discussing the sanctions at the summit itself. That is so attendees can devote most of the summit to discussing the fallout from Britain's June 23 Brexit poll instead.

But torpedoing the renewal of the sanctions this month is not what Moscow is asking Athens or anyone else to do. Instead, Moscow is reaching out to EU states to undermine the bloc's unity in hopes of encouraging them to use their power of veto to ultimately end or dilute the sanctions regime, which requires unanimous renewal every six months.

"It's a way of over time slicing into the Western unity that has held so relatively strongly vis-a-vis Russia over the last two years and to create a dynamic whereby, one by one, countries will be returning to what seems to be business as usual with Russia," says Joerg Forbrig, a Berlin-based Russia expert with the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

"Even if the Russia sanctions are being extended by the EU now, they will be up for renewal again at the end of the year," he says. "And then against the backdrop of this dynamic it will probably be much harder to do this."

Putin's trip was part of a flurry of recent Russian diplomacy that also saw Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visit Budapest a day earlier. As Lavrov promised increased trade, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto suggested Budapest could respond by pushing for greater debate over the sanctions in the future. "We are against using an automatic procedure [for extending sanctions]," Szijjarto said, "We want discussions [in Brussels] on a high political level."

Divide And Conquer?

Moscow's strategy seeks to persuade Europeans that as the sanctions move through their third year, it is not only Russia that is suffering.

For Russia, the sanctions, coupled with low oil prices, caused its gross domestic product to drop by 3.7 percent in 2015, with the World Bank forecasting a further drop of 1.9 percent this year. The EU, like the United States, has cut off Russian state enterprises from access to Western financial markets, making it ever harder for them to get the capital they need to grow.

But the EU is also hit by shrinking business with Russia, its third-largest trade partner. A study by the independent Austrian Institute of Economic Research in Vienna in June 2015 estimated that Europe's economy stands to lose 100 billion euros ($111 billion) due to the Russia sanctions, putting around 2 million jobs at risk. Russia has tried to add to the pain by slapping its own sanctions on the EU in the form of import bans, most of them affecting agricultural products.

Whether this means EU resolve over the sanctions can be cracked, however, is another question.

Several countries, including Greece, Hungary, Italy, Cyprus, and Slovakia, have been vocal in complaining about the economic pain they feel. But so far, none of the grumbling has translated into signs of open revolt.

"It is quite unlikely to have just one or two countries deciding to veto the prolongation of the sanctions, because they would really isolate themselves inside the EU and would face a lot of pressure from the other EU member states," says Paul Ivan of the European Policy Center in Brussels.

Any revolt would put the mostly Eastern European and Balkan states that were once closely tied to the Russian market up against the sanctions' strongest backers: Germany, France, Britain, Sweden, Poland, and the Baltic states. That is a battle few of the states Russia is courting are in a position to wage.

Greece, for example, is heavily dependent on Germany and France as the main creditors of its eurozone bailout. And Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is already under fire in Brussels over his unilateral actions at the height of Europe's migrant crisis last year.

Germany and France are committed to the sanctions because lifting them is tied to full implementation of the Minsk II accords negotiated between Kyiv, Paris, Berlin, and Moscow in February 2015 to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine -- something that looks unlikely at this point. The EU imposed sanctions on Russia after Moscow occupied and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014, then stepped them up later that year over Russia-backed separatists challenging Kyiv's authority in eastern Ukraine, where more than 9,300 people have been killed.

Third Way?

But if no EU states are currently demanding the lifting of sanctions, Russia can hope that increased grumbling will make it difficult for EU leaders to avoid opening the subject to debate as the sanctions come up regularly for review. And that raises the possibility that even if sanctions remain in place, they may gradually be softened.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier hinted at such a path in Tallinn on May 27, when he suggested the EU might gradually reduce sanctions if Moscow takes steps to fulfill its obligations under the Minsk accords. It was unclear whether he was expressing the views of the German government or his own impressions as a leader of the junior coalition Social Democrats.

Bloomberg View columnist Leonid Bershidsky wrote that Germany's Social Democrats have long favored a softening of Russia sanctions and that "both the Kremlin and influential European figures are looking for ways to start defusing the standoff without losing face." He predicted a weakening of the sanctions' restrictions in the coming months.

But other analysts say that while debate of the sanctions may increase, EU policy will not change unless Moscow takes steps to begin implementing the Minsk II agreement. The accords call for pulling out all foreign armed groups, withdrawing heavy weaponry from the conflict zone, returning control of Ukraine's border to Kyiv, and ensuring local elections in separatist-held parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

"If a country in the EU would come out with the statement that they will block the consensus for prolonging the sanctions, they would have to have very strong arguments," says Kalev Stoicescu of the International Center for Defense and Security in Tallinn. "The immediate question would be: What has Russia done in this respect, have there been any initiatives to show Russia really wants to change its course?"

He says the dilemma for the EU is that it cannot afford to lift or ease the sanctions regime if that appears to reward Russia for aggression. Doing so would reawaken memories of 2008, when the EU considered -- but stopped short of -- imposing sanctions on Moscow over its war with Georgia.

At the time, Lavrov heaped scorn on then-French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner for saying he would consider sanctions. "My friend Kouchner has also said we will soon attack Moldova and Ukraine and the Crimea...but that is a sick imagination and probably that applies to sanctions as well," Lavrov said in Dushanbe in August 2008.

Six years later, the West looked on with dread as Russia annexed Crimea and Russia-backed separatists launched a war against Kyiv in eastern Ukraine, moves that some observers regard as a frontal assault on the post-Cold War order.

RFE/RL's Brussels correspondent Rikard Jozwiak contributed to this report

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-ukraine- sanctions-attacking-eu-unity/27777016.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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Navalny: Russia Run by 'Mafia' System

by Danila Galperovich June 03, 2016

Alexei Navalny, the leading Russian opposition activist who heads the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and the unregistered Party of Progress, was interrogated by police this week, after which his office and home were searched. The police action was connected to a libel case against him brought by former Russian Interior Ministry investigator Pavel Karpov.

Karpov is among a group of people on whom the U.S. government imposed sanctions for their alleged involvement in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, the Hermitage Capital lawyer who died in a Moscow prison in 2009. The Kremlin's own human rights council said Magnitsky, who was arrested accusing Russian officials of involvement in a $230 million tax fraud scheme, was probably beaten to death.

Karpov filed suit against Navalny on May 19, accusing the anti-corruption activist of slandering him by posting a video that asked how an Interior Ministry officer with a modest official salary could have come into possession of expensive cars and apartments without engaging in corrupt practices.

Navalny has been the target of various criminal investigations and has been repeatedly interrogated. On May 17, Navalny and about 30 FBK members were attacked by a group of men wearing Cossack hats and uniforms at an airport in southern Russia. Navalny accused Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and his son Artem of being behind the attack. Back in December, the FBK published a report linking Artem Chaika to organized crime.

In an interview with VOA's Russian service, Navalny discussed his latest problems with Russian law enforcement agencies.

Q: What happened in the latest incident, and why are Russian law enforcement structures once again putting pressure on you?

A: On the morning of June 1, I was called in for questioning. The interrogation was rather formal. And then, after the interrogation, people entered the office and said, "Hello, we are [from] the criminal investigation department. We are going to search you personally." They patted down my back, lifted up my trouser legs, forced me to take off my shoes, checked to see if I had some terrible secrets in my shoes, and then declared that they were going to search my home.

This was, on the one hand, absurd, of course. Because it's ridiculous: What kind of search can you do in a libel case? The criminal case was launched the same day the libel case was filed: There is no indication of why it was [a] slander [case], what information the policeman Pavel Karpov does not like. ... In general, it's all absurd.

But, on the other hand, there is definitely logic in these actions. The logic is that, on the basis of this ridiculous and trumped up case, it is necessary to take away all the equipment, phones, confiscate all of the memory cards; to rummage through them and find something else. Because the task of the authorities is not even connected to this criminal case, or to defend Pavel Karpov of the Magnitsky List, but to fabricate a criminal case against me and guarantee my non-participation in the [September 2016 Russian parliamentary] elections, against the backdrop of the European Court of Human Rights having overturned earlier fabricated cases, one after another.

[In February 2016, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia's conviction of Navalny on embezzlement charges in 2013 was "prejudicial," and that he had been denied a fair trial  ED.]

Q: Pavel Karpov is indeed on the "Magnitsky List"  actually, on two of them, the European one and the American one. Why do you think the Russian state is so seriously protecting those accused of involvement in Magnitsky's death?

A: There has been no reasonable answer to this question.  It had seemed to me it was protecting them because, first of all, America is giving them a hard time, because some foreign senators adopted an act against Russia, so that means [they] have to protect them no matter what, even if they are notorious crooks. This is what I thought before the [Panama Papers] documents were published, which prove that the offshore accounts of the cellist [Sergei] Roldugin, who is an obvious "corrupt coffers" for Vladimir Putin, also received money under this scheme [i.e., the one uncovered by Magnitsky  ED]. These same firms and persons were involved.

[In late April, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which was involved in bringing the Panama Papers to light, reported that Roldugin, a friend of Putin's since the 1970s, "received money from an offshore company at about the same time it was being used to steal money from the Russian government in the notorious Sergei Magnitsky case."  ED.]

I'm certainly not trying to say that the murder of Magnitsky was carried out so that Putin could receive more money  he doesn't need it. It's just that there is a unified money-laundering infrastructure, or that [they] overlap. So, it turns out that the people who stole 5 billion rubles from the budget [which Magnitsky uncovered  ED], also replenished  fully or partially, we do not yet know  the Putin coffers. Therefore, the mechanisms that protect Vladimir Putin personally are involved here.

Q: What do you call a system that is part of the state  in fact, it wears epaulettes  while, at the same time, according to [Hermitage Capital CEO] William Browder, it is involved in a rather interesting way of making money?

A: There is an excellent word, known to everyone  "mafia." This "mafia" system is a merger of bandits and the state. It is a system that is built in part on family ties. Their children are already inter-married. Loyalty is based on the fact that these people grew up together since childhood, the same way it happens in the real mafia. So you have these people who grew up together, the way Roldugin grew up with Putin, [and who are] loyal [to each other]. This perfectly describes the system as a mafia. It is honed mainly to receive benefits for making money, but if, as a collateral effect, it is necessary to kill someone, it kills people.

Q: Was the latest criminal case against you launched because the authorities sense the previous ones failed, or simply because the system will never leave you alone?

A: In as much as this is being done very deliberately and very crudely, it is, of course, a signal to a certain circle of people that, look, nothing distracts us and we won't let up. But more generally, of course, it is the practical implementation of a political decision that I should not be allowed to participate in the elections. And, in general, that no independents should be allowed to run, and that to prevent us from participating in the elections, they will bring criminal cases against us. This concerns not only me. A lot of people  my colleagues from both the Party of Progress and the Anti-Corruption Foundation  can't run for office because they were put on probation, and several are in jail or political exile. A decision was made, and I'm trying to derail this decision from a formal point of view by having it overturned by the European Court of Human Rights, where I win. But they're simply inventing new cases.

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U.S., Russia In Dispute Over Strikes On Syrian Al-Qaeda Branch

June 04, 2016

by RFE/RL

A behind-the-scenes dispute between the United States and Russia broke into the open on June 3, with Moscow claiming Washington asked it not to target Al-Qaeda's branch in Syria with air strikes.

"They are telling us not to hit it [Nusra Front], because there is 'normal' opposition next...to it," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in televised remarks after speaking with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry by phone.

He said that the U.S. demand runs counter to an earlier agreement that the United States and its allies would press opposition groups which have associated with Nusra in the past to distance themselves from the group and not physically locate near Nusra positions, so the blacklisted group can continue to be targeted with air strikes.

"The opposition must leave terrorists' positions, we long have agreed on that," Lavrov said. "Terrorism is a common threat, and most of our Western partners admit in conversations that there should be no excuses to delay the defeat of Islamic State and Jabhat Al-Nusra, which is trying to merge with other groups."

Nusra and the Islamic State group (IS) were both blacklisted by the United Nations as terrorist organizations, and were specifically excluded from the Syrian cease-fire and peace process, allowing both the United States and Russia to continue hitting them with air strikes.

When confronted with Lavrov's accusation, the U.S. State Department insisted that it only asked Russia to carefully select its targets to avoid hitting civilians and opposition groups that have joined the peace process.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that Kerry in an hourlong conversation with Lavrov on June 3 emphasized the need for Russia to carefully distinguish between the IS, Nusra, and less radical opposition groups.

"This is a common refrain, common theme that we've been conveying to the Russians over the past weeks," Toner said. "We obviously all agree that ISIL and the Nusra Front pose a real threat to security."

"Of course we support strikes focused solely on either Daesh or Al-Nusra," he said. "But a greater effort, a more complete effort needs to be made in order to distinguish between Al-Nusra and the parties to the cessation."

Toner noted that strikes against opposition forces and civilians only make people "more supportive of these terrorist groups and that is a dynamic we've seen play out in Syria for years now because of the regime's actions."

Kerry told reporters in Paris that he discussed the upsurge of violence in Syria with Lavrov, and they discussed "ways to try to strengthen the enforcement and accountability" for the cease-fire. But he did not mention the question of air strikes against Nusra.

The matter is of high importance to Moscow, however, as its air strikes have been aimed at furthering the Syrian regime's attempts to oust Nusra militants from Syria's largest city, Aleppo, where they are entrenched along with other rebel groups.

Russia at one point set a deadline for Syrian opposition units to withdraw from areas occupied by Nusra, but then agreed to give them more time to pull out.

With reporting by AP, Interfax, and TASS

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/us-russia-dispute-air-strikes- syrian-al-qaeda-branch-nusra-front/27778872.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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Poroshenko Urges Media Not To Publish 'Negative Articles' About Ukraine

June 03, 2016

by RFE/RL

President Petro Poroshenko has urged journalists not to publish "negative articles" about Ukraine while condemning the leak of personal data about thousands of reporters that has triggered international concerns about press freedoms in the country.

In a wide-ranging news conference in Kyiv on June 3, Poroshenko condemned the website Myrotvorets for publishing the data about more than 4,000 journalists that it said were illegally accredited by Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

But he added that "unfortunately, I have the information that some of these journalists have prepared negative comments or negative articles about Ukraine."

"I kindly ask you: please, do not do that," Poroshenko said.

His comments come amid mounting criticism of the treatment of news media in Ukraine.

A day earlier, ambassadors to Ukraine from the Group of Seven (G7) countries voiced concern about the Myrotvorets leak, saying it violates "the spirit and the letter of Ukrainian law" on personal data, as well as Kyiv's "international commitments."

"We acknowledge the investigations launched by the Government of Ukraine on this matter and hope the results will be shared with the public," the G7 ambassadors said, adding that they are "particularly concerned that threats are being made against individuals as a result" of the leak.

Myrotvorets, which claims to target those it considers enemies of the Ukrainian state under the country's constitution, said they felt it was necessary to publish the list "because these journalists collaborate with fighters from terrorist organizations."

Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, subsequently published the list on his public page.

The G7 ambassadors said that the characterization of all listed journalists as "collaborators with terrorists" endangers the personal security of those affected and Ukraine's hard-won media freedom.

Poroshenko went out of his way to distinguish some Russian journalists whose contact information was revealed by the website from others who were targeted in the leak.

"If you are talking about Russian journalists, some of them [have been] making criminal things," he said in an apparent reference to Russia media outlets backing the Kremlin's messaging in the conflict.

Kyiv's efforts to restrict journalists it considers instruments of Russian propaganda have drawn fire from rights watchdogs as well.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) this week criticized Poroshenko's May 27 decree banning 17 Russian journalists and media executives from entering Ukraine through the end of 2017.

"Ukraine is legitimately concerned about the effects of Russian propaganda, but cracking down on media freedom is a misguided, inappropriate response to whatever disagreement the Ukrainian government may have with Russia's media coverage about Ukraine," HRW researcher Tanya Cooper said.

Panama Papers

Addressing journalists at the June 3 press conference, Poroshenko also defended himself in the massive leak of records on offshore accounts known as the Panama Papers.

Poroshenko has previously said that an offshore holding company revealed in the Panama Papers was set up for his candy business as a necessary step to put his assets into a blind trust when he became president in 2014.

Commentators say the leaks have raised suspicion that such offshore entities were set up to avoid taxes.

"I want to underline that the information about accounts being opened and money being transferred -- which has dominated the media coverage -- is not true," Poroshenko told the news conference.

He added that "every kopiyka has been and will be taxed because the [financial] structure was set up with a single goal: to transfer [Poroshenko's former possessions] to the ownership of the trust.

"A sale of assets has not been planned to be conducted and will not be conducted in [a tax haven]," Poroshenko said. "It will be done from Ukraine and the taxes will be paid in Ukraine."

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and AP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-poroshenko-condemns-leak-journalist-data/27777128.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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A 19-year-old Milton, North Carolina, man was found shot to death inside his home early Saturday morning.

The Caswell County Sheriffs Office responded to 222 Sunset Drive in Milton at about 1:20 a.m. after receiving a report of shots being fired into the residence.

Police found the victim, Miguel Wenstley, suffering from an apparent gunshot wound, according to a news release. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The victims body was transported to the State Medical Examiners Office for an autopsy.

At this time there is not an apparent motive into the shooting, said Capt. Frank E. Rose Jr. of the Caswell County Sheriff's Office.

Investigators are asking anyone who may have any information to contact Caswell County Crime Stoppers at (336) 694-5199 or the Caswell County Sheriff's Office at (336) 694-9311.

Agents with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation are assisting with the investigation.
New U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt has reversed most of an economic package announced by the government just weeks ago, including a planned cut in income taxes. Hunt said Monday he was scrapping almost all the tax cuts announced last month by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Liz Truss, and also signaled that public spending cuts are on the way. It was a bid to soothe turbulent financial markets spooked by fears of excessive government borrowing. The move raises questions about how long the beleaguered prime minister can stay in office, though Truss insisted she has no plans to quit. She vowed to lead the Conservatives into the next general election, but many in the party want her gone.
TSX: TML

TORONTO, June 3, 2016 /CNW/ - Treasury Metals Inc. ("Treasury Metals" or the "Company"), today announced the resignation of President and Chief Executive Officer Martin Walter. Mr. Walter, who has served in this position since 2011 and who played a major role in transitioning the Goliath Gold Project from exploration to development has resigned effective immediately to pursue the CEO role at Vena Resources, a Peruvian focused exploration company where he had served in an interim capacity since late 2015. Mr. Walter has also stepped down from the Company's Board of Directors (the "Board"). An independent director of the Board, William Fisher, has been appointed as lead director during this interim phase.

The Board, through its Governance and Nominating Committee, has retained the services of an executive search firm and has commenced the process of identifying a new Chief Executive Officer to lead the Company during its next phase of development.

Marc Henderson, Chairman of the Board, said, "I would like to thank Martin for his contributions to Treasury Metals and the Board and I wish him all the best with his future endeavors. Under his leadership, our flagship Goliath Gold Project near Dryden, Ontario has grown considerably and has successfully transitioned from the exploration stage to late stage permitting - and soon into feasibility. Martin put a strong team in place and for Treasury, so this is an opportune time for an experienced mine builder to join the Company ahead of what is expected to be a production decision sometime in 2017."

Martin Walter, said, "I would like to thank the Treasury Metals team and Board for what was a very successful and rewarding time for me as CEO and I wish the Company the best for the continued development of the Goliath Gold Project."

To view further details about the Goliath Gold Project or Treasury Metals, please visit the Company's website at www.treasurymetals.com.

Forward-looking Statements This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that management of the Company expect, are forward-looking statements. Actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Treasury Metals disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, save and except as may be required by applicable securities laws.



SOURCE Treasury Metals Inc.
SHARE Mark Mohr, station manager and morning show host, talks to listeners from the sound room during the morning show broadcast at KCRN Radio. Mohr says the Christian radio station serves roughly 15 counties.

KCRN gets message out in about 15 counties

By Becca Nelson Sankey Special To The Standard-Times

What: KCRN 93.9 and 1340 AM radio

Format: Christian music and programs

Studio line: 325-655-4737

Office line: 325-655-6917

17 S. Chadbourne St., Suite 500

Online: www.kcrn.org/

A large picture window in the fifth-floor downtown studio of Christian radio station KCRN allows its deejays to watch the heart of San Angelo while reaching the hearts of its citizens.

"We're looking out over all kinds of churches," said Roland Nadeau, KCRN's business underwriter and program host. "So when we look out over San Angelo, we're ... bathing the whole community in Jesus."

KCRN 93.9 FM and 1340 AM has provided Christian music and inspirational programs to San Angelo and roughly 14 surrounding counties since 1991, said director Mark Mohr. The stations ? along with two others ? are owned by First Dallas Media Inc. but are operated locally and as a nonprofit, making it the only Christian radio station of its kind in San Angelo.

"These stations were originally launched by First Baptist in Dallas," a vision of the late Dr. W.A Criswell, Mohr said. "His thought was ... 'We need a station, yet it needs to be good radio.' People from here kept asking the Dallas people, 'Is there any way you can bring this type of radio station to West Texas?'"

Years later, listeners continue to show their support: Seventy percent of the station's income comes from individuals, while 20 percent comes from churches and businesses. The station's special programs such as "Focus on the Family" make up the remaining 10 percent, Mohr said.

Texas State Bank is one of KCRN's numerous underwriters. Bank President Gary Cox said his business helps the station because it reaches a unique audience of people who enjoy and benefit from it.

"Some of those folks are ones that we'd like to know that Texas Bank supports that alternative and are glad to help make sure (KCRN is) viable in the community and continues to be able to be a part of our broadcast options," Cox said.

"Listeners do want it here," added program host Steve Hayes. "If they didn't want it here, they wouldn't give, and they give because the station gives to them. We are a ministry first and a radio station second."

Various radio programs including "Joni & Friends," "Insight for Living," "Turning Point," "Focus on the Family" and "Family Life Today" are "teaching programs," Mohr said. "Many of them are (given by) clergy, and they're specially designed for radio.

"We've had people say the teachings on family issues and on how to handle money has changed their lives."

People listen for help with problems in their lives, Mohr said. He related the story of a farmer near Wall who was riding his tractor and listening to KCRN when he heard the gospel message John 3:16, which states: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

"He stopped his tractor and spoke a prayer asking God into his heart," Mohr said.

The station's program hosts, or deejays, comment about their own faith walks during their shows, Mohr said, but don't preach.

Mohr does bring clergy members on to his show "to talk about what they're doing."

"We're a connector for local people in ministry and churches," he said.

KCRN gets the music it plays from numerous nationally recognized record companies, Mohr said. Reps call every Wednesday to pitch new singles, the programming team decides which songs suit its inspirational format and, at the end of the week, KCRN reports to two national charts ? Christian Radio Weekly and R&R, owned by Billboard.

KCRN's listeners don't like the music more than the teachings or the teachings in lieu of the music, Nadeau said.

"They'll say, 'I like the music blended with the teachings'," he said.

"The bow is tied on top by the fact that people (working here) are local," Mohr added.

Of KCRN's five employees, four are San Angelo transplants, Mohr said, and all have spiritual backgrounds.

Nadeau called Mohr, who has been involved in Christian radio for 33 years, and his wife, Rachel, who is KCRN's office manager, missionaries whom God called to San Angelo. The Mohrs moved here from the Pacific Northwest in the late '90s.

"I love what I do," said Mohr, who graduated from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. "It's a skill, a craft, a communications tool I love to use for a purpose."

Hayes has been with KCRN since 1999, after career stints at other radio stations and at television broadcast station KLST.

"I committed my life to Christ around 1989, and I felt the need to be in some sort of ministry," Hayes said. "I felt broadcasting was where I should be because it's what I do."

Unlike Hayes and Mohr, Nadeau had no background in broadcasting but had always wanted to be a radio announcer, he said.

"Mark knew I had a desire and an ability to learn," Nadeau said. "I actually prayed one Sunday at church and that very afternoon, Mark called me and asked me to come to the station."

Starla Early is KCRN's only part-time employee. She is a student at Angelo State University, Nadeau said, and was instrumental in getting KCRN's website going.

With its job watch, community calendar and opportunity for listeners to share prayer requests, the website is another vehicle in which to connect listeners to their community.

In the future, Mohr said, he'd like to see the station have its own home, a storefront similar to ones other radio stations have.

"A broadcast ministry center would really be wonderful," he said.
Trans-Pecos largely dry unlike elsewhere

Sonny Warnock, Pecos County rancher, said the plentiful rainfall across most of Texas has missed his place near Fort Stockton. "This ranchland remains mainly dry, but we are making some good irrigated alfalfa," he said.

The Warnock ranch north of Fort Stockton is where the old Comanche Springs use to flow, he said.

"It's a far different story on my ranch south of Mertzon (in Irion County) where more rain has fallen this spring than I can keep up with totals," Warnock said. "The rangeland is really pretty  better than I have seen in years. The livestock deserve a good year, they are as tired of following the feed wagon as we are tired of running it."

Even as high winds and hot temperatures with little rain appear to be the general story for parts of the Trans-Pecos region, Glasscock County was hit hard with several storms; one spawned a tornado that destroyed a home and hail that destroyed several hundred acres of cotton, corn, wheat and sorghum last week.

Reagan County received rain, heavy storms, including hail, in the northern part of the county, however most cotton was not affected.

In Upton County, producers continued to harvest winter wheat, but some fields died due to heavy rains from two weeks ago, according to the weekly crop and weather report issued by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

Field conditions were extremely wet following almost 8 inches of rainfall in southwest Texas. Farmers are concerned about moisture and humidity slowing down small grain harvest which could lead to increased fungal diseases and pests. Ranchers like the grass growth but dislike the fact that the conditions maybe setting up for stomach worms in sheep and goats.

Planting delays, weeds

Fields around Wall, 10 miles southeast of San Angelo, are saturated and cotton farmers are worried about planting, Eric Eggemeyer told me Friday. "We normally have seed in the ground by June 7," he said.

Planting delays are the common theme across much of West Texas, the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma and Kansas, according to the AgFax Southwest Cotton report. Farther north, farmers may cancel the cotton seed order and fill the planters with soybeans if warm, dry weather doesn't come soon.

"We're surviving not thriving," said Gaylon Morgan, state cotton specialist at College Station. "We got swamped again this week in the College Station area. There was young cotton under water but it should be fine where it drained off. Overall, fields range from cotyledon to 8-leaf.

"We're having problems getting in the fields to treat for weeds. Unfortunately, the forecast is for more rain from the southern Blacklands all the way up north. From the way the clouds looked June 1, the bottom could fall out at any time." Morgan said.

"All in all, I'd rather have this than a drought, but we sure need some dry weather," he added.

Farmers won't speak negatively about spring rains because of drought conditions that gripped the state starting five years ago, but they are aware of the problems associated with standing water, flooding and overall gloomy weather, said Dusty Tittle, Brazos County agent.

Producers in Brazos County and surrounding areas have experienced damages including lost or stunted crops and washed away fences. There are reports of submerged corn cobs and limited access to fields, Tittle said.

"The weather continues to put a damper on producers' access to fields to apply fertilizer and herbicides or even load cattle," Tittle said. "Cattle sale volumes at the Navasota Livestock Auction Co. were well below average due to more than 15 inches of rain and severe weather, including an F-2 tornado."

In Central Texas, washed out county and ranch roads are the result of flooding from heavy rainfall.

"Most cotton is in the 5 to 7 true-leaf stage, so we're nearly out of danger for thrips," said Xandra Morris, integrated pest manager for Hill and McLennan counties. "But older cotton has fleahoppers and most fields have been sprayed or should have been sprayed. There's still some stunted cotton from all the rain."

Meanwhile, pastures are green, stock tanks, creeks and rivers are overflowing in the Texas Hill Country. And for all farmers and ranchers across the Lone Star State, the weather folks are predicting a hot sunny week ahead. So, get ready, summertime is on its way.

Jerry Lackey is the agriculture editor emeritus. Contact him at jlackey@wcc.net.
FILE - In this May 12, 2016, file photo, Katie Couric attends the premiere of her documentary, "Under The Gun", hosted by The Cinema Society in New York. Couric has taken responsibility for what she calls a decision that misrepresents the response of gun rights activists to a question she posed in the documentary. (Photo by Christopher Smith/Invision/AP, File)

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By Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune (Tns)

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."

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.

Director Soechtig captures a variety of American landscapes and voices, among them survivors of the Sandy Hook massacre. 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, "Under the Gun" speaks to issues that aren't going away.

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 airtight 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.

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.

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 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."
SHARE Tituss Burgess attends the world premiere for "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" at SVA Theatre in New York on March 30, 2016. (Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan Co./Sipa USA/TNS)

By Meredith Blake Los Angeles Times (TNS)

NEW YORK  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 with 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.

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 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 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.

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 single-camera comedy. 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 TV.

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 Standard-Times publishes news of special events and programs. We do not accept items detailing regular weekly sermons or schedules. Items will be run only once. Church news can be submitted by email at maria.hagland@gosanangelo.com or by fax to 325-659-8133. Forms also are available in the Standard-Times lobby from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Deadline for submission next week is Wednesday before the date of publication. Dates, times, address and a publication number are required.

Belmore Baptist

Belmore Baptist Church, 1214 S. Bell St., celebrated Toby T. Irwin's 10th anniversary as pastor of BBC Friday.

There will be a training workshop led by Janelle Irwin from 6-7 p.m. Sunday for all youth who will work in Belmore's vacation Bible school or serve as a junior summer camp sponsor.

There will be a viewing of the DVD "The Holiness of the Quran," at 5 p.m. Sunday.

All Gentle Touch reports are due at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Belmore Stitchers sewing group will meet at 1 p.m. Thursday.

The Bay County Florida Christian Youth Choir will present an hourlong free concert to the public at 7 p.m. Thursday, in the Belmore Sanctuary. The event is open to the public and other area churches are also invited.

Call 325-651-4661 for more information.

Edmund Boulevard Baptist

Edmund Boulevard Baptist Church, 1405 Edmund Blvd., will offer a Deep Sea Discovery vacation Bible school for children in kindergarten through fifth grade from 6-8:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday.

The event is free and will include Bible stories, crafts, games and more. Participants should be prepared to get wet.

Call 325-944-2662 for more information.

First Presbyterian

First Presbyterian Church, 32 N. Irving St., is accepting donations for the late-July mission trip to Guatemala.

Call 325-665-5694 for more information.

Gethsemane Missionary

Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church, 1720 Martin Luther King Drive, will have a Family and Friends Day at 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

Guest speaker will be the pastor of San Angelo Greater IME, Rev. Joseph Suiters.

The event is open to the public and refreshments will be served after the service.

Call 325-227-8916 for more information.

Sierra Vista UMC

Sierra Vista United Methodist Church, 4522 College Hills Blvd., will have a youth prayer partner reveal reception at 9:45 a.m. Sunday in the Life Center.

At the 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. worship services Sunday, the Sanctuary Choir and Bell Ringers will sing and play the music that they will be doing at the UMC annual conference on June 11 in Corpus Christi.

Vacation Bible school registration is still open and will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday for a $10 donation that will cover art supplies, snacks and T-shirts.

The Senior Adult Ministry's Fun Fest will be from 9 a.m. until noon Tuesday at the first Presbyterian Lake House at 2014 Willow Drive and Knickerbocker Road.

Call 325-944-4051 for more information.
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Seminary program transforms inmates to ministers

By Brandi Grissom, The Dallas Morning News

ROSHARON  For a couple of hours, the maximum-security prison felt like a real church.

Daylight illuminated stained-glass windows as voices in spiritual rejoicing sent up hymn after celebratory hymn honoring 33 new pastors in black graduation caps and gowns in the chapel's sanctuary.

Under a towering white cross, there were sermons, handshakes, hugs and thunderous applause. Joyful pride spilled down mothers' cheeks as the graduates filed down the aisle out of the room, clutching diplomas and grinning ear to ear.

Beneath those caps and gowns were the prison whites of men whose criminal transgressions landed them behind bars for decades. Outside the chapel walls were the concertina wire and pickets manned by armed guards at the Darrington Unit, one of the toughest prisons in Texas.

The inmates were the second graduating class from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's seminary program. On a recent Monday afternoon, after four years of studies, the men received bachelor's degrees in biblical studies from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Now, they will be divided into teams and assigned to one of Texas' 109 prison units, where they will minister to other inmates. Their aim: to help those who will soon be released find reconciliation and rehabilitation through faith, The Dallas Morning News reported.

"I want to commission you today to be prophets of hope," seminary President Paige Patterson told the men, most of whom are serving sentences of at least 25 years.

Texas began its inmate seminary program more than five years ago. The plan sprouted in 2010 when then-Sen. Dan Patrick, a Republican from Houston and devout Christian, introduced longtime Democratic Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, to a similar program at Louisiana's Angola prison. The seminary program there had helped reduce violence at one of the nation's most dangerous prisons.

They encouraged the criminal justice department to begin a program that would help not only the inmates who participate in the religious studies but also potentially hundreds of others who would benefit from the ministry of those men. Both Whitmire and Patrick, who is now lieutenant governor, attended the recent ceremony and spoke to the graduates.

"Maybe the next great revival is starting in our prisons," Patrick said. "The only way we can change the hearts of men is through the power of Jesus Christ."

John Montana Jr., serving a 30-year sentence for injury to a child, said he was saved after coming to prison in 2009 and decided he wanted to join the seminary program. But he hadn't completed high school and could read only at a third-grade level. To apply, he worked for nearly a year to earn his GED and improve his reading skills.

During the graduation ceremony, Montana stepped up to the microphone in the sanctuary with a bright blue guitar strapped around his neck. He sang a country anthem that he and another seminary graduate wrote called "More Than Conquerors."

"We are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus our king," he sang. "Whatever we face, we won't give up, and if we fall, we'll get back up."

Montana, who was 19 when he committed his crime and is now 29, will head to the Clemens Unit in Brazoria, home of the prison's youthful offender program for inmates younger than 18.

"I'm really excited about it," he said. Montana said he hopes to help younger inmates learn that they, too, are more than conquerors, that with faith their life can be more than what it has been.

"They're not necessarily defined by their crime and their past," he said.

Terry Hall, a graduate who is serving 25 years for an aggravated robbery in 2009, already had bachelor's and master's degrees when he came to prison.

"This degree is by far the most rewarding," he said. Before joining the program, Hall said, he had lost hope and was searching for a purpose in life. With his degree and new job ministering to others, he's found it.

"There's a lot of folks who need help, who need the word of God to help them prepare," Hall said.

More than 180 inmates are enrolled in the four-year degree program. It costs about $300,000 a year to run the program, and the Heart of Texas Foundation, a nonprofit that supports prison ministry efforts, foots the bill.

Thirty-three inmates who graduated in 2015, the first class of field ministers, are already distributed among several units statewide, said Ben Phillips, director of the program. They perform tasks as traditional as leading Bible study and as innovative as conducting cell-by-cell visits to prisoners in solitary confinement.

Inmate ministers, Phillips said, can reach their peers in a way that chaplains and volunteer pastors cannot, because they intimately understand what it's like to be a prisoner.

The goal of the program, Phillips said, is not only to change the lives of those who join the ministry, but to change the prison culture by spreading faith from within.
Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (front) joins actresses (from left) Sally Field, Elizabeth Banks and Jaime King on stage before an address to supporters at the "Women for Hillary" campaign event Friday at West Los Angeles College in Culver City, Calif. European pressphoto association

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She needs bigger gains among female voters for a winning hand

By Margaret Talev, Bloomberg News (TNS)

WASHINGTON  Hillary Clintons run for the White House will be a test case of whether playing woman card is winning hand.

Clinton has reversed course from 2008 and embraced her gender in running to become the first female U.S. president. Its an appeal to voters wholl make up half the electorate in November, and a way to soften a sharp-edged image built over a quarter-century in public life.

Yet it hasnt necessarily been a strong play for Clinton. Younger women are backing her primary rival, Bernie Sanders, and shes viewed favorably by less than half of female voters in two recent polls.

The lesson Clintons supporters draw is that while Clinton may have breached one barrier previously faced by female candidates  few doubt shes qualified for the office  there are more to go, even in 2016. Thats particularly true for a candidate whose own role in the political wars past, gender and otherwise, has made her such a polarizing figure to many.

The irony is that what women have always been afraid of, is that we have not been considered strong enough, competent enough, about foreign policy or financial matters, said Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat and Clinton supporter.

Now its kind of turned on her, she said. Its not about her being strong and competent. Her challenge now is likeability and trust. To McCaskill thats evidence of gender bias.

With next Tuesdays six-state round of contests, Clinton is expected to secure the number of delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination and become the first woman selected as the presidential candidate of a major U.S. political party. A new survey highlights the challenges she faces in the general election.

In a Quinnipiac Poll released June 1, 48 percent of women in the poll said they viewed Clinton unfavorably, but a whopping 61 percent of women said they had a strongly unfavorable view of Trump and another 6 percent viewed him somewhat unfavorably. Given the negative views of Trump, 54 percent of women said theyd vote for Clinton, compared with 30 percent for Trump  a 24-point gap. (Men back Trump over Clinton more narrowly, 51 percent to 35 percent).

Yet Clintons overall lead in the poll is only 4 percent nationwide, within the margin of error.

This comes even after Trump has questioned her strength and criticized her for shouting. When the presumptive Republican nominee said last month that Clinton wouldnt get more than 5 percent of the vote if she were a man, the statement drew nods of recognition among the former secretary of states peers who felt like theyd heard it all before.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, said Clinton really rewrote the rules and took a lot of the heat as first lady but there remain lingering, often subtle, biases  that women are overly emotional, that were not tough enough, but when we do try to be tough were not really tough were just shrill, she said.

Clintons winding path on the issue  from her open disdain for Tammy Wynettes notion to Stand by Your Man in the 1990s to unabashed doting grandma in 2016  speaks to changes in what voters can live with. In 1972, Edmund Muskie was essentially knocked out of the Democratic race when he was reported to shed tears while campaigning in New Hampshire. When Clinton cried in 2008 in the same state, she won the primary.

The way Clinton deals with gender  when to deem it irrelevant, when to play it up  has always been a central strategic question for her campaign. She largely set aside her status as a female candidate in 2008 in her losing nomination fight against Barack Obama. In the 2016 campaign, she and aides saw her new status as a grandmother as a natural opportunity to broaden her appeal and humanize her in a way her penchant for policy detail and fights with congressional Republicans over Benghazi did not.

After Trump dismissed her as playing the womans card, Clinton responded by saying deal me in. She told CNN that she had a lot of experience dealing with men who act like Trump  a knowing nod to women everywhere whove dealt with sexist comments.

The campaign declined to discuss Clintons shift to emphasize her gender more overtly than in 2008. But the numbers show one possible motivation: if Clinton can run up even bigger gains among female voters in key electoral states, shell go a long way toward getting to the White House.

Clintons own personal history is almost a timeline of the national conversation on gender in politics. Some of these stories have become part of her lore, shared by her in memoirs or on the campaign trail or retold by her friends. They include:

 Her choice of Yale Law School over Harvard was made after she asked a Harvard Law professor what to do and he said Harvard already had all the women it needed.

 In 1993, when she testified before Congress as first lady and the administrations point person on its health care proposal Rep. Dick Armey, a Texas Republican, told her that the reports of your charm are overstated.

 Comments by radio and television talk show hosts during her husbands administration and during her 2008 run for the Democratic nomination including Tucker Carlson saying whenever she appears on TV I involuntarily cross my legs, and Mike Barnicle saying she looks like everyones first wife.

 In her 2000 Senate campaign in New York, Republican Rick Lazio interrupted her mid-sentence during their debate and walked up close to her, wagging his finger while carrying a campaign finance pledge, an interaction that many women viewed as an assertion of male dominance.

 The 2008 campaign including a dissection of an outfit she wore during a Senate floor speech; an anti-Clinton group created by Trump confidant Roger Stone called Citizens United Not Timid, the acronym of which spells a derogatory obscenity; hecklers yelling Iron my shirt at a rally; and a nutcracker sold in the shape of Clinton in a pantsuit.

 As secretary of state she met with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, who said hed been warned that when she wore her hair pulled back like that it meant she was in a bad mood. Clinton recounts the exchange in a video on her campaign website, under the headline, Hillary Clinton accidentally intimidated a world leader  with her hair.

Longtime Democratic strategist and former Clinton adviser Ann Lewis said that, most of the time, My impression is that it doesnt make her angry anymore. When she quotes Eleanor Roosevelt saying a woman should have the hide of a rhinoceros, she really believes it.

What makes her struggles with some women, and particularly younger women, so surprising is that Trump seems to be doing everything in his power to drive women voters away, from his feud to Fox anchor Megyn Kelly to his statements directly and indirectly jabbing at Clinton on gender.

Clinton also is contending with challenges not tied to her gender, including her less-than-instinctive campaign skills, and populist, anti-establishment electorate. Controversies over her familys foundation, her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs and others, and her unauthorized use of private email while secretary of state also have allowed critiques of her character to fester.

We are going through a very big psychological conversation in the United States on whether we trust women to be in executive positions, said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers and a Clinton superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention. Donald Trump has no idea what to do, not a whiff of experience, in dealing with any kind of security issues, never has had to, and yet he gets the benefit of the doubt on that, I think, because of his gender.

Cecilia Mo, a Vanderbilt University political scientist and fellow at Stanford Universitys Hoover Institution who made headlines with her 2008 research into gender bias in voting choice in the swing state of Florida, said there is irony in Trump suggesting Clinton is getting a break because of her gender.

When I heard the woman-card thing, my first reaction was, its the exact opposite  playing the woman card actually makes it harder for women to get elected, Mo said.

She found that voters determined to be the most biased against women leaders, based on their responses a tool called an Implicit Association Test, were 12 percent more likely to vote for a man over a woman with equal qualifications.

People were having an easier time in linking men up with leadership, she said.

Men, older voters, less educated voters and Republicans tended to exhibit greater hidden bias, she said, though female participants also exhibited some bias against women leaders. Its not because of anything that is malintentioned, Mo said. These things are formed by: How many role models do you see? How do my past experiences affect my current judgments?

Kathleen Dolan, professor and chairwoman of the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, said her research has led her to a different conclusion: I believe the evidence suggests voters are generally gender-neutral.

While people do carry around abstract gender stereotypes such as a sense that women are better at education or men are better with national security, Dolan said voters are far more likely to replace those stereotypes with personalized views of individual candidates once they get to know them  and are primarily likely to vote for or against a candidate based on party identification.

Campaign professionals, when they work for women, they believe that they have to manage the sex of their candidate because they believe that voters are highly conscious of gender and that it really matters, Dolan said. I and some others believe at some level the campaign professionals are just wrong.

Electoral politics has many variables  incumbency status, records and party identification, for example  and there isnt evidence that gender is a dominant factor, she said.

Trump showed in the mostly male Republican primary that he is an equal opportunity abuser, Dolan said. Part of the reason voters and the media take note when he says something unkind to Clinton, she said, is that there remains a sexist vestige that you have to be nice to the woman.
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BROWNWOOD

Beef cattle topics featured in program

A regional beef cattle program June 16 at the Brown County Fairgrounds, 4206 U.S. Highway 377 S. will start with registration at 8:30 a.m. followed by the program at 9 a.m.

"Cattle prices don't look too predictable as we head toward summer," said Scott Anderson, Brown County agriculture agent. "So to optimize profits, controlling production costs and raising cattle that are efficient will be on everyone's mind. Those will be the key topics of the program."

Speakers will include Bruce Carpenter, livestock specialist at Fort Stockton; Ron Gill, livestock specialist at College Station; Sonja Swiger, entomologist and Jason Johnson, both from Stephenville.

Individual registration is $20 due upon arrival. The fee includes lunch. Preregistration is requested by June 13, for an accurate meal count.

For more information and to preregister, call Anderson at 325-646-0386.

COLLEGE STATION

Cattle short course includes trade show

The 62nd Annual Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course is set for Aug. 1-3 at Texas A&M University in College Station.

The short course is the premier beef educational event in Texas, attracting more than 1,400 attendees annually, said Jason Cleere, conference coordinator.

It features 20 sessions covering basic practices, new technologies and other important industry topics. These sessions provide participants with an opportunity to choose workshops based on their level of production experience and the needs of their ranch, Cleere said.

"Concurrent workshops will feature information on forage and beef cattle management, nutrition and reproduction, record keeping, genetics, purebred cattle and much more," he said. "In addition to classroom instruction, participants can attend one of the program's popular demonstrations on the morning of Aug. 3."

Registration is $180 per person before July 25 and $220 afterward. It includes educational materials, a copy of the 600-page short course proceedings, trade show admittance, admission to the prime rib dinner, lunches, breakfasts and daily refreshments.

Producers can register by contacting Cleere's office at 979-845-6931 or on the website at www.beefcattleshortcourse.com.

SONORA

Wool, mohair show planned for 3 days

The 79th Annual Wool and Mohair Show is slated for June 14-16 in the Sutton County 4-H Civic Center in Sonora.

The event is in conjunction with the 56th National 4-H Wool Judging, 16th FFA Wool Judging contests and other ranch-related youth judging competitions during the three days.

The events will begin with the weighing and tagging of wool and mohair fleece entries at 10 a.m. June 14, said Pascual Hernandez, Sutton County agricultural agent. All fleeces must be turned in by 3:30 p.m. that day.

Invitational judging contest registration will start at 7 a.m. June 15. Livestock judging competition will begin at 8:15 a.m. that day, as will judging of the junior wool and mohair entries.

Range judging participants will depart from the Sutton County 4-H Civic Center at 10 a.m. The day's wool and mohair judging contest will begin at 1:30 p.m. June 15 at the Sutton County 4-H Civic Center.

The national 4-H and FFA wool judging contests begin at 8 a.m. June 16, also at the civic center.

The three days of events will conclude with an 11:30 a.m. awards luncheon June 16 sponsored by the Sonora Lions Club and the Sonora Chamber of Commerce at the civic center.

For more information, contact Hernandez at 325-387-3101.

 Compiled by Jerry Lackey
By Rashda Khan, Rashda.Khan@gosanangelo.com / @Rashda_SAST

The first meeting of the Tom Green County Park & Open Space Master Plan Committee raised a lot of ideas and a lot of questions, including how the committee came about, who is paying for the master plan and why the countywide plan is getting input from an advisory committee made up of people from only one area  Christoval.

Tom Brown, from Austin-based Naismith Engineering Inc., started the meeting Thursday in Christoval with introductions, then outlined the process of creating a draft version of a parks master plan for the county.

"The Tom Green County Commissioners Court hired us to work with y'all on developing a master parks plans for all their parks," he said.

Tom Green County currently has eight parks  two in Precinct 1 (Mullins Crossing Park and Veribest Park, between San Angelo and Miles), one in Precinct 2 (Mereta City Park), two in Precinct 3 (Harper / Water Valley Park and Carlsbad Loop Park), and three in Precinct 4 (Pugh Park & Mineral Wells Crossing Park at Christoval and Foster Park, located between Tankersley and Knickerbocker on FM 2335).

Also included in the parks inventory was the approximately 2-acre Christoval City Park. The county received the property in a land swap with Christoval Independent School District  which received about 62 acres  approved May 31. However, this park property has not officially been accepted as a county park yet.

"I think we have to be very careful taking on responsibility for new parks," county Judge Steve Floyd said in a phone interview after the land swap was approved. He could recall having to close two parks  Cactus Lane Park and Carlsbad Park in Precinct 3  years before because of funding issues.

Precinct 4 County Commissioner Bill Ford was the only county official at Thursday's master plan meeting. When asked why the other court members were absent from the planning meeting, Ford said, "They don't have parks or the interest." Then he added that Precinct 3 Commissioner Rick Bacon had parks and the interest, but was too busy.

However, the master plan meeting was news to Judge Floyd when he read about it the newspaper. When other members of the Commissioners Court were interviewed about the master plan meeting, most had the impression the meeting was about Pugh Park only.

The presentation Thursday also stated the "Commissioners Court appointed an advisory committee to assist the consultant (Naismith) in the development of a Parks and Open Space Master Plan for the county."

"You're an advisory committee for the Commissioners Court," Brown told the attending members. "What we are going to do is develop a draft master plan to present to the Commissioners Court and they will then make the final decision about what they want to keep and what they don't want to keep. Then adopt the plan."

Brown said all the meetings would be open to the public and getting community input is an important part of the process.

Neither county officials nor the Standard-Times could find any record or discussion in Commissioners Court meeting minutes regarding the hiring of Naismith or the appointment of the committee.

Brown said the county hired Naismith  in business for about 60 years  in January for about $30,000 for the master plan.

Ford, who concurred with the hire date at the meeting, had three different answers  first he said Texas Parks & Wildlife was paying Naismith for the master plan, then he said Naismith was volunteering its services, and third was a statement sent in by county Judge Steve Floyd late Friday: "According to Comm Ford, Nasmith was assisting Grantworks, which has been awarded the contract to apply (for grants), with an informal meeting to develop the application to Texas Parks and Wildlife. At this time there are no commissioner court appointed members of any committee. Commissioner Ford is spearheading this effort and will have more information next week."

The only professional service agreement that could be found between the county and Naismith dates from March 2011 and is in reference to the recently completed boat ramp project at Pugh Park.

On Aug. 25, 2015, the Commissioners Court approved setting a September opening date on a request for qualifications for "Engineer  Pugh Park and development of Parks Master Plan" as well as for a request for proposal for grant application services. County Judge Steve Floyd confirmed Friday that no further action was taken on the request for qualifications for the master plan (and no contract was awarded), but action was taken on the request for proposal for grant services.

Grantworks was awarded the contract to provide grant application services, Floyd said. He added in a follow-up email that Grantworks is being paid $4,500, "of which all can be used towards the 25% cash or in-kind match if we are successful with the application."

The county already has applied for a second TPWD grant for additional boat ramp-related work at Pugh Park and is interested in applying for another $500,000 TPWD grant that could be used on priorities set by the master plan the Commissioners Court accepts in the end.

For city and county governments  with limited budgets and lots of need  state, federal and other grants are essential to getting many large-scale projects done.

One of the committee members asked if all the communities with parks in the county had similar committees set up for giving input for the grants.

"All the input from the different precincts will get in," Ford said. "I go and sit down with them (the other commissioners) and say 'OK, what do you want done with your parks?' 'Well, I don't know ... maybe we can paint the picnic tables?' I say, 'Yeah, we can paint the picnic tables.'"

He added to the Christoval audience, "See, nobody uses their parks like we do here."

In the end the meeting generated ideas that should improve any county park: playground equipment and park facilities that allow for low-cost and easy maintenance and meet current standards; multiuse trails; facilities such as pavilions, docks and piers that encourage events and use; ADA-compliant design to give everyone access to parks; restrooms; improved lighting and other security measures; parking; and educational components built along park trails to help visitors learn the history and particulars of the park.

"The more I find out, the more apt I'm to say yes we need to make changes," said Becky Kuykendall, a longtime resident of Christoval who attended the meeting. "What a lot of people in the community are upset about is you come in, make a lot of changes and don't let people know. You need to open up the meetings, send letters and explain to people what you want to do."

Brown, who has helped local government bodies put together master plans, apply for grants and design parks and other facilities for about 20 years, said in an interview that public involvement is essential.

"The fact that people buy into it and they become invested  it becomes their park  makes it easier for the commissioners to move forward and say we are spending money on this."

For a project he worked on in Schleicher County, involving a swimming pool, the company sent out surveys to everyone in the county.

The committee will meet again at 6 p.m. June 14 at the Christoval Community Center.
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By Michelle Gaitan of the San Angelo Standard-Times

MHMR Services for the Concho Valley is celebrating 50 years of providing mental health services to Tom Green and six surrounding counties.

The center  which was established in 1966 and is the Mental Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disability Authority for Coke, Concho, Crockett, Irion, Reagan, Tom Green and Sterling counties  was "one of the very first centers in Texas," said Executive Director Gregory J. Rowe.

El Paso's center is also celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and the center in Harris County celebrated 50 years last year, he said.

In some form or fashion, the Concho Valley center each month serves about 500 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and 480 adults and 322 children with mental health issues  but that does not include all the crisis calls staff goes out to, Rowe said.

The center employs 208 full- and part-time staff members who help with an array of services to meet the needs of people with mental illness, intellectual and developmental disabilities and autism.

In 2014, the center brought in autism treatment services with its ABC Center for Children, Rowe said, which is a contracted provider for the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services' Focused ABA Treatment. Twenty-one children are receiving services, he said.

In February the center began celebrating its lengthy history of service by participating in the San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo Parade with a float theme of "Roping in 50 years of Services." In April it formed a team for a Helping Hands Project. Staff members committed 50 hours to the project but instead reached 163 hours and helped renovate an elderly man's home, he said.

MHMR is hosting a celebratory dinner with live music at 7 p.m. June 17 at McNease Convention Center, 501 Rio Concho Drive.

"This is our big event where we're trying to plan and have a celebration," Rowe said. "And what we wanted to try and do is have a celebration event but also community awareness" about mental health.

Author Kevin Hines will speak about his life at the event. Hines was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 17 and two years later attempted to take his life by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. He is one of 46 survivors of an estimated 2,000 who have jumped from the bridge, MHMR stated in a news release.

The event is $25 per person and will begin with a book signing by Hines at 6 p.m., followed by hors d'oeuvres and music by local band Jeska Bailey and the Platform Souls. Tickets for the event may be purchased at MHMR, 1501 W. Beauregard Ave., or by calling Frances Salter at 325-658-7750.

"I think it will be a nice celebration," Rowe said. "Fifty years is important."
Mail ballots from voters of color were more likely to be rejected
The Promenade Squares perform during a recent fundraiser for the San Angelo Family Shelter at the BackBeat Music Company. Eleven dance groups exhibited at the well-attended event. Dancers pictured are Bill Murphy (from left), Dixie Porter, Marilda Johnson (mostly hidden at rear of formation), Sheila and Gene Oleson in foreground and Karen and Wes Thiers. Not visible in the dance formation is Wynn Alston and looking on at rear are Ruth and Charlie Millspaugh. contributed photo/John Geen

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You cant teach an octogenarian new tech

By John Geen

Square dancing is one of those regulated activities where change comes methodically and deliberately. We are transfixed on tradition and cautious about adding any modern baggage. This has been reflected in our music and our music delivery systems  until recently.

Now I am a genuine octogenarian. My calling career began with a second hand semiconductor record player that has been passed along and is still in use today. I long ago graduated to a more powerful, durable and reliable turntable that has given wonderful service, but the source of 45 RPM records has dried up and replaced by non-visible music held in some mysterious thing called software. Callers today who are much my junior, have embraced the laptop form of music delivery managed by appropriate square dance worthy software.

A few years back I was determined to get with the times and join the electronic generation. Just how difficult could it be? After obtaining a laptop and the appropriate software, I loaded up a bunch of music and proceeded to educate myself in its use. That is when I discovered that this evil little thing hated me. I have struggled with it from time-to-time for years but, with each round of activity it has defeated me. This caused me to do what any self-respecting octogenarian would do. I put it back on the shelf and let it suffer another long spell of inactivity. My current record player was doing fine.

Recently I received my calling schedule for the Texas State Square and Round Dance Festival. Nothing too unusual about that, I have done so for the past 20-some years  but  this year a further message stated that there would be no turntables provided in the various halls. Bring your music in electronic form and amplifiers would be available. Well, once again I have taken the evil little laptop from the shelf, blew off the dust, fired it up and proceeded to engaged it in further conflict. It remembered me. It still feels the same way about me..

Progress does not always come easily. The skirmishes with this little gadget continue, and I am determined that if I could once break a one ton Percheron gelding to saddle, surely I can master this little hand held marvel of science.

I now concede that I must (blush) call for the aid of a much younger person. I do plan to perform at the festival, plug a dainty little one-eighth inch phone jack into a made for square dance amplifier, and no one will ever know the dread this whole conversion of technology has caused.

We, of the Greatest Generation are indebted to those of Generation "Y" and the Millennials who simplified technology to the point that we octogenarians need not ever again worry about scratching the surface of a treasured record. Now we can accidentally erase an entire library of music with an unintended touch of a key.

Now let me move on and call your attention to the photo that accompanies this article. Our club was recently honored by an invitation to showcase square dancing at a fundraising event. A packed house was entertained by many dance disciplines which included swing, Tahitian, Greek, belly dancing, folklore and even hip-hop. There were eleven presentations in all.

I noted there were many groupings of dance. Some were couples, some mixed gender groups, some ladies only and many were costume specific. A variety of the dance wear was little more than formal gatherings dress while some of the ladies who performed exotic dances were so flesh-revealing that made it a bit difficult to look them in the eye. All were well represented and performed professionally.

Who would know that many of these dance groups even existed in this somewhat remote west Texas mini-metropolis? To find out I checked the yellow pages  found a ballet listing under 'dance',  nothing more. I checked the Chamber of Commerce pamphlet  not much about dance there either. I then went to that great billboard in the cloud and Googled 'San Angelo'  plus the desired dance discipline. 'Greek dancing' yielded nothing, 'Tahitian' dance, same result, and so on. I did get a response for 'clogging,' and 'square dancing' was well represented. Yes, we can be found in cyberspace and it would please me if all dance disciplines were represented there.

Now the above indicates that we in the square dance world are getting adequate Internet exposure so the question is  is anybody looking? Who needs healthy, mentally challenging social recreation in an era of Nintendo's, play stations, Xboxes, over a hundred channels of TV, cellphones, personal computers and chat rooms? I will leave that question hanging.

John Geen is a square dance caller. He and wife Nora sponsor the Promenade Squares dance club in San Angelo. More information is available at www.promenadesquares.com.
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A visitor from Mars  or even the East Coast  might think the intensity of California's primary battle means the stakes are YUGE, like deciding whether Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders becomes the Democratic nominee opposing Donald Trump.

Not that YUGE. But Tuesday's results will be important in setting the tone for the seven weeks until the Democratic Convention, as well as at the convention itself.

Clinton will almost certainly clinch the nomination earlier that day by winning the New Jersey primary. The California result will probably either pad her delegate lead modestly or trim it slightly. Whichever happens, she'll have a bigger margin in popular votes and pledged delegates over Sanders than Barack Obama had over her eight years ago.

And from a historical perspective, the significance of Tuesday's result is certainly questionable. Since Woodrow Wilson's 1912 loss to Champ Clark, many ultimate Democratic nominees have lost contested California primaries: Jimmy Carter (twice), Walter Mondale, Barack Obama.

Sanders has refused to concede his end is near. "I believe that if we do well here in California, we'll march in with momentum and we'll march out with the Democratic nomination," he said at a rally in Santa Monica last week.

Though that's unlikely, his persistence means a victory in California is the best way, and perhaps the only way, for Clinton to prevent the Vermont senator from damaging Democratic prospects by pressing that claim for another two months.

It would cement her majorities of elected delegates, popular votes and states contested. With no sign that superdelegates are weakening in supporting her, that would effectively end their contest, even if Sanders delays a formal endorsement.

On the other hand, a Sanders victory would doubtless encourage him to persevere, even if he loses any chance of winning a majority of pledged delegates. He suggested Sunday that intervening events, perhaps from the investigation into Clinton's private email server, could yet convince those superdelegates to abandon her.

The State Department inspector general's report criticizing her use of that server "is something that the American people, Democrats and delegates, are going to have that take a hard look at," Sanders said on CBS' "Face the Nation," adding, "Everybody in America is keeping it in mind, and certainly the superdelegates are."

Sanders still hopes to win at least half of the states, and California may determine that. But it's a meaningless statistic, given that many Sanders victories came in lower-turnout caucus states, one factor in Clinton's overall 3 million vote majority. That quest may explain his failed effort to overturn Kentucky's slim Clinton victory.

So far, the Vermont senator has won 20 states, plus Democrats abroad, while Clinton has won 24, and Guam, Northern Marianas and American Samoa. Of six states remaining, Clinton is favored in New Jersey and California, while Sanders could easily win Montana, New Mexico and the two Dakotas. Primaries in Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Island caucuses round out the schedule.

Some continued conflict between the two candidates seems inevitable, regardless of the California outcome. Sanders named two Platform Drafting Committee members who have strongly criticized Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, though he said Sunday he expected "a broad consensus" on the issue.

And while Sanders has repeatedly said he will do everything possible to ensure Trump's defeat, he seemed Sunday to minimize his responsibility for persuading his youthful cadres to back the ultimate nominee.

"If Secretary Clinton is the nominee, it is her job to reach out to millions of people and make the case as to why she is going to defend working families and the middle, provide health care for all people, take on Wall Street, deal aggressively with climate change," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "That is the candidate's job to do."

He indicated one factor may be her running mate. He said he likes one favorite, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, "very much," but added Democrats need "a candidate who can excite working families, excite young people, bring them into the political process, create a large voter turnout."

California's bottom line is simple: A Clinton victory will smooth the path to her inevitable nomination. A defeat will complicate  but not ultimately deter  it, and delay the unity she'll need to defeat Trump.

Carl P. Leubsdorf is a columnist for The Dallas Morning News. Contact him at carl.p.leubsdorf@gmail.com
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Robert Dillon, San Angelo

On June 25, 1950, the United States entered into war against the forces of North Korea. This war ended July 27, 1953, through peace treaty negotiations.

One million South Korean civilians had been killed, 58,127 of their military killed, 3,194 U.N. military killed, along with 464,568 wounded or missing in action.

The North Korean army and Chinese army losses were 1.6 million killed. Can you imagine with this large amount of war casualties the Korean War regarded as a "Forgotten War"?

Several years after the war, the Republic of South Korea awarded all of us who participated in this war a commemorative medal and a letter of appreciation for serving. We have a war memorial dedicated to the members of this war in Washington, D.C. Funds for this memorial were raised from private and public sources.

A "Wall of Remembrance" was authorized last year that also is funded by private and public donations. This wall will record all names of all U.N. forces who died, were wounded or were missing in action.

A company in the Samsung firm donated $1 million in providing maintenance of this war memorial.

Today's population of the Republic of South Korea is 51 million. They have done well in the recovery process from a war-torn country. The country's gross domestic product is now $1.4 trillion. South Korea also has aided other countries by sending troops to fight in their freedom efforts.

It is the largest Christian country in that part of the world. South Korea sent missionaries to other countries, including the United States. These Korean people have learned to give back  what a free people are obligated to do.

Their attitude should never be forgotten, and Korean War veterans' efforts should never be forgotten. Freedom lives off fruits of our labor.
What do honey bees, criminal records, Lyme disease and landfills all have in common?Typically nothing, but on June 4 these relatively disparate topics will be put in the spotlight as civic hackers converge for the fourth annual National Day of Civic Hacking . The White House, along with civic tech group Code for America, are leading this years event to spur citizens, technologists and governments to solve societal problems. More than 100 hacker spaces are set to pop up for a day, with some turning into weekend hackathons and local app competitions.Federal agencies have asked technologists to help solve 16 different challenges facing communities (see below for a full listing) and the work furthers President Obamas call to action he made back in March when attending the arts and tech trade show SXSW. His message at the time requested the tech industry to contribute its time and resources to improving their communities.In an opening Friday blog post, Cecilia Munoz, assistant to the president and director of the Domestic Policy Council , said the day would also build upon the Opportunity Project , an initiative released in conjunction with the presidents SXSW message, that is meant to be an online hub to engage citizens around federal and regional open data apps.The president likes to say that the most important word in the Constitution  that document that starts with We the people  is that first word: We, Munoz said in a video post. What he means by that, is that we have the capacity to make the kinds of changes we want to see around the country, thats what this event is all about.Alongside Munoz, U.S. Technology Officer and ex-Google vice president Megan Smith underscored the presidents efforts to release more than 200,000 government data sets since he took office. She encouraged participants to leverage the resources, data that can be found on U.S. open data portal Data.gov.We have data from the Department of Labor, from the Department of Education, [the U.S.] Census, that people can build incredible tools on top of, both to see better  where the problems and challenges are  as well as to solve problems, Smith said.Help us make it easier for residents to get the help they need to buy food.Affordable housing is important, but not easy to apply for  let's see how we can improve the process.People have a right to their criminal record, but it's not always easy to get. Let's fix this.The last thing people need after being a victim of a crime is a big complex process to get the help they need. Let's make this easier.Starting a business means new jobs and better neighborhoods. Let's see how hard it is to do that and improve it.Use data visualization to help tell the story of Promise ZonesThink boldly about new and transformative ways to prevent, detect, and respond to the Zika virus and future global health threats.How can data on foreign assistance be combined with other data sets to tell the story of U.S. investment and diplomacy overseas?We're challenging volunteers to build products and prototypes that help connect Spanish speaking job seekers to training that will teach them skills to get jobs.Use the Opportunity Project data found on Opportunity.Census.gov as a starting point. Then create data visualizations or begin the design of a digital tool.Create an app to map honey bees in your backyardCreate a data visualization to tell the story of wasteThink boldly, collaborate, and innovate for Lyme disease solutions.Developing a community needs platform or solution for the California Health and Human Services Agency.Harness data to build solutions that empower communities to access available resources and better tackle food insecurity challenges?We're challenging volunteers to use the University of Chicagos employment data application programming interface to help build products and prototypes that aid in workforce training and development.Make it easier to find jobs, transportation and access to education opportunities.Water, energy and food are critical resources representing interconnected systems. Lets work through barriers and get to solutions.
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The Fresh Market will celebrate the 22nd anniversary of its annual Hope Floats Sidewalk Sale from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Sunday.

Each of The Fresh Markets 175 stores will offer hot dogs and root beer floats (regular and sugar-free), each for a $2 donation.

The Fresh Market will donate 100 percent of the funds raised directly to JDRF to support its Type 1 diabetes research efforts.

Local stores are at 3712 Lawndale Drive and 1560 Highwoods Blvd. in Greensboro and 3285 Robinhood Road in Winston-Salem.

Pilot Clubs yard sale starts at 7 a.m. today

The Pilot Club of Greensboros annual yard sale will be held from 7 a.m. to noon today at Muirs Chapel United Methodist Church, 314 Muirs Chapel Road in Greensboro.

For information about the club, visit www.pilot clubgreensboro.org.

Plenty to see today at Public Safety Day

The 2016 Public Safety and Health Day will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today at 1730 W. Gate City Blvd. in Greensboro in the Cedar Brown parking lot at the corner of West Gate City Boulevard and Chapman Street.

The event is free and open to the public, and will offer a family-friendly atmosphere.

It offers an opportunity to meet and interact with local first responders, view various emergency response vehicles and equipment, including specialty equipment such as law enforcement motorcycles, bomb response gear, ambulance bus and more.

Also, the Tumbling Bears Crash Simulator will be on display, and a dive team will demonstrate what it does.

To promote personal wellness, Cone Health will provide free health screenings and hands-only CPR training.

Cone Health and Guilford County Public Health will have health professionals on hand to share information and answer health-related questions.

A medicine take-back will be available to safely dispose of prescription and over-the-counter medications. (Sharps, needles, lancets and thermometers will not be accepted.)

Local food trucks will be on-site. For information, call (336) 641-2278.

Church to hold benefit barbecue, raffle today

A free barbecue and raffle will be held from 5 p.m. to dusk today at All Saints Episcopal Church, 4211 Wayne Road in Greensboro..

Donations will be accepted, with proceeds supporting the ministries of Higher Ground, the Triad Health Projects communal retreat and resource center for people infected or in any way affected by HIV/AIDS.

For information, visit www.allsaintsgreensboro.org.

Local audiology center using its new name

Pahel Audiology and Hearing Aid Center has a new name: Hearing Life  Greensboro.

Carey W. Pahel, a doctor of audiology who founded the practice in 1980, sold it in 2012 to Hearing Life USA, a company based in Somerset, N.J., that owns audiology and hearing aid centers in 12 states. However, the practice continued to operate under the Pahel name until recently.

The staff at the renamed audiology center remains the same.

Hearing Life  Greensboro has two offices: 100 E. Northwood St. in Greensboro and 401-A W. Decatur St. in Madison.

For information, call (336) 272-1721 or visit www.hearinglife.com/greensboro.
Kids First Saturdays returns to the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market today with educators Marla Rindale and Ginny Schaadt of the Ragsdale YMCA. Junes focus is Whoa, Slow and Go Foods helping children recognize healthy choices.

This free educational program for children ages 6-12 will be hosted at the market during operating hours and will be outside (weather permitting) or in the markets Harvest Learning Cafe. The program will begin at 10 a.m. and will be 30-45 minutes. Program participation is available on a first come, first serve basis and pre-registration is required.

In addition, children registered in the Guilford County Free/Reduced Lunch Program are eligible for free Kids Coins up to $5, redeemable at any participating vendors table at the market. Proof of enrollment in program is required. Parents will be required to sign their children in and out and to stay on market premises for the duration of the program.

To register, go to http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0a4babaa2ca5fa7-kids or pick up a printed copy at the managers table during market hours.
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In the May 8 edition of the News & Record, Allen Johnson objected strongly to Larry Wilmores address to our president as my n--ga. The event caused much national consternation. One can certainly understand wanting, as Johnson does, to kill the word.

Wilmore, when quizzed about the event, said that he was desperate for a joke and agreed the phrase was inappropriate but did not accept that it was insulting. We have a generational transformation here of some interest.

What can you do with a really bad word? You cant legislate it away, but you can change its meaning to something positive. This kind of transformation is well-noted among linguists.

Wilmore, who acts as a kind of national mentor in racial issues on his Comedy Central television program, is intelligent and thoughtful. He obviously uses the expression with his African American friends.

In Wilmores world, the old hateful n-word used by whites to denigrate blacks has become friendly and a bit comic. Its scarcely even edgy. My n--ga puts a possessive on it, as if to say, Its our word. The bad word hasnt disappeared, its been repossessed. The new word cant kill the old one, which will continue to carry its burden of hate and pain, but is working to diffuse the old word by taking it over and making something of a joke of it.

Wilmore must have considered bringing the word into his routine. He may not have planned to use it, but we often do things we have given thought to and suppressed.

I think he wanted to put it out there and say, Weve got a new word for us, here it is, and its OK, president and all.

Slavery and racism have undermined the nations basic professed ideal and its unity. The n-word is the flag word of that failure. If younger African Americans can mend the language, at least for their generation, we should consider their doing so a remarkable act. Perhaps this change can aid us all in what must be our common journey to find each other.
Do you have outstanding debt from a federal student loan? If so, the chances are significant that you are behind on your payments or have not even tried to make any payments at all. As of the beginning of the year, there were approximately 22 million Americans with student loans  and, according to information from the Department of Education, only 12.5 million of them are current with their loan payments.

Around 3 million student loan holders are in some form of postponement on their debt. Through a deferment or forbearance, they have permission to delay their loan payments due to a hardship such as unemployment or other financial emergency. Approximately $110 billion in student loan balances are in some form of postponement.

Another 3 million more student loan borrowers were delinquent, meaning they were between one month and a year behind on their loans. 3.6 million borrowers are at least a year behind on their payments and are considered to be in default. Government officials are concerned that many of the borrowers in default do not intend ever to attempt to pay back their student loans.

The combined balance in delinquent and defaulted loans is approximately $122 billion, meaning that around $232 billion of the over $1.2 trillion student loan portfolio is in some form of distress. Other types of loans with traditional banks would not tolerate such a ratio  but what bank would loan money without credit checks, cosigners, or any evidence that the loan will ever be paid back? Essentially, that's how student loans work. The government also has no collateral; they cannot repossess your education (yet).

There is at least some silver lining, as a 43% non-repayment rate represents an improvement over last year's rate of 46%. The Wall Street Journal attributes much of the change to programs that allow some borrowers to lower their student loan payments by connecting them to a percentage of the borrower's income (also known as income-driven repayment). The number of borrowers taking advantage of these programs nearly doubled over the past year to 4.6 million.

Fortune notes that the Department of Education has blogged that those who do not pay back federal student loans will not be arrested, but they will suffer problems in their financial future and will certainly have difficulties establishing good credit. Unfortunately, evidence shows that some borrowers may not care. The attitude may be that the government will eventually write off these loans or that the potential punishments are not worth a repayment effort compared to other priorities.

Data from student loan servicer, Navient Corp. shows that the average attempts to reach borrowers in delinquency are between 230 and 300, or more than once every other day. Regardless of format  calls, letters, text messages, and e-mails  90% never respond. Over half never even attempt to make a payment prior to default.

Income-driven repayment is the preferred compromise path that allows repayment without punishing those who legitimately cannot find work and afford repayment. There are four such programs offered through the Federal Student Aid website: REPAYE, PAYE, IBR, and ICR. If you find yourself among the 43%, consider income-driven repayment plans as a way to repay your debt without overburdening your budget.

If you are among those who are simply ignoring your obligation to repay, don't. Just because you may never be jailed because of default does not mean that there are not consequences  and do not expect the government to bail you out. Even if the rules are changed, they may not be retroactive. Do the responsible thing and set up a program to pay as you can.

If you want to settle outstanding debts for less than what you owe, try our debt settlement tool.
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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For a tough fiscal year marked by sharply reduced tax revenues and more than $860 million in spending cuts, Bridgeport did pretty well in the budget set to take effect July 1, with $14.7 million more in state aid coming than the city received in 2015-16.

Milford is on track for $1.6 million more in the budget that awaits Gov. Dannel P. Malloys signature; Trumbull, $1 million; and Shelton, nearly $1.3 million.

More affluent towns, however, will likely have to radically rethink their budget plans or raise local property taxes to cover sharp reductions in state aid. Fairfield would have to make up about $1.2 million and Westport more than $787,000, according to an analysis of the wide range of state aid conducted by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.

Fairfield First Selectman Michael Tetreau said the late budget adjustments make the problem even worse than it seems.

We still need to talk about specifics, Tetreau said. We have to go back and look at what items we can hold off on, such as the purchase of purchase of heavy equipment, sidewalk maintenance, possibly cutting back hours in departments.

Back in February, when the projected budget deficit was much smaller and Malloy presented his first spending plan, Fairfield was slated to get $2.3 million more in aid than what was approved last week in the state House and Senate, Tetreau said. The towns potential share of sales-tax revenue later fell from $1.1 million to about $800,000.

Now, with the local school budget locked in, Tetreau, a Democrat, is in negotiations with town department heads and the Board of Education in attempt to bridge the $2.3 million reduction to the current $7 million in state support.

Fifty three of the states 169 towns and cities would see reduced levels of state aid under the new budget, including education, payments in lieu of taxes for tax-exempt properties, town road aid and municipal revenue sharing. All state support for local school busing would be eliminated in the pending budget.

Darien, Easton, Greenwich, New Canaan, Redding, Ridgefield, Weston and Wilton would all see reductions to current levels of aid.

Less is more

But even the communities that would get more money will get less than they anticipated earlier in the year, before income-tax revenue fell off so badly that the second year of the biennial budget, set to start July 1, was nearly a billion dollars in the red. Malloys original proposal would have given Bridgeport about $18 million more than the current $207 million in statutory grants.

Av Harris, communications director for Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, said last week that the citys delegation in the General Assembly worked hard to preserve local aid, which was dramatically changed last year when sales-tax revenue and a cap on local car taxes were enacted for local property tax relief.

The states increased investment in cities like Bridgeport is very significant, Harris said. At the same time, Mayor Ganim and the city Council are now struggling to put together a budget in which we need to find an additional $4 million of savings more than we had anticipated in order to achieve balance by July 1st.

In Shelton, officials are skeptical the state will provide as much as it claims.

Thats great, said John Anglace, president of the Shelton Board of Alderman, but were not counting on anything additional from the state. What we plugged into the budget is what were relying on.

Anglace said the state is promising so many grandiose things, he wonders how those promises can be fulfilled, with the growing deficit and lack of revenues.

Companies are moving out of Connecticut constantly, he said. Where is this money going to come from?

If it does come, Anglace said, it will go into the General Fund and replace money that was used to pay for the new roof on Sunnyside School.

Judy Szewczyk, head of Derbys Board of Apportionment and Taxation, said town officials are still going over the numbers.

I don't know what the bottom line is yet, Szewczyk said. It will be great if the state is giving us more than anticipated from the estimated numbers.

First haircut

Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, said the challenges mounted up this year because of stock market volatility, the resulting fall off in income-tax revenue and the decade-long shift from higher-paying manufacturing jobs to lower-wage service employment.

This is the first time there has been a haircut, compared to all the other years where we have held communities harmless, Duff said. The Legislature has worked very hard to keep funding at levels so towns and cities did not lay off fire and police.

House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, said its more than a coincidence that many of the towns hit hardest by this years budget cuts have local Republican leaders.

I dont put anything past any of them, as far as playing politics in an election year, Klarides said in an interview. The overall problem is, once again, were doing a piecemeal budget. Is it better than others? Yes. But its certainly not changing anything for the future.

Sharing services

Joe DeLong, executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said that aid partnerships with the state need to work better.

I hate it when we get a system that, in order to balance budgets, you have to pick winners and losers, DeLong said.

DeLong said that despite efforts by legislative leaders to support regionalism, particularly by Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, there hasnt been enough structural change.

If youre asking municipalities to do more with less, you have to give us flexibility, DeLong said, adding that towns can adopt their own efficiencies, such as combining back-office functions in town halls and local school boards.

Sharkey, while announcing last week that he would retire from the General Assembly, said the states fiscal future would remain endangered until more towns and cities cooperate and share services.

Every time that I attempted to use this financial crisis as a reason to make those changes at the local level, both on the municipal and the Board of Ed side at the local level, the pushback was overwhelming, Sharkey said. Im hoping that as we go into this new reality, the new budget reality, the new fiscal reality of the state of Connecticut, that that resistance will continue to erode, and the folks at the local level will get it that this is not sustainable at the state or local level.
What you might call a vegetable-forward eggplant parm from Barano. Photo: Jody Wissner/New York Magazine

Throughout the great history of New Yorks many Italian restaurants, one style has endured: the classic red-sauce joint, defined as much by a commitment to Italian-American standards  your veal Parms, a nice plate of linguine with clams  as it is by a certain dated decor (checkered tablecloths, the Chianti-bottle candles). Classic spots like Queen Italian Restaurant in Brooklyn Heights, Bamontes in Williamsburg, and Emilios Ballato carry on the tradition proudly, but nobodys going to call them cutting edge.

So the question facing New York restaurant critic Adam Platt and Grub Street editor Alan Sytsma in this weeks episode of the Grub Street Podcast is this: Is it possible to create a new restaurant that maintains the best parts of the archetypal red-sauce experience that also takes into account the prevailing winds of our current culinary moment? Carbone, of course, is an example of a new restaurant that nods to the red-sauce tradition, but its such a faithful re-creation that it feels as much like theater as it does a restaurant.

So, to see if theres a kind of happy medium, the duo traveled to Williamsburg  much to Mr. Platts chagrin  and talked to Albert Di Meglio, chef and owner of the brand-new Barano, which seems to navigate the two worlds as well as anywhere.

Check it out at iTunes or on SoundCloud.
But can you spike it? Photo: Starbucks

Eager for more of the billion-dollar tea market now that specialty coffees being sold at Dairy Queen, Starbucks is going to start selling bottled Teavana for the first time in grocery stores. An undertaking this enormous requires help on the production end, though, and the coffee giant has found just the appropriately supercolossal bottling conglomerate to lend a hand: Anheuser-Busch InBev.

In an announcement late Thursday, this drink dream team says consumers can expect a line of Teavanas in some 300,000 U.S. supermarkets and convenience stores by next year. Unlike Starbuckss other tea brand Tazo, Teavana has been sold as loose-leaf up till now, but these new bottles will presumably feature Teavanas top sellers in a ready-to-drink, likely presweetened form.

Starbucks says the partnership presents a significant growth opportunity, and the people at A-B InBev sound pretty psyched, too. We see an amazing opportunity for tea, CEO Carlos Brito tells The Wall Street Journal. Although he could have said any liquid, really, as the opportunity is more about A-B InBevs ability to run breweries at full capacity, giving its network of 500-plus distributors something nonalcoholic to sell as Americas appetite for watery domestics continues to plummet.

Starbucks bought Teavana in 2012 for $630 million, its biggest acquisition ever. At the time, CEO Howard Schultz said the brand represented an untapped $90 billion global market opportunity, and he unveiled a plan to Starbucks-ify what was mostly a mall retailer. However, the companys Teavana tea bar experiment ended in an unmitigated disaster that not even an Oprah endorsement could save. It looks like the backup plan dials expectations down to more of a 7-Eleven or AriZona-iced-tea level. But hey, the potential is endless: Imagine the new customers an America-beer-flavored Frappuccino could bring in.

[WSJ]
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Recently launched LG Stylus 2 Plus and last year's Galaxy On5 landing in US this month

Just a few days ago, LG launched the Stylus 2 Plus smartphone in Taiwan. At that time, the company said that the phone will land in key markets in Asia, South America, Europe and North America in the weeks to come.

Now, thanks to a leaked MetroPCS Q2 in-store pricing grid, we have some information on when the device will land in the US.

Reportedly, the Stylus 2 Plus will be launched in the country as Stylo2 Plus, with the leak revealing that T-Mobiles prepaid subsidiary will start carrying the handset on 27th of this month. As for price, it will carry a tag of $149.

In addition, last year's Samsung Galaxy On5 - which is currently only available in some Asian markets - will also land in the US through MetroPCS. The device will also be launched on June 27, and it will set you back $60.

Via




Haiti - Politic : Privert wants to strengthen cooperation with Cuba





Friday in La Havana, Cuba, the interim President of Haiti, Jocelerme Privert, has expressed interest in strengthening cooperation with Cuba, during a meeting with the Cuban Esteban Lazo, head of the National Assembly of Popular Power (ANPP).



The President of the Cuban Parliament received the Haitian leader and his accompanying delegation to participate in the seventh summit of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), which opened Thursday and will end Saturday with the meeting of Heads of State and Government recall that the theme for this summit is: "United in the Caribbean to address the problems of sustainable development, of changes and peace in the region."



During the meeting the interlocutors discussed the issues of bilateral cooperation in areas such as health, education and agriculture, and the President Privert expressed his desire to increase it.



"We have worked and will continue to assist the Haitian people," said the head of the ANPP, who said that Cuba will continue with its ties with this friendly people, Haiti.



At the same time, they discussed the importance of the ACS Summit held in Havana, in which issues related to the strategic priorities of the organization are addressed: sustainable tourism, transport, trade and dealing with

natural disasters.



S/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping politics...





DG of the PNH in New York

Friday, the Director General a.i. of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) Michel-Ange Gedeon, participated in the first summit of the UN police chiefs, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York.



The G8 calls for a historic political compromise

The G8 notes that the Commission confirm that the organization of the 2015 elections was a huge mess, a vast operation of planned electoral crime; wonders why in the report, the President of the Commission reduced the cases of fraud in the presidential election only contrary to the findings of the report. The G8 calls for a historic political compromise involving all three branches of government, the actors of political society, economic society and civil society before 14 June 2016 to prevent the country falls into chaos and anarchy.



Of deputies met with the Federation of Bar of Haiti

Of deputies met Thursday, the President of the Federation of Bar of Haiti, Me Stanley Gaston around the report of the independent commission of evaluation and electoral verification, at the centre of discussion the fact that the CIEVE has invited the BCEN to reconsider the cases of 15 deputies, considered badly elected, according to Me Gaston, the BCEN can not reverse a decision it has already made.



An impartial work according to the Collective of 4 December

The Collective of 4 December salute the courage of Commissioners of the Independent Commission of evaluation and electoral verification (CIEVE) who made a technical and impartial work; and recommended the cancellation of elections, and remains pending the follow up that will be given to the recommendations by the CEP. Also the collective of 4 December wonders if it is not also necessary to also cancel the elections. It also calls on the actors to seek an agreement to address the real challenges of the country.



Meeting around the state exams

Thursday, the Minister of National Education, Jean Beauvois Dorsonne held a working meeting with technical and departmental directors in particular around the state exams. He recalled the importance of state exams and the responsibility of each actor for the success of operations.



The First Lady visited of health centers

Wednesday, June 1, 2016, the First Lady of the Republic of Haiti Dr. Ginette Michaud Privert, accompanied by the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany Klaus Peter Schick, visited of health centers in the commune of Leogane supported by the Johanniter, a German NGO.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















DREAM Worship is excited to announce the second release from 3C Live, "Send Your Rain" available for pre-order today! 3C LIVE is a dynamic, multi-racial Worship Team from 3C a multi-site, vibrant and fast-growing church with over 21,000 members in South Africa. Their passion for God is contagious and very evident in their ministry all over the world and in their music! The album is a fun, powerful and dynamic worship album filled with songs that every church will want to put in their rotation! The album was recorded LIVE and in studio in beautiful South Africa.

To pre-order the album text 3CLIVE to 51555 or click here: http://smarturl.it/3CLive

Click here for more information on 3C Church and Pastor Bert and Charne Pretorius: http://www.my3c.tv

ABOUT DREAM WORSHIP

DREAM was founded in 2008 to provide artists with a genuine approach to how real artist development should be done. By allowing for a partnership as a business model, Dream's artists empower themselves to develop and carry out a real vision for their lives as they affect other people's lives with their music and message. Incorporating social media, press, radio and touring it's allowing it's artists grow together as a family.

ABOUT 3C LIVE

3C LIVE is a dynamic, multi-racial Worship Team from 3C a multi-site, vibrant and fast-growing church with over 21,000 members in South Africa. Their love for God and His people are evidenced in the many welfare and social development projects of the Church, with the Compassion for Children project feeding 10,000 underprivileged children on a daily basis. Through television and radio broadcasts "A New Life, A New Beginning" shares the Good News to over 47 million people across the African and European continents every week. Pastors Bert and Charne Pretorius are blessed, with sons, Pearson, Damian and Tristan, and their daughters Caitlyn, Jordan and Madison. Pastor Bert is an ordained minister of the Full Gospel Church of God in South Africa.

Tags : 3c 3c send your rain dream records 3c worship team 3C LIVE 3c live new album
Published on 2016/06/03

The New Yorker examines a Korean television show about the power of pop culture, see how one artist is using her webtoon to empower victims of sexism, behold "K-Culture Valley", and see how one model is defying the country's strict beauty standards one step at a time.

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"A KOREAN TELEVISION SHOW ABOUT THE POWER OF POP CULTURE"

Mattew Trammell, writing for the The New Yorker, looks at Sin Won-ho's acclaimed television drama, "Anwer Me 1988" (aka "Reply 1988"), "a Korean drama about a group of friends in Seoul in the nineteen-eighties, follows its teen-aged protagonists as they celebrate, bicker, and plunge into a newly borderless world of pop culture". The show originally aired from November 2015 to mid-January.

...READ ON THE NEW YORKER

"South Korean Webtoon artist tackles sexism at home"

A 32-year-old South Korean artist draws on her traumatic childhood to produce a webtoon series that tackles sexism in the home. The comic is hard-hitting, but despite the sensitive content, there has been a positive response: "To Dangi's surprise, the work has been well received by readers, many of whom reached out to her saying they had also been discriminated and abused by family members at home. Within the first 44 days of the series being published online, "Dangi" received more than 3 million hits, becoming the most-read webtoon in the shortest time frame on Lezhin Comics, one of the most popular online platforms for webtoons here".

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"South Korea Begins Constructing Massive K-pop Cultural Park In Seoul"

OMG: Korea is planning to build a huge theme park called "K-Culture Valley" at a cost of around $1.2 billion! Apparently the park will be ready as soon as next year. The project is expected to create 56,000 jobs and bring in $7.3 billion in revenue. Here's president Park on the project: "The culture content industry is key industry in this creative economy age where imagination and idea become a product, and is an alchemy of the 21st century that creates new value-added".

...READ ON KPOP STARZ

"All-Natural Model Defies South Korean Plastic Surgery Obsession"

Korea's obsession with body image is well-known and the country is also somewhat of a mecca when it comes to plastic surgery. Twenty-first-century feminism, however, has seen a growing number of models and agencies around the world deviating from that narrow band of 'perfection' to promote more inclusive notions of beauty and health. In this piece from World Crunch, you'll see how one South Korean model is down just that: "I'm kind of an alien in Korea. People who are plus size in Korea, they are not interested in a social life, they don't go shopping...They don't want people staring at them".



...READ ON WORLD CRUNCH.
Published on 2016/06/03

Find out why many Koreans are taking their meals alone, witness the power of poultry, My Korea Kitchen breaks down a popular Korean side dish, and Korea Boo has 11 dishes that are not for the faint-hearted.

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"[Feature] Why more Koreans are eating alone"

Are more Koreans eating alone? Why? The Korea Herald has a feature on this phenomenon that includes information from a recent study conducted by the Korea Health Promotion Foundation. One of its findings was that 38.7% of 30-somethings eat alone simply because they don't have anyone to share a meal with. Those who eat alone also tend to choose cheaper meals and save the money for better dishes when they have company. "Yet South Korea has welcomed a number of restaurants that specifically cater to solo diners in recent years, some of which offer cubicle seats so guests don't have to worry about the empty seat on the other side of the table".

...READ ON THE KOREA HERALD

"From soup to fast food, South Korea harnesses soft power of chicken"

Long live the 'chicken republic'! Well, that's if you take president Park Geun Hye's word for it. Koreans consume a lot of chicken (around 15.4kg on average each year) so naturally they've become very good at incorporating poultry into many of their dishes. According to the article, "the latest dish to make waves is Korean-style fried chicken, which combines western cooking techniques and oriental seasonings to suit the palate of the Korean consumers". Koreans also like eggs, so I wonder which came first...

...READ ON THE STRAIT TIMES

"KOREAN STIR FRIED POTATO SIDE DISH"

My Korean Kitchen's latest post includes steps for making Korean stir fried potato, a delicious side dish that can be found on many Korean dinner tables. And now it can be on yours, too! Here's Sue: "Korean stir fried potato side dish recipe is something that I meant to share for a while. FYI, it's been sitting in my draft folder for 3 years! I don't know what kept me from sharing this simple recipe sooner but I knew it was time to finally do so!"

...READ ON MY KOREAN KITCHEN

"11 Terrifying Korean Delicacies You May Be Too Scared to Try"

Korea Boo has this interesting listicle of Korea delicacies you may or may not want to pass on. If you're up for the challenge, their list includes raw crab, live seafood soup, acorn jelly, boiled intestine sausage and silkworm larvae...

...READ ON KOREA BOO
Published on 2016/06/03

The Korea Tourism Organisation releases a new guide for tourists in various languages, discover why South Korea is perfect for family travel, check out six top travel blogs/websites, and The Korea Times has a host of exciting events happening around town.

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"Get lost no more, South Korea's new tourist guide comes in 11 languages"

South Korea is constantly seeking new ways of reaching a larger audience for its wave. The country has become a storm of transnational cultural spreading over the decades, and it's no surprise that the Korea Tourism Organisation has upped its pamphlet game with detailed tips, important information, and it's now available in 11 languages. Korea makes it easy to get swept up by the K-wave!

...READ ON ASIA ONE

"Family Friendly Holidays: Seoul Insider"

It's all well and good traveling to South Korea as a single adult, but is Korea a good place to visit if you've got a family to consider? The answer: yes! South Korea is a fantastic destination for families, and in this post from Suitcases & Strollers you'll find great reasons to make Korea your next big family holiday! "There are few family holidays destinations as kid friendly as Seoul. If you plan on visiting Korea with kids, the capital city has multiple children's museums, free translators for tourists in the city centre and lots of quirky themed cafes to keep the kids entertained..."

...READ ON SUITCASES AND STROLLERS

"Plan The Trip of a Lifetime: 6 Must-Read Korea Travel Blogs"

There are many ways to go about researching and preparing for a trip somewhere around the world. The trusty travel agent has become somewhat of a denying breed because more and more travelers are looking for on-the-ground knowledge from fellow travelers. In this post, discover six blogs to follow and browse about traveling in Korea before heading out yourself.

...READ ON TAKE LESSONS

"Around Town 1"

These "Around Town" segments in The Korea Times are great if you're looking for local events and happenings to spark your interest and plan around. There are live musical performances to enjoy, concerts to catch, festivals to rock, and much more to see and do! So there's simply no excuse not to hit the town!

...READ ON THE KOREA TIMES
Published on 2016/06/04 | Source

Added the upcoming Korean movie "The Purpose of Clubs"'s page to HanCinema database

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"The Purpose of Clubs" (2016)

Directed by Jo Kyeong-hoon-I

With Kim Hee-won-IV, Jeong Min-joo, Lee Joon-gyoo, Ko Chan-woo,...

Synopsis

"I want to be yours tonight..."

Three men from a social club get together for intimate reasons, then a cute and sexy girl happens to fall in front of them!

'A sexy and rich' guy who has to go to the military giving up his school credits, 'a loser' who just got discharged dreaming of heated love and 'a goose father' who hasn't had sex in forever, join a paragliding club for other reasons.

A hot and sexy girl appears in front of them and the three hyenas convince her to go to an overnight paragliding trip with them. Who will be the winner? This girl playing hard to get causes the three to shake and they start doing anything they need to get her to spend a night with them...

Release date in Korea : 2016/06/16
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
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.
There are almost 300 000 citizens in Espoo of whom 50 000 doesnt speak Finnish or Swedish as native language. The change has been rapid when comparing to my time as a schoolkid. For example, every fourth of my childrens classmates speaks something else than Finnish or Swedish as their native language.

Four years ago, I grabbed to this matter and as a result the city strategy of Espoo mentions the use of English as an official service language
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There is good news for those Helsinki residents who have missed the Lebanese restaurant Farouge. The owners have re-opened the legendary restaurant in a new location. The new Farouge located in Fabianinkatu 9 on the street level of Hotel Fabian is now much bigger and fancier, but with the same old warmth of service and quality food as before.

Founders Viviane and Aki Kallio are well known to many of their regular customers from their old restaurant in Yrjon St.
A large proportion of the highly educated foreigners living in Finland have settled in well and work in positions that match their qualifications. However, the study indicates that there are still areas for development when it comes to integrating into Finnish society.

The majority of respondents said that they have adapted to life in Finland either very or fairly well (79 %). Nearly half (48 %) believe that they were able to adapt in under a year.
Installation view of Moomin Original at Ground Seesaw Seongsu, northern Seoul (Media & Art)

International news outlets this week highlighted how Finnish citizens have adapted well to social distancing, attributing their positive attitude towards isolation to a culture that values personal space.

The Finns natural propensity for solitude, coupled with the countrys low population density and remote location has aided in its fight against COVID-19.
Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) was photographed ahead of her regular interview with YLE Radio Suomi in Helsinki on 23 October 2022. Marin told the public broadcasting company that Finland could vote against the nature restoration regulation proposed by the European Union. (Mikko Stig  Lehtikuva)

PRIME MINISTER Sanna Marin (SDP) on Sunday said Finland could vote against the nature restoration regulation proposed by the European Union.

I believe its important that we try to improve the state of the environment. Thats what this restoration is about, but it has to be done in places where its functional and sensible, she outlined during her regular interview on YLE Radio Suomi.
It's always fascinating to learn about the lives of individuals around the world. When you spend time with them, you might discover if they share your interests. It helps you connect with individuals in various countries if you have this knowledge.

Let's have a look at what people in Finland do for fun now that we know this. How comparable are their interests to your own?
LEHTIKUVA / AFP

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and the European Travel Commission (ETC) warn the Travel & Tourism sectors recovery could be put at serious risk if almost 1.2 million jobs remain unfilled across the EU.

The challenging summer labour shortfall has been revealed by WTTC in its latest analysis of the sector and calls for urgent action to address this critical issue.
Iran is a county country of beautiful mountains and deserts situated in southwest of Asia. Eastern Iran is dominated by a high plateau, with large salt flats and vast sand deserts. The plateau is surrounded by even higher mountains, including the Zagros to the west and the Elburz to the north. Irans neighbors are Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia to the north, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, and Turkey and Iraq to the west. The capital Tehran is the countrys largest city and the political, cultural, commercial and industrial center of the nation. Iran holds an important position in international energy security and world economy as a result of its large reserves of petroleum and natural gas.
Olga Srednyakova (R), 51, a single mother of the eight children, hugs the youngest daughter Vera, 8, as other ones harvest mushrooms at an abandoned ground of their destroyed school in Konstantinovka in the Donetsk region on October 13, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

As the war between Russia and Ukraine continues to escalate, children in both countries have been most affected by its economic fallout, said UNICEF regional director for Europe and Central Asia, Afshan Khan, Al Jazeera reported.

According to a report of the United Nations children's agency, the study of 22 countries showcased how the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing crisis pushed approximately four million children into poverty across Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
A jury has acquitted the former finance director of Irish Life and Permanent (ILP) of conspiring to defraud the markets in 2008 in a 7.2bn scheme.

Jurors at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court returned a not guilty verdict on Peter Fitz- patrick (63) following nearly 47 hours of deliberating.

Mr Fitzpatrick held his head in his hands and wept after the verdict was read out. He then hugged his barrister, Brendan Grehan.

Deliberations are continuing on the only remaining accused on the indictment, Denis Casey (56), who was formerly the chief executive of ILP.

Judge Martin Nolan agreed to a defence application to discharge Mr Fitzpatrick from the indictment.

Mislead

On Wednesday, the jury convicted Anglo's former head of capital markets, John Bowe (52), and the bank's then finance director, Willie McAteer (65), who were accused of conspiring to mislead investors, depositors and lenders about the true health of Anglo.

They have been remanded on bail pending sentence until July 25.

Bowe, from Glasnevin, Dublin; McAteer, of Greenrath, Tipperary town; Mr Casey (56), from Raheny, Dublin; and Mr Fitzpatrick (63), of Convent Lane, Portmarnock, Dublin, had all pleaded not guilty to conspiring together and with others to mislead investors by setting up a 7.2bn circular trans- action scheme between March 1 and September 30, 2008 to bolster Anglo's balance sheet.

The prosecution 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 Irish Life Assurance.

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.

Mr McAteer was Anglo's dir- ector of finance and Mr Bowe was head of capital markets in the bank's treasury department.

Their lawyers had argued that they believed the deposits were real and were accounted for correctly on Anglo's balance sheet, and so no fraud was carried out.

Lawyers defending Mr Casey and his then finance director argued that they had no control over how Anglo would account for the deposits and had no intention of misleading the public.

He is the only remaining defendant in a trial that has run since mid-January.

Mr Casey will return to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday, when 11 jurors will continue considering a verdict on whether he conspired to assist Anglo Irish Bank to defraud the markets in 2008 in a 7.2bn scheme.

At 4.30pm yesterday, jurors had entered hour 48 of deliberations when Judge Nolan asked them if they wanted to sit late or return today.

The foreman declined both options, citing previous commitments by juror members.
The proposed design for the 50m scheme to redevelop the site of the Department of Health

The Department of Health headquarters in Dublin city centre is at the centre of a major new development.

Hawkins House, which was built in 1962, and neighbouring Apollo House will be knocked down in plans revealed by the Office of Public Works (OPW).

The OPW is seeking planning permission from Dublin City Council to demolish the buildings and allow for a new development, including business space, restaurants and public plaza.

Although the exact cost of the project is not yet known, it is estimated to be around 50m. Both buildings are considered to be showing their age after more than 50 years.

Storeys

Pictures released by the OPW show the demolition will allow for the construction of a commercial office, including a public plaza on the ground floor and the provision of cafe and retail units.

It will see offices of up to 10 storeys on the Hawkins House site, and between five and 12 storeys where Apollo House now stands.

The planning permission process is expected to take up to a year.

A spokesperson for the OPW said: No decision has been made, as yet, as to who will occupy the new building once completed.

The block would have 60pc more office space and open an "impenetrable block" between Tara Street and College Green, according to the OPW.

The 400 staff currently working in the Health Department are expected to be relocated to the former Bank of Ireland HQ on Baggot Street.

Once works on the development are complete, a government department -most likely Health - will be returned there.

The OPW said the decision to demolish and rebuild will be cost effective in the long-term as it will make more room for staff.

The planning permission is being lodged by Mazars, receivers of Cuprum Properties, acting on behalf of Nama.

Sean Canney, Minister of State with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works and Flood Relief ,said Hawkins House is now "obsolete".

"I am delighted that the Office of Public Works has worked in close cooperation with the receivers to Apollo House in developing these planning applications," he said.

"This development represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a new, vibrant commercial and government office quarter in the city of Dublin.

"My office works closely with its client departments and it is clear that Hawkins House is now obsolete and no longer meets the demand for modern flexible workspace."

Mr Canney welcomed the development's potential to "free up" buildings across Dublin and make room for pedestrian space.

"The development of this site will provide up to 60pc more office space, will offer significant savings in running costs and will facilitate my office to reach sustainability targets and free up older leased buildings throughout the city," he said.

Hawkins House is on the site of the former Theatre Royal at Tara Street and Poolbeg Street.

The area has been identified in the Dublin City Council George's Quay Local Area Plan as one of significant economic importance to the city, the region and the State.

Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh was heartened by the employment that the development would create.

"This is an exciting project to revitalise key sites in Dublin city, adjacent to Trinity College, and is consistent with the receivers' aim to maximise the return and to deliver much-needed high-quality commercial space that will promote investment, and create jobs," he said.

The joint design team for Hawkins House and Apollo House will coordinate their work.
Regency Hotel shooting victim David Byrne died of multiple gunshot wounds, an inquest into his death heard.

The 33-year-old from Raleigh Square, Crumlin, Dublin 12 was shot dead at the Regency Hotel on February 5. He could not be visually identified due his injuries. He was formally identified using fingerprint records.

Byrne's mother and father attended Dublin Coroner's Court yesterday morning where the main entrance was temporarily closed and gardai maintained a heavy presence outside the building.

At the brief hearing, Coroner Dr Brian Farrell heard evidence of formal identification and post-mortem results in relation to Byrne's death.

Detective Garda Cathal Hannigan, attached to the fingerprint section of the Garda Technical Bureau, told the court he made a formal identification using Byrne's fingerprints, which matched up with three sets of fingerprints gardai had on file, all belonging to Byrne.

"I'm in no doubt that all four sets belong to the same person," Det Hannigan said.

Byrne was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting.

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis carried out an autopsy at the city morgue in Marino. The cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds. The deceased's mother left the court as the post-mortem results were read out.

Inspector Brian Daly applied for a six-month adjournment. "The criminal investigation is ongoing," Insp Daly told the court.

Coroner Dr Brian Farrell asked the family if they had any questions, to which the deceased's father replied "no, not at the moment".

Dr Farrell adjourned the inquest to December 9.

Condolences

"I am aware of some of the circumstances but I cannot take any more evidence this morning," Dr Farrell said, extending his deepest condolences to the family on the violent death of their son.

Byrne was a senior lieutenant for the Kinahan cartel, and was responsible for supplying logistical support for the crime gang.

Associates of the slain criminal are believed to be behind five gangland murders since his death, which are being treated as revenge attacks.

A number of arrests and firearms seizures have been made in relation to these murder investigations.
JONESBOROUGH, Tenn.  What do you get when you dine on southern style barbecue in a historic cemetery set in Tennessees Oldest Town? Not Your Ordinary Dinner Party.

The Heritage Alliance of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia presents an outdoor drama theater on June 11 at 6:30 p.m. outside the historic Old Jonesborough Cemetery and Carriage House Bed & Breakfast, located on E. Main Street in Jonesborough.

A fundraiser for the region-wide preservation organization, the event will consist of Washington County Commissioner Joe Grandys much talked about barbecue as the main course, complimented with southern sides and a savory dessert as guests are treated to a production created specifi-cally for the evening by local playwright Anne Mason. The production, With These Hands, will only be available for public audiences during the dinner fundraiser hosted by the Heritage Alliance.

Mason describes the three act production as a dramedy that takes a look into the lives of several Washington County residents that are bur-ied in some of the oldest cemeteries in the area. Stories will be por-trayed by local actors in period style clothing. The stories will in-clude tales of folks buried in Maple Lawn, Rocky Hill and College Hill Cemeteries.

The dinner party is a fundraising effort to benefit the preservation and heritage education work of the Heritage Alliance, a not-for-profit organization whose region-wide work includes the award winning Oak Hill School Heritage Education program, the Chester Inn State Historic Site and the Jonesborough Washington County History Museum and Archives.

Tickets are $85 per person. To purchase tickets, visit jonesboroughtn.org or call 423-753-1010.
Somewhere in the world someone will not be cold thanks to the diligent work of a few women in the quilt ministry at St. John Lutherans Church in Abingdon, Virginia.

They work in winter, dedicate and donate in spring.

Everyones invited to attend St. John Lutheran Church in Abingdon on June 5 for their annual quilt dedication. Helmed for nearly 20 years by the churchs quilt ministry, nearly 100 quilts made by the ministry will either be available for sale or auction.

They sell for $50, said Louise Sansing, a member of St. Johns quilt ministry. Theyre very nice and very colorful. Theyre all about 60 by 80. Theyre made for Lutheran World Relief.

Indeed, some of the quilts are sold. An undetermined amount will be donated to Lutheran World Relief. A handful will remain within church membership.

Our graduating high school seniors will receive a quilt, said Helen Findley, a member of the quilt ministry since its inception in 1999. They look forward to them. The ones who are picking them out now, I remember when they were born. We love them.

Loves the key.

Clutched tightly to each spool of thread sewn within each bolt or sliver of material employed, love drives St. Johns quilt ministry. Each Tuesday through the winter months, the women gather at the church to sew, fellowship  and eat a snack or two, too.

We get together on Tuesday at 9:30 and work until noon, Findley said. We have two tables set up.

They perform particular tasks within the quilt-making process in assembly line fashion. Several women come prepared with materials made at home.

I do the quilt tops. I try to do about two quilt tops in a week, Sansing, a retired schoolteacher from Connecticut, said. It takes two full days at home to do that. Some of them are made with a whole piece of fabric and some are not.

One woman cuts square-shaped pieces of fabric.

Two of us make most of the quilt tops, Sansing said.

Subsequent stages include tying the fabric, applying the batting and so forth.

Im usually the one who sews them, Findley said. Im the final process.

A batch of the quilts were folded, boxed and mailed to the Philippines earlier this year. They were sent to My Refuge House, which serves as a safe and therapeutic sanctuary for women and girls rescued from the worlds human trafficking trade.

We sent 15 quilts, Sansing said. They said they were joyous and happy, smiling. Were happy to do that. For those girls, it might be the first thing they have ever owned.

Bear in mind that the quilt ministry make quilts each year. While many route to Lutheran World Relief and some to such members of St. John as graduating high school seniors, others remain in the Tri-Cities.

We give some to the Red Cross, Findley said. This past year, we made some baby quilts for newborns at Johnston Memorial Hospital.

Each member of St. Johns quilt ministry earn something in return. They attain fellowship and warm feelings from having helped humanity amid their faith in action.

The Lutheran church believes that you are saved by faith and not by works, but works are fueled by faith, Sansing said. This is our little way of helping the world.

References to good works of faith emerge throughout holy scripture. For instance, in Matthew 5:16 comes: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Later in James 2:26 the Bible whittles the point to a point thats proven arguable within various Christian denominations: For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Indeed, scroll back to Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works lest any man should boast.

Apply the aforementioned to those within St. John Lutheran Churchs quilt ministry. That a glow of warmth enlivens their step and heart alike amid knowledge of deeds well done for fellow members of humanity would seem to earn Gods approval.

Consider this: the women of St. John Lutheran Churchs quilt ministry have to-date made more than 2,000 quilts. Theyre all over the world. They warm bodies of people that neither of the women will ever meet.

Millions of people need them, Sansing said.

Thus the women of the quilt ministry perform according to a Christian-based credo: Our hands, Gods work.

Were doing it because as Christians thats what we should be doing, Sansing said. Were just a group of women who came together, enjoy being together and make quilts as a ministry.
Proudly the young students strolled down the aisle of the auditorium, their steps accompanied by Edward Elgars familiar Pomp and Circumstance, sometimes popularly referred to as The Graduation March. Tassels swung from mortar board caps; gowns swished in time with their steps. Most of the graduates smiled. So did nearly all the family members and friends who watched. Some, recognizing a familiar face among the spectators, waved enthusiastically as they ascended the steps to the stage.

Prior to recognizing the young scholars and presenting them with their diplomas, the emcee asked them to lead the audience in the pledge to the flag and sing a few songs. Scripture verses and prayers were shared. Then some of the honorees developed stage fright and had to be coaxed by teachers into sticking around for the important climax.

Oh, I forgot to tell you this was a preschool graduation. Those were five-year-olds garbed in red caps and gowns to receive their diplomas. All of this took place in the sanctuary of Bristols Central Presbyterian Church, where Apple Academy prepares preschoolers to face the world ... beginning with kindergarten.

Of course one of the grads was one of our grands. Grayson Playl was the smartest, most handsome and best behaved of them all. If you dont believe me, just ask his other grandparents, and his little brother, Anderson, and his parents ... most of the time. Ill admit they were all adorable, and they did such a wonderful job, and they all had a good year; but Graysons supporters took a vote and  well, you know how that turned out.

Sammie and I were so blessed last week. Two days before Graysons graduation we got to have a cookout with the West Virginia grandkids. Then the day after the big commencement ceremony we drove to Wilmington, NC where we had the privilege of spoiling our youngest, two-and-a-half year old Katie Grace. What a blessing to be Nahnee and Papa to seven special little creatures of Gods creation. Seven children who can make a difference in their world, with Gods help.

As much as I would like to believe otherwise, I am aware of the startling truth that not one of my grandchildren is perfect. I also know they live in a quite imperfect world. For them, life will be a great challenge. By the time they graduate from high school, college, grad school, medical school, seminary or whatever, the world will be extremely different from anything any of us can imagine right now.

So how do we get through life? Whether a five-year-old or a grandparent, how do we face the changing, challenging circumstances of our world? If you will accept some unsolicited advice, let me direct your attention to a couple of scripture verses.

God offers this familiar promise in Jermiah 29:11, I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

And the Apostle Paul, in the third chapter of Ephesians, prays that believers will know the love of Christ. Paul then reminds us that God ... is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us ... (v. 20)

If we will keep these things in mind, God will see us through all kinds of circumstances.
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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On the face of it, Muhammad Ali was a black American of African origin from a remote land far away from India. But in his own way, his dogged spirit in fighting white domination by making a mark in a sport known for aggression symbolised a spirit that rubbed off on India  in its own special way.

There are photographs doing the rounds on social media of his meetings with the late Tamil Nadu chief minister M. G. Ramachandran (MGR) and Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. But the boxers significance runs deeper in Indias popular culture and politics because he was an inspiration to Indias Dalits  officially called Scheduled Castes  who identify with the African Americans of the US.

Read | Black and bold and beautiful: Muhammad Alis greatest fights outside the ring

While Mahatma Gandhi inspired US civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr, in a way the honour was returned to India from the US by a group that inspired the Dalits  the former untouchables whom Gandhi used to call Harijans, or children of God.

Read | The names Ali, he was the king, the greatest of them all

Muhammad Ali is in many ways considered an inspiration for the Black Panther Party, a radical group that believed in using smart, bold words to assert the black identity in America and combine it with self-defence tactics. Gun-toting Black Panther leaders who talked big gave confidence in the US to blacks a century after Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery because in day-to-day life, the blacks faced discrimination and fear, much like the Dalits who face discrimination and violence at the hands of some upper castes in India even today.

Read | Get used to me. Black, confident, cocky: Ali the boxer, showman, ambassador

Some radical Dalits formed the Dalit Panther socio-political movement along the lines of the Black Panther Party and pioneered Dalit Power as a radical idea in India. Dalits were inspired earlier by moderate reformist Bhim Rao Ambedkar, a key architect of the Indian Constitution, but the Dalit Panthers represented a radical, stylish, arty spirit that appealed to younger Dalits.

Read | Ali, the boxing legend who floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee

Dalit Panthers have inspired Tamil Nadus Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), literally, the Liberation Panthers Party. Led by Thol Thirumavalavan, the VCK was part of the defeated People Welfare Front (PWF) in the recent elections.

Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan has had his own outfit called Dalit Sena, at least one of whose leaders used to sport an Afro hairdo. In ideas, style and visuals, Muhammad Ali has crept into Indias fashion and politics. That is how pop icons influence politics.

Read | RIP Muhammad Ali: The Greatest films on the boxing legend
The promise of what she could have been, her struggle against all odds, her resolve to live life on her own terms  these brought a normally indifferent nation to its feet when Nirbhaya met a brutal end at the hands of a bunch of savages on a bus. Such was the anger and revulsion that the government of the day was forced to ensure that justice was done to her and the mood was `never again. But five years down the line, the viciousness with which young women are facing sexual violence does not seem to inculcate that same passion anymore as society seems unable or unwilling to muster the raw anger of those days when the Capital was brought to a standstill by protestors.

Only 40 % of the Rs 3,000 crore Nirbhaya fund has been used though god knows the number of rapes has been going up exponentially. The Jisha case in Kerala where an up and coming law student was raped and murdered did not raise too many ripples even in a state with claims to being the second-most literate in India. Clearly, respect for women and civility do not go hand-in-hand with education. Among those who knew the victim, the very few who spoke out were her male  please note not female  classmates.

Read | Where angels fear to tread: Tales of fear and friendship from a village in Delhis outskirts

The government of the day and the Opposition picked up the issue as a political weapon to beat each other with. To date, we dont know who perpetrated this barbaric crime. Similarly, a mentally challenged girl was raped in Delhi when she went to the only pump within a two-mile radius of her home to fetch water. A 15-year-old girl was raped and set on fire by her stalker in Delhi, in Mumbai a four-year-old baby was raped and killed and in Uttar Pradesh a six-year-old was raped and is battling for survival. In Delhi, an eight-year-old girls abduction and rape created a fear psychosis in the area.

When the current prime minister assumed office, he spoke of his connection with small details, small issues. One was that of toilets. In many cases today, women are assaulted for the lack of toilets, the assailants lying in wait near the secluded spots they are forced to use. In a heart-rending segment on television, I recently saw many families in a north Indian village talk of how they did not give their children food after sunset for fear that they may have to use the fields at night which makes them vulnerable to predators. Swachh Bharat may be happening, just not fast enough. The prime minister is right in that toilets will bring with them better hygiene. It will also bring safety to women.

Read | Visva Bharati student gets life term in 2014 minors rape case

The laws are all there and they are quite adequate but the devil as always lies in the detail. The filing of an FIR, the gathering of forensic evidence in time, these are all factors that militate against women trying to secure justice in cases of sexual violence. Late last year, we learnt again from the media that a little girl who had been raped was kept waiting in an all-women police station for a whole day before the law-enforcers deigned to attend to her mothers complaint.

One of the latest is a horrific rape in Kolkata where an earlier victim was dismissed as a woman of dubious reputation by no less than the ruling partys leaders. In the recent case, the victim after being raped in a moving car was dumped, bruised and bloodied, when she raised an alarm.

If the number of rapes recorded in 2011 was 24,206, it rose to 37,000 in 2014. There are many cases where fear or family honour ensures that the case never comes to light. It enrages me to see taxis in the Capital bearing the slogan `this taxi respects women. Where in any civilised country would a public transport vehicle have to proclaim that women are safe to travel in it?

Read | Three booked for raping 18-yr-old in Tarn Taran village

We keep talking about changes in mindset, well, if it did not happen after the Delhi gangrape, I would not hold my breath on it happening now. The only way women will be safer is if the law does not let up on offenders. For this, the political and civil establishment has to keep up a perennial clamour, just reacting after a crime wont do.

But sadly, the onus of keeping themselves out of harms way today is still on the woman. The government can help by ensuring that she does not come into the line of fire by having to fetch water from faraway, from having to use open toilets, and from not having her word questioned by the police. These are small details, something the prime minister might like to revisit at the beginning of his third year in power.

lalita.panicker@hindustantimes.com

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Her red carpet appearances have always been the talk of the town and actor Sonam Kapoor says that she makes it a point to not to wear anything too revealing. I am not very comfortable being over sexy on the red carpet. I dont want to have a wardrobe malfunction. I am a conservative dresser. Thats how I have always been, she says.

In fact she admits that Ram Madhvani, the director of her film Neerja, said that she wears her clothes like armour. I believe that, she says, adding, Every morning, I wake up and ask myself what I am thinking and thats what is projected with my clothes. Clothes are art. I remember Zoya Akhtar told me that you are like a walking-talking art machine. Thats the best compliment I have ever got. Art is supposed to make you feel and be expressive and I think I do that through clothes.

Read: Sonam Kapoor takes her mother to Israel

Although her appearances in this years Cannes Film festival have been appreciated, there have been some ensembles, earlier, which received mixed responses too. The actor says that none of this has bothered her. I really dont care. If I care of what people thought, I would not have been dressing the way I have been for the last 8-9 years in the industry. I wear whatever I want to wear. I have always dressed for myself and what makes me happy and makes me feel beautiful. I have confidence in what I wear. Frankly my dear, I dont give a damn, she says.

The actor attended the amfAR Gala this year and wants to bring a version of it to India too. It was incredible. It has been happening since so many years. Its great that we go there and people spend a lot of money for the auction. I hope we can do something like that for hunger and poverty in India too. I would like to do something like that here, she says.
From her first look in Udta Punjab, Alia Bhatt has amazed us in her never-seen-before Bihari avatar, but it was not a bed of roses for her to portray the role of Pinky.

In a recent interview, the 23-year-old actor said that being a girl, who has grown up watching Govinda films, Mowgli, Lion King and other English movies, it was the biggest challenge ever, to play that character, reports the Dawn.

Read: Sidharth is so gorgeous, I can get lost in his eyes, says Alia Bhatt

Read: Sidharth Malhotra treated me like a kid, I didnt like that: Alia Bhatt

The Highway actor had absolutely no reference point to the character she portrayed. It took lots of discussions with Abhishek (Chaubey, director). He gave me the perspective I didnt have. Then, I made it my own, she said.

I could never react naturally, the way Pinky (her character) does, added Alia.

Further, speaking about Gauri Shindes yet-to-be titled next, the Kapoor and Sons actor said that working with Shah Rukh Khan was a big deal..

Watch: Alia Bhatt in Udta Punjab trailer

Alia added that she is dying for people to see a glimpse of it and that girls will relate to this film.

Follow @htshowbiz for more.
Catfights between female actors in Bollywood have always generated a lot of buzz. However, on the contrary, actor Lisa Haydon says it is in fact great to work with them.

Its so much nicer when girls get along in a movie. Just because there is another female actor in the film does not mean that you have to give hard time to each other. I know, from experience, that its rather great, says Haydon who is seen in Housefull 3 sharing screen space with female actors Jacqueline Fernandez and Nargis Fakhri.

Nargis, Jacqueline and I share the same sentiment when it comes to female camaraderie on sets. Everyone has faced such questions in the past, and we know it for sure that we dont believe in bringing any kind of negativity on the sets, adds Haydon, who has worked in multi-starrers such as Aisha(2010)and Queen(2014).

Read: When Lisa Haydon, Jacqueline Fernandez turned into Tom and Jerry

Haydon and Fernandez play sisters in the recent film, and it was important for the actors to spend time with each other. We played sisters and it was important to have an unspoken chemistry with each other. We watched a lot of movies together. We watched The Walk together. We went for dinner and had a great time, she adds.

Read: Housefull 3 review | Akshay Kumar is the one driving it

Actor Jacqueline Fernandez feels it is important for every actor to encourage her/his co-stars to do better in the film. (AP)

Fernandez, who agrees to Haydons point of view, says, The best thing you can do in the film is to help your

co-stars, irrespective of them being male or female. The more you can push and support them, the better it is for you as an actor and for the film.

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The state support for private sector health care, in the context of economic liberalisation has spawned Indias integration into the global medical tourism industry. This has been policy-led since the last ten years. A subset of this industry is the ART industry, estimated to be worth three billion in the US alone. The Internet is awash with advertisements, enticing couples to come to India for infertility treatment and indeed for surrogacy, with a holiday to the Taj or to Goa thrown in for further allure. Indeed a consortium, INSTAR (Indian Society of Third Party Assisted Reproduction), planned to announce its triumphant arrival with a Surrogacy Walk in the capital, New Delhi, on 20 April 2014. More than 500 surrogate mothers, third party administrators, lawyers, doctors and grateful parents were expected to participate. Companies offering surrogacy are listed on the stock market.

Within four years of the birth of the worlds first test tube baby in 1978, the Government of India sponsored work on IVF at the Institute for Research in Reproduction in Mumbai. The ostensible justification was a desire to strengthen the success of the population control programme: since child survival could not be guaranteed in India, the possibility of creating embryos in the laboratory and then freezing them might motivate couples to accept sterilization despite their reluctance because of the fear of childs death after sterilization. The IVF initiative was soon taken over by the booming private health sector, especially the corporate sector with was beginning to emerge with state assistance. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India had an estimated 250 IVF clinics by 2005 (one of the highest tallies of any country, if not the highest). The Indian Society for Assisted Reproduction now has a membership of more than 600. IVF clinics are now moving in to smaller cities and towns to create and exploit the market in these areas. A senior official at the ICMR has estimated that the revenue generated by IVF and related technologies has leapt five-fold from INR 25,000 crore in 2002 to INR 125,000 crore in 2012. The number of clinics offering IVF also multiplied five times over the same period.

Read: The issues around surrogacy

India has now emerged as a prime destination for people outside the country who wish to buy some form of assisted reproduction, either for themselves or for a surrogate. Indeed India is now described as the surrogacy capital of the world, its business worth 445 million dollars. The cost of hiring a surrogate in India ranges from U$6,000 to US$8,000 as against ten times of that, US$80,000, in the USA. The cost of IVF itself in India is about US$500 for each cycle (although there are wide variations), compared to US$5,000 in the USA. Moreover, the ART industry provides a regular supply of leftover ova to the stem cell therapy industry, which is also unregulated in India. This research has corporate and international approval. India has announced a PPP with three European pharmaceutical companies and the British government to carry out stem cell research.

Read: India scales back rent-a-womb services

The growth of reproductive tourism to India is justified by its proponents  the government, the assisted reproduction industry , and the middle-men it employs  as a win-win situation: women from abroad, desperate to bear or raise babies with a genetic connection to themselves or their partners, can do so while Indian women earn money as surrogates. But given the highly unregulated nature of medical care in the country, many unethical practices are involved, and ICMR Guidelines governing ARTS are being implemented more in the breach than otherwise. Studies have pointed to the vulnerabilities of the Indian women, driven as they are by quotidian economic concerns to offer their bodies, their fertility, and even their offspring up for exploitation, in a process of servitude if not slavery. Surrogacy is now an international industry, involving a network of actors and agencies, from the global to the local. Many middle-men or third party administrators have emerged to facilitate the process, many of whom have set up NGOs working in rural areas and urban slums to recruit poor women for surrogacy. The government hesitantly stepped in with legislation to regulate this booming market, but the ART (Regulation) Bill 2010, drafted at the behest of the very industry it seeks to regulate, is meant not so much to offer protection to the women surrogates as to create an aura of responsibility and respectability around the industry. By the same logic, the government could regulate rather than ban sale of body parts and organs, but opted for prohibition in this case. One justification for reproductive tourism is reproductive choice it offers the surrogates, a framework that pays no attention to reproductive or economic justice.

Read: Trying to tame the Wild West of surrogacy in India

As India integrates further into the global neo-liberal economy it strives to assert itself on the global stage and boasts of an impressive economic growth rate and its ability to withstand global economic meltdown. One way it does so appears to be reproductive tourism and the foreign exchange it generates. The fertility of many Indian women has become a global commodity, as long as the babies to whom they give birth to are those of and for wealthier and/or whiter people -- eugenic, racial, caste, and economic logics still operate.

Women, hitherto considered surplus or waste, whose numbers needed to be controlled, are now to be encouraged to have children, albeit for the global reproductive tourist, converting waste into gold. As the French have it, plus ca change, plus cest la meme chose. India rushes into globalization, by offering sexual and reproductive slavery as globalized commodities.

PUBLIC HEALTH AND PRIVATE WEALTH; STEM CELLS, SURROGATES, AND OTHER STRATEGIC BODIES

Edited by Sarah Hodges, Mohan Rao;

Oxford University Press

PP300, Rs 850
Men are becoming more conscious of what they wear, how a garment fits them, and how the right clothing can add to their personality. Theyre making their way to designer boutiques and big brands to shop.

But do they always come out satisfied? The answer is largely: no. Especially when it comes to the fit. Most ready-to-wear clothing available locally, even from well-regarded, expensive brands, is not made for the Indian body type. You are more likely to find US or UK sizes than items that fit Indians. Most stores provide basic alterations to their offerings, which doesnt help much if youre on the wrong side of Medium. And if youre looking for jeans that doesnt droop down the back or a shirt that doesnt stretch across the front, shopping even in a swanky luxury mall can be hard.

This is possibly the biggest loophole in the menswear segment in India today, one that luxury brands, such as Zegna, Armani, Canali and Corneliani are exploiting to offer made-to-measure services. But their prices are unreasonably high.

In the last few years, local brands and designers have begun offering bespoke clothing, in which a garment is made from scratch, based on your measurements and to the fit you desire. Some of these brands are going a step further and systematising the traditional but disorganised sector of tailoring. Their machinery is imported, their karigars specially trained and their clientele not necessarily the richest, but definitely the discerning.

So if youre a man with refined sartorial tastes, sift through our pick of some of the finest brands. And happy shopping!

Best For Jackets: Eudaemon

A Eudaemon jacket is made in the best factories in Italy

A personalised menswear brand thats only six months old, Eudaemon has tie-ups with the three top factories in Italy that manufacture garments for Louis Vuitton and Dior. And their jackets are available at a much lower price. How? Because they dont spend on rents for a luxury store or inventory.

When contacted, theyll come to your homes or offices with lookbooks designed for you. Select one, get your measurements taken, and your order will be sent to Italy. Ours is a made-to-measure service, which is a fast track version of bespoke, says Manik Handa, the CEO.

In bespoke, you take body measurements and then cut a whole pattern to make the garment. Its a longer process and takes two-to-three fittings. We, on the other hand, have a master garment. We take a customers measurements on that garment. Its more accurate. When you take body measurements, you dont know if the customer would like to wear his jacket tight or loose. When we do it on a master garment, the customer can tell us exactly where he wants the changes made. Then it needs just one fitting. Its much faster.

It all costs: A pretty reasonable price than what a suit at Armani or Zegna or Tom Ford will cost, says Handa.

Available in: Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Surat, Ahmedabad and pretty much everywhere that High Net Worth Individuals live.

Best For Shirts: Camessi

A bespoke shirt from Camessi is adorned with mother of pearl buttons

Wear your watch on your right arm? That means the cuff on your right sleeve needs to be an inch looser than the one on your left. Thats the level of precision that Udaipur-based brand Camessi brings to your shirts. A family-run label that was launched in 2010, it now has a customer base of more than 1,200 men.

Choose from 1,500 varieties of the finest quality fabric from Switzerland and Italy, mother-of-pearl buttons and seams that are single-needle stitched. Their stripes and checks perfectly align at the edges, even when the shirt is turned inside out! Thats a Camessi shirt for you.

We aim for zero defects, says Rahul Shroff, the director. The industry standard for quality control is that three in 100 shirts are checked. We check every single one. And that too in more than 87 places on each garment.

Apart from quality that can rival a Zegna, theirs is an old-school bespoke sales model. A consultant is sent to your home or office for measurements. But first, we try to understand your lifestyle so we know what exactly you want the shirt for  whether to wear at night, or under a suit, or to work. This is important when we cut the pattern, says Shroff.

Once measurements are taken, the possibility of customisation is immense. You can choose the cuff, the collar, the button down to even the buttonholes. We also have the option of hand-embroidered monogramming. And when it comes to fittings, youre encouraged to have as many as required until you are satisfied.

It all costs: Rs 13,500 to Rs 75,000 for a bespoke shirt.

Available in: Delhi and Bombay, but they do trunk shows in other cities as well.

Best For Jeans: Korra

You can get a pair of jeans made from Korra for in-between odd sizes

A Delhi-based denim brand that focuses on sustainability of resources, inclusivity of the people involved in the manufacturing process and the concept of custom-fitting the product to your customers preferences. Korras neutral palette of denims lends itself to a multitude of occasions, making everyday clothing special, and completely your own.

We have different fit and fabric combinations online, so you know how a certain fabric will look in a certain fit, says Shyam Sukhramani, the founder. Once youve made that selection, place an order online or call us home. Well bring our fit and samples to your doorsteps for you to try.

The best thing about Korra: they do in-between odd sizes that arent available in stores. We also do outlier sizes for folks whore tall and large or those whore small and lean, he says.

It all costs: Regular tweaks and alterations are included in the listed price: Rs 2,900 to Rs 4,900. But if you want a fit thats not available or if youd like more room around the thighs or a narrower bottom, then shell out an extra Rs 2,900.

Available in: Delhi NCR for their custom-fit services. But they also ship to 23 countries the world over.

Best For Accessories: Bo Square

Bo Square accessories are really funky

A Mumbai-based brand that started off by counselling people on how to experiment with colour and pattern, Bo Square ventured into bespoke mens clothing and accessories a year ago. Their accessories are funky, but possess a charm that goes beyond fit and size. Theyll even customise your bow ties and pocket squares to match your shirt!

One can be different and out of the box only when theres room for change, says Nitin Singh, the founder. Not everything you want and the way you want it is available off the shelf. But it can be achieved by bespoke. And so they provide it all  colour blending, digital prints and fabric blending on lapel pins, cufflinks, bows, ties and more.

It all costs: Bows and ties are available for Rs 2,000, lapels and cufflinks are for Rs 2,500 and pocket squares are Rs 1,200.

Available: Online.

Best For Shoes: Achilles Heel

Achilles Heel offers custom-crafted shoes at affordable prices

Work, a red-carpet event, a business trip abroad or a casual outing, Mumbai-based Achilles Heel offers shoes that go beyond classic black oxfords and brown derbys. They have a ready-to-wear range of brogues, loafers, slip-ons and more. Plus, custom-craft pairs that are more accurate in size, shape, style and form than most luxurious brands could offer.

Ours is an aspirational luxury brand that bridges the gap between price and perception, says Nirali Ruparel, founder and CEO. Until recently, tailormade was only synonymous with absolute luxury and the ultra-rich. Now, brands like ours are providing the same luxury services and quality at a better price. Why do you think luxury brands have started terming aspirational luxury brands as fuxury (faux luxury)?

It all costs: Custom crafting service starts from Rs15,000 onwards.

Available: At their studio in Mumbai or online.

satarupa.paul@hindustantimes.com

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From HT Brunch, June 5, 2016

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Navneet Kalra, the entrepreneur (Dayal Opticals and many other enterprises) who is one of the partners in Town Hall in Khan Market, was telling me the saga of his super-successful restaurant.

Kalra had the location in the inner part of Khan Market, spread over two floors, but was not sure what to do with it. Then, after various restaurant chains offered him vast sums in rent for the space, he decided to run it himself. He enlisted other partners, among them, the owners of Amour Bistro, and Augusto Cabrera, who had been the sushi chef at Threesixty at the Delhi Oberoi for a decade.

Augusto is the man who introduced a whole generation of Dilliwallas to sushi when Threesixty first opened, so

Kalra was sure that the quality of the sushi-sashimi would be excellent. But would that be enough for the restaurant to succeed?

The partners were not sure, so they opted for a multi-cuisine menu (Chinese, Italian and God alone knows what else) to cover their bets.

They neednt have worried. Right from the day Town Hall first opened, it has been jam-packed. And while some people do order the other stuff, the restaurants selling point has been sushi. So great is the demand that not only will you find some of Delhis most high-profile folks eating there, many people send their drivers for takeout sushi.

At Megu, good quality comes at eye-wateringly high prices, but more affordable places are starting to thrive

Kalra still cant believe it. Sushi has become the new butter chicken for Delhiites, he says. You have to serve it. And everybody wants more and more. I would never have imagined it.

He is right, of course. The hottest food in Delhi these days is sushi. Gone is the era when you had to pay eye-wateringly high prices at Wasabi and Megu to eat sushi. Its the standalones that are thriving because they offer sushi at relatively affordable rates.

Augustos food is, I reckon, roughly in the same league as Wasabi and yet it is one-third the price. Whats more, he uses the same suppliers so you get the same quality of fish  from hamachi to unagi to chutoro  at rates that are lower.

Nor is Augusto the only person to serve high-quality sushi at affordable rates. At the Ambience Mall in Vasant Kunj, chef Saito, who used to be at Megu, now serves sushi at a counter outside the PVR Directors Cut cinema (the sushi bar is one of PVR owner Ajay Bijlis ventures) at prices that wouldnt buy you much more than a bowl of edamame at Megu.

All of us who have been writing about the Indian food scene for over a decade are gobsmacked by sushis triumphant progress through the metropolitan restaurant scene. Whenever F&B professionals would gather in the old days to discuss the possibility of opening Japanese restaurants in India, the consensus would be uniformly negative.

Japanese food is too bland, they would say. The flavours are too delicate for Indian palates. Besides, Indians are revolted by the thought of eating raw fish. How could you even imagine that they would eat sushi?

The sushi that most Indians like is not the nigiri with its raw fish but the roll. And that can be masaledar, crunchy and even vegetarian (Shutterstock)

Some enterprising hoteliers reckoned that while trad-Jap would not work in India, Nobu-style modern Japanese might succeed. The Taj negotiated with Nobu but the negotiations went nowhere because Nobu wanted a large restaurant and the Taj would only risk a small (under 50 covers) restaurant. Eventually, the Taj found Masaharu Morimoto who was the first executive chef of the New York Nobu and opened Wasabi (in Bombay, first, and then Delhi later), which based its menu on Nobus greatest hits. The Nairs of the Leela Group managed to land Nobu, who agreed to open in their hotels. Then, he backed out without warning and the Leela went with Megu instead.

But the Wasabi-Megu kind of place was meant for high-rollers or people on expense accounts. What we are seeing now, however, is the democratisation of sushi. The standalones do not necessarily appeal to high rollers. They offer the sushi experience to nearly everyone who wants it.

This raises two questions. One: why is sushi so expensive at some places and so reasonably priced at many standalones?

Read: Japanese cuisine is complex, and takes years to understand

It is a hard question to answer because much of the same thing is true of Tokyo or even New York. You can go to somewhere like Masa in New York and spend $750 per head for a sushi-sashimi meal. Or you can eat sushi for under $10 at a cheap sushi bar.

One answer has to do with quality. The top places in Tokyo or New York will use better quality fish. But what really makes the difference is the quality of the chef. The great Japanese sushi masters have now become cult heroes thanks to films like Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

Delhi sushi chefs like Saito will not compromise on the quality of the fish at their restaurants

You and I may wonder what it is that makes them so special. After all a piece of toro sashimi is a piece of tuna belly no matter who cuts it. But in Japanese cuisine, the way the chef selects the fish and cuts it is crucial. Aspirants spend decades trying to get it right.

A difference that you and I can easily tell, however, is the quality of the rice. For the Japanese, sashimi is about raw fish; sushi is about the rice. A Japanese person will judge the sushi on the quality of the rice pellet.

For sushi to be any good, the rice must never be cold, as if it has just come out of the fridge. Nor should it be tightly packed together. It should be room temperature, and the pellet should have a loose feel about it  the trick is in getting the rice to hold together without compressing it too much.

The cheaper sushi places, wherever in the world they may be, pay little attention to the rice. They know that non-Japanese guests dont really care about the quality of the rice pellet, so they hire cheap line cooks to make the sushi. And even in Japan, the cheaper places have been known to use machines to make the rice pellets.

So thats one key reason why sushi can vary so much in price. The fish matters too. The likes of Saito and Augusto will not compromise on the quality of the fish. But the chefs at many standalones do use much cheaper fish.

As for the Why do Indians love sushi?, question, I have no real answer, just tentative guesses.

First of all, it is important to remember that what the Japanese regard as sushi and what the rest of the world calls sushi are two different things. The Japanese do have maki rolls (those round rice things wrapped in sea weed with the fish on the inside) but serious sushi is always nigiri  a pellet of rice with a chunk of raw fish on top of it.

The sushi prices at the counter outside the PVR Directors Cut cinema, in Ambience Mall, wouldnt buy you much more than a bowl of edmame at Megu

The Americans turned the maki roll into the dish it is today, blowing up its size (the California roll), adding new ingredients (avocado to mimic the fatty taste of toro, for instance) and popularising the idea that sushi isnt really about raw fish  you can put what you like inside the roll from vaguely Japanese ingredients (prawn tempura) to dishes that have nothing to do with Japanese cuisine (spicy chicken!).

The sushi that most Indians like is not the nigiri with its raw fish but the roll. And that can be masaledar, crunchy and even vegetarian. It is not sushi in the sense that the Japanese know it. But it is close enough to Japanese food in shape and idea to pass off as the real thing.

Read: How the worlds great restaurants go about their business

So why did we get it so wrong when we said Indians would never take to Japanese food? Well, perhaps we didnt get it wrong after all.

What Indians love is not particularly Japanese at all. It is a rice roll, yes, but that is all that is Japanese about it. The flavours and ingredients have nothing to do with Japan.

Because the Indian F&B industry did not have the imagination to realise that the boom would be in sushi rolls, nobody worked out that a) this kind of sushi did not necessarily involve raw fish, b) that it could be produced cheaply with inexpensive ingredients and c) there would be no need for trained sushi masters who could make the nigiri rice pellet. Any child can make a maki roll; it requires virtually no skill.

So sushi is the favourite food of a new metropolitan generation. But its not necessarily sushi as the Japanese know it. As Kalra says, it is this generations butter chicken.

From HT Brunch, June 5, 2016

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NEW DELHI: In a recent, closed-door meeting with captains of microfinance institutions (MFIs) operating in India, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi spoke in favour of a second term for Reserve Bank India governor Raghuram Rajan.

I think he is doing a great job, Gandhi told MFI representatives. He also said that there is a controversy over his tenure and that should not have been taking place, sources present in the meeting told HT.

Gandhis praise for Rajan comes days after BJP leader Subramanian Swamy wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking the RBI governors ouster.

Besides meeting the representatives of microfinance institutes on Tuesday, the Congress vice-president also met global investors on Friday.

According to sources, Morgan Stanley, Capital Group, Fidelity and some Hong Kong-based investors came to meet Gandhi, where the discussions also veered on the economic situation in India.

In the meeting, Gandhi even asked the visitors about what they think about Indias gross domestic product (GDP) figures.

The Congress had raised doubts over the new GDP estimates of the NDA government, and accused the government of fudging figures. Gandhi told the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) that the party has supported the bankruptcy bill because of the suggestions and recommendations of the FIIs during his previous interactions with them.

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Is there something London can boast of thats arguably better than anywhere else in the world? Pertie was clearly taunting me. The word boast was a dead giveaway. But if he intended his question as a challenge he was mistaken. It was, in fact, a cinch.

Not only did I have the answer at my fingertips, I was able to assert it with force and confidence. The theatre in London  in fact, both in the West End as well as the London fringe  is undoubtedly the best in the world. Broadway is a pale imitation with an unfortunate accent to boot. Proof of this is that when Hollywood stars wish to show they can also act its a London play they invariably choose.

From Kevin Spacey to Elizabeth Taylor, from Lauren Bacall to Christopher Reeve, from Dustin Hoffman to Nicole Kidman theyve all crossed the pond to appear on the London stage. Los Angeles may be where they make their name and wealth but London is where they come to prove they can actually act. Im tempted to add QED!

Read | Prince Charles plays Hamlet for Shakespeares 400th anniversary

That, in fact, brings me to the point I want to make today. Acting on stage is very different to acting on screen. And its really when you have seen and admired an actor at the theatre that you can accept he or she has true talent. His or her performance on screen is not just assisted and enhanced by special effects and possibly innumerable re-takes, it can also often be deceptive and misleading.

To carry a two- or three-hour play, live in front of an audience reacting in real time  who can be merciless in their judgement and even boo if they dont like you  without special effects and graphics, without re-takes and clever editing and without the drama of computerised sound and lights requires not just confidence but remarkable talent. Tom Cruise and George Clooney couldnt do it. Nor  and Im pretty sure of this  could Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir.

Read | When a Brit says Im sure its my fault he is implying its yours

Hollywood and Bollywood produce stars. The theatre creates actors. And I have no doubt which is the greater and more admirable entity. Sadly, stars are better paid and better known. Actors, however, are the real McCoy.

I can only think of two directors whove produced great plays in Delhi though Bombay, Im told, has a creditable tradition of Marathi and Gujarati theatre. Alas, its decades since the last Ibrahim Elkazi production and many years since the last Feroz Abbas Khan play. But if you were lucky enough to see Tumhari Amrita, Inspector Ramlal, Saalgira or Gandhi vs. Gandhi I have no doubt youll remember them as vividly as I do.

Read | Summer Theatre Festival: Drama that simmers beyond stage

Read | Prithvi Theatre: Let us help you discover this Mumbai wonder

Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi, Nadira Babbar, Naseeruddin Shah and Farooq Shaikh on stage is a thrilling experience. Not for a moment would you realise the greatness of their talent if youve only seen them on screen.

Read | I wanted to sing, beat up bad guys but was terrible at it: Naseeruddin Shah

So the next time you visit London make a point of seeing a play. Actually, two or even three. It wont be inexpensive but its money well spent and youll remember it for years to come.

I always do. Last month I saw People, Places and Things at the Wyndhams. Denise Gough, the lead actress, put on a spell-binding performance that more than made up for the inadequacies of the play. It left her visibly drained. But it was exhilarating for the audience. We gave her a standing ovation although, paradoxically, Denise could barely stand by then!

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NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Friday blew the lid off a kidney trade racket at the prestigious Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, arresting two of its secretarial staff and three touts.

Aditya Singh, 24, and Shailesh Saxena, 31, are aides to a senior nephrologist, police said. Aseem Sikdar, Satya Prakash and Devashish Moulik, all in their 30s, lured needy people with money in exchange for their kidneys. A donor was paid Rs 5 lakh while the accused charged the recipient Rs 25-30 lakh. The police have detected five cases so far.

Sources who did not want to be named said hospital staff were aware of the illegal trade and did not rule out the involvement of senior doctors.

The touts would get donors from West Bengal, Kanpur, Delhi and Chennai and put them up in hotels here. They got each donor tested to check if he was a match for the recipient. After that, they forged documents to establish the donor was a relative of the recipient, said DCP (southeast) MS Randhawa.

Under the transplantation of human organs Act, only a relative can donate a kidney. If a match within the family isnt found, a non-relative can be a donor provided it is proven the deal is not commercial and is on compassionate grounds. All hospitals have a system of checks to ensure the donor and recipient are related or that no sale is involved.

In a statement, Apollo said the arrested staff members were secretarial staff of some doctors and not employees of the hospital.

While all precautions were taken, it appears fake and forged documents were used for this racket with criminal intent. The hospital has been a victim of a well-orchestrated operation to cheat patients, it said.

DCP Randhawa said a trap was set after the police received information that the gang would be coming to Apollo on Thursday (June 2) for a meeting between a donor and the relatives of a patient. We formed two teams and conducted a raid, arresting the three gang members on the spot. A case under the human organ Act has been registered against them, he said. Fake voter ID cards and Aadhaar papers along with photographs were recovered from their possession. The police also seized original and electronic files, CDs and documents from the hospital.

Detailed documentation and verification must be done before each transplant. Willingness of the donor, relationship with the recipient, proof of address and marriage, clearance by the hospitals internal authorisation committee is required. The whole procedure must be videographed, said Randhawa.

But in this case, hospital authorities failed to verify these documents, which were fraudulently made. The men affixed photographs of donors in the forms but filled in the details of the recipients relatives.

Insisting it has always ensured all due process as per law is followed, Apollo said, The hospital has an independent body with external members also for according consent for any transplant surgery. This committee goes through all documents necessary to ensure requirements under the Act are complied with.

It said it was cooperating with the investigation and providing the police with required information.

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PATNA: Bihars class 12 topper in arts, Rubi Rai, who said political science is all about cooking, will face stern action for failing to appear for the retest on Friday, exam boards head Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh said.

We are bound to take action, if possible, as per provisions to cancel her result, Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) chairman Singh said, adding, Our efforts in conducting the exam were appreciated. If there is any lapse, we will like to make amends. Board secretary Hariharnath Jha said that Rais father had sent an application stating that due to constant media glare, his daughter is depressed and not keeping well.

However, 13 other toppers appeared, with some exuding confidence after the test, necessitated by a controversy over the credentials of toppers after two of them  Saurav Shresth and Rai  struggled to answer even the basic questions.

The board has already withheld Rai and Shresths results. Among the 13 who turned up, there were eight among the top five from science stream, besides Shivani Singh, who finished seventh. She was called because she was also a student from the VR College where Shresth studied. There were five students from arts stream.

I am confident because whatever marks I have got is because of my hard work. My test also went well, said Taiyaba Parveen from Simir Bakhtiarpur school in Saharsa district.

A parent, however, didnt approve of the boards decision to take a retest. Why should the students suffer for the boards incompetence? he said.

A board official added, The handwriting will give an idea if the content in the answer books has been written by the candidates themselves. If the handwritings dont match, that would be enough to not only cancel the result, but also lodge an FIR.

In another case, if the handwritings match with the answer books but the candidates dont demonstrate that kind of knowledge, that would mean the copies were written elsewhere and point to a deeper racket, he added.

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NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday claimed the Delhi government removed employees posted with leader of opposition Vijender Gupta.

Gupta alleged that eight persons working in his office as peon, driver and office boy were transferred on Thursday. Senior BJP leaders have decided to protest at Rajghat on Saturday morning.

How can you remove all my staff in one go? I cant go to office and do any work as I dont have any supporting staff. They are targeting me because I exposed the scam in the bus aggregator scheme, said Gupta.

A Delhi government spokesperson refuted the charges. Eight co-terminus staff is provided to him. It is a matter of shame routine transfer/posting is being politicised. You are elected as public servant to serve the public, not to enjoy perks, said the spokesperson.

Soon after coming to power, the Kejriwal government had clearly indicated that opposition and dissent are not acceptable. It tried its best not to give recognition to the Leader of Opposition on the basis of its strength in the House but finally had to do so under pressure from the people. Guptaji and other MLAs exposed the double standard of the government in the case of guest teachers and after that complained to the ACB about corruption in the premium bus service, said Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay.

The BJP alleged that in the morning Guptas official car driver was asked by the office of the CMs secretary to bring back the car. I had gone to Narela where the driver suddenly told him that he has been ordered to go to the secretariat, leaving me there. I have filed a complaint with Delhi Police, said Gupta.

The AAP spokesperson termed these allegations as baseless.

Gupta should not make these allegations. He got the status of leader of opposition because of the Delhi government. The BJP didnt even have the numbers to form an opposition. It is strange he is guessing there is corruption in some government work that has not even happened yet. ACB acts only on the complaints of BJP leaders, said AAPs Delhi unit head, Dilip Pandey.

BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar said the government was trying to prove that the posting of employees was a regular transfer and the car was withdrawn to replace it. But he said the BJP wanted to ask Kejriwal how these regular transfers happened suddenly after the investigation order into the premium bus service.
A 25-year-old man bludgeoned his wife to death by smashing her head against the wall and had sex with the corpse before falling asleep beside it, the Delhi Police said Saturday.

Pradeep Sharma, an e-rickshaw driver, was arrested on Friday and confessed to killing his wife Monica in a fit of rage and under the influence of alcohol at their home in west Delhis Nihal Vihar on May 30, police said. The couple fought frequently over money and Sharma also suspected Monica of being unfaithful.

They argued on the night of May 30 over getting an eviction notice for being late on their rent payment. A police source said a heavily-drunk Sharma smashed Monicas face with a brick and slammed her head against the wall repeatedly till she passed out. After she died, he wiped her bloodied face clean with a wet cloth and had sex with the body before crashing out.

When he woke up the next morning, he realised he had killed his wife, the source said.

DCP (west) Pushpendra Kumar said, He took away her mobile phone and other articles which could help identify them. He even informed his father he had killed his wife and then switched off his phone.

The police were informed of the murder by the landlord. Teams were formed and raids conducted in Pradeeps village in Bulandshar, Uttar Pradesh, but he could not be traced.

We then received information that Pradeep was hiding near Nangloi railway station and planned to take a train to UP. Teams were deployed at Nangloi, Shakur Basti, Old and New Delhi railway stations for two days round-the-clock till he was arrested, DCP Kumar said.

During questioning, Sharma told the police the fighting started within three months of marriage as he made little money and the couple, struggling to make rent, had to frequently move houses.

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NEW DELHI: The Delhi government will seek public opinion on the implementation of the app-based premium bus service scheme.

PWD minister Satyender Jain said the government would issue an email-id in the next three to four days on which people can give their suggestions on the service.

Last week, the lieutenant governor, Najeeb Jung red-flagged the scheme. Jain said the implementation of the scheme had been put on hold for now.

Government has decided to seek public opinion on the app-based scheme as asked by the L-G. For this, we will issue the email-id on Monday or Tuesday, the minister said.

Saying this scheme cannot be implemented in Delhi because there is no such scheme in any state of the country is no excuse. There are a lot of things the Delhi government is doing for the first time, including mohalla clinics and others, he said.

The government is expected to send the suggestions to the Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung after receiving the feedback.

The premium bus service was scheduled to be launched on June 1 with the registration of buses under the scheme.

The scheme will allow people to book their seats through mobile phone applications in the National Capital. Only air-conditioned buses are to ply in the region under the scheme.
NEW DELHI: The kidney racket unearthed by Delhi Police is not limited to the Capital but has its roots in other Indian cities and even Sri Lanka and Nepal, senior officials said.

The kingpin, identified as T Rajkumar Rao, 39, continues to evade arrest even after he allegedly masterminded two similar rackets in Jalandhar and Coimbatore between 2013 and 2015.

Investigators said Rao had even travelled to Sri Lanka and Nepal to find donors for his clients in India. Organ donors in these countries are charged less compared to those in India.

A team has been sent to Kolkata to find Rao, who belongs to Andhra Pradesh but shifted to the West Bengal capital two decades ago. His father was a banker in Kolkata.

Rao was introduced to the organ racket by a woman named Shama and her aide Deepaankar in Kolkata eight to nine years ago. Police are also looking for them.

Raos name surfaced in the latest racket during the interrogation of his three accomplices  Aseem Sikdar, Devashish Moulik and Satya Prakash. The three said Rao had been managing everything  from identifying donors to contacting his alleged aides in Apollo Hospital  from Kolkata.

Sikdar, Maulik and Ashu used to get between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh for each successful transplant.

Sikdar said he came in contact with Rao in Kolkata. Rao offered him a handsome amount for donating his kidney. Sikdar was sent to a hospital in Coimbatore where his kidney was donated to Raos client. Similarly, Mauli had donated his wifes kidney to a patient at Apollo Hospital while Ashus kidneys transplant was done at a hospital in Jalandhar, the officer said.

Initially, Rao and Sikdar operated the racket at Coimbatores medical college and hospital. But after it was blacklisted, the two shifted to Kolkata and remained underground for some months.

Later, Rao sent Sikdar to manage their racket in Jalandhar and Delhi while he was supervising it from Kolkata, said the officer, adding they had come across 10 kidney transplant cases in Delhi.

At least seven of them have been verified so far, the officer added.
NEW DELHI: The violence in Mathura triggered a political war on Friday and exposed once again the Samajwadi Party governments biggest weakness ahead of assembly polls early next year  Uttar Pradeshs dismal law-and-order situation.

Opposition parties clamoured to attack the Akhilesh Yadav government with the BJP alleging the squatters in Mathuras Jawahar Bagh, who allegedly shot dead two police officers, had the protection of the ruling party. It demanded a judicial inquiry with minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju blaming the state government. Definitely there was a lapse. It was a big incident and there was setback, he said. The home ministry has sought a detailed report from the state government on the incident, he added.

Expressing deepest condolences to the kin of those killed, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said, Unabated violence is a stark reminder of the deteriorating law and order situation in UP. Hope the government ensures peace in Mathura is restored immediately and the guilty are punished.

But the SP cautioned against playing politics with the issue.

BSP supremo Mayawati demanded the resignation of the SP government and demanded a judicial inquiry, holding the state administration responsible for the unfortunate and painful incident.

After the Mathura incident, everybody in UP is talking about Behenjis shahshan (Mayawatis rule). When she was at the helm, all these criminals who enjoy political patronage had gone into hiding, a senior BSP leader told HT on phone from Lucknow.

T he clashes erupted in the heart of Mathura late Thursday when a police team reached Jawahar Bagh to remove squatters from the Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah following a court order.

But the 3,000-odd encroachers allegedly opened fire on the police, sparking off violence in which 24 people were killed and over 100 injured.

The incident came on top of a string of low-intensity riots across the state and the mob lynching of Mohammad Ikhlaq last year over rumours that he had slaughtered a calf  events that have given opposition parties ammunition to attack the SP government as being lax on law and order.

The sharpest attack came from the BJP that is hoping to replicate its bumper Lok Sabha electoral success  it won 71 of the states 80 seats  in the assembly polls.

T he main conspirator has full protection of the Samajwadi Party. Policemen were sent with their hands tied and this is why two of them died, said national secretary Shrikant Sharma in Mathura.

He was referring to alleged links between the squatting cults chief Ram Vriksha Yadav and the ruling party. Ram Vriksha Yadav was an aide of religious leader Jai Gurudev  who was said to be close to the SP  but the duo fell out before the spiritual gurus death.

Sharma termed the killing of policemen as the height of anarchy and said criminals were highly-motivated because of their protection by the ruling party  the reason for about 900 cases of attacks on police personnel under SP rule.

But SP denied any links with Ram Vriksha Yadav with senior UP minister Shivpal Singh Yadav saying there should be no politics over the deaths.
NEW DELHI: Investigation into the kidney racket was started a month ago after the police received an input about illegal kidney transplants at the Indraprastha Apollo hospital.

Five teams were formed. One team was stationed outside the nephrology department at Apollo in civil clothes and the other started tracking kidney rackets in different states, including Punjab.

The team stationed at the hospital observed the movement of patients and kept an eye on doctors in the department concerned.

Sources said the team even posed as patients, visiting the doctors to gather details o f recipients looking for donors. The team took details of patients awaiting kidney transplants.

The teams identified the persons working in the nephrology department and noted their contact numbers. Their call detail records were accessed . This is how the donors were tracked. It was found these men were in touch with donors and touts, a police source said.

The police received information about donors travelling to Delhi and a team was sent to track their movement.

The operation was kept secret. We could not have let the information leaked to either the staff at Apollo or the donors. We waited for the donors to reach the hospital and catch the touts red-handed while making negotiations. The hospital authorities had no clue about the ongoing operation, the source said.

According to sources, Aseem Sikdar from West Bengal was the main coordinator. He took care of the accommodation of donors who were flown from different states and even arranged for their laboratory tests. Sources said two donors were from Kolkata and three from Kanpur.

The police found that Satya Prakash, one of the accused, had come in contact with the gang after he approached it to donate his own kidney in 2014 and since then he had been working for them.

He job is to identify targets and bring them to Delhi. Devashish Moulik, another accused, came in contact with the gang after his wife Maumita donated a kidney, police said.

Delhi health minister, Satyender Jain said, I came to know of the racket from media reports and if there is any kind of trading, then the police should take strict action.

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WASHINGTON: A Minnesota woman named in University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), gunman Mainak Sarkars kill list and found dead with gunshot wounds has been identified as his estranged wife Ashley Hasti.

Sarkar, a former UCLA doctoral student from India, met and married 31-year-old Hasti in California, NBC News quoted one of her relatives as saying. They separated several years ago.

Sarkar killed himself after fatally shooting UCLA professor William Klug on Wednesday.

His kill list named Klug, Hasti and another professor, who is safe.

Police said Sarkar accused Klug, who had helped him with his dissertation and whom he had once called a mentor, of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else.

He came to Los Angeles armed with two semi-automatic pistols and multiple rounds of ammunition and magazines. Police have said he was prepared to engage multiple victims.

Sarkar lived in Minnesota and worked as an analyst with an engineering firm. Police found his address in a note he left behind, asking the finder to check on his cat.

At his house, they found the kill list. When they checked on Hasti, they found her dead with a gunshot wound. The police have not yet said when or why she was killed. Mark Fitzgibbons, a relative of Hastis, told NBC they met in college  it was not clear if it was at UCLA  in California. They married in 2011, shortly after which Sarkar got his Green Card.

He was a nice quiet young man, Fitzgibbons said. I dont know what happened to make him do this. I am just as shocked as everyone else.

Sarkar graduated from IITKharagpur in aerospace engineering and worked briefly at Infosys. In the US, he went to the University of Texas and Stanford before UCLA.
NEW DELHI: The quest of Indian boys to join the Islamic State (IS) is putting a strain on filial bonds and resulting in strange legal situations.

In a charge sheet against an Indian boy, Mohamed Naser, who tried to join the IS in Sudan last year, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has made his father a prime witness against him.

This is the NIA s second charge sheet against an alleged IS recruit. Naser was chargesheeted on Friday by the federal anti-terror agency.

The first case was of Areeb Majeed, a Kalyan boy who had managed to reach the IS-held area two years back and took part in combat there alongside the terror outfits fighters but came back to India after getting injured.

According to investigators Nasers father is a crucial witness of the NIA in the case.

In fact, we have got recorded his statement before a magistrate as well. Naser was in regular touch with his father and sent him emails and messages on mobile phone that he had reached Sudan as he wanted to join the IS, said an official of the NIA who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Like Majeed before him, Naser, 23, was also charged under section 125 (waging war against any Asiatic power in alliance with the government of India) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 18 (punishment for conspiracy), 18B (punishment of recruiting of any person or persons for terrorist act), 38 (offence relating to the membership of a terrorist organisation) and 39 (offence relating to the support given to a terrorist organisation) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Naser was working in Dubai when he started looking for persons associated with IS on the internet. He managed to find a person who told him he should come to Sudan and join IS in Libya as it was difficult to reach Syria due to security at the border. But Naser was arrested in Sudan and deported back to India.

The NIA is filing another charge sheet against another alleged IS sympathiser, Mohammed Sirajuddin, in Jaipur on Saturday. Sirajuddin was working with the Indian Oil Corporation when he was arrested by the local police on charges of recruiting for the IS.

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LUCKNOW/MATHURA: The writing on the wall was clear. But the UP government and police top brass failed to read the signs. Till two of their officers lay dead in mayhem unleashed by a sect whose ideals bordered on the bizarre.

The violence in Mathura on Thursday may have been unprecedented in its scale but police had enough indications and subsequently, even proof of the arms build-up by the cult members encroaching on hundreds of acres of government land.

Officials and local residents HT spoke to on Friday said the sect members had indulged in large-scale violence earlier too.

An official in Mathura said the local cops had inputs about the protesters chalking out plans to thwart any attempt to evict them. It included sacrificing lives of some of their group members.

Locals were demanding their eviction as the nuisance created by the encroachers kept growing every day. They had beaten up police inspector Kunwar Pal Singh Yadav a few months ago. The sect members had also engaged in a brawl with lawyers and employees of the horticulture department, who had their residential area near the camp.

The members brazenly wrote their demands on the outer walls of the district magistrates residence. They also said they would form a parallel government soon.

Most residents cannot believe how the S wad he en B ha rat Sub hash Sena, believed tobe the armed wing of the sect, was allowed to run its operations. Last year, when the city magistrate tried to enter the park, he was stopped at the main gate. He was told to sit on the ground by one leader who asked him about his nationality. Minutes later, he fled for his life, said Pradip Yadav, a resident.

About a year ago the police had done a recce of Jawahar Bagh camps with the help of some local journalists, who had easy access to this area.

A police official said journalists provided photographs of arms and ammunition and underground bunkers inside the camps. They had even created machans on the treetops to keep watch on the movement outside the camps, he added.

On Thursday, the protesters allegedly fired and pelted stones on police from treetops. The machans suddenly turned deadly.
NEW DELHI: Delhi University has written to the governing body chairman of Bharati College over alleged violation of university rules in the appointment of the acting principal.

The governing body chairman on Thursday appointed Saloni Gupta as the officiating principal and informed the university about it through an email addressed to the vice chancellor and dean of colleges.

In a letter sent to the governing body on Friday, DU said, the decision violates the provision of Ordinance 18 clause 7 (3) of the university statutes.

The provisions state in case of casual vacancy of the post of principal, vice principal acts as the principal. In absence of the vice principal, the senior-most teacher shall act as principal fulfilling the minimum eligibility requirement. It also adds that this arrangement can only be for six months and requires prior approval of the university.

The six-month term of the officiating principal, Kanta Rani Bhatia, ended on June 1. The governing body, however, refused to give any extension and without any meeting chairman, Sneh Mohan, appointed another principal.

The email that has been sent to the university is in contravention of the provisions of the ordinance. This is an utter violation of the university provisions so you are advised to withdraw the order of appointment of Saloni Gupta as acting principal, said a letter written by joint registrar colleges to the chairman. Hindustan Times has a copy of the letter.

The college is a Delhi administration college and receives 5% fund from Delhi government.

However the chairman said the appointment has not been made final.

I have received the letter from the university and Saloni will be appointed as the principal later. We had also sent a list of other names, said Mohan.

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The experts who conducted the interaction with 13 of the 14 toppers of Bihar intermediate (arts and science) did not go into the contentious issue of whether the students deserved to be at the top.

They have just reported the level of knowledge demonstrated at the interface with students, while matching their handwriting with those on the original answer-sheets.

According to one of the 11 subject experts roped in by the board, the experts simply assessed how far the toppers reflected knowledge of subjects.

The toppers cannot be decided through interview. It is always relative. To decide the topper afresh, one would have to go through all copies of the board afresh, he said.

Another expert said that in the atmosphere created by media glare over the raging controversy, it was harsh on the students also, as they were visibly nervous.

Read | Rubi Rai doesnt appear as Bihar probes its dubious Class 12 toppers

We first tried to calm them down, asking them general questions about family and school. Once they were comfortable, we initiated them into the actual interaction, he added.

As the boards Act does not give the mandate for re-evaluation, the marking on the copies could not be revised. Besides, the board did not get any adverse report of malpractice from any of the examination centres the toppers appeared in. The experts just matched the handwritings, which were found okay.

The board asked us to hear the students side. We went there, asked a few questions and also made them write a few short answers. We have submitted our report to the boards anti-corruption cell, but we have not written anything on students capability to top. It would be wrong on our part, he added.

An expert of intermediate arts said that the four students who appeared before him did reflect knowledge of the subject.

I asked them some questions not asked in the exam, but which were from prescribed topics in the syllabus. They seemed good enough for first division marks, but whether they could top is something I should not try to assess when there are lakhs of aspirants, he added.

Read | Bihar board results and the science of miracle performers

One of the experts said that the entire process of calling the students for interaction was beyond him, as it was not the mandate of any school board in the country.

Board secretary Hariharnath Jha said the answer books were also handed over to the experts.

During general interaction, the experts said that the students reflected knowledge. The experts were from the premiere Patna colleges. The report is with the anti-corruption cell, which we will hand over to the government, he added.

Also read | Hard work helped, says Bihar boards ICom topper Nandani

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Bihar cancelled the results of two controversial science stream toppers of the state Class 12 examinations and scrapped the recognition of a college as authorities ordered a judicial probe into alleged academic irregularities on Saturday.

The Bihar state examination board (BSEB) said the two students Saurabh Sreshtha and Rahul  didnt perform well in a re-test ordered after television interviews of the toppers indicated they had little knowledge of the subjects they had aced.

Arts topper Ruby Rai  who sparked the controversy by claiming she was taught cooking in her political science classes  didnt appear for the re-test citing ill health. The board has threatened to scrap her result if she doesnt appear for the re-test by June 14.

BSEB chairman Lalkeshwar Singh said the board struck down the recognition of Vaishalis VR College, where both Rai and Srestha were enrolled. The board also ordered an inquiry under a retired high court judge into alleged irregularities, cautioning that more colleges could face action. Officials also said merit lists in all streams will be re-examined.

But the board decided to not re-evaluate the marking on the original answer sheets as it is not allowed to do so by law. Besides, authorities said they did not get reports of malpractice from the examination centres the toppers appeared from.

Read | In Bihar board toppers re-exam, experts test knowledge, not ability to top

The controversy is a major embarrassment for the Bihar government and puts the spotlight on Bihars failing education system that is riddled with spurious colleges and examination rackets. Activists say colleges fix exam and evaluation centres and even hand out tailor-made answer books that ensure high scores.

The class 12 pass percentage crashed this year but authorities earlier attributed the decrease to stricter invigilation and a stamping out of illegal means during examination.

The state ordered re-tests for 14 toppers of the intermediate arts and science streams after the students dismal television performance sparked ridicule and outrage. The incident also brought back memories of photos that went viral last year showing parents and relatives scaling the walls of school buildings to pass pieces of paper to examinees inside.

VR College -- one of the many institutes promising miraculous results  has had a string of complaints against it. Last year, around 200 answer sheets of students from the college had identical content.

These topper-manufacturing units have gone top speed since 2008 when the state government linked students performance to institute funding, sources say

The experts who conducted Fridays interaction with 13 of the 14 toppers, however, did not evaluate whether the students deserved to be at the top.

They have just reported on the level of knowledge and subject competence demonstrated at the interface with students, while matching their handwriting with those on the original answer sheets, said board officials.

According to one of the 11 subject experts roped in by the board, the experts simply assessed how far the toppers reflected knowledge of subjects.

Toppers cannot be decided through interview. It is always relative. To decide the topper afresh, one would have to go through all copies of the board again, he said.

Another expert said the students were visibly nervous.

We first tried to calm them down, asking them general questions about family and school. Once they were comfortable, we initiated them into the actual interaction, he added.

The experts matched the handwritings of the students and reportedly found them satisfactory.

The board asked us to hear the students side. We went there, asked a few questions and also made them write a few short answers. We have submitted our report to the boards anti-corruption cell, but we have not written anything on students capability to top. It would be wrong on our part, he added.
The Gurgaon police on Friday said it is prepared to confront any law and order tension during the agitation planned by the Jat community on June 5.

Addressing a meeting of police officials, Gurgaon police commissioner Navdeep Singh Virk directed his subordinates to ensure that no one is allowed to disrupt law and order in the city. He also asked officials not to let anyone block roads and railway tracks.

People need to be told not to take law in their hands. They should try to settle issues through negotiations, a police spokesperson said after the meeting.

The commissioner also appealed to people of the Jat community not to get swayed by rumours. He requested them to inform the police if any issue of agitation surfaces.

In February, agitation demanding quota for the Jat community in education and jobs left at least 30 people dead and more than 320 injured across Haryana. Property worth crores was damaged in arson during the agitation that left the state paralysed for nearly two weeks.

Though there was no violence in Gurgaon, protesters blocked several important Gurgaon roads. Trains on the Delhi-Jaipur route via Gurgaon were cancelled because of track blockades. The Delhi-Jaipur railway route was shut down for several days.

Meanwhile, the police will keep an eye on social media websites and free messaging mobile applications such as Whatsapp through which rumours and calls for violence spread. Haryana director general of police has directed district chiefs to take action against anyone spreading rumours on social media.

Gurgaon deputy commissioner TL Satyaprakash said that if the Jat community wants to protest, the district administration is ready to demarcate places where they can do so as peaceful demonstrations are permitted in a democracy.

The Gurgaon administration on Friday imposed prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPC, which makes an assembly of five or more persons unlawful. The orders were issued by deputy commissioner Satyaprakash for 60 days. Satyarakash also said that the troublemakers will be booked under National Security Act (NSA).

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Talking about menstrual hygiene is a rather hush-hush affair in India. But actor Kareena Kapoor Khan did not mince any words on the subject while attending an event called Celebrating Menstrual Hygiene for all Girls, for all Women in Lucknow on Saturday. The event was organised by Unicef, Hindustan Times and Hindustan in cooperation with National Health Mission (NHM).

I have a 30 days schedule in a month. We do not stop working but use the right products, keep healthy and clean. Why should others, especially girls, be termed dirty or compelled to miss school? asked Kareena.

Do not keep complexities in mind. Ask the government to provide products as this is not a matter of shame. We should feel proud being girls, she said. She also appealed to men, asking them to be supportive of women during their menstrual cycle, as they go through a lot of pain and sometimes mood swings.

Read: Menstrual hygiene day | 8 natural ways to relieve period pain, stress

Kareena Kapoor Khan with MP Dimple Yadav during the event. (HT Photo)

Known for her bold as well as comic avatar, Kareena went straight to the topic. She appealed to the state government to ensure school girls have access to toilets. Its my earnest request to provide separate toilets for girls in schools. Lets respect their privacy, the actor said.

Read: Women not sick, impure or untouchable during periods, say activists in MP

Member of Parliament Dimple Yadav, who has been spearheading the mission Poshan and various other schemes for the girl child in Uttar Pradesh, also made a candid confession from the dais. We do not talk to girls about menstruation before it happens to them. I must say I also did not speak about it, she said.

Because we dont talk, girls are left crying and in pain, she added.

On the occasion, a special document UP Menstrual Hygiene and Adolescent Empowerment was also released which is essentially a roadmap to provide sanitary napkins to girls and raise awareness about menstrual hygiene in the state. Statistics say 87% girls still use old cloth as absorbent while menstruating.

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The wildfires in Uttrakhand did more than destroy 3,000 acres of forests. They spewed carbon and toxic gases that choke lungs and add to global warming. Drought in all the 13 districts in the mountain state has raised the risk of wildfires, just as it has made dust storms a part of life across north India.

Suspended particulate matter (SPM) in the form of dust, fly ash and carbon irritate and constrict the airways passages to aggravate chronic lung illnesses such as pneumonia and asthma worse, raise the risk for infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia, and use irreversible lung damage.

Lung disorders

Hazardous gases asphyxiate by displacing oxygen in the air, leading to breathlessness, dizziness, headaches, nausea and vomiting. (Shutterstock)

Forest fires account for 30% of the worlds greenhouse gasses  such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide  that trap heat on the earths surface and cause global warming. While using fossil fuels like such as petrol and diesel spew 5.6 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere each year, burning biomass wood, vegetation, crop stubble, undergrowth, among others  adds another 2.4 gigatone, shows data from the Earth Observatory.

Apart from carbon, biomass burning releases methane, which is 20 times more effective than carbon in trapping heat. It asphyxiates by displacing oxygen in the air, leading to breathlessness, dizziness, headaches, nausea and vomiting. Fires account for 2-3% of the nitrous oxide associated with the production of troposphere bad ozone, which causes lung tissue damage.

Heat stress

Soaring temperatures result in heat strokes and dehydration. (Shutterstock)

The obvious fallout of hot, dry weather is dehydration and heatstroke, with young children, people over 65 years and people with chronic diseases such as heart disease, kidney problem and uncontrolled diabetes being at most risk of hospitalizations and deaths.

Drought-hit areas tend to have higher dust and pollen suspended in the air, which worsens chronic respiratory problems, such as asthma, and lung infections such as pneumonia. Fungal spores in the soil that become airbourne in dry weather add to cases of fever and muscle pain when inhaled.

Water diseases

Filthy water cause even more problems. (Shutterstock)

With the majority of Indias reservoirs, rivers, ponds, groundwater etc being rain-fed, drought conditions dry up or shrink fresh water sources for more than half of the population. Water scarcity during droughts causes pooling and stagnation in rivers and lakes, which lowers water quality and makes stomach infections (E. coli and H. pylori, among others) common summer ailments across India. Diarrhoea is the third biggest cause of death in children in India, killing one in eight children under five each year.

Hygiene and sanitation deteriorate in times of drought, causing outbreaks of infections such typhoid, jaundice (waterborne hepatitis E) and trachoma, an eye infection that can cause blindness. Storing water in containers for drinking in times of scarcity is increasing making human habitat ground zero for outbreaks for diseases caused by mosquitoes that breed in fresh water, like the dengue-spreading aedes egypti and malaria-spreading anopheles.

Malnutrition

An analysis of 87 studies on the health effects of drought showed that food shortages add to malnutrition, wasting and stunting. (Shutterstock)

Drought, coupled with erratic and variable rain patterns, lowers crop yield in rain-fed fields and increases infestations, pushing scores of farmers to suicide and hundreds of thousands to penury. Crop failure causes shortages and raises food prices, making it unaffordable for millions.

An analysis of 87 studies on the health effects of drought showed that food shortages add to malnutrition, wasting and stunting.

Agricultural disasters triggers mass migrations, with farmers heading to urban centres in search for work. Most end up living in slums in sub-human conditions, which adds causes frequent illnesses and aggravates malnutrition.

Living, thriving

Already, air, water and soil pollution, chemical exposures, climate change and ultraviolet radiation contribute to more than 100 diseases and injuries, estimated the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2016. Globally, nearly one in four deaths in 2012 -- 12.6 million people  were caused from living or working in an unhealthy environment.

More than 50 million people affected by drought globally in 2011, estimates international disaster database EM-DAT , with India amongst the worst hit. Unless India makes water management and harvesting a social and economic priority, the drought-like conditions are likely to add to the many other diseases sickening the nation.

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Actor Anthony Hopkins has joined the cast of the new Transformers movie titled Transformers: The Last Knight.

Hopkins will join Mark Wahlberg, Isabela Moner, Jerrod Carmichael, and Josh Duhamel in the sequel, reported Ace Showbiz.

Read: Transformers 5 first teaser: Optimus Prime is ready for war

Calling all #Autobots: Optimus Prime is ready for battle. Are you? #transformers A video posted by Transformers (@transformersmovie) on May 16, 2016 at 3:28pm PDT

Announcing the casting news, a post on director Michael Bays official Twitter account read: The man, the myth, the legend - help us welcome Sir Anthony Hopkins to the #transformers universe.

Very honored to be working with Sir Anthony Hopkins on Transformers! #transformers #markwahlberg A photo posted by Michael Bay (@michaelbay) on Jun 3, 2016 at 10:26am PDT

The casting news comes hours after Bay announced Freya, an epileptic six-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier that was last month dubbed Britains loneliest dog, will also appear in the fifth Transformers movie when it hits theatres in June, 2017.

The dog spent all its six years at an animal rescue centre in England, being turned down 18000 times for adoption and a recent article about the sad pooch in a British tabloid gave animal lover Bay the idea.

Read: Transformers: The Last Knight teaser reveals a returning villain

It's starting. This week production. Megatron is back. #transformers #decepticons# A video posted by Michael Bay (@michaelbay) on May 31, 2016 at 9:59am PDT

There is currently no information on what character Anthony Hopkins will play in the film, or whether hell play a human or a Transformer.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
In one of her most memorable screen appearance, Hema Malini had quipped, humien befuzul baat karne ki aadat toh hai nehi (I am not in the habit of talking unnecessarily).

It was Basanti, Malinis portrayal of a village girl in Bollywoods cult film Sholay in 1975. Three decades later, after she entered the world of politics, the Dream girl of Indian films has had frequent trysts with controversies, courtesy her remarks.

In August 2007, then a member of the Upper House of Parliament, Hema Malini posed a question to the then UPA government. Whether the government is considering to bring the parts used in manufacturing reverse osmosis-based purifiers at par with finished purifiers at nil rate of excise duty in order to compete with the imported finished products.

Read: Day after Twitter gaffe, Mathura MP Hema Malini stopped at clash site

The cine star-turned- parliamentarians question could have helped millions of households using RO-based water filters. Instead, it led to more questions on whether she was trying to seek answers to benefit any particular company. Malini had been long associated as a brand ambassador of a water filter company and her rivals quickly tried to sniff motives behind her questions.

From the Rajya Sabha, Malini made a smooth transition to the Lok Sabha but controversies refused to leave her. Her speeding Mercedes rammed into an Alto last year when she was touring Rajasthan. Malini received VIP treatment and was rushed to a private hospital but the victim family in the Alto found no attention. A two-year old girl in the Alto succumbed to grave injuries and in a tweet, Malini blamed her father, who was driving the Alto, for the death. Many people questioned why Malini, an MP, did not ensure the child was taken to the hospital in time.

Two years ago, during a visit to her constituency Mathura, she said widows from West Bengal and Bihar should not come to Vrindavan. She also said, Vrindavan widows have a bank balance, good income, nice beds, but they beg out of habit. She was accused of getting undue favours from the BJP-led government in Maharashtra when an RTI query revealed that a 2,000-square-metre plot near Mumbais posh suburban area Andheri was given to the BJP parliamentarian for her dance school for just Rs 70,000. The value of the plot was more than Rs 50 crore.

And now, Malini has again been targeted by her detractors for tweeting about her shooting when her constituency Mathura was burning. As tempers rose, the BJP MP deleted the tweets and expressed concern for the situation in Mathura.

I am a very sensitive person. I am deeply pained on the Mathura incident but law and order of Uttar Pradesh is the core issue. Lets not divert, added the 67-year-old, stressing that while she will be reaching the spot soon, but the presence of Mathura police is more important than mine.

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A 33-year-old engineer with the state-run Indian Oil Corporation Limited in Jaipur was on Saturday charged with promoting the ideology of the Islamic State (IS) and inciting people to join the terrorist outfit.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said Mohammed Sirajuddin, an assistant manager with Indian Oil who was arrested by Rajasthan police last December for suspicious online activities, had even wanted to leave his wife and travel to Syria to join the IS.

He had discussed his travel plans with his wife, who agreed hesitantly to go with him. We have recorded her statement as a witness in the case, an NIA officer said.

Sirajuddin, an engineering postgraduate, was apparently drawn to the IS through online propaganda. Investigators said he had even asked members of his online group to vote for IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the Time magazine poll for its Person of the Year award.

He used to surf for material about the outfit and came across an IS sympathiser named Ameena in one such sites. He got so besotted with her that he wanted to take her as his wife, investigators said.

Little did he know that she was actually a domestic help for an Indian family in the UAE. When the family shifted to Hyderabad, Ameena tagged along and continued to chat online with Sirajuddin. After his arrest, the woman was deported to her native Kenya.

Sirajuddin was also in touch with a suspected Filipino woman, another IS sympathizer named Karen Hamiddon. We are going send a judicial request to Manila for assistance to dig out more details about this woman, the officer said.

Other than these two, the engineer was in chatting online with at least four more women  including one from Mauritius and another from Indonesia. In one the chats, a woman told him she risks getting caught by authorities for being in touch with him. Sirajuddins response was patronising, saying she is an e-mujahida and nobody can catch her.

A native of Gulbarga in Karnataka, Sirajuddin, was arrested for promoting IS ideology, inciting others to join the terrorist group, and indulging in antinational activities through social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram, an NIA statement said.

The case was transferred from Rajasthan police to the NIA because of its international ramifications.

The investigation revealed evidence of his incriminating chats, posts, videos, images and comments on Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram and Twitter that he shared and circulated in groups and channels.

The probe also established his association with IS operatives from various countries who were actively propagating, promoting and inciting people through online mediums to join the brutal terrorist group, the NIA statement said.

This is the NIAs third charge-sheet in connection with IS activities in India. The agency had charged two alleged recruits  Areeb Majeed and Mohamed Naser  of the terrorist group earlier.
Union minister of women and child development Maneka Gandh on Friday said Haryanas sex ratio was so plaintive that grooms in the state were kidnapping girls from Uttarakhand and Assam for marriage. She, along with tourism minister Mahesh Sharma, was addressing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers at an auditorium at Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) in Rohtak on the occasion of completion of two years of the BJP government at the Centre.

When a girl goes missing in Uttarakhand, police think that men from Haryana might have kidnapped her, owing to the skewed sex ratio in Haryana, said Maneka.

She also informed the BJP workers about various schemes initiated by the BJP government in the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign was launched in 12 districts of the state. The results are overwhelming with an increase in girl child sex ratio from 830 last year to 907 this year in these districts, Maneka said, adding that their plan was to make it 1000 by next year.

However, she said, Rohtak was the only district where the sex ratio declined even after the campaign was launched. In Rohtak, the girl child sex ratio declined from 920 to 873. The reason behind this is that people in Rohtak did not take the campaign seriously, she said.

The Union minister also doled out tips for local BJP MLA Manish Grover and asked him to install digital guda-gudi boards in the city, besides inducing seriousness among residents to do their bit for promoting the campaign. Only after the sex ratio improves can Haryana families stop importing brides from other states for their sons marriage, she said.

Maneka also informed the party workers about the Mudra scheme and distributed cheques to 20 people to begin new businesses. She said the government would strictly deal with those banks that were not giving loans under the scheme. She added the government was soon going to make a rule of appointing 33% women police in the district.

Childline receives 13 lakh complaints in April

The Union minister said Childline  a toll free helpline for childrens complaints  received 13 lakh complaints in April, two lakh more than it received in March. Showing concern on around 4 lakh children that go missing in a year in the country, Maneka said the BJP had introduced lost and found website, which could help track the missing kids.

Rohtak may have international airport

The Union minister for tourism, Mahesh Sharma, said the government was considering making an international airport in the NCR region to ease the burden of Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. He added the government had received suggestions from three places  Rohtak, Jewar and Bhiwadi. The minister said the chances were high that Rohtak could be chosen for the project.

The minister also assured to make Haryana a tourist spot soon. He added the projects were being initiated in Kurukshetra. On the request of local MLA, Sharma visited Tilyar Lake here and vowed to improve the spot for tourism.

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A senior Maharashtra minister at the heart of a raging controversy over alleged corruption and underworld links resigned on Saturday but vowed to clear the blot on his name.

The resignation by revenue minister Eknath Khadse came two days after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis met BJP chief Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi to discuss the issue that has come as the first big political test for the BJP-led government in the state.

The issue also has bigger political connotations for the Modi-led government at the Centre which has made rooting out corruption its biggest agenda and Khadses continuation would have been seen as slackening of its resolve.

Read: Defiant Khadse vows to quit politics if charges are proved

But the party adopted a two-pronged strategy to tackle the issue  asking Khadse to resign but backing him publicly to ensure that it does not end up losing a powerful OBC leader from north Maharashtra.

A confusion surrounding Khadses resignation also fuelled speculations that the party gave him the option of choosing the right time to quit.

Sources said Khadse, 63, put in his papers when he met Fadnavis at the chief ministers official residence at around 11.30 am. About an hour later, Khadse addressed a press conference in Mumbai to say that he is now going to resign.

Khadse is accused of buying a three-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) land in Pune, 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.

While one of aides was arrested for seeking bribe, allegations of phone calls made to Khadses mobile number from mob boss Dawood Ibrahims residence in Karachi also added to the mounting pressure on the senior BJP leader seen was the de-facto number two in the Fadnavis government.

Read: Khadse accused of graft by fishermens groups

The Congress-led opposition pounced on the allegations against Khadse to highlight what they said was largescale corruption in BJP-ruled states. BJP ally Shiv Sena also demanded that Khadse be forced out of the cabinet.

A defiant Khadse, however, said he has become the victim of a media trial and accused the opposition leveling grave charges without any proof.

I have worked for expansion of BJP for the last 40 years. If anyone can produce concrete proof against me, will quit politics, Khadse told newsmen on Saturday.

Dubbing as forged the purported documents that prove the corruption charges, he termed the entire controversy as a cheap publicity stunt against me.

State BJP president Raosaheb Danve too said the allegations were aimed at defaming the BJP and Khadse.

The BJP is a party of high moral ground.
I am used to the noise of democracy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Afghanistan on Saturday in an apparent reference to the Oppositions attacks on him back home.

Modi made the remark when Afghan national security adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar suggested to him to wear earmuffs after he boarded a helicopter for travelling to the Herat governors house from the airport after his arrival from New Delhi.

I come from the worlds largest democracy. I am used to the noise of democracy, Modi said with a smile, according to one of those on board the helicopter.

Read: We are restoring hope: Modi, Afghan Prez inaugurate India-built dam

He went to the governors house to inaugurate the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam power project, built by India at a cost of Rs 1,700 crore.

From the chopper, the Prime Minister noticed a micro-irrigation project and said it reminded him of Gujarat.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Modi inaugurated the multi-million-dollar dam in western Afghanistan on Saturday that will bring power and irrigation to vast tracts of the war-torn country.

The Afghan-India Friendship Dam was built with Indian aid at a cost of $300 million and was under construction for about a decade.

Foundations for the dam were laid about 40 years ago, also with Indian assistance, in the Chishti-Sharif district of Herat on the Heray Rud River. Construction was delayed by attacks on engineers, workers and guards.

The dam is 20km long and 3km wide, with a capacity of 640 million cubic meters of water. It is one of a number of dam projects that Ghani has slated for Afghanistans post-conflict development.
CHARIDUAR: Every packet of sterilised milk consumed by a soldier on the China frontier helps to revive rebel-destroyed jungles in Assam.

The armys 134 Ecological Task Force (ETF), called Eastern Planters, has started replacing polypots or polythene bags for saplings with recyclable tetrapacks of milk sourced from army units in Arunachal Pradeshs Tawang sector.

This has helped 134ETF  the youngest of eight such eco-battalions in India  cut down by more than 50% the expenditure on polypots at R1 each. The task force uses 400,000 saplings a year.

Unlike polypots, the tetrapacks decompose to a certain degree. Saplings in tetrapacks have a higher survival rate are easily available, said Col KS Jaggi, the commanding officer of 134ETF, which is based on the edge of the 200-square-km Nameri National Park in Chariduar in north-central Assams Sonitpur district. It is barely 200m off the highway linking Indian Armys 4 Corps in Tezpur to Tawang, 330km away.

Our strategic location has made it easy for convoys to and from Tenga (where the army has a division), Tawang (brigade) and other places in the sector drop used milk containers for us to pick up and reuse, Col Jaggi said.

Colonel Jaggi (right) and a jawan hold planted saplings. Our strategic location has made it easy for convoys...to drop used milk containers for us to pick up and reuse, Col Jaggi said.

A vegetarian soldier is allotted 1 litre of milk a day, meat-eaters get 250ml, said spokesperson Lt Col Sombit Ghosh. The smallest army formation  a section comprising 10 men  generates two to 10 tetrapacks every day. A brigade of five battalions, 800 men each, generate much more.

Between May 2008 and March 2015, the Eastern Planters has planted 5.2 million trees across 4058.5 hectares of land deforested by militant outfits for timber to fund insurgency. They had also encouraged locals to settle in the forests to bring more areas under the Bodo tribal council, then at a proposed stage.

This dual strategy saw Sonitpur district lose 232 square km of forest cover between 1994 and 2001. The legislation of the forest rights act in 2007 led to another round of encroachment, with half the 60,000 claims filed Assam filed from this district.

The first eco-battalion -- the 127ETF based in Dehradun, with men from the Garhwal Rifles -- was formed in 1982 after Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug suggested the Indian Army be utilised to check degradation of forests. No other army in the world has such a green task force.

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Ram Chandru Reddy, a 67-year-old agriculturist, has been farming his three-acre plot at Kummaravandla Pally, a hamlet in Anantapur district, for as long as he can remember.

Farming is in my blood. But I nearly gave it up couple of years ago because of water crisis, says Reddy, who grows rice, groundnut and red gram. But the crisis was averted because we decided to share groundwater.

Anantapur is the second-most backward and drought-prone district in India. Over the past six months, 22 farmers have committed suicide in Anantapur.

Till 2010, the water shortage was manageable. We did not have to dig deep; we used bullocks to draw water from wells to irrigate our lands, recalled Venkat Ramana Reddy, a 50-year-old farmer.

Post 2000, the regions semi-arid weather, deep hard rock aquifers, perversely incentivised power and monetary subsidies, and absence of any formal legislation or social regulation to govern extraction led to competitive borewell digging, all of which led to a rapid fall in groundwater levels. The water shortage led to tension between borewell and non-borewell owning farmers, even as cultivation of water-intensive crops continued.

Read: Indias groundwater crisis

India draws more groundwater each year than the US and China combined; with 89% of groundwater extracted used in the irrigation sector. With rain the most significant source of groundwater recharge, any change in the rainfall pattern influences the groundwater level.

India has a rough estimate of how much groundwater it has but there is no micro-level data and this hampers groundwater management at a localised level.

The national aquifer mapping programme can help generate granular data for groundwater and make it available for public policy. The idea is to show groundwater is not an infinite resource that can be pumped out endlessly, said Mala Subramaniam, CEO, Arghyam, a Bangalore-based non-profit. Second, gram panchayats should be equipped with the basic understanding of hydrogeology and traditional knowledge to help them manage the groundwater efficiently.

TAKING THE BULL BY THE HORNS

Instead of blaming the monsoon and fate, farmers at Kummaravandla Pally joined hands with the government and WASSAN, an NGO, to tackle the crisis in 2010. After a situational analysis, 25 farmers formed a collective  Kolagunti Ummadi Neeti Yajamanya Sangham --- to share groundwater with each other to sustain their crops.

Watch | How farmers from Anantapur found a solution to the groundwater crisis

This led to the concept of networking of borewells to secure rain-fed crops of all farmers, irrespective of borewell ownership. By linking all borewells with a network of pipelines and outlets, all farmers can now access groundwater. To ensure compliance, the farmers signed a MoU in the presence of district officials.

The agreements institutional norms include the following clauses: The committee would have farmers with and without borewells; a joint account would be opened in the names of these members; equal contribution towards share capital, irrespective of borewell ownership; annual contribution towards the maintenance fund, on per acre basis at 100 per acre; one farmer would be elected for monitoring the schedule for water distribution/allocation and also collect contribution from each member.

Read: Six charts that explain Indias water crisis

There are non-institutional norms for sharing too. No new borewells should be dug for 10 years without the permission of committee; the irrigated area under borewells will not be increased but the critically-irrigated area can be ; in the critically irrigated areas, water should be given for sowing, flowering, pod development, and crop harvesting; crop budgeting exercise must before sowing ; the System of Rice Intensification, which uses less water, should be practiced for paddy cultivation; micro Irrigation system (drips and sprinklers) should be used to conserve water; and any repairs to the borewells during critical phase (June to November) will be borne form the maintenance fund. During the rest of the year, borewell maintenance will be done by the owners.

FINE PRINT: The Borewell Sharing Agreement INSTITUTIONAL NORMS Farmers with or without borewells can join, if they contribute equally towards share capital Members have joint accounts; annual contribution towards maintenance fund is  100 per acre One farmer elected to monitor water allocation and collect contribution NON-INSTITUTIONAL NORMS No new borewells for next 10 years, irrigated area to remain the same as 2009 Critically irrigated area can increase, but water provided for four key crop phases Crop water budgeting exercise a must before sowing If paddy is cultivated, the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) should be practiced Micro irrigation system such as drips and sprinklers to be used to conserve water

The farmers got financial support from the government for pipeline network and regulators for connecting existing borewells, sprinklers and drips systems. For promoting diversity in agriculture, the National Food Security Mission and the agriculture department provided red gram and groundnut seeds were provided free.

Government schemes such as horticulture plantation in five acres of land; water and soil conservation works under the MGNREGS and NADEP compost pits for non-pesticide management are used by the farmers.

GREEN DREAM

The agreement led to a new way of agriculture in the 72 acres of land of 25 farmers. Since 2010, the cropping pattern has changed, leading to diversity of crops, reduction in costs of cultivation; improvement in value of produce and profit.

According to a study by the Department of Rural Development and Social Work, Sri Krishna Devaraya University, Anantapur, the use of pipeline system instead of field channels has increased water use efficiency. Critical irrigation helped in preventing crop loss, and raised productivity of groundnut. Groundwater levels have been sustained since 2009 , while the area under agriculture and critical irrigation improved, shows data.

Thanks to the success of this borewell pooling, the Andhra Pradesh government is scaling it up across the state via the Indira Jalaprabha Scheme.

In Telangana, several villages in six districts --- Mahbubnagar, Ranga Reddy , Warangal, Medak, Karimnagar and Adilabad --- are piloting this participatory groundwater management programme.

The author tweets at @kumkumdasgupta

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave for a five-nation tour on Saturday during which he will inaugurate a dam in Afghanistan, put forward Indias case to become a member in the nuclear suppliers group with countries and seek greater investments for various sectors in India.

Modi will also address the joint session of US Congress during his trip which includes Qatar, the fourth country after the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iran, the PM is visiting in the Gulf, a region home to 8 million Indians, since he became PM.

Modi, during his visit to Afghanistan, will inaugurate the Salma dam, rechristened IndiaAfghanistan friendship dam, along with Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani in the Heart province on June 4. Indias entry into the nuclear suppliers group (NSG) is an issue that is expected to figure in Modis discussions with leaders of US, Switzerland and Mexico.

Read | Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam will usher in hope, light up homes

India expects the US to extend its cooperation in getting some hold-out countries to turn around to support Indias membership. It is an uphill task as many countries in the 48-member NSG would like India to sign the non-proliferation treaty before getting a membership to the club.

China has come in the way of Indias membership to the club, which works on the principle of consensus. Foreign secretary S Jaishankar said India seeking entry into NSG should be seen differently from a non-proliferation treaty. NSG is a regime. It is a flexible arrangement among states, quite different from NPT, which is a treaty. The objectives of the two are different. I dont confuse apples for oranges. We have made a lot of progress on the issue of membership to the NSG, he said.

Read | PM Modi to visit 5 nations, will discuss black money issue with Swiss president

In Switzerland, Modi will talk about measures to strengthen the mechanism to deal with black money. We are in touch with the Swiss government under the DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement) mandate and we have had some discussions on this and we have a few planned in the near future. We have received support from the Swiss authorities on exchange of information on tax data between the two countries, the foreign secretary said.
Film factories the world over love romance, war, terrorism, and crime. Bollywood has gone a few steps beyond and made a movie on former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastris slogan of Jai Jawan Jai Kisan (Manoj Kumars Upkar), the Mumbai riots (Mani Ratnams Bombay), and the Mumbai attacks (Saif and Kaif starrer Phantom).

But there has been nothing on the Mumbai deluge of 2005, or on the Uttarakhand flood of 2013. Even Chennais Kollywood, usually given to high drama, has so far ignored the citys fate last year, when it found itself under water.

Its the same with publishing. Authors fall over one another to choose love and war as their themes (Love Story, Arms and the Man, A Farewell to Arms, Half Girlfriend...), or crime (too many to name). But they pay little heed to climate change, though it may be an even bigger threat than love, war, or crime.

This baffles Amitav Ghosh, who is today perhaps the best-known Indian writer in English. Is it difficult to think of a love story somehow interrupted by the great Mumbai deluge? he says, as we sit down to chat over lime and soda at the open-air restaurant in Kolkatas Tollygunge Club.

Read:Exclusive excerpts from Amitav Ghosh's yet-to-be released book

The deluge, to Ghosh, was an inconceivable catastrophe. Yet I dont know of a single book, film, or documentary about it. Nobody seems to be able to create a narrative around climate change.

He hopes that his new book on the subject, The Great Derangement, which marks Ghoshs return to non-fiction after a decade, will change some of that. I hope it will begin a conversation. This issue of what climate change means for our future is not discussed at all. Thats frightening.

Ghosh talks about farmers in Tamil Nadu who use up all the subsidised electricity they get to pump out water, which they sell in the market. If they are asked why they do it, they say that if they dont, their neighbour will. A large percentage of irrigation water in Maharashtra goes into sugarcane, a water-intensive crop which must not be grown in the water-deficient state. We need a serious discussion on water use, he says.

Thrift to waste

Two of Ghoshs more vivid childhood memories are learning to write on a slate and the all-around culture of thrift. There was an emphasis on never being in debt, and saving not just money but everything around you. You would squeeze a tube of toothpaste until there was nothing left, he says.

Ghosh is only 60  a very-well-spoken 60 with a thatch of wavy white hair  but he cannot stop marvelling at how far we have come from the days of his childhood. Young people these days are constantly bombarded by advertising that thrusts easy credit and consumerism upon them.

The Anglo-American form of capitalism, built around extreme exploitation of natural resources, has created a culture of waste. Its roots lie in British imperialism, whose hallmark was sucking its resource-rich colonies dry. Even though the sun has set on the empire, the general mindset remains that there is no limit to the earths bounty. Once you get into the culture of waste, its very difficult to get out of, says Ghosh.

Economic power has shifted to developing countries like China and India, which have a pressing need to grow their economies so they can pull their population out of poverty. That entails digging out more coal and burning it, cutting trees down for construction, and tearing down mountains to build dams and bridges. The developed countries have done their share of the damage, now the developing ones believe its their turn. They feel emboldened, Ghosh notes in his book, because their people are anyway used to hardship; a little more will not hurt much. The rich, fattened on lifes luxuries, have more to lose. In this race, someone somewhere invariably wants to overreach himself. Take the example of Volkswagen and its cheat device, a software that aced emission tests.

Read:NGT asks Volkswagen not to sell cars with 'cheat device'

That raises the role of technology. Man seems to believe that, armed with the latest advancements, he can tame nature and shape his own destiny. The earlier generations were wise enough to keep their distance from the sea. Even the busy port cities, as they came up, built their settlements some way away from the shore.

Not so modern man. How do you think Mumbais Bandra Reclamation got its name? Its among the large tracts in the city reclaimed from the sea in the last 40 years. You can be sure the sea will claim it back, says Ghosh.

Church vs states

Two significant documents on climate change came out last year: world leaders signed the Paris Agreement, and Pope Francis wrote an encyclical on ecology, Laudato Si, that says climate change is real and mainly a result of human activity.

Ghosh has closely examined the two. I have judged it entirely on the writing, I have some kind of expertise in that, he says, and smiles.

The Paris Agreement, written by experts, has ended up being a document written for bureaucrats. Its language is stolid, with some sentences running into several pages. And what those sentences say is worse than how they say it.

Read:Centre seeks time to implement Paris Climate Change Agreement

It creates a new liberalisation of climate change and opens it to businesses, mega corporations, and billionaires. What is more disturbing is its complete refusal to even invoke the term, climate justice, says Ghosh. The Paris Agreement talks about poverty as something that can be fixed. There is no acknowledgement that something has gone wrong.

The Popes document, says Ghosh, is remarkably enlightened. It conveys complex ideas with extreme simplicity. Thats something few governments are able to do. In fact, governments tend to do the opposite. They make rhetorical gestures towards climate change, then go ahead and issue a series of incentives for coal mining, fracking, or offshore drilling. We are trapped in a model of economics and politics that does not provide any solutions, says Ghosh.

Leonardo DiCaprio accepting the Best Actor award for 'The Revenant' at the 88th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, California. DiCaprio discussed climate change in his acceptance speech. Ghosh points out that DiCaprio and Matt Damon have spoken effectively on climate change. But in Asia, the most vulnerable continent, no Indian artiste has addressed this issue. (Getty Images)

The ordinary Indian believes climate change is a problem for developed countries, that for us it is about survival. But survival of whom? says Ghosh. Many businesses decided to skip the city after 2005. This has an impact on the life of people in Mumbai as much as on a drought-stricken farmer.

Pope Francis gives him hope. Maybe the leaders of religions will rise and mobilise a mass movement, at which religious groups excel, on climate change. Hindu texts are full of respect and worship for the elements. And mythology is full of people like the saint, whose name Ghosh forgets, who used to eat his meals with a needle next to his plate so that he could pick any grain he might have spilled.

The fight against climate change is about leaving no grain unpicked.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ashraf Ghani inaugurated a $290-million hydroelectric dam built with Indian aid in the Afghan city of Herat on Saturday, the latest reflection of the strengthening ties between India and Afghanistan.

India has provided more than $2 billion as aid to Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was toppled in 2001. The inauguration of the Salma dam, also known as the Afghanistan-India friendship dam, came just five months after Modi inaugurated the new $90-million Afghan parliament built by India in Kabul.

The dam on Hari river in western Herat province, bordering Iran, will produce 42 MW of electricity and its water will irrigate 75,000 hectares. Originally built in 1976, Salma dam was extensively damage during the Afghan civil war. It was rebuilt at a cost of Rs 1,700 crore by 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers and professionals.

The symbol of an enduring partnership. The sluice gates open at the India-Afghanistan Friendship Dam pic.twitter.com/NaR1j9BBbj  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 4, 2016

Modi and Ghani jointly pressed a button to start the dams three turbines as engineers released balloons in celebration.

India will not forget or turn away!

PM @narendramodi emphasises the timelessness of India-Afghan relations pic.twitter.com/QhBSn4P8rW  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 4, 2016

With the inauguration of the Afghanistan-India friendship dam, the first such large Indian-funded project is completed, Ghani said. We hope that this will lead to the development of many such projects.

Afghans and Indians dreamt of this project in the 1970s, Modi said. Today the brave Afghan people are sending a message that the forces of destruction, death, denial and domination shall not prevail.

He added, We are reviving a region, restoring hope, renewing life and redefining Afghanistans future. The dam is a generator not just of electricity but also of optimism and belief in the future of Afghanistan.

PM @narendramodi:Today,we come together to honour and celebrate Afghan determination to build a future of prosperity pic.twitter.com/j3th6i2y61  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 4, 2016

PM quotes Khwaja Moiunuddin Chisti: Humans must have affection of sun, generosity of river & hospitality of earth pic.twitter.com/6EOuf2Oy4O  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 4, 2016

Ties between India and Afghanistan have grown stronger at a time when Kabul has indicated it will not depend on Islamabad for bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table. Following a devastating suicide attack in Kabul in April that killed 64 people, Ghani called on Pakistan to take military action against the Taliban.

Pakistan, which has opposed a larger role for India in Afghanistan, has traditionally backed the Taliban and elements such as the Haqqani Network that have been linked to Indian interests and facilities in Afghanistan. Islamabads concerns increased after India, Afghanistan and Iran inked a deal last month to develop a transit and trade corridor around the Iranian port of Chabahar.

Modi said in his speech that Indias investment in Chabahar will give Afghanistan a new route to the world and a new path to prosperity. He added, The fruits of our friendship are not confined to Kabul, Kandahar , Mazar and Herat. They will never be. Our cooperation will extend to every part of Afghanistan.

India is currently the fifth largest bilateral donor in Afghanistan. Besides the Salma dam and the parliament building, India has built a highway from Zaranj to Delaram that will be a key part of the Chabahar transit corridor, a 220 KV transmission line from Pul-e-Khumri to Kabul and offered 1,000 annual scholarships to Afghan students.

Modi also thanked Afghans for putting themselves in the line of fire to protect Indian interests in the face of attacks. I have seen this from the moment I assumed office as Prime Minister. For on that day, when terrorists launched a massive attack on our consulate in this city of Herat, the heroic efforts of Afghan soldiers, and of our personnel, saved many lives and prevented a big tragedy, he said.

A few days after Modis visit to inaugurate the parliament building, militants launched a 25-hour siege near the Indian consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif city.

Modi hailed the Afghan people for denouncing terrorism and said divisions among them will only help those seeking to dominate the country from outside. When Afghanistan succeeds in defeating terrorism, the world will be safer and more beautiful, he added.
Embattled revenue minister Eknath Khadse resigned on Saturday over allegations of corruption and misconduct that had put chief minister Devendra Fadnavis under mounting pressure to act against the BJP strongman from north Maharashtra.

Sources said Khadse, 63, met Fadnavis at the chief ministers official residence in Malabar Hill around 11.30 am and submitted his resignation.

Read: To keep Khadse or not: Fadnavis has a tough task in hand

The move came after the BJPs central leadership sent him a clear signal that he had no option but to quit over the charges that include irregularities in a land deal in Pune and calls allegedly received from mob boss Dawood Ibrahims residence in Karachi on his mobile phone. One of his aides was also arrested for seeking bribe.

The slew of allegations against Khadse had come as the first major political crisis for the 17-month-old BJP government led by Fadnavis.

The Congress-led opposition pounced on the allegations against Khadse to highlight what they said was largescale corruption in BJP-ruled states. BJP ally Shiv Sena also demanded that Khadse be forced out of the cabinet.

The top BJP leadership including party president Amit Shah is also understood to have favoured Khadses removal in view of the gravity of the charges.

However, Khadse remained defiant till Friday evening and even started playing the OBC card to prevent action against him.

Read: All you need to know about Khadse and why he matters in Maharashtra BJP

The decision of the party leadership came after Fadnavis submitted a report on the allegations to Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.

Sources said Fadnavis was in favour of removing Khadse but wanted the party leadership to take a call considering the political implications of the decision.

Khadse is a prominent OBC leader in Maharashtra and also part of the top brass of the party in state.

His supporters had also toned down their protests in the past few days after realising that the party leadership was not impressed with the threats of sending resignations in support of the minister.

Khadse is accused of buying a three-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) land in Pune 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.

(With inputs from agencies)
Forty-eight hours after the violent Mathura clashes occurred, Uttar Pradesh police are still clueless as to the whereabouts of the alleged mastermind of the attack, Ram Vriksha Yadav.

While sources earlier claimed that Yadav escaped with hundreds of his supporters as chaos broke out Thursday, police are unsure whether Yadav is even alive.

Eleven charred bodies of the 22 found at the park where the agitation occurred remain unidentified, and one of them could be the 60-year-old Yadav. Director general of police, Javed Ahmed said if he was alive, then the police will soon catch up with the leader.

Clashes broke out when police attempted to evict about 3,000 members of a cult from Jawahar Bagh park. The members had been squatting on the government land for two years in a prolonged sit-in with a list demands.

Twenty four people died in the violence and more than 100 injured. Police claimed they were attacked, unprovoked, with gun fire and said they found a cache of arms at the park the next day.

Yadav was last seen on Thursday leading his men who had encroached upon the park.

Police will likely test the bodies DNA to identify them, and will be kept at the mortuary till then.

We are yet to identify the bodies charred in fire at Jawahar Bagh on Thursday night. Ram Vriksha Yadav could be well amongst these burnt bodies but till they are identified we are not in position to clarify if he is alive or dead, Arun Kumar Singh, superintendent of police (Rural), Mathura, said.

About 300 people who were arrested will also be interrogated to ascertain Yadavs fate.

Apart from this, all neighbourhood districts have been alerted and asked to raid all ashrams and possible hideouts of Yadav and his associates.

In the meantime, forensic squads and bomb disposal squads have begun combing and examining Jawahar Bagh for clues.

Ram Vriksha Yadav, originally from Raipur Baghpur village in Ghazipur, is known to be short tempered and fond of moving with armed men at his side. He had ensured that the squatters in Jawahar Bagh remained since 2014. The group claimed they were true followers of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and had settled at the park to demand several things, including the cancellation of the elections of the President and Prime Minister of India, replacing the existing currency with Azad Hind Fauj currency and the sale of diesel and petrol at as low as Rs 1 per 30-40 litres.
Uneasy calm prevailed in areas around Jawahar Bagh in Mathura a day after violent clashes between police and members of a sect claimed 24 lives as a large posse of police and paramilitary personnel kept strict vigil forcing locals to stay indoors.

Jawahar Bagh, which had been teemed with thousands of encroachers who set up their tents for a couple years, wore an eerie silence as policemen blocked its only entry point, through which thousands of protesters had fled last night. Neighbourhood resident Kaptan Singh who was employed at the office of Mathura District Magistrate, said Around 4.30 pm on Thursday , a huge posse of police and PAC personnel had gathered outside Jawaharbagh to remove the encroachers. SP City Mukul Dwivedi was last heard announcing to the encroachers to leave the land urging them to cooperate with the administration and police.

Read: Violent ideology, bizarre demands: Secretive world of the Mathura cult

While the police force was getting ready for the anti- encroachment operation, firing started from the walled Jawahar Bagh, he claimed.

It was like a rain of bullets and we locked ourselves inside our house and remained there till the deafening noise of the guns silenced, said local shopkeeper Rajender.

When we came out of our house around 5.30 pm, we saw policemen running frantically towards the main road. In a few minutes we realised that the Station Officer (Fara) was shot dead and the SP City had also sustained bullet injury. The two of them along with three others were being rushed to hospital, he said.

Read: Mathura clashes: Death toll climbs to 24, NBW issued against mastermind

On Friday, over 200 police officers from Mathura and nearby districts including Agra, Badayun, Muradabad, were deployed in the area to ensure that no law-and-order problem arose in the wake of the violence.

A huge posse of media persons also camped in the area and locals thronged the site interacting with them and sharing their experiences.

Farther away from Jawaharbagh, Mathura city retained its normal daily routine with people talking about the incident and expressing their shock over it.

Another local Brij Mohan Sharma said the protesters had set hundreds of camps on fire and the entire sky was lit up with a crimson tinge.

The locals were terrified and started filling up buckets with water for a potential fire operation, Sharma said.

Blame game continues

Akhilesh Yadav ordered a commissioner-level inquiry into the violence while the Centre sought a report from the Uttar Pradesh government on Thursdays violence in Mathura, over 160 km from the national capital. Over 300 people were arrested in the violence that also left 23 policemen injured, including many seriously.

This is a serious matter and will be investigated at commissioner level. All those found guilty will be brought to justice, Akhilesh Yadav told reporters.
Striking for the second time in less than 24 hours in south Kashmir, militants on Saturday killed two police personnel in poll-bound Anantnag from where CM Mehbooba Mufti is contesting.

In a targeted action against security personnel, militants opened fire at a police party at the main bus stand in Anantnag, injuring assistant sub-inspector Bashir Ahmad and constable Reyaz Ahmad. Both succumbed to their injuries. The attack comes less than 24 hours after militants of banned Hizbul Mujahideen ambushed a BSF convoy in neighbouring Goriwan area at Bijbehara, killing three of its personnel.

Saturdays attack in Anantnag is seen as an attempt by militants to scare the voters as Mehbooba is seeking her election to the state assembly from here. Elections to the seat are now scheduled to be held on June 22.

Opposition National Conference hit out at the PDP-BJP government, saying, Instead of making tall claims of improved ground situation on papers, the state government should do something concrete on ground and ensure safety and security of people.

Party spokesperson Junaid Mattu said with elections round the corner in the assembly, tourist season and forthcoming Amarnath Yatra one expects that security should be at its best. But every now and then, loopholes within the security establishment stand exposed.
An RJD legislator close to former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav came under the scanner on Saturday for abusing an IPS officer in Darbhanga, putting the spotlight back on alleged highhandedness by ruling party members in the state.

Though the incident took place a few days ago, it started generating a debate after a purported video clip of the confrontation went viral on social media. Local TV channels also aired the video of the incident, sparked by a traffic rule violation by MLA Bhola Yadavs driver.

Last month, an RJD leader and her husband were arrested after their son shot dead a teenager in Gaya in a case of road rage. The youngster is also in jail. The incident had sparked nationwide outrage.

Watch | RJD MLA Bhola Yadav abuses young IPS officer Santosh Kumar

Sources said that Bhola Yadav abused the young IPS officer Santosh Kumar who had pulled up the MLAs driver for parking his SUV on the middle of the road near Bahera police station, around 15 km from Darbhanga.

The influential MLA is said to have lost his cool when his driver was asked by the officer of 2014 batch to remove the car as it was obstructing traffic movement. Besides, there was a ban on parking as a counting centre was set up nearby for the panchayat polls.

The video clip purportedly showed Yadav arguing with and abusing the SP. Some supporters of the MLA are seen pointing fingers at the cop in an intimidating manner.

Yadav was elected from Bahadurganj in Darbhanga in the district.

However, a police diary entry did not name anyone.

Yes, there was some argument and an entry has been made in the station diary against unknown persons for creating obstruction in government work at Bahera police, the police official said.

The officer, however, did not reply when asked why there was no mention of any person in the report.

Sources said the IPS officer is posted at the Bahera police station as a station house officer (SHO) as part of his training.

Bhola Yadav, however, denied abusing the IPS officer and termed the video footage totally misleading.

I did not have any heated exchange of words with the young officer. Yes, he had asked the driver of my car to park it away from the police station and he had complied with it. I had stopped briefly at the location to meet some workers. I just had a small talk with the IPS officer and left.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will begin his five-nation tour with a short stop in Afghanistan on Saturday.

Modi will inaugurate the Salma Dam in Afghanistan before heading to Qatar, Switzerland, Mexico and the United States. The Salma dam, dubbed the India-Afghanistan Friendship Dam, will irrigate 75,000 hectares of land and generate 42MW of power.

The project was undertaken by India on the Chist-e-Sharif river and executed by WAPCOS Ltd, a Government of India undertaking under ministry of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation. The total cost of the project was Rs 170 crore.

The dam, which faced several challenges such as security problems, is seen as a symbol of Indias engagement in Afghanistan. The project is located in the Herat province, which shares a border with Iran and has a long history of wars  from Alexander the Great, Mongols and Arabs, who fought for its control, to the uprising against the Soviet Union in the late 1970s. It is also home to a huge rural population and the fertile Harirud valley.

Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani will be present at the event, which is supposed to mark friendly bilateral ties between the two nations.

This will be Prime Minister Modis second visit to Afghanistan. In December last year, he inaugurated the new building of the Afghan Parliament, which was constructed by India as well.

The two leaders are expected to discuss the peace process with the Taliban, a complex issue given that the Afghanistan-Pakistan bonhomie is on the wane over engaging with the fundamentalist group. Further complicating the matter is the number of active players in Afghanistan  China being among them.

As such, what happens in Afghanistan is of key interest to India, and frequent engagement between leaders of the two countries is a positive sign.

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A 35-year-old man was killed while 12 others sustained injuries in a clash between two groups of locals over entry of cattle to someones field in Bagahi village under Mardah police station in Ghazipur district on Friday, police said.

A case has been registered against 17 people in this connection, they added.

According to the police, cattle entered the field of one Harikesh Rajbhar on Thursday. Enraged over it, Rajbhar beat up Ramjanm Ram as the cattle belonged to him.

Police reached the spot and challaned 12 people in apprehension of breach of peace. On Friday morning, Ramjanm Ram, Ram Vriksha Ram, Manoj Ram and Vinay Kumar Ram reportedly thrashed Harikesh Rajbhar. They also beat those who tried to save Rajbhar. Nearly 12 people sustained injuries in the clash.

Later, some other locals intervened and informed police about it. A critically injured Harikesh Rajbhar was rushed to the government hospital, Mardah. From there, doctors referred him to Varanasi but he succumbed to his injuries on the way.
A day after he was elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh, railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Saturday announced a number of major railway projects for the state, including a high-speed rail line between new capital Amaravati and Bengaluru.

He, however, remained non-committal on the establishment of a new railway zone with headquarters at Visakhapatnam, alleging that the erstwhile UPA government did not specify it in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

It is incumbent upon us do as much as possible in this regard, Prabhu said after a three-hour-long meeting with chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu wherein railway projects related to the state were reviewed.

Read: Chidambaram, Prabhu, Goyal win unopposed in RS polls

The railway minister announced that two high-speed rail lines would be built between Visakhapatnam and Chennai and Bengaluru and Amaravati in collaboration with foreign countries.

The foreign collaborator would be decided after talks with different countries, he said.

I held talks with French officials yesterday but that was only a preliminary meeting. We will talk with other countries as well and choose a partner, Prabhu added.

He said a Special Purpose Vehicle Joint Venture Company would be formed by the railways with AP government in a couple of months for taking up major rail projects in the state.

The minister also announced an aggregate capital investment of 1,000 crore for setting up two new railway workshops at Kurnool and Tirupati and a wagon overhaul facility at Visakhapatnam.

These facilities would create hundreds of jobs, he said.

Prabhu also announced that a major Rail Neer plant would also be set up in Andhra Pradesh.
The Jat community members on Saturday pitched tents at Jasiya village, defying prohibitory orders by the Rohtak district administration, ahead of a protest called by the Akhil Bhartiya Jat Arakshan Sangarsh Samiti (ABJASS).

Over 15,000 people are expected to participate in the protest beginning from Sunday.

The authorities had told the agitators to restrict their protests to a ground in Sector 6 of the district.

Rohtak deputy commissioner Atul Kumar said this move by the Jat protesters amounted to a violation of directives issued under Section 144 of the CrPC, and notices have been served to many of them.

If they still go ahead with their protest tomorrow, we will lodge cases and take action taken them, Kumar told HT. Intelligence inputs suggest that the protests would be peaceful, he added.

The protesters, however, said the movement would be peaceful only as long as police personnel maintain their distance. If they try to touch us, they will have to bear the consequences, said Joginder Pehelwan, one of the agitators leading the dharna at Jasiya village  which falls on National Highway-71A (Bawal -Jhajjar-Rohtak-Jind-Jalandhar).

He said arrangements have been made to ensure that the people camping at the village were not inconvenienced. Twelve cooks have been employed to make three meals a day for 20,000 people. They will cook halwa, poori and subzi for us. We all are pitching in to ensure that everyone has a comfortable stay. Arrangements for water coolers and electricity have also been made in view of the high mercury levels, Pehelwan said.

A large tent put up by Jat activists at Jasiya village in Rohtak district on Saturday, a day before the proposed re-launch of the agitation for reservation. (Manoj Dhaka/HT Photo )

Rohtak police  who fear a re-enactment of the February mob violence  have called in three additional paramilitary companies to make up for a shortfall of 2,000 personnel. Three companies of the CISF, two of the RAF, and one of the BSF have been deployed at various places across the city.

Meanwhile, the Sonepat district administration has blocked Internet data services across the region to prevent misuse of social media platforms by protesters. Deputy commissioner KM Pandurang also issued orders prohibiting the sale of liquor in the district from June 4 to 5, and asked owners of heavy duty equipment such as earth movers and bulldozers to station them in police station premises for the duration of the agitation.

Read | Haryana braces for Jat threat to renew stir

PRECAUTIONS The Rohtak administration suspended mobile Internet services, bulk messages on Saturday to prevent misuse of social media platforms by protesters





Police said they were closely monitoring instant messaging applications like WhatsApp to stop the dissemination of provocative messages and rumour mongering





In Jind, five companies of paramilitary were deployed: One of RAF, one of BSF and three of SSB.

Earlier this year, eight districts of Haryana were hit by largescale violence after members of the Jat community took to the streets demanding reservations under the OBC category. Thirty people were killed, and property worth thousands of crores of rupees destroyed.

Denouncing the arrests made by the police in cases related to the February stir, ABJASS national president Yashpal Malik called for new protests across Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh from June 5. More agitators joined the movement after the Punjab and Haryana high court recently stayed the reservations granted by the Manohar Lal Khattar government to the Jat community. Another group, the Jat Ekta Manch, also announced a jail bharo andolan from Sunday.

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Stating that Eknath Khadse was forced to resign as he was facing serious charges of corruption, Congress on Saturday demanded a high level investigation into the allegations against the BJP leader.

Read: Defiant Khadse vows to quit politics if charges are proved

Only resignation will not do. We want a high level judicial inquiry into the scams involving Khadse. We dont trust this government, which may sabotage the investigation, Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan told PTI.

It is good that he has resigned. But it is a delayed decision. The BJP had no option since the charges against Khadse like the MIDC land deal and Dawood call allegation are very serious in nature, Chavan, a former chief minister, said.

Read:

Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the resignation of Khadse was inevitable.

The real political decision, however, is how high a level the government would take the matter, he said.

Former AAP leader Anjali Damania, who is on a hunger strike demanding Khadses resignation for the last three days, said this was the initial victory for her after exposing Khadses wrongdoings.

I will continue my hunger strike till a time-bound inquiry is ordered against Khadse because there has been a trend that such leaders involved in corruption cases are politically rehabilitated by making them governors of other states, Damania said.

AAP national spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon said, We are relieved that finally, after he was totally exposed in past few weeks, BJP removed Khadse from office.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured Indian workers in Qatar that he will take up problems faced by them during his talks with leaders of this Gulf nation.

Addressing Indian workers at a medical camp in downtown Doha on Saturday evening, Modi said he is aware of the issues being faced by Indian workers and the companies that bring them here.

I am aware of the issues you are facing. I will talk about it when I meet the authorities, he said.

Maybe none of you know me. But you must be feeling good that somebody has come from India to meet you, said a smiling Modi as he addressed a gathering of workers dressed in bright yellow uniforms at a free medical camp organised by the Indian Community Benevolent Fund (ICBF) and the Indian Doctors Community (IDC).

I have good news for you. This year the monsoon will be good in India, he said.

The Prime Minister has been focusing on improving ties with the Gulf region which is crucial for Indias energy security. He has already visited United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Read | PM Modi reaches Doha, economic cooperation with Qatar high on agenda

Modi will hold detailed talks with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on Sunday.

He is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Qatar in the last eight years. The then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited Doha in 2008.

Indias historical and close relations with Qatar are marked by mutually beneficial commercial exchanges and extensive people-to-people contacts, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup had said ahead of the visit.

There has been regular exchange of high-level bilateral visits in the recent past. The Emir of Qatar had visited India in March 2015. Previously, the then Emir of Qatar had visited India in 1999, 2005 and 2012.

From Qatar, the Prime Minister will travel to Switzerland on way to the USA.

Read: I am used to the noise of democracy, Modi says in Afghanistan
MUMBAI: Narayan Rane, former chief minister, Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar, the chairman of the legislative council, Dhananjay Munde, the opposition leader of the council, and seven others were elected unopposed to the Upper House of the state legislature after two candidates withdrew their nominations on Friday, the last day for pulling out from the race.

The withdrawals of Prasad Lad and Manoj Kotak, both from the Bharatiya Janaya Party (BJP), from the contest on Friday left only ten candidates for as many seats.

The biennial election was to be held on June 10.

Lad was the sixth candidate fielded by the BJP for the 10-seat elections while BJPs Kotak filed his nomination as an Independent candidate. The other candidates who are to be elected unopposed include BJPs Surjitsingh Thakur, Pravin Darekar, RN Singh, Shiv Senas Subhash Desai, Diwakar Roate, Sadabhau Khot (Swabhimani Shetkari Sangh) and Vinayak Mete (Shiv Sangram).

The BJP will gain the most in the biennial election as its tally will increase to 18 from 13 (at present). However, the NCP still holds the majority with 27 members.

The selection of candidates has also led to discontent in the BJP as of the five candidates, only one is from the party. Two candidates Khot and Mete are from smaller allies of the BJP while other two Darekar and Singh are outsiders, who are facing various allegations. Darekar left the MNS while Singh was a close aide of former minister Kripashankar Singh who is facing allegations of irregularities. It is the candidature given to Darekar and Singh that has irked many workers in the BJP. Vivekanand Gupta, secretary of BJPs Mumbai wing, has openly revolted against Darekar as the latter is accused of an alleged embezzlement of funds of Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank Limited as chairman. The election has also paved the way for Ranes comeback.
MUMBAI: Days after launching an investigation into the alleged calls received by revenue minister Eknath Khadse from fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan, the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Friday summoned ethical hacker Manish Bhangale, who had accessed Dawoods and Khadses telephone records, to record his statement.

Two officers from the local ATS unit asked Bhangale to accompany them to Mumbai from Jalgaon. However, his legal team refused to allow this, citing an ongoing court petition. The police left after summoning Bhangale to ATS headquarters in Mumbai on Saturday.

The Bombay High Court will hear Bhangales petition on Monday. A source told HT that the police tried to summon him for questioning before this as the court is likely to ask the ATS about the hackers statement while hearing his petition.

Bhangale told HT, I had announced a press conference in Jalgaon today (Friday) and they came with a plan to scuttle it. They asked me to postpone t he press conference and accompany them, which I refused. I told them to wait for the conference to be convened and informed my lawyer.

He said his lawyer, Sandesh Sawant, sent f axes to t he chief minister and the ATS, stating that it was unfair to record Bhangales statement at a stage, as the Bombay High Court had admitted his petition. Following this, the ATS officers left.

I have been called to ATS headquarters in Mumbai at 11am on Saturday. My legal t eam will go t here on my behalf. I continue to stand by what I have said. I dont know why they have suddenly made recording my statement a priority, Bhangale said.

The ATS confir med t hat they had summoned Bhangale to record his statement but refused to divulge any more details.

The hacker and his family, meanwhile, are being provided by security by the Jalgaon police.

Last week, his family received threats from people apparently seeking to muzzle him and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Preeti Menon.

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MUMBAI: The Bombay high court in an interim order on Friday stayed t he state government s decision to disqualify three Thane corporators, who are facing trial on the charge of having abetted the suicide of builder Suraj Parmar.

A vacation bench comprising justices BR Gavai and BP Colabawalla granted relief to Najib Mulla and Hanumant Jagdale of the NCP and Vikrant Chavan of the Congress.

Another corporator, Sudhakar Chavan had approached the HC last week and was granted t he same relief.

The bench granted interim relief to the three corporators observing that the Maharashtra governments decision was questionable considering that the corporators were yet to be pronounced guilty and convicted by a court of law.

Last October, Parmar shot himself to death on the premises of a property he was developing. He left behind a 13-page suicide note, in which he had alleged harassment at t he hands of Thane municipal corporations officials and corporators. In the note, he had also named Mulla, Vikrant Chavan, Jagdale and Chavan.

All four of them were arrested by the police in December 2015 and have been out on bail since February this year.

This March, the state government had issued a show cause notice to the four corporators asking them to explain why they must not be disqualified and in May this year, the state disqualified all the four of them.

Three of them then approached the high court challenging the show-cause notice. They claimed that the BJP-Sena government had disqualified them due to political vendetta.

They argued that the investigation in the case was still in progress, and a court was yet to frame charges against them. Thus, they could not be already presumed guilty and thus, be disqualified.
MUMBAI: The Central Board of Secondary Education issued an advisory on Friday asking its affiliated schools not to charge exorbitant fees from students. Schools have been warned not to misuse funds or earn profits. The institutions have also been asked to send their accounts statement to the board every year.

The advisory was issued after the ministry of human resource development (HRD) recently received several complaints from parents over the steep fee hikes and capitation fees charged by schools.

Taking serious note of the complaints, the advisory has asked schools to strictly adhere to the relevant bye-laws of the board and ensure proper functioning of the school management committee.

It has been observed recently that there is a growing tendency among some institutions to make profit by raising fees under various heads. A large number of CBSE schools are not adhering to the provisions concerning tuition fees laid down in the affiliation bye-laws of the board, which are mandatory, said the director affiliation, CBSE, in the advisory.

School managements have been told not to make profits or misuse funds. Even though there is a need for the school management to generate sufficient financial resources to guarantee the continued existence of the institution to meet the running expenses of the school, to pay salaries to teachers and staff regularly at least at par with the corresponding categories in the state government schools and to undertake improvement/development of school facilities, the school management should not make profit or misuse funds, reads the advisory.

It has also focused on warning schools against diverting funds. If there are any savings after meeting the recurring and nonrecurring expenditure, contributions to developmental, depreciation and contingency funds may be further utilised for promoting the same institution, stated the advisory.

The accounts statement should be prepared as per rules and a copy each of the statement of accounts should be sent to the board every year as per by-laws, it said.

Schools may also lose their affiliation if they violate any of these rules. An audit of the schools funds will be conducted by the CBSE, which may lead to the schools disaffiliation, it stated.
It was the first major political crisis Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis faced and found a way out of with the ouster of Eknath Khadse from his cabinet. The question being asked now is: Will this mean the start of trouble for him or he has come out a stronger leader?

Read more: Graft-tainted Maharashtra minister Khadse quits, vows to clear his name

Khadses ouster puts BJP on slippery slope

In the states corridors of power, it was well-known that Fadnavis did not get along well with Khadse, who was regarded as his number two. Being the opposition leader in the assembly for five years before the 2014 assembly elections, Khadse was a natural contender for the post of chief minister when the party wrested power from the Congress-NCP. When PM Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah picked Fadnavisseen as a lightweight politicianfor the top job, Khadse made his unhappiness known. To pacify him, he was given charge of the revenue department along with eight other departments. Still, within the government, the tussle between the two was quite visible.

When Gajanan Patil, a BJP worker from Jalgaon and Khadses alleged aide was caught by the Anti-Corruption Bureau on May 13 while demanding a bribe for a land allotment by the revenue department, many an eyebrow were raised in the party. Fadnavis (who heads the home department) told reporters that he knew Patil was under watch since the past three months. Soon, one after the other, allegations started tumbling out and Khadse found himself in a situation from where was difficult for him to extricate himself.

Sources close to Fadnavis say he made it clear in his report to Shah that the allegations related to the Pune land allotment could be embarrassing to the party and his government as it was a case of conflict of interest.

Fadnavis left the decision to the Central leadership of the party who asked Khadse to quit.

Following the episode, can the CM run the government smoothly or there is trouble in store? Will he have to battle the allegation of being anti-Other Backward Classes (OBC), a class that Khadse belongs to?

There was skepticism even in the BJP when Fadnavis, a Bramhin, was appointed as the chief minister of a state that is traditionally ruled by Maratha politicians. Eighteen months later, the consensus is that he is managing better than expected.

So far, he has handled the political management well ensuring that he is not labeled anti-Maratha or upper caste elite politician. This is the first time there will be allegations of him being anti-OBC. He will now have to promote other OBC leaders such as Pankaja Munde and Sudhir Mungantiwar to show that he is not against the community, said a top BJP leader who did not wish to be named.

A lot depends on how Khadse plays his cards and to what extent the Opposition hits Fadnavis over this issue, he added.

On the other hand, the episode has given Fadnavis an opportunity to assert his leadership. Though there are several unhappy members within his cabinet, Fadnavis has shown them that he is the boss. There are no murmurs of protest over the way he handled Khadse. What struck the BJP was that no other minister or prominent leader stood by Khadse as the party leadership asked him to quit. It is clear to the party that the Modi-Shah duo calls the shots and Fadnavis is trusted by them, said a key minister.

As of now, Fadnavis is seen as a strong leader and firmly in the saddle. How the caste-politics works out will decide his hold over the government and the party in the state. However, as long as the issue of corruption is concerned, the BJP is now seen as being as vulnerable as other parties. Khadse may not be the last minister to face such allegations and this is an even bigger worry for the chief minister.

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MUMBAI: A day after high-level meetings in New Delhi and speculation about stern action against state revenue minister Eknath Khadse over the various controversies he is embroiled in, the BJP leadership has reportedly deferred its decision on the matter for at least a few days.

The minister, who has been at an undisclosed location, gave a video statement to IBN-Lokmat on Friday evening, rubbishing the allegations and terming it as a conspiracy against him. In the video, Khadse insisted he was Eknath Khadse: Facing flak busy preparing for a few major decisions to be taken in the cabinet meeting scheduled for next Tuesday.

On Thursday, in a meeting that lasted around 25 minutes in New Delhi, PM Narendra Modi reportedly told CM Devendra Fadnavis to wait for a few days before initiating any action against Khadse.

The party is treading cautiously on the issue as it wants to avoid any adverse implications of any action against Khadse. It has not taken any action against ministers such as Sushma Sawaraj or CMs of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, or Maharashtra ministers Pankaja Munde and Vinod Tawde, all of whom have faced allegations of wrongdoing. Further, Khadse enjoys support in north Maharashtra and is also a prominent OBC leader in the state.

Sources said Fadnavis is in favour of action against Khadse, but wants the central leadership to do so. Otherwise, it is likely to be misconceived as action against an OBC leader by Fadnavis, who is a Brahmin. On the other hand, the party leadership wants the decision to be taken at the state level, a BJP leader said, on condition of anonymity. But, Modi wants the decision to be deferred for a few days and be taken only during or after the national executive of the party, which is scheduled to take place on June 12 and 13.

In the meanwhile, the party also plans to expand the state cabinet and the minister may be stripped of important portfolios such as revenue and excise, if he isnt dropped from the cabinet. Incidentally, Modi is leaving on a five-day foreign tour on Saturday.

Before the meeting with Modi, Fadnavis submitted a factual report on the land deal controversy to the partys national president Amit Shah at the BJP office in Delhi. The report is based on the documents submitted to Fadnavis by Khadse earlier this week.

In an indication that the action against Khadse may not be extreme, state BJP chief Raosaheb Danve on Friday said: It would not be proper to claim that the report submitted by Fadnavis to Shah on Thursday goes against Khadse. It could even turn out to be in his favour. The allegations levelled against the minister are baseless and the party stands by him, Danve said in Jalna, adding that the party was firmly backing Khadse. In Mumbai, housing minister and senior BJP leader Prakash Mehta, too, said the party stood by Khadse.

In the backdrop of speculation over his resignation, Khadse released a video statement on Friday evening. Speculations are rife on my absence from the media glare for two days, but let me clarify that I am busy with officers from agriculture department to take major decisions in the cabinet meeting. The decisions are related to the distribution of seeds and fertilizers for the kharip season, releasing the land in the possession of the government for technical reasons to the farmers and cloud seeding, among others. As the agriculture minister, my top priority is the welfare of farmers and I have been in constant touch with the chief minister, discussing the decisions, he said.

He reiterated that the allegations leveled against him were baseless and with the intention of maligning his image. Political observers claimed the minister tried to emphasise that he was still part of the government and unfazed by the speculation over his resignation. Meanwhile, he reportedly tried to meet RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to garner support, but did not get any response, said sources.

Khadse has been facing allegations of purchasing a government plot at Bhosari in Pune by misusing his official position for the sake of earning money through government compensation. Khadse is also facing flak for allegedly receiving calls from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Earlier last month, Gajanan Patil an alleged aide of the revenue minister, was caught by the anti-corruption bureau asking for a bribe from a person for a land allotment decision by the revenue department.

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SRINAGAR: Three BSF personnel were killed and five others were injured when militants ambushed their convoy near Bijbehara on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway on Friday.

Its an unfortunate incident. The BSF convoy was attacked on the national highway by terrorists who fired at it from the by-lanes near Bijbehara, director-general of J&K Police K Rajendra said.

Officials said that three BSF personnel identified as head constable Girish Kumar Shukla, constable Mahinder Ram and havaldar Dinesh were killed while four others were injured in the incident which took place at 4.30pm near a government hospital, 52 km from Srinagar.

The BSF convoy comprising 23 vehicles was coming from Jammu to Srinagar.

Additional forces have been rushed to the area, which has been cordoned off. No terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack but the security establishment feel it could be the handiwork of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen.
The police have beefed up security in the district ahead of the 32nd anniversary of Operation Bluestar, which falls on June 6. Both, the Hindu and the Sikh radical organisations have announced their plans to commemorate it in their own ways.

Police crackdown on Sikh hardliners ahead of Operation Bluestar anniv

It must be mentioned that tension prevails in the region ever since some miscreants tried an unsuccessful assassination bid on the life of Sikh preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale. Dhadrianwale also holds his headquarters in this district at Shekhupur village on Patiala-Sangrur highway.

Meanwhile, the police have made heavy security arrangements at all the entry and the exit points to the city, besides laying special check posts across the district to restrict entry of any anti-social elements.

At several places, the police could be seen carrying out extensive checking of vehicles to avoid any untoward incident. The police control room (PCR) surveillance has been enhanced in sensitive areas, especially in the interiors areas of the city.

Senior officials said the police force at all police stations across the district had been put on high alert to maintain peace and ensure law and order situation on the occasion.

Superintendent of police (SP headquarters) Sukhdev Singh Virk informed that along with the district police, a company of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and two companies of Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) were actively guarding the city by putting up special check posts.

Meanwhile, the police are keeping a close watch on various radical organisations, which are planning to hold protest marches to commemorate the anniversary of Operation Bluestar.

Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) also announced to hold a religious march on June 4, from Patran to Patiala in the memory of people who died in the operation.

Party leader Amarjit Singh Marori informed that the police wanted to foil their march with the arrest of most of their leaders, including district president Sarup Singh Sondha. He said they just wanted to pay tribute to the martyrs of June 1984.
Judge of the Punjab and Haryana high court justice K Kannan, who retired on Friday, said there was no harm in having eminent persons in the judges appointments panel for high courts and the Supreme Court (SC) and it was needless for the SC to mistrust government on this.

We (judiciary) have juniors, daughters and sons (appointed) as judges. We have failed in evolving a criterion for good judges. Appointments have not been fair. We need other people to select the judges, he said while talking to reporters.

Justice Kannan said the government would have an interest as to who was being appointed as a judge. But for us to think that you can be outsmarted by the government was wrong. Judges carry an aura. If the chief justice says certain persons are good, the government can strike down one, two or three names, but not all, he said when asked over the logjam between the government and the SC on the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).

Known for his intellect and integrity, justice Kannan had said no to the Bar and the court for retirement ceremony and he remained busy in the court on Friday with lawyers thronging in large numbers to wish him luck. It is no big virtue (to say no to the retirement ceremony). Others have also done it. I dont require to be told how good a judge I was. But I went to the registry today and met lawyers in the Bar. The intimacy and warmth I got would not have been there in a formal ceremony, he added.

He was the first judge of this court in 2009 to declare assets amidst raging debate on making judges assets public and ensured to submit the same before demitting office. He is said to have used covered red beacon on his official car and had instructions issued to lower courts not hold guard of honour on his visits.

When asked about pendency of cases, he said increasing the number of judges was not a solution as quality of litigation was abysmal. The country needs to make certain cases non-litigative and tiers after tiers for appeal need to be cut down. We need to have confidence in judges. Accept the quality of judges. Lack of trust spring from our tiers of jurisdiction, he said.

Born in a lawyers family in 1954, justice Kannan enrolled as an advocate in 1977 and was elevated as a judge in the Madras high court in 2008. Soon after his appointment in the Punjab and Haryana high court, he courted a controversy for his passion of blogging on judgments. The practice had to be stopped after the Supreme Court intervention.

Judges shine in a borrowed glory. Quality lawyers help in delivery of good judgments. But now we have poor quality of lawyers, he said, adding they lacked training and ethical values were eroding fast.


Even as Punjab Police on Saturday detained several radical leaders across the state ahead of the 32nd anniversary of Operation Bluestar as a preventive measure, the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) banned the media from covering the event at the Golden Temple on June 6.

In a written communique to the district and police administration, the SGPC said no one from the media, including print and electronic, would be allowed to cover the event. SGPC chief secretary Harcharan Singh said as a large number of devotees converge on the shrine on the Operation Bluestar anniversary, interference by reporters, photographers and TV channel crew would not be allowed as it hurts Sikh sentiments.

Meanwhile, the police detained three Sikh hardliners Dal Khalsa leader Daljit Singh Bittu, Sikh activist Manvinder Singh Giaspura and Jaswant Singh Cheema, a local leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)  in Ludhiana.

Also read: Operation Bluestar anniv: CCTV cameras keep vigil in Amritsar

Raids at the houses of various hardliners were carried out in the wee hours of Saturday. However, some members of SAD (Amritsar) and Dal Khalsa managed to escape, the police said.

It is a preventive action before the Operation Bluestar anniversary to maintain law and order, said a police official.

Religious leader Hardeep Mehraj and United Akali Dal leader Gurdeep Singh were arrested in Bathinda.

The Patiala police also rounded up a few activists of the SAD (Amritsar). Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Avtar Singh Makkar said the police had rounded up Jaskaran Singh Kahan Singh Wala at Bathinda.

Police have stepped up vigil in Amritsar and areas around the Golden Temple.

In June, 1984, more than 1,000 people were killed in Operation Bluestar, the raid on Sikhs holiest shrine Golden Temple to flush out extremists led by Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale. He and his associates were killed in the operation.

Meanwhile, Amrik Singh, who was appointed Keshgarh Sahib jathedar by radicals at the Sarbat Khalsa (congregation of Sikhs) last year, urged Sikhs to reach Amritsar on June 6 to participate in an ardass (prayer meeting) organised by various Sikh organisations to pay homage to those killed in Operation Bluestar.

Addressing a gathering at Gurdwara Singh Sahib at Dharmkot in Moga district, he criticised chief minister Parkash Singh Badal for allegedly undermining and misusing Sikh institutions.

The police also cracked down on radicals in Moga district conducting raids at the houses of activists of Akali Dal (Amritsar) and Dal Khalsa.

Several activists were rounded up as a preventive measure, the police said.
In the dispute between two Akali leaders of the Doaba region  former minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur and transport minister Ajit Singh Kohar  chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has picked his side.

To Phillaurs controversial youth leader son Damanvir Singh, who continues to embarrass the party with his continuous statements against Kohar and signature campaign plans, the CM said on Friday: Galat kar reha (its wrong what he is up to). Kohar is our respected leader and Jalandhar rural unit president. It does not suit anyone to make comments on him. Come to the party before going to the media. Badal said it on the sidelines of the death anniversary function of Baba Prem Singh Muralewale organised by party leader Bibi Jagir Kaur.

Badal said he was not taking sides but only asking the stakeholders to sit together and resolve the issue. I have asked Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal to find a solution, he said. Damanvir, as senior vice-president of the Doaba zone of the Youth Akali Dal (YAD), has announced a signature campaign against Kohar from Saturday over his alleged interfering in his fathers constituency. Phillaur has termed the concerns raised by Damanvir as genuine.

After Damanvirs statement, local leaders from both groups have called each other corrupt and mafia before the press. Contesting the Congress complaint to the Election Commission of India (ECI) about irregularities in voter registration, Badal said the rival had raised irrelevant issues.

No fiscal crisis

On the Punjab and Haryana high courts finding the states fiscal position alarming, the CM said the proof of its soundness was in unprecedented development happening in the state. Can any state short of money execute such massive works and spend more that Rs 30 crore in each constituency? I havent seen the honorable judges verdict but everything is fine on fiscal front in Punjab, he said.

Asked to comment on Sikh preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwales demanding that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) be asked to look into the attack on him, the CM said police were competent to solve the case.
After a weeks delay, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 10 results of St Kabir Public School, Sector 26, were declared on Friday. After the school management got a mail from the regional CBSE office to go ahead and declare the results of 113 students who had appeared for the exam, the school shared the result through their intranet portal (school pad) with parents.

A total of 38 students got 10 CGPA. Speaking to HT, school adminsitrator Gurpreet Singh Bakshi said, We are happy with the students performance. We declared the result after getting directions from the CBSE regional office through e-mail. The results will, however, be uploaded on the CBSE website on Monday.

Despite repeated efforts, the CBSE regional officer RK Khanderao could not be contacted. Meanwhile, a day after a local advocate PP Singh had submitted a complaint on behalf of parents on the issue of late declaration of Class-10 results of the school with the Chandigarh Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CCPCR) on Thursday, a meeting was held at Snehalaya, CCPCR office, Maloya, on Friday.

While school management and parent representatives attended the meeting, no CBSE official was present. Panel chairperson Devi Sirohi contacted a senior official at the Delhi HQ asking them to look into this. Sirohi said, In order to know the reason behind the delay, we have summoned the CBSE regional officer, along with other stakeholders, on Monday at 3pm. After getting a letter from a students father R Singh, the CBSE chief vigilance officer, Delhi, has sent a mail marked to their regional officer at Panchkula, directing him to resolve the issue at the earliest.

Section officer, CBSE, Panchkula, Lily Tikrey, who had been officially communicating with the school authorities, has also been summoned by the panel on Monday.
A day after an ardasia (preacher) refused to honour him at the Golden Temple, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday said he went to the shrine to pay obeisance and not to take a siropa (robe of honour).

Speaking on the sidelines of a sangat darhan programme in his Lambi assembly segment here, Badal said he was given a siropa by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC) during his visit to the Golden Temple on Friday. I am a devout Sikh and a firm follower of tenets of Sikhism. I am duty-bound to pay obeisance at the Darbar Sahib. I dont go there to be honoured, Badal said.

Also read: Priest who didnt give siropa to Badal defies transfer order

The CM also appealed the people to maintain peace during the 32nd anniversary of Operation Bluestar on June 6. Nobody will be allowed to disturb the hard-earned peace in the state, he added.

Asked to comment on Sikh preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwales demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the May 17 attack on him near Ludhiana, the CM said the state police were competent enough to investigate the case. The police should be allowed to complete its inquiry in a fair manner, he added.

To take up Punjabi teachers issue with Rajasthan CM

Reacting to the Rajasthan governments decision to abolish post of Punjabi teachers in Punjabi-dominated areas of the neighbouring state, Badal said he would speak to his counterpart Vasundhara Raje Scindia. It was unfortunate that the Rajasthan government has abolished the post of Punjabi teachers in government schools and was not providing free Punjabi textbooks to Scheduled Caste students, Badal added. He said it was a serious issue and grave injustice to Punjabis settled in Rajasthan.

Also read: Sikh priest at Golden Temple denies siropa to CM Badal, transferred
Radical outfit Dal Khalsa on Friday made a fervent appeal to Sikhs around the world to observe June 6 as Khalistan Day.

Hundreds of Dal Khalsa supporters, including women and children, took out a march, calling it Genocide Remembrance Parade, on the streets of Amritsar, displaying photographs of damaged Akal Takht and Sikhs who died during the Operation Bluestar in 1984.

Read more | Ahead of Operation Bluestar anniv, CCTV cameras keep vigil in Amritsar

Carrying saffron flags and placards, the participants marched from the organisations office near the railway station and passed through major lanes of the city before concluding the parade at the Akal Takht after performing ardas (prayer service). They also raised slogans in favour of Khalistan.

Addressing the protest to commemorate 32 years of the army operation, outfit head Harpal Singh Cheema said: Thirty-two years ago, with the attack on the Golden Temple, the foundation stone for an independent state was laid. The sentiments of sovereignty that were strengthened by the army attack have not been buried with the passage of time and change in the political scenario.

Spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh reiterated the outfits call for Amritsar Bandh on June 6. He said thousands of innocent pilgrims, SGPC employees, political activists and volunteers died during the operation.
Taking no chances, the Amritsar police that already has around 8,000 security personnel keeping vigil in the run up to the Operation Bluestar anniversary has put the area around the Golden Temple under electronic surveillance.

To ensure no suspicious activity goes unnoticed, the police have installed closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras at around 30 to 40 locations. Hall Gate, area near the municipal corporation office, Jallianwala Bagh and areas outside the shrine have been covered with CCTV cameras. The local police have also set up a control room from where they can monitor the CCTV footage.

As the city has already received six companies of paramilitary Forces, over 8,000 security personnel are camped in Amritsar to ensure that the 32nd anniversary of the Operation Bluestar passes peacefully.

On the anniversary in 2014 and 2015, clashes took place between Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) task force and radicals inside the shrine. Although, police had detained many youngsters who were trying to shut shops forcibly and brandishing swords on streets last year, it could not prevent the clash inside the shrine.

The police are taking no chances this time. Police commissioner Amar Singh Chahal said: We have installed cameras around the shrine and other key locations to ensure better surveillance. As a lot of movement is expected in these areas on June 6, we are taking no chances and the vigil has been strengthened. Cameras have been installed at around 30 to 40 locations.

Talking about other security arrangements, Chahal said: Already, paramilitary troops are deployed in Amritsar. Force has been called in from other districts as well, and we have over 8,000 cops guarding the city.

As Dal Khalsa has also given a call for Amritsar Bandh on June 6, the city police have already decided that they will not allow anyone to shut down shops forcibly.

Meanwhile, SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar has appealed to Sikh organisations to maintain peaceful atmosphere inside the shrine on June 6.

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Slamming Pakistan for not cooperating in the Pathankot airbase attack probe, Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said this showed the neighbouring country was sponsoring terrorism from its land.

Rajnath, who was in the city on Saturday, said: We allowed the Pakistani probe team to visit the airbase as a gesture of goodwill, but the neighbouring country again betrayed us. Even after five months of the attack, they are not allowing our National Investigation Agency team to visit their country as the agency has ample proof of Pakistans hand in the attack, said the home minister.

Pakistan talks about Kashmir on every international platform, but it is not an issue, its PoK which needs to be discussed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been trying to improve relations with neighbouring countries, but we have not received positive response from Pakistan, he said.

We have heightened vigil along the borders by installing modern equipment and efforts are being made to check infiltration, the home minister said while replying to a query.

Rajnath said the previous United Progressive Alliance government had broken all records of corruption, but no one could point a figure at the Modi government. At 7.6%, India is the fastest-growing economy and we even hope to come closer or even surpass the US if this trend continues, he said.

Read more: NIA chiefs remark denying Pak govts hand in Pathankot attack sparks row

We believe in procedural and structural development and our aim is to provide corruption-free and good governance, he added.

Later, the home minister attended a function of BJP workers which was attended by minister of state for defence Rao Inderjit Singh and partys national vice-president Satpal Malik.
Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) medical superintendent (MS) Dr AK Gupta moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) on Friday and got a stay order against the proceedings on the chargesheet issued to him by the institute for disobeying union health ministers order.

The CAT also issued notices to respondents  union health ministry and PGIMER, and the next date of hearing is July 27. Till then, further proceedings on the impugned chargesheet shall remain stayed, the order reads.

Dr AK Gupta had applied for the post of director, PGIMER for which the last date of receiving applications was April 20, 2016. Since he hadnt received vigilance clearance, it meant that he could not contest for the post of director.

What is the case?

The case dates back to 2014, when Dr AK Gupta went to Nepal for a 90-day long WHO assignment from September 15 to December 15, after taking permission from PGIMER director.

But when the leave was forwarded to the ministry of health and family welfare, the same was not sanctioned and he was asked to come back. The then Union health minister Harsh Vardhan had reportedly expressed surprise as to how Dr Gupta had gone to Nepal on a WHO assignment as a hospital management specialist, without taking consent of the ministry.

Vardhan cancelled Dr Guptas leave and a message was conveyed to the doctor on September 29, 2014. However, instead of following the orders and coming back, he chose to stay back and filed an appeal with the ministry, seeking permission but he didnt get a reply. He even extended his leave by 15 days. Not satisfied from his reply, on November 16, 2015, the ministry ordered the director, PGIMER, to initiate regular departmental inquiry against the applicant on two counts  continuing on WHO assignment in Nepal in spite of health ministers disapproval; and not adhering to the requirement of depositing part of the consultancy fees he had earned during the assignment.

In April 11, Dr YK Chawla, director, PGIMER served a chargesheet to Gupta under Rule 14 of the Central Civil Services (Classification Control & Appeal) Rules, 1965.

The chargesheet reads, Dr AK Gupta has misconduct(sic) himself by disobeying the orders of the superior authority. Thus, he has failed to maintain devotion to duty and acted in a manner unbecoming of an employee of the Institute In the chargesheet, the director added that Dr Gupta had indulged in misconduct by accepting remuneration/ salary from another government, in spite of the fact that his request for grant of Ex-India (Extraordinary) Leave had been declined. He has further misconduct himself by accepting remuneration/ salary from another government, in spite of the fact that his request for grant of Ex-India (Extraordinary) Leave had been declined

The chargesheet has not been approved by the competent authority, which is the governing body in the case, director PGIMER has not applied his mind while signing the chargesheet, reads Dr Guptas application submitted to CAT.

Vigilance clearance denied to Dr Gupta

Dr AK Gupta had applied for the post of director, PGIMER for which the last date of receiving applications was April 20, 2016. But he was not given vigilance clearance.

The application submitted to CAT reads, That the applicant has come to know that after closing date of receipt of applications, PGI has granted vigilance clearance to all other candidates in the month of May, 2016 except the applicant, whose nominations have been forwarded through PGIreason being the chargesheet.

Two rules

While Dr Gupta has said in his application that PGIMERs director has powers - the provisions of serial No. 57 of Schedule I to Regulation 25, which inter-alia vest power to permit the faculty to go abroad for short assignment up to 180 days.

However, under second rule, provisions of Schedule II to Regulations 38, the leave application was forwarded by the director office of the ministry of health and family welfare as per which, the permission from president, PGIMER is required.

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Ahead of the 32nd anniversary of Operation Bluestar, Punjab Police today detained several radical leaders in raids at various places in the state as a preventive measure to maintain law and order.

In Ludhiana, three Sikh hardliners, including Dal Khalsa leader Daljit Singh Bittu, were apprehended, police said. Police also detained Sikh activist Manvinder Singh Giaspura and Jaswant Singh Cheema, local leader of SAD (A), they said.

Read more: CCTV cameras keep vigil in Amritsar

The raids at the houses of various hardliners were carried out in the wee hours, they said. However, some of the members of SAD (Amritsar) and Dal Khalsa managed to escape, police said.

It is a preventive action before the (Operation) Bluestar anniversary to maintain law and order, police said.

In Bathinda, police arrested religious leader Hardeep Mehraj and United Akali Dal leader Gurdeep Singh in the wee hours. Patiala police also rounded up a few activists of the SAD (Amritsar).

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee chief Avtar Singh Makkar said police had rounded up Jaskaran Singh Kahan Singh wala at Bathinda.

Police have stepped up vigil in Amritsar and areas around the Golden Temple.

Op Bluestar anniversary: Dal Khalsa calls for Khalistan Day on June 6

In June, 1984, more than 1,000 people were killed in Operation Bluestar, the raid on Sikhs holiest shrine Golden Temple to flush out extremists led by Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale. Bhindrawale and his associates were killed in the operation.

Meanwhile, Amrik Singh, who was appointed Keshgarh Sahib Jathedar by a Sikh conclave last year, urged Sikhs to reach Amritsar on June 6 to participate in ardass (prayer meeting) organised by various Sikh organisations to pay homage to those killed in Operation Bluestar.

Addressing a gathering at Gurudwara Singh Sahib at Dharmkot in Moga district, he criticised Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for allegedly undermining and misusing Sikh institutions.

Police also cracked down on radicals in Moga district conducting raids at the houses of activists of Akali Dal (Amritsar) and Dal Khalsa.

Several activists were rounded up as a preventive measure, police said.
Accusing the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) of transferring him under political pressure, ardasia (priest) Balbir Singh, who on Friday denied a siropa (saffron scarf of honour) to Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal at the Golden Temple, has said hed resign but not leave the shrine.

Defying orders to join duty on Saturday morning at a Machhiwara gurdwara in Ludhiana district, Balbir Singh stayed home all day. It was unexpected from the SGPC, because I gave it no reason for complaint in my long service. I have performed most of my sewa (service) in the Golden Temple and thats where Im going to stay. They SGPC can dismiss me but not force me to perform sewa anywhere else, said the ardasia.

In reply to a question, he said: I hold no grudge against anyone. I didnt offer siropa to the CM because I was upset that his government had failed to catch those behind the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib. I only executed Gurus will, which I dont regret.

Being denied siropa inside the sanctum sanctorum of the holiest shrine of Sikhs was a huge embarrassment for Badal.

In January, Balbir Singh had also denied the honour to deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. On Saturday, he claimed receiving many calls from appreciative sangat (Sikh public).

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The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday restrained the Punjab government from disbursing pension to those who participated in the agitation for the creation of the Punjabi Suba (province) on the basis of identification by MPs, MLAs and sarpanches till the next date of hearing.

The high court bench of justice SS Saron and justice Gurmit Ram also directed the government to frame criteria, such as minimum prison term, death during custody and death in police firing, for giving pension to those who participated in the Punjabi Suba movement, before the next date of hearing.

The high court order came on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate HC Arora, challenging the pension scheme wherein Rs 1,000 is given as monthly pension to identified beneficiaries.

The government scheme envisages disbursal of pension to the sangharshi yodha identified by former or sitting MPs and MLAs, zila parishad chairpersons and members, block samiti chief and members, panchayat samiti or sarpanch, municipal committee president, mayor and councillor.

The scheme was launched in December 2015 for those who had participated in agitation (from 1955 to 1965). Earlier, deputy commissioner-led committees were entitled to decide claims for such pension based on first information reports and other records pertaining to the movement.

Coming down heavily on the government, the HC bench said: It appears you are encouraging malpractice. We are not averse to it, but the criterion is vague. The word participation in the movement cannot be treated as a criterion, the HC bench added.

The high court referred to the scheme evolved by the Bihar government for giving pension to those who were detained during Emergency in which only those persons are getting pension who have remained in the jail for at least six months or who were killed in police firing or who died in custody during protests. The scheme was upheld by the Patna high court in 2014.
Accusing Amritsar deputy commissioner Varun Roojam and district education officer (DEO, secondary education) Satinder Bir Singh of showing laxity in the ongoing school fee row, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes has given them 15 days to resolve the issue.

Commission vice-chairman Raj Kumar Verka had summoned the two officials on Friday. In Roojams absence, the DEO admitted before the commission that there are about 10 prominent schools in the city that are defying the administrations orders and fleecing parents in the name of re-admission fee, developmental funds and other charges.

Verka pulled up the DEO and questioned him that why has the administration failed to issue notices to schools for not following the orders. He also questioned that when the district administration was claiming not to have any power to regulate the fee structure of private schools, why were the officials holding meetings and issuing orders at the first place.

Verka, who also met protesting parents, said he has called a meeting with the Punjab education department officials to discuss the issue on June 6.

Talking on the condition of anonymity, a district education department official said political pressure was stopping them from issuing notices to schools. He said the first order issued on April 28 should have been enough to resolve the issue, but after parents associations put pressure on the administration, the DEO had to issue another letter. The official said they are being cornered from every direction, while the solution lies in the hands of the state government, which should create a regulatory body.

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Even the leaves were bogged down by the 45-degree-Celsius heat. Nothing moved. The shimmering gold sunlight eventually disappeared without any pomp.

Right then, in a blink, the birds changed guard. Melodious voices were replaced by alarm calls and, seconds later, 12 wild boar appeared to drink from a waterhole lit by a rising full moon.

As the silvery disc made its way across the sky, the sounds of a forest by night took over. Wild dogs barked, deer screeched their alarms, the night jar hooted and there was a shimmer of ghostly trees standing still, clad in their white barks.

At 3.30 am there was a yelp from a herbivore, most likely a wild boar resting near the waterhole, followed by the scampering of a myriad hooves on the dry forest floor as a host of animals fled. In the sudden hush that followed, I could hear the soft, rhythmic padding of stealthy paws, sure-footed and strong.

It was a sound that, in some primeval throwback, immediately made my heart race. In the midst of Maharashtras Pench wildlife reserve, a leopard was on the prowl.

Its hard to move, or even breathe, when you know theres nothing separating you from a prime predator except a handful of leaves.

I was seated up in a machan or skeletal tree house, spending the night in the jungle as part of Penchs annual waterhole machan census, when it invites ordinary people in on a full-moon summer night, to count the animals as they walk warily down for a drink.

In all, 750 people from across the country  Kolkata, Kanpur, Mumbai, Indore, Chennai, Bhopal, Ahmednagar and Siliguri  applied for the 195 spots, following announcements of the census dates in the newspapers. (Incidentally, you have a better chance of getting in if your have spent some time in the wild, and can offer details in your application.)

Out of 750 applicants from Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Siliguri, 195 were selected to spend the night in the jungle for the waterhole machan census at Maharashtras Pench Tiger Reserve. (Sunny Shende/HT Photo)

Once selected, you are allocated a machan and a forest guard for protection. The day of the census, you pick a number out of a hat and that determines whether you get a machan in the core or in an outer area, near a waterhole frequented by tigers or one that gets mainly herbivores. Because there are all kinds across the 640-sq-km Maharashtra section of the reserve.

Seated in my shelter of leaves and an undulating bamboo floor, 12 ft above the ground, I finally took a quiet breath. With every sound amplified, I had to steel myself to move a little, so I could lean and peep out for a better view.

Two tiny red laser points floated right by the water, 15 metres away  the gleaming eyes of the carnivorous cat reflecting the moonlight.

I heard the padding of large paws again as the leopard walked around the waterhole, stopped, and walked again. Ten minutes later, the pinpoints of light disappeared and the silence of the night jar confirmed that the cat had left.

READ: In MPs Pench reserve, one tiger killed every 10 days this summer

Over the next 90 minutes, the herbivores returned, the sun came back in all its fury. The night was over. It was time to get my feet back on the ground.

Pointing to a trail of pugmarks that went right under the machan, van mazdoor or forest labourer Antu Tekam confirmed my sighting.

I was beaming; after 18 hours in sweltering discomfort, I was about to make a really noteworthy entry on my census sheet.

READ: In defence of the Bengaluru leopard: Why big cats are entering cities

A participant perches with binoculars during the waterhole machan census in west Pench, on May 21. (Pench Tiger Reserve and Conservation Centre)

Chance Encounters

Among those who also spent the night listening and counting in Pench on May 21 was a real-estate developer from Bengaluru, an architect from Hyderabad, an HR executive from Pune, a banker from Nagpur, and a couple from Mumbai passionate about wildlife  a Montessori teacher and investment director.

Maharashtra is the only state in the country that invites citizens in for such a survey, said Jaydeep Das, livelihood expert at the Pench Tiger Reserve and Conservation Centre. Weve been doing the waterhole survey for 15 years and we get hundreds of applications every year.

Until this year the waterhole census was primarily conducted to give people the experience of night in a jungle and make them aware of why conserving wildlife is important, added Sachin Thakre, Geographic Information System specialist with the reserve. But this year it was different. Though the official survey is conducted with the help of night-vision cameras, the citizen data is being analysed with the help of the Wildlife Institute of India to reassess the density of herbivores in different sections of the reserve.

It certainly helped realty developer Sunil Baberwal, 47, connect with nature in a way he never had before. I saw a sloth bear from my machan at 8.40 pm. I could hear it approaching and then the guard said, Dont move. I had my right hand stretched out, holding a bottle of water, for a good 10 minutes, he said, laughing. The bear rummaged nearby for a good 20 minutes, leaving Baberwal thrilled but also scared. I know bears are unpredictable and can be very aggressive, he said. But wildlife excites me! Experiencing the sounds, smells and sights of the jungle at night is an experience that just a handful can have and it was worth all the effort.

Real-estate developer Sunil Baberwal from Bengaluru was both excited and scared to spot a sloth bear from his machan during the survey. (Sanjay Karkare)

Then there was Mumbai husband-wife duo Priya, 43, and Sridhar Sivaram, 47. The Montessori teacher and investment director spend most of their holidays touring forests and reserves. Some people think were crazy, said Priya, laughing. In fact our teenage kids wont accompany us on these trips any more.

They picked a short straw and got allotted a machan frequented mainly by herbivores, but they spotted rare and exotic birds, including the Indian Pitta, which even got the forest guard excited, the Orange Headed Thrush, Racket Tailed Drongo, Black Naped Monarch and Golden Oriole.

Im just happy to have experienced the jungle at night. I would totally do this again, Priya said.

For Pune HR executive Saptarshi Bhattacharya, 32, the highlight came in the form of a barking deer bark at 4 am. That is a rare sighting. Over 13 years, I have been to Pench and Ranthambore so many times, but I have never seen this reclusive deer, Bhattacharya said. And he barked right at me. It was extremely exciting.

Pune-based HR head Saptarshi Bhattacharya was excited about spotting the rare barking deer. (Sanjay Karkare)

Danger lurks in the forest; you can hear it all night long. The wild dogs bark in unison, either hunting or defending their prey; the deer call out their alarms from time to time; the nigh jar screeches every time an animal approaches. Every sound sets your heart racing.

Its a night of much discomfort too  though its not as bad as you had thought it would be. Its hot but you have to stay all covered up to protect yourself from insects; you must pee in the bushes before sundown and then hold it until sunrise; you have no backrest and only a thick bedsheet to pad the uneven bamboo floor.

But none of this matters because the adrenaline is racing through your veins. As you watch the sun make its patterns on the trees and forest floor, then the moon bathe it all in silvery light, and eventually the dawn peep out at the horizon, you know you were lucky to get a spot. And, as you leave, you say a silent thank you to the leopard for showing up.

READ: Green diet, exercise: New fitness regimen for Mumbai national park leopards

WATCH: Participants train for the waterhole machan census
The beginning of monsoon brings relief, and romance, to Mumbai. But in towns around the city, it creates magic. In this season, leaden skies and drenched foliage make the Western Ghats glow in the dark; a king cobra slithers across overflowing streams in the rainforests of Agumbe; hundreds of peacocks dance at once in Morachi Chincholi  all a few hours from bustling, urban Mumbai.

And before the rains set in, you can wade in knee-deep waters at Indias first marine national park just before the rains begin, to let an octopus squirt ink at you; or park into the potholes at Nighoj, a basalt-rock river bed, hollowed out like a giant block of cheese. Or make memories that cannot be captured on film in Devgad, where the beaches glimmer neon-blue on moonless nights, with bioluminescent waters.

Read: How bioluminescent animals protect themselves with the light they emit

Once you witness a natural phenomenon, like the craters of Nighoj, they stay with you, says Mumbai-based travel expert Jayesh Morvankar, founder of Odati, an adventure tourism company.

This monsoon, take the road less travelled to marvel at these primeval wonders that could take your breath away  and dance with the peacocks, while you can.

Jungle Book experience

A cloak of mist teems with king cobras, black panthers and crocodiles  welcome to the Agumbe Rainforest Reserve Station (ARRS), located in the second wettest place in the country.

Walking into the forest is like being inside the Anaconda film. It can be a high-adrenaline activity, especially if you get left behind  until you catch up, its nothing but you and the deep, dark forest says Akul Tripathi, travel expert and TV anchor.

Agumbe is called the king cobra capital of the world, says Anup Prakash, field director of the ARRS. Astonishingly, people of Agumbe have lived without conflict among the worlds larget venomous species for decades, he adds.

To enter the forest, seek permission from the range forest officer at Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary.

Getting there: Fly to Mangalore and take a 2.5-hour drive to Agumbe

Email: director@agumberainforest.org for details

Call: Anup on 94803-34613

Watch: Agumbe in all its glory of misty mountains and fascinating wildlife

The peacock dance

Hundreds of peacocks flock at Morachi Chincholi making it a delightful tourism spot in the monsoon. (Stanley Dias)

Four hours from Mumbai, hundreds of peacocks flock Morachi Chincholi. The quaint village guarantees a rustic experience  homestays, bullock cart rides, and home-made meals.

Marketing professional Doli Karmakar, 30, has visited twice since 2014. After going with my colleagues during the monsoon, I wanted to take my family to this isolated spot. Despite going in March, all of us had so much fun just observing the peacocks going about their day.

Getting there: Take the Pune-Ahmednagar highway till Shikrapur, and drive to Hivare village. Morachi Chincholi is 3 km away.

Visit: chincholimorachi.com

Call: 96739-49305

Squish, sponge, sting

Narara Marine National Park is a treasure trove of marine life including puffer fish, octopus, brittle fish (anti-clockwise) and more. All you need to do is take a walk and discover life under the sea. (Akul Tripathi )

You dont need to dive, snorkel or even put on a suit. Just dunk your feet in the sea to see coral reef, dolphins, puffer fish, octopus the list goes on. At Narara Marine National Park, Jamnagar, theres enough to indulge the curious.

Depending on the tide, one can go 2 to 3 km deep into the sea, says Kunal Munsiff, 38, a Borivli-based chartered accountant and birdwatcher. It is a great site for birding too. We saw the rare grey hypocolius here, along with flamingos and pelicans.

Getting there: Drive or fly to Jamnagar; Narara islands are 60 km away

Visit: www.gujarattourism.com for details

Watch: Kunal Munsiffs video of birding at Narara Marine National Park

The Stone age

Visit Dandeli to be awed by a stalagmite, religiously regarded as a Shiva linga at the Kavala caves in the Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary. (Akul Tripathi)

The popular Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary holds a secret in its heart. A short hike leads to a world of limestone caves, one of which houses a stalagmite that is worshipped  it is believed to nurture an ancient linga, the symbol of Lord Shiva.

The oldest gods were those representing natural phenomena. A living linga  a stalagmite  is being continuously formed by limestone. The short trek to the caves features hornbills and malabar giant squirrels for company, and majestic creepers weave through the valley below, says Tripathi.

Getting there: Take the train to Hubli and drive 74 km to reach Dandeli

Glow in the dark

If you are a fan of bioluminescence or emission of light by a living organism, hike up to spots in the Western Ghats to witness the rare phenomenon. The mysterious sea is aglow most nights at the Taramumbari beach in Sindhudurg too. Above is a representational image of the sea. (iStock and Explara.com)

On a no-moon night, at the Taramumbari beach in Sindhudurg, the water glimmers neon-blue. Botanist Nagesh Daptardar, who has been studying the phenomenon, says this is caused by a type of phytoplankton called diatoms, commonly found here.

In the Chorla Ghats, 60 km off Panjim, the decaying forests take on an otherworldly glow owing to bioluminescent fungi.

Getting there: Fly or drive to Goa; Chorla Ghats are 2 hours from Panjim; Taramumbari is a 9-hour drive along the NH66, call 94049-39870 for details

Call: 8867422078 (Wanshan for the Ghats); 9404939870 (Sagar Maladkar, researcher under Prof Daptardar in Sindhudurg)

Hollow canyons

You can walk through river-made craters that run 40 feet deep in Nighoj.

You can walk through holes carved into basalt rock that run 40 feet deep, formed purely by the force of water, making the landscape look like a hollowed block of cheese.

Travel expert Jayesh Morvankar says, We saw the Kukadi river flow through this landscape, when the water levels were low. We drove down to the basin, parked and walked through the potholes, in wonder about the formations nature can make.

Getting there: Follow the directions for Morachi Chincholi ; Nighoj is 20 km away

Follow the writer on @kanika4444

Read: Discover Alibaugs all-new buzzing avatar
The US First Lady Michelle Obama joined the anti-Trump bandwagon on Friday as she took a dig at the presumptive Republican presidential nominee by saying that America does not build walls to keep immigrants out.

Here in America, we do not give into our fears. We do not build up walls to keep people out because we know that our greatness has always depended on contributions from people who were born elsewhere but sought out this country and made it their home, Michelle, 52, said in her address to students of City College of New York.

From innovations like Google and eBay to inventions like the artificial heart, the telephone, even the blue jeans; to beloved patriotic songs like God Bless America like national landmarks like the Brooklyn Bridge and the White House - both of which were designed by architects who were immigrants, she said amidst applause from the audience.

Read | Michelle Obama praises Indias steps to educate, empower girls

Being the First Lady, she said that she had the privilege of travelling around the world and visiting dozens of different countries.

First lady Michelle Obama reacts to cheers from the class of 2016, during commencement for City College of New York on Friday. (AP)

I have seen how leaders who rule by intimidation - leaders who demonise and dehumanise entire groups of people - often do so because they have nothing else to offer. And I have seen how places that stifle the voices and dismiss the potential of their citizens are diminished; how they are less vital, less hopeful, less free.

Read | The US is a nation of immigrants: First Lady Michelle Obama

That is not who Americans are. That is not what this country stands for. No, here in America, we do not let our differences tear us apart. Not here. Because we know that our greatness comes when we appreciate each others strengths, when we learn from each other, when we lean on each other. Because in this country, it is never been each person for themselves. No, we are all in this together. We always have been, Michelle said.

Without mentioning the rhetoric coming from certain political quarters, Michelle said some folks out there today seem to have a very different perspective.

Read | Not running for White House, Michelle Obama tells crowd

They seem to view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to be tapped. They tell us to be afraid of those who are different, to be suspicious of those with whom we disagree.

They act as if name-calling is an acceptable substitute for thoughtful debate, as if anger and intolerance should be our default state rather than the optimism and openness that have always been the engine of our progress, Michelle added.
Democrat frontrunner Hillary Clinton said her rival and Republican Partys presumptive presidential candidate Donald Trump wants to be a dictator.

We are trying to elect a president, not a dictator, she said at a campaign rally in San Bernardino, California on Friday, ahead of the crucial California Democratic primary slated for June 7.

According to sources, after day of ripping into Trump over his comments on immigration and his repeated insistence that an Indiana-born judge would not treat him fairly because of his Mexican heritage, the comment was Clintons starkest yet, Politico reported.

In the rally, Clinton let loose on Trump, questioning not only his qualifications, but his sincerity.

I dont understand Donald Trump running a whole campaign based on nothing but denigrating immigrants, she said, pointing out that Trump, whose mother was Scottish and whose wife is Slovenian, has family that came over to the US from abroad.

Is this nothing but a political stunt? she added.
During a recent news conference, he showered a few of those on a target that attracts more of his ire than even Hillary Clinton  the media. I think the political press are among the most dishonest people Ive ever met, he blustered.

Then he blasted individuals, calling one reporter a sleazy guy, another a real beauty. At almost every rally he addresses, he will point at the media and deliver choice adjectives like slime.

Trump has described The New York Times as a failing newspaper, and accused The Washington Post of attacking him on the orders of its owner, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.

This is literally an abusive relationship.

Read | Obscene buffoon or political genius? Top 10 Trump-isms

But as those who study such relationships will tell you, it isnt one thats going to necessarily end in divorce. The reason is simple  they need each other.

As Trumps trash talk terminated at the presser, his interview appeared in The Hollywood Reporter. Look at his timeline on Twitter, and hes regularly promoting his television interviews.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on Thursday in San Jose, California. (AFP)

In fact, Trump spends more time making himself available to the dishonest folk than, Ill bet, any presidential candidate in the history of American politics. In contrast, Hillary Clinton avoids the press as if its going to transmit the Zika virus to her.

Read | North Korea says Trump isnt screwy at all, a wise choice for US president

Trump knows he gets thousands of hours of free air time by doing plenty of interviews. If you were to switch on the television at prime time in the US, you can safely assume Trump is speaking live on at least one channel, and many others are speaking about him. Hes as ubiquitous as trolls on social media.

The media, meanwhile, despite being lambasted by candidate Trump will give him a platform because he secures for them that most precious of commodities  eyeballs, even if those are rolling in their sockets as he bombasts along.

Thats also the reason his speeches and pressers are carried live on cable news networks. After all, what other presumptive presidential nominee would respond to a question about the gorilla killed in an Ohio zoo?

Trump knows abusing the press isnt losing him any votes; if anything it may win him some.

Read | Full of bizarre rants, feuds and lies, Trump unfit to become Prez: Clinton

Recent surveys have shown the American media enjoys the confidence of the countrys people at nearly the same level as the US Congress; unless you like the ambience at the bottom of the barrel, this is not a great thing. For Trump, its a whinge-win situation.

There will be five more months of this impolite exchange. By then, Trump would have consumed a historic amount of media space, because he cannot be resisted. This blog itself proves that.
After the grilling of Prime Minister David Cameron on live television, it was the turn of leading Vote Leave campaigner, justice secretary Michael Gove, who was hard put to give details of his economy-related claims in the event of Britain voting to leave the EU.

Gove harped on the need to take back control from Brussels, but was put on the backfoot by questions from Sky News interviewer Faisal Islam and the audience on Friday night. Commentators said Gove performed better than Cameron, but details on a post-Brexit Britain after the June 23 referendum remained sketchy.

Pinned down on Vote Leaves claim that Britain sends 350 million a week to Brussels, an amount it says can be invested within the country by exiting the European Union, Gove remained on shaky ground since the reality is slightly different.

Official accounts say the 350 million is a notional figure and most of it is anyway returned to Britain in the form of a rebate. The amount doesnt really leave Britain, experts say.

Told bluntly by audience members the figure is part of the camps Project Lies, Gove said: We cant count on that rebate. That rebate is decided by other countries, its not up to us. That rebate can be whittled away. I fear that if we vote to remain, that rebate will be reduced further.

Responding to claims that leaving the EU will enable ploughing 100 million more a week in the National Health Service, Cameron retorted the Vote Leave camp was writing cheques they know will bounce. Nine out of 10 economists say therell be a profound shock if we leave the EU. That means there will be less money  not more. Its also why so many doctors and nurses support remaining in the EU.

Meanwhile, six former Labour leaders urged the partys supporters to vote to remain in the EU. In a statement, Neil Kinnock, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband and former acting leaders Harriet Harman and Margaret Beckett said: If Labour stays at home, Britain leaves.

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Pundits have all but written Bernie Sanders out of the race but his fans are not letting go of their dream. They still want to believe he can take his promise of a fairer society all the way to the White House.

Sanders is mounting a last stand in the progressive bastion of California, which holds its primary next week, to prove -- against all odds -- that he can defeat Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic standard-bearer in a match-up against Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Giovan Lunar, a 21-year-old biology student, emerged fired up Thursday from an afternoon rally in Modesto, a small town in the center of the most populous US state.

Hes giving us hope. He really cares about our future, said the young man, sporting black-rimmed glasses and a pencil mustache -- and undeterred by Clintons overwhelming lead in the delegate race.

Read: Animal rights activists disrupt Bernie Sanders rally in California

Three thousand people braved scorching heat to hear the Vermont senator pitch his promise of free health care, higher taxes on the rich and legal marijuana, a week before the final Super Tuesday of 2016 when six states vote including California.

If we have a large turnout, were going to win, Sanders told the crowd, who roared back: Bernie! Bernie! and Feel the Bern!

Prince and David Bowie tracks set the mood and the occasional whiff of marijuana floated in the air as actress Susan Sarandon -- a longtime friend of the 74-year-old Sanders -- whipped up the multi-ethnic, multi-generational crowd.

In Modesto, many of Sanderss supporters are young people who will vote for the first time in the November presidential election.

Hes an inspiration. Look at this crowd. He has a great message to youth about unemployment, student debt, said Misael Villeda, a 24-year-old psychology student. Hes energized the Democratic Party.

But Clinton is also campaigning hard in California to snatch victory from Sanders -- and take his last remaining argument for staying in the presidential race off the table. And the odds are in her favor.

Bernie-mania

The US presidential nominations process is based on winning delegates, and Clinton has already amassed 2,313, according to CNNs tally, just 70 shy of the number needed to clinch the nomination. Sanders is considerably behind, at 1,546.

Several hundred delegates are up for grabs next Tuesday, and Clinton is all but assured of passing the threshold.

However steep the odds, the Sanders camp is not giving up -- starting with Sarandon, who told AFP she fully expected Clinton to be indicted over her use of a private email server as secretary of state.

Read: Dont believe Clinton is qualified to be US president: Sanders

A lot of the super-delegates are changing their mind, Sarandon said.

Sanders has long argued that Clintons lead is based on her broad advantage with so-called super-delegates, party grandees who can vote for whoever they wish at the national convention in July.

Without the huge super-delegate advantage, Clintons lead is much narrower.

Two evils

But much as they want to believe in his chances, many Sanders supporters are already soul-searching over what to do if Clinton triumphs over their champion.

Some, like Villeda, are resolved to do what it takes to keep Trump from the presidency.

Hillary needs us to win, he said -- consoling herself with the hope that Sanders strong challenge to Clinton will give him leverage to shape party policy.

Others find it harder to stomach the idea of backing a candidate they fought tooth-and-nail.

Artiste Booker, an African American stay-at-home-mother, calls her a Republican in disguise -- a frequent line of attack from the Sanders camp.

Shes not honest. Shes not truthful. Look at her emails, said the 31-year-old.

Booker says she would struggle to pick between Trump and Clinton: It would be like choosing between two evils.

Trump has repeatedly said he is confident he can win over supporters of the self-style democratic socialist -- with whom he shares a protectionist platform on trade, and an anti-establishment message that has proven powerfully appealing in the White House race so far.

And some of the most extreme voices in the Sanders camp have indeed suggested a Trump presidency would be preferable to electing Clinton.

But that argument got short shrift from Leroy Smith, a 26-year-old bartender with a bold afro: Its like calling to vote for Hitler to topple the system.

Plus, he says, Trump is a bad businessman, and its the last thing this country needs.

Marie Frazier, a 59-year-old homemaker, is torn about her choice come November.

I love Bernie Sanders. I dont want to give up the idea of voting for Bernie Sanders, she said. But I dont want Donald Trump to win.
As Hillary Clinton moves to close the Democratic race, irrespective of winning or losing the California primary next Tuesday, she has demonstrated rare aggression against her Republican rival Donald Trump.

In a widely cited speech this week, Clinton said Trump was thin-skinned, unprepared and temperamentally unfit for the White House and had a bizarre fascination with dictators.

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, shot back, saying Clinton should be jailed for using a private email server as secretary of state, and, She doesn't even look presidential.

There has been a sharp escalation in the war of words between the two, with Trump appearing to be on the defensive, specially over the Trump University lawsuits.

He has upset even his own party leaders, many of whom have yet to embrace him fully, by attacking the federal judge overseeing the lawsuits over his Mexican heritage.

Trump has tried to dodge allegations that his attack on the judge amounted to racism, but he seemed to be one of the few who seemed convinced he has not being blatantly racist.

Gonzalo Curiel, the judge, is of Mexican descent but was born and raised in the US. Trump alleges he has been unfair to him for his plan to build a wall along the southern border.

The Clinton campaign cited Trumps attacks on the judge as another proof of him not being fit for office, underscoring his already controversial position on Hispanics.

Their war of words obscures the fact that Clinton has still not won the Democratic nomination and faces a very determined rival who wants to stay in the race as long as it takes.

Bernie Sanders, trailing Clinton by a very thin margin in polls in California  45% to 47.7% in the RealClearPolitics average, is way behind in the count of delegates.

Clinton is merely 69 delegates short of the 2,383 needed to win the Democratic nomination; Sanders is short of the same mark by 835 delegates, with no realistic chance of bridging it.

He can still get there statistically if he were to pick up nearly all the 903 delegates left to be won in the remaining nominating contests in California, New Jersey and New Mexico.

But thats only a statistical possibility. Clinton is expected to cross the 2,382 threshold on Tuesday with 548 delegates up for grabs  they will share them in proportion to their vote shares.

Trump has already wrapped up the Republican nomination, with 1,239 delegates, two more than needed, but will continue to be called presumptive till his coronation at the convention in July.


The idea may have seemed mad, but after all, the beer is called the Madman of Bruges  or Brugse Zot in Dutch.

And with the help of crowdfunding efforts among some 400 Madman fans, the dream of building a beer pipeline through the Belgian city of Bruges is becoming real.

You have to be a bit crazy  like the beer  to do such a project. I just had the money for that, and I liked it. So I went crazy and gave the money to the brewery, said local restaurant owner Philippe Le Loup, who poured some $11,000 into the pipeline.

A worker pours a glass of beer for customers at the Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges, Belgium. (AP)

Brewer Xavier Vanneste got the idea four years ago to pump the beer from his Bruges brewery to a bottling plant outside of town in a pipeline instead of having hundreds of transportation trucks blighting the cobblestoned streets of the UNESCO-protected medieval city.

Cases of beer and vats full of beer at the Halve Maan bottling plant on the outskirts of Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. (AP)

What at first seemed like an outrageous dream, began to seem possible when Vanneste started talking to local beer enthusiasts, he said.

Jokes were coming in fast, with people saying we are willing to invest as long as we can have a tapping point on the pipeline, Vanneste said. That gave us the idea to crowdfund the project to make this possible.

Tourists ride in a boat down a main canal past the Hospital St. Jan in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. (AP)

Thanks to Le Loup and others, he is now staring at the opening end of the pipeline, which from this autumn will start pumping some 4,000 liters (1,060 gallons) of beer an hour toward the bottling plant, around 3 kilometers (2 miles) away in a non-descript industrial zone.

That is a lot of beer, more than you can drink in a lifetime, said the owner of De Halve Maan brewery, which in addition to Brugse Zot is also famous for its Straffe Hendrik beer brand.

Brewer Xavier Vanneste stands near a brewing vat at the Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. (AP)

Sending the pipeline along all streets where customers could siphon off their favorite suds without having to leave home was too utopian even for Vanneste, but he came up with the next best thing  IOUs with a lifelong drinking guarantee.

We have several formulas: bronze, silver and gold, he said. If you put in e.g. 7,500 euros ($8,350), you will receive for the rest of your days, every day one bottle of Brugse Zot.

Brewer Xavier Vanneste walks down a spiral staircase toward underground pipes at the Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. (AP)

The offer was hard to refuse and about 10 percent of the total 4 million euro ($4.5 million) investment for the pipeline has been financed through crowdfunding. With it came a popular surge of support that has stood Vanneste in good stead.

With a warren of municipal, regional and federal urbanization laws, building approvals were often laborious to come by for something as unique as a beer pipeline but authorities soon realized a whole community was backing it.

A newly crafted group of pipes disappears into a wall in the cellar of the Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. (AP)

Not only did they provide financial funding for the project, they also provided a political base for it because so many people were supporting it, Vanneste said.

The city also stood to gain. In between the picturesque beguinage houses and Our Ladys Cathedral, De Halve Maan brewery has given the sometimes overly touristy, so-called Venice of the North a sense of real life. Vanneste could have done what so many others have done  move out, lock, stock and barrel from the city with its canals, gabled Gothic houses, horse-drawn carriages and restaurants with six-language menus.

A sculpture of a face in a half moon made of metal stands at the entrance of the Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. (AP)

Now, he hopes to have the best of both worlds  a historic brewery in a location where it should be and an environmentally friendly way of transporting his brews out to the bottling plant which will allow him to continue to grow.

But it is not only Vannestes family business that is growing. The generous contributor to the project, Le Loup, is eyeing his paunch.

You can tell from my belly that I am a beer fan, he says.

A truck pumping beer is parked outside at the Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges, Belgium on Thursday, May 26, 2016. (AP)
The Syrian army has crossed the boundary of Raqqa province after advancing in a major Russian-backed offensive against Islamic State militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war, said on Saturday.

Heavy Russian air strikes hit Islamic State-held territory in eastern areas of Syrias Hama province, near the boundary of Raqqa province, on Friday and the army reached the edge of the province.

Raqqa city, further east, is Islamic States de facto capital in Syria and, along with Mosul in Iraq, the ultimate target of those seeking to destroy the groups self-declared caliphate.

Syrian army spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

The Syrian army offensive is the third big assault on the self-proclaimed caliphate in recent days after Iraqi forces attempted to storm a city and a Syrian militia advanced with U.S. support.

The three big offensives are some of the most aggressive campaigns against Islamic State since it declared its aim to rule over all Muslims from parts of Iraq and Syria two years ago.
A British citizen who worked for a Philippines-based global criminal organization was sentenced on Friday to over 15 years in a US prison for conspiring to import 100kg of North Korean methamphetamine into the United States.

Scott Stammers, 47, was sentenced by US district judge Andrew Carter in Manhattan. He was one of five defendants who pleaded guilty last year in a case stemming from a US Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation.

His case is one of several prosecutions to flow out of the 2012 arrest in Liberia of Paul Le Roux, the head of a multinational drug and weapons trafficking enterprise who turned into a top government informant.

On Monday, Joseph Rambo Hunter, a former US Army sergeant who prosecutors said oversaw contract killings for Le Roux, received a 20-year prison term for conspiring to kill a federal drug agent and an informant.

Prosecutors said Stammers, while living in the Philippines, managed drug and weapons trafficking for an organization led by Zimbabwe-born Le Roux, who participated in the sting that resulted in his arrest.

Prosecutors said in 2012, Le Roux tasked Stammers and British citizen Philip Shackels with storing and protecting a large amount of North Korean-produced methamphetamine obtained from members of a Hong Kong-based organization.

Law enforcement in Thailand and in the Philippines later seized the methamphetamine.

In 2013, the same members of the Hong Kong organization, Ye Tiong Tan Lim and Kelly Allan Reyes Peralta, agreed to supply 100kg of the methamphetamine to purported members of a South American drug cartel, prosecutors said.

The South American cartel members were actually DEA informants, prosecutors said.

Tan Lim and Peralta agreed to deliver the North Korean-produced narcotics in Thailand, where Stammers, Shackels and another defendant, Adrian Valkovic, would provide security, transportation and storage for the drugs, prosecutors said.

The five men were arrested by Thai law enforcement in September 2013 while working on the deal, after Stammers reported to Le Roux that all main players are now on the ground, prosecutors said.

Like Stammers, who received a 181-month prison term, the other defendants pleaded guilty to conspiring to import methamphetamine into the United States.

Valkovic was sentenced in January to 113 months in prison, Peralta in April received a 91-month term, and Shackles was sentenced to 85 months. Tan Lims sentencing is set for Tuesday.


The machine Hitler used to send coded messages to his generals met the supercomputer that revealed its secrets on Saturday, watched on by veteran operatives whose painstaking work helped bring World War II to an end.

Scientists at Bletchley Park in southern England, the WWII code breaking headquarters, fired up the valves, whirring wheels and spinning tors of the two machines to recreate how German military chiefs sent secret messages and how they were deciphered.

Hitlers Lorenz machine boasted 1.6 million billion possible coding combinations thanks to a series of twelve rotors, a million times more complex than the more feted Enigma machine.

Through luck and the ingenuity of engineer Tommy Flowers, scientists were able to deduce how the machine operated and then build a machine to work out the settings of Lorenzs rotors.

Colossus is regarded as the worlds first programmable, electronic digital computer, but received little attention as the project was kept secret for decades, depriving those responsible of due accolades.

Among those watching at the National Museum of Computing were Margaret Bullen, who helped build Colossus, and some of the remaining operatives who fed encrypted German messages into the machine, including Irene Dixon, now in her nineties.

It was only decades after the war that Dixon discovered she had been processing the most sensitive of information.

We found out we were intercepting coded messages sent by Hitler to his generals, she told AFP.

Hitler wouldve been furious if he had known, we were decrypting the messages even before his generals were.

Information gleaned using Colossus helped the Allies confirm that Hitler mistakenly believed the D-Day landings would target Calais, and experts believe the supercomputer may have shortened the war by two years.

Dixon and other Wrens from the womens branch of the Royal Navy were sworn to secrecy, and even other workers at Bletchley Park were unaware of the existence of the massive computer, which took up a whole room.

Some of the Wrens did ask why it was so hot (close to the Colossus room), and some used to dry their washing next door, recalled Dixon.

The main Lorenz cypher machine is on loan from the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo, but the special keyboard used to send the message to the rotors is a recent discovery.
Benjamin Franklin was a genius, recognized as such at home and abroad in his own time and still today. George Washington referred to him as that great philosopher. Thomas Jefferson called him the greatest man of the age and country in which he lived. John Adams said of him: Franklin had a great genius, original, sagacious, and inventive, capable of discoveries in science no less than of improvements in the fine arts and the mechanical arts.His reputation was more universal than that of Leibnitz or Newton, Frederick or Voltaire. Much of Franklins reputation was a result of his phenomenal demonstration of capturing lightning from the sky and bringing it safely to the ground without harming people or property. Before this, according to Adams, grown men would hide under their beds in superstitious fear during storms of lightning and thunder. In ancient times, lightning was believed to be the javelins that the god Jove hurled at his enemies, and was referred to as Joves thunderbolts. In more modern times lightning was believed to be Gods method of punishing people for their sins. So Franklin was widely considered a great magician who, with his rod, had removed the danger from Joves thunderbolts. With Franklins demonstration, the world began to look upon natural phenomena in a different light, recognizing mans ability to understand and control them through science and invention.

The lightning rod was the most spectacular, but it was only one of Franklins many transformative inventions. Most inventions are improvements upon prior art, but there was nothing before Franklins rod to capture lightning. It was absolutely new and original, without precursors or forerunners. And what makes this Franklin invention even more monumental is that despite the great advances in technology, the lightning rod in use today is essentially the same as when Franklin invented it.

The lightning rod was the result of a flash of genius that came to Franklin after years experimenting with electricity. Another of his original creations, bifocal eyeglasses, was very simple and came to him without any previous experimentation. One contemporary claimed Franklin invented them so he could watch the girls across the room while still keeping his eyes on the one next to him. His own explanation was less salacious. When traveling, he said, he had to carry two pairs of spectacles, which he shifted when he wanted to read or when he wanted to take in the view of the countryside. Finding this change troublesome, he said, I had the glasses cut, and half of each kind associated in the same circle.

By this means, as I wear my spectacles constantly, I have only to move my eyes up or down, as I want to see distinctly far or near, the proper glasses being always ready. This I find more particularly convenient since my being in France, the glasses that serve the best at table to see what I eat, not being the best to see the faces of those on the other side of the table who speak to me. And when ones ears are not well accustomed to the sounds of a language, a sight of the movements in the features of him that speaks, helps.So I understand French better by the help of my spectacles.

A third original invention of Franklins is daylight saving time, which gives extra hours of daylight to enjoy in the evening. A stickler for economy, Franklins dictum early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise urged his fellow countrymen to work during daylight and sleep after dark, saving money on candles. He calculated that if all the families of Paris who caroused until late at night and then slept until noon would arise with the sun six hours earlier, 64 million pounds of candle wax would be saved in six months time. With tongue in cheek, he proposed to ring church bells at sunrise, and if that was not enough, let canon [sic] be fired in every street to wake the sluggards. Congress has never gone to that extreme, but over the decades  the recent spike in energy costs providing the latest example  it has heeded Franklins intent and extended the number of days covered by daylight saving time.

From utilitarian ideas to the world of art, Franklin was a force. Mozart and Beethoven wrote music for an instrument invented by Franklin, the glass armonica. The idea for the glass armonica was not something he had dreamed up out of the blue. Franklin loved music, enjoyed singing and played the harp, guitar and violin. During his stay in London, he heard a concert played on musical glasses and was delighted by the sound they made. The performer had a number of glasses on the table; each glass held a different amount of water that produced a different tone when he rubbed his wet finger over the rim. Franklin was charmed by the sweetness of its tones and the music produced. However, he thought the process was inefficient. The players finger had to run all around the rim of each glass and then had to jump to other glasses to play a melody. Furthermore, the glasses had to be filled precisely and tuned before each performance.

Taking up the challenge, Franklin experimented until he had produced a new instrument that he called the armonica, from the Italian word for harmony (not to be confused with the harmonica or mouth organ, which was invented some 50 years later). Instead of using drinking glasses on a table, Franklins armonica employed 37 glass bowls of varying sizes from 3 to 9 inches in diameter,sufficient for three octaves with all the semitones. Each bowl had a hole in the middle and was mounted close to its neighbor on an iron spindle. The spindle was laid horizontally in a wooden case and was rotated with the bowls by means of a foot treadle, like that in an old sewing machine. There was a narrow trough filled with water along the front of the case to enable the player to wet his finger. With the bowls revolving, the player could rub any bowl easily and rapidly  since it was not necessary to move his finger around the rim  and the fingers of both hands could be applied at the same time to give more complex sounds. Franklin had ground each bowl to give the desired tone, so that once tuned it would be unnecessary to have to tune it again.

Its tones are incomparably sweet beyond any other; and they may be swelled and softened at pleasure by stronger or weaker pressure of the finger, boasted Franklin. Apparently the public agreed. In Germany and Austria, Franklins fame for the armonica rivaled the reputation he had achieved for his electrical experiments and lightning rod. Marianne Davies, an accomplished musician, gave public performances on the armonica in England, Italy and Austria. At a recital for the imperial court in Vienna, Princess Marie Antoinette, soon-to-be queen of France, was so enthused she had Davies teach her to play it. The armonica was manufactured in London and sold across Europe. In America George Washington and Thomas Jefferson heard it played at a concert in Williamsburg, Va., and commented on how pleasing it was. Franklin enjoyed playing it while in France when he visited his beautiful friend, Madame Brillon, an accomplished musician and composer, who would accompany him on the pianoforte. Its ethereal, haunting notes with a touch of melancholy made it a favorite at weddings. One author wrote, The ear of a mortal can perceive in its plaintive tones the echoes of a divine harmony.

In a philanthropic gesture, Franklin never patented any of his inventions, saying, I never made, nor proposed to make, the least profit by any of them. It was a matter of principle with him that, as he had benefited from past inventions and discoveries, present and future generations should be able to benefit freely from his inventions. Among his other inventions were an improved printing press, a flexible catheter, an extension arm for grasping items beyond ones reach, his famous stove and room heater, a modified odometer, a three-wheel clock that displayed seconds, minutes and hours, an improved oil lamp, flippers to aid swimming and even a sea anchor.

Among all of Franklins creations, what was his greatest? His earthshaking lightning rod, which not only saved property and lives but changed peoples way of thinking? Could it have been his stove that gave rise to modern systems of heating and ventilation? Or perhaps it was daylight saving time or the ubiquitous bifocal eyeglasses?

In fact, it can be argued that Franklins greatest invention of all was the United States of America. Of course Franklin did not create this invention alone, but he started it, he pursued it and he saw it through to completion. While thestates existed then as British colonies, what wasnt there was the concept of union, the glue necessary to bind those colonies into a nation. When Franklin began his work on this great experiment in 1751, some 25 years prior to the Declaration of Independence, the colonies were anything but united, and they had little interest in becoming so.

In those decades before the American Revolution, France was the enemy, occupying Canada and the Mississippi and Ohio territories, eager to displace all the British colonies along the Atlantic Ocean. Between the territory controlled by the British and the French were the Indians, and both sides tried to persuade them to become allies. Franklin was well acquainted with the Indians, and in 1751 he wrote:

I am of the opinionthat securing the friendship of the Indians is of the greatest consequence to these colonies.And to unite the several governments so as to form a strength that the Indians may depend on for protection in case of a rupture with the French.Such an union is certainly necessary to us all.

In the same year, New Yorks colonial governor George Clinton invited representatives of the neighboring colonies to an Indian conference at Albany, but nothing came of it as there was no war, and the colonies had other matters to attend to. By 1753 the French were instigating raids on the pro-English Indians, and the invitation was renewed, but again to no avail. In response to the French assaults, Virginia sent young Major George Washington with two companies of militia to dislodge the French military from the Ohio territory. He was soundly defeated and had to surrender. Virginia had requested military assistance from Pennsylvania, but the Pennsylvania Legislature, jealous of Virginia and controlled by pacifist Quakers, refused. The hostilities between the French and English in America ushered in the French and Indian War, which was to last off and on from 1754 to 1763, and came to be part of the European struggle between England and France known as the Seven Years War.

Reporting on the defeat of Washington in his newspaper, Franklin commented, The confidence of the French in this undertaking seems well grounded on the present disunited state of the British colonies. He followed this with the first political cartoon to appear in an American newspaper. It showed a snake disjoined in eight separate pieces and the separate pieces labeled with the initials of New England, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North and South Carolina. The cartoon caught the attention of many readers and made clear the urgency of its message.

With the French skirmishes continuing on the frontier, and a growing fear that the Indians might be enticed into joining the French against the colonies, Governor Clinton reissued his invitation for a meeting at Albany with the Indians in 1754. Now, in addition to Franklin, others began to see the need for a common defense, and representatives of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland joined the conference. Much progress was expected of it. Franklin was chosen as a delegate from Pennsylvania, and on his way to Albany he promoted his plan of union with all the influential people he met, asking them for their suggestions to improve the plan. At Albany the representatives agreed that a union was necessary, and they formed a committee comprising one representative from each colony to consider the matter.

Franklins Plan of Union was a detailed extension of his 1751 ideas. It called for a federal system with two branches: the executive and the Grand Council, a body drawn from the elected legislatures of the colonies. The duties of this union would be to levy taxes, provide for defense, deal with the Indians, make new settlements, raise and pay soldiers, and construct forts and naval vessels to be available in case of war. Although a number of plans were presented, the representatives eventually selected Franklins and appointed him to draw up a concrete proposal to be acted upon by Parliament.

Afterward, on a trip to Boston, Franklin had the opportunity to discuss the plan with William Shirley, the kings royal governor of Massachusetts. When Governor Shirley proposed an alternative to the Albany Plan that excluded representatives of the colonies on the Grand Council, Franklin objected:

I apprehend that excluding the people of the colonies from all share in the choice of the Grand Council, will give extreme dissatisfaction, as well as the taxing them by act of Parliament where they have no representative.Where heavy burdens are to be laid upon them it has been found useful to make it, as much as possible, their own act; for they bear better when they have some share in the direction. And when any public measures are generally grievous or even distasteful to the people, the wheels of government must move more heavily.

However, this discussion made little difference because all the colonies ultimately rejected Franklins Plan of Union adopted at Albany, and the British government did not even consider it. Franklin concluded that the individual colonies were unwilling to give up any of their prerogatives to a federal government, and as for the British government, it found the plan too democratic for its liking.

Finally, in 1755 the British government in London responded to the French military actions and sent two regiments of British regulars under General Edward Braddock of the Coldstream Guards to capture the French strongholds in the Ohio territory. Franklin met with Braddock in an effort to acquaint him with the Indian style of fighting. He cautioned Braddock that the slender line near four miles long, which your army must make in going through the woods may expose it to be attacked by surprise in its flanks, and then cut like a thread into several pieces. In reply, Braddock boasted, These savages may indeed be a formidable enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the Kings regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible that they should make any impression. Just as Franklin had anticipated, Braddocks campaign was a disaster. The general was mortally wounded, more than 1,000 of his men were killed or wounded, and Franklin and other future revolutionaries learned a valuable lesson in the fallibility of the British.

In 1757 a dispute arose between the Pennsylvania Legislature and the sons of the founder of that territory, William Penn, who owned a large amount of land for which they were unwilling to pay taxes. The Penn family resided in London, so the legislature dispatched Franklin to England. While Franklin had an excellent record as a problem solver, this one proved to be difficult, involving as it did not only the Penns but also the British bureaucracy. Franklin was in England for six years and then, after two years at home, the issue of taxation led to his return.

Britain had allowed the colonies to tax themselves during the early part of the 18th century, but the struggle against the French had been costly and the government took the position that because the war had been fought for the benefit of the colonies, the colonies should have to share in paying for it. The colonists believed that they were British subjects, but since they had no representatives in Parliament, they should not be taxed without their consent.

Franklin, in essence, found himself serving as unofficial ambassador for all the colonies, pleading their case to the British government. This assignment kept him in England from 1764 to 1775  tumultuous years leading to the outbreak of the Revolution. First there was the Stamp Act, which the colonists violently opposed and which Franklin, with some fancy manipulation, help to get repealed. Then came a series of other taxes, arousing discontent in America that was countered by hostile reaction from the British government. The king and Parliament looked upon the colonists as spoiled, ungrateful children who were misbehaving and needed to be punished. By 1775 Franklin had lost hope of patching things up between England and its colonies and came home. While en route across the Atlantic, skirmishes at Lexington and Concord had already set revolution into motion.

As soon as Franklin arrived in America, he was pressed into service as a representative of Pennsylvania to the Second Continental Congress to decide what America was to do next. Franklin dusted off his Albany Plan of Union and presented it under the title The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. The members did not accept it, as they were not yet ready for a break with the mother country and thought that Franklins draft was too radical.

One year later, however, the atmosphere had changed. Franklin was on the committee with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams to draw up the Declaration of Independence. He was also appointed to the Committee on Safety to produce weapons and munitions for the colonies defense, the secret Committee of Correspondence to obtain friends and money abroad for the war effort and various other committees. Franklins Articles of Confederation plan was given to lawyer John Dickinson to rewrite, and it became the official constitution under which the Continental Congress then operated for 11 years.

Because of his renown and extensive contacts in Europe, Franklin was sent in 1776 to France to obtain help in the war against England. He spent the next nine years in Paris, where, as American ambassador, he coaxed Louis XVI into supporting the United States and providing the money, munitions and military to allow America to succeed in the struggle. Finally, after years of war, with John Adams and John Jay, Franklin signed the treaty of peace in 1783, in which England recognized the United States as a sovereign nation.

When he returned home in 1785, Franklin was elected president of Pennsylvania, and in that capacity he served as host to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia. When the Articles of Confederation had been in operation, the states were still very distinct entities and would not agree to a strong union. However, by 1787, experience had shown that unity was necessary if the nation was to survive, and the Constitutional Convention was held to see if this objective could be accomplished.At 81, Franklin was so ill he had to be carried into the meetings, much like an ancient potentate, seated in a sedan chair lifted by four strong men. Yet he managed to participate in almost all the meetings, which were conducted from May to September. When the convention was on the verge of breaking up over a dispute between the large states and the small states, Franklin proposed a compromise under which the number of representatives in the House of Representatives would be based on population, which pleased the large states, and in the Senate the number of members from each state would be equal, which satisfied the small states. When September rolled around, however, unsettled disputes made it doubtful that the Constitution would be accepted. Franklin then made a speech, addressing the acting president of the convention, George Washington:

Mr. President I confess there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I will never approve them. For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information or fuller consideration to change opinions, even on important subjects which I once thought was right but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment and to pay more respect to the judgment of others.For when you assemble a number of men to have their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does.Thus I consent, Sir, to this constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best.

On the whole, Sir, I cannot help expressing a wish that every member of this convention who may still have objections to it would, with me on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.

Franklins passionate plea helped sway the convention and bring to fruition yet another set of ideals that have, with few amendments, served America and inspired the world for more than 200 years. Franklin had finally seen completed in his old age what he had set out to do 36 years before  invent a United States of America.

At the core of this creation stood another of Franklins elegant solutions to a complex problem, succinctly expressed when he was appointed by the Continental Congress in 1776 to design the currency for the newly formed United States. The bills and coins Franklin designed display 13 interlocking circles ringing the outside, representing the 13 original states. Inside this was another ring in which were the words American Congress, and inside that ring were stamped the words WE ARE ONE.

This article was written by Seymour Stanton Block and originally published in the February 2006 issue of American History Magazine.

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The history of the Scopes Trial is far from forgotten in present-day Dayton, Tennessee. The Rhea County town, located on the banks of the Tennessee River between Knoxville and Chattanooga, still embraces its singular historic moment, even as it moves forward into the new century. A diversified manufacturing center of 7,000 residents, Dayton hosts a Scopes Trial reenactment each July.

The drama is presented in the main courtroom of the Rhea County Courthouse, scene of the original 1925 trial. A mostly local cast performs the play, which was written by author Gail Johnson. Occasionally, descendants of the original Scopes Trial participants play some of the parts, and its not unusual for local attorneys and law enforcement officials to play their counterparts from the past. Our play is not like Inherit the Wind, says Rick Dye, general manager of a local radio chain. The Broadway play and subsequent Hollywood adaptation are a sore spot in Dayton. Our play is very factual. Its based 95% on the trial transcripts. Appropriately, Dye portrays Quinn Ryan, a reporter who originally covered the trial for Chicagos WGN radio.

While the drama is an annual event, interest in the Scopes Trial goes on year round. I get four or five calls every week, says Ruth Ann Williams, administrative assistant at the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, often a first stop for writers, researchers, and students seeking information. There is always interest in the trial, she adds.

In the courthouse basement, the Rhea County Historical Society administers a museum commemorating the Scopes Trial. Its open weekdays during courthouse business hours. The collection includes an exhibit on the Jazz Age and biographical displays on the lives of William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, together with artifacts from the trial. Admission is free.

This year also marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of Bryan College by William Jennings Bryan. Its a private non-denominational school located on a hilltop overlooking the town and the Tennessee River. Bryan College has a collection of Scopes Trial memorabilia that is currently in storage while the school restores its administration building, which was heavily damaged by fire earlier this year. Sadly, several rare books were lost, says Dr. Richard Cornelius, retired English professor at Bryan College and resident expert on the Scopes Trial. We lost William Jennings Bryans personal copy of Darwins Origin of Species, but we saved all the trial materials and many other artifacts in the collection. The school hopes to have a new Scopes exhibit accessible to the public when repairs to the fire-damaged building are completed next year. Meanwhile, the school is promoting a series of Scopes lectures and guest speakers, including Edward Larson, whose book, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and Americas Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion, won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for history.

Between the annual dramatic reenactment, events at Bryan College, and the occasional airing of the movie Inherit the Wind, the town is regularly reminded of the event 75 years ago. As Dr. Richard Cornelius observes about the Scopes Trial, This is definitely Daytons most famous moment.

Milton Bagby
MAX CLELAND suffered severe wounds in Vietnam in 1968, losing both legs and one arm. He spent years recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the VA Medical Center in Washington, then returned to his home state of Georgia and won election to the state Senate in 1970. He was appointed in 1977, at age 34, to head the Veterans Administration by President Jimmy Carter. Upon returning to Georgia in 1981, he was elected secretary of state, and then went on to win election to the U.S. Senate in 1998. He lost his reelection bid in 2002 after a bitter campaign in which his patriotism was challenged by his opponent. Earlier this year, President Barack Obama appointed Cleland secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission. His new book, Heart of a Patriot: How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove, has just been released. Max Cleland spoke with journalist Marc Leepson in Washington, D.C.

Writing to Heal

Q. Was there any particular motivation for you to come out with your new book, Heart of a Patriot, now?

A. Its part of my own therapy, my own healing. Those of us who suffer need to talk about it and write about it. I didnt really have a connection to the suffering of those who have what we now call post-traumatic stress disorderI call it post-war stressin which you never quite get over whats happened to you, but you move on. But after I lost the Senate race in 2002, my life collapsed. I went down in every way you can go down. I lost my life as I knew it.

It took me right back to Vietnam, right back to the battlefield, right back to the wounding. And I had to work through all that stuff. It took me years of counseling and years on medication, and its been several years of just writing. I had to make sense of it all, and I tried to.

You speak a lot about faith in your book.

In many ways, life itself is an act of faith. The Armys trying to spend $50 million to find out the causes of suicides. If you suffer in a war that has some meaning and purpose, you are much more able to conclude that all the suffering you went through is worth it. However, if you serve in what I call in the book misguided warsVietnam, Iraqin which our leaders have not learned lessons, then its a hell of a lot harder to suffer and then find meaning and purpose in it.

Stepping into Darkness

Your view on faith is a bit unorthodox.

What I concluded is that for all of us, just being alive is an act of faith. Crossing a street and trusting a car is not going to run over you is an act of faith. We often interpret faith in terms of religion, but the best definition of faith Ive ever come across was a quote in Lt. Gen. Hal Moores marvelous book about healing after war and after the loss of his wife: When we come to the end of all the light, we have to step into the darkness of the unknown, and we must believe that there is something solid to stand on, or else we will be taught to fly.

I have come to the end of the light and I have stepped out into the darkness of the unknown many times.

The soldier doesnt get a chance to choose his war. War chooses him. When youre wounded in war and you suffer, just to live another dayanother houris in many ways an act of faith that somehow it will all come right, somehow there is meaning and purpose behind it, somehow theres some understanding.

You write that a veterans poem had a great impact on your outlook.

When I was head of the VA, I was going through some stuff and I came across the poem about the ups and downs of life, the sense of which is we lose so much, but then by living another day, we gain so much.

Its hard to put into words. It has to do with survival and finding some meaning and purpose, even if that meaning and purpose is just to help other veterans. Which is one of the reasons that I had wanted to share what I went through in this book.

How hard was it to do that?

It was much more painful than I thought it would be. I wasnt sure I could really do it. There was a time when I thought: What the hell? Why am I going through all this crap again?

I once heard Bill Clinton say about his book, Living my life was tough enough, but writing about it was pure hell. So I went through pure hell, especially in dealing with the wounds from Vietnam. And then the collapse of my life.

Im putting this out there for basically one reason: that hopefully I will help a fellow veteran. Maybe an Iraq or Afghanistan veteran will pick up the book and see that life is worth living one more day. Thats it. Only God can speak to the heart of someone, and give them a meaning and purpose for living. But if I, through my own story, can help that happen a little bit, then the book will have been worth it.

How has General Hal Moore been such a big influence on your life?

I had met him briefly many years ago, but he helped me in my 2002 campaign for my reelection to the Senate. Then we were really able to connect when a financier at a leadership retreat in Colorado said General Moore wanted me to come. I couldnt say no to him, so I went there and came across a book about him, A Generals Spiritual Journey. I found a lot of things in there that I could relate to, and he and I have visited since then. Hes a role model for all of us.

He is part warrior, part Trappist monk. You dont normally expect that in a three-star general, a graduate of West Point, a winner of the Distinguished Service Cross, a Korean War veteran, a Vietnam veteran.

I can relate to both sides of Hal Moore. He covers the waterfront. And Vietnam veterans have had to cover the waterfront. Weve had to dig deeper. Weve had to go beyond the norm. Weve had to do things we never thought wed do in terms of spiritual development, personal faith, physical energy and stamina. Its called survival. We had to do what we had to do in order to survive.

Support for Our Troops

Why is it important for veterans of the latest wars to know about what happened to you and Vietnam veterans?

I just turned 67, so our generation is giving way to the succeeding generation. In terms of veterans, were giving way to the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who say to me that we paved the way for them in terms of public acceptance.

I was coming in on a plane today, and the stewardess took time to thank all the active duty forces who servedthere were some on boardand me publicly. That was unheard of for a couple of decades after Vietnam. I appreciate it, but I think it means more to the guys wearing the uniform today and coming back now.

People come up to me and say, Thank you for your service. I dont know whether they think I was in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan. But Ill take it. It beats the hell out of the alternative, and we Vietnam veterans know the alternative, unfortunately. Its so hard for the public to separate the war from the warrior.

How do you think the public should support our warriors?

The best way to support the troops is never to send them into war in the first place. In the second place, if they go to war, make sure its worthwhile. Thats the second-best way to support the troops, so then they wont have to worry about the reception they will get upon their return.

Ross Perot told me 25 or 30 years ago: The next time we go to war, make sure that the country is behind our forces first, then you wont have to worry about their reception when they come home.

I think every soldier knows that hes taking a risk when he puts on the uniform and goes to war. I think all soldiers are to be commended because they are willing to step forward, especially now with the absence of the draft and an all-volunteer force.

Nobody expects to be blown up, or to lose their arms and legs or eyes or parts of their brain. Nobody expects to get traumatized in their mind and have to recover from that. But it sure as hell helps if the country is sensitive to what youre facing when you come back.

Survivors Are Not Alone

How will you know if the all pain you went through to write this book was really worth it?

If one life has been saved, if one veteran decides to live another day, to give it one more shot. At times I wonder what the hell is all this about, why do I keep putting up the fight? What do I want? Why do I have to go through this stuff time and time again?

But I have not seen, and you have not heard, what the good Lord has for us. Who knows? Im not God.

If a veteran of any warparticularly the new veterans coming back from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, among whom suicide is now off the chartsreads the book and if it causes him or her to understand that theyre not alone in their struggle, then my writing the book would have been worth it. But, I really didnt enjoy going back over all of this.

I will do my normal media interviews, but it is a depressing, distressing part of American history, both the Iraq and the Vietnam wars. Theres little to brag about except somehow those of us who are living today, the survivors, sometimes have to put our arms around each other and hold on tightly in order to survive. Thats just the way it is.

This book is my arms around my fellow veteransand my fellow countrymen who have been through this with us. We havent been alone. Weve been the front of the spear, as they say. But you dont have to go to war to feel its effects. The wives and the families have all felt the effects of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, and were feeling the effects still. So we need each other to help each other.

What do you see for yourself in the future?

I see myself finishing up my work here at the American Battle Monuments Commission to care for the 24 cemeteries where Americans have been laid to rest around the world, and in a few years retiring back in Georgia to be with my father, whos going on 96 now. He was stationed at Pearl Harbor after the attacks.

I also see spending some time at my alma mater, Stetson University in Florida, fleshing out the Max Cleland Collection, which Ive donated my personal political memorabilia to. And maybe cranking up some kind of Max Cleland Institute for Public Service down there, if I can ever get a little money together, teaching the next generation what its like, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune of public service, and the joys of it as well.

Would you consider teaching?

No. I dont mind appearing and talking to a class and answering questions and then leaving. The only teaching Ive ever done was at American University in 2003. I gave all the students Aswhat the hell. I might be a great teacher, but Id be a terrible scorer of learners.

I dont like teaching. I like appearing. Im like an apparition. He was here; now hes gone. Who was that masked man?
On my return from the first exploration of the canyons of Colorado, wrote John Wesley Powell in a memoir published in 1895, I found that our journey had been the theme of much newspaper writing. A story of disaster had been circulated, with many particulars of hardship and tragedy, so that it was currently believed throughout the United States that all the members of the party were lost save one. A good friend of mine had gathered a great number of obituary notices, and it was interesting and rather flattering to me to discover the high esteem in which I had been held . . . .

The notion that Powell and his party had met an unfortunate end during their 1869 expedition did not strain the imagination. They had, after all, undertaken what is now considered one of Americas great adventure stories. The mighty Colorado Rivers course had, until then, been a mystery even to Native Americans of the region, a blank space on the best maps available. Powells expeditions in 1869 and 1871-72 revealed the Colorados secrets, as well as some of the most remarkable terrainincluding the magnificent Grand Canyonto be found anywhere on earth.

Wes, as he was known, was born on March 24, 1834, at Mount Morris, New York, to Joseph and Mary Dean Powell. The family traveled west, living first in Ohio and then in Wisconsin. Joseph, a tailor and lay preacher, intended that his son follow in the footsteps of his namesake, John Wesley, the Methodist minister. But while his father was off saving souls on the frontier, Wess imagination was fired more by a neighbor versed in geology and natural history than by Josephs religious tracts.

At age 16, Wes rejected his fathers offer to educate him in the ministry, choosing instead to attend a school in Janesville, Wisconsin, twenty miles from home. He supplemented the schools disappointing curriculum with books on geometry, history, and geology, which he borrowed from a friend in the town.

When Reverend Powell sold the Wisconsin farm in 1851 and purchased 320 acres in Illinois, he ordered his son home to help break the new sod. Wes reluctantly complied, but a year later, he packed his clothes and books and left for Jefferson, Wisconsin, to teach in a one-room schoolhouse. In addition to instructing his students in the basic subjects, Wes led them on field trips to collect specimens and explain to them the geology of the area.

Finally, at the age of 21, Powell was able to pursue his education by enrolling in Illinois College at Jacksonville. Before beginning his studies, however, he ventured out on his first exploring expedition. In a small skiff, he rowed up the Mississippi River to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he sold the boat and set off on foot through the forests of Wisconsin and Michigan. His travels ended in Detroit, where he stopped to visit his mothers brother, Joseph Dean, and his family. Introduced to his 18-year-old cousin Emma, Wes soon found himself in love.

In 1858, Reverend Powell, accepting that his son was adamant in his refusal to study for the ministry, gave Wes the money to attend Oberlin College for a year. A teaching post in Hennepin, Illinois, followed, with Wes using the summer months to explore the Illinois and Des Moines rivers.

When the Civil War erupted in 1861, Powell joined the Union forces as a private, rising to lieutenant within one month, and then became a captain when he recruited a company of artillery. He married Emma in March 1862, and a few days later moved with his company into some of the bloodiest fighting of the war. At the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee, a bullet ripped through Wess right arm, which had to be amputated below the elbow.

But the Army needed every man, and Powell was soon reactivated, with special orders from General Ulysses S. Grant for Emma to accompany him. She was never far away when the newly promoted Major Powell returned to duty. On January 4, 1865, with a Union victory imminent and the pain from his wound constant, Wes requested and received an immediate disability discharge.

Taking a job at Illinois Wesleyan University, a Methodist college in Bloomington, Powell lectured on botany, cellular histology, physiology, zoology, geology, and mineralogy. A year later, he became professor of geology at the Illinois State Normal University in Normal.

In 1866, while secretary of the Illinois Natural History Society, Powell approached the state legislature for money to house and care for the societys collections. His skills as an orator and his aptitude as a negotiator gained for the Society $2,500 earmarked for the salary of a commissioner and curator and for buying needed books and equipment. In appreciation for his efforts, the Society named Powell curator.

Turning his oratorical skills onto the Society itself, Powell requested $500 to fund the exploration of the mountain-park country of Colorado. The journey, he told the Society, would provide its museum with fabulous natural specimens that would add significantly to its collections. The Society voted unanimously to underwrite Powells trip with half of the money that the legislature had allocated for books and equipment.

With this backing, Powell traveled to Washington, D.C., where he asked the assistance of his friend and old commanding officer, General Grant, then temporarily acting as secretary of war. Grant signed an order allowing Powells expedition to purchase rations at cost. Heading next to the Smithsonian Institution, Powell convinced its secretary, Dr. Joseph Henry, to provide all the scientific instruments needed for the undertaking in exchange for topographic measurements of the western mountain region.

Emboldened by his powers of persuasion, Powell visited several railroad companies, suggesting that they trade good publicity for free transportation for the men in his party. By the time he got back to Normal, Wes had passes worth $1,700, together with the understanding that his equipment and specimens would be shipped free of charge. He also had convinced the Illinois Industrial University (later the University of Illinois) and the Chicago Academy of Sciences to contribute money for scientific instruments in return for specimens collected along the way.

Accompanied by a band of amateur scientists, Powell finally set out in June 1867 to explore the mountains of Colorado. His Army career may have cost him an arm, but it also taught him how to handle men. Despite standing only five and a half feet tall, he possessed a presence that enabled him to lead men over the forbidding terrain. Emma, who again accompanied her husband, kept notes of the expedition, helped collect and catalog specimens, and became an expert on alpine plants.

Mrs. Powell and the rest of the party of flatlanders soon became familiar with the hazards of mountain climbing. In July 1867, she shared the partys triumph when she became the first woman to climb Pikes Peak. The views that rewarded the groups perseverance in reaching the 14,110-foot summit were more wonderful than had been imagined, with peak after glowing peak piercing the bluest of skies as far as the eye could see.

After this adventure, a grander scheme began to take shape in Powells mind; he would conquer the mile-deep Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. He was undeterred by the Native American belief that the gods had purposely made the river impassable and that harm would befall anyone who tried to enter the canyon.

Once again Powell traveled to Washington, D.C., to secure financial assistance. Although unable to acquire as much money or as many supplies as he had for his first expedition, he did persuade the railroad and express companies once again to issue passes and to transport the equipment and supplies free of charge.

Powells companions on the trip would be his brother, Walter; J. C. Sumner, an experienced traveler and hunter in the wilds of the Mississippi Valley and the Rocky Mountains; O. G. Howland, a printer, editor, and hunter; his brother, Seneca Howland; Billy Hawkins, an ex-Union soldier who traveled west after the war and who served as the expeditions cook; William Dunn, a hunter, trapper, and mule-packer in Colorado; an Englishman by the name of Frank Goodman, who had come west seeking adventure and who was a skilled boat handler; Andrew Hall, a husky, cheerful 19-year-old, already experienced in hunting, trapping, and fighting Indians; and G. Y. Bradley, a Union lieutenant during the Civil War and until recently an orderly sergeant in the regular army.

Three of the groups four boatsthe Maid of the Canyon, Kitty Clydes Sister, and the No Namemeasured 21 feet in length, were built of oak, and were strengthened by bulkheads that divided each into three compartments, one of which was watertight. The fourth boat, the Emma Dean, a 16-foot, pine pilot boat, was lightweight, built for fast rowing, and also was divided into compartments.

The craft carried rations to last for ten months; tools; nails and screws; two sextants; four chronometers; an assortment of barometers, thermometers, and compasses; ample supplies of clothing; and several guns and large quantities of ammunition.

Powell and his party planned to travel first down the Green River to where it meets the Colorado, then proceed down that great river to the Grand Canyon. When several months of preparation for this next adventure were completed, he and his companions took to the waterwith Powell in the Emma Deanat Green River Station, Wyoming Territory, on May 24, 1869. No one knew how long it would be before they reached their destination in Arizona; the rivers curves and twists made it impossible to estimate the length of the journey they were undertaking.

On June 9, at a canyon they named Lodore, Powell spotted rough water ahead and, intending to look for a way to set up lines and portage around the rapids, pulled his boat ashore. He signaled for the others to do the same, but the crew of the No Name failed to understand the signal and continued on ahead. Powell leaped onto a rock and gestured frantically for the men to pull the boat to shore. But it was too late. The little boat was already caught in the current. The Howland brothers and Goodman pulled furiously at the oars and the rear sweep that guided the boat, but to no avail.

The boat hung briefly at the head of the rapids before being swept in. Making it through the first falls, it roared on, then struck a boulder and heaved up at one end, tossing three men into the raging current. When the boat jammed against a rock, the men grabbed the gunwale and managed to climb back on board. But the current again caught the boat and tossed it down to the next series of rapids. Only the watertight compartment kept the small craft afloat. Roaring down the next set of falls, No Name slammed broadside into the rocks and broke in two.

Meanwhile, Powell and the others, watching in horror as their three comrades disappeared into the foam, scrambled down around the bend. To their relief, they saw O. G. Howland, who had made it to a sandy bar, extending a pole to Goodman, who clung to a rock near the shore. Finally able to grab on, Goodman was hauled from the water. Farther downstream, Seneca Howland, although battered by his experience, had also managed to pull himself to safety.

Lost, along with the boat, were the mens clothes, guns, and belongings, as well as a large store of provisions and, most distressing of all, the barometers, which foolishly had all been stored together. Without these instruments, it would be impossible to determine the altitude of the mountains through which the party would pass.

Determined to recover the lost barometers, Powell set off the next day to search for the wreck, which he found only fifty or sixty feet from their camp. Sumner and Dunn volunteered to retrieve the instruments and whatever was left of the provisions. The watertight compartment had been smashed, but the men were able to bring back the barometers, a package of thermometers, and a three-gallon keg of whiskey that had been taken aboard without Powells knowledge. That night the bruised and tired explorers made good use of the keg.

It took days to portage past these rapids. The craggy shore offered no good place to camp, nor protection from the rivers constant spray. In addition to being tired and wet, the men had to endure clothing full of sand carried by the spray and food that had begun to spoil.

About a week after the loss of the No Name, another accident occurred that nearly finished the expedition. While portaging around another set of rapids, the Maid of the Canyon broke free of the ropes and went hurtling out of sight into the mist. The loss of this boat would mean that the two remaining would be overloaded, and the party could not survive the loss of this second boatload of provisions.

Luck was with them, however. The men, gripped with despair as they raced down the shore, soon were shouting triumphantly at the sight of the boat whirling upright and unharmed in an eddy. They snagged her in and continued on, emerging finally in a park-like area where the Yampa River flows into the Green. There they camped on a grassy spot to take stock and to rest after their ordeal. Hawkins killed a buck, which provided the men with the first fresh meat they had eaten since the start of their journey.

On June 28, Powell and his party reached the mouth of the Uinta River, in Utah. From here, they were able at last to communicate with the outside world. Frank Powell and Andy Hall went to the Uinta Agency, thirty miles away, to dispatch letters from the men and to collect any mail that had arrived there for them. Goodman, the adventure-seeking Englishman, announced that he has seen danger enough and was leaving the party.

When Powell and Hall returned, the rest of the expedition moved on, up barrier canyons, over unexpected rapids, and down rushing waterways, assigning names to each feature as they passed it. Each of the names they chose told a storythe Canyon of Desolation, Dirty Devil River, Sumners Amphitheater, Gray Canyon, Stillwater Canyon, Whirlpool Canyon, and Bright Angel Creekand many remain on maps to this day.

Always, Major Powell stood on the prow of the Emma Dean, trying to peer around the corners of blind canyons. At every stop, he investigated the geological formations and collected shells to ship back to his mentors. On one occasion, the one-armed explorer climbed a cliff to peer downriver. Near the top, he suddenly found that he could proceed neither up nor down. I find, he wrote, I can get up no farther and cannot step back, for I dare not let go with my hand and cannot reach foothold below without.

Having found a way to climb to a flat rock above Powell, Bradley could see the majors toeholds weakening. With no time to run back to the boats for a rope and no stick or tree limb to pass down to Powell, Bradley took off his trousers and lowered them toward the man marooned on the cliff below. Powell could just barely reach the trouser leg as it brushed his hand: I hug close to the rock, let go with my hand, seize the dangling legs, and with [Bradleys] assistance am enabled to gain the top.

While all this was going on, the nations newspapers anxiously awaited news of the expedition. As the weeks passed without word of its progress, stories began to surface about the fate of the explorers. On July 2, the Omaha Republican reported that a disaster had befallen the Powell party. A trapper, the paper said, claimed that, while at Fort Bridger, he met Sumner, who told him that he had watched helplessly from the shore as all four boats went over a 12-foot-high waterfall and were destroyed in the rapids below.

The story swept eastward and soon appeared in the Chicago Tribune and other Illinois newspapers. A man named John A. Risdon claimed to be the only survivor of the Powell expedition. He recounted the disaster of May 8, when the expedition had been lost, and his own desperate struggle to find his way out to civilization.

This brought a letter to the Detroit Free Press from Emma Powell accusing Risdon of being a liar. No such person had been with her husbands party, she stated. Moreover, she had received letters from her husband dated May 22, two days before the departure from Green River. Despite her refutation, the story flourished in midwestern and eastern newspapers. Risdon was feted and given free accommodations in return for his tearful rendition of the demise of his comrades.

Then the Rocky Mountain News ran two letters, both written in June, from its former editorial employee, O. G. Howland. Finally, the Chicago Tribune printed a letter from Major Powell himself, in which he recounted how the party had come down the Green River, passed through all the canyons previously considered impassable, and camped in the Uinta Valley of Utah. Newspapers all over the country eagerly printed the good news.

Although the expedition had traveled that far safely, much danger still lay ahead. As they made their way down the Colorado, Powell, from his vantage point on the Emma Deans prow, would peer ahead, wary of the sound of water rushing over a falls. Whenever he sensed danger, Powell would call to his oarsmen to pull the pilot boat over and would motion the others to do the same. Once ashore, he would climb a cliff to evaluate the degree of difficulty they would face. If the falls seemed impassable, the men would lower each boat down with ropes tied fore and aft. As laborious as this task was, it was considerably safer than letting the boats careen over the rocky falls to become caught in the current below.

For the majority of the men, only the occasional exhilaration of running the rapids relieved the monotony of endless days on the river. But to Powell, every moment was exhilarating. His diary describes in poetic detail, the colors of the rocks, the magnificence of the cliffs, and the majesty of the waterway itself.

By July 18, the men rested before undertaking the most harrowing part of the journey. The glassy granite canyon walls would soon squeeze ever closer to the turbulent river. In some areas, cliffs overhung the water, threatening to decapitate a man if his boat slid under the jagged rock. And, from here on, maps were useless; mapmakers had merely guessed at the points where rivers poured into the canyons.

The boats left the Green River on July 21, and headed down the Colorado. As they navigated the wide, deep, cocoa-colored river, they passed canyon walls that reached almost 1,500 feet in height. The rapids they had encountered so far, though they seemed fearsome at the time, were trifling by comparison. Portaging too was more dangerous; often there were no footholds, no way to line the boats down. Boats had to be unloaded and carried through boulders and talus in 120o temperatures on some days, chilling rains on others.

But with each passing day, the scenery became more and more magnificent: Powell noted in his diary for August 9 that The walls of the canyon are of marble, of many beautiful colors, often polished by the waves, and sometimes far up the sides, where showers have washed the sands over the cliffs 

A moving entry in his diary on August 13 recorded that We are now ready to start on our way down the Great Unknown. Our boats, tied to a common stake, chafe each other as they are tossed by the fretful river We have but a months rations remaining. The flour has been resifted through the mosquito-net sieve; the spoiled bacon has been dried and the worst of it boiled We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls rise over the river, we known not. Ah, well! we may conjecture many things.

Two weeks later, mutiny threatened as the bone-weary men faced mile-high cliffs, short rations, and rushing water. Powell wrote in his diary that Captain Howland sought to remonstrate against my determination to proceed. He thinks that we had better abandon the river here [H]e, his brother, and William Dunn have determined to go no farther in the boats.

Powell spent the night thinking, recalculating the distance ahead, the amount of rations remaining, and the chances of getting through the desert if they did succeed in climbing out of the canyon. Desperately wanting to continue the expedition, he woke the others one by one to ask if they would stay or go. His brother Walter agreed to stay, as did Billy Hawkins, Andy Hall, Sumner, and Bradley. At breakfast, knowing there were some who would stay, he put the choice to the whole group. O. G. Howland and Dunn were adamant in wanting to leave. Seneca Howland tried to persuade them to stay, but finally agreed to go out with them.

The party named the point of the trios departure Separation Rapid. Powell gave them guns and offered them part of the miserable rations, which they refused. With a solemn parting, the group broke in two, never to see each other again.

Before moving on, Powell decided to leave the Emma Dean behind. The boat had taken such a beating in the rapids that it was no longer watertight. Besides, there were now fewer men to handle the oars and few supplies left to be carried.

The trip at this point was no longer thescientific expedition Powell had intended. All of the instruments had been lost or broken, or had been left behind with the fossils and minerals they had collected. Yet, if they succeeded in making it through the granite-walled rush of water, they would have accomplished something no others had.

So down they went, fighting the rapids, sleeping at night in wet clothing on ledges so narrow that to roll over might mean plunging into the thundering river below. Finally, on August 29, some 13 weeks and 900 miles from the start of their journey, they drifted out from between the Grand Wash cliffs of the Grand Canyon to rolling, mountainous country. Elated, Powell wrote: The river rolls by us in silent majesty; the quiet of the camp is sweet; our joy is almost ecstasy. We sit till long after midnight talking of the Grand Canyon, talking of home 

Two days later, the bedraggled, starving group came to a wide spot in the river. There they saw three white menMr. Asa and his two sonsand an Indian hauling a seine. The white men were Mormons sent to the river by Brigham Young to look for debris that could have come from the Powell party, now reported as having been lost weeks ago.

The Indian was immediately dispatched to the Mormon town of St. Thomas to fetch any letters that might be waiting for members of the expedition. The news of the partys survival brought a wagon filled with foodbread, butter, cheese, melonsfor the explorers. And the telegraph wires hummed with the news that the party was not only safe, but had indeed conquered the Colorado River.

The intrepid group soon disbanded. Sumner, Bradley, Hawkins, and Hall continued down the Colorado in the boats. Their aim was to travel to Fort Mojave, and then possibly continue overland from there to Los Angeles. Major Powell and his brother headed for St. Thomas, on their way to Salt Lake City. They inquired repeatedly about the three who had left the group at Separation Rapid.

When the news finally came, it was not good. The Howland brothers and Dunn had made it up out of the canyon to the top of the plateau, but no farther. A party of Shivwit Indians, mistaking them for another group of white men who had murdered one of their women, killed all three.

When Powell reached Salt Lake City in September, newspaper reporters were there to greet him and hear his account of the fantastic adventure. Back in Normal, a heros welcome awaited him. A flurry of lecture invitations and receptions engulfed Powell for a while, but then he began making plans for a second trip down the Colorado River.

Much of the data of the early part of the 1869 trip had been lost along the way, and during the latter part, the party had been more concerned with survival than with science. Powell knew that in order to accomplish his original purpose, he must undertake the trip again. This time, he would be fortified by knowledge instead of folklore; knew that he could not carry provisions for the entire trip, but instead should store caches of goods at points along the way; and planned to devote two or three years to the expedition.

Interaction with the Native Americans in the West was precarious in those years, and Powell wanted to make sure that he would enjoy good relationships with any whom he encountered. To this end, he visited Indian camps, learning their languages and their lore.

In May 1871financed by a small congressional appropriationthe second Powell expedition rolled down the river toward the Grand Canyon. Wanting to be more comfortable this time, Powell acquired a sturdy armchair and had it tied to the middle bulkhead of the pilot boat. From this perch, he could watch the river ahead.

In addition to a brand new crew, Powell was accompanied by a photographer and an artist. This genuine scientific expedition would fill in the blanks left in the records of the previous trip.

When the journey, which was much less nerve-wracking than the first, was completed to his satisfaction, Powell went to Washington and fought for a single agency to sponsor the scattered explorations of the West that had been going on for some time. He brought earlier studies of Americas indigenous people together; started a systematic study of Indian life; and published a series of pamphlets on their vocabularies, mortuary customs, sign language, medical practices, tribal governments, and mythology. His interest in the American Indian and his records of their ceremonies, culture, and folklore contributed toward the establishment in 1879 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, with Powell as its first director. He also helped to found the United States Geographical and Geological Survey, serving as its director from 1881 to 1894.

By his death in 1902 at the age of 68, Powell had become a leading authority on the American Westa distinguished geologist, scientist, and ethnologist, as well as the man who directed the path of development of the immense semiarid area of the country. But with all his achievements, he is still primarily remembered as an adventurer who explored and conquered the last unknown region within the continental United States.

This article was written by Carolyn J. Hursch and originally published in June 2000 issue of American History Magazine.

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The Drive for War

What is it that ultimately causes a person to willfully endure the horrors of combat, and if need be, sacrifice his or her life? Certainly the noble inducements of patriotism, honor, belief in a cause or the defense of ones home are strong motivations. Then there are factors such as a desire for adventure or an impulse to not be thought of as a coward when all your friends and relatives start enlisting. At the bottom of the barrel we find a lust for personal glory or political advancement, a desire to destroy people who are different or have different beliefs, or even a basic, animalistic love of fighting and killing.

This months features ask powerful questions about motivation, starting with our lead feature about the Irish experience in the Army of the Potomac. Honor and a desire to prove their worth to their new homeland drove these newly arrived immigrants to enlist by the thousands. But patriotism of another sort  a loyalty to the mother country  also played a powerful part for some, especially men like Thomas Meagher and Michael Corcoran, who had designs on taking battle-hardened legions back to Ireland to win independence from England. It should also be considered that the Army and its regular paychecks probably looked like a good alternative to someone struggling to survive in the brutal conditions of the Irish ghettos.

Glenn LaFantasies illuminating look at William C. Oates ponders motivation on a personal level. Certainly Oates saw the war as an opportunity for glory and advancement  he was hardly alone. But as LaFantasie points out, something changed for Oates after the bloody repulse of his regiment by the 20th Maine on Little Round Top  a fight that cost him his brother and several of his men. By the time Oates got to Chickamauga, he seemed to be fighting for different reasons and in different ways. He may have been battling the ghosts of Gettysburg as much as he was the Federals in northern Georgia.

Personal motivation takes a curious twist in our examination of the fall of Forts Jackson and St. Philip  and then New Orleans  in the spring of 1862. The Confederate commander of the forts, Johnson K. Duncan, was a Pennsylvanian. The overall commander of New Orleans and its surroundings, Mansfield Lovell, was raised in Washington, D.C., but was from an old Massachusetts family and had lived in New York for several years. The fall of the forts set off a chain reaction on the lower Mississippi River that culminated in July 1863 at Vicksburg, another critical river city under the command of another Northerner. Northerners who fought for the Confederacy and Southerners who fought for the Union represent a fascinating chapter of the conflict, and drive home just how much of a civil war it truly was.

We see motivation at its worst when we examine David Hunters depredations in the Shenandoah Valley. Here was a commander fixated on personal glory and advancement, but even more on punishment and revenge. Hunter was a rabid abolitionist who, like so many of the radicals in that camp, believed that punishing all Southerners regardless of whether or not they owned slaves was not only just but necessary. As is often the case with soldiers of extremist mindsets, their actions quickly degenerate into ruthlessness and cruelty that alienates them from friends as well as foes. In a few short weeks, Hunter managed to repulse many of his men, including top subordinates, to the point where they would barely follow his orders, let alone fight effectively for him.

Motivation to fight, whether its at the societal, cultural or personal level, is every bit as complex an issue as war itself  and one that resonates through the ages. The next time someone asks you why studying history is important, throw motivation on the table with everything else. Well probably never stop fighting wars  but we should also never stop asking ourselves why we do.
Being in charge of women had its challenges. They wanted to take their creature comforts to the bunkers. They had little fear.

I grew up in Stoystown in western Pennsylvania, a small town near the regions steel mills, but I wanted to travel instead of work in a factory or be a housewife. I enlisted right after high school, in 1958, and received basic training at Fort McClellan, Alabama. As a cryptographer, I was assigned to the Signal Corps, completing several Stateside assignments and two tours in Europe. Seven years later, I went to Officer Candidate School in Alabama, and served two Stateside assignments. Then I volunteered and was selected to go to Vietnam as the commander of the Womens Army Corps (WAC) Detachment in Long Binh, which was an honor.

Upon arrival in Vietnam in October 1968, I was put in charge of between 60 and 100 women who had administrative jobs in communications, logistics, intelligence and engineering. Long Binh, just 12 miles outside Saigon, was the Armys largest logistical base in Vietnam. Most of the enlisted women were barely out of their teens.

I lived in the WAC Detachment compound trailer, with most of the comforts, while the enlisted women stayed in barracks with about 10 square feet of living space. The women were not allowed to leave the post and were required to be back at 10 every night. We had no weapons and one security guard. As a commanding officer, my number-one priority was their safety.

Keeping them focused on tasks was difficult at times, especially in getting them to straighten up their barracks. (I hated going through their areas; I wanted the women to have as much privacy as possible.) They had cash, and when stereo components arrived in the post exchange, they practically flew over there to buy them, so the wiring was everywhere! One time, during an alert, we heard a woman screaming, Ive been hit! In gathering her helmet and canteen, her stereo had become dislodged and hit her on the head. I told her to get herself in the bunker and stay there.

One woman brought an electric skillet for frying eggs, and others brought paper plates and plastic forks for a picnic. You had to keep saying, Look, the helmet is more important. Some would bring tape recorders to record noise from rockets. My biggest challenge was keeping everyone in the bunker until the all-clear was given. The women had little fear.

I tried to break the routines and arranged for two field trips. A helicopter company invited the corps women to fly down to their unit for a training day, so everyone volunteered, and helicopters arrived at Long Binh to pick them up. On another occasion, the women were invited to see the Vietnam Womens Training Center in Saigon. They had security guards with them on the bus to Saigon; they actually took a big chance going down dangerous Route 1 from Long Binh.

On February 23, 1969, Long Binh Post came under attack at 2 a.m. in the morning. About 80 rockets or mortar rounds fell on the base, followed by a Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army ground assault. The post was just one of more than 115 bases or towns subjected to this second Tet Offensive. We were on yellow alert, and a Headquarters Company reaction force was called into action on the perimeter. Though not trained as hardcore infantrymen, Headquarters and Headquarters Company gave it their all, and, aided by attack helicopters, repulsed the attack. But the next day, we found out that our commander, Lt. Col. William W. Dickey, had been killed on the perimeter. Overall, seven U.S. servicemen died, including Colonel Dickey, and 31 were wounded. The most difficult thing I had to do in Vietnam was tell the women that our boss had been killed.

In March, I received orders to an administrative job at the 1st Logistical Command HQ at Long Binh, where I remained until 1970. Enlisted women of all military branches were there in Saigon, so I lived in the WAC Detachment bachelors quarters, in a private room.

I left Vietnam excited to continue my career as an officer, with more schooling. After the WAC Advanced Course at Fort McClellan, I served in the Pentagon and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1984. My years in Vietnam were the highlight of my 26 years in the Army. The women were so dedicated to their profession, to their duties and most of all to the United States at a time when many Americans were turning their backs on the country.

For more on women who served in Vietnam, visit www.vietnamwomenveterans.org.
The Dictabelts

The Nixon Presidential Library is releasing the second installment of Presidential dictabelts, which include President Nixons recollections of his surreal early morning surprise visit to the Lincoln Memorial on May 9, 1970, when he met with anti-Vietnam War protestors who were camped out there. All recorded the same day, May 13, 1970, these dictabelts provide a complex picture of the presidents feelings about the anti-war movement and civic action in the wake of the Kent State tragedy. In some he recounts his May 9 effort to reach out to student demonstrators, in others he orders the cutoff of Federal funds to universities where a majority of the faculty is against the Vietnam War, and asks that the White House quietly discourage corporate sponsorship of the Urban coalition.

Listen to the newly released Dictabelts.

Also, watch the PBS Newshour Report on the Lincoln Memorial visit here, an interview with Melvin Small, distinguished professor of history emeritus at Wayne State University and author of two books, The Presidency of Richard Nixon and Covering Dissent: The Media and Anti-Vietnam War Movement. On the tapes, President Nixon describes a conversation with his valet, Manolo, asking him if hed ever been down to the Lincoln Memorial. Nixon: I said get your clothes on and we will go down to the Lincoln Memorial. Well, I got dressed and at approximately 4:35, we left the White House and drove to the Lincoln Memorial. I have never seen the Secret Service quite so petrified with apprehension.
The Supreme Court Produced by Thirteen/WNET New York, by Jeffrey Rosen, Times Books, 2007

Any television documentary that features Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts Jr. as one of its many talking heads is certainly a rare opportunity for viewers to get a personal sense of the man who now leads the U.S. Supreme Court. In the four-part PBS series The Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roberts addresses subjects ranging from John Marshall, his most illustrious predecessor, who in the early 1800s institutionalized the courts power to interpret the U.S. Constitution, to William H. Rehnquist, whom Roberts once served as a law clerk and whose 2005 death led to Roberts elevation.

Throughout the series, the producers make use of a veritable army of talking heads. Some interviewees, such as David G. Post of Temple University, R. Kent Newmyer of the University of Connecticut and Lucas A. Powe Jr. of the University of Texas, are superbly well-spoken historians who bring energy and meaning to the narrative. Other academics, however, seem pompous or slightly goofy, and the producers should have reduced their oversized roster to the most compelling speakers.

The first hour focuses largely on Marshall and the story of how he outfoxed President Thomas Jefferson, his political rival, in Marbury v. Madison, the 1803 decision in which the court bestowed on itself the power of judicial review. Illustrating a television account of a pre-newsreel era requires heavy reliance on static old prints and paintings, but the producers try to enliven the program with reenacted dramatizations of scenes like Jeffersons inauguration, where Marshall administered the presidential oath of office.

The second hour traces the courts history from the aftermath of the Civil War to Franklin Roosevelts New Deal in the 1930s. Three justicesJohn Marshall Harlan, Stephen J. Field and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.serve as focal figures. The profusion of academics describing the justices jurisprudence, however, makes the show feel like undergraduate constitutional history as taught by a tag team of 15 different professors, none of whom speaks for longer than 90 seconds at a time.

The program also features extensive footage of whats presented as Holmes home library, including a memorable shot of what are depicted as his blood-stained Civil War uniforms. Many viewers might watch this segment and wonder where Holmes house is and what its visiting hours are. But this too is only a recreated dramatization. At the location of Holmes house, 1720 I St., N.W., in Washington, D.C., now stands only a bland office building.

The final two hours suffer from far more substantive shortcomings. The first, covering the 1940s through the 1960s, is disproportionately focused on Justice Hugo L. Black, a former Ku Klux Klansman and Alabama senator, who became one of the courts most outspoken liberals in the 1950s. Chief Justice Earl Warren is portrayed as a decidedly secondary figure, and the Warren Courts most widely praised jurist, John Marshall Harlan IIthe grandson of the late 19th-century justiceis never even mentioned.

The late Chief Justice Rehnquist anchors the last hour. Some additional interviewees, including retired Justice Sandra Day OConnor, USA Today reporter Joan Biskupic and A.E. Dick Howard of the University of Virginia, add verve, but this show too is occasionally troublesome. Misleading narration falsely suggests that Justice Harry A. Blackmun was undecided about his vote in Roe v. Wade until he received advice from his wife and daughters. Justice William J. Brennan Jr., whose role as Earl Warrens most influential colleague is mentioned just once in the third hour, is featured as Rehnquists ideological opposite. The producers, however, allow a conservative former Reagan administration Justice Department official, Charles J. Cooper, to assert that Brennan as a single justice exerted greater influence on domestic social policy than any president had had. Biographers of Lyndon B. Johnson would surely challenge the accuracy of that description.

Coopers characterization of Brennan is mirrored by a closing comment from Larry D. Kramer of Stanford University, who calls the Supreme Court a huge institution at the center of American politics. That theme serves the producers grandiose aspirations, but more careful and measured scholars refrain from such easy exaggerations. In a landmark article in the Harvard Law Review this past November, Frederick Schauer of Harvard makes a powerfully persuasive argument that the Supreme Court is actually far less involved in the political issues that most concern Americans than critics of the court regularly claim.

Anyone who chooses to watch these shows must do so skeptically, and the four hours would be far better spent reading Jeffrey Rosens superbly well-written companion volume, likewise titled The Supreme Court. Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University who writes regularly for The New Republic, The Atlantic and The New York Times, is a far more trustworthy guide to the court than the TV documentarians. Rosen too focuses first on Marshall and Jefferson, then on Holmes and the elder Harlan, but he balances his treatment of the Warren Court justices far better than the TV program.

The most valuable parts of Rosens book concern the Rehnquist and Roberts courts. Rehnquist exemplified what Rosen identifies as the most desirable traits for a Supreme Court justice: A pragmatic disposition, a degree of humility and common sense, and the ability to interact well in groups these have proved over time to be more important qualities than academic brilliance or rigid philosophical consistency in determining a justices long-term influence.

In stark contrast, Rosen identifies Justice Antonin Scalia as a present-day exemplar of undesirable judicial traits. When he joined the court in 1986, Scalia told C-SPAN that judges ought to make an effort to avoid becoming public figures, because its not their personalities or their particular viewpoints that they are supposed to be promoting. As Rosen highlights, Scalia has ignored his own advice and has repeatedly proven unable to restrain himself from broadcasting his views on topics unrelated to his judicial duties. By repeatedly inserting his own personality into public debate, he called his impartiality into question.

Rosen also obtained an interview with Chief Justice Roberts. Asked about his 17 predecessors, Roberts answered that certainly a solid majority of them have to be characterized as failures. Roberts strongly criticized the issuance of fractured decisions, remarking that the court over the past thirty years has been eroding, to some extent, the capital that Marshall built up with unanimous rulings two centuries ago.

Roberts told Rosen that the court needs to refocus on functioning as an institution, because if it doesnt, its going to lose its credibility and legitimacy as an institution. Those are exceptionally strong public words from a sitting chief justice, but Roberts went on to speak of what he called the failure in Bush v. Gore, the controversial court ruling that decided the 2000 presidential election. Its a high priority to keep any kind of partisan divide out of the judiciary, he said, and only time will tell whether Roberts own votes will live up to that standard.

Rosen observes that Roberts exhibits a temperament that suggests he has many of the personal gifts and talents of the most successful justices in the courts history. Rosen may well be right, and his book is a wonderfully informative guide to the Supreme Court both past and present.
The stand up stopped in for a chat at our Hot Press Speakeasy tent at Forbidden Fruit 2016.

Irish comedian Andrew Stanley has described the fallout he endured for telling a joke about the 9/11 terror attacks on TV3.

Stanley stated that while the TV station received no complaints about the joke, TV3 still felt it necessary to issue an official apology for it. The joke itself revolves around two young bar goers asking for an "Irish Car Bomb" shot but instead receiving two shots of flaming sambucca which the barman dubs, "The Twin Towers". Stanley subsequently suffered some backlash in the national media for the joke.

The media attention hasn't affected his career however as Stanley went on to discuss his international stand up tours including shows in the US and a five week run in Australia earlier this year. Catch Andrew Stanley performing MC duties all weekend at the comedy stage at Forbidden Fruit 2016.
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Stay updated with what's going down at Forbidden Fruit 2016 as we begin day two.

Here's everything you need to know if you're attending the second day of Forbidden Fruit.

It's day two down here at Kilmainaham and temperatures are soaring almost as high as the crowds spirit. The sun has shown it's face once again as festival goers return for another day of great music.

With the last of the tickets selling out earlier this afternoon it's now been advised to only travel to the festival if you have a ticket already.

Day two of of the weekend is filled with great artists, especially Irish acts! White Collar Boy, Kormac, MMOTHS, and Voxx will all be appearing throughout the day.

The main stage will see the likes of Skepta and Jungle with Tame Impala closing the second day of the festival.

Pop into the Hot Press Speakeasy for live interviews, acoustic sessions and meet & greets with Joe Rooney, Frank Jez, Amaron & Magic, Voxx, Jungle and Kormac throughout the day.

Stay tuned for more updates as the day goes on.
President Barack Obama's new overtime rules have been trashed as a job killer by conservatives and heralded as a salve for the middle class by liberals. In reality, the measure probably won't have much of an economic effect, partly because employers will find legal ways of getting around it.

The new rules sound dramatic. Starting in December, anyone who is a salaried worker and makes less than $47,476 must be paid time and a half for any work beyond 40 hours a week. For the last decade, only people who made less than $23,660 automatically had to be paid overtime. Anyone who made more than the threshold and performed executive or administrative tasks at work was exempt from overtime.

"This is the single biggest step I can take through executive action to raise wages for the American people," Obama said in a weekly address in May.

Not so many?

It turns out that Obama is not raising wages for very many people. The White House estimates that 4.2 million people will become eligible for overtime compensation under the rule, and that it will push wages up by $1.2 billion a year for a decade.

But 60 percent of the 4.2 million workers who will be eligible for overtime do not work any overtime hours, meaning employers won't change their pay because of the new rules, the U.S. Department of Labor found. So only the remaining 1.7 million workers will get raises, $718 a year on average.

U.S. employers pay about $7 trillion to some 140 million workers each year. That means the rule will bump up wages by a fraction of a percent, and it will affect about 1 percent of the working population.

Cutting pay and hours

History shows that when governments tell businesses to pay people overtime, bosses respond by cutting base pay and hours.

It isn't clear, based on existing research, whether bosses will hire new employees to work the hours that they cut from existing employees. But a test case for how companies will respond played out in California two decades ago.

In 1980, the state began allowing men to claim overtime for time they put in after eight hours on the job each day; women earned the right to daily overtime pay decades earlier. Five years later, the share of California men working extra hours had declined 24 percent, while men in other parts of the country increased their overtime work, according to a study published in 2000 by Daniel Hamermesh and Stephen Trejo, economists at the University of Texas at Austin.

The study found no evidence that giving men overtime pay forced employers to hire more people.

"This raises the cost of work overall, so total hours worked will go down," Hamermesh said, and "the total amount produced will go down."

Producing slightly less may not seem particularly good, as far as American economic prowess goes.

But for workers, it has an upside.

There are 759,000 salaried employees who regularly work overtime now who will not get enough of a raise to become exempt under Obama's new threshold. Employers will cut hours for those employees by 1 percent, but their pay will go up by 2.8 percent, the Department of Labor estimates, because they'll be getting time and a half for hours they previously weren't getting paid extra to work.

"I don't think man lives by output alone. I am a firm believer that Americans work too much," Hamermesh said. "If we can't get our act together to cut back, and this legislation gets us to work a little bit less, maybe that's not such a bad thing."
BP announced Friday that it has agreed to pay $175 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by investors who accused the oil giant of misleading them about the rate of oil flowing after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

In a brief statement, BP said it will pay the investors over this year and next year. U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison in Houston still needs to approve the deal.
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The U.S. shale oil industry may be coming off life support, though many caution it will still take time to recover from the worst downturn in a generation.

U.S. companies sent nine drilling rigs back to the West Texas and other oil patches across the country this week, the first significant sign of recovery in the dusty regions that were at the center of the biggest domestic energy boom in 40 years.

It could mark another turning point for the industry, an end to the long financial drought that has devastated the service companies that support thousands of jobs in Houston. It comes just a few weeks before the two-year anniversary of the start of the oil bust.

"It'll come back," said Russell Robinson, a corporate salesman at Choice Completions, a 2-month-old oil field services startup in Houston. "You can't live without oil, unless you want to ride a horse and buggy. You just had some people open the spigot a little more than they should have. We're all excited it's coming back."

The rig count has been falling steadily for six months, but the decline has been slowing in recent weeks and finally flipped this week, Baker Hughes said Friday. The number of U.S. rigs drilling for oil and gas has tumbled from a peak of more than 1,900 two years ago to 408 now, and oil companies have shed nearly 100,000 jobs in Texas and more across the country.

But higher oil prices are encouraging some producers to begin the long process of ramping activity back up. Among those adding rigs this week, oil companies deployed five to the Permian Basin in West Texas and producers in Alaska brought three online.

A survey released by Evercore ISI on Friday showed a third of oil drillers, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, plan to boost their budgets by 10 percent in the second half of the year if crude prices keep hovering around $50 a barrel. Nearly three-quarters say they expect to pour more money into the oil patch in 2017.

"The period of significant decline is behind us," said Bill Herbert, a senior energy analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co., an investment research firm. From here on, he said, "it's more steps forward than backward."

Herbert said he believed the industry could put 500 drilling rigs back to work by the end of 2018, adding 20 to 100 jobs with each one, though after a financial squeeze amid falling oil prices, companies won't be able to afford a big surge in drilling for a while.

Praveen Narra, analyst at investment bank Raymond James, said a rise in crude prices to about $60 a barrel could boost the rig count by a third, to 625, by the end of the year.

Both Herbert and Narra acknowledged it will take months for U.S. drillers to pay down large debts run up in the last oil boom, which began in 2010 and ended in April 2015, when domestic production began to decline.

It also will be difficult to find workers after deep job cuts, analysts say.

Still, higher corporate spending bodes well for Houston's oil field services companies. Those investments in the oil fields are the lifeblood of service companies like Schlumberger and Halliburton that have had to cut tens of thousands of jobs after oil prices crashed and global oil producers in 2016 spent less than $400 billion for the first time since 2009.

"We've had two years of capital expenditure drainage," and that lack of spending will keep the supply of labor and oil equipment constrained in 2017, Narra said.

U.S. crude settled at $48.62 a barrel on Friday, up from a 13-year low of $26 a barrel in February.

Through financial engineering, oil companies have locked in the higher prices for future oil sales, a process called hedging. They secured higher prices for 1.2 million barrels of production in the first quarter of 2016, up 15 percent from the prior three months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

"There's no question there's a trend there," said Jamie Webster, a fellow at the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy. "The big question is going to be how the market looks at it."

Some market observers worry that U.S. crude production could rebound too swiftly, backfiring on them by erasing recent gains in oil prices, which have risen as shale oil output has fallen and countries including Nigeria and Canada have suffered production outages.

Webster said he thinks the growth rate will be manageable.

"As long as the oil price doesn't get too terribly high," he said, "they'll probably get through this."
Houston-based Kinder Morgan is making its first companywide job cuts of the oil bust, eliminating about 120 positions as the pipeline giant adapts to the downturn.

The company confirmed that the reductions include 37 jobs in Houston. In recent months, Kinder Morgan reduced its shareholder dividend and project backlog in order to shrink costs and increase cash flow. It will still employ about 11,750 people overall.

In an emailed statement, Kinder Morgan spokesman Richard Wheatley said the decision to eliminate positions was made because of the company's reduced activity levels during the downturn. He said terminated employees will receive severance packages. Some whose jobs are being cut may be reassigned elsewhere.

While Kinder Morgan's value has suffered, midstream companies haven't suffered nearly as much as the upstream oil producers and services companies that operate closest to the wellhead. For instance, the world's largest oil field services companies, Schlumberger and Halliburton, have combined to cut more than 70,000 jobs since late 2014.

Texas has lost nearly 100,000 upstream oil and gas jobs thus far, according to the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers.

Those woes have trickled into Kinder Morgan's pipeline business. Its project backlog has shrunk since mid-2015 to about $14 billion from $22 billion.

Its stock was trading at more than $42 a share a year ago. Shares closed Friday at $17.99, up 3 cents on the day.

The company cut its dividend by 75 percent in December to free up more cash.

However, Kinder Morgan has gotten some positive news on major projects of late. On Thursday, it received approval for its $2 billion project to export liquefied natural gas from Georgia. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authorized Kinder Morgan's Elba Liquefaction Project that will export LNG from Elba Island, near Savannah, Ga.

In May, Canadian regulators recommended the approval of Kinder Morgan's $5.4 billion Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion.
WASHINGTON - A federal report predicts the amount of renewable energy on the electricity grid will more than double by 2040 to close to 500 gigawatts of capacity.

That presumes the Obama administration's clean power plan, which would reduce carbon emissions from the power sector by 30 percent, survives a legal challenge.

But even without the clean power plan, cost reductions in solar and wind energy, along with the extension of a tax credit for renewable energy last year, should still grow to more than 400 gigawatts over the next 24 years.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration is predicting continued growth in wind power until 2022, when the tax credit expires and construction comes to a virtual halt.

"Because the most favorable wind resources are located in a few regions in the country, increased adoption of wind technology in these regions may be limited by the ability of regional grids to handle high levels of intermittent generation," the report reads.

But the agency also forecasts continued growth in solar farms and rooftop systems through 2040.

Still, 500 gigawatts would be a long way from the carbon-free power sector many environmentalists want to see in the decades ahead.

Right now the U.S. power grid counts a capacity of 1,066 gigawatts, of which 440 gigawatts is natural gas and coal is 280 gigawatts.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - This week, as part of the festivities that surround Wal-Mart's annual shareholder meeting, "Eye of the Tiger" blasted through loudspeakers as employees entered an arena at the University of Arkansas. Hand-picked by their managers out of Wal-Mart's workforce of more than 1 million, the employees arrived ready to cheer.

Part business meeting, part pep rally, the meeting was hosted by comedian James Corden and featured musicians Katy Perry, Nick Jonas, Maxwell and Andy Grammer.

Workers certainly have something to cheer about. Average hourly pay has gone up since Wal-Mart announced early last year that it would increase wages to at least $10 an hour for its army of part-time and full-time workers.

But not all employees were as enthusiastic as those in the arena.

The employees more critical of the company say Wal-Mart, the biggest private employer in the United States, has found more subtle ways to keep the reins on its workers' paychecks. The retailer has cut merit raises, for example, and has introduced a training program called Pathways that can keep employees at $9 an hour for as long as 18 months.

The moves have concerned worker advocates, who say the changes have chipped away at the earnings gains employees appeared to make last year.

"I fear that Wal-Mart's plan is more about delaying an actual wage increase than providing real training," said Stephanie Luce, a professor of labor studies at the City University of New York. "We've found other major retailers using probationary periods and other strategies as a way to avoid committing to set work schedules and higher wages."

Uber and Lyft

Wal-Mart, naturally, tried to keep the focus on its biggest initiatives this week. The company said, for example, that it would test a new grocery delivery service with the ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft, as a way to help expand its e-commerce business, which lags behind online rival Amazon.

Still, a group of workers also made their grievances known.

On Tuesday, a van of OUR Wal-Mart members, a union-backed group of employees, drove around the retailer's hometown of Bentonville, 30 miles north of here, to tape petitions calling for higher wages and other concessions onto the mailboxes of executives and several members of the Walton family, who collectively control more than 50 percent of the company's outstanding shares.

One point of contention is raises. In February, Wal-Mart said it was "enabling hourly workers to earn their annual pay increase months earlier than expected."

Smaller increases

But many workers ended up getting smaller raises than they would have under the old system. Workers used to get an annual raise of 40 to 60 cents per hour, based on merit. This year, workers got a percentage-based raise: The highest-earning hourly employees got 2 percent, which translated to less than 40 cents for most of them. Other employees got a raise of 2.75 percent, which, for many, still equaled less than 40 cents.

"They cut the yearly raises in half, basically," said Barbara Gertz, who worked at a Wal-Mart in Denver for seven years before quitting this year. She said she believed her last raise was about 23 cents.

Wal-Mart is "still evaluating" how it will do raises next year, according to a company spokesman.
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The process of acquiring a skinned, frozen raccoon is relatively straightforward. You ask for a size (small, medium, large), then the raccoon is presented to you for inspection.

It turns out that a skinned raccoon looks a lot like a skinned possum. For that reason, the feet are left on so the discerning raccoon consumer can tell the difference - possums have opposable thumbs on their back feet. No opposable thumbs confirms it's a raccoon.

Why would anyone want to acquire a frozen raccoon? To barbecue it, of course. There is a long tradition of grilling and smoking wild game in the southern United States, including such animals as raccoon, possum and squirrel. "Brunswick stew" is one famous dish. In Louisiana, the water rat known as the nutria has long been a favorite ingredient in some Cajun recipes.

The consumption of wild game is a holdover from earlier times when beef and pork were in short supply. Whatever could be easily caught - squirrels, rabbits, raccoons - would be field-dressed, cooked and eaten. These traditions continue today. Don't believe me? Google "raccoon recipe."

Or ask the Chronicle's outdoors writer, Shannon Tompkins.

"I've had barbecued coon many times," Tompkins says. "Pretty good, but it can be a bit greasy if you don't cook it right. I prefer raccoon baked with sweet potato. Coon and sweet potatoes is a classic Southern meal."

Why isn't more wild game served in barbecue joints? I've come up with three basic reasons.

First, there's not really a market. Beef and pork are what people expect on menus; anything else probably won't sell well. You'll occasionally see deer (venison), often in sausages. More recently, smoked alligator was a featured at the Houston Barbecue Festival. But these are exceptions to the rule.

Another reason is that a lot of wild game features lean meat, rather than fat-laden meat like beef and pork. The process of using smoke to cook and flavor meat depends on this fat to render (melt) and absorb the smoke flavor.

This makes sense because wild game is, well, wild, meaning it is out in nature getting its exercise and trying not to become another victim of the food chain. Cattle and hogs raised for consumption in the U.S. are famously dormant, standing around and eating - fattening up - for most of their short lives.

Finally, the consumption of specific types of wild game is taboo. The idea of eating raccoon or possum is foreign and off-putting to most people.

But is it even legal to sell raccoon for human consumption?

According to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department it is legal to sell raccoon meat with an appropriate license, known as a "trappers" or "fur dealers" license. However, local or state health authorities may have some objections.

Suffice it to say that in general it is legal to acquire it (through hunting for instance) for personal use and consumption. Hunting animals like raccoon or possum whose population certainly will never be in jeopardy is encouraged by the TPWD as a "renewable resource."

If you know where to look, you can buy a skinned, frozen raccoon in Southeast Texas or southwest Louisiana. Of course, the taboo factor and legal murkiness require such establishments to keep a low profile. They are usually located on the backroads between towns and cities. That's where I ended up one weekend as I was out searching for more traditional barbecue.

The sign spelling out "Raccoon" was too tempting to pass up.

I'm staring at the frozen carcass of a - let's see, no opposable thumbs - so yes, it's a raccoon. This raccoon was caught on land outside of Beaumont.

I keep asking questions about recipes and preparations, fascinated by this unlikely barbecue tradition, until the proprietor gets suspicious and clams up.

I'll pass on the raccoon. I'll stick with alligator.
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With the record rainfall that soaked the region this spring and the looming threat of the West Nile and Zika viruses, area officials are stepping up their mosquito abatement efforts.

Montgomery County Precinct 3's South County Mosquito Abatement office started testing mosquito samples for the West Nile Virus in-house this year. Previously, all mosquito samples had to be sent to the Texas Department of State Health Services to be tested for the virus, which could take a week or more to get the results, according to Justin Fausek, program leader for South County Mosquito Abatement. Now, the abatement team can get results back the same day.

Although the in-house testing is more expensive, Fausek said that the county believes the ability to streamline testing and treating affected areas makes it worth it.

"We feel that this increased cost is more than justified since we will be able to respond to disease activity faster than we ever have before," Fausek said.

The county has already identified a mosquito sample from south Montgomery County that tested positive for West Nile in mid-May and treated the area it was taken from.

Last year, Texas had a total of 252 cases of the West Nile Virus in humans, 181 of which were the serious, neuro-invasive form of the disease and 11 of which resulted in death.

Most people infected with West Nile show no symptoms, but about one in five experience fever, headache, body aches, vomiting and other flu-like symptoms. Less than one percent of those infected develop the serious neurologic illness, which can result in seizures, paralysis and, in rare cases, death.

Area environmental services officials are also preparing for the possibility of the Zika virus spreading to Montgomery County. In the past year, there has been a Zika outbreak in Latin America and the Caribbean, with some cases of people infected abroad before coming to the U.S.

Infection is characterized by fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis, and is of most concern in pregnant women, as it can cause microcephaly, a condition where the baby's head is much smaller than normal, and other birth defects.

As of May 23, there were 36 confirmed cases of Zika virus disease in Texas, including 15 in the Greater Houston area. So far, there have been no cases of mosquitoes infecting people with Zika in the U.S. However, the state health department is testing mosquito samples from high-risk areas for the virus.

Local samples have not yet had to be tested for Zika, said John Geiger with The Woodlands Environmental Services. The Woodlands did start testing and treating for mosquitoes earlier than usual this year, he said, and they are taking the threat of Zika seriously.

"We are planning and preparing as best we can - putting more resources toward it," Geiger said. "(Zika) is a real possibility."

In the meantime, Geiger said that the use of in-house testing for West Nile will help The Woodlands better protect the residents from health hazards.

Still, he urges residents to take precautions by eliminating or treating any standing water that could serve as a breeding ground for disease-carrying mosquitoes, by wearing long pants and sleeves, using mosquito repellent, and avoiding outside activity during dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes are most prevalent.

Avoid mosquito-borne disease

West Nile: can cause flu-like symptoms in infected people, including fever, headache, vomiting and rash.Zika: is characterized by fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis, and is of most concern in pregnant women, as it can cause microcephaly, a condition where the baby's head is much smaller than normal, and other birth defects.

To prevent infection,: cover up outside when you can and wear mosquito repellent containing DEET. Eliminate or treat standing water in the yard and ensure window screens are intact.

To report areas: with high mosquito activity in The Woodlands, contact the Environmental Services Department at 281-210-3800.
Harvey Rice

ROSHARON  Rising water from the Brazos River on Saturday forced the evacuation of 1,700 prisoners from the Ramsey Unit state prison near Rosharon as well as the relocation of at least 100 vehicles from the nearby Texas Department of Criminal Justice's distribution center.

The prisoners will be sent to prisons in East Texas in buses along with prison staff assisting in the evacuation, department spokesman Jason Clark said in a news release.
A jailer and a former Harris County sheriff's deputy face criminal charges after a grand jury returned indictments against them Friday for separate incidents.

Cee Carsten, a former deputy, faces two counts of tampering with a government document, for knowingly and intentionally including false information on a Harris County Sheriff's offense report, the department said in a news release Friday.

Carsten is accused of lying about traveling to the scenes of at least two domestic disturbances, said Jeff McShan, spokesman for the Harris County District Attorney's Office. In the deputy's official reports, he wrote that he saw and heard things at scenes, but investigators believe he just compiled information over the phone.

Carsten was indicted on two counts of tampering with a government document for intentionally submitting false information, which is generally a class A misdemeanor, punishable by a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. It was unclear Friday evening if aggravating factors would increase the punishment range.

Carsten was terminated in September 2015. According to state law enforcement commission records, he has worked for Harris County since 2006.

Josh Normand, who represents Carsten, said the former deputy will fight the allegations.

"My client (Mr. Carsten) is looking forward to proving his innocence regarding the unfounded accusations brought against him," he said in a written statement.

David Cuevas, president of the Harris County Deputies' Organization, said Carsten was a member of the organization but declined to discuss specifics of the charges against him.

"We're going to let due process take its course," Cuevas said. "He still has a trial to go through and we're not going to comment."

The grand jury also charged Donald John-Miller in connection with an assault of an inmate being held in the department's jail. State records show he has been a jailer with Harris County for more than six years.

He is on paid suspension, according to the release.

Both indictments followed investigations by Harris County internal affairs investigators, department officials said.

"I will continue to hold our employees to the highest standards of conduct and behavior," Sheriff Ron Hickman said, in an email. "The Grand Jury's decision is confirmation that our investigative and disciplinary process works."

Chronicle reporter Brian Rogers contributed to this report.
Legal advocacy groups said Friday they will ask an appeals court to stop a federal order by a Brownsville judge instructing the government to release the names and personal information of about 50,000 young immigrants here illegally.

Calling it a political act intended to instill fear in immigrant communities, the National Immigration Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants' Rights Project and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas petitioned the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to either block the order requiring the Department of Justice release the information or postpone next week's deadline by when it must do so.

Their request is the latest development in the acrimonious fight over President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration announced in November 2014. That action would defer the deportation of about 4 million immigrants here illegally, mostly the parents of American children, and provide them with three-year work permits. Obama also planned to expand a similar program for young adults, known as deferred action for childhood arrivals or DACA, which went into effect in 2012 and granted two-year work permits to about 713,300 youth across the country.

Texas, leading a coalition of 26 states, sued immediately to stop both the 2014 work permit program for parents and the expanded version of DACA, though it did not challenge the original 2012 program. In February 2015, District Court Judge Andrew Hanen agreed to halt the 2014 plan, which has been on hold since then as the Department of Justice appealed the injunction. He ruled the plan could violate a federal statute about administrative procedures and impose harm on Texas by forcing it to issue driver's licenses to immigrants here illegally.

The Supreme Court is expected to make a decision on the case this month, either agreeing the program can't be implemented or allowing it to go forward. A tie on the shorthanded eight-member court would also stop the plan from going into effect.

Meanwhile, however, the original case remains active in Hanen's court. Last month, the judge ruled the government must release all identifying information of about 50,000 immigrants in the 26 states suing to stop Obama's immigration program. He argued the government wrongly granted them extensions under the challenged initiatives between November 2014 and February 2015 while the lawsuits were awaiting his ruling.

Hanen also ordered Justice Department lawyers practicing in the 26 plaintiff states to take five years of ethics training, saying they had not been forthcoming in disclosing how many immigrants received these extensions.

The Justice Department this week filed to halt Hanen's order and also appealed it to the 5th Circuit Court. In particular, it challenged the release of personal information, saying it "could undermine public trust in (the Department of Homeland Security's) commitment to protecting the confidential information contained in immigration files."

On Friday, the legal advocacy groups said they had filed a separate order with the appeals court as they are not part of the original immigration case in Brownsville.

In a conference call with reporters, they said Hanen's order wrongly hurts these immigrants because they are not parties to the case but simply youth who applied for work permits as part of the 2012 program, which remains in effect, or the 2014 plan, and had no idea it would land in legal limbo, said Karen Tumlin, legal director of the National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy group in Los Angeles. They had nothing to do with any alleged misconduct by the Justice Department and could not only be harmed or harassed if their information becomes public but could also risk the theft of their identity.

"These innocent young people should not be caught in the political maneuvering of this case," she said.
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Alexandria Vera, the middle school teacher accused of having a long-term sexual relationship with a 13-year-old boy, will have to wear a GPS ankle monitor, stay away from schools and have no contact with the teen, a judge ruled Friday.

In court, prosecutors outlined graphic allegations from the investigation including the 24-year-old's pregnancy by the teen and her abortion after learning that Child Protective Services was investigating the six-month relationship.

Free on $100,000 bail, Vera was arraigned in a Houston courtroom where state District Judge Michael McSpadden laid out conditions of her bond, including an 8 p.m. curfew and limited internet use.

The judge, who presided over another high-profile case of a female teacher sexually assaulting a middle school student in 2012, cautioned Vera that violating the conditions would land her in jail until her trial.

"We take this very seriously," he said from the bench.

Vera appeared in black slacks, a black jacket and white blouse and said little except to indicate she understood the charges against her.

After the brief hearing, she left the courtroom through a back door with two supporters and her lawyer without comment.

Vera faces a punishment range of 25 years in prison to life if convicted of continuous sexual assault of a child, a felony with a heightened punishment, even for first offenders.

Met student's family

Prosecutor Tiffany Dupree said the conditions were standard for suspects facing similar charges.

"As parents, we entrust teachers with a very important role to educate our students," she said. "And we should not have to be concerned about teachers getting into a sexual relationship with our children while at school."

CPS officials were notified about a possible sexual relationship leading Vera to have an abortion, according to court records.

Vera later told investigators she met the teen's family at an open house in October, then went to their home where she was introduced as his girlfriend. She told investigators they were in love and his parents were accepting of the relationship.

Vera and the underage student apparently met when he was a student of hers in summer school last year at Stovall Middle School, according to court records.

Vera had been wanted by officials since May 27 on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child. She turned herself in Wednesday at the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office in Conroe and posted bail.

The case, which fell in McSpadden's court by coincidence, is similar to the allegations against Kathryn Camille Murray, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to two counts of sexual assault in exchange for two years in prison.

Murray, then a 27-year-old Spring Branch ISD English teacher, began a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old Memorial Middle School student in 2012.

Judge heard previous case

Investigators said the teacher and student first had sex in her classroom on Feb. 7, 2012, which continued for weeks. According to court records, Murray on one occasion picked up the eighth-grader at a school dance and took him to a hotel for two hours.

The next night, Murray went to the teen's home to have sex with him while his parents were gone. Murray was arrested and charged with sexual assault of a child under 17, after the brother informed his parents.

While free on bail, Murray was again arrested after the teen was found at her home. Because of violating that no-contact order, McSpadden jailed her until her case was resolved.
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MINNEAPOLIS - Three Minnesota men accused of plotting to go to Syria to join the Islamic State group were convicted Friday of conspiracy to commit murder overseas.

A federal jury convicted Guled Ali Omar, 21, Abdirahman Yasin Daud, 22, and Mohamed Abdihamid Farah, 22, of the most serious charges they faced. Conspiracy to commit murder outside the U.S. carries the possibility of life in prison. They were also convicted of other counts, including conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to provide such support.

Daud was found not guilty on one count of perjury.

Two people left a row reserved for family members in tears after the verdicts were read, but the defendants were stoic. Farah waved goodbye to supporters as he was being led out, and Omar smiled at family members.

U.S. District Judge Michael Davis didn't immediately set a sentencing date, saying he wanted to review the case and hear from the defendants.

Prosecutors have said the men were part of a group of friends in Minnesota's Somali community who inspired and recruited each other to join the Islamic State group. A total of 10 young men were accused in the conspiracy; six have pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to support a foreign terrorist organization. A seventh, 22-year-old Abdi Nur, is at large, believed to be in Syria.

Others who were part of the group but have not been charged were successful in going overseas.

The FBI has said roughly a dozen young men and women left Minnesota to join militants in Syria in recent years. And since 2007, more than 22 men have joined al-Shabab in Somalia.

Prosecutors built their case largely on recordings made by a friend of the men who became a paid informant. Testimony at trial showed he was paid roughly $119,000.

Defense attorneys argued that comments on the recordings were youthful bluster. Family and friends have protested what they call entrapment, and said most of the defendants were in their teens when they were caught up in the Islamic State's social media recruitment campaign.

Minnesota's case was the third Islamic State-related case to go to trial nationwide, and is unique because of the sheer number of people who were connected to each other on a personal level. In other cases, most recruitment has been done online.
PARIS - The Louvre Museum and the Musee d'Orsay relocated masterpieces from rooms vulnerable to flooding, and cultural institutions across the French capital turned away tourists, as continuing rains on Friday lifted the Seine River to its highest levels since 1982.

The Seine burst its banks on Wednesday and continued to swell. As of 5 p.m. Friday, its waters had reached 19.8 feet. The river was expected to crest in the evening at 20.7 to 21.3 feet and to remain at high levels throughout the weekend, the French Environment Ministry said in a statement.

"The situation is still evolving hour per hour," a deputy mayor of Paris, Colombe Brossel, said at a news conference at City Hall, saying that authorities estimated that it would take at least one or two weeks for the water to recede to normal levels.

Near the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, pieces of tree trunks floated along the swollen river. The waters had risen to the waistline of the Zouave, a notable statue next to the Pont de l'Alma that has traditionally been used as a gauge of the Seine's levels. The city's government urged residents to move valuables out of their basements. An art collection had to be removed from the city hall in Ivry-sur-Seine, a southeastern suburb of Paris, for safekeeping.

"Around the Eiffel Tower, the banks are flooded," said Julien Rogard, 23, an engineer who takes the No. 6 Metro line, which crosses over the Seine on the Pont de Bir-Hakeim. "Where we usually can walk, we can't anymore."

Vanessa Colnot, 39, who lives in Choisy-le-Roi, a southeastern suburb of Paris, said she had watched from her windows with alarm as the waters rose for two days. "My baby sitter lives in the flooded area," she said. "People have started to leave their homes because there is water in the streets, and they don't want to stay if it means wearing rain boots inside."

The Seine has not overflowed this much since December 1982, when it rose to about 20 feet, but the river's level is still far short of the 26.2 feet reached in the catastrophic flood of January 1910.

Parisians and tourists thronged to take photos of the swollen Seine, prompting a warning from Brossel, who said: "There are still people going on the riverbanks to take pictures. It is not safe. We are asking you to respect the ban on going there."

The government has made emergency plans to shift operations from the Elysee Palace, the seat of the French presidency, to the Chateau de Vincennes, a former royal fortress just east of the capital, if the waters reach 21.3 feet.

Heavy rains have caused flooding across much of France, and 20,000 households were without power Friday, mostly in the Seine-et-Marne area east of Paris and in Essonne, south of Paris, a result of the swelling of the Marne and Loing tributaries of the Seine.

Heavy rains also caused deadly flooding in Germany, particularly in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg and in the southern state of Bavaria.

On Thursday evening, police in Lower Bavaria confirmed the death of a sixth victim in the region, a 65-year-old man whose body was found in Simbach am Inn - bringing to 10 the number of deaths attributable to the flooding. A couple in Lower Bavaria were missing.
John Owens

AUSTIN -- A former head of the Texas Attorney General's civil litigation division said Friday that then-Attorney General Greg Abbott was not involved in the office's 2010 decision not to sue Trump University following a seven-month investigation.

"To be clear, I did not discuss this matter with General Abbott or Daniel Hodge (a top Abbott aide) prior to making my decision. Any suggestion otherwise is false," said David Morales, who added that a lawsuit became unnecessary when Trump University decided to leave the state.
AUSTIN  Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton moved Friday to try to stop a former agency staffer from sharing any more documents about a seven-month investigation into Trump University that the ex-employee said was nixed for political reasons under Paxton's predecessor, current Gov. Greg Abbott.

In a cease-and-desist letter, Paxton's top aide alleged that John Owensall names cq, a former deputy chief of the office's consumer protection division, likely broke the law by sharing records about the 2010 investigation with the Houston Chronicle and other media outlets.

READ MORE: Former aide says Abbott not involved in decision to end Trump U probe

"We ask that you immediately cease and desist from disclosing any privileged or confidential information obtained from your employment with this agency," the Paxton aide wrote.

Owens, who retired in 2011 after 20 years of decorated service to the office, said he felt confident that he had done nothing illegal or unethical.

READ MORE: Trump's personal attacks on judge spark GOP concerns

"I think the information I provided to the press was important and needed to be shared with the public," he said, adding, "I stand by everything I have said, and everything I have said is true and correct."

Paxton's letter was unusual because records about closed investigations conducted by government entities almost always are public, and it is rare for state officials to go after people who provide public records.

Kelley Shannon, the executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, said she was not familiar with similar letters.

"This should be public information," Shannon said. "If it's something of widespread public interest, like Trump University, then there is a reason to shed light on what's transpired in our state."

READ MORE: Trump University's sales strategy foreshadowed campaign

The letter came as Texas Republicans launched a campaign against Owens and his accusation that Abbott closed the Trump University probe for political reasons.

Earlier in the day Friday, another former top Abbott aide, David Morales, said he  not Abbott or Abbott confidante Daniel Hodge  made the decision not to sue Trump University when the for-profit real estate training program voluntarily decided to leave Texas.

READ MORE: BBB responds to 'inaccuracies' about Trump University

"That agreement to permanently and immediately leave Texas was, in my opinion, the most important element of resolving this investigation," Morales wrote in a letter to the editor to the Chronicle and other outlets.

A conservative website also published a story accusing Owens of being a Democrat. Abbott himself highlighted that story on Twitter, saying "a Wendy Davis & Obama supporter made false allegations."

Owens said he was not a Democrat but a political independent who had run for office as a Republican and voted for candidates in both parties.

The former investigator said he did even not seek out attention but simply made a Facebook post and then responded to questions from reporters.

Ultimately, Owens shared 14 pages of records with the Chronicle and The Dallas Morning News late Thursday.

The documents showed that a team of investigators in the Attorney General's Office spent seven months between late 2009 and May 2010 probing Trump University. They went undercover to attend seminars, interviewed dozens of students and requested hundreds of records.

READ MORE: Why does Trump University have positive reviews? Ex-students blame coercion

The team asked for permission to seek a $5.4 million settlement from the business for false advertising, but the plan was nixed.

Three years later, The Associated Press reported earlier this week, Trump donated $35,000 to Abbott  a revelation that Democrats pounced on, calling it evidence of a quid pro quo.

Abbott's office laughed that off, noting the length of time between the investigation and the donation.

"Story is bogus," Abbott tweeted Friday.

Staff writer Gabrielle Banks contributed to this report.
AUSTIN  Tea party forces have launched a new front in a seemingly perpetual battle with the Texas Ethics Commission: jockeying state leaders to replace half of the eight-member panel that regulates state campaign finance laws.

Several prominent tea party groups have asked Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus to make it a "priority action item" to appoint new regulators to the commission. Four commissioners remain on the panel as holdovers after their terms expired because they have yet to be replaced by state leaders.

The call for action on the appointees represents a further escalation in an on-going tug of war playing out for several years between the commission and some tea party groups with 501c(4) nonprofit status. The state regulator has taken an aggressive stance on so-called "dark money" disclosure, drawing fire from politically active nonprofits in a barrage of lawsuits.

Two of the groups making the request  Empower Texans and the Texas Homeschool Coalition  have pending lawsuits against the commission. A third, Texas Right to Life, not so long ago won the dismissal of an ethics inquiry prompted by the campaign of a former state senator.

The appointee issue grew publicly tense earlier this week. Lawyers representing several of the tea party groups kept turning the screws at a commission meeting, even questioning the panel's legal authority since half its members are currently serving under expired terms.

At least one ethics commissioner was noticeably vexed.

Tom Ramsay, an ethics commissioner whose term expires next year, questioned the lawyers about their role in the letter sent to the state's Big Three.

It quickly escalated into a terse back and forth.

"If you ... didn't give these people the idea it is unconstitutional for us to do these things, who did they get that legal advice from?" Ramsay asked. "They're paying you big bucks when they're calling you up."

Joe Nixon, a lawyer for Empower Texans, shot back.

"It's very ironic that if someone were to file a form 10 minutes late or five minutes later than midnight they get a $500 fine," Nixon said. "But you guys can continue on and in one case five or six years passed the time your term has expired and continue to think that you still have the authority to act."

An incredulous Ramsay kept prodding: How could Nixon have any legal knowledge of the situation if he didn't help the groups write the letter?

To which, Nixon responded he got into the office early that day and brushed up on the Texas Constitution before attending the commission's meeting.

"If I were making your hourly rate I'd be there early too," Ramsay quipped before saying he'd heard enough. "You continue to make confrontational situations for us."

The state constitution spells out clearly the policy for appointees with expired terms. It says "all officers within the state shall continue to perform the duties of their offices until their successors shall be duly qualified."

Commission Chairman Chase Untermeyer said that allows state government to continue doing its job even while there are vacancies on state agency boards or commissions.

"Nobody is hanging on to their job on this commission by their finger nails," Untermeyer told Nixon.

The position of ethics commissioner is unpaid  all of the commissioners are reimbursed for expenses and maintain full-time outside jobs  but it is viewed as a public service.

The governor appoints half of the eight-member ethics panel, while the lieutenant governor and House speaker each appoint two members. Appointees are split evenly along party lines, and commissioners are traditionally selected from a list of nominees drawn up by Senate and House caucuses from each party.

Trey Trainor, a lawyer who represents several of the groups, said no caucus lists have been submitted to date for the open positions.

"There are term limits for the ethics commission for a reason," he said. "This process has got to stop."

A bit of context: holdovers at the commission are not uncommon at all.

The last time a holdover on the ethics commission voluntarily stepped down was in 2013, when Democrat Paula Mendoza, whose term expired in 2007, resigned only after former Gov. Rick Perry appointed her a regent for the University of Houston System.

Currently, commission vice chair Tom Harrison has been serving as a holdover since 2011 and could possibly be the first person Abbott replaces in the process of remaking the ethics panel. Commissioner Bob Long, whose term expired last year, is also due to eventually be replaced by Abbott.

Commissioner Wilhelmina Delco, a former state lawmaker appointed by former Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and whose term expired last year, will eventually be replaced by someone chosen by Patrick. And the term for Straus appointee Paul Hobby, who recently wrapped up a stint as chairman, expired in 2015.

In an interview last week, before the appointee brouhaha, Untermeyer addressed the issue of holdovers with the San Antonio Express-News/Houston Chronicle. He noted that several commissioners were "serving overtime," but predicted the makeup of the commission will likely stay the same for awhile longer.

"There is potential for change but until then people hang on," Untermeyer said. "We all may be around longer than expected or anticipated by the law."
(Thumbs up) For the million of you new to town, there's one time-honored Texas tradition as spring turns to summer. It's braving the traffic on 290 toward Johnson City to pick up a bushel basket of peaches. "The conditions this year have been near perfect for abundant Hill Country peach crops," reports the San Antonio Express-News.

(Thumbs up) The only positive to come out of the scandal that rocked Baylor this week was a quote from former president and chancellor Ken Starr, who extolled the virtues of an open investigation at the private university. "Let the sun shine in," he told ESPN, referring to scrutiny of the regents. "Sunshine is the great disinfectant."

(Thumbs down) There's a line of travelers more frustrated than those at Bush, Hobby or O'Hare, those needing more than five hours for the Austin-to-Houston drive. Interstate 10 East has been jammed at Columbus and Sealy. There's no DPS in sight and no message boards from TxDOT alerting drivers to impeding delays caused by flooding or the narrowing of lanes.

(Thumbs down) Greg Abbott and Paul Ryan justified endorsements of Donald Trump this week, but one Texan, Ruth Guerra of McAllen, is more principled. Guerra resigned as head of the RNC's Hispanic media relations, a move the New York Times reported "appears to be another indication of the lingering discomfort" about his stand on issues important to Hispanic voters. You know: building the wall, labeling Mexicans as rapists and criminals, calling for mass deportations. Guerra is being replaced by Helen Aguirre Ferre, who was busy scrubbing her Twitter account, which had been especially critical of the presumptive Republican nominee before she took the new job.

(Thumbs down) Trumpian sentiment is alive and well right here in Bayou City. Channel 13 morning anchor Mayra Moreno greeted her audience with "buenos dias" last weekend only to be berated as un-American by viewers using social media. For the million of you new to town (part two), her salutation is very Texan considering both Mexico and Spain owned the joint at one point in time.

(Thumbs down) We realize that all God's children need a place to go, but do the kush-smoking homeless need to push children out of their playground at the city's premier gathering spot, Hermann Park? It's time for the mayor to get his homelessness experts on the case, figuring out how to get social services for those in need while cleaning up the rat-infested trash heap the park squatters have left at the corner of Fannin and Cambridge.

(Thumbs down) Fort Bend County Judge Robert Hebert had a busy week on the water. While the Brazos River was flooding, the county courthouse was closing and Fort Bend was applying for disaster relief, Hebert was in Playa del Carmen on a fishing trip. He cut the vacation short after questions from a Channel 2 reporter.
Rodger Mallison/MBR

Regarding "State's Trump U. lawsuit was axed" (Page A1, Friday), as Associate Deputy Attorney General for Litigation from 2004-2007, and Deputy Attorney General for Civil Litigation from 2007-2010, I was charged with supervising and managing 11 civil litigation divisions consisting of more than 300 Assistant Attorneys General who represented the State of Texas in federal and state courts. One of my responsibilities was approving our Consumer Protection Division's opening of investigations and the allocation of resources to conduct those investigations.

In 2009, I approved the opening of an Deceptive Trade Practices Act investigation into Trump University. My decision to approve the request to investigate and to devote state resources to that investigation was made without regard to the fact that the company was associated with Donald Trump.
When I first saw the clip of rapper Snoop Dogg telling his fans to boycott the A&E Networks' remake of the 1977 landmark miniseries "Roots," I joined the collective eye-roll among most African-American history professors and scholars.

But many people, black and white, share his opinion. Slavery as a subject seems to exist in our society on a kind of shame-blame rotation cycle that we have yet to fully reconcile.

Some African-Americans are ashamed of this history, despite the fact that "the shame is not ours." Still, this period marks a time when we were literally branded, whipped, raped, demoralized and separated from our most precious family members.

Under the circumstances, it's difficult to condemn Snoop for not wanting to go there.

Some whites believe we use this history to shame and blame. They find it hard to acknowledge the racism, savagery and greed of their ancestors. And they do not want to delve too deeply into this history lest they be forced to acknowledge the ways that it has benefited them.

Slavery is an ugly, agonizing, brutal, yet seminal chapter in the history, prowess and struggles of this nation. In many respects, I agree with the current miniseries editor, Will Packer, who said in his response to Snoop's criticism, "This is a story that's important enough it should be told in repeated ways."

That said, Snoop's comments suggest that scholars may need to do a better job of showing how this history is important for dealing with racism and systemic inequalities today.

Examining enslavement in the United States touches upon two interrelated aspects that remain critical flashpoints: the utter disregard for black humanity and the ways that the legal system implemented and maintained this profound dehumanization and alienation.

As slavery took form in the legal system, a series of laws accompanied its development and institutionalization. Laws that made lifelong servitude for Africans acceptable went on the books as early as 1640. By 1662, laws were written saying the offspring of enslaved mothers would be enslaved, thus making them also the property of the slave owner.

Over the centuries more laws followed: laws requiring passes for blacks traveling unaccompanied by whites, laws preventing blacks from gathering in large numbers, laws making rape a crime only if the victim was white.

Even after the Civil War, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude "except as a punishment for a crime." Officers used trumped-up vagrancy charges on newly freed blacks. Once in police custody, these women and men would be forced to labor on plantations and work on farms and chain gangs across the South.

The North is not exempt from this history. In places like Pennsylvania, black freedom was met with a fortified criminal justice system and the establishment of the nation's first penitentiary.

In other parts of the country, African Americans were disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system, and they were systematically targeted by police. In a lot of ways, slave patrols and night watches were the forerunners of modern policing.

The significance of this history in the ongoing murders of unarmed African Americans along with the inability to obtain justice in these cases is undeniable. We must confront slavery because it shows how this country's approach to policing and justice is inherently racially biased.

The history of slavery calls attention to the dire need for serious reform in the current justice system beginning with the legal codes right on down to revamping police forces nationwide. That might be something even Snoop could get behind.

But here is where Snoop and I agree: At the same time when we need popular representations of enslavement, we also need different kinds of stories about African-American history in general. Just as we don't begin with slavery, we also don't end with civil rights.

Our histories run the gamut - everything from bold, inspiring and creative to accounts of a more haunting nature. It would be great to start seeing some of these stories told too.

Gross is an associate professor of African and African diaspora studies at the University of Texas at Austin and author of "Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso: A Tale of Race, Sex, and Violence in America."
It's a rare occasion indeed when a heated congressional hearing about immigration and border security becomes quiet enough to hear a pin drop. But members of the House Judiciary Committee sat speechless recently as a Texas mother testified about the needless and reckless loss of her son as a result of failed immigration policies.

Pearland mother Laura Wilkerson told the sad story of her son Joshua, who left home for high school and never returned. Joshua was tortured, murdered and then set afire in 2010 by an illegal immigrant who had overstayed his visa for eight years. The killer was arrested on a harassment charge only months before, but immigration officials failed to take custody of him.

Wilkerson was joined in that April testimony by Iowa mother Michelle Root, who detailed the tragic story behind the loss of her only daughter, Sarah. She testified that her daughter had been murdered at the hands of an illegal immigrant drunk driver just hours after graduating from college with a 4.0 grade point average. Despite examples like these and the public outcry that always follows, we still have virtually no control over immigration.

While it's convenient to delude ourselves into thinking that these are just isolated incidents, the statistics tell a very different story. In fact, recent figures from the Texas Department of Public Safety reveal that Texas alone has arrested more than 190,000 immigrants who have been charged with more than half a million crimes since June 1, 2011. And roughly 66 percent - two-thirds of those arrested - were in this country illegally. And that's just one state.

The nearly 200,000 immigrants arrested reveal a wide range of crimes committed while here. Drug-related cases constituted the largest number of offenses with 29,668 convictions; assault charges made up 22,439; obstructing police resulted in 19,668; and 16,567 stemmed from theft charges. But a troubling large number of convictions, 6,206, were for heinous crimes such as homicide, kidnapping, sexual assault and weapons charges.

A November 2015 UT-Texas poll shows that Texans listed border security and illegal immigration as the top issue facing the nation - ahead of any other issue. There are steps that can be taken at the state and local level to combat illegal immigration, such as targeting local sanctuary laws, which are ordinances or laws that prevent local law enforcement officials from inquiring about a person's immigration status.

On that front, first-term Gov. Greg Abbott took the bull by the horns last October by promising to crack down on local governments honoring sanctuary policies that offer some degree of protection to the state's estimated 2 million illegal immigrants. He also signed a record $800 million border security budget, giving increased muscle to the state's immigration enforcement mechanisms.

Of course, border security is primarily a federal issue, and that's the root of the problem. Sadly, for American teenagers like Joshua Wilkerson and Sarah Root, our inability to control who enters and leaves our country has cost them their lives. A nation that fails to control its borders loses control of its future. And that's why we need to work diligently to curtail sanctuary policies across the nation and regain control of our borders.

Korkmas is president of Texans for Immigration Reduction & Enforcement (TFIRE) and lives in Houston.
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Something unusual happened this week  cameras were allowed inside the Senate to televise a working session of the upper chamber.

Under the publics watchful eye, senators took turns asking Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and Health Minister Jane Philpott questions on the governments medical assistance in dying bill, C-14.

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The points they raised represented Canadians conflicting views. The debate that ensued was spirited as senators reflected their personal histories and their institutional responsibility rather than a subservience to partisan marching orders.

For the Senate, which has had its share of troubles in recent years  spending scandals, RCMP investigations, criminal charges laid and dropped, members expulsed and reinstated  this is its moment to shine.

Health Minister Jane Philpott to testifies about the federal government's controversial bill on assisted dying before the entire Senate in Ottawa, June 1, 2016. (Photo: Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

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Claude Carignan, the Conservative leader in the Senate, told The Huffington Post Canada this week that debate over Bill C-14 is helping demonstrate that there is value in having an independent second chamber.

We are conscious that we have the eyes of a great majority of Canadians who are watching the Senate right now and that this is an occasion to evaluate the work of senators, he said.

Different tack from Tory colleagues

In the Senate on Wednesday, Carignan led off by asking Wilson-Raybould why the government had chosen to make the bill so restrictive that an individual not in the terminal stage of a disease but who is suffering greatly cant get medical help to die.

You realize, minister, that by creating this distinction  you are in a way forcing those who are not at the end of life to stop eating, for example, or to harm themselves in order to become eligible for medical assistance in dying, Carignan asked.

It was a very different tack from that of his Conservative colleagues in the Commons, where a majority of Tory MPs opposed the bill on grounds that it was not restrictive enough.

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Its a totally free vote in the Senate, Carignan told HuffPost. I supposed it was the same in the House, but in the Senate, it is very clear, free vote, he said, carefully stressing each word.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stands during Question Period in the House of Commons on June 1, 2016. (Photo: Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

During last falls election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus campaign included his desire to have an independent upper house that would carefully review legislation.

In March, when he appointed seven new senators, Trudeau said he hoped they would help transform the Senate into a less partisan and more independent institution that was focused on its fundamental role of representing regional and minority interests and ensuring that the interests of all Canadians were placed before political allegiances.

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Senators took the prime ministers words seriously, Carignan said. And now nobody knows what the senators will do  not the government, not even the senators themselves.

The only certainty is the governments bill wont become law before the Supreme Court deadline of June 6, this coming Monday.

The Senate decided Friday that it will adjourn until Tuesday, June 7, although a committee studying the bill will meet on Monday.

I think we need to do our job. And if that takes us to some time later in June, well, that takes us to sometime later in June.  Senate Liberal Leader Jim Cowan

Senate Liberal Leader Jim Cowan told the upper house Friday that the deadline isnt as Earth-shattering as the government argues.

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Senators are taking the matter very seriously and are not going to delay, rag the puck or filibuster, he told HuffPost.

If we simply said [to the government], Well, we know you want to have it by [Monday], OK well just pass it, ... then there would be a huge outcry from people saying: Well, why do we have a Senate? Whats the point of the Senate if they are not going to do their job?

I think we need to do our job. And if that takes us to some time later in June, well, that takes us to sometime later in June, Cowan said. I dont feel badly about that.

Sen. Jim Cowan speaks at a news conference in the Senate foyer, June 9, 2015. (Photo: Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

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Like several of his colleagues, however, Cowan believes the governments bill is so flawed that it should be delayed, on the basis that no legislation is better than bad legislation.

Unless its changed, I wont vote for it.

He finds it too restrictive. Canadians would be better off with the Carter decision  which to me is perfectly clear, and the courts have found it perfectly clear when they have had to interpret it, he said.

The Carter decision is the Supreme Courts ruling that stated consenting adults have a right to seek medical help to end their lives if they have "grievous and irremediable" medical conditions that cause them suffering that they deem intolerable.

More restrictive eligibility criteria

The governments bill sets out more restrictive eligibility criteria, allowing medically assisted death only for clearly consenting adults "in an advanced stage of irreversible decline" from a serious and incurable disease, illness or disability and for whom natural death is "reasonably foreseeable."

In my view, we do not have the right to restrict access below the eligibility criteria set out in by the Supreme Court of Canada, Cowan told HuffPost.

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The Carter decision doesnt say you have to be at deaths door or incurably sick, he explained. It means a whole lot of people who would be able to access medically assisted dying under the courts ruling wont be eligible under the current legislation  making the bill, in Cowans mind, unconstitutional and almost certain to be challenged in the courts.

Some people dont like the courts ruling, Cowan added, but that is the courts decision. Whether we like it or not, it is what it is.

Sen. Nancy Ruth speaks at a news conference in Ottawa on Dec. 16, 2010. (Photo: Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Tory Sen. Nancy Ruth told HuffPost she believes a lot of senators are paying careful attention to this legislation because many of them are advancing in age.

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We are of an age where we have been through a lot of deaths already, and we are of an age where we want to make sure advance consent is in before we pop  we need it, said the 74-year-old, who is nearing mandatory retirement.

There is a huge division in the Conservative caucus between the MPs and the senators, she said. The Tory senators who took part in a study before the bill was tabled all voted with the majority in advocating very permissible legislation, she noted, while the Conservative MPs from the House dissented.

Some of them are too ideological and dont have enough life. You know? Weve all had lots of friends die, or parents, you know, we are in the exit lane too. I think it makes a difference. You know how difficult it is to watch people suffer.

The vulnerable is anybody suffering

Shes particularly troubled by some of the chatter coming from the Conservative side of the House. She points to 29-year-old Conservative Garnett Genuis. He keeps going on about the vulnerable. The vulnerable is anybody suffering  I dont care who it is, what age they are, how disabled they are or not, they are suffering. Thats the vulnerable!

They dont get those things, she said of the Tory MPs. I think when they have been in enough nursing homes  besides getting votes  they might understand that.

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Weve all had lots of friends die, or parents, you know, we are in the exit lane too. I think it makes a difference. You know how difficult it is to watch people suffer.  Sen. Nancy Ruth

Nancy Ruth feels the government missed the mark with its legislation and forgot the point of the ruling  that the choice is a personal one.

I feel that every strongly. I expect to be dead in 10 to 12 years.

By 85 or 87, Nancy Ruth said, she wants out of here. I dont want pacemakers keeping me alive, she told HuffPost, sitting outside of the Parliament building this week.

Why? So I can get cancer and go senile and all of this? No, no, no! Im clearing out, and Ill do it myself or something else, but I would like advance consent that works.

If advance consent isnt included in an amended version of the bill, Nancy Ruth said, shell likely vote against it.

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They will come back with another bill, she said.

Conservative Sen. David Wells has different concerns.

He fears the bill does not protect the rights of physicians who object on philosophical or religious grounds. He believes only doctors, not nurse practitioners, should be able to sign off on medically assisted dying and he believes patients should be able to access the service only in a controlled medical environment, such as a hospital, rather than receive a prescription that they can administer at home with their family.

This is a medication that is design to kill. This isnt something for a cold sore, he said. Grieving family members shouldnt have to witness what happens to a body when it goes through the natural stages of death, he said.

If he gets the amendments he wants in the bill, Wells suggested he might be ready to accept other changes that make easier for people who seek medically assisted death, such as Cowans suggestion that the government use the language in the Carter decision.

This is life and death legislation, this isnt tax code or fisheries licences. Lets get it right the first time, as best we can.  Sen. David Wells

Like Cowan and Nancy Ruth, Wells is also in no hurry to pass the bill.

This is life and death legislation, this isnt tax code or fisheries licences, he said. Lets get it right the first time, as best we can.

Those are concerns he shared with Wilson-Raybould, who requested a phone call Friday to lobby for his support.

She wanted to know where I stood. Did I have any questions? What were my concerns? Which I thought was odd for a minister to call seeking that information from me, the Newfoundland senator said. It never happened to me before.

Maybe she should be calling the whip on her side to get the status or something, he said.

Health Minister Jane Philpotts spokesman David Clements confirmed that the ministers are planning to phone senators until the very end.

Free votes

Bill C-14 has highlighted the fact there is nobody for the government to call to get a feeling for the pulse of the Senates thinking.

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The consequence of Trudeaus freeing the upper chamber of partisanship is a whole lot of uncertainty.

In 2014, when Trudeau kicked the Liberal senators out of his caucus, the group in the Senate decided all their votes would be free. Then, when the prime minister declared his desire to see the place filled with more independents, several Tory senators left their caucus to sit as free-thinkers.

While the independents caucus together, many have different points of view and theyve rejected having the prime ministers hand-picked representative in the chamber, Peter Harder, and his two-person team  whip Grant Mitchell, an ex-Liberal, and deputy leader Diane Bellemare, an ex-Conservative  in a leadership role.

Partisanship still exists, but it is softening, Bellemare told HuffPost this week, crediting the arrival of the seven independent senators for blowing the winds of change.

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Sen. Chantal Petitclerc poses for a photo before taking her place in the Senate, April 12, 2016. (Photo: Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Most of the new senators who spoke on the bill signalled concerns with the legislation.

In an emotional maiden speech, former paralympian Chantal Petitclerc said that as a disabled person, it was impossible for her to be detached from the debate.

In all candour  I want to be able to support this bill with all of my heart. For as long as I can remember, I have supported the right to medical assistance in dying, she said. But the truth is, it is not quite the bill that I was personally waiting for.

Petitclerc said she wanted to talk about unbearable pain because in the end thats what this is all about.

Some comments suggested that pain is always manageable, she said. Well, let me assure you, this is not true. I know firsthand what unbearable pain is.

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Chantal Petitclerc is pictured at Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland on July 21, 2014. (Photo: Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

When she was 12, Petitclerc recounted, a barn door fell on her and she spent four months in the hospital.

Ive never told this story, she began. The first 19 days were torture, nothing less. Not to get too medical, but I had a broken spine and broken ribs. They could not fix the fractured bones until the swelling went down, and that took 19 days.

Even though I was very young, I will never forget those 19 days of unbearable pain.

Every hour the nurses would come and turn her over from side to side to avoid pressure, and although she was heavily medicated, Petitclerc said she would scream out to her mother for help.

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While she knew that she would soon fall back on her legs  or in her wheelchair  she said she cannot help but think of those who live with that type of intolerable pain without any hope of getting better. It is for those people, and those people alone, that this has to be the best possible law, she said.

Accessible to all

New senator Ratna Omidvar also told her Senate colleagues she wants a less restrictive bill that ensures medically assisted dying is accessible to all who desire and qualify for it, including, especially, poor people who do not have the resources to fight for their rights in court.

This is not an easy position for me to take. I grew up in a culture where you wait respectfully for death, the Indo-Canadian said.

The deliberations and discussions in the Senate this week filled her with pride, she said. We have shown Canadians that the Senate is the place where one can have reasoned, independent, civil, nonpartisan debate, and that we are no longer the slumber zone, [in] the language of the media, she said.

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Ratna Omidvar works with volunteers at Lifeline Syrias offices in Toronto in 2015. (Photo: Chris Young/Canadian Press)

Some senators, such as Conservative Jean-Guy Dagenais and Independent Pamela Wallin, took the unusual step of issuing press releases outlining their concerns with the bill.

Conservative Sen. Ghislain Maltais, another Stephen Harper appointee, said Friday that he had never, or rarely, seen this much unanimity in the Senate.

Conservative deputy leader Yonah Martin said she was struggling to make up her mind.

I am struggling as a Christian, a woman of faith, where in every breath that I take I feel Gods presence, where I was taught that suicide is a sin; but as I listen to Senator Petitclerc, I think about ending ones life as being a right; so it really challenges me at every turn, she said.

We were not appointed to govern. We were appointed primarily to review and to advise.  Sen. Murray Sinclair

Some senators did come to the governments defence.

Former Conservative party president Don Plett said he had concerns about conscientious objection for doctors and the availability of the treatment as a prescription, but despite his opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide he believes the Liberals legislation is reasonable and responsible.

New senator Murray Sinclair, the head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, told his colleagues their job is to ensure that regional interests are considered, that the rights of minorities are protected, that the law is fair and clear, concise and constitutional.

We do not have to agree with the law. If it is properly passed and meets the test of Senate consideration, we must allow it to proceed, he said.

With the greatest of respect to those who think otherwise, we were not appointed to govern. We were appointed primarily to review and to advise.

The bill doesnt have to comply with the Carter decision, he offered, it needs only to comply with the Charter and, in my view, the government has acted appropriately to do so.

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We are not elected

Bellemare, the deputy leader or legislative deputy to the governments representative in the Senate, told HuffPost that Bill C-14 really highlighted to Canadians the kind of exhaustive, independent, non-partisan legislative study the upper chamber is capable of, by identifying elements, observations and potential amendments.

In the same breath, however, she suggests some of her colleagues need to put aside some of their personal preferences and judge the bill on its merits.

This bill, whether you want it to or not, it brings out your emotions, and the Senate needs to look at it with its head and not its emotions, she said.

We all have preferences, but we need to put those aside, because we are not elected."

Bellemare highlighted conflicting testimony on the constitutionality of the bill. And clearly aware of her colleagues apprehensions, she noted measures in C-14 that provide for the collection of data on assisted dying and a five-year review of the legislation.

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Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott on talk to reporters outside of the House of Commons, May 31, 2016. (Photo: Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

In the Senate, Wilson-Raybould stressed on Wednesday that the government believes it is taking the best approach to a very difficult public policy issue but that this is the first step.

For many senators, that seems disingenuous.

In 1980, when Pierre Elliott Trudeau was prime minister, Nancy Ruth said, he promised her he would study changing the words of the national anthem from thy sons to in us command.

That was 36 years ago. There have been 10 bills on that issue since, and [Wednesday] was the first time it got to second reading, she said. That argument, its bullshit. Ive been here long enough to know. Its hard as nails to change anything once it becomes law It takes so many years. So, dont pass it. Make them go back to the drafting board.

Rules allow for veto

Bellemare expects senators will pass the bill with amendments. Wilson-Raybould said the government is open to thoughtful amendments.

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But will the Liberal government accept amendments from the Senate that they just rejected in the House of Commons? Bellemare doesnt know.

And if the House doesnt approve the senators amendments, what happens?

Will the Senate bow to the wishes of the elected house?

It's not clear. The rules do allow for the Senate to veto the legislation.

Sen. Joan Fraser, the deputy leader of the Liberals, told the Senate this week that the upper chamber doesnt have a mechanism to break a deadlock between the Senate and the House of Commons.

There are practices in place, but some havent been used since 1940s. In Britain, she said, some bills go back and forth between the houses multiple times until the two chambers come to agreement.

We dont have that tradition, but theres nothing in the rules to prevent it.

With a file from the Canadian Press

Also on HuffPost
How do you form a programme for government when Northern Irish people are congenitally programmed for disagreement?

While society is outwardly normal, elections tell us that people in Northern Ireland look at the world through two distinct lens. Each lens is a formed by a mix of genetics, family learning and apartheid schooling.

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It's like the Cuba-USA standoff.

Republicans see Britain as a brutal and malevolent imperialist force.

Unionists see Britain as a gallant and benevolent force for good.

There is no half-way. Each story is clear, immutable and inimical to the other. Each side is convinced and as inflexible as the other. People in Northern Ireland inherit these diametrically opposite and incompatible views like a family heirloom. As W.B. Yeats wrote:

'Out of Ireland have we come. Great hatred, little room, Maimed us at the start. I carry from my mother's womb A fanatic heart.'

We breed and educate two hyper-partisan blocs, radically incompatible, similar only in their mutual loathing and convincement of being right. Irish actor and Northern Protestant Jimmy Nesbitt said:

"The school I went to taught a very different history from the Catholic grammar schools."

Each worldview is united only by their narrowness and lack of historical awareness. That's why historicity should be as important as literacy and numeracy.

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"The overriding public interest in such minimum political awareness on the part of citizens is surely at least as pressing as the individual labour-market demands of literacy and numeracy skills rendering other subjects compulsory."

Proper education could inoculate young people from the worst passions of tribalism.

Ian Paisley used the rhetoral tool, the diacope, "Never, never, never", to brutal effect.

His total resolve was matched on the other side. In 1986 Martin McGuinness said"never, never, never" to British presence in Northern Ireland.

And there you have the context for 30 years of violence, when Northern Ireland was locked in a deadly standoff.

And that was the option - live in the bog of reprisals forever, or the extremes would have to come together. Luckily the parties have left the bog.

Terence O'Neill of Ahoghill, my political lodestar, said in the House of Lords in June 1974:

"We all must be willing to believe that we are wrong, and I am willing to believe that I am wrong. It is just possible, when middle-class moderates have failed, that extremists could get together and settle their differences, and it could be that in certain circumstances this situation could pass over without there being a bloody civil war."

The former Prime Minister of Northern Ireland who was hounded from office in 1969 repeated it a month later in July 1974, "We must hope that the extremists can somehow come together and settle these problems."

O'Neill's words came true in end. The extreme party of Protestants now works with the extreme party of Catholics (held together by an independent politician), and in Opposition to them are the moderate parties of Protestants and Catholics, the UUP and SDLP.

The partisan parties of the DUP and Sinn Fein have alone worked in partnership to produce a Draft Programme For Government.

With the knowledge of recent history and the retrenched word views of the people, their partnership is quite remarkable, and that they can produce anything is something more remarkable again.

The PfG framework is now at public consultation until 22 July.

Thereafter detailed action plans will be developed, with a final PfG published with a budget by the end of 2016.

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Newton Emerson is bullish, as he wrote in the Sunday Times:

"Stormont may no longer be as predictable as a mechanism, but the likeliest prospect is that government will start working and opposition will break down."

Deric Henderson, former Irish editor of the Press Association has said that, "the new NI Executive has massive potential to deliver. Higher than usual expectations."

Jim Fitzpatrick said, "Message is clear - a unified entity. That's new."

Even the humbug-merchant Alex Kane is "reasonably optimistic".

Optimism is a mark of how close to the precipice the institutions came. The 'Fresh Start' gives us prospect over precipice, an agreement negotiated to stabilise the Stormont administration. Dr Malcolm McKibbin, Permanent Secretary of the Executive Office and Secretary to the NI Executive (advisor to the first and deputy first ministers), said in a December 2015 interview:

"[2015] has probably been the most difficult since my appointment to this post [2011]."

Deviating from the outbreak of optimism, Ian James Parsley expects an "omnicrisis".

I believe Ulster is at the crossroads. As Steven McCaffery said:

"In the next few years we'll either get real government, or a real crisis."

The loose coalition of Opposition (UUP, the SDLP and Alliance) now have the chance to develop and sell an alternative power sharing government; and they can begin this with case by case collaboration. Their success depends on government failure. Yet precedent tells us that moderate unionists and nationalists don't work well together, as Newton Emerson wrote:

"Sinn Fein and the DUP may still be embarrassed to sit together but they have by far the best record on working co-operatively. The UUP and SDLP record is lamentable, squandering their early years at the helm then failing to create any kind of joint vision since."

The "Fresh Start" agreement has reduced the number of Assembly departments from 12 to nine.

The chairs of the committees are mainly either the main opposition leaders or senior members of the other Executive party to that of the minister. This gives us the prospect for detailed scrutiny and the prospect of increaed effectiveness in the Assembly.

The outcomes-based PfG breaks with the past, as previous programmes had been based around targets.

To measure outcomes there will be 42 broad indicators , allowing the public sector to be held to account. The 42 indicators will measure progress towards the 14 outcomes.

There are 14 preferred outcomes which "best describe the society we wish to have", focusing more on the non-tribal matters such as health and housing.

Once the consultation period for the framework is over, a set of action plans will be published giving more concrete deliverables. The action plans will aim to move the indicators in the right direction and ultimately bring about the desired societal outcomes.

The main refrain against the PfG is that it is light on detail. A UUP councillor said that if a voluntary group submitted something like the PfG as a funding application they'd be turned down. I agree.

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What do you expect from a local Assembly whose very inception was built on ambiguity? The DUP want to make Northern Ireland great. Sinn Fein want Northern Ireland to disappear.

There can be no collective will or vision so long as the aspiration of the two parties and their voters is so inimical. And that's what Steven McCaffery is right to say that the "task of building reconciliation is still the biggest test facing the DUP and Sinn Fein."

How can you form a programme for governing a country when we programme our children for discord and disharmony? There needs to be reconciliation among adults and more harmony between the schools, as opposed to apartheid institution with apartheid curricula. Disparity of allegiance only gives discord; we need parity of education.

As an artist I know, vision without execution is hallucination. Talk is cheap, even the written word is nothing if it doesn't materialise. Value and respect and reward will only come from action. That's the challenge for the DUP-Sinn Fein coalition - to execute on vision.

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Complete the consultation on the Draft Programme for Government Framework 2016-21 here.
A couple of days ago I heard the news that promoter Alan Wise had passed away. His daughter, only three months before, had committed suicide after he'd fought a long battle trying to secure counselling for her depression. He was only 63.

I was familiar with Alan Wise, and aware of his reputation. Although less discussed than his peers, he was a much-respected and larger-than-life Mancunian who promoted and managed The Fall, and had worked with Tony Wilson & New Order. But I'd originally known of him as Nico's long-suffering but loyal manager for much of the 80s.

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Nico and Wise's working relationship was brilliantly captured in the highly acclaimed and comical masterpiece, 'Songs They Never Play on the Radio', written by James Young who played keyboards for the German chanteuse.

I asked James Young some questions about his old friend and touring companion.

Sorry to hear the bad news, James. Could you tell readers who Alan Wise was and why he was important?

Alan Wise was the only real Punk I ever knew although he never adhered to

any youth movement like Punk or Mod or Hippie etc. But he stayed true to

an inner anarchic spirit which was parallel to the Punk era from which

he emerged. He was a maverick in an age that despises the true individualist

yet celebrates a phoney commercial pseudo-individualism. He has been

sidelined by corporate UK Pop culture because of that. Alan gave a lot of

now famous groups and artists their start...not because he had any

interest in their music but because he liked to create an event. Alan

genuinely didn't give a fuck... except about: Manchester United, the

Judeo-Christian tradition, Mahler, Dostoevsky and dangerously sexy women.

Those who've read your novel, 'Songs They Never Play on The

Radio', will have enjoyed the character of Dr Demetrius. Is it true to

say he was more than loosely based on Alan Wise?

Dr Demetrius is/was an aspect of Alan. All attempts at biography are a

sham especially with such a mercurial figure as Alan. He used to call

himself 'Doctor'...he liked the instant prestige it gave him in the eyes

of the bourgeoisie who he despised.

How did the Alan Wise in real life differ from your portrayal of him in

'Songs They Never Play on the Radio'?

In real life Alan Wise was ruder and more outrageous than the neurasthenic

freak I attempted to depict. He never cooked a meal in his life and slept with

over a thousand women without being a rock star...now how do you figure

that out?

How did Alan react to your book, and his character of DD?

He thought it was an outrageous caricature of a deeply sensitive human

being. Then he said it would make a good movie and if that happened he

wanted 50% of anything I got because 'I' was a cheeky fucker. I got it down

to 25%. But then the movie got shelved.

You once said you wanted to feature AW in a project called '30 Years on

Valium'? Tell us a little about that?

It got postponed to '40 Years on Valium' then in the past couple of years

we've been discussing the possibility of '50 Years on Valium'. And so I

started writing it. It's kind of a sequel to 'Songs They Never Play On The

Radio' ... but more offensive. Al was introduced to Valium at the age of 13.

In the 1960s 'Mother's little helper' was also adolescent's little helper.

Alan and I collaborated on about 20 pages the rest will be a memoir but

I'm writing it in the first person...as if I was Al. His instructions were

to leave no hold unbarred, he expressly demanded that it must be filthy,

funny and if I can crank up my few remaining brain cells... insightful.

Besides managing and promoting Nico and The Fall what else was AW involved in?

Al was the manager of the Russell Club...where the Manchester New Wave

scene had its home. It was there they had Factory night...Tony Wilson was

his partner, Buzzcocks his favourite band. It was the performance lab

for Joy Division, John Cooper Clarke, The Fall etc etc. Unlike Tony, Alan

was indifferent to the music. Tony believed in it and he was in love with

Joy Division. Alan didn't care about the music he just liked a happening,

preferably where there was a bit of creative chaos and the group didn't

get paid. So when it came time to decide about the club or the record

label, Tony chose the label (Factory) and Al the club. He was a social

animal, people meant more to him than art.

How did you feel when you heard the news about AW?

No more fun.

Is there anything else you'd like to say about him?

Al and I met when were 13...second year at grammar school in Manchester.

He was carrying a copy of the Penguin edition Jean Paul Sartre 'Nausea'

with the Salvador Dali cover (unread) and I was carrying a copy of the
I was in Brussels for a number of interviews on Brexit and meetings when my assistant suggested we attend the 'European Business Summit, Under the High Patronage of His Majesty the King of the Belgians', in one of his magnificent palaces. Not wanting to be rude, off we went.

The only debate in town worth attending was 'Brexit - to leave or not to leave?'

It was a very one-sided affair, ie no one from the Leave side, until I landed, the fly in the ointment of cosy contentment. One panelist gulped when I introduced myself. Yep, I'm here to challenge the Remain camp's business assumptions and propaganda. Up until that point they were in a 'safe space'.

The Remainer argued that we should just dismiss the trade deficit, it simply is not an argument. Why said I, there are free trade deals to be had around the world, TTIP is deeply flawed and will not be voted through, why do you think that one trade commissioner can negotiate a good deal for all 28 states? A one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work. Why would the EU stop trading with us and why would it be in their interest to impose trade tariffs?

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He then tried the argument that the NHS would collapse if we left. Why would it, said I? The nurses and doctors from the EU working in our NHS would remain, otherwise it would collapse. What we also need to do is to restore the cuts in nurse training funding and places in the UK.

The Remain side were losing the argument he said, complaining that Leave had the upper hand on social media, in the town hall meetings, on the streets and are more motivated. We really have to do something he cried, with lots of exclamation marks. We need telephone voting, what about those going to Glastonbury, they need to vote!!!! Mmm, said I, is he not worried about voter fraud, we can't get to grips with postal voting fraud, let alone glitches in telephony IT systems. Why can't the Glasto crowd get a postal vote if they're that keen to take part, we cannot keep spoon feeding the middle classes.

The highlight of the event was the dinner, featuring Martin Sorrell of WPP and the most excellent after dinner speaker, former president of the European Commission, Herman Van Rompuy.

Sorrell, who has made billions out of communications, admitted the Leave side were communicating far better than Remain and without the funds. I wondered what sort of message that sent to the business leaders attending the summit, given the fees they must be paying him and companies like his.

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And then Mr. Van Rompuy. When seeing him in the flesh I thought about Nigel Farage's disparaging remarks about - 'a damp rag', Ukip even had tea towels made with his image, 'a low grade bank clerk' - he certainly looked like one.

He lived up to the insults. Falling asleep into my lobster ravioli, my head hit a pen, not any old ordinary pen, but a silver Balmain, top of the corporate rated gifts item, a present from the sponsors. I quickly sorted that into my handbag.

This excess, including the sumptious dinner, the excellent wines, the magnificent venue of the palace, the big glossy book accompanying the summit, the hot air, the feeling that outsiders need not attend, just a cosy little soiree for those sucking at the teets of the European taxpayers, is paid for partly by us. I didn't see one other MEP, apart from a few that had retired or been kicked out by the voters who now had cushy lobbying jobs.

I met Mr Van Rompuy outside. I introduced myself and said I agreed with every word he said. He seemed surprised. I agreed that for the euro to work and ever closer union, then sovereignty would have to be relinquished. If you're in a club you should respect the rules. We British cannot so we will Brexit. For all his faults, he is a charming man.
'It's your turn, Doctor'. These were the words that initiated one of the cruellest conflicts in the recent history of the Middle East, the War in Syria.

A group of seven teenagers in the Syrian town of Dara'a, inspired by the winds of freedom and democracy blowing from the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, adorned their school walls with these words in defiance of the Syrian oppressive regime. Basher al-Assad, the Syrian dictator whose family has tyrannically ruled the country for four decades, is a doctor specialized in ophthalmology.

Security Forces treated with savage violence the young authors of the graffiti, which led the town of Dara'a to light the flames of revolution, initiating with their action a conflict that has lasted for five years and has no end in sight.

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This conflict has witnessed unimaginable atrocities. Reports of extreme torture, the use of starvation as a weapon of war, indiscriminate barrel bombings, and chemical attacks have littered the international media. After months of investigations, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry in Syria concluded that the different parties to the conflict had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, although highlighting the manifest cruelty of the Government Security, Intelligence and Military Forces. According to one of the last reports issued by the Commission, the Syrian Government has committed mass extermination as a crime against humanity, one of the worst conceivable offences in international law.

However, as much as the Syrian conflict is a story of barbarity, it is also a story of bravery. Citizens have risked their lives to remove from Syria essential documents and material evidence that will allow the prosecution of those responsible for the atrocities committed. In 2012, a group of Syrian activists working with a military defector code-named Caesar--smuggled out of Syria more than 50,000 photographic images providing evidence of widespread torture, starvation, beatings, and disease in Syrian government detention facilities.

This piece, nevertheless, seeks to highlight the role of thousands of anonymous heroes that risk their lives every day in Syria to save others: the medics. During the conflict, they have had to deal with the frustration of war; treat terrible injuries under extreme conditions, without light or adequate supplies and instruments or after having worked around the clock for days. However, the situation is becoming increasingly critical: the continuous indiscriminate attacks of the Government forces have reached new deplorable levels, as doctors--who are seeking to help injured civilians--are now being targeted.

The organisation 'Medics Under Fire' has documented the killing of 615 medical workers since the beginning of the conflict. 97% of them died as a result of Syrian Government attacks, which evinces that this is not a two-side problem. More than two hundred hospitals have been destroyed by bombs dropped by Syrian forces, either directly or through its allies, which has deliberately and systematically targeted health institutions.

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Given the number of hospitals destroyed and the recurrence of the attacks, it is possible to argue that it is an actual tactic of the campaign, aimed at heaping further suffering on those left residing in conflict zones and inflict extreme suffering in those zones that are out of the government's control. The words 'It's your turn, Doctor' have now acquired a completely different and tragic meaning in Syria.

Medical workers are being targeted in a way never seen before. They face arbitrary arrest, brutal forms of torture and ultimately execution due to their profession and their commitment to help the wounded and sick. There are two poignant examples that demonstrate the depravity of this war.

The first concerns Dr. Saher Halak, a Syrian medical physician from Aleppo. Dr. Halak attended a medical conference in Florida in April 2011. Returning to Syria he signed a petition for doctors to treat injured civilians. Dr. Halak had no political aspirations. He was a doctor. Upon his return to Syria he was abducted, detained, tortured and finally executed. His body was mutilated and showed signs of torture by electrocution. Dr. Halak's family deserve justice. Those persons who committed such a depraved act must be brought to justice.

The second example concerns the death of Dr. Abbas Khan. Dr. Khan was a British orthopaedic surgeon who travelled to Syria to treat civilian victims. On 16 December 2013 he was murdered by members of the Syrian security forces following at least a year of torture. Dr. Khan's family deserve justice in a court of law.

These are but two stories. More than 250,000 Syrians have been killed. Half the country's pre-war population - close to 11 million - have become displaced. Tens of thousand remain in the Government's secret prisons. The conflict has become the deadliest conflict of the 21st century.

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The Syrian Government has expanded the use of of barrel bombs, an improvised explosive device filled with high explosives and shrapnel that has transformed into the worst nightmare of the Syrian civilian population, and has been the object of UN Security Council resolutions calling the forces from the Syrian Arab Republic to refrain from their use.

During the last months, Government forces have also added chemical weapons to these barrel bombs, thus killing not only citizens directly affected by the bomb, but also the medical teams that attempt to help the victims. Despite the evident risks, doctors often decide to treat the patients and end up inhaling poisonous gas.

This piece is not intended to be a legal report, but it must be noted that international humanitarian law, a body of law that regulates every conflict including the Syrian War, prohibits the use of weapons designed to inflict either excessive or unnecessary damage to humans and infrastructure, particularly, chemical weapons. Moreover, the main principle governing hostilities is the principle of distinction, which obliges actors to distinguish between military and civilian targets and abstain from attacking civilians and humanitarian workers. It therefore does not require a comprehensive legal analysis to recognise that the Syrian Government has committed, and continues to commit, international crimes on a colossus scale with absolute impunity.

Doctors in Syria shout a common cry for help from the international community: 'Stop the Bombing!' The UN Security Council must fulfil its role as guarantor of international peace and stability. It must overcome its political disparities and draw a red line. It is time for the Security Council to enforce its resolutions urging Syria not to use indiscriminate weapons and chemical weapons against the civilian population, resolutions that the Assad regime has woefully ignored.

International civil society must start coordinating to pressure the Security Council to protect Syrian doctors and civilians. There are important actions that can be implemented swiftly, such as a 'no-fly zone' or 'protected humanitarian corridors', and would completely change the situation of civilians living on the ground.

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The establishment of Medics Under Fire, a non-profit group that brings together doctors, military and humanitarian specialists and lawyers is aimed at addressing this very issue.


"The radical success of incarcerated Americans in college education is symbolic. It should move leaders in education to rethink the way we look at college admission and rethink the way we present the things we say we value." -- Max Kenner

Max Kenner believes that if you were to show the success rates of the graduates from the Bard Prison Initiative to experts in the social sciences, they would tell you the results are "impossible". The story of the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), founded by Kenner in 1999 and supported by his Alma Mater, Bard College, has become legendary. As the largest program of its kind in the United States today, BPI enrolls nearly 300 incarcerated men and women across a full spectrum of academic disciplines, and offers over 60 courses each semester. Kenner's recent awards have included The Chronicle of Philanthropy's 40 Under 40, Richard Cornuelle Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in Education, and most recently, a Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award (TDIA). The goal of the TDIA is to shine a light on innovations which are helping to solve the world's most intractable problems. Max joins us in The Global Search for Education to talk about how and why BPI graduates are succeeding in the classroom and the real world, as well as his organization's vision for this groundbreaking program looking forward.

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"We don't view our students as incarcerated students that need 'correction'. We approach them with a sense that the whole intellectual world is at their disposal as it would be for any student or any person." -- Max Kenner

Max, within five years of their release, more than 3 out of 4 ex-inmates are arrested again. Out of the 300 students who have graduated Bard, only 4 percent have returned to prison. Why are your graduates more likely to succeed?

We resist any one explanation of why that happens. Also, it's important to point out we work very hard to press back against the inclination that is shared by leaders in philanthropy, government, and education, that the best metric for measuring the success of our students and alumni is recidivism rates because it frames our work overwhelmingly in the context of criminal justice in a way that reduces our students to simply the people that have been incarcerated for a criminal offense.

We measure success of our students in many more ways than whether they return to prison. We treat our students exactly as we would treat any conventional student on the campus of a superb liberal arts college. We don't view our students as incarcerated students that need 'correction'. We approach them with a sense that the whole intellectual world is at their disposal as it would be for any student or any person. We work very hard not to limit the way we approach them or the way they pursue a new sense of curiosity and ownership about the arts, books, ideas, science, mathematics, or a foreign language. It's about their individual pursuits and not about their involvement with criminal justice. They are simply students who should be treated with the same sense of individuality, purpose, and curiosity as any students anywhere. So a better metric than recidivism rates might be something like academic success or other things that are much harder to measure, like how fulfilled a person is over the course of their life, how they engage with questions relevant to their academic study later in life, or the way they speak to their children about their own school work.

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How large is the well of untapped intellectual potential in prisons today?

That's a very fair question and the truth is that we don't know. All we know is that as our project has grown across the country, we continue to find more untapped talent, rather than less.

The population that makes up our student body does not show any predictive mechanism for seeing who is more or less likely to succeed in college study. Our students go from mathematical illiteracy to first, or second, or third term calculus and become math majors. Students fall in love with continental philosophy and learn German to read Hegel in the original. These students do not necessarily come from backgrounds where their parents had a superb education. In fact, they often dropped out of school early. Nothing about their criminal history, where they grew up, their institutional record, or their proximity to release are indicators of whether or not the student will be successful in school.



"Typically, our student body goes back to the community from which they came--generally the most isolated, underserved areas in New York--working with populations that needs them the most." -- Max Kenner

The job marketplace is currently very competitive for all young people. Are employers able to remove the stigma associated with incarcerated individuals? Do they believe your graduates have the skills to contribute to their communities?



Amongst our alumni, there are students who are thriving at graduate schools and receiving degrees in social work, public health, PhDs in academic disciplines, urban planning, etc. They study at schools across the CUNY system, Columbia, NYU, Yale, etc. We have students who are vice-presidents in the management of billion dollar international companies. But typically, our student body goes back to the community from which they came--generally the most isolated, underserved areas in New York--working with populations that needs them the most. They serve people with HIV/AIDS, who are homeless, who are returning from prison, and--most of all--youth at risk. Our students are an extraordinary asset to these communities and are recognized as such by employers within them. They have an unusual combination of life-experience and academic training. They are of extraordinary value to people who are hiring in human service agencies.

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What do you envision for the future of education in prisons? Where is the potential for scaling up this initiative? What are the major roadblocks?

We have the Consortium for Liberal Arts in Prison which has worked to establish different programs which are run by other superb colleges and universities across the country. We are currently in twelve states. The first project we helped establish was in Connecticut at Wesleyan University. We have worked with Grinnell College in Iowa, Goucher College in Maryland, Holy Cross College and the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, Washington University in St. Louis, and several colleges in Washington state. One of the reasons we decided not to insert the Bard program into states we don't know is that we feel strongly this work is most successful at a genuinely human scale. All the pressure from philanthropy, government, and money say 'go to scale.' We think our students benefit in the way that they do from an academic education for precisely the opposite reason. We're interested in getting elite colleges and universities to reimagine the way they do their jobs, to reimagine the way that they relate to the communities around them, reimagine the way they can interfere with the worst social problems we face collectively as a country. In the academy--leaders, college presidents, trustees, the elite professoriate--there is a terrible crisis of confidence regarding the relevance of what we do in the humanities and especially in the arts. If we're going to be successful in facing any of the great challenges we are presented with as a country, we must have confidence in one another, and deliver rigorous and ambitious education to all pockets of society where we're told by elites that failure is the most likely outcome. The success of BPI students is evidence that impossibly good results are achievable if we can treat students with dignity.



"All the pressure from philanthropy, government, and money say 'go to scale.' We think our students benefit in the way that they do from an academic education for precisely the opposite reason." -- Max Kenner

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Do you think that the education of incarcerated individuals has the potential to fundamentally change the institution of higher education in America?

The radical success of incarcerated Americans in college education is symbolic. It should move leaders in education to rethink the way we look at college admission and rethink the way we present the things we say we value: civic engagement, historical knowledge, mathematical literacy, honoring the arts, access to science. We need to revitalize the way we share these things with the public at large.

What does being a Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards honoree mean to you?

It's an honor for the institution to be recognized by Tribeca and for the work begin to be recognized in this way. There is one thing I would like to emphasize with respect to being 'disruptive': if you were to present the success of our students to experts in the social sciences they would argue these results are impossible. But these students do well; and they do it year in and year out.

The impossible success of incarcerated students should disrupt the way we have habituated ourselves to look at other problems. We're going to have to address great crises globally in the 21st century--catastrophic climate change, mass extinction, nuclear proliferation, income inequality. Our students' impossible success came from addressing problems from a different perspective and I hope it inspires something similar in all different realms.

(All photos are courtesy of BPI and CMRubinWorld)



C. M. Rubin and Max Kenner

Join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (U.S.), Dr. Leon Botstein (U.S.), Professor Clay Christensen (U.S.), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (U.S.), Dr. MadhavChavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (U.S.), Professor Andy Hargreaves (U.S.), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (U.S.), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Honourable Jeff Johnson (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. EijaKauppinen (Finland), State Secretary TapioKosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Geoff Masters (Australia), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (U.S.), Richard Wilson Riley (U.S.), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Professor Manabu Sato (Japan), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (U.S.), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (U.S.), Yves Theze (LyceeFrancais U.S.), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (U.S.), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.

The Global Search for Education Community Page

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump smiles during a rally, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Once again, we've got a rather long end section today, so we're going to present our wrap-up of the week's news in rather abbreviated fashion. This is because we are finally (only a few weeks late!) unveiling the finalists in our "come up with a playground taunt for Trump" contest (which initially ran back in FTP [391]), so there's that to look forward to, down in the talking points section.

So, quickly and to the point: Donald Trump all but declared war (once again) on the media this week, after they actually did their jobs and investigated whether Trump had made good on his claims of donating millions to veterans' charities. Turns out, he hadn't (at least, not fully). When he was forced to quickly start writing checks by investigative journalists, he (of course) flipped his lid. He held a press conference where he exhibited (once again) his sneering disdain for the media, and for anyone who ever questions anything he says. Perhaps this will fully open the eyes of the media who still refuse to call Trump on the carpet for some of his bigger whoppers? One would like to think so, at any rate.

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The "Never Trump" movement has now entered the embalming phase, as Bill Kristol announced he had finally found someone to mount a third-party conservative run for the White House (maybe). He is a guy almost nobody has ever heard of, who is still not even fully committed to running. That whimpering sound you hear is the "Never Trump" movement's death rattle, folks.

Or maybe it is the pathetic whimpering of the last major Republican officeholder to renounce all moral and ethical standing and subserviently fall into line behind the Trump candidacy, firmly placing party above country. We cannot claim original credit for this line (we think we heard it on a late-night comedy show, but we're not certain), but the best way we've heard to sum this up is: "Paul Ryan just stuck his head so far up Trump's butt that he bumped into Chris Christie."

Over on the Democratic side of the race, Bernie Sanders continues to barnstorm around California, which (of course) led to disdain and snarkiness about dirty hippies actually voting from the inside-the-Beltway press corps. Bernie might just win the Golden State next Tuesday, which has the same inside-the-Beltway crowd all a-flutter. But Bernie has now succeeded not only in pulling Hillary Clinton in the direction the Democratic Party used to strive for, but he's also managed to shift President Barack Obama in the same positive direction. Obama gave what can only be called "his first Democratic campaign speech in the 2016 race" this week in Indiana, and there was one very interesting excerpt:

And then we have to tackle retirement security. That's something that keeps a lot of people up at night.... Let's face it -- a lot of Americans don't have retirement savings. Even if they've got an account set up, they just don't have enough money at the end of the month to save as much as they'd like because they're just barely paying the bills. Fewer and fewer people have pensions they can really count on, which is why Social Security is more important than ever. We can't afford to weaken Social Security. We should be strengthening Social Security. And not only do we need to strengthen its long-term health, it's time we finally made Social Security more generous and increased its benefits so that today's retirees and future generations get the dignified retirement that they've earned. And we could start paying for it by asking the wealthiest Americans to contribute a little bit more. They can afford it. I can afford it.

This is in stark contrast to that time when Obama was ready to sign off on cuts to Social Security as part of the (shudder) "Grand Bargain," a few years back. So Bernie is pulling not only Hillary to positions the vast majority of the public approves of, but also the current leader of the Democratic Party as well. Way to go, Bernie!

Things are getting so good that Democrats are now openly wondering whether they'll actually be able to retake control of the House of Representatives. Now that's a dream worth working towards, right?

OK, two quick unrelated news tidbits, and then we'll get on with the rest of the column. The first is the big philatelic news -- the 99th original "Inverted Jenny" stamp (what younger stamp collectors often refer to as the "upside-down airplane stamp") has been located, after being stolen decades ago. There are only 100 of these in existence (only one full sheet was sold), and now all but one of them are accounted for. In American stamp-collecting news, that's about as big as it gets, folks!

And in other "hobby" news, we end with the following report about the intrepid folks at the Drug Enforcement Agency, keeping America safe from... uh, well... maybe not. Here's the whole story from the AP:

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A New York prosecutor has told jurors at a criminal trial that a Drug Enforcement Administration supervisory agent and another employee lied by not disclosing their ownership in a New Jersey strip club. Prosecutor Paul Monteleoni says the men did so because the ownership could prevent them from maintaining D.E.A. top-secret security clearance. The prosecutor made the accusation Tuesday during opening statements in the trial of Glen Glover, of Lyndhurst, New Jersey, and David Polos, of West Nyack, New York. Glover is a suspended D.E.A. telecommunications specialist. Polos is a retired former assistant special agent in charge of the New York office. Defense attorney Marc Mukasey says prosecutors wrongly took an investment and hobby and insisted it should have been described as a job on a government document.

It's a "hobby" to own a strip club? Wow -- who knew? That certainly sounds more interesting than stamp collecting, we have to admit....

Although we personally attended a most-impressive Bernie Sanders rally this week (which we wrote about earlier, with slightly-blurry photos), we have to say that Hillary Clinton was easily the winner of the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award this week, for the speech she gave yesterday.

With this speech, Hillary Clinton has kicked off her general election campaign. She was smart to do so because nothing has been stopping her from pivoting from attacking Bernie to attacking her real foe, Donald Trump. She finally realized this and cut loose with a speech which was downright scathing in nature.

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The 2016 general election campaign for president is quite likely to be the most vicious political battle of recent memory. Perhaps even "of our lifetimes." Donald Trump has simply ignored the normal political candidate's playbook, the tacitly agreed-upon rules for propriety in any presidential campaign, and any negative reactions from the media all along, and he's going to continue to do so all the way to November.

What this all means is that Hillary Clinton is going to have the political fight of her life on her hands -- a fight that has already begun. By going on the offense this early, she is signaling that she is not going to lay low for a few months during the summer (this used to be a normal occurrence in the presidential contest, but Barack Obama masterfully defined Mitt Romney very early on in 2012, so it is likely a thing of the past now). She also is signaling that she's fully capable of playing by the new rules (which might be stated as: "there are no rules anymore").

Now, Clinton still has plenty of room for improvement. The speech was brilliantly written, with plenty of humor and snarkiness and vicious (but truthful) digs at Trump. However, the delivery wasn't the best -- Clinton still has yet to hit her real stride in delivering such speeches, and such zingers.

She's got time to improve on this, though. For now, the content of the speech was so breathtaking that few noticed her rather flat delivery (although some did, to be fair). But she'll likely improve her performance over time. By the convention, she should have worked out the kinks and be able to deliver such a forceful speech in such a way as to provoke cheering and standing ovations from Democratic crowds. She's already got the material, she just needs to tighten her delivery a bit.

While she's still got room for improvement in style, on substance the speech was a clear indication that she's not going to be caught bringing only a knife to a gunfight. She's going to hit Trump, hit him hard, and hit him where it hurts him the most. This is precisely what she's going to need to do to counter his blizzard of bluster. Of course, every Democrat is eagerly awaiting seeing Clinton and Trump debate each other, but there likely won't be many of these debates and they're still a long way off. Most of the campaigning will happen through stump speeches. And Hillary Clinton just proved she's unafraid of fighting just as hard as she needs to in order to win the White House.

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For doing so to such acclaim, Hillary Clinton is easily our Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week this week.

[As a rule, we do not link to campaign websites, so you'll have to search Clinton's contact information for yourself, to let her know you appreciate her efforts.]

This one, sadly, was pretty easy. They may not all have technically been Democrats, but they certainly were anti-Trump, so that's close enough for us at this point.

The Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week this week goes to all the protesters at Donald Trump rallies who think it's a good idea to resort to violence to make their political point. The most recent example was in San Jose, but sadly this was not an isolated incident. In particular, California protesters (so much for being the "mellow" state) seemed last week to be awfully quick to resort to throwing things, sucker-punches, and other odious behavior.

This, to be very blunt, does not help your cause. Far from it. In fact, it places Trump followers in the role of being the reasonable ones. This is completely counterproductive, folks.

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All violence at political rallies deserves condemnation -- loud, swift, and unequivocal. No matter which side the perpetrators are on. Yelling and screaming are allowable. Threats are not. Chucking eggs (and other missiles) is definitely beyond the pale. And punching someone just for their political beliefs is worthy of nothing but condemnation.

Again: You. Are. Not. Helping. Your. Cause.

So stop it. Now.

Volume 394 (6/3/16)

We have been remiss here at Friday Talking Points world headquarters, we sheepishly admit. We ran a contest three weeks ago, and have yet to announce any winners. But the wait is now over! We are going to present our finalists today, and then we'll pick an overall winner next week.

Because we have so many entries worth noting, though, we had to pre-empt the entire talking points section today. If you'd prefer some more standard Democratic talking points, we would instead point you to the transcript of Hillary Clinton's recent anti-Trump speech, which is chock full of zingers and excellent talking points.

Our contest was, of course, to pick a new nickname for Donald Trump. We threw the challenge out there because we weren't that impressed with what the Clinton camp had come up with:

OK, as promised, we've saved our contest for last. We were prompted to create this contest by an article about how Team Clinton was test-driving "Dangerous Donald" as a playground taunt to level at Trump. The article expresses some skepticism that this will work, and we tend to agree. So what label can you come up with for Hillary Clinton (and all the Clintonistas) to use for the next six months? We'll start the suggestions off with a few of our own, to get the playground ball rolling (as it were). Trump has reached into the land of cartoons to come up with "Goofy" as a label for Elizabeth Warren, so we thought "Dopey Donald" might be a good comeback. Of course, this one would have to get tweeted from Warren to be the most effective. Or how about "Dingbat Donald"? The idea is to ridicule Trump, which "Dangerous Donald" doesn't really achieve. Get under his skin. Make him tear his hair out (now that would be worth watching!). The last one we came up with (before we open up the comments for your entries) is a bit long-winded, but it does have a nice 50's rock-n-roll ring to it: Trumpa-Lumpa-Ding-Dong. Can you do better than this? Sure you can! Let everyone know about it in the comments, as always.

While we still profess a certain soft spot for "Trumpa-Lumpa-Ding-Dong," we are (in fairness) going to disallow all the ones we came up with to inspire others.

Before we get to the finalists, we first wanted to thank all participants -- we got a better response than we've gotten on the last few contests we've run, so right there we considered it a success. But it wasn't just the quantity of the entries, it was also the quality of the responses that impressed us.

This column runs in multiple outlets (still waiting for that syndication deal, though...), all of which reacted favorably. From commenter "Me." at Democratic Underground we got two very workable possibilities: Dirty Donnie and Dishonest Don. Both of these have the qualities that are needed -- short, snappy, and designed to get under Trump's skin in a major way. "Johnny Armstrong" at Huffington Post also had a good one: Con-Man Trump. [Note: HuffPost comments don't have individual permalinks, so this one link will have to do for all of the entries.] All of these attack Trump's persona as master businessman, which he (quite obviously) hates being challenged on in any way. The prize for shortest and snappiest of these goes to Con Don or the alternative Don the Con (both from commenter "Kick" at ChrisWeigant.com).

There were a few that might be useful for some Democrats, but which are pretty obviously out of bounds for Hillary Clinton herself to utter. The first of these (from "Johnny Armstrong" at HuffPost) was Slick Donald which would bring up the obvious negative of what her husband was previously called -- and Hillary doesn't need that association. Likewise Raping Donald (from "Steedo" at my site), which is a little too vicious for daily use. I have to say, though, "Steedo" made a good case for his entry:

The nickname should flow naturally as a response to what we know he will say. He has already started with the notion that Bill is a sexual predator making Hil an enabler. Her debate answer should be: "There were 17 Republicans running for president but only one was accused of rape, by one of his eastern-European mail-order brides. From now on I'm calling him Raping Donald." And proceed to do so at every available opportunity.

Likewise falling on the wrong side of the "too crude" line was one truly memorable moniker: Dumbass Don (from "flying rabbit" at Democratic Underground). That's got a real ring to it, doesn't it? They could get "Red" from That 70s Show to do the commercials!

Also too crude, but downright brilliant was the entry from "Kick" (my site) or "Kick Len" (Huffington Post). It even comes with a pronunciation guide:

Benedict Donald: pronounced "Been A Dick," with a silent "T" like Stephen Colbert.

That was pretty funny, although we just can't see Hillary Clinton using it, in all seriousness. Also viciously amusing were two entries from "goode trickle" at my site, the first of which would have been a finalist if it weren't for the fact that we also can't see Clinton actually beginning to use it: Trumpenfuhrer (also, as he pointed out, Trump might actually like that one). His second one was even further over the line: Needledick McTrumpstick. Funny as heck, but completely unusable for Hillary.

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There were other entries that had some funny explanations, including two from "Mark Moctezuma" at HuffPost: (Bedtime for) Donzo and Dishonest Donald (which was followed with the amusing line: "Do you have hemorrhoids or is that your tongue?").

Our personal favorite in the "funny, just because" category had to have been Clownfish Von Trump (from "Kick" at my site). That one's even got a movie tie-in, what with the Finding Nemo sequel! We're not sure why that one tickled us more than the rest, but Clownfish Von Trump just seems to roll off the tongue (try saying it out loud...).

Runner-up for "rolls off the tongue best" would have to be a riff on a news item (about "Boaty McBoatface") at the top of the FTP column with the contest at the end: Trumpy McTrumpface, from "BashiBazouk" at my site.

There were several entries which relied upon alliteration worth mentioning. Ding Dong Donald ("goode trickle" from my site), Tedious Trump ("Speak2" from my site), and the more ornate Oligarch Orangutan (from "Don Harris" at my site). "John From Censornati" at my site easily takes the prize for alliteration, though, for his two entries: The Mystic Tan Misogynist and Tiny-fingered Twitter Troll Trump. Whew!

There was also an entire category of names inspired by either cartoons or cartoonish characters. Donald Schmuck (from "nypoet22" at my site) is pretty hilarious, and there were also two on the same Charlie And The Chocolate Factory theme: Troompa Loompa (also from "nypoet22" at my site) and Doompla Troompla (from"ListenWhenYouHear" at my site). Those both work well because of the unnatural orange color of both Oompa-Loompas and Donald Trump's face, of course.

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Contest Finalists

With such an excellent range of entries to choose from, we found it impossible to narrow it down to only one winner. So we're presenting our top four favorites for your consideration. Vote for any of these in the comments, and next week we'll see which one edges out the rest.

Our first finalist was from the cartoon category, and came from "JoeG" at my site: Trumpty Dumpty, which seems funny, snappy, and downright workable all at the same time. Hearing Trumpty Dumpty immediately brings to mind "...had a great fall" -- and you could do all sorts of things with that. The connotations of sitting on a wall and falling off would be an absolute gold mine for Democrats to riff off of.

The next finalist was "nypoet22" from my site, who came up with what was likely the first entry of the contest from anyone, which suggested a beautiful name that really needs no explanation: Crazy Uncle Donald. Every family's got one, we all see them at Thanksgiving and other get-together holidays, and they all sound exactly like Donald Trump when they open their mouths. As we said, the simple beauty is that it is entirely self-explanatory.

Our third finalist was "Balthasar" from my site, who came up with the simplest -- and yet, most vicious -- playground taunt possible: Poor Donald. Wow -- this one works on multiple levels! Trump hates people questioning his self-professed fortune, he is easily goaded by attacks on his business problems, and it also has the flavor of "Richie Rich, the poor little rich boy." There's also a Benjamin Franklin "anti-Poor Richard" theme as well (Trump is best known for his pithy Tweets, after all, and Poor Richard would have absolutely loved Twitter!). Add in the contemptuous and dismissive quality (imagine Hillary sneering "Poor Donald" to see what we mean), and this is a strong contender to win the contest, we thought. He even gives proper credit to what inspired it:

I'd like to take a page out of the 1992 playbook and echo Ann Richards' devastating characterization of George senior: "Poor George: born with a silver foot in his mouth." Poor Donald is apt in so many ways, from his thinner-than-rice-paper skin, to his actual bank account, to the way he is in completely over his head.

And our last finalist is from "goode trickle" at my site, who came up with a great pun sure to bring a smile to Conan O'Brien fans everywhere: Trumpf The Insult Comic Dog. Man, who wouldn't pay money to see Triumph debate Trumpf? We realize this one's probably too long to be an actual contender, but it was easily one of our favorite entries, for sheer cleverness alone.

So that's our finalist list. Let everyone know what you think, or attempt your own late entries if the muse strikes you. Either way, we'll return next week (same bat time, same bat channel) and reveal our contest winner. First place will receive absolutely nothing, other than bragging rights among your friends (and online). Vote for the nickname you think would work best against Donald Trump, everyone! And if you really think any of them are perfect, forward them on to Hillary's campaign for their consideration....

Chris Weigant blogs at:

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com
Old times there are not forgotten. . . .

Dixie's Land, a song from 1859

In early April this space was devoted to a discussion of the assorted political adversities that were being inflicted on those seeking to govern the state of Alabama, going from the Governor of the state, to the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, and finally to the Alabama Speaker of the House. It has, however, been more than two months since those events were described and it is time for an update, if for no other reason than to reassure my readers that Donald Trump is not the only clown in town. The following events occurred within days of each other during the merry month of May.

Starting at the top, readers will recall that Governor Robert Bentley admitted making what were described as "inappropriate and sexually charged remarks" to one of his female aides. It was hinted that the behavior might have included more than just sexually charged remarks. In Alabama, where perceived sexual misbehavior is taken seriously, news of the Governor's behavior shocked his constituents and their elected representatives, even though the governor insisted there had been no sexual improprieties between him and his aide. Following the revelations there was talk of impeaching the Governor. As of this writing those proceedings have not been initiated. However, at the end of March, the state auditor of Alabama filed an ethics violations report against the Governor. In that report he said he was investigating the "misuse of state property" by the Governor, an allegation that may have been, in part, the result of a recording in which the Governor is heard to say, presumably to his paramour, that "If we're gonna do what we did the other day, we're gonna have to start locking the door." If what they did the other day is what it sounds like, and if it took place in the Governor's office it would, of course, clearly be a misuse of state property. In his report the auditor said: "The Governor continues to disgrace the state of Alabama. . . ." (The auditor is also concerned with whether the paramour is a public official or a lobbyist, although that would probably not affect the propriety of using the Governor's office for what they may have been doing in it.) The auditor issued an order to the Governor that he appear in the auditor's office on May 2, 2016 to produce documents. The Governor did not appear and the auditor said that, as a result of the failure, he would file proceedings with the state court ordering the Governor to appear or face contempt charges. There is no word on whether or not the proceedings have been filed.

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From the Governor we go to Roy Moore, the now-suspended Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Chief Justice Moore is, in all likelihood, the first Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court to have been removed from office for refusing to follow a federal judge's order. That occurred in 2003 when a federal judge ordered him to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments that he had commissioned and had installed in the Alabama Judicial Building. He refused to remove the monument and, as a result, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary removed him from his position as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. In 2012 he ran for the same position, was once again elected Chief Justice and, once again engaged in conduct that has caused him to be suspended. On May 27, 2016, the Judicial Inquiry Commission suspended him for, among other things, not respecting a federal court order authorizing gay marriage by telling the state's probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. Since the Chief Justice does not want to be remembered as the only Alabama Chief Justice to be removed from office two times, on May 27, 2016, he filed suit alleging that the state law that authorizes his suspension is unconstitutional. The entire state eagerly awaits the outcome of those proceedings. From the Chief Justice we go to the Speaker of the House.

Mike Hubbard is the Speaker of the House. It was he who led the Republicans in their takeover of the Alabama legislature in 2010, the first time they had had control since Reconstruction. Following that success, Mr. Hubbard wrote a book entitled: "Storming the Statehouse" in which he said that "Ethics was a subject that set Republicans apart from the Democrats," the setting apart being a result of pre-election indictments and scandals involving Democrats. On June 1, 2016, Mr. Hubbard's criminal trial began. He faces trial on 23 felony ethics charges as a result of his conduct while Speaker of the House.

For the casual observer it is intriguing to speculate on what will happen next in Alabama. Will the governor be impeached? Will the Chief Justice be removed from the Alabama Supreme Court? Will Mike Hubbard go to prison? Stay tuned! Christopher Brauchli can be emailed at brauchli.56@post.harvard.edu. For political commentary see his web page at http://humanraceandothersports.com


USA, New Jersey, Jersey City, Woman in voting booth

Co-Authored by Maclen Zilber, Democratic Strategist and Campaign Consultant based in Hollywood, CA



Imagine this. You're a poll voter in California, who has spent all day at work, excited to show up at the polls and cast your vote for Senator Bernie Sanders. You leave work at 5PM, quickly turn on the TV before you head over to your polling location, and on the muted TV, you see a marquee that says "Clinton clinches Democratic nomination, declares victory."

You un-mute the television, and hear the talking heads discussing that the Democratic primary campaign is over.

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This could be the reality many late poll voters face this Tuesday, June 7th in California, if former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plays her cards right.

Bernie Sanders has a hurdle few have talked about in his effort to win California-- time zones-- and how the difference between when polls close on the East Coast vs. the West Coast could impact turnout in the Golden State and possibly depress Sanders' vote.

On Tuesday night, six states hold their Democratic primary contests, but California and New Jersey are the biggest prizes. Hillary Clinton is currently just 72 delegates away from an outright majority of convention delegates: 2,383.

This weekend we'll see the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico - two territories Clinton is expected to win handily - hold their Democratic primary contests. With a pickup in the neighborhood of 40 delegates from those two contests - which is very plausible - Clinton would get within 32 delegates of clinching the nomination.

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On Tuesday, Clinton is favored to win New Jersey by a huge margin, while California's primary is too close to call as polling shows a razor thin margin.

This is where it gets interesting.

New Jersey has 126 pledged delegates. Even if Clinton were to somehow face a major upset loss in New Jersey, she'd easily surpass the 30-35 delegates she'll need at that point to earn an outright majority of convention delegates.

New Jersey's polls will close at 5 PM Pacific time on Tuesday - a significant three hours before polls close in California. In those three hours, cable news, social media, and the world will be abuzz with the news that Clinton is the presumptive nominee.

If Clinton wants to swamp any other narrative that comes out of Tuesday's elections, she may want to declare victory at 5PM PST.

At that pivotal time, Clinton shouldn't just declare a triumph in New Jersey, but instead announce that she's officially wrapped up the Democratic Party's nomination by clinching the requisite number of delegates. She ought to be gracious and courteous to Sanders, while at the same time, begin the transition to a general election narrative by emphasizing the need for all Democrats (and Independents who backed Sanders) to unite behind her and against the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

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Once framed with this narrative, the four additional and non-California or New Jersey states that vote next Tuesday - North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and New Mexico - could potentially start to be framed as simply adding to Clinton's delegate tally, rather than being perceived as losses. While these are all states that Sanders should perform well in, once the storyline becomes that Clinton has mathematically sealed the nomination, the only tally that will matter is how far Clinton has gotten past the magic number 2,383. By 8PM PST, Clinton could possibly be more than 50 delegates past the magic number.

Sanders' play in California, granted, was never to come back in the delegate math. It was to win the momentum battle and the narrative war and to use both as leverage for him to get something tangible out of the upcoming Democratic Party convention. The thinking was, by winning five of six states on Tuesday, Sanders could continue making the case that he has the wind at his back.

However, if Clinton declares victory at 5PM PST and the media buys it - and the press loves a good story - it might drown out any counter-narrative Sanders is able to muster about momentum. If the press declares Clinton the victor at 5PM PST, it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy in California, with thousands of late Sanders poll voters deciding to stay home.

The one thing that Clinton must consider if contemplating this strategy, is that while she has relatively little risk in losing the nomination, such a move could potentially anger Sanders supporters. And, given the fact that Clinton's initial objective as the presumptive nominee will be to heal the Party and to do as little damage to the unification process as possible, this strategy may represent a double-edged sword.

The short term risk of aggravating some Sanders voters by declaring victory at 5PM PST after New Jersey and before California may nevertheless be worth the long-term gains if it helps Clinton win in the Golden State. It'll speed up the Party's coalescing process around her as the official standard bearer, increase the likelihood that Sanders doesn't stay in the race much longer and help to strengthen Clinton's footing as the nominee going into convention. Either way, Clinton may end up having zero power in dictating this narrative. At the end of the day, regardless if she decides to embrace this strategy or not, the press might make Clinton's decision for her - by declaring her the nominee after New Jersey - whether she makes a speech or not.
Businessman with Whiskey in Bar

Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas

Can money buy happiness? One way to explore this question is to ask whether money buys the constituents of happiness--and there's no better-researched or more powerful constituent than social connections.

Yet even for this question, about money's link to social connections, there is no clear-cut answer. Two new studies offer conflicting evidence, one suggesting that people with higher incomes spend less time socializing, and another suggesting that they feel less lonely. What's actually going on here?

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In the first study, researchers from Emory University and the University of Minnesota analyzed survey responses from nearly 120,000 Americans, honing in on questions about annual household income and social behavior. Their results showed that people with higher incomes spent less time socializing, and more time alone, overall. At the same time, for the time that they did spend socializing, higher-income people spent less time with family and more time with friends.

One possible interpretation? People with higher incomes, less inclined to rely on family for material or logistic support, delegate their social time to more deliberate--perhaps even strategic--relationships. Could higher-income people be prioritizing friendly hangouts or professional networking over "family obligations?" This study doesn't answer that question, nor does it address the relative importance of connections with friends versus family to overall happiness. However, most would agree that dedicating more time to social relationships, of the family or friend variety, is likely to result in stronger, more authentic connections, less likelihood of loneliness, and a bigger boon to happiness.

The second study looked at loneliness, the presumed antithesis of feeling loved and a sense of belonging, and a factor that correlates with less happiness. The researchers define loneliness as "a perceived discrepancy between desired and actual social relationships; a perceived lack of control over the quantity and especially the quality of one's social activity."

Looking at survey data from about 16,000 German adults, their analyses paint a rolling landscape for loneliness over the lifespan, with notable peaks around 35 years of age, again at 60, and then increasing thereafter. Other metrics like frequency of social contact, marital status, or number of friends did not explain this pattern of loneliness--65 year olds were lonelier than 45 year olds regardless of whether they had the same number of friends. One measure, however, did stand out as a reliable inverse predictor of loneliness: income. Higher income was systematically associated with lower self-rated loneliness, regardless of other life circumstances.

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Looking at survey data from about 16,000 German adults, their analyses paint a rolling landscape for loneliness over the lifespan, with notable peaks around 35 years of age, again at 60, and then increasing thereafter. Other metrics like frequency of social contact, marital status, or number of friends did not explain this pattern of loneliness--65 year olds were lonelier than 45 year olds regardless of whether they had the same number of friends. One measure, however, did stand out as a reliable inverse predictor of loneliness: income. Higher income was systematically associated with lower self-rated loneliness, regardless of other life circumstances.

It's perilously easy to come away from this study assuming that more is always better. Because lower income predicted higher loneliness, increasingly higher and higher income should make a person progressively less and less lonely.

The landscape of most mental phenomena, however, is U-shaped, with similar (typically undesirable) effects at very low and very high levels, and an optimal range in between. Considering income, while people with very low income may lack the bandwidth to attend to or invest in strong social bonds, do very-high-income people distance themselves from meaningful interactions with family, friends, and strangers? Is there an optimal zone of income that serves well-being, diminishing stress and fostering social affiliation? Is there a critical threshold, beyond which higher income reduces the urge to socialize? These are all questions that further research should address.

Taken together, these studies paradoxically suggest that while higher-income people spend less time socializing, they claim to be less lonely.

In trying to reconcile this, we might first consider research on wealth and power that shows that greater privilege--whether hard-earned or assigned in a laboratory experiment--is associated with a more self-focused, socially aloof demeanor. Defining loneliness in terms of "control" and "desired quality and quantity," and given powerful people's tendency to assume control and devalue others, perhaps self-rated loneliness amongst the rich is bound to drop. Rather than charting the actual strength or abundance of social connections, however, this drop reflects less interest in them: I'm not lonely--I'm just not really interested in connecting with others.

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The money-and-happiness debate

In 1974, Richard Easterlin noted that despite the promise of steadily increasing per-capita GDP, national happiness levels plateaued in the mid-1960s, though per-capita GDP continued to rise. In the forty years since, researchers have scoped big data to report patterns in both directions: Income does, in fact, predict happiness (Justin Wolfers), income doesn't predict happiness (Easterlin, again), income does predict happiness, income doesn't predict happiness, income does predict happiness--but only up to $75,000 per year (Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman).

Most agree that money helps when things are dire. If you are worried about food, warmth, or shelter, having some cash is decidedly beneficial. But what happens when those stressors are taken care of?

In researching the link between money and happiness, large survey research tends to rely on people's intuitive sense of what happiness means--simply asking them to rate themselves on a scale from "not at all happy" to "very happy"--and uses responses to examine factors that predict high levels of happiness. But one perspective that promises to bring clarity has been to think more deeply about happiness, and what being happy actually means.

For example, happiness expert Sonja Lyubomirsky defines happiness as "the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one's life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile." (Notice that although life-threatening stress does infringe on happiness, happiness is more than merely a lack of stress.) Once happiness is so defined, researchers can look for characteristics and circumstances that move with or shape happiness--including, in large part, social connections. Then, we can explore how income relates to those characteristics and circumstances, as the two studies above did.
Donald Trump's attack on Judge Gonzalo Curiel is despicable. Saying that someone has an "inherent conflict of interest" because of their heritage is pretty much a textbook example of racism. It seems like any semblance of a fig leaf that Trump's rhetoric is about immigration and his wall rather than animus toward an entire community of 55 million has been blown away.



For the record, Judge Gonzalo Curiel was a member of La Raza Lawyers Association, a respected network of local bar associations of Latino lawyers and judges in California. We are the National Council of La Raza, a different group and the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.



There are in fact hundreds if not thousands of organizations, media outlets, and associations that use "La Raza." There is nothing nefarious about the use of this term. It simply refers to the Hispanic people and it is a nod to our common heritage. But apparently that heritage is the reason Donald Trump believes he cannot get a fair shake from Judge Curiel. It brings back awful memories of more than a few people saying that Thurgood Marshall should not have been the first African-American Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court because of his long and storied involvement in the civil rights movement.



Judicial ethics prevent Judge Curiel from responding to personal attacks against him, but evidence of his qualifications, integrity, courage, and patriotism is extensive. As has been widely documented, Judge Curiel is a U.S. citizen and a former federal prosecutor who brought drug cartel kingpins to justice, refusing to back down even when faced with death threats. In 2006, he was appointed by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to a judgeship in San Diego. Judge Curiel was nominated to the federal district court in 2011 and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate in 2012.



And any concern that politics have impacted his actions here should be dispelled by the fact that he has presided over the Trump University case since 2013, well before there was any hint that any of the parties involved might become a political candidate. In truth, he postponed the trial until after the presidential election expressly to prevent it from having an effect on the presidential campaign.



All this is evidence that shows how bigoted and ridiculous Trump's railings against Curiel are and the judge deserves an apology. The bottom line: It is deeply offensive that anyone would cite someone's ethnicity as the basis to question or disparage their qualifications. It is even more disturbing when that behavior comes from those who seek to represent our country.
As described in an earlier article, the Beverly Hilton, in what they are calling a "reconfiguration" of a project which won a referendum by 129 votes in an election with 569 documented cases of voter fraud, is using a California initiative loophole to try to build a 375-foot skyscraper in a city with a 45-foot height limit.

While some of the false claims made by the signature gatherers of the skyscraper initiative very clearly attempted to give new horizons to the meaning of the word chutzpah, a recent development (no pun intended) also adds hypocrisy with a capital "H" to the mix.

As noted before, the use of the initiative process means that the Hilton, in their efforts to build the 375-foot skyscraper, doesn't need to go through any of the reviews or public processes which would normally be required for any construction project, let alone a project of this magnitude.

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While the Hilton is exploiting the initiative process to scrupulously avoid all municipal scrutiny, including environmental reviews, their neighbor to the west, on the site of the old Robinsons May, is also requesting a modification to its original entitlement. The project, owned by the Wanda Group, and known as One Beverly Hills, is seeking to convert some of the condos of the already entitled Richard Meier designed project to hotel rooms, not to add bulk, mass and height to the project like the Hilton. Playing the role of the good twin, One Beverly Hills is going through the City's standard process, which includes various reviews, a supplemental environmental impact report and the ability of the public to raise concerns.

Despite disingenuous protestations to the contrary, the Hilton is trying to use the public planning process and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to stop the hotel project -- and the competition-- next door. In a 21-page letter to the City's planning department, the Hilton raises a number of concerns and objections related to the One Beverly Hills hotel modification.

I can't comment on the specifics of the Hilton's objections at this stage. There is a process and those objections will be considered and addressed. But I sure will point out the utter irony in the Hilton's use of the public process which they themselves are denying everyone else in connection with their own project.

With apologies to Gore Vidal, they have given hypocrisy a bad name.

Or maybe it's not hypocrisy? Perhaps they are subtlety trying to convince the One Beverly Hills folks to come over to the Dark Side. Their utzing message would seem to be: "Hey, why bother go through the pesky review process when you could completely circumvent it with an initiative? Drop the application, buy signatures like we did, and come join us with 'the Hilton Way' in the fabuloso world of 'Anything Goes' development.

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"Heck, you can even use our argument that we already went through numerous public meetings. You did, too! In fact, the changes you're looking for might even be seen as less drastic than our own. We're looking to build a 375-foot skyscraper in place of two buildings, adding bulk and mass to our project, reducing the amount of water we recycle and adding outdoor meeting spaces while you're just looking to convert a few condos to hotel rooms."

Now we can't know for sure if the Hilton really is trying to win recruits for the Hilton school of development or just wants to make a little mischief. And in fairness to the Hilton, it should be noted that there are a few other parties who are trying to jump on the Hypocrisy bandwagon.

For example, in addition to a mystery objector, who had 87 pages worth of objections sent in anonymously, we have a couple of homeowner associations in Westwood who are expressing concerns about the project. These are the same moral authorities who expressed zero concern with the potential issues Metro's tunneling under our High School could create. They're clearly not concerned at all about our kids and they went to great lengths in the past to prove it, ignoring both logic and decency, not to mention the facts. They've been bought off by developers before, so maybe they're just looking for another payday now. Whatever their motivation, you gotta give such bad neighbors credit for such a healthy sense of ego. One sometimes can just shake one's head...

We also received a letter from LA Councilmember Paul Koretz. It's difficult to say whether he raised objections to placate those homeowner groups -- hey, it's a lot easier to object to development in another city than in one's own district, isn't it? Who knows, he may have even been put up to it by lobbyists doing the Hilton's bidding. The Hilton tried that ploy in WeHo, with their lobbyist having in fact drafted a letter ready for the signature of the WeHo mayor, who wasn't about to be tricked.

Whatever the origin of Councilmember Koretz's letter, we should remember that this is the same guy who ignored our own concerns when the Century City North Specific Plan was violated to create significant traffic on behalf of a favored developer. This is the same guy who allowed a 40+ story skyscraper to be built directly next to the High School and whose concern for our kids is only matched in its absence by former county supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. While it's true the pay-to-play nature of urban planning and development in LA might be considered to be extenuating circumstances, this is Beverly Hills, not LA, and certainly not Chinatown.

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There are enough heapin' helpings of hypocrisy to go around, but the Hilton itself definitely does take the first prize. Perhaps we should call that prize "the Con-rad." They are availing themselves of a public planning process to object to a neighboring development, while they are denying everyone else the same opportunity in connection with their own scheme to build a skyscraper which is 70 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty (including the base) and over double the height of the highest building in Beverly Hills (or Niagara Falls for that matter).

Just another reason for the voters of Beverly Hills to reject a project which has already been described by some as "the Skyscraper of Greed" when it comes to the ballot later this year.
Hillary Clinton's up, Donald Trump and Katie Couric are down this week. Take our Week to Week News Quiz to learn why.

1. In a major speech this week, what did Hillary Clinton call "a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds, and outright lies"?

a. Senator Bernie Sanders' complaints against the Democratic Party

b. The latest J.K. Rowling mystery novel

c. Donald Trump's foreign policy ideas

d. The House Benghazi panel report

2. Where did the latest campus shooting take place?

a. UCLA

b. University of Oregon

c. University of Chicago

d. King's College

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3. Boxer Muhammad Ali died on Friday. How old was he?

a. 88

b. 97

c. 66

d. 74

4. Katie Couric said she regretted the misleading way who was portrayed in a documentary she produced?

a. Donald Trump

b. Meth users

c. Science fiction fans

d. Gun activists

5. What did physicist Stephen Hawking say about Donald Trump?

a. "Of all of the strange phenomena in the universe, Trump is not even the strangest one on Earth"

b. "He is a demagogue, who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator.""

c. "Time and space are not big enough to contain his ego"

d. "I would vote for him, but alas I am British and he is not boring enough"

6. Who does Poland's justice minister want extradited to the United States?

a. Poland's former president, Lech Waesa

b. Sergey Vadimovich Andreev, Russia's ambassador to Poland

c. Director Roman Polanski

d. German Chancellor Angela Merkel

7. What did the Dalai Lama, arguably the world's most famous refugee, have to say about refugees this week?

a. It is a lifestyle choice that more people should try

b. Europe has too many refugees and most of them should return to their home countries

c. God sheds a tear every time a refugee is forced from a home

d. He said Germany was a model for its humanitarian refugee policies

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8. This week, the State Department issued warnings about Americans traveling where this summer?

a. Europe

b. Israel

c. Southeast Asia

d. Antarctica

BONUS. What did someone hack electronic construction signs near Dallas to display?

a. "It's time to secede"

b. "Move your business to California"

c. "Left lanes closed next 300 years"

d. "Donald Trump is a shape shifting lizard"

ANSWERS

1. c

2. a

3. d

4. d

5. b

6. c

7. b

8. a

BONUS. d
Recall John Irving's 1978 book, The World According to Garp. A famous line out of that novel is, "In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases". Fast forward to this past week where Donald J. Trump accuses noted federal judge Gonzalo P. Curiel of a conflict of interest because Judge Curiel was born in Indiana of Mexican heritage; that is Trump's (not his lawyers) only basis for Trump to state that Judge Curiel hates Trump, and because Trump is going to build a wall separating our country's southern border from Mexico. This has now become the rule of law according to...Trump. As Garp prognosticated 38 years ago, his (Trump's) "rule of law" shows a terminal condition of thought brought on by his view of the reality in which he believes he is master of all and, in turn, all then are subservient in deeds, thoughts, investigation, logic, honesty, and charity, to himself. This is, in this writer's opinion, well, delusional.

Being a lawyer for some 43 years now, as well as a member of various law faculties, a writer and lecturer, I put forth the first paragraph with some expertise and background. For those not schooled or trained in the law, however, let me try to put in lay terms what Trump now believes. Judge Curiel has before him one of the cases against Trump's now defunct Trump University brought on by former students, claiming that the "university" (it wasn't really a school of higher learning sanctioned by any certifying authority) defrauded them. Recently, Judge Curiel ruled against Trump, on a discovery matter in the case. The court ordered the production of certain documents that Trump's lawyers did not want to have produced.

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Trump rails against those that disagree with him, that find fault with him, that uncover statements made by him that are clearly found to be dishonest, and, now, adverse legal rulings made by qualified jurists. To this end, Trump calls out with invectives all such individuals. But he has now carved out a rule of law never before having become a basis to disqualify a judge under any constitution, under any appellate court decision or via any scholarly analysis. Taking Trump's position to its logical conclusion, he should be able disqualify any judge that rules against him based on heritage alone, noting that in a piece published this past week in the USA Today, he or his companies have been involved in some 3,500 lawsuits, both as a plaintiff and as a defendant. But forget those on the bench with a Mexican heritage. Let's take a judge that a Jewish; does that mean such a jurist cannot rule on matters asserted against the State of Israel or that implicates judaism? Or, what of an African American judge; can he or she not rule on matters pointing fingers at the NAACP or other similarly venued organizations. And heaven forbid a Trump matter before a judge that is Muslim. The answer to all these hypotheticals is, of course, there is no conflict of interest nor "hatred" for one side or another just because of a judge's heritage.

What Trump is doing when it comes to self-declaring a conflict of interest without a legal basis whatsoever is to declare the law in his world---a prism in which only he lives and operates. If anything, one might say he is uninformed or misguided or even lacks the knowledge about the bases to declare that a judge has a conflict of interest. I prefer to maintain, reiterating from above in this post, that Mr. Trump is delusional when he spews out that a jurist's heritage, without more, disqualifies a sitting judge.

Mr. Trump, judges rule. One side "wins"; one side "loses". So get use to the fact that you and your companies are not perfect, have faults, are disliked, and, just because Judge Curiel ordered Trump U. to produce documents, in no way indicates that he is being unfair or not being impartial to what your lawyers are presenting on your behalf in his courtroom.

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presidential candidate barack...

This week, with one bold sentence, President Barack Obama created an important, powerful, and lasting Social Security legacy.

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On Wednesday, in a speech in Elkhart, Indiana on strengthening the American people's economic security, he proclaimed:

"It's time we finally made Social Security more generous and increased its benefits so today's retirees and future generations get the dignified retirement that they have earned."

By calling for the expansion of Social Security, the President forcefully challenged the lie at the center of a destructive thirty-year, billionaire-funded campaign to dismantle Social Security. That campaign has sought to achieve its goal by convincing the American people that the United States cannot afford our Social Security program.

As the following chart shows, our Social Security benefits are among the lowest in the industrialized world.

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Source: OECD Pensions at a Glance, 2005. Low Earners earn half of the average earner. High earners earn twice the average earner. Refers to single, full career workers drawing pensions from the specific country's normal eligibility age; mandatory pension programs.

Moreover, Social Security provides those modest benefits extremely efficiently. Out of every dollar spent, less than a penny goes to administration. The remaining 99 cents goes to benefits.

It seems absurd on its face that the wealthiest nation in the world at the wealthiest moment in its history cannot afford those modest benefits provided so remarkably efficiently. The truth, of course, is that the nation can easily afford a vastly expanded Social Security program. As the following chart shows, Social Security spends around half what many other industrialized countries spend on their counterpart programs. Indeed, it is projected that, at the dawn of the 22nd century, Social Security will cost the nation only about six percent of GDP, considerably less than most other industrialized countries are spending on their counterpart Social Security programs today!

Notwithstanding the unquestionable affordability of Social Security, the billionaire-funded campaign has used its huge resources, its media savvy, and its political access to convince Americans that Social Security will not be there in the future. The lie of unaffordability, repeated enough, has become accepted conventional "wisdom."

Distressingly, the lie, masquerading as conventional wisdom, has had two devastating consequences. First, though the anti-Social Security campaign has not succeeded in cutting cash benefits, it has eliminated an intangible Social Security benefit. The program is supposed to provide, as its name indicates, the benefit of security, peace of mind. But polls show that too many Americans believe that Social Security is unaffordable and so will not be there for them in the future. Perhaps not surprisingly, numerous surveys show that not having enough money in retirement is the top financial concern of most Americans, an even higher concern than, for example, being able to pay medical bills in the event of a serious illness or the concern of not being able to pay for college.

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In addition, the lie of unaffordability, promoted by the campaign, has caused gridlock and blocked progress. Instead of a productive debate about the desired level of benefits and the fairest way to allocate the costs, the lie of unaffordability has caused the elite conversation over the last twenty years to focus on how politicians can cut Social Security without getting thrown out of office. As recent history has shown, the answer is that they can't.

Social Security's benefits are modest but vitally important. They are most Americans' most significant, and often only, retirement annuity, life insurance and disability insurance. Those benefits account for more than half the income of four out of five people receiving disability insurance, and two out of three seniors receiving retirement benefits. They account for virtually all of the income of one-third of senior and disability beneficiaries. And the children who receive Social Security live in families with considerably fewer resources, on average, than other families with children. Moreover, though created to allow workers to maintain their standards of living and so prevent, rather than alleviate poverty, Social Security nevertheless lifts over 20 million Americans, including over a million children, out of poverty, and lessens the depth of poverty for millions more.

Furthermore, Social Security benefits are projected to be even more important to future generations of beneficiaries, as a result of the disappearance of private sector traditional pensions and their replacement by the wholly inadequate 401(k) savings plans, a totally failed experiment. As a consequence of those and other factors, the nation is facing a looming retirement income crisis, where most workers will be unable to cease work without a drastic reduction in their standards of living. Over half of American households headed by someone of working age will not be able to maintain their standards of living in old age, and this figure rises to roughly two-thirds when health and long-term care costs are also considered.

Particularly after President George W. Bush's failed efforts, policymakers realized that, given the importance and popularity of Social Security, cutting Social Security in the sunshine was not an option. They hoped that it could be done through undemocratic fast tracking of legislation crafted behind closed doors, away from the eyes of the American people and the groups in Washington that represent them. Notwithstanding years of trying, though, this didn't work.

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The deadlock and lack of progress created by the lie of unaffordability is now poised to be broken, however. Fortunately, at the same time that some in Washington sought to cut Social Security behind closed doors, others were working more constructively. President Obama's eight years saw the growth of the movement to expand Social Security. This movement implicitly challenged the conventional "wisdom" that Social Security is unaffordable and has to be cut. If Social Security can be expanded, surely it can be afforded.

The expansion movement started quietly but it built rapidly for an obvious reason. Expanding Social Security is profoundly wise policy and also winning politics, a powerful combination.

Over the last few years, the idea of expanding Social Security has become a steadily growing movement within the Democratic Party. Around a dozen expansion bills, analyzed for actuarial soundness by the Social Security Administration's Office of the Chief Actuary, have been introduced in this Congress alone. Expansion has been embraced by 90 percent of all Senate Democrats and 75 percent of all House Democrats. It has also been embraced by both Democratic presidential contenders, Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders. And this week it was embraced by the leader of the Democratic Party, the president himself.

Having the president himself embrace the concept is enormously important. Unlike others in his Party, the president will never run for any elected office again. He obviously embraces the concept because he recognizes its soundness and wisdom. The assurance of a sitting president is what has been needed to puncture the lie of unaffordability and restore the confidence of millions of Americans who have bought the lie that Social Security won't be there for them.

Now that the lie of unaffordability is increasingly being exposed, the debate can become an honest one. It can become, as it should be, a debate about values and what kind of country we want. Once the debate is no longer distorted by the false premise that we must cut Social Security, the questions will become unbiased: Should Social Security be expanded or cut? What is the fairest way to distribute the cost of the level of benefits agreed upon?

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And it will become an easy debate, as well. The American people are overwhelmingly united. Poll after poll shows that Americans support Social Security, believe it is more important than ever, would like to see its benefits increased, adamantly oppose cuts to those earned benefits, and believe that, given how much of the nation's wealth has flowed to those at the top, the wealthiest among us are the ones who should pay more. This is a debate that can be held in the sunshine, through the regular legislative process as has been the case historically with respect to important Social Security legislation.

Because of the effectiveness of the lie of unaffordability, the American people have not been presented with a clear electoral choice on the issue of Social Security for too many years. Buying the lie that the program had to be cut, politicians routinely talked of the need to "save" Social Security and vaguely urged a "bipartisan solution." Democrats and Republicans were indistinguishable, since both sides used the same rhetoric. Now the lines are clearly drawn.

The Democratic Party, which created Social Security and has been its champion, wants to expand Social Security. The Republican Party is on the record in favor of cutting or even radically restructuring Social Security. (Donald Trump has come out against expansion. He has publicly said he would not cut Social Security, but statements by a top campaign official, and indeed his own statements, prior to becoming a candidate, indicate he is prepared to cut Social Security, and is saying publicly that he won't cut benefits simply to get elected.)

By loudly and boldly advocating the expansion of Social Security, President Obama is in the process of cementing a powerful, important Social Security legacy that will follow in the best traditions of the Democratic Party. If President Obama continues, in his remaining months in office, loudly and boldly to advocate the expansion of Social Security, that legacy will grow only stronger.

Plenty of other Democrats have introduced detailed proposals to expand Social Security. That is not necessary to make his mark. Indeed, given the intransigence of Congress, it would be a futile, meaningless gesture. Nevertheless, President Obama can have a profound impact on the issue in the waning days of his presidency. He can use his bully pulpit to complete the process of converting the Social Security debate back into an honest one about values and competing visions of the future.

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Recently, The WorldPost published an interview with "Sapiens" author Yuval Harari in which he envisioned a future where "organisms become algorithms" as computer and biological sciences converge. In a response, Deepak Chopra writes this week that being cannot be reduced to an algorithm, nor can the mind be reduced to the wiring of the brain which artificial intelligence strives to mimic.

"Of all the weird contradictions that plague modern life," Chopra says, "the strangest is the collapse of philosophy with the triumph of science. Aesthetics, morals, love, transcendence, idealism -- all of these fields of thought, having persisted for thousands of years, in the East and in the West, mean nothing in scientific terms because they cannot be reduced to data, measurements and experimentation." "What we need," he concludes, "is a wholesale commitment to a meaningful life, placing our best hopes there, not in logic machines and their parody of having a mind."

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In a related reflection, I explore how advances on the frontiers of science, especially our godlike capacity to read and write the genetic code, are paradoxically resurrecting the religious imagination by raising anew all the foundational questions of human origins and destiny. "Science has no knowledge of being," I write by way of introducing several thinkers who have meditated deeply on the subject, "It can only report that we are a collection of cells. A bundle of nerves. An immune system. 'Being,' 'the person' and 'human dignity' are concepts arising instead from the religious imagination." Can we rise to the spiritual challenge of defining what is sacred in the technological age, these thinkers ask, or must we in the end seek wisdom in the great religious and philosophical traditions of the past?

In contemporary politics, too, writes Daniel Foster, the ancient wisdom of Greek tragedy can offer some guiding light today. With the demagogic populism of Donald Trump in mind, Foster says, "Athenians understood that what they saw onstage taught them truths vital for their role as citizens. ... tragedies reveal the horrible consequences of seeing things in black and white and so encourage" moderation.

Writing from Manila, Richard Javad Heydarian surveys the good and bad lessons of governance in Asia by way of advice to the president-elect, Rodrigo Duterte. He cites China's Deng Xiaoping and Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew as examples to follow. "Instead of mindlessly listening to (self-serving) foreign or Western-trained advisers," he writes, "they tried to understand the unique developmental challenges they confronted and dedicated their lives not to narrow interests, whether ethnic or sectoral, but instead the well-being of the entire body politic. Thus, they served as true 'national' leaders."

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Other lessons for governance can be learned from the ongoing implosion of the populist left in South America. "Perhaps now," Nikolas Kozloff writes, "having witnessed the shortcomings of populism and the 'extractive' model of development, which places more importance on commodity exports as opposed to local needs or the environment, South America's social movements will soberly take stock of their political milieu. ... such forces may behave much more warily before offering their support to future saviors riding in on a white horse." World Reporter Nick Robins-Early explains what is behind Venezuela's economic and political crisis. Writing from Brazil, Andrea Martinelli sees the recent incident of gang rape as symptomatic of a cultural acceptance of violence against women. Nana Soares worries that the new government in Brazil is threatening the rights of women, starting with, "stripping the Secretariat of Policies for Women of its ministerial status."

Helen Clark reads the mood in Vietnam, where, she says, U.S. President Barack Obama was received enthusiastically on his recent visit as America's former enemy falls further under the shadow of China's rising power in the region. Deborah Lehr reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping is, "taking a page from his anti-corruption campaign" by deploying "green teams" of inspectors to make sure industry is complying with China's commitments on climate change. Eric Olander discusses the online outrage over a racist Chinese ad that depicts a young black man who turns into a clean Chinese youth when washed with a special brand of detergent in a washing machine. Chatham House expert James Sherr fears that a NATO-Russia showdown is drawing nigh. WorldPost Middle East Correspondent Sophia Jones reports on the rift that has opened with Turkey as the German parliament this week approved a vote to call the 1915 mass killings of Armenians a "genocide." Writing from Tehran, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former member of Iran's National Security Council, discusses how, in the shifting geopolitical tides of the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has become a national security threat to Iran. World Reporter Charlotte Alfred explains the global relevance of a historic verdict out of Africa this week that was viewed as a win for victims of injustice everywhere.

Carlos Pina profiles the vibrant murals that adorn the walls of bars and shops in one Madrid neighborhood. This 360-degree view of the Arctic will make you feel like you are there. In an excerpt from their new book, "Age of Discovery: Navigating the Risk and Rewards of Our New Renaissance," Ian Goldin and Chris Kutarna advise that we should not let the steady disruptions of today's technological transition blind us to the possibilities being created. But to realize those possibilities, they say, the benefits of change must be inclusive.

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Jenna Amatulli writes about an entire office building in Dubai manufactured with 3D printers. Casey Williams reports that clean energy has crossed a breakout threshold that finally challenges cheap oil in the marketplace. Finally, our Singularity series this week takes you into the psychedelic virtual world of the future portrayed in the film "Hyper-Reality."

WHO WE ARE EDITORS: Nathan Gardels, Co-Founder and Executive Advisor to the Berggruen Institute, is the Editor-in-Chief of The WorldPost. Kathleen Miles is the Executive Editor of The WorldPost. Farah Mohamed is the Managing Editor of The WorldPost. Alex Gardels and Peter Mellgard are the Associate Editors of The WorldPost. Katie Nelson is the National Editor at the Huffington Post, overseeing The WorldPost and HuffPost's editorial coverage. Charlotte Alfred and Nick Robins-Early are World Reporters. Rowaida Abdelaziz is Social Media Editor. CORRESPONDENTS: Sophia Jones in Istanbul EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Arianna Huffington, Eric Schmidt (Google Inc.), Pierre Omidyar (First Look Media) Juan Luis Cebrian (El Pais/PRISA), Walter Isaacson (Aspen Institute/TIME-CNN), John Elkann (Corriere della Sera, La Stampa), Wadah Khanfar (Al Jazeera), Dileep Padgaonkar (Times of India) and Yoichi Funabashi (Asahi Shimbun). VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS: Dawn Nakagawa. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Moises Naim (former editor of Foreign Policy), Nayan Chanda (Yale/Global; Far Eastern Economic Review) and Katherine Keating (One-On-One). Sergio Munoz Bata and Parag Khanna are Contributing Editors-At-Large. The Asia Society and its ChinaFile, edited by Orville Schell, is our primary partner on Asia coverage. Eric X. Li and the Chunqiu Institute/Fudan University in Shanghai and Guancha.cn also provide first person voices from China. We also draw on the content of China Digital Times. Seung-yoon Lee is The WorldPost link in South Korea. Jared Cohen of Google Ideas provides regular commentary from young thinkers, leaders and activists around the globe. Bruce Mau provides regular columns from MassiveChangeNetwork.com on the "whole mind" way of thinking. Patrick Soon-Shiong is Contributing Editor for Health and Medicine. ADVISORY COUNCIL: Members of the Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council and Council for the Future of Europe serve as the Advisory Council -- as well as regular contributors -- to the site. These include, Jacques Attali, Shaukat Aziz, Gordon Brown, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Juan Luis Cebrian, Jack Dorsey, Mohamed El-Erian, Francis Fukuyama, Felipe Gonzalez, John Gray, Reid Hoffman, Fred Hu, Mo Ibrahim, Alexei Kudrin, Pascal Lamy, Kishore Mahbubani, Alain Minc, Dambisa Moyo, Laura Tyson, Elon Musk, Pierre Omidyar, Raghuram Rajan, Nouriel Roubini, Nicolas Sarkozy, Eric Schmidt, Gerhard Schroeder, Peter Schwartz, Amartya Sen, Jeff Skoll, Michael Spence, Joe Stiglitz, Larry Summers, Wu Jianmin, George Yeo, Fareed Zakaria, Ernesto Zedillo, Ahmed Zewail, and Zheng Bijian. From the Europe group, these include: Marek Belka, Tony Blair, Jacques Delors, Niall Ferguson, Anthony Giddens, Otmar Issing, Mario Monti, Robert Mundell, Peter Sutherland and Guy Verhofstadt.

MISSION STATEMENT

The WorldPost is a global media bridge that seeks to connect the world and connect the dots. Gathering together top editors and first person contributors from all corners of the planet, we aspire to be the one publication where the whole world meets.

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Celebrating #BrownBoyhood is an exciting new venture. Perhaps you haven't heard about it so sit back, read and enjoy this fantastic information about, Jennifer Pierre, a young Black woman entrepreneur who has created a novel project worthy of serious consideration, entitled Melanites. She is a graduate student in the entrepreneurial program at Babson College. She was one of my former students, so I am bursting with pride, but not surprised to see her brilliant, well-thought out and interesting creation as it was obvious in the classroom that her brain energy would never be wasted. On the heels of Barbie's debut of a new line, and American Girl's release of their latest African American addition, it seems that diversity on the shelves is once again a hot discussion topic. It is no wonder that the desire for more diverse options is on the rise given America's continuously changing consumer demographic. Per Jennifer, "according to the United States Census, there are more multicultural children being born under the age of five today than ever before." Hence rather than "minority," emerging majority is becoming the reality for children of color. This reality peaked Jennifer's interest towards a new creation.

Additionally, as a smart business-minded person, through her research, Jennifer learned that in 2015, the Toy Industry Association estimated a $24 Billion market in the US alone of which 8% of those sales were accounted for by the doll category. Of that slice, that the percentage of diverse dolls cannot be calculated because there is not enough data. Her light bulb went on as she realized this fact: that translates into a substantial untapped market that does not coincide with what is currently being offered! The Toy Industry is simply not making products that appeal to the millions of multicultural families who purchase toys every year.

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Consequently, Jennifer went on to create Melanites, a toy company introducing a new line of boy dolls of color. After visiting countless toy stores that did not reflect her or the people in her community, she decided to do something about it. Jennifer is a founder of the company, which hopes to stand up for children's right to options. She decided to focus her mission on celebrating brown boyhood. This means tackling racial and gender bias simultaneously. Pierre points out "that there exists a "blue aisle" that stereotypes young boys into the pigeon-hole of hyper-masculinity. The shelves marketed to young boys are "littered with toy guns, fighting stances, and aggressive role play."

She indicates that "children's play is serious business because it is a focal point of where ideas and messages around their sense of self-confidence and imagery emerge." Having diversity in their toy selection is a very human need for access to different backgrounds.





Melanites are changing the standard by introducing a line of multicultural boy dolls that have different aspirations and personalities like being the next "Thinker, Doer, Maker, & Performer." She hopes to expand the breadth of representation and aspire young boys of color to dream big.

Jennifer Pierre is currently running a Crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in hopes of making her startup a reality and bringing Melanites into the hands of all young children of color. It seems that this is a project is, which can really make a difference!
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in San Jose, California, U.S. June 2, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

Donald Trump grew up very wealthy.

He tells us that he did not go to Vietnam because he had bone spurs in his feet. That is important, because it gets him off the hook for not volunteering, unlike other sons of wealthy families like John Kerry who did volunteer, and won three purple hearts. [Sorry, Mr. Secretary. You were not a war hero, because draft-dodger Donald says that he likes people who do not get injured].

Some doctors, regrettably, if paid enough, will say anything. Trump's current doctor, for example, proclaimed him to be the healthiest person ever to run for president. We can probably ask Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and the Bushes, whether they were ever examined by Trump's doctor.

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No half-respecting physician would ever make such a statement. So, Trump clearly made it worth his physician's while to make a statement that would embarrass anyone with an ounce of integrity.

But, what about Daddy Trump (or Drumpf, as is his real name)? Perhaps little Donald learned from the old man that greasing some palms, even among physicians, can go a long way. Some physician certified to Donald's draft board that he had bone spurs.

Funny thing, though. Bone spurs, accretions of calcium that form bony protuberances, do not disappear on their own. The pain may improve with treatment, but the bone spur remains. They can only be removed by surgery. And, Trump's "doctor" told us he never had any surgery.

Hence, an x-ray of both heels (Donald forgets which one had the problem; how likely is that, if he really had them?) would reveal if he has bone spurs. Their presence would not prove he had them then; but, their absence would show that he did not.

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Trump keeps telling us how smart he is. He takes advice from himself because he is so smart. He knows more about ISIS than the generals. He knows healthcare better than anyone. People who tell you they are smart rarely are.

To "prove" his genius, Trump cites his admission to Wharton business school. There are a few potential issues with that. First, he went to Fordham for two years. Fordham is a good, solid university, but not ranked near the top. Were his grades so good, did he retake the SATs and score off-the-charts, to warrant his transfer? Perhaps, but one may be forgiven if one doubts that.

More likely, Daddy Drumpf donated. Donald expressed great concern about whether student Obama may have been admitted due to special treatment for minorities. Usually, right-wingers who express such concerns are guilty themselves, and lash out at others to try, somehow, to convince themselves that they are not in that category -- in this case, the "minority" was having gobs of greenbacks to throw at the school. Think of all the right-wing ministers and politicians who lashed out at the gay community -- and who themselves were actually gay.

Did Donald Trump, who says he knows more about everything than anyone else, ace all of his exams at Wharton? His transcripts could tell us.

Ordinarily, I would not think showing foot x-rays or college transcripts really mattered in selecting a president. Obama, for example, never claimed he was smart. George W Bush never claimed he had bone spurs that kept him out of Vietnam, and it was clear that it took a lot of his daddy's help to do it.

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But, Trump is different. His entire persona seems to be built on grandiose claims. Two of them, his explanation for lacking a military record, and his claim of super-intelligence, demand proof because he raised them as issues.

Let's see the x-rays. Let's see the transcripts and SAT scores.

I am willing to place my bets on the absence of bone spurs, a Daddy donation to give Donald special privileges on transfer, and, at best, mediocre grades.
MARY VOYTEK

"It's never too soon to engage a community. NASA has mostly had experience with engineers and scientists. We've chosen to reach out to places like [the Center of Theological Inquiry] CTI where your philosophy is to bring interdisciplinary groups together to talk about these very important questions. We tend to try to go to the best." -- Mary Voytek, NASA Astrobiology Program Director (Click Here to Listen: Voytek podcast with CTI Director)



"Astrobiology doesn't exist, what are its laws?" -- Jerry Fodor



At a meeting last May in New York with Andrew Pohorille, NASA's senior-most scientist on origins of life, Pohorille told me that there is a certain factor to life that so far cannot be captured in the lab, i.e., life is not purely a technical matter, and that he does not expect "we" will find life anywhere else in the solar system, including Mars -- he added that there is as yet no consensus on what life is. But what Andrew Pohorille did not tell me at the time was that just a few days prior to our meeting, NASA's Astrobiology Program -- headed by Mary Voytek -- awarded $1.108M (5% of its annual budget) to the Center of Theological Inquiry, a religious think tank with more than $23M in assets, to investigate how the world's religions might respond to the discovery of life on other planets. John Templeton Foundation is co-sponsoring the two-year project (2015-2017) with a $1.7M grant to CTI.

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The attempt by Templeton to insinuate its divine motive into science is aided by the failure of science to understand the origin and evolution of life. Templeton funds many projects in these two areas seemingly not to find answers but to factor in religion. Templeton's science and religion director Paul Wason has refused my request for an interview to discuss these matters.

CTI is a Princeton-based nonprofit corporation that does advanced theological research. It was spun out of, and continues to work in close association with, Princeton Theological Seminary -- America's largest Presbyterian seminary. CTI's academic advisory panel and board of trustees are mostly Christian scholars and/or advocates (a couple of trustees are also wealth management professionals). Ganesh followers are not principal investigators in the NASA-JTF project as far as I can tell. . .

Each of the 24 research fellows participating in CTI's astrobiology inquiry is being paid $70K a year from the joint award to CTI. The 2016-2017 team will soon take up the challenge following the investigations of the 2015-2016 team. The first of the 2016-2017 team to announce his NASA/JTF/CTI astrobiology fellowship online that I've noticed is Jesus College's Rev. Dr. Tim Jenkins, Assistant Director of Research in the Study of Religion.

To give a sense of the moving ground, following a February 2016 astrobiology symposium at CTI that Frank Rosenzweig, principal investigator for NASA Astrobiology's University of Montana team, and another NAI astrobiologist participated in -- NASA's online newsletter reported this:

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"Both [NAI] scholars are interested in learning about the origins of life by replicating evolutionary processes in the laboratory. Rosenzweig has undertaken research that seeks to study the process of evolution in such a way that history and contingency are controlled. In this way we can learn about not only what happened in the past but also what could have happened, but didn't. That helps us know more about what might be possible elsewhere in the universe."

More of NASA's astrobiology strategy for the next decade can be found in its latest roadmap: Astrobiology Strategy 2015. Lindsay Hays of California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is editor-in-chief.

Microbes are given some attention in a section titled: "How Does Our Ignorance About Microbial Life on Earth Hinder Our Understanding of the Limits to Life?" Curiously, however, there's not a word in the entire 256-page document (including the glossary) about the existence of viruses -- the biggest part of the biosphere -- let alone their consortial and persistent nature, when the new thinking in science is "virus first" and that persistence may be just as crucial to life as replication.

Templeton last year also awarded $5.4 M for origin of life investigations to the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, with funds being administered by FAME synthetic biologist Steve Benner (who once quipped, "If you don't have a theory of life, you can't find aliens -- unless they shoot you in the leg with a ray gun.") AND $5.6M to ELSI -- the Japanese government's earth science institute in Tokyo - for its ELSI Origins Network, headed by astrophysicist Piet Hut also of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Steve Benner is listed as a reviewer on NASA's latest roadmap and is on the editorial board of Astrobiology Journal whose senior editors include NAI's new chief Penny Boston as well as ISSOL (International Society for the Study of Origin of Life) president Dave Deamer.



Astrobiology Journal is put together in the Kennewick, Washington home of Sherry Cady, a geologist who serves as editor in chief, and her husband Lawrence P. Cady, a fiction writer who serves as the journal's managing editor and copy editor -- according to LP Cady. The magazine is one of 80 of Mary Ann Liebert Inc.'s "authoritative" journals and has close ties to other NASA-funded scientists who serve as reviewers.

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If anything substantive is likely to happen as a result of (or in spite of) Templeton funding on origin of life, I would expect it to come from Steve Benner's project, which includes people like George E. Fox who collaborated early on with Carl Woese on Archaea, and Harry Lonsdale origin of life research funds recipient, Niles Lehman -- plus Benner himself and eight others.

On the other hand, I have serious reservations about the NASA award of $1.1M of public funds to CTI. What ever happened to the separation of church and state?

One of the 2015-2016 CTI recipients of NASA-Templeton funds is Lucas Mix, an Episcopalian priest who belongs to an organization called the Society of Ordained Scientists. He is also a member of CTI.





LUCAS MIX



Mix was editor-in-chief of Astrobiology Journal's 2006: Astrobiology Primer, an 81-page insert in the journal that referred to natural selection as the prime mover of evolution (Sherry & Lawrence Cady were the journal's editor and managing editor at the time.).



Mix is also a lead author of NASA's Astrobiology Strategy 2015 contributing a section in which he states: "The results of astrobiology research will have broad societal impact, affecting the way we think about life in the context of ethics, law, philosophy, theology, and a host of other issues."

I refer to Lucas Mix in my conversation with UCLA paleontologist Bruce Runnegar -- who was NAI chief at the time Mix's Astrobiology Primer got underway -- in my book The Altenberg 16: An Expose of the Evolution Industry. I asked Bruce Runnegar about the Primer NAI supported on his watch:

"Suzan Mazur: The explanation for natural selection being promoted as the sole mechanism of evolution in that publication -- the decision about that would have been whose? Bruce Runnegar: This is not a decision. The people who compiled that Primer are aiming to provide an educational service and so they write or wrote or acquired definitions of words. Basically trying to explain the jargon of astrobiology. Some of these explanations almost anybody could have different opinions about. There were reviews of the document by scientists connected with the institute [NAI], but I don't think there's any attempt to provide a stamp of approval for any particular definitions."

To put this all in further context, following are excerpts of my February 2008 conversation with current CTI/NASA/Templeton investigator Lucas Mix:



LUCAS MIX

Lucas Mix: The Primer came together over a six-year period. The first four years of that I was a student in biology at Harvard. The last two years of that I was a seminarian.

Suzan Mazur: This was a publication that was supported by NASA, although it's not an official publication of NASA. Do you know what the extent of funding was from NASA?

Lucas Mix: Well, I proposed the Primer to the NASA Astrobiology Institute as a way of promoting interdisciplinary education and as a joint activity of graduate students in astrobiology for their education and networking and career development. . . . I would say 2002, 2003 that NASA Astrobiology Institute became officially interested.

Suzan Mazur: There were 70 contributors, 10 editors. Were people paid to do this?

Lucas Mix: No. I was the only one who was paid and I was paid for a small amount of travel and to go to a couple of conferences and to do the editing and contacting people.

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Suzan Mazur: How long did it take you to put the publication together?

Lucas Mix: The idea came about 2000. It appeared in print in November 2006. . . . Astrobiology Journal is put out by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. . . . It's a peer reviewed journal and the Primer appears as an article in that journal.

Suzan Mazur: The big question is, regarding the discussion of evolution in the Primer, what's cited is that one of the features of life is "progressive adaptation via Darwinian evolution." But there's no mention of any other approach to evolution aside from Darwinian selection. With all the breaking news about alternative evolutionary approaches, why wasn't there any room for alternatives?

Lucas Mix: To start with, it's important to recognize that the Primer is an attempt in 81 pages to summarize the background information of all of astrobiology and that what happened was that we solicited input as to what needed to be in the document and then we tried to edit draconianly short descriptions of topics. So the evolution section really is meant to give only the most introductory of remarks about evolution.

Suzan Mazur: But it was introduced in a dogmatic way regarding Darwin. I mean, this is it. This is the way it is.

Lucas Mix: That was not my impression.

Suzan Mazur: But nothing else was offered.

Lucas Mix: A great deal of work was done to ensure that it talked about neutral selection.

Suzan Mazur: There was nothing about self-organization, for instance, in your Primer.

Lucas Mix: Well, there are certain areas in the Primer that were not as full as they could have been. And one of the benefits of doing another version of the Primer, an online version of the Primer, as I hope occurs -- is that some of those gaps will be filled in. I can't say without sitting down with it and the writers what exactly I feel should or should not have been in that section. But definitely overall I'm happy to say that there are things we left out.

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Suzan Mazur: Is that information going in another version?

Lucas Mix: Well, I think that would have to be a discussion between whoever the editors are and whoever the author of that section is. Evolution is not an uncontroversial topic, at least in terms of how it's presented and what you see is the result of a year's worth of writing and researching and editing. So I wouldn't wish to comment on what another year's worth of writing, researching and editing might bring.

Suzan Mazur: Are you still involved with the project?

Lucas Mix: At present there is not officially any project. It is quite possible that Mary Ann Liebert will release updates or a second version of the Primer at some point in the future. We talked about it. It's probably not something that will happen in the next 12 months. . . .

Suzan Mazur: You're an Episcopalian minister now. I spoke to Reverend Dan Conklin the other day and he said yours was an emerging congregation.

Lucas Mix: Yes.

Suzan Mazur: Meaning that you don't have a space yet or it's an experimental type of church?

Lucas Mix: Experimental is a very good way to describe it. The "emerging church" is a movement that recognizes some of the long-time practices and doctrines of the church should be revisioned and because it is emerging, it is to some extent experimental, the direction which they will emerge and what will emerge is not fully determined.

Suzan Mazur: Did you participate yesterday? Did they have the Darwin on Sunday at Epiphany parish?

Lucas Mix: I preached at Epiphany Parish.

Suzan Mazur: Rev. Conklin mentioned that you've had this program four years in a row. He said that the discussion does get thrown open to things like various challenges to Darwinian natural selection. Did you noticed any of that? Did that happen yesterday? Was there any dissent? . . . .

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Lucas Mix: Not too much. I would come back to the difference between positive selection and neutral selection. I don't think that Darwin had the concept of modern statistics that is so essential to the way evolutionary theory is conceived of these days. So I'm very uncomfortable saying that I'm in the school of Darwin and I do think the questions of probability and the word random that gets used in a number of ways are very much issues today in the popular conception of evolution.

Suzan Mazur: One of the reasons why self-organization was excluded from the Primer was not because of any religious affiliation that you might have?

Lucas Mix: By no means. The Primer should have no religious content. I certainly hope that it does not. I can't guarantee that nothing has snuck in, but. . .

Suzan Mazur: You're still doing the martial arts?

Lucas Mix: Yes. I work with Enso Center for International Arts. That's a family business. And I should probably mention that I am currently working on a book for Harvard Press called the Astrobiological World, which will be a much more accessible entrance into the world of astrobiology and will contain information about the interaction of religion and science.

Suzan Mazur: And when is your book coming out?

Lucas Mix: My expectation is February or March 2009. . . .
Under the EU-Turkey agreement and Greek refugee return law, refugees are quickly being deported. There is a backlog of refugees trapped in Athens, anxiously awaiting eminent deportation and who are in need of immediate care. The camps impacted and the national economy in crisis, Greek people have taken it upon themselves to fill in the gaps where international volunteers cannot manage. Massive restaurant-sized pots are filled with soup and sometimes spaghetti to serve for dinner to the multitudes sleeping on cold asphalt in the city squares and the port. Churches open their doors for breakfast while the community and international volunteers take on supplying, cooking and serving meals. Not the organizations, the Greek people and the international volunteers needed an invitation to act.

The sprawling campus of an abandoned school on the island of Lesvos serves as a longterm (18 months) camp for vulnerable refugees: elderly, disabled, and those with mental health issues unable to continue the journey to Western Europe. Pikpa Camp was established by the initiative of The Worldwide Tribe. These volunteer heroes fought the government for purchase of the land, paid for with fundraised Euros. They live with those they serve, eating meals prepared by the kitchen, sleeping in tents, showering in communal bathrooms and toughing out the freezing snow conditions and eminent squelching hot summer months.

Arthur Ashe described true heroism as, "remarkably sober, very un-dramatic." We met those sublime heroes in Serbia who work for the non-profit national organization, Praxis. Risking their lives daily, they rescue unaccompanied refugee minors directly from the hands of smugglers and spend upwards of two days camped out at police stations helping unaccompanied Afghan minors obtain new identification documents after they've been robbed by the Serbian mafia. Every night they wait in negative temperatures for trains carrying refugees to come into the Belgrade central. Swiftly directing refugees off the trains to safety before they can be coerced into giving their money to corrupt taxi drivers. The brave employees of Praxis Serbia did not receive orders to put their lives in danger for those they were hired to help. They do what they do because they recognize this dire situation is not about a job or relieving their country of an unwelcomed phenomenon. The situation is about humanity.

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On the border between England and France, an unofficial camp of 9,000+ refugees representing 20 nationalities has been dubbed the Calais "Jungle". The living conditions are something out of a developing country. The ground is a mix of mud and running sewage while rats feast on endless piles of trash. The UNHCR does not operate here. In fact, the only active international organization we came across was Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Volunteer French doctors serve thousands, administering vaccinations as soon as there's an outbreak. Jungle refugees rely entirely on initiatives run and staffed by volunteers: the warehouses of L'Auberge Des Migrants/Help Refugees, the women & children's center, the library, Calais Kitchen, the legal aid and youth centers. In April, French courts ordered the entire southern area of the Jungle to be leveled with bulldozers, displacing thousands. These volunteers were the voice of the voiceless when the bulldozers appeared, unannounced in the early morning hours. It is the volunteers that document unjustified police brutality against young refugee men. In the midst of these compounded atrocities, it is the volunteers that continue sorting and distributing hundreds of clothing donations, preparing 1800 boxes of food staples and cooking 2000 hot meals daily for distribution in new unofficial camps sprouting around the city. None of these volunteers are sponsored to be there and none received an invitation to help.

The refugees are wholly sustained by the efforts and sacrifice of volunteers and donors from around the world, ordinary people who see themselves in the refugees. It is these heroes who do not wait for an invitation to help. They listen, show daily care, and give hope for those who are losing the will to continue the now seemingly impossible journey. You could be one of those people.

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Take your skills, your concern, your kind heart and challenge yourself to help. *Everyone has something to offer. Can you build? You're needed. Can you cook? You're needed. Can you sew? Can you read or entertain children? Can you sort and/or distribute clothes? You're needed. You're needed! If you can't make the trip yourself, then there are honest people, who without putting a dime in their pockets, use the money to directly purchase needed supplies. Can you hold a fundraiser from where you are now? What are you waiting for? It is in our shared humanity that solutions are found.

This critical issue is not one of race, nationality, religion or politics but of humanity. It is a call to step out of our comfort zones, to look past our first world problems and to use our first world privilege to serve our fellow brothers and sisters. It is a call to understand global issues as they really are and not as they are conveyed. This is a call to global citizenship.
A recently published article in a well-known political science blog ponders whether or not Maithripala Sirisena, Sri Lanka's current president, is poised to follow in Nelson Mandela's footsteps and help heal a divided nation. The piece, authored by a pair of University of Maryland researchers is worth looking at in some detail. The South African and Sri Lankan cases are very different, but let's briefly examine a few parts of the piece.

Here's one paragraph:

This optimistic approach [suggesting that Sirisena could be Sri Lanka's Mandela] centers on two dynamics. First, Mr. Sirisena is mild-mannered and inoffensive to pretty much everyone. His rhetoric centers on "convincing" rather than enforcing to bring people in line with his policy agenda. Indeed, it is worth noting that Sirisena is talking about devolution in the first place. During the course of the conflict between the Sinhalese and Tamils, the term became so politicized that it was akin to calling for a division of the country, rather than a division of power. The fact that devolution is now re-entering the mainstream political discourse in what seems to be a more positive light - and is being suggested by the president himself - is a promising sign.

Unfortunately, Mr. Sirisena is not "inoffensive to pretty much everyone." Let's start with the Tamil community, one of the minority groups in a country that is dominated by ethnic Sinhalese.

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Mr. Sirisena is still reluctant to really move on core Tamil issues pertaining to the military's occupation of civilian land, demilitarization, and the continued detention of Tamil political prisoners. I recently visited the Tamil-dominated North and East and the sense of disillusionment that had set in was all too real. Sure, there is now greater space for public dissent and the military seems to be slightly less involved in civilian affairs. Other than that, not much has changed and it's not clear that there will be tangible improvements in the coming months.

How is Mr. Sirisena doing with ethnic Sinhalese?

Mr. Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) remains deeply divided. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the country's previous president was elected to parliament last August and a new pro-Rajapaksa party could be formed in the future. The parliamentary and presidential elections in 2015 were both fairly close. And during the presidential election, Mr. Rajapaksa still captured the majority of Sinhalese votes. Mr. Sirisena is a longtime member of the SLFP and was even a part of Mr. Rajapaksa's cabinet. Crucially, he unexpectedly challenged Mr. Rajapaksa for the presidency and many Sinhalese still view him as a traitor. In short, the claim that most people view Mr. Sirisena as harmless lacks merit.

Here's another paragraph:

The second dynamic highlighted by the [New York] Times article relates to the "coalition" that brought Sirisena to power. His broad based support is viewed as a tool that can help overcome the longstanding challenges of meaningfully accommodating the Tamils.

It's true that Tamils and Muslims voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Sirisena, though what's also true is that minority grievances were not part of the campaign discourse in the run-up to either election. Mr. Rajapaksa's unexpected defeat was mostly about corruption, nepotism, authoritarianism and the erosion of the rule of law on his watch. The broad support Mr. Sirisena captured in January 2015 does not mean that one should expect him to adequately address Tamil grievances.

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Mr. Sirisena has governed in a less authoritarian fashion than his predecessor. This is a welcome development, although that's not saying that much. More specifically, the passage of the 19th amendment to the constitution, which trimmed presidential power and strengthened the office of the prime minister is a notable achievement. Nevertheless, the road to deeper reform has been a rocky one.

If Mr. Sirisena is unwilling to release or bring to trial all Tamil political prisoners, how confident can one be about transitional justice? Given the sustained militarization across the north and east, is implementing a comprehensive transitional justice package even possible? Besides, Mr. Sirisena was acting defense minister during the end of the war, would he really like to see a robust accountability process?
If you've ever read anything about food and eating properly, you've probably heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. While modern science says that this tidbit may not be as true as once thought, we're going to go ahead and say that eating a nutritious breakfast is still pretty damned important. The real question is: Have you ever considered dining on broiled fish at 7:30 in the morning?

While many fitness fanatics in the United States are downing nutritious bowls of overnight oats for breakfast, our neighbors across the Pacific are enjoying an entirely different style of breakfast before heading to work. This breakfast, the traditional Japanese breakfast, isn't too complicated, but, when compared to an average American breakfast, you'll see why it's different enough to be deemed article-worthy.

Imagine waking up in Japan, ready for a hard day of work or, perhaps, fueling yourself for an outdoor adventure later in the day. Instead of reaching for a box of old-fashioned oats as your healthy-body-inspiring, energy-packed morning carbohydrate, you'd probably be preparing some white rice (hakumai) or brown rice (genmai) for steaming. This steamed rice (gohan) is the main carbohydrate source for a Japanese breakfast, and it can easily be replaced by rice porridge (okayu). Okayu is enjoyed by Japanese adults and babies alike, and it's often served with pickled plums made with shiso leaves (umeboshi) or vegetables (tsukemono), and this salty breakfast carb source can also be topped with seasoned kelp or seafood (tsukudani) or dried bonito shavings (katsuobushi).

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Bodies crave protein after a long night of sleeping, and the way that many Japanese get their morning protein fix is through fish, eggs, and beans. Fish (yakizakana) is usually broiled or pan-cooked and seasoned simply with salt, and by choosing the freshest wild-caught fish at the market, a Japanese diner is ensuring that his or her breakfast is teeming with untainted high-quality proteins and heart-healthy omega-3s. Another protein-packed breakfast staple is tamagoyaki, an egg omelette in which thin layers of egg are rolled and sliced into pieces. Fermented soy beans (natto) and miso soup (miso shiru) are popular ways to enjoy the powerful nutritional profile of beans in the morning.

As you can see, the traditional Japanese breakfast is similar to an American lunch or, most likely, a dinner entree. The quality proteins and energy-promoting rice in a Japanese breakfast are often served with seaweed that's been seasoned and dried (ajitsuke nori) and fresh salads or other vegetable side dishes (kobachi). While these dishes may not sound too traditional to the American palate, we assure you that your body can benefit from starting your day in traditional Japanese fashion.
By Michael Buckalew

With his decisive victory in Indiana on May 3rd, Donald Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee for president. Even at this early stage in the general election campaign, Trump's statements on foreign policy have already had an impact on U.S. foreign relations. While much of his rhetoric has focused on Mexico and ISIL, what Trump has said about our allies in Asia may be even more consequential. His statements fall into three groups: 1) Slandering Japan and South Korea's alliance contributions, 2) Creating uncertainty about long standing assumptions about American policy that underpin global security, and 3) Calling into question American leadership in the world.

In a March 29th interview with Anderson Cooper, Trump said that, "[South Korea has] to protect themselves or they have to pay us." At a rally in Wisconsin on April 2nd, he levied a similar criticism at Japan: "[I]f we say to Japan we need help, you have to help us, because we can't continue to lose a fortune defending you...That doesn't mean I want them to arm [themselves with nuclear weapons], but it's possible." In response to Trump's statement, Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida emphasized that, "It is impossible that Japan will arm itself with nuclear weapons."

Japan spends more than $1.7 billion in direct costs related to U.S. bases in Japan in addition to $4 billion for base-related expenses and has contributed $3.1 billion for a plan to relocate U.S. soldiers from Japan to Guam. For its part, South Korea contributed $866.86 million or 40% of total housing costs for U.S. soldiers stationed in their country.

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Factually inaccurate statements denigrating Japan and Korea's contributions have already led to our allies seeing him as unqualified, and have heightened fears about what a President Trump would say and do. Seeking to reassure the Japanese public, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe responded directly to Trump's comments to emphasize that the "Japan-U.S. alliance is the cornerstone of Japanese diplomacy." In South Korea, the entire ideological spectrum of the press, from the conservative Choson Ilbo to the left-wing Hankyoreh newspapers, are dumbfounded by and opposed to Donald Trump's foreign policy views.

As troubling as these statements are, Donald Trump's comments about nuclear weapons demonstrate a lack of an even basic understanding of Japanese and South Korean history. Japan is the only nation to have nuclear bombs dropped on them in wartime. Consequently, Japan's post-World War II identity is framed by the 'Three Non-Nuclear Principles', which are to never "possess, permit, or introduce nuclear weapons in line with Japan's Peace Constitution."

Going even further, Nobumasa Akiyama of the Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of International and Public Policy said that, "[Japan] is very much embarrassed that [a] potential president of the United States sort of encouraged us to think about the nuclear option...Is the U.S. really giving up the world leadership position?" If Trump's proposal were to come to pass it would undermine U.S. influence and standing in the region, according to this line of argument.

In South Korea, the responses to Trump's statements were mostly negative. South Korean President Park Geun-Hye responded by saying that her government "maintains an unwavering stance in support of denuclearization." Trump's statements create a number of negative perceptions among South Koreans. First, it would undermine efforts towards a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, which has been a top goal of the last three South Korean presidents. Second, it creates a great deal of uncertainty for the public and policymakers because of how central the alliance with the United States is to South Korean foreign affairs. Without the alliance, South Korea would have to radically reformulate their diplomatic and defense priorities, which would ripple throughout the region. Hyun-Wook Kim, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy stated the following about Trump: "He's very irrational, emotional and does not really care about consistency in policy. He is very risky."

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Taken together, Trump's statements about our allies and nuclear proliferation raise grave concerns about what U.S. leadership in Asia would look like under a President Trump. If he followed through on his promises and withdrew U.S. troops from Japan and South Korea it would destabilize Northeast Asia's balance of power. Historically, China dominated the region and on several occasions Japan tried to revise the status quo through wars with China in the 16th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, which were often fought on the Korean Peninsula. Since 1945, U.S. forces in the region have served to check aggression, along with quelling fears of a revival of Japanese militarism, especially among South Koreans. Without a U.S. military presence in Northeast Asia, Japan's security fears would be heightened, which could lead to rapid growth in Japanese military spending or even Japan going nuclear. This could incentivize South Korea to go nuclear in response to the combination of a continued real threat from North Korea and a perceived threat from a 'remilitarizing' Japan.

Trump's electoral success thus far raised genuine fears in Japan and South Korea of growing neo-isolationist sentiment among the American public. Could any potential ally ever again credibly believe a U.S. security guarantee if American troops were withdrawn under the foreign policy of a potential Trump presidency?

Regardless of who his opponent is in this November's elections, the choice on foreign policy will be clearer than it has been in more than half century. A President Trump would represent an unparalleled break in American foreign affairs and lead to irreversible damage to the United States' standing in Asia and the world.

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In mid-December of 2015, I leave New York to go to Istanbul for the holidays. It doesn't take long before I'm sucked into the stress that comes with being a Turkish citizen who's living in Turkey. I feel the weight of people's unhappiness combined with air pollution, and dislike breathing. My sister and I are driving home on the spacious highway, the E5, that on more crowded days could host you for five hours and make you miss your flight. It is joyfully traffic-free after a day and night of heavy snowfall. I look out the window and blurt out: "Even the snow couldn't conceal the ugliness." The skyline of Istanbul has become thoughtless and unlovable with rapid construction. Istanbul is carrying so much weight that it's going to sink into itself.

Istanbul is house arrest. I sit at my sister's apartment for most of the day and meet people at locations no more than 10 minutes away by car. This works because all the people I want to see live or work nearby, they've all picked apartments to be relatively close to each other and have opportunities to socialize. Once you're out you might not be able to come back for hours because of traffic and once you stay in you are trapped because you don't want to get into traffic. Fear of being stuck outside, in transit or enclosed spaces keeps me in.

I hate getting into cabs. Most cab drivers are aggressive and feel entitled to their aggression. "Which way do you want to go from? Should we try the seaside or Besiktas?" Usually I tell them to take whichever way is faster. But sometimes I want to appear as if I know how to go where I'm going and I mutter somethings to save time while I look at my Google Maps for traffic. Once, I get a really nice one who laughs at how apologetic i am for asking him to go somewhere close. "Thank God! When you started saying 'sorry' I feared you'd want me to take you the airport."

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"Not too long ago," he tells me, "we would be happy to get a customer who wanted to go the airport. Now it's a nightmare. I dropped off a friend once and he called me a few hours later from Izmir. I hadn't even made it halfway through the highway! That's why we always try to make the customer decide. One minute there's no traffic but the next minute it could be completely blocked. At least if they tell us which way to go from, we are not to blame."

When I do get out, I try to take the subway and walk as much as I can. I've developed a habit of trying to count how many women there are around me as I walk on the streets. If it's not an area where there are offices, I am usually one of the few. Vendors are never women, and during the day I hardly a see a woman walking alone. Crossing through Istiklal, I see that there a bunch but they are either in pairs or in groups. When a man looks me up and down as I cross him, I still feel his eyes on my back though he should be looking the other way. It's as if I've said something to him accidentally by walking alone on the street. I never intended to speak to him.

This is around the time that two prominent journalists get arrested over "terrorism charges". No one is surprised. There's a coldness to the anger and frustration you feel over such news. It's as if the emotion has drained out of our emotions. You act the way you think you'd feel but there's no feeling in your body. There's an online petition that's going around to demand justice for the journalists and I sign it readily, not knowing what purpose it will fulfill. People getting arrested over things they've written or said have become so mundane that a news source called Diken have a recurring post called: "Who's offending Erdogan today?" They have a new story almost every day.

My friend who lives in Spain says "Let's meet in Berlin for New Years". I check flights and they are expensive but they aren't insane. I'm talking to my dad on the phone and I tell him. "It's supposed to snow though, it's not a huge problem if you're not able to go but you wouldn't want to miss your flight back to New York." Everyone knows I want to go back and no one tries to keep me, which makes me conflicted about leaving them. Last year I missed my flight because I was stupid and certain that it was at a later hour. I had a breakdown at the airport, crying at the ticketing booth. Once I was able to change it, I sat at the gate and I cried on the phone to my mom for hours as I waited for the next flight, saying how much I loved her.

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I decide against Berlin and invite my friend to meet me in Istanbul for New Years. "My mom doesn't want me to," she says, "because... bombs." It's not too ridiculous of a concern, I assure her. I celebrate New Years with friends I've known since I was a child and only see a few times a year now. We go to a party at a venue that had felt liberating and new and wonderful when I went soon after the Gezi Protests. But this time, everything feels like depression. I can't take people's desire to have fun sincerely. I know that sometimes when you're depressed you pretend to be laughing. I also know that sometimes you laugh sincerely even when you're depressed. But the clouds over you are so dense and thick and suffocating that the sincere laughter is muffled and hidden and those laughs are the ones I'm most sad about. All those sincere laughs that my friends are laughing that fall like a rain of dead birds into a smog filled hole.
Hutchinson firefighters responded to five fire calls over the weekend

Area was under extreme fire risk due to high winds and drough condtions, but all the fires were quickly contained
Structure Fire Closes Park Street in Adams; Four Families Homeless

The fire at 72 Park St. in Adams started as mostly smoke before flames eventually shot through the roof. PreviousNext

Complete write-thru at 6 p.m.

ADAMS, Mass.  Firefighters from around Northern Berkshire County spent Friday afternoon battling a stubborn structure fire at 72 Park St.



Flames could be seen shooting out from under the roof of the building, which houses Carolyn's Tax Service on the first floor and four apartments on the top two floors, where several young children lived.



It took several dozen firefighters more than an hour to contain the blaze that started in a kitchen on the third floor. Fire Chief Paul Goyette described the smokey blaze as "95 percent contained" about 4 p.m., nearly three hours after it was first reported.



No one was injured in the fire but an Adams firefighter was overcome by heat and taken by ambulance to the hospital.



Park Street was closed to traffic and motorists were detoured at Hoosac and Center streets. Some mutual aid units began leaving about 5:30.



Goyette said the call came in as an alarm activation at about 1:15 p.m. and, when firefighters arrived, they found a fire on a stove on the third floor.



"That fire was extinguished but it appeared to enter the attic through the ductwork," he said.



The building was occupied at the time but Goyette did not know how many people were in the building. Everyone was evacuated from the four apartments, and the building searched. A second search was also done to verify no one was inside. Two cats were removed and treated at the scene with oxygen and a third was found safe after the fire was out.



Heavy smoke roiled from the roof line, occasionally blanketing the town's main street in a smokey haze. Bystanders watched the action from the sidewalks as the street filled with personnel and equipment from seven different departments: Adams, North Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg, Dalton, Lanesborough and Williamstown. Yellow tape was strung along light posts and signs to keep people out of the way.



The Williamstown and Adams ladder trucks mounted a two-pronged water attack on the roof line and the attic of the three-story building, as flames licked out from the eaves.



North Adams and Adams ambulance services set up a rehab center on the lawn of the Adams Free Library to hydrate and cool firefighters rotated out from the action. State police and sheriff's deputies blocked the street from traffic.



"It took us a good hour to knock the fire down because we had to keep chasing," said Goyette. Above the attic, "we found three layers of attic plus we had to start opening up the roof. It was labor intensive. That was the reasoning for calling in a lot of mutual aid companies to get fresh people here to the staging area."



The temperature hovered around 80 degrees with an infrequent breeze. One firefighter at the base of the ladder truck was overcome by the heat and carefully removed by a swarm of firefighters and emergency medical technicians.



Carolyn and Thomas Chalifoux of Carolyn's Tax Service were on their way to their lake cabin in Vermont went they got the call in Bennington that the building was on fire.



"We turned around and came back," said Thomas Chalifoux, watching from the sidewalk. They were concerned about the computers and files in their offices, but Goyette said firefighters were able to cover everything with tarps.



"Things look good there, it doesn't look like they've lost anything," he said.



Other buildings nearby were emptied as well. Arlene Schneider of the Cutting Edge Salon in the building next door said she didn't know anything was going on until firefighters came in and told she had to evacuate.

Trevor Crombie, who bought the building also known as the Dawson Block in 2004, was at the scene.



A GoFundMe has been set up for one of the families displaced in the blaze. Holly Dix and Mike Burns and their three children were not home at the time but their cat was rescued. Another fundraising page has been set up for Marcus and Heather Moore and their two children.



Firefighters were tossing items out the attic, cutting open the roof and chasing hotspots by 4 p.m. The state fire marshal was being called in to the investigation and the building's occupants were not expected to be able to return. Goyette couldn't say what the damage was at this point. Or when the street would reopen.



"The Fire Department owns Park Street at this point."
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Rare Red Ruffed Lemur Born at the San Diego Zoo

San Diego, California - On May 18, a male red ruffed lemur was born at the San Diego Zoos behind-the-scenes Primate Propagation Center. It has been 13 years since the last red ruffed lemur was born at the Zoo, and excitement is in the air.

The San Diego Zoo has a successful history of breeding red ruffed lemurs; in fact, more than 100 born have been born here since 1965. That success is attributed to the Zoos Primate Propagation Center, a facility specifically designed for breeding lemurs.

Red ruffed lemur Morticia is a first-time mom, but she has proven to be a great mother, said Kristen Watkins, a primate keeper at the San Diego Zoo. For the first week after the birth, it was important for keepers to get daily weights on the infant, to make sure he was gaining weight. A rising weight indicates that the baby is successfully nursing and that mom is taking good care of him. Morticia is willing to let keepers borrow her infant in exchange for some of her favorite fruits, but she is eager to get him back, Watkins said. The infant has been gaining about one-third of an ounce (10 grams) a day and is getting more active and aware of his surroundings. Although he currently weighs only 6.6 ounces (188 grams), red ruffed lemur babies grow up fast. During his first month, keepers expect him to be exploring outside of his nest, with Morticia watching closely.

This rare species is included in Primates in Peril: The Worlds 25 Most Endangered Primates, published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature SSC Primate Specialist Group, and every birth of a red ruffed lemur is a critically important one. They are only found in one region in the entire world: the Masoala Peninsula in Madagascar.

Guests at the San Diego Zoo can look forward to seeing the red ruffed familyand the rest of the Zoos amazing lemurswhen the new Conrad Prebys Africa Rocks exhibit area opens in summer 2017.

Bringing species back from the brink of extinction is the goal of San Diego Zoo Global. As a leader in conservation, the work of San Diego Zoo Global includes on-site wildlife conservation efforts (representing both plants and animals) at the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, as well as international field programs on six continents. The work of these entities is inspiring children through the San Diego Zoo Kids network, reaching out through the Internet and in childrens hospitals nationwide. The work of San Diego Zoo Global is made possible by the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy and is supported in part by the Foundation of San Diego Zoo Global.
Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Urges the Department of Education To Revoke Federal Recognition of Accrediting Agency Overseeing For-Profit Schools That Defrauded Students

Los Angeles, California - Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today sent a letter to the United States Department of Education, urging the Department to revoke federal recognition of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). ACICS is a major accreditor of for-profit schools and was the accreditor for the now defunct Corinthian Colleges, Inc. (Corinthian). While accredited by ACICS, Corinthian intentionally targeted low-income, vulnerable Californians through deceptive and false advertisements and aggressive marketing campaigns that misrepresented job placement rates and school programs.

The predatory scheme devised by executives at Corinthian Colleges, Inc. was unconscionable. And despite enforcement actions by the California Department of Justice and the federal government against Corinthian, ACICS continued to accredit Corinthian, hurting thousands of students in the process, said Attorney General Harris. Students relied on Corinthians accreditation status, believing they were obtaining a high quality-education with real job prospects. The Department of Education should not renew ACICS federal recognition and protect students from harm by predatory, for-profit colleges.

In issuing this letter, Attorney General Harris supports the 13 other state Attorneys General who voiced their concerns over the renewal of ACICS as an accreditation agency. These Attorneys General noted their opposition in a letter that included a discussion of ACICS-related issues and concerns in their respective states, also noting the failure of ACICS to take appropriate action in response to public enforcement actions by states and federal agencies.

Todays letter is Attorney General Harris latest effort to protect vulnerable students from fraud and predatory practices by dishonest institutions. Yesterday, Attorney General Harris, 10 other Attorneys General, and the State of Hawaii, Office of Consumer Protection sent a letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee opposing an amendment that would weaken existing protections and would instead allow any college approved for military tuition benefits to have unrestricted access to recruit on military bases. In March 2016, Attorney General Harris obtained a $1.1 billion judgment against Corinthian as a result of their predatory and unlawful practices that left tens of thousands of students with large amounts of debt and useless degrees.

In February 2016, Attorney General Harris and 7 other Attorneys General sent a letter to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs urging greater protections for veterans affected by predatory school practices. Also in February 2016, Attorney General released a statement and in March 2016 joined 8 other Attorneys General in a letter urging the Department of Education to adopt stronger regulations, including in borrower defense to repayment, to protect students misled by Corinthian and other predatory for-profit colleges. In April 2015, Attorney General Harris and 8 other state Attorneys General sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education urging immediate debt relief for the students who attended Heald College and other Corinthian Colleges, Inc. campuses.

In October 2013, Attorney General Kamala D. Harris led the charge against Corinthian Colleges, Inc. and its schools in California (Everest, Heald, and Wyotech colleges), seeking to put an end to abusive practices that left tens of thousands of students with useless degrees and tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

Attorney General Harris remains committed to protecting vulnerable students.
Stampede 2 drives frontiers of science and engineering forward

Austin, Texas - Today, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a $30 million award to the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) to acquire and deploy a new large-scale supercomputing system, Stampede 2, as a strategic national resource to provide high-performance computing (HPC) capabilities for thousands of researchers across the U.S.

This award builds on technology and expertise from the Stampede system first funded by NSF in 2011 and will deliver a peak performance of up to 18 Petaflops, over twice the overall system performance of the current Stampede system. Stampede 2 will be among the first systems to employ cutting-edge processor and memory technology to continue to bridge users to future cyberinfrastructure.

Stampede 2 will be deployed by TACC in conjunction with vendor partners Dell Inc., Intel Corporation, and Seagate Technology, and operated by a team of cyberinfrastructure experts at TACC, UT Austin, Clemson University, Cornell University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, Indiana University, and Ohio State University.

"NSF is proud to join with the University of Texas at Austin in supporting the nation's academic researchers in science and engineering with the latest in advanced computing technology and expertise," said Irene Qualters, NSF Division Director for Advanced Cyberinfrastructure. "Stampede 2's capabilities will complement and significantly expand the diverse portfolio of computing resources increasingly essential to exploration at the frontiers of science and engineering."

The announcement of Stampede 2 comes at a time when the use of NSF-supported research cyberinfrastructure resources is at an all-time high and continuing to increase across all science and engineering disciplines. Since 2005, the number of active institutions using this research cyberinfrastructure has doubled, the number of principal investigators has tripled, and the number of active users has quintupled. Furthering the Stampede system will help enable a growing number of scientists to have access to computation at-scale.

"The original Stampede system has run more than 7 million simulation and data analysis jobs for tens of thousands of users around the country and around the world," noted Dan Stanzione, executive director of TACC and principal investigator of the Stampede and Stampede 2 projects. "The kind of large-scale computing and data capabilities systems like Stampede and Stampede 2 provide are crucial for innovation in almost every area of research and development, from providing insights to fundamental theory to applied work that has real near-term impacts on society. Stampede has been used for everything from determining earthquake risks to help set building codes for homes and commercial buildings, to computing the largest mathematical proof ever constructed. We thank the NSF for trusting us again with the tremendous responsibility of supporting our nation's researchers as they push the boundaries of discovery."

Researchers across the nation can gain access to Stampede and other advanced computing resources, including other HPC machines, high throughput computing machines, visualizations, data storage, testbeds, and services through the NSF-funded Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE).

The award for Stampede 2 will deploy a new system that will surpass performance of the current Stampede system, doubling peak performance, memory, storage capacity and bandwidth. The new system will be deployed in phases, using a variety of new and upcoming technologies. The processors in the system will include a mix of upcoming Intel Xeon Phi Processors, codenamed "Knights Landing," and future-generation Intel Xeon processors, connected by Intel Omni-Path Architecture. The last phase of the system will include integration of the upcoming 3D XPoint non-volatile memory technology.

"The first Stampede system has been the workhorse of XSEDE, supporting the advanced modeling, simulation, and analysis needs of many thousands of researchers across the country," said Omar Ghattas, a computational geoscientist/engineer at UT Austin and recent winner of the Gordon Bell prize for the most outstanding achievement in high-performance computing.

"Stampede has also given us a window into a future in which simulation is but an inner iteration of a 'what-if?' outer loop. Stampede 2's massive performance increase will make routine the principled exploration of parameter space entailed in this outer loop. This will usher in a new era of HPC-based inference, data assimilation, design, control, uncertainty quantification, and decision-making for large-scale complex models in the natural and social sciences, engineering, technology, medicine, and beyond.

The announcement was made today during an event at TACC recognizing the centers 15th anniversary and dedicating a new building for advanced computing on the UT Austin J.J. Pickle Research Campus. Speakers included Qualters; Stanzione; Bill McRaven, chancellor of the University of Texas System; Jim Ganthier, vice president and general manager, Engineered Solutions, HPC & Cloud, Dell, Inc.; and Charlie Wuischpard, vice president and general manager, HPC Platform Group, Intel Corporation.

"We are both excited for and proud to power TACC's multiple Stampede Systems. TACC has been a great Dell customer and partner over the years, helping us to evolve our own portfolio as we continue to push the HPC industry forward," said Ganthier. "Our Dell technologies at the core of the Stampede 2 supercomputing cluster will continue powering leading-edge research to both enable and advance science and society."

"The NSF and TACC continue to recognize the need for advanced HPC solutions as a fundamental tool to accelerate academic and scientific discovery," Wuischpard said. "Stampede 2 will be a leadership-class system based on the Intel Scalable System Framework, delivering a common platform for modeling, simulation, and data-driven science, and fueling scientific research and discovery for the next generation of researchers."

The event also included a symposium on advanced computing featuring users of the system: Ghattas; Ellen Rathje, of UT Austin, who leads the NSF-funded DesignSafe infrastructure; Peter Couvares of Syracuse University from the Advanced LIGO project, which recently confirmed the first observation of gravitational waves; and Nirav Merchant from the University of Arizona, who is co-principal investigator of the NSF-funded CyVerse life sciences cyberinfrastructure.

Intel, Xeon and Xeon Phi are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.
US Navy Conducts Counter-ISIL Sorties from Mediterranean

Stuttgart, Germany - The U.S. Navy's Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group conducted combat sorties from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea June 3, in support of Operation Inherent Resolve over Syria and Iraq.

The Carrier Strike Group transited the Suez Canal June 2 and flew multiple combat sorties June 3 in an effort to degrade ISIL resources and leadership.



"While the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group is in the 6th Fleet area of operations, they continue to project power ashore against terrorists and violent extremists," said Vice Adm. James Foggo III, commander, U.S. 6th Fleet. "This exemplifies our Navy's mobility, flexibility and adaptability, as well as our commitment to execute a full range of military operations in concert with our indispensable European Allies and partners," he added.



The strike group consists of USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75); the embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7; Commander, Carrier Strike Group 8; USS Anzio (CG 68); Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 28; USS Bulkeley (DDG 84); USS Gonzalez (DDG 66); and USS Gravely (DDG 107).



The strike group brings multi-mission capable platforms to the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) area of responsibility and the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations with strike, ballistic missile defense, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. These resources further serve to support European Allies and partners, deter potential threats and to conduct combat operations in support of the counter-ISIL mission.



After conducting operations in the 5th Fleet area of operations, the strike group's deployment has been extended to support dismantling and rolling back terrorist networks from the 6th Fleet area of operations before it will return home to Norfolk.
Tunisia Signs $500 million Loan Guarantee Agreement with the United States

Washington, DC - Today, Tunisia signed a loan guarantee agreement with the United States that will allow Tunisia to access up to $500 million in affordable financing from international capital markets, delivering on President Obamas discussions with Tunisian President Caid Essebsi in May 2015. The loan guarantee underscores the United States enduring commitment to the people of Tunisia and their democratic transition. It is designed to support Tunisia as it pursues important economic reforms that will provide the foundation for growth and prosperity, while also furthering Tunisias ability to access global capital markets.

Todays signing ceremony is evidence of the ongoing U.S. commitment to help Tunisia build an economic foundation that supports sustainable and inclusive economic and job growth, improves the Tunisian investment climate, bolsters international confidence in the Tunisian market, and supports expanding U.S.-Tunisian economic relations. It is also a recognition that Tunisia continues to make progress towards meeting its economic reform goals on behalf of its people.

This will be the third loan guarantee the United States will provide to Tunisia. The earlier guarantees for $485 million in 2012 and $500 million in 2014 were successful in facilitating Tunisian access to global capital markets. These loan guarantees are one component of broader on-going U.S. support for Tunisia. Since 2011, the United States has provided more than $750 million in other types of foreign assistance to Tunisia.
UK Train Passenger Praised for Refusing to Give Up Her First Class Seat to Old Woman
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Fox has apologised following an outcry over its promotional poster for recent superhero film X-Men: Apocalypse.

The image emblazoned on billboards across the world shows Oscar Isaac's villain Apocalypse grabbing the character of Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) by the neck. The tagline reads: 'Only the strong will survive."

Many deemed the poster 'gratuitous' with one billboard in New York being covered with sticky notes reading: "This violence in my kid's face is not OK."

Charmed actor Rose McGowan led the widespread calls for 20th Century Fox to remove the advertisement - and the studio has now responded by removing the poster from promotional materials for the chart-topping film.

33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Show all 34 1 /34 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 1. Captain America: Civil War Release date: 6 May 2016. Iron Man and Captain America are set to face off in this superhero blockbuster that will feature nearly all the Avengers but wont be an Avengers film. It will also mark the first time Spider-Man will feature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Sony having made a deal with Marvel Studios. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 2. X-Men: Apocalypse Release date: 27 May 2016. Following the success of Days of Future Past, Apocalypse will follow the young X-Men team as the battle against Oscar Isaacs titular villain as he gathers his four horsemen; Magneto (Fassbender), Angel (Hardy), Storm (Shipp), and Psylocke (Munn). Expect carnage and no Wolverine. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 3. Suicide Squad Release date: 5 August 2016. The first supervillain film, Suicide Squad is also based in the DCEU (DC Extended Universe, where Batman and Superman live) and will introduce the world to Margot Robbies Harley Quinn and Jared Letos Joker. One of the more exciting upcoming DC films thats for sure. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 4. Doctor Strange Release date: 4 November 2016. Benedict Cumberbatch will debut in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Captain America and Iron Man live) as the Sorcerer Supreme. The film already has an incredible cast, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachael McAdams and Tilda Swinton. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 5. Untitled Lego Batman film Release date: 20 February 2017. Kicking off 2017 is the Lego version of Batman, who will lead his own spin-off, having already featured in the amazing Lego Movie. Will Arnett voices the titular character, while Zach Garfianakis - from the Hangover - will voice The Joker. But will he better than Leto? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 6. Untitled Wolverine film Release date: 3 March 2017. Having not starred in X-Men: Apocalypse, Wolverine will return to the big screen in a solo film which was recently made R-Rated following the success of Deadpool. It is expected to be Hugh Jackmans last outing as the titular character. Fox 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Release date: 5 May 2017. Chris Pratt and the crew are returning to space in the sequel to the surprisingly successful Guardians of the Galaxy. According to director James Gunn, the film will not feature Thanos, even though he will to play a major role in phase MCU Phase 3. Cast includes newcomers Kurt Russell and Pom Klementieff, as well as, rumour has it, Sylvester Stallone. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 8. Wonder Woman Release date: 23 June 2017. Gal Gadot is returning to the DCEU in her very own film, marking the first female-led superhero film on this list. Chris Pine is on board to play Wonder Womans love interest. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 9. Untitled Spider-Man reboot Release date: 7 July 2017. Yes, it is another Spider-Man reboot, having previously been redone with Andrew Garfield as the lead. However, this time it is part of the MCU, with Tom Holland as the titular character, and a heavily rumoured cameo by Iron Man could be in the pipeline. We can dream. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 10. Untitled Fox film Release date: 6 October 2017. In a strange announcement, Fox decided to withhold the release of Gambit until a future, as-yet unannounced date, which could be here, or this could be a completely separate project. Many suspect Deadpool 2 could nicely fit here, Fox capitalising on the success of the first film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 11. Thor: Ragnarok Release date: 3 November 2017. Chris Hemsworth will be returning as the Norse God in his third solo MCU film. Flight of the Conchords Taika Waititi is on board to direct, and promises a fun adventure that will likely lead into Marvels next project, Infinity War. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 12. Justice League Part One Release date: 17 November 2017. Hot on the heals of Thor comes Justice League Part One, the first DCEU team-up flick which will see Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg work together to fight bad guys. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 13: Untitled Fox film Release date: 12 January 2018. Kicking off 2018 will likely be the second Deadpool film, but then again, this could very well be another X-Men team-up. Theres also talk of an X-Force film, with Deadpool and other mutants teaming up to fight evil. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 14. Black Panther Release date: 16 February 2018. The first non-white male-led superhero film in the MCU comes in the form of Black Panther, with Chadwick Boseman reprising the titular role, having also starred as the Panther in Civil War. Creeds Ryan Coogler is on to direct what could be a very exciting film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 15. The Flash Release date: 16 March 2018. The Flash will be the first DCEU film since Justice League, and sees Ezra Miller take the lead. Phil Lord and Chris Miller were supposed to pen the film before Disney snapped them up for the Han Solo-film, leaving Seth Grahame-Smith to take charge. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 16. Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 Release date: 4 May 2018. And so, we finally get to the point of all these Infinity Stones! Thanos will be the big bad, with the Avengers needing to team up to defeat their biggest foe yet. It has previously been described as the end of the Avengers as we know it. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 17. Ant-Man and The Wasp Release date: 6 July 2018. Peyton Reed will be back to direct this surprise sequel to one of the better received MCU films. While the name is ridiculous, at least Marvel are finally having a leading female superhero. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 18. Untitled Fox film Release date: 13 July 2018. Again, not much word on this one except it is thought to be X-Men spin-off New Mutants, something Josh Boone has been hit up to write. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 19. Animated Spider-Man Film Release date: 20 July 2018. Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Amy Pascal - the team behind the live-action Spider-Man films - are producing this unrelated animated adaptation of the hero. Because you can never have too much Spider-Man, right? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 20. Aquaman Release date: 27 July 2018. Another Justice League spin-off, Jason Momoa plays the leading man. Furious 7s James Wan is on to direct, but little else is known about the film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 21. Captain Marvel Release date: 8 March 2019. Weve hit 2019, and the first confirmed superhero film will be the first proper female-led MCU film. No-one is confirmed to be in the titular role of Carol Danvers just yet. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 22. Shazam Release date: 5 April 2019. Dwayne Johnson stars as the villain in this DCEU film which will be somewhat separate to the other DC films. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 23. Avengers: Infinity War Part 2. Release date: 3 May 2019. The conclusion to the long drawn MCU saga. Expect a big finish with at least a few planets being destroyed. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 24. Justice League Part Two Release date: 14 June 2019. Soon after the Infinity War story reaches its conclusion, so will the Justice Leagues. Not much is known, except Darkseid will likely be the villain for at least one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 25. Inhumans Release date: 12 July 2019. The concept of Inhumans (or Marvels mutants) has already been introduced in TV, through Marvels Agents of Shield, yet the film is expected to introduce the Royal Family who have yet to be seen in the show. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 26. Cyborg Release date: 3 April 2020. Having debuted in Justice League Part One three years previously, Cyborg will finally be making his own outing, with Ray Fisher as the titular character. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 27. Untitled MCU film Release date: 1 May 2020. The first of three untitled Marvel films. There are a couple of contenders, the first is a likely sequel to Spider-Man with Sony, or a third Guardians of the Galaxy film, thus finishing the trilogy. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 28. Green Lantern Corps. Release date: 19 June 2020. Before you start to worry, this has nothing to do with the Ryan Reynolds-starring flick that hit cinemas a little while ago. Instead, this will be another DCEU film that will likely spin-off from Justice League after the Green Lantern Corps cameo in one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 29. Untitled MCU film Release date: 10 July 2020. As well as Spider-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy sequels, a Doctor Strange or Black Panther one could fit in nicely here. Or perhaps Black Widow may finally get the solo-film she deserves. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 30. Untitled MCU film Release date: 6 November 2020. Some speculators also think a Blade film could fit in here, marking over 20 years since the first Blade. But many believe the character may be better suited to a Netflix series, as with Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Theres also talk of a Runaways film reaching cinemas at some stage. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 31. Untitled Ben Affleck Batman film Release date: TBA. Now were onto the TBA release dates, the first of which is a Batman solo film, written and directed by Ben Affleck. When this is due, no one is quite sure but expect it sooner rather than later if Batman v Superman is a success. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 32. Suicide Squad 2 Release date: TBA (rumoured 2017). A sequel to Suicide Squad is expected to come in 2017 according to recent reports, but nothing has been confirmed. If the first is successful, it should come as no surprise for Warner Bros to rearrange their schedule to fit in this surefire hit. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33. Venom Release date: TBA. This is an odd one, as it has been confirmed Sony are wanting to release a Venom film completely unrelated to the upcoming Spider-Man reboot. Venom, as you may know, is a Spider-Man villain, intrinsically linked to Spider-Man, so it seems odd they would release a film unrelated to the rebooted project and not linked to the MCU. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Anything else? Well, now you mention it, theres also that sequel to Fantastic Four that has seemingly been dropped by Fox. Plus, theres the Gambit film which has been put on hold (but will likely fill an untitled Fox slot so we havent added it extra). Then again, it could be shoehorned in somehow Marvel

"In our enthusiasm to show the villainy of the character Apocalypse we didn't immediately recognise the upsetting connotation of this image in print form," it announced in a written statement.

"Once we realised how insensitive it was, we quickly took steps to remove those materials. We apologise for our actions and would never condone violence against women."

X-Men: Apocalypse is the ninth film in the franchise and stars a mass ensemble of actors including Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy and Game of Thrones' Sophie Turner.

In a written statement to The Hollywood Reporter, McGowan said: There is no context in the ad, just a woman getting strangled. The fact that no one flagged this is offensive and frankly, stupid,
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Elizabeth Banks is no longer set to direct the next installment of the hit acapella-singing comedy, Pitch Perfect 3.

Recommended Read more First look at Elizabeth Banks as villain in Power Rangers reboot

Variety said the actor-turned-director could not make time for the film amid an increasingly busy schedule.

Banks told attendees at a Producers Guild symposium Saturday that her parental responsibilities played a major role in her decision.

 Elizabeth Banks reads 'S**t People Say To Women Directors'

The new schedule butts up against my parental responsibilities in a way Im not really comfortable with, she said.

Sony reportedly pushed the release date back from July to December.

Banks will continue serving as producer of the film - a role she has had since the first film. She directed the first sequel, which grossed $285m worldwide.

The first Pitch Perfect film grossed $117m, and was made on a $17m budget - whats considered rather low by current Hollywood standards.

Banks is still set to direct a new Charlies Angels film, and she will star as the villain in the upcoming Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie.
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Businesses must embrace the environmental revolution or they will face going out of business, a former UK Minister and United Nations ambassador has warned.

Speaking ahead of the Global Green Growth Forum (3GF) in Copenhagen, Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, now chairman of the Global Commission on Business and Sustainable Development, urged companies of all sizes to take account of green issues.

Those which rely on the kind of resource-depleting, let-rip economy which has been enormously successful over the past 40 years would struggle to survive in a world where sustainability is key, he told The Independent.

Wider recognition of the damage caused by fossil fuels, risks posed by climate change and the move from export-led growth to local supply chains would inevitably require people to change the way they do business, he said.

The world is changing rapidly, said Lord Malloch-Brown. Some businesses [will] prosper, establish themselves and grow very quickly, other businesses are going to go kaput because the world has changed more rapidly than them."

Lord Mark Malloch-Brown (Getty Images)

Lord Malloch-Brown was part of Gordon Brown's government as a Foreign Office Minister with responsibility for Africa, Asia and the United Nations from 2007 to 2009. He has also held senior positions at the UN, the World Bank and as a communications consultant.

By 2050, 2.5 billion more people are expected to live in cities, with 90 per cent of that increase concentrated in Asia and Africa.

This will lead to new kinds of jobs and changes in lifestyles that increase the "mass use" of motor cars and prompt people to look for "new mass transit systems, and housing solutions that don't depend on heavy air conditioning or power, said Lord Malloch Brown.

Innovations in renewable power, agriculture and local solutions to industrial operations would all also become essential in the years to come, he said.

Energy saving options in pictures Show all 4 1 /4 Energy saving options in pictures Energy saving options in pictures Nest Thermostat merges cool tech with neat design Energy saving options in pictures Swan has launched a halogen oven which promises faster cooking as well as energy saving and health benefits Energy saving options in pictures Duette blinds have a climate control insulating action so rooms stay cool in the summer months and warm in the winter Energy saving options in pictures Rainshower has a button on the handle that can be pressed to reduce the water used by 40%

Multinationals like Levi Strauss & Co, Nestle and air conditioning manufacturer Danfoss are attending the 3GF Summit on Monday and Tuesday.

The event is being hosted by the Danish government in collaboration with China, Ethiopia and Mexico among others.

It aims to build on the Paris Climate Agreement, signed in April by 195 countries, and the agreement of the Sustainable Development goals in September, by developing partnerships between governments and private companies.

As well as the impact of wider issues such as population growth and changing commodity prices, including the effect of rising water prices on farmers who use a lot of water to produce meat, consumer choices will also affect how companies operate, said Lord Malloch Brown.

A single food market is going to be replaced by consumers demanding that food is not going to be carried all the way across the world, he said.

More than half of the UKs food now comes from overseas, according to a study published earlier this year.

But the agricultural trade has implications for national food security and could displace environmental impacts from developed to developing countries, warned the study, which was carried out by researchers from institutions including the University of Aberdeen.

Lord Malloch-Brown said not all companies had yet acknowledged the need to work sustainably.

And he warned the silent majority of companies who have not yet embraced green technology or developing innovative solutions to environmental issues may fall by the wayside".

There are some very progressive business leaders who are completely committed to this new economy of sustainability and development, and mitigating climate change, but probably the majority of businesses are not yet there," he said.

I imagine the next 20 or 30 years will see much higher rates of corporate mortality than we've seen in the last 20 or 30 years.

Green issues should no longer be pie in the sky stuff, for just very progressive businessmen to talk about at places like Davos or at Paris, he added.

It needs to be part of every businessman's life, this recognition there is very rapid change taking place in his or her business environment, and they have to respond to it.
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The Arctic is on track to be free of sea ice this year or next for the first time in more than 100,000 years, a leading scientist has claimed.

Provisional satellite data produced by the US National Snow & Ice Data Centre shows there were just over 11.1 million square kilometres of sea ice on 1 June this year, compared to the average for the last 30 years of nearly 12.7 million square kilometres.

This difference  more than 1.5 million square kilometres  is about the same size as about six United Kingdoms.

Professor Peter Wadhams, head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group at Cambridge University, told The Independent that the latest figures largely bore out a controversial prediction he made four years ago.

My prediction remains that the Arctic ice may well disappear, that is, have an area of less than one million square kilometres for September of this year, he said.

Even if the ice doesnt completely disappear, it is very likely that this will be a record low year. Im convinced it will be less than 3.4 million square kilometres [the current record low].

I think theres a reasonable chance it could get down to a million this year and if it doesnt do it this year, it will do it next year.

 High arctic melt: Dramatic shortage of winter sea ice

Ice free means the central part of the Arctic and the North Pole is ice free.

Most of the remaining ice within the Arctic Circle would be trapped among the myriad of islands along Canadas north coast.

The last time the Arctic was clear of ice is believed to be about 100,000 to 120,000 years ago.

The rapid warming of the polar region has been linked with extreme weather events such as bomb cyclones, flooding in the UK and out-of-season tornadoes in the United States.

And the sea ice off the north coast of Russia, which normally insulates the water below to keep it cool, is no longer present for much of the year, allowing the sea to get significantly warmer than before.

Loss of Antarctic ice has soared by 75 per cent in just 10 years Show all 2 1 /2 Loss of Antarctic ice has soared by 75 per cent in just 10 years Loss of Antarctic ice has soared by 75 per cent in just 10 years 12785.bin David Tipling/Alamy Loss of Antarctic ice has soared by 75 per cent in just 10 years 12792.bin

Scientists have monitored greenhouse gas methane  once frozen on the sea bed  bubbling up to the surface at an alarming rate.

According to one study published in the journal Nature by Professor Wadhams and others, this could produce an average rise in global temperature of 0.6 degrees Celsius in just five years.

That would be a very, very serious upward jerk to global warming, Professor Wadhams said, saying the prospect was frightening.

Less sea ice also means the surface of the Earth is darker, so it absorbs more of the suns energy.

When the sea ice retreats, it changes the whole situation. People are right to be concerned about the sea ice retreat and disappearance mainly because of all these other feedbacks, Professor Wadhams added.

Sea ice is usually at its lowest in September and starts to build again when the winter sets in.

Dr Peter Gleick, a leading climatologist, said he had no idea if Professor Wadhams prediction was correct.

And he added: If it's wrong, this kind of projection leads to climate sceptics and deniers to criticize the entire community.

However Dr Gleick said Professor Wadhams was right to sound a warning about the rising temperatures in the region, saying it was extraordinarily disturbing even in a world of disturbing news about accelerating climate change.

An ice-free - and even an ice-reduced - Arctic is leading to global impacts on weather and ecosystems, and most importantly, that the changes in the Arctic presage dramatic fundamental changes in climate throughout the globe, he said.

We're on a runaway train, scientists are blowing the whistle, but politicians are still shovelling coal into the engine.

Professor Jennifer Francis, of Rutgers University, says We are definitely looking at a very unusual situation up in the Arctic (Wolfgang Kaehler/Getty)

Professor Jennifer Francis, of Rutgers University in the US, who has studied the effect of the Arctic on the weather in the rest of the northern hemisphere, was also sceptical about Professor Wadhams' prediction, saying it was highly unlikely to come true this year.

She said she thought this would not happen until sometime between 2030 and 2050.

But Professor Francis stressed: We are definitely looking at a very unusual situation up in the Arctic.

The ice is very low and there have been record-breaking low amounts of ice in January, February, March, April and now May, so this is very worrisome.

I think we are going to see perhaps a new record [in September], thats very possible.
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Norway will ban the sale of all fossil fuel-based cars in the next decade, continuing its trend towards becoming one of the most ecologically progressive countries on the planet, according to reports.

Politicians from both sides of the political spectrum have reportedly reached some concrete conclusions about 100 per cent of Norwegian cars running on green energy by 2025.

According to Norwegian newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv, "FRP will remove all gasoline cars", a headline which makes reference to the populist right-wing Framstegspartiet, or Progress Party.

 Renewable energy is making waves in Europe

Yet there is some denial from other right-wing representatives that the move has been confirmed.

If passed, it would be particularly significant because a large proportion of Norway's funds rely on the country's petroleum industry.

Energy saving options in pictures Show all 4 1 /4 Energy saving options in pictures Energy saving options in pictures Nest Thermostat merges cool tech with neat design Energy saving options in pictures Swan has launched a halogen oven which promises faster cooking as well as energy saving and health benefits Energy saving options in pictures Duette blinds have a climate control insulating action so rooms stay cool in the summer months and warm in the winter Energy saving options in pictures Rainshower has a button on the handle that can be pressed to reduce the water used by 40%

The report also follows the announcement that Norway will become the first country in the world to commit to zero deforestation.

Speaking about the possible 2025 ban on non-electric cars, Elon Musk, chief executive of US electric car company Tesla Motors, lauded the announcement.

"Just heard that Norway will ban new sales of fuel cars in 2025," he wrote.

"What an amazingly awesome country. You guys rock!!".

Yet while the Democratic Party and the Liberal Party have corroborated Dagens Naeringsliv's report, the FRP have said the move is still being looked at, according to Aftenposten.

If the measure is fully confirmed, it would be more ambitious than the Labour Party's proposal that no new diesel or petrol cars should be sold by 2030.

The four parties, who rule together through a system of proportional representation, have also agreed a new climate tax on electricity.

About 24 per cent of the country's cars already run on electricity, and it is a heavy producer of renewable energy with more than 99 per cent of electricity covered by hydropower.

Norway also aims to triple its capacity of wind power by 2020, with a new $3bn investment in the sector approved in 2013.

Meanwhile critics in the UK have accused the Conservative Government of reneging on its commitment to green energy and looking for solutions in fracking and nuclear energy instead.

This follows a 25 per cent rise in renewable energy investments pouring into the UK last year, according to a global paper on the topic.
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Glee actor Mark Salling pleaded not guilty to charges of receiving and possessing child sex abuse images.

Salling, who played Noah Puck Puckerman on the Fox series, will now be required to have federal authorities approve his internet-connecting devices and wear a location monitoring bracelet, according to the Associated Press.

Recommended Read more Glee star charged with child pornography offences

Prosecutors reportedly reached an agreement with Sallings attorneys to release the actor on $150,000 bail. They initially sought to have the actor held without bail.

US Magistrate Judge Rozella A Oliver set a July trial date with Salling, who will have to pay the court $100,000 to guarantee the appearance.

A grand jury indicted Salling last week on two counts of receiving and possessing child sex abuse images. Salling was arrested in December after federal authorities say they found the images on a seized laptop, hard drive, and flash drive.

US Attorney spokesperson Thom Mrozek said that Salling kept a very extensive and well organised collection of images depicting child sex abuse.

This type of behaviour is disturbing, he added.

Salling faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
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Muhammad Ali, who died Saturday aged 74, is renowned for being a three-time heavyweight champion - but he was more than just a boxer.

Ali once saved a man from killing himself by jumping from a building.

As the man threatened to jump from the 9th floor window ledge, Ali was in the area and volunteered to talk to him.

Ali appeared at the window near the man, reportedly telling him: "I'm your brother, I want to help you."

Recognising Ali, the man allowed him to approach him on the ledge.

Over a tense 20 minutes, Ali persuaded the man to come down.

Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237443.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237444.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237445.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237446.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237448.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237449.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237451.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237456.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237464.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237465.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237466.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237468.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures muhammad-ali-malcolm-x.jpg Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237469.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237470.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures muhammad-ali-daughters.jpg Evening Standard/Getty Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237473.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures 237477.bin Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures muhammad-ali-afghanistan.jpg Getty Images Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures muhammed-ali-2016.jpg Getty Images

When it was over, Ali later said, the man began to weep.

He was later admitted ot a psychiatric hospital for veterans where Ali promised to visit him later that week.

 Muhammad Ali's greatest quotes

Ali's death was confirmed by his family on Saturday.

He had battled Parkinson's disease for more than 30 years and was admitted to hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, with a respiratory condition earlier in the week.

The funeral will take place in Ali's home town of Louisville, Kentucky.
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The number of people being arrested for online crimes of speech have increased dramatically in London.

While arrests for aggressive, threatening or hateful speech on social media declined between 2010 and 2013, the numbers rose last year.

According to the Register, a total of 2,500 Londoners have been arrested over the past five years for allegedly sending offensive messages via social media. In 2015, 857 people were detained, up 37 per cent increase since 2010.

(Getty)

The Communications Act 2003 defines illegal communication as using public electronic communications network in order to cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety. Breaking the law carries a six-month prison term or fine of up to 5,000.

The figures, obtained from the Metropolitan police via a Freedom of Information request, only apply to the London area.

The legislation has been used to arrest Twitter users responsible for racist hate speech. According to Vocativ, among many recently arrested was a Scottish citizen who had posted hate speech about Syrian refugees on his Facebook page.

A recent study found the words slut and whore were used by UK Twitter users 10,000 times in three weeks.

In 2010, Paul Chambers was convicted under the Communications Act after tweeting a joke about blowing up Robin Hood Airport in Nottingham. His conviction was overturned after a two-year legal battle.
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A British man has been arrested in Tenerife on suspicion of throwing his girlfriend from the balcony of their 12-story holiday apartment.

The 25-year-old woman, who is also believed to be British and has not been named, died instantly after the fall in the early hours of Friday morning.

Her partner has been arrested and will appear in a local court, police confirmed to the Independent.

The couple, who were staying in an apartment overlooking a beach in Adeje, in the south-west of the island, were captured on CCTV cameras as they entered their flat.

According to local reports, the footage appears to show the woman being kicked and punched by her partner, who was in an apparently drunken state.

They are said to have been on holiday with their five-year-old daughter since mid-May.

The suspects father and his partner were also staying in a neighbouring apartment.

The woman was found lifeless on the lawn below the apartments by a security guard who was alerted by her partner and his father.

The most dangerous places in the world for British tourists Show all 12 1 /12 The most dangerous places in the world for British tourists The most dangerous places in the world for British tourists 1. Pakistan (37) Pakistan was top of the list with 37 British deaths since August 2002. Pictured: a terror attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad in 2008 AFP The most dangerous places in the world for British tourists 2. Tunisia (34) 30 people were killed in Sousse, Tunisia in 2015 after a gunman opened fire on a tourist beach 2015 Getty Images The most dangerous places in the world for British tourists 3. Jamaica (18) Jamaica is overwhelmingly safe for tourists but there is violence in the capital, Kingston (pictured) AFP The most dangerous places in the world for British tourists 4. US (15) The most dangerous places in the world for British tourists 5. France (14) France made the list despite the figures not including the terror attack in Paris in November Getty Images The most dangerous places in the world for British tourists 6. Johanessburg (11) A general view of Johanessburg in South Africa AFP The most dangerous places in the world for British tourists 7. Ukraine (10) 10 British people have been killed in Ukraine since a popular revolt led to the fall of the pro-Russian government - including those killed when the MH17 plane was shot down by pro-Russian separatists in 2014 AFP The most dangerous places in the world for British tourists 8 = Australia (7) 7 Britons have been killed Down Under since 2012 The most dangerous places in the world for British tourists 8 = Algeria (7) Seven British men were killed when a gas station in Algeria was overrun by Malian militants in 2013 AFP The most dangerous places in the world for British tourists 9 = Barbados (6) Six Britons have died on the Carribbean island since 2012 The most dangerous places in the world for British tourists 9 = Afghanistan (6) Although much safer than it was, six British people were still killed in Afghanistan over the past four years (pictured: Kabul) The most dangerous places in the world for British tourists 9 = Spain (6) Six British people have been killed in Spain since 2012 (pictured: the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao) AFP

An arrest was made after the CCTV footage was consulted and three British adults were interviewed by the Spanish police.

The family are said to have been staying at the Paraiso del Sur apartment block, near Playa Paraiso, a popular budget holiday destination.

An autopsy was to be carried out to ascertain the exact cause of death.

In April, at least six people were confirmed to have died in Tenerife after a four-storey apartment building collapsed in Los Cristianos, not far from Adeje.
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A Church of England vicar has pleaded to assault charges after yelling Im from the Vatican youre f*****! and drunkenly attacking a police officer and a paramedic outside a London nightclub.

Parish priest Gareth Jones yelled I have diplomatic immunity as he punched, kicked and spat at a police officer and paramedic who had found him passed out on the street in his clerical garb in the early hours of the morning.

When paramedic Ian Pollock gently woke the 36-year-old vicar to check he was all right, Jones awoke and threatened to attack him.

He was unable to stand after drinking three bottles of wine, several pints of beer and spirits including gin and vodka but began to lash out from the ground and kicked Mr Pollock twice in the leg.

Mr Pollock, fearing an attack, positioned himself on top of Mr Jones to protect himself. Mr Jones is still attacking the paramedic, he punches him in the chest then tried to bite his arms and is spitting on him, prosecutor Edward Aydin told Highbury Magistrates Court.

Two police officers intervened and PC Andrew Fletcher was kicked in the left cheek as he tried to hold the vicar down.

Jones then claimed he had diplomatic immunity from the Vatican and said the police officer was f*****, the Sun reported.

Mr Aydin said: He made no attempt to respond to a caution and continued to shout that he had diplomatic immunity.

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I'm not sure if he has anything to do with the Vatican because he is with the Church of England.

There's no relationship between those two religions.

Eventually PC Fletcher put a leg strap around the vicars ankles and he was taken to Belgravia Police Station.

When the vicar, who serves at St Mary and the Virgin church in Great Ilford, north-east London, sobered up, he said he had been drinking at El Vino and The George in Fleet Street before going to the nightclub.

The married father-of-one then apologised for his actions and said he was utterly ashamed and sorry for the harm that he had caused.

Recommended Read more Calls for better health warnings as some men drink to excess

The court heard how Jones had previous convictions for a bomb hoax, possession of cannabis and criminal damage from his teenager years but his defence lawyer, Dominic Hockley, said he had had a misspent youth and had become a reformed man since his ordination in 2006.

Mr Hockley said Jones had consumed 53 units before the incident and was now seeking treatment for alcohol addiction.

He said what had started as social drinking with his wife had spiralled into something far more devastating.

To say that this incident has been a wake-up call would be an understatement, he added.

District Judge Robin McPhee ordered Jones to pay 700 in fines, 200 compensation each to PC Fletcher and Mr Pollock, as well as 85 prosecution costs and a 35 victim surcharge after he pleaded guilty to two counts of assault by beating.

Jones will now face a separate ecclesiastical court which could ban him from practicing as a vicar for life.
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A police officer who entertained a pub crowd with a rendition of I Will Survive to defuse tension following a brawl has been praised by the woman who made the song famous, Gloria Gaynor.

Sergeant Jon Harris had been called the Waterloo Bar in Argyle Street in Glasgow city centre on Wednesday evening following reports of an assault and a 23-year-old man was arrested.

Following the arrest, Sgt Harris was asked to take to the stage and a senior officer has credited him with helping defuse any simmering tensions.

After the video of the officer's performance became a hit on social media, Gaynor tweeted: I love this. Sgt Jon Harris sang I Will Survive to smooth tensions in Glasgow pub after a brawl."

And Chief Inspector Mark Sutherland, the area commander for the city centre, said: "Once the inquiry had concluded and the victim's safety ensured, Sgt Jon Harris from our city centre community policing team was encouraged to participate in karaoke ongoing in the pub.

"'Sgt Jon took to the stage, which helped to defuse any simmering tensions in the pub.

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

"I was pleased to see that once the incident had been professionally concluded, my officers were able to share a lighter moment with those who remained in the pub."
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The Government is to propose new powers to protect children following an investigation by The Independent which revealed thousands of children are attending illegal faith schools in the UK where they are at risk of abuse.

The Department for Education has confirmed new proposed powers will be brought forward to Parliament with a view to enabling intervention in "unregulated education settings which teach children intensively" and will be included in the forthcoming Home Office Counter Extremism Bill.

In April an investigation by The Independent revealed thousands of children have disappeared from Government records to be taught in illegal ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools. The boys receive only religious education conducted in Yiddish and secular knowledge is banned, meaning many leave school unable to speak English and with no qualifications or skills to live independently. Former pupils and whistle blowers told The Independent physical beating of children is common and teachers often encourage pupils to enter arranged marriages upon turning 18.

The children come from ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in north London who believe that following a boys bar mitzvah, he should receive only religious education. Daughters tend to continue in legal, registered schools as theological training is not considered as important for women due to interpretations of their social roles as wives and mothers.

The investigation also revealed Hackney Council in London has been aware of the existence of some of these schools since at least 2010 but destroyed records of children going missing at the request of the schools. A senior member of Department for Education staff was aware of this destruction of records but did not act to raise any objections.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: Unregistered schools are illegal and unsafe  and we are taking unprecedented and direct action against them across the board to protect children, inform parents and support teachers. This includes strengthening our guidance to schools on safeguarding, and proposals to change regulations so that schools have a duty to inform local authorities in all circumstances where a pupil is removed from a school register.

We have also announced an escalation of Ofsted investigations into unregistered schools, a new tougher approach to prosecuting them and a call to local authorities to help identify any setting of concern.
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A decision to deny a NHS nurse British citizenship because he does volunteering work has been criticised as totally and utterly nonsensical by an MP campaigning for the Home Office to overturn the assessment.

Olivier Mondeke Monongo, a NHS mental health nurse, church pastor and volunteer for the Red Cross, lives in Glasgow with his partner and five children. He arrived in the UK in 2002 from the Democratic Republic of Congo claiming political asylum.

In 2010 he was granted temporary leave for remain and the time limits were lifted in 2013. After this, he applied for British citizenship and says he was shocked to find his application was recently declined by the Home Office on the grounds that he had failed the good character assessment element for his claim because he does voluntary work.

In a letter, Home Office officials allegedly told Mr Modeke Mononogo that as he volunteers for Red Cross he has violated terms of his temporary leave for remain which prohibited unpaid work and in so doing has failed the good character criteria for British citizenship.

He told The Independent: "The Home Office refused my citizenship just because I volunteered for British Red Cross and British Citizen Advice Bureau. When I came to this country we have been encouraged to volunteer on the basis that it would help improve our English skills and to integrate."

Recommended Read more Inquiry announced into Home Office treatment of overseas students

Mr Modeke Monogos MP Alison Thewliss, who has been campaigning for the decision to be overturned, told The Independent: Denying someone British Citizenship simply for volunteering with the British Red Cross is totally and utterly nonsensical.

Olivier fled Democratic Republic of Congo and was rightly granted asylum and, latterly, indefinite leave to remain in our country. He has five children, all of whom were born here and have never known home as anything but Scotland. Olivier is a Pastor, volunteer and mental health nurse in our National Health Service who works hard to provide for his partner and five children. If that doesnt meet the definition of good character, then it begs the question  what does?

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

A spokesperson for Red Cross told The Independent: We are extremely concerned to hear about Mr. Monongos case and the potentially worrying precedent this could set for the voluntary sector. During the asylum process, which can take years, volunteering is entirely legal. We are looking into the circumstances surrounding the case as a matter of urgency.

A spokesperson for the Home Office declined to comment.
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A nationwide appeal urging the public to report suspicious activity at hundreds of marinas has resulted in just 53 relevant tip-offs in nearly 18 months.

Project Kraken, a joint initiative between Border Force, the National Crime Agency and UK police forces was launched in 2014 to help raise awareness in maritime communities of potential terrorism and series and organised crime.

Campaign fliers tell the public to report any unusual suspicious behaviour, no matter how trivial it may seem, stating that the smallest thing can be significant.

But the NCA confirmed it received 44 notifications from Operation Kraken in 2015 and just nine so far this year.

A spokesman told The Times that more tip-offs had most likely been reported, but these may have been directed to police forces and not sent through to the NCA if related to petty crime or minor disturbances rather than serious crimes such as people smuggling and drug trafficking.

The NCA emphasised that Kraken tip-offs could be useful for areas of crime that it was not directly involved in.

The low rate of public calls comes amid fears the British coastline is vulnerable to people smuggling. The NCA has previously warned that small ports and marines are generally unpoliced and are believed to be a target for illegal trafficking and migrants hoping to get around the tight security of larger ports.

Last week, two men from Kent were charged with immigration offences after 18 Albanians were rescued from an inflatable boat in the English Channel.

The incident has sparked fears that tragedies such as those seen in the Mediterranean could start to occur off the British coastline.

Home Secretary Theresa May last month ordered a shake-up of Britains coastal defences in order to increase its maritime capacity, furthering criticism over recent budget cuts made to the Border Force service.

There are currently five Border Force cutters patrolling the countrys coastline for signs of smuggling.

In its campaign leaflet, Project Kraken appeals to those using small boats for leisure or business, people working in maritime industries, coastal residents and those who dive or fish.

The flier states: Whether you work in the maritime industries, are a keen sailor, or are just walking along the coast, your local knowledge and your experience of the maritime world means you are well placed to spot anything unusual.

By working together we can help to prevent terrorists and organised criminals posing a threat to your neighbours, your pastimes, your businesses and your livelihoods. They will exploit any opening they find.
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The Leave camp says the British way of life and sovereignty are threatened by undemocratic EU laws. The Remain camp says EU laws are limited and necessary. Who is right?

You drive for thousands of miles across continental Europe on the right hand side of the road. You pay for fuel or meals with a single currency.

Then you reach Britain. You have to drive on the left. The pound remains supreme.

The European Union does influence the way we live but the Leave camp unduly exaggerates the existential European threat to Britishness. After four decades of our membership, the Channel remains one of the worlds great cultural frontiers. Equally, France remains stubbornly French; Italy obsessively Italian.

Read more of the big EU referendum questions here

But why do we need European laws at all?

Nearly 60 years ago, the founding fathers of the EU (nee Common Market) decided that mere co-operation between European countries was insufficient. To create a single European trading area, to ensure European prosperity, to build a sense of common European destiny, to prevent further European civil war, there must be European institutions and European laws.

Britain hated the idea. We wanted a loose free trade area and a form of unstructured, government-to-government co-operation. We lost the argument. Six other nations went ahead in 1958. They were so successful that we eventually felt we had to join in.

The question is therefore a circular one. The European Union has European law because European law is what makes the European Union the European Union.

What aspects of our law does the EU control?

The EU makes laws that regulate industrial, agricultural and commercial life in the 28 member states. All rules on industrial safety and standards are supposed to be the same across the EU. A British widget and a Danish widget must meet the same standards. All hidden national barriers to trade or open competition are supposed to be illegal. This is what defines the European Single Market, as opposed to a looser free-trade area.

The EU also has laws on minimum employment conditions, such as working time  from which the UK is partly exempt. Europe has common environmental laws, on the grounds that environmental problems do not end or change at national frontiers.

The EU also has some control over tax policy, especially VAT, but variations are allowed between member states within limits. For countries in the eurozone (not including the UK), the EU has authority over monetary policy and government spending.

In other areas  crime, illegal drugs, education, health, road traffic  the EU scarcely has any role at all.

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But we are told that 70 per cent of UK legislation comes from the EU.

Such figures are misleading or even meaningless. The vast bulk of British laws as they affect the ordinary Briton  thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not drive on the right  are built on ancient English and Welsh or Scottish statutes and traditions.

The House of Commons library estimated in 2010 that the percentage of new laws influenced by the EU is between 15 per cent and 50 per cent, depending on how you do the sums.

Even then, the raw counting of new acts of parliaments is silly. One might be an EU-inspired law regulating the size of olive oil containers. Another might be a wholly British law re-shaping the whole of the National Health Service. Which has the greater influence on the British way of life?

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.

What about the democratic argument? Who makes EU law in the first place?

The unelected European Commission proposes; the elected European Parliament can influence the outcome; the unelected European Court of Justice sometimes makes judgments which, in effect, extend or strengthen European law.

But the real spade-work on EU legislation is carried out by unelected national civil servants working for the elected national governments, who have the final say. It is a strange kind of democracy but it is not as faceless and undemocratic as the Leave camp claims.

We hear all the time about the deadweight of EU regulation? Would we not be better off freed from the red  or blue and yellow  tape of Brussels?

Obsessive EU regulation and harmonisation can be a problem. Britain is far from being the only member state to complain about it. Brussels is in the middle of a campaign (not the first) to calm its officials one-size-fits-all instincts. As part of his re-negotiation, David Cameron won a fresh promise that Brussels would put competitiveness and flexibility ahead of over-regulation.

The problem is that one mans de-regulation is another womans hidden trade barrier. Some level of common rules on the standards for making bird cages is essential if you want a single European market in bird cages.

Open Europe, the moderate Eurosceptic think-tank, estimates that the 100 most deadening EU regulations cost Britain 33.3bn a year. The British government says the same regulations provide benefits of 58.6bn a year.

 Osborne concerned over Brexit

Regulation would not vanish with Brexit. Would we necessarily be better off with UK rules for the UK?

Much of this red tape covers areas such as climate change, employment rights and health and safety. If we left, EU legislation would have to be replaced with UK legislation, or just left in place.

There is a case that Britain might make better rules for Britain alone. British politicians and civil servants would, presumably, be easier to influence than 28 member states. On the other hand, businesses sometimes complain that the British government gold-plates EU regulatory law and makes it more burdensome than it needs to be.

And what would be the disadvantage of breaking the EU chains and bounding free?

It depends what you mean by free. If we left the EU and the Single Market our regulation might not match European regulation. Trade would suffer.

If we left the EU and remained (like Norway) in the Single Market, we would have to obey EU regulations but we would lose influence over regulation-making.

It is a familiar conundrum  the same Britain has faced since 1958. We might not like what the others are doing. We cannot easily afford to go it alone. Even Open Europe concludes that Britain is better off staying within the EU as an apostle of reform.

How central is the EU law debate to the vote on 23 June?

It is crucial. For a nations sovereignty and law-making power to be shared with other nations is an unusual state of affairs  never tried anywhere else. The sovereignty and democratic arguments against the EU cannot not be dismissed lightly.

Nor should the economic advantages of having a true European Single Market. Nor should the EUs role in diluting, or caging, the worst aspects of European nationalist jealousies and hatreds.
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Why are we asking this now?

As David Cameron discovered during Sky Newss referendum debate on Thursday, the primary bone of contention for many voters is how EU membership affects immigration to the UK. The Prime Minister wants so much to focus on the economy  but he is finding the task a challenging one.

How many Europeans are living in the UK, and who are they?

At the last count, the Office for National Statistics concluded that there are around three million citizens of other European Union countries living in the UK  that amounts to some 5 per cent of this countrys population. They are proportionally more likely to be in employment than British citizens, in part because there are fewer people of retirement age among their number.

 EU Referendum: Latest Poll

Poles make up by far the biggest group within the overarching figure, with some 800,000 living here. There are a little under 385,000 Irish nationals making up the second largest cohort, while Germans come next at just over 300,000. Despite the fact that most EU citizens in Britain are longstanding residents, not to mention taxpayers and often homeowners, they do not have the right to vote on 23 June.

Should they be worried?

Predictably perhaps, many are fearful about what the future holds in the event that the Brexit camp carries the day. The uncertainty has led to a surge in applications for British citizenship. In March, the managing editor of Red Squirrel Publishing, which produces textbooks to prepare candidates for citizenship texts, told The Independent that sales had quadrupled since the end of last year. The company has been forced to order an emergency reprint.

Seeking UK citizenship may seem like a drastic response to the doubt caused by the referendum, yet the Prime Minister himself has refused to rule out the possibility of deportations, which to some might seem like reasonable validation of their anxiety. And some immigration lawyers have advised that British citizenship is the only definitive way to secure the right to stay in this country.

Yet lawyers ability to state the obvious can never be underestimated. And David Cameron has an obvious motive for wanting to sustain the idea that Brexit would lead to a period of instability. Suggesting that EU nationals might have to head back to the continent, or to Ireland, unnerves not only those who would be most directly affected  it would have a knock-on effect for employers, schools, the housing market and much else besides.

How likely is deportation?

It is these knock-on effects which arguably most reduce the likelihood that EU citizens would be forced out of the UK if we vote to leave in a fortnight. Another consideration is that any attempt to withdraw residency rights from people already living here would potentially lead to tit-for-tat action against ex-pat Brits by European member states. No serious Brexit campaigner has suggested that those who have previously taken advantage of the EUs freedom of movement principle will be asked to pack their bags. And lawyers point to the Vienna Conventions protection of acquired rights to ease any worries.

To an extent therefore, EU citizens who have made their homes in the United Kingdom can feel relatively relaxed: nobody  aside from the most rabid of Little Englanders  has suggested that some kind of repatriation programme will begin if the Brexiteers triumph. Tory MP Philip Davies went so far as to tell the Daily Telegraph that nobody would ever suggest that anybody who has arrived here legally would be evicted.

But then, heres the rub: in the final analysis we cannot be absolutely sure of that. Withdrawal from the EU will, until or unless an agreement between Britain and the remaining member states determines otherwise within the designated two-year timeframe, remove the automatic right for EU citizens to live and work here. And it is more or less impossible to predict with certainty how the social and political atmosphere in this country might change if the Outers are victorious.

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 if they're not deported, what's the worry?

Indeed, the big question for Europeans living here may not be whether a UK departure from the EU will result in them being forced to leave, so much as whether a Brexited Britain will be the kind of country in which they want to stay? After all, with immigration so dominant in the Brexit narrative, especially at activist level, it must surely be hard for some EU citizens, resident here, not to wonder whether it is all a bit personal.

And while there are plenty of Outers who will vote to leave for entirely different reasons (notably dissatisfaction with Brussels bureaucracy), a Brexit would undoubtedly give succour to the not insubstantial section of the UK population who blame most ills on rising immigration. Were that to become a more dominant view, who would blame any EU citizen who decided to head for home? Heck, there might even be a fair few Brits whod be happy enough to join them.
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Britains EU membership has been good for the nations health, helped guarantee patient safety and supplied thousands of frontline staff for the NHS, leading medical organisations have said.

In a major intervention in the EU referendum debate, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), the doctors professional body, representing 30,000 medics, has warned that Brexit could harm patient care and public health.

Meanwhile, the British Medical Association (BMA), with nearly 150,000 members, despite remaining officially neutral, has published a document on the EU for doctors, which lists numerous benefits of Britains membership for the NHS, the medical profession and public health and only a handful of drawbacks.

The news that leading doctors are set to overwhelmingly reject a Brexit vote will be a blow to the Leave campaign, which put the NHS centre-stage with a pledge to redirect 5.2bn of Britains annual EU spending to the health service in the event of Brexit.

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.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Greg Hands said the pledge was totally dishonest.

Benefits of staying in the EU identified by the RCP and the BMA included access to billions of pounds worth of European research funding, and world-leading quality checks on medicines and healthcare products that have helped keep patients safe.

The BMAs document also highlighted that 30,000 doctors, 11 per cent of the workforce in the UK, were trained in another European Economic Area state (the EU, plus Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein) and praises the principle of free movement of professionals that the EU enshrines.

EU laws have also been instrumental in cracking down on tobacco companies, it says, with new bans on flavoured tobacco products, which encourage young people to smoke, due to come into effect in 2020. Further new EU proposals to force food companies to lower levels of harmful trans fatty acids in their products would also be at risk in the UK if we vote to Leave.

While pursuing a policy of official neutrality, Dr Mark Porter, the BMAs chair of council said the referendum was a momentous issue with huge implications for both the nation and indeed the medical profession.

The BMAs document for members also outlines some concerns about EU influence, including the implications of the EU/US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal for the NHS. Parliament recently voted to exclude the NHS from the TTIP deal.

 Cameron loses temper over EU

The RCP encountered similar concerns among members over TTIP, but its president, Professor Jane Dacre, said that the strong balance of opinion was in favour of the UKs continued EU membership.

The RCP call for views has demonstrated support for the UK to remain in the European Union for health reasons, she said. It has highlighted the considerable health benefits that EU membership brings to this country as well as the harm to patient care and public health that a withdrawal from the EU could entail.

The EU is not without its faults, but there is a consensus that solutions are best found through continued EU membership, given that the health benefits of remaining in the EU outweigh the disadvantages of leaving.

Professor Sir Simon Wessely, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, who submitted evidence to the RCP, said: "The survival of the NHS and its capacity to improve hinge on three core needs: more money, more people and more research. Each of these will be negatively impacted should we leave the EU.

It follows warnings over the consequence of Brexit from NHS Englands chief executive Simon Stevens and from 75 per cent of hospital bosses who said that leaving the EU would risk a staffing crisis in the health service. In total, around 130,000 citizens from other EU countries work in the NHS.

The proposed referendum form is shown in draft regulations laid before Parliament on the conduct of the national poll (PA)

Despite concerns over the future of the NHS after Brexit, Leave campaigners have made the health service a key part of their campaign. While initially suggesting that all of the UKs EU contributions could be spent on the health service if we left the EU, Vote Leave leaders Boris Johson, Michael Gove and Gisela Stuart said that the Government could instead redirect 100m a week to the health service. Vote Leave has also warned over the impact of immigration on the health service  an argument countered by Remain campaigners who point out that immigrants are likely to be young and fit and require less healthcare, and that growing pressures on the NHS have more to do with an ageing population than migration.

"As our population grows, and as we all live for longer, so the pressures on the NHS are set to grow, the Vote Leave leaders said in a statement. "One of the best ways to protect, and to strengthen, the NHS for the people of this country is to use some money we currently spend on EU membership to invest in improving healthcare.

"The government should use some of the billions saved from leaving the EU to give at least a 100m per week cash transfusion to the NHS."

But Mr Hands hit back, saying that leaving the EU would lead to an economic downturn that would have consequences for public spending.

"Doctors and nurses want to stay in Europe because they understand that quitting the single market would damage the NHS by shrinking the economy, he said.
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Throughout the day, and during the night as well, ambulances set off from this building in the centre of San Salvador. They collect bodies, broken and bullet-ridden, from where they have been dumped in the citys various neighborhoods and bring them to be identified. All the while, families make their way here too, wailing and banging on the gates, desperate for information but not wanting to believe their loved ones are no more.

This is the Institute of Legal Medicine, one of the front lines in a war that few people outside of El Salvador seem to have heard of and which fewer still appear to care about. And yet this conflict, which can trace its roots as well as some of its sustaining causes to the United States, has turned parts of this Central American country of six million people into little less than a war zone.

Violence involving rival gangs that were first established in Los Angeles and are involved in the trafficking of drugs to the US, along with the police and armys counter-gang operations, has created a devastating situation. Kidnapping and extortion are rife, while the government has been accused of operating death squads. Many, perhaps most, of those being killed are children and teenagers.

In 2015, it recorded 104 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, a rise of 67 per cent on the figures for 2014 and making El Salvador the deadliest nation per capita outside of a war zone. Only nations such as Syria and Iraq are deadlier. By comparison, the UKs murder rate is 1 per 100,000 inhabitants, while the US, with all its problems of gun violence, has a figure of 4.

I dont understand why the outlets in the US, that have lots of resources, have such little interest in the region, Oscar Martinez, a journalist and the author of A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America, said recently. Its a region very related to the US because of the subject of migration, because of the subject of violence.

The Institute of Legal Medicine in San Salvador, where the corpses created by the country's violence are sent (AP)

Ana Ramirez knows all about the violence tearing apart her country. Her 19-year-old son Mario, was shot and killed, apparently in an operation by police and soldiers a few days ago. Now she had come to the Medicina Legal, as the mortuary and laboratory is known, to arrange the collection of his body and to rebut the polices claim that he belonged to a gang.

His girlfriend called us to say he had been pulled over by the police. By the time I got there they had put his body in the back of a pick-up. They would not let me get any closer, said the teenager's mother. I identified him two days ago. He had been shot in the face and his hand. We think he held his hands up to protect himself.

The dead teenagers sister-in-law said Mario and other youths had been arrested, and released, a year earlier when the police conducted a raid in the Soyapango township. The police had tipped off the media and a television crew had filmed the whole thing.

Look, said Julia Moreno, pulling out her cell phone and showing the video footage. How can we live like this.

Mario Ramirez, 19, (left) was apparently shot and killed after being pulled over by security personnel (Family)

The footage showed police commandos storming a neighborhood of homes made by metal sheeting and breeze blocks, forcing their way into the buildings and detaining half-a dozen residents. Moreno, who has a child, said she and husband were desperate to leave the country. They simply no longer felt safe.

Were living in a war, she said, tears streaming down her face. To have a young relative is a crime.

The figures compiled by the teams of doctors, mortuary officials and government officials, is nothing less than startling. Between 1 January to 18 May, they recorded 2,555 violent deaths, of which a handful were suicides and road traffic deaths. Of these around 90 per cent were men, and in 80 per cent of cases the cause of death was shooting. Around 22 per cent of those killed were aged between 15-19 with another 20 per cent between 20-24.

 Son allegedly killed by police spotted on local TV station programme being arrested

An official, who asked not to be identified, said the institute had eight white Toyota Hiace vans which served as ambulances. Whenever the institute received a call that a body had been found, a driver would set off with a doctor and medical assistant. Depending on the area in which the body had been found, the team would be accompanied by one or more police units.

The staff use whatever is found on the body to try and identify it. Those bodies that cannot so easily be identified are photographed and the image posted on a noticeboard where family members can come and check.

The institute, partly as a means of protecting itself, makes no assessment as to whether a person has died as a result of gang violence. Our job is to identify the body and determine the cause of death, said the official. We focus on the scientific side of things. The investigation is done by the legal department and the police.

Estimates suggest there are up to 70,000 active gang members in El Salvador, most of them aligned to two main outfits  Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13 and Calle 18. The gangs were originally established in Los Angeles, in its extensive prison system.

During the 1990s, many of the gang members were deported to El Salvador, which was then recovering from a civil war that had left as many as 75,000 people dead, and most of them set free. Since then, they have established strongholds throughout the country and are involved in extortion, people trafficking, the drugs trade, robbery and prostitution.

In 2012, the US, which during the civil war had armed and supported the military government, designated MS-13 as a transnational criminal organisation and sought to seize its assets.

The mortuary is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week (Andrew Buncombe ) (Andrew Buncombe)

This action positions us to target the associates and financial networks supporting MS-13, and gives law enforcement an additional tool in its efforts to disrupt MS-13s activities, said the US Treasury Department.

In El Salvador, the gangs had devastated normal life, so much so that their activities are now acting as one of the main factors pushing people to try and leave the country.

A survey of Salvadoran migrants published earlier this year by the Technological University of San Salvador found that 42 per cent left their homes because of violence. In 2013, the percentage citing such a reason was just five per cent.

Each weekday mornings, long lines stretch outside the US Embassy in San Salvador with people seeking a visa. More people try and reach there illegally, and every day buses drop off people without the proper papers who have been caught trying to enter Mexico and head north.

Maria Evelia was waiting outside the compound while her 21-year-old son, Luis, collected a visa to allow him to join his father in Houston. She was sad to see him leave, she said, but happy he was getting away from a place where young people were so vulnerable to the influence of gangs. This is the perfect age for the gang members to recruit, she said of her sons age.

Once the bodies are identified by the families who come to the Medicina Legal, they are collected by funeral businesses who arrange burial. Rafael Neda never wanted to work as an undertaker, but he needed a job and in El Salvador there were plenty of bodies to bury. More of the people he buried, he said, had suffered violent deaths than natural ones.

Teams work 24-7 to collect bodies that are dumped in the street (AP)

On a recent morning he was waiting outside the institute with a Nissan truck, in the back of which was a coffin. He said he was there to collect one of three teenagers who had been kidnapped by gang members, held for three days and then killed.

Neda described a situation in which people with no associations with gangs but living in a certain area could imperil their lives, simply by entering a neighborhood controlled by different criminals. Often people were taken as spies, or government informers, said Neda, who claimed he was held at gun-point three weeks ago while collecting a body. The hardest part for me is when we have to take the bodies of children. There was a three-year-old who had been hit by four bullets. He was with his uncle.

Rafael Neda said the worst thing about working as an undertaker was collecting the bodies of children (Andrew Buncombe ) (Andrew Buncombe)

The governments efforts to counter the gangs has gone in fits and starts. Earlier this year, rival gang members held a press conference at which they said they were willing to enact a ceasefire that had been negotiated by the previous government and ran from 2012-2014, if the authorities in turn stopped their operations after them.

Since then, in a twist that suggests a political hand, reports suggest that a number of officials involved in ceasefire have themselves been detained. President Sanchez Ceren, a 71-year-old former communist guerrilla, has taken a tough line on crime, deploying a 1,000-strong unit of soldiers and police commandos to take on the gangs. People in some neighbourhoods say the units have been given a green light and the government units have frequently been accused of extrajudicial executions and of acting with impunity.

The governments own human rights prosecutor, David Morales, investigated two incidents last year and conluded there is serious evidence that government agents acted outside the law.

El Salvador inherited the title of world's deadliest peacetime country from Honduras (AP)

Director General of the Civil Police, Howard Cotto, said in an interview that any such incidents were investigated by other officers and cases brought against those found guilty. Formerly part of the left wing rebels who 20 years ago fought against the military-run government, said he had long fought for human rights.

He said the biggest challenge in taking on the gangs was to strengthen public control of areas where they were active, and the nation had to develop a social development plan, alongside any policing actions. The strategy of the gangs is based on the lack of organising within the community, he said.

Yet, such solutions do not appear close. Another family that recently made its way to the Medicina Legal was in search of information about a man called Hector Antonio, who had been shot and killed in the town of San Luis Palpa, about 25 miles to the south-east.

His sister, Santos Cruz, again insisted her relative had nothing to do with the gangs, and yet he had been shot and killed two days before. A group of men came to our house. They were wearing police uniforms, she said. They were dressed like police but they had no badges.
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A California Black Lives Matter organiser faces up to four years in state prison after being convicted of what was called felony lynching.

Jasmine Richards, 28, was arrested after an August 2015 protest in Pasadena, when police accused her of attempting to remove somebody at the demonstration from police custody - what the state defined as lynching until weeks before her arrest.

Recommended Read more Police officer charged in fatal shooting of legally armed black man

Ms Richards lawyer, Nana Gyamfi, denied that she made such an attempt.

Whats very important to note here is that theres a requirement that there be a riot, that there basically be a lynch mob that is assisting you in the lynching of the person that youre trying to take from the police, Ms Gyamfi told Democracy Now. And in this case, there was no riot.

The law was established in 1933 as a legislative effort to protect black and Latino Californians from lynch mobs. By 1933, hundreds of people had been extrajudicially executed by these racist groups in the state - and thousands more across the US.

But Ms Richards was campaigning against the very racialised violence that lynching laws were made to prevent.

Ms Gyamfi continued: To take this law, that was used allegedly to protect black people from being lynched, and to turn around and use this law against a black person who is actually speaking about the lynchings ... that are going on at the hands of police - not just in Pasadena, but all over this country - is more than ironic, its disgusting.

California lawmakers struck the word lynching from law books in the summer of 2015, following the furor that erupted following the January arrest of activist Maile Hampton during a Black Lives Matter peaceful demonstration in Sacramento.

State Sen Holly J Mitchell led the way for the term to be removed from the language of the penal code.

To most people lynching is what a mob does when it seizes and kills a person without a trial, usually by hanging  and it has been especially heinous in the history of African Americans, Ms Mitchell said in a statement.

But California law defines lynching as illegally removing someone from police custody during a disturbance. Whether obsolete, perverse or just wrong, its time for that law to change.

Critics of the law, however, still accuse California police of using the law to target and punish activists involved in demonstrations.

Jasmine was absolutely targeted in this arrest and many other arrests, said Medina Abdullah, professor of Pan-African studies at Cal State, Los Angeles. Pasadena is a relatively small suburb of Los Angeles. Jasmines activism is hugely significant, because she comes out of an area of northwest Pasadena where its deprived of resources.

 Black Lives Matter hunger strikers take their case to SF City Hall

Supporters of Ms Richards have spoken out on social media using the #FreeJasmine hashtag. They also began circulating a petition calling for no jail time for the activist.

Sentencing is set for 7 June.

Jasmine Richards began her activism work after participating in a freedom ride from Pasadena to Ferguson after the killing of black teenager Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson. The officer did not face charges in the killing.

Ms Richards has devoted much of her work around the case of Kendrec McDade, a 19-year-old black Pasadena man, killed by two police officers in March 2012. The officers also did not face charges.

Our police have been notorious for bullying. Since I was a child, these police have scared me. Theyve harassed me, theyve scared me. I know their first and last names, Ms Richards said in a video. I felt like we needed a group out here that stood up to that injustice.

Instead all of us being scared and just doingwasting our time and not organizing and sitting at the park without any programs to help us, I felt like I should do something.
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Bernie Sanders, the progressive presidential hopeful whose populist campaign has so far kept Hillary Clinton from claiming the Democratic nomination, has suggested he will contest the partys convention in July, regardless of the results of the remaining primary races. Speaking in Los Angeles, where he is campaigning ahead of the 7 June California primary, the Vermont Senator vowed: The Democratic National Convention will be a contested convention.

Ms Clinton, now 70 delegates short of the 2,383 needed to clinch the nomination, is expected to pass that threshold on Tuesday after polls close in New Jersey. But of her existing 2,313 delegates, 544 are super-delegates: party grandees who choose a candidate at the convention based on personal preference, not a public vote. Mr Sanders currently has 1,547 delegates, of which 46 are super-delegates, but claims he can convert enough of Ms Clintons super-delegates to sway the result.

 USA: Democratic Convention will be contested, says Sanders ahead of California primary

Recommended Read more Hillary Clinton is on the attack

Mr Sanders described the nominating system as totally absurd and warned reporters against crowning Ms Clinton the victor on Tuesday, saying: The media is in error when they lump super-delegates with pledged delegates Hillary Clinton will not have the requisite number of pledged delegates to win the Democratic nomination at the end of the nominating process on June 14. She will be dependent on super-delegates.

Traditionally, super-delegates have backed the candidate with the greatest number of pledged delegates. In 2008, Ms Clinton finished the primary season with 127 fewer pledged delegates than Barack Obama  and neither candidate passed the nomination threshold on pledged delegates alone. But after many super-delegates switched their allegiance to Mr Obama to reflect the public will, Ms Clinton conceded without contesting the convention.

For her part, the former Secretary of State has  at least in public  turned her attention to her probable general election rival, Donald Trump, whom she attacked on the stump this week. While she is campaigning hard this weekend to head off the Sanders surge in California, she told supporters in the Golden State on Friday: If all goes well, I will have the great honour, as of Tuesday, to be the Democratic nominee for president.
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A South Korean civil servant has been killed after he was hit by a student who had jumped to his death.

Yang Dae-jin, 39, was killed when the 25-year-old student jumped from the 20th floor of an apartment building on Tuesday, the Korea Times reports.

Mr Dae-jin sustained severe injuries to his head and later died in hospital. The student was killed instantly.

The civil servant was on his way home with his pregnant wife and five-year-old son in Gwangju, South Korea. He had been working in the public relations department in the adjacent county of Gokseong.

The student was reportedly preparing to take the civil service exam.

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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. 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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

"We are considering charging the student with accidental homicide," a police officer told the Korea Times.

"The case will be concluded without indictment as the student is dead, but this procedure is expected to help Yang's family receive compensation."

Mr Dae-jin's family have forgiven the student and have decided not to seek compensation, the Korea Joonang Daily reported.

Speaking at his funeral, his widow's 53-year-old uncle, surnamed Seo, reportedly said: The college student who committed suicide is another victim of our mercilessly competitive society.

So we have decided to forgive him.

 Officer stops suicide attempt

When asked further about the student, Mr Seo added: I heard he was preparing for the civil servant examination.

"The family must be also going through a hard time from the loss of their beloved one. I cant imagine how it would feel like to lose my son so suddenly.

"Yangs wife went through a lot, but she finally decided to forgive the student.
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An Australian surfer has died after his leg was bitten off by a shark near Perth.

Ben Gerring, 29, was pulled out of the water by fellow surfers and taken to hospital with critical injuries on Tuesday.

Western Australia Police said he died of his injuries on Friday night.

His brother, Rick, said he was engaged and that the couple were expecting their first child.

 Australia: Shark attacks 29 y/o surfer south of Perth

The hospital staff gave us those [three] days, he told ABC News.

Obviously we were always hoping for the best outcome, it was always at the back of our minds that this could happen, but they gave us that time to say our goodbyes.

Ben loved the ocean, crabbing and surfing but his greatest love is and always will be Jasmine - he was so proud to become a father and a husband.

Witnesses said Mr Gerrings leg was severed above the knee in the attack at Falcon Bay Beach in Mandurah, which was seen by dozens of surfers, beachgoers and children.

Flowers and surfboards have been left by friends and locals at the beach, with one reading keep rippin Benny, while tributes have also been paid on social media.

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

Local authorities captured a 14ft great white shark near Mandurah on Thursday, which died on the line, but it was unclear if it had attacked Mr Gerring.

Efforts to trap and kill sharks have caused fierce debate in Australia, with proponents arguing it improves safety while conservationists argue for other measures.

Sharks attacked a record 98 people around the world in 2015, researchers said, while 13 people have died from bites in Western Australia since 2000.


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Norway has become the first country in the world to commit to zero deforestation.

The Norwegian parliament pledged the governments public procurement policy will become deforestation-free after a committee of MPs recommended imposing regulations to ensure the state did "not contribute to deforestation of the rainforest".

Norway funds forest conservation projects worldwide and also supports human rights programmes for forest communities.

Nils Hermann Ranum, the head of Policy and Campaign at Rainforest Foundation Norway, said in a statement: This is an important victory in the fight to protect the rainforest. Over the last few years, a number of companies have committed to cease the procurement of goods that can be linked to destruction of the rainforest.

Until now, this has not been matched by similar commitments from governments. Thus, it is highly positive that the Norwegian state is now following suit and making the same demands when it comes to public procurements.

 Pollution threatens worlds largest mangrove rainforest

The Rainforest Foundation Norway has campaigned for years to secure a zero deforestation commitment from the Norwegian government.

The MPs' committee also called for the government to protect biodiversity by developing a separate policy and through investments made by Norges Bank Investment Management.

In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Borneo Destruction of the rainforest, deforestation in Borneo In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Brazil Aerial view af an area devastated by clandestine gold mining in the Jamanxim National Forest, state of Para. With 1,3 million hectares, the Jamanxim National Forest is a microsm that replicates what happens in the Amazon, where thousands of hectares of land are prey of illegal woodcutters, stock breeders and gold miners In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Amazon rainforest Intensive logging makes rainforest fires more likely as the Earth warms Rex In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Peru Miners known as "Maraqueros" ready a rustic type of hydraulic jet known locally as a "Chupadera," after hauling the device about 16-meters deep into a crater at a gold mine process in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. A new threat now looms for the estimated 20,000 wildcat miners who toil in huge scar of denuded rainforest known as La Pampa In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Peru A rope hangs around the trunk of a tree at a illegal gold mining process in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. An estimated 20,000 miners toil in this malarial expanse of denuded rainforest known as La Pampa In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Amazon rainforest The extent of the environmental damage in the Amazon rainforest afp/getty images In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Indonesia Destruction remains from tropical rainforest in Kuala Cenaku in Riau Province, Sumatra. Norway entered a partnership with Indonesia to support Indonesia's efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation of forests and peat lands. The business of pulp, palm oil and wood are causing the deforestation of Sumatra, the largest island owned by Indonesia, and is contributing global climate change to the extinction of many of the world's rare species In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Malaysia An area that has been cleared of rainforest to make way for a palm oil plantation in Sabah, Malaysia CORBIS In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Indonesia Regenerated palm oil trees are seen growing on the site of destroyed tropical rainforest in Kuala Cenaku GETTY IMAGES In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Brazil Brazil launched the Amazon Fund, aimed at protecting the rainforest so vital to the world's climate, and at combating climate change. In December 2008 Brazil launched a national climate change plan which proposed to cut the country's deforestation rate in half by 2018 Getty Images

In 2014 Norway made a joint declaration with Germany and the UK at a UN climate summit in New York, pledging to promote national commitments that encourage deforestation-free supply chains, including through public procurement policies to sustainably source commodities such as palm oil, soy, beef and timber".

The production of beef, palm oil, soy and wood products in seven countries with high deforestation rates was responsible for 40 per cent of total tropical deforestation and 44 per cent of associated carbon emissions between 2000 and 2011, according to Climate Action.
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More than 50 people have been killed and injured in a series of bombings targeting a police checkpoint, restaurant and two markets in Iraq.

Isis claimed responsibility for an explosion that killed eight people and wounded 15 others at a military checkpoint in Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad.

A propaganda statement from the terrorist group said it sent a martyrdom bomber wearing an explosives belt to what it claimed was a gathering of Iraqi security forces.

The bombings came as Iraqi security forces and miltias continued attempts to drive Isis out of Fallujah (Reuters)

Three of the dead were soldiers but it was unclear whether civilians were also among those killed on Saturday.

Tarmiyah once housed a uranium enrichment facility operated by Saddam Husseins government and was controlled by Isis predecessor, al-Qaeda in Iraq, during the Iraq War.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for two separate attacks on markets in Baghdad that killed five people.

Another bomb targeting a restaurant left at least two people dead.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in weeks of almost daily bombings and shooting attacks largely blamed on the so-called Islamic State in Iraq.

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 frequency of atrocities has increased after territorial losses and the start of a major operation to re-take Fallujah.

Several civilians fleeing the Isis-controlled city were killed on Friday in an explosion as they passed through agricultural area.

Federal police blamed militants for the blast but it was unclear whether it was caused by a deliberate bombing or a planted IED.

Aid groups estimate that 50,000 civilians are trapped inside Fallujah as Iraqi forces and militias continue to push towards the centre.

 Iraqi civilians recount horrors of battle for Fallujah

Shia civilians, police forces, soldiers and the security services are among those targeted by Isis, which has declared Shia Muslims apostates and regards the Iraqi government as allies of Western crusaders.

The Soufan Group, a US-based intelligence firm, warned that the tempo of attacks would only increase with the approach of the holy month of Ramadan, continuing political deadlock in Iraq and military pressure Isis is facing across its territories.

Analysts described car bombings as one of the terrorist groups most tried tactics to regain momentum, aiming to inflict mass casualties, kill as many Shia as possible, provoke fear and unrest and turn all factions against the government, allowing the group to exploit the resulting chaos.

The recent surge in violence has added to criticism of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who already faces a political crisis and civil unrest over his attempts to overhaul his cabinet as part of an anti-corruption bid.

According to the United Nations at least 741 Iraqis, including more than 400 civilians, were killed and 1,374 wounded in April alone due to the ongoing violence
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Syrian government forces have reportedly crossed into the province housing Isis de-facto capital in a new advance against the terrorist group.

President Bashar al-Assads troops have advanced up a major road into Raqqa from territory in neighbouring Hama and Aleppo governorates, according to monitors.

They were said to be heading towards the so-called Islamic States stronghold of Tabqa, which houses a strategic dam on the Euphrates River.

The reported location of the Syrian army's advance on Raqqa province (in red) on 4 June 2016. Isis territory is seen in black and areas held by the Syrian Democratic Forces in yellow. (Liveuamap)

The town also lies on the main road to the city of Raqqa, which Isis has used as a base to launch its operations across Syria, as well as terrorist attacks in Europe, since 2014.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there had been violent clashes between Isis militants and regime troops supported by Syrian and Russian air strikes since dawn on Friday.

A spokesperson said they had crossed the border with Raqqa province and were heading towards the al-Raqqa road in the third major assault on the terrorist group this week, as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) advance on Manbij and Fallujah remains under attack in Iraq.

At least 26 Isis fighters had been killed, as well as nine members of Syrian security forces and supporting militias.

The assault came as SDF rebels pushed into Isis territory near the Turkish border to the north (SDF)

Graphic photos posted on social media appeared to show the dead body of an Isis militant who was reportedly killed by Syrian forces near the border town of Zakia.

The assault came as Isis territory shrank further in northern Syria as the SDF rebel alliance continued to push west along the Turkish border in a US-supported advance on the city of Manbij.

They have so far taken at least 28 villages from Isis, the Syrian Observatory said, and freed more than a dozen women from the Yazidi minority who were taken as hostages from Iraq.

The US-led coalition has been striking targets in Raqqa, Manbij and Mara in Syria in recent days, targeting the groups weapons, positions, tunnels and infrastructure.

Timeline: The emergence of Isis Show all 40 1 /40 Timeline: The emergence of Isis Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2000 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (pictured here) forms an al-Qaeda splinter group in Iraq, al-Qaeda in Iraq. Its brutality from the beginning alienates Iraqis and many al-Qaeda leaders. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2006 Al-Zarqawi is killed in a U.S. strike. Al-Zarqawis successor, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, announces the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2009 Still al-Qaeda-linked ISI claims responsibility for suicide bombings that killed 155 in Baghdad, as well as attacks in August and October killing 240, as President Obama announces troop withdrawal from Iraq in March. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2010 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes head of ISI, at lowest ebb of Islamist militancy in Iraq, which sees last U.S. combat brigade depart. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2012 In Syria, protests (pictured here starting in Daree) have morphed into what president Assad labelled a real war with emergence of a coalition of forces opposed to Assads regime. Syria group Jabhat al-Nusra are among rebel groups who refuse to join, denouncing it as a conspiracy. Bombings targeting Shia areas, killing more than 500 people, spark fears of new sectarian conflict. Sunni Muslims stage protests across country against what they see as increasingly marginalisation by Shia-led government. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2013 Al-Baghdadi renames ISI as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or Isis, as the group absorbs Syrian al-Nusra, gaining a foothold in Syria. In response, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri (Bin Ladens successor) concerned about Isis expansion orders that Isis be dissolved and ISI operations should be confined to Iraq. This order is rejected by al-Baghdadi. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - January Isis fighters capture the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, giving them base to launch slew of attacks further south. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis declares itself the Caliphate, calling itself Islamic State (IS). The group captures Mosul, Iraqs second largest city; Tal Afar, just 93 miles from Syrian border; and the central Iraqi city of Tikrit. These advances sent shockwaves around the world. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Around the same time Isis releases a video calling for western Muslims to join the Caliphate and fight, prompting new evaluations of extremists groups social media understanding. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis take Baiji oil fields in Iraq - giving them access to huge amounts of possible revenue. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August James Foley is executed by the group as concerns grow for second American prisoner, fellow reporter Steven Sotloff. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August Obama authorises U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, helping to stall Isis along with action by Kurdish forces following the deaths of hundreds of Yazidi people on Mount Sinjar. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release video showing Steven Sotloffs murder prompting Western speculation his executioner is same man who killed Mr Foley. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Obama tells us that America will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release a video appearing to show David Haines, who was captured by militants in Syria in 2013, wearing an orange jumpsuit and kneeling in the desert while he reads a pre-prepared script. It later shows what appears to be the aid worker's body. Rex Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Peshmerga fighters scrabble to hold positions in the Diyala province (a gateway to Baghdad) as Isis fighters continue to advance on Iraqi capital. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Aid worker Alan Henning is killed. Self-imposed media blackout refuses to show images of him in final moments, instead focuses upon humanitarian care. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Isis raise their flag in Kobani, which had been strongly defended by Kurdish troops. The victory goes against hopeful western analysis Isis had overextended itself, while alienating much of the Muslim population through the murder of Henning. Victory causes fresh waves of Kurdish refugees arriving in Turkey. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - November American hostage, who embarced values of Islam, Peter Kassig and 14 Syrian soldiers are shown meeting the same fate as other captives. But intelligence agencies will be poring over the apparently significant discrepancies between this and previous films. Seramedig.org.uk Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis has released a video revealing the murder by burning to death of a Jordanian pilot held by the group since the end of December 2014. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have released videos which appear to show the beheading of Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February American aid worker, Kayla Mueller was the last American hostage known to be held by Isis. She died, according to her captors, in an airstrike by the Jordanian air force on the city of Raqqa in Syria, though US authorities disputed this. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have posted a gruesome video online in which they force 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian hostages to kneel on a beach in Libya before beheading them. Egypt vowed to avenge the beheading and launched air strikes on Isis positions. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February The British Isis militant suspected of appearing in videos showing the beheading of Western hostages has been named in reports as Mohammed Emwazi from London. Rex Features Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - March Isis triple suicide attack has killed more than 100 worshippers and hundreds of others were injured after the group members targeted two mosques in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Iraqi forces have claimed victory over Isis in battle for Tikrit and raised the flag in the city. EPA/STR Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan that killed at least 35 people queuing to collect their wages and injured 100 more. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis media arm released a 29-minute video purporting to show militants executing Ethiopian Christians captives. The footage bore the extremist groups al-Furqan media logo and showed the destruction of churches and desecration of religious symbols. A masked fighter made a statement threatening Christians who did not convert to Islam or pay a special tax. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis has been "incapacitated" by a spinal injuries sustained in a US air strike in Iraq. He is being treated in a hideout by two doctors from Isis stronghold of Mosul who are said to be "strong ideological supporters of the group". Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis has also claimed responsibility for killing 300 of Yazidi captives, including women, children and elderly people in Iraq AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis attack on Prophet Mohamed cartoon contest in Texas was its first action on US soil. Two gunmen were shot and killed after launching the attack at the exhibition. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi have been named as the attackers at the Curtis Culwell Centre arena in Garland. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isiss deputy leader, Abu Alaa Afri, a former physics teacher who was thought to have taken charge of the deadly terrorist group, has been killed in a US-led coalition airstrike. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May US special forces have killed a senior Isis leader named as Abu Sayyaf in an operation aiming to capture him and his wife in Syria. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Iran-backed militias are sent to Ramadi by the Iraqi government to fight Isis militants who completed their capture of the city. Government soldiers and civilians were reportedly massacred by extremists as they took control and the army fled. Charred bodies were left littering the city streets as troops clung on to trucks speeding away from the city. Ramadi is the latest government stronghold to fall to the so-called Islamic State, despite air strikes by a US-led international coalition aiming to stop its advance in Iraq and Syria. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis rounded up civilians trapped in Palmyra and forced them to watch 20 people being executed in the historic citys ancient amphitheatre. The Unesco World Heritage site was overrun by militants, threatening the future of 2,000 year-old monuments and ruins. Thousands of Palmyras residents fled but many are still living within the city walls, while the UN human rights office in Geneva said it had received reports of Syrian government forces preventing people from leaving until they retreated from the city. Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May A group of Isis-affiliated fighters have captured a key airport in central Libya. The militants took control of the al-Qardabiya airbase in Sirte after a local militia tasked with defending the facility withdrew from their positions. Affiliates of Isis, already control large parts of Sirte, the birthplace of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and a former stronghold of his supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June The US Air Force has destroyed an Isis stronghold after an extremist let slip their location on social media. According the Air Force Times, General Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, said that Airmen at Hulburt Field, Florida, used images shared by jihadists to track the location of their headquarters before destroying it in an airstrike. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Kurdish forces captured a key military base in a significant victory in Raqqa as well as town of Tell Abyad. YPG fighters, backed by US-led airstrikes and other rebels, consolidated their gains, when they seized the key town on the Syria-Turkey border. They are now just 30 miles to the north of Raqqa and have cut off a major supply route deep inside Isis-held territory. Ahmet Silk/Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has released gruesome footage claiming to show the murder of more than a dozen men by drowning, decapitation and using a rocket-propelled grenade as it seeks to boost morale among its fanatical supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has begun carrying out its threat to destroy structures in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, blowing up at least two monuments at the Unesco-protected site as Syrian government troops made advances on the Islamists positions. AFP

The week's three offensives are some of the most aggressive campaigns against Isis since the group declared its caliphate after sweeping through Syria and Iraq in early 2014.

Analysts have interpreted recent waves of attacks and suicide bombings in Iraq and elsewhere as an effort to regain momentum following the losses.

The Syrian army's new offensive was described in a pro-Damascus Lebanese newspaper as part of the race for Raqqa  with the government and its Russian allies trying to advance on Isis de-facto capital before it falls to the fighters allied to the Americans.

The US has previously accused President Assad and his Russian backers of ignoring Isis to battle anti-government opposition groups but the operation to re-take the Isis stronghold of Palmyra earlier this year was seen as a turning point.
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Q We have booked a cruise to South America and Antarctica in January 2017, flying out in business class to Santiago in Chile and back from Buenos Aires in Argentina. The outward flight is on British Airways from Heathrow to Madrid then Iberia to Santiago. I have since found out that BA will start a direct flight to Santiago from 3 January 2017. The agent said that as the flight had been ticketed the tickets would be non-refundable and I could not opt for the new direct route without losing the full cost of the tickets. Can you tell me if this is correct or am I being fobbed off to save them some work?

Bob Rowlands

A How infuriating. As you know, British Airways and Iberia of Spain are sister companies within the IAG group. With the welcome news that BA is launching the first non-stop flights between the UK and Chile, you might imagine it would be easy to switch from the one-stop via Madrid to the direct service. On such a long haul, making the trip in one go will significantly reduce fatigue  and I daresay it is something for which you would gladly pay a premium. But we have to assume the agent is telling the truth.

A couple of observations that may be of use. First, for an off-peak cruise and flight such as the one you are planning, I wouldnt even think of booking until perhaps two months ahead. I dont believe theres much to be gained by buying early: the cruise and the business-class cabin wont be sold out by Christmas. And while the chances are very much that your trip will go ahead as booked, all too often I hear about changed circumstances which mean a planned holiday has to be cancelled.

Second, if you have any significant time in Madrid between flights, take the short Metro trip to the village of Barajas, where you can enjoy a drink and a meal on the lovely main square before the long haul to the far side of South America.

Every day, our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a readers question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder
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Did the Conservatives steal the election by failing to declare local campaign spending? The short answer is no, but the longer answer is still interesting.

The allegation arises from the brilliant investigative journalism of Michael Crick, one of my heroes of political journalism ever since his exposure of Militants infiltration of the Labour Party in 1984.

The Tory election expenses story started in January this year when Crick discovered that the bills for a hotel in South Thanet were declared as costs of the party nationally, rather than as those of the constituency campaign. Spending limits for local campaigns are restrictive  15,000 for the five-week election period  so the incentive to allocate the hotel bills, adding up to 14,000, to national spending is obvious.

South Thanet was the seat where Nigel Farage stood, so it was one of the places where the Tories concentrated their efforts. In the end, the Ukip leaders challenge was defeated by a clear 2,800 votes. But now that result has been questioned and on Wednesday a judge granted the Kent police more time to investigate claims of illegal spending.

Meanwhile, Crick and his team at Channel 4 News have now found cases of possible undeclared spending by 29 Conservative MPs. Most of these involve hotel bills or the costs of battlebuses used to bring party volunteers into target seats.

The scale of the allegations has excited partisan Labour supporters. David Cameron has a working majority of only 16, so if eight Tory MPs could be disqualified, his Government would lose its ability to pass laws. Or, in the more extravagant vision, the result of last years general election would be reversed.

Liz Thomson, who was in the audience for Michael Goves grilling on Sky News on Friday, suggested to him that this would mean the EU referendum was illegal. This is the kind of thing that has been promoted on the internet by people demanding to know why the mainstream media, and in particular the BBC, has failed to cover the Tory election fraud story.

It has in fact been widely reported, Crick and Channel 4 News being part of the mainstream media. The reason it hasnt been reported in the way that some people want is because nothing has been proved yet, and even if it were disqualifications and by-elections are unlikely. And even if the Conservatives were to lose enough seats to lose their majority  which is really unlikely  it would not have any retrospective effect on laws passed by the House of Commons, such as the one providing for the referendum.

Other things have also been reported, which are less useful for the Tories stole the election theory. There is evidence that MPs of other parties might have overspent on their election campaigns too. Cat Smith, the Labour MP for Lancaster, declared just one eighth of her election organisers salary in her constituency expenses, claiming he spent most of his time on national or council campaigns. A document apparently drawn up by Nick Cleggs election agent, obtained by the Guido Fawkes website, seemed to suggest he had overspent in Sheffield Hallam. The Scottish National Partys helicopter, which visited many constituencies during the campaign, was charged as a national expense.

Even if a breach of spending limits is proved in any of these cases, it would not necessarily mean a new election would have to be held. An election court could declare the election void, but if criminal charges were brought an MP would be disqualified only if he or she were sentenced to jail. In the only recent case, Fiona Jones, Labour MP for Newark, was found guilty of fraud in 1999 for failing to declare her full election costs, but her conviction was overturned on appeal.

If a court were to decide that hotel or battlebus costs should have been declared as constituency spending, what is most likely to happen, according to the legal blogger David Allen Green, is that national parties would have to pay large fines.

For the Conservatives, that would be humiliating for Andrew Feldman, the party chairman. Most people know him, if at all, as the subject of a video clip of Crick chasing him down Great George Street and Whitehall to ask him about election expenses after Cricks camera operator said: Hes legged it  hes walked off the other way.

It is in Lord Feldmans embarrassment that the lasting significance of this story lies. The mood among Tory MPs is poisonous. One source tells me there is huge resentment towards the party chairman for his complacency in dealing with the allegations. It is not just the 29 Tory MPs affected by allegations of overspending, but the friends of the 29, among whom, I am told, many are excoriating about Feldmans tenure at Tory HQ.

This is a problem for the Prime Minister, Feldmans university friend, but also for George Osborne. When Tory MPs come to vote for the two-person shortlist for the next leader and therefore prime minister, it will be a problem for anyone associated with the Cameron-Osborne-Feldman regime.

Not only is Camerons successor likely to be an EU Outer, he or she is likely to be someone who distances themselves from the existing leadership.
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There will, whatever the British electorate decides this month, still be a European economy, just as there will still be a UK one. But how is the European economy likely to perform over the next 20 or 30 years? Is there anything sensible that can be said about that?

There are two questions here. One is whether the eurozone is performing to its potential now. The other is what are its long-term prospects? The first is relatively easy to answer: no, it isnt, but it may improve from now on. The second is much harder.

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The problems the eurozone has imposed on itself are widely accepted, for Germany apart, the entire region has made only a poor recovery from the disruption of the financial crash. If you want one measure, take unemployment. In Germany it is below 5 per cent; in most of the rest of the Eurozone it is in double digits. Were it not for the movement of workers from southern Europe to northern Europe, including the UK, unemployment in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal would be even worse.

 EU Referendum: Latest Poll

All that we know. But  and this point has not attracted enough attention  some parts of the eurozone, notably Spain and Ireland, are growing fast. This follows radical reforms in both countries, reforms that naturally have been spotted elsewhere. So people who focus on the problems of Italy, France and Greece, are not noticing that there has been a decent bounce elsewhere.

The point here is simply that continental Europe may perform rather better in the next two to three years because it has so much ground to catch up. We dont of course have figures yet, but it is quite possible that the eurozone will have grown faster than the UK in the first six months of this year. It did in the first three.

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

Look a generation ahead and the picture is rather different. The most important single factor that determines a developed country growth is what happens to the size of the working age population. Of course there are others, especially productivity and labour market participation rates. But as a rule of thumb, a larger workforce generates more growth.

Looking at some HSBC/UN stats, there are five countries where the workforce is projected to grow by more than 10 per cent over the next 35 years. They are Ireland, Australia, the US, Canada and Norway. Two other countries, the UK and Sweden, are projected to have increases of between 5 and 10 per cent. Every other developed country should expect their working populations to fall. In Japan, it is falling already and is projected to decline by 35 per cent by 2050. Germany faces a decline of nearly 30 per cent, Portugal, Italy and Greece by more than 20 per cent. And so on.

Now, these are only projections and 2050 is a long way away. It may be that the massive immigration into Germany will increase sharply its potential workforce. It may be that the present drain of people of working age from Eastern Europe will cease. And it may be that the UK will take action to stem the flow of migrants at present coming thanks to the availability of jobs.

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But while you should always take such projections with a pinch of salt, it does seem likely that growth in continental Europe and Japan will be slower over the next generation than it will be in the English-speaking developed world. The Centre for Economics and Business Research reckons that the eurozones growth potential is only around 1.5 per cent. If that were so it would be better than it has managed for the past decade, but it would be slower than the long-term performance of the UK economy, of around 2.25 per cent.

Douglas McWillams, the CEBR president, observes: As such Europe will become an increasingly peripheral part of the world economy, losing out not only to Asia but to the Anglophone areas like US, Australia and Canada as well as parts of Latin American and Africa.

So Europe becomes less important in relative terms. But it will continue still to be important in absolute terms, and that is one of the points being made in the referendum campaign by the Remain camp.

Are there things that Europe might do to improve its long-term growth prospects? Well, yes, it could accept more skilled immigrants. It could reform its labour laws, as Germany has done, to encourage job creation. It could follow the lead of its Scandinavian members and encourage higher labour participation. It could improve education and thus help push up productivity.

So within Europe there are responses to its predicament. But somehow the whole is less than the sum of its parts, and the challenge will be to change that  whether or not the UK is a player in that difficult game.
The PMI shows new exports expanded at a stronger pace in May while the overall headline PMI increased to 61.7, up from April's 59.8 reading. Photo: Bloomberg

New Irish export business expanded in May despite the looming decision Britons are facing about the future of their European membership, new research has shown.

According to the latest Investec Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), a number of panellists reported they had secured orders from new clients.

The PMI shows new exports expanded at a stronger pace in May while the overall headline PMI increased to 61.7, up from April's 59.8 reading.

The uptick in the services sector has seen it climb to near pre-crash levels where the overall figure for the sector stood at 64.

The latest reading also outlines that businesses are continuing to hire staff to help deal with increasing client demand as business outstanding remains in positive territory.

Investec Ireland chief economist Philip O'Sullivan said the services industry remained upbeat on the outlook with sentiment staying very much in positive territory.

"All in all, this is a very positive report, which is just the tonic after a downbeat Manufacturing PMI release earlier this week.

"In any event, we expect to see stronger readings from both PMIs later this year, assuming our base case that UK voters choose to remain in the EU comes to pass," he said.

Higher staff, fuel and insurance costs caused input prices to increase in the sector with margins being squeezed.

However, Investec said companies were able to hike average prices in May.

Increased prices and higher volumes helped the profitability in the sector scale to a four-month high.
Economist John FitzGerald warned that the economy risks overheating, and that the Government needs to either implement a neutral budget this year, or actually increase taxes to cool it down Photo: Tom Burke

Public sector wage pressures and persistent health budget overruns are expected to sequeeze any capital spending available to future-proof the economy, thanks to tight EU spending rules, Standard & Poor's has warmed.

And to keep Independent TDs sweet, the minority government may end up diverting other spare cash to projects with lower economic priority, the agency warned.

S&P said household finances are improving but the debt to disposable income ratio still stands at over 155pc - compared to under 100pc in 2004.

But it was more upbeat on public debt, saying it believed net debt-to-GDP would fall to below 80pc next year, 12 months earlier than expected.

S&P affirmed its A+ rating fore Ireland and predicted the economy would grow annually by 3pc over the period to 2019.

It comes as economist John FitzGerald warned that the economy risks overheating, and that the Government needs to either implement a neutral budget this year, or actually increase taxes to cool it down.

He said if the economy continues to grow at the current pace, it will be approaching full employment by the end of next year and the economy will be at capacity. If housing targets are met, the "economy will be fit to explode", he told a conference organised by the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA).

"Under those circumstances, the Irish economy will need substantial fiscal action taken by the Government to take money out of the economy," he said.

"In the next budget, the Government will need at the very least to have a neutral budget, but probably should begin to take money out of the economy.

"In other words, taxes should be raised and not cut in the next budget. And certainly, the 21018 budget, the Government will need to take a lot of money out of the economy."

S&P said growth will increasingly be driven by domestic demand, but also continue to be supported by strong net exports.

It said that while economic growth is boosting average incomes, wage levels have scope to continue to grow without hurting competitiveness, "indicating that there is still some slack in the Irish economy".

But it warned that the unemployment rate, while falling, remains high. The agency said the possible effect of a Brexit on Ireland would be negative in the short to medium term, though its magnitude would be mixed across sectors.

"In terms of direct trade relationships, the UK accounts for only around 12.4pc of Irish goods and 20pc of Irish service exports, well below the 50pc levels observed when both countries joined the European Community in 1973.

"However, the sectors that serve the UK market are, on average, more labour intensive and any negative shocks could damage the mending Irish labour market."

It said other negative effects could be include the weakening of the UK's financial service sector, with which Ireland's financial service sector is closely linked, and the potential ripple effect stemming from lower demand from the rest of the EU.

And it warned about the fragile nature of the surge in corporation tax receipts.

"We expect revenue intake to remain strong in 2016, on the back of stronger domestic demand and continued high corporate earnings.

"A possible slowdown in economic activity, especially by multi-national companies, in case of a Brexit or weaker global demand may depress the corporation tax intake and result in weaker fiscal outcomes."
John Carney says he feels ashamed of his comments about Keira Knightley, pictured

Begin Again director John Carney has apologised for "petty, mean and hurtful" comments he made about actress Keira Knightley.

Carney posted his apology on his official Twitter account.

He tweeted: "From a director who feels like a complete idiot."

The tweet was accompanied by a long post outlining his controversial interview with the Independent, which was published last weekend.

Carney had been quoted as sayng: "I'll never make a film with supermodels again."

This comment was taken as a reference to Knightley, who had starred in Begin Again alongside Mark Ruffalo and Adam Levine from Maroon 5.

In his explanation posted on social media, Carney said he was "ashamed" and had written to Knightley "personally to apologise".

"I said a number of things about Keira which were petty, mean and hurtful," he said.

"I'm ashamed of myself that I could say such things and I've been trying to account for what they say about me.

"In trying to pick holes in my own work, I ended up blaming someone else.

"That's not only bad directing, that's shoddy behaviour that I am not in any way proud of. It's arrogant and disrespectful," he said.

Carney, a former bassist for Irish band The Frames, went on to pay tribute to the 31-year-old actress.

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"Keira was nothing but professional and dedicated during that film and she contributed hugely to its success," he said.

"I wrote to Keira personally to apologise, but I wanted to publicly, and unreservedly apologise to her fans and friends and anyone else who I have offended."

He concluded: "It's not something that I could ever justify, and will never repeat."

During his interview published on May 28, Carney had discussed his recent film Sing Street, describing it as "a small personal movie with no Keira Knightleys in it."

In the wake of his initial comments, a number of film-makers tweeted their support of Knightley.

Mark Romanek, who directed the London-born star in Never Let Me Go, said: "My experience with keiraknightley was utterly spectacular on every level.

"I have no clue what this guy is talking about. arrogants**thead."
The coffin of Gareth Hutch is carried from the Holy Family Church in Dublin yesterday (Picture: Mark Condren)

It takes courage to break the cycle of violence that has led to seven feud-related deaths, mourners at the funeral of Gareth Hutch were told.

Hutch (35) was gunned down outside the Avondale House apartment complex in Dublin's north inner city almost two weeks ago.

His funeral took place at the Holy Family Church on Aughrim Street yesterday morning, where mourners were told how ending violence "is not easy".

Among the congregation was Ross Hutch (24), who was previously informed by detectives that there were credible threats against his life.

Ross's father, Eddie Hutch Snr, was shot dead in February as part of the deadly feud.

There was a strong garda presence outside the funeral, with members of the ERU and RSU patrolling the area.

Inside, the church was filled to capacity, and Hutch's coffin was carried in to the sound of 'How Deep Is Your Love?' by the Bee Gees.

Fr Paddy Madden addressed the topic of violence in his homily, as the Hutch family gathered for their third family funeral since last September.

"Breaking the cycle of violence is not easy. It needs courage, restraint, goodwill and right reason - and a desire for peace," he said.

"We pray that those who may find thoughts of peace or the possibility of working for peace difficult or impossible, that they may discover in the bonds of friendship the strength and support to overcome negative feelings. I know that the desire for peace is the springboard to a better future."

The deceased's sister read a poem, which said: "We never thought we'd see the day, when angels came to take you away.Our eyes are red, our hearts are sore, at not being able to see you anymore. Taken from us at such a young age, taken with violence and leaving us with rage.

"We will think of you and remember all the fun, with your year-long tan when there wasn't any sun."

A friend described Hutch as a loveable rogue and a character, with a smile that told you he knew something about you, and he was going to slag you over it.

"He was the biggest wind-up merchant you could ever meet. A trickster, a messer," he said.

Hutch's remains were carried from the church as 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother' played.

The family escorted his coffin to the Drumalee estate off the North Circular Road, with an escort of three limousines, one last time - before turning back down Aughrim Street and travelling to Glasnevin cemetery for burial.
Former Director of Finance at Irish Life and Permanent, Peter Fitzpatrick, leaves court after being found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud. Photo: Collins

The former CEO of Irish Life & Permanent (ILP) is the only remaining accused in a trial which has lasted since mid-January, after another defendant was cleared yesterday.

Denis Casey (56) will return to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday, where 11 jurors will continue deliberating whether he conspired to assist Anglo Irish Bank to defraud the markets in a 7.2bn scheme.

Yesterday, the jurors acquitted his former colleague, ILP's then finance director Peter Fitzpatrick (63), of the same offence. It was day 86 of the trial, making it by far the longest criminal trial in the State's history.

After almost 47 hours of deliberations, at last came the verdict: not guilty. Mr Fitzpatrick immediately dropped his head in his hands, trembling, weeping and overcome.

Judge Martin Nolan acceded to a defence application to discharge Mr Fitzpatrick from the indictment.

Afterwards, Mr Fitzpatrick revealed that he had prepared a short statement but that it was "gone". "I'd just cry my eyes out," he admitted.

In the end, all he said as he left the courts with his family, was: "Relieved, relieved."

On Wednesday, the jury had convicted Anglo's former head of capital markets, John Bowe (52), and the bank's then finance director, Willie McAteer (65), who were accused of conspiring to mislead investors, depositors and lenders about the true health of Anglo. They have been remanded on bail pending sentence until July 25.

Bowe, from Glasnevin, Dublin; McAteer of Greenrath, Tipperary Town; Mr Casey (56) from Raheny, Dublin and Mr Fitzpatrick (63) of Convent Lane, Portmarnock, Dublin had all pleaded not guilty to conspiring to mislead investors by setting up a 7.2bn scheme between March 1 and September 30, 2008, to bolster Anglo's balance sheet.

The prosecution case was that the four men were involved in a setting up a circular scheme of billion-euro transactions - where Anglo lent money to ILP and ILP sent the money back to Anglo, via their assurance firm Irish Life Assurance.

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.

McAteer was Anglo's director of finance and Bowe was head of capital markets in the bank's treasury department.

Their lawyers 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.

Lawyers defending former ILP chief executive Mr Casey and his then finance director argued that their clients had no control over how Anglo would account for the deposits and had no intention to mislead the public.

Profile: Executive was among the most senior at ILP

As director of finance at Irish Life & Permanent (ILP), Peter Fitzpatrick worked as one of the most senior executives at what was then a major investments, insurance and banking group.

An experienced executive who originally qualified as a chartered accountant in 1979, he'd held the group finance director role at ILP since 1999, when the business was formed out of a merger of Irish Life and Permanent TSB.

Fitzpatrick had originally joined what was the Irish Permanent Building Society in 1992 as finance director. He had helped manage the society's conversion from a mutual body to a corporate bank, and the subsequent listing on the Dublin and London stock exchanges in 1994, as well as the later merger.
Fire crews battled a blaze in a high-rise apartment in Dublin this afternoon.

Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) attended the fire at a building on Belgard Square in Tallaght shortly after 5pm.

Crews from Tallaght, Dolphin's Barn and Dun Laoghaire successfully put out the blaze shortly before 7pm.

The flames were contained in two apartments.

A spokesperson for Dublin Fire Brigade told Independent.ie there were no injuries but one person was brought to hospital as a precautionary measure.

There was also extensive fire damage done to two apartments at the top of the building.

Photographs from the DFB's official Twitter account shows the firefighters battling the blaze from dizzy heights.
Irishman John Edward Donnelly (inset) found dead in suspicious circumstances in Turkey holiday resort

Police in Turkey have launched an investigation into the suspicious death of an Irishman in the resort of Bodrum.

The victim has been named as Mr John Edward Donnelly.

He was reportedly stabbed to death at a holiday apartment in the south-west coast resort.

The popular retired Dublin man was heavily involved in musical theatre.

Local media are reporting the 64-year-old was knifed once.

Saatbasihaber.com is reporting that the man travelled to the region 20 days ago and was staying on Tevfik Street.

Mr Donnelly's body was discovered at 2pm on Friday after neighbours raised the alarm.

A bloodied knife was reportedly found in the hallway outside of the apartment where the man had been staying.

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A spokesperson for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that they were offering consular assistance to the man's family.

Bodrum is a popular holiday resort with Irish tourists and attracts thousands of travellers each year.

A total of 31 Irish people lost their lives in Turkey in the seven years from 2009 to 2015.
An Irishman has reportedly been stabbed to death in Turkey.

Local media said the man (64) was knifed once at a holiday apartment in the resort of Bodrum on the south-west coast.

Saatbasihaber.com is reporting that the man travelled to the region 20 days ago and was staying on Tevfik Street.

His body was discovered at 2pm on Friday after neighbours raised the alarm.

A bloodied knife was reportedly found in the hallway outside of the apartment where the man had been staying.

Police in the country have launched an investigation into the suspicious death.

A spokesperson for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that they were offering consular assistance to the man's family.

One source told independent.ie that the man is believed to be retired and originally from Dublin.

Bodrum is a popular holiday resort with Irish tourists and attracts thousands of travellers each year.

A total of 31 Irish people lost their lives in Turkey in the seven years from 2009 to 2015.
A man has died following a suspected heart attack at a popular city centre bar in the early hours of this morning.

Independent.ie can reveal that the male was discovered in Pantibar on Dublin's Capel Street.

Gardai believe that the 40-year-old man suffered a heart attack before falling down a stairs in the building.

He was discovered before 2am and pronounced dead an hour later in hospital

Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) and gardai attended the scene but the death is not being treated as suspicious.

A spokesman for the DFB confirmed that two units, an ambulance and a fire appliance, were called to the scene shortly after 2am.

They took the man by ambulance to the Mater Hospital and administered CPR en route.

He was unable to confirm if the man suffered the cardiac arrest before or after the fall.

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The man died in hospital.

The gay bar is owned by Rory O'Neill, aka Panti Bliss, and is one of Dublin's most popular night spots.

Mr O'Neill was a lead campaigner in the gay marriage referendum and has received international attention for his work on equality issues.

A manager at the bar confirmed that a "tragic incident" occurred there overnight.

He said: "We have no comment to make in relation to this."

The death was just one of a number of serious incidents that Dublin Fire Brigade dealt with last night.

Earlier units from Phibsboro were called to the Hardwicke flats where a woman suffered burn injuries after a fire in a kitchen.

And at 10pm DFB officers attended a fire on Friary Avenue in Smithfield where a man in his 60s was discovered in a serious condition.

A spokesman said the man suffered smoke inhalation and then a cardiac arrest.

Fiire officers resuscitated him and brought him to the Mater Hospital here he remains in a serious condition this morning.
A 23-year-old man was airlifted to hospital after he fell 40ft from a cliff in the early hours of this morning.

The alarm was raised at 5am after the man fell from the ledge on the outskirts of Lahinch, Co Clare, according to the Irish Coastguard.

It is understood that a group of men were socialising on the cliff at the time when the man fell into the sea and became unconscious.

Members of the Doolin unit of the Irish Coast Guard along with an ambulance from nearby Ennistymon were alerted and rushed to the scene but were unable to rescue the man from the water.

The Shannon based Irish Coast Guard search and rescue helicopter was requested to airlift the injured man to hospital.

The entire rescue operation took over two hours and the man was brought to Galway University Hospital for treatment shortly after 7am.
Dermot McCarthy, former Secretary General at the Department of the Taoiseach

Former government secretary Dermot McCarthy has been ordained a permanent deacon by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

Martin was one of eight men ordained to the deaconate at a ceremony at Dublin's Pro Cathedral this morning, according to RTE.

Most of the eight men are married or widowed and were accompanied at the ceremony by family members.

There are now 30 permanent deacons in the Dublin diocese.

Deacons can celebrate baptism and marriage and preside at funerals.

They also visit the sick, prisoners and the bereaved and promote awareness of the church.

In the Catholic Church, deacons must be male and their ministry is voluntary and part-time.

Dermot McCarthy was once dubbed "the most powerful civil servant in the country".

He presided over social partnership, benchmarking and the Croke Park agreement during his 11 years in Merrion Street.

He received a retirement package of a 570,000 'golden goodbye' and a pension of 142,000 a year.

Known semi-affectionately by Brian Lenihan as 'The Cardinal', McCarthy was a career civil servant who served under Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen and was at the epicentre of the last three Fianna Fail administrations.

He replaced Frank Murray as Secretary General to the Government in January 2000, and consolidated his power in July 2001 when, with the retirement of the Secretary to the Department of the Taoiseach Dermot Gallagher (DAG, to his colleagues), the two positions were combined into one big job.

Born in Dublin, Dermot McCarthy attended school in the Christian Brothers Synge Street, and at the age of 16 won an essay competition on the benefits of the EU, which he later said influenced him to join the civil service. He then went to Trinity College, from where he graduated with a BA and a Masters in Literature.

He worked in the Department of Industry and Commerce, and later as a principal officer in the General Medical Service section of the Department of Health before moving to the Personnel Unit under the influential 'Sir Humphrey', John Hurley.

McCarthy was then promoted to the Department of the Taoiseach in 1993, where he became an Assistant Secretary, with responsibility for the Economic and Social Policy Division -- which under Bertie Ahern would manage the government's pet project, social partnership.

European Affairs was later added to the portfolio, even though he had a well-known aversion to flying. In later years, he would often drive to London and take a train to Paris or Rome or Brussels to attend meetings with the Taoiseach of the day.

In a rare enough public appearance in 2003, McCarthy set out his vision of the "virtuous" economic cycle in Ireland.

"Buoyant tax revenue allowed tax reductions, that supported continued wage moderation and further increased competitiveness, which increased inward investment, yielding income that increased domestic demand, giving rise to non-traded business activity and further employment," he told an OECD Forum on 'Governing Growth and Development: The Irish Experience'.

It was a succinct assessment of the so-called 'Celtic Tiger'.
Donald Trump arrives at Shannon Airport on his visit to Ireland in 2014, when he had a look at work at the Doonbeg golf course. Photo: Sean Curtin

The Cabinet is split over whether official meetings should be arranged with US presidential candidate Donald Trump when he visits Ireland later this month.

Mr Trump's announcement of his plans to visit Doonbeg in Co Clare yesterday took senior Government figures by complete surprise.

The visit will take place around the same time British voters take part in the EU referendum, as well US Vice President Joe Biden's official trip to Ireland.

However, the planned visit immediately became shrouded in controversy as a result of Mr Trump's previous comments about women, Muslims and Mexicans.

During a Dail debate last week, Taoiseach Mr Kenny labelled Mr Trump "racist" and "dangerous".

And several ministers refused to commit to meeting the controversial US businessman. They included Mr Kenny, Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald, Finance Minister Michael Noonan, Education Minister Richard Bruton and Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan

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The Government's official line was issued from the Taoiseach's office: "Mr Trump, like every tourist, will be more than welcome to Ireland and we hope he has a pleasant stay."

But, despite describing Mr Trump's attitude towards women as "misogynistic" during the week, Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar said he would meet him.

"I meet people I disagree with all the time. I'd also say what I said to his face," Mr Varadkar told the Irish Independent.

His Fine Gael colleague, Agriculture Minister Michael Creed, agreed. His spokesman said: "The minister understands that Mr Trump is visiting in a private capacity. Minister Creed is willing to meet with visitors if requested to discuss potential trade opportunities for the Irish agri-food sector."

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Minister for Disabilities Finian McGrath emphasised that, while he does not agree with all of Mr Trump's political views, he likened the idea of shunning the US businessman to "modern-day political correctness", adding: "I don't believe in the business of not talking to people."

A spokesman for Communications Minister Denis Naughten said he believed a meeting with Mr Trump "would result in an interesting political debate".

Meanwhile, People Before Profit TD, Richard Boyd Barrett, launched a stinging attack on Mr Trump, who he described as a "dangerous and vile racist", a "warmonger" and "sexist".

Mr Boyd Barrett told Indepenent.ie's political podcast 'The Floating Voter' that he and his colleagues would be holding a protest during the visit.

Gardai are already planning a major security operation to protect Mr Biden in Ireland.

Gardai and the Defence Forces will need to spend around 5m on the Biden visit, with parts of the Phoenix Park likely to be off-limits to the public.

"Things are already stretched because of Biden - gardai will have to mount operations everywhere he goes during the four days," said a source.

In total, it is estimated that about 2,000 personnel will be involved in the Biden plan.

A separate plan will now have to be put in place for Doonbeg.

"It would seem inevitable that there will be a mixture of protesters, people who just want to see Trump, and media - so a big security operation will be needed around the village," said a source.
Ministers are to intensify their efforts to win the support of Independent TDs who did not vote for Enda Kenny as Taoiseach amid growing concerns about the Government's wafer-thin majority.

Senior Fine Gael figures say they have pinpointed a number of TDs as potential "replacements" in the event of Independent ministers pulling their support for the minority Government.

These are Galway West TD Noel Grealish, Roscommon TD Michael Fitzmaurice and Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath.

There is particular concern about strength of the support being offered by Waterford TD John Halligan, who was last month appointed a junior minister in the Department of Enterprise.

Members of Mr Halligan's own Independent Alliance have also privately expressed doubt over whether he will remain part of the Government for the "long haul".

The concern over whether the Government will last was heightened this week following its defeat during a vote over a Labour Party bill on workers' rights.

"We have no choice but to build a replacement strategy especially given some of the soundings from the likes of John Halligan," said one senior party source. Mr Halligan did not respond to calls yesterday.

It has also emerged Mr Kenny held a discussion with Michael Harty on Thursday as Fine Gael prepares to vote for the Clare TD for the position of health chair.

Dr Harty sparked serious concern within Government circles after claiming last week that he never committed to full-time support of the minority administration.

Speaking to the Irish Independent last night, Independent Alliance Minister Finian McGrath said he would like to see a number of other Independents join the Government.

"I am all in favour of bringing in new Independents which would go towards making the Government broader and more stable," the Dublin Bay North TD said.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny is promising to personally supervise a new plan to regenerate Dublin's north inner city.

Mr Kenny is pledging additional funding for health, education, jobs and tackling crime in the area that has been devastated by the spate of gangland killings.

The Taoiseach says he will visit the area in the coming weeks to meet with community leaders and see what resources are needed.

He will put Junior Minister Damien English in charge of the task force for the north inner city.

Mr Kenny says the plan has to be implemented in the five-year lifespan of the Government.

"My job is to tie together the different elements of Government that can make an impact, in terms of facilities, opportunity, hope and provision of opportunities for those people in inner-city Dublin.

"It means that first of all you set out to change or transform the sort of communities in which they live for their betterment, that you listen to what it is that they want," he says.

The measures Mr Kenny lists aimed at helping the area include:

the development of the National Drugs Strategy;

new legislation before the summer break on prescription drugs;

housing improvements;

educational facilities.

Mr Kenny says he will visit the area in the coming weeks with the Justice Minister, Education Minister and Public Spending Minister.

"The community leaders are the ones I'm really interested in: tell me what you want, show me how we can make a difference to what you are doing here with young people."
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has adopted a surprisingly hard line on water charges, insisting homeowners will have to pay to abide by EU law.

In an exclusive interview with the Irish Independent, Mr Kenny has reopened the water charges debate saying: "You are going to have to pay."

Mr Kenny also suggests reducing the point at which water bills can be deducted from non-paying homeowners' wages from the current 500 limit.

The Taoiseach was speaking after a European Commission clarification this week that water charges can't be abolished once they are in place.

The Oireachtas is setting up a committee to recommend the future of water charges - and the bills have been parked pending its outcome.

Mr Kenny says: "There is the issue that the Oireachtas Committee and the Dail is not going to vote for something that it knows is illegal," he said.

The Taoiseach also said he has a "very clear process" planned to hand over to his successor as Fine Gael leader. He intends to stay in office for the full term of this Government, yet not lead the party into a general election.

"I have a very clear understanding of what it is that I am going to do and I will set that out in due course," he said.
What not to miss this week.

The show

RTE Concert Orchestra Presents: Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark

The famed RTE Concert Orchestra is performing John Williams' iconic score from the hit Steven Spielberg film tonight and tomorrow night at Dublin's National Concert Hall. The movie will play on a 39-foot screen, while the fabulously talented musicians play live alongside it. The cheaper tickets are sold out, but you can still get some for both shows from 48.50 per person. See ticketmaster.ie for more.

The LOL

Sky Cats Laugh Comedy Festival,

The annual Cats Laugh comedy festival takes place in Kilkenny from today until Monday night, and there's a veritable smorgasbord of funny on offer. All of Al Porter's stand-up gigs are sold out, but there's still lots on offer, from Republic of Telly's Joanne McNally to David O'Doherty and Jason Manford, and just being in Kilkenny over the weekend is the craic. Tickets are available from thecatlaughs.com.

The event

Forbidden Fruit

The grounds of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham will be overrun with festival goers this weekend as Forbidden Fruit returns for yet another June bank holiday weekend. The Sunday day tickets are sold out, but you can still snap up a pass for today, tomorrow (59.50 each), or the entire weekend (119). Dizzee Rascal, Tame Impala and Underworld will all take to the stage.

The TV programme

Top Gear

Let's give Chris Evan and Matt LeBlanc another chance, shall we? It was never going to be the same without Clarkson and co, but it's still a fantastic show with incredibly high production values. We know, we miss Richard too.

The radio show

Marty in the Morning

RTE Lyric FM is broadcasting several of its show live from the Bloom festival in the Phoenix Park this weekend, and Marty Whelan's Saturday morning programme is easy listening at its finest for a bank holiday weekend - plus he'll be interviewing Neven Maguire. Catch Marty from 10am.

The box-set

Orange Is The New Black

Series four of the prison dramedy is back on June 17, so if you've never indulged in OITNB, now is the time to catch up on Netflix. The female inmates of Litchfield Penitentiary make for compulsive viewing, and they're worth the 7.99 subscription fee alone.
John and Mary were the most popular names in Ireland 1964

New statistics released from the Central Statistics office show how adventurous Irish parents have become since 1965, a year when John and Mary were the most popular monikers.

The latest figures released from the CSO differ greatly from those published more than 50 years ago, with many traditional names toppling off the list.

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In 1965, John was the most popular baby boys name of the year, with 3,360 children christened with the name, followed closely by Patrick, Michael and James.

In 2015, Jack, Daniel and Conor featured in the top five favourites, but James had stood the test of time and claimed a top spot in the latest list.

There were many baby Marys in 1965 and 3,229 children were bestowed the name that year. In 2015, Mary claims the 74th spot on the list.

Margaret, Catherine, Ann and Anne also featured in the top five most popular baby names in 1965 but none of these feature in 2015s list of most popular names.

Emma, Ava, Sophie and Amelia were the most frequently chosen names for baby girls last year.

The figures revealed that the name George entered the top 100 list of most popular names for the first time last year, rising 13 places over the course of 12 months, perhaps inspired by the growing Prince across the water.

Annabelle, Mila and Rosie were also first time entrants in the list of the top 100 female names registered in Ireland in 2015.

The figures compiled by the CSO also displayed that Irish parents may be becoming more influenced by celebrity culture when it comes to naming their little one as babies named Mila, Zayn, Kim, Dakota and Romeo were registered in Ireland in 2015.

Some of the more unusual baby names registered last year included Paris, Nelly, Pixie, Barra, Gus and Otis.

Regionally, Adam proved to be the most popular name for baby boys in Galway City in 2015, while Charlie topped the list in Co. Kilkenny. More babies were named Ella in Co. Roscommon than any other moniker, while Molly proved the favourite in Co. Cavan.

Murphy retained its spot as Irelands most common surname and accounted for 1.1pc of births last year, followed closely by Kelly (1pc).

More than 21,264 unique surnames were also registered suggesting the continuing popularity of double-barrelled names such as OBrien-Murphy, which was registered in 2015.
A revolutionary approach to treating cancer that uses DNA tests can shrink tumours at six times the rate of existing medicine, new trials reveal.

Experts said "precision medicine" was "the most exciting thing since chemotherapy" and in the future patients could be saved by 250 gene tests.

The new approach treats patients using targeted gene sequencing or their whole genetic profile.

Experts said treatment on the basis of DNA tests could become the norm within five years. For example, one in three women in Britain who undergoes gruelling rounds of chemotherapy could be spared the process.

The findings, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, come from 13,000 patients in 346 early-stage clinical trials.

Researchers for the landmark study, by the University of California San Diego School of Medicine's Centre for Personalised Cancer Therapy, found that tumours in patients who received targeted treatments had shrinkage rates of 30.6pc, compared with 4.9pc in those who did not.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
There was a 70pc chance of rain. Boats hadn't sailed the previous week.

I arrived in Kerry to slumberdown skies, hulking greyly over everything. My attempt to visit Skellig Michael, 13km offshore in the maritime mulch, was looking inauspicious, to say the least.

When I woke up the following morning, however, I opened the curtains to what could have been a Failte Ireland ad. The skies were blue. The water was glistening. The boatmen were hustling at the pier. An hour later, I was pulling on a borrowed set of oilskins, on my way to the ultimate UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know the Skelligs featured in the latest Star Wars trilogy, including The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017).

The rocks looked stunning screen, and guides have been seeing growing numbers of visitors whipping out lightsabers and Jedi cloaks for selfies ever since.

But here's the thing. Though Star Wars has shot it into the spotlight, by the time you cross the heaving seas, climb the 618 steps, wonder at the psychadelically-beaked puffins and emerge to the cluster of beehive huts overlooking the Atlantic, Luke and Rey seem kind of irrelevant. It's jaw-dropping.

Why did the monks come here? How did they survive the inclement weather? The wind buffets you on precarious paths ('Please take care, as fatalities have occurred,' a sign warns). Headstones are ravaged, and it's pure chance as to whether you'll be caked in rain or fog or treated to resplendent sunshine.

It feels like a galaxy far, far away, but it's tantalisingly close to home.

How to do it

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Boats to the Skelligs cost around 100 for landing trips. You can also book boat tours without setting foot on the island - these start from around 40pp and take 2.5-3 hours..

Star Wars fever, a short season (typically end of May to end of September; but in 2021 the island opens on June 21st) and limited visitor numbers means seats are at a premium, so book ahead where possible.

Here's a list of the Skellig Islands boat trip operators:

Timothy Casey, Portmagee, 087 142-7137; 087 958-2198

Fionan Murphy, Valentia, 087 280-9861, 066 947-6883

Paul Devane, Portmagee, 087 617-8114

Gearoid Moran, Portmagee, 066 947-7108; 086 308-9491

Donal MacCrohan, Valentia, 087 290-6168

Seanie Murphy, Valentia, 087 236-2344

Dermot J Walsh, Valentia, 086 833-9549; 066 947-6120

Brendan Casey, Caherciveen, 087 450-1211; 066 947-2437

Michael B Casey, Portmagee, 087 144-6230

David Walsh, Ballinskelligs, 087 238-5610

Nealie Lyne, Valentia, 087 687-1261

James Duff, Valentia, 087 464-5824

Patrick Murphy, Portmagee, 087 234-2168, 087 676-2983

Michael O'Sullivan, Waterville, 066 947-4800

John O'Shea, Caherdaniel, 087 689-8431

See the OPW's official website here for the latest details.

Boat trips are weather-dependent, with decisions made based on sea conditions on the morning of travel. Even when trips go ahead, the crossings can be rough - so think twice before wolfing down that Full Irish breakfast an hour before your trip.

Some passengers do cancel, or fail to show, so it can be worth pitching up in the morning to try for tickets - but don't depend on this.

What to pack

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Trips last from around 9.30am to 3.30pm, and there are no toilets or shelter on the rock - so bring sunscreen, layers, waterproofs and food (watch out for sniping gulls, though). It's a good idea to bring a backpack, so your hands are free on the uneven steps.

Skellig Michael is a wilderness site. If you feel the climb may be a challenge, or have medical conditions that could be a concern, think seriously before you travel.

Any other tips?

Expand Close Skellig Michael is home to thousands of Atlantic puffins, at least from March to September. These colourful, enigmatic seabirds spend their summers on the island, breeding and fattening their chicks on locally available food which often comprises of high calorie sand-eel and sprat. Photo: Valerie OSullivan / Facebook

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Whatsapp Skellig Michael is home to thousands of Atlantic puffins, at least from March to September. These colourful, enigmatic seabirds spend their summers on the island, breeding and fattening their chicks on locally available food which often comprises of high calorie sand-eel and sprat. Photo: Valerie OSullivan

There are OPW guides on the Skelligs who give a short spiel on the UNESCO World Heritage Site - don't be shy with the questions; they're a mine of information.

Have a Plan B in case of cancellation: Valentia Island, the Skelligs Chocolate Factory (skelligschocolate.com), Kerry Dark Sky Reserve and Ring of Skellig drive are all under-rated attractions off the traditional Ring of Kerry loop.

The Skellig Experience on Valentia Island (skelligexperience.com; 5/3) offers some super insights into the history, wildlife, lighthouses and birds of the Skelligs, whether or not you make the islands themselves.

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Where to stay

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Boats go to the Skelligs from Caherdaniel, Ballinskelligs and Valentia, but Portmagee is the main taxi stand. The Moorings (moorings.ie), run by Gerard and Patricia Kennedy, is just yards from the harbour.

It has a Star Wars package, bundling two nights' B&B with the opportunity to pull your own pint in the same bar as Luke Skywalker (AKA Mark Hamill) and a T-shirt ('May the craic be with you!') from 195pps.

NB: Prices subject to availability. Some information, such as the boatmen licensed to operate in a given year, may be subject to change.
Over one year since Hiqa published its damning report into five baby deaths in Portlaoise hospital, news emerged of the death of one new-born baby in Cavan hospital, and the death of another baby after an emergency C-section.

Then there was the death of a pregnant woman during emergency surgery in Holles Street during the last 10 days.

Last year, there were 65,977 births in Ireland, and nearly all of these babies were born safely, with mothers and children healthy. But child birth is an extremely risky affair. Death will be an inevitable outcome in a really small minority of cases, but for most death is, or should be, avoidable.

In May 2015, Hiqa found that Portlaoise maternity unit had been unsafe, with insufficient frontline staff, under-resourced to cope with the complex care required. It said the failure to learn from previous hospital inquiries meant more babies' lives were lost.

That same month, then Health Minister Leo Varadkar and HSE chief Tony O'Brien told the Oireachtas Health Committee that maternity services were safe; new staff, management and governance structures were in place; and people would be held to account.

Irish families giving birth now and in the future need reassurance that everything possible is done to make birth safe and to prevent avoidable risk, and when mistakes are made that they will be treated honestly and promptly.

Sadly, this is still not the case.

Cavan hospital maternity services were in the spotlight before, following four baby deaths in the hospital's maternity unit between 2012 and 2014. The HSE commissioned an independent review of the governance of the maternity services, separate to the reviews of the four deaths.

The review, published in September 2015, is relatively positive. It concluded, "overall, the systems and processes for the assurance of quality, risk, and patient safety are well established and effective at Cavan (maternity services)".

However, it also identified that "the hospital's biggest challenge is coping with staff shortages in critical areas, including obstetricians and midwives".

The review found that "smaller hospitals such as Cavan cannot operate in isolation as standalone entities either clinically or financially. They simply cannot sustain the breadth and depth of clinical services without formal links and networks with bigger, stronger, more specialist units."

The review praises the facilities and services of a midwife-led unit, yet just 130 out 1,800 births in 2014 were in the midwife-led unit. It identified differences in views between doctors and midwives, with "the doctors very much in charge", and how this poor multi-disciplinary working exacerbated staff shortages.

At the time of the review, the midwife-to-births ratio was 1:40 and it specified the need to hire "five more midwives to work towards a ratio of 1:37". It also recommended that "the Assistant Director of Nursing for Midwifery should join the Operational Management Team".

Cavan hospital is now part of the RCSI hospitals group. The group failed to answer questions put to it by myself this week on whether any of these issues had been progressed since last September.

Safely staffing maternity units with the right skill mix is central to ensuring high-quality care. Denying such information to the public exacerbates the loss of public confidence in maternity services.

The internal reviews of just one out of the four Cavan baby deaths pre-2014 is completed. None of them have been published.

When a family loses their healthy mother or child during pregnancy or birth, it is the worst possible thing that could happen. But when the system responsible for their care delays and obfuscates (the reviews may find the deaths were unavoidable) it just makes such a catastrophic experience even worse for them and undermines any remaining confidence in services.

Currently, any adverse incident must be reported to the HSE's national incident management team and a desktop review is meant to be carried out. If deemed necessary, a more detailed review will take place, usually involving staff and families. Such reviews are 'internal' and not normally published.

In some instances, an independent in-depth review will be commissioned by the HSE and in others Hiwa will be requested by the health minister to launch an investigation.

However, despite numerous avoidable maternal and baby deaths in recent years, it is still not clear which cases get examined independently and which do not.

In 2012, a coroner had called for reviews into the deaths of two babies in the Reilly family at Portiuncula hospital. It was only in 2015, after four more baby deaths at Portiuncula were highlighted, that an independent inquiry was commissioned and the Reilly family were given the internal reviews into their babies' deaths, four years after their second child died.

This Portiuncula baby deaths independent inquiry report was promised by July 2015. It remains unpublished.

Given the erratic and delayed nature of reviews to date, it should be compulsory that all maternal and baby deaths have an independent review, that these must get carried out within a realistic timeframe and the families of the bereaved must be appropriately involved in them.

Similarly with inquests, although hospitals are meant to inform the coroner of all such cases, inquests do not always happen. Making post-mortems and coroners' inquests into all maternal and baby deaths mandatory would help the truth to be told and enable learning from avoidable deaths.

Now is the time to act to ensure safe staffing of our maternity units and that obligatory, independent transparent processes are in place when things go wrong, so that much-needed confidence in our maternity services can be regained.
Among the biggest issues facing the minority Government is water charges. Opposition TDs have demanded they be abolished, but a statement from the European Commission this week appears to suggest that even if the Dail votes to scrap the charges, there may be a legal problem.

Why? There are two main reasons.

Under the 2000 Water Framework Directive, EU member states are obliged to protect and improve the quality of all waters and achieve "good ecological status" no later than 2027.

This is in part achieved by implementing the 'polluter pays' principle.

This means that if you - 'you' being a business, a farmer, a retailer, an industrial plant or a householder - cause pollution which affects water quality, you must pay the cost of cleaning it up.

That includes everything from trade effluent, to greywater from the washing machine, to the contents of the toilet.

The directive also references recovering the costs of providing water services by way of an "adequate contribution" from industry, households and agriculture. It also talks about measures to encourage users to use water resources efficiently, ie, conserve it. This can be achieved by putting a price on water.

Ireland had a derogation from imposing charges under this part of the directive, called Article 9.4, and treatment costs were funded by the taxpayer until last year, when charges went live.

But the Commission now appears to be of the view that as domestic bills are the law of the land, they are 'established practice', and so we cannot revert to the 'old' system.

Nonsense, insist Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and the Anti-Austerity Alliance, among others. A charge which is in place for just 18 months, and which has met with such mass resistance, is hardly an established practice.

What happens next is open to question. The Commission may ask the Government how it's complying with the directive. If not satisfied with the response, it could take legal action.

It has form in this regard. In December 2012, we were fined for failing to ensure that waste from septic tanks was not causing pollution. A lump sum of 3.5m, plus a daily fine of 12,000, was imposed.

It's unlikely the Commission would be impressed if we were seen just four years later to be ignoring a directive designed to prevent pollution of our water. And lest we forget, we signed up to it.

Arguing that charges are not 'established practice' causes difficulty, not least because it is ill-defined. Is it based on longevity?

The fact that more than half of Irish Water customers have paid some part of a bill, while hundreds of thousands more in rural Ireland have been regularly paying charges for many years, also suggests that paying a water bill is not uncommon.

Our bargaining position is also hampered by the fact that the Fianna Fail/Green Party government told Europe in 2009 it was introducing water charges.

It later reiterated this position in the bailout programme with the troika, so Fianna Fail could reasonably be asked what it is whinging about now.

If the Dail votes to retain the charges, there's no problem. However, if they're scrapped, we are on a collision course with Europe.

The outcome will be ultimately be decided by lawyers, and not politicians.
Many were dismayed that Irish Water played such a major role in the election, even influencing the ultimate make-up of the Government. In politics, an issue can take on urgency because it has gained traction with voters but that should not necessarily catapult it to the top of the agenda in terms of importance.

But populism won out as Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail engaged in a bidding war to be the people's champion when it came to the vexed question of charges and the abolition of Irish Water. Opportunism in "new politics" has made trivial things vital, and vital things trivial. The Government must jump through hoops merely to survive, given the precarious arithmetic on which it depends.

But this week we got a warning shot from Brussels about all this pandering to soft-option solutions. The European Commission warned we could face significant fines "pretty quickly" that could cost the State tens of thousands of euro daily because of the decision to suspend water charges.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is quite correct today to point out that the race for a "quick fix", delivering all things to everyone when it comes to dealing with Irish Water, is fanciful. We are bound by EU strictures and, like it or not, we must abide by them. Fianna Fail's original promise to abolish Irish Water is hollow. As Mr Kenny points out, how can we possibly guarantee clean water, and meet conservation requirements, without massive investment?

He is also right to remind us that some form of financing will have to be found, and that will involve somebody putting their hand in their pocket. Things which matter most must not be at the mercy of things which matter least. Yielding to the popular public impulse can only last so long. Sooner or later, principles will be sacrificed and eventually the cost of the "quick fix" will have to be reckoned with.

Trumps inflammatory disease needs treatment

Donald Trump likes making friends. The trouble is that he seems just as much at ease with making enemies. This loose talking and readiness to offend and alienate has understandably caused enormous division. Yet Mr Trump could hardly be more indifferent. He seems happy to trample over any group if it will garner votes. This may be just about tolerable on the campaign trail, but it would be disastrous if the trait were to survive should he cross the threshold of the White House. His inflammatory racial comments have been especially criticised.

The news that he will be coming to Ireland this month will be greeted with mixed emotions, and Mr Trump has nobody but himself to blame for this. Yet unlike what he himself has threatened to do, there will be no closing of borders  but there will be no rolling out of the red carpet either. The presumptive Republican candidate will have to learn to temper his mood swings from bombastic iconoclast to serious politician. The flames of his incendiary rhetoric could very well end up licking his own feet. Mr Trump is more than capable of reinventing himself if needs must. He famously went so far as to befriend the microscopic snail that was once his deadly foe when it threatened his Doonbeg development.

Commenting on what lays ahead, he recently said: Anyone who thinks my story is anywhere near over is sadly mistaken. Isaac Newton noted that: Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy. And were he around today to do so, he might also remind Mr Trump that what goes up must come down.
Clinton represents the female majority, which has long been marginalised (Picture: Getty Images)

As a man, I have felt for a long time that the under-representation of the majority of the population, women, in the decision-making forums of what are supposed to be representative democracies is one of the major faults of democratic rule worldwide. I think that marginalising the talents, perspectives and interests of such an important and vital majority is not in anyone's interest.

I am, therefore, totally at a loss when I see Hillary Clinton described in what is supposed to be rational political discourse as a "dinosaur", "tarnished", "crooked" and a "feminist Nazi" - and these descriptions are unchallenged.

I cannot understand why her second attempt to be the first woman to become the most powerful politician in the world is meeting with so much opposition, especially from women.

I am even more at a loss when I see the arrogance-will-get-you-everywhere attitude of Donald Trump, her Republican opponent, being praised by commentators, and newspaper headings describing "young women swooning" over Sanders, the near-totalitarian socialist who is opposing her from within her own Democratic party.

Emphasising the point is the fact that Trump - a near-totalitarian right-winger - was described by a learned professor in an article in the 'New York Times' as "echoing Europe in the 1930s".

Clinton is not without fault, but she is an experienced and capable politician representing the mainstream, democratic centre, which has kept totalitarian extremes at bay since WW II.

She is also a member of the female majority, which has been politically marginalised for centuries.

If Clinton, as representing mainstream democracy, and as a member of the majority of the population, does not become the next president of the US when all she has opposing her are Trump and Sanders - representatives of the arrogant, patriarchal and near-totalitarian right and left respectively - one would worry for the future of democracy.

A Leavy

Sutton, Dublin

A brief history of political time

Imagine, if you will, complete nothingness. No space, no time, blanket darkness. Out of this emptiness, according to scientific theory, a small spark ignited - producing a big bang.

Life erupted all over a fledgling universe.

From where did this spark emanate? Why, from 'Homo Politicos', of course. Who else? Emptiness was not happy having just nothingness for company. There was no one to bully, or empower. Boredom set in, creating political energy. Political energy built up in emptiness.

This energy created political resistance, and the resistance began to think of inventing power. Thinking led to political ideology. Political ideas generated a political spark.

This political spark ignited an explosion. Boom! The big political bang exploded, scattering orbs of light energy all over a newly born universe. A political supernova.

One of these light orbs christened itself Homo Politicos.

Homo Politicos waited patiently while time began its human evolution towards Homo Erectus. Homo Politicos could now stand for leadership. Survival of the politically fittest of the species had been conceived. One was elected leader. He called himself B.O.S.S. (Born Of Solar Synthesis). Homo Politicos's political sojourn was ready to commence.

Anthony Woods

Ennis, Co Clare

We need regulation - with teeth

With two bankers found guilty of conspiracy to defraud - a most serious crime against the Irish nation - will we finally get a regulatory body with teeth?

The cap of the iceberg has finally melted. Surely, following the most disastrous banking period since the foundation of the Irish State, we will have an inquiry body.

We owe it to the innocent house-buyers who were not told the property market was about to collapse (and who are now being evicted to enrich vulture capitalists) to restore belief in our regulatory and governmental system.

We need to know officially what really happened.

Sean Simon

Boyle, Co Roscommon

Let the British decide on Brexit

I cannot fathom why outsiders such as President Barack Obama and a retinue of his former secretaries of defence and state, and national security advisors and general secretaries of the United Nations - and now former Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern among many others - are rushing to predict doom and gloom if the United Kingdom decides in a free, democratic and transparent referendum to leave the EU. This is a British affair, pure and simple.

It affects the British people and impacts on their daily lives.

All the above-mentioned have passed their use-by date.

David Cameron and his ilk are dragging the UK into the mud.

Their campaign is descending to new lows - with threats and talk of dangers if the UK decides to leave the EU.

Brexit is not about immigration. The UK has an unparalleled track record of being a multicultural, tolerant and diverse society.

Migrants and refugees have contributed tremendously to the political, economic, educational, cultural and religious richness of this country.

What we need is informative debate, not brazen tactics of fear and threats.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London, NW2 7QY

A charming image of times past

What a charming picture of the female Inter Cert students from 1964 (Irish Independent, June 1), all posing with effortless elegance. Hopefully life has been kind to them in the interim.

Tom Gilsenan

Beaumont, Dublin 9

A word to the wise for drivers

To all of our children - now young adults - who will be travelling around Ireland by car this bank holiday weekend: have a great time, look out for your friends and please, please, come home safely.

Damien Carroll

Kingswood, Dublin 24
The Thomas D'Arcy McGee summer school has been launched, and in keeping with this historic year, the theme is 'D'Arcy McGee, 1916 and the Revolutionary Republican Tradition'.

Canadian Ambassador to Ireland, Kevin Vickers, did the honours in Liberty Hall to begin the countdown to the summer school which will take place in Carlingford on 22-23 August next.

'Carlingford-born Thomas D'Arcy McGee played a pivotal role in the negotiations which led to the founding of the Canadian Confederation and nation,' recalled Mr Vickers.

'For this he paid a high price - a bullet cut short a remarkable political and literary career, making him the only federal politician assassinated in Canada's history.

'As Canada prepares for the 150th anniversary celebrations in 2017, it is fitting and appropriate that this year's summer school affords Canadians and Irish of all persuasions the opportunity to review and debate our shared history and the political journeys we have all made in the quest for stability, equality and prosperity.'

The summer school has attracted leading politicians, political activists, historians and academics to review this controversial 1916 theme, in the context of the foundation of the nation states of Ireland and Canada, and the ongoing challenges of the current peace process.

One of the main fringe events is the 'Trial of Padraig Pearse' in the old court house in Carlingford.

Attendees will also have the chance to review the recently established Thomas D'Arcy McGee permanent exhibition, which traces his career from revolutionary republican to constitutional nationalism.

Thomas D'Arcy McGee had an intense and shifting relationship with revolutionary republican nationalism. In his early years, he was a constitutional nationalist, in the Daniel O'Connell tradition.

But in 1848-9, in the context of revolution in Europe and Famine in Ireland, he became a revolutionary, and embraced a programme that anticipated all the central features of Fenianism; including supporting a revolution in Canada.

However, he gradually moved away from this position, reasserted the primacy of moral force nationalism, reinvented himself as a Catholic conservative, and utterly repudiated revolutionary republicanism.

Not that he was opposed to physical force in principle; it was rather that he believed it could not succeed in practice.

Details of the programme, registration etc are available on www.thomasdarcymcgee.com

'I look forward to returning to Carlingford to enjoy the summer school's lively debates and fringe events in the idyllic setting of McGee's birthplace,' concluded Ambassador Vickers at the launch.
Dundalk-born poet and first-time novelist Conor O'Callaghan at the launch of his book

Dundalk-born poet and first-time novelist Conor O'Callaghan received an amazing review in the Irish Times the weekend after he launched his book, 'Nothing on Earth'.

The Carrick Road writer was joined by family and friends for the launch of the book at the Books Upstairs store in D'Olier Street. He was introduced by Eoin McHugh and Alice Youell of Doubleday Ireland and replied with a lovely speech followed by a short reading from the book.

The launch came just two days before Irish Times' literary correspondent Eileen Battersby said the book was 'some of the most impressive Irish fiction since Neil Jordan'.

In her review in the Saturday Weekend supplement, Ms Battersby said: 'Many writers of virtuoso prose have nothing to say; equally novels based in important events are often written in dull, laboured prose.

'Conor O'Callaghan has, without pretence of affection or straining for effect, told an original story, and brilliantly, in plain prose which does shimmer in shade and nuance.

'He immediately stamps his authority on the extraordinary, low-key and pitch perfect novel and maintains effortless control in what is one of the most impressive pieces of Irish fiction writing since Neil Jordan's The Dream of a Beast in 1983.

'This adroit, uncompromising novel leaves questions unanswered and won't easily release its hold'. On Monday it was selected for the Eason Book of the Month on Pat Kenny's Newstalk show.
Pauline Caffrey (left), Ravensdale, Jennifer Hynes, Park Drive, Helen Grant, Bellewsbridge Road and Patricia Johnston, Meadow View at the Cross Cooley Challenge presentation night in aid of the North Louth Hospice and the Maria Goretti Foundation held in The Greenore Railway Saloon

On Saturday night I headed for the Greenore Bar where the Cross Border Challenge fundraising night was taking place. The night was the finale of the sponsored walk from The Lumpers Bar to Carlingford which took place earlier this year where 310 volunteers helped to raise 30k which is divided between the North Louth Hospice and Home Care and the Maria Goretti fund.

The event, now in its 4th year has been organised by Errol Boyle from Greenwood Drive, Seamus Gormley from Lower Point Road, Fergus McArdle from Shore Road and Brian Watters from Blackwater Court and had the pub packed with walkers and people ready to support two great causes.

I wasn't too long in the door when I met up with Liam and Paula Gaffney from Ballymakellett who were looking forward to a great night and told me they had made the trek over the mountain and were delighted to be there on the night. They were enjoying the company of Danielle Savage from Bay Estate and Cliodna Lafferty from Ravensdale who told me they too had made it to Carlingford, eventually!

Also in their company were Ciara Boyle from Greenwood Drive, Patricia Johnston from Meadow View, Helen Grant from Bellewsbridge Road and Jennifer Hynes from Park Drive who had all participated and were looking forward to a great nights crack with all their fellow walkers.

Making my way over to another table I then met up with Joan and Mickey Hearty from The Paddock, Anne and Freddy Hoey from the Laurels, Breda and Barney Foley from Manydown Close, some of whom had participated, but were also there waiting on Thomas Gray from Manydown Close to arrive to help him celebrate his birthday!

Meanwhile up near the bar I got talking to David Boyle and Michael Woods from Bay Estate who both had completed the walk and decided they'd better show their faces on the night because it was for such a great cause.

Not too far away I had a word with Gavin Cairns from Avondale Park and Dominic Cairns from Kingswood who told me it was his second year taking part and they both had thoroughly enjoyed it and were going to have a nice quiet night in the Greenore.

Standing close by were Gerry and Mary O'Hare from Hardy Lane who were enjoying the company of Majella and Stephen Murphy from Bay Estate who told me that Stephen was definitely the pacemaker on the walk, but they were all there to wind down, or wind up, depending how the night went.

Not too far away I then got talking to Gerry Farrell from Point Road who was listening to Noel Clarke from Bay Estate who told me he was delighted that Mourinho had taken over at United and everyone should call to Mrs Deli's on Friday mornings between 9 and 11 where he'd be able to sort them out with some very reasonably priced but delicious and nutritious sandwiches!

I then headed over for a chat with Gerry's wife Briege Farrell who had completed the walk and she was having a laugh with Shirley Savage from Bay Estate who hadn't, Catherine McArdle from Bellewsbridge Road and Karen Duffy from Seafield Lawns both of whom had and were looking forward to a bit of a lively night.

Next I caught up with Rachel McArdle and Neil Woods both from Riverside Drive who were delighted to have completed the walk and they were with Michelle McLoughlin from Dunbin who hadn't but was probably there in spirit as they traversed the mountain.

Not too far away I then got a word with Mark and Jenny Larkin from Earlsford who had been on the walk, were going to stay for a few in the pub and then it had to be home for an ice bath for the muscles.

They were having a laugh with Declan McGeeney form Portlaoise who was with Aine Finnegan from Shore Road who were there to lend their support to two great causes.

I then caught up with organiser Seamie Agnew from Lower Point Road who said it had been a great walk, but it was going to be an even greater night.

After this I made my way into a different room where I caught up with Clodagh Mathews from Mourn Vale, Geraldine Crotty from Dromiskin and Stephanie and Michael Cumiskey from Glenwood who told me they had helped with the refreshments on the mountain and were looking forward to an enjoyable night.

They were with Fidelma McArdle from Ardee Road, Catherine White and Mart Mulholland both from Blackrock who told me they were all there representing the North Louth Hospice and Home Care and were looking forward to the nights crack.

Just arrived in were Margaret Gray and the birthday boy Thomas who were with Denise and William Lavaki from Marlmount Walk who told me that Margaret had completed the walk and they all wanted to wish Thomas a very happy 60th.

Finally I met up with Seamus Gormley from Lower Point Road who said he and the rest of the organisers were very impressed and very thankful for everyone taking part and fundraising and they were definitely going to have a lively night.
Adrienne Cunningham and Ann Pentony at the DFP Pension & Investment Consultants inaugural ladies event held in the Ballymascanlon Hotel

Top chef Kevin Dundon made a special appearance at the DFP Pension and Investment Consultants inaugural ladies event at the Ballymascanlon Hotel last week.

One of Ireland's most popular chefs, Kevin Dundon was on hand to entertain over 200 people in attendance with a fabulous cookery demonstration.

Kevin is well known through his various TV appearances and his hotel and restaurant at Dunbrody House in County Wexford.

He interacted with the crowd throughout the evening as he answered any questions they had on techniques or gave any tips he had.

Some guests were pulled up on stage to help out the chef as he created dish after dish of delicious food and some were lucky enough to get a taste.

Lucky winner Siobhan Byrne scooped first prize, which was a weekend trip to Dunbrody House in the giveaway organised by the company.

Mona Kirwan was compere for the evening and added to the relaxed and humorous atmosphere of the evening and a thoroughly enjoyable evening was had by all.
Gardai who arrested a Dundalk man who admitted a number of public order offences had to get assistance from armed colleagues in the Regional Support Unit to detain him during one of the incidents, the district court heard last week.

Aaron Grimes, (28), 51 Grange Drive, Muirhevnamor, was seen by Gardai on the Castletown Road shortly before 3am on March 18. There was a disturbance at the nearby Patrick Tierney Crescent where he was 'highly intoxicated, shouting at people and he told Gardai to f**k off'. The RSU came to their colleagues' aid as Grimes was resisting arrest.

Four days earlier, Grimes had been spotted on a footpath at Seatown around 1am. He was 'highly intoxicated' and when Gardai got out of the patrol car to ask if he was OK, he told them to f**k off and ran away towards oncoming traffic even though he was unable to stand up.

And on November 23, Grimes was spotted by Gardai when he was involved in a dispute at Francis Street. He was 'highly intoxicated and was aggressive when Gardai spoke to him'.

He has 44 previous convictions, including for public order and previously received a jail sentence for public order offences. Solicitor Peter Lavery said his client had given up drinking since the incident on March 18. He had been employed for the last nine months, working in a factory, but 'is now unemployed and seeking work again'.

Mr Lavery said: 'These incidents are unacceptable and they shouldn't have occurred. He us trying to do his best. He apologises to the court for what he has done and has recently completed community service'.

Judge William Hamill noted that Grimes had committed these crime while on community service. Mr Lavery said the offences were as a result of the defendant's drinking and he is off the drink now. He said there has been 'significant improvement' in Grimes in recent times and asked the judge to consider adjourning the cases so Grimes's behaviour could be monitored by the court and he could prove that he is turning his life around.

But the judge repeated that the defendant had committed offences while doing community service and he didn't 'see any point' in giving him more. He imposed a three month jail term, but allowed Grimes to appeal in his own bond of 500 with an independent or cash surety of 500, which was lodged later in the day.
Anton Martin reckons he might soon clock up 50 Bruce Springsteen concerts. Prior to attending both Croke Park shows last weekend, the 54 year-old Dundalk accountant and auditor, had seen The Boss 44 times.

'I might make 50 this year because he's after announcing a US tour again. I was over in Washington and Newark in January,' Anton said in the run-up to the sold-out performances at GAA headquarters, which he enjoyed with his family.

'It was about 1978/79 when I got the album Born To Run, and I started going through his back catalogue. I remember buying The River in Dublin in 1980. I was a student at the time, it was a double LP and I came home and listened to it all weekend - it just grabs you.

'About five or six years ago Bruce announced two shows in the RDS but we'd booked the holidays for a the time.

'I flew back for the one night to see him in the RDS, booked into a hotel and was on the next flight back to France at 6.30 in the morning.

'We always wanted to go to one of his Christmas shows in Asbury Park in New Jersey but we couldn't get tickets online.

'A relative had told me that my mother was born in the same house as the grandmother of George Pataki, who was the Governor of New York.

'So I sent an e-mail to George and explained that I met him in Louth when he was over visiting his roots, and explained that I was looking to buy two tickets for Bruce Springsteen.

'Eventually, the Governor of Albany sorted me out. I got two backstage passes. We saw the whole show from the front, it was brilliant.'
A CT scanner that was partly funded by community donations is only being used for part of the week, a local councillor and health campaigner has revealed.

Councillor Tomas Sharkey has been informed that 3,225 scans were carried out using Louth County Hospital's CT scanner in the last 12 months. Cllr. Sharkey received the information at a recent Regional Health Forum meeting.

The decision by the Department of Health taken in December, 2005 to approve the installation of a CT scanner in the Louth County Hospital would, it was stated, secure the future of the hospital and 'would underpin the joint surgical approach with the Lourdes Hospital'.

Cllr. Sharkey said: 'The people of Dundalk worked hard as a community to raise the funds and install the CT scanner in our hospital. It is a vital piece of equipment which supports the prompt diagnosis of illnesses and therefore appropriate treatment. We are proud of this service.

'The hospital management informed me that 'CT scans are provided three and a half days per week based on the current availability of appropriately trained radiographers'. This is quite telling.

'I believe that the appointment of more staff would result in the CT scanner being used at least 1.5 extra days a week and a 27% increase in activity.

'This would have a positive effect on the hospital and public health. It would go a long way to reduce waiting lists and overcrowding in Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda.

'Extra radiologists and therapists are needed as well as nurses and doctors to fix the health crisis in Louth and Ireland'.

And he also hit out at the government for failing to include Dundalk on the list of 14 Primary Care centres announced last week.

He said: 'Dundalk has one Primary Care Centre. We were promised a second one in 2007.

'In 2012 Fine Gael TD Peter Fitzpatrick claimed that the service would be in place by the end of that year. It has not materialised. We have a broken promise from a broken government and a broken health service.

'Last week the government announced a list of 14 locations for Primary Care centres which will be funded under a 70m loan from the European investment Bank. Dundalk is not on that list.

'Primary Care is one of the crucial issues which could alleviate the crisis in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. A full suite of health providers under one roof would help improve public health, avoid illness and hospital admission and ultimately lead to a healthier society.

'The delays that Dundalk has suffered in relation to this matter is unacceptable. I raised the matter with the HSE at a recent forum meeting and received yet another unsatisfactory answer. The HSE claim that they have yet to complete a phase three process before they appraise the selection of possible service providers'.
The father of a North Cork student whose disappearance earlier this year prompted a huge search operation in Cork city has paid tribute to the Mallow Search and Rescue volunteers after they recovered his son's body from the River Lee three weeks after disappeared.

John Joe Ronayne told the inquest into the death of his son Colin (31) that although he and his family were from Lavally in Mallow, they were not aware of the great work done by Mallow Search and Rescue until tragedy befell them and he wanted to pay tribute to the organisation.

"I just want to pay tribute to Mallow Search and Rescue and all the others who helped in the search - they put in a huge voluntary effort and for that we are eternally grateful," said Mr Ronayne as he paid tribute to the Civil Defence, the Irish Coastguard, Cork City Fire Brigade and An Garda Siochana.

Mr Ronayne said his son was studying commerce at UCC and it was clear from the very thorough garda investigation under Det Sgt Shane Bergin and his colleagues at the Bridewell Garda Station, that they were very reliant on CCTV footage from private premises to trace his final movements.

"I want to thank Det Shane Bergin and the members of An Garda Siochana for the effort they put in to the investigation and the understanding they showed us but it was clear that they were depending on CCTV footage from businesses to try and trace Shane's movement.

"I think there should be more CCTV cameras around UCC or anywhere you have a large student population," said Mr Ronayne who reported his son missing on January 3rd when they failed to make contact with him after he went out socialising on New Year's Eve 2015.

The inquest heard Colin Ronayne was in the final year of a B Comm degree at UCC when he and three friends, Chris O'Connell, Tadhg O'Connor and Ger Deady got a taxi from the Railway Bar in Mourneabbey to meet up with another friend, Chris Kenny in Cork city on New Year's Eve

Witnesses, Chris Kenny and Chris O'Connell told the inquest that they had been with Colin Ronayne in a number of Cork pubs and Rearden's Nightclub and they later had gone for food in Burgerking before catching a taxi back to Mr Kenny's rented house at Mossybank on Magazine Road.

Mr Kenny said he had gone upstairs to bed and Mr O'Connell and Mr Ronayne slept downstairs on two couches and when he came down at 8am, he saw no sign of either man but a window was open which led him to think they had gone out through the window as the door was locked

Mr O'Connell said that he woke around 5am to find Mr Ronayne getting dressed and looking for a pants because he had been sick and when Mr Ronayne told him there was a spare bedroom upstairs, he went up there to go back to sleep and he didn't see Mr Ronayne leave the house.

Det Sgt Bergin told how gardai at the Bridewell began an investigation after the Ronayne family reported their son missing on January 3rd and they began checking CCTV footage from the area and they were able to trace his route from Magazine Road down to Wellington Bridge.

Det Sgt Bergin said that Mr Ronayne used to park his car on the Lee Road when attending UCC because it was disc free and gardai established from CCTV footage that he was headed towards Wellington Bridge and the Lee Road when he was last seen at 6.05am.

He said the wall at Wellington Bridge was quite low being no more than to three feet high while the River Lee was also in flood at the time following torrential rain over the Christmas period and it appeared that Mr Ronayne ended up in the river as he never crossed the bridge to the Lee Road.

A major search operation of the north channel of the River Lee from Wellington Bridge down as far as Blackrock Castle was mounted involving a number of statutory agencies as well as volunteer groups and hundreds of volunteers from Mr Ronayne's home parish of Mourneabbey.

Pat O'Connell of Mallow Search and Rescue told how he found a body during a surface search of the river by the ESB generating station at Kennedy Quay on January 22nd and it was formally identified as being that of Mr Ronayne from dental records.

A post-mortem by Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster found that Mr Ronayne had a blood alcohol concentration level of 231mgs per 100mls and Dr Bolster concluded that he died as a result of acute cardio-respiratory failure due to drowning.

Both Mr Kenny and Mr O'Connell said that Mr Ronayne was in good form when they were out socialising on New Year's Eve and Mr Ronayne Snr said his son was also in good spirits having passed all his terms exams in his final year and they believed his death was "a tragic accident".

Cork City Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane noted the evidence that Mr Ronayne was in good form and that the wall at Wellington Bridge was low while he also had consumed some alcohol on the night but because there was no eye witnesses to what happened, she had to return an open verdict.

She extended her deepest condolences to Mr Ronayne's family on their loss after a lengthy period of uncertainty, noting that his death was one of several tragic deaths in Cork over the Christmas period while Sgt Fergus Twomey sympathised with the Ronayne family on behalf of An Garda Siochana.
A judge had strong words for a Romanian woman who he said was bleeding the system and ordered her to hand over a bundle of notes which she had placed inside her blouse.

Judge James OConnor also refused to return some money to Terca Muntenau (38) of Mill Road, Milstreet so she could get the bus back home to Millstreet.

Sgt Kieran OConnell was asked by the judge to count the money she had with her in court and found 1,450 in 50 notes and a further 140 in sterling.

Ms Muntenau appeared at Tralee District court as she was in custody on foot of a bench warrant after she failed to appear in court on May 11.

She had been remanded on bail on March 2, when she appeared on a charge of stealing Hennessy Brandy and washing powder worth 110 from Centra, Main Street in Dingle on December 28, 2015.

When court began, solicitor Pat Enright outlined that the matter couldnt be concluded until a Roma interpreter was present. However, the Judge was less than impressed and he said to the accused, these people couldnt give two hoots madam, youre bleeding the system.

Mr Enright said his client had been in Romania to sort out travel documents and that is why she didnt appear on May 11. He said she was pleading guilty to theft.

When the woman began to cry, the judge said he had seen too much of that old stuff  and said to her: You understand English very well.

However, he agreed to defer the matter for an interpreter, but said he was remanding her in custody with consent to bail on a bond of 1,000.

Judge OConnor asked if she had cash for bail and was told by Mr Enright, who consulted with his client, that she could only offer 100.

Ms Muntenau was dressed in a long skirt and blouse, and she stepped forward to sign the bail bond.

Dont mind your sobbing Your English is not that bad at all madam, not that bad at all, said Judge OConnor.

She signed the bond and then took out bundles of notes from a purse and peeled off 100, putting back the euro, and then placed the sterling inside the left side of her blouse.

On seeing this, the judge said: Hold on. Take all that out  and the rest that you put back in.

After the money had been counted by Sgt OConnell, the judge ordered all of it to be handed to the court for her bail.

An application for legal aid had been deferred until the next hearing in June.
Actress and writer Eilish OConnell will MC the Hooley in the Hall charity bash at the County Hall on Friday, June 17

Everyone's favourite neighbour, the inimitable 'Winnie McCoogan', is set to bring her own unique sense of fun and mayhem to what promises to be one of the social highlights of the summer in Cork.

Actress, comedienne and author Eilish O'Carroll, will be MC for the eagerly anticipated 'Hooley in the Hall', a charity bash taking place in the County Hall on Friday, June 17 to mark the end of Cllr John Paul O'Shea's term as county mayor.

Known to millions as 'Winnie', the nice if ever so slightly dim neighbour of Agnes Brown, Eilish is the sister of 'Mrs Browns Boys' creator and Irish national treasure Brendan O'Carroll. She is set to preside over the County Hall shindig, with the proceeds from the event set to be donated to The Mercy Hospital Foundation and Pieta House.

The entire ground floor of the County Hall will be transformed into a country themed barn dance on the night with a soundtrack of blue grass and Cajun music courtesy of Ray Barron and Friends and the hugely popular Whole Hog Band.

After doing a turn on the dancefloor guests can replenish their energy levels with some 'finger lickin' homemade food from the BBQ and the 'Mayor's Moonshine'.

The evening will kick off at 7.30pm with people given the freedom to mill around the food and drink stations, savour the special atmosphere and thrown a few shapes on the dancefloor with the bands and a DJ who will be spinning discs into the wee hours.

Through her alter ego 'Winnie', Dubliner Eilish has become one of the most recognisable faces on TV, with Mrs Brown's Boys becoming a massive hit both at home and across the globe. She has also forged a hugely successful career away from the show appearing in a number of films and writing and performing her own award-winning solo show 'Live Love Laugh'.

Cllr O'Shea said he was delighted that Eilish, who now lives in Castletownsend, had accepted his invitation to be MC on the night.

"When considering who I wanted to MC the Hooley in the Hall, there was no doubt Eilish would be a great fit. Particularly, given that she is now an adopted Corkonian," said Cllr O'Shea.

"Pieta House and the Mercy University Hospital Foundation see so much sadness and darkness. I knew Eilish would be ray of light to shine through so is my great joy and pleasure to announce that she has accepted our invitation," he added.

Eilish said she "honoured" to have been asked to take the MC role.

"Cork has always been so welcoming to me. Immediately the country theme struck me, my inner performer can't wait to get involved and encourage fun in aid of such worthy causes," she said. Tickets for the 'Hooley in the Hall', priced at 40, are available from Edel Bodie on 021 4285367, at mayorshooley@corkcoco.ie or any of the eight County Council municipal offices.
Organisers of the Irish Maritime Festival have put out a call for volunteers to help with the Festival at Drogheda Port from Friday 8th to Sunday 10th July.

Volunteer Co-ordinator Karen Devine explains "With over 40,000 visitors to the Festival over the weekend, we are looking for volunteers who love working as part of a team to create a great atmosphere.

'We need a crew of people who will help us to convey the fun, friendly atmosphere of the Festival. We need help with all kinds of practical jobs such as taking tickets at the gate, giving out brochures, helping people on and off the Viking Ships, helping families in the kids activity areas, supporting the activities in the food, fashion and beauty marquee, welcoming competitors from the Boyne Swim and other competitions, surveying visitors to find out more about our Festival audience and so much more."

Louth Volunteer Centre are supporting the Irish Maritime Festival. Manager Grainne Berrill explains "A great crew, big crowds, lots of activities and a great sense of achievement make it a brilliant volunteering experience. We help the Festival Organisers to match each volunteer with a role that best suits their interests and skills.

'With lots of interesting jobs to do over the weekend it's a great opportunity for people to get involved. Drogheda Port is an industrial location and large site, so volunteers need to be in good health as it is busy and tasks can be physical. Volunteers will work in a team with strong guidance from the Project Team who will support volunteers throughout."

To find out more about volunteering, call Karen Devine on 087 8131901 or email her on karen@wlc.ie. Alternatively drop in to meet Grainne and the team and at the Louth Volunteer Centre in the Old Motor Tax Office on Bolton Street who will be happy to assist you. You can also register and apply for Maritime Festival volunteering opportunities on www.volunteerlouth.ie.

The Irish Maritime Festival is hosted by Louth County Council and Drogheda Port Company and in association with Maxol. The event is also proudly supported by Virgin Media and Failte Ireland. Find out more about the Festival by visiting www.MaritimeFestival.ie
The Irish Blood Transfusion Service would like to thank all 483 Donors who attended the recently held clinic in St. Mary's Primary School, Crossroute, Bryanstown, Drogheda. A breakdown of the total figure shows that 43 first time donors and 27 former donors attended the clinic.

'A special thank you to St. Mary's Primary School who facilitated us and to Floorstyle who helped advertise our clinic in their display windows. Also thank you to our local voluntary organiser Ann Marie Beirth and the Drogheda Red Cross Unit for their assistance on each clinic,' a statement added.
Retired detective garda Owen Corrigan has welcomed a statement by the Smithwick Tribunal in the High Court last week that it had made no finding in its final report that the killing of Dundalk farmer Tom Oliver was as a result of information being provided to the Provisional IRA by him.

Det Sgt Corrigan had brought an action to the High Court as a result of certain aspects of the tribunal's report but the court did not proceed with the judicial review case after the statement from the Smithwick Tribunal.

In March 2014, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty told the High Court that after 'careful consideration', he would grant leave to Mr Corrigan to bring his judicial review challenge aimed at quashing and removing certain findings relating to him in the tribunal report.

In his action, Mr Corrigan claimed he was denied fair procedures as he was not given advance notice that any finding in respect of Mr Oliver's death could be made against him.

In making that finding, the tribunal acted outside its terms of reference, which was to investigate the allegation of collusion in the death of RUC officers, he claimed at the time.

Last week, Denis McDonald SC, acting for the tribunal, said, while the tribunal had accepted the evidence of Kevin Fulton, there was no finding in the report that the killing of Mr Oliver was as a result of information provided by Mr Corrigan to the IRA.

The case was before Mr Justice Seamus Noonan but Hugh Hartnett SC, for the former garda, confirmed the case could be struck out with no further order.

In a short statement afterwards, Owen Corrigan said he 'welcomed the confirmation provided by the Smithwick Tribunal in The High Court that it did not make any finding in its report that the killing of Mr Tom Oliver was as a result of information being provided to the Provisional IRA by Mr Corrigan.'

He went on to thank his family, friends and supporters for all their help.

Mr Corrigan's legal team, the court was told previously, described the tribunal findings as "completely false and damaging" to their client.

In its final report the Smithwick Tribunal said it accepted the evidence of Kevin Fulton, who said he had worked for British intelligence in the north, and who claimed Det Corrigan had given information to the IRA in 1991 that Tom Oliver was an informer. He was later abducted near the border and murdered. Mr Corrigan had always denied the claims of Mr Fulton.

The Smithwick Tribunal had been set up to look into the killing by the IRA in 1989 of two senior RUC officers, Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Robert Buchanan.
A 23-year-old engineering student who pleaded guilty to having over 3,000 worth of drugs for sale or supply has avoided a jail sentence.

Carlos Hartwick, Broadmeadows Drive, Drogheda, has instead been sentenced to 100 hours community service in lieu of three months.

He admitted three counts of possessing drugs for sale or supply, and three counts of unlawful possession of drugs at Broadmeadows Drive on 20 April, 2014.

Inspector Brendan Cadden gave evidence the house was searched under warrant at 1.15am on the date, and gardai found cannabis, ecstasy and Xanax, worth a total of 3,268.

Hartwick admitted ownership of the drugs.

He has previous convictions, including for assault causing harm, for which he received a suspended sentence.

Barrister Irene Sands said her client is originally from Spain, and has been in Ireland since he was five.

A full-time student in engineering at DCU, he is doing well in examinations, and works full-time at the moment on a work placement through his college course.

He also works as a pool lifeguard at weekends.

Ms Sands added Hartwick has two children, one from a previous relationship.

Now clear of drugs, he was supplying friends at this time.

Judge Grainne O'Neill said she can't believe the accused was simply selling to his friends, if the guards found drugs on the execution of a warrant.

'He is doing well, but some of the people he sold to could be dead now.'

After hearing Hartwick is suitable for community service, the judge made her order in respect of the supply charges, and took the others into consideration.

She also made an order for the destruction of the drugs.
A meeting of the Meath Roads committee was called on Monday to highlight the imminent loss of part time staff. Meath County Council currently avails of the services of a considerable number of staff on the 20 hour a week Gateway contracts.

Cllr. Paddy Meade, a member of the roads committee and advocate of the use of the Gateway scheme for the upkeep of the roads in Meath, condemned the ending of the scheme.

"For the last 12 months, we've had these workers doing some great work, and while I was a little critical on the time delay it took the council in getting them out to rural villages like Lobinstown, Donore and Newtown, in general it was a great scheme. The council got work done, the public was delivered a service and the people on the scheme got some good experience as well as a token payment of 20 a week. In effect they were working for a euro an hour, but they kept at it, and I applaud them for that, most did it because they took pride in their work, and liked the good that they were doing.

"From Friday when the scheme ends, the council will be in crisis mode. By head of population County Meath will have less council staff than any other county in Ireland, and yet these workers are being let go.

"We need the government to allow Meath County Council to hire staff, and we should be allowing the Gateway staff to continue their work with the council should they wish to.

"I understand from talking to many workers on the scheme that while they would love full time jobs, in the absence of full time employment, they are eager to keep working away with the council if the government could offer an extension to the scheme.'
The death has taken place of acclaimed Ardee-born photographer Mick Slevin (pictured).

He passed away in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital this week.

Highly respected in the business, Mick was staff photographer with the Drogheda Independent for a number of years up to the mid 80s when he went to the Irish Press. He remained with them until its closure.

He then worked as a freelance and was associated with the Dundalk Democrat in recent years.

He lived in Bettystown with wife Margaret.
The revitalised LoveGorey.ie website was launched at a seminar on tourism in North Wexford last week. The event in The Amber Springs Hotel also featured a discussion and workshops on a tourism destination strategy which is being prepared for North Wexford.

The new website was unveiled by Love Gorey committee chairman Michael Gleeson who said the site aims to be the go-to website for North Wexford, and is aimed at tourists and locals alike.

Already, the Love Gorey Facebook and Twitter profiles are full of information about upcoming events, and this information, along with news about retailers and attractions in the area, will also feature on the upgraded website.

The launch was also addressed by PR Co-ordinator Deirdre O'Flynn and Lisa Stacey of WebArt who outlined how tourism providers and businesses can engage with the website, Facebook, Twitter, and the fortnightly newsletter.

The Love Gorey campaign is supported by Gorey Municipal District and Gorey Chamber and is a non-profit campaign. Any funds raised go towards the marketing and support of the programme.

Also at the event, James Keogh, 'Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur', from Rathwood, Tullow, told over 40 attendees how Rathwood had been rejuvenated resulting in increased revenue and visitor numbers. 'We like being hospitable,' he said, highlighting how customer service and engagement with repeat customers had seen visitor numbers on the annual Santa Train alone grow from 4,000 to 55,000.

The launch was followed by a seminar on the North Wexford tourism destination strategy, which was addressed by Siobhan O'Neill, Wexford County Council Tourism Officer. The seminar captured the views, ideas, and opinions of attendees on the future direction of the tourism industry in North Wexford. The tourism destination strategy for North Wexford is being developed on behalf of Wexford County Council, and will take in the entire Gorey Electoral District, including Courtown, Ferns, Kilmuckridge, and all other areas.

'This is a very exciting initiative that will focus on the wealth of tourism assets and natural resources in North Wexford,' said Siobhan. 'We would like to see everybody with an interest in tourism voice their opinion on how they can be developed further, so that the area draws a greater number of international and domestic visitors to the South East all year round.'
The musical genius of young people across Fingal has been showcased and celebrated in two separate, long-running competitions.

16-year-old Liam Cunningham, was declared the overall winner of the Dublin Airport Swords Young Musician of the Year 2016 - the second time in the accomplished pianist has taken home top spot, having also take the honours in 2014.

He is a fifth year student at St Finian's Community College in Swords.

Meanwhile, 11-year-old Eoin Maher, a pupil at Gaelscoil Baile Brigin has been named the overall winner of theDublin Airport Malahide Young Musician of the Year.

It was a special year for the Malahide competition, as it celebrated 35 years discovering musical talent among in the local area, many of whom have gone on to become professional musicians.

The competition has been sponsored by Dublin Airport since it began in 1981, and is one of the longest standing relationships the airport has with a community event in Fingal.

'We witnessed some outstanding performances and the results showed the great potential in the young people of Malahide,' said event organiser Derek Keogh.

The Swords competition took place in St Finian's Community College and prizes wereawarded in categories such as piano, strings, voice, keyboard, recorder, woodwind, brass, electric guitar, classical guitar and there is a section for traditional musicians too.

The awards also featured categories for chamber groups in classical music, vocal and traditional.

Now in its 27th year, the awards have welcomed some extremely talented young musicians to the stage since it first began in 1989, many of whom have gone on to work professionally within the music industry.
A motor boat experiencing engine difficulties and adrift approximately four miles east of Malahide estuary was rescued by Skerries RNLI at the weekend.

Skerries RNLI volunteers launched the lifeboat shortly before 2pm on Saturday when Dublin Coast Guard tasked them to assist a vessel in difficulty.

The casualty was able to provide the Coast Guard with GPS co-ordinates for their position.

As a result the lifeboat, with volunteer Joe May at the Helm and crewed by Steven Johnson and Laura Boylan, were able to proceed directly to the vessel.

The motorboat, with four men on board was taken under tow by the lifeboat and returned safely to Howth. Conditions at the time were clam with a slight sea fog.

Speaking after the call out, Niall McGrotty, Lifeboat Operations Manager for Skerries RNLI said: 'Everyone on board was wearing a lifejacket and they were able to give us their exact location. Even the most prepared can encounter difficulties at sea. We would just like remind people that if they are in difficulty or see others who may be in difficulty to dial 999 and ask for the Coast Guard.'
Students from Malahide Community School have taken part in a wonderful showcase of innovation in the use of digital technologies across the education spectrum at Excited Digital Learning Festival 2016.

The theme for this year's festival 'Celebrating Success and Sharing Innovation', was ably demonstrated by students and teachers from across the country during the two-day event in Dublin Castle.

The students involved gave presentations on the tools and techniques they employ when using technology in the classroom, and also by the impressive display of completed student projects from both national and secondary level pupils.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, took the time to visit the exhibition area, learning about the work being undertaken and listening to teachers and their students on the benefits they reap through enhancing their learning experience with technology.

Among those schools were pupils from Malahide Community School which took part in the Digital Schools of Distinction programme.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, a longtime supporter of the work of Excited, acknowledged the commitment and dedication of those involved.

'Over the last number of years I have seen the good work being done by Excited in developing our young people's digital skills and empowering them to learn independently.

'The Excited Digital Learning Festival is a wonderful celebration of the talent and commitment to excellence of our teachers and students.

They are working together to develop the skills that will power the next generation. I wish them every success.'
Dr James Reilly has exclusively revealed to the Fingal Independent that he will run to regain his Dail seat at the next General Election if his party selects him on the Dublin Fingal ticket.

The former Minister for Health and Minister for Children has had his political career resurrected following his appointment to the Seanad last Friday by Taoiseach, Enda Kenny.

His elevation to the upper house follows the former Minister's crushing defeat at the hands of Fingal voters at the General Election in February where he lost his Dail seat.

But in an interview on Monday morning with the Fingal Independent, the former Fine Gael minister confirmed he wants to win his Dail seat back at the earliest opportunity.

Asked if he would run for the Dail again, Senator Reilly was frank and straightforward in his answer, saying: 'Yes - 100 per cent.'

The newly-appointed senator said: 'That is very much contingent on being successful at my party's selection convention of course, but It is very much my intention to run again.

'I've expressed a desire in the past to stay involved in the issues that affect our country and I can't think of a better way to do it that from the Seanad if I'm not in the Dail but I do intend to work very hard to win that seat back for Fine Gael.'

Senator Reilly was speaking from Brussels where he was addressing a conference for 'World No Tobacco Day'. On the European trip, the former Minister for Health is to receive an award for pioneering the Irish approach to 'plain packaging' on cigarettes.

Asked about his new role in the Seanad, Senator Reilly said: 'I'm delighted to have the opportunity to be part of the Seanad and to be able to continue to represent the concerns of the people of Fingal and to be able to deliver on issues of national importance and support the Government in its drive to improve the lives of all our people.'

Since his appointment, Senator Reilly has come in for criticism for comments he made three years ago where he labelled the Seanad as 'undemocratic'. He stood by those comments on Monday and said that Seanad reform 'has to be addressed' and the electorate for the upper house had to be expanded considerably.

The new senator said he wanted to play a role in implementing those reforms and said that 'after all the experience I've garnered over the last 10 years, I think I have something to contribute'.

Senator Reilly said he hoped to use his seat in the Seanad to focus attention on issues that are important to the people of Fingal.

He explained: 'I want to continue to interact with ministers on important developments for Fingal such as the Metro and tourism, continuing to develop our education system and delivering new schools and school extensions.

'Housing is also a big issue for Fingal and I look forward to supporting Minister Coveney in his efforts to address that issue.'

On Metro North specifically, Senator Reilly was confident that the current Government would deliver on the commitment of the last Government to bring the Metro to Dublin Airport and on to Swords over the next decade.

He said he had not met the new Minister for Transport, Shane Ross TD on the issue as yet but was 'anxious' to do so as soon as possible.

Senator Reilly was optimistic for the project however, and said: 'As you know, the previous Minister for Transport gave a commitment on Metro North and now he controls the purse strings as the Minister for Public Expenditure and I will certainly do everything in my power to see the Metro is delivered.'

Three weeks ago, the Fingal Independent reported that Dr Reilly was likely to get a Seanad nod and spoke to the former minister about the speculation.

While he wouldn't be drawn on the likelihood of his appointment at that time, he was not ruling out the move.

The former minister spent some time in a political limbo following the election as he remained as a caretaker Minister for Children, despite losing his seat, as the new Dail struggled to form a Government for almost two months.

Dr Reilly said those two months, acting as a 'caretaker' minister after losing his seat had been 'weird' and 'a bit surreal' but he said he is proud that he has been able to get important work done in that period. He said he had brought a new Adoption Bill to the Cabinet to deal with anomalies in our adoption legislation that he believes will mean that a lot of children who are now stuck in care for various reasons, will be able to be adopted. The outgoing Minister also signed off on new childcare regulations he said will be 'for the betterment of the welfare of children'.

Dr Reilly's appointment to the Seanad means that the Fingal Oireachtas team is now seven members strong with five TDs and two senators, representing Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, Labour, Sinn Fein and Independents4Change.
Padraig O'Donohoe and Gail Molloy from Kia Ora mini farm at the Gorey Agricultural Show in 2014. This year's show takes place on Saturday, June 18

The countdown has begun to the Gorey Agricultural Show which takes place at Clonattin on Saturday, June 18.

This year's show will host the eastern semi-final of the All Ireland Cook Off on the theme of 'creativity with Irish ingredients'. The competition will be judged by chef Adrian and the ICA. The prize is a week's cooking course at the Ballymaloe Cookery School.

Six competitors will compete, two at a time, in a cookery competition where the locally produced food is sourced from the trade stands in the marquee. The competition is run in conjunction with the Craft Butchers, the ICA and the Irish Shows Association. To enter, visit www.ica.ie , www.irishshows.org , or www.craftbutchers.ie .

The show promises the usual attractions including show jumping, and showing of cattle and sheep. This year, Gorey hosts a 2,500 cattle section for the Hereford Society, sponsored by Slaney International Foods. This should attract huge interest.

The Pets Corner has a new competition, for most unusual pet. All pets are welcome as long as they are well behaved and in a cage. Entry forms are available at www.goreyagriculturalshow.com . Mucky Hound Dog Training will present a dog agility display. There's also a hound show which was a real spectacle in 2015.

Anyone who wants to compete can visit the website, or if they want to volunteer on the day, please get in touch.
Bishop Brennan has appointed Fr Jim Fegan as diocesan delegate to the national organising committee for the World Meeting of Families which is due to take place in Dublin in a little over two years time.

The announcement of the date and theme for the 9th World Meeting of Families (WMF) - from August 22 to 29, 2018 - was made at a press conference in the Vatican last week, attended by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, and the head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Archbishop Vincenzo Pagila.

The Archdiocese of Dublin is the host diocese for this event which takes place once every three years in different parts of the world.

Bishop Brennan welcomed the announcement of the international gathering for Ireland and said he looks forward to the participation of the diocese of Ferns in this event.

The World Meeting of Families - held every three years - was first celebrated in Rome in 1994. Since then Meetings have been hosted in Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Manila, Valencia, Mexico City, Milan, Philadelphia in 2015, and now Dublin in 2018. Fr Fegan is the PP in Ballindaggin.
Friends, Romans and military buffs will be out in force at Wexford Racecourse over the June Bank Holiday weekend for the annual Wexford Military Show.

The show will literally include something for everyone, from young to old, and all in between, from those interested in military memorabilia to those interested in plying their skills as archers.

It will include: Roman Ireland - a group that specialise in the Roman army and Roman life circa 1AD . Always a popular group with the public, its members will put on a great display and perform several re-enactments over the two days this weekend.

They have been entertaining the public for many years now and continue to entertain and educate the public with their colourful array of Roman uniform, display items and knowledge of all things Roman.

The Irish Military re-enactment group (IMRG) who will be present this year again are a fine group displaying World War Two American Airborne and 101st US Army Rangers. A fantastic display of equipment. weapons. gear, vehicles and much much more . If you are a fan of 'Band of Brothers' or 'Saving Private Ryan' films these are the guys to see.

Battlegroup South are Ireland's biggest and best German WW2 group. They have one of the finest collections of original WW2 German vehicles. motorcycles and sidecars. solo machines, trucks, Jeeps, combined with some fantastic weapons displays and equipment from WW2 they will give several displays over the weekend and will be on hand to answer any questions or for some photo opportunities.

The Dunbrody archers in the field, displaying their skills and giving people a chance to take a go also and test their skills on a full size archery range and will put on some great displays.

Zoltan the Hungarian Hun, a classically trained weapons master from Hungary, will be present on horseback displaying his wide variety of shills with sword and bow.

The Irish Chariot will be be showing off his original designed chariot from the early Irish history period of Cuchulainn and will display his skills at chariot handling.

This year, the show will include an Eastern European group specialising in laser-based weapons with flag capture battles - laser tag - the order of the day.

The Irish Military Vehicle group will be on showing off some of their rare and painstakingly restored vehicles, one of the biggest in the country.

Other groups will include Vikings, the early Christian period, medieval crafts, jewellery makers, as well as those interested in the War of Independence commemorating the 1916 Uprising.

Waterford airsoft will have a big presence and will be only too happy to demonstrate their wide range of weapons and equipment and looking for new members to join. Asylum airsoft will also be displaying and hope to have a firing range for airsoft weapons available.

There will be a huge display of stalls and trade stands. collectors of medals. helmets, swords, military and camping equipment, models, toy soldiers, and two groups specialising in model remote control tanks and much much more.

For the younger children there will be bouncy castles and face painting.

The show is run by the Munster military Group and part-funded by Wexford County Council, Failte Ireland, IPD Insurance, Wexford means business and Visit Wexford. The main show organiser Joe O'Toole and show coordinator Marion Coady are delighted to announce some of the main groups and displays that can be seen at the racecourse this year - Uncle Sams for making it all possible this year and local business man Theo Valadez for his support and sponsorship .
Summer is finally here. Spraoi Chiarrai is back and Killarney can expect the usual high standard of traditional music, song and dance performances featuring the finest in young local performers.

The local group has had great success over the last 11 summers and is happy to report all sponsors are again onboard this year, again making this years series of free concerts possible.

The first of seven free concerts takes place this Saturday, June 4, at St Mary's Church of Ireland, at 8pm.

Niamh McSweeney, Scartaglin concertina player, and a guest, will open the proceedings. Then Michael D. Kelliher (accordion/harmonica) Fossa and Niamh D'alton (concertina) Gneeveguilla, will join Spraoi Chiarrai Producer/Director Tim O'Shea (guitar /vocals/ bodhran).

The take place at two venues in the town. There are five evenings 'In Concert' at St Mary's Church of Ireland opposite the town hall and two open air concerts, 'Trip to the Cottage', at Deenagh Lodge.

The concerts feature fiddle, harp, accordion, flute, whistle, uilleann pipes, guitar, harmonica, bodhran and vocals, as well as Irish Dancing and Irish Storytelling in the outdoor gigs.

All indoor concerts are at 8pm and outdoor performances are at 2pm. This year group have also been asked to perform again for the three days of Puck Fair in August.
Motorcyclists from all over North Kerry and West Limerick are heading for one village and one village only come Saturday June 11 next: Duagh.

It's there, of course, that the Duagh Motorcycle Charity Run is setting out from once more in its long-running mission raising funds for Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.

Organising committee member Mike Carmody is urging all the riders of the land to rev up for the cause and take part in what's sure to be another wonderful jaunt along the highways and byways of the region.

"It should make for a wonderful day and we would hope to have in excess of 100 riders taking part as usual," Mike told The Kerryman.

And what a record the event has for Crumlin, having raised up to 250,000 since it was established in 2001 for the Children's Hospital.

O'Brien's Bar in Duagh is the jumping-off and finishing point for the event, with registration taking place from 11am before the cavalcade sets out at 12 noon. A barbecue will be laid on in a night of rock music at day's end back in O'Brien's.
Sr Consilio (centre front) with friends and colleagues at the The Joy of Love (Amoris Laetitia) Marriage, The Family and Irish Society 2016 conference in the Rose Hotel on Saturday. Front, from left: Professor Ray Kinsella,Sr Consilio and Cllr John Joe Culloty. Back, from left: Stephen Cardy,Tony Hynes, Mary Falvey, Richard Hurley and Martin OSullivan

Brosna native Sr Consilio was to the fore of a special conference organised by a number of leading Catholic groups and held in celebration of the family and marriage.

Sr Consilio was one of the keynote speakers on Saturday at the Joy of Love (Amoris Laetitia), Marriage, The Family and Irish Society 2016 in The Rose Hotel in Tralee amid a large turnout.

The presence of journalist John Waters and Professor Ray Kinsella (Head of the Finance and Banking department at UCD) also generated much interest for their wide-ranging presentations titled, respectively, 'Defending True Parenthood against the New Totalitarianism' and 'Life, Marriage and the Economy - a View of the World'.

The subjects are being tackled at a time of great change in Irish society; much of it leading to deep concern among religious organisations of course.

It was against this backdrop audiences listened rapt to what the speakers had to say on the nature of marriage, the impact of secularising forces on the traditional concept of the family in this country and much, much more.

But it was Sr Consilio herself who was perhaps the single greatest focus of celebration at the event. Though pledged by her vows to a life of celibacy, Sr Consilio has helped give new life to many families right across the country over the years thanks to her work with the addiction-recovery charity she founded: Cuan Mhuire.

Now celebrating its half century, it is credited with having returned so many people to full health as a major support in their lives while battling addiction.

'Family - a Place of Unconditional Love, Acceptance and Formation' was the title of Sr Consilio's illuminating talk based on so many years of hard-won experience.
Norma Mason (left) pictured with John O'Donovan, principal, and Sarah Keane minding the door at the St. Joseph's Secondary School Fashion Show at the Tintean Theatre in Ballybunion on Friday night. Photo by John Reidy

Staff and students at St Joseph's Secondary School in Ballybunion were delighted to welcome their much-loved Principal John O'Donovan back to work this week after a lengthy period of absence as he battled a serious illness.

Mr O'Donovan is now back to full health and his return to the school on Thursday was greeted with deep joy by everyone, delighted to see their principal back in hale health.

"Staff and students were delighted to welcome back Mr. O'Donovan to work as Principal of the school on Thursday," a spokesperson for the school said.

"We wish to thank Mrs Cummins for her work as Acting Principal over the past year and wish her the very best for the future.

Mr O'Donovan is credited with having successfully driven many innovative curricular and extra-curricular developments at the school since taking the helm.
Ursula O'Connell has received a national 'Sunflower Hero' award for her tireless work for Kerry Hospice. Kerry Hospice said it nominated Ursula for her fundraising efforts over more than a decade.

Ursula who is a member of the Dingle Branch of the Kerry Hospice was among 21 volunteers across the country honoured for their fundraising work for hospice care. The awards were presented by RTE's Mary Kennedy in advance of the national Hospice Sunflower Days which celebrates its 26th anniversary this year.

The Hospice in Dingle provides an essential, free service, supporting people in the home who are living with an advancing illness, as well as supporting the Hospice beds in the Community Hospital.

"Ursula started volunteering with Kerry Hospice in 2005. She is a great worker and combines her hospice work with running a business and a family. She is always willing to help whenever she can," a spokesperson for Kerry Hospice said.

Launching Hospice Sunflower Days, Mary Kennedy said: "More than 6,000 people use hospice services every year in Ireland. The care and support afforded to families in need, at a very difficult time, is so important". It's inspiring to meet the "Sunflower Heroes" and the dedicated volunteers from across the country who do so much to secure hospice services locally.

Irish Hospice Foundation chief executive Sharon Foley said Ursula and all volunteers are the backbone of the hospice movement in Ireland. "It is through the compassionate communities that hospice services can continue to deliver high quality care to individuals and families."

Ursula said that she was "accepting the award on behalf of the people of West kerry, it is because of their support that we can do the work that we do. I am ably assisted by a fantastic group of fellow volunteers who never fail to help out when called upon. Should anyone like to help out now or in the future they would be most welcome and they can contact me at 087-7450126," she said.

The Dingle Hospice was also nominated for a West Kerry People of the Year award earlier this year. The Sunflower Day collection will take place on Friday, June 10, at Sheehy's Spar, Garvey's Supervalu. Fitzgerald's Centra and Moran's Costcutter.
Charles Brooke Pickard who has been missing since 1991

A former INLA terrorist is the prime suspect in the disappearance of Charles Brooke Pickard who vanished without a trace 25 years ago.

Mr Pickard - a father of four - has been missing since April 26, 1991, when he left his family home near Castlecove to help a neighbour cut turf.

The last time Mr Pickard (43) - an Englishman who had been living in the area for eight years - was ever seen was at White Strand near Castlecove.

A young local girl who was out horse-riding saw Mr Pickard being bundled into his own van by five armed, balaclava-wearing men who then sped from the scene.

The distinctive blue van was eventually found burned out in a forest near Waterville three weeks later. No trace of Mr Pickard was ever found.

This week Gardai launched a new appeal seeking the public's help in solving the 25-year-old mystery and bringing some closure to the Pickard family.

The case featured on RTE's CrimeCall on Monday night when Mr Pickard's son Crohan and his wife Penny made an emotional appeal to anyone who may have any information as to what happened Brooke Pickard on that fateful day.

While mystery surrounds exactly what happened, Gardai believe Mr Pickard was kidnapped by a northern Irish criminal gang who were attempting to rob him.

Though there is not thought to be any paramilitary link to the kidnapping, the leader of the gang is believed to be a former INLA terrorist who has been linked to numerous incidents of robbery and blackmail in Northern Ireland.

This man is known to have spent time in the Castlecove and Caherdaniel area in the weeks immediately preceding Mr Pickard's disappearance.

It is thought the gang targeted Mr Pickard because they had been told - entirely incorrectly - that he had recently acquired a large sum of money.

In 2000 Gardai successfully fought to have the former INLA man extradited to the Republic to question him in connection with the Pickard case.

The Kerryman understands that interviews did take place but that the information gained was not enough to file charges.

Anyone with information should contact Killarney Garda Station on (064) 6631222.
The head of the Listowel Garda Division has said he is 'robbing Peter to pay Paul' in devising an adequate policing strategy to respond to the increased numbers holidaying in Ballybunion at a time when garda numbers are at an all time low..

Superintendent Dan Keane said that through consultation with his sergeants in Listowel, Ballybunion, Ballyheigue and Ballyduff, a satisfactory plan has been devised to deal with the scarcity of staff in the busy seaside town which arose as a result of two officers taking maternity leave and another being restricted to light duties.

Locals in Ballybunion had expressed concern that in recent months the number of uniformed gardai covering the town had been reduced six to three. They claimed this simply wasn't sufficient as the town faces into the Summer season, which will see the population of the town significantly increase.

Both Cllr Robert Beasley (SF) and FF Deputy John Brassil told The Kerryman that they have been contacted by anxious residents and business people who feel that the lack of garda cover poses a serious safety concern.

This week, Supt Keane said that he had devised a policy whereby he will bring resources to Ballybunion from other towns and villages within the district to cover the busy periods both during the day and night.

"This is not a problem unique to Ballybunion, but because the issue in Ballybunion is outside of my control, I've found myself in a situation where I'm having to bring resources from other parts of the district," he said.

"In a way, we're robbing Peter to pay Paul, but having discussed the situation with my sergeants we are confident that we have come up with an adequate policing plan that will go a long way to addressing people's concerns. Resources are stretched everywhere but for the time being, we will bring relief from across the district."

Supt Keane said that the number of gardai in the Listowel Division has dropped by 40 per cent since last year, and that he would certainly welcome additional resources from outside Kerry.
The company that built Gorey's impressive new secondary school, Creagh College, has swept the boards at the international Partnership awards in London. BAM's work on Creagh College and seven other Irish schools helped the company secure silver in the 'Best Completed Project' award.

The Partnership Awards are the most prestigious event in the global Public Private Partnership (PPP) industry's calendar. BAM won four awards on the night, including one for the 'Schools Bundle 3' project on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills. Creagh College was one of the eight schools across the country completed by BAM and included as part of the winning submission.

BAM also won awards for Best Developer and Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Management Company of the Year.

In a PPP, BAM provides equity for important infrastructure and takes full responsibility for the project's design, construction, operation, and maintenance for 25 years. The State retains ownership of the asset under the agreement and when the concession period expires, the asset reverts to full State ownership.

BAM was also recognised for its work on the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy PPP and the Courts Bundle PPP. BAM reached financial close with the Transport Infrastructure Ireland for the 350 million M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy motorway project, which was shortlisted for the Best Road Project, at the end of 2015. The Courts Bundle, shortlisted for Best Social Infrastructure Project, will see BAM undertake the construction and refurbishment of seven courthouses across Ireland.
The Pink Rock Road in the Piltown Municipal District will be closed for a full year to through traffic, as work gets under way on the 230m plus New Ross bypass at the Barrow Bridge area.

Contingency measures will be put in place to facilitate local access.

The news was announced at the May meeting of Piltown Municipal District. Work on the bypass is at the mobilisation stage and ecological surveys for the route will be taking place, while the contractor has to develop environmental and quality management plans. Consultation has been ongoing over the last number of weeks with a number of different bodies, including the relevant local authorities, Irish Rail, Inland Fisheries and gardai.

Surveys of the road network are to be carried out, while other surveys are also being undertaken with a view to monitor how water quality and nearby properties may be affected.

Substantial site clearance and a boundary fence will be proceeding this year.

The bypass and new bridge - which will be Ireland's largest - are due to be completed in early 2019.
Wexford Chamber is stepping up its marketing and promotion of both town and county as business locations to both national and international contact centre operators, as part of a major drive to attract more high-value jobs.

The chamber's latest foray was at the 2016 Contact Centre Management Association Leadership Summit in Kildare, which provided a unique opportunity for Wexford Chamber to meet key decision makers in major players Chill Insurance, Microsoft, Eir, Axa, Vodafone, Virgin Media, Yahoo, Friends First, Paddy Power and eBay.

Wexford Chamber believes that by utilising the county's unoccupied commercial properties to attract more contact centres to the area, it will have a positive impact on reducing both the youth and long term unemployment rates in County Wexford.

An 'Invest in Wexford' prospectus, which was designed and produced by Wexford Chamber, was circulated to over one hundred contact centre operators on the day.

This comprehensive document promotes all that the county has to offer to new businesses, from digital and physical infrastructure to the availability of commercial property solutions and access to a skilled labour force.

Karl Fitzpatrick, President of Wexford Chamber said: 'Our objective is to put Wexford firmly on the map of expanding national and international contact centres. With our digital and physical infrastructure improving at a faster rate than any other county, we need to use this to our advantage, by attracting new businesses to Wexford.'

Wexford has always been an attractive location for new businesses, however, in the past, the poor roads infrastucture, low Broadband speeds and the lack of natural has inhibited growth.

All this is rapidly changing, with the new gas supply about to be connected to major industries, and Broadband speeds as fast as major cities such as Tokyo due to be rolled out later in the year, and the vastle improving roads network rapidly taking shape. The county council is also increasingly active in creating ideal business conditions locally for high-tech companies currently trading in more expensive business environments to move here - plans for the new business centre at the 10-acre Brownfield site at Trinity Wharf is a good example of the kind of blue-sky thinking which is driving the county forward.

Brendan Howlin has described the proposed re-development of the site as a 'game-changer' in efforts to increase high-value employment opportunities in County Wexford.
At the launch of the Wexford Military Show were Joe O'Toole (organiser), Marion Coady (coordinator), Declan Reck (Wishcoin Events), David Lloyd (Wishcoin Events), Teo Valedez (Uncle Sam's, sponsor), Owen Breslin and Ciaran Doyle

The Wexford Military Show will take place again this year at Bettyville Racecourse in Wexford this June bank holiday Saturday and Sunday.

The show, which was formerly located in Duncannon Fort for 11 years, has moved to Wexford since the closure of the fort last year.

The show is run by the Munster Military Group and is part-funded by Wexford County Council, Failte Ireland, IPD Insurance, Wexford Means Business and Visit Wexford.

The racecourse will come alive with numerous military groups, including Romans Ireland which specialise in the Roman army and Roman life circa 1 AD.

The group will put on a great display and perform several re-enactments over the two days. The Irish Military Re-enactment group will have a World War II American airborne and 10 1st US army rangers display featuring a fantastic display of equipment, weapons, gear, vehicles and much more.

Battlegroup South are Ireland's biggest and best German World War II group and they will at the show for the weekend, displaying one of the finest collections of original World War II era German vehicles, including motorcycles and sidecars, solo machines, trucks and jeeps, along with some fantastic weapons displays and equipment. The group will give several displays over the weekend and will also be on hand to answer any questions.

The Dunbrody Archers will be showing their skills and will give the public a chance to have a go also. Zoltan the Hungarian Hun will be present on horseback displaying his wide variety of skills with swords and bows. The Irish Chariot Group will entertain using an original chariot from early Irish history.

A new feature this year is a laser based weapons demonstration from an Eastern European group. Two teams will challenge each other in a battle arena to play capture the flag.

The Irish Military Vehicle Group will have a fantastic collection of rare Irish vehicles which have been painstakingly restored, while groups from various era of Irish history representing Vikings, early Christian settlers, medieval craft-makers and Irish War of Independence groups commemorating the 1916 period of history this year especially. Waterford Airsoft will have a big presence, demonstrating their wide range of weapons and equipment.

There will be a huge display of stalls and trade stands with collectors of medals. helmets, swords and military and camping equipment, meanwhile two groups will be specialising in model remote control tanks. For the children there will be bouncy castles and face painting and food is served all day on site.
Sarah Walsh from North Sligo is the county's representative in the 2016 Blue Jean Country Queen Festival over the June Bank Holiday week-end hosted by Meath Macra na Feirme.

Sarah will join twenty seven other girls for the festival in Athboy.

The 20-year-old is member of North Sligo Branch of Macra na Feirme and is a Student. Her hobbies include Macra and country music. Most weekends she spends at country music dances, mainly in the Allingham Hotel in Bundoran. She also makes birthday cakes for friends and family. She enjoys icing cakes and sugar craft.

From Friday 3rd June when they are interviewed on stage, to the final music session on Bank Holiday Monday afternoon, they have a hectic schedule.

Saturday afternoon sees Sarah and the other Queens taking to the streets for a carnival which guarantees fun and frolics for all the family. While on Sunday the Queens will change from fancy dress to modelling dress to formal dress all within twelve hours.

The winner of 2016 Blue Jean Country Queen title will be announced at midnight on Sunday 5th June and will be crowned by reigning queen, Scotland's Susie Manson.

First place receives prizes to the value of 1,000 while the runner-up will receive 500 with third getting 300. Each Queen also receives a memento which will be presented by festival sponsors David & Hazel Sheridan, proprietors of the Darnley Lodge Hotel in Athboy.
Sinn Fein's Chris MacManus has expressed dismay at the failure of the two constituency Fianna Fail TDs to support a Dail motion to abolish Irish Water and scrap water charges.

MacManus said: "Fianna Fail have now carried out two u-turns in the space of a few months. At election time they changed from being the architects of water charges, to then being opposed. They are now showing their true colours and falling in behind the Fine Gael-led Government.

"This is surely a sign of things to come. Fianna Fail signed up to a confidence and supply agreement with Fine Gael. They argued that they would only assure the Government of FF support on budgetary matters and votes of confidence. Sinn Fein has been critical of this deal, how they are trying to both control the government and the opposition. However, this vote on abolishing Irish Water was not a confidence vote. Fianna Fail were perfectly at liberty to vote how they wished on this motion. If they truly opposed the charges, if they wanted rid of it, they should have voted for it.

"During the election the Irish people had their say. As a party Sinn Fein committed to ensure that on the first opportunity we would ask the Dail to have a vote on this issue. This we did.

Many people in County Sligo voted for the two local Fianna Fail candidates because they believed that they would get rid of water charges. Now, when the question was put to them, they facilitated Fine Gael in ensuring the motion to abolish Irish Water was defeated."

'Many people in County Sligo would be astonished to hear that, given the commitments made during the election' ENDS

For confirmation tel Chris @ 086 811 9550
The Diocese of Elphin will shortly begin taking applications for the role of Volunteer Catechist.

This will involve lay people being commissioned as leaders of faith-based education programmes, in partnership with priests and parish communities.

Normally, the role is a voluntary one where the person commits initially for five years to giving two to four hours per week to organising and delivering various faith related programmes and opportunities.

Bishop Kevin Doran said: "It seems that the time has now come to establish the ministry of catechist as part of the life of every parish community in our diocese.

"It would be intended to nourish the faith of those who are already active in their local Christian Community; to fan the flame of faith in those who are baptised but have drifted away from the practice of their faith and to proclaim the good news to those living among us for whom Christ and the Church remain unknown or unfamiliar."

The training programme is part time and spread over four years. The first year is a preliminary year where the successful applicants participate in a number of exploratory weekends.

Over the next three years, the candidates will be offered an integrated programme of spiritual formation, personal development and formal studies leading to an accredited Diploma in Lifelong Religious Education. Alongside this, they will participate in relevant placements. For successful applicants, costs will be borne by the diocese.

Colette Furlong who is employed as a Catechist in the Sligo Cluster Parishes said: "This is such a great initiative. It provides that missing link between the ideal of lay involvement in pastoral and catechetical outreach in the diocese and the theological grounding needed to do so effectively."

Programme director, Rev Dr Michael Duignan commented: "Similar to the introduction of permanent deacons some years ago, this new venture in lay ministry is another very welcome and exciting development in our diocese. It will offer people who wish to grow in knowledge of their own faith and share that knowledge in a dynamic way with others a real and recognised opportunity to do so in partnership with the Bishop, priests and parishioners."
Hundreds of aspiring television stars landed in Wicklow last Wednesday for the open casting for the hit television series Vikings.

The Wicklow audition was one of three open casting days for extras which took place last month with the other two taking place in Dublin.

From early morning a motley looking crew of aspiring Vikings started to gather at the Grand Hotel and before long a lengthy queue had formed which was continually augmented throughout the day.

The casting which was open to adults of all ethnic backgrounds saw people from all walks of life attending hoping to be cast in the show which is filmed in Dublin and Wicklow.

Each hopeful had to fill out an application form on arrival while shortly after that photos were taken.

Filming of Vikings will begin this month and will continue until May 2017.

Both men and women turned up for the casting as organisers had stressed that they were looking for both sexes and had a particular interest in women with naturally coloured hair or punk hairstyles. Men with long hair and beards were also sought after by the organisers as well as men with punk hairstyles. However having any visible tattoos was a big no no.

Martial arts practitioners, boxers, musicians, midwives, hunters and nurses were also in demand.
Within five years of having been knighted by King George V, Roger Casement was tried for treason and executed by the British on August 3, 1916 - the last of the leaders of the 1916 Rising to be put to death.

Both a great humanitarian who was hailed by the British establishment for exposing abuses of indigenous peoples in the Upper Congo and Peru and a man who went to his death for the cause of Irish freedom, Casement is an intriguing and a complex character.

Angus Mitchell, a historian and cultural critic based at the University of Limerick, will attempt to shed some light on this fascinating individual when gives a talk on 'Roger Casement: between history and mystery' to Rathdrum Historical Society on Monday, June 13.

Dr Mitchell is a leading authority on Casement. He has researched and studied his life and legacy, even travelling widely on the Amazon and visiting places where Casement lived while working as the British Consul General in Brazil.

Dr Mitchell edited 'The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement' in 1997 and followed this up in 2003 with 'Sir Roger Casement's Heart of Darkness: The 1911 Documents', which brought Casement's role as a human rights activist and champion back into the public imagination particularly after the veracity of the infamous Black Diaries had taken hold in 1916.

Dr Mitchell's '16 Lives: Roger Casement' published in 2013 highlighted his uniqueness among the 1916 rebel leaders, charting his change from colonial diplomat, knighted by the realm to strategist for the Irish rebel cause. The final tragic chapter in Casement's life, his sojurn in Germany to raise an Irish regiment and guns for the rising, capture at Banna Strand and subsequent trial and execution have been captured for eternity in Casement's own words in his diary, now edited and published by Mitchell in 'One Bold Deed of Open Treason: The Berlin Diary of Roger Casement, 1914-1916'.

As part of the 1916 commemorations, Dr Mitchell has been giving talks and presentations on Casement throughout the country.

Rathdrum Historical Society is particularly pleased that Dr Mitchell has agreed to come to Rathdrum to highlight the many faceted career of this passionate idealist and courageous Irishman, who had family connections with Croneroe in Ashford, now Bel-Air Hotel.

All are welcome to attend Dr Mitchell's presentation on Monday, June 13, at 8 p.m. in Avondale Community College, Rathdrum.
They called it the American Wake. Young Irish people forced to leave Ireland to get work in far off places such as the US, Canada and Australia said good bye to their family and friends before leaving home. They never expected to be back in Ireland so the goodbyes were in a real sense a final farewell, hence the 'Wake'.

Aer Lingus began to fly across the Atlantic in 1958 with Constellation aircraft and then two years later they acquired Boeing 720s, which allowed them fly from Dublin and Shannon to New York and Boston in approximately seven hours.The introduction of the jet plane was the final nail in the coffin of the American Wake. The world was getting smaller and people were finding it easier and quicker to get back home. I went to Rome in 1974 and knew when I was flying out from Dublin Airport that it would be a year before I'd be back home.

These days Rome is one of the many cities which is a weekend destination for large numbers of people. The world has become a small place and in one sense there is no longer anywhere on the planet that is 'exotic'. Airplanes and cheaper fares mean the world is our oyster. If we can't physically be on the other side of the world we can have instant communication with anyone anywhere in the world. Back in 1974 I couldn't phone home without having to go through an operator. The letter from Dublin was one of the highlights of the week. The first years of the Eurovision Song Contest was sensational television because it was our first time to see live what was happening in far off paces. That was an essential ingredient to the magic of the event. It's passe today.

A colleague of mine is just back from a weekend in Dubrovnik. He wisely pointed out how it is somewhere that was once geographically, politically and culturally so far away and now it's a hop-step-and-jump away. Easily 'doable' over a long weekend.

So the world is our oyster. Or is it? The Euros begin in Paris on June 10. Thousands of Irish people are planning to travel to France to support both Irish teams. Yet there will be many who have decided not to travel in fear of being victims of a terrorist attack.

These days anytime I travel abroad there is somewhere at the back of my head a lingering fear that I could be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Of course it can happen anywhere, anytime. As the world becomes that global village we are forced to reconsider where we can and cannot go. I doubt if many people are going to Syria this year and favourite holiday destinations such as Turkey and Egypt are being crossed off the places-to-go by many people. Even the intrepid adventurer might be slow to trek across Afghanistan. I knew someone who in 1977 bused it from the Indian border to Iran.

So too with all our modern communication. At least in western democracies there was little chance that our letters were being read. These days we have no idea who is scanning our emails or reading our SMSs. It seems it's part of the human condition that there's always a snag somewhere.

Robert Burns' lines come to mind: 'The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.' No perfection on earth?
The students of Nun's Cross NS had a taste of politics in action recently as they paid a visit to Dail Eireann last Wednesday, May 25.

The fifth and sixth class pupils were welcomed at Leinster House by Minister of State Simon Harris and given a tour of the Dail.

Minister Harris later said that he hoped the children found the visit interesting and educational, adding that he was 'looking forward to visiting the school soon, now that they have seen the Dail in action, to answer their questions about my role as their TD and Minister for Health'.
Four heritage projects in Co Wicklow have been awarded funding from the Heritage Council under its 2016 Heritage Grants Scheme.

Nationwide, 171 projects will benefit from the funding of over 800,000, which has been provided by the Heritage Council and the Department of Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts and the Gaeltacht.

The successful applicants in Co Wicklow were Birdwatch Ireland, An Oige and Delgany Community Council.

Birdwatch Ireland was awarded two grants of 4,500. One is for an East Coast Nature Reserve Management Plan while the other grant will be used in the management of a rare habitat and people at the reserve, which is located near Newcastle.

An Oige, the Irish Youth Hostel Association, was awarded 6,000 for a Nature Conservation Management Plan for a 24ha site at Knockree Hostel in Glencree.

Delgany Community Council is also to receive a 6,000 grant, which will be used to carry out a heritage survey of Delgany in order to better understand the heritage, history and evolution of the village.

Across the country, grants have been awarded for a wide range of projects, from conserving thatch to red grouse, to the cabin where Shackleton spent his last hours, protecting sensitive archives and so much more.

'These diverse projects reflect our cultural identity and distinctiveness as a people,' said Conor Newman, Chairman of the Heritage Council. 'If properly resourced, they have the potential to give back to the community and to the country for generations to come.

Minister for Regional Development Heather Humphreys said: 'Schemes such as this one help to conserve our heritage, support the local economy, boost tourism and make our country a better place in which to live and work. By continuing to invest in our heritage, we can show that historic buildings and places are not only an intrinsic part of Ireland's heritage, but can also provide a real boost to job creation in the construction, conservation and tourism sectors.'
Newest member of the Arklow community Presbyterian Minister Nathan Duddy received a warm welcome at an ceremony in Arklow Presbyterian Church.

More than 200 people came out to see the 29-year-old Minister, who is taking up the reins following some time as assistant minister in Legacurry Church in Antrim. Clerk of Session at the Arklow Presbyterian Church Emily Kearon said that he is bound to settle in well.

'He spoke about how much he was looking forward to meeting everyone, getting to know his flock and reaching out,' she added.

Arklow cathaoirleach Sylvester Bourke added a bit of humour to the day by presenting the new Minister with a copy of the Irish Farmers Journal.

'The Bible has a lot of references to agriculture so I suggested that he brush up on some modern farming knowledge,' laughed Cllr Bourke.

Nathan was joined by his wife Ashley, who was also welcomed to the community with open arms.
Gardai have released a photo of a car belonging to missing man Marcin Michalak which was found in Luggala recently.

35-year-old Marcin has been missing from his Maynooth home for the past seven weeks.

He was last seen on the evening of Sunday, April 17 at a supermarket in Maynooth.

Polish national Marcin is described as being 5ft 9' in height with a very tight hair cut and a partial beard.

When last seen he was wearing blue jeans, a black hoodie top with red writing on it and beige walking shoes.

He was also known to carry a small black backpack.

Marcin was driving a Grey Mazda 6 car - 04 WX 203 which was located by a routine Garda patrol at Luggala, close to a forest area and trails in the Wicklow National Park.

Previously the gardai conducted a day of inquiry in Luggala in a bid to see if they could ascertain his movements while there. It is not known how long his car was there before it was found during a routine patrol.

Gardai are concerned for Marcin's welfare and anyone with information or who may have seen his car are asked to contact Leixlip Garda Station on 01 - 6667800, The Garda Confidential Line, 1800 666111 or any Garda Station.
Brittas Bay North regained its Blue Flag last week, a year after it lost the coveted award.

At last Thursday's Blue Flag ceremony Wicklow was awarded three Blue Flags for its beaches at Brittas Bay North, Brittas Bay South and Greystones South Beach.

Brittas Bay South and Greystones South Beach has retained their flag status since last year while Brittas Bay North regained back its flag having lost it in 2015.

These awards were presented to Eilish Kelly, Blue Flag manager of Wicklow County Council, by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Simon Coveney and Michael John O'Mahony, Director of An Taisce Education Unit.

Minister Coveney said that 'while the quality of Ireland's bathing water remains very high, we must not become complacent. We must continue to invest in improving water services infrastructure so as to improve the quality of our waters. This will support the great effort being put into the Blue Flag Programme by the local authorities and coastal communities.'

Seventy-nine beaches and six Marinas were awarded Blue Flag statues for 2016. The overall number of Blue Flags is down one on 2015 - and four of the beaches awarded in 2015 did not retain their Blue Flag status. These beaches and marinas achieved this accolade by meeting a specific set of criteria related to water quality, information provision, environmental education and beach management. As a pre-requisite, the bathing water at Blue Flag beaches must meet the highest standards of bathing water quality.

Each year, local authorities put forward beaches in their jurisdiction for the award and must prove compliance with criteria. The Blue Flag for beaches is only valid during the official bathing season and for one season at a time.

The Blue Flag season coincides with the official bathing season (June 1 to September 15). Only bathing areas designated as such by the Irish Government are eligible for the Blue Flag. Each summer in Ireland a team of assessors inspects all Blue Flag beaches to ensure compliance with criteria. If there is a breach of criteria local authorities are contacted and asked to act promptly to ensure compliance.

In addition Arklow's South Beach retained its Green Coast award.

The South Beach in Arklow is the only County Wicklow beach to achieve this award. The Green Coast award go to beaches that have excellent water quality, a five year beach management plan and where the local communities are encouraged to engage in the management of the beach. These beaches may not have the suite of facilities required for Blue Flag status but they are exceptional places to visit.
What a difference an election makes.

Cast your mind back to 2013 when Enda Kenny's Fine Gael /Labour coalition government was campaigning to abolish the Seanad.

During that campaign the then Minister for Health Dr James Reilly said the Upper House was "very undemocratic" and an almost powerless institution that deserved to be scrapped.

A main focus of his disdain for the existing set-up was the fact that "90 per cent of senators are elected by existing politicians".

Three years on and Mr Reilly - who lost his Dail seat in February - appears to have had a considerable change of heart regarding the importance of Leinster House's second chamber.

On Friday he was named among 'existing politician' Enda Kenny's 11 Taoiseach's nominees for seats in the Seanad.

Following his appointment, Senator Reilly said he was honoured to join the Seanad and was looking forward to continuing his work as a legislator in the institution. He said he intends to use his position to advance the cause of Seanad reform.

Of course the new senator isn't the only proponent of Seanad abolition who is now a part the Upper House. Five of Enda Kenny's other nominees - all former Fine Gael TDs who lost their seats - supported the abolition of the Seanad in the 2013 referendum.

So much for the 'new politics' we have been promised. Enda Kenny's nominees suggest that the old way of doling out Seanad consolation prizes to failed Dail candidates is very much to the fore.

And that old staple of Irish Politics - the backroom deal - also appears to have returned too.

In news that took even Fine Gael members by surprise, it emerged that Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin personally selected three of the Taoiseach's nominees.

The decision to allow Deputy Martin appoint three nominees - which was not part of the Government formation talks and which was agreed following a private meeting between Deputy Martin and the Taoiseach last week - was greeted with barely contained anger by Fine Gael backbenchers.

Government Chief Whip Regina Doherty - in an unusual statement from a whip - admitted there was 'mild irritation' among many party's TDs over the deal and the fact that members had no knowledge of it until it was announced. It may indicate just how precarious Enda Kenny and Fine Gael's grip on power is, especially given reports that relations between the Fine Gael and Independent ministers are already strained.

All this comes less than a month after Enda Kenny finally brokered the deal to form a government. How he must be longing for the looming - and apparently lengthy - Dail holidays.

One man who looks set for an enjoyable break from Dail business is Micheal Martin. While Mr Kenny will probably have to spend the summer papering over cracks in his increasingly fractured cabinet and party, Mr Martin can head to the seaside in relatively relaxed mood.

His three nominees - two lauded and accomplished charity workers and a renowned businessman - were in stark contrast to the majority of the Taoiseach's nominees which smacked of old-fashioned Irish political cronyism.

In sporting terms Kenny and Martin have, so far, enjoyed and endured two very different seasons. While Kenny's Fine Gael may have a nominal half-time lead, Micheal Martin and his side will surely be the more confident as they head for the dressing room.
A judge told a young man that he was feeding into a gang war which has claimed seven lives.

'He's feeding into this feud going on in town,' said Judge David Kennedy at Bray District Court last Thursday. 'These are illegal drugs controlled by gangs, who have access to guns and few morals. You are financing that. Seven people have been killed over the last couple of months.'

Paul O'Connor (25), 6 Glenshesk Road, Whitehall, Dublin 9, admitted possession of drugs at the barn dance festival at Glendalough House, Annamoe, on April 3, 2015.

He was searched at around 7 p.m. and found with 48 MDMA tablets with a value of 667; 0.87 grams of cocaine with a value of 60; 0.516 grams of herbal cannabis worth 10; and 22 2cb tablets worth 20.

O'Connor gave a caution statement to garda Robert Whelan and said he bought them for friends and for his own consumption.

Solicitor Brendan Maloney said that O'Connor has done very well in accounting and finance, having earned a degree from Blanchardstown IT.

He has entered into a drug counselling programme.

'You were 24, not a 17-year-old child,' Judge Kennedy told the man, who was appealing for leniency.

O'Connor said: 'I wouldn't waste this chance. I would be very grateful. I just don't want this to haunt me for the rest of my life. I will never engage with anything like that again. I know what I did was wrong.'

The judge said: 'You see you were caught. You may never have been caught and I don't doubt that you would have kept on.

'I don't think it would serve anything if he went to jail, although that's certainly what he deserves.'

He adjourned the matter to September 12 for a Community Service report.
Sir Bruce Forsyth, 88, pulled out of his wife's business launch at Fortnum and Mason due to 'mobility issues'

Sir Bruce Forsyth has sparked fresh health fears by pulling out of his wife's business launch due to "mobility issues".

The 88-year-old entertainer will miss the launch of Wilnelia's candle range at London upmarket department store Fortnum and Mason on Wednesday after also being too frail to attend the funeral of close friend Ronnie Corbett on April 18.

Sir Bruce's manager Ian Wilson said the former Strictly Come Dancing host's recovery was taking "longer than hoped" following keyhole surgery in November 2015.

He told Press Association: "If he were well enough to go or medically advised, he would be there, but we're not at that point.

"He's not going to do something that would endanger recuperation."

Wilnelia said in December last year that they hoped it would take "one or two months more for him to fully recover" from surgery to fix two aortic aneurysms discovered after a fall in his home in October.

Wilson said his continuing recovery was "not longer than expected, but longer than hoped".

Sir Bruce and ex-Miss World Wilnelia have been married for 33 years.
Model Vogue Williams on Ladies Day during the 2016 Investec Epsom Derby Festival at Epsom Racecourse, Epsom. Picture: John Walton/PA Wire

Roz Purcell, a judge in the best dressed lady competition, at Punchestown yesterday. Photo: Damien Eagers

Model Vogue Williams on Ladies Day during the 2016 Investec Epsom Derby Festival at Epsom Racecourse, Epsom. Picture: John Walton/PA Wire

Vogue Williams wearing a Martha Lynn visor at Epsom Derby (left) and Roz Purcell wearing the same headpiece at Punchestown Racecourse (right)

Who wore it better?

Among a sea of feathered fascinators, frilly dresses and too-high heels, Vogue Williams was a breath of fresh air judging the Best Dressed at Epsom Derby on Friday.

The tv presenter stood out from the crowd in a chic white jumpsuit and her standout piece - a white visor by Irish milliner Martha Lynn. And our style stalkers noted her unique look echoed a little familiar as fellow Irish model Roz Purcell wore a similar version in April while judging the Best Dressed at Punchestown Racecourse.

At the time, Roz wore a plunging black suit and the same Chevron Visor in red and naturally stole the show with a never-before-seen ensemble.

Expand Close Model Vogue Williams on Ladies Day during the 2016 Investec Epsom Derby Festival at Epsom Racecourse, Epsom. Picture: John Walton/PA Wire / Facebook

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A style crossover among our small pool of famous fashionistas was bound to happen eventually. To be among the handful of young and beautiful Irish media darlings, brands practically fall over each other to land a coveted organic mention to an influencer's 100k+ Instagram following.

While it's more than likely that both borrowed the pieces, one thing is for certain - it's pretty much guaranteed a sell-out now.

Lynn is famous for her dramatic headpieces and has featured in British Vogue and Elle, among other style bibles. The piece retails for 295.
The bodies of more than 100 migrants have washed up on a Libyan beach after a migrant boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea. Photo: AFP

The death toll of migrants whose boat sank off Libya's shore has reached 107, including 40 women and five children.

The condition of the bodies suggests they were not "decomposed and therefore have drowned within the past 48 hours", according to a spokesman for Libya's Red Crescent.

He said the boat that capsized on Wednesday might have been the one carrying the migrants.

Most of the migrants are from African countries and the death toll is expected to rise.

The discovery of the bodies off the western city of Zwara is the latest in a string of tragedies that have already claimed more than 1,000 lives in recent weeks as desperate migrants embark on treacherous sea journeys seeking a better life in Europe.

Four bodies were recovered and 340 people were rescued yesterday from a sinking migrant boat carrying a "significant number" of people in the Mediterranean Sea south of the Greek island of Crete.

Expand Close Red Crescent personnel retrieve the body of a migrant that washed up on a beach near Zuwarah, Libya. Photo: AFP/Getty Images / Facebook

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The coast guard said the roughly 25-metre vessel, which resembled a large fishing boat, had been carrying an undetermined number of people when it was located half-sunk about 75 nautical miles south of Crete in international waters, and within Egypt's search and rescue area of operation.

Most survivors will be transported to Italy, with others to be taken to Egypt, Malta and Turkey, the coast guard said.

Greece was sending two patrol vessels, a military airplane and three helicopters, while five passing ships were participating in the rescue operation and one more was on its way. The coast guard said the operation was continuing to locate any potentially missing passengers from the migrant boat.

"The information we have on the number of people on board the vessel is still unclear - we've heard that there were 400 or 500 people on board, but we cannot confirm that number," Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Lagadianos said.

"There is a huge rescue effort under way."

Migrant smugglers have opted for more dangerous routes after a March agreement between Turkey and the EU.

The short crossing from the Turkish coast to Greek islands was the preferred route for migrants heading to Europe until Balkan countries closed their borders and the European Union reached an agreement with Turkey to stem the flow of people.

Under that deal, those arriving on Greek islands from March 20 onwards face deportation back to Turkey unless they successfully apply for asylum in Greece, a financially troubled country few migrants or refugees want to stay in.

The deal has led to a dramatic decrease in the number of people arriving on Greek islands from Turkey. Before the EU-Turkey deal, thousands would arrive each day.

However, the agreement has led refugees and migrants to seek alternative routes, with many attempting the much longer and more dangerous crossing from north Africa towards Italy.

Hundreds have died in the past few weeks when overcrowded boats attempting the crossing sank.
A boy missing for nearly a week in the mountains of northern Japan has been found alive.

The seven-year-old child was found by defence personnel curled up on a mattress in a building in a military drill area, four miles from where he was left, in the town of Shikabe at around 7.50am.

The boy introduced himself at Yamato Tanooka and told the soldiers he was hungry and thirsty, before he was given rice balls and bread.

Although he had no visible injuries, the boy - who also reportedly told officers he had been in the same place for several days - was flown by helicopter to hospital in the city of Hakodate, where he is undergoing tests.

"A Self-Defence Force official who was on a drill found a boy whose age appeared to be seven," a police spokesman said.

"There was no conspicuous external injury, and the boy introduced himself as Yamato Tanooka."

Expand Close The boys father, Takayuki Tanooka. Photo: AP / Facebook

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Shortly after the boy was reunited with his family, his father, Takayuki Tanooka, described how he had immediately told his son how sorry he was for leaving him behind.

"The first thing I did was apologise to him for causing such an awful memory for him," Mr Tanooka told media outside the hospital.

"The first thing I said to him was that I was really sorry. He nodded and said 'OK'."

He added: "My excessive act forced my son to have a painful time. I deeply apologise to people at his school, people in the rescue operation, and everybody for causing them trouble.

"We - well, we loved him before - but I hope to give him even more attention now."

Yamato was left in a forest on Hokkaido, Japan's most northerly main island, on May 28 by his parents as punishment for throwing stones at cars and people during a family day out.

The boy's parents initially claimed he had wandered off while they were gathering mountain vegetables.

Takayuki Tanooka later admitted to misleading police. He said he and his wife stopped their car on a road, ordered Yamato out as punishment and drove off. They stopped the vehicle less then half a mile away and walked back to where they had left the boy, but he had disappeared.

Mr Tanooka claimed he was gone for only five minutes. In an interview, he added that he did not dare tell the truth when he asked the police to begin a search for his son.

He later said: "We have done an unforgivable thing to our child and we have caused a lot of trouble for everyone. "I just hope he is safe".

More than 200 rescue workers, mounted police and local civilians scoured the forests for the last six days.

Temperatures dropped to just 6C at night and the area had heavy rain over the last few days. An additional concern was the possibility that the boy had encountered one of the region's Ussuri brown bears. The bears can be extremely aggressive and three men were killed in bear attacks in northern Japan in May.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
BP has agreed to pay 175 million dollars (120.6m) to investors who accused the company of misleading them about the rate of oil flowing after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

In a brief statement, BP said it would pay the investors over this year and 2017. US District Judge Keith Ellison, sitting in Houston, Texas, still needs to approve the deal.

BP has said the agreement does not resolve other securities-related litigation relating to the disaster, which killed 11 workers and poured millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf for 87 days.

The class action lawsuit said BP's low estimates of the rate of oil spewing into the Gulf inflated securities prices and accused the company of misrepresenting its safety procedures before the spill.

The lawsuit dealt with purchases of BP American Depositary Shares between November 8 2007 and May 28 2010.
Ms Heard claims that Depp plunged into an episode of paranoid delusions, heavy drinking and drug abuse after they were married (Photo by Rich Fury/Invision/AP, File)

Johnny Depp's assistant has claimed that a string of text messages in which he allegedly apologised to Amber Heard over the actor's violent and abusive behaviour were fabricated.

According to TMZ, the American celebrity news website, Stephen Deuters vowed to say under oath that Ms Heard was never attacked by her estranged husband - who strongly denies the claim - should the case go to trial.

He insists that he has never discussed the abuse claims with anyone and says the text messages were suspicious because they did not have dates on them.

It is the latest in a string of poisonous allegations to hit Depp, who was once a family-friendly household icon but is now facing claims that he repeatedly subjected Ms Heard to domestic violence during their 15-month marriage.

Depp is alleged to have hurled an iPhone at Ms Heard during a particularly virulent row over his late mother.

The claims emerged after Ms Heard was photographed with a bruise on the side of her forehead as she attended a Los Angeles court to file a restraining order against Depp.

The restraining order was granted, and Ms Heard claims the alleged iPhone assault was just one of several cases where she was abused and said she "lives in fear" of the Pirates of the Caribbean star.

"During the entirety of our relationship, Johnny has been verbally and physically abusive to me," she said in a statement shown to the court.

"I endured excessive emotional, verbal and physical abuse which has included angry, hostile, humiliating and threatening assaults to me whenever I questioned his authority or disagreed with him."

Representatives for Depp say he denies having thrown the iPhone.

Ms Heard claims that Depp plunged into an episode of paranoid delusions, heavy drinking and drug abuse after they were married - and it has been reported that his depression was linked to the death of his mother, who died on May 20 of this year.

The drug use in particular had left him "irrational, delusional and aggressive", she claimed.

Representatives for Depp said the allegations were "fabricated" and were an attempt to secure a quick financial settlement.

Earlier this week, a friend of Ms Heard claimed in an interview with the 'New York Post' that Depp once tried to suffocate his estranged wife with a pillow in a fit of drunken rage.

The friend told of how she was called to help Ms Heard and arrived at her home to find her with cuts on her face, a chunk of hair missing from the top of her head and a bruised eye.

"I got to her apartment to find her with a cut and bruised lip, a swollen eye and a chunk of hair missing from the top of her head," the friend recalled.

"This incident really stuck with me because she confided in me that day that she feared for her life after an intoxicated Johnny tried to suffocate her with a pillow."

As what is potentially the biggest and most bitter celebrity divorce in recent memory rages on, friends and family have been quick to take sides. Among those standing firmly with Depp are Oscar-winning actor Mickey Rourke, director Terry Gilliam, British actor Paul Bettany and Depp's own daughter, Lily-Rose Depp.
Tens of thousands of people have poured into Hong Kong's Victoria Park to remember the victims of the Chinese military's bloody June 4 1989 crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Participants laid a wreath and held a moment of silence at the annual vigil - the only large-scale public commemoration of Beijing's brutal crackdown held on Chinese soil.

In Beijing, authorities tightened security around Tiananmen Square, highlighting the enduring sensitivity over the events among the Communist Party leadership.

Organisers in Hong Kong were expecting 100,000 people to attend Saturday's vigil to mark the 27th anniversary of the crackdown, though the threat of rain might have kept numbers down.

The vigil is organised by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China. It demands that Beijing overturn its verdict that the Tiananmen protests were a counter-revolutionary riot. It also calls for one-party dictatorship in China to be replaced by democracy.

Hong Kong student groups that have been long-standing supporters of the vigil dropped out this year because of a disagreement over the vigil's aims. Instead, university and college students were holding discussion forums on the future of Hong Kong on Saturday evening.

The move by the student groups underscores the widening rift that emerged between younger and older generations of pro-democracy activists over the idea of Hong Kong's identity following 2014 protests over the Chinese government's decision to restrict elections in the semi-autonomous city.

It follows the decision in April by student leaders to quit the Hong Kong Alliance because they believe one of its main aims, fighting for democracy in mainland China, is no longer realistic. They also think the vigil's formulaic format fails to appeal to the younger generation.

Lily Wong, a 21-year-old legal assistant, was attending the vigil with her friend Cecilia Ng, 19. They did not disagree with some of the criticisms levelled by the student groups, such as the vigil's repetitive format and that it was dominated by Hong Kong's main pro-democracy group, but said it remained important.

"This is not a perfect event, but there are some meaningful things for us," Wong said. "It is very important for Hong Kong."

In Taiwan's capital, Taipei, Wu'er Kaixi, one of the student leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, was among about 200 people gathered at Liberty Square for a memorial event.

"The spirit of June 4 is an act of courageous humans pursuing the universal value of freedom," he said. "This spirit will not be crushed under machine guns and tanks. It will not die because of (the Chinese government's) suppression."

Ahead of the anniversary, family members of those killed in the crackdown were placed under additional restrictions, either confined to their homes or forced to leave the capital.

China's government has rejected their calls for an independent accounting of the events and those killed and maimed by soldiers.

At least half a dozen people have reportedly been detained in recent days for attempting to commemorate the events, although a small group wearing T-shirts condemning the crackdown converged on the square last Sunday.

Among them was former house painter Qi Zhiyong, whose leg was amputated after he was shot by troops.

In Washington, the US State Department called for a "full public accounting of those killed, detained, or missing and for an end to censorship of discussions about the events of June 4, 1989, as well as an end to harassment and detention of those who wish to peacefully commemorate the anniversary."

Asked on Friday about the anniversary, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China had "long ago reached a clear conclusion about the political turmoil at the end of 1980s and other related issues."

China's explosive economic growth in the years that followed "proves that the path of socialism with Chinese characters we chose to follow ... is in line with the fundamental interests of the Chinese people, and it represents a wish shared by them all," said Ms Hua.
SHARE Jessica Smith, center left, rubbed black powder on her face to signify to other reenactors that Saturday's Battle of Anderson was her first Civil War reenactment. John Teal, left, and Jon Jerrard, both of Anderson, prepare for Saturday's combat at the Battle of Anderson. Jerry Chesser fires his revolver during Saturday's Civil War reenactment at the Battle of Anderson.

By Anna Bard Brutzman

Some Civil War reenactors slip cell phones and laptops into their tents where no one can see them.

A handful, called hardcore by other reenactors, stay in character, carry supplies only available in the 19th century, eat terrible food and sleep on the ground  an attempt to relive their ancestors hardships.

Most are somewhere in the middle, enjoying weekends of outdoor living with close friends while celebrating an important chapter of United States history.

Leland Summers, lieutenant commander for the South Carolina division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, has tried the hardcore approach. Hes visited the annual reenactment at Gettysburg, Penn., with only the supplies he could carry on his back.

When youre lying there under a wool blanket, you reflect back on what actually happened, Summers said. The War Between the States was probably one of the most devastating events in our history. In the South, one out of every four soldiers never returned home.

In South Carolina, reenactments typically draw a few hundred people, and there are about two a month. The battles of Anderson and Cheraw happened this past weekend, and the 10-day camp in memory of the first shots fired at Fort Sumter 150 years ago starts April 9 in Charleston.

Reenactors can have strong views about the politics and economics that led to war. But discussion on the battlefield typically centers on questions of gear authenticity and the warfare experience.

Thats the main thing, to portray things as they were, Summers said. We try to study the skirmishes and battles and try to make them as historically accurate as we can.

Reenactors keep their supplies in wooden boxes, and zippers are frowned upon. Still, battles are often reenacted where none ever took place  such as the battles at Central and Oconee  and the winner is decided with a coin toss. Others, like the Battle of Anderson, recall real skirmishes that took place, albeit a few miles away from the original field of battle. The Battle of Anderson occurred 25 miles away from the reenactment. It involved about 60 soldiers and had no casualties.

Big events like the one at Gettysburg National Military Park do not fiddle with the outcome. The South has still never won at Gettysburg, said reenactor Jason Corder, a park ranger for Hartwell Lake.

As much as we try, he said, laughing. We are just grown-up kids. We know when certain things are going to happen. Depending on how the lines form, though, that may turn the tide a little, and some get upset.

Reenacting units  Confederate and Union  are in every state, and online suppliers of clothing, weapons and other gear are based in Michigan, Indiana, Georgia and Texas, among other places. A cottage industry of so-called sutlers follows reenactments selling period clothing and goods. Some women even reenact as Civil War-era prostitutes.

Kay Atkinson of the Quartermaster Shop in Kimball, Mich., said her boss, Jeff ODonnell, started his clothing business in 1975 after sewing his own Confederate uniform. Sales this year are up 80 percent, she said, for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

He couldnt find decent uniforms, she said. His friends liked what hed done and asked for uniforms, too. He got so good at it he quit his engineering job to sew full time.

Reenactors in Anderson recalled men from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom and Australia whod fallen in with their units. The biggest reenactment annually is at Gettysburg, which attracts about 20,000 people.

Reenactors all over Europe are portraying our war, said Jim Bay, who owns three cannons, including a rare repeating-fire cannon. The Civil War was the last of the Napoleonic wars where people stood up and shot at each other.

Jeff Antley of Mount Pleasant has organized the 150th Firing on Fort Sumter. More than 1,000 reenactors will set up camps at Fort Moultrie, Fort Sumter and Patriots Point.

On April 12th, the day South Carolina militiamen took Fort Sumter from Union troops, federal reenactors from the North and Confederate reenactors from the South will swap places. David West and Allen Ashley of Anderson will be taking the Williamston Bronze Cannon to Charleston to join more than 20 other field artillery pieces in symbolic shots at Fort Sumter all that day, too.

It will remind the citizens of Charleston of the significance of the date, Antley said. I think over the week-long observance, they will probably fire 1,000 shots.

Reenactors, he said, will be inspected when they arrive to make sure all their gear is accurate.

Jamey Wentzky, a reenactor for about six years, said new recruits are drilled on how to handle their equipment. The danger of black powder was demonstrated three years ago at Gettysburg when a man on leave from Iraq stuck his rifle into the mud, accidentally fired and the gun barrel burst. Shrapnel scratched the soldiers face.

It was ironic. He got home safely and got injured at a reenactment, Corder said.

Reenactors credit the 1993 film Gettysburg with the hobbys modern resurgence. Thousands of reenactors were called to portray the films battles.

But reenacting traces its roots to veterans reunions that started shortly after the Civil War. Most notably, the Great Camp of 1913, which marked the 50th anniversary of Gettysburg, included a walking reenactment of Picketts Charge, according to the National Park Service.

The hobby is expensive: Authentic uniforms cost more than $1,000. A reproduction 1853 Enfield rifle musket  the Civil Wars most common weapon  costs $150 to $200.

Earl Waters and his son, Mike, are Anderson car mechanics most of the time, but on about eight weekends a year, they join Bays cannon crew. The older Waters said the reenacting community has grown very tight in the 12 years hes taken part.

Many also share membership with the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The Waters family has traced 21 family members who took part in the war.

Everyone is on a first-name basis, he said. I probably know a couple hundred or more.

Still, emotions can run high, Wentzky said. He described the 145th anniversary of Gettysburg as electric.

Guys were crying, Wentzky said. People got so into it. There was a little real fighting going on.

Bay said he admires his ancestors courage.

If it were up to me, Id find a rock or a tree, Bay said. But most of them came out of the same area and would be branded a coward if they ran.
SHARE PHOTOS BY KATIE MCLEAN/INDEPENDENT MAIL Gomalia Dennis, who has been preaching and teaching since 1955, poses Thursday for a portrait at Mt. Olive Pentecostal Ministries in Belton. Dennis is photographed Thursday at the church she leads in Belton.

By Charmaine Smith-Miles of the Independent Mail

When Bishop Gomalia Dennis felt the call to ministry, she wasn't sure she wanted to go where God led her.

It was 1955. She was 23 and had been in Anderson County her whole life. She said she didn't know anything about preaching.

"I didn't understand why God was calling me into ministry," Dennis said. "I didn't have no experience. And when I got to thinking about being a woman, as a pastor, I wanted to back out."

But it was a man who stopped her from turning back.

Elder J.E. Nance, who led St. John Universal Pentecostal Holiness Church on White Street in Anderson, helped teach her and was the first to give her a chance to preach. Dennis' initial sermon was titled "Ye must be born again." She said she can remember preaching that sermon and listening to a woman in the congregation tell her afterward that she better not preach again.

"Elder Nance and his wife, who had a strong faith, encouraged me," Dennis said. "Elder Nance said, 'If God called you, then you do what God told you to do.' So I preached again the next night. And that woman who threatened me the day before became my first convert. If that doubt had hindered me, I wouldn't be who I am today."

This weekend, at age 84, Dennis will celebrate 60 years in ministry.

A celebration is planned for Saturday at the Hospice of the Upstate Sadler Center on Rogers Road in Anderson, and then a special service is scheduled for Sunday at Mt. Olive Pentecostal Ministries, the church she leads in Belton.

Dennis was born and raised on Reed Street in Anderson, and she was among the first students to graduate from Westside High School. She grew up in St. Paul Baptist Church on Anderson's west side.

In 1952, when she finished high school, she married Leo Dennis. They were married for 51 years, until he died in 2004. They both were saved at the St. John Universal Pentecostal Holiness Church.

Together, they spent their lives teaching and preaching, Dennis said.

"He was the teacher, and I was the preacher," Dennis said. "That's just how we were."

Dennis said she preached at the church on White Street, and then went on to become an assistant pastor at a church in Hartwell, Georgia. From there, she was sent by church leaders to establish a church in Townville.

"I didn't even know there was a Townville," Dennis said. "I had been in Anderson all my life. I thought I was going to be in a city. And there was nothing but a pasture where they wanted the church to be."

She said she started leading services in the home of Benny and Rozenna Brown in Townville.

That pasture didn't stay empty for long.

A congregation of about 50 to 60 people helped build the Mt. Olive Universal Pentecostal Holiness Church.

Leo Dennis sold war bonds and the church members sold lunch plates to build the church.

It was eight months before she ever received a salary, Gomalia Dennis said. But even without a paycheck in hand, she was paid in dozens of eggs, bottles of fresh milk and other food raised on her church members' farms.

"If you were a good minister, they would come to hear you," Dennis said. "And if they liked you, they would support you."

The church in Townville was her first church, but not her last.

In 1980, Dennis was named as assistant bishop of the Universal Pentecostal Holiness Churches of the USA. She felt God giving her a new mission: to build a place for the local Universal Pentecostal Holiness church congregations to gather.

In 1989, after seven years of work, the Youth Crusade Center was opened on Dobbins Bridge Road in Anderson County, thanks to Dennis' efforts, said her daughter, Darlena Sherman. Many of those who were part of the congregation in Townville followed Dennis to the new church on Dobbins Bridge Road.

Now, 12 years after her husband died, Dennis is still preaching, now at her small, red-brick church in Belton.

Some of those same families who began to worship with her in Townville have followed her yet again.

Dennis said she almost stopped preaching when her husband died. She thought that it was time for her to retire, she said.

"The Lord has said to me, 'I want you to carry these people until I tell you that's enough,'" Dennis said. "In this work, I have learned who God is ... to the depths. All that he promises, he will fulfill. He will never break a promise. In the midst of it all, even when it has been tough, God has been there. And this is my life."

Follow Charmaine Smith-Miles on Twitter @Charmaine_AIM.

Want to go?

What: Mt. Olive Pentecostal Ministries to honor Bishop Gomalia Dennis 60 years of pastoral service

When: Sunday, June 5, at 3 p.m.

Where: Mt. Olive Pentecostal Ministries, 110 Shirley St., Belton

Details: The service is free and open to the public. Pastor Terry Norman, of Old Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church, will speak at the celebration.
SHARE Randy Quinn Jr. Carissa Lee Vadala

By Independent Mail Coverage Partner Wspa News Channel 7

Oconee County Sheriff's Office deputies say the arrest of a former South Carolina state trooper on child porn charges led to the arrest of a Pennsylvania teen after they found video of the sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl.

Deputies say Randy Quinn Jr., 39, is charged with 10 counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor.

He was fired from the South Carolina Highway Patrol in a child pornography investigation in 2011.

He was sentenced to three years in prison in August 2012 for possession of child pornography.

Oconee County contacted the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Child Predator Section, and Carissa Lee Vadala, 19, of Mercer County, Pennsylvania, also is charged in the case. She is accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl, videotaping it and sending the video to other people.

The video was found in Oconee County.

Vadala is charged with two counts each of aggravated indecent assault of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, production of child pornography, dissemination of child pornography, sexual exploitation of children and indecent assault, as well as one count each of corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal use of a communication facility.
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By Mike Eads of the Independent Mail

Kinder Morgan decided this spring to drop its plans for the Palmetto Pipeline project, but the public and legislative backlash against the $1 billion plan inspired two legislative measures that are on the way to Gov. Nikki Haley's desk.

S.B. 868 and S.B. 1065 were both approved Thursday, the last day of this year's legislative session, after several weeks of delays that were the result of House and Senate budget haggling.

"I'm very pleased they were passed," said state Sen. Tom Young Jr. of Aiken, who worked with his fellow Republican Bill Hixon of North Augusta to shepherd both bills to passage. "I anticipate the governor would sign them. Her staff has given no indications of push back against either bill."

S.B. 868 would keep Kinder Morgan and other companies from using eminent domain in state courts for the next three years. That bill protects property owners from being forced to lease rights of way to unregulated pipeline operators until June 30, 2019. It was unanimously supported by the legislative delegations from Anderson, Oconee and Pickens counties.

Kinder Morgan officials said in April that the company was giving up on Palmetto plan, which would have run more than 300 miles of pipeline between Belton and Jacksonville, Florida.

The other bill headed to the governor would require state legislators to look at how much, or how little, regulation pipeline operators might deserve. S.B. 1065 creates a study committee to investigate how other states regulate them, and it will be comprised of three House members, three Senate members, South Carolina Department Health and Environmental Control and Office of Regulatory Staff designees, one environment advocate and one pipeline industry advocate. Haley would appoint the two advocates.

The committee is charged with examining several issues around pipeline construction  federal rules, environmental impact, siting and monitoring rules, economic effects, bonding requirements, certification of public need and whether or pipeline operators should be able to use eminent domain at all. That work has to be done by June 30, 2017.

Utilities such as Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas that are regulated to the state's Public Service Commission are not bound to S.B. 868.

Tonya Bonitabitus of the environmental watchdog group Savannah Riverkeeper lobbied for both bills and helped organize public opposition in Georgia and South Carolina to Kinder Morgan's proposal.

"We are incredibly proud to have the strong support of Hixon and Young leading the charge in this effort," Bonitabitus said Friday. "They have clearly demonstrated their strong commitments to our people and their rights. Today, our people win."

A third measure, S.B. 229, appears to have died in the House after failing to pass before the Legislature adjourned. That bill  rumored to have been a priority for House Speaker Jay Lucas  would have amended the state's Pollution Control Act to prevent private groups such as Upstate Forever from suing polluters when they feel state enforcement has been lacking.

Frank Holleman, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said earlier this year that the threat of such an action helped negotiators convince Duke in 2014 to commit to cleaning up its unlined coal ash ponds at the W.S. Lee generating station on the Saluda River near Williamston.

Follow Michael Eads on Twitter @MikeEads_AIM
SHARE Wright McCormick

By Staff Reports, newsroom@independentmail.com

CLEMSON  Deans have been appointed for Clemson's new College of Business and College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences ahead of next month's university reorganization.

The business college will spin off on its own July 1, when the Clemson Forward restructuring plan is launched. Bobby McCormick will be dean of the new College of Business and Brett Wright will be dean of the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences. Provost Bob Jones said each man will serve through the end of 2017, or until new deans are hired through national searches.

McCormick earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Clemson and a doctorate in economics from Texas A&M in 1978. He has been interim dean of the College of Business and Behavioral Science since July 2014.

"Dean McCormick has made significant progress in reorganizing the college and focusing on getting the business school's proposed new building on track," said Jones in a news release. "He has been an effective leader during a dynamic time in the life of the college."

Wright has been interim dean of Health, Education and Human Development since July 2014. The new college will include nursing; parks; recreation and tourism management; public health sciences; and youth, family and community studies, in addition to the communication, political science, psychology, and sociology and anthropology departments.

He has bachelor's and master's degrees from Morehead State University and a doctorate from Texas A&M.

Wright worked with the Eugene T. Moore School of Education as it became a stand-alone academic unit last year, and has worked on the formation of the new college, one of seven on the Clemson campus come July 1.
SHARE Bates

A Seneca man is accused of trying to cash in stolen lottery tickets.

The tickets were apparently stolen in a burglary Wednesday at Tunnel Town Express on Highlands Highway in Mountain Rest.

Heath Bates, 33, is accused of trying to cash them in later Wednesday at a business on S.C. 11 in Oconee County. He is charged with intent to defraud of the South Carolina Education Lottery.

A vehicle Bates was in was stopped on Critter Road in Westminster. Stolen lottery tickets were found inside, according to the Oconee County Sheriff's Office. Bates also had an outstanding municipal bench warrant from Walhalla. He was booked into the Oconee County Detention Center on Thursday and remained in custody Friday.

The burglary at Tunnel Town and the case of the stolen lottery tickets both remain under investigation by the Sheriff's Office.
While Bollywood is waiting to see Punjab ki Dhadakan Diljit Dosanjh on big screen with his debut movie 'Udta Punjab', the actor is already enjoying a huge stardom in his hometown. Here's an instance...

Now being a heartthrob among Punjabis, Diljit thought of keeping it a secret and shooting for his Punjabi film 'Sardaarji 2' in Australia in a hush hush manner. However, when he landed and came out of the airport, he was instead welcomed with an amazing surprise by his fans from Australia who came in numbers of thousands to see him. They all were waiting for him at the airport for hours before he landed and when he did arrive there was chaos and Diljit was overwhelmed with the fanfare.

When asked Diljit about the same he said, "It was completely overwhelming to see my dear fans waiting to surprise me at the airport. It was really shocking to see so many people be waiting for us and I was honestly and truly humbled. It defiantly feels great to receive love from all the corners of the world especially when you're least expecting it, I will make all my attempt to keep up to their expectations".

Well, now lets wait to see how Diljit Bollywood ke Dil Jeettha hai.... 'Udta Punjab' is slated to release on June 17 2016.


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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, Narendra Modi on 2 June 2016.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.The Prime Minister also emphasized the importance of imbibing safety norms and soft skills as integral parts of skill development.The meeting was attended by Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir; Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; Smriti Zubin Irani, Minister of Human Resource Development; Kalraj Mishra, Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Communication and Information Technology. Senior bureaucrats, and corporate leaders, including, Cyrus P. Mistry, Chairman, Tata Group; Sachin Bansal, Founder and CEO Flipkart and Manish Sabharwal, Chairman and Founder, Team Lease Services also participated in the Governing Council meeting.Some of the major decisions taken at the meeting included the following:
Piyush Goyal, Minister of State for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy released NTPC Book on bio diversity The Good Earth " and planted a sapling along with students to commemorate Environment Day at a function held in Noida today.

Speaking on the occasion he said Indian economy shall grow by leaps and bound and so will NTPC fulfilling the aspirations of all Indians. The mission of the present government is to increase use of clean technologies and renewable for power generation making Clean India Energy Capital of the world. He also emphasized on the need to restore the forest cover depleted over a period of time through massive tree plantation. He urged NTPC to increase its tree plantation target and keep a proper record reflecting ownership of the activity. He suggested NTPC nurturing a green patch in all the states it has operations in.

Goyal said with successful schemes like Make in India and progress in Rural Electrification the demand of power shall increase many folds. He added that NTPC has successfully demonstrated its ability to deliver large projects and producing power in an efficient reliable and affordable manner. He said that the power sector in India is focusing on environment sustainability and NTPC has taken a lead by preserving flora and fauna in and around its power stations. The book released today captures the long term efforts of NTPC in the direction and shall be an inspiration for all corporate to care for environment.

He congratulated NTPC family on its 4670 MW largest power station Vindhyachal achieving 100.05% PLF generating 114 MUs in a day yesterday.

In his address, Shri Gurdeep Singh, CMD said that NTPC is deeply committed to environmental sustainability and has taken many initiatives for its betterment. Company is focused on mitigating the impact of its operations and pursues progressive environment systems and practices.
Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd ended at Rs. 752.15, up by Rs. 21.3 or 2.91% from its previous closing of Rs. 730.85 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 737.4 and touched a high and low of Rs. 757.35 and Rs. 737.4 respectively. A total of 1160193(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 31693.46 crore.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 2 touched a 52 week high of Rs. 820 on 10-Aug-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 543.45 on 16-Jun-2015. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 757.35 and Rs. 716 respectively.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 24.19 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 60.63 % and 14.47 % respectively.

The stock traded above its 200 DMA.

Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd has announced that the Company proposes to issue 1000 Secured Non-Convertible Redeemable Debentures with a face value of Rs. 10 lakh each aggregating to Rs. 100 Crores (Plus Greenshoe Option), on Private Placement basis, pursuant to special resolution passed by the shareholders of the Company at the 10th Annual General Meeting held on September 07, 2015, on the terms and conditions.
Each place has a little something to it that appeals to one of our senses. Some places are a visual treat, with brilliant monuments and architecture; these are the places you bring back the best pictures from. Others appeal to your ears, through their lovely music or age-old folk stories that you bring back with you.

indoremerijaan.in

And then, there are some places that appeal the most to your taste buds. Indore is one such city. More than famous for its street food culture, Indore is a city best explored by tongue!

I was more than happy to find myself in Indore a little while back along with my family as it gave to me a combination of all the things I loved most  travel, exploration and most importantly  FOOD!

Also Read: The Secret Sauce That Made Pune India's Food Truck Capital

Aptly regarded as India's street food capital, Indore has a lot to offer to anyone who visits it, especially in terms of food. The Sarafa market, a jewelry market by day, in the center of the city turns into a street food lovers paradise after 8 PM. It stays open till 3 AM and attracts thousands of people every single night, serving over 50 vegetarian street food options.

Another extremely popular location is called Chappan Dukkan, which is literally a stretch of 56 shops that serve a mind-boggling variety of treats. It is particularly frequented for breakfast, as the place is alive and kicking at 6 AM.

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From savoury chaats to melt-in-mouth sweets and desi Chinese, there is nothing that you cant find in Indore. The overall experience can get a little overwhelming because there is just so much to choose from!

I did sample several items and decided to list down the best. Here are 5 foods you must try:

Poha Jalebi

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If there were one thing I could thank Indore for, it would be for taking two of my favourite breakfast items and creating a combination to die for! This breakfast combo cannot be missed when youre in Indore. It is absolutely divine!

Bhutte ka khees

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This unique Indori concoction is made of corn that is boiled, fried in ghee and then mixed with besan, hing, jeera, dhaniya and their own unique masala.

Indore ki kachori

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Spicy kachoris coupled with green chutney are an absolute treat in Indore. The best ones can be found at Vijays in Sarafa (make sure you go early though, they run out quickly!) and Lal Batti ki Kachori in Mari Mata square.

Shikanji

foodspotting.com

Made from sweetened milk, buttermilk and dry fruits, this Shikanji is going to wipe out all other Shikanji definitions you have in your head. It has a dewy sweetness overall with just a hint of tartness from the buttermilk.

Indori Namkeen

order-zapp

Once youve sampled the street food to the extent that you are so full you cant move anymore, head over to one of the many chains that sell Indori Namkeen and bring some of Indore's flavours back home with you!
There had to be something beyond religion in Israel, that would make any trip to the country worthy. Israel is revered for its sacredness by Christians, Muslims, Jews and Armenians but no trip to Israel is complete without getting soaked in the Dead Sea, the worlds saltiest lake. Its an experience in itself and a haven for non-swimmers, who can battle the deep without any fear.

Hope Menghermann

The Dead Sea is nestled between the deserts of Israel, the West Bank of Palestine's territories on the west, and the Jordanian desert to the east. This majestic lake is one of natures remarkable wonders. It is here that you experience the incredible feeling of not only floating on water, but also walking on the Earth's lowest elevation on land - approximately 1400 ft or 430 m below sea level!

The Dead Sea is christened so because of its high salinity that doesn't allow aquatic life to flourish. Even the fish flowing into it from the Jordan river die because of this. There are no outlet streams and the water can only evaporate. So thats millions of years of salt properties in there for you.

Nothing prepares you for what you will experience

What strikes you the most when you arrive at this hyper-saline lake is the convergence of colors  the clear blue sky, the serene bluer sea, dense pink bougainvillea plants and earthy browns. It also makes you a little introspective - you wonder about your own life when you see plants blooming against all odds alongside the highly saline lake.

From a distance, the salt lake looks like its dotted with buoyant bodies. As you walk towards the shore and closer to the lake, you suddenly feel so lucky to be able to experience this world wonder. As the salt lake fills you up, you realise the greasiness of the water. Deeper into the lake, you realise you have neither fear of drowning nor any fear of a fish or snake biting your leg. The Dead Sea actually frees you of all your fears as you soak into it. No wonder its known for its rejuvenating qualities!

Andrea Gogri

Sooner than you think, you will start feeling a tingling sensation in your body and eyes, but dont worry its just the salt properties doing its trick. Do not float face down or try to splash water on your friends and family, unless you want to end the trip real quickly. Have fun bobbing in and out, just like a child and enjoy the experience of floating- after all thats the reason you have travelled so far. Do stick your feet and hands in the air and see how you still float. Its almost magical- especially for the non-swimmers.

When you are more than soaked and you glance towards the shore, itll be dotted with people taking a sunbath covered with a thick layer of the medicinal black shore mud, after all its free. You may feel left out and that might propel you to dot the shore along with them. No hassles there, but remember once the mud is dried up dont wash your face in the sea as that will surely burn your eyes. Its for this purpose that showers are available on the beach. You will need multiple showers to get that salt out of your skin. After the mud and salt is out, youll see you havent tanned a bit but instead you will find a subtle glow.

Not so dead after all...

While the lake may not breed life, it gives livelihood to a million people. Right from the ancient world of mummification to the modern world of business, the sea is known for its marketable qualities. Today, potassium, bromide and magnesium, three precious metals found in the sea, are marketed across the world. In ancient times, asphalt was used for mummification and potash as a fertiliser.

Pete

Besides this, the shore mud is known for its healing and rejuvenating qualities. It's almost as if the Dead Sea was created as a health resort! Due to its strategic placement and high salinity, it is known to cure Psoriasis. Being the lower point on earth, it gives psoriasis patients the chance to sunbathe without being affected by UV rays. Even Queen Cleopatra is said to have used the mud to preserve her beauty!

Getting there

The Dead Sea is not in the heart of any flourishing city. If you are on the Israel side of the Dead Sea, its approximately 45 km from Jerusalem or 110 km from Tel Aviv Airport. You will need your own transport to get there. Renting a car is your best option. Relying on public transport can be difficult, although there are local buses that stop at touristy spots near the shores of the Dead Sea like Southern Basin Shores (hotel area), Masada National Park (Northern Basin) and Qumran (Northern Basin). The buses are available from Tel Aviv Arlozorov Bus Terminal or Jerusalem Central Bus Station, direct to the Dead Sea.

Andrea Gogri

The best time to visit

Since the Dead Sea lies in the desert region, its relatively hot during the day and cooler at night. Summers (April- October)are long, hot and dry, with the sun looming up to 8 pm on some days. Winters (November-March) are cooler and probably a better time to visit the Dead Sea. Do remember to click a picture with a book or newspaper while you float in the Dead Sea - thats an absolute classic!

Meanwhile, make sure you wear some type of footwear to protect your feet as the salt can be prickly on your feet. Else the Dead Sea takes the phrase 'rub salt on one's wounds' to a whole new level!
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Looks like Farhan Akhtar has a special inclination towards musician roles when it comes to picking his films. We all know that he's playing a musician in Rock On's upcoming sequel Rock On 2. And now we hear that he's all set to star in yet another movie where he'll be playing a musician - in fact, a prisoner musician! Titled Lucknow Central, it's going to be a Nikkhil Advani production and will be directed by his assistant Ranjit Tiwari. According to a source, "It is expected to go on the floors by October-end and has Farhan in the role of a prisoner. Most of it will be shot in Mumbai on a huge set in a studio."

And here's all you need to know about the film.

Farhan Akhtar plays a rockstar prisoner in it.

Talking about the film, Nikkhil Advani had said in an earlier interview that the film is about a bunch of prisoners who start a music band, "They start a band and discover pride, self confidence, a reason to wake up every morning."

The film is based on a true story.

According to reports, the film is inspired by a true story of convicts sentenced to life imprisonment in the Lucknow Central Jail, hence the title of the film.

The music is going to be scored by AR Rahman.

Most of Farhan Akhtar's earlier movies, including Rock On and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag have had music by Shankar-Ehsan-Loy. But this time it's going to be AR Rahman who'll be scoring the music. And we all know AR Rahman's score can do wonders for any movie!
1. Lata Mangeshkar's dignified response on the Tanmay Bhat episode is so apt!

Speaking about the video Lata Mangeshkar recently said that she hasn't watched it and that it didn't affect her. She added that the only thing which bothered her was the fact that her admirers got hassled because of it. She said, "I want to assure all my well-wishers that these (spoofs, etc) are very small matters. There are far greater issues in life. We must not give undue importance to those who thrive on maligning people. I am sure they have their reasons for doing what they do. Its the love of the people that has kept me going for so long."

2. Pakistani social media sensation, Qandeel Baloch, might be in Bigg Boss's next season!

Qandeel is all set to become the very first contestant in Bigg Boss' season 10. The upcoming season of Bigg Boss is going to be quite interesting, considering the contestants are going to be a mix of common people and celebrities. Qandeel has also gone on record to say that she will do the show only if her conditions are met.

3. Model turned nun Sofia Hayat waves her breast implants at a press meet!

Sofia has now spoken in length about how she has 'no physical desires left' in her body and also talked about how she has now removed her breast implants She even waved her silicon implants at the press con! She said, This (silicon implants) was a fake reality that I was putting on display then. I dont live my life physically for other people.

4. Farhan Akhtar to play a rockstar prisoner in his next film.

Titled Lucknow Central, it's going to be a Nikkhil Advani production and will be directed by his assistant Ranjit Tiwari. According to a source, "It is expected to go on the floors by October-end and has Farhan in the role of a prisoner. Most of it will be shot in Mumbai on a huge set in a studio."

5. Salman Khan in currently in Budapest shooting for Sultan and here's his latest picture from the sets.

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Salman Khan and Anushka Sharma are both in Budapest currently where they are shooting for a song for their upcoming film Sultan. Here's bhai striking a pose against a beautiful bridge.
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Ex Bigg Boss contestant Sofia Hayat, who was till a while back known for her rather bold avatar, shocked everyone recently when she decided to turn into a nun. As if that's indigestible enough, Sofia has now spoken in length about how she has 'no physical desires left' in her body and also talked about how she has now removed her breast implants. TMI Sofia, too much information! She now calls herself Gaia Mother Sofia. Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, she revealed that she is now following all the things expected from a spiritual person.

Sofia earlier had silicon breast implants that enhanced her body but she has now got those removed. She even waved her silicon implants at the press con!

She said, This (silicon implants) was a fake reality that I was putting on display then. I dont live my life physically for other people.

While talking to the media, Sofia said, "I am the incarnation of Quan Yin, Female Christ, Mary and Goddess Isis. I am the Mother and daughter of God of the Holy Trinity. I want to spread the truth of who we are and what is our purpose in life is. It is time to wake up and live the truth."

Speaking about her sex life in detail she added, "I had an active sex life. I had boyfriends. The change happened in July 2015. I asked myself, Why am I not feeling anymore desires? And that is when I took this path and discovered the real me. I dont have any more physical desires left in my body. "I have not had sex after July 2015 as I didn't feel like. I was in a relationship earlier but I didn't feel the urge to get physical. That's when I understood sex should be considered as sacred. However, when it is enjoyed without love and respect it exhausts the life force and turns us into mere physical beings. I was born Muslim and converted into Christian."

Surprisingly, now Sofia maintains that people should stop objectifying women! She said, "Those who were looking at me from a physical point of view, I have to tell them to stop objectifying women. Those who want the physical Sofia back will never get it ever again."
1. Remember The Dam Afghans Carried A 100 Mt Tri-Colour To Thank India For? It's Inaugurated Now

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani jointly inaugurated a landmark dam, a Rs 1,700 crore showpiece infrastructure project by India in strategically important Herat province.

The Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, on river Chist-e-Sharif in western Herat neighbouring Iran, will irrigate 75,000 hectares of land and generate 42 MW of power.

2. Six Startups, Including Flipkart, Blacklisted From IIT Campus Recruitments

The delay in joining dates of campus recruits by Flipkart had sent ripples across the industry, forcing institutes to be strict on their placements.

As a first step, 16 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) colleges in the country have blacklisted six startups including Flipkart. These companies will not be allowed to participate in campus placements from IITs in 2016-17 year.

3. Delhi Police Busts International Kidney Racket, Two Held

Blowing the lid off an organised, international kidney transplant racket in the capital, police have arrested two personal secretaries of a nephrologist at Apollo hospital along with three middlemen, who arranged donors for transplant patients for a hefty price.

Police have also booked the donors and are tracking the recipients. The cops are in the process of sending a notice to the hospital administration asking them to join investigations.

4. Sweden Is The Best Country To Live In, India Ranked 70th On 'Good Country' Index

Sweden has been voted as the best country in the world when it comes to serving the interests of its people and contributing to the common good of humanity while India figured low at 70th position on a list of 163 nations.

According to the 'Good Country' 2015 index which seeks to measure how countries contribute to the global good, Sweden, relative to the size of its economy, does more "good" and less harm than any other country.

5. UP Doctors Who Went On Strike To Pay Rs 25 Lakhs To Families Of Those Who Died In Hospital, Says HC

The high court on Friday said doctors at Lucknow's King George's Medical University would pay for deaths caused by their recent four-day strike. The court said a panel would find out, within two months, the number of deaths caused because of the strike, and the doctors would pay Rs 25 lakh to each affected family.

The government would pay the money, and deduct it from the doctors' salaries, the court said

6. India Moves Beyond Being Power Deficit, To Become Power Surplus By Financial Year 2017

India has, for the first time in history, declared that it will not have a power deficit this year, a situation officials say is an outcome of the current government's initiatives to resolve burning issues like fuel scarcity.

The country will have a surplus of 3.1% during peak hours and 1.1% during non-peak hours during 2016-17, latest data from the Central Electricity Authority shows.

7. 14 Years After Their Son Went Missing, A Parsi Family In Gulberg Society Still Waits For His Return

It has been over 14 years since a Parsi couple living in Gulberg Society has been on a painful wait. Rupa and Dara Modi lost their son Azhar who was 14 years old at the time, during the fateful events in 2002.

Like others who went missing from the society after the mob torched their houses, for the law Azhar is now presumed to be dead.
Blowing the lid off an organised, international kidney transplant racket in the capital, police have arrested two personal secretaries of a nephrologist at Apollo hospital along with three middlemen, who arranged donors for transplant patients for a hefty price.

BCCL

Aditya Singh, 24, and Shailesh Saxena, 31, worked for an Apollo doctor while Aseem Sikdar, 37, Satya Prakash, 30, and Devashish Moulik, 30, were touts who lured poor people into selling one of their kidneys.

Police have also booked the donors and are tracking the recipients. The cops are in the process of sending a notice to the hospital administration asking them to join investigations.

BCCL/representational image

Those arrested have revealed that donors were paid Rs 3-4 lakh while recipients had to shell out up to Rs 50 lakh for the transplant.

BCCL/representational image

The donors were procured from Bengal, Kanpur, Delhi and Chennai, where the touts had local scouts. Prospective donors were brought to Delhi and made to stay in luxury hotels while the pre-surgery tests were conducted.
Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, a Netaji-inspired cult in UP had remained literally unheard of until they unleashed a violent resistance against the police team which tried to evict them from a park which they had illegally encroached. Slowly information regarding the cult group has begun emerging and it is nothing but bizarre.

BCCL

Mystery leader

The group which claims their allegiance to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose is reportedly lead by someone called Ram Vriksha Singh Yadav. Some 3000 of the cult-members had taken over Jawahar park in Mathura in 2014 and has been camping there.

AFP

Linking to Netaji

Yadav is believed to be a disciple of someone called Tulsidas Maharaj. Maharaj aka Gurudev had on January 23 1975, the 78th birth anniversary of Subhash Chandra Bose impersonated himself the reincarnation of Netaji. Later the self-styled god-man started into politics and is believed to have amassed Rs 12,000 crore empire before his death, even though the date of his death is still unclear.

AFP

Bizarre demands

The cult has some absolutely strange claims and demands. This includes discontinuation of the Indian rupee and return to the currency notes used by Azad Hind Fauj.

Also they wanted 40 litres of petrol for Rs 1 and 60 litres of diesel also for Rs 1. They also wanted to do away with elections in India. The group demands the cancellation of the election of various members of government.

AFP

They want the axing of the position of prime minister and president because the parliamentary system is seen by them as a hand-me-down from the British colonial rulers.

The cult had turned the park which it had encroached into a self sustaining unit with even producing agricultural products within their fort, before it was busted by the police earlier this week.
This is a story involving an extra-marital affair that resulted in a murder. The trial of the murderer generated unprecedented media coverage and the circumstances in which the murder took place resulted in huge public sympathy for him. This is also one of the first cases through which the maverick lawyer, Mr. Ram Jethmalani, came into the limelight for the first time.

outlookindia

Kamas Maneckshaw Nanavati was an Indian Naval Officer who had settled in Mumbai with his English wife, Sylvia, and their two children. As his work required him to be away from his family for long periods of time, his wife began an affair with his friend Prem Ahuja. Sylvia wanted to divorce Nanavati and marry Ahuja, but he refused. Distraught by the refusal, she spilled the beans about the affair to Nanavati when he returned to his family.

Nanavati was enraged, but he did not show it. He dropped Sylvia and their two children to a nearby cinema hall, proceeded to the Naval Docks from where he withdrew his pistol and six cartridges on an excuse, finished his shift and went to Ahujas office. He did not find him there. He proceeded to Ahujas flat and confronted him there asking whether he would marry Sylvia and take in his children.

He refused.

Nanavati shot him dead.

businessofcinema

After committing the murder, he proceeded to the Provost Marshal of the Western Naval Command, where he confessed to his crime. The Provost Marshal asked him to surrender before the Deputy Commissioner of Police, which he did. Nanavati was an upright, moral and patriotic officer who did not have any prior history of criminal activity. The jury that heard his trial was sympathetic to his suffering and declared him to not guilty by a majority of 8-1.

Ram Jethmalani, a young lawyer at the time, was assisting the prosecution on the request of Ahujas sister Mamie Ahuja. The trial court judge found this verdict to be perverse and referred the matter to the High Court.

wikipedia

Throughout the trial, the Bombay Daily Blitz, which folded shop in the 90s, championed the cause of Nanavati. One copy of the magazine, which was usually priced at 25 paisa, was selling at 2 rupees per issue at the height of the trial. The coverage of the trial pitted the Parsi and Sindhi communities in the city against each other. When the matter reached the High Court, a sentence of life imprisonment was read out, upon which Nanavati preferred an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court confirmed the verdict of the High Court in November 1961. Blitz now went into an overdrive. It published a mercy petition in its pages, forcefully conveying the sentiments of the Parsi community which was wholly in favor of pardoning him. The rule of law and the demands of the society had clashed with each other. It was obvious that one had to bend in favor of the other.

wikimedia

Around the same time, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, newly appointed Governor of Bombay and sister of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, received a mercy petition from Bhai Pratap, a prominent Sindhi leader, in March 1962. Bhai Pratap had a business of import-export of sport goods and bureaucrats around her agreed that he could be pardoned. Pandit pounced on the chance. Bhai Pratap could be pardoned, she reasoned, after Nanavati had been pardoned. This way, both the Parsi and the Sindhi communities would get what they want. The proposal was conveyed to Jethmalani, who was asked to convince Mamie Ahuja for the same. She acceded to the governments request.

Soon after being pardoned by the government, Nanavati left for Canada along with his wife and two children and was never heard of again. He died in 2003. Sylvia is still alive.

Masala

The case has inspired several Bollywood movies, plays and books including R K Nayars Ye Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke (1963) starring Sunil Dutt and Leela Naidu, Gulzars Achanak (1973) starring Vinod Khanna and Lily Chakraborty and Indra Sinhas book The Death of Mr Love (2002). And now, Akshay Kumar and Neeraj Pandeys latest offing Rustom, is based on the case.

Even after 50 years, the Nanavati case continues to have a tremendous recall value among a public infamous for its short memory. The question that animated discussions in countless chai shops of Bombay at the time of the trial remains relevant till today - What would you have done if you were in his shoes?
Startups are sending shivers down the spine of students at top Indian Institutes of Technology. The darling of jobseekers until recently, some startups have delayed joining dates as uncertainty, funding slowdown and pressure on profitability force them to go slow on hiring.

BCCL/representational image

There are also some who have started withdrawing job offers because they've either shut shop or are closing some operations.

Flipkart

couponhaat

India's leading e-commerce player Flipkart has deferred joining dates for campus hires from IIM Ahmedabad and IITs citing restructuring of its businesses. The issue came to light after the chairperson of the IIM-A sent out a strong-worded email to Flipkart CEO Binny Bansal. The company later said that it was a tough decision to delay the joining dates of the campus recruits. The Bengaluru-based company will be paying an additional joining bonus of Rs 1.5 lakh to all campus recruits.

In a fresh development, IITs have claimed that they have been assured by the country's largest e-commerce firm that student recruits whose joining dates have been delayed will be offered internships.

Portea

media2.intoday

The healthcare startup Portea too is among the companies who have cancelled their offers. The company recently announced taking majority stake in healthtech startup PSTakeCare.

PepperTap

allthingsgud

Grocery portal PepperTap too is among the startups who cancelled job offers. The company reportedly cancelled its offers in the middle of February this year.

Roadrunnr

bsmedia

Bengaluru-based logistics startup Roadrunnr too has delayed joining letters. The company reportedly communicated that the candidates' onboarding is deferred till December. The company said that since it is expanding its infrastructure in other cities too, it would like its candidates to join in December.

InMobi

thelittlenews

Mobile advertising major InMobi has also deferred the joining date from July to November 2016. According to a report, the campus recruits had requested the company to reduce the delay by two months, however, the company officials expressed inability.

CarDekho

i.ytimg

Auto portal CarDekho too has delayed the joining dates of its IIM-Bangalore hires citing project timelines.

Stayzilla

cloudfront

Budget stay aggregator Stayzilla delayed the joining date for the 39 students it had hired from Indian School of Business in Hyderabad to July-August, from April-May. The company also lowered the annual compensation package to Rs 20 lakh (excluding stock options).

L&T Infotech

glassdoor

Though not a startup, the IT division of L&T, L&T Infotech, too has been in news for withdrawing job offers. The company has revoked over 1,000 job offers made in Tier-3 colleges in South India, leading some students to sit on hunger strike in Chennai. The students, who were of the 2015 batch, were placed on hold for over a year and then were dismissed after L&T Infotech carried out a second assessment test. Media reports have pegged the number of offers withdrawn at 1,500.
India has, for the first time in history, declared that it will not have a power deficit this year, a situation officials say is an outcome of the current government's initiatives to resolve burning issues like fuel scarcity. The country will have a surplus of 3.1% during peak hours and 1.1% during non-peak hours during 2016-17, latest data from the Central Electricity Authority shows.

BCCL

This is the first time that the country has declared a year of no shortage though many regions have had power surplus for shorter periods. In 2015-16, the peak hour deficit stood at -3.2% while non-peak hour deficit was at -2.1%. The deficit was as high as 13% about a decade ago.

The data, based on gap between demand raised and demand met, shows that June onwards the country will have more electricity than required. Half of the states will be surplus, while others may face shortage in varying degrees.

BCCL

The NDA government says power surplus scenario is one of its big achievements. Coal output, which was stagnant for years, has increased significantly, helping many stranded power plants to start generating electricity. The government has also launched a high-profile scheme to reform state distribution companies, which are a vital link between power plants and customers.

Experts said that the surplus power situation is an average for the entire country although some regions would still face a small deficit. Also, the surplus indicates that the power demanded by state utilities is being met.

BCCL

It hides the fact that these state utilities often choose to black out areas to reduce their losses, or due to technical failure. Congress leaders also seek credit for increased supply. Former power minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said the BJP government has simply rechristened its schemes and is misleading people at a time when power cuts are all pervasive.

CEA data also shows that states in southern India will have surplus power to the tune of 3.3% after being power starved for almost a decade. The data suggests that new plants of nearly 2,000 MW are likely to get commissioned in the southern region.

BCCL

Western India will have surplus electricity at 6.9%. Eastern region will have the maximum shortage of 10.3% and northeastern region at 8.3%. The northern states will have a deficit of 1.8% during the year.

Power minister Piyush Goyal has said that highest ever conventional power capacity of 46,453 MW has been added during two years of his tenure, about 11,000 MW of gas plants have been revived and coal shortages to power plants removed.

BCCL

The government has launched a revival scheme for distribution companies and ten states have joined it. The NDA government has promised to electrify all villages by 2018 and provide 24x7 power supply for which it has signed specific action plans with 21 states.

It aims to add 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022. Scindia said the surplus position is misleading. The fact is that very few new Power Purchase Agreements are signed by distribution companies, generation companies are powering down production, load shedding is still rampant, power shortages in cities and villages is all pervasive. He said the UPA government had improved the grid and launched schemes that had been renamed.
The New Delhi railway station may soon have a French connection! To tackle the congestion problem and poor crowd management, the French railways may take up the job of redeveloping the entire station. A move that was much needed to bring respite to travellers. The French government along with railway officials of India inspected the railway station recently. They suggested that the station building can be raised into a high-rise leaving space for commercial purposes.

aceindexer.com

The main issue

Congestion has been the main problem area. Being the capital of the country, the station operates nearly 350 trains witnessing about 5-6 lakh people on a regular basis. Because of this, there's always a heavy rush on the platform areas. The situation worsens during the summer vacation time and the festive season. Congestion is the reason why many miss their trains. It also leads to a stampede-like situation. Back in 2010, 2 people were even killed because of a stampede. So this has been an issue which needed to be tackled.

Reuters

But...

The entry and the exit point from Paharganj and Ajmeri Gate have no scope for horizontal expansion. The condition is so bad on the Paharganj side that visitors often don't even find a spot to park their vehicles. There is also a need for waiting areas, cafeterias and executive lounges, especially for the travellers waiting for a connecting train.

Reuters

Exploring other options

To tackle this problem, the authorities would plan to expand vertically on the station. They want the capital of the country to have a world class station with state of the art facilities. They also plan to have separate entry and exit points, much like the airports. To make it into a profitable module, they also plan on leasing out certain sections to business entities for commercial purposes. That includes retail outlets, eating joints, a cinema hall apart from private offices.

The French Railways has also agreed to take up the role of redeveloping the Ambala Cantonment and the Ludhiana railway station.
The delay in joining dates of campus recruits by Flipkart had sent ripples across the industry, forcing institutes to be strict on their placements.

Reuters

As a first step, 16 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) colleges in the country have blacklisted six startups including Flipkart. These companies will not be allowed to participate in campus placements from IITs in 2016-17 year.

The decision was taken at the All IIT Placement Committee meeting held recently in Mumbai.

However these companies might be allowed to recruit from IITs in the coming years if they appear before the placement committee.

IITK

Flipkart came under fire after it deferred the joining dates 18 IIM students by six months citing restructuring. The company had instead offered a Rs 1.5 lakh joining bonus at the request of the college.

It was not just Flipkart but other start-ups like InMobi that had also deferred their joining dates to November this year from the earlier promised joining in July.

Infrastructure major L&T had terminated the offer letters to nearly 1,500 students.
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) is not moved by the threat by the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (JNDLF) to launch six missiles in the Niger Delta, the Defence Acting Director of Information, Brig-Gen. Rabe Abubakar said yesterday.

The group had said during the week that it would commence the testing of its six missiles on June 7 and the testing would last for three days, warning that no airplanes should fly in and out of the country within the period.

However, Abubakar said the military would not be deterred at all by the threat and would rather remain focused on protecting the countrys territorial integrity.

This is no threat at all. The Nigerian military will remain focused and un-intimidated and will not be deterred by such threats, he told The Nation.

We will respond at the appropriate time. The whole world is seeing what they are doing and these are criminals and unpatriotic elements, and we will treat them as such.

We are being systematic and professional in dealing with this and any other threats not only in Niger Delta but any other area.

He urged law abiding citizens to go about their legitimate businesses unhindered and cooperate with security agencies in containing and bringing these criminals to their knees.

We must ensure one nation and one destiny under one God. All our operations are not to harass, intimidate and traumatise any innocent people, he said.

He urged the militants to remember that no non-state actor ever succeeds over state actor.

Let the so called militants go to history books and find out.
Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has condemned the recent murder of a woman at Wambai Market in Kano and promised to unmask the perpetrators of the dastardly act.

Ganduje made the promise while addressing newsmen after a meeting with Islamic scholars, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), leaders of different ethnic groups in the state and the deceased husband at the Government House on Friday night.

He assured the stakeholders that security operatives would unmask those involved in the murder of the 74 year old woman with a view to prosecuting them.

The governor, who described the incident as unfortunate and barbaric, condoled with the husband of the deceased and her family.

He said that all the stakeholders had unanimously agreed that Mrs Bridgets death was uncalled for and totally condemned the action.

The stakeholders also agreed that justice must be done as the suspect had been apprehended by the police.

The Council of Ulamas and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) leadership have also been urged to publicly condemn the barbaric act in the media, he said.

The governor also urged the religious leaders to intensify efforts in enlightening the general public on the dangers of taking laws into their hands.

He promised that the state government would assist the family of the deceased to prepare for the burial arrangements.

Ganduje thanked the security agencies in the state for their prompt action and the role they played in ensuring peace.

In his remarks, the state CAN chairman, Bishop Ransome Bello, said that the Christian body was satisfied with the resolutions taken at the meeting.

He also commended the governor for the wonderful wisdom and promised to convey the message to his people within and outside Kano State.

Also speaking, Sheikh Abdulwahab Abdalla, who spoke on behalf of the council of Ulamas, condemned the act which he described also as unIslamic and barbaric.

He further commended the governor for convening the meeting in time and called on leaders in the country to emulate the governors peaceful approach to serious issues.

The meeting which started around 11 p.m. lasted for over two hours.

Source: PMNews
President Muhammadu Buhari met with his predecessor, former President Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday evening at his official residence at Aso Rock, Abuja, reports have said.

The closed meeting door reportedly took place at 9 pm on Thursday, barely 24 hours after Jonathan made an unexpected return from Cote dIvoire where he went on holiday.

The meeting is believed to be about the renewed violence in the Niger Delta being perpetrated by the Niger Delta Avengers.

The two leaders met. The meeting was a private one. I believe it has to do with the militants attacks in the Niger Delta, The Guardian quoted a source to have said.

The former President must have offered useful suggestions and assistance on the way out.
Nigerias Federal Government has finally made good on its promise to disclose the assets it has so far recovered.

The President Buhari administration came to power on the back of promises to stamp out corruption. His administration has claimed severally that it has recovered billions from corrupt persons.

An initial promise to disclose the names of looters on democracy day was later broken.

The Federal Ministry of Information has released the details of the amounts.

The sums of N78,325,354,631.82, $185,119,584.61, 3,508,355.46 and 11, 250 between May 29, 2015 and May 25, 2016.

The Federal Government also expects to receive $321,316,726.1, 6,900,000 and 11,826.11.

Serial Items Naira US Dollar GB Pounds Euro 1 EFCC Cash at hand 39,169,911,023.00 128,494,076.66 2,355 11,250 2 Royalty/tax/payment to FGN account in JP Morgan account New York 4,642,958,711.48 40,727,253.65 3 ONSA Funds Recovery Account in CBN 5,665,305,527.41 8,000,000.00 4 VAT recovered from companies by ONSA 529,588,293.47 5 EFCC Recovered Funds Account in CBN 19,267,730,359.36 455,253.80 6 ICPC Revenue Collection Recovery in CBN 869,957,444.89 7 Office of the Attorney General 5,500,000,000 5,500,000 8 DSS Recoveries 47,707,000.5 1,943,000.5 3,506,000.46 9 ICPC Cash Asset Recovery 2,632,196,271.71 Total 78,325,354,631.82 185,119,584.61 3,508,355.46 11,250

Recoveries Under Interim Forfeiture

Serial Items Naira US Dollar GB Pounds Euro 1 Cash in bank under interim forfeiture 8,281,577,243.92 1,819,866,364.73 3,800.00 113,399.17 2 Amount frozen in bank 48,159,179,518.90 7,131,369,498.49 605,647.55 3 Value of properties under interim forfeiture 41,534,605,998.00 77,844,600.00 1,875,000.00 190,000.00 4 Value of cars under interim forfeiture 52,500,000.00 5 ONSA Funds under interim forfeiture 27,001,464,125.20 43,771,433.73 6 Value of Assets Recovered by ONSA 512,000,000.00 7 ONSA Assets under interim forfeiture 260,000,000.00 8 DSS Recoveries Frozen in Banks 658,929,000.00 226,476.20 9 EFCC Cash in Bank under final forfeiture 103,225,209.41 17,165,547.00 Total 126,563,481,095.43 9,090,243,920.15 2,484,447.55 303,399.17 Grand Total 204,888,835,727.25 9,275,363,504.76 5,992,803.01 314,649.17

Funds Awaiting Return From Foreign Jurisdictions

Jurisdiction US Dollar GB Pounds Euro 1 Switzerland 321000000 2 UK 6900000 3 UAE 310501 11826.11 4 USA 6225.1 Total 321,316,726.1 6,900,000 11,826.11

Non Cash Recoveries
Ijaw leaders from the 78 Ijaw clans, traditional institutions and socio-political bodies from Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Ondo and Delta states met yesterday in Warri to discuss the ongoing crisis in the Niger Delta.

The meeting convened by the Ijaw National Congress (INC) exposed the dire humanitarian crisis in several Ijaw communities of Oporoza; Kunukunu-Amu; Okokodiagbene; Benikruku; Kurutie; Okerekolo; Naifor; Azakrama; Kenghangbene; Igoba and several others as troops ransack the communities as they search for the Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group that has been wreaking havoc in the region.

As we speak, several Ijaw people cannot be accounted for and their whereabouts, including status as to whether they are alive or dead, cannot be ascertained, said INC Secretary, Dr. Bibobra Bello Orubebe at the meeting.

Our people are starving and being molested without recourse to minimum international human rights standards in law enforcement.

Ijaw children who went to write NECO are stranded and several of our people are in the forest and the wounded unattended.

The situation is dire, he said.

The INC condemned the use of violence by both civilians and the federal government and urged parties to the crisis to respect the sanctity of human lives, livelihood, economy, culture and environment of Ijaw people.

The group said it did not attend the flag-off of the UNEP clean-up ceremony at Ogoni, Rivers State on Thursday because the government cannot be killing Ijaw people and still expect them to honour the invitation.

You cannot kill the Ijaw people and rule successfully. We are asking the military to open the waterways for the people to move freely.

We are appealing to the federal government to order all the soldiers that have occupied several Ijaw communities to leave, because we are not pipeline vandals and members of the Niger Delta Avengers do not live in these villages.

The Ijaw indicated interest to work with the Buhari government after he was sworn in; we sent representation to the government showing our intention to work with them, but till date, they have not reached out to us.

The INC welcomes the clean up of Ogoni, based on the UNEP report. We boycotted the ceremony because you cannot be killing Ijaw people and expect us to attend, Orubebe said.
Kano state governor, Umar Ganduje have met with Pastor Mike Agbahime, the husband of the Igbo woman, Bridget Patience, a deeper life member, who was beaten to death for alleged blasphemy in Kofar Wambai market in Kano on Thursday June 2nd.

He met the husband of the deceased in company of the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria CAN (Kano Chapter) & leader of the Igbos of Kano.

The governor condemned the act in its totality and condoled the husband stressing that

the killing of his 74 year old wife is illegal, unjustifiable and she is without fault. He announced that a prime suspect identified as Alhaji Daudu has been arrested.

Pic credit:@dawisu

Source: Linda Ikejis blog
The Niger Delta Avengers has called on new militant groups not to attack soldiers or oil workers as they join the struggle to liberate the Niger Delta region.

In a statement signed by spokesperson of the militant group, Brig.Gen Mudoch Agbinibo, the Avengers warned that no group should indulge in any action that would make them incur the wrath of God.

The high command of the avengers is calling on you not to attack any soldier and those claiming to have anti aircraft missiles should deist from targeting any aircraft, the statement read.

Recall that a new militant group, the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (JNDLF) had threatened to launch six missiles in the Niger Delta starting from June 7.

The Niger Delta Avengers, however, said: Let us be careful not to offend God in the process of trying to liberate our people from the shackles of the Nigerian government because we need God more than anything right now. We also need the international communities as well. Hence, we must desist from any life threatening actions that will derail our genuine struggle for our people.

All groups are hereby discouraged from indulging in harassing oil workers and soldiers. We urge you all to help any oil workers or soldiers you see in distress.

The military warplanes hovering round our towns and villages have not strike a soul or destroy any property, so those groups with anti aircraft missiles should dry their gunpowder.

When it is time to engage the military in combat the whole world will know they started the war not the Avengers. The Niger delta avengers high command will pass the message round that its time to engage on gun battle when the time comes. So far, we have not engaged the Nigeria military in combat; despite the heavy presence of military on the pipelines. we still find way to carry out our actions without attacking soldiers. The avengers will deal with any group that refuses and attack military.

The high command is calling on all groups in Rivers, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom to not indulge in any act of kidnapping and attacking of soldiers. The war is on oil installations; Operation On Flow of Oil, the statement read.
Punch

A journalist with the Ogun State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists, Nofisat Oshin, and her 15-year-old daughter have been kidnapped by gunmen in Ijebu-Ode, Ijebu Ode Local Government Area of the state.

Vanguard

The Lagos State Governor on Saturday denied media reports claiming that a kidnap attempt was made on his mother, Mrs Christianah Ambode at her residence in Gbagada area of the State on Friday evening.

Thisday

The suit reportedly filed by an Abuja-based lawyer, Mr Nnamdi Nwokocha Ahaiwe, challenging Muhammadu Buharis eligibility to contest the 2015 presidential election on the ground that he does not have a School Certificate, the basic educational qualification set out by the constitution for a candidate seeking to run for the office of president, is dead on arrival.

The Sun

The Federal Government has finally released the first set of information on stolen funds recovered during the President Muhammadu Buharis administration.

Daily Times

There was pandemonium at Kofar Wambe Market in Kano on Thursday evening as a woman was beheaded for alleged blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

Guardian

Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has condemned the recent murder of a woman at Wambai Market in Kano and promised to unmask the perpetrators of the dastardly act.

Daily Trust

The National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the South-south, Hilliard Eta, yesterday, described the launch of the Ogoni land clean up by President Muhammadu Buhari as a landmark progressive event.

Read more at http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/politics/s-south-apc-hails-ogoni-clean-up/149586.html#xfvLuHlpvqhIO31V.99

Leadership

The federal government has urged banks in the country to suspend on-going retrenchment of workers pending the outcome of the conciliatory meetings in the industry.

Tribune

The Kaduna State security outfit code-named Operation Yaki has rescued three persons abducted by kidnappers at gun point in the state.

The Nation

Pope Francis has approved measures to sack bishops who mishandle child sexual abuse cases, a papal decree has said.
The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, has promised to speedily investigate and put on trial suspects in the murder of Mrs Bridget Agbaheme, who was beaten to death in Kano on Friday. Mrs Agbaheme was accused of blasphemy.

Arase made the promise in a statement issued by Police Public Relations Officer, Acting Commissioner of Police Olabisi Kolawole, in Abuja on Saturday.

According to the statement, the Kano state Police Command has succeeded in arresting two key suspects, Dauda Ahmed and Subeiru Abubakar in connection with the murder. However, Arase directed the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in-charge of the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department to deploy the Homicide Section to take over the investigation.

The forces leadership emphasises the sanctity of human lives and condemns in the strongest possible terms the violation of the right to life of citizens under any guise, the statement said.

The Inspector General of Police and the entire Nigeria Police family, therefore, condole with the family, friends and colleagues of the late victim.

The police said it shall uphold its mandate touching on criminal justice delivery in the most firm and speedy fashion. It advised members of the public to go about their normal activities and resist any temptation to capitalise on the incident to threaten national security as any such attempt will be firmly dealt with.
The leadership of the National Assembly, yesterday raised alarm over an alleged attempt to destabilize the nation through the activities of militancy in the Niger Delta.

Saraki expressed worry over the number of deaths being recorded both in the Niger Delta and the South-East due to the latest uprising by militants in the Niger Delta and agitators of the state of Biafra.

The Senate President who was represented by his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu and other Senators, said this when he paid Oshiomhole a condolence visit yesterday on the demise of the Oba of Benin, Oba Erediauwa.

We are particularly worried that he is no more at this particular time that we are faced with challenges. We know the role he has played in the past, we believe that if he was with us today, he will help us in resolving most of the national questions confronting us today, Saraki said.

We are having challenges of insecurity especially in the Niger Delta. We are worried with the resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta. I believe that as leaders in the Niger Delta, we have to come up with solutions as to how to resolve it. Because he who wears the shoes knows where it pinches. We are worried about several conflicts now in the country, we have conflict in the North East, South South and now in the South East.

We are not only worried in terms of the economic implications but the number of lives being lost because the life of every Nigerian means a lot to us. We are worried about the social implications it means to us as a nation. We want to appeal that the best we can do for the late Oba is for the leaders to rise up and find solution to the problems. We have had challenges in the past and our forebears were there to resolve the crisis, and now that it is our time the people of Nigeria expect us to find brilliant and workable solutions to our national questions. We believe that people like you and our colleagues here will find solution to these problems he stated.
Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) has described the scrapping of the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (post-UTME) by the Federal Government as a calamitous mistake.

The veteran lawyer who founded the Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), said he was more than shocked by the announcement from the Minster of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, that post-UTME as part of the qualifying procedure for admission into Nigerian universities, has now been cancelled.

This, to me, is nothing but a most calamitous mistake, which poses danger and an irreversible adverse effect on the quality of education in this country, Babalola said.

It is rather unfortunate that human memory is very short. In 2003, it was discovered by university administrators in this country that many of the students admitted into Nigerian universities through JAMB were not only academically deficient, they could also not justify the high marks scored in JAMB examinations.

Cases abound whereby JAMB examination papers were being openly compromised and sold to students at examination centers, while some examination centers, mischievously dubbed miracle centres, were openly, but unofficially designed to guarantee high marks for some candidates.

The most pathetic aspect of this perfidy is that we later found out that most of these students with such high marks were unable to cope academically upon their being admitted to the universities.

It was at this point of this national embarrassment that the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, under my chairmanship, met in Abuja, x-rayed the cankerworm and recommended to former President Olusegun Obasanjo that JAMB should be scrapped, because the integrity of its examinations has been called to question.

I must stress at this point that the introduction of post-UTME was not decided by the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities alone; the matter was thrown open, with contributions from stakeholders and interested and concerned members of the different strata of society.

However, government in its wisdom, decided to adopt a middle-way approach to the matter by saying that JAMB should continue to be and conduct its business of qualifying examinations to tertiary institutions in Nigeria, while post-UTME should be introduced.

This translates to the fact that JAMB will be used as the basis for admission into Nigerian universities, but the universities are free to conduct screening exercises, which include administering questions in relevant courses, for their would-be students.

The post-UTME had proved to be a veritable quality control measure, which I believed had been working and working well.

For example, the first post-UTME we conducted at the University of Lagos, where I was then the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, yielded positive dividends.

There was this student with a very impressive result, who applied to study Law. Since English Literature was and still central to the admission of students to study Law, he was asked if he knew a novel called Things Fall Apart and he answered in the affirmative. We then asked him if he knew the author.

The hall was filled with consternation when the young man named the late Gen. Sanni Abacha as the author of Things Fall Apart.

With the above scenario, it became crystal clear that Nigerian universities were no places candidates should come to with compromised and procured results.

This singular example underscores the place and import of the post-UTME, which is being touted as having been cancelled. As a result of the introduction of the post-UTME, the quantum of students who were asked to withdraw, because they could neither defend the high marks they were parading nor cope academically upon admission, dropped considerably.

Besides and in any event, those who were using JAMB to get jumbo marks also reduced, while JAMB and its results became more credible, Babalola said.

It must be emphasised that every university has the right to screen the candidates it wants to admit.

It also has the right to embark on other exercises, whether written or unwritten, to make it and its products stand out.

For example, in the University of Oxford, any student applying to study Law is mandatorily required to take the Law National Aptitude Test (LNAT). Any student applying for Biomedical Sciences must take Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT). Any student applying for Chemistry must take Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA), while any one applying for Classics must take Classics Admission Test (CAT).

However, such universities should not set out to profit from such exercises, as they are not money-making ventures. Students should only be made to pay minimal fees to cover the cost of papers and other logistics, like we do in our university, where each student pays only N10, 000 for the post-UTME, the lawyer said.
On this day in 2014;The Lagos State Police Command, paraded three suspected members of a notorious kidnap gang that killed former Deputy Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chudi Nwike.

The gang kidnapped former Anambra deputy governor and demanded N30 million as ransom. Although they got N5 million from the family, they still killed the man and told the wife to use the remaining N25 million to bury her husband.

Also on this day in 2014;All Progressives Congress, APC, in Edo State supported the resolution passed by the state House of Assembly, appealing to Governor Adams Oshiomhole to pardon and reinstate 923 teachers who were alleged to have falsified their ages among other offences. The House had, in its resolution, urged the governor to liaise with the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, to identify those who are due for retirement so that they would be retired with their full benefits, to make room for the employment of young and qualified graduates into the teaching profession.

Equally on this day in 2013;Former president Goodluck Jonathan assured Nigerians that his administration would work hard to ensure that the aviation sector is safe to avoid a reoccurrence of the Dana air crash which claimed lives of about 153 Nigerians in 2012 in Lagos.

And on this day in 2013;Property worth millions of Naira were gutted by fire in Durumi-1 in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja. About six houses were affected.
Archived Tracks

Information Week Cloud University Tuesday, September 16 - Thursday, September 25

Lecturer: Joe Masters Emison

Joe Emison is a serial technical cofounder, most recently with BuildFax, the nation's premier aggregator and supplier of property ...

Our Lecturer Joe Masters Emison

Joe Emison is a serial technical cofounder, most recently with BuildFax, the nation's premier aggregator and supplier of property condition information to insurers, appraisers, and real estate agents. After BuildFax was acquired by DMGT, Joe worked with DMGT's portfolio companies on challenges with product and technology, including digital transformations and cloud migrations. Joe graduated with degrees in English and Mathematics from Williams College and has a law degree from Yale Law School.

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Sep 16

2PM

To meet business needs, IT teams must understand their cloud choices beyond just public versus private and IaaS versus SaaS. Hybrid cloud is likely the future for enterprises, while PaaS is gaining steam as a way to maximize application flexibility. Meanwhile, securely managing cloud services  some in use by business units without ITs involvement  can get complicated fast.

Sep 18

2PM

Adopting a cloud mindset isnt about IT relinquishing all control and just approving invoices. It's about changing legacy ways of delivering business services and doing sales, customer service, and end user support in new and more flexible ways. In this InformationWeek University session, well help late cloud bloomers get the basics right, including choosing pilot projects, selecting partners, and building in automation and orchestration right from the start.

Sep 19

4PM

Youve heard of DevOps. Now get ready for CloudOps. The concept: Bring IT operations into the cloud era. In this InformationWeek University session, well discuss how CloudOps can help IT build an agile, self-service infrastructure with instant deployment and guard against lock-in.

Sep 23

2PM

The use of public cloud  IaaS and SaaS but also PaaS  and the rise of DevOps should lend some urgency to the concept of orchestration. The ultimate goal: Define and automatically execute services to meet business needs without human intervention. In this InformationWeek University session, well examine the essential elements of orchestration and explore what the future may hold.

Sep 25

2PM

InformationWeek Research has tracked attitudes on cloud security since 2012. In our early surveys, security was a deal-breaker for many companies. Today, the consensus is that every IT service has risk, and big cloud providers can attract and afford scarce security expertise better than many enterprises. In this InformationWeek University session, well discuss the current state of cloud security, unique risks of the cloud and how best to mitigate them, and what IT should expect from a provider.

Information Week Big Data, Complex Control University Monday, September 22 - Friday, October 3

Lecturer: John O'Brien & Lindy Ryan

John O'Brien, Principal Analyst and CEO, Radiant AdvisorsWith more than 25 years of experience delivering value through data warehousing ...

Our Lecturer John O'Brien & Lindy Ryan

John O'Brien, Principal Analyst and CEO, Radiant Advisors

With more than 25 years of experience delivering value through data warehousing and BI programs, John O'Brien's unique perspective comes from the combination of his roles as a practitioner, consultant, and vendor in the BI industry. His knowledge in designing, building, and growing enterprise BI systems and teams brings real-world insights to each role and phase within a BI program. Today, through Radiant Advisors, John provides research and advisory services that guide companies in meeting the demands of next-generation information management, architecture, and emerging technologies. Lindy Ryan, Research Director, Data Discovery & Visualization, Radiant Advisors

Lindy Ryan is the Research Director for Radiant Advisors' Data Discovery and Visualization practice and leads research and analyst activities in the confluence of data discovery, visualization, and data science from a business-needs perspective. She also retains the role of Editor in Chief of RediscoveringBI Magazine. As Radiant Advisors' Editor in Chief for three years, Lindy participated in in-depth discussions and analysis with industry thought leaders and vendors while maturing her position and perspectives in the BI industry.

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Sep 22

2PM

For most enterprises, data storage and analytics are remarkably fragmented. Departmental siloes lead to a lack of standardized definitions and multiple versions of the truth, ad-hoc business intelligence operations lead to duplicated efforts, and immature processes lead to valuable datasets languishing in obscurity.

Sep 24

2PM

To leverage big data and analytics effectively, companies must create an environment that organizes structured, unstructured, internal, and external data effectively and processes that data efficiently.

Sep 26

2PM

Data governance is an essential component of an information management initiative, but the complexities are daunting. Which functions should be handled by central IT, and which by business units?

Sep 29

2PM

The current spate of high-profile data breaches has put privacy in the spotlight. There are dozens of state and federal regulations that may apply, plus numerous industry codes and standards, to say nothing of international rules.

Oct 3

2PM

The most successful and innovative data-driven enterprises are augmenting their own information stores with public and proprietary feeds from social media, marketing firms, government agencies, and more.

Simplified IT: Regain Control, Remove Chaos Tuesday, October 21 - Tuesday, October 28

Lecturer: Jim O'Reilly

Jim O'Reilly was Vice President of Engineering at Germane Systems, where he created ruggedized servers and storage for the US submarine ...

Our Lecturer Jim O'Reilly

Jim O'Reilly was Vice President of Engineering at Germane Systems, where he created ruggedized servers and storage for the US submarine fleet. He has also held senior management positions at SGI/Rackable and Verari; was CEO at startups Scalant and CDS; headed operations at PC Brand and Metalithic; and led major divisions of Memorex-Telex and NCR, where his team developed the first SCSI ASIC, now in the Smithsonian. Jim is currently a consultant focused on storage and cloud computing.

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Oct 21

2PM

The explosive growth of storage demand spares no one. However, midsize shops may have more flexibility to build out a storage infrastructure that takes advantage of the newest capacity allocation and utilization, data protection, and management capabilities. Our instructor will explain how to evaluate the efficiency of your current storage systems, how management tools can help IT gain visibility, ways to build out capacity in a smart way, and ideas to lower storage TCO.

Oct 22

2PM

A heavily virtualized data center is an efficient data center. Our instructor will explain how to evaluate your current server and virtual machine utilization and workload management strategy and outline strategies for increasing density. Well also look at whats next  namely containerization, driven by interest in PaaS, DevOps, and scale-out applications  and explain where it is and is not a fit.

Oct 23

2PM

The size of some midmarket companies data stores might surprise you. On the bright side, its easier to build from the start following best practices in platform selection and managing volume, velocity, and variety than to go back and retrofit, as many enterprises are now finding. And, actionable business information may be more easily shared among tightly focused teams.

Oct 27

2PM

There are worse growth mottos for midsize companies than: Avoid IT Sprawl. The goal is a fully optimized infrastructure, with converged storage and LAN traffic and aggressive control over adoption of new applications. Our instructor will explain how to achieve maximum efficiency via advancements in servers, storage, networking, and data center management that are allowing IT to cut back on power, space, staffing, and complexity.

Oct 28

2PM

Most midmarket businesses recognize that cloud services will be part of their IT portfolios. However, how do you decide which services are best run in IaaS, SaaS, and/or PaaS versus kept on internal systems? The decision points involve efficiency, agility, and TCO. Our instructor will help develop a decision matrix that can be applied to new and existing IT services.

Simplified IT: Aligning Efforts Across The Enterprise Monday, November 3 - Friday, November 7

Lecturer: Jim O'Reilly

Jim O'Reilly was Vice President of Engineering at Germane Systems, where he created ruggedized servers and storage for the US submarine ...

Our Lecturer Jim O'Reilly

Jim O'Reilly was Vice President of Engineering at Germane Systems, where he created ruggedized servers and storage for the US submarine fleet. He has also held senior management positions at SGI/Rackable and Verari; was CEO at startups Scalant and CDS; headed operations at PC Brand and Metalithic; and led major divisions of Memorex-Telex and NCR, where his team developed the first SCSI ASIC, now in the Smithsonian. Jim is currently a consultant focused on storage and cloud computing.

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Nov 3

2PM

Improve storage efficiency and you benefit many areas of the data center, from performance speed to space and energy costs. Of course, storage characteristics, such as capacity allocation and utilization, data protection, and level of management, affect efficiency, especially with heavy use of server virtualization. Our instructor will explain how to evaluate the efficiency of your storage systems and suggest management tools that can help IT gain visibility and lower TCO.

Nov 4

2PM

A heavily virtualized data center is an efficient data center. Our instructor will explain how to evaluate your current server and virtual machine utilization, describe a smart workload management strategy, and outline ways to increase density. Well also look at whats next  namely, containerization, driven by interest in PaaS, DevOps, and scale-out applications  and explain where it is and is not a fit.

Nov 5

2PM

Big data means something different to every enterprise. However, there are best-practices around platform selection and managing volume, velocity, and variety. Do it right and youll deliver useful business information. Do it wrong and youll spend a lot of money on storage and analysis tools, for naught. Our instructor will discuss the links among database systems, analytics platforms, storage systems, and the cloud with an eye to making your data work for you, not the other way around.

Nov 6

2PM

You may not be ready for a fully optimized infrastructure, with converged storage and LAN traffic and aggressive application consolidation. Or maybe you are, but you have some tidying up to do first. Fortunately, new advances in servers, storage, networking, and data center management are allowing IT to cut back on power, space, staffing, and complexity. Our instructor will explain how to create an inventory of your application and services workloads and decide where you can simplify.

Nov 7

2PM

"Hybrid" is today's hot cloud buzzword. While it makes sense to balance private and public cloud use, and even burst-to-manage demand spikes, the devil is in the details. Our instructor will explain the challenges of a hybrid environment in the context of maximizing interoperability, manageability, and reliability and address open cloud architectures and whether they may be right for your needs.

Reality Check: Clouds Tangible Business Benefits Monday, November 17 - Friday, November 21

Lecturer: Jonathan Feldman

Jonathan Feldman is Chief Information Officer for the City of Asheville, North Carolina, where his business background and work as ...

Our Lecturer Jonathan Feldman

Jonathan Feldman is Chief Information Officer for the City of Asheville, North Carolina, where his business background and work as an InformationWeek columnist have helped him to innovate in government through better practices in business technology, process, and human resources management. Asheville is a rapidly growing and popular city; it has been named a Fodor top travel destination, and is the site of many new breweries, including New Belgium's east coast expansion. During Jonathan's leadership, the City has been recognized nationally and internationally (including the International Economic Development Council New Media, Government Innovation Grant, and the GMIS Best Practices awards) for improving services to citizens and reducing expenses through new practices and technology. He is active in the IT, startup and open data communities, was named a "Top 100 CIO to follow" by the Huffington Post, and is a co-author of Code For America's book, Beyond Transparency. Learn more about Jonathan at Feldman.org.

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Nov 17

2PM

The savings you get from SaaS are wholly different from how running a website on IaaS pays off. Our instructor will present some sample balance sheets and explain the key factors to include in an ROI calculation.

Nov 18

2PM

Building on the intro session, our instructor will dig into the difference between just saving money and actually delivering better service to end users. Dont conflate the two. Maybe business leaders are OK with spending more to keep a service on premises. Maybe theyre not. Heres how to present a balanced case.

Nov 19

2PM

Market realities also play a huge role in your ROI calculation. Our instructor will give the example of how a small organization with a lean IT team and tight budget rolled out disaster recovery in the cloud. Well explain factors including geographic diversity, automation level, operational cost, capital cost, audited rather than perceived security requirements, and typical recovery time.

Nov 20

2PM

Midmarket IT teams tend to run lean, but its well worth adding a cloud broker role. The cloud is evolving quickly, and having a small team, or even one dedicated person, formally tasked with staying up to date will pay for itself. Our instructor will explain the must-have skills for a cloud broker, including understanding on-premises capabilities and costs, the differences between IaaS and PaaS providers, the reality of hybrid, and more.

Nov 21

2PM

Just because you dont have the buying power of a Fortune 100 doesnt mean you cant negotiate a favorable deal with a cloud provider. Our instructor will suggest some tactics, like calculating the cost to run a service internally then asking providers if they can beat it, or committing to a contract period, then discuss what to include in an SLA and how to monitor for compliance.

Why PaaS Is the Future Monday, December 8 - Friday, December 12

Lecturer: Joe Masters Emison

Joe Emison is a serial technical cofounder, most recently with BuildFax, the nation's premier aggregator and supplier of property ...

Our Lecturer Joe Masters Emison

Joe Emison is a serial technical cofounder, most recently with BuildFax, the nation's premier aggregator and supplier of property condition information to insurers, appraisers, and real estate agents. After BuildFax was acquired by DMGT, Joe worked with DMGT's portfolio companies on challenges with product and technology, including digital transformations and cloud migrations. Joe graduated with degrees in English and Mathematics from Williams College and has a law degree from Yale Law School.

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Dec 8

2PM

The essential goal of PaaS is to improve software deployment. While more enterprises are embracing DevOps and Agile principles, there are still massive inefficiencies in the way organizations deploy software, often across large and diverse user bases. Our instructor will explain how PaaS attempts to remove those inefficiencies and minimize errors by abstracting and automating the nitty-gritty details of software deployment.

Dec 9

2PM

With infrastructure as a service, it is now possible to automate essentially all basic systems administration through software and configuration. To make that possibility a reality, DevOps takes tasks traditionally done by human sys admins and makes those tasks faster, less expensive, and less error-prone  at least in theory.

Dec 10

2PM

Because PaaS is about automating and orchestrating software deployments, its important to note that there are as many flavors of PaaS as there are software development environments, especially in large shops that may serve various constituencies. For example, PaaS instances for .NET and Java (which compile binaries that run on software virtual machines) look quite different than PaaS for scripting languages.

Dec 11

2PM

Enterprise IT teams can run a private PaaS system locally that launches servers on the public cloud, or they can run a public PaaS that launches servers on a private cloud. Different development environments, regulatory regimes, and use cases drive different PaaS requirements, as our instructor will explain.

Dec 12

2PM

How do you know which PaaS providers are right for you? How do you avoid lock-in, especially in a world where public, hosted providers may disappear in a flash? If you run many different development environments, as is common in large organizations across the spectrum, is there even a single PaaS that you could use? Our instructor will guide attendees through these and other decision points.

Automating The Modern Application-Friendly Datacenter Tuesday, October 27 - Thursday, October 29

Lecturer: Tom Hollingsworth

Tom Hollingsworth, CCIE #29213, is a former VAR network engineer with 10 years of experience working with primary education and the ...

Our Lecturer Tom Hollingsworth

Tom Hollingsworth, CCIE #29213, is a former VAR network engineer with 10 years of experience working with primary education and the problems they face implementing technology solutions. He has worked with wireless, storage, and server virtualization in addition to routing and switching. Recently, Tom has switched careers to focus on technology blogging and social media outreach as a part of Gestalt IT media. Tom has a regular blog at http://networkingnerd.net and can be heard on various industry podcasts pontificating about the role technology will play in the future.

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Oct 27

12PM

The days of the three-tier model are fading rapidly as enterprises require data center networks that are simple to scale, vendor agnostic, and unencumbered by constant manual maintenance. Learn about the new switching architectures that are making this possible and how to select the best configuration for your environment. We'll also cover virtual network appliances that are adding even more functionality to the data center network.

Oct 28

12PM

The manual steps required to provision and update the network takes a toll on everyday data center operations. Compute is achieving high rates of resource utilization and agility, but the network must join in as well. Implementing automation can help, especially with tools like Vagrant, Ansible, Puppet and Chef. Our expert will also discuss orchestration with other systems and configuration validation.

Oct 29

12PM

The data center must interact with outside factors including cloud services, hosting, and multiple locations. Our expert will address how network design, especially SDN and NFV, can optimize your data center internally. He'll also discuss how to extend that across a network of global data centers and provide high availability using designs such as active/active, passive/passive, and cold and hot sites.
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Welcome ! Here are the latest Insider stories.
Not all cloud applications need to be cloud-scale. Theyre often simple routing and switching apps that take information from one source, process it minimally, then pass it on. Thats where tools like IFTTT and Yahoo Pipes came into play, allowing you to quickly build and share information flows that linked one service to another. Sadly, Yahoo Pipes has been shut down, and IFTTT has concentrated on simple links to the Internet of things.

That means theres space in the market for a new tool -- one focused on working with applications and services, and capable of handling more complex chains of operations than IFTTTs basic one input to one output mapping. You could build microservices on Node.js to automate these sorts of connections between applications and between APIs, but that would be overkill. So would Azure Logic Apps or AWS Lambda.

Alongside the launch of its new visual development tool, PowerApps, Microsoft recently unveiled its new connection-based development tool, Flow. Like IFTTT and Pipes, Flow is designed to help you quickly hook together outputs and inputs to build applications that are triggered by an event on an input, and deliver responses to one or more services. Where IFTTT could scan a stream of tweets and save specific content to a file, Flow can take an input and use it as the basis for a more complex flow of information, querying multiple information sources and handling multiple actions as a result.

Microsoft Flow gives you the option of connecting to predefined services like Box and Dynamics CRM or to public APIs via Swagger definitions or HTTP URLs.

With initial support for 12 services (and many more APIs), Microsoft Flow is clearly designed to automate what would otherwise be tedious tasks. Supported services include Twitter, GitHub, Salesforce, Dropbox, Slack, and Office 365, giving you access to much of the Office Graph. Using these services, you could, for example, scan Twitter looking for mentions of a product and deliver them into a Slack channel for the product team, allowing the team to see what their users are saying about their product.

Ins and outs, ifs and thens

Microsoft provides a set of 63 initial templates that handle a variety of tasks, all of which are also ready for customization. The range of templates spans customer relationship management, devops notifications, and ways to manage your online life, bridging the gaps between storage, social media, email, and other cloud services.

I started by customizing one of the basic templates, taking tweets I sent and archiving them in a CSV file on my personal OneDrive. Editing a Flow is relatively easy. Youre presented with the key elements of a template in your browser as a basic flow diagram, inputs at the top of a screen, outputs at the bottom. You can click on a block to open up its properties. For example, in a Twitter block, youll find a standard Twitter query.

To help you get started with Flow, Microsoft provides a library of prebuilt solutions that can be quickly customized and used as the basis for your own flows.

One key difference between Flow and IFTTT is support for conditionals. For example, if a file you need isnt present, your flow can create it and place an initial set of data. Once its in place, an alternative path will add new data to the file. Flow offers a very basic set of conditional operators, but its enough to let you build relatively complex applications. You can chain inputs, queries, and conditionals, helping you control the flow of your flow, from input to your choice of outputs.

Theres a lot of flexibility in Flow. When you drill down into building your own flows rather than using the provided templates, youll find that youre able to use Swagger API definitions to quickly hook arbitrary REST APIs into a flow. Youre also able to connect to an HTTP action, an option that would allow you to connect to a Web hook in an application like Slack, or to work with data sent over a Web form or via JSON Thats an important feature, as it means that youre not limited to the default set of controls.

Youre also able to build a flow into a PowerApps app, giving it its own UI. Debugging is easy, with reports for each operation that let you drill down into each block, so you can see what went wrong -- and equally as important, what went right.

Only the start

The result is a powerful little tool that can quickly scratch an itch. The ability to reach out into any API is significant, as is the support for a range of different input types. Microsoft has provided enough routes into Flow that you should be able to find one that will work with your choice of inputs -- even if theyre not among the specific triggers that Flow defines. Outputs are perhaps a little more limited at this stage. I would have liked to see better support for the Office Graph and its various entities, including more document types than Excel.

You can use Flows visual debugging tools to explore how a flow has run, seeing messages from both successful and failed steps.

Some aspects of the Flow development process are still a little buggy, especially around its OneDrive integration. I found it nearly impossible to scroll through a long list of folders, for example, and I had to manually input the folder I was intending to use. Despite these teething problems, Flow is shaping up nicely as a replacement for the sadly lost Yahoo Pipes, albeit one designed for the API world we have today, rather than merely HTTP, RSS, and XML.

Flow is a service that makes sense quickly, even to nonprogrammers. Its easy enough to get started by customizing a template, but once you build your own flows, the graphical layout of flow and program blocks quickly makes sense. If you want to go beyond the templates and default actions, then youll need to become familiar with the syntax of RESTful APIs. Flows support for the Swagger API description language should simplify things, at least where sites and services offer Swagger definitions.

With tools like Flow and PowerApps, Microsoft is finally serving a developer audience composed of information workers who want to solve small problems. Flow is not a general-purpose programming tool, but it is nonetheless both powerful and flexible. Flow is an on-ramp into a new style of application development, and its one that anyone can use.
This content is from: Research

In a tumultuous year, new analysts rise to the top as their firms compete for leading spots in the 51st annual ranking.
Il 2016 rischia diventare lanno piu caldo della storia della Terra. Lallarme arriva dallagenzia meteorologica delle Nazioni Unite (Wmo). E molto probabile che il 2016 sara lanno piu caldo di tutti quelli registrati con temperature di 1,2 gradi sopra i livelli pre-industriali e 0,88 gradi sopra il periodo 1961-1990 si legge nella nota diffusa a Marrakech, durante la conferenza dellOnu sul Clima (Cop22), in Marocco. La previsione per il 2016 e contenuta nel rapporto preliminare di uno studio che sara pubblicato solo nel 2017.

Peggio del 2015

Un altro anno. Un altro record  ha commentato il segretario generale della Wmo, Petteri Taalas -. Le alte temperature che abbiamo visto nel 2015 si avviano ad essere superate nel 2016. In alcune parte della Russia Artica, ha proseguito, le temperature sono dai 6 ai 7 gradi sopra la media di lungo periodo. Molte altre regioni artiche e sub-artiche in Russia, Alaska e nel nordovest del Canada erano almeno 3 gradi sopra la media. Eravamo abituati a misurare le temperature da record in frazioni di gradi, ma questa e unaltra cosa. Per Talaas a causa del cambiamento climatico, la frequenza e limpatto degli eventi estremi sono aumentati. Le ondate di calore e le inondazioni che una volta avvenivano una volta a generazione, stanno diventando piu regolari. Laumento del livello dei mari ha aumentato lesposizione alle tempeste associate ai cicloni tropicali.

Le cause

Due la cause principali, una naturale, laltra artificiale. La prima e il Nino, cioe il fenomeno climatico periodico che in media ogni 5 anni provoca un forte surriscaldamento dellOceano Pacifico Centro Meridionale e Orientale. La seconda e linquinamento atmosferico. Limmissione di gas nocivi nellaria nel tempo ha generato, infatti, il cosiddetto effetto serra, capace di alzare le temperature globali con grave pregiudizio dellecosistema. Su questo i leader mondiali, dopo il Cop21 di Parigi dello scorso anno, stanno discutendo in Marocco. A causa del cambiamento climatico, la frequenza e limpatto di eventi estremi e aumentato ha spiegato Talaas.

Disastri naturali

A tal proposito un rapporto della Banca Mondiale e del Fondo mondiale per la riduzione dei disastri e recupero (Gfdrr) ha quantificato le conseguenze umane ed economiche dei fenomeni meteorologici: i disastri naturali sono molto piu devastanti di quanto non si pensasse, causano un danno economico di circa 520 miliardi di dollari e trascinano 26 milioni di persone in poverta. I gravi eventi climatici ci fanno arretrare di decenni nei progressi sulla poverta  ha detto Jim Yong Kim, presidente della Banca mondiale -. Tempeste, inondazioni e siccita severe si ripercuotono sullumanita e sulleconomia generale, ma sicuramente il prezzo piu alto lo pagano i piu poveri.

Lo studio, realizzato tenendo sotto controllo 117 paesi, dimostra che limpatto e molto piu grave di quanto stimato in precedenza. Le ricadute sullinfanzia sono dirette: quando le popolazioni sono gia al limite della sopravvivenza, e vengono ulteriormente colpite da una catastrofe naturale, e chiaro che sono costrette a misure estreme, come togliere i bambini da scuola e mandarli a lavorare, ha aggiunto Stephane Hallegatte, economista, tra gli autori della ricerca.

Allarme

Alla Conferenza Onu sul clima la ricerca ha destato scalpore, spingendo ulteriormente lurgenza di agire e subito, secondo lagenda di Marrakech. Lobiettivo e quello di ottenere 100 miliardi di dollari di fondi annui per finanziare la lotta contro i cambiamenti climatici, in particolare predisponendo un sistema di allerta, migliorando laccesso al credito e alle assicurazioni. Tutte iniziative che assicurano gli studiosi della Banca mondiale possono ridurre del 20% limpatto globale delle catastrofi.
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.
Irelands Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross, has called on the United States Department of Transport to confirm their tentative decision to grant a permit to Norwegian Air as soon as possible.

Cork Airport Managing Director Niall MacCarthy has welcomed his comments. Ross addressed the International Air Transport Association (IATA) 72nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) and World Air Transport Summit at the RDS in Dublin this week.

The Minister spoke about the importance of the airline industry moving with the times and market forces.

He said Without the foresight of the policy makers in the past, international civil aviation would be nothing like it is today. As the global debate continues on the further liberalization of international aviation, it is apparent that there are interests on both sides of the Atlantic that would like to reverse the process.

It is unfortunate that the Norwegian Air Group, a relatively small new entrant to the transatlantic market, appears to have fallen victim to this wider global debate.

The airline is already providing new routes at low-cost between places on both sides of the Atlantic that have never had transatlantic services before. The Irish airline within the group also wants to provide such services: for example, the Cork to Boston route that was due to commence last month. However, the Irish airline has been unable to start operating these services because it is still waiting for a permit from the US authorities.

On 15th April 2016, the US Department of Transportation tentatively approved Norwegian Air Internationals application to commence flights from Cork Airport and announced that an extensive review by the US Department of Justice found no reason why the required license should not be granted. However, there are a number of vested interest groups, largely in the US, trying to block the license on competitive grounds.

Norwegian Airs application has the support of the Irish Government, the European Union, Tourism Ireland, Failte Ireland, Airport Council International Europe, European Low Fares Airlines Association, ECTAA - European Group of Travel Agents and Tour Operators Association and the US Travel Association. A number of Munster-based companies have also come out in strong support as well as local authorities, international airports, airlines and the travelling public from the South of Ireland.

Leaders of the global air transport industry who were gathered in Dublin today heard the Minister express his disappointment at delays in the process to grant permission to Norwegian Air to operate the transatlantic route from Cork.

He said To my knowledge this is the first time since the EU-US Open Skies Agreement came into force in 2008, that an airline has announced new transatlantic services to the travelling public, but has been unable to operate the services due to delayed Government approval. Clearly this is not in the interests of the many people in the Cork and Boston regions that are looking forward to using the new service.

The EU-US Open Skies Agreement has been a huge success and is an example to the rest of the world of the benefits of open skies. It has been good for airlines, passengers and wider EU-US economic and social relations.

The Minister concluded by saying I look forward to US authorities confirming its tentative decision to grant a permit to the Irish airline as soon as possible. Such competition is exactly what the Agreement was designed to achieve when it was put in place nearly a decade ago.

The IATA AGM and World Air Transport Summit brings together CEOs and senior management of IATAs 264 member airlines worldwide, who together carry some 83% of global traffic. Stakeholders from across the aviation industry participate in the event, including leaders from governments, international organizations, aircraft manufacturers and other industry partners. This is only the second IATA AGM to be held in Ireland, the first being in 1962. Nearly 1,000 delegates are participating in the event being hosted by Aer Lingus at the Royal Dublin Society.
The Irish Repertory Theatre has returned in triumph to its completely redesigned home on West 22nd Street in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, and to kick things off two time Tony Award winner Matthew Broderick stars in the Reps debut production of Conor McPherson's Shining City. Cahir O'Doherty catches the new show and talks to Broderick about his role, his love of the Irish Rep, and he and his wife Sarah Jessica Parker's treasured home away from home in paparazzi-free Co. Donegal.

New Yorks beloved Irish Repertory Theatre has opened its new season in a newly redesigned space with Conor McPherson's Dublin-based ghost story, Shining City, featuring two-time Tony winner Matthew Broderick in the starring role.

It's a triumphant return to form for the Rep in its completely redesigned state of the art new theater space that also includes a new gallery and a mobile second stage downstairs. After two years in the cultural wilderness of Union Square, the Rep is finally back firing on all cylinders in its original theater on West 22nd Street in Chelsea.

But securing Broderick  a bona fide movie star and a Broadway legend  for its new season opener is a signal of the sheer ambition and forward planning that's been guiding the Irish Repertory Theatre and its founders, Ciaran OReilly and Charlotte Moore, for years.

With Shining City, McPherson's most understated but absorbing play, the Rep's producing director O'Reilly has created a production that quietly surpasses the original Broadway one in 2006.

McPherson's lovelorn but often hilarious ghost story simply works better in the more manageable scale of the Rep's space (150 seats with a new balcony space that seats 40). But the real secret of O'Reilly's superior production is the first rate cast.

Broderick is simply terrific as a mordantly funny middle-aged Dubliner, John, who's haunted by the recent death of his wife Mari. That haunting is happening in more than just his memories, however, as he tells his counselor Ian (Billy Carter) that he is seeing Maris apparition in the house they shared before her death.

No one sounds more surprised about this development that John himself, and Broderick is terrific as a quickly approaching the end of his tether widow.

How did the Rep persuade Broderick, a longtime admirer of the Reps shows, to tackle the role?

I knew Ciaran a little bit over the years and he mentioned he was doing Shining City and asked me if I wanted to read it, Broderick told the Irish Voice during an interview last Friday.

And I did and I really liked it. I was on vacation with my wife [Sarah Jessica Parker] and I couldn't decide if I was going to do it or not because there was so much to learn, but I thought and thought about it and decided it was something that I would really like to do. That's what happened.

At 54, the still boyish looking Broderick brings his own life experience (and, it must be said, a certain degree of Irish melancholy) to the role, which makes him a perfect fit for his onstage character John. Are the lessons of his early fifties informing his performance?

A lilt bit. You start to assess things and you become aware of the mistakes you made and that you can't go back, which I guess happens in this play, he says.

The character I play, he has been horribly unlucky in that someone he loves has died, right in the middle of a couples fight, which I think is really a terrible thing to happen. You know, right when you're not speaking  that this should happen and you never get to make up is a really bad thing.

After seeing Shining City, one of Broderick's friends told him that there really is a ghost in the house because of the unmade-up argument John had with his late wife. He really is being haunted by what happened.

Depression and worry force John to hold once weekly meetings with psychologist Ian, who it turns out has relationship problems of his own.

They're all homeless, each character, says Broderick. Ian's fiancee Neasa (Lisa Dwan) is living in someone's spare room, Ian is moving from his own office space, my character John is moving from his old home, even Laurence (James Russell) the boy he picks up in the park is homeless. Nobody lives anywhere. We're all homeless.

Preview audiences have been wowed by Broderick's skill with an Irish accent, which makes his character instantly believable. How did he pull that formidable challenge off?

I have a very good dialect teacher at the Rep called Stephen Gabis and he tried to help me, Broderick laughs.

I spent a lot of time growing up in Ireland in Donegal. I tried to be from Dublin in the play but I don't think I've managed that. People do seem to think that I might be Irish; they're just not sure where I'm from. I got that from the feedback so far.

It's hard for me to do. I guess I grew up around people in Ireland a lot and I know the way they mutter and the rhythms I'm kind of used to I suppose. That was very helpful.

But I still want to make sure I'm making the right vowel sound and with the Irish that's often very strange, and that's all I can say! Gabis keeps trying to teach me all this Dublin stuff and I can't do it. The actor who plays the boy from the park has it, but I can't make those sounds.

Speaking of Ireland and Donegal, is he visiting again this summer?

I'm not going this summer, my sisters are going, he reveals. My parents bought a place there when I was about eight. And my sisters and I have inherited it and I've taken my kids. It's up near Killybegs and Kilcar.

What does Donegal mean to him? It's unbelievable. It gave me a whole new childhood in a way. I grew up in New York City, I was born and raised here, so the fact that my parents managed to put the money together to get us there was a great gift to us, he says.

You know the landscape, the hiking but it's also the people there that I grew up knowing. Real farmers who worked the hay in the summer and milked cows. I really, really got to know my neighbors and that just doesn't happen in the same way here in the U.S. We just really felt welcomed there. It's another culture, a wonderful place.

Broderick's lifelong affection for the place is palpable when he speaks.

People would say it's special because of the sea air. I remember how deeply I would sleep there. It was so quiet, the smell of the turf fires, and the hay. I used to love helping with the hay, he recalls of his childhood days in Donegal.

To much of the world Broderick is Ferris Bueller, star of the ultimate classic eighties flick Ferris Buellers Day Off, but in Donegal he's just Matthew from up the road. It clearly means the world to him.

Most of the people in Donegal knew me long before I was an actor. But even since then they don't talk that much about it, which is very nice. My wife still gets it, some people's eyes pop out of their head when she walks around but not our neighbors, he says of Parker, star of the iconic HBO series Sex and the City.

The locals are very protective of the famous pair if anyone is sniffing around, he reveals.

A photographer was after us one time and a neighbor got on his four by four motorbike and chased him. I just remember watching as this photographer was running with this farmer trying to run him over. He wasn't even speaking, he was just running away, Broderick recalls.

Onstage at the Rep, Broderick works with gifted Northern Irish actor Billy Carter and the pair has immediate chemistry.

I love Billy, he's amazing, says Broderick. I have some really long monologues, and to have someone actively pay attention, I can't tell you helpful that is. I just find him a total pleasure to talk to and act with. I like when he gets to speak finally a little bit.

Broderick adds that he's thrilled to be starring in the first production in the recently redesigned Irish Rep space, but as a long term admirer of the Rep's shows it's even more special, he says.

The space is gorgeous. It's got this height now. When I'm on stage I can't see the house but I can feel the room, Broderick offers.

It's so intimate but it has some air in it now. So it just couldn't be nicer physically. And also, is it because of Ciaran and Charlotte, but the atmosphere there is so lovely. The people, unless they're all pretending, make it clear that it's a very nice place to work. They all seem happy. I hear no whining, or barely any, except from me!

Shining City is playing a limited run through July 3, so you'd be wise to buy your tickets now before they sell out. As Broderick says himself, I've seen a million shows there and they're always good. I always like them. I think they do an amazing job with that little space.

For tickets visit www.irishrep.org or call 212-727-2737.
In 1882, three Irish speakers in Connemara were wrongfully condemned to death for the murder of a family in Maamtrasna.

When the family  John Joyce; his wife Brighid; his mother, Mairead; his daughter Peigi; and son Micheal  were killed in Maamtrasna valley it was believed at the time that the motive was connected with stealing sheep. Two of the family survived the attack: a nine-year-old boy, Patsy, who was injured, and his older brother Mairtin, who had been working as a farmhand in a nearby parish and was away from home that night.

On the basis of what was later found to be perjured evidence, eight men were convicted for the crime. Three of the eight were executed and five imprisoned.

The Irish Times reported on the execution from the Galway scaffold and publishing the account on December 16, 1882.

At a quarter-past eight oclock the prison doors were thrown open.

With startled looks they marked the wild, hollow eyes, sunken cheeks, and shrunken forms of each other, but not a word passed between them. Myles Joyce came first, between two warders, bareheaded, repeating in Irish the responses to the prayers which were being read by the Rev Mr. Grevan.

Then came Pat Casey, pinioned, silent, and with a look of great agony on his features. Last appeared Pat Joyce, taller than the others, wearing his hat, silent, too, and walking with firm and steady step . . . 

Executioner William Marwood placed the tallest man in the center and began tying the knees. The Irish Times correspondent reported that Myles Joyce continued to speak in an excited way.

It was impossible to gather the meaning of much that fell from him, even by Irish-speaking persons who were present; but the following sentences have been interpreted for me by one who understands and speaks the language thoroughly, and who was close enough to hear the greater part of what he said.

These sentences were: I am going before my God. I was not there at all. I had no hand or part in it. I am as innocent as a child in the cradle. It is a poor thing to take this life away on a stage, but I have my priest with me. 

After the hanging, the report stated:

Two of the ropes remained perfectly motionless, but the third, that by which Myles Joyce was hanged, could be seen by those who watched it closely to vibrate, and swing slightly backwards and forwards.

It soon became evident, from Marwoods behavior, that there had been a hitch of some kind or other, and he muttered, bother the fellow, sat down on the scaffold, laid hold of the rope, and moved it backwards and forwards . . . 

Two years later, in August 1884, one of the witnesses to the case, Tom Casey, walked up to the altar of the church in Tourmakeady during a Mass by the archbishop of Tuam, Dr John McEvilly, and declared he had caused the death of an innocent man, Myles Joyce and the wrongful imprisonment of four others.

The Irish Times reports that although there followed lengthy debates in the British parliament over the matter, with Charles Stewart Parnell and other demanding an inquiry, there has never been an official apology.

Journalist Sean O Cuirreain, whose new book Eagoir covers the case, calls the saga a mix of murder mystery, courtroom drama, and political intrigue.

O Cuirreain discovered through the British archives that the witness was paid by lord-lieutenant Earl Spencer. He compensated three men who claimed to be eyewitnesses, and paid them well over the going rate: a sum totaling 1,250, today equal to about 157,000.

The accused mens defense lawyer was a 24-year-old Trinity College graduate who didnt understand Irish, and the men themselves had no understanding of what was going on in court.

According to O Cuirreain, the court records one of the men asking Cen la a chrocfar me? (What day will I be hanged?).

The five men who were sent to prison languished there despite the fact that the man who had planned and directed the murders was named publicly in print and in parliament.

Journalist and MP, Tim Harrington, was the first person to champion their case. Harrington had met some of the men when he was convicted for participating in anti-eviction protests.

Harrington did all the good things an investigative journalist would do, visiting the area with two priests in 1885, O Cuirreain says. He even named the instigator, who was never charged, because even back then the British government couldnt contemplate the appalling vista of having to admit to convicting innocent people.

One of the reasons O Cuirreain was attracted to the case was the language issue. Men who only spoke and understood Irish were tried and convicted in an English-speaking court. Although there have been other accounts of the case, Eagoir is the first book published in Irish, and O Cuirreain says he wrote the book as a mark of respect to the men and their families.

The Irish Times reports that two members of the House of Lords, David Alton, who has close family ties with the Maamtrasna area, and the late Eric Lubbock, sought to have the case reviewed five years ago.

Although Britains justice minister, Crispin Blunt, agreed that Myles Joyce was probably an innocent man, he said he would not seek a posthumous pardon unless there were compelling new reasons or sufficient public interest.

Lord Alton says the case opened prime minister William Gladstones eyes to the injustices in Ireland and paved the way for his support for land reform, for Irish home rule and for his mission to pacify Ireland.

Lord Alton, who noted the parallels of the Maamtrasna case with the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four, said that the true healing of British-Irish relations requires that, wherever possible, ghosts should be laid peacefully to rest and wrongs righted. If we forget the lessons of history or try to erase those experiences from our identity, we will be condemned to make the same errors all over again.

* Originally published in 2016.
The maker of paper cups and bowls for global fast-food and coffee chains such as McDonalds, Chipotle, and Starbucks has made a dozen acquisitions since 2011, and is planning a fresh round, chief executive Jukka Moisio said in an interview at the companys headquarters in Espoo, near the capital Helsinki.

Any sizable purchase could be funded with the sale of shares, which reached a record level this week.

We look to find companies that complement our current focus and geographic footprint because there are many countries where were not present, said Mr Moisio.

The main areas are southeast Asia and Africa.

A fresh wave of acquisitions would build on a decades-long transformation of Huhtamaki from a conglomerate, making everything from womens clothing to electronics components.

Named after founder Heikki Huhtamaki, the son of a village baker who started a candy-making business almost a century ago, the companys focus grew out of an in-house packaging operation.

It now competes with Denmarks Hartmann to be the worlds largest egg carton maker, and vies for disposable cutlery customers with Dart Container in the US and Italys Seda.

Huhtamaki has between 400m and 500m available for acquisitions and is in the market for targets in developed markets with annual revenue of 50m to 100m, Mr Moisio said.

The company is looking at smaller targets in emerging markets such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Positive Packaging, an Indian company that Huhtamaki bought last year to add some 220m in annual revenue, was an unusually large find, he said.

The CEO said he would consider issuing new shares or using its reserve stock to finance a larger, transformational acquisition.
The claim comes as the Central Bank prepares next week to release the latest figures on mortgage arrears.

This release is the first since the new minority government was formed and will likely reignite the debate about the large numbers still facing arrears, as well as the high numbers whose mortgage deals are falling apart following some sort of restructuring.

The figures will probably reveal a further small reduction in arrears cases in the first three months of the year.

They are the first since many political parties and groupings inside and outside the Government have focused on the arrears problems.

Mr McGrath yesterday highlighted the inadequacies of the almost three-year-old mortgage-to-rent scheme which, he said, despite an overhaul last year, is still not fit for purpose.

Figures supplied to me in the Dail show that just 162 mortgage-to-rent transactions involving approved housing bodies have been approved nationwide since its inception in July 2012, said Mr McGrath.

This represents less than four per month. Against the backdrop of 38,000 family home mortgages in arrears of two years or so, this is a truly abysmal performance by the scheme.

The data also show that in some counties, no transactions have yet been approved, he said.

Mortgage and arrears experts agree.

There are restrictions in the scheme which make it less user-friendly than it should be, said Ross Maguire of advocacy group New Beginning, citing rules on family size and mix.

It was launched in the UK in the 1990s to resolve their mortgage crisis there and was successful because it did not have the restrictions.

Mr Ross also said that the problems with restructured mortgages remain a cause for concern.

Michael Dowling, chair of the mortgage committee at the Irish Brokers Association, said: It [the mortgage-to-rent scheme] is a very good idea in principle because it allows people to stay in the family home on a rental basis.

But it so cumbersome because so many people are involvedthe approved housing body is involved, the bank is involved, the solicitors are involved. And then there is not enough money because the property has to be bought at market value, Mr Dowling said.

There were 88,292, or just under 12% of residential accounts in arrears at the end of 2015.

Almost 14% of restructured home mortgages were not meeting the terms of the new deals. Lenders had classified a huge number, totalling 120,739, of home mortgage accounts as restructured.

The Central Bank said in March that restructuring arrangements and forbearance techniques include: A switch to an interest only mortgage; a reduction in the payment amount; a temporary deferral of payment; extending the term of the mortgage; and capitalising arrears amounts and related interest.
The company was yesterday awarded four more licensing options, in three basins, in the final tranche of awards from the Governments recent Atlantic Margin Licensing Round. It means the company now has seven licences in Irish waters.

In January, Europa opened the data room on the two licences (with prospective resources of more than 1.5bn barrels of oil equivalent) it already held off the south-west coast prior to the latest licensing round.

It now hopes to agree a farmout deal for those licences (it will look at farming out its new licences at a later date) before the end of the year, with drilling work expected to start during 2018, although next year hasnt totally been ruled out.

Around 50 major and mid-cap explorers have passed through Europas Irish data room and around 12 are understood to be seriously interested. Chief executive Hugh Mackay said Europa now has a leading position in Irelands Atlantic basins, which he added have now emerged as a global exploration hotspot.

Europa was one of the pioneer companies who have played a role in reactivating industry interest in Atlantic Ireland and we feel that the entry of majors and super-majors is providing a validation of our belief in Irelands exploration potential, said Mr Mackay, adding that the latest wins could speed up the companys existing farmout plans.

Earlier this year he said more consolidation in the market could be seen when firms full Irish acreages are known.

In all, 14 new licensing options were awarded yesterday to nine bidders in the second round of awards; taking the number to 28 options. Minister of state for natural resources Sean Kyne said that, at a time of very low oil prices, the strong interest shown in the latest licensing round is very positive.

Industrys response to the round demonstrates the perceived positive prospectivity of Irelands offshore and highlights confidence in the Irish regulatory process and the ability of industry to do business in Ireland, said Mr Kyne.

The response [to the round] is by far the largest number of applications received in any licensing round held in the Irish offshore.

Pat Shannon, chairman of the Irish Offshore Operators Association called the awards a significant and positive development in Irelands energy landscape, which has the potential to deliver real benefits for Irish energy security and supply.

This is positive news and demonstrates that there is very strong interest in exploring the potential of the Irish offshore, he said.

While the first tranche of licence awards, in February, saw big players such as ExxonMobil, Statoil, Eni, BP, and Woodside take Irish acreage, the second round focused on awards to smaller firms such as AzEire, Capricorn, Faroe Petroleum, Ratio Petroleum, and Predator Oil and Gas.

John Teelings Petrel Resources and the Tony OReilly Jr-led Providence Resources were also among the winners.

Petrel director David Horgan said the interest shown validates his companys belief that the Porcupine Basin, in particular, is under-explored and has reserve potential. He said Petrel will be seeking to further develop its acreage presence in the Porcupine Basin.

Elsewhere, BP has agreed to pay $175m (154m) to shareholders who brought a class-action lawsuit that accused the oil company of misleading them by understating the severity of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP said the claims will be paid during 2016-2017.

However, the company said this settlement does not resolve other securities-related litigation in connection with the spill.

In 2014, US District Judge Keith Ellison in Houston said investors who bought BPs American depositary shares soon after the explosion could pursue claims as a group that BP publicly lowballed the oil flow rate, and that the share price did not reflect the magnitude of the disaster facing the company.
Speaking yesterday at a conference in Dublin, Mr Al Baker said he views the holding as a strategic investment that will aid co-operation in areas such as joint fleet purchases, rather than a financial stake, and has no plans to raise it beyond the current level.

Qatar Air bought 9.99% of IAG in January last year before building its position by way of a series of further purchases.
While polls showing an advantage for the campaign to secede from the EU have sent a measure of the swings affecting sterling to a seven-year high this week, a similar gauge for the stock market has been steadier.

The FTSE 100 volatility index is now the lowest ever relative to its currency counterpart, according to data going back to 2008.

The benefits of a weaker sterling for UK exporters (although almost the opposite for exporters in Ireland) and the boost stocks received from improving commodity prices, help explain some of the relative calm in the countrys equities, according to Mark Richards, a global strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management.

The 4.5% dividend yield offered by FTSE 100 companies, about 1.7 times that of global shares, makes them attractive, he said.

The shares are the top performers among their major regional peers this year.

Equities have been reflecting other trends, Mr Richards said from London. His firm oversees $1.7trn (1.52trn) in investments.

The UK equity market is certainly reflecting EU referendum risks, but its nowhere near as extended as currency volatility  the currency being much more a reflection of domestic conditions compared to the international nature of the equity market.

The FTSE 100 Index has slipped by less than 1% this year. Thats less than the 7.2% slump in the Euro Stoxx 50 Index.

While global factors have a greater impact on its members  heavyweights such as HSBC Holdings and Royal Dutch Shell get about 65% of their sales outside Europe  even the FTSE 250 Index of companies more dependent on the domestic economy has dropped just 2%.

The gauge has been even less volatile than the FTSE 100 in the past month.

By comparison, sterling has fallen the most among its major peers in 2016, and a Chicago Board Options Exchange measure tracking its expected swings has jumped 31% this week alone.

Equities are not entirely immune to the vote scheduled for June 23.

The gauge of FTSE 100 volatility has increased 18% in the past four days, more than similar indexes tracking estimated stock swings in the US and the eurozone.

While Tuesdays polls triggered this weeks moves, other surveys have suggested the Leave and Stay campaigns are neck-and-neck.

The equity market is not pricing a very high probability for a Brexit scenario right now, said Michael Kapler, an equities manager at Mittelbrandenburgische Sparkasse in Potsdam, Germany.

The closer we come to June 23, even if polls are equal on both sides, the more volatility will rise. And if it really comes to a Brexit, then volatility will rise a lot.

German chancellor Angela Merkel this week cited trade and the single market as key reasons for the UK to stay in the EU, warning that it would lose influence if it leaves.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney said last month a vote to exit could cause a recession in the country.

Fund managers allocation to British equities fell to its lowest level since 2008, according to Bank of America survey published last month.

Much of the Brexit concern is probably priced in already, said Guillermo Hernandez Sampere, head of trading at MPPM in Eppstein, Germany.

British companies will not cease to exist even if the British vote to leave the EU, said Mr Hernandez Sampere, who helps manage 220m of assets.

The currency is different  its the perfect playground for fast money players. If you ask people whats going to happen after a Brexit, the only honest answer that everyone may give is we dont know.

Aleksandra Gjorgievska writes for Bloomberg.
A High Court action has been brought by William Jones, author of The Black Horse Inside Coolmore.

He claims that Arthur Cox, solicitors for Coolmore, had written to Amazon and various bookshops referring to potential proceedings for defamation and seeking the book be withdrawn from sale. It has been withdrawn by a number of distributors. He claims this is an attempt to frustrate and suppress the book, and Coolmores actions amount to abuse of his right to freedom of speech.

Coolmore Stud denies the claims. At the High Court yesterday, Mr Jones, of Dominics Court, Cashel, Co Tipperary, sought injunctions preventing the stud and its representatives from threatening bookshops and websites with legal action. He further seeks a declaration the book is not defamatory and may be sold.

Mr Jones, who denies any defamation, said that he has made repeated requests to Arthur Cox to precisely outline the alleged defamation. That had not been done, he said. The reason defamation proceedings have not been brought is because I am telling the truth, said Mr Jones, who worked at Coolmore from 2006 to January 2015.

Counsel for Coolmore, Paul Gallagher, said Mr Jones had failed to establish an arguable case, and the balance of convenience favoured the rejection of the application. Counsel said Mr Jones knew well what material Coolmore says is defamatory and derogatory.

Counsel added there were four authors who say their copyright was breached by Mr Jones. Counsel said Mr Jones had also breached an agreement he signed in 2014 with his former employer agreeing to compromise a claim he brought to the Labour Relations Committee.

Mr Jones said he signed the agreement under duress after making a bullying claim. He said some of the copyright claims were made by persons who have a commercial relationship with Coolmore. He said he had credited one author in acknowledgements. He tried to contact her to use material, but was unable to do so.

Judgment was reserved.
It is understood that so tense was the disagreement that Mr Ross threatened to pull the plug on the Government, which is just four weeks old.

Ten days ago, Mr Kenny approached Mr Ross, informing him of his desire to nominate someone to become vice-president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) without undergoing a formal vetting process. The names of former taoiseach John Bruton and former Department of Finance secretary general John Moran have been linked to the prestigious post.

Mr Ross adamantly refused to sanction the move and Mr Kenny has been forced to abandon his plan.

Mr Ross insisted that all appointments of this nature must be subject to a rigorous selection process and that he would not approve Mr Kennys proposal.

It is understood that Mr Ross repeatedly asked Mr Kenny for the name of the person he wished to promote, but the Taoiseach repeatedly refused to answer.

Following the row, Mr Ross was said to be absolutely furious.

Shane Ross

He was fit to kill Kenny. He was bulling, absolutely furious. He threatened that if he went ahead with this crony appointment, then he would pull the plug on the whole thing, said one source.

Several Fine Gael ministers have confirmed the matter never came before Cabinet, nor was it discussed in the pre-Cabinet meeting of the partys ministers.

The sides have since been locked in arguments over how to resolve the matter, but it appears that Mr Ross has got his way and that a selection process similar to the one to choose the last Central Bank governor will be utilised.

Three days ago, the Department of Finance posted a notice on its website seeking applications for the post, which commences in August for a four-year term.

A spokesman for Mr Kenny confirmed that the matter has been the subject of engagement between the two men, and that a process is under way. He rejected claims that there had been a disagreement between Mr Kenny and Mr Ross, or that a row had taken place.

endaKenny2012ArmsFolded_large.jpg{/timgcap]

This version of events, however, has been dismissed by several senior sources.

Mr Bruton told the Irish Examiner he was not in a position to confirm the details of the story.

Mr Moran told this newspaper he was flattered at the suggestion but he said taking the post would preclude him from doing many things he is currently enjoying doing.

It would cut me off from all the other stuff I love doing, so no, its not for me, said Mr Moran, who is already a board member of the EIB.

Along with all other EU governments, Ireland is a member of the EIB, which is the EUs investment bank, located in Luxembourg.

The permanent executive body of the bank is the EIB management committee, which consists of the bank president and eight vice-presidents.

According to the advert, the person appointed as vice-president will be a significant additional resource for Ireland at EU level and a source of informal influence on Irelands behalf at the EIB.

News of this row comes amid tensions between Fine Gael ministers and their Independent counterparts.

Mondays Irish Examiner revealed how a series of incidents in the first three weeks of Government soured the mood between ministers.

Super junior minister Finian McGrath spoke of Government not being an easy place for me to be.
Jurors at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday returned a not guilty verdict on Peter Fitzpatrick, aged 63, following nearly 47 hours of deliberations.

Mr Fitzpatrick held his head in his hands and wept after the verdict was read out, before hugging his barrister, Brendan Grehan.

Deliberations are continuing on the only remaining accused on the indictment, Denis Casey, aged 56, who was formerly CEO of IL&P.

Judge Martin Nolan acceded to a defence application to discharge Mr Fitzpatrick from the indictment, as his family embraced and cried.

On Wednesday the jury convicted Anglos former head of capital markets, John Bowe, aged 52, and the banks then finance director, Willie McAteer, aged 65, who were accused of conspiring to mislead investors, depositors and lenders about the true health of Anglo. They have been remanded on bail, pending sentence, until July 25.

John Bowe and Willie McAteer

Bowe, from Glasnevin, Dublin and McAteer of Greenrath, Tipperary Town, Mr Casey, from Raheny, Dublin, and Mr Fitzpatrick, of Convent Lane, Portmarnock, Dublin had 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 prosecution case was that the four were involved in a setting up a scheme of billion-euro transactions where Anglo lent money to IL&P and IL&P 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, 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.

Denis Casey

The prosecution alleged that 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%.

Mr McAteer was Anglos director of finance and Mr Bowe was head of capital markets in the banks treasury department. Their lawyers argued that their clients believed the deposits were real deposits and were accounted for correctly on Anglos balance sheet.
Five white doves fluttered out and soared into the clear blue sky, to claps and hurrahs from mourners.

It was a fitting tribute to Gareth Hutch, who, though called Gar by many also went by the nickname Seagull.

Preston, who turns seven next month, was consoled by family and friends, some 12 of whom carried his fathers coffin from Drumalee estate.

They supported each other as they shouldered the weight of their loved one under the midday sun, down Aughrim Road to Holy Family Church.

The remains of Gareth Hutch are carried to the The Holy Family Church, Aughrim St Dublin yesterday afternoon. Mr Hutch, a nephew of Gerry The Monk Hutch was shot dead outside his home in Dublins north inner city almost two weeks ago.

The cortege was led by a lone bagpiper as large numbers of locals from the north inner city community swelled the procession and flanked the footpaths.

Leading the mourners and walking behind the hearse was Preston and six other children, all dressed in black suits or dresses.

One relative, holding a large photo of Gareth, held Prestons shoulder in support.

Relatives and friends follow the remains after funeral mass.

Gareth Hutch, 35, was shot dead on May 24, the day after he went to a councillor expressing concern over the safety of his son. His was the seventh murder in the Kinahan-Hutch feud  six of them carried out by associates of the Kinahan crime cartel.

Two other members of the wider Hutch family have been shot dead: Gary Hutch in Spain last September and Eddie Hutch in the north inner city last February.

There was a heavy garda presence, comprising uniformed gardai and traffic corps, as well as a significant number of armed plain-clothes officers and members of the Special Detective Unit.

The elite Emergency Response Unit was positioned outside the church and the garda helicopter flew overhead. Chief Superintendent Pat Leahy, in charge of the division, was also present.

There was no sign of the patriarch of the family, Gerry The Monk Hutch, uncle to Gareth.

Chief celebrant Fr Paddy Madden said Gareths parents Vera and Johnny had brought their boy to the church almost 36 years ago for his baptism, but were back now mourning their child.

He said Gareth was a young man taken in his prime, whose primary concern was for the safety, wellbeing, care and protection of Preston.

Life is precious, life is sacred, life is god-given, said Fr Madden in his homily. Every tragedy has a human face. Beyond analysis and speculation we have pain and tears.

He called on those intent on violence to seek peace and not disaster.

He added: Breaking the cycle of violence is not easy. It needs courage, restraint, goodwill and right reason, and a desire for peace.

There's a large Garda presence at the funeral of Gareth Hutch in Dublin. The 35-year-old was shot dead last week pic.twitter.com/r2bNZfMc88  NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) June 3, 2016

Sisters and friends spoke of Gareths charm and year-long tan. He was a character they said, who loved slagging and playing pranks on people.

The strains of He Aint Heavy, Hes My Brother echoed down the aisles as Gareths family and friends carried his remains from the church outdoors and to his final resting place.
The van is funded by the Department of Social Protection and the departments logo is clearly visible on the emergency vehicle.

On Thursday at 2.15am, gardai were attempting to move a group of homeless people from an area in Dublin City centre.

Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) had just delivered food and clothes to the people and when they noticed the gardai attempting to move the group, they queried their actions.

There was previously an agreement between the charity and the gardai to engage with homelessness services, rather than displace people, when there are no rough-sleeper beds available.

On Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, there were no beds for men available.

During the early-morning engagement, a member of An Garda Siochana noticed the charitys outreach van parked on a double yellow line and began issuing a ticket to the vehicle.

Our outreach worker recorded an incident on the night which was out of the norm, said ICHH CEO Anthony Flynn.

We have been given previous assurances that rough sleepers, rather than be displaced, would be engaged with services across the city. There was an issue regarding the placement of our vehicle, which is clearly marked Emergency Vehicle, and it was on hand to provide assistance to rough sleepers.

Mr Flynn had just returned from a meeting in the European Parliament on homelessness when the incident occurred.

In 2014, the charity was at the forefront of a national campaign to address the homeless crisis following the death of Jonathan Corrie outside Leinster House.

A spokesman for An Garda Siochana said the gardai on the night were responding to reports about the area where the homeless group was sleeping.

Jonathan Corrie

A number of reports have been received from the public regarding the current condition of this particular area and the dangers caused to the public by items discarded there, said the spokesman.

He added that An Garda Siochana has a strong working relationship with the management of ICHH and will continue to work closely with the charity.

Mr Flynn said the charity often has to stop its vehicle suddenly due to the nature of the work.

Our teams take every effort to ensure safe and proper parking but may have to stop suddenly in order to facilitate clients, said Mr Flynn.
Pa Byrnes Jr sold the armoury to criminals in return for cash to fund a chronic drug habit, Limerick Circuit Court heard.

Byrnes, aged 36, who previously served a six-year jail sentence for shooting and injuring a man in 2005, had pleaded guilty to possessing a 12-gauge Miroku shotgun, a Haenel Model 300 air rifle, and 26 rounds of .22 short calibre Remington UMC ammunition.

The guns and ammunition were found by gardai when they searched Byrness apartment at Maxwell Lane, Croom, Co Limerick, on July 2, 2015. Byrnes, who is originally from Lisheen Park, Patrickswell, was out when gardai searched his home and found the weaponry hidden in a bedroom.

The court heard Byrnes, who is battling a serious heroin addiction, was arrested a short time later.

In garda interviews, Byrnes admitted he had sold the guns, which were stolen, to gangs for cash and drugs.

Sgt Niall Flood previously told the court Byrnes told him he had sold other guns to individuals involved in serious criminal activity.

Byrnes was jailed for six years in 2005, for shooting Edward Teddy Boy Harty three times in the chest and neck in Patrickswell.

Two other men sustained gunshot wounds in the gun attack.

The incident was planned in a pub in Croagh, Co Limerick, by Byrnes and two associates.

Witnesses said they saw the trio change their clothes and don balaclavas and gloves at the local GAA pitch. Byrnes was identified as the gunman who opened fire on Mr Harty with a Winchester pump-action shotgun.

In what was considered to be a revenge attack eight years later, Byrnes was left partially paralysed after he was assaulted.

Byrnes was attacked by a group of men at Lord Edward St, Limerick City, on May 23, 2013, in what gardai believe was a reprisal for the 2005 shooting.

He suffered brain damage and partial paralysis to one side of his body following the attack.

His attackers, who wore balaclavas, beat him about the head with a hurley, in a sustained assault.

Byrnes was walking in the southside of Limerick when the attack occurred just after 3pm. A car pulled up alongside him and a group of men armed with hurleys jumped out and struck him repeatedly on the head and body.

Byrnes was placed in the intensive care unit at University Hospital Limerick where doctors deemed him to be critically ill.

No one was ever charged with the attack.
The man, aged 21, and the woman, aged 20, were arrested in the Blarney area yesterday as part of an on-going Garda investigation into organised criminal activity and serious assaults in the Cork City area.

The pair was detained under the provisions of Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2007, which allows gardai detain suspects for up to seven days.

The pair were taken to Togher and Bridewell Garda Stations for questioning.

A Garda spokesman confirmed that the two are being questioned in connection with several alleged offences, including a daylight knife attack last March in which a young woman suffered serious slash injuries to her face.

The 29-year-old victim had been parking her car at Friar St, close to Douglas St, when she was approached by a man armed with a Stanley knife.

The woman was slashed across the face and sustained several wounds around her mouth. She was taken to Cork University Hospital for treatment.

Her attacker fled the scene before gardai arrived.

There was no attempt to rob the victim of cash or to take her car, and gardai said at the time that there seemed to be no apparent motive other than to harm the woman.

Meanwhile, a man in his 30s was arrested yesterday by gardai investigating an aggravated burglary in the College Rd area of Cork City on Thursday night.

There were reports that a man armed with a knife had followed people to a house in the Highfield Avenue area, and waited for them to enter, before ringing the doorbell and forcing his way in.

The man was taken to Togher Garda Station and was due to appear in court yesterday charged in connection with the incident.
All motor insurers are signed up to the declined cases agreement operated by Insurance Ireland and administered by a committee made up of representatives of each of the companies and of the Consumer Association of Ireland and Financial Services Ombudsmans Bureau, who act as external observers.

Under the scheme, the insurance market cannot refuse to provide cover to an individual if he or she has approached at least three insurers and has not been able to obtain a quote from them.

In general, the insurer first approached will be required to provide the individual with a quote.

Furthermore, where an individual has held a policy within the previous three years, the insurance company concerned is obliged to provide the individual with a quotation. Again this is subject to the proviso that refusals have been received from three insurers.

The only grounds on which an insurer can refuse cover are if providing insurance would be contrary to the public interest.

The committee can also decide whether a quote is so high or the terms so excessive as to make the quote tantamount to a refusal, in which case it will review the matter.

In 2012, there were 178 cases dealt with under the agreement. That number rose to 669 by 2014 and, according to the Department of Finance, while the figure is not yet available for 2015, it appears to be marginally higher than 2014.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Michael Noonan has confirmed that, while he does not intend to reconstitute the Motor Insurance Advisory Board at this time, he has asked his officials to examine the factors which contribute to increasing costs of insurance.

This work is part of an overall review of policy in the insurance sector which my department is carrying out in consultation with the Central Bank and other departments, agencies, and external stakeholders, said Mr Noonan.

The objective of the review is to recommend measures to improve the functioning and regulation of the insurance sector.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan

He said the review will continue over the coming months with a view to being completed by the end of the year.

Mr Noonan said there should be a stable insurance sector and that risks to the policyholders and to the wider financial system are limited.

He acknowledged that the ability of the Government to influence insurance pricing is limited, as insurance companies are required under European law to price in accordance with risk.

However, he added: While the provision and the pricing of insurance policies is a commercial matter for insurance companies, this does not preclude the Government from introducing measures that may, in the longer term, lead to a better claims environment that could facilitate a reduction in claims costs.
The 33-year-old from Raleigh Square, Crumlin, Dublin 12 was shot dead at the Regency Hotel on February 5 last. He could not be visually identified due his injuries. He was formally identified using fingerprint records.

Mr Byrnes mother and father attended Dublin Coroners Court yesterday where the main entrance was temporarily closed as Gardai maintained a heavy security at the building.

At the brief hearing, Coroner Dr Brian Farrell heard evidence of formal identification and post mortem results regarding Mr Byrnes death.

Detective Garda Cathal Hannigan, attached to the fingerprint section of the Garda Technical Bureau told the court he made a formal identification using Mr Byrnes fingerprints, which matched three sets of fingerprints gardai had on file, all belonging to David Byrne.

Im in no doubt that all four sets belong to the same person, Det Hannigan said.

Mr Byrne was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting.

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis carried out an autopsy at the City Morgue in Marino. The cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds. The deceaseds mother left the court as the post-mortem results were read out.

Inspector Brian Daly applied for a six month adjournment. The criminal investigation is ongoing, Insp Daly told the court.

Coroner Dr Brian Farrell asked the family if they had any questions, to which the deceaseds father replied no, not at the moment.

Dr Farrell adjourned the inquest to December 9.

I am aware of some of the circumstances but I cannot take any more evidence this morning, Dr Farrell said, extending his deepest condolences to the family on the violent death of their son.
However, the study by Roddy Flynn of Dublin City University found overall that media ownership, whether State or private, did not have a major influence on the content and tone of articles and broadcasts.

Dr Flynn examined coverage of four news stories, comparing how two of them were treated by state-owned RTE and OBrien-owned Newstalk and Today FM, and how two others were covered by OBriens Independent News and Media newspaper titles and by non-INM titles.

A study of 140 articles published about the Moriarty Tribunal in INM titles and 227 in non-INM titles between March 23 and April 2, 2011, showed INM titles were generally more likely to put the focus on Michael Lowry than on Denis OBrien.

There was no difference in the tone of the coverage of Lowry, with 60% of the INM articles placing him in a negative frame compared to 58% of non-INM articles. However, only 18% of INM articles framed OBrien negatively compared to 38% of non-INM articles. Non-INM articles were also twice as likely to publish articles carrying suggestions of improper dealing than their INM rivals.

More subtle differences emerged after last years controversy when Catherine Murphy TD used parliamentary privilege to read into the Dail record details of the banking relationship between Denis OBrien and IBRC and Mr OBrien obtained a court injunction to stop broadcast or publication of what was said.

Denis OBrien

Some 83% of INM articles framed parliamentary privilege negatively, stressing concerns such as the danger of it being abused, but so too did 63% of non-INM articles. INM articles were more likely to back an individuals right to privacy over the public interest, as OBrien argued in court.

Dr Flynn presented his findings at a conference on media ownership hosted by Independent MEP Nessa Childers.

He also examined broadcast coverage of the allegations of cronyism in Fine Gaels appointment of John McNulty to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art just before he was nominated to contest a seat on the Seanads Cultural and Education panel in 2014.

Independent MEP Nessa Childers

Just 10 seconds separated the amount of airtime RTEs Drivetime and Newstalks The Right Hook gave the story over two weeks, and assumptions that RTE might have a pro-government bias were not borne out for while the state broadcaster used more clips of government assurances that the appointments process would be improved, it also used more clips that were critical of the Taoiseach.

Similar comparisons of the handling of the GSOC surveillance story showed that while RTE gave it more airtime, there was little difference between the stations in the kind of issues they raised about it.
A briefing document prepared for Denis Naughten also warns there are tough financial challenges ahead for the broadcaster, including further loses of licence fees and advertising.

The document, published yesterday, also reveals the priorities for the minister in communications, energy, and the environment.

It notes the option of introducing a broadcasting charge instead of the licence fee due to high evasion rates, remains on hold .

Work on this area is on hold pending any policy commitments that may arise in the context of the new programme for government, says the briefing from top department officials.

However, the amount in licence fees continues to fall as customers leave the paying category and enter a free licence pool, which is paid for by the State where applicants are on welfare.

The briefing notes that, on foot of the NewEra review, RTE established a working group which is undertaking analysis of the options available regarding use of its assets, including the Montrose site. Following an analysis of possible scenarios, preliminary options have been considered by the board. A report on this process will be submitted to the minister, it says.

While no final decisions have been made, the RTE board has decided in principle that RTE should prepare to dispose of up to 10 acres of underutilised land at the Donnybrook end of the site in 2016/2017. In line with the recommendations of the NewERA review, it is expected that any funds realised as a result of leveraging the companys assets would be used for capital investment purposes.

Minister for Communications Denis Naughten

RTE last night said no final decision had been made involving underutilised portions of the site, but the broadcaster intends to remain at the campus.

Meanwhile, the document also notes it will be a significant challenge for Ireland to reduce green house gases by 2020, as planned. There is also the possibility of energy efficiency targets being enforced in the rental sector it warns, with the start of consultation on energy efficiency in the rental sector, exploring the possibility of imposing minimum standards in that sector after 2020.

Addressing the roll out of Eircode, it notes the total spend to date has been 21m. The total cost to the exchequer over 10-years is estimated to be 38m.

Usage by public sector bodies is increasing with the Eircode included on almost 2.9m pieces of correspondence issues by public sector bodies since launch, it notes.
Mr Coveney yesterday moved to clarify remarks he made to the Oireachtas Housing Committee on Thursday at which he stated the launch of the plan will be delayed, because the 100 day mark falls during the August holiday season.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr Coveney said: Any suggestion that I am delaying the plan to take holidays is nonsense. The plan will be ready and many elements of the plan will be up and running before the 100-day deadline.

He said suggestions that holidays are more important than dealing with the crisis were unfair.

To say I am not taking this seriously is an attack on my credibility, he said. I am working and will be working night and day to resolve this crisis.

Mr Coveney, Fine Gael TD for the Cork South Central constituency, highlighted the fact that the Cabinet has met three times on the housing issue in the four weeks it has been in office, a sign of the priority the crisis is being given.

The Irish Examiner yesterday, along with several other media outlets, ran stories based on Mr Coveneys comments at the Committee on Thursday where he stated the deadline would be missed for officially launching the plan.

At the committee, he said that one of the problems around the 100-day target is that it lands right in the middle of August.

For obvious reasons, that poses a problem because many people are not focused on work in the middle of August, he said.

I suspect that some of the people at this table will be but many others will not be, he told committee members.

Mr Coveney went on to say that it could be possible to launch the plan in July, but he said he feared nothing would happen as the political system and civil service would be on their summer holidays.
IF there ever was any doubt about fashion making a social and political statement, then a 34-year-old American blogger and photographer is turning that on its head, with his chronicle of people over 60 who take to the streets in the most individual and creative ensembles that give ageing the thumbs up.

Ari Seth Cohen started a blog eight years ago, taking pictures of older people who caught his eye and called it Advanced Style, which later became the name of his first book, selling over 100,000 copies worldwide, followed by a documentary.

Now a second book, just out, called Advanced Style: Older and Wiser, takes a similar format to the original, with inspiring images of creative senior street style from around the globe, but it also includes 22 short essays written by some of the subjects of the book who share their wisdom and lifestyle secrets.

In the meantime, his blog has continued to grow, now with more than 51,000 followers, and the Advanced Style brand, as such, is tapping into the zeitgeist with its positive and inspiring message about ageing, igniting what is now being called a movement.

Sarah Jane Adams photographed by Ari Seth Cohen, who has just published a second volume of Advanced Style.

So how can a movement evolve from pictures of people aged 60 and upwards?

In a sense this is fashion at its best; the individuality, the glamour, the eccentricity, or straight-up classic style of the women and men defies ageism in our society  the sweeping presumption that we lose independence and zest in our elder years, or that we are all one homogenised beige group.

In his introduction to this latest book Cohen says the people he meets on the streets continue to astound him with their wisdom, creativity and vitality.

Its not one particular style that attracts me  nor am I attempting to judge what is in good or bad taste, he says.

Who truly catches my eye are those whose artful and creative dressing is a reflection of their indomitable spirits and the refusal to become invisible.

By recognising this and being the one to record them back in 2008, he opened the media floodgates: I started Advanced Style as a personal project after my grandmother who was my best friend, passed away, he tells Feelgood.

Almost everyone in the book is someone that I met walking around various city streets.

The fashion industry is all of a sudden embracing older models after years of treating seniors as if they were invisible.

"Its been fantastic to see how the men and women I meet have themselves created incredible social media platforms that help inspire people to no longer fear growing older and to embrace ageing with vitality, optimism, and personal expression.

Indeed if you visit his blog at http://www.advanced.style/ you will see how the tone is set; the links to, and pictures of other vibrant and confident older people means the website offers a positive and encouraging message to its followers.

Though Cohens first book focussed mainly on women, the follow-up volume is different: That was because I felt that the media tended to treat women way more harshly in terms of ageing and beauty, than men, he says.

In this new book I feature some of the many men I met photographing and others who have inspired me since I started the project in 2008.

Cohen says he moved to New York after being encouraged to do so by his maternal grandmother, Bluma, prior to her death in her 90s, that year.

The colour and vivacity of the older people on the bustling pavements there, inspired the setting up of his blog at a time he was mourning her loss.

So there has been a two-way gain?

Sometimes these short interactions on the street develop into long friendships, and other times I only have a minute or so with each person as they are rushing to an appointment or have somewhere to be, he says.

And what stops him in his tracks?

Posture, attitude, personal style  all these things catch my eye, but above all there is a certain spirit of vitality and a life force and expression of a lifetimes worth of adventures, lessons, successes and failures, all wrapped up in one single moment, when I ask them for their photo, he reveals.

Though this book includes photographs taken in London, Cape Town, Rome, Florence, Tokyo, Melbourne, Sydney, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Stockholm and Geneva, did he miss his chance of capturing some wonderful Irish personalities?

I would love the opportunity to come to Ireland, he says.

So strut your stuff on the streets, ladies and gentlemen!

Advanced Style: Older and Wiser is published by powerhouse Books, 25.88.

The Way We Wore: A Life in Clothes, Daphne Selfe, 16.12

At 88, and still modelling, the author Daphne Selfe is well qualified to presume her life is of interest not only to those who love fashion, who indeed will lap up this book with the clever title, but to others as well.

Despite her great age, she is still one of Britains most in-demand supermodels  photographed by the likes of David Bailey and Mario Testino  and an inspiration. The tone of her memoir reveals how she is still a vivacious woman.

Though Selfe came from a privileged background and her story reflects this, she also knew how to make do; some of her photographs show her sporting beautiful outfits she had made herself.

Embracing life

If you enjoyed the first season of the Netflix original show, Grace and Frankie, featuring two 70-something women forced to live together after their husbands announce they are in love with each other, then theres a treat in store with its follow-up.

In this season Grace (played by Jane Fonda, right) and Frankie (Lily Tomlin) have put their personality differences behind them, as their friendship grows and they settle into the realisation they are better out of their marriages, while still remaining entwined in their ex-husbands and adult childrens lives.

The issues they battle with can act as humorous or poignant reflections on ageing, but the theme of the series acts as a positive message that life is for embracing.

Ageing quote

"Sex appeal is 50% what youve got and 50% what people think youve got."

 Actress Sophia Loren

Silver surfer

Research shows how being busy is god for your brain http://bit.ly/244iA8j
The only way to find out whats happening in the world of interiors its to go to the shows, and Rose Martin visited London last week for the niche, Clerkenwell Design Week.
ITS almost comical now to think that Kilmainham Gaol  voted Irelands top landmark by Tripadvisor for the fourth year in a row  was once considered a dream disciplinary machine that could grind rogues honest.

All you had to do was put hardened criminals in at one end of this vast correctional cage, ensure they were separated, silenced and supervised at all times, then watch as they were ground honest to re-emerge upstanding citizens at the other end.

The prison building itself was designed to transform deviant behaviour into socially acceptable behaviour. It was a machine to grind rogues honest, as Jeremy Bentham put it when he developed the panopticon, or all-seeing prison, in 1769. At the time, his invention was hailed not only an innovation in prison architecture but an event of the human mind.

If prisoners knew they were being watched, or might be watched at any time, then their behaviour would improve. Or so went the thinking, though as we know in this world with eyes at every street corner that is patently not the case.

Back in 1861, though, the east wing at Kilmainham jail was intended to ensure that those held captive within it were always visible. A strip of carpet was even laid along the landings so that 19th-century jailers could creep up and peer into cells through a spy-hole on the door, nicknamed the eye that never sleeps.

The buildings fascinating social history has been obscured in the recent commemoration of the 1916 leaders who spent their last days in this city of cells, a place where the silence is a piercing wail, as Sean OCasey once described it, but its worth recalling now, if only to remind us of how little progress weve made.

If 19th-century architects used space to enclose, separate and control, modern architects have been more inclined to favour green areas, openness and integration.

Though, its interesting to see that prison officers  the people on the ground  are once again calling for the separation of prisoners to tackle the issue of gangs in the prison system.

Prison Officer Association President Stephen Delaney warned last month that violence linked to the feud that has already claimed seven lives on the streets of Dublin has broken out in prisons and he has called for a system of isolation to be established.

Reducing the power of the gangs in prison will also restrict their capacity to control matters on the outside  so all of society will benefit, he reasoned.

Just this week, the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice also called for separation, saying younger inmates should be kept away from older ones. Some prisoners, its study found, were locked up for up to 23 hours a day because they feared for their own safety.

Its a bleak picture illustrating that prisons, however you build them, are often ill-equipped to do what is expected of them. High recidivism rates (62% of prisoners will reoffend in three years) are proof that prisons do not rehabilitate, though many are happy that they simply keep the wrongdoers off the street.

What is particularly striking when you compare the prison of yesterday, with its high ideals, and its modern equivalent is that the profile of the average prisoner hasnt changed a jot since the 19th century. An Irish prisoner is still 25 times more likely to come from  and return to  a seriously deprived area.

Nobodys going to pretend that the well-to-do and those in the corporate world dont break the law. This weeks finding that Anglo Irish executives were guilty of conspiring to defraud the public in 2008 is a rare example of the untouchables being called to account.

Why is that? Is it because we are inclined to think corporate wheeling and dealing is necessary to grease the wheels of industry or is it because its obscenely convenient to lock up those who leave school early, are out of work and/or have a history of addiction?

Whatever the answer, we now have an unrivalled opportunity to do something radical to break the vicious cycle that has entrapped so many from disadvantaged communities.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgeralds allocation of resources to fund a new crime taskforce has been welcomed by those working in Dublins inner city.

But  and this is a really vital but  it needs to go further. Anna Quigley from the Inner City Organisations Network has said you cant address the policing problem without providing support for drug addicts and increasing economic opportunities for people in the area all at the same time.

Independent TD Maureen OSullivan echoes that view. The former teacher said education seemed to be the Cinderella of the Governments new strategy, but it was vital: the majority of Irish prisoners have never sat a State exam. In 2008, of the 520 who enrolled in the school at Mountjoy Prison, 20% could not read or write, according to Irish Penal Reform Trust figures.

When will the Government listen to those who really know what its like to have their lives fractured by crime and social deprivation and reach further and deeper for real, lasting solutions?

The findings from the Troubled Families Programme in the UK offers a possible path to radical change. Earlier this week, its director general, Louise Casey, explained how the scheme had helped turn around the lives of some 120,000 so-called troubled families in the UK, saving the government an impressive 29,000 per family, per year.

After the 2011 riots, the British Government gave the countrys 152 local authorities 448m to identify and help families at risk. The results have been impressive and the savings considerable.

The initial investment involves huge money. And more, the type of bold, imaginative and far-reaching steps that are generally not favoured by governments during their, at best, five-year lifetimes.

The alternative, though, is pretty bleak. Fast forward another 100 years  without action, prisons will still be locking up the poor and disadvantaged.

Twitter: @FinnClodagh
DURING a typical week in late May, Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the US presidency, grabbed headlines yet again. He declared a popular former president to be a rapist, flipped his position on one policy after another, bragged that his running mate could be anyone who supported him, and told the National Rifle Association that Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, would release violent criminals from jail.

Perhaps most worrisome from a global perspective, just hours after an EgyptAir plane crashed into the Mediterranean, and long before any certain facts were known, Trump began stating his own conclusions about what had happened and denouncing American weakness in the face of terrorism.

Virtually all efforts to prevent Trumps nomination have ended, and establishment Republicans are moving steadily to reconcile themselves with their partys capture by an uncouth, narcissistic, unprepared, and mercurial bully.

Youre better off riding the beast than trying to ignore it, explained a former GOP Senate aide.

Many certainly did try to ignore it. No sooner had Trump announced last summer that he would seek the Republican nomination than pundits and political scientists started to find reasons to dismiss his bid.

I was less certain, because I assessed Trumps emergence and prospects against the backdrop of my ongoing research on the US political right. Back in 2010 and 2011, Vanessa Williamson and I studied the popular and elite forces that gave rise to the Tea Party and helped pull the Republican Party further rightward.

More recently, I have worked with other researchers to decipher shifts in organised conservative politics. Such shifts include the rising influence of Charles and David Koch, billionaire brothers whose network of think tanks and advocacy organisations has encouraged an ultra-free-market economic agenda among Republican candidates and officeholders at state and national levels. Pulled in different directions by plutocratic funders and angry nativist populists, the GOP became ripe for a Trump-style hostile takeover.

Starting early in Barack Obamas presidency, as Tea Party populists took center stage, Trump became popular because he championed efforts to delegitimise Americas first black president. An April 2011 opinion poll found Trump leading all GOP presidential contenders for 2012, with strong backing from Republicans who firmly believed that Obama, as Trump insisted, had not been born in the United States, as the US Constitution requires.

The Koch Brothers - Charles and David

Trump did not run in 2012, but grassroots Tea Partiers were already focused on illegal immigration and hatred of Obama. Over the course of that years presidential primaries, at least half of GOP voters repeatedly tried to find an alternative to the eventual Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, but could not coalesce around a viable contender. GOP leaders failure to stop Obama in 2012 and roll back his initiatives intensified populist Republicans anger at their own party. By the beginning of the 2016 presidential cycle, it seemed clear that many would seek a unifying anti-establishment candidate.

In an effort to capture this voter rebellion, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas repeatedly bucked GOP congressional leaders. But the media-savvy Trump blindsided Cruz and all other contenders. Starting in the summer of 2015, he embraced extremist rhetoric appealing to nativism, Islamophobia, and anger at GOP elites. Media outlets provided as much as $2 billion worth of free coverage, helping him grab and hold leads in polls and most primaries.

Trumps core supporters are wrongly thought to be displaced and economically insecure blue-collar workers. In fact, his voters average annual income, about $72,000, is well above the US median of $56,000. His supporters resemble the Tea Partiers: overwhelmingly older, male, middle class, and white. They report anxieties about the economy  as most Republicans do  but what sets them apart is disbelief in Obamas legitimacy, anger about immigration, and resentment over Americas supposed national decline.

Trump supporters are more likely than other Republicans to hold negative stereotypes about blacks and Latinos. And it seems quite likely that, as we found for Tea Partiers in 2011, Trump backers approve of social-welfare benefits that go to real Americans like themselves, while opposing public spending on minorities and low-income people.

Trumps agenda thus resembles that of many European populist parties: a mix of anti-immigrant toughness, economic patriotism, and social benefits for native-born citizens. But no major US party has offered such a program, and even now GOP leaders and major funders, having moved the party further toward the free-market right during the Obama years, oppose it. In Congress and state legislatures, Republicans hew to generally unpopular extreme positions  tax cuts for the rich, evisceration of business regulations, lower social spending, and curbs on union activities.

But, arguably, the GOPs ultra-free-market extremism has backfired. When virtually all GOP contenders for 2016 signed on to that agenda, Trump exploited an opening for America First nativism and protectionism. In Trumps disparagement of Latino immigrants, independent women, and uppity minorities, his base hears a promise to make America great again by reasserting white male hegemony.

None of this is surprising. For years, GOP elites have played with fire by stoking popular nativism and racial fears to mobilise older white voters. With US conservative media putting out a stream of racial innuendo, the GOPs discourse was debased well before candidate Trump, himself a media player, came along.

Could Trump actually win? Elected GOP officeholders, afraid to buck voter sentiment, are starting to declare their support. While some wealthy donors are redirecting their money to congressional and state-level candidates, many others have jumped on board  and others will, too, to the degree that Trump seems able to beat Clinton.

In any two-party system as polarised and closely balanced as the current US electoral system, a single crisis, such as a terrorist attack, could tip the balance. GOP politicians, funders, and advocacy group leaders are now trying to convince themselves that Trump, in the White House, could be managed to implement the Republican agenda. A pivotal Supreme Court nomination is at stake, and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has a government-slashing budget ready for a Republican president to sign.

Ryan, who has not yet officially endorsed Trump, will come under pressure to do so. The Republicans will ride the beast they created  and hope that it does not consume them.

Theda Skocpol, Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University, is the co-author of The Tea Party and the Remaking of American Conservatism.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2016.
I have been thinking a lot about race recently.

There are many reasons for this, the first being Beyonces blistering, politically charged visual album Lemonade in which she highlights the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States and her artistic achievement being dismissed as playing the race card.

Gerry Adamss casual use of the N Word and his attempts to explain it by describing himself as colour blind was another and then watching his supporters fall over themselves in an attempt to intellectualise why its ok for white people to use a racial slur as long as black people continue to use it themselves.

This is a relatively new topic of thought for me.

Growing up in a small town in west Cork, race was not something that I considered.

I was white, my parents were white, all of my friends and family were white.

When we sang the rhyme Eeny Meeny Minie Moe in playschool, I thought it was knicker, and often wondered why it was singular, imagining half a pair of underpants running around the place.

We read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry in primary school and I wept bitter tears over the treatment of the black characters, unable to believe that such horrors had occurred in the not so distant past.

I didnt give that much thought to what the lives of contemporary black people must be like, assuming with blithe ignorance that it would be similar to my own.

When I moved to New York in 2010, I worked with two black men who were both in relationships; one with a Japanese woman, and the other with a white man.

They told me of the disgusted stares on the subway, of the muttered comments when they held hands with their partners, and to my shame, I was a a tad incredulous.

They must be imagining it, I thought, shaking at my head at what I saw as over-sensitivity.

No one acts like that anymore, particularly in New York.

My blind spot over these issues was fully highlighted one afternoon when I was going through a friends Facebook photo of a recent fancy dress party.

Wait, a colleague said as she walked past, Are you friends in blackface?

I glanced at the screen, at the photo of two girls I knew dressed as the Williams sisters.

What do you mean? I answered.

I, at the age of 25, well educated, intelligent, relatively politically engaged, had never heard that term before.

She sat down and explained to me what it meant, the historical context of it, why it was so offensive, what it meant to black people to see their faces and bodies parodied in such a way.

I was mortified but I will be eternally grateful for her for taking the time to do so.

I realised that I had never had to explore these issues because I have never had to.

And that was my White Privilege.

I see a lot of people shrugging off the idea of White Privilege as PC bullshit but its very real.

Peggy McIntosh coined the phrase in her essay Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack 1989 and gave many example of what white privilege means.

It means watching TV and movies, reading books, and flicking through magazines and knowing that it will generally focus on people who look the same as you.

It means being able to go shopping without being followed or watched, it means reading a history book and being told that it was your race that made our civilisation what it is.

Its knowing that your race has nothing to do with it if you are pulled over by the police or if you are searched going through an airport.

Its doing well in a challenging situation without being told that you are a credit to your race.

Its small, seemingly inconsequential things like buying plasters or shoes in flesh or nude tones and they match your skin.

Its all the things that you never have to think about because this world was designed to protect you, just by mere virtue of your skin colour.

But White Privilege is not just a series of micro-aggressions that people of colour have to endure on a daily basis.

It forms the root of the institutionalised racism that leads to the kind of police brutality that occurred at Ferguson and Baltimore in the US, when unarmed black men with their hands up in surrender were shot dead.

I watched those events unfold on social media, saw the tweets and the Vine videos and the Instagram videos; seeing for the first time the disparity between the reality of the situation and between how the traditional media were reporting it.

The reports of looting and senseless rioting, the depiction of black people as almost animal-like by Fox News bore no resemblance to the anguished desperation I saw in real time.

The spectre of the respectability police hovered over the situation, as if black people should just wait politely until true equality is handed to them, as if they are not entitled to feel incandescent with rage at a system that continually attempts to dehumanise and belittle them.

Its easy to dismiss this as an American problem, but as Colette Browne wrote in the Irish Independent, there is a huge need to address racially fuelled violence in this country as well.

She says that in just the last six months, the European Network Against Racism Ireland logged 182 racist incidents.

"Among these figures were a number of serious assaults, including a heavily pregnant black woman being kicked in the stomach, a 10 year old Muslim girl being assaulted by a group of youths in a playground; a black parent and her two Irish-born children being pelted with eggs and rubbish as they left their house; and a mother and her two children being forced to move out of their home after the words blacks out were daubed across it.

I am horrified by this.

I cannot understand how any rational person reading this would not feel horrified by this. We simply cannot allow this to continue.

Its time for us to face our own complicity in this situation, to acknowledge how much easier it is for us to look the other way and to enjoy the benefits of our privilege but to REFUSE to do so.

We have to be allies now. We have to be aware.

The time for wilful ignorance is long gone.

Unless all of us are equal, none of us are.
More than 370 people were arrested for alleged involvement in the violence, during which gas cylinders being used by the protesters for cooking exploded and started a fire that killed 11.

The victims included two officers who were gunned down when the violence began late on Thursday in the ancient Hindu temple city on the Yamuna River, over 300km south-west of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh state.

More than 100 people were injured in the clashes, including 23 police officers who are now in hospital with injuries including bullet wounds.

We knew they had firearms, but we didnt expect them to fire at us the way they did, state police chief Javed Ahmed said. They appeared to be well trained in handling arms.

They appeared to be well trained in handling arms.

The stand-off had been building for about two years, during which thousands of people occupied a 268-acre patch of government land while demanding a raft of drastic reforms including abolishing the nations presidential and prime ministerial posts, changing the Indian currency, building public facilities, and giving steep discounts on petrol.

The protesters said they were part of an independence force that followed the example of Subhash Chandra Bose, one of Indias independence leaders who went missing during a military operation in 1945.

Over time, the protest camp grew with makeshift tents, thatched huts, cooking gear, and thousands of men, women, and children camping out.

In April, the High Court in Allahabad ordered the occupiers to leave. When they refused, police obtained a court order for eviction and on Thursday sent about 30 officers to survey the situation.

They were met with fierce resistance as a few hundred protesters surrounded them and attacked them with sticks and stones. Protesters hiding on treetops started firing simultaneously, said city resident Ravi Thakur, 24, a television technician who witnessed the clashes.

The protesters strung up barbed wire at entrances and refused to be evicted.

Police sent in about 500 reinforcements, who fired rubber bullets and tear gas canisters to clear the area and evict the squatters by Thursday night, he said.

As the police swung into action, some of the protesters set their thatched huts in the area on fire to block their way, Mr Thakur said. The clashes continued for about two-and-a-half hours.

As the protesters left the grounds, they were reportedly pelted with stones by some Mathura residents.

Police seized more than 170 rifles and 40 homemade revolvers.
Curators at the Louvre in Paris are scrambling to protect art from the museums priceless collection as flood waters continue to rise in the French capital.

The swollen Seine River kept rising yesterday, with officials saying it was at its highest level in nearly 35 years and expected to peak later on in the day.

Nearly a week of heavy rain has led to serious flooding across a swathe of Europe, where 14 people have died and more are missing. Although the rain has tapered off in some areas, flood waters are still climbing over river banks.

Flooding blocked roads in the French capital and several Paris railway stations were shut.

While the Louvres most famous painting, Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa, was safe on an upper floor, officials said about 250,000 artworks were located in flood-risk areas, mostly in basement storerooms.

The art is being moved upstairs as officials take precautionary measures to keep it safe.

The Orsay museum, on the left bank of the Seine, was also closed on yesterday to prepare for possible flooding.

A spokeswoman at the Louvre said the museum had not taken such precautions in its modern history  since its 1993 renovation at least. Disappointed tourists were being turned away.

Elsewhere in Europe, authorities were counting the cost of the floods as they waded through muddy streets and waterlogged homes.

German authorities said the body of a 65-year-old man was found overnight in the town of Simbach am Inn, bringing the countrys death toll to 10.

Frances Interior Ministry also reported the death of a 74-year-old man who fell from his horse and drowned in a river in the Seine-et-Marne region east of Paris, the second death in France.

In eastern Romania, two people died and 200 people were evacuated from their homes as floods swept the area, including one man who was knocked off his bicycle by a torrent in the eastern village of Ruginesti.

Several other people in Europe were missing including a Belgian beekeeper who was swept away by the current while trying to save his hives from rising waters in the eastern village of Harsin.

The foul weather has compounded the travel disruptions in France, which is already dealing with the fallout from weeks of strikes and other industrial actions by workers upset over the governments proposed labour reforms.

French rail company SNCF said the strikes had led to the cancellation of some 40% of the countrys high-speed trains.

Energy company Enedis said more than 20,000 customers are without power to the east and south of Paris.
With US efforts to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace in deep freeze for two years and Washington focused on its November presidential election, France lobbied for an international conference that began yesterday with the aim of breaking the apathy over the impasse.

While Palestinians have supported the French initiative, Israeli officials have said it is doomed to fail and that only direct negotiations can lead to a solution to the generations-old conflict.

Neither Israel nor the Palestinians have been invited, though the objective is to get them to negotiate after the US elections.

The discussion on the conditions for peace between Israelis and Palestinians must take into account the entire region, Francois Hollande told delegates at the conference in Paris.

The threats and priorities have changed, he said, alluding to escalating Middle East conflict that has engulfed Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Turkeys mostly Kurdish southeast, and the spread of Islamic State insurgents through the region.

The changes make it even more urgent to find a solution to the conflict, and this regional upheaval creates new obligations for peace, Mr Hollande said.

The EUs foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said that it was the duty of international and regional players to find a breakthrough as the sides seemed incapable of doing so alone.

The policy of settlement expansion and demolitions, violence, and incitement tells us very clearly that the perspective that Oslo opened up is seriously at risk of fading away, Ms Mogherini told reporters.

The interim 1993 Oslo peace accords were meant to yield a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied territory within five years.

She said the Middle East Quartet of the EU, Russia, the US and UN was finalising recommendations on what should be done to create incentives and guarantees for Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate in good faith.
A dozen or more people were hit and car windows broken. Trump hats grabbed from supporters were set on fire on the ground and at least one woman was pelted with an egg.

Police stood their ground at first but after about 90 minutes moved into the remaining crowd to break it up. At least four people were taken into custody. One officer was assaulted.
The condition of the bodies suggests they were not decomposed and therefore have drowned within the past 48 hours, according to a spokesman for Libyas Red Crescent.

He said the boat that capsized on Wednesday might have been the one carrying the migrants. Most of the migrants are from African countries and the death toll is expected to rise.
Taking their places at plots selected by pulling names out of a hard hat, 18 two-man teams waited for an official to shout Start! before shovelling at the ground to dig a precise, regulation-size grave as quickly as possible.

I dont think this is morbid, the Hungarian Undertakers Associations deputy chairman, Zoltan Juracsik, told Reuters at the national grave-digging contest at the wooded cemetery in Debrecen, Hungarys biggest city after Budapest.

This is a profession, and the colleagues who toil in competition today are proud and deserve our respect.

In less than half an hour, the local team, perhaps enjoying the home advantage, finished their grave first. The stragglers took almost one hour.

The graves were judged on neatness and whether they complied with the regulation size: 200 cm long, 80 cm wide, and 160 cm deep. The winning team wins a place in an international tournament against Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.

Threes a crowd

Romania: One towns residents have a choice of three candidates for mayor in an election this weekend  but only one name.

Vasile Cepoi is running for a fourth term as mayor of Draguseni, a northeastern town of 2,500 people.

Both of his challengers in tomorrows election also are called Vasile Cepoi.

Town hall official Viorel Munteanu said yesterday the three contenders are not related. Cepoi is a common family name in the region and Vasile is a popular male name in Romania.

Local media suggested the name coincidence could be a ruse by other parties to get their candidates elected. Mr Munteanu would only say that that was possible.

Go the distance

USA: A Maine teen got some unexpected news when she received a handwritten letter from a fisherman saying that her message in a bottle had been found in Spain.

WCSH-TV reports Terra Gallo and her sister put messages into bottles and tossed them into the ocean while visiting their aunt on Monhegan Island three years ago. The girls had forgotten about the bottles until they were surprised by the fishermans letter last week.

Galo, now 14, studied maps of ocean currents and discovered her message travelled roughly 4,800km. Gallos message asked that whoever found her bottle put their own message inside with hers and send it back out to sea. The fisherman said he complied with her wishes.

Epic row

Britain: A team of four men aged between 25 and 28 have set off from Londons Tower Bridge on a 3,200km non-stop rowing race around Britain.

Totally unaided, the crew will face dangerous and fast turning tides and cross the worlds busiest sea lanes, avoiding collisions with car ferries and industrial fishing trawlers.

The route is known as the worlds toughest rowing challenge and more people have landed on the moon than completed it, organisers say.

Heart of the matter

USA: A Tasmanian devil named Nick is back in his exhibit area at the San Diego Zoo after receiving a pacemaker to make his heartbeat normal.

In January, zoo vets discovered that Nick suffered from an abnormally slow heartbeat and his cardiologist decided that surgery was in order.

Nick is only the second of his species on record ever to be implanted with a pacemaker, according to staff at the San Diego Zoo.

His heartbeats were too slow and now the pacemaker is going to actually take over [pacing] his heart and is going to determine when to pace fast or slow depending on his activity, said Joao Orvalho, a cardiologist at the University of California, Davis, Veterinary Medical Center in San Diego.

Typically when a pacemaker is placed, its placed within the neck area, said Fred Pike, the surgeon, during the procedure. But because of the conformation area and the shape of the neck, thats not possible.

Instead, Dr Pike placed the device in the animals abdomen and sutured the electrode to the heart.

The surgery was performed on May 11 and Nick was released from the hospital later that day. He is now back to feeding and screeching in his enclosure at the zoo.
The two victims were on a kill list that Mainak Sarkar had composed, as well as a second professor authorities believe he intended to kill but could not find on the bustling Los Angeles campus, police chief Charlie Beck said.

Authorities did not identify the unharmed professor or the woman, but a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation said the woman on the list was Ashley Hasti.

Ms Hastis grandmother, Jean Johnson, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that her grand-daughter and Sarkar split up about a year after they married in 2011, and Ms Hasti moved back to her home town of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

The two did not divorce because Ms Hasti could not afford one, Ms Johnson said.

They just didnt get along. The only enemy she had was him, I guess. I never thought he would do something like that, she said.

Ms Hasti was a medical student at the University of Minnesota and expected to graduate in spring, Ms Johnson said.

She said Ms Hasti had not mentioned any animosity with Sarkar since they parted. Authorities pieced together the case as most classes resumed a day after thousands of students and staff members were locked down on the sprawling grounds of UCLA.

Its normally tranquil paths and hallways were filled by a small army of officers clad in body armour and wielding high-powered rifles.

The investigation unfolded rapidly based on a note Sarkar left in the office where he killed professor William Klug on Wednesday.

It mentioned the second professor, who also belonged to UCLAs engineering faculty, and asked anyone who read it to check on Sarkars cat in St Paul, Minnesota.

At Sarkars apartment, authorities found his list of three planned targets. They checked the home of the woman in the nearby town of Brooklyn Park and found her body.
Burma Burmese Trio Readies for History-Making Everest Bid

A trio of climbers hopes to become the first Burmese nationals to summit the worlds tallest peak, a climb expected to take over two months.

RANGOON  A trio of Burmese climbers plans to summit Mount Everest, the worlds tallest peak, a climb expected to take more than two months and that, if successful, would secure the mens place in history as the first Burmese nationals to accomplish the feat.

At a press conference in Rangoon to promote the 64-day Myanmar Everest Expedition, three leading local mountaineersPyae Phyo Aung, Nyi Nyi Aung and Win Ko Kodiscussed their attempt to conquer the mountain, towering more than 29,000 feet above sea level in Nepal. Since the first successful climb in 1953, over 3,000 people are believed to have successfully summited Mount Everest, part of the Himalayan Range, but none among this high-altitude club has been Burmese.

The climbers, from the Technical Climbing Club of Myanmar group, will depart from Rangoon on Saturday, three days before their climb begins on March 29. They will be joined by three Brazilian climbers in Nepal, and hope to wrap up their expedition in the first week of June.

Team leader Pyae Phyo Aung, who has 10 years of climbing experience, said that in addition to the history-making potential of the trip, the trio hoped to expand their ecotourism knowledge and promote adventure sporting in Burma.

The Technical Climbing Club of Myanmar, one of five active Burmese climbing associations, began in 2011 with a handful of rock climbers and mountaineers, to empower local climbing communities while developing modern climbing techniques. The group also advocates for awareness-raising on environmental issues, such as the ethics of leave no trace of refuse behind when climbing, trekking or camping.

The coming Everest expedition sees the group partnering with a local Nepalese guiding company and an international emergency evacuation provider, the latter chosen because they have caution about unforeseen risk and are best prepared for safety concerns and emergency rescue as well, said Nyi Nyi Aung, one-third of the trio.

In 2014, five mountaineers from the Htoo Group, including a Tibetan climber, attempted to climb Mount Everest, but their ascent was halted at base camp, at 17,500 feet, due to an avalanche at the camp that forced all climbers to abandon the ascent.

This years expedition, like the 2014 bid, is being sponsored by the Htoo Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Burmese conglomerate Htoo Group, owned by US-blacklisted tycoon Tay Za.

Paw Myint Oo, chief executive officer of the Htoo Foundation, told The Irrawaddy that their support was based on the expectation to raise the Myanmar flag on the summit of Mount Everest.

He also said in an opening speech that this expedition will be a historic trip for Burma, as the climbers task is not an easy task, but [rather is about] overcoming many difficulties and barriers.

The Htoo Foundation CEO encouraged the climbers to share their experiences when they return to Burma in June.
Burma Dozens in Myitkyina Township Protest Myitsone Dam Meeting

Some 40 residents of Kachin States Myitkyina Township staged a protest on Saturday against a meeting over renegotiating the Chinese-funded Myitsone dam.

MYITKYINA, Kachin State  Some 40 residents of Kachin States Myitkyina Township staged a protest on Saturday against a meeting between Chinese Ambassador Hong Liang, Chinese investor China Power Investment (CPI) and president of the Kachin State Democracy Party (KSDP) Tu Ja over attempts to renegotiate the Chinese-funded Myitsone dam.

The protest took place between 8 and 9am in front of the Palm Spring Resort in Myitkyina. According to Zaw Naing, a participant, ralliers based their decision to protest on information they received prior to the meeting that CPI representatives would arrive at the hotel in the morning and would afterward meet with the KSDP to discuss the dam project.

Wearing headbands that read No Dam and carrying banners that said Stop killing the Irrawaddy and CPI, get out of Kachin State, protesters stressed their dissatisfaction with attempts to renegotiate and demanded that plans for the project be completely withdrawn.

Zaw Naing speculated that Myitkyina residents would probably accept small hydropower plants along the Irrawaddy River, but that CPIs project calls for very large plants to support a dam located along a fault line, which could create even larger problems in the event of a natural disaster. Geologists are also allegedly wary of the project, voicing criticism that it is likely to do good neither for environmental conservation nor for local villagers.

Tu Ja told The Irrawaddy after the meeting: I urged them to do what residents wish. If they want to build the dam, they should do so elsewhere. But CPI said they will stick to the contract and that if Burma wants to terminate the project, it will have to pay a large amount of money as compensation.

Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) general secretary Tsa Ji accused CPI of persistently trying to convince uneducated villagers to come around to the project by offering them food, accessories and other sorts of commodities.

According to local reports, Kachin State chief ministers said that they will listen to peoples demands and stand together with the will of Burmas citizens, while adding that the decision is ultimately up to the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government.

Tsa Ji emphasized that the previous government suspended the controversial project and that the countrys new, people-elected government should do the same, saying that this would be an opportune time to unveil detailed information about the [projects] contract.

The Myitsone dam project is jointly run by Burma and China. Construction began in 2009 but was suspended in September 2011 due to intense pressure from the public.

Saturdays protest was disbanded by police. No violence was reported.
Burma This Week in Parliament (May 30--June 3)

The Irrawaddy rounds up the weeks political happenings in Naypyidaw from May 30-June 3.

Although the Union Election Commission (UEC) said nothing about errors in the 2015 nationwide voter lists, in response to a question raised in the Lower House about such discrepancies, the UEC replied that it planned to conduct door-to-door voter registration to compile accurate lists for the next election. The pilot project will take place in Rangoons Kyauktada Township.

The Upper House approved the draft laws to amend the Lower House Election Law, Upper House Election Law and State Parliament Election Law, all of which the NLD previously decried for going against democratic practices. The Lower House had already approved the draft laws, after each was amended three times.

May 31 (Tuesday)

The Union Parliament recorded the appointment of Maung Maung Win as the deputy planning and finance minister.

Zaw Win from Htantabin constituency replaced Khin Maung Win from Lanmadaw constituency as a member of the Union Parliament Joint Bill Committee.

In the Lower House, the Ministry of Electric Power and Energy explained its plans to address frequent power outages and the electricity supply in Burma. Lower House Speaker Win Myint said the ministry may have noticed cartoons in the media about the outages, and urged it to give due attention to the issue.

The Upper House approved the proposed amendments made to the Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law by the Lower House. The draft law was sent to the Lower House for approval.

The Upper House approved the appointment of Naw Mya Sae as the chair of its Education Promotion Committee. The post was previously held by Win Myat Aye, who currently serves as the Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlementa committee on which Naw Mya Sae also previously served as a member.

June 1 (Wednesday)

The Lower House received the draft laws to amend the Lower House Election Law, Upper House Election Law and State Parliament Election Law sent back by the Upper House. Both houses have now approved the draft laws and the Union Parliament will soon announce the official approval.

The Upper House approved draft laws to annul the Rangoon City Development Law and Mandalay City Development Law.

June 2 (Thursday)

In the Lower House, lawmaker Pe Than representing Myebon Township asked if the new government planned to define the terms political offense and political prisoner. Deputy Minister for Home Affairs Maj-Gen Aung Soe replied that the ministry has no plan to define them but he will report to the minister, seek the governments statement and deliver the reply to Parliament.

June 3 (Friday)

The Upper House approved the draft law to amend the Ward or Village Tract Administration Law. The law has been amended twice already. The colonial-era law requires citizens to report overnight guests to local authorities. With the draft law approved, such reporting will no longer be required.
Business The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (June 4, 2016)

World Bank pushes for power measures; Burmese firm to list in Singapore; Thai firm to make concrete in Burma; Instant coffee competition heats up; New kiwi ambassador appointed.

World Bank Suggests Incentives to Boost Burmas Power Supply

With residents of Burmas major cities suffering regular blackouts and brownouts during the hot season, and with two-thirds of the population not connected to the electricity grid, the World Bank has offered advice on how the new government could boost supply.

In its regular Myanmar Economic Monitor report, published May 31, the Bank predicted that overall economic growth would reboundafter flooding and political uncertainty during the 2015-16 fiscal yearto a healthy 8.2 percent per year over the medium term.

But the lengthy report highlighted that, among other lingering problems holding back the economy, access to electricity is a major priority if the government is to increase productivity and competitiveness.

In a policy watch section of the report, the authors noted the positive signs from recent oil and gas explorations tenders. And alongside the billions of dollars being poured into locating new energy sources, they expect about $2 billion of investment per year in power generation.

However, there could be a shortfall in investment, especially on the generation side, with a total of $30 billion needed over the next 15 years to realize the National Electrification Plan and to meet rising demand for electricity.

The previous government signed deals with private companies to provide power to the national grid, including a number of agreements that see some of Burmas share of production from offshore natural gas fields supplied to private power producers, who then produce power and sell it back to the grid.

In one of the biggest such deals, Singapores Sembcorp signed an agreement with the outgoing government in March that means the state will buy power from a power plant in Myingyan, Irrawaddy Division, which will be fueled by gas from the Shwe field in the Bay of Bengal.

The World Bank warned, however, that the current arrangements may not be attractive enough to draw the total amount of investment needed in power generation in the long run. Specifically, it said, gas destined for export and gas sold domestically are currently priced the same. That situation does not encourage the domestic use of gas supplies to meet the countrys power shortfall, the Bank said.

When the domestic gas price is set too high, this can encourage energy and electricity suppliers/users to switch to other energy sources, including higher carbon sources such as diesel and coal, it said, suggesting the government consider revising the pricing scheme so that domestically sold gas would be cheaper than that which is exported.

An updated domestic gas pricing framework could allow the Myanmar authorities to enhance the electricity tariff structure, which is a crucial factor toward achieving universal access to electricity by 2030.

The report also recommended changes to the electricity tariffs to better reflect the cost of supply and support new investment. Moves in this direction are likely to be controversial, however, since announcements under the previous government that electricity prices would rise were met with street demonstrations.

Burmese Firm Wants to Raise $100M in Singapore

A Burmese company is looking to raise as much as $100 million to fund projects in the country by listing its shares on Singapores stock exchange.

According to its website, Golden Glory Group Pte is a Singapore-incorporated property developer headed by Khin Maung Aye, the owner of the Lat War Garment Factory.

The companys CEO, Christopher Wu, told Bloomberg that the company will launch an initial public offering before the end of 2016.

Wu reportedly said the IPO planwhich would seek to raise between $80 million and $100 millionwas tied to the new optimism around Burma following the political transition, which has seen the United States further ease sanctions.

The door has opened, Wu said. More foreign companies are setting up offices.

Golden Glory Groups website lists two projects currently under development. First is the Polo Club (Asia) Residence, a flashy mixed-use development to include residential condominiums, hotel, service apartments, commercial and retail space. The development in Rangoons Tamwe Township was scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2015.

Then theres a future industrial park planned for Pegu Division, to cater to light industrial productioni.e. factories making garments and other textiles.

The companys website also gives some details about Khin Maung Aye, who has the same name as the head of KMA Group and CB Bank, a different person.

According to the account, Golden Glory Groups Khin Maung Aye qualified as a medical doctor (graduating from Rangoons University of Medicine 1) in 2001, after working for the family owned Union Rubber Factory from 1990 onward.

The budding tycoon also acted as a real estate agent and investor in the 1990s before establishing the Lat War garment company. He took over a Ministry of Industry-run paper factory in 2013, and has also expanded his property interests in more recent years, the website says.

Competition Brewing in the Instant Coffee Market

Singapores Super Group, which operates in Burma through the joint venture Super Coffeemix Limited and produces some of the countrys most popular instant hot drinks, is now facing stern competition, according to analysts.

An analysis of Super Groups Burmese venture by financial information service RHB Invest this week estimated that the firms share of the instant coffee market in Burma is between 40 and 50 percent. But the company will have to work harder as competition increases, the analysis said.

Given the predominantly traditional trade channels in Myanmar, we think [Super Groups] biggest strength in this market lies in its partners nationwide distribution network and the JV companys ability to selleven in rural villages, it said.

However, we believe that the in modern trade channels, it is facing increasing competition from rivals [especially Nestle].

The company was already working to rebrand its products in Burma, it said, highlighting the launch of a new product named Essenso Microground Coffee.

Thai Construction Firm to Produce Concrete in Burma

Narawat Patanakarn, one of Thailands largest construction companies, is reportedly planning to set up a factory in Burma to make the pre-cast concrete that is used for flooring, fencing and foundations.

The companys president, Polpat Karnasuta, was quoted in the Nation newspaper saying the Bangkok-listed company had reached an agreement with an unnamed local company to open the factory before the end of the year.

With imports of construction materials currently high in Burma, the factory would make pre-cast concrete products in country. Such products are used for the construction of homes, small buildings and other infrastructure like electricity poles, the Nation said.

In addition, the listed company is conducting a feasibility study on whether to invest in the hotel business in Myanmar, for which it expects to complete a joint-venture deal with a local firm there by the end of this year, the report cited Polpat saying.

Nawarat Patanakarn is also eyeing participation in infrastructure projects in the neighbouring country, it added.

Former ILO Liaison Appointed Kiwi Ambassador

Steve Marshall, the former International Labor Organizations (ILO) liaison officer in Rangoon, has been appointed as New Zealands new ambassador to Burma.

According to the New Zealand governments official website, Foreign Minister Murray McCullay announced the appointment on June 1.

The nation upgraded its diplomatic presence in Burma to a full embassy in 2014, the minister said, reflecting the countrys support for Burmas transition.

Mr Marshall brings a unique mix of skills and experience to the role and in addition to being charged with further developing the relationship between our two countries, he will also be responsible for our growing aid programme in Myanmar, which is focused on agriculture and skills development, McCully was quoted saying.

Marshall, a former policeman, was the CEO of the New Zealand Employers Federation during a turbulent time for the countrys industrial relations, according a profile on the New Zealand Listener website.

He joined the ILO in Geneva in 2001 before moving to Rangoon in 2007, and reportedly counts State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi as a friend.

During eight years on the job in Burma, he also dealt closely with the former military junta, leading efforts to convince the generals to address the massive forced labor issues in the country at the time.

A 2007 U.S. Embassy cable released by WikiLeaks characterized Marshall as a straight talker. He believed his background as not a career diplomat had meant that he was an acceptable interlocutor for the Burmese government at the time, the cable said.
Dateline Irrawaddy: Students Do Not Need to be Afraid Anymore

The Irrawaddy speaks with central executive members of the Nationwide Federation of Student Unions Zeyar Lwin and Ei Swe Myat about prospects for student unions under the new government.

Ye Ni: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! This week, well discuss the role of student unions in the political transition. Central executive members of the Nationwide Federation of Student Unions [NFSU] Ko Zeyar Lwin and Ma Ei Swe Myat will join me for the discussion. Im Irrawaddy Burmese editor Ye Ni.

You two were among those who held talks with Education Minister Dr U Myo Thein Gyi about students unions last Sunday. Although student unions are still not officially recognized, I heard that the minister promised to set up offices and allow student unions to participate when charters are drafted concerning universities. This is a sign that the government has started to accept student unions. What is the attitude of the student unions toward the government now? Have student unions changed their attitude and are they now willing to cooperate with the new civilian government?

Zeyar Lwin: We met the education minister at the Higher Education Department in Yangon as per his invitation on Sunday, May 25. He invited us to discuss ongoing problems in regards to students and the education system in our country. It was our first meeting with the new government. It was a crucial meeting. We used to only be able to hold four-party talks [held with representatives from the former government, Parliament, university students and the local civil society group National Network for Education Reform]. But it came at a costwe could meet the government only after we held protest marches and demonstrations and pressed for our demands. But the new government has invited us to negotiate before we have issued demands.

We met [the education minister] because we cannot disregard this government. Previously, student unions opposed the government because it was repressive. It only cared for itself, did not serve the interests of the people and indulged in power. But the current government was elected by the people and is led by State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Htin Kyaw. People have expectations of the new government and hope for the best. We have no reason to neglect a government that people believe in. So, we met and discussed matters related to student unions, students and the education system. That meeting was our first step in cooperating with the new government.

YN: Ma Ei Swe Myat, what is your view of the outcome of that meeting?

Ei Swe Myat: The new government was chosen by the people. Like student unions, the government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Htin Kyaw faced many difficulties to achieve what it has. It is fair to say that they can understand us. We students gathered, and together with the people, opposed the unfairness of the previous government. Because student unions and the new government share a lot in terms of beliefs and goals, we have decided to cooperate on education issues. We hope that we will be able to cooperate smoothly because we share the same goal.

YN: Since 1962, student unions have not been recognized by successive military-backed regimes. But the new government is not as tough on student unions as its predecessors and now you have seen prospects of the government legitimizing student unions. Is it fair to say it is high time students get united and establish a student union that can democratically represent all students? How do you envision such a union?

ZL: Yes, it is time we students collectively speak up for educational reform, a switch to a democratic education system and student rightsall of which we demanded in the past. But, democracy allows people to have different views. Lets see how much we will be able to negotiate those different views and move forward.

Personally, I think it is not possible, for the time being, for students across the country to unite and take collaborative action because there are different views and doubts among the students. There are people who question the representation of student unions and there are people who do not want to work under the umbrella of an organization. There is the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABSFU), and there is the NFSU. Some students joined ABSFU and others joined NSU. There are also individual student unions that want to work independently and ethnic student unions. One thing I can tell you for sure is that all so-called student unions in this country do not represent all the students. We students gathered together in our circles to form whatever was possible at the time. This is how student unions were formed.

But, among all of the student unions, ABSFU and NSU have a certain degree of authority because the chairpersons, vice chairpersons and executives of university student unions under these groups were elected by popular vote. Even if they dont represent entire universities, they do represent the student unions. There are also universities under NSU whose student unions do represent entire universities. For example, the student unions of Thanlyin Technological University and West Yangon Technological University represent the entire student body. At the Yangon University of Economics, key people are elected by the student unions.

YN: Previously, the country was under a military regime and the governmentwhich was not democratically electedoppressed student unions. Circumstances did not allow for student unions to be established democratically. Ma Ei Swe Myat, do you see prospects for student unions to be set up through elections, beginning at individual universities and later at a nationwide student conference?

ESM: For the time being, it is not possible. The new government has not been in power for very long. In the past, we had to form student unions against rectors and the previous government. Yangon West Technological University and Thanlyin Technological University were able to form student unions that represented the entire university because students got along with university authorities or rectors. It was difficult to hold elections [for student unions] in instances where there were hardline rectors. In the case of Yangon University, the current executive board is an interim one. The constitution is being drafted now and only through an election based on that constitution will we be able to elect a student union that represents the entire university.

Previously, we could not achieve representation, but it was not because we did not make the effort. We did all we could, but there was oppression from above. Maybe teachers and rectors were also afraid. There were active students, but they were discouraged by threats from teachers, for example, saying that they would be disqualified for a masters degree if they engaged in such issues. But we have a new government now and we hope that the views of rectors and teachers will also change. Teachers are our second parents who can fulfill our wishes. They inevitably had to oppress us under previous government because of their fear.

But now the new government is in office and a new semester will start soon. We dont know yet what we are going to face until the universities open but we believe there will be changes. It is time for universities to have executive boards that represent entire universities. And we hope this happens. Teachers views have changed following the power transfer. There must have been students who were interested in politics and who now want to participate in student unions. And they do not need to be afraid anymore. The existing student unions are ready to make sure they are represented.

ZL: You have talked about forming a student union that could represent universities across the country by holding elections at different levels. This is the hope of every student union. The question is if each of over 160 universities and colleges across the country could form their own union. If the higher education law makes student unions compulsory, then all universities and colleges across the country have to form them. If the law only grants the right to form student unions, then it is not compulsory and we can choose to form student unions or not. Universities that want to form student unions have to include provisions about it in their charters. The rector, administration and students can decide if they want to form a union for their university. If they want to form one, they can include provisions in their university charter and hold elections.

YN: The current situation suggests that we have good reason for high hopes. Things are developing toward a situation where there will no longer be government oppression, but instead cooperation with student unions and teachers to shape the national education system. And personally I think students can reach their goal if they try. Thank you for your contributions.
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After experiencing very lackluster sale numbers on their first electric car offering, BMW is going full gear on their research and development. The aim is to focus a great number of their manpower into enhancing their battery-powered cars.

According to Reuters, BMW sold a mere 25,000 units of their i3, its first fully battery-powered car. Meanwhile, Tesla already has a recorded 350,000 pre-order of their upcoming Model 3. It is because of these numbers and other tough competitors, the likes of Audi and Porsche, that BMW will be ordering their research and development to focus on enhancing the self-driving capabilities of their electric vehicles.

The publication spoke with one of the company's board members, Klaus Froehlich, who shared that BMW is expecting to increase the percentage of their software engineers from 20% to 50% within the next five years. Hiring more software engineers should prepare the company well enough for the release of its fully self-driving electric-powered flagship model, which it plans to release in 2021.

Froehlich is excited at the possibilities, which autonomous driving can provide. He divulged that the company could launch a ride-hailing business in the future and that self-driving vehicles will negate the necessity to hire drivers. This should give BMW an edge over current ride-hailing companies like Uber.

BMW is aware, however, that it might need to partner up with a current player and they are looking into the Chinese market for this. According to Froehlich, "China is extremely fast [at] implementing technology. Last year, more electric cars were sold in China than in all the other global markets combined."

Meanwhile, CNet has reported that BMW is currently trying to enhance their current i3, which is set to be launched by 2018. Along with the new i3, BMW's CEO has confirmed that the company is already developing its i8 Roadster.
Apple Inc.'s Maps app that was introduced in 2012 received tepid reviews that led to the hiring of Sinisa Durekovic, the principal architect of the satellite navigation system utilized by well-known luxury carmakers. Durekovic was a former software engineer at Harman who first joined the iPhone maker in an unstipulated role in October.

Although news about the hiring of Durekovic circulates online, Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller declined to provide comment on such. Even the spokesmen from Harman did not provide any immediate comment or respond to the hiring. As reported by Bloomberg Technology, Durekovic who has patented a mapping data system, which is designed to prevent car collisions, also did not respond when invited for an interview.

The effort of upgrading the Maps app this year was intensified by Apple Inc. and its CEO Tim Cook. Just last month, Cook headed the opening of a development center with 4,000 employees in Hyderabad, India, as noted by Cult of Mac. According to Cook, these employees will concentrate on mapping, while the $1 billion investment of Apple in Didi Chuxing, a Chinese company, may provide access to mapping data and driver behavior.

Originally introduced by Apple as "iOS in the Car," the CarPlay app allows iPhone users to utilize Maps app and turn-by-turn navigation interface. The CarPlay that was used by many luxury car brands also provides iMessage, phone calls, music playback and access to additional apps like Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Beats Radio, Podcasts and Spotify.

Although these apps are intended to provide peace of mind, some automakers remain cautious in using systems produced by the iPhone maker and those developed by Alphabet Inc.'s Google. This is because automakers realize that when vehicles lean heavily on software integration, this fast-growing technology industry will become highly profitable and will steal large market share. An autonomous driving capability design is also being developed by Apple Inc. and Google.
Following its launch in South Korea, China and the United States, Samsung Pay has arrived in its first European market, Spain.

According to ZDNet, the comparatively late launch in Europe is caused by a body of complicated regulatory obligations to fulfill there. However, TechCruch notes that this move still gives Samsung's mobile payment service a head start over competitors Android Pay and Apple Pay. None of the two have landed in Europe yet.

For Apple Pay, Spain would also be its first European market. The mobile payment service is expected to arrive in Spain some time this year. According to NFC World, Spencer Spinnell, Google director of emerging platforms, said that Android Pay also plans to enter Europe soon.

Samsung Pay is available in Spain, as in other markets, on Samsung's flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S7 and S6 series. In the next few weeks, the mobile payment service will also be added to this year's model Galaxy A5.

Samsung explained that it has chosen to pick Spain as its first European market because the European country has high rates of credit card and smartphone penetration. Around 64 percent of Spanish consumers use cards to pay for their purchases, according to research.

Samsung Pay is currently partnered in Spain, with banks imaginBank and CaixaBank. The mobile payment service will also be available soon for customers of Banco Sabadell and Abanca.

Android Authority reports that Samsung's announcement did not specify it works with near-field communication (NFC)-enabled contactless payment terminals and did not make any mention of magnetic secure transmission (MST) terminals. CaixaBank made a statement earlier in January, saying that it will not support Samsung Pay's MST. This means that Samsung Pay may be missing a key feature in Spain.

In the United States, using MST gives Samsung Pay an advantage over Android Pay and Apple Pay, because in order to accept it, stores do not have to install new NFC-enabled terminals. Samsung Pay works instead by sending a signal to an MST terminal mimicking the magnetic strips on credit cards.
The use of technology like 5G and artificial intelligence to aid the labour-intensive practice of counting cattle has been tested out by telecommunications vendor TPG
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ACS, an association that represents the Australian technology sector, has welcomed the budget presented by the Federal Government on Tuesday, describing it as "a step towards boosting the diversity of the IT industry and the broader economy with its support for families in, or looking to enter, the workforce".
Microsoft has been accused of using a huge network of tax havens and subsidiaries to minimise the quantum of tax it pays in Australia, a
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Indian IT spending is set to grow by 13.8% year-on-year in 2022, the technology analyst firm IDC says, adding that this was down from 25.3%
When the new Federal Government took power in May this year, it promised several new initiatives; it has delivered on some of them and looks
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Catford-based Matthew Thomas, 23, scored eight goals and scooped the Nivea "Man of the Match" award as his team trounced Italia Wasthills 4-1 in the final.

Tom Miller, the National five-a-side chief executive, said: "The Catford regional heat was very successful with just under 1,000 players involved. Picking the man of the match was a difficult task, but Chris' skills were outstanding."
Business / Companies

by Thobekile Zhou

National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has begun serving dismissal letters to striking workers. The workers have been on strike for 68 straight days today.Said an insider to Bulawayo24.com, "NRZ is now serving part of the striking employees dismissal letters citing 7 days absent.""Today its the 68th day since the beginning of the strike"."At the moment we are waiting for court judgement on the disposal order hearing but NRZ has chose to take the law in its hands".So far seven have been sacked in Gweru and one on Mutare.This comes as Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joram Gumbo revealed last week that about 70 % of workers would be fired soon.Gumbo said business environment has been harsh, hence urgent need to retrench.
News / Africa

by Freeman Razemba

SADC countries have expressed interest in joining the Southern Times newspaper, transforming it into a regional partnership. Presently it is a joint venture between Zimbabwe and Namibia. A new board drawn from various Sadc countries will soon be established, amid plans to set up a Sadc radio station and television channel once all the processes have been finalised.This was revealed during a meeting between Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Chris Mushohwe and Namibian Minister of Information and Communication Technology Mr Tjekero Tweya in Harare yesterday.Dr Mushohwe said he was happy with the relations between the two countries as Zimbabwe still had a lot to learn from its counterpart. "When we met (with Minister Tweya) in Maseru (Lesotho) we talked about a number of issues, that we must put our heads together to make sure that we improve our newspaper (The Southern Times) that we own . . ."I am happy that a number of Sadc countries are also interested with the partnership and that we need to look for mechanisms to unlock that arrangement," he said. Some of the issues pertaining to the regional partnership had already been presented to their counterparts while in Maseru during a meeting of Ministers responsible for Public Communication recently."We want to promote the agenda of Sadc through this and at the same time ZBC and NBC should also have something in the process," Minister Tweya said. A Sadc radio station and television that covers the region would enable people to share views, information and talent among others."There is the issue of migration from analogue to digital which I know Namibia is ahead of us in terms of implementation and we can learn a lot. "So I am happy that you made time to visit our studios here in Harare," he said. "We have a lot that we must co-operate in and I am sure this meeting is only the beginning of substantial meetings that we should undertake to look at these things closely."He added that there was no difference between Zanu-PF and Namibia's South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) as the two parties have a common history and common background."Our brothership was founded in trenches when we were fighting colonialism so we have a definite common objective as to how we should uplift the lives of our people and how we should develop our country and how we should consolidate the hard-earned independence that we have," he said.In response, Minister Tweya said they had put in place technical teams that would look into the issue of Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two countries that had not been implemented."We have at this point in time existing MoUs that are just gathering dust somewhere. We have agreed to go and pull out those MoUs and we have tasked technical teams to review and update them with new reality."We want to give life to them (MoUs) as they are not simply documents signed to satisfy our principals," he said. "One of the new developments is the new development of the NamZim. NamZim will have to undergo new identity were we will present it to the rest of Sadc. The ownership will obviously change."It will not be owned by the two countries, but by the rest of Sadc countries; that is the identity it will go through. But at the same time we still have got other bilateral discussions and other issues between the two countries," he said.
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News / Africa

by Staff reporter

Pretoria - A Zimbabwean man suffered severe spinal injuries and a loss of sensation to his legs after he was hit on the back with a panga in Hammanskraal on Saturday morning, paramedics said.According to News24, the 22-year-old was allegedly attacked and robbed by unknown people, Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said.He was airlifted to hospital in a Netcare medical helicopter.
As he oversees the merger of Marriott International Inc. with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. to create the world's largest hotel company, you might think that CEO Arne Sorenson has enough on his plate and would have no interest in taking controversial stances on the social issues of our time.

But you would be wrong.

"Recently, I was asked to join a group of American business leaders in opposing North Carolina's HB2, a bill that sanctions LGBT discrimination across that state. For Marriott and me, this was an easy call," Sorenson wrote in an op-ed column for CNBC. "The law does not reflect our values or a basic principle that helps drive new jobs and economic growth in North Carolina and beyond: Everyone deserves to be welcome. ...Our nation strives to provide equal opportunity, no matter who you are. ...To be competitive in the world today, America needs everyone's skills. Including LGBT people in that effort is not simply the right thing to do, it's also essential for business."

Speaking to a room full of journalists at the spring conference of the Society of American Business Writers & Editors in Arlington, Va., Sorenson reaffirmed his company's stance on the issue. He recounted how Vice President Joe Biden once told him that too many American business leaders are "cowards," afraid to take stances on social issues, fearful of incurring the wrath of those on the other sides of those issues.

"Fundamentally, that's true," Sorenson said.

However, for Sorenson, the LGBT issue is not only a social and moral issue but an economic imperative. The North Carolina bill has cost that state $100 million in lost revenue from the travel and hospitality industries in the past 30 days, he said.

"We do think it's connected to our business," he said.

Marriott's merger with Starwood was approved by shareholders of both companies in April. The $12.2 billion transaction is expected to close around midyear.

Marriott operates 37 hotels in Wisconsin under the Marriott, Fairfield Inn, Residence Inn, Courtyard, TownePlace Suites and SpringHill flags.

Sorenson, a native of St. Paul, Minn., has another Wisconsin connection: His wife, Ruth (Christenson), grew up in Delafield.

In addition to overseeing one of the largest corporate mergers of the year, Sorenson is contemplating a new location for Marriott's headquarters. The company's lease of 40 years in Bethesda, Md., will expire in 2021.

Access to mass transit will be critical for attracting the next-generation workforce, he said.

"We're seeing a trend toward urbanization that is pretty powerful," Sorenson said.

At the SABEW conference, Sorenson spoke about a wide variety of issues that are having an impact on the travel and hospitality industries.

For instance, the industries are changing to accommodate millennials, "who hate to be called millennials," he said.

"They are not monolithic," he pointed out.

Still, those in the millennial generation  broadly defined as young adults born since 1980  tend to have certain preferences that distinguish them from older generations.

One example: Baby boomer business travelers have typically preferred to sequester themselves in their hotel rooms and get their work done in private, Sorenson said. Millennials, on the other hand, like to "be alone with other people," working on their laptops, tablets or smartphones in common spaces.

That trend is having an impact on the architectural designs of new hotels, he said.

Also, a key priority for millennials is access to "blazing fast" WiFi, he said.

Other topics Sorenson touched upon:

A recent architectural trend in the industry is the growing preference for more natural lighting, especially in ballrooms, which traditionally have been closed off from the outside world. (He was speaking in a windowless ballroom.)

A profound, emerging change in the industry is the opening of business and tourist travel to Cuba. "It captures all of our imaginations," he said. "I think we'll see great growth in Cuba. I think it will be much more leisure than business."

Marriott and other chains are providing incentives for travelers to book their stays directly through hotels, rather than using online portals such as Priceline and Expedia.

This summer is shaping up to be a good one for travel and tourism, as lower and stable gasoline prices should help keep airfares reasonable and also will encourage more traveling by automobile.

Steve Jagler is the business editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Send C-Level ideas to him at steve.jagler@journalsentinel.com.
News / Local

by Abel Zhakata

A SELF-STYLED Buhera prophet was slapped with a 15-year jail term by a Rusape regional magistrate after he was found guilty of raping a 15-year-old congregant.Manica Post reported that Isaac Mushayachuru (32) of Chitindi Village under Chief Nerutanga did not waste the court's time and pleaded guilty to rape when he appeared before Livingstone Chipadza.He blamed his actions on evil spirits, saying he had succumbed to the devil's mechanisations.District public prosecutor, Tirivanhu Mutyasira, told the court that the prophet raped the girl on May 21."On the day in question, the accused person was invited by the complainant's grandmother to her homestead to cleanse the compound of evil spirits that were troubling them."He came and conducted a cleansing ceremony as requested. However, after completing the exercise he told the grandmother that the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that the complainant had some incision marks (nyora) on her body which were put by witches. He asked the grandmother for permission to take the complainant to a nearby bush to remove the incisions. He was granted the permission to take the teenager," said Mutyasira.The court heard that when he arrived at the bush, Mushayachuru took some water which he prayed for.He told the complainant that he wanted to be intimate with her as a way of removing the incisions."The complainant refused, but the accused person threatened her that she would die if she did not comply. Moments later she succumbed to his demands. She was raped. After committing the crime, the prophet left the girl at the bush and went to see the grandmother whom he advised that the cleansing ritual was still in progress. The complainant later went home after about 10 minutes and along the way she met her uncle who questioned her why she was not walking properly. She revealed the rape and a police report was made leading to the arrest of the prophet," said Mutyasira.A medical examination done on the teenager at Murambinda Mission Hospital confirmed the abuse.Of the 15 years, Chipadza set aside two years on condition that the prophet does not commit a similar offence in the next five years.In an unrelated rape case which occurred in Nyazura a 36-year-old polygamist with three wives and 10 children was slapped with a 15-year jail term after he was convicted of abusing a six-year-old girl at knife point.Eliah Zumba of Village 6 in Nzvimbe had pleaded not guilty to the charges when appeared before Chipadza.He was, however, convicted after the State, led by Mutyasira, presented overwhelming evidence against him to warrant a conviction.The court heard that on April 5, the complainant was left home by her mother who had gone to Mutare and she failed to return on the same day.At around 9pm, the accused person went to the complainant's home and found the girl who was in company of her younger brother aged three."The accused person entered the complainant's bedroom and took her outside. He produced a knife and raped the girl," said Mutyasira.When the complainant's mother returned she asked her daughter why she was having walking difficulties. The girl disclosed the rape and a police was made, leading the accused's arrest.In denying the charges, Zumba told the court that the allegations were being fabricated by the girl's mother who was jealous of the progress he was making in his life.Chipadza did not buy his case and found him guilty as charged. In reading out the sentence, Chipadza blasted him for abusing a six-year-old girl yet he had three wives at home to quench his sexual appetite.He told him that he was worse than animals that respect their young ones. Of the 15 years, two years were suspended on condition of good behaviour.
Chuck Melvin: In the wake of the Journal Sentinels acquisition by Gannett, we plan to keep our business coverage locally relevant and a must-read for everyone from Wisconsin consumers to the areas top executives. Credit: Mike De Sisti

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The biggest retailer on the planet is Walmart. Everybody knows that.

But who's No. 2? And No. 3? That's a little harder.

If you read last Sunday's business section, though, you know that Costco ranks second, and Kroger  the Cincinnati grocery company that bought Milwaukee-based Roundy's last year  is the third-largest retailer in the world.

At about $110 billion in annual sales, Kroger is still slightly ahead of online giant Amazon.com, although our story about Kroger's ongoing plan to conquer the grocery universe didn't get into that.

I feel comfortable calling it "our" story because it was written by one of our new partners in the USA TODAY NETWORK, the Cincinnati Enquirer, with a significant contribution from our own grocery industry reporter, Joe Taschler.

It's just one early indication that, in the wake of our parent company's acquisition by Gannett Inc., we intend to keep the Journal Sentinel's business coverage strong, locally relevant, and a must-read for everyone from consumers to small business owners to CEOs of this region's major corporations.

What's more, our collaboration with Gannett's network of 3,800 journalists at more than 100 news organizations around the country should allow us to cast a much wider net, as we look for the information and context that will be most interesting and useful to our Wisconsin audience.

That collaboration is precisely how we came upon the Kroger/Roundy's story: Our business editor, Steve Jagler, connected with the top editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer's business news department at a recent conference. As they talked, Steve realized that the Enquirer story about the supermarket company's $4billion expansion, with local input from our staff, would be ideal for our audience.

The result was the excellent piece that ran in last Sunday's Journal Sentinel business section  an article that taught me and thousands of other local readers a whole lot about the company that now dominates Wisconsin's grocery industry.

On a mission

For those of you who count on us for your daily Wisconsin business fix, not to worry: We're not planning any changes to our local reporting or to our business news staff, which is the state's largest and most experienced. It's a staff that has embraced new ways of telling stories, from Tom Daykin's award-winning Land & Space blog, videos and online commercial development tracker  all fabulous tools for the commercial real estate community  to Kathleen Gallagher's OnRamp blog, where the region's entrepreneurs gather online to share ideas and read the latest news about Wisconsin start-ups and funding.

We have every intention of continuing the features and columns you're accustomed to seeing. Two quick examples are Gallagher's weekly Investment Trends feature, which examines how economic developments impact the way area money managers do their jobs, and Jagler's C-Level column, which gives readers insights into how CEOs and other top executives do their jobs.

Jagler's C-Level has been around for just a couple of months now but already has built a faithful and growing audience.

We also plan to continue offering the state's strongest daily coverage of small business, health care, energy, manufacturing, retail, banking, technology, real estate, financial markets and other topics that affect your bottom line and your pocketbook.

Our mission, as always, is to tell local stories in the context of broader regional and global economic developments, and to cover the local business community with the same watchdog approach that this consistently award-winning newsroom brings to all of its reporting.

Naturally wary

Now, let me get real for a moment. If you ask our business staff about the Journal Sentinel's becoming part of Gannett, they'll certainly express some wariness. Each of them has been observing the business world long enough and skeptically enough to know that mergers rarely come without some pain.

But they also know that our newsroom is efficient and widely respected, and it stands to greatly broaden its newsgathering ability, as well as its audience, if this merger goes as planned.

Consider, for instance, that Gannett has long been the parent company of 10 other news organizations in northeastern Wisconsin and the Fox Valley, including the likes of Green Bay, Sheboygan and Appleton. Already we've reached out to them, and they to us, and we're strategizing ways to share our work and collaborate on stories.

Those new partnerships, coupled with an earlier agreement to provide our business news coverage to the Kenosha News, mean we can reach more Wisconsin residents than ever before. On computers, on mobile devices, in print  however you prefer to read your news, we have extended our ability to cover it and deliver it to you throughout the entire state.

So our natural wariness about new ownership is far outweighed by our enthusiasm for these possibilities.

As all of this plays out, feel free to send me your ideas about the business and economic stories we should be covering, anywhere in Wisconsin. Email me at cmelvin@journalsentinel.com, or give me a call at (414) 224-2150.

Chuck Melvin is the Journal Sentinel's assistant managing editor for local and business news.
Alan Farha is accused of scamming people at at least two Milwaukee churches by claiming he needed money to get to Syria, where he said his parents had been killed by a roadside bomb. Credit: Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office

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Good-hearted people of at least two Milwaukee churches did what they could when a man came to them for help getting to Syria, where he said his parents had been killed by a roadside bomb and he needed to identify their remains.

No wonder; Alan M. Farha has refined his pitch after lots of practice. Police say he had been honing it at churches in several states, for years, but that it was just a scam.

Farha, 40, who is listed at a Texas address, was charged last weekend with theft of less than $2,500, a misdemeanor. He is being held at the Milwaukee County Jail on $5,000 bail, and has a court hearing set for Tuesday.

According to the criminal complaint:

On May 24, Farha attended services at St. Veronica Congregation, 353 E. Norwich, told those in attendance his story and collected about $460. That was after the Rev. Mark Payne had responded to Farha's direct appeal that he could offer prayers, but no parish funds.

The day before, Farha stopped at St. Charles Borromeo Church, at 3100 W. Parnell Ave. That time, he said his grandmother was among the purported victims and he needed $200 for expenses for his trip to Syria. Seven women there came up with a total of $73.

On May 27, Farha had his eye on Nativity Church, when a woman from St. Veronica's pointed him out to police and he was arrested.

According to the complaint, Farha admitted defrauding people at St. Veronica's. In his possession, police said, he had a list of confessions, which included "lots of conning, scamming and cheating people out of $$$."

Among some of Farha's other scamming exploits:

In January, he was arrested in Rochester, Minn., where he got $1,200 from churchgoers. In February, he was sentenced to five years probation.

In 2012 Farha targeted churches, temples and synagogues in New Hampshire, claiming he had to get to Israel to bury his parents and scamming more than $1,200, WBZ-TV in Boston reported.

In 2008 he bilked 17 churches in the Columbia, Mo., area out of more than $10,000 by playing, among other roles, a down-on-his-luck Lebanese college student who needed a few dollars for his family, the Columbia Tribune reported.

He also has been arrested for similar scams in West Virginia, New York and Illinois, according to the complaint.
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Two men, both 31, were found shot to death early Saturday in the 4100 block of N. 21st. St.

One of the men was found at 5:45 a.m. in a trash container. He had been shot several times, according to a statement by the Milwaukee Police Department. While police were on the scene, they discovered the body of a second man, who also had been shot several times.

Both men were pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said they are trying to determine a motive. The deaths remain under investigation.
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A Milwaukee-area lawyer has been banned from practicing law for two years after regulators determined he took nearly $460,000 from his employer and used some of that money to support a business inspired by his then 9-year-old son.

The state Supreme Court on Friday suspended Matthew MacLean's law license after the Hartland attorney pleaded no contest to the ethics violations for scamming Red Granite Advisors LLC, a money management firm that has since been sold. The scheme ran from 2006 to 2013, according to the 2015 complaint filed last year by the Office of Lawyer Regulation.

MacLean, who was Red Granite's general counsel and chief compliance officer, has repaid $458,000 and blamed his actions on bipolar disorder, which was diagnosed after his wrongdoing was discovered. He said he is on medication and is participating in the Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program.

"It's great to feel better after 15 years," MacLean said Saturday. "It's horrible to look back and see what I did  it's humiliating."

Regulators originally asked that MacLean be disbarred, but later asked for a three-year suspension. The high court opted for a two-year suspension, largely as result of MacLean's actions since his fraud was discovered.

"MacLean's misconduct was serious and warrants a significant penalty," the court wrote in its 12-page order. But, the justices noted, there were "a number of mitigating factors." For example, MacLean reported his misconduct to the court's policing arm, he is being treated for his bipolar disorder and "he made full restitution and he cooperated with the investigation into his conduct."

MacLean has not practiced law since 2014, when he voluntarily put his license on inactive status.

Though he acknowledged wrongdoing, MacLean said he was unsure about the exact amount he scammed from Red Granite and denied using any of the money to help BrickStix LLC, a company that grew out of an idea by his son.

The company, which received national publicity, makes removable stickers for Lego bricks.

MacLean, his wife and a third person were the organizing members of BrickStix, according to the Office of Lawyer Regulation complaint.

The regulators charged that "MacLean caused BrickStix to use more than $5,000 of misappropriated funds to pay BrickStix's expenses."

No other BrickStix owner or official knew "he deposited funds he misappropriated" into the company's account, the complaint said.

MacLean, however, denied that allegation, saying none of the funds he took went to BrickStix.

MacLean said he borrowed from family members to pay the restitution and did not know exactly how much money he took from Red Granite or Ziegler Lotsoff Capital Management LLC, the Chicago firm that initially bought Red Granite. Stiefel later purchased Ziegler Lotsoff.

The scheme involved creating fraudulent invoices that appeared to be from Michael, Best & Friedrich, a large Milwaukee law firm where MacLean had worked until 2006. Michael Best was not involved in the scheme and was not a financial victim of it.

The money MacLean took was used to support his lifestyle, MacLean said, explaining he took a pay cut when he joined Red Granite. He said he took a second pay cut while working for the company.

"When I was sick and doing these things, the funds went to pay my expenses, while I was trying to lead and save this company," MacLean said. "It doesn't make sense and that's where the illness comes in."

MacLean added that when a person suffers from bipolar disorder, "things that clearly aren't logical make sense."
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Religion is a force for good

I did not see the letter, "This amoral night" (Letters, May 18). But I did read the two replies in the May 29 Journal Sentinel, one by Steve Burek and the other by Eugene Fowler ("Reject superstition" and "Freedom and religion").

Both dismissed religious belief as irrational and based on superstition. One even attributed the beginning of our "decline" as a nation to the 1956 law establishing "In God we Trust" as our nation's motto.

Any high school student would recognize that as a gratuitous claim without scientific proof. Granted, some people misuse religion as a way of justifying violence or prejudice against certain groups. Recent popes have decried and apologized for the persecutions inflicted by Christians against Jews and others in past centuries. But the two writers completely ignore the long history of charitable and humanitarian works that have been inspired by religious believers over the centuries.

Moreover, some of the greatest names in science  Leonardo da Vinci, Gregor Mendel, Marie Curie, Louis Pasteur  have been devout Christian believers, as are many contemporary scientists.

Finally, our belief that all men and women are created equal is not original in our democracy; it is also a truth enshrined in the Bible.

Rev. Martin Pable

Milwaukee



Bible key to Western culture

On May 29, two letters, "Reject superstition and "Freedom and religion," demonstrated the current growing lack of knowledge of our cultural history (Crossroads).

One may freely choose not to be a member of a church, but all intelligent citizens should at least acknowledge that the Bible has been an important source of and influence on our Western culture and our common heritage.

Democracy depends on a recognition of the dignity of the individual, an idea derived from the Bible. Democracy functions best with a literate population. Since the 1500s, reading has been taught so that all could read the Bible themselves. Education, a basic element of society, can be traced back to biblical foundations. Some of Europe's monastery and cathedral schools developed into universities. United States universities were started to train clergy and church leaders. Many of our founding fathers were products of these schools.

The Bible's teachings on sex, marriage, family life and morality have been essential to our national character. In early times, infanticide was common practice until adherents of the Bible learned compassion and reached out to the abandoned, poor, sick and disabled with medicine, orphanages, hospitals and institutions of mercy.

As curious people sought to explore God's creation in finer detail, they developed the present fields of science. Because the God of the Bible is a working creative god, believers likewise wanted to work and be creative. They didn't want their families to spend their days hauling water on their heads or laboring all their lives in fields producing food. So pumps and plumbing, plows and harvesters were invented to make time and energy for learning, the arts and leisure.

We ignore the Bible as part of our cultural history at great risk.

Norman Rose

Brookfield



Mocking believers

A recent letter mocked those who believe in God by calling their belief in a "non-extant deity" irrational ("Reject superstition," Letters, May 29).

The writer goes on to lament that to expect such a deity to lead us and guide how we act is "one of the most dangerous concepts of our time." ISIS and Christianity are referenced as examples of "how religious beliefs can be used to condone violence" against nonbelievers. Then, having scorned the mystery of God and solved the root cause of violence, the letter tells us that our current national decline can be traced to the 1956 adoption of our nation's motto, "In God We Trust."

Those overall opinion comments are sad because they reflect the writer's contempt of believers. People are certainly free to believe whatever they choose provided that it doesn't bring harm to others. To state that religion is the leading cause of harm in our world is a platitude that fails to take into account the untold millions of innocent people who were killed by nonbelieving leaders' orders within the last century such as Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, etc. Those who whine about the evils of organized religion are quick to ignore its notable contributions to feed the hungry, care for the sick and educate the unschooled.

Regarding our nation's motto, those who'd like to change it have a challenge. Most would agree that it would be premature to replace it with "In Trump/or Hillary We Trust." So maybe until we find out who we elect to be our country's secular leader and learn what kind of a job he or she is doing, we'd best leave our motto intact. In the meantime, it might help believers and nonbelievers to ponder the wisdom of the following insight from the 16th century Carmelite nun, St. Teresa of Avila:

"We cannot know whether we love God although there may be strong reason for thinking so; but there can be no doubt about whether we love our neighbor or not."

Peter M. Murray

Brookfield



Dangerous drivers

James Causey nailed it in his column, "Street clowns put us all in danger" (Crossroads, May 29).

I could identify with everything he said in his column about the speeding and aggressive driving in Milwaukee city and the county. Every year the speed seems to increase, excessive speeding (15 or more over the posted speed limit) used to be a pretty hefty fine, but today it is more the norm.

I personally spend more time looking in my rear view mirror than looking forward, anticipating being cut off by someone approaching at a fast rate of speed or getting tailgated by someone who must think me unreasonable for only going five over the posted limit.

It is dangerous, in my opinion, to drive at the posted speeds on the Milwaukee expressways, and I don't know how I have managed to not get into a serious accident in the past few years. A few years ago, there were accidents during rush hour, now there may be as many rollovers, which to me indicates a problem with speed or maybe also attention to traffic, possibly due to the use of cellphones.

There also is no stereotypical driver who zooms by me. Usually it's a younger male, but I have seen many middle-aged females just hauling along.

It was said that if the laws are not enforced, then there basically are no laws, and I think that is what we have evolved to on the local roadways.

Ken Brooks

Milwaukee



Misreading history

In the Crossroads section of May 29, Van Mobley, village president of Thiensville, expressed his opinion on current politics ("Trump's mainstream foreign policy").

As a great pundit once said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." To refute these statements: First, Mobley's argument that trade policies cause wars. In fact, wars historically were caused by lust for land, money, power and a neighbor's natural resources. When there was equitable international trade, there was peace.

Second, regarding the sentence: "In times of crisis, the U.S. and Russia tend to share interests," the fact is that in over 100 years, the only time Russia and the United States were allied was when both were battling Nazi Germany, and Adolf Hitler's insane drive to conquer the world. The times between World War I and World War II were a constant battle between capitalism and communism. Post-World War II Russia tried to occupy all of Eastern Europe and rule mercilessly. Currently, Russian President Vladimir Putin is again aggressive in annexing Crimea and invading Ukraine, hardly moves the U.S. agrees to.

And last, America first. This attitude pre- and post-World War I was an abysmal failure, and mutual trade healed many economic wounds.

In sum, hiding our heads in the sands of misinterpretation of facts does not and will not be to the benefit of the U.S. or the world's nations.

Melvin M. Askot

Glendale



Senate sides with Wall Street

I can't believe it. In the May 29 business section, an article pointed out a new federal regulation to require that all retirement financial advisers become fiduciaries, which would result in the advisers having to put the client's best interests above their own ("Wary investors change their approach to retirement saving").

The article stated that current conflict of interest is estimated to cost Americans $17 billion a year because of some advisers recommending investments that benefit themselves more than their clients.

After reading this article, I then turned to the section on recent congressional voting and, lo and behold, I was stunned to read that the Senate voted 56-41 to kill this Labor Department rule, which means that retirement advisers no longer have to worry about putting their client's interests ahead of their own.

Hurray for Wall Street. They again have succeeded in buying Senate votes. Retirees should remember this when our senators and representatives are up for re-election. They are supposed to represent ourinterests, not those of Wall Street.

Hyam Eglash

Mequon



Unfair portrayal of Sanders

Why is it, may I ask, that the media continues to portray Bernie Sanders as potentially 20 years older than his major competitors  the May 29 political cartoon?

In reality, Sander's jowls are no lower than Donald Trump's or Hillary Clinton's. What's more, the media have consistently failed to mention that we have three senior citizens running for president, not just one  Trump will be 70 in June and Clinton will be 69 come fall. Why no mention of this?

Just because Sanders does not feel the need to dye his hair, use heavy makeup and spray tan nor does he need to resort to "nips" and "tucks" in an attempt to portray himself as much younger, doesn't make him less capable of running this country.

He has proven to have not only the stamina, but even more important, the inner qualities required to serve as the leader of this great country.

Patricia Mitchell

Waukesha



Charter school study flawed

In his op-ed about a study he co-authored for the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, William Flanders claimed that Milwaukee charter schools not affiliated with Milwaukee Public Schools are more "efficient" because they achieve better results for the tax money spent ("Schools with autonomy do best," Opinions, June 1).

That study is flawed. For one, the study does not control for special education students. It's well-documented that traditional MPS schools and MPS instrumentality charters enroll a significantly higher proportion of special-needs children than do non-MPS schools, be they charter or voucher schools. The full study says, "disabled students take a separate version of the WKCE and Badger Exam and are excluded from these analyses."

However, the Wisconsin Alternative Assessment is not a widespread substitute for students with disabilities. It is reserved only for students with traumatic brain injury, severe cognitive disabilities, autism or other serious impairments, according to the state Department of Public Instruction. Tens of thousands of MPS students with disabilities take the WKCE, Badger, and (now) Forward exams, while only a few hundred students statewide participate in the WAA.

So contrary to the study's claim, students with disabilities have not been excluded, and no doubt affect the "efficiency" score Flanders assigns to MPS schools.

Further, the study does not account for entrance requirements at some schools, be they explicit or implicit. It also only counts tax funds spent, no doubt overestimating the efficiency of non-MPS charter schools with institutional support from organizations whose mission and funding are not exclusive to education. It also surely overestimates the efficiency of schools with massive donor support from groups such as the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and the Bradley Foundation, which donate heavily to non-MPS schools.

With so many flaws in the study, it is hard to take WILL's and Flanders' conclusions about "efficiency" seriously.

Jay Bullock

Milwaukee



Stop seeking political saviors

It just takes my breath away to read Mary Harriman's letter to the editor where she opines that CEO's would make ideal mayors ("Elect business leaders," Letters, May 31).

As someone who, as part of Common Ground, attempted to make the financing of the Milwaukee Bucks arena more citizen responsible, I failed to see any of corporate Milwaukee rush to this strategy. And I can only point out that the past Milwaukee Brewers stadium deal, which made millions for private investors, had the backing of virtually every CEO in our town.

I don't believe in a Santa Claus who lives at the North Pole, nor do I believe in men on white horses, no matter what sector of the economy they come from.

Transparent and responsible government at every level will only come from organized power (citizens) and organized money (independently raised) that is dedicated to finding the best possible answer that serves the most number of people. Or called in short, the common good.

The hard and patient work of citizens of all works of life who stand together to hold our officials accountable and work in real partnership is the only realistic strategy for a better future.

Let's stop seeking political saviors. It is us!

Michelle Mooney

Milwaukee



Bathroom politics

Is there no other pressing business in Washington, D.C., for career politicians' concerns than bathroom politics?

Bernadyne J. Langer

Elm Grove
Donald Trump (left) listens as Michael Sexton introduces him at a news conference in New York where he announced the establishment of Trump University in 2005. Credit: Associated Press

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Students, parents, grandparents, anchor babies:

Thank you for welcoming me here today to give the long-awaited Trump University commencement address.

Mr. Trump is sorry he couldn't be here today himself. As you may know, he's busy fighting a judge who's a hater of Donald Trump, biased, a total disgrace and, we believe, Mexican. Mr. Trump has handpicked me, however, to fill his big, actually slightly-smaller-than-large, shoes.

Mr. Trump has assured me that I won't be protested and shouted off this stage, because you're the only student body left in the country that doesn't care about political correctness. The only "safe space" you want is one you can buy and flip for double your money. Am I right?

Besides, if you've learned just one thing from our wise founder, it's that the way you deal with words you dislike is not to protest, but to sue.

So, let's not be politically correct today. Let's shoot from the hip, OK? Let's talk about what you've learned here and the challenges you face as you re-enter this not-yet-great-again economy.

Because some of you are losers, particularly the ones suing me, you probably will confront constant failure in your life. Don't let that get you down. Remember: Every time a wall goes up, a door opens. A big, beautiful door that lets the good ones back in from Mexico.

And think about the classmates you'll be competing with out there.

I want you to look at the person to the left of you. Look at the person to the right of you. All three of you probably wasted your money in attending this vaunted institution.

Fortunately, there's still hope to learn something useful: All three of you have been accepted into our new graduate program. The tuition is equal to the exact amount of each of your remaining bank account balances. Don't worry, you'll learn all about price discrimination in the next course.

And for those of you who choose not to continue your schooling, well, let's just say you're lucky Mr. Trump loves the poorly educated, too.

But seriously, let's talk about our terrible American education system more broadly, and what Mr. Trump is doing to improve it now that his charitable work with Trump University LLC is almost complete.

Higher education in this country  with the exception of Trump University  is an embarrassment. We're losing to China. We're losing to Mexico. We just don't win anymore when it comes to education.

OK, I know that, technically, the data show that at real universities  the ones that are actually accredited  we almost look like we're winning. Some dummies might even mistake those schools for actually putting out a good product.

After all, education is one of the few sectors in which the United States is running a massive trade surplus with the rest of the world. That's because there are three times as many foreign students studying here as there are American students studying abroad.

And yes, I know that when China sends 300,000 students to U.S. colleges, as it did last year, those students are typically not eligible for financial aid. Which means they end up cross-subsidizing the tuition paid by poor and middle-class American students, particularly as state appropriations continue to fall.

But if there's a second thing our institution's wise founder has taught you, it's to never let facts get in the way of a good story.

Which is why I'm proud to say that the prospect of a President Trump already is sending international students running for the hills, according to a recent survey of prospective students. Not only has Mr. Trump ruined your own finances through Trump University, he's already begun doing his part to ruin the finances of real colleges, other U.S.-born college students and local economies, too.

And that's all without disclosing his secret master plan for reforming higher education. Sounds like winning to me.

Speaking of winning, we'd love to know what you think of today's address. In exchange for signing the pre-scored Better Business Bureau surveys under your seats, please collect a free bottle of Trump-brand self-tanner on your way out. (Remember, students: Screw sunscreen. Always wear self-tanner.)

Thank you, graduates. Mr. Trump is so proud of you. He asked me to leave you with one final word of advice. If you all will just write us one more check, I'd be happy to tell you what it is.

Catherine Rampell is a columnist for The Washington Post. Email crampell@washpost.com. Twitter: @crampell
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State corrections officials think multiple inmates will be charged in connection with alleged drug distribution within an Oshkosh prison and the recent death of one inmate of an apparent drug overdose, records show.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reported on the May 5 death of the 33-year-old inmate within a segregated unit at the Oshkosh Correctional Institution. With investigations ongoing, officials at the prison said they are withholding any reports on the death or any potential probes into alleged drug distribution within the prison.

The Oshkosh police and the Winnebago County district attorney are reviewing the matter, Heath Tomlin, a records officer at the prison, wrote in his denial of the reports.

"The records you have requested relate to ongoing investigations, which will likely lead to criminal charges against a number of inmates in the custody of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections," Tomlin wrote.

The Wisconsin prison system has been under close scrutiny in recent months as federal authorities probe alleged abuses at the state's only juvenile prison. Newly appointed Corrections Secretary Jon Litscher, who is seeking to build up the standards and reputation of state prisons, announced a $10 million-a-year plan to raise the wages of corrections workers this month on the same day the Oshkosh inmate died.

The issue of preventing drugs from entering a prison through mail, visitors or staff is a crucial one for corrections officials, who are charged with keeping inmates safe while they're in a prison as well as preparing them to go straight once they leave its walls. Family members of inmates sent to prison on drug charges often say that one of the few positive parts of their imprisonment is that drug abusers are supposed to be kept safe from their addiction.

State Department of Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook referred further questions to the Oshkosh Police Department, which had no comment.

Multiple sources have told the newspaper that the inmate, Daniel Tanner, died in a special cell for monitoring inmates who may have ingested packages of drugs or hid them in their body. Tanner had finished serving most of a 10-year prison sentence on a 2007 felony conviction for distributing cocaine and marijuana, according to online court records.

State and local authorities have declined to confirm any more about the death. There also has been no comment from state corrections officials so far about what medical attention, if any, Tanner received before his death.

Multiple sources with knowledge of the matter said that in this case drugs appear to have entered the prison despite the controls in place to prevent that and that at some point prison staff became aware that Tanner could have been given controlled substances.

At the time of his death, Tanner was being held in a so-called dry cell, where inmates can't dispose of illicit drugs undetected. These cells can be used to monitor an inmate believed to have hidden drugs by placing them inside a condom, a finger from a latex glove or other makeshift container and then ingesting them or concealing them in his body.

Prison staff can then wait to see if illegal drugs end up passing out of the inmate in the dry cell. In the meantime, they are supposed to check regularly on these inmates.

There remains the risk that any potential vessel for the drugs could burst while they were inside the inmate's body or that the inmate in a dry cell could end up taking the drugs or consuming them. Either could lead to an overdose.

Sources said Tanner is suspected of having overdosed on heroin, a drug that along with other opioids has increasingly drawn concern from law enforcement officials statewide.
Christopher Camilli (right) is in the Family Care program, and his mother Priscilla Camilli is among the people concerned by the state's proposal to remake the program. Credit: Rick Wood

By of the

Madison  Republican lawmakers will likely delay a vote for months on whether to approve GOP Gov. Scott Walker's plans to overhaul long-term care programs.

"At this time, we're not prepared to move forward," said Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), co-chairwoman of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee.

The Walker administration wants to change how the multibillion-dollar Family Care and IRIS programs are run, shifting them from nonprofit providers to for-profit insurers. Backers argue the new system would save money and provide better care for more than 55,000 elderly and disabled people, while detractors contend there are no guarantees and say vulnerable people could be put at risk by the changes.

The changes would need the approval of federal authorities because the programs are funded by Medicaid, a health care program jointly funded by states and the federal government. The Legislature's Joint Finance Committee has to sign off on the plan before it can be submitted to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for approval.

In April, Darling said she would like her committee to vote on the proposal by the end of May. But in a recent interview, she said she expected the committee to meet on other issues in June but not take up the long-term care programs.

That would likely put off the issue for months and possibly until next year.

Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette), the co-chairman of the committee, said Assembly Republicans support the plan and would like to approve it soon. The sooner the committee acts, the sooner the plan can win final approval and savings can be realized, he said.

But Senate Republicans would have to be on board for the Joint Finance Committee to approve the plan. Democrats on the committee are uniformly against the changes to Family Care and IRIS.

Those who use the programs and their advocates are skeptical of Walker's plan. They view Family Care and IRIS as effective and popular programs and fear people would get lower levels of service or lost in the cracks when shifting to new providers.

The two programs provide long-term care to needy elderly and disabled people inside their homes or in community-based settings rather than nursing homes. Family Care works through eight regional nonprofit managed care organizations similar to health maintenance organizations, while IRIS  which stands for Include, Respect, I Self-Direct  provides participants with a taxpayer allotment they can use to arrange and pay for their own care.

The benefits can include personal care services, helping people with getting dressed, bathing, making meals and shopping. Such care can be costly but is typically much less expensive than round-the-clock nursing homes.

Family Care and IRIS are offered in all but eight of Wisconsin's 72 counties.

The administration recently announced it wanted to implement the changes in January 2018 at the earliest.

The changes carry huge financial implications for state and federal taxpayers, who are projected to pay $3.4 billion this year for Family Care and separate long-term care plans that Family Care is scheduled to replace.

The administration projects its plan could save state and federal taxpayers at least $300 million over the next six years. That would amount to 1 or 2 percentage points of the total Family Care spending over that period.
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By of the

Three people were arrested in Green Lake County Friday when authorities raided a suspected methamphetamine lab the town of Marquette, the sheriff's office said.

Members of the Green Lake County Combined Tactical Unit, the Central Wisconsin Drug Task Force, the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation and other law enforcement agencies executed a no-knock search warrant on W. Lakeview Drive about 1:30 p.m., according to a news release from the Green Lake County Sheriff's Office.

Authorities confiscated chemicals, supplies and other paraphernalia consistent with the production of methamphetamine and arrested a 49-year-old Markesan man and a 33-year-old Princeton man, according to the release.

A a 25-year-old Berlin woman was arrested on an unrelated warrant, according to the release.
Rodgers says it could be time to 'crack the whip' on Packers' sluggish offense
News / Local

by Staff Reporter

TWO Harare men were arraigned before the courts for allegedly smuggling 208 bales of secondhand clothes worth $103 000 into the country.Manica Post reported that Taruvinga Kazozo (20) and Wilson Muponda (20), both of Budiriro appeared before Mutare provincial magistrate, Lucie-Anne Mungwari for contravening Section 182 of the Customs and Excise Act, Chapter 23:02.Farai Matinhure of Gonese and Ndlovu Legal Practitioners represented the pair, while Mr Fletcher Karombe appeared for the State.It was alleged that on May 26 at around 1am, Kazozo and Muponda went to Border Streams in Mutare and loaded 208 bales of secondhand clothes into their vehicle.Police officer on patrol in the area arrested the two accused persons at Wilkins Farm leading to the recovery of the contraband.
Ralph Ticcioni takes off his cap in respect for the dead at the American Cemetery in Normandy. Ticcioni, who was attached to the 82nd Airborne, was moved by seeing more than 9,000 graves of Americans killed in Europe during World War II. Credit: Meg Jones

By of the

Omaha Beach, France  Ralph Ticcioni silently looked out over the vast expanse of gleaming white grave markers, lost in his thoughts.

More than 9,000 Americans are buried here, men just like Ticcioni who joined the military to fight far from their homes. Ticcioni knows intimately the fear of not knowing if death would come in the next five minutes, five hours or five days.

Ticcioni knows his final resting place could have been beneath one of the white crosses.

And so on Friday afternoon, the 93-year-old New Berlin man did what he thought was right  he quietly took off his black "World War II veteran" cap to pay his respects to the fallen.

When Ticcioni was last in Normandy, this hallowed site was a battleground. The American Cemetery and Memorial is now a beautiful, peaceful place with seemingly endless geometric rows of crosses and Stars of David, but in June 1944 it was anything but bucolic. Across this stretch of land poured the lucky men who managed to survive the hail of gunfire that strafed Omaha Beach as they began a journey that would end the next year in Germany.

Hundreds of thousands of men of many nations took part in the D-Day invasion, Ticcioni among them. He didn't come by boat to one of the Normandy beaches. Ticcioni dropped into France with the 82nd Airborne Division, landing on a barn roof just outside the village of Ste. Mere-Eglise.

The thatched roof cushioned his arrival and after he used his knife to cut himself out of the parachute harness  which was snagged on a weather vane  he slid down into a pile of horse manure.

Unlike many World War II veterans, Ticcioni never returned to France  until this year, when the people of Ste. Mere-Eglise, the first community in Normandy liberated on D-Day, offered to bring him back to take part in the weeklong D-Day commemoration held each year in early June.

Ticcioni arrived on Tuesday and has toured museums and monuments; attended ceremonies and banquets; and has generally been treated like a rock star.

Which has been a big surprise to Ticcioni, who wonders why everyone is fussing over him.

"The sincere appreciation these people are showing to us is incredible and it's an ongoing thing. I just can't find the words to thank them," he said.

It slowly dawned on Ticcioni this week that what he did  and what thousands of other Americans did here in France  changed so many lives.

"I was at an age then with different feelings. At the time we didn't realize that what we were doing made such a difference. This has certainly awakened my thoughts."

While World War II may be simply a History Channel subject to many Americans, it is ever-present to the people of Normandy. They haven't forgotten and they make sure their children don't forget the difference Allied soldiers made for generations of Europeans.

Last fall, 300 schoolchildren in Ste. Mere-Eglise wrote thank-you notes with decorated envelopes to World War II veterans, which were distributed to U.S. veterans groups. Stars and Stripes Honor Flight, based in southeastern Wisconsin, received a batch of notes and gave them to local veterans who fought in France, including Ticcioni.

Karyn Roelke of Stars and Stripes Honor Flight took photos of the Wisconsin veterans holding their thank-you notes and emailed them to Amis des Veterans Americains (in English it's Friends of American Veterans) in Ste. Mere-Eglise. When the French group learned Ticcioni landed near their community with the 82nd Airborne, was in good health and had never returned to France, they invited him to do so.

Not long after World War II ended, some American veterans began to come back and visit France, bringing their families. From the horrors of war sprouted a decadeslong friendship and affection between the American veterans and the people they helped liberate. Host families open their homes to veterans like Ticcioni and they invite American troops taking part in the D-Day commemoration to home-cooked dinners.

Ceremonies are held in many Normandy communities. There are historic walks through D-Day sites, military fairs, dinners and dances featuring jazz music, military vehicle parades and re-enactments of parachute drops. While World War II veterans have always attended D-Day commemorations, the numbers have dropped off precipitously as veterans, who are all over 90, pass away. That is one of the reasons Friends of American Veterans sponsored Ticcioni's visit, said Michelle Coupey, an American who has lived in France for many years and volunteers with the organization.

"We're taking advantage of the Greatest Generation and the youngest generation by creating projects to bring them together," Coupey said. "I'm so proud of the French in the way they've always honored the veterans and I'm extremely proud to be American."

World War II is never far from the minds of folks in Normandy. They get constant reminders in the streets named after American soldiers, the concrete bunkers that still dot the countryside and the history of their communities, which endured years of Nazi rule before the Allied troops arrived. The American flag raised in Ste. Mere-Eglise back then is now on display in the building where couples get married  each sees that flag when they leave with their wedding licenses. The stories of life back then  like hearing the difference in the sound of American boots, which did not have metal studs like the ones the Germans wore  are passed along from generation to generation.

The trip has pushed memories of the war to the surface for Ticcioni, whose mother raised three boys after his father died during the Depression, when Ticcioni was 11. Ticcioni's mother took in laundry and cleaned a parish rectory, and all three boys turned over their paper route profits. He was leaving the Hollywood Theater on Capitol Drive after a movie when he heard people talking about someplace called Pearl Harbor. Two months after Ticcioni graduated during the 1943 midterm at Messmer High School, he enlisted in the Army and was assigned to the Signal Corps.

He went to radio school, became adept at Morse code and learned to type. He left for Scotland on the Queen Mary and then traveled by train to Henley-on-Thames, where he was assigned to a base and began training with thousands of others for what everyone knew would happen sooner or later  the invasion of France.

While he was on a three-day pass to London, a friend asked if he'd seen the notice for volunteers for a new airborne unit handling radar. They volunteered, not because they were brave but for a very different reason. Girls.

"My buddy said the airborne wears shiny boots with trousers tucked in and the English girls really love that look. It's really funny what matters to you when you're young," Ticcioni recalled.

He made three practice jumps before jumping for real during D-Day, an invasion he knew was imminent as training gained more urgency and he got rush courses in hand-to-hand combat and cleaning weapons. And then he was jumping out of a plane and landing close to the village that's now so happy to see him they've figuratively rolled out the red carpet.

Ticcioni has been asked to sign books, patches and flags. He's met American military members sent here to participate in the D-Day festivities; he's met the daughters of Gen. James Gavin, the 82nd Airborne commander during D-Day; and Gen. Dwight Eisenhower's granddaughter; and he's visited the sixth-grade girl from Ste. Mere-Eglise who sent him the thank-you note that led to his visit.

After 72 years, Ticcioni has noticed a few changes  most of the roads are no longer narrow and now they're paved. Plus, quite a few people speak English.

"But, you know, the reception is quite similar. I remember walking down the roads and people blowing kisses. Some came out and shook your hand and you could tell they were sincere," Ticcioni said.

On this trip, his hand has worn out again, from shaking with the many people who see his cap and want to say thank you to a man who is humble and embarrassed to receive so much attention. But Ticcioni knows that in a way he's representing veterans who cannot come back to France.

And he's representing the men who never left, the ones buried in the American cemetery.
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

Boxer Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Marcellus Clay in Louisville, Kentucky, on 17 January 1942, is dead at 74.

Ali was on the US team for the Rome Olympics in 1960, and became the Olympic light-heavyweight champion. He and the team were lionized when he came back. But then in Kentucky he was refused a table at a restaurant.

In 1964 he defeated Sonny Liston. He became famous for his footwork in the ring, for his boasts and his taunting of his opponents, naming the round in which he would defeat them.

By 1964 he was already involved with the Nation of Islam, an African-American black nationalist sect, a folk religion which diverged in important ways from the Sunni Muslim tradition. (It did not believe in life after death, and tended to demonize whites).

He converted and changed his name to Muhammad Ali, rejecting Cassius Clay as his slave name. He instantly lost his popularity in white America.

Ali declined to take the oath of allegiance or fight the Viet Cong, with whom he said he had no quarrel, and was stripped of his title in 1967.

He was sentenced to five years in jail. That sentence was reversed on appeal.

By 1970 the rest of the country had caught up with his aversion to Vietnam, and he was allowed to return to the ring. He regained his title not once but twice. He won 56 fights, achieved a knockout in 37, and lost only 5 fights.

He suffered from Parkinsons by the time of his retirement from the ring, aged 40.

He went on to found a non-profit center in Louisville, Ky., the Muhammad Ali Center, which in the words of the BBC promotes peace, social responsibility and respect.

In 1975, Mr. Ali became a mainstream Sunni Muslim. In 2005 he adopted the mystical, Sufi branch of Islam, under the influence of Hazrat Inayet Khan. Being a Sufi, Mr. Ali rejected hard line puritan Salafi interpretations of Islam, as well as violent extremism.

Last December he issued a statement that some interpreted as a direct response to Donald Trumps call to ban Muslims. His spokesman, however, denied that the statement was directed at Trump. It obviously was addressing Trump indirectly, though:

We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda . . . I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world . . . True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion. I believe that our political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted peoples views on what Islam really is.

Although a network originally gave it a title suggesting it hit out at Trump, Mr. Alis staff were firm that that was the wrong interpretation. He was, they said, attacking those Muslims who distort Islam with violent extremism.

Muhammad Ali, far from being pugilistic with the pugnacious Trump, gently called on all US politicians to distinguish between a fringe of misguided extremists and the actual teachings of Islam, which Mr. Ali saw as uniting humankind in love. In the end, the man who was known for boasting about how hard he could hit demonstrated that he wasnt interested in childish polemics. He conceded the problem of extremism, but asked for understanding of the mainstream Muslim tradition of 1.5 billion human beings.

But while he was too much of a gentleman to say it, it is undeniable that Donald Trump has decided to stand for white privilege, and to try to take the country back to 1963 in that regard. In other words, he wants to erase all the things Mr. Ali achieved.

Heres what Mr. Ali said about how he would like to be remembered:

So, as he requested, lets not forget how pretty Muhammad Ali was, and how pretty his soul was.

BBC: Muhammad Ali Boxing Legend Dies Aged 74
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By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) |  

Anti-extremist forces have been fighting in Fallujah for a week. But before they began, there were serious negotiations between the partners-in-battle. And the negotiations continue on the front lines.

On May 23, Iraqs Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi appeared near an Iraqi army camp near the central city of Fallujah wearing military clothes. Late the night before, he had announced that the effort to re-take the city from the extremist group known as the Islamic State, who had been in control of the city since January 2014, was to begin.

It is clear to most observers and to Iraqis that this fight will be far from easy. Fallujah has long been a centre of Sunni Muslim activism, as well as a stronghold for the Sunni extremist group, Al Qaeda. Fallujah was also the first city in Iraq to come to an understanding with the Islamic State, or IS, group back in 2014, when the extremist group was still presenting itself as a liberator of Iraqs Sunni sect.

Since then things have changed a lot. No matter which sect they belong to, many Iraqis now see the IS group as oppressors. Nonetheless there are still a lot of civilians inside Fallujah as the Iraqi army approaches. And so, as with other Sunni-dominated areas in Iraq, there is also the question of which military forces can be used in the fighting. If the Shiite Muslim volunteer militias are involved, there are fears that they may take revenge on Sunnis they think are allied with the IS group.

Which is why negotiations between all of those now participating in the fighting, in the lead-up to al-Abadis announcement, were fraught. And as fighting continues, the lines continue to be drawn, and redrawn.

On May 19, an elite Iraqi counter-terrorism force managed to push the IS group out of the Rutba area, which is on the highway between Iraq and Jordan and near Fallujah. They did this in just three days, alongside a new US-trained police regiment of about 500, which had been made battle-ready in nearby Habbaniyah and which was armed with US weapons.

There has apparently been little US assistance given to the volunteer militias fighting on Fallujahs northern front over the past few days; the militias broke their promise to stay on the citys outskirts.

Shortly after the fight for Rutba, a number of Shiite Muslim volunteer militias began to deploy near the city of Fallujah. Apparently their plan was to unite in opening a new offensive against the IS group in the city, putting an end to the in-fighting that had been happening between them back in Baghdad. There has been a serious, and potentially violent, rise in tensions between the Iran-allied Badr organization and the League of the Righteous militias on one hand and the more Iraq-centric Peace Brigades, part of cleric Muqtada al-Sadrs Sadrist movement, on the other.

As the New York Times put it: Targeting Fallujah, only 40 miles from the capital, was immediately seen by the government and militia leaders as necessary to protect Baghdad, and also as a way to exact revenge [for recent, deadly IS group suicide attacks in the capital].

Negotiations between al-Abadi and his US allies ensued. Al-Abadi says he wanted to press on into Fallujah, echoing what military and militia commanders were also saying. But they needed US support and air cover to do so. The US has long urged the Iraqis to blockade Fallujah and focus on other targets, like Mosul. And some observers questioned whether al-Abadi jumped into the battle, or whether he was pushed into it by the militia tactics.

However a source inside the Iraqi security forces says that a plan was eventually agreed upon by all parties. The US agreed to move on to Fallujah but only on the condition that the Shiite Muslim volunteer militias did not participate in the battles in central Fallujah and that they would remain on the outskirts of the city, acting as a support the Iraqi army.

Al-Abadi then appointed senior commander, Abdul Wahab al-Saedi, to run the campaign; al-Saedi was also in charge of the operation to push the IS group out of Tikrit in 2015 and he is generally disliked by the Shiite Muslim volunteer militias.

During the campaign against the IS group in Tikrit, al-Saedi fell out badly with Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of the Badr organization militia, and arguably one of the most senior members of all of the Shiite Muslim militias. An experienced military man, al-Saedi is opposed to the volunteer militias taking the law into their own hands and he also insisted on cooperation with the US during the Tikrit campaign. Al-Amiri accused al-Saedi of being more enthusiastic about the US forces than his fellow Iraqis and finally, al-Saedi was dismissed from the post by al-Abadi. But now, thanks to his experience and expertise, he is back.

The campaign for Fallujah then began and the Iraqi army, assisted by raids conducted by US aircraft, was able to advance into the southern suburbs of Fallujah.

However as night fell, some fighters from the Shiite Muslim volunteer militias also began to advance into the suburbs. Rockets and mortars were apparently fired indiscriminately into the city. And many Iraqis also saw footage of Aws al-Khafaji, one of the leaders of a militia, the Abu Fadhl al-Abbas Brigade often referred to simply as the Abbas Brigades  giving a heavily sectarian speech where he urged his men to cleanse Iraq of the tumour that is Fallujah. Later on Iranian military mastermind, Qassim al-Soleimani, was pictured with al-Khafaji and other militia leaders.

Iranian military mastermind, Qassim al-Soleimani, was pictured with al-Khafaji and other militia leaders.

However on the next day, there was a lull in the fighting: The US had apparently stopped assisting because of the unannounced movements by the Shiite Muslim volunteer militias. After further negotiations, al-Amiri himself promised that the volunteer militias would confine themselves to fighting on the outskirts of the city.

Still, over the past few days, the US has ended up only using air strikes to assist Iraqi forces fighting on the southern front in Fallujah  these are the more regular troops led by al-Saedi. There has apparently been no air assistance, or very little, given to those fighting on the northern front in Fallujah  this is where most of the Shiite Muslim volunteer militias are positioned. And the most recent news from the northern front suggests that the volunteer militias have been stalled because of this.

Many of the IS fighters are on the outskirts of Fallujah rather than in the more central city. This is because the outskirts are more rural and its easy to hide here; its also harder for large troop movements and military vehicles to penetrate into these agricultural zones. Over the past two years the IS group has commonly used the tactic of launching surprise attacks on the Iraqi military from these rural areas where they are hidden.

At a press conference held in Baghdad on May 26, Steve Warren, the spokesperson for the US operation against the IS group, was confident that the Iraqi army would soon make it into the centre of Fallujah but that the volunteer militias would remain on the outskirts of the city.

Warren explained that there were around 4,000 Sunni Muslim fighters engaged in the fight to free the mostly-Sunni city.

A major general in the federal police, Raed Shaker Jawdat, told NIQASH that there were around 30,000 members of the Iraqi military engaged in the fighting as well as Sunni volunteer fighters from local tribes. Over the past few months we havent been able to get through the IS groups defences at all, Jawdat said. This time it only took two days.

This battle will involve three stages, Kathem al-Khazraji, an Iraqi army colonel, told NIQASH. The first is to control the outskirts of the city, the second involves catching the IS fighters inside the central city and the third is to begin attacking the extremists. This battle may take some time but if the US continues to provide us with air cover, we will win.

There are still an estimated 50,000 civilians  possibly more  trapped inside Fallujah, once a city of around 350,000. In a telephone interview, a resident in the Shuhada area, in the south of the city, told NIQASH that everyone here knows they are not allowed to leave the city.

The IS fighters are very angry and they wont let people leave the city, the resident said. A few days ago they killed all the members of one of the families that tried to get away.

Other reports confirm this.

The resident, who could not be named for security reasons, said that the IS group had also held a military parade inside the city in an attempt to convince locals of their superiority. They were also spreading rumours that when pro-Iraqi-government forces enter the city they would kill everybody left inside Fallujah. As a result, the IS rumours said, locals should mobilize to help defend the city. Most people didnt believe a word of it, the resident told NIQASH.

The people of Fallujah have seen their fair share of hardship and violence. The US army fought here in 2004 because of Sunni Muslim extremists in the city. And since 2014, the Iraqi government has also tried to take back the city several times. It failed every time but this time it seems things could be different because all parties to the fighting  Iraqi government forces, Sunni fighters, Shiite fighters, the US and even Iran  have come to some sort of arrangement.

As the fighting continues and the Iraqi forces seem to be winning, one can only hope that those involved will take heed of the words of Iraqs most senior Shiite cleric, Ali al-Sistani, who preached that security forces should protect civilians at Friday prayers last week: Saving innocent people from harms way is the most important thing, even more so than targeting the enemy, the cleric said.

Via Niqash.org



CBS Evening News: Families flee Fallujah as Iraqi forces encircle city
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By Ramzy Baroud | (Maan News Agency) |  

Israeli society is constantly swerving to the right and, by doing so, the countrys entire political paradigm is redefined regularly. That Israel is now ruled by the most extreme right-wing government in its history has grown from being an informed assessment to a dull clich over the course of only a few years.

In fact, that exact line was used in May 2015, when right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed his thin majority government of like-minded right-wingers, religious zealots and ultranationalists. The same sentiment, with almost the exact wording, is being infused again, as Netanyahu has expanded his coalition by bringing to the fold the ultranationalist 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 ax 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 Haniyeh, 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 Shujayya, 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 colonization 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 Shujayya, 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.

The views expressed in this article are the authors and do not necessarily reflect Maan News Agencys editorial policy.

The views expressed in this article are the authors and do not necessarily reflect Informed Comments editorial policy.

Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist, author and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gazas Untold Story.

via Maan News Agency



AFP from 2 weeks ago: Israel defence minister quits accusing govt of extremism
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - June 3, 2016) -

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

North American Nickel Inc. (TSX VENTURE:NAN)(OTCBB:WSCRF) (CUSIP: 65704T 108) (the "Company" or "NAN") announces that it has filed a preliminary short form prospectus in connection with a proposed marketed offering of units of the Company (the "Units") for gross proceeds of up to $12,000,000 (the "Offering"). The Offering will be conducted on a best effort basis through Paradigm Capital Inc. (the "Agent"), acting as agent.

The Offering will be priced in the context of the market with the specifics of the Offering to be determined at the time of pricing. It is anticipated that each Unit will consist of one common share of the Company and one-half of one common share purchase warrant of the Company (each whole common share purchase warrant, a "Warrant"). It is anticipated that each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one common share of the Company (each, a "Warrant Share") at any time prior to 5:00 p.m. (local Toronto time) on the date that is twenty-four (24) months following its issuance date.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering for exploration activities to be completed at the Company's Maniitsoq project in Greenland, for the repayment of debt and for general working capital purposes.

The Offering is being made pursuant to a short form prospectus filed in each of the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. A copy of the preliminary short form prospectus, which contains important information relating to the Units, is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. There will not be any sale or any acceptance of an offer to buy the Units until a receipt for the final prospectus has been issued.

The Offering is expected to close on or about June 29, 2016, or on such later date as the Company and the Agent may agree upon, and is subject to certain customary conditions and regulatory approvals, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange and the entering into by the Company and the Agent of an agency agreement.

This press release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States or to "U.S. persons" ("U.S. persons"), as such term is defined in Regulation S promulgated under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the "U.S. Securities Act"). The securities being offered have not been, nor will be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to U.S. persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements.

About North American Nickel

North American Nickel is a mineral exploration company with 100% owned properties in Maniitsoq, Greenland and Sudbury, Ontario.

The Maniitsoq property in Greenland is a Camp scale project comprising 2,985 square km covering numerous high-grade nickel-copper sulphide occurrences associated with norite and other mafic-ultramafic intrusions of the Greenland Norite Belt (GNB). The >75km-long belt is situated along, and near, the southwest coast of Greenland accessible from the existing Seqi deep water port (See NAN News Release dated January 19, 2015) with an all year round shipping season and abundant hydro-electric potential.

The Post Creek/Halcyon property in Sudbury is strategically located adjacent to the past producing Podolsky copper-nickel-platinum group metal deposit of KGHM International Ltd. The property lies along the extension of the Whistle Offset dyke structure. Such geological structures host major Ni-Cu-PGM deposits and producing mines within the Sudbury Camp.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" under applicable securities laws concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of the Company. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the timing and completion of the Offering, the availability of financing, the availability of regulatory approvals for the Offering and the anticipated use of proceeds from the Offering. Except for statements of historical fact relating to the Company, certain information contained herein constitutes forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan," "expect," "project," "intend," "believe," "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are based on a number of assumptions and subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Many of these assumptions are based on factors and events that are not within the control of the Company and there is no assurance they will prove to be correct.

Factors that could cause actual results to vary materially from results anticipated by such forward-looking statements include the inability to obtain adequate financing, the inability to obtain regulatory approvals required in relation to that financing. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive. Investors and others who base themselves on forward-looking statements should carefully consider the above factors as well as the uncertainties they represent and the risk they entail. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements included in this press release should not be unduly relied upon. These statements speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable securities laws.

Although the Company 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 anticipated, estimated or intended. Statements concerning mineral reserve and resource estimates may also be deemed to constitute forward-looking statements to the extent they involve estimates of the mineralization that will be encountered if the property is developed.

Statements about the Company's future expectations and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts are "forward looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and as that term defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbours created thereby. Since these statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, the Company's actual results may differ materially from the expected results.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mark Fedikow, President, North American Nickel Inc.

Neither the TSX 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.
The EU must stop returning refugees to Turkey, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] said [press release] Friday in a briefing [materials]. The briefing details the defects in Turkeys care of refugees, stating that the hardships faced by refugees cause such a return to be illegal under the EU-Turkey Agreement of March 18 [text, PDF]. While open to refugees, AI claims that Turkeys resources have become drained under the weight of approximately 2.75 million Syrian refugees and 400,000 asylum-seekers and refugees from other countries who have entered the country. Issues involving such as child labor, durable solutions, and subsistence have arisen due to the number of people seeking safety.

In March EU leaders agreed to a deal [JURIST report] with Turkey to stem migrant flows, particularly of Syrian refugees, to Europe in return for financial and political incentive to Ankara. Under the terms of the deal [WP report], all migrants crossing the Aegean into Greece would be sent back to Turkey, effectively turning the country into the regions migrant holding center. In return for receiving the migrants, the EU is promising [Reuters report] to speed disbursement of 3 billion to Turkey, while offering an additional 3 billion by 2018 contingent upon creation of plans qualifying for EU assistance. That same month, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi [official profile], expressed concerns [text] for the then proposed migrant exchange program [JURIST report] between the EU and Turkey. Grandi said in his speech before the European Parliament [official website], I am deeply concerned about any arrangement that would involve the blanket return of anyone from one country to another without spelling out the refugee protection safeguards under international law. AI also demonstrated concern [press release] over the deal, calling it an alarmingly short-sighted and inhumane attitude to handling this crisis.
[JURIST] A three-judge panel upheld [opinion, PDF] North Carolinas newly drawn congressional districts on Thursday. The challenge was brought after the states General Assembly was ordered to redraw [JURIST report its congressional lines by the US Supreme Court, and the challengers argued that the new congressional lines were a blatant, unapologetic partisan gerrymander. Despite these claims, the three-judge panel decided to uphold the newly drawn lines, which have been acknowledged by at least one of the drafters to be political gerrymander, stating that the Courts hands appear to be tied. In particular, the court stated no judicially discernible and manageable standards for adjudicating political gerrymandering claims have emerged and without standards they matter is nonjusticiable. While the court held that partisan considerations in a redistricting plan may go too far, it held that the standard for determining where that is the case has not yet been revealed and has not revealed itself here.

Voting rights remain a controversial legal issue in the US. In April the Supreme Court upheld [JURIST report] a redistricting decision in Arizona as not discriminatory. Earlier that same month a panel of federal judges rejected a motion [order, PDF] by Representative Corrine Brown [official profile] challenging the current congressional district boundaries in Florida [JURIST report]. In March the Supreme Court heard oral arguments [JURIST report] regarding an election district plan for Virginias Third Congressional District. This district was altered in 2012 in a manner that increased the already majority-African American population, and the district court found the plan unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment. In November the court heard oral arguments [JURIST report] in a challenge to the Three Judge Court Act, which requires the convening of a three-judge district court to decide certain important lawsuits such as those concerning voter redistricting. Last June the court ruled [JURIST report] that the Elections Clause of the US Constitution permits the state of Arizona to adopt a commission to draw congressional districts. In April of last year the court threw out [JURIST report] a North Carolina court ruling that upheld Republican-drawn electoral districts for state and congressional lawmakers.
[JURIST] The Turkish Constitutional Court [official website] on Friday rejected petitions [Daily Sabah report] by opposition lawmakers seeking to lift immunity for members of Parliament. The Turkish parliament had passed two temporary amendments last month that would allow 138 deputies to be prosecuted on various criminal charges. One of the parties with 59 MPs facing charges is the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), which has come out against [Rudaw report] the temporary suspension of immunity as a discriminatory method by the Justice and Development (AKP) to deny Kurdish access to democracy. The bill has yet to be ratified and signed into law.

These claims are the recent display of political turmoil within the country. Turkish state police last month prevented [JURIST report] members from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) from holding a party congress in direct opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, by sealing off a hosting hotel. Erdogan announced [JURIST report] in May that he does not plan to change the countrys anti-terrorism law, a requirement of a deal struck between Turkey and EU in March. Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported [JURIST report] in April that the first round of EU sanctioned deportations from Greece to Turkey on April 4 was rushed, chaotic, and violated the rights of those deported. Erdogan stated [JURIST report] in April that EU states are violating international law by breaking their migrant pact with Turkey, by not allowing the country to extradite suspected terrorists.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

People's Democratic Party (PDP) spokesperson Jacob Mafume has said President Robert Mugabe must go and all the country's problem are about the leadership crisis."Mugabe Must go- we need to keep it simple , all our problems are just about leadership. How can diamonds disappear in 3 years? How can a country with all minerals on the periodic table be poor? How can we have all the land and go hungry? How can we have all the education but no workable plan? We need to keep it simple comrades. The issue of the Bond notes is the straw that should break the camel's back," he said. "We need the governor of the reserve bank - who is a clue less professional. Who meets a group of lawyers and goes into bible quoting mode as if its Sunday school? We need a credible solution the guy talks of visions -a president who visits everywhere as if the country is flourishing -keep it simple.""Mugabe must go- if he doesn't this country will simply stop to exist -it will just grind to a halt."
A group of UN independent human rights experts said [press release] Friday that human rights violations contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS. The Special Rapporteurs on the right to health Dainius Pras, human rights defenders Michel Forst, extreme poverty,Philip Alston and violence against women Dubravka Simonovic; and the Chairperson of the UN Working Group on Discrimination against women Frances Raday urged governments to remove punitive laws and policies that block key populations access to health services, goods and information. The statement was released prior a high-level meeting on ending AIDS by 2030. The statement went on to indicate that such laws and regulations impede highly-vulnerable groups from the health goods and services that are critical to the prevention and treatment of HIV.

Human rights continue to be an important issue, especially as regards to discrimination against those who have HIV. Last month Californias governor signed Senate Bill 1408 [text] into law, allowing HIV-positive individuals to become transplant donors to HIV-positive recipients [JURIST report]. In 2015 President Barack Obama issued executive order 13703 [JURIST documents] Implementing the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which was intended to ensure successful implementation of the the updated national AIDS/HIV strategy. In 2013 the Alabama Department of Corrections [official website] announced an end to its policy of segregating HIV-positive inmates at Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women [JURIST report]. In 2010 Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] urged the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) [official website] to stop automatically segregating [press release] HIV-positive inmates [JURIST report].
[JURIST] The human rights situation in Ukraine remains troublesome following two years of conflict with Russia, according to a report [report, PDF] released Friday by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [official website]. Among the various human rights violations that have occurred, those closest to the contact line or living in areas controlled by armed forces have been subjected to [e]nforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, all of which remain deeply entrenched practices. The report goes on to state [press release] that those most likely to commit these violations, law enforcement officers and armed security, have been granted immunity from prosecution, which is justified as an unfortunate, but necessary part of the current armed conflict. This impunity is only further exacerbated by the inability of the judicial system to address high-level officials ordering and overseeing this violence as a result of the interference in the independence of the judiciary. UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic stated [o]nly the full implementation of the Minsk agreement [materials] will allow for the respect of everyones human rights, and a chance to lead a normal life and even a decent living.

Russia and Ukraine have been in conflict since the annexation of Crimea [JURIST backgrounder] in March 2014. In February Russia filed suit [JURIST report] against Ukraine over Ukraines default on $3 billion in bonds. A Ukrainian official said in January that the nation plans to sue Russia [JURIST report] in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) [official website] on claims of financing terrorism. In August a Russian military court sentenced [JURIST report] two Ukrainian activists to substantial jail time for the charge of conspiring to commit terror attacks. In March of last year the EU committed to stand by its policy of refusing to recognize Crimeas annexation [JURIST report]. In February 2015 Russian liberal political activist Boris Nemtsov was shot in the back four times [BBC report] in the middle of busy downtown Moscow. Nemtsov was openly politically opposed to Russias annexation of Crimea and its role in Ukraine.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

The Zimbabwe revenue Authority has announced that the importation and exportation of currency is governed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) in terms of the Exchange Control Act [Chapter 22:05] as read with Exchange Control Regulations Statutory Instrument 109 of 1996.Zimra said the importation of currency into Zimbabwe by travellers is not restricted."This implies that any person can bring in any amount of currency into Zimbabwe. However, with immediate effect all visitors to Zimbabwe are hereby encouraged to complete a Baggage Declaration Form (Form 47) and declare the currency in their possession at the time of entry. The processed declaration forms may be used to support re-export of any balance of currency at the end the visit to Zimbabwe should it exceed the allowed export thresholds," Zimra said in a statement.the authority said the exportation of currency from Zimbabwe is now restricted by the RBZ with effect from 5 May 2016."Members of the public are advised that with immediate effect, the amount of cash that can be exported in the baggage or upon a person has been reviewed downwards from US$5,000 or its equivalence in any other currency to the following limits: - Cash exports by individuals by denomination US$ EUR ZARAmount 1,000 1,000 20,000," Zimra said."Please note that an individual can take out with them either US$1, 000 or EUR1,000 or ZAR 20,000.00 at any given time. If the traveller wants to export cash in the combination of all currencies, the cash to be exported shall not exceed the equivalence of US$1,000 per exit. Where the individual intends to export currency above these stipulated thresholds, he/she shall seek approval from the Exchange Control Unit at the RBZ."Zimra said.Zimra said all travellers leaving Zimbabwe are urged to strictly adhere to the limits as provided above. Any excess currency found in possession of travellers without authority shall be seized and may be forfeited to the State.
News / National

by Thandeka Moyo

A BULAWAYO man has appeared in court for deliberately infecting his wife with HIV after hiding his status. The man, who cannot be named for ethical reasons, ran out luck when his girlfriend divulged to his sister that he was HIV positive.He appeared before regional magistrate Mark Dzira facing deliberately transmitting HIV charges and pleaded not guilty. Magistrate Dzira remanded him out of custody to today.Prosecuting, Tinashe Dzipe alleged that the couple got married in 2014 and they started staying together in a flat in the city centre where they had unprotected sex."Sometime in May 2015, the man's sister confronted his girlfriend asking her to stop having an affair with a married man. During the confrontation the girlfriend told her that she couldn't stop the affair as the two of them were living with HIV," said Dzipe."The girlfriend also told the man's sister that he was on ARVs as they had met at Mpilo Central Hospital where they collect the medication. She also advised the man's sister to tell his wife to start taking ARVs as there was a likelihood she could be infected."Dzipe said the man's wife was told and did not ask her husband but proceeded to get tested as he is violent."Sometime in May 2015, he went on a trip and while the wife was cleaning, she came across medical records belonging to her husband. The book showed that he was taking ARVs and frequently visiting the OI clinic," he said.Dzipe said the woman tried initiating safe sex and the man refused."He started accusing the woman of being infected as she was failing to fall pregnant. The woman eventually moved out and made a police report as she was scared of confronting her husband about the issue," he said.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

ZIMBABWE Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has welcome the opening of a permanent High Court in Masvingo by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) on Monday 30 May 2016.The organisation the decentralisation of the High Court is long overdue, and will go a long way in facilitating access to justice by many previously disadvantaged vulnerable people residing in Masvingo and other surrounding provinces."Its proximate location, is particularly compelling as it will further alleviate challenges such as exorbitant travel, upkeep costs that were incurred by potential litigants, witnesses as well as other players interacting with the justice system at this level," ZLHR said."Most people had to travel for long distances to Harare and Bulawayo to access the services of the High Court. From an administrative perspective, once fully operational, the Masvingo High Court will also help to reduce backlog of cases, minimise delays and hopefully expedite the determination of cases."ZLHR said the new court will contribute to improving the efficiency of the justice system as a whole as there was substantial pressure on the limited permanent High Court facilities  located in Harare and Bulawayo due to the number of users who previously had no options."ZLHR encourages stakeholders to offer necessary and relevant support for a functional and effective Masvingo High Court as this will boost public confidence in the justice delivery system. People living within the jurisdiction of this court are also urged to fully utilise its facilities for protection of their social, economic, cultural, civil and political rights provided in the 2013 Constitution. The JSC must continue to work with strategic partners to establish additional permanent High Courts in other provinces such as Manicaland and Midlands," ZLHR said."As a law based organisation that is committed to fostering a culture of human rights in Zimbabwe, ZLHR will continue through its various interventions to promote awareness of the existence of the High Court in Masvingo, and fully utilise this new court in order to advance the protection of human rights."
News / National

by Staff reporter

Masvingo Zanu-PF MPs have resolved to campaign against Provincial Affairs minister Shuvai Mahofa and her Psychomotor counterpart Josiah Hungwe - both key allies of Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa - for allegedly fanning factionalism.Zanu-PF chairperson for Masvingo Amasi Nenjana told the Daily News yesterday that the resolution was made by 20 out of the 26 governing party's legislators during a meeting held at Paradise Hotel in Gutu on Thursday.The meeting, held at the late Vice President Simon Muzenda's hotel, was called to report on the state of the party in the respective constituencies, adding this was in response to a highly controversial meeting held by members of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) in Gweru recently.The constituency briefings by Masvingo MPs were wide ranging, and included a frank exchange of views on the political situation in the MPs' respective constituencies.The meeting resolved to encourage Masvingo constituency members not to be intimidated by innuendos being made at war veterans rallies, where they are making resolutions with respect to party structures."The meeting assured the Masvingo provincial chairman and Masvingo political commissar Jappy Jaboon and youth chairman (Norbert) Ndarombe that they would not be fired or suspended from the party on the basis of resolutions being made by affiliates of the party," minutes of the meeting said."Those resolutions are of no force or effect as Zanu-PF is guided by its own constitution."The meeting also called for transparency in the allocation of land in the province and that the current process ought to be ventilated as MPs were concerned that it was not transparent.MPs agreed that they will, with the youth league, soon demonstrate against Mahofa because she was distributing maize and allocating land along factional lines.The meeting also resolved to reinstate the district chairpersons that had been removed from their positions on the basis of factional fights."No Zanu-PF aspirant will be allowed to campaign in a constituency in which Zanu-PF has a sitting MP until the party so directs formally," the resolutions said."Any violators will face immediate disciplinary action."The meeting also resolved to support programmes in the province and to support programmes of the physically disadvantaged."Lastly, the meeting resolved to work closely with all its affiliates that include Zimbabwe Liberation War Collaborators Association, Ex-political Prisoners Detainees and Restrictees Association, and ZNLWVA."The meeting also noted that all members of these affiliates are welcome to join and work within the party as the president has enunciated," the resolutions said.In his closing remarks, Daniel Shumba, the most senior Zanu-PF member in the province as deputy secretary for transport in the politburo and MP, said these resolutions are to be tabled at the next provincial coordinating meeting for adoption."He also spoke of the need for the party to stand together to support the economic reforms taking place.He said the constituency meeting will be called on to explain the issue of the bond notes "as we have noted that there are deliberate distortions meant to cause a national crisis".The retired colonel also noted that the party must shun factionalism and keep the eye on the ball and deal with the issues that give impetus towards 2018.Shumba directed all Zanu-PF MPs in the province to carry and continue to carry out their constituency programmes without hindrances and said no one could stop a sitting MP from "carrying out his political and democratic right as provided for by both the party and national constitutions."Shumba received a standing ovation after his address.
News / National

by Staff reporter

The High Court yesterday overturned a police ban on a Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) meeting to galvanise structures in Chinhoyi yesterday, a lawyer for the ZPF said.Police banned the planned meeting in the campaign for the forthcoming 2018 general elections between ZPF leader Joice Mujuru, the MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai, veteran leader Robert Mugabe and other fringe parties because authorities could not guarantee the safety of party leaders.ZPF said the police decision to bar opposition rallies was deplorable.ZPF lawyer Gift Nyandoro cited Attorney-General Prince Machaya, officer commanding Makonde District, Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo and commissioner-general of police Augustine Chihuri as respondents in the urgent chamber application filed by the party.After hearing the matter in his chambers, High Court judge Happious Zhou granted the application yesterday."The order has been granted. The judge has granted the application with the necessary amendments that the meeting must end at 8pm today (yesterday), since it was initially scheduled to end at 5pm. Our members are jovial about the ruling," Nyandoro said.The party said that it notified the Makonde District commanding officer on May 31, before being granted permission on June 1."By way of this letter officer-in-charge Chemagamba has been advised and may provide necessary security if need arise," reads part of the permission letter written by the officer commanding Makonde District only identified as SG Ndou.Following the granting of the permission, the party officials began making all the preparatory engagements, which included securing accommodation and conference bookings for its leadership."On the 11th hour of the 2nd day of June 2016and at around 5:30pm, our client was served with a letter of cancellation of the earlier permission that had been granted by police," Nyandoro said in a letter to the judge president.He said the party has been highly prejudiced by the conduct of the police because it incurred huge financial costs, adding that the reasons given by the police for the cancellation were not justifiable.In an affidavit, ZPF's Mashonaland West provincial chairperson Marian Chombo said the police cancelled the meeting because they did not have enough manpower to provide sufficient security."I submit that the last-minute cancellation . . . is ill-conceived and ill-advised to say the least for it amounts to the trampling of law with impunity by police suggesting that it can do as it pleases without any censure from the decency and respect of law," Chombo said.The party was seeking an order allowing the holding of the meeting and barring the State officials from interfering with the gathering.
For 32 years we have had the privilege to have the continued support of the citizens of Kearney to help us on Memorial Day weekend. With your help we were able to place small American flags on the graves of our veterans and raise 440 American flags around the cemetery. We are extremely grateful for your support and proud of the citizens of Kearney for helping us honor our veterans.

Our thanks to Steve Baye and his staff at the Kearney Cemetery for the endless hours they spend helping us get ready for Memorial Day. We truly appreciate your help and we could not do this without you.

We would like to thank the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 759 for being our host for this years event. Thank you to our guest speaker, Capt. Alex Straatmann; the members of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars honor guards and the bugler Michael Osterberg for being part of the Memorial Day Service.

Our thanks to the 1733 Barbershop Chorus and Buffalo County Veterans Service Officer Bill Williams who have participated for many years. To those individuals who presented a wreath in memory of fallen soldiers, we thank you. We had a tremendous turnout this year to honor our veterans.

If anyone would like to donate a veterans flag to be presented at next years Memorial Day Service please call either Lori OBrien at 237-7509 or Gail Mullins at 236-6539.

Dorothy McCammon,

Gail McCammon Mullins,

Lori McCammon OBrien

Kearney
News / National

by Staff reporter

War veterans yesterday responded with interest to a savage assault on them by Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko who accused them on Thursday of engaging in "treason" by endorsing Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa as President Robert Mugabe's shoe-in successor.In his Thursday polemic, delivered while addressing a Zanu-PF Matabeleland North provincial committee meeting in Lupane, Mphoko warned the pro-Mnangagwa former liberation struggle fighters against talking about Mugabe's succession while the increasingly frail nonagenarian was still on the throne.Responding to the attack yesterday, the secretary-general of the main faction of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association (ZNLWVA), Victor Matemadanda, had no kind words for Mphoko when he spoke to the Daily News, once again accusing the under-fire VP of having deserted Zimbabwe's war of liberation."What do you think is more treasonous between saying Mnangagwa is the most senior person in the Zanla (Zanu-PF military wing) ranks and deserting the war, going to Mozambique and selling guns meant for waging the liberation struggle?"What is the bigger crime between saying Mnangagwa is senior and staying in a hotel for two years, refusing to stay in a $3 million house in a country where the economy is struggling?" Matemadanda asked angrily, referring to Mphoko's continued and controversial stay in a five-star Harare hotel.To highlight their resolve to fight Mphoko to the bitter end in Zanu-PF's worsening factional and succession wars, he added ominously that war veterans were "ready to defend themselves" in court if it came to that."We will not be intimidated by his misuse of the word treason. We never said Mnangagwa should take over today or tomorrow. We are simply investing in our future as Zanla and Mphoko must not interfere because we never interfere in Zipra (Zapu military wing) issues."He is annoyed by our discourse because he is the face of G40 and he thinks either Jonathan Moyo or (Saviour) Kasukuwere should be president. But that will never happen, unfortunately. That will not be decided by one who deserted the war."What is so special about him and his Mozambican wife? He must just quietly enjoy the good life that he was given by our president which he does not deserve anyway."He is least qualified to talk about our revolution because he was not part of its critical stages after he deserted," Matemadanda said, adding that the only reason why they had a semblance of respect for Mphoko was because he was appointed by "our president".Jumping into the melee feet first, no-nonsense ZNLWVA spokesperson Douglas Mahiya told the Daily News that Mphoko "has no knowledge of the issues he is commenting on"."We have not endorsed anybody. We were simply discussing the arrangement we had during the war of liberation. We were in Zanla and he (Mphoko) was in Zipra. How does he know events that took place in Zanla?"In our Zanla camp, we knew Mugabe was our number one candidate followed by Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Is he (Mphoko) refuting that arrangement when he was not part of our Zanla group?"In any event, are we not allowed to discuss and speak about our history? What kind of a country is it where you are not allowed to discuss your history?" Mahiya asked, dismissing Mphoko's treason claim as "a fruitless plot by the G40" camp.Zanu-PF spokesperson Simon Khaya-Moyo declined to comment on the furore, referring the Daily News to Mphoko."... Mphoko is a vice president of the party, why don't you speak to him?" Khaya-Moyo said.In his Thursday attack, Mphoko singled out Mahiya, ZNLWVA chairperson Christopher Mutsvangwa, his deputy Headman Moyo and Matemadanda for tending to behave as better veterans than others."I want to advise these people from my professional point of view. I'm a military man and I trained very well and I've been a commander. War vets, never ever deceive yourselves, some of you are walking on a very dangerous course, you're walking on the line of treason and subversion."These people go around talking about me, the First Lady and attack the president indirectly. That's treason and insubordination. In actual fact building someone when the president is alive and still in office, you talk about me and say I will take over, what does that mean in military terms, it's a coup, it's subversion, you can go to any military annals."They go on to use my colleague's name and he knows, he's a lawyer, he's a military man, he knows what it means to talk about the position of an elected leader. How do you claim that you will take over a position from a leader who is there and ruling? How do you do it? How are people allowed to talk about a leader who is there, by saying that you've ill wishes?"When you go and speak on my behalf, you can interpret it in anyway, you're in actual fact creating a warlord. If you speak on my behalf and say Mphoko is there, I become a warlord yet the president is there, yet everyone is supposed to rally behind the president, how then do I come in?" Mphoko was quoted saying by lapdog State media.He also claimed that Matemadanda had only trained as a soldier after the liberation war, adding that he had allegedly rescued Mutsvangwa from imprisonment in Mozambique even as the former War Veterans minister now claimed not to know him.The rumpus also comes as a group of 20 Masvingo Zanu-PF MPs - out of the 26 party MPs in the province - met on Thursday to strategise ways of blocking the marauding war veterans from becoming "kingmakers" in the warring ruling party.The Gutu meeting was attended by a number of Zanu-PF affiliates, including the Zimbabwe Liberation War Collaborators Association; ex-political prisoners, detainees and restrictees and the smaller faction of the ZNLWVA.However, legislators such as parliamentary whip Lovemore Matuke, Munyaradzi Kereke (Bikita West), Berita Chikwama, Ticharwa Madondo (Gutu North ) and Edmore Mhere of Masvingo Central snubbed the gathering.Daniel Shumba, the most senior Zanu-PF member in the province and deputy secretary for transport in the politburo, delivered closing remarks at the meeting saying in terms of due process, Zanu-PF had endorsed Mugabe as its presidential candidate for 2018 at its hotly-disputed 2014 congress."Accordingly, that position has not changed and can only be changed by congress. Therefore, there is no vacancy, rendering all these unnecessary innuendos (about Mnangagwa succeeding Mugabe) a nullity."These are unnecessary emotional posturing, which are destructive when we should instead be dealing with the MDC and the People First. These innuendos are a clear indication of indiscipline meant to cause anarchy and smacks of a coup," Shumba said.Zanu-PF chairperson for Masvingo, Amasi Nenjana, also described the pro-Mnangagwa war veterans as "mad and stupid", warning that their machinations would be strongly resisted by the party's grassroots."The MPs disagreed with the war veterans and every Zanu-PF member down to the wards is not happy with their conduct."What they are saying shows that they now have their own party which has a different constitution to that of Zanu-PF or they are confusing our constitution and the war veterans' one. They are mad and it is stupid for them to think they will be successful," he said.Nenjana also accused the former freedom fighters of "working tirelessly in various provinces campaigning against First Lady Grace Mugabe and political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere."We know by painting the first lady as bad they want to cause a heart attack on the president so that he becomes incapacitated so their own leader takes over. We know what they are up to but we will counter them," he said, further alleging that the war veterans were being funded by an unnamed Chinese company.
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News / National

by Staff reporter

The Air Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ) has refuted claims that one of its light fighter planes crashed at Katanga Range in Kwekwe and killed the four pilots on board.AFZ Group Captain and Director Operations Alphious Gwata said reports by some media organisations alleging an AFZ plane crash in Kwekwe is false.He said although the Air Force conducts night flying, all its aircrafts for such exercises returned to their bases safely.Gwata also added there is no incident of airspace invasion, dismissing reports by a local daily newspaper as inaccurate and malicious.
News / Regional

by Staff reporter

TWO Bulawayo school bullies have been arrested for blindfolding three pupils and shoving sticks into their backs. Their victims had to be rushed to hospital after sustaining anal injuries.The two boys aged 16 and 15 years, who attend Emganwini Secondary and Nketa Primary schools and cannot be named for legal reasons, were convicted of three counts of aggravated indecent assault by Bulawayo regional magistrate Mark Dzira.They were sentenced to receive five strokes with a rattan cane.In passing sentence, Dzira blamed the boys' parents for failing to offer parental guidance.He said that the accused displayed an anti-social behaviour and their actions caused physical and psychological injury to the complainants.Although the two boys committed a gruesome offence, they could not be sent to jail because of their age and lack of maturityThe court also noted that if incarcerated they would come out of jail as hardcore criminals and become a burden to your parents and the community."Corporal punishment will meet the justice of the case and accordingly you'll receive five strokes," ruled the magistrate.The prosecutor said on July 6 last year, the complainant aged 13 absconded from school with his two friends.They were playing at Nketa recreational park when they were spotted by their would be attackers.The bullies took turns to shove sticks into each pupil.Bullying is a problem in some schools. Bullies must be reported. We must come together to stop bullying in our schools. Play your part and report bullies today. Even if you are not the victim, you must always report bullying to responsible adults like teachers or parents.Together we can stop this problem right now.
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Dear Macklemore,

Recently, you  the white-rapping, thrift-shopping, LGBT-activist-ing, Grammy-winning 2013 phenom  teamed up with President Obama to deliver a message to the country about the current opioid epidemic. Now let me preface this by saying, I like you, Macklemore. I like the mixture of equal parts political, earnest and downright goofy that you bring to your music. I like that you seem genuinely self-reflective and even a little uncomfortable with the chart-topping success your appropriation of black music has enjoyed. And I believe that the rampant opioid abuse and overdoses happening now in our country is an issue near and dear to your heart.

You mention in this address  as well as on the track Kevin on your wholly underrated sophomore album with Ryan Lewis, This Unruly Mess Ive Made  that a friend of yours was taken from you in his prime by an opioid addiction that cost him his life. Youre in good company: The recent study the president cites, a national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, reports that 44 percent of Americans know someone who has been addicted to prescription painkillers. In your songs refrain, you rightly track the root of this problem back to its all-too-common origin  a doctors office:

Doctor, please, give me a dose of the American dream Put down the pen and look in my eyes Were in the waiting room and something aint right All this is on you, were overprescribed

Since I know you pride yourself on being a lyricist who chooses his words carefully, lets focus on just five: All this is on you. I have to disagree. All this is not on us. Doctors are an easy and logical scapegoat for the opioid epidemic: Patient goes to doctor with pain, doctor gives painkillers, patient gets addicted and comes back for more, doctor gives more pain meds, and so on. Patient overdoses  why? Isnt it obvious? Because of the pain meds the doctor gave him. If only it were so simple. As with most things in medicine and life, the reality is more complicated than the soundbite.

The health care ecosystem that allows many thousands of people to die from medically-sanctioned addiction has diverse players and incentives that give it life. First, consider the 15-minute doctors visit, the new standard for outpatient care. Its hard to inculpate the well-meaning primary care physician who decides to try Percocet for a patients debilitating osteoarthritis when all other non-opiate interventions have failed, especially when explaining the rationale for withholding opiates would take all of this and the next visit. One thing your lyrics get right, Macklemore, is that these visits often begin with the words Doctor, please. And with health cares increasing focus on measuring patient satisfaction, denying a patient painkillers could actually hurt a doctors reputation and income. Additionally, as Dr. Ronald Hirsch points out, pharmaceutical companies and the Joint Commission are not without blame, either: They encouraged the use and downplayed the harms of opiates for years, no doubt contributing to their proliferation and the current crisis.

We as a profession are acutely aware of the problem our prescribing habits have caused, and everywhere there is evidence of change. In the hospital, we are stingy with opioids, reserving them mostly for postoperative and cancer pain. And good luck trying to get a script for OxyContin in my outpatient adult medicine clinic: We make it clear to patients that unless they are actively being followed by a pain management specialist for a legitimate pain need, we will not fill that role. New York, where I practice, recently instituted mandatory electronic prescribing, thwarting would-be forgers and prescription pad thieves. And since 2013, we have had a statewide database that allows us to monitor what other physicians are prescribing to patients in order to avoid overlap and doctor shopping.

Where our views start to align, though, Macklemore, is on the need for treatment: What do we do with all these addicts weve created? Im glad that you found help and lived to tell your story. For many others, the options are limited. Unfortunately, a patient is probably more likely to get treatment for their addiction once they overdose and end up in the hospital, rather than before. I can hardly get my patients an appointment with a psychiatrist to address their substance abuse, much less the comorbidities that drive addiction: depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress. Its going to require a new perspective on opioids as a public health issue  a view which is just now beginning to crystallize  as well as a whole lot of funding and policy work to reverse this trend. In the meantime, keep fighting the good fight: Im with you.

Sincerely,

Eric Beam, MD

Eric Beam is an internal medicine resident who blogs at The Long White Coat where this article originally appeared.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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As a mid-career faculty physician in a family medicine residency program, I have taken a keen interest in the big picture of what is happening to the way our graduates and colleagues practice in the real world. Ive watched our residents as they prepare to graduate, deliberating among the most prevalent practice options presented to them in our region, usually as an employed doctor in a large multi-specialty practice, or in an urgent care setting. In catching up with our graduates a few years into practice, it often becomes clear that they lack the sense of professional fulfillment they had envisioned for themselves as residents. These discussions remind me of my own disillusionment with employed full-time clinical practice in the years following my residency training. Admittedly, my first-hand experience has influenced my deep personal and professional interest over the years in the development of the social movement known as direct primary care (DPC).

For a long time, I have wrestled with the question of how best to present the direct primary care movement within the structure of formal medical education. In my work with family medicine residents, medical students and among faculty colleagues, I have tried to raise awareness of this burgeoning practice philosophy within the walls of academic medicine. What I have learned through this effort is that while the simplicity of DPC has continued to intrigue a growing number of clinicians in practice (as well as medical students and residents), the DPC movement has proliferated largely within the blind spot of many in academics.

For many of my fellow academicians, direct primary care remains at best a passing curiosity, and at worst a dangerous threat to the project of constructing the healthcare version of the Tower of Babel: a perfectly engineered vertically-integrated system of care. Within the academic framework, its been difficult to reconcile the apparent philosophical differences between direct primary cares singular focus on personal trust and the primacy of the doctor-patient relationship, and the closed-system collaboration of clinicians, administrators and third-party payers in developing a systems-based approach to care. These philosophical differences, coupled with the fact that residency training programs are beholden to their health system sponsors, lead to a politicization of the provision of medical care in a way that is indifferent or even hostile to the promotion of direct primary care.

To my chagrin (and that of other DPC-interested faculty physicians), the apparent incongruence between direct primary care and systems-based academic practice has thwarted attempts in creating an authentic, working model of DPC practice for the instruction of residents, students, and faculty. In discussions on the development of such a model practice with faculty and physician leaders at my program and others from around the country, a practical solution to reconcile programs mission of academic inquiry with their financial and organizational realities has been elusive and vexing.

As the numbers of clinical physicians entering DPC practice continues to grow, I have concerns that our formal medical education process will allow itself to drift farther from the epicenter of a practice model that is increasingly more attractive to a younger generation of physicians. With an increase in the numbers of our graduates entering DPC practices, the educational culture will appear even more estranged from the realities of American primary care. Without a structured experiential component or faculty with first-hand experience in the practice of direct primary care, our educational institutions practice management curricula will appear increasingly irrelevant to learners with an interest in independent practice such as DPC.

How then, to deliver on the idea of a teaching DPC practice? As Ive pondered the fork in the road between studying about the rising DPC tide and entering its proverbial waters, I have decided that its not enough to be a spectator on the sidelines of the DPC movement. In partnership with my wife, also a family physician, were opening our own independent DPC practice later this month.

The experience of developing a new DPC practice from scratch is at once invigorating and overwhelming. It has forced me to consider aspects of medical practice that most employed physicians have little knowledge of or use for. It requires humility in acknowledging gaps in practical knowledge about the myriad non-clinical fields that influence what we do as physicians. One becomes a quick-study in areas as diverse as real estate zoning, negotiating a lease, corporate statuses, and their tax implications, legal and practice implications of opting out of Medicare, OSHA and CLIA compliance, commercial loan applications, website development, and marketing. One re-learns skills usually relegated to others in larger practices (such as phlebotomy and giving intramuscular injections). There is the decision fatigue of examining the hosts of tools and services to support a practice, and the judiciousness of trying to figure out what is really necessary to support ones vision for the new practice. All of these decisions circle back to the primary question of a DPC practice: How will this (product, protocol, service) enhance my ability to serve my patients?

My descriptions of my practices development to physician colleagues is usually met by one of two very different responses. Most cringe at the thought of expending so much time and energy on these perceived extraneous pursuits, while a smaller number are fascinated to consider the intricacies of constructing an independent practice. As for me, I am thriving on the thrill of seeing our gestating practice come into being. And as I savor the sense of accomplishment of preparing to open the practices doors, I am reminded of our third-year residents who are about to graduate. Theres a sense of sorrow when I contemplate the chasm between what we teach our residents about practice management and the practical lessons I am learning as I follow my chosen course. The practical education in establishing a practice dwarfs my previous understanding of the intricacies of practice operations. The difference between what I have learned and what I thought I knew reminds me of the old expression, Its not what you dont know thats dangerous; its what you dont know that you dont know.

The passive neglect of the practicalities of independent private practice within our formal educational process make it clear that our institutions have largely given up on sustaining among todays learners what is seen as a quaint practice concept. Now more than ever, engagement of active independent practices with medical students and residents is critical in promoting a vision of primary care that honors the noblest, time-honored aspects of our profession. As the DPC movement reclaims the exam room space that once was reserved solely for patients and physicians, is it plausible that the movement could prompt a shift in the medical education process as well?

James Breen is a family physician who blogs at academic dpc.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
News / Regional

by Staff reporter

Bongani NdlovuA MAN from Bulawayo's Mzilikazi suburb was on Wednesday arrested for allegedly smuggling tyres worth nearly $100,000 from Botswana. The consignment which was in a haulage truck was intercepted by alert police officers in the city following a tip off.Kainos Gozhorayi, 37, is expected to appear in court soon.National police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said the haulage truck was being driven by one Godfrey Madhubure, and had a load of tyres worth $98,000. The vehicle has since been impounded by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra)."Our police officers received a tip off that an articulated motor vehicle which had smuggled tyres from Botswana was parked along Fort Street and Connaught Avenue in Bulawayo. The vehicle was taken to Zimra offices for verification and it was established that there were 280 undeclared tyres valued at $350 each and at $98,000 in total," said Snr Asst Comm Charamba."Police are still conducting investigations in connection with the matter to establish how the consignment made its way into the country without being declared."Snr Asst Comm Charamba warned would-be smugglers that the law will catch up with them."We warn people to pay their duty whether it's vehicles or anything that they're bringing into the country," she said.There is rampant smuggling of tyres, foodstuffs, beverages among other products into the country. This prejudices the State of potential revenue running into millions.Corruption by officials at the country's border posts and porous borders has fuelled the crime.Last month, Zimra boss Gershem Pasi and five senior executives were suspended in a case linked to the irregular importation of vehicles.
News / Regional

by Tanaka Mrewa

A WOMAN from Lobengula Extension in Bulawayo has been ordered to perform 315 hours of community service for calling members of her family idiots after they objected to her decision to cohabit with her 63-year-old boyfriend in the family home.Lorraine Moyo, 25, was sentenced to 12 months in jail which were wholly suspended on condition that she performs 315 hours of community service.Moyo was facing contempt of court charges for violating a previous court order not to insult or harass members of her family.She pleaded not guilty but was convicted by Western Commonage magistrate Tancy Dube.The court heard that Lorraine was cohabiting with her boyfriend in their family house with her 63-year-old boyfriend, something that was opposed by her father Eugene Moyo and all other family members.Lorraine, who occupies three rooms with her lover at the house while the rest of her family members occupy two rooms, called her father and siblings idiots who would die poor.In court yesterday, she said she never intended to insult her family and was sorry.Lorraine said her stepmother was the source of their troubles as she did not want her to talk to her father."I'm sorry I didn't intend to insult them. Maybe it was the tone I used that made them feel like I was insulting them," she said.Prosecuting, Mufaro Mageza said Lorraine was arrested following the insults as that was in violation of a protection order not to insult or harass members of her family."On May 19, 2016, Eugene sent his daughter to deliver a letter requesting Lorraine to report to the police station regarding her cohabiting with an older man in their family house.She insulted her and said the police wouldn't do anything to her. She said she wanted an order from the High Court (summoning her)," said Mageza. "She said she wished her father was dead or that her uncles from South Africa would come and shoot him dead.She also told her sister that their parents knees would bruise from kneeling for their ancestors."Magistrate Dube said the state had proved its case against Lorraine, despite her denials."The fact that you apologised to your father shows that you admit that you insulted your family. This court therefore finds you guilty as charged," said Dube.
(Kitco News) - The idea of a high-grade gold deposit with as much as 275 grams per ton would send any mining CEOs heart aflutter, however there is one caveat: the deposit is located at the bottom of the ocean about 750 meters below sea level.

The Japan Times reported that a team of researchers at the University of Tokyo discovered a major gold deposit in an underwater volcanic crater off the remote island Aogashima.

According to the researchers exploration data, grades of the deposit were as high as 275 g/t with the average grade around 102 g/t. However more exploration and more deposit discoveries are needed to make the project commercially viable, said Akira Asada, the university professor who led the research team.

We hope to further investigate this area and find similar locations, he said in his presentation Thursday.

According to the presentation, the researchers found the deposit after testing a high-precision sonar device used to survey underwater landscapes. The team used the sonar device to map the volcanic crater.

The data revealed multiple hydrothermal ore deposits.

This isnt the first time that mining off the ocean floor has made headlines. Nautilus Minerals is one of the first companies to actively explore the ocean floor searching for high-grade copper, zinc gold and silver deposits.

Currently, the underwater company is developing and exploring the ocean floor off of Papau New Guinea.

The new high-grade deposit off of Japan more than surpasses deposits found on land. Fire Creek Mine in Nevada is considered to be the highest grade in the world at 44.1 g/t.

Mid-May, Goldcorp surprised the mining sector after announcing plans to purchase Kaminak Gold Corps Yukon-based Coffee Project for about $520 million. Coffees gold deposit has an average grade of about 1.45 g/t.

By Neils Christensen of Kitco News; nchristensen@kitco.com

Follow @Neils_C
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Maximo Chacon

of Gilbert, Ariz.Sept. 7, 1933to June 21, 2007Veteran

MSG Maximo Misel Chacon, retired U.S. Army, 73, died peacefully June 21 at home after a brief battle with lung cancer.

He recently moved to Phoenix after living in Bremerton for 24 years.

He was born in Coyote, New Mexico, and lived in many different states and countries while serving in the military. He loved the Pacific Northwest and retired in Bremerton.

He was a highly decorated veteran of the U.S. Army, serving in both the Korean and Vietnam wars. He was in the Special Forces the last 22 years of service.

After retiring, Maximo worked several jobs, the last one at Buick Hazelwood in Bremerton as a courtesy driver.

He was an active member of the Knights of Columbus, holding the position of Grand Knight for several years. He was also involved with the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Eagles. Maximo devoted hundreds of hours to these organizations and his community. He worked tirelessly on the weekends with the Eagles and was known as the "Breakfast Chef."

Maximo is survived by his devoted wife of 48 years, Helen Chacon; his children and their spouses: Teddy Wandera and Danny Laparre, Sherry Ann and Chuck Knutzen, Misel Jr. and Ginny Chacon, Jackie and Joe Taitingfong and Brenda Meenan; his brothers, Emilio Chacon and Enrique Chacon; ten grandchildren; one great-granddaughter; and numerous nieces and nephews.

A memorial service was held Monday, June 25, at the Valley of the Sun Mortuary, Chandler, Ariz.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Diabetes Foundation or the National Cancer Society.
SHARE Jeffrey Bassett Dale Magneson

By Andrew Binion of the Kitsap Sun

PORT ORCHARD  All of Kitsap's eight Superior Court judges are standing for election this year, and only the most recent appointment, Jeffrey Bassett, is facing a challenger.

At a Kitsap Bar Association candidate forum Friday at McCormick Woods, Silverdale attorney Dale Magneson, who is challenging Bassett, touted his 28 years of experience as a lawyer and long-standing ties to the community.

Bassett, with 30 years of experience as a lawyer, took the oath of office in February after being appointed to the bench by Gov. Jay Inslee to replace Jay Roof, who retired.

Superior Court is often associated with felony cases, but as the highest court at the county level, it hears an array of different types of cases, including civil suits, divorces and child custody; it also serves as an appellate court for district and municipal courts.

Although Magneson has never tried a case in front of a jury  his areas of practice are family law, wills and landlord tenant law, according to his state Bar Association profile  he said he has paid attention to criminal law, and has tried numerous cases in front of judges. He was born in Bremerton and graduated from East High School. He said it wasn't necessary to be born and raised in Kitsap, "but it helps one understand the community better."

Magneson also made a point of noting that Bassett was appointed.

"The problem with appointments is the people don't have a say in the matter," Magneson said, noting that Inslee's general counsel, Nick Brown, advises Inslee on judicial appointments and is not an elected official. "We don't know what (Brown's) biases and agendas are when he makes recommendations."

Magneson said he chose to run, and was asked to run against Bassett, but refused to say who asked him to do so. He also declined to give his age, saying it was irrelevant. He has not yet filed campaign contributions and spending information with the state, according to the Public Disclosure Commission website.

Judges Bill Houser, appointed in 2014, and Melissa Hemstreet, appointed in 2015, are also standing for their first general election.

Bassett, 54, was selected from a field of 10 applicants. In picking Bassett, Brown said that Inslee heard "tremendous feedback" from the current judges and Inslee was impressed with his breadth of experience.

So far Bassett has raised about $8,700, with the top contribution, $500, coming from fellow Judge Kevin Hull.

Although Bassett has experience in criminal and civil law, and has tried cases in front of juries and has already conducted a jury trial since taking the bench, his last area of practice was in dependency law, representing parents who had lost custody of their children. Bassett said he has been asked for assistance by other judges when considering dependency cases.

He called the job of being a judge "emotionally exhausting and emotionally exhilarating."

"I took this job because I wanted to do something really good," Bassett said. "It requires someone who rolls with the punches."

Bassett described himself as a Floridian by birth, but a "Washingtonian and Bremertonian by choice." He has lived in Washington for 18 of the last 26 years.
By Andrew Binion of the Kitsap Sun

PORT ORCHARD  A 48-year-old charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl he allegedly met through social media lived with the teenager for about two months in a Kingston apartment.

The man, Jeffrey Joel Dilks, was arrested Thursday in Kennewick after Kitsap County Sheriff's deputies were contacted about locating a girl classified as a runaway. Investigators were given text messages from the girl to a friend in which she described the relationship with Dilks.

Dilks is being held in the Kitsap County Jail on $1 million bail.

The girl has been interviewed and turned over the state Child Protective Services, said Lt. Detective Earl Smith.

Charging documents for Dilks' arrest warrant were filed with Superior Court on Thursday.

Smith said the girl had been living at the suspect's apartment for about two months.

A deputy had gone to Dilks' apartment on the 26000 block of Myrtle Lane last month after receiving report of a disturbance. The teen gave the deputy a different name and a birthday that indicated she was 19 years old. No one was arrested.

Court documents say the man met the girl via social media and paid for a train ticket for her to travel from Florida to Washington state.

A roommate of the man told investigators that when he moved in recently, the girl was already living there. Dilks first told him she was his niece, and later said that they were in a relationship.

After serving a search warrant at Dilks' apartment, investigators had Dilks' cellphone "pinged," which placed him in Kennewick, according to court documents.

Four detectives went to Kennewick to arrest Dilks, and found the girl at another location there and took her into custody.

Dilks is charged with first-degree kidnapping, with an aggravator for sexual motivation and third-degree rape of a child, with an aggravator for the victimization of homeless youth.
McCloud's Grill House, located at the corner of Perry Avenue and Sheridan Road in East Bremerton, is second on a statewide list of bars cited by DUI suspects as the place they were drinking. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

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By Josh Farley of the Kitsap Sun

EAST BREMERTON  Whoever said that all publicity is good publicity probably didn't own a bar.

Between 2012 and mid-May, 163 people arrested on suspicion DUI said they'd been drinking at McCloud's Grill House in East Bremerton. Only one bar in the state  Jazzbones in Tacoma  was cited more often by DUI suspects.

The ranking has received plenty of attention, and McCloud's owner Andy Graham is furious over the coverage. He says his staff works hard to ensure no one gets behind the wheel drunk  paying for cab rides and providing food and nonalcoholic beverages for designated drivers.

The attention has "been very frustrating," he said.

Bremerton Police Chief Steve Strachan said his department enjoys a good working relationship with McCloud's in ensuring customers don't become drunken drivers.

"We've always found them to be professional and willing to work with us," Strachan said, adding the statistic "doesn't raise a lot of red flags for me."

Officers ask suspects arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence where they've been drinking, and enter that information in a database. Washington State Patrol collects the data, and the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board logs it in a database.

The list is released periodically.

Strachan said the list can be a good indicator but it has drawbacks  for one, you are relying on an intoxicated person to provide the data.

Graham takes issue with several of the arrests in which someone claimed to be drinking at McCloud's. He said that some people claimed to have been drinking at the bar when it was closed. He also feels his bar gets named even if a patron has been also drinking elsewhere.

Local police don't always stand up for a bar like Strachan did for McCloud's. In 2007, when Mako's Bar and Grill in Port Orchard led the state in DUI arrests and had numerous police calls, the city and then-police chief Al Townsend worked to get its liquor license revoked. Strachan said he'd have no issues taking a similar tack but doesn't find the bar to be a problem location.

"The real question is if they are over-serving," Strachan said.

The chief also dispelled the notion that McCloud's is targeted by officers because of its location. Most DUI arrests in Bremerton are turned over to the Washington State Patrol.

"We don't play gotcha," Strachan said. "We want to keep people from getting arrested in the first place."

The bar even watches for people mixing legal marijuana with alcohol. Graham believes it adds to the possibility a driver drinking there could be too intoxicated to drive. McCloud's has even posted a sign saying as much.

"If you smell like marijuana, you're gonna be asked to leave," he said.
News / Regional

by Mashudu Netsianda

A PRINCIPAL lecturer at Hillside Teachers College in Bulawayo who was fired four years ago for allegedly receiving a $200 bribe from two desperate applicants who wanted to secure places to train as teachers, has taken Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo to court challenging his dismissal.Maxwell Kumbirai Jahwi, who is the appellant, has filed an appeal at the Bulawayo Labour Court citing Prof Moyo as the respondent.Jahwi is alleged to have received $40 and R400 from Tinashe Madava in October 2011.Between November 4 and December 28, 2011, Evidence Zhou deposited $150 into Jahwi's bank account.Madava and Zhou had applied for the January 2012 intake to train at Hillside Teachers College and Jahwi had offered to help them secure the places in return for money.Madava reported Jahwi to the college principal after the deal failed to succeed.Jahwi was fired after he was found guilty of charges of misconduct (violating provisions of the Public Service Regulation 2000) following a disciplinary hearing.In his grounds of appeal, Jahwi said the disciplinary authority erred by holding him accountable, arguing that there was no evidence linking him to the offence.He said the money that exchanged hands was not a bribe, but was held in trust waiting to be deposited with the college's admissions office."I am aggrieved by the penalty prescribed by the board that convened my hearing for misconduct. Although I was not found to have received a bribe, the board nonetheless went ahead and prescribed the ultimate penalty of dismissal. I therefore seek to have the penalty set aside," argued Jahwi.Bulawayo Labour Court judge Justice Mercy Moya-Matshanga removed the matter from the roll to allow the Registrar to serve the notice of response to the respondents.
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By Tristan Baurick of the Kitsap Sun

QUILCENE  An environmental group is suing a Quilcene oyster hatchery for allegedly polluting Hood Canal with chemicals and other hatchery byproducts.

The lawsuit, brought by the Olympic Forest Coalition against Coast Seafoods, was heard in U.S. District Court in Tacoma on Wednesday. On Friday, Judge Ronald Leighton denied Coast Seafood's motion to dismiss, allowing the case to move forward.

OFC, which promotes conservation on the Olympic Peninsula, alleges that Coast Seafoods' Linger Longer Road hatchery violates the Clean Water Act by routinely discharging chlorine, ammonia, nitrogen and other pollutants into Quilcene Bay and the neighboring canal.

The hatchery's "unpermitted discharges of pollutants degrade the environment and the water quality of Quilcene Bay and Puget Sound," the lawsuit states.

Coast Seafoods' lawyers argue that the hatchery follows all legal guidelines for proper discharge.

A subsidiary of Oregon-based Pacific Seafood, Coast Seafoods considers itself the world's largest single producer of larval shellfish and grows oysters and clams on more than 14,000 acres of tideland in the Pacific Northwest. It operates a large processing plant at South Bend in southwest Washington and has a second hatchery in Kona, Hawaii.

The land-based Quilcene hatchery includes several buildings, tanks, vats and a large dock. It produces about 45 million oyster larvae for growers all over the world.

"We're disappointed with the judge's ruling today but we're confident the court will ultimately agree with us," said Dan Occhipinti, general counsel for Pacfic Seafood.

He added that it's not in the company's interest to foul its own production area.

"Our oyster production facility is a model for the importance of clean water and environmental sustainability," he said.

At the heart of the lawsuit is the method the hatchery uses to discharge waste. The Clean Water Act targets "point source" pollution from pipes and other conveyances. OFC's lawyers argue and provided photos that show the hatchery employs pipes, ditches and channels  all considered point sources under the CWA  to release waste into the bay.

In legal filings, Coast Seafoods counters with an defense based on the facility's size rather than its method of discharge. The hatchery's production levels are not large enough to require a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, according to the Coast Seafoods. Failing to meet the criteria of a larger facility, the facility is, therefore, exempt from the "point source" designation and doesn't need a permit, Coast Seafoods argues.

Whether the hatchery releases pollutants into the bay doesn't appear to be under debate. OFC cites a Coast Seafoods-commissioned study documenting the release of several chemicals and other byproducts common to large-scale shellfish hatcheries.

A recent boost in production means the hatchery is "producing much higher levels of effluent, including 'oyster poop,' to be discharged into the bay," wrote OFC lawyer Paul Kampmeier. "Effluent from the facility has in the past included excessive amounts of ammonia nitrogen and suspended solids that (OFC) believes is creating problems for fish, shellfish and diving birds "

Judge Leighton didn't buy Coast Seafoods' argument that the hatchery can't be a "point source" of pollution because its production levels are below a regulatory threshold. In his order, Leighton called the OFC's allegations "plausible" and stressed that point source pollution is "clearly and unambiguously" defined by the law.

"The claim that regulations trump the unambiguous statutory definition, and make (a facility) a 'point source' only if it produces (a certain amount of waste) is not supportable," he wrote.
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LOS ANGELESThe California primary election will be held next Tuesday, June 7, and while one would hope that the adult community is savvy enough to vote for the candidate that's most likely to have their interests at heart, perhaps a few reminders are in order.

I'll assume you won't be voting for Donald Trump, the epitome of a high school bully writ large, so let's talk about the Democrats and the only decent candidate in the presidential race, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a "Democratic Socialist" in the mold of President Franklin Roosevelt, whose legislative triumphs such as Social Security and workers' compensation are still being branded as "socialist" by right-wingers, and even Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who came under similar major fire for her creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The reason you may not know a lot about Sanders is due to his virtually universal disparagement by the mainstream media, with the Washington Post having published 16 anti-Sanders stories in just 16 hours and The New York Times bashing Sanders at pretty much every turn. Even Markos Moulitsos, founder of ultra-liberal The Daily Kos, has been consistently anti-Sanders, though some positive Sanders pieces have been published on the site.

Fact is, Sanders is the closest to being a "man of the people" that any congressional legislator in memory has ever been. He supports a "single payer" health system, opposes continually sending the U.S. military to fight unwinnable wars in the Middle East, is the only candidate not to have a SuperPAC and would work to repeal the Citizens United decision that gave corporations and the moneyed class free rein to spend billions supporting candidates for public office, wants all public colleges and universities to be tuition-free, and favors working as quickly as possible to replace polluting energy sources like oil and coal with solar and wind generators.

"This campaign is asking you and every American to think outside the boxoutside of the options that Congress and the media often give us," Sanders said during a recent speech in Santa Cruz. "What this campaign is ultimately about is to revitalize American democracy. A poll came out the other day. The overwhelming majority of people in this countryDemocrats, Republicans, Independentsare disgusted with the current political system. They feel helpless. They feel that their voices are not being heard. They feel that elected officials are listening to the needs of wealthy campaign contributors but not to the needs of ordinary Americans. What this campaign is about is changing that dynamic; it is about creating a political revolution."

Admittedly, thanks to her friends in the mainstream/corporate media, Clinton currently has more electoral votes than Sanders, though depending on how well Sanders does in the nine primaries (including the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico) that are left, he can come close to tying her totalbut that doesn't count the so-called "superdelegates"719 non-elected delegates (current and former officeholders, party officials, etc.) sanctioned by the Democratic Party who are free to vote for any candidate, no matter what the voters of their states have already said. While it has been true for several months that the vast majority of those superdelegates have already pledged to Clinton, often before the results of their state's primary were in, that wall is now cracking. Sanders has begun to pick up superdelegates that previously had pledged to Clinton, and as public opinion polls continue to show the gap between Clinton and Trump narrowing as the election draws nearer, many are realizing that Sanders is the Democrats' best chance to keep the White House, and possibly even pick up a few Democratic Senators and Congressmembers.

As for Hillary, as soon as the 2016 presidential campaign started more than a year ago, in many quarters, the foregone conclusion was, "It's Hillary." After all, over the past 24 years, she's been a senator, Secretary of State and the First Lady, so she's got a lot of governmental experienceand been accused of all sorts of crap related to Benghazi and her emailsall of which (non) scandals are still on the Repugnicans' radar and which they trot out at least every couple of weeks on their blogs and e-"news"letters. There's also an excellent chance that, if Clinton does get the nomination, they will attempt to arrange for her to be indicted on the "e-mail scandal," or, failing that (because Attorney General Loretta Lynch would probably have to sign off on such an indictment), they will (continue to) villify her in the press in a sort of "media trial" of the case they'd never be able to win in court anyway. Forget "mud"; shit will be thrown at her non-stop for the next five months, even more virulently than it has been for the past year.

But aside from the (non) scandals, Clinton nevertheless has a whole slew of problems. For one thing, in generally supporting the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), Clinton has rejected calls for government-paid healthcare for all, aka "single payer," despite the fact that more than 33 million Americans do not have healthcare and, even with Medicaid, can't afford to pay for it.

In terms of international relations, Clinton can only be described as a hawk. In 2003, as a senator, she supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq, though there was zero evidence that that country had been involved in the September 11, 2001 attack. According to the Huffington Post's Jeffrey Sachs, Clinton "strongly promoted NATO-led regime change in Libya, not only in violation of international law but counter to the most basic good judgment. After the NATO bombing, Libya descended into civil war while the paramilitaries and unsecured arms stashes in Libya quickly spread west across the African Sahel and east to Syria. The Libyan disaster has spawned war in Mali, fed weapons to Boko Haram in Nigeria, and fueled ISIS in Syria and Iraq." Not exactly something to be proud ofand she's been guilty of plenty more of the same.

And let's not forget Wall Street, with whose businesses Clinton has close ties. Of course, it was Bill who signed the repeal of the Glass-Steagell Act, which led directly to the 2007 "Great Recession," but it's Hillary who made at least $675,000 giving speeches to Goldman-Sachs higher-ups and another $1.8 million speaking to other big banks' executives. In fact, between 2013 and 2015, she made 92 speeches, collecting $21.6 million in speaker feesand she's yet to make public the texts of those speeches. Why? Is there something in them that might tip off the Great American Public that her ties with Wall Street will cause her, as president, to favor the top 20 percent of Americans who own more than 85 percent of the country's wealth?

Oh, yeah; and she's said she intends to put Bill in charge of America's economic future, possibly as Secretary of the Treasury.

As for the environment, anybody remember hearing about those earthquakes that shook places like Ohio, Oklahoma and Texasplaces that hardly ever shakeover the past year or so? It's pretty clear now that they've been due to all the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") taking place in those areas by companies desperate to find more atmosphere-polluting oiland Clinton has been a steadfast fracking supporter: "As secretary of state, Clinton supported and promoted fracking around the world," assessed Politifact.com. "As a 2016 candidate, her support comes with conditions such as local choice, stronger environmental regulation and chemicals. Sanders claim [that Clinton still supports fracking] is accurate but needs additional information. We rate it Mostly True."

Civil liberties-wise, voters should know that Clinton voted for the PATRIOT Act and its reauthorization, defended the National Security Agency's widespread surveillance of millions of Americans and their electronic data, and worst of all for the adult industry, "Through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as The Fellowship. Her collaborations with right-wingers such as Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and former Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) grow in part from that connection."

And finally, I've actually heard people say they will vote for Clinton because "we need a vagina in the White House." Frankly, I'm sympathetic to that view, and if the candidate were Sen. Elizabeth Warren or Zephyr Teachout, I'd be right there with them. But Clinton isn't nearly that good, policy-wise, so simply voting on the basis of sex is just a bad idea.

In short: Vote for Bernie; he's your only chance for decent federal government.

(By the way, even if you're registered as an Independent or "No Party Preference," you can still vote in the California Democratic Primaryso make sure nobody tries to make you use a "provisional ballot"; you've got the right to enter that voting booth like any Democrat. There's more information on that topic here.)
I have always wanted to speak another language, to understand and converse in Spanish or French or German with the ease of a native.

In my high school days, two years of a "foreign" language was required to graduate. We had our choice of Spanish or Latin. I ran to the Spanish class because "nobody speaks Latin" with visions of soon being able to converse beautifully and expertly with any amigos I might meet.

I was terrible. After two years I could count to 10, ask my desk mate, "Como esta?" and tell my teacher, "Mi lapiz esta en el piso." (My pencil is on the floor.)

When the foreign language requirement came around in college, I thought I might survive if I stuck to Spanish. After three quarters of Spanish at the University of Tennessee I could count to 12, ask my desk mate, "Como estas esta manana?" and tell my teacher, "Mi lapiz esta sobre la mesa." (My pencil is on the table.).

I always consoled myself by declaring, "Some people have an affinity for foreign languages and some do not. I do not." My mother, who always had the utmost faith in my abilities, said I had just chosen the wrong language.

"You used to chatter away in German when we lived in Berlin," she would say, then retell the story of how she wouldn't let a stranger into our apartment one day until I came to the door, listened to what he was saying and then told her, "Daddy sent him to fix the toilet." She was convinced that, even though I was age 3 to 5 when I had this masterful command of the German language, it would all come back to me once I heard another "Guten morgen."

Before I invested another three quarters and damage to my GPA with a class in German, however, I decided to give it a try over the summer with self-taught lessons using a text book and recordings at the UT library. That lasted two weeks before I declared, "Some people have an affinity for " and left the headphones and library cubical for a lounge chair at the pool.

I am happy to report, however, that my journey to be bilingual has finally taken off. I have recently spent time with someone who doesn't quite have full command of the English language, and I have been able to pick up the meaning of the words and sentences quite easily. I can understand and translate as brilliantly as I did in my days of conversations with German plumbers. Requests for food, leisure activities and complaints about various actions of those around him are well within my grasp of understanding.

It seems I perfectly understand the language of 18-month-old grandsons.
Anderson County Criminal Court Judge Don Elledge

By Bob Fowler of the Knoxville News Sentinel

CLINTON  Arraignment for a man accused of killing one person and injuring 11 others in a driving incident after a 4th of July fireworks show was abruptly halted Friday because the man has filed an $8 million lien against the presiding judge's property.

A furious Anderson County Criminal Court Judge Don Elledge told Lee Cromwell he was recusing himself from the case and would ask the state's Administrative Office of the Courts to appoint a special judge to preside.

Elledge said he couldn't be fair and impartial after Cromwell, who calls himself a sovereign citizen, filed the lien against him.

Elledge also told Cromwell he would "do everything legally and ethically possible to prosecute him, both criminally and civilly," as a result of the lien.

"I'm so mad," the judge said during a recess in proceedings. "It upsets me that in doing my job, someone would file something as frivolous as this."

Cromwell has also filed property liens against other Anderson County officials, including District Attorney General Dave Clark, Assistant District Attorney General Victoria Bannach, Circuit Court Clerk William Jones and Oak Ridge Police Chief James T. Akagi.

Clark said as a result of Cromwell's lien filings, "This is now an ongoing criminal investigation. There are criminal laws that address these kinds of issues."

Anderson County Register of Deeds Tim Shelton said the liens against the local officials were filed with the Tennessee Secretary of State's office and are called finance statements.

Valid finance statements are against all of an individual's property "and could affect their borrowing status, their credit, their credit history and could lead to judgments of repossession," Shelton said. "This is a very serious thing that they (sovereign citizens) are doing, especially if they don't have the status to do it. It can be extremely harmful to an individual."

Jones said he has had similar liens filed against him by two other people.

"It's kind of scary that they would be filing things like this," he said. "It's harassment. It's like a whole subversive group that doesn't seem to believe in law and order."

Jones said those who identify as sovereign citizens "don't believe they have to pay taxes and don't believe the state can infringe on their constitutional rights."

Shelton said the Internal Revenue Service has filed a lien in his office against Cromwell for $21,623.60 in unpaid federal income taxes for tax years 2005-07.

Cromwell in his filings identifies himself as "Lee-Harold: Family of Cromwell."

Cromwell's attorney, James Scott, said his client had been admitted to a hospital for "neurological damage" around the time the liens were filed. Scott said Cromwell had suffered a series of "mini-strokes."

Scott said Cromwell "was not as closely affiliated with sovereign citizens groups as one would think from his conduct."

Cromwell was charged with speeding in Oak Ridge in May 2014 and sent a $1 bill to City Court as payment, along with a notarized letter in which he "denied the  corporate existence" of the U.S., of Tennessee, "and all agencies of Anderson County."

Cromwell, 65, of Oak Ridge, is charged with criminally negligent homicide, vehicular homicide, reckless homicide, 12 counts of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and driving on a suspended license.

He is accused of driving backward at high speed through the Midtown Community Center after the city's July 4 fireworks display, slamming into other vehicles, knocking people down and crushing James Robinson, 37, of Knoxville, who suffered fatal injuries while pushing his older daughter to safety.

Cromwell remains free on $100,000 bond.
SHARE Campbell County General Sessions Court Judge Amanda Sammons is sworn in to testify before Special Judge Darryl Edmondson in a Campbell County courtroom Friday, June 3, 2016. MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL Attorney Kristie Anderson enters the courtroom, walking past Campbell County General Sessions Court Judge Amanda Sammons, seated foreground, for a hearing before Special Judge Darryl Edmondson on Friday, June 3, 2016. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL) Campbell County General Sessions Court Judge Amanda Sammons moves to testify before Special Judge Darryl Edmondson in a Campbell County courtroom Friday, June 3, 2016. Sammons did not testify on the stand because the case was postponed until a deposition could be taken from a third attorney. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL) Related Coverage Campbell judge indicted, suspended from bench

By Jamie Satterfield of the Knoxville News Sentinel

JACKSBORO, Tenn.  A Campbell County judge under criminal and ethics probes faces a new inquiry  whether she lied Friday under oath before another judge.

Campbell County General Sessions Judge Amanda Sammons insisted under oath Knoxville attorney Larry C. Vaughan asked her to hold a fellow attorney in contempt of court. Vaughan told the News Sentinel on Friday he did not.

"No," he said, when asked whether he sought to have Campbell County attorney Kristie Anderson held in contempt of court in a divorce case that pitted the two against each other. "All I can say is I presume her (Sammons') memory is not accurate. I don't think she's intentionally lying. She's a human being. It's been almost two years. She just doesn't remember accurately."

A transcript obtained by the News Sentinel shows Sammons at a hearing in September 2014 made the same claim that Vaughan asked for the contempt action. Vaughan would not answer further questions when told about that transcript, which has been entered in the public file in the case at issue.

Special Judge Darryl Edmondson on Friday stopped a scheduled hearing on the contempt action against Anderson when informed by her attorney, Herbert S. Moncier, of an audio recording of Vaughan denying he asked Sammons to hold Anderson in contempt.

"I want Mr. Vaughan here," Edmondson said. "If he comes up here and says, 'I did not ask for contempt,' I think we have a much larger issue, and I won't be the one who has to discuss that.  Tell Mr. Vaughan we have a judge under oath who has stated he said something. The reputation of a judge and an attorney is now in the limelight."

Sammons then tried to dismiss the contempt charge, despite having said minutes earlier it was filed at Vaughan's behest, not hers.

"With regard to the criminal contempt petition against Ms. Anderson, I move to dismiss it," she said.

Edmondson responded, "It's been taken out of your court."

Sammons is under a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe as to whether she ordered a charge changed and then lied about doing so. She also is under investigation by the state Board of Judicial Conduct on complaints that include altering records and challenging another judge's authority. The News Sentinel has reported allegations Sammons ordered children removed from homes without authority, refused to dismiss charges against the wrongfully accused and forced residents to pay a drug testing fee without approval from the state Legislature.

At issue at Friday's hearing was an incident on Sept. 3, 2014, two days after Sammons took the bench after winning election, in a divorce case. Anderson represented the wife; Vaughan, the husband.

When Sammons called up the case that day at 9:18 a.m., Anderson and her client weren't there. Moncier has said Anderson believed the case, which was being handled by Sammons' predecessor, was no longer on the docket.

Sammons issued a show-cause order against Anderson and her client for criminal contempt of court. On the order, she wrote it was filed at the behest of Vaughan and "sua sponte," Latin for "of one's own accord" and used legally when a judge takes action without a request to do so.

The order also cited an affidavit filed by Vaughan. No such affidavit is in the court file. Sammons has since called the order a "form order" and said in the September 2014 transcript Vaughan made an "oral motion."

At an October 2014 hearing, Sammons refused to step down from the case and accused Anderson  in open court  of repeated acts of contempt.

"Ms. Anderson has made it clear that she does not respect this court," Sammons is quoted as saying in a transcript. "And how she's done that is, you know, through various things here in court, open court, where there have been 200 witnesses present at various times that she's done things."

Moncier at the time tried to block Sammons from continuing, saying Anderson was being falsely vilified without cause or given a chance to respond. Sammons overruled him.

"Now, this court is forgiving Ms. Anderson for her behavior," she continued, according to the transcript. "And I had made that decision a long time ago, before we even came here today, to forgive Ms. Anderson's behavior.  I am dismissing the contempt motion. I'm not going to have a trial on that because, as I said, I have forgiven Ms. Anderson."

Sammons again on Friday noted she had "forgiven" Anderson.

Moncier said at Friday's hearing Anderson's reputation had been unfairly maligned, causing her business to suffer, and she did not want forgiveness for something she did not do.

"(Anderson) wants a finding under our American system that she is not guilty, not 'forgiven,' " he said.

Edmondson ordered a deposition of Vaughan with Moncier and Sammons there to ask questions under oath before setting a new hearing in the contempt case.

Related:

Officials: Campbell judge charging for drug tests without authority (March 23, 2016)

Campbell judge under probe by state judicial board (March 16, 2016)

Defendants barred from entering court arrested for being late, records show (March 7, 2016)

Jailers fire back at Campbell judges denial of order to change charge (March 7, 2016)

Special prosecutor sought for criminal probe of Campbell County judge (Feb. 26, 2016)

Campbell County judge refuses to drop charge against innocent woman (Feb. 8, 2016)

DCS: Campbell judge took children from their homes without legal grounds (Jan. 30, 2016)

Judge confirms complaint against fellow Campbell County jurist (Jan. 30, 2016)

Records show Campbell County judge upped charge, altered record (Jan. 29, 2016)

Campbell County judges fee order struck down (Jan. 13, 2016)

Campbell County judge charging fee to the poor for legal services they didn't receive (Nov. 24, 2015)

Campbell County judge becomes defendant for failing to sign order (Oct. 20, 2015)
FILE - An emotional President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks about the youngest victims of the Sandy Hook shootings, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

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By Michael Collins of the Knoxville News Sentinel

WASHINGTON  President Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of a Knoxville man and 41 other people jailed on drug charges.

Emlera Quince was sentenced in 1997 in U.S. District Court in East Tennessee to 25 years in prison and eight years of supervised release for two counts of possession with intent to distribute cocaine base.

Quince's sentence will now expire on Oct. 1, the White House announced Friday.

The men and women whose sentences Obama commuted were in prison under outdated and unusually harsh sentencing laws, White House counsel Neil Eggleston said in a statement.

"The individuals receiving a presidential commutation today have more than repaid their debt to society and earned this second chance," Eggleston said.

To date, Obama has commuted the sentences of 348 people.
FILE - David Parmer,10, and his brother, Zack, 13, take advantage of nice weather to fish on Fort Loudoun Lake. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)

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By News Sentinel Staff

Tennessee's 2016 Free Fishing Day is next Saturday, June 11, according to a news release from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

It's a day when anyone may fish free the state's public waters without the need for a fishing license.

The TWRA provides the annual free day in hopes of increasing interest in fishing. The day allows anyone the opportunity to try this great outdoor sport, especially children, TWRA said in the release.

In addition, children ages 15 and younger may fish without a license beginning on Free Fishing Day through the following Friday, June 17.

Free Fishing Day and Week apply to Tennessee's public waters, TWRA-owned and operated lakes, and state park facilities. Some privately owned pay lakes continue to charge during this special day and week. Anglers may consult with lake operators if there are any questions about a particular facility.

The day and week are annual events in Tennessee and are great opportunities to introduce children to the enjoyment and excitement of a day on the water catching fish.

The TWRA is among several organizations planning special fishing events, primarily for youngsters. The TWRA annually stocks several thousand pounds of fish for various events.

For a list of the events, visit the TWRA website at www.tnwildlife.org and the For Anglers section.

Anglers and potential anglers should check the events list often since special events are frequently added.
SHARE A.B. Culvahouse Jr.

By Michael Collins of the Knoxville News Sentinel

WASHINGTON  The attorney Donald Trump has chosen to help select his vice-presidential running mate is known by friends and acquaintances as an unpretentious, easy-going Tennessee native who has moved for decades within Washington's power circles but prefers not to call attention to himself.

A.B. Culvahouse, they say, is the opposite of the bombastic, over-the-top New Yorker.

"He's a common-sense, get-it-done lawyer (who) knows Washington and government well and is as honest as the day is long," said Tom Ingram, a longtime political consultant in Tennessee. "I just can't think of anybody better for Trump to ask to play a major role like this."

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, who has known Culvahouse for years, said he can think of no attorney more accomplished in law and in government than his fellow East Tennessean, who as White House counsel guided President Ronald Reagan through the dark days of the Iran-Contra scandal.

"If I were in trouble with the government or the private sector," Alexander said, "the lawyer I would want to hire would be A.B. Culvahouse."

In his new role, Culvahouse will be responsible for interviewing Trump's list of potential running mates, delving into their backgrounds to spot potential problems, then telling the presumptive GOP nominee who would make the best vice president.

Culvahouse heads into the job fully aware of its challenges and pitfalls. He has helped potential running mates navigate the vetting process in four presidential elections. He led the vice presidential vetting process for the 2008 GOP nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, and was soundly criticized when McCain picked then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whom many considered woefully unprepared for the job.

"He was vilified, to a degree, over that," said longtime acquaintance Fred Marcum. "But you are always going to have people who may not like whatever choice you make. That's why there's chocolate and vanilla. Nobody likes the same thing."

Culvahouse, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment for this story, citing the sensitive nature of the vetting process.

But those who know him well say he's ideal for the job  not only because of his incredibly sharp legal mind, but because his years as a mostly behind-the-scenes player in Washington have given him a keen understanding of the kind of person needed to fill the vice presidency.

"His experience and his grasp of the bigger picture  the political process as well as understanding Washington and how government works would be good for any nominee," said Susan Williams, former chairwoman of the Tennessee Republican Party.

Alexander described Culvahouse as "a good listener" with "unquestioned integrity."

"He is probably the smartest person in any room, but he doesn't let you know that," he said.

For all of his success in law and in politics, Culvahouse, 67, hasn't let Washington change him and still possesses the values instilled in him while he was growing up in rural East Tennessee, his friends say.

Culvahouse was born, fittingly, on the Fourth of July and raised in tiny Ten Mile, an unincorporated speck on the map that straddles Meigs and Roane counties and is now a summer cottage community for nearby Watts Bar Lake. Over dinner recently, Culvahouse shared with Alexander that he was looking forward to returning to Ten Mile for his 50th high school reunion.

Culvahouse's entree to Washington came in 1973 when then-Sen. Howard Baker Jr.  a legend in Tennessee politics and a powerhouse in Congress  hired him as his chief legislative assistant and counsel.

The two formed a close and mutually beneficial friendship. Baker depended on Culvahouse's counsel "to make sure things were always done with the utmost integrity," said Marcum, who himself worked as a senior adviser to Baker.

Culvahouse, in turn, learned the ways of Washington by watching and working alongside one of the masters of the Senate.

When Reagan tapped Baker as his chief of staff in 1987, Baker announced Culvahouse would join him at the White House as Reagan's counsel. That was news to Culvahouse.

"A.B. didn't know anything about it because he was on vacation in Mexico, and there was no phone service," Marcum said. "But A.B., having good sense and the relationship with the senator that he did, chose to accept. And I think he's grateful that he did."

Reagan and his administration were deeply entangled in the Iran -Contra scandal, and Culvahouse's legal guidance proved immensely important to Reagan's presidency and his legacy, Alexander said.

Reagan "ended his administration on a high note, and A.B. deserves a lot of credit for helping him make that happen," he said.

Just before leaving office, Reagan thanked Culvahouse by awarding him the Presidential Citizens' Medal, which recognizes Americans who have performed exemplary deeds of service for the country or their fellow citizens.

In his post-Reagan years, Culvahouse worked in a private law practice in Washington and served in various capacities on a number of government boards. He was back in the news in 2008 after interviewing Palin as part of a process that his defenders say unfairly targeted him for criticism. Culvahouse merely vetted possible vice presidential nominees, they note. It was McCain who picked Palin.

In a Wall Street Journal column, Culvahouse himself defended the Palin vetting process, which he described as "apparently the five most newsworthy days of my life." He recalled telling McCain that Palin wasn't ready to be vice president but "had the presence and the wherewithal to grow into the position."

"I summed up her selection as 'high risk, high reward,' " he wrote. "I stand by that advice."

Despite the grief he got over Palin, no one who knows Culvahouse was surprised that he agreed to take on the job of vetting Trump's possible running mates.

"A.B. makes decisions to do things like this because he thinks he can make a difference," Ingram said. "It's not just another political gig to A.B. It's more important than that."
Google Develops Big Red Button For Its AI To Prevent A Robot Apocalypse

Trending News: Google Is Installing An Off Switch Into Its AI So The Robots Don't Kill Us All

Why Is This Important?

Because Google wants to give humankind a fighting chance incase it accidentally makes Skynet.

Long Story Short

Google is trying to come out ahead of the imminent robot apocalypse by giving us humans a last hope in stopping the machines from taking over. The developers at Google-owned DeepMind technologies, which specializes in artificial intelligence, have proposed a "big red button" that could shut off the A.I. if anything goes wrong and wouldn't be susceptible to being disabled by the machine itself.

Long Story

If any company is going to build Skynet  the fictional eye in the sky that leads to the near elimination of humankind in the Terminator movies  it's Google. The parallels are just too easy to make.

But you know, Skynet didn't start out evil. It wanted to stop crime and make a better world.

But then again, you know what would really make a better world? The elimination of all those dirty stupid humans.

For a while now, futurists like Google's own Ray Kurzweil have predicted a moment in time  known as the singularity  when machine learning allows A.I. to surpass human intelligence. At that point, it's a toss up  either the robots help us all become immortal (Kurzweil believes this), or they kill us all (well explained in this awesome long read).

To prevent it getting to a robot apocalypse, smart people Stephen Hawking and we're-living-in-the-Matrix Elon Musk have called for better regulations of A.I. to save humanity. And while we're still far away from anything enforceable (Musk says our best chance to not becoming the robots' "house cats" is to become cyborgs) Google plans to install an emergency "big red button" that'll at least give John Connors of the future a fighting chance at defeating Skynet. That is, so long as he can get through the army of Terminators.

DeepMind technologies, a London-based firm purchased by Google in 2014, in partnership with the Future of Humanity Institute, a group bent on preventing the elimination of humans  outlined the plan for an A.I. kill switch in a paper shared by Gizmodo.

"Reinforcement learning agents interacting with a complex environment like the real world are unlikely to behave optimally all the time," explains the abstract of the DeepMind paper. "If such an agent is operating in real-time under human su- pervision, now and then it may be necessary for a human operator to press the big red button to prevent the agent from continuing a harmful sequence of actionsharmful either for the agent or for the environmentand lead the agent into a safer situation."

The paper goes on to present how the ideal red button would teach the A.I. not to try to prevent or even seek to disable the only button that could kill it.

This is a good start, because we might not have too much time. Kurzweil has long predicted that robots will get smarter than humans by 2045, while both Hawking and Nick Bostrom, director of the Future of Humanity Institute, have taken a more conservative view that the singularity will happen within the next hundred years.

During a 2015 speech at the University of Oxford, Bostrom gave this warning to students:

"I personally believe that once human equivalence is reached, it will not be long before machines become superintelligent after that. It might take a long time to get to human level but I think the step from there to superintelligence might be very quick. I think these machines with superintelligence might be extremely powerful, for the same basic reasons that we humans are very powerful relative to other animals on this planet. It's not because our muscles are stronger or our teeth are sharper, it's because our brains are better."

So yeah, make this button now before it's too late!

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Kurzweil has a success rate of 86 percent when it comes to predicting things. Some of the things he's predicted include the rise of the internet, online tailoring, smart wearables, voice-to-text and Google Glass.
By Choi Sung-jin

Jobs are rapidly disappearing from large manufacturers for various reasons, which shows that Korea needs new ways to increase employment, economic experts say.

As of last Sept. 30, out of 147 listed companies affiliated with the nation's 20 largest conglomerates, the number of jobs declined from the end of 2014 in 66 companies and stood still in four others, according to a recent analysis of employment trends.

At Samsung Electronics, for instance, the number of employees at home had dropped by 825, or 1 percent of its total payroll, compared with the end of 2014. The world's largest smartphone maker increased the number of workers by 5,000 in 2013 and 3,500 in 2014, but the trend turned downward last year, the report said.

"The biggest reason for the reduced hiring was a worsening financial situation, as shown by the fall in sales over the past few years," said a Samsung Electronics executive. The company's turnover stood at 200.65 trillion won ($168.57 billion) last year, down 3 percent from 2014.

A private economist said Samsung Electronics' case is indicative of overall trends in the manufacturing sector.

"It is proof that new employment is falling across the board in Korea's flagship manufacturing industries," said Korea Economic Research Institute vice chairman Bae Sang-keun. "The actual scope of payroll cuts might have been far bigger if we consider the situation of the final quarter of last year, when a large number of workers retired due to the age limit or voluntarily."













Another reason for the "employment cliff" is most manufacturers' reluctance to build plants or expand existing ones. Kia Motors, for instance, cut its payroll by 43 workers last year compared with 2014. "Over the past decade or so, there has been almost no change in our total payroll except for some who were converted from temporary to permanent workers," a company official said.

This means sluggish employment in the auto industry for nearly two decades was due to the lack of plant construction or expansion. Hyundai Motor has built no factories since its last one in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, in 1998.

High wages are also to blame.

"At a time when global automakers are staging fierce cost-cutting competition, it will be difficult for Hyundai Motor, whose average labor cost of 97 million won ($81,500) exceeds Volkswagen's 90.62 million won, to increase employment," said Lee Hang-koo, senior fellow at Korea Institute for Industrial Economic and Trade (KIET).

Factory automation is also taking jobs. Steelmaker POSCO cut 489 employees last year. "We have trouble transferring employees whose jobs have become redundant because of automation," said a POSCO official. "We have managed to maintain the overall employment size thanks to the extension of the retirement age, from 56 to 58, from 2013, but its effects are about to disappear soon."

And the situation may become worse. Korea's three largest shipbuilders reduced their combined payroll by only 354 over the past year. If their backlog orders for offshore plants are fulfilled by next year, more jobs are sure to go.

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, which registered a record 5.5 trillion won loss last year, plans to dismiss another 3,700 workers by 2019. "Even if the shipbuilding industry recovers, we will be unable to hire more employees because Chinese shipyards are rapidly chasing us through drastic restructuring," said a Samsung Heavy Industries executive.

The situation is little better in the shipping industry. Korea's two largest shipping lines, Hanjin and Hyundai, have been cutting their payrolls since the industry fell into a slump in 2011. Their combined number of employees stood at 3,658 in 2011 but fell 25 percent to 2,739 last year.

To expand employment, experts are calling for the focus to be on domestic services industries.

"It has been proved that the existing industrial structure of Korea focusing on large manufacturers and exporters can no longer increase jobs," said KIET president Kim Do-hoon. "The nation can increase employment only when it changes its focus to the services sector, which requires a lot more people."
South Korea's top central banker on Monday called for stepped-up efforts to create quality jobs and spearhead structural reform, calling them keys to balanced and sustainable growth.

In his opening remarks marking the start of an annual international conference, Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said the role of employment has shifted from supporting economic growth to one that ensures growth.

"I believe that the 2008 global financial crisis gave us an opportunity to rethink the importance of employment. Until the crisis, the role of employment had not moved beyond supporting the demand for labor needed for economic growth," he said. "Given the persistence of low growth since the crisis, however, it is now widely recognized that employment should play an active role in stimulating growth."

The BOK chief insisted such a shift stemmed largely from a structural change, which was partly caused by a change in demographics and the way people spend money.

"Despite active policy efforts by individual countries to enhance their economic dynamism through various unconventional measures, economic recoveries are being delayed. And this suggests the possibility of structural changes in the global economy since the crisis. From the aggregate demand perspective, the structural change is associated mainly with population aging, growing debt and worsening income imbalances, which result in a decline in consumption and investment," Lee said.

"If this low growth is attributable in large part to structural changes in the economy, then I think we need to shift our policy response paradigm to address it," he added.












By Choi Sung-jin



A schizophrenic man stabbed a woman to death last month at a unisex public toilet nearby Seoul's Gangnam Subway Station. One of the immediate measures suggested by the police is to build more men-only and women-only restrooms.



Last Sunday, a masked man killed a female hiker with his knife on one of the mountains surrounding the capital city. The police's response this time: ask men, especially parcel and food delivery men, not to wear masks and helmets in closed spaces, including elevators.



This is because many women are extremely scared of being alone with a man wearing a helmet or a mask in a closed space.



Actually, some police stations in Seoul have asked apartment management offices and restaurant owners in their neighborhoods to discourage male residents and delivery men from wearing masks and helmets in elevators. These moves are in accordance with the decisions made at a meeting of top police officers to prevent misogynic hate crimes.



"To hear residents say it, one can realize why women feel scared in elevators," a police station chief said. "If janitors and restaurant owners cooperate and tell residents and delivery men not to wear their masks and helmets, it would greatly help in preventing don't-ask crimes.'"



Drivers of parcel company vehicles and delivery men immediately resisted, however, saying masks and helmets are indispensable for their safety and health. "Of course, we can take them off when we get in elevators but it will be a big hassle to keep putting them on and taking them off every time we enter a high-rise apartment or an office building," said one parcel delivery man.



Even ordinary males are skeptical about the police measure. "If we have to take off our masks in elevators just because women are afraid, that is tantamount to regarding all men as potential criminals," said an office worker, wanting to be known by just his family name of Choi. "That represents the typical administrative expediency of the police."



Even some police officers express doubt about the effectiveness of this measure. "Most of these delivery men have to wear masks to prevent cold or block fine dust. How can we force them to stop protecting themselves?"












President Park Geun-hye places a cornerstone to celebrate the start of the construction of the Maison de la Coree, a dormitory for Korean students in the Cite Internationale Universitaire de Paris, a private park and a foundation, during a commemorative ceremony held in the main building of the university, Thursday (local time). The President is flanked by Pascale Boistard, second from left, France's state secretary to the minister of social affairs and health, and Marcel Pochard, right, president of the university.



/ Yonhap
South Korean President Park Geun-hye pledged Thursday to further facilitate startups by young people from South Korea and France as Seoul seeks to expand trade and investments with the European country.

She said the two countries are set to sign a cooperation deal on creative economy following her summit with French counterpart Francois Hollande on Friday.

Park has been pushing for a creative economy by viewing it as the only viable growth engine for Asia's fourth largest economy.

The president's signature creative economy is meant to, among other things, turn new ideas into real businesses with the help of cutting-edge science and information technology.

France opened the French Tech Hub in Seoul in March to help its own startup companies make inroads into South Korea.

Currently, South Korea and France have been running a program under which both sides select five startups each and help them enter their respective markets.

Park called on South Korea and France to diversify trade, noting Seoul and Paris are set to establish a dialogue channel between their top officials in charge of their economies.

"I hope you will play a leading role in expanding trade and investments by taking advantage of dialogue and information channel," Park told about 220 South Korean and French business executives at a hotel.

She also asked French business executives to invest in South Korea in such sectors as the Internet of Things, biotechnology and energy.

The two countries can enjoy "a win-win situation in new energy industries, ICT and biotechnology if French scientific and technological prowess is combined with South Korea's technology for application and production," Park said.

Park also said Seoul and Paris can stay ahead in the hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle market if liquefaction technology of French Air Liquide S.A. and South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. join forces.












South Korea's defense ministry on Friday said the issue of deploying a U.S. advanced missile defense system on South Korean soil will not be discussed at the upcoming meeting of the two countries' defense chiefs.

"The two countries are in consultation over the deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery on South Korean soil. After the consultation is over, the results will come out," the ministry said in a statement.

Seoul's reaction came as U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said he expects the issue of the THAAD missile defense system to come up when he meets with his South Korean counterpart, Han Min-koo, in Singapore on Saturday, according to a transcript by the Defense Department.

In early March, the two countries launched a working group to discuss the issue of the THAAD deployment, but they have not unveiled details about any progress. (Yonhap)
North Korea convened a meeting of workers in Pyongyang this week to promote the "200-day loyalty campaign" aimed at fueling the country's economic growth, a report by the country's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Friday.

The news agency reported that the meeting, held at the People's Palace of Culture in the North Korean capital, was intended to send a government message that would incite the people to work more during the 200-day campaign. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un initially kicked off the campaign at the 7th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).

Attending Thursday's meeting were Kim Su-gil, chairman of the Pyongyang City Committee of the WPK, officials from the party and workers' organizations in Pyongyang, media and representatives from literature and the arts, the KCNA said.

The meeting reviewed the achievements, experience and mistakes made during an earlier 70-day campaign and discussed measures to encourage officials, party members and workers taking part in the 200-day campaign to accurately and effectively reach their target goals, the report said.

In February, the North launched a 70-day work drive to prepare for the WPK's congress held in May, which served as a venue to help Kim Jong-un reaffirm his leadership. The earlier campaign mobilized a large number of people for construction projects and other programs.

The state-run media then praised information officials within the WPK who contributed to glorifying the recent congress.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang held a mass rally at Kim Il-sung Square on Wednesday to celebrate the decision outlined by the country's leadership to execute the 200-day campaign.

Among those present at the rally were Cabinet Premier Pak Pong-ju, Choe Ryong-hae, Kim Ki Nam and other senior officials of the party and state, the KCNA reported. (Yonhap)
A British man was sentenced to 15 years in a U.S. prison on Friday for conspiring to import 100 kilograms of North Korean methamphetamines into the United States, according to AFP.

Scott Stammers was one of five defendants arrested in Thailand in September 2013 on suspicion of preparing to ship the drugs by boat, said the news agency.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy in August 2015 and was sentenced in New York on Friday by U.S. Federal Judge Andrew Carter to 181 months in prison, following which he will be deported.

U.S. prosecutors had sought a sentence of up to 30 years, but the judge cited mitigating factors that included the fact that Stammers has two children and was held in harsh conditions in Thailand before being extradited to America.
The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

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In one of his first appearances before the lobbyists, lawyers, consultants and others who live by their ability to influence city hall, Los Angeles City Councilman David Ryu didnt make it easy for his audience. He tackled some of the big issues confronting city hall and dug into them deeply, more deeply and even more deeply.

Ryu, elected last year, is definitely a policy guy. This wasnt a bad thing since there were plenty of wonkish people at the Los Angeles Current Affairs Forum luncheon at the Palm Thursday. Usually, the speakers give a policy once over and let the audience return fairly quickly to their jobs of influencing public officials. This time, they got an urban affairs seminar. From their questions, they seemed to be interested.

His presentation reflected his background. As a senior deputy to then Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke, Ryu handled a wide range of social and economic problems, including two of the most intractable--homelessness and mental illness. Now, as a councilman, hes in the middle of the development controversy as the representative of the 4th District, a center in battles over high rises in Hollywood, Koreatown and other areas. And as a Korean American, he is part of the increasing Asian American influence in politics and government.

He said that cooperation in the past few months between the historically feuding county and city governments have produced some good ideas and useful programs for the homeless. Ryu said, however, Money alone isnt going to solve homelessness. The more than $100 million in Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcettis new budget, he said, is like a scratch on a window.

Then he tackled a controversial aspect in the discussion of treatment of the mentally ill, who made up a large segment of the homeless. He spoke of the hard work of outreach workers who try to persuade the mentally ill to accept treatment or apply for housing. It takes 10 outreach attempts to convince a (homeless) person to have a cup of coffee with them (the workers), he said.

Ryu moved on to the problem of mentally ill young people who leave parental supervision at 18 and then refuse their parents orders or advice to be treated. He said now, it is almost impossible get a conservatorship over the mentally ill, a status that would permit relatives or guardian to order them into care. For the young mentally ill, he said, the answer might be to extend parental authority to order treatment to the age of 26the age children are eligible for care under Obamacare.

He appeared to be thinking of giving government more power to impose care on the mentally ill, a stand that would put him in conflict with civil libertarians who oppose such steps.

On development, Ryu, elected on a platform of helping neighborhoods who feel oppressed by over-development, said he is spending time with developer and neighborhood advocates and his top priority is to rebuild the communitys trust. He said he opposed an initiative, scheduled for next years ballot, that would impose a moratorium on some housing developments. Im not supporting governing by initiative, he said.

When we chatted afterward, he said he hoped his remarks hadnt been too long and complicated. Not at all, I said. Im interested in all that stuff. And I thought the audience was, too.
PRESS RELEASE

German Media Breakthrough on 28 Pages Expose of Saudi Backing for 9/11 Killers

June 2, 2016 (EIRNS)The widely-watched German WDR TV program "Monitor" last night had a 10-minute blockbuster special with an exclusive interview with former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) on the classified 28-page chapter of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11, which is said to reveal the Saudi role in the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Then-Senator Graham, as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, was the co-chair of 2002 Joint Inquiry. The whole interview, which includes previous statements by U.S. Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and former Navy Secretary John Lehman, who was a member of the later 9/11 Commission, to the effect that once the 28 pages are released the entire 9/11 story will have to be rewritten, with the role of Saudi Arabia right in the middle of it, which were said to be revealed in that 28 page chapter. By refusing to release the 28 pages classified by President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, the Monitor broadcast says, they demonstrate the hypocrisy of their war on terrorism. Furthermore they say that the Saudis not only supported the 9/11 terrorists that but also Islamic extremists all over the world.

They said that while the final 9/11 report had said nothing about "evidence of Saudi government involvement," they quote Graham as saying of the 28 pages in the report,

"I am obliged to keeping secrecy, and cannot talk about details, but I can say that the 28 pages predominantly deal with the question who financed 9/11, and that they point very strongly in the direction of Saudi Arabia."

(Senator Grahams remarks are back-translated from German.)

Graham is then allowed to detail the Saudi California network and says that the 28 pages gives more details:

"There were diplomatsboth at the consulate in Los Angeles, and at the Embassy in Washingtonand other Saudi citizens, which in one way or another were involved in the financing of 9/11 hijackers."

As for the reason for the cover-up of the Saudi role, Graham says,

"I have a suspicion that it all came down to not damaging relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia."

The 19 hijackers of 9/11 were not, as the official version goes, independently acting terrorists, Graham explained,

"I believe there was systematic support for these guys. They did not speak English very well, most of them had never lived in the U.S.A. before, and they were not very well educated."

The report documents a role of Saudi government institutions, Graham said, for instance the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, people at the Washington Embassy, the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Questions and the Saudi charitable organization. Publication of the 28 pages has been suppressed by the U.S. Administration, out of fear that U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia would suffer damage, which the Saudis however took as a blank check to continue financing terror groups, Graham charged.

Monitor then asserts the Graham is not alone, but "more than 50 current and former congressmen and senators" have demanded the classified chapter be released after reading and becoming "appalled by the content."

The Monitor also quotes Jim Kreindler, one of the attorneys for the families of 9/11 victims:

"Of course, Saudi Arabia should not go unpunished, but that it has helped al-Qaeda to kill 3,000 Americans. And both President Bush and President Obama stand on the side of the Saudis and are preventing the families of the victims to get the documents in order to claim their rights. This is outrageous."

Monitor quotes Congressman Massie from December 2015: "It is simply shocking if one reads them. I had to stop every few pages and rearrange my understanding of the history of recent years."

Monitor also mentioned Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) and mounting pressure on Obama to OK lifting the ban on publication of the 28 pages.

Interviewer Georg Restle writes that both the Saudi Embassies in Washington and Berlin had no comment, and adds that a full disclosure would be embarrassing for not only the U.S. but also Germany, citing the fact that Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has made numerous visits to the Saudi Kingdom and made statements on how good German-Saudi relations are.

Numerous mainstream media of Germany have covered the Monitor special today, including Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Zeitung, Hamburger Abendblatt, as well as Sputniks English-language dispatch (" 9/11 History Must Be Rewritten To Includes Saudi Support for Terrorists").
PRESS RELEASE

Kujat Warns Against NATO Intervention into Syria, AWACS Aimed at Russia

June 2, 2016 (EIRNS)President Obamas special envoy for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq, Brett McGurk, has called for NATO to deploy its surveillance aircraft in Syria in operations against ISIS, an obvious ploy to get NATO directly involved in operations in Syria. Such was the assessment of retired German Gen. Harald Kujat, former Chairman of NATOs Military Committee (2002-05) and former Bundeswehr Chief of General Staff (2000-02).

Referencing McGurks proposal, General Kujat told Sputnik, "It is a pretext. It is really about making NATO part of the Syrian operation." He went on to warn that a NATO intervention into Syria could create military precedents detached from its political line at the time, and could endanger the existing Syrian peace process. "This creates risks, because negotiations are very unstable," Kujat said.

On May 19, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, after a North Atlantic Council meeting, that member states were considering sending AWACS into the theater of operations. Since AWACS are primarily used to track aircraft and sophisticated electronic weapon systems, radars, and the like, none of which are in the hands of the terrorists, their deployment is rather obviously aimed at targeting the Russians and Syrians.
Ever since Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes won an Oscar for the 2001 film Gosford Park, his professional dance card has been overflowing with suitors. On the heels of the Downton finale, Fellowes came out with a digital version of Belgravia, a romantic novel set in 19th-century London, to be followed in July by the hardcover.

Hes up for a Tony on June 12 for the book of School of Rock, and hes about to embark on The Gilded Age for NBC. And Amazon Prime recently released Dr. Thorne, a miniseries adapted from Anthony Trollopes 19th-century novel about a country doctor.

In the final episode of Downton Abbey, everyone lives happily ever after, but I suppose you had to do that.

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Your choice is either to make them all live happily ever after or kill them all in a bus or something. But I feel when an audience has been faithful to you for six years, youre trying to be true to the people whove been faithful to you. The main thing was Edith was happy after six years of unbroken misery. And I think people had earned that.

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That sounds like something the Earl of Grantham would say. Toward the end, he says the family must be loyal to the cook, who has been loyal to the family for years. I sensed some nostalgia, not just for how groovy the period was, but also for noblesse oblige.

Interdependent society, because it did have class elements, is out of step with the zeitgeist these days. But you cant bring about great reforms without losing some things of value. There are still communities that are very dependent on the house, and the house is very dependent on the community. And I think theres something appealing in belonging. You need people to need you. The modern very rich live differently: They dont buy 300,000 acres; they have a house in Manhattan and a house in the South of France and in Martinique. I wish them well, but for me, when you try to live everywhere, you end up living nowhere.

Is there any talk of a Downton spinoff or movie?

I dont know about spinoff, but I hope there will be a movie. Theres an audience out there for it. But they just have to make that decision.

Lets talk about Belgravia.

Belgravia, my departure. The Orion Publishing house came to me because they wanted to release a book in the 19th-century way  one chapter a week  accompanied by the 21st century, so it wasnt released in a magazine as it would have been in 1860. It was released on the Internet, and it was accompanied by an app. You go on the app and you go around the houses that I describe in the novel. You also get it recorded by Juliet Stevenson. Apart from everything else, I was flattered that they came to me, because I was this old fart and it seemed very kind of cutting edge. But again its familiar territory  its a love story between 1815 and 1840.

Why did you start Belgravia with a one-paragraph prelude telling readers that they would be able to relate to these people?

I suppose if I do have a theme, it is that its wrong to see people in the past as different from us. I feel that if people, particularly the young, could understand that history is about real people making choices, thinking they were doing the right thing when often they were not, and that we are the result of those choices, they would be more interested in it. We ought to know what [those choices] are and why they made them, because when we come up against exactly the same choice, when we have no sense of history, we are very likely to do the wrong thing again.

Where does The Gilded Age stand?

It stands really with me up to my neck in research, and Im clearing the decks, so that when I start Gilded Age, Im only doing Gilded Age. These people were extraordinary. You can see why they frightened the old guard, because they saw no boundaries. They wanted to build a palace, they built a palace. They wanted to buy a yacht, they bought a yacht. And the old guard in New York werent like that at all, and suddenly this whirlwind of couture descended on their heads. They redesigned being rich. They created a rich culture that we still have  people who are rich are rich in a way that was established in America in the 1880s, 90s, 1900s. It was different from Europe.

In what way?

Something like Newport would never have happened in any other country, where you have huge palaces, and then about 20 yards away, another huge palace, and 20 yards beyond that another huge palace. In England right up to the 1930s, when people made good money, they would buy an estate of 5,000 acres and theyd have to look after Nanny. The Americans of the 1880s and 90s didnt want too much of that.

How do you create such involving characters?

We had wonderful actors. But as to why theyre involving, I think theyre decent people trying to do their best. I think we dont patronize them. If it had been made in the 50s, the family would have been gracious and charming and all the servants would have been comic. If it had been made in the 90s, the servants would have been victims trodden down by their employers and the family would have been vile and mendacious and horrible. But we didnt do either of those. Theyre just people. I think thats part of why it was so popular.

Speaking of actors, I thought it was interesting that 30 years ago, Disney cast you in a film when you auditioned in London, but they wouldnt even give you an audition in L.A.

They thought the English actors in L.A. theyd never heard of wouldnt be as good as the ones they could find in London.

Thats something American actors complain about now  a perceived bias in favor of British actors.

Ive come across it. I dont agree with it. I think British actors have the edge when it comes to theater. The tradition of theater and theater performing is very deep inside British training and acting. But I think the Americans have led the world in screen acting. I dont think we have screen actors of the level of Tom Hanks. You look at how extraordinarily subtle he can be and this incredible injection of reality that he always gives to his performances, I just find absolutely astonishing. Whereas the English tend to have a slight theatrical unreality in what theyre doing. Even in the old days, people like Henry Fonda were streets ahead of Lawrence Olivier when it came to screen acting. Its an American art.

For someone whos, as you said earlier, an old guy, I assume Andrew Lloyd Webber came to you for the book of Broadways School of Rock. Not what I would call 

A natural Julian Fellowes production? It was completely through Andrew. I loved the film, and I could see why he thought it could be a stage musical, and again, it seemed so far from Downton. And I loved the idea of the two of us past pension age writing a rock musical for Broadway. I just thought it was hilarious.

You and Andrew Lloyd Webber are older, but so is rock.

We were the generation that invented rock. There isnt so much distance.

Theres more distance from the setting of Dr. Thorne, your new Amazon Prime series adapted from an Anthony Trollope novel. What attracts you to his work?

For Trollope, nobody is all good or all bad. He has an entirely modern recognition that most human beings are a mixture of the two, and he has a mercy in his judgments that even Dickens lacks. Dickens heroines are all shining bright, while his villains are irredeemably evil. Trollopes are neither. I think his moral compass, his forgiveness, if you like, is much more in tune with a modern reader.

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The innovative works of a color field painter. Art that explores questions of labor. And isolated desert homesteads as rendered by a California painter. Plus: California landscapes that play with the texture of air and a new space in Boyle Heights opens its doors. Here are five shows to see this week:

Sam Gilliam, Green April, at David Kordansky Gallery. A new exhibition of large-scale works by the Washington, D.C.-based painter focuses on works from the late 1960s and early 70s  many of which have never been exhibited. This includes his so-called slice paintings (in which he folds a canvas with wet acrylic paint in half to create an abstracted imprint) as well as his drape paintings, stretcher-less canvases that he suspends from the walls and ceilings of an exhibition space. Opens Saturday and runs through July 9. 5130 Edgewood Place, Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles, davidkordanksygallery.com.

Andrea Bowers, Triumph of Labor, at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects. Bowers is an artist who has long been interested in questions of politics and labor. In this, her fourth solo exhibition at Vielmetter, she looks into different types of labor activism. This includes a series of drawings inspired by historic political graphics of women, photographs she has taken at labor rallies and her photo-realistic drawings of activists. A final gallery displays two sculptures that explore the dilemma of low wages and high tuition in higher education. Opens Saturday and runs through July 9. 6006 Washington Blvd., Culver City, vielmetter.com.

Edges of Chaos: Promoting Madness and Dissent in the 90s, at PSSST. The new Boyle Heights art space is opening its doors with a series of programs organized by artist-in-residence Guadalupe Rosales, who manages the veteranas_and_rucas archive on Instagram, and independent curator Adrian Rivas. This includes video screenings, a dance party, a daytime DJ session and a sound performance. Check the websites for more listings. 1329 E. Third St., Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, pssst.xyz.

Deanna Thompson, at Kayne Griffin Corcoran. The California painter has a posthumous exhibition (she died last year) that brings together images of isolated desert homesteads and paintings of cars. They are simple works that emanate a vibrating intensity. Opens at 3 p.m. Saturday and runs through July 30. 1201 S. La Brea Ave., Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles, kaynegriffincorcoran.com.

Jake Longstreth, Carbon Canyon, at Ltd. Los Angeles. In his first solo exhibition at the gallery, the Los Angeles-based artist is presenting a series of paintings that capture that space where landscape meets sky (especially when seen through hazy California air). Seven new large-scale works riff on the nature of land and air and that nebulous particulate layer in between. Through June 30. 7561 W. Sunset Blvd., #103, Hollywood, ltdlosangeles.com.

FINAL WEEK

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DO NOT MISS: Amy Park, Ed Ruschas Every Building on the Sunset Strip at Kopeikin Gallery.Park takes Ruschas iconic 1966 photo book, which documented every building on West Hollywoods Sunset Strip, and re-creates it as a series of exquisitely rendered watercolor paintings  a 97-foot immersive environment that wraps the gallery and therefore the viewer. Its a new way of seeing a familiar Los Angeles work. Through Saturday. 2766 S. La Cienega Blvd., Culver City, kopeikingallery.com.

ONGOING EXHIBITIONS

Joan Snyder, Womansong, at Parrasch-Heijnen. The prominent abstract painter has seven new canvases on view at this new Boyle Heights space, which explore aspects of landscape and the female figure, as well as one of the early stroke paintings for which she is well known. These are canvases composed of bold strokes of paint on gridded backgrounds  works that ride the divide between abstraction and conceptualism. Through June 10. 1326 S. Boyle Ave., Los Angeles, parrasch-heijnen.com.

43: From Ayotzinapa to Ferguson, at Self Help Graphics & Art. In partnership with the Social Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), the venerable Eastside print workshop and gallery is bringing together a panoply of L.A. artists  including David Botello, Sandy Rodriguez and Eye.One  to take on the issue of abuses of the state around the Americas. Through June 10. 1300 E. 1st St., Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, selfhelpgraphics.com.

A Shape That Stands Up, at Art + Practice. A group show that treads the line between abstraction and figuration features works by Amy Sillman, Henry Taylor, Sadie Benning and a host of other interesting names. Through June 18. 4339 Leimert Blvd., Leimert Park, Los Angeles, artandpractice.org.

Elliott Hundley There is No More Firmament, at Regen Projects. The Los Angeles-based artist is known for his wild fusions of collage, assemblage, photography and painting  producing wall objects that come off as totally painterly, yet providing endless layers for the viewer to get lost in. For his fourth show at Regen, he has created a series of works inspired by the work of 20th century French dramatist Antonin Artaud. Expect a riotous, engrossing, obsessive tour examining different states of anxiety. Through June 18. 6750 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, regenprojects.com.

Ivar Wigan, The Gods, at Little Big Man Gallery. In recent years, the Scottish photographer has devoted himself to capturing the street culture associated with the urban music scene of the American South in cities as varied as Miami, Atlanta and New Orleans  capturing fall-of-Rome revelry but also social marginalization. Through June 21. 1427 E. 4th St., downtown Los Angeles, littlebigmangallery.com.

Morgan Fisher and Karina Nimmerfall, Past Future Housing, at the MAK Center. This exhibition brings together two artists  one German, one from Los Angeles  who look at the question of mass-produced housing in the United States. This includes the creation of a fictional prototype for a new utopian city inspired by historic development plans for Los Angeles. Through June 25. Mackey Garage Top, 1137 S. Cochran Ave., Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles, makcenter.org.

Peter Opheim: Fables of the Eleven Rooms and Six Houses, at Zevitas Marcus. Opheim paints clay renderings of bulbous Venus of Willendorf-ish figurines that are charmingly grotesque. The show includes 11 paintings, as well as a series of sculptures made from the discarded clothing of friends and family members. Through June 25. 2754 S. La Cienega Blvd., Culver City, zevitasmarcus.com.

Wallace Berman, American Aleph, at Kohn Gallery. This is the first comprehensive Los Angeles retrospective for the pioneering Southern California assemblage artist in roughly four decades. The artist, who was also the publisher of the influential arts and literary magazine Semina, had an international influence. The exhibition gathers works from the 1940s to his death in 1976, including numerous examples of his Verifax collages, photocopied and painted assemblages that play with the tropes of popular culture. This is one not to miss. Through June 25. 1227 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood, kohngallery.com.

Ed Moses, Moses@90, at William Turner Gallery. To celebrate the prominent L.A. painters 90th birthday, this survey exhibition gathers works from throughout his career. This includes drawings from the 1950s to the 1970s, his more gestural paintings from the 1990s, as well as a slew of recent works. Through June 25. Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., E-1, Santa Monica, williamturnergallery.com.

Making Waves: Japanese American Photography, 1920-1940, at the Japanese American National Museum. In the early 20th century, groups of Japanese American photographers all along the Pacific coastline launched photography clubs, through which they published and exhibited their work. Their striking imagery  ranging from abstract compositions to scenes of everyday life  drew the attention of artists such as Edward Weston and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Unfortunately, much of their work was destroyed or lost when Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps by the U.S. government during World War II. But examples remain and JANM has gathered more than 100 of these prints for a show that explores the history and legacy of the clubs. Through June 26. 100 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles, janm.org.

Olayami Dabls, Flags Erotic Rights, at Henry Taylors. An artist, historian and curator from Detroit, Dabls is known for his extensive collection of African beads, textiles and other cultural objects. But he is also an artist, and for his Los Angeles exhibition, he is showing three bodies of work created over three decades. This includes his flag paintings from the mid-1980s, a series devoted to civil rights from that same era and an African erotica series from the mid-2000s. Through June 30. 810 E. 3rd St., downtown Los Angeles, facebook.com.

Salomon Huerta, at Christopher Grimes Gallery. A new series of works by the Los Angeles artist features his watercolor portraits of celebrated boxers, including Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano and Mike Tyson  an intimate look at the hyper-masculine figures of one of the worlds most brutal sports. Opens at 6 p.m. Saturday and runs through July 1. 916 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica, cgrimes.com.

John Humble, DTLA, at Craig Krull Gallery. Humble has been shooting Los Angeles since 1979, capturing its asphalt, signage and its buffed graffiti. His show at Craig Krull explores downtown Los Angeles, with a focus on the neighborhoods wild contrasts in architecture and its overlapping cultures. There will also be a show of paintings by Dan McCleary, as well as prints by Javier Carrillo, Roberto Ortiz and Jairo Perez of the Art Division Print Collective. Through July 2. Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica, craigkrullgallery.com.

Helen Rae, at Good Luck Gallery. Rae produces drawings that take fashion magazines as a point of inspiration for bright scenarios that channel the otherworldly. In each piece, something familiar remains, but coupled by elements that feel inventively sci-fi. Through July 2. 945 Chung King Road, thegoodluckgallery.com.

Refenestration, at Tif Sigfrids. A group exhibition inspired by the window, from the opening on a wall to the computer program of the same name, features works by key photographers such as John Divola, Uta Barth and Jeff Welling, who have used the object  or the idea of the object  in wildly experimental ways. Through July 2. 1507 Wilcox Ave., Hollywood, tifsigfrids.com.

Urbanature, at the Alyce de Roulette Williamson Gallery at ArtCenter College of Design. A group exhibition looks at the increasingly fraught ways in which the urban intrudes on natural world  and the ways in which nature has adapted to this new human-centric reality. Through July 3. 1700 Lida St., Pasadena, artcenter.edu.

C.O.L.A. 2016, at the L.A. Municipal Art Gallery. Every year, the Municipal Art Gallery features work by the winners of the City of Los Angeles (C.O.L.A.) Artist Fellowships, which honor a dozen mid-career artists from around the city  one of the rare municipal programs to directly fund artists in the United States. This year, the visual arts winners include Paolo Davanzo, Marsian De Lellis, Keiko Fukazawa, Megan Geckler, Won Ju Lim, Sarah Maclay, Blue McRight, Sandeep Mukherjee and Christine Nguyen. A separate public event in Grand Park will honor C.O.L.A.s three literary winners: Sarah Maclay, Claudia Rodriguez and Lynne Thompson. The art exhibition runs through July 3; 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. A reading with the literary winners will take place at Grand Performances at 7 p.m. June 11 at California Plaza, 350 S. Grand Ave, in downtown Los Angeles, lamag.org.

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty, at the Orange County Museum of Art. The New York-based painter and photographer has long played with the tropes of feminine beauty in works that seamlessly stir the alluring with the mildly grotesque. Through July 10. 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach, ocma.net.

Alex Israel, at the Huntington. In 2012, the San Marino library and museum unveiled the first of its contemporary interventions with low-key works by Ricky Swallow and Lesley Vance. Now the museum is getting bolder, with a series of installations by painter Alex Israel, whose pop-inspired canvases and objects touch on topics such as celebrity, glamour and power. Through July 11. 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, huntington.org.

Fred Reichman and Eleanor Ray, at the Landing. Artists from opposing coasts (he from postwar San Francisco, she from contemporary New York) produce paintings that ruminate on mundane settings. Reichman depicts spare backgrounds and quiet scenes: A sleeping figure, a brooding cat, an open window. Ray, in the meantime, depicts quiet studios and fragments of urban settings. Through July 16. 5118 W. Jefferson Blvd., West Adams, Los Angeles, thelandinggallery.com.

Jose Montoya, Abundant Harvest: Works on Paper / Works on Life, at the Fowler Museum. Throughout his life, activist, poet and painter Jose Montoya drew  on whatever was at hand: napkins, hotel stationery and notebooks. And in those drawings he recorded the quotidian aspects of Mexican American life in the United States: dogs and children, women and sailors, pachucos and pachucas, the architecture of low-lying Central Valley neighborhoods, industrial warehouses and agricultural settings, as well as the glamorous profile of lowrider cars. It is the first comprehensive look at this vital Chicano artists drawing practice. Through July 17. UCLA, 308 Charles E. Young Drive N., Westwood, fowler.ucla.edu.

Robert Mapplethorpe, The Perfect Medium, at the L.A. County Museum of Art and the Getty Museum. A two-part exhibition spread over a pair of L.A. museums explores the photographic legacy of an artist who brought as much grace to images of flowers as he did to S&M. The LACMA portion features early drawings, collages, sculptures, Polaroids, still lifes and archival material. The Getty will present his more formal portraits, along with the infamous X Portfolio, with its elegant S&M imagery. The LACMA runs through July 31. 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, lacma.org. The Getty exhibit also runs through July 31. 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood, Los Angeles, getty.edu.

Royal Hawaiian Featherwork: Na Hulu Alil, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. For centuries, long cloaks, capes, and other attire were painstakingly layered with the bright plumage of birds. Today, fewer than 300 examples of these exquisite garments exist  which makes this show of feather works, once donned by Hawaiian royals as far back as the late 18th century, a rare treat. Through Aug. 7. 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles, lacma.org.

Routine Pleasures, at the MAK Center. Michael Ned Holte, who served as curator on the last Made in L.A. biennial at the Hammer, has put together a group show that focuses on artists who value focus and process over producing shiny objets  termite art as opposed to white elephant art. This includes works from L.A. artists such as Harry Dodge, ceramists Magdalena Suarez Frimkess and Michael Frimkess, sound artist Steve Roden and others. Just the antidote to overheated art market shows. Through Aug. 14. Schindler House, 835 N. Kings Road, West Hollywood, makcenter.org.

Sam Maloof Woodworker: Life/Art/Legacy, at the Maloof Foundation. The foundation is celebrating the centennial of the birth of the renowned Southern California woodworker, whose elegant objects and furnishings are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the L.A. County Museum of Art and the Smithsonian. The exhibition will feature more than 60 objects from throughout the artists life, including furnishings, drawings, photographs and other ephemera. The show is part of a years worth of events that will celebrate Maloofs life and work. Through Aug. 27. 5131 Carnelian St., Alta Loma, malooffoundation.org

In Focus: Electric! at the Getty Museum. Electricity: It powers your home, it powers your work and it powers the phone on which you are likely reading this post. This photographic exhibition at the Getty gathers historic images that showcase the allure of light and power. Through Aug. 28. 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood, Los Angeles, getty.edu.

Art of the Austronesians: The Legacy of Indo-Pacific Voyaging, at Fowler Museum. A look at the legacy of Austronesian-speaking peoples gathers art and artifacts from the Philippines, Indonesia and other points in the South Pacific. This includes nearly 200 works, from wood sculptures to ceremonial textiles to canoe prow ornaments. Through Aug. 28. 308 Charles E. Young Drive N., Westwood, fowler.ucla.edu.

Duchamp to Pop, at the Norton Simon Museum. Drawing mostly from the Norton Simons permanent collection, this exhibition looks at the influence Duchamp likely had on generations of artists, from assemblagists to pop painters  figures who have appropriated elements of the everyday world and transformed them into art. Through Aug. 29. 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, nortonsimon.org.

Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 1947-2016, at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel. The debut exhibition at the citys newest gallery tackles more than half a century of sculpture by women, featuring key works by important international figures (Louise Bourgeois, Lee Bontecou) and key California artists (Ruth Asawa, Clare Falkenstein). Pieces range from the ethereal (Lygia Papes golden threads) to downright hilarious (Lara Schnitgers lacy/cat/fur assemblage sculptures). Altogether, the show offers an alternative to the narrative of the macho man postwar painting scene that has so dominated the story of 20th century art. Through Sept. 4. 901 E. Third St., Los Angeles, hauserwirthschimmel.com.

Gronks Theater of Paint, at the Craft and Folk Art Museum. The Los Angeles artist Gronk (born Glugio Nicandro) is widely known for his career as a painter, conceptual artist and for his work with the inventive 1970s collective Asco. He is also a longtime set designer, one who has built and painted elaborate sets for performances, plays and avant-garde operas, including works by the celebrated director Peter Sellars. This exhibition that tracks a long-running practice that melds art and architecture with the theatrical. Through Sept. 4. 5814 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles, cafam.org.

Claire Falkenstein: Beyond Sculpture, at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. The 20th century California artist, whose name has is circulating once again after being included in the debut exhibition at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, is now the subject of her own retrospective, tracking her entire career, from the 1930s to the 90s. (She passed away in 1997.) The artist, who worked in San Francisco and Los Angeles  as well as Paris  produced prints and murals, among other works, but she is best known for her sculpture: in particular, her often gritty assemblages made out of wire studded with chunks of glass. Through Sept. 11. 490 E. Union St., Pasadena, pmcaonline.org.

Hito Steyerl: Factory of the Sun, at the Museum of Contemporary Art. A video installation by the German artist takes the viewer into a dystopia where the movements of workers are harvested to create artificial sunshine. The piece, which debuted at the Venice Biennale in 2015, is a mash-up of contemporary communication, told as video game, news report documentary film and Internet video. Through Sept. 12. MOCA Grand Ave., 250 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, moca.org.

Reflections on the Self, at the California African American Museum. Drawn from the museums permanent collection, this wide-ranging exhibition looks at the representation of the self, examining the idealized and mythicized ways that artists have portrayed pop and cultural icons, from Malcolm X to Thelonious Monk to a New Orleans grand marshal. Also on view at the museum is Oh Snap! West Coast Hip Hop Photography, which will feature an array of hip-hop artists who came up in the 90s, such as Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur and others. Through Sept. 18. 600 State Drive, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, caamuseum.org.

MOLAA at Twenty: 1996-2016, at the Museum of Latin American Art. The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach is celebrating two decades in existence with a show that draws from the museums permanent collection of more than 1,600 objects. These include works by renowned Modernists Joaquin Torres-Garcia and Wifredo Lam, Argentine conceptualist Leon Ferrari as well as contemporary figures such as Alexandre Arrechea and Patssi Valdez. Through Jan. 1. 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach, molaa.org.

Senses of Time: Video and Film-Based Works of Africa, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. For one of its long-term installations, the museum has gathered works of video or film by contemporary African artists that explore the body and the looping nature of time. This includes pieces by figures such as Yinka Shonibare, Sammy Baloji, Berni Searle, Moatax Nasr and Theo Eshetu. Through Jan. 2. 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire, lacma.org.

Non Fiction at the Underground Museum. An emotionally charged exhibition curated by the late Noah Davis, in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles brings together works that explore issues of race and violence. This includes important works from MOCAs permanent collection by artists such as Robert Gober, Kara Walker, Henry Taylor and David Hammons. Through March 2017. 3508 W. Washington Blvd., Arlington Heights, Los Angeles, theunderground-museum.org.

Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies, hosted by Providence College Galleries. Dont worry if youre nowhere near Providence College in Rhode Island. A new digitally-minded exhibition by the art writing team at Art F City features more than two dozen works by artists who use animated GIFs to create work  from Brenna Murphys dizzying electronic architecture to Jacolby Satterwhites pulsing alternate universe. Its the sort of thing that will encourage you to spend quality time online (and away from awful Facebook). pcgalleries.providence.edu.

Islamic Art Now: Part 2 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Contemporary works from LACMAs permanent collection by 20 artists who live in or have roots in the Middle East look at questions of society, gender and identity. Runs indefinitely. 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire, lacma.org.

Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.
Im Carolina A. Miranda, arts and culture writer at the Los Angeles Times, and this is your weekly update on everything arts and culture in the Southland and beyond  complete with Texas selfie sculpture.

Music inspired by place

Lets start with the high-brow. The Ojai Music Festival kicks off Thursday with a series of performances and other events organized by Los Angeles theater director Peter Sellars. His engaging, conversational style, writes classical music critic Mark Swed, has resulted in a richly textured lineup that will be as inspired by the mystical qualities of the Ojai setting as it is by personal and political struggle. The way the programs are put together, Sellars says, has to do with dream cultures and a bunch of things that are, I think, reflected in this place. Expect to hear lots of new voices. Los Angeles Times

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Portrait by Mapplethorpe

Andes Hruby wrote a moving essay about being photographed by the late artist Robert Mapplethorpe in New York City in 1979. He had us sit, then stand, writes Hruby. He dragged the chair forward, then we sat down again, and he returned to hiding behind his cape. He would let out a soft sigh then push the chair in another direction. Mapplethorpe is the subject of a pair of concurrent exhibitions at the L.A. County Museum of Art and the Getty Museum. Los Angeles Times

A pianist recovers from tragedy

In 2013, Ukrainian-born pianist Vadym Kholodenko suffered an unspeakable tragedy when he arrived at his Texas home to find that his two daughters, ages 5 and 1, had been slain. In advance of a performance at the Valley Performing Arts Center on Saturday, he sat down for a lengthy Q&A with writer Rick Schultz about his life and career. Music contains literally everything inside itself, says Kholodenko. It could be an escape or healing for someone, but its significance for people would never be exhausted. Los Angeles Times

Latin American artists in L.A.

Roughly a dozen Latin American artists have been spending time doing residencies in Los Angeles as part of a partnership between the L.A. County Museum of Art and the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica. The purpose: to provide an opportunity for them to explore area archives and conduct research in advance of next years Pacific Standard Time Los Angeles / Latin America exhibitions. I spent time with Carla Zaccagnini and Runo Lagomarsino, two artists of Argentine origin, who are conducting research on Carmen Miranda and colonialism respectively. Los Angeles Times

Arts from all over...

Works from the Louvre had to be moved to safe areas after high water levels in the Seine threatened to damage the museums art. (Markus Schreiber / AP )

Flooding affects Paris museums: Severe floods in the City of Light have led two museums along the banks of the Seine  the Louvre and the Musee dOrsay  to shut their doors to the public and move art out of harms way. The Independent

The urbanism of flooding: As in Paris, Texas has been experiencing devastating floods  yet the state has done little to design its cities in ways that make them more flood resistant. CityLab

Selfie art: Speaking of Texas, Sugar Land now boasts a sculpture of two girls taking a selfie ... because selfies. Click2Houston

Art and the IRS: A Senate subcommittee led by Orrin Hatch has looked into the tax loopholes offered to private art foundations  such as the Broad Foundation in Los Angeles  and submitted its findings to the IRS. The concern is that some institutions may be used as a way for the wealthy to avoid paying taxes on art purchases without real benefit to the public. The Art Newspaper

MOLAA director Stuart Ashman in 2011. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times )

MOLAA director steps down: Stuart Ashman, the president and chief executive of the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, is leaving California for a new role at the Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe in New Mexico. Los Angeles Times

UCSD closes gallery: UC San Diego is converting its 50-year-old gallery into classroom space  a decision that has inspired protest in the artist community. Voice of San Diego

Historic graffiti: Anthropologist Susan Phillips has found century-old hobo graffiti in the L.A. River. It was like opening a tomb thats been closed for 80 years, says the Pitzer College professor. 89.3 KPCC

People putting their heads in tiny galleries: This is a thing. Designboom

A Dont-Miss Art Show

Even now, when the strangest of bedfellows arent so strange anymore, writes art reviewer Leah Ollman, the materials brought together in Doublemix at De Soto Gallery in Venice induce a shudder of surprise. The exhibition is displaying collaborative works by photographer Denis Darzacq and ceramic artist Anna Luneman  a series of sculptural fragments in clay embedded into the surface of photographic prints. Through July 23. 1350 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, desotogallery.com.

For more arts events and exhibitions, see my arts datebook on Culture: High & Low.

And last but not least...

You too can can commission a portrait in the style of the Sweet Valley High book covers. This is so unbelievably tempting.

Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.
No Age guitarist Randy Randall was getting ready to bathe his toddler son when bad news arrived via a text message. The future of downtown all-ages punk club the Smell was in jeopardy. Be here at 7 to hear whats happening, it read.

It was like the bat signal  Well, I gotta go to the Smell, Randall told his wife.

She understood. They first met each other at the Smell, which since its birth in the late 1990s has thrived as a kind of secret headquarters for wayward young musicians, artists and fans.

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The problem? The Smells owner, Jim Smith, needed help. His landlord, L&R Group of Companies, out of the blue had posted a demolition permit on the entrance to his club on South Main Street.

The same notice was affixed to two other cultural hubs, the Downtown Independent movie theater and the New Jalisco Bar, a long-running gay dance club.

No Age and a host of other influential local acts including Health, Best Coast, Bleached, Ty Segall and Abe Vigoda (the band, not the actor) might not have earned fan bases  or even existed  without the venue.

Even though its 130-person capacity makes it feel smaller than a dressing room at the Forum, an entire underground Los Angeles sound, one born of high-end distortion, staticky noise and speed-fueled energy, jelled within the Smells jagged brick walls.

Owner Jim Smith, right, hands out tickets as patrons arrive at the Smell on June 2. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times )

The Smells do-it-yourself philosophy has earned it a reputation akin to that of the fabled CBGB in New York, 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley and the long-shuttered 90s L.A. punk club Jabberjaw: A music space where commerce takes a back seat to extreme self-expression, where novice artists can build audiences from scratch.

And now its long-term future is in doubt.

A few days after Smith learned of the demolition permit, he spoke with Kevin Litwin, chief operating officer for Joes Parking, part of the L&R Group of Companies that owns the properties. Smith said that L&R acknowledged that it could have been better about communicating its plans, and stressed that there is no current plan for demolition.

In an email to The Times, Litwin wrote, As a fellow lover of music, I appreciate the history of the Smell and its impact on the music community.

The executive pledged to provide the Smell with ample time if the company decides to develop the properties. If were able to help, we will.

Smith, however, said that L&R hasnt yet been willing to put it in writing.

The Smells lease remains month-to-month and, according to Smith, Litwin was unable to give him a definite time frame.

Smith explained that the nature of his business, booking shows for touring bands, requires more permanence.

We cant operate on vague reassurances, Smith said. We cant just leave bands in limbo if we find out 30 days from now were going to get evicted or the building will be demolished.

The Smell is located on South Main Street in a part of downtown that is losing grittiness. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times )

Smith, after speaking with No Ages Randall and other members of the local music community, has developed a plan of action. He is seeking $1.4 million via crowdfunding site GoFundMe to finance the purchase of a building to house a new location.

About $17,000 had been raised by Friday afternoon.

Yet however well-intended the rescue effort, is there still room for an all-ages, no-booze rock club in downtown L.A.? The area surrounding the Smell is hardly as gritty as it used to be. There are arguably more Ubers than skaters these days.

The news didnt surprise Jake Duzsik of Health, a beat-heavy noise rock band that earned early success through the club and now records for the respected indie label Loma Vista.

Driving by and seeing the CrossFit gym and all the lofts and all the swanky restaurants, youd say kind of callously, well maybe its not long for this world, Duzsik said.

Smith, who looks more like an algebra teacher than a punk rocker, isnt as fatalistic. Thats his nature.

Despite having a day job as an organizer and political coordinator for the local Teamsters union, most show nights  about 10 per month  hes at the Smell to greet the bands and unlock the door.

His altruism is legendary. When Health was looking to record its first album, the band members wanted to capture the sound they heard when playing at the Smell. Smith gave them the keys to the place. We recorded our entire record there, and he never asked for a dollar from us, said Duzsik.

That sort of DIY philosophy helped build early Los Angeles clubs like the Vex, the Masque and Jabberjaw, each run by kindred spirits looking for a place to set up amps and go for it.

The Smell, born by Smith and two friends in North Hollywood in 1998, was built to stand on those shoulders, said Smith.

Fans watch the band Nani perform at the Smell. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times )

We just wanted to keep that whole spirit alive, he said. That was our motivation. We didnt expect it to last very long. We just wanted to keep it going until something better came along or someone else started something. But it just kept growing.

The club moved to its current location less than two years later. Smith eventually assumed full ownership and started organizing a ragtag and noisy nighttime union to augment his daytime actions.

The Smell was described by Duzsik as this Village of the Damned Eastside noise scene where we could do anything we wanted.

For Jennifer Clavin and her sister Jessica, both of the indie punk band Bleached, the club served as an essential portal. When they formed their early band Mika Miko, they played their first gigs at the Smell, and when they called it quits in late 2009, they did so with three farewell gigs at the club.

It gave us a place to freely present ourselves, our art, our music without feeling dictated or judged  Jennifer Clavin of Bleached

It gave us a place to freely present ourselves, our art, our music without feeling dictated or judged, Jennifer wrote via email while on tour with Bleached in Europe. Literally no other all ages spaces like that existed in L.A.

Even so, the sisters were nervous sharing the Smells location with their parents.

Downtown Los Angeles was a different place when the sisters were driving in from the Valley. And maybe that was part of the appeal.

Knowing you might get robbed walking to or from your car is what made getting inside the walls of the Smell feel like you earned it, and like you deserved to be there, Jennifer wrote.

1 / 10 Patrons lounge in the waiting area of the Smell in downtown Los Angeles. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 10 Patrons of the Smell take a break outside the alleyway entrance during intermission between bands. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 10 The Smells owner Jim Smith, right, hands out tickets. Smith participated in a panel about the future of DIY spaces in Los Angeles. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 10 Patrons watch the band the Dirty Nil perform. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 10 The band Nani performs at the Smell. Bands like the sound generated in the intimate setting. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 10 A patron waits for the next band to set up. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 10 The Nani performs. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 10 The Nani performs at the Smell, which has a capacity of 130. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 10 The alley outside the Smell is a popular spot for patrons to linger between bands. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 10 The bathroom at the Smell. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

No Ages Randall started hitting the Smell while it was still in North Hollywood. When he walked in he immediately felt at home. Previously, his experience with live performance had occurred at bigger venues like the Hollywood Palladium, the Palace (now Avalon) and Dodger Stadium.

At his first Smell gig, former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt played a set and Randall was upended by fans proximity to the artist. The summer before, hed seen Watt at Lollapalooza.

There was no stage, he said. There was no festival. There was no parking. There was no security. All the things that made performing live seem so distant and remote were eradicated.

At the same time, stressed Randall, the Smell felt, and continues to feel, legitimate.

It wasnt like playing your friends backyard barbecue with your uncle embarrassing you and yelling at you to play songs. This was a real performance space that people took seriously, where real musicians performed.

A fan waits for the next band to set up at the Smell. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times )

Healths Duzsik said that tiny spaces like the Smell and CBGB inform the music. We literally, specifically, made music to be played in the Smell. It was 30-foot-high ceilings, exposed brick walls. If you played big, tribal tom-toms, it sounded like Mad Max in there. It sounded like the end of the world.

And now some are worrying its the end of an era.

Last year Smith asked the buildings owners for a long-term lease. They didnt respond, he said.

This time around he requested a short-term lease from Litwin, and if that wasnt an option, assistance with relocating fees. According to Smith, Litwin promised to get back to him.

Whatever the short-term solution, its hard to see how the Smells situation in a changing downtown can be assured, a reality that even the most vocal Smell advocates acknowledge.

Youd have to be stupid to not see what was happening downtown and think the Smell wasnt part of a larger business plan for what downtown is becoming, said No Ages Randall.

One day a huge fancy apartment building went up and thats when we knew it was changing, added Bleacheds Clavin.

Smiths commitment to the space was hardly a shock either, even if Randall at first wondered whether Smith might take the news as a sign to move on.

When and if he does want to go, he wants to do it at his time and under his own volition  not because somebody bought the building. Thats not a good enough reason for him to walk away from something that hes dedicated the majority of his life to.

A matter of commerce, he said, is not going to cause Jim Smith to recede into the shadows.

randall.roberts@latimes.com

Times staff writer August Brown contributed to this story.

Whats the best show you saw at the Smell? Share your memories in the comments section below >>

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Ask Aaron Paul which is the most likely scenario he would find himself in  being a convert to a cult-like religious movement as he plays in The Path or being coerced into cooking meth with a former chemistry teacher as he did on Breaking Bad  and the actor takes a pause.

Thats tough. I cant say neither? Paul said. I mean, I probably  theyre both kind of outside of the realm, but I can see me maybe heading towards the light more than cooking and selling crystal meth. Dont do drugs!

In his first TV role since his breakout gig on Breaking Bad, Paul stars in the new Hulu drama The Path as Eddie Lane, a family man who is having serious doubts about the religious movement (known as Meyerism) that he joined when he coupled with his wife, Sarah, played by Michelle Monaghan.

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In The Path, the one who knocks is ones own doubt. And for Paul, all the knocking provoked some challenging scenes.

Early in the recently wrapped first season, rather than risk his doubts being exposed to the groups leaders, Eddie agrees to participate in the organizations 14-day lockdown program, in which a member is locked in solitary confinement and interrogated by a counselor to reveal hidden truths.

The scene from that episode, which was directed by Mike Cahill, took half a day to shoot, Paul said. And Cahills notes for Paul was to embody four phases.

VIDEO: Exclusive interviews with TV stars from your favorite shows

The beginning, youre very coherent. Youre there, youre ready. Youre doing this for your family, Paul recalled of Cahills direction for the scene. The second beat, youre kind of questioning: Is this a good idea? I dont know. Third beat, youre mad, youre screaming, youre breaking down. Fourth beat, you have just completely lost it and youre hallucinating and all this. And [then] he was like, And, Action! And I was like, Uh, OK, here we go!

Paul said there was a camera stationed in the center of the room that followed his movements as he walked around in circles to capture the stages of emotions.

Of course, an equally challenging  but more fun scene, according to Paul  was the moment Eddie gets into a brawl with Cal, the unofficial leader of the Meyerists in upstate New York played by Hugh Dancy.

Any time you can roll around with Hugh Dancy, take it, Paul joked.

For more on what Paul had to say about how his own religious upbringing helped him relate to the character, as well as his thoughts on whether Jesse Pinkman might be vulnerable enough to join the Meyerist movement, check out the full-length video chat below.

yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter: @villarrealy
Faced with long airport lines and frustrated travelers, the Transportation Security Administration is hoping new technology can help speed up airport screenings.

The agency last week requested information from technology companies on ways to screen passengers without requiring that they take off their coats or shoes. It also sought ways to more quickly and thoroughly examine carry-on packages.On Tuesday, the TSA made a request for information and a broad agency announcement, two ways the agency collects information from private companies before it puts out a contract to buy or lease new technology. A request for information is a general inquiry about what technology exists, while a broad agency announcement is a more formal call for existing devices or systems that could be used by the TSA in the near future.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

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The request for information about new ways to screen passengers without having them remove their shoes is no surprise. The TSA has been looking to solve this problem since 2001 when British national Richard Reid tried to detonate explosives hidden in his shoes during a flight from Paris to Miami.

A recent survey by a Minnesota travel agency company asked more than 3,000 U.S. travelers what screening measure they would most want to eliminate, and the removing of shoes came out on the top of the list.

The TSA also requested private companies submit information about devices or systems that can screen more than 600 carry-on bags an hour with a higher level of detection for explosives and other prohibited items.

A TSA official said it is not clear how soon either request could result in new technology being used at airport checkpoints.

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Follow me on Twitter: @hugomartin

hugo.martin@latimes.com
Obama: Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it.

Statement from President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama on the passing of Muhammad Ali:

Muhammad Ali was The Greatest. Period. If you just asked him, hed tell you. Hed tell you he was the double greatest; that hed handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder into jail.

But what made The Champ the greatest  what truly separated him from everyone else  is that everyone else would tell you pretty much the same thing.

Like everyone else on the planet, Michelle and I mourn his passing. But were also grateful to God for how fortunate we are to have known him, if just for a while; for how fortunate we all are that The Greatest chose to grace our time.

In my private study, just off the Oval Office, I keep a pair of his gloves on display, just under that iconic photograph of him  the young champ, just 22 years old, roaring like a lion over a fallen Sonny Liston. I was too young when it was taken to understand who he was  still Cassius Clay, already an Olympic gold medal winner, yet to set out on a spiritual journey that would lead him to his Muslim faith, exile him at the peak of his power, and set the stage for his return to greatness with a name as familiar to the downtrodden in the slums of Southeast Asia and the villages of Africa as it was to cheering crowds in Madison Square Garden.

I am America, he once declared. I am the part you wont recognize. But get used to me  black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own. Get used to me.

Thats the Ali I came to know as I came of age  not just as skilled a poet on the mic as he was a fighter in the ring, but a man who fought for what was right. A man who fought for us. He stood with King and Mandela; stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldnt. His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing. It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled, and nearly send him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today.

He wasnt perfect, of course. For all his magic in the ring, he could be careless with his words, and full of contradictions as his faith evolved. But his wonderful, infectious, even innocent spirit ultimately won him more fans than foes  maybe because in him, we hoped to see something of ourselves. Later, as his physical powers ebbed, he became an even more powerful force for peace and reconciliation around the world. We saw a man who said he was so mean hed make medicine sick reveal a soft spot, visiting children with illness and disability around the world, telling them they, too, could become the greatest. We watched a hero light a torch, and fight his greatest fight of all on the world stage once again; a battle against the disease that ravaged his body, but couldnt take the spark from his eyes.

Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for it. Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family, and we pray that the greatest fighter of them all finally rests in peace.
State Senate candidate Khristy Wilkinson will be hosting a campaign kick-off event at Tatum Park on Monday from 5-7 p.m. This community event is free and open to the public; light refreshments will be served.



It is time to put people over politics in the State of Tennessee. We have real work to do in order to make sure our representatives are accountable to the people they serve. I am a candidate that will fight for the people of District 10. But more than that, I am a candidate that will listen to the voices of the people I represent. Politicians and representation are a fundamental part of our society, but politics as usual fails to serve the people in our State. Successful policy must be people-driven, said Ms. Wilkinson.



Tatum Park is located in Highland Park on Union Avenue between S. Holly Street and S. Hickory Street. Ms. Wilkinson will briefly address those in attendance at 5:30 p.m.



I am looking forward to meeting voters and listening to their concerns regarding the issues we face as a district and as a state. This campaign is about restoring the voice of the people in the Tennessee Senate, collaborating with individuals, neighborhoods and organizations dedicated to social justice, and bringing about progressive change that will usher in the Tennessee of the future.



Supporters said, "Ms. Wilkinson is a dedicated community volunteer and mother of two. She is passionate about education, economic justice, and civic engagement."



For more information contact khristy4tn10@gmail.com, or like or follow Khristy4TN10 on Facebook and Twitter.
She was fueled by curiosity. She studied Asian languages and took classes in four different countries. She tried her hand at stand-up and improv comedy.

Her knack for trivia dazzled. So did her ability to rouse a crowd into a singalong. Acquaintances were charmed by what they saw as an odd but engaging spirit.

Landing at medical school seemed yet another way to display her talents.

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But then things turned dark for Ashley Hasti. Pitch-black dark. The kind that would leave friends and family to grieve. And question. And remember.

Her body was discovered early Thursday inside her home in a Minneapolis suburb. Hasti had been shot multiple times, according to a statement from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner. A family member said a window on the split-level house had been broken.

Investigators said the 31-year-old appeared to have been dead for a couple of days. Police sources told The Times that the wounds and decomposition of the body complicated the identification process.

Hasti is believed to have been killed by her 38-year-old estranged husband, Mainak Sarkar, the former doctoral student who killed himself Wednesday after fatally shooting a UCLA professor and sending a frenzied campus into lockdown.

Beside the bodies was a note Sarkar left behind with his home address in St. Paul, Minn. That led authorities to a kill list that bore Hastis name, which led them to her body.

The couple had been dating in 2009 when Hasti was attending a post-baccalaureate pre-med program at Scripps College in Claremont. They married in 2011 and resided in Brooklyn Park, a city nestled along the west bank of the Mississippi River.

They didnt live together long  maybe a year, recalled Charlane Bertsch, Hastis great-aunt.

I always looked up to her because she did everything I wanted to do, but was too shy to even try.  Hastis sister, Alex

Bertsch said the couple never seemed overly committed to the marriage and that Hasti didnt bring up her husband during conversations. Still, she didnt recall any great disputes between the two.

He did his thing. She did hers, Bertsch said. Hasti, whose mother died in 2011, remained close with her father and sister.

When Hasti began medical school, her heart was happy, Bertsch said. She described her grand-niece as amusing and kind, at ease with many. During family reunions, Hasti was known to sing and entertain.

Well miss her very much, Bertsch said.

Hastis sister, Alex, took to Facebook to pay tribute. Hasti, she wrote, had been the coolest. The smartest. The funniest. The bravest.

I always looked up to her because she did everything I wanted to do, but was too shy to even try.

Among Hastis endeavors was overcoming stage fright at the Brave New Workshop, a comedy theater in Minneapolis where she took classes.

She was so friendly and loved by everyone for her positive outlook and somewhat oddball personality, said Erin Anderson, who performed with Hasti. She was just so curious about everything and hungry to learn.

Anderson said Hasti had been excited for Sarkar to move into her home because they had lived apart for a while. Neighbors recalled seeing Sarkar around the house but didnt have much interaction with him.

Hasti posted photos of herself with Sarkar in a May 2011 Facebook album titled Last Days in LA. Several of the pictures were taken at UCLA; one shows a photo of the Engineering 4 building where Sarkar shot his former mentor. She and Sarkar married the following month.

In 2012, Hasti enrolled at the University of Minnesota Medical School. She spoke openly to friends about her love for medicine and the medical school experience.

Second year med school is great and all, but I keep having dreams where Im being diagnosed in the doctors office with the disease Im studying, she wrote on Facebook in September 2013.

At some point and for reasons that are unclear, the couple parted ways. Sarkar began living in a small, three-story apartment building in St. Paul. He worked remotely as an engineering analyst for an Ohio-based rubber company.

News of the deaths made tenants uneasy.

It was scary for a lot of people, that someone like that would kill, Todd Sorenson, 49, said. Were regular folk around here.

Detectives believe that after Sarkar killed Hasti, he drove to Los Angeles to carry out his plan to shoot professor William Klug. Sarkars gray, 2003 Nissan Sentra was discovered Friday afternoon in Culver City.

LAPD Capt. William Hayes said late Friday that police found a handgun in the trunk, and that shell casings from the UCLA shooting appeared to match those found at the Minnesota shooting scene.

In recent months, Sarkar had lashed out on his blog at the professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Police said there was little merit to a claim that Klug had stolen Sarkars computer code and given it to someone else.

Armed with two semiautomatic guns, additional magazines and a backpack, Sarkar stormed into Klugs fourth-floor office in Engineering Building 4 and fired multiple shots at the 39-year-old father of two. Then he turned the gun on himself.

The final person on Sarkars kill list was a UCLA professor who is safe.

Before he earned degrees at UCLA and Stanford, Sarkar had attended high school in Durgapur, a steel-producing city in eastern India. He attended an English-language school and a teacher remembered him as a brilliant student, among the best in his class in the mid-1990s.

Goutam Viswas, a mathematics and chemistry teacher, was close to Sarkar, describing him as a normal chap.

He was not the most outgoing, but he had his friends, Viswas told The Times. Sarkars parents are deceased and he has a sister in Calcutta, he said.

After Sarkar graduated in 2000 with an aerospace engineering degree from the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology at Kharagpur, he met up with Viswas. Sarkar was deeply focused on academics and intent on doing post-graduate research in the United States.

He wanted career advice, Viswas said. And I told him, Keep a cool head and carry on; you have potential.

Viswas also told Sarkar to maintain good relationships with all of his professors. Sarkar agreed that that was a good idea.

ALSO

Slain UCLA professor William Klug, father of two, praised as great man by students

For UCLA shooter Mainak Sarkar, sudden rage after years of intense academic studies

Professor told UCLA shooter to keep a cool head and keep good relations with teachers

Parvini reported from Minneapolis, Bengali from Mumbai, India, and Rocha and Winton from Los Angeles. Times staff writers Corina Knoll and Kate Mather contributed to this report.

Sarah.parvini@latimes.com

Twitter: @sarahparvini

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Twitter: @sbengali

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

Twitter: @veronicarochaLA

richard.winton@latimes.com

Twitter: @lacrimes
The box of hand-held metal detectors arrived out of the blue and without an explanation in December. Principal Kristin Botello shoved them in a closet and carried on with her work at her South Los Angeles charter school.

Botello later learned the box came with a mandate that requires Animo Jackie Robinson High School to conduct random daily searches of its students with the wands. Los Angeles Unified School District officials say the policy protects students from classmates who might be carrying weapons.

The charter school and its parent organization, Green Dot Public Schools, have refused to comply with the requirement, arguing that random searches will undermine the safety that comes from strong pupil-educator relationships.

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The charters standoff with district administrators has drawn an unlikely ally in United Teachers Los Angeles as both groups joined civil rights organizations to craft a letter that was sent to the district May 25 calling on the district to revise or rescind the policy.

We live and work in a community where kids are profiled every day by different forms of authority, whether its police on the street or by shop owners, Botello said.

We live and work in a community where kids are profiled every day by different forms of authority, whether its police on the street or by shop owners.  Kristin Botello, principal at Animo Jackie Robinson High School

School administrators support safety, she said, but question whether randomly waving a wand over students will achieve that objective.

Gun violence at schools  from the 2012 slaying of 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut to Wednesdays fatal shooting of a UCLA professor by a former student who then committed suicide  has amplified the debate about campus safety measures.

Supporters of such searches say they could help prevent school shootings, but critics argue that innocent children begin to resent the constant threat of electronic frisking by authorities whom they must trust if theyre going to learn from them. They also point to what they characterize as an overreaction to violence that ushered in zero-tolerance policies that led, for example, to the suspension of a 7-year-old Tarzana Elementary School student who was caught with an inch-long toy gun on a key chain.

Its a delicate balance for school administrators and school police leaders, said Kenneth Trump, president of the consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services.

The best way to protect students is for trained teachers and administrators to watch for signs that a student may be dangerous, he said. Far too many people tend to look at metal detectors or any other hardware as a quick fix.

L.A. Unified officials say the districts wanding policy has been in place since the early 1990s, when a fatal shooting at Fairfax High School spurred then-Supt. Sid Thompson to start random searches as a pilot program at all middle and high schools.

In October, Los Angeles Unified administrators revised the districts wanding policy to clearly state that charter schools on district property must conduct random daily searches, with metal detectors but they argue that the revision was simply reinforcing a requirement that had always existed.

District officials cite an incident last year in which administrators found two loaded guns on students from PUC Early College Academy for Leaders and Scholars as an example that the policy is working and as a reason why charter schools must comply.

-----------

FOR THE RECORD

3:48 p.m. June 6: An earlier version of this article incorrectly referenced Alliance Tennenbaum Family Technology Charter High School as where administrators found students with two loaded guns. The school is actually PUC Early College Academy for Leaders and Scholars.

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According to an LAUSD report, nearly 840 weapons were collected across the district in the 2014-15 school year. The report does not specify how the weapons were discovered.

David Holmquist, L.A. Unifieds general counsel, defended the wanding policy. He said critics have not provided evidence that such a policy is harmful or offered better alternatives that do not simply rely on trusting that students will not bring weapons to school or will tell an administrator if they see someone with a weapon.

Unless and until we come up with a better policy, to simply abandon a safety measure ... is just not the kind of situation I want to defend the district on.  David Holmquist, L.A. Unified School Districts general counsel

Unless and until we come up with a better policy, to simply abandon a safety measure in favor of nothing or trying to build a culture of trust that will hopefully discourage people from bringing guns on campus, is just not the kind of situation that I want to defend the district on, Holmquist said.

But schools across the district implement the policy differently, with some conducting daily searches and others choosing to obey the policy less frequently or ignore it altogether. At Animo Jackie Robinson High, administrators said they didnt know the policy applied to their independently run campuses.

Nico Conanan, who attends Central High School  a small school that focuses on bolstering the academic records of students who are at risk of dropping out  said the policy has never made him feel safer.

Conanan was one of three students at the school who last year were randomly selected, removed from class and scanned with a metal detector.

It was invasive, Conanan said. It was basically violating everything we had worked to do in the classroom. All the students had established a relationship with the teacher  and they just came in and tarnished that.

In its letter to the district, a coalition that includes charter schools, civil rights and educational organizations and United Teachers Los Angeles asks the school district for a moratorium on the policy until it can be changed.

The coalition hopes that the school board will consider the letter at its next meeting.

Meanwhile, district officials say charter schools must comply with the policy or risk sanctions that can include revoking their ability to continue operating.

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zahira.torres@latimes.com

Follow @zahiratorres on Twitter
Covering the California Coastal Commission is like getting addicted to a soap opera. Its one dramatic turn after another, power and money are central characters and theres an occasional knife in the back.

Todays Cali-Novela episode features three interconnected story lines:

Is California Gov. Jerry Brown poised to clear the way for development that plunders voter-approved protections in the Coastal Act?

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How did commissioners manage to subvert the intent of legislation to ban secret meetings, even after one commissioner landed in jail?

Will campaign donations from Commissioner Martha McClures back-scratching buddies on the Coastal Commission preserve the Brown-appointed bloc that helped dump Executive Director Charles Lester, whose mortal sin was unrelenting preservation of our states great and glorious coast?

Thats a lot of material, but bear with me and Ill take you through it all in three easy steps.

First, the governor.

On this, the 40-year anniversary of the Coastal Act, the Brown administration tried last week to rally legislative support for an affordable housing plan that could give developers the right to circumvent the Coastal Act and the California Environmental Quality Act and begin hammering away.

The lack of a coastal protection plan in this proposal is simply unacceptable.  Sierra Club letter of protest

Coming soon to a beach near you: condo developments that block views, limit access and crush baby plovers.

The lack of a coastal protection plan in this proposal is simply unacceptable, said a Sierra Club letter of protest addressed to legislators on a joint budget committee. This would very likely result in impacts to wetlands ... sensitive habitats, public access, scenic view sheds and other priority coastal resources and land uses.

A Brown spokesman told me the governor does not discuss ongoing budget/legislative negotiations.

Well excuse me. If the Coastal Act is being hijacked by the governor or anyone else, I can think of 40 million people who damn well ought to know about it. Instead, these conversations are being had in the depths of the sausage factory, and there are no public tours.

As state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) put it when I asked what he thought:

We and the public deserve much better than a process devoid of any policy committee consideration, analysis, debate or public comment.

Hear, hear!

Who doesnt support Browns desire to build affordable housing? But theres no need to throw out reasonable protections either inland or along the coast, as he proposes. His plan wouldnt produce much affordable housing anyway, just a unit or two here and there, surrounded by market-rate million-dollar beach pads.

If he wanted more affordable housing, he should look at what the Coastal Commission accomplished in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when several thousand units were built.

No exemptions from the Coastal Act were necessary or allowed in order to build a substantial amount of new affordable housing, said a letter sent Friday to legislators and Brown by the California Coastal Protection Network.

If you dont like whats happening, youve got time to weigh in because Browns sausage recipe is still a work in progress. Ill tell you how to do so in a minute.

Second, the secret meetings.

In 1988, Sylvester Stallone wanted to add a swimming pool to his Malibu compound. A member of the Coastal Commission offered to smooth the approval process for a mere $25,000 fee. But the actor who played Rocky was no palooka, and he refused to step into that ring.

Others werent as tough as Rocky. They paid the shake-down fee, and Commissioner Mark Nathanson paid the price. He went to prison for corruption.

There had been suspicions long before that case that commissioners were meeting in private with people who wanted to build this or that along the coast.

As early as 1981, future Gov. George Deukmejian, then a deputy attorney general, sent a memo to commissioners warning against such private meetings, arguing that courts are almost certain to throw out rulings that were challenged because the quasi-judicial process had been tainted.

In the midst of the Nathanson scandal that followed, Terry Friedman, a Westside assemblyman, introduced legislation that he thought would end so-called ex-parte communications between commissioners and applicants.

His bill, which became law, required commissioners to report any such contacts along with a full accounting of what was discussed. Friedman told me last week that his intention was to shame commissioners from engaging in these communications.

Apparently they were shameless.

Instead of avoiding ex-partes, as Friedman had intended, commissioners acted as if the legislation offered legal cover. This subversion gave rise to a cottage industry of high-priced consultants, some of them political rainmakers, who meet regularly with commissioners

And as The Times has reported, commissioners dont always provide full accounts of those conversations. Sometimes  talk about shameless  they let the hired-guns provide the descriptions of what was discussed.

Steve Kinsey, the current chair of the commission, twice failed in the last several months to report ex-partes with proponents of the massive and controversial Newport Banning Ranch project under consideration by the commission.

If Kinsey doesnt recuse himself from voting on that project (he wouldnt say whether he would when I emailed last week to ask him), the commission should be shut down until further notice for fumigation and remodeling.

And the reason I bring all of this up is to remind you that state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) has a bill in play that would ban ex-parte communications. The bill has gotten a hardy endorsement from someone who wishes that 24 years ago, hed worded his legislation the way that Jackson has.

His disinfectant didnt work, Friedman told me. But Jackson is offering a stronger dose.

Third, you scratch my back.

The Del Norte Triplicate newspaper checked in with me recently to confirm that Coastal Commissioner Martha McClure had cussed me out, as reported in this space. Not only did she, but if there were a Hall of Fame for letting it rip, Id personally nominate McClure. She really, really didnt like my questions about a donation several years ago from the domestic partner of the most powerful consultant who lobbies the Coastal Commission.

Now the Triplicates Jessica Cejnar has reported that McClure, who is running for reelection as Del Norte County supervisor, has received campaign donations of $750 and $999 from fellow coastal Commissioners Wendy Mitchell and Mark Vargas.

Thats Coastal Commission-style family values.

Mitchell and Vargas voted in February along with McClure  a Brown appointee  to fire the executive director who knew more about the Coastal Act than anyone alive. I guess theyd love to keep the cabal together, even though Lesters firing demoralized the commission staff and outraged thousands of others.

McClure needs to get reelected Tuesday in Del Norte in order to keep her seat on the Coastal Commission, and the generosity of Mitchell and Vargas cant hurt.

Thats our Cali-Novela for this week, stay tuned for future program listings.

If youd like to support the ban on ex-partes, go to www.legislature.ca.gov, click on Find Your Legislator and send along a note.

And dont forget to let the governor know how you feel about the states 1,100 miles of sandy beaches and rocky shores by tweeting @JerryBrownGov with the hashtag #saveyourcoast.

steve.lopez@latimes.com

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AQMD board opposes bill to add environmental justice members and urges feds to clean up truck emissions
Southern Californias air quality board has come under criticism for a political shift that critics say has made it too friendly to polluting industries. Earlier this week, the state Senate approved a bill aimed at changing the balance.

On Friday, the South Coast Air Quality Management District board pushed back with an attempt to defeat the legislation, which would add three state-appointed environmental justice members to its ranks.

The panel voted 7 to 6 to oppose the bill by state Senate Leader Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles) that members of the panels Republican majority denounced as a politically motivated power grab.

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The bill would expand the AQMD board from 13 to 16 members by adding three representatives from environmental justice organizations, appointed by the governor, the Senate Rules Committee and the Assembly speaker. It would also increase state regulators power over the air districts Regional Clean Air Incentives Market, a pollution-trading program that has come under scrutiny in recent months.

Charged with protecting the health of 17-million people in the region with the nations worst smog, the air board currently has 10 locally chosen members and three state appointees.

This is clearly Sacramento believing that at any time they want, they can change a board if they dont like the outcome of a vote.  Orange County Supervisor Shawn Nelson

Fridays vote was along party lines, with seven Republicans voting to oppose SB 1387 over the objections of five Democrats and one independent.

This is clearly Sacramento believing that at any time they want, they can change a board if they dont like the outcome of a vote, said Orange County Supervisor Shawn Nelson, a Republican.

De Leon reacted in a statement, saying its very disappointing the board does not want representation from communities with the dirtiest air in the nation. They should have a voice.

The move comes a few months after Republicans took control of the air board and fired longtime executive Barry Wallerstein. The air board also has also come under fire for adopting an oil-industry backed proposal in December to control emissions from refineries and other large facilities under its Regional Clean Air Incentives Market, or RECLAIM, program.

Environmentalists and some state legislators say those maneuvers amount to a takeover aimed at weakening pollution regulation.

Members of the boards Republican majority have vowed to give greater emphasis to the economic effects of emissions rules. But they say their intentions have been profoundly misunderstood and deny that theyre trying to roll back smog-fighting regulations.

On Friday, the air district also released a document showing it has hired a high-profile consultant: former Assembly Speaker John A. Perez.

The $60,000, four-month contract authorizes Perez to advise the agency and to engage with the Legislature and regulatory agencies on its behalf, but prohibits him from lobbying.

The contract, signed on March 23 and released in response to a Times inquiry, was not discussed publicly because it was below the $75,000 threshold requiring approval by the governing board.

AQMD board Chairman William A. Burke said Perez was hired for crisis management work after the board fired Wallerstein.

In an email, Perez said he was not working on the De Leon bill or other legislation. A spokesman added that Perez was advising AQMD on communications, strategy and how they can stay true to their original mission.

In other business, the South Coast air district submitted a petition Friday urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to adopt tougher tailpipe emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks, a top pollution source.

The AQMD joined 10 other state and local air quality agencies in calling for nation-wide ultra-low nitrogen oxide emissions standards that are 90% cleaner than existing rules.

We will review the petition and respond appropriately, EPA spokesman Nick Conger said.

The California Air Resources Board said it is working on its own stricter standards, but they would only cover trucks registered in California.

Without tougher truck standards, the petition says, Southern California will not be able to meet a series of deadlines to cut ozone pollution to federal standards over the next two decades.

The South Coast basin, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, has the nations highest levels of ozone, the lung-searing gas in smog that is linked to asthma, heart disease and premature deaths. On 113 days last year, its ozone pollution exceeded federal health standards.

ALSO

Temecula brush fire flares up, threatens 70 to 100 homes

Invasive water snakes at Lake Machado could be here to stay, study says

LAPD jailers didnt conduct proper cell checks 8 times out of 10, watchdog report finds

tony.barboza@latimes.com

@tonybarboza
The three-day heat wave oppressing many of the inland valleys and foothills of Southern California is expected to let up on Sunday, but not before a brush fire caused some tense moments in the Temecula area Saturday,

Since Thursday, a ridge of high pressure has warmed Southern California, prompting weather officials to warn of an enhanced heat risk on Saturday. Temperatures are expected to rise well into the 90s in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys and as high as 106 in the Antelope Valley, the National Weather Service said.

People in those areas were urged to avoid working outdoors during the hottest part of the afternoon and to stay hydrated.

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The Southland heat wave has not produced any records, but weather service meteorologist Joe Sirard called the temperatures significantly above normal, from 10 to 20 degrees higher than average in some parts of the Southland.

The hot conditions have fire crews on alert. Los Angeles firefighters knocked down a two-acre brush fire in West Hills in the San Fernando Valley on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, hundreds of Riverside County firefighters were battling a 35-acre fire along the 15 Freeway in Temecula.

That fire temporary closed some lanes in the 15 Freeway as flames licked the roadway. An army of firefighters battled the blaze by air and on the ground. Some drivers reported being stuck in traffic for hours.

A low-pressure system that will cool the region is on its way, Sirard said.

Today is the last day of really hot temperatures inland, Sirard said. Well still be above normal tomorrow, he said, just cooler.

Sirard said he expects inland areas be five to eight degrees cooler on Sunday.

Areas such as downtown and the coast have suffered less than the foothills, mountains and deserts. Sirard said Saturday that downtowns high temperature was about eight degrees above normal, but would not climb past the mid- to upper 80s. Along some beaches, temperatures could drop below average because of low, lingering clouds.

The gradual cooling that starts Sunday will continue throughout the week, bringing temperatures back to normal by Thursday or Friday, Sirard said.

The weather service has yet to issue any formal heat warnings or advisories because humidity has remained relatively low. Although he urged people to use common sense when dealing with the heat this weekend, Sirard said the most serious heat doesnt usually strike Southern California until July or August.

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matt.stevens@latimes.com

Twitter: @ByMattStevens

UPDATES:

3:39 p.m.: This article was updated with more details on fire.
Authorities said they continue to look for clues in the case of kidnapped teenager Pearl Pinson, who went missing in Northern California more than a week ago.

Detectives have searched areas of Sonoma County as well as locations near Vallejo but have found no sign of her. Solano County Sheriffs officials put out a photo of a backpack similar to the one Pinson carried, urging the public to contact officials if theyve seen it.

We also are asking anyone who may find a backpack abandoned like the one pictured to call us, the sheriff said on Facebook.

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Authorities have not searched for the 15-year-old since last Saturday, when they called off an intense effort in the Willow Creek area in Sonoma Coast State Park, according to the Solano County Sheriffs Office. Crews spent two days looking for Pearl from the air and ground, but found no signs of her.

Sheriffs officials are urging the public to call their tip line at (707) 784-1963 with any information on Pearls whereabouts.

Investigators continue to follow up on leads and any future search will depend on where those leads take us, the sheriffs office said.

A witness saw the girl being pulled away by an armed man at a pedestrian bridge that crosses Interstate 780, officials said. She was reportedly bleeding and screaming for help as she was dragged off. The witness ran to help and heard a gunshot, authorities said.

At the pedestrian bridge, deputies found blood on the ground.

The next day, the California Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert for Pearl and identified 19-year-old Fernando Castro as her kidnapper.

Hours after the alert, Castro was spotted in a vehicle at 3:10 p.m. near Los Alamos heading south alone on the 101 Freeway. At one point, he drove the wrong way on the freeway, according to Santa Barbara County Sheriffs Department spokeswoman Kelly Hoover.

Authorities followed Castro into Solvang, where he crashed into a barricade at a mobile home park.

Castro broke into a mobile home and locked himself inside, while a woman who lived there managed to escape without injury. Castro then jumped into a Toyota Tundra truck at the home and tried to flee.

He exchanged gunfire with deputies as they closed in. He was pronounced dead at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds.

Authorities said Castro was an acquaintance of Pearls. He often was seen roaming around her neighborhood, her sister said.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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Los Angeles police officers found a handgun and several red gasoline cans in the trunk of UCLA gunman Mainak Sarkars car, which was found in Culver City on Friday afternoon.

Authorities said they believe Sarkar drove the gray Nissan from Minnesota to L.A., parked on a residential street, and took a bus to the UCLA campus, where he fatally shot his former professor, William Klug, on Wednesday before committing suicide.

A citizen on a bicycle spotted the car parked on Washington Place near Sawtelle Boulevard  about 6 miles southeast of UCLA  and reported it to police, LAPD Deputy Chief Matt Blake said at a news conference Friday evening. Patrol officers located the car, sitting near a Culver City bus line that runs to UCLA, at about 2 p.m., authorities said.

Sarkar had a Culver City bus transfer ticket in his pants pocket when his body was found, Blake said.

Authorities said Sarkar lived in the Culver City area at some point while attending UCLA and that he was probably familiar with the neighborhood where his car was found.

Full Coverage: Shooting at UCLA >> >>

We believe, based on his familiarity with the neighborhood, he parked a vehicle here and took a bus, LAPD Capt. William Hayes said.

Officers pulled at least six red gas cans  some full, some partially empty  out of the vehicle.

Hayes said it appears Sarkar used them to keep his car fueled in an effort to avoid using credit cards when traveling from Minnesota to Los Angeles. It did not look like the cans were used for anything nefarious, he said.

Sarkars estranged wife, Ashley Hasti, 31, was found dead in her Brooklyn Park, Minn., home early Thursday, authorities said. She died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner.

Investigators say Hasti appeared to have been dead for a couple of days before the discovery of a kill list written by Sarkar led them to her home.

Ballistic comparisons of shell casings recovered from UCLA and the scene of the Minnesota homicide appeared to match, police said.

Preliminary indications are the casings were likely fired from Sarkars weapon, Blake said.

Authorities had not yet had a chance to examine what kind of handgun was found in the trunk. An LAPD bomb squad examined the vehicle and did not find any evidence of explosives, authorities said.

Sarkar probably took a direct route from Minnesota to Los Angeles, police said. It remains unclear when he left the state, but license plate-reading cameras recorded his plate on May 31 in Denver, police said.

The car will be taken to an evidence bay, where investigators will examine it for possible answers as to why Sarkar committed such a heinous act, Blake said.

Police found a ballistic vest and prescription medications in Sarkars St. Paul residence, Hayes said.

There was no evidence, he said, that anyone else was involved in the killings.

This was simply him, Hayes said.

We have not been able to determine any trigger event that would lead to this or the murder of his wife.

https://twitter.com/LATvives/status/738871185849475072

On Friday afternoon, Cristian Martinez, 21, of Culver City, said he had just pulled up to a liquor store when he saw people standing by a car on Washington Place.

They were looking at the car, keeping their distance, Martinez said. I just thought it was their car and didnt think anything of it.

https://twitter.com/LATvives/status/738877686836142081

After leaving the store, Martinez drove back home, about a block away. Within seconds of parking, he saw police officers responding. He found out later that the car was thought to belong to Sarkar.

Miguel Villela, 36, of Culver City was shocked when he found out about the vehicle, which was parked just a street away from his house.

Goosebumps, he said, holding out his arm. Thats what Im feeling.

Villela was returning home after picking up his daughters from school when he saw police about 2:20 p.m. He later learned from a neighbor that it was Sarkars vehicle.

Im not going to work, he said. Im staying here with my family.

MORE ON THE UCLA SHOOTING

Slain UCLA professor William Klug, father of two, praised as 'great man' by students

How students coped during UCLA lockdown

Editorial: Just a murder-suicide in a small UCLA office. And so America shrugs

richard.winton@latimes.com

Twitter: @lacrimes

hailey.branson@latimes.com

Twitter: @haileybranson

ruben.vives@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATvives

UPDATES:

7:07 p.m.: This article was updated throughout.

5:27 p.m.: This article was updated with new details about the search of the car.

4:27 p.m.: This article was updated with new details and comments from bystanders.

3:34 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Culver City residents.

This article was originally published at 3 p.m.
For years, Christopher Reed would see thick clumps of pampas grass on the hillside of a nearby canyon whenever he peered out the window of his home.

To him it looked like an invasion.

Somebody has to nip it in the bud before it will take over, Reed, who has lived in Laguna Beach for 10 years, recalled thinking.

He wanted the hillside to have what he described as a more natural look.

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I grew up in New Zealand, where people are close to the land, said Reed, 69.

Laguna Beach considers pampas grass, known for its wiry stalks with feathery white flowers at the tips, an invasive species.

This massive shrub is a serious fire hazard and also crowds out many native plants, threatening the biological diversity of the coastal chaparral, according to a city brochure.

About two years ago, Reed, who has taught chemistry at USC and UC Riverside, decided to do something about it. He grabbed an herbicide and began spraying the hearty grass during the first stage of what he envisioned as a larger plan.

City crews already had removed clumps of pampas grass in the area before Reed started his project.

He knocked on the doors of residents along a stretch of Park Avenue with a proposal.

I asked them, Would you like to pledge?  Reed said.

Before he knew it, neighbors had pitched in $1,500. With the donations and $800 of his own, Reed purchased manzanita, lemonade berry, mallow and prickly pear and spread the plants over an acre of Park Canyon.

The portion of hillside sits just below Cindy Capretzs house.

Its beautiful, amazing, said Capretz. No one asked him to do this.

Reed said he had spoken with one neighbor who said he had looked into the legal ownership [of the land] and told me no one really owned it.

I took that as being part of Lagunas open space, said Reed. No one was looking after it.

He said he killed the remaining pampas grass using the weed killer Roundup. This year, the World Health Organizations International Agency for Research on Cancer issued a report that classified glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide, as harmful to human health.

Reed said the herbicide is completely non-toxic. Roundup is composed of an amino acid and phosphate ion that are both found in humans, Reed said. Any residue in the environment quickly reacts with water to form two separate components, he said.

According to City Manager John Pietig, the land was dedicated as open space in 1982. The city, he said, was looking into possible restrictions on use of the property.

Typically, in order to modify areas dedicated as open space, permits must be submitted, Pietig said. At this point, there is no record of that being done.

bryce.alderton@latimes.com

Alderton writes for Times Community News
Prosecutors have released the compelling statement read aloud in court by the rape victim of a former Stanford University swimmer whose six-month jail sentence has been decried as a paltry punishment.

The 12-page, single-spaced letter went viral on Friday after the victim gave it to the media. Candid and graphic, it offers specific details about her experience after the January 2015 night Brock Turner was seen assaulting an unconscious, half-naked woman behind a dumpster near a fraternity house.

She describes the first time she came across an in-depth article about what had happened.

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I read and learned for the first time about how I was found unconscious, with my hair disheveled, long necklace wrapped around my neck, bra pulled out of my dress, dress pulled off over my shoulders and pulled up above my waist, that I was butt naked all the way down to my boots, legs spread apart, and had been penetrated by a foreign object by someone I did not recognize. I learned what happened to me the same time everyone else in the world learned what happened to me.  After I learned about the graphic details of my own sexual assault, the article listed his swimming times. She was found breathing, unresponsive with her underwear six inches away from her bare stomach curled in fetal position. By the way, hes really good at swimming. Throw in my mile time if thats what were doing. Im good at cooking, put that in there, I think the end is where you list your extra-curriculars to cancel out all the sickening things thatve happened.

The woman said she cant sleep alone without having a light on and that she has nightmares about being touched. For three months, she would stay awake through the night, only able to fall asleep when the sun rose. She worried people in her hometown would find out she was the victim in a much-publicized trial. She had trouble connecting with friends, family members, her boyfriend.

Turner, a three-time All-American high school swimmer, had been found guilty of three felony counts after a two-week trial in March.

Prosecutors requested that Turner, who withdrew from Stanford after his arrest, be given six years in prison. But Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky handed down a much shorter sentence, stating that a harsher penalty would have a severe impact on the 20-year-old.

The victim said in her statement that she was shocked Turner had even insisted on going to court.

I thought theres no way this is going to trial; there were witnesses, there was dirt in my body, he ran but was caught. Hes going to settle, formally apologize, and we will both move on. Instead, I was told he hired a powerful attorney, expert witnesses, private investigators who were going to try and find details about my personal life to use against me, find loopholes in my story to invalidate me and my sister, in order to show that this sexual assault was in fact a misunderstanding. That he was going to go to any length to convince the world he had simply been confused. I was not only told that I was assaulted, I was told that because I couldnt remember, I technically could not prove it was unwanted. And that distorted me, damaged me, almost broke me.

Read the entire statement here.

corina.knoll@latimes.com

Twitter: @corinaknoll

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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)
An Oregon river town was evacuated Friday afternoon after an oil train derailed and two cars caught fire and sent thick smoke into the air, the sort of accident that communities along the rail route have long feared and said they were not prepared to handle.

The town of Mosier, population 440, was evacuated after the 12:30 p.m. derailment.

No one was hurt when the 96-car train derailed, authorities said, and no oil was believed to have reached the Columbia River. The cause of the derailment remains under investigation.

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Right now there are no impacts to the Columbia River from any oil releases, said Greg Svelund, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. We can say that with confidence.

Each month, milelong Union Pacific trains carry 3 million gallons of Bakken crude oil on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge to refineries in Washington state.

The gorge is dotted with small, rural towns that are ill-equipped to fight fires involving volatile crude oil. In a survey last year of 80 Oregon fire agencies along the gorge, the state fire marshal found that 90% were unprepared to fight a fire resulting from a spill.

A majority of fire agencies with crude oil trains traveling through their jurisdictions  do not have enough equipment to respond to a crude oil incident, the survey concluded.

The state relies on 13 regional hazardous materials teams to fight oil train fires. But given the geography, the teams have a goal response time of 2  hours. Its unclear how long the hazardous materials team took to reach Fridays fire.

And though the state fire marshal requested $2.7 million last year for training and equipment, the Legislature provided just $365,000.

Columbia Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy group that opposes oil trains in the Columbia Gorge, concluded this year that neither Oregons local fire departments nor Oregons Regional HazMat Teams are equipped to respond to and extinguish an oil train fire.

The group has been especially concerned because of a proposal to increase oil train traffic along the Columbia to ship oil from the Bakken field in North Dakota to a new storage and distribution facility near Vancouver, Wash.

The derailment occurred on the edge of Mosier, next to its sewage treatment plant, said Columbia Riverkeepers executive director, Brett VandenHeuvel, who surveyed the overturned oil cars from an airplane.

Weve been saying, its not a matter of if, its a matter of when, he said. Now theyre scrambling to get foam from different places.

One of the cars derailed into Rock Creek, a dry riverbed that occasionally floods into the Columbia.

The accident has raised worries among the Yakama Nation tribe, which has a fishing site downriver from where the train derailed.

We do not know what damage will result at this early point, but we do know that we have repeatedly warned of train derailments, corresponding oil spills, and the contamination that could result when these trains are carrying crude oil, the Yakama Nation chairman, JoDe Goudy, said in a statement. These trains and their tendency to derail are grave threats to the Yakama People.

Thick, black smoke rose from the two burning cars, which was expected to blow south and west, away from the population centers in Portland and the Willamette Valley.

When oil trains started traveling along the Columbia River in 2012, environmentalists in Oregon and Washington held protests.

Its clear with this crash -- as it has been for years -- that more must be done to protect our communities from trains carrying explosive hazardous fuels, said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). Thats why Ive repeatedly called for more resources and notification for first responders, and why Im continuing to push for my bill to move unsafe cars off the tracks and away from communities.

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President Obama is likely to play a more active role in the race to succeed him than any outgoing president in the modern era. But in addition to campaigning for fellow Democrats, hes also aiming to ensure a lasting footprint for his governing philosophy.

In the summer and fall, Obama will preach the virtues of compromise, incrementalism and debate rooted in truth as paths to lasting progress, aides say. Already this spring, Obama has offered a glimpse of the message that will be central to his argument.

As you look at the world, be guided by an honest and clear-eyed assessment, he told graduating cadets at the Air Force Academy on Thursday. Remember what you learned at this academy  the importance of evidence and facts and judgment.

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For a president who burst on to the national stage with a message of unity and the promise of hope and change, Obamas valedictory message, drawing on the lessons of his seven-plus years in the White House, speaks to his frustration with increasingly cynical discourse and a political conversation he sees as drifting away from objective reality.

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Such a contemplative philosophy is hardly an easy sell in a hyperpartisan and on-demand era. But the shift in politics toward partisan poles is driving the president to make his case, directing it at times to his liberal allies as much as the electorate as a whole.

If you think that the only way forward is to be as uncompromising as possible, you will feel good about yourself, you will enjoy a certain moral purity, but youre not going to get what you want, Obama said in a commencement address at Howard University last month.

I want you to have passion, but you have to have a strategy. Not just awareness, but action. Not just hashtags, but votes.

White House aides familiar with the presidents thinking cast his approach in grandly historical terms, pointing particularly to themes of his 2016 commencement addresses as something of an early draft of his version of Dwight D. Eisenhowers parting speech about a growing military-industrial complex, or even George Washingtons concern in his farewell address over forming political parties.

The president has taken an even more hands-on approach to his speeches, going through five drafts of his Howard University address in three days, for instance.

Though his message has taken on added resonance in the post-tea-party era that has given rise to Donald Trump, aides hasten to point out that many of the views Obama is expressing are consistent with those hes taken throughout his political career.

Our [message] is less anti-Trump and more pro-liberal democracy, said one White House official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the presidents approach.

In Elkhart, Ind., on Wednesday, in a preview of his 2016 campaigning, Obama engaged in a systematic myth-busting of Republicans arguments against him and Democrats over the years.

But he also urged voters to take a broader perspective on the longer-term trends  globalization, automation and technology, for instance  that he said are responsible for their continued sense of unease.

All these trends make it easy for people to feel that somehow the system is rigged and that the American dream is increasingly hard to reach for ordinary folks, he said. And there are plenty of politicians that are preying on that frustration for headlines and for votes.

The president has stayed neutral in the Democratic race and praised both Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for mostly keeping their primary fight to the issues. But his message of late conveys a preference for Clintons approach to governance to Sanders, favoring her advocacy of practical progressivism over his call for revolution.

At Rutgers University in May, Obama evoked the long struggle of suffragists and civil rights leaders to achieve equal voting rights.

Each stage along the way required compromise. Sometimes you took half a loaf, he said. Thats how democracy works. So youve got to be committed to participating not just if you get immediate gratification, but youve got to be a citizen full time, all the time.

In April, Obama told an audience of law students that he did not anticipate a split among Democrats, but that his party did need to guard against it.

The danger, whether for Democrats or Republicans, is in a closed-loop system where everybody is just listening to the people who agree with them, that you start thinking the way to get to where I want to go is to simply be as uncompromising as possible, he said. That anybody who suggests, well, theres another point of view, or theres a whole half of the country that completely disagrees with us that we have to work with, well, then you must be a sellout, or you must be corrupted, or you must be on the take.

Obama has often framed his arguments around that notion of citizenship  and notes he will be returning to private life soon enough. And the responsibilities that come with that role, he has pointed out, require being open to a variety of views.

At a journalism awards dinner in March, Obama said he had become dismayed by the tenor of the campaign, both the divisive and vulgar rhetoric, but also what he called the sometimes well-intentioned but, I think, misguided attempts to shut down that speech.

That feeling extended as well to a sense that this is a game as opposed to the most precious gift our founders gave us  this collective enterprise of self-government.

Obamas message of incrementalism might not sound like the soaring oratory that helped propel him to prominence, but its long been his philosophy, said Matt Bennett, co-founder of the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way.

Obama not only was elected in 2008 but has framed his entire professional life around the proposition that reasonable people can disagree but they should do so in a reasonable way, said Bennett. I do believe that Obama in his heart still believes theres no red America, theres no blue America, theres the United States of America. But its harder to see that metaphor at this moment.

The presidents campaign-style speech in Indiana signaled the role the White House envisions for him in the general election. His decision not to endorse either Democrat was in large part because of what officials see as his unique ability to rally their respective camps behind him as the partys standard bearer.

During a town hall meeting in Elkhart hosted by PBS, Obama seemed to betray some relief as he noted that the primary phase was almost over.

There are some tactical differences within the Democratic Party about how do you get stuff done. But theres going to be plenty of time for me to step in and campaign, he said.

michael.memoli@latimes.com

For more White House coverage, follow @mikememoli on Twitter.

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Bernie Sanders insists the Democratic race will go all the way to the convention

Using a bit of mathematical sleight of hand, Bernie Sanders on Saturday insisted that Hillary Clinton would not clinch the Democratic presidential nomination in coming days and that he planned to fight for it through the summer convention.

Sanders effort, described at a news conference in downtown Los Angeles, was the political equivalent of playing the refs. In the waning days of the voting season, the Vermont senator is trying to prevent the race being called  and the loss of momentum that would mean for his campaign.

He also sought to apply pressure to television networks to avoid calling Clinton the victor when the polls close in New Jersey on Tuesday  despite the strong possibility that she will win there, albeit under calculations with which Sanders disagrees.

Sanders is also trying to prevent a circumstance under which the California turnout is depressed by a nomination call after New Jerseys polls close, a full three hours before voting ceases in California.

Sanders arguments rest on his objections to superdelegates, who are party officials and leaders who can choose which candidate to back. Other delegates, the so-called pledged delegates, are tied to the actual vote.

But Sanders also is applying some tricky math.

He said that by the end of voting, no candidate will have the backing of the requisite 2,383 delegates, or a majority of those available. He then cited figures showing his and Clintons numbers among pledged delegates.

But the majority number he cited included superdelegates. By including them in the target figure, but not in the standings so far, he effectively raised the bar in a way detrimental to Clinton.

According to a Los Angeles Times count, Clinton now has 2,316 delegates, including 1,769 pledged delegates. Sanders has 1,547 delegates, including 1,501 pledged delegates.

The bottom line for Sanders: At least for now he plans to fight for the support of delegates until the convention officially nominates a standard-bearer for the fall.

At the end of the nominating process no candidate will have enough pledged delegates to call the campaign a victory. They will be dependent upon superdelegates, Sanders said. In other words, the Democratic National Convention will be a contested convention.

For those who call Clinton the presumptive nominee before Julys meeting in Philadelphia, he had this message: You are in error. Youre wrong.

Asked what that suggests for party unity, Sanders said unity rested on the Democratic Party welcoming all of his supporters. He did not indicate that he felt any responsibility to try to persuade his backers to eventually support Clinton as the party nominee.

He had particularly sharp words for Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida congresswoman who leads the national party. Sanders, who has raised money for her Democratic primary rival, archly noted that he wanted the Democratic Party to embrace his supporters who have never attended one of her fundraisers.

Party unity is a big word, he said, adding of his supporters: I want them to feel welcome. That is unity.

Clinton leads the Democratic race by any measure  the number of votes cast, the number of pledged delegates and the number of superdelegates.

To the latter group, Sanders is insisting that he would have the best chance of defeating Donald Trump in the general election. But that argument is undercut by the fact that he has not overcome his primary season opponent, Clinton.

The partys proportional delegate allocation rules mean that, barring victories by margins not seen in this election, he will not catch up to Clinton in pledged delegates.

Superdelegates have had the option of switching from Clinton to Sanders at any time  and the fact that they have not, except minimally, suggests they are not buying his argument that he would be the most potent November candidate.

Sanders said Saturday that he had seen a trickle of support recently from superdelegates. But he said he still has time to make his case.

We have time to do this, he said, and let me repeat for the umpteenth time: We understand that we have a steep climb.

But, he added, We dont know what the world will look like in five weeks time.

Sanders also acknowledged that, while he hopes to change the nominating system in the future, the rules hes operating under were set before his candidacy.

I dont use the word rigged, he said. I knew what I was getting into.
Good morning. It is Saturday, June 4. Heres what you dont want to miss this weekend:

TOP STORIES

Campaign donations: Who are the donors giving to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders? Now, a Times analysis of nearly 7 million individual contributions has provided unprecedented detail about the army of people behind the $27 donations Sanders mentions at virtually every campaign stop. Los Angeles Times

Safety checks: A new report finds most welfare checks at the LAPDs largest detention facility are done improperly. An estimated 82% of the 198 checks at the Metropolitan Detention Center were out of compliance. Theres no evidence that the bad checks resulted in any inmate injuries or deaths. Los Angeles Times

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Building loan: A downtown hotel project will receive $198.5 million in financial aid from Los Angeles, per a city council vote Friday. The combination of subsidies and loans will go to Related Co., which will build two towers across the street from the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Construction is expected to begin at the end of 2017. Los Angeles Times

Controversial housing: The San Francisco Planning Commission approved the largest housing development ever for the citys Mission District despite residents concerns that it will squeeze out working-class families. The project  critics call it the Beast on Bryant  would include 196 market-rate units and 130 affordable units. The property at 18th and Bryant has become symbolic not only because of the size of the housing development, but because it was home to one of the neighborhoods most beloved arts community. San Francisco Chronicle

Victim impact statement: Former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner was sentenced to six months in county jail for assaulting a woman in January 2015. Here is the entire statement the victim read to the court during the sentencing hearing. It is the saddest type of confusion to be told I was assaulted and nearly raped, blatantly out in the open, but we dont know if it counts as assault yet. I had to fight for an entire year to make it clear that there was something wrong with this situation, she said. BuzzFeed

Seat at the table: A state bill that would have added eight seats to the Metro Board of Directors was shelved, but the same cant be said for the concerns of the bills author. Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) believes the needs of cities in southwest L.A. County have been repeatedly overlooked in favor of more high-profile transit projects. Its so blatant, and so disappointing, he said. Los Angeles Times

Famous Californian: Who was Clara Shortridge Foltz and why is there a courthouse named after her? She was the first woman admitted to the California State Bar. She did this even though women were not allowed to be attorneys at that time, said Kelly Wallace, a librarian at downtowns Central Library. 89.3 KPCC

THIS WEEKS MOST POPULAR STORIES IN ESSENTIAL CALIFORNIA

1. Panic swept the UCLA campus this week when a murder-suicide triggered a lockdown and rumors of an active shooter. UCLA professor William Klug, described by students and colleagues as kind and brilliant, was killed by a former doctoral student. Los Angeles Times

2. In Fresno, columnist Robin Abcarian found Latino voters who support presumptive GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. I understand that Mexicans do the farm labor, but there are a lot of legal ones. Thats how they should do it, the way my parents did, said one supporter. Los Angeles Times

3. When three women spotted a man pouring something suspicious into his dates drink, they jumped into action. They warned the date and called police. Michael Hsu was later arrested and charged with administering a drug and assault with the intent to commit a sex crime. LAist

4. A classic Hollywood property is on the market for $8.795 million. Curbed LA

5. There is an adorable taco shack in downtown L.A. DTLA Rising

ICYMI, HERE ARE THIS WEEKS GREAT READS

On the case: Inside the bizarre manhunt in Fort Bragg two years ago for a murderer. His tragic backstory is as compelling as the dragnet itself. California Sunday Magazine

Coastal transparency: Will Sacramento lawmakers bring transparency to the Coastal Commission? Theres a bill to eliminate private meetings between commissioners and applicants and a second bill to require more information from lobbyists, writes columnist Steve Lopez. Thats the whole point  that these are secret meetings, and you dont meet in secret with an adjudicatory body thats supposed to be impartial, said state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara). Los Angeles Times

Diverse force: Meet the only Chinese-speaking cop in Monterey Park, a predominantly Asian city. He faced a battle of wills with his mother to become a cop, and that speaks to the troubles police departments have in recruiting more like him. Los Angeles Times

Under the bridge: An anthropologist has discovered an almost extinct form of American hieroglyphics known as hobo graffiti along the walls of the Los Angeles River. Associated Press

Ride the train: Take a trip on the Metro Expo Line and discover a whole new Los Angeles. Thats what happened to columnist Robin Abcarian. There is something exhilarating about seeing familiar scenery, even mundane stuff, from a different vantage point, she writes. Los Angeles Times

LOOKING AHEAD

Monday: Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department will announce plans to build a new sheriffs station in Santa Clarita.

Tuesday: Election day, with big contests including Clinton vs. Sanders and Harris vs Sanchez.

Friday: Star Trek actor George Takei gets an honorary degree from Cal State L.A.

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.
Here are The Times picks in selected races in the June 7 primary:

President

Democratic nomination: Hillary Clinton. In the Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders race, The Times supports Clinton for the reasons set forth here.

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Republican nomination: No endorsement. Donald Trump doesnt need Californias votes to secure his spot on the November ballot, and Californians shouldnt give them to this astoundingly unqualified candidate.

U.S. Senate: Kamala Harris. The race to succeed Barbara Boxer has attracted 34 candidates, but filtering for capability and viability, it comes down to two Democrats: Harris, the state attorney general, and Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Orange). Harris has done a mixed job in her current post, but if she finally focuses, she has the intelligence and principles to become a fine senator. Sanchez has failed to demonstrate that she has the skills and temperament for the job.

House of Representatives, 44th District: Nanette Barragan. In this race to succeed Janice Hahn, attorney and former Hermosa Beach City Council member Barragan, a Democrat, is the candidate who has demonstrated the ability to get important things done for her community in a short amount of time. Her chief opponent, state Sen. Isadore Hall III (D-Compton), is a big recipient of oil, tobacco, gambling and alcohol industry largesse, who in the Assembly consistently opposed even the most modest legislation aimed at slowing climate change.

Los Angeles County District Attorney: Jackie Lacey. Lacey has brought a cautious yet open-minded approach to her job as the top prosecutor in the nations most populous county.

Los Angeles County Supervisor, 2nd District: Mark Ridley-Thomas. Ridley-Thomas has used his position to boost the countys efforts to fight poverty, improve child protection, increase sheriff oversight and combat homelessness.

Los Angeles County Supervisor, 4th District: Janice Hahn. Hahn lags her chief rival, Steve Napolitano, on the crucial subject of fiscal responsibility but has the conscience and commitment to see through the countys mission to serve people in need.

Los Angeles County Supervisor, 5th District: Ara Najarian. In the district that Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich has represented for 36 years, the highest quality candidates are his chief of staff, Kathryn Barger, and Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian. Najarian would bring some fresh perspective along with solid experience in transportation and sustainable development issues.

Los Angeles County Superior Court

Office 11: Steven Schreiner. Schreiner, a deputy district attorney, is the most experienced of the four candidates and the one most ready to serve on the bench.

Office 42: Cyndy Zuzga. A Superior Court commissioner already doing much of the work of a judge, Zuzga has gone the extra mile with involvement in restorative justice programs for young offenders. She also was an experienced criminal prosecutor.

Office 60: James Kaddo. Kaddo is an experienced and accomplished judge who has been challenged by a wine merchant who has not practiced law in or out of a courtroom in years. This ones easy.

Office 84: Susan Jung Townsend. One of three deputy district attorneys running for this seat, along with a lawyer in private practice, Townsend wins high marks from opposing lawyers for her integrity and judgment.

Office 120: Ray Santana. As with the other sitting judges who have been challenged without explanation by lesser-qualified candidates, Santana, deserves reelection.

Office 158: David A. Berger. This criminal prosecutor has demonstrated his ability to separate his opinions from his performance in the courtroom and would make a good judge.

Office 165: Kathryn Solorzano. Voters should keep Solorzano on the bench, not only because she is an experienced and qualified judge, but because all challenges based on inadequate grounds, like this one, inject an unfortunate element of politics into the court system.

Proposition 50: No. This ballot measure would allow supermajorities of the Assembly or state Senate to suspend members without pay. That sounds great when were thinking about the three state senators whose alleged or proven misbehavior inspired this proposal two years ago. But if Proposition 50 becomes law, it could too easily be used by leaders of the majority party to threaten or punish lawmakers who express independent views.

MORE FROM THE OPINION SECTION:

Is this the DWP reform we need?

Dont panic, Democrats, Hillary Clinton will beat Trump

Dont remember Muhammad Ali as a sanctified sports hero. He was a powerful, dangerous political force

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
To the editor: As I get ready to retire next week after 52 years teaching, I reflect on the great and the terrible I have seen in education. My final observation is that nobody, including The Times, listens to the teachers, the professionals who know what is needed to improve education. (Gates Foundation failures show philanthropists shouldnt be setting Americas public school agenda, editorial, June 1)

Rather, what gets the attention are the silver bullets foisted upon classrooms by administrators pursuing their own selfish agendas. Nobody asks the teachers what should be done to improve education. Instead teachers and our unions are blamed for all of educations shortcomings. But nobody wants to improve education more than teachers.

Unfortunately, almost all change is mandated from top down by people who are threatened by the creativity of the teachers. They dont trust us. Too many administrators and philanthropists like Bill Gates, who are generally not education experts, seem to think that one size fits all and that they have the quick and easy solution to the problems of education.

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They dont have the answer, but there is one: Listen to the teachers  and get out of their way.

Sam Platts, Sylmar

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To the editor: Your editorial taking the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to task is too little, too late. Teachers everywhere could have told the Gates Foundation and the school boards that were taken in by the promise of philanthropist dollars what would happen with those initiatives.

Some years ago the Los Angeles Unified School District sent teachers and administrators to the Seattle area to gather information on the new Gates initiative on small learning communities. We learned from the teachers there that smaller hadnt made a difference in student performance and things were much more difficult for English learners. We reported back, but LAUSD went ahead with the initiative anyway since major dollars were being offered. (It would be interesting to know how many non-Gates dollars were spent on this effort.)

Philanthropists would be wise to find out from the teachers on site what might make a difference rather than dangling money in front of school boards that promise to implement unproven programs.

Alexa Smith Maxwell, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: I compliment the Gates Foundation and other groups groping for ways to improve our education system. All those efforts, however, are misdirected when they emphasize support of programs that aim only at what a teacher teaches.

The education establishment has failed to study those school systems around the world that have the most success on tests that evaluate the creativity and problem-solving abilities of high school students. These countries, Finland in particular, have put a major emphasis on teacher training and remediation and have recruited their top high school graduates to attend their teaching academies. These students are exposed to a rigorous curriculum of educational theory. They freely discuss curriculum and methodology collaboratively, defining the challenges they will face.

This approach makes the novice teacher aware that it is their skill in teaching that makes students learn and that all curriculum is a tool they use to help their students find success. Weak teachers always have strong teachers to lean on for help and are afforded the chance to observe their mentors in action.

If a teacher designs a curriculum program that follows educational guidelines, they will make it successful.

Bob Bruesch, Rosemead

The writer, a teacher, is a member of the Garvey School District Board of Education.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
To the editor: Thanks to The Times for an important and well written editorial. How GOP leaders act now in deciding whether to support presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump will be the issue they must address for themselves and the future of their party. (Party loyalty is no excuse. Trump is manifestly unqualified. Republicans need to stand up and say as much, editorial, June 1)

People will remember, and the Republicans who endorse Trump for president will be defined by the company they keep. When you line up with Trump, you are also lining up with the birther movement, a thinly veiled method of race baiting that he championed. You are goose stepping in line with xenophobia, misogyny and un-American religious persecution.

At least House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) quickly denounced Trumps proposed halt to Muslim immigration back in December. The objection I seem to hear most from Republicans in the never Trump camp is that he isnt a true conservative.

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Well, Speaker Ryan, voracious reader and deep thinker, our nation turns its weary eyes to you.

Robert Fox, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: The Times effort to divide the Republican Party will have the opposite effect. It will help unite Republicans in backing the only candidate who says what he means, not what is fashionable to say.

Philip Springer, Pacific Palisades

..

To the editor: This Republican politicians who are lining up behind Trump should remember that in 2008 those Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, who supported going to war in Iraq either lost in the presidential primary or chose not to run, and a similar thing could happen to Republican aspirants for the presidency in 2020.

Dan Caldwell, Malibu

The writer is a professor of political science at Pepperdine University.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
To the editor: Objections to Oriental can be traced to Edward W. Saids 1978 book Orientalism, in which he analyzes how European intellectuals imagined the Orient to stretch from the Middle East to South, Southeast and East Asia, treating the many peoples of these different regions as the same. (The term Oriental is outdated, but is it racist? Opinion, June 1)

Said argued that this intellectual nomenclature, still evident in our odd use of the term Middle East and Oriental Studies departments, was an integral part of European colonialism.

As op-ed article author Jayne Tsuchiyama correctly notes, Oriental is generally not considered a racial slur, but it remains an extremely inaccurate term to refer to people as different as Egyptians, Japanese, Chinese and Indians.

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John Carlos Rowe, Los Angeles

The writer is a professor of English, American studies and ethnicity and comparative literature at USC.

..

To the editor: Tsuchiyama has said what Ive wondered about lately, although admittedly I have consciously substituted the word Asian for Oriental.

It seems to me the politically correct folks, along with the rest of us, should be more concerned with thoughts and actions than with words. Words do, of course, represent our thoughts, but once we get the thoughts and actions headed in the right direction, the words will take care of themselves.

Then again, what do I know? Im just a dumb Mick from Orange County.

Patrick I. ODonnell, Yorba Linda

..

To the editor: Tsuchiyama has no problem living in an America that uses racially charged words. She brushes aside the historic and racial implications of Oriental and the stigma attached to that word.

In trying to dignify our society, Americans have stopped using racially offensive words used to describe other minorities. By using words like Oriental to describe people, we continue the systemic oppression that Tsuchiyama appears to find acceptable.

Michael Szeto, San Marino

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
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.
More than 100 supporters flocked to a makeshift stage outside the Joslyn Adult Center in Burbank Friday to hear Bill Clinton campaign for Hillary Clinton in Californias increasingly close primary.

Loud applause greeted the former president for his first Southern California stop of the day, one in a series of planned appearances by the Clintons before Tuesdays election.

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So what are we going to do? he asked. This is what this election is really about. Its about you, your kids, your grandkids, the whole future of this country.

Hillary Clinton is expected to secure the Democratic Party nomination no matter what happens Tuesday, but polls show Sen. Bernie Sanders gaining in California.

Former president Bill Clinton greets the crowds as he arrives to talk outside the Olive Recreation Center in Burbank on Friday, June 3, 2016. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

If you have a ballot and you havent mailed it in yet, for goodness sakes, do it, Bill Clinton told his wifes supporters.

Clinton touched on his wifes general policies and qualifications, saying that she would be the right candidate to lead America toward a more inclusive future.

He also said she was the better choice to lead the worlds leading economy.

Former president Bill Clinton shakes hands after speaking outside the Olive Recreation Center in Burbank on Friday, June 3, 2016. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Bill Clinton reiterated Hillarys plan for education, which is for students to pay back their debts over 20 years, forgiving whatever cannot be fulfilled.

If you just did that, everybody could move out of their parents house, he said, drawing laughter and cheers.

Burbank resident David Lainson, a Hillary supporter, made the case that the former secretary of state is a practical choice, a candidate who can work with other politicians.

Shes somebody who can get things done, he said. Im not opposed to Sen. Sanders as much, but I think hed have a much harder time getting things done without massive changes in Congress, which arent going to happen anytime soon.

Burroughs High School student Niko Guerrero, 18, has yet to decide between Sanders and Clinton. He said he would not vote for Donald Trump.

I have mixed feelings about most candidates, for sure, Guerrero said. I do see pros and cons to both Bernie and Hillary, but Im not for sure decided yet. But I know that I like some things from each of them and disagree with some of the things from them as well.

Relinda Beesemyer of Glendale said Hillary Clinton is the best prepared and most knowledgeable candidate in the race.

Its more than just womans rights and wanting to help the country, Beesemyer said. All this being-great-again bull  we are already great. We just have to keep going.

The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.

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Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio
A Tony Award-winning producer will temporarily helm a Laguna Beach performance venue steeped in tradition.

Laguna Playhouses board of directors recently selected Ellen Richard as interim executive director while it conducts a nationwide search for a permanent successor to Karen Wood, who stepped down earlier this year after eight years with the organization.

To have found someone with the extraordinary qualifications that Ellen has is thrilling, board Co-Chairman Joe Hanauer said in a news release.

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Richard, who worked as executive director of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco from 2010 through 2015, negotiated a deal to buy the Strand Theater in the Mid-Market area of San Francisco, overseeing a renovation that created two performance spaces, according to the release. Richard also expanded the companys educational efforts, creating programs such as San Francisco Semester, which brought international undergraduate acting students to the theater.

Richard is perhaps best known for her roles at the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York, where she worked from 1983 to 2005. She earned Tony Awards for Cabaret (1998), A View from the Bridge (1998), Side Man (1999), Nine (2003), Assassins (2004) and Glengarry Glen Ross (2005).

As producer of more than 125 shows at the Roundabout, Richard supervised all management and marketing functions. She created Roundabouts Theatre-PLUS programs, allowing patrons to see from cast members what goes into a production.

The Laguna Playhouse, founded in 1920, features plays, musicals, concerts, dances and stand-up comedy routines. It is located at 606 Laguna Canyon Road.

I have quickly grown fond of Laguna Beach and the Playhouse, Richard said in the release. I embrace this extraordinary opportunity to join one of the countrys top regional theatres at this time in its remarkable history.
Follow me to the White House, the tour guide said, and Ill show you where Franklin Roosevelt passed by in a motorcade.

In Laguna Beach, the White House can mean only one thing, a 98-year-old bar-restaurant that is almost certainly among the oldest buildings in Orange County.

The guide, David Shermet, was leading guests on a tour of the citys highlights.

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In 1938, Roosevelt, the commander in chief at the time, was greeted by a parade when he was en route to San Diego from Los Angeles, and Coast Boulevard  as Pacific Coast Highway was known then  was the only way to get there.

Being able to share such historical moments is among the reasons Shermet enjoys showing the city off on foot.

Its also why nearly three months ago, he and girlfriend Debra Henninger created the Laguna Beach Free Walking Tour, the latest walking tour in the city catering to locals as well as the approximately 3 million annual visitors to the city.

Janelle Naess, avid pedestrian and 17-year resident of Laguna Beach, isnt one to throw cold water on the attempts of others. But Naess, who has led her own groups as the owner of Laguna Beach Walking Tour, welcomes newcomers to the tour game, but wonders about those who live outside the city.

Shermet and Henninger have lived in Irvine for nearly three years.

Its not known how many walking tours are offered throughout the city, Naess said, since anyone may start one on a whim.

Ann Larson, Laguna Beachs assistant community development director, said people conducting walking tours are required to file a business license with the city, though she conceded that the tour industry in Laguna Beach is unregulated.

The business licenses for walking tours are part of the personal service listings, so its not even clear how many operate in the city, Larson said. She added that these endeavors must be offered for free if they involve public property.

Naess, who led groups for four years but now offers three free self-guided walking tours  her website offers pictures and descriptions of each spot on free printable maps  is also concerned about tour directors failing to have the proper liability insurance.

Were here to promote Laguna Beach, Shermet said. We count it as our community because were there every day.

Before offering the tours, he said, he and Henninger would spend several days a week in Laguna, enjoy the surroundings and activities.

Shermet and Henninger might say they were destined to start a tour.

Shermet is a 22-year veteran of the cruise industry who worked as a cruise director for four luxury liners, and Henninger is a trail guide with the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, a nonprofit that aims to protect wildlands and parks on the historic Irvine Ranch.

After the couple had taken a walking tour in Seattle, Wash., they thought about implementing the idea in a city they loved visiting.

To glean more information about the public works of art, historical facts and places of interests for a route that he and Henninger had drafted after several walks together, Shermet headed to the Laguna Beach Historical Society, talked with Laguna Beach locals and read books on Laguna Beach.

Their two-hour tour begins at the Festival of the Arts entrance, where Shermet discusses the venues annual Pageant of the Masters, a stage show of living pictures, or tableaux vivants, that started in 1933.

From there, he and Henninger will lead a group on a 1.5-mile walk to a dozen or so landmarks in Heisler Park and along Forest Avenue, Pacific Coast Highway and Main Beach.

Laguna Beach is full of surprising discoveries and little-known trivia, Shermet said.

Consider the gold-colored fire hydrant in front of the Laguna Beach Fire Department headquarters.

Its polished four times a week.

Or the red telephone box on Forest Avenue.

The public telephone, representative of Londons iconic crimson booths, has been situated on the sidewalk since the 1940s, and it served as a working phone until 2009. Today, artists are commissioned to create sculptures for the display  that go inside or wrap around the historical point of interest to lend a little artistic whimsy.

And St. Anns Drive, a launching point for surfing and bodyboarding, which remain popular activities, served as an excavation site in 1933 when teenagers discovered prehistoric skeletal remains of a woman 17,000 years old.

No matter the tour to embark on, the seaside resort will not fail in delivering beauty for art lovers, nature enthusiasts and beachgoers, Naess said.

Even if you live here, youll hear of things youve never heard of before, Shermet said. I wanted it to be educational and hopefully its entertaining and fun.

For more information, visit lagunabeachfreewalkingtour.com and lagunabeachwalks.com.

kathleen.luppi@latimes.com

Twitter: @KathleenLuppi
Semper Memento, a sculpture honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, seems like it has been under attack itself since it was installed in Laguna Beachs Heisler Park five years ago.

So the city recently put a surveillance camera in the area so the sculpture, which was created by Laguna Beach artist Jorg Dubin, could be monitored.

Two weeks ago, Dubin reinstalled the stainless-steel sphere, which he was able to fix after it sustained a 5-inch-wide dent earlier this year, the third time the sculpture has been damaged since its installation in 2011.

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I take it personally because I designed and built the piece, Dubin said in a phone interview last week.

Semper Memento, which translates to Always Remember, contains two steel beams from the World Trade Center ruins resting atop a concrete base in the shape of the Pentagon, with a grass area in the middle.

Dubin alerted the city about the dent in early March after a friend walking in the park told him about it.

Dubin said he first had to figure out whether the sphere could be repaired or if it would need to be replaced. He recommended the former, and the citys Arts Commission agreed at a meeting in late April to pay the estimated $1,000 repair cost.

Every year, the city annually budgets $10,000 for repairs and maintenance of its 97 public art pieces, Cultural Arts Manager Sian Poeschl said.

In the last 15 years, six incidents of damage to the works, including the three to Semper Memento, were reported, according to a city staff report prepared for the Arts Commissions April 25 meeting.

After removing the 75-pound sphere and taking it to his Laguna studio, Dubin discovered that he was able to use a rubber mallet and tap the steel back into place.

No one has been arrested in the case, and Laguna Police Chief Laura Farinella said the department has no idea if the damage was done maliciously or not, said the staff report.

Last year vandals knocked the sphere off its base.

Both felt aggressive, but the last one [a few months ago] was aggressive with intent to damage, Dubin said. Someone tried to leave a mark, so to speak.

There is something about what these [memorials] represent that some segment does not seem to like.

Dubins Sept. 11 memorial is not alone. In a 2014 incident in Brooklyn, N.Y., paint was smeared on a photo of a New York police officer killed in the attacks.

Though damage to Lagunas public art is rare, Poeschl said the city takes an active role in keeping watch over the 97 works.

City staff, arts commissioners, artists and residents are constantly walking through town, looking for any blemishes or more serious damage to the sculptures, murals and paintings, she said.

The new camera is one of 20 placed throughout the city to help police monitor high-traffic areas such as Main Beach and the intersection of El Toro and Laguna Canyon roads. With the cameras, dispatchers can quickly assess a situation  perhaps a fight or auto collision  and determine how many officers are needed.

They make us more effective in responding to the community, Farinella said in a follow-up phone interview.

Poeschl said she will ask the City Council to boost the amount reserved for public art repairs to $15,000 when the council considers the budget later this year.

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bryce.alderton@latimes.com

Twitter: @AldertonBryce
Laguna Beach voters could have three options regarding medical marijuana dispensaries when they visit the polls this November.

In response to a proposed initiative that would repeal Lagunas current ban on dispensaries, the City Council on Tuesday directed staff to craft two alternatives, including one maintaining the status quo.

Initiative sponsors would like, at most, two dispensaries in Laguna so patients would not have to travel outside city limits to obtain the drug. According to the initiative, dispensaries would be allowed only in commercial zones and could not abut residential areas or be less than 1,000 feet from a public or private school.

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Laguna Beach police suggested a competing ballot measure that would allow one dispensary, while council members suggested a third option of maintaining the existing prohibition.

The city outlawed medical marijuana dispensaries in 2009, and in January the council banned commercial cultivation and large-scale deliveries of the drug. But patients and caregivers are still allowed to pick up doctors prescriptions for marijuana that are filled outside of Laguna and bring them into the city.

Some speakers extolled marijuana as a drug that helped them cope with post-traumatic stress disorder and body aches, in addition to easing the side effects of cancer treatments.

To completely disregard patients request and your own citizens directive is not only disingenuous of the activity you do, but you are failing to represent your own constituents, said Charnel James, an attorney who has represented several jurisdictions throughout the state on marijuana-related issues.

James said she did not write the proposed initiative, which was sponsored by two Laguna Beach residents who wished to remain anonymous.

Having only one dispensary would not allow competition. There would be inflated prices, James said in an interview outside council chambers.

Police Chief Laura Farinella suggested a willingness to ease the current ban as she explained that her department was trying to strike a reasonable balance, taking into account patients who rely on medicinal marijuana while trying to prevent public safety problems such as robberies, loitering and illegal drug sales.

They dont want to travel to Santa Ana to get medicinal marijuana, Farinella told the council. Recreational use has never been the subject of any conversations. So we figure with the guidelines in place, it would make it safe with public safety in mind.

From a strategic standpoint, if we came out with an ordinance opposing any medical marijuana dispensaries, its possible that bad ordinance could pass, Mayor Pro Tem Toni Iseman said, referring to the initiative calling for two sales outlets. The bad ordinance is bad news. It would really create a mess.

Iseman advocated for a delivery option to be included in the initiative, explaining that not every one has a caregiver who could legally pick up a marijuana prescription.

City Atty. Phil Kohn told the council that the measure with the highest number of votes would prevail and that voters would vote yes or no on each of the three alternatives.

Each ballot initiative would cost the city $8,500, City Clerk Lisette Chel-Walker confirmed in an email.

The council could vote on the proposed counter initiatives June 14.

Statewide this fall, voters will be faced with an initiative that would allow any person 21 or older to buy marijuana for recreational purposes.

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bryce.alderton@latimes.com

Twitter: @AldertonBryce
Margaret Warder, a para-educator at Top of the World Elementary School, was one of 12 classified school employees nationwide honored last week at the White House.

The inaugural White House Champions of Change for School Support awards recognized Warder and 11 other educators for their leadership and tireless work to ensure that students in our nations schools receive the support and motivation they need to succeed, according to a news release.

I was overwhelmed, Warder said about receiving the news. What can you say? Im honored. This is groundbreaking.

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Warder, who joined the Laguna Beach Unified School District in 2003, helps students who need special attention in reading and math. Para-educators are supervised by teachers or other credentialed employees.

Warder emphasized that though the California School Employees Assn. nominated her, the White House made the final selections. CSEA represents classified personnel, and Warder is the associations Laguna Beach chapter president.

Honorees participated in a panel discussion at the White House, during which they answered questions related to how they interact with and motivate students.

Warder often works with students one-on-one. She has the keen ability to relate to students on their level while also challenging them to reach new heights in their education, the release said.

Engagement is the key to keep those students connected, Warder said during the session.

She uses a points system that awards students for being prepared, correctly answering questions and retelling a story in sequential order to demonstrate reading comprehension.

Through building relationships where they are most comfortable, Margaret challenges her students to reach goals they might otherwise have thought impossible, association President Ben Valdepena said in the release.

Its been an eventful two years for Warder. Last year, she was one of five California classified employees selected as a state member of the year.

In addition to honoring education support professionals, the White House has recognized Champions of Change for climate protection, living wage and other topics.

bryce.alderton@latimes.com

Twitter: @AldertonBryce
In the business world when someone asks if this is a meeting before the meeting, its not a good sign.

It usually highlights inefficiency, bureaucracy or an unruly project. In the public sector, however, its business as usual.

Which brings us to the April 20 meeting on the fate of Laguna Canyon zoning by the Planning Commission. It was a meeting before the meeting times 27.

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In other words, there will be countless additional meetings, workshops, brainstorming sessions, whiteboarding, note taking, handwringing, snarky public testimony and, in the end, the long-suffering consultant, MIG, will craft immaculate PowerPoint slides with 10.2 recommendations.

All of them will be sanitized and wholly predictable, mirroring the loudest and most powerful voices of the community.

The irony of this crafted, well-intentioned guidance is that none of it holds any real power. Its just an expensive exercise in hearing ourselves talk. The outcome of the Laguna Canyon Planning Study, while most likely interesting, is not legally binding.

Having said that, here we are (again) trying to solve the canyons woes. And there are plenty of them.

Its a bottle-necked catastrophe waiting to happen. Pick any flavor of disaster  fire, flood, mudslide  and theres no way out.

The existing development is a schizophrenic nightmare.

The residents claim environmental protectionism so loudly that its a wonder any wildlife still stick around. And yet, historically, there are so many ecological code violations that the city has stopped keeping track.

A poorly maintained, nasty creek sometimes trickles in the middle of the canyon, reminding us that everything bad runs downhill. And when that creek does decide to roar, the illegal cementing by residents only contributes to the flooding.

The long and short of it is the city has never really done a good job in the canyon. To be fair, significant portions were outside of the citys control until the annexation.

Nonetheless, its a mixed zoning bag that presents significant challenges, not to mention inherent unfairness.

You cant build within 25 feet of the center line of the creek, but everyone out here has, said resident Louis Longi, after the meeting. Everyone has encroached with concrete, fences and walls, and theyve choked the creek. So now a 25-year flood seems like a 100-year flood. Now theres a problem with safety.

Longi has been working for more than a year to build a new artist live-work housing project. While he has received the initial go-ahead from the city, he is still working through appeals and the California Coastal Commission.

In the meantime, he has worked to mitigate creek problems but laments what he sees as double standards within city policies and politics.

This is all just a way for the City Council to feel like theyre doing something because theyre not doing anything, he said, referring to the new canyon study. Its the city allowing zoning to happen. Its no different than in the 80s when Village Laguna passed a code that said no more second stories. No one questioned it. But its this need to put restrictions on something without looking to the future. Thats what happening.

Whether or not the future can be predicted, it was clear in the meeting that the first order of business for MIG was to review and consolidate the closet full of dusty historical reports and studies.

As we looked at the plethora of planning documents, what we discovered is that there are great policies and guidelines, said Jenny An, MIGs project manager, in her opening comments. Its not that additional policies are needed, but rather there may need to be additional development standards and regulations.

So no policies but more standards and regulations, which probably means more meetings.

The planning commissioners want MIG to beef up the findings and focus on suggestions that can make an impact.

But for the residents in attendance, there was a consistent theme: Keep it the same, keep it rural and low density, but feel free to support some quirky artsiness.

For Longi, a decorated artist, he couldnt help but sit in the back and shake his head, thinking about all the challenges hes faced with his live-work project.

The hypocrisy is beyond me, he said, again pointing to the downtown lesson. We need to be responsible and have more economical housing and more of an urbanesque environment downtown to keep Laguna truly what it is. Otherwise, its just going to be these high-end retail shops that arent going to be the identity of Laguna. And thats our problem.

If they pass this and no one is fighting it other than me, then in 15 years the city will come along and say, You know what, we need to change the density in the canyon and encourage artist live-work.

I have to admit that there is more to the Laguna Canyon Planning Study than meets the eye. What it becomes and whether it has any real influence remains to be seen.

But for now, the city needs to step up and start making these meetings count. No one wants to waste time fighting the same well-worn battles of protectionism.

Lets be clear. Laguna Beach is a small town throttled by entrenched favoritism, and until we change that, we will continue to have meetings before the meetings.

DAVID HANSEN is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at hansen.dave@gmail.com.
Wherefore art thou Romeo and Juliet?

Riding Segways? Wearing Renaissance costumes that incorporate jeans, hooded sweaters and muscle shirts?

Not to mention the slight rewriting of the title of the classic work.

Alas, whats in a name?

Swedish rebel choreographer Mats Ek has switched up the old version of Shakespeares tragedy and called it Juliet and Romeo. The Royal Swedish Ballet will present the production at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts from June 10 to 12.

The contemporary take on the timeless love story has a 21st century vibe and is filled with modern twists, including corrugated metal for a little rough-around-the-edges look.

And the score is set to rearranged Tchaikovsky orchestral works, rather than the traditional Prokofiev music.

Expect the unexpected, said Judy Morr, Segerstrom Center for the Arts executive vice president.

Its a gritty and urban feel that is so imaginative and creative with a very simple yet effective dramatic scenery, Morr said. I know its going to look fantastic on our stage.

The Royal Swedish Ballet, the fourth-oldest ballet company in the world, last performed on the centers stage more than 15 years ago with Swan Lake.

Ek, known for interpreting classics in daring new ways such as his productions of Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, was commissioned by the company to create a modernized version of an enduring love story in honor of the Royal Swedish Ballets 240th anniversary in 2013.

Juliet and Romeo received the 2015 Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production and is currently making its North American premiere, with a stop at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., before heading to Costa Mesa.

Morr said its an honor for the center to present the world-renowned ballet company, which has been gracing Swedens national stage for opera and ballet since 1773.

The award-winning dance troupe began when King Gustav III founded the Swedish Opera in Stockholm in the late 18th century. The king loved acting and writing plays, and a few months after the opera companys opening, the French ballet master managed to arrange an ensemble of 30 dancers.

The company attained international fame, and over the centuries, the Swedish dancers were recognized for showcasing modern styles of movement.

Ek, the son of Anders Ek, one of Swedens most celebrated actors, was a dancer with Swedish contemporary dance company Cullberg Ballet, which was founded by his mother, Birgit Cullberg. In three years, Ek began choreographing for the company and became recognized for his reworks of classics including Giselle"and Carmen.

After he left the ballet, he became a guest choreographer with major international dance companies, creating Sleeping Beauty for the Hamburg Ballet and Appartement for the Paris Opera.

Many of his works have been adapted for television, with two gaining Emmy Awards.

Ek specifically chose principal dancer Mariko Kida for the role of Juliet and Anthony Lomuljo to play Romeo. Both danced at the world premiere.

Its clear that they are beautifully trained, Morr said of the dancers. Its really fantastic to have them back at the center, and its so exciting to see the use of imagination in Shakespeares traditional Romeo and Juliet.

*

IF YOU GO

What: Juliet and Romeo

When: 7:30 p.m. June 10, 2 and 7:30 p.m. June 11 and 1 p.m. June 12

Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

Cost: Tickets start at $29

Information: (714) 556-2787 or visit scfta.org

kathleen.luppi@latimes.com

Twitter: @KathleenLuppi
Early College High School in Costa Mesa graduated 57 students at its commencement ceremony Thursday.

Orange Coast Colleges Robert B. Moore Theatre hosted the ceremony, which also welcomed teachers and the graduates families and friends.

Early College, which opened in 2006, offers students a college preparatory program designed to help them fulfill University of California admission requirements. Its school year starts in August and ends in early June.

The school selected grads Alejandra Guerrero, Arthur Molina and Brandon Nguyen as the ceremonys student speakers.

The two valedictorians this year are Isabel Bishop and Rebeca Herrera.
An event at UC Irvine featuring gay conservative speaker Milo Yiannopoulos ignited hours of protest from students Thursday evening as the campus club presenting the event passed out pacifiers to the opponents.

More than 500 people lined up hoping to get into the event in a social sciences building. The lecture hall could accommodate only 200.

The club College Republicans at UCI hosted Yiannopoulos, the technology editor for conservative website Breitbart.com, as he provided critiques on topics such as white privilege, which he believes doesnt exist, and feminism, which he called cancerous.

Club members said last month that campus posters promoting the event were torn down. They decided to pass out pacifiers to any protesters when Yiannopoulos arrived.

1 / 6 Members of College Republicans at UCI hand out pacifiers to protesters before an event featuring speaker Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Irvine on Thursday. (Kevin Chang / Kevin Chang | Daily Pilot) 2 / 6 Milo Yiannopoulos, left, technology editor for conservative website Breitbart.com, makes his entrance Thursday at UC Irvine with a man in a Donald Trump mask before speaking during an event presented by College Republicans at UCI. (Kevin Chang / Kevin Chang | Daily Pilot) 3 / 6 Backers of conservative speaker Milo Yiannopoulos face off with protesters, left, before an event at UC Irvine featuring Yiannopoulos on Thursday. (Kevin Chang / Kevin Chang | Daily Pilot) 4 / 6 A Donald Trump supporter holds an Israeli flag as he waits in line to see speaker Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Irvine on Thursday. (Kevin Chang / Kevin Chang | Daily Pilot) 5 / 6 Protesters argue with people attending an event featuring conservative speaker Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Irvine on Thursday. (Kevin Chang / Kevin ChangDaily Pilot) 6 / 6 Milo Yiannopoulos makes his entrance in a sleeveless police uniform, trailed by a man in a President Obama mask, before speaking at UC Irvine on Thursday night. (Kevin Chang / Kevin Chang | Daily Pilot)

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Some of the posters had contained the name of Yiannopoulos current college tour, The Dangerous F----- Tour, which includes a pejorative term for homosexual.

The pacifiers  which contained tags reading I survived! Milo Tour 2016"  were a symbol of the infantile nature of political correctness, said former College Republicans President Robert Petrosyan.

As the line Thursday began to wrap around buildings near the lecture hall two hours before Yiannopoulos scheduled 7 p.m. appearance, about 15 students huddled in a courtyard to form an impromptu protest.

The students said they were familiar with Yiannopolis views and that they were not fans.

Theres a fine line between having your own opinion and making sure youre not continuing to disenfranchise a whole set of people, said Mystic Pelton, a UCI undergraduate. Some people have privilege, and theyre the ones that may identify with Milo more because they have that privilege and have never been threatened in a public space, stereotyped or been victims of a campaign.

Some of the protesters left the courtyard around 5:30 p.m. and returned a half-hour later with posters, some of which read Free speech [does not equal] hate speech and Demanding not to be stereotyped is not political correctness.

With posters in hand, they lined up in front of short gates that barricaded the people waiting in line for the event.

Shortly afterward, members of College Republicans began handing out pacifiers to them.

As the pacifiers were dangled in front of the protesters faces, shouting matches erupted with club members and one protester took the pacifiers and threw them to the ground.

UCI student Haya Hilton, who was handed one of the binkies, called the clubs action immature and ignorant.

More students joined the protesters and the group grew to more than 40 by the time Yiannopoulos appeared shortly after 7:30.

UCI and city of Irvine police stood by the barricade that separated the protesters from the people lining up to enter the event.

Some in the line wore hats bearing the Make America great again slogan of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Many said they were followers of Yiannopoulos on social media, and some were students from other colleges in and outside California.

"[Yiannopoulos] stands for taking down an establishment that promotes intellectual dishonesty in the form of political correctness, said University of Richmond student Maddie Bright.

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Yiannopoulos entered the lecture hall in a sleeveless police uniform and sunglasses.

He drew cheers with lines such as Racial profiling works and saves lives and Put somebody in office whos going to represent the greatest threat to social justice this country has ever seen.

To buy into conspiracy theories about patriarchy and supremacy ... its used as a way for people to explain why their lives suck, he said. Either you demand special privileges and things you havent earned or you get up, get into the system ... and try to pull the best life you can.

As the event concluded and audience members filed out, protesters chanted Shame on you.

After 10 p.m., Yiannopoulos was escorted out of the hall by UCI police to a parking lot where his driver met him.

alexandra.chan@latimes.com

Twitter: @AlexandraChan10
Fans of wooden boats often call crafting their handmade vessels a labor of love.

For Walter Hackman, 80, of Bakersfield, having his 55-foot, 40-ton Chinese junk built in a small shipyard in a rural town south of Shanghai set him on a journey to China to rebuild his life.

The vessel will be one of 53 on display Saturday at the Balboa Yacht Club for the third annual Wooden Boat Festival.

The story of Hackmans wooden boat began in April 1989. He was opening the art gallery he owned in Pasadena when he was met by two Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies who told him his 23-year-old son, Wally, had been slain.

Walter Hackman and his daughter Lynn Selich will see the 55-foot wooden Chinese junk they used to own displayed at the Wooden Boat Festival in Newport Beach on Saturday. (Scott Smeltzer / Scott Smeltzer | Daily Pilot)

The traumatic news set Hackmans life adrift. He divorced his childrens mother and found himself pondering where he would live and what he would do next.

It changed my life totally and completely, he said. Any plans I had got shelved. I was at the crux of change.

He decided to revisit a long-abandoned dream  to live on a wooden boat along the coast.

The decision launched the roughly two-year process of having his Chinese junk custom-built in a remote shipyard on the Yangtze River.

The boat, designed in the tradition of a Chinese fishing vessel from 500 years ago, was handbuilt in the early 1990s out of Douglas fir, camphor and teak.

Hackman somewhat sarcastically named the boat Mei Wen Ti  Mandarin for no problem.

The name was born out of his interactions with the Chinese boat builders. Regardless of what he asked during the tumultuous process, they would respond, Mei wen ti.

Hackman would inquire whether the builders had issues with assembling parts for modern amenities such as plumbing, power and engines that were not present in Chinese vessels five centuries ago.

Though they assured him Mei wen ti, it became a real concern, he said. I almost abandoned the project several times.

Eventually, he hired an engineer to help the boat builders interpret plans for the technology.

After the boat was built, Hackman faced the challenge of shipping the huge vessel to the United States. When the shipping company demanded about $40,000 more than the originally quoted price to send the vessel, he worried it might sit in China forever.

But in 1993, after a lengthy stalemate, the boat arrived at Los Angeles Harbor on a container ship.

Mei Wen Tis wood exterior is stained golden brown. A smiling, golden-eyed tiger graces the long bow. Inside, the vessel has a large stateroom, a living room area, a kitchen and a bathroom.

Hackman recently published his first novel, No Problem, Mr. Walt, a memoir of the journey to Mei Wen Tis creation, his experiences in China and how the boat guided him into the next chapter of his life.

On Thursday morning, Hackman and his daughter Lynn Selich of Newport Beach sat overlooking the water at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, laughing as they recalled cleaning and refinishing the wood on the junk.

Usually boats dont do too much, Hackman said.

But in his case, the vessel helped him cope with the loss of his son and build a stronger bond with his daughter.

Even when we were just having fun and not working on the boat, it was where we met, Selich said. Wed barbecue and have holidays on it. Theres really nothing like being on a boat, any type of boat.

But Mei Wen Ti nearly sank one weekend after the bottom sprung a leak. Later, wood worms in Long Beachs Rainbow Harbor began eating the hull.

The dedication and money necessary to care for wooden vessels, which quickly age from the effects of salt water and sunlight, distinguish them from their fiberglass counterparts.

By 2000, Hackman had remarried and was ready to sell the boat. Selich, recalling the wonderful times her family had on the boat, decided to buy it.

At that time, I just was not  with every ounce of my being  able to let that boat go, she said.

A few years later, after realizing the immense cost of keeping the boat in good condition, Selich sold it to Jim OConnell, who keeps it berthed in Los Angeles Harbor.

On Saturday, Selich and Hackman will be reunited with Mei Wen Ti at the Wooden Boat Festival.

They plan to watch as it sails into Newport Harbor on Friday afternoon.

I just hope there arent any problems getting it here, Selich said.

*

IF YOU GO

What: Wooden Boat Festival

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday

Where: Balboa Yacht Club, 1801 Bayside Drive, Corona del Mar

Cost: Free

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
When was the last time you paid attention to goings-on at the Orange County Board of Education?

Maybe now is the time.

At the next board meeting at 10 a.m. Wednesday, the question will be addressed of whether its appropriate for an elected trustee to ask a Department of Education employee about the persons sexual orientation at a public board meeting, or to refer to gay people as Sodomites.

Second District Trustee David Boyd brought the issue to light in an April 25 news release regarding Trustee Robert Hammond, who represents District 1.

Boyd is asking for a briefing by legal counsel on what constitutes a hostile work environment, as well as an investigation into Hammonds conduct.

At issue are two emails Hammond sent.

On April 3, 2014, Hammond wrote to an employee saying, I hope you dont mind, but I plan on asking you about your sexual orientation publicly during our next board meeting.

And on June 22, 2015, in an exchange with fellow Trustee Ken L. Williams of District 3, Hammond closed an email with a postscript: ``The U.S. Supreme court rules 5-4 that Sodomites can now be married!

Boyd is requesting that the superintendent begin an investigation to determine the scope of the problem, as the Constitution of the United States guarantees a right of privacy to all citizens, and various statutes provide even greater protections to employees.

Though no lawsuits alleging a hostile workplace environment have been filed related to Hammonds conduct, Boyd feels the board and the department need to get ahead of this problem before it becomes a liability.

Laura Kanter, director of policy, advocacy and youth programs for the LGBT Center OC in Santa Ana, called Hammonds behavior reprehensible and wildly inappropriate and an outrageous violation of their right to privacy.

She says his actions have an impact on Department of Education employees, students and the entire community.

Hammonds tone, she says, alienates multiple groups, not only the LGBT community, and undermines the efficacy of the county Board of Education.

Boyd tells me hes frustrated and disappointed, saying he had no recourse other than to speak out and let legal counsel take it from there.

Its undetermined whether the lawyers will allow the issue to be discussed in an open or closed session next week.

Its in their hands, Boyd said.

Hammond, elected in 2012, is up for reelection this year.

This is not his first go-around with controversy  or with Boyd.

At one of Hammonds first board meetings in 2012, he got into it with former Trustee Liz Parker after she scolded him publicly for using a cellphone in a meeting.

Parker later claimed that Hammond sent her a threatening email, and Boyd stuck up for her.

In 2014, I wrote about the contentious elections here and the struggle between religious-right conservative candidates and moderate ones, both factions vying for board control.

Boyd won reelection in 2014 over ultra-conservative opponent Tom Pollitt, whom Hammond and Williams supported.

Pollitt, chief of the Newport-Mesa Tea Party, is currently running for O.C. Republican Party Central Committee District 74 and was an outspoken supporter of Newport Beach Councilman Scott Peotter when he touted his controversial views against gay marriage last June.

Theres no disputing that what Hammond wrote is inappropriate, but the fact that he felt comfortable choosing his words as he did speaks to a bigger issue.

I wanted to address this with him, and what I believe is a troubling anti-gay culture bubbling below the surface of this organization, but he didnt respond to my phone call or email.

My initial concern surfaced in 2011, when Williams challenged a column Id written for the Orange County Register praising National Coming Out Day, suggesting, A more fair and balanced column would mention the opposing available organizations and treatments on this issue.

He suggested I call Joe Dallas of Joe Dallas Ministry and Genesis Counseling in Tustin, which advocates, as Williams does, for reparative therapy, a belief that prayer can cure homosexuality.

Pray away the gay?

Dallas didnt want to speak to me.

Its important to note that the American Psychological Assn. doesnt consider being gay a psychiatric disorder.

And California, Washington, D.C., Oregon, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Vermont and the District of Columbia prohibit subjecting LGBT minors to harmful conversion therapy practices that attempt to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The O.C. Board of Education, based in Costa Mesa, oversees about 500,000 kids in the public school system. The population certainly includes LGBT students, though there arent statics to show exactly how many.

Maybe instead of praying away the gay, voters in this election should pray away bigotry on the county Board of Education.

BARBARA VENEZIA lives in Newport Beach. She can be reached at bvontv1@gmail.com.
Now more than ever, politics has become a contact sport and has affected every aspect of our lives, including how we see our celebrities, like the stars of the silver screen.

Great deeds and careers, especially of those who are no longer with us to defend themselves, are often tarnished by old statements made somewhere in our past. Despite that, we should continue to look at and honor the positive impacts and legacies of these heroes of old.

One man that has left such a legacy is the Duke himself, John Wayne.

One of Orange Countys own, John Wayne was not just a world-renowned movie star, but a genuine American who exemplified courage, endurance and spirit  true grit. Such a great icon for us here that our local airport was named after Wayne.

Last year, Texas honored the Duke by passing a resolution commemorating his birthday. It is time for those of us here in his old stomping grounds to follow suit.

We see John Waynes many good deeds in our community still today. For example, the Duke helped make our country home to a number of Vietnamese refugees who were settling in the United States. With nearly 20% of Orange County residents being Asian American, some of our closest friends come from families of refugees themselves.

This is only a small part of the philanthropic and lasting legacy of Wayne. Prior to dying from stomach cancer, Wayne had already beaten lung cancer 15 years prior. His own battle gave him a new passion for helping others who were fighting this terrible disease.

For his contribution to healthcare, The Wayne Foundation has made a great impact in the field of cancer studies. The foundation helped to create The John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, formerly the John Wayne Cancer Clinic at UCLA. The research conducted by the institute has led to groundbreaking procedures and treatments. They have also launched a successful presentative youth program called Block the Blaze to raise skin cancer awareness.

Of course, the most memorable contribution of John Wayne was his unwavering support of our Armed Forces. He often visited with military members and even made trips to Japan and Vietnam through his several tours with the USO to boost the troops spirits in the Pacific. He was also posthumously awarded the Naval Heritage Award by the U.S. Navy for the support he showed to the Navy and military during his film career.

Wayne was a true patriot loyal to the democratic process, a quality that should cross political lines. Regardless of political affiliation and his own personal feelings, Wayne always showed respect and support to the president of the United States for the simple fact the president was his president.

Today, in a world of reality TV and seeking 15 minutes of fame through outrageous acts, it seems that the values we once held dear and that set our heroes apart are gone. Honoring a man like Wayne, who epitomized courage, dignity, integrity, and generosity ensure that such values are not completely extinct just yet. We can still honor a man that left a lasting legacy that continues to help the lives of others.

MICHELLE STEEL is an Orange County supervisor from Surfside. MATT HARPER is a state assemblyman from Huntington Beach.
With all eyes on the 2016 California primary June 6, it was odd to receive polling results regarding a hypothetical congressional race for 2018.

But thats what showed up in my inbox.

According to the email, the poll completed May 5 was conducted by Lewis Consulting Group. The president of LCG is former Assemblyman and California state Sen. John Lewis.

Three hundred likely June 2018 voters were surveyed about a hypothetical match-up for the 48th Congressional District among Republican and current U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (Costa Mesa), former O.C. Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh and Democrat Sue Savary.

Savary and Rohrabacher are facing off in the 2016 election, so wouldnt it make more sense to poll this years race?

Probably, but this is O.C. politics were talking about, where hidden agendas and even stranger friendships abound.

From the get-go I had questions about this poll. Particularly when it stated a number of questions were asked in the survey, yet only a few were included in the email. So I had no idea what questions framed this survey.

The poll stated, " Rohrabacher has little to fear from Baugh, as it showed poll numbers in a hypothetical election with Rohrabacher receiving 52%, Savary, 22%, and Baugh, 6%.

But the poll gave no indication whether this question was asked of Republicans or Democrats.

The survey also dealt with name recognition. Among Republicans, Rohrabacher scored 52% to Baughs 13%.

Ten percent of those polled hadnt heard of Rohrabacher, and 53% apparently didnt know Baugh, which is strange since he was party chairman.

As I looked at the other questions it became clear to me the survey was slanted in Rohrabachers favor.

Was it meant to slam Baugh, as it attempted to gauge the electorates evaluation of possible potential trouble spots for him?

It states Baugh was a former lobbyist with a no bid lobby contract with the county, a statement Baugh tells me is just plain false.

The bottom line is that at no time was I involved in a no-bid contract, he said. Moreover, I have not received any compensation directly or indirectly from the County of Orange since I stopped lobbying for the County in Sacramento approximately 10 years ago.

I called Lewis, asking why he focused on a hypothetical race, rather than a real one taking place in 2016?

Lewis said it was topical, and there had been press speculation.

In February I wrote about Baugh pulling papers to run in 2016, if Rohrabacher didnt seek re-election. The OC Register did too.

Controversy arose, as Baugh continued to raise money, about $500,000 for a 2018 bid, even though Rohrabacher decided to run this year.

Baugh defends fundraising, saying Rohrabacher was clear in telling him he wasnt planning to seek re-election in 2018 and even encouraged him to start fundraising this year.

Jon Fleischman, a long-time friend of Baugh, Rohrabacher and OC Supervisor Michele Steel and her husband Shawn, confirmed this conversation on his blog, the Flash Report, in April.

Fleischman reported that if Steel runs for Congress in 2018, Rohrabacher will most likely endorse her, rather than Baugh.

Polling isnt cheap. A poll of this nature could cost thousands.

So who would spend this kind of dough on something so speculative?

Lewis wouldnt say, but admitted the poll hadnt garnered much interest, except from me.

Baugh takes exception, saying, Lewis is not a pollster; hes a county lobbyist who relies on votes from OC supervisors for his livelihood.

Baugh tells me its standard operating procedure for a political smear to create a false narrative and then promote that false narrative through a surrogate, which is what he feels is the purpose of this poll.

Nobody is fooled by whats going on here, and frankly the voters are sick of these insider games, he said. The culprits behind this dirty poll and the lies in it should crawl out from under their rock.

So who could be under the rock?

Its too hard to tell, but one thing we do know is there is interest in some key Orange County political seats.

So lets play hypothetical political musical chairs for a moment, since Lewis opened that door.

If Steel goes for Rohrabachers seat, will the congressman then go for supervisor or just retire after 30 years?

As a congressman, he makes about $175,000 annually, not counting the perks of travel, etc.

His wife, Rhonda, works for him and takes in about $60,000 per year. So they could pull in about $250,000.

If Rohrabacher retires, hed make about half that, but if he took retirement and a 5th District supervisors salary, which Ballotpedia.org rates at about $163,000, including benefits, hes got it made.

Its all a bit politically incestuous for my taste, but hey, these folks all claim to be long-time friends, but with friends like these, who needs enemies?

--

BARBARA VENEZIA lives in Newport Beach. She can be reached atbvontv1@gmail.com. Listen to her weekly radio segment on Sunday Brunch with Tom and Lynn from 11 a.m. to noon on KOCI/101.5 FM
The senior residents at Scholl Canyon Estates dressed up in their finest Thursday night for a second chance at attending a prom that several of them never had the opportunity to experience when they were teenagers.

Marybeth Maloney Thicke helped organize the prom with fellow staff of assisted living facility, who ordered balloons and laid out appetizers and punch around 4 p.m. in the room where the seniors typically dine.

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There would be dinner, a cake and the crowning of the nights King and Queen, before they would make room to dance in the dining room.

Former prom king Nick Medvid puts the prom king crown on Walter Sheuns head at the Scholl Canyon Estates Senior Prom on Thursday, April 28, 2016. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

Throughout the evening, students from St. Francis High School waited on the seniors by providing them with food and drinks, or simply talking with them.

Now that theyre retired and slowing down and enjoying life, its nice to give back to them what they gave up, Thicke said. They grew up in a very hard time during the [1930s] and 40s. I just thought it would be nice to throw them a party they never had.

Ray Victor, 92, was a student at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights in 1942, when he played the trombone in a local band.

But his schools band director hired Victors band to play at the prom.

I danced one dance, Victor recalled. That was after a girl, who was always teasing Victor, asked his band director if Victor could sit out for one song so he could dance.

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Of having a chance at a prom again, Victor said with a smile, Its my first and last.

Fellow resident Lorrain Titus, 88, also missed her prom after dropping out school in Oklahoma City at 16 years old.

She met her husband while roller skating and, a few months later, they were married. He was 18, and in the U.S. Navy, and would soon be stationed in Virginia.

I left school and went to be with him. So I missed the prom, but thats all right, she said.

Walter and Nancy Sheun, married 64 years ago, briefly dance after being named prom king and queen at the Scholl Canyon Estates Senior Prom on Thursday, April 28, 2016. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

Walter and Nancy Scheun were crowned King and Queen Thursday night after residents cast their votes.

They married in 1954, two years after meeting each other in Los Angeles.

Walter Scheun, 89, dropped out of school at 16 to begin working as an office boy for a company in Chicago.

He eventually went back to school to earn his high school degree.

Nancy Scheun, 86, missed her prom for a different reason.

I was never asked, she said.

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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorrigan

--

ALSO:

La Canada animal lover works to restore a four-legged friend

GCC students celebrate U.S. citizenship

Taste of Downtown Glendale set to return to Brand Boulevard next Wednesday
A workshop on pedestrian and driving safety, with a focus on senior citizens, will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday at Library Connection @ Adams Square, 1100 E. Chevy Chase Drive.

NEWSLETTER: Stay up to date with whats going on in your community>>

Last year, five people lost their lives in pedestrian-involved traffic collisions in Glendale. Police have logged 14 pedestrian deaths  most of which have involved seniors  between 2008 and 2013.

The workshop, which is free, will be conducted in Armenian.

For more information, contact Elizabeth Grigorian at (818) 548-3288.

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A safe place to drop off the kids

A Parents Night Out will be held from 6 p.m. to midnight on Friday at the Pacific Community Center, 501 S. Pacific Ave.

Parents can drop off their children at the center, where there will be pizza, a movie screening and activities.

The fee is $15 per child, 5 to 12 years old. Participants are encouraged to bring their pajamas and a blanket.

To register or for more information, call (818) 548-4098.

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Help sought on trail maintenance

A trail-maintenance event will be held from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday. Meet at the Doctors House Museum in Brand Park, 1601 W. Mountain St.

All participants must be at least 16 years old.

Drinks and snacks will be served. Volunteers should wear sturdy shoes and protective clothing as well as bring water, sunscreen and a hat.

To register, which is encouraged, call (818) 548-3795.

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Cucumber Cream Queen exhibit

A new exhibit titled Fanny Briggs Carr, Glendales Pioneer of Industry 1860-1937" will open on Sunday from 2 to 4 pm. at the Doctors House Museum and Gazebo in Brand Park, 1601 W. Mountain St., Glendale.

The exhibit is dedicated to Carr, known as the Cucumber Cream Queen, who started what is today a multibillion-dollar cosmetics industry.

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Information on CASA to be shared

The organization called Court Appointed Special Advocate, known as CASA, will provide information about the group from 10 to 11:15 a.m. on Thursday at Glendale Fire Station 21, 421 Oak St,, Glendale.

Volunteers with the group help foster children who have been removed from their homes because of abuse, neglect and/or abandonment. They advocate for their best interest both in the courtroom and in the community.

For more information or to register for the event, visit casala.org/volunteer.

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Mark Kellam, mark.kellam@latimes.com

Twitter: @LAMarkKellam
Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park invites the public to find their park during a special event celebrating the National Park Service Centennial. Visitors are encouraged to learn about Civil War signaling, participate in hikes with park rangers, and learn about the history associated with Signal Point. These programs take place atop Signal Mountain on Saturday, June 18 between 9 a.m. and 4 pm in Signal Point.



"As the National Park Service launches into its second century of preserving special places across the United States, the time has never been better to explore new facets of the national parks and to connect with and create the next generation of park visitors, supporters, and advocates. Come explore an often overlooked treasureSignal Pointand perhaps see it in a new way as you watch living historians demonstrate what it was like to send and receive messages from Signal Point during the Civil War (including a childrens activity), to participate in hikes led by park rangers from the Cumberland Trail State Scenic Trail, and talk with historians about the addition of Signal Point to the national military park in the late 1940s," officials said.



Cumberland Trail State Scenic Trail park rangers will lead three hikes from Signal Point. Registration is required for these hikes and will be taken on-site the day of the event. There is a 20 person maximum on each hike. Bring a bottle of water, wear good hiking shoes, and have weather appropriate clothing.

Hiking Information:

 View to View Hike: Leaving from Signal Point at 10 a.m. Come enjoy a ranger-led hike from Signal Point to Edwards Point. Come learn the history of the Cumberland Trail and hike from two of the best views the trail and Chattanooga has to offer. This will be an 8 mile hike requiring 3 to 4 hours. Please have good hiking shoes, water, and snacks and be capable of covering 8 miles over a trail that changes elevation.



 Kids Hike: At Signal Point at 11 a.m. This will be an easy hike centered on introducing kids to the many wonders that can be found in your local national and state parks as well as your own back yard. This is an easy hike and will not leave the point area, easy to start and plug in and out of, led by our veteran Park Manager, Bobby Fulcher, a 40 year veteran of state parks and interpreter extraordinaire.



 Point to Creek Hike: Leaving Signal Point at 1 p.m. Enjoy a 3 mile ranger-led hike from Signal Point down to Middle Creek and Rainbow Falls. Learn the history of the Cumberland Trail and hike down to Middle Creek and the falls. Please have good hiking shoes and water.



"Be sure to collect a special commemorative giveawayavailable while supplies last," organizers said.



For more information about programs at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, contact the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center at 706-866-9241, the Lookout Mountain Battlefield Visitor Center at 423-821-7786, or visit the parks website at www.nps.gov/chch.
Gathered in front of the 45 engraved names of local veterans who perished in combat, La Crescenta residents honored and remembered fallen soldiers from their community during a Memorial Day ceremony on Monday.

Flowers were laid at Two Strike Park by the memorial, which has the names of the nearly four dozen veterans who fought and died in combat ranging from World War II to the current War on Terror. Their names were also read aloud as part of the local tradition.

However, keynote speaker Bill Flanders, a Marine Corps pilot and lead pastor of the First Baptist Church of La Crescenta, said theres more to the chiseled names whether on the local memorial wall or the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.

I want you to understand that the names that you see on the wall are not just statistics  Theyre real people who have friends like me, Flanders said. People who left behind children and wives.

He shared the story his friend Marine Capt. Bill Nystul, who was among the last Marines killed during the Vietnam War the day before U.S. forces pulled out in 1975.

Nystul was in a helicopter on a search-and-rescue mission when the aircraft crashed into the South China Sea. His body was never recovered.

U.S. Army veteran Robert Wollenweber read the poem In Flanders Field by World War I veteran Lt. Col. John McCrae. Wollenweber spoke to the significant of the red poppy flower, which is referenced in the poem.

"[McCrae] was inspired after presiding over the funeral of friends and fellow soldiers, Wollenweber said. "[The poem] references the red poppies that grew over the graves of fallen soldiers, resulting in the poppy becoming one of the most recognized symbols for soldiers who have died.

A folded flag was given to the family of Michael Kurtz, a Vietnam veteran who died in 1989.

Many of the veterans who attended Mondays ceremony have been going to it for years, including local resident Andy Gero, an Army veteran from the Korean War. He said, however, its still hard for him to hear the names called out of his fallen brethren.

Being a veteran myself, I have to say that its real hard to talk about it because of the sacrifice these guys made and what they went through to keep us free, he said. I think were giving them the proper recognition for their service to our country.

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arin.mikailian@latimes.com

Twitter: @ArinMikailian
The portrait of the artist as a dashing outdoorsman is the first image in Brett Weston: Significant Details exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. The undated photograph has the artist standing in profile with an 8x10 camera, shutter release in his right hand, at home amid rocky terrain in sunglasses and leather jacket.

He cultivated a certain persona and bravado that he displayed to the world, says Erin Aitali, PMCA Director of Exhibitions, and curator of the Weston show. From everything that Ive read, he was a very charming, warm man. He loved women, he loved cars. He wasnt interested in politics or current events. He wasnt interested in reading the newspaper. His number one thing was photography. Everything else was secondary to that.

MORE: Read more about the latest in local arts and entertainment >>

The opening portrait is followed by 42 photographs created by Weston that span a half-century of picture-making as one of the marquee names in a family of esteemed photographers. The family legacy began with the work of his hugely influential father, Edward Weston, but the younger photographer charted a distinctive career of his own, a modernist fascinated by the precision of straight photography.

Significant Details is on display at PMCA through Sept. 11, and is culled from the Brett Weston Archive, an entity separate from the Weston family devoted to collecting and promoting the late artists work. More than half of the pictures have never before been publicly shown.

When I started digging in to what the Archive had, I was really impressed with the abstract works that he did and he had been doing those from the very beginning, says Aitali.

Weston was born in Glendale and gravitated early to photography, though given only basic instruction in the use of large-format cameras. He developed a strong point of view and technical skills from his earliest pictures made while a teenager.

One photograph at PMCA from 1926, The Roof, Mexico, is a striking study of shadow and line, with deep blacks and subtle shades of gray across corrugated metal rooftops baking in the sun.

In his personal journal that year, his father wrote: Brett is doing better work at 14 that I did at 30. To have someone close to me working so excellently, with an assured future, is a happiness hardly expected.

In much of Brett Westons work, the focus is on the natural world, with no physical sign of the human form, which is especially true in Significant Details.

Extreme close-ups of familiar subjects are transformed into abstractions. Pictures of spiky succulents have a vaguely threatening, alien presence. Another called Broken Glass depicts the title subject in mysterious, liquid form, sprawling across the frame.

A pair of vivid images of sand dunes in Oceano, Calif.  dated from 1934 and 1954  show his lasting interest in particular locations and subject matter. Other pictures are from travels to Europe, Baja and, in later years, Hawaii. He returned to the places he liked multiple times over the decades, says Aitali. He really saw beauty in all the details, and he would keep going back to the same place and always see something different.

Weston was a member (along with Ansel Adams and Edward Weston) of Group f/64, which turned away from the romantic pictorialism of the past in favor of a pure, factual view of the world. Weston became best known for his landscapes, which were commercially successful later in his career, but the smaller detailed images were more representative of his interests. He did much more of these abstract details, says Aitali.

In the late 1960s, a heart attack and lingering angina made it difficult to continue working with the bulky 8x10 camera, so he switched to the more portable 2-1/2 format and was immediately pleased with the new flexibility of the smaller equipment. Weston made headlines in 1991 when he made good on a promise to burn his negatives on his 80th birthday to prevent posthumous printing of his work. He destroyed 75 negatives of some of his most famous work that day, tossing each one into the fireplace.

That may have partly been a publicity stunt, and Weston made certain a photographer was present to document the act of violence toward his own work. It made a statement. A year before his death, it revealed an uncompromising commitment to preserving the pictures as he originally envisioned.

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What: Brett Weston: Significant Details

Where: Pasadena Museum of California Art, 490 East Union St., Pasadena

When: Through Sept. 11.

More info: (626) 568-3665, pmcaonline.org

--

Steve Appleford, steve.appleford@latimes.com

Twitter: @SteveAppleford
David Koechner is a master of the uncomfortable laugh. Onstage and on the screen, the comic actor has often specialized in characters of unquiet desperation, ill-mannered and needy, clueless and hilariously crude.

In 2004s Anchorman and its 2013 sequel, he was Champ Kind, the boorish, conflicted sportscaster in a 10-gallon hat who punctuated his sentences with a booming Whammy! On several episodes of The Office, he was Todd Packer, loudmouth friend to Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and a walking sexual-harassment case study.

MORE: Read more about the latest in local arts and entertainment >>

The roles Im known for are these boorish louts that are in extreme pain, Koechner says. I would hope that you can see that theres nuance to those characters. I think most people think its just me hitting an anvil with a hammer. But Im hoping theyre catching whats happening with these guys because theyre unaware of who they are.

His career on television began with a year on Saturday Night Live, where he first met his Anchorman co-star Will Ferrell in 1995. A few months ago, he filmed a role in the Showtime revival of Twin Peaks, of which he can reveal nothing. And he continues to provide the voice of Dick on the animated sitcom American Dad!

People say, Whats your standup like? Thats almost like asking Whats your personality like? Thats best described by somebody else.  David Koechner

Aside from his scripted roles, Koechners specialty for the last three decades has been improvisational comedy, but in recent years has added standup to his repertoire. On June 11, he appears at Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank.

I stay busy, man, he says, noting five kids at home in the Valley, aged 5 to 17. Ive got mouths to feed.

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Marquee: Youre best known for improvisational comedy. Will you be doing traditional standup at Flappers?

David Koechner: [Laughs] I think its puzzling everybody: Whats he doing? How can he possibly stand up like everybody else? Thats a consistent question. But yeah, I do standup. Ive only been doing it for the last five years. Ive done live for 30 years  in sketch and improv. I look at standup as just another way to do a performance. In sketch and improv, its with a partner onstage. The only difference in standup comedy is that your partner is the audience.

Is your standup hugely different to what you do in improv?

I have a wife and five kids, and that certainly plays into it. Im from the Midwest, so my perspectives a bit different. I grew up in a large family, and was working since I was 7 years old for my father, who was a livestock-trailer manufacturer in a small town in Missouri. That certainly infused my perspective.

People say, Whats your standup like? Thats almost like asking Whats your personality like? Thats best described by somebody else. Its storytelling with jokes. I normally say its like youve got a 40-foot flatbed trailer going down the road at 80 miles an hour, and on it is a circus tent  and in the tent is a carnival barker with a bullhorn and the tent is on fire. Thats what my act is like.

Do you wear a hat?

[Laughs] Sometimes. On Monday night I did four sets at four different clubs. Thats what you can do here in town, so you end up getting an hour of stage time. Which is fantastic.

I know that you studied political science in college. Were you ever interested in politics as a career?

Oh, yeah. I was always interested in politics. Im from a small town, so that might have been part of my pursuit of getting out. How does one leave here? I thought, with politics, you move to the city, which was one of my goals. And I was always interested in helping people, but as you get into the process you realize politics is not actually about helping people. [Laughs]

I never met an actor. I didnt know how someone went about doing something like that. Then I took a trip with a buddy of mine to Chicago. Id always been a fan of Saturday Night Live, and I knew a bunch a people from that had come from Second City. I went to the show and noted that they taught classes  and its almost like a light bulb went off: Oh, Im going to move here and take classes, and thats how you become an actor.

Is your comedy ever topical?

No, especially these days. Its relationship-based  the relationship we all have in the institutions of our lives, whether its work, marriage, children, friendships, employers, employees, school, church. Thats always topical. Its relevant to your relationship to life.

Were there comedians or comedic actors you looked up to on your way up?

I loved the Marx Brothers and how smart they were. Monty Python  I was blown away that you could be that funny and that smart  when you think about Dennis the Constitutional Peasant [laughs] in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, its incredible. It was one of my first introductions into socialism [laughs]. Abbott and Costello, who I used to watch on Saturday afternoons with my dad. And of course I was 13 when SNL debuted. I was mesmerized.

With the Anchorman films, youve had a chance to work with the same people on different things together. Is there something special about that?

Absolutely. I remember distinctly thinking when we were doing the second Anchorman  we were about two weeks before finishing  I wished this was a television show we could do the next 10 years. It was so much fun.

In those movies, how much is in the script and how much happens on the set?

Its a combination of things. It all essentially comes from [writer-director] Adam McKay and Will, and the attitude that they bring to the whole thing, the playfulness. Their attitude is, were going to get the scene in three or four takes, and then lets improvise. That adds a different chemical reaction and focus to all the players. Youre on your toes in a different way.

Adam McKay has a microphone when hes directing and hell throw out new lines for everybody, for every character in the movie for every scene. Its remarkable. The mind on that guy is almost unmatched, of the people Ive worked with.

Youve been doing some non-comedic roles.

Its lovely when people are surprised: Oh. You can act! Most comics can because theyre drawing from a wealth of experience, which is what youre supposed to do as an actor anyway. Comics typically draw from their lives for material or draw from their relationships. Whether youre doing improvisation or standup, youre putting your life out there, and thats what youre supposed to do as an actor. Youre supposed to equate these lines as something meaningful and purposeful to you and your own life.

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Who: David Koechner

Where: Flappers Comedy Club, 102 E Magnolia Blvd., Burbank

When: June 11

More info: (818) 845-9721, flapperscomedy.com

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Steve Appleford, steve.appleford@latimes.com

Twitter: @SteveAppleford
Once Upon a Time Bookstore, the Montrose business that Publishers Weekly certified in 2008 was the countrys oldest childrens bookstore, is being recognized next month as Small Business of the Year for the 25th state Senate District.

Sen. Carol Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge) will honor the Honolulu Avenue business during a ceremony in Sacramento on May 25. The 1,200-square-foot store, which opened in October 1966, is owned by Maureen Palacios, who bought it in 2003 from its original founder, Jane Humphrey.

I am pleased to honor Maureen Palacios and the Palacios family for their hard work in preserving this treasured asset and promoting literacy throughout the community, Liu said in a statement.

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Once Upon a Time Bookstore in Montrose is being recognized next month as Small Business of the Year for the 25th state Senate District. (Roger Wilson / Staff Photographer)

In an interview, Palacios said she was surprised to receive the award, considering hers is a decidedly low-tech business in an increasingly high-tech world.

Still, being recognized was very personal and rewarding, she said. We feel like we do a lot for the community.

Above her was some framed paper-cut artwork hanging above the stores entrance. Likely made in the 1940s, the piece that depicts ducks and other animals has been at Once Upon a Time since the beginning.

The piece reads: See my farm / See the big house / See the little ducks / Quack, quack, quack.

Palacios, who estimated that the store has about 80,000 books in its inventory, said in the modern marketplace, she keeps up by also selling various gifts  greeting cards, wind chimes, puppets, small toys  and hosting events that have featured Newbery Medal winners.

The medal is given by the Assn. for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Assn.

Palacios said her store provides important moments that connect children with their favorite authors. She had her own such moment in eighth grade, when Ray Bradbury visited her school.

I think thats important to get kids to remember and to have a memorable experience, Palacios said, because it happened to me.

How Palacios came to own the community bookstore where her family frequented is a tale of its own. Unbeknownst to Palacios, her daughter, Jessica, who was 9 years old at the time, wrote a letter to the Glendale News-Press in 2003 after hearing that Humphrey was looking to sell the store.

I am sad because no one wants to buy the nice bookstore, she wrote. Where am I going to get my fifth Harry Potter book if there is no Once Upon a Time Bookstore?

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Within a few days of her letter publishing, Jessicas family ended up buying the place. The rest, as they say, became local legend. Jessica was transformed into the little girl who saved the bookstore.

Once Upon a Time still has its place in the community, Palacios said. It employs high school students, gives them their first jobs. Famous authors leave their autographs in the storage room.

The experience, according to Palacios, is personalized and personal.

We like to find the right book for you at the right time, she said  and its a big part of what sets Once Upon a Time apart from the Amazons of the world.

Amazon is a data collector. They dont care about a story. I sell stories. I sell dreams. They sell data, Palacios said. I have the better lot in life.

--

Bradley Zint, bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint

--

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Councilwoman Laura Friedman in her bid for state Assembly has out-fundraised opponent City Clerk Ardy Kassakhian in the final months leading up to election day on Tuesday, but Kassakhian said he is critical of her contributions from Californias Bay Area.

Since the beginning of the year, Friedman has amassed $303,702 in campaign contributions, while Kassakhian raised $199,321, according to the Secretary of States financial records.

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But overall, dating back to when both of their campaigns were formed in 2014, Kassakhian has raised the most money with a war chest of roughly $685,000 to Friedmans $665,000, records show.

Local businesses and unions have been significant contributors to both of their bids to succeed Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Glendale) in the 43rd District.

Friedman received $4,200 from Pacific BMW, for example, while Kassakhian managed to draw $4,200 from Raffis Place.

Both have also received union support: the United Nurses Assn. of California gave Friedmans campaign $4,200, while the Local 770 United Food and Commercial Workers Union chipped in $4,200 toward Kassakhians bid.

The councilwoman says her boost in donations came from active campaigning.

Ive been spending a lot of time speaking to voters all across the district, and people are responding to my track record and my priorities, Friedman said.

But Kassakhian says his opponent is getting support from special interest groups outside the 43rd District, mainly situated in the Bay Area.

About $120,000 contributed to Friedmans campaign in recent months have come from cities such as San Francisco and Palo Alto.

Anyone looking at those numbers can clearly see where the special interests are coming from, who want to purchase this seat that really belongs to the residents and voters of the 43rd assembly district, Kassakhian said.

Most of that money from up north, however, is coming from tech-industry investors who are looking for someone with a degree of political independence to be elected to the state, said Parke Skelton, Friedmans campaign manager.

Among the Bay Area contributors is the billionaire Fisher family, of which Doris Fisher is one of the founders of the Gap clothing company, and Robert Fisher serves as chairman. The Fishers donated $29,400 to Friedmans camp, according to state financial records.

Skelton said the only group Friedman has met with from up north is called Govern for California.

Friedmans campaign manager in return criticized Kassakhians campaign for receiving more than $420,000 in independent expenditures, nearly all from the California Assn. of Realtors and the California Apartment Assn.

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The real estate lobby has spent time fighting against any attempt to restrict urban sprawl or protect open space. Thats probably a more problematic special interest than whoever is supporting Laura, he said.

Independent expenditures are made by organizations that campaign for a candidate they favor. They do not donate money to a candidate, so the person running has no control over how the money is spent.

Kassakhian said Realtors are backers of quality neighborhoods and thats why the Realtors and apartment association are backing him.

In recent weeks, Kassakhian was critical of the more than $1.2 million of independent expenditures spent by the Parent Teacher Alliance, which is sponsored by the California Charter Schools Assn., in favor of campaigning for Friedman.

When it came to money spent by the candidates campaigns, Kassakhian has spent $247,179, while Friedman spent $145,345.

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Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com

Twitter: @ArinMikailian
La Crescenta residents can water their lawns three days a week again after local utility officials eased up on restrictions that were imposed in response to an ongoing drought, while Glendales top utility official said he expects to do the same as well as eliminate an added drought charge this summer.

The Crescenta Valley Water District announced this week it was shifting from the orange level of conservation  which capped watering lawns to two days a week  to the yellow level.

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Residents can now water Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m., according to water district officials.

Far surpassing conservation standards set by state government as well as higher rain and snowfall in the Sierras played roles in the decision to let residents water lawns an extra day a week, said Tom Love, general manager of the Crescenta Valley Water District.

Last year, the state required La Crescenta to cut its water usage by 18%, and residents surpassed that by limiting usage an average of 26%.

Our community has responded incredibly well to the call for conservation, Love said.

Other factors were the installation of a new water well at the former Rockhaven Sanitarium and a larger-than-expected allocation of water from the state to the Metropolitan Water District, from which the Crescenta Valley district purchases water.

The yellow level of watering three days week will likely be in effect for 12 months as conservation requirements at the state level continue, Love said.

Were not out of the woods yet  Were taking one step right now, he said. Its certainly encouraging, but everyone should continue to be conscientious about wasting water.

Steve Pierce, a La Crescenta resident and president of the Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce, said he doubts hell be watering more and that hes gotten into the habit of turning on his sprinklers once a week.

Weve found out that our plants do pretty well with watering less and [conserving] was a good lesson for us all to go through because we learned we dont need to water as much as we thought, Pierce said.

Love said he also believes people have, indeed, made conserving water a habit.

Glendale could also see its twice-a-week watering restrictions reduced in a similar manner this summer.

Steve Zurn, general manager of Glendale Water & Power, said he will be taking a proposal to City Council in July to add an extra day per week of watering.

He cited similar reasons as La Crescenta officials did for deciding to ease up on local water restrictions.

Glendale has, on average, surpassed its goal of reducing water usage by 20%, and that target has since been cut to 18% by the state, Zurn said.

Our residents have done an excellent job in conserving, so were passing on this relaxation to them and they can use a little bit more water  It certainly works for us, he said.

Zurn said hell also be pitching the idea of eliminating the drought charge, which was added on last year for utility customers because revenues to maintain water-delivery systems dropped as conservation rose.

The drought rate is 75 cents per hundred cubic feet of water or 748 gallons and adds about $14 to a typical single-family customers utility bill each month.

--

Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com

Twitter: @ArinMikailian

--

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Eddie Gomez hovered over the torso of a dummy Thursday afternoon, performing chest compressions while a hospital worker sang.

Ah, ah, ah, ah, save a life, save a life, sang Parisa Jamsheed, chest pain coordinator for Glendale Adventist Medical Center, to the tune of the Bee Gees Stayin Alive.

See more stories from the crime and public safety desk >>

The song gave Gomez an idea of how fast to perform hands-only CPR, which he was learning as part of the annual Sidewalk CPR event hosted by the hospital and the Glendale Fire Department at the Glendale Galleria.

According to Dr. Cheryl Lee Jang, people should strive to perform about 100 compressions per minute, two inches deep. The key, she said, is to start compressions right away after calling 911.

Los Angeles resident Larry Keeshen, 90, learns how to properly perform compression techniques during the Sidewalk CPR event at the Glendale Galleria on Thursday, June 2, 2016. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Every second counts in terms of reviving a heart, Jang said, while a colleague added that a majority of cardiac arrests occur at home. If the family can do it for us, wonderful.

Dozens of shoppers stopped by the booth to pick up the skill, for free, during the three-hour event, walking away better prepared to handle an emergency.

Jang, along with Glendale paramedics and other hospital workers, distributed cards in Spanish, Armenian and English, instructing passersby what to do if someone loses consciousness.

Keep doing it until paramedics or help comes, Jamsheed told Gomez, whose arms were getting tired after repeated compressions. If youre tired, that means youre doing it effectively.

Nancy Russon, from the Glendale Fire Deptartment, shows how to properly perform hands-only CPR during the Sidewalk CPR event at the Glendale Galleria on Thursday, June 2, 2016. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Also among the shoppers who stopped by was 18-year-old Brian Sanchez, who said hes aspired to be a paramedic since he was 9 years old.

Its easier than I thought, he said of CPR.

Thursday marked the fifth year the training event was offered in Glendale.

We just want to be proactive in our community, Jang said. The more our community residents know about how to help their loved ones, the better it is for us.

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Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @atchek
A ballot argument in favor of the proposed repeal of the citys utility users tax was revised per direction this week from a judge, who said the original language was misleading.

NEWSLETTER: Stay up to date with whats going on in the 818 >>

Measure N goes before voters on June 7. Each voting pamphlet contains an argument against the measure  that was written by the city  and one in favor of it, written by the circulators of the petition who got the measure on the ballot.

However, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert OBrien sided with the city in its lawsuit against resident Bill Taliaferro, who city officials said used inaccurate information in his argument.

City officials were most concerned with Taliaferros statement that the loss of the utility users tax  about $17.5 million  only amounts to 2% of the General Fund budget.

The city argued that its actually 9.5% of the General Fund, citing financial records.

City Atty. Mike Garcia said he was pleased with the victory and that the sample ballots will not contain inaccurate information.

The judges ruling had to be made by Friday, the day when sample ballots headed to the printer.

The final drafts were due to the Registrar today, so it was important to have it resolved as soon as possible, Garcia said.

Taliaferro said he doesnt think his information was wrong based on his calculations, but hes glad the matter is resolved.

We would have liked to have it turn out a bit better, but the main thing now is were moving forward, he said.

If the utility users tax is repealed, the city will have to cut $17.5 million from city services, which include the local police and fire departments.

The tax has been on the books since 1969.

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Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com

Twitter: @ArinMikailian
Consultants are preparing to interview Glendale school officials who work in the districts main office to determine their efficiency as they work to operate and support instruction occurring in the citys 30 public schools.

The Glendale Unified school board agreed to spend $42,600 in late May to hire consultants through the Sacramento-based School Services of California Inc.

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The boards approval came about two months after Winfred Roberson Jr. began working as the school districts new superintendent, following a candidate search that lasted almost a year during which time the districts top job was in flux.

Three interim superintendents took turns overseeing the districts operations after its last full-time chief, Dick Sheehan, left Glendale Unified to become Covina-Valley Unifieds superintendent in May 2015.

The current school board has never commissioned this type of review, said Armina Gharpetian, board president.

This study will inform the superintendent and board of education about how appropriately [Glendale Unifieds] leadership [and] human resources align with the advancement of the districts mission and goals, she said in an email.

According to the companys proposal, consultants will spend one day at the school districts headquarters to gather data and interview staff and department heads.

Some issues that the consultants will examine include evaluating the current organizational structure, making recommendations to reassign work duties where appropriate and identifying any unnecessary work to eliminate.

The consultants will also work to find ways in which administrative functions can be better coordinated between the school districts various departments.

Theyll turn around their recommendations in about six to eight weeks, and present their findings to school board members.

We work to identify areas where gaps exist and isolate the reasons behind them, the proposal states. Recommendations are developed to support improvement that is focused on results.

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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
Law enforcement officials with the California Highway Patrols Altadena office are seeking information that might lead them to the driver of the truck or SUV that fatally struck a man walking on the northbound Glendale (2) Freeway near La Canada Flintridge the night of June 1.

The victim was identified as 24-year-old Jake Linus Peters of Tujunga, according to the Los Angeles County Coroners Office.

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Investigators said the vehicle that allegedly struck Peters was described by witnesses as a black Ford F-150 or an SUV. Its driver took off after striking the man on the freeway, near Stancrest Drive.

The victim was described by witnesses as a pedestrian at the time of the collision.

He was riding a motorcycle, but he was not on it at the time, Sgt. Becky Lynch said Friday, adding that Peters was seen by witnesses at around 9:30 p.m. walking eastbound on the freeway. He was struck by an unknown vehicle and he sustained fatal injuries.

One witness, a Montrose resident who asked her name be withheld out of respect for the victims family, said she was driving home from Eagle Rock at 9:45 p.m. when she noticed a motorcycle parked on the left shoulder of the freeway, near the center divider, about 1 mile south from the turnoff for the Foothill (210) Freeway.

A CHP car was parked in front of it, as if an officer were investigating the abandoned vehicle, the woman reported. A moment later, about 700 to 1,000 feet from the parked motorcycle, the witness saw an SUV and a sedan ahead of her in the number 3 and 4 lanes, respectively. Both vehicles slammed on their brakes, she recalled.

When I saw them stop I thought there must be something in the road, because I saw the SUV go over something, she said Tuesday. At first, I thought it was a carpet. Then I saw his hands and realized, oh my God, its a person.

The SUV  which the woman said was light colored, not black  and the sedan pulled over to the side of the road, so she began to pull over and dialed 911. As she did that, she noticed the SUV pull back onto the freeway and take off at a high rate of speed.

Later, at home, the woman alerted local residents on Facebook to avoid driving in that area. Others responded on the social media site theyd seen Peters moments before, apparently attempting to cross lanes of traffic on foot.

Ed Winter, a spokesman for the coroners office, confirmed the victims identity and said an autopsy determined Peters died from multiple blunt force injuries. Winter said the incident has been ruled an accident.

The truck or SUV involved in the incident sustained front-end damage, witnesses said.

Anyone who may have information is asked to call (626) 296-8100.

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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardine
Sometimes, when politics get too nasty and the national outlook seems too bleak, its easy to succumb to despair. So if the months and months of comments about losers and Lucifer in the flesh and blood coming out of her wherever have you down, heres a little something to cheer you up: Other countries politics get nasty, too.

A recent battle in Great Britain should make you smile. Earlier this month, British Green Party leader Caroline Lucas grilled British Prime Minister David Cameron about difficult standardized test questions by demanding Cameron answer those very questions.

MORE: Read more of Junes columns >>

For the benefit of the House and 10- and 11-year-olds up and down the country, Lucas began, will the prime minister explain what the past progressive tense is, differentiate between a subordinating conjunctive and a coordinating conjunctive, and finally will he please set out his definition of a modal verb?

Camerons answer: The whole point of these changes is to make sure our children are better educated than we are.

Translation: I dont know.

This delightful exchange came amid a British national brouhaha over ridiculously difficult tests that have prompted mass student walkouts and reportedly have 7-year-olds crying and waking up in the middle of the night from stress.

The week before, Camerons own education minister, Nick Gibb, was ambushed with a test question during a radio interview.

Let me give you this sentence, BBC radio host Martha Kearney said. I went to the cinema after Id eaten my dinner. Is the word after there being used as a subordinating conjunction or as a preposition?

Gibbs answer: Its a preposition.

Kearney laughed and told Gibb that, no, in this sentence, its a conjunction.

Like Cameron, Gibb tried to weasel out of the situation. He mumbled something about how context can change the function of after, which might have been a reasonable response had the question not been predicated on the assumption that 10-year-olds already understand that.

Kearney didnt let up, so Gibb snapped: Fine, but this isnt about me.

For the record: After is a preposition when it introduces a noun or pronoun. Ill see you after the movie. Its a subordinating conjunction when it introduces a whole clause: I went to the cinema after Id eaten my dinner.

Moving on to the other questions the British officials couldnt answer: The past progressive tense is seen in sentences like I was walking, in which the action is described as ongoing at some point in the past.

Differentiating between a subordinating conjunctive and a coordinating conjunctive would have been hard even for me because Ive never heard those terms. I presume they meant conjunctions.

The coordinating conjunctions are and, but and so. Their job is to link items of equal grammatical status: I like peaches, and I also like plums. Both of those clauses could stand alone as separate sentences, so their grammatical status is equal.

Subordinating conjunctions  a larger group that includes since, though, although, if, when, after and because  render a clause unable to stand alone as a sentence. Although I like peaches, I prefer plums. The first clause cant work alone as a sentence because although subordinates it.

As for modal verbs, Ive only heard them called modal auxiliary verbs. Auxiliaries work with other verbs to form compound tenses, the way have does in I have watched a lot of TV today. Modal auxiliaries, which include can, must, may, will and might, work with other verbs in the same way, but they add something more, usually commentary on ability (I can watch TV) or possibility (I might watch TV).

I wouldnt expect government officials to know that, just as I wouldnt expect young school kids to know it, either. I would only hope that pols would take the high road by admitting their ignorance.

They didnt.

But, in the process of playing the politician, at least neither made fun of his female detractors face.

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JUNE CASAGRANDE is the author of The Best Punctuation Book, Period. She can be reached at JuneTCN@aol.com.
Proposals timing was coincidental

City Councilman Ara Najarian suggests that the proposal to lower the building height allowance on North Brand Boulevard between Glenoaks Boulevard and Stocker Street was put forward to stop the Aloft Hotel project. It, in fact was not.

Many of us who supported lowering the height restrictions do oppose the Aloft project as currently proposed. However, the proposal to lower the height allowance, currently 90 feet and six stories, first surfaced last year, long before any of us were aware of the Aloft project.

After the mixed-use condominium/retail project first proposed for the property was rejected by the city in August, I and other area residents realized there were a variety of parcels in that area that were ripe for (over)development due to the zoning. Not wanting to see the development currently plaguing downtown creep into our neighborhood, last fall we proposed that the height allowance be lowered for the area.

The Aloft project only came to light in February, and it was a mere coincidence in timing that both proposals came up for decisions in the same week. And City Manager Scott Ochoa informed City Council that the height allowance proposal would likely not stop the Aloft project.

Obviously, I am disappointed that the height allowance was not lowered, but am grateful to Mayor Paula Devine for seeking to protect the integrity of the neighborhood and ensuring that this issue is taken up when the East and West Community Plan is considered.

Sean Bersell

Glendale

Noise, disruption ruining Jewel City

It is very upsetting to hear that three of Glendales City Council members do not want to address residents concerns over a proposed hotel on Dryden Street. After all the outcry about the extensive building in Glendale, these three are tone deaf to their constituents. The original Downtown Specific Plan for Brand Boulevard was not supposed to encroach on residents. While running for office, Councilman Vartan Gharpetian railed against the unbridled overdevelopment in our city. So did Councilman Ara Najarian.

Councilman Zareh Sinanian has greenlighted almost every project that has come before him. Also City Manager Scott Ochoa has charged ahead with his plans to make Glendale an 18-hour city. I feel terribly sorry for the residents who have been abandoned by these men.

We in south Glendale know what it is like to deal with overcrowding and noise. An 18-hour city will have terrible consequences. It is happening already. Noise pollution is ruining our nighttime serenity. Not one of these officials has to suffer the impacts of this building.

They live nowhere near the 18-hour noise. Anyone who resides near a hotel will have disruption at all hours. I think it is time for all of these men to get the boot. Anyone who routinely chooses developers over the people needs to find another job. To use south Glendale as an excuse to avoid dealing with this hotel is clearly disingenuous.

Mary Baldwin

Glendale

City services would dwindle

As a longtime Glendale resident, I am deeply concerned about the negative impact to the general fund Measure N would cause if passed. For 47 years, the utility users tax has served the city well as a critical element of the general fund.

The loss of the utility users tax will most certainly result in a serious degradation of the superb services currently provided to all Glendale residents.The operating budget cuts would be severe to fire, police, libraries, public works, parks and all other services provided by the general fund.

The Glendale Fire Department is one of the finest in the United States. That is a fact reflected by the Class One rating given by the national Insurance Services Office. Relatively few fire departments in the country have that rating. In my opinion, that is a clear indicator of the excellent services the city has provided for many years given current funding methods, including the utility users tax.

The idea that Los Angeles County can provide the same level of fire and police services at less cost is absolutely false. The city studied that concept many years ago, including a proposal from L.A. County, and rejected it as an unacceptable alternative. There is no escaping the old saying, You get what you pay for.

Measure N is a ill-conceived result of overly simplistic and unrealistic thinking. I believe it would cause a reduction of our city services to a level I have not seen in my 50 years as a resident. At a per capita cost of approximately 26 cents per day I agree with Mayor Devine that the utility users tax is more than worth it. On June 7 I urge a no vote on Measure N.

Richard Hinz

Glendale

Tax provides for amenities

Before voting on Measure N, I hope Glendale residents will take the following steps to better inform themselves of the facts.

First, visit transparentcalifornia.com and download the most recent information for Glendale and several comparable cities. Review all of the wages, not just the most highly compensated.

Second, download the most recent CAFR from the citys website and from the websites of several comparable cities. Glendales CAFR is very complex; focus on Exhibit D-1 (pages 33-40 of the FY 14-15 CAFR), which is for the General Fund. This gives a clear picture of critical revenues and expenditures.

Third, look at CAFRs from several comparable cities to evaluate the competition (Burbank, Pasadena, and Santa Monica are good choices.)

Finally, take a peek at the Summary Compensation Table and the compensation paid to board members for any publicly traded corporation. These items may be found by searching for annual proxy at the Investor Relations page of the corporate website. Bear in mind that the manager of a substantial city is roughly equivalent to being chief executive officer of a small cap SEC regulated corporation.

After taking these steps, hopefully a voter will have adequate information and emotions will have been sufficiently numbed for a reasoned choice to be made.

My conclusion: The utility users tax has been in effect since 1969; mine has averaged $7.14 a month for 50 complete GWP billing cycles at my house. As much as I hate to pay what may appear to be an extraneous charge, I know there are no simple answers. We live in a country that offers liberty and tremendous benefits. Someone has to pay for that. Might we not be better off if we felt privileged rather than resentful about paying for the many amenities we enjoy in our lovely city?

Susan Wolfson

Glendale

Voice your support for Le Mesnager stone barn renovations

One item the City Council is discussing while considering next years budget is completion of the renovation of the Le Mesnager stone barn in Deukmejian Wilderness Park above La Crescenta. The earthquake retrofitted, 100-year old barn needs flooring, AC/heating, and other updates. An adjacent ADA compliant bathroom facility is also required for the barn to be open for regular public use.

Glendale has owned the park since 1988 and gradually made improvements as budgets allowed. The last planned project is completing the barn so it can be used as a welcome center, community meeting space and natural history museum. In the fiscal year 2014-15 budget, $2.5 million was allocated toward the $3 million project and contracts for roughly $1 million for some of the work including the heating/AC are in progress. If you agree that this unique treasure of Glendales park system should be completed, please contact the City Council and let them know you support retaining the currently allocated funds and budgeting the final $500,000 in the 2016-17 budget.

If you live in central or south Glendale and visit Deukmejian Wilderness Park, please let the council know. If you havent enjoyed the park, I recommend the beautiful views from the picnic facilities and hiking trails. The council plans to discuss the budget at the May 24 meeting and adopt it on June 14. You can contact council members via the citys website: www.glendaleca.gov/government/city-council.

The other critical thing to do to help parks in Glendale is to vote no on Measure N on June 7.

Sharon Weisman

Glendale

Liberty is misunderstood

Liberty is an American icon and mustnt be cooked in hot fatty oil within the kitchens of the world market. We live our lives with liberty but without the understanding of its true meaning. Our Founding Fathers shared their wisdom in written declarations and held liberty dear to them.

Life without liberty is not for debate; we naively accept a life under surveillance. Liberty is not a liberal nor progressive movement. Without liberty, Americans will not progress without freedom. Liberty requires possessing knowledge and leading lives without financial constraints. Loss of job opportunities and lack of education are not progress.

Rising super powers fool us with political rhetoric like hope and change and progress. America now reverses its values. This progression will falsely be viewed as a great impact in history.

We can all think better and gain a deeper understanding of political events. As better thinkers, we will remember that America is $19 trillion in deficit. My hopes and dreams are to uphold liberty.

The best moments in life are when one is happy. As they say, money cannot buy happiness, yet debt buys misery. The American iconic ideology of liberty is not neatly placed on a pedestal. Liberty needs to be accompanied by the American Dream and made viable for the pursuit of happiness.

Rachel Melikian

Glendale

Rancho should also have signs

Concerning La Crescentas new Foothill Boulevard welcome monument sign, kudos to them! David Gallaghers design looks appropriate and graces that Glendale community. Can Glendales unique historic equestrian-zoned Rancho neighborhood be next?

Glendale Rancho is the citys western gateway via Riverside Drive, Sonora Avenue, Western Avenue, and Victory Boulevard. But visitors are never sure theyre in Los Angeles, Burbank, or Glendale!

When Sonoras bike-lane striping project is finished, lets rally with the community-development staff for a couple of welcome monuments using natural materials and maybe a few horseshoes, sporting Welcome to the Glendale Rancho Equestrian Neighborhood! Optimum locations for a duo of two-sided signs? Sonora and Lake Street, and west of or at Riverside Drive and Western! Tally ho!

Joanne Hedge

Glendale

Donors have a profit motive

Be careful who you vote for.

There are many negative and tasteless fliers being sent around sponsored by the California Charter Schools Assn, Advocates Independent Expenditure Committee supporting Laura Friedmans candidacy.

Why are these corporations spending all this money for this one candidate?.

Overall yearly spending for California public schools is about $76.6 billion, when federal funds and other funding sources are added. This is what they are after, not the improvement of your childrens education.

Dont let these private corporations who are pouring money into our legislators pockets fool you saying that they can provide better education for our kids. As soon as they put our public schools out of business, there would be no point of return, so watch out.

No corporation will spend this type of money if they are not counting to clean your pockets later  remember this.

Caro Avanessian

Glendale
The Community United Methodist Church Preschool Huntington Beach will celebrate 50 years of providing education to young children Sunday with a party for its current and past staff and families.

The church incorporated the school on May 31, 1966, and opened its doors in July of that year with 42 children, said Vicki Compean, director of the preschool.

Back then, a barn providing shelter for ducks, sheep and bunnies stood on the side of the school, but it was torn down in the late 1980s to make way for a church expansion, said Denise Lydon, who has been teaching at the school for nearly 40 years.

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Now the school has only insects, like walking sticks, butterflies and silk worms, in its six classrooms because of students allergies to animals.

But not much else has changed, Lydon said.

Weve had a really good dedicated group that really cares about children and their needs, she said.

The school now serves an average of 110 children ages 2 1/2 to 5 each year, Compean said, noting with pride the student-teacher ratio of 12 to 1.

Classes are offered for three hours a day, five days a week.

Lydon, who remembers teaching some of the current childrens parents more than 20 years ago, said the school has always been developmentally focused, with students using their hands and objects like building blocks to improve motor skills. Academics are developmentally appropriate, added Compean.

She said preschool is important for acquainting students with basic subjects like reading and writing but also for developing emotional and social skills. Students are offered at least an hour of play time every day.

We want them to feel good about themselves and know they can do things and interact with adults and other children, Compean said. They learn how to problem solve. Its not just the reading, writing and arithmetic. They will get all that. They need this time to pull it all together.

Compean noted that many other schools have changed to full-time day care but that some parents still want that half-day program.

Were still able to fill our classes and offer a very good program, the director noted.

A 50-year anniversary celebration will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at the school, 6652 Heil Ave. in Huntington Beach. It is open to the public and will include food, bounce houses, a photo booth, face painting, a balloon artists and crafts.

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Brittany Woolsey, brittany.woolsey@latimes.com

Twitter: @BrittanyWoolsey
A Huntington Beach resident resigned Thursday from a community board after he garnered national attention Wednesday when he brought a Donald Trump pinata to a rally for the Republican candidate in Anaheim and encouraged other protesters to destroy it.

Victor Valladares, 30, who since December had served on the citys Citizen Participation Advisory Board  a volunteer group appointed by City Council members to discuss issues of importance to residents and make recommendations  attended the rally at the Anaheim Convention Center as an OC Weekly intern to pass out posters from the alternative publication negatively depicting Trump in a sexual manner.

Valladares uncle, who attended the rally with him, gave him the pinata, which, Valladares said in an OC Weekly editorial, he decorated with a swastika and carried at the event.

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Valladares said he walked into the arena without any problems but quickly heard unwelcome comments from Trump supporters.

They called me an illegal and said things like Deport him and Go back to Mexico, said Valladares, who last year co-founded Oak View ComUNIDAD, a resident activist group for the predominantly Latino neighborhood, one of Huntington Beachs poorest.

I know I was going into hostile territory, just being in opposition, but I proved my point that showed the ignorance these Trump supporters are.

He then went outside, passed out more posters and held up the pinata outside the convention center. The episode has been shown in a YouTube video viewed more than 16,000 times as of Thursday morning and featured in local media.

Everybody please hold up your OC Weekly signs, Valladares called out to a crowd of protesters. What do you want to do to this pinata?

The crowd then began shouting expletives aimed at the presidential candidate and charged at the item filled with Mexican candy before tearing it apart.

Some residents of Huntington Beach took to the Facebook group Huntington Beach CommUNITY Voice on Wednesday to express concerns about a city appointee garnering negative attention.

Id rather not have my city appointees participating in embarrassing and disrespectful activities, posted resident Kathy Carrick.

Many of the comments, which have since been deleted, called upon Councilman Erik Peterson, who appointed Valladares to the seven-member Citizen Participation Advisory Board in December, to comment on the matter.

Valladares said it was suggested that he step down from his position on the advisory board Thursday morning. In a Facebook post, Valladares said leaving the position would allow him to focus more on Oak View ComUNIDAD.

Valladares maintains he was within his constitutional rights to speak freely and protest.

People dont understand this is my job as a paid intern to promote the OC Weekly cover, he said. In no way, shape or form will there be anything depicting I was inciting violence. As far as me doing something bad to bring negative attention to the city, I dont believe I did. Im not a politician. Im just a normal citizen that happened to be interested in whats going on in our local government. For anyone to be concerned about what I do on my private time as an intern for the OC Weekly is crazy.
Hes been told no a few times, but Michael Macdonald, 13, still says that one way or another, he wants a surfing class to be part of the offerings at Spring View Middle School.

Give him points for persistence and civic involvement.

The teen, who learned how to surf last summer, first thought of having a surf class at the Huntington Beach school, which serves grades 6 through 8, about a year ago to help newcomers learn how to surf and veterans like him learn new skills and gain practice. It could also help students prepare for high school teams, he said.

Surfing is a very big workout, Michael said. Its very physically demanding. A lot of people are looking for some consistent time to get better at surfing and being able to hone their skills better. I think this would be a great opportunity for those who want to learn how to surf and those who want to advance in surfing.

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He said hes become jealous of his older sister, who gets to surf every day because she is on the Marina High School surf team.

Of course, he can surf outside of school hours, but Michael says the instructional aspect is what he is interested in.

Now, after school administrators denied his request, Michael and his mother, Denny Macdonald, said they plan to appeal to the Ocean View School District board at a future meeting.

Michaels journey began when he approached Principal Jason Blade with the idea of a physical education class during zero period, which starts the school day an hour or so ahead of the typical first-through-sixth-period schedule for participating students. Those who have zero period typically attend classes only through fifth period.

Blade advised Michael to see if other students would be interested. Within two days, Michael had 50 student signatures on a petition. But it became clear that state standards were still a barrier, so Blade said the request had to be denied.

The California Department of Education on its website lays out what is permissible for physical education class. Performing multicultural dances and participating in activities that involve catching, kicking and volleying  not surfing  are appropriate for seventh grade, it says.

Supt. Carol Hansen added the class would have to be taught by a credentialed physical education teacher, and a zero period might make scheduling difficult for teachers and students. In addition, she said, the idea of having a class off campus  at the beach  presents liability concerns.

A zero period class at the middle school level isnt out of the ordinary, but a zero period class off of campus is out of the ordinary, she said.

But Michael didnt stop at no.

He began looking at the elective approach  adding to a roster of courses like art, band, orchestra, chorus, foreign language and economics  during regular class time.

Again, his request was denied.

Any time were looking at electives, we want to look at how thats going to fit into the entire core program and the preparation of students for high school and beyond, Hansen said, again citing schedule concerns. Were never going to completely close the door, but right now we dont feel that it would fit in our schedule or we would have a teacher credentialed to do a zero period elective class.

She added that she encourages students to take a stand for what they believe.

I want kids to be able to voice their wishes and concerns and help them learn why we say yes or no and what it involves, she said. We try to explain what are the requirements and how we have to juggle those things for all kids.

Blade, who also surfs, recommended a club that would meet after school or on weekends, eliminating any credentialing issues, but Michael is insistent it be an actual class.

Whats the point of having a school activity on the weekends? he asked. If you did that, it wouldnt be a school function.

Michael and his mother said their next steps are finding an interested teacher, writing a curriculum and appealing to the school board to allow an elective surf class.

Michaels mother said she applauds her sons efforts.

"[His father and I] are really proud of Michael because we know, even as adults, that this is something that is a very hard thing to try to initiate, particularly when youre dealing with the public education system and administrators, said Denny Macdonald, a licensed marriage family therapist who has taught community college classes.

Its one of those things that, even though hes been getting negative comments from people, he has done really well with following through and continuing to say, Forget it, Im going to keep doing this. 

brittany.woolsey@latimes.com

Twitter: @BrittanyWoolsey
When Tina Zdawczyk was a student at La Canada High School, plans for the future included attending college on a pre-med track in the hopes of someday becoming an OB/GYN.

It wasnt until she was in her last year at USC, with a few internships under her belt, that the 2010 graduate began to question whether she was on the right path.

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Id shadowed enough doctors to figure out thats not what I wanted to do with my life, Zdawczyk said, recalling the realities of navigating a complex bureaucracy with too many patients and not enough time. I wanted to get to know people in more depth.

She thought back to happy summers spent at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, an educational program shed attended as a student and worked at in her college years. She loved being in an environment that paired academic rigor with opportunities for social growth, and started brainstorming career paths that would let her help young people identify and pursue their individual passions.

Once she discovered the field of educational psychology, she was hooked. Now in her first year of graduate school at University of Minnesota, Zdawczyk is researching cognition and how computer science and programming build students computational thinking skills.

Late last month, she learned shed been selected to receive a prestigious research fellowship offered by the National Science Foundation for graduate students working in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields.

Awarded to only 2,000 students nationwide, the fellowship covers three years of graduate school tuition and expenses, including studying abroad.

Im trying to figure out which country to go to, because Im absolutely going, said Zdawczyk, who graduated from USC with degrees in neuroscience and East Asian languages and cultures and worked in Indonesia and Japan in 2012.

Applying for the fellowship was a daunting process, so Zdawczyk enrolled in a class designed to help guide students through it. She worked closely with adviser and UMN education psychology Professor Keisha Varma to determine the nature of the research shed be doing if she pulled off a win.

She hopes her research will shed light on how different computer programming languages affect the development of computational thinking  a way of solving problems, designing systems and understanding human behavior by drawing on the fundamentals of computer science  with an emphasis on female and minority students.

It goes beyond teaching programming (and) provides kids with a different way to think about the world, Varma said of Zdawczyks project. Shes allowing herself to think broadly and think about big ideas, and will be doing it as part of this elite cohort of fellows.

La Canada High Associate Principal Jim Cartnal, a former teacher of Zdawczyks whos kept in touch and wrote a character reference for her fellowship application, said he wasnt surprised to hear about the former students win.

I figured she was going to get it, to be honest, because shes so extraordinary that anything she puts her mind to she pretty much accomplishes, Cartnal said. The skys the limit for her.

As for Zdawczyk, the future is uncertain but looks bright now that shes found her true passion.

I have no idea what I plan on doing after this, she said. I just know this is what I like to do.

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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardine

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After months of working with community groups and residents to develop measures that someday could reduce La Canadas greenhouse gas emissions, consultants and members of the citys Planning Department have completed the draft of a Climate Action Plan.

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The immense menu of legislative options  created with a $75,000 grant from the Southern California Assn. of Governments  was briefed by the City Council in a May 17 meeting and was introduced before the Planning Commission Tuesday.

Once adopted, the document will serve as a road map for local officials to follow so the city can meet increasingly stringent state and federal emissions-reduction targets coming in the next two decades.

A greenhouse gas emissions inventory in the plan shows that in 2014, La Canadans used approximately 203,775 metric tons (MT) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). While the city is on track to meet 2020 state emissions targets, further reductions will be needed for it to do the same in 2035.

The Climate Action Plan quantifies the potential financial costs and greenhouse-gas-saving capabilities associated with the measures put forth, which include suggestions like mandating water efficiency in new development projects, promoting residential and commercial solar projects and community tree-planting.

Christina McAdams, a representative with Rincon Consultants, explained the importance of the publics prioritizing projects in the plan. Ultimately, its the City Council that makes the final determination on adopting new ordinances, but the CAP brings those discussions to the council.

What I worry about is that youve done all done such good work to make this thing and say this is what we need to do ... and then theres going to be no enforcement...  Lisa Novick, outreach director for the Theodore Payne Foundation

Among those who participated May 19 in the last of four public workshops there was a certain amount of skepticism about whether the new reduction measures would amount to meaningful change, or if theyd be largely ignored by apathetic community members and cost-conscious city officials.

Lisa Novick, outreach director for the Theodore Payne Foundation, a nonprofit nursery specializing in California native plants, said the city and its residents dont have the best reputation for conservation. As such, she said the city should focus on making meaningful, long-term changes like an ordinance requiring landscaping to include native species.

What I worry about is that youve done all done such good work to make this thing and say this is what we need to do ... and then theres going to be no enforcement and no active adoption and paradigm shift to follow, because of the record of this community, Novick said.

Beth Fabinsky, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory employee, agreed the city and its residents need to do more, even beyond the Climate Action Plan suggestions, to reach emissions levels more on par with nearby communities.

Deputy Director of Community Development Susan Koleda said many aspects of the CAP would be considered as the city worked to update its zoning code. The consultants similarly assured residents the document included an extensive implementation plan with annual progress reviews.

The intent of this plan is not to sit on the shelf, McAdams said.

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The draft Climate Action Plan is available for review by the public, online and at City Hall, through June 13. Through the month of May, residents may prioritize potential measures in an online survey at www.lcf.ca.gov/planning/climate-action-plan.

The document will return to the citys Planning Commission for a recommendation on June 14, then go to the La Canada Flintridge City Council for adoption in a June 21 meeting. Anyone with questions is encouraged to contact Deputy Community Development Director Susan Koleda at (818) 790-8881 or by email at skoleda@lcf.ca.gov.

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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardine
Vincent Dioguardi was 11 years old and hanging out at a friends house when he first encountered marijuana. His friend had taken some of his dads stash and asked if he wanted to try some.

Without hesitation, I said yes, Dioguardi recalled. From that point on, everything in my life changed.

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That experience set off a spiral of addiction that would last the next four years as Dioguardi continued smoking pot, fell in love with cocaine at age 13 and began selling drugs to other teens.

His parents tried changing schools, from La Canada High to St. Francis and then back again, hoping to correct their sons troubling behavior without knowing drug use was behind it. It wasnt until about six months ago, when they caught Dioguardi in the basement smoking pot and insisted on checking his cellphone communications, that the harsh truth came to light.

I looked my mom in the eyes and I remember saying, I have an issue, the now 15-year-old sophomore recounted. I thank God every day that day happened.

Today, celebrating five months of sobriety  with the help of intervention from Action Family Counseling in Pasadena  Dioguardi wants other families in the Foothills to understand how easy it is for kids to get hooked on drugs and what parents can do to recognize warning signs and respond immediately.

The teen shared his personal experiences with addiction and recovery Monday evening at Lanterman Auditorium in a forum, Drug Trends in Our Community, hosted by the Crescenta Valley Sheriffs Station Community Advisory Committee.

The voluntary citizens group partners with the local branch of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department to bring crime and safety-related issues to light in a number of public events held throughout the year.

Mondays talk was intended to update parents on current drug trends and how to recognize paraphernalia, devices and the subtle signs of drug use. Led by Deputy Eric Matejka, who works closely with La Canada Unifieds school resource officer, the discussion included lots of visuals, many taken directly from the hands of local students.

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Look at what your kids are doing, Matejka advised parents. Look at changes in friends, if theyre staying out late, if theyre more protective of their phones, if theyre hiding stuff. If you see this stuff, be suspicious of it.

The deputy passed around drug-testing kits, pipes for smoking marijuana, meth and other substances and devices used to hide drugs in plain view. Parents closely examined and even sniffed at the items for reference.

Matejka suggested parents create a bond of trust with their children by speaking openly about drugs and alcohol and creating agreements about what to do if and when an encounter should occur. Telling your kids you plan to drug test them on an ongoing basis gives them a ready-made excuse to opt out of joining in with friends in a peer pressure scenario, he added.

Angel Duke-Shirvanian, a program manager with Action Family Counseling and a former addict, estimated about 60% of teen clients at the Pasadena location come from La Canada and La Crescenta. She advised parents to check teens clothing, phones and computers and take a proactive role in setting a good example.

Our kids learn from us. Weve got to be very careful in the examples were showing at home, she said. The best thing you could do is what youre doing right now, educating yourselves.

Kasia and Art Chmielewski, parents of a La Canada High School eighth-grader and junior at La Canada, said afterward they came to learn more and be better prepared for whatever their sons might encounter.

Kasia Chmielewski said she was saddened to hear Dioguardis story, that something like that could go on for years without parents knowing. Art Chmielewski said he was surprised only 150 parents turned out.

I feel scared for the other 1,800 who were not here, he added. Parents are successful, parents are affluent and they think theyre kids are smart and theyll stay away (from drugs). They dont think about the danger their kids face. I would like to see every parent of every child from La Canada High School here next time.

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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardine

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ALSO:
Not every column begins with a prolegomena, but once in a while a current lawsuit is of such import that Around Town is forced to cover it.

Its different with old lawsuits, like Will Goulds successful defense of an accused school arsonist in 1893, or the story of La Canadas Rattlesnake James, the last man hanged in California. Old cases are part of local lore. Old cases inform La Canadans of their roots. Old criminals are a lot more interesting than Valley Forge.

Our history defines us.

Once in a blue moon, a current lawsuit emerges, a case so significant to modern La Canada society that there is no other choice.

La Canada is not only home to more lawyers and litigants per square foot, it is also home to Star Trek fans.

A few years ago, an enterprising group of Star Trek fans went to Kickstarter and other crowdfunding websites to raise more than $1 million to produce a film.

One million dollars! And the fans did produce a film called Axanar.

One million dollars! How could Paramount ignore it? This went far beyond sewing a couple of Starfleet uniforms and selling them on Etsy.

Predictably, Paramount filed a federal lawsuit against Axanar Productions for copyright infringement. You can read the complaint at www.documentcloud.org/documents/2660454-startreklawsuit.html.

And then, the focus shifted. A group called the Language Creation Society decided that the lawsuit was a challenge to the Klingon language and filed an application to file an amicus brief on the issue of whether the Klingon language is subject to copyright.

An amicus is a friend of the court, not a party to the lawsuit, who has a broader concern about the litigation.

The pro-Klingon amicus argues that the Klingon language is more than a few lines of dialogue owned by Paramount. Instead, it is an active language, with dictionaries, grammar and people who speak Klingon in daily life.

As authority, the brief quotes from the Ninth Circuit opinion in Norwood v. Vance, specifically, "...'deference is not Urdu or Klingon; it is a common English word, for the proposition that there is no deference in Klingon.

Predictably, portions of the brief are in Klingon, in Klingon font, with footnoted translations and transliteration. Well worth reading.

Unfortunately for the Language Creation Society, after reading the brief, Judge Gary Klausner denied their application to file the brief:

On April 27, 2016, Language Creation Society (Amicus) submitted an Application for Leave to File Brief as Amicus Curiae. Amicus argues in support of Defendants Motion to Dismiss that the Klingon language should not be entitled to copyright protection. In analyzing and ruling on Defendants Motion to Dismiss, the Court does not reach the issue of whether languages, and specifically the Klingon language, are copyrightable. Therefore, none of the information provided by Amicus is necessary to dispose of the Motion to Dismiss.

The motion to dismiss was also denied. Although the Court declines to address whether Plaintiffs claims will prosper at this time, the Court does find Plaintiffs claims will live long enough to survive Defendants Motion to Dismiss.

And then, the case was referred for a settlement conference. Rumor has it that the case will settle. Last week, Axanar Productions tweeted that Star Trek (and Star Wars) producer J. J. Abrams announced that because of Justin Lin, Paramount was dropping the lawsuit against Axanar.

Lin is the director of Paramounts Star Trek Beyond, to be released this July. As they say in Klingon, peloS loQ ghogh vIghaj e, which means stay tuned.

ANITA S. BRENNER is a longtime La Canada Flintridge resident and an attorney with the Law Offices of Torres and Brenner in Pasadena. Email her at anitasusan.brenner@yahoo.com and follow her on Instagram @realanitabrenner and Facebook/Twitter @anitabrenner.
Blumenfeld makes time

I first met Andrew Blumenfeld via email, many years ago, while he was a student at Princeton. From that point on, before, during and after his time serving on the La Canada Unified School District Governing Board, he was always reachable via email, and he always made time to answer my questions.

Both my children, currently La Canada High students, have been the direct beneficiaries of Andrews work, from their math teachers to the option of nonstandard physical education classes. I have observed his powerful negotiation skills while on the school board, and I know he will apply the same demonstrated skills at the state level. Please join me in voting for Andrew Blumenfeld for state Assembly.

Belinda Randolph

La Canada Flintridge

Portantino works for community

As Fiesta Days weekend comes to an end, I am reminded that we live in a terrific community. Watching the parade and attending events in town brought home the best of our wonderful La Canada and showcased the efforts of countless volunteers who make our community what it is.

Seeing my good friend Anthony Portantino several times over the weekend also emphasized how important it is to have trusted leadership beyond our boundaries from someone who is from our city and familiar with our unique local qualities. Thats why I strongly support Anthony Portantino for state Senate and encourage you to do so as well.

Anthonys roots in this community are deep and far reaching. The whole Portantino family completely values our local public schools. Anthony is a former mayor whose younger daughter will be at LCHS next year. Ellen Portantino is finishing up her time as an invaluable 7/8 PTA president and is part of a team of parents that work tirelessly on our childrens behalf. And Anthony has been working collaboratively with the La Canada Unified School District for years.

We need Anthony in Sacramento as our advocate. As a member of the LCUSD Governing Board for the past five years, I know firsthand how critical it is to have strong leadership in Sacramento that will fight for improved funding and local control of our public schools. Anthony has consistently showed his dedication to our community, and I am confident he will continue to do so as our next state senator.

Ellen Multari

La Canada Flintridge
A few months ago I was visiting my friend Ly Truc Vit in Houston, Texas. We were discussing the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, when he told me about his harrowing escape.

Two nights before the historic fall, his family left Vietnam by boat. Ly told a story of sailing into the South China Sea on a rickety Chinese junk that took on as much water as it displaced. He painted a vivid description as he witnessed the valiant efforts of sailors, marines, government agents and Vietnamese pilots rescuing the beleaguered Vietnamese. A sea of humanity clung to ships, helicopters and small boats. Ly recalled passing the aircraft carrier and witnessed the crew pushing helicopters overboard. He didnt understand what they were doing.

Operation Frequent Wind was the code name of the air and sea flotilla, which rescued more than 7,000 Vietnamese nationals. At the time, Adm. Lawrence Chambers was the commanding officer of the attack carrier U.S.S. Midway. He was the first African American to command a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.

Chambers gave the controversial order to push Uh-1 Huey helicopters overboard so South Vietnamese Air Force Maj. Buang-Ly with his wife and five children could land on the aircraft carrier in a two-seater Cessna.

On April 29, South Vietnamese Air Force Maj. Buang- Ly loaded his wife and five children into a two-seat place and took off from Vietnam. After evading enemy ground fire, Maj. Buang-Ly headed out to sea and spotted the Midway. The Midways crew attempted to contact the aircraft on emergency frequencies but the pilot continued to circle overhead with his landing lights turned on. When a spotter reported that there were at least four people in the two-place aircraft, all thoughts of forcing the pilot to ditch alongside were abandoned. It was unlikely the passengers of the overloaded Cessna could survive ditching at sea. After three tries, Maj. Buang managed to drop a note from a low pass over the deck: Can you move the helicopters to the other side, please rescue me! Major Buang, wife and 5 children.

Chambers issued the order to allow the plane to land on the Midways flight deck. The helicopters that could not be quickly relocated were pushed over the side and into the sea. To get the job done he called for volunteers, and soon every available seaman was on deck, regardless of rank or duty, to provide the manpower to get the job done. Ten million dollars worth of helicopters were pushed overboard into the South China Sea. With a 500-foot ceiling, five miles visibility, light rain, and 15 knots of surface wind, Maj. Buang-Ly's attempt to land would be perilous. To make matters worse, five additional helicopters landed and offloaded scores of refugees thereby cluttering the deck. Without hesitation, Chambers ordered them over the side.

Without the benefit of a tail hook, Maj. Buang-Ly made a miraculous landing on the USS Midways short angled deck. It was the only known landing of an aircraft without a tail hook on the Midway. His wife, holding their infant child, was crammed into a small space.

The men of the Midway cheered wildly as they jammed in close to the craft. Maj. Buang-Ly and his wife were embraced and welcomed aboard as the children, one by one, were handed down the line until they were all standing on the deck of the Midway. The men began to gather money from their own pockets to create a fund for the passage of Buang-Ly and his family to America where they would begin their lives anew.

In these precarious times that engulf America, I believe the story of April 29,1975, should define us.

JOE PUGLIA is a practicing counselor, a retired professor of education and a former officer in the Marines. Reach him at doctorjoe@ymail.com. Visit his website at doctorjoe.us.
School officials deserve respect

Like every parent, I want our school district to attract and retain high-quality teachers. Paying our teachers a competitive wage is an essential part of this effort.

As we work toward a teacher salary resolution, lets not lose sight of what makes our La Canada school district so special. In this town, parents, teachers, administrators, and governing board members work together to achieve the impossible: an excellent public education.

I believe that the tone of the teacher salary discussions is unnecessarily threatening the magic of this collaboration. A vocal minority of teachers has recently employed inflammatory and accusatory language in an effort to muscle our administrators, board members and the greater community toward a salary resolution. Some students have been drawn into this negotiation when they would undoubtedly be better served by focusing on their studies.

It is important that we remember that Supt. Wendy Sinnette and our elected La Canada Unified School District Governing Board are doing everything they can to put the best interests of our children first. These are thoughtful folks who understand that attracting and retaining quality teachers is critical. Wendy Sinnette is here to increase the excellence of La Canada schools and she has an excellent track record of doing so. Similarly, school board President David Sagal and the rest of our board are bright, ethical, and hard-working volunteers who are intensely focused on our childrens education. When our administrators and our board say that we dont have as much room as wed like in our budget for salary increases, lets respect their work to date and support them as they work to get teacher salaries not only closer to where teachers would like to see them, but also where we can afford for them to be.

It is our collective mission to raise educated, responsible students. As such, it is unproductive to single out and yell at folks who want only to make this district the best it can be. Doing so risks destroying the unique quality of our town. Lets cooperate to make sure that doesnt happen.

Kevin Martin

LCUSD parent

La Canada Flintridge

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City benefited from Portantino

Im writing to encourage my friends and neighbors to vote for my good friend, Anthony Portantino for the state Senate. Today, Im honored to serve as mayor of our great community, which is thriving and filled with strong cooperation between our official government organizations and our nonprofit and community partners. Its often been said that todays leaders benefit from the efforts of past leaders. I am very pleased to be mayor of a city that benefited from Anthonys dedication, commitment and accomplishments. Anthony is an active and strong leader who deserves to keep working on our behalf.

Please join me in voting for Anthony when you get your ballot or at the polls.

Jonathan Curtis

Mayor

La Canada Flintridge

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Suggestion from a nonvoting teen

Many of you have already received your ballots for the June 7 Primary Election. As a 17-year-old student in our community, I wont be voting, but I have a vested interest in the outcome, and I hope you will help elevate my voice by casting your ballot for Andrew Blumenfeld for state Assembly.

For the past several years, I have been very privileged to work with Andrew through a variety of capacities in our schools, our community and our state. From the many years I have known him, he has always been one to inspire others and defy norms, standing up for what is right no matter the odds.

In the Youth & Government program through the YMCA, not only was he the paramount leader of the organization during his participation in it, but he has left an impact on thousands of students, continuing to give back serving as a staff member and leading students across the state in new capacities every day.

As the student representative, I was lucky to serve on the LCUSD School Board alongside him, watching him revolutionize our district as a leader, policymaker, and humble public servant. He isnt just an example to students like me, he fights for them, too.

Thats exactly what we need more of in Sacramento: people who prioritize students as our state standings are hastily falling in education. Andrew knows that citizens, professionals, and leaders are first made in classrooms. I support Andrew for Assembly as an aspiring student, longtime friend and optimistic citizen that he is exactly the person we need fighting for us in Sacramento.

Riley M. Owen

La Canada Flintridge

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An example of Portantinos help

I am writing to support my friend Anthony Portantino for the state Senate. Ive been reading many of the terrific letters in the papers recently discussing all the good reasons to support Anthony from his time on the City Council and in the state Assembly. Recently, something happened that highlights a more current action that Anthony took to help our community.

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I were hosting the PTA Home Tour after-party at our house. Midday, several of us discovered that the northernmost part of La Canada Boulevard was being blocked by a utility construction project and our guests would be blocked from accessing our house. After contacting City Hall, Anthony was the next person called. He had just finished his own volunteer shift as a docent on the tour and was at the events lunch. Within minutes, Anthony reached out to City Hall and within an hour the utility was forced to open up a lane so our guests could arrive at the important school fundraiser.

For about 20 years Anthony has been one of the people that many of us go to when we need help. He has earned our support for the state Senate, and I hope you will join me in voting for him.

Deborah Weirick

La Canada Flintridge
Many see the presence of the selfie in social media as a sign of a rising narcissism in todays youth, but a UC Irvine professor is challenging that assumption in her classroom this spring quarter.

Professor Catherine Lius goal is to study the selfie as a way for young people to express themselves online. She noticed early on that most of the dialogue about selfies today is negative.

The thing we have come to realize is a lot of the myth between selfies, women and narcissism have come to resemble other reactions to new technology and moral panic about radio, television, photography and even film, she said. Every time there is a new technology people freak out.

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But Liu sees the selfie phenomenon as something more than self-obsession, and shes on a mission to teach students a broader perspective and understanding of this technological and cultural craze.

A professor in the film and media studies department, Liu takes a historical approach to understanding selfies. She analyzes the history of young people and the ways in which members of every generation have tried to find their identities within an ever-changing society.

Liu believes that since World War II, young people have developed new ways of self-discovery through new technologies and innovation. As an example, she contends that they use selfies today the same way the youths used rock music of the past  for identity formation.

They are trying to understand themselves and their place in the world, she said. This is just as other generations have done, and they have different technologies from which to do so.

But just as the older generation rejected the countercultural rockers from the 1960s, the older generation of today dismisses selfie-takers.

An Ohio State University study links the posting of selfies to male narcissism and psychopathy. A Google search of the words selfie and narcissism will bring up a number of articles on how people see the two as related.

Liu exposes her students to this side of the argument. In an assigned reading titled Why do people risk their lives  or the lives of others  for the perfect selfie?, students learn how peoples obsessions with the perfect selfie can lead to horrible consequences.

In March, a swan died when it was dragged out of a lake in Macedonia for a quick snapshot, according to various news sources. And in 2015, Russian authorities launched a campaign with the slogan, A cool selfie could cost you your life, in response to the nearly 100 Russians who died or were injured in selfie-inflicted scenarios.

But Liu will return to her theme that despite the widely accepted view that the selfie is driven by ego and vanity, she believes that the primary function of the photo is for people to present themselves to the world.

In one of her 80-minute classes, Liu lectured some 20 students about how the new communalism hippie movement of the 1960s defined modern social media as an abstract landscape where people can share ideas and develop personalities through interaction with others.

The communalism movement saw groups of peace-loving adults abandon their homes and venture into nature to build communal, egalitarian societies with one another. Liu believes that this sentiment helped fuel the development of our modern-day social media.

In other words, the communities of Twitter and Facebook are much like the communalistic societies of old. Rather than being narcissistic, selfies serve as a means for young people to communicate and express themselves with one another within these online communities.

Students have been receptive to Lius arguments during the semester.

The most important thing I have learned so far is the deeper context of what we have learned of the history about it, student Garrett Niida said. We are going over different autobiographies, and we are learning the history about it and how it incorporates into different social medias. I disagree that a selfie is narcissistic.

Other students appreciate Lius intentions but have a different interpretation.

My perception of the selfie has changed a little bit, student Jonathan Workanah said. I have seen so many different kinds of selfies now in the class. I believed it was a vain act to begin with. Its crazy how much attention people want.

Workanah described how the class has been reviewing the photos of activists who take selfies to further their causes. He believes that even when people take selfies for activist reasons, the desire and need for attention is still involved.

If its how you feel, then just do it, he said. Theres no reason to have people seeing you do it.

While Liu realizes that not all students are going to be receptive, she hopes everyone will take away from the class the deeper lesson that social media is a powerful platform that can be used for legitimate reasons in the development of todays young people.

She said the higher-ups at the school have been receptive to the course  a 4-unit elective  and are generally open to abstract kinds of classes as long as they follow protocol, in this case Lius historical approach to the study of selfies.

Another course, for instance, focuses on how post-civil-rights policing is displayed in cinema.

The course description reads: According to a 2006 report by Human Rights Watch: For years, the United States has held the dubious distinction of incarcerating more people and at a higher rate than any other peacetime nation in the world, a fact that has prompted leading scholars to term the U.S. the first genuine prison society in modern history. Our task is to develop a conceptual framework that enables us to discuss adequately how this state of affairs has come to be and what role the cinema has played in accommodating or criticizing these developments.
Banny Hong wants Orange County to try something different.

As the co-owner of Irrawaddy Taste of Burma, a restaurant that opened three months ago in Stanton, Hong is offering something the area had never had before: Burmese food.

Some people come in here and ask, Whats Burma?  he said of the Southeast Asian nation now known as Myanmar. They dont even know its a country.

We want to educate them about our country, Hong said. So if they come in here, they not only get to taste the food, theyll also learn about our culture.

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Unlike other forms of Asian cuisine, particularly Japanese, Chinese and Thai, Burmese food has yet to take off in the United States, something Hong attributes to the history of trade sanctions against the country, as well as the relatively small and dispersed Burmese immigrant population.

Until Irrawaddy opened, Orange County didnt have a single Burmese restaurant, while the Greater Los Angeles region has only a handful.

We just want people to come and try, said Fred Phan, Irrawaddy co-owner and Hongs nephew, even if they dont know what Burmese food is.

For Phan and Hong, food was a big part of growing up in Myanmar.

Where we lived was surrounded by food vendors, Phan said. So usually in the morning we would go and eat at the market.

This and watching his mother cook at home sparked Phans passion for food.

Myanmar  situated near India, China and Thailand  draws upon its neighbors for the flavors and ingredients of its cuisine, including curry, noodles, rice, coconut and tofu.

But Hong is clear that Burmese food isnt about imitation.

Its our own version of cooking, he said. Its not completely Indian or Chinese. If we need it, we use their spices. But we dont copy completely.

The most popular Burmese dish is tea leaf salad, which at Irrawaddy is made of Romaine lettuce, fried garlic, fried lentil beans, pumpkin seeds and a dressing made of tea leaves imported from Myanmar. Other versions may incorporate cabbage, peanuts, hot sauce or even corn.

Its a very traditional dish, Hong said. For any occasion, we offer tea leaf salad to the guests.

The crunchy, savory salad is served with all the ingredients separated on the plate and then mixed at the customers table. This preserves the taste and texture of the dish.

The tea leaf salad, once you mix it, you have to eat it within 10 minutes. Otherwise it gets soft, Phan said.

Tea leaf salad is Phans and Hongs favorite dish on the menu, and its hugely popular with customers too, they said.

Other favorites include Southern-style noodles, made of rice noodles and chicken in an onion-based sauce; golden tofu, made of chickpeas instead of soy beans; and samusa, a savory potato-filled pastry much like Indian samosas.

Most of the dishes on Irrawaddys menu are family recipes or re-creations of the street food they grew up with in Myanmar. The golden tofu salad is one example: Phan still remembers the woman who would push her food cart along a five-mile route each day to sell the dish.

But Hong and Phan werent always cooking Burmese food. When they first moved to California in 1988, an eatery devoted to their native cuisine was out of the question.

A Burmese restaurant is very complex, said Phan, explaining that importing traditional spices was prohibited. And it wasnt very popular at the time.

Instead, Phan opened a Chinese fast-food restaurant, and he and Hong later opened a sushi restaurant.

One important lesson they learned was the importance of adapting to an American palate. Just as Americans created the California sushi roll, Phan and Hong also realized that they needed to tweak traditional Burmese dishes to make them more appetizing to a new audience.

So Phan and Hong dialed down some ingredients, like fish paste, and added more vegetables and vegetarian-friendly options, all while seeking to maintain the authenticity of Burmese cuisine.

Their background in Japanese food provided another lesson  American tastes can change quickly.

Thirty years ago, sushi wasnt that popular, Phan said. People didnt want to try it.

But now, of course, sushi restaurants are ubiquitous throughout Southern California. Could the same happen to Burmese food?

Said Phan: Thats what we hope.

Irrawaddy Taste of Burma is at 7076 Katella Ave. in Stanton. The restaurant opens at 11 a.m. every day. For more information, call (714) 252-8565.

caitlin.kandil@latimes.com
Tucked between dive bars and boutique hotels in a popular shopping district is a shoebox museum that encapsulates more than a quarter-century of defiance in this semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

There are no signs outside. And only the most determined visitors venture here in order to gaze at the open wounds of history.

The cracked metal helmet of a teenager who promised his parents hed come home soon after checking on his classmates who were protesting against the government. The bullet that once was lodged in the hip of a demonstrator who is now living in the United States under political asylum. A handwritten death note by a college student before he prepared to face off against rifle fire and rolling tanks.

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By presenting evidence of the crackdown of the 1989 pro-democracy uprising in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the June 4th Museum counteracts the enforced oblivion in mainland China, where authorities have all but blotted out the bloody episode.

A man examines the exhibits in the June 4th Museum in Hong Kong on April 15, 2016. (Kin Cheung / AP )

Many mainland Chinese born in the past 30 years know little to nothing about what happened on June 4, 1989. On every anniversary, families of the hundreds killed by Chinese soldiers are placed under surveillance. Even private commemorative gestures are punishable crimes.

But in Hong Kong, which is afforded the freedoms of speech and assembly, the Tiananmen Square massacre is commemorated by the museum, and by tens of thousands of people who assemble in an annual candlelight vigil in the territorys central park. The perennial memorial is organized by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, a coalition formed to aid the protesters. Two years ago, the alliance established the permanent museum on a mortgage and donated funds.

We no longer aspire to build a democratic China.  Althea Suen, student union president of the University of Hong Kong

Its most important mission is to preserve the memories and the facts of Tiananmen, said Richard Tsoi, the alliances vice chairman, who helps oversee the museum.

For mainland visitors like Eric Li, 32, the museum was critical to his fact-finding weekend jaunt from Beijing.

I just want to learn the truth. When more people learn the truth, then perhaps we can change the country, Li said. But its difficult.

Remembering the Tiananmen Square uprising > > >>

The museum is facing a difficult future.

A dispute with the buildings owner appears likely to force the museum to close by the end of the year. Its backers hope to raise money to build a new home, but it may face a more existential threat than the loss of its current space.

On this anniversary, more Hong Kong residents, especially the post-Tiananmen generation of young activists who increasingly are charting the territorys own pro-democracy movement, have come to see fighting for democracy in mainland China  the alliances avowed goal  as a lost cause, or at least a rallying cry that rings hollower than ever. And they, who pride themselves as Hong Kongers more than as Chinese nationals, particularly chafe at the alliances twinning of Chinese patriotism and pursuit of a democratic future.

We no longer aspire to build a democratic China, said Althea Suen, student union president of the University of Hong Kong. Instead of chasing a pipe dream, well be better served shouldering the responsibilities relevant to our generation.

So for the first time, all the student leaders sat out the vigil on Saturday but marked the anniversary in their own way  by holding forums on how best to strive for democracy in Hong Kong. About 3,000 people attended, shunning the rituals at the park, where organizers estimated as many as 125,000 people joined the vigil.

What binds all of us as Hong Kongers is our longing for freedom, said Edward Leung, a leader of an influential localist group who was attending a campus forum. Leung said his family had fled the mainland after the Tiananmen massacre.

Replicas of the Goddess of Democracy  the plaster statue that, in 1989, faced off Mao Zedongs portrait on the square  continue to greet visitors at the museum and at local college campuses. But if students turn away from democracy on the mainland, it could render the museum politically petrified and doom its current fundraising campaign to stay open.

For many young people in Hong Kong, the failure of the student-led Umbrella Movement to pressure Beijing for the right to vote in a free and fair election has fueled growing alienation from China.

While theyve begun to reject Tiananmen as their fight, they have been emboldened by how history has not repeated itself: There was no bloody crackdown of the Umbrella Movement.

However, the transitional framework that grants them the freedoms to carry on the fight is set to expire by 2047, when Hong Kong is scheduled to fully integrate with mainland China.

Tsoi, who joined the alliance as a college student leader at the time of Tiananmen, said it may be possible to broaden the museums mission to include more pressing social movements, but he said for now, This is a tool of resistance.

Museums are a barometer of the openness of a society, said Denise Ho, a Yale University historian on modern China who taught in Hong Kong two years ago and published a critique on the museum. Even if this is a pet project by a political organization doing what the government cannot or will not, it still creates an opposing voice, and its useful.

A stones throw from the June 4th Museum is the official Hong Kong Museum of History, which carries no mention of the crackdown.

Ryan Kilpatrick, 23, a Hong Kong University student, came for the June 4th Museums opening and recently returned when he got word of its possible shuttering.

Its regrettable that young people no longer hope for a democratic China, Kilpatrick said. To be here again is to remember how powerful that idea was.

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UPDATES:

1:12 p.m.: This article was updated with a quote from the days commemorations.

This article was originally published at 2 a.m.
Pope Francis on Saturday scrapped his proposed tribunal to prosecute bishops who covered up for pedophile priests after it ran into opposition and instead clarified legal procedures to remove them if the Vatican finds they were negligent.

The new procedures sought to answer long-standing demands by survivors of abuse that the Vatican hold bishops accountable for botching abuse cases. Victims have long accused bishops of covering up for pedophiles, moving rapists from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police  and suffering no consequences.

But the new law was immediately criticized by survivors of abuse as essentially window dressing because there already were ways to investigate and dismiss bishops for wrongdoing  they just were rarely used against bishops who failed to protect their flocks from pedophiles.

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Analysts suggested the new law was much ado about very little.

There is nothing breaking here: The congregations could already do that, said Kurt Martens, professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America.

He said what is significant about the new law is that it makes no mention of the original proposal for the tribunal, which would have treated negligence as a crime and prosecuted it as such.

Does that mean the tribunal isnt going to come because there was too much opposition? he asked.

The main U.S. victims group, SNAP, said it was extraordinarily skeptical that the new procedures would amount to any wave of dismissals because popes always have had the power to oust bishops but havent wielded it.

A process is helpful only if its used often enough to deter wrongdoing. We doubt this one will be, SNAPs David Clohessy said.

In the law, Francis acknowledged that the churchs canonical code already allowed for a bishop to be removed for grave reasons. But he said he wanted to precisely state that negligence in handling abuse cases counted as one of those reasons.

Bishops must undertake a particular diligence in protecting those who are the weakest among their flock, Francis wrote in the law, called a motu proprio.

The statute essentially does away with a proposal approved by Francis last year to establish an accountability tribunal inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to hear negligence cases. Francis sex abuse advisory board had recommended that the Congregation prosecute negligent bishops because it already oversees actual sex abuse cases against clergy.

But that proposal posed a host of legal and bureaucratic issues and ran into opposition from bishops and the Vatican bureaucracy. In the end, Francis backed off and instead essentially reminded the four Vatican offices that already handle bishop issues that they also were responsible for investigating and punishing negligence cases involving abuse.

Marie Collins, an abuse survivor who is a member of Francis abuse advisory board, said while it was depressing that the tribunal proposal had stalled for a year, the new procedures emphasizing negligence show that bishop accountability has not been allowed to disappear into the sand.

As a survivor, I am hoping the congregations involved will implement these new procedures as speedily as possible, as the success or failure of any initiative can only be judged on visible results, she said in an email to the Associated Press.

In the law, Francis said a bishop can be removed if his actions or omissions cause grave harm  physical, moral, spiritual or financial  to individuals or communities. The bishop himself doesnt need to be morally guilty. Its enough if he is purely lacking in the diligence required of his office.

The procedures call for the Vatican to start an investigation when serious evidence is provided that a bishop was negligent. The bishop can defend himself. At the end of the investigation, the Vatican can prepare a decree removing the bishop or ask him to resign.

Any decision to remove the bishop must first be approved by the pope, who will be advised by legal experts, the law says.

Even before the new procedures were announced, two U.S. bishops who bungled abuse cases resigned on their own: Bishop Robert Finn in Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., and Archbishop John Nienstedt in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

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Learning Mandarin is really, really hard  even for many Chinese people

Terrorist attacks show biggest decline in a decade; but lets wait before celebrating

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Donald Trump has ratcheted up his assault against U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, arguing that the man set to hear his Trump University fraud case has "an absolute conflict" in hearing the case because of his "Mexican heritage."

To date, the judge has refused to dismiss a pair of civil lawsuits lodged against the presumptive Republican nominee for president. Both suits allege officials at Trump University tricked students into investing tens of thousands of dollars into courses billed as offering the secrets of Trump's real estate mogul success.

The judge recently unsealed hundreds of pages of documents pertaining to the dealings of the for-profit university, which was essentially forced to shutter its doors in 2010.

Trump U Officials had Playbooks to Upsell Students

Among the documents released were playbooks instructing school reps on the best ways to persuade students who couldn't afford the courses to sign up for them anyway.

In his latest rant, Trump insists Curiel's Mexican heritage is relevant because of the candidate's vowed stance against immigration and his pledge to deport millions of immigrants and build a wall along the Mexican border.

"I'm building a wall," Trump said. "It's an inherent conflict of interest."

During previous campaign stops, Trump has blasted Mexican immigrants as criminals and charged them with "bringing drugs, bringing crime, they're rapists."

As for the University, Trump insists he has every intention of reopening the school once his legal woes have ended.

"After the litigation is disposed of and the case won, I have instructed my execs to open Trump U.," Trump recently posted on social media. "So much interest in it. I will be pres."

Not long before, Trump branded Curiel "a hater" and a "total disgrace." He went on to insist the judge should disqualify himself from the case because of his connections to a lawyer of one of the litigants.

All Trump's fiery words about the judge did not sit well with campaign leaders for Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

"Judge Curiel and his family epitomize the American Dream," Hillary for America Director of Latino Outreach Lorella Praeli said in a statement. "His parents worked hard to give their U.S.-born children a better life. He and his brother became successful lawyers. His other brother served in Vietnam. The fact that Donald Trump doesn't see Judge Curiel and his family as Americans makes him unfit to be president of this great nation, a nation of immigrants."

Fights Break out at San Jose Rally

Meanwhile, fights broke out following a recent Trump rally in San Jose, where his supporters and demonstrators violently clashed. Mayor Sam Liccardo later blasted Trump for igniting similar problems all across the country.

"At some point, Donald Trump needs to take responsibility for the irresponsible behavior of his campaign," he said.
Tremendous expectation surrounded Radioheads performance last night. Its been almost a decade since the charismatic five-piece appeared in this city. Thom Yorke and company landed in Barcelona as a pit stop on the tour of their new album A Moon Shaped Pool. The rapport between group and audience was indisputable, but perhaps the most awesome sight to behold was Radiohead has been reborn, starting with Yorke himself, who went far above and beyond the call of duty.

The concert lasted for two hours, and more than 20 songs, the first five of which were from the latest album: Burn the witch, Daydreaming, Decks dark, Desert island disk and Full stop. The band, especially the guitar and the base conjured extraordinary architecture. And to follow the initial burst, out came all the great sing-alongs, National anthem, No surprises and Karma police, but what made last night so stellar, was the fact we were hearing the rock of right now, in other words: Radiohead.

Following their performance, there were still heavyweights to come: Tortoise, Last Shadow Puppets, Animal Collective, Holly Herdon and the bubbly Beach House. It kicked off with Jordi Lanuzas eternally recommendable Inspira; followed straight after by Gironas Aliment, who left a sweet taste un the mouth for a meaty crowd. There was time for White Fence. Psychedelia pounding with distortion, with repetitive and rhythmic chords that signed and sealed Californias Tim Presleys prowess.

Fulfilling expectations with aplomb was Ben Watt, a musician and artistic creator who is never valued highly enough. He played a selection from his last two albums, highly worked songs produced after a decade immersed in electronic music, with some flashes of the glory days in Everything but the Girl and even before. Watt was accompanied by Bernard Butler, his old school buddy and partner in crime, the outstanding guitarist that played in the early days of Suede.

Beiruts show was seriously impressive. A band of stylistic fusion held together and headed by Zach Condon who serves a strange magnet, attracting endless style influences. Before a vast multinational audience, the six-piece with three wind instruments delivered a gorgeous repertoire to satisfy a multitude of tastes, with hummable melodies and that Balkan folkloric base as a fulcrum, from the opening Scenic world to Gulag via The Akara and Perth  all of which was warmly welcome in this mish-mash celebration of roots.
Jun 4, 2016, 2:01pm ET

Newly formed Genesis brand to add luxury electric model

The South Korean luxury marque intends to differentiate itself with EVs.

Genesis, the newly launched luxury marque from Hyundai, intends to add an all-electric luxury car to its model portfolio.

Plans for the yet-unnamed vehicle were revealed to Reuters by the brand's senior vice president Manfred Fitzgerald, a former brand and design at Lamborghini. "It is very, very obvious that EV is definitely on the map," Fitzgerald said, adding, "I think full electric cars will be the future in the auto industry."

It's part of Hyundai's plans to further differentiate its now three brands, Genesis, Kia, and Hyundai itself. Thus far, Genesis's only models are the G80 and G90 (nee Equus), both former top-of-the-line Hyundais that will now fall under the luxury badge's umbrella.

The G80 will launch in Hyundai's home country of South Korea in July. A diesel version will be added in the first half of next year, a company statement revealed.

Launched only in November of 2015, Genesis is still in its nascent stages, but plans also include a sport coupe and two SUVs. For its part, Hyundai has also launched its own EV in the Ioniq, coming in fall of 2016. It will be joined by a hybrid and plug-in hybrid as well, but these will serve more budget-minded buyers and compete with the Prius.
Saturday, May 21 was an important day in the life of St. Marys Church, Mohill as a special Service of Celebration and Dedication was held to mark the Bicentenary of this historic place of worship.

It was a day to Remember, Reflect and Rekindle all that is positive in the community of St. Marys.

An attendance exceeding 400 gathered on the day, to share in the unique ceremony arranged by Revd. Linda Frost, the present Incumbent of the parish. The guest speaker was the Most Revd. Dr. Michael Jackson, Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland. Also in attendance were Bishop Ferran Glenfield, Dean Arfon Wiliams, Canon Noel Scott, Canon Bill Atkins, Revd. Noel Regan, Fr. Pat Murphy and Fr. John Quinn assisted by Diocesan Readers, Patricia Woods and Ruth Waller.

The organist was Hazel Tuthill, Principal of the Hunt National School.

The ceremony began with a rendition of Si Beag, Si Mor, composed by Turlough O'Carolan and performed on tin-whistle and ukulele by pupils of the Hunt School under the direction of Mairead Kelly. Led by flag-bearers from the Mothers Union, the Hunt School and Mohill Scouts, the clergy processed into St. Marys as the congregation sang the Opening hymn O God, our help in ages past. The Dedication Collect was read by Canon Noel Scott, an ordinand from Mohill parish who ministered for many years in the Church of the Ascension in Rhodesia.

The development of St. Marys, from the monastery of St. Manchan circa 500 A.D., through the ensuing centuries was presented by the Senior pupils of the Hunt N.S. A poem, entitled 'Reflection' written specially for the occasion by Jack Kielty, was narrated by Jessica and Caroline Dobson, granddaughters of the oldest parishioner, Olive Dobson. The Church Warden, Ruth Dobson, read the first lesson from the Book of Chronicles.

Fr. Pat Murphy led the congregation in Psalm 145 while Canon Bill Atkins, the previous Rector of St. Marys, read from the Letter of Peter.

The Sweet Spirit Gospel Choir directed by Tish Dunleavy gave a powerful performance of ' Just a Closer Walk with Thee' and

'Sweet Beulah Land.' The address, given by the Most Reverend Dr. Michael Jackson referred to ' the celebration of 200 years of faithful and attentive witness which enlarges the way in which a community sees itself and understands the place it holds in the wider community around it.' He spoke of the Christian presence and engagement in Mohill which spans both the ancient and modern.

He referred to Rev. Arthur Hyde who addressed the great cholera epidemic of 1833 by helping to provide a supply of clean water to the people of Mohill. Hyde's grandson, Douglas subsequently became the first President of Ireland. He also spoke of the contribution of Archdeacon Fitzmaurice Hunt who initiated the building of the parochial hall, now known as the Hunt Memorial Hall, in 1893 as a resource for the whole community.

The range of activities carried out in the Hunt Hall today is impressive and ranges from school life to dramatics to Mothers Union, Scouts, the Sweet Spirit Gospel Choir and the Leitrim Percy French Society.

The Archdeacon connected the three aspects of the day 'Remember, Reflect and Rekindle' while adding, on this great day of celebration, a further aspect 'Rejoice.'

He concluded by recalling the words of the Psalm 'The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all that he has made.'

Representatives of the local community including Jayne Tuthill, Colm Reynolds, Edward Crofton, Sharon Sheehan, Ivy Boddy, James Abbott and Frank Cadam led the prayers.

Following this, the pupils of the Hunt School sang 'Alainn farraige speirghlas, alainn uisceacha ciuin' written by Douglas Hyde (An Craoibhin) and also the school anthem 'One More Step Along The World I Go.'

The Rededication of the building and thanksgiving for gifts was performed by Bishop Ferran Glenfield, Bishop of Kilmore Elphin and Ardagh. Herein lay a link with the past - the exact Collect and Words of Dedication used on August 21st 1903 (at the Re-opening of St. Marys Church after extensive refurbishment) were again used seeking the Lords blessing on the welfare of the Church and the community.

The offertory hymn, 'Be Thou My Vision' was followed by the offertory thanksgiving, read by Diocesan Reader, Patricia Woods. One of the highlights of the Service was the beautiful performance of 'Bless This House', sung by Pearl Kielty, soloist with the Sweet Spirit Gospel Choir. The Archbishop gave the final Blessing followed by the Processional Hymn, To God be the Glory, great things He has done, after which the large congregation adjourned to the Hunt Hall for refreshments.

Here, an extensive exhibition of Parish photographs, memorabilia and historical memoirs were on display. Rev Linda welcomed everybody to the exhibition and thanked all who had contributed to the occasion in so many diverse ways.

The commemorative Bicentenary book of St. Mary's Church, compiled by John Dugdale and Hazel Tuthill, was launched and a signed copy was presented to the Bishop.

This book, recalling the history of St. Marys from the time of St. Manchan to the present day, is a snapshot in time of the evolution and development of the parish Church. It is now on sale locally.

Craftsman and parishioner, Roy Humphreys also presented a beautiful handcrafted wooden lamp which was specially commissioned for the occasion. The ceremonies concluded with the cutting of the magnificent Bicentenery Cake, baked and iced by Mrs. Mary Hallinan to mark the special occasion.

The large crowd in the hall included many who had not returned to Mohill for some considerable time - Doris Pittman-Bolton (a daughter of the late Dean Bolton, former Rector of Mohill 1941-1966), Mrs. Lorna Meissner, wife of the late Canon Meissner (Rector 1985-1996) and Canon Bill Atkins (Rector 2003-2013) with his wife Jamela and son Mark. Edward Crofton, a descendent of the Croftons of Mohill Castle, with his wife Emma, also travelled from England to be present at the occasion and donated a portrait of his uncle, Sir Hugh Denis Crofton, who was buried in St. Marys graveyard in 1903. Many friends of St. Marys from near and far, rekindled old friendships and forged new ones on this memorable May evening.

The day was a wonderful celebration of vision and renewal for St. Marys Parish and indeed the town of Mohill. Rev. Linda Frost and the parishioners of St. Marys extend their deep gratitude to the wider community of Mohill and surrounding areas for their joyous participation and generous support. Buiochas o chroi do chach.
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Verizon's Network Strategy for the Super Bowl Includes 4G, 5G and... WiFi? Verizon's customers at this weekend's Super Bowl will be automatically connected to the venue's WiFi network  noteworthy considering Verizon's emphasis on its 4G and 5G offerings.
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CableLabs aims to bring mobility to Wi-Fi Initially targeting the home, new tech developed by CableLabs strives to improve how smartphones connect to the best Wi-Fi link and, in turn, help cable ops cut MVNO costs by offloading more data to Wi-Fi networks.

Mavenir unhappy about chip prices for smaller open RAN players The US software developer says the industry needs to work on ensuring smaller vendors buying in lower volumes do not pay excessive fees.

Dish pledges Project Genesis expansion in Q1 Project Genesis is 'helping us iron out the operational processes and improve the customer experience, while we prepare for a much broader launch in the first quarter,' explained Dish's Tom Cullen.

Profits up, 5G flat at China's largest telcos China Mobile and China Telecom post strong Q3 results but with little help from their huge 5G deployments.

Vodafone O-RAN guru blesses Nokia, curses SI lock-in and starts build in Germany The Finnish vendor gets an open RAN endorsement as Vodafone starts trials in Germany and takes aim at systems integrator lock-in with a new NTT DoCoMo partnership.

What's the Story? AT&T from the edge to the cloud Phil Harvey discusses AT&T's edge strategy, public cloud partnership with Microsoft and provides an update on AT&T's FirstNet emergency response service.

Cutting off Russia seems easier said than done According to a detailed report from Reuters, Extreme Networks supplied telecom equipment to a Russian missile maker. The situation helps to highlight the difficulties around isolating Russia.

Eurobites: Cellnex WIGs out to clear path for Three UK deal Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ofcom softens its stance on net neutrality, BT's Allera concurs; Comarch scores with GlobalConnect; Nokia gear passes GSMA security test.

Ericsson and Nokia are nearer to the endgame in China The Nordic kit vendors are clinging on in the world's biggest 5G market, but the long-term prognosis is gloomy.

Verizon crosses 1M fixed wireless access customers With both consumer and business customers included, Verizon added 342,000 fixed wireless access customers in the third quarter, extending its total to 1.06 million.

Amid flagging profits, Verizon starts another cost-cutting program Verizon's third quarter profits fell by 23% to $5 billion, and likely in response, the company launched a new cost-savings program that it hopes will provide a reduction in annual costs of $2-3 billion by 2025.

Thai regulator backs True-DTAC merger but sets conditions NBTC paves the way for mobile duopoly after approving contentious merger.

Crown Castle's 2023 outlook: Not so great Crown Castle, a bellwether for the 5G marketplace, recently posted a 2023 outlook that's below many analyst expectations. That could signal a general pullback in 5G network spending among operators.

The cloud and 5G security apocalypse is only a matter of time Security threats are growing, the actors are becoming more sinister and organizations seem to be racing into the cloud without adequate protection.

What's behind AT&T's midband momentum? AT&T's Network EVP Chris Sambar said the company benefits from architectural changes, improved technology, hard work and better-than-expected results in the field.

Boeing dumps Verizon for T-Mobile The aerospace giant, which employs almost 150,000 people, is switching from Verizon to T-Mobile as an option for its mobile services.

Eurobites: Tele2 powers on in face of rising energy costs Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: BICS touts CPaaS offering; GoFibre goes to north Northumberland; Ofcom clamps down on adult content.

Ericsson tumbles as profits shrink and CEO forecasts US slowdown The Swedish vendor warns of cost cutting and says operators in North America will spend less with it next year.

Nokia hails 5G growth but shares dip on uncertain outlook The Finnish equipment maker's mobile business looks reinvigorated, but smaller units struggled and economic worries persist.
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How NTT Started a Cycling Revolution The technology giant teamed up with one of the world's fittest men to push cycling to new limits.

Eurobites: Telenor Takes 5G to the Arctic Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: VodafoneZiggo virtualizes with Amdocs; Batelco analyzes with Ericsson; the Queen lays down the law on UK broadband.

MyRepublic: 'Redefining the Economics of Telco' Fixed broadband service provider developed its own OSS and BSS systems, a move that gives it cost efficiencies compared with traditional systems and advanced data analysis capabilities, according to its executives.

The 'Ostiguide' to Observability At 5G Asia, Accedian's founder and Executive Chairman Patrick Ostiguy explains the difference between 'observability' and visibility for monitoring and service assurance of 5G networks.

Frontier's Irwin on the Security Benefits of Managed SD-WAN DALLAS -- Scott Irwin, senior director of SD-WAN for Frontier Communications, explains how Frontier's customers are increasingly moving to a more centralized managed SD-WAN platform.

Ciena Agrees to Buy Centina, Keeps Kicking OSS Ciena's latest acquisition is another piece of a larger back office puzzle for carriers, but the vendor said it's not aiming to become the new OSS stack.

Podcast: The NV & SDN Americas Recap Light Reading editors Mitch Wagner, Kelsey Ziser and Phil Harvey gathered to empty their notebooks and recap the NV & SDN event at the Dallas Marriott Las Colinas.

Here's How T-Mobile Reduced LTE Congestion by 71% T-Mobile's CTO Neville Ray built a traffic-forecasting tool in conjunction with Speedtest provider Ookla that the company said helped direct fully $10 billion in network spending over the past five years.

Mobileum Parachutes Into 'New Ballgame' With $70M WeDo Takeover Private equity-backed roaming and security specialist has a new line-up of senior executives to manage a business that has just doubled in size.

Eurobites: The Lost Towers of Nigeria Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ireland takes a closer look at Verizon Media's cookies; EU and Apple prepare for September showdown over tax bill; Sky trumpets addressable TV.

Podcast: Prof. Nick Feamster Explains Machine Learning for Telcos Machine learning is primed to help service providers run more efficient and effective networks, but first the good ideas have to make their way from the lab to the real world  and that's a big challenge, according to the University of Chicago's Nick Feamster.

WiCipedia: Smile to Get Ahead, Coding Ninjas & 'Women in Tech' Need a New Moniker This week in our WiC roundup: You better smile if you want to work in tech; job descriptions need an overhaul; is being called a 'woman in tech' offensive?; and more.

Big Blue Turns Red for Multicloud IBM reveals details of how it's using Red Hat software as the foundation for its multicloud strategy, following its $34 billion Red Hat acquisition.

WiCipedia: Rad Projects, Femtech Entering Heyday & CES Confirms Diversity Changes This week in our WiC roundup: Bumble gets mixed up with the wrong crowd; a new coding book for young girls makes tech fun; femtech gets its day in the sun; and more.

Eurobites: Israel Sets 5G Spectrum Auction in Motion Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Huawei requests level laying field in Italy; ADVA adds a dash of AI to satellite signaling analytics; Galileo crashes and burns; Telenor's Q2 dented by Bangladeshi 'errors.'

Podcast: Parsing Data & Sharing Poles in Smart Cities US Ignite's Mari Silbey provides commentary on a few topics related to smart cities, including how research universities are helping cities slice up IoT and sensor data into bite-sized morsels.

BT Leverages Open Source for Fifth Generation of Network Monitoring Telcos need new ways to monitor their services and networks and some are turning to the open source community for inspiration.

WiCipedia: Radical Dissidents, Code Like a Girl & Diversity Scorecards This week in our WiC roundup: 'Concealed figures' in space; Gen Z women make more than men in certain roles; Salesforce uses data to examine equality; and more.

5G Could Usher in New Era of Mobile Cloud Telecom operators need to take control of the customer experience to really benefit from 5G.
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Amdocs Doubles Down With Spanish Deals Orange Spain expands support for public cloud by opting to deploy Amdocs' cloud-native offering on Amazon Web Services.

MWC2020: 5G core to star in Barcelona Dario Talmesio, principal analyst and practice leader at Omdia, expects to be hearing a lot about 5G core developments and 'the platform' during this year's Mobile World Congress.

WiCipedia: Silicon Valley's Vanity Problem This week in our WiC roundup: Melinda Gates makes moves for gender equality; getting highly paid people more money; Silicon Valley's issue with age and imperfection; and more.

WiCipedia: CES Recap, Salary Reveals & Outdated Advertising This week in our WiC roundup: Ivanka's CES keynote goes off 'without a hitch'; sharing salary info is the new talking about sex; advertisers keep tripping over their own shoelaces; and more.

Masergy Shines a Light on Shadow IT Security Threats Masergy's Shadow IT Discovery service tracks 4,300 SaaS applications and provides insight into the risk level these applications present to customers' network security.

Time to Enter the Leading Lights Awards 2020! Never mind the Oscars! The awards season is now properly underway with the launch of the Leading Lights 2020 program, so get cracking on your submission for Light Reading's annual awards before you get swallowed up by MWC madness.

WiCipedia: Ivanka Trump's CES Keynote & Male Bosses Promote Men More This week in our WiC roundup: CES picked a controversial keynoter; female founders snagged under 3% of VC funding last year  an all-time high; is learning to code enough?; and more.

Broadcom flogs Symantec unit to Accenture The semiconductor maker offloads some of the security assets it acquired last year to Accenture, which gains valuable new capabilities.

What's Bright, Shiny & Not GEM? Cable operators are expanding their business services reach well beyond the traditional government, education and medical sectors to take in verticals like hospitality, agribusiness and even e-gaming.

WiCipedia: Flexible Work Priorities, Next-Level VC & Top Women in Tech This week in our WiCipedia roundup: Flexible work is a must-have for many women; Ada Ventures takes VC to a new level of equal opportunity; Telefonica raises ratio of women on board to 30% (and barely mentions it); and more.

Eurobites: Russia's MTS Does TIP Run Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Keymile lands FTTB deal with Wobcom; BT Sport offers OTT monthly pass; KPN sells consulting arm; Deutsche Telekom nurtures 5G startups.

WiCipedia: Cultivating Confidence for Speaking Gigs, 2020 Predictions & Too Many Marks This week in our WiC roundup: Harlem Capital raises cash for minority founders; female speakers claim their worth; more women will join tech in the new year; and more.

China Mobile to Operate National Blockchain Network The Chinese operator has teamed up with a credit card firm and other agencies to run a new blockchain network.

Eurobites: Three Ireland Postpones 5G Launch Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange Poland goes with Juniper; the incredible shrinking KPN; BT ends performance-related pay for top execs; Ericsson shares on spectrum sharing.

WiCipedia: Queen of Code, Leadership Sexism & Unicorns vs. Zebras This week in our WiC roundup: Barbara Liskov reigns as queen of code; female leaders don't have support, even from women; zebras push unicorns aside; and more.

Telefonica's 2B growth plan fails to excite In its latest round of restructuring, the Spanish operator is setting up a Tech business with ambitious targets. Investors may feel they have been here before.

Telefonica unveils major new strategy, identifies 2B in new revenues Spanish giant has unveiled a new five-point plan that includes spinning off much of its Latin American assets and a go-to-market strategy that the operator believes can generate 2 billion in new revenues by 2022.

CableLabs Mothballs Its Startup Incubator After a three-year run, the R&D organization has halted its 'Fiterator' program for startups amid bigger changes underway at CableLabs's UpRamp unit.

WiCipedia: Startup School Scholarships, Losing Lena & UK Pay Discrepancies This week in our WiC roundup: A new startup school offers scholarships for women; the humble JPEG has a sordid past; UK pay is falling behind for minorities; and more.
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Key Takeaways From the Edge Computing Congress There was a lot to take away from the Edge Computing Congress in London this week  not least the encouraging signs associated with funding and deployments.

How Airtel Sri Lanka Revamped Its BSS For any operator, revamping an entire business support system (BSS) architecture in just six months and cutting IT opex by 80% as a result is a notable achievement.

Dell Technologies Has a New CTO Ihab Tarazi has left Packet to become CTO of Networking and Solutions at Dell Technologies.

Volta Bigs Up Its Cloud Router, Claims 90% Savings vs Legacy Volta claims that moving routing intelligence to the cloud and running white boxes can slash costs compared with legacy equipment.

Leading Lights 2019 Finalists: Best Deal Maker Oracle, Momentum Telecom and Lumentum all made interesting, well-timed acquisitions, divestitures, partnerships and other deals in the past 12 months.

Orange Taps Dell for 5G Transformation Orange and Dell will collaborate on a distributed cloud architecture for 5G cloud networking.

Intel Doubles Down on 5G & NFV The vendor lavishes an unusual amount of love on telcos and other network operators as it unveils an assortment of new networking, compute, memory and storage components.

HPE's 'Spaceborne' Computer Gets Down to Business in Earth Orbit The International Space Station's onboard computer will start chewing on real scientific data, after a year running test suites and benchmarks.

Chinese Hardware Hack Threatens US Tech Supply Chain  Bloomberg Thirty companies, including Amazon and Apple, and the US government are threatened in the attack, according to a bombshell investigative report from Bloomberg.

Intel pivots to data-centric future Can Intel reinvent itself for the post-PC future?

Kontron Scoops Up Open Source Software Provider Inocybe Kontron will combine its white box hardware with Inocybe's open source software, including its open source SDN controller and other software.

Kontron Uses Open Source to Move Beyond Bare Metal Company known for embedded computer technology vendor now serves as integrator as well, combining its hardware with OpenStack and VNFs.

No Customer Downside in Dell's Wall Street Return Dell is swapping its own stock for VMWare's tracking stock and returning to the public market with a $21.7 billion valuation.

India's Reliance Industries Snaps Up Radisys Reliance Jio, Reliance Industries' disruptive 4G operator, will get its own in-house telco cloud vendor.

Telefonica, Vodafone Issue OpenRAN RFIs TIP Summit's OpenRAN project group produces first set of vendor requirements, looking to identify who's coming to the table.

Intel CEO Resigns After Employee Relationship Revealed Intel's CFO, Bob Swain, will take on the interim CEO role.

LF Networking Gets Ambitious About Open Harmonization Expansion into AI, network operating systems for white box and edge computing are built into efforts to collaborate more across industry groups.

AT&T's Anschutz: ONF Shift Is More About Culture Than Technology AT&T exec encourages ONF Vision Summit attendees to focus on changing the process and making operators more responsible for what happens.

Competition Heats Up for SDN/NFV Processing The shift to application and network virtualization by operators and CSPs requires a new generation of multicore processors that are being introduced by many vendors.
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Backhaul Trends & Realities Surface in Bali Huawei summit offers insights into how Asia-Pacific operators are evolving their networks for the emerging challenges of LTE, LTE-A and ultimately 5G.

The Need for Experience-Driven Backhaul As wireless applications continue to evolve, it's essential that network performance be aligned with the characteristics of current and future apps.

New Mobile Services Demand Backhaul Rethink As more speed and capacity is built into the RAN to accommodate video growth and other new services, operators will need to rethink the principles of backhaul operation.

Mobile Backhaul: Going to the Dark Side? Heavy Reading's Patrick Donegan shares his view on a dark trend that bubbled up at Light Reading's annual backhaul conference in NYC.

Exalt Communications is Dead, Long Live Exalt Wireless! Exalt Wireless is born as a new company after managements buy assets of Exalt Communications following a process that is an alternative to bankruptcy.

Zayo Zooms Out of the IPO Gate The wholesale fiber network operator sees an active debut on the NYSE during a broad market rally.

Backhaul Strategies: Looking to 2015 The challenges associated with small cell deployments, the impact of virtualization, and the demand for dark fiber are just some of the topics to be debated at the upcoming Backhaul Strategies conference in New York City.

Eurobites: AlcaLu Adds to Small Cell Backhaul Mix Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: 1,700 jobs lost at Phones 4u; BT signs solar-power deal; Google goes Dutch.
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The Evolution of Mobile Backhaul, Edge Computing Heavy Reading principal analyst Gabriel Brown discusses the latest trends in backhaul connectivity to support 5G strategies and the emerging importance of edge computing to mobile operators.

Key Takeaways From 5G Transport & the Edge What were some of the key takeaways from Light Reading's 5G Transport & the Edge event in New York City? Two sober (just) editors chew the fat...

Verizon to Use 'Integrated Access Backhaul' for Fiber-Less 5G Verizon plans to make use of a new technology that would allow the operator to deploy 5G transmitters into locations where fiber is not available.

Like Politics, All 5G Is Local Denver city officials acknowledge that 5G could dramatically improve residents' lives, but ongoing concerns over permitting for and radiation from 5G cell sites remain obstacles.

Charter Envisions a Fixed Wireless Triple-Play With CBRS Charter's Craig Cowden expands on the MSO's interests and intentions involving the CBRS band and provides updates on the company's recent set of fixed wireless, mobile-facing 'dual-SIM' market trials.

Inside T-Mobile's new 'Home Internet' business A deep dive into T-Mobile's fixed wireless service over LTE  complete with detailed commentary from a current customer  offers some interesting insights into what it means for Internet service in the future.

Infinera: Making Optical Interesting Again The vendor's new XR Optics technology could cut carrier opex and capex in service providers' metro networks. But can the company get everyone else to buy into coherent optical sub-carrier aggregation?

Tower Firms Feeling Sting of T-Mobile's 5G Network Spending Slowdown  Report Wall Street research firm Wells Fargo reported that T-Mobile's slowdown in spending on its network could impact major tower companies like SBA Communications and Crown Castle.

T-Mobile to Test Microsoft's 'Project xCloud' Game Streaming on Mobile in US Microsoft is opening its Project xCloud game streaming service to commercial testing, and T-Mobile has signed on as a supporting mobile network partner. But it's unclear whether telecom networks are ready for video game streams.

CommScope Plots Progress With Low-Latency, Extended Spectrum DOCSIS Vendor to demo its latest next-gen cable network and DOCSIS wares, including a new distributed access architecture aggregator, at next week's Cable-Tec Expo in New Orleans.

Corning's Fiber Business Is Cratering, but What Does That Mean for 5G? Corning has dramatically reduced its sales expectations for fiber this year as carriers reduce spending. Does that mean 5G (which needs fiber) is in trouble? Not necessarily.

ECOC 2019 Preview: Beware of the Irish Goodbye The optical networking industry has seen its fair share of customers show up to the party and then leave without warning. One analyst ponders what's going to be different in the next 12 months.

AT&T, Verizon Inch Toward Open RAN AT&T said it tested an eCPRI connection with equipment from Nokia and Samsung, while Verizon appears to have deployed Nokia's cloud RAN. The moves reflect growing operator interest in open RAN technologies.

Altice Mobile Expects to Be in the Black Within 12 Months 'We wouldn't be in this business if we didn't think it would become a profitable standalone business,' Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei says.

Web-Scale Business Fuels Ciena's Growth but Stock Takes a Hit Transport gear and software vendor reports year-on-year revenue growth of more than 17% to $960.6 million, with a hefty chunk of revenues coming from web-scale customers, but investors reacted negatively to outlook.

Eurobites: MTS Gets 2.1 Gbit/s From Samsung Device in Trials With Nokia & Qualcomm Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: MegaFon microwaves with Ericsson; Vodafone enters Oman with OFT; Gorgeous Gavin turns up at Salesforce.

T-Mobile Resolves Video Throttling Issue Amid Another PR Dustup T-Mobile acknowledged that it recently resolved an issue affecting its video-throttling practice, a situation that arises amid a renewed debate around wireless operators' network-management efforts.

Crown Castle Hires Google Lobbyist to Boost DC Efforts Tower and small cell company Crown Castle moved to bolster its Beltway firepower with the addition of a new chief lobbyist who hails from Google and Microsoft.

China Unicom Seeks 5G Ally to Cope With Buildout Revenues are down, spending is up, and 5G is on the horizon: A partner could ease the pressure for one of China's big players.
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Smokey & the NFV Bandit NFV has many naysayers, but it's alive, kicking and thriving, with SD-WAN as a significant catalyst.

Podcast: What's Changing in the Competitive World of SD-WAN Our series on the state of the SD-WAN market continues with a discussion on what's holding back some companies in the space and how standards and new technologies are advancing the cause of SD-WAN.

Will Standards Lessen SD-WAN's Growing Pains? Ovum and Heavy Reading explain how MEF has stepped in to create SD-WAN specifications to provide clarity in the market, and how this service definition could impact the industry.

Dell Technologies Has a New CTO Ihab Tarazi has left Packet to become CTO of Networking and Solutions at Dell Technologies.

Packet Lands $25M 'B' Round Funding Round led by new investor, Third Point Ventures, includes other newbies such as Battery Ventures and Samsung NEXT, and existing funders Softbank and Dell Technologies Capital

Capex Growth Will Double for Internet Content Providers OTT and cloud companies will grow their capex by 100% over the next five years, according to Ovum. That will have them soon spending more on infrastructure than fixed-line telcos.

128 Technology Goes Zero-Touch Partnership with Arrow Electronics builds on Lanner white box with integrated solution including supply chain and ongoing support.

Colt Sees ONAP as Longer-Term Industry Orchestration Standard Near-term requirements will necessitate vendor-specific solutions while ONAP matures.

DANOS Fuels AT&T's White Box Binge Operator announces 60,000 white boxes will be deployed using DANOS, a new open source OS built on AT&T seed code.

Leading Lights: Only Days Left to Enter! Never mind the days, there are only HOURS remaining before the door closes on this year's Leading Lights awards deadline...

AT&T Offers Up White Box Operating System Latest initiative aimed at speeding up white box deployment by creating an architecture that encompasses entire ecosystem.

Open Source Upheaval Could Finish Off 'Traditional' Vendors The adoption of open source technologies by the industry's telcos could spell the demise of its equipment suppliers in their current role.

DT Preps CORD Effort to Slash FTTB/H Costs German operator's Access 4.0 project, if approved, could help it to reduce the expense of building higher-speed fiber networks.

Apstra's Intent-Based Networking Adds SDN Overlays Network automation startup Apstra launched AOS 2.0, which integrates automation of operations across the underlay and overlay network infrastructures in data centers.

Anschutz: Next-Gen NFV Actually Saves Opex First-gen virtual network functions were still vertically integrated but combining next-gen disaggregation with open source will pay off.

Verizon: Get the Gray Out Network operator learns the hard way that enterprise customers know what a real white box is and won't settle for less.

AT&T Takes Charge With Vyatta OS Buy Network operator will own the Vyatta operating system and software for both white box and cloud-based VNFs by acquiring Brocade technology.

CenturyLink Beefs Up SAP Support New managed offering, developed with Cisco, makes it easier for enterprises who want to migrate to SAP Hana to do so.

AT&T White Box a Disruptive Force AT&T's new white box switches bring a new range of exciting services while also posing a threat to traditional OEMs.
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Light Reading's Leading Lights Awards: Finalists coming soon Light Reading is still narrowing down its shortlist of finalists for the 2022 Leading Lights awards.

Deadline extended: 2022 Light Reading Leading Lights still open for entries Light Reading is accepting nominations for outstanding achievements in 5G, broadband, optical networking, edge computing and more. The new deadline is Friday, September 16, 2022.

Enter now: The 2022 Light Reading Leading Lights awards Light Reading is now accepting nominations for outstanding achievements in 5G, broadband, optical networking, edge computing and more as part of its annual awards program, the Leading Lights.

AT&T network services CTO Fuetsch to retire Andre Fuetsch, who oversees the mobile and fixed network technology direction for AT&T, is set to retire in September. The move is one of many recent departures and promotions in Ma Bell's exec suites.

Juniper CTO on a more efficient 5G future Juniper CTO Raj Yavatkar joins the Light Reading podcast to discuss new business opportunities for 5G and how service providers can more efficiently and cost-effectively run 5G networks.

5G Americas on mile markers for 5G and the digital divide 5G Americas' Chris Pearson provides an update on the global state of 5G and what's making a difference in lessening the digital divide.

Career assist: The evolution of the mentor/sponsor relationship Experts from T-Mobile and Verizon share how relationships with mentors, sponsors and coaches evolve over the course of a career.

Overcoming the credibility conundrum Executives from AT&T, MetTel and Boingo on accessing leadership and education programs, speaking up and taking credit for success, and identifying allies.

The 150-year march toward gender parity in telecom Ericsson's Ciricia Proulx and Rogers' Tess Van Thielen weave statistics and real-world examples into the conversation to explain why there's still a long road ahead to achieve gender and diversity parity in business.

Sandvine's Samir Marwaha on helping networks deal with Big Tech's traffic Sandvine CSO on how they are helping network operators understand traffic in the era of Big Tech's domination of the Internet.

Omdia's Pablo Tomasi on private networks in the US vs. Europe Private networks are front and center at events like Big 5G  but there are some big differences between how the US and Europe are deploying them.

Jim Hodges on the complexity of 5G security and private networks Hodges explains the complexities behind 5G security and why he is skeptical of industry hype over private networks.

Max Silber of MetTel on reaching the end user  wherever they are Helping companies through an unprecedented period of swift digital transformation, thanks to the global pandemic, presents unique challenges.

Mavenir execs open up about 'OpenBeam' open RAN radios Mavenir's new OpenBeam-branded 5G radios are built to open RAN specifications and are being deployed by Triangle Communications in Montana.

Big 5G Event : AT&T Labs' Andre Fuetsch talks to Mike Dano Andre Fuetsch, president and CTO at AT&T Labs, spoke to Light Reading's Mike Dano at the Big 5G Event on May 17.

Big 5G Event : Dish Networks' Sidd Chenumolu talks to Mike Dano Sidd Chenumolu, vice president of technology development at Dish Network, spoke to Light Reading's Mike Dano at the Big 5G Event on May 17.

Napatech preps FPGA assault on 5G core FPGAs have gained a bad reputation as power hogs, but Napatech wants to set the record straight.

Big 5G Keynote : T-Mobile's Neville Ray Neville Ray, President of Technology, T-Mobile, delivered his keynote address, 'Powering the North American 5G Revolution,' at the Big 5G Event on May 14.

5G Open Innovation Lab links enterprises to new business benefactors The Lab is facilitating research and development of a number of 5G use cases around smart farming, AR for healthcare, mmWave and private networks and manufacturing.
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GlobalData's Emir Halilovic: How PON, SD-WAN have changed the enterprise market GlobalData Principal Analyst Emir Halilovic discusses the changes in enterprise PON connectivity that have been unlocked by SD-WAN.

Omdia's Julie Kunstler on what's going on with PON Julie Kunstler discusses developments in passive optical networks and why operators are turning to PON to reduce 5G small cell transport costs, and to support their own 'green' initiatives.

Omdia's Jaimie Lenderman on the changing broadband landscape Jaimie Lenderman discusses the growth of altnets, the entrance of new vendors, the evolution of PON and why the industry is poised for 'exponential' growth.

Omdia's Dario Talmesio: Funding the fiber frenzy Omdia's Dario Talmesio talks about how fiber infrastructure is attracting more investors these days, and why they see value in something other than retail telecoms services.

Fiber 'love' bears some fruit for KPN The Dutch incumbent has seen a fall in maintenance costs and improvement in customer spending in areas where fiber has been deployed.

Adtran's Ronan Kelly: PON's potential paves way for progress Ronan Kelly, Adtran's CTO for its EMEA & APAC regions, discusses the future of GPON as so many other PON variants are battling for the hearts, minds and wallets of network operators around the world.

Omdia's Michael Philpott on why 5G flops without fiber Research Director Michael Philpott explains why fiber is a critical component to the success of 5G networks, and why every region needs access to gigabit speeds.

BT's Howard Watson: Eyeing the 'prize' of a 5G converged core Howard Watson explains how BT plans to phase out Huawei equipment, and why it's banking on the benefits of a 5G converged core.

BT's Rob Shuter: Enterprises want solutions, not just connectivity Customers are looking to combine telco and tech elements into solutions, coupled AI, edge computing and IoT, Shuter said.

Podcast: Telefonica targets fiber expansion Light Reading's Iain Morris and Kelsey Ziser discuss highlights from last week's BBWF event, including Telefonica's approach to fiber buildouts.

Broadband World Forum: What's Beyond the Fiber? I've been in Amsterdam this week at the annual Broadband World Forum event  here's what sunk into my grey matter.

Beware Systems Integrator Lock-In, Open Source Dependency Telcos are worried that systems integrators and open source will replace giant equipment vendors as a form of lock-in.

Verizon Wants a prpl Tinge to Its Residential Gateways Verizon is keen on a set of standard APIs for residential gateways that will enable new services to be offered to broadband customers and it wants other operators to support developments underway at the prpl Foundation.

Telefonica's OnLife Is Growing Long in the Tooth The Spanish operator's ambitious OnLife project is now in field trials with residential and enterprise customers  and several use cases already look compelling.

The Telecoms.com Podcast: Broadband, 5G & Q3 Numbers The usual suspects assemble once more in order to record their incoherent ramblings for your pleasure.

Telcos Hand 5G 'Converged Core' Homework to 3GPP The Broadband Forum is handing over recommendations for a converged 5G core network that would address fixed as well as mobile network needs.

Open Source Upheaval Could Finish Off 'Traditional' Vendors The adoption of open source technologies by the industry's telcos could spell the demise of its equipment suppliers in their current role.

Gfast Still Sizzlin': BBWF 2017 Update It's been a hot topic in the fixed access sector for a number of years already, but Gfast is still making waves at this year's Broadband World Forum. Plus other broadband news.

How EE Uses Analytics to Develop Its 4G Video Strategy Matt Stagg, head of mobile video and content at EE, explains the important role that analytics plays in developing high quality mobile video services.
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From Virtualization to Containerization A new set of NFV challenges is emerging as operators plan the shift towards cloud-native applications and a container-based strategy.

Eurobites: Ericsson Adds Brain-Power to Its RAN Technology Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: VEON trials 5G in Kazakhstan; T-Systems launches private cloud trial with VMware; Openet and Evergent combine on BSS.

Optiva CEO Danielle Royston uses the cloud to stand out from the crowd For Royston, the path to becoming a more profitable telco starts by revitalizing the company's approach to billing, charging and business intelligence.

Comcast Blames Software Glitch for Broadband Data Meter Error In a small edge case that affected about 2,000 customers, Comcast says it fixed the technical issue and is crediting affected accounts for any erroneous charges and giving those subs an additional $50 credit.

Ciena Agrees to Buy Centina, Keeps Kicking OSS Ciena's latest acquisition is another piece of a larger back office puzzle for carriers, but the vendor said it's not aiming to become the new OSS stack.

Revamping the IT Stack for 5G At the recent 5G Asia event in Singapore, MATRIXX Software CTO Marc Price talked about the importance of cloud-native functionality as service providers revamp their IT stacks as part of their 5G strategies.

ETSI Tackles AI Security New specification group at ETSI is 'exceptionally important,' says industry analyst.

The Importance of Culture Management in a 5G World At the 5G Asia event in Singapore, Ericsson's Rodrigo Beyer Fernandez outlines the cultural changes needed in telco IT operations teams, and the importance of automation, as network operators embrace 5G.

Eurobites: Ericsson's Latest Smart Factory Nears Completion Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Colt hires new marketing boss; ADVA trumpets its eco-commitments; Zain Jordan upgrades its billing systems.

Migrating OSS/BSS to the Public Cloud As operational models evolve, telcos are turning to public cloud platforms to host their OSS and BSS systems, but there are still hurdles to overcome.

Leveraging AI for Increased CSP Efficiency Jay Shah, chief AI officer at MyRepublic, explains how the service provider is leveraging AI to optimize its operations, control costs and manage churn.

RJio Takes Baby Steps With Open Source for OSS/BSS Disruptive Indian operator is embracing open source as it evolves its back office strategy.

SES & Microsoft Ink Unearthly Cloud Partnership Satellite networking provider SES will bring Microsoft Azure cloud connectivity to remote locations, as well as Azure media services to broadcasters.

The Telecoms.com Podcast: Digital Services, Brexit... & Guinness Shot on location in a Dublin pub, this week's podcast sees the regular crew joined by Openet's Niall Norton to talk digitalization, Brexit and more. Oh, and they drink some Guinness.

Eurobites: MTS Gets 2.1 Gbit/s From Samsung Device in Trials With Nokia & Qualcomm Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: MegaFon microwaves with Ericsson; Vodafone enters Oman with OFT; Gorgeous Gavin turns up at Salesforce.

Deconstructing the Telco Cloud The term 'telco cloud' is used often, but it can mean different things to different people.

Cox Has a Prepaid Broadband Service Pay-as-you-go offering, called 'StraightUp Internet,' costs $50 a month, includes a DOCSIS WiFi gateway, and delivers up to 25 Mbit/s downstream.

T-Mobile Resolves Video Throttling Issue Amid Another PR Dustup T-Mobile acknowledged that it recently resolved an issue affecting its video-throttling practice, a situation that arises amid a renewed debate around wireless operators' network-management efforts.

How Airtel Sri Lanka Revamped Its BSS For any operator, revamping an entire business support system (BSS) architecture in just six months and cutting IT opex by 80% as a result is a notable achievement.
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Ericsson's MWC Decision Will Likely Start Domino Effect As companies wait to see what others are doing before deciding whether to still attend MWC 2020, Ericsson's bold decision to withdraw looks like it will tip many towards following suit.

WiCipedia: Women in Tech Turn to TikTok to Expose Industry This week in our WiC roundup: When women don't apply to jobs; the new social media scene spreading the tech word (for better or for worse); the skills women need to get hired; and more.

Eurobites: Trump Blows His Top at Boris Over Huawei  Report Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom tells Nokia to shape up; Orange to spend 1.5 billion on retraining exercise; Cellnex boosts coverage at Etihad Stadium.

KT's 5G Splurge Hits Profits in 2019 Results for 2019 show impact of South Korean telco's commitment to 5G, as the number of its 5G subscribers reaches 1.4 million.

Nokia sees light at end of 5G tunnel The Finnish equipment maker hailed good progress on cost cutting and is slowly building up its stock of more profitable 5G products.

US Politicos Take 5G Bandwagon Down Dangerous Path We don't need no bifurcation

Eurobites: Proximus Floats Private 5G Network Concept at Port of Antwerp Connected tugboats ahoy! Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson upgrades in Albania; Amdocs does the double in Spain; Liberty Global transfers staff to Infosys.

Eurobites: Three Loses Two as Execs Depart Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: UK government knocks heads together on shared rural network; network performance surveys ahoy; Ericsson and Nokia expose themselves.

Eurobites: MWC Organizer Plays Down Coronavirus Threat Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Altice makes moves in Israel; Italy fines operators for billing collusion; Belgian regulator proposes temporary spectrum licenses.

Ex-WorldCom Boss Bernie Ebbers Dies The man behind the telecom sector's biggest-ever accounting fraud died at the weekend just weeks after he was released from prison.

Tele2 targets further cuts as sales remain flat Swedish operator plans another $100 million in cost reductions and says it will remove legacy IT systems and 'double functions' after its Com Hem takeover.

Exclusive: Matrixx appoints Glo Gordon as CEO Matrixx Software has appointed board member Glo Gordon to succeed Dave Labuda as CEO.

WiCipedia: Silicon Valley's Vanity Problem This week in our WiC roundup: Melinda Gates makes moves for gender equality; getting highly paid people more money; Silicon Valley's issue with age and imperfection; and more.

IBM Names New CEO: Arvind Krishna, Red Hat Deal Mastermind, Replaces Rometty The change brings cloud and open source front and center for the company, as IBM also names former Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst as president.

BT says cap on Huawei's UK 5G role will cost it 500M UK national operator will have to rip and replace existing infrastructure to meet limitations on Huawei's role in its 5G radio access network rollout and that will set it back 500 million.

Only One Clear Winner From UK's Huawei Ruling  China The UK's decision to allow Huawei a restricted role in the country's 5G rollouts leaves only China with the upper hand.

Eurobites: Pompeo Flies in to Bend Boris's Ear Over Huaweigate (Again) Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: ETNO wants to see investment encouraged; Q4 fun at KPN, Telia and Telenor; broadband wars in Bristol.

Facebook Engineering Boss Parikh Exits, but Open Networking Lives On Under Jay Parikh's ten-year leadership, Facebook built one of the most sophisticated data and networking infrastructures in the world, and collaborated with telcos on open networking.

Ericsson's New Look: Plenty of Robots, Not Many Jobs The Swedish equipment maker is making automation investments across the entirety of its operations. In some areas, it may be time for remaining employees to worry.
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Telefonica's OnLife Is Growing Long in the Tooth The Spanish operator's ambitious OnLife project is now in field trials with residential and enterprise customers  and several use cases already look compelling.

Gartner: NFV Is Dead  the Cloud Killed It The service provider industry is being transformed by enterprise demand for cloud-based wide-area networking, a model Gartner calls Secure Access Service Edge, or SASE.

WiCipedia: Tech's Litigation 'Wake-Up Call' & Gates Donates $1B for Gender Equality This week in our WiC roundup: Lawsuits may be tech's 'wake-up call'; coming out as trans in tech; Melinda Gates dedicates cash for a cause; and more.

SUSE Dumps OpenStack The open source vendor is giving up its OpenStack business to focus on application delivery.

MyRepublic: 'Redefining the Economics of Telco' Fixed broadband service provider developed its own OSS and BSS systems, a move that gives it cost efficiencies compared with traditional systems and advanced data analysis capabilities, according to its executives.

Vodafone CEO 'Fast Tracks' OpenRAN in Challenge to Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia One of the telecom's industry's top executives is backing trials of open RAN technology as a way of bringing more competition into the network market.

At Vonage, It's Not Just About Technology Sanjay Srinivasan, Vonage VP and chief architect, talks with Light Reading's Mitch Wagner about the company's VoIP strategy and explains why SD-WAN is important to Vonage.

Telcos Must Get More Enterprising in 5G A new study from BearingPoint shows that CSPs have a lot of work ahead of them if they are to appeal to enterprise customers.

WiCipedia: Tech's Tipping Point, Speaking Up & Surging STEM Job Applicants This week in our WiC roundup: Tech jobs at non-tech companies; speaking up at work; STEM jobs might not require tech-specific college degrees, and more.

Bigleaf Receives Divine Inspiration for SMB SD-WAN Bigleaf provides cloud-based SD-WAN as a service for small businesses with big connectivity needs, inspired by a conversation with a church IT director.

Facebook's TIP Is Desperate to Add Friends Three and a half years after its birth, the Telecom Infra Project is trying to be more collaborative than confrontational.

Spectrum Enterprise's Gunnar Peters Looks Ahead Gunnar Peters from Spectrum Enterprise discusses how the company listens to customers and decides what services to offer next.

Mentor Spotlight: MATRIXX's Founder on 5G's 'Tremendous' Impact for Women in Comms MATRIXX's Founder Jennifer Kyriakakis says 5G will enable the creation of many new opportunities in the telecom industry, especially around microservices, networking, automation and security.

Why AT&T's latest open source contribution matters AT&T has shared its distributed router specifications with the Open Compute Project and a leading disruptive data networking startup is flagging its support for the model.

Wealth of Job Opportunities for Women in 5G Era Is 'Mind Boggling' During a Women in Comms breakfast workshop, panelists shifted focus from the hype around connected cars and drones to debating how 5G could impact job opportunities for women in comms and tech.

Ericsson Expects $1B US Fine for Corruption, Warns Non-US Investigations May Follow The Swedish vendor could suffer reputational damage in connection with a global corruption scandal.

After Pan-Net Blunders, DT Embarks on Journey to 5G Core The German operator must be careful to avoid making a mess as it builds a 5G core network based heavily on microservices and open source technology.

Migrating OSS/BSS to the Public Cloud As operational models evolve, telcos are turning to public cloud platforms to host their OSS and BSS systems, but there are still hurdles to overcome.

WiCipedia: WiC Hits the Road in Dallas & Apple Event Makes (Some) Diversity Headway This week in our WiC roundup: Board diversification demands go worldwide; Apple event makes some headway on diversity efforts; AnitaB.org moves the gender equality needle, and more.
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Cox cuts 'very small percentage' of workforce Cox said the workforce reduction comes as the cable operator makes changes to its 'structure and processes' and as it invests in areas such as mobile, managed services and network expansion.

Cable's pursuit of interoperable 200-Gig coherent optics presses ahead Cisco/Acacia, Ciena, Fujitsu Optical Components, Lumentum and Marvell participated in CableLabs' first (and possibly last) interop for 200-Gig point-to-point coherent optics.

Digital 9 to buy a bigger chunk of Arqiva CPP Investments will sell its stake in Arqiva to Digital 9 for over 459 million (US$563 million). Digital 9 pointed to the firm's 'high quality, blue-chip customer base.'

For Comcast, mobile glows while broadband slows The nation's largest cable and broadband provider enjoyed its best quarter yet for mobile subscriber gains but continues to see a slowdown in broadband customer growth.

Charter goes big at the edge Charter's Spectrum Enterprise unit is putting more emphasis on the higher end of the market with Enterprise Network Edge, a platform that features advanced security and SD-WAN capabilities.

Charter gives SMBs an ad-vantage Charter's Spectrum Reach unit is giving $1,500 in free TV advertising to SMBs as they try to bounce back from the ongoing pandemic and associated inflation and supply chain issues.

Rogers puts more weight behind enterprise IoT Following an initial debut of smart building IoT services in 2020, the Canadian operator's business services unit is going bigger, launching IoT products with an array of tech and service partners.

Charter sharpens its business services edge Spectrum Enterprise, Charter's business services unit, is using Cisco's Meraki platform to tack on critical support for remote workers and teleworkers and for secure connections to AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

Growth tops the agenda for Segra's new CEO Kevin Hart, Cox's former CTO, said fiber-focused Segra will pursue growth by expanding into adjacent areas, broadening its product slate and seeking opportunities in unserved and underserved markets.

Astound Broadband brand takes top billing at RCN, Grande and Wave Rebrand, which will reach all parts of Astound's portfolio, including EnTouch, Harris Broadband and some recently acquired WOW systems, has been more than a year in the making, says CEO Jim Holanda.

Cox's Kevin Hart takes helm of fiber-focused Segra Kevin Hart, the former chief product and technology officer of Cox, is named CEO of Segra two months after Cox acquired the enterprise-focused fiber services company. Len Barlik succeeds Hart as CTO of Cox.

Businesses are accelerating network transformation programs, Charter exec says Commercial customers are in a 'renew phase' as they move workloads into the cloud, shift to SD-WAN and continue to embrace remote access products and technologies, says Spectrum Enterprise's Bob Schroeder.

US cable to rake in nearly $22B in commercial services revenues in 2021 Overall revenue and customer growth slowed during the pandemic and as US cable has nabbed larger pieces of the businesses services market, but there are signs of a rebound, forecasts show.

Light Reading's cable business services events: A retrospective Here's my glance back at Light Reading's longest running event  now called the Cable Next-Gen Business Services Digital Symposium  which turns 15 as it gets underway on Thursday, December 9.

What's the story? Cable Next-Gen Business Services Digital Symposium At this event, attendees will hear from cable experts about how cablecos can bounce back from the economic earthquake caused by COVID-19, how to handle co-opetition with cloud providers, and which platforms and technologies cable companies are banking on in the mobile services space.

Cable Next-Gen Business Services returns Light Reading's longest-running conference will be fully digital again next week as it tackles the damage wrought to the commercial market by COVID-19 and assesses cable's post-pandemic business prospects.

Charter's Spectrum Enterprise goes on the offensive Enterprise services unit of Charter boots up new brand identity and a campaign focused on fulfilling 'unreasonable' requests of large businesses and stealing away share from incumbent service providers.

Barber shop owner snips at Altice USA with $20M class action lawsuit A small business owner in the Bronx who was forced to close shop for months during the early stages of the pandemic alleges that the operator did not honor its commitment to the FCC's 'Keep Americans Connected' pledge.

The Leading Lights finalists: Part II On this podcast, Light Reading's Phil Harvey, Jeff Baumgartner and Alan Breznick discuss trends they're seeing, what's happening in the awards categories that they're judging and what they've learned from the contest entries as they dig in and prepare to announce this year's winners.
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Fiber Will Trump HFC & 5G From Here to Kingdom Come, EFF Says Declaring that local US governments are in 'dire need of universal fiber plans,' the Electronic Frontier Foundation props up FTTP as the 'superior choice for the 21st century.'

Comcast Blames Software Glitch for Broadband Data Meter Error In a small edge case that affected about 2,000 customers, Comcast says it fixed the technical issue and is crediting affected accounts for any erroneous charges and giving those subs an additional $50 credit.

Seven Things We Learned at Cable-Tec Expo The 10G future is in sight, HFC has gas in the tank, Comcast is getting serious about network virtualization, DOCSIS's pioneers get recognized and more from last week's show in The Big Easy.

Can cable bridge the 'GAP'? Charter and a group of vendors are championing a node standardization initiative called the Generic Access Platform that's showing signs of promise, but the effort needs more buy-in from suppliers and MSOs.

Net Neutrality Is Dead Yet Again States still have the option of enacting their own net neutrality regulations following today's DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding the FCC rollback of net neutrality rules.

DOCSIS 4.0 ends cable network feud DOCSIS 4.0 unifies previously feuding Full Duplex DOCSIS and Extended Spectrum DOCSIS proposals for boosting network bandwidth.

When will cable need 10G? No one knows exactly for sure, but one top industry network engineer believes cable operators will need access network capacities of 'at least' 10 Gbit/s by 2035.

Harmonic's 'CableOS' adds more fiber to its diet Vendor extends capabilities of its access network virtualization platform as some MSOs deploy fiber-to-the-premises in targeted and greenfield scenarios.

Cable Access Revenues Plummet 40% in Q2  Dell'Oro Decline driven by excess capacity, particularly in the downstream, amplified by recent indecision about the path forward on the cable access network, analyst says.

CommScope Plots Progress With Low-Latency, Extended Spectrum DOCSIS Vendor to demo its latest next-gen cable network and DOCSIS wares, including a new distributed access architecture aggregator, at next week's Cable-Tec Expo in New Orleans.

Comcast Starts to Roll Free Speed Upgrades Starting in its West division, Comcast has raised the downstream speeds on tiers that 85% of its customers in the region subscribe to.

LR Tackles 5G & the Cloud at Cable-Tec Expo In an industry first, Light Reading will stage two breakfast forums on hot tech topics at next week's Cable-Tec Expo in New Orleans, the first on cable network virtualization and the second on cable's role in 5G.

Comcast Taps 'Trellis' Open Fabric for Distributed Access Architecture The cable giant sees scalability, space and power efficiency as payoffs.

Cox Has a Prepaid Broadband Service Pay-as-you-go offering, called 'StraightUp Internet,' costs $50 a month, includes a DOCSIS WiFi gateway, and delivers up to 25 Mbit/s downstream.

Videotron Pulls Out Comcast's Playbook Canadian MSO debuts 'Helix' platform featuring broadband gateways, IP video clients, WiFi extenders and home networking management software originating from Videotron's X1 syndication deal with Comcast.

Cable's access network market descends into disruption and chaos As cable operators assess their next moves while DOCSIS 4.0 is developed, traditional top suppliers like Arris, Cisco and Casa are struggling, opening the door to Harmonic and others.

CommScope Swaps Leadership of Its CPE Biz Former Scientific-Atlanta and Cisco exec Joe Chow to succeed Larry Robinson, a move that will spark more speculation about the future of the set-top and modem business that CommScope acquired from Arris.

Huawei Cuts Back on Cable Chinese vendor is backing away from the cable network business amid pressures from the US-China trade war and the loss of critical business with cable operators in portions of Europe, industry sources said.

Cisco halts investment in Full Duplex DOCSIS Says it's suspending spending on FDX until market timing, ecosystem development and size of the market opportunity can be quantified.
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Rogers still seeking Ignite TV spark Rogers' video sub losses moderated in Q4, but the big Canadian MSO continues to shed TV customers at a steady clip after completing its rollout of Ignite TV, a syndicated version of Comcast's X1 video platform.

Kaltura's Nuno Sanches: TV Undergoing a 'Generational Transformation' Former Vodafone exec aims to broaden Kaltura's technology and influence around the globe as new and legacy video and TV services head into the cloud.

LR & SCTE Expand Partnership on Tech Webinars Following a successful inaugural year, Light Reading and SCTEISBE will team up again in 2020 to produce monthly 'LiveLearnings for Professionals' webinars on cable tech topics, starting with a Jan. 16 session on cable's fiber progress.

SD-WAN: It's Not Just for Scrooges Anymore SD-WAN has emerged as the essential glue connecting services running in the public cloud, as well as emerging 5G and Internet of Things applications.

How Cable Will Broaden Its Horizons for Biz Services David Strauss of Broadband Success Partners dives into new research that explores which new verticals, such as e-gaming and hospitality, will keep cable's business services engine humming in the years to come.

Comcast's X1 Platform Means Business Comcast Business's Christian Nascimento details how this fast-growing unit of the company has adapted Comcast's cloud-based video platform to service the commercial market, including restaurants, hotels and other hospitality venues.

Cable Sizes Up New Business Verticals & Vectors Light Reading's Alan Breznick and Jeff Baumgartner look at the future and past of cable business services.

Access to Spectrum to Determine Starry's Network Deployment Speed Starry, which provides fixed wireless broadband over millimeter wave spectrum, is exploring services for business customers to complement its core residential offerings.

Comcast Business Testing 'GameOn' App in Philly Developed by a startup linked to the Comcast/NBCU Lift Labs incubator, an app running on a verrsion of X1 tailored for bars and restaurants enables patrons to play an interactive game based on making sports predictions.

SMBs still stoking business services growth for US cable But cable ops are making progress with bigger, enterprise-sized deals and pursuing new types of commercial-class services to open up fresh revenue streams and inflict more pain on the telcos.

How will cable business services keep growing? With the commercial services engine clearly slowing down, where will cable operators turn for new growth as new technologies like SD-WAN and 5G emerge?

Podcast: Cable Gets the Urge to Converge Light Reading's Jeff Baumgartner and Alan Breznick discuss the key themes from Cable Congress and Cable Next-Gen Europe in Berlin, finding there's a renewed focus on 1-Gig speeds and the fixed mobile network.

1-Gig a Hot Seller for Vodafone Germany 40% of new broadband customers opt for the company's DOCSIS 3.1-powered gigabit broadband service, according to company CTO Gerhard Mack.

Cable Europe Charts Course to Become 'GIGAEurope' in 2020 Name and structure change coming to industry organization reflects the move to gigabit-class speeds over converged fixed mobile networks and the need to provide a unified voice to Europe's policymakers.

DOCSIS 3.1 Takes Hold in Europe Cable's competitive and complementary relationship with 5G, the industry's progress with distributed access networks and its flirtation with a 10-Gig future will also be hot topics at this week's Cable Next-Gen Europe event in Berlin.

Liberty Global Revenue Slump Deepens Europe's largest cable operator suffers continued revenue declines, largely due to steep video subscriber losses in its UK home market and Belgium.

When will cable need 10G? No one knows exactly for sure, but one top industry network engineer believes cable operators will need access network capacities of 'at least' 10 Gbit/s by 2035.

Meeting Cable's 10G Challenge Without Lots More Fiber Cable operators may not not need to go all-fiber or adopt the new Full Duplex DOCSIS spec to deliver symmetrical 10Gbit/s speeds to broadband subscribers.

Why Cable DAA Is DOA This Year Cable technologists say DAA rollouts have not ramped up as expected this year because of a variety of factors but still express optimism about 2020 prospects.
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AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Stand Up for mmWave Auction, but Cable Is MIA Again Some of the nation's biggest telecom companies  including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Dish Network  appear to be planning to participate in the FCC's upcoming mmWave spectrum auction. But big cable companies are missing in action.

Net Neutrality Is Dead Yet Again States still have the option of enacting their own net neutrality regulations following today's DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding the FCC rollback of net neutrality rules.

WiFi 6 Is Here. Should Mobile Operators Worry? A new, more powerful version of the WiFi standard is now available. How might this new technology impact mobile network operators heading toward a 5G future?

Cox also flexing its streaming muscles Cable op has quietly launched the Contour Stream Player, Cox's twist on Comcast's Xfinity Flex video streaming product for broadband-only subs.

Comcast offers 'Xfinity Flex' for free to broadband-only subs Video streaming platform features a video client, voice remote and integration with Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video and, soon, an upgrade path to Comcast's full pay-TV service.

Comcast snares set-top app specialist Metrological Comcast pulls more engineering and software development expertise in-house for its X1 and Xfinity Flex video and smart home platforms.

Charter Is Preparing to Build a Wireless Network Cable company Charter Communications is expected to begin building an LTE network in 3.5GHz spectrum in select locations where it counts a large number of Spectrum Mobile customers.

What to Expect From Altice Mobile Analysts expect Altice USA to collect 1.7 million mobile customers by 2023, and pay Sprint around $2.50 for each GB those customers consume.

Altice Mobile debuts $20 per month 'price for life' to Optimum and Suddenlink subs Altice USA's new 'Unlimited Everything' offering, underpinned by its MVNO deal with Sprint, will be sold for $30 per line per month to non-Optimum and Suddenlink customers in or near its 21-state footprint.

Videotron Pulls Out Comcast's Playbook Canadian MSO debuts 'Helix' platform featuring broadband gateways, IP video clients, WiFi extenders and home networking management software originating from Videotron's X1 syndication deal with Comcast.

Comcast, Charter to Offer 5G Via Verizon MVNO Comcast's Xfinity Mobile and Charter's Spectrum Mobile MVNOs will offer Verizon's 5G service to their respective customers at some unspecified point in the future.

Light Reading Packs Double Wallop at Cable-Tec Expo For the first time, Light Reading will offer two breakfast roundtables on key tech topics at this fall's SCTE|ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in New Orleans  the first on network virtualization and the second on cable and 5G.

Did Altice Change Its Tune on Buying Spectrum? Altice said it wants to buy C-Band spectrum, which appears to represent a bit of a change from the company's previous strategy.

CommScope Seeking New Leader for Ruckus Unit CommScope CTO Morgan Kurk is running Ruckus on interim basis following recent departure of unit's former president, Ian Whiting.

Comcast Expands Reach of 'Internet Essentials,' 15-Meg Remains Service's Sweet Spot By including people with disabilities and seniors, Comcast says 3 million more homes are eligible for Internet service, subsidized PCs and digital literacy training targeted to low-income Americans.

Cable MVNOs Are Beginning to Hurt U.S. Cellular U.S. Cellular acknowledged that cable MVNOs from the likes of Comcast and Charter are now beginning to affect the company's mobile business.

Former Dish Wireless Exec to Take R&D Helm at CableLabs Mariam Sorond was most recently chief wireless architect and VP of technology development at Dish.

Charter Sets Employee Tests for 'Spectrum Connectivity Platform' Software for broadband devices, believed to support OpenWRT, designed to help customers manage and optimize in-home WiFi, tweak router settings and pause Internet connectivity.

Comcast's Xfinity Mobile to Tweak By-the-Gig Pricing Two years after launching its Xfinity Mobile MVNO, Comcast is tweaking its By-the-Gig pricing by adding two new options: 3GB for $30/month and 10GB for $60/month.
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CenturyLink Sharpens Up Its Ethernet Portfolio CenturyLink broadens its Ethernet service portfolio as it tidies up loose ends from its Level 3 acquisition.

Ciena: We'll Stop 95% of Network Outages Ciena's Proactive Network Operations is a closed-loop automation platform that service providers can use to predict and prevent service disruptions.

Nvidia Buying Mellanox for $6.9B Intel and Xilinx had also been linked with bids for the Ethernet and InfiniBand switching components giant.

Cato Networks Raises $55M, Dances on NFV's Grave Cato Networks, which bills itself as a 'cloud-native carrier,' scores $55 million funding for its vision of delivering on network agility, where traditional carriers have so far failed with their NFV efforts.

MEF CTO Sees Key Role in Automation Pascal Menezes says defining key APIs between carriers and setting SD-WAN standards is MEF's way of helping drive automation and digital transformation process.

Cisco to Acquire UK Networking Software Specialist Cisco is to acquire small British outfit Ensoft, which develops software that supports routing, switching, carrier Ethernet and much more.

Nan Chen Reveals Secret to MEF's Staying Power MEF President Nan Chen, also its founder, says the organization's staying power is based on an early decision to focus on defining services and not how they are transported.

MEF SVP Dan Pitt: We're Ready for 5G MEF is already at work on 5G transport and its service enablement capabilities will also help in both fixed and mobile environments, says Dan Pitt, MEF senior vice president.

Analyst: SD-WAN Not Yet Zero-Touch Zero-touch provisioning and plug-and-play are still buzzwords where SD-WAN is concerned, but not reality, says VSG's Erin Dunne.

Orange Pushing Multivendor SD-WAN Orange Business Services is working with several vendors to develop multivendor SD-WAN expertise and counting on MEF application programming interfaces and definitions for SD-WAN to enable a single portal for its SD-WAN offering, says Franck Morales, vice president of marketing of connectivity services for Orange Business Services. In addition, its SD-WAN service will be built on four other pillars: native cloud connectivity, best-of-breed security, global services and future-proof solution.

DT: Pan-Net Producing Multivendor Apps Almost four years into building its pan-European cloud, DT is 'very close' to finishing the infrastructure and is rolling out cloud-based multivendor apps.

SES CEO Plugs Satellite's Role in Global Ecosystem Satellite access will play a key role going forward in reaching distant locations more quickly than fiber can, providing access and wireless backhaul, enabling disaster recovery and backup and connecting mobile sites including cruise and shipping vessels, airplanes and more, says SES CEO John-Paul Hemingway.

MEF18 Preview: APIs, Blockchain & More Light Reading's Carol Wilson and Mitch Wagner tell you what they're looking forward to at MEF18 in Los Angeles.

Telia Carrier Vies to Be Prime Cloud Connector Cloud connections, not video or 5G, will be the global network operator's growth drive.

Eurobites: Nationwide 5G Too Costly, Says German Regulator Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: OBS majors in multicloud; TE Connectivity sells subsea unit; Telefonica goes 200GigE roaming.

Ericsson Adds Automation Smarts With CENX Acquisition Ericsson acquired a minority stake in automation expert CENX in 2012 and now will add the vendor-neutral service assurance specialist's technology to its own network automation and orchestration efforts.

Dumb Networks, Not Just Dumb Pipes The CEO of one of the largest ISPs in the world isn't so keen to use artificial intelligence to manage its network. He just doesn't need it.

AT&T: Flexware-Based SD-WAN to Marry Network, Edge Smarts Flexware, AT&T's virtual CPE platform, evolves to support SD-WAN in early 2018, in a marriage of AT&T's Intelligent Edge approach and its intelligent network.

CenturyLink: Wholesale Business Processes Are Changing Eric Bozick, vice president of wholesale product and marketing for CenturyLink, says new standards and technology are important for wholesale connections, but so are new business processes.
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Eurobites: Trump Blows His Top at Boris Over Huawei  Report Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom tells Nokia to shape up; Orange to spend 1.5 billion on retraining exercise; Cellnex boosts coverage at Etihad Stadium.

Taking the Operators' Pulse on SD-WANs: Visibility, Security & Simplicity Light Reading/Heavy Reading and MEF have teamed up once again to launch a global SD-WAN Strategies Survey focused specifically on the opportunities for managed SD-WAN services offered by network operators to enterprise customers.

Verizon's Network Strategy for the Super Bowl Includes 4G, 5G and... WiFi? Verizon's customers at this weekend's Super Bowl will be automatically connected to the venue's WiFi network  noteworthy considering Verizon's emphasis on its 4G and 5G offerings.

VMware confirms 'workforce rebalancing'  that's corporate-speak for 'layoffs' The company would not say how many people got walking papers, though it did say the number is fewer than the 1,250 positions it has open.

Apstra Shakes Things Up as Cheriton Takes Over as CEO David Cheriton, co-founder, director and lead investor, becomes the CEO, taking over from co-founder Mansour Karam, who is still active in day-to-day leadership.

Facebook Engineering Boss Parikh Exits, but Open Networking Lives On Under Jay Parikh's ten-year leadership, Facebook built one of the most sophisticated data and networking infrastructures in the world, and collaborated with telcos on open networking.

Can 128T & SoftBank Spark a Sea Change for SD-WAN? 128 Technology, a startup founded by the founders and former officers of Acme Packet, aims to separate from the herd with a novel approach to SD-WAN by utilizing session-based routing.

Juniper Returns to Growth  No Thanks to Service Providers The service provider business is 'challenged,' but declines 'began to moderate,' says CEO Rami Rahim. So, um, yay?

Arista Buys SDN Pioneer Big Switch 'For a Song'  Sources Formerly glam SDN startup does the walk of shame.

Podcast: Don't Call Us an SD-WAN Provider  Cato Networks Cato says simple SD-WAN doesn't cut it anymore for enterprise customers, who need SD-WAN combined with security, mobile and cloud connectivity, delivered over the cloud. It's all about a new industry buzzword: Secure Access Service Edge (SASE).

VMware Extends Its SD-WAN Tentacles With Nyansa Acquisition VMware will acquire networking startup to extend SD-WAN optimization to the LAN, helping service providers build enterprise business.

CenturyLink Inks $1.6B Networking Deal With US Interior Department SD-WAN, multicloud connectivity and security services are among the technologies CenturyLink will bring to bear for the agency's more than 65,000 employees, 280,000 volunteers and 2,400 operating locations.

Equinix Expands to 'Emerging True Edge' With Packet Acquisition Packet will enable Equinix to go beyond its traditional data center footprint to put compute in central offices, tower basestations and other edge locations.

Equinix acquires Packet for bare metal edge automation Packet provides Equinix with beefed up multicloud and edge services for enterprise customers.

flexiWAN Offers Escape From SD-WAN Black Box Startup flexiWAN debuts customizable, open source SD-WAN software, to give service providers an alternative to reselling the same SD-WAN services as everybody else.

Masergy Shines a Light on Shadow IT Security Threats Masergy's Shadow IT Discovery service tracks 4,300 SaaS applications and provides insight into the risk level these applications present to customers' network security.

Time to Enter the Leading Lights Awards 2020! Never mind the Oscars! The awards season is now properly underway with the launch of the Leading Lights 2020 program, so get cracking on your submission for Light Reading's annual awards before you get swallowed up by MWC madness.

VMware Closes $2.7B Pivotal Acquisition The acquisition is a big step in VMware's march from virtual machines to containers.

Axel Clauberg Quits DT to Join AWS Prominent next-generation networking executive leaves Deutsche Telekom to join Amazon Web Services (AWS).
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Cable ops will use both options for DOCSIS 4.0  CommScope exec Guy Sucharczuk, CommScope's top access networks exec, believes cable ops could end up using both Extended Spectrum DOCSIS and Full Duplex DOCSIS in their DOCSIS 4.0 networks. 'You're going to use the best tool to get what you need,' he says.

Cable network spending set to rise amid pressure from fiber, FWA Revenue for cable distributed access equipment is expected to rise about 30%, to $1.3 billion, by 2025 as operators ramp up for DOCSIS 4.0 and some FTTP deployments, according to a new forecast from Dell'Oro Group.

Harmonic ready to teach old Cisco nodes some new tricks Harmonic has released an upgrade kit that enables Cisco GS7000 nodes to support the distributed access architecture and DOCSIS 4.0 as the widely-deployed Cisco equipment nears its end-of-life.

DOCSIS 4.0 revenues a couple years out, Casa CEO says Meanwhile, the supplier is seeing 'high-split' trials and deployments perk up as cable operators seek ways to expand upstream capacity on DOCSIS 3.1 networks.

Supply chain constraints cloud Casa's vision Fresh off a big 5G core deal with Verizon, the cable and wireless supplier is forced to suspend 2022 guidance as visibility is being obstructed by persistent component shortages and general supply chain issues.

Standardized 'GAP' node makes appearance at CableLabs 10G event Charter, a champion of the 'Generic Access Platform' initiative, showed off a standards-based node capable of supporting DOCSIS, PON and even wireless service modules. Deployments could get underway in 2023.

Harmonic sees 'fiber islands' surface among cable ops Harmonic's cable access revenues almost doubled in Q1 as CableOS deployments grew to 6.1 million, with 77 operators signed up to their virtualized access network platform.

Remote OLT sales activity spotlights cable's growing focus on fiber Revenues for remote OLTs surged to $10 million in 2021, compared to just $300,000 in 2020, and are poised to more than double in 2022, according to Dell'Oro Group.

How Comcast is paving the road to 10G Elad Nafshi, Comcast's chief network officer, details how the operator will roll out DOCSIS 4.0 over a virtualized platform that will also support targeted deployments of FTTP.

DOCSIS 3.1 has lots of gas left in the tank Industry experts believe DOCSIS 3.1 can keep pace with today's fiber competition by pairing a 1.2GHz upgrade with an upstream-expanding 'high-split.' But emergence of new PON technologies could limit the role of DOCSIS 4.0.

Is cable going to the dickens? As we have for the past two years, Light Reading will stage the Cable Next-Gen Technologies & Strategies conference as a free digital event over two half-days next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Casa CEO: No cable revenue growth in 2022 CEO Jerry Guo said supply chain issues are holding the company back. He billed 2022 as a 'transition year' as Casa focuses on cloud software and scales back lower-margin hardware products.

DOCSIS pioneer Tom Cloonan retires as big changes at CommScope continue Cloonan, who most recently served as interim CTO at CommScope, is a cable industry engineering exec who has played a key role in the evolution of DOCSIS  from 1.0 to 4.0.

CommScope delays Home Networks spin-off as supply chain constraints linger Company is also reorganizing its remaining 'core' business into four divisions, including a new Access Network Solutions unit led by cable industry vet Guy Sucharczuk.

GCI taps Harmonic's 'CableOS' amid 2-Gig push Alaskan operator is also deploying a distributed access architecture as GCI presses ahead with a plan to bring 2-Gig speeds to 77% of the state in 2022.

Vecima rides record revenues but grapples with the supply chain Revenues related to the distributed access architecture, a prerequisite for DOCSIS 4.0, stayed solid, but growth was constricted by ongoing supply chain issues.

Vecima tucks DAA controller into the AWS cloud Proof-of-concept test with Bluepeak tapped the AWS cloud in Ohio to control a Vecima remote MACPHY node located about 1,000 miles away in South Dakota.

Cable Next-Gen event goes online again As we have for the past two years, Light Reading will stage the Cable Next-Gen Technologies & Strategies conference as a free digital event over two half-days in mid-March.

Harmonic sees growth ahead despite supply chain headwinds Supplier says deployments of its 'CableOS' virtualization platform have reached 73 service providers worldwide and now serve 4.8 million modems.
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ETSI Tackles AI Security New specification group at ETSI is 'exceptionally important,' says industry analyst.

Silver Peak Heats Up SD-WAN Telco Romance The SD-WAN vendor is looking to increase sales through service providers, as enterprises turn to SPs to outsource networking needs.

Masergy's Watson: SD-WAN Is SDN's Killer App Enterprises demand SD-WAN from telcos, and SD-WAN won't work without SDN, says Ray Watson, Masergy's innovation VP.

Huawei: 'I Know What You Are, but What Am I?' After years of defending itself against US spying accusations, Huawei claims the US government is spying on it.

VMware Splashes $4.8B on Strategic Acquisitions VMware is bolstering its developer support and security capabilities with the acquisitions of Pivotal Software and Carbon Black.

Eurobites: Nokia Hires Ericsson Insider Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson tweaks top table; silly job titles just got sillier; Drei Austria schutz the Internet.

Orange's Isch on Keeping SD-WAN Secure & Simple In a recent podcast with Light Reading, John Isch discusses how Orange 'co-innovates' with SD-WAN customers, and shares several case studies on what this process looks like by describing collaborations with its SD-WAN customers Siemens and Sony.

Podcast: The Fast-Moving World of SD-WAN Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser discusses the world of SD-WAN, why there are so many vendors and whether enterprise 'white glove' services are handled by butlers.

AT&T's $984M Justice Department Deal Heats Up Rivalry AT&T nabs multi-year expansive agreement to modernize Justice Department networks, giving CenturyLink and Verizon black eyes.

Eurobites: Europe 'Risk Assesses' Its 5G Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Liberty Global to form JV to expand Virgin Media fiber network; Telefonica lands cybersecurity deal with Havas; Ofcom looks to protect mobile users, kicks off search for new boss.

Microsoft teams with MSPs to hook enterprises into Azure Microsoft is partnering with eight managed service providers, including SD-WAN startup Aryaka, to connect enterprises with applications in the Azure cloud.

Eurobites: Bulgaria's Vivacom Goes on Sale, Despite Ownership Row Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Transatel expands mobile data offer for Jaguar Land Rover; ZTE opens cybersecurity lab in Brussels; Amazon's Alexa heals the UK.

Colt CEO: US Customers Growing in the Cloud Colt CEO Carl Grivner said its business in the US  providing enterprise connectivity  is still growing thanks to continued enterprise cloud adoption.

Protecting Enterprises From State-Sponsored Hackers Cloud service providers and network operators have the scale and talent to help protect enterprises from state-sponsored hacking attempts.

Cybereason details operation soft cell: A telco security disaster Security firm reveals an ongoing global attack against telecommunications providers that has been active since at least 2017 and involves a group believed to be working on behalf of the Chinese government.

Telcos: Security Is Not In Your DNA Telcos are in denial if they think they are security experts, says outspoken industry analyst Patrick Donegan.

Cybersecurity Expert Sees Opportunity in Internet Growth, Consolidation The way to defend against DDoS and other attacks is changing, says Nokia's Craig Labovitz. That's because the Internet is getting bigger and smaller at the same time.

VMware Banks on Data Center Agility With Avi Networks Buy VMware and Avi share multiple customers and they don't expect the combo and subsequent integration to cause much disruption as VMware aims to bring a public cloud experience to the data center.

Cisco's Happy, Despite Service Provider Decline Cisco's service provider business declined 13% in the third fiscal quarter, but overall revenue was up, so it was (metaphorical) high fives for everyone on Cisco's quarterly earnings call.
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Eurobites: Ericsson Adds Brain-Power to Its RAN Technology Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: VEON trials 5G in Kazakhstan; T-Systems launches private cloud trial with VMware; Openet and Evergent combine on BSS.

EdgePresence Joins Rush to Build Mini Data Centers for Tower Companies EdgePresence is joining a number of other data center providers in looking to build mini data centers in locations around the country.

Crown Castle: No Plans for Edge Data Centers Crown Castle's CEO said he doesn't see edge computing data centers 'playing a significant role in our long-term strategy.' Crown Castle's main rivals, American Tower and SBA Communications, are taking a different path.

IBM Touts Cloud & Red Hat Growth But IBM is still growing slowly compared with the cloud market overall and that's a turnoff for telcos as potential customers and partners.

Optiva CEO Danielle Royston uses the cloud to stand out from the crowd For Royston, the path to becoming a more profitable telco starts by revitalizing the company's approach to billing, charging and business intelligence.

M&A Creeps Up on Edge Computing Players While edge computing in the mobile and 5G space remains a nascent area, companies such as Intel, EQT, SBA and EdgeConneX are all linked to deals or merger-and-acquisition chatter in this burgeoning sector.

Red Hat Flexes OpenShift Kubernetes Muscles Red Hat is building new automation tools for developers into its OpenShift Kubernetes platform.

Eurobites: AWS Cloud Is a Drug, Says French Minister Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: UK skeptical on 5G; Brussels gets tough with Broadcom; giving small cells a makeover.

Red Hat Sprucing OpenShift for Network Functions on Kubernetes Red Hat readies its Kubernetes platform, OpenShift, for network functions.

NTT's Mega-Merger, Brand-Cutting Plan for Another $4B in Sales Japan's NTT is uniting 28 enterprise-focused brands in its bid to grow at twice the market rate and deliver a boost to profitability.

Gartner: NFV Is Dead  the Cloud Killed It The service provider industry is being transformed by enterprise demand for cloud-based wide-area networking, a model Gartner calls Secure Access Service Edge, or SASE.

Comcast's Virtual Access Network Rolls Into Multiple Markets, Spans 100K+ Customers Top Comcast execs discuss the benefits and capabilities of the company's new virtual access network and how Comcast is applying lessons from its cloud-based X1 platform.

Equinix Debuts $1B+ Hypercloud Gambit Equinix is looking to host data centers for hypercloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, in a joint venture with a Singaporean investment fund.

SUSE Dumps OpenStack The open source vendor is giving up its OpenStack business to focus on application delivery.

Seven Things We Learned at Cable-Tec Expo The 10G future is in sight, HFC has gas in the tank, Comcast is getting serious about network virtualization, DOCSIS's pioneers get recognized and more from last week's show in The Big Easy.

VMware Wraps $2.1B Carbon Black Acquisition VMware says adding the endpoint security provider to its cloud stack will help network operators prevent attacks, rather than reacting to them.

Former Comcast Exec Named CTO of MediaKind Allen Broome comes on board as the video software company explores the development of a virtualized, software-as-a-service model for the OTT and pay-TV service provider market.

MEF, ONUG Join Hands on Enterprise SD-WAN The groups, representing service providers and enterprises, are teaming on SD-WAN specifications to help telcos satisfy enterprise needs  and make money doing it.

At Vonage, It's Not Just About Technology Sanjay Srinivasan, Vonage VP and chief architect, talks with Light Reading's Mitch Wagner about the company's VoIP strategy and explains why SD-WAN is important to Vonage.
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EdgePresence Joins Rush to Build Mini Data Centers for Tower Companies EdgePresence is joining a number of other data center providers in looking to build mini data centers in locations around the country.

Crown Castle: No Plans for Edge Data Centers Crown Castle's CEO said he doesn't see edge computing data centers 'playing a significant role in our long-term strategy.' Crown Castle's main rivals, American Tower and SBA Communications, are taking a different path.

M&A Creeps Up on Edge Computing Players While edge computing in the mobile and 5G space remains a nascent area, companies such as Intel, EQT, SBA and EdgeConneX are all linked to deals or merger-and-acquisition chatter in this burgeoning sector.

Gartner: NFV Is Dead  the Cloud Killed It The service provider industry is being transformed by enterprise demand for cloud-based wide-area networking, a model Gartner calls Secure Access Service Edge, or SASE.

At Vonage, It's Not Just About Technology Sanjay Srinivasan, Vonage VP and chief architect, talks with Light Reading's Mitch Wagner about the company's VoIP strategy and explains why SD-WAN is important to Vonage.

HFC may never die The cable industry, in partnership with CableLabs, is exploring how to deliver services at 6GHz and beyond, Cox exec says.

Eurobites: ADVA Joins the Dots on Optical Transceivers Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Cellcom Israel plans job cuts; Orange builds cloud for Chinese consumer goods company; CityFibre on target in Stirling.

The Complexity of Edge Computing There are many tough questions for telcos looking to build out edge computing resources, including what they should deploy in terms of IT hardware from day one, notes Heavy Reading Analyst Simon Stanley.

Telcos Should Invest in Edge App Developers  Academic Creating an investment fund to fuel edge computing developments would be a good move for the telco community, argues Carnegie Mellon University's Professor Mahadev 'Satya' Satyanarayanan.

CenturyLink: Network Infrastructure Is the Real Final Frontier NASA was trying to solve the same problems telcos now face when it launched the space shuttle Enterprise, 43 years ago Tuesday.

Eurobites: Orange & Ericsson Test 5G in Warsaw Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone goes deeper in Kaltura's cloud; ADVA lands Russian data center contract; Deutsche Telekom revs up its blockchain scooters.

Deconstructing the Telco Cloud The term 'telco cloud' is used often, but it can mean different things to different people.

VMware Splashes $4.8B on Strategic Acquisitions VMware is bolstering its developer support and security capabilities with the acquisitions of Pivotal Software and Carbon Black.

CenturyLink Drops 'Several Hundred Million' Dollars on Edge CenturyLink is building out more than 100 initial edge compute locations across the US and providing hybrid cloud and managed services.

For Equinix, Interconnect Outpaces Colo Equinix racked up its 66th consecutive quarter of revenue growth, and saw its interconnect business grow significantly faster than colo.

It's Groundhog Day! Explaining AT&T's Microsoft & IBM Deals AT&T recently cut a big cloud deal with IBM. Then AT&T cut a big cloud deal with Microsoft the next day. That doesn't mean we're caught in a timeloop  the deals are different, and have plenty of unanswered questions.

BT Taps Canonical OpenStack for Cloud-Native 5G Network BT is using Canonical OpenStack on Ubuntu Linux to move its global network to a cloud-native, microservices architecture.

Arrcus Scores $30M & Takes Network 'Democratization' to the Edge Arrcus is extending its architecture from the data center to the edge, using high-density 100G/400G white box networking hardware based on Broadcom Jericho2 processors.

CenturyLink Adds Fiber to Fuel Datacenter, Cloud Growth Why more fiber? Cloud data center demand from webscale service providers, says CenturyLink's CTO.
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SES & Microsoft Ink Unearthly Cloud Partnership Satellite networking provider SES will bring Microsoft Azure cloud connectivity to remote locations, as well as Azure media services to broadcasters.

Eluvio Aims to Elude Video Transcoding & the CDN Startup led by former Aspera CEO Michelle Munson enters the global OTT scene with a low-latency 'Content Fabric' designed to disrupt the streaming video market.

Getting Ready for the Visual Cloud In a half-day conference at IBC in Amsterdam next week, Intel and partners will show off the visual cloud and demonstrate how it can deliver rich, immersive, interactive video experiences and graphics-based workloads.

Eurobites: EE Trumps Rivals in UK Network Test Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: A1 replaces Vip brand in North Macedonia; MobileLinks increases capacity with Net Insight; Sky offers WiFi guarantee.

Podcast: Where Does OTT TV Go Now? It's going to take some televisionary moves for pay-TV providers and big studio owners like AT&T to sort out what consumers want, how to package it and what to call it.

Podcast: Dish Network's Spectrum of Innovation Light Reading's editors discuss Dish Network, its pioneering past, a few hilarious missteps and why the company seems just as likely as anyone to be the next big player in 5G networks.

The Cord Cutters Are Right The pay-TV feature set has finally met its match and, even if you don't cut the cord for budget reasons, you should give some other options a try.

Dalet Buys Ooyala Media Platform & People To support its ongoing transition to a SaaS-based business model, Dalet signs agreement to acquire Ooyala Flex Media Platform and staff.

Untapping the Opportunity in Sports OTT While sports content piracy is growing at an alarming rate, hurting the industry and dampening down the value of sports TV rights, solutions are available.

Ericsson Boasts of Progress in CDN-to-Edge Pivot Ericsson's Edge Gravity essentially represents a pivot by the company from selling CDN services to selling edge computing services. And though the process hasn't been completely smooth, Ericsson is boasting of progress.

Leading Lights 2019: The Winners Find out which companies have taken home the 2019 Leading Lights Awards trophies.

MobiTV's Bill Routt: Amazon to Stoke Pay-TV Partnerships With Fire TV MobiTV's president and COO says Amazon is 'really engaging' with plans to optimize and customize its streaming platform for the pay-TV operator market.

Leading Lights 2019 Finalists: Company of the Year (Private) Several privately held companies  including Versa Networks, CUJO AI, Synamedia and Pluribus Networks  have grown their businesses and set themselves up for success in the last 12 months.

Leading Lights 2019 Finalists: Most Innovative Cable/Video Product or Service Our shortlist for this Leading Lights category features eight solid contenders.

Slideshow: NAB 2019 Behold! Not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Check out some pics and caps from this week's video tech-fest in Sin City.

OTT-TV Latency Gap Starting to Close Suppliers at NAB 2019 are pushing upgrades and enhancements to streaming video workflows that establish delay-parity between traditional broadcast TV feeds and TV signals delivered over-the-top.

Leading Lights 2019: The Finalists Light Reading is delighted  nay, pumped  to announce the finalists for this year's Leading Lights Awards program, which is now in its 15th year.

Eurobites: Telenor Buys DNA for Finnish Foray Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telekom Srbija and Ericsson virtualize the core; Cisco scores in Italy and France; Vodafone Egypt goes with Red Hat for cloud-based customer service upgrade; Three UK calls on Callsign for fraud prevention.

CenturyLink Taps Streamroot for P2P Assist Says the P2P-focused agreement will help CenturyLink expand into hard-to-reach areas and augment, not replace, its global content delivery network.
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CenturyLink Adds Fiber to Fuel Datacenter, Cloud Growth Why more fiber? Cloud data center demand from webscale service providers, says CenturyLink's CTO.

Big 5G Event Keynote: Fireside Chat  Andrew Dugan, CenturyLink CenturyLink CTO Andrew Dugan shares his views on 5G transport technology at the Big 5G Event in Denver on May 8, 2019.

Verizon's Wellbrock: RAN Is Fancy Radio That Rides on Fiber The radio access network receives plenty of attention in 5G discussions, but Verizon's Glenn Wellbrock says those "fancy radios" require a strong fiber backbone.

5G Potential Is All in the Timing The move to 5G will also disrupt carriers' timing systems as 5G's timing and clock synchronization requirements are much more strict.

Why CenturyLink's Network Suffered a Christmas Hangover A 'bonkers' network management card had too much eggnog and caused a wave of service outages, including 9-1-1 service, in several states for several days during the last week of 2018.

Ciena Signals Steady Growth & Smooth Sailing Ahead The optical networking specialist is benefiting from 5G buildouts and webscale traffic monsters, and doing what it can to avoid sitting on a lead.

Cisco Renews Service Provider Focus at Partner Summit 2018 Light Reading's Mitch Wagner filed this report from Las Vegas, where he spoke to enterprise partners, telco CTOs and Cisco executives about the emergence of IoT, AI and 5G  and how those technologies are reshaping networking.

Zayo's Brian Daniels: Getting Fiber in Place to Feed 5G Services The legislative environment now seems to have roadblocks up against fiber deployment, according to Brian Daniels, Zayo's senior VP of strategic networks. He said there's a need for standard fees and permanent processes to help multiple tenants use a city's light poles and other infrastructure so several carriers can efficiently provide competitive services in cities.

The New Infinera Is Already on Edge Infinera closed its acquisition of Coriant today, creating one of the world's largest optical networking providers with 600 customers around the world. But talk of a major account challenge mounted by Ciena sent the company's stock tumbling more than 15%.

Ericsson Links 5G Hands With Juniper & ECI, Snubs Cisco & Ciena Swedish equipment vendor prefers the alternatives to a couple of long-standing partners in a 5G setting, and adds new features to its '5G-ready' baseband platform.

Infinera, Coriant Hear a $430M Siren Song of Synergy Infinera has offered to acquire Coriant for $430 million in cash and stock but the deal is truly complementary, not just a cost-cutting exercise, both companies say.

Capex Growth Will Double for Internet Content Providers OTT and cloud companies will grow their capex by 100% over the next five years, according to Ovum. That will have them soon spending more on infrastructure than fixed-line telcos.

Ciena CTO Says No to Skynet, Advocates Adaptive Networks Ciena CTO Steve Alexander explains why some operators are leery of fully autonomous networks, and how Ciena is collaborating with carriers to prepare for 5G deployments with platforms like the Adaptive Network.

Verizon's Sensity Buy Brightens IoT Strategy Smart cities platform player builds networking expertise into LED lighting fixtures to enable municipalities to create connections.

US Ignite Sets Stage for Smart Cities From its Smart Gigabit Communities initiative to the new Advanced Wireless Consortium, US Ignite is in all the right places to make smart city dreams come true.

Light Reading Beyond Light Reading today starts a new voyage as part of a larger Enterprise.

Pics: BCE Crowds Mob New IP Agency Live Interoperability Demos AUSTIN, Texas -- Big Communications Event -- One of the indisputable stars at this year's Big Communications Event (BCE) in Austin was the New IP Agency's Live NFV Interoperability Demos, which drew standing room only crowds to the busy exhibition floor.

Eurobites: Vodafone Livid as German Regulator Approves DT's Vectoring Plans Also in today's regional roundup: Orange appoints healthcare services chief; M&A in the UK's managed services sector; Spanish FTTH lines top 3.4 million; Ciena lands utility network deal in Germany.

Eurobites: 15,000 Telecom Italia Jobs at Risk Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone hails wireless backhaul breakthrough; Hutchison offers more concessions on O2 deal; Safaricom strikes broadband deal with Kenya Power.
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Startup Wants to Help ISPs Turn Smart Home Customer Care Into a Profit Center Fresh off a $9 million funding round, Sweepr aims to help its ISP partners offer customer care as a service to makers of smart home devices and appliances.

Broadband World Forum: What's Beyond the Fiber? I've been in Amsterdam this week at the annual Broadband World Forum event  here's what sunk into my grey matter.

Ciena Agrees to Buy Centina, Keeps Kicking OSS Ciena's latest acquisition is another piece of a larger back office puzzle for carriers, but the vendor said it's not aiming to become the new OSS stack.

ETSI Tackles AI Security New specification group at ETSI is 'exceptionally important,' says industry analyst.

Deconstructing the Telco Cloud The term 'telco cloud' is used often, but it can mean different things to different people.

Guavus Takes Jio's Big Data Challenge Jio's competitive market, fast growth and expanding customer base present some interesting machine learning and analytics challenges for Guavus, its newly announced analytics partner.

T-Mobile Resolves Video Throttling Issue Amid Another PR Dustup T-Mobile acknowledged that it recently resolved an issue affecting its video-throttling practice, a situation that arises amid a renewed debate around wireless operators' network-management efforts.

Podcast: Where Does OTT TV Go Now? It's going to take some televisionary moves for pay-TV providers and big studio owners like AT&T to sort out what consumers want, how to package it and what to call it.

How Airtel Sri Lanka Revamped Its BSS For any operator, revamping an entire business support system (BSS) architecture in just six months and cutting IT opex by 80% as a result is a notable achievement.

Podcast: The Fast-Moving World of SD-WAN Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser discusses the world of SD-WAN, why there are so many vendors and whether enterprise 'white glove' services are handled by butlers.

ONAP 'Dublin' Lightens Network Orchestration The latest release of the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) sports enhancements designed to get the software up and running faster, so carriers can get on with sexy innovation.

Podcast: Parsing Data & Sharing Poles in Smart Cities US Ignite's Mari Silbey provides commentary on a few topics related to smart cities, including how research universities are helping cities slice up IoT and sensor data into bite-sized morsels.

Cybereason details operation soft cell: A telco security disaster Security firm reveals an ongoing global attack against telecommunications providers that has been active since at least 2017 and involves a group believed to be working on behalf of the Chinese government.

5G Could Usher in New Era of Mobile Cloud Telecom operators need to take control of the customer experience to really benefit from 5G.

CenturyLink's No Sweat Approach to AI US operator is moving toward a more proactive and predictive operational model as it uses AI tools to extract greater value from its data, but there are hurdles to overcome.

Sprint Goes Loco for 'Low Code' Sprint is using a 'low code' development platform to streamline business processes, including getting wireline customers online faster.

Nibbles from Nice: Don't mention the 'T' word DT's CIO doesn't dig 'transformation,' Enghouse keeps its toes warm and the TM Forum snacks on Danish plus more from the Riviera.

5G Potential Is All in the Timing The move to 5G will also disrupt carriers' timing systems as 5G's timing and clock synchronization requirements are much more strict.

Leading Lights 2019 Finalists: Outstanding Digital Enablement Vendor LotusFlare, MATRIXX Software, MYCOM OSI, Netcracker Technology, Openet and Synchronoss Technologies are the six shortlisted companies in this category.
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Broadband World Forum: What's Beyond the Fiber? I've been in Amsterdam this week at the annual Broadband World Forum event  here's what sunk into my grey matter.

WiCipedia: Tech's Litigation 'Wake-Up Call' & Gates Donates $1B for Gender Equality This week in our WiC roundup: Lawsuits may be tech's 'wake-up call'; coming out as trans in tech; Melinda Gates dedicates cash for a cause; and more.

MyRepublic: 'Redefining the Economics of Telco' Fixed broadband service provider developed its own OSS and BSS systems, a move that gives it cost efficiencies compared with traditional systems and advanced data analysis capabilities, according to its executives.

MEF, ONUG Join Hands on Enterprise SD-WAN The groups, representing service providers and enterprises, are teaming on SD-WAN specifications to help telcos satisfy enterprise needs  and make money doing it.

At Vonage, It's Not Just About Technology Sanjay Srinivasan, Vonage VP and chief architect, talks with Light Reading's Mitch Wagner about the company's VoIP strategy and explains why SD-WAN is important to Vonage.

WiCipedia: Tech's Tipping Point, Speaking Up & Surging STEM Job Applicants This week in our WiC roundup: Tech jobs at non-tech companies; speaking up at work; STEM jobs might not require tech-specific college degrees, and more.

Frontier's Irwin on the Security Benefits of Managed SD-WAN DALLAS -- Scott Irwin, senior director of SD-WAN for Frontier Communications, explains how Frontier's customers are increasingly moving to a more centralized managed SD-WAN platform.

Spectrum Enterprise's Gunnar Peters Looks Ahead Gunnar Peters from Spectrum Enterprise discusses how the company listens to customers and decides what services to offer next.

Wealth of Job Opportunities for Women in 5G Era Is 'Mind Boggling' During a Women in Comms breakfast workshop, panelists shifted focus from the hype around connected cars and drones to debating how 5G could impact job opportunities for women in comms and tech.

WiCipedia: WiC Hits the Road in Dallas & Apple Event Makes (Some) Diversity Headway This week in our WiC roundup: Board diversification demands go worldwide; Apple event makes some headway on diversity efforts; AnitaB.org moves the gender equality needle, and more.

More Than Just Code: Open Networking Early Adopters Share Lessons Learned Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica and AT&T describe their experiences as open networking pioneers.

WiCipedia: Tips for Female Conference Speakers & How Women Impact Product Dev This week in our WiC roundup: Female conference-goers can maximize experience with engagement; girls are the future of security tech; more women needed in health tech industry; and more.

U.S. Cellular's New 'Fairness' Campaign to Include Rural 5G Component U.S. Cellular is embarking on a new advertising campaign that will include how it plans to expand 5G into rural areas.

WiCipedia: The Whitest Black Candidates & Conferences Take a Political Stand This week in our WiCipedia roundup: Google is accused of whitewashing its diversity hires; tech conferences for women get political; the sponsor search continues; and more.

WiCipedia: Podcast Recs, Interview No-Nos & Creating a Majority Female Tech Company This week in our WiC roundup: The podcasts that made our workweek; internship interviews are rife with inappropriateness for young women; how to create a majority female company; and more.

WiCipedia: Diverse Boards Are the Future & UK Gov't Deals With Online Abuse This week in our WiC roundup: Silicon Valley is out of touch; board diversity makes headway; how to be heard in meetings; and more.

WiCipedia: Using Tech for Good, the Scully Effect & Google's Clock Is Ticking This week in our WiC roundup: Coding school teaches kids to help others with tech; '90s TV reigns supreme even in the everything-automated age; computer science programs may have more accountability soon; and more.

Orange's Isch on Keeping SD-WAN Secure & Simple In a recent podcast with Light Reading, John Isch discusses how Orange 'co-innovates' with SD-WAN customers, and shares several case studies on what this process looks like by describing collaborations with its SD-WAN customers Siemens and Sony.

WiCipedia: NASA's Beauty Queen & Coding for a Cause in OKC This week in our WiC roundup: A coding school with heart; brains and beauty win the crown; diversity efforts are not enough; and more.
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Putting a Price on Latency: Startup Network Next Aims to Fix Internet Routing With things like Google Stadia and 5G putting a new focus on real-time connections, startup Network Next hopes its AdWords-inspired approach to Internet routing will catch on.

Sonus & Genband Finally Combine to Form $745M Company Genband & Sonus to finally merge, as exclusively predicted by Light Reading a year ago.

Mitel to Offload Mobile Unit to Xura for $350M+ Less than two years after buying its mobile unit, Mitel is selling to Xura, the messaging and UC business owned by Siris Capital.

Light Reading Beyond Light Reading today starts a new voyage as part of a larger Enterprise.

Leading Lights 2016: There's Still Time There's still time to enter this year's Leading Lights awards -- here are the details you need.

Activist JDSU Shareholder Now Stalks Viavi A JDSU shareholder who once wanted JDSU to sell now wants JDSU spinoff Viavi to do the same.

CEO Chat With Doug Suriano, Oracle Steve Saunders met up with Oracle's Doug Suriano, who talked about why Oracle bought Tekelec and Acme Packet, how it's creating tailored cloud services for different vertical industries, the state of virtualization, why Oracle won't get into systems integration and more.

ADVA Clocks an Acquisition, Eyes 2 More ADVA's timing unit absorbs a specialist in small form factor clock technology, but ADVA may have more deals in mind.

Farewell to Longtime Tellabs Chief Birck Mike Birck guided Tellabs for more than 30 years over a span of five decades.

BTE 2015: Virtualization Goes Commercial Heavy Reading Senior Analyst Jim Hodges sees new network virtualization deployments on the horizon in 2015.

Leading Lights Finalists 2015: Company of the Year (Private) Find out more about the players that made it onto our awards shortlist for company of the year (private).

Leading Lights Awards: It's Now or Never! Deadline extension means there are still a few more days to submit those winning entries, but don't delay -- April 10 is the final deadline and then the judging begins.

Sonus Stock Crashes on Lost Orders Order fallout prompts slashing of revenue projections by 33% and trading is halted as Sonus shares tumble.

Leading Lights Awards: Only Days Left to Enter! The deadline for the 2015 Leading Lights awards is March 27, so get your skates on if you think you could be a winner!

BTE 2015 Is Bigger & Even Better This year's Big Telecom Event (BTE) in Chicago is going to provide more opportunities than ever for networking, getting to grips with key industry challenges and opportunities and, equally as important, having some fun.

MWC: Let the Madness Begin Are you all strapped in? Then let's talk 5G, NFV, IoT, security and anything else that rhymes with LTE oh, and tapas

CEO Chat With Doug Ranalli, NetNumber Light Reading founder and CEO Steve Saunders talks with Doug Ranalli, the founder of signaling specialist NetNumber.

Mavenir Spends $20M on Ulticom for Signaling Mavenir to acquire Ulticom for its NFV-ready signaling business, while its partner Radisys announces an important new contract with Nokia Networks.

NetNumber Decrees the End of Signaling Silos As operators deploy NFV, NetNumber says it becomes more important to have a single interface for dealing with all flavors of signaling.
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AT&T Puts Intelligence in the Middle of the Edge AT&T is focused on building virtualization and intelligence into the customer edge and network edge for 5G applications.

It's Time to Get Excited About 3.5GHz CBRS We're days away from initial commercial deployments in the 3.5GHz CBRS spectrum band, often called 'Goldilocks spectrum' because of its propagation characteristics. It certainly appears to be just right, given the diversity of initial commercial applications.

Eurobites: Telefonica to Wield Jobs Ax Again  Report Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Soros considers sale of Hyperoptic stake; BT unleashes its drone killer; Nevion 5G virtualization project bags EU grant.

Power Brokers: Utilities Explore Their Role in 4G & 5G Utility companies like Duke and Xcel are already major players in the telecom market. Now they're looking at how they might participate in 4G and 5G.

This Is Dish's 6-Step Plan for 5G Dish Network is hoping to enter the wireless industry as a disruptive MVNO while it builds a 5G network. But what exactly are the company's plans?

Q&A With Dish's Charlie Ergen About His New 5G Strategy Dish's chief executive spoke with Light Reading about the company's 5G future, just hours after Dish announced a $5 billion agreement to purchase customers, spectrum and wholesale access from the combined Sprint and T-Mobile.

T-Mobile/Sprint Merger Gets DoJ Approval Thanks to Dish's $5B Deal The DoJ signed off on a transaction that would merge Sprint and T-Mobile and position Dish Network to build a nationwide 5G network. It's a complex deal.

5G in Laptops, Watches, Tablets & More? Analysts Are Divided 5G operators are keen to see consumer electronics companies install 5G capabilities into all kinds of devices. However, analysts are divided about whether that will actually happen.

5G's Future Could Literally Be Full of Hot Air... And Drones Sure you could deliver 5G using regular stuff like macro cell towers and small cells. But if you're really cool, you'd use balloons, blimps or drones.

Verizon Exec Taps the Brakes on 5G for Driverless Cars 5G-powered drones and AR/VR services? Sure. But Verizon's Adam Koeppe said that driverless cars running on 5G isn't something that's going to happen anytime soon.

SoftBank Plows Big Bucks Into Drones & Balloons for 5G, IoT SoftBank is embarking on a new business that involves building massive drones to provide Internet services in remote areas. Tied in, SoftBank is also plowing $125 million into Alphabet's Loon project.

AT&T's Pacewicz: 'We See the Cloud Fragmenting Again' AT&T Business Chief Product Officer Roman Pacewicz describes how edge computing, 5G and network virtualization are required for next-generation applications that can deliver new business opportunities for the operator.

MWC19: 5G Gets Industrial, Musical & Far Out With a few snapshots and snappy captions, we've breezed through some of the big themes at MWC19, and tried to call attention to some of the more impressive displays of technology and showmanship in Barcelona.

Light Reading's 41 Most Popular Stories in 2018 Everything from enterprise strategies to 5G devices caught our audiences' attention during 2018. At a time when so many changes are bearing down on the telecom world, it's clear that a lot of us still have our heads in the cloud.

WiCipedia: Diversity in Product Dev & Israeli Entrepreneurs Protest Sexism This week in our WiC roundup: Keeping smart home products safe for all; Merkel finds sexism in Israeli tech community; girls have limited access to mobile phones worldwide; and more.

The World of Disney: StudioLAB Innovation, Cisco Collaboration & 5G Anticipation With technology partners and an eye toward 5G networks, the StudioLAB is helping Disney-owned content studios solve technical production problems and reach consumers in novel ways.

Behind the Scenes at Disney's StudioLAB Disney is using tech from Cisco and other partners to reach consumers in new ways. We take you behind-the-scenes at the StudioLAB, where Disney execs explain how 5G networks will unlock new opportunities in storytelling and content distribution.

Eurobites: ARM Eyes $600M Data Analytics Deal  Report Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom begins second phase of 'supervectoring' rollout; BT beefs up cybersecurity in India, loses more TV sports content.

Eurobites: UK Fine-Tunes Its Full-Fiber Future Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Proximus secures digital rollout agreement with Flemish government; Ericsson runs 5G pilot in Singapore; Elisa hosts AI contest.
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DT's Access 4.0 Team Loses Its Cherry & Hits the Eggnog The German operator has a long list of vendors identified for its software-enabled broadband access project. What could possibly go wrong?

Eurobites: Telia & Nokia Launch 5G FWA in Finland Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nuage Networks finds SD-WAN love in Bahrain; Vodafone closes stores, but not in the UK; MegaFon sets up e-commerce JV with Alibaba and friends.

Eurobites: Openreach Trials New Approaches to FTTP Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: UAE's du happy with Huawei; Vodafone trials OpenRAN in the UK; Ericsson upgrades in Madagascar.

Cable Access Revenues Plummet 40% in Q2  Dell'Oro Decline driven by excess capacity, particularly in the downstream, amplified by recent indecision about the path forward on the cable access network, analyst says.

Australian telcos demand cuts in 'unsustainable' NBN prices Australia's state-backed national wholesale network charges too much and provides shoddy service, say critics.

BoJo's UK Broadband Plan Looks Barmy, but Don't Write It Off The UK's new prime minister may be chasing perfection in the hope of catching excellence, but the country's operators are demanding action on numerous fronts.

BT Decline Continues Despite 5G, Fiber Push UK operator's latest trading update came as a further disappointment to investors, sending its share price down on the London Stock Exchange Friday morning.

The Cord Cutters Are Right The pay-TV feature set has finally met its match and, even if you don't cut the cord for budget reasons, you should give some other options a try.

Deutsche Telekom Cuts Adtran Spending After 5G Spectrum Splurge German spectrum auction blamed by analysts for a broadband spending slowdown at Deutsche Telekom.

Eurobites: O2 Signs Up to the Connected Carpool Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson bigwig can't understand the UK's approach to Huawei; Huawei claims its smartphone sales are on the rise in western Europe; Telxius and DE-CIX cuddle up.

Eurobites: MegaFon Forms E-Commerce JV With Alibaba Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Norway 5G spectrum auction results; Dutch told to get tough on Huawei; Deutsche Telekom turns on IoT network; Ofcom commits to universal broadband service.

Eurobites: Swisscom & Ericsson Flip the 5G Switch Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone ad bends the giga-truth; Nokia and Nordic Telecom get mission-critical with LTE; Orange teams up on cyberdefense; Amazon hits trouble in Italy.

Eurobites: Germany Holds Door Open for Huawei Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: CityFibre loses legal challenge; Video-streaming giants come under the UK regulatory microscope; new boss for Swisscom's blockchain unit.

Eurobites: Nokia Extends Jazz's 4G Network in Pakistan Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Borse Group invests in Swisscom fintech startup; Russians protest against the unplugging of their Internet; Uzbek telecom turmoil takes another turn.

Windstream Market Cap Plummets Following Court Ruling One of the nation's largest telecom carriers is stuck between a gloating hedge fund and a pile of debt.

Windstream Woes: Hedge Fund Prevails in Bond Fight Windstream may end up owing 310M to a hedge fund if a court ruling made on Friday is allowed to stand. That could force the company into bankruptcy.

Eurobites: Germany Offers Hope to Huawei Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Exponential-e offers transformation help; KPN offloads iBasis; Deutsche Telekom's upgrade rolls on; Sparkle brings connectivity for motorsports coverage.

Eurobites: Altice Set to Sell Stake in Portuguese Cable Unit Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Sunrise in talks to buy Liberty Global's Swiss unit; VEON's new strategy man; more UK trouble in store for Huawei; Nokia takes its Gfast to Japan.

Eurobites: Landlines Are Finished in Finland, Says Telia Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Swedes are well connected; Nagra wins big at Telefonica; Deutsche Telekom ignores Christmas, presses on with network upgrade; Mobileye sees China's potential.
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Infinera: Making Optical Interesting Again The vendor's new XR Optics technology could cut carrier opex and capex in service providers' metro networks. But can the company get everyone else to buy into coherent optical sub-carrier aggregation?

ECOC 2019 Preview: Beware of the Irish Goodbye The optical networking industry has seen its fair share of customers show up to the party and then leave without warning. One analyst ponders what's going to be different in the next 12 months.

Podcast: Ciena's CEO Sets Sail for Growth Ciena CEO Gary Smith said that M&A is always a possibility as the company looks to build its software business while managing the growth of its optical platform sales to web-scale companies.

Ciena CEO: Carriers No Longer Hooked on Huawei International operators are set to ween themselves off Huawei, claims Ciena CEO Gary Smith.

Web-Scale Business Fuels Ciena's Growth but Stock Takes a Hit Transport gear and software vendor reports year-on-year revenue growth of more than 17% to $960.6 million, with a hefty chunk of revenues coming from web-scale customers, but investors reacted negatively to outlook.

Cisco Looks to Acacia for Optics & Flexibility Acacia's pluggable optics help Cisco's routing business stay competitive and make its customer networks easier to operate, according to the head of Cisco's optical business.

A Coherent Take on NGON & DCI World Heavy Reading's optical guru Sterling Perrin highlights some key trends from the NGON & DCI World event in Nice, including 'Beyond Coherent,' what 400ZR really means for the market, the latest on 5G transport and the FUDfest that is Huawei.

Follow the Money: Optical Trends From NGON 2019 The opening sessions of this year's NGON & DCI World event in Nice focused on money matters and automation but there was little appetite to discuss the impact of global trade tensions and the US clampdown on Huawei's supply line.

Optical's Shifting Sands The global optical networking market has been worth in the region of $15 billion for the past year, but while that number has varied only slightly year to year, what has changed is the nature of the investments and who's splashing the cash.

Big 5G Event Keynote: Fireside Chat  Andrew Dugan, CenturyLink CenturyLink CTO Andrew Dugan shares his views on 5G transport technology at the Big 5G Event in Denver on May 8, 2019.

Leading Lights 2019 Finalists: Most Innovative Telecoms Product There are 11 (yes, count them!) shortlisted entries in this year's category for Most Innovative Telecoms Product (Optical/IP/Carrier Ethernet/FTTH).

Nokia Suffers 5G Blues in Q1, Stock Slumps When the CEO and CFO say the quarter was 'weak,' you know it was bad: investors agreed.

Eurobites: Telenor Buys DNA for Finnish Foray Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telekom Srbija and Ericsson virtualize the core; Cisco scores in Italy and France; Vodafone Egypt goes with Red Hat for cloud-based customer service upgrade; Three UK calls on Callsign for fraud prevention.

Google Sets Sail for Bandwidth Breakthrough Google looks likely to be first to commercial implementation of technology called space-division multiplexing (SDM) for significant bandwidth improvements.

Eurobites: Orange Invests 3M in DevOps Startup Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange tackles fake news; Liquid Telecom Kenya chooses Nokia for OTN/DWDM upgrade; Trondheim intends to be a 5G early adopter.

In Search of Optical Networking's 'Holy Grail' The optical networking industry is at another inflection point, writes James Kisner, and the chalice some companies drink from next could point the way to everlasting revenue growth.

Optical Networks for the Next Decade The ON2020 group is looking to address the optical transport challenges presented by the predicted surge in user traffic on carrier networks.

Optical Networking Gets the Football Pulled Away Again Like Lucy always does to Charlie Brown, 5G is likely another new technology that teased optical networking vendors with massive, sustained spending, then quickly yanked back expectations.

5G Transport, 400ZR Star at OFC19 Heavy Reading's optical expert Sterling Perrin discusses some of the major trends in transport network technology at this year's OFC event in San Diego.
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CableLabs' virtualization efforts enter new realities Virtualization group retooling to support industry's new Flexible MAC Architecture amid recent departure of two execs focused on NFV and SDN, sources say.

Eurobites: Deutsche Telekom Pledges to Go Even Greener Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson bags 5G deal in Bahrain; Nokia unwraps Factory in a Box 2.0; UK operators investigate mast-sharing.

LR Teams With SCTE on Webinar Series In close partnership with SCTE|ISBE, Light Reading will host and produce 'Live Learnings for Professionals' seminars on cable tech topics each month, starting with a January 17 webcast on improving the home networking experience.

Why SCTE Is Plunging Into Patent Pool Seeking to expand its role in the cable tech sector, the industry training and standards group is now looking to patent new products in the energy management and system operations areas.

Jack Burton: Cable's 5G Network Opportunity Broadband Success Partners Principal Jack Burton says 5G represents a great opportunity for cable MSOs to work with 5G network operators and provide not only backhaul, but facilities -- real estate on poles, towers in headends and central offices. Cable's proximity to the customer could provide them a revenue source tied to 5G and edge computing, as well as a long-term hedge against obsolescence.

The Operational Challenges of 5G Heavy Reading senior analyst James Crawshaw talks about some of the challenges, such as power management, that will arise as 5G networks are deployed, and suggests that AI and analytics tools will be needed to help automate an increasing number of operational processes in a 5G world.

WiCipedia: Breaking Biases & Squashing Self-Limiting Fear This week in our WiC roundup: Chasing Grace premieres in Portland, Ore.; raising VC while pregnant; third-party salary audits; and more.

Leading Lights: Only Days Left to Enter! Never mind the days, there are only HOURS remaining before the door closes on this year's Leading Lights awards deadline...

Eurobites: Vodafone Uses 4G to Track Drones Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia targets the smart city; more 5G claims; BT sells cable-making business; new boss-in-waiting for Ireland's eir.

AT&T Makes Major 'Wind' Buy Network operator investing heavily in renewable energy joins other US corporations in wind-buying alliance.

T-Mobile Joins 100% Renewable Gang US mobile operator pledges to buy 100% of its electricity from wind farms by 2021.

IoT Specialist Wellness Telecom Banks Series A IoT, smart city and energy efficiency expert lands Series A investment round from India's Enzen Group.

Cable Virtualization Needs a Solid Framework You can't get there from here... without a framework.

MIMO in 5G Networks: Engineering & Test Challenges Going deep on how MIMO underpins the development of 5G.

How to Save Energy With DAA In a Light Reading webinar Thursday, industry experts will look at how cable operators can cut energy use by deploying distributed access architectures.

Leading Lights 2017 Finalists: Most Innovative New Cable Product or Service Benu Networks, Calix, Casa Systems, Exfo, Nokia and Verimatrix make this year's shortlist with standout cable products or services.

Altice USA Preps for Home Hub Rollout Speaking at NAB, Altice USA chief Dexter Goei discusses MSO's plans for deploying combination set-top, modem and router boxes in customer homes.

Cable Next-Gen: The 'Mile High' View From Denver Alan Breznick kicks off the Cable Next-Gen Technologies & Strategies event in Denver, casting his thousand-yard stare over cable's current competitive landscape.

Cable Nodes Becoming a Choke Point Some of the biggest cable companies are itching to perform essentially three upgrades at once, but the technology just isn't there. Yet.
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Podcast: The Fast-Moving World of SD-WAN Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser discusses the world of SD-WAN, why there are so many vendors and whether enterprise 'white glove' services are handled by butlers.

Podcast: ClearSky Data CEO Ellen Rubin Knows Where Your Data Is Ellen Rubin joins the Light Reading podcast to discuss edge computing and the new need for data management in more places as the world goes from static storage to mobile, multicloud madness.

Cisco to Buy Acacia for Pluggable Optical Goodness Cisco said it would buy Acacia and the components vendor's current optical transport customers need not worry. The move is seen as positive overall, but one analyst explained why Arista should probably be more concerned than ADVA.

Tech Specs Groups to US Commerce Dept: 'Give Us Clarity on Huawei' Twenty-six technical specs and standards bodies, including the Ethernet Alliance and the Broadband Forum, have written to the US Dept. of Commerce seeking clarity on whether they can still engage with Huawei whilst the 'Entity List' ruling is in place.

Intel Bolsters Data Center Portfolio With Barefoot Acquisition Nick McKeown does it again  his data center switching startup is snapped up by Intel.

Ciena Keeps Its Foot on the Gas in Q2 For its fiscal quarter ended April 30, Ciena showed more growth and some customer diversification, while continuing to add to its software portfolio.

Marvell Goes Shopping to Sweeten 5G Story A couple of years removed from its $6B deal to buy Cavium, Marvell suddenly agrees to buy two companies so far this month. There's still 11 days left in May, folks.

Eurobites: Openreach Seeks Feedback to Further Full-Fiber Plans Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Google makes it a hat-trick of EU mega-fines; data-mad customers drive Three UK's growth; Ericsson wins role in South Korean 5G bonanza.

Nvidia Buying Mellanox for $6.9B Intel and Xilinx had also been linked with bids for the Ethernet and InfiniBand switching components giant.

Optical M&A: OFC 2019 Is a Couples Retreat, Not a Singles Cruise More acquisition activity in the optical space is inevitable, but it might not happen for a while until some newly coupled companies get to know each other just a little bit more.

Masergy CEO: How We'll Get to $1BN James Parker steps in with a mandate to triple the company's managed services revenue, even as competition in the space grows.

ADVA Moves In on Small Cell Backhaul New tinier gateway is hardened for deployment on street furniture to provide backhaul for small cells, WiFi hotspots that will blossom with 5G densification, smart cities and more.

MEF CTO Sees Key Role in Automation Pascal Menezes says defining key APIs between carriers and setting SD-WAN standards is MEF's way of helping drive automation and digital transformation process.

Nan Chen Reveals Secret to MEF's Staying Power MEF President Nan Chen, also its founder, says the organization's staying power is based on an early decision to focus on defining services and not how they are transported.

Analyst: SD-WAN Not Yet Zero-Touch Zero-touch provisioning and plug-and-play are still buzzwords where SD-WAN is concerned, but not reality, says VSG's Erin Dunne.

AT&T: App Focus Driving Enterprises to Managed SD-WAN SD-WAN is changing the way customers think about networking, from just routing packets appropriately to looking at application flows, and determining the best approach for each application, says Roman Pacewicz, chief product officer for AT&T.

DT: Pan-Net Producing Multivendor Apps Almost four years into building its pan-European cloud, DT is 'very close' to finishing the infrastructure and is rolling out cloud-based multivendor apps.

AT&T's Goodell: MEF Moving Faster on API Solutions Josh Goodell, vice president of intelligent edge for AT&T, touts strong growth in SD-WAN deployment with 28,000 end points contracted thus far on a global basis.

MEF Executing on SD-WAN Specs, New APIs & Enterprise Council Organization kicks off its annual conference with three key announcements showing progress on multiple MEF 3.0 fronts.
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Profits up, 5G flat at China's largest telcos China Mobile and China Telecom post strong Q3 results but with little help from their huge 5G deployments.

The Notebook Dump: 800G milestones, AT&T adds fiber subs, and Netflix bucks streaming struggles The editors discuss subsea cable updates, Phil's takeaways from his recent tour of AT&T's central office, AT&T's fiber base, T-Mobile's FWA wins, and Netflix's banner Q3 results in this recap of the work week ended October 21.

Verizon crosses 1M fixed wireless access customers With both consumer and business customers included, Verizon added 342,000 fixed wireless access customers in the third quarter, extending its total to 1.06 million.

Thai regulator backs True-DTAC merger but sets conditions NBTC paves the way for mobile duopoly after approving contentious merger.

Eurobites: EU Court of Justice decision could mean it's curtains for consolidation Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Shetland suffers subsea cable cut; Telia weathers the storm; Turkcell deploys TIP tech.

Come on in, the open RAN water's (nearly) fine Light Reading's Open-RAN Digital Symposium finds that while open RAN is currently sub-scale, its growing fast.

AT&T's fiber sub base surpasses its 'non-fiber' base AT&T added 338,000 fiber subs in Q3 for a total of 6.93 million, nudging it past its 6.86 million 'non-fiber' subs. Meanwhile, CEO John Stankey is mum on a reported fiber JV in the works, but says he's 'open to new ideas.'

Nokia hails 5G growth but shares dip on uncertain outlook The Finnish equipment maker's mobile business looks reinvigorated, but smaller units struggled and economic worries persist.

Ciena and Altibox: Amsterdam bound with 800G Ciena CTO Jurgen Hatheier and Altibox Carrier CEO Svein Arild Ims join the podcast to discuss why the companies partnered on this 800G deployment, what it means for customers and how it sets up Norway as a data center hub.

Startup Hexvarium prepares to ride the fiber buildout wave Hexvarium helps fiber network operators, electricity utilities, local governments and others evaluate geographic market dynamics for telecom services. And the startup is working to develop a $500 million fund for the effort.

Global Cloud Xchange battles global latency with subsea connectivity Jim Fagan with Global Cloud Xchange joins the podcast to discuss new technologies for future-proofing subsea cables, and examines which regions are exhibiting the most growth in bandwidth demands.

Nokia network infrastructure boss on fiber rollout and the path to 100G Federico Guillen talks about his company's latest broadband platform and sounds confident a recession will not trigger a big drop in fiber investment among customers.

Slow start in France for private 3.8GH4GHz spectrum Since regulator Arcep opened up 3.8GH4GHz frequencies for 5G 'experimentation' by different industry verticals in March, only 13 licenses have been awarded.

Eurobites: Nokia welcomes 'fiber-for-everything' world with new 25G platform Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Cevian slashes Vodafone stake; Neos Networks offers more than a connection; TalkTalk completes on SSE broadband deal.

Leading Lights 2022: The Finalists Light Reading is delighted to announce the dozens of finalists in the 24 categories that make up this year's Leading Lights Awards program.

An inside look at AT&T's 5G and fiber focus The company that once urged us to celebrate 'Batman Day' is again focused on being one of the world's leading network providers.

FiberLight CEO's vision extends beyond core connectivity Chris Rabii, a former exec with Cablevision Lightpath and Altice Business, explains how FiberLight aims to blend core connectivity more tightly with services and how the middle-mile could be its path into rural broadband funding projects.

Eurobites: BT granted extension on removal of core Huawei gear Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: O-RAN trial completes phase one; VEON boss looks toward Asia, Eurasia; Nokia boosts Qatar connectivity in time for World Cup madness.

Nord Stream attack throws spotlight on subsea cable security Even before the explosions, western governments were expressing alarm about cable network vulnerabilities.
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Infinera: Making Optical Interesting Again The vendor's new XR Optics technology could cut carrier opex and capex in service providers' metro networks. But can the company get everyone else to buy into coherent optical sub-carrier aggregation?

Google uses wireless to expand fiber in Austin Google plans to use both fiber and wireless technologies to deliver Internet services in Austin, a first for the company.

Podcast: The Fast-Moving World of SD-WAN Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser discusses the world of SD-WAN, why there are so many vendors and whether enterprise 'white glove' services are handled by butlers.

Altice USA Nearing Sale of Lightpath Stake  Report Potential deal with Stonepeak would involve a minority piece of fiber-fueled business services unit and value the Lightpath division at about $3 billion, Bloomberg says.

Podcast: ClearSky Data CEO Ellen Rubin Knows Where Your Data Is Ellen Rubin joins the Light Reading podcast to discuss edge computing and the new need for data management in more places as the world goes from static storage to mobile, multicloud madness.

Epsilon Revamps Its Back Office to Support Pivot to Enterprise Services International wholesale operator wants to play a bigger role with enterprise customers but adding services such as data center interconnect and SD-WAN requires additional operational and business support tools.

Cisco to Buy Acacia for Pluggable Optical Goodness Cisco said it would buy Acacia and the components vendor's current optical transport customers need not worry. The move is seen as positive overall, but one analyst explained why Arista should probably be more concerned than ADVA.

The Story Behind Verizon's 5G Secret Weapon Verizon is spending billions on fiber to support its wireless 5G push.

NTT Revamps to Form Single Giant Global Service Provider Japanese operator pulls together multiple units to form a single international ICT service provider with annual revenues of $11 billion.

Eurobites: BT Explores Sale of Spanish Unit Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: KPN boss to leave in September; Deutsche Telekom, SK Telecom form 5G joint venture; Glastonbury latest.

Ciena Keeps Its Foot on the Gas in Q2 For its fiscal quarter ended April 30, Ciena showed more growth and some customer diversification, while continuing to add to its software portfolio.

Eurobites: 'Sick' Day for EE as 5G Switch Is Flipped in UK Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia and Telecom Italia claim European data speed record; Brits' online angst; Colt calls on ADVA for Ethernet encryption.

CenturyLink Sharpens Up Its Ethernet Portfolio CenturyLink broadens its Ethernet service portfolio as it tidies up loose ends from its Level 3 acquisition.

Marvell Goes Shopping to Sweeten 5G Story A couple of years removed from its $6B deal to buy Cavium, Marvell suddenly agrees to buy two companies so far this month. There's still 11 days left in May, folks.

Altice USA Taps Goldman Sachs to Assess Lightpath Unit  Report Discussions involving fiber-powered business services division could lead to a sale or bringing on an investor, Reuters says.

Altice USA 'Reviewing' Future of Lightpath Unit CEO Dexter Goei says an internal review is underway for that asset, noting later that Lightpath has become 'less core to the overall business today.'

Altice USA Might Sell Lightpath Unit  Cowen & Co. Analyst firm says a deal for company's fiber-fueled business services unit could fetch as much as $4 billion, jolt stock.

Cato Networks Raises $55M, Dances on NFV's Grave Cato Networks, which bills itself as a 'cloud-native carrier,' scores $55 million funding for its vision of delivering on network agility, where traditional carriers have so far failed with their NFV efforts.

Eurobites: UKCloud Seeks to Make Hay From Post-Brexit Mayhem Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia's Nuage Networks powers sports data analysis; BT Global Services turns to SevOne; Helios enters South African market.
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John D'Ambrosia's Ethernet Wow Moments Dell's Chief Ethernet Evangelist John D'Ambrosia talks about the Ethernet wow moments that gained him a place in the Light Reading Hall of Fame.

TW Telecoms Adam Saenger at Ethernet & SDN Expo Saenger discusses tw telecom's innovation in the Ethernet space as both a service and distribution model.

The SDN/NFV Integration Challenge Can software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) be 'operationalized' in existing networks?

Leading Lights 2013 Winners Video Backstage at the Light Reading Leading Lights 2013 awards, the winners, and a Hall of Fame inductee, deliver their acceptance speeches.

Leading Lights Awards Winners Photo Call See who sported the biggest smile when this year's Leading Lights awards winners picked up their trophies at a gala dinner in New York.

SDN Will Shake Industrys Roots Heavy Reading analysts say software-defined networking (SDN) will have broad implications for the future of telecom players.

ESDN: A Telco Systems NID Is Part of Bigger Picture The small demarc device is one segment of a much bigger end-to-end strategy on Ethernet services.

Don't Believe the SDN Under-Hype The under-hyping of SDN could send a technology trend that was being viewed with some logic right over a hype cliff.

ESDN: Verizon Wants Fast, Cheap Small Cells Zayo Group exec suggests that Verizon's CTO wants small cells fast and cheap, but there's lots of figuring out to do on how to get there.

ESDN: Netsocket Goes Remote With SDN Netsocket aims to help distributed enterprises with their initial SDN forays at remote branch offices.

ESDN: OSS Implosion Oh, the humanity... or, in this case, the humans who operate today's legacy OSSs and are facing massive change and possible job loss.

Light Reading: The Movie The fall and rise of Stephen Saunders...

Leading Lights Soiree Snaps Much of the 2013 Leading Lights Awards dinner can be described only in pictures. Good thing we had a photographer on hand to capture the shenanigans.

What Does SDN Mean to You? We stopped a bunch of executives on the Ethernet & SDN Expo show floor and gave them 30 seconds to tell us what SDN means to them.

One Source Finds Its Voice One Source Networks chief marketing officer Gina Nomellini outlines her company's enterprise services expansion plans.

ESDN: RAD Rolls Out Distributed NFV Strategy Service assurance vendor stresses need for some virtualized functions to remain at the customer site and not be centralized.

Guavus Gets a New Top Dog Former NetApp EVP Manish Goel has joined the big-data company as CEO, so current CEO Anukool Lakhina can focus on innovation.

tw telecom Talks E-Access Mike Rouleau, senior vice president of tw telecom, discusses its aggressive E-Access rollout and ongoing plans for Ethernet expansion.

Leading Lights Happy Hour Meet the attendees, nominees, and party-goers who attended Light Reading's Leading Lights awards extravaganza on the eve of Ethernet & SDN Expo.
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Meet My Small Cell Small cells are rolling out in neighborhoods all over the US. I decided to go find mine.

Is It Finally Time for Free-Space Optics to Shine? Free space optics is currently being touted as a backhaul solution for 5G. But this isn't the first time it's been positioned as a backhaul savior.

CBRS Goes Live, as NTIA Considers Adjacent Spectrum for Commercial Use Verizon, Charter, Boingo and others alight on CBRS for wireless network densification, private networks and more.

NYC OKs 9 Providers to Expand 5G Coverage Deal will allow providers to install more 5G equipment on street lamps and traffic lights.

Utilities, Telcos in 5G Street Light Fight A battle is brewing between wireless carriers and utilities over whether 5G small cells can be installed on top of street lights. One problem? The street lights might fall over.

Eurobites: Russia's MTS Does TIP Run Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Keymile lands FTTB deal with Wobcom; BT Sport offers OTT monthly pass; KPN sells consulting arm; Deutsche Telekom nurtures 5G startups.

Ribbon Reels in ECI, Offloads CEO No wonder investors have panicked  Ribbon waves goodbye to its CEO as it announces an unexpected merger with transport network equipment specialist ECI Telecom. But why?

Parallel Wireless Dishes the Dirt on Tech Mahindra Independence of systems integrators thrust into the spotlight as Indian SI is accused of favoring Altiostar, in which it owns a stake, despite its claims to be 'vendor-agnostic.'

Axiata Calls On TIP to Fix Telco Cost Problem One of the developing world's biggest operators runs up data service losses in Malaysia and is looking to the Facebook-led initiative for help.

The Evolution of Mobile Backhaul, Edge Computing Heavy Reading principal analyst Gabriel Brown discusses the latest trends in backhaul connectivity to support 5G strategies and the emerging importance of edge computing to mobile operators.

Key Takeaways From 5G Transport & the Edge What were some of the key takeaways from Light Reading's 5G Transport & the Edge event in New York City? Two sober (just) editors chew the fat...

Mavenir opens radio R&D unit in Ericsson's backyard When the time came to open a new R&D facility focused on radio technology, the US software company could find no better place than Stockholm.

Tower Visionary Marc Ganzi on 5G, Small Cells & Edge Computing Marc Ganzi is described as a 'leading visionary and entrepreneur' in his company's biography, and given his recent investments its easy to see why. Here's what he has to say about hot topics like 5G, build to relocate, small cells and edge computing.

5G Transport & the Edge: From Scarcity to Standalone Light Reading's 5G Transport & the Edge event on October 10 in New York City will examine crucial aspects of constructing a 5G-capable network.

GSMA Seeks Way to Boost RAN Vendor Options The industry body is concerned at the small number of radio access network (RAN) system vendors and is looking at ways to address that scarcity, says executive.

Orange Issues Plea for Help With O-RAN Integration The test process and integration efforts associated with Open RAN deployments are overwhelming, so the industry needs to engage in collaborative, joint test schemes that cut out duplicated effort, says Orange exec. The good news is, China Mobile's on the case

AT&T, Verizon Inch Toward Open RAN AT&T said it tested an eCPRI connection with equipment from Nokia and Samsung, while Verizon appears to have deployed Nokia's cloud RAN. The moves reflect growing operator interest in open RAN technologies.

Samsung Looks to Multivendor, 5G RAN Future Samsung is expecting O-RAN gear to arrive by 2020.

Decision Time in 5G Transport What's the best way forward for operators when it comes 5G transport networks?
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LR & SCTE Expand Partnership on Tech Webinars Following a successful inaugural year, Light Reading and SCTEISBE will team up again in 2020 to produce monthly 'LiveLearnings for Professionals' webinars on cable tech topics, starting with a Jan. 16 session on cable's fiber progress.

SD-WAN: It's Not Just for Scrooges Anymore SD-WAN has emerged as the essential glue connecting services running in the public cloud, as well as emerging 5G and Internet of Things applications.

What's Bright, Shiny & Not GEM? Cable operators are expanding their business services reach well beyond the traditional government, education and medical sectors to take in verticals like hospitality, agribusiness and even e-gaming.

True or False With Dan Jones Light Reading Mobile Editor Dan Jones stakes his job and reputation on answering tricky questions about the cable and mobile industries.

Exploring Cable's 5G & CBRS Prospects Light Reading Mobile Editor Dan Jones shares nuggets about 5G and CBRS from our Cable Next-Gen Business Strategies event in New York.

How an FTTP Startup Makes SMB Gains in NY Stealth Communications President and CEO Shrihari Pandit explains how the small FTTP player is wiring commercial districts outside the downtown and midtown Manhattan core for gigabit service.

Starry eyes commercial market Starry Internet COO Alex Moulle-Berteaux discusses the fixed-wireless player's ambitious expansion strategy with 5G, including plans to pursue small business owners and people who work from their homes.

Making Virtual Business Services Real Charter Spectrum Enterprise's Satya Parimi discusses the cableco's rollout of SD-WAN and virtualized security services, the lessons learned and the challenges still ahead.

How will cable business services keep growing? With the commercial services engine clearly slowing down, where will cable operators turn for new growth as new technologies like SD-WAN and 5G emerge?

Comcast Business invades Canada Comcast's business services unit teams with iTel Networks to serve Canadian branch locations for the MSO's big, US-based enterprise-level customers.

Charter Hopes to Hit Business Services Bullseye With Bill Archer Hire Exec late of Ireland's eir Group and AT&T named EVP and president of Spectrum Enterprise, succeeding the retiring Phil Meeks.

Comcast's New X1 TV Navigation App Means Business Following the recent launch of X1 tailored for SMBs, Comcast Business debuts version of a TV app that enables bar and restaurant owners to control up to 16 TVs.

Charter Unloads Navisite Unit RDX to acquire the managed cloud services company that Time Warner Cable acquired in 2011 for $230 million.

Altice USA Nearing Sale of Lightpath Stake  Report Potential deal with Stonepeak would involve a minority piece of fiber-fueled business services unit and value the Lightpath division at about $3 billion, Bloomberg says.

Fiber, 5G or Cable? The Battle for the Enterprise Branch Office Fresh survey results show that the distributed enterprise market is up for grabs as cable operators, traditional telcos and wireless providers vie for advantage.

Altice USA 'Reviewing' Future of Lightpath Unit CEO Dexter Goei says an internal review is underway for that asset, noting later that Lightpath has become 'less core to the overall business today.'

SMB Mobility: Cable's Next Big Chance? In this video interview, Independence Research's Matt Davis examines the potential for cable operators to deliver mobile services to small-to-midsized businesses.

Vertical Systems: SD-WAN Not Profitable Yet In this video interview, Vertical Systems' Erin Dunne dissects the emerging SD-WAN market and explains why service providers aren't making much money from it yet.

Spectrum Enterprise: Virtualized Services Virtually Here In this video interview, Charter Spectrum Enterprise's Gunnar Peters talks about the MSO's efforts to build an SDN/NFV framework for delivering virtualized services to commercial customers.
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Atlanta Wraps Up RFIs for Fiber, Wireless RFI submissions for new municipal projects in Atlanta are due on December 22.

US Ignite Sets Stage for Smart Cities From its Smart Gigabit Communities initiative to the new Advanced Wireless Consortium, US Ignite is in all the right places to make smart city dreams come true.

Even in Gigabit Era, Access Fiber Choices Vary A long-term solution looms in NG-PON 2, but network operators must still make market-by-market tough decisions on their biggest capex spends.

Why We're Working With NCTC Light Reading and NCTC are teaming up to create and market webinars, video interviews and other multimedia content for smaller and independent cable operators.

AT&T's Big Plans for G.fast Eddy Barker, assistant VP of technical design & architecture for AT&T, outlines his company's intent to use new G.fast standard as well as next-gen PON to deliver gigabit service.

Going Gig Over Fiber & HFC Matt Hayes, executive director of access engineering for Cox Communications, outlines Cox's plans to use both GPON over fiber and DOCSIS 3.1 over HFC to deliver 1-Gig speeds.

Fiber to the Beach House? MCNC President & CEO Jean Davis explains her group's quest to wire all of North Carolina with dark fiber for gigabit service, especially the state's rural and outlying areas.

Gigi Sohn Lays Out FCC Agenda Gigi Sohn, counselor to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, outlines the Commission's priorities for the next ten months and talks about the interplay between public and private broadband investment at Gigabit Cities Live in Charlotte, N.C.

Charlotte Not Resting on Its Gigabit Laurels The city of Charlotte, N.C., is in the enviable position of having both AT&T and Google Fiber competing to provide gigabit services to residents in the region. CIO Jeff Stovall talks about the benefits of gigabit broadband, but also what else is needed to make sure gigabit services deliver economic and social benefit.

Gigabites: EPB Plans for 100-Gig Your Gigabit Cities Live edition of Gigabites.

Gigabit Net Builders Share Lessons Learned North Carolina has become a hub of gigabit activity, and Gigabit Cities brought many of those players, plus the EPB, together to share insights.

Google: Gigabit Hopefuls Need to Do Homework Cities must prepare for gigabit fiber construction by digitizing their records and gearing up permitting and other processes.

Charlotte CIO: It's Not Just the Gig Network Jeff Stoval says the network is part of a broader ecosystem that includes other IT piece parts but also education and training of the work force.

AT&T GigaPower Ready to RSVP AT&T has criteria for choosing its GigaPower cities, including public policies and local demand, but invitations to serve are always welcome.

Sohn: Wheeler's FCC Not Slowing Down Top advisor to the chairman says priorities for final ten months include preparing for 5G, expanding digital inclusion efforts and opening set-tops.

US Embraces Gigabit, Still Averages 14 Megs Mari Silbey, Light Reading cable editor, kicks off the Gigabit Cities event by reminding folks the US still lags in average broadband speeds.

AT&T Explores G.fast for MDUs In this first part of a new sponsored blog series, AT&T's Bill Smith explains how AT&T hopes to complement its GPON-powered GigaPower rollout with additional technologies, such as G.fast.

Gigabit Cities: All You Need to Know Everything you ever wanted to know about Gigabit Cities at our Gigabit Cities Live event on April 5.

Gigabites: In TV, 15 Google Fibers Make One Mediacom Google Fiber is good for a gigabit, but its video subscriber numbers are anything but impressive.
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What the Broadband Forum Did Next The Broadband Forum is adapting its focus to account for the impact that virtualization and programmable networking will have on access network topologies and operator business plans.

Broadband Forum Embraces SDN & NFV At Gigabit Europe 2015, Robin Mersh and Kevin Foster from the Broadband Forum explain how the industry body is adapting to meet the SDN, NFV and cloud needs of the access network sector.

Top Tips for FTTH Operators At Gigabit Europe 2015, Ventura Team co-founder Richard Jones talks about some of the key business case considerations for FTTH network operators.

M-net Calls for FTTx Unity At the Gigabit Europe event, Jorn Schoof from M-net, the Munich city network operator, calls for industry collaboration on fiber broadband access rollouts.

JT Offers Some Gigabit Lessons Barna Kutvolgyi, managing director, Global Consumer, at JT, the incumbent operator on the island of Jersey, talks about how other service providers can learn from his company's gigabit broadband rollout experiences.

Network Security in a Gigabit World Masergy's James Harrison talks about some of the network security and data center issues network operators need to consider as they expand their broadband services portfolios.

Gigabit Europe Takeaways Participants from the inaugural Gigabit Europe event in Munich share their key takeaways from the conference.

BT Updates on G.fast Plans Peter Bell, CIO at Openreach, the access network division at UK incumbent BT, provides an update on the operator's G.fast trials and how Openreach is planning to deploy the broadband technology in its street cabinets.

Will Google Start a Euro Gigabit Gold Rush? Some in the broadband industry expect Google to make a gigabit move in Europe  it would be a much-needed catalyst.

CityFibre's Gigabit Vision Mark Collins, director of Strategy & Public Affairs at competitive UK city network operator CityFibre, talks about his company's plans to help build Gigabit Cities.

EE to Pilot 1Gbit/s 4G Service The UK's mobile giant has unveiled plans for a pilot of 1Gbit/s 4G services but says it is not looking to compete against fixed-line broadband players.

Gigabit Europe in Pics Beer, broadband and supersized snacks: Photos from Light Reading's first Gigabit Europe event and Oktoberfest

Gigabit Europe: Day 1 Takeaways Light Reading's Ray Le Maistre and Iain Morris sup a beer and discuss some of the key takeaways from the first day of Gigabit Europe 2015.

BT Gets G.fast Confidence Boost From Trials The UK's fixed-line incumbent has lauded the early results of G.fast trials in the UK and believes the technology's potential is growing.

Gigabit in Europe At the Gigabit Europe 2015 event in Munich, Heavy Reading's Graham Finnie talks about the availability of gigabit broadband in Europe.

UK Needs Fiber Infrastructure Rivalry  CityFibre CityFibre strategy chief Mark Collins says the UK risks being left behind in the gigabit stakes without more infrastructure-based competition.

Gigabit Broadband 'Fragmented' in Europe Gigabit broadband services do exist in Europe, but it's a fragmented market currently, according to Heavy Reading analyst Graham Finnie.

BT Outlines Conditional Gigabit Vision for UK UK's fixed-line incumbent is working to meet some bold new targets, provided regulatory authorities do not carve it up.
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Alaska's Rakuten Preps for 4G Launch Japan's Rakuten isn't the only operator in the world building a new, greenfield wireless network with an open, software-powered architecture: OptimERA is working to do the same in a tiny part of Alaska.

What to Expect From Altice Mobile Analysts expect Altice USA to collect 1.7 million mobile customers by 2023, and pay Sprint around $2.50 for each GB those customers consume.

5G Was Rushed to Market  It Shows The global wireless industry rushed a barebones version of the 5G standard out the door so it could get to market more quickly. Today's 5G certainly reflects that haste.

Verizon: Fully Virtualized 5G Core to Launch in 1 to 2 Years Verizon currently uses a 4G LTE IMS core from Nokia for its 5G offerings. But in the next 1 to 2 years, the operator has said it will shift to a standalone, fully virtualized 5G core for its 5G services.

AT&T & Verizon's Battle Over Public Safety Spills Into 5G The public safety market  totaling up to 20 million potential customers  is the setting for an increasingly heated battle between AT&T and Verizon. And 5G looks to be the latest weapon that Verizon plans to wield.

MWC19: A soft embrace for the public cloud The big noise in Barcelona was, of course, anything and everything to do with 5G, but in the background there were signs that some companies are embracing the potential of the public cloud as they determine their next-generation technology and services strategies.

Dish Network Aspires to Be America's Rakuten in 5G Despite analyst skepticism, Dish executives continue to argue that the company will be able to make a splash with a new, nationwide 5G network. And Japan's Rakuten appears to offer some evidence to support those claims.

Mavenir's Billion-Dollar Blueprint Ambitious software-only messaging and mobile core applications specialist targets major equipment vendors as it aims to become a billion-dollar business within four years.

Metaswitch VP Talks IMS & Career Refreshes Service providers are refreshing their IMS and looking for real cloud native IMS functions, according to Micaela Giuhat, Metaswitch's VP of product management, Cloud Native Core, who shares her thoughts on everything from container-based approach to VNFs to her experiences and advice as a leading woman in comms.

Leading Lights: Only Days Left to Enter! Never mind the days, there are only HOURS remaining before the door closes on this year's Leading Lights awards deadline...

Verizon Puts UC in Its Wireless Network New One Talk capabilities target midsized and multi-site businesses with collaboration tools built right into the Verizon Wireless network.

5G Pushes Carriers Toward Cloud-Native NFV Mobile edge computing (MEC) and a cloud-native core are necessary ingredients for the future 5G NFV network, argues Ian Maclean of Metaswitch.

Sprint Builds Out Virtualization Plans COO says operator is building towards 5G, adds Metaswitch and Mavenir as virtualization vendors.

Will Messaging Market Leave Telecom Behind? Chatbot and messaging platform entrepreneur warns that telecom network operators are about to be left behind if they don't move quickly on RCS.

IMS: The Faithful Bedfellow of MNOs Everywhere IMS hit the top of its hype curve a long time ago and now it's delivering on its promises  but it still needs sophisticated test tools to keep it honest.

OrbTV: EE Talks Emergency Services & 5G Tom Bennett, director of network services and devices for EE, talks to Ray Le Maistre, Light Reading's editor-in-chief, about the service provider's approach to emergency services and the move to 5G.

Oracle, Tech Mahindra Deliver VoLTE-aaS Turnkey managed services offering claims to get wireless network operators into the VoLTE business in three to six months.

Metaswitch Eyes VoLTE With OpenCloud Buy Combined company will have pure software VoLTE solution with platform for developing new services including mobile UC.

ZTE Scores NFV Deal at Telefonica Chinese vendor gets chance to prove its worth with a virtual IMS deployment that will cover seven markets in Latin America.
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Infinera: Making Optical Interesting Again The vendor's new XR Optics technology could cut carrier opex and capex in service providers' metro networks. But can the company get everyone else to buy into coherent optical sub-carrier aggregation?

ECOC 2019 Preview: Beware of the Irish Goodbye The optical networking industry has seen its fair share of customers show up to the party and then leave without warning. One analyst ponders what's going to be different in the next 12 months.

Podcast: The Fast-Moving World of SD-WAN Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser discusses the world of SD-WAN, why there are so many vendors and whether enterprise 'white glove' services are handled by butlers.

Podcast: ClearSky Data CEO Ellen Rubin Knows Where Your Data Is Ellen Rubin joins the Light Reading podcast to discuss edge computing and the new need for data management in more places as the world goes from static storage to mobile, multicloud madness.

Cisco Looks to Acacia for Optics & Flexibility Acacia's pluggable optics help Cisco's routing business stay competitive and make its customer networks easier to operate, according to the head of Cisco's optical business.

Cisco to Buy Acacia for Pluggable Optical Goodness Cisco said it would buy Acacia and the components vendor's current optical transport customers need not worry. The move is seen as positive overall, but one analyst explained why Arista should probably be more concerned than ADVA.

Podcast: Parsing Data & Sharing Poles in Smart Cities US Ignite's Mari Silbey provides commentary on a few topics related to smart cities, including how research universities are helping cities slice up IoT and sensor data into bite-sized morsels.

Protecting Enterprises From State-Sponsored Hackers Cloud service providers and network operators have the scale and talent to help protect enterprises from state-sponsored hacking attempts.

Cybereason details operation soft cell: A telco security disaster Security firm reveals an ongoing global attack against telecommunications providers that has been active since at least 2017 and involves a group believed to be working on behalf of the Chinese government.

Cybersecurity Expert Sees Opportunity in Internet Growth, Consolidation The way to defend against DDoS and other attacks is changing, says Nokia's Craig Labovitz. That's because the Internet is getting bigger and smaller at the same time.

Huawei Slaps Verizon With $1B+ Patents Bill  Reports Chinese vendor ups the ante in battle with the US by reportedly demanding more than $1 billion in patent payments from the US carrier for the use of technology it has in its networks, reports the Wall Street Journal.

5G Potential Is All in the Timing The move to 5G will also disrupt carriers' timing systems as 5G's timing and clock synchronization requirements are much more strict.

Nokia Suffers 5G Blues in Q1, Stock Slumps When the CEO and CFO say the quarter was 'weak,' you know it was bad: investors agreed.

Arista Promises New 400G Switches for These Cloudy Times Before the end of this year, Arista said it will be shipping at least one new 400G switch aimed at helping cloud and data center providers handle the growth and sheer number of enterprise workloads.

The New Infinera Is Already on Edge Infinera closed its acquisition of Coriant today, creating one of the world's largest optical networking providers with 600 customers around the world. But talk of a major account challenge mounted by Ciena sent the company's stock tumbling more than 15%.

Upgrades & Upheaval at the Service Provider Edge Cisco announces a stronger, better, faster version of its edge routing platform, the ASR 9000 series and, in doing so, reminds us that there's a lot at stake with the arrival of 5G networks.

Cogent CEO Dave Schaeffer: The World on a Fiber One way to look at how much the industry is changing is to spend some time with an executive  and a company  that has stuck to the same formula and industry view for almost 20 years.

Dumb Networks, Not Just Dumb Pipes The CEO of one of the largest ISPs in the world isn't so keen to use artificial intelligence to manage its network. He just doesn't need it.

Infinera, Coriant Hear a $430M Siren Song of Synergy Infinera has offered to acquire Coriant for $430 million in cash and stock but the deal is truly complementary, not just a cost-cutting exercise, both companies say.
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Finnish Startup Goes Underground to Measure Soil Conditions Finnish agricultural IoT startup Soil Scout works with DT on underground sensors, grabs an undisclosed round of funding.

Verizon & NEC Pioneer Traffic Sensing on Existing Fiber Verizon says it could deploy the smart city traffic monitoring system nationwide in the future.

Eurobites: Openreach Looks Further Down the Fiber Road Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone UK shares 4G spectrum to help bridge rural connectivity divide; Finnish president endures face-time with Trump to thrash out 5G options; smart lighting gets a bit smarter.

Amazon: From the Sensor to the Sidewalk Amazon readies its low-power protocol Sidewalk for long-term IoT and smart home projects.

Amazon Intros 'Sidewalk' Protocol for Low-Power IoT Networks Amazon is building a wireless dog tracker as a reference implementation of the protocol.

Sprint, Peachtree Corners Et Al to Launch 5G IoT Lab in Georgia Curiosity Labs relies on 5G for low-latency connectivity for automated vehicles, drones and more.

Sigfox Partners With Alps Alpine for IoT Components The partners will build IoT devices like luggage-tracking 'bubbles' and roll cages fitted with trackers.

What Might the Demand Be for 5G in Manufacturing? Industrial IoT is often cited as a demand driver for 5G, but, asks William Webb, will many companies actually need 5G to meet their needs?

Wi-Charge Readies Infrared Wireless Power System for IoT Devices Wi-Charge preps a wireless power system for IoT devices.

CenturyLink Drops 'Several Hundred Million' Dollars on Edge CenturyLink is building out more than 100 initial edge compute locations across the US and providing hybrid cloud and managed services.

Powercast's Power-Over-Air System Takes Off Powercast recieves FCC approval for retail applications for its wireless power transmission system for IoT and more.

Eurobites: Ireland's Cubic gets 23.5M funding boost Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: CityFibre takes fiber gig into 14 more cities; Millicom boosted by M&A; Hungary kicks off 5G auction process; Qualcomm fined.

NB-IoT Gains Early Commercial Traction in the US Early NB-IoT services from T-Mobile, and more action from AT&T and Verizon as narrowband IoT starts its initial growth in the US.

Eurobites: S&P Puts Vodafone on Creditwatch Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Tele2's earnings up 3% in Q2; Openet goes cloud-native for 5G; Inmarsat takeover comes under scrutiny.

NB-IoT: Where Trash Can Become Treasure Sensoneo is deploying its trash management system in parts of the US with T-Mobile's NB-IoT.

Helium Starts Selling IoT Hotspots in US Helium launches its P2P IoT hotspot, grabs another $15M in funding, aims to start a non-telco, low-bandwidth network in the US and beyond.

AT&T Signs European LTE-M Roaming Deal AT&T inks a European LTE-M roaming deal for IoT with KPN, Orange & Swisscom.

Scenes From Sprint's Big 5G Launch Hey, did Sprint just become the first US carrier to offer true mobile 5G?

Big 5G Event Keynote: Sprint's Mishka Dehghan Mishka Dehghan is vice president of 5G development for Sprint Business, and she talked about the future that we can enable with 5G at the Big 5G Event in Denver on May 8, 2019.
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Eurobites: Openreach Talks Up the Fiber Effect Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: BT launches 5G service; Amsterdam Internet Exchange upgrades with Pluribus; Ericsson helps fight diabetes in the UAE.

What Might the Demand Be for 5G in Manufacturing? Industrial IoT is often cited as a demand driver for 5G, but, asks William Webb, will many companies actually need 5G to meet their needs?

NB-IoT Gains Early Commercial Traction in the US Early NB-IoT services from T-Mobile, and more action from AT&T and Verizon as narrowband IoT starts its initial growth in the US.

NB-IoT: Where Trash Can Become Treasure Sensoneo is deploying its trash management system in parts of the US with T-Mobile's NB-IoT.

Eurobites: Orange, Proximus Agree to Network Sharing in Belgium Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: SWAN, ZTE claim 5G first in Slovakia; Sparkle moves African hub; France Telecom suicides trial reaches conclusion.

AT&T Signs European LTE-M Roaming Deal AT&T inks a European LTE-M roaming deal for IoT with KPN, Orange & Swisscom.

Scenes From Sprint's Big 5G Launch Hey, did Sprint just become the first US carrier to offer true mobile 5G?

AT&T's Phillips: Career Sponsorship Goes Both Ways Shay Phillips encourages her peers to identify a career sponsor, an advocate who provides workplace advice and challenges colleagues.

Verizon Launches Near-Nationwide NB-IoT Network Verizon finally gets on the nationwide NB-IoT trail.

Sprint Eyes IoT Uses as 5G Launch Approaches Ahead of its 5G launch, Sprint's Mishka Dehghan discussed the carrier's Curiosity IoT platform and highlights smart city applications that will take advantage of 5G's technical capabilities.

5G Completely Absent From Tesla's Big Autonomous Driving Event Tesla's Elon Musk made some aggressive promises around autonomous driving during the company's 'Autonomy Day' event. Conspicuously absent though was any mention of 5G.

VMware Takes IoT Management to the Cloud VMware Pulse IoT Center provides edge infrastructure and lifecycle management, and partners can get in on the action later this year.

Putting a Sigfox in Canada's IoT Henhouse Sigfox technology is due to arrive in the Canadian market, and the boss of the local business is confident that low prices and small share of the market will translate into big profits.

AT&T's Pacewicz: 'We See the Cloud Fragmenting Again' AT&T Business Chief Product Officer Roman Pacewicz describes how edge computing, 5G and network virtualization are required for next-generation applications that can deliver new business opportunities for the operator.

Orange Exec on IoT's Key Verticals On the show floor at Mobile World Congress 2019, Emmanuel Routier from Orange Business Services talks about the key verticals for IoT application developments.

Hands off our 5G spectrum  Vodafone's message for verticals Vodafone's chief engineer slams proposals in several countries to reserve spectrum for industrial use.

Eurobites: Ericsson Makes 5G Hay in Middle East Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telenor runs 5G trials in Denmark with Nokia; Deutsche Telekom cozies up to SK Telecom; Orange joins ULE Alliance; Tele2 lands M2M gig with energy firm.

Nearly 12% of Global Mobile Data to Ride 5G Networks by 2022  Cisco Study 5G will also represent about 3.4% of global connections by 2022 as 4G continues to dominate but begins to taper off as 5G activity picks up.

MWC 2019: Ovum's Key IoT Trends As the IoT market shifts further from proofs of concept to real deployments, Ovum's IoT expert Alexandra Rehak talks about the key IoT trends, such as new business models and data management, that she'll be discussing in Barcelona.
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Startup Wants to Help ISPs Turn Smart Home Customer Care Into a Profit Center Fresh off a $9 million funding round, Sweepr aims to help its ISP partners offer customer care as a service to makers of smart home devices and appliances.

Ericsson lifts outlook as it targets a bigger role in China Swedish equipment vendor expects 2020 sales to be at least 9% higher than last year's figure and has also raised guidance for profitability.

Startup Celona Targets Private LTE & 5G for Enterprise Celona, a startup stemming from CommScope's purchase of Ruckus, is targeting the market for enterprises building their own private 5G and LTE wireless networks, eschewing WiFi.

NTT's Mega-Merger, Brand-Cutting Plan for Another $4B in Sales Japan's NTT is uniting 28 enterprise-focused brands in its bid to grow at twice the market rate and deliver a boost to profitability.

Comcast's Virtual Access Network Rolls Into Multiple Markets, Spans 100K+ Customers Top Comcast execs discuss the benefits and capabilities of the company's new virtual access network and how Comcast is applying lessons from its cloud-based X1 platform.

Former Comcast Exec Named CTO of MediaKind Allen Broome comes on board as the video software company explores the development of a virtualized, software-as-a-service model for the OTT and pay-TV service provider market.

At Vonage, It's Not Just About Technology Sanjay Srinivasan, Vonage VP and chief architect, talks with Light Reading's Mitch Wagner about the company's VoIP strategy and explains why SD-WAN is important to Vonage.

Spectrum Enterprise's Gunnar Peters Looks Ahead Gunnar Peters from Spectrum Enterprise discusses how the company listens to customers and decides what services to offer next.

Charter Envisions a Fixed Wireless Triple-Play With CBRS Charter's Craig Cowden expands on the MSO's interests and intentions involving the CBRS band and provides updates on the company's recent set of fixed wireless, mobile-facing 'dual-SIM' market trials.

Net Neutrality Is Dead Yet Again States still have the option of enacting their own net neutrality regulations following today's DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding the FCC rollback of net neutrality rules.

Podcast: Where 5G May Be in 5 Years Ovum Chief Analyst Ed Barton talks to Light Reading's Ray Le Maistre about the services and opportunities 5G unlocks for consumers  and what new capabilities are just around the corner.

When will cable need 10G? No one knows exactly for sure, but one top industry network engineer believes cable operators will need access network capacities of 'at least' 10 Gbit/s by 2035.

China Tower Moves Into Surveillance Business Facing none of the privacy constraints that affect Western firms, China's towers company is diversifying into surveillance.

Looking Back: Comcast's Breakthrough X1 Video Service Turns 10 Whispers about Comcast's next-video platform began to spread a decade ago at Cable-Tec Expo in Denver. Here's a look back at its journey from a secretive project originally called 'Excalibur' to a widely deployed product under the X1 banner.

SCTE-ISBE's Mark Dzuban: '10G' Set to Be the Star of Cable-Tec Expo CEO of cable's engineering and standards-setting organization says 10G will be 'foundational' to the industry's future and a major focus as Cable-Tec Expo has its Swan Song in The Big Easy.

SD-WAN Shines in a Dark Enterprise Market As the enterprise market stagnates for telcos, SD-WAN promises revenue growth.

Comcast restores remote DVR recording function after TiVo patents expire TiVo counters expiration of two patents have 'no impact' on the company's licensing deals and reinstatement of feature is 'implicit admission' of value of TiVo's tech.

Aryaka Learns to Love SD-WAN Over the Public Internet Aryaka launches SD-WAN service over the public Internet for cases where 'best effort' is good enough for enterprise connectivity, complementing its existing global, private network that offers guaranteed SLAs.

LR Tackles 5G & the Cloud at Cable-Tec Expo In an industry first, Light Reading will stage two breakfast forums on hot tech topics at next week's Cable-Tec Expo in New Orleans, the first on cable network virtualization and the second on cable's role in 5G.
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Eurobites: Vodafone Faces Legal Challenge Over 4G Emergency Calls Patent Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefonica Deutschland's revenues rise but losses widen in Q2; Bango expands its OTT partnerships; dearth of sexy stuff in dragon movie.

Light Reading Hall of Fame 2019 We've added four names to the Hall of Fame this year. Find out who they are...

Leading Lights 2019 Finalists: Most Innovative Blockchain for Telecoms Strategy Colt, Filament, Mobileum and Synchronoss Technologies all submitted standout entries for most innovative blockchain for telecoms strategy in this year's Leading Lights contest.

AT&T Promotes Its 3 Pillars for Business 5G Mobile 5G, edge computing and fixed wireless are the special sauce for business 5G right now, according to AT&T.

Eurobites: Now Germany Gets the Huawei Heebie-Jeebies Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: OTE sells stake in Telekom Albania; Orange cuts ribbon on Guiana-Martinique link; WorldRemit sets up shop in South Africa.

Eurobites: O2 Launches Massive MIMO Trials in London Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone tracks drones; TIM's spin-off puts 20,000 jobs at risk, says trade union official; Orange and MTN join forces on mobile money.

Netsurion's SD-WAN Plays to MSPs Managed service provider developed its own combined connectivity-security solution that it's selling direct and to other MSPs.

MWCA 2018: Ericsson Booth Tour Ericsson's Keith Shank gives us a quick tour of the vendor's sprawling stand at Mobile World Congress Americas, including a look at new medical device applications, city infrastructure and a holographic 'phone' call.

Eurobites: M&A Rumor Links ADVA With ECI Also in today's regional roundup: Gigabit broadband battle in Poland; Russians mull non-domestic Internet company tax; Dutch payment venfor on the tear; IBM's coffee drone.

The World of Disney: StudioLAB Innovation, Cisco Collaboration & 5G Anticipation With technology partners and an eye toward 5G networks, the StudioLAB is helping Disney-owned content studios solve technical production problems and reach consumers in novel ways.

Netflix Is Growing, but Don't Ask by How Much Netflix missed its subscriber forecast, which spooked investors, but the company's execs insist that nothing about the business has really changed.

AT&T Buys AppNexus, Charts Ad Strategy Smarter advertising will leverage the telecom giant's content and wireless operators to 're-invent' how ads are done, says exec.

Leading Lights: Only Days Left to Enter! Never mind the days, there are only HOURS remaining before the door closes on this year's Leading Lights awards deadline...

Is Paid Prioritization the New Privacy? Internet users have grown used to being tracked online, but will they ever accept the fact that some applications need special treatment by ISPs?

Who Puts Mobile Biz at Risk? It's You & Me Verizon's first-ever Mobile Security Index shows global professionals managing mobile devices for businesses fear their employees the most.

AT&T Sharpens Edge With New Open Source Effort, Test Lab Launch Company announces new group within Linux Foundation and launches its edge computing test zone in Palo Alto.

Eurobites: Telia Takes Its Packet Core to the Cloud With Nokia Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Sigfox confirms what LR knew; TIM re-starts talks over Canal+ JV; Italy's Enter offers SD-WAN services.

#MobileOnly Movement Targets FCC's Broadband Plans Grassroots effort trying to combat proposed changes in definition of broadband to include slower cellular data service.

Cryptocurrency Startup Courts Telcos, Launches ICO Telcoin is hoping to raise funds from an initial coin offering as it seeks telco partners that will use its cryptocurrency as part of their mobile money services.
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Huawei Brushes Aside US Blacklist as It Boosts Sales 24% Chinese equipment giant posts dramatic growth in numbers despite US penalties.

India Opens 5G Door to Huawei at IMC Authorities have allowed the controversial Chinese vendor to participate in demos at an industry event, suggesting it may be allowed into the country's 5G market.

Europe Sounds Alarm About 'Single Supplier' 5G Deals Recent deals signed by the likes of Telia, Three and Telecom Italia are under an uncomfortable spotlight after the publication of a new report about 5G security.

Telia Norway goes all Ericsson on 5G and dumps Huawei The Norwegian operator will eventually have an all-Ericsson radio access network for all the different technologies, a senior executive tells Light Reading.

Vodafone CEO 'Fast Tracks' OpenRAN in Challenge to Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia One of the telecom's industry's top executives is backing trials of open RAN technology as a way of bringing more competition into the network market.

For Trump's Attack Dogs, There's No Stopping Huawei Most governments and operators have shown little inclination to heed US warnings about the consequences of using Chinese suppliers.

ETSI Tackles AI Security New specification group at ETSI is 'exceptionally important,' says industry analyst.

Meet ZenKey: Telcos' Doomed Single Sign-On Service ZenKey is the new 'single sign-on' service from the nation's four big wireless network operators. If history is any indication, it won't last long.

Huawei's 5G Licensing Offer Is Pitched at US Companies, Says Founder The Chinese vendor would prefer a US company to buy its technology, says Ren Zhengfei, but has so far not had a US response.

US Takes Another Step Toward Ripping Huawei Equipment Out of Country Legislation in the House is now joining a similar push in the Senate to pay US operators to rip Huawei equipment out of their networks.

How to Shrink the Bill for Your Chinese Takeout Service providers forced or keen to replace Huawei in their 5G networks might now have several options for reducing the cost.

Telefonica's Blanco blackballs single-vendor 5G core The Spanish operator's top technology executive says the operator will definitely not be using a single vendor in its 5G core.

Made in China, by a Swedish Robot: Ericsson Gets Smart in Nanjing The Swedish telecom equipment maker has been automating one of its Chinese factories as part of an ongoing efficiency drive and overhaul of its global supply chain.

Huawei Eyes Sale of 5G Assets to Western Rival  Economist Chinese vendor is prepared to sell its 5G knowhow, says the company's founder in his latest interview.

Australia's TPG Had No 5G Plan. Does Anyone? The legal battle over a proposed merger between two operators shines a bad light on Australia's telecom market.

China Spices Things Up With 2-Become-1 5G Plan Two of China's operators will come together to build a single 5G network that could be a game changer for the global industry.

Trump is losing the European war against Huawei US efforts to have the controversial Chinese vendor banned from Europe's 5G networks are failing.

Australia's Huawei Ban Is Hurting TPG & 5G A decision to exclude Chinese vendors from the 5G market on grounds of security has taken a heavy toll on TPG and could put Australian 5G at risk.

Deutsche Telekom finally gets to launch 5G The German operator has been given the spectrum it needs to provide 5G services three months after the country's 5G auction wrapped up.
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T-Mobile Flips Colorado in Pursuit of Sprint Merger After receiving new promises from both Dish Network and T-Mobile, Colorado joined Mississippi in reversing its position and supporting the proposed merger of Sprint and T-Mobile.

Verizon Relaunches Fixed Wireless Service With 5G NR, DIY Installs Verizon turns to self installations and the 5G NR specification for its refreshed 5G Home fixed wireless Internet service.

China Operators Brace for Portability Will the introduction of mobile number portability threaten China Mobile's dominant position?

Eurobites: Ericsson Adds Brain-Power to Its RAN Technology Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: VEON trials 5G in Kazakhstan; T-Systems launches private cloud trial with VMware; Openet and Evergent combine on BSS.

EdgePresence Joins Rush to Build Mini Data Centers for Tower Companies EdgePresence is joining a number of other data center providers in looking to build mini data centers in locations around the country.

Dish Network Seeks Companies to Build Its 5G Network Dish Network plans to release its third RFP for its planned 5G network, this one focusing on the physical work that will be required to install its antennas on top of cell towers.

India's RJio Is Still Adding 10M Customers a Month The Indian operator continues to record dramatic increases in subscriber numbers, but customers are spending less.

Crown Castle: No Plans for Edge Data Centers Crown Castle's CEO said he doesn't see edge computing data centers 'playing a significant role in our long-term strategy.' Crown Castle's main rivals, American Tower and SBA Communications, are taking a different path.

T-Mobile strikes exclusive mobile video pact with Katzenberg's Quibi Deal arrives ahead of Quibi's launch next spring, and adds a new wrinkle to T-Mobile's video game plan.

Verizon to Acquire More AWS-3, mmWave Spectrum Verizon is looking to purchase a number of spectrum licenses across the AWS-3 and mmWave bands, moves that show the operator continues to look for more spectrum holdings.

Singapore Sets Aggressive Standalone Target as It Launches 5G Race Singapore is pressing ahead with its rollout of 5G technology based on the newer, standalone variant.

US 5G Industry to Investigate Supply Chain Security The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions is probing how to shore up security for the supply chain for 5G, action that arrives amid concerns over Chinese suppliers like Huawei and ZTE.

Chickens & Eggs Frustrate Operators' Quest for 5G Revenues Yes, wireless operators in the US and elsewhere are building 5G networks. But how exactly they're going to make money from those networks remains a bit unclear.

CBRS Vendors Finance Private LTE Networks to Prove Use Cases Two 3.5GHz CBRS equipment vendors, Connectivity Wireless and JMA Wireless, installed a private LTE network in the Angel Stadium ballpark in Anaheim, Calif., with the goal of showing how it might improve operations at the venue.

Ericsson lifts outlook as it targets a bigger role in China Swedish equipment vendor expects 2020 sales to be at least 9% higher than last year's figure and has also raised guidance for profitability.

Forget 5G, Soon Skynet Will Rule Our Airwaves If you like cage matches, AI-powered killer robots and 1980s sci-fi movies, you'll love the Spectrum Collaboration Challenge from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Juniper CTO Talks About the Company's 5G Aspirations Juniper's CTO hails from Google, and is now working to steer the vendor through topics ranging from 5G to edge computing.

M&A Creeps Up on Edge Computing Players While edge computing in the mobile and 5G space remains a nascent area, companies such as Intel, EQT, SBA and EdgeConneX are all linked to deals or merger-and-acquisition chatter in this burgeoning sector.

Huawei Brushes Aside US Blacklist as It Boosts Sales 24% Chinese equipment giant posts dramatic growth in numbers despite US penalties.
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The Telecoms.com Podcast: Coronavirus, Balkanization & Vodafone Jamie's gone to watch the rugby so it's down to Scott, Iain and super-sub Wei to tackle this week's big telecom topics.

South Korean Telcos Still Waiting for 5G Benefits KT and SKT have witnessed declines in profitability after pumping money into their new 5G businesses this year.

Ericsson's MWC Decision Will Likely Start Domino Effect As companies wait to see what others are doing before deciding whether to still attend MWC 2020, Ericsson's bold decision to withdraw looks like it will tip many towards following suit.

Local Officials Take on the Feds in Battle Over 5G Small Cells Dozens of cities and city representatives are challenging FCC regulations intended to speed up the rollout of small cells for 5G. They argue such rules are unfair to taxpayers.

WiCipedia: Women in Tech Turn to TikTok to Expose Industry This week in our WiC roundup: When women don't apply to jobs; the new social media scene spreading the tech word (for better or for worse); the skills women need to get hired; and more.

MWC at Risk as Ericsson Pulls Out on Coronavirus Concern Swedish equipment maker said it would not be able to ensure the health and safety of its employees and customers.

Eurobites: Trump Blows His Top at Boris Over Huawei  Report Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom tells Nokia to shape up; Orange to spend 1.5 billion on retraining exercise; Cellnex boosts coverage at Etihad Stadium.

Meet My Small Cell Small cells are rolling out in neighborhoods all over the US. I decided to go find mine.

Satellite Firms Unimpressed With Pai's $9.7B Pitch for C-Band Spectrum Several Canadian and European satellite companies aren't yet sure if they want to accept $9.7 billion to quickly free up valuable midband spectrum for 5G.

Attorney General Barr: The US, Allies Should Take Nokia or Ericsson Stake for 5G White House officials have reportedly discussed incentives for US private equity firms to buy stakes in Ericsson or Nokia for 5G. But there appears to be discord among Trump's appointees.

fuboTV takes flight with Viasat fuboTV is the first virtual MVPD to lock in a distribution deal for in-flight services and tap into new open caching specs developed by the Streaming Video Alliance.

Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Others Put $13M Into Blockchain Startup Clear The venture money for Israel-based startup Clear underscores not only the opportunity surrounding blockchain in the telecom space but also operators' interest in the technology.

KT's 5G Splurge Hits Profits in 2019 Results for 2019 show impact of South Korean telco's commitment to 5G, as the number of its 5G subscribers reaches 1.4 million.

MWC2020: All Roads Lead to Cloud Gaming George Jijiashvili, senior analyst at Omdia, explains why cloud gaming and esports will be hot topics in Barcelona.

Eurobites: EU Gets Its Claws Into Qualcomm (Again) Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange challenges boldly in Belgium; Swisscom's uphill struggle; Deutsche Telekom's love pants.

Nokia sees light at end of 5G tunnel The Finnish equipment maker hailed good progress on cost cutting and is slowly building up its stock of more profitable 5G products.

Huawei back in court with patent suit against Verizon The Chinese vendor has gone on the attack against Verizon, claiming the US service provider violated its intellectual property.

US Politicos Take 5G Bandwagon Down Dangerous Path We don't need no bifurcation

Amid Layoffs, Xilinx Warns of Pause in 5G Activities Xilinx sells chips for 5G basestations, and had grand ambitions for its sales in the space. But last week the company announced layoffs and a 'pause' in 5G buildouts.
Here's our C-Suite playlist  One place where you can find links to our most ...
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Say goodbye -- and maybe good riddance -- to MobileCON in San Jose, as the CTIA pins its hopes on a new uber-show in Las Vegas in 2014.
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US Won't Work With Countries That Use Huawei, Pompeo Warns US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says risk posed by use of Huawei in critical IT systems could cause US to curtail the colocation of American resources, including embassies and military outposts.

Amid Global Turmoil, Huawei Still Counts at Least One American Supporter While Huawei faces sales bans from carriers and governments worldwide, the company still counts at least one supporter: James Valley Telecommunications. 'I'm a believer in being innocent until proven guilty,' said the CEO.

Samsung's Top US Executive Is Leaving Tim Baxter announced on social media he is retiring from the company and will be replaced by Young Hoon Eom.

Amoroso: Act Now on Virtualizing Security The security industry has been talking about virtualizing security so it can be distributed to protect assets, but it's now time to start acting.

Demand, Virtualization Reshaping Security Landscape There's a boom in security services, driven by demand from businesses and shaped by the ability to deliver security as a virtual network function.

Fixing IoT Security Is an Ecosystem Challenge Level 3 Communications' Chief Security Officer Dale Drew says service providers, manufacturers and even consumers must combine to halt botnet woes.

Level 3's Drew Sees Liability Issues in IoT Botnets Neither consumers nor device manufacturers are motivated to act to halt IoT-based botnets, but ISPs likely are and they are going to need help.

Amoroso: Expect Devastating US Cyber Attack Former AT&T security chief urges telecom security industry to speak up now and insist on greater understanding of what's at stake and more resources.

Verizon: Unknown Assets a Hacker's Playground M&A activity in particular helps fuel security problems when 'unknown' network resources are left unprotected.

Amoroso Not the Retiring Sort AT&T's former security guru is taking his expertise to a much broader audience  and this time he's giving it away.

My Most Memorable Moments of 2015 Here's a look back at the highlights from the live events Light Reading held last year, including best keynote and best event.

Broad Threats Require Network-Based Security Building on different tools including virtual functions, service providers are using the network itself as a security device.

Polymorphic Attacks Reshape Security Landscape A review of network security threats shows growth in attacks that use DDoS and other methods as smokescreens for data breaches and extortion.

In Defense of the Security Team Heavy Reading Chief Analyst Patrick Donegan defends network security experts as being more able to properly assess the risk of change than top carrier management.

Enterprises Seek Help on 'Day-to-Day' Security, Says Telefonica Managed security services can handle the complexity of network security, while giving enterprises information they need for strategic decisions.

Facebook: Cultural Change Needed for Better Security As an industry, security folks tend to play things close to the vest, but increasingly they need to be sharing information in the fight against a common enemy.

Level 3: Enterprises Have Frayed Approach to Data Protection Most enterprises today don't know where their most critical data is stored or how it moves through their networks, making controlling risks much harder.

Verizon: Cyber Attacks Hit New Targets in New Ways Manufacturing and production environments as well as critical infrastructure are being targeted by polymorphic attacks intended to embarrass.

AT&T's Amoroso: Taking Security to the Cloud Matching workloads or apps with their own security, provisioned alongside in a mixed-cloud environment, could make virtual networks safer.
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Frontier's Irwin on the Security Benefits of Managed SD-WAN DALLAS -- Scott Irwin, senior director of SD-WAN for Frontier Communications, explains how Frontier's customers are increasingly moving to a more centralized managed SD-WAN platform.

Podcast: The Fast-Moving World of SD-WAN Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser discusses the world of SD-WAN, why there are so many vendors and whether enterprise 'white glove' services are handled by butlers.

Eurobites: Three Joins UK's 5G Price War Also in today's regional roundup: France takes a step closer to passing the 'Huawei law'; Sky Mobile joins the UK's 5G club; Telefonica's second quarter financials; and ECI unveils its first 5G-tailored product.

Had a Great Year? Then Enter the Leading Lights Awards Not entered yet? Then get a move on there are only days left to submit your entries.

Eurobites: Nokia Notches Indosat Upgrade Deal Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Austrian mobile advertising firm wins big with MTN; Huawei's Hu pleas for cybersecurity consistency; ADVA touts optical transport advance.

Cato Networks Raises $55M, Dances on NFV's Grave Cato Networks, which bills itself as a 'cloud-native carrier,' scores $55 million funding for its vision of delivering on network agility, where traditional carriers have so far failed with their NFV efforts.

Vertical Systems: SD-WAN Not Profitable Yet In this video interview, Vertical Systems' Erin Dunne dissects the emerging SD-WAN market and explains why service providers aren't making much money from it yet.

Cisco to Acquire UK Networking Software Specialist Cisco is to acquire small British outfit Ensoft, which develops software that supports routing, switching, carrier Ethernet and much more.

Orange Pushing Multivendor SD-WAN Orange Business Services is working with several vendors to develop multivendor SD-WAN expertise and counting on MEF application programming interfaces and definitions for SD-WAN to enable a single portal for its SD-WAN offering, says Franck Morales, vice president of marketing of connectivity services for Orange Business Services. In addition, its SD-WAN service will be built on four other pillars: native cloud connectivity, best-of-breed security, global services and future-proof solution.

Spectrum: SD-WAN Is Coming Soon, but It's Complicated Satya Parimi of Spectrum Enterprise, says managed SD-WAN services are coming shortly following trials that revealed the complexity of deploying this new service.

NFV & SDN Event Wines Down in Denver Light Reading's dynamic trio wind down from the NFV & Carrier SDN event by answering the question: Which wines pair with telecom acronyms?

Cogent CEO Dave Schaeffer: The World on a Fiber One way to look at how much the industry is changing is to spend some time with an executive  and a company  that has stuck to the same formula and industry view for almost 20 years.

Infinera, Coriant Hear a $430M Siren Song of Synergy Infinera has offered to acquire Coriant for $430 million in cash and stock but the deal is truly complementary, not just a cost-cutting exercise, both companies say.

CenturyLink Exec: Enterprise Success Is All About the Network Ed Morche says the company will continue to invest in wireline infrastructure and focus on the best on-net service experience.

Apcela's AppMon Takes Aim at Enterprise Application Performance AppMon is a software-defined monitoring and network telemetry tool which tracks network and application performance for enterprises, and also integrates with Cisco SD-WAN.

Lumina Ties BGP/MPLS Into White Box Switching New capabilities are integrated in a way to enable smoother, more efficient transition to SDN.

Leading Lights: Only Days Left to Enter! Never mind the days, there are only HOURS remaining before the door closes on this year's Leading Lights awards deadline...

AT&T's Network-Based SD-WAN Goes Global AT&T's Network-Based SD-WAN is now available as a VNF on the AT&T FlexWare platform in over 150 countries.

GCI Takes SD-WAN to Pacific Northwest GCI is deploying a new SD-WAN platform, CloudFlex SD-WAN, to business customers in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.
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What's the NCTA Thinking? In a questionable call, the cable trade group is planning to hold its INTX show next year at the same time as NAB's big trade show in Las Vegas.

Coming Soon: The New Cable Trinity Comcast, New Charter and Altice are poised to reshape the US cable market.

Comcast on Service: Why It's Different Now Comcast has promised to improve customer service in the past. Is this time any different?

Cisco Rolls Out New CCAP Chassis Playing comeback against Arris and Casa, Cisco finally launches its new cBR-8 CCAP box with announced deployments by Comcast and Numericable.

Comcast Readies D3.1 & RDK-B Comcast reveals new details on its DOCSIS 3.1 trial plans and RDK-B devices.
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Google Launches Pixel 4 Smartphone All major US mobile operators will carry the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL.

Shaw bets on BlueCurve for broadband As part of its broad product syndication deal with Comcast, big Canadian MSO is counting on new home WiFi app, DOCSIS 3.1 rollout and IPTV launch to trigger fresh subscriber and revenue growth.

Charter & NY Formally Kiss & Make Up After New York's Public Service Commission rescinded approval of Charter's merger with TWC and Charter threatened to leave the state, negotiations succeeded and both orgs come out winners.

Boingo's New CEO Sees Growth Everywhere, Including in Private CBRS Networks From 5G to WiFi 6, Boingo's new CEO sees opportunities everywhere. Moreover, those opportunities now stretch into the 3.5GHz CBRS band.

Vodafone CEO Read Desperately Needs Liberty Deal In need of a break, Vodafone has promised concessions that have won over European regulators, say reports. But the deal's opponents may not be so easily silenced.

Cable techies eye 25-Gig path Even though cable's 10-Gig-enabling broadband spec, Full Duplex DOCSIS, hasn't hit the streets yet, some leading industry engineers are already laying the groundwork for a future DOCSIS spec that would support symmetrical speeds of up to 25 Gigs.

Podcast: Apple Makes Itself Right at Home In addition to big, expensive Macs and multiple OS updates, Apple's WWDC featured a Homekit improvement to make smart homes more secure and several tweaks to ease consumer worries about how it deals with their data.

Three's Broadband 'Toy' Gets Set for 5G Push A tiny broadband business that Three bought in 2017 is set to play a big part in the UK operator's 5G plans.

Leading Lights 2019 Finalists: Most Innovative Security Strategy Fortinet, ZTE, CUJO AI and Colt all had standout entries for most innovative security strategy in this year's Leading Lights contest.

Ready Player Stadia: Google's Gaming Platform a Scary Prospect for Telcos Google's new gaming platform could usher in a new age of cloud gaming, with ramifications for parents and telcos worldwide.

Movandi to Extend 5G mmWave Coverage Award-winning startup is developing repeaters designed to extend the reach of 5G mmWave connections in the 28GHz and 39GHz bands.

Adtran Buy Adds On-Prem Visibility New end-to-end view of customer network, including in-home WiFi, will speed troubleshooting and offer proactive service and sales potential, vendor says.

Public Safety Agencies Exhorted to Embrace Cloud Public safety expert tells conference there's no reason agencies can't be 'mobile-first' and consume as-a-service apps immediately to save more lives.

Verizon CFO Expects Mobile 5G Service 'Sometime' in 2019 But 4G wireless bolsters Verizon's numbers, as Oath unit expected to miss 2020 targets.

Frontier Goes Gigabit in Its Fios & Vantage Fiber Footprint Telco also unleashes symmetrical 200 Mbit/s as its introductory residential speed tier.

Verizon Offers 44,000 Employees a Buyout Deal Verizon's plan to cull $10 billion in costs from its operations is getting very real now. First, thin out the ranks of old, middle-manager types.

5G Will Spur More Fixed-Mobile Convergence  Ovum 5G spells opportunity for FMC upsell, reckons the Ovum team.

Leading Lights 2018 Finalists: Most Innovative Gigabit/FTTx Service With more rapid and aggressive gigabit deployments to residential customers over the past 12 months, Most Innovative Gigabit/FTTx Service was a competitive Leading Lights category.

HR: Cable Dominates US Broadband MSOs already have almost a two-thirds share of the market and are likely to increase that lead despite telco gigabit deployments.
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Nokia Offers 5G Automation With Next Gen OSS Finnish vendor dishes up cloud-native network operations software designed to help automate 5G network management processes.

Eurobites: 1&1 Drillisch taps Telefonica for 5G spectrum Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: more diversity at Telefonica; Vodafone sells its subsidiary in Malta; Ericsson and Microsoft team up for connected cars; Huawei frozen out of Greenland.

Ribbon Reels in ECI, Offloads CEO No wonder investors have panicked  Ribbon waves goodbye to its CEO as it announces an unexpected merger with transport network equipment specialist ECI Telecom. But why?

VMware Unveils 'Project Maestro' to Speed Network Virtualization VMware wants to help telcos launch services faster in multi-cloud environments.

From Virtualization to Containerization A new set of NFV challenges is emerging as operators plan the shift towards cloud-native applications and a container-based strategy.

AT&T's Wheelus: From Mechanization to Automation Much of what's talked about as automation is actually mechanization, says AT&T's Amy Wheelus, and the distinction is key as telcos head into the 5G world.

Podcast: SES Networks Takes ONAP Sky-High The satellite network operator is looking to the Open Networking Automaton Platform (ONAP) to automate connecting its space-based network with terrestrial operators.

SES Takes ONAP to the Final Frontier SES Networks is using Amdocs to implement the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) on Microsoft Azure, to allow its telco customers to seamlessly extend to SES's satellite service.

Why Telcos Are Going (Cloud) Native While there is a fair degree of hype around the term 'cloud native' and plenty of misuse by software marketeers, it is clearly an important topic among CSP CTOs and CIOs.

GSMA to Bring Standardization to NFVi Wild West A collaboration between the industry's largest trade group of mobile network operators and the preeminent open source consortium is aiming to simplify and harmonize dozens of NFVi efforts.

At Boingo, Network Cloudification Drives Business Transformation Boingo is best known as the guys who get travelers online at airports, but that's just a small part of the business nowadays. Network virtualization has helped drive the transition.

Leading Lights 2019 Finalists: Outstanding Digital Enablement Vendor LotusFlare, MATRIXX Software, MYCOM OSI, Netcracker Technology, Openet and Synchronoss Technologies are the six shortlisted companies in this category.

Eurobites: ETSI & Linux Foundation Get Jiggy With IT Also in today's regional roundup: Orange Spain tests Huawei 5G smartphone; KPN's numbers are heading south as it makes its 5G vendor decisions; and competitive device manufacturer Oppo is heading to Europe.

Leading Lights 2019: The Finalists Light Reading is delighted  nay, pumped  to announce the finalists for this year's Leading Lights Awards program, which is now in its 15th year.

'Lean NFV' Aims to Reignite Virtualization Nicira co-founder Scott Shenker and other networking visionaries issue a manifesto for technology they say can jump-start development for network functions virtualization (NFV).

Telefonica Wrestles With OSM, SDN as Unica Passes Halfway Point The Spanish operator's big virtualization project is over the halfway point and facing up to a new set of technical challenges.

MWC19: ETSI's DG Drills Down Into 5G At Mobile World Congress, Luis Jorge Romero, director general of ETSI, talks about the industry body's focus on key areas of 5G R&D, including edge computing, virtualization and automated network management, and provides an update on blockchain and AI efforts.

Orange, Vodafone to Unveil Common Approach to NFVi The two operators have been working to develop a number of NFV infrastructure (NFVi) configurations to meet the needs of different types of virtual network function (VNF) deployments.

The Self-Publishing Network  What Can it Do for You? No, it's not a self-help group for struggling authors...
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Harmonic gains more ground with 'CableOS' The vendor said it struck deals with two more international tier 1 cable operators for its virtualized cable access platform, and has commercial deployments of CableOS underway with 23 operators in all.

Cable access hardware revenues to dip as virtualization takes hold  analyst Sector set to see a 2% drop in revenues through 2024 amid a decline in revenues for a broader broadband access equipment market that includes DSL and FTTP, Dell'Oro predicts.

Reports of NFV's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated While critics threw shade on NFV last year, support grows for the virtualization technology.

Telstra Joins the Cloud-Native Club Australian telco has worked with Ericsson to deploy a cloud-native packet core for 4G and 5G.

The Road to Containerized Network Functions Virtual machines and containers can coexist in service provider networks, argues ADVA's Prayson Pate.

Making Virtual Business Services Real Charter Spectrum Enterprise's Satya Parimi discusses the cableco's rollout of SD-WAN and virtualized security services, the lessons learned and the challenges still ahead.

CommScope's Virtual CCAP Creeps Toward Reality As it continues to play catch-up with Harmonic, CommScope says its virtual CCAP is in trials with cable ops and is slated for a commercial launch by the end of the year.

Verizon's Cantor on Multi-Tenant uCPE Verizon's Oliver Cantor says enterprise customers are looking to run their own applications on the universal CPE servers that house the operator's virtual network functions.

VMware Unveils 'Project Maestro' to Speed Network Virtualization VMware wants to help telcos launch services faster in multi-cloud environments.

CenturyLink's McBride on Developing Edge Computing Service Alongside Customers Kevin McBride explains advancements the service provider has made in its automation, back office and orchestration systems.

Harmonic's 'Cable OS' Deployment Nears the 1M Modem Mark Aided by its Comcast deal, Harmonic sees a 20% surge in the number of devices being served by its virtualized converged cable access platform.

From Virtualization to Containerization A new set of NFV challenges is emerging as operators plan the shift towards cloud-native applications and a container-based strategy.

Gartner: NFV Is Dead  the Cloud Killed It The service provider industry is being transformed by enterprise demand for cloud-based wide-area networking, a model Gartner calls Secure Access Service Edge, or SASE.

AT&T's Wheelus: From Mechanization to Automation Much of what's talked about as automation is actually mechanization, says AT&T's Amy Wheelus, and the distinction is key as telcos head into the 5G world.

Revamping the IT Stack for 5G At the recent 5G Asia event in Singapore, MATRIXX Software CTO Marc Price talked about the importance of cloud-native functionality as service providers revamp their IT stacks as part of their 5G strategies.

Why AT&T's latest open source contribution matters AT&T has shared its distributed router specifications with the Open Compute Project and a leading disruptive data networking startup is flagging its support for the model.

Harmonic's 'CableOS' adds more fiber to its diet Vendor extends capabilities of its access network virtualization platform as some MSOs deploy fiber-to-the-premises in targeted and greenfield scenarios.

The Eye-Watering Cost of Multivendor Networks Operators face tricky decisions as they try to get virtualized networks off the ground.

Podcast: 5G, Edge Computing Give SDN & NFV New Focus As the editors recap Light Reading's event series on network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN), technologies like 5G and edge computing arrive just in time to hurry the industry along its path to more modern networks and add plenty of drama.
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MWC2020: 5G core to star in Barcelona Dario Talmesio, principal analyst and practice leader at Omdia, expects to be hearing a lot about 5G core developments and 'the platform' during this year's Mobile World Congress.

AT&T, Microsoft, Others Get Behind Trump's Anti-Huawei Agenda The Trump administration said it has a plan to foster the development of US-based software for 5G, and that AT&T, Microsoft and Dell are supporting the effort.

Harmonic gains more ground with 'CableOS' The vendor said it struck deals with two more international tier 1 cable operators for its virtualized cable access platform, and has commercial deployments of CableOS underway with 23 operators in all.

Cable access hardware revenues to dip as virtualization takes hold  analyst Sector set to see a 2% drop in revenues through 2024 amid a decline in revenues for a broader broadband access equipment market that includes DSL and FTTP, Dell'Oro predicts.

Nokia Offers 5G Automation With Next Gen OSS Finnish vendor dishes up cloud-native network operations software designed to help automate 5G network management processes.

IBM Names New CEO: Arvind Krishna, Red Hat Deal Mastermind, Replaces Rometty The change brings cloud and open source front and center for the company, as IBM also names former Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst as president.

VMware confirms 'workforce rebalancing'  that's corporate-speak for 'layoffs' The company would not say how many people got walking papers, though it did say the number is fewer than the 1,250 positions it has open.

VMware Will Fight $236M Densify Patent Infringement Decision Judge rules VMware's virtualization products infringe Densify patents; VMware says it ain't over yet.

Mavenir Looks to Cash In on Anti-Huawei Frenzy Top executives from Mavenir met with US government officials in order to push for government support for US-based suppliers of 5G equipment (like Mavenir).

Cloud-Native Network Functions: 'A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action' The Linux Foundation is looking to close the gap between conversation and action to make it easier for carriers and vendors to deploy network functions in the cloud.

MWC2020: Smart Biz Models & Edge in the Spotlight Heavy Reading senior analyst James Crawshaw is heading to MWC and expects to be chatting about smart business models, Industry X.0, edge and more in Barcelona.

What Are the Biggest Threats to Today's Major Telecom Vendors? We asked the industry about the biggest threats to the major vendors and the answer was loud and clear  open source.

Time to Enter the Leading Lights Awards 2020! Never mind the Oscars! The awards season is now properly underway with the launch of the Leading Lights 2020 program, so get cracking on your submission for Light Reading's annual awards before you get swallowed up by MWC madness.

LR & SCTE Expand Partnership on Tech Webinars Following a successful inaugural year, Light Reading and SCTEISBE will team up again in 2020 to produce monthly 'LiveLearnings for Professionals' webinars on cable tech topics, starting with a Jan. 16 session on cable's fiber progress.

Reports of NFV's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated While critics threw shade on NFV last year, support grows for the virtualization technology.

Eurobites: UK Government Urged to Tighten Rules on Prepaid Phones to Help Fight Crime Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Sterlite buys stake in Israeli virtual RAN vendor; Ofcom doubles down on provider performance ratings; Telekom Slovenije does deal with Discovery.

5G Networks in 2020: Show Me, Don't Tell Me It's time for the industry to walk the 5G walk.

VMware's $2.7B Pivotal Acquisition: What It Means for Service Providers VMware R&D VP Craig McLuckie says Pivotal will help provide SPs with the tools needed to build dynamic, modern, API-driven services that enterprise customers demand.

NFV Deployments Still on the Rise  Ovum Survey Communications service providers are accelerating the adoption of NFV and virtual networking in 2020-21, according to the results of an Ovum survey.
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In Search of Optical Networking's 'Holy Grail' The optical networking industry is at another inflection point, writes James Kisner, and the chalice some companies drink from next could point the way to everlasting revenue growth.

Optical Networks for the Next Decade The ON2020 group is looking to address the optical transport challenges presented by the predicted surge in user traffic on carrier networks.

Optical Networking Gets the Football Pulled Away Again Like Lucy always does to Charlie Brown, 5G is likely another new technology that teased optical networking vendors with massive, sustained spending, then quickly yanked back expectations.

5G Transport, 400ZR Star at OFC19 Heavy Reading's optical expert Sterling Perrin discusses some of the major trends in transport network technology at this year's OFC event in San Diego.

Optical M&A: OFC 2019 Is a Couples Retreat, Not a Singles Cruise More acquisition activity in the optical space is inevitable, but it might not happen for a while until some newly coupled companies get to know each other just a little bit more.

Optical on the Up: OFC 2018 The optical community was buzzing at this year's OFC event, fueled in part by 5G expectations and developments from the likes of Ciena, Coriant, Infinera, Nokia and NeoPhotonics.

Looking to the Future With ON2020: An OFC Perspective The ON2020 panel at this year's OFC provided insight into the challenges faced by network operators and the technologies that will be required in future optical networks.

#OFC2018: The Holy Grail of Ethernet At OFC 2018, Ethernet Alliance Chairman John D'Ambrosia explains why he's brought not one, but two holy grails to the show, and what heroic deeds must be completed in order to obtain them.

#OFC2018 Recap: 600G & Beyond As one of the optical industry's key jamborees drew to a close, Heavy Reading senior analyst and optical networking industry celebrity Sterling Perrin discussed developments in 600G transport, probabilistic constellation shaping and other key trends from this year's OFC.

China Telecom Eyes 2M+ Basestations for 5G Chinese operator believes it will need to deploy more than 2 million basestations to provide its 5G coverage as it appeals to the optical community for more innovation that can help support the expected 5G and cloud traffic loads.

Lumentum Sweeps Up Oclaro in $1.8B Deal It was the PIC of the bunch! Lumentum sends the OFC crowds into a frenzy with a $1.8B optical components marriage.

Infinera Shifts Up a Gear With Its Latest Optical Engine Vendor unveils the latest iteration of its Infinite Capacity Engine (ICE) and ramps up its R&D cycle.

Nokia Pushes Optical to the Limit The Shannon limit, that is, claiming its Photonic Service Engine 3 (PSE-3) chipset takes optical channels close to the maximum theoretical capacity.

ON2020 Shares Operator Visions for the Future of Optical Networking at OFC 2018 ON2020 is running a workshop at OFC where speakers from leading operators will share their visions and discuss roadmaps for optical networking.

EXFO's Mixed Bag: Sales Up, a New CEO, Stock Slumps Test vendor has plenty of positives to talk about but investors were expecting better, it seems.

Ekinops Eyes $64M Takeover of OneAccess Optical equipment specialist says the deal will open up virtualization opportunities and give it access to Tier 1 service providers.

ON2020 Plots Future of ROADMs & T-SDN The ON2020 association held its first public workshop last week at OFC, focusing on directions for ROADM development and the future of transport SDN and optical networking.

OFC & Hyperscale: A Good Mix? Cloud and telecom players want different types of equipment for their networks, as the chatter at OFC reveals.

With ROADMs in Place, Next Step Is Software Big achievements in ROADM hardware are here. Now we need software and automation to help run these newly complex networks.
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Podcast: 5G, Edge Computing Give SDN & NFV New Focus As the editors recap Light Reading's event series on network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN), technologies like 5G and edge computing arrive just in time to hurry the industry along its path to more modern networks and add plenty of drama.

Podcast: The NV & SDN Americas Recap Light Reading editors Mitch Wagner, Kelsey Ziser and Phil Harvey gathered to empty their notebooks and recap the NV & SDN event at the Dallas Marriott Las Colinas.

The Reality of Open Networking in CSP Transformation Survey finds that many CSPs are boldly forging a path towards the open, agile, automated and efficient networks the telecom industry requires.

Coriant Makes White Box Bid Known for mobile backhaul routers, the vendor is making a bid for a bigger piece of the router pie in the era of white boxes.

Juniper CTO: Open Source Software Can Be Profitable Moving to open source changes the business model but Juniper is ready to succeed selling software and the services required to support it.

AT&T Preps White Box Routers for 5G AT&T looks to expand its white box router approach to macro sites and small cells for 5G.

Leading Lights: Only Days Left to Enter! Never mind the days, there are only HOURS remaining before the door closes on this year's Leading Lights awards deadline...

ONF Takes SDN Next-Gen With a new open source project and new interfaces, mostly coming from Google, it addresses OpenFlow's shortcomings and makes some big promises.

Verizon: MEF 3.0 Reflects Real-World Needs ORLANDO, 11/27/2017  Verizon's Shawn Hakl says MEF 3.0 is focused on what carriers need to interconnect in a virtual world.

NFV Automation Standards Picture Remains Murky Network operators are pushing ahead with MANO deployments and open source is attacking the standards issues - but so are others.

SoftBank's 'Open Source' Source Is a Slovakian Startup A network deal between tiny Frinx and giant SoftBank is a further sign of the upheaval caused by open source, software and virtualization technologies.

Open Source Boom Not Without Challenges Two industry leaders tell the Open Networking Summit audience there are investment, culture change and harmonization problems to be solved.

OrbTV: AT&T CMO & the 'Digital Mindset' AT&T Business Solutions' chief marketing officer, Steve McGaw, sat down with Light Reading's CEO, Steve Saunders, at Mobile World Congress to talk about how CSPs need to get into the "digital mindset" in order to succeed in a cloud-based future.

Protocol Projects Underscore SDN's Growth SDN is constantly evolving and that process is helped along by numerous projects and other industry developments.

Ciena's Blue Planet Packs Analytics Punch New platform adds capability for analytics to fuel a range of apps including the first one from Ciena, but also third-party and internal options.

DT's Clauberg: TIP, TeraStream & NFV Deutsche Telekom's Axel Clauberg discusses the impact of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) on network technology R&D, the latest update on the German operator's TeraStream next-gen pan-European network initiative and the challenges of NFV deployment.

Ex-AT&T Bigwig Margaret Chiosi Joins Huawei Following a short post-AT&T hiatus, former AT&T Distinguished Network Architect and one of the founders of the ETSI NFV group joins Huawei.

AT&T, Colt Claim Major SDN Advance Federated SDN is key to the development of meaningful new services, says AT&T.

TM Forum Wants Role of Open Source Glue Industry organization meets with multiple open source groups to discuss how its reference architecture for hybrid network management can extend to them.
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DT's Access 4.0 Team Loses Its Cherry & Hits the Eggnog The German operator has a long list of vendors identified for its software-enabled broadband access project. What could possibly go wrong?

F5G: Huawei's Bid to Dominate Optical Access The Chinese equipment giant has a new plan for shaping the development of optical access technology.

Post-ECOC 2019: Optical Networking Beyond the Thunderdome It's like Mad Max in the optical networking space, with every group of participants  optical transceiver vendors, chip manufacturers, systems OEMs and even end customers  all fighting their own war.

China Optical Vendors Take a Hit From Fiber Glut Fiber saturation has dampened demand this year, but the arrival of 5G means the downturn may be short-lived.

The LiDAR at the End of the Tunnel An analyst firm is at odds with industry execs on how quickly the market for LiDAR applications will take off. Several companies that supply the telco industry are making bets that LiDAR will pay off soon.

Infinera: Making Optical Interesting Again The vendor's new XR Optics technology could cut carrier opex and capex in service providers' metro networks. But can the company get everyone else to buy into coherent optical sub-carrier aggregation?

Eurobites: ADVA Joins the Dots on Optical Transceivers Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Cellcom Israel plans job cuts; Orange builds cloud for Chinese consumer goods company; CityFibre on target in Stirling.

Corning's Fiber Business Is Cratering, but What Does That Mean for 5G? Corning has dramatically reduced its sales expectations for fiber this year as carriers reduce spending. Does that mean 5G (which needs fiber) is in trouble? Not necessarily.

Acacia Ups the Coherent Ante Optical module specialist makes a mark with its latest product that will give parent-to-be Cisco something to smile about.

ECOC 2019 Preview: Beware of the Irish Goodbye The optical networking industry has seen its fair share of customers show up to the party and then leave without warning. One analyst ponders what's going to be different in the next 12 months.

ZTE H1 Profits Up, but Sales Stuck in a Rut As it focuses more on developing its own components, cost-cutting is helping ZTE report improving profits but its revenues are not as impressive.

Huawei Slams US Blacklisting of Affiliates Chinese vendor lashes out at latest US measures while insisting that its business has not been affected.

US Component Makers Should Plan for Life Without Huawei Harsh weekend words from Trump and prolonged uncertainty will spur the Chinese equipment maker as it tries to become more self-reliant. Its US suppliers should plan accordingly.

Here's What Trump's Huawei Ban Cost US Firms in Q2 Several US companies put a dollar amount on the losses they incurred from President Trump's Huawei ban. Here's the tally.

Another Huawei Scandal, Another Denial China's controversial equipment giant denies hacking into phones in Africa at the behest of political strongmen.

How 5G & the Trade War Are Ringing the Changes for Ericsson The Swedish vendor is changing the way it delivers products and shifting production facilities.

Huawei Decision to Show if BoJo Is Presidential Poodle or British Bulldog The question of what to do about Huawei will show UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson why a no-deal Brexit is fraught with peril.

Huawei Defies US Ban With 23% Lift in H1 Revenue Smartphones power the Chinese vendor's first-half results, but doubts about its operating system cloud the future.

Is Light Communications a Solution in Search of a Problem? LiFi is the latest effort to bring optical wireless communications into the commercial communications networking fold.
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Evolving Service Assurance to Support 5G Among the many considerations facing network operators as they make the leap into the 5G world, service assurance is right up there with the toughest, as CSP executives will explain at the upcoming Software-Driven Operations summit in London.

Colt's Voltolini on Service Automation Mirko Voltolini, global head of Network on Demand at Colt, talks about how the operator has automated the service delivery aspect of its Ethernet services but is still working on the significant challenge of automating the service assurance lifecycle.

What's Hot in Software-Defined Operations? Heavy Reading's James Crawshaw highlights the key debate topics from the Software Defined Operations & the Autonomous Network event in London, including the data analytics challenge in a 5G world and how service assurance appears to still be an afterthought in virtualization strategies.

BT's McRae: Vendors Need to Support Automation or They're Out Vendors that want to get their technology deployed in BT's network will need to prove to the operator's chief architect that they can support his automation plans, he tells the Light Reading event audience.

Colt Automates Network Service Delivery With On Demand Portal Colt's Mirko Voltolini explains where the operator has seen success with its On Demand service platform, but also addresses why the traditional service delivery model still has staying power.

Is Open Source the Right Approach for NFV Orchestration? Open source MANO (management and orchestration) developments are providing network operators with something of a conundrum.

WiC Radio: Sigma CTO Talks Transformations Join Sigma Systems CTO Catherine Michel on January 11 for an inside look at transforming your network, operations and company culture to compete in the digital era.

Skilled Women Can Fuel Tech Growth LONDON, 12/4/2017  There are skill shortages in many emerging technology areas, making it more important to attract and train women, notes Carolyn Dawson.

Sigma's Michel: Digital Economy Demands Inclusion Companies need to include women and minorities in product/service creation or miss out on huge audience segments in the digital economy.

AI & Machine Learning in NFV/SDN: Key Takeaways Operators are applying artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to leverage the power of their new programmable, software-based networks.

The Wit & Wisdom of David Hughes PCCW exec David Hughes eviscerates the telecom 'poor me' mindset but with a light touch, Carol Wilson writes.

SevOne Adds Containers to Its Quiver Service assurance software vendor making strides in the cloud-native direction while retaining its other options, including VMs.

NFV & SDN Are Generating Profit$, Claims Netcracker VP of strategy tells OSS event audience that its business-focused operator customers are making money and getting services out faster.

Debating the Common Information Model LONDON, 11/3/2017  At Light Reading's 'OSS in the Era of SDN & NFV' event in London, Heavy Reading's James Crawshaw and Light Reading's Ray Le Maistre talk common information models and automation.

Sprint & MSOs Drawn to ETSI's Automation Group, Says DT's Martiny New industry group focused on automated processes and zero touch networking is attracting potential new members, including Sprint, and prepping for an initial meeting in January, says DT exec Klaus Martiny.

The Business Case for Next-Gen Operations LONDON, 11/2/2017  At Light Reading's 'OSS in the Era of SDN & NFV' event, Carol Wilson and Iain Morris discuss some of the key talking points of the day, including a renewed focus on the business case for management system upgrades and the doubts swirling around common information models.

Heavy Reading: Common Data Models Unlikely Getting operators to agree on a common data model that rises above the lowest common denominator is seemingly impossible.

BT Berates Virtualization Vendors for Lack of Conformity The UK operator is training staff to use data modeling languages so that it can address the lack of conformity it sees from virtualization system vendors.

People in Comms, This WiC Event Is For You! Join Women in Comms on Nov. 1 in London for a luncheon geared towards men and how they can be important allies for women in the workplace.
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From Virtualization to Containerization A new set of NFV challenges is emerging as operators plan the shift towards cloud-native applications and a container-based strategy.

Eurobites: Cellnex buys Arqiva's towers unit for 2B Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Netcracker lands OSS deal with Deutsche Telekom; Nokia hopes to make squillions from Quillion chipset; Telia Norway goes all in with Ericsson for 5G RAN.

Evolving Service Assurance to Support 5G Among the many considerations facing network operators as they make the leap into the 5G world, service assurance is right up there with the toughest, as CSP executives will explain at the upcoming Software-Driven Operations summit in London.

Ciena Agrees to Buy Centina, Keeps Kicking OSS Ciena's latest acquisition is another piece of a larger back office puzzle for carriers, but the vendor said it's not aiming to become the new OSS stack.

ETSI Tackles AI Security New specification group at ETSI is 'exceptionally important,' says industry analyst.

The Importance of Culture Management in a 5G World At the 5G Asia event in Singapore, Ericsson's Rodrigo Beyer Fernandez outlines the cultural changes needed in telco IT operations teams, and the importance of automation, as network operators embrace 5G.

Migrating OSS/BSS to the Public Cloud As operational models evolve, telcos are turning to public cloud platforms to host their OSS and BSS systems, but there are still hurdles to overcome.

Leveraging AI for Increased CSP Efficiency Jay Shah, chief AI officer at MyRepublic, explains how the service provider is leveraging AI to optimize its operations, control costs and manage churn.

RJio Takes Baby Steps With Open Source for OSS/BSS Disruptive Indian operator is embracing open source as it evolves its back office strategy.

Anatomy of an OSS RFI Process Heavy Reading recently managed a request for information (RFI) process for a network operator  here's what happened...

Masergy Puts a 'Virtual Engineer' in Enterprise Networks Masergy provides an AI boost for enterprise network management.

The Telecoms.com Podcast: Digital Services, Brexit... & Guinness Shot on location in a Dublin pub, this week's podcast sees the regular crew joined by Openet's Niall Norton to talk digitalization, Brexit and more. Oh, and they drink some Guinness.

Deconstructing the Telco Cloud The term 'telco cloud' is used often, but it can mean different things to different people.

ZTE H1 Profits Up, but Sales Stuck in a Rut As it focuses more on developing its own components, cost-cutting is helping ZTE report improving profits but its revenues are not as impressive.

Podcast: SES Networks Takes ONAP Sky-High The satellite network operator is looking to the Open Networking Automaton Platform (ONAP) to automate connecting its space-based network with terrestrial operators.

SES Takes ONAP to the Final Frontier SES Networks is using Amdocs to implement the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) on Microsoft Azure, to allow its telco customers to seamlessly extend to SES's satellite service.

TM Forum on Telecom's AI Trends Aaron Boasman-Patel, the TM Forum's VP of AI, Customer Experience and Data, talks about the real-world uses of AI in the telecom sector.

Explainability Is the Key to Trust in AI If AI is to play a role in communications network operations, a high degree of trust will be required. Explainable AI might be the route to gaining that trust.

5G Momentum Props Up Ericsson's Q2 The Networks division is helping the Swedish operator improve its top line numbers but 'strategic contracts' hit margins and other divisions are still in turnaround mode, dragging the vendor's share price down.
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MWC2020: 5G core to star in Barcelona Dario Talmesio, principal analyst and practice leader at Omdia, expects to be hearing a lot about 5G core developments and 'the platform' during this year's Mobile World Congress.

AT&T, Microsoft, Others Get Behind Trump's Anti-Huawei Agenda The Trump administration said it has a plan to foster the development of US-based software for 5G, and that AT&T, Microsoft and Dell are supporting the effort.

Inside Samsung's 5G Factory for AT&T Top Samsung and AT&T executives lay out the details of their efforts to showcase 5G technology in a factory setting.

Tough UK limits on Huawei's role in 5G threaten telco plans The Johnson government has imposed tough restrictions on the Chinese vendor that could force BT and Three into expensive and drawn-out swaps.

MWC2020: What's Next for 5G Ahead of MWC2020 in Barcelona, Heavy Reading Principal Analyst Gabriel Brown examines the state of the 5G market and talks about what to expect next from the mobile broadband market.

Vietnam makes big bet on homegrown 5G The country's biggest telecom operator is set to launch a 5G network based on technology it developed internally.

UK PM is right: Where is Huawei alternative? Boris Johnson raises an important question about the structure of the telecom industry as the UK comes under Chinese and US pressure over its imminent decision on whether to ban Huawei from Britain's 5G market.

Telstra Joins the Cloud-Native Club Australian telco has worked with Ericsson to deploy a cloud-native packet core for 4G and 5G.

Telefonica Deutschland makes risky 5G bet on Huawei German operator will also use Finland's Nokia to build its 5G network and has cut dividends to help fund the project.

MEF19: Heavy Reading's Sterling Perrin on SD-WAN Adoption Heavy Reading's Sterling Perrin discusses new SD-WAN research he presented at MEF19 in Los Angeles, and why it's significant that cloud providers aren't part of MEF (yet).

Short on 5G options, Vodafone gets set for 150K-site shake-up The European operator reveals the rationale behind its shock decision to put its entire European footprint up for tender.

Unlocking the 5G Core Verizon and Sprint execs weigh in on what will change in mobile networks  and what's possible  when moving from a 4G to 5G network core.

Revamping the IT Stack for 5G At the recent 5G Asia event in Singapore, MATRIXX Software CTO Marc Price talked about the importance of cloud-native functionality as service providers revamp their IT stacks as part of their 5G strategies.

Alaska's Rakuten Preps for 4G Launch Japan's Rakuten isn't the only operator in the world building a new, greenfield wireless network with an open, software-powered architecture: OptimERA is working to do the same in a tiny part of Alaska.

AT&T on Track for 100% Core Network Virtualization Next Year AT&T hit a milestone virtualizing 75% of MPLS tunnel traffic on its core network, with 100% in its sights for 2020.

Another Tiny Wireless Operator Is Launching 5G Nex-Tech Wireless, which serves parts of Kansas and Colorado, will use equipment from Ericsson to launch 5G. The announcement again shines light on rural US operators that use Huawei equipment.

Handset Slump Stymies ZTE Recovery ZTE may be back in the black but its handset sales have fallen off a cliff.

China Unicom, Telecom On Course for 5G Network Sharing Two of China's major network operators have been discussing how they can share 5G infrastructure.

Nokia, Ericsson, Cisco Pull US Operators Toward Standalone 5G T-Mobile, Verizon and other operators are working with a range of vendors to smooth out the move from 'non-standalone' to 'standalone' 5G.
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Ciena Agrees to Buy Centina, Keeps Kicking OSS Ciena's latest acquisition is another piece of a larger back office puzzle for carriers, but the vendor said it's not aiming to become the new OSS stack.

Podcast: Ciena's CEO Sets Sail for Growth Ciena CEO Gary Smith said that M&A is always a possibility as the company looks to build its software business while managing the growth of its optical platform sales to web-scale companies.

T-Mobile Resolves Video Throttling Issue Amid Another PR Dustup T-Mobile acknowledged that it recently resolved an issue affecting its video-throttling practice, a situation that arises amid a renewed debate around wireless operators' network-management efforts.

Podcast: The Fast-Moving World of SD-WAN Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser discusses the world of SD-WAN, why there are so many vendors and whether enterprise 'white glove' services are handled by butlers.

Eurobites: 'Sick' Day for EE as 5G Switch Is Flipped in UK Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia and Telecom Italia claim European data speed record; Brits' online angst; Colt calls on ADVA for Ethernet encryption.

Leading Lights 2019 Finalists: Company of the Year (Public) Four companies have made the 2019 shortlist for this coveted award.

Telefonica UK Gets a Tighter Grip on Automation In line with the strategy of its parent, Telefonica's UK operation is looking for ways to introduce more automated processes and boost customer satisfaction, a combination that lead it to deploy Nokia's Service Operation Center (SOC) system.

Why CenturyLink's Network Suffered a Christmas Hangover A 'bonkers' network management card had too much eggnog and caused a wave of service outages, including 9-1-1 service, in several states for several days during the last week of 2018.

Spectrum, Telus Team on Dynamic Services PoC MEF18 demo shows policy-driven dynamic services over multi-carrier networks

NetScout Data to Power IBM CEM Service assurance software company to provide continuous network data and analytics for smarter IBM analytics to CSPs.

ETSI's Networked Intelligence Group Starts to Get Real ETSI's wonderfully named Experiential Networked Intelligence (ENI) group, which aims to help operators better understand and improve the management of their networks, has sprung to life.

Lumina Ties BGP/MPLS Into White Box Switching New capabilities are integrated in a way to enable smoother, more efficient transition to SDN.

Future Network Investments Hampered by Outdated Thinking As multi-access edge computing becomes a reality, operators will need to consider how to gain visibility into their ever-expanding networks and why that's important.

Silver Peak Racks Up 600 Customers Despite SD-WAN 'Shake Out' SD-WAN supplier Silver Peak has racked up over 600 enterprise production customers despite an increasingly competitive SD-WAN market.

The 'New' Sandvine Has Automation in Its Sights Following the C$562 million nuptials of Procera and Sandvine, the resulting packet inspection, analytics and policy management specialist is pitching itself to service providers as a key enabler in the shift to automated processes.

Close the Loop to Automate Service Assurance The separation between obtaining service assurance data and acting on it is going away, letting the network automatically address issues.

How Kentik Helps Operators Turn Network Data into Sales SaaS-based solution offers network data analysis function to help operators such as GTT identify potential new customers.

SD-WAN Supplier Talari Targets Carrier-Leery Enterprises Talari's focus is providing an SD-WAN solution for enterprise customers that want to leverage their investment in legacy equipment and don't necessarily want to work with a service provider for SD-WAN.
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Eurobites: Ericsson Adds Brain-Power to Its RAN Technology Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: VEON trials 5G in Kazakhstan; T-Systems launches private cloud trial with VMware; Openet and Evergent combine on BSS.

Optiva CEO Danielle Royston uses the cloud to stand out from the crowd For Royston, the path to becoming a more profitable telco starts by revitalizing the company's approach to billing, charging and business intelligence.

Comcast Blames Software Glitch for Broadband Data Meter Error In a small edge case that affected about 2,000 customers, Comcast says it fixed the technical issue and is crediting affected accounts for any erroneous charges and giving those subs an additional $50 credit.

T-Mobile Resolves Video Throttling Issue Amid Another PR Dustup T-Mobile acknowledged that it recently resolved an issue affecting its video-throttling practice, a situation that arises amid a renewed debate around wireless operators' network-management efforts.

Verizon Promises Cheaper 5G Phones, 'Tailored' 5G Service Plans Verizon's Ronan Dunne offered a few more hints about how Verizon will move forward in 5G in terms of pricing, phones and coverage.

The Telecoms.com Podcast: What Is Digital Transformation? Jennifer Kyriakakis from Matrixx joins the guys this week, as they attempt to work out what 'digital' really means in the telecoms environment.

New Route to New Revenue: Detect & Respond to Credentials Sharing Rather than ignoring password sharing or solely seeking ways to prevent it, service providers are now in position to monetize it thanks to advances in behavioral analytics and machine learning.

Terabyte Broadband Homes Continue to Climb OpenVault report finds that consumers in that 'power user' group doubled in Q1 2019, a growth rate that could cause some cable operators and other ISPs to consider upping their monthly data ceilings.

Leading Lights 2019 Finalists: Outstanding Digital Enablement Vendor LotusFlare, MATRIXX Software, MYCOM OSI, Netcracker Technology, Openet and Synchronoss Technologies are the six shortlisted companies in this category.

Leading Lights 2019 Finalists: Most Innovative Blockchain for Telecoms Strategy Colt, Filament, Mobileum and Synchronoss Technologies all submitted standout entries for most innovative blockchain for telecoms strategy in this year's Leading Lights contest.

Why CSG Is Betting on Blockchain New lab backed by CSG to focus on how blockchain tech can streamline global roaming deals, inter-carrier agreements and possibly settlements between pay-TV and OTT services.

Fantastic BSS beasts and how Openet can tame them After a turbulent 2018, the Irish BSS company is looking to challenge Amdocs, Ericsson and Huawei in their own backyard.

What Is Synamedia's Exit Plan? 'The right perspective is going public,' says company Chairman Abe Peled.

Eurobites: Analyst Upgrades Ericsson as Huawei Backlash Intensifies In today's regional roundup: Huawei's troubles could be good news for Ericsson; Enea lines up another acquisition; Orange Business Services lands smart meter IoT deal; Ciena heads to the UK countryside; and more Ericsson.

Terabyte Households Surge as Video Eats the Internet Broadband homes that consume 1 Terabyte-plus of data per month more than doubled, Cisco data shows. Will ISPs raise their data ceilings?

The 5G Enterprise Conversation For enterprises, 5G opens up a new conversation with carriers  not just about what's possible on their new networks, but what they can do now to help businesses beyond providing connectivity.

Spectrum, Telus Team on Dynamic Services PoC MEF18 demo shows policy-driven dynamic services over multi-carrier networks

Deal Puts California's Tough Net Neutrality Law on Hold If state court approves it, the temporary delay would take effect while a Washington, DC, district court reviews a case centered on the FCC's 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom order.
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Why AT&T's latest open source contribution matters AT&T has shared its distributed router specifications with the Open Compute Project and a leading disruptive data networking startup is flagging its support for the model.

Infinera: Making Optical Interesting Again The vendor's new XR Optics technology could cut carrier opex and capex in service providers' metro networks. But can the company get everyone else to buy into coherent optical sub-carrier aggregation?

ECOC 2019 Preview: Beware of the Irish Goodbye The optical networking industry has seen its fair share of customers show up to the party and then leave without warning. One analyst ponders what's going to be different in the next 12 months.

Deconstructing the Telco Cloud The term 'telco cloud' is used often, but it can mean different things to different people.

Podcast: The Fast-Moving World of SD-WAN Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser discusses the world of SD-WAN, why there are so many vendors and whether enterprise 'white glove' services are handled by butlers.

AT&T's Chokshi: Why Carriers Need Disaggregation at the Edge AT&T's Rupesh Chokshi says the case for disaggregated routers at the edge goes beyond the usual examples of increased business agility, network visibility and performance.

Eurobites: Three Joins UK's 5G Price War Also in today's regional roundup: France takes a step closer to passing the 'Huawei law'; Sky Mobile joins the UK's 5G club; Telefonica's second quarter financials; and ECI unveils its first 5G-tailored product.

Eurobites: Deutsche Telekom, Software AG Team Up for IoT Expansion Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone boss takes a 1.2 million pay cut; BT may cut its dividend to fund fiber rollout; ADVA connects in Kuwait.

Cisco Looks to Acacia for Optics & Flexibility Acacia's pluggable optics help Cisco's routing business stay competitive and make its customer networks easier to operate, according to the head of Cisco's optical business.

Cisco to Buy Acacia for Pluggable Optical Goodness Cisco said it would buy Acacia and the components vendor's current optical transport customers need not worry. The move is seen as positive overall, but one analyst explained why Arista should probably be more concerned than ADVA.

The Story Behind Verizon's 5G Secret Weapon Verizon is spending billions on fiber to support its wireless 5G push.

Cybereason details operation soft cell: A telco security disaster Security firm reveals an ongoing global attack against telecommunications providers that has been active since at least 2017 and involves a group believed to be working on behalf of the Chinese government.

Huawei Slaps Verizon With $1B+ Patents Bill  Reports Chinese vendor ups the ante in battle with the US by reportedly demanding more than $1 billion in patent payments from the US carrier for the use of technology it has in its networks, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Putting a Price on Latency: Startup Network Next Aims to Fix Internet Routing With things like Google Stadia and 5G putting a new focus on real-time connections, startup Network Next hopes its AdWords-inspired approach to Internet routing will catch on.

Ciena Keeps Its Foot on the Gas in Q2 For its fiscal quarter ended April 30, Ciena showed more growth and some customer diversification, while continuing to add to its software portfolio.

Huawei Router Prez Gets HiSilicon Job Jeffrey Gao takes up new role as general manager of Huawei's in-house semiconductor business during a turbulent time for the company.

Big 5G Event Keynote: Fireside Chat  Andrew Dugan, CenturyLink CenturyLink CTO Andrew Dugan shares his views on 5G transport technology at the Big 5G Event in Denver on May 8, 2019.

Volta Bigs Up Its Cloud Router, Claims 90% Savings vs Legacy Volta claims that moving routing intelligence to the cloud and running white boxes can slash costs compared with legacy equipment.

Arista Ships Smarter 400G Routers Arista's second-generation 400G routers support built-in security, automation and telemetry for reduced capex and opex.
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LR & SCTE Expand Partnership on Tech Webinars Following a successful inaugural year, Light Reading and SCTEISBE will team up again in 2020 to produce monthly 'LiveLearnings for Professionals' webinars on cable tech topics, starting with a Jan. 16 session on cable's fiber progress.

Where Cable Stands With Fiber In our latest survey conducted in partnership with SCTE-ISBE, Light Reading examines how cablecos are using fiber now and how they aim to use it in the future.

Comcast's Virtual Access Network Rolls Into Multiple Markets, Spans 100K+ Customers Top Comcast execs discuss the benefits and capabilities of the company's new virtual access network and how Comcast is applying lessons from its cloud-based X1 platform.

Seven Things We Learned at Cable-Tec Expo The 10G future is in sight, HFC has gas in the tank, Comcast is getting serious about network virtualization, DOCSIS's pioneers get recognized and more from last week's show in The Big Easy.

SCTE 2019: Music, Food & Cable Tech Alan Breznick gives you a tour of New Orleans from inside the convention center.

Network Convergence Revolution to Drive Speed & Efficiency, CommScope CTO Says Distributed architectures and other common, underlying technologies and techniques are also starting to span across both wired and wireless networks, Morgan Kurk says.

Can cable bridge the 'GAP'? Charter and a group of vendors are championing a node standardization initiative called the Generic Access Platform that's showing signs of promise, but the effort needs more buy-in from suppliers and MSOs.

Charter Envisions a Fixed Wireless Triple-Play With CBRS Charter's Craig Cowden expands on the MSO's interests and intentions involving the CBRS band and provides updates on the company's recent set of fixed wireless, mobile-facing 'dual-SIM' market trials.

HFC may never die The cable industry, in partnership with CableLabs, is exploring how to deliver services at 6GHz and beyond, Cox exec says.

DOCSIS 4.0 ends cable network feud DOCSIS 4.0 unifies previously feuding Full Duplex DOCSIS and Extended Spectrum DOCSIS proposals for boosting network bandwidth.

Looking Back: Comcast's Breakthrough X1 Video Service Turns 10 Whispers about Comcast's next-video platform began to spread a decade ago at Cable-Tec Expo in Denver. Here's a look back at its journey from a secretive project originally called 'Excalibur' to a widely deployed product under the X1 banner.

Dan Whalen, Arris's Former Top Network Exec, Heads to Adtran Hiring Whalen as chief product officer is another indicator that Adtran is accelerating its cable industry strategy as MSOs mull their next-gen access network moves.

SCTE-ISBE's Mark Dzuban: '10G' Set to Be the Star of Cable-Tec Expo CEO of cable's engineering and standards-setting organization says 10G will be 'foundational' to the industry's future and a major focus as Cable-Tec Expo has its Swan Song in The Big Easy.

CommScope Plots Progress With Low-Latency, Extended Spectrum DOCSIS Vendor to demo its latest next-gen cable network and DOCSIS wares, including a new distributed access architecture aggregator, at next week's Cable-Tec Expo in New Orleans.

LR Tackles 5G & the Cloud at Cable-Tec Expo In an industry first, Light Reading will stage two breakfast forums on hot tech topics at next week's Cable-Tec Expo in New Orleans, the first on cable network virtualization and the second on cable's role in 5G.

Light Reading Packs Double Wallop at Cable-Tec Expo For the first time, Light Reading will offer two breakfast roundtables on key tech topics at this fall's SCTE|ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in New Orleans  the first on network virtualization and the second on cable and 5G.

Cable Next-Gen Is Calling Could our Cable Next-Gen Tech event make your cable dreams come true? Or are we just being delusional? In his head, LR cable guy Alan Breznick is there already...

Mark Dzuban: A Decade at the Helm of SCTE SCTE's president and CEO reflects on a decade of change at the industry's standard-setting and applied sciences arm, along with some hints at what's ahead.

Making Smart Cities Smarter At SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in Atlanta last week, Arris and its partners demonstrated how fast broadband links can enable a growing array of smart-city applications.
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Gartner: NFV Is Dead  the Cloud Killed It The service provider industry is being transformed by enterprise demand for cloud-based wide-area networking, a model Gartner calls Secure Access Service Edge, or SASE.

Podcast: 5G, Edge Computing Give SDN & NFV New Focus As the editors recap Light Reading's event series on network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN), technologies like 5G and edge computing arrive just in time to hurry the industry along its path to more modern networks and add plenty of drama.

Podcast: The NV & SDN Americas Recap Light Reading editors Mitch Wagner, Kelsey Ziser and Phil Harvey gathered to empty their notebooks and recap the NV & SDN event at the Dallas Marriott Las Colinas.

CenturyLink: Network Infrastructure Is the Real Final Frontier NASA was trying to solve the same problems telcos now face when it launched the space shuttle Enterprise, 43 years ago Tuesday.

Masergy's Watson: SD-WAN Is SDN's Killer App Enterprises demand SD-WAN from telcos, and SD-WAN won't work without SDN, says Ray Watson, Masergy's innovation VP.

Comcast Taps 'Trellis' Open Fabric for Distributed Access Architecture The cable giant sees scalability, space and power efficiency as payoffs.

John Donovan Out at AT&T The top telecom executive at AT&T is leaving the company to spend time with his family. AT&T hasn't named a replacement.

Podcast: What's Changing in the Competitive World of SD-WAN Our series on the state of the SD-WAN market continues with a discussion on what's holding back some companies in the space and how standards and new technologies are advancing the cause of SD-WAN.

Podcast: The Fast-Moving World of SD-WAN Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser discusses the world of SD-WAN, why there are so many vendors and whether enterprise 'white glove' services are handled by butlers.

Harmonic sheds more light on big 'CableOS' deal with Comcast Four-year $175 million enterprise licensing deal covers headend software, with potential to reduce those fees should Comcast opt to buy other products, including nodes and other network hardware, from Harmonic.

AT&T's Chokshi: Why Carriers Need Disaggregation at the Edge AT&T's Rupesh Chokshi says the case for disaggregated routers at the edge goes beyond the usual examples of increased business agility, network visibility and performance.

AT&T & IBM Strike Major Cloud, Networking Alliance AT&T Business Solutions will migrate its internal applications to the IBM Cloud. IBM, meanwhile, will use AT&T Business as its primary provider of software-defined networking.

ONAP 'Dublin' Lightens Network Orchestration The latest release of the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) sports enhancements designed to get the software up and running faster, so carriers can get on with sexy innovation.

GSMA to Bring Standardization to NFVi Wild West A collaboration between the industry's largest trade group of mobile network operators and the preeminent open source consortium is aiming to simplify and harmonize dozens of NFVi efforts.

Podcast: Why Telcos Are Challenged at the Edge Building edge computing resources for advanced applications is going to be a big challenge to telcos in terms of how and where to invest, as well as when and where to partner with cloud providers, vendors and others.

NTT Challenges Cloud Giants NTT Communications needed additional flexibility and automation to compete with the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

At Boingo, Network Cloudification Drives Business Transformation Boingo is best known as the guys who get travelers online at airports, but that's just a small part of the business nowadays. Network virtualization has helped drive the transition.

AT&T & Bell Canada: Know What to Send to the Edge Not every workload needs to go to the edge. Operators need to consider which workloads make the most sense to transition.

Leading Lights 2019 Finalists: Company of the Year (Private) Several privately held companies  including Versa Networks, CUJO AI, Synamedia and Pluribus Networks  have grown their businesses and set themselves up for success in the last 12 months.
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Gartner: NFV Is Dead  the Cloud Killed It The service provider industry is being transformed by enterprise demand for cloud-based wide-area networking, a model Gartner calls Secure Access Service Edge, or SASE.

MEF, ONUG Join Hands on Enterprise SD-WAN The groups, representing service providers and enterprises, are teaming on SD-WAN specifications to help telcos satisfy enterprise needs  and make money doing it.

Wealth of Job Opportunities for Women in 5G Era Is 'Mind Boggling' During a Women in Comms breakfast workshop, panelists shifted focus from the hype around connected cars and drones to debating how 5G could impact job opportunities for women in comms and tech.

Podcast: 5G, Edge Computing Give SDN & NFV New Focus As the editors recap Light Reading's event series on network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN), technologies like 5G and edge computing arrive just in time to hurry the industry along its path to more modern networks and add plenty of drama.

Aryaka Learns to Love SD-WAN Over the Public Internet Aryaka launches SD-WAN service over the public Internet for cases where 'best effort' is good enough for enterprise connectivity, complementing its existing global, private network that offers guaranteed SLAs.

Podcast: The NV & SDN Americas Recap Light Reading editors Mitch Wagner, Kelsey Ziser and Phil Harvey gathered to empty their notebooks and recap the NV & SDN event at the Dallas Marriott Las Colinas.

LR Tackles 5G & the Cloud at Cable-Tec Expo In an industry first, Light Reading will stage two breakfast forums on hot tech topics at next week's Cable-Tec Expo in New Orleans, the first on cable network virtualization and the second on cable's role in 5G.

AT&T Puts Intelligence in the Middle of the Edge AT&T is focused on building virtualization and intelligence into the customer edge and network edge for 5G applications.

CenturyLink: Network Infrastructure Is the Real Final Frontier NASA was trying to solve the same problems telcos now face when it launched the space shuttle Enterprise, 43 years ago Tuesday.

More Than Just Code: Open Networking Early Adopters Share Lessons Learned Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica and AT&T describe their experiences as open networking pioneers.

Comcast Taps 'Trellis' Open Fabric for Distributed Access Architecture The cable giant sees scalability, space and power efficiency as payoffs.

Podcast: Network Virtualization & Protein Bars We're packing our bags for Dallas, for our cleverly named Network Virtualization and SDN Americas conference, but first we sat down to talk about NV, SDN and our favorite travel snack.

AT&T on Track for 100% Core Network Virtualization Next Year AT&T hit a milestone virtualizing 75% of MPLS tunnel traffic on its core network, with 100% in its sights for 2020.

T-Mobile Poland's Sewera: Operators Need to Take Command Greater control of network software brings heightened responsibility, according to an executive from the Eastern European operator.

AT&T's Fuetsch: 'We Really Didn't Have a Choice' on Open Networking Increased network demand since the dawn of the smartphone era  up an astounding 470,000% since 2007  made network virtualization mandatory. Now, the carrier is deploying SDN-enabled broadband access as part of that transition.

ONF Debuts Open Source 'Stratum' Switch OS Stratum is the foundation for the ONF's next-generation SDN initiative.

Masergy Puts a 'Virtual Engineer' in Enterprise Networks Masergy provides an AI boost for enterprise network management.

Web-Scale Business Fuels Ciena's Growth but Stock Takes a Hit Transport gear and software vendor reports year-on-year revenue growth of more than 17% to $960.6 million, with a hefty chunk of revenues coming from web-scale customers, but investors reacted negatively to outlook.

For VMware, It's All About the Edge VMware is looking to the edge to seize its 5G opportunity.
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Podcast: 5G, Edge Computing Give SDN & NFV New Focus As the editors recap Light Reading's event series on network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN), technologies like 5G and edge computing arrive just in time to hurry the industry along its path to more modern networks and add plenty of drama.

Podcast: The NV & SDN Americas Recap Light Reading editors Mitch Wagner, Kelsey Ziser and Phil Harvey gathered to empty their notebooks and recap the NV & SDN event at the Dallas Marriott Las Colinas.

Podcast: The Fast-Moving World of SD-WAN Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser discusses the world of SD-WAN, why there are so many vendors and whether enterprise 'white glove' services are handled by butlers.

GSMA to Bring Standardization to NFVi Wild West A collaboration between the industry's largest trade group of mobile network operators and the preeminent open source consortium is aiming to simplify and harmonize dozens of NFVi efforts.

Cybereason details operation soft cell: A telco security disaster Security firm reveals an ongoing global attack against telecommunications providers that has been active since at least 2017 and involves a group believed to be working on behalf of the Chinese government.

Dish Network Aspires to Be America's Rakuten in 5G Despite analyst skepticism, Dish executives continue to argue that the company will be able to make a splash with a new, nationwide 5G network. And Japan's Rakuten appears to offer some evidence to support those claims.

Unified Office CEO: Would You Like Extra Services With That VoIP? CEO Ray Pasquale isn't in the VoIP business to lower the price of phone calls. He wants to give small businesses everything they need to know  from network analytics to pizza topping preferences  on one screen.

AT&T's Cloud Outlook Evolves Amid 5G Buildout AT&T's new mobile 5G network 'is our first deployment where we can really say that 5G was born in the cloud,' explained AT&T's Alicia Abella.

Digital Transformation: Telcos Face the Future How MEF's work impacts telco businesses, SD-WAN and digital transformation, from the perspectives of AT&T, PCCW and Verizon.

Powder Offering Powerful Wireless Testbed New project jointly funded by NSF and industry consortium brings the power of profiles and fast instantiation to testing of massive software projects.

Operators Using PoCs to Drive APIs to Market Faster Real-world experience using live networks in MEF proofs-of-concept is allowing operator members to shape technical specs faster.

MEF CTO Sees Key Role in Automation Pascal Menezes says defining key APIs between carriers and setting SD-WAN standards is MEF's way of helping drive automation and digital transformation process.

Analyst: SD-WAN Not Yet Zero-Touch Zero-touch provisioning and plug-and-play are still buzzwords where SD-WAN is concerned, but not reality, says VSG's Erin Dunne.

Orange Pushing Multivendor SD-WAN Orange Business Services is working with several vendors to develop multivendor SD-WAN expertise and counting on MEF application programming interfaces and definitions for SD-WAN to enable a single portal for its SD-WAN offering, says Franck Morales, vice president of marketing of connectivity services for Orange Business Services. In addition, its SD-WAN service will be built on four other pillars: native cloud connectivity, best-of-breed security, global services and future-proof solution.

Nokia Upgrades NFVi for Edge, Containers Also, for the first time the vendor is directly sourcing OpenStack from its open source community instead of using RedHat's version.

AT&T: App Focus Driving Enterprises to Managed SD-WAN SD-WAN is changing the way customers think about networking, from just routing packets appropriately to looking at application flows, and determining the best approach for each application, says Roman Pacewicz, chief product officer for AT&T.

F&S: Survey Shows Enterprises Prefer Managed SD-WAN Services Enterprises are shifting to a carrier-managed version of SD-WAN, with only about a quarter of companies preferring a DIY approach, says Roopa Honnachari, industry director, business services and cloud computing for Frost & Sullivan's ICT practice.

DT: Pan-Net Producing Multivendor Apps Almost four years into building its pan-European cloud, DT is 'very close' to finishing the infrastructure and is rolling out cloud-based multivendor apps.

Spectrum: SD-WAN Is Coming Soon, but It's Complicated Satya Parimi of Spectrum Enterprise, says managed SD-WAN services are coming shortly following trials that revealed the complexity of deploying this new service.
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VMware Wraps $2.1B Carbon Black Acquisition VMware says adding the endpoint security provider to its cloud stack will help network operators prevent attacks, rather than reacting to them.

ETSI Tackles AI Security New specification group at ETSI is 'exceptionally important,' says industry analyst.

Silver Peak Heats Up SD-WAN Telco Romance The SD-WAN vendor is looking to increase sales through service providers, as enterprises turn to SPs to outsource networking needs.

Aryaka Learns to Love SD-WAN Over the Public Internet Aryaka launches SD-WAN service over the public Internet for cases where 'best effort' is good enough for enterprise connectivity, complementing its existing global, private network that offers guaranteed SLAs.

Masergy's Watson: SD-WAN Is SDN's Killer App Enterprises demand SD-WAN from telcos, and SD-WAN won't work without SDN, says Ray Watson, Masergy's innovation VP.

Masergy Puts a 'Virtual Engineer' in Enterprise Networks Masergy provides an AI boost for enterprise network management.

Huawei: 'I Know What You Are, but What Am I?' After years of defending itself against US spying accusations, Huawei claims the US government is spying on it.

VMware Splashes $4.8B on Strategic Acquisitions VMware is bolstering its developer support and security capabilities with the acquisitions of Pivotal Software and Carbon Black.

Mobileum Parachutes Into 'New Ballgame' With $70M WeDo Takeover Private equity-backed roaming and security specialist has a new line-up of senior executives to manage a business that has just doubled in size.

Podcast: Prof. Nick Feamster Explains Machine Learning for Telcos Machine learning is primed to help service providers run more efficient and effective networks, but first the good ideas have to make their way from the lab to the real world  and that's a big challenge, according to the University of Chicago's Nick Feamster.

BICS Is Building a Global IoT Business The international carrier division of Belgium's Proximus is using its roaming network to develop an IoT business.

Juniper Debuts Security That Won't Slow You Down Juniper is integrating security into its high-performance MX routers and cSRX containerized firewall, to fit 5G and edge applications.

Microsoft teams with MSPs to hook enterprises into Azure Microsoft is partnering with eight managed service providers, including SD-WAN startup Aryaka, to connect enterprises with applications in the Azure cloud.

Colt CEO: US Customers Growing in the Cloud Colt CEO Carl Grivner said its business in the US  providing enterprise connectivity  is still growing thanks to continued enterprise cloud adoption.

Broadcom Set to Acquire Symantec  Reports A $15 billion deal is in the works, according to market speculation.

Protecting Enterprises From State-Sponsored Hackers Cloud service providers and network operators have the scale and talent to help protect enterprises from state-sponsored hacking attempts.

Cybereason details operation soft cell: A telco security disaster Security firm reveals an ongoing global attack against telecommunications providers that has been active since at least 2017 and involves a group believed to be working on behalf of the Chinese government.

Telcos: Security Is Not In Your DNA Telcos are in denial if they think they are security experts, says outspoken industry analyst Patrick Donegan.

Eurobites: Kudelski, Sequans Chip In on IoT Security Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: BT opens SOC in Paris; HMD Global sends user data to Google's cloud; Nokia beefs up leadership team, negotiates eco-loan.
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Latest TiVo-Comcast Patent Scrum Ends in Draw Both sides declare victory in mixed court opinion centered on a TiVo video search patent.

TiVo Debuts Pricey Connected DVR Lineup, Ad-Supported Streaming Service Company adds TiVo Edge models for cable customers and cord-cutters, tags content partners for soon-to-launch ad-based OTT service called TiVo+.

Looking Back: Comcast's Breakthrough X1 Video Service Turns 10 Whispers about Comcast's next-video platform began to spread a decade ago at Cable-Tec Expo in Denver. Here's a look back at its journey from a secretive project originally called 'Excalibur' to a widely deployed product under the X1 banner.

Comcast restores remote DVR recording function after TiVo patents expire TiVo counters expiration of two patents have 'no impact' on the company's licensing deals and reinstatement of feature is 'implicit admission' of value of TiVo's tech.

Another Cable Operator Gives Pay-TV the Heave-Ho Massachusetts municipal cable operator Beld Internet said 'out-of-control' programming costs left it no choice but to dump its pay-TV service and direct broadband subs to OTT options.

TiVo Rolling Out Skippable Pre-Roll Ads for Retail DVRs New ad inventory, to be inserted in front of DVR recordings, will be rolled out to eligible retail devices within 90 days, company says.

Comcast's Trojan Horse for Pay-TV Xfinity Flex, now offered for free to broadband-only subs, provides streaming apps and smart home capabilities  but it's also something else.

Cox also flexing its streaming muscles Cable op has quietly launched the Contour Stream Player, Cox's twist on Comcast's Xfinity Flex video streaming product for broadband-only subs.

Comcast offers 'Xfinity Flex' for free to broadband-only subs Video streaming platform features a video client, voice remote and integration with Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video and, soon, an upgrade path to Comcast's full pay-TV service.

Charter Taps Stephanie Mitchko as CTO Mitchko, a former Cadent exec and engineer who worked on Cablevision's pioneering remote-storage DVR service, succeeds the retired Jay Rolls.

Comcast snares set-top app specialist Metrological Comcast pulls more engineering and software development expertise in-house for its X1 and Xfinity Flex video and smart home platforms.

Charter Seeks Buy-In for Piracy Plan In addition to working with Disney, Charter is urging other programmers and MSOs to get behind a common set of 'authentication principles' designed to clamp down on password sharing, CFO says.

Orby TV Links Up With Eutelsat for New Prepaid Satellite TV Service Launched earlier this year, Orby TV's prepaid offering is renting transponder space to power a prepaid offering that starts at $40 per month.

Altice USA Loves What Locast Does, CEO Says A formal relationship has yet to materialize, but Altice USA's Dexter Goei confirms company has held talks with the embattled provider of OTT-delivered local broadcast TV.

Why CenturyLink Bought Streamroot Streamroot's peer-assisted CDN technology will help CenturyLink extend a video streaming bridge to hard-to-reach parts of the globe.

Apple TV+ to debut November 1, fetch $4.99 per month Apple to offer a free year of the new subscription VoD service with purchase of any new iPhone, Mac or Apple TV.

Broadcom Tunes Up Video Play for RDK Aiming to speed up service provider deployment cycles, Broadcom's new RDK-infused chips for video set-tops and gateways weave in new app framework and Metrological's App Store.

Comcast sparks streaming app for LG TVs Beta of Xfinity Stream app for LG supports Comcast's live TV, VoD and cloud DVR services and works on 4K and HD models from 2017 to 2019.

Amazon Stokes Up Fire TV Platform as Active Users Surpass 37M Amazon introduces 15 smart TVs that run Fire TV, alongside a new 'Cube' device with 4K and Dolby Vision support.
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EdgePresence Joins Rush to Build Mini Data Centers for Tower Companies EdgePresence is joining a number of other data center providers in looking to build mini data centers in locations around the country.

Crown Castle: No Plans for Edge Data Centers Crown Castle's CEO said he doesn't see edge computing data centers 'playing a significant role in our long-term strategy.' Crown Castle's main rivals, American Tower and SBA Communications, are taking a different path.

Eurobites: AWS Cloud Is a Drug, Says French Minister Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: UK skeptical on 5G; Brussels gets tough with Broadcom; giving small cells a makeover.

5G Signal Boosters Show Up Ahead of Regulations FCC regulations haven't yet caught up with startups' 5G plans.

Startup Celona Targets Private LTE & 5G for Enterprise Celona, a startup stemming from CommScope's purchase of Ruckus, is targeting the market for enterprises building their own private 5G and LTE wireless networks, eschewing WiFi.

ZenFi CEO: More Small Cells on the Way in NYC ZenFi's CEO says that 1000s more small cells are waiting to be approved in the NYC area.

Key Takeaways From 5G Transport & the Edge What were some of the key takeaways from Light Reading's 5G Transport & the Edge event in New York City? Two sober (just) editors chew the fat...

Eurobites: Cellnex buys Arqiva's towers unit for 2B Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Netcracker lands OSS deal with Deutsche Telekom; Nokia hopes to make squillions from Quillion chipset; Telia Norway goes all in with Ericsson for 5G RAN.

Like Politics, All 5G Is Local Denver city officials acknowledge that 5G could dramatically improve residents' lives, but ongoing concerns over permitting for and radiation from 5G cell sites remain obstacles.

Charter Envisions a Fixed Wireless Triple-Play With CBRS Charter's Craig Cowden expands on the MSO's interests and intentions involving the CBRS band and provides updates on the company's recent set of fixed wireless, mobile-facing 'dual-SIM' market trials.

Eurobites: Openreach Looks Further Down the Fiber Road Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone UK shares 4G spectrum to help bridge rural connectivity divide; Finnish president endures face-time with Trump to thrash out 5G options; smart lighting gets a bit smarter.

Alaska's Rakuten Preps for 4G Launch Japan's Rakuten isn't the only operator in the world building a new, greenfield wireless network with an open, software-powered architecture: OptimERA is working to do the same in a tiny part of Alaska.

Tower Visionary Marc Ganzi on 5G, Small Cells & Edge Computing Marc Ganzi is described as a 'leading visionary and entrepreneur' in his company's biography, and given his recent investments its easy to see why. Here's what he has to say about hot topics like 5G, build to relocate, small cells and edge computing.

GSMA Seeks Way to Boost RAN Vendor Options The industry body is concerned at the small number of radio access network (RAN) system vendors and is looking at ways to address that scarcity, says executive.

T-Mobile Relies on LTE for 5G Launch New tests of T-Mobile's 5G network in New York City raise plenty of questions about how exactly it works. However, the operator is pushing aside those questions and instead is embarking on a 5G advertising campaign against Verizon.

Operators May Move to Standalone 5G Faster Than Anticipated Operators continue to test their initial 5G networks, and are finding a number of surprises that could hasten changes like a move from non-standalone 5G to standalone 5G.

Verizon Eyes Intersection of Private Networks, CBRS, 5G & Edge Computing As Verizon's initial 3.5GHz CBRS deployments get going, the operator is looking toward a future that would combine private networks, CBRS, 5G and edge computing.

It's Time to Get Excited About 3.5GHz CBRS We're days away from initial commercial deployments in the 3.5GHz CBRS spectrum band, often called 'Goldilocks spectrum' because of its propagation characteristics. It certainly appears to be just right, given the diversity of initial commercial applications.

What to Expect From Altice Mobile Analysts expect Altice USA to collect 1.7 million mobile customers by 2023, and pay Sprint around $2.50 for each GB those customers consume.
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WiCipedia: Women in Tech Turn to TikTok to Expose Industry This week in our WiC roundup: When women don't apply to jobs; the new social media scene spreading the tech word (for better or for worse); the skills women need to get hired; and more.

WiCipedia: Silicon Valley's Vanity Problem This week in our WiC roundup: Melinda Gates makes moves for gender equality; getting highly paid people more money; Silicon Valley's issue with age and imperfection; and more.

Arista Buys SDN Pioneer Big Switch 'For a Song'  Sources Formerly glam SDN startup does the walk of shame.

WiCipedia: Nature vs. Nurture & the Moms at Work Dilemma This week in our WiC roundup: Men and women have the same brains; startups are less popular than you might think; flexibility for moms at work is not improving; and more.

CityFibre CEO: I'd welcome BT as a customer Shifting some of its business from Openreach to CityFibre would be a 'super smart' move by BT's directors, says Greg Mesch, as he eyes a much bigger role in the UK's national broadband market.

Vietnam makes big bet on homegrown 5G The country's biggest telecom operator is set to launch a 5G network based on technology it developed internally.

WiCipedia: CES Recap, Salary Reveals & Outdated Advertising This week in our WiC roundup: Ivanka's CES keynote goes off 'without a hitch'; sharing salary info is the new talking about sex; advertisers keep tripping over their own shoelaces; and more.

WiCipedia: Ivanka Trump's CES Keynote & Male Bosses Promote Men More This week in our WiC roundup: CES picked a controversial keynoter; female founders snagged under 3% of VC funding last year  an all-time high; is learning to code enough?; and more.

WiCipedia: Flexible Work Priorities, Next-Level VC & Top Women in Tech This week in our WiCipedia roundup: Flexible work is a must-have for many women; Ada Ventures takes VC to a new level of equal opportunity; Telefonica raises ratio of women on board to 30% (and barely mentions it); and more.

WiCipedia: Glass Ceiling Justice, Tech on TV & the Dark Ages of Advertising This week in our WiC roundup: Women take companies to court in droves over unfair pay; TV isn't done with tech parodies; is the glass ceiling getting lower?; and more.

WiCipedia: Cultivating Confidence for Speaking Gigs, 2020 Predictions & Too Many Marks This week in our WiC roundup: Harlem Capital raises cash for minority founders; female speakers claim their worth; more women will join tech in the new year; and more.

WiCipedia: Queen of Code, Leadership Sexism & Unicorns vs. Zebras This week in our WiC roundup: Barbara Liskov reigns as queen of code; female leaders don't have support, even from women; zebras push unicorns aside; and more.

CableLabs Mothballs Its Startup Incubator After a three-year run, the R&D organization has halted its 'Fiterator' program for startups amid bigger changes underway at CableLabs's UpRamp unit.

WiCipedia: Startup School Scholarships, Losing Lena & UK Pay Discrepancies This week in our WiC roundup: A new startup school offers scholarships for women; the humble JPEG has a sordid past; UK pay is falling behind for minorities; and more.

WiCipedia: AI's Data Mining Bias & Small Conferences Take More Risks This week in our WiC roundup: Smaller conferences have edge; Hidden Figures ladies formally celebrated; AI is sexist; and more.

Democrats Press FCC on Carriers' Sale of User Location Data A group of representatives in the House Energy and Commerce Committee reiterate request for a report from the FCC on wireless network operators' sale of customers' location information.

WiCipedia: Tech Falls High in Happiness Index & the Blue Collar-AI Struggle This week in our WiC roundup: Techies are pretty dang happy at work; AI's effect on female blue-collar workers; college students are majority female though tech workforce lags; and more.

Startup Volterra Takes On VMware, Red Hat With Its Multi-Cloud Pitch Volterra has $50 million funding in its pocket and a platform designed to enable operators and enterprises to deploy applications and network services across multi-cloud environments.

WiCipedia: Waffles for Brains, MWC Female Keynoters & Tech Decision Makers This week in our WiC roundup: Mobile World Congress LA releases stats on female speakers; Ernst & Young reveals blast-from-the-past training program; women are feeling less uncomfortable at work; and more.
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Ciena Agrees to Buy Centina, Keeps Kicking OSS Ciena's latest acquisition is another piece of a larger back office puzzle for carriers, but the vendor said it's not aiming to become the new OSS stack.

Podcast: Where 5G May Be in 5 Years Ovum Chief Analyst Ed Barton talks to Light Reading's Ray Le Maistre about the services and opportunities 5G unlocks for consumers  and what new capabilities are just around the corner.

What to Expect From Altice Mobile Analysts expect Altice USA to collect 1.7 million mobile customers by 2023, and pay Sprint around $2.50 for each GB those customers consume.

Is There a Payoff for Free Wireless? Several wireless providers, including Sprint, T-Mobile and FreedomPop, have toyed with 'free' service offerings. However, the freemium business model appears tricky to implement.

Guavus Takes Jio's Big Data Challenge Jio's competitive market, fast growth and expanding customer base present some interesting machine learning and analytics challenges for Guavus, its newly announced analytics partner.

How Airtel Sri Lanka Revamped Its BSS For any operator, revamping an entire business support system (BSS) architecture in just six months and cutting IT opex by 80% as a result is a notable achievement.

Podcast: ClearSky Data CEO Ellen Rubin Knows Where Your Data Is Ellen Rubin joins the Light Reading podcast to discuss edge computing and the new need for data management in more places as the world goes from static storage to mobile, multicloud madness.

MobiTV's Bill Routt: Amazon to Stoke Pay-TV Partnerships With Fire TV MobiTV's president and COO says Amazon is 'really engaging' with plans to optimize and customize its streaming platform for the pay-TV operator market.

Why CSG Is Betting on Blockchain New lab backed by CSG to focus on how blockchain tech can streamline global roaming deals, inter-carrier agreements and possibly settlements between pay-TV and OTT services.

Eurobites: Ireland's eir Plows 500M Into Fixed-Line Network Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: TIM collaborates with Corning; Tele2's Q4; prepaid mobile in developing economies; Kudelski forges IoT partnership.

Unified Office CEO: Would You Like Extra Services With That VoIP? CEO Ray Pasquale isn't in the VoIP business to lower the price of phone calls. He wants to give small businesses everything they need to know  from network analytics to pizza topping preferences  on one screen.

Fade to Black: UltraViolet to Shut Its Digital Locker on July 31 New options and 'market factors' lead to decision to shut down UltraViolet as studio-backed Movies Anywhere service gains traction with digital retailers and pay-TV operators.

Verizon Quietly Builds a Completely Cloud-Based Wireless Service There's a customer-facing story to Verizon's Visible efforts. But on the backend, the story is perhaps even more interesting.

Why CenturyLink's Network Suffered a Christmas Hangover A 'bonkers' network management card had too much eggnog and caused a wave of service outages, including 9-1-1 service, in several states for several days during the last week of 2018.

CableLabs unit morphs something old into something new Kyrio has turned Go2Broadband service locator into a digital, hyperlocal service locator for cable resellers with plans to extend that capability to other service-oriented industries.

Altice USA's 'Full' MVNO Puts It in SIM City Operating the core network and owning the SIM card will lead to lower churn, pave the path to more control of the service and offer other benefits, CEO says.

Vewd aims to give pay-TV ops more command and control of Android TV boxes Says stitching Vewd OS to devices running the Android TV Operator Tier platform enables service providers to personalize and customize the UI and pre-load apps from outside the Google Play universe.

Spirent Making Big New Promises Veteran test and measurement firm seeks more strategic role in service assurance, 5G rollouts and cybersecurity.

NetScout Data to Power IBM CEM Service assurance software company to provide continuous network data and analytics for smarter IBM analytics to CSPs.
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Eurobites: Dennelind Lands CEO Role at Du Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: It's crunch time for Apple versus the EU; Infinera deployed for Greece-Italy link; TIM gets new multimedia boss; why Netflix should be worried.

Acacia Ups the Coherent Ante Optical module specialist makes a mark with its latest product that will give parent-to-be Cisco something to smile about.

Eurobites: Ericsson's Ekholm Tells Employees He's Going Nowhere Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Dominique Leroy leaves Proximus for KPN and massive pay rise; TIM and Ericsson test cloud-native 5G network; Telenor's merger with Axiata is off.

Web-Scale Business Fuels Ciena's Growth but Stock Takes a Hit Transport gear and software vendor reports year-on-year revenue growth of more than 17% to $960.6 million, with a hefty chunk of revenues coming from web-scale customers, but investors reacted negatively to outlook.

Pressure on Huawei Shifts Closer to Home The US campaign to pressure others into snubbing Huawei has had an impact in Vietnam and has now also moved underwater.

Eurobites: Vodafone UK Challenges Ofcom Over Openreach Ruling Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson invests in Polish plant; Sparkle launches Italy-UAE roaming link; Telia takes on the Baltic's poisonous algae.

Eurobites: Broadpeak Raises 10M From Eutelsat Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone UK fires up 5G; Nokia's 5G factory lights the way ahead; BT to launch 5G in the fall; Google invests in Lisbon-Cape Town cable.

NTT Revamps to Form Single Giant Global Service Provider Japanese operator pulls together multiple units to form a single international ICT service provider with annual revenues of $11 billion.

Eurobites: Fastweb & Wind Tre Join Forces on 5G in Italy Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Sparkle begins work on photonic backbone; Openet nabs more Ericsson talent; EU probes Broadcom; Huawei hits the road.

Small Cell Future for Ex-BDAC Chair Former Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee chair Jacqueline Pierce has been jailed for five years for defrauding investors during her time as CEO of Alaska-based telecom company Quintillion.

Eurobites: O2 Signs Up to the Connected Carpool Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson bigwig can't understand the UK's approach to Huawei; Huawei claims its smartphone sales are on the rise in western Europe; Telxius and DE-CIX cuddle up.

Cloud Bursts: Another Fine Mesh From Microsoft Also: Palo Alto Networks acquired Twistlock and PureSec, for container and serverless security, respectively; Google connects Australia and Southeast Asia with subsea cable; VMware and Dell report earnings.

A Coherent Take on NGON & DCI World Heavy Reading's optical guru Sterling Perrin highlights some key trends from the NGON & DCI World event in Nice, including 'Beyond Coherent,' what 400ZR really means for the market, the latest on 5G transport and the FUDfest that is Huawei.

Follow the Money: Optical Trends From NGON 2019 The opening sessions of this year's NGON & DCI World event in Nice focused on money matters and automation but there was little appetite to discuss the impact of global trade tensions and the US clampdown on Huawei's supply line.

Nokia Suffers 5G Blues in Q1, Stock Slumps When the CEO and CFO say the quarter was 'weak,' you know it was bad: investors agreed.

Google Sets Sail for Bandwidth Breakthrough Google looks likely to be first to commercial implementation of technology called space-division multiplexing (SDM) for significant bandwidth improvements.

Eurobites: Orange Invests 3M in DevOps Startup Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange tackles fake news; Liquid Telecom Kenya chooses Nokia for OTN/DWDM upgrade; Trondheim intends to be a 5G early adopter.

Optical Networks for the Next Decade The ON2020 group is looking to address the optical transport challenges presented by the predicted surge in user traffic on carrier networks.

Eurobites: Merkel & Huawei Hit Back at US Ambassador Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: UK sets out plan to curb online giants; Telia Carrier and Telxius combine on capacity; Deutsche Telekom tackles cybersecurity on connected cars.
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TIP admits open RAN integration is fiendish but hopes to fix it The Facebook-led group wants to use a chunk of NTIA funding to help reduce open RAN's need for systems integrators.

LG demos 320-meter wireless reach over tricky THz terrain LG claims the industry is 'one step closer' to realizing 6G speeds of 1 Tbit/s in both indoor and outdoor urban areas.

MEF's Stan Hubbard on accelerating automation with APIs One way service providers are reducing manual processes and moving forward with network automation is by adopting MEF's Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) Sonata APIs.

Plume CTO on why Amazon has the inside track on IoT brand loyalty Plume's Bill McFarland on how home network data shows how IoT brands perform and why IoT support and management is a critical to broadband service strategies.

US mobile network quality declines, but helped by 5G  study Overall quality issues climbed in the latest J.D. Power 'US Wireless Network Quality Performance Study,' which found that Verizon Wireless ranked the highest in five of the six regions evaluated.

Eurobites: Swisscom tests 50G PON on live network Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia goes with Infovista for network testing; Synamedia buys Quortex; Zayo cuts ribbon on new subsea route.

AT&T, Dish and CableLabs lead O-RAN Alliance efforts in US AT&T and Dish hosted the O-RAN Alliance's testing efforts earlier this year, while CableLabs' Kyrio unit will open the alliance's first Open Test and Integration Center (OTIC) in the Americas.

5G Open Innovation Lab links enterprises to new business benefactors The Lab is facilitating research and development of a number of 5G use cases around smart farming, AR for healthcare, mmWave and private networks and manufacturing.

ACA Connects urges FCC to avoid 'extraneous requirements' for new broadband labels Group that represents small and midsized broadband service providers suggests its constituents will need a year or more to comply with the new rules due to the operational complexities involved.

Average data consumption eclipses half a terabyte per month  OpenVault Latest data usage milestone enters the frame as broadband service operators continue to unleash and expand the reach of multi-gigabit speed tiers.

Eurobites: Vodafone turns to Oracle for 5G policy management Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia signs LTE450 deal; Telefonica Tech uses drones for maintenance; Openreach automates testing with Viavi.

Verizon's Frontline team suits up for Super Bowl LVI Cory Davis provides an on-site video tour of Verizon's network-monitoring command center in SoFi Stadium at Super Bowl LVI.

OpenVault nabs VelociData to fuel pursuit of Tier 1s, global expansion OpenVault says deal adds scale to its data collection capabilities for cable, fiber and wireless networks, and puts the company in position to offer capacity-enhancing services to MSOs that have deployed DOCSIS 3.1.

Telefonica turns to Wipro for 5GC automation in Germany, Brazil If all goes to plan, Spanish group will then roll out Indian tech firm's CI/CD/CT solution to Spain and the UK.

AST SpaceMobile warns of possible launch delays AST SpaceMobile had hoped to launch another satellite on a SpaceX rocket sometime early next year. But the company warned it might need 'additional time for ... testing and final launch preparation.'

Infovista plays to the crowd with AI-based 5G RAN planning Specialist in network lifecycle automation promises operators more efficient 5G network planning using crowdsourced data.

Nokia Deepfield CTO: How DDoS attacks are changing Just as connectivity is becoming more critical during the pandemic, the nature and types of DDoS attacks are more dangerous than ever, according to Nokia Deepfield's Craig Labovitz.

Mobile network drive-test market ups a gear with 5G  report Frost & Sullivan finds knock-on benefits for suppliers of drive-testing equipment as rollout of 5G NR gathers pace.

CableLabs unit gets flexible with DOCSIS device testing Kyrio, a unit of CableLabs, has broken down the walled garden of DOCSIS testing with FlexTest, a service that enables vendors to run more granular, individual tests much earlier in the product development cycle.
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Nice Work If You Can Get It... It's a tough job talking about telco transformation on the French Riviera in May, but someone's got to do it... so what are the big talking points from the TM Forum's Digital Transformation World event in Nice, France?

RFP Process No Longer Fit for Purpose  Report Outdated telco IT procurement processes cost industry more than $1 billion per year, according to findings of a report from industry body TM Forum, which asks if it's time to kill the RFP.

Taking Control of the Telco Transformation Digital warriors from major telcos gathered at a recent Action Week organized by the TM Forum to find out how their peers are building new IT architectures that encourage service development and innovation.

TM Forum sea-change overcomes that sinking feeling The industry association now dedicated to digital transformation answers some of its critics with a well-received show in Nice.

TM Forum, ONAP to Meet in Beijing TM Forum says its open APIs will be included in the next version of the ONAP platform.

Telus CTO: NFV Burden May Cripple Telcos Canadian operator says exorbitant software maintenance fees and a bigger operations team is undermining the cost attractions of NFV.

Automatic for the Operations People Robotic process automation (RPA) combined with AI can significantly increase the scope for automation in telecom service operations.

Confessions of a TM Forum Live! Virgin Heavy Reading's eight key takeaways from the TM Forum's annual jamboree in Nice.

AT&T to Flog Smart City Tech to Other Carriers US carrier unveils plan to develop smart-city offerings that it will provide to other service providers.

Ericsson's Ewaldsson Takes Aim at Telco 'Conservatism' The boss of Ericsson's recently created digital services division is aiming for a 2018 turnaround of the ailing business.

BSS Is BS, Says KPN Tech Boss Billing systems are unnecessary, says KPN's CTO, despite the billions that have been invested in them.

TM Forum Unveils New App to Aid Telco Transformation The industry association hopes a new digital tool will improve the success rate of digital transformation projects.

Ericsson Eyes Takeovers to Bolster Digital Services Unit Swedish vendor says it is thinking of takeovers that could make it the 'partner of choice' in the digital era, and aims for a 'tangible turnaround' at its digital services business next year.

Open Source an 'Overrated Necessity,' Says PCCW Hong Kong operator draws attention to the shortcomings of open source technology.

Automating NetOps for a 5G World The major topic of discussion at Nokia's Network Management Breakfast, held in Nice during TM Forum Live 2016, was the automation of network operations to support 5G.

Orange CIO Faced Board Concern on Digitalization Orange's Group CIO has shared details of the company's digitalization strategy as it focuses on the Internet of Things and mobile banking opportunities.

EXCLUSIVE: Sigma Lines Up Ontology Acquisition OSS/BSS specialist Sigma Systems is closing in on the acquisition of semantic search and data gathering specialist Ontology to further boost its appeal to network operators.

Building Up Digital Operations: Pics At the TM Forum Live! 2016 in Nice, France, executives from service providers and others shared their views on the emerging Digital Operations Ecosystem.

9 Global Telcos Back Open APIs Scheme Nine of the world's biggest service providers hope to realize major business benefits from the use of Open APIs.
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Leading Lights 2019 Finalists: Most Innovative Business Cloud Service Colt Technology Services, Comcast Business and Vonage all had stand-out cloud service offerings for business customers in the past 12 months.

Unified Office CEO: Would You Like Extra Services With That VoIP? CEO Ray Pasquale isn't in the VoIP business to lower the price of phone calls. He wants to give small businesses everything they need to know  from network analytics to pizza topping preferences  on one screen.

Eurobites: Ofcom Investigates VoIP Operator Vonage Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: TI Sparkle appoints key execs; Etisalat goes with Netcracker's NFV knowhow; Russian cable news.

Leading Lights: Only Days Left to Enter! Never mind the days, there are only HOURS remaining before the door closes on this year's Leading Lights awards deadline...

Sonus Cuts a New Shape as Ribbon Communications With the Genband merger process over, Sonus has decided it's time for a new name. Say hello to Ribbon Communications.

'For Sale' Rumor Lights Fire Under Broadsoft's Stock Share price jumps 11.5% Wednesday following reports of a planned sale, but Broadsoft isn't the only IP communications platform player looking for a buyer.

Windstream Launches Combined UC & SD-WAN Service Windstream launched the first update to its Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solutions portfolio, which includes the addition of Broadview's OfficeSuite paired with the operator's SD-WAN platform.

Eurobites: Vodafone Signs Up to Open Source IoT Group Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: T-Mobile Austria picks Huawei for optical transport boost; TrueSpeed wins investment for rural rollout; BT qualifies to bid for US government work.

MetTel: SD-WAN Ramp-Up 'Astronomical' MetTel's VP of Network Services, Ed Fox, shares insight into the spike in demand for SD-WAN and the challenges of meeting that demand.

Sonus & Genband Finally Combine to Form $745M Company Genband & Sonus to finally merge, as exclusively predicted by Light Reading a year ago.

Versa Branches Out SD-WAN Offering Versa announced the expansion of its SD-WAN platform to include new security functions, support of WiFi, Ethernet and LTE and third-party VNF hosting.

Versa Adds IPv6 Support to SD-WAN Suite Versa Networks' SD-WAN and SD-Security solutions now support both IPv4 and IPv6-based SD-WANs.

The Impact of the Web-Scale Giants The web-scale Internet companies are having a significant influence on the telecom infrastructure equipment and services sector in a number of different ways, explains Heavy Reading Chief Analyst Patrick Donegan.

Sonus Snaps Up Taqua for $20M Sonus adds to its IP voice technology capabilities and enhances its NFV plans with the acquisition of Taqua, but will stop short of renaming itself Staqua.

Eurobites: BT, Nokia Buddy Up on 5G In today's regional roundup: BT and Nokia become 5G buddies; Swisscom runs a steady ship as it shifts towards all IP and ultra-broadband; an eye-watering 20 Gbit/s broadband service is announced in UAE; and Deutsche Telekom reviews its corporate ethics.

CSPs Shift SMB Mindset From Capex to Opex Rather than selling services to SMBs that rely heavily on capex, CSPs are shifting the model to opex through network-as-a-service models.

Light Reading Beyond Light Reading today starts a new voyage as part of a larger Enterprise.

Genband & Sonus Deep in Merger Talks? A buyout would value Sonus at around $600M, but there are still hurdles to be jumped before a deal is done.

Leading Lights 2016: There's Still Time There's still time to enter this year's Leading Lights awards -- here are the details you need.
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Podcast: What's Changing in the Competitive World of SD-WAN Our series on the state of the SD-WAN market continues with a discussion on what's holding back some companies in the space and how standards and new technologies are advancing the cause of SD-WAN.

NTT Revamps to Form Single Giant Global Service Provider Japanese operator pulls together multiple units to form a single international ICT service provider with annual revenues of $11 billion.

Leading Lights 2019 Finalists: Most Innovative Business Cloud Service Colt Technology Services, Comcast Business and Vonage all had stand-out cloud service offerings for business customers in the past 12 months.

Podcast: Building Smarter Cities In this podcast, Light Reading's Alan Breznick interviews US Ignite's Mari Silbey. Silbey, a former Light Reading editor, talks about bringing local governments and tech companies together to share smart city plans, infrastructure needs and new applications.

Unified Office CEO: Would You Like Extra Services With That VoIP? CEO Ray Pasquale isn't in the VoIP business to lower the price of phone calls. He wants to give small businesses everything they need to know  from network analytics to pizza topping preferences  on one screen.

Eurobites: French Regulator Fines Google 50M for Overstepping the GDPR Mark Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Com Hem launches mobile offer; TomTom sells Telematics unit to Bridgestone; more Huawei heebie-jeebies.

Robocall Fix Not a Silver Bullet Shaken/Stir holds promise to authenticate calls and improve blocking services, but there are challenges and complexities to consider.

Can Telecom Ward Off Robocall Regs? As the volume of annoying robocalls continues to rise, an industry-wide effort to authenticate calls across carriers hopes to satisfy regulators.

Court Upholds Sprint's Victory in Old Patent Spat With TWC Decision arrives more than a year after a court ordered TWC to pay Sprint almost $140 million.

Can 5G Spur Biz Where Tax Reform Failed? Enterprises have more cash but still move cautiously on next-gen services, says Verizon CFO, but 5G holds great promises for businesses.

How Cablecos Can Turn From Victims to Victors In this last of a three-blog series, we will explore the potential for cable operators and other broadband providers to work with their OTT and access rivals.

Behind the Scenes at Disney's StudioLAB Disney is using tech from Cisco and other partners to reach consumers in new ways. We take you behind-the-scenes at the StudioLAB, where Disney execs explain how 5G networks will unlock new opportunities in storytelling and content distribution.

Get Off My Wireline Lawn! Consumers are now shifting away from wireline for broadband, as well as for phone, as more people either prefer wireless access or don't really care.

FCC Poised to Gut '96 Telecom Act Smaller ISPs head to DC to fight for continued access to unbundled loops but compromise by large incumbents may spell doom for UNEs.

Blocking China Mobile: Trump Team Is Missing a Trick Donald Trump's administration is denying China Mobile a US comms license on security grounds, but there's a much better reason to deny the giant Chinese operator access to the US market.

Tackling the Fiber & CEM Gaps Spectrum Enterprise chief Phil Meeks spells out how his cable unit is addressing the connectivity and customer experience needs of businesses.

AT&T CFO: Business Revenues Bouncing Back John Stephens tells financial analysts there's a positive trend in AT&T's business revenues, even with another quarterly decline.

Eurobites: Ofcom Investigates VoIP Operator Vonage Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: TI Sparkle appoints key execs; Etisalat goes with Netcracker's NFV knowhow; Russian cable news.

Leading Lights: Only Days Left to Enter! Never mind the days, there are only HOURS remaining before the door closes on this year's Leading Lights awards deadline...
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With ZTE Equipment, Pine Belt's 4G Upgrades Hit 'Complete Standstill' Pine Belt, a tiny wireless network operator in rural Alabama, is considering getting out of the business entirely amid US concerns over the security of its ZTE-supplied LTE network.

As 3G Shutdown Looms, AT&T's Cricket Will Require VoLTE Phones AT&T's Cricket Wireless prepaid brand is soon going to prevent customers from activating older phones that don't support VoLTE technology. The move is part of AT&T's efforts to shut down its 3G network.

5G Boosting Revenue but Proving Complex to Manage, Says SKT 5G has come with business benefits for the South Korean operator but also led to more operational complexity.

Another Tiny Wireless Operator Is Launching 5G Nex-Tech Wireless, which serves parts of Kansas and Colorado, will use equipment from Ericsson to launch 5G. The announcement again shines light on rural US operators that use Huawei equipment.

Leading Lights 2019 Finalists: Most Innovative Business Cloud Service Colt Technology Services, Comcast Business and Vonage all had stand-out cloud service offerings for business customers in the past 12 months.

Can RingCentral Stay Ahead of the UCaaS Chasing Pack? Its sales growth and stock market performance are an investor's dream, but new challenges are emerging in the fast-changing UCaaS market.

Vodafone's Holo Demo Dazzles Crowd, But Is It a Viable 5G Use Case? Demonstrated with gusto at Vodafone's headquarters this week, holographic calling might just be the killer application that 5G craves.

Eurobites: MTN Manages H1 Growth, Despite Headwinds Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson and Vivacom do VoLTE in Bulgaria; Telefonica's Aura gaining users; Brit Internet trends.

Ovum Survey Shocker: OTT Video Calling Is More Popular Than OTT Voice Mobile operators may find that all their investments in VoLTE and RCS are for naught as OTT providers win and they are left monetizing the data pipe.

Petty's Grievances: The 5G Hopes & Fears of Vodafone UK's CTO The dark fiber stink, baseband software hold-ups and a virtualization impasse are just a few of the problems facing Vodafone UK as it prepares to launch 5G.

Mavenir's Billion-Dollar Blueprint Ambitious software-only messaging and mobile core applications specialist targets major equipment vendors as it aims to become a billion-dollar business within four years.

5G Will Change How Your Smartphone Is Designed 5G smartphones using millimeter wave antennna arrays will be susceptible to so-called human blockage. Stupid humans!

Eurobites: Spotify's IPO Is a Hit Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Fox proposes Sky News sell-off; poles not towers for MTN Nigeria; MTS offers VoLTE and WiFi calling.

Eurobites: BT Openreach Introduces 'Virtual' Dark Fiber Also in todays EMEA regional roundup: BT launches WiFi calling and VoLTE; Telefonica, Microsoft partner on IoT; VEON scraps GTH move; Telia sells Spotify stake.

Leading Lights: Only Days Left to Enter! Never mind the days, there are only HOURS remaining before the door closes on this year's Leading Lights awards deadline...

Telstra Automates, Builds Out Distributed Cloud to Support 5G Australian operator is converting local exchanges into mini data centers and introducing multiple automated processes as it prepares to introduce 5G services in 2019, say key executives.

Eurobites: Nokia Goes Cloud-Native With China Unicom Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: BT sanguine over Premier League soccer rights; new faces at MVNO Europe; another deal for Digpro.

Ribbon Cuts Ties With Ray Dolan, Names New CEO Ribbon, the newly named mash-up of Sonus and Genband, cuts ties with ex-Sonus boss Dolan and names Fritz Hobbs its new president and CEO.

AT&T's Lurie Leaps to Synchronoss as New CEO The former AT&T Mobility CEO fetches up at messaging specialist Synchronoss.
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OTT-TV Latency Gap Starting to Close Suppliers at NAB 2019 are pushing upgrades and enhancements to streaming video workflows that establish delay-parity between traditional broadcast TV feeds and TV signals delivered over-the-top.

Limelight Tries to Lick Latency for Live OTT Video Claims that its new Realtime Streaming system can deliver 'sub-second' latency on live, Internet-delivered video streams.

Masergy Tidies Up UCaaS Collaboration New Hub option pulls together contextual information from multiple places, including social media, IMs, emails and chats.

Can Carriers Make Money on CPaaS? Twilio and the like are cleaning up selling communications platform as-a-service offerings  two vendors say CSPs can as well.

Will Messaging Market Leave Telecom Behind? Chatbot and messaging platform entrepreneur warns that telecom network operators are about to be left behind if they don't move quickly on RCS.

8x8 Creates UC, Collaboration Cloud New service combines existing UC and contact center services with integration to cloud apps and newly acquired messaging interoperability.

Heavy Reading: The Web-Scale View Patrick Donegan, former Heavy Reading chief analyst, shares insight from his recent web-scale operators report.

Google, Facebook Gaining Network Equipment Clout Landmark Heavy Reading report explores the rise of web-scale Internet companies as networking powerhouses, and what it means for network equipment vendors.

Siris Capital Takes Xura Private in $643M Deal Xura, formerly known as Comverse, has been acquired by Siris Capital Group for $643 million.

Light Reading Beyond Light Reading today starts a new voyage as part of a larger Enterprise.

Leading Lights 2016 Finalists: Private Company of the Year Affirmed Networks, Masergy Communications, VeEX and Versa Networks are the four contenders for this title.

Leading Lights 2016: There's Still Time There's still time to enter this year's Leading Lights awards -- here are the details you need.

Leading Lights Deadline Looms Hurry up folks -- you've got only days to hit the entry deadline for this year's Leading Lights awards.

Leading Lights Awards 2016 - Open for Business Was 2015 a standout year for your company? Then you should enter the industry's most prestigious awards program - it really does have something for everyone!

WebRTC's Risks & Rewards: Listen Up, C-Suite While most enterprises are probably not ready for WebRTC today, there is clearly great value to be gained for the right use case.

Genband Axes Its President of Global Sales CMO Patrick Joggerst will serve as President of Global Sales & Marketing in an effort to better align the company's sales and marketing organizations, the company says.

VoLTE: It's Not Just About Voice Exact Ventures forecasts that the overall market for IMS core networking equipment will grow by 30% in 2016 to reach $3 billion as VoLTE drives investments.

Atos Enters UC Fray With $371M Unify Bid Atos is making a play in the growing market for unified communications offerings with a takeover of Siemens' Unify business.

Comverse Unveils New Name & Digital Attitude After divesting its BSS business and acquiring Acision, Comverse is renaming itself Xura and renewing its push to be a leading digital services provider.
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Why AT&T's latest open source contribution matters AT&T has shared its distributed router specifications with the Open Compute Project and a leading disruptive data networking startup is flagging its support for the model.

Podcast: What's Changing in the Competitive World of SD-WAN Our series on the state of the SD-WAN market continues with a discussion on what's holding back some companies in the space and how standards and new technologies are advancing the cause of SD-WAN.

AT&T's Chokshi: Why Carriers Need Disaggregation at the Edge AT&T's Rupesh Chokshi says the case for disaggregated routers at the edge goes beyond the usual examples of increased business agility, network visibility and performance.

Will Standards Lessen SD-WAN's Growing Pains? Ovum and Heavy Reading explain how MEF has stepped in to create SD-WAN specifications to provide clarity in the market, and how this service definition could impact the industry.

Kontron Scoops Up Open Source Software Provider Inocybe Kontron will combine its white box hardware with Inocybe's open source software, including its open source SDN controller and other software.

Coriant Makes White Box Bid Known for mobile backhaul routers, the vendor is making a bid for a bigger piece of the router pie in the era of white boxes.

Capex Growth Will Double for Internet Content Providers OTT and cloud companies will grow their capex by 100% over the next five years, according to Ovum. That will have them soon spending more on infrastructure than fixed-line telcos.

Even for Virtualized Networks, Hardware Vendor Choice Matters Mobile operators moving to virtualized networking for 5G infrastructure need to carefully consider the motivations behind the move and make the right choices at every step along the way.

DANOS Fuels AT&T's White Box Binge Operator announces 60,000 white boxes will be deployed using DANOS, a new open source OS built on AT&T seed code.

Leading Lights: Only Days Left to Enter! Never mind the days, there are only HOURS remaining before the door closes on this year's Leading Lights awards deadline...

PON, 5G & the Case for Convergence 5G may finally be driving the business case for fixed mobile convergence.

AT&T's Rice: White Box OS a Team Effort New open source group may not be as dependent on AT&T-produced code, says top exec.

AT&T Offers Up White Box Operating System Latest initiative aimed at speeding up white box deployment by creating an architecture that encompasses entire ecosystem.

OEMs: Reliance Jio Wants Only Your Software RJio prefers to go directly to ODMs for hardware, which means OEMs become pure software vendors whether they like it or not.

Open Source Upheaval Could Finish Off 'Traditional' Vendors The adoption of open source technologies by the industry's telcos could spell the demise of its equipment suppliers in their current role.

Edge Computing: AT&T's Next Big Play? CTO says mobile operators are uniquely positioned to deliver the distributed cloud computing power next-gen apps will require.

Verizon: Get the Gray Out Network operator learns the hard way that enterprise customers know what a real white box is and won't settle for less.

AT&T Takes Charge With Vyatta OS Buy Network operator will own the Vyatta operating system and software for both white box and cloud-based VNFs by acquiring Brocade technology.

AT&T White Box a Disruptive Force AT&T's new white box switches bring a new range of exciting services while also posing a threat to traditional OEMs.
All News & Views

Why AT&T's latest open source contribution matters AT&T has shared its distributed router specifications with the Open Compute Project and a leading disruptive data networking startup is flagging its support for the model.

ONF Debuts Open Source 'Stratum' Switch OS Stratum is the foundation for the ONF's next-generation SDN initiative.

Smokey & the NFV Bandit NFV has many naysayers, but it's alive, kicking and thriving, with SD-WAN as a significant catalyst.

Podcast: What's Changing in the Competitive World of SD-WAN Our series on the state of the SD-WAN market continues with a discussion on what's holding back some companies in the space and how standards and new technologies are advancing the cause of SD-WAN.

Podcast: The Fast-Moving World of SD-WAN Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser discusses the world of SD-WAN, why there are so many vendors and whether enterprise 'white glove' services are handled by butlers.

AT&T's Chokshi: Why Carriers Need Disaggregation at the Edge AT&T's Rupesh Chokshi says the case for disaggregated routers at the edge goes beyond the usual examples of increased business agility, network visibility and performance.

Arrcus Scores $30M & Takes Network 'Democratization' to the Edge Arrcus is extending its architecture from the data center to the edge, using high-density 100G/400G white box networking hardware based on Broadcom Jericho2 processors.

Will Standards Lessen SD-WAN's Growing Pains? Ovum and Heavy Reading explain how MEF has stepped in to create SD-WAN specifications to provide clarity in the market, and how this service definition could impact the industry.

Dell Technologies Has a New CTO Ihab Tarazi has left Packet to become CTO of Networking and Solutions at Dell Technologies.

Volta Bigs Up Its Cloud Router, Claims 90% Savings vs Legacy Volta claims that moving routing intelligence to the cloud and running white boxes can slash costs compared with legacy equipment.

Orange Taps Dell for 5G Transformation Orange and Dell will collaborate on a distributed cloud architecture for 5G cloud networking.

AT&T: White Boxes Online in Toronto & London  76 Countries & 400G Planned AT&T already has white box networking deployed in Toronto and London, with a lot more to come, says CTO Andre Fuetsch.

White Box Doubts Keep Huawei on Outside of O-RAN Alliance Huawei rules out any immediate involvement in the O-RAN Alliance as it doubts the viability of white box radios.

Cloud-Native Router Startup DriveNets Banks $110M, Takes On Cisco et al. Vendor already has Tier 1 traction, a founder with track record of disruption, the backing of Bessemer and has Cisco, Juniper, Huawei and Nokia in its sights.

CPU Selection for uCPE Is About More Than Architecture ADVA's Prayson Pate looks at the key considerations when selecting the compute foundations for universal CPE.

Arrcus Takes White Box Switches to 400G Arrcus unveils support for 400Gbit/s switch speeds  an industry first.

Light Reading's 23 Most Popular Cisco Stories in 2018 Cisco transformed its service provider business, fended off VMware and white box threats and beefed up network automation.

Open RAN, Open Innovation Next-generation networks need innovation in the radio access network and Open RAN developments are set to disrupt the market  in a good way.

The Programmable Switch Era Is Here... At Last! Respondents to Heavy Reading's Multicore Processor and Switch Survey consider programmability as the most important differentiator in switch functions.
All News & Views

DT's Access 4.0 Team Loses Its Cherry & Hits the Eggnog The German operator has a long list of vendors identified for its software-enabled broadband access project. What could possibly go wrong?

From Virtualization to Containerization A new set of NFV challenges is emerging as operators plan the shift towards cloud-native applications and a container-based strategy.

Telefonica's OnLife Is Growing Long in the Tooth The Spanish operator's ambitious OnLife project is now in field trials with residential and enterprise customers  and several use cases already look compelling.

AT&T's Wheelus: From Mechanization to Automation Much of what's talked about as automation is actually mechanization, says AT&T's Amy Wheelus, and the distinction is key as telcos head into the 5G world.

US May Fund Ericsson, Nokia in Huawei Fight  Report The Trump administration is also taking a close interest in open RAN technologies, and proponents such as Altiostar, as it looks to support alternatives to the Chinese equipment giant.

Vodafone CEO 'Fast Tracks' OpenRAN in Challenge to Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia One of the telecom's industry's top executives is backing trials of open RAN technology as a way of bringing more competition into the network market.

Mavenir opens radio R&D unit in Ericsson's backyard When the time came to open a new R&D facility focused on radio technology, the US software company could find no better place than Stockholm.

Facebook's TIP Is Desperate to Add Friends Three and a half years after its birth, the Telecom Infra Project is trying to be more collaborative than confrontational.

Alaska's Rakuten Preps for 4G Launch Japan's Rakuten isn't the only operator in the world building a new, greenfield wireless network with an open, software-powered architecture: OptimERA is working to do the same in a tiny part of Alaska.

Why AT&T's latest open source contribution matters AT&T has shared its distributed router specifications with the Open Compute Project and a leading disruptive data networking startup is flagging its support for the model.

The Eye-Watering Cost of Multivendor Networks Operators face tricky decisions as they try to get virtualized networks off the ground.

Orange Issues Plea for Help With O-RAN Integration The test process and integration efforts associated with Open RAN deployments are overwhelming, so the industry needs to engage in collaborative, joint test schemes that cut out duplicated effort, says Orange exec. The good news is, China Mobile's on the case

How Sprint's Edge Strategy Breaks With Tradition Sprint's edge strategy includes a progressive take (for a telco, at least) on opening up its platform for use by third parties, explains Light Reading's Iain Morris.

5G Asia: Intel's Chan on Edge Opportunities At the 5G Asia event in Singapore, Intel's Caroline Chan talks to Heavy Reading's James Crawshaw about the link between edge computing and 5G, potential enterprise use cases, and the increasingly hot topic of private networks.

ONF Debuts Open Source 'Stratum' Switch OS Stratum is the foundation for the ONF's next-generation SDN initiative.

AT&T, Verizon Inch Toward Open RAN AT&T said it tested an eCPRI connection with equipment from Nokia and Samsung, while Verizon appears to have deployed Nokia's cloud RAN. The moves reflect growing operator interest in open RAN technologies.

Smokey & the NFV Bandit NFV has many naysayers, but it's alive, kicking and thriving, with SD-WAN as a significant catalyst.

Meet AT&T's New Communications Division Leadership AT&T's biggest business unit now has a new leadership team. Here's a look at who is likely running the company's wired and wireless networks, and its overall mobile and wired Internet offerings.

Deconstructing the Telco Cloud The term 'telco cloud' is used often, but it can mean different things to different people.
All News & Views

Eurobites: Three UK Plugs In 5G Home Broadband Service Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: KCOM acquisition finalized; Telia issues Russian spying disclaimer; France's digital tax feels the heat in Washington.

Shentel to Get Bigger Using Mix of Fiber, Cable & LTE Fixed Wireless Regional operator Shentel says it plans to expand Internet access in part using LTE fixed wireless technology.

Houston, We Have a Problem: Satellite Alliance Fractures Over 5G Spectrum Sale Profits There appears to be dissension in the ranks of satellite companies hoping to cash in on the sale of 5G spectrum.

Is Light Communications a Solution in Search of a Problem? LiFi is the latest effort to bring optical wireless communications into the commercial communications networking fold.

Eurobites: UK Government Gets Jumpy Over Inmarsat Sale Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Intracom Telecom lands Italian FWA job with Open Fiber; Openreach reduces wholesale FTTP prices; Ericsson and Swisscom join the 5G Dots.

OneWeb's LEO strategy shows more progress, but questions remain OneWeb is building a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites for global Internet services, but key elements of the offering remain cloudy.

Hong Kong Telcos Upset by 5G 'Exclusion Zone' Regulatory efforts to protect satellite services have angered mobile operators investing in 5G technology.

Eurobites: Israel Sets 5G Spectrum Auction in Motion Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Huawei requests level laying field in Italy; ADVA adds a dash of AI to satellite signaling analytics; Galileo crashes and burns; Telenor's Q2 dented by Bangladeshi 'errors.'

Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk to compete for 5G backhaul business Some of the world's most visible and wealthy entrepreneurs are preparing to compete against each other in offering satellite-based backhaul services to wireless network operators.

Eurobites: Broadpeak Raises 10M From Eutelsat Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone UK fires up 5G; Nokia's 5G factory lights the way ahead; BT to launch 5G in the fall; Google invests in Lisbon-Cape Town cable.

Satellite Giants Battered by New C-Band Proposals for 5G Charter, Google and others are rallying around new proposals that would release midband spectrum for 5G. However, the government agency in charge of such matters  the FCC  might be a bit hesitant to engage in bold action.

Eurobites: Summer Lovin' at Telcom Italia Also in today's regional roundup: Orange offloads its BT stake; Nokia's CTO rebuked over Huawei comments; Ericsson helps bring 5G to Spain and Romania; Brit design star quits Apple.

Verizon Lights Up Mobile 5G in Denver, Providence Cities join Chicago and Minneapolis as first group of 30-plus markets tagged by Verizon for mobile 5G rollouts in 2019.

Viasat Soars to Record Revenues Satellite broadband and services company notches record fiscal Q4 and full-year revenues as it progresses with a new set of satellites that will provide it with global coverage and gobs more capacity.

FCC Commissioners Waver Over C-Band Details for 5G Two of the FCC's five commissioners don't quite see eye-to-eye on exactly how to shift C-Band spectrum from the satellite industry to the 5G sector. Billions of dollars are at stake.

Eurobites: Inmarsat Agrees to $3.4B Takeover Bid Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: new UK FTTH player raises 75 million; EU encourages data sharing, says no to US-led Huawei gear ban; Abu Dhabi hub targets UK startups.

OneWeb's ambitions blast off with $1.25B from the likes of Qualcomm, SoftBank OneWeb scored another big round of funding to finance its big plan to launch hundreds of satellites into space and provide super-fast Internet services everywhere.

This Tiny Startup Could Connect Your Smartphone Directly to a Satellite UbiquitiLink is looking to completely eliminate outdoor dead zones, and is testing its service with Vodafone, Telefonica and, in the US, Cellular One operator Smith Bagley.

Satellite Companies Balk at T-Mobile's $11B C-Band Proposal T-Mobile issued a new proposal for how the FCC should auction off C-Band spectrum. But the satellite companies that are currently using that spectrum are having none of it.
LIMERICK man Rob Mortell spent close to half an hour at the summit of Mount Everest, drinking in the unbeatable view on top of the worlds highest mountain.

At just 26 years of age when he topped the fearsome mountain last week, the Caherdavin man has become the youngest Irish person to reach the summit, taking the mantle from fellow Limerick man Mark Quinn in the process, who was 27 when he climbed Everest in 2011.

The former Gaelscoil Sairseal, Villiers Secondary student and UL law and accounting graduate, speaking to the Limerick Leader from Nepal this Wednesday, said it was a privilege to have the opportunity to become the youngest Irish person to summit Mount Everest.

This achievement came with many obstacles and was hard earned over many years, he said, expressing gratitude to his employer KPMG and Volvo Ireland for both their support and sponsorship of this expedition. The former, in particular, was crucial, allowing him to combine climbing with his training contract.

Standing on top of Everest is a daunting experience as it represents a wonderful achievement, an unbeatable view and the moment where I am furthest from safety, he said.

I spent about 20-30 minutes at the summit as I was both eager to enjoy my time there and keen to leave before I got too cold from not moving, he added.

Rob, who currently lives in Dublin but whose family  and girlfriend's family  all still live in Limerick, said the support has been humbling since his successful summit, but he was quick to acknowledge the strain such an activity inevitably places on his friends and loved ones.

Everest is a unique place and somewhere that is not always accessible to anybody, so it is wonderful to receive such support from everybody at home, he explained.

I'm very conscious of how a climb like Everest can impact those around me. Unfortunately it's not a natural spectator sport as we're so far removed from normal communications and the consequences can be very serious. I had a SPOT GPS tracker on me at all times to help reassure family and friends that my legs were moving the right way  especially on summit day. It's difficult to tell those around me that I'm planning any expedition and Everest was especially tough to break the news at home, but my family was very supportive after the initial shock.

Rob has been climbing for a number of years, previously participating in a 9-person expedition to the highest peak in North America  Mount McKinley (also known as Denali) in Alaska, also reaching that summit. He has also climbed the Matterhorn and Ama Dablam in Nepal.

But nothing could prepare the Limerick man for the challenges of climbing Mount Everest, he said.

I was running very low on energy with just 50m to go to the summit, he explained.

I told myself I could have one break and if the summit wasn't achievable after that break then I should turn around as my safety was more important.

This was a particularly difficult stance to take given my proximity to the summit, so I took a long break.

Thankfully everything worked out but the exhaustion was unprecedented for me after a 12 hour ascent to just reach the summit, he added.
A POLISH national has pleaded guilty to charges relating to major drugs seizure near Athlacca last summer.

When arraigned at Limerick Circuit Court on Tuesday 24-year-old Marian Andrzejak admitted possession of a large amount of cannabis for the purpose of sale or supply.

Dozens of cannabis plants - at various stages of growth - with an estimated street value of around 115,000 were recovered when gardai searched a house at Creanville, Athlacca on June 29, last as part of an intelligence-led operation.

The pre-planned search was led by gardai from the Bruff district and also involved gardai from County Clare.

The defendant was arrested on the day and first appeared before the district court on July 1, last. He has been in custody since.

The directed of Public Prosecutions directed trial on indictment last year and the matter first came before the circuit court a number of months ago.

While the case was listed for trial on Tuesday, Andrew Sexton SC, defending, indicated his client was willing to enter a guilty plea.

Michael Collins BL, instructed by the State Solicitor Aidan Judge, said the plea was acceptable to the State and the told the court it had been indicated well in advance of Tuesday.

Mr Sexton sought an early sentencing date saying it will be a short matter.Judge Tom ODonnell adjourned the matter to July 25, when he will hear evidence about to the offence.

Mr Andrzejak, who does not speak English, was remanded in continuing custody.

Given the value of the drugs seized, the defendant faces the prospect of a mandatory sentence of ten years imprisonment unless Judge ODonnell believes such a sentence would be unjust.
GARDAI are appealing to people to be vigilant and to have a plan when out socialising at night, writes David Hurley.

As part of the national Supporting Safer Communities Campaign, a number of information stands and advice will be in operation at shopping centres and other public locations across the city between now and next Wednesday.

Gardai in the city say they are concerned at a the number of assaults which have been reported in centre in recent months are appealing to those out socialising to be vigilant.

As part of the campaign an initiative called PLANS has been launched.

The (first) P stands for plan your night out, how are you getting there? How are you getting home afterwards? said Superintendent Derek Smart of Henry Street garda station.

The L stands for let someone know where you are going and when you will be back. The A stands for avoid walking alone or in dark places  just look around and be conscious of it and follow the lights. The N stands for never reason with a drunk or aggressive person  they are not going to be rational. Then the S stands for be streetwise  be aware of your surroundings and be careful with your personal belongings, he added.

Supt Smart is also asking people to have some sort a Buddy system in place.

We are getting a lot of assaults, people are going out and enjoying themselves which there are entitled to do but something happens to them  they either get assaulted or they fall down and they cant remember what happened. So if they have their buddy with them they will know what happened and we will know and it gives us a chance afterwards with an investigation, he said.

For further information see the garda website, www.garda.ie
LIMERICK photographer and digital artist Ken Coleman has unveiled a new work, marking him as the Curators Choice for June at the Hunt Museum.

Ken, 35 from Lisnagry, has seen his piece, Slartibartfast, a portrait of UL lecturer Dr Mikael Fernstrom, hung on the walls of the museum, selected by Naomi ONolan.

The artist explained that the work started life in 2015 as part of his ongoing portrait project.

I chose Mikael as my subject matter as he has always been very encouraging towards my work and also has been a great friend to the Hunt Museum over the years, explained the UL interactive media graduate of his former lecturer.

The piece is a combination of photography and digital painting with some 3D elements incorporated. Elements of Mikael's Swedish background have been included through the trees representing Yggdrasil from Norse mythology, as well as images of technology representing his electronic background.

There are elements of the Hunt museums own collection included in the piece to tie it together. It is my own style that I have developed and I have had these pieces in my head for a while, he explained.

The piece went on display on Wednesday morning and will remain for the month of June, Ms ONolan said.

Ken featured in the Limerick Leader last week for his stylised portrait of the Cranberries, taken during recent rehearsals at the Irish Chamber Orchestra ahead of the bands return to the stage - for the first time since 2012  this Friday night in Poland.

He also took a snippet of promo video of the group for the upcoming tour, an initial 10 dates the Cranberries will play before the end of September in Europe and the US.

Ken has collaborated with local bands on similar projects and is also working with an American death metal band, but said it was a nice step up to work with an act of the profile of the Cranberries, who have sold an estimated 40 million albums worldwide.
Jun 2, 2016, 8 AM

Robert A. Siegel offered the Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito collection of United States independent mails in May. This August 1844 cover carried by the American Letter Mail Co. sold for $402.50.

From Siegels auction of the Puliafito collection, a famous 1844 cover handled by three carriers and considered the most valuable and important cover of the independent mail era brought $32,200. It was its first time at auction.

A 30 Shield, Eagle and Flags stamp graded extremely fine-superb 95  one of the finest two or three extant  sold for $40,250 at Siegels sale of the Hanover collection in April.

The top item from Robert A. Siegels sale of the Hanover collection in April was an unused example of the 30 Shield, Eagle and Flags invert from the 1869 pictorial series. One of only seven known, it sold for $310,500.

Siegel offered United States and Confederate postal history in an auction conducted May 5-6. The top seller was an 1870 cover franked with an 1869 24 stamp and addressed to Mauritius, the only known item with stamps of that issue sent to that island. It

In May, Siegel offered the Rollin C. Huggins collection, including a mostly-mint complete sheet of 10 of the $10 Dept. of State stamp of 1873. In near-perfect condition, it brought $51,750.

A block of four of the 7 Edwin M. Stanton Dept. of State 1875 reprint, with one stamp showing the Sepcimen error, sold for $21,850 in Siegels sale of the Huggins collection in May.

From the Huggins collection of Officials auction by Robert A. Siegel in May, an April 22, 1879, circular announcing the end of Official stamps and the start of penalty envelopes sold for $862.50.

A handsome example of the 5 Grant stamp from the 1895 Bureau issue with double-line watermark was sold by Siegel for $345 in April.

A rare large-margined example of the 1863 10 Jefferson Davis stamp with a frameline on all sides brought $6,900 at Robert A. Siegels May auction.

Graded superb-98, this $1 Western Cattle in Storm stamp from the Trans-Mississippi series brought $71,875 at Siegels auction in April.

Described as the finest mint never-hinged example in existence and the only one graded superb-98, this 50 Western Mining Prospector stamp sold for $54,625 at the Siegel auction of the first part of the Hanover collection in April.

By Matthew Healey, New York Correspondent

Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries offered several sales in April and May. The first part of the Hanover collection of superb-quality U.S. stamps was sold on April 7, followed by the Rollin C. Huggins collection of U.S. Official stamps on April 8. The Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito collection of U.S. independent mails crossed the block on May 4, and U.S. and Confederate postal history was offered May 5-6.

The Hanover sale, called one of the top dozen of its kind in the annals of philately, featured top-graded 19th-century U.S. stamps, which the owner had collected in mint never-hinged condition wherever possible.

The top stamp was an unused example of the 30 Shield, Eagle and Flags with flags inverted from the 1869 pictorial series (Scott 121b).

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Only seven examples of this error are known unused. Only one has original gum; the other six, including the one in the Hanover sale, are without gum. The Hanover example, the o.g. example, and possibly one other are the only sound ones  making this a very rare stamp.

Beautifully centered and with nice color, it sold for $310,500, including the 15 percent buyers commission added by Siegel to all lots.

A magnificent, right-side-up example of the same issue (Scott 121), with original gum and spectacular margins, was graded extremely fine-superb 95 by the Philatelic Foundation. Siegel described the stamp as one of the finest two or three extant. It sold for $40,250, handily exceeding its Scott U.S. Specialized catalog value of $28,500 for an o.g. example in that grade.

From the 1898 Trans-Mississippi issue, a 50 Western Mining Prospector stamp (Scott 291) graded as superb-98 by the Professional Stamp Experts (PSE) firm was offered by Siegel.

This may well be the finest mint never-hinged example  in existence, boasted the sale catalog, and it was hard to argue with that. No example of this stamp has been graded higher, and this is the only example to have attained that grade. It sold for $54,625.

An example of the Trans-Mississippi $1 Western Cattle in Storm stamp (Scott 292), in the same top grade, was accompanied by a charmingly frank note from the grading expert William A. Litle.

After ten years finally a 98 NH 292. Yea!! Pretty safe to assume there wont be a bunch of these, he wrote. The stamp brought $71,875.

At the less stratospheric end of the spectrum, a lovely example of the 5 Grant stamp from the 1895 Bureau Issue with double-line watermark (Scott 270) fetched $345.

The Huggins collection of Officials had some outstanding multiples, including a mostly mint complete sheet of 10 of the $10 Department of State Official stamp of 1873 (Scott O70).

The State Dept. was the only cabinet department to issue large-size, bicolor high values, and of the four dollar-denominated stamps (all showing a black vignette of William H. Seward in a green frame) only the $10 and $20 survive in complete sheets, with just three known.

With seven of the stamps never-hinged and only a couple of small staple holes making the sheet anything less than perfect, it sold for $51,750.

The Official stamps were reprinted for collectors in 1875, without gum and overprinted Specimen to prevent their being used unofficially by anyone. One cliche in the plate that applied the overprints had a typo, reading Sepcimen.

A block of four of the 7 Edwin M. Stanton Dept. of State reprint, with one stamp showing the error (Scott O61Sa), was offered with the note that fewer than seven singles of this error are known. The block went for $21,850.

Perhaps even more interesting than the stamps were some of the ephemera items offered at the beginning of the Huggins sale.

A two-page Post Office Department circular dated May 15, 1873, announcing the abolition of the free-franking privilege enjoyed by officials and the introduction of Official stamps, served as a kind of birth certificate for this back-of-the-book stamp category. It sold for $862.50.

A similar circular dated April 22, 1879, announced the discontinuance of Official stamps in favor of penalty envelopes, those now-familiar items of postal stationery bearing the inscription, Penalty for private use, $300 or words to that effect. This circular likewise sold for $862.50.

(It is interesting to note that the amount of this penalty has never been changed. Whereas once upon a time that would have been a very hefty penalty indeed, nowadays it is comparable to a typical traffic ticket.)

The Puliafito collection was described by Siegel president Scott R. Trepel as the best that has ever been of stamps issued by private firms legally operating alongside the government postal service in the 19th century.

Many firms tried, with mixed success, to supplement (and perhaps supplant) the governments monopoly on mail throughout the 1800s, whether by serving places the government wouldnt go or by providing a level of service the government couldnt. Happily for collectors, many of these firms left a legacy in small adhesive labels and markings.

A detailed history of these firms, and early mail transport in general, can be downloaded free at siegelauctions.com/2016/1124/intro.pdf.

The Puliafito sale began with numerous covers from the American Letter Mail Co., founded by a man with the wonderful name of Lysander Spooner, which had offices in several eastern U.S. cities. The firm issued its first stamps in 1844, a year before Congress reformed postal regulations to establish cheap, universal postage, and three years before the first U.S. postage stamps were issued.

A perfect example of an independent mail item could be seen in a small, neat cover dated Aug. 6, 1844, and sent from Philadelphia to New York, franked with a small black-and-white label showing an eagle and the name of the American Letter Mail Co. and inscribed 20 for a Dollar (Scott 5L1).

With a neatly penned address and crisp, handstamped cachet in red, the cover is a visual delight. It sold for $402.50.

An 1844 cover bearing the stamps of three different companies was universally acknowledged to be the most valuable and important cover of the independent mail era, according to Siegel.

It was sent from Cleveland to New Haven, Conn., for a total fee of 15, significantly less than the 25 that the post office would have charged at the time.

As the letter was handed off from one independent mail company to the next, new stamps were added to show that the postage had been prepaid and nothing should be charged to the recipient (it was then common to deliver letters with postage due).

It was carried first by the Wells Letter Express and franked with three of their 5 black on green glazed paper stamps (Scott 96L2), representing the total amount paid by the sender.

The letter was handed off in Buffalo to Pomeroys Letter Express, where two of that firms 5 black on yellow stamps were added (117L1).

Finally, in New York City, the letter passed to the American Letter Mail Co. (getting a 5L2 stamp) for its last leg, from New York to New Haven  by Long Island Sound steamboat, because the railway between those cities was not yet complete.

Although it is a well-known cover and has been illustrated in numerous articles and books, including the exhibition catalog for World Stamp ShowNY 2016, Siegel said it was the first time it had been offered at auction. It brought $32,200.

The Siegel sale of U.S. and Confederate postal history on May 5-6 included many fascinating items. The top-dollar item was an 1870 cover franked with an 1869 pictorial series 24 stamp (Scott 120) and addressed to Mauritius, the only known item with stamps of that issue sent to the Indian Ocean island. It sold for $16,675.

A 1954 cover from New Bedford, Mass., to Gyantse, Tibet, was franked with both a 25 Prexy, the 1939 Presidential issue featuring William McKinley (Scott 829) and a Tibet 4-trangka stamp of 1934.

The latter stamp (Scott 18), which was accompanied by a line of Tibetan-script handwriting, was required because Tibet never joined the Universal Postal Union, so its stamps were not recognized outside its borders and postage of incoming mail could not be prepaid by the sender.

Although Tibet came under Chinese control in 1951, many aspects of life continued to be managed for several years by the local government, including delivery of mail. It is not known how many U.S.-Tibet mixed-franking covers exist, but there cant be many. This one sold for $1,035  several times its estimate.

Among Siegels Confederate States of America items, a rare, large-margined example of the 1863 10 Jefferson Davis stamp in a milky blue shade with framelines between the stamps (Scott 10a) was described as an extremely fine gem, graded XF-90 by PSE.

The framelines were cut into the copper printing plate as an aid in aligning the dies of the stamps; each pair of stamps shared the frameline between them, so single stamps showing a frameline on all sides are highly elusive, valued by the Scott U.S. Specialized catalog at several times the price of a run-of-the-mill example. This one, used with a neat, double-circle cancel, brought $6,900.

More auction news:

Finest graded 1918 Jenny Invert error tops $1.35 million during Siegel sale at World Stamp Show-NY 2016

Christoph Gaertner auction June 13-17 in Germany; worldwide offerings include rare German varieties

Siegel sales kick off six days of World Stamp Show-NY 2016 auctions
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The Aisling Children's Arts Festival is facing a funding shortfall of almost 50 per cent after its application for funding from the Arts Council was turned down.

Last year the festival received 5,550 from the Arts Council, which accounted for almost half of its entire budget.

However, in a letter received earlier this month, the Aisling committee was informed that no funding would be forthcoming from the Arts Council for 2016; a development organisers claim now places the future of the festival in jeopardy.

We are devastated by the loss of this funding for our 2016 Festival and we feel totally abandoned by the Arts Council, the festival's Chairperson, Clare Macko, said. The sudden lack of support for the children of rural and urban Longford and the withdrawal of this lifeline for the festival is both shocking and upsetting.

In a statement issued this week, The Aisling Arts Festival's committee outlined how a similar children's arts festival in Co Galway had secured funding, despite featuring many of the same attractions which have appeared at Aisling.

Yet again Longford has been forgotten, the statement said. In contrast Baboro International Arts Festival for Children in Co Galway received 195,000 from the Arts Council for their week-long festival in 2016 - an increase of 5,400 on the 190,000 they received in 2015. The Aisling Children's Arts Festival will receive nothing for 2016 - a decrease of 5,550 - although over the years it has featured many of the same theatre productions which also appear at Baboro.

The statement concluded: Aisling is the only children's festival in Co Longford - without sufficient funding it can deliver only a limited programme this year and its future is uncertain. The Arts Council of Ireland claims to support and promote children and young people's engagement with the arts from birth to early adulthood - but not if you live in Longford.

Speaking to the Longford Leader, an Arts Council spokesperson said it does not comment on individual cases but pointed out that applicants can receive feedback as to why they have been unsuccessful in securing funding.
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Four seventh- and eighth-grade students from St. Peter Catholic Grade School-Tilden received certificates for participating in the Daughters of the American Revolution American history essay contest.

Brielle Simonsen, Peter Herron and Rachel Eisenreich each received Certificates of Participation for their essays. Eighth grader Rachel Smiskey received the Chapter Winner Certificate and a medal as the Eau Claire DAR Chapter winner.

The supervising teacher was Janelle Dachel.

This years essay topic, marked by the 250th anniversary of the Stamp Act, asked students to describe a colonial familys discussion about the new Stamp Act and what role it played in organizing the colonists against the British King and Parliament.

The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution is a non-profit volunteer womens service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, history and education.
The Jaysh al Fateh (Army of Conquest) coalition, which was cofounded by Al Nusrah Front and its closest allies, has launched a new offensive in the southern part of Syrias Aleppo province. The assault began sometime during the past two days when two suicide bombers detonated a large amount of explosives on positions controlled by Bashar al Assads regime and its Iranian-backed paramilitary allies.

Al Nusrah, which is al Qaedas official branch in Syria, has already released several videos of the fighting. A few of the videos were recorded using small drones, which captured the dramatic scenes from overhead. Al Nusrah claims that two of its martyrs killed more than 100 Shiite fighters in twin bombings. (Screen shots from the videos, along with other propaganda from the battle, can be seen below.)

Jaysh al Fateh seeks to expand its grip on the territory surrounding the town of Khan Tuman, which is located south of the city of Aleppo.

The jihadist coalition seized Khan Tuman last month. Al Nusrah and other member groups in Jaysh al Fateh say their fighters have targeted the neighboring towns and villages, including Humayrah, Khalsah, Qalajiyah, and Qarassi, all of which are south of Khan Tuman. In addition, jihadi accounts on social media report heavy fighting in Maratah, which is to Khan Tumans east. The jihadists have specifically targeted fuel and weapons storage locations.

These locales can all be seen on the map reproduced above, which was first posted on Ajnad al Shams official Twitter feed. Ajnad al Sham is one of several groups that have joined Al Nusrah in the Jaysh al Fateh alliance.

The green area is controlled by Jaysh al Fateh, with a pinpoint on Khan Tuman. The area in purple is now contested, with Khalsah being the southernmost point identified on the map. The area in red is controlled by the Syrian regime and its allies from Iranian-backed militias and other paramilitary forces.

Jaysh al Fatehs member organizations claim to have liberated several of these locations during the early fighting. Although such announced gains wouldnt be surprising, their claims cannot be independently verified. There is also an ebb and flow to the fighting, with their enemies trying to regain the initiative.

Ahrar al Sham, which models itself after the Taliban and has its own links to al Qaeda, has posted a series of images from the new offensive as well. Pictures posted by Ahrar al Sham purportedly show the bodies of men who belonged to sectarian militias, meaning Irans and Assads proxies. Ahrars partner, Ajnad al Sham, and Al Nusrah have tweeted similar photos.

Ahrar al Sham and other groups claim the coalition has taken over Maratah. Photos and a video depict Ahrars men in the village, as well as the spoils they have captured.

Jaysh al Fateh has executed a series of maneuvers in Aleppo province since late last year as part of its attempt to stymie the Assad regime, Iran and Russia. In November 2015, the jihadist alliance overran several towns and villages as part of a counteroffensive designed to stop the Syrian governments advances.

Then, in early April, Al Nusrah captured al-Iss hill and the small village that sits at its base. Although not a heavily populated area, al-Iss is considered a strategically important crossroads inside Aleppo province.

And in May, Jaysh al Fateh captured Khan Tuman, which set the stage for the latest push south and east into the province.

Jaysh al Fatehs assault comes at a time when its positions in the neighboring Idlib province are under heavy bombardment. The alliance overran the city of Idlib and the rest of the province early last year. But in recent weeks, Assad and Russia have stepped up their bombing campaign in Idlib.

Just as the coalition began its new push in Aleppo province, Jaysh al Fatehs military leadership released a statement saying that they had withdrawn from Idlib city. Jaysh al Fateh claims that Bashar al Assads and Russias warplanes are now hitting civilian targets inside Idlib. The move is likely designed to relieve some of the pressure on the coalition, which has been under constant aerial assault since late last month.

It appears that Sheikh Abdullah Muhammad al Muhaysini, a senior al Qaeda-linked cleric, was behind Jaysh al Fatehs purported military withdrawal from Idlib city. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Muhaysini advocated for the move beforehand. Muhaysini also praised Jaysh al Fatehs supposed decision to evacuate its military arm after the fact as well.

Al Nusrah Front used small drones to capture the beginning of the assault, which involved tanks and other armored vehicles:

Al Nusrah also used drones to record the martyrdom bombings that paved the way for the offensive, as well as to record the attacks aftermath. Al Nusrah tallied the casualties from its suicide assaults:

Ahrar al Sham claims that Jaysh al Fateh has seized Maratah, which is not far from Khan Tuman:

The spoils captured by Ahrar al Sham:

Ahrar al Sham claims to have taken control of this fuel depot:

Ajnad al Sham has released its own images from the battles, including these photos highlighting the presence of sectarian militias, meaning Irans Shiite proxies:

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.

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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.
A Wisconsin court of appeals has finally put to rest some of the questions over what information must be withheld under the federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act, or DPPA. Its recent decision ends years of confusion in a way that squares with the states traditions of openness  and with common sense.

The DPPA was enacted more than two decades ago to restrict the release of personal information from DMV records. It was never meant to prevent police from releasing basic information in accident reports and other law-enforcement records.

But that was how the law was interpreted in much of Wisconsin. In recent years, following a federal court ruling in an Illinois case, concerns over liability have led some law enforcement agencies to heavily redact (black out) reports before releasing them  limiting their news value and hampering public oversight of police.

In its May 10 decision, Wisconsins 3rd District Court of Appeals held that accident reports need not be redacted to comply with the DPPA, because state law expressly mandates their disclosure. Personal information obtained from other sources and merely verified with DMV records may also be released.

I was one of the attorneys, along with Bob Dreps, who represented a newspaper that filed the lawsuit that led to this ruling. The case was brought by the New Richmond News against the city of New Richmond.

Congress passed the DPPA in 1994 after a television actress was murdered by a stalker who obtained her home address from a local DMV. The laws intent is clear: DMVs, with their vast repositories of personal information, cannot disclose that data except for one of 14 permissible uses. The same restrictions apply to other agencies that use DMV data.

But then, in 2012, the village of Palatine, Ill., was threatened with liability for printing vehicle owners personal information  obtained from DMV records  on parking tickets placed on car windshields. The Palatine case caused some police departments in Wisconsin to start redacting records, prompting the New Richmond News to file suit.

In the end, reason won out in Palatine. The courts ultimately ruled that disclosing personal information on parking tickets was allowed because the police department used the information in carrying out its functions  one of the 14 permissible uses.

Reason should also win out in Wisconsin, although this may not happen right away. Whereas the court of appeals ruled accident reports must always be accessible, it also concluded that personal information obtained from DMV records and incorporated into incident reports can only be disclosed if doing so serves a function of the police department  a question the case was remanded to the circuit court to resolve.

The public has a legitimate right to law enforcement records, which are of little value if scrubbed of names and addresses. How can the public know if laws are enforced equally and appropriately if the identities of the people involved are obscured?

Ideally, the common-sense approach adopted by the court of appeals will serve as a blueprint for addressing the questions that remain  without further litigation.
Speakers from Meta, Finnegan, Equifax and the LOT Network said it was important to use data, get involved and reach out more to improve diversity and inclusion
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Even the mere mention of Robert Pattinson's name can cause hearts to beat faster. The handsome actor is most famous for playing Edward Cullen in the wildly successful film franchise of the vampire Twilight trilogy novels by Stephenie Meyer. That's where he met his off-screen girlfriend, Kristen Stewart, who stars alongside him as Bella Swan. Born in London in 1986, R-Patz, as he's affectionately known, is now one of the most sought-after movie stars in the world.See all the latest news and pictures below...
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Indian conglomerate Adani Enterprise Ltd may walk away from its proposal to build one of the world's biggest coal mines in Australia, citing long delays caused by legal challenges to the project by groups concerned about the environment.



Adani is battling multiple legal challenges from green groups opposed to its $10-billion Carmichael mine, rail and port project.



The Australian on Saturday reported that the company's founder and chairman, Gautam Adani had told the newspaper the company may abandon the project because of long delays due to legal challenges.



"You can't continue just holding. I have been really disappointed that things have got too delayed," Adani told The Australian.



Australia's Queensland state government in April gave Adani permission to mine coal reserves estimated at 11 billion tonnes and to build roads, workshops, power lines and pipelines associated with the mine.



Environmentalists, however, are still fighting the approval on numerous fronts, including lobbying banks not to provide loans. They cite potential damage from port dredging, shipping and climate change stoked by coal from the mine.



Environmental groups in late April asked the Supreme Court of Queensland to review the state government's environmental approval of the mine.



With coal prices stuck near nine-year lows and demand growth uncertain as governments have committed to curb carbon emissions, analysts have said lenders will be reluctant to back Adani's mega coal project.



Adani, which aims to start building the Carmichael mine in 2017, expects to be able to go ahead eventually as most of the coal is slated to go to its own power stations in India.



(Reporting by Jarni Blakkarly; Editing by Tom Hogue)


The 29 countries party to the Antarctic Treaty unanimously agreed today to a resolution at the 39th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) stating their firm commitment to retain and continue to implementas a matter of highest priority the ban on mining activities in the Antarctic, which is part of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (also called the Madrid Protocol). The resolution was initiated by the United States to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 1991 signing of the Protocol.



In addition to commemorating the 25th Anniversary, the Resolution is in part a response to inaccurate media reports that the Protocol or the Antarctic Treaty expire in 2048, when in fact this is only a date at which a review of the Protocol could be requested. There is often speculation that countries involved in Antarctic governance intend to review and change the Protocol in 2048 to allow mining. This resolution sends a clear message that this is not in fact the case and that Parties stand firm in their commitment that preserving the continent as a place of peace and science is more important than possible financial gain. said Claire Christian, Acting Executive Director of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), an organization that represents environmental NGOs at the ATCM.



The Protocol is a landmark environmental protection agreement that requires strict rules and procedures for the conduct of activities in the Antarctic. Prior to the signing of the Protocol, Antarctic Treaty Parties negotiated an agreement regulating mining in the Antarctic. However, the mining agreement never entered into force.



The decision not to ratify the mining agreement was led by Australia and France, and came after years of campaigning for a World Park Antarctica by the ASOC and its member groups. Though the Protocol contains many important provisions, the mining ban is especially critical because there would be no way to conduct mineral resource extraction activities without causing irreversible damage to one of the worlds last great wildernesses. ASOC is pleased to see this reaffirmation of one of the Protocols key principles.



The ATCM also issued the "Santiago Declaration on the Twenty Fifth Anniversary of the signing of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty" to confirm their commitment to all of the principles of the Protocol and to pledge further efforts to implement the Protocol and preserve and protect the Antarctic terrestrial and marine environments.



The ATCM also discussed Antarctic climate change and tourism, two issues with implications for the environmental protection of the region. With information indicating that the impact of climate change and ocean acidification is already having an impact on Antarctica and its ecosystems, the Antarctic Treaty System has become increasingly focused on developing ways to monitor and respond to climate change. ASOC has been a key proponent in getting treaty parties to take climate change seriously.



This was demonstrated by a joint workshop held between the ATCMs Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) and the Scientific Committee of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). CCAMLR is an international, treaty-based organization with the objective of conserving Antarctic marine life. The workshop acknowledged that marine and terrestrial protected areas can serve as important scientific reference areas that can increase understanding of the impacts of climate change. "ASOC supports the swift designation of comprehensive networks of marine and terrestrial protected areas, a process which has proceeded very slowly despite urgent need," said Rodolfo Werner, ASOC's senior advisor.



On tourism, the ATCM discussed that tourism numbers are projected to increase to their highest level ever in the coming year. ASOC believes that this will require an additional response from Antarctic Treaty Parties to ensure that this activity has a minimal footprint on the fragile Antarctic environment. Parties are developing a strategic vision for tourism, but there are key actions that should be taken now, such as prohibiting the development of land-based infrastructure, to preserve the unique values of the Antarctic region, said Ricardo Roura, ASOCs tourism expert.



The XXXIX ATCM was held from 23 May to June 1, 2016 in Santiago, Chile.


The Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan-led investigation regarding wake from the USS Milwaukee and recreational vessels off Chambers Island on Green Bay September 5, 2015, is completed.



The marine casualty investigation determined that enforcement action against any of the parties involved would not forward the integrity of maritime safety and is therefore not warranted.



As required by federal regulations, the Coast Guard conducted a marine casualty investigation. This investigative process collects and reviews all available information when a marine incident occurs and causes an injury, a specific level of property damage, harms the environment, affects seaworthiness of the vessel, or results in a loss of life. A marine casualty investigation does not include the determination of fault for damages.



As the principal federal agency responsible for maritime safety, the Coast Guard is always committed to ensuring the highest safety and performance standards for the maritime public and the maritime industry, said Capt. Amy Cocanour, the Sector Lake Michigan commander. We approach each investigation with the utmost diligence to ensure that each element of any potential violation is met before leveraging an enforcement action, which is only issued if all of the conditions are met for a given violation.



The safety of the boating public is our number one concern and its our job to ensure that all vessel operators follow all applicable rules and regulations to ensure the safety and security of the maritime community, she added.



The purpose of a marine casualty investigation is to determine root cause and contributing factors which led up to the casualty. Once determined, the objective is to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future. This is accomplished through review of policies, procedures, training, regulations and enforcement action.



The USS Milwaukee is a 378-foot-long Freedom-Class Littoral Combat Ship that was being built in Wisconsin for the U.S. Navy. At the time of the incident, the vessel had not been turned over to the Navy and was returning from conducting underway acceptance trials.



The Coast Guard reminds boaters that every vessel shall at all times maintain complete situational awareness whether day or night, and particularly near commercial traffic or other vessels.



Boaters of all ages and experience levels are highly encouraged to take a safe boating course offered by the Coast Guard Auxiliary. Boaters can find boating safety courses in their area by going to http://uscgboating.org//recreational-boaters/boating-safety-courses.php.


The Middle East container shipping group United Arab Shipping Co. (UASC ) met with shareholders at the company's corporate office in Dubai to discuss a possible combination with German rival Hapag-Lloyd, but no decision was finalized.

According to sources, Shareholders in Ocean carrier were supportive during extraordinary general meeting (EGM), but no decision on merger.

"While the shareholders' representatives at the EGM were generally supportive of the ongoing discussions with Hapag-Lloyd and recognised 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 finalised," UASC said in a statement.

Last week, Hapag-Lloyd postponed its annual general meeting, which was scheduled for June 1, to a later date due to the ongoing merger talks with UASC.

The plan to merge comes at a time when container lines are struggling with a glut of overcapacity and weak demand.

The two companies are said to be basing negotiations on relative business valuations of 72 percent for Hapag-Lloyd, and 28 percent for UASC - a combination that would create the world's fifth-largest container shipping group with 7.2 percent of global capacity, according to Alphaliner data.

Founded in 1967, UASC is owned by a half dozen countries in the Middle East. In 2014, Qatar increased its ownership in the company to 51.27 percent, according to an Federal Maritime Commission document. The minority owners are the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait.

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.

The new alliance is dubbed as the third carrier alliance, The Alliance, set to enter the market in 2017. These include Hanjin, KLine, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Nippon Yusen Kaisha and Yang Ming. UASC is anticipated to become part of The Alliance once the merger talks are concluded.
[email protected], the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania journal, says that the transformation Panama Canal expansion project will bring to Panamas domestic economy and society have been largely overshadowed by the historic expansion.

With the opening of the long-awaited Panama project this June, all eyes are on the impact the $5.25 billion engineering marvel will have on maritime traffic across the vital international lanes that link the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.

The expansion has already bolstered Panamas efforts to become the Singapore  or perhaps Dubai  of Central America. It also promises to help to transform the role that Panama is playing for many U.S. and other foreign firms that are doing business in Central and South America.

There are several factors that make Panamas prospects promising for many multinationals. Blessed with a unique geographical position, Panama is one of the fastest-growing economies worldwide.

According to the World Bank, between 2001 and 2013, its average annual growth rate was 7.2%, more than double the average in Central and South America. In 2014, growth slowed to 6.2%. It was 5.8% in 2015, a year in which virtually all the regions economies either slowed down or contracted.

When there is a $25 million investment in New York, Buenos Aires or Mexico City, nobody sees it. In Panama, an investment of this amount, the restaurants, the stores and even the taxi drivers [feel] the impact, says C.E. Maurice Belanger, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Panama.

The expansion of the Canal will enable longer, wider and heavier ships to transit; it is expected to open for commercial traffic on June 26. Although thats far behind the original target date of August 2014, the delay has given U.S. East Coast ports and businesses more time to get ready.

The expansion includes two larger sets of locks on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides, new access channels, dredging and improved water supply along the length of the 50-mile waterway.

Observes Philip Nichols, professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton: The Canal is the advantage that Panama has over everyone. Its like oil, but its even better than oil.

Beyond using Panamas convenient location for managing regional distribution, an increasing volume of manufacturing takes place here. At Panama Pacifico, 3M produces lines for its automotive division, including paint guns and plastic bottles.

Tourism is another sector growing at a rapid rate. According to Panamas comptroller general directorate, income from tourism is now nearly double what the country earns from the iconic Panama Canal itself.
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Though small in number, incidents of murder and manslaughter, kidnapping, arson and gambling all increased sharply in Henry County from 2014 to 2015. The county also saw increases in the number of aggravated assault cases, along with incidents of burglary, larceny, embezzlement, stolen property, prostitution and fraud. The number of fraud cases alone rose 44 percent.

The information comes from Virginias annual crime analysis report, released on Thursday by the Virginia State Police. It provides statistics throughout 2015. The news wasnt all bad, however. The number of robberies dropped 39 percent, while reports of rape, motor vehicle theft, vandalism, forgery, drug and nonviolent sex offenses also dropped.

By press time, the Henry County Sheriffs Office had not responded to a request for comment about the report.

The news was better in Martinsville, where charges of murder, rape, robbery, burglary, kidnapping and motor vehicle theft were all down from 2014.

I think this shows we are moving in the right direction, Martinsville Police Chief Sean Dunn said. In 2015, we put a tremendous effort towards targeting mid-and-upper level drug dealers. There is no doubt that this made a positive impact on the violent crime situation in Martinsville and will most certainly continue. I firmly believe that gun-related violence in many communities has, for some years, been associated with illegal narcotics distribution.

Under the Uniform Crime Reporting program, Part 1 offenses are serious crimes such as murder and non-negligent homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, larceny-theft and arson, according to a U.S. Department of Justice/Federal Bureau of Investigation website.

There were a few issues in the city, however. The number of arson charges doubled, from just two in 2014 to four this past year. Also the number of larceny incidents climbed from 313 in 2014 to 345 in 2015. Other crimes that rose in number include forgery, from 12 to 15; aggravated assault, from 29 to 38 and simple assault, from 227 to 244.

The best way for us to keep our community safe is to go after those involved in drug distribution, Dunn said. We have a number of great citizens who continue to put their own lives in grave danger to assist us with ridding our streets of drug dealers. To those citizens, we are grateful.

He added that the department also put an emphasis over the last year on cracking down on shoplifters.

In addition to increased uniformed and plain clothes presence in stores and strengthened relationships with our business community, we aggressively follow up on shoplifting investigations when video is available, Dunn said. We continue to post shoplifting suspects on our social media to help deter shoplifting. We will continue to aggressively target shoplifting.

Overall, Dunn said he felt the community policing efforts and strengthened relationships with citizens and business owners proved to be extremely valuable, as the department looks to cut down on crime.

Most folks know that our citizens are working very closely with us and are thinking twice before they commit crime here, Dunn said. When crimes occur, we generally receive information from several different sources about who committed the crime. We are very fortunate to have this type of relationship with our community and will work hard to ensure this relationship continues.

In 2015, we responded to 213 domestic-related calls for service and made over 120 arrests for domestic assault. We also identified 60 percent of our reported incidences of aggravated assault to be domestic related. Tragically, the single murder in Martinsville last year involved a woman who was stabbed to death by her boyfriend. We are working very closely with the Commonwealth Attorneys Office, Victim Witness, Citizens Against Family Violence, Piedmont Community Services, Social Services, M-HC 911 Center, Adult Probation & Parole and the West Piedmont Health (District) to develop strategies to reduce domestic violence. Our goal is to collectively develop mechanisms to address the offender and ensure the household gets the services they need to break the cycle of violence. Our first Domestic Violence Coalition meeting occurred last month with the goal of strengthening families and (building) stronger homes. We are committed to breaking the cycle of violence that occurs in our homes.

In Patrick County, the numbers were down as well in regards to murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, simple assault, blackmail, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, fraud, embezzlement, vandalism, drug offenses, prostitution, weapons violations, forcible sex offenses and forgery. Charges of robbery, pornography, aggravated assault and rape were all slightly up from 2014 numbers.

The data shows our crime rate is the lowest it has ever been, said Patrick County Sheriff Dan Smith in an email. This is a testament to our law enforcement professionals and to the citizens they serve.

By comparison, Patrick Countys incident rate per 100,000 people is 2,373.98. According to the 2015 report, Henry Countys incident rate stands at 4,785.88, and Martinsvilles rate is 8,008.01.

Overall in 2015, statewide there was less than a 1 percent increase in violent crime (including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault). Property crime, including burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft, decreased 2.2 percent from 2014, while the number of homicides increased from 337 across the commonwealth to 382 or an increase of 13.4 percent.

Motor vehicle thefts and attempted thefts increased 7.4 percent compared with the previous year.

Drug and narcotic offenses showed virtually no increase (up .03 percent) compared with 2014. This is in contrast to increases ranging from 2.5 percent to 9.4 percent in recent years.

Fraud offenses increased by 7 percent compared with 2014, while the number of robberies increased 3.4 percent.

There were 155 hate crimes reported in 2015. Almost two-thirds (62.5 percent) were racially or ethnically motivated. Bias toward religion (14.8 percent) and sexual orientation (14.2 percent) were next highest. The remaining 8.4 percent reported was attributed to a bias against a victims physical or mental disability.

Per state mandate, the Department of Virginia State Police serves as the primary collector of crime data from participating Virginia state and local police departments and sheriffs offices.

Paul Collins reports for the Martinsville Bulletin. He can be reached at paul.collins@martinsvillebulletin.com.
HOLYOKE -- At 18, Edeni Colon Rivera has already achieved an array of accomplishments.

She is the first student at Dean Technical High School to win the gold medal for extemporaneous speech at the SkillsUSA state competition and the first English Language Learner in Massachusetts to bring home the gold in this category.

Colon Rivera is also the recipient of several scholarships, including the AIC Presidential scholarship, and was named the 2016 Massachusetts Vocational Student of the Year.

On Friday, she added another honorary to the list: valedictorian of her graduating class.

The 99th class of students graduated from William J. Dean Technical High School on Friday, June 3.

The 75 graduates focused on various studies while in high school: some learned of automotive technology while others designed websites.

More than a dozen graduated with awards and scholarships to college.

Such awards were earned while battling stigma as a student at the city's vocational school, speakers said.

"I, as a Dean student, did not drop out and am here today," Salutatorian Wendelyn Hidalgo told the crowd during commencement.

The school has struggled with a low graduation rate for years. Of the students that entered Dean as freshmen in 2011, only four of every 10 graduated last year. About 20 percent remained in school, held back at least a year, and more than 25 percent dropped out.

"I have achieved greatness and proved them wrong," Hidalgo said. She has been awarded the Lasell College Presidential Scholarship, an award open to students with at least a 3.5 GPA. She will receive $16,000 annually, a total of $64,000 in scholarship from the Newton college.

Anthony Soto, the recently named chief of finance and operations for Holyoke Public Schools, addressed the crowd with a similar message during the ceremony.

When Soto was a student at Lawrence, he informed his guidance counselor that he would enroll at Dean for high school. "He told me going to Dean was the biggest mistake of my life," Soto said, adding that his advisor called him "college material."

After being unable to convince Soto and his parents that he should attend Holyoke High School instead of Dean, his advisor told him that he better make the most of what Dean had to offer.

Soto graduated as salutatorian of his class.

He told the crowd that Dean students often work "twice as hard as everybody else" due to life circumstances. "All of you should be very proud of what you've accomplished."
FALL RIVER

 An 18-year-old high school student was killed Friday evening as she drove to her prom.

The Bristol County District Attorney's Office said Hannah Raposo, of Fall River, was driving on Route 24 in Fall River at about 6 p.m. when she lost control of her Ford Explorer near Exit 4 and the vehicle rolled over.

The Massachusetts State Police said both Raposo and her 18-year-old male passenger were taken to Rhode Island hospital by ambulance. Raposo died of her injuries at the hospital. Her unidentified passenger is listed in stable condition.

Police said both were students at B.M.C. Durfee High School.

The State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section, Crime Scene Services and State Police detectives attached to the District Attorney's Office are investigating the incident.
SAN DIEGO,Calif. Four people are in custody in San Diego, California in connection with the May beating death of a transgender man in

Burlington

,Vermont.

The New York Times reported that the four were arrested Thursday night at a gathering place for homeless people in San Diego called Dog Beach. Allison Gee,25, Jordan Paul,21, Lyia Barber,22. and Erik Averill,21. were arrested on warrants for second-degree murder for the beating death of Amos Beede.

Burlington police say Beede was punched and kicked into a coma on May 22. He died of his wounds a week later.

Police have not ruled out the possibility of prosecuting the beating as a hate crime .

The four fled Vermont after the beating, ending up temporarily at a family member's home in Roswell, New Mexico, before moving on to California.

Police followed the group's progress using technology which tracked license plates and cell phones, officials said.

Burlington police said Beede was not homeless but was visiting homeless friends in the encampment when he was set upon be the group. According to witnesses, a dispute between Averill and Beede erupted, and Averill enlisted the help of his friends to attack Beede. Police said there were many witnesses to the beating.

While the four are being held on Vermont warrants, it is unclear when they may be returned to face trail.
SPRINGFIELD - Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School Superintendent M. Martin O'Shea told the graduating seniors of Minnechaug Regional High School Friday night that they have "plenty to celebrate," with 95 percent of them planning to pursue additional education, and the remainder planning to serve in the military or pursue apprenticeships.

Graduates of Minnechaug will be going on to Syracuse University, Fordham University, the College of William and Mary, Mount Holyoke, UMass, UConn, Notre Dame, Buchnell, Villanova and Providence College, to name a few, O'Shea said.

"It's an impressive list. Congratulations, graduates," O'Shea said at graduation exercises held at Symphony Hall.

He urged the graduates to carry with them "gratitude" for the family, community and school which helped them along the way, and to "be humble, gracious and thankful."

Class valedictorian is Christopher Garbasz and salutatorian is Mackenzie Murphy.

Class President Ryan Yelle urged his fellow graduates to "enjoy the journey" as they leave Minnechaug.

"As you move forward, I challenge you to slow down" and appreciate the present, he said.

Kate Belsky, executive secretary to the school superintendent, a 1974 graduate of Minnechaug, and a chair of the Minnechaug Scholarship Foundation, was this year's inductee into the Alumni Hall of Fame.

Belsky told the graduates that volunteers are "a dying breed."

"Be one, wherever you land," she said.

Peter Salerno, chairman of the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School Committee, told the graduates, "You truly represent the best of Hampden and Wilbraham."

He asked for a standing ovation for all graduates who have chosen to join the armed forces as they leave Minnechaug.

Salerno told the graduates, "Stand up for your family, your country and your religious beliefs, and your right to have them, and stand up for yourself."

"You are the future of the United States of America," Salerno said.
MIDDLEBOROUGH  Massachusetts State Police are investigating a single-vehicle crash in Middleborough that killed one person on Friday.

The crash occurred at approximately 5:05 p.m., according to police.

A 77-year-old man was driving southbound on Rt. 495 near Exit 3 when his vehicle veered off the road and crashed. The operator, who was the only person in the car, was pronounced dead at the scene.

State Police were assisted by Middleborough Fire and EMS in on-scene investigation.

The cause of this crash is still unknown, and he identity of the operator is being withheld pending family notification.

A number of agencies are looking involved in the current investigation, including the State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section, the State Police Crime Scene Services Section, and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
NEW LONDON,Conn. New London detectives arrested 21-year-old Shaquan Seales after they found he was carrying a stolen handgun. Several hours later they arrested him for murder.

The Hartford Courant reported that Seales appeared suspicious to drug detectives as they staked out an area of Spring Street Friday afternoon. At one point Seales went behind a nearby house, then came back to the street. Officers checked the area and found a fully loaded handgun hidden there. The firearm had been reported stolen, police said.

Seales was arrested for possession of a stolen firearm, carrying a handgun without a license and tampering with evidence.

Once back at the police headquarters, police discovered Seales was wanted in connection with a December murder of Gilberto Olvencia.



WFSB-TV reported in December that Olvencia was shot once as he stood on a front porch of a home on Connecticut Avenue. He was rushed to a nearby hospital but died of his injuries an hour later.

New London police along with Connecticut State Police detectives and inspectors with the New London County State's Attorney's Office.investigated the shooting death.

Friday afternoon, police were able to serve Searles with a warrant charging him with Olvencia's death.
During pregnancy, a woman will experience contractions in her uterus. These are caused by electrical activity whose pattern may hold clues as to whether her labor will be preterm or term. So say researchers who have developed a multiscale model that could one day help doctors predict whether a pregnancy will go to full term or not.

Share on Pinterest The researchers say their ultimate goal is to help obstetricians and gynecologists use measurements of electrical activity in the uterus to help predict whether a woman will have preterm or term labor.

Understanding the nature and causes of contractions in pregnancy helps shed light on the processes of normal and preterm birth  defined as that which occurs before 37 weeks of gestation.

Techniques such as electromyography (EMG) and magnetomyography (MMG) have been developed to study and measure uterine contractions. However, no widely accepted method using these techniques to predict preterm labor is available.

In a paper published in the journal PLOS One, the researchers  including members from Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), MO  describe how they developed the first 3-D multiscale mathematical model of the electrophysiology of a pregnant womans uterine contractions.

The model represents contractions at the cell, tissue, and organ level. A key feature of a contraction is the fiber architecture of the myometrium  the middle layer of tissue in the wall of the uterus that is largely responsible for contractions.

The researchers note that another important feature of a contraction is the location of what they call the pacemaker  the cell that starts the electrical activity. Senior author Arye Nehorai, a professor in electrical engineering at WUSTL, explains:

We know that the cell starts the electrical activity, but nothing is known about the positions or numbers or how they interact in different places in the uterus. In addition, we dont yet know the directions of the fibers in the myometrium, which is important because the electricity propagates along the muscle fibers, and that direction varies among women.

In their paper, the researchers describe how they applied sensors to the abdomens of 25 pregnant women and produced a 3-D mathematical model that precisely replicated the electrical activity in the uterus during a contraction.


Please complete this form and we'll send you a personalised information that is requested

You may use this for your own reference or forward it to your friends.

Please use the information prudently. If you are not a medical doctor please remember to consult your healthcare provider as this information is not a substitute for professional advice.
In a video titled "Do Not Grieve for Them," posted on the Internet on the day of the Brussels terror attacks, a British Islamist going by the name "Abu Haleema" said that the sympathy of the Muslims should lie with the victims of airstrikes in Syria and Iraq and not with the "infidels." "When 20,000 Muslims died in Syria - that's where your mercy should be. When 10,000 Muslims died in Iraq - that's where your mercy should be. When they gun down little children in Palestine - that's where your mercy should be," he said.

Following are excerpts

"Abu Haleema": [The Quran says]: "And do not grieve over them." If you read the commentary on that verse - what does it say? It says: Do not feel regret over their rejection of you and your religion. That is what infidels do. So don't feel regret for that. That is the infidels' job - to oppose your religion, to oppose you as a Muslim. That is what they are supposed to do. They are doing nothing but what infidels do. The only thing they are doing is what infidels are supposed to do, which is to oppose the Muslims.

[]

When they bombed Mosul University yesterday, and they killed 80 students and lecturers - that's where your mercy should be. When they bomb hospitals in Raqqah - that's where your mercy should be. When 20,000 Muslims died in Syria - that's where your mercy should be. When 10,000 Muslims died in Iraq - that's where your mercy should be. When they gun down little children in Palestine - that's where your mercy should be. When there are children starving and dying in Africa - that's where your mercy should be. Not with the infidels... Your mercy should always be with the believers. That is what Allah commanded you. What did Allah say in Quran 5:68? He said: "Do not feel sorry for the disbelieving people." That's what Allah commanded you with.

[]

What kind of terrorism is this? You kill people for what they believe. You are bombing people for what they believe. And you expect people to feel sorry for you. Wake up, Muslims. Who are your allegiances with? Who are you supporting? Who are you feeling sorry for?

[]
Authorities say an HIV-positive surgical tech stole syringes with fentanyl and endangered patients at a suburban Denver hospital - the third incident of this type in the state in less than a decade. Colorado lawmakers are trying to tighten regulations but experts say it is a national concern.

There should be a national registry for all medical workers with access to drugs and patients, experts say, because having requirements vary from state to state leaves room for criminals to slip through the cracks.

That's apparently what happened with surgery technician Rocky Allen, who jumped from hospital to hospital before he was allegedly caught taking a syringe filled with painkillers from an operating room in January. The hospital and state health officials issued a public call for the approximately 2,900 patients who had surgery during Allen's time at the hospital to be tested for hepatitis and HIV. No reported cases of HIV have been detected but about 1,000 people still either need to be tested or get follow up tests.

Allen, who has pleaded not guilty to federal charges, had a long history of problems. The former Navy medic was court martialed for stealing fentanyl at a military hospital in Kandahar in 2011 and received a general discharge after agreeing to a plea deal.

The current law only requires techs such as Allen to self-disclose any civil, criminal or administrative action related to their job duties and to provide their employment history over the previous five years. But Allen, who was fired from at least five hospitals in Colorado and other states, left off some hospitals where he worked from his resume, making it more difficult to vet his background.

Swedish Medical Center would not explain exactly what it did to vet Allen before hiring him in August 2015 but spokeswoman Nicole Williams said their general hiring practice includes a background check by a third party, confirmation of training, certification and state registration and drug screening.

Under a bill awaiting Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper's signature, surgical technicians would have to pass a fingerprint-based criminal background check and a drug test before being allowed to work in the state.

The co-sponsor of Colorado's bill, Rep. Susan Lontine of Denver, said the proposed requirements may have stopped Allen, although his problems started in other states.

"We need more of a national network to get these checks and balances," she said.

Julianne D'Angelo Fellmeth, administrative director of the Center for Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego's law school, said any medical worker with access to drugs and to patients should be subject to some licensing or permitting system that would require them to be subject to a fingerprint-based background check.

But Fellmeth said requirements vary from state to state, and legislators and bureaucrats often don't act until there is a crisis. Scrutiny of health care workers who are not doctors or nurses is especially patchy, she said.

It's not clear how many other states are considering tightening the regulation of techs in light of recent drug theft cases.

The National Conference of State Legislatures doesn't track the issue. According to the Association of Surgical Technologists, which represents 80,000 surgical techs, two other states  North Dakota and Washington  require techs to register with state regulators and Indiana, New Jersey and New York require 15 hours of continuing education per year.

In New Hampshire in 2012, radiology technician David Kwiatkowski was arrested after he was discovered swapping syringes filled with fentanyl for ones tainted with his blood. It was determined that more than 40 patients around the country contracted hepatitis C from him. He was sentenced to 39 years in prison in 2013.

In 2010, Colorado surgical tech Kristen Parker was sentenced to 30 years in prison after infecting three dozen people with hepatitis C by stealing painkiller syringes and replacing them with dirty ones. The same year a former surgical nurse, Ashton Daigle, was sentenced to 4  years in prison in a similar case in the state. However, he tested negative for HIV and hepatitis so no patients were infected.
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.
MACKINAC ISLAND, MI -- Only a few events at the Mackinac Policy Conference were exclusively Flint-focused, but the topic permeated discussions throughout the week's events at the Grand Hotel.

And some city advocates, including Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, were confident that if given the right tools and opportunities, Flint could move beyond its crisis.

In a Thursday session, Weaver and Lt. Gov. Brian Calley joined Mott Foundation President Ridgway White in a panel discussing Flint's recovery.

Weaver said that although there are still serious challenges for Flint to overcome, progress is being made.

The request for proposals to continue with the lead pipe removal Fast Start Program is out, she said, and she sees great potential for Flint to be on the map for other reasons moving forward despite the crisis it has faced.

"We know in Flint we're going to have a part two to our story," she said. "We're very resilient."

Weaver said many people in her community want to stay. When asked what two things the people of Flint want most, she answered it succinctly: "pipes and jobs."

Weaver's attitude toward the future has also been embraced by the administration. Calley, who told conference attendees that Flint is a community that is "easy to fall in love with," said his goal is to be able to look back and say the crisis was a turning point for the city.

"Out of (the crisis), we find opportunity for people who have been left out of opportunity for a long time," he said.

In his opening remarks Wednesday, Gov. Rick Snyder said the path to success is not a straight line, and said he hoped to not only address the water issues, but also make Flint a "stronger place than it was before."

Snyder's second speech on Thursday was also future focused as he announced a strategy wrapping various state programs such as Rising Tide and Community Ventures into a statewide vision that will ultimately lay a framework for future generations.

U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township, said in terms of the formal conference program, he didn't think there was enough focus on what he called the biggest crisis this state government will have faced during Snyder's tenure.

He said he believes Snyder is sincere in his regret for what happened in Flint, and that there was plenty of compassion for Flint residents to go around, but noted the actual response at the state and federal levels continues to be too slow.

"Sympathy doesn't fix a pipe," Kildee said. "Sympathy doesn't help a kid overcome a new hurdle that they have. Sympathy doesn't make class sizes in Flint smaller, or give a kid access to behavioral health. Sympathy doesn't hire any school nurses. It's really a hollow thing."

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the now-famous Flint doctor who helped bring light to the crisis, spoke during a "Mackinac Moment" of the conference Wednesday to discuss how Flint was flipping the story to become a place of hope.

Hanna-Attisha said she's biased -- she would have preferred the entire conference be about Flint. A deep dive into how the Flint water crisis began and a public push for quicker funding action would have been helpful, but focusing on where Flint is headed, where it needs to be and how other struggling cities can be helped is equally important, she added.

"We have this incredible opportunity right now to change the story in Flint," she said. "We're learning from what we're doing, we're assessing our work...We don't want to just get money from people and do something, we want to show the outcomes of what we're doing."

During the conference, a fundraising drive was started for the Flint Child Health and Development Fund, raising more than $120,000, which will be matched by the Mott Foundation.

Lauren Gibbons is a political reporter on MLive's Impact team. She can be reached at lgibbon2@mlive.com.
Close

Speculations and rumors about the release date and specifications of an upcoming PS5 have surrounded the internet. The news have started after one of Sony's head gave hints about a developing project for a console.

Head of Software Product Development, Scott Rhode spoke with MTV that the company is already planning on what product to develop soon. Teams in Sony has been known for making an improved and much better invention than they already have, according to University Herald.

A possibility of having PS5 means console users will have to wait until 2020 for its release date however, the company has come-up with a new line to go with the fast changing technology for gaming industry. It was reported that the company has already planned to launch PS4 Neo.

On the other hand, the hardware specifications details for the rumored PS5 console is limited but fans suggested that it may have virtual reality support and will be powered by AMD's chips. The company wanted to have their consoles ready for the feature since they already has Project Morpheus, which is a working VR system for PS4.

If proven true, PlayStation TV may also take a huge role on the rumored console's development in order to give gamers a much better gaming experience in the future.

President of Sony's Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida said that, "If they still feel that we need more machine power, we want to realize this and that and that, but we cannot do it with the PS4," according to Tech Advisor.

"There's a good reason to have the PS5 so developers can create their vision," the statement continued.

Although the information remained unclear about the release date and other details, fans have assumed that the price for Sony's PS5 will cost 400 in the UK or $500 in the US.

 Copyright 2020 Mobile & Apps, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
04.06.2016 LISTEN

Having weddings in exotic locations, especially outside the country seems to be the trend in Nigeria at the moment. From Seychelles to Dubai, London and even Accra, it appears as though Nigerians believe their weddings would only be fabulous when held outside the country.

While the optics are great and events glamorous, it really is no different from having a well-planned wedding within the country. Actually, there are more advantages to having a wedding in Nigeria.

If you are planning your wedding and have not picked a venue or destination yet, rather than blindly go with the trend and opt for a location outside the country, you may want to pause and read this piece as Jovago.com, Africas No.1 online hotel booking portal highlights 5 reasons to have a wedding in Nigeria.

It is less expensive

The cost of planning a wedding in Nigeria is way cheaper than planning it outside the country. Aside from the extra costs that could be incurred thank to the high exchange rate, you will spend more of food, transportation and accommodation of guests. Also the rate of wedding venues in Nigeria, no matter the location is substantially cheaper than venues in other parts of the world.

Numerous exotic destinations within the country

If your reason for choosing a foreign destination is to get amazing scenery, you should know that Nigeria is blessed with some of the most beautiful landscape and views in Africa. From waterfalls to parks, sandy beaches and resorts, there are beautiful locations that will give you the same view you are looking for or even better.

No Restrictions on religion

No matter your religion, there is no restriction as to where and when you can get married in Nigeria. You just need to ensure that you have the resources you need to cater to guests and you in no way infringe on the rights of other religions that may have settlements in the area.

Less paperwork

Getting married abroad requires a lot of paperwork. From proof of residency to authentication from the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and your Embassy , it can all be too overwhelming. In Nigeria however, you basically just need to get a marriage license and you are good to go.
04.06.2016 LISTEN

I was, as I said when the news first broke weeks ago, very sad to hear of the passing of Mr. Kwadwo Donkoh, diplomat, musician, bandleader, arranger and producer, who is being buried today, following a Burial Service at Ridge Church this morning. I am in mourning and extend deeep condolences to the Donkoh family.

I, myself, met Mr. Donkoh knowingly only once, but what a meeting it was! We had a long animated interview in Mr. Dick Essilfie Bondzie (Essiebons)' then office at Ringway Estates in Accra about six years ago. Mr Donkoh had taken note of my efforts at documenting our musical popular culture and was interested in stating his own case. Selections of this session are on my Youtube and I am happy my toy photographs of this session have been quite widely used in the past few weeks. Mr. Donkoh was a true Nkrumahist Kwadwo Donkoh was a major force behind the uplifting music album Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Album (Essiebons) and composed many of the songs on the album.

As a student at the University of Ghana, from 1956, graduating in History in1959, Mr. Donkoh was active in the African Music Society, led by people like Professor Collins, father of Professor John Collins, the musicologist and Ghana's leading philosopher Professor Kwasi Wiredu. The African Music society could have been seen as a practical manifestation of Nkrumah's African Personality doctrine. Mr. Donkoh joined the Diplomatic Service of new Ghana soon after graduation. Whilst on Ghana Diplomatic posting to Nigeria he composed the famous Highlife standard Time for Highlife for the Nigerian trumpeter Arinze. He later re-arranged this standard to be the famous Uhuru Professional Dance Band  It is time for Highlife! So ladies and gents .... Around 1965 he was based in our High Commission in London. He had composed the Osagyefo song The Founder. He was enabled to record this song with an all star band, The Envoys, including Mac Tontoh, later leader of the super group Osibisa, and the famous Broadway vocalist Joss Aikins. Both musicians had been sent to London to study music at top Music Schools by Kwame Nkrumah. Kwadwo Donkoh was a conscious entrepreneur in the creative space who saw the power of music for engebdering radical action.

Kwadwo Donkoh was a great optimist and champion of the ordinary. Ogyatana, the lighted torch, was his preferred brand, name of his super group which performed his composition, the anthem of the ordinary in our Ghana, Mmobrowa. The lighted torch featured in the art work for his Uhuru Professional Band production the Sound of Africa. This was a positive Africanism sorely needed today as Africa fights for a willed future in today's complicated world condition. We should keep Kwadwo Donkoh's torch lighted as we fight for a fairer Ghana, Africa and world.

Amos Anyimadu

Africa Next Knowledge Brokerage and Interaction.
The flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the 2016 general election, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has urged the residents of Teshie in the Ledzokuku constituency of the Greater Accra region, to reject empty promises of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) at this year's polls.

He entreated the electorate to rather cast their votes based on their current living conditions.

Touring the constituency on Wednesday, June 1, Nana Akufo-Addo said voting in this year's election should be devoid of politics of tribalism and ethnicity.

He called on the electorate to vote against politicians who practice politics of ethnicity.

Nana Akufo-Addo appealed to the people to consider competence and the track-record of the various political parties and their respective candidates, as well as their ability to deliver decent standards of living for the citizenry.

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 5 years now, and yet we can't 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 don't be deceived any longer, he said.

At Teshie Maami (town), the NPP flagbearer recounted that on the November 28, 2006, the Minister for Fisheries, the late Gladys Asmah, secured a $200 million facility from the Chinese government to construct three fishing harbours at Shama, Elmina and Teshie.

According to him, 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 harbour for Teshie. Till date, nothing has happened, Nana Akufo-Addo reminded the people.

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 can't help us. We have to change Mahama this year so Ghana can move forward, so the youth can find jobs to do, he added.

Concerns of commercial drivers

At Teshie Lascala where Akufo-Addo interacted with commercial drivers and market women, he pointed out that the 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 governments this year. This year, look up to me and the NPP and let's change Ghana. We have the men and women to fix Ghana's economy and bring wealth to everybody.

At Teshie Tsui Bleoo, the NPP flagbearer called on all NPP members to unite, win this year's 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.

Vote for NPP's parliamentary candidate

The NPP flagbearer urged the people of Teshie to vote for the NPP's 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.

Earlier, Nana Akufo-Addo 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 year's elections.

By: Awudu Mahama/election.citifmonline.com/Ghana
Paris (AFP) - France has disciplined five soldiers accused of physical abuse in Central African Republic, where Paris had sent peacekeepers to quell bloody sectarian violence, the defence ministry said on Saturday.

"In view of the gravity of the facts, the five soldiers have been suspended," the ministry said, adding: "Simultaneously disciplinary action has been launched... as a precursor to their eviction from the military."
President John Dramani Mahama has expressed worry about the extent to which critics use social media to create and spread what he calls falsehood.

According to him, although social media presents so many opportunities that can be taken advantage of, some Ghanaians are rather using it to create and spread falsehood.

I love the new wave of social media because of my love for freedom of expression. It allows us to get in touch with each other more easily, to receive and spread information, and co-ordinate among ourselves without having to rely on already existing organizations. Through social media, we all get a voice in our democratic conversation.

Like any other type of freedom, however, some use it to create and spread falsehood. While I do love creativity, I don't think this is the most useful way to be creating false realities. Its a waste of time and energy, said the President.

President Mahama who believes most of the criticisms on social media are not backed with evidence, emphasized the need for Ghanaians to check the facts, and lets not destroy the opportunities presented by social media.

The President's comment comes days after he accused some critics of hiding behind social media to peddle inaccurate information about his government .

He complained that his appointees are always attacked on social media by anonymous account holders on social media, especially when issues of corruption are topical.

According to the President, people use corruption as political propaganda without backing their claims with facts.



By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Niamey (AFP) - Thirty-two troops have been killed in a clash with Boko Haram fighters on Niger's border with Nigeria, Niger's defence ministry said on Saturday, one of deadliest tolls inflicted by the jihadists.

In neighbouring Nigeria, the army meanwhile said it had killed 19 Boko Haram militants in separate fighting in northeast Borno state, while two soldiers suffered gunshot wounds.

In the Niger fighting, "hundreds of assailants" attacked a military post in the Niger town of Bosso on Friday evening, the defence ministry said in a statement that gave a "provisional toll" of 30 Nigerien and two Nigerian soldiers killed and 67 wounded.

"On the enemy's side, several dead and injured were taken away," the ministry said.

"Boko Haram elements effectively took control of the town temporarily, but now they were dislodged," a security source said.

Local resident and former MP Elhaj Aboubacar said: "They drove up at twilight, shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Great), they fired a lot of shots and torched many places in Bosso."

"We don't know where our military went, but one thing is for sure, Boko Haram were able to do what they liked until dawn," Aboubacar said.

"The situation is under control and calm has returned," the defence ministry said, adding that a "mopping up" operation was underway by land and air.

- 19 Boko Haram fighters killed -

Since February 2015, Niger has been plagued by Boko Haram attacks in its southeast region.

The Islamists frequently stage cross-border raids from their stronghold in neighbouring Nigeria.

Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency has devastated infrastructure in Nigeria's impoverished northeast region and forced around 2.1 million people in Nigeria to flee their homes, according to the UN's refugee agency.

The unrest has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless.

In the latest clashes there 19 Boko Haram militants were killed in Borno, according to the military.

Acting upon an intelligence report on the presence of Boko Haram fighters in the militants' Chukungudu camp, Nigerian troops and civilian JTF (joint task force) members launched the attack on Friday.

"During the encounter at the camp, the troops killed 19 Boko Haram terrorists including their notorious leader in the area, called Ameer Abubakar Gana," the army said in a statement.

The two soldiers who suffered gunshot wounds were said to be responding to treatment.

The troops destroyed an improvised explosive devices (IED) making factory, detonated four primed IEDs, recovered two anti-aircraft guns and other weapons and vehicles.

There was no independent confirmation of the army statement.

The latest clashes came as a multinational force from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon prepared to launch a major offensive on Boko Haram around Lake Chad.

Nigeria has struggled to acquire military hardware for troops fighting Boko Haram, with Western governments reluctant to provide weapons partly because of its army's human rights record.
04.06.2016 LISTEN

By Hannah Awadzi, GNA

Accra, June 4, GNA - The first time my daughter had convulsion, I thought she was going to die.

We were sleeping in the night when I heard her make some unusual sounds, I got up, lifted her from her cot and she was stiff.

I screamed! My husband woke up and he looked equally frightened. We did not know what it was. We have never had such an experience before. Instinctively I took her to the shower and showered her for about a minute but she did not move.

My husband immediately took her to the nearest hospital. After reviving her, they did some Malaria test and they told us she had Malaria, I got surprised because she always sleeps in a treated net.

The hospital started her on Malaria treatment but we even had to buy tape used to connect the IV fluid (drip) so I insisted we move her to another hospital, a bigger one.

She completed the Malaria treatment on IV and was discharged.

The medical personnel came home with some prescriptions, among them was a drug called phyention.

My husband told me the doctor said she should take that drug for 30 days and would stop the convulsions.

We started her on the drug. I had just had a new baby then so I did not bother too much reading about the drug, something I always do.

After giving the drug for 30 days, I noticed that her eyes have darkened and gone deeper, I did not immediately relate it to the drug so I went back to the hospital. The doctor did not really see it as an issue; she rather said she needed to continue taking the drug.

I asked her till when, and she said for about two years. I shook my head vigorously and said no! She would not be on the drug for that long, then she said we should go and have a head scan call EEG, and based on the result of that, she could continue on the drug or otherwise.

When I got back home, I read the information leaflet on the drug and it angered me immediately. The side effects were just too many; I called the doctor and questioned why she gave that drug to my daughter without explaining to me the side effects and why she did not do the EEG first before giving the drug.

She had no tangible explanation to give. I just stopped seeing her. Now this is my beef - There is something called the Patients Charter adopted by the Ghana Health Service, that charter, enjoins medical professionals to discuss diagnoses and treatment with their patients but we have very little of that.

In fact, once a patient starts asking too many questions, you may be thrown out of a doctor's office 'that is an offense' And how I wish the Ghana's Medical and Dental Council could address this issue

In another instance, I have sought the advice of a neurologists who after hearing that my daughter has convulsed two times. (I mean she has had two visible convulsions in her three- year life) just prescribed Keppra.

She even showed me where to get the drug. As I always do I checked the drug online and immediately decided, 'Not for my daughter!'

The first thing I saw when I check on the internet was a warning!!! Yes before any drug information, there was a warning that one cannot stop administering Keppra abruptly. Once you stop, you will experience more frequent and vigorous convulsions.

I thought, but why would a doctor prescribe this drug when the person has had only two visible convulsions and besides Keppra is higher than drugs like Carbamazepine, epilem etc and the truth is, I do not really know if the child needed that.

I knew a woman whose child use to convulse two times a day, and this child does not have cerebral palsy (CP) or anything like that.

She said after countless and endless visits to the hospital she went to Mampong Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicines, where she was given some gallons of drug to administer to her child.

After that her son did not experience convulsions again. His son is now six year old and it's been three good years since he ever convulsed.

In addition Keppra costs GHa 625 for the 125ml and she is suppose to take this for about three years. I could not help but to think that the doctor was probably 'an agent', I thought frankly.

Communicating with parents of CP on diagnoses and treatment is an issue that really needs to be tackled.

It is sad how many parents get so confused and frustrated by the medical system and resort to other things.

However, the Special Mothers project - a project advocating and creating awareness about CP issues (http://specialmothersproject.blogspot.com) have a parents' support group and I am happy there is a parents' support group, So much information is shared when we meet.

I remember when we discussed convulsion at one of our meetings and one lady said her child convulsed almost every night, 'Eish', I shouted within, every night? But at least I learnt that the convulsion usually goes. I learnt not to panic when it happens.

This is the account of one of the mothers: 'The sleepless nights usually start with seizures. The pain I feel for my child when he has a seizure and there is nothing I can do.

'He looks into my eyes and you can see he is in pain and he is almost asking 'why is this happening to me and you can't explain. All you can do is hold him close and shower him with kisses until it ends.

'Even two minutes is super long when it happens because I know he is going through pain and doesn't understand why. The moment he is done, it's like nothing happen at all, and he gets back to being a happy baby. That's when you know that this little man is a fighter. '

Convulsion is an abnormal, involuntary contraction of the muscles most typically seen with certain seizure disorders. The term convulsion is sometimes used as a synonym for seizure, but not all seizures are characterized by convulsions. A person having convulsions appears to be shaking rapidly and without control. Other possible causes of convulsions include fever, meningitis, drug or alcohol abuse, poisoning, hypoglycemia, and head injury.

A warm massage, shea butter massage, lemon grass tea with a little honey (http://www.top10homeremedies.com/kitchen-ingredients/top-10-health-benefits-lemongrass.html) and (http://www.livestrong.com/article/271243-what-are-the-health-benefits-of-lemongrass-tea/) all helps to boost the health of children with CP.

At least I also know that there are some things that doctors cannot really do anything about. I advice parents afflicted by CP and other illnesses to send everything to the Lord in prayer.

GNA
President John Dramani Mahama is in Dakar, Senegal, for the 49th Ordinary Summit of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government.

The Summit, which will see the election of a new Chair of the Authority, will also receive and discuss the progress report on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), a report of the Mediation and Security Council and swear-in the new President of the ECOWAS Commission.

A former Chair of the Authority of Heads of State and Government, President Mahama is expected to hold a number of side meetings including a meeting with colleague heads of state along the Lagos- Abidjan Corridor to consider the next phase of the proposed Lagos- Abidjan Highway project.
04.06.2016 LISTEN

Some bloodthirsty Muslims, who wanted to please Allah by all means and get into the good books of Prophet Muhammad, have been on rampage in Northern Nigeria. The savage quest by those who are drunk with Allah delusion and who are desperate to inherit the phantom paradise that was promised to the Ummah in the afterlife has been in obvious display in the past weeks. The Mujahidin of northern Nigeria have been on the loose and the horrific consequences of their actions are graphic and glaring.

The criminal silence of the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, the Kano state Governor, Umar Ganduje and the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi 11 is deafening and sends worrisome signals about the threat of Islamic fanaticism in the region. Within a week, Christians have been murdered in different states across northern Nigeria in very gruesome ways for the supposed crime of blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad. The christian woman is the latest. But is she going to be the last?

The government of Nigeria tells us that Boko Haram militants have been consigned to the Sambisa forest. No, they have not. Boko Haramism has diffused and what we have witnessed in Kano and Niger states is a testament to the diffusion.

This is evident in the pattern of killings in the two states and the reactions to these atrocities. Now why is beheading for prophet Muhammad a religious slippery slope and a worrisome development for Nigeria? Let us further examine this case that happened in Kano. The woman was decapitated because the killers believed that chopping off the head compensated for the offense which she committed, the offense of insulting and making disparaging statements about the messenger of Allah.

The belief that those who insult prophet Muhammad should be executed is not a minority view that is shared by a fanatical fringe in the muslim community. It is a widespread opinion that is strongly entertained by Islamic moderates and fanatics alike. That is why the killing of the woman in Kano was not the action of one individual or a crazy few. The beheading was not a secret operation but an open and public ritual. The head of the woman was paraded publicly in an environment where the perpetrators knew that they would get away with such deeds. And they did. The Mujahidin also got away with murdering another christian in Niger State. They will still get away with such atrocities in another Muslim majority state, then in another sharia state another time.

The rampaging soldiers of Allah got away with this heinous crime in the past, in the case of Gideon Akaluka in the 90s and are likely to get away with it again in the future because impunity is entrenched in muslim communities in northern Nigeria. Extremism is ubiquitous and the political will to tackle this cancerous trend is lacking.

Islam in Northern Nigeria has caved in to the forces of bigotry. The enforcement of sharia law has created an atmosphere of impunity and intolerance. There is no doubt that some Muslims have condemned the beheading of the woman in Kano and the killings in Niger state. However, the weight of condemnation cannot be matched with the apparent endorsement of the murder from the rest of the population particularly those who have refused to express their disapproval of these murderous activities and those who think it is too dangerous to speak out and express their outrage.

So where are the moderate muslims? Why are they reluctant to speak out against the beheading of the woman in Kano?

Why are they not marching on the streets in protest? Where are the Ulamas and the Sheikhs? Why are they silent?

Why has the Sultan of Sokoto not made any statement? Why is the Emir of Kano keeping quiet? Why has he not convened a press conference to condemn this atrocious act that took place in his emirate? I mean what are the so-called progressive and moderate Islamic organisations doing? Where are the advocates of islam-is-a-religion-of-peace narrative? Why have they not issued statements to denounce these acts of religious war, recklessness and barbarism?

Nigeria needs a critical mass of active moderate and progressive minded Muslims to speak out openly and publicly against violent reactions to supposed insults on prophet Muhammad, Allah or Islam. These insane behaviors of Islamic jihadists must stop. These manifestations of Islamic religious insanity must end. People who murder innocent citizens for blasphemy must be punished because they are criminals and should be put behind bars. Moderate Muslims need to rally and act NOW to stop and prevent a recurrence of this savagery so that peace, freedom and justice would reign in Northern Nigeria.
04.06.2016 LISTEN

A machine that may help blind people to see?

What about a computer that can mimic the action of the brain and be able to process the zillions of information that passes through the brain, as it controls our bodily functions and actions, while using only a tiny proportion of the power now needed by the super-computers that attempt to make a tiny fraction of such calculations?

Super-computers necessarily cost huge amounts of money today  largely because of the enormous amounts of electrical energy they consume  and are therefore unaffordable, except to the richest governments on earth. If the power requirements of super-computers were to be reduced exponentially to the same level as that which operates your brain and mine, can you visualise how that would transform the world in which we live?

Think of your first computer and what it could, or could not do. Compare it to your current machine, with its multi-tasking capabilities and its refusal to crash! Then think again, and think again and think again and think again!

A computer with as much number-crunching ability as the human brain would devour around sixty million watts of electricity  equal to a hydroelectric power plant, says one scientific writer. Trying to build computers that are way more efficient is the task that a group of bio-engineers at Stanford University, in the USA, have set themselves. And that group is headed by a Ghanaian!

He is 53-year-old Kwabena Adu Boahen, son of the late Professor Albert Kwadwo Adu Boahen, one of Africa's foremost historians. Now, a lot of hype surrounds the work that is being carried out at Silicon Valley and other places, with regard to robotics, artificial intelligence and related developments in the computer industry. So, a little scepticism is in order when we hear of using machines to enable the blind to see, or putting the equivalent of a human brain inside a computer to direct how it works. But I assure you that Kwabena Boahen's endeavours are the real thing.

His work has been featured in The New York Times, Esquire, The Scientific American, The Economist and The London Guardian, among numerous other authoritative publications. Yet he is almost unknown in his own country! Well, I am very glad to introduce him to you.

Kwabena Boahen's fascination with building things started when he was very young. He commandeered a section of his father's bungalow, where there was an unused table, and turned it into his workshop. The noise he made there earned it a nickname in the Professor's household  the konkaka place. Dinner time: Where is Kwabena? . Answer: He's making konkaka! Professor Adu Boahen did not marvel at his son's preoccupation with making things with his hands, for his own first love had been mathematics, not the history that earned him his unsurpassed reputation. He gave Kwabena his head  and the rest is history.

Born on 22 September 1964, Kwabena was educated at Legon Primary School, from where he followed his father's footsteps to Mfantsipim School. He was, in his own words, a centenary greenhorn there, having been admitted in 1976, the year the School celebrated its centenary. After obtaining his O levels, he went to the Presbyterian Boys Secondary School ( Presec) in Accra for his sixth-form studies. It was there that he began to develop his inventiveness to a noticeable level  he produced a corn-planting machine that won a prize at the National Science Fair in 1979. His prize was a trip to Nigeria  the envy of his classmates.

But even before then, he had begun his love-hate relationship with computers. Addressing a world audience on TEDGlobal, a TV programme that provides a platform for thinkers to share their ideas with like-minded individuals (June 2007) Kwabena revealed: I got my first computer when I was a teenager growing up in Accra. It was a really cool device: you could play games with it; you could programme it in BASIC. And I was fascinated. So I went to the library to figure out: how did this thing work?

I read about how the CPU is constantly shuffling data back and forth between the memory, the RAM and the ALU, (the arithmetic and logic unit. ) And I thought to myself, this CPU really has to work like crazy just to keep all this data moving through the system.

But nobody was really worried about this. When computers were first introduced, they were said to be a million times faster than neurons. People were really excited. They thought they would soon outstrip the capacity of the brain. This is a quote, actually, from Alan Turing: "In 30 years, it will be as easy to ask a computer a question as to ask a person." This was in 1946. And now [in 2007], it's still not true. And so, the question is, why aren't we really seeing this kind of power in computers that we see in the brain?

Kwabena answers his own question: What people didn't realize, and I'm just beginning to realize [myself] right now, is that we pay a huge price for the speed that we claim is a big advantage of these computers. Let's take a look at some numbers. ...Blue Gene [is] the fastest computer in the world [in 2007]. It's got 120,000 processors; they can basically process 10 quadrillion bits of information per second. That's 10 to the sixteenth. And they consume one and a half megawatts of power.

So that would be really great, if you could add that to the production capacity in Tanzania. It would really boost the economy. [But] just to go back to the United States, if you translate the amount of power or electricity this computer uses to the amount of households in the States, you get 1,200 households in the U.S.!That's how much power this computer uses.

Now, let's compare this with the brain..... How much computation does the brain do? I estimate 10 to the 16 bits per second, which is actually about very similar to what Blue Gene does. So that's the question.... how much? -- they are doing a similar amount of processing; a similar amount of data -- the question is how much energy or electricity does the brain use?

And the answer [is] actually as much as your laptop computer: it's just 10 watts! So what we are doing right now with computers with the energy consumed by 1,200 houses, the brain is doing with the energy consumed by your laptop! So the question is, how is the brain able to achieve this kind of efficiency? ....The bottom line [is]: the brain processes information using 100,000 times less energy than we do right now with this computer technology that we have. How is the brain able to do this?

To be Contd.
There is no gainsaying that June 3 disaster would be remembered as one of the deadliest in Ghanas history. The horrific accident, which killed over 150 people, would be commemorated as the day that Ghana experienced a disaster that blighted the joy of many Ghanaians. The disaster took the wind out of the steam of Ghanaians and exposed the volatility of the city to such disasters. Several people have cursed the June 3, like the way Job cursed the knee that received him at birth. The flag of Ghana flew half-mast, and memorial service has been held to remember the victims of the flood. The theme of the memorial service, Never Again, is emblematic of our resolve as humans to prevent evil. If mortals, with finite powers, are willing to fight the recurrence of evil, why not God?

A friend, who is an atheist, challenged my imagination as I was reflecting over the episode of June 3. He asked the popular question: If there is God, why the June 3? This question is very similar to what atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, and skeptics ask when disaster strikes. The problem of evil, known in theology as theodicy, has tested great minds for centuries. And much as suffering continue to stain the flow of life, the question always remains fresh in the minds of the living. So, If God is good, why evil? will remain a question on the lips of mortal beings until such a time that evil is completely defaced and erased from the surface of the earth.

That suffering is an existential reality has produced three basic responses from human beings. There are those who dismiss the existence of God because of the reality of evil. So, for such thinkers, evil is a reality, but God is an illusion. The presence of evil, thus, denotes the absence of God. The Greek philosopher, Epicurus, who lived from 341  270 BC captured this in his syllogism/riddle: Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but unwilling? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

As a second year undergraduate student at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, I felt embarrassed when the statement proved a cogent and valid argument after we had used the Truth Table to determine its validity. Based on this riddle, our Logic philosopher, who is a humanist, scorned the usual Christian frame that, God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good. I left the class with heavy heart knowing that I could not provide an answer to a philosopher, who ridiculed my faith as a Christian. Thus, several years after completing the UCC, I have developed interest in studying more about theodicy. My interest in theodicy also followed some pains that I had experienced as an individual.

The second response to evil is the denial of evil. Pantheists, such as Mary Barker Eddy, argue that evil is an illusion. There is nothing like evil: it is only a state of the mind. This smacks of some Eastern philosophy that denies the existence of the material world. But since it is obvious that evil and suffering are existential realities, there is no point in spilling ink on pantheistic philosophy. The basic flaw of pantheistic teaching on evil is that it renders the efficacious death of Jesus Christ, the saviour of the elect, meaningless and ahistorical.

The third response to theodicy is the one that accepts the existence of both evil and God. This is the position of Christians. Christians believe in the existential realities of both evil and God. But this position is not free from problems. The first challenge of the Christian position finds expression in the question of the riddle of Epicurus. Why wont God destroy evil? Why does God permit evil? Doesnt the reality of evil dismiss the existence of God? One of the Christian thinkers, who admitted the reality of God and evil, is St. Augustine. He pointedly said that, God only had one son on earth without sin, but never without suffering. Augustines statement brings the fact to the fore that evil is a reality.

The question about the Christian position is also about creation. God created everything. Evil is something. Therefore, God created evil. This syllogism assumes that God is the author of evil. But this runs contrary to the Christian notion of creation. Yes, God created all things. But it is not true that God created evil. As Norman Geisler posited, Evil is not a thing, evil is the corruption of a good thing. Thus, the existence of evil does not mean the absence of God. We know evil because; we have the notion of the good (represented by God). Here, C.S. Lewiss argument is very cogent: We know of a crooked line, because we have an idea of a straight line. God made only good things, so evil is a corruption of a good thing.

The question is also asked if God created perfect things, then where from evil? This question assumes that perfect beings are incapable of sinning or becoming evil. The answer to this question is not far fetched. First, God did not create a robot. God created a being with a freewill. The creatures of God had the power of contrary choice. In other words, the creatures of God could decide against God. So, while it is true that God created perfect beings, it is equally true that God created perfect beings with the power of freewill. The creatures of God were free moral agents!

The question is also asked: why does God permit evil? We may not be able to provide an exhaustive answer to this question. All we can say is that God has a purpose for everything. Here, the bible test in Romans 8:28 that all things [good and bad] work together for the good of the Christian is important. We may not understand why God permits evil, but we can trust that He has a good purpose for permitting evil. In Deuteronomy 29:29, the bible informs us that, The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow the words of this law.

That evil has a purpose is captured succinctly by C.S. Lewis in his book, The Problem of Pain, that, God whispers in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Explicating the purpose of evil, Joseph told his brothers, who had sold him into slavery, that, You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives [Genesis 50:20]. The bible also assures that, For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all [II Corinthians 4:17].

Will God deal with evil? Yes, on the cross, God officially dealt with the problem of evil. In Colossians 2:14-15, we read: Having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us: He took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

In His second advent, the final victory over evil would be actualized. In Revelations 21:1-4, we read: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

Let me conclude with the first stanza of the hymn penned by John R. Clements:

In the land of fadeless day

Lies the city foursquare;

It shall never pass away,

And there is no night there.

Refrain:

God shall wipe away all tears,

Theres no death nor pain nor fears,

And they count not time by years,

For there is no night there.

God shall wipe away all tears. He has promised us that He would give us a better existence, when this sinful world fades away. We all face suffering and pain, but my dear reader, God has destroyed evil. We have hope, because on the cross, Jesus Christ conquered sin, and by His resurrection, He conquered death. So, as Christians, we taunt at death by asking, 'Death, where is thy sting?' May the Holy Spirit graciously comfort all those who lost relatives and properties in June 3. Never again, June 3.

Satyagraha!!

Charles Prempeh ( [email protected] ) Makerere Institute of Social Research, Makerere University, Uganda
Alhaji Bature

04.06.2016 LISTEN

Obaa Yaa is one of the most knowledgeable and politically well-informed NPP Communicators based in London. She is beautiful, married and a respectful woman.

On Saturday, 3rd June 2016, I came across a publication on Ghanaweb under their Diaspora News of Thursday, 2 June 2016 sourced from the woefully sub-standard The Al-hajj newspaper, titled, NPP man stabbed another in London under the publication web link:

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/diaspora/NPP-man-stabbed-another-in-London-444011

I painstakingly read it and it was all about Alhaji Bature, the Editor-in-Chief and owner of The Al-hajj newspaper, writing defamatory allegations about one Obaa Yaa, a London-based NPP communicator.

According to Alhaji Bature, who was once alleged to have such a bad breath that when he opens his mouth to talk or yawn, it becomes an azonto dancing ground or environment for an army of houseflies, that Obaa Yaa has been having an extramarital sexual relationship with one Naasei, her fellow NPP communicator.

For the reading public, I shall advise you to treat Mr Lowlife Alhaji Bature, his despicably sub-standard Al-hajj newspaper, and his agents and assigns with the public scorn that they deserve. The publication is born out of his unstable state of hallucinatory mind, if not purely out of the figment of his warped imagination.

Obaa Yaa as many Londoners and interested persons know, is a very faithful and a happily married woman who does not expose her nudity to any other man or woman apart from her husband. I do not want to talk about Obaa Yaas husband that Mr Lowlife Bature is here portraying as a sadomasochist of Dagomba extraction (tribal background).

Alhaji Bature is established to have hatred towards any outstanding person or Ghanaian who does not support President Mahama and the NDC to guarantee their continuous stay in power despite their marked failings  corruption, incompetence, cluelessness, practice of tribalism, nepotism and selective justice, the bane of Ghanas socio-economic prosperity.

No wonder that he hates Obaa Yaa hence coming up with this crap.

He once took me on, publishing same nonsense about me but I cut him down to size and showed him he belongs to the refuse dump where his compromising principles in favour of the cause of President Mahama, NDC and Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II may be tolerated.

Fellow Ghanaians, treat this publication by Aljaji Bature about Obaa Yaa as total lies. It is not different from the uncountable lies that he writes to appease President Mahama and the NDC to earn him a handsome living as his career as a newspaper owner has nosedived, yielding him nothing because he is such a ridiculous liar and an unprofessional journalist.

People even refuse to accept his newspaper when offered to them free let alone, using the papers on which he publishes his news to wipe their backside or buy them. That explains how useless his publications are and how frustrated he has become hence churning out nonsense on daily basis to please only his equally less serious fellows, for a living.

Obaa Yaa, keep up your good work for NPP and Ghana. Do not be daunted by this purposeful nonsense written about you and your husband by the deranged Alhaji Bature of The Al-hajj newspaper.

To conclude, the public is informed that neither has Obaa Yaa involved in extramarital sexual affairs nor her husband stabbed anyone on the grounds adduced by the allegedly smelly-mouthed Alhaji Bature of The Al-hajj Newspaper.

Rockson Adofo
Dakar (AFP) - West Africa should "think harder" about developing a new anti-terror force, a top regional official said Saturday, as Niger announced the latest deaths among its troops battling Boko Haram jihadists.

West Africa has suffered terror attacks on nations previously untouched by jihadists in the last year, as well as confronting an Islamist insurgency that began in northeast Nigeria but spread to several neighbouring countries.

That meant greater intelligence sharing and military co-operation was required, said the incoming head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) commission, which implements policy decisions agreed by its 15 members.

"The multiplication of terrorist hotbeds in our region compels us to share information on their activities, to communicate, co-ordinate and harmonise our efforts," said Benin's Marcel Alain de Souza at an ECOWAS summit in Dakar.

"This naturally makes us think harder about the creation of a regional intervention force against terrorism," he added, according to comments released by Senegal's state news agency.

He made the announcement after 32 troops were killed in a clash with Boko Haram fighters on Niger's border with Nigeria, one of deadliest tolls inflicted by the jihadists.

A multinational force from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon already exists and is due to launch a major offensive on Boko Haram around Lake Chad.

But Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless, leading to calls for more support within the region.

Senegal's President Macky Sall, who currently holds the rotating chairman position in ECOWAS, said Muslim-majority states such as his own had nothing in common with Boko Haram, describing terrorism as an ongoing "source of concern."

The summit was also due to choose a new chairman following Sall's one-year stewardship, with all bets on Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for what is expected to be her final year as Liberia's president.

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh did not appear, after months of harsh words for hosts Senegal due to a border dispute.

There was also a palpable nervousness at the regional gathering with the news that Guinea Bissau's deposed prime minister might attempt to make an appearance along with his recently appointed replacement.

Although premier Baciro Dja appeared alone, a group of around 40 protesters appeared to denounce his presence, which is viewed as unconstitutional by some lawmakers in his own PAIGC party as he was named by the president.

"We are here to show we don't agree with the president's decision," said Badile Domingos Sami, a youth leader of the faction-ridden PAIGC.

Sall called on Guinea Bissau to "preserve the democratic achievements" of the country, which has been plagued by coups and instability since its independence from Portugal.
04.06.2016 LISTEN

Adentan (GAR), June 4, GNA - Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Timothy Bonga Yoosa, Greater Accra, Regional Commander, has called on the service personnel to hold their uniform in high regard as they demonstrate professionalism and integrity in their mandated affairs.

He said: 'It is an election year, a year of challenges and more is expected of us.'

Speaking at their annual West African Security Services Association (WASSA) get-together held over the weekend, ACP Yoosa said the Adentan Divisional Command is a new creation of the Police Service of the Region.

He said in spite of the challenges being faced by the Command, they have performed creditably well.

ACP Yoosa reminded the service personnel that 2016 is an election year 'and we all need to be prepared and work extra hard to ensure that the peace in the society is maintained'.

He said in times like these, what is needed is commitment, and the passion to serve the nation.

ACP Yoosa said soon political campaigns would intensify and called on all service personnel to be vigilant as they perform their duties.

Commissioner of Police Kwesi Nkansah (Rtd), the Chairman of the occasion, said the WASSA annual get-together started in the colonial era.

He said WASSA was held annually to climax the activities of the Police service and create an opportunity for service personnel to interact with the public.

Commissioner Nkansah urged the service personnel to use the opportunity to cultivate useful relationships with members of the communities in which they serve.

The festive occasion, held amidst dancing to the tunes from the Police band, witnessed the attendance of a number of political dignitaries, service commanders and the public.

GNA
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The chronicle of a life split between urban Manhattan and rural Montana.
June 04, 2016

Syria: The U.S. Is Unwilling To Settle - Russia Returns For Another Round

The Obama administration does not want peace in Syria. The Russians finally have to admit to themselves that the U.S. is no partner for a continuation of a cease fire, a coordinated attack against the Islamic State and al-Qaeda and for peace in Syria. Indeed, as Lavrov explains, the U.S. has again asked to spare al-Qaeda from Russian air strikes even as two UN Security Council resolutions demand its eradication. Huge supply convoys (vid) from Turkey are again going to the "rebels" who will, as always, share them with al-Qaeda and other terrorists.

The current renewed Syrian Arab Army attack towards Raqqa is being obstructed not only by sandstorms but also by a timely attack of al-Qaeda, Ahrar al Sham and Turkestan Islamist Party forces against government positions in the south Aleppo countryside.

More than 1,000 militants have begun an offensive against Syrian army positions southwest of Aleppo, the Russian ceasefire monitoring center in Syria said in a statement on Saturday. The center also reported civilians in Aleppo as saying armed groups partly made up of Turkish soldiers had appeared north of the city.

The exactly same scheme happened in March and April when a move towards eastern Syrian by the Syrian army had to be stopped to prevent further losses against al-Qaeda south of Aleppo. It seems obvious that these moves U.S. supported forces are planned to prevent any gains of the Syrian government in the east.

Today Lavrov again talked to Kerry:

"Lavrov expressed concern about attempts to delay the resumption of political negotiations under various pretexts," the [Russian foreign] ministry said.

As the U.S. is unwilling to settle the Syria conflict Russia will have to retake the initiative.

Is this a trap? Does the U.S. want Russia to sink into a quagmire in Syria? That is certainly a possibility but it is hard to see how this could happen when Russia comes back with a vengeance and strikes hard and fast.

Russian airstrikes against terrorists in Syria have tripled over the last days. Additional resources have been silently dispatched:

Without stirring a buzz similar to that of their first military intervention in Syria, the Russians this week disembarked ground forces and paratroopers in the port of Tartus to support more than 3,000 Russian volunteers dispatched to the region in the past few weeks, in a bid to revive coordination with the Syrian army.

...

Syrian sources stated that the Russian joint command staff, which coordinated aerial support operations last fall, had returned to the Hmeimim military base in Latakia province to begin preparations for new operations.

One can only hope that the Russian leadership has learned its lesson. That it will not stop to pursue the enemy for no political gain when it is again, as it likely will soon be, on the run.

Posted by b on June 4, 2016 at 18:11 UTC | Permalink

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A MASS extinction may be happening before our eyes, and we seem powerless to prevent it. Then again, nature might be doing what it always does: going throug
"If it requires removing all cabinet ...
Sacramento, CA  After passing pot regulations last year, California lawmakers are now turning their attention to cultivators to boost state coffers.

The latest bill AB2243, passed Thursday by the State Assembly by a 60-12 vote, would create an excise tax on farmers. Democratic Assemblyman Jim Wood of Healdsburg whose similar tax proposal last year was killed at the last minute praised the legislation, stating, An excise tax will ensure the revenue stays in the communities where the cannabis is grown. Our goal is to create resources to manage the environmental and public safety problems we are battling.

The bill would levy a $9.25 per ounce of marijuana flowers, $2.75 per ounce of pot leaves and $1.25 per ounce of immature pot plants tax. That would result in $77 million annually for local police and environmental cleanup, according to legislative analysts.

Hezekiah Allen from the California Growers Association said, AB 2243 is the right tax at the right time. This legislation will generate much needed revenue to clean up watersheds, prevent future environmental impacts, and protect the safety of our neighborhoods. Our communities and rivers cant wait. However, other marijuana activists oppose the taxes calling them unreasonably high, and arguing that the flower tax alone would cost farmers 10 percent of the marijuanas value. Currently, local governments tax pot at about 7.5 percent.

Earlier this week, the Senate passed a 15 percent marijuana sales tax. Woods notes that if the bill has any chance of passing it will need to support from Republicans in the Senate.
A principal at a Brevard County elementary school was arrested Friday morning, accused of having child porn on his computer.

Ricky Sheppard was arrested Friday morning for child pornography

Sheppard was principal at Spessard Holland Elementary School

Brevard Public Schools terminated his employement Friday

Brevard County Sheriff's Office said they had been investigating Ricky Sheppard, 59, for three days. They did not say what tipped them off to his illegal activity.

They did, however, say he'd had problems at previous jobs. There was a report made in 1999 about his conduct with students.

"There is an official written reprimand in his record for inappropriate gifts and comments made to a first grade student," said Superintendent Desmond Blackburn.

Sheppard is currently principal at Spessard Holland Elementary School.



"I'm sickened by it," said Sheriff Wayne Ivey. "I look at this case and I find it hard to believe that anyone could be this demented."

The district was notified Friday morning of Sheppard's arrest. Officials say they terminated his employment that morning.

Sheppard made his first federal court appearance in Orlando. where they say he could face anywhere up to 20 years in prison and a lifetime of supervision.



"Allegations of this nature represent perhaps the highest violation of trust by people who are supposed to safeguard our children, our educators," Blackburn said. "So this is extremely important to us."

At this time, the sheriff's office says they are investigating whether there may have been any local victims. But currently they say the charges against him are only for possession of child pornography.




Extremely graphic court documents obtained Friday show what led up to the arrest of a Windermere man for several rape cases.

Darryl Patterson was arrested this week

Windermere police say he sexually assaulted at least two women while they were unconscious

Newly released court documents provide graphic details

The documents describe more than two dozen videos worth of sex acts.



While those videos were seized more than a year ago, a woman came forward this January saying she thought she could be one of suspect Darryl Patterson's rape victims.

Patterson was arrested this week.

While meeting with police, she saw two videos for the first time that showed her unconscious body being sexually assaulted.

The female victim says she was raped in Pattersons home on Bayshore.

In a newly released nine-page document, the victim told Windermere Police that she used to work for Patterson and would socialize with him and his friends.

She said one year ago she got a feeling that she might be one of Patterson's victims after seeing his home being searched on the news.

When the police released photos of potential victims to the media in December of last year, she finally met with a detective.

During that meeting, detectives showed her two of the videos they obtained from Patterson's home.

She watched the recordings play on silent. At which time, according to the documents, "she learned that she was in fact of victim of sexual battery."

The victim told police, "I look like a dead corpse."

She said she remembered waking up in bed naked twice at Patterson's home, but could never remember how she got there.

Detectives said the videos show a male in Patterson's home sexually assaulting what appears to be the victim in a state of unconsciousness.

They said in one video it appears that the victim tried to push her attacker away and in another part she can be heard mumbling, "no."

Windermere Police are continuing to investigate the numerous other recordings of Patterson allegedly having sex with women who appear to be unconscious.

Police have been investigating the case for over a year and are still working to identify some of the women.

Patterson is facing seven charges for sexual battery in Orange County and Hernando County. He is being held without bond.
Charles Krupa /Associated Press

Dollar General Corp. will celebrate the completion of its $100 million distribution center in East Bexar County on Saturday.

The 1 million-square-foot facility, at 6601 Cal Turner Drive in South Foster Industrial Park, will employ more than 530 workers including 36 manager positions, 22 clerical and 480 distribution jobs, the company said. The distribution center will have an estimated annual payroll of $19.2 million.
Steve Hamilton is a crime writer who has enjoyed loads of acclaim without the commensurate popularity. He has won a shocking array of awards for a guy whose name you may not know.

His first book, A Cold Day in Paradise (1998), introduced the brawny Alex McKnight series and won both Edgar and Shamus awards, which amounts to big news in Hamiltons line of work. The McKnight books have been popular enough, but they never made Alex a household name.

So Hamilton decided to jump-start his career with a new series.

He wrote The Second Life of Nick Mason and sold it to his usual publisher, Minotaur, a division of St. Martins.

This book was close enough to publication to have galleys in circulation when Hamilton did something highly unusual: He pulled the plug.

Hamilton told Publishers Weekly that he was dismayed by Minotaurs listless plans for its print run and promotion, so he bought Nick Mason back with financial backing from his agent.

More Information The Second Life of Nick Mason By Steve Hamilton G.P. Putnam's Sons, $26 See More Collapse

They sold it to a much flashier publisher, G.P. Putnams Sons, and made a movie deal.

Is the Second Life in this books title a coincidence?

Not likely. Here is Hamiltons chance for a new life as an author, and he has done his utmost to run with it. He has a fine premise, a vibrant setting, a charismatic antihero  and a cheerleading squad made up of Stephen King, Don Winslow, Michael Connelly, Lee Child and Harlan Coben.

If The Second Life of Nick Mason faces any peril, its that of not living up to its megahype.

This book opens with a one-sentence paragraph that Child could have written: Nick Masons freedom lasted less than a minute.

All right: attention grabbed.

Whos Nick, why wasnt he free and what trapped him so quickly?

He turns out to be a tough, lean loner (shades of Childs Jack Reacher) who expected to serve a 25-year prison sentence for a robbery gone so awry that a federal agent died  but is being let out after five.

He walks only 30 steps from the prison before being ushered into a black Escalade by a sinister driver he doesnt know. The driver says Nicks name. A statement, not a question, Hamilton writes.

Nick Mason is the kind of tightly wound guy who has made a long list of rules for himself.

Heres the reason for Nicks early release: Darius Cole, a crime lord inside the prison, has decided to make Nick his instrument in the outside world. In exchange Nick will have to do whatever Cole tells him. The instructions come via Quintero, who calls Nick on a cellphone that Nick is instructed to carry at all times. Nick suspects this isnt the greatest deal, but he has one of the hokiest motives known to crime fiction: Hes a sentimental dad.

On Coles orders, hes going to be a killer.

Hamilton gives this book a superb set of road maps, one for the Chicago Nick knows so well, another for the inner workings of Nicks mind.

Though he flirts with some obvious cliches here, Hamilton uses them to his advantage. The Second Life of Nick Mason kicks off this new phase of Hamiltons career at full gallop. Its a tight, gripping book about a man hellbent on reinventing himself against long odds. By a writer who knows whereof he speaks.
Reading is magic, especially on these pages. From an enchantingly regular dad to the worlds found within mariachi music, here are some recently released picture books to weave a spell over young readers.

Superhero Dad

By Timothy Knapman

Illustrated by Joe Berger

Noisy Crow, $15.99, preschool to 7 years

What makes this kids dad a superhero? In addition to having a super snore, he can make toast with chocolate, fruit, ice cream and cake for breakfast. Better yet, he knows how to banish the monsters that sometimes appear in the dark, by his appearance and the flick of a light switch. Superhero Dad celebrates the ordinary magic of playing dinosaurs and building forts, and makes for a fun rhyming book for dads and kids to read aloud together.

Anything But Ordinary Addie: The True Story of Adelaide Herrmann Queen of Magic

By Mara Rockliff

Illustrated by Iacopo Bruno

Candlewick Press, $17.99, age 5 to 9

In a time when girls were expected to be proper, Adelaide Hermann would have none of it. She became a ballerina and learned bicycle tricks. When she met the magician Alexander Herrmann, known as Herrmann the Great, on a ship to America, she proposed, and they had a most unusual marriage that dazzled audiences around the world. He set fire to Addie. He chopped off her head. He made her vanish (poof!) into thin air. The two of them got along splendidly. When Alexander died, Addie had to move from assistant to magician so the show could go on. Theres fantastic illustrations and extra biographical information at the back about this fascinating woman.

Welcome to the Symphony

By Carolyn Sloan

Illustrated by James Williamson

Workman Publishing $24.95, age 4 to 8 years

Do your kids know who Beethoven was? Mine either, it turned out. Welcome to the Symphony introduces young readers to the maestro, the musicians and instruments that make up a symphony orchestra. Three mice hiding in the rafters are the guides to whats happening on stage - the arrival of the concertmaster or the tuning of instruments, and music concepts such a theme, melody, movement and pitch. There are 19 buttons that make music to match the text. Kids will love making music; parents will love this check-in-the-box for culture. This book had us planning our first family trip to the symphony.

Guess Who, Haiku

By Deanna Caswell and Bob Shea

Abrams Appleseed $14.95, 3 to 5 years

Heres a charming guess-who book that introduces young children to the art of haiku with dynamic illustrations. Farm animals describe each other in turn and ask, Can you guess who from her haiku? Young readers get the pleasure of guessing the answers and gain a little introduction to the poetry of haiku. Readers meet a cow, bee, horse, bird, frog, cat, mouse, dog and fish: the whole wide river/ in the hollow of a log/ a silver tail fin. The book builds to a final haiku about the reader.

The Magic of Mariachi

By Steven P. Schneider

Illustrated by Reefka Schneider

Wings Press $24.99, all agaes

Lovely illustrations pair with lyrical poems in The Magic of Mariachi, an homage to the art and tradition of mariachi music. The poems come in all sorts of forms - haiku, free verse, rhyming, dramatic monologues - and are presented side-by-side in Spanish and English. He has sunk so deeply into the music/The air around him has turned indigo. It will transport you. The Magic of Mariachiis about more than the music - its an elegant celebration of culture and history.

jhiller@express-news.net

Twitter@Jennifer_Hiller
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Even San Antonio viewers who love The Bachelor and The Bachelorette  and according to KSATs ratings numbers, plenty here remain devoted to both  have to be rolling their eyes by now over how unreal these and other reality shows are.

No one actually can believe that the melodrama, backstabbing, tears, hookups and professions of love between two people who hardly know each other happen naturally.

Thats one reason Lifetimes summer hit UnREAL, which starts rolling out its second season at 9 p.m. Monday, is so riveting, not to mention satisfying.

This scripted sendup of the artifice of Bachelor-style shows is packed with edgy, juicy and often shocking behind-the-scenes machinations of a fictitious romance show called Everlasting. It also dishes lots of dark laughs at the expense of the TV genre.

As we saw last season, UnREALs two leads  executive producer Quinn (Constance Zimmer, Entourage) and producer Rachel (Shiri Appleby, Girls)  use every devious device in their power to turn the show into a ratings bonanza.

Never mind who the female contestants really are; for the show, theyre turned into villains, sex bombs or wifeys. Quinn, Rachel and others pulling the strings pit the women against each other by planting false information. They also draw out their emotions by feeding them shots and bringing up past tragedies.

Those in charge also are a hot mess. Were constantly reminded that beneath the central female duos steely ambitions are loads of vulnerabilities that also make them susceptible to power plays and romances inside the production.

Rachel has serious emotional problems that make her prone to flight or meltdowns, sometimes both. Quinn is an acid-tongued cynic, especially when it comes to love. After all, her chief relationship for years has been with Chet (Craig Bierko), the crass, womanizing and, yes, married creator of Everlasting.

UnREALs second season kicks off solidly with Quinn running the show instead of Chet, who has gone off to one of those caveman-style retreats to revive his masculinity after Quinn humiliated him in front of a network bigwig.

Rachel, meanwhile, has been promoted to Quinns old job, cementing her value by impressing the bosses with something very different for the upcoming season that promises flash, controversy and 20 million viewers: Everlasting is bringing in its first African-American suitor, a step the real Bachelor has yet to take.

Even better, hes an NFL quarterback from Texas.

Just as last seasons princely Brit was persuaded to do the show to rehab a bad business image, Darius Beck (B.J. Britt), whos handsome and charismatic but also vain, volatile and mouthy, is wooed by promises that Everlasting will lead to the exposure  and endorsements  he craves.

Fat chance hell get the image boost he wants, however, as UnREAL humorously points out. In order to deliver enough vitriol and viciousness to set Twitter afire, Quinn makes sure the right kind of women will be vying for Darius. A hot racist, an even hotter black activist, she tells a network honcho. Theyll be at each others throats from night one.

The most controversial moment, in fact, is one Rachel makes happen: A blonde from the South greets Darius for the first time in  gulp!  a Confederate flag bikini.

UnREALs co-creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, whose producing credits include multiple seasons of The Bachelor, said she hopes this round of the show will shine a light on the racism that still exists in television.

I feel like I am thinking about race differently because of the conversations weve been having, Shapiro said at a recent Lifetime press session. And they can be incredibly uncomfortable, but that is what our show is about.

As bad as it is to watch the contestants subject themselves to every kind of degradation, its almost worse to see what working in such an environment does to those at the reality reins. Zimmer and Appleby play both the coldness and angst perfectly.

Zimmer said she couldnt be more thrilled to be part of a show thats a strong commentary on reality TV. UnREAL aimed to pull back the curtains, the actress said, and I think weve kind of been able to do that.

But have they? San Antonios reality insider, Roosevelt High grad turned story producer Marina Nieto Ritger, who has worked on Big Brother and Married at First Sight, questioned the shows authenticity.

There are some productions where the producers are encouraged to influence the dynamics of the contestants, but that is not the norm, Ritger said. She singled out last years episode when a contestants meds are tampered with and she ends up committing suicide. Manipulation of that sort just isnt part of the job description, she said.

In spite of this, Ritger gives an enthusiastic thumbs-up to UnREAL.

I think it is a wildly entertaining summer show, she said. I was prepared to hate (it) because I thought it would depict reality people the way everyone already thinks we are: sleazy. But in the end, the show won me over because of the fun, salacious storytelling.

Jeanne Jakles column appears Wednesdays and Sundays in mySA, and she writes online at www.mySA/Jakle. Email her at jjakle@express-news.net.
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After 20 years in television and 12 as an on-air staple of KENS-TV lifestyle show, "Great Day SA," Eileen Teves is leaving broadcasting to start a new career.

Co-host/reporter Teves, in her 40s and the recent recipient of a doctorate in business administration from University of the Incarnate Word, has accepted a local job that will utilize the skills she learned over the past six years.

She gave notice at KENS late Thursday.

Teves will be director of corporate communications at the locally based InGenesis, Inc., which she described as "a work force solutions firm."

Part of her duties will be to increase the brand and image of the company, she said.

Teves, who started at KENS in the summer of 2004 after many years as a news reporter at various TV stations around the country, called leaving "a difficult decision. I will miss television."

Teves added she also will miss host Bridget Smith and "the wonderful camaraderie of 'Great Day SA.' We're such a small and tight-knit group."

She particularly loved telling people's stories as a reporter and having "the outdoors as my office."

However, after going to school to further her education -- beginning with an MBA from Our Lady of the Lake University -- she got exposed to the corporate side of the job world. "I thought, 'This is really fascinating.'

"Then, I got this opportunity with something I wanted to explore for a while."

The San Francisco native said she's not certain when her last day will be at KENS. She and station general manager Tom Cury are working that out.

"We thank Eileen for her 12 years with KENS," Cury wrote in an email. "Together we will work on a transition timeline to her new job."

Being recognized by viewers during various jaunts around town is another aspect of the job that she has enjoyed. "I could be grocery shopping at HEB or gassing up my car. I will miss meeting people who watch us, meeting the community."

"However, I'm looking forward to new beginnings," she added, "the excitement of being in a new environment."

jjakle@express-news.net
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A child pornography investigation has resulted in the arrest of a San Antonio man accused of planning to fly overseas to have sex with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl.

FBI agents nabbed John Edward Reichmuth, 66, on Thursday as he arrived at San Antonio International Airport to meet an associate who would join him on the journey, who was actually working with the feds, according to a criminal complaint affidavit. Reichmuth is a former real estate agent in California and ran Reico Enterprises, an export brokerage entity he relocated from California to San Antonio, according to the affidavit.

He came onto the FBIs radar after police in California in 2014 raided the home of a Simi Valley man suspected of molesting a 6-year-old girl and sending images of child pornography to people he was in contact with online, including Reichmuth, the affidavit said.

The affidavit details a series of e-mail conversations Reichmuth had with the Simi Valley suspect in which Reichmuth requested nude images of minors and explicitly details what sexual acts he would perform on the 6-year-old. In one e-mail, Reichmuth wrote, ...Im nothing more than a dad/perv...Regards, JR, the affidavit said.

The FBI also began working with a confidential informant who met with Reichmuth in San Antonio to discuss an internet solicitation regarding possible gold mining opportunities. The pair also discussed sex with minors, and Reichmuth reportedly told the informant that he had an interest in girls 12 and under...so....sue me, the document states.

The FBI and the informant came up with a story in which the informant offered to fly Reichmuth to the Bahamas to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex. The affidavit said Reichmuth requested nude pictures of the girl and spoke by phone with another FBI confidential source  an adult pretending to be the girl.

When he was arrested Thursday, Reichmuth denied he would have followed through with any sexual activity with the girl and requested a lawyer.

Reichmuth is being held without bond pending a bail hearing on Tuesday. He is charged with conspiracy to produce child pornography, receipt of child pornography and attempted coercion and enticement of a minor. If convicted he faces five years to 30 years in federal prison.
SAN ANTONIO  The San Antonio Police Department needs help in tracking the whereabouts of a 29-year-old area woman who went missing in May.

Bianca Z. Carrasco was last seen in the 16000 block of Walnut Creek Drive on May 1, 2016.
SAN ANTONIO  A 30-year-old San Antonio man was arrested Friday night in connection to a late May shooting that killed one man and critically injured another, according to the Bexar County Sheriffs Office.

Rey Lewis Sanchez was arrested without incident at about 11:30 p.m. Friday at a residence in the 5100 block of Mayspring. Sanchez faces charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony.
Seldom seen without a camera in his hands, Felix Diaz Jr. could be counted on to record a variety of life events.

Returning to San Antonio College to take news photography classes in the 1990s, Diaz loved telling stories, his former professor and friend Tricia Buchhorn said. That was his biggest thing, and to do it with photography.

Diaz died of complications of pneumonia May 30 at 68.

A studious boy, Diaz was always interested in a lot of things, his sister Diane M. Diaz said. He had telescopes and chemistry sets, that type of thing.

Graduating from La Salle High School in 1966, Diaz joined the Navy the following year, and was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy as a radio operator.

With the opportunity to see the world, Diaz shot plenty of film.

More Information Felix Diaz Jr. Born: Jan. 28, 1948, San Antonio Died: May 30, 2016, San Antonio Preceded by: Parents Felix and Enedelia Hernandez Diaz. Survived by: Wife JoAnn Montez Diaz; brother David M. Diaz and sister-in-law Debbie; and sister Diane M. Diaz. Services: Visitation from 5-9 p.m., rosary at 7 p.m., Tuesday at Porter Loring Mortuary, 1101 McCullough Ave. Mass at 9:30 a.m. at Mission Conception Catholic Church, 807 Mission Road, followed by burial at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. See More Collapse

He traveled all over Europe with his camera, had tons of slides, his wife JoAnn Montez Diaz said.

Discharged from the Navy in 1973, Diaz was hired by what was then Southwestern Bell Telephone, where he worked as a lineman.

Retiring from AT&T in the late 1990s, Diaz began working as a floor manager overseeing the recording of Sunday morning Mass for television broadcast at San Fernando Cathedral.

Always seeking new knowledge, Diaz was eager to learn as much as he could while at SAC.

Felix always asked questions, was a constant learner, Buchhorn said. So when he immersed himself in something, he wanted to know everything.

Although his curiosity could be overwhelming at times, most people were tolerant.

Everyone loved him, his wife said. He was a plain and simple man, but the nicest person you could meet.

The only thing that distracted Diaz from photography was meeting his future wife 16 years ago while working at San Fernando.

He was smitten from the get-go, Buchhorn said.

The feeling was mutual.

He was so smart, could talk about anything and everything, his wife said. Then I learned more and more about him; he was a kind and gentle soul whod rather trap and release a bee to the outside rather than swat it down.

Although he was known to photograph weddings and quinceaneras, Diaz preferred a different type of photography.

He more enjoyed taking a picture of a rock or a butterfly, than of a bride, his wife said.

In more recent years, Diaz often did photography work for Father David Garcia, administrator of Mission Concepcion and director of the Old Spanish Missions of San Antonio.

He never accepted payment, his wife said.

mheidbrink@express-news.net
Re: Revisit rules for boarding homes in city, Editorial, May 24;

Last month, the Sunshine Lodge at 2700 Pleasanton Road was destroyed in a fire that was largely unnoticed by the media and the community. This is because the former boarding home was vacant, and as a result, no one was injured or killed in the fire.

However, just three years ago, 47 people were living in deplorable conditions at the Sunshine Lodge. After inspecting the facility and finding multiple safety violations, the city shut down the Sunshine Lodge, the first emergency closing under the boarding homes ordinance that went into effect in 2013.

In other words, dozens of lives may have been saved as a result of the ordinance.

The citys boarding homes ordinance focuses on the safety and upkeep of buildings and properties where boarding home residents choose to live.

The ordinance was created shortly after another tragic fire in an unlicensed facility where four men died in August 2012. This prompted the city to increase safety and protect this vulnerable population by adopting the ordinance that became effective March 1, 2013.

With the adoption of the boarding homes ordinance, the city created a team to oversee the inspection, registration, permitting of boarding homes and enforcement of boarding home regulations. A key element of the ordinance is that a boarding home is defined as an establishment housing three or more elderly and/or disabled residents not related to the owner that provides basic services such as laundry, housework, grocery shopping, meals, transportation, money management and assistance with self-administration of medication. This definition does not include all types of congregate living facilities, such as assisted living, personal care homes and other state-licensed facilities as the city is not granted that authority by state law.

The citys boarding home team continues to monitor active boarding homes and those closed by the city to ensure that residents lives are not put at risk.

The team has conducted more than 2,500 inspections throughout San Antonio and shut down a total of 13 boarding homes, of which seven were emergency closures because of major health and safety violations. To date, the city has placed 127 elderly and/or disabled individuals in safer and healthier homes.

More than 300 criminal and civil court cases have been filed against violators, resulting in fines, shutdowns or compliance with the ordinance. Our boarding home team also carries out spot inspections of homes that operate below the ordinance threshold of three residents, ensuring continued compliance.

Finally, our boarding home team continues to facilitate meetings between existing and potential boarding home operators and fire sprinkler companies to accurately identify the minimum requirements needed for home/residential-type systems, as opposed to more expensive commercial fire sprinklers.

We strongly believe this ordinance is working. It has saved lives and restored the dignity of those elderly and disabled residents who have been placed in better, safer and healthier living facilities.

The city continues to make the monitoring of unlicensed boarding homes a priority in order to safeguard its residents. We are committed to partnering with our community to build and maintain a safer San Antonio.

Rod Sanchez is the Development Services Department director for the city of San Antonio.
Donald Trumps philosophy is never to use a scalpel when a meat ax is available, and so it is with his attack on the Clinton scandals of the 1990s.

And yet, in slamming Hillary as Bills enabler and daring to invoke the allegation of rape against Clinton, Trump is again demonstrating his unsurpassed ability to needle his opponents and expose their vulnerabilities.

Hillary Clintons self-image as a feminist champion has always been at odds with her political partnership with a serial womanizer.

Hillary tends to get a pass, because the 1990s were long ago, the media often scold anyone who brings up the scandals, and most politicians hesitate to talk about someone elses marriage. Unconstrained by these boundaries, Trump is hitting her with his characteristic abandon.

Hillarys defenders say this is tantamount to blaming her for Bills infidelities. Of course, shes not responsible for his philandering. But as a fully vested member of Bills political operation, Hillary had as much interest in forcefully rebutting allegations of sexual misconduct as he did.

The Clinton campaign in 1992 reportedly spent $100,000 on private-detective work related to women. The approach, when rumors first surfaced, was to get affidavits from women denying affairs  the reflex of most women is to avoid exposure  and, failing that, to use any discrediting tool at hand.

Hillary was fully on board. When a rock groupie alleged that a state trooper approached her on Gov. Clintons behalf, Hillary said, We have to destroy her story.

When the Star tabloid subsequently reported that Clinton had affairs with five Arkansas women, including Gennifer Flowers, the Clinton campaign waved affidavits signed by all of them denying it. (This is what Clinton had advised Flowers to do in a taped conversation.) Then Flowers admitted to a 12-year affair.

Hillary did the famous 60 Minutes interview with Bill as he delivered a lawyerly denial of the 12-year allegation (he later admitted having sex with Flowers once). Hillary joined strategy sessions over what verbiage to use in the interview.

After Bills election, state troopers told of how they had procured women for him, and one of the procured was Paula Jones. When she came forward, she was abused as trailer-park trash, even though her story of a gross come-on by Clinton in a hotel room was completely credible.

Hillary apparently didnt spare a moments thought on why her husband the governor would have wanted a private meeting with a 24-year-old state employee. She interviewed superlawyer Bob Bennett to handle the Jones sexual-harassment suit. Bennett spread rumors of nude pictures of Jones and had another lawyer subpoena men to try to find evidence of Jones alleged promiscuity.

Hillary was even more instrumental to the defense in the Monica Lewinsky case, setting the tone of the White House response in her vast right-wing conspiracy appearance on Today.

The allegation the Clintons have never truly grappled with is Juanita Broaddricks charge of rape. Her story has been consistent over the years; she told people about the alleged assault at the time; and her account includes details that accord with what other woman have said about encounters with Bill.

Hillarys answer to Trumps offensive is telling  nothing. Sometimes theres just not a good answer.

comments.lowry@nationalreview.com
Alexander Hamilton, one of Americas Founding Fathers, has become the man of the hour  perhaps of the year  thanks to actor and playwright Lin-Manuel Mirandas smash hit Broadway musical.

Hamiltons story is certainly compelling, but does it have anything to teach us today, more than two centuries after his untimely death at the hands of Aaron Burr?

The answer, to an almost uncanny degree, is yes.

It was, after all, Hamilton who ultimately supported his bitter enemy, Thomas Jefferson, for the presidency against his longtime acquaintance and sometime friend Burr.

Why?

The best answer is provided in letters written in December 1800 and January 1801, when the House of Representatives was considering how to break the tie vote between Jefferson and Burr, with each state having only one vote.

As he wrote to Gouverneur Morris, who represented Pennsylvania in the Constitutional Convention, The public good must be paramount to every private consideration.

One suspects that even if Hamilton had known that the cost of his support would be his own life at the hands of Burr, he would have accepted the sacrifice. Thats what a true patriot would do, after all.

Hamilton set out a full bill of particulars aginst Burr in a letter the next week to John Rutledge. Burr is one of the most unprincipled men in the United States. He is in every sense a profligate, a voluptuary in the extreme.  His very friends do not insist upon his integrity.

No one could think him qualified to be president based on his public service. Most tellingly, No mortal can tell what his principles are. He has talked all round the compass. The truth seems to be that he has no plan but that of getting power by any means and keeping it by all means.

He possesses an irregular and inordinate ambition.  He knows well the weak sides of human nature, and he skillfully manipulates the passions of all with whom he has intercourse.

Writing to Federalist Sen. James Bayard of Delaware, who ultimately would cast the deciding vote in the House of Representatives that would elect Jefferson over Burr, Hamilton describes Burr as exhibiting great Ambition unchecked by principle.

Surely Hamiltons words would resonate in todays political spectrum. It is a fools errand to debate what Hamilton would have thought of most issues that concern us today. But no one should doubt the seriousness of his commitment to the public good. One might disagree with him, but not on the grounds that he was in any sense personally corrupt.

So imagine what he might advise todays Republicans tempted to support the 21st-century version of Aaron Burr  Donald Trump.

Hamilton had no illusions about Thomas Jefferson; there was no conversion to Jeffersonian principles. But the point is that Jefferson had principles, and he had also been a notable public servant.

There was also a note of cold realism in his support for Jefferson over Burr: If Federalists put Burr in the White House, they would have to take full responsibility for his actions, whatever his likely betrayal of his supporters.

If, on the other hand, they acquiesced to the election of Jefferson, they could continue to be the opposition party, able to make the claim that placing the lesser evil in office did not make them full allies of whatever he might wish to do.

All Republicans upset about Trumps hostile takeover of their party and, more ominously, the prospect of his becoming president should be asking themselves, What would Hamilton do?

One does not have to share Mirandas genius  or even see the play  to figure out the answer.

Sanford Levinson is the W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas at Austin.
On June 21, Donald Trump will meet with nearly 500 prominent evangelicals who are trying to get more comfortable with the idea of supporting a decidedly secular candidate. The organizers are leading lights of the Christian right, including the Family Research Councils Tony Perkins, radio host James Dobson and the current president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Ronnie Floyd.

These leaders describe the event as a listening session. The Trump campaign, and just about everyone else, will regard it as an en masse endorsement. The proposed deal is not subtly put. In exchange for their support, Trump is offering to appoint conservative Supreme Court justices and to lift restrictions on the political activities of tax-exempt institutions.

This is a particularly clear presentation of a long-term temptation (as old as the third temptation of Christ). The emperor, or king, or president offers to further the mission of the church. The church, in turn, provides legitimacy to power.

In the current case, support for Trump is presented as pragmatism. So lets be clear about what is gained and what is lost.

Religious conservatives gain a better shot at a conservative Supreme Court nominee. This is not even close to a sure bet. A political candidate who claims to be pro-life but supported partial-birth abortion as late as 1999 has convictions charitably described as fluid. But Trump is more likely to make a conservative selection than is Hillary Clinton.

So what is lost? Support for Trump involves a massive, disorienting shift, especially given the reputation of the religious right. It is, well, unexpected for evangelicals to endorse a political figure who has engaged in creepy sex talk on the radio, boasted about his extramarital affairs, made a fortune from gambling and bragged about his endowment on national television.

But the tension runs much deeper. Evangelicals are not merely choosing a certain political outcome. They are determining their public character  the way they are viewed by others, and, ultimately, the way they view themselves. They are identifying with a man who has fed ethnic tension for political gain; who has proposed systemic religious discrimination; who has dramatically undermined the democratic values of civility and tolerance; who has advocated war crimes, including killing the families of terrorists; who holds a highly sexualized view of power as dominance, rather than seeing power as an instrument to advance moral ends.

In legitimizing the presumptive Republican nominee, evangelicals are not merely accepting who he is; they are changing who they are. Trumpism, at its root, involves contempt for, and fear of, outsiders  refugees, undesirable migrants, Muslims.

Over the Christian churchs two-millennia existence, there have been a variety of attempts to define a distinctly Christian approach to the messy business of politics. Over the last few decades, the most serious and successful effort has been made by Catholics (who have their own disturbing history of blessing strongmen). Catholic leaders have constructed a model of social engagement that places the needs of the weak and vulnerable at its center. The justice of a society is judged by its treatment of the powerless, the dispossessed, the exile.

Evangelicals, sadly, have no such broadly held framework. So Trumps supporters are attempting to devise their own guidelines on the theological fly. We dont need a spiritual giant in the White House, says Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress. We need a strong leader.

What is specifically Christian about this argument for an electable strongman? It is presented as political realism, by people who know almost nothing of politics. Have they factored in the global depression that might result from Trumps trade war?

Presumably, evangelical leaders know more about moral and spiritual principles. But here they are often silent. Instead, many are preaching a type of utilitarianism  a distasteful offering of incense to the emperor for the sake of the greater good. But in lowering the sights of Christian political involvement, they are no longer serving a faith where justice rolls down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream. They are dishonoring that ideal before a watching nation.

To everything there is a season. This is the time for principled dissent.

michaelgerson@washpost.com
It would be useful if, amid a report that the citys minorities have been most heavily subject to use of force, those in charge of policing police conduct could simply say, Roll the tape. That might be occurring more often as the San Antonio Police Department begins to roll out body cameras to all uniformed officers.

But until that time  park and bike patrols have them  what the community has are those numbers. And they should prompt concern.

In an Express-News article May 29, staff writer John Tedesco reported that while officers rarely resort to use of force, when they do, the citys Hispanics and blacks are subdued at higher rates than white suspects. Use of force can range from common takedown maneuvers to police shootings.

From 2010 to 2015, police arrested more than 58,150 white suspects and used force 1,175 times  a rate of 20.2 use of force incidents per 1,000 arrests. For Hispanics, that was 89,700 suspects and use of force 3,217 times, for a rate of 35.9 per 1,000 arrests. For blacks, 23,045 arrests, use of force 822 times for a rate of 35.7 per 1,000 incidents.

Police Chief William McManus told us that these raw numbers can be misinterpreted and said it is insulting to conclude from them that officers are acting out their biases against minority suspects. Missing from the numbers, he said, is the context of each use of force incident.

Looking at them through the lens of ethnicity, wont necessarily paint an accurate picture, McManus said.

The Express-News article did offer certain context, though. This disparity in how white and minority suspects are treated has been around for nearly 20 years. The department began tracking how officers subdue suspects since 1998  but wouldnt publicly report them until the Express-News successfully sued the department. SAPD then released records in 2002.

The number of incidents increased nearly 75 percent since 2010, attributable to the department adding takedown maneuvers in the count.

But, as the article reported, also among these numbers is Roger Carlos, beaten by officers in 2014 in a case of mistaken identity. They believed him to be a man wanted on a felony warrant  and believed that suspect to be armed.

Carlos was standing outside his wifes pediatric clinic. He said officers ordered him to the ground and began beating him. He said he didnt resist and that his hands were visible. The officers, all three Hispanic, contended that Carlos was noncompliant  which the beating victim denied  and that he had a shiny object in his hand. He was shooting photos just previously.

Carlos is now paralyzed from the waist down because a surgery to treat the chronic pain he suffered from the beating went wrong.

The two sergeants who reviewed the incident concluded that the officers violated no policies. Not unusual. Less than 1 percent of the nearly 5,400 use of force incidents in the last five years have been flagged for violating policy.

We agree with an expert quoted in the article that the low flag rate raises questions about how thoroughly use of force incidents are reviewed.

And there is the matter of how offending officers are punished. The three officers who beat Carlos got five-day suspensions, with McManus acting after Carlos filed a complaint.

Also pointing to that rubber stamp  the comments of a police sergeant at a disturbance in 2014 that were captured by a dash cam microphone. Eyewitnesses said the arresting officer who forced the man into his patrol car was beating the suspect.

Basically what we are trying to do is cover the officer, said Sgt. Michael Garcia.

He was suspended for three days without pay because the recorded conversation gave the appearance that he did not intend to properly investigate the case, according to suspension papers signed by McManus.

McManus said use of force generally is trending downward for the department and that the department has been recognized by the Justice Department for making great strides.

But the disparity cannot be summarily dismissed, not in San Antonio and not nationwide, where the phenomenon is also prevalent.

The police chief said officers undergo bias training to educate them to the possibility of prejudices of which they might be unaware. And he said training is also emphasizing more de-escalation so that fewer arrests require use of force.

This is the right direction. But we suspect it is not yet enough. These numbers are disturbing, as is the appearance that use of force is inadequately reviewed. There is still more work to do.
Just off the plane on a recent trip to Texas, my sister, 93-year-old mother and I stopped into one of the great barbecue smokehouses of San Antonio before driving off to visit relatives in Corpus Christi.

Not really knowing what to order, we asked a kind young man in line next to us, explaining that in Georgia, where we come from, barbecue means pig. He steered us to a chopped brisket and jalapeno sausage sandwich (which turned out to be one of the best things Ive eaten,) but not only that, he treated us to lunch, saying in response to our protests, This is just a bit of Texas hospitality!

Well, I dont know his name, so this letter to the paper is my way of thanking you generous Texans. That was just about the nicest surprise weve had, and we sure appreciate it!

If you are reading this, thanks again, and you can be sure we will try to pay it forward when we can.

Caroline Pendergrast, Atlanta

Give TSA real work

Re: Airport queues? Here are some As, Nation & World, Saturday:

Each week the Transportation Security Administration delays, inconveniences and harasses millions of innocent travelers through an unconstitutional search without probable cause. Their only purpose seems to be security theater, to give the appearance that someone is doing something.

I believe the TSA should be disbanded and its employees put to work doing something useful  patching potholes, repairing school buildings, caring for the handicapped or fighting fires.

Wayne Haymes, Leon Valley

Credit the GOP

Re: Artists work seen from Louvre to taco trucks, State, Monday:

I applaud Cruz Ortiz for attempting to increase Mexican-American voter turnout at the Texas State Democratic Convention.

However, I respectfully disagree with him, somewhat. Mr. Ortiz should not narrow his efforts to promoting Democratic candidates. He implies that voting for Democrats is the panacea for what troubles Mexican-Americans. I disagree. There are good rewards beyond the Democratic Party.

It is my earnest hope that he expand his talents and horizon, reaching out to Republicans for some of the answers. The Republican Party is not the root cause of our troubles. Remember, for the first 88 years of the 20th century, Democrats dominated state offices. Problems such as poor education, lack of jobs, poor health care and police brutality were rampant during those 88 years. Do not camouflage those awful years by exonerating Democrats and laying the blame on the Republican Party. Try voting Republican for a change. You might like the results.

Mr. Ortiz is obviously a brilliant talent. His cause is noble. I only wish he would give some credit to the Republican Party.

Mike Gonzales, Houston
I know Chicanos, and you, authors, dont know Chicanos.

Apologies to the late Lloyd Bentsen for mangling his famous rejoinder to Dan Quayle during a 1988 vice presidential debate. Their topic was John Kennedy.

Our topic: Chicanos. Specifically, a textbook proposed for Texas classrooms  Mexican American Heritage. The book comes from Momentum Instruction, which appears to be owned by Cynthia Dunbar, a Texas state school board member from 2007 to 2011. She once questioned the constitutionality of public schools.

She and her textbook authors appear to know as much about Mexican-American heritage as I do about quantum physics.

I do, however, know Chicanos  a self-description I once used more frequently. I still view the phrase as interchangeable with Mexican-American, though some still do not and some Chicanos at the time railed against this.

The textbook says Chicanos adopted a revolutionary narrative that opposed Western civilization and wanted to destroy this society.

Let us concede that back in the Chicano movements heydey  the 1960s and 70s  the rhetoric was often heated and, at times, separatist. Inequality and official obstruction to righting wrongs tend to generate anger. They just do.

Exhibit No. 1 to claims that Chicanismo is about the reconquista  reconquest  of lands long settled by Mexican and Native Americans before Anglos came visiting is El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan. It was adopted at a Chicano youth conference in 1969 in Denver. The campus-based MEChA, Movimento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, followed.

Many folks still view MEChA as a revolutionary cell intent on reconquest. But those acquainted with the campus chapters know they mostly promote higher education and cultural awareness. But its true; El Plan does prominently mention reclaiming the land.

We can only conclude that social, economic, cultural and political independence is the only road to total liberation from oppression, El Plan says.

But most Mexican-Americans, whether or not they identified as Chicanos, had a more nuanced interpretation of independence, liberation and nationalism, another term invoked. They didnt necessarily march in lockstep with El Plan, which can, in any case, still be read as accommodating an interpretation of taking control of our own lives and communities within the context of being Americans. That meant pushing, mostly nonviolently, for equal rights in representation, voting, the workplace, education and public accommodations. And toiling in the mainstream to achieve our own dreams and helping others with theirs.

Yes, there was Reies Tijerina, who led a violent raid on a New Mexico courthouse in 1967 in a quixotic quest to reclaim lands stolen by Anglos after the Mexican-American War. But then there was the icon Cesar Chavez, whose efforts for farm workers offered the broader model of working within the system for justice and dignity. That model is what barrio nonprofits and activists used nationwide.

And that broad effort was called the Chicano movement. Not the Mexican-American movement. Not the Latino or Hispanic movement.

This is why painting Chicanos with broad brush as anarchists bent on overthrow is about as accurate as characterizing the civil rights movement as being more about gun-toters than Martin Luther King Jr., demonstrators set upon by dogs and fire hoses, court wins and on-point legislation.

If by revolutionary, the authors refer to the Chicano movements call for equality and more opportunities for upward mobility, I plead guilty on behalf of Chicanos everywhere. Many of us Chicano radicals, by the way, are military veterans and have been nonsecessionist taxpayers for years. Heck, some of us have even been Rotarians and Kiwanians.

I have this sneaking suspicion that still far too many view upsetting the status quo in the interest of fairness as just way too radical  i.e., Chicano and American  for our own good. And this revisionism is likely sour grapes from those who resisted progress, then and now.

o.ricardo.pimentel@express-news.net

Twitter: @oricardopimente
Michael Cummo / Hearst Connecticut Media

STAMFORD  A judge boosted the bond for a New York man by more than $70,000 after he was charged Thursday with stalking his former girlfriend.

Police said they were called to a Selleck Street home for the second time Thursday on a report of a man harassing a woman. When officers arrived, they found Modesto Armenteros, 32, of Port Chester, N.Y., lurking across the street and watching his former girlfriends apartment, a police report stated.
Posted on 06/04/2016, 1:00 pm, by mySteinbach

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has announced that they will be working on a pilot project in Manitoba with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (the Canadian Centre) to enhance officer knowledge and training for identifying situations involving missing, sexually abused and exploited children.

This Manitoba pilot project involves the CBSA and the Canadian Centre working together to better identify missing and abducted children, and those at-risk of exploitation, at the border. The Canadian Centre will provide support to officers with specific cases where they must intervene, such as abduction and family reunification or instances where children or youth may be at-risk of sexual exploitation.

Protecting and identifying missing children is a matter that is close to the hearts of our employees, said Kim R. Scoville, Regional Director General, Prairie Region, Canada Border Services Agency. As Canadas first point of contact, our officers play a key role in identifying missing children and protecting at-risk children who arrive at our borders. We remain vigilant in confirming their identity and the identity of those traveling with them. Working with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection will further enhance our capabilities to protect our most vulnerable travellers, our children.

The CBSA and the Canadian Centre will also be working together to better and further educate the public on missing children and travelling safely with children abroad.
Chico's headquarters in Fort Myers. (Jakob Schiller/File photo)

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By Laura Layden of the Naples Daily News

Chico's FAS Inc. is firing back at Barington Capital Group, saying the activist investor is making misleading statements and wrongly taking credit for operational improvements the retailer has made since hiring a new CEO.

In a company statement released Friday, Chico's said Shelley Broader, president and CEO, is the catalyst for the positive changes that are underway, not Barington.

"In its public statements, Barington has attempted to claim credit for the progress being made. Barington's claims are completely unfounded," Chico's said.

Barington has launched a proxy fight for two seats on the Fort Myers-based retailer's board.

On May 24, Barington announced it would seek to have its CEO James Mitarotonda and former Macy's executive Janet Grove elected to the Chico's board.

Barington began talks with the Chico's senior management team and its board of directors in March to help "unlock the company's value potential."

The New York-based hedge fund has a 1.5 percent stake in Chico's and has invested in the retailer since December 2013.

In a letter to the board chairman of Chico's FAS on Thursday, Barington outlined measures it says the specialty women's retailer needs to take to improve its financial performance and stock price. Barington said it was pleased to see the company making some of the changes it has recommended.

"While we commend the company for taking these steps, we question whether they would have been taken with the same speed, or at all, without our involvement," Barington said.

Defending itself in its company statement, Chico's said operating improvements began in 2015 after the appointment of a new chief financial officer and accelerated after Broader came on board in December 2015  months before Barington started pushing for change.

Barington's recommendations to Chico's include: decentralizing corporate functions, improving merchandising, enhancing store productivity, growing the Soma intimates brand, reducing expenses and aligning executive compensation with shareholder interests.

Chico's operates more than 1,500 stores in the U.S. and Canada and sells is merchandise through franchises in Mexico. It has three brands. In addition to Soma, it has Chico's and White House/Black Market.

In its statement, the retailer said:

It has already exceeded the cuts in advertising costs that Barington targets.

Growing all of its brands, including Soma, is a priority.

Barington's strategy to open 200 to 300 additional Soma stores over the next five years would be too aggressive, conflicting with "the plan that management has adopted, that shareholders have applauded and that addresses how customers shop today."

CEO compensation is in line with Broader's peers and directly tied to her performance.

Chico's also stood up for its two independent nominees to the board, Bonnie Brooks and Bill Simon, saying they were chosen for their skill and expertise, "not the relationships they have or don't have with the members of the company's leadership team" as suggested by Barington. New directors will be elected at the company's annual meeting scheduled for July 21.

Simon is a former president and CEO of Walmart U.S., where he was responsible for more than $280 billion in revenue and 1.2 million associates.

Brooks, a vice chairman of Hudson's Bay Co., has more than 30 years of global executive leadership experience in retail and merchandising.

Barington has questioned both nominations and suggested that Brooks might have a conflict of interest if she served on the Chico's board because Hudson's Bay's department stores  including Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord and Taylor  directly compete with Chico's three brands.

Chico's said its customers spend so little at Hudson's Bay's department stores they are not considered competition. Barington has challenged that thought.

"The company's estimate of the apparel spend of its customers who have elected to shop at Chico's rather than one of these two department store chains, even if accurate, is irrelevant. It is like Coke saying that Pepsi is not a competitor because based on its data so few Coke customers drink Pepsi," Barington said.

Susan Anderson, an analyst with FBR Capital, said Chico's was making progress before feeling any pressure from Barington.

Barington, she said, seems to be taking credit for changes it had nothing to do with and she saw it do the same with retailer The Children's Place.

"Children's Place did more of the work. It's pretty typical," Anderson said.

She noted there's still a lot of room for improvement at Chico's.

"It's in the early stages," she said. "We will have to see how it all comes to fruition. They are going on the right track, but we haven't really seen the results of the changes they are making. That takes time."

Company shares closed at $11.31 on Friday, down 12 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.
<p>Bubba, 2, leans out of his owner's pick-up truck parked in front of the first Wawa convenience store, opened in April 1964, in Folsolm, Pa., Thursday April 22, 2004. In addition to competing with other convenience stores for spur-of-the-moment grocery business, the chain now tries to pry customers from fast-food restaurants, doughnut shops and gas stations. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)</p>

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By Laura Layden

The Wawa wait could be getting shorter in Collier County.

Wawa is quietly moving ahead with a rezoning request and growth plan amendment for a location at the southwest corner of U.S. 41 and Price Street in East Naples, just north of Collier Boulevard.

The convenience store  with a cultlike following  is looking to build its project on 6.5 acres of mostly undeveloped land, which has been partially cleared and has a house on it.

Though most of the land is already approved for commercial development, part of the land is zoned for agricultural uses, which Wawa is eyeing for stormwater management and for the landscaping that would be required to shield itself from its neighbors, including nearby residents, said Chris Scott, planning manager with Development Review Services in Collier County.

Plans submitted to the county show a store spanning a little over 6,000 square feet, with 16 gas pumps. The project would be built close to Fifth Third Bank, near the Shops at Eagle Creek.

Wawa may be able to start building on the property without waiting for the growth plan amendment or rezoning approvals, or the public hearings that would go along with them. The process involved in getting those approvals could take anywhere from six to eight months, with no certainty of the outcome.

As long as they can meet all of our code requirements and they keep the Wawa on the commercial piece it could be approved without the rezoning. So you could actually get the building site plan and building permit approval, Scott said.

County planners have rejected Wawas first application for a rezoning to a planned unit development, or PUD, saying it needs corrections and more information, including more details on the habitat and types of trees and plants on the property. Theres also disagreement on where a sidewalk should go, over the need to rezone the agricultural land to commercial uses and on vehicle and pedestrian access to the project.

Wawa has not yet resubmitted its rezoning application, which was kicked back a few weeks ago for revisions.

Its possible they could have their site plan approved within a couple of months. I think thats certainly realistic, if they dont have to wait for these other public hearing processes. Again that depends on how quickly they are wanting to move forward in resubmitting plans, Scott said.

Wawa Inc., based in Pennsylvania, isnt commenting on the project, which is not listed in the coming soon section on its website, wawa.com.

We do not have anything confirmed at this time., said Colleen Labik, Wawas media supervisor, in an email.

A representative for Waldrop Engineering P.A. in Bonita Springs, which is working with Wawa on the East Naples store, could not be reached for comment.

In March and June Wawa sent its representatives to pre-application meetings with government staffers in Collier County for two separate projects. The other proposed store would be part of a commercial redevelopment project and would replace part of the Naples South Plaza, off U.S. 41 East, near Rattlesnake Hammock Road. However, that project has not moved forward, with no plans submitted to the county yet.

Collier County Commissioner Donna Fiala said shes taken the pulse of residents in her East Naples district about the potential of getting the countys first Wawa store and their reaction has been nothing but overly positive.

With each audience Ive spoken to over the last three or four months, everybody has cheered Wawa, were so glad. Ive never seen a Wawa before but the people who have just love them, she said.

When the longtime commissioner first heard the name Wawa she said she had no idea what it was and guessed it might be a childrens clothing store, or have something to do with dogs and water.

While local residents have complained about other mega gas stations coming into town with a truck stop feel that they think would be more fitting for a location next to an interstate highway, Fiala said shes heard no such complaints about Wawa.

Im looking forward to seeing it coming in, she said. I think were still working on arrangement so we can protect the people behind it. Its not on their back doorstep, or anything ... but you want to make sure you protect everybody. You want to make sure you protect everybodys peace and tranquillity.

In April, Wawa opened its first three stores in Southwest Florida, two in Fort Myers and one in Cape Coral. It has announced plans to open a total of 12 locations in Southwest Florida by 2017.
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By Daily News Staff

A Miami-area woman was arrested Friday in a prostitution sting after Naples police say she agreed to have sex with an undercover officer for $250.

Heidi Magdaly Rosales Ramirez, 37, faces a felony charge of living off the earnings of a prostitute and faces two misdemeanor prostitution charges.

On Friday, Naples detectives found an ad on a website offering escort services at the corner of Creech Road and 14th Street North, according to an arrest report. Undercover officers traveled to the intersection, where one of the detectives made contact with Ramirez on the phone. She exited a nearby building and invited the detective inside.

Inside, Ramirez agreed to have sex with the detective for $250, reports said. When the detective went to the restroom, he signaled for his team to enter and arrest Ramirez.

Detectives said she told them she's been working as a prostitute because she hasn't been able to make enough money cleaning houses.
By Maria Perez of the Naples Daily News

The parents of Diana Alvarez believe a man questioned by law enforcement Saturday in her disappearance may have driven to Arizona and back since the 9-year-old girl went missing from her San Carlos Park home last Sunday.

Lee sheriff's deputies tracked down Jorge Guerrero, 28, in neighboring Okeechobee County, after looking for him since Thursday, but Alvarez was not with him, a report states. Investigative teams remain deployed, the report states.

Lee County detectives are questioning Guerrero, but have not charged him with a crime, said Michelle Bell, spokeswoman for the Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office.

Uribe Jimenez, the live-in partner of Diana's mother, Rita Hernandez, said a private investigator working for the family said there are clues Guerrero has been in Arizona this week. Jimenez said he has forwarded the information to Lee County investigators.

"There are clues that he moved over there and he could have left her with someone else," Jimenez said. "My suspicions are that he left her with someone, either a friend of family."

The Lee County Sheriff's Office did not return a request for comment Saturday.

"While we appreciate and are thankful for the general public and media's interest in this heart wrenching case, Diana's safety is paramount," the Sheriff's Office said in a news release. "We will not get ahead of ourselves in this active investigation by putting out too much, too soon, jeopardizing her safe return."

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In 2013, Guerrero was charged in Okeechobee County with fleeing the scene of a crash and resisting authority without violence. The arrest report lists his full name as Jorge Manuel Guerrero-Torres.

On Saturday morning, Diana's mother, Rita Hernandez, said she knew law enforcement had found Guerrero, but she was not aware of what he might have told detectives about Diana.

"I don't know if he has her, maybe he has her and he doesn't want to say," Hernandez, who is eight months pregnant, said in Spanish. "We are here praying. I can't go to the hospital until I know about the girl."

Hernandez and Jimenez had rented Guerrero and his brother a room in their mobile home for about nine months, until they left in early May.

Hernandez said on Saturday her sister told her that Guerrero said Diana was beautiful and had grown up since he had left the home.

"I never noticed he was strange with the girl," Hernandez said.

She said she knew Guerrero from Okeechobee, where she lived for some time and where he worked in the cabbage fields. Last year, Hernandez's brother-in-law, a contractor there, told her that Guerrero wanted to move to the San Carlos Park area because there was no work in Okeechobee.

Jimenez has said that Diana was attached to Guerrero, and that she had asked Hernandez why Guerrero had moved out.

Guerrero told them he had to move out because the contractor he worked with didn't have any more work to offer, Hernandez said. She said she didn't know where he was planning to go.

Hernandez said she last saw Diana at about 2 a.m. last Sunday, sleeping in her bed when she was going to prepare a baby bottle for her younger child. When Hernandez got up in the morning, Diana wasn't there. She must have changed clothes, Hernandez said, because her pajamas were there, but not other clothing. Her green blanket so was missing.

Hernandez said it was a good sign they found Guerrero, but she wishes he could communicate the whereabouts of Diana.

"I want to know if he doesn't have her, then who does," Hernandez said.

Anyone with information should call the Lee County Sheriff's Office at (239) 477-1000. Or, to remain anonymous and be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1000, call Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS. Tips may also be made online at www.swflcrimestoppers.org or by texting a tip to CRIMES (274637) keyword: REWARD.
By Daily News Staff

The sixth day of searching for a missing San Carlos Park girl came and went Friday with no new information.

Diana Alvarez was last seen sleeping in her bed early Sunday. When her mother woke up in the morning, the 9-year-old wasn't there.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement on Thursday issued an Amber Alert for a tan Chevrolet Malibu. Authorities believe Diana may be with Jorge Guerrero, 28, a family friend who used to live with them in their Sheltering Pines mobile home. Guerrero has ties to the Orange County and Okeechobee County area.

A few hours after issuing the alert, the Lee County Sheriff's Office said authorities found the car. There was no sign of Diana or Guerrero.

Anyone with information about the girl is asked to contact the Lee County Sheriff's Office by calling 239-477-1000 or 911.

Related stories
Enterprise Florida President and CEO Bill Johnson addresses Hertz employees and media at the new Hertz Global Headquarters in Estero during the new location celebration on Friday, Jan. 22, 2016. (Dorothy Edwards/Staff)

SHARE Bill Johnson

By Arek Sarkissian of the Naples Daily News

TALLAHASSEE  Incoming House Speaker Richard Corcoran said he will lead the charge to strip taxpayer funding from Enterprise Florida, saying he believes the agency has consistently failed the state.

Corcoran, who will ascend to the top House leadership position in November, would rather see money like the $23.5 million already in next year's state budget due to take effect next month go toward the state's secondary schools, colleges and universities.

He pointed to failed incentive deals and reports by the Naples Daily News of gross overspending by Enterprise Florida President Bill Johnson as only the latest reasons why the agency should not receive public money.

"We're discussing whether Enterprise Florida needs to exist in its current function," Corcoran told the Daily News on Friday. "Handing out corporate welfare checks is not something we should be engaged in."

Incoming Senate President Joe Negron said he and Corcoran spoke about plans by the House to slash public money from Enterprise Florida, but the Senate has not yet come to its own decision. Negron still needs to speak with his team of senate leaders.

"I have spoken with the Speaker-designate, but at this point it's too early to tell," Negron said Saturday. "We still have much to decide before next year's session."

Corcoran said he was confident the two sides of the Legislature would come to a solution.

He said businesses that truly want to succeed in Florida are not looking for what he called corporate welfare, and the failures of Enterprise Florida have made it a public money pit. He pointed to the Sanford Burnham institute in Orlando, which received $360 million in incentives and is considering whether it should leave Florida later this month.

The Daily News also revealed that Johnson hired his closest colleagues from his former post overseeing PortMiami.

The tight executive circle he created in Miami kept much of the spending hidden from any existing Enterprise Florida leaders who work in the agency's headquarters in Orlando.

"Time and time again they've made promises they could not deliver," Corcoran said. "And then we're hearing about the abuse in spending, which you've reported."

Documents obtained through a public records request showed Johnson paid former PortMiami spokeswoman Paula Musto $158,000 over two no-bid contracts to write speeches on a part-time schedule. He also gave former PortMiami contractor and fellow Miami-Dade County employee Diana Gonzalez a $60,000 no-bid contract to help him with the transition into his new role as Enterprise Florida president.

Those contracts were managed by Johnson's top PortMiami assistant, Lisa Ross McMillion, who also oversaw the $92,000 makeover and expansion of Enterprise Florida's office in Coral Gables. Those purchases included $25,463 for custom-made furniture, $36,648 in technology and $4,800 for window shades, according to Enterprise Florida receipts.

Johnson gave McMillion the title of Enterprise Florida chief of staff, with duties that were similar to those of Chief Operating Officer Crystal Sircy. She was in McMillion's role under previous Enterprise Florida President Gray Swoope.

Johnson told the Daily News through email that he acted well within the boundaries of his powers as Enterprise Florida's chief executive officer. McMillion is still technically a PortMiami employee but the money for her $135,000 PortMiami salary was footed by Enterprise Florida.

The arrangement allowed her to remain enrolled in the lucrative pension plan within the Florida Retirement System.

"The decision to have Lisa transition as a loaned executive from Miami-Dade County was again my decision," Johnson said. "As CEO it was within my authority to hire and fire. Over the 20 year history of (Enterprise Florida) other CEOs retained their immediate staff. Nothing was secretive.

"Like prior CEOs, I wanted to have a couple of professionals who I have known for two-plus decades join the team."

Enterprise Florida board Vice Chair Alan Becker said Johnson's financial and hiring decisions raised no concerns.

"I don't see what policies we would need to change or if there's anything wrong," Becker said.

Johnson followed up his contract with Gonzalez by offering her a position as vice president of innovation and entrepreneurship. She said the position, which she designed to focus on promoting small business, paid her a salary of $142,000 with benefits that included a $600 a month vehicle allowance.

"There was a sense in the small business community and in the Legislature that Enterprise Florida was not doing enough for small business," Gonzalez said. "Using entrepreneurship as that connection, that was why I was brought on."

But House and Senate leaders during this year's session appeared more concerned about how much money Enterprise Florida had already spent.

Led by Corcoran, then House appropriations chair, lawmakers rejected a priority request from Gov. Rick Scott to provide Enterprise Florida with $250 million in taxpayer dollars for an incentive fund. In response, Scott agreed to pay former Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary David Wilkins $100,000 to conduct a financial review that would suggest ways to save Enterprise Florida up to $6 million.

The agency was created in 1996 to operate evenly on public and private dollars, but the vast majority of its 2016-17 budget comes from public money.

Wilkins suggested Enterprise Florida eliminate some of its top positions. Its board will make some of those decisions during a meeting later this month.

Scott spokeswoman Lauren Schenone said the governor believes Wilkins' suggestions will enhance Enterprise Florida's mission of job growth.

"We hope many of these reforms are adopted at the EFI's June board meeting," Schenone said.
Judge Steve Leifman poses for a portrait on May 12, 2016 inside his chambers at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in Miami, Fla. Leifman created the Criminal Mental Health Program about 10 years ago, and the New England Journal of Medicine has held it up as a model for other large cities struggling with the revolving door of mentally ill people cycling through criminal justice systems, which is costly and doesn't prevent crime or rehabilitate the mentally ill. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald/TNS)

SHARE On Thursday, May 12, 2016 Judge Steve Leifman, right, shares some good news with a defendant at traffic court inside the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building on May 12, 2016 in Miami, Fla. Leifman created the Criminal Mental Health Program about 10 years ago, and the New England Journal of Medicine has held it up as a model for other large cities struggling with the revolving door of mentally ill people cycling through criminal justice systems, which is costly and doesn't prevent crime or rehabilitate the mentally ill. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald/TNS)

By Daniel Chang Miami Herald, (TNS)

MIAMI  The front lines of the mental health crisis unfolding in Miami-Dade County  home to the nation's largest ratio of people living with a serious mental illness in an urban community  are not in the psychiatric hospitals and behavioral counseling centers where patients seek help.

They're in the county's jails and courthouses, and on its streets, mental health advocates say. And very often, when an adult in Miami-Dade experiences an acute psychotic episode, the first person to respond is a police officer.

Many times, those encounters have proven tragic. Since 1999, more than 25 people with a serious mental illness have died during an encounter with police in Miami-Dade.

Those who weren't killed would cycle through the criminal justice system, trapped in a revolving door of arrests, usually for petty crimes, followed by court hearings, then mental competency evaluations and ultimately to jail or back on the streets.

"There was no system to do anything with them," said Miami-Dade County Judge Steve Leifman, who has become one of the nation's foremost authorities on the criminalization of mental illness. "This went on for years."

Each year, about 11.4 million people are booked into local U.S. jails, where on any given day 745,000 of them are held. About 16.9 percent of jail detainees have a serious mental illness, which means nearly 2 million people with such illnesses are arrested each year.

With private insurers often refusing to pay for mental health care, and Florida ranking at the bottom among states in funding for public mental health programs, the Miami-Dade County Jail became the largest psychiatric warehouse in the county  symbolized by the notorious ninth-floor ward, which was closed in January 2015.

Among those found guilty of a crime, people with mental illnesses were staying in jail four to eight times longer than someone without a mental disorder, for the same charges. The costs to Miami-Dade taxpayers were staggering.

"We were spending $218,000 a day," he said, "which is about $80 million a year to warehouse people in these really sub-par conditions."

But things began to change in 2000 after Leifman, working with local law enforcement, mental health providers and community leaders, launched the Criminal Mental Health Project or CMHP  a program that diverts people with mental disorders out of the criminal justice system and into community treatment.

There are now fewer people incarcerated in Miami-Dade jails, from a peak average of about 7,000 in 2008 to about 4,700 in 2014. More than 4,600 police officers have received special training for identifying and handling individuals with mental illness. And the county has saved millions by diverting people with mental disorders out of the criminal justice system.

The program's success has earned Leifman accolades from the U.S. Supreme Court, and this month the New England Journal of Medicine held out the CMHP as a Miami model for the nation.

Still, a lot of work remains.

By Leifman's count about 192,000 adults and 50,000 children, or 9 percent of Miami-Dade's population, has a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression. Yet, only about 1 percent or an estimated 26,000 adults, receives help in the public mental health system.

Because Miami-Dade also has rising HIV/AIDS rates, more deaths from heart disease and diabetes than Florida averages, and the greatest number of uninsured working-age adults in the state, the county's mental health crisis has taken on greater urgency.

"There's a lot of people with mental illnesses still in our system," Leifman said. "We're getting better, but it's still too many."

The CMHP got a boost from the Florida Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott this year, who approved a bill sponsored by Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, a Miami-Dade Republican, that will make the program a statewide model.

"My bill creates a framework for mental health and the courts throughout the state," Diaz de la Portilla said. "These are people who don't belong in jail. They're non-violent."

The bill also gives county judges the authority, beginning on July 1, to order defendants with mental disorders into treatment. Leifman said 80 percent of defendants offered a chance to enter the program take it.

Those who choose to enter the CMHP receive a mental health treatment plan, temporary housing, and public assistance, from Medicaid to Supplemental Security Income, if they qualify. They are also assigned a peer specialist who guides them through treatment.

Leifman said the recidivism rate for defendants in the misdemeanor program has been reduced from 75 percent to about 20 percent a year, with repeat offenders typically being people who are incompetent to stand trial. The recidivism rate for people who complete the program after being charged with a felony is 6 percent compared to an 86 percent repeat offense rate nationally for persons with severe mental illnesses.

One of the program's success stories is Justin Volpe, 32, who said he might be in jail or on the streets with no effective treatment for his mental illness were he not diverted through the CMHP in 2007.

A graduate of the program, Volpe is now one of seven peer specialists who helps guide others through treatment and toward a stable life.

"It's really helped my recovery," he said of helping others. But it wasn't easy for Volpe to get to this point.

Diagnosed with a mental illness while involuntarily hospitalized in New Jersey in 2006, Volpe said he was arrested the following year in Miami Beach after an argument with a co-worker at a restaurant led him to take that person's bag and throw it in the trash.

4,600 Police officers in Miami-Dade who have received Crisis Intervention Team training

Volpe said he was prescribed medication for his psychiatric diagnosis, which he declined to reveal for fear of being stigmatized. Like many people with mental illness, though, Volpe said he began to feel better from the medication and returned to his old habits, including drinking alcohol and using cocaine and marijuana.

"I thought I was cured," he said. "I felt better, thought I could get high again."

Volpe said he was experiencing paranoid thinking and delusions when he got into the argument with his co-worker. After his arrest for grand theft  the bag had expensive jewelry in it  Volpe said he was sent to the ninth-floor psychiatric ward of the county jail, where he spent three weeks.

The experience only traumatized him more, Volpe said. He shared a cell with a violent felon who had stabbed his wife in the chest with a pair of scissors, and showed him the pictures from his case file. He heard guards pummeling inmates. And he was given fistfuls of pills without knowing what he was taking.

His parents, though, had begun to petition the court for leniency because of his diagnosis of mental illness, leading the judge to reduce Volpe's charge to petty theft and offer him a chance at the diversion program.

"After what I had just experienced," he said, "I said, 'Yeah.'"

Volpe said he struggled to overcome substance abuse, and often felt overwhelmed trying to help others with mental illness while still battling his own demons. But getting sober, married and adopting a healthy lifestyle has helped, he said, and Volpe now regularly speaks to groups of people recovering from the same things that once held him down.

"I feel like I'm giving back," he said.

Feeling like a member of the community is an important step not just for recovery but in seeking help for mental illness, said Harley Tropin, a South Florida attorney and mental health care advocate.

"One of the major barriers to seeking treatment is the stigma and embarrassment," said Tropin, who helps underwrite Shatter the Stigma, a campaign to raise awareness and funds to support mental health research and services by the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "That is a huge barrier to many of them seeking treatment and harboring feelings of shame instead of them and their families obtaining health care."

For police officers in Miami-Dade, the CMHP has made a difference in how they approach people with mental illness, said Habsi Kaba, who leads the Crisis Intervention Team or CIT training, a 40-hour course that teaches police how to identify signs of psychosis and how to de-escalate situations.

Kaba said CIT training has led to reductions in police officer injuries and use of force. For every 5,000 CIT police calls, typically 10 to 20 lead to arrests, according to program data. By comparison, for every 5,000 regular police calls, there are typically 400 to 500 arrests.

Sgt. Maria Bustamante of the Miami-Dade police said the training helps her decide whether or not a person needs to be arrested and taken to jail.

"We're the ones who have to deal with individuals in the street," she said. "CIT helps us out tremendously because once you have that person in custody, then what do you do with them?"

Typically, police officers will take a person with a suspected mental illness to a receiving clinic where they are involuntarily held for evaluation.

When Sgt. Norberto "Bert" Gonzalez started as a Miami-Dade police officer in 1983, he said there were three receiving facilities in the county for people with mental illness. Now there are 17, in part because CMHP has helped coordinate services.

"We're leaps and bounds over where we were when I started," Gonzalez said.

In about two years, Gonzalez and other police officers in Miami-Dade will be able to take people with suspected mental illness to a new Mental Health Diversion Facility, which was once home to the South Florida Evaluation and Treatment Center.

Leifman envisions the facility will be a "one-stop shop" where defendants with mental illness will be able to walk in and get counseling, medication, vocational training in culinary arts, or help with government benefits. He anticipates the facility will house 16 crisis stabilization beds and about 190 longer-term residential beds where patients can stay for up to 90 days while they get help reintegrating into society.

Those who achieve recovery will continue to face challenges, though, including a depth of ignorance about mental illness that in the past, Leifman said, made it difficult to get funding for programs and pass laws that would help address the problem.

"These are organic brain illnesses," Leifman said. "Recovery rates for people with mental illness are actually better than for people with diabetes and heart disease. The key is identifying the illness early, just like any other illness, and treating it early. The outcomes are much better when you do that."

Miami-Dade and City of Miami police officers responding to calls involving persons suspected of having a mental illness have led to fewer arrests due to Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training that teaches them to identify symptoms of psychosis and how to de-escalate situations.
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Pamela Cannon, East Naples

Not donating

I recently received a letter requesting financial support for Habitat for Humanity. Here is what I think of the request.

It states Habitat builds "strong and stable homes and stable communities. Habitat works with families so they can build better, healthier and financially secure lives for themselves." Also, "Habitat houses may increase a neighborhood's property value."

I refuse to be "politically correct" and support building slums in my neighborhood. When driving past a Habitat for Humanity development what you see is trash, mobs of kids, many old rusty cars and other debris. That must be why, at our community meeting about a proposed development, Habitat wasn't much welcomed.

The Habitat people may own their homes, but more than one family, maybe two or three, may live in each house. Because Habitat can't or won't police the buildings after the community is built, everything is left a mess.

Why should I encourage more of the same?
Tammy Garrett: Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award finalist Meet Tammy Garrett and her cause, Rapahope Children's Retreat Foundation. Tammy is one of four finalists chosen for the Betty Jane France Humanitarian award for her dedication to helping children.
Do trees really sleep?

Cellular water pressure and circadian rhythm explain trees' sleeping routine

(NaturalNews) Using their long, hairy roots, trees absorb water and nutrients from the soil, feeling down into the Earth for what they need. Standing tall, soaking in the sun's rays, trees are an image of tremendous strength and beauty  icons of natural intelligence.As they cast shadows and provide shade to the people below, the trees are watching, listening. ... As people run around busy in the shadows of the trees, they forget just how important these dynamic living creatures really are. Trees provide oxygen, shelter, companionship, medicine and tranquility. Trees and people live symbiotically, exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide to maintain balance on Earth. Certain kinds of trees give up their bark, leaves, nuts, fruits, berries and roots as medicine to man The similarities between humans and plants are striking when it comes to sharing the basics of life: sun, water, air and nutrients. Astonishingly, scientists are now also starting to see similarities in how trees and people sleep.Using laser beam imaging, Andras Zlinszky of the Centre for Ecological Research in Tihany, Hungary, was able to document trees drooping as if they were sleeping at night. At the peak of night, birch trees in particular were photographed drooping by as much as 10 centimeters at the tips of their branches."It was a very clear effect, and applied to the whole tree," says Zlinszky. "No one has observed this effect before at the scale of whole trees , and I was surprised by the extent of the changes."Between sunset and sunrise, Zlinszky and his colleagues used laser beams to scan birch trees in Austria and Finland. The laser technology showed the precise movements of each tree through the night, providing three-dimensional graphs and resolutions down to the centimeter. The researchers avoided windy nights and measured the trees at the solar equinox in both countries to ensure accuracy in their measurements.In all, the Finnish birch tree was scanned 11 times, once per hour through the night. The Austrian tree was graphed 77 times, every ten minutes through the night. The birch trees appeared to go into a nice relaxed state as the night went on. By morning, as the sun came up, the trees became erect and their branches and leaves appeared to wake up.The phenomenon is more easily recognized in sunflowers, which noticeably droop at night and wake up to face the sun during the day."These studies have only been done before in small plants, but here, it was possible to do it outside in fully grown trees," said Eetu Puttonen of the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute. "The experiment is the first of its kind."The science behind sleeping trees is linked to water pressure within the plant's cells. At night, a process called turgor pressure occurs where the water pressure drops within the cells. As the process of photosynthesis stops in the dark, turgor pressure kicks in. "It means branches and leaf stems are less rigid, and more prone to drooping under their own weight," says Zlinszky.Without sunlight, the trees stop actively using water and carbon dioxide to create sugar. With no sunlight to reach toward, leaves intelligently take a break and rest, conserving energy. During the day, the trees' leaves are angled higher to maximize their ability to absorb sunlight.Zlinszky is looking forward to imaging poplar and chestnut trees next. He says scientists have already decoded these trees' genomes and found that they are genetically hardwired to have a circadian rhythm . By studying these circadian rhythm genes, Zlinszky and his team may be able to explain why the trees sleep much like people. The phenomenon could be that the trees are inherently resetting their biological clocks each day.
Air pollution facts and figures

Good air quality starts at home

(NaturalNews) Living within 3 miles of a landfill significantly increases the risk of developing lung cancer and other serious lung diseases, according to a recent study.A team of researchers in Italy conducted the study, which involved nearly 250,000 subjects living within 3 miles of landfills, whose health was monitored for five years or more.From"The researchers, from the Lazio Environmental Protection Agency in Rome, tracked levels of hydrogen sulphide  a poisonous gas produced by decomposing vegetation which typically smells of rotten eggs. They predicted that hydrogen sulphide levels were representative of the levels of all pollutants produced by the rubbish dumps."The team divided all those living within three miles of the sites into four groups, depending on how high their exposure to hydrogen sulphide was."Those in the group with the highest exposure levels were 34 per cent more likely to die with lung cancer than people who lived more than three miles away from the sites, the researchers found. And people in that group were 30 per cent more likely to die from other respiratory diseases. They were also 5 per cent more likely to receive hospital treatment for all respiratory diseases, including 9 per cent for asthma."Children were even more at risk, with an 11 per cent increased chance of being admitted to hospital for respiratory disease, and a 13 per cent higher risk of asthma. The Italian team tracked pollution levels to make sure they could match disease levels to exposure to toxins ."Landfills are but one source of deadly air pollution , however. Although air quality varies greatly from one place to another, it is estimated that the average person's lifespan is shortened at least one or two years as a result of air pollution.High levels of air pollution not only cause lung disease in adults and children, but also affect unborn children; another recent study found that pregnant women exposed to smog are more likely to produce stillborn babies.Waiting in traffic and breathing the resultant air pollution can increase the risk of heart attack, according to thejournal.In the United States, more than 50,000 people die each year from air pollution, but the situation is even more serious in countries like China and India.In India, air pollution kills more than half a million people annually, and accounts for 25 percent of deaths in the country.In China, around 300,000 people die yearly from heart disease and lung cancer caused by air pollution.Air pollution is estimated to cause 65 percent of all deaths in Asia.By 2050, the expected yearly number of deaths from air pollution worldwide will exceed 6 million.Air pollution is more harmful to humans than water or soil pollution, and ranks among the top ten causes of death worldwide.A recent report by the American Lung Association found that although overall air quality in the United States appears to be improving, a total of 166 million Americans live in places where ozone and particle pollution are at unhealthy levels.Although there is only so much one can do to affect the levels of outdoor air pollution exposure, it's important to keep in mind that the air inside your home can be two to five times more polluted than outdoor air.Air pollution is a global issue, and although governments must play a large role in fighting the problem, individuals can have an impact at the local level. Start by making sure your home's air quality is good , and do your part outdoors by riding a bike or taking public transportation as often as possible.Get rid of the gas guzzler and buy a low-emission vehicle, and let your political representatives know that you care about air quality. If we all take a little more responsibility for clean air, we'll all breathe a little easier and live longer lives.
During an event at UC Berkeley, Sen. Bernie Sanders talked about the importance of campaigning in California.

"In a several week period, we will have held some 30 rallies in every part of the state," Sanders said.

Both Sanders and Hillary Clinton will be in California leading up to Tuesday's primary.

Sanders will be heading to San Francisco on Monday for a rally and concert in the Presidio.

On Sunday, Bill Clinton will be in Los Gatos for a fundraiser, and Hillary Clinton will hold a fundraising concert on Monday in Los Angeles.

"Usually it means we really don't get a big say," said David Baggins, a political science professor at Cal State East Bay.

Baggins said it is great to see California have a say, which typically is not the case.

When it comes to Sanders, he expects to hear more of the same.

"They know that they really have kept the center of the Democratic party and Hillary Clinton, who is going to be the nominee, off balance," Baggins said. "And they're feeling this extraordinary power."

As for Hillary Clinton, she needs to define her voice to California voters, according to Baggins.

"She is an accomplished moderate Democrat," Baggins said. "But she needs to find her passion, her ability to connect."
A deadly Blue Angels crash in Tennessee is raising safety concerns in the Bay Area.

San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos is concerned about the Blue Angels appearances coming in October and wants the stunt team's flight path changed.

"We have to look at the risks," Avalos said.

The Navy is not saying what caused the crash in Tennessee. But Avalos said it is clear even highly trained jet pilots have accidents or equipment failure.

Avalos said it is time for the Navy to change the aerial stunt team's flight pattern in the Bay Area.

"We can avoid a real damaging accident by having them fly over the Bay and not over the city," Avalos said.

Avalos plans to introduce a resolution later this month, demanding the Blue Angels only fly over the Bay and not over the city in October.

The request to the Navy would be in the form of a non-binding resolution if Avalos is able to get the board to support it.
Scorching temperatures hitting the Bay Area sent at least one Bernie Sanders supporter to the hospital on Friday.

The Democratic presidential candidate's lively and large rallies were much smaller on Friday due to the intense heat.

In Fairfield, a rally at the Solano Community College prompted Sanders to thanks supporters for toughening out the weather.

"I want to thank all you crazy people for coming out on a day like today," Sanders said, which was met with cheers from the crowd.

People waited for hours, lining up in the sunshine as early as 5:30 a.m. But by the time Sanders took stage at 2:45 p.m., the burn of Mother Nature proved too much for some. At least two people passed out and were taken away by paramedics.

"A few hours in the heat, but California is in a drought so we're used to this," one Sanders supporter said of the intense weather. "Have to feel the Bern, so here we are."

Attendees did what they could to keep from overheating as Sanders outlined the differences between himself and Hillary Clinton. He also blasted presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump for his views on the drought and global warming.

"Donald Trump does not have a clue what he's talking about," Sanders said.

With some polls showing Sanders closing the gap with Hillary Clinton, he urged supporters to help him get out the vote on Tuesday.

"If there's a large voter turnout on Tuesday, we're going to win California and win it big."

Despite Friday's hot weather, supporters said they would brave the scorching temperatures again to feel the Bern.

After visiting Fairfield, Sanders stopped by the University of California, Berkeley for for a press-only meeting to discuss economic and trade issues.
Police have cleared the scene of an alleged bomb threat Friday at a business in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood.

Around 3:30 p.m., police received a call from a male, saying he was inside a building near 11th and Harrison streets, armed with a gun and a bomb, according to police spokesman Sgt. Michael Andraychak.

Upon arrival, officers located the building where the suspect was allegedly at and evacuated it. The building is reportedly at 375 11th Street, where the DNA Lounge nightclub is located.

Officers also ordered neighboring buildings to shelter in place, Andraychak said.

Surrounding streets were closed, which featured a heavy police presence in the area, including a bomb squad, police bomb dogs, a crisis hostage negotiation team and fire medical personnel, according to Andraychak.

The hostage negotiation team was also called to assist and make contact with the suspect, Andraychak said.

Police cleared the scene shortly after 6:40 p.m.
The next election for governor of Illinois is not until November 2018, but already Chris Kennedy is making the rounds for a possible campaign, sources told NBC Chicago.

Kennedy, the eighth of 11 children of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, has lived in the Chicago suburbs for nearly 30 years.

He had previously considered a run for the U.S. Senate in 2009, but opted out shortly after. Instead, Gov. Pat Quinn appointed Kennedy Chairman of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

He and his wife now run Top Box Foods, a nonprofit providing fresh food options in the inner city.

Sources tell NBC 5 Kennedy has been meeting privately with key Democratic leaders and possible donors.

I have heard that Chris is more serious this time, said Eric Adelstein, a Democratic strategist. Look, I think we have a unique situation, and heres why -- I believe Rauner is a failed governor.

However, Republican strategist Chris Robling disagreed, saying the concern over politics 2 and a half years from now reflect the fear over discomfort.

Robling is well aware that lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner have been unable to reach a budget deal now for the second year in a row. Robling says things have to change and change is very, very trying.

Republicans are launching online ads attacking House Speaker Michael Madigan. The governor is fighting back as Democrats say no grand compromise will happen until after the November election.

Rauner, speaking to reporters Thursday, said, we should not let elections or electioneering get in the way of doing the right thing for the families of our state.

Other names mentioned as potential Democratic candidates for governor include U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, but he has said hes not interested. If Chris Kennedy does run, it would be the 50th anniversary of his fathers 1968 campaign for president.

Chris is a guy who will not just run on that name, I think hes going to run on accomplishments and a vision, Adelstein said.

Robling, however, notes, he has had relatives whove done well and hes had other relatives whove done terribly and Chris might be on one side of the family or the other, who knows?

NBC 5 has reached out to Kennedy but he declined to comment.
2 men were shot during a fight on the city's Far South Side Friday night, officials confirmed.

At approximately 9:50 p.m., a group of men were in a verbal altercation in the 13300 block of S Torrence Ave in the Hegewisch neighborhood when a known offender pulled out a gun and opened fire, according to police.

Two men, ages 40 and 44, were both shot in the leg, police said. They took themselves to Franciscan St. Margaret Hospital in Hammond where they are listed in stable condition.

Multiple reports indicated that the altercation occurred outside a union hall, home to the United Auto Workers Local 551, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Representatives of the union did not respond to requests for comment, but their Facebook page indicated that there was an election on Friday night.

As of Saturday morning, the offender is not in custody, according to police. The investigation is ongoing.
The Chicago Police Department is ending the Violence Reduction Initiative program designed to increase patrols on the South and West Sides on July 1, according to an order issued Friday.

The Violence Reducation Initiative was created under former Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy in 2012 to concentrate resources in the Englewood (7th) and Harrison (11th) Districts.

When the VRI was first launched, the two districts accounted for roughly a third of all murders and shooting incidents throughout the city, according to a press release announcing the initiative in 2012.

"As part of our ongoing efforts to ensure our strategies are most effective, we are in the process of reconfiguring the VRI strategy that will allow for officers who know their districts the best to serve in overtime opportunities," CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Saturday, adding that more information about the initiative will be available soon.

"This will not affect staffing levels, as we constantly ensure an appropriate number of officers work to keep our streets safe at all times," Guglielmi added.

Many officers used the VRI to earn extra overtime pay, a veteran police source told NBC 5. A report from the Chicago Sun-Times found that the Chicago Police Department spent a record $116.1 million on overtime pay in 2015, which was up more than 17 percent from the previous year.

Several police offfcers found the timing of the announcement interesting, the source said, just hours after the Independent Police Review Authority made public a website with evidence from more than 100 police-involved incidents across the city.
When Alex Valadez Jr. walked into his kindergarten graduation Friday, he did so with dozens of Chicago police officers by his side  and one watching over him from up above.

Alexs father, Officer Alejandro Valadez Sr., was killed in the line of duty in 2009, just three months before his son was born.

With his father unable to cheer Alex on as he reached a major milestone in his young life, officers took it upon themselves to prove to Alex he will always be family, and to make the ceremony at Anunciata Elementary School one the young boy would never forget.

"Sometimes we have to make the ultimate sacrifice," said police Supt. Eddie Johnson. "Alejandro did that. We want everyone to know we will never forget; we will never, ever forget."

Valadez Sr., 27, was investigating a report of shots fired in the citys West Englewood neighborhood when he was shot and killed by gang members.

Officers held Alexs hand, hugged him and congratulated him as his father would have done. Mounted police, SWAT officers and even fire department crews were there to support him.

Some flew above the ceremony in a helicopter, watching from above as they believe his father does now.

They even surprised him with a big graduation present: a new bike.

"Its been really cool," said Alexs mom, Christina, who said she was grateful for all the support the department has given her family.

Despite the family's loss, a smile stretched across Alex's face as he marked the big achievement.

His father's partner, Tom Vargas, was there the day Valadez was killed. Vargas stood by Alexs side during graduation, calling the moment a bittersweet one.

"Hes with us," Vargas said of Valadez. "Hes with us all."
An 18-year-old man and his friend allegedly raped and beat a middle-aged woman so severely in the basement of a Logan Square apartment building, her dentures fell out during the attack and she was left with a broken jaw, cuts and bruises, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

The woman was found in a pool of blood ten hours after the sexual assault at the hands of the pair who she had met and played pool with earlier at the Two Way Lounge, according to Cook County prosecutors.

Judge Peggy Chiampas called the April 25 incident brutal and heinous and said detectives told her the woman would never be the same.

Attack is not even an appropriate word for me to use in this case, a visibly disturbed Chiampas said Friday before ordering Geovannie Collazo held without bond for aggravated criminal sexual assault and attempted first degree murder.

Collazos alleged cohort has not yet been charged.

The night before the crime, the victim had been drinking beers alone at the bar, at 2928 W. Fullerton, Assistant States Attorney Marilyn Salas-Wail said.

When the woman went out to smoke, Collazo, who had been playing pool, followed her and asked her for a cigarette, Salas-Wail said.

The woman complied and went back in with Collazo. Soon, she was talking and shooting pool with Collazo and his friend, Salas-Wail said. At one point, Collazo grabbed the woman and kissed her on the neck and chest, Salas-Wail said.

The woman ended up exiting the bar with the men at 1 a.m. But when she crossed Fullerton, she was struck in the back of the head and blacked out, Salas-Wail said.

When she regained consciousness, the woman found herself being dragged into a basement, in the 2600 block of North Spaulding, Salas-Wail said.

Collazos friend continued to rip off the womans clothes while Collazo punched her face and head, Salas-Wail said. Collazo then allegedly hit the woman in the face with a metal pipe, repeatedly telling her, I am going to kill you, bitch.

The force of Collazos blows were so hard, the womans dentures fell out onto the floor, Salas-Wail said.

Both men continued to rape the woman and Collazo kept hitting her while she went in and out of consciousness, Salas-Wail said.

The woman, who couldnt open her eyes from the swelling, eventually was able to put her pants on. A resident who found her called 911.

The woman spent eight days at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center where she received surgery for a broken jaw, stitches for a cut on her forehead and treatment for bruising to her face and neck, Salas-Wail said.

A witness at the bar identified Collazo as one of the men socializing with the woman, Salas-Wail said.

His DNA was also found on one of two condom wrappers taken from the scene of the crime and his fingerprint matched one taken from a wine bottle left there, Salas-Wail said.

Surveillance video from the Two Way Lounge also shows the woman talking to Collazo and his friend, playing pool with them and leaving the bar with them, Salas-Wail said.

Cellphone records also show that calls to Collazos parents were made to and from the womans phone, Salas-Wail said.

Police did not recover the stolen phone.

Collazo goes to church, works with his father stripping wood, takes online GED classes, and hopes to attend college one day, an assistant public defender said.

Collazo, of the 2700 block of North Sawyer, also intends to get his face tattoos removed, the defense attorney said.

Collazo has an O tattoo on his right cheek, an A tattoo on his left cheek and the name Ashley on the right side of his forehead, according to a police report.
The fatal 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 the 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. Information on an attorney for Rivera was not immediately available.

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 neighbor 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 neighborhood where he lived. He died at a hospital where he was taken after being shot.
Communities across Connecticut are arming families in need with Narcan in an effort to stop opioid addiction from claiming more lives.

Mark Jenkins of Hartford is helping people every single day by teaching them how to save their loved-ones' lives.

Recent statistics from the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner shows 208 have died from drug overdoses in the first quarter of 2016. If the trend continues, 624 more people will lose their lives these years.

The sole purpose of naloxone is to reverse, to knock off," Jenkins said.

Jenkins is the founder and executive director of the Greater Hartford Harm Reduction Coalition which has been in operation since March of 2014.

Jenkins has been helping others battle addiction for almost two decades. These days hes teaching members of the public how to use Narcan, which is a drug designed to reverse an opioid overdose.

Its a drug designed to reverse an opioid overdose.

Recognize, respond and evaluate, are three simple steps Jenkins informs a small group at narcan training Thursday night.

Hes speaking passionately, from experience and the heart, to everyday people.

Deborah Most and her husband Tim, of Hartford, came Thursday night. She tells the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters, Ive been clean four years. I was on pain medications legally for five years and that is how I ended up with heroin.

Heroin addicts, survivors, relatives and others now learning how to use Naloxone, better known as Narcan

All are here, training for free, thanks to Jenkins and his team of volunteers with the greater Hartford harm reduction coalition.

Jenkins told NBC Connecituct Troubleshooter, We have to get this drug, this medicine, into the hands of the people who need it most.

Most has been in recovery 15 yearsand is now a Narcan administrator.

Ive been clean now for four years. Theres hope to see people come here, get kits. Sometimes the ambulances dont make it on time, my member wouldve died if we didnt pull her out of it.

Jenkins demonstrates how different forms of Narcan are used.

If opioid is present, itll work, if not present, completely harmless, he explained.

Whether intra-muscular, intra-nasal or evzio all in common in red bag two doses first dose doesnt work.

Jenkin's been clean for 19 years.

For quite a few years, I was lost.

So far this year, the coalition has handed out 300 Naloxone kits.

Narcan kits including to longtime heroin user 35 year old Annie Plourde.

That unsympathetic person sitting there, it could be their mother or brother or sister. It could be someone very close to you and you dont even know they could be using," longtime heroin-user 35-year-old Annie Plourde told the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters.

Annie is a struggling addict who has used Narcan nine times in the last six months.

It was the scariest thing Ive ever done, and the one thing that hits you, this person are dying and either youre gunna be able to save them or not and thank God they made this available," Annie said. I dont think I could be as honest as I am, about what is going on, if not for this program. Its not going to do me any good not to tell the truth because maybe someone seeing my story will help that someone to get Narcan if something happens.

Just recently her husband used Narcan on her.

It saved my life, and I wouldnt be here. I never meant to overdose. I did same amount always done and this was cut with fentanyl, Annie said.

In and out of treatment a half dozen times, Annie will try once again, next week.

Im sure theres someone out there saying you deserve this, did it to yourself and I did. Im the last person who wouldnt be held accountable for my actions, but it is the way it is and addiction is an issue and having it out there is saving lives.

The state too, is working to strengthen opioid laws, and certain pharmacies and pharmacists are now writing narcan prescriptions for anyone who walks in and asks. While Annie tries to battle back, mark knows his fight is far from over

Jenkins stated, Our obligation is to help people reduce amount of harm causing themselves on all levels. However that may be.

Jenkins says he networks nationwide to get his hands on those narcan kits, but a lot of the costs, and they can get pricey come right out of pocket, so you can imagine how thrilled he is to recently earn 501-c3 nonprofit status.

Dr. James Gill the Chief Medical Examiner of Connecticut tells the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters, There has been a dramatic increase in fentanyl deaths. The vast majority of these fentanyl deaths are due to illicit fentanyl not prescribed fentanyl. Toxicology testing cannot differentiate the illicit from the prescription fentanyl unless an unusual variant of fentanyl (such as acetyl-fentanyl) is detected which would indicate illicit production, stated Gill.
The suspect who shot and killed a 29-year-old New London man in December has been arrested for murder, police said.

Shaquan Seales, 21, is accused of murder, first-degree reckless endangerment, unlawful discharge of a firearm, carrying a pistol without a permit and first-degree robbery.

Last December, a New London man who was fatally shot on a porch on Connecticut Avenue near Grand Street.

Police were responding after receiving a report of several gunshots when 911 calls started coming into report a man was down in the same area.

When police arrived at the scene, they found Gilberto Olivencia, 29, on a porch on Grand Street and said he appeared to have been shot.

An ambulance took Olivencia to the hospital and he was pronounced dead.

Seales is being held on two court set bonds of $2,000,000 cash only and $50,000 cash or surety.
Police have identified a potential suspect in a fatal shooting inside a Dallas motel room.[[381355051,C]]

On Monday, officers found David Sparks, 61, deceased near the doorway of a room in the Days Inn Dallas DFW in the 8300 block of South Lancaster Road at 11:24 p.m.

Investigators noted potential witnesses in the area at the time of the shooting provided little information to offer police.

On Friday, police identified Michelle Le Speed as the shooter. Speed was linked to a silver four door sedan seen at the time of the shooting, police said.

Speed remained at large Saturday morning, according to police. Her age was not released.

Dallas police ask anyone with information regarding the shooting to contact homicide detectives at 214-671-3661 or Crime Stoppers at 214-373-8477.
Twenty years after one of the most infamous crimes in North Texas history, a Rowlett mother sits on death row for killing her two young sons, a vicious crime she has always blamed on an intruder.

On June 6, 1996, at about 2:30 a.m., Darlie Routier called 911, claiming a man had broken into her home and, without saying a word, stabbed her and her two sons, six-year-old Devon and five-year-old Damon.

"Oh my God, who would do this?" she asked the emergency operator.

Both boys were killed.

She said the stranger stabbed her in her neck, shoulder and arm. She was treated at a hospital but released a few days later.

Her husband, Darin, and baby son, Drake, were upstairs and weren't hurt.

Rowlett Police Lt. David Nabors, then the crime scene supervisor, rushed to the Routiers' home, knowing right away it would be a major case.

"Oh absolutely. I mean, we had two children that were dead (and) a mother that had a cut to her neck," he said in a recent interview.

As police investigated, the family threw a birthday party for Devon, who would have turned seven years old a few days after his death.

The celebration, at the boy's gravesite, included spraying Silly String.

Nabors said investigators found that behavior unusual and even inappropriate.

Some people quietly wondered if it really happened the way Darlie Routier claimed.

"Gossip is the biggest evil in the world," she said in an interview at the cemetery. "Unfortunately there's nothing you can do to stop it."

But she and her husband cooperated with police.

And at first, detectives believed her.

"We were operating under the assumption this was an intruder," Nabors said.

But then, detectives focused on the bloody crime scene.

"Physical evidence, if it's properly collected, is a silent witness and it's not prejudiced," he said.

And he said it started telling a different story.

"As the case progressed we started seeing that there were inconsistencies in the statements made and the physical evidence we were collecting," Nabors said.

For example, he said, the point of entry: The screen that the "intruder" had supposedly cut.

Police said fibers on a bread knife showed it was used to cut the screen. The knife was found, in a block with other knives, inside the Routiers' kitchen.

And then there was the motion-activated security light in the Routiers' back yard.

"I timed it, stayed on about 17 minutes," Nabors said.

When the first officers arrived immediately after the 911 call, they noticed the light turned on when they went in the back yard. If the killer had gone out the door Routier claimed, it would have still been on, he said.

Investigators also found Routier's clothing had blood spatters on the shoulders consistent with her wielding the knife.

"So that castoff is another piece of evidence, and it puts the knife in her hand," Nabors said.

Thirteen days after the murders, police arrested Darlie Routier and charged her with capital murder.

"She never cried until she was told she was under arrest for the capital murder of her child," he said.

Her case moved quickly in court. The trial was held in Kerrville because of the extensive publicity in North Texas.

After deliberating eight hours, a jury convicted her and sentenced her to death.

But to this day, her case still stirs debate.

Kathy Cruz, a reporter at the Hood County News, wrote a book about the Routier case called "Dateline Purgatory."

"I think it's very likely the state got this wrong," Cruz said.

She interviewed Darlie Routier on death row and said she came across "perfectly fine, likable, friendly, certainly normal."

What about the evidence at the crime scene?

Cruz offers different explanations.

The fibers from the screen on the Routiers' bread knife, for example, could have come from police fingerprint brushes.

"I think there was definitely a rush to judgment," Cruz said.

And the video of the unusual Silly String celebration at the gravesite, which prosecutors showed to the jury?

"It's proof of nothing. So what?" Cruz said. "What that jury never saw was footage of the hour-long memorial service that took place just before the birthday celebration during which 'appropriate' grief was shown."

Routier's supporters argue at the very least, she deserves a new trial.

"You know, let the state put on the same evidence they put on 20 years ago and see if it flies today," Cruz said.

Police and prosecutors insist the trial was fair, the investigation solid.

For Darlie Routier, not much has changed over the last 20 years.

She remains locked up in Gatesville, one of six Texas women on death row.

Her attorneys continue their appeals.

No execution date has been set.

Darlie Routier and her now ex-husband Darin declined requests for an interview.

If Devon and Damon were still alive today, they would be 25 and 26 years old.
Cuba and the United States are discussing a possible exchange of prisoners, according to U.S. officials who spoke to NBC News.

The discussions are in the early stages, and are part of an effort by the two countries toward normalizing their diplomatic relations. The State Department didnt discuss specifics.

Ana Montes, who was convicted of spying for the Cuban government while working for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency was one of the names floated by Cuban leaders, the officials said. Montes, who became the top Cuban analyst and passed on classified information to Cuban handlers, was sentenced to 25 years and is to be released in 2023.

U.S. officials say theyre interested in getting back Americans who sought refuge in Cuba from U.S. persecution, including Joanne Chesimard, who escaped a New Jersey prison in 1979, where she was serving a life sentence for killing a state trooper by shooting him with his own gun at a traffic stop.
A Special Forces Troops training exercise turned into a rescue mission after ten military personnel had to be airlifted off a peak in Rocky Mountain National Park Friday, NBC News reported.

A group of 11 people from Fort Carson planned to climb Kieners Route on Colorado's Longs Peak on Thursday, but some had trouble on the upper part of the route, a ranger said.

The 11 people had to stay on the mountain overnight, but were able to descend by morning to a summit, the ranger said. A helicopter rescued ten of the climbers Friday afternoon after they called for help. One person hiked down on their own.

Information originally circulated that the group was missing, but they never were.
A woman has filed a claim against the Los Angeles Police Department alleging she was beat up by officers in her church parking lot.



Ok Jin Yun alleges the incident happened when she drove to church for a prayer service on April 14 at 5:30 a.m.



"She's scared. She's scared," said her son, David, translating for her from Korean.



The incident was captured by surveillance cameras at Oriental Mission Church.



Yun was followed into the parking lot by two officers  male and female  in a police SUV with no siren and no roof lights visible.



She said she doesn't know why they followed her, but believes it may have started seconds earlier, when she had pulled up behind their patrol vehicle, southbound on Western Avenue.



"She honked, thinking it was, you know, a black SUV," her son said.



The video shows officers getting out and approaching Yun. Words are exchanged. And then she appears to be forced to the pavement. Photos taken after the incident show facial lacerations that she said came from the altercation.



"They injured her back, her neck, her shoulders," said Antonio Kizzie, Yun's attorney. "She still feels some pain nowadays."



Yun admits she attempted to make a cellphone call during her interaction with officers, which may have played a role in what followed. Her son says she speaks enough English to turn over license and registration, but not much more.



"Who was she calling on the phone? She was calling 911, requesting a Korean language speaking officer," Kizzie said.

"I was beyond angry," Yun's son added.



David Yun said he contacted police for an explanation after his mother was released from the hospital. She was neither arrested nor charged.



"Their reaction was that the officers were trying to 'help' my mom," David said. "Help her? Do you believe that? I don't."



A LAPD spokesman said a use-of-force investigation has been launched, but would not comment further, pending a complaint Yun is filing.



She claims excessive force and unreasonable detention.



The department spokesman said there is dashcam video from the police vehicle with sound that tells a different story about Yun's interaction with the officers that morning. But it will likely not be released.
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will spend most of their day reaching out to voters across the Southland Saturday in the run-up to Tuesday's California Primary Election.

Former Secretary of State Clinton will spend the morning at Los Angeles Mission College for what's being called a "conversation on immigration.'' She will also attend a get-out-the-vote event at Hueneme High School in Oxnard at 1:45 p.m. The candidate will make a stop for a "conversation on women and families" at 4:30 p.m. at Jill's Place in Santa Barbara and end at Thomas Edison High School in Fresno at nightfall.

Former President Bill Clinton will also be in the area, making the case for his wife's quest to be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee.

The former president has a variety of appearances planned including one at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, another at William Jefferson Clinton Elementary School in Compton and a meeting with black clergy members at Southern Saint Paul Church in South Los Angeles.

Vermont Sen. Sanders, who has spent much of the past week barnstorming throughout California, will start his day with am 11:30 a.m. news conference at the DoubleTree hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

At 1 p.m., Sanders is scheduled to speak at the start of his get-out-the-vote effort at his campaign office in Hollywood. Sanders will also join a 3 p.m. town hall meeting on Latin America and immigration policy along with Rep. Raul Grijalva.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump does not have any campaign appearances scheduled Saturday.

Pre-election polls show Clinton and Sanders in a neck-and-neck battle to win the lion's share of California's 546 delegates. Clinton needs fewer than 70 delegates to clinch her party's nomination, which could occur before the polls close in California, according to multiple sources. But Sanders is counting on a California win to keep his candidacy alive.

As the California campaign comes to a close, both Clinton and Sanders have lined up some of their more fervent supporters for get-out-the-vote concerts.

Clinton's concert will be Monday at the Greek Theatre with Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Andra Day and Christina Aguilera among the performers scheduled to appear.

Sanders' concert is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday at the Los Angeles Coliseum with Dick Van Dyke, Susan Sarandon and Shailene Woodley among those scheduled to appear.

Copyright City News Service
A brush fire that sparked Saturday in unincorporated Temecula, California, has grown to 139 acres overnight, sending heavy smoke into the air near Interstate 15 in San Diego's North County, Cal Fire officials said Sunday.

The fire broke out around 11:40 a.m. off Interstate 15 south of Temecula Parkway, amid scorching temperatures as Southern California experienced the first heat wave of the approaching summer season, Cal Fire officials said.

Late Saturday, the fire had reached 70 acres, but nearly doubled overnight. As of 6 p.m. Sunday it was 65 percent contained.

While fighting the blaze, one firefighter suffered minor injuries, according to the agency.

[G] 30-Acre Brush Fire Burns in Temecula

Authorities initially issued a SigAlert, shutting down all lanes of southbound I-15 at Front Street and Temecula Parkway as firefighters battled the blaze.

As of 9 p.m. Sunday, officials still had two lanes of the SB I-15 closed, but all of the NB lanes were open.

Flickr #TemeculaFire Photo Album. Credit: CAL FIRE/Riverside County Fire Department https://t.co/7mDPabxr2O  CAL FIRE Riverside (@CALFIRERRU) June 4, 2016

When the fire broke out Saturday, traffic on the I-15 slowed to a crawl and backed up from California Oaks Road as crews fought the flames.

Firefighters are battling a 30 acre fire off of I-15 south of Temecula Parkway, Temecula (Riverside County) #TemeculaFire @CALFIRERRU  CAL FIRE (@CAL_FIRE) June 4, 2016

Meanwhile, a fire also burned in Pala, California, approximately 13 miles southeast of Temecula. That blaze, dubbed the Pala Fire by officials, scorched 70 acres and was 95 percent contained as of 6 p.m. Sunday. The Pala Fire has been burning since Tuesday. Winds and hot temperatures caused the blaze to flare up once again Friday night, prompting evacuations in the area.

This raw video clip submitted to NBC 7 by Linda Meadows show the fire burning in Temecula, off I-15, on Saturday.

As 9 a.m. Sunday, no evacuations had been ordered for the Temecula Fire. Temecula is located approximately 60 miles north of downtown San Diego.
A Tustin man was injured Friday night when an e-cigarette exploded in his face, officials said.

Firefighters responded to reports of a person burned in the 14600 block of Carfax Drive just before 10:30 p.m., according to the Orange County Fire Authority.

Officials said a man in his 20s was smoking an e-cigarette in his bedroom when it exploded.

The man suffered burns and cuts to his face. He was taken to a hospital in unknown condition.

Others have been hurt in e-cigarette explosions as well. In April, an Orange County man lost his eye when the battery in an e-cigarette exploded next to him. In a February incident, a man in San Diego was taken to a hospital with burns on his leg caused by one such explosion.

The Food and Drug Administration announced last month it will begin reviewing hundreds of e-cigarette brands.
Miami Police is investigating a home invasion that turned deadly Saturday morning.

The incident occurred at a triplex unit located at 1576 SW 2nd Street in Miami.

According to Miami Police, during the home invasion, the suspect or suspects shot and killed the victim living in the unit.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. The name of the victim has not been released.

Miami Police is currently searching for the individual or individuals responsible.
Authorities have detained a person of interest in the Florida Amber Alert issued Thursday for a missing Fort Myers girl

Diana Alvares, 9, was last seen Sunday in the 3500 block of Unique Circle in Fort Myers, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Lee County Sheriffs Office has detained 28-year-old Jorge Guerrero. The Amber Alert said Alvares might have been in the company of Guerrero.

Detectives tracked Guerrero down in a neighboring County. According to police, locating Guerrero did not resolve the case as Alvares was not with him.

Police are not commenting any further, due to the ongoing investigation.

Anyone with information should call the Lee County Sheriff's Office at (239) 477-1000. Or, to remain anonymous and be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1000, call Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS.
A Brazilian dancer who entered the country illegally testified at a Manhattan trial Friday about her romantic relationship with a onetime top Drug Enforcement Administration official, saying it began months after she arrived in the United States in early 2011 and ended after his arrest last year.

Prosecutors subpoenaed Andressa Delima to testify to support their claims that now-retired DEA Agent David Polos failed to disclose his extramarital relationship with the dancer and his partial ownership of a bikini bar. They contend he knew disclosure could cause him to lose his top-secret security clearance and his job as assistant special agent in charge of the New York office.

Speaking through a Portuguese interpreter, Delima told jurors she began a romantic relationship with Polos a few months after meeting him in spring 2011 at Twins Plus Go-Go Lounge in South Hackensack, New Jersey, where she was a dancer.

She said it ended after Polos, of West Nyack, New York, was arrested in May 2015 along with Glen Glover, a now suspended DEA telecommunications specialist.

Glover, 46, of Lyndhurst, New Jersey, also is contesting the government's claim that he violated the law when he failed to reveal his ownership position in the club.

Answering yes or no to most questions, the soft-spoken Delima said she came to New Jersey, where her sister lived, after entering the country illegally through Mexico. Asked if she told others she entered the country illegally, she answered: "Of course not."

Polos, 52, through attorney Marc Mukasey, is disputing the criminal charges, saying his client's $20,000-plus investment in the business was like a stock market investment rather than outside employment. He says the affair with Delima began only after Polos answered questions in September 2011 on security clearance forms filled out routinely by DEA employees.

On cross-examination, Mukasey elicited from Delima that she began dating Polos in late 2011, around the time Polos bought her boots and a winter coat.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Monteleoni earlier in the trial told jurors there was a "slim to none" chance the government would have approved of DEA employees owning an adult establishment where prostitution and drug offenses were likely occurring because it raised the likelihood that employees possessing top-secret information could be put in compromising positions.

The government has said in court papers that Twins Plus Go-Go Lounge offered scantily clad and sometimes topless dancers  most of them workers from Brazil or Russia in the country illegally  and private rooms for lap dances.

A criminal complaint said video recovered during a search of the lounge, including from inside the private rooms, showed "multiple instances of sexual contact between dancers and patrons, with money exchanged afterward."
A 5-year-old New Jersey boy chased a ball under a parked delivery truck and was killed when the driver failed to see him and started to pull away, police said Friday.

The boy, whose name hasn't been disclosed by police, was playing in front of an apartment complex on Cheryl Drive in Iselin at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday when his ball rolled under a parked UPS truck, said Capt. Roy Hoppock of the Woodbridge Police Department.

The 35-year-old UPS worker delivered a package and didn't notice the boy when he returned to his truck, Hoppock said.

No charges have been filed, but the accident is still under investigation, he said.

A UPS spokesperson said the driver has been with the company for nine years.

"UPS is deeply saddened to hear of the tragic accident Thursday evening in Iselin, and weve been cooperating with the investigation by the Woodbridge Township police," said UPS Public Relations Director Susan Rosenberg.
The Brooklyn man accused of fatally shooting a teenage babysitter in front of her 3-year-old cousin pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday and his lawyer suggested there is a lack of evidence linking him to the slaying.

Taariq Stephens, 24, is jailed on murder and weapons possession charges in the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Shemel Mercurius Tuesday.

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 know this guy," said Dexter Mercurius, the victim's father. "I wanted to know why this guy killed my daughter."

Surveillance video released by police shows a man identified as 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 what police say is a 40-caliber submachine gun before entering the apartment, where he allegedly fired three rounds at the girl.

Investigators haven't recovered the submachine gun.

Attorney Jay Cohen, representing Stephens, said he hasn't seen the videotape.

"I'll review it and see how damning, if it's damning at all," he said.

"Right now, I don't see any evidence in the case," Cohen said. "Again, they can't tell me whether or not there was any identification by any civilian witnesses and there doesn't seem to be any statements."

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.

Mercurius was found semi-conscious in her apartment and later died at Kings County Hospital. She was able to name Stephens as her killer before she died, police said.

Her 3-year-old cousin was unharmed.
Police are looking for two men they say dumped a shooting victim at a Brooklyn hospital.

Hospital staff declared the 25-year-old man dead from a gunshot wound to the chest minutes after finding him at 6 a.m. Saturday outside Woodhull Medical Center.

The NYPD said it was searching for two men spotted driving away in a black SUV with Virginia license plates. Police also were investigating a possible connection to a report of a shooting about two miles from the hospital.
Police have arrested a woman who they say tried to walk off with a 2-year-old girl on a Brooklyn street before the child's mother stopped her.

The NYPD says 51-year-old Shao Qing Li was arrested Friday on a child endangerment charge.

Police say the Brooklyn woman had approached the young girl in the Bensonhurst neighborhood on May 28.

They say Li tapped the young girl on the shoulder while her mother was speaking with a neighbor and, without a word, gently guided her to start walking away. They didn't get far before the child's mother yelled for the woman to stop, and she did.

Li was in custody Friday night and couldn't be reached for comment. It wasn't immediately clear if she had an attorney.
The car a man drove from Minnesota to Los Angeles, where he gunned down his former professor at UCLA, has been found a few miles from the school, two days after the murder-suicide, police said.

Mainak Sarkar's 2003 gray Nissan Sentra with a Minnesota license plate was found parked in the 11300 block of Washington Place in Culver City, the Los Angeles Police Department said Friday.

The area between Sepulveda Boulevard and Bledsoe Avenue was sealed off and a bomb squad was called in to check out the car. The Washington Boulevard off-ramp of the 405 Freeway was also closed to traffic.

Police found gasoline cans in the car, which did not appear nefarious, along with a handgun, according to Capt. William P. Hayes.

Police found no financial records from his trip, so it is believed he used cash to make the drive, officials said. He was in Denver on May 31.

Investigators said the shooter traveled from Minnesota to Los Angeles to carry out the killing of his former professor, William Klug, before turning the gun on himself. The car may contain evidence to help unravel the case.

Sarkar was armed with two semiautomatic pistols, multiple magazines and several rounds of ammunition on Wednesday when he shot and killed Klug in an engineering building, police said.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said the guns had apparently been purchased legally in Minnesota.

Sarkar, a former UCLA doctoral student, believed Klug had stolen his computer code, law enforcement sources told NBC News.

Sarkar is also believed to be responsible for the shooting death of his wife in Minnesota, though his involvement has yet to be confirmed by police there. A "kill list" found in the shooter's home in Saint Paul also named a second UCLA professor, who was later found safe.

Refresh this page for updates on this developing story
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."
Prince died of an accidental overdose of the powerful painkiller fentanyl, autopsy results released Thursday show. Since his death at age 57 on April 21, a host of figures have emerged as key players in the investigation of how he died and in the ultimate division of his estate, which is worth millions. A brief look at those people:

DR. HOWARD KORNFELD



A northern California doctor who specializes in addiction treatment and pain management, Howard Kornfeld has championed the use of buprenorphine, a drug similar to methadone that often is used to treat opiate addiction. His attorney says Prince's representatives reached out to Kornfeld on April 20, the day before Prince was found dead in his studio compound in suburban Minneapolis. Unable to immediately fly to Minnesota, Kornfeld sent his son Andrew in an effort to convince the musician to seek long-term care at his Recovery Without Walls center in Mill City, California. William Mauzy, the Kornfelds' attorney, said Howard Kornfeld sent with his son a small dose of buprenorphine, which is used to ease withdrawal symptoms and cravings.

ANDREW KORNFELD



The younger Kornfeld, a 26-year-old pre-med student, was one of the three people who found Prince at his Paisley Park studio on April 21. Sent on behalf of his father, Andrew Kornfeld was carrying a small dose of the drug buprenorphine. Advocates of the drug say the opiate can help addicted patients by offering pain relief with reduced possibility of overdose and addiction. Andrew Kornfeld is listed as a consultant with his father's clinic and is a pre-med student, according to his attorney William Mauzy. Mauzy said the mission Andrew Kornfeld was sent on was consistent with the work he has done for his father's clinic for years.

DR. MICHAEL TODD SCHULENBERG



In the weeks before Prince's April 21 death, the musician met twice with Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg, a 46-year-old family care physician who worked at a Minnetonka clinic a few miles from Prince's Paisley Park studio and home, according to search warrant documents. Schulenberg is no longer working for the health care system connected to the clinic, but the health care system won't say why and his attorney declined to comment. Investigators interviewed Schulenberg the day Prince died and searched the health care system's flagship hospital for Prince's medical records. The warrant documents say Schulenberg prescribed Prince medications in recent weeks, but what they were and whether Prince took them is unknown.

KIRK JOHNSON



A longtime friend of Prince, Kirk Johnson was a drummer and the estate manager at Paisley Park. Johnson, 51, has issued only a brief statement since Prince's death, saying he was heartbroken and asking for privacy. According to search warrant documents, investigators interviewed Johnson sometime after Prince's death. He told them that Prince had gone to a local medical center for an illness in 2014 or 2015. The Star Tribune, citing a source with knowledge of the investigation, reported that Schulenberg was Johnson's doctor and that Johnson recommended him to Prince.

TYKA NELSON



Tyka Nelson, 55, is Prince's only full sibling, and she has taken the lead in the initial work to settle her older brother's estate. Both are children of John L. Nelson and Mattie Della Shaw, who divorced when Prince and Tyka were young and who later died. Tyka Nelson lives in a north Minneapolis home and has shied away from the press, but she appeared in court with four of Prince's five half siblings in early May for the first hearing to start sorting out Prince's estate. Nelson said Prince left no known will. Under Minnesota law, those siblings would share Prince's estate equally unless a will emerges or an unknown child of Prince comes forward and is confirmed through paternity tests.

OTHERS MAKING CLAIMS TO ESTATE



Given the current value of Prince's estate and its vast earning potential even after his death, claims have been rolling in. A Colorado inmate, Carlin Q. Williams of Kansas City, Missouri, has claimed to be Prince's biological son. Another Kansas City resident, Darcell Gresham Johnston, has claimed to be a half-sister. A district judge has set up a process to handle paternity claims with DNA testing. Meanwhile, the work of settling Prince's estate is being carried out behind closed doors by lawyers who aren't discussing it. Bremer Trust, which was named special administrator of Prince's estate last month, will tally the assets Prince left behind  financial accounts, real estate, recording catalog and the unreleased recordings in his vault at Paisley Park. Trust workers will also tackle the complicated job of trying to assign a value to them. The next hearing in the case June 27 will take up any objections to a special administrator's plan for screening claims of heirship.

AUTHORITIES



The Carver County Sheriff's Department is the local agency responsible for investigating Prince's sudden, unwitnessed death. The U.S. Attorney's Office and Drug Enforcement Administration have also said they would be assisting. The day after Prince was found dead, Sheriff Jim Olson said investigators would "leave no stone unturned" while looking for answers. Authorities returned to Paisley Park on May 10, 2 weeks after first searching the property the day of Prince's death, but declined to say why.

MEDICAL EXAMINER STROBL



Dr. A. Quinn Strobl, the chief medical examiner at the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office since late 2009, performed the autopsy on Prince. Her office is the official coroner for 19 counties in Minnesota, including Carver County, where he was found dead. Strobl has been a practicing forensic pathologist since she finished her fellowship in 2005 and is board-certified in anatomic, clinical and forensic pathology. In a 2009 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Strobl spoke about how she works with families. "Hopefully, I deliver answers," she said.
I warned you that it was going to be a jam-packed weekend. By day, head to Normal Heights and Kensington for Art Around Adams or head to Waterfront Park for the Brew & Food Festival. By night, there are some seriously great shows, including a rare performance by Three Mile Pilot at the Casbah. It will definitely sell out, so get there early. At Soda Bar, the So So Glos are back in town, Thrice return to the House of Blues, and the Greyboy Allstars play at Belly Up. The show that should be on your radar, however, is in Barrio Logan at Union Barrio Logan. The Redwoods, the music label and collective of sorts, has an album release for Dani Bell & the Tarantist. The best part is that it's free if you sport a masquerade mask. Don't sit home tonight when there is so much goodness right in your reach.

Saturday, June 4:

Three Mile Pilot, the Dabbers @ Casbah

The So So Glos, Honduras, the Kabbs @ Soda Bar

Dark West Vinyl Release & Kakalak Collective Launch Party Masquerade Ball with Dani Bell & the Tarantist and more @ 2191 Main St., San Diego

Art Around Adams 2016

Brew & Food Festival 2016 with Elektric Voodoo feat. Scott Tournet of Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Groovesession, Grizzly Business, Trevor Green, Casey Turner, Johnny Tarr & DJ Shell Shock, DJ Yodah in the Silent Disco @ Waterfront Park San Diego

Thrice, La Dispute, Gates @ House of Blues

Mainly Mozart Festival 2016 @ Balboa Theatre

Yard Party presented by Tribal/Quartyard/Wuv of POD feat. Southtown Generals @ Quartyard

Los Tucanes de Tijuana @ San Diego County Fair

The Greyboy Allstars, Vokab Kompany @ Belly Up

Zoso, the Ultimate Led Zeppelin Tribute, Caroline Corn @ Music Box

A Night of Total Entertainment with Ai Ai De Las Alas @ The Events Center, Harrahs Resort SoCal

Del Mar Ballet Goes to Neverland @ California Center For the Arts, Escondido

US Music Lessons @ Voodoo Room, House of Blues

Into the Night, A New Challenger Approaches, Voidlines, Ascensions, Awake Me Daylight, Mandala @ Soma

Love Distortion, Honest Iago @ The Bancroft

Cochinas Locas, Cabuloan, Owain, David A. Moore @ Tower Bar

House of Vibe feat. Chali 2na and Scarub, Atlantis Rizing @ Winston's

The Obsessed, Karma to Burn, Sierra, Archons @ Brick By Brick

Art On Adams Lestat's West Stage @ Lestat's

Zero to Billy @ Java Joe's

Haruka, Maladjusted, Gouge Away, Slums Of The Future, Heat @ Che Cafe

Rick Thorne, Skipjack, Authentic Sellout, Trelic @ The Merrow

Chugboat, the Whiskey Circle, Finnegan Blue @ 710 Beach Club

Comedy @ The Bancroft

Taarkus, Beastmaker, Old Man Wizard, Beira @ Tio Leo's

Native Alien Presents @ Tio Leo's

First Friday Club @ Humphreys Backstage Live (5 p.m.)

Detroit Underground @ Humphreys Backstage Live (9 p.m.)

Arty @ Bassmnt

Sounds of Tantrum @ Fluxx

DJ Vice @ Omnia

Marcus Marr @ Bang Bang

Robot Ears 1 Year Anniversary with Rebekah and Cleric @ Spin

Ascension with Robin Roth @ Kava Lounge

White Glove Service @ Boar Cross'n

Rosemary Bystrak is the publicist for the Casbah, the content manager for DoSD, and writes about the San Diego music scene, events and general musings about life in San Diego on San Diego: Dialed In. Follow her updates on Twitter or contact her directly.
The worst of summer's first heat wave has passed through San Diego County, though toasty temperatures and an excessive heat warning will remain in effect through Sunday night.

The heat wave of the almost-summer season peaked Saturday, with inland temperatures soaring some 15 degrees above normal and desert temps scorching daytime highs in the triple digits, according to NBC 7's Greg Bledsoe.

Slightly cooler weather will begin to roll into San Diego starting Sunday and into the next week, Bledsoe said.

Dense fog kept the coast cooler on Sunday NBC 7's Vanessa Herrera said. The clouds will increase overnight and Monday will be a typical June morning with lots of cloud cover.

The marine layer should clear later on Monday giving the county plenty of sunshine and a cooler start to the week.

Temperatures will be in the upper 60s most of the week along the coast, and in the mid to upper 70s inland.

"For the mountains and the deserts it's a bigger warm-up, unfortunately, as we get into Wednesday," Herrera said. "But then we start to cool down and we get back into those 70s in the mountains and back to double-digit temperatures in the desert areas."

The hottest day of this heat wave is behind us, but cooling for the first part of this week will be slow," Bledsoe said.

The National Weather Service (NWS) had an excessive heat warning for San Diego County in effect through 8 p.m. Sunday, although Sunday was not quite as hot as earlier in the weekend. The warning expanded to Riverside and Imperial counties in Southern California as well.

Inland regions and the coast saw temperatures slightly cooler on Sunday.

Clouds hung around Sunday morning longer than usual as a deeper marine layer and stronger onshore flow pushed the clouds further inland.

Inland, winds picked up more Sunday.

Well see slightly stronger winds today, which means firefighters may be dealing with a few gusts around 20 miles per hour as they work to put out the Pala fire," Bledsoe said Sunday.

The warm weather could cause heat related illness, especially in elderly residents, children and animals. Time spent outdoors should be limited and, when possible, strenuous activities should be done in the morning or evening, once it cools down. Light and loose-fitting clothing should be worn and San Diegans should drink plenty of water while weathering the heat wave, the NWS says.

For a list of Cool Zones in San Diego County, click here.

Bledsoe said warm temperatures are expected to linger after the weekend, only dropping a few degrees each day through the middle of next week.

For weather updates from NBC 7, click here.
An 89-year-old woman was assaulted during a strong-arm robbery Friday in Virginia, according to Fairfax County Police.

The victim entered her car in the 6600 block of Loisdale Rd. in Springfield, near a shopping center, when she was approached by a man about 10:15 a.m. The man assaulted her and fled with her purse.

The man fled in a 2008-2012 Nissan Altima, and his license plate may include the numbers "2057," police said.

The woman's injuries did not require treatment at a hospital, police said.

Anyone with information should contact Fairfax County Police at 703-692-2131.
Police are searching for the person who stole a memorial in Bethesda, Maryland, that honored a U.S. Navy Seal decorated Gulf War veteran killed while riding his bicycle.

The "ghost bike" sat in the 6100 block of Massachusetts Avenue, where 64-year-old Timothy Holden was struck and killed on Aug. 28, 2015.

Montgomery County police said the all-white bicycle was taken sometime between May 26 and May 30.

The theft has upset many people who remember Holden as a devoted father and avid cyclist.

"It's even more tragic that it happened on Memorial Day. The first Memorial Day that Tim wasn't with us, his ghost bike disappears and we'd just like to get it back," said Brian Frank, who lives near the memorial to Holden.

Peter Klosky, of Fairfax, donated the ghost bike. He said he didn't know Holden, but admired him.

"It really was hurtful to the people who were left behind. It was 6 o'clock in the morning and there he is, working on his fitness...going to visit his 29-year-old daughter for coffee," Klosky said.

Police are asking for anyone who has information about the bike to call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County at (240) 773-TIPS (8477) or Text-A-Tip to: CRIMES (274637), text MCPD and your crime tip.
Three members of a prominent suburban Chicago family are dead after a double murder-suicide at their vacation home in Las Vegas, according to police.

Art Wulf, 69, and Jan Morgan-Wulf, 66, both of Northbrook, were found dead at their vacation home with multiple gunshot and stab wounds on Wednesday morning, authorities confirmed. Their 36-year-old son Aaron Wulf killed the two and was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

Art was a semi-retired attorney who also previously served on the District 225 School Board. Jan was a former Chicago Public Schools speech language pathologist who also previously worked as a real estate agent.

The couple had three other adult children. Aaron was a self-described photo-journalist and an aspiring actor, whose IMDb acting credits list two small parts on "Monk" and "Girlfriends," both from 2004.

The Las Vegas Police Department confirmed the authenticity of a 585-page manifesto and video that Aaron left before shooting and stabbing his parents, then killing himself.

Titled "The Worst Nightmare in History, the manifesto blames his parents for a lifetime of physical and psychological abuse starting at the age of 5. He also claimed that he was sexually abused by a teacher in Chicago, and that his father did nothing.

"And in the cruelest of outcomes, when I told you my teacher, who molested me in high school for several years, you did nothing to help me as well. You didn't care!" the manifesto reads.

"This is a case of an extremely deranged individual that was not in touch with reality to some degree, and wanted to commit this heinous grisly crime, said Sgt. Jeff Clark of the Las Vegas Police Department.

But the reaction to this heinous crime in their quiet Northbrook neighborhood was one of disbelief.

I can't believe this would happen. Im so sorry for the family, I can't imagine what theyre going through, said neighbor and family friend David Carroll. They were private family, seemed like a nice couple. Their kids were great, especially the sons. We enjoyed having them next to us.

I'm completely devastated and very, very upset, added friend and neighbor Bonnie Miller.
A Providence man is heading to federal prison for trafficking heroin.

Authorities say Wilkins Robles-Tejada was sentenced Friday to five years behind bars followed by five years of probation.

The 29-year-old Tejada pleaded guilty Feb. 8 to one count of possession with the intent to distribute, 100 grams or more of heroin.

Prosecutors say Providence police began investigating Tejada in February 2015. Police made controlled purchases of heroin from Tejada on at least two occasions.

Authorities saw Tejada visit a Cranston residence on numerous occasions during the investigation. Police executed a search warrant at the Cranston home and discovered approximately 981 grams of heroin, 95 grams of cocaine, 19 grams of fentanyl and a firearm.

Tejada has been in custody since his arrest February 20, 2015.
A Fall River, Massachusetts, high school student was killed in a crash on the night of her senior prom.

The Bristol County District Attorney's Office confirms 18-year-old Hannah Raposo, a senior at Durfee High School, was killed in a single-car crash Friday on Route 24 in Fall River.

Raposo was driving a Ford Explorer southbound about three miles from I-495 when it flipped repeatedly around 6 p.m. She was ejected from the vehicle.

The victim was taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

An 18-year-old male, also from Fall River, was in the SUV. The DA's office says he was transported to Rhode Island Hospital with minor to moderate injuries.

Students tell necn an announcement notified them around the time the prom began.

The prom went on as scheduled. But students say another senior died from cancer this year, and that the losses have hit the class hard.
Health concerns are plaguing homeowners in Danvers, Massachusetts.

The state's Department of Environmental Protection wants to test for arsenic on several properties located near the former site of a tannery in town.

"We bought this house in January," said resident David Howland. "Unfortunately, it was stuff that was here. We have to deal with it."

Unbeknownst to Howland, his property on Ash Street abuts the former Bernard and Friedman tannery, which was torn down nearly a century ago. In 2011, high arsenic levels were discovered near the site at Brown Pond when environmental officials were studying arsenic levels related to another tannery.

A recent analysis of the area found the levels to be 10 times higher than recommended, according to the DEP.

"Public safety is our first priority, and we want to inform folks of what's going on," said town manager Steve Bartha.

Members of the DEP met with town officials and residents Thursday night to explain the problem and ask homeowners for permission to test soil on their properties. While the town will cover the cost of initial testing, it's unclear if residents will have to pay for any potential cleanup.

"There were tanneries all over Massachusetts, and many of these closed in 1910," explained Bartha. "And there are no records. Frankly, it's a multi-year process."

First, the town needs to receive approval from all residents to test, which they hope to get by the start of summer. After that, the timeline and cost will depend on what they uncover.

"If it's on my property, it has to be cleared," Howland said. "Just take care of it."
Voters in an area of coastal Maine will vote in November on whether or not to continue adding fluoride to their local water supply. Fluoride has been in the drinking water of the Boothbay region since 2004, when it was approved by voters, according to News Center Maine. But some feel that consuming it is a matter of personal choice.
A union representing Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority workers is pushing back against plans to privatize fare collection services.

Boston Carmen's Union, Local 589 President James O'Brien says privatization doesn't equal improved service or reduced costs.

O'Brien says the change threatens the jobs of as many as 200 workers, including those who work in the MBTA's fare collection operations.

That includes workers in the Charlestown "money room" who count fares from MBTA passengers, tolls from drivers on the Massachusetts Turnpike and parking meter deposits from the City of Cambridge.

O'Brien says all Carmen's Union employees undergo criminal background checks and employees working in the money room undergo credit checks before they can begin working there.

O'Brien says the union is planning to step up its criticism over the next two weeks.
Keene Oct 24

Two people who were on board a small plane were killed when it crashed into a building in Keene, New Hampshire, Friday night the citys mayor said in an update Saturday morning. Mayor George Hansel said it was fortunate that no one on the ground died as well  the plane crashed into the attached garage of a multi-family bu...
Following up on tips from a May 21 robbery in Rochester, New Hampshire, Police conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle by the Rochester Fairgrounds when Jacob Barrett-Carr, 23, fled the vehicle. Carr, along with Rian Luther, are suspected of involvement in the May robbery.

A perimeter was set up, but at this time Carr has not been located. Luther also remains at large.

Police have taken 22-year-old Amber Glennon, also in the vehicle, into custody. Authorities say she is being charged with robbery and assault and is being held on bail. She is awaiting arraignment on Monday morning.

Authorities are asking you to contact 603-330-7128 or call the Rochester crimeline at 603-335-6500.
Protecting New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary status and calls to unite behind Donald Trump are the themes of the day at the state Republican party's annual meeting.

Elected officials, party staff members and Republican activists from across New Hampshire gathered in Concord on Saturday to vote on bylaws and elect two representatives to the Republican National Committee. Concord developer Steve Duprey won another four-year term as national committeeman and long-time party member Juliana Bergeron narrowly fended off a challenge to win a second term as national committeewoman.

Duprey and Bergeron both say they're well positioned to defend New Hampshire from threats against its spot at the front of the presidential primary calendar. A new proposal up for debate would put Massachusetts' primary on the same day.
With that cool fall breeze becoming more common these days, you may find yourself breaking out the flannel shirts and enjoying a PSL (short for pumpkin spice latte) more and more. And now that October has arrived, it may also be time to head out to the orchard and pick some apples to really get into the fall vibe. New
racism Oct 12

The name of a small waterway in southeastern Vermont has been changed after a state committee determined the previous name was a relic of history that needed to be thrown out to ensure a welcoming atmosphere to everyone. The Vermont Board of Libraries, which is in charge of what to call mountains, lakes and other natural features in the state,...
Ohio Jewish Rabbis React to State Expert Offering 'Christian Understanding' of Abortion Law

Legal action from the Jewish community has begun in Florida, Indiana and Kentucky.

By Madeline Fening Oct 25, 2022

In a battle that has long ebbed between science and religion, Republicans in Ohio have begun using explicitly Christian rationale to try and limit abortion care access for everyone in the state. During an Oct. 7 hearing in a Hamilton County Court, Judge Christian Jenkins ruled to indefinitely block the state of Ohios six-week abortion ban...
Microsoft this week filed another lawsuit in federal court accusing unidentified individuals with stealing its software by illegally activating more than 1,000 copies of Windows 7, Vista and 8, and Office 2010 and 2013.

The suit, filed with a Seattle court on Wednesday, was the latest in a string of cases opened by the Redmond, Wash. company in an effort to quash piracy.

"Microsoft's cyberforensics have identified over one thousand product activations originating from IP address 66.51.73.111 ('the IP Address'), which is presently assigned to Earthlink Inc., and which, on information and belief, is being used by the Defendants in furtherance of the unlawful conduct alleged herein," Microsoft's lawyers wrote in the complaint.

Like many other software vendors, Microsoft uses a product key -- in its case, a 25-character alphanumeric string -- to lock a license to a device. Keys are a core component of Microsoft's anti-piracy technology.

The product keys used to activate the bootleg Windows and Office had been stolen from the company's supply chain, used more times than legal or were activated outside their intended geographic region, Microsoft claimed.

"On information and belief, Defendants have been and continue to be involved in installing counterfeit and infringing copies of Microsoft's software and/or related components," the company charged.

Microsoft has not identified the culprits, but simply tagged them as "John Doe" 1 through 10.

This week's lawsuit was similar to many others, including one filed in March asking permission to subpoena Comcast to name the subscriber at an IP address Microsoft said was the origin of thousands of product activation requests.

In a related filing, Microsoft noted that the June 1 lawsuit was linked to 10 other cases it had filed since November 2014, all alleging that pirates were or had illegally activated the company's software. Now at 11, the case list will be handled by a single judge.

Microsoft discovered the large number of activations through what it described as "cyberforensics," which the latest complaint defined as "investigative methods that leverage state-of-the-art technology to detect software piracy."

But it's almost certain that Microsoft wasn't forced to deploy some unusual technology to sniff out the alleged pirates in this, or any of the other, cases.

"As part of its cyberforensic methods, Microsoft analyzes activation data voluntarily provided by users when they activate Microsoft software, including the IP address from which a given product is activated," the lawsuit stated.

In other words, Microsoft tallies the number of activations traced to each IP address, much like a web server log can be mined for the IP addresses that request pages.

Most likely, Microsoft has a trigger point at which it deems the number of over-the-web activation requests as potential piracy.

Microsoft said as much in the complaint. "Cyberforensics allows Microsoft to analyze billions of activations of Microsoft software and identify activation patterns and characteristics that make it more likely than not that the IP address associated with the activations is an address through which pirated software is being activated," the company stated.

The alleged thieves who used the same IP address to activate more than a 1,000 copies of Windows and Office were no smarter than a bank robber who uses the same get-away car to hold up a dozen banks.

Microsoft asked the federal judge to enjoin the defendants from continuing their piracy, and for restitution of all ill-gotten gains.

This story, "Microsoft continues campaign to shut down stupid software pirates" was originally published by Computerworld .
Retaining and journaling content has been a key requirement of organizations for years, however as organizations have migrated to Office 365, plus with Microsofts shift to new and improved eDiscovery tools, the process of holding and searching for content has changed.

This article covers a whole new series of best practices that EVERY legal department, compliance officer, and content / Office 365 administrator needs to read, understand, and ensure they have Office 365 setup properly so that when the time comes and they need to do eDiscovery of content, that the information they are looking for has actually been held and managed for future look-up.

This document clarifies whats included in the box in Office 365 with the E3 (or higher) license, the Advanced eDiscovery functions you get with Office 365 with the E5 license, and goes through the step by step procedures for setting up what is necessary to retain content and detailed procedures on how to query and look up information.

Basic Background

To be able to retrieve information for legal or official purposes, information must be properly retained (lawyers may say-LMS-"preserved) so that the integrity of the information retrieved is valid (lawyers will request an "audit trail" to verify and authenticate the information by showing the "chain of custody" and who, and how, it was "preserved and collected"). As an example, if the Human Resources department, Legal department, or outside Legal Counsel wants to gather information, its not good enough to just go into a users mailbox and extract information because the information in a mailbox is considered fragile. It is fragile because a user can easily delete a key message or the user can even go in using the Microsoft Outlook client and complete EDIT and CHANGE a message. If someone opens a users mailbox, the messages in the Outlook client can be tampered (LMS-modified) and are NOT considered valid evidence (even if modified accidentally).

In the past with Exchange 2013, Exchange 2010, or earlier, it required specific technologies and practices to protect the messages from tampering. The old way of doing things was to enable Journaling and/or buy a 3rd party archiving product like Symantec Enterprise Vault, Iron Mountain / Mimosa NearPoint for Exchange, EMC EmailXtender, Zantaz EAS, or the like. The 3rd party tools required a separate server, typically a special agent to be installed on all Exchange servers and clients, and a relatively high expense to manage, maintain, and support the archiving server and services.

Replacing Journaling with Office 365 Mailbox Hold

As previously mentioned, for older email systems, organizations would commonly enable Journaling on their email system that effectively captured each and every email message and stored a copy of those email message in a completely separate server or storage system. However in Office 365, it is no longer a best practice to Journal messages, primarily because there are better ways of addressing the exact same business and legal need, without having to duplicate each and every email message.

With Office 365, organizations simply enable retention of the mailbox (or mailboxes) of users that the organization wants a legal history of each and every message in and out of a users mailbox. Many organizations enable all mailboxes for this type of hold, which in Office 365 is fine considering the organization no longer has to manage the growing storage of retained content.

AND better yet, since Office 365 includes more than just email, the same retention (and the same eDiscovery search that well cover later in this article) can retain the history, state, and perform search on content stored as files in OneDrive, content stored in SharePoint Online, and Instant Message communications in Skype for Business. So when properly configured, an organization gets content retention and search across emails, files, and communications!

Say goodbye to the concept of journaling, and welcome in a better way of getting the exact same results that now spans more than just incoming and outgoing emails!

Archiving and Email Retention in Office 365

Archiving and Email Retention are related to this whole topic of Litigation Hold and eDiscovery, but address a different business need.

When email archiving became available in Exchange 2010, some mistakenly believed they must create an Archive Mailbox for all users to preserve data, that is not true. An Archive Mailbox creates a 2nd mailbox store for a user to move content out of their Primary mailbox and into the Archive mailbox. Back in the old day (prior to 2010), email servers had limits on how large their server databases could be, and thus organizations put arbitrary limits on how much email a user could store (6-months, 2-years, 256mb, 2gb, etc) information in their primary mailbox and when they ran out of space, they were required to delete emails.

Users not wanting to delete emails got creative and used mechanisms like PST files to export messages to files, however having users with USB thumb drives and laptops full of old emails became an even bigger problem when performing eDiscovery. These archives mailboxes in Exchange provided a secondary location for users to move their content to, that were still subject to eDiscovery search by the organization.

However today with Office 365, each users primary mailbox (with an E3 or higher license) can store at least 50GB of emails which is 20-30 times more mailbox space than most organizations even allowed just a few years ago, and since Microsoft pays for and manages storage, the need for an organization to export messages or move messages to archive mailboxes is no longer a business requirement.

And with a Microsoft Office 365 E3 license for a user, that user can have a 2nd mailbox, called the Archive Mailbox, if needed that effectively has an unlimited amount of storage, but again, it is not as common for organizations to have Archive mailboxes for all users as 50GB is plenty of storage space for almost all users.

As for as eDiscovery, Litigation Hold, Retention policies, or the like, whatever is done to a users Primary mailbox is also applied to their Archive mailbox, so from a legal or functional basis, it doesnt matter if a user has just a Primary mailbox, or if they have both a Primary and Archive mailbox.

Archiving for the sake of archiving into a separate mailbox is no longer the motivating factor, as such, organizations that used to have archiving policies need to rethink whether they are applicable these days.

That said though, there are reasons an organization would want users to get rid of information, but instead of setting the limit at a completely arbitrary amount (by age or by storage limit), an organizations retention policy these days (if they implement one) really HAS to be done based on a legal requirement. This might be tax or accounting records should be retained for 7-years, or content deemed applicable to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) should be retained for 7-years, or the like. But theres no magical age or size limit that is a best practice. Some might argue that emails should be kept for 2-years, or emails should be removed after 6-months, but those are again typically best practices of a decade ago when organizations solely wanted to remove content to fit within the technical storage limits of the email server systems themselves.

I cover how to create effective Electronically Stored Information (ESI) policies in my book Handling Electronically Stored Information (ESI) in the Era of the Cloud that can be purchased in print form off Amazon.com, or downloaded for free as a PDF or Kindle/Mobi format off my company website http://www.cco.com/our-publications.htm And to apply ESI policies in Office 365 through the use of Microsoft Messaging Records Management (MRM) policies will be a topic of a future article where Ill get into the creation of granular policies based on content aging or keywords. For now, this article here will focus solely on enabling mailbox content retention and eDiscovery search as the foundation of Litigation Hold and eDiscovery practices.

What Can be Done In the Box in Office 365

While an organization can continue to buy 3rd party products as well as do Journaling with Office 365 (either with a Hybrid configuration with an Exchange server on-premise, or through a 3rd party Journaling server or cloud service), the easier and better way of handling message retention and legal recovery (LMS-"collection") is to just set the proper configuration settings in Office 365.

When a user deletes a message from their mailbox, the message is not really deleted but instead moved to the Deleted Items folder and sits in the Deleted Items folder until the message is fully deleted from the Deleted Items folder. When a user deletes an item from the Deleted Items folder or empties the Deleted Items folder, the message disappears from the Deleted Items folder and it appears to be gone, but the message has actually just been moved to a hidden Recoverable Items folder. The Recoverable Items folder replaces the feature formerly known as the Dumpster in previous versions of Exchange. The Recoverable Items folder is hidden from the default view of Microsoft Outlook, Outlook WebApp, and other e-mail clients so the user no longer sees removed messages, but the messages are still sitting up in Office 365 for a short period of time.

Items in the Recoverable Items folder are retained for the deleted item retention period configured in Office 365. By default, the deleted item retention period is set to 14 days (or 30GB of storage, whichever comes first). While this retention period can be extended by the administrator in Exchange on-premise, the Office 365 administrator no longer has the ability to change the retention period beyond 30-days, and quite frankly with other options available in Office 365, no one needs to tinker with the retention period because theres a better way of handling content retention (the whole focus of this article), so read on.

Enabling Litigation Hold

With Office 365, in lieu of Journaling (to retain a copy of all messages) or extension of the Retention period (longer than 14-days), the best practice in Office 365 is to enable mailbox In-Place Hold or Litigation Hold. This process effectively retains an immutable record of all email messages (and with In-Place / Litigation Hold placed on other Office 365 workloads like SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Skype for Business), core content will be retained in Office 365 beyond just emails as well!

To put a Mailbox on Litigation Hold, the person making that decision needs to be part of the Discovery Management Role in Exchange. By default, no one in the organization, including the Office 365 Administrator, has this Discovery Management role. But the Office 365 Administrator has the permission to put users (including themselves) into this Discovery Management role.

For an individual (administrator, HR personnel, legal counsel) to be given the rights to make In-Place Hold and Litigation Hold changes to a users mailbox, do the following:

1. Logon to the Office 365 Admin Portal (https://portal.office.com) with a user logon that has rights to the Office 365 admin center.

2. On the lefthand side, scroll down to Admin and click on Exchange

3. In the Exchange admin center, click on permissions

4. On the admin roles page, double-click on Discovery Management and under Members, click the + button and add the users you want to give rights to Discovery Management in Exchange (emails) to this list of members, then click Save.

This individual (or individuals) now have the ability to proceed with actually putting a mailbox (or mailboxes) on In-Place Hold / Litigation Hold.

To put a mailbox on Hold in Office 365, an individual you added to this Discovery Management role needs to do the following:

1. Logon to the Office 365 Admin Portal (https://portal.office.com) with a user logon that has rights to the Office 365 admin center.

2. On the lefthand side, scroll down to Admin and click on Exchange

3. In the Exchange admin center, click on recipients, double-click on the user you want to put their mailbox on hold, click on mailbox features, scroll down to Litigation hold

4. For the Litigation Hold option, click Enable, thatll pop up a new window. You can choose to enter the # of days you want a mailbox to be put on hold (ie: 365 for a year) or if you are looking to put the entire mailbox on hold indefinitely for journaling type of long term tracking, just leave the # of days blank and click Save.

Note: It may take upwards of an hour before Litigation Hold takes effect on a users mailbox. This is because the policy needs to be enacted on all messages and folders in the users mailbox and the policy needs to be replicated through any replica instances of Office 365. You can see the status of Litigation Hold on a users mailbox by going back and looking at the Mailbox Features and it may show Litigation Hold Enable  Pending when it is in the process of enabling Litigation Hold. When the mailbox is fully held, the Mailbox Features will simply show Litigation Hold: Enabled



To put a mailbox on Hold in Office 365 via PowerShell, an individual you added to the Discovery Management role needs to run the following PowerShell command against the Office 365 environment:
Who is The Daily News Athlete of the Week? Here are the 7 nominees.

high-school
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.

Lab Diagnostics & Automation eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

"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."
By Eleanor McDermid

Two studies show that modern high-sensitivity troponin I (hsTn) assays can help physicians to rapidly identify patients with a very low likelihood of having non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI).

Both studies are published in JAMA Cardiology. One evaluates a 1-hour protocol - testing patients at presentation and 1 hour later - while the other focuses on identifying a cutoff that, along with a normal electrocardiogram (ECG), can exclude acute MI (AMI) at the time of presentation.

David Morrow (Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA) writes in an editorial that the studies "lend strong support to the notion that accelerated diagnostic protocols that incorporate hsTn can facilitate earlier triage while maintaining an acceptable NPV [negative predictive value]."

He notes that the limit of detection seems to be the best cutoff "to deliver an acceptable NPV at presentation."

The first study, from Edward Carlton (Southmead Hospital, Bristol, UK) and colleagues, involved 3155 patients with a non-ischaemic ECG, of whom 18.8% had Tn levels below the limit of detection (1.2 ng/L) and 9.2% developed AMI.

The sensitivity for AMI was 99.0% and the NPV was 99.5%. None of the three patients with a false-negative result died within 30 days, the team notes. At higher thresholds, from 2.0 up to 5.0 ng/L, the sensitivity fell below the researchers' minimally clinically acceptable threshold of 99.0%, and NPV fell below 99.5%, although it remained above 99.0%.

The reduced performance at higher thresholds was particularly marked in the 1047 patients who presented within 2 hours of symptom onset. Sensitivity was also lower at the limit of detection in these patients, at 98.6%.

Given this, "[i]t seems prudent to obtain a sample at 3 hours or later in early presenters (or ambiguous timing) and in patients with clinical high-risk features", says Morrow, in his editorial.

In the second study, Dirk Westermann (University Hospital Hamburg Eppendorf, Germany) and team tested a 1-hour triage algorithm in 1040 patients with non-ischaemic ECGs and validated it in a further 4009.

They found 6.0 ng/L to be the optimal Tn cutoff, which if applied only at presentation, gave an NPV for AMI of 97.1%. This increased to 99.0% and 99.5% if repeated after 1 and 3 hours, respectively, with no statistical difference between the two. All NPVs were higher for NSTEMI type 1, at a corresponding 98.5%, 99.8% and 100%.

Like Carlton et al, the researchers found the NPV decreased with higher cutoffs, and they saw an associated 12-month mortality increase, with a rate of 1.0% for the 6.0 ng/L cutoff but 3.7% for the "routinely used" 99th percentile (27.0 ng/L).

Morrow stresses that Tn tests should always be used in conjunction with clinical assessments and also highlights that physicians should be aware of "the performance both of your [cardiac] Tn assay and in your population."

Licensed from medwireNews with permission from Springer Healthcare Ltd. Springer Healthcare Ltd. All rights reserved. Neither of these parties endorse or recommend any commercial products, services, or equipment.
The countdown for the CNN-IBN Indian of the year has begun. Here we bring you the nominees in the category of business.



1. Bandhan Bank



For making us believe that providing financial services to the poor is profitable. Bandhan Financial Services has touched the lives of over 6.5 million of Indias poorest borrowers, including women entrepreneurs, self-help groups and small businesses. In August 2015, it turned into a full-fledged bank and today has 605 branches across 27 states with deposits of over 5000 crore rupees.



2. Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla



Chairman of the Poonawalla Group, he drove his company to newer frontiers, emerging as one of the most valuable companies globally. The vaccine kings privately held Serum Institute of India reported record profits of $295 million. It tied up with US based Visterra to make a drug to treat dengue fever and is also set to invest 150 million rupees to expand its capacity to make a new range of vaccines.



3. Team Make in India



For bringing focus back on manufacturing in India. One year since the high decibel campaign began, the team has improved the perception of India as an attractive investment destination. It has taken steps to make the operating environment in India more favourable with 25 sectors identified for focused interventions. The FDI policy has been liberalised with the opening up of several key sectors like Defence, railways, medical equipment and finance.







4. Team Micromax



For being the only Indian smart phone company to go global and take competition head on! Just six years after entering a highly competitive market dominated by MNCs, Micromax is already Indias number two brand in smart phones and the tenth largest global manufacturer. The company is all set to make in India with a 300 crore investment for plants in Telangana and Rajasthan.



5. Team Ola



For being one of Indias most innovative start-ups! The home-grown taxi aggregator started by two IIT-ians has stayed on top by constantly expanding and experimenting with newer ideas. From Pink, only- women cabs, to auto rickshaws on demand, to shuttle buses to help commuters in Delhi and even boats in flood-hit Chennai, Ola never misses an opportunity. The most funded local venture even has its own in app digital wallet for payments.



6. Uday Kotak



Uday Kotak, the Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, has consistently striven to achieve growth and expand into newer business segments. The billionaire banker lead the acquisition of rival ING Vysya for a 2.4 billion dollar all stock deal, making Kotak the fourth largest bank in the country. The company has also entered the general insurance business and in a separate venture, has teamed up with telecom magnate Sunil Mittal's Airtel M Commerce to start a payments bank that provides basic banking services.






Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti condemned the terrorist attack on a Border Security Force (BSF) convoy in Bijbehara in Anantnag district, calling it an attempt to subvert peace efforts. Three security forces personnel lost their lives in the attack on Friday.



"Elements inimical to Jammu and Kashmir's interests are desperate to subvert peace efforts. We condemn the militant attack on BSF vehicle," Mehbooba said.



The CM spoke to BSF DG KK Sharma and expressed anguish and sorrow over the death of BSF personnel in the attack.



"Such senseless attack is a desperate attempt to derail peace efforts of the government and subvert the rejuvenating economic activity in the state," she said in a statement.



"These elements have always been inimical to the interests of Jammu and Kashmir and have tried to derail any peace effort initiated in the larger interest of the people of the state and the region," she said.



She said such "dastardly attacks and senseless killings" have only brought miseries to the people and tragedies for the victims' families, both security forces personnel and civilians.



"The only purpose of such gory acts seems to be to keep the turmoil in the state on and the latest attack is again aimed at vitiating the atmosphere," she said.



In a broad daylight ambush, Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists attacked a BSF convoy killing on Friday three personnel and injuring nine others near Bijbehara on Srinagar-Jammu national highway.




Ahmedabad: The Gulbarg Society tragedy, in which 69 persons including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri were killed by a mob during the 2002 post-Godhra riots, is also a tragedy of the parents of two boys who went missing.



Two-year-old Muzaffar Sheikh went missing during the massacre and remained untraced for six years. When he was found in 2008, he was no longer Muzaffar. He had a Hindu name: Vivek Patni.



Then there was another boy who also went missing from the Muslim-dominated society during the riots. Rupa and Dara Modi, a Parsi couple living in Gulbarg Society, have not yet found their son Azhar who was 14 years old at the time.



Muzaffar was found by Vikram Patni, a fish seller, on the streets. Vikram and his wife Veena adopted him.



However, activist Teesta Setalvad, who has fought for the justice for the victims of Gulbarg massacre, alleges that a police constable found the boy and handed him over to the couple without following the due legal procedure.



The boy, given a new name, Vivek, grew up in the Patni family who lived in a chawl in Ahmedabad's Saraspur locality.



A legal battle ensued when his real parents found him and sought his custody. The Gujarat High Court finally decided in favour of his foster parents as the boy refused to go with his biological parents.



The HC also asked both the sides to cooperate in the child's interest. The boy can visit his biological parents from time to time, the court said.



Azhar Modi, who has not been seen since the day of massacre is now presumed dead under the law. But his parents believe he is alive.



Their quest to find their son became the story of the award-winning Hindi film "Parzania".



"Whenever I receive a call from an unknown number, I believe somebody might have called me to tell me about my son. In the 'Parzania' movie and on missing boy posters, they gave this number, so people used to call me, telling me that they saw some boy who might be my son. This raises hope," Rupa Modi said.



Recently, when she visited Kerala, somebody told her about a man who lived in an orphanage and resembled her child. Another person called from Delhi to say that he saw a man outside a temple who resembled her son.



"Our search continues to this day, and will continue forever until we find him," she said.



Fourteen years after the incident, 24 people have been convicted while 36 others acquitted in the Gulbarg Society massacre case which took place on February 28, 2002. Although no one has been convicted under the charges of conspiracy (IPC Section 120 B) but out of 24 convicts, 11 have been found guilty of murder (Section 302). The 13 others have been convicted for lesser offences.



Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Atul Vaidya is among those convicted for the massacre.
New Delhi: Delhi Police on Saturday conducted raids in Kolkata and Chennai in search of the kingpin of the kidney trading racket, and other members in connection with which five persons, including two personal secretaries of a Nephrologist in Apollo Hospital, have been arrested.



While three of the arrested persons have been sent to judicial custody, two were on Saturday produced before a court which sent them on two days' police remand, a senior official said.



A 25-member special investigation team has been formed to crack the entire nexus. The team is looking out for other members and the racket's kingpin Rajukumar Rao, for which raids were today conducted at Kolkata and Chennai, a senior police official said.



Meanwhile, two more prominent private hospitals in the national capital and some more staff in Apollo hospital have come under police scanner.



It is suspected that the racket had operated with the same modus operandi at two other hospitals here, which is being probed, the senior official said adding that no clean chit has so far been given to others in Apollo Hospital, which includes some prominent doctors.



From interrogation of the arrested persons, it has emerged that the racket was involved in at least 10 kidney transplants last year in Coimbatore alone. The racket is believed to be active in Punjab and Tamil Nadu, operating in prominent private hospitals there.



Five persons have been arrested on charges of running the kidney racket bringing donors from different parts of the country to the national capital.



The arrest of the five accused has also led to recovery of fake ID proofs such as voter photo identity cards, Aadhaar cards and laptops.



The entire documentation and verification process for organ transplant was bypassed by using forged papers related with agreement of donor, relationship with donor, id and address proofs, proof of marriage and clearance of case by Hospital Internal Authorisation Committee.



All the necessary documents were made fraudulently by affixing donor's photo showing the person as recipient's relative using documents of a genuine relative.



Apollo Hospital denied involvement in the kidney racket emphasising that it was a "victim" of a well-orchestrated operation by the accused.



"The police in their investigation have identified secretarial staff of some doctors, who have been accused of being involved in the alleged racket. We reiterate that these are not employees of the hospital. While all due precautions were conducted, fake and forged documents were used for this racket with a criminal intent. The hospital has been a victim of a well-orchestrated operation to cheat patients and the hospital," the statement by hospital stated.



The hospital also claimed that in order to ensure compliance with the law and diligence in process, it has an independent body with external members also for according consent for any transplant surgery.
Here are some important reports from the biggest newspapers of India.



Man accused of designing IS flags did engineering in Chennai



Using his father as the main witness, NIA on Friday chargesheeted Islamic State operative Mohammad Naser, who designed flags and logos for the 'caliphate' and had managed to reach Sudan en route to Syria before he was caught and deported last December. His father Ameer Mohammed had fled to India from Dubai on finding that his son was going to fight in Syria. Read full artivle in The Times of India.



Honour first offer or face boycott, IITs to tell firms



The Indian Institutes of Technology have decided to blacklist about half-a-dozen companies that participated in placements this year but failed to honour their commitment, withdrew their offers entirely and left students in a lurch. Companies like Zimply, healthcare startup Portea, grocery portal PepperTap are some that cancelled their offers, as reported by TOI exactly a week ago ('IITs mull safety net for students as startups withdraw job offers'). They will now not be able to participate in placements this year, as reported in The Times of India.



Air India to fly decorated soldiers business class



It is the Maharaja's way of saying Jai Jawan. Air India has decided to upgrade gallantry award winners to business class on its domestic flights. While the decorated soldiers or ex-servicemen will be given economy class boarding cards as per their tickets, they will be upgraded at the boarding gate subject to availability of seats in business class. Read full article in The Times of India.



Law student who died a 'selfie death' in media 'didn't even have her phone with her'



Pranita Mehta was sitting on the rock at Kumta beach in Gokarna on the morning of May 29 when a snap tide swept her away to a watery grave. But the final-year National Law University student from Jodhpur hit the headlines when the drowning was labelled as a 'selfie death' with news reports claiming the 21-year-old slipped from the rock while clicking herself. Read full article in The Indian Express.



In Rajasthan, MA final-year question paper asks students to 'discuss BJP ideology'



The Congress on Friday accused the BJP of "brainwashing" students after an MA final-year question paper in the University of Rajasthan asked them to write an essay to "discuss the ideology and programmes of the Bharatiya Janata Party", as per a news report in The Indian Express.



NGT orders Art Of Living foundation: Deposit balance Rs 4.75 cr compensation with DDA today



The National Green Tribunal (NGT) Friday directed the Art of Living (AOL) Foundation to deposit the balance environmental compensation amount of Rs 4.75 crore by Saturday. The Foundation was ordered to pay the money for the damage caused to the Yamuna floodplains during preparations for the World Culture Festival held in March. Read full article in The Indian Express.



UCLA shooter Mainak Sarkar remembered as 'good student' in his hometown of Durgapur



Mainak Sarkar grew up in the industrial town of Durgapur in West Bengal. In the early 80s and 90s, the town was buzzing with industry, mostly steel. Now only the Durgapur steel plant remains.



Mainak had for around 18 months in 2000-2001 worked as a software developer at Infosys in Bangalore. Some employees who worked in the company at the time could not recall Sarkar. Read full article in The Indian Express.



The 19-year-old aspiring model who holds the key in Gadoli encounter



A right turn on Basai road off the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway leads to the narrow streets of Baldev Nagar  an old city locality with a lower middle-class population. At the left end of street 15-A is a three-storey house where a poster of Sai Baba greets visitors that now include the police. The Mumbai police team that is probing gangster Sandeep Gadoli's alleged encounter killing is on the hunt for a missing piece in the jigsaw that is related to this house.



House owner Ashok Pahuja's daughter Divya Pahuja happens to be an accused and the sole witness of the alleged encounter killing of Gadoli. The encounter happened in a Mumbai hotel where the gangster was gunned down by a team of the Gurgaon police on February 7. Read full article in the Hindustan Times.



CBI suspects links in activists' murders, seeks Scotland Yard probe



The CBI will seek the Scotland Yard's expertise to ascertain whether a single firearm was used to kill three rationalists, allegedly by a radical Hindu group opposed to their scientific dissection of faith and religion.



Though the country's top investigation agency is probing only the 2013 murder of Narendra Dabholkar, the subsequent killing of Govind Pansare in Maharashtra and MM Kalburgi in Karnataka have come under agency's scanner because of the similarities in the three crimes, as reported in the Hindustan Times.



RBI clears decks for war on bad loans; proposes two funds by banks



The contours have been drawn for the formation of dual funds that will throw lifelines to debt-laden companies and give high-street lenders, saddled with sticky loans, some breathing space.



In a letter dated May 31 to the Indian Banks' Association, the Reserve Bank has proposed that lenders may set up two different funds  one to infuse equity into stressed companies and the other to give working capital finance. The move brings out the desperation of the government, banks and the regulator to strike a quick solution to resolve the bad debts of banks. Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of listed companies have touched Rs 5.91 lakh crore as of March 2016 and as many as 14 banks have suffered huge losses. Read full article in The Economic Times.
New Delhi: A Pakistan-based group is suspected to be behind cyber attacks on Indian government officials, luring them with emails referencing seventh Central Pay Commission, a software security firm has claimed.



"On May 18, 2016, the group registered a fake news website and sent spear phishing emails to Indian government officials. The emails referenced the Indian government's seventh Central Pay Commission, a topic of interest among officials," security firm FireEye said in a statement.



The emails sent to officials were sent from timesofindiaa.in, a fake news domain registered by the attackers, it added.



The group attached a malicious Microsoft Word document to the emails, which pretended to be sent by an employee of a leading publication. They requested the recipient to open the attachment about the seventh Pay Commission.



The attachment is designed to create a backdoor, which FireEye calls the Breach Remote Administration Tool (BreachRAT).



It allows the attacks to download and run new programmes, upload files from the victims' systems to the attackers' servers and a variety of other functions.



"FireEye has not previously observed this malicious tool used by these threat actors... Only one of the recipient email addresses was publicly listed on a website, suggesting that the actor harvested the other non-public addressees through other means," the statement said.



The suspected Pakistan-based threat group has been active for several years, conducting suspected intelligence collection operations against South Asian political and military targets, it added.



The group is the same that FireEye revealed in March to have conducted cyber attacks against Indian targets and Pakistani dissidents since 2013, it said.
Senior Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) leader Eknath Khadse on Saturday resigned as the Maharashtra Revenue Minister amid allegations of involvement in irregularities in a land deal in Pune. He met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at his residence on Saturday morning. The BJP was upset over allegations against Khadse in the land deal.



He has also been accused of receiving calls from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's residence in Karachi on his mobile phone.



Fadnavis had on Thursday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah over the issue. He had submitted a report to Shah on the charges against Khadse.



Khadse, a senior BJP leader and considered "number two" in the Cabinet, is in a spot over the purchase of a three-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corp land in Pune 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.



Along with the Congress, and the Aam Aadmi Party, BJP-ally Shiv Sena had also been mounting pressure for Khadse's resignation.




When he resigned on Saturday, the state BJP was forced to give him an honourable exit. He was allowed to hold a joint press meet with the state BJP President and defend himself.

Top Maharashtra minister Eknath Khadse's resignation has come as a big blow to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It is the first major resignation of a BJP leader after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power two years ago. Khadse is no ordinary minister. After late Gopinath Munde, Khadse has been the second most important mass leader of the BJP in Maharashtra.Like Munde, he is also a Backward Class leader with considerable clout and mass appeal across the state. As leader of the opposition in Maharashtra Assembly, Khadse took on the previous CongressNCP combine on several occasions.He has been a close follower of the Pramod Mahajan and Gopinath Munde camp. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is way junior to him in politics and used to sit in the back rows as an opposition MLA under Khadse's leadership. When the BJP won Maharashtra Assembly election in October 2014, Khadse was also in the race for the top post. But, local political dynamics forced the BJP high command in New Delhi to prefer Fadnavis over Khadse. He reluctantly joined the Fadnavis Cabinet and was given the charge of more than 6 portfolios.It clearly shows that the BJP is wary of him and wants to keep him happy, fully knowing that he can cause more damage to the party in the future.After quitting the government Khadse said, in 40 years of my political life, I have never faced this kind of media trial on baseless charges. All allegations against me are false and I have been framed. I have resigned to uphold the high moral standards of the BJP and will come out clean."Talking about Khadse's importance, well known journalist from Maharashtra Ashish Dixit said, "Khadse always resented the fact that he was overlooked for the post of chief minister. He is the most popular OBC leader in the state BJP. He had also been the only experienced minister in the government. Minister Khadse was good for the BJP. A disgruntled MLA Khadse can cost them dearly in future. The BJP knows this quite well and tried to give him an honourable exit."After allegations of Khadse being in touch with underworld don in hiding Dawood Ibrahim surfaced two weeks ago, he actually managed to survive that attack. Finally, what forced him to quit were allegations of shady land deals done by him. The media campaign and the relentless attack by former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Anjali Damania made him put in his papers.According to local media coverage, there has already been a whisper campaign against Fadnavis that an OBC leader was removed by him. Khadse himself has put up posters of him with late Gopinath Munde indicating that he is the only OBC leader left in the BJP. The cold war between him and the CM is well known and is likely to intensify in the days to come. Unlike many others, Khadse is brazen and loud. He is unlikely to swallow the humiliation and stay silent. He may hit back at the right time.The Shiv Sena which is a reluctant partner in the government has also played a major role in Khadse's removal. State Industries Minister Subhash Desai who is close to Sena chief Udhav Thackeray openly admitted that the land in question was indeed a government property aggravating problems for the BJP leader. Khadse is a very powerful leader in Jalgaon district and the Shiv Sena has been fighting a turf war with him in that region. They saw this as a perfect opportunity to settle score with him, said Ashish Dixit.Two other ministers in the state Pankaja Munde and Vinod Tawde are also facing charges of corruption. Though they have so far managed to stay in power. Khadse's resignation has set a precedent and Anjali Damania has already threatened to go after them once again. If that happens, BJP will be forced to take a tough decision as they have done to Khadse.
Commemorating the 2016 World Environment Day, LG takes viewers on a tour of some of the most famous World Heritage sites that remind us of common humanity and collective sense of wonder.The company, which aims to add a wider perspective to its sustainability credentials, has captured a two minute 360-degree video that depicts famous landmarks. The video also serves as a call-to-action for viewers to play a more active role in protecting the valuable heritage around them.The 360-degree video gives viewers a glimpse into the future of interactive content, and features key landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, Red Square, Great Wall of China, Sydney Opera House, and Seoul Changdeok Palace.As LG says, each site has been captured in 360-degree by its employees using the 360 CAM. The LG 360 CAM features two 13 MP cameras which combine to capture images and videos from all directions. Its 1,200 mAh battery is said to give users the ability to shoot up to 70 minutes of video between charges.World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5 to encourage worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment.
Los Angeles: A car found near Los Angeles on Friday belonged to a former graduate student who shot dead his estranged wife at her Minnesota home before driving halfway across the country and killing a professor and himself at the University of California, Los Angeles, a police spokeswoman said.



Mainak Sarkar's 2003 gray Nissan Sentra was found in Culver City, a suburb just outside Los Angeles, and a bomb squad has been sent to examine the vehicle, said Los Angeles police spokeswoman Liliana Preciado.



The car was found blocks from an apartment where Sarkar once lived.



Police do not know uet how Sarkar traveled to UCLA after he left his car in Culver City, about 6 miles (10 km) away from UCLA, said Los Angeles police spokesman Drake Madison.



Investigators have been looking for the car since Wednesday, when Sarkar shot to death 39-year-old engineering professor William Klug at UCLA.



The shooting drew a massive response of heavily armed police and sparked a two-hour lockdown of UCLA's sprawling urban campus. Students said they hid in classrooms behind doors, some of which did not lock.



Sarkar had intended to also kill a second professor at UCLA, police said. The native of India was convinced that Klug had stolen software he had developed, according to police, who called Sarkar's claim unfounded.



Earlier, Sarkar had killed his estranged wife Ashley Hasti, at her home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, police said. Hasti's sister, Alex Hasti, described her in a statement on Facebook as a 31-year-old medical school student with a love of acting and stand-up comedy.



So far no motive has emerged to explain why he killed Hasti in the home they had shared in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, some 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from Los Angeles.






The unthinkable has become real but hopefully reality will not become a nightmare. With all it's flaws US is a society to admire. Hope 2016 will not change that [name]Salman Khurshid, former minister of external affairs [/name]

India is in a fortunate place. We enjoy bi-partisan support among republicans and democrats. Whoever is elected the policy would be to seek better relations with India [name]Meera Shankar[/name]

The flamboyant and very outspoken Donald Trump is on course for a Republican nomination with 1238 delegates already under his belt. Democrat Hillary Clinton is 70 delegates short of the magic figure of 2383 required for a Democrat nomination. According to the New York Times, unless something extraordinary happens she will be the presumptive nominee after the primary in New Jersey on Tuesday.Like in the West, many in India have strongly criticised Donald Trump's remarks on women, Muslims, immigration and what not. For long no one took him seriously, but now going by opinion polls he is a strong contender and most foreign policy experts and government officials would be cautious about what they say about him.Probably many foreign policy experts and government officials would feel likewise, but at the end day you may just have to work with him.So, if it is a Hillary vs Trump fight then who will serve India's interest better? We spoke to a number of foreign policy experts, politicians and government officials about this. Each one of them said that Donald Trump is an unknown entity whose foreign policies and capabilities are yet to be seen. Most Indian foreign ministers and government officials have had no interaction with the businessman. One government official could recall that Trump came to India to inaugurate the Trump Tower in Mumbai but beyond that no one could describe his association with India.On the other hand, Indian leaders are very familiar with Hillary Clinton and her foreign policies. Therefore, the predictability and comfort quotient would be higher in the case of Hillary compared to her rival.Shashi Tharoor, a top congress leader and a former minister of state for external affairs has met Hillary Clinton on several occasions. He said, "Hillary Clinton is a known entity. She has had a long association with India both as first lady and then as secretary of state. She has great empathy for India's interests. On the other Donald Trump is an unknown entity whose random statements may not turn out to be an accurate guide to the policies he will actually pursue."Many feel that Trump is largely playing to a domestic audience and if elected president he will be a different man.While Trump's tough stand against terrorism and Islamic State has been welcomed, there is a certain amount of worry about his statements on H1B visas and immigration. If Trump continues to take a hard line on immigration after being elected then that could have a negative impact on our software workers.Till now the presumptive republican nominee's rhetoric has been protectionist, isolationist and often veering towards the extreme. He has often said that the international trade system is rigged against the US. Former Indian ambassador to the United States Meera Shankar said if Trump comes true on his election rhetoric, then there will be implications for India as well as the global economy.Shankar, as an ambassador, has often interacted with Hillary Clinton and has also met Donald Trump at a social gathering. According to her Clinton comes across as a liberaliser, a realist and a pragmatist. She also admits that she only knows about Trump the businessman and can't comment much on his future foreign policies.Indian government officials feel Trump is right now trying to appeal to the average Joe in the US. He wants to cash in on the anti-Washington and anti-establishment sentiment, but President Trump would be a different fish.CNN International's Executive Editor Ram Ramgopal, who has vast experience covering Indo-US affairs, feels Trump's foreign policy positions have been all over the place. Though he also claimed that the US presidential hopeful could moderate his views once the primary season is over."Trump or Clinton, whoever ends up being president, won't be able to bring about comprehensive immigration reform all on their own. They will have to work with the legislature and Congress and that's going to be a long drawn out and difficult job," Ram said.At the end of the day, India will have to work with whoever becomes president. Perhaps that's why no one in the Indian government is commenting on the White House race just yet. "I have no opinion. Let them get nominated first," Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh said when asked about his viewpoint.For now, India is waiting and watching the Presidential race. If Hillary Clinton wins, we know where to begin but if it is Trump then we will have to explore, test waters and then move ahead. Hopefully, he will team up with advisers and a vice president who could guide him towards a better and more realistic foreign policy than what he is advocating today.
Washington: Mainak Sarkar, the Indian- American gunman who shot dead his wife and his former college professor before turning the gun on himself, acted on his own, the police said on Saturday.



"This was simply him," Captain William Hayes of the Los Angels Police Department told reporters.



"We have not been able to determine any trigger event that would lead to this or the murder of his wife," he said in response to a question.



Sarkar, 38, killed his wife Ashley Hasti at her Minnesota home, before driving to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) to shoot his former professor William Klug.



The police is still investigating into the possible motives of the shooting that has shocked the Indian-American community nationwide.



It is believed that Sarkar first killed his wife in Minneapolis after which he drove his Nissan to Los Angeles for killing Klug. The Los Angeles Police Departments Deputy Chief Matt Blake said investigators have found a hand gun and several red gasoline cans in the car's trunk.



The police believes that the cans were used to refuel the tank on his way from Minneapolis to Los Angeles so as to avoid using his credit card at gas stations during his long drive. It did not look like the cans were used "for anything nefarious", Hayes was quoted as saying by The Los Angeles Times.



Meanwhile, the police said they were having difficulties in identifying the body of Hasti, the wife of Sarkar. They reportedly married in 2011.



"They didn't live together long maybe a year," Charlane Bertsch, Hasti's great-aunt, told Los Angeles Times. Hasti's uncle, Mark Fitzgibbons, told NBC News the family was in shock.



"She was way ahead of her time," Fitzgibbons said of his niece, who had studied abroad in Taiwan and China during high school before heading to Scripps College in California for pre-med studies. There is no evidence that Sarkar committed any other crime.
When comparing Marvel's first comic-book "Civil War" from 10 years ago to the superhero battle that takes place in the new "Civil War II," writer Brian Michael Bendis said the biggest difference is diversity.

"Thor is a woman. Captain America is African-American. Spider-Man is a biracial teen. There's all these different flavors and experiences and perspectives that were not at the forefront like they were last time," he said. "Having all these different voices and perspectives to push against was a damn good reason to tell the story."

The first issue of the miniseries "Civil War II," written by Bendis and illustrated by David Marquez, hit newsstands both real and digital Wednesday. Marvel's first "Civil War" saw Iron Man and Captain America battle over an act that required all heroes in the Marvel universe to register with the government and reveal their secret identities -- and was the inspiration for the recent film "Captain America: Civil War."

Bendis and Marvel's top editors decided the next big storyline featuring all of Marvel's top characters would involve the heroes dealing with personal accountability. He wanted a new character in the Marvel universe to cause a rift between heroes because of a special power that some felt too powerful. But even after deciding on major players and who would take what side, Bendis still didn't know he was crafting Marvel's second "Civil War" until Marvel's publisher, Dan Buckley, pointed out the obvious to him.

"(Dan) said, 'We're going to call this 'Civil War,'" Bendis said. "Everyone else will. We might as well."

"Civil War II" was born.

The series' conflict involves a young man linked to the Inhumans (a race of super-powered beings) with the power to see into the future and a difference of opinion as to whether such a power should be utilized or not. Bendis enjoyed plotting the conflict, especially because each side of this new Marvel war makes a convincing argument.

"Having your characters in a world dilemma where there is no right or wrong answer is a very special and cool thing," Bendis told The Washington Post. "It was such a creative challenge."

At the center of this new conflict are two of Marvel's heaviest hitters. Iron Man once again finds himself in a war, siding against the use of seeing into the future, telling everyone that playing with the unknown is a bad idea. On the other side of the argument is Captain Marvel, who believes that if you can stop something before it starts, do it.

Bendis starts "Civil War II's" first issue with Marvel's heroes taking down an unexpected threat and celebrating with a party afterwards before lines are drawn and sides are taken.

"The things that I'm most excited for people to experience in the first issue is that we open with this gigantic win and most events open with a gigantic disaster," Bendis said. "Having the characters relate to each other in a friendly setting first was something that I was eager to do ... When it becomes a very personal stake, you know they're being honest because it isn't just the stress of the story talking to them. We know how they felt on a good a day."

Marquez, "Civil War II's" illustrator, previously had the difficult task of replacing Sara Pichelli as the regular illustrator on Marvel's "Ultimate Spider-Man"/Miles Morales title. Bendis and Marquez clicked so well on "Ultimate Spider-Man" that they collaborated on "Invincible Iron Man" next. Bendis envisioned a years-long, Stan Lee/Jack Kirby like run on Iron Man with Marquez, but when he began plotting "Civil War II" with Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso and they began wondering who could draw the event, Bendis knew Marquez's Iron Man run was over.

"Drawing everyone in the Marvel universe flying at you is not easy," Bendis said. "So I sat down with David and I said, good news/bad news. I don't think we're going to (complete) our Iron Man run. Any time a publisher offers (an event like "Civil War II") it's immensely flattering. It's them trusting you with the whole damn thing. I knew him enough to know that if he said yes, he would roll up his sleeves and kill on this."

Bendis is also quick to credit "Civil War II's" colorist, Justin Ponsor.

"What Justin brings to the book, in cinematic terms would be the work of a world-class cinematographer," Bendis said. "He's a storyteller equal to us."

Major comic-book crossover events like "Civil War II" are expected to bring in new readers to the Marvel universe as a whole.

"An event like this is a macro-version of what my job is supposed to be anyhow," Bendis says of writing "Civil War II." "(The goal) is to graciously introduce you to ideas new or classic that you're going to need to know about if you want to enjoy this story, but without making you feel punished for never hearing of (so many heroes) before."
Board told, take no tolerance approach to corruption

Hinds urged them to shun mismanagement and waste, and to take a futuristic approach to the management of the PTSC. He also encouraged them to set the highest standards.

Hinds said, Corruption is a function of human nature, the sinfulness of human nature. Man by his nature wants more and he wants it quickly, and very often, people focus on corruption of high officials in high places, but it is well known to all of us that this scourge that is corruption operates from the lowest rung right on up to the highest.

So we have to put systems in place to prevent opportunities for that kind of human behaviour.

And where they appear, we have to be very strident in our responses and cause the matters to be dealt with by way of deterrent in respect to future behaviours. So as minister, and in the absence of a board for the last few months, I had to make certain decisions. And when issues of corruption came to my attention, the general manager who is here today will tell you, we dealt with it promptly, promptly.

And I will encourage this board to take a similar approach.

The Government, and by way of government policy, is about no tolerance, non-tolerance, non-acceptance of anything that is untoward or corrupt. This has fallen from the mouth of the Prime Minister a thousand times in his political and public life in this county.

It is the philosophy by which we live. And we will expect, that as a board, you now taking responsibility for this state enterprise, this statutory body, because you are regulated by statute, for this institution, bear in this mind this very important aspect of governments policy....The minute you find them, you deal with them.

Mismanagement creates waste and loss, so therefore you have to be deliberate, thoughtful; you all were specially selected with your professional background, combination of business, economics, law, experience...And we hope that this mix of attributes will lend itself to very deliberate thought, and rethought as you do things.
UTT launches Fashion Week

Established in 2008, the institute offers both a Diploma and a Bachelors Degree course each featuring a small class of just 18 pupils, selected from TT and the wider Caribbean and Latin American region.

Carr said the course draws on pupils inspirations which might include the hustle and bustle of a Caribbean market, yet exposes them to the latest trends from the metropolitan countries including trips to New York and Ottawa.

The exhibition of students fashion designs will run daily at John Donaldson until today, with the graduating class fashion show tomorrow at UTTs OMeara campus.
Thank you to everyone in the Columbus community who has supported the library/cultural arts center project.

The renewal of the 0.5 percent sales tax on May 10 was a big step forward for bringing a long standing dream into reality. It is powerful to know that over 65 percent of voters are in favor of continuing to fund community improvement projects with sales tax dollars.

So whats next? During the month of June, we will be reviewing proposals submitted by construction management companies.

In July, the city council will be asked to approve a contract for construction management services and to provide staff with a notice to proceed. The construction manager and the architecture firm will work together to finalize the design. Together they will arrive at a guaranteed maximum price for the project.

The Columbus Library Foundation continues to raise money for the project. There are still quality of life matching dollars available for the project and the communitys financial support is still incredibly important.

As the design is finalized, and a guaranteed maximum price is reached, voters will be asked to once again support the project. The vote will be a request for the public to authorize bonds.

The sale of those bonds will generate money that will be combined with fundraising and grant dollars. Together these funding sources will allow our community to build a long-lasting, durable and flexible public space. A facility that will be open to everyone, striving to offer something for everyone, and standing as an example of what a hardworking, caring community is capable of building together.

A great number of individuals, families and businesses have already contributed to the project financially. Their support helps not only the library/cultural arts center, but all of the quality of life projects. Successfully reaching the quality of life matching grant goal of all four projects will result in additional funding for the YMCA/Wellness Center, East Central District Health Department, and Columbus Public Schools STEM Academy.

Each of these projects is remarkable on its own. Together they are improving Columbus in the best way possible, by permanently making life better for every resident.

I would like to thank everyone who has contributed financially and encourage others to join in the effort. Completing the quality of life effort will establish Columbus as an investment worthy community for generations to come.

If you have questions about the project, I invite you to attend a meeting of the library board to ask questions. The library board meets on the second Thursday of each month in the second floor conference room of the library at 4:30 p.m. I am also happy to have a discussion individually.

Again, thank you to everyone who has been working to make our community stronger.
Recall of Sleep

Apnea Device

Is Not Going Well
Detention Center

The inmate count at the Platte County Detention Facility Friday was 67, with 43 from Platte County and 24 from out of county.

Police

May 20

5 p.m. - At 1859 25th Ave., Christopher Hatcher, 36, 1859 25th Ave., was cited for no proof of rabies vaccination, five counts, and no city license, five counts.

May 26

12:26 p.m. - In the 3100 block of 22nd Street, Steven Crippen Jr., 34, 3722 16th St., was cited for theft of services.

May 27

12:03 p.m.  At the intersection of 23rd Street and 31st Avenue, traffic accident. Drivers were Jan Schmeits, 65, 1554 31st Ave., and Nathan White-Leever, 20, Platte Center. Schmeits was cited for failure to yield right of way.

1:40 p.m.  In the 2600 block of 14th Street, a vehicle driven by Lavon Gerken, 80, 6039 Shady Lake Road, struck a parked vehicle owned by Enrique Baro, 1711 Behlen St.

5:01 p.m.  In the 1500 block of 24th Avenue, Theresa Petr, 63, 209 Sixth St., was cited for animal neglect.

9:27 p.m.  At Caseys Gas Station, 2903 23rd St., an unknown vehicle struck a parked vehicle owned by Juan Lopez, 3503 12th St., and left the scene.

May 29

1:51 a.m.  In the 1000 block of 13th Avenue, William Atlacatl, 19, 2327 14th St., C-4, was cited for driving under the influence of alcohol, refusal of a preliminary breath test, resisting arrest, minor in consumption of alcohol and driving under suspension. Cindy Fuentes, 19, Mariela Mendez, 19, Carmen Salazar, 19, all of Schuyler, and Annabel Buggi, 20, Platte Center, were each cited for minor in possession/consumption of alcohol.

6:59 p.m. - In the 900 block of 23rd Street, Miguel Contreras-Chavez, 28, Storm Lake, Iowa, was cited for no operator's license.

May 30

5:46 p.m. - At 3460 53rd Ave., Rachel Miguel, 28, 3460 53rd Ave., No. 10, was cited for leaving the scene of a property damage accident.

May 31

4:56 p.m. - In the 900 block of 23rd Street, William Mendez-Cruz, 23, Schuyler, was cited for no valid registration and no operator's license.

8:55 p.m. - At 1152 Solar Place, Jasmine Taylor, 24, 3460 53rd Ave., No. 5, was cited for second-degree criminal trespass, third-degree assault and criminal mischief. Elizabeth Loaiza, 20, 3722 16th St., was cited for trespassing and third-degree assault.

June 1

2:26 p.m.  Burglary at 2066 25th Ave., bicycle stolen, no loss amount.

Sheriff

May 21

10:10 p.m.  On U.S. Highway 30, three miles east of Columbus, a vehicle driven by Aniel Gil-Reyes, 20, 6003 55th St., No. 544, struck a deer.

May 27

11:25 p.m.  On Highway 22, 4.5 miles west of Monroe, a vehicle driven by Korbin Hughes, 17, Platte Center, swerved to avoid deer and struck a state bridge guardrail.

May 28

9:30 p.m.  On Highway 22, 4.5 miles west of Monroe, a vehicle driven by Daniel Lutjens, 55, 7282 83rd St., struck a deer.

June 2

4:28 p.m. - Traffic violation at the intersection of 400th Street and 445th Avenue, Aaron Niemann of St. Edward cited for speeding.

4:57 p.m. - Traffic violation east of the intersection of 445th Avenue and 385th Street, Kaleb Cruise of Florida cited for speeding.

Fire

June 1

3:09 p.m.  In the 4500 block of 19th Street, medical.

7:58 p.m.  In the 4700 block of 38th Street, medical.

8:48 p.m.  In the 4000 block of 15th Street, medical.

11:05 p.m.  In the 2800 block of 40th Avenue, medical.

June 2

8:03 a.m. - In the 1600 block of 13th Avenue, medical.

4:52 p.m. - Ambulance intercept with Humphrey Rescue two miles south of Tarnov, medical.

June 3

4:41 a.m. - In the 2500 block of 21st Street, medical.
Mathura:

After two-long days, clashes in Mathura have now come to a rest after 24 people lost their lives including SP and SHO of the area. The prime accused Ram Briksha Yadav may have made an escape from the place of incident but ample room for politics have been created and its now time when politicians will come forward to ensure safety and security to fetch maximum votes for their respective parties.



Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has already admitted that there were "some lapses" on the part of the police in Mathura as there was no information about protestors carrying such heavy ammunition.



"There were some lapses. Police should have gone with full preparation and after holding talks, but there was no information that they would be having so much (arms and ammunition," Akhilesh told reporters on the sidelines of a programme.



He said an inquiry was being conducted by Agra Divisional Commissioner and warned that those found guilty would not be spared.



24 people, including an SP and an SHO, have been killed in the clashes between police and encroachers in Jawahar Bagh in Mathura yesterday when police were trying to evict illegal occupants, believed to be of Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, on the Allahabad High Court orders.



Amid boil, Center blamed the whole incident on UP government.



"Definitely there was lapse," Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told reporters here.



He was replying to a question on whether there was lapse on the part of the Akhilesh Yadav government in handling the situation.



Rijiju said the "unfortunate" incident in Mathura was a matter of "grave concern" and condemnable and action must be taken to improve the situation.



Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Akhilesh Yadav and took a note of current situation at Jawahar Bagh.



Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi also came up slamming the Akhilesh government.



"Unabated violence is a stark reminder of the deteriorating law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh", the Congress Vice President said on micro-blogging site Twitter.

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Athens:

More than 110 bodies were pulled from the sea off Libyas shores today after a smuggling boat carrying mainly African migrants sank into the Mediterranean, and a separate massive search-and-rescue operation in the open sea saved 340 people and recovered nine bodies.



The two sinkings were the latest deadly disasters for refugees and migrants hoping to find better lives in Europe, and came in addition to the over 1,000 people who drowned since May 25 while attempting the perilous, lengthy journey across the sea from North Africa to Europes southern shores.



In Libya, at least 117 bodies - 75 women, six children and 36 men - were pulled out from the waters near the western city of Zwara, Mohammed al-Mosrati, a spokesman for Libyas Red Crescent, told AP. All but a few were from African countries. The death toll was expected to rise. No lifejackets were seen on photos Red Cross photos of the bodies.



But, as is frequently the case, authorities were uncertain when or how the people died. Libyan coast guards found an empty boat drifting yesterday, Libyan navy Col. Ayoub Gassim said, adding it was possible the vessel had capsized a day earlier.



Al-Mosrati of the Red Crescent said the bodies were not decomposed and therefore have drowned within the past 48 hours. He said the boat that was found might have been the one carrying the victims. But strong winds and currents can push bodies from one place to the other, he said, making it difficult for authorities to determine where the tragedy occurred.



Speaking by telephone, Gassim of the Libyan navy blamed Europe for doing nothing but counting bodies in efforts to stop the massive illegal migration from Libya.



Aid officials say the last two weeks have been especially deadly because smugglers are using riskier tactics, bigger boats and even less-seaworthy vessels than ever before.



William Spindler, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, noted new and far riskier tactics being used by traffickers.



The second boat capsized on May 26, drowning what his agency estimated was around 550 migrants.



Another migrant boat sank elsewhere in the Mediterranean today, with Greek authorities saying 340 people were rescued and nine bodies recovered in a massive search-and-rescue operation involving Greek helicopters, aircraft, patrol boats and passing merchant ships.



Greeces coast guard said the roughly 25-meter vessel, which resembled a large fishing boat, had been carrying an undetermined number of people when it was located half-sunk about 75 nautical miles south of Crete in international waters. It was not immediately clear where the boat was from, who it carried, or where it was trying to go.



The coast guard said the operation was continuing to search for any potentially missing passengers.



The information we have on the number of people on board the vessel is still unclear - weve heard that there were 400 or 500 people on board, but we cannot confirm that number, Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Lagadianos said. There is a huge rescue effort underway.

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London:

A secret coding machine used by Adolf Hitler to send coded messages to his generals met the supercomputer which disclosed its secrets and was watched on by veteran operatives whose painstaking work helped end the World War II. The valves, whirring wheels and spinning tors of the two machines were fired up by the scientists at Bletchley Park in southern England, the WWII code breaking headquarters. This way they recreated how German military chiefs sent secret messages and how they were deciphered.



A series of twelve rotors, a million times more complex than the more feted Enigma machine helped Hitlers Lorenz machine have 1.6 million billion possible coding combinations. Through luck and the ingenuity of engineer Tommy Flowers, scientists were able to deduce how the machine operated and then build a machine to work out the settings of Lorenzs rotors.



Colossus is regarded as the worlds first programmable, electronic digital computer, but received little attention as the project was kept secret for decades, depriving those responsible of due accolades.

Margaret Bullen, who helped build Colossus, and some of the remaining operatives who fed encrypted German messages into the machine, including Irene Dixon, now in her nineties were among those who watched at the National Museum of Computing.



Dixon had been processing the most sensitive of information and she got to know about this decades after the war. We found out we were intercepting coded messages sent by Hitler to his generals, she told AFP. Hitler wouldve been furious if he had known, we were decrypting the messages even before his generals were.



Information gleaned using Colossus helped the Allies confirm that Hitler mistakenly believed the D-Day landings would target Calais, and experts believe the supercomputer may have shortened the war by two years.



Dixon and other Wrens from the womens branch of the Royal Navy were sworn to secrecy, and even other workers at Bletchley Park were unaware of the existence of the massive computer, which took up a whole room.



Some of the Wrens did ask why it was so hot (close to the Colossus room), and some used to dry their washing next door, recalled Dixon. The main Lorenz cypher machine is on loan from the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo, but the special keyboard used to send the message to the rotors is a recent discovery.



(With inputs from PTI)

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Mumbai:

Under fire over several allegations of corruption, the embattled Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse resigned from the post on Saturday. Khadse met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday morning and tendered his resignation.

Earlier, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari spoke to Khadse saying he should obey the party diktat. Khadses resignation came following Gadkaris call.

Fadnavis had earlier informed that he met BJP President Amit Shah and submitted the facts to him over the allegations against Khadse.

The Opposition has been accusing Khadse of impropriety in the acquisition of a plot near Pune at a throwaway price.

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Srinagar:

Militants today shot dead two policemen, including an officer, in poll-bound Anantnag town of south Kashmir, police said. Militants opened fire on a police party at General Bus Stand in Anantnag town, 52 kms from here, at around 11:20 AM, resulting in injuries to the two policemen, a police official said.



He said the injured policemen were rushed to a hospital where both of them succumbed. The deceased have been identified as Assistant Sub Inspector Bashir Ahmad and Constable Reyaz Ahmad.



The attack comes ahead of the June 22 polling for by-election to Anantnag Assembly seat where Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is one of the nine candidates in the fray. The by-poll for the seat was necessitated due to death of then chief minister and incumbent MLA Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on January 7 this year.



This is second attack in less than 24 hours in the district. Three BSF jawans were killed and nine others injured last evening as militants ambushed their convoy at Goriwan in Bijbehara town. Security forces have been put on an alert to track down the assailants, the official said.

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Los Angeles:

The kindly professor whom the gunman blamed for his ruin had, in truth, quietly seen to his academic success. As a shy graduate student struggling to secure his Ph.D., Mainak Sarkar had bristled at the doubts expressed by professors at UCLAs engineering department. His dissertation, they told him, simply was not good enough.



Sarkars mentor had his own doubts, but after Sarkar submitted a new document professor William Klug asked his colleagues to wave his student through to graduation. We could easily have said, Its not enough, you need to do more, said professor Jeff Eldredge, Klugs colleague and close friend. We just said, Ugh, lets get him out of here.



That was 2013. This week, Sarkar returned. After killing his estranged wife in a Minneapolis suburb, Sarkar packed two guns, drove from Minnesota to Los Angeles, parked in his old neighbourhood, took a bus to campus and shot Klug in the professors office Wednesday before taking his own life.



Though Sarkar seemed to have genuine affection for his mentor while in school, more recently an animosity grew. In March, Sarkar posted online that Klug had made me really sick after stealing computer code from him. Colleagues said only a deranged person could conclude someone of Klugs character would defraud a student.



Thats whats so frustrating about this. He turned into a completely different person in these last few days or weeks or whatever, Eldredge said. Sarkars descent may go back further than that. He held his last known job in 2014  the same year he separated from his wife, Ashley Hasti, according to Hastis grandmother.



Sarkar, 38, had entered mid-life with a foundation of success, a walls worth of academic degrees from top universities and a new wife in his chosen country. He came to the US on a student visa in 2001 after earning a degree in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur. In India, former classmates and teachers described a solid student who gave no indication of aggression.



He attended Stanford University from fall 2003 until spring 2005, when he received a masters degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. A year later, he moved south to the University of California, Los Angeles and began working under Klug.



Even before his death, Klug had been hailed as a caring father and gifted educator who inspired his students. Hundreds gathered to honour him at on-campus vigils. Klugs outgoing personality contrasted with Sarkars introversion.

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Guwahati:

The rivers and wetlands in Assam may soon lose the much required protection provided by the Central Governments new Draft Wetland Rules 2016, a consultation meeting has said. A joint consultation in Guwahati was organised by environment groups Aaranyak and ActionAid in order to analyse the impact of the new Draft Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules 2016 on wetlands of Assam.



The consultation compared the Wetland Rules 2010 with the Draft Wetland Rules 2016 and found that very few protective measures have been offered by the new Wetland Rules as compared to the 2010 Rules. A complete revision of the Draft Wetland Rules 2016 has been suggested by the consultation to ensure better Wetland management and conservation in Assam.



Many important provisions which were included in 2010 have now been removed from the new Draft rules which is alarming from an environmental perspective. For instance, rivers have now been completely excluded from the definition of Wetlands, Aaranyaks Wetlands expert Dr Partha J Das said.

Todays consultation recommended that at least those parts of a river or rivers directly connected to wetlands should also be recognised as part of the Wetland ecosystem and provided protection. It was also recommended that in the context of Assams wetlands, the connecting channels must be accorded similar protection, maintenance and restoration.



Das said the new Draft rules do not mention the list of prohibited activities which were part of Wetland Rules 2010. He said that it must immediately be rectified with the re-inclusion of the list to protect Assams wetlands.



Stating under the Draft Wetland Rules 2016 only selective Wetland would be accorded protection, the meeting was of the view that the new Rules are therefore considerably weaker when compared to the 2010 version with an added Clause which states that under special circumstances even these protection may be nullified.

Such a clause can easily open a portal of exploitation of Wetlands in Assam, and it is of utmost importance that under no circumstance is the protection diluted, he added.



Prasanna Barua of Assam Remote Sensing Application Centre, Department of Science and Technology, Government of Assam delivered the key note presentation. Barua provided an overview of the current status of wetlands in Assam and highlighted the challenges in wetland conservation.

The conglomeration of environmentalists, academicians, lawyers and activists gathered during the event also proposed the introduction of a Wetland Conservation Act, which would be much more effective than the newly proposed Wetland Rules.

Traditional community rights also have to be retained, but without compromising on the delicate eco-system of existing Wetlands, the meeting averred. Assam has more than 3000 wetlands under different categories and these wetlands are part and parcel of the larger eco-system.

Gradual and changing development work has led to degradation of important wetlands which also negatively effects communities around Wetlands, commented ActionAid Programme Manager Swapan Singha.

We urge the Central Government to consider how the new Rules will impact the communities and make these new Rules to be people-centric while keeping in mind protection of the larger eco-system of Wetlands, Singha said. The meeting decided to forward to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest the recommendations made during the consultation.

Aaranyak is a registered society working in the North East region for the past 26 years towards nourishing the areas natural heritage to secure the flora and fauna in the region known as one of the biodiversity hot spots of the world.



(With PTI inputs)

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Paris:

The rain-swollen River Seine in Paris receded today for the first time in a week after nearing its highest level in three decades, triggering a scramble to save artworks in riverside museums. The Seine stood at 6.06 metres above normal levels at 8:00 am local time, down from a high of 6.10 metres overnight, the environment ministrys Vigicrues flood watch website said.

The level was the same as that recorded yesterday afternoon, when the river rose to levels last seen in 1982, prompting emergency measures.

The famed Louvre and Orsay museums shut their doors in a race to move art treasures from their basements, some metro stations were closed and Parisians were advised to stay away from the Seine.

But by today, as authorities were counting the cost of over a week of flooding in central and northern France, the spectre of devastating floods in the city had begun to ebb.

Were now in the stabilisation phase, even if we could still get one or two centimetres more, said Bruno Janet, head of modelling at Vigicrues.

The environment ministry yesforecast that the Seine would remain high throughout the weekendbut still far off a 1910 record of 8.62 metresbefore starting to subside.

Across Europe, at least 17 people have been killed in floods that have trapped people in their homes and forced rescuers to row lifeboats down streets turned into rivers.

The City of Paris said it had opened two gyms to provide shelter for the homeless.

Pieces of driftwood, plastic bags and other flotsam today swirled in the muddy waters which had inundated the citys famous tree-lined riverside walkways, a popular haunt of strolling couples.

Firefighters warned people to keep away from dangerous parts of the river, but crowds gathered undeterred on Pont Neuf and other iconic bridges to snap pictures of the fast-flowing waters.

It is a reminder that nature is more powerful than man and we cannot do anything, only wait, said Gabriel Riboulet, a 26-year-old entrepreneur, as he took in the scene.

A small number of basement flats in the capital were flooded yesterday and a campsite in the Bois de Boulogne forest in the west of the capital was cleared but there was no order yet for any Parisians to evacuate.

Several metro stations were closed and workers piled sandbags on platforms to hold back the water. Boat traffic has been suspended in the capital, as has a regional train line that runs along the Seine.

French President Francois Hollande said a state of natural catastrophe would be declared when the cabinet meets next Wednesday, a necessary step to trigger compensation payments.

Losses across France could reach more than 600 million euros (USD 680 million), said Bernard Spitz of Frances association of insurers.

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Bhopal:

Union Minister Babul Supriyo today attacked the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh over the Mathura clash, saying it appears to be a case of negligence on the part of local administration.

Overlooking tension, which was brewing in the area for long and that too in a sacred place like Mathura, is not good. Even policemen lost their lives. Apparently, it appears that there was a negligence on the part of local administration, Union Minister of State for Urban Development Supriyo told reporters.

If tension was coiling up over the issue of removing encroachment, UP government should have taken a note of it. What was the local administration doing? the BJP MP asked.

As many as 24 persons, including an SP and an SHO, were killed in clashes between police and members of a sect who had encroached on a government land, during a drive to evict them in Mathura district on Thursday.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has already sought a report on the issue and now the time has come for the damage control. It was a matter of intelligence failure too, he said.

It was a dangerous incident. An SP has lost his life. Who are responsible for the failure? It should be probed. It is also the responsibility of state government as law and order is a state subject, the minister said.

On BJPs performance in the recently-concluded state Assembly elections in West Bengal, Supriyo said, Though partys vote share has come down to 10.2 per cent from 17 per cent in 2014 Lok Sabha poll, the spread of votes is homogeneous in nature and it got support of people from all parts of the state.

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Doha:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tonight assured Indian workers in Qatar that he will take up problems faced by them during his talks with leaders of this Gulf nation. Addressing Indian workers at a medical camp in downtown Doha, Modi said he is aware of the issues being faced by Indian workers and the companies that bring them.

I Am aware of the issues you are facing. I will talk about it when I meet the authorities, he said.

Modi will hold detailed talks with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani tomorrow.

Modi noted that his first engagement during his two-day visit to Qatar on the second leg of his five-nation tour was a visit to the camp of Indian workers.

I came to Doha in the evening and the first programme on my schedule was to meet you all, he said. Qatar is home to over six lakh people of Indian origin. Modi also interacted with workers after his brief address and shared refreshments with them.

He shook hands with several workers during his 30-minute stay at the camp.

The prime minister said he wants to congratulate doctor friends for the good work they are doing in Qatar.

Happy to see regular health check ups being conducted here, he said.

Modi also struck a chrod with the Indian workers when he said, When someone from your land, speaking your language comes, I am sure that would make you very happy.

Modi said he believed that the leadership in the Gulf has a lot of love and belief in the Indian community in the region.

In this context, he spoke about the visit of Qatars Emir to India last year and referred to his praise of the unmatched contribution of the Indian community to the development of his coutnry.

Modi also said Indias global image is not made by its prime minister or its Ambassador but, its all of you through your behaviour, who earn India a good name.

This global goodwill is the biggest international reserve currency, he added.

This year the best news is that it is going to be a good monsoon. When such news come, they bring with them a lot of happiness, he said.

India Meteorological Department had said earlier this week that there is no possibility of a deficient monsoon this year and 96 per cent chances are that the rainfall would be normal to excess.

The Prime Minister also appreciated the wellness centre for the workers, saying that it offered facilities like yoga and relaxation techniques.

At the event, Qatars Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohammad Al-Kuwari and Finance Minister Ali Shareef Al Emadi were also present.

Modi said he enquired about the health problems being faced by the workers and found that counselling and diabetes were the two main issues of concern.

Do work hard, but while doing so, please do focus on keeping your health and body fighting fit, he said.

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Annual forage insurance coverage is available in Nebraska for annual forage plants seeded for use as livestock feed or fodder. This includes, but is not limited to, plants seeded for grazing, haying, grazing/haying, grain/grazing, green chop, grazing/green chop, or silage.

The sign-up/sales deadline is July 15 for coverage on fall-planted forage (planted between July 15 and Nov. 15) with coverage available for a growing season from Sept. 1 to March 31. The acreage reporting deadline is Nov. 15, so a producer has until then to report actual planted acreage upon which coverage will apply.

Annual forage insurance is also available for a spring growing season from March 1 to Sept. 30 for forage planted between Dec. 15 and July 15. The sign-up/sales deadline for this coverage is Dec. 15. If you purchased an annual forage insurance plan last December, the acreage reporting deadline is July 15.

The Annual Forage Insurance Plan is based on the rainfall index data provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Prediction Center (NOAA CPC). Producers can insure up to 90 percent of the expected grid index across a series of two-month intervals. The expected grid index represents the average precipitation data for the grid ID in each interval. The grids are 0.25 degrees in latitude by 0.25 degrees in longitude. This translates to roughly 17 miles by 17 miles at the equator. Due to curvature of the earth, actual size will vary based on location. Each grid has an historic precipitation index calculated for it for each of the two-month intervals dating back to 1948.

Both irrigated and non-irrigated acres are insurable. Each county in Nebraska has a county base value determined by the Risk Management Agency (RMA) that represents its annual forage productive value regardless of production method. For example, the 2016 county base value for Cedar County is $157.56 per acre. A producer can attach liability coverage between 60 percent ($94.54 per acre) and 150 percent ($236.34 per acre) of the county base value depending upon their coverage needs.

Annual Forage Insurance Plan premium costs will vary depending upon the coverage selected. Producers interested in using the plan are encouraged to access the decision support tool on the RMA website to explore various coverage options, premium costs and performance data based on historical rainfall indices. Premium costs are subsidized from 51 percent to 59 percent depending on coverage level selection. Catastrophic (CAT) coverage is also available.

Producers interested in using the annual forage insurance are encouraged to contact their local crop insurance agent and visit http://www.rma.usda.gov/policies/ri-vi/annualforage.html for more information including a grid locator, decision support tool, and all of the historical rainfall indices.

Dr. Jay Parsons, farm and ranch management specialist with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Agricultural Economics, provided the information used in this weeks column.
Lucknow:

The family members of City SP Mukul Dwivedi, killed during the clashes between police and encroachers in Mathura, today demanded that a CBI probe be ordered into the incident. Without naming anybody, Archana Dwivedi, wife of the City SP, said her husband was made a scapegoat and demanded CBI probe into the incident.

When there were para military forces, who are trained to deal with this kind of violence, stationed in Mathura then why senior district police officials sent newly-recruited policemen to a guerilla war, she asked.

Archana said, It was like playing with their lives and alleged that other police personnel escaped from the spot leaving her husband behind.

She demanded a probe by CBI into the incident.

Seconding her demand, Praful Dwivedi, younger brother of the SP, said, Truth will not come out if any state-level agency probes the incident, countrys largest and independent investigation agency like CBI should be handed over the matter.

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New Delhi:

Entry to the fourty-eight member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in its next plenary is not going to be a cake-walk for India. The group, which was originated in 1974 after Indias first atomic test, have since then become hurdle in New Delhis way to importing essential nuclear items needed for developing pivotal nuke elements.

NSG currently controls major commercial activities in nuclear materials and technology transfer in the world. The major powers (US, France, UK and Russia) which are either producer of fuel or which are manufacturer of technologies have been the decision makers in nuclear trade.

In 1974, NSG was incorporated after Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) nations had observed a need of limiting the export of certain nuclear material on conditional basis.

Now, given the fact that India is neither a member of NPT, nor of Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), its membership in the group contradicts the core principle on which the group was formed.

However, United States has been playing a big supporting hand for Indias bid, mainly to counterbalance China in the Asian region. The US has implemented an overarching strategic policy to build momentum to bring in India as a member. Indias Civil Nuclear Deal with US is the only step which has pitched the former as responsible nuclear user.

The biggest hurdle is China, which has already opposed Indias membership, on the grounds that it isn't a signatory of NPT. Beijings opposition is primarily based on two of its basic strategic principals  Keeping India at a low on international forums, supporting Islamabad to counterbalance New Delhi. However, China doesnt have problem with Pakistans bid for the same seat.

Keeping Dragon aside, the other signatory nations of NPT are also opposing Indias incorporation to the group. Those supporting an Indian membership are mainly doing so to meet their geopolitical objectives, which, at the end, would again contradict the idea of non-proliferation.

Incorporation into the group will be huge commercial and strategic gain for India. As a growing power, New Delhi has a huge potential to provide nuclear fuel- Thorium and nuclear technology in future. At the same time its membership would diminish Pakistan's prospects at the group.

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About 20 years ago, I was a French teacher in a girls high school outside of Philadelphia and was picked to chaperone 40 of my students on a class trip to Paris. I spent two nights at the local gendarmerie trying to calm several girls who had slipped out of the hotel with the intention of losing one thing and instead, lost something infinitely more replaceable: their passports.

I accepted the responsibility, because that's what I was raised to do. Fortunately, my negligence resulted only in a lecture from my supervisor, and pursed lips from the nuns. The girls were fine, and to this day I believe that being raked over the coals by French police officers scared them straight.

As we all know, because we all spend so much of our lives on social media, a rare and endangered gorilla housed at the Cincinnati Zoo was euthanized over the weekend when a 4-year-old boy fell into its preserve. The child had either jumped over or under a fence on the perimeter of the preserve, and had fallen into the actual pit where the gorilla, named Harambe, lived. Video of the incident shows the little boy being dragged by the gorilla some distance, and then sitting in front of the animal almost as if they were having a discussion. It is a surreal circumstance, and one which should strike fear into the heart of anyone who has ever loved a child.

Ultimately, the gorilla was shot and killed, and the little boy was taken to the hospital where he was treated for non life-threatening injuries.

As expected, there was outrage on the internet. There were the usual suspects who believe that zoos are horrible places and that these majestic animals of the wild should not be caged for our human enjoyment. I always discount them as the PETA crazies, who have no problem with trashing medical laboratories that house experiments that might yield a cure for cancer, simply because some of those experiments are being performed on animals. I'm sorry, but while I adore my dog Chance and don't want to see any animal suffer, I'm of the surprisingly controversial opinion that human life is more valuable than that of an animal.

For that reason, while I mourn the loss of that majestic primate, I understand why the zoo took the steps it needed to. So do renowned animal rights activists like Jack Hanna and Jane Goodall.

But I am convinced that none of this would be necessary and that the tragedy could have been avoided if the mother of this hapless child would have done her job, which is to make damn sure her child is not placed in danger unnecessarily.

To me, when your child falls into a primate pit at the zoo, it is prima facie evidence of negligence. I don't care if you have other kids with you, I don't care if you are momentarily distracted, I don't care if you are otherwise mother of the year. If your toddler tumbles into a pit with a wild animal, your maternal instinct isn't as developed as that wild animal's.

Some may see this as "woman bashing," but I'd say the same thing if the father were in charge. This is not a gender thing. This is a common sense "thing."

Some have tried to blame the zoo by saying the primate exhibit was poorly designed. That might be the case. But if so, it is even more incumbent on a parent to make sure their child is insulated from that heightened danger. This is not the lawyer in me speaking. This is the human being with a fully functional brain.

I am not a mother. But it is ridiculous to believe that you have to give birth to understand the consequences of even momentary neglect. We can wring our hands and say all we want that it's impossible to be perfect, but when an innocent child depends upon you for his safety, you damn well better be as close to perfect as possible.

Letting a child fall into the arms of a gorilla doesn't come anywhere close to satisfying that standard.
Stephen Bartkus, Curator of the Gunn Historical Museum in Washington, Connecticut will present a program on Washington, CT and World War One on Monday, June 6 at 7:30pm at the Brookfield Historical Society Museum. The Museum is located at 165 Whisconier Road (Intersection of Routes 25 and 133)in Brookfield Center.

In 2015, The Gunn Museum featured an award winning exhibit, Over There: Washington and the Great War, a community-curated effort, largely researched and constructed by local volunteers to commemorate the centennial of World War One. Bartkus, who organized the exhibit, will present an innovative video that provides the attendees with a virtual tour through the Exhibit. It will first give an overview of America's participation in the war. As one continues through, the sounds of period music, vignettes, floor to ceiling enlargements and even a life-size trench will transport visitors back in time and illustrate the impact that the Great War had on this small town.
Recently, a group of artists traveled to Cuba under the banner of the Greenwich Art Society. During the past two years, there has been an easing of trade and travel restrictions for U.S. residents following a half-century of a U.S. economic embargo against the country, which is under Communist rule. The trip was meant to inspire and spur creative responses to the places and people they saw. The group traveled with an American guide and a Cuban counterpart and set up for some sketching in the city and countryside, but the brutally hot temperatures meant painters largely traded brushes for instant digital satisfaction. The often-referenced love affair Cubans have with American cars from the 1950s certainly was duly noted by the group, but it was the architecture that became a focal point, with many scenes captured by their cameras. Lavish, opulent buildings were discovered, along with plain and crumbling structures. As early as the first day, we were taking pictures of some of the most incredibly beautiful architecture I have seen, says Mary Newcomb, a member of the society and Greenwich resident who helped to coordinate the eight-day trip. Though there was this feeling of the land that time forgot, you could see the beauty underneath, but it was apparent they had not put the funds in to maintain it.  Christina Hennessy
LINCOLN -- Kristopher Schaaf has been here before.

And he knows that what lies ahead is hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer panic or fear.

Schaaf referred to that old wartime description as he prepared Friday to embark on his fourth overseas deployment, this time to Afghanistan where he will be on duty as a Medevac helicopter pilot for the Nebraska Army National Guard.

"You learn a lot about what you can handle," he said. "Enjoy the road you're on."

Schaaf, who will turn 36 next month, was among about 35 soldiers who were given a big sendoff Friday by fellow soldiers, a small military band and a stage full of dignitaries with their families on hand for the ceremony.

The event was held in an open, wind-swept hangar at the National Guard base on a sunny June afternoon with three choppers parked in the back below a "Fly Army" sign. Another helicopter was parked outside and open for inspection.

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Schaaf has been deployed to Kosovo and to Iraq twice as well as domestically on Southwest Border patrol. The overseas deployments were 12 months, 15 months and 12 months. This one might be closer to 10 months.

"Down time is the worst," he said. That's when he will most miss his wife, Amber, and the kids. They have two daughters: Harlow, 6, and Portia, 4.

"And that's when you also realize how much you miss the smell of fresh-cut grass," he said.

Schaaf and his wife were married two weeks before the deployment to Iraq in 2006.

"I volunteered for this one," he said. "We are a tight group."

These are the soldiers of Company G, 2-104th General Support Aviation Battalion, based out of Lincoln.

Their mission in Afghanistan will center on medical evacuation.

"I admire you so much," Sen. Deb Fischer said during the farewell ceremony.

All across the state, Sen. Ben Sasse said, Nebraskans say thank you to members of the military and promise to pray for them.

"We are their messengers to tell you thank you," Sasse said.

"Your actions speak louder than words," Lt. Gov. Mike Foley said.

Reps. Jeff Fortenberry and Adrian Smith also joined in saluting the soldiers.
OTTAWA, June 3, 2016 /CNW/ - Canada's leading health care provider organizations are urging Senators to ensure the enactment of Bill C-14, Medical assistance in dying, as soon as possible.

Health care providers are deeply concerned that Parliament will not meet the June 6 deadline and disappointed that the Senate has adjourned without passing Bill C-14. Now that the deadline appears destined to be missed, health care providers and their patients expect that Senators will pass legislation at the earliest opportunity.

It is with all gravity, that the Canadian Nurses Association, Canadian Pharmacist Association, HealthCareCAN and the Canadian Medical Association are working together to advance one common imperative: the need to enact Bill C-14 as a national priority.

Without clear federal legislated safeguards in place, health care providers and their patients will face a legal grey zone, in particular given that the SCC ruling was silent on the roles of health professionals other than physicians. Further, disparities across jurisdictions will pose real consequences and concerns for a national framework, not least of which being inconsistent and patchwork rules.

We recognize that there has been significant public discourse on elements of Bill C-14, however, we are confident that this legislation is a balanced and cautious approach. We are also confident that over time, the legislative and regulatory framework governing assisted dying will be further refined.

QUOTES:

"Medical assistance in dying is a team effort involving patients, their families, physicians, hospitals, nurses, pharmacists, and others. Failure to pass legislation urgently leaves us all in the lurch," says Bill Tholl, President and CEO of HealthCareCAN, the national voice of Canada's hospitals and healthcare organizations.

"We are disappointed that there will be no national federal legislation in place by the deadline. While the Supreme Court Decision provides some clarity for physicians, it does not specifically address the role of pharmacists, which will cause confusion and hesitation within the profession. " says Perry Eisenschmid, CEO of the Canadian Pharmacists Association

"Physicians across the country remain uncertain and in that climate of uncertainty Canadians will be left to languish, exactly what the Supreme Court of Canada ruling in the Carter case sought to avoid. We urge the Senate to pass the Bill after they return from their hiatus next week," says Dr. Cindy Forbes, President of the Canadian Medical Association, the voluntary professional association representing Canada's doctors.

"Prompt passing of Bill C-14 will enable access for patients who request medical assistance in dying (MAID), and protect healthcare providers. A Bill will promote extensive work across all health professions and regulators to ensure consistent policy and practice for compassionate and safe assisted dying. It will assist regulators to provide their members with the guidance and expectations required in each jurisdiction, and offer clarity for registered nurses and nurse practitioners who play a role in MAID. CNA is steadfast in our commitment to work with patients and federal/provincial/territorial partners to deliver and monitor MAID," says Anne Sutherland Boal, CEO, Canadian Nurses Association

SOURCE Canadian Medical Association

For further information: Lucie Boileau, Director of Communications, Marketing and Government Relations, [email protected], 855-236-0213/613-241-8005 x 205, Cell: 613-462-5604; Sarah Turnbull, Communications Coordinator, Canadian Medical Association, [email protected], 613-806-1865; Mark McCondach, Director of Communications, Canadian Pharmacists Association, [email protected], (613) 523-7877 Ext. 285; Kevin Menard, Communications Advisor, Canadian Nurses Association, [email protected], 613-237-2159 x543
Thirty-two troops have been killed in a clash with Boko Haram jihadists on Nigers border with Nigeria, Nigers defence ministry said on S...

Thirty-two troops have been killed in a clash with Boko Haram jihadists on Nigers border with Nigeria, Nigers defence ministry said on Saturday.Hundreds of assailants attacked a military post at Bosso on Friday evening, it said in a statement that gave a provisional toll of 30 Nigerien and two Nigerian soldiers killed and 67 wounded.On the enemys side, several dead and injured were taken away, the ministry said.Our defence and security forces carried out a counter-attack this morning which enabled them to retake all positions in the town of Bosso.The situation is under control and calm has returned. Since February 2015, Niger has been plagued by Boko Haram attacks in its southeast region.The Islamists frequently stage cross-border raids from their stronghold in neighbouring Nigeria. The insurgency has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless.
Departing Barcelona fullback Daniel Alves has confirmed he's moving to Italan champions Juventus.The Brazilian is a free agent after activating a clause in his Barcelona contract and has reportedly agreed a two-year deal with option for a third.I am always happy, but now even more so," Alves told SportItalia.The moment had come to change, to give a turning point to my career. I won so much with Barcelona and enjoyed every minute, but the time had come to challenge myself, to enjoy Italy, Juve and try to bring Juventus to victory in Europe.I will be in Turin within days to sign. I already saluted the Barcelona fans and it's a see you soon, not a goodbye forever. I am coming to Italy to win and then maybe return, because I remain a Blaugrana fan."
Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorochas has called on relevant security agencies in Kano State to leave no stone unturned in finding ...

Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorochas has called on relevant security agencies in Kano State to leave no stone unturned in finding out the killers of one Mrs. Bridget Aghaheme.Okorocha, who described the killing of Agbaheme in Kano state as reckless on the part of the perpetrators said that Aghaheme was truly a bonafide indigene of Mbaitoli Local Government Area of the state.According to a press release by the Governors Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Sam Onwuemedo, the security operatives in the state were charged to carry out thorough investigation in the killing and also stop at nothing in bringing those who carried out the murder to book in order to pay dearly for their wicked act.However, the governor appealed to Imo indigenes in Kano State to remain calm to enable law enforcement agents do their job by carrying out the needed investigation into the matter and also take the necessary actions.He said, It is important to state here that no citizen of the country has any right to take the life of a fellow citizen no matter the reason. That is why the security agencies would act and swiftly too, on the incident to prove to all Nigerians that the life of any lawful citizen of the country is valuable and should not be taken by a fellow citizen under any guise.The governor also commended the governor of Kano State for showing leadership by condemning the killing of the woman.He also commended the Police Command in Kano State for the actions they have already taken to that effect, and said people who indulge in criminal activities including murder under any pretence should be treated as criminals no matter where they come from.
President Muhammadu Buhari has described the killing of Mrs Bridget Agbahime, an Igbo market woman in Kano, as sad and regrettable.

President Muhammadu Buhari has described the killing of Mrs Bridget Agbahime, an Igbo market woman in Kano, as sad and regrettable. This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Saturday by the presidents Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina.It said Buhari condoled with the husband of the deceased, Pastor Mike Agbaheme, the family and relations, praying that God would give them the fortitude to bear the loss.The statement commended the law enforcement agents for apprehending the prime suspect in the killing. It also commended the Kano State Government for summoning a meeting of Christian and Islamic leaders, widower of the deceased, and security agencies, as soon as the sad event occurred.The president assured that justice would be done in the matter, and urged the people not to take the law into their hands. He charged those who might want to use the development to fan the embers of religious or ethnic hatred to remember that two wrongs never make a right. When law and order breaks down, those who become victims are never distinguished on the basis of religion or ethnicity.It stated that the incident at Kofar Wambai market, Kano city, was utterly condemnable, and the state government has been quite proactive. Let us ensure that we keep the peace, as justice will be done. Let us learn to respect each others faith, so that we can know each other and live together in peace, the President said in the statement. The late Bridget Agbaheme, a mother of one, was murdered for alleged blasphemy against Islam.
Festus Keyamo, Lagos-based lawyer, has joined those commenting on the recent cancellations of the trips of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Festus Keyamo, Lagos-based lawyer, has joined those commenting on the recent cancellations of the trips of President Muhammadu Buhari.In the last two weeks, Buhari has aborted three trips. Two were within the country  Lagos and Cross Rivers states  and the other is the ongoing 49th Extra-Ordinary Summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Dakar, Senegal.Below is Keyamos reaction:On a lighter note, pple complained that PMB travelled too much, so he decided to lock himself up in the Villa. Now pple want him to come out, he wrote on Twitter.Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has represented the president on all the occasions, and Nigerians have also reacted to that.While some have criticised Buhari for delegating Osinbajo at the last minute, others have argued that nothing stops the vice-president from standing in for his boss when the need arises.Defending Buharis action, Femi Adesina, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, said Buhari had the right to ask Osinbajo to represent him.The presidency is one. The president has a right to delegate duties to his deputy, who is the vice-president, and that is what he has done, he told reporters.
President Muhammadu Buhari is as fit as a fiddle, Femi Adesina, his spokesman, has said.

President Muhammadu Buhari is as fit as a fiddle, Femi Adesina, his spokesman, has said.Reacting to reports on the health of the nations number one citizen, Adesina said the whole country saw the president when he received some dignitaries at the presidential villa in Abuja during the week.Didnt you see pictures of him receiving Anglican bishops yesterday (Friday)? Did he look sick? The president is as fit as a fiddle. Anyone who says he is sick is telling lies, he told TheCable.That is a figment of the persons imagination. Just yesterday he received the primate of the Anglican Communion and arch bishops at the presidential villa. He also received former President Olusegun Obasanjo (pictured). He is hale and hearty. The imagination of whoever says that is on overdrive.There are reports that the president may be flown abroad for medical treatment as a result of intense pain in the left ear.This is believed to have led to the cancellation of trips to Lagos and Rivers.Buhari, 73, has travelled long haul in recent times, notably to China,UAE, US and Qatar, and some travellers are known to develop ear pains as a result of the pressurised cabin.
President Muhammadu Buhari and his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, met on Thursday night at the presidential villa over the bombing campai...

President Muhammadu Buhari and his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, met on Thursday night at the presidential villa over the bombing campaign of the Niger Delta militants, security sources say.Jonathan only returned to the country on Wednesday night after a long trip abroad during which he was believed to have gone on self-exile, although he denied the report.Although the Niger Delta Avengers, which has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks on the pipelines that are gradually crippling Nigerias export, says it is fighting for secession, the Egbesu Red Water Lions demanded that the probe into Jonathans administration be halted by Buhari.The meeting between Buhari and Jonathan took place at the official residence of the president which Jonathan occupied for five years.The meeting started around 9pm, according to sources who did not volunteer further details.A group suggested on Thursday that Buhari should engage Jonathan as peace ambassador to reach out to the militants, although this is not thought to have had any bearing on Thursday nights meeting.Jonathan, who is from the Niger Delta region, has not publicly made any comment since the renewed militancy.
Ex-Spokesman to former President Goodluck Jonathan Presidential Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani- Kayode said yesterday that the Ec...

Ex-Spokesman to former President Goodluck Jonathan Presidential Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani- Kayode said yesterday that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC should release him since he has met all his bail conditions or charge him to court.A statement signed yesterday by his Media Assistant, Jude Ndukwe and made available to Journalists in Abuja yesterday read, This is to refute the false information being peddled by a section of the media that former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, who has remained illegally detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) since May 9, 2016, has not met his bail conditions as set by EFCC.Chief Fani-Kayode has since fulfilled the conditions for his bail but rather than take the honourable path of releasing him pending any charge brought against him, the anti-graft agency moved him from Abuja to Lagos where they obtained a questionable warrant to further detain him illegally for another three weeks.
Delta Avengers, NDA, Saturday, said its war was not against soldiers and oil workers, but on oil installations and warned other emerging ...

Delta Avengers, NDA, Saturday, said its war was not against soldiers and oil workers, but on oil installations and warned other emerging groups to desist, henceforth, from kidnapping and attacking soldiers. The militant group also disowned the new groups, claiming to have anti-aircraft missiles, warning them to desist from targeting or any aircraft or it would go after them. In a statement by its spokesperson, Brigadier General Mudoch Agbinibo, said: The high command is calling on all groups in Rivers, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom to not indulge in any act of kidnapping and attacking of soldiers.The war is on oil installations; Operation on Flow of Oil. It read: The liberation of the Niger Delta people has taken a new swing with the daily emergence of new groups all over the region. The Avengers are calling on all groups in the region to be strong and resolute as it is obvious that God is on our side.The groups are much now both real and unreal but if you really fighting for the liberation of the Niger delta people, the high command of the Avengers is calling on you not to attack any soldier and those claiming to have anti aircraft missiles should deist from targeting any aircraft.Let us be careful not offend God in the process of trying to liberate our people from the shackles of the Nigerian government because we need God more than anything right now.We also need the international community as well. Hence, we must desist from any life threatening actions that will derail our genuine struggle for our people, the Avengers said.All groups are hereby discouraged from indulging in harassing oil workers and soldiers. We urge you all to help any oil workers or soldiers you see in distress.The military warplanes hovering round our towns and villages have not strike a soul or destroy any property, so those groups with anti aircraft missiles should dry their gunpowder, it said. The group added, When it is time to engage the military in combat, the whole world will know that they started the war, not the Avengers. The Niger Delta Avengers high command will pass the message round that it is time to engage on gun battle when the time comes.So far, we have not engaged the Nigeria military in combat; despite the heavy presence of military on the pipelines. we still find way to carry out our actions without attacking soldiers. The avengers will deal with any group that refuses and attack military, it added.Meanwhile, the National Coalition of the Niger Delta Ex-Agitators, NCNDE, called on the Federal Government to flush out the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, which they described as criminal elements allegedly sponsored by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to stoke troubles from the region. President of NCNDE, Israel Akpodoro who stated this while chatting with newsmen, alleged they that the PDP was in want of goading the Federal Government into military confrontation that may provoke public outcry especially the foreign communities with the ultimate aim of discrediting the All Progressives Congress, APC led administration at home and abroad. According to Akpodoro, the second aim of the Avengers was to cripple the Nigerian economy to give reasons for the PDP to gloat and mock the administration, adding that such act is unpatriotic.Urging the Federal Government to go all out for those he described as criminal elements masquerading as freedom fighters and their sponsors, he said no amount of subterfuge can make anyone believe that the bad losers in the PDP are not behind the economic saboteurs. The avengers are biting more than they can chew; Nigerians know that the Avengers are drawn from the ex-militants who were on the payroll of the Amnesty office of the Federal Government but are now serving few failed self acclaimed leaders from the region.Holding that the Nigerian Army has all it takes to bring the last member of the avengers to justice, Akpodoro said that no person or group of persons can threaten to kill President Buhari.The avengers in their empty and barefooted threats to kill the President if he visited Ogoni land was an expression of madness taken into lunatic fringe. He berated the leaders of the region for keeping silent rather than cautioning the sponsors of the criminal group.Our leaders should be bold in their stance against the perpetrators of hostilities occasioned by vandalism of oil and gas facilities in the region. Speaking further, he frowned at media reports credited Governor Fayose of Ekiti State on the issue, noting that his actions were unbecoming of a supposed state executive. He called on the youth in the region to embrace peace in order to open a new vista of accelerated development and growth in the region, saying, no ethnic group has the right hold the nation to ransom.When Jonathan was the President, he didnt contemplate the clean up of Ogoni land neither did he see the East-West road as a need for the people of the region. While he held sway, we the people of the region allowed ethnic sentiments to blur our senses of reasoning. They looted our commonwealth blind only for the beneficiaries of the six years misrule to turn around to sponsor hostilities against the Federal Government. Buhari should consider making another Odi in any of the hotbeds of criminal activities in the region, Akpodoro added.
Governor Ayodele Peter Fayose has distinguished himself as the fiercest critic of Buhari's government. He often leaves no stone untur...

Governor Ayodele Peter Fayose has distinguished himself as the fiercest critic of Buhari's government. He often leaves no stone unturned when lambasting the federal government for one policy or another. He is one of those struggling to institute a viable opposition which his party, the Peoples democratic Party PDP, has failed to do effectively.In as much as opposition is required in a true democracy, criticism should be made constructively and with the intention of a better country. Most of Governor Fayose's criticisms often cross the line and go overboard. Things got to the head when he wrote the Chinese government to cancel the agreement and contracts signed with Nigeria following Buhari's visit to China. He never spares any opportunity to take a swipe at the government.Recently he slammed Buhari and the soldiers for the killings of Biafra protesters, claiming that the presidency ordered the military operation. He also said that President Buhari has made south-easterners endangered species in Nigeria. Such utterances are enough to spark another civil war.Even though it is necessary to chastise the military for attacking civilians, Fayose probably took it took far by claiming that President Buhari himself gave the instruction to kill the protesters. The military in their defence claimed that the protesters were armed and killed two policemen, dumping their bodies into the Niger River.The religious and ethnic tensions in the country are already at a critical level, so anyone concerned about the well-being of Nigeria should guard against unsettling comments. Fayose claimed that Buhari has ostracized the people of south-south and south-east in his administration, an accusation similar to what sparked the civil war in 1966. Conversely, the cleaning up of the much neglected Ogoni land can be seen as a gesture to draw this people closer to the federal government. The second Niger Bridge project is another gesture capable of mending fences.When you point a finger in accusations to another, the other four fingers point back at you, goes a popular African adage. Governor Fayose often criticizes as if he has no flaws himself.First and foremost, it was been found out that the election the brought him into power was massively rigged with the help of the military. The meeting on how to rig the election was caught in a tape and the Nigerian Army has reportedly retired the soldiers involved in the ignoble act. Mr Aluko, former speaker of Ekiti Assembly spilled the beans. So when criticizing, Gov Fayose should remember how he came into office in the first place; neither have Nigerians forgotten how he was impeached for misconduct some years back.Secondly, workers in Ekiti state have been telling their tales of woes as their salaries have not been paid for months. To worsen the solution, instead of pleas and appeals, the governor claimed he could neither sell himself nor his family to pay the agitated workers. "Will I sell myself and my family to pay workers?" the governor quipped. So much for responsible and responsive governance!Few weeks ago, he declared war against cattle grazing in Ekiti state, giving local hunters the mandate to flush out Fulani herds from the territory. He had earlier threatened to poison the waters in Ekiti in order to rid the state of herdsmen. He gave the local hunters the freedom to take laws into their hands by instructing them to attack the herdsmen. Gov Fayose should have left this to security operatives who have been trained for this.Even his party the PDP has denounced him as a controversial figure. They admonished him for uttering comments that escalated the problems in the party. It is no news that Gov Fayose is at loggerheads with most of the chieftains of the PDP.The intention here is not to silence the voices of opposition against the Buhari government but to make it more refined and constructive. The intention is not to throw away the baby along with the bath water, but to ensure an enlightened opposition for the good of the country.Governor Fayose should come up with better constructive criticisms, remembering that he has also failed in some areas. He needs to avoid attacking persons but policies.As for his political aspiration in 2019, Nigerians will start taking him more seriously when he starts controlling his public utterances and show good examples both by actions and words.
The police in Kano has arrested 3 persons in connection with the alleged murder of 74 years woman, Madam Bridget Agbahime by mob at Kofar...

The police in Kano has arrested 3 persons in connection with the alleged murder of 74 years woman, Madam Bridget Agbahime by mob at Kofar Wambai market last Thursday.Madam Bridget Agbahime, 74 was lynched Thursday at Kano market by mob in presence of her husband over alleged blasphemy. The police public Relations Officer in Kano, DSP Magaji Musa Majia said that we have three suspects in our custody in connection with the incident, and thy were been quizzed over their role in the killing of 74 years woman.DSP Majia said we are working tirelessly to get to the root of this matter, and we are equally not leaving any stone unturned in the course of our investigation.The police action followed condemnation of the act by Kano state Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, prominent community and religious leaders.
The Federal Government of Nigeria has released a statement on the recovered loots and assets as promised by President Buhari. Read full...

The Federal Government of Nigeria has released a statement on the recovered loots and assets as promised by President Buhari. Read full statement below.

The Federal Government made cash recoveries totaling N78,325,354,631.82 (Seventy eight billion, three hundred and twenty-five million, three hundred and fifty-four thousand, six hundred and thirty one Naira and eighty two kobo); $185,119,584.61 (One hundred and eight five million, one hundred and nineteen thousand, five hundred and eighty four US dollars, sixty one cents); 3,508,355.46 Pounds Sterling (Three million, five hundred and eight thousand, three hundred and fifty-five Pounds and 46 Pence) and 11, 250 Euros (Eleven thousand, two hundred and fifty Euros) from 29 May 2015 to 25 May 2016.

In a statement in Lagos on Saturday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, also disclosed that recoveries under interim forfeiture (cash and assets) during the period totalled N126,563,481,095.43 (One hundred and twenty six billion, five hundred and sixty three million, four hundred and eighty one thousand, and ninety five Naira, forty three Kobo; $9,090,243,920.15 (Nine billion, ninety million, two hundred and forty three thousand, nine hundred and twenty Dollars, fifteen cents; 2,484,447.55 Pounds Sterling (Two million, four hundred and eighty four thousand, four hundred and forty seven Pounds, fifty five Pence) and 303,399.17 Euros (Three hundred and three thousand, three hundred and ninety-nine Euros, 17 cents ).

According to the statement, which is based on the interim report on the financial and assets recoveries made by the various government agencies from 29 May 2015 to 25 May 2016, the funds awaiting return from foreign jurisdictions total $321,316,726.1 (Three hundred and twenty one million, three hundred and sixteen thousand, seven hundred and twenty six Dollars, one cent); 6,900,000 Pounds (Six million, nine hundred thousand Pounds) and 11,826.11 Euros (Eleven thousand, eight hundred and twenty six Euros, 11 cents).

It showed that non-cash recoveries (Farmlands, Plots of Land, Uncompleted Buildings, Completed Buildings, Vehicles and Maritime Vessels) during the period total 239.

The following is the breakdown of the recovered cash and assets

INTERIM REPORT ON FINANCIAL AND ASSET RECOVERIES MADE BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA FROM 29 MAY 2015 TO 25 MAY 2016

Cash Recoveries

Serial Items Naira US Dollar GB Pounds Euro 1 EFCC Cash at hand 39,169,911,023.00 128,494,076.66 2,355 11,250 2 Royalty/tax/payment to FGN account in JP Morgan account New York 4,642,958,711.48 40,727,253.65 3 ONSA Funds Recovery Account in CBN 5,665,305,527.41 8,000,000.00 4 VAT recovered from companies by ONSA 529,588,293.47 5 EFCC Recovered Funds Account in CBN 19,267,730,359.36 455,253.80 6 ICPC Revenue Collection Recovery in CBN 869,957,444.89 7 Office of the Attorney General 5,500,000,000 5,500,000 8 DSS Recoveries 47,707,000.5 1,943,000.5 3,506,000.46 9 ICPC Cash Asset Recovery 2,632,196,271.71 Total 78,325,354,631.82 185,119,584.61 3,508,355.46 11,250

Recoveries Under Interim Forfeiture

Serial Items Naira US Dollar GB Pounds Euro 1 Cash in bank under interim forfeiture 8,281,577,243.92 1,819,866,364.73 3,800.00 113,399.17 2 Amount frozen in bank 48,159,179,518.90 7,131,369,498.49 605,647.55 3 Value of properties under interim forfeiture 41,534,605,998.00 77,844,600.00 1,875,000.00 190,000.00 4 Value of cars under interim forfeiture 52,500,000.00 5 ONSA Funds under interim forfeiture 27,001,464,125.20 43,771,433.73 6 Value of Assets Recovered by ONSA 512,000,000.00 7 ONSA Assets under interim forfeiture 260,000,000.00 8 DSS Recoveries Frozen in Banks 658,929,000.00 226,476.20 9 EFCC Cash in Bank under final forfeiture 103,225,209.41 17,165,547.00 Total 126,563,481,095.43 9,090,243,920.15 2,484,447.55 303,399.17 Grand Total 204,888,835,727.25 9,275,363,504.76 5,992,803.01 314,649.17

Funds Awaiting Return From Foreign Jurisdictions

Jurisdiction US Dollar GB Pounds Euro 1 Switzerland 321000000 2 UK 6900000 3 UAE 310501 11826.11 4 USA 6225.1 Total 321,316,726.1 6,900,000 11,826.11

Non Cash Recoveries

Serial Items Quantity ICPC EFCC ONSA 1 Farmland 22 2 Plot of Land 4 3 Uncompleted Building 1 4 Completed Building 33 145 4 5 Vehicles 22 3 6 Maritime Vessels 5 Total 82 153 4

Segun Adeyemi

SA to Hon Minister of Information and Culture

Lagos

4 June 2016
Senate President, Bukola Saraki has commented on the severing of a woman's head, Mrs. Bridget Patience by Muslim youths in Kano.

Senate President, Bukola Saraki has commented on the severing of a woman's head, Mrs. Bridget Patience by Muslim youths in Kano.Speaking via Twitter, the Senate President said, ''I have read tweets, facebook posts and news of a barbaric incident that allegedly happened in Kano. Nigerian Senate will work with Kano State government and law enforcement agencies to get to the bottom of this and make sure justice is served and this doesn't happen again.
Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, on Saturday said Nigerian Army personnel attached to Operation MESA were responsible for the a...

He said the soldiers behind the incidence would be appropriately sanctioned, although the identity of the attackers remained unknown.It can be recalled that on Friday night there was an unusual commotion around Mrs. Christianah Ambodes home at 24 Oguntona Crescent, Gbagada Estate I, Lagos at approximately 7:30 p.m.Mrs. Ambodes neighbours revealed that heavily armed gunmen invaded the octogenarians residence and disarmed her police detail in what resident suspected was an attempt to abduct her.But in a statement signed by Habib Haruna, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Ambode said the disturbance was between his mothers security detail and unruly military personnel attached to Operation Mesa, a military patrol team in the state.We would like to put on record that the disturbance was not a kidnap attempt on the Governors mother as nothing untoward happened to her, Mr. Haruna said. What really transpired was that a man parked his vehicle in front of the residence of the Governors mother and the security detail attached to the building asked him not to park there so as not to block the entrance.Mr. Ambode further explained that the unidentified driver who triggered the violence was a military man in mufti.The man who claimed to be a military personnel was not in uniform as at the time of the unfortunate incident but he insisted on parking in front of the building on the ground that he was a military personnel.He then went on to invite military personnel attached to Operation MESA to beat Mrs. Ambodes police details after he was advised not to park his vehicle outside the building, Mr. Ambode said.Mr. Ambode later said he had ordered state officials to mete out appropriate discipline against those found culpable in the incidence.At the moment, officials of the State Government are taking appropriate steps to sanction the unruly military personnel who joined their colleague to disturb public peace.The spokesperson for the Nigerian Armys 81st Division in Lagos State, Kingsley Samuel, said he was not aware of the development.
Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, governor of Kano state, has condemned the killing of a 74-year-old woman over an allegation of blasphemy, revealin...

Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, governor of Kano state, has condemned the killing of a 74-year-old woman over an allegation of blasphemy, revealing that a suspected named Alhaji Dauda has been arrested.The throat of Bridget Agbahime, a trader at Kofar Wambai market in Kano city, was slashed by a member of a mob on Thursday for allegedly blaspheming Prophet Mohammed.At a meeting with religious leaders and the Igbo community on Friday night, Ganduje read a communique describing the killing as illegal, unfortunate and regrettable.The meeting was chaired by Ganduje and attended by the state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Ransome Bello, husband of the deceased, Mike Agbahime (a pastor), Islamic scholars and security agencies.In the six-point resolution, the stakeholders condoled the widower, describing the killing as illegal, unjustifiable and without her fault.Bello said CAN is fully satisfied with the resolutions, adding that there is nothing better any person would expect more than what you (Ganduje) have done tonight.The Eze Ndgibo Kano, Boniface Ibekwe, called on all civil and community leaders to put hands together to ensure lasting peace, urging other governors in Nigeria to emulate Gandujes initiatives in ensuring brotherly co-existence.
MOORESTOWN TOWNSHIP -- Authorities are trying to track down a burglar who broke into a township home by smashing a brick through a glass door but fled when confronted by the homeowner.

Police said the suspect used a brick from a patio to break through a rear glass door of a home on Rosewood Lane at about 8 p.m. Friday night.

The man entered the home, but was surprised by the homeowner as he walked up to the second floor.

The suspect replied, "Oh, excuse me," and fled the home.

Police said no items were taken from the home.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Moorestown Township Police Department detectives at 856-914-3092 or detectives@moorestownpd.com.

Michelle Caffrey may be reached at mcaffrey@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ShellyCaffrey. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
VINELAND -- An 85-year-old woman died Friday afternoon after a car ran a stop sign and caused a serious crash, police said.

Mary Simon, 85, was the passenger of the car that ran the stop sign. The drivers of both cars were taken to area hospitals and are both in stable condition.

Vineland Police Department officers were dispatched Friday at 1:11 p.m. to the Maple Avenue and North Brewster Road intersection for a motor vehicle crash.

Gerald Simon, of Vineland, was driving a 2004 Honda Civic westbound on Maple Avenue with Mary Simon when he drove through a stop sign, according to police. Nicole Powers, of Vineland, was driving a 2007 Nissan Armada southbound on North Brewster Road when the two cars collided in the intersection.

Authorities flew Gerald Simon to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City and Powers was taken to Inspira Medical Center Vineland.

The crash is under investigation and no motor vehicle summonses have been issued as of Friday evening. Charges are pending further investigation, police said.

Don E. Woods may be reached at dwoods@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @donewoods1. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Legendary boxer, activists and one of the most recognizable athletes of the 20th century, Muhammad Ali died late Friday and Eagles players wasted little time paying tribute to the three-time heavyweight champion:

Icon of not only American sport, but American history! pic.twitter.com/zdAmgEoEL2  Ron Jaworski (@JawsCEOQB) June 4, 2016

Muhammad Ali died Friday at age 74, according to a statement from the family. He was hospitalized in the Phoenix area with respiratory problems earlier this week, and his children had flown in from around the country.

"It's a sad day for life, man. I loved Muhammad Ali, he was my friend. Ali will never die," Don King, who promoted some of Ali's biggest fights, told The Associated Press early Saturday. "Like Martin Luther King his spirit will live on, he stood for the world."

A funeral will be held in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. The city held a memorial service Saturday.

One of Ali's daughters described her father's last moments in an Instagram post, saying his heart wouldn't stop beating for 30 minutes after all of his other organs failed. Hana Ali said the family was surrounding her father, hugging and kissing him, holding his hands and chanting an Islamic prayer, while his heart kept beating as his other organs gave out. "No one had even seen anything like it. A true testament to the strength of his Spirit and Will!" she wrote.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Matt Lombardo may be reached at MDLombardo@yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattLombardo975. Find NJ.com Eagles on Facebook.
Welcome back to Jersey Retro, a feature exploring the roots of pop culture by Mark Voger, a writer for New Jersey newspapers since 1978.

The scariest thing about William Castle's horror-ish thriller "I Saw What You Did" (1965) is its star, Joan Crawford.

Not because of how well-written or well-acted her role is. It's her eyes. They look crazy -- "No wire hangers!" crazy.

As the neighbor of a newly minted murderer (John Ireland) -- she is willing to overlook his considerable failings if he'll only marry her -- Crawford gives what could be the campiest performance of her career, no small feat. She wears a pile of curls that top her head like a Dagwood sandwich, and a necklace that could double as a chandelier.

Crawford is trying to play coquettish, but her face betrays every Chesterfield, every boozy Hollywood party, every studio head who ever wronged her, every marriage, every ungrateful child -- in short, every minute of her 61 hard years.

Which brings us to her co-star. Ireland had such promise. As outsider deadshot Cherry Valance in Howard Hawks' "Red River" (1948), Ireland went up against Montgomery Clift and John Wayne. But here, he's just paying the bills in a William Castle horror flick that doesn't make a lot of sense.

Ireland's character has one solution for every problem: Stab it to death. His wife mouths off? Stab her to death. The old lady next door is blackmailing him? Stab her to death. A teenage girl says, "I saw what you did"? You get the idea.

"I Saw What You Did" -- "a motion picture about uxoricide!" -- is just out on Blu-ray from Scream Factory ($29.99).

The story concerns two teenage girls (Sara Lane and Andi Garrett) who, lacking adult supervision one foggy evening, make a bunch of prank calls, telling some callees: "I saw what you did, and I know who you are." Unfortunately for the girls, they randomly dial Ireland, who really did something.

Thrills and suspense ensue.

The movie belongs to the two teens, but Crawford is top-billed even though -- spoilers follow -- her role is brief. By the end of the second act, Crawford is toast.

You really wonder how this thin (literally and figuratively) role even reached her agent. And then you remember: "I Saw" was the type of tawdry horror movie that, after Crawford's glamour had faded, revived and sustained her career. This began, of course, with Robert Aldrich's disturbing thriller "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962), and continued through films that seemed to grow consecutively worse: two Castle opuses, "Strait-Jacket" (1964) and "I Saw What You Did," followed by "Berserk" (1967) and Crawford's ignominious swan song, "Trog" (1970).

Though "I Saw What You Did" can be a head-scratcher, it's worthwhile for fans of vintage horror -- a forgiving group -- if only for Crawford's wild-eyed turn. (If you read Christina Crawford's 1978 memoir "Mommie Dearest," and then watch "I Saw What You Did," it's like Crawford is playing herself as depicted by her daughter in the book.)

Also, Castle's storytelling has its moments. The setup is nicely done: Garrett's parents are going away on an overnight trip; their babysitter cancels; they reluctantly charge Garrett with watching her feverish little sister (Sharyl Locke). And there are some lovely humorous touches. But once the murder-y stuff starts happening, logic evaporates.

"I Saw What You Did" is presented in a gorgeous new high-definition transfer. Blu-ray extras include the trailer and a photo gallery, in which we see two old friends of Crawford who stopped by the set to say hello: Cary Grant and Cesar Romero.

TRADING GOTHIC CLICHES

Speaking of old Hollywood having a last hurrah in a '60s horror film -- there's a transition you can't use every day -- a movie titled "The Terror" (1963) starring Boris Karloff and Neptune boy Jack Nicholson has, many believe, a backstory more interesting than the actual film.

The condensed version has Karloff owing director Roger Corman two days of filming ... Corman hastily shooting scenes of Karloff and Nicholson trading Gothic cliches on the still-standing (but not for long) set of his previous film, "The Raven" ... novice directors such as Francis Ford Coppola and Monte Hellman shooting the second-unit stuff over the following nine months ... and voila!, instant movie.

Thrown together as it was, "The Terror" lacks a coherent storyline -- which is one of its charms. There's a French lieutenant (Nicholson) separated from his regiment; a mysterious beauty who leads him to water and then vanishes (Sandra Knight, Nicholson's only wife); an addled baron in a moldering castle (Karloff); his servant who knows all the secrets (Dick Miller); a witch living in the woods (Dorothy Neumann); and her mute kind-of handyman (Jonathan Haze). Not counting a horse or two, that's every character; "The Terror" has but six cast members.

Karloff, who reportedly begged Corman not to pull a movie out of thin air, injects credibility into lines like: "You think I'm mad, don't you? Perhaps we're both mad."

The film always looked good, but now that The Film Detective has released a new, digitally polished Blu-ray transfer ($14.99), "The Terror" comes alive as never before. Colors pop, subtleties in performances resurface.

"The Terror" fell into the public domain, hence its many released editions. (The Film Detective's release is the second Blu-ray version.) The very thing that made "The Terror" so ubiquitous in the cheapo video market now makes it attractive to preservationists. Somehow, P.D. status proved to be a boon for this cool, overlooked little horror film.
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP -- A 61-year-old Camden County man was injured early Saturday morning after crashing his car into a utility pole.

Police said Jeffrey Czechowski, of Stratford, was traveling in the area of Greentree and Chapel Heights roads just before 2 a.m. when his car struck a pole at the intersection.

Czechowski was transported by ambulance to Cooper University Hospital in Camden with non-life threatening injuries.

After securing a warrant, authorities obtained a sample of Czechowski's blood to determine in alcohol was a factor in the crash.

The crash remains under investigation. No charges have been filed yet as police await the test results.

Michelle Caffrey may be reached at mcaffrey@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ShellyCaffrey. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey

Images of the Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield headquarters in Newark. (Matt Smith | For NJ Advance Media) Seven hospitals suing the insurance giant for excluding them from the popular OMNIA products claim in a recent court document only large hospital chains were invited to join regardless of their price and quality record.

TRENTON -- A group of hospitals suing Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey for excluding them from a new line of discount health plans claims they have proof the insurance giant based its decision not on quality or cost, despite its marketing claims.

Horizon selected the largest hospital chains when it assembled the OMNIA tier 1 network to force "the most expensive network hospitals to moderate their prices," according to the latest version of the lawsuit, filed last week in state Superior Court in Bergen County.

Documents obtained through the discovery process revealed the six hospitals suing Horizon for relegating them to "tier 2" status met all of Horizon's patient safety and quality standards, according to the amended lawsuit. And because Horizon did not use any "pass or fail" score on quality measures, its choices were arbitrary, according to the complaint.

By Horizon labeling their hospitals "tier 2," their reputations suffered a blow, according to the lawsuit.

"Our hospitals satisfied their criteria to be tier 1," said Michael Furey, the attorney representing the six hospitals. The court has sealed the specific scores hospitals received so he said he could not discuss them specifically.

"Horizon led the public and state legislature to believe it was selecting the partners who were the best hospitals in the state based on quality, population health, and an attitude towards 'value-based health care,' " a payment strategy that rewards hospitals and doctors for keeping people healthy.

The documents have "confirmed some of our suspicions. The selection process. . . was flawed," he added. "The most overwhelming factor was the size of the hospitals systems."

These six tier 2 hospitals - independent, city-based institution serving many low-income residents - sued Horizon in December for violating their contract that states Horizon must give them 60-days notice before any new insurance products are launched. Horizon officials announced the OMNIA plans on Sept. 10 without advanced notice.

Horizon spokesman Tom Vincz dismissed the hospitals' latest allegations and declined to address them.

"Like the original allegations, these too are baseless," Vincz said. "Horizon will continue to fight to lower the cost of healthcare for people who are being crushed by outrageous medical bills. We want to encourage, and not prevent, consumers from having greater control over their health costs."

Horizon has aggressively marketed the OMNIA plans as a less expensive and quality-focused product, and an answer to the spiraling cost of healthcare in New Jersey. The initial response has been strong: more than 234,000 people signed up in the first open enrollment period that ended in late 2015.

Consumers who buy OMNIA plans will pay 15 percent less in premium costs compared to other Horizon plans, and save potentially thousands of dollars more in copays and deductibles by using 36 "tier 1" hospitals and medical professionals, which have agreed to accept lower reimbursements in exchange for higher patient volume.

Consumers may use "tier 2" hospitals and doctors, but they will have higher co-pays and more out-of-pocket expenses. And with Horizon's marketplace clout serving 3.8 million members, many tier 2 hospitals have filed lawsuits, enlisted the backing of state lawmakers and waged publicity campaigns to force Horizon to offer them tier 1 status.

According to the amended lawsuit:

The hospitals suing Horizon are Capital Health System in Trenton and Hopewell; Centrastate in Freehold; Holy Name in Teaneck; JFK Medical Center in Edison; Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth and Valley Hospital in Ridgewood. St. Luke's Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg was among the plaintiffs but recently dropped out.
Alfred Nobel had a vision of a better world. He believed that people are capable of helping to improve society through knowledge, science and humanism. This is why he created a prize that would reward the discoveries that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace, while a memorial prize in economic sciences was added in 1968.

The economic foundations for the Nobel Prize were laid in 1895, when Alfred Nobel signed his last will and left much of his wealth to the establishment of a prize and the subsequent Nobel Foundation, which is tasked with a mission to manage his fortune and has ultimate responsibility for fulfilling the intentions of Nobels will. In accordance with the instructions Nobel left through his will, various independent prize-awarding institutions have selected Nobel Laureates in each prize category for more than a century.

Today, there are also several outreach organisations and activities that have been developed to inspire generations and disseminate knowledge about the Nobel Prize through events, exhibitions, educational efforts and digital outreach.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued a subpoena to Donald Trump. The nine-member panel sent a letter to the former president's lawyers on Friday, demanding his testimony under oath by mid-November and outlining a series of corresponding documents. The decision by lawmakers to exercise their subpoena power comes a week after the committee made its final case against the former president, who they say is the "central cause" of the multi-part effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It remains unclear how Trump and his legal team will respond to the subpoena, if at all.
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The long-time head of the leading organization for South Suburban governments will retire from his post at the end of this year.

South Suburban Mayors & Managers Association Executive Director Ed Paesel informed the organization last week this will be his last year in the job he has held for 16 years.

Ed Paesels service to the communities of our region has been extraordinary, said Park Forest Mayor John A. Ostenburg, SSMMA president. Through his good work, an unprecedented amount of grant money has flowed into our region, providing assistance to all the member communities.

Much of that money has flowed to communities through two SSMMA sub-agencies created during Paesel's tenure. Those are the Chicago Southland Economic Development Corporation (CSEDC) and the Chicago Southland Housing & Community Development Consortium (CSHCDC).

Those organizations were included in a Brookings Institution study on Confronting Suburban Poverty in America as examples of how communities can work together to address problems and issues.

It has been an honor working with dozens of mayors and village managers and great staff at SSMMA this past 17 years," Paesel said. "Together I believe we have made great strides in collaboration on behalf of our region."

Paesel is a former three-term mayor of Sauk Village was also a village trustee there.

Ostenberg said the SSMMA executive committee will begin an immediate search to fill the vacancy.
Two high-ranking United Auto Workers Local 551 officials were shot outside the union hall in Hegewisch shortly after winning re-election to the executive board on Friday night.

Three men were having an argument in the parking lot of the union hall at 13550 S. Torrence Ave. when one pulled a handgun and shot the other two in the legs, Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Bari Lemmon said.

UAW Local 551, which represents more than 4,200 workers at the Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant on the Calumet River, had just had an election and announced the results.

The man shot a 40-year-old man in the left leg and a 44-year-old man in the right leg, Lemmon said. They drove themselves to Franciscan St. Margaret Health hospital in Hammond, where they were in stable condition.

Lemmon said the suspect is not yet in custody, but police know who they're looking for.

Aaron "Hammer" Straker and Jeff "UAW" Bacon, who both were re-elected to the bargaining unit Friday, identified themselves on Facebook as the victims in the shooting.

"Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!" Bacon wrote late Friday night.

"Thanks to god for looking out for me. Apparently, I have more work to do on earth right now. Thanks again to everybody! I am a little emotional now, we can talk more tomorrow."

Bacon, Straker, and Tommy Kottalis were the top three vote-getters out of a field of 12 candidates running to serve on the union's bargaining unit, which negotiates with Ford. Bacon got 16.36 percent of the vote, while Straker took home 10.6 percent of the vote.

"For those that don't know or want an update last night shortly after our local election results were posted, Jeff Bacon and myself both became victims to gunshot wounds," Straker wrote on Facebook.

"Mine went through my thigh, just missing the bone, but went all the way through taking a fair amount of muscle tissue with it. That being said, I was asked why don't I give the union stuff up. Go back to just running breakdowns, get paid more hours than what I make now and reduce my stress. My reply was, absolutely not. This is not about money, ego or power. This position allows me to help people every day."

Straker wrote the bullet could have struck himself somewhere else, and the shooting could have ended more tragically.

"I look at this as a sign of being blessed and a sign I am doing what the good lord wants me to do. Simply, help people," he wrote.

"This incident will not deter me from what I do. In fact, it strengthens my motivation to keep on keepin' on and helping the people."

UAW Local 551 members also voted to re-elect Chris Pena as president, Mindy Capps as recording secretary and Terri Houldieson as trustee. Run-off elections will be held for the other two trustee seats, sergeant at arms, guide and bargaining chairman, because the leading candidates did not secure enough votes under union rules to win outright.

Alan "Coby" Millender, who ran on a ticket and appeared on billboards with Straker and Bacon, had a huge lead in the chairman race, securing 45 percent of the vote in a five-person race. The next-highest vote-getter won 30 percent of the vote.
The housing market is seeing renewed demand for maintenance-free attached homes, pushing national construction numbers back toward pre-Great Recession levels.

According to the National Association of Home Builders, construction starts over a one-year period ending with the first quarter of 2016 were 29 percent higher than the previous four-quarter period for what are generally referred to as townhomes.

Townhome starts in the first quarter of 2016 made up 12.6 percent of all single-family housing starts, the highest proportion since the first quarter of 2008, when they stood at 14.6 percent, according to the NAHB.

Local builder Meyers Quality Homes has seen the appeal of townhomes in several of their developments, and is contributing to the growth trend with the Dancing Waters development in St. John.

The 25-acre site is east of U.S. 41, behind the businesses across from Lake Central High School, and north of Bingo Lake.

"You're central to everything," Meyers Quality Homes President Renee Egnatz said of the location.

"This is a hot spot," company founder Dennis Meyers added.

The site is adjacent to the Lake Central Plaza retail and office center, which Meyers owns and is expanding as part of its current project.

The development, one year in progress with about four years to go, is also directly south of Meyers' Golden Pond townhome neighborhood, which is about 15 years old. "People are constantly waiting for units to come on sale," Egnatz said of that development.

Dancing Waters will have 40 units when complete. Current construction is on the north side of the property, near Golden Pond, which has 55 units.

The modern, "very high end" homes in Dancing Waters will be about 1,900 square feet and start at about $345,000, Egnatz said.

The appeal of townhomes is generally to empty-nesters. "They don't want to manage a home," she said.

A homeowner's association will provide maintenance for the outside of the townhomes, meaning there's no need to climb ladders or do those tasks that become less and less appealing to the typical homeowner over the years.

Other amenities include carefully designed ponds and landscaping. It's all monitored closely by Meyers, who at 76 is in his 50th year in the property development business.

"He started when Munster was a farm," said Egnatz, who is his daughter. "He doesn't stop working"

In addition to many single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums, Meyers has built Porte De L'eau Plaza in Highland, Sand Ridge Plaza in Dyer, Griffland Plaza in Griffith, and other business complexes in the area, some of which it continues to own and operate.

Locally, sales of existing townhomes  basically, attached single-family homes with two or more units  have increased modestly in recent years, according to figures compiled by the Greater Northwest Indiana Association of Realtors.

Lake County sales grew from 681 to 713 annually between 2013 and 2015. They've remained about 12.6 percent of total single-family home sales each year.

In Porter County, volumes are much lower, with sales of existing townhomes increasing from 78 to 90 over the 2013-2015 period, generally less than 4 percent of single-family home sales.

The Dancing Waters townhomes  "upscale on just about everything," according to Egnatz  are at the high end of the price range for townhomes. The median price in Lake County has risen to $152,788 this year, and has been in the mid-$144,000s the last several, according to GNIAR. The median in Porter County is at $164,000, up from the $150,000s the last few years.
A man chased his girlfriend around a Merrillville home and shot at her before taking his brother hostage late Friday night, leading to a lengthy standoff, according to police.

The Northwest Indiana Regional SWAT Team arrested Clarence Wilson III after busting into a house on the 6000 block of Fillmore Place once hours of negotiations went nowhere, Merrillville Detective Sergeant George Fields said. Police reportedly used flash-bang grenades to get into the home and arrest the gunman.

The Lake County Prosecutor's Office charged Wilson with felony counts of attempted murder, criminal confinement and criminal recklessness and a misdemeanor count of resisting law enforcement.

A huge police presence blocked off the entire subdivision by Harrison Middle School and Merrillville Intermediate School on Friday night after someone called at 8:42 p.m. to report shots had been fired.

Police found a woman outside the house who said she got into an argument with her boyfriend, and he then chased her outside the house while shooting at her, Fields said in an email. She told officers he retreated back inside the house moments before they arrived on the scene.

Wilson faces a Level 1 attempted murder charge for firing at her with a revolver, according to charging documents.

Merrillville police called out the Northwest Indiana Regional SWAT Team because they believed Wilson had taken two hostages inside the house. The SWAT team tried to negotiate with him for hours before storming in and arresting him.

His brother had been inside the house the whole time, and he told police he was threatened to stay there or he would be shot.
MERRILLVILLE  The volunteer speakers, roundtable participants, session conductors and the companies they represent bring their flavor of diversity to the ninth annual Career Fair and Business Symposium.

The event is presented by IN Business, MonsterJob.com, and The Times Media Co. June 22-23 at the Radisson in Merrillville.

The business symposium, held on June 22, is geared toward human relations professionals, hiring managers and corporate recruiters.

Violet G. Sistovaris is the keynote speaker. She is the senior executive at Northern Indiana Public Service Co.

Sistovaris will touch on her career, the challenges of working in male-dominated businesses, and how she found the fortitude and confidence to move up the ranks.

NIPSCO will also be represented by Christopher Smith, vice president of human resources. As the roundtable mediator, Smith will touch on how diversity and inclusion mean so much more than just race and gender.

Northwest Indiana is known for its industrial base, so its logical that a large energy supplier would be at the forefront of the symposium. BP is once again a major sponsor for the symposium. It has been on the team every year since the inception of the diversity career fair. Michael Abendhoff, director of media affairs, shares BPs multiple programs to further diversity and inclusion at the Whiting plant.

On the other end of the spectrum are volunteers from service-oriented establishments such as McDonald's. Maureen Zakutansky, human resources director for the Restaurant Management Corp., will be a member of the roundtable discussions. She will discuss her influence on diversity policies and cultures at McDonald's.

Work One and WNI SHRM Society for Human Resource Management will both present sessions on the importance of hiring military veterans. Indiana has the sixth largest veteran population in the country, and Northwest Indiana has the highest percentage in the state. Topics will include financial incentives and tax credits available for businesses that hire veterans.

The NWI Urban League will participate in the panel and discuss the Core Signature Programs available to businesses needing diversity training. Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson will be a guest speaker and touch on her work with the Indiana Civil Rights Commission.

Job seekers take to the stage on June 23. The career fair will be open from noon to 4 p.m. Registration is available on the website http://www.nwi.com/diversity.

More than 20 companies will accept resumes and discuss openings. In addition to company booths, NWI SHRM will conduct breakout sessions on interviewing skills and resume analyzing. Job seekers will be able to get resume advice and polish their interview skills before meeting with company representatives. An updated list of participating vendors is listed below.

June 22 - For human relations professionals, hiring managers, corporate recruiters

8-9 a.m. Registration (continental breakfast will be served)

9-10:15 a.m. Opening remarks and keynote speaker

10:30-11:45 a.m. Roundtable discussion

11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m.Lunch served

1-4 p.m. Breakout sessions

June 23 - Open to the public

Noon-4 p.m. Job fair.
CROWN POINT  Sunny skies and camaraderie embraced those participating in the 2016 Relay for Life of South Lake County on Friday at the Lake County Fairgrounds.

This American Cancer Societys overnight community fundraising walk brought together cancer survivors, caregivers, families and individuals whose goal remains to fight back and win the battle with the disease that touches so many lives.

Opening ceremonies at 6 p.m. signaled the start of the 12-hour event. Cancer survivors took the first lap around the track at 6:30 p.m. followed by the Caregivers Lap. At the 9:30 p.m. candlelight Luminaria Ceremony, participants remembered loved ones lost to cancer, those who support others with cancer and support people who have fought cancer in the past year.

We have 60 teams with 511 people signed up and have raised $87,061.86 as of this moment, said Shelly Shahbaz, the 2016 Relay for Life event leader. Thats more than we had last year when it was so cold.

Wendy Mang, of Chesterton, represents the American Cancer Society at this annual event.

Im an eight-year survivor of osteosarcoma, and I was just re-diagnosed this week, she said.

This event is important to me because it is what helped get through my cancer the first time, Mang said. I was lucky because surgery took care of it.

Mangs mother, Joyce Viduka of Leesburg, Ind., has been battling colorectal cancer since 2010.

It is important to give back, Mang said. We want to give hope and bring out the positive side.

For Shirley Cerniak, leader of Team Ty-Birds, the support of family and friends continues to help her as a cancer survivor.

Im a 9-year survivor of thyroid cancer and a 6-year survivor of melanoma. I was fortunate because they found it early, said Cerniak, who did have her thyroid removed.

Members of Team Ty-Birds included Cerniaks husband, Ed; her mother, Maryanne Tighe, of Chadsworth, Illinois, and another friend Mary Graefen, of Crown Point.

Were all about being proactive, said Tighe. This is our fourth year walking. We just want to give back.

John Freyek, 73, of Highland, was first diagnosed with cancer in his colon five years ago almost to the day of the walk.

It moved to my lungs, he said as he and his wife, Teresa, used their walkers to participate in the event.

I have chemo every other week, 104 treatments, Freyek said. Recently his Munster-based oncologist gave him a break from the treatments in consultation with the University of Chicago.

On Oct. 1st, well be married 50 years, he said proudly, smiling at Teresa.

Ray Klein, originally from Whiting and now a Demotte resident, said he considers his 25-year survival from colon cancer and 15-year survival from non-Hodgkins lymphoma a miracle.

To battle these different kinds of cancer, Klein underwent surgery to remove part of his colon and both chemotherapy and radiation to treat the lymphoma found on his right elbow.

Im 73 now and I walk three miles a day, said Klein, who participated in the Relay for Life with his 69-year old wife, Sharon.

Roxy Karnes, who is the cancer care manager at St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart, said cancer runs in her family.

I lost my mother and brother to colon cancer and now my niece, who is in her early 40s, has stage four colon cancer, Karnes said.

Karnes colleague, Rachelle Anthony, with the American Cancer Society, said there are 14.5 million cancer survivors in the United States.

We still have a long way to go, said Anthony, a Schererville resident.
CROWN POINT  Sentencing for a 26-year old Gary man who pleaded guilty to arson, a class D felony, was postponed Friday until July in Lake County Criminal Court.

In 2012, Josef Klomliam was charged in Lake Criminal Court with felony arson, forgery and counterfeiting after setting fire to a car and recording it on his cell phone. He was also accused of possessing counterfeit $20 bills.

Klomliams defense attorney, Darnail Lyles, told Lake County Criminal Judge Clarence Murray on Friday that more information needs to be obtained from Kimbrough Work Release Center before the case could proceed.

I thought Id get it today, Lyles said.

Murray granted Lyles request for a continuance until July 15.

Klomliam is currently out on a previously posted bond.

In 2012, two people told police Klomliam told them he attempted to use a counterfeit $20 bill Sept. 29 at a Merrillville gas station on 61st Avenue, according to court records.

The clerk there allegedly locked Klomliam in the business after she determined the bill was counterfeit. Klomliam was able to leave after the clerk opened the door to let a different person leave the business, according to court documents.

Klomliam also showed two people a recording on his cellphone of Klomliam starting a fire to a vehicle, court documents state.

Klomliam told one of those people it was the gas station clerks car, and he started the fire because this is what happens to people who mess with him, according to the documents.
LOWELL  For four years, members of the Three Creeks Historical Association have been guiding a restoration project at The Halsted House, the historic home built by Lowell founder Melvin Halsted and now a museum owned by the group.

Restoring the windows with those similar to the originals in the 1850 home has been completed with the help of a Lake County Community Fund of the Legacy Foundation grant for $6,885 and a $7,000 grant from the Efroymsom Family Fund, a Central Indiana Community Foundation.

The work was done by Tim Storey, owner of Morocco Restoration and Repair, a restorer of historic buildings.

Marcia Carlson, of the association, said Storey had to find wavy glass and white pine for the frames, then size each window individually as there were structural differences. Todd James handled the inside framing damage found, she said.

Besides the two grants, the Hawthorne Order of Gleaners donated $1,000 to the project. The Lowell Main Street Organization donated $1,180, and the association's memorial fund donated $1,000.

"We are proud of the finished project and invite all who are interested in historic preservation and a home depicting the lifestyle of an earlier century to stop by for a visit," Carlson said. The home is open as Halsted House Museum from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the first Saturday of each month.

The oldest standing brick home in Lake County is at Halsted and Main streets.

"Working together, we have given new life to an historic building," Carlson said.
WANATAH  Who knew the tale of a barn could have so many plot twists?

Built in 1938 when U.S. 30 was just a small road cutting through farmland and barns were commonplace, the Smoker barn is now one of LaPorte Countys central landmarks.

Owners of the property asked a young farmer named Dwight Smoker to help design and build a barn. In 1943, that same man purchased the farm and inscribed his name on the barn.

Days after great-grandson Jacob Jake Smoker reinforced the interior of the Smoker Barn in 2014, a tornado obliterated the larger barn standing just yards away, leaving the Smoker Barn untouched.

That same building is being celebrated as one of the Top 10 Bicentennial Barns in Indiana. It is also in the spotlight because the property it sits on is the featured farm for the 2016 Row Crop Ag Tour and Barbecue. The Smoker family will be hosting tours of the facility as part of the July 28 event.

Its amazing, Jake Smoker said. Its hard to believe.

The barn, less than a mile from the intersection of U.S. 30 and U.S. 421, is a massive, two-story, white structure with a forest-green shingled roof and matching green foundation. A white fence encloses the barn, protecting the three horses that live there.

The Smoker family is as proud of the barn and its surrounding farm now as Dwight Smoker was then. But it is the land, not the landmark they truly love.

God puts you on the Earth for a purpose, said Deb Smoker, who manages the farms finances and helps where needed. Our family chooses to work his land. Its our calling to till the land and care for animals.

The operation stretches over 1,400 acres. In addition to growing various types of corn, cucumbers, squash, grain sorghum and hay, the farm has more than 1,000 heads of dairy beef.

Greg Smoker, Debs husband, grew up on Smoker Farm and returned after graduating from Purdue University to help his father, Jim. She became a teacher, but eventually left the classroom for farm and family.

Their four children, Joseph, Jake, James and Melissa, grew up in the shadow of the famous barn. Their animals, which won county and state fair competitions, lived there.

For 16 years, those children planted and sold pumpkins to pay their way through college. Over the years, the brothers have returned to work the land they love. Melissa is completing her studies at Purdue University.

In what other profession can you take nothing but the earth and create something beautiful, Joe Smoker said. It may not be perfect, but it is beautiful. It might be hard at times. Sixteen-hour days. But at the end of the day, you can look out the window and say, I did right by that land. 

Jake Smoker, who spent five years working in Chicago, now lives with his wife, Jill, in a home on the farm. He said they moved back because they wanted to raise their family on the farm. Their daughter  the first of the fifth generation  is expected to arrive July 5.

It was important to us that she grow up here, Jake Smoker said. And one day she is going to join 4-H and keep her horse right in there.
PINE TOWNSHIP  Nestled in the side of a hill along a long, narrow road just outside of Chesterton stands a monument to devotion.

Forty years ago, Roy Burcham, 83, drove up to a dilapidated dairy barn and farmhouse and fell in love. This year that barn was named one of the Top 10 Bicentennial Barns in Indiana.

It and the other nine barns will be recognized as part of the 200th year of statehood celebration this summer.

Burcham smiles at the mention of the honor and moves on.

You never see work like this anymore. Those walls are made of Ponderosa pine. See those? Hickory pegs  not one nail was used to build this. All hand carved. This was designed to stand, Burcham said.

The maple-colored barn, built in the late 1800s, features a glazed-brick silo that gleams like copper. Framed by bright blue sky and surrounded by grass and bushes, its a sight that stops motorists.

Twenty years ago, the barn drew the attention of a Chicago film crew who used the farmhouse and the barn as a backdrop for a week, Burcham said.

Since then, both wife Ruth Burcham and their daughter, Karen Bridegroom, have spotted people taking shots of the barn and stumbled on photos of the barn in unexpected places.

Once, they saw a picture of their barn on the wall of Marquette Mall in Michigan City. Another time, they saw it displayed at the now-closed The Coop restaurant in Valparaiso.

This is why I entered the barn in that contest, Bridegroom said. He deserves some recognition for all of this hard work.

In 1975, the Burchams lived in Chesterton with their four children, Jeff, Mike, Steve and Karen, when Ruth heard about the farm. A few months later, they went to a sheriffs sale and won the auction.

To get into the house, we had to pull a window board off and climb through the window, said Bridegroom, who was 11 at the time. I thought, Youve got to be kidding me. 

Burcham, who frequently worked swing shifts and overtime at Midwest Steel, and his sons tackled the barn that winter. Outside, some of the long-exposed boards had started to rot. Inside, pigeon droppings covered the walls and floor. Most of the beams on the first floor had deteriorated. Windows needed to be replaced.

It was every day, all day, said Steve Burcham who was 14 at the time. It still is. Projects still come up.

Ruth Burcham remodeled the farmhouse while taking care of their Chesterton home.

Its been rewarding, but I dont think I want to do it again, she said. It was the hardest work I have ever done. I remember crying because it was such hard work.

Since then, the barn has housed a horse and two beef cows. The family also tried their hand at raising chickens and Cornish game hens. But now its where the grandchildren play.

If we had to do it again, we would keep the barn, Burcham said. But we would tear down the house and build that new.
During the Civil War, they referred to it as "calling in the cavalry."

It was the 19th century version of a panic button, with a military bugle summoning armed horsemen to aid in a fight when foot soldiers clearly couldn't handle the problem themselves.

Twenty-first century Lake County has its own version of calling in the cavalry for its own civil wars, but for far less honorable reasons than aiding a band of brothers being overrun in battle.

Our political battlefronts frequently require the outside aid of federal prosecutors, state police or special prosecutors.

It's a woeful trend  highlighted most recently with examples of our courts being plagued by dirty politics or bad government  requiring outside authorities to sort out our embarrassing messes.

In one recent case, Lake County court Magistrate Catheron Paras accused Region attorney Roy Dominguez, a former two-term Lake County sheriff, of screaming at her and approaching the judge in a threatening manner in her chambers, county police reports state.

The allegation arose from an April 13 incident in which Dominguez, who was representing a client in Paras' courtroom, was called by Paras into her chambers.

Speaking for the first time publicly about the matter, Paras told me last week she summoned Dominguez into her office as a "professional courtesy" to discuss recusing herself from any of his clients cases.

You see, Dominguez admittedly took an active and public role in the circuit court judge's race, throwing his support behind Hammond attorney Marissa McDermott.

McDermott, the wife of Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott, was running at the time against Magistrate Paras' husband, incumbent Circuit Court Judge George Paras, for that judicial seat.

McDermott defeated Judge George Paras in the May 3 primary in what at times was an ugly, knock-down, drag-out political race.

Ahead of that election, during the April 13 encounter in her judicial chambers, Magistrate Catheron Paras said she addressed Dominguez's support of her husband's rival  and critical statements she believed Dominguez made about her husband  as reasons for her not to hear any of the attorneys cases.

It was all about eliminating potential conflicts of interest from her judicial role, she says.

Dominguez, on the other hand, argues Catheron Paras used the chambers meeting to ambush him for politically supporting her husband's rival, inappropriately infusing politics into what is supposed to be a politics-free courtroom.

In the course of this spat, whichever version one believes, Paras said she felt threatened by Dominguez on her own judicial turf.

Ultimately, she reported the matter to the office of longtime Dominguez rival, Sheriff John Buncich, who also happens to be chairman of the Lake County Democratic Party.

One of Buncich's detectives took up the case and then submitted it to Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter, a Dominguez political ally, for possible criminal charges.

Enter the cavalry.

This was such a hot mess of politically conflicted he-said-she-said that Carter called in a special prosecutor, Stanley Levco, to determine if charges were warranted. Levco hails from Evansville, a good 250 miles away from the infested political confines of the Lake County Government Center where this all transpired.

Levco, a senior prosecuting attorney in his own jurisdiction, reviewed the case and concluded no charges were warranted.

Magistrate Paras contends Levco made this determination without ever contacting her.

She relegates the case to her "no good deed goes unpunished" file, reiterating her claims she was just trying to inform Dominguez of the need to recuse herself from his cases.

Dominguez hails the special prosecutor's decision as vindication that dirty politics was the sole motivation behind false accusations he had threatened the judge.

Regardless of whose version one believes, it's clear either dirty politics or bad government  or both  once again required an outside authority to sift through, and attempt to clean, Lake County's dirty political laundry.

The mountain of similar dirty laundry has been ponderous over the years.

As you read these words, Indiana State Police  another virtual cavalry unit called in by Carter  is reviewing alleged evidence that a former Lake Station town court clerk withheld submitting driving infractions in hundreds of cases to the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles, as is required by law.

And we're all familiar with frequent dust clouds stirred between the Hammond-based U.S. Attorney's office and all corners of the county when that cavalry rides in. Federal prosecutors have indicted and won convictions against dozens of Lake County political officials  or their politically tied friends and contractors  within the past three decades.

It's a sad commentary on Northwest Indiana when Lake County's circuitous webs of political corruption, cronyism and dirty politics can be cleared only by the dust mops of imported janitors.

We must all ask ourselves how much longer we're willing to endure this untenable embarrassment before our Region, rather than signaling the cavalry, rides the culprits out of town on a rail.
An interesting bit of politics played out in Elkhart last week as President Barack Obama returned to the state he turned red eight years ago.

Obama came to the capital of the nations recreational vehicle industry to talk about the great strides the economy has made since he took office in January 2009.

The RV industry was pretty much decimated by the recession but has recovered nicely.

While the nations economy has made a significant recovery over the last eight years, the same cant be said for Gov. Mike Pence, whose popularity pales in comparison to when he was elected.

Not surprisingly, the governor attempted to turn the presidents visit into a positive for the Pence campaign.

The Pence people said Elkhart and the RV industry have recovered because Pence and the Republicans have made Indiana such a business-friendly state.

Pence may deserve a tad bit of credit, but the RV industry bounced back because the nations economy rebounded and people could again afford such luxuries.

We are going to hear a lot of that kind of banter this summer and into the fall.

After all, this is the time of year when things are done to win November elections.

While a recovering national economy is good for Northwest Indiana Democrats, their focus is the election of John Gregg as governor.

And, if Gregg is going to win, it has to start with Northwest Indiana. With this being the most unionized area of the state, the local folks have the greatest reason to oppose Pence and his anti-union agenda.

To that end, the Register the Region campaign announced last week by Lake County Democratic Chairman John Buncich is a basic, but significant, step and a throwback to what made the party impressive in this corner of the state so many years ago.

The party plans to register 10,000 new voters before the general election.

It is the kind of thing local Democrats routinely did during their glory days.

Four years ago, Gregg carried Lake County by 66.548 votes while losing the state by 75,408 votes.

Buncich said the goal this year is to give Gregg a 100,000-vote plurality in Lake County.

The kickoff of the voter registration drive is June 11. And, amazingly, it will involve door-to-door, face-to-face interchanges, not texts and tweets and all that impersonal social baloney.

While I find it significant the party is going back to its roots, I also think its interesting that the kickoff will be at U.S. Rep. Pete Viscloskys campaign office in Merrillville.

It was 32 years ago that Visclosky won what was the most significant grassroots political victory in the history of Lake County.

Visclosky walked door-to-door for more than a year to defeate U.S. Rep. Katie Hall and Lake County Prosecutor Jack Crawford.

He remains the poster child for the local working man today.
PARIS  The swollen Seine River kept rising Friday, spilling into Paris streets and forcing one landmark after another to shut down as it surged to its highest levels in nearly 35 years. Across the city, museums, parks and cemeteries were being closed as the city braced for possible evacuations.

The Seine was expected to peak in Paris sometime later Friday at about 16 feet, 3 inches above normal. Authorities shut the Louvre museum, the national library, the Orsay museum and the Grand Palais, Paris striking glass-and-steel topped exhibition center.

We evaluate the situation for all the (cultural) buildings nearly hour-by-hour, said Culture Minister Audrey Azouley, speaking to journalists outside the world-famous Louvre. We dont know yet the evolution of the level of the Seine River in Paris.

At the Louvre, home to Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa, curators were scrambling to move some 250,000 artworks from basement storage areas at risk of flooding to safer areas upstairs.

Nearly a week of heavy rain has led to serious flooding across a swathe of Europe, leaving 16 people dead and others missing.

Although the rain has tapered off in some areas, floodwaters are still climbing and could take weeks to clear. Traffic in the French capital was snarled as flooding choked roads and several Paris railway stations shut down.

Basements and apartments in the capitals well-to-do 16th district began to flood Friday afternoon as the river crept higher, and authorities were preparing possible evacuations in a park and islands on Paris western edge.

French authorities activated preliminary plans to transfer the French presidency, ministries and other sensitive sites to secure places in case of flooding. The SGDSN security agency says the French presidency and the prime ministers office are not immediately threatened but the National Assembly and the Foreign Ministry were at greater risk.

In addition to the Louvre, the Orsay museum, home to a renowned collection of impressionist art on the left bank of the Seine, also was closed Friday as was the Grand Palais, which draws 2.5 million visitors a year.

The Louvre said the museum had not taken such precautions in its modern history  since its 1993 renovation at the very least. Disappointed tourists were being turned away but most were understanding.

Its good that they are evacuating the paintings. Its a shame that we couldnt see them today, but its right that they do these things, said Carlos Santiago, visiting from Mexico.

Elsewhere in Europe, authorities were counting the cost of the floods.

German authorities said the body of a 65-year-old man was found in the town of Simbach am Inn and a 72-year-old man died of a heart attack after being rescued from a raging stream in the village of Triftern, bringing the countrys death toll from recent flooding to 11.

Frances Interior Ministry also reported the death of a 74-year-old man who fell from his horse and drowned in a river in the Seine-et-Marne region east of Paris, the second death in France.

In eastern Romania, two people died and 200 people were evacuated from their homes as floods swept the area, including one man ripped from his bicycle by a torrent of water in Ruginesti.

In Belgium, rescue workers found the body of a beekeeper swept away by rising waters in the village of Harsin.

The German Insurance Association estimates this weeks flooding has caused some 450 million euros ($500 million) in damage in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg alone.

The foul weather has added to the major travel disruptions France is already experiencing after weeks of strikes and protests by workers upset over the governments proposed labor reforms. French rail company SNCF said the strikes had led to the cancellation of 40 percent of the countrys high-speed trains.

French energy company Enedis said more than 20,000 customers were without power to the east and south of Paris.

Paris measures Seine water levels using an unusual method called the Austerlitz scale, which compares the surface level with an underwater sensor at the Austerlitz Bridge, said regional environment director Jerome Goellner.

In normal times, the river level is between 1 meter and 2 meters (3 feet, 3 inches to 6  feet) on the Austerlitz scale, he said, a historical system used out so one flood can be compared to another. But a piece of trash trapped in the sensor led authorities to undercount the rise of the Seine this week, he said.

The Seine so far has risen about 4.5 meters (15 feet) from its typical position following days of heavy rain. Goellner says its not possible to put a precise time on the peak expected Friday but were near the maximum.

Extreme rainfall, such as that hitting France, has increased worldwide and especially in Europe because of man-made climate change, four different scientists told The Associated Press on Friday. They said downpours like this are one of the clearest signals of global warming.

Record-breaking rainfall in Europe has increased 31 percent from 1980 to 2010, when compared to the previous 80 years, according to a 2015 Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research study.

These increasing trends have already been measured and are now affecting every storm that forms, including recent storms in France, said Gerald Meehl, a climate scientist at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research,

With leading Paris museums closed, the surging currents were a tourist attraction in themselves. Prakash Amritraj of India, a 42-year-old visiting with his wife and two children, took selfies on the Mirabeau Bridge in western Paris.

I had never thought of possible floods in Paris city center. In India, we have the monsoon, but here! Its not supposed to happen! he said.

While he sympathized with all those affected, he appreciated the flooding from a different perspective.

Its kind of beautiful, in a way, he said.

___

Mstyslav Chernov and Sylvie Corbet in Paris, John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels, David Rising in Berlin, Seth Borenstein from Washington, D.C. and Alison Mutler in Bucharest, Romania, contributed.
BEIRUT  U.S.-backed fighters pushed ahead in their offensive in northern Syria on Friday, getting closer to a stronghold of the Islamic State group, opposition activists said.

The predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces took at least four more villages on the way to the IS-held city of Manbij, according to two activist groups, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committee.

A Russia- and U.S.-brokered truce in Syria began on Feb. 27, but fighting has continued to rage in many areas, particularly around the city of Aleppo. Syrias 5-year civil war has left some 250,000 people dead.

On Wednesday, SDF fighters, aided by U.S.-led airstrikes, launched their offensive on Manbij, which is on a key supply route linking the Turkish border to the city of Raqqa, the extremist groups de facto capital.

Some 20 IS fighters and four from the SDF have been killed in three days of fighting, the Observatory said. It said that 28 villages are now under SDF control. The group said Abu Layla, the commander of one of the SDF factions known as Shams al-Shammal, was seriously wounded and evacuated to hospital in neighboring Iraq.

The United Nations Security Council announced Friday it will formally ask Syria to allow humanitarian air drops to besieged areas. U.N. humanitarian chief Stephen OBrien warned that access to millions of Syrians in need of help is worsening amid the violence.
The death of a 16-year-old on Staten Island has drawn some comparisons to an infamous racial attack in the city three decades ago, but police say it does not appear to be a hate crime. Borough reporter Amanda Farinacci has the story.

Police say a restaurant was the scene of a pre-arranged fight between two rival Staten Island gangs one black and one white.

The dispute quickly moved to the residential streets of Mariners Harbor when someone, according to witnesses, claimed he had a gun.

16-year-old Dayshen McKenzie and his friends ran and hid  but Dayshen, an asthmatic with a heart condition, collapsed and later died:

"I'm just looking to find out why my son," said Tisha Richardson, McKenzie's mother. "Why my son? I mean he had so much going for his self."

Former police officer Diane Fatigati heard the commotion outside her home. She revived Dayshen twice with CPR. EMS arrived and they too began compressions, but the teenager died shortly after.

Fatigati says she initially told police the clash appeared to be racial.

"There's a bunch of white kids chasing a bunch of black kids and that's what it looked like to me," Fatigati said.

The Daily News quoted her as saying she heard someone shout the N word.

That gave rise to this front page  and a comparison to an infamous racial killing in Howard Beach, Queens, 30 years ago.

Police brass called a news conference Friday, to clear the air.

They said the clash appeared to be a prearranged fight between two rival gangs that involved a dispute over a girl, and not a bias attack like the Howard Beach assault.

"This comparison is inaccurate and irresponsible actually," said NYPD Chief of Department Robert Boyce.

Police say says investigators have been viewing surveillance videos and have heard from several people involved. Boyce says they all say the same thing:

"During the initial interviews no one reported any racial or bias related comments"

Police say although they believe the crime is gang-related, hate crimes detectives will be assisting in the investigation.

In the meantime, Dayshen's family is trying to raise money for his funeral.
OUTLANDER 9 p.m. on Starz. While Jamie tries to turn his scruffy troops into a viable army, Claires mind wanders to her time as a nurse during World War II.

WOMAN IN GOLD (2015) 9 p.m. on Showtime. Helen Mirren summons a chilly reserve as Maria Altmann, an Austrian Jewish woman, settled in California, who fights to regain possession of a priceless canvas  Gustav Klimts Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, a gold leaf-encrusted portrait of her beloved aunt  stolen from her family by the Nazis. Ryan Reynolds plays Randy Schoenberg, the inexperienced young lawyer who takes her battle to the Supreme Court. Woman in Gold might be the epitome of middlebrow moviemaking, Wesley Morris wrote in The Times. But I had a good time hissing at the devious Austrian bureaucracy and watching Mr. Reynolds discover that he can more than hold his own with Ms. Mirren, who in doing nothing special actually does quite a lot.

Whats Streaming

APPROACHING THE UNKNOWN (2016) on Amazon and iTunes. Mark Strong plays yet another Mars-bound astronaut, this one armed with a device that produces water from dirt  the better to help him colonize the planet. If he doesnt lose his mind first. And while Mark Elijah Rosenbergs movie is often derivative  there are also echoes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, both adaptations of Solaris, Moon, Interstellar and Epcot  the tense scenario can withstand repetition, and seeing it executed on a lower budget, with modest effects, carries its own interest, Ben Kenigsberg wrote in The Times.
In an unexpected twist in an already tumultuous legal fight, lawyers for Sumner M. Redstone argued in court filings on Friday that the competency of the ailing 93-year-old mogul did not matter in the dispute over his $40 billion media empire.

Regardless of whether or not Mr. Redstone had the mental capacity to oust two longtime confidants from the trust that will control his companies after he dies or is declared incompetent, the outcome would have been the same, his lawyers said.

According to the filing, at least four of the seven trustees have supported and validated Mr. Redstones decision two weeks ago to oust Philippe P. Dauman, the chairman and chief of Viacom, and George S. Abrams, a longtime Viacom director, from the trust and the board of National Amusements, the private theater chain company through which Mr. Redstone controls Viacom and CBS.

Plaintiffs miscalculated not only Sumners resolve, but also the commitment of their fellow trustees to do the right thing, Mr. Redstones lawyers said in the document, filed in Norfolk Probate and Family Court in Massachusetts.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.  This week, as part of the festivities that surround Walmarts annual shareholder meeting, Eye of the Tiger blasted through loudspeakers as employees entered an arena at the University of Arkansas. Handpicked by their managers out of Walmarts work force of more than a million, the employees arrived ready to cheer.

I think we can sell another three million this year, said Steve Bratspies, Walmarts chief marketing officer, as he held up a round pillow with a yellow smiley face, a symbol Walmart has used to signal low prices and one of many emoji pillows it wants to sell. Can you help me do that?

Workers certainly have something to cheer about. Average hourly pay has gone up since Walmart announced early last year that it would increase wages to at least $10 an hour for its army of part-time and full-time workers.

But not all employees were as enthusiastic as those in the arena.

The employees more critical of the company say Walmart  the biggest private employer in the United States  has found more subtle ways to keep the reins on its workers paychecks. The retailer has cut merit raises, for example, and has introduced a new training program that can keep employees at $9 an hour for as long as 18 months.
The challenges facing the long-struggling Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn seemed to mount on Friday, when the New York City Education Department said an investigation found that its principal and two other administrators had failed to report an allegation of sexual harassment and a suspicion that students had stolen and used a department credit card.

It was not clear what penalties the principal, Michael Wiltshire, who said this week that he was considering leaving his position after less than two years, would face as a result of the findings. The department said only that the superintendent overseeing the school would decide on the penalty. But the investigation appeared to be another blow to Mayor Bill de Blasios effort to revive Boys and Girls, which has deep roots in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood but a history of low performance.

The New York Post reported on Friday that the department found that Dr. Wiltshire had failed to report an alleged gang rape of a female student in a locker room. But on Friday afternoon, the mother of the student who made the sexual harassment allegation, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect her and her daughters privacy, said that no rape had occurred and that her daughter had received a verbal threat, by a young man attending a different high school who was on the Boys and Girls campus. On Friday evening, The Post published an update saying the girl told administrators only that she had been threatened.

The mother said her daughter told her about the threat on the night it occurred, and the next day they met with two assistant principals and a guidance counselor. A few days later, they met with the principal, and her daughter gave a written statement. The mother said the boy was banned from Boys and Girls. She said that she was satisfied with the schools response and that, since it was only a verbal threat, she did not want to report the episode to the police.
In tones both aspirational and political, Michelle Obama on Friday used her last commencement address as first lady to salute graduates of the City College of New York as living, breathing proof that the American dream endures, while also criticizing name-calling leaders who engage in anger and intolerance.

Mrs. Obama did not specifically mention Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president. But her intent could not have been clearer as she warned that leaders who rule by intimidation  leaders who demonize and dehumanize entire groups of people  often do so because they have nothing else to offer.

Here in America, we dont give in to our fears, she told the class of 2016, with its 3,848 graduates, in an outdoor ceremony on the colleges Manhattan campus. We dont build up walls to keep people out because we know that our greatness has always depended on contributions from people who were born elsewhere but sought out this country and made it their home.

For Mrs. Obama, the address, the last of her three commencement speeches this year, was intended to highlight several issues that have been dear to her, including public education and immigration. Noting the colleges proximity to the Statue of Liberty, she said there was no better way to celebrate this great country than being here with you.
No one really thinks Bernie Sanders is perfect, but over 40 years of evidence shows how he has taken care of himself by really working for the benefit of others.

That means he is running with so many Americans at his side. This not only better equips him to meet the onslaughts of an egomaniac like Trump. It has, with all his faults, made him great.

Clinton may be much less destructive to the American people than Trump, but I would rather have the chance to vote for someone I really respect and admire than have to come to terms with someone who I know to be only the lesser of two evils.

 Timshel in New York, responding to an article about Hillary Clintons struggles to gain an advantage over Mr. Trump.

This comment received more than 680 reader responses.

Child vs. Gorilla
Uncertainty combined with a heavy workload and negative public perception has contributed to the prospect of a looming teacher shortage in public education across Pennsylvania.

Statistics show the number of in-state teacher certifications issued by the state Department of Education was down by 62 percent from 16,361 in 2012-2013 to 6,215 in 2014-2015  a drop of more than 10,000 certificates in three years.

Pennsylvania is in line with a nationwide trend that has seen the number of college students enrolled in education majors decrease by 55 percent since the fall of 1996, said Nicole Reigelman, press secretary for PDE.

She added that under former Gov. Tom Corbett, state funding of public education was cut forcing school districts across Pennsylvania to eliminate programs, layoff teachers and reduce staff by not filling vacancies.

The result has been larger class sizes, fewer support personnel and additional duties placed on the remaining teachers making a challenging profession even more challenging, Reigelman said. These dynamics have likely contributed to fewer people seeking teacher certification and enrolling in teacher programs.

Traditionally, school districts have seen the most chronic shortages in science and high-level math teachers. College students in these fields tend to be drawn more to the private sector where salaries, benefits and work conditions are viewed as more favorable.

I dont think we are doing a good enough job as educators recruiting good math and science students back into our schools, said John Friend, superintendent of the Carlisle Area School District. They see opportunities in other areas. We currently have a physics opening. I think we only have two to three candidates that have applied.

The trend at work across the country and Pennsylvania has made the job of finding a qualified science or math teacher even more daunting. Only 23 in-state teacher certifications were issued in physics across Pennsylvania in 2014-2015 compared to 53 certifications in 2012-2013.

Over that same period, the number of certifications issued for mathematics went from 558 to 204. For biology, it went from 221 to 106, chemistry from 85 to 22 and earth/space science from 55 to 12.

While just a few years ago the most chronic shortages were in science and math teachers, the prospect now exists for shortages across the board in most content areas and grade levels, said Al Moyer, superintendent of South Middleton School District. I think the workload, the public perception and the uncertainty all combined have created a negative feeling about going into the field right now,

Both superintendents have careers spanning about 35 years in public education including 25 years as administrators. They have both seen the job market flux, but agree conditions are taking a turn for the worse.

Do I see a crisis on the horizon? Absolutely, Friend said. The candidate pool is down 60 percent. We have not seen the number of shortages that we have seen today.

There have been ups and downs, but I do believe the past couple years have been the most challenging ever, Moyer said. This has been the most serious in any time in my career.

Teacher shortages exist in other states and can be significant depending on the locale and type of certification, said Wythe Keever, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association. He noted there are some rural areas of the South where school districts have problems drawing teachers for the core subject areas.

Political attacks on teacher compensation, benefits and seniority, along with deep cuts by Corbett and the demand for a pay freeze, sent a message to college students that future jobs may be jeopardy and that public education is not a stable profession to enter, Keever said.

The root cause of the problem, in our view, is inadequate funding, attacks on the teaching profession and poor working conditions, he added. The PSEA represents 120,000 active classroom teachers employed by 483 of the 500 school districts in Pennsylvania.

Demographics also play a factor in the availability of certified teacher candidates for public education jobs. Current shortages in Pennsylvania are more related to pockets of geography along with supply and demand in certain subject areas, said Christine Royce, a professor and chair of the teacher education department at Shippensburg University.

For example, urban school districts tend to have greater fiscal challenges that result in lower teacher salaries and greater turnover as educators move on to better paying jobs, Royce said. She added while Pennsylvania produces an abundance of teachers certified in early childhood and elementary education, there is greater demand for special education teachers as more students are being identified as having a need.

Yet another factor is a decrease in the number of college students due to a decline in the birth rate, Royce said. Fewer babies were born between 1995 and 1998 resulting in a decline in enrollment from 2013 to 2016. There are fewer college students to major in education.

A growing demand for teachers prompted Wilson College to add special education to its Teacher Intern Program designed to help individuals with bachelor degrees earn their level one teacher certification, Program Director Beth Byers said. Most TIP students graduate from college in a major other than education only to be called into teaching through this nontraditional path to certification.

Its a career change for someFor others its fulfilling a lifelong passion, said Byers, adding how many TIP students were diverted away from an education major in college by career advice and vocational test results that suggested to them a different path to pursue. But the yearning to teach did not go away, she said.

By adding special education certification to this program, Wilson saw a reversal in a trend where enrollment peaked at 182 TIP students in 2004 before slipping to just 68 students in 2013 to rebounding to the current 86 students.

Recently the TIP program has seen an increase in the number of engineers seeking to leave that profession to apply their real world experience towards teaching math in a public school, Byers said. She attributes this trend to tight industry deadlines and professional burnout citing the case of a female engineer who wanted a more mom friendly job.

There has also been an increase in the number of private school teachers seeking public school certifications in order to make them more marketable, Byers said.
This wasnt the first time Id been back. In the 15 years since I came out as trans, Id found myself surprisingly embraced, if not exactly understood, by my former classmates. In spite of everything, I had a lot of affection for Haverford, not least because it gave me the education I would need to survive my own life. Plus, there were my friends: guys with big hearts and weird nicknames like Basi and Linky and the Bees. The Bees and I had been particularly close once, but hed kept his distance since my transition.

The event was taking place against a national conversation about transgender identities, the question of individual dignity mortifyingly reduced to a hallucinatory debate about North Carolinian toilets. Plenty of my classmates are conservatives, which is fine with me, although Id assumed that most of them voted Republican because they liked the idea of small government and low taxes, rather than because they hated immigrants, gay people and the poor. My parents had been Republicans like this, and once so had I.

But a Facebook exchange with a classmate suggested things werent so simple. My old friend Robert adored me now, he said, as did my classmates. But he was less comfortable with transgender people he did not know. Predators arent stupid, he said. Were being asked to dismantle what has hitherto been a barrier to their efforts.

At the reunion, Robert came up and gave me a big hug and a kiss. I couldnt quite bring myself to feel anything but love for him, even if he did seem to think my existence constituted a Get Out of Jail Free card for predators. Was it only because Id known him since he was 12 that I felt such affection? Maybe its just impossible to hate someone whose history you know. If so, was my classmates acceptance of me more the result of loyalty than compassion?

Image One of the 24 virtues engraved along a walkway on the campus. Credit... Mark Makela for The New York Times

Mark and I ate shrimp. Hed been a quadriplegic since a surfing accident when he was 28. Behind an assortment of cheeses, a slide show was playing; our younger selves looked out at us.
In wielding executive power in these ways, Mr. Trump would be following in the footsteps of his predecessors. President Bush cited his commander in chief powers in order to justify interrogation, surveillance and detention polices in the wake of Sept. 11. While Mr. Obama has shied away from Mr. Bushs constitutional arguments, he has interpreted statutes aggressively, while also relying on constitutional authorities, to justify the military intervention in Libya in 2011 and his nonenforcement of immigration laws.

Mr. Trump has expressed impatience with his critics and hinted that he would use federal powers against them. He wouldnt be able to put someone in jail merely for criticizing him. But he could direct agencies to use their vast regulatory powers against the companies of executives who have displeased him, like Jeff Bezos, for example, the founder of Amazon. Mr. Trump has already hinted that he would go after Amazon for supposed antitrust violations.

He could direct the Department of Justice to investigate his critics by prioritizing categories of crimes they may have committed. Political opponents could be accused of campaign finance law violations. Former government officials, like Hillary Clinton, could be accused of violating secrecy laws. Even if the charges come to nothing, the legal fees for defendants will be hefty.

Mr. Trump could also crack down on journalists who report on national security issues by enforcing federal secrecy laws more aggressively than previous presidents. President Obama received a lot of criticism for prosecuting government employees who leaked secrets, but the Justice Department did not bring charges against the journalists who published the leaked information.

What couldnt Mr. Trump do? He couldnt lower (or raise) taxes on his own. Hes supposed to spend funds that Congress appropriates and for the things that Congress appropriates them for  thats what stands in the way of the wall (unless he persuades Mexico to pay for it and construct it on the other side of the border).

He could not follow through on his promise to impose the death penalty on killers of police officers by executive order. And even where he does act, he needs to make sure his legal theories are in order. If he wanted to withdraw climate regulations because climate change is a hoax perpetuated by China, no court would allow him to. But if he said that the climate regulations were based on a speculative assessment of harms that wouldnt occur for 100 years, he could succeed.

Much depends on how far Mr. Trump is willing to push existing legal understandings. There is a netherworld of laws that presidents are supposed to comply with but courts dont enforce. He could send military forces into a foreign country without authorization from Congress; courts would most likely stay out of the dispute. What of his suggestion earlier this year to kill the families of terrorists? Courts typically defer to the executive on matters concerning military activities abroad. He might even try to withhold appropriated funds or shift them around in defiance of Congresss wishes.
CANTON, Minn.  Canton, population 428, was settled by Nordic immigrant farmers. The areas prim dairy barns, lush hills and deep valleys are what city people picture when they imagine escaping to a quieter life.

Canton sits near a crossroads of three political battleground states: Iowa, with its first-in-primary-season caucuses; Wisconsin, where progressives are battling an ambitious Republican governor; and iconoclastic Minnesota, whose congressional tastes range from the liberal Al Franken to the evangelical Michele Bachmann.

These states make up a big chunk of the crucial Midwestern electorate. All three went Democratic in the 2012 election, and so far, theyve been more resistant to Donald Trump than Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, suggesting that his appeal to white, working-class resentment has limits.

Conversely, this region could prove fertile ground for Hillary Clinton, especially if she can provide answers to a three-year decline in commodity prices that  combined with rising health costs  has persuaded some farmers to sell out. She must also convince longtime progressives here that her new, more liberal positions are more than just a response to Bernie Sanders.
After running a congressional oversight committee like a Republican opposition research shop for more than two years, Representative Trey Gowdy appears to be gearing up for the finale. Democrats on the Select Committee on Benghazi expect that a final report will drop soon, just as Hillary Clinton appears poised to clinch the Democratic nomination.

If things had gone his way, Mr. Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, would have found a way to torpedo Mrs. Clintons presidential ambitions. After all, Republican lawmakers have admitted that this is precisely what they set out to do.

But things have not gone well for Mr. Gowdy, who has run the investigation with the dexterity and grace of a blindfolded toddler swinging at a pinata. Having pored over reams of documents, grilled Mrs. Clinton in an 11-hour session in October and hauled in more than 100 people for interviews, the Republicans seem to have come up with nothing.

In recent months, Republicans on the committee have pestered the Pentagon to track down potential witnesses who might have damning things to say about Washingtons response to the attack on American government facilities in Benghazi, in eastern Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, when Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state. They include a man who identified himself as a military mechanic in an intriguing Facebook post, and John from Iowa, a person who claimed to be a drone operator who had called into a right-wing radio talk show.
FRONT PAGE

An article on April 23 about an executive order issued by Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia that expanded voting rights for convicted felons, using information from the governors office, overstated the laws effect on African-Americans. A subsequent analysis by the governors office showed that 45 percent  not a majority  of those affected were African-American. This correction was delayed because the error was not brought to the attention of editors until Thursday.

BUSINESS DAY

A headline on Friday for an article about Exelons plans to shut two nuclear power plants referred incorrectly in some editions to the timing of the closures. As the article correctly noted, one of the plants will be closed in June 2017 and the other in June 2018; they have not already closed.



Because of an editing error, an article on Friday about the new oil minister in Saudi Arabia, Khalid al-Falih, misstated the time period during which the country issued a directive to diversify its economy. It was in April, not last month.

SPORTS

A picture caption in some copies last Saturday with an article about the Dodgers starting pitcher making his major league debut against the Mets misstated his surname. As the article correctly noted, he is Julio Urias, not Arias.
WASHINGTON  The Justice Department, stung by reports that F.B.I. scientists have often vastly overstated their level of certainty in matching hair samples and other evidence, issued new rules on Friday meant to ensure that the experts testimony in criminal cases is supported by sound science.

The new rules, which have yet to be made final, are the latest in a series of steps that the Obama administration has taken to address the problems, including those revealed in a preliminary review last year of F.B.I. testimony in hair-sample cases.

That analysis, which examined 268 criminal cases from 1985 to 1999, found flawed testimony in more than 95 percent of them. More than a dozen of the defendants have been executed or have died in prison.

The guidelines issued on Friday provide a framework for F.B.I. testimony involving seven types of forensic evidence, including body fluid, fingerprints and footprints. They seek to inject a more realistic measure of doubt in courtroom testimony.
SOUTH

South Carolina: State Agrees to Foster Care Remedies

As part of a legal settlement, the state has agreed to correct widespread faults in its foster care system, promising to improve health care for children, set workload limits for overtaxed foster care workers and ensure more timely investigations of alleged abuse and neglect. Gov. Nikki R. Haley, a Republican, and Susan Alford, the acting director of the State Department of Social Services, are named in the federal lawsuit, which was filed Jan. 15 by child-welfare advocates, including Childrens Rights, a New York-based nonprofit. Listed as plaintiffs were 11 children in the foster care system, which has been criticized for many years as dangerously troubled, with overwhelming worker caseloads, lapses in oversight and a number of child deaths. The settlement was filed Friday in United States District Court in Charleston and requires a judges approval to be finalized. RICHARD FAUSSET

Virginia: Inquiry Sought Into Norfolk Police

A Norfolk City Council member is calling for a federal investigation and Norfolks police chief is defending his officers after this years fifth fatal shooting by the police in this city of about a quarter-million people. Two officers responding to a disturbance at a home opened fire when Willie D. James, 43, lunged at them with a knife on Thursday, Police Chief Michael Goldsmith said on Friday at a news conference. The Police Department is conducting an internal investigation, but Chief Goldsmith said, Im going to stand behind my officers on this. Councilman Paul Riddick said that police shootings have reached an epidemic proportion in Norfolk, and he will ask the F.B.I. to investigate. Mr. Riddick said that among the issues he wants federal authorities to examine are the level of experience within the Police Department and whether any of its officers resigned from other law enforcement jobs after being involved in shootings. Chief Goldsmith said his department is among the best in Virginia at crisis intervention and that all of his officers involved in fatal shootings were in peril when they fired. (AP)
While Mr. Trump has blamed paid disrupters and operatives from Hillary Clintons and Senator Bernie Sanderss campaigns for such protests in the past, the violence at this rally and the protest that inspired it appeared spontaneous and not directed by Democrats or other groups. Instead, it was more the product of independent local efforts that caught fire through social media.

Such episodes, like a protest in April in Burlingame near San Francisco and at an abruptly canceled March rally in Chicago, represent some of the most significant unrest during a presidential contest since 1968, when violence erupted in the streets outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago at the height of the Vietnam War.

Mr. Gonzaless group was one of many that arrived on Thursday to express disapproval of Mr. Trump, who has angered many critics with proposals they consider to be anti-immigrant. While protest organizers and attendees said that violence was not their intention, clashes with Mr. Trumps supporters have become increasingly common.

The disturbances are the result of a combustible mix: the passion of the anti-Trump movement and, on the other side, the often fiery oratory of Mr. Trump himself, who at a rally this year in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, went so far as to urge his supporters to knock the crap out of protesters at the event.

On Friday, Mr. Trump, who has taken some measures to quell violence inside his events, lashed out at those who created the chaos at Thursdays event. At a rally in Redding, Calif., Mr. Trump said his supporters got accosted by a bunch of thugs burning the American flag.
WASHINGTON  Once, when Mitch McConnell was dishing privately to me on the congressional crisis of the moment, I thanked him for his candor and insight.

Well, he said in his distinctive drawl, you know Im only telling you this because it helps me.

I did know. But it also helped me as a reporter. Still, even given my long experience with the canny Kentucky Republican, I was a little surprised to see this frank admission on the first page of his new memoir, The Long Game:

I only talk to the press if its to my advantage, Mr. McConnell wrote, putting it more bluntly than most politicians, even the ones who see it the same way.

Mr. McConnell wasnt always so dismissive of the press. On another occasion, he recounted to me how, as a new senator, he was envious as he watched senior colleagues being shadowed and pestered by reporters, making him yearn for the kind of stature where someone would pay him similar attention. Nowadays, Mr. McConnell will stroll purposefully past inquiring reporters without so much as a glance in their direction.

The senator has a steely discipline not only when it comes to the news media, but with life itself. His book chronicles his successful struggle against polio as a child, his first neighborhood fistfight, his early obsession with politics, his embrace of civil rights and his slow but steady climb to the position he always coveted and now holds  majority leader of the United States Senate. No White House ambition for him, an attribute that separates him from many of his colleagues.
Hugh Honour, a self-taught art historian who produced indispensable works on Neo-Classicism and romanticism and who, with John Fleming, wrote the monumental survey The Visual Arts: A History, one of the first to pay serious attention to non-Western art, died on May 19 at his home in Tofori, Italy. He was 88.

His death was reported in the Italian press and in British newspapers.

Mr. Honour moved to Italy in the mid-1950s to be with Mr. Fleming, and the two men, who were partners until Mr. Flemings death in 2001, entered into a highly productive writing and editing relationship. Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin Books, lived near them in a rented villa and proposed that they oversee a series, Style and Civilization, which would explore significant periods in art history, each with its own brief volume.

The two editors accepted and performed brilliantly. Michael Leveys Early Renaissance was the first nonliterary work to win the Hawthornden Prize when it was published in 1967, and several other books in the series, notably Linda Nochlins Realism (1971) and Mr. Honours own contribution, Neo-Classicism (1968), quickly became standard works. All were published under the Pelican imprint.

With Mr. Fleming, Mr. Honour went on to edit two more series for Penguin in the same format: Architect and Society and Art in Context. The Visual Arts: A History was published in Britain in 1982 as A World History of Art.
The same conditions that are creating the prospect of a future teacher shortage are drying up a traditional source of career ambition in public education.

Fewer college students are seeking education degrees resulting in fewer teacher certifications being issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

With less people coming out, you are going to have more people from the initial group going into permanent positions, said John Friend, superintendent of the Carlisle Area School District. Therefore, you are going to have less people still looking for a teaching position.

This is an issue for school districts because a traditional source of substitute teachers are recently certified college graduates so hungry for a permanent job they push themselves to hone skills in technology integration and the latest teaching techniques, said Al Moyer, superintendent of South Middleton School District.

Normally we have young people certified to teach in certain areas, Moyer said. They substitute for us. If the individual does a good job on a day-to-day or long-term basis, they stand a good chance of earning a permanent job.

The trouble is fewer of the recently certified are waiting around for permanent teaching jobs with public school districts. Many are opting to substitute for only a year before seeking another career path, said Beth Byers, Teacher Intern Program director at Wilson College in Chambersburg. They cant afford to sub another year.

So instead of this traditional source, the majority of substitutes today are guest teachers, individuals pursuing a second career or retired educators returning to the classroom, Moyer said. He added they tend to be more concerned about making extra money than in honing their skills or evolving as teachers.

Rare in the past, its becoming the norm, Moyer said of the situation. Its a precursor of what we will be seeing down the road. Both superintendents agree the problem of a future teacher shortage is manifesting itself today in the substitute teacher crisis.

We have not had trouble filling positions, Moyer added. We are very pleased with that, but we anticipate in the near future that it will be a real challenge.

The substitutes that are employed are doing a good service for the Carlisle school district, Friend said. We have been fortunate. They want to help us out. The problem is there will not be a cadre of fully certified people to choose from.

No certification is needed to be a substitute teacher, Byers said. The only requirements are a bachelors degree and security clearances to teach children.

Already the lack of substitutes has caused problems for local school districts. Recently Chambersburg was down 16 substitute teachers causing such a shortage that her daughter missed out on an art class after the students were called to the cafeteria for ease of monitoring, Byers said.
Karen Adele Sendler, the daughter of David A. Sendler of Naples, Fla., and the late Emily I. Sendler was married June 4 to John Kenneth Kirkwood, the son of Kenneth W. Kirkwood and Carol L. Kirkwood of Haddonfield, N.J. Charles L. Burgess, a friend of the couple who became a Universal Life minister for the occasion, officiated at the home of the grooms parents.

The ceremony incorporated Jewish and Scottish elements, including breaking the glass inside a bag made from the grooms Wallace family tartan, the brides father wore a tie made from the Jewish tartan, and there was a bagpiper playing Hava Nagila.

The couple graduated from Columbia.

The bride, 43, who will continue to use her name professionally, works in New York as the director of alumni relations and special programs at Cambridge in America, an organization that supports Cambridge University in fund-raising and alumni relations in the United States.

Her father is the editor in chief of Gulfshore Life, a magazine in Naples, published by Open Sky Media. Her mother was the founder of Victoria's Hope Chest in Rosemont, Pa., which created handmade quilts.
I think this study really demonstrates the veracity of the liquid biopsy approach, said Philip C. Mack, director of molecular pharmacology at the University of California Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, who is presenting the results here this weekend to the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

New Developments in Cancer Research Card 1 of 6 Progress in the field. In recent years, advancements in research have changed the way cancer is treated. Here are some recent updates: Uterine cancer. Women who use chemical hair straighteners frequently could have a higher risk of developing uterine cancer than women who have never used the products, according to new findings from a national study that has followed nearly 34,000 U.S. women for more than a decade. Cancer vaccines. For a long time, the promise of cancer vaccines that would protect healthy people at high risk of cancer has only dangled in front of researchers. Now, though, encouraging animal data and preliminary studies in human patients are making some doctors feel optimistic. Tumor microbiome. Two new studies have revealed that cancer is rife with bacteria and fungi. This so-called tumor microbiome is proving so distinctive in each type of cancer that some scientists hope to find early signs of hidden tumors by measuring the microbial DNA these microbes shed into the blood. A detection trick. In a surprise discovery, researchers found that cells from some types of cancers escaped destruction by the immune system by hiding inside other cancer cells. The finding may explain why some cancers can be resistant to treatments that should have destroyed them. Rectal cancer. A small trial that saw 18 rectal cancer patients taking the same drug, dostarlimab, appears to have produced an astonishing result: The cancer vanished in every single participant. Experts believe that this study is the first in history to have achieved such results.











The liquid biopsies are not currently used to diagnose cancer but rather to monitor disease progression or to detect genetic mutations in the tumor that could suggest which drug should be used to treat the disease.

Just this week the Food and Drug Administration gave its first approval for such a test, one developed by Roche to detect mutations in a particular gene. Lung cancers with mutations in that gene are vulnerable to treatment with certain drugs, including Roches own Tarceva. Many liquid biopsy tests are being sold by other companies under rules that do not require F.D.A. approval.

The study looked at the results of more than 15,000 liquid biopsies performed by Guardant Health, a Silicon Valley start-up that is one of the leaders in the field. While many liquid biopsy tests now look for only a few mutations, Guardants test, which has a list price of $5,800, looks at mutations in 70 cancer-related genes.

The 15,000 samples came from the blood of people with various types of cancer, including lung, breast and colorectal. The researchers on the study, most of whom worked for Guardant, said the frequency and types of mutations found were similar to what is known from scientific literature.
With an imposing stance, the astronaut Gordon Cooper towers over visitors to the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College. Everything about him glows: his metallic spacesuit, the soles of his shoes, the helmet he clutches in the crook of his arm. His head is an otherworldly blue, his hair and eyes blaze white.

Mr. Cooper was one of the seven astronauts who participated in Project Mercury, Americas first manned space program. His giant image, at the entrance to the museums atrium gallery, is a site-specific mural created by Mungo Thomson, who manipulated the colors in a photograph from NASAs public archives. Part of the Los Angeles-based artists continuing series Negative Space, the mural covers a 23-foot-high wall where, near the ceiling, a small circular window suggests a celestial orb in the distance.

Mr. Cooper is an apt ambassador for Touch the Sky, an exhibition of 51 works by 19 artists, each responding to the awe-inspiring mysteries of the universe. The show presents an array of approaches, on a spectrum from factual to imaginary, in media including paint, pencil, printmaking, video, assorted photographic techniques and a bit of powdered cocaine.
Midtown East has long been known as an area of expensive hotels, easy access to Grand Central Terminal and the United Nations. But proper pubs? Not really. The area (those who live there call it Turtle Bay) has long specialized in rowdy white-collar hookup joints, expensive wine bars and paint-by-number Irish saloons. Not to mention the occasional sketchy massage parlor.

That all changed in the fall of 2013 when Hudson Malone opened. Doug Quinn, a former bartender at the beloved P.J. Clarkes, opened the bar on 218 East 53rd Street, replacing another of the neighborhoods ubiquitous frat-house watering holes (this one called Tammany Hall) in a 116-year-old two-story building. On the menu are burgers and what the staff refers to as New York comfort food.

But the draw at Hudson Malone is its owner. Depending on whom you ask, Mr. Quinns firing from P.J. Clarkes was either an outrage or totally justified. There was a heated dispute between two patrons, and Mr. Quinn was not hesitant about picking sides and stating his case. P.J. Clarkes did not respond to a call seeking comment.

Not in dispute is that as a bartender, he has a devoted following.

Joe Carey, 48, a crisis communications consultant who works in Midtown, has been ordering pints from Mr. Quinn for more than a decade.
You dont need a special occasion to dine at American Cut Bar & Grill in Englewood Cliffs. The glamorous Art Deco-inspired decor within the bi-level restaurant, which has been open since February, tends to obscure the fact that the finest item there is a very good steak.

After all, steak is what Marc Forgione, the executive chef and co-owner, is renowned for at American Cut, a small modern steakhouse chain that is part of LDV Hospitality, a restaurant group founded in 2008 by the entrepreneur John Meadow.

The Englewood Cliffs location, Mr. Meadow said, was meant to be more laid back, and for that reason, it offers a broader menu. This is a family-friendly American restaurant, he said. We want to serve the best steak we possibly can.

Image Other offerings include a chili lobster appetizer. Credit... Fred R. Conrad for The New York Times

Well, Mr. Meadow, youre doing a great job.

Take the 44-ounce porterhouse, a T-shaped bone with filet mignon on one side and strip steak on the other. Its often a steakhouses most prized dish, and the version here  a piece of prime, 28-day dry-aged beef from Creekstone Farms in Arkansas City, Kan.  is worth boasting about. The filet mignon was tender and lean, while the richer strip was beautifully marbled with streaks of fat. The $115 price, however, is an eyesore, but it is meant to be shared by two people and actually large enough to be split among three voracious carnivores. Yet, the cuts were lukewarm and turned cold as we ate.
Q. Im reading about the Wall Street shenanigans of the late 19th century, and I was curious about a recently reprinted 1910 book, The Book of Daniel Drew, by Bouck White, who said he had assembled the autobiography from a jumble of Drews papers. Is it reliable?

A. Its a hoax, T. J. Stiles, the biographer of Cornelius Vanderbilt, wrote in an email. Mr. Stiles said Daniel Drew (1797-1879), a financier who fought Vanderbilt for control of the Erie Railroad, could not write anything except his name. The book is a lively, though fictional, account of a high-flying speculator who was a cattle drover before coming to Wall Street and who, legend has it, was responsible for both the original meaning of stock watering (feeding your cattle salt and then bloating them with water before the weighing) and the later, trickier securities version.

A lesser-known but equally fascinating subject is Bouck White, who apparently wrote the Drew book to illustrate the evils of greed. Born in 1874, he graduated from Harvard and Union Theological Seminary. After publishing another book, The Call of the Carpenter, which portrayed Jesus of Nazareth as a social revolutionary, he was fired from his church job and formed a Manhattan parish, the Church of the Social Revolution, with himself as minister.

In May 1914, White and some of his followers invaded Calvary Baptist Church on West 57th Street during the service to denounce John D. Rockefeller and his son, who were Baptist parishioners in New York City. The younger Mr. Rockefeller owned the mines in Ludlow, Colo., where, one month earlier, soldiers and mine guards had killed striking miners and their family members. White was arrested and spent six months in jail. In 1917, White, a declared anti-patriot, was sentenced to 30 days for burning the American flag in an antiwar ceremony in his church backyard.
Some superstar check writers like Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate, have no problem with Mr. Trumps erratic policy proposals, bluster, and past vows to self-fund. Mr. Adelson is talking of a $100 million effort to boost Mr. Trumps performance in the finale against Hillary Clinton. Mr. Trump, having flip-flopped on a primary promise to shun wealthy donors, now seems only too happy to accept a pledge by Mr. Adelson and others to raise as much as $1 billion for his campaign.

For now, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, leads the fund-raising pack with a money machine that has sucked in more than $80 million in super PAC support. Democrats are not shying away from the big-check power of super PACs, creating a new $50 million operation started by major labor unions and the billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer. At the same time, Mrs. Clinton is campaigning on proposals to rein in the runaway money race. She says it undermines American politics.

What voters think of all this as the price of a particularly raucous display of democracy remains to be seen. But the power of money in politics has grown so much since the 2010 Citizens United decision that its presence is felt ever deeper down the ballot. Ominously, there has been a flood of special-interest money into state judicial races that raises questions about whether judges decisions might be affected, according to a report by Justice at Stake, the Brennan Center for Justice and the National Institute on Money in State Politics. The toughest race in Kansas this year is being waged by furious conservative Republicans aiming to oust four members of the state Supreme Court because of their decisions striking down the G.O.P. Legislatures shortchanging of the state constitutions school-aid requirements.

Shrewd big-money campaigns financed by the Koch brothers and others have upended the Democrats one-time dominance of state legislatures. There are now Republican majorities in 70 percent of two-party statehouses. That success, in turn, has created a farm system for the G.O.P.s current control of Congress. There, the twin powers of big money and statehouse gerrymandering have made incumbents of both parties unbeatable 90 percent of the time, compounding the gridlock voters complain about. For all the job security, big donors are expected to drive this years congressional election spending well beyond the $3.8 billion record set two years ago. Much of this money will surely be wasted, further enriching the new breed of fat-cat campaign operatives, and further alienating voters with toxic advertising. But some of it may tip key races.
THE arraignment of the notorious New York landlord Steven Croman last month was a rare bit of good news for the tenants in his buildings, many of whom have said they have endured hazardous conditions designed to force them out of their homes. Mr. Croman was charged with 20 felonies related to his rental income (he has pleaded not guilty), and faces a civil suit accusing him of using illegal means to force tenants out of their rent-stabilized apartments, in order to renovate them and find new tenants to pay market rates.

Unfortunately, Mr. Cromans alleged approach to emptying buildings is not at all uncommon. Altering or destroying a building in order to make it unsafe is the method of choice for many property owners operating in some of the citys most rapidly changing neighborhoods. When tenants can no longer cope with the danger, they often reach out to city agencies for help, which plays right into the property owners hand: A city inspector pays a visit, observes the hazards and issues an order to vacate. Tenants then have mere hours to leave their homes, and once they vacate an apartment it is nearly impossible for them to get back in.

Even when housing court disputes are settled and a judge finds a property owner responsible for illegal construction, such decisions rarely involve criminal charges. Occasionally, city and state governments are able to work in concert to arrest a bad actor. But the number of bad actors far exceed the arrests. Brooklyn, which is undergoing an aggressive wave of gentrification, is rife with property owners who engage in these practices with impunity. Specific examples are easy to come by.

In 2014, for instance, tenants of the seven-unit building at 94 Franklin Avenue, which is owned by the Tiferes Yehuda Family Trust, were told that construction would soon take place in the backyard. When tenants asked the building manager about it, she explained that a new playground was in the works. Soon construction workers showed up and threw away tenants belongings  toys, grills, patio furniture  without warning. Jackhammering began and was so severe that exterior windows shattered and dust seeped into tenants homes, affecting an asthmatic child living inside. The dust, noise and debris became part of daily life for the next year.
Rome  DURING the circuslike years of Silvio Berlusconi, Italians grew flinchingly accustomed to being the butts of the worlds jokes.

Will they have the last laugh?

They look toward America and wonder. Me, too. In Donald Trump, we have a version of their buffoonish former prime minister  a clown all our own. He baffles and appalls much of Europe.

Here in Italy he prompts an additional reaction: relief, even satisfaction, that another country is proving vulnerable to an emphatically tanned, flamboyantly randy and frequently ridiculous billionaire who makes promises that he cant possibly keep.

The Ferragamo is on the other foot.

We do feel, partly, ha-ha-ha, said Maria Valentini, a professor at a university just outside Rome. Its your turn.
OF all the students preparing to go to college this fall, perhaps none have faced a more hazardous journey than a young woman named Sultana. One measure of the hazard is that Im not disclosing her last name or hometown for fear that she might be shot.

Sultana lives in the Taliban heartland of southern Afghanistan, and when she was in the fifth grade a delegation visited her home to warn her father to pull her out of school, or else she would have acid flung in her face. Ever since, she has been largely confined to her high-walled family compound  in which she has secretly, and perilously, educated herself.

Im unstoppable, Sultana laughs, and its true: She taught herself English from occasional newspapers or magazines that her brothers brought home, in conjunction with a Pashto-English dictionary that she pretty much inhaled. When her businessman father connected the house to the internet, she was able to vault over her compound walls.

I surrounded myself with English, all day, she told me by Skype. Today her English is fluent, as good as that of some Afghan interpreters Ive used.
Donald Trump singled out a black supporter at a rally in California on Friday as he sought to demonstrate his support among African-Americans, saying, Look at my African-American over here!

At the Friday rally in Redding, California, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was in the middle of describing a past campaign event, at which he said a black supporter slugged protesters who were dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit.

I want to find out whats going on with him, Trump said of the supporter at the previous rally. He then appeared to spot a black person in the audience of Fridays event in northern California.

Oh, look at my African-American over here, an excited Trump said, while pointing into the crowd. Look at him. Are you the greatest? You know what Im talking about? OK!

Polls have consistently shown that when it comes to support among African-American voters, Trump trails his likely general election opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

After pointing out the audience member, Trump then went on with his story, which appeared to match the events of a March rally that took place in Arizona.

We had an African-American guy at one of the rallies a month ago, and he was sitting there behaving, Trump said. And we had protesters inside the arena. And they were dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit, OK?

This African-American gets up and, man, he slugged these guys. He slugged them.

Trump said many people thought the black supporter at the earlier rally was an opponent of his campaign.

He was like this great guy, military guy, we have tremendous African-American support, he said. The reason is Im going to bring jobs back to our country.

Trump spent much of the Redding rally bashing Clinton. He also pledged to play heavy in California in an effort to capture the Electoral Colleges biggest prize in November.

Meanwhile, Trump says the federal judge whos hearing a Trump University lawsuit is a hater of Donald Trump and ought to be removed from the case.

In the midst of a heated presidential campaign, Trump has expressed unusually personal criticism  focusing on the judges Mexican heritage  though his lawyers have never actually sought to have the judge removed.

His comments are bringing overwhelming disapproval from politicians and lawyers in his own Republican Party. On Friday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said of the statements about the judge: Its reasoning I dont relate to, I completely disagree with the thinking behind that.
Americas relationship with India has blossomed under President Obama, who will meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week. Ideally, Mr. Obama could take advantage of the ties he has built and press for India to adhere to the standards on nuclear proliferation to which other nuclear weapons states adhere.

The problem, however, is that the relationship with India rests on a dangerous bargain. For years, the United States has sought to bend the rules for Indias nuclear program to maintain Indias cooperation on trade and to counter Chinas growing influence. In 2008, President George W. Bush signed a civilian nuclear deal with India that allowed it to trade in nuclear materials. This has encouraged Pakistan to keep expanding a nuclear weapons program that is already the fastest growing in the world.

Now, India has Mr. Obamas strong support in its bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a 48-nation body that governs trade in nuclear-related exports and aims to ensure that civilian trade in nuclear materials is not diverted for military uses. Membership would enhance Indias standing as a nuclear weapons state, but it is not merited until the country meets the groups standards.
Each Saturday, Farhad Manjoo and Mike Isaac, technology reporters at The New York Times, review the weeks news, offering analysis and maybe a joke or two about the most important developments in the tech industry. Mike is off this week, so Lydia Polgreen, associate masthead editor, filled in.

Farhad: Hello, Lydia! Im thrilled to be chatting with you this week in Mikes absence (hes gone on a spiritual journey to find himself, last I heard; I worry that hell be horrified if the search is successful). Anyway, I believe your official title at The Times is editorial director of New York Times Global, but I think of you as the person in my Twitter feed whos always posting interesting stuff about places outside of America  for which I thank you.

Lydia: So great to be here! I know the usual mode here is mocking banter, but if youll allow it, Ill gush a tiny bit about your column this week.

Farhad: O.K., reluctantly, Ill allow you to gush about me. Wow, youre already more fun than Mike.

Lydia: Your piece touched on a topic near and dear to my heart: the increasing fragmentation of the (lowercase, at last) internet. Countries around the world are taking very different approaches to shaping the online experience of their citizens, and it threatens to take the first W out of the world wide web. Or maybe even the first two. If the web is neither world nor wide, the ambitious global strategies of companies like Netflix, Facebook, Apple and even The little old New York Times face serious bumps on the information superhighway.
LOS ANGELES  Kamala Harris made history when she became the first black woman to be elected attorney general in California. Now she is vying for the United States Senate, and she has managed to stay the front-runner in the race ever since she announced last year, just days after Senator Barbara Boxer, a fellow Democrat, said she would leave the seat she won in 1992.

With the help of allies, Ms. Harris nudged aside other prominent Democratic contenders, including Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles, and United States Representative Xavier Becerra.

But as Tuesdays open primary for the seat approaches, Ms. Harriss chief rival is from her own party  Loretta Sanchez, a congresswoman from Southern California. And their competition says as much about California as it does about the candidates.

In a state with one of the most diverse electorates in the nation, where Latinos are the largest ethnic group, a victory by either woman would be a milestone: Ms. Harris would be the first black woman in the United States Senate since Carol Moseley Braun, an Illinois Democrat who served from 1993 to 1999, and Ms. Sanchez would become the first Latina elected to the Senate.
Ms. Kirkpatrick said that being anti-Trump is a strong message, but she acknowledged that its not the only message. She recently opened a field office in Tempe, and has many Arizona State University volunteers working the phones. Working out of an old bank, aides sit in the former vault (the door has been removed) to go over Mr. McCains statements, year by year, and look for inconsistencies that suggest too long a stay in Congress.

The race comes down to whether Arizonans take a step back and judge John McCain for being John McCain and his remarkable life of public service, said Grant Woods, a former state attorney general and the senators friend for decades. And not as being a long-term incumbent, and not as a Republican in a year when the party has a controversial nominee. If they do that, he will win walking away. If they dont, then it could be tight. Could he lose? Yeah.

How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. Learn more about our process.

Despite the personal attacks by Mr. Trump on the senators integrity and war record, Mr. McCain cannot afford to reject Mr. Trump and alienate his many supporters in Arizona if he hopes to hold his seat, an agonizing trade-off. Mr. McCain is the embodiment of much that voters in both parties, but especially fans of Mr. Trump, have said they would like to jettison this year. He is the ultimate establishment player, having served in Congress for nearly four decades  five terms in the Senate alone.

Back in the Middle Ages, I was known as the maverick, Mr. McCain said, smiling wanly.

He is an unapologetic free trader, an interventionist abroad who continues to defend the deeply unpopular war in Iraq, a supporter of private industry and markets, and the original, if inconstant, champion of changes to the immigration system that would help some illegal immigrants become citizens.

To succeed in what most people believe will be his last political campaign, Mr. McCain must canter around the state assuring Mr. Trumps detractors that he does not share the businessmans visions for mass deportation and the dissolution of NATO, while continuing to woo an angry Republican base that overwhelmingly voted for Mr. Trump in the states March primary.

Ive been feeling it out there for some time, Mr. McCain said. In the southern part of the state here, they are not feeling the recovery at all. Then there is this whole issue with these young people and kids carrying around all this debt.
T. Marshall Hahn Jr., who as president of Virginia Tech transformed it from a regional military college with a mostly white, mostly male student body into a diverse, internationally renowned research university, died on May 29 at his home outside Blacksburg, Va. He was 89.

The university, in Blacksburg, announced the death.

In 1998, in a retrospective examination of Dr. Hahns career, The Roanoke Times called him the man who made Tech what it is today.

A physicist by training, Dr. Hahn assumed the presidency of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, as it was then known, in 1962. At the time, enrollment numbered not much more than 6,000.

Although students at the institutes associated womens college, Radford College (now Radford University), could attend courses at Virginia Polytechnic, the student body was nominally all male. And though the institute had admitted its first black student in 1953, it remained overwhelmingly white.
While some might quibble with Ms. Lunas technique, few would argue against her appeal to clean up Mexicos electoral politics. Mexican political campaigns have never been for the faint of heart, and this year has been no different, with rough-and-tumble contests that have made a certain presidential contest north of the border look almost quaint in comparison.

The official campaign period in Mexico, which by law lasted only two months and ended on Wednesday, was marked by a dirty war, to use the favored term of the Mexican news media and political class. Candidates all over the country have hurled accusations of corruption at one another, including charges of graft and financing by drug traffickers. In the governors race in Veracruz, one candidate even accused his main competitor of being a pedophile.

Some contests also featured violence and intimidation, including the firebombing of a party leaders office in Veracruz. Dozens of local and regional candidates withdrew from races, reportedly because of threats from drug traffickers.

A lot is at stake. More than 1,300 seats are up for grabs, with the governorships the most important. The outcome of Sundays vote could also serve as a prologue for the 2018 presidential election. President Enrique Pena Nietos Institutional Revolutionary Party holds nine of the 12 contested governorships, but he is polling lower than any president in the past two decades, and his plummeting popularity could hurt his partys chances on Sunday.

Luis Carlos Ugalde, the director of Integralia Consultores, a political consultancy in Mexico City, said the level of invective and the prevalence of corruption allegations had increased in recent electoral cycles. This years tone was the most negative he had seen, he said.
VATICAN CITY  Her accusers call her an ambitious schemer, even a spy. The presiding judge has wondered aloud whether she is full of hot air. Vatican prosecutors want her in jail for as many as 15 years, charging that she stole and leaked state secrets.

She calls herself a scapegoat, claiming she is the target of a vendetta and a plot by her enemies to discredit her with Pope Francis.

Whatever the truth, Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui (pronounced CHOW-kee) has emerged as the central protagonist in what is being billed here as the Vatileaks 2 trial, and become a lightning rod of intrigue and criticism.

A hero to some and a villain to others, Ms. Chaouqui  Calabrian born, 34 years old and more than eight months pregnant  stands accused with two others of leaking confidential documents to two journalists who wrote separate tell-all books about Vatican mismanagement and corruption. The trial follows the pattern of the first Vatileaks trial, in which Paolo Gabriele, the butler to Benedict XVI, the pope emeritus, faced similar charges.
WASHINGTON  An exhausted and ill-equipped Iraqi Army faces daunting obstacles on the battlefield that will most likely delay for months a long-planned major offensive on the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, American and allied officials say.

The delay is expected despite American efforts to keep Iraqs creaky war machine on track. Although President Obama vowed to end the United States role in the war in Iraq, in the last two years the American military has increasingly provided logistics to prop up the Iraqi military, which has struggled to move basics like food, water and ammunition to its troops.

Without the help, Americans commanders said, the offensive against Mosul would most likely fail.

Americans are ferrying equipment and spare parts directly to the battlefield by cargo plane, helping arrange purchases of ammunition for Soviet-era equipment and pressing the Iraqis to adopt measures to improve a supply chain that would run over 200 miles from Defense Ministry depots in the Baghdad area to Mosul.

But no matter how hard the Americans push, the Iraqis can go only so fast. The pace of ground operations is likely to become even slower in the summers searing heat and during the coming holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims often fast during the day. Much of the Iraqis equipment needs to be repaired or replaced, and many Iraqi units will require additional training before attacking Mosul.
The Haggler doesnt spend a lot of time on Facebook. As a fictional construct, he has no friends, no family, no life and thus nothing to share. Also, the whole enterprise seems frivolous. You want him to like your vacation photos? Please. He seeks consumer justice. Its full-time work.

That said, the Haggler has found Facebook useful when trying to contact people for this column. Recently, however, he learned that it would be wise to approach the social network with a touch of skepticism.

Q. My son, William Swenson, has an odd and recurring problem: People keep creating fake Facebook accounts in his name. Why this happens is a mystery to us both, though it is worth noting that William is a public figure. In 2013, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for service to his country in Afghanistan.

Normally, I use Facebooks report feature, and the page is taken down. But recently I found a fake William Swenson Facebook account that I have reported to the company more than eight times. Each time, I hear back that the company believes that the account doesnt violate our Community Standards. In the feedback feature I have posted text messages stating that the account contains numerous factual errors. It doesnt help.
BRICS bank to issue first Yuan-denominated bonds

Published: June 3, 2016

The New Development Bank (NDB) of the BRICS countries is set to issue its first yuan-denominated bonds to finance sustainable development projects.

The NDBs first five-year yuan-denominated bonds (or green bonds) will be issued after receiving a rating from international ratings agencies as well as getting authorities approval.

Further, the NDB plans to release more bonds in local currencies including in Indian Rupee if the banks board and local authorities endorse the project plans

The Shanghai-based New Development Bank (NDB) has been founded by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS). It is headed by eminent Indian banker K V Kamath.

The bank plans to finance sustainable development projects in the emerging markets and developing countries. It announced its first batch of loans on April 2016, providing US $300 million to Brazil, US $81 million to China, US $250 million to India and US $180 million to South Africa.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2016

Topics: Banking  BRICS  Business  Economy  New Development Bank

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REDDING  Donald Trump singled out a black supporter at a rally in California on Friday as he sought to demonstrate his support among African Americans, saying, Look at my African American over here!

At the Friday rally, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was in the middle of describing a past campaign event, at which he said a black supporter slugged protesters who were dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit.

I want to find out whats going on with him, Trump said of the supporter at the previous rally. He then appeared to spot a black person in the audience of Fridays event in Northern California.

Oh, look at my African American over here, an excited Trump said, while pointing into the crowd. Look at him. Are you the greatest? You know what Im talking about? OK!

He then went on with his story, which appeared to match the events of a March rally that took place in Arizona.

We had an African American guy at one of the rallies a month ago, and he was sitting there behaving, Trump said. And we had protesters inside the arena. And they were dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit, OK?

This African American gets up and, man, he slugged these guys. He slugged them.

Trump said many people thought the black supporter at the earlier rally was an opponent of his campaign.

He was like this great guy, military guy, we have tremendous African American support, he said. The reason is Im going to bring jobs back to our country.

Polls have consistently shown that when it comes to support among African American voters, Trump trails his likely general election opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

He spent much of the Redding rally bashing Clinton. He also pledged to play heavy in California in an effort to capture the Electoral Colleges biggest prize in November.
SANTA ANA  A Laguna Niguel man who raped two women was sentenced Friday to 40 years to life in prison.

Babak Bobby Azadgilani, 29, was convicted of two counts of rape, among other charges, for sexually assaulting a 41-year-old woman at her home and a 22-year-old ex-girlfriend at his familys residence.

During Azadgilanis trial, Deputy District Attorney Lexie Elliott told the jury that the defendant was very persistent with the women and doesnt take no for an answer.

The prosecutor described how Azadgilani choked the women and hit them in the face using just as much violence as necessary to get what he wants.

In 2009, Azadgilani met the older woman at a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant. She gave him her number and later met him near Main Beach in downtown Laguna Beach, where she felt he got too aggressive.

The two met up again in April 2013, when she told authorities that Azadgilani talked his way into her home, hit her, hurled her onto a lounge chair and raped her.

The younger woman reached out to police in May 2013 to report that Azadgilani, her ex-boyfriend, had raped her. She described their relationship as crazy, toxic, but agreed to meet up with him again after their breakup.

While at Azadgilanis family home, the woman told him that they could never get back together, Elliott told the jury during his trial. He responded by hitting her across the face, grabbing a knife and holding it to her neck before sexually assaulting her, the prosecutor added.

Jack Earley, Azadgilanis attorney, denied that his client raped the women, telling the jury that Azadgilani is into at least a little bit of kinky sex.

City News Service contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: semery@ocregister.com
Privately owned drones increasingly populate the sky above Orange County, but few local cities have laws in place that regulate them, creating the potential for major accidents.

Thats according to a recent Orange County grand jury report, which calls for the county and each of its cities to adopt ordinances by next spring governing local drone use and punishing violators with up to a $1,000 fine or six months in jail.

Those measures, proposed to emulate a recent Los Angeles law giving the city teeth in enforcing rules that closely mirror federal regulations, would make it a misdemeanor to fly privately owned drones within 25 feet of another person, more than 500 feet above the ground or within five miles of an airport without permission.

While there have been no reported major drone accidents in Orange County, the grand jury report notes that local cities received nearly 100 drone-related complaints during a recent unspecified one-year period.

Those incidents included drones buzzing outside the bedroom windows of homes, unmanned aircraft filming sunbathers on beaches, a GoPro camera falling from a drone and landing near a group of people in an unidentified beach city, and the Huntington Beach Police Departments helicopter unit reporting several near misses in colliding with drones.

Federal law restricts some of those maneuvers, but the Federal Aviation Administration has issued few penalties for drone flights, causing some cities, such as Los Angeles, to create their own enforcement mechanisms.

Recreational drone owners are largely self-policed, which leads to a wide range of behavior, reads the grand jury report, released last week.

It is short-sighted for our county and cities to ignore this emerging concern.

Grand jury recommendations are not binding, but the county and its cities must respond within 90 days of the reports release, indicating whether they agree with the proposed changes.

The report found that almost all cities in the county reported having no plans to regulate drone use, either because officials saw it as a non issue or because they were awaiting further state or federal legislation to solve problems of unsafe flying.

Huntington Beach and Dana Point are two cities mentioned in the report as having laws related to remote-control aircraft flight, but those ordinances seem to forbid drone use only in certain areas and dont have rules about their use in most parts of town.

Federal laws prohibit recreational drones from flying above 400 feet, out of sight of the operator, recklessly, near people or stadiums, or within five miles of airports.

But the FAA has fined hobbyist operators only a couple of dozen times, choosing instead to educate offenders, according to an FAA official.

The agency has never fined a drone operator in California, according to data from a recent investigation by the publication Motherboard.

With twice as many drones sold in 2015 than in any year prior  1.1 million, according to the Consumer Technology Association  more cities nationally are considering ways to regulate the hobbyist aircraft.

In past years, municipalities have used existing public safety laws when attempting to prosecute drone hobbyists for dangerous flight maneuvers.

In October, with the intent to create a local enforcement option for federal laws, the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance making certain drone flights misdemeanor crimes  a law the grand jury wants Orange County and its cities to emulate.

Troy Rule, an associate professor of law at Arizona State University and expert in airspace regulations, said he thinks local governments are in the best position to create laws governing drone use.

Local authorities have access to the best local information, Rule said. And without local laws, very little enforcement is happening.

Congress is considering a bill that would make the FAA the sole regulator of unmanned aircraft, superseding local laws such as the one Los Angeles has passed, in an effort to prevent municipalities from creating a patchwork of airspace ordinances.

Rule said he sees the bill as an attempt to simplify regulations for the drone delivery services Amazon and Google may have planned.

But, he said, they would affect the ability of local governments to restrict hobbyists drone flights, as well.

In October, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed three bills that would have prohibited drone hobbyists from flying above wildfires, K-12 schools and jails, and would have implemented up to $5,000 fines and six months in jail for those violations. Brown said those actions were already illegal under other state laws.

Patrick Smith, owner of Costa Mesas Aerial Media Pros, a retailer and manufacturer of professional and hobbyist drones, said he agrees there needs to be laws restricting drone flight.

But he worries that the ordinances proposed by the grand jury report would be too restrictive, particularly the 25-foot buffer from people.

Theres always going to be people around, Smith said.

It sounds like I could be flying anywhere at any time and violate their laws, which I dont think is right, because weve been flying remote-control planes for near 30 years and weve never had issues.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7960 or jgraham@ocregister.com
SANTA ANA  A man was sentenced today to 250 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting a girl and boy, ages 4 and 5, in Anaheim.

Thomas Austin Farmer, 44, was convicted Jan. 19 of multiple felony counts of sexually assaulting the children from June 2013 through April 2014, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Heather Brown.

The victims were living with their parents and an infant sister in an Anaheim motel room when Farmer sexually abused them, Brown said.

Farmer, who was best friends with the parents, would offer to take the children for sleepovers under the pretense of giving the couple a break, Brown said.

Farmer, who would also take the children out to buy toys, would bring the girl and boy over to the sober-living home he lived in and helped manage so he could sexually assault them there, Brown said.

Farmer initially denied the assaults to police, but later confessed during his interrogation and declared he was a monster who should be locked up, Brown said. The defendant, however, testified during the trial that he was coerced into a confession, which was videotaped, the prosecutor said.

Farmer was given the maximum punishment, Brown said.
A proposed merger between Irvine-based St. Joseph Health System and another major Catholic hospital chain, Providence Health & Services, is raising concerns about long-term access to womens reproductive services.

The American Civil Liberties Union and womens health advocates say a change in leadership could usher in a more stringent application of church doctrine that dictates the type of medical treatments Catholic-sponsored hospitals may provide.

That doctrine forbids contraceptives, abortions and sterilizations as methods of birth control. It leaves room for interpretation, however, when a womans health is considered at serious risk.

Hospitals vary in how closely they follow the Catholic directives, with some allowing, for example, physicians to remove a womans fallopian tubes  a form of sterilization  to try to prevent ovarian cancer.

The main concern raised by the merger proposal is that there is no guarantee these types of services, which could be construed as forbidden, will continue if the two hospital systems consolidate.

With a change of leadership there might be different rules, regulations, policies written or unwritten or imposed that were not previously imposed, said Ruth Dawson, staff attorney with ACLU of Southern California.

St. Joseph Health system director Nisha Morris said in a statement that there would be no changes.

Our coming together with Providence Health & Services will have no impact on the availability or accessibility of reproductive health care services provided by any health care facility affiliated with either organization, she said.

The state Attorney Generals Office is expected to make a decision on the merger by June 13.

The ACLU and others are asking the Attorney General, if it approves the merger, to require that hospitals providing services as exceptions to the directives continue to do so for 10 years. They also want those services expanded to hospitals where they are not already provided.

We know that the different hospitals at issue in this merger, some of them allow more reproductive health services than others. It is not as simple of a transaction as the merging entities seem to think it is, Dawson said.

St. Joseph Health owns three of the largest Orange County hospitals  Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, St. Joseph Hospital in Orange and St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton  accounting for nearly 22 percent of all hospital beds in the county.

Washington-based Providence owns, among others, Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica and Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance.

If it goes through, the consolidation would be among a wave of mergers and partnerships in the health care industry.

Many of the mergers involve Catholic hospitals buying smaller secular hospitals that then have to adhere to directives laid out by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. A May report from the ACLU and MergerWatch found that 1 in 6 hospital beds nationwide is Catholic, a 22 percent increase since 2001.

The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services say that a non-Catholic partner hospital must agree to respect church teaching and discipline.

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, one of the areas largest hospitals, stopped allowing elective abortions in 2013, two months after it affiliated with St. Joseph Health.

According to the ACLU, because of these rules, women dont always get the emergency care they need during a miscarriage or other pregnancy complication.

We believe that hospitals like these that are open to the general public and which receive government funding shouldnt be able to invoke religion to deny or discriminate basic health care, said Dawson. Thats what were warning against.

The directives prohibit direct sterilization of either men or women, whether permanent or temporary, but they allow procedures that induce sterility  when their direct effect is the cure or alleviation of a present and serious pathology and a simpler treatment is not available.

But its hard to know where exactly those services are provided, said Amy Chen, an attorney with the National Health Law Program.

An impact report prepared by the state Attorney General concluded that because Providence and St. Joseph Health are both Catholic hospital chains, reproductive services would not be affected at either.

Womens reproductive health advocates, however, say figures included in the report are not accurate or inclusive.

Tubal ligations are the second most common form of birth control in the U.S. Nearly 1 in 3 women in their mid-30s to mid-40s choose this option, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, its common for Catholic hospitals to bar doctors from performing the procedures during delivery, which is the safest and fastest time to perform the procedure.

In a letter to the Attorney Generals Office, Chen, representing the California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom, said her group was aware of about 35 tubal ligations performed in 2015 at Petaluma Valley Hospital, a St. Joseph Health Hospital north of San Francisco.

But the impact report includes older data, from 2014, putting the figure at six. It also includes only vaginal births with tubal ligations when tubal ligations are more commonly performed in conjunction with C-sections.

According to the report, 69 sterilizations were performed with vaginal deliveries at all 14 St. Joseph Health hospitals in 2014, not including Hoag. Thirty-one such procedures were performed at Providences 31 hospitals.

Contact the writer: jchandler@ocregister.com and @jennakchandler on Twitter

Editors note: This article was updated to include a response from St. Joseph Health System.
Believe it or not, in 2011, Cheech and Chong predicted the 2016 presidential race.

Somewhere, the extreme ends of the political spectrum meet, Cheech Marin told a reporter in Davenport, Iowa, where the comedians were performing.

Marin was talking about marijuana legalization and the unlikely coalition that supported it. In addition to the duos longtime fans, the Tea Party wants marijuana legal, too, he said.

This November, California voters may very well have the opportunity to vote for that. Supporters of a ballot initiative, the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act, have submitted more than 600,000 signatures to the Secretary of States Office. The measure needs only 365,880 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The Adult Use of Marijuana Act would make it legal for Californians at least age 21 to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, six plants and 8 grams of concentrated cannabis. It would also require commercial licensing and testing, regulate labeling and advertising and add a 15 percent sales tax on top of other taxes.

Proponents have already raised millions of dollars for the fall campaign.

Meanwhile, there are more than 2 million newly registered voters this year, more than double the number for the same period in both 2008 and 2012. About 1.5 million of those new voters are registered as Democrats or independents, and many are younger than 35.

Unsurprisingly, 80 percent of California voters ages 18-34 support marijuana legalization, according to a survey conducted in February by Probolsky Research, while 46 percent of voters age 65 and up would vote yes.

Equally unsurprising is this data from the latest Hoover Institution Golden State Poll: Of California Democratic primary voters age 30 and younger, 61 percent support Bernie Sanders, who has come out in favor of marijuana legalization, while 30 percent back Hillary Clinton, who has not.

But wait, theres more.

The Libertarian party has just nominated former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson for president. His most recent job in the private sector was as CEO of a company that manufactures marijuana edibles.

Johnson supports legalization and cheerfully confessed to reporters that hes one of the 100 million Americans who regularly use marijuana. He also admitted hes in the tens of thousands of those that are guilty of buying the drug legally in Colorado and transporting it illegally to his home.

Historians will remember 2016 as the year all the candidates ran for president just for the power to pardon themselves.

The outcome of the election in California may depend on the answers to two mysteries: How many under-30 voters will turn out in November to vote for marijuana legalization? And, more importantly, cui bono  who benefits?

In 2012, the statewide popular vote for president broke down this way: 7.8 million votes for Barack Obama, 4.8 million votes for Mitt Romney and 143,000 votes for Gary Johnson.

Lets all do the math together. If a million economically stressed former Democratic voters jump to Donald Trump, and a million weed-legalizing former Sanders supporters move on from the Bern to Johnson, its possible that, for the first time since 1988, Californias 55 electoral votes could be knocked out of the Democratic column.

And that would almost certainly make Donald Trump the next president of the United States.

When he redecorates the Oval Office, maybe hell order one of those custom-made rugs with meaningful quotations woven into the design.

Picture it  cream-colored, with gold letters that form a glittering border and spell out the inspiring words: The arc of the comedy universe is long, but it bends toward drug jokes.

Susan Shelley is an author, a former television associate producer and was twice a Republican candidate for the state Assembly.
MOSCOW  Russias foreign minister said Washington has asked Moscow not to target the al-Qaidas branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, but the U.S. insisted Friday that it only wants Russia to carefully select it targets to avoid hitting civilians and legitimate opposition groups.

Sergey Lavrov said that Russia has long insisted that the moderate, U.S.-backed opposition groups should leave the areas occupied by Nusra. He said in televised remarks that Russia and the U.S. have engaged in close dialogue on how to secure a cease-fire in Syria, but added that fighting Islamic State and Nusra should be a top priority.

They are telling us not to hit it (Nusra), because there is normal opposition next  to it, Lavrov said. But that opposition must leave terrorists positions, we long have agreed on that.

In Paris, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters that he discussed the upsurge of violence in Syria in Fridays telephone conversation with Lavrov.

Kerry said the two talked for an hour and worked specifically on ways to try to strengthen the enforcement and accountability for this cessation. We have good ideas but were not there yet.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner, speaking to reporters in Washington, said that Kerry had emphasized the need for Russia to carefully distinguish between Islamic State and Nusra and legitimate opposition units.

This is a common refrain, common theme that weve been conveying to the Russians over the past weeks, Toner said. We obviously all agree that ISIL and the Nusra Front pose a real threat to the security on the ground in Syria.

At the same time, Toner noted that strikes against legitimate opposition forces and civilians only make people more supportive of these terrorist groups and that is a dynamic weve seen play out in Syria for years now because of the regimes actions.

Of course we support strikes focused solely on either Daesh or Al Nusra, he said. But that a greater effort, a more complete effort needs to be made in order to distinguish between Al Nusra and the parties to the cessation.

Russia first set a deadline for Syrian opposition units to withdraw from areas occupied by Nusra, but then agreed to give them more time to pull out.

Despite a Russia- and U.S.-brokered truce in Syria that began on Feb. 27, fighting has continued to rage in many areas, particularly around the city of Aleppo, trapping civilians in the cross-fire between government and opposition forces.

On Thursday, the Russian military flew one of the victims, 11-year old Sidra Zaarur, who lost both legs in the shelling of Aleppo in April for treatment in Moscow.
WASHINGTON  President Barack Obama shortened the sentences Friday of 42 people serving time for drug-related offenses, continuing a push for clemency that has ramped up in the final year of his administration.

Roughly half of the 42 receiving commutations Friday were serving life sentences. Most are nonviolent offenders, although a few were also charged with firearms violations. The White House said many of them would have already finished their sentences if they had been sentenced under current, less onerous sentencing guidelines.

The latest group of commutations brings to 348 the total number of inmates whose sentences Obama has commuted  more than the past six presidents combined, the White House said. The pace of commutations and the rarer use of pardons are expected to increase as the end of Obamas presidency nears.

He remains committed to using his clemency power throughout the remainder of the administration to give more deserving individuals that same second chance, White House counsel Neil Eggleston wrote in a blog post.

Eggleston added that the offenders receiving commutations had more than repaid their debt to society and earned this second chance.

One of the offenders, Douglas Ray Dunkins Jr. of Fort Worth, Texas, had been held up by civil liberties groups as one of the most egregious examples of over-sentencing. Dunkins had only a minor shoplifting conviction on his prior record in 1993 when, at age 26, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiracy to possess and distribute crack cocaine, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a report. No drugs were found, but prosecutors used testimony from co-conspirators who testified in exchange for lighter sentences, the ACLU said.

The ACLU said Dunkins had worked for nearly a decade as a paralegal helping other inmates with legal work and wanted to mentor youth if he ever got out. Dunkins is slated to be released in October.

The day-to-day of prison is taking an even greater toll on me.  I wake up every day and pray in a cell thats white and grey with little room to move around in between me and my cellmate, Dunkins wrote in an opinion piece last year in The Guardian. Clemency is something that I long for  not just for me, but for a lot of inmates who have served well over 20-plus years for crimes involving crack cocaine.

Though theres wide bipartisan support for a criminal justice overhaul, what had looked like a promising legislative opportunity in Obamas final year has mostly lost steam. As with Obamas other priorities, the chaotic presidential campaign has increasingly made cooperation among Republicans and Democrats in Congress difficult to achieve this year.

Obama has long called for getting rid of strict sentences for drug offenses, arguing they lead to excessive punishment and sky-high incarceration rates. With Obamas support, the Justice Department in recent years has directed prosecutors to rein in the use of harsh mandatory minimums.

The Obama administration has also expanded criteria for inmates applying for clemency, targeting nonviolent offenders who have behaved well in prison and would have received shorter sentences if convicted of the same crime a few years later. Civil liberties groups hailed that move but have since raised concerns that too few are actually receiving clemency under the policy.
SAN DIEGO  Terry Petrovich asked her oncologist point blank: Am I going to count on you to help me achieve a good death?

To her relief, he told her he would have no problem prescribing a lethal dose of drugs under Californias new law allowing such prescriptions for the terminally ill.

But many in Californias medical community are grappling with the law that goes into effect June 9. Some physicians have told their patients they are not willing to play a role in intentionally ending a persons life.

Catholic hospitals will not provide the prescriptions because it goes against the churchs stance on the issue, according to Alliance of Catholic Health Care, representing 48 facilities, 27 of which provide hospice services. The organization, though, cannot bar its affiliated physicians from talking about it, or referring patients to medical offices willing to prescribe such drugs.

How it plays out in trend-setting California, the countrys most populous state, could determine whether the practice spreads nationwide. Some see providing the choice to the dying as a logical evolution in a medical care system advanced in helping people live longer but limited in preventing slow, painful deaths.

Petrovich was diagnosed in 2012 with stage 4 non-Hodgkins Lymphoma thats spread to her bone marrow.

Im not suicidal by any means, said Petrovich, wearing a Stupid Cancer Get Busy Living T-shirt. I want to keep hiking keep loving my dog, just keep living until I cant anymore  and then I want that option.

She fought for passage of the law after identifying with 29-year-old California resident Brittany Maynard, who was dying from brain cancer and moved to Oregon in 2014, the first state to make it legal, so she could take the drugs to end her suffering.

California has more safeguards than the other four states  Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana  where it is allowed. Still there are concerns it will lead to hasty decisions, misdiagnosis, and waning support for palliative care, in which dying people can be sedated to relieve suffering.

I think everyone has that personal, ethical dilemma because were not really taught in medical school to cause someones death, and yet we certainly think society is moving toward wanting the option, said Dr. Daniel Mirda of the Association of Northern California Oncologists.

Mirda opposed the bill because he did not think it was a doctors place to weigh in, but now he plans to decide on a case by case basis.

The majority of physicians, it seems, are neutral, nervous, not comfortable prescribing it, but are not going to stop someone from seeking out another physician for help to do this, he said.

Jan Emerson-Shea of the California Hospital Association says a terminally ill person is more likely to be prescribed the medicine when they are at home or in a hospice setting and not in a hospital.

It is not known when the first prescription could be written. Patients must be given six months or less to live, make two verbal requests within 15 days of each other and submit a written request.

People with terminal illnesses, like Petrovich, are preparing for when that time may come.

After undergoing immunotherapy, Petrovichs cancer appears stable and she is still working as the administrator of the Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego.

But she is cognizant that her cancer may become aggressive and the treatments ineffective. She does not want her daughter to see her suffer like her own mother who died from ovarian cancer.

I just heard this heartache in her voice, said Petrovich, recalling one of the last conversations with her 77-year-old mother, who was bedridden in diapers after two rounds of chemotherapy. She said Terry, if I could get up out of this bed and find a gun, I would kill myself, and that just like totally  I mean I still gets goosebumps when I think of it  because it was just totally devastating for me that my mom could be in so much pain at the end stage of her disease, where she had done all the treatment that she could, there was no other option for her, but she was still completely aware of everything that was going on and there was nothing that she could do to get herself out of this pain.

Petrovichs ex-husband died from blood cancer and their daughter learned what a bad death looks like at the age of 18, Petrovich said.

After the law passed, Petrovich talked to her daughter about her wishes. On the refrigerator at her home in Julian, east of San Diego, is the form giving her 33-year-old daughter the power to make medical decisions when she is not physically capable of doing so.

I dont want to be conscious fully, my mind fully there, but lying in my bed unable to move, unable to get up and go to the bathroom, unable to pet my dog, unable to go outside, said Petovich, who hikes daily with her dog, Piper.

She doesnt know that shell ever take the drugs, but I now have the reassurance that I dont have to have a bad death. Thats really comforting.
NEW INFORMATION AT 10:16 A.M. - The Sam Scism Motors Car Show benefiting the St. Francois County Rotary Club is cancelled.

NEW INFORMATION AT 8:50 A.M. - The ServPro Farmington Country Days Parade is cancelled for Saturday due to the weather moving through the area during the next several hours.

Keep checking www.dailyjournalonline.com throughout the day for more updates on events.

ORIGINAL STORY - Country Days 2016 kicked-off on Friday morning with prayer, cinnamon rolls, coffee and a couple of rain drops here and there.

Farmington Mayor Mit Landrum welcomed those gathered at the gazebo in Long Park for the KREI Mayors Prayer Breakfast in Long Park  the traditional start to the three-day event in Farmington.

This event is one of the events happening during the year that is near and dear to my heart, he said. I dont think Farmington would be where it is if it wasnt for the fervent prayers of people starting back with our founder, Sarah Barton Murphy.

Landrum introduced Pastor Kevin Davis of the First Assembly of God Church of Farmington as well as the praise and worship band from the church. Davis delivered the message with the band providing music for the event.

Davis spoke of the importance to making sure of a solid connection to the true power source.

That power source, according to 1 Corinthians 1:18, is the message of the cross, the message of Jesus Christ, he said.

Davis said the message of the cross is the power of God and the power of every believer to live a spiritual life  making sure of a clear and solid connection to keep that power flowing.

He said there are three important steps to make sure that connection stays solid. The first is to clear off any "corrosion" on one's faith. Davis said it is important to get involved in the "foolishness of the cross" through loving one's enemies or praying for those who hurt others. The third is to stay connected to the "power source" God has for us.

There are many hooked up to the wrong source  trying to use a six-volt battery for a 12-volt life, he said. Theres not going to be enough power or juice to make it  were going to find out our strength is too small.

Davis added it is important to lay aside those things that needlessly fill up our lives.

Lets free ourselves of such things of this world, he said. Lets make sure this morning that we have a solid connection to the true power source  that is the message of our Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross for every one of us.

Overcast skies and the occasional light rain did not seem to deter many from visiting the historic downtown corridor of Farmington as the local banks offered several venues for family fun during the first afternoon of Country Days.

Putting a positive spin on the weather was First State Community Bank President Matt Sebastian as he was cooking over hot barbecue.

This little bit of rain is nothing, Sebastian said. Its just keeping us cool.

During the afternoon festivities, First State offered fair-goers a chance to have an inexpensive lunch with their annual Dogs and Suds on its parking lot on East Columbia Street. The bank offered hot dogs, chips and a soda for the only 50 cents each.

In addition, boys and girls could spend a few moments visiting with a real-life Disney princess as Snow White took time to greet local children and have her picture taken with those who were so inclined.

We had another great turnout today, said Janeen McEntire, director of public relations for First State Community Bank. Lots of people stopped by to enjoy a hot dog under the tent, and our special guest, Snow White, was a big hit with all the kids.

For those who had a sweet tooth, Farmington was the place to be on Friday afternoon. Both young and old were able to feast on cotton candy, ice cream and lemonade at several different stops.

The first stop for almost 100 elementary school students from the Farmington Elementary Summer School program was Ozark Federal to refresh with cold lemonade before moving on.

In addition to offering free lemonade, the bank also offered a photo booth with plenty of costumes to wear while in the booth.

We dont make it downtown very often, so its nice to see everyone and to talk to different people. said Amy Martin, who was enjoying the day with her family. The kids love coming to the photo booth and having their picture taken.

At the same time, Ozark Federal was serving lemonade, people could walk across Liberty Street and have an ice cream sandwich at US Bank.

We typically we offer kettle corn, but this year we decide to offer ice cream sandwiches, said Becky Thompson, the branch manager. Country Days is such a tradition and we want to helps support the community that has support us.

Another popular spot for the afternoon was New Era Bank on Liberty Street. The local branch was participating in the annual festivities by offering guests some cotton candy.

For Brenda Williams and Mike Grajek from Ironton, who were having a hot dog lunch at First State Community Bank with their grand-daughters, Alex Silvey, 12, and Maddie Wren, 9, Country Days had been a day to spend with family.

We come every year just for these festivities, said Williams. It has become a yearly event for us. Our grand-daughters come down from St. Peters, Missouri to come to Country Days and spend some time with us.

As the afternoon events downtown began to wind down, Belgrade State Bank offered one last event before the evening attractions began. With ice cream supplied by Uncle Dale's Homemade Ice Cream, the local branch sponsored an old fashioned ice cream social.

Like most fairs, the evening began with vendors and rides opening to the public at 5 p.m. But the two real attractions was the STARTEK/J98 Country Days Talent Show. The top five youth and adult performers will be competing in the final round at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.

The final event of the evening was the Friday Night Concerts featuring Brooke Eden with Justin Adams on the main stage.

Saturday begins with the Parkland Health Center Fun Run supporting the Walker Johns Childhood Cancer Foundation. Check-in and registration begin at 6 a.m. at the Carleton Street entrance of St. Joseph gymnasium. The 1-mile run/walk and 5-mile run begin at 7 a.m., with the 2-mile walk beginning at 7:30 a.m.

The Country Days Marketplace opens at 9 a.m. on East Columbia Street with crafts, home decorations and a wide variety of items for sale.

First State Community Bank will hosts the annual Diaper Derby and Sand Bank starting at 8:30 a.m. for the sand bank, followed by the diaper derby at 9 a.m. The Farmington Women of Today once again sponsor the Little Miss and Master Contest, with coronation at 3:45 p.m. The Farmington Presbyterian Church returns with their annual Quilt Show and Tea Room, scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Servpro Country Days Parade is set for 10 a.m. and continues to be one of the largest parades in the region.

The Country Days Classic Car Cruise-In, sponsored by Sam Scism Ford Lincoln, is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the FSCB parking lot at the corner of Columbia and Henry Streets. The event is hosted by the St. Francois County Rotary Club.

Sk8 Jam 2016 begins at 12:30 p.m. at the Farmington Sk8 Park. Registration for the event starts at noon.

KFMO/B104 holds the 8 to B Great starting at 12:30 p.m. in Long Park. In addition, tours of Long House are scheduled from 1 to 4 p.m.

The finals for the STARTEK/J98 Country Days Talent Show take place from 1:30 to 3 p.m.

Saturday nights concerts begin at 4 p.m. with local favorites Casey Reeves taking the stage at 4 p.m. followed by Route 67 at 6 p.m. The mainstage concerts wrap-up with vocal trio MamaDear and Levi Hummon.

Main Stage sponsors include Chris Auffenberg Automotive, Centene Corporation, First State Community Bank, Parkland Health Center, Pepsi America and SRG Global.

Faith and Family Sunday returns this year with the Church in the Park and a concert on the gazebo stage, sponsored by Thurman, Shinn & Co.

The Farmington Ministerial Alliance hosts a church service beginning at 9 a.m. at the Coldwell Banker Hulsey Gazebo.

The Berry Brothers with Andy Roose begin performing at noon on Sunday.

New this year are the Farmington Ministerial Alliance Faith Games, starting at 3 p.m. and feature good, old-fashioned fun with a pie eating contest, potato sack race and much more.

The Marketplace, midway and concessions open from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. All-you-can-ride wrist bands are available for purchase on Sunday only at the midway ticket booth.

For more information on Country Days, visit www.farmingtoncountrydays.com.
As temperatures sizzle, swimmers will dip into pools for relief and fun.

The water might feel refreshing, but odds are good that its more filthy than fine.

Health inspectors have issued more than 27,600 citations during the past three years for conditions at Orange Countys public pools that put bathers at risk of catching diseases such as E. coli, a Register analysis found.

Viruses, bacteria and parasites, shed mostly through feces, can sully the water and make people sick if theres not enough chlorine, which kills the germs, or if pH levels are out of range. A high pH can render the chlorine ineffective and irritate skin and eyes.

Chlorine  thats your main disinfectant, thats going to get rid of almost any kind of bacteria, said Mike Haller, food and pool safety manager for the Orange County Health Care Agency. If its not there, the pool water gets cloudy. It could harbor pathogens that are harmful to bathers.

Looking for all types of potential safety hazards, including those that might put swimmers at risk of drowning, the Health Care Agency inspects the approximately 7,000 communal pools, hot tubs, wading pools and water slides at parks, schools, apartment complexes and hotels twice a year, turning up an average of 35,896 violations annually.

A Register review of the agencys enforcement data from 2013 to 2015 found 27,619 disinfection violations for chlorine, pH, water clarity, and cyanuric acid, a chemical that preserves chlorine exposed to a lot of sunlight.

The Health Care Agency data were included in a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of public pools in five states.

It found that 1 in 8 inspections resulted in immediate closures because of serious health and safety violations.

Last year in Orange County, the Health Care Agency temporarily closed 595 pools.

Some pools were shuttered multiple times, including those at Comfort Suites in San Clemente, where the water was green and cloudy, and Westminster High School, where a main drain cover was missing, inspection reports show.

A lot of people underestimate the suction thats coming through (the drain). Its not that yuck factor, but its probably one of the more dangerous situations, said Jeff Warren, a supervising environmental health specialist with the Health Care Agency.

What kinds of germs end up in pools and how do they get there? The answer lies mostly in feces.

University of Miami researchers studying animal feces in ocean water found that one adult human swimmer contributes approximately the same microbial load as one bird fecal event, and the CDC estimates humans have an average of 0.14 grams of feces on their bottoms.

Swimmers who dont rinse off before diving into a pool, or who have accidents in the water, can easily spread germs to others.

A 2013 CDC study found that 58 percent of all public pool filters it tested were contaminated with E. coli, though not all strains of E. coli are toxic.

Chlorine isnt always effective, especially against a hardy parasite called cryptosporidium, a major culprit of pool-borne diarrhea. The CDC says it can stay alive for days even in well-maintained pools.

Good hygiene is one of the best ways to protect yourself, says Sunny Jiang, a civil and environmental engineering professor at UC Irvine.

There are always signs posted saying, Take your children to the bathroom, she said. People are maybe not fully aware of the importance.

Warren advises pool users to take an inventory of the condition of their public pool before diving in. Assess the clarity of the water, and check whether gates and security equipment are in working order.

The level of maintenance of the pool, he said, is a good indication of whether it has been neglected.

Staff writer Deepa Bharath contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: jchandler@ocregister.com and @jennakchandler on Twitter
PARIS  Heavy rains in France lifted the Seine River on Friday to its highest levels since 1982, threatening Paris cultural institutions and soaking much of the French countryside east of the capital.

The Seine has continued to swell since the river burst its banks on Wednesday, raising alarms throughout the city. As of 10 p.m. Friday, its waters had reached 20 feet. The river was expected to crest in the evening about 21 feet, and to remain at high levels throughout the weekend, the French Environment Ministry said in a statement.

The situation is still evolving hour per hour, a deputy mayor of Paris, Colombe Brossel, said at a news conference at City Hall, adding that the authorities estimated that it would take at least a week or two for the water to recede to normal levels, which are typically 3 to 6 feet above the standard reference point for measuring the height of the river.

Near the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, pieces of tree trunks floated along the swollen river. The waters had risen to the waistline of the Zouave, a notable statue next to the Pont de lAlma that has traditionally been used as a gauge of the Seines levels. The citys government urged residents to move valuables out of their basements. An art collection had to be removed from the city hall in Ivry-sur-Seine, a southeastern suburb of Paris, for safekeeping.

Around the Eiffel Tower, the banks are flooded, said Julien Rogard, 23, an engineer who takes the No. 6 Metro line, which crosses over the Seine on the Pont de Bir-Hakeim. Where we usually can walk, we cant anymore.

Vanessa Colnot, 39, who lives in Choisy-le-Roi, a southeastern suburb of Paris, said she had watched from her windows as the waters rose for two days. My baby sitter lives in the flooded area, she said. People have started to leave their homes because there is water in the streets, and they dont want to stay if it means wearing rain boots inside.

The Seine has not overflowed this much since December 1982, when it rose to about 20 feet, but the rivers level is still short of the 26.2 feet reached in the catastrophic flood of January 1910.

Parisians and tourists thronged to take photos of the swollen Seine, prompting a warning from Brossel, who said: There are still people going on the riverbanks to take pictures. It is not safe. We are asking you to respect the ban on going there.

The government has made emergency plans to shift operations from the Elysee Palace, the seat of the French presidency, to the Chateau de Vincennes, a former royal fortress just east of the capital, if the waters go above 21 feet.

Were not yet at this stage, an official at the general secretariat for national defense and security told the magazine Le Point. For now, were making sure that all plans are ready and that the different measures may be set in motion to ensure the continuation of governmental work.

Officials expressed fears that telecommunications and computer equipment on the lower floors of the Foreign Ministry building on the Left Bank could be inundated. They said the ministrys archives had been moved to the suburbs in 2010 for safekeeping.

Across France, 20,000 households were without power on Friday, mostly in the Seine-et-Marne area, east of Paris, and in Essonne, south of Paris, a result of the swelling of the Marne and Loing tributaries of the Seine.

Workers in Paris erected a special barrier on Friday morning to protect an underground electrical transformer station near the Pont de lAlma. The substation provides power to about 80,000 customers in the Seventh and Eighth Arrondissements.

The evacuation of artworks from the Louvre, which was closed to visitors, has attracted particular attention. Starting Thursday, officials at the museum activated an emergency flood-protection plan established in 2002, prioritizing the most fragile artworks, such as tapestries.

An estimated 150,000 artworks in storage rooms and an additional 7,000 pieces in galleries were vulnerable to flooding, and a large portion of those were moved to higher floors as a precaution, officials said.

Officials emphasized that no waters had entered the museum.

Other cultural institutions that were closed on Friday included the Musee dOrsay, which is in a former train station on the Left Bank; the Musee du Quai Branly, which is devoted to non-Western art; and the main Bibliotheque Nationale building, named after former President Francois Mitterrand.

The Musee Girodet in Montargis, a town about 77 miles south of Paris, suffered heavy damage on Thursday. The museum is devoted mainly to the work of Anne-Louis Girodet, a Romantic painter who died in 1824.

Heavy rains also caused deadly flooding in Germany, particularly in the southwestern state of Baden-Wurttemberg and in the southern state of Bavaria.
OAKLAND  The family of an Oakland artist who was shot while working on an anti-violence mural has filed a claim against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, saying it is partly responsible for the shooting because it was committed with an agents stolen gun.

The family of Antonio Ramos announced the step toward a federal lawsuit Thursday, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Ramos was shot and killed Sept. 29 with a weapon that was stolen Sept. 13 in San Francisco from a car being used by an ICE agent. Marquise Holloway, of Oakland, was charged with murder in Ramos death. Police say the shooting stemmed from an argument after Holloway eyed Ramos camera equipment to steal.

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, said Frank Pitre, the attorney for Ramoss family.

Pitre said the agent failed to follow proper policies to stop the weapon from being stolen, such as keeping it in a bag or securing the weapon.

ICE officials didnt respond to a request for comment.

Ramos death came just months after Kate Steinle, 32, was shot to death in July along the San Francisco waterfront with a gun stolen from a U.S. Bureau of Land Management ranger.

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.

As a result of the high-profile deaths connected to stolen weapons, elected officials in Oakland and San Francisco have proposed new requirements for storing firearms in vehicles.
St. Francois County Health Center is partnering with the American Lung Association and Washington County Memorial Hospital Project C.A.L.M. to offer free classes to help adults quit smoking.

The classes will be held on Thursdays beginning June 9 at 10:30 a.m. at the St. Francois County Health Center in Park Hills.

Most people know that smoking causes cancer, heart disease, and other major health problems. Smoking during pregnancy can cause additional health problems, including premature birth, certain birth defects, and infant death. Quitting smoking is the single most important step you can take to protect your health and provide a healthier environment for your baby.

St. Francois County Health Center Assistant Director Jessica McKnight says the current partnership is allowing the health center to provide incentives for pregnant women to quit smoking.

Free diaper bags will be given to all pregnant women who sign up and attend the first Freedom From Smoking class on June 9, even if they do not complete the full program, said McKnight. And the women that complete the full seven-week program will receive a three-month supply of diapers and their name will be entered in a drawing for a stroller/car seat combo.

McKnight said the upcoming classes are not just for pregnant women, and that anyone who finishes the program will receive a $10 gift card.

The Freedom From Smoking program being offered at the health center is based on the latest research to help smokers understand the physical, mental and social aspects of nicotine addiction to overcome temptations and triggers. It approaches the difficulties of quitting in a supportive style.

Ranked the most effective smoking cessation program in a study by Fordham University Graduate School of Business, the program has helped over a million Americans begin smoke-free lives.

Studies show that people who use the program are six times more likely to be smoke-free one year later than those who try to quit on their own.

After quitting, participants experience immediate health benefits. Plus, they reduce their risk of long-term smoking-related illness and disability.

To enroll in Freedom From Smoking or learn more about the program please call McKnight at the St. Francois County Health Center at 573-431-1947 ext. 125 or visit www.sfchc.org
Talent show: Fremont Middle School held their end-of-year Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports celebration with a drawing and talent show. Throughout the school year, students displaying good PBIS skills, received special tickets. Those tickets earned students chances for prizes donated by local businesses.

Staff honors: Papillion-La Vista Community Schools recognized five staff members May 13 with its third annual presentation of the Greatness Awards. Danielle Stoltenberg, assistant site director for Kids Club at Walnut Creek Elementary School, received the Foundation/Kids Club Staff Member of the Year award; John Mason, custodian at Hickory Hill Elementary School, was recognized as Classified Staff Member of the Year; the Rookie Teacher of the Year Award was presented to Papillion Junior High special education teacher Nicole Baranko; Suzanne Harless, physical therapist with the Early Childhood Center, was recognized as Elementary Teacher/Specialist of the Year; and Secondary Teacher/Specialist of the Year went to Monika Peters, vocal music teacher at Papillion Junior High.

Science students: Students from North High School, King Science & Technology Magnet Center and Alice Buffett Magnet Middle School will represent Nebraska at the American Junior Academy of Science annual meeting, which is held in conjunction with the National Association of Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science meetings Feb. 15 to 19, 2017, in Boston.

A+ teacher: Druid Hill Elementary School special education teacher Katie Higgins was named Omaha Public Schools A+ Award winner for 2016. The award honors Higgins for her teaching skills and going above and beyond to help her students achieve.

Write Touch: Students from Council Bluffs area schools who were published in the 33rd Annual issue of The Write Touch literary and arts magazine were recognized at a breakfast on May 12. Students from Council Bluffs Community Schools, Lewis Central Community Schools, St. Albert Catholic Schools and the Iowa School for the Deaf were among those selected for this years publication. An electronic copy of The Write Touch is online at cb-schools.org under District then Student Achievement.
Roger Glenn has a lot of friends to remember Monday when he gets to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

A high school classmate who died in Vietnam. And 33 Marines from the helicopter squadron Glenn served with during 1968 and 1969. All of their names etched in the memorial walls black granite.

Im going to put a rose at the base of each panel, said Glenn, 68, of Dorchester, Nebraska. Im sure tears are going to flow.

Glenn is one of 500 Vietnam veterans from Nebraska who will be honored at a banquet Sunday night at the Embassy Suites in La Vista.

Then theyll get a 2 a.m. wake-up call Monday morning and climb aboard buses for Eppley Airfield. Before dawn, theyll board three chartered American Airlines jets  dubbed Red, White and Blue  that will take them to Washington for a daylong tour of patriotic memorials in the nations capital.

Called the Vietnam Combat Veterans Flight, the trip follows the model of previous Honor Flights that have ferried 2,100 World War II and Korean War veterans to Washington since 2008.

Individual and corporate donors have contributed $450,000 to cover the cost of the flight, which was organized by Bill and Evonne Williams through their Omaha nonprofit group, Patriotic Productions.

Jim Knotts, president and CEO of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, will lead a brief ceremony near the wall on Monday morning, highlighted by a performance of the West Point Alumni Glee Club and a presentation of commemorative pins.

He said this is the largest group from one state to ever visit the wall, Bill Williams said.

The veterans will pose for group photos at the nearby Lincoln Memorial before visiting other war memorials, as well as the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.

Before sunset, theyll board their planes for the trip home.

The veterans are scheduled to arrive back at Eppley Airfield between 9 and 10 p.m. Monday. The public is invited to greet them at the airport in what the Williamses hope will be a large welcome-home ceremony.

That would be quite a contrast with the indifference and  occasionally  hostility that many veterans say they encountered when they returned from Vietnam.

For years, some set aside their wartime memories. But a number of vets said they are excited about the reunion and the trip.

Im interested in how many Ill see that I actually knew 50 years ago, said Regg Ward, 74, of Laurel, who served in Vietnam with the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment in 1965.

Coming home, he said, will be a lot different than his low-key return to Eppley from the war zone 50 years ago.

As far as anybody knowing I was coming home from Vietnam  nope, nothing, Ward recalled. Two days after I got home to Laurel, I was back in the fields plowing.

Glenn said he is honored to be part of the flight.

Its going to be a touching experience, he said. Its really nice that theyre doing it  and that Im going to be alive to go.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1186, steve.liewer@owh.com
Bihar toppers' shocker: Nitish Kumar's populism has hurt state's education

Feature

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

The video of a Bihar education board topper struggling to define Political Science and finally coming with the answer that it is related to cooking has made many laugh, but it has also shown how the debilitating effect politics has had on the education of that state during the era of popular leader Nitish Kumar.

A lot has been done as populist measures; what about the quality?

Apparently, the JD(U) leader did much for the student community of the state---be it in terms of providing the mid-day meal in schools, distributing cycles, uniforms and even sanitary napkins, among the girl students, creating an environment where teachers were regularly attending classes and taking food with the students in the school painting the school buildings afresh etc etc.

But whatever was seen at the elementary and mid-school levels was far from making a real qualitative difference.

Indiscriminate hiring of underqualified para teachers has boomeranged

The Nitish Kumar government also allowed indiscriminate hiring of unqualified and underqualified men and women as teachers, many of whom could not even spell their own names. These para teachers got the job just on the basis of the recommendation of the local politicians and the state gave them enough largesse in form of stipends. And all this, as veteran journalist Sankarshan Thakur, an expert on Bihar, called it in his book Single Man: The Life & Times of Nitish Kumar of Bihar---was a "captive vote-bank building".

Populist leaders don't compromise with Modi but they do so with quality

The problem with leaders like Nitish Kumar is that they only know populism as the means to secure their politics. This also holds true for Nitish's chief minister friends like Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal. The danger of their brand of politics is that it compromises on quality, if not on ideology (all of the three are against the "communal Narendra Modi") and puts their very constituencies in danger.

Nitish Kumar's populist education policy has done enough damage to the students of the state by handing them over to teachers most of whom have zero capacity. By making school teachers a vote bank which will only become more assertive if not given regular patronage, the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar has ensured that quality education remains a distant dream in the state.

Bihar had a shocking teacher-student ratio if 1:300 when Nitish had first taken over as the CM following the Lalu era and his government hired almost 3 lakh para teachers to make up for the imbalance. Just to prove the CM's populist credentials, the new government allowed the quality factor to perish.

As Delhi University teacher from Bihar said, Nitish Kumar destroyed the state's education in the name of building it. Ask Ruby Ray, the topper who left her interviewer clueless.
From 'no visa' to close partner: How Modi's US story has unfolded in a decade

Feature

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

Narendra Modi is perhaps the only politician in the world who has mended relations with the United States in the shortest time. Starting from the denial of the visa by the US to Modi, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat, in 2005---2016 is set to witness the leader's fourth visit to across the Atlantic in less than two years.

US has softened its stand in all last 11 years: From no visa, it now changed its tone to gentle warnings

The US's stand, on the other hand, has changed from denying the visa to Modi under the Immigration and Nationality Act over the 2002 Gujarat riots to gently reminding India about intolerance, religious freedom and human rights records. [From our archives: 65 Indian MPs write to Obama against granting visa to Gujarat CM Modi]

Modi set to make fourth US trip since September 2014

The issue came to the limelight when Modi became the prime minister of India after his party---the BJP---swept the general elections in 2014. The resistance fell apart in no time and starting from September 2014 when Modi made a rock star-like appearance in the US, June 2016 is set to see him embarking on his fourth US trip and seventh meeting with US President Barack Obama since May 2014. What is more significant is that Modi is going to the US this time as one of Obama's closest international allies.

Indeed unbelievable by what it was in 2005.

It's not that Americans have forgotten the past; it's that they can't ignore the present

It is not that the Americans' concern vis-a-vis Modi has changed. The matter is that the present scenario in international relations and the current of change in it has made Modi's India an inevitable ally for the US.

While India's rise as an economic power which is known for its intelligent, cheap and technologically educated manpower is something that the West cannot ignore any more, Washington's strategic battles in East and West Asia also requires India's support.

Although Modi will have to start from scratch with next US president but still his rapport with Obama has laid the groundwork

Even though Obama is set to exit the White House and Modi will have to start everything from scratch with the next American president, yet the personal rapport between the two current leadership can't be overlooked.

Both for the US and India, the camaraderie between Modi and Obama, even if it has a short life now, is significant towards developing a new equation in world politics. In fact, both these leaders have wasted no time in giving their respective countries an entirely new foreign policy orientation.
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.
Mathura episode showed how State creates Frankenstein & then nails it

Feature

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

He called himself a loyalist of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and he had the dream of making Mathura's Jawahar Bagh a sovereign country!

He also made up his own private army and named it as Azad Hind Fauj on the name of the legendary freedom fighter's army which had aimed to make India free from British occupation.

Ram Vriksh Yadav, the mastermind behind the horrific clashes with the police in Mathura in UP on June 2 which killed a superintendent of police, was confirmed dead by the state police on Saturday but his functioning and dream speak volumes about the internal threats that India's social life faces.

Ram Vriksh Yadav's story

Ram Vriksh, who belonged to Gazipur in eastern UP, was driven out from his home town for alleged involvement in anti-social activities. He then went to Mathura to do milk business but soon after it failed, Yadav took shelter in the ashram of a self-proclaimed guru called Tulsidas Yadav alias Jai Gurudev, along with his family. Yadav was liked by the guru but in 2010, he was expelled from the ashram by the disappointed guru. He was recalled later.

The cult was against polls because democracy doesn't approve of anarchy

After the death of the guru in 2012, the followers of Ram Vriksh started believing that the former's soul has entered the latter. Since the guru claimed himself to be the avatar of Subhas Bose, the logical conclusion was that following his death, it is Ram Vriksh who became the latest avatar of Bose and he would become the ashram's head. A power struggle followed soon between Ram Vrikhs and his opponents as a result of which he was shown the door once again.

Thereafter, Ram Vriksh formed his own Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah and vowed to finish the task left by Netaji. He also put his armed wing under the command of a Bengali called Chandan Bose.

The cult and the patronage gave Ram Vriksh a golden chance to flex his muscle

Ram Vriksh's power in and around Mathura went on increasing in the subsequent years, thanks to the patronage of the Samajwadi Party (SP), which came to power around the same time.

Ram Vriksh became close to Shivpal Singh Yadav, the state's PWD minister and brother of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. The man flexed his muscle in January 2014 when he and his supporters took occupation of 300 acres in Jawahar Bagh area after entering it in the name of staging a two-day protest against price rise. And it continued for two-and-half years till the climax was reached on Thursday.

Cult gives the goons an organised identity---something which threatens the society

Ram Vriksh combined the Netaji cult with his own ambition to become powerful and kept on amassing arms right under the nose of the administration and no action was taken, even after the gang attacked some administrative officials after they entered the area in April 2014.

Ram Vriksh's activities went on under the nose of the administration; yet no step was taken

No action was taken even after local intelligence reports warned against the growing number of encroachers. Encouraged by the administration's inaction, Ram Vriksh virtually aimed a 'free area' for his functioning on lines of the Maoists. Arms were being provided from Badaun and outsiders were being invited to make his support base strong.

The matter turned for the worse for Ram Vriksh only after the Allahabad High Court asked the administration to free Jawahar Bagh.

The police did not comply in the beginning but had to act after the court reprimanded it and gave orders again. Meanwhile, sensing trouble, Ram Vriksh also approached the court and sought possession of the area on the ground that it was not being maintained properly by the state government. But his plea was rejected and his organisation was slapped with a fine of Rs 50,000.

And then the violence occurred.

Netaji Subhas Bose was just a pawn for a outfit which sought power and influence

The Mathura episode has shown the lurking danger. When the state turns a blind eye to criminalisation of the society and allows a goon culture to thrive in the guise of a cult (here Subhas Bose's cult was being used to justify a criminal culture), then even the law-keepers find it difficult to control it.

If this culture is not tackled, the Army will be required to reintegrate areas 'freed' by the armed goons on lines of extremists

If this tendency persists, the day will not be far when we will see the Army being deployed to re-occupy areas 'freed' by organised goons.

The nexus between godmen-politicians-administrators have created such a danger for the Indian state today. If this evil alliance is not broken, more Mukul Dwivedis and Santosh Kumar Yadavs will be sacrificed at the altar of a dysfunctional democracy.
Bollywood comedian Rajpal Yadav to spend 6 days in jail, here's why

India

oi-Mukul

New Delhi, June 4: This may give a big shock to millions of fans of comedian Rajpal Yadav. As per reports, Bollywood actor may have to spend 6 days in jail for filing a false affidavit in the court .

The Delhi High Court on Friday ordered Yadav to surrender before Tihar Jail by July 15. Court also directed actor to serve out the remainder six days of the total 10-day imprisonment awarded to him in 2013.

Yadav had spent four days in jail from December 3, 2013 till December 6, 2013 after which a division bench of the High Court had suspended the sentence on his appeal.

A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Deepa Sharma upheld the sentence awarded by a single judge in December 2013, saying Yadav's "failure to follow procedure cannot be countenanced" as despite being given adequate time to explain his conduct "he resorted to falsehood".

"In the present case, the long history of the litigation shows that repeated undertakings were breached; when called upon to answer why action should not be taken, the appellant and his wife gave false and evasive replies; these included affirming a false affidavit.

"In these circumstances, this court is of the view that the complaint about failure to follow the procedure prescribed cannot be countenanced; the appellant was furnished appropriate and adequate opportunity to explain his conduct, but instead he resorted to falsehood," the court said.

The bench also said that "when the appellant (Yadav) was afforded abundant opportunities to make amends, the conduct which he displayed was deplorable, to put it mildly".

Know all about the issue

The contempt action was initiated against the actor for misleading the court in a recovery suit filed against him and his wife by a businessman.

The single judge bench, which was hearing the recovery suit, had taken exception to the affidavit filed by Yadav on December 2, 2013 which was allegedly falsely prepared and contained forged signatures of his wife.

Annoyed by the affidavit, the court had ordered that Yadav be sent to jail for 10 days for contempt and directed that his wife, who had appeared with their child before the court, be kept in the office of the Registrar General till the rising of the court.

Delhi-based businessman M G Agarwal had filed a recovery suit against the actor and his wife for failing to repay a loan of Rs five crore which the Yadav had taken in 2010 to make his directorial debut.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from PTI)
As Kharge steps in, Digvijaya Singh confirms he won't contest against him

Rahul Gandhi will be seen in new avatar after Bharat Jodo Yatra: Digvijaya Singh

Digvijay seeks clarification from PM, Rajnath on Pathankot

India

oi-PTI

Panaji, June 3: Citing NIA chief Sharad Kumar's reported statement that so far there was no evidence about Pakistani agencies having helped the terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad carry out the Pathankot attack, Congress today sought to know who were the attackers then.

"If the terrorists were not from Pakistan, then who were the terrorists who attacked the Pathankot base?" Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh said here. The government needed to clarify its position on the NIA chief's statement, he said.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the national security adviser need to answer who were these terrorists," the Congress leader said. NIA's "clean chit" to Pakistan was a complete failure of Indian diplomacy, Singh said.

The Congress leader also took a swipe at Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, saying he was more concerned about Goa, his home state, than the country.

"Parrikar is hardly the Defence Minister. He is Super Chief Minister of Goa," he said. Singh was here to participate in a function to release a book 'Public Matters', written by former Union Minister of State for External Affairs Eduardo Faleiro.

PTI
Ansari returns home after two-nation trip

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Jun 4: Vice President Hamid Ansari returned home today after concluding his five-day visit to Morocco and Tunisia during which he met the top leadership of the two countries and discussed a range of issues of mutual interest.

On the last day of his final leg, Ansari yesterday addressed a gathering at the Tunisian Institute of Strategic Studies and called on Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi. Ansari also met with two influential political leaders - President of the Ennahda Party Rached Ghannouchi and Mufti of the Republic of Tunisia Othmane Battikh.

Before leaving for home, Ansari also visited Carthage Ruins situated on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis and Sidi Bou Said  a town located 20 kms from the capital. Secretary (Economic Relations) Amar Sinha said during his visit to Tunisia, the Vice President focussed on India's role in Tunisia whose leadership recalled the visit of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.

India's past, including role of Mahatma Gandhi in the freedom struggle and visit of Indira Gandhi to North African region in 1984 has a lot of influence here, Sinha told reporters. He said that the main challenge for Tunisia is to revive its tourism industry.

Currently, tourists from Europe visit the region, he said, adding that efforts would be made for Indian tourists to visit the region. Sinha said that India would also help Tunisia in the industry sector. Already Tata, Mahindra and Dabur have started taking interest in the region, he added.

He said that Indian doctors and health institutions could also explore setting up their units in Tunisia which has lot to offer in the health sector. Besides the pharma sector can also explore the region to capitalise on those coming to Tunisia for treatment.

Sinha said that during interactions, need was stressed for higher level of meetings at the political level. India will like to explore the markets of Tunisia and Morocco, he said, adding that there is a lot of scope for Indian companies in this region.

He said that India can also learn from Moroccan capital Rabat as far as cleanliness is concerned. In Rabat, Ansari met Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane and others including the Speakers of the two houses. India and Morocco signed two MoUs on cultural cooperation and institutional training. The Vice President and the Prime Minister also launched the India-Morocco Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

PTI
India taking tough stance on ISIS returnees

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, June 4: In the chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency against Mohammad Nasser who attempted joining the ISIS, there is a strong message.

First and foremost one must take note of the fact that this one of those rare cases which has been build up purely on the basis of digital evidence.

While dealing of cases relating to the ISIS in India, the approach has been different. There are many who have been brought back to India while attempting to join the ISIS, counselled and then let off. However there is a shift in that approach today.

The case in brief:

The 23 year old computer engineer from Tanjore was deported from Sudan to India on December 10 last year. The father who is a witness in this case had told the NIA about the message his son had sent him which read, " I have reached Sudan and joining the ISIS."

Paris attack: India has to watch out for ISIS returnees and Wahabi preachers

The NIA in this case had sought information from the US on the exchanges between the accused and others. Naseer used pmohamednaserjobs@hotmail.com to communicate with his father. This was certified by the father who had told the NIA about his son's tryst with the ISIS.

A strong message:

After being brought back to India, the agencies felt that he could not be counselled. Moreover his father too had repeatedly said that his son had gone astray.

This chargesheet is a strong message to those who feel that they can get away by trying to join the ISIS.

Officials say that the approach is different in each case. The attacks in Paris and Belgium has taught us that attacks are staged normally by those ISIS recruits who return to their home land.

It is sometimes difficult to gauge the level of radicalisation that they have undergone. They could well pretend to be counselled, but could come back strong, officers say.

The Intelligence Bureau and the NIA say that they are particularly careful about those persons who leave India to join the ISIS and then return.

They could be coming back with a motive. While it was felt that in the case of the Thane youth, Areeb Majeed he would be let off after counselling, it was later on found that the situation could be dangerous if he were out in the open.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, June 4, 2016, 11:07 [IST]
Maha revenue minister Eknath Khadse resigns over graft charges

India

oi-Mukul

New Delhi, June 4: Beleaguered Eknath Khadse, who is facing twin charges of an illicit land deal and alleged connection with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, on Saturday tendered his resignation from the State Cabinet.

Reportedly, Khadse met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and put in his papers from nearly a dozen major portfolios that he was handling, including the revenue and minorities departments.

The development has taken place a day after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah seperately over the issue. Fadnavis had also submitted a report to Shah on the charges against Khadse.

Sources in the BJP said that party leadership is of the view that Khadse should resign from his post untill he is proved innocent.

"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 on the conditions of anonymity.

"The party is under moral pressure to ask for Khadse's resignation," he added.

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.

Meanwhile, Congress has said that resignation is not enough and action must be taken against the leader.

OneIndia news

(With inputs from IANS)
Mathura violence: Police saw the arms build up and yet failed

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, June 4: There are several instances to show that the violence at Mathura was a result of complete failure on part of the administration. Specific intelligence inputs were there to suggest that the violence would be extreme.

The Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena had since the past couple of months anticipated action against them had begun piling up the weapons.

Among the many plans that the Sena had drawn up included even sacrificing the lives of their own sect members. They were ready to die and in such circumstances the situation becomes even more dangerous, a local police officer informed OneIndia over phone.

Political slugfest over Mathura violence

On Thursday several members perched themselves atop a tree and fired at the police and in the violence two senior officers died.

Boiling since an year:

The police have been attempting to get the land evacuated. The locals had been complaining of nuisance and complained on several occasions. It was only once the police were issued a contempt notice in April that they started going about their job.

First a magistrate visited the spot. However one of the sect members told him to sit down on the ground. He was asked several questions including his nationality. The magistrate fearing for his life left the spot. The police then decided to conduct a reconnaissance of the area.

Encroachers to be booked under NSA: UP DGP on Mathura violence

It was difficult for the police to enter the area. They took along with some journalists and in plain clothes surveyed the entire area. When they visited the spot they had found heaps of arms and ammunition which had been stocked up by the sect members.

After that visit, the police drew up a plan. They decided that by June 3 they would have the entire place evacuated. If one were to look at the manner in which the situation was handled last Thursday it did not appear as though the police were fully prepared. They could have used the support of the locals better, some officials feel.

Several locals also felt that the government was too slow to act. There have been complaints being made for long, but the reaction by the government was pathetic they say.

They allowed the build up despite knowing that the sect members were piling up the arms. Why were they allowed to build up so strongly is one question that none have answers to.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, June 4, 2016, 11:46 [IST]
Mayawati hit outs at Modi govt, Akhilesh Yadav

India

oi-PTI

Lucknow, Jun 4: BSP chief Mayawati today lashed out at the Modi government at the Centre, saying it was just tom-tomming its "hollow" programmes to mislead the people and said "bad days" are on the anvil for the BJP dispensation.

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also targeted her guns at the SP government for the Mathura violence and demanded a CBI or court-monitored probe into the deadly incident.

During a nearly hour-long interaction with mediapersons here, the BSP chief slammed Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for not taking the Mathura violence seriously.

"Rather than touring Bundelkhand, he should have been visiting Mathura today," she said, and demanded a judicial or Supreme Court-monitored or CBI probe into the incident. Yadav is on an official visit to Mahoba in Bundelkhand. 24 people, including an SP and SHO, were killed in clashes between police and members of a sect who had encroached on government land in Mathura on Thursday.

Slamming the programmes to celebrate two years of Modi government, she said the BJP-led dispensation had nothing to take credit for and was just tomtomming its "hollow" programmes to mislead the people.

"Forget about achchey din, now the bure din of government are coming (forget the promise of good days, now bad days are on the cards for the government)," she said.

"Don't fall prey to the catchy slogas of Modi government. NDA has failed to keep its promises made before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections," she said, adding its sympathy towards the poor was "artificial and just on paper".

The BJP's countdown has begun while in Uttar Pradesh the fight between ruling SP and BJP would be for the second spot as her party would storm to power in 2017, she said.

Describing BJP and Congress as two sides of the same coin, she said the NDA government's policies and programmes were same as those of the UPA.

Criticising BJP President Amit Shah for sharing food with Dalits in Varanasi, she said such "gimmicks" do not work or get translated into votes.

"BJP should dimnish such ideas from its mind," she said. Mayawati claimed that atrocities on Dalits were increasing in Uttar Pradesh as well as all over the country and cited the Rohit Vemula case where, she said, justice has not been given to the family so far.

PTI
NIA chief's statement on Pathankot an unwanted controversy

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, June 4: Has the entire issue regarding the statement issued by the NIA chief, Sharad Kumar been blown out of proportion. The NIA chief had told a television channel that the agency was yet to find evidence against the Pakistan establishment in the Pathankot attack.

The NIA later issued another statement saying that the chief was misquoted. In the first place there was no need for such a debate on this issue.

Kumar informed that he said he had given the evidence against the Jaish-e-Mohammad to Pakistan. Further the MEA too issued a statement stating that the involvement of Pakistan nationals in the attack is an accepted fact.

Unwanted controversy:

In the first place this is an unwanted controversy. Let us date back to the 26/11 Mumbai attack.

In the first few hours all of us knew that the attack was staged by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. When the probe began the focus was the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and it was the captured terrorist Ajmal Kasab who said it all.

The fact is that the Mumbai crime branch which probed the case got nothing from Kasab about the involvement of the Pakistan establishment. Kasab was too small a fry or rather a remote controlled operative who did what he was told with the promise he will get 72 virgins in heaven.

It was only when the probe went further and David Headley came into the picture did the involvement of the establishment become clear.

In this context one must note that even in the Pathankot attack, the NIA has not given the Pakistan establishment a clean chit.

The probe is still underway and normally an investigating agency takes it one thing at a time. The NIA's probe is at a very preliminary stage today. It has just about gathered evidence from Pathankot. The same has been shared with Pakistan and the NIA is still awaiting a response.

One would have to wait and see what information Pakistan shares with India. If the complicity continues then it would be safe to say that there is a hand of the establishment.

Once Pakistan shares information, the NIA will probe further. The role of the establishment is very much on the radar of the NIA an officer with the agency says.

We want to take one thing at a time and at this juncture, Pakistan's cooperation is absolutely necessary.

If we begin hurling allegations at the establishment without any proof then the entire narrative would change and the probe would be derailed.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, June 4, 2016, 11:49 [IST]
Ghazwa-e-Hind in Assam: NIA roped in as Islamists plan destruction of India

NIA files charge sheet against suspected ISIS operative

India

oi-PTI

Jaipur, Jun 4: NIA today filed a charge sheet against suspected ISIS operative Mohammad Sirajuddin who was arrested by Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Rajasthan police last year.

The charge sheet was filed in a special court by the NIA, the public prosecutor said. Sirajuddin, who worked as a marketing manager in Indian Oil Corporation, was not produced in court due to security reasons.

Arrested in December last year, he was accused of being involved in brainwashing Muslim youths through WhatsApp and Facebook and spreading the ideology of the international terrorist organisation ISIS.

PTI
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. 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-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.

When Britain votes on whether to withdraw from the EU, it will be deciding for or against the constraints of deepening involvement with a political entity born from cultural despair about Europe's 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 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.
Teen chases and catches robber, despite being attacked by a blade

India

oi-Pallavi

New Delhi, June 4: An 18-year old girl from Delhi-Priyanka- is being considered a hero in her neighborhood. On a visit to her grandmother in Pandav Nagar, Priyanka saw a thief escaping by looting a neighboring house. While his accomplices fled, Priyanka was able to get hold of him after 100-150 meter sprint.

A black belt holder in martial arts, Priyanka grabbed the thief's neck from behind and did not let him go even when he slashed her left arm with a blade. She then handed over the thief to the local residents who then handed him over to the police.Priyanka lives with her mother in Delhi's Bhajanpura area, while her father is an engineer in Guwahati.

As aspiring armed forces personnel, Priyanka also wishes to join th epolice for which she has been working hard since the 9th standard. She then joined the self-defence course taught by Delhi Police and after five years, she earned a black belt. She is now preparing for the entral Reserve Police Force entrance exams.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, June 4, 2016, 14:10 [IST]
We were making buffoons of the media, JD(S) defence on RS sting operation

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, June 4: The Janatha Dal (S) which is in the eye of the storm following a sting operation by television channels has as expected adopted a unique defence. They were making buffoons out of the media and they knew well in advance that such an operation was being conducted.

This is a statement that came from H D Kumaraswamy, the party president. They were having a bit of fun and trying to entertain themselves, Kumaraswamy also added. He further went on to ask where was the money involved.

Standing in defence of the MLAs was also the party's supremo, Deve Gowda. He said that it is an attempt to undermine regional parties. Let those questioning our integrity come here and contest an election.

Further the JD(S) also questioned the ethics behind such a sting. One one hand they say it is off the record and then they record everything and play it out. Where are the ethics, Kumaraswamy also questioned.

Two television channels had aired a sting operation where two MLAs were allegedly discussing money to vote for Rajya Sabha candidates. This had led to some amount of debate and the Election Commission of India has sought a report from the state EC in this regard.

OneIndia News
India always views war as last resort, but... : PM Modi to armed forces in Kargil

Will Modi bow to RSS on Raghuram Rajan?

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, June 4: In addition to the NGOs, including the one run by Teesta Setalvad, the saffron brotherhood's new target is a formidable one - Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan.

Till now, the Hindutva camp hadn't trained its guns on one so high who is not a politician. There is little doubt, however, that the Sangh Parivar's motive is political.

The attack on Rajan is not a frontal one. It is a flanking movement with none other than the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha member, the perennially combative Subramanian Swamy, leading the charge.

It is not clear if the targeting of Rajan has the approval of the BJP's top brass, for there are conflicting indications.

While Finance Minister Arun Jaitley disapproves of the personal nature of the attacks, he has been silent on the question of extending Rajan's term beyond September considering that Swamy wants his immediate dismissal.

PM Modi Need Not Sack Raghuram Rajan

However, the problem with Swamy's offensive - he has accused Rajan of acting at the behest US multinationals to damage the Indian small and medium industries - is that the voluble MP cannot always be taken seriously.

The reason is that he is a maverick to beat all mavericks. As a result, he is perceived of as something of a loose cannon who can go off at a tangent from his party's line.

As much is clear from his earlier backing of the disgraced godman, Asaram Bapu, to the more recent call for building the Ram temple by the year-end, about which the BJP has been more than circumspect.

Moreover, he is supposed to have been elevated to the Rajya Sabha only to serve a specific purpose - that of needling the Nehru-Gandhis - and not open fire at random.

Swamy has been performing the first task with considerable zeal, pursuing the allegations against the Congress's first family in the National Herald and AgustaWestland cases.

More recently, he has called upon the Enforcement Directorate to probe the supposed transgressions of the business deals of Robert Vadra, the first family's son-in-law.

In the midst of these endeavours, the sudden turning of his attention to Rajan is surprising.

In view of the government's eagerness to maintain friendly ties with the corporate sector, the latter's unfavourable reaction to Swamy's antics was only to be expected. The Confederation of Indian Industry has already expressed its displeasure.

None of this is unexpected, for Rajan is known to be a favourite of India Inc. and of the media, especially the financial newspapers.

Narendra Modi's evasive statement on the issue - he told Wall Street Journal that Rajan's tenure can be of no interest to the media - is unlikely to clear the scene.

In any event, Modi's probable view is that nothing should be of interest to the media, which explains why he doesn't hold any press conferences.

The hullabaloo created by Swamy appears to have persuaded Rajan to decide not to seek a second term although he has described the controversy as evidence of a "noisy" democracy and the "sign of its vibrancy".

It is possible that Rajan's observation about India being the king in a land of the blind hasn't pleased the BJP.

Besides, he is something of an odd man out where the Hindutva camp is concerned, being a typical representative of the urbane, English-speaking, secular establishment that is vastly different from the Hindi-speaking, conservative-minded present-day rulers.

It is not impossible, therefore, that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP's mentor, wants to see the back of him.

After all, the RSS has succeeded in placing its nominees in most of the institutions - the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), the National Book Trust, the Film and Television Institute, the Central Board of Film Certification, and so on.

The objective behind all these appointments was, first, to find sinecures for its followers and, secondly, to peddle the pro-Hindu agenda. So, why should the RBI be left in the hands of a purported secularist?

It goes without saying, however, that if India Inc's blue-eyed boy quits office, the initial effect on the market will be worrisome.

That is not something which Modi will appreciate. But he has generally had to walk a tight rope between the predilections of the RSS and his own more open-minded attitude. There has been a constant give-and-take between him and the Nagpur patriarchs in this respect.

In some matters, Modi has had the upper hand such as in persuading the saffron fundamentalists to go easy on their ghar wapsi and love jehad campaigns.

In others, he has given way to the RSS as, for instance, in the appointments of unworthy nominees to the ICHR and other institutions.

The Rajan affair will be a major test for Modi. Will he bow to the RSS or will he allow his pro-business instincts to prevail ?

IANS
World Environment Day: Bengaluru wants its greenery back

India

oi-Oneindia

By Maitreyee Boruah

Bengaluru, June 4: Naresh Jha (65), a retired government official, rues profusely how Bengaluru has lost its old green glory.

Jha, a native of Bihar, who made the city his home almost four decades back, feels sad that Bengaluru has turned into a concrete jungle. On the eve of the World Environment Day, Jha, who speaks fluent Kannada, says, "How green was my city. Now, it's a concrete jungle. In the last few years, we have lost thousands of trees in the name of development. Our lakes are spewing venoms. Air pollution level is at its peak. Traffic is erratic. But I tell you one thing, Bengaluru even 15 years ago was a totally different place. It was so green and free from chaos. Unfortunately, we have lost its old glory."

However, Jha says he is not an "old dejected man". "My friends and I are planning to plant a few saplings in our neighourhood near the Old Airport road to celebrate the World Environment Day," he smiles.

In Jha's disappointment lies the common sentiment which is shared by a majority of the residents of the city. Perhaps that is why to mark the World Environment Day on June 5 (Sunday), a series of events have been lined up in the city.

The Department of Forest, Ecology and Environment will host an exhibition on environment and confer awards to green activists at Kanteerava Indoor Stadium on Sunday. At the Richmond Park, located in the heart of the city, the residents and members of Richmond and Langford Town Welfare Association are hosting a nature walk and a tree planting drive on June 5. Similarly, Yuva Srishti is hosting a plantation drive at Bangalore Dairy.

This year, the World Environment Day, is themed around the rising illegal trade in wildlife, under the slogan 'Go Wild for Life'.

This World Environment Day, Bengalureans need to do a lot of thinking. The city witnessed a harsh summer recently when temperature touched 40 degree Celsius. The experts say the unusual rise in the temperature is not due to global warming, but because of high level of air pollution and depleting greenery in the city.

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Story first published: Saturday, June 4, 2016, 10:18 [IST]
UK PM Liz Truss resigns after 45 days in office, successor to be elected next week

PM Modi awarded Afghanistan's top civilian honour

International

oi-PTI

Herat, Jun 4: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on a brief visit to Afghanistan, was today conferred with Amir Amanullah Khan Award, the country's highest civilian honour.

He was bestowed the honour by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani after the inauguration of the landmark Afghan-India Friendship Dam.

"A true brotherhood is honoured. PM is awarded the Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistan's highest civilian honour," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted along with a photo.

During his 25 minute-long speech after inaugurating the dam, Modi also invoked Chisht-born Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti who settled down in Ajmer and is venerated by thousands of people visiting his shrine.

PM Modi will embark on 5-nation trip Saturday

"Khwaja Moiunuddin Chishti, the first of the Chishti saints in India, said that human beings must have the affection of the sun, the generosity of the river and the hospitality of the earth. "He not only had the magnificent landscape of his ancestral land in mind, he could also be describing the Afghan people.

So, when I came to Kabul in December, in the warmth of your welcome, I saw the kindness of your heart," said Modi in Chisht-e-Sharif in western Herat neighbouring Iran.

At the close of the speech, the Prime Minister also wished the people of Afghanistan and all Muslims across the world for the Holy Month of Ramzan.

PTI
On PMs guidance how Devbhoomi Uttarakhands Temples will be developed

India always views war as last resort, but... : PM Modi to armed forces in Kargil

Narendra Modi visits Indian consulate in Afghanistan's Herat city

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Herat (Afghanistan), June 4: After inaugurating the Salma Dam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday visited the Indian consulate in Herat in western Afghanistan where he interacted with the consular staff.

"Meeting the men who make our friendship work. PM visits Indian consulate in Herat, interacts with personnel," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

The consulate was attacked in May 2014 by four heavily-armed terrorists. No one in the consulate staff was injured and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel and Afghan security forces killed all four attackers.

In January this year, a car with explosives was found near the Indian consulate in Herat and a man was detained. The vehicle was searched and seized after it was found abandoned near the consulate with a punctured wheel, hinting that was not meant for the consulate.

Earlier in the day, Modi, along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, that was rebuilt with India's aid.

The Prime Minister arrived in Herat on Saturday on the first-leg of his five-nation tour that will also take him to Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico.

He will leave for Doha, Qatar, later on Saturday.

IANS
'Smash' is German Youth Word of the Year 2022

Over 50 hurt in lightning strike during Germany rock festival

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Berlin, June 4: At least 51 persons were injured when lightning struck at a rock festival in western Germany on Saturday, police said.

Organisers of the Rock am Ring festival, which is headlined by US rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, said lightning hit at 12.30 a.m., BBC reported.

Police told German media two people had to be resuscitated.

Central Europe has been hit by severe storms and rain over the past few weeks, leading to 11 deaths in Germany.

The festival also suffered lightning strikes last year, when 33 people were taken to hospital.

The organisers of Rock am Ring, now in its 31st year, said this year's event would continue, and that clear weather was expected later on Saturday.

Some 45,000 people are expected to attend over the course of the weekend.

IANS


Pakistan downplays scientist Khan's boastful nuclear remark

International

oi-PTI

Nagpur, Jun 4: Pakistan today sought to downplay its nuclear physicist Abdul Qadeer Khan's remarks about his country's reported capability to hit Delhi in five minutes, saying he is a private citizen and too much should not be read into his remarks.

He is a private citizen and too much importance should not be given to his comments, Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit said at an interactive session with journalists and intellectuals here.

Basit was asked to comment on Khan's boastful remark that nuclear-armed Pakistan has the ability to "target" the Indian capital in five minutes. The 80-year-old father of Pakistan's nuclear programme made the remark in late May.

The Pakistan diplomat dismissed fears about his country's atomic weapons falling into the hands of non-state actors. "We have a multi-layered security (for nuclear weapons).

Its foolproof and as per global norms." Basit said not only the people of Pakistan, but also the political parties of his country are desirous of peace with India.

"All political parties in Pakistan include promise of improving relations with India in their election manifesto." He expressed hope that the Indo-Pak dialogue, stalled after the terror attack on Pathankot air base in January, would resume soon.

Pakistan can target India in 5 minutes, claims controversial scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan

The issue of Kashmir will figure during the discussion whenever the talks take place, the envoy said. Confidence building measures have been initiated by both the countries and they should help in restoring good bilateral relations,the High Commissioner said.

Speaking on a range of issues, Basit said Pakistan had been fighting to overcome the menace of terrorism, drug and human trafficking. "We are fighting terror for the last 35 years." To a query, Basit said he had no knowledge about presence of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan, wanted in India for terrorism and other crimes.

PTI
PM Modi to interact with participants of Smart India Hackathon finale on August 25: MoE

IT industry veteran appeals to PM for a 'corruption-free' Karnataka

Thailand: PM Prayuth can stay in office, court says

UK PM Liz Truss resigns after 45 days in office, successor to be elected next week

Modi in Qatar: PM shares meal, interacts with Indian workers in Doha

International

oi-Jagriti

Doha, June 4: Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared meal and interacted with Indian workers in Doha on Saturday. Of the around 630,000 expatriate Indians in Qatar, many are blue collar workers.

PM Modi arrived Qatar on a two-day visit on the second leg of his five-nation tour.

"Namaste Qatar! Its wheels down in Doha as PM Narendra Modi arrives for the second leg of his journey," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

This is the second prime ministerial visit from India to Qatar in eight years after then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit in 2008.

PM Narendra Modi arrives in Qatar on a two-day visit

Modi flew in from Afghanistan, where earlier on Saturday, he, along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, also known as Salma Dam, in the western province of Herat.

On Sunday, he will begin his engagements in Qatar with a meeting with business leaders following which he will hold a restricted meeting with Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.

PM Narendra Modi interacts and shares a meal with Indian workers in Doha (Qatar) #ModiInQatar pic.twitter.com/P0gGbDbv0i  ANI (@ANI_news) June 4, 2016

Smiles and snacks in Doha...my first programme in Qatar was a visit to a Workers' Camp in downtown Doha. pic.twitter.com/vgQwZdZssX  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 4, 2016

PM Modi is the best PM, he sat with us, asked us about our troubles: India worker in Doha #ModiInQatar pic.twitter.com/xvYXT3wLPs  ANI (@ANI_news) June 4, 2016

It was like meeting someone from our family, it got me teary-eyed: India worker in Doha #ModiInQatar  ANI (@ANI_news) June 4, 2016

A 1st in Indian history, other politicians should wonder why this didnt happen sooner: Indian worker #ModiInQatar pic.twitter.com/tIQ0l86xSH  ANI (@ANI_news) June 4, 2016

OneIndia News
Two policemen shot dead in Anantnag ahead of by-poll

Srinagar

oi-PTI

Srinagar, June 4: Militants on Saturday (June 4) shot dead two policemen, including an officer, in poll-bound Anantnag town of South Kashmir, police said. The extremists opened fire on a police party at the General Bus Stand in Anantnag town, 52 kms from here, at around 11:20 AM, resulting in injuries to the two policemen, a police official said.

He said the injured policemen were rushed to a hospital where both of them succumbed. The deceased have been identified as Assistant Sub Inspector Bashir Ahmad and Constable Reyaz Ahmad.

The attack comes ahead of the June 22 polling for by-election to Anantnag Assembly seat where Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is one of the nine candidates in the fray. The by-poll for the seat was necessitated due to death of then chief minister and incumbent MLA Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on January 7 this year.

This is second attack in less than 24 hours in the district. Three BSF jawans were killed and nine others injured last evening as militants ambushed their convoy at Goriwan in Bijbehara town. Security forces have been put on an alert to track down the assailants, the official said.

PTI
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A Look Into The Prague 2016 Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference

Published June 4, 2016 by Vlad G

The Blockchain and Bitcoin Conference was held in Prague this year where industry specialists addressed numerous issues having to do with cryptocurrency, blockchains including challenges the industry might face.

Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic hosted the Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference, the second of its kind this May. This years edition changed its name a bit, with the blockchain addition as the 2016 event mainly focused on data structured blocks.

What was the 2016 edition about?

This years edition had three major themes: the exploration of cryptocurrency trends; blockchain innovations; and blockchain practical implementation. The event also showcased some of the most popular and revolutionary products oriented at improving the clients experience.

The conference hosted 12 speakers which addressed some of the most interesting and pertinent topics that have been discussed in the blockchain industry. Speakers didn't focus entirely on Bitcoin related blockchains but also talked about the increasingly popular Ethereum related blockchains as well. Some of the most popular discussions were about how blockchains services will provide a better experience for customers.

The speakers each addressed a popular subject adding their experience and vision into a charismatic and informative presentation. Some of the most popular session were:

Ronny Boesing, CEO of Coins Bank addressing the benefits of cryptocurrency, benefits such as transparency.

Jack Tatar, GEM Research Solutions talking about the risks of investing and how customers can keep their investments safe.

Pavel Niedoba, SimpleCoin owner, speaking about the most widely used techniques to steal bitcoins and how people should protect themselves and their finances.

The potential and benefits of cross-border cryptocurrency payments was addressed by Cryptopays founder George Basiladze.

Edgar Bers and Vitali Pavlov speaking to the less knowledgeable part of the crowd, explaining in detail how blockchains work and how they can be mined.

Meinhard Benn, CEO of SatoshiPay speaking about the potential bitcoin nanopaiments present as well as Amin Rafiee's session about how new technology in the field will lead to legislation changes.

The next event of the conference will be held on 22nd of September in Kiev, Ukraine


CPAC

(Image by otherwords blog) Details DMCA



Ryan: Donald, thank you for talking with me about the policies and principles of conservatism that I formulated on behalf of the Republican Party. But, prior to starting our conversation, lets fall on our knees and thank the Lord that the Democratic Party is rigging their nomination process to select Hillary Clinton as their nominee. "Lord, we are thankful that the Democratic Party will be nominating Hillary and not Bernie and thus snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Amen."

Ryan: Now, Donald, I know you are exhilarated that you convinced the Republican Base that you are an outsider, but you have to be aware that the Republican Base is composed of lower-educated, lower-income and often lower-IQ people, and these people are not quite aware of the conservative principles good for the Republican Party itself. Furthermore, Donald, as I recite these conservative policies and principles, I am sure you will agree that it is in your best interest to always conform to them, even if not to the advantage of the Base that voted for you.

Trump: What are these conservative policies and principles? I have been doing quite well using just smash-mouth politics, and I will need to be convinced you have something better.

Ryan: OK, here goes. Donald, you have to realize that the Number 1 principle of Conservatism is to make sure everything you do results in the transference of wealth from the 92% to the 8%. You cannot tell your lower-educated, lower-income and often lower-IQ Base of this fact, but it is imperative that you follow this principle. Always.

Trump: Geez, that is a shock. But, thinking about it, I do the same, but my actions, I call them "deal making", have been for only on my personal account, not for the benefit of a political party. So, we will have to see how this works out. But, thinking about it, I know my Base won't care, for they are used to getting screwed. What other conservative policies and principles should I be aware of?

Ryan: The No. 2 principle is that you have to constantly sell fear, and that is closely allied to our No. 3 principle which is to promote war and, whenever possible, engage in war. As a former Democrat, you may not be aware that this is a core Republican principle. The Republican Party depends upon contributions from the military arms industry, and we would like this to continue. Also, all of the neocon think tanks and publications depend upon contributions from military arms suppliers, and neocons are an esteemed adjunct of the Republican Party. Yes, military arms suppliers contribute to Democrats, but we get an overwhelming portion of this source of almost-free taxpayer money.

Trump: What else do I need to be cognizant of?

Ryan: OK. Principle No. 4 is that you must agree to continue Republican Party fights against minorities, unions and women's rights. The latter has to do with placating our social conservative base, and this is very important.

Trump: Come on, Paul. You know I have been right at the top in disrespecting minorities and women and my past businesses have done their share in taking away rights and benefits from union members. I think I qualify as a bona fide Republican in this respect. What else?

Ryan: Just make sure when you talk about revising the tax code and eliminating or cutting back entitlements, you ensure such plans, when the dust settles, carry out our core mission, which is to transfer wealth from the 92% to the 8%.

Trump: Got it. Now can I have your endorsement?
Pink poodle

Two men were walking their pink-dyed poodle Beauty in Hillsboro when a motorist rolled down his window and shouted anti-gay slurs at the couple. George Allen Mason Jr. , 23, was accused of assaulting one of the men as he repeatedly shouted homophobic remarks at the pair. He pleaded guilty to the assault and was sentenced to three years in prison.

(David Beltier)

In March 2013, David Beltier and his boyfriend were on an afternoon walk with their standard poodle, Beauty, in Hillsboro. Beauty's fur had been dyed a light pink color, and a few passers-by already had made derogatory remarks.

Then a man yelling gay slurs out the window of an SUV made a U-turn, headed straight for Beltier and his boyfriend.

"I knew something bad was going to happen," he said.

The assailant punched Beltier, then grabbed a metal tool from his SUV and hit Beltier in the head. The man later pleaded guilty to an assault charge.

Yet when the FBI published its annual tally of hate crimes nationally, the attack on Beltier was not included.

Hillsboro is one of nearly 2,800 city police and county sheriff's departments across the country that did not submit a single hate crime report for the FBI's annual crime tally during the past six years, an investigation by The Associated Press found. That's about 17 percent of all city and county law enforcement agencies nationwide.

Advocates worry that the lack of a comprehensive, annual accounting disguises the extent of bias crimes at a time of heightened racial, religious and ethnic tensions. The nation was stunned last June when nine black parishioners were shot dead at a Charleston, South Carolina, church, in an attack labeled a hate crime, and community groups have reported a notable increase in violence against Muslims and mosques in the wake of last year's terror acts in Paris and San Bernardino, California. Gay and transgender people also are regular targets.

A better accounting of hate crimes, the FBI and other proponents say, would not only increase awareness but also boost efforts to combat such crimes with more resources for law enforcement training and community outreach.

"We need the reporting to happen," said the Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached. "Without a diagnosis, we don't know how serious the illness is. And without a diagnosis, there is no prescription. And without a prescription, there is no healing."

In Hillsboro, Beltier to this day avoids walking in the dark and hates to be alone, although he takes comfort from the bystanders who stopped to help him and tracked down his assailant. He feels grateful to the police -- but also he wants to know that future hate crimes will be reported.

"The community needs to be aware that this is happening in their own town," he said. "It will give everyone the chance to help fix it and bring a better future."

The findings

The AP examined FBI hate crime reports for the years 2009 through 2014 and matched those against lists of every city and county law enforcement agency in each state, obtained separately from all 50 states.

The vast majority of the departments that did not file any reports represented small towns, often consisting of just a few thousand residents or less. But a number of larger cities with a history of racial troubles also were missing, including Birmingham, Alabama; Jackson, Mississippi; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The statistics revealed wide disparities in how seriously states take the reporting. Nationwide, there were 16 states in which more than 25 percent of local law enforcement agencies did not appear at all in the FBI hate crime database between 2009 and 2014. That included 64 percent of agencies in Mississippi and 59 percent in Louisiana.

Oregon ranked in the middle, with 12 percent of agencies not reporting at all. But more than 100 Oregon agencies did not file a report in at least one year over the six-year period.

Some agencies, like Hillsboro, said they thought they were reporting, even though they were not, and some thought they didn't have to file reports because they hadn't investigated any hate crimes. The Washington County Sheriff's Office fell into that category.

Other agencies that oversee jails might have assumed they were exempt because they don't patrol the streets, but the FBI encourages reporting by all law enforcement agencies whose officers are empowered to make arrests. Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, whose primary responsibility is running jails, did not file a single report in the six-year period.

Hillsboro Police Lt. Michael Rouches blamed the reporting lapse on a technical problem between his department and the state. He said it was discovered last year when the department was in the process of applying for a grant and noticed the data was missing.

The lack of reporting should not suggest the department didn't aggressively investigate what happened to Beltier and his boyfriend, Rouches said.

"We ran with it as soon as we got it, and we got to the bottom of it," he said.

Hillsboro's internal tallies show the city has had 11 hate crimes since 2010, none since the attack on Beltier, Rouches said.

For other agencies, the Oregon State Police was the bottleneck on hate crimes reporting.

The state is supposed to submit reports to the FBI on behalf of Oregon's law enforcement agencies. But in 2014, the Oregon State Police did not send the FBI hate crimes data from every agency that submitted it.

Why? Dave Piercy, Criminal Justice Information Systems manager for the state police, said the head of the agency's crime statistics team retired that year. Remaining staff knew how to handle one of two common data formats submitted by local police, but not the other.

Agencies whose data consequently didn't go to the FBI in 2014 include some of the state's largest - Portland Police Bureau, Washington County Sheriff's Office and the police departments in Gresham and Beaverton. Piercy said the reports would be submitted to the FBI near the beginning of this month.

"Far from complete"

Between 5,000 and 7,000 hate crime incidents are catalogued each year in the FBI report, with nearly half of all victims in recent years targeted because of their race.

The FBI defines a hate crime as a "criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity." Filing reports for the federal count is voluntary and guidelines call for reports to be submitted even if they list zero hate crimes, a signal to both the FBI and the community that local departments are taking such crimes seriously.

FBI Director James Comey has called on all agencies to do a more aggressive job tracking hate crimes, and also has initiated training sessions on bias attacks for hundreds of law enforcement officers nationwide.

"It is the most important data collection initiative, but it is far from complete," Michael Lieberman, the Washington counsel for the Anti-Defamation League, said of the FBI's survey.

The ADL has launched a "50 States Against Hate" campaign that includes improved data collection by law enforcement as a top priority, and also is seeking passage of hate crime laws in the five states that do not have them: Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Wyoming.

Lieberman, who worked with the FBI and others on updating the agency's hate crimes training manual published last year, said law enforcement agencies must neutralize the issues that can lead to non-reporting, such as departments fearing negative publicity and victims who may not trust the police.

"If these crimes are never really counted, it's a way of saying they are not important," said Mark Potok with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups in the U.S. "For many black people, it's another form of being victimized. It's a way of saying your life doesn't matter."

The AP's analysis determined that some states clearly make reporting a priority. For example, Washington has a law that makes collecting data on hate crimes mandatory. And, Washington makes prompt reporting of crime statistics a condition for funding opportunities and accreditation. Only one agency in the state - Uniontown Police Department -- consistently failed to report hate crimes information over the six-year period

In two of the nation's most populous and diverse states, California and Florida, compliance also is nearly universal.

The AP's analysis found signs that the FBI's efforts to step up reporting could be starting to pay off. In 2014, about 200 local law enforcement agencies that had not reported in the previous five-year period submitted information to the FBI.

"We must continue to impress upon our state and local colleagues in every jurisdiction the need to track and report hate crime," Comey, the agency's director, said in a speech that year. "It is not something we can ignore or sweep under the rug."

Struggle for progress

The case of Barbara Hicks Collins in Bogalusa, La., illustrates the work that remains to be done.

A knock on the door, strong and quick, jolted Hicks Collins awake one night in 2012. Someone must be in trouble, she thought. She flung open her front door to the shocking sight of her car engulfed in flames.

Investigators later determined someone had deliberately set fire to her Mercedes and also tried to burn down the one-story brick house she shared with her mother in this eastern Louisiana town, once known as a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity. Hicks Collins, a black woman, had no doubt the fire -- set on Martin Luther King Jr. Day-- was racially motivated. Her father had been a prominent civil rights leader who filed lawsuits that desegregated local schools and forced police to protect protesters, and her family remained active in the community.

Despite the circumstances, the case didn't make it into the FBI hate crimes report. Neither the police department nor the local sheriff has filed a hate crime report with the FBI since at least 2009.

In response to an inquiry about Hicks Collins' case, officials with both the Bogalusa Police and the Washington Parish Sheriff's Department said they did not know hate crime information was not being reported and blamed clerical errors.

Four years later, no arrests have been made in the attack on her house and the state fire marshal's office, which ultimately conducted the investigation, said it was unable to determine whether the setting of the fires constituted a hate crime or not.

Under FBI guidelines, an incident should be reported as a suspected hate crime if a "reasonable and prudent" person would conclude a crime was motivated by bias. Among the criteria for evaluation is whether an incident coincided with a significant holiday or date, specifically citing the King holiday. A suspect need not be identified to meet the threshold for reporting.

For Hicks Collins, the failure to count the 2012 attack as a hate crime is a painful reminder of the continuing struggle for racial progress.

"The more things change," she said, "the more they remain the same."

Oregon agencies missing at least one hate crimes report

-- The Oregonian's Carli Brosseau and Dave Cansler contributed to this report.
highland.jpg

Highland Park Middle School already is relying on bottled water after tests showed high levels of lead in some drinking fountains. Five more Beaverton elementaries will shut off fountains and rely on bottled water starting Monday.

(Beaverton school district)

Beaverton school district officials decided to shut down all drinking fountains in five of its elementary schools as a precaution because they have old water systems, the district said late Friday.

They will provide bottled water instead .

The affected schools are Elmonica, Errol Hassell, Greenway, Hazeldale and Rock Creek.

District officials said they don't expect drinking water in the five schools will test positive for lead this month. But they said those five schools have water systems that were installed before 1986, when the U.S. banned used of lead-containing solder and fixtures that can leach lead into drinking water. So they can't say for sure the drinking water is safe.

It is unclear how district officials ruled out similar risks at other district schools built before 1986.

Beaverton announced earlier this week that it will test for lead at all drinking water sources in all its schools in the coming weeks.

-- Betsy Hammond
1lunch.JPG

(The Associated Press)

By David Sarasohn

HILLSBORO - Justin Welch, principal of McKinney Elementary School here, has been through this before.

"I spent a lot of my time at my last school in Utah tracking down families who owed lunch money," he recalls, not exactly nostalgically.

"What a waste of my time."

If only principals could be focused on, you know, education.

Welch has been able to think about education more lately because of a change in the school lunch rules in 2010, that allow schools with at least 40 percent of their students on food stamps or Medicaid to serve everybody free lunch. (Lots of the remaining kids would qualify for free lunch by family income, or lack thereof.) Community eligibility might cost a few nickels that the school might have collected - probably, very few - but it allows principals, and other folks at the school, to think more about math and less about chicken fingers.

It also makes sure that kids whose parents aren't great at paperwork don't flunk lunch and breakfast - a problem that can spread to other subjects.

But in the current reauthorization of children's nutrition programs - already a year late - the Republican majority of the House Education and Workforce Committee has another idea. In a party-line vote late last month, they endorsed a reauthorization that would raise the community eligibility requirement to a hard-to-reach 60 percent. That would mean that McKinney - and more than 150 other Oregon schools, and 7,000 across the country - would no longer qualify, and that Justin Welch would be back to worrying about whose family had and hadn't paid for beefaroni.

"Having all of our students able to access healthy food for breakfast and lunch ensures that they can be successful," says Welch. "So many of our students don't have their needs met at home. At least when they're here, we can say we know they've got food in their bellies."

McKinney, a modern, well-kept school in a pleasant neighborhood, doesn't look like what you'd consider a high-poverty school. But in the way we've arranged our society - children on the bottom - 80 percent of its students would qualify for a break on school lunch costs.

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici represents McKinney school in Congress and on the House education committee, where she joined all the other Democrats in voting against the Republican measure. "It's totally unacceptable," she said last week. "There are still too many kids hungry."

Bonamici visited McKinney this spring, and talked with students about what the lunch program meant to them. It made her curious why "My colleagues are so alarmed that a student who might be able to afford lunch might get one for free." She even wonders why House members who just cheerfully passed a $600 billion military budget are so concerned about the source of each kid's turkey hot dog.

There are some other problems with the reauthorization backed by the Republican committee members, reasons why it's opposed by 750 organizations across the country, from the national PTA to the Newman United Methodist Women in Grants Pass. There are reasons why the Food Research Action Center in D.C. calls it a "hodge-podge of bad ideas (that) would roll back years of progress in the fight against childhood hunger."

The reauthorization sets up a pilot program for three states that would roll all the school nutrition programs into an underfunded block grant to the state. Governors and legislators could then ignore nutritional advances made in the 2010 reauthorization, and find strategies to save money on kids' lunches they could spend in other ways.

It also caps and discourages a successful pilot program, tried last summer in Oregon and five other states, providing $30 a month in food stamps for free lunch kids in summer, when the lack of school meals can leave them in stomach-growling condition. The U.S. Department of Agriculture concluded that the program cut summer child hunger by a third, a dam of sandwiches and fruit.

With luck, none of this will matter. Bonamici points out that this House of Representatives has trouble finding votes to actually pass anything, and the Senate is backing a much better version, promising at least a more nourishing conference committee. But with as many as a fifth of our kids living in food insecurity, we're also missing a once-every-five-years chance to improve the situation, and we may be making it worse.

"Last November, I told the kindergarten families that the meals were covered," remembers Welch, "and they broke into applause."

The House education committee may not get much applause.

David Sarasohn's column appears on the first and third Sundays of the month. He blogs at davidsarasohn.com.

In fact, people may be throwing fish sticks.
By Rich Lowry

Even Donald Trump's defenders on the right are hard-pressed to argue that he is conservative. He is, nonetheless, a kind of conservative dream candidate.

Few politicians in memory have so powerfully tapped into and expressed the conservative id, which has long yearned for a Republican politician willing to heap the verbal abuse on the Clintons and, especially, on the media that they so manifestly deserve.

Except on cable and talk radio, the conservative id tends to get smothered by the hated Republican superego, i.e., "the establishment" of campaign consultants, donors and opinion-makers who worry about things like propriety and scaring off swing voters.

Since Trump has no superego keeping him in check -- he doesn't care about the political rules or personal manners -- he can unleash unbridled hell on "Crooked Hillary" and the dishonest media.

At a news conference about the money he raised for veterans groups at an Iowa event earlier this year, Trump called one reporter "a sleaze" and another "a real beauty" (it wasn't a compliment). He displayed a smash-mouth disregard for the assembled media horde that is deeply satisfying for every Republican who wishes a Bush, McCain or Romney had done the same.

They say that Trump's garish wealth is aspirational -- people think that, if they were billionaires, they would spend on all the same conspicuous consumption. For lots of Republicans, Trump's outrageous treatment of the media is just as aspirational -- if they had the opportunity to tell off Tom Llamas of ABC, or any other mainstream reporter, they would resort to all the same insults.

What is policy or knowledge compared with this moving feast of contempt for the right's enemies? Trump could promise to nationalize the banks, and as long as he was calling a reporter a guttersnipe or retromingent every day, he'd probably still pass muster with his supporters.

A central insight of the Trump campaign was captured in the philosophy inculcated in the salespeople of Trump University: "You don't sell products, benefits or solutions -- you sell feelings."

Trump is channeling legitimate feelings. The press is biased and highhanded, and deserves to be taken down a notch. Too often, Republicans resort to a defensive crouch in the face of criticism. The conservative writer Rick Brookhiser has said of self-flagellating Republicans, "In their hearts, they know they are wrong."

Trump knows he's right -- or at least adopts a posture of supreme self-confidence -- even when he's in the wrong. Ultimately, the media's offense in the matter of Trump's veterans funding was to call him on not yet having fulfilled his promise to make his own highly touted $1 million contribution, but he acts like he is a modern-day Clara Barton who just can't catch a break from the heedless jackals of the media.

If Trump has an elemental appeal to his supporters, he also drags down the right to its lowest common denominator. Forget the philosophers, the books, the ideas, the policies, the entire intellectual infrastructure of conservatism as it's been developed over decades -- insulting the right people is just as, if not more, important.

Forget the sermonizing about the centrality of personal probity and trustworthiness, elevated into a fever pitch during the controversies of Bill Clinton's presidency -- the cardinal virtue is sheer combativeness.

Forget the suspicion of state power and the fear that it can be wielded to punish those who antagonize people in high office -- it all depends, apparently, on who is punishing whom.

During a time when conservatives are rightly consumed with preserving free speech from its left-wing antagonists, they are rallying around a man who has made an art form of shutting down critics through lawsuits real and threatened; who muses about changing libel law to make silencing unwelcome voices easier; and who wants the government to use antitrust law to crack down on a newspaper owner -- Jeff Bezos -- whose publication features coverage he doesn't like.

The id may be a powerful force, but no one ever said it is pretty.

Rich Lowry can be reached at comments.lowry@nationalreview.com

(c) 2016, King Features Syndicate
Marijuana testing lab.JPG

Pesticides in a Portland testing laboratory in a file photo from last year.

(Beth Nakamura/Staff)

To say things are going well with the introduction this year of legal recreational marijuana would be to understate success. Tax revenues alone from recreational pot sales in the first three months of the year topped $10 million - or far higher than imagined when Measure 91's impact was first estimated by state economists. Annualized, pot revenues are now projected to exceed $40 million this year, radically up from an expected $2 million to $3 million.

http://media.oregonlive.com/opinion_impact/photo/agenda-2013jpg-da8a3522a991b9c6.jpg

Editorial Agenda 2016



Get Oregon centered

Better leadership in education

Make Portland a city that works

Build Oregon prosperity

Protect and expand personal freedom

Get pot right

_______________________________

But as sales boom and retailers send a hefty flow of cash to state coffers, a crucial element in pot's legal launch lags: an adequate number of laboratories to test and certify, under new standards, that blooms, extracts and edibles are sufficiently free of molds, microbes and pesticides while accurately gauged for potency.

It's crazy to call anything that's smoked and inhaled wholesome. But a key part of Measure 91's enabling legislation, not to mention a priority of the lawmakers implementing it, is that commercially grown marijuana that is legally sold in Oregon emporiums be properly tested. It must be so if marijuana production is to become a significant part of mainstream agriculture in Oregon.

At a recent hearing in Salem, however, Danica Hibpshman, director of marijuana licensing and compliance for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, said the lack of labs certified to conduct the testing is a "major concern," Noelle Crombie of The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Only six labs had applied, with only one in the process of becoming certified.

Mark Pettinger, spokesman for the OLCC, charged with regulating pot commerce statewide, on Thursday told the editorial board of The Oregonian/OregonLive that testing was "an ancillary benefit of a regulated system" and that OLCC "wants to be sure the consumer has that assurance" of quality and product consistency. Good. But there's a complication: Testing laboratories must achieve certification in part through a process managed by the Oregon Health Authority, which continues to establish final thresholds for the presence of certain substances to be detected under new standards that will kick in October 1.

Oregonian editorials

reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom.

are Helen Jung,

Erik Lukens, Steve Moss

and Len Reed.

To respond to this editorial:

Post your comment below, submit a

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Call it a wrinkle in a certification and licensing process shared by two state agencies - OHA and OLCC - but candidate laboratories seeking OHA certification as well as OLCC approvals have every right to enter a seamless world rather than an unknown world-in-the-making. It will take only an estimated six certified laboratories to handle the anticipated work flow this year.

On Friday OLCC and OHA will host a forum for candidate testing laboratories to help clarify the world of OLCC licensing and OHA certification. The meeting arrives halfway through recreational marijuana's first year in Oregon - late but with enough time ahead to remove barriers, real or perceived. It will be essential at the meeting and in the coming weeks that the agencies braid their complex processes to help laboratories know that the work is worth seeking - this as OHA works to complete its threshold-setting by July. Testing should be yet another profit center tied to the growing industry itself. Labs, it would seem, should be lining up.

More than anything, properly tested marijuana products will help lift Oregon's legal weed up as a legitimate agricultural product. That's not good just for the customer but an industry that can exemplify to Oregonians and other states how to overcome stigma and create a profitable, recall-free market that pushes back against the black market. That the effort will take enough laboratories to test the product has long been assumed. That enough laboratories will actually seek out the work must, now, be assured by the agencies writing and enforcing the rules.
Charges of conspiracy to impede federal officers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and firearms possession in a federal facility will stand against the indicted Oregon standoff defendants headed to trial this fall or later, U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown has ruled.

The judge's decisions follow legal arguments last month in which defense lawyers had urged the court to dismiss the allegations, contending they were unconstitutionally vague or broad, or that the federal government did not have jurisdiction over the wildlife sanctuary in eastern Oregon.

In written orders filed Friday, the judge dismissed those defense motions. Brown, though, has yet to rule on the third count of the federal indictments - using and carrying a firearm in the course of a crime of violence - considered the most tenuous of the charges filed.

Ammon Bundy is one of 26 defendants indicted on a federal charge of conspiring to impede federal officers working at the federal bird sanctuary through "intimidation, threats or force.'' He and 19 co-defendants also were charged with possession of a firearm in a federal facility.

The indictments stem from the 41-day occupation of the refuge, which began Jan. 2 and lasted through Feb. 11. Bundy has said the occupation was held to protest federal management of public land. One of the 26 defendants has pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge. A trial is set for Sept. 7, but a handful of those indicted are seeking to delay their trials.

Defense lawyer Amy Baggio had argued that the conspiracy charge is unconstitutionally vague and has the potential to "chill the most crucial First Amendment activity" -- political dissent. She had argued that the charge gives a "sphere of protection" for federal employees, but is so broadly worded that it could restrict free speech and assembly designed to criticize the federal government. Other defense lawyers argued that the federal statute fails to define "force, intimidation or threat,'' and could be arbitrarily enforced.

Judge Brown wasn't swayed.

The conspiracy charge "does not regulate or chill speech otherwise protected by the First Amendment,'' she wrote, because courts narrowly construe "threat'' statutes as limited to "true threats,'' or serious expressions of intents to harm or assault.

Further, Brown found that the conspiracy charge -- which requires the showing of an agreement between two or more people to prevent a federal officer from discharging his or her duties by force, intimidation or threat -- is "sufficiently well-defined'' to be understood by people of "common intelligence.''

Defendant Pete Santilli, an independent broadcaster among those indicted on the conspiracy charge, had argued that he's being prosecuted purely for his "speech'' and that he was acting simply "to report and broadcast the actions of others.'' His lawyer Thomas Coan had urged the court to dismiss the federal conspiracy charge against his client, arguing that Santilli's conduct was protected by the First Amendment.

Prosecutors countered that Santilli used his show to issue a "call to action,'' to encourage more people to participate in the refuge takeover.

The judge ruled that Santilli can make his First Amendment arguments at trial, and that the charge will stand.

Regarding count 2 of the indictments -- possession of a firearm or dangerous weapon in a federal facility, the judge found that it's not vague, and is sufficiently well-defined to put defendants on notice that such alleged behavior is criminal.

A federal facility, she noted, is a building or part of one owned or leased by the federal government, where federal employees are regularly present to perform their official duties. It stems from the legitimate interest in protecting federal facilities, the judge wrote.

Brown further noted that the Second Amendment doesn't prevent a prohibition against the carrying of firearms "in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings.''

Lastly, the judge found as lacking merit the defendants' arguments that the federal government lacked jurisdiction over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Brown cited the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in United States v. State of Oregon, which found that the land that now makes up the eastern Oregon refuge "was a part of the public domain of the United States'' at the time Oregon was admitted to the Union, and no part has ever been disposed of. She also cited the U.S. Constitution's property clause that grants Congress the power "to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States.''

"Because there is not any evidence in the record that the United States ever relinquished title to the lands that comprise the MNWR (Malheur National Wildlife Refuge), the Court concludes the Property Clause grants the United States regulatory jurisdiction'' over the refuge, Brown ruled.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown promised Friday to make available every resource necessary to respond to the 11-car oil train derailment near Mosier.

Brown said she was grateful to local first responders, hazmat teams and other state agencies "for doing their best to keep the community of Mosier safe.''

"I am closely monitoring the situation and ready to make every state resource available as needed,'' the governor said in a statement. "I ask that travelers seek alternate routes away from this area until further notice.''

U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Portland all decried the accident.

"Awful,'' Merkley said in a Twitter message. "We must work to get unsafe oil train cars off the tracks to keep our communities safe.''

Wyden said more protections are needed to ensure such accidents don't threaten communities.

"It's clear with this crash - as it has been for years - that more must be done to protect our communities from trains carrying explosive hazardous fuels," Wyden said. "That's why I've repeatedly called for more resources and notification for first responders, and why I'm continuing to push for my bill to move unsafe cars off the tracks and away from communities."

* Hear Wyden's remarks.

"Seeing our beautiful Columbia River Gorge on fire today should be a wake-up call for federal and state agencies - underscoring the need to complete comprehensive environmental reviews of oil-by-rail in the Pacific Northwest," Blumenauer said in a statement.

"This also illustrates the need for safer rail transport and better preparedness for disasters such as these," Blumenauer said. "Oregon fire departments are on record saying they don't have the resources to deal with oil train fires.

Environmental groups also quickly highlighted the accident as a prime example of the continuing dangers of transporting fuel through the scenic Columbia River Gorge and a lack of sufficient safeguards.

Paul Lumley, executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said the tribes' "worries have been validated.''

"Every day, fossil fuel transportation through this ecologically and culturally important area risks the health, safety and economic security of those living along the river,'' he said in a statement. "The accident is a reminder that we should be reducing, not increasing the number of oil and coal trains along the river. ... We cannot stand idly by to this danger to the river, the salmon and the people and communities who rely on them.''

Lena Moffitt, director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign, said the club's thoughts and prayers were with the train's crew, their families and the families of the communities affected by the disaster.

"History has repeatedly shown just how deadly and dangerous oil train crashes can be. Simply put, transporting oil by rail -- or by any method -- is a disaster waiting to happen,'' Moffitt said in a statement. "The safety and well-being of our communities must be put ahead of profits for Big Oil."

Jared Margolis, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, a national nonprofit conservation organization that has petitioned for stronger protections against oil trains, said derailments will continue to pose hazards because of inadequate protections.

Even with new federal regulations, Margolis said there are gaping holes that allow oil trains to move at speeds in excess of the "puncture resistance of even the newer tank cars'' and fail to limit the weight and length of "high-hazard flammable trains.''

"Just as safety experts predicted, the new rules are insufficient, and people, wildlife, rivers and lakes will continue to pay a huge price for the government's failure to take steps to adequately protect us from oil trains," he said.

Michael Lang, conservation director of Friends of the Columbia Gorge, said the oil train derailment "is not an accident.''

"This is the expected outcome of Union Pacific intentionally bringing more and more oil trains through the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area," Lang said.

King County Executive Dow Constantine, chair of the Safe Energy Leadership Alliance, said regional leaders must work together to protect communities from the growing risk of such disasters.

"We've seen massive oil-train fires occur across North America -- and now we've experienced here in the Pacific Northwest,'' Constantine said. "Today's devastating fire in the Columbia River Gorge shows why it's so important that we stand united to protect our communities from the increasing risk of human-caused disasters like this.

The Safe Energy Leadership Alliance is a coalition of local, state, and tribal leaders from across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, California, and Canada working to raise awareness of the safety risks of oil and coal transportation.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian
About 100 people remained under evacuation from the town of Mosier as of 5 p.m. Saturday, a day after an oil train rumbling past the Columbia River Gorge town jumped its rails and caught fire.

Authorities said they had contained a light oil sheen detected in the Columbia River and were investigating the source. The discovery highlighted risks that the wreck posed to migrating salmon, although environmental officials said the volume appeared to be small.

Firefighters put out the blaze in the tanker cars by around 2 a.m. Saturday, and highway officials re-opened Interstate 84 to traffic.

But disruptions continued for residents of Mosier, where exits to the interstate remained closed. Residents in the town of about 400 were told not to shower, use the toilet or let any water go down their drains. They were told to boil tap water before drinking it.

The damage, Mayor Arlene Burns said early Saturday, could have been much worse. Still, she said, "It's only so long you can go without flushing your toilet."

Mosier Manor, a trailer park near the site of the derailment, was still evacuated Saturday.

Wasco County Sheriff Lane Magill said deputies are patrolling the area and allowing residents to travel escorted to their homes if they need to fetch belongings such as medications.

"We're making sure that everybody's homes and property stay safe," Magill said.

He said the evacuation orders would be re-evaluated Saturday evening.

Nelly Demosthenes, who owns Route 30 Ice Cream/Coffee Shop near the derailment site, said she was told Friday that she had to stop running water. And without water, there's no business.



She sat outside the closed shop sipping a Gatorade on Saturday afternoon and reported losing about $2,000 in business over the two days.



Speaking in Saturday's mid-afternoon heat, Demosthenes said the city's main drag normally is flush with activity that time of day. But only a handful of people milled around as workers toiled along the railroad tracks.

On the Columbia, cleanup crews early Saturday spotted the sheen about six feet offshore, outside of existing containment booms that were set up in Rock Creek, which feeds the river, said Judy Smith, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman.

"The sheen is contained, but we want to know where it's coming from," Smith said. "It didn't come from Rock Creek. We're going to look for the source."



Smith said it was possible the oil came from a sewer drain. The wreck happened near Mosier's sewage treatment plant, which -- along with sewer lines -- is "non-operational" because of damage from the derailment. Another 1,000 feet of containment boom - a floating barrier used to contain oil spills - has been deployed on the Columbia, she said.

The tank car fire that sent a sweeping plume of black smoke across the river was extinguished by firefighters at 2 a.m., Smith said. Crews are now working to offload oil from four of the derailed cars, she said, which will help officials determine how much spilled.

The derailment, west of the Columbia River Gorge city of 440, sent a billowing cloud of black smoke into the air, clogged traffic and frightened residents Friday. Sixteen cars from a 96-car Union Pacific train derailed west of the city early Friday afternoon -- about 20 feet from the city's sewage plant and next to Rock Creek that feeds the Columbia River.

Four rail cars caught fire and at least one released oil. The fire appeared to be out early Saturday, but a small amount of lingering smoke persisted.

Mosier Fire Chief Jim Appleton said dousing the fire required a long process of cooling the tank cars before foam could be applied. He said crews poured on about 1,500 gallons of water per minute for eight to 10 hours.

At a news conference Saturday, Union Pacific spokeswoman Raquel Espinoza said the track where the derailment occurred undergoes inspection frequently. The most recent inspection was May 31.

"With all of these inspections, there was nothing out of the ordinary," she said.

Espinoza said 16 cars at the scene would be removed on flatbed trucks after remaining oil is transferred to storage tanks.

[Video of Saturday's entire news conference is at our Facebook page.]

Burns, the mayor, said the train that derailed was traveling slowly on a section of straight track at the time of the derailment.

"Last night I was wondering if all my earthly possessions would exist by the morning," she said. "We didn't know."

Burns said she's against oil and coal trains traveling through the gorge and said the derailment serves as a "wake up call" about the dangers of transporting oil.

"Hopefully this was a warning that fortunately didn't wipe out our entire town and our animals and everything that we own," she said.

Emily Reed, Mosier City Council president, said about 150 people attended a Hood River rally against oil trains on Saturday.

Reed was among the people evacuated from their homes. Her 8-year-old son was in school at the time and evacuated to a friend's house, where his grandfather picked him up. Her husband, a volunteer firefighter of seven years, responded to the derailment scene.

Reed knew her children were safe because of the evacuation, "but then my husband's near a potentially explosive oil fire," she said Saturday. "Yeah, I was worried, absolutely."

Reed, her husband and son stayed with her father, who has a cherry orchard just outside town.

They were even able to make it to her son's ballet recital Saturday afternoon in Hood River, despite missing a dress rehearsal Friday because of the traffic jam that the derailment had created.

-- Jim Ryan

jryan@oregonian.com

503-221-8005; @Jimryan015

Rob Davis of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed.

This report has been updated to reflect revised figures of how many train cars caught fire.
High Desert Museum DA photos.jpg

Still photos released by the Deschutes County District Attorney's Office show 36-year-old Nicholas Berger holding a woman captive inside the High Desert Museum in Bend on May 31. Berger later released the woman, a museum gift shop employee, and soon after was fatally shot by an Oregon State Police trooper.

(Deschutes County District Attorney's Office)

Duncan McDonnell

Duncan McDonnell was looking at turtles with a friend at the High Desert Museum in Bend on Tuesday when he heard a woman's scream that made the hair on the back of his neck to stand up.

"Let her go, you're choking her," he heard someone say. "She can't breathe." To which a man replied, "I'm going to kill her."

McDonnell said he ran toward the commotion, turned a corner and came upon Nicholas Berger -- all 6-foot-6 and 425 pounds of him -- holding a 5-foot-3 woman in a headlock. One massive arm was wrapped around her head as he clutched a fistful of hair with the opposite hand and dragged her backward.

As he recalled the incident, McDonnell said that he still isn't entirely sure why he decided to get involved. Or whether it was his words that convinced Berger to let her go.

"I still can't tell if I was at the wrong place at the right time, or the right place at the wrong time," said McDonnell, who works for a Portland design and restoration firm. "But I know I wouldn't have been able to stand back, listen and watch. I wouldn't have forgiven myself."

Soon after, an Oregon State Police trooper used a Taser on Berger, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel said Wednesday. He then fired three shots, killing him.

The trooper, who has not been publicly identified by authorities, has been placed on paid administrative leave as an investigation continues to determine if criminal charges should be filed.

McDonnell had been in Sunriver and on his way back home to Portland when he decided to stop and visit the museum for the first time since he was a student at Catlin Gabel School.

He and a friend had been touring the museum for about 45 minutes when he heard the scream.

The district attorney said Berger had a knife, forced the woman out of the store and dragged her through several exhibit halls in the museum. They did not know each other, he added.

McDonnell, who stands 6-foot-1, 230 pounds, said Berger repeatedly threatened to kill the woman and kept blaming her for some perceived slight that he never explained. He thought his best bet would be to follow the two and try to calm him down.

"To see someone with that level of fear in their eyes was pretty scary," McDonnell said. The longer the woman was in his grasp, the less she appeared to fight.

"I was thinking this is going to end in one of two ways, and I thought for sure this was going to end in some kind of a physical battle."

McDonnell said he followed them about 40 yards until they got to a dead-end hallway near the front entrance. Berger tried to leave with the woman through an exit, but was having trouble getting the door opened.

"I kept telling him, 'you don't want to do this,'" McDonnell said. " 'Whatever it is you're looking for, taking this woman's life isn't going to get it for you.'"

Berger pushed the woman into McDonnell's arms and ran out the door.

"I couldn't believe he let her go," McDonnell said.

The woman appeared frozen in shock, McDonnell said. She told him Berger mentioned having a gun and that she thought he left to retrieve it.

McDonnell said he guided the woman to other museum workers who were standing nearby, he grabbed his friend, relayed the woman's message about the gun and urged that they leave.

He didn't see Berger or the woman again. He estimates his interaction with the two lasted about 10 minutes.

Police told him later that Berger was fatally shot by a trooper. He said he was sorry the situation ended in Berger's death, but he wasn't sure if a better outcome was likely.

McDonnell said the situation has given him a better appreciation for emergency responders and he'd like to think that if he was there, other people would have stepped up to get the woman away from Berger.

"It's a sad reality, but something like this can happen anywhere nowadays," McDonnell said. "This could have been so much worst. I'm just thankful we were able to walk away."

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey
Most Oregon schools aren't required to screen drinking water for lead. If schools test, they don't have to report the results to anyone. And even when testing reveals tainted sinks or water fountains, schools are not required to shut them down.

State and federal laws require routine testing of public water systems, like the one overseen by the Portland Water Bureau. Those public systems are required to report their results to the state, and if they detect certain levels of lead, they must alert the public.

But schools generally fall outside those requirements -- meaning lead contamination of tap water is likely to go undetected for tens of thousands of schoolchildren.

As fallout continues over elevated levels of lead in Portland schools' drinking water, two Portland lawmakers say they will push for legislation in 2017 that would mandate lead testing in schools statewide. And Rep. Knute Buehler, R-Bend, pledged to bring forward legislation that would review lead contamination in schools.

Meanwhile, the Oregon Health Authority on Thursday said it wants all school districts to screen for the toxic metal using a certified drinking water lab. The agency, however, lacks the authority to order that testing, at a certified lab or anywhere else.

Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer, D-Portland, said she wants to see mandated lead testing of school drinking water.

"It's a very urgent issue," Keny-Guyer said. "I want to keep the focus on ensuring the safety of kids in the whole state."

In Portland, concerns about safety seemed to grow last week.

School officials released test results showing elevated levels of radon in some district buildings, adding to perceptions of a wider-ranging crisis over environmental toxins. Radon is a tasteless, odorless and invisible gas that naturally exists in the ground and can cause lung cancer.

But state public health officials on Friday called radon results a "diagnostic tool" that often reveal problems with a building's ventilating system. Radon dissipates in well-ventilated spaces, said Brett Sherry, interim section manager for environmental public health for the health authority.

"Most of the time you can fix a radon problem in a school by adjusting the HVAC system," said Sherry.

The results followed legislation in 2015 requiring schools to test for radon. House Bill 2931 was sponsored by Buehler, Keny-Guyer and Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland.

Dembrow said lawmakers made radon a priority over lead because they assumed districts already test for lead.

"Now it's clear many of them, if not most of them, don't. So we need to look at that," he said.

Meanwhile, Portland parents remain bewildered by the lead crisis unfolding in Oregon's largest school district. School leaders acknowledge they knew that young children were being exposed to unsafe drinking water but did not immediately shut off all tainted fountains and sinks. They also were slow to notify parents and employees - if they did at all.

The district found 51 schools had at least one drinking fountain since 2009 dispensing water with lead levels above the federal government's "action level" of 15 parts per billion.

Portland officials say they can't find records documenting fixes in five of those schools. At one such fixture, at Vernon Elementary, test results collected by the district showed lead at 130 parts per billion.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says no level of lead is safe. The metal is particularly dangerous for young children and can result in lower IQs, behavioral problems, weight loss, fatigue, abdominal pain and vomiting.

Many parents said they feel betrayed by school leaders.

"You let your kids leave your home and put them in the care of people you think will take care of them," said Kinnari Shah, whose two children attend the Access Academy Alternative Program, which is housed at Rose City Park building in Northeast Portland. "You're not going to throw them out into the street or give them to a suspicious person walking by. But you send them to school because it's supposed to be a safe place.

"That should be their primary focus: You keep the children safe," Shah said.

Chrysanthius Lathan, whose four children attend Beaumont Middle School, Jefferson High School and Cesar Chavez K-8, said she's scared.

"Why isn't there a law?" said Lathan, who also works for the district, as a mentor for teachers. "You can poison kids in school and there is no law to stop it."

State officials said 185 rural schools in Oregon operate their own water systems and are required to test for lead every three years. Those results go to the state and, if they exceed certain limits, to parents. Oregon has nearly 1,300 public schools overall.

Oregon has company in failing to require all school districts to screen drinking water for lead. Though the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the ultimate authority on drinking water, it's up to states to carry out and enforce federal and state regulations for public water systems. Most states don't require lead testing of water in schools.

A handful, however, are taking a closer look at the issue in light of the Flint, Michigan, water crisis.

Washington state policymakers, for instance, are considering mandatory testing of school drinking water after elevated lead levels were detected in Tacoma schools this year. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie last month ordered lead testing in all schools after high levels of the metal were found in Newark schools. Massachusetts leaders this spring set aside $2 million for lead testing in their public schools. A bill pending in Rhode Island's Legislature would require lead screening of drinking water in public schools, daycares and preschools.

The Flint crisis prompted Gov. Kate Brown in April to ask the health authority and the Oregon Department of Education to review programs and "provide an assessment of lead" in schools. The agencies are supposed to make recommendations for ensuring "Oregon children have safe drinking water in school." Health authority officials said they expect to have recommendations ready this summer.

On Thursday, Brown's staff released a statement in response to the evolving crisis, saying the governor is in "regular contact" with her staff about the problem.

"As we await answers from the inquiry into the Portland situation, the governor's intention is to help school districts identify and address issues of water quality in their schools," the statement said.

Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech professor who helped spotlight problems in Flint, said Portland's elevated lead levels are troubling but not surprising. In the 1990s, state regulators approved a unique deal that allowed the city to get away with minimal chemical treatment, even though officials have long known that Bull Run water is corrosive.

Without certain kinds of treatment, water can strip lead from old infrastructure as it makes it way to the tap in a home or school. Some older homes have lead plumbing. Other homes built before 1986 have pipes with lead solder.

In April, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that Portland stood alone among the United States' largest water providers with recent tests showing lead over the federal safety level in the drinking water of high-risk homes. Edwards called the deal "the craziest thing I have ever heard."

"Those levels of lead are what you expect in a system that does not optimize its corrosion control," he said. "They are very high. They are very worrisome. This is what people have been warning Portland about for more than a decade now."

-- Noelle Crombie

503-276-7184; @noellecrombie
TreasureHunt-Clue-7.jpg

(Oregonian/OregonLive Staff)

The Rose Festival Treasure Hunt -- where people follow daily clues to find a hidden medallion for prizes -- is back again this year.

The clues appear by 6 a.m. daily on Oregonlive.com/rosefest for 14 days. Readers can also sign up for a daily Treasure Hunt newsletter at Oregonlive.com/hunt.

---------------------------------------------

Clue 7

Saturday, June 4

The trip was made,

he was inspired,

though there was no

yodel required.

-----------------------------------------------

The clues lead to a metal box that holds a 2.5 inch by 3 inch block of Lucite with a special Rose Festival medallion embedded in it. The medallion is hidden somewhere in the Portland metro area on public property and within easy reach. Treasure hunters need not dig or move any objects to find it. The medallion may be hidden in Multnomah, Clackamas, Clark, Washington or Yamhill counties.

If you are the clever finder of the medallion, return it right away to the Portland Rose Festival office, 1020 S.W. Naito Parkway, Portland.

The winner gets a certificate for two round trip airline tickets valid for travel to any Alaska Airlines destination, one night's stay in a single hotel room for two people and one buffet dinner for two people at Spirit Mountain Casino, and a ride in the Grand Floral Parade (you can find additional prize details here).
The father buttoned his suit coat and straightened it before addressing a judge Friday from the courtroom gallery. Then he spoke from a written statement, held in shaking hands.

Ken Nguyen thanked the investigators, the prosecutors, the first responders, the neighbors - a long list of everyone who helped with the murder case against Orlando Lee Pouncey, the man who killed his son.

"Justice has prevailed," Nguyen told the court.

A Washington County jury found Pouncey, 30, guilty last month of murder in the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Jerry Duy Nguyen. Judge Andrew Erwin also found Pouncey guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Erwin on Friday sentenced Pouncey to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years for murder and another five years on the gun charge. Pouncey must serve 30 years in prison before he can become eligible for parole.

Pouncey, shackled and dressed in an orange jail-issued jumpsuit, leaned back in his chair at the defense table during the hearing. He appeared calm.

Prosecutors said Pouncey shot Jerry Nguyen three times on Jan. 30, 2015. Jerry Nguyen had arrived at his ex-wife's condo on Southwest Canterbury Lane in Tigard to pick up their teenage son, when a confrontation between him and Pouncey erupted. Pouncey was dating Jerry Nguyen's ex-wife.

At trial, Pouncey's attorney had said the killing was self-defense, while prosecutors called it "cold-blooded murder."

Through their investigation, detectives discovered that Pouncey had bought the ammunition used during the killing the night before with Nguyen's ex-wife, Lauren, prosecutors said. She has not faced charges in her ex-husband's death, but did plead guilty to a federal charge of possessing ammunition as a felon and received probation.

She was not at Friday's hearing.

Jerry Nguyen's father told the court that his son loved people and they loved him. The day he died, everything changed.

"Your honor, this has been over 16 months," Ken Nguyen said. "Sixteen long months of my life since Jerry left this world. To me and my wife, life has not been the same without him."

Ken Nguyen paused, crying and unable to speak.

"I'm sorry," he told the judge.

His family members grabbed tissues. He wiped his nose.

Ken Nguyen remembered his son as an auto-mechanic who loved fishing and kept the family's freezer full with his catches. He remembered his son replacing the motor in his wife's 1999 Infiniti.

"Having a mechanic at home is like having a doctor in the house," he said.

He remembered how Jerry Nguyen had told him that in 2015, they would go fishing together for the first time. But Jerry Nguyen lived only 30 days that year.

He remembered this past Christmas, the family's first without Jerry. There were no lights. No tree. No gifts.

"Your honor, we don't have anything to address to the man who was found guilty of murdering my son, Jerry," he said, his voice becoming stronger. "Your honor, if possible, we want that he spend the rest of his life in the prison."

He thanked the judge for listening to him.

Prosecutor John Gerhard listed Pouncey's long criminal history, which started when he was a juvenile and included multiple assault convictions, for the court. Pouncey's attorney, John Gutbezahl, told the judge his client had a hard upbringing, growing up in the foster care system.

"His parents were not in his life," Gutbezahl said. "His parents were dead. Or gone."

Gutbezahl said Pouncey's mother, who was in the courtroom, adopted him when he was an adult. He wasn't making excuses, Gutbezahl said, but most people don't grow up that way.

Gutbezahl said his client plans to appeal his conviction.

The judge asked Pouncey if he wished to speak.

"I won't be making a statement, sir," he said.

Erwin told Ken Nguyen he was humbled by his words.

"It wasn't anger, it wasn't evil, it wasn't spite, it was just grief, but graciousness in that grief," the judge told him.

Erwin told Pouncey that he didn't just hurt one person when he killed Jerry Nguyen that day: He hurt Jerry Nguyen's son, his family and his friends.

But never once, Erwin said, has Pouncey shown remorse for what he'd done. Not even, the judge noted, when listening to a grieving father.

-- Rebecca Woolington

503-294-4049; @rwoolington
In the wake of Muhammad Ali's death, remembrances and condolences poured in from every corner of the internet. Most were met with retweets and favorites.

Enter Donald Trump.

Muhammad Ali is dead at 74! A truly great champion and a wonderful guy. He will be missed by all!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2016

Shortly after the presumptive Republican presidential nominee published a 97-character RIP, the backlash was swift.

he hated you.  -=Caleb Rapoport=- (@CalebRapoport) June 4, 2016

Would you have deported him?  Dak PresGawd (@RGEEZY) June 4, 2016

Would Ali have gotten a special exemption from your Muslim ban?  David Hobby (@strobist) June 4, 2016

so I guess you meant all Muslims EXCEPT Ali? pic.twitter.com/sKhGrmxcLS  Matt Oswalt (@MattOswaltVA) June 4, 2016

Muhammad Ali spoke out against your Islamophobia & he was also in the Nation of Islam. Keep his name out your mouth. https://t.co/96kqffa3iy  Brotha B (@BlakeDontCrack) June 4, 2016

The juxtaposition of Ali's Muslim beliefs and Trump's rhetoric on the campaign trail put the ire in context. But it's perhaps even more pertinent because of this:

One of Ali's last public acts was to condemn the likely Republican nominee's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

"True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion," Ali wrote in November. "I believe that our political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people's views on what Islam really is."

The internet remembers, much like The North. And it's that widespread, archived memory that might make it that much tougher for Trump to move to the center after a bombastic and often inflammatory primary campaign.

--Eder Campuzano

503.221.4344

@edercampuzano

ecampuzano@oregonian.com
Columbia Annex.jpg

A woman jogs past the Columbia Park Annex on North Willamette Boulevard in Portland on Saturday, June 4. Even at 6:30 a.m., temperatures were above 60 degrees.

(Molly Young/The Oregonian/OregonLive)

With triple-digit temperatures in store, the National Weather Service has placed Northwest Oregon under an excessive heat warning.

Forecasters say temperatures in and around Portland could reach 101 degrees Saturday and 100 degrees Sunday.

The heat warning takes effect 10 a.m. Saturday and last through 10 p.m. Sunday.

The weekend heat wave is poised to shatter records set in 2003 in Portland, according to weather data. The highest-recorded temperature on June 4 is 91 degrees, and 96 degrees on June 5.

Need to cool down? Multnomah County officials plan to open two cooling centers in county buildings, one in Portland at 5325 N.E. Martin Luther King Boulevard and the second in Gresham at 600 N.E. Eighth Street. The centers will operate from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. both days. Transportation can be arranged by calling Ride Connection at 503-226-0700.

Forecasters expect temperatures to drop into the 80s on Monday and Tuesday, then into the 70s on Wednesday.

-- Molly Young

myoung@oregonian.com

503-412-7056

@mollykyoung
sausage.JPG

Sausage. In the wrong hands, it's a weapon. Or a fashion accessory.

(Benjamin Brink / Staff)

In Georgia - the country, not the state - men raided a vegan cafe and pelted patrons with meat. "Some of them," the story says, " . . . were wearing sausage necklaces," which seems to be a bold and possibly odoriferous, bacteria-prone fashion choice. Then a brawl broke out and the assailants escaped into the night. The whole episode, the cafe owners say, shows just how intolerant people are. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, owners of a vegan cafe say they've been getting death threats since they decided to start eating meat again. Talk about your food fights.

Elsewhere on the Get A Grip, People front, we turn to Texas, where, a story reports, "a stoner whose dog got spooked by thunder and bit him in the buttocks, leading to the man thinking he had been shot by a firearm." Naturally, he called the cops, who had to explain to him that firearms don't normally leave toothmarks. Just how big was this dog? Just how stoned was this guy? The story does not say. But our sympathies are squarely with the dog on this one.

China picks up the Uh-Oh theme, contributing this story about a fellow who spent days making a human-size Lego statue of a character from "Zootopia," only to have it destroyed by a kid who knocked it over less than an hour after it'd gone on display. The pictures make us want to weep - both at the destruction, and at the fact that someone spends countless hours building a giant fox wearing a shirt and tie. Had this incident happened in the U.S., where litigation is the de facto national pastime, there would've been lawsuits galore. But because it happened elsewhere, there were apologies, and that was the end of it. We wish that poor Lego guy better luck with his next work. (And seriously, maybe build a castle or a Millennium Falcon or something next time? That we could get behind.)

So naturally, we turn to the animal kingdom for solace. And it does not disappoint. There's a video of some bobcat kittens. We have some adorable baby polar bears playing in the snow. And then we have this video of an orphaned baby zebra being raised by humans, a sight that has made us add "pet baby zebra" to our bucket list.

Happy weekend! Beware of people wearing sausages!

-- Mary Mooney

mmooney@oregonian.com

503-412-7020; @MaryKnitsPDX
Bay Future, Inc. has announced it has surpassed the $1 million mark in its The Future is Now capital campaign.

The economic development agency kicked off its three-year strategic growth plan seven weeks ago and seeks to reach its campaign goal of $1.2 million over the next two months.

We are extremely pleased with the support weve received from the private sector, said Mark Litten, Bay Future president and CEO. As of today, were at 89 percent of our goal with two months to go, so Im reasonably confident that well get to our goal and maybe even surpass it.

The economic development agencys plan is to create some 600 new jobs by attracting $300 million in new capital investment.

The jobs, said Litten, will pay $19.25 an hour and create an additional 400 secondary jobs at approximately $11.68 per hour.

The public and private sectors are buying into Bay Futures ambitious campaign because we now have a strategic action plan, with measurable goals, that Bay Future can be held accountable to, Litten said.

Bay Future estimates the new job-creating plan would generate about $34.5 million in annual payroll and $26 million in consumer expenditures.

Auburn Mayor Lee Kilbourn is one of many community leaders who are firmly on board with Bay Futures efforts.

Its great to see people from all walks of life working to make Bay County better, he said. Bay Future is working to bring in industry with a working wage of over $19 an hour, a living wage so folks can buy a home and raise a family.

Targeted industries, Litten said, are agribusiness, advanced manufacturing, logistics/warehousing/distribution and IT data centers.

A rising tide lifts all boats and we aim to lift high, Kilbourn said.

According to Bay Future, the following is where some of the $26 million consumers expenditures will be allocated:

 $9 million in housing

 $5 million in transportation

 $3.6 million in food

 $2.2 million in healthcare

 $2 million in personal insurance/pensions

 $1.2 million in entertainment

The campaigns success bodes well for the regions future, officials said.

The future is now and its looks bright, said Trevor Keyes, Bay Future vice president.
Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society of two-year colleges, recently had its annual convention in Washington, D.C., with Mid Michigan Community Colleges chapter, Alpha Omicron Omicron (AOO), among those in attendance.

At the convention, the chapter was recognized as one of the top 100 chapters in the nation. Tammy Alvaro, chapter advisor, was recognized as one of 15 most distinguished advisors.
The Nature Preschool at Chippewa Nature Center has hired Madison Powell for the newly-created position of Nature Preschool director.

For Nature Preschools first 10 years of operation, it was run by Rachel Larimore, Chippewa Nature Centers director of education. Nature Preschool is a high-quality, highly-respected, nature-based early childhood program that draws national attention.

Powell will support and lead teachers to continue and enhance that reputation. Her experience includes nature preschool teacher at CNC and nature kindergarten teacher with Bullock Creek Schools. Her previous experience, leadership skills, and strong understanding of the nature-based approach will be an asset to the program.

In addition to hiring a new director, Nature Preschool has once again earned a 5-star rating, the highest rating possible, on the Michigan Great Start to Quality rating system, effective 2016-18. Of 122 childcare providers in Midland County, only three have received a five-star rating. Great Start to Quality helps parents find the best early learning settings for their children, and helps providers and educators improve the care they give to children. Providers are evaluated on a five-star rating system that covers five key areas of quality which include: staff qualifications and professional development; family and community partnerships; administration and management; environment; and curriculum and instruction. Visit greatstarttoquality.org to learn more about the rating system.

Additionally, Nature Preschool will expand for the second straight school year, this time from 124 to 140 students for the 2016-17 school year in an effort to meet demand for the program. Nature Preschool students enroll in 2, 3 or 4 half-day sessions in the Gold-certified LEED Margaret Ann (Ranny) Riecker Nature Preschool Center and the Alden B. Dow-designed Nature Study Building. A limited number of openings remain for the 2016-17 school year. Nature Preschool is open to children who will be 3- or 4-years-old by September 1.

Nature Preschool offers students a learning environment that seeks to meets their developmental needs while initiating them into a life-long, meaningful relationship with the natural world. Nature Preschool offers discovery-based learning through play, sensory, gross and fine motor activities and creative expression, using the natural world as a catalyst for childrens growth and development. The curriculum includes art, music, social and cognitive skill development, and natural science exploration. The children regularly hike to wooded areas, ponds, fields, and the Homestead Farm. Children build their knowledge through their first-hand experiences with nature, classroom materials and their relationships with peers and adults.

There will be a farewell reception for Rachel Larimore on Thursday, June 30 from 4 to 6 p.m., with remarks and a champagne toast at 5 p.m., at the Chippewa Nature Center, located at 400 S. Badour Road.

The public is invited to stop by to thank Larimore for her 15 years of service and wish her well as she pursues a doctoral degree at Michigan State University. Children are welcome. RSVP is appreciated, but not required. Contact ckacel@chippewanaturecenter.org or (989) 631-0830 if you plan on attending.

Questions regarding Nature Preschool can be directed to Powell at (989) 631-0830 or mpowell@chippewanaturecenter.org.
WASHINGTON, June 02, 2016  Making his fifth trip to the Asia-Pacific region since becoming defense secretary in 2015 shows the significance of the U.S. militarys longstanding presence there, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters traveling with him to Singapore today.

Aboard a military aircraft, Carter talked about his two-day trip to the worlds only island city-state, where he will give a keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue June 4 and engage in bilateral talks with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen.

The secretary said the U.S. militarys rebalance in the Asia-Pacific region is the single-most consequential element of America's future, because half of the world's population and half the economic activity exist there.

70-Year U.S. Presence

The U.S. rebalance continues, he said, adding that U.S. military presence shows the United States stands for principle, inclusion and collective approaches to common security issues there, such as humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, relief efforts, maritime security and freedom of the commons.

Additionally, the strength of the U.S. militarys presence in the region has also led to progress with Japan and Korea and Taiwan, Southeast Asia and, today, China and India, he said.

We have  strong elements of cooperation with China, even as we have some elements of competition, Carter said, noting that China has cooperated with the United States for several years in regard to North Koreas ballistic missile launches.

The secretary said North Koreas launches are provocative, destabilizing and contrary to United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Everybody else in the region, and for that matter, most of the world, continues to be concerned about North Koreas missile activity, despite several recent launch failures, he said.

Maritime Land Claims At Issue

A lot has transpired in the past year in the Asia-Pacific region, Carter added, such as nations making maritime land claims -- some of which are excessive, he noted.

The United States doesn't take a position in the claim itself, but we do stand for principle and for international law in this regard, the secretary said.

Actions like this by any kind of party are provocative and destabilizing [but]  They won't affect our operations, he said.

ISIL Concerning Among Nations

Carter said he expects the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to be a point of discussion in Singapore, because numerous countries in Southeast Asia are concerned with the possibility of metastasis of the terrorist organization to their region.

The United States is committed to cooperating with Asia-Pacific nations on ISIL concerns and sharing counter-ISIL ideas, he said.

The main thing I can share with them is the situation and the results that are occurring on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria, Carter said. They're very interested in that, because that's where ISIL arose, and it is necessary to stamp it out there and defeat it, which we're going to do.
BLOOMINGTON  When 16-year-old Oskar Urquizo saw his silhouette Friday on a retaining wall across Olive Street from the Bloomington Public Library and City Hall, he was taken aback.

"It's kind of scary because how accurate it looks like me," said Urquizo.

But more importantly for Urquizo is why his silhouette and those of six other McLean County Diversity Project students  known as "scholars"  are being painted on the wall.

The silhouettes anchor a 115-foot-long section of a mural the youths are creating to spotlight efforts by Not In Our Town of Bloomington-Normal to end hatred and bigotry in the communities.

Local artist Vince Bobrosky is guiding the students to allow their personal narrative to become visual art. Each scholar's silhouette is the centerpiece of a section the scholar will complete his or her own way.

"Me and my dad were racially profiled here in Bloomington, so that is one of the main reasons why I wanted to be part of the project," said Urquizo, who grew up not far from the wall.

"There are so many things you wouldn't know about a person unless you talked to them," added Urquizo. "This project is kind of showing the differences between all of the different people in our community."

Other silhouettes are of Oskar's sister Olivia, 12, Abhiru Raut, 13, and Ved Lombar, whose age was unavailable, all of Bloomington; brothers Richie Beck, 16, and Max Beck, 13, both of Colfax; and Molly Klessig, 13, of Downs.

Klessig said she wants to use the image of a Protea, a South African flower, in her portion of the mural.

"It's really kind of perfect, said Klessig, who was among four scholars at work on the mural Friday. It represents diversity."

After the students complete the mural over the summer a dedication ceremony will be announced.

To go along with the mural project, two other scholars  Kristin Koe, 18, and Ethan Clay, 13, both of Bloomington  formed a piano-cello combo to record "Vicissitudes," a piece featuring music they composed. David Rossi, owner of Bombsight Recording Studio, donated his time and and facility for the project.

"'Vicissitudes' actually means 'change,'" said Koe. "I think it is representative of the song itself, but also the mural and what Not In Our Town stands for."

Camille Taylor, a retired educator and a NIOT member, and Jeff Schwartz, founder of the the Diversity Project, also worked with the youths on the project.

It was the scholars' idea to do a mural, which they are calling "Let Our Light Shone," said Taylor.

The students met over four Fridays after school at the city's Creativity Center to put the project together. They also had help from the Downtown Bloomington Association, which also has a public art program.

Rays extending from the silhouettes contain each student's personal message about NIOT. The rays also shine on depictions of the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, the Normal Theater and other iconic Bloomington-Normal buildings.

"When you think about the youth and the messages that they are going to have inside each of the silhouettes, their message is the light," said Taylor.

"They are basically filling our community with hope for the future," she added. "They are generating from their hearts and heads their hopes and dreams for this community and the world. There can't be anything better than that."

The musical recording will be uploaded along with pictures of the mural to NIOT's website, www.niotbn.com.

The duo will perform the song at the Not In Our Town Festival from 6-9 p.m. June 28 on the downtown Bloomington square, said Taylor.

I think it is super cool that when I have kids and they have their kids that they are going to be able to go to this wall and say, 'Hey, grandma painted that; mom painted that.' I want it to be a memory, said Klessig.
BLOOMINGTON  When Matthew Winks heard that two purple martin houses had been pulled down at White Oak Park and the winch on a third had been damaged, he couldn't help but think, Not again.

The same purple martin colony was vandalized several years ago.

He doesn't know why anyone would want to hurt birds that, among other things, eat a lot of mosquitoes and other flying insects.

The last time we had vandalism, we lost 40 eggs, said Winks, who leads the Purple Martin Project for the Twin City-based John Wesley Powell Audubon Society.

The birds at that time tried to re-nest, but because the second batch of eggs hatched later than the original ones would have, the nestlings were still in the boxes, not yet able to fly, when a heat wave hit in July, causing them to perish, he explained.

This time the outlook is better, but no less frustrating for Winks, who said the nesting boxes might have to be moved to a more visible location.

They had been nesting. They showed up in late March. I hadn't seen any eggs laid yet, Winks said.

The vandalism was discovered the weekend of May 21-22.

David Lamb, Bloomington's assistant superintendent of parks, said his crews went out that Monday morning and took the poles back to their maintenance shop, where they were able to straighten them. The poles and houses were reinstalled the same day.

This is a very active time for purple martins and we didn't want to disrupt them very long, Lamb said.

The martins returned almost as soon at the houses were put back up.

Winks checks the communal nesting boxes regularly to ensure that invasive house sparrows and starlings don't take over.

They'll build a nest on top of them, Winks said of the non-native sparrows and starlings. Keeping the box free of nesting competition is the most important thing.

As you might guess from their names, male purple martins are glossy, dark purple birds, although, depending on the lighting, they can look black or dark blue. The females are brown.

As with most songbirds, the males are colorful to attract females and the females are drab to escape the attention of predators, explained Winks.

The largest member of the swallow family, purple martins are about 7 to 8 inches long. In the eastern two-thirds of the United States, they nest almost exclusively in man-made houses, Winks said.

Native Americans were making houses for them before European settlement, he said.

Purple martin houses look like apartment buildings mounted on top of poles, with several separate compartments for nests. The boxes used in the Purple Martin Project cost $300 to $800, including the poles and winch mechanisms used to raise and lower the houses.

The colony at White Oak Park has about 25 nesting pairs, according to Winks. Another colony that is part of the project is at Tipton Park.

It is in a very visible part of the park and is doing real well, he said.

Lamb said the partnership with the Audubon Society has been a win-win. The conservation group supplies the poles and houses and maintains them. Park employees install them, he explained.

Lamb hopes there is no more vandalism.

It's a shame, Lamb said. Why somebody would do something like this, I don't know.

Anyone wanting to help may email Winks at fluidfive@gmail.com.
Its certainly not uncommon for a machinery technician to save the day during harvest season, but it is rare for one to literally save a farmers life.
CLINTON  The sadness that Clinton is experiencing can be mitigated when people talk with each other.

That was a message from the mental health community on Friday, the day after Exelon Corp. announced that it would close the Clinton nuclear power plant  DeWitt County's largest employer.

"There is sadness, concern about the impact it will have on the community, anger and anxiety," Sharon Mills, administrator of the DeWitt County 708 Community Mental Health Board, said of community reaction to the announcement.

"This is an acute issue for Clinton," said Dave Bowman, a licensed clinical professional counselor with Cornerstone Counseling Services LLC in Clinton. "It (the power station) is a huge employer. We're talking about peoples' livelihoods, retirement plans and futures."

Exelon plans to shut the plant on June 1, 2017. The power station has 700 full-time employees and about 100 contract workers, said communications manager Brett Nauman.

"While the news is shocking, this is not something that has come out of the blue," Nauman said. "We've been talking with employees about this for the past two years."

When the state legislature didn't pass legislation to extend carbon-free electricity subsidies to nuclear power plants before adjourning, Exelon made its announcement. Talks on the legislation continue.

"This is something that has been talked about for a long time," Nauman said. "That doesn't make it any easier for employees."

"Exelon has said that it will have jobs for all of us," Nauman said. But that will involve relocating. Exelon has several other nuclear power stations  including four others in Illinois that will remain open  but the closest is the LaSalle County station, which about two hours north of the Clinton plant.

Exelon human resources professionals were on site at the Clinton plant on Thursday and Friday and will remain there next week to discuss individual employee questions, including regarding relocation, severance and retirement, Nauman said.

Employee Assistance Program representatives also were on hand for confidential meetings to discuss services to help employees, he said.

Employees, their families and others will be experiencing a variety of emotions in the coming months.

"People will be experiencing stress, anxiety, anger and frustration," Mills said. "That is to be expected with news of this type.

"I would encourage people to talk with others about this so they are not keeping it inside," she said. "Seek professional assistance if needed."

Mills also encouraged people to keep in contact with their legislators regarding efforts to keep the plant open.

"But people should plan for what's been reported at this point," she said.

When people lose their jobs, they sometimes lose self-esteem and question their qualifications for other jobs, which results in family tension, conflict and substance abuse, Bowman said.

If a family member is becoming increasingly irritable, has difficulty sleeping, changes eating habits and/or stops engaging in formerly enjoyed activities, talk with them, listen to them and suggest that they visit their doctor or a mental health professional.

As to children, "they understand more than we give them credit for," Bowman said. "It's OK to say there are problems, it's a challenge for us as a family but then invite them to talk about it. Listen and accept what they say whether it makes sense or not.

"Keep the family as close as possible."
America was founded on the idea of helping others and being free. However, this is not how many of us are responding to the recent refugee crisis in Syria. While we all want to turn away from these problems and let them take care of it themselves, it is irresponsible for Americans to take that position.

Two hundred and fifty people die on average every day in Syria. That is 7,750 people a month. People are fleeing the chaos in hope to find safety for them and their families. Half of the refugees are children that are having their future taken from them. Sadly, many people and countries are turning these refugees down and leaving them for dead. With no food and shelter, they are left with little hope, and their options are dismal.

We as a country need to step up and show humanity to these poor people. If this were happening to us, we would all want help from our other countries. In the end, we are all humans and should help one another in tough times. The United States turned our back to the Jews during much of the Holocaust and millions were slaughtered because nobody would step in to help. Are we going to let an event like this happen again? Or will we be known as a country that is brave enough to take a stand against this type of barbaric behavior?

Ryan Wyse, Bloomington
The persistent news about teacher shortage in Detroit public schools is now being considered untrue. Michigan data showed that the understaffing claims in the past years are not true as the teacher-to-student ratio in the city has remained lower than the state average for several years.

Actual Numbers Do Not Support Claims Of Teacher Shortage In Detroit Public Schools

Since 2014, assertions about teacher shortage in Detroit public schools have never died down. These understaffing claims were allegedly due to low morale, heightened job uncertainty, stagnant pay and poor working conditions. This teacher shortage reportedly led to classroom overcrowding and forced other academic staff, particularly instructional specialists and school service assistants, to handle teaching positions.

But the numbers from the state of Michigan's data clearinghouse do not support the teacher shortage claims in Detroit public schools, Michigan Capitol Confidential reports. The data, which was submitted by the Detroit school districts, showed that the city's teacher-to-student ratio has been consistently lower than the state average in the past few years.

Michigan has an average of one teacher for every 16.13 students. Contrary to teacher shortage claims, the state data showed that as of December 15, Detroit public schools had lower teacher-to-student ratio with one teacher for every 14.53 students.

According to the Michigan's Center for Educational Performance and Information, as of December 2015, the number of full-time teaching positions in Detroit public schools has dropped to 3,227 from 4,754 in the 2012-13 school year. But the decline in full-time teaching jobs does not necessarily mean there is a teacher shortage because the number of enrolled students had also plummeted within those years, lowering the teacher-to-student ratio.

Teacher Shortage Claims In Other States

The debunked teacher shortage allegations in Detroit public schools raised questions whether the recent understaffing claims in the public school systems of other states are true. Among the states that reportedly suffered from teacher shortages are South Carolina, California, Georgia and Utah.

Are you convinced that the teacher shortage in Detroit public schools is a hoax? Share your thoughts below.
"Suicide Squad" actress Cara Delevingne revealed that she actually walked through a muddy forest without clothes for her Enchantress role. Expectations are high for Cara Delevingne on "Suicide Squad" as the supermodel turned actress is known for being multitalented.

New York Daily News reports that Cara Delevingne had an interesting introduction to her "Suicide Squad" role as Enchantress. According to Cara Delevingne, "Suicide Squad" director David Ayer gave a couple of recommendations to prepare for the Enchantress character.

The "Suicide Squad" director said Cara Delevingne should walk in the muddy woods on a night of the full moon naked. Cara Delevingne did just that and the "Suicide Squad" actress took this a step further.

Cara Delevingne shared that she went to the woods at night and howled out wolf-like. Cara Delevingne was certain the "Suicide Squad" actress would have made a funny sight had someone walked in on her then.

The "Suicide Squad" role was given to Cara Delevingne after the supermodel did a turn as Martha in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" for her audition. According to New York Daily News, a role like her "Suicide Squad" alter ego is luckily something that appealed to Cara Delevingne as she may have been preparing for this since childhood.

"Suicide Squad" character June Moone, the Enchantress, is an antihero. As a child, Cara Delevingne loved superheroes but had been more interested in the male characters.

Cara Delevingne said that because the choice had been limited to Wonder Woman in a bikini, the male superheroes appealed to the "Suicide Squad" actress more. "Suicide Squad" is the first film in which June Moone and the Enchantress appear and Cara Delevingne is the first actress to bring them to life.

With "Suicide Squad" Cara Delevingne hopes to bring public focus more on her work than on her private life. A recent Motto essay via Time magazine gave Cara Delevingne an avenue to do her share in bringing mental health awareness with her own personal struggles.

"Suicide Squad" will bring Cara Delevingne to theaters on August 4, 2016. Cara Delevigne joins other key actors as Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Ben Affleck, Viola Davis and Will Smith in "Suicide Squad."
Recent "General Hospital" casting news revealed recasts of Tyler Christopher and Kirsten Storms, which probably disappointed their fans. But another fan favorite is coming back to Port Charles on a recurring basis. TVLine reported that Ingo Rademacher is returning as Jax Jacks and his first air date will be on July 29.

Jax To Address Kidney Mystery

Words have it that Jax's major storyline would revolve around the kidney mystery, which will bring closure to the puzzle as to where the kidney that saved the life of his daughter, Josslyn Jacks (Eden McCoy). It can be recalled that the organ was originally thought to have come from little Jake (Hudson West). But as it turned out, Jake did not actually die so the kidney must be from someone else. Will Jax finally provide the answer?

Spoilers via Celeb Dirty Laundry tease that Jax return comes as his daughter's illness will worsen and test results will reveal troubling news. His ex-wife Carly Corinthos (Laura Wright) will be hearing shocking news regarding the source of Josslyn's kidney.

Jax's Temporary Return

While fans would be happy to see some relief in the show as other stars take their absences, there's one person who won't be happy: Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard). Will Jax be a competition again for Sonny with Carly? Well, he may not need to worry that much because Rademacher is not returning as full time just yet.

Rademacher is most recently seen in "Hawaii Five-O" as Robert Coughlin. The 45-year-old actor originated the role of Jax Jacks in GH back in 1999 and was last seen in Port Charles in 2013 during the soap's 50th anniversary.

"General Hospital" airs on weekdays on ABC at 2 p.m.
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Nest co-founder and CEO Tony Fadell is leaving the company, a move that may mark a shift in strategy for one of the early stars of the Internet of Things.

Fadell founded the startup, which makes connected thermostats and other smart-home gear, in 2011 with co-founder Matt Rogers. Google bought Nest in 2014. In a blog post on Friday, Fadell didnt say much about why he was leaving but said he would become an advisor to Alphabet, the parent company of Nest and Google, and its CEO, Larry Page.

The resignation came after news reports that said Nest was suffering from internal turmoil. In his parting note, Fadell said the company was growing fast and had a bright future.

To take Fadells place, Alphabet has hired Marwan Fawaz, the former head of Motorolas set-top box business. That choice suggests Nest may change the way it sells its technology.

The company has made its name selling Internet-connected thermostats, smoke detectors and cameras directly to consumers. Fawazs background is in devices distributed through cable companies. Sales and installation by service providers is a growing trend in home IoT.

Shifting its focus from retail device sales to IoT as a service might be a smart move for Nest, Jackdaws Research analyst Jan Dawson wrote in a blog post on Friday.

The retail model for the smart home seems pretty stuck right now, Dawson wrote.

Delivering smart homes as a service gets around high upfront costs and headaches that can come with device installation and integration, he wrote. AT&T and security company Alarm.com, among others, have found success with this channel.

Fadell said his transition out of the company had been in progress since late last year. He said Nest has had double-digit revenue growth for more than four years.

In addition to selling its own devices, Nest lets third parties develop other products and services that work with its platform, and there are more than 18,000 developers involved in that now, Fadell wrote. It also originated the Thread IoT networking protocol, now managed by the Thread Group.
Quantum computings full potential may still be years away, but there are plenty of benefits to be realized right now.

So argues Vern Brownell, president and CEO of D-Wave Systems, whose namesake quantum system is already in its second generation.

Launched 17 years ago by a team with roots at Canadas University of British Columbia, D-Wave introduced what it called the worlds first commercially available quantum computer back in 2010. Since then the company has doubled the number of qubits, or quantum bits, in its machines roughly every year. Today, its D-Wave 2X system boasts more than 1,000.

The company doesnt disclose its full customer list, but Google, NASA and Lockheed-Martin are all on it, D-Wave says. In a recent experiment, Google reported that D-Waves technology outperformed a conventional machine by 100 million times.

Were at the dawn of this quantum computing age, Brownell said. We believe were right on the cusp of providing capabilities you cant get with classical computing.

While the bits used by traditional computers represent data as 0s or 1s, qubits can simultaneously be 0 and 1 through a state known as superposition, enabling new levels of performance and efficiency. Equipped with that power, researchers can solve problems they couldnt solve before  or so the thinking goes.

In almost every discipline youll see these types of computers make this kind of impact, Brownell said, citing examples like drug discovery and climate modeling. It opens up a completely new tool chest for scientists and developers.

Companies can already add quantum capabilities into their existing workloads, and customers can access D-Waves machines in British Columbia remotely.

IBM recently announced its own quantum capabilities that are available via the cloud.

Increasingly, cloud access will be the primary deployment model for such technologies. Quantum computing will typically be used alongside conventional systems, Brownell said. Whether youre using an iPhone, a desktop or something else, you can access quantum technology just like any other resource, he explained.

Thats not to say there arent challenges.

We manufacture the most complicated superconducting chips in the world as a side effect of trying to build these machines, Brownell said.

Making those chips is no walk in the park, and neither is operating the resulting quantum systems. To achieve quantum effects, the D-Wave 2Xs lattice of 1,000 qubits is cooled to 0.015 degrees Kelvin  180 times colder than interstellar space. The processor is shielded from almost all of Earths magnetic field and is kept in a vacuum, with pressure 10 billion times lower than that of the air around us.

There are lots of folks around the world doing research projects at this level, where they run for a few minutes and then write up their results, but weve had to run 247 for years at a time, Brownell said. Lockheed Martin, our first customer, came on in 2010. There are a lot of challenges in combining ultralow temperatures with enterprise quality levels.

Besides just quantum computing hardware, D-Wave also works on software that takes advantage of it. For instance, its developed software that injects quantum-computing capabilities into a machine-learning training algorithm for faster training times and better accuracy.

Adding quantum computing into your classical workloads will provide an advantage, Brownell said, citing other examples including portfolio analysis, pattern recognition and optimization.

In general, when a user models a problem using D-Waves technology, the processor considers all possibilities simultaneously. Multiple solutions are returned to the user, scaled to show optimal answers.

D-Wave has just a handful of reference applications that can show customers how a particular task can be accomplished, but it hopes to expand that number significantly.

People shouldnt have to understand physics at all to use these tools, Brownell said.

D-Wave and IBM have gone head-to-head in the quantum space in recent years, and theres been considerable debate over whether the technologies actually live up to their claims. Further complicating things, the companies take very different approaches, making it difficult to compare them.

With a focus on bringing a product to market as quickly as possible, D-Wave opted early on for a model focused on whats known as quantum annealing, in which the technology uses quantum fluctuations to solve a particular type of problem. IBM uses whats known as a gate or circuit model, Brownell said.

That model is reasonably elegant and makes a lot of sense, he said. It could also be more broadly applicable.

The gotcha is that its super hard to do, he said. I admire the research by IBM and others, but its going to take at least a decade before theres a product that does anything useful.

For example, the technology IBM recently offered up for public consumption features five qubits.

Will anyone ever be able to build a gate model with 10,000 qubits? Thats an open question, Brownell said. When and if that model becomes implementable, well have the building blocks in place and will have tackled the hard problems before anyone else.

Yet another approach is known as the topological model of quantum computing, and thats the one Microsoft has taken, he said.

Its actually more elegant from a theory point of view, but it will require the discovery of new kind of particle that no physicist has ever seen before, he said.

All in all, theres still much to be figured out. But while several competing approaches remain in play, ultimately all those involved are trying to move quantum computing forward, Brownell said.

Were at the bleeding edge today, he said. Its a very exciting time to be in the middle of all this.
Authorities are investigating the death of a woman shot at her home just on the outskirts of Menifee.

At 1:30 p.m. Friday, June 3, Riverside County Sheriffs deputies responded to the 29200 block of Garnet Street after reports of an accidental shooting, Deputy Mike Vasquez said.

The female victim, whose age and other information was not immediately available, was transported to a local hospital and pronounced dead.

Vasquez said the victim sustained at least one gunshot wound. He would not elaborate.

An adult male has been detained for further questioning. The sheriffs office is spearheading an investigation.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.
Cameron Humphreys was presented with the Dominic Durden Memorial Scholarship at the Moreno Valley College scholarship tea on Thursday, June 2.

The $300 award is given to a Moreno Valley College student enrolled in the emergency medical services or emergency medical technician program.

Durden, 30, was a Riverside County sheriffs dispatcher and former volunteer firefighter who died in a traffic collision on Pigeon Pass Road in Moreno Valley on July 12, 2012, while en route to work. Durden was struck riding his motorcycle when a vehicle made a left turn in front of him.

The driver of the other vehicle, undocumented immigrant Juan Zacarias Tzun, served about 34 days in jail after pleading guilty to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. He then was deported to his native Guatemala.

Sabine Durden, Dominics mother, presented the scholarship to Humphreys.

In the years since her sons death, Durden has become an outspoken critic of illegal immigration. She also is a staunch supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who met with Durden and other families who suffered similar tragedies after Trump took a hard-line stance against illegal immigrants.
In the ongoing battle against problem players in the for-profit college industry, California Attorney General Kamala Harris called for removing the authority of a major accrediting agency.

Harris wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Education asking it to revoke its recognition of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, which provides validation for many for-profit colleges, including many that have had problems in recent years.

Among those was Corinthian Colleges, which operated, among others, Everest College. The company closed in 2015, shutting down all of its campuses, including three in the Inland Empire.

Despite enforcement actions by the California Department of Justice and the federal government against Corinthian, ACICS continued to accredit Corinthian, hurting thousands of students in the process, Harris said in a written statement released by her office. The Department of Education should not renew ACICS federal recognition.

Harris is not alone. She joined 13 other attorneys general in urging the Department of Education to stop recognizing the authority of the accrediting body.

ACICS is finding it hard to win for losing.

In March, it voted not to renew the accreditation of Bristol University in Anaheim, a small, for-profit institution offering degrees in business, legal studies and hospitality. Inside Higher Ed reported in May that a judge had intervened in the decision that would have shut the school down, saying that Bristol could remain open and still admit new students.

It is just the latest turn in a continuing push for more accountability when it comes to for-profit  or even nonprofit  colleges.

This week, St. Catharines College in Kentucky announced it would close July 1. The Roman Catholic school, established in 1931, has been under financial sanctions because the Department of Education said it mishandled federal grant money. The school is blaming an overly heavy-handed approach by federal officials for its woes and for having to fire 118 faculty and staff and turn away 475 students.

In March, the Department of Education listed 70 schools on its list for the most restrictive form of heightened cash monitoring. Of those, five were in California. The only Inland Empire school was Community Christian College in Redlands. A message left on the schools main phone number was not returned.

In addition to asking the Department of Education to push out the accrediting council, Harris, who is running for U.S. Senate, also threw her voice in with others objecting to a bill that would allow more for-profit schools to recruit on military bases. Military veterans often are cited as prime targets of for-profit schools because of the tuition money they receive through the GI Bill.

According to a report by Politico, a bill by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., would have increased academic advising opportunities for for-profit schools on military bases  Critics said the amendment was just a ruse for colleges to boost profits by making it easier for them to recruit service members.

A compromise version of the bill was worked out with those who objected to its language. Part of the change limits access to the bases to advisers, not recruiters, who can only meet with service members already enrolled in their schools.

And, finally, DeVry University, which has a campus in Colton, shook up its leadership this week, ousting its CEO. The Federal Trade Commission filed a suit in January accusing the Illinois-based company of making deceptive claims about its students successes. Two months ago, the Department of Veterans Affairs removed the college from an approved list of schools that agree not to engage in fraudulent recruiting practices.

DeVry is contesting the FTC suit.

   

A survey released by Experian late last week shows that college students are graduating with significant debt.

Thats nothing new.

But those same students say they have little or no education in how to handle that debt. One in five survey respondents gave his school an F grade for credit education.

The survey found that:

 69 percent of students graduate with loan debt.

 Average student loan debt among respondents was $22,813.

 71 percent said they did not learn about credit and debt management in college.

 72 percent said they were concerned about paying off their debt.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9595 or mmuckenfuss@pressenterprise.com
UPDATE (Tuesday, June 7): Fire at 95 percent containment on day 4 of burning

6:30 p.m. UPDATE

The fire was 65 percent contained by 6:30 p.m., Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department officials said. It held at 139 acres by that time, as it had throughout the day.

The right lane on Southbound I-15 remained closed, Caltrans officials said via twitter. The lane may remain closed until Monday as crews mop up hot spots west of the freeway.

The southbound off-ramp to Rainbow Valley Boulevard remained closed at 8:20 p.m., according to California Highway Patrol dispatchers.

Traffic in both directions was moving smoothly at 6:30 p.m., according to the Caltrans Quickmap.

At some point during the day, a firefighter suffered minor injuries while battling the blaze.

2:00 p.m. UPDATE

Winds of 20 mph continued to blow at the Temecula Fire south of Old Town on Sunday afternoon, June 5, but fears that the flames would flare up after being reduced to smoldering vegetation had not been realized.

Were just a little more aware when the winds come that there is no increase in fire behavior, Cal Fire Battalion Chief Tyrell Davis said.

The fire remained reported at 139 acres and 30 percent containment at 2 p.m. Temperatures topped 85 degrees in the area, but were expected to cool as the week advanced

The California Highway Patrol reopened the No. 3 lane on the southbound I-15 just after noon, but the right lane could remain closed until Monday as crews mop up hot spots on the west side of the freeway, where on Saturday flames burned right up to the four-lane freeway.

Southbound traffic on the 15 on Sunday began to slow where it intersects with the I-215. Cars on were slowly making their way through the partial closure, which stretches from just south of Temecula Parkway to just south of Rainbow Valley Boulevard.

The southbound Rainbow Valley exit also was closed Sunday.

Davis said crews would remain on the fire lines overnight.

Davis expected humidity to increase from 30 percent during the day to a firefighter-friendly 75 percent Sunday night.

Hand crews backed by three water-dropping helicopters hiked into the hills west of I-15 to complete a line around the fire area.

Rock outcropping were challenging firefighters, Davis said. Crews had to watch their footing and work around them to build the line.

The cause of the fire had not been determined, Davis said. There were no injuries reported Sunday as of 2 p.m.

12:30 p.m. UPDATE

The No. 3 lane on southbound Interstate 15 in Southwest Riverside County, closed since Saturday because of the nearby Temecula Fire, has reopened.

The No. 4 lane remained closed, Caltrans spokeswoman Terri Kasinga said, and coudl remain closed until Monday. The no. 3 lane opened around noon, Kasinga said.

Crews battling the 139-acre Temecula Fire on Sunday, June 5, were watching their backs as they attempted to build a line around the blaze southwest of Temecula.

There were no actual flames to extinguish, said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Tyrell Davis. explained; only hot smokes.

No structures were threatened and no evacuations were in place, he said.

The fire caused a traffic nightmare Saturday, as multiple lanes were closed while flames raged alongside the I-15.

Early Sunday, the Nos. 3 and 4 lanes of the southbound I-15 were closed from just south of Temecula Parkway to just south of Rainbow Valley Boulevard, causing a serious traffic backup.

Davis expected a high temperature Sunday of 84 degrees with 30 percent humidity  increasing to a firefighter-friendly 75 percent Sunday night. As of 12:30 p.m., the temperature in the area was 83 degrees with winds around 11 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.

The fire was listed as 30 percent contained as of 9:30 a.m.

The cause of the fire had not been determined, Davis said. There were no injuries reported Sunday morning.

11:50 a.m. UPDATE

TEMECULA  Nearby businesses were hoping to recover Sunday from a lackluster day Saturday when customers  and employees  had difficulty getting places because of the traffic backup.

At Garage Brewing Co., which serves fast-fired pizza, manager Julian Lopez said the restaurant did about half its normal sales on Saturday, which is normally its busiest day.

Even our employees were an hour to two hours late, Lopez said. All we can do is send people home and clean.

Lopez sent a message to employees Sunday through the restaurants online schedule to leave home early for work. He didnt believe that Sundays I-15 nightmare was as bad as Saturdays.

Customers began trickling in about 11:30 a.m.

The fire had been 30 percent contained as of 9:30 a.m.

The Nos. 3 and 4 lanes of the southbound I-15 remained closed from just south of Temecula Parkway to just south of Rainbow Valley Boulevard, causing a serious traffic backup in the approximate 2.5 distance for a second day in a row as crews mop up hot spots from flames that burned right to the highway Saturday.

Officials were hopeful of reopening the No. 3 lane soon, but there was no timetable for that at mid-day Sunday.

The cause of the fire had not been determined as of Sunday.

The traffic jam that idled motorists for two to three hours Saturday actually helped another diner on Old Town Front Street, DSotos Mexican restaurant.

Motorists weary of creeping along the freeway decided to take a break at the walk-up/drive-thru restaurant, cook John Lozano said.

There was a lot of waiting for them. They were hungry and they were tired, so they stopped in and ate, he said.

Fortunes were much improved Sunday at the Lienzo Charro Mexican restaurant on Old Town Front Street, where Saturday an employee needed two hours to get to work.

Sunday, that same employee said the restaurant was too busy with customers for her to stop and talk.

10 a.m. UPDATE

Crews battling the 139-acre Temecula Fire on Sunday, June 5, were watching their backs as they attempted to build a line around the blaze southwest of Temecula.

The winds that typically show up in the area just after noon arrived early, said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Tyrell Davis.

The winds were blowing at 15-20 mph at the command post on Temecula Parkway. Nearby, a giant American flag was at full attention.

Were just a little more aware when the winds come that there is no increase in fire behavior, said Davis, hoping that smoldering vegetation does not flare up into a more serious fire.

There were no actual flames to extinguish, Davis explained; only hot smokes.

No structures were threatened and no evacuations were in place, he said.

Davis expected a high temperature Sunday of 84 degrees with 30 percent humidity  increasing to a firefighter-friendly 75 percent Sunday night.

Hand crews backed by three water-dropping helicopters hiked into the hills west of I-15 to build that line.

The fire had been 30 percent contained as of 9:30 a.m.

Rock outcropping were challenging firefighters, Davis said. Crews had to watch their footing and work around them to build the line.

The Nos. 3 and 4 lanes of the southbound I-15 remained closed from just south of Temecula Parkway to just south of Rainbow Valley Boulevard, causing a serious traffic backup in the approximate 2.5 distance for a second day in a row as crews mop up hot spots from flames that burned right to the highway Saturday.

Davis said he was hopeful of reopening the No. 3 lane soon, but he added that there was no timetable for that and that it would be up to the California Highway Patrol.

The cause of the fire had not been determined, Davis said. There were no injuries reported Sunday morning.

UPDATE: 9:15 a.m. SUNDAY, JUNE 5



Southwest Riverside County may be in for another rough traffic day today.

By 9 a.m., traffic on the southbound I-15 that had been moving slowly but steadily through the closure of the two right lanes had begun to back up substantially. Traffic was already at a crawl near the area of the 139-acre brushfire.

The two right lanes are closed from just south of Temecula Parkway to just south of Rainbow Valley Boulevard, a distance of about 2.5 miles.

The southbound Rainbow Valley off ramp also is closed.

The blaze, which started Saturday morning, set off sweeping gridlock Saturday on the freeway and on surrounding surface streets.





UPDATE: 8:45 a.m. SUNDAY, JUNE 5

Fire crews are hoping forecasts calling for a slightly cooler day today will help knock down a fire near Temecula that strained resources and created a traffic nightmare on Saturday.

Cal Fire officials at 8:30 a.m. said the Temecula Fire stood at 139 acres with 30 percent containment.

National Weather Service forecasts for highs in the upper 80s today, with winds around 11 miles per hour. Humidity increased a bit Sunday morning, too.

The area of the fire is breezy this morning. A Cal Fire helicopter from Hemet-Ryan Airport continues to drop water on the flames west of I-15 while hand crews attack with shovels from the ground.

Fire retardant has turned some of the nearby rocks pink.

The blaze in Southwest Riverside County is one of seven live fires burning in Southern California this morning, including a major wildfire in the wild areas surrounding Calabasas, sparking evacuations of nearby residents.

The fire broke out at 11:40 a.m. Saturday just south of Temecula near the Border Patrol checkpoint, according to the Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department. It quickly raced up the hillside west of the freeway, spewing white and brown smoke high into the air.

Fire officials, who had not determined a cause.

Fire crews were forced to shut down multiple lanes on Interstate 15 for much of Saturday, snarling traffic on the freeway and on surrounding surface streets. At one point on the I-15, the backup extended for six miles.

The two southbound lanes of the I-15 continued to be closed early today south of Temecula Parkway. Traffic was moving slowly, but steadily through the open lanes.

Six inmate handcrew trucks were seen spreading teams an resources around the area starting about at 8 a.m.

Though the heat wave was expected to let up a little Sunday, the forecast still called for more of the hot, dry weather that has plagued the region for the past five days. the summer-like weather fueled two significat wildfires around Southwest Riverside County as well as other fires around the state.

Excessive heat warnings were expected to remain in effect until Sunday evening.

Temperatures are expected to ease early this week, however. Check here for the latest forecast.

This is a developing story; check back for updates.



Previous coverage:

A brush fire that burst to life along I-15 near Temecula on Saturday morning, June 4, shut down all the freeways southbound lanes for several hours, wreaking havoc along area surface streets and leaving motorists feeling frustrated, hot and bothered.

Additionally, three Cal Fire planes and a helicopter that were taking part in the Hemet-Ryan Air Show cut their demonstration short so they could respond to the blaze.

On I-15, the backup at one point extended 6 miles.

Temecula resident Tylynn Ferguson had planned a family outing at the San Diego County Fair but ended up spending most of her afternoon hopelessly tangled up in the gridlock that gripped the citys major roads.

Just got on the fire scene in Temecula pic.twitter.com/N89Cd1c4PF  PE Photo (@PE_Photo) June 4, 2016

Its horrible, just horrible, said Ferguson, 26, as she filled her car with gas late Saturday afternoon. I dont understand why they wouldnt let us come south down the freeway, but they allowed traffic on the other side.

Ferguson said the family left for the fair about 1:30 p.m., never even made it on the freeway and used up almost all the gas in the tank. Temeculas major traffic arteries, including Temecula Parkway, Rancho California Road, Pechanga Parkway and Jefferson Avenue, resembled parking lots as the afternoon wore on.

There was hope for Ferguson, though. The California Highway Patrol reported at 4:17 p.m. that two southbound lanes had been opened.

Hopefully we can still make it, said Ferguson as she completed her fill-up.

A California Highway Patrol dispatcher said I-15 was expected to operate with those two lanes open into Saturday night. One lane of northbound I-15 was also closed to public traffic in order to provide firefighting vehicles access to the fire site, the dispatcher said.

The thick dust from the blaze almost looks like fog. pic.twitter.com/FGCbs5ThfN  Alex Groves (@AlexDGroves) June 4, 2016

The fire broke out at 11:40 a.m. just south of Temecula near the Border Patrol checkpoint, according to the Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department. It quickly raced up the hillside west of the freeway, spewing white and brown smoke high into the air. The fire was eventually 20 percent contained at 70 acres, said fire officials, who had not determined a cause.

About 20 miles away at Hemet-Ryan Airport, where Cal Fire operates an air-attack base, the public address announcer told the audience the aircraft would have to cut their demonstration short.

Kimberly Douglas, the event spokesperson, said the show schedule was suspended to accommodate firefighting efforts but eventually resumed.

Were breaking as necessary to allow Cal Fire to get in and get out, said Douglas in a telephone interview.

One firefighter suffered a non-life-threatening injury, and no property damage was reported.

But that provided little solace to the thousands of people whose plans were scuttled as they stewed in traffic. It didnt help that temperatures pushed into the high 90s as National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning that was to remain in effect across the Inland Empire until 8 p.m. Sunday, June 5.

John Oliphant, 49, of Menifee, was heading to San Diego to pick up his wife from the airport. Two hours after leaving home, he was parked at the Chevron station on Jefferson Avenue in Temecula, taking a respite from the road.

Ive got an older car so I figure Im just going to sit it our for a while, said Oliphant. Its hot, everybodys beeping, everybodys angry.  What a mess.
Updates with current fire acreage and containment (35 percent Saturday morning, June 4).

A fire that was almost completely contained in the hills south of Temecula on Friday morning, June 3, was whipped up by afternoon winds, threatening structures and causing officials to open an evacuation center at Great Oak High School.

Riverside County Sheriffs Deputies and California Highway Patrol Officers blocked Pala Temecula Road near Great Oak High School, rerouting traffic late Friday.

At 11 a.m. Saturday, officials at Cal Fire San Diego reported that all evacuation orders have been lifted and Pala Temecula Road has reopened to residential traffic.

Winds sparked several spot fires in the area of Pala Temecula Road and Rancho Heights Road on Friday afternoon, said Cal Fire San Diego Capt. Kendal Bortisser.

Though the spot fires were about 1-2 acres in size around 3:45 p.m., they had grown to be about 25 acres in size by about 5:15 p.m., according to a Twitter message from Cal Fire San Diego.

An estimated 70-100 structures were threatened, according to the Twitter message.

Bortisser said the fires are considered part of the larger Pala Fire which began south of Temecula on Tuesday.

He said the fire was burning 25 acres, or a total of 70 acres when combined with the earlier fire.

The fire had previously been reported as 95 percent contained. On Saturday morning, Cal Fire San Diego reported the fire was only about 35 percent contained.

A sea of cars sat parked on the curb outside the school Friday, the majority of people trying to keep cool inside with their air conditioners on.

Evacuees seemed a lot more frustrated with the most recent fire than they were on Tuesday when the fire broke out.

A lot of people who were being turned around parked their cars along the curb and tried to walk down Pala Temecula Road, only to be stopped by Riverside County sheriffs deputies.

Patti Dobarzynski said she and her husband were upset because their home was in the fire zone and they couldnt get down to it from either side of Pala Temecula Road. Their four dogs were inside the home.

I was in the Chatsworth Fire in 1972 and our house actually burned, Dobarzynski said. Im a little worried. I would just like to get our dogs. Thats all that matters to me right now.

Alicia Pottratz, 28, said she wasnt allowed down the road with her car after the fire started, but she desperately wanted to get her beloved 160 pound doberman, Diesel.

So she said she did the next best thing by walking 3 1/2 miles to her home. It was still early enough that no one was further down the road who could stop her.

She picked up water bottles, dog food, a leash, wet rags and then Diesel.

She said she periodically gave Diesel water from the bottles.

She cooled down his feet, which had been walking on hot pavement, with the wet rags.

Hes my baby and I love him, she said. I promised him that if there was another fire we would be going together.

Staff Writer Brian Rokos contributed to this report.

This is a developing story. Check back for additional details.

Contact the writer:951-368-9693, agroves@pressenterprise.com or @AlexDGroves on Twitter.
Inland Southern Californias long boom may be over, researchers suggested this week at UC Riverside.

Population growth has not returned to highs before the recession and there is no indication it will, although the possibility remains, according to Hans P. Johnson of the Public Policy Institute of California.

The economy has come back pretty well  but you dont see migration returning to the same extent that it was before, he said.

Johnson and colleague Joseph Hayes were in Riverside to present a seminar called The Updated Future of the Inland Empire for the universitys Center for Sustainable Suburban Development.

The seminar was spun off a 2008 project by Johnson, Hayes and Deborah Reed called The Inland Empire in 2015. That research was done in the boom that preceded the Great Recession, which technically started in December 2007 and lasted to June 2009. But its effects are still being felt.

This last five years has been the lowest rate of change for the region that we have seen since weve been keeping statistics on annual population growth, Johnson said.

That growth, about 200,000 people, wasnt small, but it was still very small compared to your historic growth patterns. Californias growth from 1950 to the mid-2000s was unprecedented, and the Inland Empire ranks as the 13th largest metropolitan area in the United States, although he said few people are aware of it.

Most coastal regions in Southern California are built out, but the Inland area still has land available at relatively low prices, but not low enough to make it as affordable as other parts of the country.

Job growth spurs population growth, according to Hayes, and starting in 2012 Inland job growth started to eclipse the rest of the state. But income levels have not necessarily recovered, he said.

The 2008 report occurred when a lot of office development was going on based on the assumption that coast businesses would bring their operations here, and along with them higher paying tech jobs. The assumption was that places such as Riverside would follow the pattern of Orange County as growing from a large bedroom community for Los Angeles County to a place that imports workers rather than sending them to someplace else.

At least in terms of the big numbers that were presenting here on a macro scale, that hasnt happened, he said.

Johnson and Hayes recommended education as a solution to produce more college graduates and keep them in the local economy.

Johnson cautioned not to be too pessimistic about the regions potential to generate another boom. Even though projections dont show it happening, its been the history of the Inland Empire.

Contact the writer: fbuck@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9551.
In her second swing through the Inland area, the growth of the warehousing industry was clear to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Coming here I saw a lot of warehouses, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination said during a stop in Perris on Thursday, June 2. They look big but they dont employ a lot of people.

Clinton didnt elaborate on those brief remarks, but with her comments she waded into a continuing local debate as the region has become one of the largest logistics hubs in the nation.

Some supporters of the warehousing industry disagreed with her comments, saying the industry employs thousands. Others say her observation was correct and that logistics mainly offers low-paying, temporary employment.

Shes wrong, said John Husing, chief economist for the Inland Empire Economic Partnership.

Husing, who has worked as a logistics consultant, said fulfillment centers, such as those opened by Amazon in San Bernardino and Moreno Valley, employ more people than a typical warehouse.

They are heavily staffed, he said. What she said is historically true but not in the last two or three years.

Moreno Valley Mayor Yxstian Gutierrez said he also disagreed, saying that warehousing is bringing thousands of jobs to his city with projects such as Amazon, Lowes and the planned 40.6-million square World Logistics Center.

A Democrat who supports Clinton, Gutierrez said he didnt see her comments as negative.

She probably didnt have the opportunity to speak to someone about how many jobs each distribution center employs, he said.

Penny Newman, executive director of the Jurupa Valley-based Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, lauded Clintons statement. Her group has fought several warehouse projects, including the World Logistics Center, saying that they create traffic and pollution problems.

Its pretty easy to agree with facts, she said. Thats the reality of the warehouse industry. They take up a lot of land and provide very few jobs for that space. The quality of jobs is pretty horrendous.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Inland region had 102,970 workers in the logistics industry as of the first quarter of 2015, the most recent figures available.

The report shows that the mean hourly income for managers was $41.71. But they made up only 1.5 percent of the workforce. The pay for the vast majority ranged from $12.58 to $16.16 an hour.

With 40 percent of the goods shipped to Southern California ports going through the area, logistics is a fact of life for the Inland area, former Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge said.

You fly into Ontario, you see this sea of warehouses, he said.

Loveridge, now the director of UC Riversides Center for Sustainable Suburban Development, said despite those jobs the area has ranked in the bottom among California regions in terms of income.

The answer to increased wages and higher incomes is not to be found in logistics, he said.

Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside, who joined Clinton for her Thursday evening meeting with community members at a Mexican restaurant, didnt view Clintons comments as critical of warehousing.

It was in the context of we need a rich, diverse economy here thats not focused on one sector alone, he said Friday, June 3. Because the truth is that sector does produce some high-paying jobs, but theres a limited number. We need several sectors that produce high-paying jobs that produce several ladders of opportunity for our people.

While the region should celebrate the logistics jobs it has, Takano said its true that a greater number of warehouses are automated and employ fewer people.

Much of Clintons discussion was focused on improving education and training so that residents can have greater opportunities, Takano said.

The one thing we have more fully in our control is how well-skilled our work force is and how well-educated our young people are, he said.

Takano said that will allow the region to get into higher-paying jobs in manufacturing, business, science and health.

We need to invest and support our public schools and public university so our own students are going to fill those jobs, he said.

Staff write Aaron Claverie contributed to this report.

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SAN BERNARDINO: Clinton coming to CSUSB on Friday

DECISION 2016: In San Diego Clinton calls Trump temperamentally unfit to be president

DECISION 2016: Councilwoman key in Clinton visit

DECISION 2016: Hillary Clinton plans private Perris meeting

DECISION 2016: Inland Democrats in Congress all back Hillary Clinton

TEMECULA: Trump supporters target Clinton at Duck Pond rally

Contact the writer: 951-368-9558 or ighori@pressenterprise.com
Most retirement celebrations result in a gold watch or polished plaque to thank a person for many years of service.

As Etelvina Mendoza bids farewell to more than 40 years as a preschool educator, she wanted to give back to the community that entrusted its children to her care over the years.

On Friday, she hosted a carnival-themed party at Gibbel Park in Hemet, with bouncers for the kids, games and party foods, and invited families of her former charges to join in the festivities.

This event is my way to pay it forward and give back to the community in which I am so grateful to be a part of, she said.

Mendoza worked for Christian schools and day care centers before she started working as an instructional aide at San Jacinto Unified School District in 1976.

The next year, she began teaching Head Start preschool for the district and continued to do so for 20 years.

After moving to Hemet Unified School District in 1997, she continued as a Head Start teacher for 19 more years at Fruitvale, Hemet, Ramona and Whittier elementary schools.

The programs I worked for not only educated the children but encouraged the families and motivated them to assist in their childs progress, said Mendoza, who has lived in the San Jacinto Valley her entire life.

Kaylee Rankin, now 10 and headed into the fifth grade, recalls Mendoza as always being nice.

She pushed me to learn, and every time I made a mistake, she would always show me how to fix it, she said.

Jolynn Iorio has been a state preschool instructional aide for eight years and worked with Mendoza.

This wasnt a job or career for her  it was a lifestyle, Iorio said. I hope I can live up to the example she has set.

Adrian Lawlers 4-year-old son, Cole, just completed preschool with Mendoza as his teacher.

preparing for future

She really gets them ready for school and is preparing him for his academic future, said Lawler, who lives in Hemet.

Delia Medina had a son and a daughter in Etelvina Mendozas classroom and began volunteering at her urging.

She has been a substitute instructional aide within the Head Start program for nine years.

Her children are now 12 and 14.

She showed me how to do everything and taught my children manners and respect for older people, Medina said.

Mendoza said it was important to give encouraging words to parents and show them they have something to teach their child.

Everyone can be a teacher if they are given the tools to do it, she said. I have learned over the years that a teacher cannot teach alone.

The support of the parents is what makes my teaching career successful.

a family affair

She organized the party with help from her husband, daughter, son, grandchildren, twin sister, friends and parents and children from past classes.

Nine family members came from New Mexico to help with the carnival and then to help Mendoza and twin sister Erlinda Gonzales celebrate their 60th birthday, which occurred Wednesday.

I felt that if I took a trip for a special retirement gift that I would easily forget the trip, but I will remember the carnival, children, parents and ongoing support a lot longer, Etelvina Mendoza said.
UPDATE (Thursday, July 7): Drowning victim declared brain dead, removed from life support

UPDATE (Thursday, June 9): Parents of near-drowning victim fight to keep him on life support

A 13-year-old Murrieta student nearly drowned and was hospitalized Friday, June 3, during an end of the year swim party hosted by parent and faculty volunteers.

The boy was flown to an unspecified Inland hospital where he is undergoing specialized treatment, a Murrieta Police Department news release states. His condition was unavailable Saturday afternoon.

The party, thrown for about 100 band and choir students from Dorothy McElhinney Middle School, was held at the Vista Murrieta High School swimming pool as a school years-end celebration. It was sponsored by the middle school band and choir booster club, not the school or school district.

At about 6:15 p.m., high school student lifeguards rescued the unresponsive boy from the bottom of the pool and placed him on a floating backboard. Firefighters arrived within four minutes and took him to the Inland Valley Hospital, where he was later flown to another hospital.

Police detectives began an investigation Friday afternoon, talking with chaperones and reviewing surveillance footage from the pool. The video reportedly shows the student may have unintentionally floated to a deeper end of the pool where he could no longer stand, the release states.

The boy was underwater for about 95 seconds before he was rescued.

Police determined there was no horseplay or criminal culpability, and the incident has been deemed an accidental drowning.

Anyone with further information is asked to call Detective Jeremy Durrant at 951-461-6354, or Detective Denny Martin at 951-461-6340.
A former Yucaipa High School student is on her way to Columbia University after learning she is one of the first females accepted into the colleges FU Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, her family said.

Hana Navarro, 20, of Redlands is spending her last two years as an undergraduate at Columbia in New York, where she plans a double major in biomedical engineering and physics.

I am so excited for this opportunity and still cannot believe I have persevered and got to this point, Navarro said by email. It has been a long, very hard journey with the amount of schoolwork and exams and the necessary high grade-point average needed to be accepted into this program.

Navarro spent her first two years as an undergraduate student at the University of Redlands. After earning all As in her courses at U of R, her professors and guidance counselors encouraged the young woman to apply for the transfer. She took their advice, and it paid off.

(Hana) feels wonderful to be one of the chosen ones to lead the change, and all her professors cheered her on the whole way, said her mother, Jennifer Berry. She wants to make a difference in the world  and she feels that she will get the (chance) to do that with having the opportunity to be accepted at Columbia University.

After completing courses at Columbia in 2018, the 2013 YHS graduate hopes to earn a position at a company that invites or creates new and better equipment with smarter technology to help people with ailments in the U.S. or Europe, Berry said.

Navarro hopes to bring her expertise to companies that could promise to be the next big thing in the field of technology.

I am looking forward to the challenges ahead and the opportunity to learn from one of the top schools in our country, Navarro said, and hope that I set an example for others to follow their dreams and goals in life. It will be well worth the struggle and effort.

Contact the writer: kristina.hernandez@langnews.comTwitter: @TheFactsKris
As the area endures its first heat wave of the year this weekend, utility officials are dealing with a potential power outage  soon or possibly later in the year.

Well get our first test this weekend, Kevin Palmer, business relations manager for Riverside Public Utilities, said in a phone interview.

The problem

Most California power plants (17 in the L.A. basin) generate electricity through use of natural gas. Most of that gas is imported from points east. About 86 billion cubic feet of it had been injected into an underground reservoir at Aliso Canyon, the second largest storage facility in the nation.

But last year one of the wells blew, sending gas into the atmosphere around Porter Ranch.

Southern California Gas Co. and environmental and other officials worked to cap the well but did not succeed until February, months after the breach. By then, families in the area and media covering the story were focused almost entirely on the immediate environmental impact for area residents.

And the state froze all injections and withdrawals from Aliso Canyon until all 117 wells at the site could be tested for leaks. That work is ongoing.

The threat

Meantime, a second problem looms large. It poses a danger to energy users, to both residents and businesses, all over Southern California:

A power blackout

Girish Balachandran, general manager of Riverside Public Utilities, notes that power has but one way to get into the city, through a substation called Vista.

Worst case, Balachandran said in a phone interview, if Vista is compromised and a gas curtailment is called  well activate our curtailment program. Certain parts of the city will be without power.

The fixes

 SoCal Gas is working to test the wells quickly so that Aliso Canyon can resume storage  if that is not stopped by political action (some people have urged lawmakers to close it, and Aliso Canyon is by far the largest reservoir available in Southern California).

 RPU, meanwhile, gathered large electricity users to a meeting last month. Martin Ochotorena, the utilitys principal resource analyst for power resources, reviewed the problem, the threat, and discussed what can be done about it.

They were urged to shift and shed, a Palmer formulation calling for large users to move use to off-peak hours  or just not use as much power. Riversides school district signed up right away. Palmer says a few others are figuring out their strategies now.

 RPU also operates two peaker plants but together, they generate power only about 5 percent of the year.

What you can do

Residents, too, can shift load to off-peak periods (washing clothes and dishes, for example). They can sign up for Power Partners, a program that Balachandran says will speed alerts from state electricity monitors and SoCalGas to users.

Balachandran also noted residents can log into http://www.riversidepublicutilities.com/ and get the latest information.

The future

Right now city officials are concentrating on guiding area residents and businesses through the Aliso Canyon situation.

But most other Inland cities have more than one way to receive power generated from area power plants. Not Riverside. Officials have tried for years to secure a secondary source and likely will continue that effort in the years ahead.

Contact the writer: rruvolo@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9419
Their cards are all on the table.

Youll have plenty of choices on the Tuesday, June 7, primary ballot.

But lets face it, some choices will be more decisive than others. Thats because Californias jungle primary sends the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, to the November general election.

If only two candidates are listed for an office, chances are pretty good youll see their names again in November. But fear not political junkies. Theres plenty of primary drama to satisfy your fix late into the night.

Heres a look at five of the more intriguing races before Inland voters on primary day.

HILLARY OR BERNIE?

Bernie Sanders called California the big enchilada. We also would have accepted the whole In-N-Out double-double or the whole Albertos California burrito.

Whatever the food metaphor, Sanders has been campaigning in our state like his political life depended on it. When it comes to the Democratic presidential nomination, it probably does.

Going into this weekend, Hillary Clinton held a commanding lead in delegates over Sanders, who is neck-and-neck with Clinton in recent polls of Californians. And barring a miracle  or an indictment over her email practices  the former secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady could make history and wrap up the nomination before California polls close.

Still, a loss to Sanders in ocean-blue California would be a major embarrassment to Clinton as she heads into the Democratic National Convention in July. And it would give Sanders and his supporters further ammunition in their bid to keep the Democratic Party on a leftward course, assuming Clinton is the nominee.

DEM VS. DEM, PART ONE

Its likely another Democrat will succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer in November. Its also likely that one of the two candidates to make it out of the primary will be Democrat and California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

The question is whether Harris will face a Republican or a Democrat in the fall. Some polls point to a November matchup between Harris, who is backed by the California Democratic Party, and Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Santa Ana.

But if enough Trumpateers sound off for a Republican, then either Tom Del Beccaro or Duf Sundheim, both former state GOP chairmen, could capture the second ballot spot.

No matter your preference, good luck finding his or her name on the ballot. Thirty-four candidates are listed and you can only pick one.

THE CHUCK WAGON

In Riverside County, Supervisor Chuck Washington, who was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to fill a vacancy last year, is running for a full four-year term to represent the Third District, which includes Temecula, Murrieta, Hemet and San Jacinto.

In his way are Murrieta Mayor Randon Lane and Hemet Councilwoman Shellie Milne. If one candidate gets 50 percent plus one of the vote, its over. Otherwise, the top two finishers go to a November runoff.

Historically, its hard to beat an incumbent supervisor. But all three candidates have six-figure campaign funds, and Washington is a Democrat appointed by a Democratic governor in a not-so-Democratic district.

DEM VS. DEM, PART TWO

Its not quite as rare as a Republican majority in Sacramento. But this years Assembly races feature a unique intraparty fight between two well-funded Democrats in San Bernardino County.

Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown, D-San Bernardino, faces a primary challenge from Colton attorney Eloise Reyes, who mounted an impressive congressional bid in 2014. Labor unions, environmentalists and other liberals backing Reyes have dubbed her Brown Chevron Cheryl to tie her to big oil.

Brown, who is part of a bloc of moderate Assembly Democrats, maintains shes being targeted because shes an independent voice for her district, which includes San Bernardino, Colton, Rialto, Fontana and Grand Terrace.

Both candidates benefit from more than $1 million in spending from independent expenditure committees that operate beyond the reach of campaigns. Those committees in turn are funded by the usual suspects, including unions and business interests.

Add Republican candidate Aissa Chanel Sanchez to the mix and you wonder whether it will be Brown vs. Reyes in November or if enough GOP voters elevate Sanchez to the top two. Either way, expect a Democrat to represent the 47th when the race  and spending  are over.

PETER, PAUL AND REMATCH?

Republican congressional candidate Paul Chabot never stopped campaigning since losing to Redlands Democrat Pete Aguilar two years ago. Chabot, a naval reserve intelligence officer and Iraq War veteran, hopes for a rematch in San Bernardino Countys 31st Congressional District.

To get another shot at Aguilar, Chabot will have to overcome three other challengers, including Democrat and retired educator Kaisar Ahmed, GOP economist Sean Flynn and a former Democratic congressman and current GOP candidate Joe Baca.

With Aguilar favored to advance out of the primary, Chabot and Flynn have turned on each other for the other spot. Chabot called Flynn a faux Republican and demanded Flynns withdrawal from the race after Flynn paid for mailers that accused Chabot of missing votes, but not paychecks, while serving on the state parole board.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9547 or jhorseman@pressenterprise.com
A monk from Laos living at a Riverside monastery has been charged with one count each of possession of child pornography and distribution of child pornography, according to a Riverside County District Attorneys Office news release.

Kounzong Saebphang, 26, made an initial appearance in Riverside County Superior Court Friday, June 3, but his arraignment, where he will enter pleas to the charges, was continued to Monday, June 6.

Authorities allege Saebphang possessed child pornography on at least one digital device found at his residence at the Wat Lao Buddhist Monastery and that he distributed child pornography to another person through a social media website.

The countys Sexual Assault Felony Task Force served a federal search warrant Wednesday, June 1, at the monastery and Saebphang was arrested. He remains in custody at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside in lieu of posting $10,000 bail.

He is in the country on a religious worker visa. The monastery is on Rutland Avenue in the citys Arlanza neighborhood.

The task force began the investigation last year after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The task force, which investigates crimes involving sexual exploitation of children online, includes district attorney, sheriff, probation, FBI and Homeland Security investigators.
Time, the one thing that never stops, is at it again.

This time, its the Murrieta model homes that helped sell my wife, Joanne, and me on southwest Riverside County as a place to raise a family in the summer of 1988.

It was a time when people would camp out in model home parking lots waiting for a chance to buy one of those precious houses, a time when everything was new and yet there wasnt much of anything (Murrieta didnt have a major grocery store or a fast-food restaurant) and a time when basically Temecula and Murrieta paced the entire state in rates of growth.

Joanne noticed recently that one of those model homes just sold again. The exteriors of the house dont look so stunning and handsomely detailed, as our Mesa del Rey model home brochure once breathlessly proclaimed.

Its time again, never stopping, turning new homes into old, kids growing up and  sadly, in our case  gone, and the fastest-growing towns becoming mature communities with lots of grocery stores and, in the case of how some now feel about Murrieta, too many fast-food restaurants.

Temecula, Murrieta and Menifee, now the largest communities in southwest Riverside County, are the new kids on our cityhood block. Perris, incorporated in 1911, and Lake Elsinore, a city since 1888, were way ahead.

Wander around those downtowns and you can feel the history. Out in the tracts with the newer cities that first boomed in the 1980s (and lets not forget the smaller Wildomar), you dont get that same sense of the past, that sense of generations upon generations having lived there.

Our high schools say the same thing. Perris High School, opened in 1887, is one of the oldest in the county. Elsinore High was started in 1891. For decades, those two were where all the kids in southwest Riverside County went to high school until Temecula opened in 1985. And thats where Murrieta kids went when we moved here.

That same model brochure noted our new home would be near Rancho California. Temecula is not mentioned in the brochure, not even on the map in the publication. The brochure adds, Mesa del Rey residents will enjoy the benefits of proposed parks, schools and shopping centers.

So when we moved here, none of those amenities was around.

We were moving to the Wild West in the sense that nothing was here except construction traffic. Murrieta didnt have a traffic light, and Temecula had just a couple. Now I suppose you have to move to French Valley to get that sense of moving into a place with nothing on the landscape but dreams.

In our model home neighborhood today, overlooking the huge Rancho Acacias Park that was put in a couple of years after we moved here, the sense of time come and gone is everywhere. Some of the homes have fences worn and tattered, no doubt the same ones from the late 1980s.

As for the park, much of it is drought-tolerant, and much of the grass thats left is brown, a sign of our dry times. The kids playing in the park now have replaced the kids like mine who grew up here. Time moves on, once-pristine model homes become old, boom towns grow up and new memories are always made.

Contact the writer: carllove4@yahoo.com
SANTA ANA  Charges were filed Friday against a man accused of trafficking a 13-year-old girl for sex, the Orange County District Attorneys Office said.

John Wayne Calhoun, 30, San Bernardino, has been charged with one felony count of human trafficking of a minor, two felony counts of lewd acts upon a child under 14, one felony count each of pimping a minor and pandering with a minor under 16 years old.

He also faces sentencing enhancements for human trafficking and a 2012 felony conviction for inflicting corporal injury upon a spouse or cohabitant in San Bernardino County, prosecutors said.

Calhoun is accused convincing a 13-year-old girl to engage in sex acts for money and then forcing her to give him the proceeds, prosecutors said.

The victim was contacted Thursday by Santa Ana police in an area known for prostitution and Calhoun was arrested.

The girl is the youngest victim resulting in the filing of charges since the 2013 formation of the District Attorney Offices Human Exploitation and Trafficking Unit, prosecutors said in a statement.

Prosecutors have filed trafficking charges involving other young teenage victims, and the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force has identified a victim forced into prostitution at age 10.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7767 sschwebke@ocregister.com Twitter: @thechalkoutline
The newly-inaugurated US$36million Komenda Sugar Factory requires 225,000 metric tonnes of sugarcane every other six months to operate at optimal capacity, according to Nitin Wagh, President of SEFTECH - the project contractor.



For a plant with a capacity to crush 1,250 tonnes per day for 180 days (six months), it requires 225,000 metric tonnes of sugarcane. The main crushing season is from November-April. May-October is the maintenance period when there is no sugarcane for processing.



If you crush 1,250 tonnes of sugarcane, there is 10 percent recovery. This also depends on what quality of sugarcane you have. With the best quality, recovery can go as high as 15 or 16 percent of sugar. So if you crush 100 tonnes, you get about 15 or16 tonnes of white sugar, said Mr. Wagh.



The factory was constructed with a loan facility of US$35million from the government of India-sponsored Exim Bank of India; Line of Credit with an interest of 1.75 percent; and a counterpart funding of US$1.26million from the government of Ghana (GoG).



The agreement was signed with SEFTECH as the contractor in September 2013. The Letter of Credit (LC) was established in October 2014 with delivery of the project expected in two years; that is, in October 2016. The Loan has an interest of 1.75 percent, with a five-year moratorium. Repayment starts in the sixth year.



Raw materials for the installed processing plants trial this week is based on out-growers sugarcane. There isnt enough raw material now. More work, according to Mr. Wagh, needs to be done to ensure that good quality sugarcane is available for processing.



The sugarcane farmers within the Komenda enclave dont have the modern techniques, no irrigation, and no fertiliser programme. What they are doing is that whatever crop comes at the end of the year they harvest it. You cannot do that for many years.



In India, when you plant the sugarcane, which takes one year to mature, it is harvested for two years and fresh seedlings planted. But here in Ghana, the root is there for 38 or 40 years. That means farmers dont know about it. So today, the sugarcane in the Komenda area will give you just 4 or 5 percent of sugar. So if you crush 1,250 tonnes, you will get about 50 tonnes, Mr. Wagh noted.



The Ghana sugar industry was started in the First Republic, and consisted of two factories at Asutsuare and Komenda which began operations in 1967.



The two factories had their own plantations and also bought cane from farmers. Development of the plantations and factories -- which were supplied, erected and financed by Poland (Asutsuare) and Czechoslovakia (Komenda) -- was badly-planned, executed and managed.



Water for the factory and housing at Komenda was provided by a 24-mile canal from the River Pra; the canal was intended to provide sugar estates with irrigation through a sprinkler system.



The Komenda Sugar Factory later went under private care, but this wasnt enough to sustain it.

Source: B&FT









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The latest Economic and Financial Data published by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) suggest that banks in the country are struggling to mobilize cheap funds.



According to the report, Savings and Time Deposits popularly called fixed deposits recorded a decline of 24.0 percent in March 2016 compared with 32.6 per cent growth in January 2016.



This is as a result of the poor economic environment underpinned by tightness in monetary policy of the BoG with the attendant adverse effect on liquidity in the banking sector.



Demand deposits, largely current and savings accounts declined from 31 percent at the end of January 2016 to 21.5 percent in February and 21.2 percent in March respectively.



Growth of currency outside banks (monies not sent to banks) also declined from 23.3 per cent at the end of last year to 20.5 per cent in January 2016 and subsequently to 15.2 percent in March 2016.



The banking sectors capital adequacy ratio also stood at 17.6 percent in March compared with 18.1 and 17.9 percent respectively in January and February 2016.



Non-performing loans stood at 16.2 percent at the end of quarter one of 2016, higher than the 15.6 per cent at the end of February 2016.



The report further stated that total assets of the banking industry increased marginally to GH64.6 billion at the end of March 2016 from GH62.7 billion in February 2016 and GH63.1 billion in January 2016.



Loans and advances however remained unchanged in January, February and March 2016 at GH30.2 billion.



According to the report, liquidity in the banking sector reduced to 18.1 percent at the end of March 2016 as against 29.6 percent in the first month of this year and 19.3 percent in February 2016.



Banking experts have described current monetary policy rate of 26 per cent as unduly high and responsible for the woes of players in the industry.



For instance, about GH300 million which should have been depositsat the end of February 2016 was lost to the sector.



Mixed performance characterized the Ghanaian banking sector performance in the first three months of 2016 though it was quite better than the 2015 performance.



The relative stability of the Ghana cedi and the significant reduction in the power outage contributed largely to some improvement in their indicators.



As expected banks such as Ecobank, CAL, GCB, uniBank and Stanchart posted some strong growth for quarter one 2016. However, their non-performing loans were worrying to the sector.



The Bank of Ghana said in its Financial Stability Report that Ghanas banking sector continued to be sound and solvent as evidenced by key financial soundness indicators, though there has been some deterioration in asset quality and efficiency.

Source: The Finder









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Vegetable Farmers in the Keta Municipality of the Volta Region, who rely on electricity to power their irrigation pumps, have hit the streets to demonstrate against what they say is the high cost of vegetable production as a result of increasing electricity tariffs.

According to the farmers, government has failed to redeem a promise made in 2012 to put farmers who use electricity in any form for agricultural purposes on a special tariff, instead of the current Non-Residential Tariff. From 2009-2012, Ghana embarked on the Agricultural Water Solution Project with funding from the Bill Gates Foundation and supported by International Water Management Institutes (IWMI), International Food Policy Research Institutes(IFPRI), International Development Institutes(IDI), Food and Agricultural Organization(FAO) and others.

The aim of the project was to boost income and food security for the millions of small-holder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and India by providing reliable access to water for irrigation. At one of such stakeholder workshops held at Erata Hotel from 28-29 March 2012, and chaired by Dr. Alhassan Yakubu, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Food and Agriculture the following decisions on rural irrigation were arrived at:

 Extensive rural electrification, which is a government policy, should include sending electricity to irrigated areas to ensure that electricity is used for economic productive purposes in rural areas.

 There is need for synchronization of electricity and rural roads provision to irrigated areas. That implies collaborative planning by the relevant stakeholders, especially electricity providers and distributors, Department of Feeder Roads and District Assemblies.

 There is need to argue for reasonable tariffs to be charged for electricity for irrigation but AWM/GIDA must provide evidence-based information on the costs and benefits of electricity for irrigation vis-a-vis diesel/petrol and make suggestions of reasonable tariffs.

 Subsidies on electricity of the type that exists in some states of India should not be contemplated because it is not sustainable.

 There is need to link farmers to appropriate markets so that their produce do not go waste after spending so much on production.

 The decisions of the workshop should be presented to the relevant people in the Ministries of Energy and Food and Agriculture, PURC and the Energy Commission for reactions and then a memo should be produced for cabinet. The Chairman of the Keta Municipality Vegetable Farmers and Marketers Association, Mr. Roland Tudzi, said there have been several failed attempts to draw the attention of stakeholders to redeem their promise including several letters to the office of the President. He said the situation was worsening as they continue to bear the brunt of the high electricity bills.

Presenting their petition to the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Keta, Mr. Sylvester Tonyeava, the group called on government to expedite action towards the implementation of the project and support activities of farmers in the area by including them on the various interventions.

The farmers were seen clad in red wielding placards with inscriptions such as, the bills are too much, we need special tariffs now among others. Farmers along the shoreline of Southern Volta have over the years been practicing tube well irrigation system to cultivate crops.

The system allows farmers to construct a tube-well which is about 9 meters into the soil, and with an electric pump, water is pumped into a sprinkler irrigation system which is used to water their crops.

Source: citifmonline.com









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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Central Regional Minister, Kweku Rickett Hagan has justified the closure of the Komenda Sugar Factory for six months days after its commissioning.



According to him, just like any industrial plant, it needs periodic maintenance to enable it operate in full capacity.



The plant has a maintenance cycle where a lot of things like cleaning up will be done. This is one of the things which weve 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 stated on Asempa FMs Ekosii Sen programme Thursday.



The Minority in Parliament has cast doubt on the viability of the revived Komenda Sugar Factory to operate to its maximum capacity.



The factory established by Ghana's first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was on Monday May 30, 2016 re-commissioned by President Mahama after undergoing refurbishment.



It is expected to generate thousands of jobs and help cut down on the importation of sugar into the country. But its closure just two days after commissioning has generated public uproar with many describing it as a propaganda stunt.



Minority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, at a news conference in Parliament Thursday described the development as a lack of planning and research on the part of government before the re-commissioning.



Closing it down will still require the input of energy, electricity you are not producing and you pay the workers you are not going to lay them off. So when it comes on stream again and you have to produce, the overhead cost will build up even when you are not producing. It doesnt make sense to do this, who are we deceiving? he quizzed.



However, Mr. Rickett Hagan said the concerns by sceptics especially from opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) are borne out of malice.



He indicated that, the Minority Leader is uninformed about the situation adding that Mr. Kyei Mensah Bonsu is speculating irresponsibly about things he has not seen.



This is a manual prescription by the manufacturer and they intend to follow through religiously and not do things the same way that we have done it in the past to run down things that we have invested a lot of tax payers money into the Regional Minister said.



Mr. Rickett Hagan noted that in order for the plant to operate properly, there are certain steps that must be followed and the closure for maintenance is just one.



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 stressed.

Source: Adomonline









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The Ghana Alternative Market (GAX) would provide credible and efficient market for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and a parallel market that offer opportunities to investors for investment.



Ms Magdalene Apenteng, Director of the Public Investment Division of the Ministry of Finance said listing an SME on the GAX increases visibility, provides liquidity for shareholders, facilitates innovation and growth and also comes with tax benefits.



The GAX is the alternative stock market administered by the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) targeting small businesses with potential for growth.



She said in complementing governments efforts, the Ministry of Finance is playing its traditional coordination role to support the GSE and to ensure that more SMEs get listed on the GAX, which serves as the alternative avenue for SMEs to raise the much needed long term capital for expansion.



Mrs Apenteng made the remarks at the launch of the Capital SME, an initiative by the British High Commission aimed at growing SMEs and boosting capital market activity in Ghana.



The primary objective of the project is to encourage more SMEs to list on the GAX.



Further stages of the project include increased engagement with government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) and financial institutions to support capital market development; and hosting informative conferences and related networking events.



Capital SMEs current target is to support a minimum of five SMEs in listing on the GAX within one year of implementation.



Mrs Apenteng noted that SMEs would continue to remain the backbone of the economy due to the important role of stimulating domestic demand through job creation, innovation and competition.



There is no doubt that SMEs have the potential to mobilise domestic resources and boost international trade and demand, she said.



Prioritising SME development is therefore critical for promoting inclusive economic growth globally, she added.



Mrs Apenteng said it is unfortunate that SMEs are still vastly challenged by numerous factors and so they are not able to play the desired role with a lot of untapped potentials.



The main challenge of lack of access to sustainable finance remains a key constraint that has to be addressed to enable the SMEs deal head-on with issues of financing innovative business projects that are to enhance job creation and help expand the economys output, she stated.



For these reasons, we welcome Capital SME to partner the many initiatives currently being implemented in providing SMEs with access to critical business infrastructure, she added.



Mrs Apenteng said some of the important market deficiencies and imperfections that Capital SME seeks to address are to provide a platform for information sharing, creating a networking avenue to take advantage of business opportunities, bringing more clarity to the operations of GAX and sharing experiences of other listed SMEs on the GAX.



She affirmed governments commitment in supporting the rapid growth of the SMEs sector to position it to play the desired role in Ghanas pursuit for efficient, vibrant and liquid capital market.



Mr Jon Benjamin, the British High Commissioner, said an economic growth that brings job creation is the best way of helping developing countries to eradicate poverty.



He said what Ghana and other developing countries need is to create jobs.



He said due to population growth, creating jobs for today and tomorrows youth is extremely important.



Dr Adu Anane Antwi, the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission said the 2013 Banking Survey Report estimated that about 90 per cent of companies registered in Ghana were SMEs and that the sector contributed about 49 per cent of Ghanas gross domestic product in 2012.

Source: GNA









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The Bank of Ghana has introduced new foreign exchange rules that will from July 1 this year require exporters to repatriate all export proceeds to the country, altering several forex requirements of the central bank.



The measure follows earlier directives last month for mining companies to surrender all their foreign exchange directly to the banks, which hitherto was surrendered to the central bank.



By these new rules, the 60-day mandatory repatriation of export proceeds will no longer apply and the repatriation period of export proceeds will now be aligned with the terms agreed between trading parties.



Additionally, the 5-day mandatory conversion of export receipts into Ghana cedis has been reversed and the previous requirement for exporters to retain up to 60 percent of their export receipts in their Foreign Exchange Account is quashed, with no need to convert 40 percent of the proceeds into Ghana cedis at market rates within 15 days.



These, according to the central bank are part of measures to deepen the foreign exchange market and promote greater transparency in the determination of exchange rates as the central bank attempts to limit its role in forex market.



The Bank of Ghana explained that the measures thus require exporters to transfer export proceeds through an external bank to their Foreign Exchange Account with any of the banks in the country on receipt of the money, or within 60 days from the day of shipping goods.



The the Bank of Ghanas new requirements on the surrender and repatriation of export receipts come at a time the cedi has shown resilience against major trading currencies -- depreciating by under 1 percent against the US dollar.



It is expected that the new rules will help curb speculative activities, since players in the financial services sector will have knowledge about the inflow of foreign currencies into the market at any particular point in time; and that the central banks intervention in the market will also be reduced with the new rules.



At the recent post-Monetary Policy Committee meeting with the media, Bank of Ghana Governor Dr.Abdul-Nashiru Issahaku explained that the central bank has had a challenge in determining the markets demands, saying: Once the funds are given directly to the banks they can trade with them, and we think that is much more measured and also good for the market.



The Bank of Ghanas approach is in contrast with its posture a couple years ago, when the central bank imposed strict foreign exchange regulations in an attempt to contain a fall in the cedi, which backfired as the market responded negatively, resulting in a devastating fall in value of the cedi.

Source: B&FT









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President John Dramani Mahama has disclosed that Ghana spends $2 million to import sugar into the country every year.



According to him, Ethiopia and some countries depend on the production of sugar for their development.



President Mahama made this known during the inauguration of a $35 million sugar factory at Komenda in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abram (KEEA) Municipality of the Central Region on Monday.



The factory is expected to produce 250,000 tons of sugar per year, and it is estimated that the factory, when fully operational, will provide direct and indirect jobs for some 7, 300 people.



President Mahama stated that the new sugar processing facility would help to add value to Ghanaian exports.



He indicated that a $24 million loan facility had been secured from the India Government to support the farmers, adding part of the loan would be used to establish irrigation facility which would cover 2,000 aces to serve as a core farm to feed the factory.



President Mahama stated that part of the facility would also be used to support out growers who are willing to supply raw materials to the factory.



He revealed that all farmers who supply sugarcane would be registered under the Komenda Sugar Farmers Co-operative.



That, he said, would help the factory assist them to increase sugarcane production and give other incentives to encourage farmers to work hard.



He added that such core farmers would be able to supply 40 percent of the raw materials to the factory while the remaining 60 percent would come from the out growers.



Currently only about 10,000 tons are available meanwhile the factory can crash about 1,250 tons a day so a lot of sugarcane must be produced to feed the factory, he said.



He revealed that government was preparing to put together a national sugar policy since a lot of investors were trooping into the country to invest in the sugar industry.



The President charged the workers to be disciplined and work hard to ensure the sustainability of the factory



Minister of Trade & Industry, Dr Ekow Spio-Garbarh, commended the India Government for its support.



In attendance were former ministers of state, Members of Parliament (MPs), chiefs, queen-mothers and members of the diplomatic corps.

Source: Daily Guide









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Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) has consoled families of the June 3 twin-disaster victims as the country marks one year of that incident today.



Indeed, today is a sad day, and we dont intend to add salt to injury by reminding families of the victims of the June 3 disaster about their loved ones who lost their lives.



However, it is important that we remember these gallant men and women, celebrate them, and ask after one year of such horrible incident, have we learnt our lessons? Have we found out the causes and its relative solutions, PPP in a statement signed and issued to the media yesterday in Accra by its National Secretary, Murtala Mohammed, said.



The statement was nevertheless emphatic that the city authorities were aware of the fact that human activities such as indiscriminate dumping of refuse, siting of buildings along waterways, and the growth of slums on marginal lands or waterways are the major causes of flooding in Accra.



It noted that apart from human activities, engineered drains were insufficient, small and improperly channeled, noting that most of them do not meet the citys requirement.



The PPP asked: Do we have institutions responsible for ensuring that illegal structures along waterways are demolished? Do we have institutions to ensure that drainage systems are properly constructed? Who awards the contracts? Why do city authorities sit aloof for the city to flood when they know the causes? Does it show incompetence on the part of our city authorities?



According to the PPP, the country was not making any headway as a people.



For instance, it noted that barely a year after the June 3 disaster, Accra has experienced two separate floods in the month of May.



That, it said, was s a clear indication that we have not learnt our lessons, and city authorities are also not up to the task as adequate flood preparedness and mitigation scheme dont seem to exist.



The PPPs chief scribe wondered what city authorities have been doing since the incident happened.



The statement further asked: Are city authorities waiting for another disaster before they put their acts together? Are there not ways to deal with floods once and for all? Why must people of Ghana suffer these avoidable disasters? We demand Government put in place stringent and professional measures to deal with flooding.



To this end, the PPP called on government and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to render account on how monies from the June 3 disaster management fund which was set up by the government to support families of the victims were disbursed.



It asked government to provide a detailed account on the total amount accumulated through the fund.



Today is exactly one year when the June 3 Kwame Nkrumah Circle twin-disaster which claimed over 160 lives occurred.



The combined tragedy of floods and filling station explosion which snuffed away loved relations plunged the country into a state of mourning and despair that has left an indelible mark on the minds of Ghanaians.







Source: Today









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There are fears that a body spotted off the coast of Rio de Janeiro could be that of Australian tourist Rye Hunt, who has been missing in South America since May 21.

The body, which was spotted by fishermen near the island of Rasa, eight kilometres from Copacabana Beach, was reportedly wearing clothing similar to Hunts.

The discovery was reported to the navy, and Rio Civil Police have since confirmed that a search of the area began on Wednesday, continuing through to Friday, local time.

Police believe that the 25-year-old Tasmanian argued with his travelling companion Mitchell Sheppard, with whom he had allegedly taken MDMA on the day he went missing.

Hunt had been at Rios international airport, planning to travel to Bolivia, but instead returned to Copacabana, where he checked in to an apartment while in a paranoid state.

The last confirmed sighting of Hunt was on May 22, when a fisherman saw him swimming near the uninhabited Contunduba island. He is said to have been agitated and begging for water to drink.

Hunts family, including girlfriend of five years Bonnie Cuthbert, are currently in Brazil, but have declined to discuss details of the search with the media.

Cuthbert, however, shared details of the last message she received from Hunt, saying:

He sent me a message that morning (of May 21), saying he loved me, missed me and would message me when he got to Bolivia. We are here to find Rye. To try and get as much information as we can We are apprehensive and nervous. But we are also hopeful and determined.

Source: News Corp.
In what constitutes a pretty sizable change in policy, Pope Francis has enacted a new set of laws that will allow the Catholic Church to shitcan members of the clergy who bungle investigations into abuse  intentionally, or otherwise.

The procedures will give the Church the power to specifically weed out bishops and other big-wigs found to have failed in their duty of care. Previously, the Church was able to nix clergy under the umbrella of negligence, but the new laws explicitly relate to sexual abuse.

According to the Associated Press, Francis said he wanted the laws to focus on a more specific  and heinous  form of negligence. He said bishops must undertake a particular diligence in protecting those who are the weakest among their flock.

Of course, these laws come amid the ongoing saga of Cardinal George Pell; under his guardianship, numerous children in Ballarat were sexually abused by religious leaders. His counter, of course, was that he himself was systematically mislead regarding the crimes.

On top of that, he claimed the fact five paedophilic priests operated under his watch in the 1970s was a massive coincidence. That claim was met with pretty abject horror from some of those abused, who watched him deliver evidence to the Australian-based royal commission into child sexual abuse via video-link in Rome.

Elsewhere, the Churchs willingness to shuffle abusive priests around catapulted further to the international stage with Spotlight; not only did the film highlight systematic abuse  and cover-ups  in the US, it won an Oscar for best picture in the process.

While the ferocity with which the Vatican will enact these new laws is unknown, we can only hope the seemingly decent Francis has the balls to eliminate negligent scum from the flock. And maybe enact new laws bringing about the Vaticans space program, so they can shoot em straight into the sun.

Or, at the very least, turn them in to the police. Like, real-deal law enforcement. Or is that too much to ask?

Source: ABC US.

Photo: Franco Origlia / Getty.
redblueamerica

By Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk

It's now all but certain that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will be the major party candidates in the November presidential election - an astonishing feat, since polls suggest neither candidate is all that well-liked by voters.

As a result, there's talk that this may be the year a third-party candidate could break through - from the Libertarian Party, say, or possibly an independent run backed by Bill Kristol, the longtime Republican and editor of the conservative Weekly Standard.

Could it really happen? Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, debate the issue.

JOEL MATHIS

Certain fans of "The Simpsons" - middle-aged folks who grew up with the show during its early 1990s heyday - will remember a classic election-oriented episode in which Homer Simpson unmasks the two presidential candidates, a Democrat and a Republican, to be hideous space reptiles in disguise.

The revelation means little: "It's true!" one of the aliens announces. "But what are you going to do about it? It's a two-party system! You have to vote for one of us!"

A citizen in the crowd pipes up: "Well, I believe I'll vote for a third-party candidate!"

"Go ahead! Throw your vote away!" the alien replies, laughing maniacally.

Sad to say, the alien was correct in his assessment of our politics.

Despise Donald? Hate Hillary? It's absolutely your right to vote for a candidate who makes a better appeal to your sensibilities.

The Libertarians and the Green Party, among others, are always out there seeking your vote - and Never Trump Republicans may offer their own alternative candidate this year. Just don't expect any of them to win, or even come close - not even in this extraordinary political year.

Maybe it's time to change the rules.

The best option? A wholesale turn to instant runoff voting, a system in which a voter ranks candidates in order of preference. If a candidate captures more than half the first-preference votes, he or she wins, and the election is over. Otherwise, the candidate with the least votes is eliminated and the ballots are retabulated. If your first-choice candidate was eliminated, your second-choice preference will get the vote instead. Repeat the process until one candidate gains a clear majority.

It's slightly complicated but also a bit brilliant. It lets voters demonstrate their preferences without worrying that they are, in fact, throwing their votes away. Want to vote for the Libertarian candidate? Go ahead. If he's eliminated, your support can immediately and automatically shift to a candidate who has a better chance of winning.

It seems increasingly clear that this election will provide satisfaction to few voters. But it's also clear the system isn't necessarily designed to provide that satisfaction. Want to make a change? Start with the rules that discourage third-party votes in the first place.

BEN BOYCHUK

Americans love third-party outsiders, mavericks and independents. Just ask former presidents Eugene V. Debs, George Wallace, John Anderson, Ross Perot and Ralph Nader - as soon as you find your way into the weird parallel universe where those guys were elected.

In our world, the enthusiasm for third-party presidential candidates never quite translates into electoral majorities. Historically, third-party candidates don't win presidential elections; they spoil them. More often than not, they don't even crack double digits in the popular vote.

Perot was an exceptional case in 1992. The Texas multimillionaire ran a campaign similar to Trump's, focusing on the economy and the ill effects of free trade. He was even the front-runner for a time, until a series of bizarre missteps drove him from the race in July.

For a few months, anyway. Perot re-entered the contest in October and ended up winning just under 19 percent of the popular vote - nowhere near enough to win, obviously, but enough to deny Republican President George H.W. Bush a second term.

What makes a third party more appealing than appalling this time is the dismal popularity of the parties' presumptive nominees. More than half of voters say they dislike Clinton and Trump - and "dislike" is putting it charitably. Many voters hate them in the worst way. That's unprecedented.

Yet, once again, most of those same voters appear unenthusiastic or simply uninterested in the meager alternatives on offer. The Libertarian ticket might break 10 percent this year.

A new Quinnipiac University poll found that Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump among registered voters, 45 percent to 41 percent. When third-party candidates are added to the mix, however, Clinton's lead contracts to 40 percent over Trump's 38 percent. Big whoop. (Bear in mind, polls of registered voters aren't nearly as predictive as polls of likely voters who have a track record of showing up on election day.)

But as useful as history can be, it really hasn't been much of a guide this year, has it? Trump's campaign was never supposed to survive 2015. He was never supposed to win the Republican nomination. And he has no chance whatsoever of beating Clinton in November. Right?

Right?!

Ben Boychuk (bboychukcity-journal.org) is associate editor of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal. Joel Mathis (joelmmathisgmail.com) is associate editor for Philadelphia Magazine. Visit them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/benandjoel
By Jim T. Ryan

Staff Writer

The Perry County Literacy Council on May 27 launched the Call Center of Perry County in Newport, a job-training and career services initiative, which will employ up to 25 people and help them improve their employment prospects.

"There's a lot of support for something that's going to employ Perry County people," said Kathleen Bentley, executive director of the literacy council.

The call center is scheduled to open June 20 in the building across the street from the literacy council at 133 S. Fifth St., Bentley said. If the Millworks Apartment project receives approval, the call center will move into the renovated space at the literacy council.

Workers there will act as data entry and customer service for private companies and nonprofit organizations.

The literacy council partnered with the South Central Workforce Development Board, or SCPa Works, for the new initiative that will give a fresh start to people with a checkered work history.

People who have criminal records, low educational levels, long-term unemployment, or even health issues need extra help so they can get out of cycles of poverty, Bentley said.

The center's first 10 workers will come from that group of people, she said. They'll receive soft skills training as well as customer service training that will lead to credentials from the National Retail Federation.

"People who come here want to work," she said. "They often have been in long-term poverty and they want out of that."

SCPa Works has partnerships with other community-based organizations in its eight-county region to help the unemployed find jobs, but working with the literacy council brings new angles, said Jesse McCree, the organization's director of strategic initiatives.

No one program is a "silver bullet" for employment and poverty issues, McCree said. That's why the literacy council's wrap-around education services are so important.

In south central Pennsylvania, roughly between 10,000 and 15,000 people are in need of additional training and education for better employment prospects, McCree said. "We're always looking for innovative ways to serve this population."

The goal is to prepare people for sustained employment and then help them get and keep jobs after they leave the call center, Bentley said. The project also will have funds to help workers with transportation to jobs.

The call center initiative is supported by a $278,000 state workforce grant and another $100,000 federal grant, Bentley said.

Before SCPa Works uses this initiative elsewhere, it will look at job placement, retention and wage-gain rates during a two-year period to gauge its effectiveness, McCree said.

But there are high hopes for this type of program. "You learn so much about what you're doing well and what you need to improve," he said.

The groups also will partner with community organizations, including Eckerd Worforce Services, EDSI Title I Adult and Dislocated Worker Services, Perry County EARN, CaKaLe Inc. and the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.

Jim T. Ryan can be reached via e-mail at jtryan@perrycountytimes.com
An oil train burns near the Oregon town of Mosier after derailing Friday, June 3, 2016. (Alan Berner(/The Seattle Times via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT TO BOTH THE SEATTLE TIMES AND THE PHOTOGRAPHER
In this Friday, June 3, 2016 photo, Weldon Angelos, right, holds his son Anthoney in Sandy, Utah. Weldon Angelos, a Utah music producer who was ordered to 55 years behind bars for bringing guns to marijuana deals has been set free, after 12 years in prison and national outcry over the mandatory minimum sentencing laws that forced a federal judge to impose the lengthy term. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP) DESERET NEWS OUT; LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT
This undated photo from a surveillance video provided by the Houston Police Department shows a man that Houston police are labelling a person of interest in their investigation of the slaying of Josue Flores as he walked home from school May 17, 2016. Police Sgt. Tommy Ruland says detectives are looking for the public's help in identifying the man as they try to solve the stabbing death. (Houston Police Department via AP)
FILE - This May 27, 2004 file photo shows Alba Reyes, Miss Puerto Rico, arriving to a hotel in Quito, Ecuador to compete in Miss Universe. The former beauty queen is calling on the public to help police find those responsible for the June 3, 2016 shooting death of her mother in the town of Cidra, south of San Juan. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa, File)
Whitmer and Dixon highlight differences in final debate

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republican challenger Tudor Dixon stepped up the rhetoric in their second and final debate before the Nov. 8 election,.
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Biography

Chad West was elected to the Dallas City Council in May 2019 to represent District 1 and the citizens of Oak Cliff. The son of a retired farmer and a teacher/principal, Chad first came to Texas over 20 years ago with the U.S. Army, where he first served at Fort Sam Houston and later traveled overseas to Hungary and Bosnia. After completing his military tour, Chad was honorably discharged as a combat veteran and attended law school at Texas Tech School of Law, where he graduated with honors.



Prior to his election to the Dallas City Council, Chad served on the Dallas City Plan Commission from 2017 to 2018. As District 1's representative on the CPC, Chad played key roles in advocating for and drafting ordinances for Live-Work, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs or Granny Flats) and Inclusionary Zoning, all of which are currently being used by Dallas to create more rooftops for residents of all income levels. (Read more)



City Construction Project Updates



There are several ongoing City projects of interest to District 1 residents. Weekly updates about several key projects are available on our Project Updates web page. Review the plans and the latest project updates here.

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Eric Johnson is the 60th Mayor of Dallas, Texas, elected in June 2019. Prior to becoming mayor, Johnson served as a member of the Texas House of Representatives where he represented the City of Dallas from April 2010 to June 2019. During his tenure in the Texas Legislature, Johnson served on several legislative committees, including Appropriations, Ways and Means, Higher Education and Natural Resources. He also served as chairman of the Dallas Area Legislative Delegation.

Johnson was born in Dallas and attended Dallas Independent School District schools through first grade before earning a scholarship to Greenhill School through the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas. He attended Harvard College, where he graduated cum laude with a degree in History. Johnson also holds a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a master's degree in Public Affairs from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is an alumnus of Harvard Universitys John F. Kennedy School of Governments Senior Executives in State and Local Government program and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Mayor Johnson lives in Dallas with his wife, Nikki, their three children, William, George, and Lela, and their dog, Penny. He is a member of the Mountain View Church of Christ.






888poker's Jessica Dawley: It's Time to 'Go Big or Go Home' at the 2016 WSOP

June 04, 2016 Marty Derbyshire

888poker Pro Jessica Dawley is coming into the 2016 World Series of Poker on a hot streak and ready to roll with it.

"I'm definitely on a momentous upswing, and in poker, momentum is everything," Dawley told PokerNews. "In any sport for that matter, when you get momentum going, you kind of have to ride with it."

She cashed three times at the 2015 WSOP, but things really heated up for Dawley in the Fall of last year when she booked a fifth-place finish for $92,206 at the Borgata Million and captured a career-best $110,304 score, finishing sixth at the Rock 'N' Roll Poker Open in Hollywood, Florida a month later.

Two cashes at the 2016 Aussie Millions to start the year, and a few more in South Florida, where the former Air Force intelligence analyst and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom veteran calls home, and she comes into the 2016 WSOP feeling like she's running good and playing even better.

"At the beginning of my career, in like 2006/2007, I played a lot of tournaments for fun mostly," Dawley said. "I was trying to make money, but I realized I didn't really know what I was doing. Then I realized my meat and potatoes was cash games. That's how you make it this long in poker, you have to play cash to supplement your income. I played a few tournaments here and there, but I wasn't a tournament player. I didn't know shove charts, I didn't know a lot of that stuff, but last year before the World Series, I figured I would dedicate a lot of my time to tournaments.

"Especially being with 888, it's hard to be a cash game player with 888, because they need people that have notoriety and are seen. So last year I thought I would dedicate more of my time to tournaments, and it has definitely paid off. I'm definitely more in the black with tournaments now than I was in years past where I was sorely in the red."

Now, Dawley is squarely focused on the tournament grind and her eyes are definitely on the prize.

"Leading up to the World Series this year, I've put in so much time in tournaments that my mind is tournament focused. I haven't played cash for a little bit, and that's great for heading into the tournaments here."

Bracelets and poker glory may be what awaits winners of WSOP events, but Dawley isn't about all that.

"It has never been about the ring or the bracelet thing for me," she said. "Honestly, it's always been about the money. I used to be very competitive and I used to play sports. I stopped doing that for various health reasons, but I still always needed a competitive outlet. That's what poker gave me. But I really don't need that competitive outlet anymore. I don't care. If last place paid more than first place money, I would take last place every time. I just don't care. It's all about the money for me.

"I know a lot of people use poker to show off their egos or prove to the World that they are the best. Honestly, in poker there is a lot of luck involved. Yes, some of the top players continue to be up there, but I'm thinking maybe I'll just get lucky this summer. I don't care. I don't feel like I have to prove anything to anybody."

Dawley is certainly going to give herself the opportunity to "get lucky," as she's set to play a full schedule of events at the 2016 WSOP and beyond.

"This summer is going to be the biggest volume of any other World Series I've ever played," she said. "I think I'm slated to play 20 to 25 events. Every No-Limit event, all the $1,000's, $1,500's and events at other properties as well.

"For me, it's kind of a go big or go home situation, and I think it should be. Either you're all in and putting in the full series, playing everything, or you've got one foot in the door and you're kind of always looking back."

Looking forward is apparently what Dawley's all about these days.

"I love the beach," she said. "That's what drew me to Florida from Vegas and before the series this year, I rented a place on the beach where I could wake up every morning and be ten steps from the sand. That's the dream life for me, and hopefully after this summer, after I win a bracelet or go deep in the Main Event, I can buy a place at the beach and live the dream."
Springfield Township PD K-9 Pako was shot in the shoulder. He was treated and released. (Photo:Springfield Township PD)

A K-9 with the Springfield Township (OH) Police Department was shot early Friday morning after a police chase.

Initially, officers tried to stop the car because of a suspected OVI. But the car didn't stop, and officers gave chase.

Officers deployed stop sticks to incapacitate the car, which stopped with four flat tires on Winton Road in Springfield Township.

Springfield Twp. Chief Robert Browder said a man jumped out the car with a gun and ran away. Officers deployed Pako, Springfield Township's K-9, who followed the man.

Pako bit the man, who fired a shot into the dog's shoulder, Browder said. Officers then fired on the man, striking him in the back once.

Both the dog and the man are expected to recover, WLWT TV reports.
Deputy Constable Alden Clopton

A Texas deputy constable, who was shot multiple times during a traffic stop in April, was released from the Hermann Red Duke Trauma Institute Thursday night following weeks of intensive surgeries, hospital officials said.

Deputy Alden Clopton was shot several times April 14 while on patrol that night in the Third Ward.

According to Pamela Greenwood, a spokesperson for the Harris County Precinct 7 Constable's Office, Clopton parked his patrol vehicle at the Alabama Store Market on Alabama and Briley around midnight after a traffic stop. He was leaning into the vehicle through the opened passenger's side window talking to reserve deputy trainee Anne Glasco when an unknown person approached from behind and shot him, Greenwood said. Glasco got out of the car and shot back. The gunman ran off and is still on the loose, Click 2 Houston reports.
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Hillary Clinton is telling the truth about why Donald Trump deserves blame for creating an environment for violence in our political arena.

Video:

Clinton was asked about the violence at a Trump rally in San Jose and said:

I condemn all violence in our political arena. I condemned it when Donald Trump was inciting it, and congratulating people who were engaging in it. I condemn it by those who are taking violent protest to physical assault against Donald Trump. This has to end. He set a very bad example. He created an environment in which it seemed to be acceptable for someone running for president to be inciting violence, to be encouraging his supporters. Now, were seeing people who are against him responding in kind. It should all stop. It is not acceptable.

Very little of the blame for what happened in San Jose has been placed on Donald Trump. It is the presumptive Republican nominee who created and embraced a culture of violence surrounding his campaign. It is Trump who has glorified the toughness of his supporters and the violent acts by his crowds.

There is a reason why only Donald Trumps rallies turn violent. It is because the candidate is encouraging and fueling the violence with his rhetoric. In the United States of America, people should be able to participate in the political process without worrying about violence.

The media wont say it, but Donald Trump is to blame for this ugly change in behavior. Violence is never acceptable, and it should never happen in the country that is the shining example of democracy in the world.

The media needs to step up and not shy away from placing the blame on the shoulders of Donald Trump.
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By Chris Kahn

NEW YORK (Reuters)  Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton has opened up a double-digit lead over Republican rival Donald Trump, regaining ground after the New York billionaire briefly tied her last month, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday.

The shift in support comes as Clinton steps up her attacks on the real estate moguls policy positions, and as Trump fends off criticisms of his eponymous university and the pace at which he doled out money that he raised for U.S. veterans.

Some 46 percent of likely voters said they supported Clinton, while 35 percent said they supported Trump, and another 19 percent said they would not support either, according to the survey of 1,421 people conducted between May 30 and June 3.

Trump had briefly tied Clinton in support among likely U.S. voters in mid-May, raising expectations for a tight race between the two likely contenders in Novembers presidential election.

Trump has all but sealed the Republican nod after a string of big wins in state nominating contests forced his party rivals to drop out, while Clinton is still fending off a long-shot bid for the Democratic spot on the ballot by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Clinton is hoping to seal the nomination next week, when a slew of big states including New Jersey and California will hold primaries, allowing her to consolidate her partys support ahead of a general election matchup against Trump.

Clintons polling surge comes as Trump is been harangued by criticisms over his Trump University, the target of a trio of lawsuits that claim it misled thousands of people who paid up to $35,000 for seminars to learn about Trumps investment strategies. Trump has defended the school and said he will relaunch it once the litigation ends.

Trump this week also outlined the recipients of millions of dollars in donations he raised at an event in January for veterans groups, in a bid to end speculation that he had not yet handed over all of the money.

On Thursday, Clinton used a foreign policy speech in California to paint Trumps policy platform as dangerously incoherent and cast her Republican rival as both a frightening and laughable figure.

Trump responded by saying she lied about his positions and by ripping her record as secretary of state, which he says was marred her handling of government emails and the death of a U.S. ambassador in Libya.

(Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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Friday Fox Follies believes we are witnessing in real time the slow motion destruction of Tee Vee Journalism as MSNBC Now Openly Bragging About Abandoning its Liberal Brand In New Ad. Maybe it was because Fox News Sets Another Record And Personal Milestone, that MSNBC decided to make a right turn. Clearly mendacious manure sells. However, according to Veteran Journalists: Trump Coverage Devastating For News Credibility, something that MSNBC should keep in mind.

BTW: I was never comfortable that MSNBC decided to take a left of center slant, preferring news without a point of view (ceptin when I write it, of course). Contrary to the beliefs of my detractors, I almost never watch it, especially now that Melissa Harris-Perry is no longer on the channel.

What will make Fox twice as insufferable is that State Dept Spox Personally Thanks Fox News For Uncovering Briefing Video Deletion, discovered by James Rosen, who has his own problems with the truth, as I have documented many times over the years.

TRUMP U IS NOT AN EPITHET: Let me see if I can get this straight. This week Demagogue Donald called a Press Conference to trash the press for forcing him to have a Press Conference to announce how much money he raised for veterans groups, which he made a big deal of announcing months ago  and promoted with phony prop cheques on the campaign trail  but then said he wanted to keep it private, but the evil press wouldnt let him. Naturally, of course, Donald Trump Calls ABC Reporter A Sleaze In Bizarre Press Conference. Not only that, but he highlighted his symbiotic relationship with the Fox News Channel:

Fox News Carl Cameron, a favorite of Donald, tried to defend his brethren by explaining to Trump that hes answering the questions now, that were asked then, is a question an attack?



Trump replied, I think the political press is among the most dishonest people that Ive ever met, I have to tell you that. Youre excluded, Carl.

Yet, some people say (Okay, its me. Satisfied?) that The Donalds meltdown was simply an attempt to change the topic. Deceptive Donald was well aware that damaging documents in the lawsuit on his Trump University scam were being released later in the day. It worked. The attack on the press pushed Trump U right off the the news radar.

However, just in case that didnt work, Fox News was there to make it all right. [Geddit?]

Flashback: How Fox News Let Trump

Lie When Trump U. Lawsuit Was Filed

Foxs MacCallum Helps Eric Trump

Dismiss Trump U. Fraud Allegations

Fox Host Suggests Allegedly Fraudulent Trump

University Tactics Are Just Good Marketing

Foxs Greta Van Susteren Polls Viewers On

Whether Defunct Trump U. Should Reopen

Martha MacCallum Helps Rehab

Disgraced Trump U: So You Think

The Good Outweighs The Bad

News Programs Air Trump U. Testimonials

Without Covering Connections To Trump

At Least Seven Fox Hosts Spin Donald

Trumps Dishonesty Over Veteran Donations

Fox News Whitewashes Trumps Anti-American

Attacks On The Press Over Veteran Donations

Now that Rupert Murdoch has been assimilated by the Trump Borg, The Wall Street Journal Staff Told to Be Fair to Mendacious Demagogue Because Serious People Support Him, which is why Foxs Imaginary Unicorn Trump Win Map Includes California, while CNN asks the musical question Is Donald Trump using Bill OReillys playbook for dealing with media?

While reasonable people want A Look At What Political Press Could Face Under A Donald Trump Presidency, one Fox Contributor Lauds Trump For Attacking The Press. This as Trump Celebrates An All Trump Night on Fox News on Memorial Day and Hannity Tops Off Foxs Night Of Trump Promotions With A Trump-Loving Ventriloquist.

While Fox News genuflects, Conservatives Really Did Not Like Fox News Meet The Trumps Special from last week, which included Greta Van Susterens Stunningly Sycophantic, Sophomoric Interview With Melania Trump, in which Melania Trump Accidentally Undermines Donalds Campaign Slogan. In other words: Fox News Obscene And Ridiculous Trump Infomercial.

Want to know How Conservative Media Enabled Trumps Outrageous Lies? Then also read:

While FFF wishes it didnt have to cover Trump at all, at least this humble correspondent gets some satisfaction when Anti-Trump conservatives howl on Twitter over Pravda-like Fox News special Meet the Trumps. Or when Bill OReilly Chewed Out By Colonel Hunt For Defending Trump Vets Grandstanding. Or smile as Former Telemundo President Scolds Fox & Friends Over Use Of Anti-immigrant Slur.

Special condemnation for Sean Hannity, who finally announced hell be voting for Donald Trump, to the surprise of no one. Still dodging questions over where the money went in his own Freedom Concerts that was supposed to raise money for veterans, Sean Hannity Defends Donald Trump From The Big, Bad Press despite these conflicts of interest: 1). Trump Gave Money To Organization With Years-Long Relationship With Fox Host Sean Hannity; 2). Trump Congratulates Hannity on Tremendous Ratings Ahead of Their Latest Sitdown.

IRONY ALERT: First Trump Supporter Hannity Whines About San Diego Radio Affiliate Airing Clintons Foreign Policy Speech and then Sean Hannity Helps Donald Trump Lie His Head Off  And Complains Journalism Is Dead. You cant make that Fox Feces up.

CUCKOLD CORNER: Youd expect nothing less from his vanilla milkshaking buddy, but OReillys Dishonest Attempt To Shield Trump From Media Scrutiny Over Vague Veteran Donations is par for the course by this putts. However, he didnt get away with it from everybody as you can WATCH: Colonel schools OReilly for claiming that Trump veteran donation scandal is the liberal medias fault:

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

But, if you like funny videos starring The Falafel King [NSFW], this week he was slumming on The Five, so he could plug his latest book, which I think is called Killing Truth. Here he gets an earful from Foxs Gutfeld: The Press Loves Trump Because They See a Career in Him. Watch and read along:

He said that while reporters may favor Trump, there is an army of advocacy for Trump in the commentator class, remarking, He gets more free passes than a hot chick at a night club.



And the press, Gutfeld added, loves Trump because they see a career in him! There are gonna be 100 books about Trump in one year!



OReilly objected to the idea that Trump gets soft treatment, saying a lot of these commentators are cheap-shotting Trump and anyone who says one bad word about Clinton is a sexist.

There was this devastating pull quote from Bill OReillys making this up: His latest racial bloviating is just plain fiction:

This is not the first time that Bill OReilly has trafficked in anti-black animus. Scaring the viewers of Fox News with tales of black thuggery and anti-white violence is central to his gimmick and shtick.



Of course, Bill OReillys claim that Black Lives Matter is killing Americans is fantastical and untrue. His logic is desperate and bizarre: he conflates black college students protesting a conservative propagandist with street violence by drug dealers and gang members. And based on his use of statistics about black crime, it is also apparent that Bill OReilly does not understand the difference between correlation and causation.



In all, OReilly most recent act of racist bloviating is a hodgepodge of white supremacist talking points and fictions pulled from the Right-wing news echo chamber. It is also proof of the harm that white racial paranoiac thinking can do to both a persons understanding of empirical reality and personal ethics.

Loofah Lad Leftovers: Bill OReilly: Newt Gingrich Will Be Donald Trumps Running Mate  Bill OReilly Corrected  Bill OReilly Pushes Border Wall, Says The New York Times Wants Open Borders  OReilly: Cowardly Authorities Wont Pass Kates Law. Why?

MEGYN MANIA: Not a lot under this rubric this week.

After a big year, Foxs Megyn Kelly

could command $20 million  but would

her success carry to another network?

The Kelly Files Fair And Balanced

Discussion On Chicago Violence With

A Black Racist And A White Racist

However, to her credit: Megyn Kelly Hilariously Smacks Down Defender Of Trumps Attacks On Trump University Judge.

H8 RELATIONS: Fox News has always fomented hate, but lately it seems much worse:

Fox News Harps On Black Fathers Rap

Sheet To Blame Him For Gorillas Death

Uncle Ruckuss Praise Police

Boycott Of Beyonce On Fox News

Megyn Kelly Hosts Mark Fuhrman

To Analyze Inner City Violence

Fox Smears Black Legislator Objecting

To Requiring Students To Recite

Declaration Of Independence

Watch Former Telemundo President

Confront Fox Hosts Over Anti-Immigrant Slur

Need I say more?

BEWARE!!! FOX & FRIENDS ON THE LOOSE: Clearly theyve learned nothing at all after all those earlier painfully stupid Dooce On The Loose segments went off the rails.

Who thought that real estate huckster (Trump U Lite?) Clayton Morris would be any better? However, no one was prepared when Fox & Friends rejected by hot dog vendor on live TV: Times Square stand shuts down to avoid host. Watch:

Thats right. Rather than get tangled up with Fox & Friends tomfoolery, this man decided to forego his profit.

Now that the weathers turned nice, expect more roving Man on the Street shenanigans.

SOURCES THAT SUCK: This is a brand new occasional rubric. It occurs to FFF that Wayne Simmons is not the only crazy charlatan Fox News tosses on the air to confirm its inherent bias. This week:

Fox & Friends Hosts Discredited Academic

To Push Faulty Anti-Immigrant Report

Fox News: Where An Indicted

Anti-Abortion Extremist

Can Go To Push Lies

CREDIT WHERE CREDITS DUE: Or, even a stopped clock blurts out the truth once in a while.

Foxs Juan Williams Points Out

Media Hypocrisy After Trump

Failed To Debate Bernie Sanders

TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN: Regular readers know that CLINTON CONTEST and BLAMIN BAMA are almost interchangeable rubrics. Heres a quick rundown from this week:

Foxs Doocy Falsely Claims

Clinton Used A Computer Without

A Password As Secretary Of State

Krauthammer: Hillary Is the Worst Person

Possible to Attack Trump on Foreign Policy

Fox Host: Obama Has Trouble Stumping for

Clinton Because He Just Doesnt Like Her

OReilly: Obamas Obsessed with Fox

News, We Have No Jihad Against Him

Charles Krauthammer Says Obama Closed

the circle of that apology tour in Hiroshima

Foxs Guilfoyle On Obamas Historic Visit To

Hiroshima: To Me, It Felt Like An Apology

Be sure to read: Obama Blows Up Fox News Lies and The GOP With Powerful Debunking In Indiana. Any further questions?

FOX BYTES: Foxs Special Report Claims Scientific Consensus On Climate Change Is Subject Of Vigorous Debate  Listen, Liberal Helps Explain Why Liberals Are So Terribly Ineffective On Fox News  In Tied Spelling Bee, Fox Panel Sees Moral Decline of America  Foxs Monica Crowley: Democrats Want To Lock As Many Illegal Immigrants Into Dependency As Possible  Fox Newss Bret Baier asked the Twitterverse for story ideas. Heres what he got.  If You Come For Foxs Julie Roginsky on Twitter, She Will Decimate You

Headly Westerfield, Head Writer at the Not Now Silly Newsroom, has been a working journalist for 40+ years. He recently published Writing News With A Union Label about his exploits in the highest rated tee vee newsroom in Toronto.
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By Roberta Rampton

MIAMI (Reuters)  President Barack Obama warned Democrats on Friday that they need to work hard to defeat likely Republican nominee Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 presidential election but must avoid violence like that at a rally in California this week.

Strange things can happen in an election like this if were not working hard, if were not engaged, if were not participating, Obama told donors at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee.

I want us to run scared the whole time, he said.

Obama decried the clashes between supporters of likely Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and protesters on Thursday at a rally in San Jose, California.

We saw in San Jose these protesters starting to pelt stuff at Trump supporters; thats not what our democracys about, Obama said.

Theres no room for violence. Theres no room for shouting. Theres no room for a politics that fails to at least listen to the other side, even if you vehemently disagree, he said.

Obama spoke to about 90 people who paid $10,000 to $30,000 for the dinner at the home of Robert Rubenstein, a personal injury lawyer.

He noted the constant television coverage of Trump, saying celebrity and fame is such a driver in this culture.

Obama said Republicans have no coherent economic theory.

Rather it is feeding resentments and looking for a they to blame for whatever frustrations people understandably feel at any given point in time, he said.

Being able to say its immigrants or its gays or its somebody that is taking something away from you  thats the essence of the message that the Republican nominee is delivering, he said.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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*The following is an opinion column by R Muse*

Because the media is terrified of reporting on Trumps embrace of serious extremists, both white supremacists and armed patriots, the Donald has had no fear inserting them directly into his campaign and the Republican establishment. And yes, appointing white supremacists and members of armed patriot groups as delegates to the Republican National Convention is inserting them directly into the party establishment; not unlike Bernie Sanders appointing anti-Obama extremist Cornel West to the Democratic platform committee, but thats the subject of another article.

Last month Hannah Gais reported on a troubling sign that Trump appealed to and legitimized the white-collar, white power movement and specifically noted a meeting of the National Policy Institute (NPI). NPI is allegedly a conservative think tank but it does not conform to the definition of a typical Washington think tank, even among conservatives.

NPI appeals to white nationalists who are flocking to join its innocuously named Identity Politics movement. It doesnt take a genius to comprehend exactly what identity Trump devotees cling to. They are the white nationalist, white pride, and white power activists who welcome a race war and likely see Donald Trump as their long-awaited KKK hero in the White House.

One of Trumps intentions, according to NPI director Richard Spencer, is to smash the system stacked against white Americans. Trump will accomplish that feat by breaking down the government that is blocking good white Americans fight against the disease of multiculturalism. Apparently one of Trumps greatest appeals is his non-establishment freedom to cut to the core issues important to real Americans; implicitly white issues that will Make America Great Again.

It is likely why the Southern Poverty Law Center has described the NPI as the suit-and-tie version of the white supremacists of old. It is also why NPIs racist director Spencer told Trump supporters thank god for Donald J. Trump to wild cheers over his non-stop attacks on immigrants and people of color. It is why he has easily cemented his reputation as the de facto leader of the Aryan and patriot movement; a dangerous mixture the media ignores at the nations peril.

Although mainstream media is relatively silent on Trumps inclusion of racists and anti-government patriots into his campaign, this week Mother Jones was not. They reported that one of Trumps acolytes who was appointed as a delegate to the GOP convention, a maniac named David Riden, said that current government leaders may need to be killed for not abiding by the militia movements interpretation of the Constitution. It is noteworthy that Riden is not the only member of the so-called Patriot Movement supporting Trump.

Another Trump supporter appointed as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, Caleb A. Baily, was recently indicted on federal weapons and child pornography charges. Federal investigators raided Baileys 75-acre compound and reported they found a fortified subterranean room under his home stocked with grenades, tear gas, and illegal machine guns; there is little doubt why a Trump supporter was stashing weapons of war, and despite what the Trump campaign said, the Bailey familys anti-government mindset is well-known.

The latest Trump delegate and so-called patriot Riden said that Trump is well aware of his anti-government stance that includes claiming all three branches of the US government are way off away from the Constitution right now and that Americans may need to attack with assault weapons and bombs in the nations capital and elsewhere. In an interview with Mother Jones Riden said,

If the federal government were to follow the path of all other governments, at some point it will turn to tyranny against the people. And at that point, when it stops to uphold and abide by the Constitutionand were talking about the Supreme Court, Congress, and the executive branch, all three are way off away from the Constitution right nowthe people have the right to assemble, bear arms, go to Washington, DC, or wherever necessary, and go into military battle against the government and replace those in government with individuals that will uphold the Constitution. The Constitution should remain, but the people that are abusing it should be, the polite word is, eliminated. The harsh word is killed. And theyre killed by American citizens with weapons. And if people have tanks, assault weapons, if they have bombsthey need to have the weaponry necessary to be able to overthrow the federal government.

It is important to reiterate that the presumptive Republican nominee for the highest office in the land is well aware of maniacs like Riden and Bailey, and after vetting them they were appointed as trusted Trump delegates to the Republican National Convention. It leads one to wonder if Trump was referring to anti-government types when he said that if he doesnt get the nomination, I think you would see problems like youve never seen before. I think bad things would happen. I really do. I wouldnt lead it, but I think bad things would happen.

Now, this is not surprising, or unexpected from the likes of Trump, or his supporters. Although it has become relatively normal and un-newsworthy by many Americans, this idea of calling for assassinations and violent overthrow of the United States government is a serious threat. Trump has incited no small number of racists, and now heavily-armed patriot groups, to frenzy for their cause and it is no stretch to imagine a violent reaction and bloodshed on a massive scale if Trump does not win the White House. He will surely be the GOP nominee because no Republican will stand up to his outrageous racism and threat of violence if he cannot be dictator. He certainly has no intent to be president.

If one were a novice to politics it would be reasonable to assume all this nasty racism and threats to overthrow the government were all down to Donald Trump. However, over the past seven-and-a-half years as the white supremacist and anti-government patriot mindset has grown it has been incited and aided by establishment Republicans. If the official Party was not stoking racism as a weapon against President Obama, they were supporting and emboldened the armed militia movement against the United States government; often vocally and with official calls for threats of armed violence against federal officials.

Donald Trump might be culpable for some of his supporters racial animus toward other Americans and threats to kill government officials and overthrow the government, but all the pre-production work and conditioning is the responsibility of the Republican establishment. Everything Donald Trump has said, is saying now, or is likely to say in the near future will ring true with a significant percentage of the population because the GOP has been saying the same thing for nearly eight years.

It is telling that despite claims to the contrary, Republican establishment types are dutifully lining up to support Trump and one cannot help but believe that behind closed doors they are congratulating themselves on a job well done. Trump may not have been their chosen candidate to take their racist and anti-federal government agenda to fruition, but they will support and defend him up until election day and likely after he unleashes his racist and patriot minions to do what Republicans have failed up to this point if he does not prevail in the general election; eliminate the federal government.

Image: motherjones
MASON CITY, Iowa  Prestage Farms has told Mason City and Cerro Gordo County officials that the company no longer will consider the city as a site for a new pork plant.

Early last month, the Mason City City Council voted 3-3 on a motion and thus failed to approve an agreement with the Clinton, N.C.-based company to build the $240 million plant in Mason City.

Jere Null, chief operating officer for Prestage, made the Prestage family's decision known in a letter to Mason City and Cerro Gordo County officials.

"We are grateful to the local and state elected officials, city and county employees, business and education leaders, farmers and everyday citizens who offered their support," said Prestage Foods in a statement to the media.

"Obviously, we did not adequately address the misinformation campaign that our opponents effectively used to influence public opinion. We will learn from this experience; we hope that Mason City will do the same."

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Prestage has said the plant would have employed about 1,800 people. Plant opponents raised environmental issues and expressed concern about possible harm to property values.
MINNEAPOLIS  Three Minnesota men accused of plotting to go to Syria to join the Islamic State group have been convicted of conspiracy to commit murder overseas.

Twenty-one-year-old Guled Ali Omar, 22-year-old Abdirahman Yasin Daud and 22-year-old Mohamed Abdihamid Farah were convicted of the most serious charges today.

Conspiracy to commit murder overseas carries the possibility of life in prison.

The three are among 10 young men accused in the conspiracy. Six have pleaded guilty and a seventh is believed to be in Syria.

Prosecutors built their case largely on recordings made by a friend of the men who became a paid informant. Defense attorneys argued that comments on the records were youthful bluster, and family and friends have protested what they call entrapment.
Dear Answer Man, with all of the talk about DMC and providing attractions for clinic patients and their families, it seems to me that there should be a motel or hotel with a water park. A city the size of Rochester should be able to support one. Do you know of any plans for one? -- Jerry McGrath, Kellogg

I don't know of any plans, though it seems like a natural next step for the hotel business in Rochester. As I write this, a close personal friend is at an indoor water park in Eau Claire, Wis., and yes, I know, Wisconsin all but invented water parks, but still -- if Eau Claire has one, shouldn't the Desination Medical Center of the Universe have one?

It's fair to note that Treasure Island Resort and Casino just added one, called the Lagoon , and it's billed as the first in the area.

Are they environmentally friendly? Let's just say not all water parks are created equal in terms of sustainability, but I'll leave that argument for another time.

Even more on 65th Street

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Are you tired of reading about how the city of Rochester spent more than $12 million on the 65th Street interchange on U.S. Highway 52 ? I didn't think so.

Rochester City Council Member Mike Wojcikreopened the painful topic on his Vote Wojcik blog over Memorial Day weekend and in an email dialogue with my boss. Wojcik has tracked down a document from MnDOT that he thinks is the smoking gun in the whole affair.

It's not.

Here's the short version of the story -- and I'm sorry, it's not very short.

For years, Rochester business interests wanted an interchange at 65th Street Northwest in the worst way. Loyal readers of this column know that the idea for the interchange dates back to 1997, when I was just a kid selling lemonade on a street corner. Even after $232 million was lavished on rebuilding U.S. 52 through Rochester, city leaders insisted that another interchange was needed, just 10 blocks from interchanges at 55th and 75th.

MnDOT said yet another interchange in that area wasn't a high priority, but the city didn't give up, and a key reason was that Menardswanted to build a new north store at 65th Street.

In 2009, the city applied for some one-time highway money -- part of the federal stimulus money that helped get the country out of the Great Recession -- to finance the interchange. The city applied for $10 million from MnDOT and expected to put another $12.75 million into the project.

There were many other applicants, of course, and the winners were a road project near St. Cloud ($10 million), a project along Interstate 94 that got $5.4 million, and the Elk Run interchange near Pine Island, which received $14.5 million.

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Wojcik insists that Rochester was cheated out of the money that went to Elk Run, and he blames the city's expense for 65th Street on the Elk Run boondoggle. Elk Run is an easy target for this kind of attack, as you know from reading this column. Back in 2009, though, it looked like a dream come true, in part because the developer spent $39 million to buy a lot of property in the Pine Island area. But the billion-dollar project hasn't materialized and MnDOT's beautiful interchange at Elk Run is reasonably called a bridge to nowhere.

Wojcik believes there were some shenanigans at MnDOT that steered the road money to the Elk Run interchange, and he boasted on his blog that he "took the time to do the research that no one else was willing to do" to obtain a 2009 document that shows how MnDOT scored the various projects for the Greater Minnesota Interchange Program. It shows the St. Cloud project was the clear winner, and the Elk Run interchange, 65th Street and the I-94 project all tied for second. Among those three, only the Rochester project didn't get money.

Wojcik's commentary on his blog: "If Elk Run had been evaluated fairly, it would have scored far lower, 65th Street would have received $10 million ... as I have stated for years, the Elk Run scam cost Rochester taxpayers $10 million."

Is he right? No, he's not.

Even according to that draft document, the Rochester project was scored evenly with Elk Run and the other projects, and further judgments were made that delivered the money elsewhere. That was in keeping with MnDOT's long-time lack of interest in the 65th Street project.

But most important of all -- regardless of what MnDOT did, Rochester was under no obligation to put its own money into 65th Street. Just because Dairy Queenmakes a delicious Butterfinger Blizzard, I'm under no obligation to buy it, and when I gain a few pounds because I eat a few too many Blizzards, it's hardly fair to blame DQ.

Rochester wanted that interchange and it was willing to sink a lot of local option sales tax money into it. The city went ahead with it, it was completed in October 2013 and the new Menards opened in spring 2014.

As far as I'm concerned, even if the books were cooked on that grant money for Elk Run, it has zip to do with Rochester's elected officials deciding to go ahead and build that interchange on their own.

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I asked Rochester City Administrator Steve Kvenvoldlast week if he thought it was fair to blame the city's loss of that grant money in 2009 on Elk Run. He said no. "I do not believe that Elk Run caused the city to lose MnDOT's funding. The city worked with MnDOT for about 10 years regarding the 65th Street interchange and it was difficult to get MnDOT's approval even with the total cost being paid by the city.

"Elk Run did not enter into our discussions with MnDOT," he said.

Kvenvold's not exactly a Johnny-come-lately to this issue. He was on the job back when the city first proposed the project, whereas Wojcik was first elected in 2009 .

To tie up some of the loose ends on this, I'm talking with a few gray-bearded bureaucrats at MnDOT who may have more historical detail. Why? Because once I get interested in something, I have to exhaust it -- and risk exhausting you -- before I let it go.

Now, a few other interesting points. How much did the city spend on the 65th Street interchange? The media has reported a few different figures over the years, from $10 million on up. Wojcik's "smoking gun" document indicates that the projected cost was $22.75 million.

I checked with city bean counters, they totaled it up, and here's the tale of the tape: the interchange cost $17,325,482. Though the document is complicated, I'll attach a copy of it online. Some chump change came from state sources, but most of it came from the pockets of Rochester sales tax payers.

The final point for today: Wojcik said in an email dialogue with my boss that he "can't for the life of me remember how I voted" on whether to spend city sales tax money on 65th Street. "I can say if I was the village dictator, that project would have never been done ... that said, there were actually several votes regarding the sales tax and the project. Gary Neumann got my support on the overall sales tax proposal list by including the Uptown project and the Library, both of which I supported."

So, to help jog the council member's memory, I'm trying to find out how he and the others voted. It's not as easy to research as you'd think, but I'm nothing if not relentless. I did find a record that says the council voted 7-0 in March 2011 to retain an engineering firm to finish the design work.

Thanks for sticking with me -- hope you enjoyed the ride and you can exit now.
Suicide is the eighth-leading cause of death in Minnesota, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Overall, one person dies by suicide every 13 hours in Minnesota.

The exact number of suicides is unknown, health experts say, because many do not wish to discuss or report the cause of death. The numbers could be higher than what is made available to the public.

"Most people who complete suicide, you never know if that's what happened," said Christy Ferrington, community-based services director of Hiawatha Valley Mental Health Center. "You hear someone passed away ... but no one talks about why they passed away."

Getting help for a suicidal individual can be challenging.

Ferrington said Hiawatha Valley's residential facility in Winona has 38 beds that are almost always filled. Hiawatha  with a staff members in five counties  maintains about 330 cases at any given time.

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"We're pretty fortunate in our area," Ferrington said. "Not every community has a place where people can go. I would say rural and smaller communities have nothing."

There's no definitive way of determining why suicide numbers have risen over the last decade.

It's the leading cause of death for those ages 10 to 14. Almost five times as many people die by suicide in the state per year than by homicide.

In 2010, suicides cost Minnesota about $749.5 billion of combined lifetime medical and work loss, which equates to an average of about $1.24 million per suicide death.

Because of the rising rates, the Minnesota Department of Health has called for an updated statewide suicide prevention plan and for private and public entities to increase prevention measures, said Jon Roesler, epidemiologist supervisor with the Injury and Violence Prevention Unit at the MDH.

The plan called for a full-time suicide prevention coordinator at the state level as well as increasing awareness by teaching schools, parents and teachers how to have conversations about mental health with youths and young adults.

"Prevention works," Roesler said. "It's working with our kids and youths.  While suicide has increased overall, it hasn't increased as much for them. It may work for other age groups and different groups. It's a great sign."

Stigmatized, frustrations

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Jennifer Brandt, who works at Faith Lutheran Church in Dodge Center, was diagnosed with long-term clinical anxiety and depression. She has dealt with her illness for a decade.

"I had seen stories," she said. "You always hope that 'it's just my thyroid' acting up and triggering these responses. You always hope for something else."

Brandt has learned to manage her illness. Although her depression and anxiety might not go away completely, she continues to go through counseling and exercise along with support from loved ones.

"It's kind of a long journey," she said. "Unfortunately, unlike other illnesses, this one doesn't go away."

Recently, Brandt's church in Dodge Center held a forum to discuss mental health and to provide resources for those who are actively seeking help.

Brandt said the forum may have been a positive start to an open dialogue about mental health.

"Sometimes, you will hear, 'Someone's got depression or anxiety,' or 'I am really struggling with my depression,'" Brandt said. "It doesn't come up in fellowship, and it doesn't get talked about. Some churches treat it like it doesn't exist, which is not the direction we want to be taking."

Other factors could include cultural perceptions on mental health and suicide, Roesler said.

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"Some felt that was contributing to the suicides within their communities," he stated. "We need to make sure there is culturally appropriate mental health care for individuals."

Accessibility also deters those from seeking help. People living in rural areas may have limited accessibility or availability to resources.

Some wonder how the stigma surrounding mental illness became so strong. Some believe the stigma is perpetuated by stereotypes in media coverage, depicting mental illness as a rarity and those who have it as dangerous.

"They're the only individuals you see broadcasted ... You don't see your neighbors, bank tellers, teachers," Ferrington said. "People don't see the normal people with mental health issues. It's more common than they think. Most of the time, you don't know. You don't wear it on your shoulder. You couldn't tell if they're sick."

The state health department also works with media to avoid a "contagion" when covering suicide. The MDH provides resources to help news reports portray suicide in a way that doesn't make other people susceptible.

"Ultimately, suicide is like an infectious disease," Roesler said."It's a thought. While most of us are fairly immune, there are people who are very susceptible. We need to work on how we can increase resiliency."

For those struggling with a mental illness, simply telling a loved one that they need help can be met with reluctance or fear.

"It's an up and down roller coaster and makes people exhausted," he said, "and they feel like they're getting lied to.  They still very much love the person but feel they don't have the energy or ability to help them anymore."

What you can do

Those who don't understand the causes of suicide sometimes blame the individual for being "selfish."

"It has nothing to do with being selfish," Ferrington said. "When they look at their lives, what they're going through, they truly feel that the world is better without them. Mental illness can be a really horrible disease if you're not getting appropriate help."

In addition to professional health care providers, those struggling with mental illnesses need support from family and friends.

"When professionals leave at the end of the day, those people give the continued support," Ferrington noted. "One isn't more important than another. It's important to have both. It's trying, and it can be very difficult to watch someone you love dealing with these illnesses."

The best thing to do in order to help a loved one is to start a conversation. A simple discussion, can change a person's life and learn that an illness doesn't define a person.

"I want there not to be a stigma of it, and have it slowly wear away," Brandt said. "It's not casting a black cloud over it. I hope that they can come forward, talk, and be accepted for who they are."
Prosecutor in police shooting to enter alcohol program

MINNEAPOLIS  The prosecutor whose office won a recent conviction in the high-profile case of a Minneapolis police officer who killed an unarmed woman says he will be entering a treatment program for alcohol issues.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman issued a statement Friday saying he was evaluated for alcohol issues and agrees he needs treatment. Hell be entering a program Monday.

Freeman announced last week that he was taking a medical leave, but didnt say why.

His Friday statement says he has also worked to stabilize his "unacceptably high blood pressure." He says hes determined to reclaim his health and hopes to be back to work in mid-June.

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Last month, a jury convicted Mohamed Noor of murder in the 2017 fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia who called 911 to report a possible crime.

Minnesota seeks to add Purdue Pharma owners to opioid suit

ST. PAUL  Minnesotas attorney general is asking a state court for permission to add the owners of drugmaker Purdue Pharma to a lawsuit that seeks to hold the company responsible for the opioid addiction crisis.

Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma makes OxyContin and has been the subject of legal action in nearly every state.

Attorney General Keith Ellison wants to add eight members of the Sackler family to Minnesotas lawsuit. He says the Sacklers, who own and operate Purdue, were involved in deceptive marketing tactics and strategies to sell more opioids, despite knowing the risks.

If a judge approves, Minnesota would become at least the 11th state to take legal action against one or more members of the Sackler family.

A family spokeswoman issued a statement denying the allegations, calling the lawsuit a misguided attempt to place blame where it doesnt belong.

Man holed up in hotel surrenders to police

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BROOKLYN PARK  Authorities say a standoff at a Brooklyn Park hotel ended after more than six hours when a man suspected of assaulting his girlfriend surrendered to police.

SWAT officers and crisis negotiators were called to the La Quinta Inn early Friday after a woman reported she was being assaulted by her boyfriend and threatened with a gun. Police say the standoff began at 3:30 a.m. and ended when the man was arrested at about 9:50 a.m.

Authorities say the woman was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. Police say the 31-year-old suspect was not carry9ing a gun but it was unclear if there were any weapons in the room.

The suspect, who has not been formally charged, has previous convictions for drug possession, motor vehicle theft, aggravated robbery, making terroristic threats, drunken driving and burglary.

Jail inmate accused of running prostitution ring

MORA  An inmate at the Kanabec County Jail is charged with running a prostitution ring from his cell.

Thirty-eight-year-old Daniel Ellington is charged in Washington County District Court with two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of promotion of prostitution.

Prosecutors say Ellington communicated with a prostitute by text and "promoted and profited" from her activities in Woodbury last month.

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East Metro Sex Trafficking Task Force director Imran Ali says Ellington was 100 miles away and incarcerated, yet was promoting prostitution and profiting from it. The task force began investigating after a Woodbury detective found an online ad entitled "Blonde Bombshell."

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports Kanabec County Sheriff Brian Smith says Ellington used a jail-issued iPod to text and paid a certain price for each message.

 Associated Press
Many in Rochester's Folwell neighborhood say they are concerned about how a proposed 13-story luxury apartment complex and 883-space parking ramp by Saint Marys Hospital will affect their historic area.

"The street is not happy about it. Adding all of this traffic is universally disliked," said Mark Bransford, who lives on 15th Avenue across from where the parking ramp will exit. "It's a gargantuan parking garage."

Twin Cities real estate development firm Alatus LLC recently unveiled its plan to build a more than $100 million,13-story complex on the high-profile corner of 14th Avenue Southwest and Second Street, next to Mayo Clinic's Saint Marys campus.

Working with Rochester father and son developers, Ed and Nick Pompeian, Alatus propose to build 359 housing units with 310 "luxury" apartments in the tower and 49 connected townhomes. The 883-space, four-story parking ramp would enter and exit at 15th Avenue.

The Brentwood on 2nd hotel and the Ray-Mar Motel along with several older houses on that block would be demolished to make way for the project.

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Alatus recently submitted the preliminary development to the city. It eventually will go before the Rochester Planning and Zoning Commission and the Rochester City Council for consideration. Those meetings have not yet been scheduled.

The development would be a huge change for the sleepy Folwell neighborhood. Initial reports from neighborhood leaders were that the neighbors were "literally unanimous." Since then, several residents have said that impression was incorrect. They say neighborhood communication was not as widespread as originally believed.

"There is not universal agreement on this. That did not happen," said Branford of the early communication about the project. "No one is saying no, but we'd like more green space and for them to scale it back."

'Out of whack'

Kevin Lund, who also lives on 15th Avenue, says his opinion is that the development just doesn't fit in the neighborhood.

"The scale of this project relative to the architectural scale of the neighborhood is out of whack," he said.

Those concerns spurred a neighborhood meeting with Alatus representatives last week.

Chris Osmundson, the Alatus senior development associate working on the project, said the discussion was a productive one.

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"As with any project with this scale, there's a lot of concerns to be addressed," he said. "The conversation was a little tense at first. But after a three- or four-hour meeting, it seemed there was good communication about what was happening."

Parking ramp and traffic flow

On the issue of increased traffic due to the parking ramp, Osmundson said his firm recently traffic study to the city that recommends altering 15th Avenue's route to better control the increased traffic flow to be in tune with a residential neighborhood. In November 2015, city planners proposed such a plan and Map No. 19 was placed on file. That's the plan that Alatus would to like to work with the city to make happen.

"I can tell you that the traffic study says that change to the roadway absolutely needs to happen for this project to be feasible," he said.

The size of the garage parking ramp, which is a major factor in the traffic increase, could also change, Osmundson said.

While Alatus has an 883-stall ramp in its preliminary design proposal, about half that number could serve the needs to the apartment and town home residents. The additional spaces are targeted to commercial or contract use. While Mayo Clinic says it not involved in the project, it certainly would be a good candidate for leasing parking in the ramp.

"I think there is a sense that the size of the parking ramp is being driven by some of the needs of the (Mayo) Clinic and their parking problems," Lund said. "I don't think our neighborhood should be sacrificed for the purpose of adding more parking for Mayo Clinic."

For comparison, the Civic Center public ramp by the Rochester Public Library in downtown has 642 spaces and the Third Street ramp has 925.

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"Discussion about the size of the ramp is on the table. We don't want to build it, if the demand isn't there," Osmundson said.

The bottom line for residents is being able to preserve as much of neighborhood's intimate feeling as possible.

"I don't want to see the nature of the neighborhood change too much. I have a nuclear physicist, a cardiologist, a contractor and a retired general as neighbors. Where else will you find that," said Bob Sixta, who lives on 15th Avenue.
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.  Federal officials said Thursday they will consider extending protections under the Endangered Species Act to moose in four upper Midwestern states, including Minnesota, where the hulking symbol of its northern woodlands has suffered a steep population decline in the past decade.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said a petition submitted last year by two environmental groups had provided "substantial scientific or commercial information" that might justify designating the region's moose as endangered or threatened. The finding triggers a more detailed study, beginning with a 60-day period in which the public can submit information and comments.

The investigation deals only with moose that roam the forests and prairies of Minnesota, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, North Dakota and Wisconsin.

"The Endangered Species Act is the best tool we have to prevent extinction of our moose," said Collette Adkins, a biologist and attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the petition with another group, Honor the Earth. "I'm saddened that moose are in such big trouble that they need the act's protection but relieved that help is likely on the way."

Listing the moose under the act would make it illegal to hunt them and could produce habitat protections and federally funded research on their plight.

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The situation is especially grim in Minnesota, which has the region's largest moose population. The total in the thickly wooded northeast, their historical stronghold, is estimated at roughly 4,000  down more than 50 percent since 2006. Glenn DelGiudice, moose project leader with the state's Department of Natural Resources, said further declines are expected.

Scientists said the drop-off has a number of likely causes, including parasites, disease and wolf predation. The environmental groups also blame a warming climate. Moose are cold-weather creatures, with thick fur that helps them survive low temperatures and long legs ideal for moving 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," Adkins said.

Things aren't uniformly bad across the region. North Dakota has boosted the number of licenses for its annual moose hunt from 130 in 2015 to 200 this year. Although moose are struggling in the state's eastern forests and swamps, they're thriving in western prairielands along the Missouri River, state wildlife chief Jeb Williams said.

Moose hunting is not allowed in the other three states; Minnesota discontinued it in 2012.

Moose are also surging at Michigan's Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior, where wolves that have kept the moose in check are on the verge of dying out. On the Upper Peninsula mainland, where officials brought in moose from Canada in the 1980s, the population is estimated at 500 but has stagnated without becoming robust enough to allow hunting.

Moose are listed as "species of special concern" in Michigan and Minnesota but the status provides no legal protections.

Michigan will cooperate with the Fish and Wildlife Service investigation, said Russ Mason, chief of the Wildlife Division.

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"Moose are one of Michigan's iconic wildlife species," Mason said.
SPRING VALLEY  Kingsland's class of 2016 got to spend its last day of school with Sen. Al Franken.

The Friday morning visit was prompted by a letter Kingsland Superintendent John McDonald sent to Franken that grabbed the senator's attention. McDonald told Franken about the district's College in the Schools programs and track record with helping students earn college credit while in high school.

More than 50 percent of the district's juniors and seniors are involved in college programs. This year, seven students will graduate from high school with an associate's degree in hand.

"This is a great model of something that I've been advocating in Washington," Franken said. "And it's because what I do in D.C. is so often taking what I see here in Minnesota and bringing it to D.C."

Franken took a walking tour of the school's classrooms, chatted with students preparing for graduation and held a roundtable with teachers. But the real focus of the visit was the opportunities these courses provide students while in high school.

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McDonald figures students have completed about $115,000 in college credits this year, a figure Franken praised, and noted he's worked to incentivize it in recent education bills.

"It's really about the college affordability," he said.

Additionally, the district also highlighted its science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, programs. Students are able to earn credit in STEM programs through Riverland Community College, with credits transferrable throughout the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.

The high school also provides the opportunity to earn college credit through Project Lead the Way, with credits honored by the University of Minnesota and others.

"We're just a small school in southern Minnesota, but because of dedicated staff we're able to have great programs," McDonald said, noting many rural districts struggle to provide this type of programming to their students.

"I think what drew him to our school, even though we face those challenges like everyone else, our kids have done very well," he said. "That's where Kingsland is a leader."

McDonald said the school initially struggled with losing kids to Post-Secondary Enrollment Options outside of the district, but bringing the programs directly to Kingsland has provided a lot more opportunity for students and has saved the district money because it's not losing students.

"You can take back to D.C. the great stuff that Minnesota does, and there are so many things that Minnesota does better than the rest of the country," Franken said. "And when we do great things I want to be there, I want to see it, I want to talk to people, I want to experience it, and I want to bring it back to Washington."
ST. PAUL  The federal judge hearing the Minnesota Vikings' dispute with Wells Fargo over office-tower rooftop signs near the new stadium will rule on the case within three weeks, with neither side budging after months of negotiations.

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank said Friday during a hearing on motions seeking summary judgment that he would issue his order no later than June 24, perhaps sooner. Both sides asked Frank to rule in their favor before a potential trial in July.

U.S. Bank Stadium will formally open later this summer, named for a Wells Fargo competitor at an undisclosed cost that's undoubtedly dozens of millions of dollars over several years.

Across the street, twin 17-story office towers are each emblazoned with red-and-yellow Wells Fargo logos as part of a mixed-used development largely funded by the San Francisco-based bank. The Vikings and Wells Fargo struck a deal over signage two years ago, but the team took the bank to court last December because the rooftop signs were illuminated and raised rather than painted and flat.

"Under the agreement, you would see nothing but the stadium the Vikings bargained and paid for," said Kevin Coan, an attorney for the team. He later added: "It was a very calculated decision to ignore the agreement and hope that the Vikings and the court would let it pass."

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The signs were installed by Wells Fargo at a cost of $490,000.

Coan and his co-counsel have labeled the signs a giant "photo bomb" of aerial images of the $1.1 billion venue and a breach of the contract with Wells Fargo, whose lawyers have countered that the signs are within the rights of the deal struck two years ago.

Coan's request for relief was simply enforcement of the contract as the Vikings have interpreted it, with rooftop logos that aren't lit or raised.

During prime-time games and national events, those familiar blimp shots overhead the stadium would be cluttered by the Wells Fargo logos, the Vikings argued. Christopher Grote, one of the attorneys for the bank, argued against the team's ability to prove "irreparable harm" by any means other than speculation.

"No one on the ground ever sees these signs. No one in the Vikings' stadium ever sees these signs," Grote said, arguing that the signs won't be visible in a TV shot of the stadium. He later added: "Outside of this room, there are only a handful of people on the face of this earth who are ever going to see that view."
The National Labor Relations Board has found the firm managing Rochester's Kahler hotel properties guilty of several unfair labor practices and negotiating with its employees in bad faith.

The NLRB issued the ruling on May 27 on 17 charges made by the union, Unite Here Local 21. Unite represents 270 members who work for the Kahler Hospitality Group. KHG is led by health care executive and real estate investor Javon Bea, of Oronoco.

The federal agency found Richfield Hospitality, the firm managing the four Kahler Hospitality Group hotels in downtown Rochester, guilty on 16 of the 17 charges.

"Javon Bea is a multimillionaire, who apparently is not concerned about employing a management company that would violate federal labor law," said Local 21 President Brian Brandt in an announcement of the ruling. "(He) has no problem paying attorneys thousands of dollars to lower wages and take away benefits."

No one at Richfield or the Kahler hotels were available for comment on the ruling on Friday afternoon.

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The charges against the Richfield staff ranged from "unlawfully discontinuing longevity pay increases," "refusing to collectively bargain upon request with the union" and "proposing confusing terms and conditions of employment with the intent to stall negotiations."

The ruling orders Richfield to restore and honor the terms of the previous labor contract, which expired on Feb. 28, 2015. Since then, the employees have been working without a contract as the union and Richfield unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a new one.

Richfield must give employees lump-sum back pay awards to make up for "longevity pay" from the most recent labor contract, which was discontinued without notice to the union or the employees.

"Depending on when they were hired, some of the housekeepers are looking at lump payments of a couple thousand each. It will add up to several thousands of dollars," Brandt said.

They also were ordered to rescind unfair punishment against two employees and give them any back pay owed.

Brandt said the union now is scheduled to meet with the Richfield and Kahler negotiation team on Tuesday to resume talks about a new labor contract. The two sides have not met to discuss the contract since last year.

"They've been ordered to bargain in good faith," he said.

The Kahler management team notified the hotel employees on May 16 that they are imposing their "final" contract offer from March 2015. According to the union, management said they could do that because negotiations were at an impasse. Since the NRLB has ruled that Richfield has been negotiating in bad faith and that the expired contract should be honored, Unite Here Local 21 has filed charges against the hotel management.
RED WING  A $10,000 donation will help a newly formed nonprofit organization take the effort of helping children with disabilities abroad.

Disability Support International is a nonprofit organization started in January that aims to "advocate, support and empower" children with disabilities and those working to help those children in developing countries.

The organization was founded by Jennie and Mick Wendland, of Red Wing, who have dedicated their lives to improving the lives of children with disabilities through working as special education teachers.

Jennie first realized something had to be done to help children with disabilities in developing countries when she lived in Cambodia for a short time.

"I saw some people that were trying to help children with disabilities and just saw the inequality between what children have in countries like that and what they have here."

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Having grown up with a sibling with disabilities, Jennie said her experience in Cambodia really hit home for her, and she knew she had to do something.

In order to cater to specific countries and the issues that citizens in those countries face, Jennie said DSI plans to do specific research on the culture and exact needs of the country when it comes to children with disabilities in order to bring sustainable support and results.

"We're not pretending that we have all of the answers because these problems are so intertwined in so many things," Jennie said. "Stigmas behind disabilities and the situation of poverty are so embedded in a lot of what happens."

Recognizing that each developing country has a unique culture and therefore unique needs, DSI is working to create a culture liaison committee that studies the different aspects of the country before volunteers of the organization travel to that specific country.

DSI first will begin work in Cambodia this summer, but Jennie said the goals right now consist of building a firm foundation and developing a model the fledgling organization can follow to be effective in the developing countries they visit.

In Cambodia, DSI will be working with beneficiaries that have started a network of Cambodian and nongovernmental organizations specifically trying to work with children in the country who face autism as well as children who have intellectual or cognitive disabilities. DSI also will be working with an orphanage in Cambodia that has reached out to the organization in order to gain proper training to better take care of and educate children with disabilities who have been abandoned.

After moving to Red Wing in the summer of 2015, Jennie and Mick soon became acquainted with Judy Hammes, a recently retired special education paraprofessional at Red Wing High School. Hammes learned about DSI through Mick, who she worked with at the high school.

"I was very encouraged by (Mick's) enthusiasm to get involved," Hammes said.

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After learning about the organization her colleagues had started, Hammes and her husband used an inheritance from her recently deceased parents to donate $10,000 to DSI. Hammes said her parents cared deeply about children locally and around the world, and they would be happy with their daughter's recent donation.

Hammes is no stranger to donating to nonprofit organizations and regularly donates to the Humane Society, Habitat for Humanity and the United Way.

Hammes said she is considering becoming further involved in the organization by volunteering with DSI to help children with disabilities in another country.

Jennie said the $10,000 donated will go partly to the travel expenses of volunteers going to Cambodia this summer and to business development efforts, such as developing a website, expanding the board of directors and hiring staff to handle communications, marketing and finance for the organization.

"A nonprofit is still a business," Jennie said. "Their donation with definitely go a long way to help us be able to fund some of those aspects so we can really get a foundation started."

Jennie said people can get involved by visiting the organization's website (ds-international.org) and signing up for their email newsletter. She said the newsletter will be the main way they will recruit volunteers once they pinpoint exactly what the organization needs.

"We definitely want to get the word out that we're here, and we want to reach and have hopefully anybody who wants to be involved to get involved," said Jennie. "The needs are immense, and we can definitely all do things to help."
A visitor from Mars  or even the East Coast  might think the intensity of California's primary battle means the stakes are HUGE, like deciding whether Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders becomes the Democratic nominee opposing Donald Trump.

Not that huge, but Tuesday's results will be important in setting the tone for the seven weeks until the Democratic Convention, as well as at the convention itself.

Clinton almost certainly will clinch the nomination earlier that day by winning the New Jersey primary. The California result probably will either pad her delegate lead modestly or trim it slightly. Whichever happens, she'll have a bigger margin in popular votes and pledged delegates over Sanders than Barack Obama had over her eight years ago.

And from a historical perspective, the significance of Tuesday's result is certainly questionable. Since Woodrow Wilson's 1912 loss to Champ Clark, many ultimate Democratic nominees have lost contested California primaries: Jimmy Carter (twice), Walter Mondale and Barack Obama.

Sanders has refused to concede his end is near. "I believe that if we do well here in California, we'll march in with momentum and we'll march out with the Democratic nomination," he said at a rally in Santa Monica last week.

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Though that's unlikely, his persistence means a victory in California is the best way, and perhaps the only way, for Clinton to prevent the Vermont senator from damaging Democratic prospects by pressing that claim for another two months.

It would cement her majorities of elected delegates, popular votes and states contested. With no sign that superdelegates are weakening in supporting her, that would effectively end their contest, even if Sanders delays a formal endorsement.

On the other hand, a Sanders victory would doubtless encourage him to persevere, even if he loses any chance of winning a majority of pledged delegates. He suggested Sunday that intervening events, perhaps from the investigation into Clinton's private email server, could yet convince those superdelegates to abandon her.

The State Department Inspector General's report criticizing her use of that server "is something that the American people, Democrats and delegates, are going to have that take a hard look at," Sanders said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation," adding, "Everybody in America is keeping it in mind, and certainly the superdelegates are."

Sanders still hopes to win at least half of the states, and California may determine that. But it's a meaningless statistic, given that many Sanders victories came in lower-turnout caucus states, one factor in Clinton's overall 3 million vote majority. That quest may explain his failed effort to overturn Kentucky's slim Clinton victory.

So far, the Vermont senator has won 20 states, plus Democrats abroad, while Clinton has won 24, and Guam, Northern Marianas and American Samoa. Of six states remaining, Clinton is favored in New Jersey and California, while Sanders could easily win Montana, New Mexico and the two Dakotas. Primaries in Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Island caucuses round out the schedule.

Some continued conflict between the two candidates seems inevitable, regardless of the California outcome. Sanders named two Platform Drafting Committee members who have strongly criticized Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, though he said Sunday he expected "a broad consensus" on the issue.

And while Sanders repeatedly has said he will do everything possible to ensure Trump's defeat, he seemed Sunday to minimize his responsibility for persuading his youthful cadres to back the ultimate nominee.

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"If Secretary Clinton is the nominee, it is her job to reach out to millions of people and make the case as to why she is going to defend working families and the middle, provide healthcare for all people, take on Wall Street, deal aggressively with climate change," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "That is the candidate's job to do."

He indicated one factor may be her running mate. He said he likes one favorite, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, "very much," but added Democrats need "a candidate who can excite working families, excite young people, bring them into the political process, create a large voter turnout."

California's bottom line is simple: A Clinton victory will smooth the path to her inevitable nomination. A defeat will complicate  but not ultimately deter  it, and delay the unity she'll need to defeat Trump.

Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News.
WASHINGTON  Part of Bernie Sanders' charm is that for all of his arm-waving jeremiads, he appears unthreatening. He's the weird old uncle in the attic, Larry David's crazy Bernie. It's almost a matter of style. Who can be afraid of a candidate so irascible, grumpy, old-fashioned and unfashionable?

After all, he's not going to win the nomination, so what harm can he do? A major address at the party convention? A say in the vice presidential selection? And who reads party platforms anyway?

Well, platforms may not immediately affect a particular campaign. But they do express, quite literally, the party line, a written record of its ideological trajectory.

Which is why two of Sanders' appointments to the 15-member platform committee are so stunning. Professor Cornel West not only has called the Israeli prime minister a war criminal but openly supports the BDS movement (boycott, divestment and sanctions), the most important attempt in theworld to ostracize and delegitimize Israel.

West is joined on the committee by the longtime pro-Palestinian activist James Zogby. Together, reported The New York Times, they "vowed to upend what they see as the party's lopsided support of Israel."

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This seems a gratuitous provocation. Sanders hardly made Israel central to his campaign. He did call Israel's response in the 2014 Gaza war "disproportionate" and said "we cannot continue to be one-sided." But now Sanders seeks to permanently alter  i.e. weaken  the relationship between the Democratic Party and Israel, which has been close and supportive since Harry Truman recognized the world's only Jewish state when it declared independence in May 1948.

West doesn't even pretend, as do some left-wing "peace" groups, to be opposing Israeli policy in order to save it from itself. He makes the simpler case that occupation is unconscionable oppression and that until Israel abandons it, Israel deserves to be treated like apartheid South Africa  anathematized, cut off, made to bleed morally and economically. The Sanders appointees wish to bend the Democratic platform to encourage such diminishment unless Israel redeems itself by liberating Palestine.

This is an unusual argument for a Democratic platform committee, largely because it is logically and morally perverse. Israel did in fact follow such high-minded advice in 2005: It terminated its occupation and evacuated Gaza. That earned it (temporary) praise from the West. And from the Palestinians? Not peace, not reconciliation, not normal relations but a decade of unrelenting terrorism and war.

Israel is now being asked  pressured  to repeat that same disaster on the West Bank. That would bring the terror war, quite fatally, to the very heart of Israel  Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ben Gurion Airport. Israel is now excoriated for declining that invitation to national suicide.

It is ironic that the most successful Jewish presidential candidate ever should be pushing the anti-Israel case. But perhaps not surprising considering Sanders' ideological roots. He is old left  not the post-1960s, countercultural New Left. Why, the man honeymooned in the Soviet Union  not such fashionably cool communist paradises as Sandinista Nicaragua where Bill de Blasio went to work for the cause or Castro's Cuba where de Blasio honeymooned. (Do lefties all use the same wedding planner?)

For the old left, Israel was simply an outpost of Western imperialism, Middle East division. To this day, the leftist consensus, most powerful in Europe (which remains Sanders' ideological lodestar), holds that Israeli perfidy demands purification by Western chastisement.

Chastisement there will be at the Democratic platform committee. To be sure, Sanders didn't create the Democrats' drift away from Israel. It was already visible at the 2012 convention with the loud resistance to recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. But Sanders is consciously abetting it.

The millennials who worship him and pack his rallies haven't lived through  and don't know  the history of Israel's half-century of peace offers. They don't know of the multiple times Israel has offered to divide the land with an independent Palestinian state and been rebuffed.

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Sanders hasn't lifted a finger to tell them. The lovable old guy with the big crowds and no chance at the nomination is hardly taken seriously (except by Hillary Clinton, whose inability to put him away reveals daily her profound political weakness). But when he makes platform appointees that show he does take certain things quite seriously, like undermining the U.S.-Israeli relationship, you might want to reconsider your equanimity about the magical mystery tour. It looks like Woodstock, but there is steel inside the psychedelic glove.

Charles Krauthammer is a columnist for the Washington Post.
"The complete independence of the courts of justice is peculiarly essential in a limited Constitution."

-- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 78.

WASHINGTON  Somewhere, Hamilton  West Indian, not Mexican  is weeping over Donald Trump and his alarming, ignorant conception of the role of the judiciary.

The latest, scariest manifestation of Trump's attitude involves his now doubled-down attack on the federal judge  Indiana-born, but Mexican for Trump's repellent purposes  hearing the Trump University case.

U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel "is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater," in Trump's view, "a total disgrace," because he has allowed the class-action fraud lawsuit to proceed and, most recently, had the gall to unseal documents detailing Trump University's operations.

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In Trump's universe  governed by the rule of self-interest, not the rule of law  Curiel's actions can only be explained by his ethnicity: "Mexican, which is great," but also, Trump told The Wall Street Journal Thursday, "an absolute conflict" of interest because "I'm building a wall."

The racism infecting Trump's assessment  in a Trump presidency, under this cynical assessment, no Hispanic judge could rule on any executive initiative  demands notice and rejection. But Trump's comments also highlight his disturbing attitude toward the role of the courts.

Reasonable people can differ over the feasibility of judges as neutral umpires, unburdened by ideology, dispassionately deducing the correct legal answer. Still, few would disagree that this conception represents the ideal to which most judges  liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat, Mexican and Polish  aspire.

This is, for Trump, unimaginable. His world is not one of guiding principles but of gut emotions. If you cross him, oppose him, criticize him, you are a nasty guy or a dummy or a loser, whether you are a reporter or governor or federal judge with lifetime tenure. He uses his megaphone to seek to intimidate you as you do your job.

For Trump, litigation is deal-making by other means. The courts exist to hear his lawsuits, bless his bankruptcies, help crush his enemies. He sues willy-nilly, to intimidate critics (defamation suits are a specialty) and gain economic advantage. A USA Today analysis found that Trump and his businesses were involved in an astonishing 3,500 legal actions in federal and state courts over the past 30 years.

Trump does not settle, or so he claims, because that would signal weakness. When he is losing, or faces the prospect of losing, that is because the legal system -- just as the Republican nominating process -- is somehow rigged against him.

"I am getting railroaded by a legal system ... and frankly, they should be ashamed," he complained of the Trump University lawsuit. Imagine -- and shudder -- a sitting president crusading like that against a court decision that failed to go his way. President Obama's in-the-justices-face criticism of the Citizens United ruling pales by comparison. Trump views judges as just another target for his bullying, like corporate executives who ship jobs overseas or the PGA tour.

For a businessman with such extensive court experience, not to mention a sister who is a federal appeals court judge, Trump demonstrates shocking ignorance. "He's been criticizing my sister for signing a certain bill," Trump said of Ted Cruz at a February debate. "You know who else signed that bill? Justice Samuel Alito ... signed that bill."

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Bill, opinion, whatever. Actually, Alito didn't sign that "bill." He filed a separate concurrence on partial-birth abortion.

Ignorance is one thing, disdaining the role of the courts and indicating willingness to misuse them is quite another.

The disdain was illustrated by Trump's half-cocked, scarcely vetted list of potential Supreme Court nominees. Selecting justices is one of a president's weightiest decisions but Trump seemed to give this one less attention than what marble to use in a hotel. Meantime, Trump put these judges in the uncomfortable position of seeming to audition for the job in future rulings.

As to the misuse, listen to Trump on Thursday, about how he would proceed against Hillary Clinton if elected. "Hillary Clinton has to go to jail. She's guilty as hell," Trump said. "Five years' statute of limitations, if I win. Now, everything is going to be fair but I'm sure the attorney general will take a very good look at it."

So much for presumption of innocence, or the notion that the White House should not use prosecutorial power to go after its enemies. "He'll have a White House counsel," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told radio host Hugh Hewitt.

To listen to Trump is to understand: This is scant assurance.

Ruth Marcus is a columnist for the Washington Post.
Turns out a lot of Sanders supporters really need a lot of free stuff. Kudos to the Los Angeles Times for producing this chart, which shows that over a quarter of Sanders donors are not working:

Meanwhile, MSNBC is running the following ad starting tomorrow on conservative websites:

Sorry, but that lineup is one-for-six on having conservatives that most conservatives care about, if in fact they dont deserve exile (that would be you Mike Murphy and Nicole Wallace). Only Hugh Hewitt is someone worth listening to. Now, if MSNBC added Mark Steyn to its lineup, theyd get double the ratings of Fox News overnight. But then theyd have to haul Chris Matthews away in a straitjacket.

Next, the laugh of the day comes courtesy of Paul Krugman, who actually writes in his column today: At this point Donald Trumps personality endangers the whole planet. Man, that is some personality! More powerful than a nuclear arsenal! The Donaldnow the equivalent of 5000 megatons of TNT.

Finally, if youd like to send an e-card wishing Donald Trump a happy birthday, the NRSC has set it up for you right here.
Weldon Angelos was the poster prisoner for opponents of mandatory minimum sentencing and those who want the minimums reduced. And for good reason. Angelos was unjustly sentenced under the mandatory minimums to 55 years in prison after being convicted for selling marijuana.

Are there other instances of unjust sentences under the minimums? Almost certainly. Yet, advocates of sentencing leniency seem hard-pressed to find them. Of the cases cited in the debates Ive watched and the hearings Ive attended, only the Angelos sentence strikes me as manifestly unfair. It appears to be in a class of its own.

Fortunately, the system provides a way for dealing with unjust sentences. The president can commute the sentence. Yet President Obama, despite having commuted many sentences, did not commute that of Angelos.

This week comes happy word that Weldon Angelos is a free man. On Tuesday, he was released from prison. He returned home to his family in the Salt Lake Valley.

How did Angelos obtain his release? According to this report from Fox 13 in Salt Lake City, the court granted a reduction in sentence, but its not clear why because part of the federal case is now sealed.

Obama did not commute Angelos sentence. Fox 13 reports:

Petitions were launched asking President Obama to grant clemency to Angelos. [The sentencing judge] himself sent a letter to the president urging Angelos release. . . . President Obama did not commute Angelos sentence, and the reason for the release remains unknown.

I think we can make an educated guess as to the reason why Angelos spent nearly the entire Obama administration behind bars. Obama probably wanted Angelos to remain in jail so supporters of more lenient sentencing could continue to use him as their poster prisoner. Commutation would have rendered him useless for that purpose  worse than useless, actually, because it would have highlighted the fact that the system provides a cure for injustices brought about by the mandatory minimums.

Meanwhile, in the same week Angelos was released, Obama commuted 42 more sentences, bringing his total to 348. The commutation are proudly announced in this White House press release.

All but two of the 42 cases involved manufacturing, selling, and/or possessing with intent to distribute significant quantities of drugs much more dangerous than marijuana (most often cocaine). More than half a dozen also involved firearms.

Obama has proudly commuted the sentences of hundreds of cocaine and other hard drug dealers, some of whom carried firearms to the drug deal. But he left Weldon Angelos to wile away the Obama years in jail.

The latest White House press release says the commutations underscore [the presidents commitment] to reforming our criminal justice system. So too, I fear, did the decision not to grant clemency to Weldon Angelos.
The Nigerian Defence Headquarters on Sunday said it had uncovered plots by the extremist Boko Haram sect to bomb locations in Nigeria during the forthcoming Ramadan fast.

Information available to this Headquarters indicated plans by terrorists to use the Ramadan periods which usually attracts gathering of large number of persons during morning and evening worships and prayers to carryout large scale bombings, Rabe Abubakar, Nigerias director of military information said in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday.

Mr. Abubakar, a brigadier general, said, Against this background, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) wishes to once again advice the general public to be watchful of strange persons and objects in their localities particularly, around places of worships and to promptly report same to security agencies

It is further to advice that adequate security and surveillance be evolved by respective places of worship to forestall any unwholesome acts by some unscrupulous elements.

The DHQ wishes to reassure law abiding citizens to go about their normal businesses while efforts are being made to eliminate the remnants of the terrorists from their hideouts as well as addressing other security challenges in the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari is ill and is being treated at the presidential villa, PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report.

The president has an infection in his left ear, otherwise called Meniere Disease, a challenge which has drastically reduced his outings in the last one week.

As a result of the infection, the president now suffers hearing impairment and routinely complains of severe pains and unusual sounds from that ear, those familiar with his condition told PREMIUM TIMES.

Mr. Buhari had on three recent occasions cancelled official trips within and outside the country due to the infection and was represented at those events by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

A statement by the presidency on Friday said the vice president would again represent the president at the 48th Ordinary Summit of Head of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) holding this weekend in Dakar, Senegal.

The statement by Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the vice president, said Mr. Osinbajo would leave for Dakar on Friday and was expected back in Abuja on Sunday.

Multiple sources in the Presidency told this newspaper Friday that the president got the ear infection about two weeks ago.

Our sources said apart from his family, only a few high profile individuals who visited at the Presidential Villa in the last one week were aware of the presidents illness.

Mr. Buhari, who clocked 73 last December, was said to have confirmed it to some dignitaries who visited him in the past days, explaining to some of them that that was why he was unable to visit Lagos and Rivers as scheduled.

He was also said to have told some of his guests that he was struggling to give his failing health a major attention.

He is currently being treated by his personal physician and other experts from the State House Clinic, our sources said.

An official said the president might seek treatment abroad if his condition does not improve in the next few days.

Despite hearing difficulty, the president, our sources said, managed to attend Jumaat service and host some important visitors, including former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan as well as some clergymen on Friday.

Presidential spokespersons could not be reached to comment for this story on Friday night.

While calls to the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, failed to go through, Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant on media and publicity did not answer or return calls.

Media reports first hinted of the presidents illness two weeks ago when he was billed to visit Lagos.

Mr. Osinbajo represented him on that visit.

The vice president also represented the president in Papua New Guinea last weekend where the 8th Summit of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States held.

Mr. Buhari on Thursday put off his scheduled trip to Rivers State where he was billed to kick off the cleanup of Ogoni land as recommended by the United Nations Environmental Programme.

Again, Mr. Osinbajo represented him at the event.
President Muhammadu Buhari has described as sad and regrettable the developments that led to the killing of Bridget Agbahime, a market woman in Kano.

Mrs. Agbahime was killed on Thursday by a mob after she was accused of blasphemy.

President Buhari in a statement by his spokesperson, Femi Adesina, on Saturday, condoled with the husband of the deceased, Mike Agbahime, the family and relations, praying that God would give them the fortitude to bear the loss.

He also commended law enforcement agents for apprehending the prime suspect behind the killing, as well as the Kano State government, which summoned a meeting of Christian and Islamic leaders, widower of the deceased, and security agencies, as soon as the sad event occurred on Friday.

President Buhari said justice would be done in the matter, and urged the people not to take the law into their hands.

He equally charged those who might want to use the development to fan the embers of religious or ethnic hatred to remember that two wrongs would never make a right, and that when law and order breaks down, those who become victims are never distinguished on the basis of religion or ethnicity.

The incident at Kofar Wambai market, Kano city, is utterly condemnable, and the state government has been quite proactive. Let us ensure that we keep the peace, as justice will be done. Let us learn to respect each others faith, so that we can know each other and live together in peace, the President said.

The president spoke shortly after the police confirmed that two suspected killers of the woman had been arrested.

Force Spokesperson, Kolawole Olabisi, said in a statement that the two key suspects  Dauda Ahmed and Subeiru Abubakar  were already in custody and would be speedily prosecuted.

Mrs. Olabisi added, In order to ensure a diligent and professional investigation, the Inspector General of Police has directed the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in- charge of the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID) to deploy the Homicide Section of the Department to immediately take over the investigation of the case and ensure a meticulous investigation and speedy prosecution of the arrested suspects.

The Inspector General of Police has also directed the Commissioner of Police of Kano State to sustain the community engagement actions which he is currently initiating with all strategic security stakeholders and community leaders in the State with a view to dousing the tension being generated by the condemnable incident.

In addition, detachments of mobile and conventional police as well as the intelligence assets of the Force have been deployed to protect law abiding citizens, reassure the public, prevent the incident from degenerating into a major security threat and aid the Homicide Section being deployed in the location and apprehension of other suspects who are currently at large.

The Force leadership empasises the sanctity of human lives and condemns in the strongest possible terms the violation of the right to life of citizens under any guise. The Inspector General of Police and the entire Nigeria Police Family, therefore, condole the family, friends and colleagues of the late victim and stressed that the Force shall uphold its Mandate touching on criminal justice delivery in the most firm and speedy fashion in this instance and in other cases of this nature.

While the members of the public will be updated on progress of investigation into this case, they are advised to go about their normal activities and resist any temptation to capitalize on the incident to threaten national security as any such attempt will be firmly dealt with. The Inspector General also calls on Kano State residents and indeed, all citizens to imbibe the culture of tolerance, rule of law and peaceful co-existence and to trust and cooperate with the police as we strive to ensure justice in this case.
The All Progressives Congress has accused the opposition Peoples Democratic Party of sponsoring the new militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers, to launch series of attacks against oil pipelines in the Niger Delta.

The South South zone of the APC, in a meeting held in Benin City, Edo State, on Friday, condemned the renewed militant attacks in the region, and said the main objective of the Niger Delta Avengers was to frustrate and derail President Muhammadu Buharis administration.

The zone is cocksure that the nefarious and ruinous activities of the Avengers are not driven by any patriotic and altruistic impulse, the APC said in a communique issued at the end of the meeting.

We have compelling reasons to strongly assert that these activities are sponsored and instigated by the opposition PDP to derail and frustrate the APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari because of its determination to fight against corruption, stabilise and put our country on the path of sustainable development.

The communique, signed by the APC National Vice-Chairman South South, Hilliard Eta, and the Zonal Secretary, Steven Ezekwem, also rejected the inclusion of the Niger Delta region in the imaginary State of Biafra.

The party, which described the inclusion as dubious, said, Niger Delta is not, cannot and will never be part of Biafra.

The party commended Mr. Buhari and the APC-led national government for the courage to commence the clean-up of Ogoniland and other parts of Niger Delta.

It called on the federal government to reconstitute the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission to reflect and accommodate all the constituent states of the region, as well as carry along the party leaders from the zone in appointments into federal boards and other executive positions.
The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has just issued a statement asking Muslims to look out for new moon for the commencement of the this years Ramadan.

A statement by the Secretary General of NSCIA, Is-haq Oloyede, said faithful should look out for the new moon on Sunday night.

Mr. Oloyede, a professor, said if the moon is sighted on Sunday, the Ramadan fast would commence on Monday.

The statement said if the moon is not sighted on Sunday, the fast would commence on Tuesday.

Read full statement below.

FELICITATION AND MOONSIGHTING FOR RAMADAN 1437 A.H.

The month of Ramadan (is that) in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for mankind and clear proofs for the guidance and the criterion (between right and wrong). So whoever of you sights (the crescent on the first night of) the month (of Ramadan i.e. present at his home), he must observe fasting that month (Q.Al-Baqarah 2:185)

The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), under the leadership of its President General, Alh. Muhammad Saad Abubakar, CFR, mni, the Sultan of Sokoto, congratulates the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria and all over the world on the auspicious occasion of Ramadan, 1437 A. H. The Council prays that Allah make the month a positively new beginning in our individual and national lives in terms of spiritual excellence and national development.

The Council appreciates the educative release from National Space Research Development Agency (NASRDA) on crescent sighting, which was meant to provide just the scientific explanation concerning sighting of the crescent. We urge the NASRDA to make it a monthly affair for public awareness and education. One of the beauties of Islamic calendar is its being natural, based on a monthly phenomenon as created by the Almighty Creator of both humanity and nature.

It is also instructive that the findings of NASRDA agree with those of the Islamic Scholars on when and where the conjunction of the new crescent would take place. The only difference is that mere conjunction without its physical appearance (after sunset) is not enough for the commencement of the Ramadan except on the 30th of the receding month when its existence is certain.

Since the last Ramadan fast, the National Moon Sighting Committee (NMSC) of the NSCIA, under the leadership of Mallam Hafiz Wali and Prof. Usman El-Nafaty, assisted by Bro. Muhammad Yaseen Qamarud-Deen, advises the President General of the NSCIA on the commencement of every lunar month. The President General, as advised, always makes monthly declaration of the commencement of every lunar month.

The NMSC had advised the President General that the crescent of Ramadan should be searched for on Sunday, 5th June, 2016 equivalent to 29th Shaban 1437 AH. If the crescent is actually sighted by informed persons on Sunday night and His Eminence is so advised by the experts, he would declare Monday, 6th June, 2016 as the first day of Ramadan. If, however, the crescent is not sighted on the night of Sunday, Tuesday, 7th June, 2016 automatically becomes the first of Ramadan, 1437 AH.

Muslims all over the Country are hereby enjoined to be on the lookout for the directive of His Eminence, the President General of the NSCIA, on the commencement of the 1437 AH Ramadan fast.

In addition to established and traditional Islamic leaders in each locality, members of the National Moon Sighting Committee who can be contacted for information and clarification are:

S/N NAME PHONE NO. E-MAIL

1 Mallam Hafiz Wali 08036009090hafizswali@yahoo.com

2 Sheikh Tahir Bauchi 08032103733

08033058201 Sayyadibashir26@yahoo.com

Usmanusman9280@gmail.com

3 Sheikh Karibullah Kabara 08035537382

4 Mal. Simwal Usman Jibrin 08033140010simwaljibril@yahoo.com

5 Sheikh Salihu Yaaqub 07032558231Salihumy11@yahoo.com

6 Mal. Jafar Abubakar 08020878075jaafaraabubakar@yahoo.com

7 Alh. Abdullahi Umar 08037020607waziringwandu@yahoo.com

8 Prof. J.M. Kaura 08067050641Jmkaura56@yahoo.com

9 Dr. Bashir Aliyu Umar 08036509363 Baumar277@gmail.com

S/N NAME PHONE NO. E-MAIL

1 Sheikh Habeebullah Adam Al-Ilory 08023126335habibelilory@ymail.com

2 Sheikh Jamiu Kewulere 08033881335pgsouthwest85@gmail.com

3 Muhammad Rabiu Salahudeen 08035740333muhammadrabiusalahudeen@gmail.com

4 Sheikh Abdur-Razzaq Ishola 08023864448

08051111063 hustaz@yahoo.com

sheikh@al@abrartravels.com

5 Sheikh Abdur Rasheed Mayaleke 08035050804jentleasad@yahoo.com

6 Dr. Ganiy I. Agbaje 08028327463

08057752980 Ganiy.agbaje@nasrda.gov.ng

gagbaje@yahoo.co.uk

7 Gafar M. Kuforiji 08033545208kuforijiabdulwasiu@gmail.com

S/N NAME PHONE NO. E-MAIL

1 Prof. Usman El-Nafaty 08062870892elnafaty@gmail.com

2 Mal. Ibrahim Zubairu Salisu 08038522693zubairusalisu@yahoo.com

3 Dr. Usman Hayatu Dukku 0805 704 1968udukku@yahoo.com

4 Imam Manu

Muhammad 08036999841

limaminmisau@gmail.com

5 Chief Imam of Yola Central Mosque 08035914285

S/N NAME PHONE NO. E-MAIL

1 Prof. Z. I. Oboh Oseni 08033574431oseni@unilorin.edu.ng

wazzioseni@gmail.com

2 Nurudeen Asunogie D. 08033533012hamdallah1999@yahoo.com

S/N NAME PHONE NO. E-MAIL

1 Sheikh Bala Lau 08037008805

08052426880 balalaujibwisnigeria@gmail.com

2 Sheikh Sani Yahaya Jingir 08065687545

3 Muhammad Nasir AbdulMuhyi 08065687545

08024333381 ustaznasirabdulmuhyi@yahoo.com

4 Sheikh AbdurRahman Ahmad 08023141752aahmadimam@yahoo.co.uk

5 Muhammad Yaseen Qamarud-Deen 07032558231info@bmics.com

6 Sheikh Lukman Abdallah 08037861132

7 Sheikh Sulaiman Gumi 08033139153ssgummi@gmail.com

S/N NAME PHONE NO. E-MAIL

1 Sheikh Adam Idoko 08036759892imamcentral@yahoo.com

2 Alh. Yusuf Nwoha 08030966956

08026032997 yusufnwoha@gmail.com

3 Mal. Isa Okonkwo 08037861407

isaokonkwo@gmail.com

As soon as the NMSC, based on the verified information, confirms the sighting of the crescent, the committee will advise the President General of the NSCIA, who will announce the commencement of the month of Ramadan.

While we are wishing all Nigerian Muslims happy Ramadan in advance, we urge each and every Muslim to remain faithful to the true teachings of Islam in all its ramifications, by being his/her brothers keeper, peace loving, peace keeping, peacemaking and being an advocate of peaceful co-existence for accelerated development of our troubled nation.

We urge all of us to seize the opportunity of Ramadan to pray for our leaders; Political, Religious and Social, so that the nation can be properly guided to greater development.

Ramadan Kareem!

Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, OFR, FNAL,

Secretary General,

NSCIA.
A former Deputy Governor of Osun State, Iyiola Omisore, has sued the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission claiming N10billion as damages over an alleged libelous publication by the commission.

In the suit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday, Mr. Omisore claimed that the publication contained on page 37 of the Nation Newspaper of May 25, 2016 maliciously declared him wanted in connection with a case of receiving and misappropriating the sum of over N700 Million from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).

The publication referred to reads, The public is hereby notified that Iyiola Ajani Omisore whose photograph appears above is wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in connection with a case of receiving and misappropriating the sum of over N700 Million between JuneNovember 2014 from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA). He has refused to make himself available to the Commission for clarifications in the investigation since invitation via a letter dated 7th April, 2016.

Whereof the Plaintiff claims against Defendants as follows: The sum of N10 billon being Aggravated and Exemplary damages for libel and injurious falsehood maliciously published of and concerning the Plaintiff in the pages of the Nation Newspaper of 18th May, 2016 whereof the Defendants declared the Plaintiff wanted, the suit stated.

An Order of perpetual injunction restraining the Defendants either by themselves, their agents, officers, servants, privies or otherwise however called from making such or similar defamatory publication of and concerning the Plaintiff to any person or persons.

Mr. Omisore told the court that the content of the publication is completely false, misleading and defamatory.

He said by the publication, the defendants damaged his character, integrity and persona by alluding that he was a fugitive of dishonourable character seeking to elude the law

That the Plaintiff is a fraudster who has deliberately refused to honour an invitation by the 1st Defendant in relation to criminal allegations of fraud, the suit stated, enumerating the damages done by the publication.

That the Plaintiff lacks financial credit and has been involved in criminal misappropriation.

That the Plaintiffs hard-earned reputation is questionable.

That the Plaintiff is a person to be avoided and shunned by the Society being a fugitive and a man of questionable character.

The Plaintiff avers that since the publication, he has received numerous phone calls all over the world from family members, friends, business and political associates, concerned residents of towns in which he holds chieftaincy titles and old school mates abroad.

Further to paragraph 17 above, the Plaintiff has been subjected to daily interrogation by friends, business and political associates who are now of the opinion that the Plaintiff is a person tainted with fraud and ought not to be accorded any goodwill.

Mr. Omisore said he was compelled to seek the protection of the court when he became aware that the EFCCs invitation was a deliberate ploy to arrest and detain him on account of the civil transaction between Finex Gilt Lts and the Office of the National Security Adviser.

According to him, he got the court to protect his fundamental human rights in no. FCT/HC/CV/1456/2016 when the court restrained the EFCC from arresting him and the commission was duly served and duly filed a counter affidavit.

Regardless of the above state of affairs, the 1st Defendant acting through the 2nd Defendant pretending that it was not aware of the fact that the action was pending and that the Court Order was subsisting and most importantly that the Plaintiff had through the action submitted the issue of is invitation to the Court proceeded to make the false and malicious publication declaring the Plaintiff wanted for not honouring its invitation, the suit stated.

Mr. Omisore held that the said publication by the defendants eroded the confidence of private enterprises, public institutions, business associates, friends and the general public in his character, goodwill and reputation.

According to him, he continues to suffer untold hardship, emotional distress and irreparable loss and damage as a result of the defendants publication.
The Nigerian Air Force said it had deployed additional aircraft to the South South region of the country to support the ongoing military operation against the new militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers.

The additional platforms, comprising fighter aircraft, helicopter gunship and surveillance aircraft, are intended to enhance the capability of the NAF to undertake offensive air operations and intelligence gathering in support of the surface forces, the Air force said in a statement on Friday by its Director of Public Relations & Information, Ayodele Famuyiwa.

Mr. Famuyiwa said because of the recent deployment, the Air Force increased its air operations around critical infrastructure in Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.

These include but not limited to Escravos, Forcados in Delta State; Bonga oil field, Agbami offshore and Brass in Bayelsa; Bony in Rivers; Qua Iboe Terminal in Akwa Ibom State, and Opuekeba in Ondo State, Mr. Famuyiwa said.

Meanwhile, the NAF wishes to urge members of the public not to panic at the sight of low level flying aircraft but to go about their legitimate businesses.

The NAF also enjoins any member of the public to avail it or other security agencies with useful information about the where about or activities of the militant group.

The military has of recent scaled up its operation in the restive region, pumping in more high-end fighting and surveillance equipment as well as personnel.

But despite the heightened security patrol in the region, the Avengers continued to bomb key oil and gas installations. No member of the group has so far been arrested.
Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, on Saturday said Nigerian Army personnel attached to Operation MESA were responsible for the attack on his mothers home on Friday night.

He said the soldiers behind the incidence would be appropriately sanctioned, although the identity of the attackers remained unknown.

PREMIUM TIMES had on Friday night reported an unusual commotion around Mrs. Christianah Ambodes home at 24 Oguntona Crescent, Gbagada Estate I, Lagos at approximately 7:30 p.m.

Mrs. Ambodes neighbours told PREMIUM TIMES that heavily armed gunmen invaded the octogenarians residence and disarmed her police detail in what resident suspected was an attempt to abduct her.

But in a statement signed by Habib Haruna, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Ambode said the disturbance was between his mothers security detail and unruly military personnel attached to Operation Mesa, a military patrol team in the state.

We would like to put on record that the disturbance was not a kidnap attempt on the Governors mother as nothing untoward happened to her, Mr. Haruna said. What really transpired was that a man parked his vehicle in front of the residence of the Governors mother and the security detail attached to the building asked him not to park there so as not to block the entrance.

Mr. Ambode further explained that the unidentified driver who triggered the violence was a military man in mufti.

The man who claimed to be a military personnel was not in uniform as at the time of the unfortunate incident but he insisted on parking in front of the building on the ground that he was a military personnel.

He then went on to invite military personnel attached to Operation MESA to beat Mrs. Ambodes police details after he was advised not to park his vehicle outside the building, Mr. Ambode said.

Although PREMIUM TIMES learnt the attackers, who fled as a police reinforcement arrived, were yet to be identified, Mr. Ambode said he had ordered state officials to mete out appropriate discipline against those found culpable in the incidence.

At the moment, officials of the State Government are taking appropriate steps to sanction the unruly military personnel who joined their colleague to disturb public peace.

The spokesperson for the Nigerian Armys 81st Division in Lagos State, Kingsley Samuel, said he was not aware of the development.

Mr. Samuel, a colonel, however, promised PREMIUM TIMES he would make his findings and revert accordingly.
Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano has announced the arrest of the prime suspect in the killing of a trader at Kofar Wambai market in Kano city.

The governor, who spoke at the end of a stakeholders meeting in Kano, gave the name of the suspect as Alhaji Dauda and promised that justice would be done in the case.

Mr. Ganduje thanked security agencies for dousing tension in the state and for going after the perpetrators of the heinous act, the spokesperson to the Governor, Salihu Tanko Yakasai, said in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES.

Suspected hoodlums had killed Bridget Agbahime in Kano after reportedly accusing her of blasphemy.

Rising from a meeting chaired by the governor and attended by prominent dignitaries, participants described the incident as illegal, unfortunate and regrettable.

Those at the meeting include the state Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, Ransome Bello; husband to the deceased, Mike Agbahime; islamic scholars and security agencies.

In a six-point resolution read by the governor after the meeting, participants condoled the husband of the deceased, Mr. Agbahime, describing the killing of his wife as illegal and unacceptable.

Governor Ganduje later promised that justice would be done in the matter in accordance with the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution.

According to him, the meeting appreciated the role played by security agencies in the matter, especially for working assiduously to douse tension in the city and arresting the prime suspect, Alhaji Dauda.

The meeting, he added, also resolved that all the stakeholders should publicly condemn the killing of the victim and that all Islamic and Christian leaders should engage in public enlightenment of their followers to guard against a recurrence of such senselessness.

Governor Ganduje, who pledged to support the bereaved family at the trying period, expressed deep condolences to the family on behalf of the government and people of the state.

In his remarks, the state CAN Chairman, Mr. Bello, said his association was fully satisfied with the resolutions reached at the meeting.

There is nothing better any person would expect more than what you (the governor) have done tonight, the CAN chairman said.

While urging the people of the state to remain calm, Mr. Bello said with the steps taken by the state government, peace had returned to the state and that the stakeholders meeting was the beginning of the end of committing dastardly acts such as killings in Kano.

The Eze Ndigbo Kano, Boniface Ibekwe, called on all civil and community leaders to cooperate in ensuring lasting peace.

Mr. Ibekwe urged other governors in Nigeria to emulate Governor Gandujes initiatives in ensuring brotherly co-existence in their states.
( Read 18413 Times)

The stories of Khwaja Ahmad Abbas focus the much talked about Common Man. He is a writer who consciously depicts the tales of those ordinary people who accomplished heroic deeds simply by virtue of their undaunted spirit and the sheer will to survive. Abbas belongs to the tradition of Dr. Mulk Raj Anand who created a hero like Bakha, a scavenger, in his classic novel the Untouchable. Anand was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and his movement against untouchability. He was equally touched by the ideas of Marxist philosophy epitomised in the Great October Revolution of Russia in 1917.It was this ideological influence which motivated K.A. Abbas also to look for the real life stories of poverty and hunger, exploitation and protest, alienation and hope, patriarchy and the rise of the womens voice. In fact, the fiction of Abbas, like his films and journalistic writings, brings the common man and his concerns centre stage.Khwaja Ahmad Abbas is known as a film maker and a journalist all over the world. Not many people know that he wrote some seventy three books in the genres of fiction and non-fiction prose in Urdu, English and Hindi. His fiction includes fifteen novels and seven short story collections. These works reflect his deep seated optimism and commitment to social transformation. He stood firmly for the values of democracy, secularism and socialism and proved himself to be an ambassador of the working and toiling masses of the world. Even the title of the second novel of the trilogy he wanted to write, The World Is My Village and his autobiography I Am Not An Island convey a lot about his ideology of Universal brotherhood, fraternity, justice and equality which are very much in tune with the watch words of the French Revolution. No wonder his writings got acclaim not just in India but all over the world.The short stories of Khwaja Ahmad Abbas have been published in a number of collections beginning with Blood and stones and other stories (1947), Rice and other stories(1947), Cages of freedom and other stories (1952), One Thousand Nights on a bed of Stones and Other Stories (1957), The Black sun and Other stories (1963), Men and women: Specially selected long and short stories(1977), The gun and other stories(1985) and An Evening in Lucknow (2011). Of these the last collection An Evening in Lucknow has been published posthumously, with an editorial note by Suresh Kohli who as an editor has also compiled some very significant interviews of Abbas with reputed magazines of the country. His last story Mother and Child based on Bhopal Gas Tragedy was published after his death in The Illustrated Weekly of India in June 1987.Mr. S.A. Rehman who worked with Abbas for more than twenty eight years as his secretary said that the title was initially different but was modified by the publishers.The most famous of the stories of Abbas is Sparrows published initially in Urdu as Ababeel. Sparrows, written when Abbas was 26, was included in a West German anthology of the world's best stories The story narrates the tale of a peasant boy Rahim Khan who has to suffer on account of the traditional and outdated notions of false pride in religion and family. He is not allowed to opt for the profession of his choice because Job in a circus was too lowly for a respectable peasant and to marry Radha, the daughter of the village Banya, a Kafir, was just out of question. This frustration hardens him into a cruel man who is beastly in his behaviour with his wife, his children and even the oxen. He gets transformed only when he observes the Sparrows in his house who are so caring and affectionate towards their young ones. Aradhika Sharma wrote a review of An Evening In Lucknow in the Tribune of Dec.4, 2011.In the review she commented on the story Sparrows:The Sparrows, about which Mulk Raj Anand wrote, in January 1947, to Abbas, "the strength of your short stories, my dear, Abbas, lies in the fact that you have grasped the weaknesses of your characters amid their strengths", is a moving tale of a bad-tempered, anti-social man who finally finds love in some baby sparrows. The story is O Henry-isque in nature, reminding us of The Last Leaf.This bad-tempered man is made so by the unjust social norms which divide the society into water tight compartments. Abbas tells us, through this story, the inhuman face of religion and false pride. The death of Rahim Khan is not natural. He is killed by communal frenzy and a sense of false pride in ones religion and profession. It is ironic that the protagonist of the story Rahim Khan who is himself a victim of a decadent social order, is understood as a self-centered man, a symbol of hatred and a menace to the society.This story has been interpreted in many diverse ways. Some critics have treated it as a didactic story narrating how even birds can be a source of motivation for man and how the human world needs to draw a lesson from the animal world, which of course, is a world of Nature:The Sparrows is a wonderful story where nature teaches man to behave himself. What human beings could not demonstrate natures tiny creation a happy sparrow-couple could effortlessly achieve this story is remarkable not just for its narration but also for its characterization of the infra human, yet ultra humane sparrows. This is a very moving story of sorrow and disappointment of a supposedly hard-hearted man. His transformation from utter cruelty to one of endearing love and compassion forms the life line of the narrative.Rice and Other Stories (1947) published in the year of transfer of power dubbed as the freedom, depicts the prime concern of the country at that time i.e. the question of poverty and hunger. Rice is the main meal of about one third of the population of this country. Abbas never minces his words to draw a realistic picture of the plight of the people. The world wars and the economic depression had brought in the Ration Control System and the people had to stand in que for hours waiting for their turn in front of Fair Price Shop. Abbas describes the plight of the people in a very convincing style:Twisting like a serpent, creeping at a snails pace, buzzing like a swarm of bees, twoLong ques- one of men and the other of women- were advancing towards theGovernment Grain Shop. The womens que was even longer than the mens-quite aFurlong in length with its tail end in a narrow alley round the street corner.(RAOS13)Talking about the importance of the story Rice, Ravi Nandan Sinha makes a very apt comment:Rice, the first story in the first anthology is significant in the sense that it strongly points to the direction most of Abbass stories would take. It relates to the period just before independence. Durga delivers a child while waiting in a que for a small measure of rationed riceThe story reminds us of Mulk Raj Anands story Birth. Durga epitomizes the destitute millions of India. Penury takes away from her even the natural dignity of motherhood. (135)In the next collection of stories called Cages of Freedom and Other Stories (1952) also the same question of poverty and starvation finds expression. The story Flag narrates the story of a poor labourer Ramoo rendered jobless for quite some time. He doesnt have anything to eat or to feed his daughter and wife. It is the day of freedom. He comes to know that some generous patriot is distributing Puris and Laddoos. He goes there and gets his share. He then asks for the share of his daughter and wife. But he is rebuked and insulted. The distributors ask him why his wife and daughter themselves come and take their share. Ramoo is too shy and humble to say that they have only one cloth to cover their bodies and when one goes out, the other two have to stay home. It might appear an exaggeration to some, but the fact is that this kind of stark poverty has been a reality and is a reality in some parts of the country even today.This concern for the common man and his suffering runs through all the collections of short stories published by Abbas. The characters change with the locale but the issues continue to haunt the imagination of the author. In a story called Thicker Than Water published in his anthology The Gun and Other Stories (1985) Abbas depicts the plight of urban poor who are unable to find any employment. In their misery they resort to selling of blood- a problem which appears quite contemporary even in twenty first century. Of course, the menace of selling human organs has also added to the gravity of the situation. From the first collection of the stories to the last Abbas shows a consistent growth in his concern towards the poor downtrodden people. He depicts his characters with utmost sincerity and compassion. He is conscious of the socio-political causes of poverty and does not regard their poverty as a fit punishment for their vices. The poor are portrayed with respect and convictionThe question of dignity of women in the society is discussed very passionately these days. The instances of violence against women at work place, in public transport and at home have created a furor in public space lately. More often than not the victims of gender violence are common women, especially those who are forced to work out of their economic necessities. The stories of Abbas depict this pathetic state adequately. The protagonist women in his stories include village girls, struggling actresses, nurses, flower girls, dancers and extras in film industry. However, these characters do not accept humiliation lying down but assert their identity and right in strong words. The best example of such assertion is the story The Dumb Cow. The protagonist in this story is a young girl named Bholi. Her step father thinks her to be a burden and wants to get rid of her by marrying her to a greedy old and lame person. Bholi tries to resist but is not given any space to express her views. She later realizes that the lame old man is too greedy and her marriage is more of a commercial transaction. She refuses to marry him. The exchange of words between the father and daughter indicate the authors sympathies with the daughter: Pitaji,take back your money.I am not going to marry this man. Bholi are you crazy? Ram Lal shouted, You want to disgrace your family? Have someregard for our izzat daughter. For the sake of your izzat I was willing to marry this lame old man. But I will not havesuch a man, greedy and contemptible coward as my husband. I wont. I wont. I wont. And she reiterated her determination as if she was in the grip of hysteria. (The Walls of Glass 74)Flowers for her Feet is yet another story in which sexual exploitation of a girl is depicted. Chandra, the dancing girl is harassed and exploited by all, especially the economic elite as the rich people think that women are commodities which can be bought or sold for money:The matter was clear. Chandra was a drop of honey over which poisonous flies were hovering greedily. Her body was a machine to make money and everyone was trying to own it. (83)There are more than half a dozen women characters in the stories of Abbas. All of them do not belong to one category. There are characters like Chandra in Flowers for her Feet, Bina in Twelve Hours, Zafrani in Saffron Blossoms and the unnamed wife of Rehman Khan in the Sparrows who represent traditional Indian women resigned to their fate. They accept the condition of oppression and subjugation as something inevitable. Durga in the story Rice and Sylvia in the story with the same title form another category. They represent the enlightened women working with men folk and conscious of their role in the society. They are not merely domestic women confined to the chores of daily life but are equal participants in the socio-economic and political activities going on around them in the society. They represent the women rising and freeing themselves from the traditional bounds of slavery and subjugation. Mehmooda of the novel The World Is My Village and Ajitha of The Naxalites can also be included in this category. There is yet another category of women in the stories of Abbas. This includes worldly wise women like Radha in the story Cold Wave published in the collection Thirteenth Victim and Other Stories (1986).The hero of the story Nirmal is a young graduate who falls in love with this girl Radha who is a prostitute. She also expresses her ardent love for him. Nirmals father doesnt permit his son to marry Radha and threatens to disown him. When Radha comes to know that Nirmal will be disinherited of all the wealth of his parents, she rejects his love and addresses him in a very cold way as if he was a complete stranger. In a story titled Ajanta published in the collection The Gun and Other Stories Abbas describes some women, both Hindu and Muslim, who rejoice in the cold blooded murder of victims of communal violence.Abbas was conscious of the struggles of people across the world. He had travelled round the world and had met world leaders like Khrushchev, Roosevelt, Nehru and Indira Gandhi. As a journalist he kept an eye on the happenings around the world. This gave him an added advantage as a fiction writer as well. His canvas is vast and covers the issues of the entire humanity. The story The Black Sun portrays the racial discrimination suffered by the Negroes in the United States and even at the UNO. The unnamed black lady who assists the black leader to enter UNO building describes how the black people were treated as second class citizens in the United States but when it came to fighting in the Korean War, they were sent to Korea to fight with the white American soldiers and die fighting an enemy whom they did not even know:And then there was the Korean War and the white ones decided that though we blackswere not good enough to worship with them in their churches, or to send our children to their schools, or even to travel with them in the same railway compartment, we were good enough to be sent with them to this war to die along with white soldiers.(78)Abbas is essentially a film director. Even in his short stories he is able to create such scenes which would make a grand climax in a film. The ability to visualize the irony in a grim event of death enables him to imagine the death of Young Henry who is shot dead in his school by a bullet fired by the white demonstrators who were opposing the admission of black students to the school where children of white Americans studied. Young Henry clasped the Bible close to his heart. That was all with which he could defend himself. The bullet hit at the very page where were written the Ten Commandments including the one-Thou Shalt Not Kill. The whole incident is described so dramatically that it appears as if the incident was taking place right in front of the reader. Abbas was against all discrimination be it on the basis of race, colour, creed, gender or religion. He never misses a chance to attack such artificial divisions in his writings. In his autobiography I Am Not An Island he talks about these Walls of Glass:I dared to suggest it was not a question of the colour at all. Otherwise why should white complexioned Nazis be persecuting equally white complexioned Jews? Why should the Yellow Japanese be overrunning the territory of Yellow Chinese? Briefly, I stated the historical interrelation between imperialism, militarism, capitalism and Fascism. (158)In the Indian context it is the caste-based prejudice against the untouchables. Though the Dalit movement had not become sufficiently visible during the time Abbas was writing but still there are stories in which Abbas depicts Dalits getting united and asserting their rights. The close reading of the writings of Abbas reveals that the spirit of defiance expressed through organized collective strength becomes more pronounced in the later writings of the author. Abbas is an admirer of Gandhi in the initial phase, becomes an ardent supporter of Nehru and also an admirer of Indira Gandhi but towards the later part of his career he developed admiration for the revolutionary movements specially that of Naxalism which he depicted in the novel The Naxalites. In the story The Gun published in the collection The Gun and Other Stories (1985), depicts the uprising of the untouchables. Ruldoo, a young Harijan boy draws a bucket full of water from the Pucca well in his village. The village priest sees him do this. As a result a collective fine of one hundred and fifty rupees is imposed on the Harijans of the village. If not paid, they were threatened of dire consequences. But these villagers who had always served the upper caste people without ever raising a question are not scared now:Now the Harijan Khet Mazdoors were also very defiant. They replied, Today only Ruldoo came  tomorrow all of us will come to the well with our buckets and pots. We will see who dares to stop us. (80)Aradhika Sharma, in her review of the collection An Evening in Lucknow talks of the relevance of the stories of Abbas in 21st Century. She remarks, K. A. Abbass stories, written years ago, are as relevant to this day and age as they were half a decade ago. He has written on the themes of poverty, sadness, rural issues, people beset with hunger and oppression. His are stories of the ordinary people, the aam adaami log who are always around us but (thanks to the globalised glitz we prefer to soak in) we are not really interested in. Neither do we like to read stories about them nor watch them in TV serials or even look at or acknowledge them when we pass them by. (The Tribune, Dec.4, 2011)Suresh Kohli, who edited the autobiography of K.A.Abbas and also the last collection of the stories, also makes some very relevant remarks about his stories:Abbas raised a silent furrow in his vast attempts at creative communication. He was an unabashed admirer of Ernest Miller Hemingways narrative of combining fact with fiction to tell some simple, direct, humanistic stories without being moralistic or judgmental. There is nothing epical or ephemeral about the narratives that are generally full of pathos, dealing with everyday mundane experiences, and are characterized by understatement. And even though some of them have seemingly been culled out of journalistic reports, they are apolitical, but reflective of the times.He further comments about the narratives chosen by Abbas, his characters and the way he treated his themes. It is interesting to note that the stories written by Abbas do not have a single outstanding historical figure as a hero. His narratives are drawn from every day life and so are the characters. In fact, none of the stories have a hero in the traditional sense of the term. Nor are there any typical villains in the stories. As a leading progressive writer of the country, Abbas knew very well that the socio-political and economic conditions and forces were responsible for the condition of the society. So, if one were to look for the villains in his stories, one would find them in the form of socio-political and economic conditions at a given time. Kohli writes:Abbas...had a greater awareness of the changing scenario and growing reality around him. His stories had compassion devoid of any romanticism that characterized the work of his contemporaries. Each character in his stories, consciously or unconsciously, had a reason for his action.The stories are both in rural and urban settings and provide an insight into his thinking both as a writer and a journalist with a social awareness. In his preface to one of his early short story collections, he observed: A few stories may provoke high-brow critics living in isolated ivory towers to utter the dread word Propaganda. But these stories are basically not about plans, projects, or policies of the government. They are about men and women, our contemporaries, the people of a new India, and how their subjective inner life (their moments of tenderness and passion, frustration and exultation) are inexorably being changed by the dynamics of life, in which the positive values of socialism (even where hesitantly and half-heartedly adopted by our government) are playing their own partthere are no heroines or villains in these stories which are primarily concerned with the loves and hates of the people, their urges to work, to fight for their rights, even to commit violence in fits of blind passion, of ordinary human beings  men and women!Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, while making his films also chose young men and women from the ordinary life as actors. In Dharti Ke Lal, a film that he made for the Progressive writers Association of India, it was principally decided that the cast will include the members of the Association only. Literature, journalism and films were the media to approach the masses and depict their lives with a mission to bring about a progressive transformation in their lives. This was perhaps the motto behind all his works. The short stories are no exception. Carol J. Slingo while paying K.A. Abbas a tribute at the time of his death rightly said-Khwaja Ahmed Abbas died on June 1, 1987 after 41 years as the most prominent voice of the left in Indian commercial films. While other political filmmakers addressed their work to educated viewers, he spent his life trying to reach the mass, more or less uneducated, audience of millions.Works CitedAbbas,K.A. Blood and stones and other stories. Bombay: Hind Kitabs. 1947.Print--- Rice and other stories. Bombay: Kutub. 1947. Print--- Cages of freedom and other stories. Bombay: Hind Kitabs Ltd. 1952.Print--- The Black sun and Other stories.Delhi: Jaico Publishing House.1963.Print---I Am not an Island: An Experiment in Autobiography.Ed.SureshKohli.New Delhi:2010---The Walls of Glass.New Delhi: Himalaya Books.1977.Print---The Gun and Other Stories.New Delhi: Arnold Heinemann.1985.Print---An Evening in Lucknow.Ed.Suresk Kohli.New Delhi:Harper Collins.2011.PrintSharma,Aradhika. Extraordinary Tales.The Tribune.Dec.4,2011Sinha,Ravinandan. The Two Windows in Contemporary Indian Fiction in English.Ed.Avdhesh K. Singh.New Delhi: Creative Books. 1993.Printwww.ejumpcut.org/archive/online essays/JC33folder/KAAbbas.html.12-11-2013.*Professor, Department of English, Central University of Haryana, Mahendragarh.
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Mumbai: Vodafone Business Services (VBS), the enterprise arm of Vodafone India, claims top honors at the Frost & Sullivan India ICT Awards 2016. VBS won the award for the Enterprise Mobile Service Provider of the Year for the sixth year in a row. In addition, it was also the first time that VBS was awarded the Enterprise Telecom Service Provider of the Year  SMB segment in its category.Vodafone Business Services is very grateful for this recognition as we continue on our journey to be the most trusted and valued total communications partner with solutions across fixed, mobility, cloud and IoT. We thank our customers for their vote of confidence, said Nick Gliddon, Director, Vodafone Business Services. Receiving the Frost & Sullivan award for SMB segment is especially a matter of great pride this year as we believe they are the growth engine for the country, and we are well positioned to serve their needs."In 2015, Vodafone demonstrated excellence across its mobility portfolio and made strides in penetrating and targeting the SMB segment. Vodafones mobility portfolio has empowered enterprises to scale up faster, streamline operational efficiencies and more importantly build a more connected and productive workforce in this ubiquitous mobile world. In the SMB segment Vodafone has been at the forefront of innovation to empower SME companies to meet the challenges of the current business environment and equip them to prepare for their next phase of growth. Vodafones comprehensive value propositions across their portfolio coupled with their strong partner and channel ecosystem has enabled them to offer SMBs an ideal technology growth partner to fulfil their objectives. With its strong leadership in mobility and its commitment towards offering the SMB segment an enriched service experience, Vodafone is well positioned to act as a business enabler for enterprises in the coming global and hypercompetitive business landscape, said Benoy CS, Director, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan.
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INTRODUCTIONSince the time immemorial, god has always been into existence and so have the worship places. Each religion has its own worship place according to their gods and a particular procedure stating who can enter and worship the idol. These places differ in their infrastructure, idols, priests, prayers and what not, and so have their own significance. But what is common in all of them is that most of them ban women to worship or enter these holy places. Since ancient times, all this has been the same and nothing has changed. Women are considered to be weak and incapable for doing those jobs which men can do. All we could see is male priests in temples, mosques, churches, etc. If a woman cannot become one, that is another issue, but why mere entering is barred for them. Dont they have the right to worship the idol of the gods of their religion?In this patriarchal society, men have always been the first preference, be it to write an epic, or become a priest. Men are the ones who have decided everything for themselves and for women according to their convenience. As stated in a poem of Maithilisharan Gupt,Nar krit shastron mein sab bandhan, hain naari ko hi lekar.Apne liye sabhi suvidhayein, pehle hi kar baithe nar.This is what we see when it comes to worship. Men are the ones who make rules for worshipping still and women are bound to follow them. It seems like a dictum which has to be followed and nobody can oppose it. This has been continuing since a very long time and women have accepted it. Even if they dont want to, they ought to because there are many myths relating to this issue in every religion which people still believe and are adamant in not making a change. There are numerous stories which according to people prove that women cannot enter worship places. One such notion is about menstruation, in which it is believed that women are unclean and possess negative energy during this time, so they should be in solace or away from the worship place. There are many others too which are evident in the following instances.PLACES WHERE ENTRY IS BANNEDHaji Ali Dargah in Mumbai which has the tomb of the 15th-century Sufi saint Haji Ali, does not allow women to come close to the grave. The dargah had been open to women but entry to the inner sanctorum was restricted. Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Kerala allows women to worship the deity but they cannot come inside the temples chambers. Patbausi Satra temple in Assam also bans women from entering this temple to preserve its purity. This temple also cites menstruation as the reason behind barring entry to women. Lord Kartikeya temple in Pushkar worships the brahmachari form of Lord Kartikeya. There is a myth that the Lord curses women who enter the temple instead of blessing them. As a result, women are banned from entering the temple. Ranakpur temple in Rajasthan puts a large board outside clearly defining when and how a woman can visit here. Again, women on their periods are asked to not enter the temple. It also has rules about wearing western clothes and accessories. The temple requires women to cover their legs till below their knees.Unlike them is Lord Ayappa temple in Sabarimala disallows women not only because of menstruation but because of a legendry story behind it which states that, Lord Ayappa was born to destroy a female demon. When he finally destroyed her, he asked him to marry her. He refuses as he needs to be a celibate. So she now sits and waits for him at a neighboring shrine near the main temple and is worshipped as Malikapurathamma. Therefore, women arent allowed to go to the temple. Another instance is of Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, where women are not allowed to worship the deity of Lord Shani as it is believed that it will bring bad omen to women and men are more prone to the curse of the lord. The shadow of Shani falling on women  and the reverse  is believed to be forbidden. His bachelorhood is venerated notwithstanding his married status (according to a legend, he had seven wives, but he never touched them). These age old stories are the reasons why women are facing gender discrimination.LEGAL PERSPECTIVEPlaces like Haji Ali dargah, the temple in Sabarimala and Shani Shingnapur temple have been into limelight for barring women from worshipping and entering and have been taken to court as women also have the constitutional right to worship and pray. Article 25 (1) guarantees to all persons the right to freely profess, practice, and propagate their religion. Article 26 (b) grants to religious denominations the right to manage their own affairs in the matter of religion. However, Article 25 (2) allows state intervention in religious practice, if it is for the purpose of social welfare or reform or the throwing open of Hindu religious institutions of a public character to all classes and sections of Hindus. But that does not, however, entirely resolve the issue. The right to freedom of religion under Article 25(1) is enforceable against the state, and not against other individuals, or corporate bodies. But this does not mean that one cannot file a suit relating to this article as the Supreme Court has held in the Sabarimala temple case that if one private party obstructs another private party from exercising her constitutional right, then it is the duty of the state to effectuate her right by restraining the former from continuing with its obstruction. Therefore, the women worshippers may ask the court to direct the state to take all necessary steps to guarantee that they are allowed to access and worship at the Sabarimala shrine. This case is difficult as the temple rules are based on the customs which have been the tradition.Also there is a case pending in Bombay High Court, filed by Muslim women asking for the recognition of their right to enter the inner sanctum for worship at the Haji Ali shrine in Mumbai. The question of gender justice in religious institutions is the charter of state which is responsible to enforce the constitution. Being a secular state, the governments have not interfered in the matters of individual religions which are administered by their respective religious bodies. The ramification of judgment in this case will be then to find a solution which will advance the constitutional guarantee of equality, non-discrimination and freedom of religion. This case was filed because women were not allowed to go inside the shrine. The trustees said the ban was aimed at protecting female worshippers from sexual attention because, when they bowed, the pallu [loose end] of their saris fell, exposing their chest area which aroused the men who might be looking at them. The case was filed by Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (Indian Muslim Womens Movement, BMMA).Another major issue is of the Shani temple in Maharashtra where a horde of women led by Trupti Desai of the Bhumata Ranragini Brigade entered the temple and made offerings to the deity following the court orders. But the idol was purified with milk after the happening of this incident. The Bombay high court has ordered the state to prevent gender discrimination and protect the fundamental right of women. But it is of no use as everyday it follows the ritual of not allowing anybody to touch the idol after a specific time. People still believe in these age old lores and are adamant in believing them. They are not interested in the modern approach of allowing women to fight for themselves or procure their fundamental rights, they are interested only in the patriarchalism.WHY DISCRIMINATIONThere is no ancient relevance for not allowing women into worship places. No holy book ever told to ban women from worshipping. For those who have faith in god, god never told to discriminate between the two genders or gave powers to one of them to dominate the other. The society in which we live has law, it has constitution, it has values, it has norms. But none of them states that men are the ones who will make rules and dominate women. As it is said men will be men, so here they are, dominating our societies, torturing the weaker ones or should we take it as the ones they think are weaker than them. So why this discrimination? One, because we live in a patriarchal society where men are the ones who have powers to make rules and dominate since a very long time, have gained an ownership on it to make rules for the powerless, or for those who think that they really are powerless. Therefore, this discrimination arose and the rest is history.Two, because of the socialization process of our Indian society. Socialization can be defined as the process of learning, understanding and behaving among people how one is taught or by ones own observation of the activities taking place around one. From the very beginning, women are treated as goddesses. It is told to them that they are pure, they are divine. They are not meant to do filthy jobs. They have the powers to do what they want and their wishes are fulfilled immediately. But the reverse of this happens when they grow up. They are discriminated on every basis possible, they are judged, labeled, and what not. This is all because our society in based on hero worshipping. It has transformed itself into a patriarchal society and does not want to change.Therefore, the women voluntarily accept these rules and silently obey what has been told to them. They are always taught to listen to what men tell them like priests, husbands, fathers, etc. also, they see their mothers obeying to their fathers, grandfathers. They see what happens if they go against the rules of the society. They dont have any option except to follow what the society demands.Moving on further, we could say that there is proof that this is a male dominating society. When women started to protest against these bans in worship places, men felt that they would not be able to fight against them. So they included four women in trustees of the temple to oppose female activists (in case of Shani temple protests). Havent they done so, it would have been male v. female, which was not a good idea at all. So, again they used their tactics to brainwash those women, mentally block them and use them to oppose the activists. This is how are society is. Women are suppressed everywhere. They are bound to follow what men tell them as it has been going on since times that couldnt be traced.But what one living in this society of dominance forgets is that it is time for change. What never happened before is ought to happen now. When women ask questions like why Trupti Desai is protesting against a issue like this? Didnt she get something else to fight for? What if it isnt allowed to go inside during periods or worship the deity? It is fine. These are age old customs, these are our traditions and we are ought to follow them. What they do not understand is that they have been living into a world of hypnotism, which is as usual created by so called men of our society. They need to come out of it and make their own space in this world if they want to be known for a good cause. They need to forget that these are traditions which we need to follow because they were made in times when women use to do household chores and were asked to be in solace during their menstruation because they become weak during those times. Not because they really are impure. It is only because they have been labeled as impure and this is what has become a norm. Norms are good for a society when they are made for a cause. Not when they are made to create boundaries between people. It becomes bad for society as soon as it goes against somebody. It also becomes difficult for people to follow it and ultimately what arises is protest which is not at all good for any society. Change is necessary, especially when it comes to issue like this where women need to break the glass ceiling. It is time for a transformation. It is time to be equal.Lastly, what we could see in our society now-a-days is that there is an increasing need of going to court for even a petty issue which can be solved among ourselves. Of course, the law is made to solve disputes but it would be great if we could solve them outside the court, because involving a court in a matter so religious would be like to let a mother decide to pick one of her two children which she can never do. The court has ordered in favor of women but one cannot forget that not every woman is educated or aware about her rights. This is still India, as mentioned a thousand times, where men rule. The court can grant so many orders in favor of women, it can pass any law, it can grant whatever writ it wishes to, but the problem is at the grass root level and not at the highest level of hierarchy.WHY ONLY MENIn each generation, men have been first and women second. It has been because men think that women cannot do everything. Only men can do strenuous work and women cannot because they are made so gentle by nature and cannot indulge in those works continuously. Famous writers have mentioned this in their work. For instance, Jaishankar Prasad has illustrated about a conversation between Lord Rama and Sita, in which he says  Main hoon purush, kathor karm ka, tum komal jaise jaljaat. Therefore, it is pretty evident that women have been always considered inferior to men and so are not allowed to raise their voice for themselves. And even if they do, they are always let down as in this case of wanting entry into the temples.In ancient times, there have been many rulers and warriors. They, in order to expand their rule, have continuously been indulging into wars. All the attacks and wars were fought by men soldiers. There has always been relevance of men soldiers going for a war and not of a woman. And even if there were women fighters, there has been no relevance of it which could be traced from history except one or two. Now if we take another example of the India after independence, women in comparison to men have not been given equal status as men in villages. When they were made Sarpanch of the villages to give them powers, they were not able to use it because they were traditional in their thoughts and were not literate. It was because they were always behind their veil and were not able to make justice to their place of Sarpanch because of men pressurizing them for each decision they took. And because of this men took their place and the ultimate result was not acquired of empowering them.CHANGE IS NECESSARYBut this condition is not going to prevail for a long time. Although traditions go out of date very hardly in a country like India as is evident in cases of worship places, but it will take some time to accept new traditions. People should be made aware that India is a country of villages, and to make it prosper, education is needed so that people can be aware of their rights and fight for them. Its result is visible in todays times also and more of it would be seen very soon. Government is also taking steps to open schools and colleges. Also, they are giving girls more education, scholarships and stressing on it. Therefore, girls altogether have been accepting the odds and are aware of their rights. They have started educating other women of their rights and are fighting for themselves and others too.Only women can empower women. Today, emphasis is laid on empowering women and gender equality, but how do we plan on achieving it in a country where women have always been laid down. Change can only happen if there is awareness at an individual level. We need to make aware of their own rights, educate them and make them realize that they are equally important. We need to shake them and let them know its okay to say no to your husband, brother, son or father. Its okay to want to live your life on your own terms. If women themselves do not realize their worth, then little can be expected from the opposite gender. It is agreeable that men and society play an important role in empowering women but that is exactly why we must teach women to treat their own kind better.Education plays a major role in empowering women. In order to make women aware of their fundamental rights we need to start educating them early. Education that a girl receives in her early childhood helps her grow up to be a wise woman and eventually she inculcates the same social values in her child. Education also gives woman a choice. A choice to decide how she wants to live her life, what she wants to be when she grows up. It gives woman a financial security, which in turn allows her another kind of independence. Yes, empowerment has different meanings to different individuals and no dictionary can ever do absolute justice to this word. For me, empowerment is the ability to choose. To be able to voice my opinion. To be able to say no to things that I dont agree with. It is time to start with the girls.It is quite evident that future era will be women oriented. The patriarchy which has been there will not be there as we can see women in different fields and at the top too. In my view, to achieve any change law is needed. But laws position is limited. So we need to make awareness our basis to empower women. When awareness will grow, women will unite and their strength will increase. In democracy, those who are united have more value. Therefore, when women will unite and be powerful and wise, then only there status will be justified.It is only in Christianity today, that women are allowed to go to the church during their periods. Obviously which was not the case before. So why cannot we allow them in temples and mosques or any other worship place. We need to make a reform to this age old traditions and norms, so that this world can be a better place for women to live in. Deeds not words will help us achieve this goal of empowering women. One has to struggle if he wants his rights. So, this is the beginning not the end. For all of us. These women who are protesting and struggling to achieve their rights have miles to go before they sleep. And they will only be successful only when other women will join hands with them and not oppose them.
With more brands slapping on eco-friendly promises that may, or may not be true, can sustainable marketing be a bigger part of the solution ...
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.




Results from Phase II/III Clinical Trials Show Improvement in Subset of Patients who Developed an Immune Response to Vaccination

TAIPEI, Taiwan, June 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- OBI Pharma, Inc., a Taiwan biotech company (TPex: 4174), today announced that Phase II/III data evaluating the clinical benefit and immunogenicity of OBI-822/OBI-821 (formerly OPT822/OPT-821), an investigational active immunotherapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer, was presented via oral presentation (Abstract 1003) at the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. The study did not meet the primary efficacy end point of progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with late stage metastatic breast cancer. However, a significant improvement in PFS was seen in a subset of ~50 percent of patients who demonstrated an immune response to the vaccine therapy, compared to those receiving placebo. Overall survival (OS) data is immature.

"These results are encouraging and provide important signals about the benefit of OBI-822/OBI-821, a novel active immunotherapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer," said Hope S. Rugo, MD, Professor of Medicine, Director, Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education, University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and study investigator. "The data from this trial will guide us in shaping the design of our upcoming Phase III clinical trial, allowing us to identify the patient population most likely to benefit from this immunotherapy."

About the Phase ll/lll Trial

The study was a multinational, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, Phase II/III trial (NCT01516307) consisting of nine injections of OBI-822/OBI-821 or placebo for 41-weeks followed by follow-up for up to two years from randomization, and survival follow-up for up to five years. A total of 349 women previously treated with one to three lines of therapy for metastatic breast cancer, with stable or responding disease to the last line of therapy, were randomly assigned (2:1) to receive subcutaneous OBI-822 (30 g Globo H)/OBI-821 (100 g) or placebo on weeks 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 13, 17, 25 and 37 or until progressive disease (PD), in combination with intravenous low-dose cyclophosphamide (300 mg/m2). Concomitant hormone therapy was allowed.

Seventy percent had hormone receptor positive breast cancer, 13 percent were triple negative and 62 percent received hormone therapy. No difference was observed in PFS (HR, 0.96 [95% CI, 0.74-1.25] P = .77) or in interim OS (HR, 0.79 [95% CI, 0.51-1.22] P = .29) in the entire study population. However, PFS and interim OS were improved in the 50 percent of patients who developed a Globo H specific IgG response to OBI-822/OBI 821 with a titer 1:160 at any time during treatment versus patients treated with control vaccine (HR, 0.71 [95% CI, 0.52-0.97] P = .029 for PFS; HR, 0.57 [95% CI, 0.33-0.97] P = .04 for OS) and versus those without an immune response (HR, 0.52 [95% CI, 0.37-0.71] P < .0001 for PFS; HR, 0.52 [95% CI, 0.29-0.92] P = .025 for OS), adjusted for baseline disease status/hormone use.

In a time-dependent Cox model, PFS was improved in patients who received all nine injections of OBI 822/821 versus control (HR, 0.66 [95% CI, 0.42-1.01] P = .057). Overall, therapy was well tolerated during the study with the main side effects from the vaccine including minor pyrexia and local injection reactions.

About OBI-822 and OBI-821

OBI-822 is a new, investigational anti-cancer treatment that belongs to a novel class of active immunotherapies. It is a synthetic glycoprotein comprised of a Tumor-Associated Carbohydrate Antigen (TACA), Globo H, covalent bounded to a carrier protein, Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin. OBI-821 is a saponin-based adjuvant. Globo H is expressed in high levels on the surface of malignant tumors in many epithelial cancers, such as breast, prostate, gastric, lung, colon, pancreatic, and ovarian cancer, etc. The immunogenicity of the antigen is enhanced by conjugating Globo H to the KLH carrier protein to form OBI-822 (Globo H-KLH), and co-administered with an adjuvant, OBI-821. It is exclusively licensed to OBI from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).

About OBI Pharmaceuticals

OBI Pharma, Inc. is a Taiwan biopharmaceutical company established in 2002. OBI's mission is to develop novel therapeutic agents for unmet medical needs, including cancer and infectious diseases. The company's flagship product is OBI-822/OBI-821, a first-in-class active immunotherapy for metastatic breast cancer. OBI is also developing next generation active immunotherapies for difficult to treat cancers, including lung, prostate, pancreatic, stomach, and ovarian. Additional information can be found at www.obipharma.com/en.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements included in this press release that are not a description of historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about future clinical trials, results and the timing of such trials and results. Such risk factors are identified and discussed from time to time in OBI Pharma's reports and presentations, including OBI Pharma's filings with the Taiwan Securities and Exchange Commission.

COMPANY CONTACT:

Sharon Lee

OBI Pharma, Inc.

+886 (2) 2786-6589 x213

info@obipharma.com

Related Links

http://www.obipharma.com/en



SOURCE OBI Pharma, Inc.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., June 4, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Kansas Enrichment Network and Missouri AfterSchool Network held a statewide Municipal Summit on Afterschool and Expanded Learning today at the Kauffman Foundation Conference Center in Kansas City, Missouri. The Kansas Enrichment Network and Missouri AfterSchool Network were selected by the National League of Cities (NLC) as two of seven statewide afterschool networks (SANs) to host a municipal summit. Mayor Sylvester "Sly" James of Kansas City, Missouri, and Mayor Peggy Dunn of Leawood, Kansas, hosted the event. NLC President Melodee Colbert-Kean, councilmember, Joplin, Missouri, delivered remarks and Reginald McGregor, director of Engineer Development, Rolls-Royce Corporation, provided the keynote address.

"Effective education goes far beyond the traditional classroom experience," said Kansas City Mayor Sly James. "Afterschool and summer learning programs inspire learning and development outside of the classroom, and keep youth safe and engaged in positive experiences. As leaders in our communities, our support of these programs is critical for our youth's educational success."

This summit represented the first statewide convening of local elected officials focused specifically on the issue of afterschool. Kansas and Missouri were chosen to host this event based on demonstrated need and interest from their SANs and other education stakeholders and civic leaders. The summit brought together city leaders, state agency officials and school and community partners to focus on expanding afterschool opportunities for children and youth in the state.

The Kansas-Missouri Municipal Summit on Afterschool and Expanded Learning raised awareness of the critical roles municipal leaders can play to support afterschool; connected mayors with peers from across the states; highlighted successful approaches to building citywide systems of afterschool programming; engaged mayors in shaping state afterschool policies; and provided attendees with an opportunity to focus on developing strategic partnerships among city leaders, statewide afterschool networks and state agencies to advance local afterschool initiatives.

"Quality afterschool learning experiences help position youth for greater success in terms of knowledge, skills, health, safety, and college and career readiness," said National League of Cities (NLC) President Melodee Colbert-Kean, councilmember, Joplin, Missouri. "These statewide municipal summits are an exciting vehicle to convene city leaders to learn about the importance and demand for afterschool programs, and what local officials can do to ensure access. Our cities depend upon the success of our youth, and we must do all we can to support them."

Other state networks selected to host 2016 summits include: the Florida Afterschool Network, the Indiana Afterschool Network, the Kansas Enrichment Network, the Missouri Afterschool Network, the Massachusetts Afterschool Partnership and the Ohio Afterschool Network. The SANs are statewide organizations dedicated to improving policies, partnerships, funding and quality of afterschool opportunities. NLC has supported 19 state municipal summits over the past five years. All of the afterschool networks will partner with mayoral champions to host the summits, with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and The Wallace Foundation.

Click here to learn more about the statewide afterschool networks.

The National League of Cities is dedicated to helping city leaders build better communities. NLC is a resource and advocate for 19,000 cities, towns and villages, representing more than 218 million Americans. www.nlc.org

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081022/NLCLOGO

SOURCE National League of Cities

Related Links

http://www.nlc.org


TAIPEI, Taiwan, June 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- OBI Pharma, Inc., a Taiwan biotech company (TPex: 4174), today announced that Phase II/III data evaluating the clinical benefit and immunogenicity of OBI-822/OBI-821 (formerly OPT822/OPT-821), an investigational active immunotherapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer, was presented via oral presentation (Abstract 1003) at the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. The study did not meet the primary efficacy end point of progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with late stage metastatic breast cancer. However, a significant improvement in PFS was seen in a subset of ~50 percent of patients who demonstrated an immune response to the vaccine therapy, compared to those receiving placebo. Overall survival (OS) data is immature.

"These results are encouraging and provide important signals about the benefit of OBI-822/OBI-821, a novel active immunotherapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer," said Hope S. Rugo, MD, Professor of Medicine, Director, Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education, University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and study investigator. "The data from this trial will guide us in shaping the design of our upcoming Phase III clinical trial, allowing us to identify the patient population most likely to benefit from this immunotherapy."

About the Phase ll/lll Trial

The study was a multinational, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, Phase II/III trial (NCT01516307) consisting of nine injections of OBI-822/OBI-821 or placebo for 41-weeks followed by follow-up for up to two years from randomization, and survival follow-up for up to five years. A total of 349 women previously treated with one to three lines of therapy for metastatic breast cancer, with stable or responding disease to the last line of therapy, were randomly assigned (2:1) to receive subcutaneous OBI-822 (30 g Globo H)/OBI-821 (100 g) or placebo on weeks 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 13, 17, 25 and 37 or until progressive disease (PD), in combination with intravenous low-dose cyclophosphamide (300 mg/m2). Concomitant hormone therapy was allowed.

Seventy percent had hormone receptor positive breast cancer, 13 percent were triple negative and 62 percent received hormone therapy. No difference was observed in PFS (HR, 0.96 [95% CI, 0.74-1.25] P = .77) or in interim OS (HR, 0.79 [95% CI, 0.51-1.22] P = .29) in the entire study population. However, PFS and interim OS were improved in the 50 percent of patients who developed a Globo H specific IgG response to OBI-822/OBI 821 with a titer 1:160 at any time during treatment versus patients treated with control vaccine (HR, 0.71 [95% CI, 0.52-0.97] P = .029 for PFS; HR, 0.57 [95% CI, 0.33-0.97] P = .04 for OS) and versus those without an immune response (HR, 0.52 [95% CI, 0.37-0.71] P < .0001 for PFS; HR, 0.52 [95% CI, 0.29-0.92] P = .025 for OS), adjusted for baseline disease status/hormone use.

In a time-dependent Cox model, PFS was improved in patients who received all nine injections of OBI 822/821 versus control (HR, 0.66 [95% CI, 0.42-1.01] P = .057). Overall, therapy was well tolerated during the study with the main side effects from the vaccine including minor pyrexia and local injection reactions.

About OBI-822 and OBI-821

OBI-822 is a new, investigational anti-cancer treatment that belongs to a novel class of active immunotherapies. It is a synthetic glycoprotein comprised of a Tumor-Associated Carbohydrate Antigen (TACA), Globo H, covalent bounded to a carrier protein, Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin. OBI-821 is a saponin-based adjuvant. Globo H is expressed in high levels on the surface of malignant tumors in many epithelial cancers, such as breast, prostate, gastric, lung, colon, pancreatic, and ovarian cancer, etc. The immunogenicity of the antigen is enhanced by conjugating Globo H to the KLH carrier protein to form OBI-822 (Globo H-KLH), and co-administered with an adjuvant, OBI-821. It is exclusively licensed to OBI from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).

About OBI Pharmaceuticals

OBI Pharma, Inc. is a Taiwan biopharmaceutical company established in 2002. OBI's mission is to develop novel therapeutic agents for unmet medical needs, including cancer and infectious diseases. The company's flagship product is OBI-822/OBI-821, a first-in-class active immunotherapy for metastatic breast cancer. OBI is also developing next generation active immunotherapies for difficult to treat cancers, including lung, prostate, pancreatic, stomach, and ovarian. Additional information can be found at www.obipharma.com/en.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements included in this press release that are not a description of historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about future clinical trials, results and the timing of such trials and results. Such risk factors are identified and discussed from time to time in OBI Pharma's reports and presentations, including OBI Pharma's filings with the Taiwan Securities and Exchange Commission.

COMPANY CONTACT:

Sharon Lee

OBI Pharma, Inc.

+886 (2) 2786-6589 x213

[email protected]

SOURCE OBI Pharma, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.obipharma.com/en


SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 3, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

Statement by Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) and author of "Be Light" regarding the Passing of TBN Co-founder Jan Crouch.

"All of Heaven must have stood when Jan Crouch walked through those gates. Jan didn't just live in history, she created it. Her work, with her dear husband Paul, literally made Christian television ubiquitous around the globe. The network they created spread the name of Jesus Christ further, faster than - perhaps - at any time in church history. The list of those whose lives were changed numbers at least in tens-of-millions, maybe hundreds-of-millions. I join with the TBN and Crouch family in mourning the loss of an amazing wife, mother, and grandmother, and I celebrate the life of a courageous pioneer in Christian media."

NHCLC/CONEL is the world's largest Hispanic Christian organization. It serves as a representative voice for the more than 100 million Hispanic Evangelicals assembled in over 40,000 U.S. churches and another 500,000 congregations spread throughout the Spanish-speaking diaspora. For additional information, visit http://www.nhclc.org.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120912/CL72800LOGO

SOURCE NHCLC

Related Links

http://www.nhclc.org


HOUSTON, June 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The founding shareholder, former chairman and Chief Executive Officer of InterOil Corporation ("InterOil" or the "Company") (NYSE: IOC), Phil Mulacek, and Petroleum Independent & Exploration, LLC (together, the "Concerned InterOil Shareholders"), announced today that the Supreme Court of Yukon has agreed to hear argument on an expedited basis on whether to postpone the annual and special meeting of InterOil shareholders, currently scheduled for June 14, 2016 (the "Meeting"), until InterOil shareholders have had an opportunity to consider and vote on the proposed bid by Oil Search Limited (ASX:OSH), supported by a back-in from TOTAL, S.A. ("TOTAL"), for all of the outstanding shares of InterOil (the "Oil Search Transaction").

According to Mr. Mulacek, on May 31, 2016, the Concerned InterOil Shareholders wrote to InterOil to request the Company to postpone the Meeting, but InterOil has not responded to the request or publicly announced that it has been made. "We commenced this action because we are very concerned that shareholders are being asked to vote on Board nominees at the Meeting without having the benefit of full disclosure regarding the details about the Oil Search Transaction," Mr. Mulacek said. "Because the Meeting will be held in just 11 days, we asked the court to make a special ruling to hear the matter sooner than normal. Although InterOil opposed our request, the court agreed to hear argument next Thursday, June 9, 2016, before the Meeting," Mr. Mulacek continued. If the court rules in Mr. Mulacek's favor, the Meeting may be postponed to a date after June 14, 2016.

Cautionary Statement Regarding ForwardLooking Statements:

This press release contains forwardlooking statements. All statements contained in this filing that are not clearly historical in nature or that necessarily depend on future events are forwardlooking, and the words "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "estimate," "plan," and similar expressions are generally intended to identify forwardlooking statements. These statements are based on current expectations of the Concerned InterOil Shareholders and currently available information. They are not guarantees of future performance, involve certain risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict, and are based upon assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. The Concerned InterOil Shareholders do not assume any obligation to update any forwardlooking statements contained in this press release.

Information Contact:

For additional information on this press release please contact the Concerned InterOil Shareholders at +1 (832) 510-7028, or by email at [email protected]

Shareholder Contact:

For assistance in voting your proxy, please contact Evolution Proxy Inc., at 1-844-226-3222 toll-free in North America, or at 416-855-0238 outside of North America (collect calls accepted), or by e-mail at [email protected]

Media Contact:

Bayfield Strategy, Inc.

Riyaz Lalani

+1 (416) 907-9365

[email protected]

SOURCE Petroleum Independent & Exploration, LLC
Smith made the same short, familiar drive to Mercy St. Francis Hospital for his regular visit with Dr. Paul Freiman. This time, it was through a one-on-one video connection, powered by Mercy Virtual.

To learn more about Mercy's virtual visits, click here.

"It's very much like the real thing," said Dr. Freiman. "Instead of one stethoscope, we're using two  Donald's nurse in Mountain View is holding one and the other is in my hands, in Springfield. I'm able to get precise readings on breathing, heartbeat and more."

"At first, it was strange to think that he was listening to my heart, lungs and everything," Smith said. "He's about 100 miles away. It's just unbelievable."

Bluetooth technology allows for a secure video and audio connection between the two electronic stethoscopes. Data is simultaneously uploaded into Mercy's electronic health records.

"I can do everything in real time  review old charts, records, lab work and test results," Dr. Freiman said. "That data is then easier to access during Donald's next visit, saving him valuable time. In turn, I'm able to see more patients during the work day. It's a win-win."

The virtual visits, launched this spring, are already saving patients from traveling hundreds of miles to see a specialist for chronic cardiac diagnoses like heart disease and heart failure. In Smith's case, it's COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

"It makes me very susceptible to pneumonia, so I need to meet with the doctor a lot to make sure my medicines and care plan are up to speed," Smith said. "And I really don't like to drive a long ways. Mercy has made things a whole lot easier."

Primary care doctors or hospitalists must make the referral for Mercy Virtual. At the moment, Dr. Freiman is offering virtual visits with cardiac patients once a month, but plans to expand on that.

"Patients absolutely love it," said Dr. Martha Colville, hospitalist at Mercy St. Francis Hospital. "We're thrilled with any opportunity to provide excellent specialty care and better access."

In addition to telecardiology, Mercy St. Francis Hospital is also synced up with Mercy's Virtual Care Center, the only center of its kind, in St. Louis, Missouri. Doctors hundreds of miles away are able to provide an extra set of eyes to the medical surgical department in Mountain View.

"And we're just getting started," said Dr. Randy Moore, president of Mercy Virtual. "In today's world, a cardiologist might only be available in a community once a month, and traveling can take up valuable time. With virtual care, our goal is to get patients the care they need right away  any day of the month."

Mercy, named one of the top five large U.S. health systems in 2016 by Truven, an IBM company, serves millions annually. Mercy includes 45 acute care and specialty (heart, children's, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, more than 700 physician practices and outpatient facilities, 40,000 co-workers and more than 2,000 Mercy Clinic physicians in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has outreach ministries in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160603/375418

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160425/359711LOGO

SOURCE Mercy

Related Links

https://www.mercy.net


If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
New Delhi, May 31 : Actor Kunaal Roy Kapur, who has shown keen interest in trying his hand at direction, says he would love to work with his sister-in-law Vidya Balan and brother Aditya Roy Kapur.

Asked if he would direct a film having Vidya and Aditya, both of whom are also actors, Kunaal told IANS: "I don't think I have a story right now which is worthy either of them. I am working on stuff that I will hopefully be able to direct, and sometime in the future I get to work with both of them depending on the story or the script is."

"I would love to work with them, but as of now I don't have anything that's ready and to kind of go to them with," he added.

Kunaal, who was last seen on screen in the 2016 film "Azhar", is unsure about his "equation" working with his family members.

"The equation will be quite different for working with family. So I don't know how comfortable or uncomfortable will it be working with them," he said.
Washington, June 1 : As the US presidential election draws closer, political commentators have begun to speculate upon likely scenarios with the passage of each day -- and the newest theory is very interesting.

A recent comment by political analyst Douglas E. Schoen, writing in The Wall Street Journal, says there was now more than a theoretical chance that Hillary Clinton may not be the Democratic nominee for the US presidential elections.

The inevitability behind Clinton's nomination will be in large measure eviscerated if she loses the June 7 California primary to Bernie Sanders. That could well happen, he writes.

A recent PPIC poll shows Clinton with a two per cent lead over Sanders, and a Fox News survey found the same result.

Even a narrow win would give Sanders 250 pledged delegates or more -- a significant boost.

California is clearly trending to Sanders, data from mid-May show that there were nearly 1.5 million newly registered Democratic voters in California since January 1. That's a 218 percent increase in Democratic voter registrations compared with the same period in 2012, a strongly encouraging sign for Sanders, the commentator figured out.

A Sanders win in California would powerfully underscore Clinton's weakness as a candidate in the general election.

Democratic superdelegates -- chosen by the party establishment and overwhelmingly backing Clinton 543-44 -- would seriously question whether they should continue to stand behind her candidacy, he asked.

In recent weeks, the perception that Clinton would be the strongest candidate against Donald Trump has evaporated. The Real Clear Politics polling average has Clinton in a statistical tie with Trump, and recent surveys from ABC News/Washington Post and Fox News show her two and three points behind him, respectively.

Clinton also faces growing legal problems. The State Department Inspector General's recent report on 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 Clinton and her aides may not get through the government's investigation without a finding of culpability somewhere.

There are increasing rumblings within the party about how a new candidate could emerge at the convention. John Kerry, the 2004 nominee, is one possibility. But the most likely scenario is that Vice President Joe Biden -- who has said that he regrets "every day" his decision not to run --enters the race, the comment reads.

While questioning President Barack Obama, the writer adds that so far he has largely stayed out of the campaign, other than to say that he does not believe Clinton compromised national security with her home-brew email server.
Shimla, June 3 : Nine trekkers, mainly officials of the income tax department from New Delhi who are stranded in a remote helmet in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, could not be airlifted on Friday owing to bad climatic conditions, a government official said.

"One helicopter was deployed in the morning to airlift the trekkers who have been stranded in Bara Bhangal village for the past two days," Deputy Commissioner Ritesh Chauhan told IANS over phone.

He said the state-run chopper could not land in the area due to high velocity winds and bad weather.

"We will definitely again try to evacuate them as the weather gets normal," he said.

"I spoke to trekkers a day before yesterday (June 1) on the satellite phone and there is no life-threatening situation. All the trekkers have been provided medical aid, accommodation and foodstuff and all are perfect in health," he said.

But the rescue teams sent to evacuate and to provide them eatables and medical help are yet to reach the spot, he added.

Bara Bhangal is located at an altitude over 2,800 metre and had no road link. On foot, it is accessible through the Thamsar Pass, located at an attitude of 4,700 metre.

The trekkers started trek from Manali to Bara Bhangal last week.

The helicopter during its rescue operation also took 11 villagers who were to be dropped in Bara Bhangal. They were also brought back to Palampur town as the chopper couldn't land at the spot.

The trek to Bara Bhangal, part of the Dhauladhar Wildlife Sanctuary which remains cut off from the rest of the world for over six months due to heavy snow, is 65 km from the last village connected by road in Kangra district.

Bara Bhangal has a population of around 400 people and during winter most of them migrate to Bir village in Baijnath tehsil, near Palampur town, some 250 km from Shimla.
Imphal : Imphal June 3 (IANS) A team of Manipuri politicians, led by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, left for New Delhi on Friday to urge the central government to give assent to three bills the state assembly passed on August 31, 2015 on regulating the influx of "outsiders" but which some view as anti-tribal.

"The team shall camp in Delhi till appointments are granted from the offices of the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and others," Ibobi said.

The centre has been reluctant to give assent since the tribals are opposing the contentious bills terming them "anti-tribal".

State BJP president Khetrimayum Bhabananda was conspicuous by his absence from the team. Instead, the party deputed its spokesman and the media coordinator.

Two veteran politicians, Moirangthem Nara and Okram Joy, are already in Delhi.

N. Sovakiran, president of the Manipur People's Party said: "The team will apprise the central leaders of the absence of any mechanism to regulate the influx of outsiders. Even foreigners come and settle in Manipur. The Manipuris will soon be swamped."

Referring to the police notification announcing a cash award of Rs 500,000 for information leading to the arrest of Khomdram Ratan, the convener of Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System, Sovakiran said: "It is an act of lobotomized brain. The police action is based on a Facebook photo which says that Ratan is a member of an outlawed outfit. Facebook photos and information are unreliable and there are instances (of this) galore. It will be better if the police backs down."

Ratan has clarified that the Facebook photograph is morphed.

The tribals in Manipur have announced a series of agitations this month to oppose the enactment of the bills. Manipur has also been seeing agitations demanding enactment of the bills. Women continue blocking the roads, stage sit in protests while several students have been on hunger strike.
Mumbai, June 3 : Veteran actress-politician Hema Malini, who represents Mathura constituency in the Lok Sabha and was criticised for posting on social media images from a film shoot while Mathura was engulfed by violence and tension, said she will be reaching the city at the earliest.

A violent confrontation between the police and encroachers caused disruption in Mathura after 24 persons, including two senior police officers, were killed in firing by encroachers.

"I am constantly in touch with authorities/ karyakartas in Mathura. I am on my way to Delhi and will reach Mathura at the earliest," Hema tweeted on Friday.

"I am a very sensitive person. I am deeply pained on the Mathura incident but law and order of Uttar Pradesh is the core issue. Let's not divert," added the 67-year-old, stressing that while she will be reaching the spot soon, "but the presence of Mathura police is more important than mine".

On Thursday, a mob went on rampage after police took action against encroachment on a major part of a government land.

The toll in the Mathura violence rose to 24 on Friday as Superintendent of Police Mukul Dwivedi and others injured in Thursday's clash between police and encroachers died of their injuries, officials said.

And during this while, Hema Malini tweeted details of how convenient it has become to commute between mainland Mumbai and Madh Island, where she was shooting for the film "Ek Thi Rani".

This caused Hema Malini to draw flak as many reacted negatively. The BJP MP then deleted the tweets, and expressed her concern for the situation in Mathura.

While 250 people have been detained for their involvement in the Mathura violence, the city continues to be tense even as heavy police reinforcements have been deployed in the violence hit region.
Helsinki, June 4 : A Somali man was detained in Finland on suspicion of financing and supporting the Al-Shabaab group in Somalia, said the Police of Finland on Friday.

The unit of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Oulu, northern Finland, carried out a pre-trial investigation into a case of supporting Al-Shabaab related terrorist activities and captured a middle-aged suspect, said the police.

The suspect was a Somali national who arrived in Finland in September last year, Xinhua reported.

Al-Shabaab is a militant group based in East Africa. According to the Finnish police, the organisation is known to collect funds in the Nordic countries for supporting its operations in Somalia.

In September 2014, four suspects with Somali background were charged in Finland on suspicion of collecting and sending thousands of euros to Al-Shabaab. One of them was also suspected of recruiting his brother and nephew to join the group.
Moscow, June 4 : Comparisons between Lucknow - capital of India's most populous state - and Moscow - capital of the world's largest country - don't come easy. Differences between the two are umpteen - but this one caught my eye over the others.

Breaking traffic rules comes easily to us in Uttar Pradesh. Incidents happen, find a place in the news and then are given a quiet burial, yielding space to the "more happening news". And if you happen to be connected (as almost everyone is in Uttar Pradesh), much before the traffic guy hands you a ticket, the chances are that he gets a phone call from someone up above and is forced to let you off.

Russia seems to be on a different trajectory however. A 20-year-old youngster, son of a top and powerful business executive in the country, has not only been sent behind bars for rash driving, troubling the police with a multi-hour chase but also seems to have spurred the traffic police into some sort of a "crackdown".

Ruslan Shamsuarov, son of the Vice President of LUKoil, Russia's second largest oil producer, was on his way home on May 28 from a late night party with friends in his Mercedes Benz G-Class, speeding and breaking traffic rules. A video subsequently surfaced online showing Shamsuarov in a five-hour chase, as he zips around Moscow's streets in his high-end vehicle, with the police in hot pursuit.

After he was hauled up and sent behind bars, the police here seem to have made a 'national villain' out of the lad, who is now subject of much debate and 'gup-shup' at roadside eateries and coffee shops. As my eyes zeroed in on a headline in a local daily on the topic, as a hack, I delved deeper into the subject.

The receptionist at the hotel where I was staying supported the police action. "This is a must, we are a peace-loving city where even people walking by are given respect, allowed to cross the street first...how can we allow such youth on the streets?" he said in broken English.

In Lucknow or for that matter most of UP, it's a routine affair and no one has the time to opinionate on it.

Media reports suggest that many days before Shamsuarov's arrest, Moscow police chief Anatoly Yakunin had declared war of Russia's "golden youth", a term, a report goes on to elaborate, used for youngsters who not only inherited riches from their powerful parents but also a sense of "entitlement".

Yakunin, in a video posted on the Interior Ministry's website, speaks of a zero tolerance policy towards such law breakers and asked his force to ensure that such people who "care a damn about Muscovites and their safety" be brought to justice so that they can very well understand that "money cannot buy everything and everyone."

Contrast this to the daily happenings in the state capital of Uttar Pradesh. While traffic cops try to do their bit, every time they stop someone breaking the law, a phone call, or for that matter, a flag (likely of the ruling party) atop the car ensures a quiet slip out of the "long hands of the law".

In UP, it is more likely that the top police officers give the traffic types at the city roads a call to let the law breaker off and to "mind your own business". As if he was doing something else! The National Guards were sent to bring the 'golden boy' to justice while in UP such youngsters are often escorted to safety by the cops.

The streets of Moscow here are not flush with traffic policemen as you may find in Uttar Pradesh, but then, the drivers are more sober, stay in the lanes they are supposed to be, stop at red lights and drive within laid down speed limits.

Some pleasant feeling this is, specially for someone from Uttar Pradesh, where breaking law seems to be a kink, a hobby or a display of power.

(Mohit Dubey is in Moscow at the invitation of the 'Start-Up Village 2016' initiative. He can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in )
Mumbai, June 4 : Hit by accusations of graft, seniormost Maharashtra Minister Eknath Khadse on Saturday tendered his resignation from the state cabinet.

He met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and put in his papers from nearly a dozen major portfolios that he was handling, including the revenue and minorities departments.

The development happened a day after Fadnavis met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah and submitted a detailed report on the issues confronting Khadse in New Delhi. The Chief Minister later followed it up with a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Khadse, the de facto No. 2 in the state cabinet, has been under fire during the past few weeks from ruling alliance partner Shiv Sena, as also the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and activists over various acts of omission and commission.

However, presenting a brave face, Khadse, strongly refuted all allegations against him and vowed to prove himself innocent.
Herat (Afghanistan), June 4 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the Afghanistan city of Herat on Saturday where he will inaugurate along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, also known as Salma Dam, rebuilt with Indian assistance.

"Beginning with Afghanistan. PM arrives in Herat to launch Afghan-India Friendship Dam," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

Originally constructed in 1976, the Salma Dam suffered extensive damage during the civil war in Afghanistan. The dam reconstruction has been executed and implemented by WAPCOS Ltd, a government of India undertaking under the ministry of water resources.

"It was built at a cost of approximately Rs 1,700 crore," Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said ahead of Modi's departure.

The three turbines on the dam are set to produce 42 MW of electricity and the water will irrigate around 75,000 hectares of land.

Located on the Chist-e-Sharif river in Herat province of Afghanistan, the massive hydro electric project is located 165 km east of Herat town and connected with earthen road. Indian engineers and technicians involved with the project have been visiting the site by helicopter service provided by the government of Afghanistan.

The Salma dam is among the most important of reconstruction works launched in Afghanistan by India, besides building the Delaram-Zaranj highway, a power transmission line from Pul-i-Khumri to Kabul. India has built the new Afghan Parliament House, which was inaugurated by Modi during his visit to Kabul in December last year.

Modi will later attend a lunch hosted in his honour by President Ghani.

Thereafter, he will visit the Indian consulate in Herat where he will meet consulate staff and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel.

The consulate in Herat had come under attack in May 2014 by four heavily-armed terrorists.

All four terrorists were killed by the ITBP personnel and Afghan security forces.

Later on Saturday, Modi will leave for Qatar on the second leg of his five-nation foreign tour.
Taipei, June 4 : China must appreciate those who fight for democracy and gain greater international respect by extending political rights, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said on Saturday on the sidelines of Tiananmen Square massacre's 27th anniversary.

"I have no intention of criticising the Chinese political system, but rather I am willing, with heartfelt sincerity, to share Taiwan's experience in becoming a democracy," Tsai wrote on her Facebook page on the anniversary of the deadly crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

Tsai acknowledged China's economic progress and improvement in the quality of life of its citizens, which she attributed to efforts made by "the ruling party on the other side of the Taiwan Strait" the Communist Party of China.

The Taiwanese body in charge of China Affairs, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), reiterated in a statement on Friday that China should work towards healing the wounds left by the 'massacre' at Tiananmen Square and embrace reforms.

Freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law "are a way of life and universal values cherished by people around the world," the statement said.

The MAC noted that China has recently proposed a "people-centred" development view and has vowed to maintain social justice and protect human rights.

China's efforts in recent years to fight corruption and promote legal and institutional reforms show that it is beginning to respond to the demands of young people who participated in the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, it added.

"We hope that mainland China will ... continue to build a more open, fair, just and harmonious society from the institutional side," the statement said.

After weeks of pro-democracy protests in 1989, Chinese tanks and troops opened fire on civilians in Tiananmen Square on June 4, resulting the death of over 3,000.
Ranchi, June 4 : With former Sangh Parivar man Babulal Marandi announcing support for JMM's Rajya Sabha candidate Basant Soren, Jharkhand is seeing another uniting of forces against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The BJP, which rules the state in coalition with the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), is certain to win one of the two Rajya Sabha seats from the state for which polling is scheduled on June 11.

The other it should lose given that Shibu Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), the Congress, and Babulal Marandi's Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Pratantrik (JVM-P) have come together to thwart the BJP's attempt to bag another Rajya Sabha seat despite not having the required number of MLAs.

Announcing his party's support for JMM's Basant Soren on Friday, Marandi said the BJP was encouraging horse trading of legislators by fielding two candidates despite not having the required numbers.

At no cost would he allow the BJP to have its way, he said.

For Marandi, supporting Basant Soren has only been the lesser evil as he has decried JMM supremo and Dumka MP Shibu Soren's attempts to promote his family in politics.

Basant is the youngest son of Shibu Soren and the youngest brother of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren.

The BJP has fielded Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi as one its two candidates; the other is industrialist Mahesh Poddar.

A Rajya Sabha candidate needs a minimum support of 28 legislators to get through.

In the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), comprising the BJP and the AJSU, has a total of 47 MLAs.

So Naqvi is all set to get through. The contest is between Poddar and Soren junior.

After electing Naqvi, the BJP would be left with just 19 votes. So far it has managed to bring in Geeta Koda of the Jai Bharat Samanta Party and Bhanu Pratap Sahi of Navjawan Sangarsh Morcha into its fold.

That takes its support base to 21, still way short of 28.

The JMM, on the other hand, has 19 MLAs, the Congress seven and the JVM-P two. That already adds up to the magical figure of 28, without counting Marxist Co-ordination Committee (MCC) whose sole legislator Arup Chatterjee is also with the opposition.

Enos Ekka, the MLA of the Jharkhand Party who is currently lodged in jail, and Kushwaha Shivpujan Mehta, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator, have yet to take a call on whom to support.

The lone CPI(ML) legislator Rajkumar Yadav is likely to continue with his party's tradition of abstaining from Rajya Sabha polls.

Marandi also said on Friday that his party has petitioned the Jharkhand High Court urging that the Rajya Sabha polls should not be allowed until the assembly speaker takes a decision about the defection last year of six JVM-P MLAs to the BJP.

The hearing on the matter was scheduled on Saturday, but has been put off to June 8.
Herat (Afghanistan), June 4 : After inaugurating the Salma Dam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday visited the Indian consulate in Herat in western Afghanistan where he interacted with the consular staff.

"Meeting the men who make our friendship work. PM visits Indian consulate in Herat, interacts with personnel," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

The consulate was attacked in May 2014 by four heavily-armed terrorists. No one in the consulate staff was injured and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel and Afghan security forces killed all four attackers.

In January this year, a car with explosives was found near the Indian consulate in Herat and a man was detained. The vehicle was searched and seized after it was found abandoned near the consulate with a punctured wheel, hinting that was not meant for the consulate.

Earlier in the day, Modi, along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, that was rebuilt with India's aid.

The Prime Minister arrived in Herat on Saturday on the first-leg of his five-nation tour that will also take him to Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico.

He will leave for Doha, Qatar, later on Saturday.
Brussels, June 4 : A baby panda born in Belgium on June 2 will remain at the Pairi Daiza animal park for four years before returning to China, park spokeswoman Aleksandra Vidanovski said on Saturday.

"The baby panda which Hao Hao gave birth to will remain for four years, the time to reach adulthood before leaving -- as China remains the animal's owner," Xinhua quoted her as saying.

She said the park will consult with China on what the panda should be called, adding, "We are not in a rush (to choose a name) -- for now the most important thing is to ensure the baby's survival."

According to the Belgian press, it could be 100 days before the panda's name will be made public, in keeping with Chinese tradition, allowing enough time to ensure the baby is healthy.

Pairi Daiza animal park manager and main shareholder Eric Domb said: "All I can tell you is that it will be a Chinese name and it will evoke something poetic."

Hao Hao gave birth to her baby, weighing 171 grams, in Pairi Daiza. A panda birth is an extremely rare event in Europe -- and Belgium is the third European country to have succeeded, with the help of Chinese experts. There are fewer than 2,000 giant pandas in the world.

The birth was made possible following an artificial insemination performed in February by a Sino-Belgian veterinary team. The sperm belonged to Hao Hao's partner, Xing Hui, who is also on loan from China.
Mumbai, June 4 : Small screen celebs like Anita Hassanandani, Nandish Sandhu, Juhi Parmar and Ruhanika Dhawan made an appearance on Day One of the fourth edition of India Kids Fashion Week (IKFW) here.

Held at Phoenix Market City, the first day of the fashion extravaganza, in association with MAX, also saw creations showcased by MAX, My Little Piggy, Mini Me, Varsha Showering Trends, Kirti Rathore, 612 League, AZ Couture and GAP Kids.

Anita graced the ramp with children for the brand Varsha Showering Trends, which showcased an exquisite display of the culture of Rajasthan through its collection, read a statement.

Payal Ashar's collection My Little Piggy saw children and their mothers walking the ramp. Ruhanika was the showstopper for the brand, and she wore a flowing white gown.

Children's clothing brand Mini Me by Vandana Vinod introduced four themes -- Fire Flies, Desi Pop, Flower Power and Glam Mini girls. Actress Nausheen Ali Sardar sizzled on the ramp in a purple gown.

Like last year at IKFW, designer Kirti Rathore's love for the desert state of India was evident at this edition too. From playful embroideries to a riot of colours the Rajasthani-inspired collection, the designer gave a lot of attention to the detailing of favourite pom-pom laces on the edges and made use of creative handmade spiral cloth buttons.

Serbian model Natasa Stankovic and Nandish graced the ramp in Rathore's collections.

The show started off with apparel brand MAX showcasing some cool summer wear, based on the theme 'Save the Environment'. The inspiration for the collection was derived from surfing, street skating, varsity and cityscape. As for boys, The Jungle Book inspired tees were a special release at the ramp show.

"Bajrangi Bhaijaan" child artist Harshaali Malhotra was the showstopper for children's clothing brand 612 League. She walked the ramp in a pink and white gown.

Celebrating native American creativity as well as exhibiting fashion with the fact of native culture's existence was AZ Couture. All the garments were designed with a twist and new materials. Ace choreographer Ahmed Khan looked dapper as he walked the ramp with his two children.

The finale of the evening was a show by GAP Kids. Juhi walked the ramp along with her daughter. The Summer 2016 collection by the brand highlighted optimistic American style, highly inspired by beach culture.

"This edition, we saw brands and designers come up with out-of-the ordinary concepts. The designers put their best foot forward by showcasing fresh and creative collections and their presentation caught the eye of buyers and celebs alike," Manoj Mahla, director, Craftworld Events, said in a statement.

Deepak Choudhary, director and CEO, Event Capital, said that he expects to "make this event the most splendid celebration of kids' fashion in India".

Day Two of the event will see brands such as Samta and Shruti Studio, Free Sparrow Kids, Many Frocks, Nauti Nati, Lil Angels, The Children's Place and designer Sharad Raghav showcase their collections.
The competition authorities in Finland have granted their approval concerning the sale of 49.9 percent of the shares of the Finnish defense company Patria Oyj, fully owned by the State of Finland to Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS. The total value of the transaction is EUR 283.5 million. The State of Finland now owns 50.1 percent of Patria Oyj. The transaction will support Patrias operations in the international market and open opportunities especially in maintenance business, systems deliveries and production of aerospace components.

The decision comes two years after the previous commercial owner  the Airbus group, decided to divest its minority stake in the company. Airbus owned 26.8 percent in Patria and sold its entire stake to the Finnish government.

We at Patria are very pleased with the new minority owner and strategic partner. This is opening new opportunities for the development of our operations and surely for its part also affecting the future strategic choices. Additionally it will strengthen Patrias position as a significant player in the Nordic and the leading defence company in Finland. Patria will also in the future be an essential part of the Finnish defence industry and security of supply, says Heikki Allonen, President and CEO of Patria.

Kongsberg, listed in the Oslo Stock Exchange, is more than 200 years old company. The majority stockholder is the State of Norway with 50 percent. Patria itself has 50% stake in Nammo, a Norwegian defense company specialized in ammunition and rocket propulsion. The state of Norway is the other shareholder of Nammo.

Patria, Kongsberg and the Norwegian Nammo, which is producing ammunition and rocket motors and equally owned by Patria and the State of Norway, will together form a leading Nordic entity in its field.
Gurgaon, June 4 : Three men in an inebriated condition were arrested in the early hours of Saturday for creating a nuisance and indulging in a brawl on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon (MG) road, near the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway, police said.

The arrested were identified as Udit Kumar, Pradeep and Raman.

They were arrested under section 160 of the Indian Penal Code (For committing affray - group fighting in a public place that disturbs the peace).

Udit Kumar hails from Gurgaon's sector 21, Pradeep from Ludhiana's Lodhi Club area and Raman from a colony in Haryana's Sirsa.

A senior police officer said the trio who were friends were creating a nuisance near IFFCO Chowk after they came out of a pub on MG Road around 1.30 in the morning.

The accused were carrying a bottle of wine and consuming it in the open.

A police patrol team arrived at the spot and told the trio to leave the place. However, Pradeep started quarrelling with the policemen.

A while later, more police was called to the spot and Pradeep was taken to Sector 18 police station.

Later, Kumar and Raman also surrendered.
Mumbai, June 4 : Actor Shahid Kapoor, who is a non-smoker in real life, had to shoot extensively with smoke for the title track of his upcoming film "Udta Punjab".

In the video of the song, there is a lot of smoke around Shahid which is just appropriate given the character that he is playing in the film.

It was not usual for Shahid to have so much smoke around but he had no issues doing so for the shoot as his character demanded that.

"Shahid who doesn't smoke, shot the track with only smoke around... It was a tad bit difficult, but Shahid got into the skin of character and finished the song without any hitch," the film's director Abhishek Chaubey said in a statement.

"Udta Punjab" was earlier slated for a June 17 release, but the film's issues with the censor board might push it ahead.

-*-Being sexy to me is being fit, healthy: John Abraham Actor John Abraham, who has flaunted his chiselled body and sculpted abs in the upcoming "Dishoom", says his idea of being sexy is being "fit" and "healthy".

"Being sexy to me is being fit, being healthy and having a strong body," John said at the GQ Best Dressed party here on Thursday.

"For me, fashion is being comfortable in your own skin, own clothes... Wearing something that makes you feel good as opposed to others," he added.

Styled by Tanya Vohra, John kept his fashion quotient casual and edgy and sported a multi-zipper Gaurav Gupta shirt with G-Star denims and Dior slip-ons.
Hyderabad, June 4 : The Andhra Pradesh-Shenzhen joint incubation centre and smart city innovation hub will come up in the coastal city of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, it was announced on Saturday.

A letter of intent for setting up the incubation centre was signed here on Saturday by the state's information technology, electronics and communication department and ZTESoft, a fully owned subsidiary of the ZTE Corporation, a leading Chinese telecom provider.

AP Shenzhen joint incubation centre and smart city innovation hub will be an 85:15 venture between Innovation Society of the Andhra Pradesh government and Qianhai Authority/ZTE Soft. While the state will invest Rs 13.60 crore, ZTESoft will invest Rs 2.40 crore over a period of three years.

Andhra's Information Technology Minister Palle Raghunath Reddy said the incubation centre will generate employment for 670 people directly and 2,500 people indirectly in next three years.

He said that Kakinada, which is one of the top 20 candidate cities announced by the central for development as smart cities, is an ideal location to host the incubation centre and innovation hub.

The centre with world-class technology startup ecosystem will train 600 professionals every year and incubate 94 companies.

ZTE Soft Technology Pvt Ltd and Qianhai Authority have proposed a three-year programme working with Andhra's Innovation Society to establish the talent and support infrastructure.

The centre will also facilitate other Chinese investments in the state. As part of this effort, Andhra would open an extension office in the Qianhai innovation centre.

It will also provide support to raise Rs 1,000 crore investment Afrom the Chinese government towards developing Kakinada vizag corridor as the Shenzhen coastal corridor.

Shenzhen, one of the biggest and most successful industrial zones in the world, contributes almost 20 per cent to the Chinese economy.

Kakinada is Known for rich coastal resources and excellent institutional framework. Chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has expressed his intent to develop Kakinada as 'Shenzhen style' coastal economic zone.
Mumbai, June 4 : After several Bollywood celebrities like Parineeti Chopra, Bhumi Pednekar, Sonakshi Sinha and Zareen Khan chose a healthier lifestyle, actor Kunaal Roy Kapur, who is also seen in a fitter avatar now, says it is the women who are more body-shamed than men.

"I think women receive a lot more flak, body-shaming and abuse than men do. Men get away lot more. In the sense, nobody would be commenting on (their) size...I think it's much harder for women," Kunaal, who is the brother-in-law of actress Vidya Balan and brother of actor Aditya Roy Kapur, told IANS.

The "Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani" actor believes in free speech, but says it's unfair to pass judgement about an actor's talent on the basis of their size.

"You can comment on it and make jokes on it. But the judgement that 'You are not fit to be an actor or an actress because of your size' and I think that is completely ridiculous and unfair," he said.

Kunaal stressed that a "person's talent or acting ability is not anywhere related to their size".

The 37-year-old stresses that the Bollywood industry is very body-conscious.

"But yes, our industry is very body-conscious in that sense especially for women."

Talking about himself, Kunaal says he has never faced any pressure.

"I never had to face that pressure in the sense that people would prefer to see me large, fat and funny...I did this (losing weight) specifically for a role in a movie that is coming up," he said.

The actor shared that he gained 18-20 kgs for the 2011 film "Delhi Belly" and his next made him lose 25-28 kgs.

"I did this because the work demanded it. It was not due to the pressure of the industry. In fact, if I was fatter and bigger I would've got more roles. But then I would've gotten more typecast as the 'fat, funny guy'," said the "Nautanki Saala!" star.

Kunaal will next be seen in "3 Dev" along with actors Kay Kay Menon, Karan Singh Grover and Ravi Dubey.
Damascus, June 4 : The Syrian army on Saturday entered the administrative borders of the northern province of al-Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State (IS) group.

The Syrian army backed by Russian air cover managed to cross the administrative borders of al-Raqqa, just days after unleashing a wide-scale offensive on the route between the town of Athriya in Hama province, and the al-Tabaqa town in al-Raqqa countryside, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Syrian forces are trying to reach the al-Furat lake and the road connecting al-Raqqa with the province of Aleppo, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Only 40 km separate the army from the targeted areas, said the watchdog group.

The fighting, which broke out on Thursday, has so far killed 26 IS militants and security forces.

If the army succeeds, the IS will be besieged by the Syrian army in the south and southwestern parts of Aleppo, while the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) rebels will be besieging the terror group from the west.
Chandigarh, June 4 : The Punjab Police has detained several radical Sikh leaders ahead of the 32nd anniversary of 'Operation Bluestar', the Army's action on Amritsar's Golden Temple complex in June 1984 to flush out armed extremists, police officials said on Saturday.

The detention of the hardliners leaders has been done as a preventive measure ahead of the Bluestar anniversary on (Monday) June 6.

Most of the radical leaders have been taken into custody in the past 24 hours, a senior police officer told IANS here.

In Ludhiana, hardliner Sikh leaders Daljit Singh Bittu, Manvinder Singh Giaspura and Jaswant Singh Cheema were detained.

Radical leader Dhian Singh Mand, who was last year appointed as interim jathedar (chief) of the Akal Takht by Sikh hardliners at a congregation near Amritsar, was also taken into custody by Amritsar police on Thursday.

Mand was detained to prevent him from reaching the Akal Takht, which is situated inside the Golden Temple complex, to address people during functions to mark the Operation Bluestar anniversary.

In Bathinda, the police detained hardline leader Gurdip Singh and Hardeep Mehraj.

Radical Sikh organization Dal Khalsa has called for an 'Amritsar Bandh' on Monday.
Sydney, June 4 : Australian authorities seized two Vietnamese fishing vessels and detained 30 crew members for allegedly fishing illegally in the country's waters.

The vessels, apprehended in an Australian marine reserve 600 km northeast of Cairns in Queensland State are now being escorted back to the Australian mainland for further investigation, the Australian Border Force (ABF) said on Saturday.

Authorities apprehended the vessels on Thursday after they were spotted by surveillance aircraft, the statement said.

The ABF alleged the vessels contained diving gear to support 10 divers in the water at once, and contained six tonnes of sea cucumber believed to have been caught illegally.

The Australian authorities said the apprehension of foreign fishing vessels operating illegally in Australian waters is paramount for the sustainability and economic health of the nation's fishing resources.

"Australia's fisheries are some of the best managed in the world and as such they are the target of illegal fishers," Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) general manager for fisheries operations Peter Venslovas said.

The apprehension follows two other fishing vessels being seized in April, one in the Torres Strait suspected of fishing for sea cucumber, and another in Western Australia state suspected of fishing for shark fin.

Last month four Indonesian sailors were convicted for illegally fishing for shark fin in Australian waters.

The fishermen were fined 19,200 Australian dollars ($14,131) and their vessel was destroyed.
Berlin, June 4 : At least 51 persons were injured when lightning struck at a rock festival in western Germany on Saturday, police said.

Organisers of the Rock am Ring festival, which is headlined by US rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, said lightning hit at 12.30 a.m., BBC reported.

Police told German media two people had to be resuscitated.

Central Europe has been hit by severe storms and rain over the past few weeks, leading to 11 deaths in Germany.

The festival also suffered lightning strikes last year, when 33 people were taken to hospital.

The organisers of Rock am Ring, now in its 31st year, said this year's event would continue, and that clear weather was expected later on Saturday.

Some 45,000 people are expected to attend over the course of the weekend.
Moscow, June 4 : The Russian military command in Syria on Saturday condemned new offensives by the jihadi group Nusra Front against Syrian regime forces in the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib and Latakia.

The jihadis used heavy weapons, including missile launchers, armoured vehicles and mortars, against the positions of the Syrian army and managed to gain control of two small towns in Latakia, Efe news reported.

The spokesperson for the Russian command at the province's Hmeimim base said the terrorists launched two offensives against the positions of government forces in northeast Latakia.

In Aleppo, the Nusra Front attacked neighbourhoods controlled by forces loyal to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and the airport, where fighting has intensified in recent weeks.

Elsewhere, some 1,000 jihadis concentrated in Idlib with batteries of missiles and large-calibre machine guns to launch an attack against the army.

According to the official, the terrorists, of whom 200 combatants have crossed the border from Turkey, also attacked populated areas in the provinces of Damascus, Homs and Hama.

The Russian spokesperson also reported that the Free Syrian Army may coordinate operations with the Islamic State to curb the offensive of Kurdish militias on Aleppo.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently warned that the opposition armed groups, which have not joined the truce, will be legitimate targets for Russian air power irrespective of whether they are included in the international terrorism list.
New Delhi, June 4 : The Population Foundation of India (PFI) on Saturday urged the government to increase its budget for family planning if it wanted to meet its 'FP2020' pledge of covering 48 million new users.

'FP2020' is an outcome of the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning where more than 20 governments made commitments to address the barriers in access to contraceptives.

According to PFI, India would need to spend about Rs 15,800 crore, if not more, during 2013-2020 to meet its commitment of providing additional family planning services through public-funded providers.

"Any delay in doing so or any gap that may result cost the country dear in terms of high maternal and infant mortality and morbidity, and poor child health resulting from poorly spaced pregnancies," a PFI statement said.

"In line with a rights-based perspective and an empowerment approach, women need to be able to have the right to determine the number of children they wish to have."

The states that need a greater focus and commitment are Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand as well as Assam and Himachal Pradesh.

"The study notes that family planning, which is almost fully funded by the central government, has received very little attention from it as compared with other health programmes," the statement said.

Family Welfare, which includes the budget for family planning, constituted only four per cent of the 2014-15 health and family welfare budget, it said, That budget included central procurement of contraceptives, the funding of social marketing projects, national level IEC (information, education and communication) and premium for Family Planning Insurance (for compensation against contraceptive failures).

The PFI said that though the allocation for family planning increased by 47 per cent under the National Health Mission, it still fell short of the required amount. Under the family welfare budget, the allocation saw a sharp decline of 54 per cent during the same period.

"As contraceptives and IEC activities are covered by this budget, the decline is extremely worrying," said the statement.

At FP2020, India had committed to reaching 48 million new users in addition to sustaining the existing 100 million users of family planning. The focus was to shift to spacing instead of limiting methods to meet the needs of India's young population reaching its reproductive years.
Three-hundred kids, organized into 30 groups and all done up as frontier characters, congregated on the bright, wide streets of Lebanon on Friday afternoon, waiting to walk in the Junior Parade for the 107th Strawberry Festival.

The theme this year was "Strawberry Frontier," which could be an album name from 1967, but in fact lent itself to the region's frontier heritage. As such, kids dressed as prairie women, Native Americans, mountain men, cowboys and dancing girls, gathered around floats decorated as covered wagons, mountain cabins, and trains.

Junior Parade Chair Amanda McBeth worked with fellow volunteers under a canopy to register all the participants, which not only included the groups but kids with decorated bikes, the Lebanon High school Junior ROTC, and marching bands from both Seven Oaks Middle School and Lebanon High School.

Out front the parade's Grand Marshal, Lebanon Police Dog Gus, sat among the Lebanon Bulbs, which stands for Building Up Learning and Behavior. The Bulbs are recognized for outstanding behavior at their schools. They will carry the main banners for the Grand Parade on Saturday.

Despite the heat, Lebanon residents lined the parade route, waiting for the start. Quietly, three girls dressed in round, fabric strawberry costumes, wandered over to the starting area, as a community prepared to honor a tradition older than a century.

Once the parade was underway, the rattling, rhythmic, rolling clatter of the drum corps filled the streets. Kids in the procession tossed handfuls of candy, causing mobs of other kids to dart into the road, scooping up the goodies like minnows in a pond. The ROTC group performed close order drill, shouting proud slogans, while cheerleaders waved and tossed through the streets.

And then came the awards. The committee had at least 1,000 participation ribbons on hand, and the queen and princesses for the festival inspected each entry and gave out a Court's Choice and a Queen's Choice awards. The Queen's choice went to the float called The Great Strawberry Robbery, while the Court's Choice went to the McQuistan Family float.
Kottayam, June 04 : Prathichchaya, the mouthepiece of the Kerala Congress (Mani) [KC-M], in its editorial article on Saturday effusively praised Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, calling the latter a richly experienced and mature leader.

The editorial also gushed about the CPI-M strongmans start to his Chief Ministerial stint.

The article commended Pinarayi for having called on outgoing Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, and former Opposition leader and CPI-M veteran V S Achuthanandan at their official residences prior to assuming office.

Pinarayis greeting BJP legislator O Rajagopal, who called on him at AKG Centre in the capital, and his decision to call on K R Gowri at her residence, and to visit the bereaved kin of legendary poet O N V Kurup also came in for praise in the editorial.

All the initiatives taken by the new government for the welfare of the people would receive full backing, the article said.

Alluding to the internecine violence being unleashed by the CPI-M and the BJP post elections, the mouthpiece also called for putting an end to political murders.

Sharing concern over the spate of political murders being perpetrated in north Kerala, the editorial expressed the hope that a magnanimous Pinarayi Vijayan would be able to find a solution to end political violence.

On the United Democratic Fronts chastening defeat in the assembly polls, the article said that such controversies as the bar bribery scam, the solar scam, and the Methran Kayal row contributed to the heavy defeat.

Stating that allegations faced by the UDF government alienated the public, the article added there were resentment even among the Congress leadership in the State over many of the decisions taken by the previous UDF cabinet.
Imphal, June 4 : The Manipur Police acted illegally in declaring anti-migrant campaigner Khomdram Ratan an "absconder" within hours of a supposedly incriminating picture appearing and when it could easily have arrested him, lawyers here said.

"It's bizarre. While the police were issuing the public notice declaring him an absconder, he was very much in office addressing reporters and attending to official work. Where's the question of absconding," Khaidem Mani, a high court lawyer and former president of the All Manipur Bar Association, told IANS.

He said Ratan has been booked as a criminal on the basis of a Facebook photograph which is a "mockery of law".

The picture, which went viral on Wednesday, purportedly shows Ratan taking an oath of allegiance with the flag of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), a banned insurgent group that has been fighting for an "independent" Manipur.

Ratan, who has been the convener of the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS), said on Friday that the picture was doctored and was meant to sabotage the movement for enactment of a constitutional safeguard for protection of the indigenous people of Manipur.

He said he never took part in any gathering where he held the UNLF's flag and pledged allegiance to the outfit.

Ratan also resigned on Friday as the convener of JCILPS which has been demanding the enactment of three anti-migrant bills passed by the Manipur Assembly on August 31, 2015.

The police not only declared Ratan an absconder, but also announced a reward of Rs five lakh for information leading to his arrest.

Retired IPS officer and now high court lawyer Ahanthem Romenkumar said a Facebook picture cannot be the basis of filing a first information report (FIR).

"The Karnataka high court had quashed an FIR based on a Facebook photograph since the veracity of the picture could not be established," Romenkumar said.

"Besides in case of Ratan, police flouted procedures. At least two attempts should be made to arrest the accused. If they fail, the court should issue a public notice and 3 to 6 months should be given before declaring a person a proclaimed offender."

In Ratan's case the matter was settled within 24 hours even though the accused was not fleeing the law but addressing press conferences, he said.

"This arbitrary and discriminatory step could be challenged in a law court, Romenkumar said.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Khumukcham Joykishan said the police must substantiate the charge against Ratan within seven days or he would launch an agitation.

Many people are of the view that the intention of the government is not to arrest Ratan who is very much around but to deflect the anti-migrant campaign.

The JCILPS has been demanding an inner line permit (ILP) system for Manipur which has been encapsulated in the three anti-migrant bills passed by the Manipur assembly that now await presidential assent.

The ILP is a special permit required to enter certain restricted areas in the country. The system is already in place in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram.
Ranchi, June 4 : The Jharkhand High Court on Saturday sought a written reply from the Election Commission of India regarding the status of six legislators who defected from the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) to the BJP.

According to an informed source, the Jharkhand High Court heard a petition and sought a status report on the JVM-P legislators. Headed by Babulal Marandi, the JVM-P has sought a stay on the June 11 Rajya Sabha poll till the matter related to the defection of these legislators is decided.

A reply to an RTI query revealed that no merger of the JVM-P took place as claimed by the six legislators who defected. In February 2015, six of the eight JVM-P legislators joined the BJP. Two among them became ministers.

The defection case is pending before the Assembly Speaker. The JVM-P has alleged that the case is being delayed only to favour the BJP government in the state.

The next hearing of the case will take place on June 8 in the High Court.
Amritsar, June 4 : The SGPC has marked a probe into an incident in which a senior 'ardasia' (Sikh priest) refused to offer a 'siropa' (traditional religious robe of honour) to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during a visit to the holiest of Sikh shrines 'Harmandar Sahib', a senior SGPC official said here on Saturday.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), left embarrassed by the incident, ordered the transfer of 'ardasia' Balbir Singh to a gurdwara in Machhiwara near Ludhiana.

Balbir Singh had, on Friday, refused to offer the 'siropa' to Badal, 88, when the chief minister went to offer prayers inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple complex.

The priest gave a 'patasha' (traditional sugar-based sweet) to Badal but refused to give him the 'siropa' (saffron cloth), contending he could not do so as none of the miscreants who had desecrated the Sikh holy book, Granth Sahib, in a spate of incidents last year, had been arrested.

Badal, who is the chief patron of Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, which dominates the biggest Sikh religious body SGPC, was left embarrassed. However, he left the sanctum sanctorum after offering prayers.

"We have ordered a probe into the incident. Two ardasias have been transferred to gurdwaras in Ludhiana and Sangrur districts," SGPC additional secretary Daljit Singh Bedi said here.

SGPC sources said that Balbir Singh came on duty inside the sanctum sanctorum ahead of his schedule as another priest, Gurcharan Singh, left early.

The SGPC will probe whether this happened deliberately to embarrass Badal.

Balbir Singh had, in January this year, also refused to offer a siropa to Deputy Chief Minister and Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal. However, no action was taken against him at that time.

"None of the accused who desecrated Guru Granth Sahib last year have been punished till now. My mind was very upset over this issue. That is when I decided that as a sewadar (volunteer) of the shrine, I could not honour (Badal). I have no other issues," Balbir Singh said.

Even after the SGPC ordered his transfer to Machhiwara, Balbir Singh remained defiant.

"I have no intention to go anywhere (after being transferred). I have spent my entire life in the service of the holiest of shrines. I will not go anywhere," he said.

Aam Aadmi Party leader S.S. Chhotepur lauded the act of the priest. "His conscience did not allow him to give the siropa to Badal," he said.

Punjab was on the boil in August-September last year following a series of incidents of desecration of Granth Sahib reported from different parts of the state. The subsequent violence claimed two lives and scores were injured.
Islamabad, June 4 : Pakistan has denied consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested earlier this year.

Pakistani authorities have charged Jadhav with spying and conducting subversive activities in Balochistan province and Karachi city of Pakistan.

"After due consideration, it has been decided not to grant consular access to Jadhav," Dawn online on Saturday quoted a top security source as saying.

The reason behind the decision was cited as Jadhav's involvement in "subversive activities" in Pakistan, the source said.

Pakistani forces had arrested Jadhav from Balochistan province in March this year.

It was said that the retired Indian navy officer was "a serving officer in the Indian Navy and deputed to Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)".

The Indian External Affairs Ministry said Jadhav formerly worked in the Indian Navy and Gautam Bambawale, Indian High commissioner in Islamabad, sought consular access to him.

"The said individual has no link with the government since his premature retirement from Indian Navy. We have sought consular access to him," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said.

The Pakistan army, however, said Jadhav was directly in contact with Anil Kumar Gupta, the joint secretary of RAW.

The source said Pakistan has documentary evidence against Jadhav which will be presented in the UN.

The Pakistani government had recovered travel documents and multiple fake identities from Jadhav, the source said.

The Pakistan government reportedly established the arrested man as an Indian spy who entered into Balochistan through Iran with a valid Iranian visa.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) aired a video of Jadhav in which he confessed to involvement in terror activities in Balochistan and Karachi.

"I am still a serving officer in the Indian Navy and will be due for retirement in 2022," he said in the video.
Bangkok, June 4 : The last batch of a total of 137 tigers from Thailand's Tiger Temple were relocated on Saturday, ending the six-day-long relocation process.

Five suspects including three monks are now charged with illegal wildlife possession.

Thai wildlife officials from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) removed the last batch of nine tigers from the famous tourist site in Kanchanaburi province to a breeding centre in Rachaburi province, Xinhua reported.

The last tiger brought out was a male named Sayfa (thunderbolt), with a weight of 300 kg.

The last batch of tigers are about eight to 12 years old, and the hot weather made the relocation slower, Patrapol Maneeorn, wildlife veterinarian of DNP, said on Friday.

According to the DNP, all 137 tigers are now in two breeding centres in Rachaburi. Those Indochinese tigers that shared the same subspecies with wild tigers living in Thailand will be released in nature habitat later, while Bengal tigers will stay.

Other animals including peacocks, deer and wild boars living in the temple will also be relocated but it will take more time.

Officials have found a lot of items made from tiger, bear and other animals bodies in the raid going on since Monday on the zoo-like temple.

Besides the 40 dead cubs found in a freezer on Wednesday, about 33 jars with tiger cubs and animal organs in them were found on Thursday.

Patrapol said there were about 27 tiger cubs in these jars, adding that the purpose behind it remains to be examined.

He and another official opened one of the jars and formalin could be smelt.

On Thursday, wildlife officials intercepted a monk with two laymen in a truck leaving the temple and confiscated two tiger skins, about 700 amulets made from tiger parts and 10 tiger fangs from the van, reports said.

A lots of amulets made from tiger parts were also found on Friday in a van near the bedroom of the abbot, Phra Sutthi Sarathera, or Luang Ta Chan, who left the temple for Bangkok last Sunday but his whereabouts remain unknown.

Officials also found plastic bottles and labels saying "deer antler velvet supplement".

Since tourists around the world visited the temple it is hard to say where these products were sold to, said Adisorn Noochdumrong, deputy director general of DNP.

Skeletons of an Asian golden cat and a leopard were found on Friday near the bedroom of the abbot, along with stuffed Asian golden cat, leopard and Asian black bear, the media reported.

According to Adisorn, the wildlife department will not revoke the zoo license recently issued to the temple.

But the license may be revoked if anyone from the Luang Ta Bua Foundation, which asked for the license, is found guilty of animal trafficking, said Teunchai Noochdumrong, an official in charge of wildlife protection at DNP.

DNP has talked with Thai police commissioner Chaktip Chaijinda about the case, he said.

"We are tracking on this topic very closely and will check if all wildlife products that were found in the temple are linked to the international wildlife trade or being stored for what purpose," Chaktip said on Friday.

Adisorn said they began to suspect animal trafficking two years ago when news came out that three tigers disappeared from the temple.

DNP said they did not act earlier because the wildlife authority has to think about people's feelings as the abbot and the temple are respected by many.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Saturday asked people to learn from this case.

"The people should tell right from wrong based on facts and truth rather than belief... don't draw the conclusion that every monk or every temple is doing good deeds," he said.
Lucknow, June 4 : Demanding a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe into the Mathura violence, BSP chief Mayawati on Saturday lashed out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, terming him the worst-ever chief minister of the state.

The former chief minister also trained her gun on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his promises of bringing "achhe din".

"There should be either a time-bound judicial probe or Supreme Court monitored CBI probe into the Mathura violence. This is required as the matter is very sensitive and serious in nature," Mayawati said here at a press conference.

Accusing the Akhilesh Yadav government of being insensitive towards the incident, she said: "How serious is the state government that the chief minister is touring Bundelkhand, rather visiting Mathura."

Akhilesh Yadav was an official visit to Mahoba in the Bundelkhand region on Saturday.

"This is the worst ever government in the state and Akhilesh Yadav is the worst ever chief minister," she added.

Describing the BJP as a party of industrialists and of rich people, Mayawati said that the Modi government has failed to deliver on its promises of bringing "achhe din".

"The NDA government has failed to keep its promises made during 2014 Lok Sabha campaign. Forget about 'achhe din', now the 'bure din' (bad days) of government are about to come," she said.

"The BJP is presenting its win in Assam as it has achieved a grand success while the fact is that after loosing elections in Delhi and Bihar the party lost badly in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry," she said.

Raking up the issue of reservation, Mayawati accused the BJP is trying to end reservations for Dalits and backward classes "from the back door".

She also demanded reservation for the minorities and other economically backward class people belonging to other religious minorities.
New Delhi, June 4 : An amount of Rs 26 lakh was recovered during a raid at the house of a former Delhi municipal corporation employee in connection with a case against some civic body officials alleged of issuing fake birth and death certificates, the CBI said on Saturday.

"We recovered Rs 26 lakh and some incriminating documents including birth certificates and stamps from the premises of Shobha Chawla, former Sub-Registrar of the Delhi municipal corporation," said a Central Bureau of Investigation official.

The CBI had earlier carried out a surprise check at the office of North MCD's Civil Lines zone on allegations that fake birth and death certificates were being issued by certain officials in collusion with private touts.

During the check, a large number of certificates were found to have been issued by the officials on the strength of fake orders purportedly issued from two sub-divisional magistrates offices in Model Town and Civil Lines area on the payment of alleged illegal gratification.

Chawla's role was noticed during the investigation. Consequently, searches were conducted at her houses in south Delhi's Padma Nagar and Sangam Vihar area, the official said.

The CBI had registered a case on June 22 last year.
Doha, June 4 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday told Indian workers in Qatar that the monsoon this year will be good for India.

"Maybe none of you know me. But you must be feeling good that somebody has come from India to meet you," said a smiling Modi as he addressed a gathering of workers dressed in bright yellow uniforms at a free medical camp organised by the Indian Community Benevolent Fund (ICBF) and the Indian Doctors Community (IDC) in this Gulf nation.

"I have good news for you. This year the monsoon will be good in India," he said.

Modi's visit - in the second leg of his five nation tour after Afghanistan - is the first to Qatar by an Indian Prime Minister since Manmohan Singh in 2008.

Of the around 630,000 expatriate Indians in Qatar, many are blue collar workers.

Modi will be hosted for dinner by Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al Thani on Saturday evening.

On Sunday, he will begin his engagements in Qatar with a meeting with business leaders following which he will hold a restricted meeting with Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.

After Qatar, Modi will go to Switzerland, the US and Mexico.
Singapore, June 4 : Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday that terrorism remains the formost challenge in the Indo-Pacific region and there was need to "delegitimise" it as an instrument of state policy.

Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue here, he, in a reference to the South China Sea, said that India firmly believed in freedom of navigation and overflights in accordance with international law.

"Terrorism remains the foremost challenge to our region. Networks of radicalism and terrorism as well as their support structures in the region and beyond continue to pose a threat to all peace-loving societies," Parrikar said.

"We need to oppose terrorism resolutely everywhere, delegitimise it as an instrument of state policy and cooperate unreservedly to locate, thwart and destroy terrorist networks. The security frameworks in our region still do not give enough attention to terrorism. This must change," he said.

The Defence Minister stressed the need to peacefully resolve the claims over South China sea.

"We have traditional links with the countries in the South China Sea. More than half our trade passes through its waters.

"While we do not take a position on territorial disputes, which should be resolved peacefully without the threat or use of force, we firmly uphold freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, in particular the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea," he said.

China's expansive claims over South China Sea, contested and mirrored by the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan have triggered concerns globally, with the US sending its naval warships in the disputed waters.

Parrikar also said that trends in the region suggests that countries in the Asia-Pacific are spending more on defence but there was no "definitive conclusion" about this presaging a "military competition".

"If you look at recent figures, Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines and Vietnam, all appear to be spending more on military capabilities. A closer look suggests the picture is more complex.

"In some cases, there is a catching-up happening after years of neglect of capital expenditure in defence. In other cases, there are new challenges and new roles for the armed forces.

"I believe that we cannot reach a definitive conclusion that we are witnessing emerging military competition in the region based on figures of military expenditure," he said.
LEBANON  Corvallis resident Sea-oh McConville, 34, will take more than a freshly printed medical diploma with her as she begins a residency program in family medicine at St. John Medical Center in Westlake, Ohio.

Shes also going to take a new husband along for the adventure  fellow College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific-Northwest graduate Dr. Tyler Andrea, from Kenosha, Wisconsin.

McConville took a year off after graduating from Oregon State University with degrees in biology and chemistry, and then applied to a half-dozen medical colleges around the country.

But as soon as she met Dr. Paul Aversano, associate professor of internal medicine at COMP-Northwest, she knew it was the school for her.

It immediately felt like home, McConville said Friday morning as she and 104 other members of the Class of 2016 began lining up for the schools second annual commencement program on the Samaritan Health Sciences campus.

McConvilles instincts were spot on about the school and her classmate. She and Andrea, 29, will be married today in Walton, Oregon.

We rented an entire summer camp, McConville said with a broad grin.

Andrea said he will miss the Pacific Northwest, which reminds him a lot of Wisconsin.

I drove 36 hours from Wisconsin and ended up in Wild Rose, Wisconsin, only with a better view, he said. The Pacific Northwest has definitely won my heart.

To round out their hectic weekend, the couple also closed on the purchase of a new home in Ohio, where she has a residency in family medicine and he has a residency in internal medicine at Case Western Reserve University Hospitals.

Dr. Richard Bond, chairman of Western Universitys board of trustees and of 31 members of its first graduating class in 1982, said this years class is composed of 65 men and 40 women, whose average age is 30.

About 65 percent of the class are from states in the Pacific Northwest, and 25 of them will complete their residencies in Oregon and Washington.

Several were greeted by spouses and children after receiving their diplomas.

They have varied and interesting backgrounds, Bond said. One was a firefighter, one an interior designer, a musician and a former police officer. They become part of 13,437 graduates from Western University programs.

He encouraged the graduates to be lifelong learners and to make certain that humanism is always the focus of your actions.

COMP-Northwest Dean Dr. Paula Crone and interim president Gary Gugelchuk presented Lori Sobelson, director of corporate outreach for Bobs Red Mill Natural Foods, with an honorary diploma for her lifelong commitment to nutrition and healthy living for all.

Sobelson also was the keynote speaker and encouraged the new doctors to develop long-term relationships with their patients.

Sobelson said the doctors can learn much from the 4-H motto, which stands for head, heart, hands and health.

She encouraged them to use their head to think about their patients needs and to do that they need to truly listen to their concerns.

Your heart offers compassion, empathy for them, she said. It helps you build rapport, a trusting relationship with them.

A doctors hands provide a patient with relief, and a gentle touch conveys much information without having to utter a word, she said.

And of course, the ideal is good health, from pre-natal nutrition all the way through life.

Nutrition is without doubt a key to lifelong health, she said. We must shift our focus to disease prevention from disease treatment. We must reduce the number of people who are sick or our health care system will be overwhelmed.

Crone also presented Dr. Ethan Allen with a Distinguished Service Award for his 64 years of service to osteopathic medicine. Allen is a founding member of the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Board of Trustees in 1977. The 92-year-old practiced medicine in Southern California for more than six decades. He continues to serve on the Western University of Health Sciences board as treasurer.

He has led a life of service, dedication and leadership, Crone said.

Corvallis resident Erin Guiliano predicted she was going to cry during commencement, but the single mother of four sported a broad smile as she hugged Dean Crone and shook hands with President Gugelchuk upon receiving her diploma.

Way to go Erin!, someone in the audience yelled as she crossed the stage to receive her hood from family members.

Hoods are loops of cloth that are hung around ones neck to signify academic disciplines and achievements. They are of different colors to represent ones academic specialty. The color for medicine is Kelly green.

Guiliano, a Medford native, is one of four members of the Class of 16 who will begin residency programs with Samaritan Health Services. She will be working in family medicine at the Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.

Fellow graduates who will remain in the mid-valley are: Cristina Capannolo, family medicine; Ian Ledford, internal medicine; Eric Vinceslio, family medicine.

Several others will be working in Oregon and Washington.

Dr. Crone told the graduates she watched them change as they met the challenges set before them, year after year, building layers of knowledge and confidence.

You changed because you became a part of something bigger than yourself, Crone said. You learned to think differently and that you cant control every moment. You were taught by working with real, live patients.

Crone challenged her fellow doctors to Never forget those who helped get you here. You are about to change the world because of the education you have received. Someone is going to find the cure for cancer. Why not one of you?

She also reminded them as they were about to scatter around the country, You will always have a home here.
Doha, June 4 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday assured Indian workers in the Gulf countries all help from the Indian government while advising them to keep working hard though also taking care of their health.

"Maybe none of you know me. But you must be feeling good that somebody has come from India to meet you," said a smiling Modi as he addressed a gathering of workers dressed in bright yellow uniforms at a free medical camp organised by the Indian Community Benevolent Fund (ICBF) and the Indian Doctors Community (IDC) in this Gulf nation.

"My first programme here in Doha is meeting you," he said.

Modi said that he looked into the things and changes the workers wished for as they worked here.

"I will work to my best extent to help you," he said.

Modi also said that India was looking at a good monsoon this year.

"I have good news for you. This year the monsoon will be good in India," he said.

The prime minister also voiced concern over the health of the Indian blue collar workers in the region.

"I was inquiring about major health problems of workers; proper counselling, diabetes are major challenges," he said.

Following his address, Modi, dressed in a white pyjama kurta and his trademark half jacket in grey, walked around the venue speaking to the workers.

As one worker stood up to offer his seat, the Prime Minister patted him on his shoulder, sat down beside him and opened a food basket.

In April this year too, Modi had broken bread with Indian blue collar workers in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh.

Modi's visit - in the second leg of his five nation tour after Afghanistan - is the first to Qatar by an Indian Prime Minister since Manmohan Singh in 2008.

Of the around 630,000 expatriate Indians in Qatar, many are blue collar workers.

Modi will be hosted for dinner by Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al Thani on Saturday evening.

On Sunday, he will begin his engagements in Qatar with a meeting with business leaders following which he will hold a restricted meeting with Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.

After Qatar, Modi will go to Switzerland, the US and Mexico.
Cape Town, June 5 : The US Diplomatic Mission to South Africa on Saturday issued a terror warning to US citizens in South Africa.

The US government has received information that terrorist groups are planning to carry out near-term attacks against places where US citizens congregate in South Africa, such as upscale shopping areas and malls in Johannesburg and Cape Town, the mission said, according to Xinhua news agency.

"This information comes against the backdrop of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's public call for its adherents to carry out terrorist attacks globally during the upcoming month of Ramadan," said the mission.
Cape Town, June 5 : The US Diplomatic Mission to South Africa on Saturday issued a terror warning to US citizens in South Africa.

The US government has received information that terrorist groups are planning to carry out near-term attacks against places where US citizens congregate in South Africa, such as upscale shopping areas and malls in Johannesburg and Cape Town, the mission said.

"This information comes against the backdrop of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's public call for its adherents to carry out terrorist attacks globally during the upcoming month of Ramadan," the mission said without giving further details, Xinhua reported.

The South African authorities have not responded to the warning. A call to the state security agency went unanswered.

The US issued a similar alert in September last year, saying it had received information that extremists may be targeting US interests in the country.

The warning put South Africa on alert, but Security Minister David Mahlobo said then that there was no need to panic as its information from the ground was that there was no imminent danger or threat being posed by any terrorist group to South Africa.

Fears for terror attacks on Western targets in South Africa have existed for some time. There have been reports that "White Widow" Samantha Lewthwaite was seen spying on Western embassies in South Africa before she allegedly masterminded the West Gate shopping mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya in 2013.

The 31-year-old Briton is known to have been in South Africa between 2008 and 2011, travelling under the assumed name Natalie Faye Webb on a fraudulently obtained South African passport.

In January and February 2013, she was allegedly caught on CCTV cameras watching embassies in the Arcadia area of Pretoria, including the British High Commission.

Arcadia is home to the Union Buildings and South African president's official residence, in addition to the US embassy and many other foreign embassies.
An excessive heat warning remains in effect for the mid-valley and much of northwest Oregon through 10 p.m. Sunday.

The National Weather Service office in Portland, in a statement that was updated Saturday morning, said that Saturday's high temperatures could range from 95 to 101 but would be a little bit cooler, 85 to 95, in the Coast Range and Cascades foothills.

Low temperatures tonight will mostly be in the upper 50s to middle 60s.

Forecasters warned that the hot weather "will create stress for anyone outdoors and involved in physical activity as well as those not acclimated to the heat, the elderly and the infirm.

Hot weather also attracts people to water, but forecasters noted that rivers and lakes are still fed by snowmelt at this time of the year and may be chilly. Hypothermia is a danger is water that is cold, even in hot weather. "Be safe when you cool off,' the statement warned, "but don't go in over your head. Even strong swimmers are susceptible to the effects of cold water."

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. Reschedule strenuous activities to the early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose-fitting clothing when possible and drink plenty of water.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency; call 911.

Young children and pets should not left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. In warm or hot weather, car interiors can reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes.

Here are your updated local forecasts:

Albany

Saturday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 99. North wind 5 to 7 mph. Saturday night: Mostly clear, with a low around 60. North northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light in the evening. Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 91. Southwest wind 3 to 5 mph.

Corvallis

Saturday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 99. North wind 3 to 8 mph. Saturday night: Mostly clear, with a low around 60. North northwest wind 5 to 8 mph. Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 88. Southwest wind 3 to 6 mph.

Lebanon

Saturday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 98. Calm wind becoming north northwest around 6 mph in the afternoon. Saturday night: Mostly clear, with a low around 60. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm in the evening. Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 91. Light and variable wind becoming west around 6 mph in the morning.
The states most recent economic and revenue forecast, issued Friday, paints a generally sunny picture. In the words of the forecast itself, Oregon continues to see full-throttle rates of growth.  The states economy is quickly approaching full employment, or a healthy labor market. Such a milestone has not been seen since 2000.

That is good news, and so is this nugget, also drawn from the forecast: General fund revenues for the state continue to track close to expectations to date, and the outlook for revenue for the 2017-19 budget cycle has improved somewhat.

Its worth noting, however, that the state economists who prepared this report caution that Oregons economic expansion is not sustainable indefinitely. In fact, long-term, the report says, demographic changes (most notably, baby boomers working less) will inevitably put the brakes on revenue growth.

There is another nugget from the report thats worth considering, and this one isnt as sunny: The economists concluded that the states new minimum-wage law, passed during the Legislatures 2016 short session, will cost the state some 40,000 jobs over the next decade.

Now, a couple of caveats are worth noting: The economists arent predicting outright job losses. Its just that they figure the increase in the states minimum wage, which rolls out beginning in July and continues through 2022, will result in 40,000 fewer jobs by 2025 than would have been the case without the legislation.

It is true, as some legislators noted on Friday, that those 40,000 jobs represent just a fraction of the Oregon economy.

But the report offers a strong suggestion that the lost jobs likely will come from among positions that used to go to lower-wage workers. Heres the language from the report itself: Low-wage workers receiving raises in the near term boost incomes. Over time, however, employers will adjust by increasing worker productivity, possibly via capital for labor substitutions.

Let us put a little finer point on this: The report suggests that the states increase in the minimum wage likely will eliminate some of the jobs that might have been available to the very same low-wage workers this measure was intended to help.

Still to be determined is how the minimum-wage increase will play out in Oregons rural areas. We know that Oregons economic recovery has tended to boost the states urban communities more than its rural areas. And while its true that 40,000 jobs represent just a fraction of the states total workforce, if those lost jobs primarily would have benefited rural areas, the impact there might be significant, even if the losses are something that urban areas can shrug off.

Legislative leaders such as Tina Kotek, the speaker of the House, and Sen. Ginny Burdick of Portland already have suggested that they want to work in next years session to fine-tune the wage increase, which was passed in haste during the 2016 gathering. Among their goals is revisiting the issue of creating a lower wage for younger workers and also looking at how to protect businesses along Oregons border with Idaho, where wages in 2022 will be $5 an hour higher than just across the border. That sort of attention would be welcome, but somewhat surprising, considering how legislators (and state officials) have discounted the states rural areas and economies in recent sessions.

Legislators and other state officials also should remember this: Its taken the state more than 15 years to bounce back from recession. Their actions in the future could help sustain the recovery  or could work to short-circuit it. (mm)
Archive Dive

Self-Publishing a Century Ago

Self-publishing is hardly a new idea, as evidenced by an editorial we published 100 years ago. The piece addresses the question of whether the bookseller should be advised [by the publisher] when a work is an authors book, i.e., a book published in whole or largely at the authors expense. What it also reveals, however, is how common it was then for traditional publishers to publish subvented titles in addition to wholly publisher-funded ones, something that rarely happens now in mainstream publishing.

The practice of allowing the author to pay in whole or in part for the publication of his manuscript is by no means confined to certain of the smaller and less-known publishing houses. All publishers, unless we are much mistaken, have authors books on their lists. There is nothing underhanded in their publication, for of certain books the reputable publisher says quite frankly, These books are not of such a nature as to make a wide appeal, and consequently, however worthy they may be, we cannot afford to publish them without the authors assistance.  From Authors Books, The Publishers Weekly, June 3, 1916

From the Newsletters

Tip Sheet

Alexis M. Smith, author of the novel Marrow Island (HMH), explores the treatment of women in the wilderness in literature.

Childrens Bookshelf

How two authors who started a $40,000 Kickstarter campaign to fund the publication of their childrens book, Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, ended up raising $675,000.

PW Daily

Sign up for PW Daily and get every days publishing news delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign up for these and other great, free newsletters.

For the third week running, the most-read review on publishersweekly.com last week was The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley (HMH).

Blogs

More great moments in epigraph history, and a look back at some recent conversation-starting pieces weve run on how romance covers get made, funny books, and more.

ShelfTalker

Introducing the June Book Blast Challenge: reading 30 books in 30 days.

Podcasts

Week Ahead

PW senior writer Andrew Albanese on two recent surveys that suggest library spending may be stabilizing.

More to Come

The More to Come crew on DC Comics latest superhero relaunch; the uproar over a new Captain America plot; Louise Simonson, pioneering female comics writer; and Comixology Unlimited, a new digital comics subscription service.

PW Radio

Popular science author Mary Roach discusses her new book, Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War (Norton). PW bookselling editor Judith Rosen previews this years Childrens Institute.
Since e-books became a crucial source of revenue for publishers six years ago, the royalty rate on the format has been an ongoing bone of contention between authors (and their agents) and publishers. While authors and agents have stood firm on their position that the standard rate of 25% (which refers to the percentage of net sales authors receive on e-books sold) must change, publishers havent budged. must change, publishers havent budged. Could a flat royalty system, in which one rate is used across formats, be a solution? Though some industry members believe a single rate could simplify a complicated royalty structure, agents said the move wouldnt address the real problem: authors being shortchanged on the profits from their e-books.

The idea for a flat royalty rate came up during a panel at last months BookExpo America in Chicago. The panel was moderated by Mary Rasenberger, the Authors Guilds executive director, and focused on changes to standard publishing contracts that could make them more equitable to authors. During the session Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch, when asked about the possibility of doubling the current e-book royalty rate to 50%, said there could be alternative ways to see to it that authors get a bigger slice of the profits. One possibility he offered was to come up with a flat royalty that could be used across formats.

Currently, each of the major formats a publisher usually acquireshardcover, trade paperback, e-book, and mass marketcarries a different royalty rate. The standard publishing contact stipulates that these rates begin at a certain percentage and then go up as sales of the book increase. So, for example, the standard royalty rate for hardcovers is 10% on the first 5,000 copies sold, then 12.5% on the next 10,000 copies sold, and 15% thereafter. Similar escalators are built into the rates for trade paperbacks and mass markets, with trade paperbacks starting at a rate of 6%7% and mass markets starting at a rate of 8%.

The reason different rates were created for different formats, as a number of agents explained, was to address the different costs publishers took on in creating each format. The royalty on hardcover books levels out at 15%, the agents said, because this figure was intended to deliver a 50-50 split of the profits for the author and publisher.

Because the standard print royalty rates were set up so that authors and publishers ultimately hit a point where the profits would be shared equally, agents and the Authors Guild have consistently said the e-book royalty rate is unfair. Many agents claim the 25% figure, created before e-books became such a large slice of the market, is essentially an arbitrary one. And, as the agent-Guild argument goes, because e-book manufacturing costs are low, the royalty split should reflect those lower costs.

Pietsch told PW he believes moving to a flat-rate royalty system for the life of a book is worth discussing as a way to relieve the confusion that crops up with the current system. He said HBG is willing to continue to talk to the Guild about different proposals and that if HBG comes up with something that makes senses for both sides he would talk to agents on a case-by-case basis about the publishers thinking.

Agents, for their part, seemed suspicious of the notion. When Im looking for better royalties out there, it often has do with e[-books], said Jennifer Weltz, of the Jean V. Naggar Agency. Thats where the issue is. Adding that she doesnt feel a flat royalty rate would ultimately work to get authors a better payout, Weltz said she would like to see escalators more regularly built into the e-book royalty rate and has already had success achieving this in the international market.

When asked what he thought of the idea of a flat royalty rate across formats, Robert Gottlieb, chairman of Trident Media Group, was more blunt. Im always open to hearing about things that are beneficial to our authors... I just dont generally hear those things from publishers.

Many agents expressed a similar sentiment to Gottliebsthat, essentially, publishers would never propose a single royalty-rate structure unless it benefitted them financially. Because no actual rate has been suggested, most agents presume that whatever number was proposed would not allow their authors to earn more money.

For Rasenberger the idea of a flat royalty rate, at least in theory, is worthwhile. Though she acknowledged that it would only work if the rate was fair to authors, she likes the fact that alternatives to the standard contract are being discussed. In response to literary agents who said no major publisher would ever offer a single royalty rate that brought authors more money than the current standard, Rasenberger said that the goal is to get a conversation going.

We have to fight for what we need, and its much easier to do that if theres one [royalty] rate, she said. She also likes the idea of publishers offering alternative contract options. She mentioned that some smaller publishers are offering higher e-book royalty rates, especially in cases in which authors forgo advances. And she noted that more American publishers do now seem open to the idea of adding escalators into e-book royalty rate. Were not asking publishers to all do the same thing; were asking the opposite.

Ted Weinstein, who has an eponymous agency, said he doesnt see a flat royalty rate as a solution for getting authors a bigger slice of the profits from their books. And although he feels that raising the digital royalty rate to 50% is the right philosophical model, he recognizes that publishers currently have little incentive to make this change. So what might move the needle?

In Weinsteins eyes, there are two scenariosthough he thinks neither is very likely to play out anytime soon. Publishers could find that the high advances theyve been payingusually offered to bestselling authors to keep them in the fold, and to authors who have sought-after new manuscriptsare being regularly miscalculated. In other words, if publishers realize they are spending more money by paying huge advances, as opposed to raising the royalty rate, they could have a change of heart. Another possibility is if a significant number of bestselling authors, unhappy with the current digital royalty rate, start self-publishing or moving to smaller houses.

Correction: An earlier version of this story story said the standard 25% e-book royalty refers to the percentage of net profits authors receive on their e-books sold. It is based on the percentage of net sales.
The Dominican-American novelist and poet Julia Alvarez finds herself in a period of reinvention. Her retirement from teaching, after 28 years at Vermonts Middlebury College, coincides with the end of another personal era. This spring, she made a final visit to her parents home in the Dominican Republic, a bittersweet trip that provided a deep immersion in the past, she says. The house has been sold; the buyer plans to demolish it to make room for new development. Alvarezs father was the youngest in a family of 25 children and the last to go.

When you come from a huge extended family, it feels like a whole generation began dropping off like flies, Alvarez says. Watching and being part of that loss strips you down to the kind of emotion and the kind of questions a child might have.

In her closing keynote at CI 4, Alvarez will talk about how she processed her grief by turning to poetry, resulting in a new picture book, Where Do They Go? (Triangle Square, Sept.), illustrated by Sabra Field, a Vermont artist.

Though Alvarez is probably best known for her award-winning novels How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of Butterflies for adults and the Pura Belpre Award winner Before We Were Free for young readers, she had trouble even reading novels while she grieved. The clutter of so much language! I felt like a cranky old lady, she says. I wrote poetry because it was all I could bear to do.

Writing is how Alvarez thinks and the method she uses to get outside of herself. It is a way to become a bigger version of myself, she says. She encourages childrens booksellers to help their young customers also imagine the world from different points of view. When youre a kid, what you read gives you a blueprint for the way youll see the world, she says. Stories are so important for children because they help structure their understanding of the world beyond what theyre given.

Alvarez also feels strongly about diversity in works offered to young readers. Diversity enriches all of us by making the storytelling circle wider and richer. When you read about others, you become them in a way. Its just so powerful.

Julia Alvarez will give the closing keynote on Thursday, June 23, 23 p.m., in the Salon E Ballroom.

Return to the main feature.
Its no secret that the rise of self-publishing, along with the start-and-stop growth of e-book sales, has had profound effects on traditional publishing. But no genre serves as a better case study for how publishers are reacting to these changessometimes successfully and sometimes notthan romance.

Earlier this year, Samhain Publishing, a predominantly digital publisher of romance founded in 2005, announced that it would cease operations, citing declining e-book sales. At the same time, Waterhouse Press, founded in 2014 by romance author Meredith Wild, has experienced robust success, particularly with Audrey Carlans Calendar Girl series. Waterhouse acquired Carlans self-published titles in 2015 and, according to the publisher, has since sold more than three million units in digital and print combined.

It would be difficult to parse all the reasons why some publishers thrive in the changing romance landscape while others flounder. Whats clear is that, in order to succeed, romance publishers have had to develop flexible strategies for securing author talent and capturing readers in a competitive and highly saturated marketplace.

Heres a look out how several digital-first romance publisherssome independent, others imprints within major houseshave evolved in terms of author branding, marketing, format, and more.

The All-Powerful Author Brand

At a time when many romance readers discover books online, and when authors may publish in a variety of venues (on their own, with a traditional publisher, or with several publishers simultaneously), author branding is more important than ever.

Liz Pelletier, publisher of Entangled, a digital-first romance publisher based in Fort Collins, Colo., says that the days of being proprietary are over, and the imperative to elevate an authors brand trumps the competition among that authors other publishers.

Pelletier cites the example of Tessa Bailey, who in addition to her Entangled titles also publishes with Grand Central and Avon. To promote Baileys books, Entangled recently ran a Facebook campaign centered on the motif of dirty talkBailey, Pelletier says, is the queen of dirty talkwhich directed users to Baileys website, where all her books, including those with Grand Central and Avon, are promoted. I wasnt pushing a book; I wasnt pushing a series, Pelletier says. I was pushing her brand.

InterMix, a digital-first imprint of Berkley, tends to give its authors a fair amount of latitude in cultivating their brands. These people are very savvy, says Jeanne-Marie Hudson, marketing director at Berkley. They know who their readers are, and what theyre looking for.

Give and Take

Traditional publishers can benefit from the reach of hybrid authors, who self-publish as well as publish traditionally. Hudson says that because hybridization increases an authors visibility, each of the authors publishersnot to mention the author herselfbenefits from her broad platform. Romance readers are generally very loyal, Hudson says. If they like an author, they tend to want to read more by that author.

Swerve, a digital-first romance imprint of St. Martins Press, seeks out authors who have made a mark in self-publishing, says Anne Marie Tallberg, publishing director. Our romance editors are voracious readers, and they love finding self-published people they feel could [do well] at Swerve. Weve head-hunted people. One author Swerve sought out is Cherrie Lynn, who self-published her most recent books, Shameless (2014) and Watch Me Fall (2015), and who will begin a trilogy with Swerve in early 2017.

Another digital-first publisher actively seeking independent authors is Riptide, an LGBTQ house with a strong romance focus. Were seeing fan-fiction writers, whove earned their chops playing in other peoples sandboxes, migrating in large numbers to traditional publishing with original fiction, says Rachel Haimowitz, Riptides publisher. Weve signed a number of authors this year, mostly debut, who built large followings in fandom, including Aidan Wayne (Counterbalance, Sept.), Jordan S. Brock (Change of Address, Oct.), and Quinn Anderson (Hotline, Nov.).

Cindy Hwang, editorial director of romance at Berkley, says the self-publishing market is more than a source for new authors; it also can alert traditional publishers to new reading appetites.

A lot of self-published authors are not afraid of publishing very edgy, very extreme material, and sometimes thats not a good fit for traditional publishing, she says. At the same time, there are a lot of readers out there who are drawn in by different kinds of reads that they find from self-published authors, and that can indicate a readership that isnt being served by mainstream publishing.

For example, Hwang says, male-male romance first took off with small presses; then, some authors began self-publishing. Traditional publishers are now investing in the subgenre. This season, InterMix will publish five male-male titles, including His Royal Secret (July) and His Royal Favorite (Aug.) by Lilah Pace, who began writing male-male romances for fun some time ago, Hwang says, but did not submit them to be published until 2015, when the market seemed more receptive. Male-male romance provides a fantasy element for its largely female audience: Its an interesting way to explore different aspects of gender identity.

Scooping up an author with a self-publishing track record offers another benefit to a traditional house.Self-published authors are often very focused and aware of the need for self-promotion, Hwang says. They bring a certain skill level that someone who hasnt done any self-publishing probably hasnt had the opportunity to hone.

Entangled cross-promotes with its hybrid authors: the publisher will highlight an authors forthcoming self-published book at the end of an Entangled title by that author, as long as the author does the same for her books with Entangled.

Traditional publishers are also adapting marketing tactics from the world of self-publishing. Amanda Bergeron, who heads Impulse, Avons digital-first imprint, says working with previously self-published new adult authors alerted her to the value of cover reveals. They hadnt been a usual part of publishing, and [the authors] were getting enormous engagement from their readers, and from bloggers, by doing them.

Sometimes, Impulse pairs exclusively with a media partner for a cover reveal; for other books, it conducts a reveal across social media channels and on its website. The imprint recently revealed the cover of debut new-adult author Laura Browns Signs of Attraction (June) on the Avon Romance Facebook page, which has more than 385,000 likes, and on the Avon Romance website.

Paper Chase

The benefits to publishers of taking on self-published authors seem clear. But why would a self-published author, particularly one whos found readers on his or her own, want to foray into traditional publishing? Angela James, editorial director of Carina, Harlequins digital-first imprint, says many self-published authors find the ancillary tasks associated with self-publishing, such as marketing, laborious. Theyd like to write and let somebody else handle the business things.

Other authors hope to see their books in printan option that many digital-first imprints offer, either through print-on-demand services or in coordination with their parent publishers. We have some authors whove grown such big platforms that it only makes sense to take them into the retail market as well, James says.

For example, a pair of writers, Melissa King and Lea Robinson, have published numerous titles under the pseudonym Alexa Riley. They came to Carina, James says, for help accessing the print market. Carina will release its first Alexa Riley book, Everything for Her, in January 2017.

Digital-first romance publisher Tule also publishes print-on-demand, with CreateSpace and Ingram, in order to partner with independent bookstores, says Meghan Farrell, managing editor. This is a new thing weve been working on. We started with just digital. But in 2016 weve been working with different authors and select options for print.

At Kensington Books, which acquired e-book house Lyrical Press in the winter of 201314, print is still king. Digital-first is a way to introduce people to new authors, or newer authors, at a much lower price, and hopefully, to build them, says Steven Zacharius, president and CEO. Our goal is to build up an author to the level where we can eventually get them into print.

What does it take for an author to move into print? That depends on the author, Zacharius says. If theres enough momentum, whatever it might belets say its 50,000 e-books sold at a fairly normal price point, $3.99 or $4.99, then the publisher may take a chance on the author in print.

Kensington will often move authors from Lyrical to its Zebra Shout imprint, which has lower prices than other print imprints, as a kind of testing ground. The first books at $4.99, and we do three books in one year, he says. Youve got a chance for that author to build his or her sales. You dont want to first do them in digital at $1.99 and all of a sudden bring them into print at $6.99 or $7.99, because theyre going to fail.

Short and Sweet

Digital-first romance publishers are also experimenting in terms of frequency and format, and one form thats taken off in recent years is the novella.

Utahs Mirror Press, a small digital-first publisher of sweet romancewhich depicts sexual tension and kissing, but no sex scenesfocuses mainly on themed novella anthologies, each title of which runs about 15,000 words, or 50 pages.

Heather Moore, an author and the owner of Mirror Press, says her strategy is built around cross-promotion. She invites contributors who have already amassed fan bases and, using social media marketing and newsletters, aims to draw those readers to Mirrors anthologies. A fan reads one of our anthologies, and they get to sample some other authors, Moore says. The publisher released its 17th novella anthology, Road Trip Collection, in May.

Other publishers use novellas to complement an authors full-length publications. Lauren McKenna, editorial director at Pocket Star, Simon & Schusters digital-first imprint, says novellas can be used as a preorder tool, serving as an effective prequel to a series.

Tallberg, of Swerve, adds that novellas offer ways to tap into timely events, such as holidays. In late 2016 Swerve will publish eight Christmas-themed novellas, including Big Package by erotic romance writer Opal Carew.

Novellas can also help authors to bridge the gap between fuller-length novels. In self-publishing, and e-book publishing in general, the frequency of publication matters to readers, says InterMixs Hwang. Publishing every three months, she says, is ideal, though the rate differs from author to author.

Some romance authors, in fact, are so industrious that publishers have trouble containing them, which explains why some writers keep to keep one foot in self-publishing. This seems to be the trend, says Kensingtons Zacharius. Authors who are very prolific have little choice but to pursue a hybrid approach, he adds. Some of these authors are writing five or six books a year. I dont know how they do it.

Daniel Lefferts is a writer living in New York City.

Below, more on the subject of romance books.

Turning the Ship Around: PW Talks with Robin Covington

The 2016 RITA Award nominee discusses hedging her bets as a writer, the benefits of traditional publishing and self-publishing, and the importance of diversity in the romance genre.
GALVA  This small city  population just less than 3,000 -- carried its weight in economic development last year.

According to the Quad City Chamber of Commerce, a quarter of the 21 firms posting the largest expansions in 2015 were in Galva. Five firms invested $31 million in the Henry County community and created 90 jobs.

Big River Ethanol had $20 million in new investment and created 10 jobs. Branchfield Casting invested $5 million and created five jobs. Dixline Corp. invested $3.2 million and created five jobs. JMAC invested $1.4 million and created five jobs. Preferred Health Care invested $1.4 million and created 65 jobs.

It was a very good year, said Galva city administrator David Dyer.

We're grateful to have the small manufacturing base that we do have, and we continue to work on what we call small-to-medium manufacturing that we consider our niche," he said. "Your best avenue for economic development is your existing business.

Mr. Dyer said worker training resources include both Black Hawk College-East Campus and its welding center in Kewanee.

As I like to say when it comes to hiring, it's not inconceivable that the people doing the hiring didn't babysit you when you were young, Mr. Dyer said. They know the people. The jobs are there and we know how to get them filled.

Galva native Jane Doss Lichow has built a $35 million pediatric home health care/medical device business, Preferred Health Care. Ms. Doss Lichow returned to her Henry County roots some years ago from Oklahoma.

Preferred formerly focused on children returning home from intensive care and has expanded to serve the senior community. Ms. Doss Lichow began serving her first client four years ago. Her firm now serves 40 Illinois children, some as far away as Springfield, Quincy and Rockford.

Preferred built a 6,000-square-foot facility on the south side of Kewanee, but moved its corporate offices to Galva a little more than a year ago. That Galva office now employs about 20 people, with 160 to 170 nurses in the field.

It was the fastest growing site I have ever started, Ms. Doss Lichow said, crediting her employees' work ethic and willingness to travel and relocate.

Ms. Doss Lichow said her employees' cooperation most recently let her serve on a task force that successfully convinced Gov. Bruce Rauner to convert the Illinois Youth Center at Kewanee into an adult prison. Her role included showing how the area could handle a medically challenging geriatric prison population.

She ackowledges, however, that Preferred's corporate office may not remain in Galva much longer. The firm has outgrown its building and plans to move this summer. Where, she doesn't yet know.

JMAC owner/president Adam Baze said his firm sells doors, windows and other supplies to contractors in five states. When one of their steel suppliers went out of business in 2012, JMAC began rolling its own steel; now, steel roofing makes up 20 percent of its business.

As time goes on, it's going to be a lot bigger part of our market I'm sure, said Mr. Baze. He added that shingle components have been regulated out by the EPA; that's why they don't last like they used to.

Mr. Baze said his firm moved into a new building in March after contemplating the plan for about a year. JMAC saved money, he said, by creating the building themselves. Formerly, it had rented a steel frame building.

It worked out fine for us to get started in, Mr. Baze said of JMAC's former site. This is more efficient for production and for energy use.

Also in 2015, Big River Ethanol built a zein by-product facility and added an ethanol dryer and storage capacity. Dixline and Branchfield are both specialty metals firms. In 2015, Branchfield doubled its floor space.
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Rated 3.6 out of 5 by 11 reviewers.

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Rated 1 out of 5 by peacemom Very Poor Quality I'm not certain whether the chain I received was defective or this is the way in which it is made, but please note that the clasp is so small and difficult to open I (and 3 others) could literally not hook it on the chain. I am shocked that Quality Control 'green-lighted' this item! 12-13-16

Rated 1 out of 5 by kalei Disappointed The stone on this pendant was so-o-o-o TINY that, at first, I thought it was not attached. Not at all the size of the pendants shown on TV or the website. Very disappointed. 12-11-16

Rated 5 out of 5 by weenah Lovely!! I don't usually write reviews. However this pendant deserves a glowing report. Small enough to wear any day and every day. I came back to purchase one for my daughter for Xmas. The special meaning of it makes it even more wonderful. Price right now us amazing for such a beautiful item! 12-10-16

Rated 4 out of 5 by gem fan Lovely Pendant, But 4 Stars I bought the clear/silver and love it. Only 4 stars because I wanted to add a teardrop Swarovski clear piece to it, but couldn't. One end piece has a My Saint/ My Hero charm, and the other part of the clasp is simply too large to add on anything else. The teardrop I wanted to add was a gift from my late husband. Of course I can wear them separately, but so wanted to add this to the necklace. It's lovely on it's own, ladies. Maybe they could make the end clasp a bit smaller going forward. 11-11-16

Rated 5 out of 5 by Flowerlocket Love This! I love the small size, very delicate and classy. I choose the clear crystal which looks like a diamond. It catches the light and sparkles like Starlight. The stainless steel chain is perfect as well. I love the meaning attached to this pendant. 11-01-16

Rated 3 out of 5 by MMAR32 Annoying I still like this necklace as it is precious. However, the back clasp is constantly coming forward as it is heavier than the jewel. Annoying. 08-12-16

Rated 5 out of 5 by Mariettem Beautiful! This Trinity pendant is so beautiful and feminine. I bought it in silver/clear so the clear goes with any color of clothing I am wearing. The chain sparkles and the pendant itself is well made and looks great against your skin. I also feel protected when wearing it. 06-19-16
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!
IRJ at InnoTrans 2018



In IRJ: the number one choice for the international railway industry

InnoTrans 2018 is almost upon us. Dont miss your final opportunity to notify your existing and potential customers of your presence at the worlds leading railway exhibition this September with an advertisement in the worlds leading railway business publication: International Railway Journal.

Do you have a new product or service? Dont miss out on telling the railway world what you are offering with a print advertisement in the September edition of IRJ, which will be distributed at the event, and in the November issue, our comprehensive review.

September

The outside track area will host some of the major highlights of 2018s show. IRJ will feature exclusive reports on some of the Innovative Trains that will take to Messe Berlins tracks. Our comprehensive Event Preview will also provide delegates, and those who might be missing out this time, with a sneak preview of the major exhibitors highlights.



November

The show might be over, but IRJ will offer you the chance to relive four days of new trains and innovative rail technologies in our comprehensive Event Review.

Extra distribution

September

InnoTrans

September 18 - 21

Berlin, Germany

November

World Rail Festival

November 13 - 14

Amsterdam, Netherlands

AusRail

November 28 - 29

Canberra, Australia

Online at railjournal.com

IRJs website will once again be the leading source of news and information for the worlds largest railway exhibition. Reporting live from the show, IRJs experienced and respected editorial team will be at the key product launches and speaking with leading industry figures. And with over 90,000 unique visitors every month,** railjournal.com is the perfect portal for you to advertise your presence at the show.



Through email

IRJ Rail Brief will offer a morning digest of the top news stories from the show on Monday to Friday of InnoTrans week. The newsletter is distributed to more than 30,000 railway professionals and booking one of the dedicated advertising slots is a great way to improve your visibility at the event.



Why IRJ?

International Railway Journal is read by more than 10,000 railway professionals and decision makers in 147 countries, over 90% of which actively request the magazine.* And with more than 90,000 unique visitors to railjournal.com every month,** IRJs is the worlds leading source of railway news and analysis, in print and online.

To speak about what IRJ can offer you across its print and online platforms in the run up to InnoTrans, contact your international sales manager below;

For companies wishing to participate in IRJs free InnoTrans preview, please contact Kevin Smith, managing editor, [email protected]

* Average data retrieved from ABC audit of International Railway Journals circulation from January 1 2017 to December 31 2017.

* Data retrieved from Google analytics report of railjournal.com.

IRJ. The industry's leading news source, in print and online

To advertise in International Railway Journal, contact Louise Cooper [email protected] on +44 1444 454171 or Michael Boyle [email protected]l.co.uk on +43 676 708 9872 / +49 163 830 8088

For editorial enquiries, contact David Briginshaw, Editor-in-Chief, on +44 1326 313945, email: [email protected]

When times are good, you should advertise

When times are bad, you must advertise
THE news destination website for the world's railway industry

IRJ now offers far greater content than ever before, with up-to-the minute news, in-depth analysis and thought-provoking features, plus regular blogs written by our experienced editorial team and leading figures from the railway industry to provide a website rich in content.

Channels

News is streamed into channels relevant to the railway industry:

Up-to-the-minute: News, Financial, Policy

Passenger: High-speed, Main Line, Commuter Rail, Metros, Light Rail

On the move: Freight, Locomotives, Rolling Stock

Infrastructure: Track, Signalling, Telecoms, Fare Collection

Regions: North America, Central/South America, Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Australia/New Zealand

Channels make the website easy to use, taking the reader straight to the content that is relevant to them. All content is tagged for easy access through our powerful search function.

The new website also offers a wealth of useful information such as upcoming conferences and exhibitions, links to the key players in the industry, and information about IRJ products and services. Everything you need to know about the railway industry and IRJ is here.

Channel Sponsorship

Reach railway professionals who visit the IRJ website daily to read the latest international railway news. High-visibility banner positions are integrated into the website alongside the news stories in each channel to ensure maximum exposure for advertisers.

Become the exclusive sponsor of one of our channels and align your message with highly-relevant editorial content. Sponsorship opportunities are available, on a first-come first-served based, for each channel and can be purchased for a minimum of three months.

Run-of-site rotating banners

One of four banner units can also be purchased as an attractive package deal. The banner units rotate throughout the website including the home page.

To book space on the new IRJ website, contact your IRJ sales representative.

Specifications for IRJ website banners

Each channel has four banner units in two sizes: 728 x 90 and 300 x 250.

Advertisements may be in the following formats: JPEG, GIF, or Flash (Flash format advertisement must be a .FLA in order for the tracking code to be input. Flash files are not accepted in .SWF format. If submitting a .FLA file, any unusual fonts must also be included together with a backup animated GIF for websites that are not Flash-enabled).

We accept third-party coding which must be encoded in a compressed ZIP file. Please include detailed instructions on where to put "click macro" coding and cache-busting coding within your tags.

All advertisement files must be under 45 KB.

Advertisers must also include the URL (website address) the advertisement should link to.

Advertising materials should be submitted to your IRJ sales representative and/or to Mary Conyers.
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While Netflix consolidates in Spain and HBO Go prepare to launch later this year, Spains free-to-air (FTA) networks are demanding regulations for the new audiovisual landscape.

The Union de Televisiones Comerciales en Abierto ( UTECA ), which groups together all private FTA companies, said the industry is rapidly changing, and therefore needs new rules. Without naming any specific platform, the association stated legal obligations for new operators have to be the same as for FTA channels.Private FTA operators have several obligations and limitations when it comes to content distribution through DTT, pointed out Alejandro Echevarria, recently appointed president of UTECA.Although it has taken longer to mature than in other European countries, Spains TV scene recently saw the arrival and consolidation of several video-on-demand (VOD) and over-the-top (OTT) operators. The country has also been selected by HBO to kick off the continental expansion of HBO Go.The president of UTECA also highlighted FTA TV is still, by far, Spains largest advertising platform, mostly thanks to the number of networks.Growing DTT offer allows better audience segmentation and stimulates investments and growth, added Echevarria.
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By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 06/03/2016



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.
In the first five months of 2016, Da Nang, Vietnam's central economic hub, welcomed nearly 1,000 new apartments to the market, a 44.6 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Da Nangs real estate market sold about 1,000 apartments as of May 31, a growth of 74.6 percent on-year. Low class apartments accounted for 45.8 percent of total transactions followed by medium class (36.3 percent) and high class (17.9 percent), according to the leading real estate consultancy CBRE Vietnam.

Medium and low class real estate projects made up 78.9 percent of the total property supply in Vietnam's central city of Da Nang.

Da Nang has seen a rise in apartment projects. Photo by VnExpress

The price of class A apartments in Da Nang stayed constant at $1,623 per square meter in the first five months while the price of medium class apartments boosted 3.7 percent ($826 per square meter) and low class apartments decreased 7.7 percent ($656 per square meter) compared to the same period last year. The latter's drop followed the launch of a project in Son Tra District, which offered housing at $600 to $700 per square meter.

CBRE added that nearly 60 percent of buyers were from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh.

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In this Sunday, May 29, 2016, photo, a lifeguard warns beach goers to stay out of the water at Corona del Mar beach in Newport Beach, Calif. Thousands of Memorial Day beachgoers were kept out of the water Monday as lifeguards searched miles of popular Southern California shoreline for a shark they believe attacked a swimmer the day before. (Cindy Yamanaka/The Orange County Register via AP) MAGS OUT; LOS ANGELES TIMES OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

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LOS ANGELES (AP)  The semi-circular shark bite stretched from Maria Korcsmaros' shoulder to her pelvis, with teeth marks visible in the shredded flesh of her arm and torso.

Korcsmaros was training for a half-triathlon over the weekend off the coast of Newport Beach, California, when she "felt something hit her," said Dr. Phillip Rotter of Orange County Global Medical Center, where she was treated after the attack.

Surgeons repaired the massive wound with a shape that Rotter described as "obviously a mouth."

"You could see individual marks from individual teeth," he added.

The 52-year-old Korcsmaros also suffered fractured ribs, lung lesions and damage to the muscles and skin of her upper arm and abdomen. She was expected to survive, but it was too early to know whether she will regain full use of her arm.

The bite likely came from a large great white shark, said marine biologist Chris Lowe, director of Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach.

Though difficult to draw a definitive conclusion, he said a large single bite suggests the shark is over 10 feet long. A white shark  also known as a great white  would be the most likely candidate lurking in Southern California waters, he added.

Scientists believe the white shark population off California has been growing, Lowe said.

"This is the sort of thing we expect to see increase," Lowe said of the attack. Still, he pointed out that such attacks remain rare.

Korcsmaros was swimming in a wetsuit just outside buoys marking a protected swimming area near a boat route. Lifeguards in a boat who saw her struggling about 100 yards offshore found her gushing blood, doctors and fire officials said.

They saw the last part of the attack and knew she didn't get hit by a boat or watercraft, said Rob Williams, chief lifeguard of the Newport Beach Fire Department's Marine Operations Division.

Lifeguards pulled her from the water, and she was rushed to the emergency room, where she appeared alert and "remarkably calm," Rotter told reporters at the hospital.

The press conference got interrupted when someone in the audience apparently fainted as doctors described Korcsmaros' wounds.

Lifeguards and city officials have been unable to locate the shark that bit the mother of three but still moved to protect beachgoers. They kept thousands of people out of the water over the holiday weekend and searched miles of shoreline for the animal.

One stretch of shoreline that was closed immediately after the attack was reopened on Tuesday afternoon, but the beach where the attack took place remains closed.

Surfers, swimmers and others were allowed to return to a mile-long stretch of water from Balboa Pier to a surfing spot known as the Wedge, Newport Beach spokeswoman Tara Finnigan said.

The ocean remains off limits from Corona del Mar State Beach, where Korcsmaros was attacked, to Crystal Cove State Beach.

___

AP writer Christine Armario contributed to this report.
SHARE In this July 22, 2013 photo provided by Dorothy Boynton Rust, hiker Geraldine Largay, of Brentwood, Tenn., poses at the Poplar Ridge Shelter on the Appalachian Trail in Maine. A report released Wednesday, May 25, 2016, by the Maine Warden Service said Largay, known as Inchworm, got lost after leaving the trail that day. Documents show she survived at least 26 days after getting lost. She kept a journal of her ordeal and ultimately resigned herself to the idea she was going to die, and it could be years before her remains were located. They were found in October 2015. (Dorothy Boynton Rust via AP)

By DAVID SHARP, Associated Press

PORTLAND, Maine (AP)  An Appalachian Trail hiker who died after getting lost in the woods of Maine did the right thing by setting up camp to wait for help, officials say. But the guidance evolved into a gray area, they said, after she went a week without being rescued.

People who're lost are commonly advised to stop moving, said Rita Hennessy of the National Park Service.

"When you realize you're lost, and nothing looks familiar, then stop, don't panic, and stay put," said Hennessey, program manager for the national trail system.

That's exactly what 66-year-old Geraldine Largay of Tennessee did in July 2013 when she left the Appalachian Trail to use the bathroom and became disoriented.

She had most of the items on hikers' "10 essential" list. She had food, water, shelter, maps, a compass, several lighters, a whistle and cellphone, meaning she was equipped to survive in the woods while awaiting rescue from hundreds of searchers. Her husband also knew her hiking route.

Lost hikers usually are found within a couple of days under such circumstances.

In Largay's case, she was unable to communicate with her phone, and searchers missed her campsite, which was hidden in a heavily wooded area more than 3,000 feet from the trail. Her body was recovered in October. Details of her ordeal were included in documents released last week.

Much of her harrowing ordeal was documented in a journal she kept.

Evidence indicates Largay tried to start a fire, which would've increased her visibility, officials said. No one heard her whistle.

Whether to stay put for a search that stretches longer than a few days depends on the hiker, said Cpl. John MacDonald, spokesman for the Maine Warden Service.

"Each individual is going to have their own idea on survival. Some people may choose to stay in one spot. Some people may choose to charge on," he said.

Added Hennessy: "I just wonder what goes through your head after a week of not being found. Do you still make that judgment of staying there?" she said.

David Field, a retired University of Maine forest resources professor and officer in the Maine Appalachian Trail Club, compared advice to hikers to stay put to that given to boaters to stay with an overturned boat rather than to swim to safety.

But, he said, it becomes a gray area if land is nearby, hypothermia is a concern or the area is too remote to be found. In Largay's case, she might've saved herself by abandoning the stay-put rule and following a nearby stream downhill to safety, Field said.

By all accounts, Largay was well equipped and was at least average in her abilities after putting more than 800 miles under her belt over several months.

One thing that might have saved her was a global-positioning device that she'd left behind in a motel room, the Warden Service said. While there was no cellphone signal, the GPS still would've worked, potentially firing off a message with coordinates after she became lost.

Largay continued making entries in her journal after the search for her was scaled back. The contents were deemed personal, and the journal was released to her husband, officials said.
Hung Vu/Special to the Record Searchlight

Enterprise High School graduates walk onto the stadium's field Friday evening for their commencement ceremony.

Enterprise High School's Class of 2016 graduated some 228 students Friday night at Enterprise Community Stadium in east Redding. Some 71 percent of the class has plans to go to college, said counselor Deitra Smith. Smith said the Class of 2016 was awarded a total of around $520,000 in scholarships to further their education. On top of that, Smith said the 12 students who enrolled in the military will receive a GI Bill that puts the total awarded at $1.6 million.
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By Joe Szydlowski of the Redding Record Searchlight

The Tehama County supervisors are exploring which method to increase their wages before they put it before voters.

The board met Wednesday in Red Bluff and will meet Monday evening in Corning to gather public input on what raises, if any, they should send to the ballot box.

A majority of voters would have to approve any proposal, county counsel Arthur Wylene said during Wednesday's meeting.

The supervisors' salary was set in the county charter to $1,045 in the 1980s and has not changed since then, though supervisors do receive a $100 technology allowance and $500 in travel expenses per month, county administrator Bill Goodwin said.

That's the lowest supervisor salary in the state and is half that of Glenn County, he said.

"It's been 30 years since an increase," he said as he went over about a dozen proposals to implement a cost-of-living-increase.

Most dealt with either handing the power to grant raises over to another entity, such as the grand jury or tie it to Superior Court judges' salaries, Goodwin said.

Goodwin acknowledged another proposal to link supervisors' salaries to other elected officials. That idea, however, may pose some ethical questions because the board negotiates the wages of those positions.

Another option he floated involved adopting a minimum wage for non-hourly personnel and allow the supervisors salaries to rise to that level, he said.

Members of the public at the meeting generally sympathized with the supervisors' claim that their pay is too low. But those in the audience also brought up previous years of very tight budgets and no raises for county employees.

Tom Moeller told board members he understands they could use higher salaries. But voters turned on the idea because, he said, the supervisors wanted too big of a hike rather than accepting a smaller compromise.

June Cooper worried about how the county would pay for the increases.

"Where is the money going to come from for your raise? Do our taxes go up?" she asked the board.

Supervisor Dennis Garton replied that taxes won't be going up.

Raises could invite more participation because supervisors have to dedicate so much time to the position, Supervisor Burt Bundy said. About 25 years ago, he had to quit being a supervisor because it took too much time away from his other job, he said.

Many don't realize the time commitment it requires, he said.

"A lot of people don't realize we attend several different functions as just part of our daily routine," he said. If he and his wife attend a community event, he can easily spend $50 to $100, he said.

"That comes out of my pocket," he said. "I go to those functions so I can meet you."

The supervisors last asked voters for an increase in June 2014 after the grand jury recommended it, but the ballot measure failed, Goodwin said.

The next meeting on the wages begins at 6 p.m. at the Corning Veteran's Hall, 1620 Solano St.
Stethoscope wrapped around hundred dollar bills

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By COLLEEN SLEVIN, Associated Press

DENVER (AP)  The latest public health scare involving a Colorado surgical technician has revealed states have more work ahead in trying to prevent needle-stealing hospital workers from getting hired.

Authorities say an HIV-positive surgical tech stole syringes with fentanyl and endangered patients at a suburban Denver hospital - the third incident of this type in the state in less than a decade. Colorado lawmakers are trying to tighten regulations but experts say it is a national concern.

There should be a national registry for all medical workers with access to drugs and patients, experts say, because having requirements vary from state to state leaves room for criminals to slip through the cracks.

That's apparently what happened with surgery technician Rocky Allen, who jumped from hospital to hospital before he was allegedly caught taking a syringe filled with painkillers from an operating room in January. The hospital and state health officials issued a public call for the approximately 2,900 patients who had surgery during Allen's time at the hospital to be tested for hepatitis and HIV. No reported cases of HIV have been detected but about 1,000 people still either need to be tested or get follow up tests.

Allen, who has pleaded not guilty to federal charges, had a long history of problems. The former Navy medic was court martialed for stealing fentanyl at a military hospital in Kandahar in 2011 and received a general discharge after agreeing to a plea deal.

The current law only requires techs such as Allen to self-disclose any civil, criminal or administrative action related to their job duties and to provide their employment history over the previous five years. But Allen, who was fired from at least five hospitals in Colorado and other states, left off some hospitals where he worked from his resume, making it more difficult to vet his background.

Swedish Medical Center would not explain exactly what it did to vet Allen before hiring him in August 2015 but spokeswoman Nicole Williams said their general hiring practice includes a background check by a third party, confirmation of training, certification and state registration and drug screening.

Under a bill awaiting Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper's signature, surgical technicians would have to pass a fingerprint-based criminal background check and a drug test before being allowed to work in the state.

The co-sponsor of Colorado's bill, Rep. Susan Lontine of Denver, said the proposed requirements may have stopped Allen, although his problems started in other states.

"We need more of a national network to get these checks and balances," she said.

Julianne D'Angelo Fellmeth, administrative director of the Center for Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego's law school, said any medical worker with access to drugs and to patients should be subject to some licensing or permitting system that would require them to be subject to a fingerprint-based background check.

But Fellmeth said requirements vary from state to state, and legislators and bureaucrats often don't act until there is a crisis. Scrutiny of health care workers who are not doctors or nurses is especially patchy, she said.

It's not clear how many other states are considering tightening the regulation of techs in light of recent drug theft cases.

The National Conference of State Legislatures doesn't track the issue. According to the Association of Surgical Technologists, which represents 80,000 surgical techs, two other states  North Dakota and Washington  require techs to register with state regulators and Indiana, New Jersey and New York require 15 hours of continuing education per year.

In New Hampshire in 2012, radiology technician David Kwiatkowski was arrested after he was discovered swapping syringes filled with fentanyl for ones tainted with his blood. It was determined that more than 40 patients around the country contracted hepatitis C from him. He was sentenced to 39 years in prison in 2013.

In 2010, Colorado surgical tech Kristen Parker was sentenced to 30 years in prison after infecting three dozen people with hepatitis C by stealing painkiller syringes and replacing them with dirty ones. The same year a former surgical nurse, Ashton Daigle, was sentenced to 4  years in prison in a similar case in the state. However, he tested negative for HIV and hepatitis so no patients were infected.

____

Associated Press writers James Anderson and Donna Bryson contributed to this report.
Greg Barnette/Record Searchlight Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to around 4,000 people Friday during a rally at the Redding Municipal Airport.

By Alayna Shulman, alayna.shulman@redding.com

Standing as close as he could to a stretch of yellow police tape, Jose De La Torre held up his smart-phone for video as the "TRUMP" plane circled around Redding Municipal Airport.

"It's so dope," the Los Angeles resident and self-described "Trumpster" said of the impending arrival of Trump, whom he follows around the state as a sort of groupie.

"I just like to hear him speaking," De La Torre said. "That's one of his best characteristics that he's got going for himself, you know? He's got talent."

While De La Torre appears to be among Trump's most dedicated fans, there still were plenty of others willing to sweat their way through his rally Friday without even being able to see the Republican's face  authorities closed access to the event around noon because of capacity issues.

Though some questioned why that was a problem when the rally wasn't held inside a building, they hung around anyway in the roughly 100-degree heat.

That included Redding's Sandra and Roy Lewis, who showed up right around the time gates were closed.

Sandra Lewis said she thinks people who cast Trump as a villain of sorts need to stop and take a look at him.

"If people would just listen, you'd realize what a good man he is," she said. "They're closed-minded."

Chris Brown, of Redding, also stood outside to hear Trump's message. Brown also said he believes Trump gets picked on, and complained that members of the media were hoping to trick him by bringing up waterboarding.

"He doesn't know (it's illegal)," Brown said. "He's a businessman. I think (being president) is more of management (than knowing every law)."

Similar to Lewis, Brown said he gets sick of people painting Trump as a racist.

"I mean, he lives in New York City, so obviously he's culturally well-rounded," Brown said as majestic instrumental music played and Trump's plane landed. "I don't think he's racist at all. He's just not politically correct."

Brown struck up a conversation with De La Torre at the event, and De La Torre noted how he, as a Latino, also mingled with people of different ethnicities at other Trump events.

As Trump did in his remarks, De La Torre characterized the recent San Jose rally that broke out in violence as a "love-fest" in which only a few people caused any trouble.

"I mean, it was crazy, but it wasn't that crazy," he said, objecting to media reports that called it a "riot."

De La Torre said he doesn't take offense at certain comments Trump has made about Latinos. He said they're taken out of context, essentially, and immigrants who are criminals should indeed be deported.

"You've gotta be a soldier sometimes," he said.

But the main reason De La Torre said he supports Trump is his business acumen, noting that manufacturing jobs need to be recovered from China.
Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight

Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to a crowd of more than 3,000 people at the Redding Municipal Airport on Friday.

By Jenny Espino of the Redding Record Searchlight

Donald Trump on Friday in Redding delivered a blistering attack of Hillary Clinton, calling her scripted, a thief, stupid and pathetic, and suggesting she should go to jail  to cheers and hoots from a throng of supporters.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who has been stepping up his attacks on his Democratic rival, unloaded on her at a rally at Redding Municipal Airport, where at least 3,000 people withstood 154 degree heat that was recorded under a punishing sun on the tarmac. The high temperature reading came from a tweet by Redding Fire Chief Gerry Gray.

Trump gave a nod to his crowd, including hundreds more who were unable to get into the event and lined up right behind a chain link fence to hear him speak. He complained there had been enough room to move the barricades to allow more people.

Trump spoke for about 45 minutes, shifting focus from Friday's jobs report showing weaker figures than expected to Clinton's inability to put Bernie Sanders away in the Democratic contest to his plan to build a wall along the Mexico-U.S. border to his contempt for what he described as a dishonest media.

He gave his supporters hope of turning the country around.

"We're going to do things that haven't been done in a long time. We're going to start winning. We don't win any more. We don't win anymore," Trump said.

Later in his speech, he gave a shout-out to Gregory Cheadle and talked about having the support of African-Americans because of the jobs he would create. "Look at my African-American over there," he pointed to Cheadle, a candidate for the 1st Congressional District.

Cheadle, who is African-American, in an interview with the Record Searchlight said he was not offended and rather, had been flattered for the mention.

Trump slammed the jobs reports and said even those that were gained were bad jobs and the good jobs have moved to Mexico and China.

He accused Clinton of putting the nation's security at risk and said she should go to jail over "those emails."

She always has problems, he said invoking the Whitewater real estate deal and President Clinton's impeachment and his infidelity.

"These are lying people. We don't need, folks, another four years of the Clinton people. We don't need it. It's a mess," he said.

To his critics, he said he has a tough temperament and it's one for winning.

"I really believe I have the greatest temperament that there is and the temperament that this country needs at this time," he said. "My temperament is totally controlled, so beautiful. I built an unbelievable company. I did so many great things.

"I mean I just came in and read about a school where the Clintons are involved and they've gotten $16 million and it's a scam. And I'm hearing, why aren't they sued?"

The applause grew strong and there was even a "build the wall" chant when he talked about the need for strong borders to stop drug trafficking and his push to get Mexico to pay for the wall.

"It's going to be a real deal wall. It's going to be way up there," he said.

Earlier, he noted how hot it was and asked if everyone was OK and said if anyone did not feel well to come up for water. He interrupted his speech when one of his supporters passed out and asked, "Are you OK, honey?"

He acknowledged he faces a tighter path to the White House and vowed to put California in play to capture the Electoral College's biggest prize in November.
Vietnamese companies are combining forces to avoid the prospect of losing the home retail market to foreign rivals.

Vietnams retail market is growing rapidly, making it highly lucrative in the eyes of foreign investors. The country is currently listed in the top five in Asia and ranked 28th globally in terms of growth rate of the retail market.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade forecasts the number of middle-class income citizens with a high shopping demand will triple by 2020. This Southeast Asian country currently has a population of more than 90 million, 60 percent of which are young people.

Official statistics show there are roughly 600,000 retail outlets nationwide. And it is estimated that the current figure will jump by 45 percent in the next four years.

Vietnamese local retailers wont have it all their own way, however, as foreign giants like Thailand's Central Group, South Korea's Lotte, Japan's Aeon, and Malaysia's Parkson are descending on the market at speed.

Vietnam's retail market is listed in the top five in Asia and ranked 28th globally in terms of growth rate. Photo by Nhat Nam

Under increasingly mounting pressure from foreign competitors, Vietnamese retailers and suppliers are forming an alliance as a strategic move to strengthen their position at home.

Such cooperation will not only be a lot of help to local retailers but also protect domestic manufacturing companies.

There's a complex relationship between the retailers and the companies who supply the many products they sell. Suppliers fiercely compete to get retailers, which run a network of thousands of supermarkets and mini-marts nationwide, to feature their products on the shelves. During the race for the best place on the shelves, Vietnamese suppliers are forced to make a variety of payments including giving a discount or rebate to supermarkets.

Domestic supermarkets often ask for a 10 percent discount at the maximum while foreign-invested players aim for a discount rate of between 10 percent and 30 percent, said Le Thi Thanh Tam, chief executive of Saigon Food.

She added that suppliers just about break even if they have to discount to retailers by as much as 30 percent.

Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup has recently 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.

Vingroup, which is currently expanding at speed in the retail sector by opening two stores a day, signed cooperation agreements with 250 local firms earlier this week in the face of increasingly fierce competition from foreign players.

Thailand's TCC subsidiary Berli Jucker is among the bidders for Big C supermarkets in Vietnam, worth about $1 billion. Photo from Big C's website.

Industry experts suggested local firms should on one hand join forces with domestic retailers like Vingroup, and on the other hand stand shoulder to shoulder to negotiate with retailers.

Lawyer Pham Ngoc Hung, vice chairman of Business Association in Ho Chi Minh City cited the case study of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) as a striking example of how local firms make bargains with retailers.

VASEP, representing thousands of Vietnamese companies in seafood business, has successfully struck a deal with foreign retailers to keep the discount rate unchanged until the end of this year.

Local manufacturing firms in different industries can also cooperate with each other to cut operating costs, said Truong Phu Chien, chief executive officer of confectionery maker Bibica.

He drew up a plan in which sweets producers, instant noodle makers and vegetable oil firms stack and sell their products at the same retail outlets so that they can cut their operating costs to 15 percent, much lower than the discount rate of 30 percent to foreign retailers.

Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, deputy director of Ho Chi Minh Citys Industry and Trade Department stressed the importance of connecting local suppliers with local retailers in the face of fiercer competition from foreign players.

Economist Pham Chi Lan said as 97 percent of Vietnamese firms were of small and medium sizes so there is an urgent need to link them together as well as connect them with local retailers, adding that an economy can only be sustainable with a well developed local business community.
Rory Moroney is photographed on May 26, 2016 in Long Beach, Calif. Moroney is at the center of a Long Beach police lewd-conduct sting that a judge found to be discriminatory. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

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By Hailey Branson-Potts and James Queally, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES  Sitting in cars along the edge of the park, four Long Beach police officers waited for the right time to pounce.

The innocuous signal that spurred them to action came when they saw a middle-aged man close his laptop and head toward a public restroom known in the area as a place where men have sex with each other. One of the undercover officers followed him inside.

Within moments, police were leading the man away in handcuffs. His crime: exposing himself to the officer.

The 2014 arrest in Recreation Park marked another successful sting for the citys vice squad. But the undercover operation, which was sharply criticized recently by a judge, also exemplifies a controversial, age-old police tactic that many of Californias largest law enforcement agencies have quietly abandoned in recent years amid mounting criticism and changing sexual attitudes.

In Los Angeles, Long Beach and other areas where undercover lewd conduct stings endure, police defend them as an important tool for catching people who are violating the law and for deterring others from trying to have sex in parks and other public areas used by families and children.

Gay rights activists do not condone public sex but have long condemned the busts as a form of entrapment, saying they unfairly single out gay men, with sometimes devastating consequences. The issue has been debated for decades. But in recent years, critics of the stings have gained traction as public attitudes about homosexuality and gay rights have shifted.

Undercover officers, critics contend, often exchange flirtatious signals and make arrests of men who think their advances are welcome, when no one else is nearby to be offended. They say that the stings can ensnare men who hadnt otherwise been seeking sex and that they rarely, if ever, target straight people.

Under state law, people who are convicted of indecent exposure must register as sex offenders and face possible jail time. Some have lost their jobs or committed suicide.

Nobody is going to defend lewd conduct, but there is a qualitative difference between sexual predators and people who engage in boorish behavior, said 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. Criminalizing them isnt really justice. You just want them to stop.

Courts also have raised questions about the stings, invalidating a number of prosecutions in various parts of the state. In some cases, judges found no crime had occurred because the undercover officer conveyed sexual interest to the target and no one else was present to be offended by the lewd conduct. In April, a Los Angeles County judge threw out the charges in one case stemming from Long Beachs 2014 operation, saying police were discriminating against gay men.

Many law enforcement agencies have stopped in response to lawsuits or after political backlash. The Los Angeles Times contacted police officials in San Jose, Anaheim, Glendale, San Francisco, Bakersfield, Beverly Hills and Laguna Beach, among other agencies. Representatives for each said their departments had not used such undercover stings in years.

These officials said they came to view the stings as ineffective or unnecessary after noticing a sharp drop-off in complaints about public sex during an age when men can easily find sexual partners through the Internet and dating apps such as Grindr.

Some cities have found alternative ways to tackle the problem of cruising  the act of searching for anonymous public sex. Departments will now post uniformed officers near cruising hot spots or improve lighting and trim trees and bushes in areas known for public sex.

Bottom line is, there were much better things that the vice  bureau should have been engaged in, namely sex trafficking and sexual exploitation, said Los Angeles County Sheriffs Cmdr. Merrill Ladenheim, who heads the agencys human trafficking task force. We really refocused our efforts on those other crimes where we have a victim.

LAPD officials say they have made a point of carrying out undercover operations less frequently in recent years. In 2007, the agency revamped its lewd conduct policy to tell officers that stings should be used only as a last resort.

But when alternative tactics fail, the department has no choice but to deploy decoy officers, said Capt. Andy Neiman, the LAPDs chief spokesman. Though lewd conduct complaints have dropped dramatically in recent years, Neiman said stings have been used to shut down persistent hot spots for gay cruising and lewd acts 11 times since 2014.

Complaints often come from people concerned about sex acts in public places, namely libraries and residential streets, where children could stumble upon people engaged in a lewd act, Neiman said.

You still have to enforce the law when you get complaints, he said.

The use of undercover cops to target gay men in Southern California stretches back to the early 20th century, when gay sex was illegal, said Lillian Faderman, a historian and author of Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians.

The pioneers were W.H. Warren and B.C. Brown, vice specialists who loitered in public restrooms and other areas while carrying out purity campaigns aimed at gay men in Long Beach and Los Angeles, Faderman wrote, adding that their methods served as a model for stings throughout Southern California.

The pair had no prior police training but were given police badges in both cities. They were paid for each arrest and offered their services to other major cities, she said.

In 1914, The Times reported on an operation in which the two helped arrest 31 men accused of engaging in gay sex at private clubs in Long Beach. Long Beachs mayor and police chief awarded Warren and Brown a proclamation that said their work rid the city of a dangerous class which threatened the morals of the youth of the community.

Soon after the arrests, one of the men, a prominent banker and church officer, committed suicide by ingesting cyanide. The fear that other men would follow suit led the city to temporarily ban the sale of toxic substances, The Times reported.

In more recent decades, police agencies that employed the stings defended them as an effective way of responding to complaints about areas well-known for public hook-ups. Decoy operations are necessary to make arrests, officials said, because the crime of lewd conduct is a misdemeanor that requires officers to witness the conduct to justify an arrest.

These are public parks, and public parks attract kids and families, said Bakersfield Sgt. Gary Carruesco, whose department stopped conducting stings after a judge found the practice to be discriminatory in 2005. Obviously, they can walk into a bathroom and witness things.

West Hollywood Councilman John Duran, an attorney who has represented men in cruising cases for 30 years, said a typical client was a deeply closeted gay or bisexual man who had hidden rendezvous in public places. Many, he said, had low self-esteem and turned to cruising because they thought they were undeserving of intimacy.

But the LGBT movement, said Duran, who is gay, has produced new generations of out and proud people who believe they can have healthy sexual encounters. Growing public support of gay rights and the presence of openly gay officers in police departments has put pressure on agencies to stop using stings, he said.

Recent decoy operations have drawn fierce criticism.

Palm Springs police sparked outrage in 2009 when officers arrested 19 men in an undercover sting in a neighborhood known for gay resorts.

Audio recordings of the operation caught a detective and the police chief making derogatory comments about the men who were arrested. The chief later resigned, and the department has not employed the tactic again, a police spokesman said.

In 2012, Manhattan Beach police were blasted for releasing the mug shots of men swept up in a lewd conduct sting. Police said at the time that local lifeguards had found graffiti of graphic sexual images on restroom walls and holes drilled through stall partitions.

One man sued the city, alleging that he was falsely arrested and that his photograph and name were released to the media. The department stopped using decoys soon afterward, said Sgt. Paul Ford, supervisor of the agencys detective bureau.

In Long Beach, gay rights activists said they were troubled  and surprised  to see stings still being deployed in a city with a vibrant LGBT community and an openly gay mayor.

Long Beach police took more than two dozen men into custody during decoy operations from 2012 to 2014, according to Bruce Nickerson, a civil rights attorney. One of those men was Rory Moroney, who was arrested in the Recreation Park sting in 2014.

On the day he was arrested, Moroney, 50, said he was using his laptop in the park to search for jobs. He knew the reputation of the mens room, but he hadnt gone there to cruise, he said. Moroney said he was washing his hands when he saw a man standing in a stall, thumbs hooked over his belt, smiling and nodding. He believed the undercover officer was flirting.

They were targeting. Thats not right, Moroney said. They baited me. They trapped me.

On April 29, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Halim Dhanidina sided with Moroney and tossed out the charges.

The judge noted that the Long Beach police vice unit had conducted a series of stings spanning two years that used only male officers to arrest male suspects seeking sex with other men. Dhanidina found that the stings were indicative of animus toward homosexuals. The judge also ruled that the presence and tactics of the decoy officers actually caused the crimes to occur.

Long Beach police said they conduct decoy operations only in response to public complaints. Cmdr. Paul Lebaron, who oversees the citys detective division, including the vice unit, said the department exhausts other tactics first before using stings as a last resort. Lebaron, who was not running vice operations when Moroney was arrested, said the agency has conducted only one lewd conduct sting since January 2015.

The city prosecutors office has not said if it will appeal the judges decision. Nickerson said he plans to argue in court that the charges against the 27 other men caught in the stings in 2013 and 2014 should be invalidated.

Mayor Robert Garcia said he hadnt been aware of the stings and that the city is now reviewing its policies.

I view Long Beach as a progressive place that believes in justice and dignity for everybody, Garcia said. So when I hear that something occurs that could be contrary to that, Im alarmed.



2016 Los Angeles Times

Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com

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Gregory Cheadle has always thought for himself. So maybe he's just the sort of guy we need in Washington to replace Wally Herger.

Cheadle is a 55-year-old real estate broker and entrepreneur from Happy Valley, a libertarian-leaning Republican who also happens to be black.

Since last May he's been campaigning door to door in Chico and Redding. He started some six months before Herger announced his retirement after a quarter century in D.C. and anointed wealthy rice farmer Doug LaMalfa as his successor.

Despite his long tenure, Herger hasn't been a "real leader," says Cheadle. "Wimpy rubber stamp," is how he puts it.

And his pick of LaMalfa amounts to "affirmative action" and "good old boy network" politics. LaMalfa's nearly $5 million in rice subsidies from the federal government smack of "hypocrisy," he feels.

"Personally, I like Doug. But how can you condemn welfare on one hand but condone it (by taking crop subsidies) on the other?" Cheadle asks.

People 'fed up'

Of course he lacks LaMalfa's political connections and bankroll. That doesn't seem to bother Cheadle, who has largely financed his own shoestring campaign, supplemented by "86-cent donations." "Let him outspend me. Meg Whitman is a good example of what money cannot buy. Right now people are fed up, period."

Cheadle grew up in inner-city Cleveland and Oakland, the son of a "shoeshine boy who graduated to become a shoe repairman." From the beginning "I was wired differently, very analytical. ... I spoke differently, I was called 'white' from age nine or ten."

Education was key. Cheadle has a master's degree in public administration and will soon finish a law degree. He also studied nursing. But there's more: "I don't want to sound like Tim Tebow, but the Lord was leading. No shortage of miracles there," he says of his life.

He has three children  two girls, ages 26 and 13, and a boy, 19, who survived leukemia as a child. He moved his family to the Redding area 11 years ago from Southern California. "I wanted a better place for kids," he told me when I met him downtown on a recent Sunday afternoon. He was dressed in the suit and tie he wears while walking precincts.

'Furious' over bailouts

His political epiphany? The Wall Street bailouts of 2009. "I was furious  the people weren't being represented," he says. Cheadle "sounds more like an Occupier than a Tea Partier," wrote the left-leaning Chico News & Review in a February profile, headlined "The overlooked candidate."

"I like liberals," he says. "They like me. I speak honestly, there's no game-playing here." Cheadle believes voters want real change in Washington. "This divide and conquer stuff is working too well right now," he jokes.

On other issues: "Obamacare is ridiculous. A 2,600-page law that's about nothing more than control." Health, he believes, is about personal responsibility. "We're overweight, we overindulge in food, alcohol and drugs and as a result we have an incredibly unhealthy population. These things are preventable. Diabetes is a plague that will destroy this country. The problem with medicine today is too many drugs and not enough old-fashioned touching."

On his website, CheadleForCongress.com, there's a link to the documentary "Forks Over Knives." He's been a vegan for some 20 years.

The war on drugs? "A miserable failure. For years it has been used as a ruse to target blacks. Race aside, one of the more damning aspects of incarceration for drug offenses is that we send amateur offenders to jail/prison and while there they learn to become professional criminals."

But he's dubious about legalization. "What we need to focus on is having people healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so that drug use will decrease, not increase."

Foreign policy? "We should not be the world's police. It is not our job to force other nations to be like us so that we can merely sell them more goods."

The economy? We need to lower the tax and regulatory burden and bring down the price of energy  "it's no surprise our economy is in deep trouble."

Stakes are high

The African-American culture? Rap music has served to reinforce the worst stereotypes about blacks, he feels. "The Klan could not have done this better."

Another example of Cheadle's independent thinking  he's not afraid to criticize Ronald Reagan, who, he says, ran up the national debt and offered amnesty to illegal aliens. "And they (Republicans) love this guy? He was the beginning of the mess we're in today."

The stakes are high, he believes.

"We've got tons of people out of work, tons of people who are angry and tons of people with nothing to do. I remember the race riots of the Sixties when police couldn't do anything but 'let it burn.' Imagine multiple cities in chaos. If present trends continue it'll be George Orwell on steroids."

Cheadle's campaigning hard in advance of the June election, California's first open primary. "I'm looking for Democrats, independents and Republicans who are really thinkers," he says.

Personally, I can't wait for Cheadle and LaMalfa to face off in a debate.

Marc Beauchamp has a blog at Redding.com. Reach him at notbusinessasusual@gmail.com.
The new Ola app will allow fleet owners to track their cars in real-time, view the performance of their drivers, and even their daily earnings

Ola, a taxi-hailing app, is trying to get small taxi operators in its fold with the launch of an app for fleet owners.

Ola, which is modelled on the San Francisco-based Uber, needs more drivers on its platform to increase the number of rides it can fulfil, which helps it gain market share.

With this launch (in Mumbai), Ola aims to add tens of thousands of new operators to its platform, the company said in a statement. Ola claims to have more than 350,000 cars on its platform and is trying to scale up as Uber readies a fresh fund infusion into its Indian arm.

The new Ola app will allow fleet owners to track their cars in real-time, view the performance of their drivers, and even their daily earnings. The app will help manage one car to a large fleet of taxis.

Neighbourhood taxi operators run fleets of four or five cars servicing local travel. Launched in 2008, Ola ran them out of business by allowing users to book taxis online or on a smartphone at subsidised rates. This was possible because of the funds Ola raised from private equity investors.

Today, the company controls 60-65 per cent of a market estimated to be worth $1.2 billion in gross booking value, according to consulting firm RedSeer.

Uber, which came to India in August 2013, engaged in a price war with Ola that further reduced fares and helped it capture 35-40 per cent of the market. Now Uber plans to mobilise a large chunk of the $3.5 billion it raised from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia to take on Ola in India.

Tens of thousands of driver-partners who joined us with a single car have grown to become operators owning many cars, said Sumit Tuteja, senior director at Ola. We believe the technology needs for entrepreneurs to succeed at scale are different from what helped them grow as driver-partners.

Small taxi operators

Ola, a taxi-hailing app, is trying to get small taxi operators in its fold with the launch of an app for fleet owners

350,000 cars

Ola claims to have on its platform and is trying to scale up as Uber readies a fresh fund infusion into its Indian arm

New Ola app

Will allow taxi operators to track their cars in real-time, view performance of their drivers, and even their daily earnings

Image: Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO and co-founder of Ola. Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters.
Bollywood fraternity extended their condolences to the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali's demise at the age of 74, after losing his long-standing battle against Parkinson's disease.

The celebs took to their respective Twitter handles to express their thoughts on this unrepairable loss.

'Rest in peace legend @MuhammadAli #FloatLikeAButterfly #StingLikeABee #GOAT,' tweeted Abhishek Bachchan.

'Crushed! @MuhammadAli was the 1st sportsman I was told about by @SrBachchan. He was inspirational and an idol,' he added.

Farhan Akhtar: '@MuhammadAli Never before-Never again. RIP Champ.'

Rishi Kapoor: 'RIP. Muhammad Ali.Was at a function with him in Bahrain think early 80's. He was unwell and he called me pretty boy.'

Ayushmann Khurrana: 'I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark." - #RIPMuhammadAli.'

John Abraham: 'Float like a butterfly , sting like a bee" sad sad sad day #MuhammadAli.'

Jackky Bhagnani: 'The greatest that ever was. Eloquent, colorful, controversial and simply brilliant. THE #MohammedAli. RIP Cassius Clay.'

Vishal Dadlani: 'He won every fight and made it look like a dance. Even the one against life. #AliBomaye #RIPAli.'

Sajid Khan: 'R.I.P. Muhammad Ali...the greatest boxer of all times...'

Atul Kasbekar: 'My hero @MuhammadAli 's book #TheGreatest should be required reading for kids.An epic tale of taking on whatever life throws at u. RIP.'

The former three-time world heavyweight champion, who was admitted to a hospital in Phoenix, the United States with a respiratory problem, breathed his last surrounded by his family and friends.

The iconic figure, who also won an Olympic gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics, was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in the 1980s.

Ali took retirement from his illustrious career after a defeat against Trevor Berbick in 1981.

The funeral will take place in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.
Striking for a second time in less than 24 hours in South Kashmir, militants on Saturday killed two police personnel in poll-bound Anantnag from where Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is contesting.

In a targeted action against security personnel, suspected militants opened fire at a police party in the main bus stand in Anantnag at 11.20 am injuring Assistant Sub-Inspector Bashir Ahmad and Constable Reyaz Ahmad who were rushed to a hospital where they succumbed.

The attack comes in less than 24 hours when militants of banned Hizbul Mujahideen ambushed a Border Security Force convoy at neighbouring Goriwan area at Bijbehara killing three of its personnel.

Saturdays attack in Anantnag is seen as an attempt by the militants to scare the voters as Mehbooba is seeking her election to the state assembly from here.

The seat, where elections are now scheduled to be held on June 22, had fallen vacant after the death of former chief minister and her father Mufti Mohammed Sayeed on January 7. Mehbooba is among nine candidates in the fray.

Police and Central Reserve Police Force have cordoned off the area and were carrying out searches at various places to nab the culprits.

Opposition National Conference hit out at Peoples Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party government and said instead of making tall claims of improved ground situation on papers, the state government should do something concrete on ground and ensure safety and security of people.

Party spokesperson Junaid Mattu said with elections round the corner in the assembly, ongoing tourist season and forthcoming Amarnath Yatra, One expects that security should be at its best. But every now and then, loopholes within the security establishment stand exposed.

State Congress chief G A Mir questioned the PDP-BJP government credentials in tackling the law and order situation saying fear is being created in the mind of the voters and it does not augur well for a healthy democracy.

The attacks also come against the backdrop of a boycott call for elections given by hardline pro-Pakistan Hurriyat faction led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
IMAGE: Policemen patroll inside Jawahar Park in Mathura where Thursday's clashes between police and ecroachers claimed several lives. Photograph: Subhav Shukla/PTI

Uneasy calm prevailed in areas around Jawaharbagh in Mathura a day after violent clashes between police and members of a sect claimed 24 lives as a large posse of police and paramilitary personnel kept strict vigil forcing locals to stay indoors.

Jawaharbagh, which had been teemed with thousands of encroachers who set up their tents for a couple years, wore an eerie silence as policemen blocked its only entry point, through which thousands of protesters had fled on Thursday.

Neighbourhood resident Kaptan Singh who was employed at the office of Mathura District Magistrate, said "Around 4.30 pm on Thursday, a huge posse of police and Provincial Armed Constabulary personnel had gathered outside Jawaharbagh to remove the encroachers. Superintendent of police Mukul Dwivedi was last heard announcing to the encroachers to leave the land urging them to cooperate with the administration and the police."

While the police force was getting ready for the anti-encroachment operation, firing started from the walled Jawaharbagh, he claimed.

"It was like a rain of bullets and we locked ourselves inside our house and remained there till the deafening noise of the guns silenced," said local shopkeeper Rajender.

"When we came out of our house around 5.30 pm, we saw policemen running frantically towards the main road. In a few minutes we realised that the Station Officer (Fara) was shot dead and the SP City had also sustained bullet injury. The two of them along with three others were being rushed to hospital," he said.

On Friday over 200 police officers from Mathura and nearby districts including Agra, Badayun, Muradabad, were deployed in the area to ensure that no law-and-order problem arose in the wake of the violence.

A huge posse of media persons also camped in the area and locals thronged the site interacting with them and sharing their experiences.

Farther away from Jawaharbagh, Mathura city retained its normal daily routine with people talking about the incident and expressing their shock over it.

Another local Brij Mohan Sharma said the protesters had set hundreds of camps on fire and the entire sky was lit up with a crimson tinge.

"The locals were terrified and started filling up buckets with water for a potential fire operation," Sharma said.

The locals expressed curiosity as to what led the protesters to mount a "sudden attack" on the police.

"The policemen were encircling Jawaharbagh and announcements were being made by the officials asking the encroachers to leave the place peacefully and all of a sudden they started firing and throwing grenades," Sharma said.

Another local Sanjeev expressed surprise over the attack saying "the police used to come here every week to put pressure on the encroachers to leave the government land but never in the past they reacted and attacked them like this."

Locals even claimed that they had seen SP City Dwivedi going to the Jawaharbagh on several occasions to persuade them to leave the land.

The family members of Station House Officer Santosh Yadav took his mortal remains to his native place in Agra while the SP City Dwivedi was cremated at Masani cremation ground.

Dwivedi's father accompanied by minor sons of the deceased officer was present at the cremation ground.

He alleged the SSP and the DM knew that the land was grabbed since two years and took no action and then sent his son to vacate it.

Dwivedi's mother said she doesn't want any money from the government but her son back.

"I don't want compensation. I want my son back. They sent my son to Mathura to get him killed," she said.
Facing a string of allegations including irregularities in a land deal, Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse on Saturday resigned, the first casualty in the Bharatiya Janata Party since the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combine took over pledging zero-tolerance towards corruption.

Forwarding Khadses resignation to Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced an inquiry by a retired high court judge into the allegations against him, as sought by the senior leader himself.

With his position becoming untenable after the central leadership sent a clear and stern message, the 64-year-old veteran from north Maharashtra drove on Saturday morning to Fadnaviss official residence to offer his resignation.

Later, after a point-by-point rebuttal of allegations at a press meet, Khadse went to Fadnaviss residence again to formally hand over his resignation.

I have received Eknath Khadses resignation. I have accepted it and sent it to Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao. A retired high court judge will be appointed to probe charges against Khadse, said Fadnavis.

The fate of Khadse was sealed two days back after Fadnavis briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah in Delhi about the development and its possible fallout on the image of the ministry.

Allegations against Khadse were leveraged not only by the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Aam Aadmi Party to embarrass Maharashtras first BJP-led government, but even ally Shiv Sena had come out in the open seeking his ouster.

Considered number two in the Cabinet and in-charge of vital portfolios like revenue and agriculture, Khadse has been facing a series of allegations including irregularities in a land deal in Pune and of getting calls allegedly from fugitive Dawood Ibrahims residence in Karachi on his mobile phone besides the alleged bribe sought by a personal aide.

He is in a spot over the purchase of a three-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation land in Pune 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.

Rubbishing the allegations at a press meet with state BJP chief Raosaheb Danve, Khadse said he had been a victim of an unprecedented media trial.

Seen as the backward caste face of the party with a massive following in northern districts, Khadse said, For the last 40 years, I have been in politics and the party but had not experienced a media trial like this.

Protests erupted in Khadse's home turf Jalgaon and his constituency Mutainagar where people took to the streets in support of the stalwart.

The Congress, however, said mere resignation would not do and a criminal case should be registered against Khadse.

Mere resignation of Eknath Khadse with a simultaneous clean chit to him wouldnt put the lid over or do away the need for an independent probe into alleged Dawood Ibrahim terror connection, partys chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said in New Delhi.
The bodies of 117 refugees have been recovered in the Mediterranean sea after a smuggling boat carrying mainly African migrants capsized off the coast of Libya.

In a separate massive search-and-rescue operation in the open sea saved 340 people and recovered nine bodies.

The two sinkings were the latest deadly disasters for refugees and migrants hoping to find better lives in Europe, and came in addition to the over 1,000 people who drowned since May 25 while attempting the perilous, lengthy journey across the sea from North Africa to Europe's southern shores.

In Libya, at least 117 bodies -- 75 women, six children and 36 men -- were pulled out from the waters near the western city of Zwara, Mohammed al-Mosrati, a spokesman for Libya's Red Crescent, told AP. All but a few were from African countries. The death toll was expected to rise. No lifejackets were seen on photos Red Cross photos of the bodies.

Libyan coast guards found the vessel drifting on Thursday but believe it may have capsized the previous day with an unknown number of people on board.

William Spindler, a spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency, noted new and far riskier tactics being used by traffickers.

The second boat capsized on May 26, drowning what his agency estimated was around 550 migrants.

Image used for representation purpose only
IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi being conferred with Afghanistans highest civilian honour, the Amir Amanullah Khan Award by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Herat, Afghanistan on Saturday. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo



Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on a brief visit to Afghanistan, was today conferred with Amir Amanullah Khan Award, the countrys highest civilian honour.

He was awarded the honour by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani after the inauguration of the landmark Afghan-India Friendship Dam.

A true brotherhood is honoured. PM is awarded the Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistans highest civilian honour, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted, along with a photo.

During his 25 minute-long speech after inaugurating the dam, Modi also invoked Chisht born Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti who settled down in Ajmer and is venerated by thousands of people visiting his shrine.

Khwaja Moiunuddin Chishti, the first of the Chishti saints in India, said that human beings must have the affection of the sun, the generosity of the river and the hospitality of the earth.

He not only had the magnificent landscape of his ancestral land in mind, he could also be describing the Afghan people. So, when I came to Kabul in December, in the warmth of your welcome, I saw the kindness of your heart, said Modi in Chisht-e-Sharif in western Herat neighbouring Iran.

At the close of the speech, the prime minister also wished the people of Afghanistan and all Muslims across the world for the Holy Month of Ramzan.
After being re-elected to the Rajya Sabha, Senior Congress leader Ambika Soni on Friday said that the party will decide when the time was right to pass on the baton to Rahul Gandhi.

"The fact that Rahul Gandhi has to be the president of the Congress party was a decision which the party entirely with its consent and concurrence took in January 2013 when it had unanimously elected him as the vice-president.

You become the vice-president, so that one day in future you will take over as the president. Which day that will be, the party, its leadership, Rahulji and Soniaji themselves will take a call," Soni said.

The veteran Congress leader was replying to the recent remarks of Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh suggesting Rahul Gandhi to take over as the Congress president.

She, however, described the current Congress president as a "catalytic force" who united various factions within the party and said the leadership baton will be passed on when the "time was right".

"Sonia Gandhi has really been a catalytic force in Congress party, she has united different factions and successfully gave them a direction. Without her, we would have never been able to form the United Progressive Alliance I and II and governments in so many states. So, whether we acknowledge that publicly or as every Congress worker always pays a silent tribute to her work, that is universal," said Soni.

When asked if senior leaders would want Sonia to continue as the party's president, Soni, who is also chairperson of Congress' Campaign Committee for the upcoming Punjab assembly elections in 2017, said, "look, it's not a question of anyone coming in because we don't want her to continue. Congressmen would like to have all of them (the Gandhi family) in the party in one position or the other."

On the suggestion of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra entering into active politics, Soni said "these suggestions have been there for a very very long time. They have to take the final decision. They are thinking individuals, educated, born into Congress family. Priyanka Gandhi and Mr Vadra will take a call, it is the family who takes the call. We cannot force them. But definitely, Congress workers wants her to join," she said.

Soni also dismissed Bharatiya Janata Party's 'Congress-mukt Bharat' agenda, saying it is a dream which will never be realised.

"As far as their Congress-mukt Bharat is concerned or Amit Shah dreaming that such a thing would happen, let me tell you they faced defeat in Uttarakhand. They went to every extent including violate constitutional provisions, demolish and denigrate democratic institutions. From Uttarakhand thing, the BJP should learn a lesson," she said.

On being re-elected to Rajya Sabha, Soni said, "I am feeling that I have got six years more to work for Punjab. I was not hoping that I would get a re-nomination since I had also been appointed in Campaign Committee (as Chairperson) for upcoming Punjab assembly elections.
On June 3, Can Tho City, the socio-economic center of the Mekong Delta region launched its $322 million project to fight against flooding.

The project will cover an area of 2,700 hectares with $250 million borrowed from the World Bank, 72 millions funded by the provincial budget and $10 million granted by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

In recent years, the citys flood situation has worsened. Heavy rains in combination with high tides often inundate more than 50 streets of the city. The Institute for Social and Environmental Transition said that water levels of inner rivers will go up by 15 millimeters each year, exacerbating the already serious problem of flooding.

By 2021, upon completion, the project is expected to benefit one million people of Can Tho City and about nine million of the Mekong Delta.

The Mekong Delta in south-western Vietnam is known as the world's rice bowl. It contributes 56 percent of Vietnams rice output and 40 percent of the countrys seafood volume.
Unfazed by terror attacks on its missions, India will continue to extend cooperation in war-torn Afghanistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Saturday after dedicating a Rs 1,700 crore dam in strategically vital Herat province.

Modi said other countries may have a sunset clause but Indias ties with Afghanistan remain timeless.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi being warmly received by the President of Afghanistan Mohammad Ashraf Ghani in Herat. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

Our resources may be modest, but our will is boundless. For others, their commitments may have a sunset clause, but our relationship is timeless. We face barriers of geography and politics, but we define our path from the clarity of our purpose, he said in an address after inaugurating the Afghan-India Friendship Dam along with President Ashraf Ghani.

Modi hailed the people of Afghanistan for denouncing terrorism and said division among them will only help those seeking to dominate the nation from outside.

It was a war not of Afghan making, but it was one that stole the future of an entire generation of Afghans, the prime minister said, adding that the brave Afghan people are today sending a message that the forces of destruction and death, denial and domination shall not prevail.

When Afghanistan succeeds in defeating terrorism, the world will be safer and more beautiful, he said.

The dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, has been built by India at a cost of Rs 1,700 crore on river Harirud in Chist-e-Sharif in western Herat neighbouring Iran. It will irrigate 75,000 hectares of land and generate 42 MW of power.

This dam has not been built by bricks and mortar, but by the faith of our friendship and the valour of Afghans and Indians. And, at this moment of pride, we also stand in grief and gratitude for lives sacrificed so that Afghan people will have a future they so richly deserve and so deeply desire, Modi said.

IMAGE: The multi-million dollar project has been executed and implemented by WAPCOS Ltd, a government of India undertaking under ministry of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation. Photograph: MEAIndia/Twitter

Resolving to stand by Afghanistan, the Prime Minister said Indias cooperation will extend to every part of the war-torn country and that the partnership will benefit every section of Afghan society.

"In your clear eyes, I saw the deep well of affection for India. In your smiles, I saw the joy of this relationship. In the firmness of your embrace, I felt the trust in our friendship, Modi said.

In his around 25-minute-long speech, Modi touched upon the peace process in Afghanistan, the massive terrorist attack on Indian Consulate in Herat and reconstruction activities in that country.

When our people are under attack, the brave Afghans guard us as their own. They put themselves in the line of fire so that their Indian friends are safe. This is the nobility of your heart and the strength of your friendship. I have seen this from the moment I assumed office as Prime Minister.

For on that day, when terrorists launched a massive attack on our Consulate in this city of Herat, the heroic efforts of Afghan soldiers, and of our personnel, saved many lives and prevented a big tragedy, he said, referring to the 2014 attack on the Indian mission in Herat.

In the past, Indian embassy in Kabul has been attacked twice and its mission in Jalalabad was targetted by a suicide bomber in March this year.

IMAGE: Modi and Ghani welcomed by the children at Governor's Office in Herat. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

Modi further said Afghanistans success is a deeply-held hope and desire of every Indian.

"It comes from the love and admiration for Afghans in our hearts. We want to see your democracy strike deep roots, your people unite, and, your economy prosper. We want to see your art, culture and poetry thrive. And, we want to see your cricketers join the ranks of test players and also seek glory in the Indian Premiere League.

"But, it also comes from the recognition that when Afghanistan succeeds, the world will be safer and more beautiful. When the values that define Afghans prevail, terrorism and extremism will be in retreat. Because we know that extremism and terrorism cannot stop at your border or end at the boundaries of our region, he said.

India will remain a trusted partner of Afghanistan because of the time-tested values that Afghans and Indians seek each other, not because they harbour designs against another, Modi said.

The prime minister said there has been resistance and suspicion of others about Indias role in Afghanistan but its resolve was strong that will guide it forward in ensuring the countrys prosperity.

"I said then (during the last visit), and I will say it again, your friendship is our honour; your dreams are our duty. Indias capacity may be limited, but our commitment is without limits.

Without naming any country, Modi said India drew strength and confidence from Afghanistans deep commitment to protect the partnership from the designs of others.

"With resolve and patience, courage and belief, we have together overcome distance and hurdles, threats and violence, said the prime minister.

Talking about the dam, Modi said the fields that produce the finest fruits and saffron shall once again come alive with the clear waters of the river.

In his address, the Prime Minister invoked the Holy Quran to say that river is central to the image of Paradise and cited Indias ancient scriptures in which rivers defined our nation and were celebrated as the giver of life.

"Today, we are not just launching a project that will irrigate land and light up homes. We are reviving a region, restoring hope, renewing life and redefining Afghanistans future.

"The dam is a generator not just of electricity but also of optimism and belief in the future of Afghanistan, Modi said, insisting he is here to renew Indias pledge for the partnership.

Complementing resolve of the Afghan people in defeating terrorism, Modi said the world will be safer and more beautiful if the country succeeds in its path of peace.

When the values that define Afghans prevail, terrorism and extremism will be in retreat... we know that extremism and terrorism cannot stop at your border or end at the boundaries of our region, he said.
With an aim to bolster ties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday embarked on a five-nation visit to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico focus of which will be to enhance Indias engagement in areas of trade, energy and security, besides pushing for its membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Modi is likely to seek support of Switzerland and Mexico for Indias membership of the 48-member NSG as both these countries are key members of the elite group. The issue is likely to figure during Modis meeting with Obama in Washington.

India has formally applied for membership of the NSG on May 12.

From our immediate neighbourhood to our trans-Atlantic partners. PM @narendramodi emplanes for a 5 nation tour, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted along with a photograph of Modi leaving for the five-day trip.

During his talks with the leadership of Switzerland, the prime minister is also likely to raise the issue of black money stashed by Indians in Swiss banks.

The prime ministers first destination is Afghanistan where he will inaugurate the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, in Herat province on Saturday, along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Both the leaders will also hold talks on a range of issues including current situation in Afghanistan.

From Afghanistan, Modi will travel to energy-rich Qatar on Sunday itself and from there he will leave for a two-day visit to Switzerland on Sunday.

Asked at a press briefing on PMs visit whether the issue of black money will be raised by Modi during his talks with Swiss leaders, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had said on Friday both the countries are in touch on the issue.

We are in touch with the Swiss government under the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement mandate and we have had some discussions on this and we have a few planned in the near future. We have received support from the Swiss authorities on exchange of information on tax data between the two countries.

We do hope to engage as early as possible in the automatic exchange of information with Switzerland and this has been conveyed to Swiss tax authorities, he said.

On Indias bid for NSG membership, Jaishankar said India has been eyeing membership of the premier group for many, many years and that it has made lot of progress on that.

From Switzerland, the PM travels to Washington on June 6 where he will have a packed schedule including an address to a joint session of the US Congress. He

will be the fifth Indian Prime Minister to do so.

Modi will begin his US visit on June 6 by paying tributes at the Arlington National Cemetery. He will then meet heads of a number of American think tanks and will attend an event to repatriate Indian antiquity by the US.

On June 7, the PM will hold wide-ranging talks with President Barack Obama on the entire gamut of bilateral ties. The meeting will be followed by a lunch to be hosted by Obama for Modi.

In the afternoon, Modi will meet business leaders and address the US-India Business Council during which he is expected to highlight measures taken by his government to ensure ease of doing business.

On June 8, Modi will address a joint meeting of the US Congress which will be followed by a lunch to be hosted by the Speaker. A reception is also being organised for Modi by the House and Senate Committees on foreign relations and the India Caucus. The PM will attend a community reception as well.

In Qatar, Modi will hold talks with his counterpart Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani and Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on a host of issues which may include trade and security.

He will also visit a workers camp in Doha and also interact with the Indian community.

The size of annual bilateral trade between India and Qatar is around $10 billion and both the countries would like to expand it significantly. Qatar has a major sovereign wealth fund and India is eyeing to attract investment from it.

During his visit to Switzerland, the PM will hold talks with President of the Swiss Confederation Johann Schneider-Ammann on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest.

Switzerland is Indias fifth largest trading partner of India. The European country is also the 11th largest foreign investor in India.

The PM will arrive in Mexico from the US on June 8. He will have extensive talks with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on key bilateral issues including Indias membership bid at the NSG. Modi will leave for India on the evening of June 8.

Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi departs for Afghanistan, the first leg of his five-nation tour. Photograph: Press Information Bureau
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on a brief visit to Afghanistan, was on Saturday conferred with Amir Amanullah Khan Award, the countrys highest civilian honour.

He was awarded the honour by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani after the inauguration of the landmark Afghan-India Friendship Dam.

A true brotherhood is honoured. PM is awarded the Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistans highest civilian honour, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted along with a photo.

During his 25 minute-long speech after inaugurating the dam, Modi also invoked Chisht-born Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti who settled down in Ajmer and is venerated by thousands of people visiting his shrine.

Khwaja Moiunuddin Chishti, the first of the Chishti saints in India, said that human beings must have the affection of the sun, the generosity of the river and the hospitality of the earth.

He not only had the magnificent landscape of his ancestral land in mind, he could also be describing the Afghan people. So, when I came to Kabul in December, in the warmth of your welcome, I saw the kindness of your heart, said Modi in Chisht-e-Sharif in western Herat neighbouring Iran.

At the close of the speech, the prime minister also wished the people of Afghanistan and all Muslims across the world for the holy month of Ramzan.
IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi shares a meal with Indian workers in Doha on the first day of his visit to Qatar on Saturday. Photograph: MEAIndia/Twitter

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday assured Indian workers in Qatar that he will take up problems faced by them during his talks with leaders of this Gulf nation.

Addressing Indian workers at a medical camp in downtown Doha, Modi said he is aware of the issues being faced by Indian workers and the companies that bring them here.

"I am aware of the issues you are facing. I will talk about it when I meet the authorities, he said.

Modi will hold detailed talks with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on Sunday.

Modi noted that his first engagement during his two-day visit to Qatar on the second leg of his five-nation tour was a visit to the camp of Indian workers in Doha.

"I came to Doha in the evening and the first programme on my schedule was to meet you all, he said. Qatar is home to over six lakh people of Indian origin.

Modi also interacted with workers after his brief address and shared refreshments with them.

He shook hands with several workers during his 30-minute stay at the camp.

The prime minister said he wants to congratulate doctor friends for the good work they are doing in Qatar.

Happy to see regular health check ups being conducted here, he said.

Modi also struck a chord with the Indian workers when he said, When someone from your land, speaking your language comes, I am sure that would make you very happy.

If you have some issues on changing some rules and regulations, I will work with you all to bring about these changes, he told the audience.

Modi said he believed that the leadership in the Gulf has a lot of love and belief in the Indian community in the region.

In this context, he spoke about the visit of Qatars Emir to India last year and referred to his praise of the unmatched contribution of the Indian community to the development of his country.

Modi also said Indias global image is not made by its prime minister or its ambassador but, Its all of you through your behaviour, who earn India a good name.

This global goodwill is the biggest international reserve currency, he added.

If you have some issues on changing some rules and regulations, I will work with you all to bring about these changes, he told the audience.

IMAGE: Modi with Qatar's PM Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al-Thani in Doha on Saturday. Photograph: MEAIndia/Twitter

Modi told the Indian workers in Qatar that monsoon this year will be good.

This year the best news is that it is going to be a good monsoon. When such news come, they bring with them a lot of happiness, he said.

India Meteorological Department had said earlier this week that there is no possibility of a deficient monsoon this year and 96 per cent chances are that the rainfall would be normal to excess.

The PM also appreciated the wellness centre for the workers, saying that it offered facilities like yoga and relaxation techniques.

At the event, Qatars Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohammad Al-Kuwari and Finance Minister Ali Shareef Al Emadi were also present.

Modi said he enquired about the health problems being faced by the workers and found that counselling and diabetes were the two main issues of concern.

Do work hard, but while doing so, please do focus on keeping your health and body fighting fit, he said.
Mainak Sarkar, the Indian-American gunman who shot dead his wife and his former college professor before turning the gun on himself, acted on his own, the police said on Saturday.

This was simply him, Captain William Hayes of the Los Angels Police Department told reporters.

We have not been able to determine any trigger event that would lead to this or the murder of his wife, he said in response to a question.

Sarkar, 38, killed his wife Ashley Hasti at her Minnesota home, before driving to the University of California Los Angeles to shoot his former professor William Klug.

The police is still investigating into the possible motives of the shooting that has shocked the Indian-American community nationwide.

It is believed that Sarkar first killed his wife in Minneapolis after which he drove his Nissan to Los Angeles for killing Klug.

The Los Angeles Police Departments Deputy Chief Matt Blake said investigators have found a hand gun and several red gasoline cans in the cars trunk.

The police believes that the cans were used to refuel the tank on his way from Minneapolis to Los Angeles so as to avoid using his credit card at gas stations during his long drive.

It did not look like the cans were used for anything nefarious, Hayes was quoted as saying by The Los Angeles Times.

Meanwhile, the police said they were having difficulties in identifying the body of Hasti, the wife of Sarkar.

They reportedly married in 2011.

They didnt live together long  maybe a year, Charlane Bertsch, Hastis great-aunt, told Los Angeles Times.

Hastis uncle, Mark Fitzgibbons, told NBC News the family was in shock.

She was way ahead of her time, Fitzgibbons said of his niece, who had studied abroad in Taiwan and China during high school before heading to ScrippsCollege in California for pre-med studies.

There is no evidence that Sarkar committed any other crime.
Bun Cha frenzy has officially come to Vietnam's neighboring Singapore following the viral instagram post by Anthony Bourdain enjoying this Hanoi street food with Obama in an ordinary eatery in Vietnam, according to the New Paper (TNP).

Last week, social media went crazy when U.S. celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain posted a photo of his dinner with U.S. President Barack Obama, who was touring Hanoi, Vietnam, at the Bun Cha Huong Lien eatery.

They were eating bun cha, a popular Hanoi dish of white rice noodles, herbs and grilled pork, and the picture had a ripple effect - at least for Uncle Ho Tuckshop at 100 Pasir Panjang Road in Singapore.

The "POTUS effect": Barack Obama having a meal of bun cha with celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain in Hanoi, in a picture that has gone viral. Photo from Instagram/Anthony Bourdain

Jackie Ho, a co-owner of the restaurant who is in her late 40s, said they usually sell about 200 bowls of bun cha at $12.90 each day. "Bun cha is in fact our house special and it is popular with customers," she told TNP.

But since the Obama-Bourdain picture went viral, that number of customers has gone up by "more than 50 per cent." "We even had people calling us to reserve bowls for them, in case we run out by evening," she added.

To the uninitiated, bun cha is not pronounced as it is spelt. Ho said people have been coming in all week and mispronouncing it. "It's boon cha," she said.

Hanoi-born chef Le Van Tuan, Ho's uncle, 38, said bun cha must have a broth that is balanced - sweet, sour and salty. "The herbs are important too. We use the coca leaf and Vietnamese mint that we import," he said. You must also eat it with garlic and pickles in the broth. Note that the broth is not for drinking. It is actually a dipping sauce for the rice noodles. "It's a very famous shop with at least 20 years' history. It only sells bun cha," he said.

Tuan stressed that there is only one version: with pork.

The Obama effect isn't felt by all Vietnamese restaurants though, as bun cha is not as readily available in Singapore. TNP called a few other Vietnamese restaurants and only two sell it. Popular chain Wrap & Roll is one of those.

Jacinta Lee, marketing manager of MSJ Gourmet Group which operates Wrap & Roll, said: "We have not yet seen a rise in orders as people are still wondering exactly what dish it is, as the awareness on Vietnamese cuisine is still quite low."

But that may change soon.

Lee said that from Saturday, they will start serving an Obama set meal ($12.90) consisting of "Bun Cha Hanoi in its original Hanoi presentation with Vietnamese beer."
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.
Yesterday, a school for gifted students in Hanoi opened for enrolment and the number of applicants stood at about 10 times the schools capacity, 480, meaning for each student accepted 10 fail. Though it's not news, these battles have become a standard dinner table discussion.

In Vietnam, South Korea and China, the most attention sucking competition is the nationwide university entrance exam. The second to best in terms of ferocity is the race for a place in a high school for the gifted. One of them just took place yesterday, when around 5,000 secondary students competed against each other for 480 places in a seemingly superior educational institution.

The ring for the academic battle was a university subsidized gifted school. Although every province and city in Vietnam boasts one to several schools for gifted students, the center of the universe remains in the capital, where they accept applicants from other cities, not to mention the better access to everything from educational materials to high-profile teachers.

Parents from everywhere flock to the capital to support their little angels in the high-octane event they have been preparing for months, even years.

The kids sitting for the exams all aim for a future far better than their peers, or at least thats what their parents want. Most of them will go to prestigious universities. A large part will study abroad. Some take part in national teams to go up against other countries teams in academic competitions. Part of their youth, what some insist should be left to build character only, has been spared for training so they can take part in a competition where the exam papers are designed so even the countrys best prodigies will have to pay attention if they don't want to be left behind.

The scene found at many of Vietnam's elite schools this summer, and all other summers. The end of an academic year marks the beginning of the exam season. All students have to show up one hour in advance to listen to the exam's regulation.

Already burning with the enthusiasm residing in everyone at the school, the exams during this time of year also have the support from the sun.

Inside an exam room.

Exam check-in procedure. A non-academic error that renders one ineligible for the exam is always the last thing anyone wants.

According to the principal, there are only 454 places left for 5,000 students, because 26 qualified for the school without having to take the exam.

The heat put many down.

The students are the most nervous ones, followed by the parents, who can only wait outside with thousands of their counterparts.

Having arrived in Hanoi a few days prior to the exam, a dad said that he would stay at the school that noon to save money. His family falls under the poor category but still managed to take the daughter to the exam due to her good performance at school.

Quick revision with the son.

Located inside a university, the exam caused a traffic jam because the inner roads were never meant to take a pounding this hard.

Photos by Hoang Phuong - Ngoc Thanh
SUNDAY

D-Day program

A program on D-Day will be presented at 2 p.m. at VFW Post 6873, 1049 Veterans Drive.

Other ...

Out & About Group LGBT AA Meeting, 6 p.m. Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, Lower Level Parish Hall, 602 Meander St.

MONDAY

Movie at the library

A showing of a 2004 movie based on a best-selling book will begin at 10 a.m. at the Abilene Public Library, 202 Cedar St. Popcorn will be served. Admission is free.

Cemetery meeting

LAWN  A meeting regarding the Dewey Cemetery will begin at 7 p.m. at the Cook-Mayfield Library.

Dance

SWEETWATER  A dance featuring Exit 277 will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Nolan County Coliseum Annex. Admission is $6.

Other ...

Overeaters Anonymous, noon, Hinds Square Building, 100 Chestnut St., Room 112.

Blood drive, 12:30-3:30 p.m., Rentech Boilers, 5025 E. Highway 80.

Schizophrenia Support Group, 1-2 p.m., Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300.

Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 5:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St.

Anorexics Bulimics Anonymous, 6 p.m., Shades of Hope, 402A Mulberry St., Buffalo Gap. 800-588-4673.

Central Texas Gem & Mineral Society of Abilene, 7 p.m., 7607 Highway 277 South. 325-692-0063.

Abilene Toastmaster's Club 1071, 7 p.m., Conference Center, Texas State Technical College, 650 E. Highway 80. 325-692-7325 or abilene.toastmastersclubs.org.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1501 N. Broadway, Ballinger. 817-689-2810 or 325-977-1007.

Mid-City Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First Christian Church. 325-670-4304.

Memory Men (4-part a cappella singing), 7 p.m., Calvary Baptist Church, 1165 Minter Lane. Park on east side, enter through kitchen. 325-676-SING.

Taylor County Libertarian Party, 7 p.m., Winery at Willow Creek, 4353 S. Treadaway Blvd. 325-675-0266.

Abilene Community Band rehearsal, 7:30 p.m., Bynum Band Hall, McMurry University. 325-232-7383.

South Pioneer Al-Anon Group, 8 p.m., 3157 Russell Ave.

Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Avoca United Methodist Church. 325-773-2611.

Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Group. 325-676-1400.

TUESDAY

Summer reading program

WINTERS  A summer reading program for children age 2 through fifth grade will be presented at 1:30 p.m. at the Winters Public Library, 120 N. Main St. Nancy Robinson Masters will be the guest speaker. For more information, call 325-754-4251.

Puppet show

A puppet show for children ages 6 and up will begin at 3 p.m. at the Abilene Public Library, 202 Cedar St. Admission is free.

Business workshop

The Texas Tech Small Business Development Center Abilene will conduct a Texas Comptroller Workshop from 6-8 p.m. in the Texas Tech Training Center, 749 Gateway St., Suite 301. For reservations, call 325-670-0300.

Other ...

Veterans benefit meeting, 10 a.m. to noon, Disabled American Veterans, 2555 Grape St. 325-793-9699 or 325-480-6175.

Mission on the Move Soup Kitchen, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Southwest Drive Community United Methodist Church, 3025 Southwest Dr.

Abilene Southwest Rotary Club, noon, Beehive Restaurant, 442 Cedar St.

High Noon Al-Anon, noon, Southern Hills Church of Christ, 3666 Buffalo Gap Road (south end; follow the yellow signs).

Blood drive, 1-6 p.m.m, Cash Saver, Hamlin.

Stroke/Aphasia Recovery Program support group, 1:30-2:30 p.m. West Texas Rehabilitation Center boardroom, 4601 Hartford St. 325-793-3535.

Dystonia Support Group, 5:15-6:15 p.m., Not Without Us, 3301 N. First St. Suite 117.

Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS), 5:30 p.m., Brook Hollow Christian Church, 2310 S. Willis St. 325-232-7444.

Legacies Al-Anon Family Group, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Open Door Building, 3157 Russell Ave. 325-280-7584.

Dining For Women  Abilene Chapter, 6 p.m., First Christian Church, 1420 N. Third St.

Family (of Mental Health Consumers) Support Group, 6-7 p.m., Mental Health Association in Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300.

MHAA Bipolar/Depression Peer Support Group, 6-8 p.m., Ministry of Counseling & Enrichment, 1502 N. First St. 325-673-2300.

Free certified nurturing parent class (pregnancy to toddler), 6-8 p.m., Mission Church, North Third and Mockingbird streets. 325-672-9398.

Abilene Star Chorus, 6:15 p.m., First Baptist Church, 1333 N. Third St. 325-829-1470.

Overeaters Anonymous, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Exodus Metropolitan Community Church, 1933 S. 27th St.

Al-Anon Parents Group, 7 p.m., Hillcrest Church of Christ, 650 E. Ambler Ave. Use Church Street entrance.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., Doug Meinzer Activity Center, Knox City. 940-658-3926.

Abilene Society of Model Railroaders, 7-8:30 p.m., 2043 N. Second St.

Parents, Family, Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) of the Big Country, 7-9 p.m., Unity Church, 2842 Barrow St. 325-232-4726, www.pflagbc.weebly.com.

Unity Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St.

WEDNESDAY

Culinary arts bake sale

The annual Culinary Arts Bake Sale, featuring food made by Texas State Technical College in Abilene students, will be open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the T&P Building, 901 N. First St. Proceeds will go to the school's Culinary Arts program.

Catfish fundraiser

ASPERMONT  A catfish buffet fundraiser will be 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Stonewall County Senior Citizens Center, 536 S. Washington. The cost is $10. Takeout will be available.

Other ...

Overeaters Anonymous, 8 a.m., Hinds Square Building, Room 112, 100 Chestnut St.

Blood drive, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Abilene Regional Medical Center, 6250 Highway 83/84.

Abilene Cactus Lions Club, 11:45 a.m., Cotton Patch Cafe, 3302 S. Clack St.

Abilene Wednesday Rotary Club, noon, Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway. $12 for lunch. Jo Ann Wilson, 325-677-6815.

Kiwanis Club of Abilene, noon, Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway Blvd.

Clearly Speaking Toastmaster Club, noon, Westgate Church of Christ, 402 S. Pioneer Drive. 325-795-5570.

Diabetes Support Group, 2-3 p.m., Stonewall County Library.

Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 5:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St.

Veterans Peer Support Group, 6 p.m., 765 Orange St. 325-670-4818.

Mid-week Al-Anon Family Group, 6-7 p.m., Open Door Building, 3157 Russell Ave. 325-698-4995.

Advanced Square Dancing, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Wagon Wheel.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1501 N. Broadway, Ballinger. 817-689-2810 or 325-977-1007.

DivorceCare support group, 7 p.m., Hillcrest Church of Christ, 650 E. Ambler Ave. 325-691-4200.
Sunday's celebration at St. Vincent Pallotti Catholic Church was supposed to be a joyous occasion.

It still will be, but with a touch of sadness. Originally, the special Mass was planned to celebrate the Rev. Terry Brenon's 25th anniversary as a priest. But, now, the Mass and a reception afterward also will serve as a farewell party.

Brenon, or 'Father Terry' as his parishioners call him, is leaving for a new pastorate in Sonora. Both Abilene and Sonora are in the sprawling Diocese of San Angelo.

One person who will feel the pain of Brenon's departure, perhaps more than anyone else, will be Lydia Rodriguez, secretary at St. Vincent since 1985.

'Now,' she said, 'I'm facing a new boss.'

That new boss with be the Rev. Rodney White, whose first day at St. Vincent will be on July 1. Currently, White is director of vocations and seminarians for the Diocese of San Angelo.

Presiding at Sunday's Mass will be the bishop of the diocese, Michael Sis, and the former bishop, Michael Pfeifer, who ordained Brenon in 1991.

Between Sunday and July 1, Rodriguez will get geared up for the new priest. She has seen many priests come and go at St. Vincent, but she is a little nervous about a new one. Most likely, before long White will come to view Rodriguez like all the priests before him.

In a Catholic parish, the priest has the final word about everything, but wise ones know when to defer to others. Such is the case at St. Vincent. Rodriguez said that whenever a repairman comes to St. Vincent and asks Brenon a question, he usually gets the same answer.

'I don't know,' Brenon will say, with a nod toward Rodriguez. 'You'll have to ask the boss.'

And so it has been the past 11 years that Brenon has been priest at St. Vincent. He will be greatly missed by all ages at St. Vincent, but moving on is a way of life for priests. Brenon's path will be familiar to many in the priesthood.

Brenon was born Feb. 10, 1959, in upstate New York, about an hour's drive from the Canadian border. His mother, Laura Beaudette Brenon, was French, as were many of their neighbors. So, it's no wonder Brenon grew up speaking the language fluently.

'In New York,' he said, 'that's a second language.'

In 1976, the family of five boys and two girls moved to the West Texas city of Midland, a long way from French-speaking upstate New York. The family were members of St. Ann Parish in Midland. The priest at the time was Frederick Nawarskas, who now is the priest at Holy Family Catholic Church in Abilene.

Brenon remembers that it was Nawarskas who first said to him, 'Have you thought about becoming a priest?'

Eventually, the answer was, 'yes,' but it took a while. After graduating from Midland High School in 1977, Brenon earned a bachelor's degree in 1981 in French, with studies in Spanish and business, at Texas Tech University. He then returned to Midland, where he was in banking for five years before saying 'yes' to the priesthood.

Nawarskas told his bishop at the time, Pfeifer, about Brenon and recommended him as a candidate for the priesthood.

'He felt a call to do something more with his life,' Pfeifer said in a telephone interview from his home in San Antonio.

In seminary, Brenon was an excellent student, Pfeifer recalled, and also had a sense of calling. Pfeifer was so sure that Brenon felt more called to the priesthood than to banking, that he made a prophetic comment.

'I'm going to make you an investor for the Lord,' Pfeifer said, only partly joking.

His pledge came true, as Brenon has moved from one parish to another across the massive Diocese of San Angelo the past 25 years. His next stop  and possibly his last as a parish priest  will be at St. Ann's in Sonora. He foresees possibly finishing his career as a hospital chaplain after serving as a parish priest.

But that is still in the future. For now, Brenon will tend to the flock of 325 families in Sonora as he has the 625 families at St. Vincent.

Twenty-five years as a priest is a long time to observe and take note. Brenon has had plenty of 'ups' in his career, such as presiding over weddings and baptisms and guiding people on their spiritual path.

But he also has experienced 'downs,' which pain him. On a personal level, he regrets times when he feels he may have answered someone's question a little too harshly or with the wrong words.

'That's been painful,' he said.

On a larger level, the fallout from the sexual abuse scandal involving priests a few years ago is especially painful. He hears comments like, 'You priests are all alike,' and knows that isn't true.

'I've been trying to be a loving presence for children,' he said, and knows that many other priests do the same.

On the lighter side, being a priest brings joys and responsibilities, even within his own family. Brenon has presided over family weddings and baptisms.

Once, he was traveling with family members from a visit to upstate New York back to Midland and drove through Wichita Falls on a Sunday. His mother worried about where they would attend Mass.

'We just pulled over and had Mass right there,' with him presiding, Brenon recalled.

Sunday's service recognizing Brenon's 25 years as a priest will be a time for celebration and for reflection. His main observation is that those 25 years have given him ample opportunity to do what he likes best as a priest  watch people grow in their faith.

'It's been a real joy in doing that,' he said.

TERRY BRENON

Age: 57, born Feb. 10, 1959, Potsdam, N.Y.

Family: Parents Victor Edward and Laura Beaudette Brenon; four living brothers and two sisters; one brother is deceased.

Education: Family moved to Midland in 1976 and Brenon graduated from Midland High School in 1977; Texas Tech University, bachelors degree in French, with studies in Spanish and business, 1981

Career: Worked in banking in Midland five years after graduating from Texas Tech; 1986 entered Assumption Seminary and studied at Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio

Priesthood: Earned master of divinity degree and was ordained by Michael Pfeifer, then bishop of the Catholic Diocese of San Angelo, in 1991; served an internship at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Fort Stockton; assigned as parochial vicar at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Abilene, and Sts. Joachim and Ann Mission in Clyde; other assignments, all in the Diocese of San Angelo, were in Sanderson, Coyanosa, Imperial, Stanton, San Angelo, Carlsbad, Sterling City and Abilene

Diocese of San Angelo involvement: Diocesan Liturgy Commission, Presbyteral Council, Vocations Committee for Priests and Deacons; Fraternity of Priests, Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus; St. Vincent de Paul Society, chaplain for the St. Vincent Council 8788; member, Abilene Association of Congregations
There may be no older cliche used by political candidates than the one about every vote counting. It could be no truer than it is in Blanket in Brown County.

The May 7 election for Place 3 on the Blanket school board ended in a stalemate between incumbent Beth Bowyer and challenger Vicky Jenkins. The 314 votes were split evenly so voters will try again on June 11.

Early voting has already begun in what is termed a second election since a runoff election involves the top two vote-getters in an election involving three or more candidates, none of which gets more than 50 percent of the vote. According to Bowyer, who has held the seat for 25 years, it's like starting the campaign over.

'I'm out shaking hands and asking for votes,' she said.

Same thing for Jenkins, a 1995 graduate of Blanket High School, except for her there's an added twist. Jenkins found out late in the campaign that she's pregnant with her third child.

'Now, I'm not just campaigning, but I have morning sickness, too,' she said.

Actually, there was a winner declared on May 7. Bowyer held a two-vote lead after the votes were counted then and both candidates were advised on the outcome. However, the next Tuesday, two provisional ballots cast broke for Jenkins. One of the provisional voters had requested a mail ballot and didn't surrender it at the polls. The other voter had been mistakenly identified as living outside the Blanket school district.

'Blanket ISD goes into Brown County and Comanche County so that gets confusing sometimes,' said Jenkins.

There were three options for the candidates:

One of the candidates could have dropped out

They could have drawn lots

They could have a second election.

Brown County Elections Administrator Larry Franks said the second election would cost the school district about $5,000, but Bowyer said she hasn't heard any complaints from voters about the expense.

Jenkins said if it was going to come down to a coin toss, there could have been one before the election and save everyone the trouble of voting.

According to both Bowyer and Jenkins, there were no hot-button issues in the race.

'I can't think of any,' said Bowyer, who said she was proud of the achievements of the Blanket school district during the past 25 years. 'Sometimes, people just think they should run.'

Jenkins described herself as 'vested' in the school district with two children, a junior and a seventh grader, already in the district and with 'another Blanket Tiger due in November.'

'It's nothing personal,' she said. 'I like Mrs. Bowyer. I love this school district and I thought it was time for a change.'

Bowyer said she had been involved in contested races before, but obviously none this close. She said she was disappointed about thinking she had won on May 7, only to find out she still had another month to campaign. However, she was philosophical about having to continue to campaign.

'I had no idea,' she said. 'I figured it was going to be close. But, God is in control. It's not always what we wish, but God is control.'

As for Jenkins, she's telling her supporters what has never been clearer before in Blanket.

'I'm telling them every vote counts,' she said.
ALBANY  Drawing preceded photography. That's not only true in art, but in war, too.

The Old Jail Art Center on Saturday will open a new exhibit, 'Civil War Drawings From the Becker Collection.' It will run through Sept. 4.

'This is actually an exhibition from Boston College that has been traveling around the United States,' said Patrick Kelly, executive director of the Old Jail Art Center. 'We normally don't do traveling exhibitions, but when I saw the images, I was intrigued because they were beautiful drawings.'

The collection belonged to Joseph Becker, who lived from 1841-1910. At 22, Becker was sent to cover the Civil War as a reporter-artist for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.

'He was working in the field with other artists and they would all send their drawings back to the paper,' Kelly said. 'At one point, he became the art editor and he kept the drawings  he didn't throw them away  and that became his collection.'

The exhibit includes 126 drawings, all accompanied by detailed descriptions of the event depicted. Not all illustrate battles, many show camp scenes or slice-of-life moments. A few drawings were made before the war, and some others were created after the conflict.

There was a movement toward realism in the art world during the 19th century, partly brought on by the invention of photography and partly because artists tired of their traditional mythological and aristocratic subjects. They began creating works to reflect the larger world began exhibiting them at grand European shows, such as the Salon de Paris.

'In the 19th century, you had romanticism, which was not really depicting anything but this romantic idea of nature and life,' Kelly said. 'And then you had the Ashcan School, which is kind of the beginning of modernism.

'They were depicting contemporary life as it was, people working and normal scenes that you would be accustomed to. That was kind of unusual for art at that time.'

The Civil War drawings predate that movement, but they do herald an important feature of modern journalism: visual storytelling.

'They were depicting the realities of war, and were not idealized at all,' Kelly said. 'These guys were like embedded reporters and sent information back from the battles.'

Editors back at the newspapers would act as gatekeepers, as they do today, when the illustrations arrived by mail and courier. Unlike today, as the drawings were etched into plates, changes would be made to scenes that were considered too gruesome or not pleasing enough to the eye.

Although there were Civil War photographers like Mathew Brady documenting the conflict, they were limited by the technology of the day.

'The problem was exposure speed in the 1860s was so slow that you couldn't really (photograph) anything that had movement,' Kelly said. 'You didn't have any photographs of the battle because it would have been just a giant blur.'

Not to mention the giant darkroom wagons those guys drove around; pictures had to be developed on glass plates on the spot or soon after. Photographic prints were reproduced in newspapers during the Civil War, but only as sketched copies etched onto plates. True reproduction using the halftone method  which we still use today  didn't come about until the early 1870s.

About 20 artists are represented in the Becker collection, each with their own style. Kelly said most of the artists likely had some kind of art training, either from a formal school or from a mentor.

'They're pretty much straight-on depictions, there isn't really a whole lot of an artistic license,' he said of the works.

That's true, though most drawings, especially the battle scenes, likely were roughed out during the event and refined later after things quieted down. In that regard, a drawing may not always have been the exact way something appeared, but it was certainly close enough for Eastern readers far removed from the war.

'The detail is really amazing,' Kelly said. 'Especially if you can imagine somebody out in a field trying to draw with pencil and paper during rain and the elements, pretty much going through everything the soldiers are.'

The majority of the work is rendered in pencil, some in brown chalk, and others in ink. Sometimes the drawings were made on wove paper, on others small blue lines can be seen through the scene as stationery was all the artist had.

'There is some really incredible craftsmanship in the work,' Kelly said. 'There's really not that many people who draw like this anymore.'

Along with the 'Lonesome Dove' memorabilia on display through the end of July, the Civil War drawings provide a taste of 19th-century life both familiar and unknown at the same time.

'A lot of people come in the museum and they're not really interested in the aesthetic part of it, they're more interested in the history,' Kelly said. 'And if you're not a big history person, you can appreciate them for their aesthetic values.

'So this show gives something to all of our visitors.'
Ah, summer vacation. Or, at least it's supposed to be summer. The air is warm, the sun is inviting and children are out of school and making parents regret not spending the extra money to put them in day care.

So far, this summer has left us wanting, with floods instead of sunshine and lightning flashes instead of trips to the Nelson Park splash pad. And June's temperatures have been quite the anomaly, too.

It can't possibly stay this way, right?

Well, if it reverts back to normal, have a blast these summer months. Remember to read something fun this summer, and enjoy the promise of warmth and joy ahead. The Education Notebook will be less regular these next two months before returning full-force in August as school kicks back into gear.

Until then, enjoy.

Howard Payne recognizes music and art success

Sixteen students from Howard Payne University's pre-college music and art program recently participated in the Texas Federated Music Clubs state competition at Texas State University in San Marcos. Many of the students who competed took home high honors.

Kamry Keese received the All-State award for musical theater while Addison Miller and Drew Reynolds both received the All-State award for art song. All three awards represent the highest honor in their categories offered at the competition, Howard Payne said in a news release.

A superior rating was also given to Angie Calfa, Addison Miller and Sydney Neel for musical theater and Kyle Ivy, Kamry Keese and Hannah Parson for piano solo.

Recognition doesn't stop there for the school's participants as Hannah Bessent, Sarah Reeves, Jordan Roberts and Ava Sparks-Hansen received an outstanding rating for musical theater; Angie Calf for art song; and James Bautista, Vic Cooper, Leila Gautier, Jaycie Hubbard, Addison Miller, Sarah Reeves, Jordan Roberts, Cate Smith and Ava Sparks-Hansen for piano solo.

'We are very proud of these students and their accomplishments,' said Diane Owens, director of the program and adjunct instructor in HPU's School of Music and Fine Arts. 'A big shoutout also goes to the teachers and parents who encourage and support these young musicians.'

The pre-college music and art program serves the Brownwood community by offering music and art lessons to children and adults. For more information, contact Owens at 649-8501 or dowens@hputx.edu.
A couple of nights ago, just a few days after Aaron Shaver and his family moved into a new house on Orange Street, the doorbell rang.

It was 9 p.m. and Shaver wasn't sure who it could be. When he opened the door, he saw a woman standing there. She didn't want anything, she said, just someone who would listen to her and pray with her.

'I got to be that person,' Shaver said Friday during a ribbon-cutting and open house at his new home.

The house that Shaver, his wife, Arielle, and their 2-year-old daughter, Jubilee, now occupy is the new Friendship House owned by Connecting Caring Communities.

Friday's ribbon-cutting was the culmination of about four years of planning, obtaining sponsors, and building the house in the 1500 block of Orange Street. Aaron Shaver is employed by CCC as a community coordinator.

His job is to help people in the neighborhood work together for betterment. One way he does that is by opening the door and being the person who listens.

Shaver said he has had people tell him they can't wait to see what CCC is going to do in the neighborhood. They have the wrong idea, he said, about the mission of CCC.

'We're not here to do good,' he said, 'so much as to find it.'

In March, Connecting Caring Communities announced that it was changing its structure, with an emphasis on the College Heights neighborhood, which extends from Pine Street to Grape Street and from North First Street to Ambler Avenue. Orange Street lies within the neighborhood.

Before the change, CCC, which became an incorporated nonprofit in 2005, worked in three neighborhoods.

The consolidation will make it easier for the CCC's four community coordinators to develop continuing relationships with neighbors, said Lori Thornton, the agency's executive director, at the March 31 breakfast at which the changes were announced.

Currently, two community coordinators live in Friendship Houses in other parts of town, all on the north side. Another community coordinator already is living in the College Heights area, but not in a Friendship House.

The Friendship Houses are not community centers, but rather serve as a symbol that Connecting Caring Communities is a permanent part of a neighborhood by having a community coordinator living there.

Eventually, all four community coordinators will live in the College Heights area, but CCC will maintain a presence in the neighborhoods where it previously owned Friendship Houses.

One of the major partners with CCC is Hendrick Health System, which is located in the College Heights area. On Friday, Tim Lancaster, president and chief executive officer at Hendrick, praised the many sponsors who helped make the new Friendship House a reality. Behind him, a large banner was covered with the names of the numerous sponsors.

'This is such a testament to Abilene, Texas,' Lancaster said, pointing to the banner.

One of the people who has seen the project through from the initial idea to Friday's ceremony was Jack Wylie. When the idea to build the house first was mentioned, Wylie was president of the board of Connecting Caring Communities.

He voluntarily stepped down from that position to devote full time to overseeing the construction process. But Wylie stopped short of saying he was in charge.

'The general contractor,' Wylie said, 'was God himself.'

Construction on the house started in September, when volunteers with the Baptist Church Builders of Texas, with assistance from other volunteers, poured the foundation and framed the house. Volunteers completed the work. Among those volunteers were two classes of electrical trades students from Abilene High School, supervised by Jon McAden.

'We wired it from start to finish,' McAden said.

As Shaver showed guests around his family's new home, he couldn't help but marvel at its size and beauty. The family moved from an older 1,200-square-foot home into a brand-new home with 2,000 square feet, a spacious kitchen and plenty of room for their daughter to roam.

'It's definitely the nicest house I'll ever live in,' Shaver said.
11:30 A.M. UPDATE

The Pecan Bayou is expected to crest Saturday afternoon in the Brownwood/Early area.

According to a news release from the city of Brownwood, the bayou had reached 15.25 feet in town, and the National Weather Service expected it to crest at 15.4 feet.

Lake Brownwood's level was 5 feet above the emergency spillway and falling, according to the Texas Water Development Board.

No significant rain was expected. The chance of rain is 30 percent for Brownwood Saturday and Saturday night.

Saturday morning's rodeo parade was called off, and the Heartland Rod Run has been moved to the Heartland Mall.

The Texas Department of Transportation did not expect highway 377/67 to close, but many other streets remain closed.<

Closed streets as of 9 a.m. Saturday were:

CC Woodson from Williams Ranch Rd. to Milton Ave.

S. Broadway from CC Woodson to Pecan.

Trapp from Fisk to Riverside

Riverside from Trapp to Hughley

Riverside from Commerce to Market St.

Market St. from Riverside to Market Place Blvd.

Market Place Blvd. from Main Blvd. to Clements

Cordell low water crossing at Adams Branch

Lee from Cordell to Victoria

Vine St. Underpass.

Brady from Ave A to 1st

Rogan from Brady to Ave B

Cross from Brady to 2nd

1st from Ave D to Coggin

Ave E from 1st to 2nd

McCulley from Romines to Main

Fisk from N. Broadway to Main

Tractor Supply, Big Lots and Dollar General were among businesses closed.

ORIGINAL STORY

More than two inches of rain fell Thursday and early Friday morning in parts of Abilene, continuing to soak the city and the area.

While the city saw some respite from rain during the day, other areas were not as fortunate, including Cisco, where water restrictions and shortages and washed out roadways were among the aftermath.

According to measurements at Abilene fire stations, rainfall amounts ranged from 1.09 inches at the station at 1482 Danville to 2.25 at the station at 4317 North 10th St.

Officially, at the Abilene Regional Airport, the National Weather Service recorded 1.36 inches since 8 p.m. Thursday.

Tammy Osborne, city secretary in Cisco, said the community's flooding situation was about the same Friday.

'We are still under a boil-water notice, we're still under Stage 3 water restrictions,' she said. 'The water plant is not operational ... We have engineers out there looking at what's damaged and what's salvageable, but we don't have a report in from them yet.'

Individuals evacuated from North Shore Drive are still not able to return, Osborne said.

'Not everyone chose to evacuate, I don't think,' she said. 'But North Shore Drive is still closed, so you can't get in or out. We still have the lake closed so we're not taking anyone out there.'

Osborne said that there was some flood damage in town, but the majority of the problems were out at the lake and the city's water plant.

The Myrtle Wilks Community Center, which also functions as Cisco's Red Cross center, is the collection and distribution point for water.

Pallets of bottled water were donated by cities and businesses from Eastland, Early, Breckenridge and other places.

Among those getting water Friday afternoon was Craig Anderson, who said his house at Lake Cisco had a couple of inches of water in it. He was lucky, however, he said, because his house was three feet above the elevation of the spillway.

'There are a bunch houses out there that are below the spillway, they've probably got about 3 to 4 feet of water in them,' said Anderson, who is staying with a friend until he can move back into his home.

Meanwhile, engineers with the Texas Department of Transportation are evaluating State Highway 6 near Lake Cisco following the washout of 200 to 300 feet of the roadway Thursday.

TxDOT will procure an emergency contract to rebuild the section of roadway, but the cost and how long it might take is not known, according to a TxDOT news release.

And, about 30 miles north of Cisco, in Breckenridge, which also has had flooding, a boil water notice for the city's northeast quadrant was rescinded Thursday afternoon.

No roads were closed Friday afternoon, but officials in Breckenridge were watching area waterways closely, City Manager Andy McCuistion said.

'Gunsolus Creek has been rising,' he said. 'There was some more rain in the watershed this morning, and it's risen about 10 feet or more.'

The city sent out another 'Code RED' alert Friday, he said, to let residents in low-lying areas know water was rising.

In addition to the creek, 'this whole Lake Cisco issue is affecting us,' he said, sending water down Sandy Creek into Hubbard Creek Lake.

'We keep monitoring that,' McCuistion said. 'They may well leave the gates open longer, but at this point, they have more water going in than they have going out.'

In Brownwood, the Pecan Bayou rose Friday and was expected to continue to crest about noon Saturday about a foot higher than Wednesday's crest, City Manager Emily Crawford said in an email.

Additional rain prompted road closures Friday, a step backward after all streets had been reopened Thursday.

The city was maintaining a sandbag station at 1500 Center Ave. in the former Higginbotham's location.

Lake Brownwood was expected to crest at 5 feet over its spillway, about the same level as earlier this week. The National Guard has six high-profile vehicles and Texas Parks and Wildlife has boats on standby.

In Taylor County, rain above Lake Abilene has been steady, said Jim Bryan, emergency coordinator with the city of Abilene.

'Down in that area, that lake has been able to absorb that rain,' the runoff maintaining a constant flow through Elm Creek.

'Once that goes over the spillway, it gets greater,' he said of the risk of flooding in Abilene. 'But right now, we're looking really good in Abilene. It's gone up, but it's not pushing real hard to get above the spillway. We're warming up our EOC (Emergency Operations Center) this afternoon (Friday) to make it ready to go in case we need to. We don't anticipate it to go over, but we're preparing for it to go over.'

If water did go over the spillway, that doesn't mean Abilene will flood, he said.

'In my experience, from 2007, the push was much higher in the creeks than it is right now,' he said. ' But we're all prepared. We've had meetings in preparation for this, and all of the fundamentals of taking care of a flood, we've done.'

The area around Abilene State Park had been closed earlier in the week. But as of Thursday, the north side of the park and its swimming pool were open for day use, the south side of the park and camping loops remaining closed due to flooding.

The city of Abilene issued a news release Friday evening warning people to be careful at Lake Fort Phantom Hill.

In addition to the high water levels, heavy runoff typically washes branches and other debris into lakes.

Saturday's National Weather Service forecast calls for only a 20 percent chance of rain for Abilene before clearing Saturday night and remaining clear for the next few days.

In Brownwood and Eastland, the NWS sets the chance of rain at 30 percent, and in Breckenridge, it is 40 percent Saturday.

Your seven day forecast:

Saturday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. Partly sunny, with a high near 83. North northeast wind 5 to 15 mph.

Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 62. North northwest wind 5 to 15 mph.

Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 85. North northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.

Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 59. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south after midnight.

Monday: Sunny, with a high near 84. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm.

Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 61. East southeast wind around 5 mph becoming south after midnight.

Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 88. South wind around 5 mph.

Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 65. South southeast wind around 10 mph.

Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 88.

Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 69.

Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 89.

Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 70.

Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 90.

Saturday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. Partly sunny, with a high near 83. North northeast wind 5 to 15 mph.

Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 62. North northwest wind 5 to 15 mph.

Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 85. North northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.

Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 59. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south after midnight.

Monday: Sunny, with a high near 84. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm.

Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 61. East southeast wind around 5 mph becoming south after midnight.

Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 88. South wind around 5 mph.

Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 65. South southeast wind around 10 mph.

Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 88.

Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 69.

Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 89.

Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 70.

Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 90.
In cross-border operation, Chinese police nab 31 at hideouts in Guangzhou and Shenzhen as local counterparts detain 12 after raids.

A human-smuggling syndicate that allegedly brought Vietnamese illegal immigrants into Hong Kong has been broken up after China and local law enforcers arrested 42 people, police said yesterday.

But the gang was just the tip of the iceberg as investigations indicated several other rackets that smuggle non-Chinese illegal immigrants such as Pakistanis and Indians from their home countries into the city were still in operation, the Post has learned.

Intelligence has revealed other syndicates have lain low to evade arrest as mainland and Hong Kong authorities have enhanced enforcement action, a source with knowledge of the investigation said.

The forces Organized Crime and Triad Bureau has been tasked to investigate the on-going people-smuggling syndicates.

Vietnamese and Pakistanis arrested by Chinese police in March 2016. Photo by SCMP

Police said the racket that brought Vietnamese illegal immigrants into the city had been under police investigation with the help of Guangdong police since March.

Initial investigation showed the gang had been in operation for about a year and brought more than 100 Vietnamese illegal immigrants into the city, the Post was told. It offered one-stop service to smuggle them via the mainland and charged them HK$30,000 each.

Investigation showed they were smuggled from Vietnam to Guangxi province by land.

They were then taken to Shenzhen, where they came to Hong Kong by speedboat, another source said, adding that a minibus arranged to pick them up and transport them to hideouts.

The source said they were given accommodation and arrangements for illegal employment as well as bogus identity cards to help them find jobs." It was understood most of them gained jobs in construction.

As the syndicate was arranging another round of human-smuggling activities, police from Hong Kong and the mainland swooped into action on Wednesday.

Mainland police arrested 31 individuals in hideouts like guest houses in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

In Hong Kong, police raided more than 20 locations across the city and arrested 11 people. They included nine central figures of the syndicate and two Vietnamese illegal immigrants. Among the core members, five were asylum seekers from Vietnam.

Bureau superintendent Kwan King-pan said the investigation was on-going and that it was possible additional arrests would be made. The police and Immigration Department will not tolerate any form of such illegal activities, he said.

Chief immigration officer Lau Wing-kei said average monthly figures of arrested illegal immigrants from Vietnam fell to 112 this year from 189 last year. He attributed the decline to more stringent efforts by local and mainland authorities.

Hong Kong has a backlog of more than 11,000 applications on asylum and torture grounds that have yet to be screened. About 2,500 applications were lodged by Vietnamese illegal immigrants.
SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Del Mar College President Mark Escamilla shakes hands with Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss last year, the day Escamilla flew with Kuss in his jet. Kuss, a member of the Blue Angels, died in a crash in Tennessee on Thursday.

By Krista M. Torralva, Corpus Christi Caller-Times

CORPUS CHRISTI  A Blue Angels pilot who died when his jet crashed in a Tennessee field may have chosen to sacrifice himself to avoid civilian casualties in a nearby community, a local Navy official said.

While military officials have not officially released the pilot's name, family members and others have identified him as Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss.

Kuss, who died Thursday during training runs for an air show, trained at the naval bases in Corpus Christi and Kingsville before being selected to join the Blue Angels in 2014.

Footage of the Blue Angels flying near a residential area taken by a Smyrna, Tennessee, resident shows the plane crashing into a field and exploding on impact. It doesn't appear he ejected, The Tennessean newspaper reported.

Though an investigation into what went wrong is still ongoing, at least one local military official has a theory.

"You can only surmise from that he must have made the choice to turn away from the civilian population and sacrifice himself in order to make sure that was safe from everybody else," said Capt. Steve Banta, commanding officer of Naval Air Station Corpus Christi.

Banta made the comments aboard the Lexington Museum on the Bay, which held a ceremony Friday to mark the Battle of Midway's anniversary.

Kuss, 32, did his basic flight training at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi and advanced training at Naval Air Station Kingsville, where he graduated. He served in Afghanistan.

Kuss, who was from Durango, Colorado, had dreamed of joining the elite group of pilots since he was a child.

"His favorite toys were jets, and he wanted to be a Blue Angel since forever," his mother, Janet Kuss, told The Durango Herald in 2014.

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The Taliban released 17 Shi'ite Hazaras who were hauled out of their bus and kidnapped in northern Afghanistan this week, officials said on June 3.

The incident in Sar-e-Pul Province was one of a spate of attacks against civilian vehicles, suggesting the Taliban is taking a more aggressive posture since naming a new leader last week.

Provincial governor Zaher Wahdat said local elders and residents mediated the safe release of the hostages, who were all civilians.

The Taliban has so far not commented on the incident.

There has been a surge in violence against Hazaras, a community that has suffered a long history of oppression in Afghanistan, with a series of kidnappings and killings in recent months.

The latest incident came after after the Taliban killed at least 10 bus passengers, many of them summarily executed, and kidnapped dozens of others in northern Kunduz Province earlier in the week.

Based on reporting by AFP and dpa


Indian defense officials are set to export one of the worlds fastest anti-ship cruise missiles to Vietnam, the U.S. Naval Institute News (USNI News) cited several press reports as saying earlier this week.

Based on the Russian P-800 Onyx, the BrahMos is a supersonic anti-ship missile, developed in tandem between New Delhi and Moscow for the past decade, and is arguably one of the most deadly anti-ship missiles in any nations inventory  almost entirely for its speed.

India has been keen to export the Mach 3 missile for years, but met resistance from Russia over intellectual property issues that have since been resolved, according to a Wednesday report from Janes Defense Weekly.

Additionally, there were concerns from China  a maritime rival with both India and Vietnam  that Indian arms sales would upset the balance of power in the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea).

In the case of Vietnam, China has expressed its reservations against Indias policies to supply weapons. In the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea), China and Vietnam are locked in a conflict over maritime boundaries, Praveen Pathak, spokesman for BrahMos Aerospace told the Russian TASS news agency last week.

We expect that those friendly nations with whom neither India nor Russia have any conflict would be keen on buying these missiles.

A Brahmos missile. Photo from USNI News

In 2014, India had floated the idea of exporting the missile to Vietnam during a visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin, reported USNI News, but the idea never gained traction.

However if the Vietnam deal goes through, it will be a major win for the Indian arms industry, Eric Wertheim, the author of the U.S. Naval Institutes Combat Fleets of the World, told USNI News on Wednesday.

In the past few years India has been making a push as a major arms exporter, he said. Thats one of their primary goals in addition to building their domestic capability.

For Vietnam, it would also be a major boost to their ability to take on modern surface combatants as Hanoi looks to expand its maritime capabilities against an ever-expanding Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).

Vietnam is really in the midst of looking at their capabilities and their major gaps for their maritime forces. And China has forced them to rethink their own maritime security issues, Wertheim said.

A BrahMos buy shows that Vietnam is looking. Its looking beyond its typical partners.

Hanois largest defense acquisition in recent memory was for six Russian-built Kilo-class diesel-electric attack submarines as part of a 2009 deal with Moscow worth $1.8 billion to $2 billion.

While the BrahMos is currently surface and aircraft launched weapon, the Indians are testing a sub-launched version that could conceivably be used on Vietnams Kilos.
Corruption is everywhere and Central Asia is no exception. In fact, looking at reports from international rights organizations you would have to conclude Central Asia might even be one of the worst regions in the world when it comes to corruption.

Open Society Foundations just released Tackling Corruption In Uzbekistan, an extremely thorough report that deals not only with examples of corruption in Uzbekistan but also delves into the place and importance corruption occupies among elites and the government.

Corruption is a perennial topic for Central Asia but the current economic crisis has brought the issue to the fore in all five countries in Central Asia.

To explore corruption in Central Asia, RFE/RLs Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk, brought together a Majlis, a panel, to discuss the role and cost of corruption.

Azatlyk Director Muhammad Tahir moderated the panel. From London, David Lewis, the author of Tackling Corruption In Uzbekistan, joined the talk. Participating from Brussels, Washington-based attorney Brian Campbell, who works with international rights organizations, including the Cotton Campaign, a group that monitors the use of forced labor in Uzbekistans cotton fields. And from Almaty, Natalie Malyarchuk, chair of the Board of Trustees of Transparency Kazakhstan, took part. Oh yeah, and I was there and you know.

Lewis started the conversation with some background about his report. Weve tried to go around the generalities and break it down into what corruption actually does, what impact it has, and some of the mechanisms that are used to assert control both over business and over politics.

The problem has deep roots. Malyarchuk explained, From the point of view of petty corruption, citizens really face many cases, and she added, citizens accept it and some now see bribes and pay-offs as a way to simplify bureaucratic procedures.

Lewis mentioned corruption has become part of the system.

Speaking about Uzbekistan, Campbell noted the cotton industry, long a source of controversy due to forced labor practices, is also specially designed to be opaque. The entire cotton sector is structured as a corrupt mechanism, the way that the prices are set, the way that the money disappears into a mysterious fund thats off the budget. Uzbekistans annual cotton sales regularly amount to more than $600 million and some years the figure has been significantly higher.

Central Asian governments often declare a war on corruption but as Lewis said, there usually appears to be an ulterior motive. Anticorruption campaigns inevitably are very selective, what they really do is target people who have fallen out of favor, or particular people who have not been loyal enough, shall we say, to the leadership.

It is extremely difficult to obtain a clear picture of the extent of corruption. Malyarchuk said, Many reports that you read about our countries are connected directly with political opponents and its very subjective. It is a valid point particularly since some of the leading Central Asian government opponents are fallen former government officials bearing a grudge.

But Campbell stressed that while caution is needed in assessing claims of corruption from local sources, You can have a political motivation and still have very true, very well-researched facts.

As mentioned, Central Asia is in an economic crisis at the moment. Several factors have combined that ensured none of the countries could escape from an economic downturn, whether it was dependency on hydrocarbon exports or on remittances sent home, usually from Russia, by Central Asian migrant laborers.

Lewis observed, When you get an economic decline, when you get an economic recession, the economy really struggles and society really struggles to cope, and that Lewis said has a big impact on inequality, thats what were finding across most of the region is that it concentrates wealth in a few hands at the top of society and accentuates the difference between the bottom and the top.

One result of this, as Malyarchuk explained, was that in Kazakhstan based on our research and our analysis I can say that small and medium business, especially now in the last three years, they are dying.

The role that foreign businesses play in corruption in Central Asia was also discussed. Malyarchuk said her organization has noticed some foreign companies simply refused to get involved in corrupt practices and withdrew from states in Central Asia. But others stayed, choosing to play by the local rules.

Since the Majlis was prompted by Lewiss report there was ample discussion of TeliaSonera, VimpelCom, and those companies links to Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov. Information about that scandal has provided a rare view into the extent of corruption in Uzbekistan, upwards of $850 million in bribery money that was passed and paid between accounts, Campbell recounted.

Campbell mentioned that money has been seized, but this brings up another problem: What to do with that money? We would love to see it go back and benefit the people of Uzbekistan and that is our goal, Campbell said, but because of this endemic corruption it is very difficult to responsibly repatriate the money."

The Central Asian governments are finding out the hard way how this reputation of corruption hurts. With the current economic decline, all of the Central Asian states could use some outside financial help. But Lewis said, Organizations like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, all have faced the same problems in trying to distribute funds in ways that dont get them enmeshed in corrupt practices.

Lewis summed up the situation, saying, You have a drop in foreign investment, a drop in domestic investment, capital flowing out of the region, and also a lack of willingness by international banks to really invest in the region.

The Majlis explored these matters in greater detail and other issues such as the role presidents families play in corruption, a particularly acute problem in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan; the reluctance of Western companies to get involved in projects in Central Asia; the need for leaders and elites to employ corruption as a means of gaining key support; and a range of other topics.

An audio recording of the discussion can be heard at:
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Police in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, have detained opposition activists who planned to hold a rally to challenge next month's early presidential election.

Bibigul Imanghalieva, a member of the unregistered Algha, Qazaqstan (Kazakhstan, Forward) party, told RFE/RL by phone that she and several of her colleagues were detained for several hours early in the morning in different parts of the city before they could hold the demonstration, which was to fall on October 25, Republic Day, which commemorates Kazakhstan's declaration of state sovereignty in 1990.

According to Imanghalieva, leading activists, Aset Abishev, Aidar Syzdyqov, and Qanatkhan Amrenov, were among those detained. She added that she and other activists were released three hours later.

Imanghalieva says she and other members of the unregistered party had officially filed a request with the Almaty city administration last week asking for permission to hold a rally on October 25.

Other activists told RFE/RL that the chairwoman of an independent group of election observers, Arailym Nazarova, was also detained by police. Her mobile phone has been switched off since the morning of October 25.

In the capital, Astana, police cordoned off a square near Zhengis (Victory) Avenue where activists had planned to gather, not allowing anyone to enter the site. At least two activists were detained there.

Opposition activist Amangeldy Zhakhin said on Facebook on October 25 that police did not allow him to leave the village of Shortandy on October 25 as they tried to prevent his trip to Astana, the capital, where he planned to organize a rally to question the election, scheduled for November 20, at which incumbent President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev will face off against five relatively unknown candidates.

Activists in the cities of Aqsai, Pavlodar, and Oskemen also said they were blocked from travelling to Astana to take part in a rally.

Toqaev, who has tried to position himself as a reformer, called the early presidential election on September 1 while also proposing to change the presidential term to seven years from five years. Under the new system, future presidents will be barred from seeking more than one term.

Critics say Toqaev's initiatives have been mainly cosmetic and do not change the nature of the autocratic system in a country that has been plagued for years by rampant corruption and nepotism.

Toqaev's predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbaev, who had run the tightly controlled former Soviet republic with an iron fist for almost three decades, chose Toqaev as his successor when he stepped down in 2019.

Though he was no longer president, Nazarbaev retained sweeping powers as the head of the Security Council. He also enjoyed substantial powers by holding the title of elbasy or leader of the nation.

Many citizens, however, remained upset by the oppression felt during Nazarbaev's reign.

Those feelings came to a head in January when unprecedented anti-government nationwide protests started over a fuel price hike, and then exploded into countrywide deadly unrest over perceived corruption under the Nazarbaev regime and the cronyism that allowed his family and close friends to enrich themselves while ordinary citizens failed to share in the oil-rich Central Asian nation's wealth.

Toqaev subsequently stripped Nazarbaev of his Security Council role, taking it over himself. Since then, several of Nazarbaevs relatives and allies have been pushed out of their positions or resigned. Some have been arrested on corruption charges.

In June, a Toqaev-initiated referendum removed Nazarbaev's name from the constitution and annulled his status as elbasy.
Iran's judiciary says that new arrests have been made in the case of an imprisoned French couple as authorities look to complete their investigation of the case.

Judiciary spokesman Massoud Setayeshi told reporters on October 25 that those arrested had given "valuable and strategic information" in the case of the French pair, who have been accused of "espionage and association and collusion with the aim of undermining the security of the country."

Setayeshi gave no details on how many people were arrested or what information had been gained, adding only that the investigation continues.



French teachers' union official Cecile Kohler and her partner, Jacques Paris, were arrested in early May in Tehran reportedly while on vacation. They are accused by the authorities of seeking to stir up labor protests.

In a video released on October 6, Kohler wears a head scarf and purportedly describes herself as an intelligence and operation agent of the French foreign security service. Paris says in the video: Our goal in the French foreign security service is to put pressure on Irans government.



The French government immediately slammed the videos, saying the confessions were "staged" and that the two "have been arbitrarily detained in Iran since May 2022, and as such are state hostages."



Iran said they were accused of "entering the country to sow chaos and destabilize society."



There are now five French nationals being held in Iran, according to French officials.



Reports indicate that some Iranian employees of the French Embassy in Tehran are also under arrest.



France has urged its citizens to leave Iran as soon as possible, saying they were exposed to the risk of arbitrary detention.



The warning came amid widespread protests in Iran over the last month following the death of a 22-year-old woman while in the custody of Iran's morality police after being detained for "improperly" wearing the hijab, a mandatory head scarf.



Iran has repeatedly accused outside forces are stoking the protests, without showing any evidence to back up its claim.



The Fars news agency, which is affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), reported on October 19 that Iranian security forces have arrested a total of 14 foreigners, including American, British, Austrian, and French citizens, for their alleged involvement in anti-government protests.



Western countries have repeatedly charged that Iran is taking dual and foreign nationals into custody on false charges for the sole purpose of using them in prisoner swaps.

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda
The Ukrainian Border Guard has confirmed a media report that a Frenchman with a cache of weapons and explosives to be used allegedly in a planned attack in France was arrested on the Ukrainian-Polish border in late May.

French broadcaster M6 reported on June 3 that the 25-year-old was arrested by Ukrainian border guards with an arsenal of weapons and explosives including rocket launchers and Kalashnikov assault rifles in his vehicle.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian Border Guard, Oleh Slobodyan, on June 4 confirmed the arrest.

A spokeswoman for Ukraine's SBU security service declined to comment.



According to Reuters, the man is still being held by Ukrainian authorities pending a possible extradition request from Paris.

The French Interior Ministry said the case is being handled by judicial officials.

The M6 report said he was planning an attack in Paris, although few other details were provided.

Security officials in Europe are on high alert after gunmen killed 130 in Paris in November last year and suicide bombers blew themselves up at Brussels airport and on the metro in March, killing 32.

Based on reporting by Reuters and www.20minutes.fr
The U.S. Navy said it launched air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria from an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time on June 3.

Fighter jets flew from the USS Harry S. Truman after the ship moved into the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, marking the first air strikes conducted by a carrier group in that region since the Iraq war began in 2003, it said.

Previous strikes were launched from carriers in the Persian Gulf or from land bases in Bahrain, Turkey, and other countries.

The Navy gave no details on how many and what type of targets were hit.

The United States is increasingly concerned about Russia's growing military presence in the region, and the air strikes also send a message to Turkey that the U.S. military has other ways to conduct its air war over Syria than from the Turkish air base at Incirlik.

Based on reporting by Reuters and dpa


A behind-the-scenes dispute between the United States and Russia broke into the open on June 3, with Moscow claiming Washington asked it not to target Al-Qaeda's branch in Syria with air strikes.

"They are telling us not to hit it [Nusra Front], because there is 'normal' opposition next...to it," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in televised remarks after speaking with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry by phone.

He said that the U.S. demand runs counter to an earlier agreement that the United States and its allies would press opposition groups which have associated with Nusra in the past to distance themselves from the group and not physically locate near Nusra positions, so the blacklisted group can continue to be targeted with air strikes.

"The opposition must leave terrorists' positions, we long have agreed on that," Lavrov said. "Terrorism is a common threat, and most of our Western partners admit in conversations that there should be no excuses to delay the defeat of Islamic State and Jabhat Al-Nusra, which is trying to merge with other groups."

Nusra and the Islamic State group (IS) were both blacklisted by the United Nations as terrorist organizations, and were specifically excluded from the Syrian cease-fire and peace process, allowing both the United States and Russia to continue hitting them with air strikes.

When confronted with Lavrov's accusation, the U.S. State Department insisted that it only asked Russia to carefully select its targets to avoid hitting civilians and opposition groups that have joined the peace process.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that Kerry in an hour-long conversation with Lavrov on June 3 emphasized the need for Russia to carefully distinguish between the IS, Nusra, and less radical opposition groups.

"This is a common refrain, common theme that we've been conveying to the Russians over the past weeks," Toner said. "We obviously all agree that ISIL [Islamic State] and the Nusra Front pose a real threat to security."

"Of course we support strikes focused solely on either Daesh [Islamic State] or Al-Nusra," he said. "But a greater effort, a more complete effort needs to be made in order to distinguish between Al-Nusra and the parties to the cessation."

Toner noted that strikes against opposition forces and civilians only make people "more supportive of these terrorist groups and that is a dynamic we've seen play out in Syria for years now because of the regime's actions."

Kerry told reporters in Paris that he discussed the upsurge of violence in Syria with Lavrov, and they discussed "ways to try to strengthen the enforcement and accountability" for the cease-fire. But he did not mention the question of air strikes against Nusra.

The matter is of high importance to Moscow, however, as its air strikes have been aimed at furthering the Syrian regime's attempts to oust Nusra militants from Syria's largest city, Aleppo, where they are entrenched along with other rebel groups.

Russia at one point set a deadline for Syrian opposition units to withdraw from areas occupied by Nusra, but then agreed to give them more time to pull out.

With reporting by AP, Interfax, and TASS


The United States is dispatching an envoy to Paris and Berlin on June 7 and 8 to try to convince European allies "of the importance of maintaining sanctions pressure on Russia," the U.S. Treasury said on June 3.

The Treasury's Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam J. Szubin will meet with senior government officials from European foreign, financial, and economic ministries, as well as private European banks and financial institutions.

Besides urging allies to keep sanctions on Moscow until its "fulfills the provisions of the Minsk Agreements" outlining a path to peace in Ukraine, Szubin will discuss implementation of the Iran nuclear deal and "continued U.S. efforts to combat Iran's support for terrorism and other destabilizing activity," the Treasury said.
1 Ukrainian Forces Say They Are Holding Out Around Bakhmut Against Russian Mercenaries

2 Hungarians Take To The Streets Amid Growing Economic Turmoil

3 Exodus: Russian-Occupied Kherson Evacuates As Ukrainian Forces Draw Closer

4 Drones Help Ukrainian Mortar Team Zero In On Russian Targets
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The Week's Best

We know that rferl.org isn't the only website you read, and it's possible that you may have missed some of our most interesting journalism from the past week. To make sure you're up-to-date, here are some of the highlights produced by RFE/RL's team of cor
Japan will help Southeast Asian nations build their security capabilities to deal with unilateral, dangerous and coercive actions in the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea), Japan's defense minister said on Saturday, in pointed remarks directed at Beijing.

"In the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea) we have been witnessing large-scale and rapid land reclamation, building of outposts and utilization of them for military purposes," Japanese Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani said during a speech at a regional security conference in Singapore on Saturday, without mentioning China directly. "No countries can be an outsider of this issue," he added.

Japan's Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani speaks at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore June 4, 2016. Photo by Reuters/Edgar Su

Tokyo is worried that Chinese control of a waterway through which some $5 trillion of global trade passes a year would threaten Japan's national security and take Beijing one step closer to extending its influence into the East China Sea and Western Pacific.

China claims most of the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea), a resource-rich region scattered with hundreds of reefs and small islands, and says it is entitled to build "defensive facilities" on its territory.

To help the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations deal with China's expansion, Japan is helping them improve surveillance capabilities, conducting joint training exercises and cooperating in developing new equipment, Nakatani said.

"I think it is important to improve regional countries' capabilities by...combining joint training, capacity building assistance and defense equipment and technology cooperation," Nakatani said at the Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) gathering.

In May, Japan announced its first ever direct overseas military aid with a provisional agreement to lease five TC-90 King Air planes to the Philippines to be used as patrol planes. Manila also wants used Japanese Lockheed Martin P3-C patrol planes to track Chinese submarines near its waters.

Japan, emerging from a decades-long period of pacifism, is seeking closer military ties with Vietnam, Indonesia and other nations surrounding the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea).

Nakatani also described China's recent air interception of a U.S. military reconnaissance plane as "extremely dangerous," and reiterated Japan's support for Washington's challenges to China's territorial claims in the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea) by sending naval vessels close to reclaimed islands being built by Beijing.

The U.S. last month said two Chinese J-11 fighter jets flew within 50 feet (15 meters) of the U.S. EP-3 aircraft east of Hainan island.

Nakatani called on all South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea) claimants to submit to what is expected to be landmark legal ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague where the Philippines is challenging Beijing's claim to territory stretching deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.

"Every judgment or decision made by related courts must be fully observed by all claimants in accordance with relevant international law," the Japanese minister said.

China has argued the court does not have jurisdiction in the dispute and says it will not abide by any ruling.
3 remain missing, 43 rescued after cruise ship capsized on river in Da Nang

At least three tourists, including two children and an adult, are said to remain missing while 43 others have been rescued after a cruise ship carrying them overturned on Han River near Novotel Hotel in the central city of Da Nang on June 4.

Da Nang is one of the top destinations for foreign and local tourists.

The sunk cruise is called Thao Van, license plate DNa 0016. It is owned by Vo Quoc Hung and was driven by Le Chi Cong. It's capacity is 28 seats. It was last inspected on May 19. The next inspection is scheduled for November 20.

- The cruise overturned around 9 p.m. on June 4.

- Over 30 out of nearly 50 passengers have been taken to hospital.

- On the cruise, there were 21 members of the same family, many children and foreigners.

- The rescue team has said "there are casualties."

- 28 divers as well as police are searching for victims.

- Two nets have been spread in hope of finding victims.

- Search and rescue groups take turns working through the night.

00:50 a.m.

Vice General Ngo Quy Duc said 32 people have been rescued. "The cruise might have had more than 40 passengers. Four missing persons have been identified." The city continues to mobilize fishing boats. The search and rescue team is divided into groups to take turns working through the night.

The authorities are knocking on every door to borrow fishing boats for search and rescue. 10 fishing boats are already operating.

Search and rescue area spans two kilometers from Thuan Phuoc Bridge to Han River swing bridge.

00:30 a.m.

Da Nang Party Chief Nguyen Xuan Anh arrives at the site together with other leaders to discuss the search and rescue operation.

Da Nang Party Chief Nguyen Xuan Anh at the site.

According to the official press release, the city has mobilized all its resources, including the army, police and firefighters.

As of 11:40 p.m., June 4, hospitals have accepted 29 victims, six of which have been discharged, 23 are still under hospital care.

The authorities haven't identified the exact number of passengers. All hotels in Da Nang are checked for missing guests.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has phoned Da Nang People's Committee Chairman requesting him to urgently mobilize resources for search and rescue in order to minimize casualties.

The Prime Minister also requested that the cause of the sinking cruise be soon identified.

00:15 a.m.

More fishing boats are being mobilized to spread nets. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Truong

00:10 a.m.

Dang Thi Xuan cries by the Han River. She's a relative of Nguyen Thi Huyen (the 21 member family that was on the cruise). Xuan said two of her children, one aged 4, another aged 7, are missing. She's calling for her children as she cries, prompting others to cry too. Tran Chi Cuong, a top official from Da Nang Tourism Department, has tried to console her.

Rescued victim Dang Thi Xuan cries for two of her missing children. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Truong

00:00 a.m., June 5

Hundreds of people gather to follow the search and rescue operation. Da Nang People's Committee Chairman Huynh Duc Tho continues to mobilize more fishing boats on Han River for the search.

People following the operation at the scene.

11:45 p.m.

The overturned cruise has drifted 300 meters from its initial point. The search and rescue team is using nets to keep the cruise from drifting further.

Special forces and rescue ships have been mobilized from the neighboring Quang Nam Province.

11:30 p.m.

A rescue canoe came ashore but only managed to find four or five suitcases belonging to passengers.

An ambulance driver said he's transferred around 30 victims to the hospital. The family of Nguyen Thi Huyen from Bac Kan (northern province) is still looking for two children.

Relatives of many victims, including foreign tourists and thousands of people are following the operation.

11:15 p.m.

Special forces have been mobilized for the search. Vice General Ngo Quy Duc gaves orders that the search and rescue has to put safety first.

11:00 p.m.

The search and rescue team together with fishermen have spread two layers of nets to find victims. "This is our last resort," said Da Nang People's Committee Chairman Huynh Duc Tho, who oversees the operation.

Da Nang People's Committee Chairman Huynh Duc Tho is directly in charge of the rescue operation. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong

10:50 p.m.

Nguyen Thi Huyen (crying in the center), a passenger from the Northern province of Bac Kan, said 21 members of her family went to Da Nang to celebrate the kids' good school results. After the cruise traveled around 100 meters, it sunk. So far, only 19 have been found. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong

10:45 p.m.

Da Nang police searching for victims. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong

10:40 p.m.

A South Korean passenger rescued from the cruise. The shocked tourist is under the care of paramedics. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong

10:20 p.m.

A rescued passenger said there were life jackets on the cruise but most passengers weren't given one so nobody wore them when the cruise capsized.

Authorities and the public track the developments of the rescue operation. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong

10:15 p.m.

12 soldiers and 28 divers search for victims.

Divers ready for the rescue operation. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong

10:10 p.m.

"I Love Da Nang" group said around 20 people have been rescued, including four children who have been already been taken to hospital. One is under intensive care.

At the site, the capsized cruise ship is being pulled ashore.

A cruise ship and police search for the victims.

10:00 p.m.

Lieutenant Tran Khanh, Deputy Head of Hai Chau District Police said the cruise had nearly 50 passengers. Da Nang police and army are coordinating the search and rescue. The number of people rescued is still unknown. The rescue team said "there are casualties."

A child rescued is treated at a hospital. Photo by I Love Da Nang

9:30 p.m.

Around 9 p.m. today, a cruise ship on Han River stopped in front of Novotel Hotel in Da Nang and then capsized. Those who could swim managed to escape, the remaining are missing.

The entire area surrounding the dock in front of Novotel has been blockaded by hundreds of policemen. Ambulances are parked nearby.

The police blockades the site. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong

Many other cruise ships are helping out with search and rescue.

Colonel Le Van Tam, Director of Da Nang Police, is present at the scene and said the exact number of people missing is still unknown.

A witness said there were many families on the cruise.
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A grove of lighted towers, a slice of the long-buried Shockoe Creek and an interactive wall displaying the names of the enslaved who passed through.

A team of designers from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst offered a vision Friday of a slavery memorial park in Shockoe Bottom that they said offers space for reflection, learning and debate in a neighborhood that was once the second-largest slave-trading hub in the nation.

It also offers, they said, an opportunity to expand on the as-of-yet undefined memorial or museum at the Lumpkins slave jail archaeology site currently being pursued by Mayor Dwight C. Jones administration.

What we hope comes out of this is that people will find it compelling  not just the people who have invited us down here, but others who might say, Oh, wow  we should do this in addition to Lumpkins,  said Max Page, a professor of architecture and history at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who is a director at the schools Center for Design Engagement.

As Jones and the citys Slave Trail Commission have worked on the Lumpkins plan, activists who opposed Jones now-withdrawn ballpark proposal have pushed for a memorial with a larger footprint.

A series of community meetings hosted by the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project last year generated the idea of a memorial park.

The Reclamation Project and the National Trust for Historic Preservation invited the Center for Design Engagement to Richmond to refine the idea.

***

The designs Page and his colleagues unveiled Friday are based on a series of workshops held with community members and in schools over the course of the week. They presented their work to a standing-room-only crowd of about 100 people at the new Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia in Jackson Ward.

Page said the groups goal is to offer a broad range of ways for people to interact with the park.

I think the key is people are saying theyre drawn to the area for different reasons, Page said. Some find the site truly sacred in that they feel a religious feeling at the African burial ground site. I think others would be drawn to debating and learning that happens in the square.

That square, which is envisioned for the block bordered by Broad, 17th and Grace streets, would serve as a counterpoint to the citys many Confederate statues, he said. The centerpiece is a grove of about 30 lighted towers ranging in height from 30 to 50 feet that would be easily visible from nearby Interstate 95. The square also would feature a screen for projections and serve as a gateway under the railroad tracks to the rest of the park, where the Lumpkins site, a parking lot and the African burial ground site are now.

The feeling was that Monument Avenue and other Civil War memorials have a big presence, Page said. This place deserves to be seen from far and wide, and this is a marker of that.

An interactive video feature would be placed in the passage under the railroad tracks. Page said they hoped the display could incorporate the names of slaves in Virginia to give an indication of the scale of the suffering at the site.

At the African burial ground, a raised wooden walkway would be added to suggest youre walking on this hallowed ground, Page said. Adjacent would be a water feature suggesting Shockoe Creek, which has been buried underground for decades but historically had figured prominently in the neighborhood.

For what is now a parking lot surrounding the Lumpkins site, the design proposes urban agricultural plots.

The idea is that we could grow food that would be sold at the 17th Street market or given away to food pantries  going from pain to purpose, as someone called it, Page said.

The old Seaboard Building, which is owned by the city and currently being used as a headquarters for contractors rebuilding the Main Street Station train shed, could be renovated to serve as a joint educational effort between the citys universities that could take the form of a center for historic preservation and building crafts, which would teach all the crafts necessary to uncover the history, restore buildings and tell the stories, Page said.

***

What happens next remains to be seen. Page said its up to community members to embrace the idea if they like it.

And the plan does not address costs or funding  a topic that came up during a community meeting Wednesday.

We can talk about everything we want, said resident Diane McRae. But what can we actually afford?

Page, giving what he called a huge ballpark figure, estimated it would cost $20 million to $30 million to make the designs a reality. As for where the money would come from, Page responded to McRae that people need to start asking for it.

Theres money available when people demand it, he said. Part of this process is to create compelling images about what could be there, and then demand it from elected officials.

For the most part, however, elected officials who have been active in the debate over how to memorialize slavery in the city opted not to participate in the design process.

Jones office did not send any representatives, saying only not involved when asked about the initiative. Neither did the citys Slave Trail Commission, which with the mayors office oversaw the Richmond Speaks forums last year to solicit ideas about how to memorialize Lumpkins.

Del. Delores L. McQuinn, who chairs the commission, did not respond to a message seeking comment. Asked about the idea of a broader park last year, McQuinn said she did not think the city had the money to focus on anything but Lumpkins.

Tension has surrounded discussion of the idea of a broader park in recent months.

When Councilman Parker C. Agelasto brought up the idea during a budget work session last month, he was more or less shut down by his colleagues, who worried the plans for Lumpkins might be jeopardized. Several days later at a meeting of the citys Democratic Committee, McQuinns son, J.J. Minor, denounced Agelasto as a Confederate who was attempting to torpedo plans for the slavery memorial. Minor chairs the committee and closed the meeting before allowing Agelasto to respond.

On the other side of the debate, Phil Wilayto, an organizer with the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, took issue with Pages prior statements that the memorial park and the mayors proposal for Lumpkins could work together or supplement each other.

This is in opposition to the mayors plan (to focus on Lumpkins), not in support of it, he said.

The Reclamation Project has advocated for state funding that the city plans to use for Lumpkins to also be used for the park.

Asked about what appears to be bad blood on all sides, Page said he did not want to get involved.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter meets with Japan's Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani for a bilateral at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore June 4, 2016. Photo by Reuters/Edgar Su

The United States has agreed to waive restrictions on Japanese components used in military equipment, making it easier for Japanese firms to supply U.S. arms contractors and tap the world's most lucrative military market.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Japanese Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani signed the Reciprocal Defense Procurement Memorandum of Understanding during a meeting Saturday on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) gathering in Singapore.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2014 lifted a decades-old ban on arms exports. While Japanese off-the-shelf components have been used in defense equipment for years, the removal of the arms export ban meant companies could for the first time supply parts designed specifically for military projects.

It has also opened the way for U.S. defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin Corp, Raytheon Co to directly tap Japanese technology companies as suppliers.

When procuring military equipment, the United States typically restricts the use of materials from overseas, such as titanium and other metals, imposes a "Buy American" policy and adds tariffs and other duties on foreign parts.

The new agreement applies a blanket waiver to those restrictions, easing access to the U.S. defense market. With an annual budget of close to $600 billion, the United States accounts for about a third of global military outlays, outspending its nearest rival China by as much as four times.

The United States has inked reciprocal defense procurement pacts with 23 other countries, mostly European North Atlantic Treaty Organization partners. Its Japanese ally is the first Asian country to join that list.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte exits the final financial reporting period ahead of the June 14 primary with a colossal money lead over challenger Harry Griego.

The gap continued growing after the April 1 to May 25 deadline with more than a dozen contributions to the Goodlatte campaign of more than $1,000, mostly from large political action committees.

The Federal Election Commission campaign finance reports were due Thursday at 11:59 p.m. in advance of the primary election June 14 for the 6th Congressional District in which the two-decade incumbent faces the upstart Roanoke County-based pilot.

The district that includes Lynchburg and Amherst County and northern Bedford County stretches from Warren County in the north along Virginias backbone to Roanoke County in the southwest.

Goodlatte, chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, reported having raised $150,171 during the reporting period. The report showed expense of $162,076 during the period, leaving the campaign $1.32 million cash on-hand.

Griegos report showed the campaign raised $2,355 during the period and spent $2,480. The campaign reported $669 cash on-hand.

Since the reporting period ended, Goodlattes campaign filed three 48-hour notices, required for contributions of $1,000 or more within 20 days of the election.

A June 1 48-hour notice showed 12 contributions of more than $1,000, including $5,000 from Norfolk Southern Corp. Government Fund, two $2,500 contributions from the BNSF RailPAC, and $1,000 from the Association of American Railroads PAC.

That notice also shows $1,000 from Frank E. Longaker, of Roanoke, listed as president of online for-profit school American National University.

ExxonMobils company-sponsored political action committee out of Irving, Texas contributed $2,500 on May 31, a notice said.

A report dated for May 26 showed a $1,000 donation from CSM Inc. CEO Robert McNichols, out of Roanoke. CSM is a long-term care management firm for retirement communities.

The next required report for the 6th Congressional District is due July 15.
SCALING AI SUMMIT

As global enterprise AI adoption reaches critical mass, AI is embedded in everyday life, business, government, medicine, finance and much more. But so too are the potential failures and consequential business risks and as AI is scaled, problems can (and often do) scale too  from autonomous collisions and algorithm prejudice to facial recognition fiascos and chatbot slanders. Now a board priority, businesses must embed oversight into AI applications and processes, mitigating risk and ensuring responsibility without hindering innovation. Scaling AI Summit is a unique platform for business leaders and tech marvels to come together and benchmark how best to achieve innovative risk-averse AI systems found on trust and reliability.


Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at an online conference on health insurance on June 3, 2016. Photo by VGP/Quang Hieu

Vietnam has set out a new goal in welfare development, aiming for 90 percent of the population to have health insurance by 2020, according to the government portal.

The target was proposed by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc during an online conference held yesterday with ministries and provincial leaders across Vietnam. Phuc said a well-developed country must have a good health care system, stating that health insurance coverage is one of the key factors in welfare policy.

Phuc assigned the Vietnam Social Insurance Agency (SIA) propose the plan to the government to expand health insurance coverage. The agency was also asked to form a network of healthcare facilities to ease the payment, examination and treatment procedures for patients.

Deputy Director of the SIA Nguyen Thi Minh pledged to PM Phuc that the computer-based system to monitor health insurance payments in 14,000 healthcare facilities all over the country will be put together before June 30.

The prime minister also ordered the Ministry of Health to direct hospitals and healthcare facilities to improve their service quality for citizens with health insurance.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said the ministry has already adjusted the price for over 1,900 healthcare services which will help reduce the burden on the budget allocated to healthcare. The money saved can be used to support citizens to buy health insurance, she said.

We will continue to adjust the price for those who do not have health insurance to ensure equality between the two groups while motivating people to buy health insurance, Tien said.

Talking with provincial leaders, Phuc proposed to integrate the 90 percent health insurance coverage into the socio-economic development targets of each province. Phuc ordered local authorities to focus on supporting poor households, students from families with many children and average income households working in agriculture, forestry and fishery.

Phuc also asked the press to keep the public aware about the benefits and responsibilities of buying health insurance.

Authorities from big cities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong and Hanoi agreed that in order to attract more people to buy health insurance, the first important thing is to improve the quality of healthcare. While most agreed on the states role in encouraging citizens to buy health insurance, there are also concerns that people might take it for granted.
The above palindromic title for this article commemorates the 48-mile waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and the tiny ship Alliance who made the first passage through on June 7, 1914. The construction of the canal took 10 years and opened 401 years after Panama was first crossed by Vasco Balboa, the first European to see the Pacific Ocean. The fact that the United States spent $375 million (about $9 billion in todays money) to finish the project indicates how essential the route was deemed. It was by far the largest American engineering project to date.

You may recall that France was the original nation that began work on a canal across the isthmus in 1881. French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps, the force behind the successful 120 mile long Suez Canal, now set his sights on a sea level canal at Panama calculating that it would take eight years to complete. Unfortunately he did not take into account the vast difference between arid Egypt and the tropical climate of South America and his workers were totally unprepared for the rainy season, the venomous snakes, insects and deadly spiders. If this wasnt enough, thousands of workers died due to widespread outbreaks of yellow fever and malaria, both mosquito-borne maladies. After three years the French called it quits and departed, leaving most of the equipment behind.

The United States took over the project in 1904, and opened the canal 10 years later. The Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduced the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy and dangerous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Strait of Magellan. Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914 to 14,702 vessels in 2008. It takes about seven hours to pass through and tolls for a large container ship typically average $50,000. A 30-foot pleasure boat would be charged $800 to make the journey.

Besides the engineering aspects of the project, the intrigue and back room dealings that made the plan a success are quite interesting to review. By 1900 the Spanish-American War was over and the United States began an expansion into the Pacific taking over many of Spains former possessions (such as The Philippines). Because America is a two ocean nation, the concept of moving a ship from one coast to the other was a weighty problem. The time it took to travel around the bottom of South America was keenly illustrated by the ordeal of the USS Oregon, a battleship of the US Navy. Ordered to leave San Francisco on March 19, 1898 and travel to Cuba for the war imminent with Spain (the USS Maine had already blown in February in Havana Harbor killing 266 sailors), and took 66 days to complete the journey, an unreasonable length that demonstrated the need for a shorter route.

In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became president upon the death of William McKinley and seriously became interested in establishing a canal across the isthmus  at that time part of Columbia  because as secretary of the Navy, he saw the problems moving ships from one side of the nation to the other. Somewhere along the line the U.S. government was contacted by Phillipe Bunau-Varilla, the manager of the defunct French project who wanted to continue, with American money, the original canal plan.

Because there were many who favored an alternate route across Nicaragua, Bunau-Varilla aggressively promoted the original path, even going so far as sending members of Congress postage stamps of Nicaraguas Mt. Momotombo spewing ash and lava over the proposed alternate route. Through lobbying of businessmen, government officials, and the American public, Bunau-Varilla convinced the U.S. Senate to appropriate money for the New Panama Canal Company, contingent of course on negotiating a treaty with Colombia to provide land for the canal in its territory of Panama.

The deal was quickly ratified by the U.S. Senate on March 14, 1903, but not by the Senate of Colombia. They resented this intrusion into their country. It was then that Bunau-Varilla told President Theodore Roosevelt of a possible revolt by Panamanian rebels who aimed to separate from Colombia, and hoped that the United States would support the rebels with U.S. troops and money.

Roosevelt actively supported the separation of Panama from Colombia and, shortly after the U.S. government recognized Panama and signed the canal treaty with the new Panamanian government. Work began the next year.

Guess who became its first ambassador to the United States? Philippe Bunau-Varilla! President Roosevelt famously stated that I took the Isthmus, started the canal and then left Congress not to debate the canal, but to debate me. So once again, with American taxpayer money the world was improved and probably made a little greener by creating the shorter passage. In 1974 President Jimmy Carter apologetically gave the entire canal, lock stock and barrel, back to Panama.

No worry, this year, as the figure shows, an alternate but longer Chinese sponsored canal is under construction through Nicaragua. It is scheduled to be completed in 2019.
AN EMERGENCY doctor at Rotherham Hospital has joined the life-saving crew of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Dr Anil Hormis is one of three anaesthetists to become part of the new Yorkshire Critical Care Team.

It also includes Dr Steve Rowe and Neil Sambridge, from Sheffield, and eight other consultants.

Dr Andrew Pountney, emergency medicine consultant at Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, is clinical lead for the Yorkshire Critical Care Team.

He said: We have had doctors flying with Yorkshire Air Ambulance on an ad-hoc basis for over 10 years now.

But thanks to this initiative we now have a dedicated and funded system to ensure that a consultant with appropriate training and experience in pre-hospital emergency medicine can respond every day of the year.

The doctors, who have been seconded to YAS by their host trusts, will support the work of YAA paramedics who have extended critical care skills.

They will also work alongside physicians with the West Yorkshire Medic Response Team and British Association for Immediate Care (BASICS) who respond by road to serious incidents.

Dr Pountney added: This is about complementing the excellent service already provided by Yorkshire Air Ambulance paramedics and other front-line response teams.

For the vast majority of the time the doctors will have a vital role providing support for the paramedics when they are using their extended skills.

The doctors will also be able to make advanced clinical decisions and deliver critical care interventions very quickly, including pre-hospital emergency anaesthesia.

There will be occasions when having an experienced doctor on board will mean that certain life-saving procedures can be done on scene.
The 2020 Renault Duster BS6s diesel variant is not available in the portfolio for now

Renault India has rather silently shared the prices of the BS6-compliant avatar of the Duster. The 2020 Renault Duster BS6 comes at a starting price of Rs 8.40 lakh, which is roughly Rs 50,000 more than that of the outgoing BS4 model. As per the company website, the Renault Duster BS6 comes in three petrol variants: RXE, RXS and RXZ at starting prices of Rs 8.49 lakh, Rs 9.29 lakh and Rs 9.99 lakh, respectively. All prices mentioned here are ex-showroom.

Yes, the new Renault Duster BS6 is not available in a diesel avatar (at least for now) even though the company has not shared the information on its Indian website. Furthermore, the petrol CVT variant has not made it through the update. The prices and specifications of the BS4 version (petrol and diesel) are still available on the website and we expect the page to be updated soon.

The 2020 Renault Duster petrol is powered by a BS6 1.5-litre H4K four-cylinder engine that makes 105bhp and 142Nm of torque. This is mated to a 5-speed manual. The power figures do not see a difference from that of the BS4 model. At Auto Expo 2020, the Renault India pavilion had an interesting turbo petrol variant of the Duster on showcase. The 1.3-litre mill is rated at 153bhp and 250Nm with a 6-speed manual or CVT.

Owing to the stiff competition, the Renault Duster has not had the success it initially received on the market. Launched in the country back in 2012, the Renault Duster compact-SUV/crossover can be regarded as an early gamechanger for the French automaker.

Renault Indias sales chart is not doing particularly well with the Duster and a good proportion of the monthly figures are contributed by its diesel model. In spite of many major brands going the petrol way, experts state that the demand for diesel vehicles in the segment will not go down that quickly. Hence, the Renault Duster BS6 could be introduced with a diesel powertrain in the near future.

In the outgoing BS4 format, the 1.5-litre DCi four-cylinder diesel motor came in two formats: 85ps (84bhp) and 110ps (108bhp). The former made 200Nm of torque while the latter was good for 245Nm. The 85ps model was mated to a 5-speed manual. On the other hand, the higher 110ps model got a 6-speed manual or an optional AMT. The top-of-the-line RXS (O) variant boasted of AWD.
The Tata Tiago bookings exceed 20,000 units since its launch in early April. The positive response for the small car comes as a much needed shot in the arm for Tata Motors.

However, its being reported that the deliveries of the Tiago have been impacted due to mismatch between the demand and supply. Tata apparently wasnt prepared to manufacture petrol variants in large quantities.

Company is said to have set its production split in favor of diesel variants whereas the actual demand from customers is more for petrol variants. Caught off guard, Tata is currently working on realigning the production schedule to increase the number of petrol Tiagos rolling out from the Sanand facility. The waiting period for petrol variants may increase temporarily.

The reducing price gap between petrol and diesel fuels, ban on diesel cars in Delhi, ongoing campaign against diesel cars in general, and the price difference of INR 75,000  1,00,000 between petrol and diesel variants are the prime factors for petrol cars being favored. According to The Hindu, Tata Motors is reacting to the trend and the demand-supply issue is expected to normalize in the next 8 weeks.

Its being reported that out of the 20,000 bookings, 70-80% of them are for petrol variants. This heavy inclination towards petrol motor came as a major surprise to the automaker. Guenter Butschek, Managing Director, Tata Motors, stated that a second shift has been added to the Sanand factory in an attempt to address the Tiago petrol production bottleneck.

The NGT diesel ban may be targeting only big engined cars but some analysts say that the extension could have a significant impact on the buying pattern in small car segment as well and the Tiago case seems to be an example.

Via  Thehindu.com
ELKO  The second annual Pride Festival has a number of new events scheduled next weekend.

Hopefully, we will gain your support and respect as we show our community support by bringing this amazing event to the community and citizens of Elko with our Inaugural Drag Queen Express, said Steve Christean, president of Rural America Pride Corp/LGBTQA Elko.

The event, starting at 9 p.m. Friday, will be going through downtown Elko visiting local bars, taverns and casinos and inviting everyone out for the Saturday events, he said.

The festival kickoff will be noon to 6 p.m. Saturday in the Elko City Park, then move to the Red Lion Inn and Casino for the Inaugural Elko Drag-A-Thon.

There will be a family show from 7-9:15 p.m. followed by a 16-and-older show from 9:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tickets for all events can be purchased at The Wild Rose, Swank, by calling 775-671-6276, or online at elkopride2016.brownpapertickets.com.

All funds will go toward the expense of bringing Pride 2016 to the community, with the remainder to support the goal of creating Elkos first Diversity Center.

Special guests will include Yara Sofia, who is returning to Elko this year as Miss Skin War 2016, as seen on television. The master of ceremonies will be Ivanaha Fusionn and her LipstickDivas and the Ulter Egos .

The Human Rights Campaign of Las Vegas hopes members of PFLAG and TAG of Reno will be on hand with educational and informational booths about the LGBTQA community.

LGBQA of Elko recognizes the Norris-Rocaberte Family Foundation, which will be the first sustaining and largest donor to Rural America Pride.

Before you say no, come out and lets all learn together and support this very worthy cause, said Christean.
ELKO  The suspect in Friday mornings homicide is being held without bail on a murder charge.

The charge you are booked in on is a charge of open murder. In cases of this nature youre held without bail, said Elko Justice of Peace Mason Simons

During his initial court appearance, Donald Fleming, 38, was appointed the counsel of the Elko County Public Defenders office by Simons.

This action was taken as it is unclear how long Fleming will keep his job as a mechanic with the Nevada Division of Forestry. Additionally, Fleming said he has six children ranging in ages from 17 to 5, two of which are not his biological children.

Fleming is suspected in the homicide of his wife Kristin, who was shot in the face with a small-caliber handgun early Friday morning.

Authorities believe domestic violence was a contributing factor.

A preliminary hearing has not been set for the matter as the investigation is ongoing.

This alleged crime is just hours old  and the State hasnt received a submission, said Deputy District Attorney Mark Mills, after Simons asked when the criminal complaint might be filed.

Jasper Nichols, a man identifying himself as the younger brother of Kristin Fleming, spoke to the Elko Daily Free Press.

We are trying to process this and put the children first, because they lost a mom last night and a dad at the same time," he said. "Were just trying to help them, the most, move forward, he said.

Kristin Fleming was a stay-at-home mother, said Nichols.

He described the couples relationship as a roller coaster.

Donald and Kristin Fleming reportedly moved to the area when he obtained a job with NDF. Nichols said this was after deployment in the Middle East.

Public Affairs Sgt. 1st Class Erick Studenicka verified Donald Fleming is a member of the Nevada Army National Guard and obtained the rank of master sergeant in May of 2013.

Fleming is a member of the 150th Maintenance Company -- headquartered in Carson City -- working as a senior maintenance supervisor.

Fleming's records show he was deployed for two combat duty stints: for 12 months from June of 1999 to June of 2000 and for nine months in 2010, from March to December.

"Master Sgt. Donald Fleming is a 'traditional' Soldier in the Nevada Army Guard who works one weekend per month plus some weeks of annual training each year for the National Guard," said Studenicka.

"He was not on duty for the Nevada Army Guard at the time of the alleged incident," he said.

Fleming entered the Army in 1996, said Studenicka.
ELKO  While some graduating seniors may be looking forward to a break from school this summer, Elko High School senior Hannah Margolis is eager to get back in the lab.

Margolis, 17, is attending Dartmouth for her undergrad but before she heads east to New Hampshire shell be headed west to a lab at the California Institute of Technology and continue her work from last summer. After struggling to find a lab for her internship last summer Margolis had a hard time containing her excitement once she found one.

The day before my birthday I got this email back from this lab that said, hey, we saw that you attached your resume and we heard youre looking for lab space, we can talk more, she said. Thats how I almost broke my whole body because I almost fell down the stairs because I was so excited. It was the best birthday present ever.

In addition to her lab experiments, which included studying how proteins in the body fight off diseases, Margolis also contributed to her mentor, Leslie Collins, academic paper that will be published this summer.

Before Margolis, who is graduating at the top of her class, was traveling out of state to work in a lab she was just another student in her sophomore year biology class. Margolis credits a lot of her interest in the field of molecular biology to her biology teacher that year, Brian Zeiszler. Margolis had always been interested in the field, which made it easy to get along with her teacher.

We connected on a different level as far as biology is concerned. She really likes molecular biology, which is my passion as well, Zeiszler said.

Zeiszler has always known Margolis to be a bright student who picked up on concepts quickly but there is one moment in particular when he knew she had the potential to make an impact in the world of science. Zeisler let Margolis borrow one of the books he studied while he was in college and was impressed with how much she was able to comprehend.

She saw that book and she started taking it with her and reading it, he said. It got to the point where she understood way more information in there than I could have ever understood. Its always great when that moment of students surpassing their teachers happens. She just took off from there.

Part of the reason her interest was piqued by the biology textbook was that the subject is not well covered in high school science classes.

I feel that in our school system we really dont do a good enough job of covering that side of science, she said. We learn a lot about physical science but not a lot about viruses and bacterium. When I entered that class I was immediately interested.

Though she is interested in science and plans to continue her biology studies while attending Dartmouth she is still hoping to receive a balanced education over the next four years. Even though she worked in a lab at Cal Tech last summer, and will continue her work there this summer, Margolis said she chose to attend Dartmouth to avoid narrowing her interests too early in her academic career.

I do want a liberal arts education. I dont think I know how to think in the way that I want to, so Im not ready to just do science, she said. Its more interesting when the worlds combine and you can compare a cell to a government system, which is what my teacher had to listen to all year.

With all of the success Margolis had so far, and the success she hopes for as she continues her education, Margolis hasnt forgotten how instrumental her family has been the past few years. Her parents both teach classes in the science field: Mira Kurka is an adjunct professor at Great Basin College and GBC professor Gary Hanington is chief scientist at American High Voltage. They have been supportive, even as they listen to their daughter talk about molecular biology on their long road trips to the lab in Pasadena.

They were very supportive of my internship. If I had a different family that hadnt set aside money for my education they would have said, we cant afford to have you stay in Pasadena, she said. I owe them a lot for that. And they try to listen to me talk about proteins  they really do  and I try to listen when we travel and they talk about the geology of the places we go.
KWU's Pioneer Hall set for National Historic place nomination

Pioneer Hall, the centerpiece of the Kansas Wesleyan University campus in Salina, is a step closer to being nominated as a national historic site.
Equivocal formulations in the resolution of Bundestag (video)

Germany replied to Turkey, recognizing the Armenian Genocide. The developments in the interstate relations are political processes based on the interests of the particular state. In terms of this the adoption of this resolution wasnt unexpected. Germany, as a key player of the EU, tries to restrain and punish the current authorities of Turkey in the person of President Erdogan for speaking to Europe the so called aggressive language of ultimatums, turkologist Levon Hovsepyan told A1+. According to the assessment of historian Armen Marukyan, we shouldnt forget that Germany recognized the Armenian Genocide not based on humanitarian grounds, but taking into account the problems connected with refugees and determining visa regime with the EU. In connection with this Mr Marukyan said: It comes to prove that last year Germany, in fact, gave a chance to Turkey and Prime Minister Erdogan so that it could solve these problems. But as the problem hadnt been solved, on the 101st anniversary a decision was made to punish Turkey, which fails to fulfill its obligations, and this resolution has been adopted. According to Armen Marukyan, there are equivocal formulations in the resolution, which has classic European style- equivocal standards and passive attitude. The idea of reviving Zurich protocols is raised, reconciliation of two peoples and the idea of Turkeys apology runs like a red thread. It seems that this resolution must result in recognition and apology. It turns out that there is nothing about compensation and concrete liability of Turkey, about eliminating or overcoming the consequences of this crime, and it is a resolution adopted by the state, which itself compensates for Jewish Holocaust and the process of that compensation continues in the financial form until today, highlighted Mr Marukyan. Though it is considered that this resolution will not hold Turkey liable and will not have any legal consequences, it includes very important impulses. When the legal phase of elimination of the consequences of the Armenian Genocide begins, the resolution adopted by Germany, as well as resolutions adopted by other countries will be the grounds based on which the proceedings will be underway in the courts, noted turkologist Levon Hovsepyan. The latter also singles out a factor, for which the adoption of this resolution has been important: In case of Germany the label genocide and recognition was essential, taking into account several factors that German Empire was the main ally of the Ottoman Empire and that in its denial policy Turkey always rested upon Germany in this or that way, showing that Germany, key player during WWI, hadnt recognized, and that issue was called into question. From time to time Turkey was making statements that the German archives should have been revealed, but at present all this arouses serious problems for Turkey, he said. How will the adoption of this resolution influence the Turkish-German relations? According to Mr Hovsepyan, Turkey, nevertheless, will take some steps, but it doesnt mean that it will result in the serious deterioration of the German-Turkish relations, as it will later arouse even more serious problems for Turkey. The specialists dont consider it realistic that Germany will later put forward claims of compensation or liability, but they think that the example of Bundestag can be infectious for other countries. Watch also the video!
By Peggy Kelly

Santa Paula News

Firefighters Quest for Burn Survivors commonly known as Burn Quest made its first Ventura County stop May 12 at Santa Paula Fire Station 1 where they picked up a hefty donation to benefit burn victims.

According to SPFD Captain Austin Macias, president of the Santa Paula Firefighters Association, We were the first stop on the Quest run and they arrived about 9 a.m. We cooked breakfast for them hereours was their longest stop theyre usually pretty quick because of time constraints.

SPFD Captain Jerry Byrum and Engine 81 as well as Assist. Chief Vern Alstot escorted the caravan to Fillmore Fire.

From there Macias said Burn Quest went over the hill into Moorpark and to other points in Ventura County where the caravan picked up donation after donation from fire stations and businesses including a Harley-Davidson dealership.

The Santa Paula Fire Fighters Association donated $501: We donate that every year from our association funds, said Macias.

Firefighters Quest for Burn Survivors is a non-profit organization managed by firefighters and civilians who according to its website volunteer their services and are dedicated to assist those that have been affected by burn injuries. The organization hosts several fund raisers throughout each year in which donations are received and distributed on behalf of each donor to local burn centers and foundations as well as burn survivors and their families.

Burn injuries are especially devastating, and the majority take a lifetime to heal. The physical and emotional pain the victims suffer is something firefighters see on a regular basis.

Now in its 20th year, the organization was founded in 1996 following the Southern California Malibu Brush Fire in which six firefighters were injured due to burns received while being entrapped in a Firestorm.
By Peggy Kelly

Santa Paula News

The arraignment has been postponed for a Santa Paula man that allegedly shot his father to death last weekend on the familys ranch.

Peter Brian Owen, 23, appeared Tuesday for an arraignment that was continued until June 22.

Owen was arrested Monday, the day after the Ventura County Sheriffs Department was notified by Ventura County Fire that a man reported as injured on the property in the 14600 block of Santa-Paula Ojai Road (Highway 150) was actually dead from gunshot wounds.

The body of Aleric Owen, 50, was found by VCFD personnel near Highway 150 in the unincorporated area of Ventura County, north of Santa Paula and Thomas Aquinas College, after they received a 911 call. The caller also said they heard gunshots in the area earlier.

First responders then notified deputies at about 10:50 a.m. that a man  who apparently was doing weed abatement at the time he was shot multiple times  was dead on the property.
By Peggy Kelly

Santa Paula News

A downtown meat market and grocery store got approval to move into new Downtown quarters Tuesday from the Planning Commission, which received several letters objecting to its continuing off-site sale of beer and wine.

Planning Director Janna Minsk told commissioners Mi Pueblito Meat Market is moving to a new location at 1072 E. Main St. where the owner, Armando Reyes, will make improvements to the building. The business is presently located at 148 So. Ojai St.

The 10,500 square foot building will undergo changes; two of the three existing businesses will leave to make room for theb market. Office and commercial space will be converted for the market and the exterior facade and parking lot will undergo improvements.

According to the report the proposed grocery store will include a produce section, dry goods, frozen foods, dairy products, meats, bakery and deli, and a dining area consisting of six tables. The off-site sale of beer and wine will occupy 250 square feet of refrigerated space at the rear of the store. The grocery store hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.

Minsk told commissioners the reason they were considering the application is because a grocery store does require a Conditional Use Permit, as does the transfer of the existing beer and wine license to the new location.

I think of interest to most of us is the city does have a concentration of licenses, which prompted several letters including one from the Santa Paula Downtown Merchants Association that noted there are 10 businesses with off-site beer and wine licenses in the vicinity of the Downtown.

Said Minsk, My response is this is not a new license, for Mi Pueblito.

The new store location is compatible with surrounding land uses, encourages the expansion of business activity, is not near a school or church and meets all guidelines for such a CUP.

Reyes and his daughter  accompanied by almost two-dozen supporters  told commissioners that he lost his lease on Ojai Street and had the opportunity to purchase the East Main Street building.

After going through this with a fine-tooth comb you have a nice project, said Commissioner Mike Sommer. I ask though why you have so many openings in the front?

Reyes said the doors adhere to the present building configuration and would not all be opened.
Uber gets a major investor as Saudi Arabia channeled a significant amount of money to the tech start-up.

The New York Times has reported that this is one of the biggest chunks of investment from a single source since the company has started. A total $3.5 billion was given by the Saudi's Public Investment Fund.

However, this also drawn other issues since Saudi Arabia does not allow women to legally drive. While the ban is not stated explicitly, women are generally not allowed to get a driving license; hence, they would not be able to drive in Saudi. Women with foreign driving license are the ones only allowed to do so, while some opt to drive without a license.

One the part of Uber, the company does not restrict women from driving. The start-up recorded about 19 percent of women drivers in 2015, and the statistics is expected to rise as it continues to expand in other parts of the world.

A representative of Uber said that getting Saudi Arabia as one of its biggest investors does not mean limiting women from driving through the app.

In another report, Uber has been keen in expanding its operations. Recently Uber announced that it is planning to invest about $250 million in Middle East alone.

Uber also reported that it now has 395,000 active riders in the Middle East-which is a far cry from its previous record. There are 19,000 drivers to meet the needs and demands in the region.

Sought for a statement, Jill Hazelbaker , Uber spokesperson said to the New York Times: "Of course, we think women should be allowed to drive...In the absence of that, we have been able to provide extraordinary mobility that didn't exist before-and we're incredibly proud of that."

Uber has been a go-to of commuters who want alternatives to other available means of public transportation.
Technology has offered many changes via fast pace and right now optics could be offering something monumental with manufacturers looking at more ways to make devices and solutions more compact.

That includes cameras, both the ones used in photography and snappers usually integrated with modern phone cameras. Among the key components that make up these commodities are optical lenses though the bulkiness will depend as well on the internal components they come in.

While that could be countless, optics in cameras are the main focus for now and a revolutionary breakthrough in optics could spark a major change particularly for items using it. That includes cameras, binoculars or even microscopes.

And the best part about the new optics solution called metalenses? It will spark a whole new wave of lightweight and smaller solutions without compromising the quality consumers would demand.

"In my opinion, this technology will be game-changing," said Federico Capasso of Harvard University, the senior author of a report on the new lens which appears in the journal Science.

The lens in focus are made of thin layers of transparent quartz and coated with millions of tiny pillars. Each are just tens of nanometers across and hundreds high where each pillar interacts with light. To turn them into conventional lens, necessary adjustments with the help of computers would be needed to determine the right pattern.

Having said that, the whole process seems to be a long one though Capasso believes the metalenses will avoid the shortfalls and revolutionize the rendering of quality images.

"Our lenses, being planar, can be fabricated in the same foundries that make computer chips. So all of a sudden the factories that make integrated circuits can make our lenses."

Capasso admits that cellphone cameras are the first ones that come to mind. In fact, everyone is aware how companies like Apple and Samsung are looking for ways to make their flagship devices thinner.

A clear example is the upcoming iPhone 7 which will sport a thinner design which they reportedly achieved by taking out the 3.5 mm jacks. So one has to wonder how they can get with the flatter lens in the future.

The metalenses are not limited to cellphones alone. He sees it covering other niches like mass-produced cameras for quality control in factories, light-weight optics for virtual-reality headsets, even contact lenses. "We can make these on soft materials," Prof Capasso assured the BBC.

The prototype lenses are 2mm across but can be fabricated to any size when called for.

"Once you have the foundry - you want a 12-inch lens? Feel free, you can make a 12-inch lens. There's no limit," adds Capasso.
Thumbs down to the South Carolina General Assembly for not raising the state gas tax and coming up with a permanent plan to fix our crumbling roads and bridges. The 2016 session ended this week. We must say we had much higher hopes. We cant say that lawmakers did nothing this year, although it sure looked for a while as if a plan again was headed toward a dead end. They passed a Senate road funding bill that is supposed to increase funding by more than $4 billion in the next 10 years. This plan spared South Carolinians a tax (or fee) increase, but if ever there seemed to be a time when state residents would accept an increase, this was it. We are all fed up with the condition of our infrastructure, and most of us are willing to pay a little to solve the big problem. Now were probably looking at less money going toward other critical needs, such as education. The plan that passed is better than nothing, but lets hope lawmakers dont wait 10 years to come up with a better plan.

Thumbs down to state lawmakers for stopping short of meaningful ethics reform. We thought they were moving in the right direction when the Senate passed a bill at the end of April, but the House and Senate still cant agree on how complaints against legislators should be investigated independently. The House favors a revamped State Ethics Commission deciding whether a legislator violated a law. The Senate wont go that far. Senate Judiciary Chairman Larry Martin said he's still optimistic a compromise can pass when the legislature returns June 15. Were skeptical but hope the Senate proves us wrong.

Thumbs down to state lawmakers for killing a Freedom of Information reform bill in conference committee after coming soooo close to seeing meaningful measures passed. We had our hopes up, but Sen. Margie Bright Matthews of Walterboro succeeded in her goal. She was a member of the conference committee. Unbelievably, she said she couldnt support the bill that otherwise had widespread support because it had not been debated in the Senate. How ironic. She prevented that debate from happening.

Thumbs up to state lawmakers for giving military retirees a tax cut. The legislation that passed in the last minutes is intended to entice working-age veterans who served 20 years in uniform to retire in South Carolina. The tax benefits would phase in over five years. By 2020, military retirees younger than 65 could deduct $17,500 of their income earned in the state. Retirees 65 or older could exempt up to $30,000. Once fully phased in, the cuts are expected to reduce state revenues by $18 million. Were disappointed that Darlington Senator Gerald Malloy fought against this legislation. He said he's concerned legislators "continue to pass bills that will end up benefiting some and not others." But thankfully he allowed a vote after senators agreed to the five-year phase-in.

Thumbs up to high school seniors who have graduated. The last commencements in the Pee Dee are scheduled for today at the Florence Civic Center. South Florence High School, West Florence High School and Wilson High School seniors will graduate in ceremonies that start at 8 a.m., noon and 4 p.m., respectively. Its a big, big day. This is quite a milestone for students and their families. Congratulations to all. We know getting to this point wasnt easy. Getting beyond this point will be even harder, but were counting on these graduates. No pressure, young men and women, but were living in a messed-up world. We need you to make a difference.

Thumbs up to Dr. J. Kevin OKelly for providing designated parking spaces to combat-wounded veterans. That message comes from combat veteran Tom Lampack of Florence. The retired Marine wrote: How surprised as I when I went to my doctor appointment and noticed a sign designating a parking space for Purple Heart combat wounded. How wonderful is this? I am not combat wounded with a Purple Heart, but I truly appreciate it when others recognize these special people. Others, please take note and consider this at your particular location, even though its not a requirement.

Thumbs up, thumbs down is a regular feature of the Morning News and appears each Saturday on our Opinion page. We seek nominations for both good and bad deeds from our readers. Send nominations to us by email at letters@florencenews.com. Be sure use the word thumb in the subject and include a contact number. Thumbs can also be mailed to us c/o The Morning News, 310 S. Dargan St., Florence, S.C., 29506.
Germany needs mechanisms of pressure

The Armenian people shouldnt be in the state of euphoria after the adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolution by German Bundestag, says Vladimir Vardanyan, Expert of International Law of the Constitutional Court. According to his words, Germany wasnt the state, which had stressed pro-Armenian stance, and the adoption of that resolution was a surprise for us. From the legal point of view the fact that the German Parliament labeled it as genocide, is very important. The recognition and labeling of the fact is also very important, noted Vladimir Vardanyan during the press conference. Another speaker of the press conference, turkologist, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the YSU Ruben Melkonyan, who earlier didnt consider the adoption of the resolution by Bundestag to be possible, today notes that we shouldnt get excited about moral victories. He reminds that Germany is among those European countries, which was the ally of Turkey. But at present the relations are in a complex phase, and Europe needs mechanisms of pressure. Nevertheless, in the context of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide turkologist considers the fact to be the keystone. He recalls the history; Germany gave shelter to Talaat Pasha, Enver Pasha, Djemal Pasha and others. Ruben Melkonyan urges to refrain from the syndrome of moral victories and considers the next step to be important, Recognition gives green light. There are very important documents in the German archives; it is time to reveal them as a means to strengthen the documentary ground of the Armenian Genocide. At the same time turkologist highlights the fact that 11 Turkish MPs voted in favor of the resolutions and at present persecution has been launched against them in Turkey.
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Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

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

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

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Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

USA Embassy Message for U.S. Citizens

ANCA Issues National Call to Action to Stop Taxpayer Funding of Aliyevs Aggression
The four newbuildings include two 1,100 teu capacity vessels and two 300 teu capacity vessels. Financial details and vessel delivery dates were not disclosed.

The Chinese shipyard, subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC), said the order would help reinforce the companys presence in the US market.
The "Nite out at USS" was attended by 4,500 union members and their families, representatives from shipping companies and beneficiaries of various communities and homes.

These beneficiaries who have been specially invited to join the occasion are children and single mothers from NTUC WeCARE for U, as well as elderly residents from Bright Hill Evergreen Home, Henderson Home, Hope Community Services Centre, Jalan Kukoh and Jamiyah Home for the Aged.

Singapores Acting Minister for Education (Schools) and Senior Minister of State for Transport Ng Chee Meng was guest-of-honour at the evening.

Speaking at the event Mary Liew, general-secretary of SMOU said: When SMOU embarked on the preparations to commemorate this milestone, we thought very long and hard on choosing the theme that best describes our 65 years of journey and yet, at the same time is able to reflect the future as we progress. Thus, we settled on the theme, Growing Together with You, a simple yet apt phrase that embodies our past, present and future.
Its events allow its customers to make connections and do business efficiently and effectively. UBM has three principle businesses: UBM Americas, UBM Asia and UBM EMEA who together provide high quality Events and OMS activities through regional focus, closely collaborating when brands extend globally. UBM is the largest "pure-play" exhibitions organiser in the world, No.1 International Exhibitions organiser in China, India and Malaysia (Asia) and No.1 Exhibitions organiser in the US.

Included within the UBM maritime portfolio is: Sea Asia; Seatrade Maritime Middle East; Seatrade Offshore Marine & Workboats Middle East; Seatrade Maritime Awards Middle East,

Indian Subcontinent & Africa and Seatrade Maritime Awards Asia; Marintec South America; Offshore Marintec Russia; Marintec Indonesia; Marintec China, Sea Japan and Expomaritt.

Seatrade, an integral portfolio within UBM provides a range of global exhibitions, conference, events, awards, news websites and publications that covers every aspect of the cruise and maritime industries.

Founded in 1970, Seatrade connects people and creates opportunities for companies to develop new business, meet customers, launch new products, promote brands and expand markets.

The Seatrade portfolio is headquartered in Colchester, UK, and globally represented across 23 countries from the UAE and Asia to South America and across Europe. From Singapore, both the Sea Asia and Seatrade Maritime Awards Asia are managed under the umbrella of UBM Asia, the largest trade show organiser in the region, and the largest commercial organiser in China, India and Malaysia.

Seatrade Maritime Review and Seatrade Maritime News are the official titles in print and online for all the UBM maritime portfolio, as well as associated events: Posidonia and gmec

To find out more about the Seatrade maritime portfolio, visit www.seatrademaritimeevents.com and for UBM EMEA please visit, ubmemea.com

For UBM Asia, visit www.ubmasia.com
NASA is considering sending the Dawn spacecraft to a third asteroid after it finishes its mission at the dwarf planet Ceres.

Dawn, which visited the asteroid Vesta before putting itself into orbit around Ceres, was expected to run out of fuel for its novel ion propulsion system by the end of this year.

ANALYSIS: Weird Polygonal Crater Reveals Ceres' Faults

The spacecraft had used extra propellant for thruster burns to orientate itself in space after problems with its reaction wheels prompted flight controllers to shut down the system. The wheels' spin naturally generates momentum to point the spacecraft without using fuel.

Upon arrival at Ceres in March 2015, flight controllers turned Dawn's reaction wheels back on and found the system operational.

"They worked great. There's been no other anomalies in that particular area for Dawn," NASA planetary science chief Jim Green told a science advisory committee during a webcast meeting this week.

Engineers then reassessed how much xenon propellant Dawn has left for science operations.

"It turns out it is actually pretty significant," Green said.

PHOTOS: Ceres Delights: Dawn's Latest Dwarf Planet Views

With enough fuel for at least another year of operations, NASA asked the Dawn team to submit a proposal for an extended mission.

Green declined to elaborate on an earlier discussion about options for Dawn, including sending the probe to visit another body in the main asteroid belt.

"They have had a variety of things they've discussed, and because it's a proposal I'm not at liberty to talk about it. But once again, an exciting mission," Green said.

In an email, Dawn lead scientist Christopher Russell told DNews, "Discussion of this topic is premature. We have only one approved continued operation plan and that is to remain in our present orbit."

ANALYSIS: Mystery Mountain Pops Up in Striking Ceres Photo

That may change before the end of September.

"An extended mission review is underway," Green told the advisory group. "The panels have met and final deliberations are not quite done yet. We'll announce what NASA's decision is on that in the August-September time frame."

WATCH VIDEO: Can We Live On Asteroids?
Now retired, Sismanidis announced the possible discovery of Aristotle's tomb in a paper presented recently at the Aristotle 2,400 Years World Congress, which marks 2,400 years since Aristotle's birth. The tomb, he said, is a small building with an altar and marble floor, and this building is located next to a larger, semicircular structure that could have functioned as a gathering place for the people of the city.

Konstantinos Sismanidis, the archaeologist who discovered the tomb in question, has told media outlets that he cannot be certain that the structure is Aristotle's tomb. [ Bones with Names: Long-Dead Bodies Archaeologists Have Identified ]

But several other archaeologists say there is hardly enough evidence to link the tomb to Aristotle, and there's probably no way to confirm it either way. Even so, historical records do support the idea that Aristotle could be buried in the area.

An archaeologist thinks he has found the tomb of Aristotle at Stagira, an ancient city where the Greek philosopher lived for much of his life.

"It's a public building, and it was constructed at the period of Alexander the Great," Sismanidis wrote in the summary of his presentation. Aristotle - who taught and wrote on a wide range of subjects, including logic, metaphysics, ethics, poetry and biology - was a tutor to Alexander.

Though ancient records say Aristotle died on the island of Euboea in 322 B.C., Sismanidis noted that Arabic copies of a text written by a historian named Ptolemy (who lived from A.D. 90 to 168) say Aristotle's ashes were brought to Stagira (also spelled Stageira), where they were interred in a building constructed in his honor.

RELATED: Stunning Mosaic Floor Uncovered in Greece's Mystery Tomb

No human remains or inscriptions mentioning Aristotle were discovered in the tomb at Stagira. Sismanidis first uncovered the building in 1996, and he has excavated at Stagira for more than 20 years. He plans to publish his findings this fall in a multivolume book, according to news reports.

Skeptical reaction

Since the announcement last week, media outlets all over the world have reported on the discovery of the supposed tomb.

However, many of the archaeologists Live Science contacted expressed doubts about the discovery.

"I would be skeptical, especially after the so-called discovery of Alexander's tomb at Amphipolis," said R. Angus Smith, a professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, who excavates in Greece. "It would be lovely if true, but I have not seen evidence to convince me of the connection."

In September 2014, some media outlets and archaeologists speculated that a tomb found at Amphipolis in Macedonia (a historical region of Greece; not to be confused with the modern country of Macedonia) belonged to Alexander himself. However, further investigation revealed evidence, including an inscription, that the tomb likely belonged to the Macedonian king's friend, Hephaestion. [Photos: Mysterious Ancient Tomb in Amphipolis]

RELATED: Remains of Alexander the Great's Father Confirmed Found

"That the tomb found by Sismanidis at Stagira is that of Aristotle is a plausible suggestion but not a provable one, as the Greek archaeologist himself admits," said Jerome Pollitt, a professor of art history at Yale University. "Barring the discovery of an inscription, that state of affairs is unlikely to change."

Spencer Pope, a classical archaeologist at McMaster University in Ontario, commented that "while the tomb at Stagira dates to the time of Aristotle and has a seemingly commensurable monumentality with the ancient philosopher, further evidence linking it with a specific historical figure would be needed for a convincing attribution."

Perhaps the strongest reaction against Sismanidis' claim came from Edith Hall, a professor at the Centre for Hellenic Studies at King's College London.

"Call me a cynic, but has archaeologist Kostas Sismanidis really found a single shred of evidence that the tomb excavated in ancient Stageira long ago in 1996 houses the remains of Aristotle?" she wrote in a post on her blog. "Releasing the information in the 2,400th anniversary year of Aristotle's birth strikes me as a little too much of a coincidence," she added.

RELATED: Female Sculptures Revealed in Greek Tomb

Sismanidis is not the first archaeologist who has claimed to have found Aristotle's tomb, Hall noted. In 1891, Charles Waldstein, an archaeologist at the American School of Archaeology of Athens, excavated a tomb at the site of Eretria that he claimed was Aristotle's. Waldstein claimed to have found writing instruments.

"Waldstein's 'tomb of Aristotle' is much nearer [to] the place where the actual ancient sources said the philosopher died," Hall wrote.

Voice of support

Although most archaeologists Live Science contacted were skeptical of Sismanidis' claim, one researcher did voice support. "It is most likely his [Aristotle's] tomb," said Elizabeth Kosmetatou, a professor of ancient history at the University of Illinois.

Kosmetatou told Live Science that she has heard that the structure uncovered by Sismanidis contains roof tiles stamped with Greek letters showing that they were produced at a royal workshop for pottery in Pella, the capital of ancient Macedonia. Those letters would indicate that the tomb and semicircular structure were public buildings that may have been financed by the city or the Kingdom of Macedonia.

RELATED: Great Archaeological Discoveries Ahead

Ptolemy claimed that Aristotle's tomb became a focal point for the city of Stagira, meaning that public gatherings likely would have taken place there, Kosmetatou said. The semicircular structure beside the tomb would have been a good place for such meetings or other public events, she noted.

"He's probably reliable," Kosmetatou said of the ancient historian, adding that just because Ptolemy's account survives only in Arabic doesn't mean it isn't accurate.

Still, Kosmetatou said there is no way to be sure that Aristotle's tomb has been discovered. "We don't have the time machine to go there," she said.

Original article on Live Science.

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The discovery of several mysterious craters in Siberia earlier this year launched a wave of speculation about their origins. Now, a new report suggests an explanation for the holes, claiming it could also be linked to the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle. However, other scientists not involved in the new report say the weird sinkhole mechanism likely doesn't explain vanishings in the Bermuda Triangle - a place that has never been proven to exist. In July, Siberian reindeer herders discovered a huge crater on the Yamal Peninsula, which means "end of the world." Later, two more gaping holes were found, one in the Taz District and one on the Taymyr Peninsula. But while scientists speculated as to the cause of these weird Siberian holes, their origin remained a mystery. Photos: Massive Holes Appear in Siberia In July, Russian scientists reported in the journal Nature that the explosive release of gases trapped in the permafrost - known as methane hydrates - likely carved out the enormous sinkholes. Air near the crater's bottom contained unusually high concentrations of methane, they said. WATCH: Why is the Bermuda Triangle So Mysterious?

But now, researchers have gone even further, suggesting that methane hydrates could be responsible for the disappearances of ships and aircraft under supposedly mysterious circumstances in the Bermuda Triangle, according to The Siberian Times, which cited a report in Science in Siberia, a weekly publication of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Bermuda Triangle is a region some people say exists in the North Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico; many others dispute its existence. Gallery: Lost in the Bermuda Triangle But regardless of whether the Bermuda Triangle exists, the idea that methane release could sink ships holds some water, scientists say. "It is very probable that the similar sinkholes in the ocean were produced [as a result] of decomposing gas hydrates,"said Vladimir Romanovsky, a geophysicist who studies permafrost at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, but who was not involved in the study. Methane is normally solid under the crushing pressures of the deep sea, but chunks of the icelike substance can break off and form gas bubbles that rise to the surface. "Gas hydrate is known to exist along the U.S. North Atlantic continental margin, with a very large province on Blake Ridge (north of the Bermuda Triangle)," Benjamin Phrampus, an Earth scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, told Live Science in an email. RELATED: The Devil's Triangle FAQ In fact, a 2003 study published in the American Journal of Physics found that such bubbles could indeed sink ships, at least in principle. For that study, researchers built a model ship hull and released a large bubble underneath it, filming what happened. If the ship was in the right position above the bubble, the vessel would lose buoyancy and sink, the researchers said. But even though the phenomenon worked with a model ship, there's no evidence that it ever actually occurred, Phrampus said. In addition, such large-scale methane releases have not been reported in recent history, when the ship and airplane disappearances supposedly took place within the Bermuda Triangle. The last time the ocean floor was venting gas in that area was after the last ice age, about 20,000 years ago, Phrampus said. "I personally see it as an interesting theory and nothing more," he said. The U.S. Navy does not believe the Bermuda Triangle exists, and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names does not recognize it as an official name. The insurance market Lloyd's of London determined that no more ships have sunk in that region than in other parts of the ocean, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Original article on Live Science. Copyright 2014 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Explosions of trapped methane gas are thought to account for the mysterious craters found in Siberia, including this one.

A second massive crater has appeared in a remote part of Siberia on the Yamal Peninsula, called "the end of the world." The new crater was discovered by reindeer herders about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the first, reports the Moscow Times. Following this discovery, a third hole was found to the east of the other two. It's just 15 meters deep but 60-100 meters deep, locals report. VIDEO: What Could Have Made Siberia's Mystery Crater?

It's uncertain yet what's caused the sinkholes, but experts said global warming may play a part. Above is a view of the wall inside the first crater. VIDEO: What Are the Odds a Meteorite Will Hit You?

One theory: when permafrost melts, gas is released, causing an underground explosion. BLOG: Mysterious, Giant Crater Appears in Siberia

Experts from the Center for the Study of the Arctic and the Cryosphere Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences have studied the hole, returning with the first photos from the site. BLOG: Dino-Era Water Trapped Under Impact Crater

"We can definitely say that it is not a meteorite," a spokesman from Russia's Emergencies Ministry told the Siberian Times. PHOTOS: Global Warming Right Before Your Eyes

The area contains some of Russia's most plentiful stores of natural gas. About 10,000 years ago, the area was under the sea, which left salt deposits. BLOG: Dire Outlook For Climate Impacts, New Report Says
T. rex may have had lips. Yes, you read that right. Lips.

Robert Reisz, a paleontologist at the University of Toronto, is challenging the long-standing image of meat-eating theropod dinosaurs such as T. rex. Specifically, Reisz suggests that theropods' teeth were not bared all the time, extending outside their mouths and fully visible whether their jaws were open or closed. Rather, these teeth were kept hidden, covered by scaly lips, he said in a presentation May 20 at the Canadian Society of Vertebrate Paleontology's annual meeting in Ontario. [Gory Guts: Photos of a T. Rex Autopsy]

Reisz told Live Science in an email that he had always been bothered by the typical "permanent smile" portrayal of theropod dinosaur teeth. He first looked to the closest living relatives of theropod dinosaurs - crocodiles - for clues about tooth exposure.

RELATED: T. Rex Was Likely an Invasive Species

At first glance, it could seem like the expectation for large theropods to have exposed teeth was on the right track. Crocodiles' teeth are covered by gums for about one-quarter of their length, but lips are absent and the tooth crowns are permanently exposed, Reisz explained.

However, if you look closer at tooth structure, a different story might emerge, he noted in his presentation.

The hard enamel of animals' teeth has low water content, and is typically kept hydrated by saliva. Without lips to keep moisture in and prevent the teeth from drying out, the tough enamel would become brittle and more prone to damage and wear, Reisz told Live Science.

RELATED: This T. rex-Like Dino Was Vegetarian

Crocodiles live in watery environments and would rely on their habitat to keep exposed teeth hydrated. But land-dwelling theropods' large teeth - which are known to have enamel - could have been compromised by perpetual exposure, and likely needed to be covered by lips in order to stay moist, Reisz said in the presentation.

But crocodiles aren't the only animals with exposed teeth - elephants, for instance, have exposed teeth as well, and many extinct saber-toothed predators had very long canines that were also exposed when their mouths were closed. Wouldn't their teeth have been vulnerable to serious drying out, too?

Not necessarily. A mammal's tooth structure is actually quite different from a reptile's, said Zhijie Jack Tseng, a paleontologist who studies bite-force biomechanics in extinct carnivores at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

WATCH VIDEO: Could a Fossilized Mosquito Resurrect Dinosaurs?
WATCH: Who Will Win the Race To Mars?

Falcon Heavy is basically a Falcon 9 first-stage with two more Falcon 9's flying as strap-on motors, increasing the rocket's lift capacity to low-Earth orbit from 50,265 pounds to 119,000 pounds  the equivalent of a 737 jetliner fully loaded with passengers, luggage and fuel.

Speaking during an on-stage interview at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Musk dropped a few hints of what it will take to fly people to Mars, including a rocket with far more lift capacity that SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, which is expected to make a debut test flight from Florida before the end of the year.

Elon Musk figures a crew can blast off aboard an as-yet-unannounced mega heavy-lift Falcon rocket in eight years following a string of unmanned missions beginning in 2018, the founder, chief executive and chief tech guru of SpaceX said this week.

The U.S. space agency's heavy-lift Space Launch System, which is scheduled to make a test flight as early as September 2018, will be able to lift 154,000 pounds to low-Earth orbit in its initial configuration. Future versions are planned to provide a 286,000-pound lift capacity.

Musk also alluded to a roomier Dragon spaceship for human missions to Mars.

VIDEO: Now THIS Is How You Land a Rocket

SpaceX next year plans to debut a passenger version of its Dragon cargo ship, which currently ferries supplies to the International Space Station for NASA.

Dragon Version 2, or Crew Dragon, is scheduled to fly for the first time in May and make a test flight to the station with NASA astronauts aboard before the end of 2017.

A Dragon V2, flying without crew, also will be used for SpaceX's initial journey to Mars, which is targeted to launch in 2018.

"I wouldn't recommend (people) traveling to Mars in that because it has the interior volume of a large SUV. The trip for Dragon would be on the order of six months. It's a long time to spend in an SUV," Musk said.

NEWS: Why the SpaceX Rocket Ocean Landing is a Big Deal

"It also doesn't have the capability of getting back to Earth," he added.

Musk said he will release details of the SpaceX Mars project in September at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.

"The basic game plan is that we're going to send a mission to Mars with every Mars opportunity from 2018 onwards," Musk said.

Mars and Earth favorably align for interplanetary travel about every 26 months.

"We're establishing cargo flights to Mars that people can count on ... and I think if things go according to plan we should be able to launch people probably in 2024, with arrival in 2025," Musk said.
She added, "If microplastic particles give off a chemical signature resembling the smell of a food resource that normally triggers an evolutionary response to feed, then plastic is circumventing (any possible) protective mechanism" that could deter fish from eating literal garbage.

"Microplastic beads have a chemical or visual cue that triggers a feeding response in fish," Marine biologist Oona Lonnstedt of Uppsala University told Discovery News. "Naive larvae that come across these plastic particles believe that they are a resource that they need to ingest large amounts of."

The findings, published in the journal Science, strengthen prior research calling for a reduction of plastic waste and a ban of microbeads in personal care products. Microbeads can be found in everything from toothpaste to facial cleansers, and are so small that they pass unfiltered through sewage treatment plants.

Photo: Adult perch in the Baltic Sea. Credit: Peter Eklov Tiny bits of plastic are so prevalent in oceans and other bodies of water that fish now see them as food, reports a new study. Ingesting the particles can lead to odd-behaving mutant fish that often die young.

Many perch larvae preferred eating the tiny plastic pieces, and those that did often exhibited stunted growth and very sluggish behavior.

For the study, Lonnstedt and her team collected fertilized European perch eggs and embryos from the Baltic Sea . They exposed the specimens to varying concentrations of polystyrene microplastics, including very high concentrations comparable to those found in nature. Such bits measure about .2 inches or less.

When the perch were placed with a natural predator, pike, they ignored the smell of these predators and were caught and eaten more than four times quicker than perch that did not consume the plastic. By eating perch that previously consumed plastics, the pike also wound up ingesting plastic. This can go on up the food chain in the wild. All of the perch exposed to microplastic particles were dead within 48 hours.

Lonnstedt and her team suspect that ingestion of plastic could chemically affect the fish in one of two ways.

"Either the plastic particles exude toxic chemicals that interfere with the central nervous system of fish during development -- effectively altering their behaviors -- or the fish are lacking so much energy, since they have filled their stomachs only with plastic, that they simply have no energy to be active and to swim around," she said.

RELATED: How Does Your Plastic Bag Get Into the Ocean?

Prior research found more than 100,000 small plastic bits can occur in about 264 gallons of water in nature. In the Northeast Pacific Ocean, approximately 30,400 plastic particles are found in just over a third of a gallon of water.

The waste particles reach oceans via waterways and lakes. In smaller bodies of water, such as shallow coastal areas critical to many animal populations, the plastics can accumulate in much higher concentrations.

RELATED: How Microbeads in Body Wash Are Ruining the Ocean

Boris Worm, a marine research ecologist at Dalhousie University, has also studied how plastics impact wildlife.

"Birds ingest a wide variety of plastic items, including disposable lighters, toothbrushes, tampon applicators, light sticks used in longline fishing, and broken shards of larger plastic debris," he told Discovery News. "They mistake them for food when skimming surface waters, searching for visible particles."

It would be next to impossible to fully remove the tiniest plastic pieces from oceans and more, so the scientists believe that prevention strategies are vital to at least stop the spread of more waste material.

"What we are doing now," Lonnstedt said, "is testing different types of microplastic polymers to see which ones are the most toxic. If we can identify the microplastic polymers that have the most harmful effects on wildlife than these hopefully can be phased out of production."
When President Obama rescinded the arms embargo on Vietnam in May, one of the last lingering vestiges of the Vietnam War finally faded away. By normalizing relations with its former adversary, the U.S. hopes to win a new ally and check China's growing influence in the region. So you may be wondering: Just how powerful is Vietnam these days?

As luck would have it, Jules Suzdaltsev addresses that very question in today's Seeker Daily dispatch.

Vietnam may be small, geographically speaking, but they've got a big army. With 5.5 million active and reserve personnel, Vietnam's armed forces are larger than those of more politically powerful neighbors, like Japan and South Korea. The country has a relatively small defense budget, however. Also, thanks to the former embargo, the armed forces are still mostly equipped with aging, Soviet-era weapons.

RELATED: Bite Into Vietnam Life

Free market reforms have improved the country's economy over the last couple of decades. While still ostensibly a Communist country under one-party rule, Vietnam has enjoyed gradual economic growth. Today, Vietnam's GDP is more than $180 billion, compared with just $6 billion in 1990, and the country is among the world's largest exporters of rice.

Vietnam's improving economic prospects are also boosted by its inclusion in the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP, a free trade deal between the U.S. and 11 other countries. Currently, China is Vietnam's largest trading partner, but the U.S. is gaining fast. Vietnam's GDP is expected to surge under the proposed free-trade partnership, diminishing the nation's reliance on China.

Japan, Australia, Singapore and the Philippines have also recently strengthened relations with Vietnam, with the goal of creating a counterweight to the growing influence of China in the region.

Unfortunately, market reforms and new diplomatic relations have not improved the human rights situation in Vietnam. The country has an appalling track record of imprisoning dissidents and violently cracking down on protesters. Human rights advocates petitioned the U.S. to demand reforms before lifting the arms embargo, but to no avail.

"President Obama just gave Vietnam a reward that they don't deserve," John Sifton, Asia policy director with the advocacy group Human Rights Watch, told the New York Times.

Reformers hope that Vietnam's improving relations with the international community will have a positive effect on human rights within the country.

-- Glenn McDonald

Learn More:

CIA World Factbook: Vietnam



New York Times: Vietnam Arms Embargo to Be Fully Lifted, Obama Says in Hanoi

The Guardian: Vietnam 40 years on: how a communist victory gave way to capitalist corruption

Bloomberg: Toasts Turn to Water Cannons in China, Vietnam Sea Spat
King Tut was buried with a dagger made of an iron that literally came from space, says a new study into the composition of the iron blade from the sarcophagus of the boy king. Using non-invasive, portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, a team of Italian and Egyptian researchers confirmed that the iron of the dagger placed on the right thigh of King Tut's mummified body a has meteoric origin. The team, which include researchers from Milan Polytechnic, Pisa University and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, detailed their results in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science. RELATED: Weird Facts About King Tut and His Mummy The weapon, now on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, was described in 1925 by Howard Carter, who three years before had discovered the treasure-packed tomb, as "a highly ornamented gold dagger with crystal knob." Made of non-rusted, homogeneous metal, the finely manufactured blade features a decorated gold handle. It is completed by a gold sheath garnished with a floral lily motif on one side and with a feathers pattern on the other side, terminating with a jackal's head. WATCH VIDEO: What Are the Odds a Meteorite Will Hit You

Although it is generally assumed that early iron objects were produced from meteoritic iron, such origin of the blade has long been the subject of debate, and previous analyses yielded controversial results. Now dramatic technological improvements have allowed the researchers to determine the composition of the blade. "Meteoric iron is clearly indicated by the presence of a high percentages of nickel," main author Daniela Comelli, at the department of Physics of Milan Polytechnic, told Discovery News. Indeed, iron meteorites are mostly made of iron and nickel, with minor quantities of cobalt, phosphorus , sulfur and carbon. While artifacts produced with iron ore quarrying display 4 percent of nickel at most, the iron blade of King Tut's dagger was found to contain nearly 11 percent of nickel. RELATED: Tut's Funeral: Burying the Boy King Further confirmation of the blade's meteoric origin came from cobalt traces. "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," Comelli said. Comelli and colleagues also investigated the possible source of the iron blade. "We took into consideration all meteorites found within an area of 2,000 km in radius centered in the Red Sea, and we ended up with 20 iron meteorites," Comelli said. "Only one, named Kharga, turned out to have nickel and cobalt contents which are possibly consistent with the composition of the blade," she added. The meteorite fragment was found in 2000 on a limestone plateau at Mersa Matruh, a seaport some 150 miles west of Alexandria. RELATED: Who Else May Be in King Tut's Tomb? The study shows the ancient Egyptians attributed great value to meteoritic iron for the production of precious objects, possibly perceiving those chunks of iron falling from the sky as a divine message. The most ancient Egyptian iron artifacts, nine small beads excavated from a cemetery along the west bank of the Nile tomb in Gerzeh and dated about 3200 BC, are also made from meteoritic iron hammered into thin sheets. "It would be very interesting to analyze more pre-Iron Age artifacts, such as other iron objects found in King Tut's tomb. We could gain precious insights into metal working technologies in ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean," Comelli said. She noted that the high quality of King Tut's dagger blade shows that iron smithing was successful already in the 14th century B.C. The dagger blade is not the only celestial object found in the boy king's tomb. His pectoral, or necklace, features an amulet scarab which is not "greenish-yellow chalcedony," as Carter had noted, but Libyan desert silica glass. The glass was produced by the impact on the sand of a meteorite or comet. Such natural glass exists only in the remote and inhospitable Great Sand Sea of Egypt -- the Western Desert. In order to produce the scarab, the ancient Egyptians would have had to trek across 500 desert miles. SEE PHOTOS: Inside King Tut's Tomb

King Tut's Mask "Tutankhamun: His Tomb and the Treasures" is a new exhibition now in Zurich that has meticulously reconstructed the tomb complex and its treasures. Specially trained craftspeople in Cairo built more than 1,000 exact replicas under scientific supervision. The work took over five years. Here is a replica of the famous mask of King Tut, weighing 24 lbs, which was pressed over the head of the king's bandaged mummy. The idealized portrait of the young king echoes the style of the late Amarna period. The life-like eyes are formed by bright quartz, with obsidian inlays for the pupils.

King Tut, With Wife This scene, depicted on the backrest of King Tut's throne, shows how Tutankhamen used to lean back in a relaxed manner while his wife, Anchesenamun, stood beside him and rubbed ointment into his shoulder.

Tomb Discovery This is how the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun appeared to archaeologist Howard Carter when he discovered it in 1922.

King Tut's Tomb in 3-D Tutankhamun's tomb and its contents, as viewed in a 3-D model. A corridor led to an antechamber and an annex filled with objects. The antechamber opened into the coffin chamber with King Tut's sarcophagus. The coffin chamber led to another small room filled with King Tut's treasures.

Treasures Galore Two tiny mummified female fetuses were found in the tomb with the king. But they were not the only companions placed in the tomb for King Tut's journey to the afterlife. The boy king was buried with more than 5,000 priceless objects, including this treasure chest.

Boy Throne The famous gold throne found in the tomb was ordered when Tutankhamen became king at the age of nine.

Lion Head The dead king in the underworld was akin to the sun at night and, in the New Kingdom, this was identified with the god of death, Osiris. The heads of lions corresponded to the time the sun god spent in the body of the god of heaven in feline form. The facial details of the lion head - the rims of the eyes, tip of the nose and tear ducts -- are given almost life-like properties through the use of glass.
We understand reality through symbolic language. This is the idea Jason Silva expresses in this video about the power of language and how Shakespeare used language and grammar to change our perception of the world. Jason discusses the intentional nature of our world; things like the pyramids, skyscrapers and airplanes are all intentional things. They are renderings of the human mind, made into reality by the use of language.

Shakespeare's use of language "stretched the membranes of our minds," as Jason puts it. Beyond just the words themselves, his metaphors, his grammar and the way he patterned language literally changed our biochemistry and the way we understand language today.

RELATED: What is Language?

According to The Telegraph, it was really Shakespeare's grammar that set him apart from his contemporaries. Dr. Jonathan Hope, from Strathclyde University, conducted a study on Shakespeare's work compared with other playwrights of the time, and found that more so than his vocabulary, his grammar is what made him truly unique.

Dr. Hope told The Telegraph, "[Shakespeare's] grammatical skill shows even more dexterity with language. He wrote during a transitional period for English grammar when there was a range of grammatical options open to writers. Much of the grammar he chooses now seems old fashioned, but it lends poetry to commonplace words and significantly while his spelling is often updated, his grammar is not."

As Jason also notes in this video, language gives us the power to construct new worlds for ourselves in more ways than one. We can use language to construct fictitious worlds in novels or plays as Shakespeare did, but we can also use language to construct the literal world around us. We use language to design, construct and transform our world every single day.
Sea otters  cute, furry, adorable, clams-wouldn't-melt-in-their-mouths sea otters  have been observed forcibly copulating with, and in the process killing, juvenile harbor seals off California.

Writing in a recent edition of the journal Aquatic Mammals, Heather Harris of the California Department of Fish and Game and colleagues document 19 occurrences of this behavior in Monterey Bay between 2000 and 2002, leading to the deaths of at least 15 seals.

RELATED: Otter vs. Gator: Otter Wins: Photos

Harris and her colleagues describe one incident in vivid detail:

A weaned harbor seal pup was resting onshore when an untagged male sea otter approached it, grasped it with its teeth and forepaws, bit it on the nose, and flipped it over. The harbor seal moved toward the water with the sea otter following closely. Once in the water, the sea otter gripped the harbor seal's head with its forepaws and repeatedly bit it on the nose, causing a deep laceration. The sea otter and pup rolled violently in the water for approximately 15 min, while the pup struggled to free itself from the sea otter's grasp. Finally, the sea otter positioned itself dorsal to the pup's smaller body while grasping it by the head and holding it underwater in a position typical of mating sea otters. As the sea otter thrust his pelvis, his penis was extruded and intromission was observed. At 105 min into the encounter, the sea otter released the pup, now dead, and began grooming.

On some occasions, they further note, otters would guard and copulate with the seals long after their victims had died - as much as seven days afterward, in fact.

Bizarre as this behavior may seem, Harris and her co-authors point out that it is not dissimilar to standard sea otter mating protocol, in which males will often approach the female from behind, grip her around the chest with his forepaws, and grasp her nose or the side of her face with his teeth. Although the female frequently resists, generally the two eventually spin in the water, the male behind the female, until mating is complete. Here, too, the encounters may prove fatal for the female, either as a result of wounds inflicted from the male's bites and scratches or because of drowning. Harris and colleagues describe one instance in which a male otter held a struggling female underwater until her body became limp and then copulated with her several times. Indeed, trauma related to mating was responsible for 11 percent of deaths in fresh southern sea otter carcasses examined between 2000 and 2003.

So what's this all about? It hardly makes sense to mate with a female and kill her; and it makes even less sense to mate with another species of animal, dead or not. Harris and her co-authors offer an explanation.

Sea otters are polygynous; stronger males establish territories with high numbers of females and work to exclude other sexually mature males. These excluded males gather in so-called "male areas", denied the opportunity for contact with females. It's a situation that may have been exacerbated by a change in the demographics of Monterey Bay's sea otters. For reasons that are still far from clear, overall mortality rate in the otter population is increasing, and disproportionately affecting females. As a consequence, an even greater number of mature males are denied mating opportunities, possibly causing sexual encounters to be more aggressive when they do occur. And those males that remain denied an opportunity to mate take out their frustrations on the hapless young harbor seals, an interspecies interaction that has been known to take place, albeit with less dramatic consequences, in other marine mammals.

RELATED: Wild Sea Otters Go to Aquarium to Give Birth

All the incidents recorded by Harris and her coauthors took place in Monterey Bay. However, Harris told Discovery News, "Given that we documented interspecific sexual interactions involving at least three different male otters and that similar behavior has been described in many wildlife species, it is certainly possible that this behavior could be occurring elsewhere in the range."

Photograph: A male sea otter guarding the carcass of a juvenile harbor seal. Photo by Stori Oates.
OPINION Humans are amazing. We build huge, complex machines. We have deep philosophical thoughts about the universe. Our scientific thinking is so advanced that we can manipulate life on a genetic level and create matter than hasn't existed since the dawn of the cosmos. What's more, we are one of a kind. Evolution broke the mold when humanity invented the wheel. Sure, there's intelligent animals like dolphins and apes, but they can't build radio telescopes. And we're the only ones in the galaxy... that we know of. PHOTOS: How Aliens Can Find Us One of the burdens of being an amazing race of intelligent, technology savvy beings is that we can overthink stuff. This is usually beneficial; we are able to foresee challenges and dangers to our existence and adapt to deal with change. We can also learn from our mistakes and understand our weaknesses, usually. However, when considering the sheer vastness of our universe, our imaginations are kicked into overdrive. Humanity may be a sophisticated, advanced and awesome race, but say if there's an extraterrestrial civilization out there that is even more awesome. And as we project the worst of human nature on these imaginary alien beings, we ask ourselves: What if "they" are our worse nightmare?

This "what if" has really been the driving force behind the extraterrestrial debate in recent years. As life is only known to exist on this planet, we can only use life as we know it to guess what life elsewhere will be like. Our history is a mess of advancement and bloody conquest; our most transformative eras are usually spawned by competition and violence, not peace and quiet collaborations. So by extending this logic into outer space, our natural conclusion is that should we come across advanced aliens, they will more likely be an invading force rather than benevolent, peace-loving lifeforms. ANALYSIS: Alien Megastructure? SETI Detects No Signals After all, why would these aliens bother with overcoming the interstellar expanse if not to loot Earth of its valuable resources? The most recent twist in the alien invasion imaginings comes from a paper published in the arXiv preprint service by John Gertz of the Foundation for Investing in Research on SETI Science and Technology (FIRSST). In the thought-provoking discussion, Gertz outlines the rationale behind active SETI -- known as Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or "METI." METI is very different from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or "SETI." SETI assumes that should there be technologically intelligent extraterrestrials, they might be transmitting radio waves (or some other form of artificial electromagnetic signal) that we might be able to detect. There could be beacons scattered throughout our galaxy just waiting to be found, it's just a matter of knowing where to look. Since Frank Drake's famous modern attempts to look for these signals in 1960, SETI has been going ever since in various forms. The SETI Institute, a non-profit research organization in Mountain View, Calif., was even founded to develop technologies in this niche -- though the organization is involved in many other astronomy and astrobiology research programs, not just the search for alien signals. WATCH VIDEO: Will Aliens Kill Us All?

Other methods of passively seeking-out aliens include looking for hints of advanced civilizations, but not necessarily the ones that are transmitting. We might be able to detect a civilization's accidental radio "leakage" -- like Earth has been leaking radio into space for over a century. Perhaps these civilizations are so advanced that they might build huge structures around their stars that we can detect from afar -- a field known as the Search for Extraterrestrial Technology (SETT) or the Search for Extraterrestrial Artifacts (SETA). Perhaps that bizarre transit signal detected by the Kepler Space Telescope from Tabby's Star (KIC 8462852) is a huge solar collector -- a.k.a. the wonderfully named "megastructure" -- built by super advanced aliens! (Though the signal is likely comets, I prefer to ponder aliens.) We could also assume these hypothetical aliens face similar challenges as us and perhaps we will detect the presence of an industrialized alien planet by seeking out pollutants choking their atmosphere, such as an excess in carbon dioxide or chemicals that can only be generated via industrial processes, like chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. NEWS: Aliens May be Out There, but Too Distant for Contact



As our technology becomes more sophisticated, we're able to seek out weaker signals originating from farther star systems, but passive searches will always be stymied by the odds. There are billions of stars in our galaxy, we can't monitor every single one for an artificial signal. And even if we could, there's no guarantee that the hypothetical aliens will be transmitting at the specific time we decide to look. There are some ingenious ideas for narrowing our search and decreasing the odds -- such as "directed SETI", where we identify "habitable" exoplanets to target with our radio antennae -- but for passive SETI to be successful, it needs more observatories, more time (hundreds or even thousands of years) and a lot more funding to stand even a slim chance.

But for those advocating active SETI, or METI, passively looking at the stars is a fools errand, we need to be advertising our presence to the cosmos! We should be blasting unambiguous signals to the stars right now to stand a chance of making "first contact" and proving, once and for all, that there's life -- intelligent life no less -- beyond our interstellar shores. There have been various METI efforts, but, as pointed out by Gertz, these have been done largely without regulation or discussion with the international community and could be considered to be "unwise, unscientific, potentially catastrophic, and unethical." He even goes as far to say that the current METI methodology is little more than a faith-based roll of the chamber during a game of Russian Roulette. "Sending a message without a practical plan in place to receive a return message, leads to the conclusion that METI transmissions are like a Hail Mary, they have more in common with a faith based religion than with science," he writes. ANALYSIS: Shoot Aggressive Aliens With Lasers to Defend Earth Indeed, there are many that oppose the idea that we should alert the universe that there is a habitable planet populated with intelligent creatures. British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking is an outspoken critic of METI, echoing the concerns of Gertz and pointing out that an encounter with alien beings would more likely resemble the Roman Conquest than a meeting with a peaceful entity like the one from Stephen Spielberg's movie "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial." "Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach," Hawking speculated in 2015. The fear about a violent, conquering force of rampaging aliens isn't without merit; when our planet's very existence is at risk -- even if the danger is extremely unlikely -- why would we advertise our presence? Would it be like dropping a bucket of chum in shark-infested waters? Do we really want to find out? So, yes, these arguments alone should be enough to make us want to switch off our radio transmitters. But METI advocates, like Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer of the SETI Institute, points to the potential benefits to mankind if we were to establish a collective effort to send messages to the stars. Chiefly, Shostak points out that having a fear of these hypothetical intelligent aliens is just an assumption based on our history. Just because humanity has a violent past, it doesn't necessarily mean other life forms would have evolved in a similar way. "The universe beckons, and we can do better than to declare that future generations should endlessly tremble at the sight of the stars," he concluded in a 2015 New York Times article. ANALYSIS: Why Would Aliens Invade Shostak argues that to not transmit signals could limit technological developments, though I don't share this concern; it could be just as well argued that the lack of development in the field of METI could be offset by huge developments in passively seeking out signals. In the process of boosting our sensitivity to artificial signals, we could make huge gains in new radio astronomy techniques that will have very real spin-offs for science.
Everything about Tuesdays race in the local Democratic Party is strange  from the fact that 60 big-name politicians are duking it out to join an unpaid, under-the-radar committee to the unprecedented spending in the race.

So far, more than $1.6 million has been spent, busting previous campaign finance records for the Democratic County Central Committee. (You know youre talking big bucks when the total could actually buy a house in San Francisco.)

Among the biggest spenders are angel investor and mayoral pal Ron Conway ($59,500), Medium CEO Evan Williams ($50,000) and Instagram CEO Kevin York Systrom ($30,000), who are backing the moderate candidates through an independent expenditure committee. Why do these guys care about the DCCC? The groups endorsements in the heated November races, including the odd-numbered districts of the Board of Supervisors and several controversial ballot measures, will be influential.

Because San Francisco is an overwhelmingly Democratic town, the Democratic Party carries considerable weight, said Nathan Ballard, a political adviser hired by the moderates running for the DCCC under the name Progress Slate.

Jim Ross, a political consultant who created a mailer for the progressive side that is dubbed the Reform Slate, said the city is at such a crossroads over affordability, development and eviction protections that every race is huge.

You have these extraordinarily high stakes, and so even small, sleepy elections really matter, he said.

So what is all that money buying? Some of the weirdest ads weve ever seen. In continuing a City Insider tradition, we present some awards for the most, well, memorable of the bunch.

Paul Chinn/The Chronicle

The stretch award: Many of you are surely wringing your hands over the possibility that Donald Trump could be the leader of the free world. But theres an easy solution: vote for Supervisor Mark Farrell for the DCCC.

Farrell has several Trump-related ads on his website, as well as all over Facebook, including one titled Mark Farrell vs. Donald Trump. In it, Trumps comb-over blows in the wind to reveal writing on his bald head reading Hate.

I think its important that we elect DCCC members who are going to take a strong stand against the repulsive politics of Donald Trump, Farrell told us. We need to do everything possible to send a Democrat to the White House in November.

Um, everybody running for the DCCC is a Democrat  its in the name. And were pretty sure none of them backs Trump. Were also pretty sure the DCCC will have very little bearing in the presidential battle this fall, because San Francisco is the bluest of blue in a very blue state. But other than that ...

The movie star award: While Farrell will be defeating Trump, Supervisor Norman Yee will be starring in a movie and thwarting criminals at the same time.

His mailer for the DCCC has a movie theme calling for a take two and a new cast to lead the Democratic Party. If hes elected star of the show, hell improve west side parks, preserve neighborhood character and crack down on property crimes like car break-ins.

The DCCC has nothing to do with any of that. But the Board of Supervisors does. And hes already a member! Its like it was written in the stars.

The mom and apple pie award: Mary Jung, the current chairwoman of the DCCC, is a lightning rod in the race. Her progressive opponents say shes made the group beholden to real estate interests because her day job is community and government relations director for the San Francisco Association of Realtors.

Perhaps wanting to soften her image, Jung has placed door hangers around town reading, Re-elect Mary Jung. One Tough Mother. It shows her wearing a green apron and holding a rolling pin.

The city does need more moms in elected office  there are still none in the full-time elected city offices. But this ad has an odd 1950s flavor for a heated 2016 political race.

Shes a formidable pro and she should not be underestimated, Ballard said. Is the rolling pin a kitchen item or a weapon? You decide.

Creepiest mailer award: Progress San Francisco is an independent committee set up to elect moderates to the DCCC that has received large sums, including $25,000 from the Building Owners and Managers Association and $30,000 from the San Francisco Association of Realtors.

It paid for a series of ads featuring a man in a dark hoodie with one of those creepy Guy Fawkes masks associated with Anonymous, the activist computer hackers.

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The masked man stands above the words, Their decision would have led to more evictions and displacement. Inside are black-and-white photos of progressive candidates for the DCCC whom the vast majority of you have probably never heard of.

Their crime? It appears that on a questionnaire, they noted that they backed last years Proposition I to halt market-rate housing development in the Mission for 18 months.

Scary, scary, said Jon Golinger, one of the progressives pictured on the mailer. Weve been walking around spooking people ever since.

By the way, three candidates backed by Progress San Francisco  Supervisor Malia Cohen, Alix Rosenthal and Joshua Arce  are current members of the DCCC who voted to endorse a yes vote on Prop. I. But for some reason, theyre not scary.

Breath of fresh air award: While others are busy with special effects related to Trumps hair, stopping criminals and baking pie, theres one candidate who sent a straightforward mailer.

Leah Pimentel, a Bayview mother who is running to keep her DCCC seat, has a mailer with the words, Almost 25 percent of San Francisco Democrats dont vote in presidential elections, and almost 60 percent dont vote in primaries. We can do better!

She has a plan to increase voter registration of young residents and people new to San Francisco and to increase voter turnout by increasing the number who are registered to vote by mail and executing large-scale turnout operations in every neighborhood of the city.

But wait, this is actually a core responsibility of the DCCC and something she could actually help achieve. And she calls herself a politician! Pshaw!

Heather Knight is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer who covers City Hall politics. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: hknightsf
A judge says a former top deputy to San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera can go to trial in a lawsuit claiming Herrera fired her in retaliation for reporting her suspicions that his staff was taking kickbacks in exchange for millions of dollars in questionable payments for damaged sewer lines.

Herrera sought dismissal of the suit by Joanne Hoeper, his former chief trial deputy, by arguing that Hoeper was not a whistle-blower, her suspicions were unfounded, and he had intended to replace her at least a year before she started looking into the sewer payments.

But Superior Court Judge Richard Ulmer said Thursday that Herrera had taken no steps to dismiss Hoeper until she told him about her investigation. Ulmer also said the target of Hoepers investigation, the chief of Herreras claims bureau, told Hoeper shed be sorry she was looking into the subject.

A reasonable jury could find the citys termination reasons pretextual, Ulmer said. He also rejected the citys argument that Hoepers allegations were based on confidential attorney-client communications that could not be part of a lawsuit, finding that she was acting as an investigator, not a lawyer, in her reports to Herrera.

The citys sweeping notions of (attorney-client) privilege would bar most retaliation claims by attorney employees, Ulmer said. That is not the law.

The dispute involved sewer lines on private property that were allegedly damaged by roots of trees owned by the city. San Francisco had been paying property owners and their plumbing companies to repair the damage since 1982. But Hoeper, acting on a tip, said she began looking into the program in late 2011, found evidence that tree roots cant penetrate some unbroken sewer lines, and concluded that the city shouldnt be paying to repair private sewers. She also said she suspected that staff in Herreras claims bureau had taken kickbacks in exchange for $10 million in needless sewer repair payments.

Herrera ordered a halt to the sewer payment program after receiving a report from Hoeper in 2012. He also removed Hoeper from her job, transferred her to the district attorneys office while continuing to pay her salary, and fired her in January 2015. She has been unemployed since then, her lawyer, Stephen Murphy, said Friday.

Herrera said he asked the Santa Clara County counsels office to conduct an independent review, and that office found no merit in Hoepers allegations. Herrera also noted that Hoeper herself, in a July 2012 report to his office, found no evidence kickbacks were paid or received.

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Hoeper found zero evidence of wrongdoing, and yet continues to insist that shes blowing the whistle on some still-unknown misdeed, Matt Dorsey, a spokesman for Herrera, said Friday. He described Hoeper as a disgruntled ex-employee who had axes to grind against some of her former colleagues.

Murphy, Hoepers lawyer, said Hoepers July 2012 findings were based on a preliminary investigation that she never got to complete before she was transferred and later fired.

Were looking forward to our day in court, he said.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: egelko
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San Franciscos Municipal Pier, one of the scenic treasures of the city, is crumbling away. Everybody knows it. The pier that curves out into the bay from at the end of Van Ness Avenue and protects Aquatic Park has been falling apart for years.

And everybody knows the solution, too: Replace the old pier with a new one. Theres only one problem: money. There isnt any.

Thats what has everybody stumped, said Kevin Hendricks, superintendent of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, which owns the pier.

The pier is a federal responsibility, and Hendricks is the responsible officer.

A budget buster

The price tag to replace the pier was $68 million seven years ago, the last time the Park Service got an estimate on the project. Sixty-eight million may not sound like so much these high-rolling days, but it is more money than the entire National Park Service construction budget for the whole country in normal years. As a sort of one-year-only birthday present for the Park Services centennial, Congress nearly doubled the services 2016 construction budget, to $116.3 million.

But still, Hendricks calls fixing the Municipal Pier a budget buster. Moving the project forward, he said, remains elusive.

The Chronicle

Hendricks offered an inspection tour of the Municipal Pier the other windy afternoon. It came with a small history lesson about how the pier was built as the first element of a new city park  an Aquatic Park  on the northern edge of San Francisco.

The city paid $250,000  more than twice the original estimate  to construct the pier between 1929 and 1933. It curves out from the foot of Van Ness Avenue like a long crescent more than 1,400 feet long. It has two purposes: to serve as a breakwater to protect little Black Point Cove and its sandy beach, and to be a public pier where people can stroll, fish or just enjoy life.

The San Francisco Municipal Recreation Pier was the first element of what became Aquatic Park. Later a bathhouse  A Palace for the Public, it was called  was built as a Depression-era federal project. Still later, the bathhouse was turned into a maritime museum. A fleet of historic ships was berthed on the edge of the cove, and the whole thing became a maritime national park. Hendricks says 4million people  more than visit Yosemite  stroll through the park every year.

Nothing like it

The Muni Pier, built of concrete and supported by 634 pilings, shelters it all. The pier also offers one of the best views in a city famous for its good looks. From the end of the pier, strollers can see the bay and its islands, the Golden Gate Bridge on the horizon and the city rising on its hills in the background. Theres nothing like it, Hendricks said.

An incredible view, said Sam Richardson, who was visiting from London and saw it for the first time last week.

Its really pretty, said Mandy Cannon, a tourist from Utah, but the pier is a mess.

Michael Noble Jr./The Chronicle

Thats true. The concrete is peeling away, exposing the rusting steel underneath. The whole west side of the pier is fenced off because its unsafe. The pier was built to hold a load of 200 pounds per square inch, but now three-quarters of that strength has been lost, which means it cant hold big crowds. So its closed on Fleet Week and the Fourth of July.

Its not quite a ruin yet, Hendricks said. But its close.

Every day it gets worse, said Carol Walker, a volunteer for City Guides who leads tours of the pier. They cant let it slip away, they just cant. It needs to be fixed.

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.

Walker has started a petition on Change.org, asking for emergency funds to replace the pier. She hopes to put pressure for action on House Minority LeaderNancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and other officeholders.

Im very persistent, she said. I wont go away.

For his part, Hendricks wants to engage what he calls park partners  the city of San Francisco, the state, private donors. Hes been working on the problem, but has nothing concrete yet. He calls it an intriguing challenge.

Pier could be closed

However, if nothing happens and the pier continues to deteriorate, Hendricks said, the Park Service may have to close it to the public.

That would be bad news for the people who use it.

Oliver Hamilton, who grew up in San Francisco, went away to college and was back in town last week. He spent a lot of time on the pier when he was younger, you know, fishing for crabs and just hanging with friends, he said.

Theres a pretty beautiful view, he said. Its a very San Francisco place to go.

Carl Nolte is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His column appears every Sunday. Email: cnolte@sfchronicle.com Twitter: carlnoltesf
On the theory that its never too early to freak out, we offer this news: The Third Street drawbridge, next to AT&T Park, is going to close for 13 months.

Now, that wont happen until next spring or summer, but residents and business owners  like the Giants  are already concerned about how the closure will affect traffic, business and quality of life in the burgeoning neighborhood.

The span, also known as the Lefty ODoul Bridge, has become the gateway to up-and-coming Dogpatch and developments to the south. Its also the primary conduit from the Giants Lot A parking and the ballpark. Team President Larry Baer says the team is working with the Department of Public Works to minimize the problems, but its going to be a challenge.

Public Works spokeswoman Rachel Gordon says not to overreact.

It is not the plan to close it (completely) for all 13 months, she said. But the bridge is going to be closed to traffic during periods of construction. The Giants have raised concerns, but we have already met with them and we very much want to work around their schedule.

Gordon says the idea is to make sure that at least pedestrian traffic will be allowed on game days, if not vehicles. And, she says, they recognize that the Mission Bay neighborhood is growing fast and filling up with new residents.

Amy Osborne/Special To The Chronicle

The tentative plan is to close the 143-foot bridge for 13 months while crews complete a major overhaul. There will be some work on the large concrete counterweight, paint scraping and the removal of corrosion on the bottom, caused by the proximity to the salt water from the bay.

Although its anything but a graceful structure, the ODoul Bridge has become quite a local icon. It was featured in several Dirty Harry films, and in the 1985 film A View to a Kill, James Bond, played by actor Roger Moore, drives a stolen fire truck over the partially open drawbridge. San Francisco cops, who are chasing him, end up in a comic traffic pileup at the bottom.

Sort of like what might happen if the bridge is closed for too long next year.

Amy Osborne/Special To The Chronicle

Crime and no punishment: In San Francisco its perfectly possible for two groups to look at exactly the same data and come to diametrically opposed conclusions.

So it is with the citys budget analyst report on citing the homeless for quality of life offenses. The report says the city spent roughly $20.6 million in 2015 enforcing offenses like public urination, sit-lie and obstructing the street or sidewalk.

Last year, the report says, the SFPD responded to 60,491 incidents, a dramatic increase since 2013, when there were 44,863. However, the report says, rather than decreasing the number of individuals on the street, the total has increased, from 3,016 in 2011 to 3,505 in 2015.

Therefore, the report concludes  and advocates for the homeless agree  the city should stop enforcing laws that criminalize the homeless and find other ways to look at the problem.

Thats one point of view. Heres another. As the report says, incidents are initiated by resident calls. So the increase in responses is driven by local residents, who are complaining in ever-larger numbers about tent encampments, the smell of urine in the street and drug use. If anything, the numbers show that residents of San Francisco want, and are requesting, more enforcement, not less.

Second, for all the talk of putting people in jail for the crime of not having a place to sleep, the report notes that only a very small number of police interventions result in an arrest. Of the 60,000-plus incidents called in, the report says just 0.2 percent resulted in arrests.

Wait, theres more. In more than a quarter of the calls, police officers were unable to find the alleged violators. And although some 2,000 homeless individuals are jailed each year, the vast majority are incarcerated for offenses, usually felonies, that are not quality-of life-infractions. In 2014, for example, just 142 were sent to jail on quality-of-life charges.

And the report reminds us that quality-of-life citations are sent to traffic court as misdemeanors. A violator is given a summons and a date to appear. In the past if he or she did not, a bench warrant would be issued for failure to appear. However, last fall, the San Francisco Superior Court announced that it would no longer issue bench warrants or ask police to pursue those who simply ignore the citations.

The court issues fines instead, and sends the matter to a collection agency. And good luck with collecting that.

Theres one opinion that has universal agreement: The current system to improve quality of life isnt working. The question is does that mean we should just give up and stop enforcing? I predict that will not be popular with the homeowners, renters and business people who are calling police with those complaints.

C.W. Nevius is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His columns appear Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: cwnevius@sfchronicle.com Twitter: cwnevius
A Google search of the Internet domains of Harvard, Stanford and UC Berkeley yielded unexpected results  websites selling an assortment of drugs, including cut-rate antibiotics and Viagra.

Why are top-ranked research universities from the Bay Area to the Bay State promoting what appear to be online pharmacies?

Because criminals see an opportunity to take over poorly maintained academic websites and reap the benefits of their online reputations and the Web traffic that comes with it. Its a form of parasite hosting, and reports of such Web spam go back to at least 2007.

Search engines such as Google or Yahoo rank websites based, in part, on how reputable they appear to be. By secretly glomming onto a prominent universitys domain name, scammers are attempting to make their own websites look reputable to a search engine, giving them a higher ranking on search pages than they would otherwise get. A higher ranking brings more traffic and potentially more money.

One way to do that is by reputation theft, said Sam Bowne, a professor at City College of San Francisco who teaches computer networking and ethical hacking. You hack someones site, like an .edu, and you get it to pair with your site.

The scam succeeds by flying under the radar. The typical Web surfer searching for Harvards website, for example, wont be redirected to a Viagra outlet.

But it is not without danger. In some cases, the scam has been used to spread malware or convince phishing victims of the legitimacy of fraudulent emails, said Andrew Shotland, LocalSEOGuide.coms chief executive.

The schools try to stamp out the scam when it arises. But in a way, it is a result of how universities build their sprawling domains on the Web.

High-value information  like staff personnel records  is closely guarded. But the schools keep elements of their Web presence relatively open to allow faculty, staff and students to collaborate online. They dont think reputation theft poses enough of a threat to the school to wall off their sites entirely.

There is this optics game thats being played where, of course, its embarrassing, said Paul Rivers, UC Berkeleys chief information security officer. But is it actually harmful? No. Is it something that we will absolutely respond to? Yes it is.

A Google spokeswoman said that while the search engine has algorithms to detect spam and take action, sometimes people succeed in gaming those algorithms to trick their way to the top of search results. She did not provide any numbers on the frequency of such scams, or how often they have occurred.

To see the scam in action, Google site:harvard.edu canadian pharmacy. Up pop links to a pharmacy, with the universitys Web domain included in its address.

Bowne said that he notified 70 affected organizations of such problems in late April. Only about a quarter of them, including the University of Georgia and Johns Hopkins, had addressed the issues, according to a list on his blog.

Representatives from Brown and Harvard, which Bowne called out in a blog post, did not respond to emails requesting comment.

As for the Canadian pharmacy whose pages are linked to the Harvard domain, it probably isnt located in Canada. An customer service employee said he and his company were in London. He indicated they operate multiple websites before hanging up.

The websites About Us section said all the generic medicines sold on it are shipped from India and approved by the Indian FDA.

The Chronicle in May separately identified similar issues affecting websites hosted by Berkeley and Stanford. Both universities remedied the problems after being contacted by a reporter.

We are aware of the phenomenon, and unfortunately, it is an ongoing challenge in many universities and other large decentralized organizations with extensive Web presences, Brad Hayward, Stanfords senior director of strategic communication, said via email.

The university actively works to identify and remediate such issues, according to Hayward.

Hacking college-hosted servers in order to drive traffic is part of a much larger family of fraud, said Ryan Kalember, a senior vice president of cybersecurity strategy at Proofpoint, a cloud-security company in Sunnyvale.

Criminals and search-engine optimization firms used similar tactics from the early 2000s until the middle of that decade, according to Kalember. One tactic, called backlining, involves paying the webmasters of popular sites to post hyperlinks to less popular domains in order to lift their Google search results.

The way to game the Google search algorithm  which guides people to the content that theyre seeking  was straightforward and well known, Kalember said.

It wasnt by creating quality content, which it is now, Kalember said. But the improvements that Google made essentially drove innovation throughout cybercrime.

Those improvements specifically penalized sites that employed such dubious practices by lowering their page ratings. This forced criminals to be more discreet.

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For those that practice such black hat tactics, its slash and burn, said Shotland, also a regular columnist for industry news website Search Engine Land.

The problem with these schemes is they tend not to last long, he said.

Search can mean millions of dollars for a business, directing consumers to a well-ranked e-commerce site without having to pay for advertising.

Most of the people I deal with want no part of this thing, because its too risky, said Shotland, referencing the chance of a website owner getting caught and losing out on search rank. Its totally against what Google wants you to do, right?

Bowne said hes been researching the issue for about 2 years. He identified this latest group of colleges and other reputable organizations as part of preparation for a class hes teaching next semester on securing Web applications.

They are examples of what not to do when it comes to protecting websites.

Id really like to get this cleaned up for infected sites, Bowne said, adding that hed happily do it for free, because Id really like more malware samples and more evidence of how this happens.

Even so, the risk to a university is low. No one is stealing personal information, as that data is stored securely and separately from the public websites affected, said Rivers of UC Berkeley.

He added that college networks are more susceptible to such vandalism because they are more open by design, allowing students, professors and other academics free reign to conduct experiments.

What is more important, maintaining that character or stopping something far down the harm spectrum, like the pharma ad? Rivers said. To me, the answer there is clear: We maintain the openness of Berkeley because that is far more important to the mission that is UC Berkeley.

Sean Sposito is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ssposito@sfchronicle.com Twitter: seansposito
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Nvidia is building its future in virtual reality, in more ways than one.

The graphics chipmaker is not only counting on virtual reality to become a pillar of its revenue, especially from video gamers, but the architects working on Nvidias futuristic headquarters rely on the technology to design the buildings interior.

You really get a sense of the scale of the actual architecture and experience that well before we even ever break ground, said Scott DeWoody, creative media leader for the architectural firm Gensler.

Weve gotten a lot of aha moments, weve won a lot of projects, weve seen a lot of design decisions made faster, better and stronger once we put a client into VR, he said.

Virtual reality is getting off the ground this year with the release of consumer-oriented headgear like the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive and the Samsung Gear VR. The video game industry is leading the charge, but the technology is also becoming an important tool used in other industries, like design and architecture.

Virtual reality gives us the ability to sit down and show them what they would actually see, said Callum Vierthaler, virtual reality developer for the Pulse Design Group.

Michael Short/Special To The Chronicle

Vierthaler, who led a panel discussion on the future of virtual reality at a recent national architects convention, said virtual reality has become particularly important for his Kansas firm, which designs expensive health care facilities like surgical rooms.

So far, the industry is mainly dabbling in VR, due to the technical complexities. But most firms would like to jump in, and we anticipate there will be a strong uptake, he said.

For Nvidia, virtual reality is already front and center.

Nvidia has long made powerful graphics processors favored by the most avid video game players. The company is counting on revenue from virtual reality games and other applications that require those chips.

But Nvidia is also constructing a $380 million, polygon-shape building across the street from its current Santa Clara headquarters. The building, which can house up to 2,500 employees, is due to open in late 2017, although the project is two years behind its original schedule. For now, it is just one 250,000-square-foot building instead of two.

With the steel skeleton completed, Gensler is working on the interior. That requires constantly designing and refining interior walls, coverings and furnishings.

Gensler is combining photo-realistic 2D renderings, which architects have long used to show clients their work, with Nvidias Iray VR technology. Viewed on HTCs Vive VR headgear, the technology accurately simulates what its like to stand in a buildings lobby or in a meeting room, including a sense of the scale of the room. It provides a 3D effect so realistic, viewers can peer around objects like chairs and support posts.

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Hao Ko, a Gensler principal and design director on the Nvidia project, said his firm worked with Nvidia to create a tool that lets the architects quickly try different types of building materials and lighting situations in virtual reality.

The technology can simulate, for example, how natural daylight is going to react according to different materials we have in the building. he said. Its a whole heck of a lot cheaper to make changes in this (virtual) world than when youre under construction.

Virtual reality helps clients who cant quite grasp how a project will look from staring at a blueprint, an artists rendering or a flat photo. Gensler needed virtual reality to get Nvidia founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang to approve designs and really understand his building, said Phil Miller, Nvidias director of software product management.

Its become both a design review and approval tool, Miller said. Its become part of the process.

Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: bevangelista@sfchronicle.com Twitter: ChronicleBenny
Monsignor Eugene Boyle was a Catholic priest who was a rebel before his time.

In his most controversial period, the 1960s and 70s, he fought for social justice, marched with Cesar Chavez and allowed the Black Panthers to use his church basement in San Francisco for a breakfast program. He ran for a seat in the Assembly, was investigated by the FBI, and frequently clashed with his religious superiors. The Chronicle called him a maverick priest.

But by the time he died May 22, at age 94, Monsignor Boyle had been vindicated. Bishop Patrick McGrath of San Jose called him a role model for all of us. He was, McGrath said, the patriarch of priests in the diocese of San Jose.

By then, Pope John Paul II had honored the Rev. Boyle by making him monsignor, and he had retired from active ministry.

In his heyday, Monsignor Boyle was a force to be reckoned with. No priest fought harder against injustice in all its faces and all its institutional guises, said Clinton Reilly, a San Francisco political consultant and real estate developer. Reilly, an old friend of Monsignor Boyles, ran his campaign when he challenged longtime Assemblyman John Foran, D-San Francisco, in the 1974 primary election.

The priests campaign was unprecedented. He was the first Catholic clergyman to run for the Legislature in California history, and Joseph McGucken, then Archbishop of San Francisco, opposed his candidacy. Foran barely won. Its hard to run against God, a close associate of Forans was quoted as saying.

Eugene Boyle was born in San Francisco on July 28, 1921, attended local Catholic schools and went into the seminary to study for the priesthood. He was ordained in 1946.

Social justice panel

The Rev. Boyle was first assigned to various parishes in San Francisco and Livermore, and then served on the San Francisco archdioceses commission on social justice.

He was in the news almost immediately. He spoke in favor of fair housing, sought better treatment for gays in the church, quit the San Francisco Olympic Club because it excluded nonwhites, and supported the United Farm Workers union, led by Chavez.

He was a close associate of Chavezs and joined the farmworkers in marches in the San Joaquin Valley.

No priest worked harder for the cause of the farmworkers, Reilly said.

The Rev. Boyle also had radio shows on KCBS and KSFO in San Francisco and won several awards for his commentary.

In the late 1960s, he was appointed pastor of Sacred Heart Church, in San Franciscos Western Addition. He allowed the Black Panthers to use church facilities for a breakfast program for children.

This attracted the attention of an FBI counterintelligence unit, which was secretly trying to undermine the Black Panthers. The FBI produced a fake childrens coloring book, which called police pigs and advocated shooting them.

Senate investigation

This fake book got the Rev. Boyle in hot water. He was called before a U.S. Senate investigating committee, which believed the phony book to be real. Sen. Karl Mundt, R-South Dakota, warned: When they are handing out materials like this in a church basement, you understand why this country is in trouble.

After his term at Sacred Heart, the Rev. Boyles outspoken views on social justice and his run for political office put him in disfavor with his superiors and he was in a kind of religious Siberia. Finally, the archdiocese in San Francisco appointed him Catholic chaplain at Stanford University. Some believed it was a move to get him out of the public limelight.

In 1981, Santa Clara County, where Stanford is located, became part of the new Diocese of San Jose. Bishop Pierre Du Maine viewed the Rev. Boyle in a different light and made him vicar for inter-religious and public affairs, a high-profile post in the diocese.

His last post was as pastor of St. Catherine of Alexandra Church in Morgan Hill, where he served until he was 74. After his retirement, the Vatican named him a prelate of honor with the title of monsignor.

Monsignor Boyle is survived by his sister, Betty Tackett, and a number of nieces and nephews.

Carl Nolte is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cnolte@sfchronicle.com Twitter: carlnoltesf
Youre probably paying too much for homeowners insurance coverage.

Each year, most Bay Area homeowners let hundreds of dollars  and, for many, over $1,000  slip through their fingers because they buy coverage from major companies. Using reports issued by the California Department of Insurance, nonprofit consumer group Bay Area Consumers Checkbook reported sample premiums from the areas largest insurers for several typical Bay Area homes.

 For a sample frame house in Berkeley, rates range from $756 with Mercury and $844 with Travelers to more than $2,300. The premium for State Farm, the states largest writer of homeowners insurance policies, is $1,606. The premium for Farmers, the states second-largest insurer, is $1,944.

 For a sample frame home in San Franciscos Nob Hill neighborhood, rates range from $823 with Mercury and $981 with Travelers to over $2,200. The rate for State Farm is $1,151; for Farmers, its $1,547.

There are enormous opportunities for area homeowners to save because so many of the policies in the Bay Area are written by several large companies that often are not competitive on price.

Which companies will offer you the lowest rates depends on several factors. Your home and familys location and characteristics will differ from the sample profiles Checkbook used for its comparisons, so do some shopping on your own. And if youre considering an insurance switch, know that you dont have to wait until your policy term ends to sign on with an insurer offering a lower price. Although you might have to pay a small administrative fee to cancel your policy, this fee is usually much less than the savings youll realize from the lower premium.

Even if you select a company that offers you a lower price, dont waste hundreds of dollars a year buying the wrong coverage. Some tips on minimizing premiums:

 Take a high deductible. Youll get a big discount, and it will make you less likely to file small claims that may generate future premium hikes. Keep in mind that the purpose of insurance is to protect you from losses that you cant afford to cover yourself. If you buy insurance for small losses, you pay insurance company overhead  sales, administrative, and claims handling costs  to deal with losses you could cover. You need to determine how big a loss you can incur without unacceptably disrupting your life, and then set your insurance deductible levels accordingly.

Obtain an accurate estimate of what it will take to rebuild your home. Many homeowners do not maintain adequate insurance coverage, leaving themselves financially vulnerable in the event of a total loss. Dont count on your insurer to keep your homeowners policy up to date. Every few years, have your insurer re-estimate your homes replacement cost and then adjust your coverage as needed. But keep in mind that insurance agents may try to sell excessive coverage by providing inflated estimates of replacement costs. If you buy too much coverage, youre paying for insurance you cant use.

 Consider declining earthquake coverage, which can add from $500 to more than $3,000 to a typical homeowners policy for a house with frame construction, and usually three times as much for a masonry house. Since earthquake policies usually include a hefty 15 percent deductible, think about whether the added cost is worth the protection offered. Few homeowners in California bother buying it.

 Limit the number of claims you make. Filing a claim will result in higher premiums from most insurers and may cause an insurer to drop you  which will make it difficult and more expensive to get insurance elsewhere.

 Consider declining optional higher coverage limits and other add-ons. Raising limits for some types of coverage  such as liability  wont increase your premium much, and most people find the extra protection worth it. But be wary of agents and companies that try to tack on extras without discussing them with you first.

 Consider buying your homeowners and auto policies from the same company. Many companies offer dual-policy discounts to customers who insure both homes and cars with them, but such discounts are usually small. (Checkbook also evaluates auto insurance companies for quality and price.)

Keep in mind that what companies sell as their standard insurance policies varies, which makes direct cost comparisons more difficult. For example, some insurers estimate the amount of dwelling coverage needed and then automatically include an extra 25 percent or more of protection to make sure youre covered in the event of a total loss. Similarly, while coverage for increased living expenses is usually set at an amount equal to 30 percent of the dwelling coverage, with some companies there is no limit  they instead reimburse for actual living expenses for up to one year. And some companies automatically cover personal property using a replacement-cost provision rather than charging extra. Just make sure youre comparing prices for the same coverage.

What you get with basic coverage is particularly important if you own an older home. Standard policies promise to repair or replace what is damaged, but not to pay for an exact replica of what was lost. Also, with older homes, make sure youre covered in case there are additional costs to bring things up to code. Some insurers include this type of coverage for no additional charge, while others impose additional hefty premiums.

Youll want a company or agent that offers unbiased information and quotes accurate prices. Unfortunately, Checkbooks undercover shoppers often found many agents more interested in selling them too much insurance and unwanted options than dispensing solid advice and reliable price quotes. Often their information was incorrect, even dishonest. When shopping for insurance, speak with several companies and agents  and question price quotes that seem excessive or include unrequested coverage.

Limited-time free access: The Chronicle is partnering with Bay Area Consumers Checkbook magazine and Checkbook.org, a nonprofit consumer group that rates various types of local service companies and professionals, to help you find the best services in the Bay Area. Chronicle readers can read Checkbooks full article with advice on buying homeowners insurance, and, through June 30, 2016, use Checkbooks ratings and price comparisons of homeowners insurance providers, free of charge, at www.checkbook.org/chronicle/homeowners
If you missed it ...

In a week when Steph Curry and LeBron James both said they have used Uber and a Shaquille ONeal video showed him driving for Lyft, we also saw:

A burlesque dancer says JetBlue employees at Bostons Logan International Airport forced her to change clothes before she was allowed to board a connecting flight to Seattle. Maggie McMuffin, as she calls herself, told the Boston Globe that a JetBlue worker told her May 18 that she might not get on a flight if she didnt change out of her high-waisted shorts. McMuffin says her black-and-white short shorts covered everything and her body was 90 percent covered, given that she was also wearing thigh-high socks and a sweater.

The creators of The Sims are opening up gender customization options, meaning that specific clothing, hair styles and other aesthetic options are no longer restricted to one gender or the other. Publisher Electronic Arts and developer Maxis made a free update available.

Tribune Publishing Co., parent of the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, rebranded itself as Tronc Inc., as in Tribune online content. Judging from the Internets reaction, it would have been better off if it called itself Maggie McMuffin. Among other things, people pointed out that it rhymes with Gronk, as in New England Patriots colorful tight end Rob Gronkowski. And those who like to put the pun in pundit certainly couldnt resist junk in the Tronc.

The Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: techbriefing
Less than 1 percent of the blood test results Theranos Inc. has provided have either been voided or corrected, according to the company, which last month said it was canceling or altering tens of thousands of results, including two years of results on some of the companys proprietary machines.

The revisions were made out of what spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said was an abundance of caution. The Palo Alto startup said it has informed all patients who were affected.

Theranos doesnt plan to send more corrections, and stands behind the other 99 percent of results, she said.

But some patients say theyre not sure whether to trust the remaining medical results provided by the startup.

Jani Penttinen, 40, who runs a language-translation technology startup, got a letter from closely held Theranos saying that some of his test results were voided.

This report contains corrected results, announced red letters of the top of each page. Of the 70 results, two had been voided  and both of the wrong tests had shown abnormal results, including a vitamin B-12 deficiency for which his doctor recommended supplements.

This result should not be used out of an abundance of caution, the report said beneath each voided test. Redraw is recommended as clinically indicated. The entrepreneur took vitamin B-12 supplements for a few weeks, though he says he wasnt harmed medically.

Even though his report said the majority of his results were accurate, Penttinen said that its hard for him to have faith at this point.

I feel I need to review all those tests.

Colin Jordan, who works in public relations in the Bay Area, got two blood tests through the company last year for a blood panel and an allergy test, and hasnt heard from Theranos that any of his tests were wrong. But his doctor recommended he get his blood work redone elsewhere as a precaution.

Its such a big question mark, Im not going to leave it to chance, he said.

Loss of patient trust would be another damaging blow to the once high-flying startup, which promised to revolutionize the blood-testing industry with cheap, less-painful tests that used only a finger-prick of blood and could be run on what the company has said are its breakthrough analyzers.

But Theranos has faced questions over whether its technology worked. It has stopped using its own devices and is submitting individual tests for FDA approval.

Three class-action lawsuits have been filed against the company, claiming consumer fraud and false advertising.

Denise Terry, CEO of startup EmbraceFamily Health, said shes had about half a dozen routine blood tests through the company. She said her doctors continued to send her for Theranos tests even as questions about the company arose. She said she hasnt heard from the company about any of the tests.

Overall I am very disappointed, she said, adding that she is now using another lab for tests.

The decision to void some results was made because previous tests werent up to the standards of Theranos current lab managers, Buchanan said.

Theranos has yet to present peer-reviewed studies showing that its technology works, though it has said it will present some data at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry annual meeting, which starts July 31.

But it may be too little, too late, says John Ioannidis, a professor of medicine at Stanford University who has been critical of Theranos.

The mere fact that they retracted all these thousands of tests, this is extremely uncommon, and in a way it already proves that what theyve been doing has failed, he said. The question is: Has it failed forever, or is there some still glimpse of hope that it could work?

Rebecca Spalding and Caroline Chen are Bloomberg writers. Email: rspalding@bloomberg.net, cchen509@bloomberg.net
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A five-hour standoff with an armed burglar in San Franciscos Chinatown ended Friday afternoon with a fight that left six officers, the suspect and several civilians injured inside a hair salon, officials said.

After hours of back-and-forth negotiations, the man jumped onto a window ledge of an apartment in which he had barricaded himself, officials said. Police set off a flash grenade and fired beanbag rounds at him, prompting him to jump through a skylight of an adjacent building. From there, he ran onto the sidewalk  where he was hit by a less-than-lethal round  and into the salon next door.

The suspect, who was covered in broken glass and bleeding, began fighting with police and tried to slash officers and civilians with shards of glass, said Officer Grace Gatpandan, a Police Department spokeswoman. She said the man also spit at and bit officers during the confrontation.

Six police officers and the suspect were injured, as were multiple civilians inside the hair salon, Gatpandan said.

The man, injured officers and civilians were taken to a hospital to be treated. Gatpandan said all of their injuries were non-life-threatening.

The incident started about 9:20 a.m. when an emergency dispatcher received a hang-up call, followed seconds later by another 911 call from a resident in the 900 block of Pacific Avenue reporting that a prowler had just broken into his apartment, Gatpandan said. Police believe the man entered the residence through the roof.

When officers arrived at the scene and went into the apartment, the intruder barricaded himself in a room and fired one shot, Gatpandan said. She described the situation as very dangerous.

Officers retreated with the resident who had called 911, leaving the intruder inside alone.

Police hostage negotiators were called to the scene and tried to talk the man into surrendering while a police tactical unit surrounded the building and cut off all escape routes.

Gatpandan said that during the negotiations, the man sounded incoherent, initially saying he would surrender before changing his mind.

About five hours into the incident, police deployed the flash grenades in an effort to force the man out.

During the standoff, nearby homes and businesses were evacuated and some residents were ordered to shelter in place. Several busy streets in the area were also blocked off.

Gatpandan said police will investigate why civilians inside the hair salon had not evacuated.

Stephen Dinneen, 67, who lives in a building across the street from where the barricaded suspect was holed up, said he was standing outside when two squad cars rolled up.

Dinneen said he heard at least one shot fired, then the police just swooped in.

Bill Joe, 59, who lives on the block where the incident occurred, said he arrived home to find police swarming the area and stopping him from going into his home.

I was born and raised in Chinatown, Joe said. It's kind of scary, kind of surprising this would happen here, especially in the daytime.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: KVeklerov
LOS ANGELES  A Canadian real estate tycoons son who explored the darkest side of evil in one of his graphic novels is now accused of carrying out such an act.

Blake Leibel was charged last week with murder in the torture and mutilation of a girlfriend who had just given birth to their child. Deputies discovered the bloodless body of Iana Kasian after breaking through a barricade to get into the couples West Hollywood apartment last week, prosecutors said.

The case has grabbed attention in Canada, where his father, Lorne Leibel, a sailor on the countrys 1976 Olympics team, built a fortune constructing homes in the Toronto area and is known for his love of Ferraris and racing powerboats.

The father and his estranged wife, Eleanor Leibel, provided for their two sons when they moved to California years ago, according to papers filed in an Ontario court. Each was given a big house and Blake Leibel lived off an allowance of about $18,000 a month for seven years, until inheriting the majority of his mothers estate.

Different paths

Blake Leibel and his older brother, Cody, were drawn to California because of the weather, said attorney Ronald Richards, who said he was hired to look after them and keep them out of trouble.

Each pursued different creative paths.

Cody Leibel founded C-Note Records, a now defunct label, and rubbed elbows with some of Hollywoods biggest stars.

As part of an unlicensed high-stakes poker game that included actor Tobey Maguire and other hotshots, Cody Leibel got snared in a lawsuit to reclaim money for investors duped in a Ponzi scheme by another gambler.

Blake Leibel, 35, worked in a variety of creative roles, including as a director and creative consultant in 2008 on the animated series based on Mel Brooks 1987 film Spaceballs, according to his profile on IMDb. He wrote a comic book series and penned and directed the film Bald, a comedy about a balding college student whose friends create an erotic website to raise money for a hair transplant.

Hes credited as the creator and executive editor of the graphic novel Syndrome, published in 2010. The books plot follows a mad doctors quest to test his theory that he can isolate the root of evil in the brain and fix it, trying his experiment on a serial killer.

The illustrated novel opens outside a prison where the killer is about to be executed for 38 murders. It then flashes back to scenes of him hanging a couple by their ankles and slitting the mans throat.

The charges against Blake Leibel allege he used a knife to torture, maim and murder Kasian sometime between May 23 and 26. The elements of torture include the intent to cause cruel and extreme pain and suffering for revenge, extortion or a sadistic purpose. By the time she was found, all the blood had drained from her body, prosecutors said.

Leibel, who pleaded not guilty Tuesday to all counts, faces a mental competency hearing June 14. If convicted of first-degree murder, he could face the death penalty, though prosecutors havent decided whether theyll seek it.

Defense lawyers have not spoken about the case, asking in a statement that he be given a chance for fair hearing.

Richards said the allegations are hard to grasp. Blake Leibel was in the process of settling an amicable divorce with his wife while starting a new relationship with Kasian. There were no abuse allegations in the divorce, lawyers for both parties said.

Severe beating

The divorce was filed in July and his wife, Amanda Braun, gave birth to their son the next month.

Blake Leibel moved out of a Beverly Hills house his mother had bought him so Braun could raise the boy there, Richards said. He moved into an apartment with Kasian, who gave birth to his daughter in early May.

Deputies went to the couples apartment after Kasians mother reported her missing. It appeared she had been badly beaten, authorities said at the time. Blake Leibel was arrested at the scene.

I thought he was very happy with this change in his life, which can be complicated with two women and two children, Richards said. It seemed like he was going in the right direction.

A lawyer for Braun said shes upset and in shock.

There was nothing to indicate he had a violent past or violent tendencies. Nothing, attorney Pedram Mansouri said.

Richards said the Leibel family was temporarily fractured after Blake Leibel contested his mothers will in 2013, which left him two of her properties after she died in 2011, including his home in California. He had to split other property with his brother.

Blake Leibel claimed unsuccessfully that he was to be the sole heir because his mother raised him while his father raised his brother.

A message left at Lorne Leibels office was not immediately returned.
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the convictions of two San Francisco police officers who stole property and thousands of dollars in cash from suspected drug dealers.

A jury convicted Sgt. Ian Furminger and Officer Edmond Robles in December 2014 of conspiring to deprive suspects of their rights and take property that should have been turned over to the city as evidence, and of two counts of fraud. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer sentenced Furminger to 41 months in prison and Robles to 39 months.
SACRAMENTO  Embattled UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi launched a public relations offensive Friday, striking back at the University of California, which has hired an outside law firm to look into whether she engaged in nepotism, improperly used student fees and lied about outside contracts in violation of ethics policies.

Speaking on behalf of Katehi at a media event in Sacramento, Katehis lawyer, Melinda Guzman, and public relations consultant Larry Kamer accused the university of unfairly targeting Katehi and raised concerns about possible conflicts of interest involving the law firm and its head investigator.

They said Katehi could not speak about the matter herself because she has been instructed by the office of UC President Janet Napolitano not to discuss the facts of her case while the investigation is pending.

Chancellor Katehi loves the university, she loves UC Davis, Guzman said. She was harmed when on April 27 President Napolitano  in a very unprecedented and very disrespectful way  publicly placed her on a paid administrative leave.  This is not an independent or a neutral investigation.

Range of issues in probe

Napolitano placed Katehi on a 90-day leave after students and lawmakers demanded her resignation, outraged over her involvement with a for-profit education corporation and the schools questionable use of consultants to clean up its online reputation.

The university hired law firm Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe LLP to conduct the probe, which was expected to look into a range of issues, including whether Katehi misused her position so her son and his wife received advantages in their campus jobs  including $50,000 in raises to the wife. Also mentioned as areas for inquiry are Katehis possible involvement in contracts related to managing the campus, her reputation on social media, and the possible misuse of student fees.

The lead investigator is Orrick partner Melinda Haag, who was U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California under the Obama administration from August 2010 to September 2015. Investigators at Orrick, where Haag is in the White Collar & Corporate Investigations group, will be paid $595 an hour, a significant discount from a previously negotiated rate of $845.50.

UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein said the firm agreed to the lower rate because the university is a public institution.

Guzman and Kamer, however, questioned Orrick and Haags ability to conduct an objective investigation, alleging that the law firm has had a long-standing relationship with the University of California, representing the institution in various legal matters. Haag, they said, also has a personal conflict of interest, having represented the Department of Homeland Security while Napolitano was serving as the agencys head under President Obama from 2009 through 2013.

This investigation is hopelessly compromised, it cannot be saved, it has to be scrapped, it has to be started over, it has to have a new lead investigator, Kamer said.

Haag and Orrick referred questions to the university. Klein said in a statement that there are no conflicts of interest.

As the U.S. Attorney (Haag) was on record in a case involving the Department of Homeland Security, Klein said. She never met with Napolitano. She was never hired by Napolitano. She never represented Napolitano. They have never had any discussion of legal issues. Period.

Daughter-in-law promoted

Katehis daughter-in-law, Emily Prieto-Tseregounis, was hired as an executive analyst at UC Davis in 2013, earning $77,000. In less than three years, she was promoted to assistant vice chancellor, earning $130,000, according to Klein. In February, a UC attorney advised against promoting her again, Klein has previously said.

The investigation will also look into whether Katehis son, Erik Tseregounis, a paid researcher at Davis, was improperly placed under the supervision of his wife and whether student fee revenue was misused in the process. Katehis husband, Spyros Tseregounis, is a chemical engineering professor hired by faculty in 2009. His position is not in question, Klein has said.

In March, the Sacramento Bee newspaper reported that Katehi, without required UC approval, had joined the board of the for-profit DeVry Education Group in February, a position that paid $70,000. The Federal Trade Commission is suing DeVry, accusing it of falsely claiming that its graduates move into well-paid jobs within six months of graduating and that they earn more than graduates from other schools. Katehi resigned from the board and apologized.

State Sen. Marty Block, D-San Diego, then requested information about any other outside income and found that Katehi, an electrical engineer, had also served two years on the board of John Wiley & Sons, which publishes engineering, math and science textbooks. She earned $420,000 in salary and stock options on top of her $424,360 salary at Davis, an arrangement that raised questions about a potential conflict of interest.

In April, the Bee also reported that UC Davis had paid consultants $175,000 to remove negative Internet references to a 2011 incident in which protesting students were doused with pepper spray by a Davis police officer and to Katehis role in allowing it.

Napolitano has said it appeared that Katehi lied about her role in those social media contracts, in violation of UCs ethics policy.

Guzman and Kamer disputed allegations that Katehi misused her position to benefit her son and his wife. They said she disclosed her ties to them and was not inappropriately involved in their opportunities at Davis.

As far as serving on boards, they said that Katehis actions were in keeping with university policy and that dozens of university employees also serve on boards of directors. She has violated no university policies and certainly not the law, said Guzman, adding that Katehi has filed a grievance with UC.

Its concerning to some of us that as a woman she seems to be singled out, Kamer said.

Not targeting anyone

Klein dismissed the notion that UCs approach to Katehi had in any way involved her gender.

The president of UC and the chair of the Board of Regents are both women. We are not targeting anyone, based on gender or anything else, she said.

Because Katehi has tenure at UC Davis, she can be removed from her administrative job but cant be fired without a hearing before Davis Academic Senate, according to Andre Knoesen, chairman of that body. Knoesen has previously said that option is not on the table.

A report on Haags investigation is expected to be submitted before the start of the 2016-17 academic year.

Cynthia Dizikes is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cdizikes@sfchronicle.com Twitter: cdizikes
ST. LOUIS - With Hunter Pence and Angel Pagan both out, the rest of the offense still clunky and the bullpen far from consistent, the Giants know their golden goose is the front end of the rotation, and they are not about to kill it.

After Friday night's 5-1 victory against the Cardinals, the Giants' 18th in their past 22 games, manager Bruce Bochy said he will keep the rotation intact despite two off days next week.

Rather than skip fill-in fifth starter Albert Suarez, Bochy will pitch Suarez against the Red Sox on Tuesday and give the rest of the starters extra time off. The way it falls, Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija and Jake Peavy will get six days' rest, two more than usual. Madison Bumgarner will get one extra day.

No goose is more gilded than Cueto, who improved to 9-1 by holding St. Louis to one unearned run in six innings. Cueto was wild, walking five, and still showed signs of a sore back. Even he said, It just wasnt my day today.

The Cardinals probably do not want to hear that after Cueto delivered a 2-1 lead to the bullpen in the seventh inning and won his sixth straight decision.

Cueto assumed the National League lead in innings pitched at 87 2/3. Combine that with the extra month he threw in the 2015 postseason with Kansas City, and one can see why Bochy believes that keeping Cueto off the mound until next Friday against the Dodgers will serve him well.

Bumgarner ranks fourth with 80 innings and Jeff Samardzija tied for sixth with 76. Bochy and his pitching coaches believe the three-headed monster needs a bigger break more than the Giants need Bumgarner to face both the Red Sox and Dodgers next week on regular rest. Bumgarner now will miss L.A.

"We've been riding these guys pretty hard," Bochy said. "If you look at our history we've always given guys the extra day. It's worked well for us."

Ultimately, the hitters and relievers will need to carry more of the load. On the day they learned Pence will miss eight weeks after leg surgery, they did.

Joe Panik, Buster Posey, Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford all singled in the fourth inning to produce two runs against Adam Wainwright, the Brandons each getting an RBI.

Josh Osich, Cory Gearrin, Javier Lopez and Hunter Strickland preserved a 2-1 lead through the seventh and eighth innings before the Giants cashed in three straight walks by Trevor Rosenthal to start the ninth.

Denard Span hit a two-run single, and for the second time in four games Kelby Tomlinson scored on a safety squeeze, this one by Matt Duffy.

Bochy ordered the bunt, understanding that until the hitters start driving in runs the team will have to score by hook or by crook. Posey must have felt the same way when he squared for a rare bunt attempt with two on and nobody out in the eighth. He fouled it off then struck out.

"We know we've underperformed as an offense," Duffy said. "I don't think we're putting pressure on ourselves. We're trying to make little adjustments every day to get where we have to be. We're getting there. We're just getting there a lot slower than we wanted."

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: hschulman@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: hankschulman.

On deck

Saturday

at Cardinals

4:15 p.m.

Samardzija (7-3) vs. Wacha (2-6)

Sunday

at Cardinals

5:05 p.m. ESPN

Peavy (2-5) vs. Martinez (5-5)

Monday

Off

Leading off

Good company: A surprising stat made the social-media rounds Thursday: Madison Bumgarner has 11 homers in his past 190 at-bats, same as Bryce Harper and MIke Trout.

 Henry Schulman
Environmental crews worked Saturday to contain a sheen of oil that appeared in the Columbia River along the Washington-Oregon line after a Union Pacific train derailed and caught fire the day before, but officials said there was no immediate indication of harm to wildlife.

Sixteen of the 96 tank cars on the train derailed Friday near Mosier, Ore., about 70 miles east of Portland. Four burned, sending up a thick plume of black smoke before firefighters were able to extinguish the flames a little after 2 a.m. Saturday. No injuries were reported.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the derailment, which forced the evacuation of about 100 people from a nearby mobile home park, as the site remained too hot to examine.

I want to apologize to the community, Union Pacific spokeswoman Raquel Espinoza said at a news conference, adding that the company would pay for the response costs. This is the type of accident we work to prevent every day.

The derailment, in the scenic Columbia River Gorge, fulfilled the fears of environmentalists who have long argued against shipping oil by rail  especially through populated areas or along a river thats a hub of recreation and commerce. The tank cars were carrying especially volatile crude from the Northern Plains Bakken region, which has a higher gas content and vapor pressure than other types of oil.

Opponents rallied in nearby Hood River, Ore., on Saturday to call for a halt to the practice.

Moving oil by rail constantly puts our communities and environment at risk, said Jared Margolis, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity in Eugene, Ore.

At first light Saturday, crews noticed a light sheen in the Columbia at the mouth of Rock Creek. Responders deployed about 1,000 feet of boom to contain it. It wasnt clear how much oil had spilled from the trains.

Union Pacific officials said Saturday the company had inspected the section of track where the derailment occurred at least six times since March 21. It was most recently checked Tuesday.
HOUSTON  A 27-year-old ex-Marine from Houston has been charged with murder in the stabbing death of an 11-year-old who was walking home from school last month, police said Saturday.

Andre Timothy Jackson Jr. was arrested Friday at the Salvation Army in Houston, Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a news conference Saturday. Jackson is being held in the Harris County Jail on $100,000 bond. It wasnt immediately clear whether he had an attorney.

Jackson, who police said was discharged from the Marines in 2011, is accused of stabbing Josue Flores as the sixth-grader walked home from school May 17.

We cannot bring him back, but I hope todays announcement can perhaps bring a little bit of comfort to those who love him, Turner said. Our minds search for answers that just arent there. What we do know is it was senseless, it was brutal, it was cold-blooded.

There is no motive in the slaying and no known connection between Jackson and Josue, Lt. John McGalin said Saturday.

Jackson is a veteran who had lived at the Salvation Army since mid-April, McGalin said.

Authorities initially charged a 31-year-old man with a long criminal history days after the killing, but that charge was dropped when detectives found evidence to support his alibi.

Questioned Saturday about how he was sure the right man has been arrested, McGalin said that Jacksons alibi could not be verified and that he provided a statement that corroborated a lot of things we knew to be true and led us to believe we have the right guy.

Authorities will determine how a reward for information in the case that had grown to $45,000 will be disbursed, McGalin said.
1 Transgender slaying: The fatal beating of a man at a homeless encampment in Burlington, Vt., stemmed from a dispute between separate camps that was triggered when the victim poured bodily fluids onto the tent of one of his assailants and not because he was transgender, police said Friday. The four people facing second degree murder charges in the May 28 death of Amos Beede were arrested late Thursday in San Diego after a nationwide manhunt. Burlington police identified the suspects, all in their 20s, as Erik Averill, Myia Barber, Allison Gee and Jordan Paul. Police said Beede had a home in Milton but would occasionally stay at the homeless encamp ment.

2 Students pepper-sprayed: At least 17 people were treated at a Los Angeles high school after a police officer used pepper spray to break up two fights. The fights broke out Thursday between students at John C. Fremont High School. One student was targeted with the spray, but police said other students were affected because of a breeze. The Los Angeles Fire Department said most complained of eye irritation, and two people had minor injuries from the fight. Police said the officers decision to use pepper spray will be reviewed.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.  Thomas E. Schaefer, a retired Air Force colonel who was the ranking military officer among the 52 Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 days before being released in 1981, has died in Arizona. He was 85.

David Schaefer said Friday that his father died of congestive heart failure Tuesday at a hospice in Scottsdale.

Col. Schaefer was a military attache at the U.S. embassy in Tehran when militants seized the compound on Nov. 4, 1979, and 66 people were taken hostage.

From the first day of the takeover, Col. Schaefer was singled out for special attention. As the ranking U.S. military officer in the embassy, he was accused of running a nest of spies. His captors paraded him blindfolded in front of television cameras and threatened repeatedly to put him on trial and execute him.

He spent 150 days in solitary confinement and began his captivity enduring 14 days of relentless interrogation in a freezing prison cell with damp floors and only a thin blanket for warmth.

I could see my breath the entire time, he said in a 2004 interview. They were breaking me down both physically and mentally. I could feel myself losing it.

He said he used a pin to punch a code into his Bible daily to get through the ordeal.

Col. Schaefer was among the last hostages who were released on Jan. 20, 1981. Just before the aircraft bringing the hostages home entered U.S. airspace, the co-pilot invited him to take his seat in the cockpit.

Col. Schaefer retired from the Air Force less than two years later and was a professional speaker for decades. His family said he spoke to more than a quarter-million students and adults about facing adversity.

Really, he was a positive guy, David Schaefer said. He tried to educate and help people deal with really bad situations in their lives.

In 1998, Col. Schaefer said the United States should re-establish relations with Iran for strategic reasons. But in 2013 he denounced the Iran nuclear deal as foolishness, saying he didnt know of any Iranian leaders who could be trusted.

Born in Rochester, N.Y., he was a bomber pilot for the Air Force  first flying B-47s and then B-52s before he switched to administrative positions.

In retirement, he and his wife lived in Arizona for the last 30 years, first in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria and then in Scottsdale since 2013.

Col. Schaefer is survived by his wife of 63 years, Anita; two sons, six grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

There will be a service at Arlington National Cemetery this fall.
WASHINGTON  The federal judge whos hearing a Trump University lawsuit is a hater of Donald Trump and ought to be removed from the case. So says Donald Trump, in just one of the recent comments by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee that have legal experts worrying about his commitment to an independent judiciary and his views on presidential powers.

In the midst of a heated presidential campaign, Trump has expressed unusually personal criticism  focusing on the judges Mexican heritage  though his lawyers have never actually sought to have the judge removed.

His comments are bringing overwhelming disapproval from politicians and lawyers in his own Republican Party. On Friday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said of the statements about the judge: Its reasoning I dont relate to, I completely disagree with the thinking behind that.

And conservative legal scholars say Trumps statements reinforce their worries that he seems to think he can do whatever he wants and disregard rules and conventions that constrain other political candidates.

The concern is that he would act unbounded in the presidency, in a way that doesnt follow the law, said John McGinnis, a Northwestern University law professor.

Criticism of the Supreme Court and the rest of the federal judiciary has been a regular feature of recent Republican presidential campaigns, including proposals to strip federal judges of lifetime tenure and reduce the budgets of liberal-leaning courts. Those ideas, though, did not single out judges or focus on race, ethnicity or religion.

Case Western Reserve University law professor Jonathan Adler said the recent comments seem to fit a pattern of intemperate remarks Trump has made during the campaign.

He said he would give military officers unlawful orders and expect them to comply, Adler said, referring to Trumps claim that the military would follow his orders to torture suspected terrorists. Trump has since backed off on that.

He has repeatedly given indications he has no appreciation for the rule of law, Adler said.

Trump made his first reported comments about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in February, linking Curiels Mexican heritage with what Trump described as the judges tremendous hostility over Trumps plan to build a wall along the Mexican border. Trump has variously referred to Curiel as Spanish, Mexican and Hispanic and has called the judge a hater of Donald Trump. He told the Wall Street Journal that Curiel has an absolute conflict of interest because of his heritage as well as an inherent conflict of interest because Trump wants to build the border wall.

Curiel is a native of Indiana whose parents emigrated from Mexico. He received undergraduate and law degrees from Indiana University and served as a federal prosecutor and a judge in the California state judicial system before being nominated to the San Diego federal bench by President Obama in 2011.

Trump University is the target of two lawsuits in San Diego and one in New York that accuse the business of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach secrets of success in real estate. Trump maintains that customers were overwhelmingly satisfied.
San Francisco resident Kate Steinle, 32, her father and a friend were strolling in July along Pier 14 when a bullet struck Steinle in the chest. Two hours later, Steinle died. For Jim Steinle and Liz Sullivan of Livermore, the shooting presented every parents nightmare. For the city of San Francisco, the shooting devolved into bad press. It became clear that the apparent shooter, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, a seven-time convicted felon and undocumented immigrant who had been deported to Mexico five times, was free because of San Franciscos sanctuary city policies.

Steinle and Sullivan have filed a lawsuit against San Francisco, former Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, the federal government and Lopez-Sanchez, who maintains the shooting was an accident. This tragedy was a byproduct of the abuse of authority, the suit asserts, by the sheriff and City Hall, as well as the failure of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to do their job, and the Bureau of Land Management, because an agent left his gun unsecured in his car (it was stolen and used to shoot Steinle). Steinles death was both foreseeable and preventable had the law enforcement agencies, officials and/or officers involved simply followed the laws, regulations and/or procedures which they swore to uphold.

Setting the scene for tragedy

The whole mess began, I should note, after federal authorities transferred Lopez-Sanchez to San Francisco because of a 20-year old warrant for his arrest on marijuana charges. That transfer never should have happened, and Kate Steinle would be alive today if there had been no marijuana warrant lingering. It is nearly impossible for a prosecutor to win such a moldy drug case. After the district attorney dropped the case, the Sheriffs Department freed Sanchez in keeping with a 2013 ordinance that prohibited local enforcement from honoring ICE detainer requests unless an undocumented immigrant was convicted of a violent felony in the past seven years. (New Sheriff Vicki Hennessy says that she is working closely with the district attorney to prevent inmate transfers on charges that are bound to be dropped.)

The scene, however, was set: Mirkarimi had doubled down on the dangerous Due Process for All law when he issued a March 2015 memo that prohibited his staff from communicating with ICE. Steinle family attorney Frank Pitre blames the memo, not the 2013 ordinance, for freeing Lopez-Sanchez. An earlier statute, Pitre maintains, stipulates that the sanctuary city ordinance does not prohibit local law enforcement from communicating with immigration officials when an undocumented immigrant is booked on felony charges.

The Steinle lawyer is downplaying the 2013 ordinance that tells local law enforcement to protect any undocumented immigrant with multiple felony convictions if they are not violent. Thats happening just as the Board of Supervisors is poised to pass a law to allow the sheriff to communicate with ICE. The qualifiers: if a defendant was convicted of a violent felony in the past seven years, a serious felony in the last five years, or three serious or violent felonies in the past 10 years. Theres more: a judge also must find probable cause there will be a conviction on the current charge. Otherwise, no contact.

Following intent of law

I asked Hennessy if Pitre is right when he says she has the discretion to talk with ICE. The city attorney has informed me that I can do it, but Ive agreed to agree with the spirit and intent of the sanctuary city law. And: We retained the ability to take action on the most serious cases.

But thats not true. Under the proposed ordinance, Lopez-Sanchez, who was convicted on seven nonviolent felony counts, would be shielded from an ICE detainer request. Of political necessity, Hennessy is agreeing to tie her hands. She believes her heightened scrutiny of warrants would keep another Lopez-Sanchez out. OK, but what about the next undocumented immigrant career criminal who doesnt have a decades-old marijuana charge but is in jail facing new charges? If he doesnt want to be deported, the safest place for that guy is a San Francisco jail.

Debra J. Saunders is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: dsaunders@sfchronicle.com Twitter: DebraJSaunders

Federal follies

The Steinle family lawsuit faults Immigration and Customs Enforcement for sending a detainer request for Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez and failing to obtain a judicial order or warrant for deportation. As a result, Lopez-Sanchez was not deported and instead allowed to roam the streets.

The lawsuit also faults the Bureau of Land Management for failing to train the ranger who left his .40 caliber SIG Sauer handgun unlocked in his car while parked downtown. The firearm was left in a backpack in plain sight of passers-by and within reach of someone smashing a window of the vehicle. It was stolen and five days later used to kill Kathryn Steinle.
After a rebuff from a federal judge, backers of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont say theyll drop their legal effort to require elections officials to give more help to nonaligned voters in casting ballots for president in Tuesdays primary and instead will take their message to local registrars offices.

Rather than appealing U.S. District Judge William Alsups refusal to order state and local elections officials to distribute more information to independent voters, the group behind the lawsuit will turn out Monday morning at about 10 registrars offices, including those in San Francisco, Alameda and Santa Clara counties and possibly Contra Costa, attorney William Simpich said Friday.

Nonaligned voters

He said they will inform nonaligned voters of their right to vote for a presidential candidate in the Democratic, American Independent or Libertarian party primaries, the three in California that have left their elections open to the nearly one-quarter of the states electorate not affiliated with any party. Those voters must ask for a partisan ballot at their polling place on election day and must turn in any mail-in ballot they have received, Simpich said.

Only registered Republicans are allowed to vote in the GOP primary.

Simpich said his group would also have a message for local election officials: Make ballots available for nonaligned voters, give them accurate information, and if they dont get it right, well challenge the election in court.

The suit was filed May 20 against the state and San Francisco and Alameda counties by a pro-Sanders group called the Voting Rights Defense Project, along with the American Independent Party and two individual voters. They alleged that election officials, in their mailings and online postings, had failed to inform nonaligned voters that they could request partisan ballots and that local polling places often failed to provide that information.

The suit initially sought multiple remedies, including extension of the registration deadline from May 23 to election day, a change election officials said would be impossible to implement. But Simpich scaled his requests down at a hearing Wednesday in San Francisco and asked Alsup only to order election offices to distribute a uniform statewide message, via email and social media, telling voters how to obtain the ballots they wanted.

The judge refused, saying the plaintiffs had waited far too long to sue and had failed to show any violation of their rights under the Constitution or federal law.

Instructions in place

State and local officials have already undertaken significant efforts to inform voters, particularly no-party-preference voters, of their rights, and voters will have additional information in front of them at their respective polling places, Alsup said in a written ruling issued Thursday.

Voters must read the materials provided to them to understand their rights; only some counties will spoon-feed the information, he said. With voting already under way, Alsup said, the changes the plaintiffs sought would no doubt cause voter confusion by changing the rules in the middle of the primary.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: egelko
SINGAPORE  China said Saturday that it will ignore the decision of an international arbitration panel in the Philippines lawsuit against Beijings sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea.

To put it simply, the arbitration case actually has gone beyond the jurisdiction of a U.N. arbitration panel, said Rear Adm. Guan Youfei, director of the foreign affairs office of Chinas National Defense Ministry.

The Philippines has filed a case in the United Nations under the U.N. Convention on Law of the Sea, questioning Chinas territorial claim in the South China Sea. An arbitration panel is expected to rule on the case soon. The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled last year that it has jurisdiction over the case despite Chinas rejection.

Because the territorial and sovereignty disputes have not been subjected to the arbitration, we think the arbitration is illegal, Guan told reporters on the sidelines of an international security conference in Singapore. Therefore, we do not participate in it nor accept it.

Seeking leverage

Guans statement is a reiteration of Chinas long-standing position that it wants to settle its disputes with various countries on a bilateral basis and that it will not accept international mediation.

Still, it gains significance because of the overtures made by Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, who said recently that he is open to bilateral negotiations with China. This has given Beijing an opening that it hopes to leverage in the event the panel rules in favor of the Philippines. China also has conflicting claims in the sea with Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam and Brunei, who all are looking for U.S. help, much to Beijings chagrin.

The new Philippine leader also said that the Philippines hopes to conduct a dialogue with China, Guan said. We hope the Philippines could get back on to the track of dialogue. The door to dialogue is always open.

A matter of economics

Earlier Saturday, Indias defense minister told the conference, known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, that it is in Chinas economic interest to reduce tensions in the South China Sea.

It is ultimately economics, Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar said. If you have an unstable region like what we have in the Middle East, I dont think economics and prosperity will really (be) enhanced.

Although India is not a party to the South China Sea disputes, China is its traditional adversary. They fought a war in 1962, in which India lost land to China.

Separately, Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said it was getting increasingly important for all nations in the region to establish the order based on the rule of the law.

Indirectly referring to China, he said that powerful nations are required to act with self-restraint so as to avoid contingency.

China claims virtually the entire South China Sea as its own, overlapping with territory claimed by other Southeast Asian governments. It has also started building airstrips on artificial islands it constructed on once-submerged reefs. The United States worries the buildup will impede freedom of navigation in the busy area.

The three-day Shangri-La Dialogue covers topics that also include terrorism, cybercrime and North Koreas nuclear ambitions.
1 No cooperation: Irans top leader ruled out any formal cooperation Friday with America against the Islamic State, their common adversary in Iraq and Syria, insisting that the U.S. remains a prime enemy of Tehran, despite a landmark nuclear deal with world powers. Trusting the U.S. would be a big mistake, said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisting that such cooperation goes against the independence of Iran. Khameneis remarks were somewhat ironic since the war against the Islamic State has put Americans and Iranians in close proximity. In Iraq, Irans Revolutionary Guards are helping Shiite militiamen and Iraqi forces in their offensive on Fallujah, an Islamic State stronghold. U.S.-led air strikes is also backing that battle.

2 Kashmir rebels: Rebels in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir ambushed a convoy of Indian paramilitary soldiers in a busy market Friday, killing at least three and injuring three others, police said. Police officer Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani said the militants sprayed bullets at the Border Security Force convoy in southern Bijbehara town. The rebels, who are fighting for Kashmirs independence from India or its merger with Pakistan, often attack Indian targets in the region. Kashmir is divided between Pakistan and India but is claimed by both. The countries have fought two wars over the disputed territory since they gained independence from Britain in 1947.
PARIS  The Seine River peaked early Saturday around Paris, hitting its highest level in nearly 35 years  almost 15 feet above average  then began a slow descent. That drew a collective sigh of relief but authorities cautioned it could take up to 10 days for the river to return to normal.

It will take at least four days before tourists in the French capital get a chance to view art at the Louvre Museum, where workers have been scrambling to move 250,000 artworks from basement storage areas to rooms upstairs to keep them safe from flooding.

The Louvre, home to Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa, said it wont reopen until Wednesday, while the Orsay Museum, known for its impressionist art, was closed at least through the weekend. Other Paris landmarks shut down due to flooding include the national library and the Grand Palais, Paris opulent exhibition center, which was built more than 100 years ago.

Nearly a week of heavy rain has led to major flooding across parts of France, Germany, Romania and Belgium.

The death toll from flooding in France rose to four, with 24 others injured, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Saturday after a government crisis meeting, bringing the flooding death toll across Europe to 18.

A regional lawmaker in Bavaria, Michael Fahrmueller, was quoted by the dpa news agency as estimating that economic damage from flooding in Lower Bavaria would be over 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion). He said 5,000 homes were affected  500 of them beyond repair  and 200 bridges destroyed.

No damage estimates have been made yet for flooding in France.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said water levels on the Seine in the city were dropping slowly, and cautioned vigilance.

Under Paris, its really like Swiss cheese with canalizations, the Metro, sometimes huge working spaces, she said.

The swollen Seine, where riverside restaurants are partially flooded and barges are unable to pass under bridges, was becoming a tourist attraction in itself. Gawkers, tourists and Parisians alike leaned off bridges or ventured down steps toward flooded roadways and jogging paths.

Its impressive. Very impressive, said Marijke Engelvaart from Apelsdoorn in the Netherlands. You see it on television, but if you see it live, it makes more of an impression.
BEIRUT  Syrian troops reached the edge of the northern province of Raqqa on Saturday, home to the capital of the Islamic State groups self-styled caliphate, in a push that leaves the extremists fighting battles on four fronts in Syria and neighboring Iraq.

Islamic State, which controls large swaths of territory in both countries, is fighting Syrian troops, U.S.-backed fighters and opposition militants in northern Syria and is facing an offensive by Iraqi government forces across the border on their stronghold of Fallujah.
OSAKA: Speaking at the India Investment Promotion Seminar organised by CII and DIPP, Jaitley said it is easier to grow when the world is growing at a faster pace.

The Indian economy will more than double to $5 trillion in a matter of few years as the government steps on its reforms agenda to accelerate growth, Finance MinisterArun Jaitley said on Thursday.

The reforms will not just help India retain the fastest growing large economy tag but also help it move towards becoming a more developed economy, he said. With India's GDP poised to grow at a much faster pace, for every few years we are going to add $1 trillion to our economy. We are currently $2 trillion economy. he said.

Speaking at the India Investment Promotion Seminar organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), he said it is easier to grow when the world is growing at a faster pace.

But when the global environment is unsupportive and at times obstructive, where shrinkage of trade is taking place, that is the real test because they say when the going is good everybody is at best. When the going is challenging then to defy the odds, and counter the trends is a real challenge, he said.

Stating that India has received the distinction of being the fastest growing economy is last two years when global growth was slow, he said trends have shown that consumer spending and urban demand have moved up and slowly rural demand also is struggling up.

This in turn will have a spiral effect in coming years on India's private sector which also has been waiting for opportune moment to become a little more aggressive, he said.

Earlier, delivering a lecture at the Osaka University here, he said for India to realise its full potential for the next few decades, it needs to pursue its programme for economic growth more vigorously.

Notwithstanding an unsupportive global environment, India clocked a GDP growth of 7.9 per cent in the January-March quarter and 7.6 per cent 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 did that we can present ourself 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 the outlook ahead, Jaitley said 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 had helped us in restoring the credibility of the economy and while restoring the credibility 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 he has seen enthusiasm during his visit and various pension and sovereign funds as well as investors are "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.

Jaitley hints at GST rollout next year

Hinting at rollout of Goods and Service Tax Bill next year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said 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. The GST Bill has already been approved by the Lok Sabha.

Read Also:

Indian Economy Making Good Progress To Return To 8 Pct Growth

Black Money Window: IT Dept To Publish List Of Asset Valuers
BENGALURU: An awaited guest has arrived. After record shattering mercury readings, dusty air, hot wind gusts the guest has finally arrived. Monsoon is finally knocking on the doors.

To most of us city dwellers, its a time to enjoy the sight of rain washing away dusts from the air; to inhale the scent of rain consummating with earth; to stand beneath the shower sent from the sky as a reward for battling the grueling summer. This monsoon dont put seated indoors sipping hot brew, go out and get wet and feel the earth blossom as nature showers one of its many gifts.

For this monsoon getaway consider retiring to the pristine North East of India. There the green will be many shades darker, the scenery will be at its highest, the clouds will constantly play hide-and-seek and when you return, the hymn of the hills will still echo in your ears. Below is a small list of tourist destinations of the eight sisters (originally compiled by HolidayIQ) that will suit backpackers and luxury travelers alike for their monsoon getaway.

Cherrapunjee

Located in Meghalaya, which literally means the abode of clouds, Cherrapunjee is the second rainiest place on earth, preceded by Mawsynram which also is in Meghalaya. Personal experience suggests that having a tight itinerary for this place is tough, for Cherrapunjee is mesmerizing; clouds floating meters from the ground and lush plains will force you to stop incessantly to click pictures while tiny droplets caress your cold cheeks. Still, we have to name a few places for the readers.

Elephant falls, seven sisters falls and Nohkalikai falls- the tallest plunge waterfall in India, are the most famous falls, however one will come across numerous falls during this visit. Another hot tourist spot is the Mawsmai stalactite cave. During this visit dont forget to experience the living root bridges, especially the double decker root bridge in Nongriat village. An unforgettable experience is rowing in a boat in Umngot river in Dawki where the water is so clear that boats seem to be floating in the air.

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NEW YORK: India's entry into the (APEC) grouping will likely be one of the "concrete" topics on the agenda of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in his talks with US President Barack Obama next week, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman ArvindPanagariya has said.



"One concrete thing I hope would be on the agenda isIndia 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 Houseand 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.

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Two men were refused entry to GIO Stadium on Friday night after separate hoax claims that they were carrying weapons.

Police said the patrons, seeking entry to the Raiders vs Sea Eagles game, were stopped by security at the entry gates when each said they had a weapon.

The first attempted to enter about 6.20pm, the second about 7.50pm.

ACT Policing superintendent Cath Grassick said the reckless comments caused alarm and on both occasions stadium protocol was followed, with the men denied entry and interviewed by police.

"Whilst the claims were a hoax and the comments were made in jest, the alarm caused is treated extremely seriously," she said.
The drive for flexible, collaborative workplaces has been embraced by Holt & Hart at 50 Holt Street, Surry Hills.

The move reflects the changes in workplace activity where companies embrace staff needs instead of merely telling them what they should have to put up with.

50 Holt Street offers a new design in collaborative working spaces

Innovation in office layouts and functions has led to improvements for tenants in terms of cost efficiencies and a reduction in staff absenteeism.

The seven-level building was extensively renovated in 2012, winning the Master Builders' national excellence in building and construction award.
North Sydney is fast returning to its golden days as the serious contender for office tenants to the Sydney city.

The vacancy rate is heading south and rents are rising, agents say. The average vacancy level is below 8 per cent and rents are nearing city prices of up to $800 per square metre per annum for premium sites.

DEXUS Property has big plans for 100 Mount Street, North Sydney.

There are cranes back on the skyline and tenants are lining up for new space, such as CBRE, which is moving to the new 177 Pacific Highway tower.

One development is by DEXUS Property Group at 100 Mount Street in North Sydney. The group has appointed JLL national head of leasing, Tim O'Connor and JLL head of office leasing North Sydney, Paul Lynch, to partner with DEXUS's leasing team, headed by Chris Hynes, on the project's leasing.
It has been a busy period for the Sydney office market as it benefits from multiple tailwinds, including conversion of sites to apartments, new ways of working, which impact floor space and demand from new tenants.

Start-up companies are also heading back to the secondary market which is being upgraded into flexible and "funky" non-traditional offices.

The Barangaroo project on Sydney's harbourside is the new banking hub for the city.

There is also the shift of tenants from the older properties, which are now being redeveloped, to the new, at Barangaroo South.

The city has shifted its focus into zones, with the investment banking community cementing their presence at the Northern end near Macquarie Street, the start-up and tech kids preferring Martin Place and the financial and commercial banking business moving west to Darling Harbour.
A publican has poured $14.5 million into buying the PJ Gallaghers pub in Leichhardt from Gallagher Hotel Management as tight market conditions push hoteliers north across the border into Queensland.

The Norton Street hotel, located on a prominent corner site, sold as a freehold going concern on a 9.8 per cent yield just a day after a Sydney syndicate led by Roosters chairman Nick Politis snapped up the Treetops Tavern in Burleigh Waters, Queensland for $20 million.

PJ Gallaghers pub in Leichhardt has sold for $14.5 million. Credit:Airphoto Australia

PJ Gallaghers was purchased by a private publican who will run it as a stand-alone asset, JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group national director John Musca said.

The pub had recently undergone a $2 million facelift and sold with 28 gaming machines and sought-after 5am trading licence.
The conversion of office towers into residential is providing a bonanza for landlords, according to Cushman & Wakefield national director, research, John Sears.

This will create some of the best conditions for landlords in many years.

York & George is to be developed into residential accommodation by Watpac and Fife Capital.

Mr Sears said residential conversions, such as the York & George site at 38 York Street by Fife Capital, and compulsory acquisitions to make way for new infrastructure are likely to mean more than 200,000 square metres of office stock will be withdrawn permanently from the Sydney CBD market over the next four years.

The majority of stock withdrawals will occur in the City Core to give way to the construction of Sydney Metro stations and the redevelopments around the Circular Quay precinct.
Once just moving into an office with a phone and desk was enough.

But now tenants are demanding they have agile workplaces, high quality end of trip facilities and sustainable green-star credentials.

St George's new offices and concierge services at Barangaroo, Sydney. Credit:Nic Walker

There is alsoa new wave of offering hotel concierge services in an office tower.

One of the latest to offer a range of these "must haves" is the Far East Organisation's 227 Elizabeth Street, a 24-level commercial tower in Sydney's CBD which has tenants flocking to the asset in a bid to secure newly fitted-out space in a tightening market.
It was the sole killer line of that tedious leaders' debate last Sunday night, and, surprisingly, it was Bill Shorten who delivered it. "I genuinely lead my party," he said to the Prime Minister, "your party genuinely leads you." Bingo. In one sentence Shorten crystallised the very essence of the perception of why Turnbull's numbers have fallen away, and those of the Liberal Party with them  that he is not yet his own man and must kow-tow to his party's conservative caliphs. As it was put to me by a very senior Liberal last week: "He is a left-of-centre leader leading a right of centre party, and it doesn't work." But is there another way, my friends! Instead of Turnbull excruciatingly parroting the lines that please the parrot, what about if the right of the Liberal Party came back his way? How about the Liberal right, for starters, looked at the nonsense of the same-sex marriage plebiscite and accept the truth? That it is a waste of $160 million to come up with a result that we all know beforehand.

The last polls had Australians in favour 72 per cent in favour to 28 per cent against. This week, the Victorian CWA passed a motion in favour of it! Even Alan Jones, normally a conservative caliph himself, has spoken eloquently in favour of same-sex marriage. My friends, ALABAMA has same sex marriage, making us the new Alabama of the Deep South, because we don't. This cannot last. So how bout this for a deal? The CC simply free the PM from his commitment to hold a plebiscite, allowing him to match the ALP's promise to pass the legislation within 100 days of the election and demonstrate that he is in charge after all. In return, the LNP's numbers rise, and the CC get more of their mob elected. Yes, they get same-sex marriage, but, they're going to get that anyway. So where is the downside for them? Seriously, what is the downside in passing simple legislation in ensuring that all Australians have equal rights before the law? What's in a name? My thanks for those readers who sent in their favourite nicknames for parts of Sydney. This week, we will do all north of the Bridge. They included, of course, "The Insular Peninsula," for the Northern Beaches, "Chatswoo," for Chatswood, or even just "the Woo" which I am told  settle, I said settle!  is particularly beloved by the many Asian-Australians themselves, who are now heavily populating that suburb.

Meanwhile, "Effing Road," is for obvious reasons the favoured local term for Epping Road. Joke of the week A man owns a small farm near Wagga. The Department of Labour claims he is not paying proper wages to his staff and sends a representative out to interview him. "I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them," demands the rep. "Well," replies the farmer, "there's my farm hand who's been with me for three years. I pay him $200 a week plus free room and board. The cook has been here for 18 months and I pay her $150 per week plus free room and board.

"Then there's the halfwit. He works about 18 hours every day, seven days a week and does about 90 per cent of all the actual work. He gets about $10 per week, pays his own room and board and if he's lucky gets a bottle of whiskey on Saturday night." "That's the guy I want to talk to, the halfwit," says the agent. "That," replies the farmer, "would be me." They said it "I can't."

Stephen Hawking asked to explain the "phenomenon" of Donald Trump. "The cowardice and weakness of Australia's 'gatekeepers' is causing unthinkable things to happen, just as unthinkable things happened in Germany in the 1930s." Australian Christian Lobby Director Lyle Shelton likens same-sex marriage and the Safe Schools anti-bullying campaign to the rise of nazism. "We're quite literally getting torn to pieces by crocodiles." Federal MP Bob Katter overreacting just a bit after a woman was taken by a crocodile this week.

"We say what we mean, we mean what we say and we do what we say, we do it the way that we say that we'll do it." Treasurer Scott Morrison explaining the Coalition's Direct Action plan for tackling climate change. "'Mostly, the most crazy ideas work the best." Sjoerd Hoogendoorn, a security consultant who is training eagles to bring down small drones. "Turnbull's transformation into just another conservative is the biggest single dynamic in play in the electorate at present being responsible for the serious drop-off in Coalition support and for the sharp drop in affection for the leader himself."
Election campaigns are weird ordeals. Not just for you and me, I mean; mostly, they are a sprawling social experiment in which grown men and women are subjected to a series of vicious humiliations in the most artificial of circumstances, and judged on their ability to act normal.

In the past week  to take a random example  Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition leader Bill Shorten have both been obliged to interact with rats, while under the gaze of multiple TV cameras.

This is a new area for them both, and while rat-handling is nowhere in the prime ministerial KPIs, the incidents told us tiny things about each of them.

The viewer could sense  in Shorten's preparedness to touch his rat only with a tentative fingernail  his lightning-fast and almost certainly accurate judgment that a man who has knocked over two Labor leaders should not tarry over-long in any broadcast situation involving rattus rattus.
The median salary of the four male directors - Ellwood, Michael Brand (AGNSW), Alex Byrne (State Library of NSW) and Gerard Vaughan (NGA) is approximately $435,000. In comparison, the 300 highest-earning Australian chief executives CEOs received an average pay packet of more than $3 million a year, according to The Australian Financial Review Salary Survey 2015. The visitors to the four institutions with male directors totalled 4.8 million, compared with 3.5 million for the four museums headed by women. Brand was unavailable to comment, but spokeswoman Simone Bird said the gallery was "committed to the NSW public sector's initiative of advancing women in the sector". The salary figures suggest the gender pay gap at the top of the arts is much greater than for the overall workforce.

Australian men earn an average of 18 per cent more than women, according to OECD figures for 22 countries  one of the largest gender pay gaps and far worse than New Zealand, which has a 5.6 per cent gap. Asked if it was fair for women in charge of major cultural institutions to be paid less than their male counterparts, Kim McKay said: "No, it's not fair." "I'm a great believer you should get equal pay for equal work," McKay told Fairfax Media last year. But she added: "I took the job at the money that was offered because I wanted to do it." McKay said she hoped revisions to the employment system for executives would lead to "a more equitable remuneration program across all of the cultural institutions".

Professor Sara Charlesworth, from RMIT University's School of Management, said a lack of transparency in how salaries are determined widens the gender pay gap. Performance-based pay also tends to favour men, who are paid larger bonuses than women in both the private and public sector. Associate Professor Joanna Mendelssohn, from UNSW Art & Design, said: "They all negotiate individual contracts and none of them have small egos. Women are usually so thrilled to be actually asked they forget to negotiate the salary." Mendelssohn also noted the state's major galleries and museums had become more reliant on non-government funding. Meanwhile, the boards of directors are stacked with members from the corporate sector. "If you've got a board of trustees of rich men, they're going to assume that anybody who's worth being on the board with them is going to be paid a lot of money and is also more likely to be male," she said.

But Mendelssohn said the task of heading up a major cultural institution was "all-encompassing". "It's a really hard profession to have a life," she said. "Any good gallery director is going to be out every night." However, she highlighted the large disparity between the incomes of management and staff at these institutions. "They're paid much more than their staff and that differentiation is quite shocking," she said.

"Australian executives are very good at saying how they've got to be paid as much as people overseas and end up being paid more." But Australian gallery and museum directors may be less well-remunerated compared to overseas colleagues. On average, the base salaries of the eight chiefs of Australia's major cultural institutions are five times higher than the national median income for full-time workers ($70,700). In the UK, the average base salary of directors Neil MacGregor (the recently retired head of the British Museum), Nicholas Serota (Tate) and Martin Roth (Victoria & Albert) is 164,000 ($A323,168) - around six times the median for full-time workers (27,500 or $54,189). These figures pale in comparison to the US, well-known for the enormous disparity between executive and worker pay across all sectors.

The average base salary of Thomas Campbell (The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York), Ellen Futter (American Museum of Natural History in New York), Glenn Lowry (Museum of Modern Art in New York) and former NGV director Timothy Potts (Getty Museum in Los Angeles) is more than $US775,000 ($A1.05m) - 18 times the median income of a US full-time worker ($US43,200 or $A58,647). MCA director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor suggested women were less likely than men to ask for pay rises. "Women still tend not to put themselves forward," she said. "They don't say I'm worth this." She said, in the past, gallery directors such as Edmund Capon (AGNSW) had settled for lower salaries. "They would never have put their hands up  There was a kind of gentlemanly thing. You worked in the arts, you didn't ask for a lot of money."
In the recent Head On photo festival, one memorable picture showed a side-on view of a dominatrix in a shiny black jump suit sitting in a curved chair. On the grey wall behind the sitter was a framed photo of a muscle-man's torso covered in leather straps. It was Whistler's Mother for bondage fiends and fetishists. Try a quick web search and dozens of other parodies of this famous image appear. No painting, with the possible exception of the Mona Lisa, ever had a better claim to be called "iconic".

The picture is on show at the National Gallery of Victoria for another fortnight, as part of a small exhibition that situates the work within art history and establishes its uniqueness. It's the kind of event that has been a long-held fantasy for Australian art museums: to import one indubitable masterpiece rather than 60 works of variable quality that must be passed off as masterpieces.

Honoured guest: Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 (Portrait of the Artist's Mother, 1871), at the National Gallery of Victoria.

It has always been a favourite parlour game for curators to ask: "Which work would you bring to Australia if you could choose anything at all?" Some would opt for Velazquez's Las Meninas, some might prefer Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. My personal choice would be Pieter Breugel's Tower of Babel from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. By any standards, Whistler's Portrait of the artist's mother (1871), is a brilliant catch.

The Musee d'Orsay in Paris has facilitated the loan in return for Pierre Bonnard's La Sieste (1900) from the NGV's holdings. The apparent generosity of this swap should make us more appreciative of the Bonnard, which is one of the greatest pictures in Australian public collections.


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Tommaso (Marco Giallini), the rigorous Roman doctor at the centre of this pleasant if less than taxing Italian comedy, has no need for a higher power  he's happy answering to himself. "Miracles don't exist," he tells the thankful family of a patient, "I'm an excellent surgeon." His faith in reason allows him to belittle his medical staff and roll his eyes at the concerns of his family.

When his son, medical student Andrea (Enrico Oetiker), schedules an important family announcement, Tommaso counsels his wife, Carla (Laura Morante), that they will be supportive of their son's homosexuality. But the haughty medico is aghast when Andrea explains that he's actually throwing in his studies to pursue spiritual satisfaction by becoming a Catholic priest. Like the wafer at holy mass, it's too much for his atheist dad to swallow.

A box-office hit in Italy, Edoardo Maria Falcone's directorial debut follows Tommaso's misguided efforts to "save" his child, which centre on discrediting his collared mentor, Don Pietro (Alessandro Gassman), a criminal turned hip man of God who wears trainers and preaches at night. He poses, without preparation, as a put-upon everyman worn down by life named Mauro, planning to test Pietro's Christian charity.

Naturally, this is turned around on Tommaso, who must rope in those he normally dismisses to create Mauro's grim existence when Pietro diligently comes to visit. A plan gone awry is a traditional screen farce, but God Willing never builds up the comic energy to sustain such an approach; the schemes peter out before they can attain a lunatic silliness.
S'Cool makes thoughtfully designed, lightweight balance bikes for kids. This one has an ergonomic wooden frame, a low seat suitable for children aged 18 months up, and it weighs just under four kilograms. Instead of pedalling, the child's feet touch the ground and with a running motion they can take off, teaching them stability. The Balance range is joined by mountain and road bikes. PedeX Wood Wave balance bike, $299.

Laikonik is a small Sydney design and silkscreen studio founded by Kasia Jacquot. It is now headed by Josephine Palmer, who joined the business in 2012, and brings a love of Scandinavian graphics to the Polish folklore the brand is known for. The vivid take on folk design, playful pattern and geometric shapes features work by Palmer and other designers, illustrators and artists. It's all ethically made and screen-printed onto linen, hemp and paper in the form of wall hangings, art prints and concertina journals. Nordic Horse Art Print, $59.

Laikonik, laikonik.com.au.

NIGHT MOVES

Homewares and fashion accessories boutique Squeak Design is the work of Melbourne print-maker and designer Pippa Oostergetel, who specialises in digitally printed silk scarves, men's pocket squares, cushions and bags. Inspired by the marble effect trend in abstract resin artworks, Oostergetel played around with navy, black, white and copper paint combinations to create this Copper Night fabric design. It's the hero print for her new Winter 2016 collection. Copper Night shopper bag, $139.

Squeak Design, squeakdesign.com.
Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has been plunged into turmoil with opinion divided over proposed measures to prevent criminal activity, mismanagement and nepotism within the organisation that runs the world-famous event.

An extraordinary general meeting of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Limited will be held on June 25 at Erskineville Town Hall to vote on 13 resolutions raised by two directors, James Brechney and Silke Bader.

Tensions have erupted between directors of the community organisation that runs Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

The resolutions, which are opposed by the other six directors, are proposing measures to prevent theft and mismanagement within the organisation as well as demanding an end to the search for alternative routes to Oxford Street in Darlinghurst for the Mardi Gras parade.
The third and final series of critically acclaimed HBO drama The Leftovers will be made in Australia, it has been confirmed.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, who is in the US on a trade mission, announced the news that the show would film in his state at Warner Bros studios in Los Angeles on Saturday, claiming the "Hollywood coup" would bring $20 million of production expenditure and create more than 250 local jobs.

The Leftovers will be filmed in and around Melbourne over the next three months. Regular cast members Justin Theroux, Christopher Eccleston, Liv Tyler and Janel Moloney are expected to join the production in Victoria.

The cable TV series, which airs in Australia on Showcase, is based on a novel by Tom Perrotta and was developed for television by Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof.
Blair Cottrell in one of his Facebook posts. Credit:Facebook Malcolm Turnbull has deliberately sought to strike a new tone from that of his predecessor, making a much publicised first visit by a prime minister to the Islamic Council of Victoria. Whereas Austria came within a whisker last month of electing a far-right president, Australia looks likely to turn away. Protesters from rival anti-racism and anti-Islam rallies in Coburg on May 28, 2016. Credit:Mathew Lynn In October, Dutch firebrand Geert Wilders blew in to launch a new political party. The Australian Liberty Alliance pledged to campaign across the country, echoing Wilders' rallying cry to defend Western democracy against the "totalitarian ideology" of Islam.

The ALA manifesto calls for a ban on face coverings in public along with a 10-year freeze on permanent resident visas from Muslim countries. It rejects same-sex marriage and declares "resettling people from Africa, the Middle East and Asia is counter-productive and drains these nations [sic] of their most valuable assets". The ALA's NSW Senate candidate Kirralie Smith with Dutch anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders. Credit:Kirralie Smith Facebook But political analysts say the new darling of Australia's far right has failed to gain traction. "I'd be surprised if they got somebody over the line," said Duncan McDonnell, a specialist on populist politics at Griffith University. A fresh set of senate voting rules intended to quash micro parties trading preferences has also reshaped the political landscape.

"They've got no chance," said Nick Economou, a senior lecturer in politics at Monash University. "Anybody who thinks they do doesn't understand the election changes. We effectively now have a first-past-the-post system for the senate." Other groups of the far-right  which political analysts say are more interested in picking a fight than running for election  have splintered through rivalry and personality clashes. Cottrell, who took charge of the United Patriots Front street movement last year had pledged to set up a party, Fortitude, to contest the election. No party by that name has been registered. The best hope of the radical fringe is the resurrection of Pauline Hanson. She is seen as having a 50 per cent chance of winning the last senate seat in Queensland. Her popularity is likely to rob the new far right parties of supporters, as she pledges to run One Nation candidates across the country. "Essentially what Hanson has done, is she has stolen the main ALA policy and made it her own  anti-Muslim, anti Muslim immigration, the idea that Islam is not a religion, it's a political ideology," said Dr McDonnell.

"Now, of course, she has the great advantage that they don't have, in that she has great name recognition. She's got a brand, and all she has to do is open her mouth and the media  especially here in Queensland  are all over her." But media coverage, at least by the mainstream media, is as fiercely contested as the election itself. Prominent anti-halal food activist Kirralie Smith is running for the Australian Liberty Alliance, and believes her party has a good chance of snaring seats, especially as a double-dissolution election means a lower quota of votes is required to win a spot in the upper house. "I think we're going really, really well," Smith told Fairfax Media. "I'm travelling in New South Wales and meeting thousands of people, and the media  I don't really know what the media do or don't focus on  I don't watch television and I only read articles that people send to me.

"So what the mainstream media are talking about and what everyone else is talking about are often two different things". The ALA has turned to social media to reach supporters and directly counter what are seen as misrepresentations. "I often open my talks by saying once upon a time, journalists reported the facts; now they create perceptions," Ms Smith told Fairfax Media. "I appreciate your style. I'll wait and see what the outcome is. I always critique what people write or say about me on Facebook anyway, so you can look forward to that, but if it's a fair and balanced report, that's OK." Smith posted a video on Facebook defending a "stop the mosques" banner unfurled at an AFL game in April. It attracted condemnation by the mainstream media but almost 270,000 views on social media. She said she routinely gets up to 60,000 views for her videos.
"I will keep working as long as I am able, as I enjoy working and that will also help me financially when I retire," Janelle says. She plans put as much into her super as she can while she is still working and says the $25,000 cap is too low but thinks the cumulative cap is a good idea. If the proposal becomes law, from July 2017 any unused cap from the first year can be added to the following year's cap of $25,000. After five years, any unused cap will be lost. In effect, it allows Janelle to make salary sacrifice contributions of up to $125,000, less compulsory super, over the five years from July 1, 2017. The cumulative cap will help her boost her retirement savings at the time she has the cash flow. "If your wage increases through more hours or a promotion, you are able to salary sacrifice more than the annual cap and that is a good incentive," Janelle says. Other changes proposed by the government restrict how much the well-off can have in the retirement phase tax-free to $1.6 million.

Facing pressure from nervous Coalition MPs in marginal seats over the super changes, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said this week the changes would make super "fairer and more flexible". "As everybody knows, our changes to super mean that 96 per cent of Australians in the super system are either better off or unaffected," he said. The crucial demographic There are nine marginal seats held by the Coalition that have significantly more women in their middle to late 50s than the national average. This could be a crucial demographic for the Coalition with polls showing the July 2 election will be close. In the Tasmanian seat of Lyons, 7.7 per cent of the electorate is aged between 55 and 59 compared to a national average of 6 per cent. Lyons is held by the Liberal Party by 1.2 per cent.

The bellwether seat of Eden-Monaro in NSW is held by the Liberal Party on a margin of 2.9 per cent after the recent boundary redistribution. Its population of 55 to 59 year olds makes-up 7.4 per cent of the electorate. It is women in their mid to late 50s who have increased their hours of paid work who are the most likely to be able to take advantage of the proposed catch-up measures. As well as perhaps doing more hours of paid work, their children have finished school and the mortgage, if not paid off, is much smaller. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that in the 2013-14 year, the latest available, the median super balance for women aged 5564 years was $80,000; the men's median was $150,000. Reasons for the retirement savings gap include the gender pay gap and career breaks, often to look after young children and caring for aging parents.

Monash University politics lecturer Zareh Ghazarian said measures hitting the well-off are unlikely to make a difference in the election. They usually live in the wealthier suburbs held by the Coalition on big margins, he says. But the proposals aimed at women to catch-up on their super have the potential to make a difference in marginal seats, Dr Ghazarian says. "The government will be hoping that this policy will be enough to maintain support in the seats it holds and shift support from Labor in seats it is aiming to win," he says. There are only four seats held by Labor on margins of less than 5 per cent with outsized populations of 55 to 59 year olds. The largest population of 55 to 59 years olds among the marginal Labor seats is Richmond in NSW, where they make up 7.6 per cent of the electorate. Labor holds Richmond on a margin of 1.6 per cent. However, Dr Ghazarian says the positives of the Coalition policy for older women may be lost on voters in these electorates. "The government has muddied the waters somewhat by announcing the proposals in the budget and then quickly calling the election," he says. "It may be the case that the policy proposal may have been lost amongst the election campaign." The superannuation industry is supportive of the super catch-up proposal. Tom Garcia, the chief executive of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees, says: "It is a sensible policy measure that recognises our super system needs to become more flexible in line with the way people work."

"Not everybody works consistently for 40 years and workers - particularly women who take career breaks to care for family members - shouldn't be penalised," he says. "The government has recognised that the system shouldn't be one size fits all." Andrew Heaven, a financial planner with AMP, says the rolling cap gives people a "last gasp" at saving for their retirement. "The proposals provide a lot more flexibility for middle income Australians, especially older workers." However, the proposal has its critics. Chief executive of the Grattan Institute John Daley says the reforms will mostly benefit younger higher-earning men. It may even widen the retirement savings gender gap. Writing for The Conversation website, John Daly and Grattan Institute Fellow Brendan Coates argue few middle-income earners, and even fewer women, make large catch-up contributions to their super fund. "Most women simply can't afford to make large catch-up contributions," they write. "A mere 2 per cent of women with superannuation balances of less than $500,000  130,000 people  made pre-tax contributions of $25,000 or more in 2013-14 ... And 80 per cent of them are among the top 20 per cent of income earners."
Malcolm Turnbull is facing a 10 per cent swing against him in his Sydney seat of Wentworth, according to polling that shows more than half his local electors think less of him since he became Prime Minister.

The ReachTel poll conducted across the blue-ribbon Liberal electorate last week suggests Mr Turnbull's first preference vote will be slashed from 63 per cent to 53 per cent.

His lead in the two-party preferred stakes will be similarly reduced from the 2013 result of 68-32 to 58-42.
When Alexander Gavrylyuk was a teenager, the owners of the Steinway showroom in Sydney would let him practise on their grand pianos after the shop had closed. They would arrive in the morning to find empty cans of Coke and boxes of pizza scattered around a sleeping Gavrylyuk, who had played into the night.

Gavrylyuk was born in the Ukrainian city of Kharkov in August 1984. His parents had been accordion players before the collapse of the Soviet Union. He arrived in Australia in 1998, aged 13, to study at the Australian Institute of Music. He knew no English, and was shy and reserved. Now living in Amsterdam, he remembers the nine years he spent in Australia with deep affection. "I learnt about a new kind of freedom there," he says. "The inner freedom, the freedom of expression and the freedom of identity."

Alexander Gavrylyuk practising at Greenwich piano store Themes and Variations, NSW agents for Steinway & Sons pianos. Credit:Marco Del Grande

At 15, Gavrylyuk won the International Horowitz Piano Competition in Kiev. By age 20, he'd also won Japan's Hamamatsu International Piano Competition and Israel's Arthur Rubenstein International Piano Master Competition.

After a car accident in Sydney when he was 17 in which he fractured his skull, Gavrylyuk was in a coma for a day. When he woke, the first thing he did was check his hands. Within a month, he was back on stage. The accident "made me think about the meaning of life and my purpose in the world". He says that performance is about finding a prism through which the music can pass: "On one side is the composer and his world, which is influenced by his environment at the time of his composition. On the other side is me, with my own vision. The prism needs to be clear enough so the music remains pure."
Between shooting movies and making Nespresso ads, Clooney has a long history of using his celebrity status for worthwhile causes - from the horror of genocide in Sudan to raising money for the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

You would think George Clooney's trophy room would already be stuffed to the gills, but clearly the actor had enough space among the Golden Globes, BAFTAS, Screen Actor's Guild and Oscar awards to squeeze in a new medal awarded to him last week by Pope Francis in recognition of his work in promoting one of the Catholic Church's charitable foundations.

All commendable, but given the number of gongs, honours, titles, sashes and accolades bestowed on celebrities, one can't help wonder how meaningful it is to receive yet another medal, beyond the thrill of a photo opportunity with the Pope and the public relations glow that goes with it.

Similarly, given the scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church right up to the Holy See for over a decade now, it could also be questioned just how worthy a medal from the Vatican is these days.

But the Vatican has been a regular bestower of various honours for centuries, with impressive sounding titles such as the Supreme Order of Christ and the Order of the Golden Spur. Then there is the Order of St. Gregory the Great and the Order of St. Sylvester to people of "personal character and reputation".

Keeping abreast of such awards can be tricky as they are usually announced in Latin in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the Vatican's official gazette, while ceremonies mostly take place in private. But Clooney and Co are in good company, both Bob Hope and Rupert Murdoch have also earned honours from the Pope.

But when it comes to handing out gongs the Vatican's efforts pale next to the Government of France, which has bestowed many celebrities with various honours, including Michael Douglas, who is a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, though it was noted at the time there were enough "Chevaliers in Beverly Hills to form a small cavalry".
When a passion for work careers into an addiction



Jacqueline Bignell worked so hard she was "thrown into bed". At the peak of her work addiction five years ago, she was sleeping only one or two hours a night and working all waking hours in her film production company. "Ultimately, my body shut down and I came to a place where I could not work any more," she said. Each time she tried to restart, she'd soon be "working like a crazy woman" again and end up back in bed.

The 51-year-old from Toorak in Melbourne knew if she didn't stop she would end up dead. But telling a workaholic to stop is like telling a drug addict to give up drugs, or an alcoholic to turn away from the bottle. "Even though you know what you are doing is literally killing you, you can't put it down because of the obsession," she says.

The label "workaholic" is often used lightly, but it's no joke for people who genuinely suffer from a psychological addiction.

The label "workaholic" is often used lightly, but it's no joke for people who genuinely suffer from a psychological addiction to work. A survey of more than 16,000 people in Norway finds workaholics are much more likely to have the psychiatric symptoms of ADHD, OCD, anxiety and depression.

"Workaholics scored higher on all the psychiatric symptoms than non-workaholics," says lead researcher Cecilie Schou Andreassen of the department of psychosocial science at the University of Bergen.
Two people have died and five have been injured on Queensland roads, and cars have been swept away by floodwaters as wild weather lashed the state.

Investigations are under way into whether the conditions contributed to a horror smash near Ipswich, west of Brisbane, that claimed the lives of a man and woman whose van collided with a semi-trailer on the Warrego Highway around 8am.

"It just brings home to all of us the need to make sure we drive to the conditions, and that any fatality on our roads is an absolute tragedy," Queensland Police Service (QPS) Acting Assistant Commissioner Peter Fleming said.

He pleaded with drivers to take caution even though the worst was over.

"You continually need to re-assess your road travel and particularly now the winds are on the coastline, any boating or surf-related activities."

Meanwhile, five people were injured in a crash at Woodlands, south of Gatton, including one person who was taken to Ipswich Hospital in a critical condition, the Queensland Ambulance Service said.

A 21-year-old woman was also rescued outside Alpha after her car was swept off the Capricorn highway.

On Brisbane's northside, the car park of Toombul shopping centre was flooded and pictures emerged on social media showing vehicles apparently being swept away.

The wild weather also spelled the end for an iconic decades-old fig tree at Brisbane's Normanby Hotel, which crashed into an outdoor seating area.

However, Queensland's emergency services said they were happy with how residents had kept safe during the downpour.

Overall, residents had heeded warnings to stay safe and prepare well, said Queensland Fire and Rescue Deputy Commissioner Mark Roche, although some were still engaging in foolhardy behaviour.

"There are some people that are still, at this moment, driving through floodwaters," he said.

Mr Roche urged parents to speak with children about staying away from floodwaters amid reports some were playing in dangerous areas.

Southeast Queensland has been soaked as a strong upper trough moved south, some of the heaviest falls occurring in the Gold Coast hinterland.

The Bureau of Meteorology said Upper Springbrook had received 267mm of rain in a 24-hour period, while 157mm fell at Deception Bay and 140mm at Burpengary.

"Our severe weather warning remains in place," Bureau of Meteorology forecaster David Grant said.

Damaging wind gusts remained a possibility throughout the afternoon and one gust of 103km/h was recorded at Cape Moreton.

The SES had received more than 750 calls for help, but swiftwater rescue crews had not yet had to pluck anyone from the water.

AAP
Rome: Bishops found to be "negligent" when dealing with cases of sexual abuse will be investigated and could be removed from office, a papal decree said.

Pope Francis has pledged zero tolerance for anyone in the church who abuses children and likened such abuse to a "satanic mass". In 2014 he established a Vatican commission intended to set best practices to root out abuse in parishes.

With the decree on Saturday, he puts into action what he promised last year when he approved a Vatican tribunal to judge bishops accused of covering up or failing to prevent abuse of minors.

Victims' groups have repeatedly demanded that the Catholic Church do more to make bishops accountable for abuse in their dioceses, even if they were not directly responsible for it.
Leigh Mathews, an Australian child protection specialist, told Fairfax Media that Sunrise Cambodia should immediately remove the campaign from its website and issue a statement of apology. Images from Sunrise Cambodia's charity campaign in question. "Unfortunately, the campaign has also been sent to thousands of supporters across Australia in hard copy," she said. "Whilst the young girl pictured may have given her consent for her image to be used she will also have to live with the ramifications of being labelled a sex worker." Ms Mathews, co-ordinator of ReThink Orphanages, which works to prevent the institutionalisation of children, said the campaign breached ethical standards by labelling clearly identifiable children as "trafficked", "sex worker" and "homeless" and "utilising children that are visibly unclean and unkempt to promote pity". Lucy Perry, left, and Geraldine Cox of Sunrise Cambodia. Credit:Lachlan Hind

"Fundraising campaigns should only ever show their beneficiaries in the most dignified light. Using degrading images and labels in order to shock and manipulate generous people into donating is highly unethical," she said. Sunrise Cambodia's chief executive, Lucy Perry, defended use of the children in the "Rebuild Brains Trust" appeal. She said they were recruited as "models" and their stories have been "tweaked". 'Pisey' is not a sex worker, in contrast to her depiction on Sunrise Cambodia's website. "The poverty porn debate is misinformed. People need to see the problem in order to respond to the need. Simple," she told Fairfax Media after tweeting "it's the only way to bring the horror home ... [people] won't donate if you show a photograph of a seamstress looking happy." Ms Perry declined to provide any of the children's personal details, such as their real names or where they live, saying it would be a "breach of their privacy". But she told the Phnom Penh Post the children were "real people" who live near a Sunrise orphanage and healthcare centre.

Ms Perry said the appeal was tested with donors before it was launched and the feedback was that the images were "beautiful and brave"."It shows the background to the problems, the real need, the positive outcomes and tangible cost to train a school leaver." Ms Perry, who raised $7 million in less than three years for a network of hospitals and a midwifery school in Ethiopia before joining Sunrise Cambodia, said there was no need for successful advertising to shock people. "You have to touch their hearts ... I think the images we used did that," she said."Sometimes it requires a little bit of discomfort." Asked whether it was proper to portray a young girl as a sex worker, Ms Perry said: "It's a scenario." She said the children were treated ethically and photographed in their usual clothes "and in their normal context with appropriate consent". She denied Pisey's face was smeared with mud.

The campaign portrays Cambodia as a country that still has not recovered from Pol Pot's 1970s genocide and "needs your help to rebuild the brains trust and restore one of the basic tenets of a prosperous society: education". Geraldine Cox, a 70-year-old Australian who founded Sunrise orphanages in 1997, defends the Pol Pot pitch even though the atrocities occurred decades ago and says Cambodia has been run for 30 years by a corrupt and brutal regime, some of them former Khmer Rouge cadres. "Age and time doesn't lessen the cruelty and suffering," she said, adding children have heard the horror stories and remain fearful. Ms Perry insists the campaign, which aims to raise $500,000 by June 30 to provide vocational training for 1000 children, was created within a code approved by the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), a grouping of Australia's non-government aid and international development organisations. But critics disagree. The code states, in part, that images of women and men and boys and girls must respect the dignity, values, history and culture of the people portrayed.

A Department of Foreign Affairs guideline on ethical photography states that images must be an honest representation of the context and facts and no payment or any other form of compensation should be provided to subjects in exchange for their photographs. The controversy comes after Cambodia's world celebrity anti-child sex slavery campaigner Somaly Mam was forced to resign from her foundation over revelations she fabricated child-sex slave stories to raise hundreds of millions of dollars. Sebastien Marot from Friends International, an organisation that has campaigned for decades to raise awareness about Cambodia's orphanages, said a large number of organisations get sucked into using children to raise funds, such as making them speak in front of a camera about the abuse they survived, having their picture in a pitiful situation published for everyone to see and allowing non-professional visitors to physically interact with institutionalised children. He acknowledged that the organisations were trying to get the income they needed in an environment hungry for emotional stimulus. But he said in the worst cases the truth was distorted or the stories invented to attract more compensation and money. "The impact on the lives of these children is terrible," he said. "If they come from an abusive situation, such a process re-traumatises them and in any case it stigmatises them forever."
Austin: Torrential rains in Texas have deluged hundreds of homes, led to prison evacuations and killed at least 16 people in the past week, US officials say.

The fatalities on Friday included four soldiers who went missing when their vehicle overturned in floodwaters.

Two men stand on the Dry Creek bridge as they look at a stranded vehicle. Credit:Austin American-Statesman

The bodies of five other soldiers were found a day earlier, bringing the death toll to nine after their military vehicle flipped over in a flood-swollen creek on Thursday at Fort Hood Army post in central Texas.

Three survivors were released from a hospital on Friday, Major General John Uberti told a news conference.
GREAT BAY(DCOMM):--- Ministry of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Development and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI), announces that road works will be carried out at Pigeon road in Point Blanche.

Trench work for the placement of lines, sleeves and splice boxes will start on June 6 from 7.00AM to 5.00PM. These works should continue up to and including June 12.

There might be a partial road closure and if this is the case, there will be workmen on the scene directing traffic and therefore motorists should drive with caution.

Heavy machinery and trucks will be on site during the aforementioned working hours.

The civil works will be carried out by Clean St. Maarten.

Ministry VROMI apologizes for any inconveniences this may cause.
73 year old US Presidential candidate for Democratic Nomination, will jump out of airplane

More or less what Bernie Sanders jumping out of an airplane would look like

Fox News is reporting that US Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders, will jump out of an aircraft, and parachute into a stadium in California this evening. The event comes close to California's June 7th primary, this Tuesday.

The jump would not be without American presidential precedent. George Bush Sr. jumped out of airplanes to celebrate his 88th and 90th birthdays, for example. He would have continued to jump, but Barbara put a stop to it. And former Illinois governor Blagojevich referred to parachute jumping, while being surreptitiously recorded. Ive got this thing, referring to Barack Obama's empty Senate seat, "and its [expletive] golden. And Im just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing. Im not going to do it. And I can always use it. I can parachute me there.

Says the local Sonoma newspaper, the Press-Democrat: Cloverdale, Sonoma County's northernmost city, was abuzz with excitement Thursday over presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' planned rally Friday at the town's airport. But just how he will arrive was the subject of rampant speculation.

Jimmy Halliday, president and jumpmaster at NorCal Skydiving, an airport-based business, said he had been told by Sanders staffers Thursday that they would offer the 74-year-old Vermont senator the option of parachuting into the rally site.

"I've been told they will run the idea by Bernie," Halliday said. "I can't confirm that's the plan. I know that's a possibility."

The Sanders campaign did not immediately return a call requesting comment.

Halliday said his sport skydiving company has provided tandem parachute jumps for plenty of people in their 70s and even a handful of folks in their 80s.

"If he feels like going skydiving, I will personally take him," Halliday said.

Halliday said he was initially approached on Wednesday by a Sanders staffer inquiring about the possible use of his skydiving facility. Later Thursday, Halliday said he had done a tandem jump with a Sanders campaign team member and all went well. But the campaign had made no decision and Halliday, still hopeful for the exposure of skydiving with Sanders, said it may not come about.

Michael Morrissey, the Cloverdale airport manager, said he was up all night Wednesday making arrangements for the rally.

"He's supposed to make a grand entrance," Morrissey said of Sanders, but declined to say how.

The municipal airport, used for private planes and medical and firefighting efforts, is a hub for Sonoma County skydiving operations.

Cloverdale Mayor Mary Ann Brigham, who was at the airport Thursday, dismissed the parachute possibility as a rumor. "If he (Sanders) did it, I would be surprised," she said.

At political rallies, major candidates typically "come in, they speak, they go," she said.

But Sanders, the white-haired lawmaker and longtime social activist, will be welcome in Cloverdale, the mayor said.

"This is Sanders country," she said.

Cloverdale, with a population of 8,825 - 2 percent of the county's population - is more liberal than many outsiders may imagine, Brigham said.

A resident for 30 years, Brigham said she could not recall a previous visit by a presidential candidate. The airport was bustling Thursday with Sanders campaign officials, Secret Service agents and more, scrambling to arrange the rally along with city officials.

"This is insanity right now; just trying to figure out the logistics," Brigham said.

Bernie Sanders will be 74 on inauguration day.

Other Sanders rallies in the Bay Area have drawn thousands, including 20,000 at an Oakland event Monday. Brigham said she had heard no estimates for the crowd expected in the county's northernmost city, 32 miles north of Santa Rosa.

News of the Sanders rally was released by his campaign late Wednesday night, noting that it will include Susan Sarandon, an Oscar-winning actress and activist.

Hilary Utecht-Miller of Mendocino, who plans to attend the rally, said she was a "lifelong, card-carrying Republican until Bernie."

Sanders' honesty and independence from big campaign donors won her over, Utecht-Miller said. If his name is not on the November general election ballot, Utecht-Miller said she will either write in Sanders or skip the presidential race.
Photo: VNA

The tour aims to learn experience from Russia to serve the construction of the Ninh Thuan 1 nuclear power plant in Vietnam.

Director of the Vietnam Atomic Energy Agency Hoang Anh Tuan said the construction of the Ninh Thuan 1 nuclear power plant has not yet been dated.

The delay is expected to ensure safety and efficiency of the project, particularly after Japans Fukishima disaster, Tuan said, adding that human resource training and other preparatory work are underway.

The AtomExport-2016, the eighth of its kind, organised by Russia's State Nuclear Energy Corporation (Rosatom), from May 31st to June 1st drew more than 500 delegates from 55 nations and territories, as well as hundreds of press agencies from around the world.

Rosatom Director General Sergey Kiriyenko highlighted the advantages of nuclear power, saying that it helps ensure stable power supply while reducing CO2 emissions.

According to the International Energy Agency, all nuclear power plants in the world together have helped cut down 56 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions.

In Russia, they are expected to reduce 711 million tonnes by 2030./.
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.
Applocation Releases New Mobile App To Help Users Plan A Relocation To Australia

Earlier today, Applocation announced the launch of its new mobile app that helps users to plan a move to Australia service, set to go live 5th June 2016. For anyone with even a passing interest in the world of Migrating to Australia, this new development will be worth paying attention to, as its set to shake things up.

Currently, with even a passing glance, a person will notice that this app is loaded with useful tips and tools to help users plan their move to Australia. Loaded with useful contacts and solutions to take away the pain of planning such a move. The Principal at Applocation, Kathy Hunn, makes a point of saying things are going to change when our mobile app that helps users plan their move to Australia service launches.

Kathy Hunn continues Where one will always see many competitors doing the same old thing, the app coordinates all your plans into a simple to use format. Allowing users to schedule things in advance and produce local information at the touch of the screen.. We do this because we have many years of experience helping many thousands of people relocating to Australia. We have pooled many resources into one app that will help guide users on the biggest move of their life. Ultimately this is going to be a huge benefit to many customers because it offers a simple solution, by sourcing valuable local resources tailored to their plans..

Applocation was established in Summer 2012. It has been doing business for many years, providing invaluable support to those migrating to Australia. and it has always aimed to provide a one stop solution that is available at the touch of a screen.

Currently, the closest thing to Applocations mobile app that helps plan a move to Australia service is searching for hours over the internet and relying on third party information., but Applocation improved on this by combining all of the users personal information and wish lists into a user friendly app that is safely stored on their mobile device. This alone is predicted to make Applocations mobile app that helps users plan their move to Australia service more popular with customers in the Migrating to Australia space, quickly. To download the app please visit the itunes portal [https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/applocation-austra](https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/applocation-australia/id555269769?mt=8)

Once again, the mobile app that helps plan a move to Australia service is set to launch 5th June 2016. To find out more, the place to visit is http://applocation.com.au
RCS London Expand Business Services To West London

Small to Medium Businesses looking for IT Support in West London can now take advantage of the new offering from RCS London. RCS London has implemented a new element to its IT Support services by expanding its reach into west London with immediate effect.

This will be of benefit to both new and existing customer looking to expand or update their IT systems. In order to extend the dedicated services RCS have increased their dedicated team of IT professionals and technicians to offer on-call IT support services in west London and beyond.

Specifically, this update will deliver a professional team of experts committed to providing ongoing IT support services for small and expanding businesses. The increased capacity allows RCS to dedicate a team for west London IT Support, who will offer IT managed solutions, hardware and software provisioning, as well as complete IT infrastructure packages, to customers. RCS London has been able to do this by bringing together a team of experts, who are committed to customer service, and offering state of the art IT technology solutions..

To take full advantage of this new update and Providing IT Support in West London, customers can visit the website at http://rcs-london.com/ for full details.

RCS London is excited to unveil the latest benefit for current and new customers as its specifically designed to meet the needs of business owners and managers who can access professional services without the overheads of a salaried employee.

On this subject, Ravi Rayarel, Founding Director at RCS London said: The personal relationship with each client and organisation means that RCS London has an understanding of the businesses they work with. This means that the responsibility of each companys IT systems is of personal interest to the whole team. As a result, all solutions are designed with the individual needs of each organisation in mind.

RCS London has made a point of listening to its customers and taking feedback wherever possible. They do this because It is invaluable information when assessing a customers goals and objectives. It allows a detailed plan to be prepared that takes into consideration the needs of today, and future proof them with modular technology. The strategies are implemented in conjunction with the client and to a fixed time table..

Having been in business now since November 2000, RCS London strives to offer unique solutions that are modular, and can cater for an expanding business. in the IT Support and Consultancy market. This dedication has made them known among customers as a company dedicated to providing onsite solutions that are reliable and trustworthy. Being on call in times of need is important to maintaining clients online services..

Interested parties who would like to be among the first to experience the launch of IT Support in West London with RCS London are encouraged to visit the website at http://rcs-london.com/ for full details and to get started.
TELUS Health and QHR Technologies to Collaborate to Improve Communication Between Healthcare Providers

TORONTO, ONTARIO  (Marketwired)  06/03/16  TELUS Health, Canadas largest health IT company, and QHR Technologies, a leading electronic medical record (EMR) provider, have today announced their intention to collaborate to improve communications between healthcare providers across Canada. Together, the companies intend to create a national, secure, standards-based, and open communication solution that will help the more than 23,000 physicians who use the companies electronic medical record solutions to efficiently and effectively care for their patients.

Ineffective communication among healthcare providers is one of the leading causes of inefficiency in Canadas healthcare system and interoperability continues to be a challenge in this area. The proposed national and open messaging solution will not only enable community-based physicians across the country to efficiently and securely exchange patient information, but facilitate the crucial dialogue healthcare providers need to have when diagnosing and designing care plans for their patients.

Ultimately, TELUS Health and QHR wish to expand the solution to pharmacists and other healthcare practitioners such as physiotherapists, chiropractors and nutritionists, to drive holistic, cohesive patient care by coordinating and connecting all members of his or her healthcare team.

This proposed national and open messaging solution is intended to be available to any other healthcare system, in an effort to further connect Canadas healthcare community. It will also be designed to support the ability to process referrals and prescriptions electronically, without relying on paper, the telephone or insecure channels such as email, texting and fax. For example, a patient visiting a family doctor would no longer need to walk out with a paper prescription for the pharmacist or a referral letter be faxed by the referring physician. Requests could be sent electronically, eliminating the burden on the patient and avoiding potential errors.

Creating a solution that ensures secure and convenient communications between physicians across the country is an essential building block in our quest to improve Canadas healthcare system and creating better health outcomes for all Canadians, said Michael Guerriere, Chief Medical Officer, TELUS Health. Addressing the evolution of Canadas healthcare system  often referred to as the largest social challenge of our generation, requires us to rethink the way we work and collaborate. This industry-led proposed collaboration with QHR to innovate and break down communication barriers through the use of technology will bring us another step closer to the future of healthcare and is an investment in Canadas digital economy.

For QHR, empowering providers and connecting patients is the vision that drives our company. It is an exciting time for us to be leading a national innovation in healthcare to give our physicians access to the unique services offered by each company and is a great way to accelerate the transformation of healthcare, said Mike Checkley, President and CEO, QHR Technologies. As industry leaders, it is the right time to step forward and work with industry partners to make this critical investment in our healthcare system that will benefit all Canadians now and into the future.

As part of the proposed collaboration, QHR customers would also get access to the TELUS Online Benefit Check service, which provides information about a patients drug insurance coverage to a physician as they are prescribing, helping the physician to make the most cost effective drug choices for their patients.

TELUS Health customers would also get access to Medeo, a QHR patient accessible web portal, and mobile app that allows for online booking, messaging, and video-conferencing between healthcare providers and their patients.

These services, which will be fully integrated into the physician workflows, play an essential role in making healthcare in Canada more efficient, provide a better care experience for patients, while driving down costs and improving medication adherence.

About QHR Corporation

QHR is a leader in Healthcare Technology, empowering providers and connecting patients. With a 12-year track record offering a leading Electronic Medical Records platform in Canada, QHR has a suite of complementary offerings that empower health professionals and drive the Companys growth. The Companys 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 TELUS Health

TELUS Health is a leader in telehomecare, electronic medical and health records, consumer health, benefits management and pharmacy management. TELUS Health solutions give health authorities, providers, physicians, patients and consumers the power to turn information into better health outcomes. For more information about TELUS Health, please visit telushealth.com.

Contacts:

Jill Yetman

TELUS Social and Media Relations

416-992-2639

Stefanie Giddens

QHR Marketing and Communications

250.826.4426
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Insider: How Colts will try to help Sam Ehlinger in first NFL start
Photo: VNA

Vietnam has recommended local fishermen respect fishing regulations enforced by the two governments, Tuan said.

Factors, including the unfinished demarcation of the two countries exclusive economic zone (EEZ) boundary, have contributed to worsening the violations and the number of Vietnamese arrested, he stressed.

He also expressed his concern over Indonesia sinking seized Vietnamese boats.

Tuan then put forth some measures to reduce its impact on bilateral ties, which Susi Pudjiastuti said she would consider seriously.

The Indonesian Minister said Indonesia is willing to assist arrested Vietnamese in returning home as soon as possible.

She said the sides should stimulate their maritime cooperation and work to create a legal environment to restrict unlawful fishing.

She also introduced a local annual forum on seas and fisheries, scheduled for June 11th and 12th in Jakarta, which will soon become a monthly event to promote partnership in the field.

The number of Vietnamese fishermen captured by Indonesia for illegal fishing in the first five months of 2016, was almost double the figure for the same period last year./.
USNS Comfort Deploys to Latin America and the Caribbean to Provide Medical Assistance By Steven McLoud / U.S. Southern Command Public Affairs | Oct. 23, 2022 As the sun broke over the waters of Biscayne Bay in the early morning, the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort pulled into the Port of Miami on October 23 for its last stateside port of call before beginning its deployment to Latin America and the Caribbean as part of the Continuing Promise mission.

Gen. Richardson Visits Panama for High-Level Security Dialogue By SOUTHCOM Public Affairs | Oct. 19, 2022 The commander of U.S. Southern Command, U.S. Army Gen. Laura Richardson, visited Panama Oct. 17-18 where she led the U.S. delegation for the sixth meeting of the High-Level Security Dialogue (HLSD) between Panama and the United States.

NAVSCIATTS Proves Vital For Building Partnerships in The Western Hemisphere By Steven McLoud / U.S. Southern Command Public Affairs | Oct. 18, 2022 At a 2015 Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School (NAVSCIATTS) graduation ceremony, Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command at that time, encapsulated the importance of the school to the partner nations.

Fourth Fleet Navy Reserve Sailors Support PANAMAX 2022 By Mass Communications Specialist 1st Class Hunter Harwell | Oct. 17, 2022 For more than 100 years, the Panama Canal has linked our world by bridging the divide between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Since its completion in 1914, the canal has been one of the most vital shipping routes on the planet with nearly 14,000 vessels making the transit every year. If the canal were to cease operations, the effects could dramatically impact the global economy. Protecting the canal isnt solely the responsibility of the United States, but the responsibility of all nations that value free and open trade. This is the purpose of PANAMAX.
The goal is to create innovative collaborations and tangible green solutions to some of the worlds greatest challenges across energy, food loss and waste, climate, and sustainable cities. At the Summit, more than 30 public-private partnerships will be developing solutions that contribute to green growth all over the world.

The Summit will include launches of several new initiatives originated in 3GFs public-private partnerships, such as a new initiative to combat climate change and an alliance working to reduce barriers to trade in green energy.

Photo for illustration

In 2015, the international community agreed upon a number of ambitious goals for climate and sustainable development in Paris and New York. The 3GF Summit is a mean to translate the ambitions to concrete agreements. We need to form new innovative collaborations to promote green growth both locally and globally. I will focus specifically on the role of cities and on strengthening the collaboration with the private sector. Danish businesses are world leaders when it comes to delivering solid green solutions on global issues, for example by utilizing water resources better in drought-ridden areas, or by promoting efficient green energy solutions in rural areas. This is critical to growth and development in our partner countries, and it holds tremendous business opportunities, said Kristian Jensen, Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Participating delegations are planed to focus on global action on food loss and waste, cities as drivers of green growth, and the SDGs as global business opportunity.

Members of the business sector include Pan Group, Phu Cuong Group and Victory Group will accompany the Vietnamese delegation which led by Minister for Environment and Natural Resources Tran Hong Ha.

Minister Hong Ha is about to give a remark together with Danish Prime Minister at the headline session of the Summit named A call to Action - Enabling Solutions at Speed and Scale.

In the afternoon of June 6th, he will have a courtesy meeting with Danish Minister of Environment and Food Mr. Esben Lunde Larsen. The two Ministers will discuss strategic areas of cooperation between Vietnam and Denmark in environmental sector including better environmental disaster prevention, pollution control and food safety.

Besides, a small ceremony to celebrate Vietnam as new partner country of 3GF will be held.

The timing of this years 3GF Summit is designed to follow up on the Paris Climate Agreement and the Agreement on UNs Sustainable Development Goals from September 2015. Under the headline A Call to Action  Enabling Solutions at Speed and Scale, the 3GF provides a platform for developing solutions and private-public partnerships that help fuel the green transition. The summit focuses on three areas in particular: the green transition of energy systems, cities as drivers of green growth, and optimising the use of natural resources.

3GF was initiated by the Danish Government in 2011 in close collaboration with the Republic of Korea and Mexico. Since then, China, Kenya, Qatar, and Ethiopia have joined the platform. This year, Vietnam and Chile join as official 3GF partner countries.

Vietnam has become the 8th core Government partner of 3GF by signing the formal MoU on November 9th, 2015 (VN MONRE Minister/DK Minister for the Environment & Food).

It has participated in the 3GF since its first event in 2011. During 3GF 2014 the Vietnamese delegation led by MONRE Vice Minister Tran Hong Ha played a key role in further developing the Race to the Top initiative on Sustainable Apparel Value Chain which is now developing a Public-Private-Partnership with Vietnam as a pilot country.

Admitting Vietnam as 3GF core member will:

* help strengthening the Vietnam-Denmark partnership within green growth areas and realizing mutual benefit and objectives stated in the above mentioned agreements.

* support Vietnam in the ongoing process of restructuring its economy toward greener and more quality growth, where the Vietnamese government has expressed its commitment in making the green transition happen. Therefore, Vietnam has ideal conditions for exploring and demonstrating how collaborations among policy makers, public and private actors, and other stakeholders can drive market penetration and realise potential for long-term inclusive green growth.

* underpin related partnership initiatives (for example the Race to the Top partnership) on creating sustainable apparel value chains and others, where Vietnam has already demonstrated commitment./.
Unlike the five pre-human extinction events, this one is not caused by natural climatic shifts, asteroids or volcanic eruptions. It is caused by people.

We are polluting ecosystems and destroying habitats with new cities and overflowing landfills.

We are altering the entire planet's climate as we guzzle fossil fuels and pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

We are poaching animals from the wild, killing thousands of individuals to feed human demand for exotic meat, pets, medicinal products and trophies.

Photo provided by TRAFFIC VIETNAM

Wildlife poaching and trafficking have reached historical levels, making wildlife crime one of the main contributors to todays catastrophic loss of animal and plant species. Here in Vietnam, we have already lost our local subspecies of the Javan rhino; it was declared extinct only four years ago in 2011 after the last one was found shot dead with its horn sawed off. Demand for rhino horn from countries like Vietnam is now threatening rhinos in other countries too; rhino poaching in South Africa has increased 90-fold in the last eight years, jumping from 13 rhinos killed in 2007 to 1,175 killed in 2015.

Three of the worlds five species of rhino are categorized as Critically Endangered - the category closest to extinction - on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, along with more than 4,600 other species of animals and plants. The Red List categorizes more than 23,000 species as threatened, but the Red List has only analyzed an estimated 5% of the total number of species living on Earth. There could be thousands more on the brink of extinction that we may never discover.

The number of Critically Endangered animals and plants has steadily increased over the past 20 years. At this rate, some of our planets most iconic animals - and many more that few people have ever heard of - will be extinct in our lifetime due to the illegal wildlife trade. Chimpanzees are already extinct in four countries across Africa.

Chimpanzees

Tigers can no longer be found in Cambodia, and they are all but wiped out in Vietnam, where fewer than five individuals remain, according to the WWF. Demand for ivory led to the deaths of around 100,000 African elephants - 20 percent of the whole continents population of wild elephants - over the course of three years (2010-2012), while demand for pangolin scales and meat has made the pangolin the most trafficked mammal in the world. In just 10 years, over one million pangolins were poached from the wild.

Illegal wildlife trade does not just harm the animals being killed and trafficked - each one of us is also affected. Extinction destroys ecosystems, disrupting important ecosystem services - clean air, clean water, food, shelter, and medicine, to name a few - that we all depend on to survive. Illegal wildlife trade also destroys important parts of our natural heritage, undermines local livelihoods and national and regional economies, fuels organized crime, endangers the lives of rangers, feeds corruption, and threatens national and international security.

The Illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be worth USD7-24 billion annually, making it one of the largest illegal trades in the world, along with the trafficking of drugs, arms and humans. The newly published UNODC world wildlife crime report (May 25th, 2016) notes there are links between the illegal wildlife trade and professional criminal groups involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, terrorism, or other transnational offences, and that illegal wildlife trade has even been connected to insurgent groups in the past. According to the Thin Green Line, an Australian foundation supporting park rangers, individuals associated with the illegal wildlife trade have killed 1,000 park rangers in the last ten years alone.

Photo for illustration

The deaths of these brave rangers and the animals they are protecting are senseless and highly preventable. It is our own ill-informed demand for products like tiger bone glue, pangolin fetus and rhino horn that drives poachers to hunt down these animals and sometimes kill the people protecting them.

We all have a responsibility to put an end to the illegal wildlife trade and to the mass extinction we are causing. For this reason, the United Nations has selected the theme Go Wild for Life for this years World Environment Day to bring attention to the species under threat from illegal wildlife trade, and to encourage people around the world to take action to protect these species for future generations.

Today and every day you can show zero tolerance of wildlife crime and take action to protect wildlife. You can help your friends, family and peers understand the damage illegal wildlife trade causes to our environment, livelihoods, communities and national security. We can all change our habits and behaviors to reduce demand for illegal wildlife products in our communities, and we can make combating wildlife crime a high priority for law enforcement officials and policymakers.

In Vietnam, the collaborative efforts of government ministries, local and international non-government organizations, civil society organizations and individuals have led to great strides in the fight against wildlife crime.

Mr Bui The Duc, Vice Head of PCC Commission for Popularization and Education, and representative of TRAFFIC at the

signing ceremony for a Memorandum of Understanding held in Hanoi on June 19th, 2015. (Photo: Viet Dung/baotainguyenmoitruong.vn)

The Party Central Committee Commission for Popularization and Education is one of the units leading these efforts through its partnership with TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network. Together, the two sides have raised the profile of illegal wildlife crime through specially designed billboards in downtown Hanoi and posters in the Noi Bai International Airport, as well as through a number of conferences and workshops with influential individuals and groups, including the NA and other Government officials.

Besides, the theme Go Wild for Life can serve as encouragement to all of us to celebrate the species under threat and take action to protect them for future generations. Each and every one of us can show zero-tolerance for the illegal trade in wildlife through our words and our actions, and together we can continue to strengthen Vietnam's reputation as a country dedicated to putting an end to wildlife crime./.
Artist's illustration of NASA's Juno probe at Jupiter. The spacecraft is scheduled to slide into orbit around the giant planet on July 4, 2016.

NASA's Juno spacecraft has arrived at Jupiter.

Juno, which launched on Aug. 5, 2011, slipped into orbit around the solar system's largest planet on Monday (July 4) night, after successfully executing a 35-minute engine burn. Read our main story here: By Jove! NASA Probe Arrives at Jupiter After 5-Year Trek

Learn more about the solar-powered Juno and its mission in Space.com's complete coverage below. [Photos: NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter]

Video

Infographics and Multimedia

How NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter Works (Infographic)

Inside Gas Giant Jupiter (Infographic)

Photos: NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter

Next Stop, Jupiter! Launch Photos of NASA's Juno Mission

Jupiter Quiz: Test Your Jovian Smarts

Story Coverage

July 12, 2016

Juno Spacecraft Captures 1st Photo from Jupiter Orbit: NASA's Juno probe has snapped its first image of Jupiter since going into orbit around the giant planet last week.

July 8, 2016

Wakey Wakey! Juno Spacecraft Turns on Science Gear at Jupiter: Juno powered up five of its nine science instruments Wednesday (July 6), two days after entering Jupiter orbit, and plans to turn on the other four before the end of the month, NASA officials said.

July 5, 2016

Jupiter Probe Captures First-Ever View of Moons Moving (Video): In the weeks leading up to its arrival at Jupiter Monday night (July 4), Juno captured a stunning video of the four Galilean moons  Callisto, Europa, Ganymede and Io  circling the giant planet in a first-of-its-kind view of celestial dynamics.

Google Doodle Celebrates Juno's Jupiter Arrival: Just minutes after Juno entered orbit around Jupiter late Monday night (July 4), Google's search page began showcasing a "doodle" celebrating the accomplishment.

NASA, Juno Team Exult in Successful Jupiter Arrival: The people behind NASA's Juno mission rode a wave of emotions Monday night (July 4) as the spacecraft approached Jupiter and then, after a picture-perfect, 35-minute engine burn, became just the second probe ever to enter orbit around the giant planet.

July 4, 2016

By Jove! NASA Probe Arrives at Jupiter After 5-Year Trek: NASA's robotic Juno probe began circling the solar system's largest planet tonight (July 4), ending a nearly five-year journey through deep space and becoming the first spacecraft to enter Jupiter orbit since NASA's Galileo mission did so in 1995.

One Last View of Jupiter: Juno Snaps Photo Ahead of Tonight's Orbit Insertion: On June 29, NASA's Juno probe snapped one last picture of the Jupiter system before switching off its instruments in preparation for today's (July 4) daring dive through the planet's hellish radiation field.

Juno Probe's Jupiter Arrival Tonight Fraught With Peril: The stakes and the risks are high for the Juno spacecraft's long-awaited arrival at Jupiter tonight (July 4).

Fastest-Ever Spacecraft to Arrive at Jupiter Tonight: The Juno probe will be traveling faster than any other man-made object in history, as it arrives at Jupiter and enters into orbit around the giant planet.

Lego Minifigures on NASA's Juno Jupiter Probe Inspire Design Challenge: Three Lego minifigures are flying aboard the Juno spaceprobe. The tiny stowaways are part of a mission to inspire young people to reach for the stars.

July 3, 2014

Juno Spacecraft's July 4 Jupiter Arrival: What to Expect: A detailed timeline of events scheduled to take place on July 4, when Juno will arrive at the Jupiter system and decellerate and enter into orbit around the giant planet.

July 2, 2016

Juno Probe Will Run Hellish Radiation Gauntlet at Jupiter Monday: If all goes according to plan Monday night (July 4), NASA's Juno probe will slip into orbit around Jupiter and get its first taste of the solar system's most intense radiation environment.

July 1, 2016

Juno's Jupiter Arrival Continues String of July 4 Spaceflight Milestones: The Juno spacecraft's scheduled July 4 arrival in Jupiter orbit is just the latest in a series of spaceflight milestones to occur on the United States' birthday.

Songs to Orbit Jupiter By: NASA, Apple Link Musicians to Juno Mission: When NASA's Juno probe enters polar orbit around Jupiter, scientists are hoping that its arrival will result in a better understanding of how the giant planet formed. They also hope it will inspire some really great music.

Juno Probe Now on Autopilot Ahead of July 4 Jupiter Arrival: On Thursday afternoon (June 30), Juno's handlers sent a command designed to transition the probe into autopilot mode.

June 2016

Juno Spacecraft Enters Jupiter's Realm: The Juno probe, which is scheduled to begin orbiting Jupiter on Monday (July 4), has now entered Jupiter's sphere of influence.

Juno Probe Snaps Photo of Jupiter and Its 4 Biggest Moons: Juno captured an image of Jupiter and its four biggest moons last week, as the spacecraft closed in on the giant planet.

Jupiter's Auroras Create a Rhapsody in Blue Before Juno's July 4 Arrival (Time-Lapse Video): Bright blue auroras at Jupiter's north and south poles are putting on a veritable firework show just before the July 4 arrival of the Juno probe.

How Do Planets Form? Juno's Jupiter Mission Aims to Find Out: Juno is scheduled to enter orbit around Jupiter on Monday (July 4), after a nearly five-year trek through deep space. Juno will study Jupiter over the following year and a half, peering inside the giant to gain clues about how planets form and evolve.

Closing in on Jupiter: 7 Fun Facts About Juno's Mission: The Juno probe is an impressive piece of machinery: It is the msot distant solar-powered spacecraft to ever leave Earth, and runs on about as much power as your laptop. Read more about this awesome little probe.

Up Close and Personal with Jupiter: A History of 9 Space Probes: NASA's Juno space probe is set to arrive at Jupiter on July 4, becoming the ninth probe to study the gas giant up close. Here is a brief history of the space probes that have explored this Jovian giant.

One-Week Countdown Begins for Juno Mission's Daring Arrival at Jupiter: NASA's Juno probe is only one week away from its arrival at Jupiter, where it will execute a daring maneuver in order to get closer to the giant planet than any spacecraft has ever done in history.

'Destination: Jupiter' Follows Journey of NASA's Juno Space Probe: A new documentary celebrating the 5-year, 1.74-billion-mile (2.8 billion kilometers) journey of NASA's Juno space probe, is available to stream online. The film also probes Juno's amazing science pursuits.

Jupiter Orbital Insertion: Juno's Dive Into the Unknown: NASA's Juno mission will enter Jupiter orbit on July 4, but little is known of arguably the most dangerous region in the solar system.

NASA's Juno Probe in Home Stretch of Journey to Jupiter: The Juno probe, which launched in August 2011 on a mission to investigate Jupiter's structure, composition and formation history, is scheduled to begin orbiting the gas giant on July 4.

Jupiter's Gravity Embraces NASA's Juno Spacecraft: On May 27, NASA's Juno probe crossed a gravitational boundary between Jupiter and the sun, and the gas giant began pulling the spacecraft in ahead of a planned July 4 arrival.

Earlier 2016

NASA Jupiter Probe Fine-Tunes Path to Giant Planet: NASA's Juno spacecraft performed an engine burn on Feb. 3, lining up Jupiter more squarely ahead of its arrival at the giant planet on July 4.

NASA Jupiter Probe Sets Distance Record for Solar-Powered Spacecraft: On Jan. 13, NASA's Juno spacecraft zoomed past the previous record of 492 million miles (792 million kilometers) from the sun, which was held by the European Space Agency's comet-chasing Rosetta mission, NASA officials said.

These Are the Space Missions to Watch in 2016: Here's a brief rundown of the biggest spaceflight milestones to keep an eye out for in 2016, from a NASA probe's arrival at Jupiter to the highly anticipated maiden flight of SpaceX's huge new rocket.

2015

NASA Spacecraft Less Than 1 Year from Jupiter: NASA's Juno probe is now less than one year away from its rendezvous with Jupiter. Juno, which launched in August 2011, is scheduled to slip into orbit around the gas giant on July 4, 2016.

2013

NASA Spacecraft Snaps Amazing Photo of Earth En Route to Jupiter: When NASA's Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft zipped around Earth on Oct. 9, it peered back at our planet for a photo op.

NASA Jupiter Probe Recovers from Earth Flyby Glitch: NASA's Juno probe exited a protective "safe mode" on Oct. 11 and is currently operating normally as it streaks toward a July 2016 rendezvous with the solar system's largest planet, mission officials said.

NASA Jupiter Probe Still In 'Safe Mode' After Earth Flyby Glitch: NASA's Juno spacecraft went into safe mode on Oct. 9, shortly after making its closest approach to Earth in a speed-boosting flyby. The probe's handlers aren't sure what happened, but they suspect a minor glitch rather than a mission-threatening problem.

NASA Jupiter Probe Suffers Glitch After Earth Flyby: NASA's Juno probe detected an anomalous condition and shut itself down this afternoon (Oct. 9) after slingshotting around Earth to gain momentum for the long trip to the solar system's largest planet.

NASA Spacecraft Slingshots By Earth On Way to Jupiter, Snaps Photos: NASAs Juno spacecraft came within 347 miles (558 kilometers) of Earth during its closest approach, which occurred at 3:21 p.m. EDT (1921 GMT) today (Oct. 9) over South Africa. The maneuver boosts Junos speed for the long trip to Jupiter.

Jupiter-Bound NASA Probe to Grab Speed Boost from Earth Flyby Wednesday: A NASA spacecraft bound for Jupiter will buzz Earth Wednesday (Oct. 9) to snag a gravity speed boost that will slingshot it toward the largest planet in the solar system.

Jupiter-Bound NASA Spacecraft Will Swing By Earth Wednesday: NASA's 8,000-pound Juno probe will skim just 350 miles (560 kilometers) above Earth's surface on Oct. 9, getting a critical gravity assist more than two years after launching on a circuitous path to the solar system's largest planet.

NASA's Juno Spacecraft Is Halfway to Jupiter: The odometer on NASA's Juno probe clicked over to 880 million miles (1.415 billion kilometers) on Monday (Aug. 12), space agency officials said. The spacecraft is thus halfway to Jupiter, at least in terms of distance traveled.

2012

Jupiter-Bound Probe's Maneuver in Deep Space Delayed: The second of two engine burns meant to put NASA's Jupiter-bound Juno probe on course for a speed-boosting Earth flyby next year has been pushed to Sept. 14, officials announced Tuesday (Sept. 4).

Jupiter-Bound Probe Changes Orbit in Deep Space: NASA's Jupiter-bound Juno probe fired its main engine Thursday (Aug. 30) to help set up a speed-boosting flyby of Earth next year.

NASA's Juno Mission to Probe Jupiter's Biggest Secrets: A NASA probe that is traveling through space on its way to Jupiter is expected to help astronomers unlock mysteries about the largest planet in our solar system when it arrives there in 2016.

Far Out! Jupiter-Bound Probe Snaps Photo of Big Dipper: NASA's Juno spacecraft was beyond the orbit of Mars when it took a picture of the famed star pattern.

Jupiter-Bound NASA Probe Adjusts Course Toward Giant Planet: A NASA probe on a five-year mission to Jupiter fired up its rocket thrusters this week to better aim itself at the largest planet in our solar system.

2011

Jupiter Probe Snaps Family Photo of Earth & Moon: A NASA probe headed to Jupiter has snapped a striking photo of Earth and the moon, showing our home planet as it appears from 6 million miles (10 million kilometers) away.

After 'Phenomenal' Launch to Jupiter, Long Wait Begins, Scientists Say: The vast team of scientists and engineers responsible for launching NASA's new Juno spacecraft to Jupiter today (Aug. 5) can finally breathe a sigh of relief after a successful liftoff, but now comes the long, five-year wait for the probe to actually reach the gas giant.

NASA Launches Spacecraft on Journey to Jupiter: NASA's Juno spacecraft blasted off Friday (Aug. 5), kicking off a five-year journey to faraway Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system.

NASA to Launch Juno Mission to Jupiter Today: NASA's Juno spacecraft is set to launch today (Aug. 5) on a mission to study the origin and evolution of the planet Jupiter, the solar system's largest planet.

Target: Jupiter  Missions to the Solar System's Largest Planet: NASA's new Juno probe will be the ninth spacecraft to visit the solar system's largest planet.

LEGO Figures Flying On NASA Jupiter Probe: They have launched aboard the space shuttle, visited the space station and flown to Mars. Now, three more "very special" LEGO figurines are set to fly to the planet Jupiter with NASA's Juno spacecraft.

NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter to Be Farthest Solar-Powered Trip: NASA's Juno spacecraft is heading for the planet Jupiter this week with a novel energy source for a deep space probe  solar power  making it the farthest robotic space traveler to run on sunlight, scientists say.

NASA's Juno Probe Promises to Send Best Ever Photos of Jupiter: The Juno spacecraft will take closer and more detailed photos of Jupiter than ever before.

NASA's New Juno Mission to Explore Jupiter's Mysteries: The mysteries regarding the origin of the king of the planets, Jupiter, could be solved by NASA's Juno mission, which is scheduled to launch toward the gas giant on Aug. 5.

NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter Poised for Friday Launch:A NASA spacecraft is just days away from blasting off on a five-year journey to Jupiter on a mission to find out what makes the largest planet in our solar system tick.

NASA Set to Launch Spacecraft Toward Jupiter Next Week: NASA has attached its next spacecraft bound to explore Jupiter to the rocket that will launch the unmanned probe toward the gas giant next week.

Space.com Gets an Inside Look at Jupiter-Bound Spacecraft: Space.com's Leonard David got an up-close look at Juno at the Colorado facilities of Lockheed Martin, which built the probe for NASA.

2010

NASA Begins Building New Spacecraft to Visit Jupiter: NASA has begun assembling its Juno spacecraft in preparation for a mission to Jupiter that will help scientists understand the origin and evolution of the giant planet.

2008

Juno Spacecraft to Study Jupiter: Eight years from now, NASA's Juno spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter to study the huge planet's magnetic and gravity fields and characterize its atmosphere, among other things.

2007

NASA Chooses Rocket for Next Jupiter Probe: An Atlas 5 model 551 rocket, provided by Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services, will send off NASA's $700 million Juno mission in August 2011, the space agency said

2005

The Juno Mission to Jupiter: NASA has announced the selection of a new concept study for a Jupiter mission that will now move into a preliminary design phase. The mission is called Juno, and its goal is to perform a detailed study of the giant planet Jupiter.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Shahid El Hafed (Refugee Camps)- The speaker of the Algerian Council of the Nation (upper house of Parliament), Abdelkader Bensalah, on Friday signed the book of condolence, at Shahid El Hafed, on behalf of President of the Republic Abdelaziz Bouteflika, following the death of the president of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (DADR), Mohamed Abdelaziz, reiterating the support of Algerian people and leadership to Western Sahara people in their struggle for liberty.

"We bow down in tribute to the memory of Saharawi president, Mohamed Abdelaziz, secretary general of the Polisario Front, in this painful ordeal hitting our brother Saharawi people with the loss of a valuable activist and a great military and political leader, a symbol of their struggle for liberation," the speaker of the Upper House wrote in his condolence message.

"The career of the late president will be an inspiration for the Saharawi people and guide them in fulfilling their legitimate goals of freedom and dignity."

"Our presence here, on the instruction of President of the Republic Abdelaziz Bouteflika, to share Saharawi people's pain following the death of their great leader is an opportunity for us to reiterate the support of the Algerian people and leadership for the struggle of the Saharawis until they meet their noble goals, through the exercise of their right to self-determination," Bensalah concluded. (SPS)

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Brussels, June 4, 2016 (SPS) - European Union on Friday reiterated support to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to reach a solution to the conflict leading to "Western Sahara people's self-determination" after their historical leader, Mohamed Abdelaziz, passed away.

"The EU has learned of the passing of Mohamed Abdelaziz, the historical leader of the Polisario Front," a spokesman of EU diplomatic services told APS following the death, Tuesday, of the president of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and secretary general of the Polisario Front, following a long illness.

The services of the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini reiterated, on that occasion, European Union's position over this longstanding conflict.

"EU supports UN chief's efforts to reach a fair, lasting and mutually acceptable solution ensuring self-determination for Western Sahara population in line with the principle and the Charter the United Nations," EU spokesman said.

Western Sahara was put in the UN list of non-autonomous territories in 1963, whose people have the right to self-determination.

Since then, the United Nations has constantly reaffirmed Western Sahara people's right to self-determination. (SPS)

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Brussels, June 4, 2016 (SPS) - European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH) has expressed committed to continue supporting the inalienable right to self-determination of the people of Western Sahara through the UN-led negotiations.

in a letter to the Government of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) over the passing away of President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, ELDH reiterated commitment to continue the struggle against the illegal occupation of Western-Sahara by Morocco and against the illegal exploitation of its resources by Morocco and by member states of the European Union.

The full text of the ELDH letter:







I have learnt with deep regret and sorrow, the demise of H. E. Mohammed Abdelaziz, President of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic and Secretary-General of the POLISARIO Front, on Tuesday, 31st May 2016.







In the name of European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights ELDH I express my deepest condolences to the Saharawi people on the passing away of President Mohamed Abdelaziz, President of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and Secretary-General of the Polisario Front. Mohamed Abdelaziz played a monumental role for the Western Saharan people in trying to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Western Sahara. On several occasions I had the opportunity to meet him.







ELDH remains committed to continue supporting the inalienable right to self-determination of the people of Western Sahara through the UN-led negotiations. We will also continue to struggle against the illegal occupation of Western-Sahara by Morocco and against the illegal exploitation of its resources by Morocco and by member states of the European Union.







Yours sincerely, in solidarity



Thomas Schmidt (SPS)

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Dublin, June 4, 2016 (SPS) - Sinn Feins spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Sean Crowe TD, has extended his personal condolences to the family and friends of Mohamed Abdelaziz, the secretary general of the Polisario Front.

Deputy Crowe said:

I would like to extend my personal condolences to the family and friends of Mohamed Abdelaziz.

Mohamed was the secretary general of the Polisario Front and the President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

He spent his life struggling for the independence of Western Sahara and for the freedom of the Sahrawi people.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mohamed in Leinster House when he visited Ireland in October 2012.

In that brief meeting, we exchanged views and spoke of ways to support the struggle of Western Sahara for independence and self-determination.

At this moment of deep sadness and loss, I want to extend the solidarity of Sinn Fein to the Sahrawi people in their continued struggle for self-determination and freedom. (SPS)

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Helsinki, June 4, 2016 (SPS)  The Communist Party of Finland expressed that President Mohammed Abdel Aziz death is an enormous loss, not only for the Polisario Front and the Sahrawi people but also for all the staunch defenders of human rights and the principle of self-determination of peoples throughout the world, in a letter of condolences to the Polisario Front Representative in Finland, Menna Lehbib.







The full text of the letter:

Communist Party of Finland wishes to express its condolences to Abdel Aziz family and to the Polisario Front, which, with Mohamed Abdel Aziz as President, has fervently fought, expressing to all the international community its right to become an independent nation.

Communist Party of Finland expresses that President Mohammed Abdel Aziz death is an enormous loss, not only for the Polisario Front and the Sahrawi people but also for all the staunch defenders of human rights and the principle of self-determination of peoples throughout the world.

JP (Juha-Pekka) Vaisanen



Chairman



Communist Party of Finland (SPS)

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Not every little girl plays exclusively with dolls. Some, like Mary Wennerstrom, enjoy toy cars. Wennerstrom had Corgi Junior small-scale die-cast toy vehicles as a child. Her favorite was a model of a 1913 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost.

Wennerstrom looks forward to seeing the real thing this summer at the 20th annual Greenwich Concours d'Elegance, for which she serves as the chairman. She took the lead role this year following the death last September of her father-in-law, Bruce Wennerstrom. The high-end car show is a long-time family affair. Her late mother-in-law, Genia Wennerstrom, was the co-founder and co-chair until her death in 2011.

Concours d'Elegance attracts some of the top car collectors and some of the rarest cars in the country, many of them one-of-a-kind or only one of four in existence. "The only place you're going to see cars like these are in a museum or at a Concours d'Elegance event," Mary Wennerstrom said. Among them is the Silver Ghost. The cream-colored Rolls with a red interior is "a piece of art. It's magical. It's such a great car."

The event, scheduled for June 3-5 Roger Sherman Baldwin Park in Greenwich, will feature 275 vehicles, including cars and motorcycles. Among the classic cars is a 1961 Austin-Healey 3000, a 1951 Cisitalia 202C Cabriolet, a 1954 Jaguar XK120M, and a 1935 Packard Model 1201 Convertible. These are among some contemporary super cars like Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Maseratis.

It begins with the Grand Tour parade down Greenwich Avenue on Friday at 4 p.m. with Wayne Carini, host of Velocity's hit show "Chasing Classic Cars" as the Grand Marshal. Carini will film an upcoming episode at the event, and he will display three cars. Saturday's event will feature American cars and Sunday will showcase international vehicles.

"We're bringing back the best of the best. For both days we will bring back the top winners from the first 20 years ... We have cars going back to the 1900s," Wennerstrom said.

One person will bring a display of vintage bicycles and there will be a display of street versions of racecars. "They are very rare," she said.

While most of the cars are 'hands off,' people will have the ability to test drive some cars including Teslas, BMWs, Volvos and Cadillacs. They can purchase vehicles too during the auction of historic and outstanding cars, motorcycles, and automobilia  and the occasional boat  conducted by Bonhams, the renowned British auction company.

Luxury yachts are also part of the event, on display at the Delamar Hotel docks. Those who make a certain donation can sail on one of three former Americas Cup yachts. The public can also get into the act by voting on their favorite vehicle. The car that gets the most votes will receive the People's Choice award. A Youth Judges award will also go to the car chosen by kids including 14-year-old Christopher DeMari, who will judge for his eighth time.

The late well-known Greenwich car dealer, Malcolm Pray, will be represented by his daughter Lily as one of the judges; and granddaughter Portia is showing a Mercedes in the show.

This year DuPont Registry will host a party on Saturday at the Delamar Hotel.

The event draws about 10,000 spectators. "Even people who are not car people enjoy it. You see things from when you grew up or a car your parents had or a car that reminds you of a memory," Wennerstrom said.

Stamford-based AmeriCares has been the charitable beneficiary of the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance since the beginning and that support will continue this year, she said. AmeriCares is an emergency response and global health organization.

For tickets and information visit www.greenwichconcours.com.
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When Gov. Dannel P. Malloy cut the bottom line of the new state budget by $22 million on Thursday, he became the first state executive in nine years to exercise line-item veto powers.

But you have to go back 45 years to find the last successful use of the line-item veto.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell tried it a couple of times, with mixed results, in her five-and-a-half years in office following the resignation of John G. Rowland. It worked briefly on June 6, 2007, when Rell crossed out portions of a new state energy law to save about $100 million. But the General Assembly came back that month and restored $90 million.

Then, in September 2009, after a bitter summerlong budget battle with majority Democrats in the General Assembly, Rell made a tactical error, allowing a new budget to become law without her signature, but with line-item rescission. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, now a U.S. senator, ruled that to utilize the line-item veto, Rell first had to sign the budget. So Rells attempted vetoes failed.

According to the Legislative Library, the last successful line-item vetoes date back to 1971, under Republican Gov. Thomas J. Meskill, who served a single four-year term, leaving office in January, 1975 on his way to an 18-year career as a federal judge. His seven vetoes were aimed at reducing the costs of some projects, including a study of a new bridge over the Connecticut River; and repairs to a dam on the Darien-Stamford border. They were not overridden by the General Assembly, the library reported on Friday.

Another line-item veto by Meskill  striking part of a bill while leaving the rest intact  was attempted in 1972, but was found to be invalid in court the following year. Since 1971, governors have vetoed about 618 public acts, including eight line-item vetoes. Lawmakers overrode the vetoes 55 times.

More Information Line by line in a past budget On Thursday, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy vetoed several line items in the upcoming state budget, then signed it into law. The last chief executive to successfully use line-item veto power was Gov. Thomas J. Meskill in 1971. Meskill vetoed portions of the following bills. A provision for an honor guard, footstones and flags for the graves of certain state officials. Special tax relief for the elderly. A procedure for review of programs for exceptional children. Reimbursement to schools of transportation expenses. A location study for a new bridge over the Connecticut River bridge. Repairs to Cove Dam in Holly Pond on the border of Darien and Stamford. A study for the dredging of the Connecticut River. See More Collapse

Malloy has issued 45 vetoes, including four on Friday, and has yet to be overridden. The date for this years veto session is June 20 as lawmakers ponder whether they want to fight over the $20 million in lost municipal aid.

Rell vetoed 64 pieces of legislation and was overridden 17 times. Rowland issued 38 vetoes and was never overridden before he resigned in June 2004 under an impeachment threat, six months before pleading guilty to federal corruption charges.

Malloy said he was careful with his veto tactics.

I actually crossed out lines, he told reporters on Thursday. I actually put my initials next to them. We believe that we are executing our responsibilities in accordance with state law.

The cuts  which were precipitated by the failure of the House of Representatives to adopt proposed criminal-justice reforms that had been projected to save $15 million  included $20 million in reductions to municipal aid.

Also among the cuts is a $1.7 million reduction to the Connecticut Humanities Council, and $775,000 in payments to federally qualified health centers. Some of the savings are to be used to support a new law mandating three-dimensional images for breast-cancer screening.

Malloy had pondered vetoing budget lines to lower budgetary totals, but he and his legal staff werent sure whether such changes would necessitate the entire elimination of a budget line.

We decided to avoid that question, Malloy said.

The cuts were necessitated by the failure of Malloys Second Chance Society bail reforms, which were part of the budget agreement with Democratic leaders last month, anticipating a $15-million savings through reduced prison populations.

If the legislature had passed Second Chance ... we would not have had to take these steps, Devon Puglia, Malloys spokesman, said Friday. It would simply be irresponsible to sign a budget that would be immediately out of balance the moment we signed it. Had bail reform passed, this would not have been an issue."

House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, said Friday that $20 million of the governors cut is tied to Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkeys Municipal Opportunities for Regional Efficiencies Commission, which stresses savings and incentives through cooperation among neighboring communities.

I think it would be naive to think there is no connection between a bill the governor was interested in all session that was not called for debate after failing three times, and the MORE Commission, Klarides said in a phone interview. That was a direct, spiteful move to Democrats.

Aside from the intramural Democratic politics, the cuts leave towns and cities with no choice but to make up the revenue loss with higher local taxes or reduced services.

If you do this in June, its the height of irresponsibility, Klarides said.

Rep. Klarides, in her own budget proposal, planned for cost savings associated with closing a prison, Puglia said. Then, she actively opposed a bill that would have helped save millions in taxpayer dollars and would have achieved those savings. Now, shes decrying offsetting budgetary steps that are necessitated by her overt opposition to that bill? Talk about being on all sides, of all issues, all the time.

Sharkey, D-Hamden, said Friday he wasnt surprised that Malloy targeted the MORE program.

One thing that has been true is that the governor has never been an enthusiastic supporter of the goals of the MORE Commission, whose goals are to save property-tax money through regional initiatives, Sharkey said. The correlation between that being my initiative and the governors disappointment over the failure of the Second Chance legislation, thats not something I want to speculate on. But it is the height of irresponsibility to be cutting municipal aid in the month before towns fiscal years start.

Sharkey declined to speculate whether there would be an effort to override Malloys veto.

Joe DeLong, executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, agreed the sudden $20 million reduction in municipal aid, although spread throughout the state, comes at a time when most towns and cities have already set their budgets.

The governors last-minute $20 million cut to towns and cities comes when towns have less than 30 days before the beginning of the new fiscal year, DeLong said. This cut  which is unspecified at this point regarding the amount town-by-town and from which state grant  will especially force local governments to freeze or curtail spending for critical services during the new fiscal year and/or further drain municipal fund balances, which in distressed communities are already dangerously low.

DeLong and the CCM asked the governor for additional mandate relief locally. The Council of Small Towns on Friday echoed the sentiment.

Cutting municipal aid will only make a bad problem worse, said Betsy Gara, executive director of the council. For many towns, these cuts will be on top of already deep reductions in education, student transportation, and payments in lieu of taxes. This is a sharp poke in the eye for municipalities that have already struggled to adjust budgets and mill rates to reflect last minute cuts in municipal aid.

kdixon@ctpost.com;
F or food writer, blogger and teacher Eleonora Galasso, its all about food happiness and her first cookbook As The Romans Do is the epitome of that.

And when the stunning Instagram star welcomed well-wishers at Stoney Streets trendy Italian spot Pulia during her book launch, Roman native Galasso explained that her food is full of flavour and perfect for all home kitchens around the world and this is why she wanted to share her recipes.

She said: This book is for anyone who has ever wanted to make Italian food but was unsure where to start; it is also for anyone who thinks that Italian food is mostly about the joys of pasta and pizza.

This book is for those unafraid to enter a new, hidden dimension of Italian gastronomic delights, from treats to early risers to dishes for midnight feasts, as well as revamped version of classic recipes.

Eleonora eating carbonara / David Loftus

She added: The recipes reflect authentic Italian home cooking, which requires no special ingredients or unusual equipment.

Eleonora inherited some of the recipes from her family, passed down from generation to generation, others she collected travelling around the Lazio region, accumulating secrets and techniques from an eclectic cast of characters for whom eating the Italian way is not a lifestyle statement but a necessity.

Italian cook book author Eleonora Galasso shares her top 5 kitchen essentials

The former journalists cookbook reflects Romes rich history and tradition through the sheer vibrancy and variety of its food, which was wonderfully captured by award-winning photographer David Loftus, who photographs for the books of Jamie Oliver, Rachel Khoo, Gennaro Contaldo, Elizabeth David and April Bloomfield.

2016 cookbooks 1 /14 2016 cookbooks Sirocco: Fabulous flavours from the East By Sabrina Ghayour The Palomar Cookbook Deliciously Ella Every Day By Ella Woodward Grillstock: The BBQ Book As the Romans Do: La Dolve Vita in a Cookbook by Eleonora Galasso Making waves Yasmine Larizadeh and Shirin Kouros are launching their debut cookbook of their restaurant The Good Life Eatery Toby Glanville Savour: Salads for all Seasons by Peter Gordon Hemsley and Hemsley Good + Simple By Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley Livia's Kitchen Is being published in 2016 by Olivia Wollenberg Tara Fisher River Cottage Gluten Free by Naomi Devlin

In As the Romans Do, Eleonora transports us to the houses, the sanpietrini, the tiny side streets, the palazzos, the traditions, the community and the hidden gems of her city.

From quick and earthy breakfasts and vivacious al fresco meals to brilliant off-the-cuff dinner parties, she introduces a store of mouth-watering dishes including Flaky Pastry Fans; Brioche Braid with Chocolate Flakes; Baked Sweet Wine Pretzels; Grandmas Meatballs with Glazed Shallots and Prunes; Crispy Lamb Cutlets with Cauliflower and Chestnuts accompanied by a Potato and Orange Savoury Cake; and Rice and Lemon Sole Timbale with Prosecco.

For those with a sweet tooth, the Cakes & Co. chapter is dessert heaven with recipes for Sour Cherry and Ricotta Roll Cake; Almond Biscuit and Sweet Wine Semifreddo and Roman-style Meringue with Orange Sauce.

Eleonora at the market / David Loftus

The book is broken down, following a typical day in the life of a Roman.

In the charmingly entitled The Roman Cupboard chapter, Eleonora outlines the key ingredients that no self-respecting Roman kitchen pantry should be without. From Arborio rice to artichokes, these are the go to essentials for cooking the Roman way.

Throughout the book, Eleonora shares the history and anecdotes relating to each dish such as the Poached Peaches in Syrup with Cream which must be spoon-fed to you on the Italian public holiday of Ferragosto; or the reason Thursdays Ricotta Gnocchi with Prawns and Pistachios is eaten on that very day.

A feast of lamb cutlets / David Loftus

There are more than 100 inspirational recipes that will simultaneously transport you to the Roman sunshine and bring la dolce vita to your kitchen.

With this book, I set out to share atmospheres and fragrances that are familiar to me and that I hope will become just as familiar to you as you flip through the pages of this account of sweet idleness, or dolce far niente, as we say in Italy, said Eleonora who zigzags between Rome and Paris.

As the Romans Do, by Eleonora Galasso, is available to buy now (Mitchell Beazley, 25)

Follow us on Twitter @eslifeandstyle
A man has been arrested after four children were reportedly found strangled at home in Ireland.

The children were rushed to Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, with two of them airlifted there.

It is understood their injuries suggested they had been strangled.

The children, who were assaulted at a home in County Wicklow, Ireland, have since been discharged from hospital, a local parish priest said.

Reverend Donal Roche said the children - two boys and two girls aged under 12 years - were now "fine".

"They are physically going to be OK - obviously they are traumatised about what has happened and there is a lot of healing to be done but they have been discharged," he said.

Rev Roche described the incident as an "unbelievable tragedy".

He said: "It's most tragic. I don't know what happened or why it happened - it's such a tragic thing to happen but it could have been so much worse.

"It is a terrible, unbelievable tragedy for the family for something like that to happen.

"There's been a lot of trauma and a lot of healing will need to be done."

The Garda said the alleged assaults took place shortly after 7.30pm on Friday in Blainroe, County Wicklow.

A man in his mid-30s was arrested on Friday evening and on Saturday was being held at Wicklow Garda Station.

The Garda said in a statement: "Gardai have arrested a man, mid 30s, in connection with an investigation into the serious assault of four children that occurred at Blainroe, County Wicklow yesterday, Friday June 3, shortly after 7.30pm.

"Gardai and emergency services attended the scene after the four children were discovered in a house in a serious condition. All four children were taken to Tallaght Hospital, two were airlifted.

"A man was arrested a short time later and is currently detained at Wicklow Garda Station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.

"The scene is preserved for technical examination."

Reverend Jack Kinkead, priest of Wicklow Parish Church, said he believed that the incident happened in a rural area outside Wicklow town which is popular with tourists.

"Towards the coast there would be areas where people come to for holiday cottages and that sort of thing. There's coast, there's farmland, there's mountains."

He added that it was not an especially wealthy area but that it was "lovely".
A man is battling for his life in hospital after an early morning fight broke out near a north west London bus garage.

Police were called to Bertie Road near the Willesden High Road junction at 3.21am after reports of the violence.

When officers arrived, they found a man aged in 20s who had suffered serious injuries.

The man was rushed to a north London hospital where his condition is described as critical.

This morning, part of the High Road was cordoned off as police carried out their investigations, but no arrests have been made so far.

Buses from the nearby garage have been placed on diversion.

Anyone with information should call police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
P art of a west London cemetery was roped off with police tape this morning after a woman was sexually assaulted inside.

The woman, in her 30s, was attacked by a man just before 8am today in Margravine Cemetery, Hammersmith.

Witnesses described seeing the area close to the cemetery's chapel roped off with police tape, while officers in forensic suits were investigating.

Police arrested a man, in his 30s, inside the cemetery, which lies opposite Charing Cross Hospital.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Police were called Margravine Cemetery, Hammersmith, at approximately 07.50hrs on June 4 to reports of man attacking a woman.

"Officers arrived and arrested a man in his 30s. He was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault.

"He is currently in custody at a west London police station.

"The victim, a woman in her 30s, did not require hospital treatment.

"Enquiries continue."
A controversial museum devoted to Jack the Ripper has suffered a major blow after it was ordered to remove most of the signage advertising its presence.

The Jack The Ripper Museum in east London will have to take down its sinister black facade with blood-red lettering after being refused retrospective planning permission for the shop front.

It has also been told to get rid of its large metal shutters, despite claiming they were installed to protect staff after they were physically attacked, pelted with eggs, harassed and sworn at.

The decision has been cheered by opponents of the museum, which sparked protests when it opened last summer.

Jack the Ripper Museum

The owners claimed they were launching a celebration of the women of the East End, but provoked widespread anger when it ended up being dedicated to the notorious murderer instead.

Tower Hamlets mayor John Biggs said: We were promised a museum with displays that celebrate and tell the story of the women of the East End and their historic, cultural and future contributions  instead we are left with a museum glorifying a serial killer.

Im very pleased that the planning permission appeal for signage has been refused. Sadly, the museum itself will remain.

The tourist attraction has been told it will only be able to retain a small hanging sign from the current facade.

The ruling was made by the planning inspectorate after Tower Hamlets council had already rejected a retrospective planning application for the shop front.

Planning inspector Matthew Birkinshaw allowed the small hanging sign to remain but rejected the rest of the museum's appeal, due to the design and size of the signage and shutters. They were said to be detrimental to the street scene, which is in a conservation area.

However, the museum has now vowed to go to the High Court in a bid to overturn Mr Birkinshaw's decision.

Paint thrown on the front of the museum this week / Jack The Ripper Museum

A spokesman insisted the shutters were needed because staff are under constant siege and fear of being targeted.

They claimed the museum has been repeatedly targeted by vandals, with red paint being thrown on the shutters just this week.

"These shutters are necessary not only for the security of the museum but its employees and visitors," the spokesman said.

"The museum's staff have been physically attacked, pelted with eggs, harassed and sworn at - all incidents have been reported to the police.

"The staff, ironically mainly women, are under constant siege and fear of being targeted when they are at work."
A driver is fighting for life after veering off the road and crashing into a house in east London.

The BMW car mounted the pavement and smashed through the front garden wall of a house in Leyton High Road at about 5.30am.

The man, who is thought to be in his 30s, was rushed to an east London hospital where he remains in a critical condition.

Jack Fortescue, 39, a housing association worker who lives nearby, said: Theyve gone straight through the front wall of someones house, almost into the house.

Emergency services at the scene / E17 Streets 4 All/Facebook

Its shocking. Its a residential property on a straight stretch of road, quite how its occurred is difficult to understand.

The most worrying aspect is that theyve come across the pavement. Fortunately it happened early in the morning and not on a school day and no one was hit.

The accident happened at the junction with Hainault Road, which was sealed off by police for several hours on Saturday morning.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: Enquiries into the circumstances continue.

Road closures remain in place around the scene."
F rench President Francois Hollande is expected to announce a state of natural catastrophe after the Seine river in Paris reached its highest level in 35 years and swathes of the country were flooded.

The Parisian waterway swelled to 1.5ft above average levels overnight after heavy flooding across the country.

More than 17,000 homes were left without power this morning, while attractions including the Louvre and Grand Palais were closed.

Major artworks including the Mona Lisa were being moved yesterday to avoid the rising waters, which have finally started to slowly recede.

France floods: Louvre is closed and paintings evacuated

But residents of Paris are being warned it could be over a week before the water returns to is normal level.

Submerged trees on Ile de la Cite, on the Seine river in Paris / EPA

We evaluate the situation for all the buildings nearly hour-by-hour," said culture minister Audrey Azouley, speaking to journalists outside the world-famous Louvre yesterday.

Nearly a week of heavy rain has led to serious flooding across a swathe of Europe, leaving 15 people dead and others missing.

Road traffic signs are submerged along the Seine / EPA/Ian Langsdon

Traffic in the French capital ground to a halt as flooding blocked roads and several Paris railway stations shut down.

Basements and homes in the capital's affluent 16th district began to flood on Friday afternoon as the river kept rising, and authorities were preparing possible evacuations in a park and islands on Paris's western edge.

The partially submerged statue 'Le Zouave' in Paris / EPA/Jeremy Lempin

In addition to the Louvre, the Orsay museum, home to a renowned collection of impressionist art on the left bank of the Seine, was also closed on Friday to prepare for possible flooding.

The Louvre said the museum had not taken such precautions in its modern history - since its 1993 renovation at the very least.

Additional reporting by the Press Association
A t least 51 people have been injured after lightning strikes at a German rock festival being headlined by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Police spokesman Lars Brummer said rescuers had to revive one person who was struck by lightning at the popular the Rock am Ring festival near Mendig, about 62 miles west of Frankfurt in Germany.

The festival organiser had reported on its website early this morning that at least 42 people were injured, eight seriously.

Rock am Ring: Over 50 people were hurt, eight seriously / EPA/Thomas Frey

But the numbers rose as more fans reported injuries in the early morning hours, according to police.

Thirty-three people were injured at the festival by lightning strikes last year, according to German media.

Tens of thousands of rock fans attend the annual event, which was due to be headlined be performed at by the Red Hot Chili Peppers this evening,

Deutsche Welle said this year's festival was attended by around 45,000 people.

Additional reporting by the Press Association.
Bernie Sanders may be facing tough odds on the national front, but the Democratic presidential candidate has scored a win in Nebraska.

One of the states five Democratic superdelegates announced Thursday that she would back Sanders.

Maureen Monahan, who is the first associate chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said she decided to support Sanders because he has brought thousands of new people into the party. She said those voters need to be acknowledged by party leaders.

Three other Nebraska superdelegates have thrown their support behind Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton: Rep. Brad Ashford of Omaha, Democratic National Committeewoman Patty Zieg and Democratic National Committeeman Ron Kaminski.

A fifth superdelegate, State Party Chairman Vince Powers, remains undecided.

Superdelegates are Democratic Party leaders who are free to support any presidential candidate. In comparison, pledged delegates are divvied up based upon a candidates showing in a states caucus or primary.

In March, Sanders won Nebraskas Democratic caucuses, earning 15 pledged delegates. Clinton took 10 pledged delegates.

Clinton is considered the odds-on favorite to win the nomination. She holds a lead among pledged delegates and superdelegates. In addition, she has won nearly 3 million more votes than Sanders.

However, Sanders has said he still has a path to victory, especially if he persuades enough superdelegates to switch sides and support his campaign.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1309, robynn.tysver@owh.com
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Washington continues to urge the Ukrainian authorities to fully investigate the tragedy in the House of Trade Unions in Odesa in May 2014, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said at a briefing on Friday.

"We've been very clear since the immediate aftermath of that tragedy that we believe it should be promptly or fully investigated by the Ukrainian authorities. And we continue that, to urge that," he said when asked by a journalist about how long it will take to make tangible progress in the investigation into this day.

As reported, 48 people were killed and more than 200 were injured during the mass riots in Odesa on May 2, 2014. The majority of the victims were killed at Trade Unions House. Investigators established that the mass riots in Odesa had been organized and pre-planned.

Several Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have initiated a dozen criminal proceedings based on various facts of the events in Odesa on May 2, 2014. In particular, the Main Department of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry of the Odesa region opened a number of cases based on the reports of injuries and deaths of people during the clashes between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian activists. Later these cases were passed on to the Main Investigation Department of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry of the Odesa region. Some of them have already been brought to court.

Moreover, the Prosecutor's Office of the Odesa region and the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office are investigating the actions of officials with the Main Department of Ukrainian Interior Ministry of the Odesa region and the Main Department of Ukrainian State Emergency Situations Service of the Odesa region during the events of May 2, 2014.

The Ukrainian Security Service of the Odesa region is also conducting a pre-trial investigation in at least one criminal case on the events of May 2, 2014.
Friday, 03 June 2016 23:52:47 (GMT+3) | San Diego

According to Statistics Canada Canada 's exports increased 1.5 percent to $41.8 billion in April. Export prices were up 1.1 percent and volumes rose 0.5 percent. Imports increased 0.9 percent to $44.7 billion, as volumes were up 0.8 percent and prices edged up 0.1 percent. As a result, Canada 's merchandise trade deficit with the world narrowed from $3.2 billion in March to $2.9 billion in April.





Imports from countries other than the United States fell 3.0 percent to $15.0 billion. In April, there were lower imports from Germany (-$174 million) and South Korea (-$170 million).





Exports to countries other than the United States decreased 0.6 percent to $10.5 billion. Lower exports to the United Kingdom (-$276 million) and Spain (-$105 million) were mostly offset by higher exports to countries other than Canada 's principal trading partners (+$268 million) and to Mexico (+$105 million).





As a result, Canada 's trade deficit with countries other than the United States narrowed from $4.9 billion in March to $4.5 billion in April.





Imports from the United States were up 3.0 percent to $29.7 billion and exports increased 2.3 percent to $31.3 billion in April. Consequently, Canada 's trade surplus with the United States narrowed from $1.7 billion in March to $1.6 billion in April.








Friday, 03 June 2016 23:02:01 (GMT+3) |

The Mexican Navy is using steel from local steelmaker Altos Hornos de Mexico (AHMSA) in the construction of three new vessels after the steelmaker successfully supplied plate for the newly inaugurated logistics vessel ARM Isla Maria Madre BAL-11.





Following the launching of the vessel in late May, AHMSA said this week it has inked a deal with Mexico s Navy and Nacional de Acero (NASA) to provide 4,000 mt of steel plate of marine use to build three more vessels.





NASA will acquire special cutting equipment to prepare and then paint the plates. AHMSA said NASA is a recipient of the ISO 9001:2008 certification.


Friday, 03 June 2016 22:54:41 (GMT+3) | Sao Paulo

Despite diminishing the BRL 263 million net loss it reported in Q1 2015, Brazilian iron ore producer MMX continued operating in the red and posted a BRL 6.1 million net loss in Q1 2016.





According to the companys Q1 earnings release, it generated no revenue in Q1, same as in Q1 2015.





Adjusted EBITDA was negative BRL 56.2 million in Q1, down from a negative adjusted EBITDA of BRL 236.9 million posted in the same quarter of the year prior.





MMX said its operating activities remained halted in Q1 due to operational restrictions imposed by the environmental agency of the state of Minas Gerais, as well as due to unfavorable conditions in the iron ore market.








Although construction employment slipped in April and May, the industry has added workers in the past year at double the rate of the overall economy, said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist. Average pay in construction is rising faster than in the rest of the private sector, and the number of unemployed construction workers was at the lowest May level in 16 years. These facts support what contractors tell us : they have plenty of work but are struggling to find qualified workers to hire.
Friday, 03 June 2016 22:50:16 (GMT+3) | San Diego

March 31 data from the US Department of Commerce, Enforcement and Compliance indicates that for the month of March, the US imported 103,848 mt (census data) of line pipe . This reflects a marked decline from levels seen in March 2015, when the US imported 271,003 mt of line pipe





In March 2016, the most significant offshore sources of US import line pipe were Korea and Japan, at 38,579 mt and 10,285 mt, respectively. What is interesting, however, is that preliminary census data for the month of April indicates that US import line pipe tonnages from Japan have been calculated at 25,385 mt. One month later, in May, US import tonnages again declined.





License data for May shows that the US imported 81,524 mt of line pipe , with the most significant offshore sources being Korea and Turkey, at 31,009 mt and 15,068 mt, respectively. US import line pipe tonnages from Japan were recorded at 7,983 mt.





Activity is a lot better for line pipe than it is for OCTG casing, one source said, adding that any upticks in buying are merely due to buyers need to fill inventory gaps.





In terms of pricing, the most commonly heard spot market price range for US domestic API X-42 ERW line pipe is trending in the approximate range of $40.00-$42.00 cwt. ($882-$926/mt or $800-$840/nt), ex-Midwest mill; trader sources have said that futures offer prices from Korean mills for API X-42 ERW line pipe are now being heard in the approximate range of $26.50-$27.50 cwt. ($584-$606/mt or $530-$550/nt), DDP loaded truck in US Gulf coast ports.








Romanian ambassador to the United States George Cristian Maior says a disparaging mention of Romania by U.S. Senator John McCain was probably made by mistake.

The New York Times quoted on Friday Senator McCain about a possible presidency of the Republican candidate Donald Trump. "I still believe we have the institutions of government that would restrain someone who seeks to exceed their constitutional obligations," the senator told The New York Times. "We have a Congress. We have the Supreme Court. We're not Romania."

Ambassador Maior commented on Saturday: "Senator John McCain is known as a constant friend of Romania; he is even one of the signatories of the U.S. Senate resolution on 135 years of diplomatic relations between Romania and the United States of America. This document underlines Romania's significant role for the past 25 years, especially in the current difficult regional context, in advancing stability, security, and democratic principles in Central and Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans, and the Black Sea region. Under these circumstances, probably Senator John McCain has probably mentioned Romania by error, in an unhappy phrase that contradicts the essence of an official statement supported by Senator John McCain and unanimously adopted by the Senate of the United States of America, in which our country is appreciated precisely for its major contribution to the observance of democratic principles in the region."

Agerpres
The United States urges all parties in Ukraine to address the serious human rights violations pointed out in the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, State Department spokesman Mark Toner has said.

"We actually read reports. We're deeply troubled that the conflict in Ukraine has now claimed over 9,000 lives, injured more than 20,000 people," he said at a briefing in Washington on Friday.

"We once again call on the so-called authorities in the separatist-controlled areas to cease their human rights abuses, including killings, tortures, ill treatment, illegal detention, forced labor, as well as restrictions on freedom of movement, peaceful assembly, and expression. We also call on them to allow in UN monitors whose mandate would cover the entirety of Ukraine, including Crimea and the eastern part of Ukraine," the spokesman added.

Toner also call on the government of Ukraine to ensure a prompt and thorough and transparent investigation and appropriate prosecution of all persons responsible for alleged incidents of abuses perpetrated by its forces, including those contained  that are described in the UN report.
One of the highlights of the summer, the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival offers plenty for cinema buffs to appreciate. The festival returns Sunday with films ranging from lighthearted comedies to gritty documentaries. And while the events perspective is Jewish, the emotions engaged are universal.

In addition to being a Jewish film festival, its also an international film festival, says festival co-chairwoman Marilyn Brown, with selections hailing from countries including Israel, Germany, the Netherlands, Argentina, France, Switzerland and Canada as well as the United States.

Natalie Kauffman, chair of the film selection committee, said that the programming reflects the flavor and life of the Jewish experience throughout the world.

Most of the films will be presented this week, with additional screenings in July and August. Among the more notable offerings are a documentary about sitcom genius Norman Lear, a revenge drama starring Christopher Plummer, and a comedy co-starring former St. Louisan Bryan Greenberg and Jamie Chung.

Sunday

4 p.m.  In Search of Israeli Cuisine (1:37)  Chefs, cheesemakers and farmers are among the interviewees in this documentary focusing on Israels multicultural cuisine. (In English and Hebrew with English subtitles)

7 p.m.  Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (1:30)  The producer-writer behind such groundbreaking TV series as All in the Family and Maude is the subject of this documentary featuring interviews with stars including George Clooney, Amy Poehler and Jon Stewart.

Monday

2 p.m.  A Blind Hero: The Love of Otto Weidt (1:30)  Journalist Inge Deutschkron recounts the story of a blind factory owner who protected Jews during World War II and has been called the unsung Schindler. (In German with English subtitles)

5:30 p.m.  Encirclements (1:38)  Tensions come to the surface when a young boy is selected to carry out a religious ritual. (In Hebrew with English subtitles)

8 p.m.  Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong (1:18)  Bryan Greenberg and Jamie Chung star in this comedy, directed by Emily Ting, about an expat in Hong Kong (Greenberg) who pursues a relationship with a new arrival (Chung). We thought Hong Kong was a different setting for a film, and a fun project to do together, says Greenberg, who is married to Chung. And the dialogue was really good. Greenberg will be present at the screening to introduce the film.

Tuesday

11 a.m.  Carvalhos Journey (1:25)  This documentary focuses on artist-daguerreotypist Solomon Nunes Carvalho, whose photography chronicled the expansion of the American West.

2 p.m.  Fire Birds (1:52)  Past and present are interwoven in this tale of a murder victim and his involvement with Holocaust survivors. (In Hebrew with English subtitles)

5:30 p.m.  Secrets of War (1:35)  In this adaptation of a young-adult novel, a dangerous rivalry develops between two boys in the Netherlands in 1943. (In Dutch with English subtitles)

8 p.m.  To Life! (1:26)  A woman is evicted from her Berlin apartment just as a younger man arrives with problems of his own. (In German with English subtitles)

Wednesday

2 p.m.  Rabin in His Own Words (1:53)  The story of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is told through archival footage, home movies and private letters. (In English and Hebrew with English subtitles)

5:30 p.m.  Peter the Third (1:21)  A small-time actor and a waitress who aspires to be a writer change each others lives in this comedy set in Tel Aviv. (In Hebrew with English subtitles)

8 p.m.  Blue Like Me: The Art of Siona Benjamin (0:28) and Raise the Roof (1:25)  Artist Siona Benjamin, whose work reflects the influence of her Jewish and Indian roots, is profiled in director Hal Rifkens Blue Like Me. The title refers to the blueness of being different, Benjamin says, adding that Rifken uses her art as a jumping-off point for exploring issues of race and religion.

I wasnt interested in a vanity film about my work, and he understood that really well, says Benjamin, a former Carbondale, Ill., resident. She will be present to introduce the film.

In Raise the Roof, a synagogue roof is restored to its 18th-century glory. (In English and Polish with English subtitles)

Thursday

2 p.m.  The Midnight Orchestra (1:42)  A musicians son returns to Morocco, which he had long ago fled due to racial tensions. (In English, Arabic and French with English subtitles)

5:30 p.m.  How to Win Enemies (1:18)  A lawyer who loves detective novels sets out to solve a mystery in this comic romp. (In Spanish with English subtitles)

8 p.m.  Remember (1:34)  Christopher Plummer stars in this drama about an Auschwitz survivor who seeks revenge against a Nazi  but must cope with dementia. (In English and German with English subtitles)

July 10

4 p.m.  A Childrens Song (0:28) and The Last Mentsch (1:33)  In the short film A Childrens Song, directed by St. Louis native Shayna Cohen, two music students make a connection with history. (In English and Chinese with English subtitles)

The storys background involves the role of Shanghai, China as a refuge for Jews during World War II.

More people need to know about it, Cohen says.

In The Last Mentsch, a Holocaust survivor reconnects with his ancestry. (In German with English subtitles)

Aug. 21

4 p.m.  Once in a Lifetime (1:45)  In Paris, a high school history teacher challenges her apathetic students to understand what it meant to be a teen in a Nazi concentration camp. (In French with English subtitles)
ST. LOUIS  A maintenance worker at Bellefontaine Cemetery was shot and killed Friday night.

According to Post-Dispatch news partners KTVI, the workers were finishing up for the day and putting equipment away at a shed. He was shot several times and pronounced dead at the scene. It was not clear if he was targeted.

The shooting happened at around 6:30 p.m., but no other details were immediately available.

EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story had an incorrect name for the cemetery where the worker was shot.
ST. LOUIS  The parents of an amateur skateboarder from California provided video to support their claim that a St. Louis city employee swept their 11-year-old son off his skateboard on Friday, causing him to fall to the sidewalk.

Cortez and Nadia Russell, of San Diego, said they will file formal complaints with City Hall and also with the police for what they believe was the investigating officers indifference.

It happened about 8:15 a.m. outside City Hall West, at 1520 Market Street.

A police report says the city employee, Michael Hernton, 39, told the Russells that skateboarding is not allowed there, triggering an argument. It says, The employee advised officers he observed the child falling and attempted to grab the child but the child fell anyway.

But the video appears to show the man blocking the passing child with his arm, causing a fall. The boy, Cordano, was treated at Cardinal Glennon Childrens Hospital for a sprained ankle, lump on his head and bruised hip, his father said.

Nadia Russell said, He grabbed my son around the stomach and pulled him backward onto the ground.

Hernton works for Comptroller Darlene Greens office, which said he has been suspended with pay pending an investigation.

Police issued a summons for peace disturbance to Hernton, and one to Cortez Russell, 38, for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Officials said city ordinance prohibits skateboarding on any public street or sidewalk in the area bounded by Jefferson Avenue, Washington Avenue, Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard and Highway 40 (Interstate 64).

The Russells said they were in town on a visit and that a photographer, Sean Loftin, was with them to photograph Cordano for sponsors.

The city employee was a random guy. Not a security officer, Loftin said. He stuck his arm out while the kid was riding on his skateboard and knocked him off the board onto the concrete.

Loftin added, The police kept saying that if he hadnt been skateboarding then it probably wouldnt have happened. Regardless of what he was doing, it was a ticketable offense at most. If I was jaywalking across a street and a city employee came and grabbed me and threw me on the ground for jaywalking, its the same thing.
At the Metro Easts big trash mountain, a change of direction is altering the skyline and the fortunes of two communities.

Waste Management Inc. runs the Milam landfill at Interstates 55-70 and Illinois 203, where its 220-foot hill of dirt-covered trash towers over the American Bottom and provides a fine view of downtown St. Louis. The 500-acre operation straddles the boundary between Fairmont City and Madison, which is why city treasuries are in play.

Fairmont City is home to the big hill, sometimes called Mount Trashmore or Junks Mound and occasionally confused with the prehistoric Cahokia Mounds, with its notable Monks Mound on the opposite side, a ways down the interstate.

Madison has the new spread of the North Milam landfill, already visible to commuters and slated to someday rise to a 190-foot crown of its own.

They are separated by Cahokia Canal, which doubles as the municipal boundary. Next to the canal is Waste Managements year-old Renewable Gas Facility, which draws naturally-forming methane from the landfills, purifies it and pipes it to Ameren Illinois for use as natural gas, said company spokeswoman Lisa Disbrow. Its average output is enough to keep 1,100 standard-sized homes warm in the winter, according to Ameren Illinois.

Waste Management, based in Houston, estimates that North Milam will be accepting trash for two decades.

Thats about how long Fairmont City has prospered on revenue from Milam, which once provided three-fourths of the budget for its 2,600 residents. A landfill there dates to 1958. Waste Management bought the site in 1984 and won government approval four years later to begin building Milam hill. Fairmont City quickly annexed it.

But since the company opened North Milam in 2013, landfill revenue has declined for Fairmont City and now covers less than half of its budget. Milam hill still receives a few loads of dirt, but the stream of refuse goes to North Milam. Fairmont City had to lay off two workers and not fill four vacancies, and is bracing for more frugality.

We knew this was coming and have been planning for it, said Mayor Alex Bregen. But it will bring some pains.

From a high of nearly $90,000 a month in 2000, Fairmont Citys share now is down to about $53,000 monthly. A deal that continues to provide the city a share of landfill fees will soften the decline, but monthly revenue will hover around $35,000 within a few years, if tonnage projections are correct.

Madison received its first check in February 2014 and last fall began earning more from the landfill than its neighbor. Madison received $574,644 from North Milam last year  not a penny of which it could have counted on three years ago.

Madison, a town of about 3,800 people, recently bought two new vehicles, including a trash truck. The new money has city leaders pondering a tax cut.

If we can build up our reserves over a couple years, we can consider lowering taxes, said Mayor John Hamm III. Weve been fortunate to have this money flow. Without it, wed be sliding downhill like everybody else.

Both cities in the American Bottom have deep historical links with heavy industries. Madison, incorporated in 1891, had 5,000 residents by 1920, when it was home to steel mills, railroad shops and a boxcar factory. For 27 years, until 1966, it owned and charged tolls to cross the old Chain of Rocks Bridge, now a state park. Many of its residents in smokestack days had emigrated from eastern Europe.

Fairmont City, founded in 1914, was home to American Zinc Co. for five decades, until 1967, when the sprawling mill closed. The zinc works attracted Mexican immigrants, giving the town its cultural flavor that remains today. About 75 percent of its residents are of Hispanic origin.

For revenue growth, Fairmont City looks west. In 1999, it annexed the former National City, once home to bustling stockyards and packing houses, and reaches the Mississippi River. With the new Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge, and the rerouting of Interstate 70 to reach it, city officials are hoping that developers will give old ground a new look.
WEBSTER GROVES  A couple of years ago, Jerry Timson bought a couple dozen cigar boxes online. He figured he could give them away as jewelry boxes or other gifts to family members, or would find some other use for them.

Then my wife showed me Pinterest, he said. It was over. He saw that other people were building guitars from cigar boxes and decided to try it himself. He quickly became hooked.

At the fourth annual cigar box festival at Highway 61 Roadhouse on Saturday, Timson, of Florissant, and dozens of other cigar box builders and enthusiasts had their guitars on display.

Cigar box guitars can be traced back to the 19th century, when they were made out of necessity from whatever materials people could scrounge up. Necks were often made of broomsticks or a plank of wood. Strings might come from twine or a wire from a screen door. In recent years, theyve experienced a resurgence in popularity.

Steven Miles of Edwardsville was one of the co-founders of the festival. He was introduced to cigar box guitars about eight years ago when he saw a video of someone playing Stevie Ray Vaughn on a YouTube.

Since then, he said, Ive probably made over 100 of them, and none are the same. He said the higher-quality guitars could sell for $125-$175.

The body of one of his guitars was made from a bedpan. Theyve been nicknamed the (expletive)-ocaster, he said. They have a real good tone to them. Hed also refashioned a prosthetic leg into a drum that could be hooked up to an amp.

Of the guitars available at his booth, Timson said the one he was most proud of was built from a metal 1959 Erector Set box he bought at an antiques mall. When he found the same box at a flea market, he made it into an amp. Other guitars were constructed from beer cans, coffee tins, dog bowls and bicycle handle bars. Several people had bass guitars.

(Cigar box guitars) have a retro, vintage sound, said Allen Palermo, of Jackson, Mo. They really have a folksy, bluesy sound that new guitars just cant seem to have.

In between jam sessions at his booth, Russ Wellington of Arnold described his favorite guitar, which was made from a cigar box he found at an estate sale. Its fretboard came from old barn wood. Most cigar box guitars have three or four strings, and Wellington prefers to play them with a slide.

It gives you a little leeway, he said, and produces a sound similar to a pedal steel guitar.

Despite playing in bands at area bars for years, he had tested out a cigar box guitar for only the first time on Friday at Vivianos in Chesterfield.

It went really well, Wellington said.

He also plays at the Irish Corner Pub on Cherokee Street in St. Louis. Next Friday might be a surprise for them, he said.
LOS ANGELES  Crisis counselor Mandy Pifer has spent the last six years comforting people in the aftermath of death, including a woman whose sister killed herself with an electric chainsaw and an 8-year-old girl who found her mother shot to death on their couch.

But nearly six months ago, it was Pifer herself who was plunged deep into grief when her boyfriend was among 14 people killed in the San Bernardino, Calif., attack. She left counseling to mourn, retreating into her Koreatown apartment filled with the couples photographs.

Last week, she drove to the Los Angeles Police Department to meet with crisis-team colleagues, many of whom she had not seen since the December shooting. She wanted to return to work, but she also wondered: Was she ready to go back behind the yellow tape?

Pifer was one year out of a long-term relationship when she decided to try online dating. Shannon Johnsons profile picture immediately attracted her. He had a warm smile, and his orange tabby, Jerry, peeked over one shoulder.

They started chatting and quickly decided to meet for a date at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. Inside its ornate marble halls, they talked about growing up in the South  he in Georgia, she in Tennessee  and moving to California as adults.

Johnson wasnt like people she had dated before. He had full sleeves of tattoos and had spent 10 years traveling across the country as a truck driver. At 42, he was also twice divorced. Both of them, she said, had barriers up.

Johnson wasnt afraid of marrying again, but he didnt want another divorce, she said. Pifer, who was then 37, feared getting hurt.

It was the scariest experience of my life. I used to tell him it felt like I was hanging on to the edge of a great, deep pit, Pifer said.

Six months later, Pifer was on the hunt for a new apartment. A studio across from Johnsons apartment opened up. He told her she should move in.

A grisly job

Pifer first learned about the mayors crisis team when she was a graduate student studying clinical psychology. A friend passed along a police bulletin calling for volunteers to respond to homicides, suicides and death notifications.

I remember thinking, I want to do that, Pifer said. Somebody has to.

Soon enough, she had graduated from training and was crossing behind the tape at some of the citys grisliest crime scenes. Her job was to counsel those with no relatives or friends to console them.

Dozens of calls linger in her memory: the first time she smelled death, the first time she had to walk around the block to compose herself, the first time she accompanied police on a death notification.

I learned to never be looking someone in the eye when they receive news that their loved one had died, she said. Because I saw their heart break.

Have a great day

Pifer awoke Dec. 2 to find a text from Johnson.

Have a great day, he wrote. I love you.

By that time, the two had been together for three years, their belongings scattered across both apartments. One was known as the couples West Wing, the other the East.

Johnson worked as a health inspector in San Bernardino, an expansive, mountainous county east of Los Angeles. That morning, he left early to attend his departments holiday gathering.

The couple imagined moving out to the desert when Johnson retired in another 10 years or maybe returning to the South. On his computer that morning, Pifer found an internet browser opened to a page showing properties for sale in Georgia.

Pifer was meeting with therapy clients when the first reports of an active shooter in San Bernardino came in.

She sent Johnson text messages. No replies.

When Pifer called the crisis teams director that afternoon, he assumed she was offering to help console survivors and victims families.

No, no, no, she told him. I cant get a hold of Shannon.

Then, as she was driving home, she listened to the radio and heard that the shooting had happened at a meeting of workers for a division of the San Bernardino County Public Health Department.

Pifer immediately pulled over.

She knew.

I got you

In his last moments, Johnson had huddled with a colleague under a table, shielding her from the bullets.

I got you, he told Denise Peraza, 27. The phrase soon became a trending hashtag on social media.

The days that followed passed in a blur. There were interviews with reporters, calls from politicians and a hug from President Barack Obama. Pifer began making plans to start a foundation to spread Johnsons message of compassion.

She wasnt in denial, but as a crisis counselor used to consoling others, she perhaps wasnt certain how to grieve her own loss.

She wanted to make sure the affected families were getting services and arranged for therapeutic miniature horses to visit bereaved relatives.

Three months later, the anguish hit.

Getting out of bed, she said, her voice trailing. I just didnt do it.

Waves of pain

Its now been another three months, and the pain might be letting up a bit. She can now listen to the songs on Johnsons iPhone playlist that hummed like a soundtrack in the background of their lives together. She wants to return to work.

Still, the grief comes in jarring waves of pain, with triggers she is still learning to detect.

Pifer turned off her cars ignition outside the LAPD office and climbed the stairs to the police bureau, immediately spotting an old friend.

Burnett Oliver wrapped her in a bear hug. Pifer wept.

Give it time, he said, patting her on the back.

Two days later, she was back on the roster for an overnight on-call shift from home. She still wasnt sure how shed feel going out to a police scene, but something had changed.

I realized that, you know, I need to go back, because a large part of my identity is helping others, she said. I refuse to live in a world of fear.

As she got ready for bed, she kept her fully charged phone nearby. A photo of Johnson in a frame with the word Love rested on her nightstand.

She waited for the phone to ring.
TVER, Russia  Anastasia Bubeyeva shows a screen shot on her computer of a picture of a toothpaste tube with the words: Squeeze Russia out of yourself! For sharing this picture on a social media site with his 12 friends, her husband was sentenced this month to more than two years in prison.

As the Kremlin claims unequivocal support among Russians for its policies both at home and abroad, a crackdown is underway against ordinary social media users who post things that run against the official narrative. Here the Kremlins interests coincide with those of investigators, who are anxious to report high conviction rates for extremism. The Kremlin didnt immediately comment on the issue.

At least 54 people were sent to prison for hate speech last year, most of them for sharing and posting things online, which is almost five times as many as five years ago, according to the Moscow-based Sova group, which studies human rights, nationalism and xenophobia in Russia. The overall number of convictions for hate speech in Russia increased to 233 last year from 92 in 2010.

A 2002 Russian law defines extremism as activities that aim to undermine the nations security or constitutional order, or glorify terrorism or racism, as well as calling for others to do so. The vagueness of the phrasing and the scope of offenses that fall under the extremism clause allow for the prosecution of a wide range of people, from those who set up an extremist cell or display Nazi symbols to anyone who writes something online that could be deemed a danger to the state. In the end, its up to the court to decide whether a social media post poses a danger to the nation or not.

In February 2014, when Ukraine was in the middle of a pro-European revolution, President Vladimir Putin signed a bill tightening penalties for nonviolent extremist crimes such as hate speech. In July of that year, three months after Russia had annexed the Crimean Peninsula, he signed a bill making calls to destroy Russias territorial integrity a criminal offense punishable by up to five years in prison. The new amendment makes the denial of Russias claims on Crimea an even greater offense if the statement is made in the press or online, even on a private social media account.

Many of the shares that led to the recent rash of convictions were of things critical of Russias involvement in Ukraine.

This was true of the articles and images shared by Bubeyevas husband, a 40-year-old electrician from Tver, a sleepy provincial capital halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Andrei Bubeyev thinks that he was charged as an example so that other ordinary citizens would be discouraged from expressing their opinion, said his lawyer, Svetlana Sidorkina.

Extremism suspect

Bubeyev spent a lot of time online, sharing links to various articles on his VKontakte page and engaging in political debates on local news websites, his wife says.

In spring 2015, he left town to work on a rural construction site. After investigators couldnt 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 couldnt 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 Russias 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.

He was interested in politics, read the news, shared things, but he did it for himself. It was like collecting newspaper clippings, his wife said. His page wasnt popular  he only had 12 friends. He couldnt have aimed to coerce anyone into anything.

A coup in Russia

The new charges were soon followed by a damning report on local television station Tverskoi Prospekt. The program showed an anonymous blogger complaining about social media users who voiced their support for Ukrainian troops and were ready to back a coup in Russia and take up arms and kill people as the Nazis did. The television report claimed that the bloggers complaint had prompted the prosecution of the electrician.

On May 6, Bubeyev was convicted and sentenced to two years and three months in prison.

Also this month, a court in the Caspian Sea city of Astrakhan sentenced a man to two years in prison for his social media posts urging Ukrainians to fight Putins occupying forces.

In December, a court in Siberia sentenced a man to five years in prison for inciting hatred toward residents of eastern Ukraine in his video posts. In October, a court in southern Russia sent a political activist to prison for two years for an unsanctioned picket and posts on social media criticizing Putin and calling for southern Russia to join Ukraine.

The articles, photos and videos that landed Bubeyev in prison were posted on his page on VKontakte, Russias most popular social media network with 270 million accounts.

VKontakte founder Pavel Durov sold the site and fled Russia in 2014, claiming that he had come under pressure from security services for VKontakte to disclose personal data of the users of a group linked to a protest movement in Ukraine. The company is now controlled by the media holding of Kremlin-friendly billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

Alexander Verkhovsky, director of the Sova group, says roughly half of the convictions of hate speech online are about posts on VKontakte, which he said might be because its administration might be easier for the Russian police to deal with than that of foreign-owned social media.

Bubeyevs defense claimed that the privacy settlings on his account made the articles he shared available only to him and his 12 friends. Sidorkina, his lawyer, said she has no explanation for how the security services found his posts unless they received the credentials to his account from VKontakte.

VKontakte declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press.

Russia faced a surge of racially motivated attacks against Central Asian migrant workers in the 2000s, but the crime rates dropped drastically after dozens of neo-Nazis got lengthy prison sentences for extremism.

Rights activists and lawyers who have worked on extremism cases say the drop in violent hate crimes sent police and investigators scrambling to prosecute people for nonviolent offenses to show a solid record of tackling extremism.

The Moscow-based Center for Economic and Political Reform said in a 23-page report on extremism law released this month that most convictions for this type of crime resulted in fines or a few days in custody, with the aim of boosting the crime statistics.

But as tensions with neighboring Ukraine heated up, courts across Russia began to hand out more and more prison sentences for hate speech, the report said.
Director General of Kharkiv Tractor Plant, who was appointed in March of this year, has been preparing for dismantling the foundry equipment in order to export to Russia.

He was informed that he is suspected of committing acts of sabotage and has been put on a wanted list, the press center of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) reported on Saturday.

"The new CEO of the company, who was appointed in March 2016, on the instruction of Russian owners of Kharkiv Tractor Plant, has prepared the foundry equipment for dismantling for its further export to Russia. The technical and design documents for the plant's produce were prepared for shipment abroad," the SBU press center reported.

In addition, the CEO of the company was preparing to lay off nearly a third of all employees.

"The implementation of these plans would lead to a complete cessation of the activities of Kharkiv Tractor Plant, which was scheduled to get the order of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine," the SBU said.

After the intervention of the Security Service, the property and accounts of the plant have been arrested, which helped prevent the loss of production equipment and unique design documentation, as well as to prevent the dismissal of nearly a thousand skilled workers.

The director general of the enterprise is charged with committing offenses under Part 1, Article 14 (preparation of a crime) and Article 113 (sabotage) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, he has been put on a wanted list. A court issued permission for his arrest and delivery to court where preventive measure will be chosen for him, the SBU press center reported.

The report did not specify the name of the director general.

As reported, in March 2016 by a decision of the supervisory board of Kharkiv Tractor Plant, Andriy Koval, who led the plant in 2006-2007, was appointed director general.

The public joint-stock company Kharkiv Tractor Plant is one of the largest tractor producers in Ukraine. It was founded in 1931.

In late April 2016, Ukrainian businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky at the suggestion of Austrian businessman Siegfried Wolf, investor in Kharkiv Tractor Plant, bought a controlling stake in the company.
TWO EGG, Fla.  What came first, the Chicken or the Egg  or make that the Two Egg?

The answer is that the Alaska town of Chicken came before the Florida town of Two Egg, by about 30 or so years.

But they are neither first nor last in the countrys long list of odd-named places. In Pennsylvania youll find Intercourse and Virginville. In Louisiana, if youve had too much of Moonshine, you can always visit Cut Off.

The list goes on: Weed, Calif.; Uncertain, Texas; Eek, Alaska; Butts County, Ga., and oh so many more.

For some, such as Santa Claus, Ind., the name has created a major tourist industry. Others, such as Two Egg, are dots on the map that get the occasional visitor curious about the name but offer little besides a road sign  and even the sign often went missing until it was riveted in place.

It used to be one of the most stolen signs in the state of Florida, said Marcus Pender, whose grandfather owned a gas station and general store where trading eggs for goods led to the town name. I even got a couple myself in the day.

Heres background on a few peculiarly named places in the United States:

TWO EGG, FLA.

Located about 70 miles northwest of Floridas capital, Tallahassee, Two Egg is a small farming town where people used to trade eggs for goods at the general store. People would come in and trade two eggs for meat and cheese, said Pender. The store is no longer open, but people can still buy Two Egg cane syrup at a farm down the road. Details: http://www.twoeggfla.com.

CHICKEN, ALASKA

Doug Devore runs a website devoted to this small mining town near the Canadian border. He says in 1902, locals planned to call the town Ptarmigan after a chickenlike bird they often ate. But they worried people would spell ptarmigan wrong, so they named it chicken instead. Most visitors stop here on tour buses headed elsewhere, but some people make a special trip. There are some people who are just obsessed with weird town names, Devore said. Details: http://www.chickenalaska.com.

SANTA CLAUS, IND.

Melissa Brockman, executive director of the Spencer County Visitors Bureau, says Santa Claus was supposed to be named Santa Fe, but another Indiana town already had that name. The story goes that in the 1850s, families gathered to come up with another name on a snowy Christmas Eve. Sleigh bells were heard outside and children shouted, Santa Claus! And so the town was named.

Santa Claus has fewer than 2,500 people and no fully operating traffic signal, but 1 million people visit each summer and hundreds of thousands of requests arrive in December from people who want their Christmas cards postmarked Santa Claus. Details: http://www.santaclausind.org.

UNCERTAIN, TEXAS

Stories vary about how this border town got its name, says Randie Canup, owner of the Hoot n Holler guest cottage. One is that when the city applied for incorporation, it hadnt picked a name, so uncertain was written on the form and it stuck. But Canup thinks the true story dates to the 1800s, when a steamship delivered goods to Caddo Lake ports. Shipping labels often peeled off in the humidity, and those boxes were marked uncertain and left at the final stop  which became known as Uncertain.

With a population of about 100, tourists far outnumber residents. Cellphone coverage and internet access are spotty but theres fishing, birding and scenery. When people come here, some of what they do is nothing. They just want the quiet, Canup said. Details: http://www.cityofuncertain.com/index.shtml.

BUTTS COUNTY, GA.

The town is named for Capt. Samuel Butts, who died in 1814 during the Creek War. A radio station owner tired of people cracking jokes about the county suggested a name change at some point, but local business owner Henry Kitchen started a Save Our Butts campaign with T-shirts and bumper stickers.

With the name now safe, a popular bumper sticker reads Keep Our Butts Clean. The water tower welcoming visitors driving in from I-75 proclaims BEAUTIFUL BUTTS. Details: https://buttscountyga.com.

WEED, CALIF.

Abner Weed ran a lumber mill at the base of Mount Shasta in 1897, and thus the citys name. That doesnt make it immune to marijuana jokes  there are tons of I Love Weed souvenirs to be found around town. Even the local brewery, Mt. Shasta Brewing Company, plays it up  and got in trouble when the federal government objected to bottle caps that read A Friend in Weed is a Friend Indeed. Try LEGAL Weed. Details: http://weedca.govoffice3.com.
Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, Guess Ill go eat worms.

 Gross childrens song

On one of my first days as a student-reporter at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, the professor-editor sent me to Jefferson City. The governor, he said, was holding a press conference to announce a special session. Go write us a story.

Id been in Missouri for approximately 72 hours at that point, so I had a few questions. Number one, where was Jefferson City? Number two, Governor Who? Number three, special session of what?

Figure it out, he said. Thats what reporters do.

So, full of uncertainty about my career choice, I got a map, got into my VW Beetle and drove south on U.S. Highway 63 to Jefferson City. The Capitol was easy enough to find  big white building with a dome on it, no flies on me  and a sleepy guard at the front door directed me to the press room, empty except for one guy banging on a typewriter. He said everyone else was down the hall at the governors office.

I followed his directions. In the anteroom, I found six or eight badly dressed men holding notebooks and making jokes about the governor, a guy named Warren Hearnes (this was a long time ago) who was running late. I introduced myself and listened to them cracking wise about politicians, and noted that their attitudes and wardrobes were just as disreputable as mine. Hearnes showed up. The story wrote itself.

Talk about an epiphany. All my doubts were erased. It was as if heaven had opened up and a tongue of fire had settled over my head.

I was home. I could do this.

This is how I became part of the media, or to use the antiquated mid-20th century term, the press. Clean and rumpled, scruffy but lovable, that was us. Our job was to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

Now everybody hates me. Well, not me specifically, though judging from the mail, there are those who do. No, they hate the media collectively, as if everyone from The New York Times to the Larned, Kan., Tiller & Toiler is part of a giant monolith.

The right hates the mainstream media, the definition of which seems to float. The left hates the corporate media, which seems to mean everyone who works for companies intent on making money.

Exceptions are made. People hate the media less if we report something with which they agree. But mostly I feel like that model in shampoo commercial from the late 80s: Dont hate me because Im beautiful.

Last week was a tough one. Donald Trump held a press conference Tuesday at which he escalated his war on the news media. Attacking the press has been good for the putative Republican presidential nominee, just as good as attacking Mexicans and Muslims. This is a little weird, considering that Trump feeds on free media coverage ($2 billion worth, according to SMG Delta, which tracks television advertising) the way a vampire feeds on blood.

You would think the man could say thank you. Instead he spent most of his press conference attacking reporters variously as dishonest, not good people, sleazy, and among the most dishonest people I have ever met and wondering why nobody was thanking him, not that he was really looking for thanks. Of course not.

The impetus for all of this was a Washington Post story on May 23 that pointed out that Trump hadnt actually made or raised the contributions to veterans organizations that he promised Jan. 28. This had the vexing irritation of being true. Most of the checks that Trump held up for validation on Tuesday, including his own for $1 million, were dated after the Post called him out.

The hashtag #DeadbeatDonald started popping up.

Things werent any better for us lovable media on the Democratic side. On Monday New York magazine published a long profile of Hillary Clinton that included this paragraph:

If Clinton suffers from a kind of political PTSD that makes her overly cautious and scripted and closed-off, then its primary trigger is the press corps that trails her everywhere she goes. Clinton hates the press.

For most of the past quarter century, Clinton has been regularly hammered for various indiscretions that also had the vexing irritation of being true. From cattle futures bonanzas to the non-baking of cookies to Goldman Sachs speaking gigs and her private email server, nosy stories about Hillary Clinton have been a cottage industry.

Unlike Trump, she mostly seethes in private. She could be out on the hustings, publicly hating on the media and sucking up support from the six in 10 Americans who tell Gallup they dont trust us.

Maybe she will. The election could turn on who hates us most. Guess Ill go eat worms.
For the third time in four years, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, has a dangerous gun bill sitting on his desk awaiting signature. In 2013 and 2014, Nixon wisely vetoed the bills. He should do so again, with gusto. This years gun bill is particularly loathsome.

Senate Bill 656, passed on the final day of the legislative session May 13, is a 49-page monstrosity that contains multiple changes to the states already lax firearms laws. It would take Missouri beyond Deadwood. Just about anyone could carry weapons far more powerful than those in use in the Dakota Territory in the 19th century, without training, without a permit.

And thats not the worst of it. Among other provisions:

 It expands the so-called castle doctrine to allow invited guests on private property to use deadly force against anyone who unlawfully enters or attempts to enter the property. Right now only the propertys legal occupant has that right. If SB 656 becomes law, invited guests can shoot uninvited guests. Party crashers, for instance.

 Currently, gun owners dont have a duty to retreat from someone they think is threatening them with unlawful behavior on their private property. If SB 656 becomes law, dont worry about defusing matters no matter where you are. You can shoot first and ask questions later.

 Carry permits would become far less important. Currently, carrying a concealed weapon without a permit is a felony. SB 656 decriminalizes it in most instances. For example, it becomes a misdemeanor if the weapon is carried into a place where guns are prohibited, even for people with carry permits.

 People with carry permits who ignore no weapons signs will no longer be guilty of a crime. They can be ordered out of the premises, but not charged.

 The bill would allow concealed-carry weapons permit holders to avoid the pesky five-year renewal process. For $500, they could obtain lifetime permits, or a 25-year permit for $250. Drivers licenses are good for six years. Barbers licenses for only two.

The Legislature approved carrying a gun openly in 2014. Furthermore, 2014s gun bill pre-empted local jurisdictions from banning open carry. If SB 656 becomes law, gun owners will be able to carry openly without having to obtain a concealed-carry weapons permit first.

Nixon vetoed the 2014 bill only to see it overridden by the Republican Legislature. The year before that, the Legislature narrowly failed to override his veto of a bill that attempted to nullify federal gun laws.

Both houses of the Legislature passed SB 656 by veto-proof majorities. Nixon should veto it anyway. Someone has to stand up for reality: The Legislatures fear-driven gun infatuation has made the state a more dangerous place. More fear sells more guns. Stop the craziness.
Can we be assured that the plant will not pollute our land or water supply so that we are not discovering something decades later like so many areas in Missouri?
Ukraine's armed forces are able to stop any offensive operations of Russian troops in Ukraine's east, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.

"Ukraine has enough power to stop any offensive operations of any number of Russian troops," Poroshenko said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.

Speaking about the current situation in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone, the president said that according to Ukrainian intelligence, a new division of Russian special forces has appeared there. "We know the name of the brigade, its numbers, and we have already passed this information to our partners," Poroshenko said.

"In fact, Russia is using Ukraine's east as a testing ground for its newest weapons, electronic warfare, communications, means of suppressing our systems, but we have learned to oppose this, including with the help of our partners," the president said.
Rumors about the intention to hold an extraordinary session of the Verkhovna Rada and to pass a law on the elections in Donbas or amend the Constitution come from Russia, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has said.

"The information that has recently been circulated by certain irresponsible politicians that on [June] 9 an extraordinary session [of parliament] will be held in secret, where we allegedly are going to adopt the law on elections or amendments to the Constitution... these rumors are not of Ukrainian origin," Poroshenko said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.

The president said that during a meeting in Moscow with his French and German counterparts, "it was Mr. Surkov (Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov) who said that it would be good to start amending the Constitution on June 9."

"We will start with ensuring security. The law and the Ukrainian people give me as the president such right," he said.

Poroshenko also said that he has some constructive proposals to the parliament regarding the draft laws, which will be preceded by the adoption of amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine in the part of decentralization, same way as it happened when judicial amendments to the Constitution were introduced.
Rex Grogan showed his 1927 Austin 7 Top Hat, designed with a taller roof enabling the driver to wear his top hat while driving. Photo: Mark Williamson (R40/5/16/12)

RAGLEY Hall played host to the Classic Motor Show on Sunday and Monday with more than 600 vintage, classic, American, kit and custom cars, and motorcycles on parade for visitors to see.

New for 2016 was the interactive arena where visitors could find out more about the vehicles, as well as listen to live music and classic memories from the 1940s to the 1980s.

Several car clubs were in attendance, including the Metropolitan Owners Club and Austin 10 Driver Club, which was celebrating the history of local car production at Longbridge.

The Lotus Drivers Club also celebrated its 50th anniversary with a special display on Sunday.

Hilary Philpott, House Manager at Ragley, said the event had been a big success and Sundays sunshine had encouraged the crowds.

She added: It had something for everyone and it proved to be a great day out for all the family and not just motor enthusiasts!

The Great British Food Festival will be held at Ragley Hall on 11th and 12th June.
Gregory Doran, the Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

THE Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Gregory Doran, has been awarded the Hay Festival Medal for Drama.

Gregory was presented his medal on stage by festival director, Peter, Florence on Friday - day nine of the landmark literary festival.

He was appearing to discuss Shakespeares legacy in this 400th anniversary year.

The ten-day Hay Festival of Literature and Arts has been held every year since 1988 in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales. In 2001 Bill Clinton described it as 'The Woodstock of the mind'.

Since 2012, four people are awarded medals at the festival in recognition of their contribution to the arts.

Mr Florence said: This 400th anniversary year allows us a moment not just to celebrate the work of Shakespeare himself, but also the individuals who have dedicated their lifes work to sharing his greatness.

"As a close partner to the RSC it has been a privilege to witness Gregory Dorans work on stage and off in bringing Shakespeare to audiences globally and were thrilled to honour him at Hay.

The sterling silver medals are struck by hand, using the traditional 'drop hammer' method, engraved with an image of Athenas owl and the recipients name. All the letter engraving of winners' names and categories is done entirely by hand.

Other recipients this year were Janine di Giovanni was awarded the Hay Medal for Prose, Gillian Clarke was awarded the Hay Medal for Poetry, and Laura Marling was awarded the Hay Medal for Song.

Last years winners were Germaine Greer (Medal for Education), Alan Bennett (Medal for Drama), Robert MacFarlane (Medal for Prose), and Chris Riddell (Medal for Illustration).

The festival runs until tomorrow, Sunday.

Shakespeare has loomed large over it this year, with an ambitious programme of talks, workshops and projects on site.

Among them were Russell T Davies talking about his adaptation of A Midsummer Nights Dream, with the actress who plays Titania, Maxine Peake, and the Deputy Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Erica Whyman, discussed her current production.

To commemorate the 400th anniversary years of both Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare, the festival commissioned six English language and six Hispanic writers to create stories to celebrate both writers and to offer new and intriguing perspectives on them.

A special stream of events  Talking about Shakespeare: Lunatics, Lovers and Poets  showcased their work, including appearances by Salman Rushdie, Kamila Shamsie, Valeria Luiselli, Juan Gabriel Vasquez, Nell Leyshon, Vicente Molina Foix, Yuri Herrera, Marcos Giralt Torrente and Ben Okri.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., June 4, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Kansas Enrichment Network and Missouri AfterSchool Network held a statewide Municipal Summit on Afterschool and Expanded Learning today at the Kauffman Foundation Conference Center in Kansas City, Missouri. The Kansas Enrichment Network and Missouri AfterSchool Network were selected by the National League of Cities (NLC) as two of seven statewide afterschool networks (SANs) to host a municipal summit. Mayor Sylvester "Sly" James of Kansas City, Missouri, and Mayor Peggy Dunn of Leawood, Kansas, hosted the event. NLC President Melodee Colbert-Kean, councilmember, Joplin, Missouri, delivered remarks and Reginald McGregor, director of Engineer Development, Rolls-Royce Corporation, provided the keynote address.

"Effective education goes far beyond the traditional classroom experience," said Kansas City Mayor Sly James. "Afterschool and summer learning programs inspire learning and development outside of the classroom, and keep youth safe and engaged in positive experiences. As leaders in our communities, our support of these programs is critical for our youth's educational success."

This summit represented the first statewide convening of local elected officials focused specifically on the issue of afterschool. Kansas and Missouri were chosen to host this event based on demonstrated need and interest from their SANs and other education stakeholders and civic leaders. The summit brought together city leaders, state agency officials and school and community partners to focus on expanding afterschool opportunities for children and youth in the state.

The Kansas-Missouri Municipal Summit on Afterschool and Expanded Learning raised awareness of the critical roles municipal leaders can play to support afterschool; connected mayors with peers from across the states; highlighted successful approaches to building citywide systems of afterschool programming; engaged mayors in shaping state afterschool policies; and provided attendees with an opportunity to focus on developing strategic partnerships among city leaders, statewide afterschool networks and state agencies to advance local afterschool initiatives.

"Quality afterschool learning experiences help position youth for greater success in terms of knowledge, skills, health, safety, and college and career readiness," said National League of Cities (NLC) President Melodee Colbert-Kean, councilmember, Joplin, Missouri. "These statewide municipal summits are an exciting vehicle to convene city leaders to learn about the importance and demand for afterschool programs, and what local officials can do to ensure access. Our cities depend upon the success of our youth, and we must do all we can to support them."

Other state networks selected to host 2016 summits include: the Florida Afterschool Network, the Indiana Afterschool Network, the Kansas Enrichment Network, the Missouri Afterschool Network, the Massachusetts Afterschool Partnership and the Ohio Afterschool Network. The SANs are statewide organizations dedicated to improving policies, partnerships, funding and quality of afterschool opportunities. NLC has supported 19 state municipal summits over the past five years. All of the afterschool networks will partner with mayoral champions to host the summits, with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and The Wallace Foundation.

Click here to learn more about the statewide afterschool networks.

The National League of Cities is dedicated to helping city leaders build better communities. NLC is a resource and advocate for 19,000 cities, towns and villages, representing more than 218 million Americans. www.nlc.org

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081022/NLCLOGO

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SOURCE National League of Cities
NOTE: this press release relates to ASCO 2016 Congress abstract #5024, poster board #281, presented 4 June 2016.1

BEERSE, Belgium--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Janssen-Cilag International NV today announced that data from an interim analysis of The Prostate Cancer Registry, Europes first and largest prospective study of men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), indicate that the presence of distant metastases (M1) at initial diagnosis may be a critical indicator of future treatment and prognosis for mCRPC patients.

The data, presented today at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Congress, Chicago, USA, described characteristics at study entry of men with mCRPC who had distant metastases at primary diagnosis (M1) as compared to those whose cancer had not metastasised at primary diagnosis (M0). The data demonstrated higher prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, increased incidence of bone lesions and slightly worse level of functioning, in terms of their ability to care for themselves, daily activity, and physical ability (measured by ECOG Scale of Performance Status) for patients with M1 at initial diagnosis compared to patients with no metastases (M0) at initial diagnosis.

PSA levels were 34.4% higher (61.7 ng/mL vs 45.9 ng/mL) for M1 vs M0

Incidence of bone lesions (>5) were 24% higher (51% vs 41%) for M1 vs M0

ECOG Scale of Performance Status >2 were higher (17% vs 13%) for M1 vs M0

These data can help to better inform the way we treat mCRPC patients. It demonstrates that patients who present with metastases at diagnosis require particularly close attention from healthcare professionals to tackle the disease head on with prompt and effective treatment for the best possible outcome, said Dr Simon Chowdhury, Guys Hospital, London. Real world data, such as these, provide us with valuable insight into the true patient journey. They include a wider population, such as men of a broader age range and with other existing health problems, than the more restricted and closely monitored populations seen in interventional clinical trials.

The Prostate Cancer Registry has enrolled over 3,000 mCRPC patients in 199 centres across 16 European countries. It aims to address the key medical and scientific questions concerning the optimal care of mCRPC patients in routine practice. The size of the database will enable analysis on sub-populations relevant to healthcare professionals. In this dataset, 1323 patients with mCRPC were analysed, including 549 who had M1 (41.5%) and 526 who had M0 (39.8%) disease at initial diagnosis, and 248 men for whom state of metastasis was not measureable (Mx, 18.7%) at initial diagnosis. Follow-up of these patients over time will clarify how these clinical differences and subsequent treatment may affect clinical outcome.

Jane Griffiths, Company Group Chairman, Janssen Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) said: Janssen is proud to be supporting The Prostate Cancer Registry, which is the largest of its kind in Europe. As there is currently limited data available on the everyday experience of mCRPC patients we hope that the insights from the trial will lead to an improvement in the quality of care and prognosis for men with mCRPC.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men, with over 400,000 new cases diagnosed in Europe each year.2 Latest prostate cancer figures show that there are currently three million men living with the disease in Europe.3

-ENDS-

NOTES TO EDITORS

About The Prostate Cancer Registry

The Prostate Cancer Registry was initiated in 2013 as a long-term commitment by Janssen to address optimal treatment of mCRPC in routine practice. The Registry was designed in consultation with specialists in mCRPC and examines patients being managed in a range of oncology and urology settings, with the aim of reflecting routine clinical practice.

Patients are enrolled upon initiating a mCRPC treatment or a period of surveillance, defined as not currently receiving an active treatment for castration resistance. The Registry is collecting data on a pan-European scale on patient demography and status, treatment sequencing and effectiveness, ongoing disease management, quality of life, medical resource utilisation and outcomes.

The first analysis was presented at the 2015 European Cancer Congress (ECC) in Vienna Austria and final analysis is planned for 2019.

About Janssen

Janssen-Cilag International NV is one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies. Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson are dedicated to addressing and solving the most important unmet medical needs of our time, including oncology (e.g. multiple myeloma and prostate cancer), immunology (e.g. psoriasis), neuroscience (e.g. schizophrenia, dementia and pain), infectious disease (e.g. HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and tuberculosis) and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases (e.g. diabetes). Driven by our commitment to patients, we develop sustainable, integrated healthcare solutions by working side-by-side with healthcare stakeholders, based on partnerships of trust and transparency. More information can be found on www.janssen-emea.com. Follow us on www.twitter.com/janssenEMEA for our latest news.

Janssen in Oncology

In oncology, our goal is to fundamentally alter the way cancer is understood, diagnosed, and managed, reinforcing our commitment to the patients who inspire us. In looking to find innovative ways to address the cancer challenge, our primary efforts focus on several treatment and prevention solutions. These include disease area strongholds that focus on haematologic malignancies and prostate cancer; cancer interception with the goal of developing products that interrupt the carcinogenic process; biomarkers that may help guide targeted, individualised use of our therapies; as well as safe and effective identification and treatment of early changes in the tumour microenvironment.

References:

1 Chowdhury S et al. The Prostate Cancer Registry: Do patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) differ according to metastatic status at diagnosis? Poster presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Congress, 4 June, Chicago, USA. Poster Presentation. ASCO abstract #5024. Available at: http://abstract.asco.org/176/AbstView_176_161487.html. Last accessed May 2016.

2 Ferlay J et al. Cancer incidence and mortality patterns in Europe: Estimates for 40 countries in 2012. European Journal of Cancer. 2013; 49: p13741403.

3 European Commission. CORDIS Express: Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. Available at: http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/122705_en.html. Last accessed September 2015.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160604005005/en/

Janssen

Media Enquiries:

Emily Bone

+44 (0)7876 394 360

[email protected]

or

Investor contacts:

Lesley Fishman

Phone: +1 (0)732 524 3922

Source: Janssen
CHICAGO, June 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Two new studies co-authored by researchers from John Theurer Cancer Center (JTCC) at Hackensack University Medical Center and discussed at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting demonstrate the potentially substantial therapeutic benefit of genomic profiling in serious, life-threatening cancers.

The first study abstract (#e20616), "Genomic Profiling of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in the Community Setting," led by Martin Gutierrez, M.D., Director, Drug Discovery and Phase I Unit, John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center, demonstrates that genotyping in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) identifies mutations likely to respond to targeted therapies. Most patients with NSCLC present with advanced stages of the disease (stage IIIB or IV). Up to 11 mutations have been reported, seven of which are now recommended for testing in routine practice.

Researchers studied retrospectively 634 patients with NSCLC from the COTA (Cancer Outcomes Tracking & Analysis) database and identified patterns of testing and treatment in the "real-world" clinical setting. The investigators determined that genotyping for two most common relevant mutations i.e., epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a gene involved in cell growth and multiplication; and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), which contributes to cell proliferation and tumor survival, remain below recommended guidelines. Researchers concluded most patients are under-genotyped for all seven NSCLC treatable mutations.

"The benefit of targeted therapies has been demonstrated in large randomized clinical trials with not only better outcome including survival and less toxicity than standard chemotherapy. Evidently, efforts to support appropriate and timely testing must be encouraged in order to ultimately provide the best option for each of our patients," said Andre Goy, M.D., M.S., Chairman, John Theurer Cancer Center, and board member, COTA.

A second study (abstract #e18255) utilizing the COTA genomic database, "Early Economic Benefits of Gene Expression Profiling Using a 21-Gene Panel among Patients with Early Stage, Lymph Node Negative, Hormone Receptor Positive, HER2/neu Oncogene Negative Breast Cancer," was led by Stanley E. Waintraub, co-chief, Division of Breast Oncology, John Theurer Cancer Center, and Chief, Division of Hematology, Hackensack University Medical Center. Dr. Waintraub and colleagues assessed 227 breast cancer patients under 70 years of age; 68 percent underwent gene expression profiling (GEP).

The study demonstrates that GEP was able to identify a patient cohort showing positive long-term outcomes without need for adjuvant chemotherapy, resulting in significant cost savings, while maintaining a positive quality-adjusted life year (QALY), a measure of disease burden used to assess the value of medical interventions. Data revealed that adjuvant chemotherapy was utilized less in stage II patients with genomic profiled tumors, resulting in net savings of $11,494 per patient inclusive of the cost of the test. The GEP also identified a small group of high-risk patients with stage 1 disease who would likely benefit from chemotherapy, with a cost increase in that group of $4,505.

Researchers concluded that universal GEP testing of stage II or grade II/III lymph node negative breast cancers resulted in lower outpatient costs inclusive of the diagnostic test within the first six months of care. Among patients with stage I disease, GEP identified a small group of higher-risk patients who may derive clinical benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy who otherwise might not have been treated, with acceptable QALY ratios.

"Real-world confirmation of quality-adjusted life year is scant, and few studies focuses on the short-term costs that are critical in value-based payment reform," said Dr. Goy. "It comes down to adjusting appropriately our diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to optimize our patients' outcome. Smarter medicine is the answer to provide the best outcome with best value over time."

About John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical CenterJohn Theurer Cancer Center is New Jersey's largest and most comprehensive cancer center dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment, management, research, screenings, preventive care and survivorship of patients with all types of cancer.

Each year, more people in the New Jersey/New York metropolitan area turn to John Theurer Cancer Center for cancer care than to any other facility in New Jersey. The 14 specialized divisions feature a team of medical, research, nursing and support staff with specialized expertise that translates into more advanced, focused care for all patients. John Theurer Cancer Center provides comprehensive multidisciplinary care, state of the art technology, and access to clinical trials, compassionate care and medical expertise all under one roof. Physicians at John Theurer Cancer Center are members of Regional Cancer Care Associates, one of the nation's largest professional hematology/oncology groups. For more information please visit www.jtcancercenter.org.

About COTADeveloped by world-leading oncologists, Cancer Outcomes Tracking & Analysis (COTA) has developed the unique CNA (COTA Nodal Address) System to precisely classify cancer patients into meaningful clinical and prognostic cohorts. Using this sorting technique, COTA is able to account for the biologic variances of cancer, thus permitting more in-depth analyses of treatment variances. This enables doctors and health plans to improve patient care and move from fee-for-service to value-based reimbursement models. COTA arms providers, patients and payers with the actionable, real-time insights needed to improve clinical outcomes, while reducing the costs. Based in New York City, the Company's mission is to enable optimal care for every cancer patient. To learn more about COTA, call (866) 648-3833 or visit www.oncota.com.

CONTACT: Ovidio Torres Finn Partners [email protected] 312-329-3911  office 917-991-3399 -- mobile

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SOURCE John Theurer Cancer Center
EAST HANOVER, N.J., June 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Novartis today announced at the 52nd American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, the first results from the Tasigna (nilotinib) Treatment-free Remission (TFR) clinical trial program. These studies evaluated the potential to maintain molecular response (MR) after stopping therapy in adult patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in the chronic phase who achieved a sustained deep level of molecular response with Tasigna  a concept called TFR3. Findings from two open label trials, ENESTfreedom and ENESTop, showed that more than 50% of Ph+ CML patients who met the rigorous predefined response criteria of the trials were able to maintain TFR after stopping Tasigna both in the first-line setting and after switching from Gleevec (imatinib mesylate)*1,2. Discussions with regulatory authorities are underway with potential submissions in 2016.

Results from the ENESTfreedom study found that more than half (51.6%) of 190 CML patients (confidence interval [CI] 95%: 44.2%-58.9%) who achieved a sustained deep molecular response following at least three years of first-line treatment with Tasigna were able to discontinue therapy and remain in TFR for 48 weeks1. ENESTfreedom did not meet its primary objective, the percentage of patients in major molecular response (MMR; BCR-ABL1 International Scale [IS]  0.1%) at 48 weeks in the TFR phase, per the original statistical assumption that the lower limit of the 95% CI will be equal to or greater than 50%1. The median treatment duration in this trial was 3.6 years which is a short length of tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) exposure prior to attempting TFR. Of the 86 patients who restarted treatment with Tasigna due to loss of MMR, 98.8% were able to regain MMR (n=85) and 88.4% were able to regain MR4.5 (BCR-ABL1 IS  0.0032%; n=76)1. By weeks 7.9 and 15.0 of treatment reinitiation with Tasigna, 50% of retreated patients already achieved MMR and MR4.5, respectively1. One patient discontinued the study at 7.1 weeks without regaining MMR after reinitiating treatment with Tasigna1.

"ENESTfreedom is the first trial to show that, after a short treatment duration with nilotinib of 3.6 years, more than 50 percent of patients who stopped therapy were able to remain treatment-free at 48 weeks," said Dr. Andreas Hochhaus, Head of the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Jena University Hospital, Germany, and primary investigator for the ENESTfreedom study. "Findings from the nilotinib TFR trials add to the existing body of research exploring the discontinuation of tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment in CML and may help to establish safe and appropriate criteria for eligible patients to stop treatment1,2,3."

ENESTop, the second Novartis TFR trial at ASCO, evaluated 126 patients who were able to achieve a sustained deep molecular response with Tasigna, but not with prior Gleevec therapy2. In this trial, nearly 6 out of 10 (57.9%) patients (95% CI: 48.8%-66.7%) who achieved a sustained deep molecular response following at least three years of Tasigna therapy maintained a molecular response 48 weeks after stopping treatment2. The study met its primary endpoint of the proportion of patients without confirmed loss of MR4.0 (BCR-ABL1 IS  0.01%) or loss of MMR within 48 weeks of Tasigna discontinuation in the TFR phase2. In the study, 51 patients with confirmed loss of MR4.0 or loss of MMR restarted Tasigna2. Of these patients, 98.0% (n=50) regained at least MMR, with 94.1% (n=48) and 92.2% (n=47) regaining MR4.0 and MR4.5, respectively2. By weeks 12.0 and 13.1 of treatment reinitiation with Tasigna, 50% of retreated patients already achieved MR4.0 and MR4.5, respectively2. One patient entered the treatment reinitiation phase but did not regain MMR by 20 weeks and discontinued the study. The BCR-ABL1 for this patient was 62.2% at the start of Tasigna retreatment and 9.8% at study exit2.

"Novartis has been at the forefront of advancements in the treatment and understanding of CML for 20 years," said Alessandro Riva, MD, Global Head, Novartis Oncology Development and Medical Affairs. "The exploration of TFR in patients treated with Tasigna, which includes Novartis support of eight TFR studies, is the next step in our commitment to advancing care for patients living with this disease."

Results from ENESTfreedom were presented today in an oral session (Abstract #7001, 3:12 PM CDT) at ASCO in Chicago. Data from ENESTop will be presented in a poster session on June 6 (Abstract #7054, 8:00-11:00 AM CDT). Both studies are ongoing, with planned follow-up to evaluate the ability of patients to sustain remission for longer durations following discontinuation of Tasigna. These are the first presentations of data from the Novartis Tasigna TFR clinical trial program.

An important part of the Tasigna TFR studies is regular and frequent molecular monitoring with a well-validated assay able to measure BCR-ABL transcript levels down to MR4.5. Frequent patient monitoring during TFR allows timely determination of loss of MR4.0 and MMR and need for treatment initiation1.2.

No new major safety findings were observed in these studies in patients treated with Tasigna beyond those in the known safety profile of Tasigna1,2. In ENESTfreedom, 24.7% of patients experienced musculoskeletal pain during the first year of the TFR phase versus 16.3% while still taking Tasigna in the one-year consolidation phase1. In ENESTop, the rates of all grade musculoskeletal pain were 42.1% in the first year of the TFR phase versus 14.3% while still taking Tasigna in the consolidation phase2. No patients progressed to advance phase/blast crisis in the two studies1,2.

Stopping CML treatment is currently not a clinical recommendation and should only be attempted in the context of a clinical study. Discontinuation of treatment in ENESTfreedom and ENESTop was conducted under the conditions of the trials and in patients who met the rigorous predefined criteria of the trials1,2.

Novartis commitment to CML Novartis is supporting eight studies as part of its TFR clinical trial program, which includes ENESTfreedom and ENESTop, as well as two other ongoing company-sponsored TFR studies and four investigator-initiated studies that are now underway in more than 100 global sites across 40 countries. Over the past several decades, Novartis research in Ph+ CML has helped transform the disease from a fatal leukemia to a chronic condition and, today, the company continues its long-standing commitment to the global CML community. Novartis follows the science and builds upon existing evidence to explore what could be the next major contribution in the treatment of Ph+ CML through these TFR trials as well as investigational compounds.

About ENESTfreedom ENESTfreedom (Evaluating Nilotinib Efficacy and Safety in Clinical Trials  Following REsponsE in De nOvo CML-CP Patients) is an open label Phase II study involving 215 Ph+ CML patients in the chronic phase, conducted at 132 sites across 19 countries. ENESTfreedom evaluated stopping treatment in 190 adults with Ph+ CML after the patients had achieved a response of MR4.5 with Tasigna and a sustained deep molecular response for one year as a first-line treatment.

About ENESTop ENESTop (Evaluating Nilotinib Efficacy and Safety Trial) is an open label Phase II study involving 163 Ph+ CML patients, conducted at 63 sites across 18 countries. The trial evaluated stopping treatment in 126 adults with Ph+ CML in the chronic phase after patients had achieved and sustained deep molecular response for one year with Tasigna following Gleevec.

About Tasigna TASIGNA (nilotinib) is approved for the treatment of adult patients with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia (Ph+ CML) in chronic phase. The effectiveness of TASIGNA for this indication is based on major molecular response and cytogenetic response rates at 12 months.

TASIGNA is also approved in more than 122 countries for the treatment of chronic phase and accelerated phase Ph+ CML in adult patients resistant or intolerant to at least one prior therapy, including Gleevec, and in more than 120 countries for the treatment of adult patients with newly diagnosed Ph+ CML in chronic phase. The effectiveness of TASIGNA for this indication is based on hematologic and cytogenetic response rates.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION for TASIGNA (nilotinib) Capsules

WARNING: QT PROLONGATION AND SUDDEN DEATHS TASIGNA prolongs the QT interval. Prior to TASIGNA administration and periodically, monitor for hypokalemia or hypomagnesemia and correct deficiencies. Obtain ECGs to monitor the QTc at baseline, 7 days after initiation, and periodically thereafter, and following any dose adjustments Sudden deaths have been reported in patients receiving nilotinib. Do not administer TASIGNA to patients with hypokalemia, hypomagnesemia, or long QT syndrome Avoid use of concomitant drugs known to prolong the QT interval and strong CYP3A4 Inhibitors Avoid food 2 hours before and 1 hour after taking dose

Myelosuppression: Treatment with TASIGNA can cause Grade 3/4 thrombocytopenia, neutropenia, and anemia. Complete blood counts should be performed every 2 weeks for the first 2 months and then monthly thereafter

Treatment with TASIGNA can cause Grade 3/4 thrombocytopenia, neutropenia, and anemia. Complete blood counts should be performed every 2 weeks for the first 2 months and then monthly thereafter Cardiac and Vascular Events: Cases of cardiovascular events included ischemic heart disease-related events, peripheral arterial occlusive disease, and ischemic cerebrovascular events have been reported

Cases of cardiovascular events included ischemic heart disease-related events, peripheral arterial occlusive disease, and ischemic cerebrovascular events have been reported Pancreatitis and Elevated Serum Lipase: TASIGNA can cause increases in serum lipase. Caution is recommended in patients with a history of pancreatitis

TASIGNA can cause increases in serum lipase. Caution is recommended in patients with a history of pancreatitis Hepatotoxicity: The use of TASIGNA may result in elevations in bilirubin, AST/ALT, and alkaline phosphatase

The use of TASIGNA may result in elevations in bilirubin, AST/ALT, and alkaline phosphatase Electrolyte Abnormalities: TASIGNA can cause hypophosphatemia, hypokalemia, hyperkalemia, hypocalcemia, and hyponatremia

TASIGNA can cause hypophosphatemia, hypokalemia, hyperkalemia, hypocalcemia, and hyponatremia Drug Interactions: The concomitant use of strong CYP3A4 inhibitors or anti -arrhythmic drugs and other drugs that may prolong the QT interval should be avoided. Grapefruit products should also be avoided

The concomitant use of strong CYP3A4 inhibitors or anti -arrhythmic drugs and other drugs that may prolong the QT interval should be avoided. Grapefruit products should also be avoided The concomitant use of strong CYP3A4 inducers should be avoided. The concomitant use of proton pump inhibitors with TASIGNA is not recommended

When the concurrent use of a H2 blocker is necessary, administer approximately 10 hours before and approximately 2 hours after the TASIGNA dose. If necessary, an antacid may be administered approximately 2 hours before or approximately 2 hours after the TASIGNA dose

Food Effects: TASIGNA must be taken on an empty stomach. No food should be consumed for at least 2 hours before the dose and for at least 1 hour after the dose is taken

TASIGNA must be taken on an empty stomach. No food should be consumed for at least 2 hours before the dose and for at least 1 hour after the dose is taken Hepatic Impairment: TASIGNA exposure is increased in patients with impaired hepatic function

TASIGNA exposure is increased in patients with impaired hepatic function Tumor Lysis Syndrome: Cases of tumor lysis syndrome have been reported in TASIGNA-treated patients who were resistant or intolerant to prior CML therapy. Due to potential for tumor lysis syndrome, maintain adequate hydration and correct uric acid levels prior to initiating therapy with TASIGNA

Cases of tumor lysis syndrome have been reported in TASIGNA-treated patients who were resistant or intolerant to prior CML therapy. Due to potential for tumor lysis syndrome, maintain adequate hydration and correct uric acid levels prior to initiating therapy with TASIGNA Total Gastrectomy: The exposure of TASIGNA is reduced in patients with total gastrectomy

The exposure of TASIGNA is reduced in patients with total gastrectomy Lactose: Since the capsules contain lactose, TASIGNA is not recommended for patients with rare hereditary problems of galactose intolerance, severe lactase deficiency with a severe degree of intolerance to lactose-containing products, or of glucose-galactose malabsorption

Since the capsules contain lactose, TASIGNA is not recommended for patients with rare hereditary problems of galactose intolerance, severe lactase deficiency with a severe degree of intolerance to lactose-containing products, or of glucose-galactose malabsorption Monitoring Laboratory Tests: Chemistry panels, including electrolytes, calcium, magnesium, lipid profile, and glucose should be checked prior to therapy and periodically

Chemistry panels, including electrolytes, calcium, magnesium, lipid profile, and glucose should be checked prior to therapy and periodically Embryo-Fetal Toxicity: Women of childbearing potential should avoid becoming pregnant while taking TASIGNA and should be advised of the potential hazard to the fetus if they do

Women of childbearing potential should avoid becoming pregnant while taking TASIGNA and should be advised of the potential hazard to the fetus if they do Reactivation of hepatitis B can occur in patients who are chronic carriers of this virus after receiving TKI treatment

ADVERSE REACTIONS: The most commonly reported non-hematologic adverse reactions (20% in patients) were nausea, rash, headache, fatigue, pruritus, vomiting, diarrhea, cough, constipation, arthralgia, nasopharyngitis, pyrexia, and night sweats. Hematologic adverse drug reactions include myelosuppression: thrombocytopenia, neutropenia and anemia

The most commonly reported non-hematologic adverse reactions (20% in patients) were nausea, rash, headache, fatigue, pruritus, vomiting, diarrhea, cough, constipation, arthralgia, nasopharyngitis, pyrexia, and night sweats. Hematologic adverse drug reactions include myelosuppression: thrombocytopenia, neutropenia and anemia DOSE ADJUSTMENTS OR MODIFICATIONS: TASIGNA may need to be temporarily withheld and/or dose reduced for QT prolongation, hematologic toxicities that are not related to underlying leukemia, clinically significant moderate or severe non hematologic toxicities, laboratory abnormalities or concomitant use of strong CYP3A4 inhibitors

Please see full Prescribing Information including Boxed WARNING.

About Gleevec Gleevec (imatinib mesylate) tablets are indicated for newly diagnosed adult patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia (Ph+ CML) in the chronic phase (CP). Gleevec is also indicated for the treatment of patients with Ph+ CML in blast crisis (BC), accelerated phase (AP), or in CP after failure of interferon-alpha therapy.

GLEEVEC Important Safety Information GLEEVEC can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. Women should not become pregnant, and should be advised of the potential risk to the unborn child.

GLEEVEC is often associated with edema (swelling) and serious fluid retention. Studies have shown that edema (swelling) tended to occur more often among patients who are 65 and older or those taking higher doses of GLEEVEC.

Cytopenias (reduction or lack of certain cell elements in blood circulation), such as anemia, have occurred. If the cytopenia is severe, your doctor may reduce your dose or temporarily stop your treatment with GLEEVEC.

Severe congestive heart failure and left ventricle dysfunction have been reported, particularly in patients with other health issues and risk factors. Patients with heart disease or risk factors or history of renal failure will be monitored and treated for the condition. Reactivation of hepatitis B can occur in patients who are chronic carriers of this virus after receiving TKI treatment.

Severe liver problems (hepatotoxicity) may occur. Cases of fatal liver failure and severe liver injury requiring liver transplants have been reported with both short-term and long-term use of GLEEVEC.

Bleeding may occur. Severe gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding has been reported in patients with KIT+ GIST. GI tumor sites may be the cause of this bleeding; therefore, GI symptoms should be monitored at the start of treatment.

In patients with hypereosinophilic syndrome (a condition with increased eosinophils, which are a type of white blood cell) and heart involvement, cases of heart disease (cardiogenic shock/left ventricular dysfunction) have been associated with the initiation of GLEEVEC therapy.

Skin reactions, such as fluid-filled blisters, have been reported with the use of GLEEVEC.

Clinical cases of hypothyroidism (reduction in thyroid hormones) have been reported in patients taking levothyroxine replacement with GLEEVEC.

Long-term use may result in potential liver, kidney, and/or heart toxicities; immune system suppression may also result from long-term use.

GI perforation (small holes or tears in the walls of the stomach or intestine), in some cases fatal, has been reported.

Growth retardation has been reported in children taking GLEEVEC. The long-term effects of extended treatment with GLEEVEC on growth in children are unknown.

Cases of tumor lysis syndrome (TLS), which refers to a metabolic and electrolyte disturbance caused by the breakdown of tumor cells, have been reported and can be life-threatening in some cases. Correction of clinically significant dehydration and treatment of high uric acid levels are recommended prior to initiation of GLEEVEC.

Reports of motor vehicle accidents have been received in patients receiving GLEEVEC. Caution patients about driving a car or operating machinery.

Almost all patients treated with GLEEVEC experience side effects at some time. Some common side effects you may experience are fluid retention, muscle cramps or pain and bone pain, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, decreased hemoglobin, abnormal bleeding, nausea, fatigue and rash.

GLEEVEC is sometimes associated with stomach or intestinal irritation. GLEEVEC should be taken with food and a large glass of water to minimize this problem. There have been rare reports, including deaths, of stomach or intestinal perforation (a small hole or tear).

If you are experiencing any of the mentioned side effects, please be sure to speak with your doctor immediately.

Do not take any other medications without talking to your doctor or pharmacist first, including Tylenol (acetaminophen); herbal products (St. John's wort, Hypericum perforatum); Coumadin (warfarin sodium); rifampin; erythromycin; metoprolol; ketoconazole; and Dilantin (phenytoin). Taking these with GLEEVEC may affect how they work, or affect how GLEEVEC works.

You should also tell your doctor if you are taking or plan to take iron supplements. Patients should also avoid grapefruit juice and other foods that may affect how GLEEVEC works.

Please see full Prescribing Information.

Disclaimer The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by words such as "potential," "underway," "exploring," "may," "exploration," "next step," "commitment," "continues," "explore," "could," "investigational," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential new indications or labeling for Tasigna or Gleevec, regarding potential marketing approvals for Novartis investigational compounds, or regarding potential future revenues from Tasigna, Gleevec or such investigational compounds. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs and expectations of management regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that Tasigna or Gleevec will be submitted or approved for any additional indications or labeling in any market, or at any particular time. Neither can there be any guarantee that any Novartis investigational compounds will be submitted or approved for sale in any market, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that Tasigna, Gleevec or any Novartis investigational compounds will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding Tasigna, Gleevec and such investigational compounds could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including unexpected clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the company's ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; general economic and industry conditions; global trends toward health care cost containment, including ongoing pricing pressures; unexpected manufacturing issues, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Novartis Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation researches, develops, manufactures and markets innovative medicines aimed at improving patients' lives. We offer a broad range of medicines for cancer, cardiovascular disease, endocrine disease, inflammatory disease, infectious disease, neurological disease, organ transplantation, psychiatric disease, respiratory disease and skin conditions. The company's mission is to improve people's lives by pioneering novel healthcare solutions.

Located in East Hanover, New Jersey, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation is an affiliate of Novartis AG, which provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, eye care and cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals. Novartis is the only global company with leading positions in these areas. In 2015, the Group achieved net sales of USD 49.4 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 8.9 billion (USD 8.7 billion excluding impairment and amortization charges). Novartis Group companies employ approximately 118,000 full-time-equivalent associates. Novartis products are available in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.

Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at http://twitter.com/novartis.

*Known as Glivec (imatinib) outside the US, Canada and Israel.

References

Hochhaus, A. et al. Treatment-free remission (TFR) in patients (pts) with chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase (CML-CP) treated with frontline nilotinib: Results from the ENESTfreedom study. Oral Presentation. Abstract #7001. 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL, USA. Hughes, H.P. et al. Treatment-free remission (TFR) in patients (pts) with chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase (CML-CP) treated with second-line nilotinib (NIL): First results from the ENESTop study. Poster Presentation. Abstract #7054. 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL, USA. Hughes, H.P. and Ross, R.M. Moving treatment-free remission into mainstream clinical practice in CML. Blood. 2016. Advance online publication. doi# 10.1182/blood-2016-01-694265.

Novartis Media Relations

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SOURCE Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
ATHENS (Reuters) - Lawyers have filed an application to the European Union's human rights court to halt the deportation of a homosexual Syrian refugee who was denied asylum in Greece, a German advocacy group said on Friday.

The former oil industry worker has been threatened with death by Islamic State (IS) if he doesn't return to Syria and work for the radical Islamist group in oil operations in territory it controls, it said.

The man was one of only two asylum seekers the Greek asylum service have rejected out of a group of 30 applicants it considered, a government migration official told Reuters.

The decision was "incomprehensible", especially in view of the man's sexual orientation, said Karl Kopp, spokesman for the German group Pro Asyl which provides support for refugees.

"We applied for interim measures ... because the man is in imminent danger if he returns to Turkey," Kopp said of the man who fled first to Turkey and then Greece in March.

"He worked in the oil industry," he said. "When he was in Istanbul, IS threatened to kill him if he didn't join their oil operations in Syria."

Three lawyers from Pro Asyl joined a local lawyer in Lesbos and the Greek refugee council (GCR) to jointly apply for interim measures at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg on Thursday to stop his deportation.

A Pro Asyl statement said the man faced discrimination in Turkey, which it called "one of the countries in Europe and beyond where homosexuals face the most problems and dangers".

He is now being held by Lesbos police until the deportation process is completed, a local police spokesman told Reuters.

This would be the first case before the ECHR to challenge the EU-Turkey deal that lets Athens send illegally arriving refugees back to Turkey, Pro Asyl said in an announcement.

Under Greek law, there is room for a further domestic appeal on the decision, which could potentially prevent him from being deported if approved, the migration official said.

Applications for interim measures, which can also prevent a deportation, are normally considered by the ECHR within a few days, unlike normal appeals that usually take more time.

(Reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
Prime Minister of Libya's unity government Fayez Seraj delivers a speech during a joint news conference with Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat (not pictured) in Tripoli, Libya, May 4, 2016. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny

By Aidan Lewis

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya is uniting its various armed factions and will be able to eradicate Islamic State militants on its territory with its own forces, the head of the U.N.-backed unity government in Tripoli said on Friday.

Prime Minister Fayez Seraj said his Government of National Accord (GNA) was working with brigades from the western city of Misrata and eastern Ajdabiya that were advancing on the radical Islamist movement in their coastal stronghold of Sirte.

No one - not even the controversial eastern commander Khalifa Haftar - would be excluded from a national army as long as they submitted to central political authority, he told Reuters in his first interview with international media since arriving in Tripoli in late March.

"We are sure that the battle and the eradication of Islamic State will be carried out by Libyans," he said.

"I think that what was achieved from Ajdabiya to Sirte and from Misrata to Sirte was a good achievement, given the capabilities that the fighters have."

Seraj's government is the result of a U.N.-mediated deal to stop the anarchy and conflict plaguing Libya since the 2011 uprising that ended Muammar Gaddafi's four decades in power.

Western states see it as the best hope for uniting Libya's many political factions and armed groups to tackle Islamic State and crack down on people smuggling across the Mediterranean.

Both crises have been highlighted in the past two weeks, with armed forces loyal to the GNA pushing Islamic State back around Sirte and hundreds of migrants dying in a new wave of boat departures from western Libya.

'GREAT HOPE'

A week ago brigades based in Misrata reached the outskirts of Sirte, while the Petroleum Facilities Guard, which controls oil terminals in eastern Libya, have recaptured two towns about 130 km (80 miles) east of Sirte.

Haftar's forces have also announced plans to move on Sirte, though they are still engaged in a battle with Islamists and other opponents for control of the eastern city of Benghazi.

Seraj played down fears that competing campaigns for Sirte would revive conflict between factions in the east and west.

"I have great hope that the two sides will be united," he said.

It was too early to talk about a timeframe for the battle for Sirte, Seraj said. The GNA is still working to build a unified command structure.

He confirmed that Libyan brigades had been benefiting from international intelligence, though he would not comment on the activities of Western special forces.

"Security and intelligence information, lifting the arms embargo, that's the international assistance we are talking about."

Seraj said he had tried to persuade Haftar, a popular figure in the east but despised by many in western Libya, to cooperate with the GNA - and that there could still be a place for him in a future military structure.

"We're not going to exclude anyone like Haftar, or any other person, as long as he obeys the political leadership," he said.

BLOCKED VOTE

Libya's conflict escalated in 2014, when loose alliances of armed groups fought for control of Tripoli. The internationally recognized parliament and government moved to the east, and a rival set of institutions was set up in the capital.

Since the GNA arrived with the backing of Misrata's powerful brigades, the self-decalared government in Tripoli has faded - though the GNA's leadership still operates from the secure naval base on the seafront where Seraj was speaking.

Nationally, the GNA's progress has been hampered by its failure to win formal approval from the House of Representatives (HOR), the eastern parliament. Hardliners in Tobruk, the city were the parliament is based, have repeatedly blocked a vote.

Seraj said he was still pushing for the HOR to convene, possibly in another city.

"I'm trying to stress to them and convince them that they should hold a session in the near future  in any place  just to take their responsibility to make the right decision about many issues," Seraj said.

The HOR is meant to decide on the leadership of the central bank, which like the National Oil Corporation and the sovereign wealth fund, currently has two rival heads. Seraj said he expected decisions on the leadership of those institutions in the "near future".

SMUGGLERS' BOATS

As with the fight against Islamic State, Seraj said Libya should retain sovereign control over tackling the crisis of migration between Libya and Italy.

He signaled his opposition to the expansion of the EU's naval mission into Libyan waters, saying that destroying smugglers' boats on Libya's shores was "not a solution", and the problem must be dealt with in migrants' countries of origin.

Seraj said he was working with the EU and neighboring states including Niger and Chad to find a formula for repatriating Europe-bound migrants to their countries and not to Libya, and that in the meantime, Libya needed humanitarian assistance to feed and house migrants passing through.

"It upsets us that many people have lost their lives on the shores of Libya, shores that should be a place of prosperity, that should be full of life and not death," he said.

(This version of the story was refiled to correct grammar in the headline.)

(Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Tom Heneghan and Angus MacSwan)
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during his weekly broadcast "En contacto con Maduro" (In contact with Maduro) at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, May 31, 2016. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

CARACAS (Reuters) - President Nicolas Maduro's legal team lodged a formal complaint in Venezuela's Supreme Court on Friday against the National Assembly's opposition leaders for allegedly "usurping" his role in international affairs.

Maduro's legal adviser Elvis Amoroso said documents were delivered to the court accusing the assembly's heads of violating the constitution by requesting support from international bodies including the Organization of American States. The government views the 35-member OAS as a puppet of hostile U.S. policy.

"It's unacceptable that bodies like the OAS ... receive these men when they know they are usurping a constitutional provision that international relations are exclusively managed by the president," Amoroso told state TV from the court.

While the measure was an attempt to stop leaders of the congress from addressing foreign bodies such as the OAS, there are wider fears in opposition circles that the president may seek to close down the legislature altogether.

Thanks to public ire over a brutal economic crisis in the OPEC nation of 30 million, the opposition won control of the assembly in a December election and is pushing for a recall referendum this year to oust Maduro.

Maduro, 53, is already winning a power conflict with the National Assembly, whose measures have been repeatedly struck down by the Supreme Court, but he said recently that the legislature could soon "disappear".

Simon Calzadilla, the congress' third in command, said Friday afternoon that the Supreme Court cannot prosecute a lawmaker without the authorization of the National Assembly, according to the country's constitution.

"The only ones usurping here are the Supreme Court judges in not following the constitution," he told reporters.

OAS head Luis Almagro, a former Uruguayan foreign minister and now a bitter enemy of Maduro, sought this week to begin proceedings at the hemispheric body that could lead to Venezuela's suspension on grounds of violating democracy.

Congress head Henry Ramos, a veteran opposition leader, may address an OAS session.

(Reporting by Girish Gupta and Eyanir Chinea; Writing by Girish Gupta and Daniel Kai; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and James Dalgleish)
ANALYSIS: At the moment, nearly every politician is talking a tough game about tackling the housing market.

With new figures this week showing average Auckland house prices heading towards $1 million, the Government unveiled a new policy to make councils free up more land for houses.

Labour, the Greens and other parties have hammered John Key for failing to do enough, pointing to rising levels of homelessness as a sign National isn't making a difference.

PETER MEECHAM/FAIRFAX NZ Perhaps the biggest factor for politicians is the power in the hands of those who already own houses.

However, a closer look reveals limits to how far politicians will go in addressing housing affordability.

READ MORE:

* NZ house price rises outpace all but one country

* Will new rules tackle the housing crisis?

* Our MPs' property interests

* Government directive on housing requires councils to make 'culture change' on land supply

* 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?

* Analysis: the heat on housing

Housing Minister Nick Smith speaks about keeping price rises to single digits each year, rather than stalling - or even falling.

BRUCE MERCER/FAIRFAX NZ Housing Minister Nick Smith has been talking tough on tackling affordability issues - but there are reasons why rising house prices are good for politicians.

It's not just the Government which finds it a tricky question.

At his pre-Budget speech, Labour leader Andrew Little was asked three times whether he wanted Auckland house prices to drop.

Each time, he didn't quite answer directly, saying his main goal was to "make sure people have a house" and increase the number of affordable homes in the city.

So are there any reasons why politicians might not want to stop house prices from rising?

POLITICIANS 'DON'T FEEL HARSH EFFECTS'

Some cynics point to the high property ownership rates among MPs, and the fact that they benefit more than the average Kiwi from rising prices.

In the latest register of MPs' pecuniary and other interests, MPs declared a stake in, or full ownership of, 295 properties - an average of 2.43 properties per MP.

Politicians' 88 per cent home ownership rate is far above the national average, and many of those houses are in Auckland: 62 in total, owned by 37 MPs.

University of Otago political scientist Bryce Edwards says while politicians are unlikely to be making decisions based on how they will benefit, the fact that many already have houses mean they're insulated from the negative side of rising house prices.

"We know they have often a portfolio of housing, and so...they don't feel the harsh effects of this - it's just not that visceral sort of impact on them."

HOMEOWNERS' POLITICAL POWER

While that can't be ignored, perhaps the biggest factor for politicians is the power in the hands of those who already own houses.

Edwards says many homeowners see rising house prices as a positive sign, both of the economy's strength and the fact that their own wealth is growing.

Studies from the UK and Canada show that homeowners are much more likely to vote than renters, and while home ownership rates are dropping here, the 65 per cent of Kiwis who own a home are still a powerful voting bloc when local elections roll around.

Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei found that out the hard way, when she was forced to backtrack in 2013 after saying during a TV debate that she wanted house prices to fall.

'EVERYBODY JUST FREEZES'

Economist Shamubeel Eaqub says the losses that homeowners could suffer from a drop in house prices are far more powerful, psychologically speaking, than the gains for those not on the property ladder.

"People amplify the impact of negative things - if prices are falling ,everybody just freezes."

Eaqub says a drop in house prices would be "disastrous" for recent buyers with large mortgages, while even those who have done well off decades of rises will feel as if they're affected.

Eric Crampton, head of research for the New Zealand Initiative, says that same political pressure is why councils haven't done more to encourage growth in their areas.

"No council really has a strong incentive to bat back NIMBY opposition to densification...people who don't live in apartments that haven't been built yet can't vote against you, but people who do live in those neighbourhoods and get mad about change can vote against you."

Crampton says the Government is also reluctant to be seen as "stomping on local democracy" by telling councils what to do - although a recent policy alignment between National and Labour means that may be less of a concern.

TIPPING POINT

While all parties have to consider the political calculus, Edwards says that National in particular may feel less pressure to act, given many of their voters are wealthier and more likely to feel good about high house prices.

However, with images of young Kiwis shut out of the housing market continuing to dominate the news - along with those of families living in cars or garages - have politicians' hands been forced?

Crampton thinks so, saying any benefits to homeowners are being outweighed by their children's struggles to buy a first home - and the possibility of a crash.

"The embedded risks now are just way higher than [not acting] - once you're at 10 to one for median house price to median income ratios, the risks of a sharp correction get a lot harder and that'll be a lot more worrying for any incumbent government."

However, Edwards says it's still not clear how, or whether, the Government will bring prices down to an affordable level.

"Even if we ended up with an increase of 2 per cent per year, it still hasn't fixed the problem - we've still got this severe situation in Auckland where most people can't afford to be first home buyers."
The publication of the so-called shadow costs of the Party of Regions will not help the inquiry, and the police should have been investigating it for two years now, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has said.

"I already know that not only NABU (the National Anti-Corruption Bureau) has such documents. These documents come from law-enforcement agencies. I'm disappointed that instead of investigating these documents for two years, we are using them as some suitcases with dirty laundry. I am convinced that those who use it should be brought to justice," Poroshenko said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.

At the same time, he stressed that the disclosure of these documents will not help the investigation. The president also pointed out that the ultimate purpose of the investigation is bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Poroshenko is convinced that ex-deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine Viktor Trepak, as a staff officer of the SBU, having received the so-called "shadow cost" of the Party of Regions, had to open criminal proceedings.

"He behaved as a politician, not as a career officer of the security services," the president said.

At the same time, the head of state said: "I am convinced that as an SBU staff officer, having received these documents, he had to open a criminal case. If he had them [the documents] but he did not open the criminal case, I hope that this is not so, otherwise I would be very disappointed... if someone dumped this documents off and he ran into the NABU, that is his right. "

According to Poroshenko, General Trepak has not been dismissed from the SBU, he is a career officer.

The Dzerkalo Tyzhnia weekly on May 28 published an interview with the former first deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Viktor Trepak, who states he has passed to the NABU the documents that confirm the illegal payments by the Party of Regions of cash to a number of former and incumbent high-ranking officials. According to him, the matter concerns the so called second set of books of the Regions Party with payments for a total of about $2 billion.
(File photo)

The reported US investigation into Huawei Technologies over whether the company has exported US technological goods to sanctioned countries might be motivated by trade protectionism, according to some Chinese analysts.

It will have limited impact on the Chinese tech giant, they said.

The United States has subpoenaed Huawei as part of a probe into whether the Chinese telecom equipment maker has exported such products to Iran, Cuba and other nations on the US sanction list, The New York Times reported.

The investigation comes after the US Commerce Department temporarily sanctioned another Chinese tech company, ZTE Corp, this year, and it highlights a growing discord between China and the US on communication technology trade, analysts said.

Ma Yu, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing, said the US is paying close attention to Chinese technology firms as they strive to gain a bigger international presence.

"There has been an obvious rise in global trade protectionism, and China has been targeted as a main rival that poses a serious threat to US jobs in the telecommunication sector," Ma said.

Huawei, one of the world's largest makers of smartphones and telecom equipment, has been growing robustly in recent years.

The company is aiming to beat Samsung Electronics Co and Apple Inc within the next five years to become the world's biggest smartphone maker, with a market share of more than 25 percent, its director, Yu Chengdong, told The Wall Street Journal on Friday.

Xiang Ligang, an independent telecom analyst and founder of industry website cctime.com, said the probe will have limited impact on Huawei, given the company's abundant intellectual properties and its ability to make in-house chips and operating systems.

"Compared with ZTE, which chiefly relies on the US semiconductor company Qualcomm Inc for mobile chips, Huawei is using self-developed chips in its smartphones and tablets," Xiang said.

Even if the US government blocks sales of US technology to the company based on its probe results, Huawei may still rely on its competitive research and development team to meet its technological needs, Xiang said, adding that "the probe is a challenge but also an opportunity".

According to The New York Times, the US government is demanding that Shenzhen-based Huawei submit all of its information on the export or re-export of US technology to Iran, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Syria, Sudan and Cuba.

The subpoena is administrative, not criminal, and Huawei had not been accused of wrongdoing, the newspaper said.

Huawei declined to comment on the US inquiry, but a company representative told Reuters that it abides by US laws and regulations.
BAMAKO, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The head of the United NationsPeacekeeping Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) Mahamat Saleh Annadif on Thursday visited the Chinese contingent based in the northern Malian town of Gao, after a terrorist attack that left one of them dead.

"We lost the first Chinese soldier in Mali. We condole with the families of the victim. However, we have a very difficult mission and we should continue. We should learn the lessons from the attack. To do this, we must use all the experience we have acquired, including during this tragedy," Annadif said when he addressed the Chinese contingent.

"We are here to tell you that we are together, to express our solidarity, to appreciate your resilience and courage and to inform you that we shall work day and night to guarantee your safety and security," the MINUSMA boss added.

MINUSMA said in a statement that besides the Chinese soldier who was killed, two other soldiers with serious injuries were evacuated to Dakar, Senegal.

Annadif reiterated the "determination of the UN force to continue with efforts to restore lasting peace and reconciliation in Mali."
First Results of Criminal Investigation into MH17 Crash to Be Presented

Picture taken on Sept. 16, 2015 shows debris from the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 collected by local residents in the village of Rossipne, in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine. The final report on the cause of the MH17 crash will be made public on Oct. 13. (Xinhua/Alexander Ermochenko)

Debris from the crash site of the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 is being loaded at the Pelahiivskyi train station ahead of its transportation to the eastern Ukrainian town of Kharkov on Sunday, November 23, 2014. The Boeing 777 carrying 295 people on board crashed near the village of Grabovo, in eastern Ukraine, on July 17, 2014. [Photo: CFP]

The Netherlands Public Prosecutor's Office announced Friday that an international joint investigation team (JIT) would present the first results of the criminal investigation into the crash of flight MH17 after this summer.

The investigation concerns the weapon which was used to shoot down the aircraft and the exact launch site of the weapon.

Earlier this year, the JIT announced that before the second half of this year they would be able to conclude this part of the investigation.

"This investigation is at a very advanced stage, but a few issues take more time than expected," said the Dutch Public Prosecution Service in its statement.

On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine. The plane was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. On board were 283 passengers and 15 crew members. Among the passengers were 196 Dutch nationals.

The Dutch Safety Board carried out an investigation into the cause of the crash to draw safety lessons for future use. Meanwhile, the JIT-led criminal investigation is aimed at identifying the suspects.

In the JIT, the Netherlands Public Prosecutor's Office and the Dutch National Police work together with police and judicial authorities of Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, and Ukraine. The purpose of the criminal investigation is to establish the facts, identify those responsible for the crash, and to collect evidence which can be used in court.
An injured Chinese peacekeeper Si Chongchang receives treatment in a hospital in Senegal. A deadly attack killed one Chinese peacekeeper and injured more than 10 people in Mali on May 31, 2016. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

Two Chinese peacekeepers injured in Mali have received a visit from the Chinese Ambassador to Senegal Zhang Xun.

The two were injured during a peacekeeping mission and later transferred to Senegal due to lack of necessary treatment in Mali.

Both soldiers have undergone surgeries and are currently in stable condition.

A Chinese member of a United Nations mission in Mali was killed, and four other Chinese peacekeepers were injured in a rocket attack on Tuesday.

A special team from the Chinese military arrived in Mali on Friday to assist in the recovery work and gather information on the incident.

Meanwhile, a Chinese peacekeeping mission in Sudan has completed a mission to build fortifications for Egyptian peacekeepers in the village of Tulus, where the security situation remains fragile.

Due to its old and outdated fortifications, the Egyptian peacekeeping camp had suffered several attacks, posing serious threats to the safety of the peacekeepers stationed there.

Chinese peacekeepers were given a mission to build new fortifications for the Egyptian camp.

It took the Chinese peacekeepers three days and a trip of over 200 kilometers through mostly deserts and rebel-held areas to arrive at the Egyptian camp.

The Egyptian forces dispatched a team to guard the Chinese soldiers during the construction period, as the site was located in a conflict zone between two tribes.

The construction project has been completed three months in advance, with the joint efforts of both the Chinese and Egyptian troops.

China's participation in the United Nations peacekeeping operations started in 1990, when it sent five military observers to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in the Middle East.

Among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, China is the biggest contributor to the UN's peacekeeping mission in terms of the number of personnel.

The peacekeepers, including soldiers, doctors and support services personnel, have helped to enhance security in the conflict zones of Africa and other places around the world.
Commercial Bank secures Chinese loan By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera View(s): View(s):

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC (Commercial) recently secured a commercial loan from a Chinese bank, the result of a visit by a high-level delegation of bankers to China in mid-February led by Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran. Five other banks  Bank of Ceylon, Peoples Bank, HNB, Sampath and Seylan were part of the delegation. Commercial CEO, Jegan Durairatnam, told the Business Times that what has been secured is a single bank loan. Meanwhile Commercial, which has reported profit before VAT and NBT of Rs 5.377 billion for the three months ending 31st March 2016, commencing the year with a robust 27.89 per cent growth, will be opening its Maldives branch in two months, he said.

In September 2015, the bank received regulatory approval for the establishment of a fully-fledged Tier I Bank in Male. Commercials profit before tax for the quarter was up 27.95 per cent to Rs 4.579 billion, and profit after tax grew by 28.92 per cent to Rs 3.234 billion. The Net interest income for the three months was Rs 8.113 billion, a growth of 12.17 per cent, the lower growth rate due to an 18.27 per cent increase in interest expenses (Rs. 9.937 billion) consequent to a rise in rates. Total operating profit for the period reviewed at Rs 10.979 billion reflected an improvement of 13.39 per cent , with the Bank achieving a noteworthy reduction of 25.17 per cent in total impairment charges through a reversal in the provision for individual impairment due to an improvement in NPLs.

Net operating income grew by 19.53 per cent to Rs 9.983 billion. Gross loans and advances increased by Rs. 29.317 billion over three months from Rs 526.167 billion at the end of 2015. Deposit growth over the same period averaged Rs. 9.65 billion per month, taking the banks total deposits to Rs. 653.040 billion as at 31st March 2016. Commercials attempt at branching out to Myanmar, where it currently has a Representative Office in Yangon, is on hold with the change of the regime there, Mr. Durairatnam added. The bank also received a licence to operate a fully owned Money Transfer Operation in Italy recently.
Decision to re-appoint Arjuna lies in Presidents hands View(s):

Will the Central Bank (CB) Governor Arjuna Mahendran be re-appointed for a new term when his current term expires on June 30th? This is the question uppermost in the minds of many in Colombos political, business and social circles. Though former Governor Nivard Cabraals tenure of office courted lot of controversy and questionable deals some of which are now before the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID), for the first time in the history of the banking regulator has the appointment or re-appointment stirred so much attention, discussion and debate.

Mr. Mahendrans tenure, midway of Mr. Cabraals term of office, has been mired in accusations that Perpetual Treasuries Ltd, a firm owned by the family of the Governors son-in-law Arjun Aloysius, was privy to inside information in the issue of Treasury bonds and bills.

The Governor has vigorously denied any wrongdoing on his part. The Joint Opposition and good governance activist Chandra Jayaratne are urging the President not to re-appoint Mr. Mahendran for a new 6-year term. Also protesting is the 4000-strong Standard Credit and Finance Co Deposit Protection Society. The society which is still to get a convincing response from the Central Bank on the return of their deposits from the failed finance company recently filed a complaint in the Human Rights Commission (HRC) against the Governor. The HRC has asked the Governor to submit a response to the complaint on or before June 6. Government sources said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena share opposing views on Mr. Mahendrans performance.

The President is not in favour of a re-appointment owing to the allegations on bond issues while the PMs team is seen pushing for Mr. Mahendrans continuation on the grounds that he is part of a unit that would resurrect the cash-strapped economy in two years. Other names are being thrown around as possible aspirants for the post but the President is yet to make his decision known on whether or not Mr. Mahendran would continue. Under the Monetary Law Act, the President appoints the Governor on the recommendations of the Minister in charge of the subject of Finance. However the CB and its functions have been brought under the Ministry of National Policy and Economic Affairs headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe under a September 21, 2015 gazette notification by order of the President, formalizing a process whereby the PM oversees the bank and not the Finance Minister.

The change made in the allocation of subjects and organization last year was a departure from the practice of the bank coming under the Minister of Finance, raising questions on the legally of this move. However legal experts say that there was no legal impediment since the subject, organization and the statute (Monetary Law) was assigned to the Prime Ministers ministry by the President. Apart from the CB, some other functions of the Finance Ministry like exchange control and economic policy have also been assigned to the PM. The departure of these norms has led to confusion, delays, uncertainty and duplication of work in both ministries, government sources said. In the meantime the anti-Mahendran group argues that the President must select a fit and proper person who is of unquestionable integrity as Governor.

They say that the current Governor is tainted with accusations and is still to be cleared of any wrongdoing by the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) in an ongoing investigation on the questionable February 2015 Treasury bond issue. Pro-Mahendran supporters say that there is nothing in the Monetary Law Act that talks of moral issues, etc and that an appointment is made on the recommendation of the Minister in charge of the subject of finance. The only time when immorality figures is when the President in consultation with the Minister can sack the Governor or any member of the Monetary Board if he has done any act or thing which, in the opinion of the President is of a fraudulent or illegal character or is manifestly opposed to the objects and interests of the Central Bank.

Former Governor Cabraal resigned in January 2015 after a new government was elected. As per CB rules, a new Governors term is only effective for the rest of the term and thereafter must be re-appointed or a new appointment made. Mr. Cabraal was also appointed midway of another Governors term, and then re-appointed (on June 17, 2010). The then Governor Sunil Mendis resigned with effect from June 2006 after two years in the 6-year term. He had been appointed by then President Chandrika Kumaratunga and resigned after Mahinda Rajapaksa won power.

There have been 13 governors so far inclusive of John Exter, the countrys first Governor who served from 1950 to 1953. His successor, N.U. Jayewardene perhaps served the shortest ever term of one year (1953-54) while all the others have served longer periods though short of six years, in some cases. If Mr. Mahendran is not re-appointed, his term would have been the second shortest in history.

Central Bank looking to clean its image?Seeking to enhance its reputation and work amongst the Sri Lankan public, the Central Bank (CB) has announced a tender to select a public relations company to launch a year-long promotion campaign. It has invited Expression of interest (EOI) proposals for the provision of services of a publicity services provider for the banking regulator. The notice posted on the CB website by the banks Director, Communications Department said the deadline for presenting EOIs and other information is tomorrow, June 6.

According to the terms of reference, the publicity services provider requires the use of print and electronic media (radio, social media, web media, television, SMS) and other suitable initiatives recommended by such services provider suited to reach the target segments of the general public.

Monetary Board breaks silence on bond issues The Monetary Board after weeks of silence and pursuant to a public outcry over Treasury bond issues, on Thursday recommended new guidelines to make auctions more transparent. Money market analysts said that it was intriguing that the board was breaking its silence and allowing transparency just as the governors term was coming to an end. Is this to back the Governors re-appointment bid? one analyst asked. The board recommended the holding of pre-bid meetings with all the primary dealers to share information on market developments and to have a clearly defined auction calendar; that international best practices be examined with respect to volumes advertised and accepted at public auctions, and propose to the board as to how the CB should adopt such practices. It also said the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) should actively participate at the primary auctions, in response to allegations earlier that the EPF was deliberately buying in the secondary market from favoured dealers and making losses in the process.
ETCA: Legal framework will allay fears of Indian takeover By Alvin Sallay View(s): View(s):

The Sri Lankan government will not rush blindly into an agreement with India and present the proposed Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) as a fait accompli paving the way for Indian control over local industries was the reassuring pledge given to worried professionals by a senior minister this week. Dr. Harsha De Silva, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, placated the large gathering of professionals at this months Sunday Times Business Club discussion (on Tuesday) in Colombo who were up in arms over fears that the proposed ETCA between India and Sri Lanka would lead to loss of jobs within the local sectors among other concerns.

The meeting was held at the Kingsbury Colombo, the host hotel. We are not going to bulldoze an agreement through, promised Dr. De Silva. We will find a solution which is acceptable to all and we will work together with all parties to come up with a legal regulatory framework.

Gamini Nanda Gunawardana, representing the United Professionals Movement (UMP) and a panelist at the lively discussion, had succinctly expressed fears that ETCA would open the floodgates to cheap and unskilled labour as well as those from professional categories from India.

Sri Lanka must not run into decisions in her enthusiasm to conclude an agreement for mere political patronage and prestige, warned Mr. Gunawardana who is also the managing director of SAGA Resource Developments Consultant Ltd.

Mr. Gunawardana, an engineer by profession, took the government to task for not having a long-term vision for national development and said an agreement would benefit giant partner India. Sri Lanka produces 2,000 engineers every year while India brings out 1.5 million. What will happen if we open up our sectors to India? What will happen to our children, asked Mr. Gunawardana. The articulate Minister said safeguards would be put in place to ensure that local talent would continue to have jobs and brushed aside fears that any number of professionals could come from India once the agreement is in place. That is not true. Just look at Singapore as an example. They have a similar agreement with India which allows people from 127 professions entry into Singapore, everyone from a gynaecologist to a psychologist.

But this does not mean any number of Indians can go across because there are limits and regulations. Let us not get overly paranoid. We can always control the inflow and will ensure that a regulatory framework exists, Dr. De Silva guaranteed. I know we are working with everyone concerned to find a viable solution. A political strategy should also be in place on how to handle India, warned Asoka Abeygunawardana, chairman and CEO of the Strategic Enterprise Management Agency (SEMA), who was the third panelist in the discussion moderated by Business Times Editor Feizal Samath. While we need to be careful on the long-term impact of the flow of cheap labour from India, we must have a special policy for India, not only for trade but politically, cautioned Mr. Abeygunawardana.

The Indian bureaucracy will also look after its own interests but I doubt our bureaucrats are ready. This agreement is being pushed by India. We have not done our homework, he added, expressing a middle-of-the road and a moderate view on the ECTA debate. His moderate views coming from the head of a government agency reflects the government openness in allowing free debate and open engagement amongst state sector officials  as long as rules are not broken. Dr. De Silva revealed a national plan for trade was in the process of being set up, and while agreeing that more work had to be done on fine-tuning the ETCA, he said it was imperative that Sri Lanka make the most of its geographical position on the world map.

Our local market is too small and we need to leverage our GPS. We need to lure investment from Europe and other countries to set up businesses in our country and use our position as an entry point into India. India is important simply because of the size of its market. If a small country like ours is to benefit from trade it must become a hub for this region. We have to leverage, and be smart. The Deputy Minister while admitting that politics, lobbies and self-interest groups would always play a role in trade between two countries, the bigger picture of trading should not be lost. In Britain, they are now talking of exiting the European Union. Why? It is because of immigration issues. Anyway Britain was never a true partner in the EU as it always held on to its own currency instead of the Euro.

In the United States, some guy called Trump wants to build a wall so that rapists dont come into the US from Mexico. What the US is really worried about is they dont want jobs to go to Mexico. Replying to critics of the existing Free Trade Agreement, set up in 1998, between India and Sri Lanka where the balance of trade is heavily in favour of India, Dr. De Silva said Sri Lanka should learn a lesson and draw inspiration from Singapore which has huge exports despite having no raw materials of its own. Take for instance oil. Singapore is the biggest oil exporter in this part of the world. They dont have oil but they have two refineries. They import oil, add value to it and export it. There is no future for Sri Lanka without trade, Dr. De Silva predicted.

Mr. Gunawardana, in his earlier remarks, also stressed that it was a misconception that the UPM was set up to oppose the ECTA. We want to engage the government (on all development issues) as professionals. We are interested in the countrys development and want to work with the government, any government. But the government must take us into their confidence, he said, looking at the Deputy Minister and adding We want to work with you, support us in this initiative.
Labour Ministry to lead ILOs Future of Work Initiative in Sri Lanka View(s):

The Ministry of Labour and Trade Union Relations is playing the lead role in the Future of Work (FOW) Initiative launched by International Labour Organisation (ILO) last year, and its implementation here. Ministry Secretary Gotabaya Jayaratne, speaking at a recent workshop, said that the Ministry will take the lead to develop a road map to match the competencies of the country to the international standards to also ensure a productive labour force in Sri Lanka. This Future of Work Consultation is an important opportunity for the tripartite constituents and ILO to discuss the way forward in overcoming the challenges faced by the country, he added.

He was speaking at a National Consultation to introduce the FOW initiative with the relevant stakeholders on May 24 in Colombo. It was organised by the Ministry of Labour and Trade Union Relations, supported by the ILO Office, here. The FOW Initiative was launched by the ILO Director-General at June 2015 ILO summit. The goal of the Future of Work initiative is to generate a shared understanding of the forces transforming the world of work and to equip governments, employers and workers with the knowledge, ideas and policy alternatives to advance the cause of social justice as the ILO enters its second century of work.

Introducing the FOW Initiative, Donglin Li, the ILO Country Director for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, told the consultation that more than 60 countries are currently planning consultations on the Future of Work initiative with workers and employers as well as academics, think tanks, businesses and civil society. He also stressed that Sri Lanka is the first country in the region to start the national dialogue on this initiative, and it will generate new knowledge and important insights as well as valuable ideas and solutions. Kanishka Weerasinghe, Director General, Employers

Federation of Ceylon (EFC), stressed that the time has arrived to discuss and deal with the FOW in a competitive and changing world of work. He assured that the EFC would extend its fullest cooperation to the Government to achieve the goals related to this initiative. K. Marimuttu, Senior Vice President, Ceylon Workers Congress, stated that the role of the state and the employers needs to be revisited, and more attention is needed to protect workers in the future. He also noted that any dialogue on the FOW cannot ignore the need for policy reconsiderations and a review of the roles of all stakeholders, including the Government as well as ILO.
Malaysias Khazanah eyes investment in Lanka Hospitals By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera View(s): View(s):

Khazanah Nasional Berhad (Khazanah), the strategic investment fund of the Government of Malaysia has shown interest in buying majority shares in Lanka Hospitals Corporation PLC (LHCL), should the government decide to divest these shares, officials said. This follows their visit to Sri Lanka to hold discussions with key government officials early last month. They ideally want the ownership in LHCL, an official told the Business Times. He told the Business Times that Khazanah entrusted to hold and manage the commercial assets of the Malaysian Government and to undertake strategic investments on behalf of the nation will be looking to invest in other projects here as well.

In May, a 3-day visit of the 4-member team had deputy Chairman Khazanah, Tan Sri Dato Nor Mohamed Yakoop leading this delegation.

Khazanah is interested in a controlling stake or a part management part ownership at LHCL, according to the official. He said that the Ministry officials had made presentations on four State Owned Enterprises (SOEs)  Hilton, LHCL, SLIC and Sri Lankan Airlines during their meeting.

Khazanah, which has a 10 per cent stake of John Keells Holdings through Broga Hill Investment (Special Purpose Vehicle of Khazanah) is involved in sectors such as power, telecommunications, finance, healthcare, aviation, infrastructure, leisure and tourism, and property, amongst others.

Separately the Singapore Hospital chain has also shown interest in LHCL and the Singaporeans are due to come next month for further discussion, he added. He said that a powerful state minister is negotiating this deal. Singaporeans are due to come next month for further discussions, he added. Some local hospital operators  Hemas and Softlogic Group also expressed their interest in LHCL earlier. A Softlogic official told the Business Times that its a lucrative opportunity for the group which controls Asiri Hospital Holdings PLC (Asiri), Asiri Surgical and the Central Hospital and is the largest listed private hospital group in Sri Lanka in terms of revenue and profits.

Hemas in a recent announcement to the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) said that they noted the interest expressed by the Government in disposing of shares in ventures such as LHCL and in this context were interested in pursuing this opportunity once the government initiates the official process. LHCL, previously Apollo Hospitals Colombo, is now majority owned by the government with the state owned Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation holding a 54.61 per cent stake. LHCL currently operates with a bed capacity of 240 beds and is at around 90 per cent occupancy, but further increases in competitor capacity expansions could negatively affect LHCLs margins, according to analysts.
Shame, shame, shame View(s):

For the umpteenth time, the Finance Ministry has once again begun wavering on the much-awaited 15 per cent interest on deposits in finance companies for senior citizens which was announced in the 2016 Budget. In an April 23, 2016 story headlined 15% interest finally for senior citizens, the Business Times quoted Treasury Secretary R.H.S Samaratunge as saying that a circular will be issued before the end of the month to the Central Bank (CB) to issue a directive to finance companies (and commercial banks) to implement the proposal. He told the paper that clear guidelines would be issued to minimise any confusion.

That was not to be. More than five weeks after this story appeared, the Treasury is yet to issue the directive to the Central Bank (CB), which in turn is yet to inform finance companies. Now comes the news that the ministry is strapped for funds and is unlikely to implement it. In fact it was much earlier (on March 3rd) that CB Governor Arjuna Mahendran told this paper that he had got the instructions from the Treasury Secretary dated February 29. But it appeared to have been temporary shelved at the time, as there were fears that if this is permitted, some Rs. 350 billion in deposits held by senior citizens in banks would move to finance companies and lead to a serious liquidity shortfall in the banking system.

Didnt the Finance Minister and his team do their homework before including it in the budget instead of leading senior citizens on a merry-go-round? The Business Times has been consistently following up on this special interest scheme for senior citizens for the past 12 to 18 months ever since it was first introduced in the 2015 budget presented in November 2014 by then President Mahinda Rajapaksa. We have reported the many twists and turns in this drama that has been enacted in the name of a group of elder citizens, many of whom have worked their hearts out for family, country and nation and are seeking a place in the sun with a little more income to ensure their independence without burdening their children.

With the cost of living eternally rising and promises made like the recent incessant rains (but not kept), the urgency for extra income, particularly in the context of many depositors shying away from doubtful finance companies, is rising going by the many letters containing pleas and appeals to this paper from older citizens to act on their behalf and persuade the government to implement the proposal. In some cases, every day and other times, every week, senior citizens eagerly read the newspapers and in particular the Business Times on Sunday looking for good news on the proposal The Business Times has had at times, to comfort some emotional depositors who call the paper on a Monday, expressing their disappointment in not finding any positive information on the scheme. These elders have been subject to untold injustice by the government in this shall-we-shall-we-not approach on this proposal. This is not only unfair and unjust but just not Yahapalanaya, Mr. Minister!

Tourism and its lack of promotion

Sri Lanka last week marked the 50th anniversary of tourism in the country with a grand event attended by the Prime Minister and the visiting deputy chief of the UN World Tourism Organisation. Another mega event is slated for this month (outside Colombo) with the participation of the UN WTO chief, Secretary General Taleb Rifai. However the celebrations are far below that undertaken by other countries that have passed this important milestone. In the Sri Lankan case it was even more necessary to chart out a calendar of events across the year leading up the May 2016 celebration to showcase the countrys breadth of diversity and offerings.

Little planning went into the event. In most countries events like this are is set across an events calendar for 12 months with free airline tickets and free stays to regular travellers to build momentum. After more than a year in office, the new administration running the affairs of tourism is yet to get off the ground a proper tourism promotion and marketing campaign; a country promotion. Thankfully the private sector is driving ahead with its own promotional campaigns individually and collectively sans the important facilitation needed from the government. The private sectors engagement in promotion far outweighs the governments efforts by 3-to-1.

Instead of putting all its eggs into a basket of spending a huge slice of the ministry budget on appearances at travel exhibitions and nonsensical media releases that announce a successful Sri Lanka stall, a sizable portion should be set aside for a vibrant, carefully thought-of country promotion campaign. Having emerged out of three decades of conflict in mid-2009, the authorities then should have organized a mega promotion campaign to tell the world that Sri Lanka is ready for business, ready to welcome visitors by the thousands. That didnt happen and hasnt happened even under the post-January 2015 regime.

The authorities appear to not even be listening though Norwegian Ambassador Thorbjorn Gaustadsaether told local businesses in April that Sri Lanka need to restore its once-battered image with a promotion campaign. He added: People in Norway remember that there was conflict in Sri Lanka. All the news we get in the world daily (is mostly bad), you also have to get the good news through and that good news is that Sri Lanka is now at peace. But it is more difficult to get good news through and extra effort has to be made for you to say listen  this country has changed and has a great potential. You need to market it well. What more evidence do you need to prove the need for a proper international tourism promotion and marketing campaign?
Ban on chief minister: President rescinds order by military commanders View(s):

One of the first tasks for President Maithripala Sirisena, after he returned to Sri Lanka from Japan, was to issue an order to immediately rescind instructions sent out by Commanders of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.

They had issued separate instructions that debarred Eastern Province Chief Minister Naseer Ahmed from entering their respective installations. All military personnel were ordered to refrain from attending functions organised by the Chief Minister.

The orders from the three commanders came after Chief Minister Naseer Ahmed, casting the dignity of his office aside, insulted a Navy officer at a public ceremony in Sampur (Trincomalee) no sooner he got on the stage. Those on the stage at a Sampur school which came under the Eastern Provincial Council included Eastern Province Governor Austin Fernando and US Ambassador Atul Keshap.

The armed forces commanders had taken the decision to send out separate directives after a conference they had with Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiaratchchi. The proposal to debar the Chief Minister had been made by Navy Commander Vice Admiral Ravi Wijegunaratne. All others had agreed, an official source said.

A source close to the Presidency said the order issued by the three service commanders was totally illegal. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the source said, had telephoned President Sirisena, who was in Japan, to brief him on the developments. The President had asked the Premier to handle the situation until he returned. This was how the Premier had directed the service commanders not to issue any political statements and await the Presidents return.

Only the President can issue a directive to the armed forces to debar a person from entering a military installation. Without his concurrence such a directive cannot be issued, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe told the Sunday Times. He, however, declined to elaborate.

Soon after the directive, Premier Wickremesinghe began receiving inquiries from heads of diplomatic missions and even ministers. The question centred on how disciplined armed forces could take political decisions like that of trade unions. Some even raised issues related to Governments commitment to democratic principles.

The Army, which has the largest number of installations in the country, was instructed on behalf of the Commander, Lt. Gen. Chrisanthe de Silva, by the Military Secretary N.J. Walgama. In a May 25 message to all Principal Staff Officers, all Security Force Headquarters and Regimental Centres, he said: The Commander of the Army has directed that the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province should not be permitted to enter or to be entertained in any Military Establishment.

Further, it is directed that any direction or request of the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province should not be implemented or entertained and all Military personnel are to refrain from attending any functions organised or attended by the Chief Minister.

You are to strictly comply with the above directive with immediate effect. Similar directives had also been issued by Navy Commander Vice Admiral Wijegunaratne and Air Force Commander Air Marshal Gagan Bulathsinhala.

Just five days after the directive, another one went out from all three service commanders. The one from the Commander of the Army said in a letter headlined DEBARRING FROM ENTERING MILITARY ESTABLISHMENTS:

The instructions issued vide above reference letter is revoked forthwith.

This week Chief Minister Naseer Ahmed was at the Eastern Naval Area Headquarters in Trincomalee for a meeting with Minister Malik Samarawickrema.

Road contracts: The shocking 20 percent commissions

The Special Crimes Investigation Unit (SCIU) of the Police has uncovered an interesting pattern in a probe it is conducting on malpractices in the award of road construction contracts during the previous administration.

Amounts ranging from Rs. 20 million to Rs. 30 million had been paid out to officials in the previous administration. The standard amounts puzzled investigators until one contractor blew the lid. It was 20 percent of the construction cost and those awarded the contract had been told to pay that sum.

Investigators have taken charge of cheques from a Bank of Ceylon account

where such payments to a key individual had been made.

What will John blurt out next

Tourism Minister John Ameratunga seems to be developing a penchant for saying wrong things at the right place.

If that is his latest drive at promoting Sri Lanka or the UNF Governments image, it is turning out to be a costly affair.

He told the media a week ago that taxes on vehicle imports had been raised to prevent unwanted people from buying vehicles. Until elections were over, all were wanted people and now some have become unwanted.

On Wednesday, he was in Hambantota for the grand opening of the Shangri-La Hotel. Though President Sirisena graced the occasion, he did not make a speech. Thus, the Tourism Minister became the virtual keynote speaker. Some of the gems from the Minister were: This hotel is the best in the Universe.

This is a seven star hotel that will have 100 per cent occupancy year round.

What will he have to say, next?

From floods to fire: Sirisenas wish ignored

President Maithripala Sirisena was some 50 metres away when fire engulfed straw thatched structures by the poolside of the Shangri La-Hotel which he declared open in Hambantota on Wednesday. His personal security detail hurriedly took him away to the Presidential Suite in the new 300 room hotel. He had a private dinner before departing.

Since there were no preparations in place in the event of a fire, the fire detail assigned to the Presidential motorcade had doused it. Now acting Inspector General of Police, S.M. Wickremesinghe has directed the Presidential Security Division (PSD), which he heads, to conduct an investigation to determine whether there were security lapses. Police Chief Pujith Jayasundera is now on a visit to the United States.

Investigations are to focus on how the fireworks display came about though President Sirisena had expressed the wish that it should not be held. He was of the view that it was not proper since that very day there were religious rites being conducted in memory of those who died in the landslide in Aranayake.

Moreover, he had pointed out that the country was in mourning for the victims of the floods caused by heavy rains and landslides. Thus it was inappropriate to have fireworks.

And so, the fireworks display went awfully wrong.

New ID plan goes to committee

A proposal before the Cabinet of Ministers last Tuesday to introduce new Identity Cards has been referred to the ministerial subcommittee on economic affairs.

Capital Gains Tax only for some

The Capital Gains Tax will come into effect from October 1.

It will apply only to those acquiring land or engaging in share transactions, a Government minister said yesterday.
Corruption probes: President mindful of impact of grilling public officials By Our Political Editor View(s): View(s):

Widespread concern over delays and failures to act against alleged plunderers but Sirisena concerned about administrative issues

Lankan leader gets international recognition that Sajin Vaas could not buy for Rajapaksa at the cost of millions of dollars

Moves to win over ten more SLFP dissidents  with perks and privileges provided; Govt. determined to defeat no-faith move against Ravi

It may have been bacon and eggs for breakfast for most G-7 leaders who attended their 43rd summit in Japan last week, but for President Maithripala Sirisena it was just a simple meal of boiled Batala (sweet potatoes) and Lunumiris (ground dried chillies and onion with salt and lime).

He ate that at pre-dawn before being driven to the summit venue in Ise-Shima in a three-and-half-hour-road journey. It was only the G-7 leaders who stayed at Shima Kanko Hotel in Ise Shima. This is some distance away to Hiroshima where a United States Air Force B-29 bomber dropped Little Boy, the devastating atom bomb, in August 1945.

For Sirisena, who was staying at the Nagoya Hilton, there was also rice and curry for lunch. He had a Sri Lankan choice for dinner too  string hoppers, pittu, kiri hodi and ala thel daala or potatoes tempered with onions and dried chillie pieces. The food came from owners of two different Sri Lankan restaurants in Japan  Hantane Hotel and Sigiriya Hotel. A well-wisher known to Sirisena was in Colombo before he departed. He had taken along with him fish ambulthiyal, ambarella and polos curries. They were served too.

The drive from Nagoya, the home city for Toyota, to Ise Shima was a lesson in how the Japanese observed traffic laws, from the highest to the lowest, in the land of the rising sun. President Sirisenas motorcade stopped at traffic lights and his personal security detail never ignored them nor forced their way ahead like it happens to VIPs and their showpiece escorts in Sri Lanka. Instead, they only took one precaution. Two from the Japanese personal security detail stepped out of their vehicle and stood guard just outside the rear doors of the Sri Lankan Presidents vehicle. When the signal lights turned green, they jumped back into their vehicle and the motorcade moved on.

One afternoon President Sirisena came down to the coffee shop at the Nagoya Hilton to have tea with a few members of his entourage. What gave the shivers to his Japanese personal security officers was when Sirisena decided to go shopping. He asked two of his Sri Lankan bodyguards and two of their Japanese counterparts to accompany him. He walked from the hotel to a toy shop to buy gifts for his grandchild. Word soon spread and a retinue of nervous Japanese bodyguards descended on the area.

The arrival ceremonies for the G-7 summit and related events were at Nagoya International Airport. Some leaders came in their own aircraft or chartered flights. It was easy to receive them after laying the red carpet on the parking apron all the way to the step ladder. However, Sirisena was on a scheduled Singapore Airlines flight. He had waited at Singapores Changi airport for four and half hours to board the connecting flight. Officials who were on hand to receive him in Nagoya did not want the flight with a full complement of passengers to first taxi to a reception area and then later move to disembark others. They were conscious of the inconvenience that it would cause. Instead, they laid the red carpet up to the passenger boarding bridge. Whilst the passengers walked into the terminal building, Sirisena was to use the mechanical step ladder attached to the boarding bridge, usually used by maintenance crews. He came down the steps to set foot on the red carpet and be welcomed.

In Ise Shima, there was a gathering of the G-7 leaders together with other Presidents and Government leaders who were invited. Well done Sri Lanka. We are there to help you. We are watching your progress with happiness, declared US President Barrack Obama as he shook Sirisenas hands. A smiling Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who played host, looked on.

British Prime Minister David Cameron who greeted Sirisena remembered what they discussed when he (Sirisena) attended the Anti-Corruption Summit in London just a week before. Cameron said his Government was working on Sri Lankas request to probe the assets of those in the previous Sri Lankan administration. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also greeted him.

Those three days in Japan won for Sirisena the international exposure and an image which the former controversial External Affairs Ministry Monitoring MP Sajin de Vass Gunawardena could not buy for US dollars for the then President, Mahinda Rajapaksa. This was after Vaas Gunawardena poured millions of dollars of the taxpayers money to US based public relations companies, all of them without any form of approval from the Cabinet of Ministers. They were paid out directly by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka though no investigations have yet begun into this colossal waste of funds and Vass Gunawardena has become a strong backer of Sirisena.

Domestic challenges

With an enhanced international stature Sirisena returned to Colombo to face a variety of domestic issues. They were challenging enough for him. One of the decisive issues is the much publicised campaign by Government leaders during presidential and parliamentary polls  to launch a relentless battle against bribery, corruption and other malpractices during the previous Rajapaksa administration. Ahead of his departure, Sirisena summoned the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) chief, Senior DIG Ravi Waidyalankara, on May 25 to tell him not to initiate any action against a particular set of officials until he returned from Japan. After his return, Sirisena met Waidyalankara again on Thursday (June 2) and urged him not to arrest Government officials over alleged offences. In another case, he also directed that only a former Minister could be arrested in accordance with the AGs Department ruling since investigations had been concluded but not an official associated with him over alleged abuse of public funds. The limited move appears to have been prompted by concerns in the top rungs of the administrative service.

Senior administrative officers held the view that they would be reluctant to carry out instructions of political leaders including ministers unless they received them in writing. This was because they would become accountable to a future Government. Some even said they cannot face the FCID. The same position had been taken by some district level officials who were involved in flood relief work recently. They had cited reference to what seemed a circular issued after an earlier natural disaster. This had declared that assistance should be confined only to those who are in welfare centres. However, this was overcome.

The FCID had, acting on the instructions of the Attorney Generals Department, prepared to arrest the Tourism Promotion Authoritys directors who had functioned under the previous Government. This was on allegations over misappropriation of public funds for the presidential election campaign in January 2015. The AGs Department was to file indictments against them under the Public Property Act. Those to be arrested over these allegations were Bashwara Senanka Gunarathne (then Chairman), D.S. Jayarathne (then Director General), Hema Dharmawardena (Director and presently working as an Additional Secretary in the Prime Ministers office), R. Semasinghe (then Director and presently working in the Treasury as a Director General), Don Chandrasiri (then Director) and Kithsiri Ranawaka (then Director). Those involved have taken up the position that they simply acted on instructions given to them by the political leadership at the time and did not misappropriate the funds. The FCID had conducted investigations on six alleged financial frauds totalling Rs. 114 million that had reportedly taken place in the Tourism Promotion Authority, which also once organised a controversial Indian film star award ceremony, IIFA, in Colombo. The planned arrest was reportedly over one case.

In the past several days, state investigation agencies had redoubled their efforts to deal with acts of bribery, corruption and other malpractices. This was amid public complaints that despite pledges made, action against those allegedly involved have slowed down, some due to political and economic pressure. However, this development comes in the backdrop of the Anti-Corruption Committee Secretariats (ACCS) extended term coming to a close on June 30. Unless its mandate is extended, it will cease to exist. It was this Secretariat which received public complaints of bribery, corruption, money laundering and a variety of other malpractices. After study, they were directed to the relevant state agencies. That included the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID), the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption and even the Department of Inland Revenue. The Secretariat was set up after the presidential election in 2015. Its tenure, which was for one year was to expire on December 31 and was extended by six months to June 30.

The setting up of the Secretariat to investigate large scale corruption and fraudulent activity during the previous regime and initiate legal action against those responsible came on a Cabinet Memorandum dated February 6, 2015 submitted by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The same memo led to the establishment of the FCID under the direct supervision of the Inspector General of Police

Challenges within SLFP

President Sirisena has also taken the personal initiative to speak particularly to Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) parliamentarians over Tuesdays vote of no-confidence against Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake. This is to ensure that they counter allegations, which he feels are directed at his Government, and to vote against it. I will not be deterred by such motions. I am an elected representative of the people and will continue to serve them, Karunanayake told the Sunday Times defiantly this week. Also backing the Finance Minister strongly is Prime Minister Wickremesinghe who had made clear that all UNP MPs should be present in Parliament to defeat the motion.

An even more challenging ongoing task for Sirisena is his efforts to win over the complete leadership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). He has to politically ensure Rajapaksa and his allies do not re-emerge and at the same time gear his party to win a future election, particularly the local authority elections. The polls were postponed ostensibly on the grounds that the Delimitation Commission had not finished its work, but it is more likely that the Sirisena faction was uncertain of victory. At present a sizeable faction of the SLFP is extending support to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. On the other hand, there was widespread speculation this week that a group of around ten SLFP MPs may extend support to Sirisena. Some are being touted as would be recipients of official positions. All those crossing over would also be recipients of perks including vehicles, a source familiar with the dialogue said.

Arjuna Mahendran issue

President Sirisena is also expected to have a key meeting in the coming week with Prime Minister Wickremesinghe. Among matters to be discussed, a Government source said yesterday, would be an extended term for Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran. His tenure of office comes to a close on June 30 having taken only the remaining term of his predecessor Nivaard Cabral who resigned in January 2015 following the Presidential election. Premier Wickremesinghe is strongly in favour of an extension for Mahendran. In the SLFP, an influential section has said that Mahendrans term should not be extended. Civil society organisations have sought a meeting with President Sirisena to make a similar request. Last Thursday, National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa alleged at a news conference that the Central Bank Governor had used his official credit card lavishly for personal purchases  a charge which Mahendran has denied.

On the international front, as revealed exclusively in these columns last week, Sirisenas decision to allow only local judges to investigate alleged war crimes in accordance with the Geneva based UN Human Rights Council Resolution (co-sponsored by the US and Sri Lanka) was articulated to the military last week by Prime Minister Wickremesinghe. He told over a 100 senior Army officers that the inquiry mechanism would comprise only local judges. Premier Wickremesinghe told the Sunday Times that charges before the inquiry mechanism would be served individually and not collectively. He was explaining a question raised by the Army Commander when the premier met the military top brass. The charges will be served on troops as well as Tiger guerrillas. Further elaboration on related issues came during a brief Q & A with Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera. See box story on this page.

After one-and-a-half years in office, President Sirisena has won wide international acceptance, mainly from the Western powers for himself and thus Sri Lanka. There is little doubt he would expect all segments in the Government to back him in the challenges he faces. Coalitions by any other name are cauldrons of chaos and confusion. Different stakeholders, with different agendas can sometimes work at cross purposes. Herein lies the key issue.

Before and after Geneva: Mangala explains what will happen

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera spoke to the Sunday Times on issues for Sri Lanka before the 32nd UN Human Rights Council sessions which begin next week in Geneva. Here are highlights:MEASURES THE GOVERNMENT HAS ADOPTED SINCE THE-US BACKED RESOLUTION CO-SPONSORED BY SRI LANKA:

The Resolution 30/1 of 1 October, last year contained mainly what the Government had already undertaken to do as enumerated in my statement to the Human Rights Council on September 14, 2015. This is why Sri Lanka co-sponsored the Resolution. These are commitments to our own people  to address their problems and empower them and, as President Sirisena has explained including on May 1, 2016, to make Sri Lanka a modern democracy and a model nation. The Governments initiatives to strengthen, promote and protect human rights, good governance, and the rule of law had begun in fact even before the resolution was adopted and the Government continues these efforts. The steps taken are too vast to enumerate. A few issues linked directly to the matters addressed in the resolution include holding public consultations, for the first time in the country that will inform the design of reconciliation mechanisms. A civil society led Task Force has been established for this purpose. Sri Lanka is now a party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. This is a measure that is aimed at ensuring that in future, the Sri Lankan people who had in past decades faced the trauma of disappearances, will not have to face similar trauma. The Cabinet of Ministers approved the setting up of a permanent Office on Missing Persons based on the humanitarian basis of the familys right to know and this Office will, among other matters, endeavor to trace the fate of the missing. The Bill has now been Gazetted in Sinhala, Tamil and English and can be accessed by all at http://www.documents.gov.lk/en/bills.php INVESTIGATIONS OF ALLEGED WAR CRIMES WITH LOCAL JUDGES: HOW THE MECHANISM WOULD WORK AND HOW THOSE FACING ALLEGATIONS WILL BE CHARGED:

It is improper to speculate on a mechanism. What we have said is that there would be a judicial mechanism that will be established with an independent special counsel. As you are aware, there is a consultation process that is currently ongoing to seek the views of the public. Once this process is completed, the views of the public will be taken into consideration. This includes the views of victims on all sides. What will be established will be a mechanism that will command the confidence of the public, especially the victims. A judicial mechanism will obviously have to conform to the highest standards of due process and fair trial. THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTION HAVING PROVISIONS TO ADDRESS TAMIL ISSUES CONSEQUENT TO THE RESOLUTION:

As you are aware, there was a Committee appointed to receive Public Representations on Constitutional Reform and there is a Steering Committee that is tasked with drafting. This is an entirely domestic process. I do not see why anything in the Constitution has to be linked to the Resolution as resulting from the Resolution. If we want to progress as a modern nation, then there are certain steps that we will have to take to ensure that our nation does not plunge into conflict once again.

We must take steps to unite our country. We must work with a vision  a long term vision of how we want to see our country and where we want to see our country in the future  25, 30, 50 years from now. Do we want to still be a divided nation fighting and killing each other or do we want to be a modern progressive nation that is developed and stable, and upholds the rights of all individuals? You would recall in this context, the remarks by President Sirisena in Parliament on January 9 this year when the Resolution to form a Constitutional Assembly was tabled. He said that we have to reflect on our experiences in the past and our failures; the bloodshed in the country that left no one untouched, in the north and the south and act with wisdom and take steps not to repeat the past and not let opportunities slip by as we had done in the past. He said that we should not create constitutional scaremongering when talking about the Constitution drafting process, and that we should focus on creating a Constitution that will be in line with the vision of a modern Sri Lankan state where every individuals rights will be protected and upheld, and every individual will be treated with dignity. THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION:

The Governments intention, as explained on September 14 last year and thereafter on several occasions including by the Prime Minister in Parliament, also in September last year, is to establish such a Commission by statute. As a nation, we must be able to accept, acknowledge and come to terms with our past. This includes whatever wrongs that may have been committed by all communities and groups in the past. While acknowledging past mistakes which have taken a toll on individuals, communities and our nation as a whole, we must, as a nation, commit to ensure that in future, we would not allow mistakes of our past to be repeated against any community or any group. The designing of the Commission will be after the public consultation process concludes. WHETHER THE JUDGES HAVE ALREADY BEEN SELECTED:

No; as I said before, these are matters that will be considered once the public consultation process concludes. However, it is also important that we get the best expertise possible for all the processes that we are establishing and also in other general administration and governance related areas. There are also specific skill areas in which we would require technical assistance, for example, in forensics. Such technical expertise will help build local capacity for the future and this is what is most important for our country that we focus on all opportunities available to strengthen and build local capacity that will benefit the people of our country in the long run. MESSAGE TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY:

Very briefly, the Government has been and continues to take steps to strengthen democracy, good governance and the rule of law while upholding, promoting and guaranteeing the rights due to our people. I would like to invite and urge the international community to work with Sri Lanka and assist Sri Lanka in this journey to achieve reconciliation and equitable development.
Increasing revenue vital for fiscal sustainability and debt reduction View(s):

Increasing government revenue is crucial for reducing the fiscal deficit and containing the public debt. If the government fails to reduce the fiscal deficit from 7.2 percent of GDP in 2015 to the targeted 5.4 percent of GDP in 2016, the economy could be in dire straits. Increasing government revenue from as low as 12 per cent of GDP in 2015 to at least 15 per cent of GDP this year to reduce achieve this is however a challenging task.

Increasing revenue

Increasing revenue is vital for fiscal stability and for containing the public debt. Government revenue has hardly been adequate to meet debt servicing costs in recent years. In 2013 government revenue was inadequate to meet debt servicing costs. In 2014 and 2015 debt servicing absorbed 90 per cent of government revenue. As such a high proportion of revenue is absorbed to meet debt servicing costs, most government current and capital expenditures has to be met by borrowing. This increases the public debt that in turn increases annual debt servicing costs.

Falling revenue

Government revenue as a proportion of GDP has fallen in recent years: from 20 per cent of GDP in 2005 to 12 per cent of GDP in 2012 and remained at this low level since then. This revenue to GDP ratio of 12 per cent is below levels of countries with Sri Lankas per capita income and one of the lowest in the Asian region.

An astonishing feature is that the tax to GDP ratio has declined with increasing economic growth and higher per capita incomes. This is owing to the nature and quality of recent high economic growth based on foreign funded costly infrastructure development, the lack of tax changes in line with changes in the structure of the economy, tax exemptions, tax avoidance and tax evasion.

Tax reform

A revamping of the tax system and tax administration is vital to achieve a significant increase in tax revenue. The current tax administration is inefficient and ineffective and the tax base too narrow to yield adequate revenue. It also lacks buoyancy to increase revenue when incomes rise. It is replete with tax exemptions, permits widespread tax evasions and tax avoidance is common. The reform of these is a staggering task.

Pragmatic taxation

Tax reforms that recognise the weaknesses of the system and adopt taxes that can be effectively collected will alone enable higher revenue collection. Taxes that are effective in other countries will not necessarily succeed here where innovative accounting, lack of proper records, intermediaries who manipulate taxes and corrupt officials result in low tax collection A pragmatic approach to tax reforms that give consideration to taxes that can be effectively collected are vital. For instance one wonders how much of taxes that are collected from customers are remitted to the Department of Inland Revenue.

In this context it is vital that effective taxation measures are implemented to enhance government revenue. The governments program of tax reforms expects to increase government revenue by reducing tax exemptions, widespread tax evasion and considerable tax avoidance.

Opposition to VAT

Increased taxation, especially by the increase in the Value Added Tax (VAT), has roused considerable opposition. Increasing VAT on essential items from 12 per cent to 15 per cent was opposed and the government has withdrawn VAT on essential food items and medicines.

One of the reasons adduced against VAT was that it was regressive. VAT is not intrinsically a regressive tax as it is levied on consumption expenditure and higher income households that consume more would be paying higher amounts. This is especially so with the exemption of VAT on essential basic items of household consumption.

The IMF considers increasing VAT an effective means of increasing government revenue and considers it a more reasonable form of tax as there is no cascading effect on prices. However some taxation experts have pointed out that the Business Turnover Tax (BTT) was more efficient and collected more revenue.

Increase revenue adequately?

The pertinent issue is whether the increased VAT and other taxes levied this year such as the NBT would increase revenue adequately. The expectation that tax reforms would significantly reduce past fiscal slippages and increase revenue is yet to be realized. The reform in trade and excise taxes, a broader tax base and more effective tax collection are expected to achieve higher revenue collection that would reduce the fiscal deficit. Increasing revenue depends very much on the realistic nature of the tax reforms, the administrative capacity and honesty of tax collecting officers.

Regressive taxation

The countrys tax system is deemed regressive. The main argument adduced is the very low proportion of direct taxation. The direct to indirect taxes are estimated as 40:60. The 2016 Budget tilted it still further to 20:80. This disproportionate ratio that places the burden on indirect taxation is due to the inability of the tax administration to collect taxes from some of the highest earners.

It is unrealistic to think that tax collection would improve by the imposition of higher income taxes or more efficient tax collection. Therefore other means must be found to increase taxes from the rich that evade taxes. Indirect taxes whose incidence falls on the rich is a means of redress.

It is difficult to understand governments unwillingness to tax luxury consumption at much higher rates. Such taxation is a means of collecting revenue from the affluent who avoid taxes in diverse ways. Much higher taxes on road licences of high value motor cars and items of luxury consumption, property taxes and the implementation of provisions on undervaluation on estate duty are among such possibilities. Instead the taxation system has tended to be regressive by taxing basic food items that affect the livelihoods of the poor.

Way forward

The response of the government to inadequate revenue has been ad hoc taxes from time to time rather than a system of taxes that would be effective in collecting higher revenues. In 2009 the former government appointed a competent Presidential Commission of Inquiry to recommend the reform of the tax system and tax administration. Strangely the Report of the Commission that was handed over to the then President in all three national languages remains undisclosed.

It is important for this report to be published and a full discussion of its recommendations discussed and examined thoroughly. Its acceptable recommendations and any changes should be incorporated into a systematic and effective tax system.
Proving that the 19th amendment is not mere propaganda View(s):

Where Sri Lankas non-adherence to the Rule of Law is concerned, there is a disturbing continuity between the immediate Rajapaksa past and the present which cannot be wished away despite all our optimism. Signs of this were evident at the very start of the Sirisena Presidency giving rise to considerable disquiet.

These patterns have now become far more evident, indicating that there is little political will to measure up to the high expectations with which a new Presidency and a new Government were elected to office. In this context, the more President Sirisena sermonizes on what is right and proper in governance, the more he looks faintly ridiculous even as words spoken so loftily are clearly at variance with unacceptable political compromises made. On its own part, the United National Partys performance is scarcely reassuring.

These are no yahapalanaya victories

This week, the Government pulled back on its appointment of former Rajapaksa loyalist Anusha Palpita to a senior position. The appointment had been made disregarding the indictment being filed against him for gross corruption. The idiocy of this entire exercise was that this retreat was then hailed as a welcome victory for the yahapalanaya (good governance) administration. But the fact remains that such an obnoxious appointment should never have been made in the first place.

It is no victory to have a Government so entirely oblivious to good governance as to blatantly appoint an individual who had been indicted in the High Court for gross corruption and then retreat on that appointment in the face of public fury, patting itself on the back as it did so. Certainly yahapalanaya cheerleaders displaying inappropriate delight at these victories constitutes an unwelcome path to encouraging this Government towards greater follies even as politicians laugh at the naivete of the public.

In this instance, those in ministerial ranks responsible for this disgraceful incident passed the accountability thereof to the Public Service Commission (PSC). If this Government was sincere in regard to its rhetoric, it should severely discipline its minister-puppeteers. But that political will is clearly lacking as we saw on innumerable occasions in the past, including Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapaksas disquieting actions where the Avant Garde floating armoury scandal was concerned for which no ministerial accountability was enforced. Indeed, sporadic indictments against Rajapaksa loyalists and bumbling efforts elsewhere show that there is little genuine effort in the anti-corruption drive.

Injustices of the past continues

In other respects, the injustices of the past continue to the future. In the East, land issues of displaced Sinhala, Muslim and Tamil villagers continue. The tussle between the political authority and the military on the return of displaced land to villagers was predictable. Only the naive would have expected otherwise. But the twist to the tale is that avaricious yahapalanaya ministers have replaced Rajapaksa acolytes. The plight of the Panama displaced is one good illustration. Both in Panama and Ragamwela, the evictions were accomplished during the Rajapaksa years through brute force and by masked men threatening the villagers. One would therefore have expected that this injustice would have been speedily corrected by the new administration.

On the contrary and ironically enough, Panama villagers continue to be evicted from their lands despite a relevant cabinet decision in their favour. The entire weight of the law militates against such forcible acquisitions. On numerous occasions, the Supreme Court has stressed due process requirements to be applied for all evictions. In addition, when the land of an individual is sought to be acquired, the State cannot simply plead public purpose and leave it at that. Neither does a vague ground of meeting security requirements suffices. The State is under a clear duty to justify its reasons when taking land away from occupants. The plight of the displaced in Panama and surrounding villages is one good example where the displacement of the Rule of Law forcibly continues.

In the North, indecently hastened reconciliation mechanisms are established without consultation with the victims in order to meet the forthcoming scrutiny of the international community. After all the painful lessons of the past, this push to have cosmetic accountability is indefensible.

Performance of constitutional commissions

In this context, how have the independent commissions fared in restoring public trust in Sri Lankas institutional governance? This subject deserves detailed scrutiny. Suffice it to be said for the moment that the performance of the PSC and the National Police Commission (NPC) leaves much to be desired. Unfortunately, these are precisely the two Commissions vested with actual authority to compel accountability from state officials. This is quite distinct from the Human Rights Commission for example which does not have that mandate with the consequent result that however excellent its directives or orders may be, they are often than not bypassed by the establishment. A case in point is the Human Rights Commissions positive finding in regard to the displaced Panama villagers some years ago which continues to be ignored by the relevant state officials.

In contrast, the PSC and the NPC have authority at their command if only this responsibility is used forcefully. Let us take the NPC as an example. During the time period that has lapsed since this body came into existence under the 19th Amendment, its record where the accountability of the police service is concerned is disappointing.

Public responsibilities cannot be treated lightly

The NPC must not be regarded as a post box where it merely entertains complaints and refers them to the police for investigation. Past practice has been that the investigation of police officers by other police officers yields no positive results. This must be changed. Substantive disciplinary control must be exercised by the NPC over the police service. We have yet to see this manifested.

In addition it needs to be clarified if the practice adopted by the first NPC under the 17th Amendment, of interdicting police officers indicted of torture under the Torture Act No 22 of 1994 continues. These are public responsibilities vested in the NPC and cannot be treated lightly.

In the absence thereof, the gains of the 19th Amendment become reduced to political propaganda and little else. An isolated victory over a singular and monumentally bad appointment to the public service does not detract from this reality.
Vietnam tells China warships welcome in one of its harbors

(Photo/Xinhua)

Senior defense officials attending a high-profile security forum echoed China's call for nations to properly tackle disputes in the South China Sea while maintaining peace and stability.

One of the officials, Nguyen Chi Vinh, Vietnam's deputy minister of national defense, said his country "warmly welcomes" Chinese warships to visit one of its harbors and is ready to boost cooperation between the two countries' coast guards.

He made the remarks on the sidelines of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, which opened in Singapore on Friday.

Experts said the move will improve interaction for regional security and help ease tensions.

Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, elaborated on the country's position on the South China Sea while meeting with senior defense officials from other countries.

The Vietnamese deputy defense minister told Sun that visiting Chinese vessels are welcome to conduct joint drills with the Vietnamese Navy in humanitarian relief and maritime search and rescue programs.

Although he did not name the harbor, experts said it might be Cam Ranh Bay in southern Vietnam, a key stronghold that received two Japanese warships on May 29.

Jia Duqiang, a researcher of Southeast Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Vietnam is "sending a positive signal" amid lingering tension in the South China Sea.

It is meant as "a gesture to ease a confrontational situation and expel China's doubts", Jia said.

The recent tension, fueled by an international arbitration case filed by the Philippines against China over the the South China Sea issue, "has prompted some countries, including Vietnam, to rethink", he said.

"As arbitration serves no good purpose in resolving the issue and maintaining peace, it is necessary for countries to return to the negotiating table," Jia said.

Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu told Sun that the South China Sea is a "common home" for all countries in the region, and they should jointly safeguard regional security.

Ryacudu said disputes over maritime sovereignty should be resolved gradually, taking into consideration many factors, such as the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, UN charters and historical backgrounds.

New Zealand Defense Minister Gerry Brownlee said all parties involved should boost dialogue and communication, seek common ground and properly tackle disputes.

Mark Binskin, chief of the Australian Defence Force, said both Australia and China are committed to ensuring regional prosperity and development, and Australia is ready to maintain dialogue and communication with China.

Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute and a delegate attending the dialogue, said the talks on Friday show widespread support for direct dialogue and negotiation by countries directly involved to solve their disputes, which Zhang said is the "only correct and feasible way".
To have and not to have  how wonderful! View(s):

People talk about the wonders of the world. I am old now. The Guththila and Muusila Jathaka story comes to my mind and is a good lesson. The Bosath Guththila,when confronted by his rival Muusila, acknowledged humbly that he was no longer an expert at playing a musical instrument as he was old.

We must not try to do what is impossible. Before doing anything it is good to know our limitations. This is a good lesson for rulers, especially in Sri Lanka. A person living with poor people in a village once wrote to me saying the Portuguese wanted a land area about the size of a skin of a bull, but when they were given this, they cut the skin to tiny pieces and marked a large land area. We need to educate our youth about how the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British governed our country. Those who followed their teachings here have continued to distort our history. We need to read our history books and learn the correct lessons.

Someone had suggested that we should shift our capital from Colombo to an ancient area such as Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa or Sigiriya.

Colombo today is being devastated by floods and other natural disasters, but Colombo is still the heart of our country. Is there a future for Colombo, which is being developed by leveling hills, breaking down rocks and even filling the sea with sand? Common people do not think so. Countries coming out of the clutches of foreign domination have changed their capitals. No one has thought of it here. The person I spoke to also mentioned about the damage done on either side of Muthurajawela. Let those who can think reflect on this seriously and take action.

The then Prime Minister R. Premadasa and Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe visited China together once. At this time the Indo-Lanka talks between J.R. Jayewardene and Rajiv Gandhi were held here. The country was on fire then. There were growing public calls for Mr. Premadasa to leave the UNP. I went to the airport when he was returning. Some media personnel and small political party representatives were there. I advised him not to leave the party even if there was a move to dismiss him. He agreed. Even I encouraged hoisting black flags then against the government. Others condoned the action of the government. Somehow Mr. Premadasa survived and later became the President. He then ordered the Indian peace keeping forces to leave. Even LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran came to know the reality later. But it was too late. The Indian troops had robbed the Tamil peoples belongings and harassed their women and children. Prabhakarans eyes were opened only then. We are only sorry that Rajiv Gandhi lost his life because of a woman suicide bomber. This is the history. Prabhakaran is dead and gone. But he still lives in the minds of certain people. I do not wish to write about him. But I am the only Bhikku who even openly made a suggestion to him in public.

The armed services commanders at that time knew what I as a Bhikku, did to stop terrorism. If the late General Janaka Perera was alive today he would have related what Gangaramaya did to protect Padaviya and Welioya areas. His loss was a tragedy, but politics too played its part. Those who take up the sword will also die by the sword, we know. But we are happy that at least the person who destroyed terrorism still lives on. As you sow, so you shall reap, is the saying. I do not want to write the history about Batalanda and Udugampola. But people used these and tried to destroy Ranil Wickremesinghe.

In 2001, during a government crisis, Rajitha Senartne and Karu Jayasuriya invited me to address a meeting at Borella junction. I had not done this before. But since Mr. Wickremesinghe is a member of a family who are our Dayakas, and since I knew that he belonged to the future leadership of the country, I agreed. Two days after that meeting the government was dissolved. Mr. Wickremesinghe became the Prime Minister. After taking oaths of office and at the religious ceremony held at Gangaramaya, I expressed my views, which were distasteful to some. Eventually something important was achieved. This was the eradication of terrorism. Mahinda Rajapaksa who did this will be remembered at for all times.

When Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike held a Republic Day event, I preached an Anusasana. I admonished, Do not repeat the mistakes. If it is a good thing, no matter who says it, do it. The slow moving government should be given momentum. If this was done the government which extended its term for two more years would have succeeded. Otherwise like the UNP it would go down to eight seats.

We have not been able to correct the mistakes made by even President J R Jayewardene. It is true that those in power need a rest. They also require educated people to help them. If people forget their differences and come together in unity with the help of all parties and work together in peace, we can drive away the evil and create a nation which will respect Buddhist values here. Let us make a resolution during this Vesak season to do something good for the country. Let us spread goodwill and amity to all. We are all prone to make mistakes. But let us rise up and do better. Everyone respects the Vesak festival season. Let us think of good and evil and get on to the correct path. We must get others also to do the same.

At the Gangaramaya, there is a Buddha statue made of Jade. This is similar to the Emerald Buddhas statue at the royal palace in Thailand. This has been crafted by the royal craftsmen. You can touch and venerate this statue and obtain blessings now.

There is truth and untruth the world over. The Gangaramaya has only the truth. For some our truth is distasteful. With the help of Gangaramaya, Mr. Wickremesinghe when he was minister of youth affairs rehabilitated the youth who had gone on the wrong path. Mr. Wickremesinghe and Mr. Premadasa were instrumental in making the Gangaramaya Pilgrims Rest a reality. It could accommodate around 3,000 people. This area was once a helipad. Please visit this place and observe what is happening.

The Wedihitikanda was wrongfully acquired by a Hindu priest once. After that it was acquired by a Buddhist priest due to certain alleged malpractices. He lost its ownership, later. President R Premadasa by Title Deed handed it over to the Gangaramaya. After his death, President D B Wijetunga at the request of the Gangaramaya, handed it back to that Bhikku. At our expense we hired a helicopter, took the Bhikku and handed over this place to him. The Gangaramaya always does what is right. It is a sacred place always doing good.

As suggested by Premier Wickremesinghe, the Gangaramaya, the source of all help to families, children and the disabled, has arranged to donate roofing sheets to those who need them. Those whose roof swere damaged during the recent flood havoc can apply to obtain such sheets. Joy and Happiness to everyone!

Write to us: Ven Galboda Gnanissara Thera, Podi Hamuduruwo, Gangaramaya, 61, Sri Jinarathana Road, Colombo 02.
Back to the old days and old ways View(s):

The opening of the Shangri-La Hambantota Resort this week was a grand affair attended by President Maithripala Sirisena, several ministers and other VIPs. A notable absentee was Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former President, who was instrumental in securing investment for Sri Lanka from the renowned Hong Kong listed group.

It did not escape attention that Mr. Rajapaksa was also missing from the list of speakers. President Sirisena did not address the function. He left the task to his Tourism Minister, who welcomed the launch of the 300-room hotel  built on 145 acres of land with views of the Indian Ocean  and said it would help boost tourism in the country as the best hotel in the Universe.

There was nary a word about Mr. Rajapaksa under whom Sri Lanka had inked deals, not just with Shangri-La, but with other global brands such as ITC, Sheraton and Hyatt. The common courtesy of giving the Devil its due eluded the Yahapalana Government whose proponents were happy to bask in the glow of the prestigious project while watching a fireworks display that went wrong and wolfing down a scrumptious dinner.

But give the Devil its due one must, especially when the incumbent regime is hell-bent on carrying on Mr. Rajapaksas work: The good, the bad and the ugly. The Port City is a case in point. While in opposition, the United National Party had objected to the project on multiple fronts. UNP leaders vowed to scrap the deal once in power.

Come January 2015 and Mr. Sirisena became President with Mr. Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister. Days before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was due to arrive in Sri Lanka on an official visit, they suspended the Port City project and ordered a reexamination of its terms and conditions as well as its environmental impact. Most other Chinese-funded initiatives were also halted pending review. Having lampooned Chinese projects during the election campaign, the new Government had no choice but to do something.

Considerable publicity was given to these moves in a schoolboy effort to paint the new Government as distinctly different from the old one  corruption free, transparent and accountable. What did not garner as much publicity was the lifting of the suspensions and the resumption of these very same projects. That happened quietly, without much ado. Committees tasked with reviewing the projects predictably found that little could be changed once agreements were signed, finalised and partway through implementation.

The Port City project (with minor, cosmetic changes) was not only given the green light, the Yahapalana Governments key members travelled to China to canvass for more loans, investment and grant aid. Some of these efforts have come to fruition. As reported in this newspaper last week, China will lend money for several large projects in President Sirisenas electorate of Polonnaruwa. It is reminiscent of an earlier time when Chinese funds were liberally poured into the Hambantota district, the pocket borough of the then ruling Rajapaksas.

There is one noteworthy difference though, this time. As far as Polonnaruwa is concerned, the money will go towards essential development initiatives such as water supply and railway extension; not vanity projects like the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport. But there is also one noteworthy similarity. With Chinese funding, the promise of the Yahapalana Government to always adhere to open, competitive bidding in the award of lucrative development contracts goes straight out the window. The country is returning to an era of single-bid projects.

Some of these projects will be solicited, or sought, by the Government. They are in existing development plans and are immediate or short-term needs. However, there is clear indication that grandiose, unsolicited proposals are also making a comeback to the detriment of the countrys coffers. For instance, the Highways Minister recently said in a public forum that he has received several offers to build an elevated highway along Baseline Road in Colombo. He seemed enthusiastic. But not only would such a project be ridiculously expensive, it is not in the Road Development Authoritys plans and is deemed wholly non-essential by officials who know better.

Single-bid projects bring with them a separate set of concerns. The idea of adopting an open bidding process is to encourage competition and to secure the best goods and services at the lowest price. When only one price is quoted and only one company is made available to implement the project  with all goods and services provided at the command of this one entity  it becomes impossible to compare costs or quality or, for that matter, financial terms. On the flip side, the single-bid process is faster, especially where the Chinese are concerned.

The Government volte face has left officials confused. Soon after the change of regime, they were told that contracts will hereafter be given out on open, competitive bidding. They took this position seriously, particularly as some of them were being investigated over projects granted on an unsolicited basis during the tenure of the previous Government. That is why the National Water Supply and Drainage Board advertised the Towns East of Polonnaruwa Water Supply Project in October 2015, attracting no less than 24 bids. But the tender was cancelled and the US$300-400 million contract will now go to China Harbour Engineering Company, the same firm that is building the Colombo Port City.

There have been serious concerns even where open competitive bids are concerned. For instance, in 2015 the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Ministry floated a tender for the construction of 65,000 houses in the North and East. The local construction industry protested that tender requirements  such as the need to post an exorbitant bid bond  were designed in a manner to suit a particular, international bidder with the financial wherewithal. Not only that, the Ministry has been openly canvassing for this bidder even before the tender was called.

Are we seeing more of the same; transparency and good governance giving way to financial expediency with the Chinese back on track with the new Government knowing only too well that it was stewing in its own juice criticising the Chinese funded projects under the Rajapaksa Administration? The nearly new Government has been unable to get the West to put in the cash for the countrys development despite its ostensibly pro-West stance.

Being invited for Davos Economic Forum and the G-7 summit is well and good, but the Western investors are largely the private sector unlike the Chinese who have heavy state backing. How much investor confidence has this Government managed to create despite the Soros visits and the Harvard scholarships among Western companies is a question that is being discussed in diplomatic circles and even in the corridors of power. The confusion and inconsistency in Government policy saying one thing one day and another the next is making even the new Government fall back on China as a longtime friend  with long term interests in Sri Lanka.
kids Essays View(s):

Visit to Legoland

My sister and I went to Legoland.

I went in the red rollercoaster. I went

boat riding. I saw cartoon characters.

I went in the green rollercoaster and the train.

Randira Amarasekera (5 years)

Asian Int. School, Battaramulla

My favourite relative

My favourite relative is my uncle. His name is Gamini Godage. He lives in Switzerland. He is a good person. He comes to Sri Lanka every year to visit us. He is married to a Swiss lady. Her name is Gabriella. My uncle is my mothers brother. He is a friendly person. He does many jokes when he is with us.

I like him so much because he brings us so many chocolates and he takes us to many places.

He relates lots of stories to us

about other countries.

He brings us toys

and he is a loving person.

He brings us storybooks from Switzerland. He can cook tasty food.

My uncle is a good person. He loves us so much. We also love him too. All my cousins love him a lot.

I think he is the best uncle in the world.

Dulshi Tharuka

i-Gate College, Thalawathugoda

Natural Disasters

Over the past few decades, various disasters have devastated our country. One of the main types of disasters that have done such damage to our country is natural disasters.

Such natural disasters include the tsunami in 2004, the Koslanda mudslide in 2014, the floods in 2014 and 2016 respectively and the severe droughts from late 2013 to early 2014. People have either been killed or displaced. Those whose homes have been destroyed have been taking refuge in local temples and schools.

In this years floods, many districts were affected, mainly Gampaha and Kegalle. The Navy has taken extreme measures to help those affected. Many people have been donating clothes or sharing food.

I feel for those who have been displaced and those who have lost their family members.

Kalana Amarasekara (11 years)

Royal College

My mother

My mothers name is Vishaka Kumari. She is 39 years old. She has long hair. She is very kind and pretty. She is a housewife. She likes to eat fried rice and she likes to drink milk. She makes me yummy food.

She gives me healthy food to eat.

She teaches me good qualities. She teaches me Maths. If I do something wrong she will scold me.

I love my mother very much.

Anuththara Vittachchi (Grade 4)

Lyceum Int. School, Nugegoda

The Vesak Festival and how I see it

Vesak Poya is the most auspicious day for Buddhists. The Birth of Buddha as Prince Siddhartha, his Enlightenment at the age of 25 and Parinibbaba at the age of 80, happened on a Vesak Poya Day in the month of May. We call these three events Themagula, the three festivals.

Lord Buddha has taught that Buddhists should follow Dana, Sila and Bhavana. People practice these at home in small scale. On Vesak Poya Day the entire country engages in the above acts. Devotees assemble in temples dressed in white and observe Atasil and listen to the Dharma sermons, discussions, bhavana and Buddha Pooja. They spend the whole day with Shraddha minds.

Another way of celebrating Vesak is decorating houses with light bulbs, hanging lanterns and hoisting Buddhist flags. Streets are decorated with big, beautiful Vesak lanterns and pandals. These pandals contain Lord Buddhas life stories and jathaka stories. Nowadays we can see digital pandals too. In many places we can see Vesak zones and temples hold expositions of sacred relics.

People who dont observe sil, go to temples and engage in other religious activities. TV channels conduct various Buddhist programmes so people can watch and listen to them.

Some people give free food and drinks to the devotees and others. Such places are called Dansals. This year our president has required that all materials used for dansals and money used for decorations, be given to people affected by floods and landslides.

Lord Buddha has said that helping the distressed, deprived, sick and infirm people is a great meritorious act. By engaging in the above Prathipaththi and Amisa pooja we can collect more merit. With this merit, we can have solace, peace and happiness in our present lives and also our future lives. Lord Buddha has taught the existence of the rebirth, Sansara.

Anuthi Samaranayake

(Grade 7)

Anula Vidyalaya, Nugegoda

My favourite author

Reading is a very profitable activity which we can engage in. I enjoy reading a lot and I have read so many books so far in my life.

My parents are very helpful in this and I have quite a big collection of books written by different authors.

Among them my favourite author is Roald Dahl. He has been famous among children for many years.

Roald Dahl was born in Norway on September 13, 1916. Roald Dahl had three sisters. When he became big he wanted to write stories as well as poems. Roald Dahl wrote his books in a brick hut, which was built especially for him. He wouldnt allow anyone inside the hut so it was never cleaned or dusted.

He wrote many books such as The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, Matilda, The Magic Finger, Charlie and the Chololate Factory etc. After that he became famous among children.

Senuri Dissanayake (Grade 9)

Hillwood College, Kandy

Vesak Poya Day

Vesak is a religious and cultural festival in Sri Lanka.

It is celebrated on the day of the full moon in the month of May.

Vesak Day is one of the biggest days of the year and is celebrated by Buddhists all over the world. Buddhists commemorate the important events that took place in the life of Lord Buddha on this day.

First comes the Birth of Siddhartha Gauthama in Lumbini in Nepal which took place under the arbour of sal trees where

Queen Mahamaya gave birth to him. The final event was Lord Buddhas Parinibbana over 2500 years ago in Kusinagar.

Lithmi Bimansa (Std. 4)

Jennings Int. College, Nainamadama

My best friend

My best friend is Oshadhi. She is very kind and innocent.

She lives in Ragama. Her favourite hobby

is reading books.

Her favourite drink

is Fanta.

Her favourite food is burger. Her school is Kiribathgoda Vihara Maha Devi Balika Vidyalaya. Her favourite game is swimming.

She is very pretty. But Oshadhi is smaller than me. Oshadhi and I are very good friends. I love my best friend very much.

Amandi Lochana (13 years)

Vihara Maha Devi B.V., Kiribathgoda

My best friend is Oshadhi. She is very kind and innocent.

She lives in Ragama. Her favourite hobby

is reading books.

Her favourite drink

is Fanta.

Her favourite food is burger. Her school is Kiribathgoda Vihara Maha Devi Balika Vidyalaya. Her favourite game is swimming.

She is very pretty. But Oshadhi is smaller than me. Oshadhi and I are very good friends. I love my best friend very much.

Amandi Lochana (13 years)

Vihara Maha Devi B.V., Kiribathgoda

How I spent my vacation

On April 8, everyone in my school received their vacation. My mother was happy to see good marks in my report card. She gave me permission to spend the vacation the way I wanted. So I said that I wanted to visit my Grandmas house.

We arrived at my grandmas home at 4.30 p.m., with my uncle. I was very happy and excited because Grandma was celebrating Sinhala and Tamil New Year. My mother decided to spend four days with my grandma. I played with my friend nearby. She is a kind girl. She was only one year older than me. We went to visit relations and also celebrated Sinhala and Tamil New Year.

When I was leaving my grandmas home I was very sad. As soon as I came home I gave a call to my grandma to tell her what happened on the way home. On April 25 school started and I took to studies again.

Hiranya Yapa (Primary III)

Adventist Int. School, Negombo

Whales

Whales are fascinating creatures. They are the worlds largest living creatures. Actually Blue Whales are. They also are a kind of whale. Sperm whales, Humpback whales, are other types of whales. These fascinating creatures are not fish, do not use gills, use lungs and feed milk to their young. These are qualities of land mammals and is unheard of in fish.

Whales unlike sharks, travel in groups. Moby Dick is a novel written on a white whale. The whale is endangered because of frequent hunting since medieval times. They were hunted for whale oil. It is prohibited to hunt whales now. We must save whales for our sake and for the next generation.

Dhiman Marapana (Grade 9)

Swarnajayanthi M.V., Kegalle

The cow

Of all animals the cow is perhaps the most useful to man. The cow gives us milk. The cow is a domestic animal. They help us in many ways. We must give them good food and clean water.

Butter and cheese are made from milk. Many kinds of sweets are also made out of milk. Have you not tasted milk toffee? Children are very fond of this kind of sweet. The cows meat is beef and is largely used as food. The hoofs of cows are used in making glue, combs, buttons and handles of knives.

The skin is tanned into leather. Shoes, boots and other goods are made of leather. Even the dung of the cow is used as manure. It is also dried into cakes to be used as fuel. Crushed bones of the cow is used for making urea.

Ahamed Sajahan (7 years)

Wesswood College, Katugastota
Classical Guitar workshop and Concert View(s):

India Cultural Centre, Colombo in association with Amarnath Guitar Akademi, Colombo and Asian Guitar Federation will be organising classical guitar workshops and Concerts by Aakash Saha, Bachelor of Music from Chicago College of Performing Arts, Roosevelt University, USA from June 7 to 11 2016 at Colombo and Kandy.

Asian Guitar Federation is a growing network that connects music organisations with the aim of enabling music education, performance opportunities, festivals and competitions for the development of classical guitar in Asia. Sri Lanka is an active member-nation of AGF, having already hosted maestros from US, Thailand and India.

Aakash Saha is a virtuoso classical guitarist, chamber musician, composer and pedagogue from India. He has trained directly under legendary classical guitarist Denis Azabagic (Bosnia-USA). He completed his Bachelors of Music degree in Classical Guitar Performance from Mr. Azabagics studio at the Chicago College of Performing Arts, Roosevelt University.

He has participated in Twents Guitar Festival (The Netherlands), Koblenz Guitar Festival (Germany) and Tampere Guitar Festival (Finland).

He is one of the founder and director of Calcutta Classical Guitar Society and driving force behind the Indian Guitar Federation and Asian Guitar federation.

WORKSHOPS

June 8  Classical guitar workshop

10.00am-1.00pm, 2.30 pm-5.30 pm

June 9  Classical guitar worksho

10.00am-1.00pm, 2.30 pm-5.30 pm.

CONCERTS

June 7  Classical guitar concert at Overseas School of Colombo, Bataramulla at 9.30am

June 10 Classical guitar concert at Russian Cultural Centre, at 7.00 pm

June 11, Classical guitar concert at Chandananda Buddhist College, Kandy at 6.30 pm

For registrations amarnathguitar@gmail.com

Contact No 0773475609.
Jetwing links with the AK Lit Fest 2016 View(s):

Keeping in line with supporting youth progression, Jetwing Hotels joined hands with the AK Literary Festival once again as its hospitality partner.

The AK Literary Festival is a literary festival which brings together enthusiasts from every corner of the country. It is a collaborative platform where those who share a passion for literature come together, explore their writing styles, the inspiration behind their writing and learn about the ways of Sri Lanka and its people  their expressions, cultures and perspectives. Initiated by renowned author and pilot Capt. Elmo Jayawardena, a small group of believers and writing enthusiasts came together to begin the AK Lit Fest journey.

The AK Lit Fest 2016 was held recently at the Western Province Aesthetic Resort for the second consecutive year. The two day programme consisted of book launches, sessions on scriptwriting for cinema and theatre, the art and craft of humour in literature, creative writing workshops, travel literature and much more, where in which a number of sessions (including the one of travel literature on the 15th of May) were conducted at the Jetwing Pavilion, a literary space dedicated to Jetwing Hotels.

During the Festival an award for Poem of the Year was also gifted by Jetwing Hotels. The winner was selected by the poems sent in for the English Poetry Competition by school children which were in excess of 65 quality entries.

Ishanth Gunewardene, Head of Sales and Marketing for Jetwing said We at Jetwing truly believe that we are the home of Sri Lankan hospitality and we celebrate all things Sri Lankan  including the talent and creativity of our youth in the literary arts. This year too the Festival brought out an excellent programme of engaging and interesting activities, following the superb inaugural event last year.
37 hospitals to reopen after deal with doctors By Sandun Jayawardana Machinations over contested interns list View(s): View(s):

Thirty-seven rural hospitals that were closed because of a lack of doctors, are soon to reopen as part of a compromise reached this week between the Health Ministry and the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA).

The matter was resolved after extensive discussions were held regarding the dispute over post-internship appointments that saw the GMOA resorting to a token islandwide strike on Tuesday.

According to details obtained by The Sunday Times, 42 provincial hospitals and primary care units in 15 districts are currently closed due to the non-availability of doctors. Most are in the North and East,but districts such as Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa. Nuwara Eliya and Badulla also have three or more that have been shut down.

GMOA Secretary Dr. Nalinda Herath said the union agreed to fill the vacancies of 37 of these hospitals during discussions with Health Ministry officials.

We could not agree on filling the remaining five because there were far too many difficulties for medical officers in these areas, he added. Nevertheless, he said, it was a win-win situation for everyone as many of the hospitals that were closed would now be reopened.

He emphasised that this move was especially noteworthy given that about two years ago there were some 200 rural hospitals that had been closed. We have gradually been able to reduce that number, Dr. Herath said.

It is hard to find doctors who are willing to serve in these areas due to various difficulties, the GMOA official said. Access to these hospitals were difficult, doctors sometimes had no quarters and there was a threat from animals such as elephants in some areas. Lack of electricity and clean water were also issues.

Health Ministry sources said the ministry had put forward the proposal to fill the vacancies at these hospitals because of representations made by provincial ministers.

The continued closure of a large number of rural hospitals in the North and East was of particular concern.

Initially, we had a list of 32 hospitals that we wanted to reopen but the GMOA itself came up with several others, and after discussions we were able to agree on filling the vacancies of 37, one official said.

As concerns were expressed about the difficulties doctors would face in these areas, particularly the lack of living quarters, the Health Ministry has agreed to find decent accommodation for the doctors, the official stated.

Matters regarding the post-intern vacancy list came to a head on Tuesday after the GMOA staged a token strike claiming that the list it had agreed to earlier with the Health Ministry had been altered.

The GMOAs Dr. Herath said the body was not certain who had manipulated the list but was happy that the Health Ministry had accepted its suggestions on amending it.

He said the list would normally include the name of a doctor along with his or her assigned designation and the hospital that the doctor has been assigned to: for example, Senior Health Officer (SHO)  Surgery at National Hospital Colombo or Medical Officer (MO)  Medicine at Peradeniya Teaching Hospital.

However, Dr. Herath claimed, the list we saw had many undesignated appointments, with names being simply listed as MO at various hospitals, Dr. Herath claimed.

According to him, sending doctors to hospitals without an assigned area of designation opens the door for administration at these hospitals to pick and choose doctors according to their own preferences.

For example, the head of surgery can insist he will not work with female MOs and pick only male doctors for his unit while the hospital director has the opportunity to put the child of a friend of his into an area where there is less work, he pointed out.

He also said it would not help in any way to reopen the closed hospitals. As such, the GMOA had insisted that the list be changed in line with their concerns and taking into account agreements reached with the Health Ministry earlier, he added.

There have also been arguments, highlighted at times by senior Health Ministry officials, that the GMOA had no legal authority to interfere in the compiling of the post-intern vacancy list.

In response, Dr. Herath said trade unions have a role to play under the Establishment Code when it comes to Transfer Boards. Our contention is that the post-intern appointments are also transfers and we are consulting with the Ministry on this basis.

When this question was raised at a joint media briefing held on Friday evening by Health Ministry officials and GMOA representatives, the Director-General of Health Services, Dr. Palitha Mahipala, said the ministry had to deal with different stakeholders on appointments.

When it comes to doctors appointments, the GMOA is one of the main stakeholders. I believe it is good to obtain their views when it comes to such appointments, he said.

Sources within the medical profession, however, allege there was something deeper behind the intensity of the battle waged over the post-intern vacancy list. The list can be manipulated by both the Health Ministry and GMOA, a member of the GMOA said.

Speaking on grounds of anonymity, the doctor said the number of vacancies could be deliberately under-reported so that others can be appointed to these vacancies later from the Transfer Board. Both the GMOA and Health Ministry want the bigger say in post-intern appointments because it would enable one party to put its own people to selected vacancies from the Transfer Board, the doctor said. Having your way in the post-internship lists will aid in that.

The GMOA Secretary refuted these allegations. We would not be talking about opening closed hospitals if this was the case, and our discussions with the Health Ministry have been amicable he countered.

A total of 1,065 doctors will be receiving post-internship appointments this year. The Health Ministry hopes to hand over the appointments in about two weeks.
Coal to LNG: CEB Unions say act wisely View(s):

Amidst Government moves to convert the Sampur coal power plant to liquefied natural gas (LNG), Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) engineers are protesting that it is not prudent to make such decisions in an ad hoc manner.

LNG-based thermal plants have been considered as candidate plants in the Long Term Generation Expansion Plans of the CEB since 2011, but the relatively high prices of LNG in the past prevented it being picked as an economical option, CEB Engineers Union (CEBEU) head, Athula Wanniarachchi, told the Sunday Times. However, it was planned to convert existing diesel plants to LNG, when gas supply from Mannar was confirmed.

It is true the LNG price in the USA has drastically declined recently due to innovations in gas explorations, he said. But we should not take ad hoc decisions like no more coal, only LNG plants in the future, by just analysing price fluctuations within a short span of time.

The transmission network development has already been planned and commissioned from Sampur to Veyangoda via Habarana, with transferring capability up to 1,800 MW of power from the proposed coal power plants at Sampur (one Indian, the other Japanese).

Furthermore, this network development would facilitate the integration of more renewable energy resources, as a majority of the wind and solar potential sites are located in the North and Northeast regions, according to Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority, Mr Wanniarachchi said. From the utilitys point of view, it is recommended to ensure the implementation of the proposed coal-based power plant in Sampur, considering fuel diversification and the cost to the nation.

To operate LNG plants, the Government must construct an LNG storage terminal which requires a huge investment, he continued. There are other short-term (high price) measures like floating terminals, but the best option is to go for a conventional terminal in the long run. As CEBEU, we recommend building our first LNG terminal close to Colombo, not Sampur.

It is possible to convert more than 1,000 MW of existing and future diesel-based CEB and independent power producers (IPP) plants around Colombo to LNG, Mr Wanniarachchi said. Considering the massive investment required, an LNG terminal for the sole purpose of electricity generation will not be feasible. The country must have a holistic approach to link the transport sector and other energy-intensive industries to LNG, he opined.

Air pollution in Colombo and its suburbs is mainly due to the transport sector, he said. This can be mitigated by migrating fuel option of vehicles to LNG. The highest energy demand in the country is also around Colombo, but it is not feasible to put up a coal power plant in Colombo, as there is no provision for coal unloading, etc.

Some so-called experts talk about LNG plants in Colombo, Hambantota and Sampur, the CEBEU head said. The country cannot afford to build two or three LNG terminals or, construct a pipe network covering all these locations within a short span of time. So, we should focus on the most suitable place for LNG first, that is Colombo.

If the Government takes any ad-hoc decision to suddenly convert the Sampoor plants fuel option to LNG, it will ultimately end up in a combined cycle plant running on diesel, with a mere plan to convert it to LNG which is not realistic, he stressed.

It will be similar to the infamous, costly 300 MW Kerawalapitiya plant which was initially planned to run on LNG, but is actually running on expensive diesel, even eight years after it was commissioned.
Lanka faces Zika threat, strict airport monitoring essential View(s):

The main vectors of the Zika virus are present across Sri Lanka and, as one of the most densely populated countries in the world, the risk of infection through mosquito bites or sexual transmission remains a major concern, researchers in Singapore warn.

Should Zika not be currently present in Sri Lanka, it is highly likely in the near future that an importation event will occur, say Dr. Borame Dickens and Dr Jie Yang. Zika infection shows similar symptoms to dengue hence misdiagnosis is possible. Thus, under-reporting and a lack of surveillance could potentially explain why a Zika case has not been reported in Sri Lanka yet.

The researchers are investigating the role of travel and climate in Zika dispersal as a co-project between the Department of Biological Sciences and Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore.

Aedes aegyptii and Aedes albopictus, thought to be the main vectors of the Zika virus, are both present across Sri Lanka owing to favourable climatic and anthropogenic conditions, they told the Sunday Times in an email interview. Persistent rainfall and limited vector control contribute towards the formation of stagnant pools of water, which provides ideal breeding sites for these mosquitoes.

The recent floods have also heightened the danger. It is well established that expanding surface water will inevitably increase the number of available breeding sites for mosquitoes, Dr Dickens and Dr Jie say. The risk of Zika transmission depends on the number of mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus in Sri Lanka. A greater mosquito population could elevate biting rates, and therefore increase the potential spread of Zika.

Furthermore, temperatures all year round are ideal for mosquito reproduction, increasing the chance of interaction between mosquito and human hosts. As one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with more than 20 million people residing on a landmass of about 65,000km2, the risk of infection through either mosquito bites or sexual transmission remains a major concern.

The disease could also be asymptomatic, further increasing the chance of missing detection, the researchers point out. The main pathway of importation appears to be through air travel from areas of local Zika transmission. To prevent the arrival of Zika, strict airport monitoring and quarantine measures must be implemented where suspected cases are detected, they advise. Individuals who have travelled to areas of local transmission should avoid sexual contact for up to 12 days, which is the incubation time for the Zika virus. If no symptoms develop after this period, it is generally considered safe to resume sexual activity.

However, if a person develops symptoms similar to dengue, they should be hospitalised, they stress. This requires public engagement and education to help the local population recognise and understand how Zika transmission can be prevented. Should mosquitoes carry Zika, a national campaign of traditional vector control methods using bed nets, fogging and the removal of stagnant pools of water is required to prevent the spread of Zika.

International experts in public health and disease must be consulted throughout this process to ensure that this programme is implemented effectively. The potential application of an RIDL or Wolbachia campaign should also be considered.

Recent technologies advances in mosquito control have led to the development of RIDL (Release of Insects with Dominant Lethality) by OXITEC (UK) and Wolbachia infected mosquitoes by the Eliminate Dengue Project (Australia). Both projects aim to suppress wild mosquito populations through a targeted species-specific approach, which reduces the chance of being bitten by a Zika or dengue mosquito vector.

Cultural factors, health awareness and case locations will all play a role in how quickly it will potentially spread and the longer cases remain undiagnosed, the greater the chance of secondary cases occurring. With the already high level of uncertainty in the estimates of Zika case numbers, estimating spread will only become more difficult unless surveillance and detection increase significantly.
New tax stands; 400 luxury vehicles stuck in port View(s):

The Finance Ministry has ruled out the provision of concessions to vehicle importers who have protested against the imposition of a heavy tax from last week. Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said the new tax was justified because it would help solve issues related to undervaluation of vehicles.

Most importers this week held back clearing of their vehicles expecting concessions from the Finance Ministry. About 400 luxury or semi luxury vehicles remained uncleared at the Hambantota port. Mr. Karunanayake said that no concessions could be offered as the duty imposed affected only the prices of luxury vehicles and did not affect vehicles lower than 1,500cc.

We had discussed this proposal with the vehicle importers as we needed to have a proper method to prevent the undervaluation of vehicles. This system of imposing taxes based on the engine capacity will help to prevent malpractices, he said. However, vehicle Importers have said it is unfair to impose taxes based on the engine capacity.

Vehicle Importers Association President Sampath Meranchchige said that imposing taxes on used vehicles based on the engine capacity was unfair as the duty would not differ for older vehicles and new vehicles. He said he hoped that more talks could be held to reach a compromise relating to those who had already opened Letters of Credit.

The importers also point out that under the new system that vehicles imported from Europe or India are taxed at the same rate.

Ceylon Motor Traders Association Chairmna Gihan Pilapitiya said some of those who planned to import vehicles have paid their advance about five to six months earlier and it would be unfair to impose the new tax on them.
Officialdom replaces damaged statue now in museum following restoration View(s):

The Ministry of Internal Affairs, Wayamba Development and Cultural Affairs is yet to conclude its probe into the incident of an Anuradhapura-era Buddha statue being damaged at an exposition at Temple Trees. However, the restored statue is back on display at the National Museum, ministry officials and museum staff said.

Meanwhile, the Prime Ministers office which, last week, was quick to blame the museum Director, following the conclusion of its own probe, has now gone silent. Prime Ministers Secretary Saman Ekanayake on Friday declined to comment on the findings of a separate committee appointed by its office, saying, I have no idea. The probe was conducted by a three-member committee headed by an Additional Secretary.

Ministry of Internal Affairs, Wayamba Development and Cultural Affairs Secretary D. Swarnapala said the ministrys probe, also by a three-member committee, was still ongoing. We expect it to be concluded in the next few days, he added. Mr. Swarnapala stated he would not comment further until he has seen the contents of the report.

The Sunday Times also learns that Director of the Department of National Museums, Sanuja Kasthuriarachchi had not been called before the committee to date, to give evidence. Ms Kasthuriarachchi confirmed that the restoration work on the statue had been completed. She also refuted reports she was to submit her resignation over the incident.

While declining to elaborate on the incident, she stated she hoped that if anything, it would make people realise that they should heed advise from relevant officials before taking decisions on historical artifacts.
A leading Chinese military official has been holding a series of one-on-one discussions with defense officials from Southeast Asian nations at this year's Shangri-La talks in Singapore.

Admiral Sun Jianguo with the Central Military Commission has been meeting with Defense Ministers and military chiefs to discuss a number of issues, including maritime security and anti-terror drills.

Among those he's met has included Vietnamese deputy Defense Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh.

"The two sides have cooperated well on many defense issues. Regarding border defense, strategic dialogue, navy and coast guards, we are making progress. Of course, we have cooperated on many other subjects. We have talked about furthering cooperation, and about some different perspectives."

Military representatives of 28 Asia-Pacific states are in Singapore this weekend for the Shangri-La Dialogue to discuss defense and security issues in the region.

The annual forum is the largest gathering of military and defense officials in the Asia-Pacific.
Rape of wetland leads to floody hell By Namini Wijedasa Illegal land grabs, unauthorised structures on river banks add to the havoc View(s): View(s):

The residents of Joy Lanka Watta, a housing scheme in Kohilawatta on the outskirts of Colombo, still remember the lake. It had stretched out for as far as the eye could see. In the early mornings, the air echoed with birdsong. People had fished there, or waded into its still waters to pick red lotuses to offer at the temple.

Several years ago, trucks had started trundling up with garbage, rocks and soil. The contents were tipped into the water. Residents say it was done at the behest of a sawmill owner who they identified as Ajith. He had staked claim to the land bordering the lake. Refuse piled up, attracting rodents and crows.

Unable to bear the stench, the people protested. Some of them signed a petition, drawing threats from cohorts of a notorious mobster from Grandpass. The Special Forces once towed the trucks away. But Ajith was well connected and received patronage from politicians. The trucks returned  and kept coming, till all but a small corner of the lake was topped.

Everything happened recently, during the tenure of the last Government, said a local government official who requested anonymity out of fear. We complained to the police but they did nothing. Thats all I can tell you.

What occurred here is typical of the manner in which many marshlands in the Colombo metropolitan region have been reclaimed. The perpetrators, usually well-connected, are accountable to none. The police know better than to intervene. The filling is done against the law. And it continues.

Even today, there is a pile of rocks and soil at the edge of Ajiths reclaimed plot. It is clear that he intends to choke the rest of the lake. His property is now higher than adjoining areas. Last month, Joy Lanka Watta was severely flooded when the Kelani River burst its banks. Runoff from Ajiths reclaimed plot made matters worse. And without the lake to retain excess water, many other houses also went under.

Eighteen percent of the Colombo metropolitan region was made up of wetlands in the 1980s. The number is now down to just 10 percent. This means a massive 40 percent of wetlands have been lost to planned or unplanned development. Studies show them continuing to diminish at the rate of 1.2 percent per year. This will make flood mitigation even more difficult in future.

There are multiple other impediments to flood management in Colombo and its suburbs. In recent decades, flood plains all along the serpentine Kelani River have become heavily built up. Kolonnawa, for instance, is constructed almost entirely on low-lying ground adjacent to the river. It is packed solid with homes and businesses. They were among the worst hit.

Even the bund of the Kelani River has been compromised by unauthorised dwellers. So crowded is the Colombo metropolitan area now that finding other lands for them to live on is proving a serious challenge. A sense of urgency prevails.

At the picturesque Ganewatte Purana Maha Viharaya in Bomiriya, a mass of people gathered anxiously around Kaduwela Divisional Secretary W.M. Dayawathi. They had lived atop the Pahala Bomiriya bund of the Kelani River but their homes were destroyed in the flood. The Irrigation Department has warned them to vacate the embankment. But they had nowhere to go and the Divisional Secretary had nowhere to put them.

There are no State lands in the Kaduwela division to shift you to, Ms. Dayawathi explained to them, staring worriedly at the sky. We will find a solution for you but we need time. We cannot do this at once. So stay where you are for the moment and give us time. It was decided that the settlers would pitch their donated tents on a property adjoining the bund till a more suitable option presented itself.

A few yards away, B.B. Anuruddhikas phone rang ceaselessly. She was the Pahala Bomiriya Grama Niladhari, a tireless woman that residents had high praise for. I have been on my feet for more than 15 days, she said, eyes brimming with tears. Her husband, a postal worker, was paralysed in a stroke nine months ago and could not understand why she kept returning home past midnight. She was also juggling three children, the youngest of whom was just nine.

In some parts, people have built homes between the bund and the Kelani River. Not only is this dangerous, it impedes the smooth flow of water and prevents the authorities from reinforcing or heightening the banks. Any flood management plan, experts warn, must take into account these obstructions.

R. A. Sriyani, a 43-year-old cleaner, lives in a hovel in Kelanimulla with two children. It is made of wooden planks with tin sheets for a roof. There is a long row of such dwellings, all perched at the edge of the Kelani River. To access them, one must climb over the bund and down roughly-hewn steps. Full-sized families are crowded inside with several offspring.

Sriyani says she would leave in a jiffy if the Government gave her land. Her toilet (a squatting pan in the corner, separated by a partition) was washed away in the recent flood and her house is leaning precariously towards the water below. If someone gives us a plot, she enthused, we will worship that person instead of the gods. We dont want a house or anything else. We will put something up to live in.

Yet, there is a marked scarcity of livable or commercial land. And the search for more has worsened many Colombos flood problems, experts say. Urbanisation has been rapid. Surfaces which earlier absorbed water are now paved. Walls have come up, further blocking the ebb of water that overflows from the Kelani River.

River and canal banks as well as bunds have been encroached upon. The prerequisite for construction to take place at least 50 feet away from the river has been flouted everywhere. The land use pattern has changed, said an official from the Metro Colombo Urban Development Project (MCUDP), requesting anonymity. There are a lot of impervious areas so infiltration of water into the soil is less. Eighty percent of water is overland flow that suddenly reaches the canals.

Storage capacity within the metro Colombo area is also limited at just 39 percent, she continued. The five existing canal outfalls (three to the sea and two to the Kelani River) can drain around 26 percent of water but the balance 35 percent contributes to flooding. There are 45 flood-prone areas within the Colombo Municipal Council limits.

There are plans under the World Bank-funded MCUDP to reduce flooding. While the project kicked off in 2012, much time was spent carrying out research  such as a wetlands study and a rainfall study  and laying the groundwork. Tenders will soon be called for the building of new tunnels leading to sea outfalls and a pumping station is envisaged at Nagalagam Street to draw and discharge flood waters as they occur.

The Irrigation Department has identified other measures that need to be taken on short and long-term basis, Irrigation Director General S.S.L. Weerasinghe said. But there are challenges. Chief among these is the need to relocate and compensate thousands of unauthorised dwellers. A large sum of money will be required for development and upgrading of flood mitigation measures. And, unfortunately, the sense of urgency that follows the occurrence of a major flood almost inevitably fades away with time.

Nevertheless, among the short-term steps the Irrigation Department hopes to take is the removal of unauthorised dwellers, especially in highly vulnerable areas; control of land reclamation; and the improvement of existing flood protection structures such as Kelani River bunds.

Frequent flash floods predicted: Building reservoirs a way outThe trend now is for large rainfalls of high intensity to occur at faster frequency, causing flash floods, Prof. S.B. Weerakoon of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Peradeniya said. He is an expert in river hydraulics.Along with others, Prof. Weerakoon has studied long-term climate impacts and trends in rainfall variation. His team has also developed a two-dimensional inundation model downstream of the Kelani River to predict how water flows below Hanwella. While annual rainfall figures have not shown a significant difference, extreme events are expected such as periods of drought followed by heavy precipitation. More frequent flash floods can be expected while disasters and magnitude of damage will be more, he said. As sea levels rise, drainage of flood water to the sea will be delayed. The authorities must turn their attention towards people living in flood plains with a view to reducing disaster, he stressed. As floods impede economic development and require large outlays to fix the damage, the State must divert resources towards prevention. There was no one solution, Prof. Weerakoon explained. Our thinking is that storage improvement or reservoirs in the upper catchment areas is the best option, as much as possible, he explained. Pumping stations were welcome but were dependent on electricity, which might fail. They also needed maintenance and repair. Expanding the river canal system and river mouths to push water out to sea are other options. The capacity to absorb flash floods has gone down tremendously with the reduction of wetlands over the years, said Prof. Devaka Weerakoon, a renowned wetlands specialist. Wetlands in Kelaniya and Dematagoda  most marshes are situated in valleys  have been converted to settlements. This meant capacity was reduced where it was required most. Weaknesses in existing drainage system, impediments to river flow, tanks being silted and conversion of wetlands all contributed towards eroding the ability to withstand flash floods in the Colombo metropolitan region. Prof. Weerakoon also observed a change in weather patterns leading to short periods of heavy rain. What were suggesting is zero loss of wetland, he asserted. Let us make sure that we preserve the wetlands we have. They are still being converted, even with all this bad experience. Other engineering interventions have been proposed to facilitate the flow of the river such as cleaning canals, raising bunds and eradicating bottlenecks. But it is very important to maintain existing wetlands because engineering interventions alone cannot solve the problem, he warned. It is not a possible scenario. Prof. Weerakoon said efforts must also be made to create new wetlands in abandoned lands to increase the buffer against floods. This is the best time, when people feel it is important, he warned. When the flood goes down, it will be business as usual.
Two key personnel desert drug authority By Chrishanthi Christopher Little support from Health Ministry, lack of support alleged View(s): View(s):

The lackadaisical attitude of the Government in providing the necessary staff and infrastructure to carry out the monumental task of the National Medicinal Regulatory Authority (NMRA)/ has led to the resignation of two key personnel last week.

Chairman Prof. Lal Jayakody and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Prof. Krishantha Weerasuriya had tended their resignation from the NMRA citing personal reasons.

However the Sunday Times learns that the duo decided to leave because of lack of staff and support from Health Ministry officials.

The NMRA was constituted in July 2015 to bring down the number of pharmaceutical drugs imported into the country. The task was to reduce the almost 15,000 brands that flood the market and import quality drugs in their generic forms

Prof. Jayakody said that there were serious problems  too much work, little infrastructure and more administration work that had dampened their spirit in carrying out the work, effectively.

He said that due to the enormous amount of paper work they were not able to use their technical skills to the full to implement the task they were assigned for.

He said that the Cosmetic Devices & Drug Regulatory Authority (CDDA) staff under the Health Ministry were absorbed into the NMRA and that the workers were in limbo as to their status. As public servants they were entitled to a pension but with the change they were not given any assurance pertaining to the employee status. He said that the Health Ministry was non -committal and could not give them any assurance or letters of appointments.

In the last eleven months since the NMRA was formed the Authority had received several applications to import drugs. As it is important to regulate strictly to allow affordable and good quality drugs into the market, the importers were questioned and denied registration if not satisfied.

We have been strict with the private sector  they have legitimate grievances in the industry, he said.

However he assured that there has been no shortage of drugs in the public hospitals or private the sector hospitals and they have not received any complaints during their tenure in office.

He held that NMRA cannot be held responsible for any shortage of drugs in the market. We are only concerned with the import licences. Any shortage of drugs has nothing to do with us. The supply chain is responsible, he said.

Any delays in approving was because the registered companies had not evaluated their files for a considerable period of time. Some have been sitting on it over a year and seeking registration within days.

Prof. Krishantha Weerasuriya refused to give reasons for his resignation but said they are satisfied with the work they have done. We have succeeded in registering quality medicines and improving technical standards of the registrations, he said.

Also he said that it was never their intention to stay for the whole period of their appointments Once we have achieved our objective we have moved out. It is up to persons who succeed us to improve the other areas at the NMRA.

A member, said that the NMRA by following proper regulatory process has saved millions of rupees for the government in the last eleven months.

The official who wished to remain anonymous said it has gone beyond its mandate to ensure quality drugs imported into the country. He said the NMRA has been careful that the drugs came from registered sources preventing exploitation by unscrupulous importers.

Several No Objection Letters (NOL) and attempts to import unwanted medicines and drugs still under trial stages were stopped.

In the past the importers have been using NOL (used only to import non registered drugs into the country in a time of emergency) to import drugs in order to avoid paying registration fee to NMRA.

According to NMRA figures for the first six months in office (01 July to 31 December) the Medicines Regulatory Division has issued 667 full registration certificates, 791 provisional registrations and rejected 330.

The Medical Devices Evaluation Sub-Committee has issued 269 full registrations, 815 provisional registrations and rejected 283 applications.

General Secretary, Society of Government Pharmacist, Ajith P. Thilakaratne said though the pair had good pharmacology knowledge lacked experience in the administration field. They encountered many obstacles as the cadres in the NMRA were not filled, he said.

He said another drawback was the professors failing to consult stakeholders when refusing registrations. They took unilateral decision this worked against them he said.

The Quality Assurance Labs (QAL) have not been supportive of the NMRA. Thilakaratne said the QAL has been delaying approval of samples thereby slowing the approval process and creating a demand for the drugs in the market.

The NMRA alone cannot bring down the number of drugs and the price. There should be a concerted effort from all concerned organizations, he said.

President, Sri Lanka Chambers of Pharmaceuticals, Colonel Chandra Jayaratne representing importers said the two professors had tried their best but failed to deliver.

He opined the number of drugs in the market should be decided by market sentiments and that restricting the number of drugs will only push up the prices. There will only be a few players in the market, the tender prices will go up and competition will come down. Eventually prices of drugs will shoot up even higher, he said.

Also he said that there is an urgent need to streamline the QAL to expedite approval of drugs. Have only a few accredited manufacturers to avoid the influx of low quality drugs and sort out problems of credibility through email correspondence. This will quicken the process, he said.

Meanwhile Health Ministry, Secretary, A. Jayawickrema said that Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, Kelaniya University, Prof. Asitha De Silva is tipped to take office as chairman ,NMRA.
When holidaying here was a genteel affair Royston Ellis writes on historic hotels and the beginning of tourism View(s): View(s):

It is 50 years ago this month that the Ceylon Tourist Board was established marking the official commencement of planned tourism development and regulation in Sri Lanka. The Board  now known as Sri Lanka Tourism  was the successor to the Government Tourist Bureau that had offices in Colombo, London and Bombay. Tourists, however, had been coming here on holiday since the 19th Century, which is when many hotels still in business today first opened.

Sri Lankas enviable collection of historic Victorian and Art Deco hotel buildings contrasts both architecturally and in ambience with modern mainstream package hotels, trendy boutique villas and backpacker guesthouses. Those hotels of character, built before there were any government regulations or official promotion of tourism, remain as a testament to how holidaying here was a genteel affair in the past.

In the days of steam ships, before aeroplanes and automobiles were invented, travellers disembarked at Galle harbour and stayed there before travelling to Colombo by horse-drawn carriage or, from 1894, by train. The hotel where new arrivals stayed was called the New Oriental Hotel, but this was neither New nor Oriental, but defiantly colonial in design.

A Regency-style building with sandstone walls one metre thick and wooden ceilings six metres high, the hotel grew out of a barracks built in 1684 by the Dutch to house army officers.This was eventually occupied by officers of the British 83rd Regiment and thus it can be considered the oldest hotel building in the island.The NOH, as it became known, was licensed to operate as an Inn in 1865 and, up to the time it closed in 2003, retained the languor and must of antiquity. It has since been gentrified and reinvented as the Amangalla Hotel.

Passengers arriving at Colombo by sea would have been gratified to see a solid, respectable looking hotel right by the harbour gates, the Grand Oriental. According to a review published in 1907, The Grand Oriental Hotel (or GOH as it is familiarly known far and wide) was the first of the modern type of imposing hotels erected in the East. With its towering front facing the harbour and the shipping and its main portico separated by only a few yards from the principle landing stage, it occupies both a commanding and convenient position; and passengers by the mail steamers who are passing through the port are especially catered for at this establishment in the very best styleThe building contains 154 bedroomsThe hotel is lighted throughout by electricity and all the public rooms and bedrooms are kept cool by means of electric fans.

The managing director of the GOH from 1901, Wm Tudor Stephen Saunders, had arrived in Ceylon in 1868 and worked as a planter before he sold his plantation and, settled down in Colombo and was instrumental in starting the Bristol Hotel, of which he was the first managing director. Leaving the Bristol Hotel in 1901, he became the managing director of the Grand Oriental HotelHe was also the managing director of the Ceylon Railway Refreshment Car Company, the Hatton Hotel, and the Grand Hotel at Nuwara Eliya.

Like the NOH, the GOH was originally built (in 1837) to house the military and only became a hotel in 1875 to fulfil the demand for accommodation near the port. The Bristol Hotel was its neighbour in York Street and advertised itself on a postcard (in English, French and German, thus revealing the nationalities of tourists over a century ago) as having Best cuisine in the East and Curries a Speciality. On the reverse of the postcard are Useful notes on arrival at Colombo giving the hotel tariff as Rs 6.00 for a double room, with breakfast an extra Rs. 2.00. Carriages cost Rs.1 for an hours city tour, while rickshaw hire (pulled by a man not a horse) was 10 cents for 10 minutes.

The doyen of historic hotels in Colombo was, and still is, the Galle Face Hotel. This grew out of a private bungalow, Galle Face House, at the southern end of Galle Face Green. During the time of Governor Sir Colin Campbell (1841-47) a 30-pound cannon ball fired during an artillery practice pitched through the roof and landed in the drawing room, an event now commemorated annually at the hotel. It was the first hotel in the country to have a swimming pool.

Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon, published in London in 1907, states: The Galle Face Hotel is renowned not only throughout the Orient but also wherever travellers who have passed through Colombo are to be foundThe architecture of the huge building is Renaissance style, and the interior arrangements are on a scale befitting the exteriorSuites of rooms with private bathrooms attached and elaborately furnished apartments are provided on every floor, while over 200 bedrooms are included in the sleeping accommodation, also bathrooms for ladies and gentlemen on each floor. The management is entirely European. Established over 20 years ago, the hotel was entirely rebuilt in 1894 and now it can claim to be provided with every comfort and convenience.

From the same source we learn that: Mount Lavinia Grand Hotel is a favourite seaside resort with visitors to Ceylonit is particularly suited for the rest and recuperation of invalids and sufferers from the debilitating effects of the city climate. The hotel was previously a rest house, having originated as the country residence of Governor Sir Edward Barnes (1824-31). It was converted in 1900 into a sanatorium to accommodate convalescing Boer prisoners of war. A military barracks beside the railway line was adapted as a hospital before it too become part of the hotel.

Sir Edward Barnes has a connection with another hotel of character, The Grand Hotel in Nuwara Eliya. This has its origins in the hill country bungalow he built there. It became known as Barnes Hall and is recorded on a map of the area, dated 1862, as being a hotel, so todays Grand Hotel is actually over 150 years old, but it is not the countrys oldest. In 1891, the owning company, Nuwara Eliya Hotels Company Limited, was formed to own and operate the property but the hotel was not transferred to the company until April 12, 1892. So next year (2017) will see the 125th anniversary of that event.

In 1907 it was reported that: At Nuwara Eliya the competition between the four different hostelries established there is very keen and the visitor begins to realise how much he is sought after when representatives of each establishment appear determined to bear him off vi et armis. The four hotels would have included The Grand, St Andrews Hotel, originally begun as a planters club, and The Pedro View Hotel, part of an Indian-owned enterprise begun in 1869.

In neighbouring Bandarawela, the burrowing through the hills of the railway line in 1894 brought travellers to the Bandarawela Hotel which opened the same year. Tourists have been staying there ever since. The original concept was an exclusive planters club and guest house for Europeans. While other old hotels revamp themselves, the Bandarawela Hotel prospers because it seems that not much changes; it remains reassuringly locked in a time warp. I chose the hotel for the celebration of my own half-century, forging a link with the hotel that makes me still feel 50 years old whenever I stay there, as nothing seems to have changed since then.

In Anuradhapura there was another grand hotel popular at the beginning of the last century that time has forgotten. Unable to compete with modern hostelries, it shed the appellation Grand and became the Tissawewa Rest House for decades. It was recently renovated and still exists with its vintage atmosphere restored as The Sanctuary at Tissawewa.

The accolade of being the oldest, purpose built grand hotel in Sri Lanka must go to The Queens in Kandy. Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon records: One of the most popular hotels up country is the Queens Hotel, Kandy, and the increasing patronage of European visitors has rendered its enlargement necessary. It was opened in 1849 and was improved and enlarged about ten years ago [ie: in 1897].

Its neighbour in Kandy, The Suisse Hotel, rivals it in age having originally (in the 17th century) been the residence of the Chief Minister of the Royal Granary. In 1818 it was acquired by the British and named Haramby House. Later, it was taken over by a Swiss lady who ran it as a guest house before it became a hotel.

It was not until the 1930s that tourism spread to the east coast with the building of the first hotel in Trincomalee. A British resident, M.S. Milne, saw the possibilities of good business from the British navy personnel stationed in Trincomalee and in 1937 opened The Welcombe Hotel.It soon became the social hub of the area, and was very popular with visitors touring the country. In December 1938, a tourist sent a postcard to England depicting an enticing view of the hotel. On the back she wrote: This is a very good hotel. I am enjoying my trip immensely, much more than I expected. We are going on to Polonnaruwa today, Sigiri & Kandy tomorrow. Then Nuwara Eliya, Haputale, Hambantota, Galle & Colombo.

It is thanks to independent visitors from Europe in the19th and early 20th centuries that tourism began in Sri Lanka. That some of those pioneering hotels are still flourishing is evidence of the enduring success of this countrys tourism industry.
Operationalising the hub View(s):

The word hub is often in use these days with reference to Sri Lanka, from the geography-linked concept of a maritime hub in the Indian Ocean to the six hub plan of national development adopted by the former government of Mahinda Rajapaksa, namely maritime, aviation, commercial, energy, knowledge and tourism. The hub plan appears to derive from historical experience and the local conditions that ensured the success of Lankas ancient ports. It was not just geographical positioning, but also the ability of the home country to provide for the security of its harbours, transparent customing and logistical arrangements to attract foreign merchants from diverse origins. Lankas early rulers also pursued a policy of friendship with all, hence the favourable notices from East and West.

The islands natural bounty provided repair facilities for the visiting vessels, food and water. To allay the superstitions of sailors at the mercy of monsoon winds, the temple, kovil and mosque were in close proximity to the harbour. A healthy environment, friendly hosts, leisure and pilgrimage activities like Sigiriya or Sri Pada were positive assets. Thus, commerce, diplomacy, knowledge, tourism all intertwined with the island hub as its centre of activity, able to defend its position against the competition from its great neighbour in the North.

Today, with globalization and the rise of all manner of new threats, connectivity with the outside world has become increasingly difficult to manage. The question that arises is how Sri Lanka, given its geographical endowment, can best operationalize the hub concept and balance the synergies which come in the wake of globalization while still retaining the independent manoeverability required to leverage its national interests?

In contemporary times, history will record that the Rajapaksa hub plan centred around infrastructure, including the building of a modern harbor and airport with multi lane highways in Hambantota, much criticized today for not having attracted any sizeable business. To be fair, there had been a strategic thrust to this proposal from an earlier time, to establish an alternative international airport with different weather conditions to Katunayake. Yet why was there no business plan to operationalize the costly new ports infrastructure? Was this due to a lack of follow-up planning or some strategic block arising out of the competition between the two rising giants of Asia, China and India? Gwadar port in Pakistan, also built by the Chinese, (sometimes referred to by commentators along with Hambantota in the context of the String of Pearls conspiracy), avoided controversy by awarding its management to a Singaporean operator before it reverted to the Chinese company now in charge.

lthough there is hardly any reference today to the Letters of Exchange attached to the India-Sri Lanka Agreement of 1987, agreements meant to remain secret but which came to light in full public controversy, there is inscribed a permanent strategic block on Sri Lanka ports that they will not be made available for military use by any country in a manner prejudicial to Indias interests. Could the arrival of a submarine constitute military use? Here, one answer is to build a set of rules of conduct which would cover all visiting naval vessels, as once was done in respect of vessels carrying nuclear weapons, and include therein the practice of prior notification.

The reference to Sri Lanka as the maritime hub in the Indian Ocean in the context of the competition between India and China is argued as a lesson for Sri Lanka to carefully balance these pressures in order to avoid being sucked into disputes beyond its control. Yet what has transpired over the last few years is that India and China appear to have carved out different spheres of operation in the north and south of Sri Lanka, which can hardly be good for the country. What may be more beneficial is to create opportunities for both India and China to work together with Sri Lanka to jointly develop business opportunities. Thus the current revised plan for the Port City as a joint venture between Sri Lanka and a Chinese entity which will be open to Indian investment, is an important new type of arrangement, the success of which will have a wide bearing. It may be worthwhile to see whether a similar arrangement could be worked out for the 1000 acres which have been allotted to China for industrial development zone in the south, which could be open to Indian participation as well. However clearly there are limits to this kind of cooperation since India is hardly likely to welcome Chinese participation in its sphere of influence in the North especially in the development of ports close to the Indian landmass.

This article argues that to truly operationalize the hub concept replete with multiple poles, the need of the hour is to identify areas of cooperation which would involve collaboration jointly with both India and China. Renewable energy for instance is an area where both India and China are making great headway and tapping renewables is likely to be the key to Sri Lankas growing energy needs with the objective also of ensuring that no one in the population is left behind. Yet the new policy thinking is not without its challenges. There is a proposal for a large wind farm in Mannar which may come into conflict with the path of the huge bird migration into Vankalai, one of the islands best nature reserves.

Apart from the multiple pole hub, it is worth noting that since the end of the armed conflict in the island in 2009, a new hub of strategic interest is opening up around Mannar as the closest point to India which could be bridged for either road or rail connection. The restoration of the rail track will permit services to reopen between Talaimannar and Rameswaram which once brought thousands of indentured labour from South India to work on the newly opened commercial plantations. The re-opening of this route will facilitate a reverse flow, the return of the Sri Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu, in all dignity, which will be a huge public relations success for both countries if they manage to pull it off, given the trauma of the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe.

The diaries of colonial officials record the period of the indentured labour as carrying dreaded memories for the Sri Lankans since the visitors brought cholera and other diseases which infected villages on the route, decimated their populations and destroyed traditional ways of life. Historical distrust, combined with contemporary problems such as the threat of pandemics and refugee turmoil, have cast a shadow on moves to foster greater economic connectivity between the island and the subcontinent. Hence the increasing public opposition in Sri Lanka to the signing of ETCA and the building of a bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka, projects endorsed at the highest political levels on both sides. From the inception, Sri Lankas archaeologists have underlined the value of the islands destiny at the far end of a continent (terminal destination) from whence there is only ocean southwards, which has resulted in the island becoming a repository of archaeological evidence. However sociologists tend to stress on the cultural underpinnings between Sri Lanka and India and suggest that Sri Lanka and the southern states of India form a common cultural zone. In this view the Palk Strait represents a unifying factor, refuting the reality of the present state of tension in these Straits where hundreds of Indian vessels have been found to be poaching in Sri Lanka waters and worse still, bottom trawling and destroying the marine seabed.

Most recently, the Indian Prime Minister has proposed a Common Economic Zone between the two countries. Such a proposal could make Mannar the centre pole from the Sri Lankan side and focus attention for example on joint development of the petroleum resources in the Mannar basin. Other countries have resolved similar bilateral difficulties on the sharing of resources through establishing joint ventures at the private sector level. Malaysia and Thailand for example have set aside their disputes over territorial waters to establish a joint venture for oil exploration, headed by private sector experts nominated from both countries to represent their interests, where it is clearly understood that profit not politics drives the venture. However proposals for greater economic connectivity would have to first overcome the present adverse reaction which has set in due to lack of public consultation over both ETCA and the Bridge, upsetting the equilibrium in India-Sri Lanka relations which had seemingly taken a positive direction when the armed conflict was brought to an end in 2009 without Indian interference.

Operationalizing the hub will impact on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the lead institution in economic outreach, and effect the manner of its carrying out business. With globalization, modern counterparts are moving away from bilateral diplomacy to regional and multilateral diplomacy. These institutional winds of change have somewhat by-passed Sri Lanka due to the slow pace of integration in SAARC and the pre-occupation with the armed conflict and the tsunami crisis. In comparison, in South East Asia most of the diplomatic attention is taken up by regional and international meetings and dialogues. Sri Lanka must anchor any new directions in foreign policy management for the longer term through bi-party parliamentary consultations. The need of the hour is to promote consensual policy- making in the Scandinavian tradition rather than foster opposition for the sake of unseating the government which is the British tradition, that has hobbled rather than promoted national development. (The writer is a retired Sri Lanka Foreign Service Ambassador)
An e-mail that takes a dig at Uncle Sam for using freedom of navigation as a lame excuse to flex his muscles at China over its maritime claims in the South China Sea has somehow found its way into my mailbox.

Written by a certain Ms Oh Beigong from Taipei, it was addressed to Admiral Harry B. Harris, Commander of the United States Pacific Command, and copied to his bosses, US Secretary of Navy Ray Mabus and US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter, as well as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Now, I would like to make it clear that I have not the faintest idea who Ms Oh is but I do think she has a sharp elbow. From the little that I know, what she has written is accurate but just so readers can judge for themselves, I reproduce here the e-mail in its entirety:

"Dear Admiral Harris,

I write to congratulate you for standing up for mariners the world over to assert the right to freedom of navigation in international waters. You showed much daring when on May 10, you sent the USS William P. Lawrence, an Arleigh Burke class missile destroyer, to within 12 nautical miles of Fiery Cross Reef, over which Beijing has long claimed sovereignty and which it has occupied for years.

Sure, some of my friends said the destroyer made just a single pass, which would qualify the sail-through as innocent passage under Article 18 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos). In other words, they were telling me, the US had made a big deal out of it as there was no real risk of the Chinese responding and going ballistic, literally or metaphorically. They also said you didn't need guts, or even brains, to dispatch the destroyer as you were just carrying out the orders of your political masters!

That's quibbling. I think you deserve credit for risking the lives of your sailors as you couldn't know for sure the Chinese would steer clear of your destroyer. Remember the mid-air collision between one of your EP-3 spy planes and a Chinese J8 fighter on April 1, 2001? Nobody saw that coming and somebody did - the Chinese pilot, Lieutenant Commander Wang Wei. The EP-3 was forced to land in Hainan and its 24 crew members detained and interrogated. Beijing, ruled by a more conciliatory Jiang Zemin then, set the 24 free eventually, compensated Wang's family and hailed him as a hero, a "Guardian of Territorial Space and Waters".

This time round, with a tougher Xi Jinping in charge and after so many provocations, no one could guarantee that the Chinese would not send a number of "fishing vessels" or even Coast Guard Cutters to sail right across the path of the USS William P. Lawrence and force a collision. Out of the question? Back in the 1980s, when the Cold War was still on, Soviet freighters did exactly that - they rammed American naval craft in the Mediterranean for encroaching on their waters. Chinese commentators have of late been talking publicly about emulating the Soviets. And hey, with all the nationalistic fervour whipped up on the mainland, the Chinese may need another hero!

Well, you got away again this time just as you did in January when the USS Curtis Wilbur skirted Triton in the Paracel group of islands claimed by Beijing and last October when the USS Larsen charged into contentious waters in the Spratlys. So, yes, you showed you had what it took to risk your men's lives without batting an eyelid. Bully for you!

But displaying testicular fortitude is one thing and pushing your luck too far is another. You have made whatever point you think you were making. But have the Chinese stopped building the airstrips and other structures on the disputed islands and reefs that the other claimants are said to be worried about?

Let me get serious. The US is playing with fire by repeatedly poking China in the eye. We in this region are going to be the collateral damage if this spins out of control. And why should we pay the price when the US does not really have right on its side? As a thinking man, did you not feel discomfort deep inside you when the US kept singling out the Chinese as the bad guys in the maritime disputes?

You must know better than most on this planet that the US has not been able to cite one instance when China actually denied anyone the freedom of navigation or point to any statement by Beijing threatening that right. Of course Washington will sidestep that - why let facts spoil a good excuse - and say instead that it cannot allow China's claim to waters bound by that famous or infamous nine-dash line that it has drawn in the South China Sea to go unchallenged.

Excuse me, but did you not know that it was the Republic of China government, now relocated to Taiwan, that first went to the United Nations in 1948 to lodge a claim using a map of the South China Sea showing 11 dashes? Yes, 11, not nine. Not one squeak about that in all this time, none from the US, Britain, Australia - till now.

You will say, no doubt, that the Chinese are going to militarise the airstrips and other facilities to project force, thus threatening all the countries in the region. Er, coming from a senior naval officer of a country that operates some 800 bases or military facilities in more than 60 countries around the world, several of them virtually at China's doorstep, that, sir, is a bit rich!

I may be just a fisherman's daughter from Kaohsiung but I have read enough to know that capability plus intention equals threat. Guess what? The US has 11 carrier battle groups circling the globe, each with enough firepower to send four-fifths of the world's countries back to the Stone Age, the largest and second-largest air force in the world (US Air Force and US Navy's Air Wing) and the openly declared intention of not allowing any other nation to challenge US power and supremacy. Talk about threats!

By the way, all the other claimants, except Brunei, are also building and expanding their presence in the disputed areas. In fact, Taiwan has troops stationed on Taiping Island, which is also claimed by the Philippines. But the US has looked the other way. I guess, to quote your former vice-president Al Gore, that is an inconvenient truth.

I know, I know, the US is not in the habit of admitting that it is or can be wrong. Thus not a word of apology for invading Iraq under the pretext of rooting out the non-existent weapons of mass destruction. Nor did Washington ever concede that it wrongly accused the Soviet Union of using biological weapons on the Hmong people in Indochina in 1981 when the yellowish substance that fell on them from the sky was found by an international panel of scientists to be just the faeces of huge swarms of bees!

Bottom line? Might is right. The US is out to stymie the rise of China and prevent it from challenging American dominance, if not hegemony. We get that. So do us a favour, please stop talking about high principles and international law.

However, if you wish to regain at least a modicum of respect from clear-sighted people in this region, here is something you, in particular, can do. In the name of asserting freedom of navigation and upholding international law, send your destroyer or whatever to an atoll in the Philippine Sea which the Japanese call Okinotorishima (Okinotori Island) and claim as their territory.

The atoll measures no more than 9 sq m at low tide, which is probably smaller than your office in Honolulu, and lies more than 1,700km south of Tokyo. But it is less than 500km from Taiwan itself.

Under Unclos, an atoll is not an island and thus cannot be used as the basis to claim the usual 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone or EEZ. But that has not stopped Tokyo from doing so, and it has proclaimed as its EEZ an area larger than the entire Japan. Taiwan is among the many that have refused to recognise this.

Last month, a Taiwanese fishing boat was seized by the Japanese Coast Guard for operating in the EEZ. It was set free only after the owners paid nearly US$55,000 (S$76,000) as a security bond. Fortunately, our government in Taipei took up the cudgels and said it would send naval vessels from now on to protect Taiwanese fishing boats.

So, please, dear admiral, send the William P. Lawrence there and have some of its crew go fishing near the atoll. All who look askance at your dubious freedom of navigation expeditions in the South China Sea thus far will applaud you.

Don't let the Chinese beat you to it!

(Leslie Fong, Senior executive vice-president of Singapore Press Holdings' marketing and digital divisions, Former editor of The Straits Times. Published at Straits Times, May 29, 2016)
SunMedia photographer Bruce Barnard has made it two-in-a-row picking up the Best Feature Lifestyle Photographer Award at this years community newspaper awards.

Bruce once again snapped the award at the New Zealand Community Newspaper Awards after winning the same honour in Queenstown last year.
JohnGlenn_tree_statepolice1.JPG

A tree fell on a Mazda SUV Sunday on John Glenn Boulevard in Geddes. The passenger, Danielle L. Menzies, was critically injured and died Thursday.

(New York State Police)

GEDDES, N.Y. -- A Baldwinsville woman injured earlier this week after a large tree fell onto the SUV she was riding in has died.

Danielle L. Menzies, 33, was critically injured Sunday evening when a tree fell on top of a 2016 Mazda CX5 sport utility vehicle that was going east on John Glenn Boulevard near Long Branch Road in the town of Geddes.

The New York State Police said Joshua D. Lance, 38, of Syracuse, was driving at the time of the accident. Menzies suffered severe trauma to her neck and back.

"It was a horrible freak accident," Lakeside Volunteer Fire Chief Manny Falcone said at the time. "The tree came down and landed on the car while they were driving."

The top of the tree and branches landed mainly on the passenger's side of the red Mazda. Firefighters cut Menzies out of the vehicle.

She and Lance were rushed to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. Lance was treated and released. Menzies died Thursday.

Menzies graduated from John C. Birdlebough High School in Phoenix and attended Herkimer Community College and State University College at Brockport, according to her obituary. She had worked as a paralegal with Barclay & Damon for five years.
Zeppetello.JPG

Daren Zeppetello

(Provided photo)

An East Syracuse man has been charged in connection with a burglary and assault at the former General Super Plating facility on Celi Drive in DeWitt.

Daren M. Zeppetello, 34 of East Syracuse, has been charged with second-degree burglary, second-degree assault and petit larceny police said.

Police said a 25-year-old employee, who was not identified, was checking the former business' building to be sure the doors were locked at about 4 p.m. Thursday. The employee noticed a side door was pried open, and as he called out, he saw a man leave the building, police said.

When the employee tried to detain the man and call 911, police said the suspect assaulted him. The employee fought with the suspect, sustaining several injuries. The suspect then fled the scene in his vehicle.

Police said the employee was treated at the scene.

Zeppetello has been remanded to the Onondaga County Justice Center on $10,000 cash / $25,000 bond. The investigation is continuing, police said.

General Super Plating Co., which did business in the East Syracuse area for 83 years, closed in April 2015.
CLAY, N.Y. -- A man went into a veteran's backyard on Memorial Day and attacked him and his wife, the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office said.

Chad E. Thompson, 37, of 7771 Deerfield Road, Clay, was charged with second-degree assault, third-degree assault, criminal trespass, and endangering the welfare of a child.

Daniel Budlong, 67, and his wife Kathie, 62, were cooking on the back deck of their Clay house just before 5:30 p.m. Monday when a man and child they did not know entered their fenced-in yard, said Detective Jon Seeber, speaking for the sheriff's office.

At some point the man, who Seeber said was unprovoked, is accused of attacking Daniel Budlong. The man and child eventually left.

Daniel Budlong suffered facial injuries and a chipped tooth, Seeber said. Kathie Budlong had facial injuries and an injured jaw.

Their son, Brandon Budlong, said that his mother had tried to help her husband and got punched in the fray. The man did not take anything, Brandon Budlong said, and deputies got a suspect description and possible license plate number.

Seeber said Thompson was identified as the suspect, though he did not know what the motive was. Thompson was arrested Tuesday and arraigned in Clay Town Court. He was released on his own recognizance.

Daniel Budlong is a Navy veteran and retired Manlius police sergeant. Formerly a resident of Chittenango, he was the Manlius Police Department's first officer to teach the D.A.R.E. program in the East Syracuse-Minoa school district.
VERNON, N.Y. -- An 86-year-old woman died and five others were injured in a car crash after a vehicle failed to stop at an intersection, the Oneida County Sheriff's Office said.

The crash occurred around 10 a.m. Friday at the intersection of Peterboro and Marble roads in the town of Vernon.

Amber R Muir, 23, of Sherrill, was driving a 2007 Pontiac Grand Am with her children. The sheriff's office said she failed to stop at a stop sign on Marble Road when she reached Peterboro Road and hit a 2010 Toyota RAV4.

Deputies responded along with Vernon police, Vineal Ambulance, and Vernon and Sherrill firefighters.

Mary E. Zabele, 86, of Vernon, was a back-seat passenger in her Toyota, which was being driven by her grandson Kristopher R Skinner, 34, of Rome. She was rushed by ambulance to Oneida City Hospital where she later died there.

Skinner and his mother, Debra A. Skinner, 57, had to be cut from the car by firefighters, the sheriff's office said. They were taken to St. Elizabeth's Hospital.

Muir and her children -- Nathen M. Hall, 3, and Caitlyn L. Hall, 2 -- were taken to Oneida City Hospital for treatment.

Muir, Nathen Hall, Caitlyn Hall, Kristopher Skinner, and Debra Skinner were in fair condition Friday, the sheriff's office said. Muir was issued a ticket for failure to stop at a stop sign. Deputies are continuing to investigate the crash.
Students of Faith Heritage School celebrated their junior/senior prom Friday evening at the Craftsman Inn in Fayetteville.

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Students of George W. Fowler High School in Syracuse celebrated at their senior prom Friday evening at the Holiday Inn in Liverpool.

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Students of the Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central celebrated Friday evening at their prom. The event was held at Drumlins Country Club in Syracuse.

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Students of Thomas J. Corcoran High School in Syracuse celebrated at their senior prom Friday evening at the Links at Erie Village in East Syracuse.

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By Anthony Westbury of TCPalm

Should you ever be unlucky enough to have a vehicle towed off private property, listen closely to the first number the driver quotes you.

It may sound outrageous, but it could be the best way to protect your wallet in the long run.

Ever since I wrote about self-described "road dog" Paul Schmidt's efforts to get his impounded property out of the Tri-County Towing storage yard in Fort Pierce, I've been researching the laws that govern towing in Florida.

And, boy, are they complicated. Most seem written not so much to help the little guy on the street, but rather to favor tow companies.

Yet if motorists knew the statutes (or at least kept a copy of them in their glove box for future reference), they could save themselves a lot of grief and money.

I'm concentrating on private property or "trespass" towing, which could include places like parking lots, because that's what Schmidt's case falls under. Your vehicle might also be towed from a highway on orders of a law enforcement agency. In that case, different rules apply.

In St. Lucie County, the Sheriff's Office and its auto theft investigation unit handle trespass tow cases. Anything on the highway is under the purview of the Sheriff's Office Traffic Unit. Florida's Turnpike and Interstate 95 towing are handled by the Florida Highway Patrol.

Officers in the sheriff's auto theft unit are proud of the county ordinance they rewrote in 2007 to better control trespass towing. So, for instance, the Sheriff's Office has outlawed relay and roam towing, two notorious practices allowed in other cities (Gainesville and Tallahassee, for instance).

The first refers to a practice of taking vehicles one by one from private property, assembling a truckload off site and then taking all the vehicles in one trip to a company storage yard. Tow companies can rack up much higher charges that way.

Roam towing refers to the practice of tow truck drivers roaming streets and parking lots, expressly looking for illegally parked vehicles without being asked by a landowner to seize the vehicles.

The Sheriff's Office also stressed it has had success in cracking down on the worst offenders in St. Lucie County.

Sgt. Frank Pellegrini Jr., who heads up the Criminal Investigations Division, cited the case of Kings Wrecker Service, formerly on U.S. 1, south of Fort Pierce.

The Sheriff's Office received more than 100 complaints that Kings had overcharged and/or removed vehicles from outside homes that weren't illegally parked. The investigation led to warrants being issued for the arrest of three managers, one for grand theft auto. The company eventually left town of its own accord.

Getting back to Mr. Schmidt: Detective Deron Brown of the auto theft investigation unit told me that Tri-County had in fact charged Schmidt less than allowed under the law. The first tow truck driver who offered to make Schmidt's charges "go away" for $75 wasn't attempting extortion, he was acting within the law, Brown said.

Florida Statute 715.07 requires that a tow company must stop the tow if the owner asks them to return the vehicle. Once the owner has paid "a reasonable service fee" of not more than half the regular towing rate, the vehicle must be returned to him without any further charges accruing.

In Schmidt's case, Tri-County (perfectly legally) counted the truck, trailer and scooter as three separate vehicles and could have charged half of a $125 fee for each of the three. So the $75 was to some extent a "bargain."

Schmidt, unfortunately, didn't have $75 and so his property was taken to Tri-County's storage yard where charges continued to mount up day after day. The last time I spoke to Schmidt, those fees were well in excess of $2000.

Even though local law enforcement agencies may be doing their best, the state statute reads exactly as it is - written by tow company lobbyists. As such, it doesn't serve the public particularly well. Yet, Pellegrini and Brown stressed, unless members of the public come forward to file official complaints about suspicious towing practices, they're unable to take things any further.

It's up to us to be as knowledgeable as possible and to react when we feel we've been ripped off.

Anthony Westbury is a columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers. This column reflects his opinion. Contact him at 772-409-1320 or anthony.westbury@scripps.com.

WHO YOU GONNA CALL?

If you have verifiable complaints about overcharging or other procedural matters regarding vehicles being towed from private property, the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office would like to hear from you.

Contact Sgt. Frank Pellegrini Jr., Criminal Investigations Division, at 772-462-3230 or pellegrinif@stluciesheriff.com.
There's lots of sun but some clouds Saturday over the Floridian, where President Obama will be golfing today, and the rest of the Treasure Coast. Overall, it's going to be a great golf, beach and boating day. (NICOLE WIESENTHAL/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

By Staff Report

We have just isolated afternoon storm chances for Saturday, so it should be a nice beach and boating day once again. It will still be very hot and humid, though.

Meanwhile, we need to keep an eye on the tropics, where the National Hurricane Center is now giving an 80 percent chance of a disturbance developing off the Yucatan Peninsula into a tropical cyclone. The system is expected to come to Florida.

Today, there's a slight chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 1 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. It will be mostly sunny, with a high near 90 and a light east-southeast wind increasing to 10 to 15 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. The chance of precipitation is 20 percent.

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low around 73 and an east-southeast wind of 5 to 10 mph.

Rain and storm chances increase by Sunday afternoon as our flow turns more southwest.

ADVISORIES

The rip current risk today is moderate. The greatest risk will be from late morning through late afternoon.

Keep an eye on conditions with our live weather radar.

Sunrise today was at 6:26 a.m. Sunset is at 8:15 p.m.

EXTENDED FORECAST

Source: National Weather Service

Sunday: A slight chance of showers between 10 a.m. and noon, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 92. South-southeast wind 5 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50 percent.

Sunday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 76. South-southeast wind 5 to 10 mph.

Monday: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 87. Southeast wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70 percent.

Monday Night: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Cloudy, with a low around 77. Windy, with a south wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70 percent.

Tuesday: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Cloudy, with a high near 89. Windy, with a south-southwest wind 20 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60 percent.

Tuesday Night: Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 75. Southwest wind 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50 percent.

TROPICAL UPDATE

Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico

Source: National Hurricane Center

At 11 a.m., Bonnie has weakened to a tropical depression. It had top winds of 35 mph as it moved east at 15 mph. It was centered about 245 miles north-northwest of Bermuda. It's expected to weaken into a remnant low by tonight.

At 2 p.m., a broad low pressure area is forming over the northwest Caribbean Sea. It's forecast to gradually develop further Saturday night and Sunday as it moves near or over the Yucatan Peninsula and into the southern Gulf of Mexico. It's expected to turn northeast and cross Florida by Monday night into Tuesday. It has a 70 percent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone in the next two days and an 80 percent chance in the next five days.

Sebastian Inlet Bridge

High tides: 7:44 a.m. and 8:26 p.m.

Low tides: 1:58 p.m., and 2:30 a.m. Sunday

Fort Pierce Inlet, South Jetty

High tides: 8:01 a.m. and 8:43 p.m.

Low tides: 2:04 p.m., and 2:36 a.m. Sunday

MARINE FORECAST

Source: National Weather Service

Today: South winds 5 to 10 knots becoming southeast 10 to 15 knots in the afternoon. Seas 2 to 3 feet with a dominant period 11 seconds. A light chop on the intracoastal waters. Slight chance of showers in the morning.

Tonight: Southeast winds 10 to 15 knots diminishing to 5 to 10 knots after midnight. Seas 2 to 3 feet with a dominant period 4 seconds. A light chop on the intracoastal waters. Slight chance of showers.

Sunday: South winds 5 to 10 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet with a dominant period 4 seconds. A light chop on the intracoastal waters. Chance of showers and thunderstorms.

Sunday Night: South winds 10 to 15 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet. A light chop on the intracoastal waters. Chance of showers and thunderstorms.

WPTV NewsChannel 5 meteorologists contributed to this report.
In fact, this year's ZenFone 3 comes with a handful of notable enhancements that should be enough to make current ZenFone 2 and ZenFone 2 Laser owners want to upgrade to it.

The combination of these materials complemented by the visually-arresting concentric design pattern at the back make ZenFone 3 downright gorgeous and opulent. Having played with the handset, I'd have to say that it is a definite headturner

Asus' new Tri-Tech autofocus technology that combines laser, phase-detection, and continuous autofocus that makes it possible for the user to lock-in on a subject faster and more accurately even while it's in motion or in low light settings

TechPinas Smartphone Technical Specs Table (TSTST) Name Asus ZenFone 3 ZE520KL Type Slate Form Factor (Full Touchscreen) Price Category Midrange Dimensions TBC, 7.69 mm thin Weight 150 grams (est) Available Colors Shimmer Gold, Aqua Blue, Sapphire Black, Moonlight White Operating System Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Zen UI 3.0 Display 5.2 inches (~424 ppi pixel density), 1080 x 1920 pixels, Super IPS+, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, 2.5D Contoured Corning Gorilla Glass 4 Processor 64-Bit Octa Core 2.0 GHz ARM Cortex A53, Adreno 506 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 MSM8953 chipset RAM 3GB/4GB RAM options Internal Storage 32GB/64GB ROM options, expandable via hybrid SIM slot Camera Main: 16 MegaPixels, f/2.0 aperture, Sony IMX298 sensor, Laser/Phase Detection Autofocus, Tri-Tech, 4-Axis Optical Image Stabilization, Dual Tone LED Flash

Front: 8 MegaPixels, f/2.0 aperture Video Capture Full HD 1080p 30 frames per second for main camera, Full HD for front camera Audio and Video Playback MP3, WAV, eAAC+, FLAC, MP4, H.264 Ports USB Type C, 3.5 mm audio jack Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth v4.2 with A2DP, EDR, 3G HSPA+; LTE Cat6 GPS Yes, with GLONASS and A-GPS FM Radio Yes Sensors Accelerometer, Digital Compass, Gyroscope, Proximity, Fingerprint Scanner Network 2G bands GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 and SIM 2,

3G HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100,

4G LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 20(800) SIM Card Type Dual = nanoSIM + microSIM Battery Non-removable 2,650 mAh Li-Ion battery Uptime TBD Value-Added Features Premium Design, Improved Imaging Capabilities, Good Internal Hardware Announcement May 30, 2016 ~ Taipei, Taiwan Availability Late July to August 2016 Price Official: $249 USD (5.2-inch, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of ROM)

Price Guesstimate (Philippines): Starts at Php 11,000 to Php 12,000

Donning an official price tag of onlyor roughly Php 11,000 to Php 12,000,is the most affordable of all the ZenFone models that the Taiwanese electronics giant unveiled atinternational media event held in Taipei last May 30, 2016.Despite being the most budget-friendly of the bunch, however, it is hardly the least interesting.The most obvious enhancement implemented on this model could be seen in the design department.Whereas last year's ZenFone releases had shells made predominantly of plastic, ZenFone 3 5.2-inch ZE520KL and its larger sibling ZE550KL sport exteriors constructed using sand-blasted aluminum alloy and scratch-resistant contoured Gorilla Glass panels.Now, let's talk about its technical specifications.On the outside, the device is equipped with a 5.2 inch HD IPS+ screen that looks great in various viewing angles. On top of the screen, you'll find the phone's more powerful 8 MegaPixel front-facing cam for selfies with f/2.0 aperture and Beauty Mode boost -- a level-up from the 5MP front-shooter on 2015 ZenFone releases. And at the back, there's the 16 MegaPixel autofocus camera with Dual Tone LED flash.The snapper at the rear represents a tremendous upgrade coming from last year as it now features the powerfulsensor for enhanced low-light performance and image brilliance,for crisp shots even when your hand is slightly moving while taking photos, andAt its heart, the most affordable Asus ZenFone 3 5.2-inch version runs its ZenUI3.0-skinned Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system with the powerhouse 64-Bit Octa Core 2.0 GHz Qualcommchipset incorporating ARM Cortex A53 CPUs and an Adreno 506 GPU, has, and comes withthat you can easily beef up using the secondary hybrid SIM slot, which supportsAvailable in four colors - namely, Sapphire Black, Moonlight White, Shimmer Gold, and Aqua Blue -will be up for purchase at Asus outlets in key markets across the globe come late-July or early-August 2016.Given all of its main selling points as well as its budget-friendly SRP, this model - I believe - could very well become one of the best-selling Android smartphones this year. And as a tech blogger who has seen it in the flesh and has given the device a test run, I'm totally inclined to recommend it to all my readers, followers, and friends.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 4

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

The unity of world Azerbaijanis is necessary for preserving the national feeling and traditions, said Ali Hasanov, the Azerbaijani president's aide for public and political affairs.

He made the remarks during the final session of the 4th Congress of World Azerbaijanis in Baku June 4.

"We bring together the world Azerbaijanis in order to popularize our multicultural traditions in the world," he said. "We sent a message to the world that we want to create such image of Azerbaijan in the world."

The idea of solidarity and unity of world Azerbaijanis was put forward by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, said the top official, adding that however, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic existed only 23 months and it became impossible to realize this idea.

Hasanov pointed out that after coming to power, Azerbaijan's National Leader Heydar Aliyev brought up this issue to the agenda again and the country began to celebrate December 31 as the Solidarity Day of World Azerbaijanis.

National Leader Heydar Aliyev proposed to hold the congress of world Azerbaijanis, added the top official.

"We prepared for that congress for three years," said Hasanov. "We had difficulties that time, as there were forces opposing our solidarity. But we coped with this task with dignity."

He noted that National Leader Heydar Aliyev raised the unity of world Azerbaijanis to the state policy level.

Hasanov pointed out that Azerbaijan's State Committee on Work with Diaspora has done great work since the last congress.

World Azerbaijanis residing in various parts of the world should prevent any disagreements among themselves and should always support each other, according to the top official.

"World Azerbaijanis should be active online as well," said Hasanov. "The unity of world Azerbaijanis is necessary for preserving the national feeling and the national traditions."

"It is time to create the association of world Azerbaijani businessmen, to hold its conference in Baku and mobilize their forces," he said. "We have businessmen who are able to finance the campaigns of MPs abroad. We should mobilize their potential."

Hasanov pointed out that this association will make significant contribution to strengthening the unity of world Azerbaijanis as well.
Verizon Wireless is making Father's Day more special by offering some freebies when one buys select Samsung smartphones.

This year, Father's Day is on June 19, and thanks to the promos Verizon has on offer, you can now give your dad not only a Samsung smartphone but also a Gear VR, a 50-inch Smart TV and more.

The Verizon Father's Day deal kicks off on June 1, and to avail the offers, you need to purchase either the Galaxy S7, Galaxy Note 5 or Galaxy S7 edge smartphones.

Here's a look at all the deals:

Free 50-Inch Samsung Smart TV

Buy two Galaxy S7, Galaxy Note 5 or Galaxy S7 edge smartphone on the Device Payment plan. You need to activate one new line at the very least. Doing so gets you a 50-inch Samsung-branded Smart TV for free.

You can mix or match any two smartphones of your choice. After selecting your two smartphones, go to checkout and enter the promo code VZ-SAMSUNGTV50 to avail the offer. Your TV will be delivered in 8 to 10 weeks.

The caveat is that both lines need to stay active for a minimum of six months. In the event any line is canceled, the customer will be charged $672.

Free 32-Inch Samsung Smart TV

If the 50-incher is too big for you and you don't need two smartphones, don't worry, you can have the 32-inch version by purchasing a single phone. Buy either a Galaxy S7, Galaxy Note 5 or Galaxy S7 edge smartphone on the Device Payment plan. You also need to activate one new line. Doing so gets you a 32-inch Samsung Smart TV for free.

Free Gear VR

To get the free Gear VR, you must buy a Galaxy S6, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge or Galaxy Note 5.

Verizon is also throwing in Free Gear VR and 6-game bundle content experience worth $150 for free.

To get the Gear VR, you need to go to samsungpromotions.com/fathersday and fill up the form. The deadline for its submission is June 30 11:59:59 PM. You will also need to upload the image of the receipt. Once the verification is complete, you will get the headset in 6 to 8 weeks. You will also be able to download the free content bundle.

$100 Bill Credit

You will receive $100 as bill credit upon buying a new smartphone purchased on Device Payment plan when you switch to Verizon.

Additionally, Verizon is also offering $650 to those who will switch to clear the dues of their old contract. The carrier is also discounting the Fitbit Blaze, which is $179.99 instead of $199.99 for a limited period. Those eyeing the Bose SoundLink Mini Bluetooth Speaker II can also have it for $179.99 instead of $199.99 for a limited period.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Samsung Pay has arrived in Spain, marking the debut of the mobile payment service in Europe.

Samsung Spain corporate vice president Celestino Garcia said in a statement released on June 2 that the digitalization of the banking sector and high smartphone penetration rate in Spain offer significant opportunity for Samsung's mobile payment service.

He cited findings of a company-commissioned research that show 60 percent of Spaniards are interested to use services like Samsung Pay, which would allow them to make contactless payment. A 2015 Visa report showed that Spain is the country with the most contactless payment terminals in Europe.

"We are proud that Spain is the first European market to introduce Samsung Pay, an innovative new service that we believe will mark a turning point both in Spaniards' payments behavior and the evolution of the payments market as a whole," Garcia said.

Customers of imaginBank and CaixaBank who own a Galaxy S7/S7 edge, Galaxy S6/S6 edge or Galaxy S6 edge+ can now download the Samsung Pay app and add their credit or debit cards to their phone. Those who use cards issued by Abanca and Banco Sabadell, however, would have to wait a little longer.

Samsung is currently working with businesses in the country to encourage consumers to use its system. The department store chain El Corte Ingles is already set to issue cards that would allow customers to buy items using Samsung's mobile payment service. Samsung is also working closely with Fridays, Starbucks, Cerveceria La Surena, Repsol, The Wok and 100 Montaditos and is expecting to add more partners in the future.

Samsung Pay's European launch came six months after the company promised the arrival of its mobile payment service in UK, Spain and China, where it has already partnered with Alipay, China's largest online payments platform.

Samsung's arrival in Spain gives it a head start over its competitors Android Pay and Apple Pay because the two have not been launched there yet. Within the EU, Apple Pay and Android Pay are currently only available in the UK.

The South Korean tech company also plans to tap markets in Brazil, Australia and Singapore. In April, the company said that it will roll out its mobile payment service for the Southeast Asian market with the launch of Samsung Pay in Singapore later this year.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Ireland is no longer the goodest country worldwide, losing the title to Sweden this year.

Sweden ranked as the country making the most contribution to humanity overall, according to the Good Country Index, which tries to measure how much individual countries work and contribute toward the common good.

The latest edition of the index placed the European country on top, outperforming 162 other nations in a league table that was based on 35 indicators from different sources that include the United Nations and World Bank.

Sweden ranked first in the Prosperity & Equality as well as Health & Wellbeing categories, with its 52nd position in International Peace & Security as its lowest placement. It achieved the 3rd spot for Culture and 7th for Planet & Climate.

Meanwhile, Ireland dropped to 11th overall in the world, surpassed by Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Canada, France, Austria, and New Zealand.

The biannual ranking, according to its creator and British government adviser Simon Anholt, intends to encourage countries to increase their collaboration and cooperation, and go easy on the competition.

Sweden is a bit of an elite when it comes to thinking about the rest of the world. The European model is one that trained countries to be much more outward looking, and Sweden is that more than the others, Anholt explained to Swedish paper The Local.

He added that Sweden lost points in the International Peace & Security category mainly due to its arms exports. The year before, however, it came substantially lower at 111th place.

In 2014, the Afghanistan-based International Security Assistance Force  in which Swedish troops took part  ended.

Sweden is killing fewer people abroad and thus free to be called the goodest, said Anholt.

On the other end of the list, Mauritania, Equatorial Guinea, and Libya emerged as those that contributed least to humanity.

The Good Country Index was created to change how leaders run countries, according to its website.

It aims to show they are responsible not just for their own citizens but for every man, woman, child, and animal on the planet, and not just for their own territory but for the whole of the earths surface and the atmosphere above it.

Photo: Matt Boman | Flickr

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Lenovo is advising users of its Windows 10 laptops and desktops to uninstall the Accelerator Application software, which comes pre-loaded on its devices.

The company revealed in an advisory note that the auto update feature for the software is vulnerable to hacking as it can potentially be exploited by a "man-in-the-middle" (MitM) attack. Several desktop PCs and laptops from the company are susceptible to this attack  the Yoga lineup included  which basically renders the device open to hacking or clandestine malware installation.

Therefore, it has recommended that users uninstall the Accelerator Application.

"The vulnerability resides within the update mechanism where a Lenovo server is queried to identify if application updates are available. Lenovo recommends customers uninstall Lenovo Accelerator Application," notes the company.

The advisory note from the company was published on May 31, the same day when researchers from Duo Security shared a detailed report where they tested the security of several driver updaters, which come pre-loaded on the devices of the top five laptop OEMs.

The researchers tested out laptops from HP, Lenovo, Asus, Acer and Dell and discovered that all of these were vulnerable to remote code execution (RCE) and MitM attacks. The team tested Lenovo's Update Agent, and the Lenovo Solution Center and also chanced across the Accelerator Application's bug.

Researcher Mikhail Davidov contacted Lenovo to relay the discovery of the app making users of its device vulnerable to MitM attacks.

Lenovo took action and, instead of fixing the bug with an update, chose to remove the Accelerator Application completely. The company now asks users to completely uninstall it.

To uninstall the app, users need to head to Apps and Features in Windows 10. Select the Lenovo Accelerator Application and click Uninstall.

The Lenovo devices which are affected are listed below.

Lenovo Notebook Systems:

305

700

300S

500/500S

B40-30/B40-45/B40-45/B40-80

B41-30/B41-35/B41-80

B50-30/B50-30 Touch/B50-45/B50-80/B51-30/B51-35/B51-80

E31-70/E31-80/E40-30/E40-80/E41-80/E50-30/E50-80/E51-80

Edge 15

Edge 2-1580

Erazer N40-30/Erazer N40-45

Erazer N50-45/Erazer N50-45

Erazer Z41-70

Erazer Z51-70

FLEX 2 Pro

FLEX 3

FLEX 4

K20-80

K21-80

K41-70/K41-80

M41-70

M51-80

MIIX 3

MIIX 700

N41-35

N51-35

S21e-20

S41-35/S41-70/S41-75

TianYi 300

U31-70

U41-70

V4000

XiaoXin 700

Y50-70/Y50-70 Touch

Y50c

Y700/Y700 Touch

Y70-70 Touch

Y900

Yoga 2

YOGA 3 14

Yoga 3 Pro

Yoga 300

YOGA 500/YOGA 510

YOGA 700/YOGA 710/YOGA 900/YOGA 900S

Z41-70

Z51-70

Lenovo Desktop Systems:

50050C/50100E/50550A/50600I

A3300

A7300

A8150

B40

C20

C40

C50

C560

D3000

D5010/ D5050/ D5055

F5005/ F5050/ F5055

G5005/ G5010/ G5050/ G5055

H3005

H30-50

H5005/ H5055

H50-50

IdeaCentre 200

IdeaCentre 300/300S

IdeaCentre 510/510S

IdeaCentre 700

M7300z

M8300z/M8350z

M9550z

Yoga Home 500

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Do you have a beer belly? Men with large waists and high body mass index (BMI) have greater risks of developing aggressive prostate cancer and dying from it than their counterparts, new research in Europe suggests.

Researchers from the University of Oxford examined records of more than 140,000 men with an average age of 50 from eight different countries in the course of 14 years. During this time, there were 7,000 cases of prostate cancer, with 934 deaths.

The Oxford team found that waist circumference and BMI were strongly linked to high-level prostate cancer and prostate cancer-related death, with the risks increasing by more than 10 percent as the belly fat or adiposity increases.

More specifically, a 4-inch or larger waist size could boost the chances of getting prostate cancer by 13 percent. Males who had waistlines bigger than 37 inches were most at risk, researchers said.

Dr. Aurora Perez-Cornago, the lead author of the study, says the findings reveal that the link between body size and prostate cancer was complex and differed by the aggressiveness of the disease. She says this was probably caused by cancer-causing hormones in fat cells, although this has not yet been proven.

Another notable finding from the research is that the overall risk of prostate cancer was actually lower for men with higher BMI and men with larger waistlines.

Perez-Cornago says there were indeed differences in incidence by cancer grade, and so it forced them to divide the study in two: those who had high-grade prostate cancer, and those who had low-grade prostate cancer. She says the study cannot take into account the result for total prostate cancer risk.

Perez-Cornago also notes that overall risk of prostate cancer in men with greater belly fat is lower, and is driven by a lower risk of low-grade disease. They have yet to understand why this happens.

Researchers highlighted the fact that their findings are aligned with health advice for all non-communicable diseases.

"Men should try to maintain a healthy weight," researchers wrote.

Indeed, a spokesperson for Prostate Cancer UK says keeping a healthy weight and staying active can help against many diseases. Previous research suggests that weight training could help get rid of belly fat.

The details of the study were presented at the European Obesity Summit this year.

Photo: Tony Alter | Flickr

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Uber users from Amsterdam recently received a welcome surprise from the car sharing company, in the form of a service that takes them and their bikes home.

UberBike launched in Amsterdam and permits riders to hail cars that have bike racks installed. This could be very useful for a number of situations, for example, when your bike gives in during your commute. Or when the weather suddenly breaks, which we hear tends to happen in The Netherlands' capital city. Or when you are too, ahem, fatigued to pedal to your destination but you want to take your bike with you.

The announcement came via the Dutch blog of the company, with details regarding pricing.

The rates for travelling via UberBike are identical to those asked for UberX, plus an additional 4 ($4.50) charge.

Amsterdam is hosting one of the largest groups of regular bicycle users, with 63 percent of population saying that they use bikes everyday. This opens the doors for services such as UberBike, but the current number of drivers who registered is still insignificant.

Uber aims to deliver services that are customized to various cities' traffic habits. Earlier this year, the enterprise launched UberMoto in Bangkok. UberMoto is a motorbike hailing service under Uber's umbrella, which banks on the high number of commuters who choose motorbikes instead of cars to elude the city's numerous traffic jams. However, regulatory measures caused the service to be shut down a few months after.

Uber did not officially declare whether the UberBike service will reach other locations.

Amsterdam may be the first capital to get the service, but is not the first big city to deploy it.

The car hailing company did introduce UberBike to Sao Paulo, Brazil. A relatively similar service, dubbed UberPedal, also already exists in Portland.

But how does one ask for UberBike, specifically?

First off, you will need to be in Amsterdam when you open your Uber app. Once you're there, you will have to slide until you find the "UberBIKE" option. Then, input the address where you and your two-wheeled companion need to be picked up from. Simply confirm the request and sit tight until your UberBike ride is there. Keep in mind that only one bike per ride is allowed.

Would you like to have access to UberBike in your own city? Let us know in the comments section below.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
In a surprise announcement, Nest founder Tony Fadell revealed on Friday that he is stepping down from his role as CEO and leaving the company.

Fadell, whose impressive resume includes inventing the iPod, helping with the iPhone and starting Nest Labs back in 2010 to sell connected home products, said he will move on to pursue new opportunities but will remain an adviser to Alphabet and Larry Page without being active in the company's day-to-day operation.

"This will give me the time and flexibility to pursue new opportunities to create and disrupt other industries  and to support others who want to do the same  just as we've done at Nest," he wrote.

Marwan Fawaz, former CTO of the cable company Charter who also worked at ADT and Motorola Home, will replace Fadell as Nest's new CEO.

This news may come as a shock, but Fadell's decision to "leave the Nest" may actually have been a longer time coming. This transition, he said, has been going on since late last year.

Fadell co-founded Nest Labs six years ago with ex-Apple engineer Matt Rogers. What started as a thermostat maker grew to become a booming IoT company that essentially created a mainstream market of these products and services.

Then, in 2014, before Google became Alphabet, Google bought Nest for $3.2 billion. Even though Fadell will continue his relationship with Alphabet from the sidelines, now that he has stepped down from his position at Nest, this doesn't mean the two haven't had a rocky relationship.

When Google became Alphabet, Nest became a standalone division. The pressure was on for the company to release more new products to continue to make connected home gadgets mainstream. A Nest engineer revealed on Reddit that Nest was not making sales targets and failed on its product upgrades. Product launches were also postponed.

Further shedding light on the fact that there was trouble within the company, some employees complained on Facebook about Fadell and the work environment he had created, and they were fired for doing so.

Even Greg Duffy, founder of DropCam, publicly complained about his relationship with Nest, writing on Medium that he regretted selling his startup to Nest in 2014, and that his camera products were better than the products at Nest.

This makes it appear like Fadell could have been pushed out of his position. However, in an interview with Bloomberg, he states that negative comments come with the territory of running a company, and that not everyone will agree with how things are done.

"People will have their own opinions. The facts show that we shipped lots of product. We had really strong growth, revenue growth. Our customers love our products," Fadell said. "We have a road map. You know, people don't see that, but we have a road map that's really well-established and understood and teams are working on those products. We have lots of products coming and services coming."

Fadell revealed that, along with continuing to advise Alphabet, he will also continue to invest in technology companies, something he has been secretively doing for the past eight to 10 years.

1/2: What a ride! Proud of what weve built @nest! Great team, business, products, awesome roadmap & momentum https://t.co/BAgi3hSi3e  Tony Fadell (@tfadell) June 3, 2016

Source: Nest

Photo: Web Summit | Flickr

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For a generation that has been exposed to the Terminator movies, visions of a robot uprising come to mind whenever news about advancements in artificial intelligence surface.

Great minds such as Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak have previously expressed their concern on the possibility of a robot apocalypse.

It would seem that Google, one of the companies at the forefront of artificial intelligence development, is now sharing some of these concerns, as its DeepMind unit has published a study that seeks to implement safety measures on the technology.

The paper, published as a collaboration between DeepMind and the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University, discusses a "big red button" that will allow humans to turn off artificial intelligence in a robot and take control of it in case the robot is misbehaving or malfunctioning.

And just so it is clear, the Future of Humanity Institute is named as such as it wants humanity to have a future, with Nick Bostrom, its founding director, being one of the more vocal opponents of artificial intelligence.

The researchers of the paper, DeepMind's Laurent Orseau and the Future of Humanity Institute's Stuart Armstrong, explain that artificial intelligence agents are not likely to be at their best behavior at all times. They believe that the key to addressing situations where robots go haywire is safe interruptibility, though the researchers admit that some systems may be unaffected by the so-called big red button.

Specifically, the systems that could not be stopped by the kill switch being developed are the ones related to policy-search robotics, which is a part of machine learning. As such, the research seems to be a long way off from being fully completed to apply the off button to all forms of artificial intelligence.

The research might seem to be a bit of an overreaction, given that the most high-profile achievement of artificial intelligence so far has been beating a world champion in a board game. However, Bostrom has previously stated a theory that once artificial intelligence at the level of human intelligence has been developed, it would not be too long before it goes beyond the capabilities of humans. Robots would then build better robots with better artificial intelligence, resulting in a snowball of development that humans would not be able to replicate nor rescind.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Sugar Land, Texas, seems to be a place where selfies are not only a millennial pastime but also a celebrated activity of the human spirit.

The town, which has a population of 83,000 people, decided to honor the narcissistic habit by placing a bronze statue of two girls taking a selfie, right outside the city hall building.

According to the authorities, the sculpture is not the only new addition to the city's public art. The selfie sculpture is part of a 10-piece collection that was donated by a generous resident of the city. It's aimed to portray the ways in which people spend time in the square, and it is not the only artistic manifestation of its kind. Another statue, showcasing a man playing the guitar, was also deployed. The two works of art are estimated to be worth about $32,500.

Keep in mind that the City Hall paid nothing for the works of art.

The Sugar Land Parks and Recreation Advisory Board has confirmed that the statues are a depiction of the most common activities that take place in the public space. What is more, the regulatory board points out that including the sculpture in the Town Square plaza fits into place with "the City and the Legacy Foundation's commitment to establish cultural arts amenities."

"Activities and facilities that enrich the artistic, cultural, educational, and historical character of Sugar Land" are fully supported by the City Hall, points out the press release.

Some are less than enthusiastic about the newest addition to the plaza, however.

Complaints started piling up on Twitter from visitors and residents of Sugar Land who highly disapprove of the statue.

So much history in Sugar Land but they put up a statue of two girls taking a selfie...  Mariah St.Germain (@MariahGermain) May 29, 2016

Federiko Raivan backs her up by stating his annoyance and a (probably) unfair conclusion that each generation suffers a decline in intelligence. However, some found the piece of art amusing and wasted no time before pulling a meta stunt and taking a selfie with the statue.

Obligatory selfie with the #SelfieStatue in @SugarLandtxgov crazy how many people are out here taking pic.twitter.com/Ks6OgYzeXK  Austin Arceneaux (@TX_Arceneaux) June 1, 2016

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 4

Trend:

Travel agencies of Azerbaijan are ready to receive foreign guests in connection with the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe, Advisor to the Chairman of Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AzTA) Muzaffar Agakerimov told Trend.

The Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe will be held in Baku on June 17-19.

Agakerimov added that the Baku Tourism Information Center created as part of the AzTA is also ready to provide the guests who will arrive in Azerbaijan with guides in various languages.

"A number of major international events was held in Azerbaijan before the Formula 1 as well," he said. "Travel agencies already have extensive experience in this field, and they have prepared very well for these competitions, too."

The AzTA representative said that no special tours were created for guests who will arrive in Azerbaijan for Formula 1.

"However, at the request of tourists, travel agencies will be able to organize additional tours," he said. "In Baku, there are such interesting historical sites as Gobustan, Yanardag, Ateshgah and others. In addition, if tourists want to travel outside of Baku, trips to the cities of Guba, Gabala, Ismayilli, Sheki and others will be organized for them."

Agakerimov added that rich Azerbaijani cuisine, wines, beach vacations may be offered to tourists as well.
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Baku, Azerbaijan, June 4

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

Baku will host the Azerbaijan-Russia business forum June 20, Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) said June 4.

The event, to be organized with the support of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Economy, will be attended by around 70 Russian companies operating in the spheres of light and heavy industry, food industry, finance, transportation, trade, engineering, healthcare and other sectors.

Russia is one of the main trade and economic partners of Azerbaijan. The country has invested almost $2 billion in Azerbaijan's economy since 2004. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan's direct foreign investments in Russia have exceeded $1 billion.

The trade turnover between the two countries stood at $465.87 million in January-April 2016 and $387.3 million of this volume accounted for the import of Russian products, according to Azerbaijan's State Customs Committee.
An undated photo of the 83M floating dock at Go Dau Port, Dong Nai Province. Photo: VNA

State shipping company Vinalines has sold an abandoned floating dock that cost it VND500 billion (US$22 million) for a much smaller sum of VND38.5 billion ($1.69 million), news website Bnews reported on Saturday.

The 83M, which was sold at an auction with only three bidders, is linked to a corruption case that rocked the country in 2012 and ended with 10 Vinalines executives and customs officers being sentenced either to death or imprisonment.

An individual bidder reportedly won the auction with the offer, which was not much higher than the minimum reserve price of VND34.8 billion.

Vinalines put the made-in-Japan dock up for sale after failing to find investors to jointly operate it.

In 2008, the state-owned shipper bought the dock from Russian company Nakhodka through a Singaporean brokerage firm called AP. It paid nearly four times the expected price of $2.3 million for the heavily damaged dock, which had been in use for several decades in Russia before being brought to Vietnam.

The company then spent $10.5 million repairing it, but work was suspended in 2012.

Even as the dock was left idle, extra costs including insurance and port fees kept mounting. The book value was estimated at more than VND500 billion.

The purchase of 83M was approved by then chairman Duong Chi Dung, who, together with general director Mai Van Phuc, were found guilty of receiving VND10 billion ($442,000) each in kickbacks for the deal.

They were both sentenced to death after a long trial in 2013. Eight others were jailed for up to 22 years.
A file photo of floating dock 83M, the crooked deal to buy which got two unscrupulous executives the death sentence. Photo: Diep Duc Minh

The transport ministry has approved state shipping company Vinalines' proposal to auction an unused floating dock that was linked to one of the most high-profile corruption scandals in recent years, according to news website VnExpress.

Vinalines would have to plan the sale of 83M to keep losses as low as possible, the website quoted Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Cong as saying Saturday.

He also expected the sale to be organized and finished soon, saying the longer it takes, the more money would be lost and the more dangerous the dock would become to the environment and ships.

Last month Vinalines sought the government's permission to auction the dock with a reserve price of VND34.8 billion (US$1.53 million) after failing to find investors to jointly operate it.

The proposed price is much lower than its book value of VND500 billion ($22.1 million), as the decades-old dock had never been used since being brought into Vietnam in 2008, Vinalines said in the proposal citing a local consultancy company.

Its value also eroded sharply due to incomplete repair works that were suspended in 2012, according to the company.

Vinalines bought the dock from Russian company Nakhodka through a Singaporean brokerage firm called AP.

It paid nearly four times the offered price of $2.3 million for the heavily damaged dock, and then purportedly spent another $10.5 million repairing it. As it lay idle, insurance and port fees kept piling on.

Its purchase was approved by then chairman Duong Chi Dung, who, together with general director Mai Van Phuc, were found guilty of receiving VND10 billion ($442,000) each in kickbacks for the deal.

They were both given death sentences at a trial in 2013, while eight others, including Vinalines executives and customs officers, were jailed for up to 22 years.
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A graphic image of floodgates to be built on the Saigon River. Photo credit: VnExpress In a latest attempt to tackle its seemingly worsening flooding problem, Ho Chi Minh City will launch a nearly VND10 trillion (US$441.1 million) project to build a system of embankments, drains and floodgates at the end of this month, local media reported on Friday.

Local construction firm Trung Nam Group has been contracted to develop the project in three years under a built-transfer agreement. The developer will handle construction work at its own expenses in exchange for rights to lands in the city for its other projects.

With a charter capital of VND2 trillion, Trung Nam will take out loans from BIDV to fund the project, the Vietnam News Agency said, citing an agreement signed by the Peoples Committee of Ho Chi Minh City and Trung Nam Group on Friday.

The project is expected to control flooding and climate changes effects in a downtown area of 570 square kilometers where around 6.5 million people are living, according to the news agency. The targeted districts are 1, 4, 7, 8, Nha Be and Binh Chanh.

Notably, six floodgates with a width of 40-160 meters and a nearly 7.8-kilometer embankment will be built on and along the Saigon River.

According to the plan, three pumping stations with a capacity of 12-48 cubic meters per second and 25 small drains will also be set up.

At a meeting early this year, the municipal authority announced that it will earmark more than VND156 trillion ($6.85 billion) for anti-flooding projects over the next five years.
Just days after local media reported on a plan to build a new airport for Hanoi, the Ministry of Transport has revealed its own proposal to dramatically expand the city's existing airport Noi Bai, which has become overloaded.

A plan to add two new terminals, one runway and more airplane parking space to Noi Bai will be submitted to the government for approval by 2020, local media quoted Deputy Transport Minister Nguyen Hong Truong as saying at a press conference on Thursday.

The expansion will cost at least VND38.8 trillion (US$1.71 billion), news website VnExpress said, citing the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.

Since it will take around 10 years to execute the massive expansion, the transport ministry will first expand the airports two existing terminals and build the third runway over the next five years, according to Truong.

Figures from the Civil Aviation Authority showed Noi Bai will serve around 19 million passengers at the end of this year. Given that the number of passengers increases by 2-2.5 million every year, the airport will hit its maximum capacity of 25 million a year in two or three years.

Late last month the aviation authority announced that it was discussing with Hanoi authorities and relevant agencies the construction of a 720-hectare international airport opposite to Noi Bai. The project is estimated to cost around $5.5 billion.
French Foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault (R) shakes hands with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris on June 3, 2016 for talks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The international community committed Friday to try and push Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks under a French-led initiative, despite a decidedly lukewarm reaction from Washington and hostility from Israel.

Indirect peace talks between the two sides collapsed more than two years ago, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault warned that the diplomatic void meant the prospect of a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict was in "serious danger."

He repeated France's wish to organise an international conference, with both the Israelis and the Palestinians, before the end of the year.

Neither Israeli nor Palestinian representatives attended the talks in the French capital aimed at laying the ground for a fully-fledged peace conference to be held by the end of the year.

The Palestinians hailed the Paris meeting as a "very significant step" toward peace that sent a clear message to Israel about its ongoing occupation of lands they want for a future state.

But Israel lashed out, saying the initiative would only strengthen the Palestinians' hand and would go down in history as having "pushed peace further away."

At the meeting, representatives from 28 countries, the Arab League, European Union and United Nations discussed ways in which the international community could "help advance the prospects for peace, including by providing meaningful incentives to the parties to make peace," according to a joint statement.

But few believe genuine progress will be made.

Despite a widespread sense of scepticism that the French initiative will succeed where so many others have failed, Ayrault said the world could not "fold its arms and do nothing."

A sense of urgency

In their final statement, the participants agreed that "the status quo is unsustainable" and voiced "alarm" at the situation on the ground, citing continuing acts of violence and Jewish settlement building.

Washington, which has traditionally taken on a mediating role between the two sides, has not tried to initiate any fresh peace moves since the previous US-led round of indirect talks collapsed in April 2014 and has remained decidedly cool on the French initiative.

US Secretary of State John Kerry told journalists after the talks that while "we need to find some immediate kinds of steps on the ground that would make a difference... we can't impose a solution from outside, we need to have direct negotiations and I will continue to encourage that."

Earlier, in opening the conference, French President Francois Hollande had urged Israel and the Palestinians to make a "courageous choice" for peace.

'A clear message'

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat said the Paris talks sent a "clear" message to Israel.

"The Paris meeting is a very significant step and its message is clear: If Israel is allowed to continue its colonisation and apartheid policies in occupied Palestine, the future will be for more extremism and bloodshed rather than for coexistence and peace," he said in a statement.

But Israel said the French effort would only cause the Palestinians to harden their positions.

"The Paris meeting will go down in history as having only hardened Palestinian positions and pushed peace further away," foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said in a statement after the meeting.

Ayrault said the talks were focused on the 2002 Saudi-led Arab peace initiative.

Under that proposal, Arab leaders offered to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied since 1967, and the creation of a Palestinian state.

At the time, the plan was largely ignored by Israel, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week he would be open to re-negotiating aspects of it with the Palestinians.

Speaking after the meeting, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir rejected this idea, saying the Arab peace initiative already "has all the elements for a final settlement."

"To argue that the Arab peace initiative should be watered down to accommodate the Israelis is not a wise approach," he said.

"It provides Israel with a lot of incentives and it's incumbent on the Israelis to accept that."

Analysts say Palestinian frustration of the deadlock in negotiations has driven a wave of violence that has left 206 Palestinians and 28 Israelis dead since October. Israel blames the bloodshed on incitement by Palestinian leaders and media.
Thirteen retired U.S. generals and senior diplomats urged President Barack Obama on Friday to maintain the current U.S. troop level in Afghanistan, saying a reduction would undercut the morale of Afghan government forces and bolster the Taliban.

The 13 men oversaw U.S. military operations and policy in Afghanistan during the administrations of Obama and former President George W. Bush. They included retired Army general and CIA director David Petraeus and four other former top commanders of U.S.-led international forces there, as well as five former American ambassadors to Afghanistan.

In an open letter to Obama in The National Interest magazine, they said maintaining the current level of 9,800 U.S. troops would "likely have helpful effects on refugee flows, the confidence of the Taliban, the morale of the Afghan military and Afghan people, the state of the Afghan economy and perhaps even the strategic assessments of some in Pakistan."

"Conversely, we are convinced that a reduction of our military and financial support over the coming months would negatively affect each of these," they wrote.

The letter was published days before the current U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Army General John Nicholson, is expected to submit a review of U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan.

Under Obama's current plan, the number of U.S. military personnel is due to drop to 5,500 by 2017. But Taliban forces lately have made significant gains and rejected peace negotiations with Afghanistan's government, which has been weakened by internal differences.

Obama has made extracting the United States from its 15-year-long war in Afghanistan a top priority of his presidency, unsuccessfully pursuing efforts to bring the Taliban into peace talks."Afghanistan is the place where al Qaeda and affiliates first planned the 9/11 attacks and a place where they continue to operate - and is thus important in the broader effort to defeat the global extremist movement today," the retired generals and diplomats wrote.

"It is a place where al Qaeda and ISIS (Islamic State) still have modest footprints that could be expanded if a security vacuum developed. If Afghanistan were to revert to the chaos of the 1990s, millions of refugees would again seek shelter in neighboring countries and overseas, dramatically intensifying the severe challenges already faced in Europe and beyond."

The signatories also included: retired Marine Corps General John Allen, who served as Obama's chief representative to the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition; and former U.S. ambassadors to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker and Zalmay Khalilzad.
The Syrian army backed by Russian air strikes has opened a major new front against Islamic State, the third big assault on the self-proclaimed caliphate this week after Iraqi forces attempted to storm a city and a Syrian militia advanced with U.S. support.

The week's three big offensives are some of the most aggressive campaigns against Islamic State since it declared its aim to rule over all Muslims from parts of Iraq and Syria two years ago. They signal apparent new resolve by the group's disparate foes on a range of fronts.

Heavy Russian air strikes hit Islamic State-held territory in eastern areas of Syria's Hama province, near the boundary of Raqqa province on Friday. Raqqa city, further east, is Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria and, along with Mosul in Iraq, the ultimate goal of those seeking to destroy the group's rule.

The Syrian army had advanced some 20 km (13 miles) and was now near the edge of the provincial boundary, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war.

Separately, U.S.-backed militias, including a Syrian Kurdish force called the YPG and new Arab allies recruited to fight alongside it, have been pressing a multi-pronged attack against Islamic State in other parts of Raqqa province and neighboring Aleppo province.

This week, they began a push toward the city of Manbij near the Turkish border, aiming to seize the last 80-km (50-mile) stretch of Turkish-Syrian frontier under Islamic State control and cut the group's main external link for manpower and supplies.

The U.S. military said on Friday its allies were advancing against heavy resistance from Islamic State. If successful, the Manbij campaign would free 40,000 civilians from Islamic State control.

The YPG and its Arab allies, who formed the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) last year, have proven to be the first force in Syria allied to the United States that has been effective in fighting against Islamic State.

The SDF has taken 28 villages from Islamic State in its push toward Manbij, the Syrian Observatory said, and had freed more than a dozen women from the Yazidi minority who were taken by Islamic State fighters from Sinjar in Iraq.

People inspect the damage at a site hit by airstrikes in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan town in Idlib province.

U.S. President Barack Obama has authorized several hundred special forces troops to operate in Syria, some of whom are deployed as advisers in the latest advance.

The Kurdish fighters' progress has been limited in the past by Turkey, which considers them enemies. But Ankara has signaled its tacit support for the latest advance, saying it understands most fighters involved will be Arabs, not Kurds.

"Race for Raqqa"

The Syrian army's new offensive was described in a pro-Damascus Lebanese newspaper as part of "the race for Raqqa" - with the government and its Russian allies trying to advance on Islamic State's de facto Syrian capital before it falls to the fighters allied to the Americans.

A Syrian military source played this down. Reports the offensive targeted Raqqa were only "expectations", he said, and both Raqqa and Deir al-Zor, another Islamic State-held city in eastern Syria, were possible targets.

Syrian government warplanes killed at least 15 people in air raids on the town of al-Boulil in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor on Friday, the Syrian Observatory said, saying four women and a child were among those killed.

Whatever its ultimate target, the offensive appears to be the biggest Damascus has mounted against Islamic State since it recaptured the city of Palmyra with Russian support earlier this year. In the past, the United States has accused Assad and his Russian backers of ignoring Islamic State to take on other foes.

Islamic State's brutal rule, featuring mass killings, forced conversions and rape, has made it the enemy of all global powers and regional countries. But five years of civil war in Syria, a feeble Iraqi state and global and sectarian rivalries among outside powers have made it impossible to coordinate a single campaign against it.

In Iraq, government troops supported both by U.S.-led coalition air strikes and Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia, poured into the southern outskirts of the Islamic State bastion Falluja on Monday. They have since held their positions for four straight days without advancing into the main built-up areas of the city.

Iraq's finance minister acknowledged in an interview that Falluja, where the U.S. military fought the biggest battles of its own 2003-2011 occupation, was a "tough nut to crack". The assault would go slowly to protect thousands of civilians still trapped in the city, he said.

Fighters of the Syria Democratic Forces fire a mortar shell towards positions held by Islamic State fighters in northern province of Raqqa, Syria May 27, 2016.

Falluja is Islamic State's second-largest bastion in Iraq and closest outpost to Baghdad. But the decision to mount an assault there was not in keeping with the plans of Washington, which would prefer that the Baghdad government focus on recapturing Mosul instead.

Fighting in Falluja risks the army becoming bogged down in territory inhabited by Sunni tribes long hostile to the Shi'ite-led government. However, Shi'ite militia and political parties have pressed Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to attack the city to bring an end to suicide bombings in the capital, an hour's drive away.

In Syria, state media said the army had made territorial gains and inflicted heavy casualties on Islamic State fighters in the Athriya area of eastern Hama province, close to the provincial border with Raqqa.

"There is progress from Athriya on two fronts, but the coming direction is not set," the military source said, adding that it could be either Raqqa or Deir al-Zor, which is on a main route linking Islamic State's Syrian and Iraqi territories.

The army was focused on eastern and northern areas of both Homs and Hama provinces, he said. Hama borders Raqqa province; Homs borders Deir al-Zor.

The Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar said the first aim was to capture the town of Tabqa, site of an air base and major Islamic State arsenal some 50 km (30 miles) west of Raqqa city, and put "a foot in the area without leaving it completely to the Americans' allies".
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, June 4

By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend:

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has signed a decree on the allocation of more than $45 million to finance the initial stage of construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Natural Gas Pipeline (TAPI) at the Afghan-Pakistan segment, the Turkmen government said in a message June 4.

The document was adopted in accordance with the investment agreement signed in May 2016 between the Turkmengaz State Concern and Gail (India) Limited, Inter State Gas Systems (Private) Limited (Pakistan), Afghan Gas Enterprise (Afghanistan), TAPI Pipeline Company Limited and Galkynysh Pipeline Company CJSC.

Representatives of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the Saudi Fund for Development and the Japanese government have expressed intention to participate in financing construction of the TAPI gas pipeline.

Three main areas for participation by potential foreign investors in the project are considered: trade, supply of pipe and gas equipment; financing through provision of loans; and investment in the TAPI project and in development of the big Galkynysh gas field in Turkmenistan.

Turkmengaz and Turkmenneftegazstroy state concerns since December 2015 have been carrying out construction of the 214-kilometer pipeline segment in Turkmenistan, from the Galkynysh field to the Afghan border.

The contractors for construction of the pipeline segments in Afghanistan and Pakistan will be chosen through international tenders.

The main document for the TAPI, called the Ashgabat Interstate Agreement, was signed in 2010.

The groundbreaking ceremony for TAPI's Turkmen section was held in mid-December of 2015.

The estimated cost of the project will exceed $10 billion. The annual capacity of the gas pipeline will reach 33 billion cubic meters. It is planned that the total length of the TAPI pipeline will be 1,814 kilometers. Some 214 kilometers will pass through the territory of Turkmenistan, 774 kilometers - Afghanistan, 826 kilometers - Pakistan.

The project is expected to be completed in late 2019.
A member of the Iraqi security forces fires artillery during clashes with Islamic State militants near Falluja, Iraq, May 29, 2016.

A 17-month U.S. effort to retrain and reunify Iraq's regular army has failed to create a large number of effective Iraqi combat units or limit the power of sectarian militias, according to current and former U.S. military and civilian officials.

Concern about the shortcomings of the American attempt to strengthen the Iraqi military comes as Iraqi government forces and Shiite militias have launched an offensive to retake the city of Falluja from Islamic State. Aid groups fear the campaign could spark a humanitarian catastrophe, as an estimated 50,000 Sunni civilians remain trapped in the besieged town.

The continued weakness of regular Iraqi army units and reliance on Shiite militias, current and former U.S. military officials said, could impede Prime Minister Haider al-Abadis broader effort to defeat Islamic State and win the long-term support of Iraqi Sunnis. The sectarian divide between the majority Shi'ite and minority Sunni communities threatens to split the country for good.

Critics agree that there have been some military successes, citing the continued victories of American-trained Iraqi Special Forces, who have been fighting Islamic State for two years. But the presence of 4,000 American troops has failed to change the underlying Iraqi political dynamics that fuel the rise and growing power of sectarian militias.

Retired U.S. Lieutenant General Mick Bednarek, who commanded the U.S. military training effort in Iraq from 2013 to 2015, said the Iraqi army has not improved dramatically in the past eight months. He blamed a variety of problems, from a lack of Iraqis wanting to join the military to the resistance of some lower-level Iraqi officers to sending units to American training.

The Iraqi militarys capacity hasnt improved that much - part of that is the continuing challenge of recruitment and retention, said Bednarek. Our (officers) train who shows up, and the issue is we are not sure who is going to show up.

Two senior U.S. military officers and Bednarek said that with few exceptions, the most effective and only truly non-sectarian Iraqi government fighting force is the Iraqi Special Forces, sometimes called the Counter-Terrorism Service. American officials expressed worry that the Special Forces units may burn out after nearly two years of continuous combat.

Militia influence

Across Iraq, regular Iraqi army units have largely watched from the sidelines as Iraqi Special Forces and Shi'ite militias have reclaimed land from Islamic State, current and former U.S. military officials said. Militias have repeatedly taken advantage of the power vacuums that have emerged after Islamic State defeats.

An Iraqi Shi'ite fighter fires a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) during clashes with Islamic State militants on the outskirt of Falluja, Iraq, June 1, 2016.

The Iraqi military operations command of Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad, is dominated by a Shi'ite militia leader, Abu Mehdi Mohandis, according to a current U.S. military officer, an Iraqi security official and three Iraqi officials who monitor the province.

Mohandis serves as the chief state administrator for Shiite paramilitary forces. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned him in 2009 for allegedly attacking U.S. forces in Iraq. He was also convicted in absentia by Kuwaiti courts for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait.

The Fifth Iraqi Army Division in eastern Diyala province is considered to be under the command of the Badr group, a powerful Shiite militia and political party with strong ties to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, according to four current and former U.S. military officers.

In Baghdad, U.S. military officers estimate that 10 percent to 20 percent of the 300 officers who run the Iraqi military's Operations Command have an affinity or association with either the Badr militia or the Shiite religious leader Muqtada al Sadr.

And after Iraqi Special Forces, aided by U.S. air strikes, captured a strategic oil refinery in the town of Baiji in October, Shiite militias looted all of its salvageable equipment, according to a senior U.S. military official and three Iraqi government officials.

Over the past year, U.S. military officers have struggled to ensure that militias do not seize American weaponry delivered to the main Iraqi army supply depot in Taji and to a brigade in the Saqlawiya region.

We would transfer arms to units in those areas - and either because of corrupt commanders or outright robbery - they would end up in the hands of the militia groups, said one U.S. officer. The officer noted, however, that controls have been tightened and the number of cases was small. "You can't eliminate it entirely. It's just not realistic."

"An official body"

Iraqi government and senior paramilitary leaders said the reports of poor training and Shi'ite militia dominance in the military are false. They said the militias follow the orders of the prime minister and his military commanders.

Iraqi defense ministry spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool called the militias an official body connected with the office of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces." He said they take their orders only from government officials and "have a great role in supporting the army forces and the federal police.

Mohammed Bayati, a former human rights minister and senior Badr group leader, now commands forces in northern Salahuddin Province. He said the Shiite paramilitaries fall under the army, police and regular military chain-of-command. Bayati told Reuters that any reports of militias operating on their own were false.

Shi'ite fighters take a selfie while firing artillery towards Islamic State militants near Falluja, Iraq, May 29, 2016.

Yesterday, I was in the Salahuddin Operations Command, he said. "All orders are coming from the police and army leadership." The Shi'ite militias "are supporting the army and police.

The spokesman for the government umbrella body that oversees the militias, Ahmed Al-Asadi, said the Shi'ite forces did not loot the Baiji refinery. "I deny totally such allegations," he said. Islamic State, he said, stole and destroyed equipment.

The office of Prime Minister Abadi and the Iraqi Embassy in Washington didn't respond to requests for comment.

American concerns

But current and former U.S. military officials and local Sunni leaders say the militias continue to take advantage of the vacuums that emerge in predominantly Sunni areas after Islamic State forces are defeated. A lack of strong regular army units allows the militias to remain the dominant players.

Norman Ricklefs, a former U.S. government adviser to the Iraqi interior and defense ministries, said the state has still not filled the void in most areas retaken from ISIS. He said militias are the most powerful they have been since Iraqi government forces defeated them in a series of battles across Iraq in 2008. Ricklefs regularly visits Iraq and maintains ties with the Iraqi security apparatus and Shiite and Sunni politicians.

In the cities the militias occupy - Samarra and Tikrit and significant parts of eastern Baghdad - they are the most powerful force, Ricklefs said. "For the first time since 2008, the government has lost control of large parts of cities" to Shiite militias.

One senior U.S military official said the setbacks call into question the Obama administration's overall strategy in Iraq. He said any military training effort would fail until the U.S. put more pressure on Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni political leaders to strike a genuine power-sharing agreement.

"We need to accelerate the reconciliation piece to make Sunnis feel they are part of the government, said the official, who asked not to be named. Are we really in any way focused on that?"

Shi'ite fighters forces launch a rocket towards Islamic State militants on the outskirts Falluja, Iraq, May 23, 2016.

Obama administration officials said the U.S. strategy is succeeding and Iraqi forces have steadily grown stronger with American support.

U.S. advisers have helped train existing units and set up two new Iraqi divisions, according to American and Iraqi officials. They achieved this despite struggling with shortfalls in Iraqi funding to hire new soldiers and a shortage of Iraqi Shiite volunteers.

But there has been little improvement in overall Iraqi army combat readiness, according to a U.S. civilian official, one ex-official, a former general and three current senior U.S. military officers.

Last October, American military officials estimated that only five Iraqi army divisions were ready for battle and put their combat readiness at only 60 to 65 percent. Today, those figures have increased only marginally, the officials said.

'Lion's share' of progress

The U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Colonel Chris Garver, said that despite the difficulties, U.S. forces have seen Iraqi army units improve after training. He also cited advances by army brigades in areas around Falluja as signs of success.

But Garver acknowledged that the lions share of military offensives has been spearheaded by the Special Forces, and that two years of battle are taking a toll on Iraqs elite soldiers.

The Government of Iraq has relied heavily on the Iraqi special operations forces and the potential for these forces being depleted into combat ineffectiveness is a real concern, he said.

Iraqi security forces clash with Islamic State militants near Falluja, Iraq, May 25, 2016. REUTERS.

Garver said the regular Iraqi army continues to struggle with increasing its ranks. Recruiting and funding have both been well-documented challenges for the GOI," or Government of Iraq. "These are areas the GOI must address.

Brigadier Rasool, the Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman, rejected any suggestion that the regular Iraqi army was not an equal partner to the Iraqi Special Forces.

We have troops who were able to retake land from Daesh, Rasool said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. After the fall of Mosul, the Ministry of Defenses joint command has resupplied and retrained the Iraqi security forces.

The current and former U.S. officials contended that the Falluja offensive is again exposing the weakness of regular army units.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter speaks at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore June 4, 2016.

The United States stepped up pressure on China on Saturday to rein in its actions in the South China Sea, with top defense officials underlining Washington's military superiority and vowing to remain the main guarantor of Asian security for decades to come.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the U.S. approach to the Asia-Pacific remained "one of commitment, strength and inclusion", but he also warned China against provocative behavior in the South China Sea.

Any action by China to reclaim land in the Scarborough Shoal, an outcrop in the disputed sea, would have consequences, Carter said.

"I hope that this development doesn't occur, because it will result in actions being taken by the both United States and ... by others in the region which would have the effect of not only increasing tensions but isolating China," Carter told the Shangri-La Dialogue, a regional security forum in Singapore.

"The United States will remain the most powerful military and main underwriter of security in the region for decades to come  and there should be no doubt about that."

The South China Sea has become a flashpoint between the United States, which increased its focus on the Asia-Pacific under President Barack Obama's "pivot", and China, which is projecting ever greater economic, political and military power in the region.

Carter however said he would welcome China's participation in a "principled security network" for Asia.

"Forward thinking statesmen and leaders must ... come together to ensure a positive principled future," he said, adding that the network he envisaged could also help protect against "Russia's worrying actions" and the growing strategic impact of climate change.

The deputy head of China's delegation to the forum said the United States should reduce its provocative exercises and patrols in the region and said any attempts to isolate China would fail.

"This is a time of cooperation and common security," Rear Admiral Guan Youfei told reporters. "The U.S. action to take sides is not agreed by many countries. We hope the U.S. will also listen to the other countries."

Regional worries



Other Asian leaders said the situation in the South China Sea was viewed with concern across the region.

"All countries in the region need to recognize that our shared prosperities and the enviable rate of growth that this region enjoys over past decades will be put at risk by aggressive behavior or actions by any one of us," Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told the forum.

Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said his country would help Southeast Asian nations build their security capabilities to deal with what he called unilateral, dangerous and coercive actions in the South China Sea.

"In the South China Sea, we have been witnessing large-scale and rapid land reclamation, building of outposts and utilization of them for military purposes," Nakatani said. "No country can be an outsider of this issue."

A Chinese official responded by saying Japan should be careful "not to interfere and stir up problems" in the waterway, while China's foreign ministry also weighed in regarding the U.S. and Japanese comments.

The uncertainty of China's future trajectory is arguably the main driving concern about possible military competition now and in the future" -- Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.

"Countries outside the region should stick to their promises and not make thoughtless remarks about issues of territorial sovereignty," the ministry said in a statement.

Trillions of dollars of trade a year passes through the South China Sea, which is home to rich oil, gas and fishing resources. Besides China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have claims in the area, and rising tensions have been fuelling increasing security spending in the region.

"The uncertainty of China's future trajectory is arguably the main driving concern about possible military competition now and in the future," Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.

Carter said that for decades some critics had been predicting an impending U.S. withdrawal from the region, but this would not happen.

"Thats because this region, which is home to nearly half the worlds population and nearly half the global economy, remains the most consequential for Americas own security and prosperity."

Trump counter

In an apparent counter to "America-first" policies expounded by prospective Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, including suggestions that U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Asia, Carter stressed bipartisan support for continued engagement.

The Shangri-La Dialogue is being held ahead of a significant ruling expected in coming weeks on a case filed by the Philippines in the International Court of Arbitration challenging China's South China Sea claims, which Beijing has vowed to ignore.

The United States has been lobbying Asian and other countries to back the judges' statement that their ruling must be binding, a call echoed by Japan on Saturday.

China has lobbied on the other side for support for its position that the court lacks jurisdiction in the case.
Crew members of China's South Sea Fleet taking part in a drill in the Hoang Sa Islands, or the Paracel Islands, which is claimed by Vietnam, on May 5, 2016

Chinese construction on a South China Sea islet claimed by the Philippines would prompt "actions being taken" by the United States and other nations, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned Saturday.

Speaking at a security summit in Singapore, Carter said Beijing risks building a "Great Wall of self-isolation" with its military expansion in the contested waters, but he also proposed stronger bilateral security cooperation to reduce the risks of a mishap.

"I hope that this development doesn't occur because it will result in actions being taken both by the United States, and actions being taken by others in the region that will have the effect of not only increasing tensions but isolating China," Carter said when asked about Scarborough Shoal in a forum also attended by senior Chinese military officials.

Rear Admiral Guan Youfei, who heads the Chinese office of international military cooperation, quickly attacked the Pentagon chief's remarks, telling journalists they reflected a "Cold War mentality".

He said any sanctions against China will "definitely result in failure".

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post has reported that China plans to establish an outpost on the shoal, located 230 kilometres (140 miles) off the Philippines, which considers it part of its exclusive economic zone.

Beijing claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea and has developed contested reefs into artificial islands, some topped with airstrips.

Manila says China took effective control of Scarborough Shoal in 2012, stationing patrol vessels and shooing away Filipino fishermen, after a two-month stand-off with the Philippine Navy.

Carter declined to elaborate when later pressed on what "actions" Washington might take.

The US warning comes ahead of a ruling from the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague on a case brought by the Philippines against China, which has shunned the proceedings and says it will not recognise any ruling.

In a prepared speech, Carter said the US views the upcoming ruling "as an opportunity for China and the rest of the region to recommit to a principled future, to renewed diplomacy, and to lowering tensions, rather than raising them".

'Great Wall of self-isolation'

The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam have competing claims in the sea, which encompasses vital global shipping routes and is believed to have significant oil and gas deposits.

Beijing's territorial claims, based on controversial historical records, have also pitted it against the US, which has conducted patrols near Chinese-held islands to press for freedom of navigation.

"Unfortunately, if these (Chinese) actions continue, China could end up erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation," Carter said in his speech.

He suggested the US and China would benefit from better military ties to avoid the risk of mishaps.

Pentagon officials say two Chinese fighters last month conducted an "unsafe" intercept of a US spy plane in international air space over the South China Sea.

Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US Pacific Command, said in Singapore that such incidents were rare, and noted that US and Chinese naval vessels generally have "positive interactions".

Carter's attendance at the summit is part of a broader US diplomatic push, known as the "rebalance", to boost alliances in the Asia-Pacific region.

In a report last month, the Pentagon said China put its land reclamation efforts on hold in the Spratly Islands chain at the end of 2015. Instead, it focused on adding military infrastructure to its reclaimed features.

Another regional security concern at the Singapore forum is North Korea's nuclear program and its so-far unsuccessful missile tests.

Seoul and Washington want to deploy the US' sophisticated Terminal High Altitude Area Defence System (THAAD), that would protect against North Korean missiles, though Beijing worries about the system being deployed on its doorstep.

"It's not about China," Carter said. "It's about the North Korean missile threat, which is a clear threat to South Korea, to our forces there and to our allies in Japan."

Delegates also discussed ways nations could cooperate to counter the threat of Islamic extremism across the region.
A potentially cancer-causing chemical that led to bans on commercial fishing and depressed housing values when it was discovered north of Newcastle has been found at dozens of sites across Sydney, including Sydney Airport and the Richmond RAAF Base.

A report commissioned by the Baird government has revealed that legacy contamination from perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid exists at sites across Sydney.

Two men fishing at Botany Bay as planes come into land and prepare to take off at Sydney Airport. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Also known as PFOS and PFOA, the toxic perfluorinated compounds were used for decades in firefighting foams and household products like non-stick pans.

Prepared by Mark Taylor of Macquarie University, the report says that Airservices Australia, a Commonwealth body responsible for airport firefighting, has told the NSW EPA of "issues" surrounding the historical use of the foams at Sydney and Bankstown airports.
St Kilda youngster Nathan Freeman has suffered another setback on his path to the AFL.

He was forced out of a reserves match this weekend with hamstring tightness and will undergo scans to determine its cause.

Nathan Freeman (left) is suffering from hamstring tightness. Credit:Pat Scala

The 20-year-old midfielder was the number 10 draft pick in 2013, when he was chosen by Collingwood.

Freeman requested a trade to St Kilda at the end of last year and they took him in exchange for a future second-round selection and a couple of lower-ranked picks.
When it comes to helping children struggling to deal with trauma, violence or even low self-esteem, the Be Centre has a very simple solution. Playtime.

"[Especially] within the Aboriginal community the level of childhood trauma is high," executive director of the Be Centre Foundation Marisa Chilcott said.

Sinclair Taylor, CEO of the Westpac Foundation Sinclair and Marisa Chilcott, the Executive Director of the Be Centre Foundation, with sisters Indiana, 8 and Grace Donald, 10. Credit:James Brickwood

"Play therapy helps a child make sense of situations so that childhood issues are resolved in a timely manner to ensure they do not continue to impact the child's life."

The centre, with sites in Warriewood and Manly, has just been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Westpac Foundation, which has allowed the charity to upgrade facilities and employ an Aboriginal community liaison officer.
Time for a reality check So Tony Lamb is concerned that legislative changes have slowed the growth of his retirement benefits. For someone who made the massive contribution of $35,297 over nine years to so far reap a benefit of $1.3million since retirement, I'm not sure where he's coming from. Frank Stipic, Mentone No room to buy policy Data by the Electoral Commission shows large donations to the Liberal party by Chinese interests on the eve of the signing of the Aust-Chinese Free Trade Agreement ('China cash for parties' coffers', 22/4). In the interest of good governance for the whole Australian community, all Australian governments, state and federal, need to follow the lead of NSW and legislate to outlaw donations, not just from developers, but also from foreign individuals and organisations.

Phyllis Vespucci, Reservoir The high price of political donations I was dismayed to read in The Sunday Age (22/5) that a Chinese Government backed propaganda unit has been making donations to political parties in this country. On the one hand we are told that the Chinese represent a strategic threat, then we allow them to operate in this country as they wish. I wonder what would happen if we behaved the same way in China? Rod Slater, Sandringham Cashed up, sold out

'Party favours' (22/5) clearly outlines the methods used by big business to donate funds to political parties in exchange for access to politicians. It is disheartening that Melbourne's "green wedge" protection zones have been consistently eroded by successive governments allowing developers access. We need to get serious about stopping those with inexhaustible resources from hijacking good governance. Susan Gay, Ballarat IN THE NEWS Right to choose I write to highlight the importance of Farrah Tomazin's article 'Dying with dignity: Coroners Court weighs in', 29/5). The Coroners Court's stories are real evidence of the necessity to change the law about assisted death. We say that we are a humane and caring society but we are repeatedly condemning the aged and ill to undignified, lonely and painful deaths. Having legal avenues for assisted death does not mean that all terminally ill people will choose that option. However, those who wish to should be able to exercise their rights over their own lives. The eagerly awaited report of the state parliamentary committee on assisted death will hopefully reinforce our society's core values of freedom of choice and humanity for all.

Carmel McNaught, Balwyn North There's another way As with marriage, there is a small minority absolutely opposed to letting adults make their own choices. As the Coroner notes, competent dying people will make their own choices no matter what the law. It doesn't have to be this horrendous. Janine Truter, The Basin Heed the call

Farrah Tomazin points out how the desperately and terminally ill are resorting to suicides because society and democracy has failed them. Despite overwhelming support for voluntary assisted dying, governments refuse to listen respond to a desperate need of the dying to change the law. This is shameful and undemocratic. Kishor Dabke, Mount Waverley To the left What a fabulous article by Andrew Masterson (Opinion, 29/5) on how we have slipped to the right wing without realising. I have undertaken the ABC vote compass and found myself in the dead zone of the north-west corner. But worse, in my work as a researcher, I have recently been crunching the numbers of a survey of business leaders who profess to be Christian and find them sadly lacking any insight into these important issues. They are leaders of profit-making companies and appear to see no contradiction between their religious beliefs and their responsibility to find ever increasing profits for their shareholders, which must surely come at the expense of the marginalised on occasion. I am not suggesting this small sample is true of all, but it causes me to wonder why we can't have a more humane system in place and why those who believe in Christian values don't even see the possibility. Kate Dempsey, Brighton East

Let's get radical Great column, Andrew Masterson, advocating at least a reconsideration of ideas way off the top left corner of the ABC's vote compass. Many of us out here are totally frustrated with the two major parties with their mantra of free-market neoliberal jobs and growth  but especially with the "greens" who seem to think it's more important to pander to vaguely unhappy Labor voters than to articulate any radically new ideas. Mick Webster, Chiltern Policing's positives It was a damning picture of policing in Ballarat painted by your reporter Chris Johnston in The Sunday Age (22/5) that was fair to neither the people of this city nor its police. There is no doubt, it has been a difficult few weeks for the police in Ballarat; the IBAC hearing has made for grim reading.

While I am unable to comment directly on these proceedings, I am compelled to point out a number of assertions in the article that do not represent contemporary policing in one of Victoria's largest regional cities. The fact is there is a tremendous bond between the city of Ballarat and its police as is evidenced by the National Survey of Community Satisfaction with Policing which shows police in Ballarat enjoy a community confidence rating of 92.1 per cent, 5per cent higher than the state average. The challenges of policing a community such as Ballarat are dramatically different to other localities cited in the article. Our growing population means increased calls for police services in the areas of crime, domestic violence, mental illness, public order and road policing. It's a tough, demanding job which we take very seriously, as we do our commitment to strong ethical performance. Where corrective action is identified it is enacted through my leadership and management team. I make no apologies for the observation made in your report that I have been known to turn up at crime scenes and help manage traffic when road accidents have occurred. Leading from the front is a key virtue for all police, and I will always support my members whenever I can.

I believe the wider community understands the challenges police face and am confident the people of Ballarat support our efforts in reducing crime across this most liveable and safe community. Andrew Allen APM, superintendent, Ballarat Police Division Fear well-founded The report on Iranian youth at a mixed-gender party being lashed (29/5) should serve as a corrective to those  such as our Foreign Minister Julie Bishop  who harbour a view of Iran as a nation undergoing a liberal transformation. The Iranian asylum seekers, many of them from middle-class backgrounds, making up a large proportion of those detained on Nauru and Manus Island have long been derided for claiming "a well-founded fear of persecution" as their reason for fleeing their homeland. Jon McMillan, Mount Eliza

Damned by a few In response to Dr Sarah Russell's article 'Aged care providers seeking profit instead of residents' wellbeing', (29/5): not-for-profit aged care providers care for more than 1million frail older Australians and operate about 65 per cent of residential aged care beds in Australia. In order to remain sustainable, funding is required to not only cover costs of quality care, it also needs to allow for future refurbishment and development of facilities. The vast majority of aged care providers in Australia deliver quality services and for Dr Russell to base her article on a few media articles is offensive. However, there is significant and growing concern about the impact of the budget cuts proposed by the federal government. These cuts will directly impact on older people who need increasingly specialised and complex care and support. John Kelly, CEO, Aged and Community Services Australia Better facility, not care Dr Sarah Russel's article on aged care homes profiteering gave credence to many of the concerns I had about my mother's care when she was in a for profit facility. The money spent on the facility (with elaborate floral displays and two cafes) did not trickle down to better nursing for high-care residents. And despite many people complaining of the inadequacies, their accreditation still came in at 100 per cent.

Bernadette Clohesy, East Burwood Eroding science The CSIRO has been at the cutting edge of scientific research since the 1920s. Its work in improving our industrial, agricultural and general skills has been outstanding. Now we have a government that is slashing funding for its research into climate change and rises in sea levels. The Sunday Age (29/5) made the point that Australian research into climate change is vital for world-wide understanding of these matters, given our location and scientific expertise. Australia's current government policy will be condemned globally, especially when our funding to less necessary areas, such as building submarines, has been increased. Leo Gamble, Mentone A price too high
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, June 4

By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend:

Export of energy resources to Europe is one of priorities of Turkmenistan's international strategy, said the the Turkmen government's message.

"Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline Project in the direction of Western Europe is considered as a prospective one, and the discussion process of its construction enters active phase," said the message. "The work with the European partners is being carried out in a constructive way, and it will continue."

Talks regarding the delivery of Turkmen gas to Europe are underway since 2011.

The Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline Project involving laying of a 300-km gas pipeline along the bottom of the Caspian Sea to the coast of Azerbaijan is optimal for the delivery of Turkmen energy resources to the European market.

Then the Turkmen fuel can get to Turkey, which shares a border with the European countries.
It is compulsory for all eligible Australian citizens to enrol and vote in elections  how they mark a ballot paper, or indeed choose not to, is entirely up to them. The law can oblige a level of participation, but it is a citizen's responsibility to decide for themselves how to exercise the right to vote.

The health of Australian democracy rests on people treating that responsibility seriously.

It is a citizen's responsibility to decide for themselves how to exercise the right to vote. Credit:Max Mason-Hubers

An election result therefore presents as a litmus test of the national character. Australians have long expressed admiration for the principles of a fair go, equality, multiculturalism and tolerance. For those concepts to have meaning beyond their rhetorical invocation, how we vote as a country offers a gauge.

So the message here is simple: when you vote, know precisely who you are voting for and where they stand. Because your vote can, and will, have an influence on the future of the nation.
The Crossing, 2016, oil on linen, 265 x 202cm. "Before I went there I had no concept, I really had failed to humanise the events," Quilty says. "Without humans, it doesn't exist. The children particularly  it is impossible not to be moved." In Serbia, at a bus station where recently arrived Syrians were heading north to Germany, he met one girl, Heba. Ben Quilty, High Tide Mark, 2016, oil on linen, 170 x 160cm. "To sit with a tiny little girl who was my daughter's age, in Serbia, it was minus 15 degrees, she had a puffer jacket on and tiny little woollen gloves: I challenge anyone not to be moved by her," he says. "She just stood by her parents. To give her my paper  my beautiful handmade paper that had come from France or wherever I get it from and beautiful watercolour pencils  and sit down with her and communicate with her was just a profound thing to do."

Heba, he says, is deeply drawn to the language of art. She "drew and drew and drew" until, hours later, her parents took her onto the bus. "We didn't understand each other, we didn't need to because the drawings just came out of her." Ben Quilty, The Pink Dress, 2016, oil on linen, 265 x 202cm. A few days later, he went to Lesbos to retrace Heba's journey. "Her steps, or those of her dad carrying her, and to find on the shores of Lesbos this sea of lifejackets and little lifejackets that would have fitted her. Pyjamas found that would have fitted my little girl. Those connections for me  I feel like I owe that little child all my efforts to bring to attention to what is going on in her world. "Art is a great vehicle for it. It's what I do." Flanagan asked Quilty to accompany him on the trip after the writer was invited by World Vision to document the situation in a different way to standard media representations.

The Tolarno show includes paintings and drawings of the young bereaved mother and the girl at the bus station but there is also a bold new video work that Kylie Needham, a screenwriter with much experience in film and television and also Quilty's wife, has collaborated with him on. The piece deals with the story of Ali, a young Pakistani refugee, who speaks directly to the camera in his native language. Ali, says Quilty, came to Australia when he was 16, against his mother's wishes. In Indonesia he got passage on a boat to Australia and arrived on Christmas Island a few weeks before the federal government locked the borders. "He would have ended up on Nauru but was lucky enough to get in," Quilty says. "He came to me as a work experience person and I was intrigued by his story. People had said he was a very good young painter: and he is fabulous, a very good painter and now enrolled in uni. "I took him to a very beautiful waterhole near my studio and got him in his native Hazara language [without subtitles] to recount his experience from stepping on to a boat in Indonesia until he landed in Australia on Christmas Island. He sort of cracks up [with distress] a few times but the only way you can tell the emotion is that he stops. You start to realise what his story is about. "For anyone who sits there long enough it's impossible to miss the emotion of his delivery."

Quilty has also made a painting using his bare hands, scraping the paint across the canvas to form words. "You can see my finger prints. It's a gestural work with filthy grey 'Border force' scratched into the middle of it." While Quilty is usually very wary of using text in his paintings, this was an occasion when he felt compelled to. The other side of that is the many drawings he did on the trip with children. "Because they are children  they can tell a story in a pretty universal way, without any language barriers. I got the kids to draw the boats they had crossed in from Turkey. Four little tiny people drew the exact same image of a boat and when I got to Lesbos and finally saw the boat a few days later, it was a profound thing to see how much those boats and the details were etched into these little children's minds. "I guess that it is as much about a refugee experience as it is about how we understand each other and communicate messages, about how compassion needs to be translated. People need to be given the opportunity to hear and speak with other people for us to fully appreciate the bad things that are happening to them." All of these experiences have cemented something in Quilty's mind that he has long been pondering: what motivates him to make art?
The infamous Cronulla riots has become the subject of a film that writer-director Abe Forsythe admits will be confronting viewing for many viewers.

He has turned the aftermath of the violent clashes on the beach in 2005 into a black comedy, Down Under, centering on three cars of hotheads setting out for retaliation.

It's a fictional story with a cast headed by Damon Herriman (The Water Diviner), Lincoln Younes (Love Child), Rahel Romahn (Janet King) and Justin Rosniak (Packed To The Rafters).
"They represent the areas considered most at risk from modelling of potential tsunami and effects observed elsewhere," it said on its Facebook page. Large numbers of residents in Sydney's Botany Bay would be required to evacuate or seek shelter in the case of tsunami, shows www.tsunamisafe.com.au. Credit:SES In the extraordinary event of a land-based tsunami which would cause damage inland, residents in large parts of Sydney, in the inner west, around Botany Bay and beaches would be a risk of evacuation. Most of Newcastle's inner city residents would also need to evacuate. The maps represented the worst-case scenario, said SES spokesman, Phil Campbell. Many residents in Newcastle would have to evacuate or seek higher ground if a tsunami - a one in 10,000 year event - happened, according to Tsunamisafe.com.au. Credit:SES

They were based on data from Geoscience Australia, . In contrast to the risk of the worst-case scenario, flooding of foreshore land occurred every several hundred years. Lesser events occur more frequently. "In the absolute worst case, the Corso at Manly would have water five metres deep going across it, " he said. A smaller one would very likely just result in some water going a few metres in from the sea. The risk of a tsunami is very low, yet the consequences are very high. Phil Campbell, NSW SES Responses on Facebook suggested that some members of the public had heard the weather forecasts for continuing heavy rain, seen the tsunami maps, and put two and two together to think a tsunami was on its way: "OMG are you serious?" and "Holy Moly!!!! Stay Safe!!!" Others feared for the safety of friends and family travelling in these regions. One woman asked if there was a reason it was posting the map "with a storm coming". Another asked why it has posted the maps "right now when we are expecting a big rain event here in the next few days. I feel a LITTLE worried," wrote a woman called Narelle Lackenby.

NSW SES' new evacuation maps scared some people on Facebook. Credit:Darbs Darby (Andrew Darby) Mr Campbell said the launch on Friday had been planned for months, and it was unfortunate that the developing bad weather situation coincided with their release. A range of community events had been planned to discuss the maps. "We are apologetic to those people who may have linked the two," he said. The maps had been designed to grab attention, and prompt discussion and draw attention to the need for planning for this very unlikely event. "The risk of a tsunami was very low, yet the consequences are very high," he said.

In a tsunami of tsunami warnings, San Francisco Department of Emergency Management's issued a warning by mistake on Friday, causing panic. "There is no tsunami," Francis Zamora, a spokesman for the city's department of emergency management, told local reporters. "There is no need for anyone to evacuate." According to the SES' tsunami safe page, NSW has a documented history of tsunami. Most have been relatively small and generally less than one metre on the tide gauge records. Around every six years, NSW feels the effect of a marine-based tsunami.
A detention centre worker has been stood down after he allegedly attacked and traumatised an asylum seeker, and detainees report having to call for police help amid an official seal of secrecy over incidents behind the wire.

The Australian Border Force is refusing to release figures on the number of incidents in onshore detention referred to police over the past three years, including child sexual assault cases, nor will it say how many complaints led to a prosecution.

It comes as Labor pushes for transparency and independent oversight of Australian detention centres.

Fairfax Media has learnt a detention centre worker employed by private operator Serco has been stood down following an incident at Western Australia's Yongah Hill facility on May 30.
"It has been about one-and-a-half months now and we have received $500  about two weeks rent and the tenant comes-up with stories every week about why he cannot pay. "I would definitely recommend landlords take every possible step they can to ensure that the tenants are reputable and don't have a history of problems." In Victoria, if the rent is $350 a week or less, the bond cannot be more than one month's rent. A landlord can charge a bond of more than one month's rent if the rent is more than $350 a week. In NSW, bond cannot be more than four weeks' rent. Higher bonds cannot be charged at all, including for tenants with pets, children or for any other reason. That means that the bond money, which must be lodged with the Rental Bond Board in NSW and Residential Tenancies Bond Authority in Victoria, can sometimes fall short of making up for the most common problems landlords experience.

In both states there are protocols on how much the tenants have to fall behind in rent and how long they are given to pay the rent. If there is still a dispute after following the protocols. the landlord can go to the relevant tribunal in each state. Katie Pickering, a director of Hodges Real Estate in Melbourne's Bayside area, says while she had encountered plenty of "issues" with tenants; the most common problem is rent arrears. Pickering, who manages investment properties at the agency, says covering rent arrears can take some time before getting a hearing at the tribunal. "It can easily be that the owner is out of pocket up to eight weeks' rent by the time it comes up at the tribunal," she says.

That is why it is important to have assurance that the tenant is likely to be reliable in the first place. Pickering checks on tenants' employment history and referees. She is also careful to properly check their identification. Pickering strongly recommends landlord insurance to her landlords. "We had a house burn down and tenant had only just moved in with a 12-month agreement. "Luckily they had landlord insurance that covered the entire rental [12 months' worth], which was in excess of $50,000," Pickering says.

Carolyn Parrella, executive manager of Terri Scheer Insurance, the largest provider of landlord insurance, estimates about one in five landlords has landlord insurance. She says the biggest claims, about half, is for rent arrears followed by malicious damage and accidental damage. "You can sometimes find that when your tenant is in arrears and has been given notice to vacate, they decide to do a bit of damage before they go," Parrella says. Justine Davies, editor-in-chief of comparison site Canstar, says landlord insurance typically covers theft or burglary by tenants and their guests, rent arrears and malicious and accidental damage. Davies says to be careful with the excesses; the amount the owner first pays of any claim. That's because each category of claim will have its own excess.

However, often the excesses are negotiable with the lower excesses attracting higher premiums. Also, check if the policy covers damage caused by pets. "This is a very common exclusion and can end up costing a lot of money," Davies says. Davies says landlord insurance will generally not cover short-term rentals, such as through Airbnb, because there is no tenancy agreement in place. Insurers sometimes also provide policies for those letting out properties to holiday makers or have specific short-stay policies, she says, As the insurance is a cost incurred in earning income from the investment it is tax deductible for the landlord, Davies says.
One of the most admired mentors for Australian women arrived in Melbourne this week to advise a potential new breed of female politicians. Dame Quentin Bryce wouldn't be drawn on her own daughter's approach to public life as spouse to the Opposition Leader Bill Shorten; but perhaps there's a clue in Dame Quentin's own mix of firm resolve on one hand and charm on the other.

The former governor-general has been the first woman in numerous roles and revels in mentoring younger women. Yet she says that can only go so far. "Sometimes it's a matter of poking them in the shoulders and saying 'Get in there'!"

Quentin Bryce, Anna Bligh and Elizabeth Bryan in Sydney on May 3. Credit:Daniel Munoz

Now based in Queensland, Dame Quentin was in town to meet the 25 participants of the new "Pathways to Politics Program for Women". She was greeted by fellow Queenslander Glyn Davis, vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne, and businesswoman Carol Schwartz whose philanthropic foundation funded the course.

The course was prompted by the low proportion of women in leadership roles in Australia. Less than one third of parliamentarians are women  statistics that spark indignation and outrage in many women. Yet Dame Quentin has appeared to take the path of perseverance and quiet leadership. She's often spoken of achieving change quietly, behind the scenes.
Australia's powerful gaming and alcohol lobby is targeting independent senator Nick Xenophon and the Greens as it tips hundreds of thousands of dollars into the pokie-friendly major parties ahead of the July 2 poll.

Well-placed sources have confirmed the Australian Hotels Association is supporting the major parties with a particular focus on opposing the popular Senator Xenophon and his team in South Australia and the Greens in vulnerable seats across the country.

Senator Xenophon  who has built a political empire from his roots as an anti-pokies campaigner  is tipped to win as many as three Senate seats and is a chance in two lower house seats in South Australia. The major parties are increasingly alarmed at the prospect of him holding the Senate balance of power with the Greens in the next Parliament.

The Greens are hoping to have more senators elected but are also campaigning hard for Coalition and Labor lower house seats; they are a real threat in particular in Batman in Melbourne's north, currently held by Labor's embattled David Feeney.
The Baird government will offer refugees a priority pathway to public service jobs in a new commitment that puts it at odds with recent comments by federal Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.

At least 100 public sector jobs will be created for refugees over the next 12 months. Although the scheme has been designed to assist the additional intake of refugees fleeing conflict in Syria and Iraq, all refugees who arrived after December 2015 are eligible.

"No refugee comes here wanting to live off welfare. They all want to build new lives for their family," said the NSW Co-ordinator General for Refugee Resettlement, Peter Shergold.

The move stands in contrast to comments made a fortnight ago by Mr Dutton, who said "illiterate and innumerate" refugees "would be taking Australian jobs" or "languish" on the dole.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, June 4

By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend:

The growth rate of Turkmenistan's GDP exceeded 6 percent from January to May 2016, the country's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said during the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.

Berdimuhamedov said that currently, the growth of the global economy continues, however, this process is going on very slowly and as the experts say, it is subjected to risks, said the message from Turkmenistan's government June 4.

In this regard, the primary task is to increase the export volume of the products manufactured in the country, according to Turkmenistan's president.

The economic sectors which are not related to the fuel and energy complex, saw a 2.2 percent increase as compared to the same period in 2015, said Berdimuhamedov, adding that however, it is not enough.

The European Bank for Reconstruction of Development (EBRD) forecasts Turkmenistan's GDP growth to reach 6.5 percent and 7.1 percent in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

The EBRD experts noted that Turkmenistan's economic growth stood at 6.5 percent in 2015, as compared to 10.3 percent in 2014.

Turkmenistan ranks fourth in the world in terms of the volume of natural gas reserve, according to the BP report. Currently, the country is able to export gas to China and Iran.
Belinda Cahill couldn't bear the thought of her cousin Leah Ellis never having a baby.

So when radiation treatment she was having for bowel cancer ruined Ms Ellis's ability to carry a child, Ms Cahill offered to be a surrogate for her and her husband James.

"She called me one day and said 'I really want to do this'," Ms Ellis, who had frozen embryos before her cancer treatment, recalled.

Ms Cahill already had two sons of her own. "I couldn't bear the thought of seeing someone who wanted a family so much not be able to have kids. I knew I was capable of [being a surrogate]."
Police have charged a Bardon man with grievous bodily harm following an alleged assault in Herston Friday night.

About 9.45pm officers responded to reports of an altercation between two men aged 45 and 35 in Victoria Park.

Police have charged a Bardon man with grievous bodily harm following an alleged assault in Herston Friday night. Credit:Marina Neil

Police will allege during the altercation the 35 man was stabbed in the foot with a knife, before being transported to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital for treatment.

Officers conducted patrols, located the 45-year-old man on Gilchrist Avenue, took him into custody without incident and will allege he was carrying a knife at the time of his arrest.
The gorilla shot and killed after a four-year-old child broke into his zoo will live on - albeit in an unrecognisable and frozen form.

Cincinnati Zoo officials have revealed that sperm samples from the silverback gorilla were collected and frozen shortly after his death last month.

Harambe was shot after a young boy entered his enclosure at Cincinnati Zoo. Credit:Twitter: Cincinnati Zoo

The news raises hopes among mourners internationally that the young male could one day become a father.
The music score for the mini-series INXS: Never Tear Us Apart was produced from the studio, a job that involved sending and downloading terabytes of sound files around the globe. "We move massive files," said Opitz. "And we do it in minutes."

What the pair didn't realise is that they were getting a bonus. The studio is connected to the original fibre-to-the-premises NBN network. "We often joke it must have been a showroom for the NBN, and they threw every bit of technology they owned at it," laughed Opitz.

Colin Wynne runs Thirty Mill Studios from inside the house on Brunswick Road, in collaboration with music producer Mark Opitz, a man who has produced albums for the likes of INXS, Cold Chisel and the Angels. "Basically we bought [the house] because it's got double brick walls and a solid wood floor," said Wynne. "We had it checked out by an acoustic engineer and it's perfect for recording."

From the outside, it looks like any of the other houses in its street, the kind of inner-suburban bungalow coveted by renovators. But this little house in Brunswick tells a story, and one that is crucial to debate about Australia's national broadband network.

According to Wynne, Thirty Mill Studios is a "poster boy" for the original NBN concept. "We are a small creative business, using the NBN to connect to the world," said Wynne. "Most of the time it's just me, or Mark and me, at the studio. Some of the software we need is massive in terms of size. We can buy it, download and install it, and be up and running in a matter of minutes."

Sadly for Wynne, in recent times he has also endured a dose of NBN reality. Wynne's apartment is also on Brunswick Road, just three kilometres from the studio. Six months ago the NBN network was installed. He signed up to the same plan with Optus, offering the same speed and unlimited data as his work connection. The difference is, instead of fibre to the premises, the optic fibre cable only goes as far as the basement of the apartment block. From there it is dispersed via the old copper network.

On the day we visited Thirty Mill, Wynne had walked to work to download some files. "The home network was telling me it was 58 minutes to download," Wynne said. "It's a 27-minute walk to work, and it took me five minutes to download. Guess which one I picked? Who wants to hang around at home for an hour?"

Tests showed Wynne's studio rarely gets download speeds of less than 95 megabits per second, even during peak periods. His home network was lucky to get nine megabits per second. "And at night, when everyone is streaming TV, forget about it. I tried to download a movie at home the other night. It was going to take 23 hours."

Wynne has been in contact with Optus, who said there is nothing wrong with the network installed to his premises. NBN, in turn, said there is no issue with the NBN network in his area.
A 76-year-old Reservoir man who went missing from hospital on Saturday morning was found in Dandenong 12 hours later.

Brian Smith was last seen at the Austin Hospital in Heidelberg at 9am on Saturday.

Investigators have released this image of Brian Smith, in the hope someone will recognise him and provide information on his whereabouts.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said it was believed Mr Smith wandered off from the hospital, where he was being treated.

She said the Reservoir man was found near a train station in Dandenong at 9.20pm on Saturday, by Transit Safety Division police.
Fire investigators are working to determine the cause of a blaze that destroyed a home in Melbourne's south-east overnight.

The blaze broke out at an unoccupied property in Mulgrave about 3.30am.

Firefighters brought the blaze under control in half an hour. Credit:Paul Jeffers

Firefighters in breathing apparatus battled the blaze, managing to bring it under control within half an hour.

The three-bedroom house in Roberts Avenue was on the market and listed as a "neat and tidy" home.
To that end, Andrews is not alone; many others have expressed similar concerns. How do you ensure ill patients are not abused or coerced into "requesting" an assisted death? What if patients feel like a burden on their families or the health system? Are there any legal implications? Will it suddenly lead to a sharp rise in the number of deaths, and not just for people who are fatally ill?

But these are exactly the kind of issues the committee has examined in forensic detail in order to get to an evidence-based conclusion. Members have spent almost a year sifting through 1030 submissions, of which at least 60 per cent are in favour of change. They've travelled to the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, and Oregon to talk to experts about the assisted dying regimes in those jurisdictions. And they've listened to more than 100 witnesses: from people who are dying; the families set to lose them; and those who sit at the coalface, such as nurses, doctors, the police, or the courts.

In a committee made up of three Labor MPs, three Liberals and one representative each from the Sex Party and the Greens, not all agree on the best way forward (and some may even lodge a "minority report" making this clear) but if the majority end up recommending serious reform, the government  which will have six months to formally respond in parliament  should seize the opportunity.

After all, life is a gift, but preserving it shouldn't come at all costs, and this report will provide some hope that in strictly-prescribed circumstances, people who are suffering intolerably could soon have greater choice about how they die.

It's not an easy solution, but for many who have watched someone they love die in existential pain. It's the right one.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, June 4

By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:

A two-day international exhibition "The textile industry of the country on the way to a new stage of development" kicked off in Ashgabat June 4.

The event has been organized by Turkmenistan's Ministry of Textile Industry and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said in his message to the event participants that great work is underway to create facilities for producing import substitution goods and to further increase the country's economic power and its export potential.

He noted that the expansion of the international cooperation in using effective innovations in the production is of great importance.

The textile industry holds an important place in Turkmenistan's economy. Turkmenistan traditionally grows cotton which is a basis for ensuring the development of the textile industry.

The major part of the products is exported to the US, Canada, Germany, UK, Russia, Italy, Turkey, China and Ukraine. It is planned to collect 1.05 million tons of cotton from an area of 545 hectares in Turkmenistan in 2016.
Someone has taken the concept of takeaway a little too far after they nicked an entire kebab van in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The greasy-fingered thief went on the mother of all late-night benders in Mordialloc, doing a runner with an entire fried-meat-bread-and-garlic-sauce franchise.

Images of the stolen kebab shop released by police Credit:Liam Mannix

The van had been left, chained-up and clamped, outside a home in McDonald Street, Mordialloc.

It was last seen about 2.30am Saturday, and was noticed missing 10am the same morning.
Victorians should prepare for a wet week ahead, as rain is set to continue.

The Bureau of Meteorology has warned of dangerous weather in Australia's eastern states across the weekend and early into the week, caused by a large and complex weather system coupled with a developing low pressure system along the east coast.

A severe weather warning and flood watch were issued by the weather bureau on Saturday for east Gippsland, warning heavy rain may lead to flash flooding in parts of the district, as well as damaging winds overnight on Saturday and throughout Sunday.

The flood watch could develop into a flood warning if expected rainfall of 50-100mm continued, the weather bureau predicted.
A Perth couple on honeymoon in Bali have been hit by tragedy.

Nine News reports that Brad and Lestari Williams were on the beach on the Balinese island of Nusa Penida when they were hit by a freak wave.

Brad and Lestari Williams at their wedding last year

The couple were among a group of five people who were swept out to sea. Mr Williams and two others made it back to the beach but his wife and her eight-year-old sister were swept away.

Mrs Williams body was washed up on another beach 24 hours later and there is still no sign of her sister.
Toronto: "Freedom of the press is extremely important to me. We know that the job of the media is to ask tough questions."

So said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in an frank and open rebuke of China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi for berating a Canadian journalist while in Canada.

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Ottawa. Credit:Canadian Press/AP

Mr Wang butted into a question about Canada's position on China's human rights record by a journalist from iPolitics meant for Canadian Foreign Minister Stephan Dion at a press conference on Wednesday.

After asking if he could answer it instead, Mr Wang lashed out, calling the journalist "irresponsible" and "full of prejudice", and saying the question was "totally unacceptable". He also asked the reporter if she'd ever been to China. "Don't ask questions in such an irresponsible manner," he said suggesting she knew nothing about his country.
Sinkara Valley, Peru: Tens of thousands of pilgrims crowd an Andean valley, with dancers in multi-layered skirts and musicians with drums and flutes performing non-stop over three days. The native melodies resound throughout a snow-capped mountain range long adored by the Quechua people.

Known as the Snow Star festival, the gathering is held every year shortly before the Christian feast of Corpus Christi and draws as many as 100,000 people to the Quispicanchis province in Peru's Cusco region. It also coincides with the reappearance of the star cluster Pleiades in the Southern Hemisphere, signalling the abundance of the harvest season.

Ukukus  men dressed as mythical half-man, half-bear creatures  light candles on the glacier of the Qullqipunqu mountain, as part of the syncretic three-day festival Qoyllur Riti in Peru's Cusco region. Credit:AP

The festival features a pilgrimage by local people to the sanctuary where a boulder features an image of Jesus Christ known as the Lord of Qoyllur Riti (pronounced KOL-yer REE-chee), or Snow Star in the Quechua language.

The sanctuary is in the Sinakara Valley at the base of the Qullqipunqu mountain in the Andes. Parish churches in the area provide food for the pilgrims, who camp out in the valley.
Rio de Janeiro: What was supposed to be on the trip of a lifetime for a pair of young Aussie backpackers has become a nightmare for the family of Rye Hunt, in the fortnight since he vanished in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Over the past two weeks, police have garnered few clues in their search for the 25-year-old Tasmanian man, who hasn't been heard from since May 21.

The last reported sighting came from a fisherman, who told police he spoke to Mr Hunt on Ilha Cotunduba, an uninhabited island three kilometres from Copacabana Beach, on May 22, apparently having swum there.
The US State Department has warned that terror groups are planning attacks in South Africa's biggest cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg, possibly during the upcoming month of Ramadan.

Targets include upscale shopping malls and places popular with US citizens, the State Department said in a statement on its website.

The US embassy has warned its citizens of possible terrorist attacks at shopping malls in South Africa. Credit:Dean Hutton

Brian Dube, a spokesman for South Africa's Department of State Security, didn't immediately return a message seeking comment left on his mobile phone.

Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo, a spokesman for the South African Police Service, declined to comment.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 4

By Emil Ilgar - Trend:

Iran plans to attract $185 billion worth investments for the upstream and downstream oil and gas projects (including petrochemical plants) in the next five years, Iran's Deputy Oil Minister for International Affairs and Commerce Amir-Hossein Zamani-Nia told Tasnim June 1.

He said the newly designed oil contract, called the Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC), is not the only way for attracting foreign investments.

Zamani-Nia said $85 billion are planned to be invested in the upstream oil sector.

Iran introduced 49 oil and gas fields to foreign investors based on the IPC.

Earlier, Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said about $20-$30 billion foreign investments are expected to be attracted based on the IPC in the coming years.
RAV4 Hybrid, Tacoma also honored for winter driving capabilities



May 31, 2016

Pre-Collision System with Pedestrian Detection Function: Under certain conditions, when the system determines that the possibility of a frontal collision is high, it prompts the driver to take evasive action and brake, by using audio and visual alerts. The system may provide additional braking force with Brake Assist, or otherwise automatically apply the brakes. The in-vehicle camera may detect a potential pedestrian depending on size, profile, and motion of the pedestrian.



Under certain conditions, when the system determines that the possibility of a frontal collision is high, it prompts the driver to take evasive action and brake, by using audio and visual alerts. The system may provide additional braking force with Brake Assist, or otherwise automatically apply the brakes. The in-vehicle camera may detect a potential pedestrian depending on size, profile, and motion of the pedestrian. Lane Departure Alert with Steering Assist Function: When lane markings are detected, if the system determines that the vehicle is starting to unintentionally deviate from its lane, it alerts the driver with an audio and visual prompt. In addition, the Steering Assist function provides small corrective inputs to the steering wheel to help the driver keep the vehicle in its lane.



When lane markings are detected, if the system determines that the vehicle is starting to unintentionally deviate from its lane, it alerts the driver with an audio and visual prompt. In addition, the Steering Assist function provides small corrective inputs to the steering wheel to help the driver keep the vehicle in its lane. Dynamic Radar Cruise Control: On highways, the system is designed to adjust vehicle speed to help maintain a pre-set distance to a preceding vehicle. If the vehicle ahead is detected traveling at a speed slower than a drivers pre-set speed, the system automatically decelerates in order maintain an appropriate distance. When there is no longer a preceding vehicle, the system accelerates until the pre-set speed is reached.



On highways, the system is designed to adjust vehicle speed to help maintain a pre-set distance to a preceding vehicle. If the vehicle ahead is detected traveling at a speed slower than a drivers pre-set speed, the system automatically decelerates in order maintain an appropriate distance. When there is no longer a preceding vehicle, the system accelerates until the pre-set speed is reached. Automatic High Beams : At night and above certain speeds, the system is designed to detect the headlights of oncoming vehicles and tail lights of preceding vehicles, and then automatically switch between high and low beams as appropriate to provide more light and enhance forward visibility.

Advance safety features for the masses: its a bold promise, but beginning with the 2018 model year Toyota will make Toyota Safety Sense, a driver-assist technology designed to mitigate or help prevent collisions, standard on almost every Toyota trim level in the United States. That promise was recognized last Thursday when the most advanced version of Toyota Safety SenseTSS-Pwon the New England Motor Press Association (NEMPA) Yankee Cup Technology Award.Toyota accepted the award at NEMPAs sixth annual conference and banquet, held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab in Cambridge. In addition to TSS-Ps recognition, NEMPA bestowed Winter Vehicle Awards to the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid and Toyota Tacoma, in the Green Crossover and Midsize/Compact Pickup Truck categories, respectively.Using an in-vehicle camera and front-grill mounted millimeter-wave radar, TSS-P is designed to enhance the driving experience by, among other things, detecting obstacles and automatically applying brakes to avoid collisions. The cutting-edge safety package comprises four key features:Selected with input from the faculty at MIT, the NEMPA Yankee Cup is awarded each year to a vehicle, automotive feature or system that significantly enhances the motoring experience, whether by making driving safer, more cost-efficient or simply more enjoyable.NEMPAs Winter Driving Awards go to cars that offer a combination of winter-specific features and options plus the dynamic qualities that help make for safe, enjoyable and competent all-weather driving.
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Baku, Azerbaijan, June 4



By Fatih Karimov - Trend:



The Philippines has expressed readiness to build an LNG plant in southern Iran and purchase gas from the country, Mehr news agency reported June 4.



The issue was discussed during a meeting of Amir Hossein Zamaninia, the Iranian deputy oil minister and Pedro Aquino, head of the Philippino National Oil Company (PNOC) in Tehran.



"The Philippines would like to build an LNG plant in Iran with a capacity of 18 million tons per year," Zamaninia said after the meeting.



He further said that the country also wants Iran to provide gas for the facility.



The plant will be built by a consortium made up of the PNOC and a European company, Zamaninia said.



The talks on the issue will continue on an expert level, he said, adding once the details are determined, grounds will be prepared for further cooperation between Tehran and Manila in oil and gas projects.



Iran says that LNG export to foreign markets including the EU is its priority.



Earlier Jafar Pourfarjoudi, spokesperson of Iran's Oil Ministry told Trend, that the Islamic Republic is planning to obtain the floating liquefied natural gas vessels (FLNG) as a solution for exporting gas to distant markets.



Iran's proven gas reserve stood at 34 trillion cubic meters as of early 2015, according to BP. The country's share on the world gas market is 17 percent.
Bill Maher is always mad as hell, but this time his ire is aimed squarely at talk newsthe for-profit enterprise that, he claims, has led to Donald Trumps precipitous rise from fired Celebrity Apprentice reality show host to presumptive Republican nominee for president.

You see, Trump hosted a press conference this week where he called out the media for, he alleges, ganging up on him for constantly being forced to correct the deluge of bullshit spewing from his mouth. This, in Mahers eyes, all but affirmed his regular criticisms of Trump as being unmasculine and like a spoiled 5-year-old throwing a tantrum. The comedian labeled Trumps behavior not very presidential, and even led his crowd in an anti-Trump chant of WHINY LITTLE BITCH while displaying a #WhinyLittleBitch chyron in the lower-right corner of the screen.

On his HBO program Real Time, Maher said that the TV news media has a clear profit bias which has led to them providing round-the-clock coverage of Trump due to the ratings he generates, which in turn increases his popularity. But he also warned his viewers to not conflate talk news with the print media, which has been very critical of Trump from day oneincluding a recent report in The Washington Post busting Trump for not donating the money hed promised to veterans groups.

Thats a profit bias, said Maher Friday evening. The media isnt liberal, theyre just biased towards money. When [Trump] attacked the media in that press conference, I think he did something that was unfair He lumped the print media in with the television media. He was exposed by The Washington Post. Thats an actual newspaper. There are still a few left. I have a lot of quibbles with The New York Times, but theyre still a newspaper. And then he goes after Jim Acosta and somebody else who works in TV news. That is a whole different kettle of fish. They are vapid ratings whores. They are traitors to journalism.

The Daily Beasts own editor-in-chief John Avlon, one of the guests on the panel, further reiterated how important the Fourth Estate is in covering a truth-bending demagogue like Donald J. Trump.Its about Donald Trump and the blizzard of lies strategy that hes deployed from the beginning. If somebody lies every day, multiple times a day, it stops being noteworthy and the process of holding him accountable becomes more difficult, said Avlon. Which is why its our job in the news, more than anything, to call bullshit on it.

We at The Daily Beast have been tough on Donald Trump from the beginning, unapologetically, he added. Theyve threatened our reporters; weve published the threats because we will not play that game. We will stand up to bullies, bigots, and hypocrites like Donald Trump every day.

Another panelist, Reason editor-in-chief Matt Welch, singled out the performance of Fox News Megyn Kelly as someone in TV news whos done a commendable job of taking Trump to taskwhich lit a fire under Maher. Megyn Kelly? Excuse me, can we go through this bullshit for a second? said Maher. Megyn Kelly asked [Trump] one tough question at the debateone tough questionand then the stupid media anoints her as a genius because she asked one tough question. For months, hes just belittling her: shes on the rag, shes an idiot, shes a bimbo, her ratings are terrible. Then, she comes begging him for an interview where she says, Nothing is gonna be out of bounds. You know what was out of bounds? Journalism. She didnt ask one tough question. It was a profile in cowardice.

Later on in the program, Maher seemed to defend venture capitalist Peter Thiels clandestine crusade against Gawker Media. You see, back in 2007, Gawkers now defunct sister blog about Silicon Valley, Valleywag, published an article outing Thiela PayPal cofounder and early Facebook angel investoras gay. So, Thiel secretly funded a series of lawsuits targeting the company over the years, including the recent invasion of privacy suit waged by wrestler Hulk Hogan against Gawker, that may effectively bury the company.

We found out that this billionaire Peter Thiel hates Gawker because they outed him, so he is the sugar daddy for Hulk Hogan in his lawsuit, said Maher. He wants to drive Gawker out of business. I dont think its a good thing when billionaires can drive media outlets out of business, except on the other hand, Gawker are fuckin whores. Its so hard to feel sorry for the media when theyre so sleazy.

But Gawker aside, who recently published an excellent, highly entertaining piece on Trumps alleged $60,000 weave, Maher saved his harshest words for TV news. Donald Trump kept saying, I dont have any corporate backers like the other people! Im self-funded. The media is his corporate backer, shouted Maher. Two billion dollars in free media, so thats bullshit, too.
ARLINGTON, Va.  Stephanie Czech Raders friends and family gathered Wednesday morning at the Old Post Chapel, next to Arlington National Cemetery, to pay her one last honor.

Shortly after guests began to arrive, a horse-drawn carriage accompanied by 8 soldiers from the U.S. Armys 3rd Infantry Regiment carried Raders casket, draped with the U.S. flag, to section 11 of the cemetery for her internment. There are around 30 funerals every day at Arlington. Few receive an honorary flyover, as Raders did, along with a military band, a firing party, and a bugler.

But in addition to those full military burial honors, Rader was bestowed with an award 70 years in the makingthe Legion of Merit, among the militarys highest recognitions for bravery and exceptional service.

Rader worked as an intelligence operative for the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor of the CIA, in post-WWII Poland. She was only one of two Polish speaking OSS officers in the country and was routinely sent on undercover missions to track Russian troop movements and transport sensitive documents.

Raders superior officers had nominated for her for the award in 1946. But the military bureaucracy of the time apparently didnt think her service merited distinction.

Today, the powers that be say otherwise. There was no legitimate reason why this commendation was denied, other than the pervasive gender discrimination which existed in the early days of the American intelligence community right after World War II, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, Raders home state, said last month in announcing that the Army had decided to grant the award. Warner intervened on Raders behalf after her friends mounted a campaign to get her the award, even if it came seven decades late.

The Legion of Merit was formally presented at Raders funeral.

Stephanie chose the life of a warrior, said U.S. Army Capt. Azande Sasa, the presiding chaplain at the ceremony. She has earned her place among those honored here.

Rader never asked to be recognized, and it took her many years to tell the story of her wartime service. As she recounted in an interview a few years ago, while working undercover Rader evaded Soviet agents while on a mission to transport sensitive documents. Had she been captured, she likely would have been arrested and never heard from again, Rader explained.

Ultimately, the military gave Rader a lesser award. It was downgraded without any explanation, Charles Pinck, president of the OSS Society, told The Daily Beast. They nominated her, but I dont think there was anybody to fight on her behalf at the time.

Only recently did Raders friends and neighbors take up her case anew. Rader died in January, at age 100, but was aware of their efforts on her behalf.

Raders friends said they were overjoyed that their years-long effort culminated in a grand celebration of her life at the nations most prestigious burial ground.

Another reason it took so long to get there, said a close friend, Michael Golden, was that Rader could not describe exactly what she had done during her service because it had been a secret. OSS personnel records werent declassified until 2008.

The plain vanilla description didnt warrant a Legion of Merit, Golden said. Some of the military documents from the time fail to capture the breadth of Raders service. More details of her time as a spy emerged many years later, partially through conversations with her friends.

While we were traveling, I outed her as a spy, Ken Elder, Raders executor and a close friend since 1969, joked at the post-service reception. And she never really forgave me for that.

As Elder tells it, he and Rader were traveling in Warsaw about 30 years ago, along with her late husband, Gen. William S. Rader, when she showed Elder what she claimed was the exact location where Gen. Dwight Eisenhower had arrived to inspect the post-war devastation and sign the armistice.

Later that afternoon, a tour guide told the group the same story.

You said that you were there when he came, Elder told Rader. So you had to be a spy!

Well, I guess thats what you might call it now, Rader responded.

At Arlington, Rader joins her husband, an Air Force brigadier general who was buried in 2003 and given a rare B-2 bomber flyover. William Rader was a storied bomber commander who survived being shot down over the Pacific and led one of the most famous raids into Nazi Germany. He was also a recipient of the Legion of Merit.

As it turns out, they are both of equal quality as World War II heroes, Elder said. Its amazing.  Two heroes of that magnitude to be in the same family.
I love Italy, and Italians, but I must admit that sometimes their relationship with their history can be confusing. Traipsing across that beautiful peninsula, going from battlefield to castle to landing beaches, I kept running across one item that threw me for a loop busts of Italian dictator-for-life, Axis leader, enemy of America and founder of the Fascist Party, Benito Mussolini.

Yeah, seriously.

It turns out that in some parts of Italy, most noticeably in the general region south of Rome, Il Duce (The Leader) is still held in some reverence. This is not the time or the place to dive into the social, political and cultural history of Italy in order to fully grok how it is that one of the three government leaders of the Axis is still admired, in public, in the 21st century. It is enough to notice that there are some parts of their history to which the Italians cling, however illogically. Indeed, one could say that the Italian most affected by this tendency was Mussolini himself. It was an inclination that led to the real opening moves of what would become the Second World War. And it was where this news website would get this unique name, albeit indirectly.
A metallurgic report proving that King Tuts iron dagger came from a meteorite has generated excitement in many quarters. The blade from space was hailed by science fiction fans the world over: One tweet compared it to a light saber, while other observers (including my 12-year-old son) noted the uncanny parallel with Nickelodeons series Avatar, in which Sokka of the Water Tribe also receives a meteoric sword. Amid the buzz, however, a few ancient historians, of which I am one, must admit to a certain disappointment.

Tuts iron-bladed dagger was found in 1925 beneath the wrappings of his mummys thigh, together with another weapon made of gold. Its not clear which weapon the 14th-century BC boy-king would have considered more precious. Worked iron was very rare in his day, and the fact that stones from the sky were a major source of the metal lent it even greater mystery and prestige. Thunderbolt iron, sky-iron and similar terms are found in many ancient inscriptions. An Egyptian hieroglyphic sequence that apparently dates back to the 18th Dynasty, the one to which Tutankhamun belonged, denotes iron as metal from the sky:

Romantic though these phrases may be, it is smelted iron, produced from ore dug up from the ground, that inspires greater wonder in historians. The process by which such ore, known as telluric iron, gets refined into workable metal is vastly complexfar more so than that required by copper or bronze, which is why the Iron Age arrived in Greece and the Near East several millennia after the Bronze Age. Furnace temperatures well over 1000 degrees Fahrenheit are required, and even then a smelter needs to heat and hammer out the iron bloom numerous times to remove impurities. Meteoric iron, by contrast, arrives in a ready-to-be-worked form. It provided the ancient smith with an enormous technological shortcut.

The Hittites of central Anatolia are generally thought to have first industrialized the smelting of telluric iron, around 1500 B.C., and it was formerly often supposed that Tuts dagger came to Egypt as the gift of a Hittite king. Indeed a letter survives from Hattusili III, who ruled the Hittites in the mid-13th century, that speaks of sending just such a blade, made from the good ironof which supplies were said to be scarceto an unnamed fellow monarch, perhaps an Egyptian pharaoh. Had Tuts dagger proven to be telluric rather than meteoric, it would have been among the earliest examples of what was, literally in this case, a cutting-edge technology.

Indeed another iron dagger, far older and more significant than Tuts space blade though far more obscure, has emerged from a dig in Central Turkey at a site called Alaca Hoyuk. Here, amid a set of other grave goods that date from the mid-3rd millennium BC, a knife-hilt has been found containing the rusted remains of an iron bladealmost certainly made from telluric rather than meteoric iron. The Hittite and Hattian peoples who occupied the site appear to have understood iron smelting about a thousand years before anyone else is known to have done so. It is as though an aluminum saucepan had been discovered in the Dark Ages, commented a pop-science journal at around the time of the find.

The origins of metallurgic revolutions are lost in the mists of legend. The Greeks mythologized a race they called the Chalybes, dwellers in the Caucasus region, who, they thought, had devised the art of iron smithing and thus transformed nearly all aspects of civilized life: agriculture, engineering, and above all, warfare. Some nameless artisan, trained by the god Hephaestus perhaps, created the exquisite blade of Tutankhamun from a stone that fell from the stars. But his skill was not half so great as that of his ingenious predecessors, who forged their own raw materials out of dirt dug up from the earth.
Tehran, Iran, June 4



By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:



The General Inspection Office (GIO) of Iran has revoked a contract about importing 500 wagons, GIO chief Nasser Seraj said.



"According to governmental regulation and orders by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic revolution, organizations and ministries are banned to import something we can produce domestically," he told Tasnim news agency.



The report adds the GIO has initiated a series of comprehensive actions to monitor actions inside the country that go against the state economic policies.



A January 20 report said that a private company in Iran had lease-purchased 500 cargo wagons from Russia. Deputy Minister of Transport of Iran Mohsen Pourseyyed Aghaei in reference to the contract had said then that the most suitable way for Iranian companies to acquire wagons is lease-purchasing.



He had pointed out that as the country is developing its railways, the need for more wagons will arise. Aghaei went on to say that talks are held to lease-purchase passenger wagons as well.



Iran's transport sector has remained underdeveloped due to mismanagement as well as international sanctions.



The imports were discussed at a time when Iran is itself a producer of wagons. A May 16 report said the major Iranian wagon maker Pars Wagon was operating at 25 percent of its full capacity because of scanty liquidity with railway companies and too few orders from customers.



Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered the country to abide to what he calls the policies of "resistance economy," which requires minimum dependence on overseas resources in order to prevent security problems and vulnerability.
Sunday

Unity Spiritual Center of the Brazos Valley, 4016 Stillmeadow Drive, Bryan, will have services at 10:30 a.m. Call 324-9857 or unityspiritualcenterbv.org.

Trinity Baptist Church, 1070 N. Harvey Mitchell Parkway in Bryan, will host Awana Clubs for children ages 3-12 from 5 to 7 p.m. The meetings will consist of scripture memorization, games, a light meal and a short devotional. Club meetings will continue at 5 p.m. every Sunday during the school year. 571-1404.

Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church, 217 W. 26th St. in Downtown Bryan, will have services on its summer schedule at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Nursery care is available during both services, and children's chapel will be during the 10:30 a.m. service. All are welcome. Standrewsbcs.org. 822-5176.

Faith United Church (UCC), 2901 Austin's Colony Parkway in Bryan will have 9:15 a.m. Sunday study, 10 a.m. fellowship, and 10:30 a.m. worship. Pastor Karl's message is "Daily Resurrections." Faithuccbryan.org.

St. Francis Episcopal Church, 1101 Rock Prairie Road in College Station, will celebrate Holy Communion at 8 a.m. (Rite 1) and at 10:30 a.m. (Rite 2). A covered dish luncheon will follow the 10:30 service. Contact the church for information about additional services and classes during the week. 696-1491 or stfrancisbcs.org.

First Christian Church, 900 S. Ennis St. in Bryan, will gather for worship at 10:45 a.m. Guest Minister Bob Richards' sermon topic will be "Holy Power in Our Lives," based on Luke 7:11-17 and I Kings 17:8-16. Sunday school classes for all ages begin at 9:30 a.m. and a nursery is available. Youth groups meet at 3 p.m. 823-5451 or firstchristianbcs.org.

Unitarian Universalist Church of the Brazos Valley, 305 Wellborn Road, will meet at 10:30 a.m. The Rev. Aaron Stockwell will preach on "Even to Question, Truly is an Answer," a sermon in which he will respond to questions submitted by the congregation. Questions may be submitted in advance to minister@uucbv.org. 696-5285.

Covenant Presbyterian Church, 220 Rock Prairie Road in College Station, will have worship service at 10:30 a.m. Pastor Jonathan Murray will preach on "The Power to Give." Classes for all ages meet at 9:15 a.m., followed by coffee and fellowship. 694-7700 or covenantpresbyterian.org.

Mount Nebo Missionary Baptist Church, 3610 Plainsman Lane in Bryan, will have Sunday school classes for all ages at 9:15 a.m. and morning worship service at 10:30 a.m. 846-4753.

Monday

First Baptist Church, 2300 Welsh Ave. in College Station, will host its weekly bible study on Mark, 1 Peter and 2 Peter at 7 p.m. 779-7700.

First Baptist Church Bryan, 3100 Cambridge Drive in Bryan, will host its weekly Bible study fellowship session at 6:55 p.m. BSF is an international, interdenominational women's study group. This year's topic is the Book of John; there is also a children's program. Bsfinternational.org.

Tuesday

Eagle's Nest Praise and Worship Ministries will be opening a free prayer line from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. The prayer line number is 775-1513, and calls will be answered by a trained prayer ministry associate. The prayer line is coordinated by pastors Gary and Sheila Jones.

Wednesday

Faith United Church, 2901 Austin's Colony Parkway in Bryan, invites men of all ages to Wednesday morning coffee and guy talk at 10 a.m. Faithuccbryan.org.

Upcoming

Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church, 217 W. 26th St. in Downtown Bryan, presents vacation Bible school on the subject of Joseph: From Prison to Palace, from noon to 3 p.m. on June 12 and from 5 to 6 p.m. on June 13-15. Vacation Bible school is for children ages 3 to 11 and includes games, Bible stories, crafts, and more. Registration forms are available on www.standrewsbcs.org. 822-5176.

Christ Holy Missionary Baptist Church, 1119 Arizona St. in College Station, will have its 36th church anniversary and homecoming celebration on June 26. There will be an 11 a.m. service featuring Pastor A.C. Clark III of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church and a 3 p.m. service featuring Pastor A. David Ellison of New Bethlehem Baptist Church.
Tehran, Iran, June 4

By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend:

It is necessary to reach a greater productivity from loans given to underdeveloped countries by the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), Iranian Economy Minister Ali Tayebnia told the 37th OFID ministers meeting in Vienna.

In particular, he pointed to the developmental goals in the alternative energy sector that are defined in the fund's charter, Shana news agency reported June 4.

"It is needed that various options for investment in capital markets be considered in order to increase the Fund's resources for giving facilities to countries in need," the Iranian minister stated.

Iran's population is growing fast, and is in need of a quickly developing energy sector. However, the country is mainly consuming conventional fuels, with alternative energy comprising less than 1 percent of its energy output.

The country's Minister of Energy Hamid Chitchian recently said Iran aims to increase its power output from 74,000 megawatts to 120,000 in 10 years.

"By 2020," he added, "we will reduce greenhouse gases by 4 percent using domestic fund and by another 8 percent using foreign fund."

He had earlier revealed that Iran is looking to develop 5 GW of solar and wind energy capacity by 2018.

OFID is the intergovernmental development finance institution established in 1976 by the Member States of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). OFID was conceived at the Conference of the Sovereigns and Heads of State of OPEC Member Countries, which was held in Algiers, Algeria, in March 1975.

A Solemn Declaration of the Conference "reaffirmed the natural solidarity which unites OPEC countries with other developing countries in their struggle to overcome underdevelopment", and called for measures to strengthen cooperation between these countries.
SHARE Jill Brady

By Beth Smith of The Gleaner

Henderson native and local prosecutor Jill Brady has filed to run for the office of Henderson District Judge in the November general election.

"I have thought about this for the last several years," Brady told The Gleaner on Saturday, after filing the paperwork Friday in Frankfort.

"I've been an assistant county attorney for 14 years, and am now the chief deputy county attorney," she said.

"It seems like the natural next step for me," Brady said. "I feel like it's the right step, and I think that I would do a good job."

The district judge seat was vacated by Rob Wiederstein, who retired June 1 after serving more than 17 years on the bench.

If elected, "I would have huge shoes to fill," she said. "Judge Wiederstein did an excellent job, and I have great respect for him. He was very thoughtful and did his research before he made decisions. He listened to everything. He was a very good judge to practice in front of."

Brady, 45, who is married to Kevin Francke and has three children in elementary school and two adult children, said she said that she is very interested in working with youth in Henderson County in the role as a judge.

As a prosecutor, she was responsible for primarily handling cases involving juveniles, misdemeanors and traffic offenses.

A judge for the 51st District Court, Division 1 in Henderson County  the seat currently vacant  presides over juvenile offenses, as well as misdemeanors and small claims.

"I have some good ideas and I want to do what I can to help them," she said. "Mentoring troubled youth is something the whole community should take an interest in."

With four years experience as a defense attorney and more than a decade as a prosecutor, Brady said she feels ready to take on the role as judge.

"Overall, I feel like in my career and with my experience, I have a lot to offer in a judgeship. I feel I'm fair and decisive and can listen to both sides," she said. "I am eager to be the district judge."
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 4

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

Iran is negotiating with foreign investors for development of the Masjed Soleyman petrochemical complex project, Yousef Davoudi, managing director of Masjed Soleyman Petrochemical Plant, said.

A Chinese company has been involved in financing the first phase of the project, Davoudi said, SHANA news agency reported June 4.

The project is now 16 percent complete and is expected to come on stream within the next 2.5 years, he said.

Davoudi further said that experts from China have started the work on the project.

He also added that currently talks are underway with investors from China, India and Turkey for development of other phases of the project.

Masjed Soleyman Petrochemical Plant will produce urea and ammonia as its key products. The daily production target of each in the first phase will be 3,250 tons of urea, 2,050 tons of ammonia.

Iran's petrochemical production capacity is around 60 million tons per year, but the country has planned to double this figure by 2021.

The city of Masjed Soleyman is the birthplace of Iran's oil industry. Oil gushed out of its well 107 years ago.
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.
aku, Azerbaijan, June 4

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

Trade turnover between Iran and Turkey stood at $2.93 billion during the first four months of 2016, according to the latest statistics released by the Turkish Statistical Institute.

The trade turnover between the two countries reached $922 million in April, indicating a rise by 25.5 percent compared to $734 million in April 2015.

The exports of Turkey to Iran in April 2016 valued about $560.7 million, which shows a 104 percent increase.

In April 2016, Turkey imported goods worth $361.4 million from Iran, indicating a 21.4 percent decline.

Turkey's exports to Iran in the first four months of 2016 amounted to $1.44 billion, 25 percent more year-on-year.

The country also imported $1.5 billion worth of goods from Iran in the period, 37.4 percent less compared to the first four months of 2015.

The trade turnover between the two countries was $13.71 billion in 2014, which stood at $9.76 billion in 2015, indicating a 29-percent plunge.

The sharp decline came amid the plans to boost the annual trade turnover between Tehran and Ankara to $30 billion.

Last November, Iranian and Turkish top economic officials urged for increasing the volume of the bilateral trade between the two countries to $30 billion a year.

In 2014, Iran's non-oil exports to Turkey reached $2.15 billion. At the same time, Iran on the daily basis exports about 0.1 million barrels of crude oil and 27 million cubic meters of gas to Turkey.

Moreover, Turkey imported 2.4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity from Iran in 2014.
OMAHA  Stacia Maria Krance, 91, of Omaha died May 28, 2016, at St. Josephs Villa in Omaha.

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in St. Paul. The Rev. Rayappa Konka will officiate. Interment will be at 1:30 p.m. in Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cemetery at Paplin.

Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, with a wake service at 6, at Jacobsen-Greenway Funeral Home in St. Paul.

Our mother, Stacia Maria Krance, was born in Chaudfountiane/Leige, Belgium, in 1924 of Anton Topa from Bresslau, Germany, and Agnes (Kleich) Topa of Krakow, Poland, who were married just after World War I after their civilian service for the German army building and repairing railroads (Anton) and farming (Agnes).

Their home was in Chaudfountaine, Belgium, just east of Leige, on the west bank of the Vesda River in the Arden Mountains. Mom went to school at the Saint Franice through the 12th grade. In September 1939 the Nazis invaded Poland; in May 1940 the Nazis invaded Belgium and took over their house until the Nazis moved on to the invasion of France. The Nazis were victorious and began their occupation of France, Belgium, Holland and the Scandanavian countries. They endured this until October 1944. when American and British armies liberated the area after D-Day on June 6, 1944, and swept east. The American and British Allies paused in Stacias hometown just 20 miles from the German border to regroup for the major invasion on Germany itself. This is when Mom met our father, Sylvester Joseph Krance Jr., of similar heritage, and began their courtship until our father Jimmy Krances unit pushed into Germany and Aachen and toward Koln.

Then the last Nazi offense on the western front began on Dec. 16, 1944 (the Battle of the Bulge). It was during that battle our father decided to marry Stacia if he survived. They married in Chaufontaine on April 5, 1945, and then did not see each other again until March 1946.

Mom and other war brides were gathered by the U.S. Army from West Europe and brought to the United States. Mom traveled from New York City by train to Grand Island, arriving at 3 a.m. in the morning, alone but confident. She hired a taxi to drive her to St. Paul, where she was finally reunited with Jimmy. They lived just two blocks from his parents, Sylvester Sr. and Katie Krance.

James (Jim, Jimmy) was born July 1947. Dad worked for Howard County and the St. Paul Legion Club. Mom worked at the truck stop in St. Paul and took care of both of her Jimmys.

Mom and Dad moved in 1948 to Osceola, where Mary was born in July. They opened a restaurant with Dads sister, Blanche, and Lee Raines, her husband.

In 1950 our dad was called back into the Army for the Korean War. When Bob was born, Dad was able to be discharged immediately and he returned to Osceola. He then worked at Grand Islands Cornhusker Ordnance Plant for the duration of the Korean War, while Mom took care of three growing children and their home.

They opened their cafe, the Corn Palace. Dad also started a trucking company with a friend who sadly died, ending that venture. Then Dad got a job as head meat cutter with the Safeway Grocery chain of stores in Omaha, and we all moved there in 1953. Mom continued to care for all of us while Dad advanced in his career with Safeway.

The years went by; all the time we went to visit Grandma Katie Krance three to four times a year in Kranceland.

Stacia and Jimmy decided to send all three of their kids to Catholic private schools, but to help pay for that Stacia went to work in the factory for Western Electric in 1960. Also in 1960, Dad started a new career with the U.S. Post Office and then the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1962, while Mom continued to take care of us all, always with her highest standards.

Literally from the day we were born, Mom and Dad were determined that their kids would go to college. So, from 1966 through 1975, Jim, Mary and Bob were off to college at the University of Nebraska, Oregon State University and the University of Colorado. They all went on to have success in their careers and lives. None of this would have been possible without the love, hard work and sacrifice for their mutual goal. Mom and Dad were inextricably linked.

College was the goal that Mom and Dad had for themselves and which they begun, each in their own separate homeland halfway around the world.

God brought our mom together with our dad under the most horrific of circumstances, but for our family and especially for Mom, the sudden and tragic death of our father and her beloved husband at the age of 61 permanently altered Moms life in the prime of both their lives.

She became a grandmother in the 1980s, a role which she loved. Then in 2003, she became a great-grandmother, a role which she greatly loved. Mom continued on with the rest of her life in her own personal solitude to complete her and her beloved husbands dream to make their familys world a better place. Our world is a better place because of our mom.

Ainsi soit-il, which is French for  So Be It. Amen

Survivors include two sons and daughters-in-law, James and Lynda Krance of Omaha and Robert and Jean Krance of Colorado Springs, Colo.; a daughter, Mary Krance of Boston; three grandchildren, Luke, Katie, and Christopher; and a great-grandson, Dylan.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, S.J. Jimmy Krance; a sister, Helen Topa; and brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, Leo Krance, Nellie (Krance) and Stanley Kosmicki Blanche (Krance) and Lee Raines, Lawrence and May Krance, Eddie and Georgia Krance and Adwin Krance.

Condolences for Stacias family may be left online at www.jacobsengreenway.com.
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Roger and Bonita Jackson of Edwardsville recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Roger Jackson and Bonita Foeller were married on May 28, 1966, at St. Teresa Church in Belleville on May 28, 1966, by Rev. John W. Frerker.

Roger is a retired technician with IKON Office Solutions in St. Louis. Bonita is retired as a graphic designer with NRT Missouri, LLC, in St. Louis.

The couple revisited their wedding night location in Springfield, Ill., with dinner and accommodations at City Centre. They would like to thank their families and friends, along with their thoughts of many kindnesses from those who are no longer with us which made their wedding day wonderful.
Madison County Sheriff John D. Lakin is pleased to announce the name of the Madison County student selected to receive the Illinois Sheriffs Association Scholarship on behalf of the Madison County Sheriffs Office.

The recipient is Marissa Wheeler of Highland.

Marissa attends Highland High School in Highland, Illinois. She received a 31 on her ACT and will graduate with a 4+ grade point average.

Marissa plans to attend Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, in Edwardsville, Illinois, to study Pre-Med (Bio-Chemistry).

Every year the Illinois Sheriffs' Association, through the local county sheriff, will award at least one $500.00 scholarship to a student in each of the 102 Illinois counties. The scholarships are awarded for demonstrating outstanding scholastic, extra-curricular and character qualifications.

Marissa was 1 of nearly 30 Madison County students to apply.

The selection was made by staff members of the Madison County Sheriffs Office.

Marissa has been recognized as an Illinois State Scholar, SIUC Leaders and Scholars Reception Recipient, ICCA Scholar Athlete, and received High Honor Roll for all 4 years of High School. She boasts numerous academic awards, participates in cheerleading, Spanish Club, National Honor Society, Fellowship of Christina Athletes, Student Council, and the Future Medical Careers Club. She has been involved in community service projects such as, Special Olympics, Family Math Night, Relay for Life, and Angel Food Ministries.

Sheriff Lakin and members of the Madison County Sheriffs Office wish Marissa the very best in her continuing education endeavors.
If the thought of a background check keeps you from seeking employment, you may want to participate in a service being offered by the Madison County States Attorneys Office and the Circuit Clerk.

On June 18, county agencies, along with attorneys from the Alton law office of Simmons Hanly Conroy, will be assisting eligible individuals in expunging or sealing their criminal records.

An expungement or sealing can give people a second chance by removing that employment barrier caused by a past encounter with the law years ago.

Madison County States Attorney Tom Gibbons said the program is designed for those individuals that got in trouble with the law, accomplished all of the diversion programs and have changed their lives for the better.

Expungement is a court-ordered process that causes the legal record of an arrest, court supervision or certain probations to be erased, or expunged, from a persons criminal record. Sealing, which has a similar application process, prevents businesses or other agencies from accessing a persons criminal record without a warrant.

This is for non-violent, first-time offenders, Gibbons said. An expungement can be a life-changing event, but many people who are eligible are intimidated by the process or dont know where to start.

According to the American Bar Association, people with criminal records are subject to a wide variety of legal and regulatory sanctions and restrictions in addition to the sentence imposed by the court. As a result, millions of Americans are consigned to a kind of legal limbo because at one point in their past they committed a crime.

The free consultation and Expungement Day will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 18, at the Simmons Hanly Conroy Law Firm in Alton.

We have worked for years as litigators, but at the Expungement Day our lawyers will be mitigators, said John Simmons, chairman of Simmons Hanly Conroy. We hope to help people mitigate the nagging and sometimes barrier-creating effect of old run-ins with the law.

Gibbons said this is the first time his office has sponsored this type of service and employers in the area have supported the initiative.

There are a lot of qualified workers who might have a mark on their record, they have their life back on track but cannot get good employment because of background checks, Gibbons said.

Gibbons said participants will receive free counseling from attorneys but there may be some filing fees associated with the process.

A lot of people dont have the financial resources to go through the process, he said. The lawyers will provide pro bono work and it will be a great help.

But even after the paperwork is filed, Gibbons said it is still up to the court to determine if the expungement will be allowed.

We are helping with the process and cant guarantee the expungement will be granted, he said.

The process includes filling out petitions related to each charge or arrest, which then must be notarized by the clerks office and sent to the Department of Illinois State Police and the arresting agency for review. If no objections are raised, a county judge then makes a final decision.

Anyone planning to attend needs to come prepared with the case number, date of arrest, the arresting law enforcement agency, the charge brought by the court and any paperwork they have relating to each case.

The county agencies in attendance will assist in expediting the process by allowing attendees to file all necessary paperwork at once.

Gibbons said he is grateful to the Simmons Hanly Conroy law firm for volunteering their office building and legal expertise.

Simmons said he hopes the program helps the community.

We welcome the chance to help give our neighbors a second chance at making a better future for themselves and the community, he said.

For more information regarding the Madison County Expungement Day, contact Simmons Hanly Conroy shareholder Amy Garrett at agarrett@simmonsfirm.com.
Great Rivers Greenway, the City of St. Louis, CityArchRiver Foundation and other partners gathered June 2 with people from all across the region to celebrate the transformation of the St. Louis riverfront. The organizations hosted a Picnic on the Riverfront event, which featured St. Louis largest-ever community picnic - complete with a 2,016-foot-long table with chairs - to commemorate the opening of the new riverfront beneath the Gateway Arch.

The festivities kicked off with an official ribbon cutting at 5 p.m. on the newly expanded overlook stage along Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard, with remarks from dignitaries and partners. Afterward, attendees were able to explore the nearby Mississippi Greenway, enjoy local music and educational activities for kids and purchase dinner from food trucks and other vendors. People were also welcome to bring their own meal to enjoy during the picnic, which officially got underway following an interfaith blessing, as an aerial photographer hovered overhead in a helicopter to capture the unique gathering. A brief fireworks display wrapped up the evening.

This new front door for our region celebrates the energy, adventure and awe of the mighty Mississippi and our iconic Gateway Arch, said Susan Trautman, Executive Director of Great Rivers Greenway, the regional parks and trails district and lead agency on the project. We are thrilled to have so many people bringing their friends, family and neighbors from all parts of the region to celebrate with us.

The renovation of the 1.5-mile stretch of riverfront includes the recently rebuilt Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard and extension of the Mississippi Greenway from the Biddle Street Trailhead south to Chouteau Avenue, with protected walking and biking paths. The entire riverfront was elevated an average of almost two feet to limit flooding, returning more days of the year back to the community for walking, riding bikes, sightseeing and special events.

While the historic elements were preserved, such as the cobblestones lining the levee; new amenities such as benches, bike racks, lights, power outlets and a street-level stage make the space more inviting for events and programs. The lineup for this summer and fall includes bike rides, walk/run events, the St. Louis Brewers Guild Heritage Festival, a free concert series with The Sheldon, swap meets and more.

The historic riverfront is an important part of the story of the St. Louis region - its time to reconnect with our roots and make sure the riverfront is part of our future, said Mayor Slay, City of St. Louis.

The riverfront is part of the larger CityArchRiver project to enhance the Gateway Arch experience for all visitors.

With two projects finished and three more to go, this historic transformation is taking shape, said Ryan McClure, Director of Communications for the CityArchRiver Foundation, the nonprofit helping to coordinate the project and overseeing private investment. When the majority of the Gateway Arch grounds landscaping finishes this fall and the rest of the project is completed in 2017, visitors will get the exceptional experience of a connected city, Arch and river that is active throughout the year.

The renovations were funded by many partners, including Great Rivers Greenway; the U.S. Department of Transportation, through Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) funds; the National Park Service; CityArchRiver Foundation and Bi-State Development.

As construction wraps up, the project is on track to meet or exceed minority participation goals. With 32 percent participation by minority-owned business enterprises and 19 percent participation by women-owned business enterprises - 51% of total contract dollars were awarded to disadvantaged business enterprises. Workforce participation is also on track to meet the goal of 14.7 percent minority workers.

The riverfront is a place where everyone is welcome, and it was important that the construction of the project reflect that, too, said Carey Bundy, Project Manager for Great Rivers Greenway.

Explore St. Louis contributed the tables and chairs for the Picnic on the Riverfront, and Paramount Convention Services hauled the equipment to and from the event.

For more information about future events, visit www.CityArchRiver.org/riverfront. For more information about the greenways throughout the region, visit www.GreatRiversGreenway.org.
Before the school year ended, the Edwardsville High School health occupations students hosted their second annual Cuts for Cancer event. The students raised almost $450 in donations for cancer while eight girls donated their hair for wigs and one male student shaved his head for the cause.

Jennifer Weller, the EHS Medical Occupations Coordinator, explained that the annual student event is a two-fold charity event. Students sign up to donate at least an 8-inch ponytail or shave their heads. The ponytails are sent off to Pantene Beautiful Lengths Program. This program makes real hair wigs free of charge for patients that have lost their hair due to cancer treatments, Weller said.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, June 3 2016

In a bid to survive the global economic slowdown, the government must focus its attention on introducing measures that can immediately boost the competitiveness of strategic industries and maintain peoples purchasing power instead of issuing a long list of normative policies that are difficult to implement, a leading economic think tank has suggested.



Indonesia, Southeast Asias biggest economy, has introduced since last year 12 economic policy packages to improve the investment climate and spur growth, which last year slowed to 4.8 percent, the lowest since the 2009 global financial crisis. Peoples purchasing power has also being hit by rupiah depreciation and layoffs reported in the real sector.



Despite such efforts, Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) economists said the packages had so far failed to create significant changes, mainly due to poor implementation.



The 12th economic policy package, issued in April, focuses on the ease of doing business. However, the package has overwhelmed local administrations as they are now asked to process business licenses quickly without adequate human resources.



The policy package is actually good, but limited human resources capacity in many regional administrations has made it difficult for them to process and issue business permits within three days, Indefs Bhima Yudhistira said Thursday during a visit to The Jakarta Post.



So long as local administrations cannot follow the pace of work from the central government, any attempt at deregulation will be hard to implement, he said.



At 4.7 percent, Indonesias economic growth in the first quarter of this year shrank to the slowest level in six years, with analysts predicting about 5 percent growth for the full-year as domestic demand remains weak and global uncertainties affect external demand and the appetite to invest.



Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said recently that the government expected gross domestic product (GDP) growth would reach between 5.8 and 6.2 percent next year, higher than the already ambitious target of 5.7 percent set for the year, despite lingering global uncertainties.



Meanwhile, Bhima said that Indef projected the countrys economy to grow by only 5 percent or below by the end of this year should the government fail to properly implement its economic packages.



Indef researcher Rusli Abdullah said the government must make sure that its future economic policies can restore peoples purchasing power to maintain the growth of household consumption.



Our economy is largely driven by household consumption. Increased purchasing power will help push economic growth, he said. (vny)

----------------

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4, 2016

Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama invited Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly on Friday to attend an event to launch a legal awareness movement in 33 subdistricts across the capital city.

The governor used the occasion to respond to criticism of his eviction policy, which has been criticized as a violation of human rights by right activists as well as commissioners of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and his political rivals.

In his speech to an audience that included Yasonna Ahok rhetorically asked the minister what the difference was between HAM (human rights) and a hamburger.

I will tell you the difference between them Mr. Minister. I violate HAM principles if a resident comes to us to obtain a building permit but we do not serve him. In this case, yes I violate HAM principles, said the governor.

But when I relocate residents who occupy state land or river banks to better placed low-cost apartments many parties say that the Basuki policy is a violation of HAM. In my opinion, it is not a violation of HAM, in fact [its kind of like giving them] a hamburger, said Ahok to uproarious laughter.

During the event, Yasonna handed over awards to the heads of 33 subdistricts that were categorized as having displayed a high awareness of respect for the law.

The criteria for the award included 90 percent of residents having paid their property taxes, an absence of underage marriage and low crime rates. (bbn)
Turkey's Unit International announced that it will construct seven gas power plants valued $4.2 billion, Irna reported.



"The capacity for electricity production of these power plants equals 10 percent of Iran's need to electricity," the Unit International Company said in a statement.



The statements said that in line with the agreement reached with Iran's Energy Ministry, seven gas power plants with capacities of 6,020 megawatts and at a value of $4.2 billion will be constructed in Iran.



Iranian Deputy Energy Minister Hooshang Fallahian had said that Iran would sign contracts with Turkey's energy companies to construct 5,000-megawatt.
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Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4, 2016

State-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura (AP) II announced at a press briefing on Friday that it would issue bonds worth Rp 2 trillion (US$147.4 million) to finance its expansion plans.

PT Danareksa and PT Mandiri Sekuritas are acting as the joint lead underwriter for the bond.

The initial public offering is expected to be held on 27 June.

It is part of the company's plan to collect funds for its mid-term projects.

"Five years forward, we will need Rp 30 trillion," AP II president director Budi Karya Sumadi said on Friday.

He said the money would be allocated for an airport extension among other things.

The company will use 92 percent of the funds from the bond release for the renovation and expansion of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Banten, while the rest will be for other airports such as Silangit Airport in North Sumatra. (bbn)
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Linkedin Hans Nicholas Jong (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4 2016

A majority of doctors in Indonesia often prescribe antibiotics to patients even when they do not actually need them  a practice known to trigger antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the body.



Doctors are often worried that patients have infections caused by bacteria and thus prescribe antibiotics. Sometimes, it is the patients who force the doctors to give them antibiotics as they think they will not recover without it.



According to research by the Antimicrobial Resistance Control Committee (KPRA) at the Health Ministry, more than 50 percent of antibiotic prescriptions from doctors are unnecessary.



There are lots of illnesses that do not need antibiotics, such as a cough, flu, mild diarrhea and minor cuts. Therefore, peoples understanding of the role of antibiotics needs to be increased, Harry Parathon, head of the KPRA, told The Jakarta Post.



He also cited a study conducted by the Indonesian Caring Parents Foundation (YOP) involving 92 doctors in Jakarta and 35 doctors in Papua. According to the study, 91 percent of the doctors always prescribed antibiotics to their patients, while 75 percent prescribed antibiotics for mild illnesses like cough and flu, indicating unrestrained use.



Another study by the Health Ministry in 2013 showed that only 27 percent of doctors in Indonesia were prescribing the right doses of antibiotics and for the right purposes.



Therefore, Health Minister Nila F. Moeloek has called on all doctors to refrain from abusing antibiotics.



Im asking for help from the Indonesian Doctors Association [IDI] because its the behavior of its members [that is in question]. So, please remind all doctors so we can avoid facing disaster again, she said.



The widespread practice of prescribing antibiotics has led to a rise in AMR in the country. The term describes the ability of a microorganism (like bacteria, viruses or parasites) to stop an antimicrobial (such as antibiotics, antivirals and antimalarials) from working against it.



As a result, standard medical treatments become ineffective and infections persist and are more likely to spread to others. Resistance to current antimicrobials is increasing faster than the development of new drugs, and so effective treatments cannot keep pace.



In Indonesia, doctors are already having to prescribe new types of antibiotics or higher dosages of the same antibiotics because bacteria are getting stronger.



The World Health Organization (WHO) describes AMR as a looming crisis in which common and treatable infections will become life threatening.



We are predicting that AMR could lead to 10 million deaths per year by 2050 if we do nothing, and cost US$100 trillion to [combat], Harry said.



Besides from doctors, it is also easy for people to get antibiotics from pharmacies without prescription.



According to the YOP survey, 85 percent of pharmacies in Jakarta sell such drugs without prescriptions. Furthermore, 83 percent of them suggest that customers buy antibiotics, even when a customer only asks for drugs for a mild ailment, such as cough and flu.



The easy access to antibiotics in Indonesia is also shown by ministry research from 2013 that found that 10 percent of families had antibiotics in their homes. At least 86.1 percent of those obtained the drug without a prescription.



Furthermore, many people also fail to take antibiotics in the right dosage.



In my house, there has to be some antibiotics in the cupboard. Thats one of the indicators that we are not disciplined in using antibiotics, Nila said.



To combat the rampant abuse of antibiotics in the county and the rise of AMR, the Health Ministry, together with the WHO, is currently drafting a national action plan, scheduled to be finished by next year.



The national action plan will dictate a nationwide effort to reduce the abuse of antibiotics in humans, animals and plants, as antibiotics are also often misused for the treatment and prevention of diseases in livestock, aquaculture and during crop production.



There are lots of farmers who do not realize that theyre using antibiotics, not only in feed, but also in the livestocks drinks, said Andi Hendra Purnama, who is in charge of animal feed at the Agriculture Ministry.



According to him, some antibiotics use feed additive labeling, and thus some farmers unknowingly give antibiotics to their livestock.



With the national action plan, the government will invite all stakeholders to combat the rise of AMR.



It will be hard to battle AMR if the public is not aware of this or is unwilling to change their mindsets. Everyone has to be involved, from the Health Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry and the IDI to pharmacies, Nila said.

_______________________________

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Sat, June 4 2016

MASRIADIS SUCCESS IN THE GLOBAL ARENA IS BRINGING INCREASED ATTENTION TO INDONESIA FROM COLLECTORS



Words and Photos Richard Horstman

Nyoman Masriadis story reads unlike any other within the history of Indonesian art.



It charts the phenomenal rise of a talented painter, who in 2008, at the age of 36, achieved the prestige of being the first Southeast Asian artist whose works topped US$1 million at auction.



It was a feat that propelled him into the international art spotlight.



Singaporean art dealer Jusdeep Shandu stumbled across Masriadi in the artists studio in Yogyakarta in 1996.



It was a departure from anything else I had ever seen, Shandu said, commenting on the painters self portrait Pulau Bali (Island of Bali).



Shandu became instrumental in Masriadis career development via his Gajah Gallery in Singapore.



In 1991, Masriadi moved from his birthplace of Bali to Central Java to study art at the Indonesian Art Institute (ISI) Yogyakarta, leaving before his final assessment due to a conflict of interests with his teachers.



In 1997, he returned to Bali with his wife to be, and for a year worked feverously churning out souvenir paintings of Balinese mythological figures. This led to the development of his first superhero characters.



With his new family he returned to Yogyakarta as Indonesia was undergoing a turbulent transition.



Following the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and the fall of the New Order in 1998; the Indonesian art scene shifted, almost overnight, from conservative expressionist paintings with traditional themes to inspiring socially engaged art.



Masriadi became enormously productive. His works addressed themes of social injustice, corruption and military abuse, flavored by satirical wit and a bold figurative style.



In 2006, a Masriadi painting sold for $10,000. However, it wasnt until 2008 when Sudah Biasa di Telanjangi (Used to Being Stripped)depicting a black-skinned, muscle-bound man wearing pink bikini briefs around his ankles, covering himself with hands bound by ropesold at auction for $540,000 at Christies Hong Kong.



Prior to this, interest in Indonesian art at regional auctions had been confined to old masters, such as Hendra Gunawan and Affandi.



I dont understand what all the fuss is about, the art-school dropout said about his rising popularity.



Masriadis stratospheric ascent had only begun.



At an auction in 2008 at Sothebys Hong Kong, Sorry Hero, Saya Lupa (Sorry Hero, I Forgot) set another record, at $619,000.



Only two days later The Man from Bantul (Final Round) sold for US$1,000,725.



Low estimates were a major factor in Masriadis initial market acceleration, since they paled in comparison with many other Asian artists prices at the time, Shandu said.



A first solo exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum in 2008, Masriadi: Black Is My Last Weapon, showcased his oeuvre to a growing international audience.



Co-organized by Shandu and spanning Masriadis 10-year career, the exhibition explored the evolution of his love of comics and video games and characters who make satirical and poignant statements about national and global issues.



The show highlighted his technical excellence as well as his ambivalence toward the art world as well.



During this exhibition, the Paul Kasmin Gallery of New York expressed interest in working with Shandu to bring Masriadi to the US.



The artists latest exhibition Nyoman Masriadi, opened on April 28 in New York.



It features five new paintings, never-before-exhibited works dating between from 2012 and 2014 and a series of five 91.4 x 129.5 x 76.2 cm bronze sculptures titled Piglet.



The gallery has primarily focused on placing Masriadi in American and European collections. The more audiences in the west get to see the paintings in person, the more deeply they engage, Paul Kasmin Gallery senior director Nicholas Olney said. Its very rare for him to have a gallery show and sales have been excellent. Masriadis position as a truly internationally artist has been cemented.



He continues. There is a growing awareness in the US in Indonesia as a destination and as a fertile art community. Im looking forward to spending more time in Yogyakarta and Bandung to see what the younger generations of artists are working on.



As technology progressively collapses the borders, artists are in the drivers seat.



Three international events highlight the 2016 Indonesian art calendar: ArtJog9 in May and June, and Bazaar Art Jakarta 2016 and Art Stage Jakarta, both in August.



All will s=howcase homegrown names and fresh talent for local and international collectors.



Will Indonesia witness another sensation like Masriadi? Such a meteoric rise maybe unlikely, yet art markets are cyclic, and while the future is unknown it is ripe with opportunities.

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Linkedin Agus Maryono (The Jakarta Post) Pekalongan  Sat, June 4 2016

The regency and city of Pekalongan, located on the north coast of Central Java, are famous for their batik. The village batik industry there can be described as being full of life as there is no day without people being busy making and selling batik.

Ahead of the Ramadhan fasting month, batik making in Pekalongan becomes even more vibrant, where a number of batik makers say production in the past month has increased by up to 100 percent.

The higher demand is driven by the traditional custom of buying new clothes to be worn during the Islamic holiday of Idul Fitri after the fasting month.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Sat, June 4 2016

Once exclusive to the courts of Java, particularly Yogyakarta and Surakarta, today batik is considered an inseparable part of the life of modern Indonesian society.



There is increasing national pride for the fabric and its meaning, especially following the recognition of Indonesian batik as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on Oct. 2, 2009.



While the advent of batik Fridays encourages people to wear the fabric at least once a week during their daily lives, others want it to be considered befitting everyday attire.



In Malang, East Java, Komunitas Cinta Berkain (KCB) is a group that advocates the wearing of traditional wrap skirts.



Women should be proud of using local products because the more people enjoy their creations, the more craftspeople will be keenly engaged in their creative work, said chairwoman Dewanti Rumpoko during the exhibition The Elegance of Batik Djawa, held at Hotel Tugu Malang in mid-April.



Founded at the end of January 2016, the community has at least 250 members, whose task is to popularize the use of kain for women in their daily activities, not only for important occasions.



With exact practice, it takes just five minutes to finish wrapping and tying the cloth neatly, said Dewanti, who added it was not necessary to wear expensive batiks despite their prestige value.



Since its founding, KCB has held regular meetings with different womens organizations, including the Family Welfare Association (PKK) and Dharma Wanita grouping of wives of civil servants. Fashion specialists demonstrate to members the proper way to wear the wrap-skirt and combine it with other clothing elegantly.



The wife of Batu mayor Eddy Rumpoko said the womens organizations should set an example for the public at large, or else the fabric could lose its popularity or even be claimed by other nations as belonging to them.



Diverse Meanings



The exhibition also revealed the diversity of batik. As time elapsed, batik spread outside palace confines, with craftspeople being found in several regions from West Java to East Java. It also thrived in coastal zones like Jakarta, Cirebon, Lasem, Pekalongan, Tuban and Madura.



This distribution has diversified Java batik designs, motifs and colors, turning batik fabric that originally served as material for traditional clothing and custom rituals into material for the fashion world and daily use, including bedspreads and tablecloths.



Among the exhibits was the Batik Lenan collection from Yogyakarta, known for its natural silk-based fabric and embroidered woven products.



Theyre inspired by invaluable ancestral heritage, said the collection outlet owner Elva Lenan.



Despite their modern motifs and designs, the batiks refer to classical patterns.



A piece of cloth takes at least two months to finish because its crafted by one person, said Elva, who continued running the business after her husband passed away.



Some cloths are completed after eight months and some even take over a year.



The engagement of one craftsperson to create the fabric instead of mass production means the collection is expensive. A shawl measuring 2.20 m x 90 cm costs Rp 3.5 million (US$ 255.5) while a wrap skirt and scarf can fetch as high as Rp 12 million to Rp 14 million.



The other handmade batik items on display mostly came from Javas batik producers like Bayat, Pekalongan, Cirebon and Madura. A Kanoman Batik collection item from Cirebon, West Java, named Puger Manuk Blekok (black heron), took two years to make.



Its creation is based on a legend of the delivery of a child: If its a baby boy, the umbilical cord will be put out to sea, but for a baby girl the cord will be contained in a clay jug, which is carried with the batik cloth to ensure the babys good character. The bird symbolizes wisdom and is also seen as mans vehicle to heaven.



This cloth, costing Rp 60 million, and other expensive items of the collection worth tens of millions of rupiah, were sealed in plastic bags and displayed in a locked cabinet, which was only opened for interested buyers.



Tembayat batik items are known for their use of natural coloring agents. The cloths are produced by seasoned craftspeople in Bayat, 12 kilometers from Klaten, Central Java, bordering Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta.



Batik cloths from Tulungagung, East Java, tend to have the same motifs as those in Yogyakarta, with flowers as one of their typical features.



Maduras batik represents East Java with distinctive characteristics in colors and designs. Like Javas northern coastal batiks, the Madura products have bright colors and more design applications, dominated by red, orange, dark blue, dark green, black and white.

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Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4 2016

A year ago, President Joko Jokowi Widodo lashed out at officials responsible for managing the Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta after he found out about the amount of time containers spent in port.

He found out that the dwell time in the port, which handles more than 60 percent of the countrys exports and imports, stretched between five and 30 days.

Since then, the President has tried to bring down the dwell time to three days or less in a prioritized policy program. He stated that the figure would harm the countrys competitiveness as it would contribute to high logistics costs.

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Linkedin Erika Anindita Dewi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4, 2016

The House of Representatives has called on the government to intervene in the market to control the increasing prices of staple foods, House Speaker Ade Komarudin has said.

Some 40 percent of the staple foods should be controlled by the government, while another 60 percent can be decided by market mechanisms, Ade, a senior politician with the Golkar Party said on Friday.

The State Logistic Agency (Bulog) could be authorized to control the market because it has experience doing so, he added.

As usual, the prices of basic commodities have increased significantly prior to the fasting month of Ramadhan because of increasing demand.

Consumers mostly complain about a jump in the price of beef in Jakarta that has already reached Rp 150,000 (US$11), up from about Rp 100,000 in previous weeks.

In response to the increases, the government has allowed the importation of 27,400 tons of beef, 381,000 tons of raw sugar and 2,500 tons of onions to help stabilize prices during Ramadhan and prior to the Idul Fitri celebration.

The government also import 2,500 tons of shallots to meet the demand for seeds required by farmers one to two months ahead. Currently, the price of seeds sits at Rp 42,000 to Rp 43,000 per kilogram. (bbn)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4 2016

Police arrested on Friday early morning a film actor, identified as RS, 41, in a house in the Cipete area, South Jakarta, for allegedly smoking marijuana.

South Jakarta Drug Unit Chief Comr. Vivick Tjankung confirmed the arrest, saying the actor was allegedly involved in a drug case.

Yes, there was an actor arrested for using drugs, Vivick was quoted by tribunnews.com as saying.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4 2016

Dozens of retired army generals from the Association of Indonesian Army Retirees (PPAD), along with hundreds of members from Islamic hard-liner groups staged a rally on Friday in front of the State Palace demanding the central government take a bold stance against communism.

Lt. Gen. (ret) Kiki Syahnakri said he sensed the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was being revived in Indonesia, where its ideology would threaten the unity of the Indonesian Republic. Therefore, the government should not apologize for the 1965 communist purge, that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives of PKI members and sympathizers.

We are fighting to defend Pancasila [state ideology] from communism and other ideologies, he said in an oration.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Sat, June 4 2016

Wow! Amazing! This is really fantastic. So beautiful. These were among the awed statements of foreign and local tourists as they observed the blue fire phenomenon at the crater of Mount Ijen in East Java.



The crater is the site of sulfur mining. The melted sulfur is red, but after hardening becomes yellow. Incessant steam from the sulfur appears blue, and lights up the night sky like a spectacular fireworks display. This rarity of nature is only to be found at Ijen and in Iceland.



Tourists come from near and far to observe the blue fire. Usually, trekking to Ijen crater is permitted from 1 a.m. to noon, although occasionally all trekking is prohibited due to dangerous conditions, such as wind blowing sulfur gases toward the trekking trail.



In the middle of the night, tourists wait at Paltuding, Banyuwangi, site of an Environmental Protection and Forest Preservation post of state-owned forestry company Perhutani and the main gateway to the volcano. The crater is located in two East Java regencies: Licin district in Banyuwangi regency and Klobang district, Bondowoso regency.



The distance from Paltuding to the crater is about 3 kilometers, but due to the trekking conditions in the night it takes them from two to three hours to reach the location. Many of them new to trekking, they walk in a long line, wearing headlamps and carrying flashlights; from a distance they appear to be a swarm of fireflies in the dark.



Any feelings of exhaustion are quickly lost when they arrive at the peak of Mount Ijen. While some choose to observe from the mountain, others descend closer to the crater for a better view. When dawn breaks, visitors can observe the turquoise-colored crater lake, although it is often shrouded by fog.



There is also the sight of traditional sulfur miners who haul baskets carrying their heavy haul of rocks up the narrow pathway on the crater wall.



With Mount Ijens designation as a World Biosphere Reserve in March 2016, the interest in the volcano, standing at 2,443 meters above sea level, is sure to grow.

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Baku, Azerbaijan, June 4

By Dalga Khatinoglu - Trend:

Despite the US Republican presidential contender Donald Trump's statement about the necessity of renegotiating the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran, the US Department of State's Persian-language spokesman Alan Eyre says any future US administration will respect the Iran nuclear deal.

Trump has earlier denounced the deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), saying he would seek to renegotiate it if elected the US president.

"As long as Iran continues to meet its JCPOA commitments and the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] continues to verify that it has done so, it is hard to see why any future administration would walk away from a deal which verifiably prevents Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon," Eyre told Trend June 3.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced June 1 that the nuclear deal, reached last year with P5+1 group, can't be renegotiated despite Trump's pledge to do so if elected.

The JCPOA's implementation began in mid-January 2016.

"We believe that all sides will remain committed to the JCPOA," said Eyre. "And as we have seen from press reports about the IAEA's most recent report on Iran's nuclear program, Iran continues to meet its commitments under the JCPOA."

"We are doing the same with respect to the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions," he added.
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4, 2016

Publicly listed food and beverage company Indofood Sukses Makmur Tbk and its subsidiary Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur Tbk paid Rp 624.18 billion (US$46.3 million) and Rp 278.34 billion in dividends from last years profits.

Indofoods dividends equaled Rp 168 per share while Indofood CBPs were worth Rp 256 per share. The Salim-owned company booked Rp 1.28 trillion in net profit last year, while the subsidiary posted Rp 556.67 billion.

"We kept the payout ratio at 50 percent, so Indofoods dividend per share declined because of the loss in foreign exchange and increasing raw materials that slashed our margin," Indofood president director Anthoni Salim said after an annual general meeting (AGM) in Jakarta on Friday.

However, in the first quarter of 2016, both companies recorded increased income. Indofoods profits soared 24.8 percent year-on-year to Rp 1.28 trillion while Indofood CBPs increased 18.58 percent to 944.78 billion.

According to Anthoni, a recovery trend in domestic demand since the second half of last year had driven the increase in both companies net income. Indofood mostly depends on the domestic market.

"Ideally, for consumer goods manufacturing, exports must be around 20 to 25 percent. Our exports are still 9 percent of total sales. We will slowly increase it to 10 percent, then 15 percent, until we reach the ideal figure," he said.

To boost performance this year, Indofood allocated Rp 7.6 trillion of capital expenditure while Indofood ICBP prepared Rp 3.9 trillion. Among other plans, the company will build four new food factories in the next three to four years, requiring a total investment of Rp 1.6 trillion. (ags)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4, 2016

The Maritime Security Board (Bakamla) is in the midst of a joint sea patrol with the Malaysian government throughout the areas surrounding both countries in an effort to strengthen safety measures.

The patrol, code-named Patkor Optima Malindo (Malaysia-Indonesia Coordinated Maritime Patrol), began last week in Klang, Malaysia and is still underway.

"The participating ships from Indonesia include the KN Belut Laut 4802, the KRI Siwar 646, the KRI Tenggiri 865 and the KP Macam 002," Barkamla Maritime Operations director Marine Colonel Rahmat Eko Raharjo reported in a written statement on Friday, as quoted by kompas.com.

The joint patrol was launched at PHN TLDM Port Klang, Malaysia with a ceremony that was attended by a number of maritime officials from both countries.

The Bakamla legal director, First Admiral TNI Yuli Dharmawanto, said Indonesia has yet to have a maritime security system that could synergize all the various components involved in achieving effective law enforcement in Indonesian waters.

The board continues in its efforts to develop a possible framework that could allow all stakeholders to cooperate in maintaining security and safety at sea in an effective and efficient manner, he added.

"We are currently designing a security and safety system that can be used by all stakeholders simultaneously and in real-time to monitor maritime security and safety," Dharmawanto said.

He also referred to the importance of approaching and educating coastal communities to further strengthen sea security affairs.

Dharmawanto said the residents of such areas would be the first line of defense.

The government needs to transform coastal communities to be agents of marine security, especially because illegal ports are still rife in those areas.

"The issue can be better addressed through cooperation between the goverment and the residents of coastal areas," Dharmawanto said. (liz/bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4, 2016

Indonesia has promised to strengthen the role of the countrys police mission under the flag of the United Nations.

Speaking at the UN Chief of Police Summit (UNCOPS) in New York on Friday, National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti explained that 183 Indonesian police officers were currently participating in three UN missions, namely in Darfur, South Sudan and Haiti.

We are aware of the importance to strengthen the police role to support peacekeeping missions under the UN. Therefore, Indonesia is ready to strengthen its role in those missions, Badrodin said, according to a press release received by thejakartapost.com on Saturday.

He said additional 100 police officers, including 40 female officers, were being prepared to participate in UN missions in the coming years.

The UNCOPS was an important forum for discussing peacekeeping issues in a number of countries and the contribution of national police forces from across the world to UN missions, said Indonesian Ambassador to the UN Dian Triansyah Djani.

Both the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police were required by the Constitution to be active in peacekeeping and peacemaking efforts across the globe, he added.

The first UNCOPS meeting was attended by 32 national police chiefs and 87 representatives of national police forces from UN member countries. (bbn)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Medan  Sat, June 4 2016

Indonesia will free the Chinese fishing vessel Hua Li 8, as soon as an Argentinian court, which issued an international arrest warrant for the ship, hands down a ruling on the case.

The ship is currently being held by the Indonesian Navy in Belawan, North Sumatra. Although the ship is due to be released, Indonesia is planning to take legal action against the master and owners of the ship.

Task Force 115 special advisory coordinator Mas Achmad Santosa said his team had reported alleged discriminatory practices against Indonesian crewmen on the ship to the local police.

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Linkedin Syamsul Huda M. Suhari and Ruslan Sangadji (The Jakarta Post) Gorontalo/Palu  Sat, June 4 2016

President Joko Jokowi Widodo on Friday inaugurated a 100-megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant (PLTG) in Paguat, Pohuwato regency, Gorontalo, approximately 200 kilometers from the provincial capital.

The power plant was the first realization of Jokowis 35,000-MW power generation program planned to be completed before his first term in office ends.

The Paguat power plant is the best example [so far]. Its development process was fast and good. I have to appreciate the good performance [of those who worked on its construction], remarked Jokowi at the launching ceremony, referring to the fact that the power plant was completed in six months.

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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4, 2016

Indonesias Ihsan Maulana Mustofa may have failed to beat Malaysian badminton giant Lee Chong Wei in the mens singles semifinal of the BCA Indonesia Open, but he nevertheless earned praise from his opponent.

Chong Wei, currently the second-ranked player in the world, applauded the 21-year old Indonesian after defeating him in a straight 21-9, 21-18 performance on Saturday, saying Ihsan had a bright future in badminton thanks to his fighting spirit.

Ihsan was an attacking player, like the former World and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat, Chong Wei said. Therefore, all he needed was more experience at big matches.

"Just one or two years from now, when he has more experience, he will be among the worlds top ten players," Chong Wei said after the match.

The Malaysian flag-bearer at the Olympics will take on Chinese Houwei or Danish Jan O Jorgensen in Sundays final.

I will do my best to win the Indonesian Open for the sixth time, Chong Wei said.

Meanwhile, Ihsan said he was grateful for having played Chong Wei, as the match had improved his skills.

I gained experience here. I could learn from Chong Wei about the smashing technique and his calmness on the court, Ihsan said, adding that Chong Weis smash was full of power.

The unseeded player also admitted to some errors during the semifinal. He said he had played timidly in the first game, which had impacted the whole match.

In the second game, Ihsan seemed more confident when hitting the shuttlecock. However, he made several errors, including smashing into the net.

The fan of Taufik Hidayat said he hoped Chong Weis prediction would come true and that he would one day be a top player.

God willing, one or two years from now, I and Antony Sinisuka Ginting and Jonatan Christie will be world top ten players, Ihsan said, referring to fellow Indonesian shuttlers. (bbn)
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Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post) Denpasar  Sat, June 4 2016

As part of the governments grand plan to provide paramilitary training to civilians, a military command in Bali is set to drill groups known for violence and causing anxiety among citizens.

The groups will participate in state defense training with the ninth regional military command (Kodam IX) Udayana, which will include an introduction to using firearms.

Kodam IX Udayana spokesman Col. Inf. J. Hotman Hutahaean told journalists on Friday that the training would be held in July at the Udayana military regiment area in Tabanan regency.

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Linkedin Nethy Dharma Somba (The Jakarta Post) Jayapura  Sat, June 4, 2016

A pilot was killed and three passengers injured when their helicopter crashed in the Dogobaida district of Pania, Papua, on Saturday.

The pilot, Karmana, was flying a helicopter owned by PT Amur Indonesia with three passengers -- Asmar, Ajo and Darwis. Asmas has been hospitalized in critical condition, while the two other passengers remain near the crash site, Adj. Sr. Comr. Leo Nabu told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Leo added that Ajo and Darwis would be evacuated to Nabire as soon as weather conditions allowed.

He said the helicopter had been flying from Nabire to a mining site at KM 99, Degewo, and that the accident had happened minutes before the planned landing.

Asmar, who is being treated at the ICU of Nabire hospital, said the aircraft had been hit by strong wind before the accident happened, said Leo, adding that apart from transporting the three passengers, the helicopter was also carrying 300 kilograms of goods.

The cause of the accident is being investigated, said Leo.

Meanwhile, a representative of the National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT), Norbert Tunyanan, said he had been informed about the accident and would soon send a team to the location to collect information on the incident.

I have received the report. Tomorrow, the team from Jakarta will go to the location to carry out an investigation. Then we will find out the cause of the incident, he added.

On Feb. 3, another chopper had crashed in Piniai, but no casualties were reported in that incident, which affected a helicopter owned by Aviation Indonesia.

Meanwhile, Norbert said, that a small plane owned by Pegassus Air reportedly hit the fence of an airport soon after landing in Puncak Jaya regency, also in Papua. Only the pilot and co-pilot were inside the plane when the incident happened.

The pilot and co-pilot are safe, while the plane was severely damaged. The plane did not crash. The incident occurred when it had already landed. I will go there tomorrow, he added. (bbn)
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Linkedin Hans David Tampubolon (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4 2016

Pram received international acclaim for his tetralogy  Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind), Anak Semua Bangsa (Children of All Nations), Jejak Langkah (Steps) and Rumah Kaca (Glass House)  which he wrote while imprisoned on Buru Island by Soehartos New Order regime due to his alleged affiliation with the leftist and communist movement.

To commemorate Prams legacy, Titimangsa Foundation together with Yayasan Titian Penerus Bangsa will perform a theatrical play based on Bumi Manusia and Anak Semua Bangsa titled Bunga Penutup Abad (The Flower That Ends a Century).

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4, 2016

Retired military generals and members of several mass organizations claim to have evidence of a rising communist movement in Indonesia and have warned the public of possible threats from the banned ideology.

At least 10,000 protesters rallied on Friday outside the State Palace and the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister in Central Jakarta, representing groups such as the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), Islamic Peoples Forum (FUI), Islam Defender Troops (LPI) and the Communication Forum of Indonesian Veterans' Children (FKPPI), along with several retired Army generals.

We have to defend Pancasila as our national ideology from the threats of the Indonesian Communist Party [PKI] and other ideologies! retired Army general Kiki Syahnakri shouted at the rally.

The protesters claimed that the defunct PKI planned to proclaim its existence in Indonesia and urged people to stand up and fight against the supposed movement. They also blamed foreigners for having a bad influence on society.

The rally followed a two-day symposium entitled Protecting Pancasila from the Threat of the Indonesian Communist Party and Other Ideologies, held on Wednesday and Thursday at Balai Kartini in South Jakarta.

The event, attended by hundreds of retired military generals, aimed to challenge the earlier National Symposium on the 1965 Tragedy that brought together victims, families, human rights activists, academics and state officials to find a resolution to the 1965 communist purge that remains part of the country's dark past.

Several people met with Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, Education and Culture Minister Anies Baswedan and Indonesian Military chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo during the protest to convey their demands.

The participants of the anticommunist rally demanded the government include their recommendations in a settlement for victims of the 1965 massacre.

"Don't just take input from [those who] agree with PKI ideology; the government must also accommodate the symposium held at Balai Kartini," said FPI leader Muhammad Rizieq Shihab.

The rally began after Friday prayers at the Istiqlal Mosque in Central Jakarta, with protesters marching to the National Monument (Monas) and then the State Palace.

Human rights activists and members of the public have recently cited several instances of discussions and events on the 1965 mass killings being disrupted, as well as raids on certain books and even T-shirts, amid claims from retired Army generals and hard-liners of the revival of communism in the country. (vps/rin)
Tehran, Iran, June 4

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Iran is ready to engage in direct battle with the US, said the country's armed forces spokesman Masud Jazayeri.

"We are ready to rid humanity of the war-seeking and domination-loving policies of the US in a real and direct battle," he said in reaction to recent statements by a US presidential candidate, Press TV Persian reported June 4.

On Thursday Hillary Clinton said that notwithstanding the nuclear deal, the US would take action at any time to prevent Iran from gaining access to nuclear weapons, adding that the military option was still on the table.

Jazayeri dismissed the remarks as mere campaign propaganda in the first place.

"Our nation and armed forces are never after war, but will not overlook the need for preparedness for a moment," he maintained.
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Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4 2016

Indonesia will seek to keep the ball rolling on efforts to revive peace talks between Palestine and Israel, following Jakartas involvement in preparatory talks in Paris, at a conference later this year.

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudis presence at the Ministerial Meeting on the Middle East Peace Process is considered to be a significant achievement of diplomacy, resulting from Indonesias dogged support of the Palestinian agenda, a government official has said.

Indonesias involvement in this effort has finally been recognized with Paris extending an invitation to Jakarta to attend the meeting, which brings together 27 countries and three international organizations concerned about the deadlocked talks.

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Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4 2016

A loan commitment worth Rp 4.3 trillion (US$316.9 million) from Chinas Exim Bank for two toll roads has yet to be disbursed amid changes to the projects, further prolonging strategic infrastructure development.

As of Friday, the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry had not yet signed a loan agreement to build the Cileunyi-Sumedang-Dawuan (Cisumdawu) toll road section in West Java as well as the Manado-Bitung toll road in North Sulawesi.

The loan contract for Cisumdawu stood at Rp 3.2 trillion, while it was Rp 1.1 trillion for Manado-Bitung.

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Linkedin Endy M. Bayuni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4 2016

He made a great ambassador for Indonesia. He loved history although he would probably have made a mediocre historian. But Sabam Pandapotan Siagian was a journalist par excellence and an exemplary leader.

With his passing on Friday, Indonesia lost one of its finest journalists.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4 2016

The former Indonesian ambassador to Australia and founding editor of The Jakarta Post, Sabam Pandapotan Siagian, passed away at Siloam Hospital in South Jakarta on Friday, after a year-long illness. He was 84 years old.

His body will lie in repose at his residence on Jl. Anggur Barat II, No. 2, in Cipete, South Jakarta, before his burial at the Menteng Pulo Public Cemetery in South Jakarta on Sunday.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Sat, June 4 2016

French connection ends with 10-hands dinner

Energy Building, South Jakarta



A week of cooking demonstrations, master classes and delicious meals came to an end on May 27 with a 10-hands dinner at the Energy Building staged by The French Connection Festival Gastronomique 2016. Indonesia was represented at the dinner by chefs Gilles Marx from AMUZ Jakarta and Chris Salans from Mozaic in Bali, while famed chocolatier Stephane Bonnat, French-born Master Chef Holland Alain Caron and Jacques Pourcel from Le Jardin Des Sens were brought to Jakarta for the third iteration of the popular festival, which made its bow in the capital after spending two years in Bali.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4, 2016

Three members of the Indonesian Military (TNI) were arrested by the police on Friday while they were allegedly trying to smuggle 2.6 tons of sugar from Malaysia.

A police officer said the sugar was in two vehicles that were carrying tuna fish and fish meat balls from Malaysia for which there were no legal documents.

West Kalimantan Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Corm. Cucu Safiudin said the police had handed over the case to military authorities to be further proceeded. We have handled similar case in the past and we also cooperated with the military police, she added as reported by kompa.com.

Tanjung Pura Military spokesman Col. Tri Rana Subekti confirmed that three soldiers were being investigated by the military police. They are undisciplined members who will face a legal process, Tri said. (bbn)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Sat, June 4 2016

Words and Photos Fedina S. Sundaryani

Theres no doubt that social media has taken over our lives. Theres also no doubt that Instagram, the platform that allows you to take artsy photos without seeming pretentious, is the perfect place to record your travels. China, spanning 9.59 million kilometers, offers a variety of sites that offer the perfect backdrop to show the folks back home what theyre missing. J+ recently traveled to China and offers you the five most Instagram-able sites that are sure to boost your likes! Note that Instagram is blocked in China, so youll have to wait until you get back home to post.

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Linkedin Michael Herdi Hadylaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4 2016

Some friends suggest that we should add some revisions to the Our Father prayer. Instead of lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, it should be lead us not into temptation because we can find it by ourselves. Of course we cannot amend the prayer, but this joke shows us that no one needs a lecture about how to sin.

Human nature was once the subject of a satirical novel by CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape, a high ranking demon, writes letters to his nephew Wormwood on how to be a good seducer of humans. However, if Wormwood lived in Indonesia right now, Screwtape would not need to guide him on how to seduce law enforcers into falling into temptation. They are creatively able to find or create ways for themselves.

As more and more law enforcers get caught by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), none of us are shocked any more. Long before, we had already caught judges, the Constitutional Court chief, lawyers, prosecutors and a court registrar. Perhaps the only ones who work in the court who have not yet been caught are the janitors. As for the rest, the sweet chariot of the KPK has swung down for them. Why does it keep happening?

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Sat, June 4 2016

With reference to the cartoon published on page 7 of The Jakarta Post on May 25, regarding Thailand, I wish to share with you the following clarifications:

Thailand is committed to democratic values and is making headway on the path toward elections in accordance with the Roadmap for Reconciliation, Reform and Elections.

The constitutional drafting process is being conducted in an inclusive and open manner and is proceeding as scheduled. The national referendum on the draft constitution will be held on Aug. 7, leading to general elections in 2017. In the meantime, the government is also undertaking comprehensive and people-centered reforms with the aim of promoting stability, prosperity and sustainability in Thailand.

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Linkedin Intan Tanjung (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 4, 2016

Deciding what to do with your future after high school can be challenging, especially if you are not sure of your potential or still have no clue what your interests are.

Fortunately, in this digital era, inspiration can easily be found online, including for such matters. Youthmanual, for instance, is a platform aimed at senior high school students and provides a guide to designing their future. After registering on the website, users will be presented with a series of questions looking to reveal insights on their personality, background, interests and style of study.

In a nutshell, our mission is to empower Indonesian youth through education, to help them discover their potential and plan their future, so they can positively contribute to the improvement of Indonesia's economy, Youthmanual founder Rizky Muhammad told The Jakarta Post during an email interview.

Rizky said the worlds economy was changing fast, moving from a traditional economy into a broader digital economy driven by the internet and connectivity. A lot of tech-based companies are now on the rise, taking opportunities to answer unique social problems that are happening in this country. These companies, such as Gojek, Qlue and Tokopedia, have radically transformed the workforce and human resources, which require a totally different mindset and competencies.

Unfortunately, many young Indonesians are clueless about this new workforce and the opportunities. There's a huge gap in what they know and what is actually happening in the real world, Rizky said.

(Read also: Indonesian youth encouraged to become innovative entrepreneurs)

The homepage of Youthmanual.com.(The Jakarta Post/Intan Tanjung)

With todays fast changing world, he underlines the fact that a career can no longer be chosen by using conventional ways or wisdom. To face the fast-changing world, Indonesia needs a generation that has certain characteristics.

Future generations should be confident in competing in a global labor market, forward thinking, and fast learners as there will be new opportunities that come up that need to be catered for. They also need to be opportunists, able to identify new opportunities and not afraid to take or create new things and adaptive to change.

But it will not be possible to develop these characteristics if future generations choose the wrong career. To avoid this, the younger generation needs to understand its strengths and passions from an early stage, and this is what Rizky wants to achieve through Youthmanual.

We understand that planning for college and career is a difficult process that could have a profound impact on not only their lives, but also on society as a whole, said Rizky.

Rizky puts the emphasis on individual self-discovery, where each person has a different career path and interests, so he and his in-house psychologist team have designed a module using Mark Savickas' Life Design approach, which is more relevant in todays world. The module starts with self-discovery using Jungs neurosis theory, continued by a series of tests that discover career interests using Hollands theory of career choice.

Aside from the psychology and career-choice modules, Youthmanual also offers a variety of information about universities and their programs, and continues to update the database on career choices and informative content developed by its editorial team. It also regularly hosts conferences, workshops and talk shows for students through the Youthmanual Rise Up Series.

We focus on career exploration to encourage students to understand various career options so they can continuously learn and improve their skills to always be relevant in these volatile work conditions.

The platform's assessment is available for free and can be accessed by everyone.

We believe all Indonesian youth should have free access to accurate and comprehensive college- and career-readiness tools so they can make informed life decisions and plan for their future. Our goal is to have as many students using our platform as possible," said Rizky. (kes)
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 4



By Fatih Karimov - Trend:



Two people were killed in landmine explosion near the city of Sardasht in Iranian western province of West Azerbaijan.



The incident occurred near Alvatan village, where three farm workers on a tractor hit a landmine remaining from Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), Ali Saadat, a local official said, IRNA news agency reported.



The explosion destroyed the tractor and killed two people including a 15 year-old boy, Saadat said, adding one person also was injured in the incident.



Iran is one of the countries in the world with the most unexploded landmines, which kill and injure dozens of people every year.



According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, there were 46 deaths and 76 injuries from landmines in Iran in 2012. Seven of the casualties were children.



Land areas in Iranian provinces of Ilam (1,700 hectares), Khuzestan (1.3 million hectares), Kermanshah (691,000 hectares), Western Azerbaijan (59,000 hectares) and Kurdistan (1,480 hectares) were mined during the war.



It was assumed that after the war around 16 million mines could still remain in these areas.
(front page)

Join SWP in campaigning for working-class program

Discuss what our class is capable of fighting for

Militant/Jacob Perasso

SEATTLE  The Socialist Workers Party is campaigning for a revolutionary, working-class perspective across the country and to put the partys ticket  Alyson Kennedy for U.S. president and Osborne Hart for vice-president  on the ballot, including in Washington, Minnesota and Tennessee.

Party campaigners are joining union picket lines, defending government frame-up victims and discussing questions confronting working people  from whether coal should be used to provide electrification in Asia to the need for unionization and how workers can fight against unemployment and low wages.

They find serious receptivity among workers who are looking at presidential candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, and others who dont support any candidate. The Socialist Workers Party presents what none of the capitalist candidates do  what the working class itself is capable of and must do to fight independently of the bosses and their political representatives.

The next two weeks will be a period of concentrated campaigning for the party, leading up to a June 16-18 Active Workers Conference in Oberlin, Ohio.

The Socialist Workers Party got a good response in Murfreesboro and Smyrna, Tennessee, where Nissans non-union assembly plant employs more than 8,000 workers.

All the companies say we make too much, but its not easy for a single mother to support four kids on $10.50 an hour, Allyson Gainor, who works at a Nissan parts plant, told Sam Manuel, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate in Georgia, as she signed to put Kennedy and Hart on the ballot.

The number of nonunion auto plants has increased and the auto bosses have pressed concessions on workers in union-organized plants.

The more working-class people can come together, get rid of divisions among us, the more we gain power, Chris Daniels, an assembler at Hennessey Industries and member of United Auto Workers Local 2303, told SWP campaigner Joanne Murphy. Theres a lot more of us than them.

In the first two days of Tennessee campaigning 90 people signed petitions, out of the goal of 500, to put the party on the ballot, and nine subscribed to the Militant.

Party campaigners spoke with unionists and others on their doorsteps in Longview, Washington, May 28. Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers there have fought bitter battles against company lockouts and concession demands. Many homes display the unions signs.

Shelly Porter, a leader of Longshore Local 21s fight against EGT Development in 2011-12, hugged Mary Martin, the SWPs candidate for governor of Washington, when she and this correspondent arrived at her house. These are the people that write in their Militant newspaper about the issues and questions that are important to working people, she told a friend she was preparing to go fishing with. Its the only paper I trust.

One debate in Washington is over Millennium Bulk Terminals plan to set up a terminal in Longview to ship coal from Wyoming and Montana to Japan, South Korea and other parts of Asia. Hearings on the proposal attracted thousands of proponents and environmentalist opponents in Longview and Spokane over the last two weeks.

John Doyle had two signs at his house, one saying stop coal and another backing the Longshore union. People need jobs here and times are tough, but Im concerned the damage to the environment would be too great to let the terminal go through, he said as he signed the petition.

People in Asia, Africa and elsewhere need electrification, its a precondition for the development of literacy, culture and politics, Martin said. If that means coal right now, we should support it. And we should demand that it be processed cleanly and the workers themselves  from the coal mines to the power plants  should control safety and fight for anti-pollution controls on the job.

Miners themselves can lead the fight to transition to safer energy production, nuclear power and other methods as they become practical, as we all fight for jobs, union-scale wages and workers control over production, she said.

Well, I agree with you that people around the world need the energy, Doyle said.

Martin and other SWP campaigners are headed to Spokane to support members of the International Association of Machinists on strike against Triumph Composite Systems since May 11.

More than 1,280 people have signed to get the SWP on the ballot in Washington, over the 1,000 required. Party supporters are going to get more than 1,600 to show the working-class support for the party.

David Rosenfeld, SWP candidate for U.S. Congress in Minnesota, campaigning in the largely Somali Cedar-Riverside community May 29, discussed the governments frame-up prosecution in Minneapolis charging some youth with conspiring to join Islamic State.

The FBI paid an informer to try and entrap them and then charged them with conspiracy, not with doing anything illegal, Rosenfeld said. They have used similar charges to try and attack our party and other working-class and Black rights organizations.

The party has signed up close to a thousand working people as it campaigns, toward a goal of 2,400 by June 12. Scores of workers have picked up copies of the Militant, more than 30 have gotten subscriptions and a number of Pathfinder titles.

Is Donald Trump a fascist?

SWP campaigners going door to door often run into Trump supporters, many of whom sign their petitions to get on the ballot and pick up a copy of the, as do many Sanders supporters and workers who say they dont like any of the candidates.

The liberal and conservative bosses press gives the impression that Trump and his supporters are reactionary and fascist-minded. A May 30 opinion piece in the Washington Post by columnist Richard Cohen was titled, Trump has taught me to fear my fellow Americans.

Maybe the talking heads on TV would draw the line at some mild version of fascism, but would the American people do the same? he wrote, talking about working people. The easy yes of yesteryear has given way to awful doubt.

The bosses dont really fear Trump or think hes Adolph Hitler reincarnate. Hes a businessman like them, seeking to maximize profits, while trying to sell the idea to workers that we have the same interests to keep us from organizing independent of their parties. On many issues, from health care to U.S. military intervention abroad hes to the left of Hillary Clinton.

But the employing class is afraid of the many workers who have attended his meetings, a reflection of the discontent, anger and disgust working people have for politics as usual.

This is the same crisis and looking for answers that provides opportunities for the Socialist Workers Party unprecedented in decades.
(lead article)

Obama uses Asia trip to push alliances against China

Underneath hollow platitudes about wanting a nuclear free world, the aim of Barack Obamas May 27 visit to Hiroshima, Japan, and to Vietnam earlier in the week, was to strengthen alliances Washington can use in its economic, political and military rivalry with Beijing.

Washington is especially worried about the Chinese governments growing naval power, which challenges U.S. imperialisms domination of the Pacific, a spoil of the U.S. defeat of Japan in World War II.

In the last two years Beijing has been building on reefs, shoals and islets in the South China Sea  through which a third of world maritime traffic passes  to create airfields and in at least one instance, place surface-to-air missiles. At least three times in the past seven months, U.S. warships have deliberately sailed close to these man-made islands. Just a few days before Obamas trip to Asia, two Chinese fighter jets flew within 50 feet of a U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane near the islands.

On the first day of Obamas May 23-25 visit to Vietnam, he announced he was lifting a decades-long ban on U.S. arms sales to Hanoi. Limited military collaboration between the two governments began in 2003.

Obama attempted to rewrite history in his May 24 speech at the National Convention Center in Hanoi, making it sound as if the U.S. war in Vietnam was the result of a misunderstanding.

Cold War rivalries and fears of communism pulled us into conflict, Obama said, leaving 3 million Vietnamese dead, as well as 58,315 U.S. soldiers.

He didnt mention that first Paris and then Washington sent hundreds of thousands of troops to crush the Vietnamese revolutionary fight for independence and a unified nation. Washington was finally forced to pull out in 1975 due to the resistance of Vietnamese freedom fighters, as well as millions of people who took to the streets in the United States and beyond demanding, U.S. out now!

Over the last 20 years, as Hanoi welcomed expanded capitalist investment, annual U.S.-Vietnam trade has grown from $450 million to $45 billion, just a little behind China.

The Vietnamese government cautiously sees increased military collaboration with Washington as a protection against the growing economic and military weight of Beijing, which borders Vietnam.

While the Vietnamese government has not forgotten the long war against U.S. imperialism, it has also faced military intervention by the Chinese government. After Vietnamese troops toppled the murderous Chinese-backed Pol Pot regime in Cambodia in 1979, they had to repel an invasion by Beijing in which some 10,000 Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were killed. In 1988 more than 60 Vietnamese sailors died during a clash with Chinese forces over control of part of the Spratly Islands.

As part of the informal agreement between Hanoi and Washington, Vietnam will likely be provided U.S. radars, sensors, surveillance planes, drones and refurbished U.S. Coast Guard patrol ships. The New York Times reports that the U.S. Navy expects to be given increased use of Vietnams Cam Ranh Bay, a recently modernized deep-sea port on the South China Sea.

Visit to Hiroshima

From Vietnam Obama flew to Japan for the Group of Seven summit. On May 27, he gave a speech in Hiroshima, the first time a sitting U.S. president has visited the city, which Washington wiped out with an atom bomb on Aug. 6, 1945.

Death fell from the sky and the world was changed, Obama said in the opening of his speech at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, referring to the first use of a nuclear weapon in war as if it was a natural disaster.

But the atom bomb did not just fall from the sky  it was a deliberate decision by President Harry Truman to destroy a mostly civilian city. As many as 80,000 people died instantly; the final death toll is estimated at more than 135,000.

And Obama said not a word about the second, more powerful bomb that the U.S. military dropped three days later on Nagasaki that killed between 50,000 and 73,000. More than 20,000 of those killed in the two cities were Korean laborers who had been forcibly conscripted by the Japanese military.

The goal is to ultimately eliminate the existence of nuclear weapons, Obama claimed. He made no mention that his administration has begun a $1 trillion modernization of the U.S. stockpile of some 4,500 nuclear weapons. According to the New York Times, the Obama administration has dismantled fewer nukes than any U.S. president since the end of the Cold War.

Obamas speech in Hiroshima, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at his side, also bolstered the militarization drive of Japanese imperialism.

Since coming to office in 2012 Abe has increased military spending to $41.8 billion, Japans largest ever; lifted a decades-long ban on weapons exports; and passed laws that for the first time since World War II allow its military to undertake overseas combat missions.

While these moves have been welcomed by the Obama administration, they have increased unease in China, Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines, the targets of the brutal Japanese imperialist conquests and colonizations leading up to and during the second World War.

There are more U.S. troops based in Japan than anywhere else outside the United States: 39,000 on Okinawa and other U.S. bases and 14,000 on nearby ships.





Related articles:

Demand US govt destroy its nukes!







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(front page)

Debate on UK vote highlights EU rivalries,

workers anger

LONDON  Growing competition between capitalist countries worldwide is tearing at the fabric of the European Union. The EU is a protectionist trading bloc and would-be political union whose member countries have rival national ruling classes with different and often opposing interests.

Economic stagnation and sharpening competition, as well as the refugee crisis and its roots in the Middle East conflicts, are at the center of divisions within the EU today. A June 23 referendum on whether to continue the United Kingdoms EU membership is marked by these tensions and by the growing discontent of millions of working people.

The Remain campaign, headed by the Conservative Party government, is supported by the dominant sections of the capitalist class for whom the economic benefits of EU membership appear overwhelming, especially given their precarious prospects for profitable production and trade. Industrial output in the U.K. is in recession and labor productivity lags behind its competitors.

The capitalist magnates point out that the EU is the biggest trading area in the world. Through membership, British companies can sell goods across the continent paying fewer tariffs, and the U.K. serves as a platform for companies from the United States and elsewhere seeking to trade within the EU. As a result, the U.K. now has one of the highest levels of foreign direct investment in the world. EU membership, the bosses argue, offsets Britains decline as a world power, allowing London to punch above its weight.

London has already secured an opt-out from the ever closer union in the EUs founding charter, and from a number of other EU regulations, and the British rulers have maintained their own currency, the pound, instead of joining the EUs eurozone. The government-led Remain campaign argues this means the U.K. has the best of both worlds.

The Remain campaign has the backing of the Labour Party, Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats, as well as most of the trade union officialdom, the Confederation of British Industry, Washington, the main EU governments and international financial institutions.

Workers face growing social crisis

Despite this lineup of bourgeois political forces and the pro-capitalist union officialdom, the outcome of the vote hangs in the balance.

Millions of workers will vote to leave, frustrated with years of declining living standards and growing social crisis, angered by the bloated EU bureaucracy and distrustful of the traditional parties of government. This distrust is reinforced by events such as U.S. President Barack Obamas April visit to Britain, during which he declared that if London leaves the EU, the U.K. is going to be in the back of the queue on trade deals with Washington.

The Brexit debate is driving a political crisis within the Conservative Party. Nearly 40 percent of Tory members of Parliament have declared support for the Leave campaign. Some are calling for the resignation of the party leader, Prime Minister David Cameron, whatever the outcome of the referendum.

The other major party campaigning for a British exit is the populist UK Independence Party, which argues that London needs to defend British sovereignty, including imposing greater restrictions on immigration from other European countries. They say further expansion of the EU will lead to increased immigration, especially from Turkey.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sought to take advantage of the surge of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Mideast and North Africa to press Ankaras long-held objective of EU membership. For more than two decades, member governments across the continent have found one excuse after another to block entry of the EUs first non-European member. In return for visa free travel into the EU for Turkish citizens, the Turkish government is now taking measures to slow down Europe-bound refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

Remain and Leave campaigners have traded exaggerated threats of the dangers of their opponents stand. Cameron claims that leaving the EU will result in imminent economic crisis and war. Fellow Tory MP Boris Johnson argues that the EU is an attempt to do  by different methods what Napoleon and Hitler had attempted, to recreate the dream of the Roman Empire.

But support for leaving has little to do with these arguments. Ill be voting leave, Kevin Gallagher, a factory worker from Dagenham in East London, told the Militant. The money that is spent on the EU should be spent on things we need like hospitals. Whatever the outcome of the vote the government will still be going after workers rights, he added. Other workers told this reporter they would vote to stay in, despite disliking the EU, because they are uncertain what a British exit would mean for living standards.

The referendum debate is sharpening factional tension within the Labour Party. The partys recently elected London mayor Sadiq Khan has joined with Cameron to campaign for Remain. While party leader Jeremy Corbyn has demurred sharing a platform with the Conservative leader, he argues that EU regulations protect workers and are the road to a real social Europe.

Leaving would lead to a bonfire of rights, says Corbyn. This rings hollow in light of the assault on workers underway in France today led by the Socialist Party government of Francois Hollande (see article on page 4).

Similar developments are fueling political crisis across the continent. The two dominant capitalist powers, the rulers in Germany and France, push for greater European political integration as they squeeze weaker countries such as Greece, with devastating consequences for working people and much of the middle classes. Meanwhile from Germany to France to Italy to Austria, anti-EU parties and movements are growing. Attitudes to the EU differ between and within the traditional capitalist and bourgeois labor parties.

Despite stimulus measures, growth remains sluggish across the eurozone. While unemployment averages over 10 percent, there are vast regional differences. Germanys official unemployment rate is 4.5 percent; Greeces stands at a quarter of the population.

Whatever the outcome of the UK referendum, further fracturing pressures will dominate the EU.





Related articles:

Communist League: Vote Leave, oppose UK imperialism







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(front page)

Seven-week Verizon strike won solidarity, tentative deal is set

Militant/Willie Cotton

After 48 days on the picket line, 39,000 strikers returned to work May 31 and June 1 after officials of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers reached a tentative contract agreement with Verizon Communications Inc.

Verizon bosses were surprised by the widespread sympathy the strike won among working people, despite the bosses attempt to paint the strikers as greedy, labor aristocrats who should be happy with their generous wages and benefits.

Among the central issues were proposals by Verizon to contract out more work; shut down call centers, moving them to other countries with substantially lower wages; cut pensions and increase health care costs.

On April 28, Verizon issued a last, best, and final offer and sent it to every striker, urging them to cross the picket lines. But the overwhelming majority of union members stayed strong. Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo told stockholders April 21 that the strike was putting pressure on earnings. The Obama administration stepped in to press for a settlement.

According to a Communications Workers union summary, workers will get a 10.9 percent wage increase over the four-year contract. Current employees will keep their pensions. And the company will hire 1,300 new call center workers during the contract term. The summary says that union officials agreed to new health care costs for members. For the first time some 70 retail workers at Verizon Wireless stores will be covered by the contract.

The union officials agreed to lift the contractual cap on overtime work for two weeks to deal with the backlog from the strike.

Many workers who spoke to the Militant said they are waiting to read the full agreement before deciding what they think. Workers will vote on the contract by June 17.

In a related development, negotiations continue for 15,000 AT&T West workers in California and Nevada. Their contract expired April 10. Some 1,700 members of CWA Local 9509 in San Diego ended a nearly one-week grievance strike May 26.





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A voice for the excluded

Cuban youth paper interviews Socialist Workers Party candidate

The following interview appeared in the May 8 issue of Juventud Rebelde, the newspaper of the Union of Young Communists of Cuba, under the headline, Alyson Kennedy: A Voice for the Excluded. Translation is by the Militant.





Most people think that only two parties participate in the U.S. presidential elections, the Democrats and Republicans. But others persist in raising a different class viewpoint, despite the system rendering them invisible.

BY JUANA CARRASCO MARTIN

The U.S. election campaign is reaching its climax with the two major parties selecting their candidates. Hidden behind this show is a system that defends a single set of interests  those of big capital, the world of finance, the arms industry, the polluters of the earths climate, the exploiters of workers in [their] backyard and of the wealth and goods produced by professionals, workers, and peasants in much of the world, where the imperialist multinationals plunder and intervene.

However, though buried by the media, which has its own part to play in this show, there are small parties  often persecuted, sidelined, and excluded  that bring to the streets and, when possible, into the election booths, the real interests of working people.

A small woman with an easy smile, plainspoken, convincing, and firm, she presents the other side, though not of the same coin. On the contrary, she exposes and condemns what is actually taking place across the United States in 2016.

Alyson Kennedy is the Socialist Workers Party candidate for president. She is joined by Osborne Hart on the SWPs presidential ticket, which was announced February 12.

On May 1, Kennedy marched with the Cuban people in the International Workers Day Parade along Havanas Avenida Paseo. She participated as part of a delegation of mothers and relatives of victims of police violence in the United States. She took advantage of an exchange with Juventud Rebelde to speak about whats taking place in her country and her impressions of her first trip to Cuba.

You are the Socialist Workers Party candidate in the November 8 general elections, but all we hear about are the Republican and Democratic Party campaigns.

The main thing the U.S. elections are revealing is the deep crisis within the bourgeois Republican and Democratic political parties. We have seen how candidates Donald Trump (Republican) and Bernie Sanders (Democrat) are receiving substantial support because they present themselves as being different from the other politicians. They portray themselves as if they arent part of the political machine. Thats why they are getting a lot of support, including from many workers who take part in their rallies.

There are reasons for this. We must remember the deep worldwide economic crisis and how it is felt in the United States as well. The government says there is an economic recovery, but unemployment remains high. Its higher than weve seen in years, because there are workers who arent included in the statistics.

While campaigning Ive met workers whove told me they havent found jobs since the 2008 economic downturn, says Alyson, who has supported the strike this year by 40,000 workers at Verizon, the telecommunications company, the largest work stoppage in the United States in many years. The workers have had no contract since August, while Verizon is seeking to cut pensions and to allow the outsourcing of work. Verizon says it has trained thousands of nonunion employees to replace striking workers.

Kennedy says that for all U.S. workers, wages continue to stagnate. Forty percent of the U.S. workforce earn less than $15 an hour, which is not enough for a family to live on. This has led many workers to begin to question what is happening in the United States and to have less confidence in what the Democratic and Republican parties are doing in relation to this crisis.

But these candidates talk about change.

That is whats behind the support Trump and Sanders are receiving. But no matter who is elected, there will be no changes that improve the situation of working people.

All significant change in the United States  such as the fight against racial segregation, the struggle for unionization in the 1930s, the antiVietnam War struggle, the struggles of women for the right to abortion  has been won through demonstrations in the streets. Thats also true for the struggles weve seen recently, like the fight for unions, to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and against police violence.

This resolute statement by the political activist is based on her long personal experience as a worker and union organizer. Alyson Kennedy, who joined the socialist movement in 1973, was a coal miner in Alabama, Colorado, Utah, and West Virginia. She joined the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in 1981 and was one of the leaders of a strike in Utah in 2004.

She was part of the first wave of women who entered the mines in the United States in order to break down divisions based on sex and to strengthen working-class solidarity. She joined the Coal Employment Project, an organization that defended the right of women to work in the mines and fought against workplace harassment.

Shes familiar with the struggles carried out by the UMWA in the 1960s and 1970s for job safety. Those strikes, which shook the country, won the right to refuse to work under unsafe conditions. She recognizes, however, that the movement has been eroded and that today the majority of U.S. mines dont have unions. This is what Alyson talks to U.S. workers about.

She doesnt do so from the outside or from a theoretical view of the class struggle. Today Alyson Kennedy works in Chicago at a Walmart, the largest chain of retail stores in the world, condemned in many countries for the exploitative conditions it imposes on its workers and employees.

Thats why I, as a candidate of the Socialist Workers Party, and my running mate Osborne Hart, as well as our other candidates for Senate and other offices, get a good reception from workers, because they are open to discussing a revolutionary perspective, she says.

Workers know theyre being exploited, they know whats happening in the country and in the world, says Alyson Kennedy, who emphasizes that one of the issues that this campaign addresses is opposition to U.S. involvement in the Mideast. And many workers are also willing to hear about the Cuban revolution, she adds.

You mentioned Cuba. What brings you to our country, at the time of the May Day celebration?

Ive come to Cuba as part of a delegation of working-class women who are fighting against police brutality, of which there are many victims in the city where I live, Chicago.

This is my first visit to Cuba, although I know a good deal about the island. Through the partys activity we educate about Cuba and worked for years for the release of the Cuban Five, and we educate about the need to end the embargo (blockade).

In spite of the short time Ive been here, Ive been able to see the country first hand, and this will greatly help me explain to workers there why Cuba is an example for us. If Cuba was able to make a revolution and create a society that addresses workers needs, we can do it in the United States, too, the socialist leader emphasizes.

She explains why she thinks this is clearly and certainly possible: We have a long history of struggle in the United States, as well. Workers in the United States must become aware of what theyve won through struggle. We have to realize the power we have and our own worth.

She concludes her words for the readers of Juventud Rebelde with a pledge:

I want you to know that when we return well redouble our efforts in the fight against the blockade and for the return of the territory occupied in Guantanamo, which belongs to Cuba. Having been here helps us realize why its important to continue to fight for our rights.





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Join the Socialist Workers Party campaign in 2016!

Active Workers Conference--Classes







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Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said on Saturday he would like to visit China and have talks with his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan, Sputnik reported.



The 15th Asia Security Summit, or the Shangri-La Dialogue, is currently underway in Singapore, bringing together regional defense officials and Western military officials to discuss the pressing security issues.

"There are various issues, and dialogue is very important. I would like to visit your country [China]," Nakatani said at the security summit, while speaking to China's delegation head, Adm. Sun Jianguo, as quoted by the Japanese Kyodo news agency.

He did not provide detail on the possible timing of the visit.

Relations between China and Japan have been strained by a dispute over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. The Japanese, who have claimed the islands since the 19th century, call them the Senkaku Islands, the name mostly recognized globally, while in China they are known as the Diaoyu Islands.

Earlier in the day, Nakatani said that he was "deeply concerned" over China's construction of outposts used for military purposes in some of the disputed areas.


US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter met with Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatani on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, and the sides agreed to enhance monitoring of the US military present in Japan under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), Sputnik reported citing Pentagon.

The 15th Asia Security Summit, or the Shangri-La Dialogue, is currently underway in Singapore, bringing together regional defense officials and Western military officials to discuss the pressing security issues.

"Secretary Carter and Minister Nakatani decided to focus on the following areas: reviewing SOFA implementation practices related to U.S. personnel with SOFA status, including the civilian component; strengthening the monitoring of SOFA status of U.S. personnel, including the civilian component; and enhancing education and training for U.S. personnel with SOFA status," Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement.





The two officials confirmed their intent to develop these measures "at the earliest possible occasion," he added.

In late May, a former US Marine, Kenneth Franklin was arrested on suspicion of stabbing and strangling a 20-year-old Japanese woman near US Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. The woman, Rina Shimabukuro, disappeared on April 28 and was later found dead in a forest. Franklin has reportedly admitted to committing the murder. Shortly following, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a joint press conference with US President Barack Obama that Japan would implement new measures to protect the people of Okinawa

Carter expressed his regret over the murder, as well as offered his sincere apologies to the family and friends of the deceased. He reaffirmed his commitment to working closely with Government of Japan to prevent incidents in the future.


most of then disembarked, i saw them and seemed much more then just 800 to me.. from 8am to 11:30am ...(Read More)
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 4

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Turkey doesn't recognize Germany's resolution regarding the so-called Armenian genocide, Minister for EU Affairs of Turkey Omar Celik said, Anadolu news agency reported.

The minister said that surely this decision will have an impact on the relations between Germany and Turkey.

Turkey won't be affected by this resolution, since the resolution is not of a legal nature, Celik said.

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.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 4

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

A Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Diyarbakir was delayed due to the threat of a terrorist attack, the Hurriyet newspaper reported June 4.

Before the flight, one of the passengers told the stewardess that he has an explosive device in the hand luggage, after which all the passengers were evacuated.

However, no explosive device was found in the passenger's hand luggage and he was taken away by the police.

After a three-hour delay, the plane took off to the destination.

No other details of the incident have been reported.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
The Armenian issue is being used to blackmail Turkey around the world, Turkish president has said, according to Anadolu agency.

Addressing a press conference in Istanbul Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said western countries were just using the Armenian issue as a tool to malign Turkey.

"I know in my heart that the main point is not Armenians. They are just being manipulated. The Armenian issue is just blackmail against Turkey around the world," Erdogan said.

"I want to let the world know: like it or not, we will never accept the 'genocide' accusation," he added.

On Thursday, the lower house of the German parliament approved a non-binding resolution recognizing Armenian claims of "genocide" during the 1915 events.

The resolution accused the Ottoman government of 1915 of allegedly carrying out "systematic genocide" against Armenians, as well as other Christian minorities.

According to Turkish president, Turkey had nothing to be ashamed of in its history.

"I emphasize one more time. We have nothing in our past to be ashamed of, but those countries that often accuse Turkey of 'Armenian genocide' have the blood of millions of innocent victims."

Erdogan said Germany should be the last country to speak about the so called 'Armenian genocide'. "They [Germans] should firstly define the meaning of Holocaust again. They should review the Namibia Holocaust," he said.

The Namibia Holocaust is considered one of the first genocides of the last century, which was carried out against the Heroro and Nama peoples in southwest Africa by the then German empire.

Turkey denies the alleged Armenian "genocide", but acknowledges that there were casualties on both sides during the events taking place during World War I.

According to Turkey's viewpoint, deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia in 1915 occurred after some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties.

Turkey describes the 1915 events as a tragedy for both sides.

Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission of historians from Turkey and Armenia plus international experts to tackle the issue.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 4

Trend:

Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands Lodewijk Assher said that the Kingdom will not recognize the events of 1915 as the so-called "Armenian genocide", Anadolu agency reported.

Asscher said that the Kingdom will continue to use the term "problem" with regard to this issue, as it was adopted in 2004 in the parliament.

The German parliament adopted June 2 a resolution recognizing the 1915 events as the "Armenian genocide".



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.
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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Syndicate chairman Yehia Kalash and two board members were referred to court last week for harbouring journalists Mahmoud El-Sakka and Amr Badr in the syndicate's downtown Cairo headquarters

A Cairo misdemeanour court adjourned on Saturday the first session of the trial of Egypt's press syndicate chairman Yehia Kalash and two other board members on charges of harbouring fugitives.

The trial was adjourned to 18 June on the request of the defense, led by rights lawyer Khaled Ali, to give more time for defense lawyers to review the case.

During the first session of the trial, Ali said the prosecuting of the head of Egypt's journalists syndicate is a "terrorising message to journalists nationwide."

Tens of journalists gathered outside the court house in solidarity with Kalash and the case's two other defendants: union Secretary-General Gamal Abdel Reheem and Undersecretary Khaled El-Balshy.

The journalists chanted "raise your head up high, you are a journalist."

Representatives from the country's National Council for Human Rights attended the trial in solidarity along with representatives from the European Union and the German Embassy in Cairo.

Kalash, Abdel Reheem and El-Balshy were referred to court last week for harbouring journalists Mahmoud El-Sakka and Amr Badr - who were staging a sit-in to protest warrants issued for their arrest - in the syndicate's downtown Cairo headquarters.

The trio are also facing charges of spreading false news about the police raid of the union's headquarters on 1 May that resulted in the arrest of the two journalists.

A trial is yet to be set for this charge.

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Egyptian Meteorological Authority (EMA) head Ahmed Abdel Aal said a current heat wave is expected to last until Monday, the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, MENA reported.

A drop of 4 to 6 degrees is expected to take place on Monday throughout the northern parts of the country and in Cairo.

The EMA expects on Sunday a high of 39 degrees and a low of 28. Alexandria is expected to witness slightly cooler weather, with a high of 32 degrees and a low of 24.

The three Suez Canal cities of Suez, Ismailia and Port Said will see on Sunday a high of 40 degrees and a low of 27.

In time for the first day of Ramadan on Monday, northern Egypt will experience weather between 30-31 degrees, Upper Egypt governorates and Cairo will witness temperatures of 36-38 degrees.

Upper Egypt governorates are expected to witness hotter weather during Ramadan with temperatures ranging from 40 to 42 degrees, according to the EMA.

Meanwhile, the authority advises citizens to limit outdoor activity and time in the sun.

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Egypt MPs approved Saturday that Saudi King Salman's Sinai development programme needs only to be discussed and voted on by parliament without putting it to a national referendum

Egypt's parliament approved a report prepared by the legislative and constitutional affairs committee on a Saudi-Egyptian loan agreement aimed at developing the Sinai peninsula in a plenary session Saturday.

The agreement, titled King Salman's programme for the development of the peninsula of Sinai, was signed by government officials from the two countries in Riyadh in March. The agreement was aimed at giving Egypt a $1.5 billion soft loan to help it develop Sinai and buy Saudi oil products needed for development purposes.

"As much as half-a-billion dollars from the total loan amount will be allocated to developing Sinai in the form of building King Salman's University in Al-Tor city, funding a series of agricultural and irrigation projects, and upgrading North Sinai's network of roads," said the committee's report, adding that the remaining amount ($1 billion) will be earmarked for buying Saudi oil products, which "Egypt needs for development purposes".

According to the report, the loan agreement is in line with Article 151 of the Egyptian Constitution that notes that the state's foreign agreements can go into effect only after being approved by parliament and as long as these agreements do not lead Egypt to ceding part of its territory to another country.

"As long as the King Salman Sinai development programme agreement does not affect any of Egypt's sovereign rights, it will not be put to a public referendum and will only need parliament's approval to go into effect," the committee said.

Parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al said: "It is clear that the Sinai development agreement with Saudi Arabia does not affect Egypt's sovereign rights in Sinai in any way, and as a result this agreement will not be put to a public referendum."

The majority of MPs voted in favour of the committee opinion as expressed in its report.

Abdel-Al said that the report will be referred back to the committees of economic affairs and legislative and constitutional affairs to be discussed further, with the two committees preparing a report on the loan agreement to be reviewed and voted on by parliament in a plenary session.

The Saudi loan agreement comes ahead of another controversial Saudi-Egyptian agreement on the demarcation of territorial waters between the two countries.

The agreement, signed between the governments of the two countries during King Salman's visit to Egypt in April, placed the two Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir into the territorial waters of Saudi Arabia.

The so-called "Tiran and Sanafir agreement" caused street protests on 15 and 25 April in Downtown Cairo and led to three members of the council of the Journalists' Syndicate being put on trial on charges of helping two journalists - who called for protests against the agreement - hide in the syndicate's building.

In a television interview that marked his second year in office Friday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi disclosed that the Red Sea agreement with Saudi Arabia will be discussed by parliament and that it is up to parliament to give the final say on it.

"Parliament's committees, which will discuss this agreement, will do their job freely and without facing pressure from any entity," said El-Sisi.

El-Sisi also stressed that Egypt's relationship with Saudi Arabia is strong and that all attempts aimed at disrupting this relationship have failed.

Bahaaeddin Abu Shoka, chairman of parliament's legislative and constitutional affairs committee, told reporters that, "Egypt's Red Sea agreement with Saudi Arabia will be first reviewed by the committee to see if it is in line with Article 151 of the constitution."

"If this Red Sea agreement, like King Salman's loan agreement on the development of Sinai peninsula, is found not in violation of Article 151 of the constitution, it would be discussed by parliament only, without resorting to a public referendum," Abu Shoka noted.

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Maj. Gen. John Uberti, Fort Hood deputy commander, center, Col. Todd Fox, left, and Fort Hood fire chief Coleman Smith, right, speak to the media during a news conference in Fort Hood, Texas, on Friday, June 3, 2016. Officials say Fort Hood commanders were in the process of closing roads on the sprawling Army post in Texas when a truck carrying 12 soldiers overturned in a fast-flowing flooded creek during a training exercise on Thursday. (Rodolfo Gonzalez/Austin American-Statesman via AP) AUSTIN CHRONICLE OUT, COMMUNITY IMPACT OUT, INTERNET AND TV MUST CREDIT PHOTOGRAPHER AND STATESMAN.COM, MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT
Lee Allen loads bottled water into his vehicle outside the Supervalu Grocery Store in Courtland, Ala., on Friday, June 3, 2016, after a local utility warned residents not to drink the tap water because of chemical contamination. Allen said purchasing water is expensive and inconvenient but necessary after the announcement. (AP Photo/Phillip Lucas)
Hit by accusations of graft, seniormost Maharashtra Minister Eknath Khadse on Saturday tendered his resignation from the state cabinet.

He met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and put in his papers from nearly a dozen major portfolios that he was handling, including the revenue and minorities departments.

The development happened a day after Fadnavis met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah and submitted a detailed report on the issues confronting Khadse in New Delhi. The Chief Minister later followed it up with a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Khadse, the de facto No. 2 in the state cabinet, has been under fire during the past few weeks from ruling alliance partner Shiv Sena, as also the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and activists over various acts of omission and commission.

However, presenting a brave face, Khadse, strongly refuted all allegations against him and vowed to prove himself innocent.
In an unprecedented development, the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) on Saturday ruled in the favour of a police plea to try the minor accused in Delhi's Mercedes hit-and-run case as adult in a trail court.

The police had moved JJB requesting permission to move the hearing in the case to a regular court as the accused teenager turned major four days after the car accident that killed a 32-year-old marketing executive.

According to the reports, the JJB was of the opinion that the accused juvenile at the time of the incident was not lacking in mental or physical capacity to commit the alleged crime. The board was also convinced that the accused had the ability to understand the consequences of the offence.

The JJC had reserved its order on Friday after listening to the over hour-long arguments made by Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastav. The prosecutor argued that the accused teenager was a repeated traffic offender and was fined four times earlier for over-speeding, not wearing seat belt, parking wrongly. He also noted that the accused earlier had "bluffed the court and the police by claiming to be a major".

Shrivastav further argued that boy belongs to the age group of 16-18 years and this offence comes under definition of "heinous crimes" so his trial should be transferred to the trial court.

The police on May 26 had chargesheeted the juvenile the teenager for the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder entails a maximum of 10 years jail.

Initially, a case under IPC sections 304 A (causing death by rash or negligent act) was lodged against the boy but later on he was booked for the alleged offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and he was sent to the reform home.

The police had said in its charge sheet that the boy had run over marketing executive Siddharth Sharma with his father's Mercedes when Sharma was trying to cross a road near Ludlow Castle School in north Delhi on April 4.

The final report was filed for alleged offences under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 279 (driving on a public way so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life) and 337 (causing hurt by an act which endangers human life) against him.

The police also annexed the statements of witnesses including that of the youth's friends supporting its case.

The Board had on April 26 granted bail to the youth who sought the relief to appear in entrance examinations.

The police had said that the car was being driven at a speed of at least 80 km per hour and Sharma was flung several feet into the air by the impact of the crash and landed around 15 metres away from where he stood.

After the incident, a group of youths stepped out of the vehicle and fled from the spot abandoning the car there, the police had said. The police had earlier arrested a man who claimed to be the actual driver of the Mercedes at the time of the incident but he did a volte-face after he got to know the victim was dead.

The driver and the boy's father, who was also arrested earlier, were granted bail by the court.

The youth had appeared before a Delhi court to surrender and moved a bail plea which was rejected on the ground that it was a matter of JJB. He was then produced before the board.

(With inputs from PTI)
Marking another major success in India's reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday jointly inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, built with Indian aid.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Ghani said that with India's help a longstanding dream of Afghanistan has been realised after 40 years.

The assistance of the people and the government of India in constructing this splendid dam reinstitutes the ancient ties of Herat and India, he said.

This dam will chart a new course of cooperation and prosperity, the Afghan President stated.

Our people identify India with roads, dams and over 200 small developmental projects.

Originally constructed in 1976, the Salma Dam suffered extensive damage during the Afghan civil war.

It was built at a cost of approximately Rs 1,700 crore by 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers, technocrats and other professionals.

Three turbines on the dam will produce 42 MW of electricity and the water will irrigate around 75,000 hectares of land.

The Afghan-India Friendship Dam is a landmark infrastructure project undertaken by the Indian government on river Chist-e-Sharif in Herat province of Afghanistan.

The project was executed and implemented by Wapcos, an Indian government undertaking under the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

The dam is located 165 km east of Herat city and connected by an earthen road.

According to an official statement, due to security reasons, Indian engineers and technicians involved with the project used to reach the site once in a month by a helicopter service provided by the Afghan government.

All equipment and material were transported from India to Bander-e-Abbas port of Iran via sea, then 1,200 km by road from there to Islam Kila border post on the Iran-Aghanistan border and then further 300 km by road from the border post to the site.

Cement, steel reinforcement and explosives were imported to Afghanistan from neighbouring countries.

The gross capacity of the dam is 633 million cubic metres. The dam is 104.3 metres high, 540 metres long and 450 metres wide at the bottom.

The dam symbolises India's continued support for developmental work in the violence-ridden nation.

In December last year, Modi and Ghani jointly inaugurated a new building of the Afghan parliament in Kabul built with Indian aid.

Last month, India, Iran and Afghanistan signed a trilateral agreement for the development of the Chabahar port in the Gulf of Oman for transport and transit corridor.
The Bihar government has cancelled the results of two of the 14 students who topped the class 12 state board examinations, reports said.

The Bihar State Examination Board (BSEB) said the duoSaurabh Sreshtha and Rahulperformed poorly in a retest ordered after television interviews showed them having little understanding of the subjects they aced.

Another student, Ruby Rai, who topped in the arts stream, but believes political science teaches how to cook, did not attend the retest citing illness.

The board said it would scrap her result if she didn't take the test by June 14. It has also struck down the recognition of Vaishalis V.R. College, where both Rai and Srestha were enrolled.

The board has also ordered an inquiry by a retired high court judge into the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the examinations and the evaluation process.

Following the ignominious interview with few of the Class 12 Bihar top-scores of this year, the state has ordered the first seven rank-holders from science and arts streams to sit for a retest and an interview.

They are required to score more than 70 per cent in Fridays test to retain their position in the merit list.

We first tried to calm them down, asking them general questions about family and school. Once they were comfortable, we initiated them into the actual interaction, one of the experts who was roped in by the BSES to conduct the interview was quoted as saying.

The board asked us to hear the students side. We went there, asked a few questions and also made them write a few short answers. We have submitted our report to the boards anti-corruption cell, but we have not written anything on students capability to top. It would be wrong on our part, he added.
The suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Friday categorically rejected allegations that some of the funds embezzled by the Petrobras corruption ring were used to pay for her personal expenses.

None of Rousseff's personal costs "were paid through illegal schemes or through corruption," Rousseff's office said in a press release, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Once again, there is an attempt to impugn the president's honour in order to manipulate public opinion and make the impeachment process easier. While attempting a coup, they resort to lies," it said.

According to an article published in O Globo, funds embezzled from Petrobas, Brazil's state-owned oil company, in particular from the purchase of a refinery in Pasadena, California, were used to pay bills with Rousseff's personal hair stylist, Celso Kamura.

However, Rousseff's press release detailed all services and payments made to Kamura, saying that none were paid illegally.

"All the personal costs of the president have a proven origin," it read.

Rousseff will seek reparations in the court "for all the defamatory accusations made against her," it said.

Rousseff was temporarily removed from office in May for up to 180 days after the Senate agreed to impeach her, and Vice President Michel Temer from the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party took up the presidency on a temporary basis.

With no charges of corruption weighing against her, Rousseff is being judged for administrative misconduct and disregard for the federal budget as well as delaying payments to public banks, which is known as "fiscal pedaling".
A shark attacked an Egyptian man swimming "six kilometers offshore" in the Red Sea city of Ain Sokhna on Saturday, Suez governor Ahmed Helmi El-Hiatmi said.

The 23-year-old victim was transferred to Suez public hospital and had his leg amputated, state news agency MENA said. He is currently receiving treatment in the intensive care unit of the hospital.

"Sharks live in the Red Sea and it's normal to see them there, but the victim was swimming 6km from the beach, which makes it possible to encounter a shark," El-Hiatmi told Ahram Online.

"What may raise concerns, if we found a shark within 500 meters from the beach, where most of the locals and tourists swim," El-Haiatmi said, adding that he commissioned an environmental committee to investigate the incident.

Shark attacks in the Red Sea resort are exceedingly rare; the last recorded sighting of sharks in Ain Sokhna occurred in 2012 when eyewitnesses saw three sharks in the area. No casualties were reported at the time.

Ain Sokhna is a popular resort town lying on the western shore of the Red Sea's Gulf of Suez, about 120 kilometres east of Cairo.

Last year, a shark killed a 52-year-old German tourist in the Red Sea governorate in the first fatal shark attack in Egypt since a string of maulings in 2010 that killed a German woman and wounded three Russian tourists in another Red Sea resort near Sharm El-Sheikh.

Following the 2010 incident, local diving experts said single shark attacks were very rare in the area and were puzzled as to why so many people were attacked in such quick succession.

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If anti-Europe MP Chris Graylings Brexit campaign is anything like his efforts to get the main railway station in his constituency into Londons Oyster card network, Britain will be in the euro by Christmas.

Grayling, MP for Epsom and Ewell, has been campaigning to get Epsom into the capitals joined-up transport and contactless travelcard system for years with nothing much more to show than a yeah whatever from Southern Railway.

Its starting to feel like hes secretly run it as a stay out campaign as practise for his get out of Europe one. It really shouldnt be this hard.

Gatwick Airport, 55 miles from London, is now part of Oyster. Epsom Downs station, in Epsom, is further out of London than Epsoms main station and is in. Watford, 20 miles from London is in, Amersham, 30 miles, also in, and so on.

But Epsom, just over 13 miles from central London, remains out of the zone thus consigning commuters to flit around one of the worlds apparently best capital cities on trains, Tubes and buses with annual passes made of paper.

Worse than this, however, London Transport lists Epsom as being in London on its website, which means people willing to travel to this provincial outpost assume its in the Oyster zone.

Ticket office staff in London also tell people that they dont need a ticket  because it says so on the website.

Out and out rubbish: Transport for London insists Epsom is part of London. It's not.

To deal with this nonsense, Southern Railway employs teams of Stasi-like revenue generators armed with semi-automatic handheld machinery to fine anyone who arrives at Epsom border control without the correct paperwork.

If you arrive without a pre-purchased paper extension, however innocent, you will receive a penalty fare and a lecture.

The thing is, people who get fined for visiting a town tend not to come back. Theres a lot of empty shops between the charity shops in Epsom  Home of the Derby. Its not all horses and top hats.

Being out is not good for business.

Welcome to Epsom: Home of the Derby... and penalty fares.

Epsom station is a mess. Its a perfect example of why private railways dont work.

In theory, it could be a text-book example of the economic conceit of perfect competition - one station used by two competing train companies. What could go wrong?

1. The station is managed by Southern Railway.

2. But the majority of trains running through it belong to South West Trains.

3. If you commute with South West Trains, and suffer one of its regular meltdowns, you are entitled to a void day refund. But if you bought your ticket from Epsom station your contract is with Southern Railway so you need to convince a justifiably irritated South West customer services operator that you want money back from a company that didnt sell you anything.

How fare? London is only 2,600 away from Epsom.

4. If you commute with Southern Railway, youll be aware of the companys joyless disregard for the times in its timetables. Its lateness is legendary. The @SouthernRailUK Twitter page is a high-speed feed of apologies.

5. An annual season ticket from Epsom to the London zones costs more than 2,600. This staggering amount of money gets you to a destination that if you walk up the hill you can see!

6. The good thing about competition, though, is choice. Much of the Southern Railway rolling stock is 10 carriages, comfortable, new and air-conditioned  theres even on-board toilets, individual tables and plug sockets to charge your laptop or phone.

7. Much of the South West Trains rolling stock on this route has just eight carriages, was built in the early 1980s and is tatty, filthy with no air-conditioning or toilets.

8. South West Trains services do have windows that open but they slam shut when a fast train passes. The misery is compounded in summer.

9. South West Trains turns the heating on in summer.

South West pains: Shiny and regular on the outside but tatty, dirty and overheated on the inside.

10. Having no on-board toilet apparently entitles desperate late-night drunks on South West's one-hour stopping services from London to Guildford to relieve themselves into the bins. There are four urinals per carriage.

11. At weekends, South West Trains removes half its carriages for maintenance. While its great that these knackered old wagons are being looked after, it does mean that leisure travellers also get the full standing room only commuter experience on the special weekend half-trains.

12. Youd think, then, that using its competitor Southern would be a no-brainer.

Mod cons: Southern trains, many of them, have 10 air-conditioned carriages.

Mod con: Southern passengers get a clean carriage, a table and socket for electronic devices. But a laughably unreliable service.

13. But South West Trains can get you to London about 10 minutes quicker than Southern Railways  even though its the same distance with the same number of (10) stops. And South West runs trains at sensible 15-minute intervals as opposed to Southerns completely random timetable of a train every now and again, whichll also probably be late.

14. So it is great news that South West has been introducing a few new carriages!

15. But theyre the same as the old ones.

16. No air-conditioning, no loo, no tables or plug sockets and with the same number of carriages. The only discernible difference is a peculiar new single aisle-facing seat thats too narrow for a not-that-fat person to get in.

Chris Grayling: The main railway station in his constituency 'must remain OUT of London to keep fares UP'.

Rail privatisation was dreamt up, probably with a pen on the back of a paper ticket, to fix a problem that could have been tackled from within. Even the tracks were privatised for a while until everyone realised that that was just for a laugh. Unlike a Brexit vote, the decision was able to be overturned.

Perhaps like the EU, London Transport is an old, unwieldy, imperfect institution but joining it or joining the Travelcard card part of it would make one town at the tip of Surrey a better place for Londoners to come and do business in the shops, bars and coffee shops.

Now try to comprehend this: the latest from Grayling is that an IN vote for Epsom commuters would bring fares for commuters DOWN, which he says is a reason for NOT joining the Travelcard zone.

Irony spotters, thank you  youre very welcome. In is better for your pocket, after all.

What happens if we leave the European Union in June is anyones guess but surely its harder to fix a problem if youre stuck at the frontier shouting at visitors, dishing out penalty fares and spouting nonsense?

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If you want to give your finances a fresh start this year, the best and most important place to start is to try to clear any debt.

If you have a hefty balance sat on an old credit card, you will likely be clocking up interest of at eye-watering levels of 19-25 per cent.

A balance transfer card with a 0 per cent interest deal attached is a great tool if used correctly focus your repayments on clearing your balance, rather than covering interest.

The number of interest-free balance transfer deals on offer however has fallen to record lows as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and promotional terms are shortening as banks tighten lending. But the top deals currently waive interest for up to 28 months.

Interest freeze: An extended 0 per cent interest term can help borrowers clear their debts quicker

Those with short to medium-term debts can use such offers to finally get out of the red, while those with much more to repay can look to these cards to provide a lower cost alternative to their existing debts.

But beware: there are caveats to consider and barriers to overcome when applying for such cards (see box) below.

Many balance transfer cards also come with a 0 per cent period for new purchases as well.

Avoid the balance transfer credit card traps

The crucial thing to remember is that card companies aren't providing cheap credit as a favour.

They want you to not clear debts during the 0 per cent period and spend more on the card, which makes them money.

Avoiding falling into this trap is the key to balance transfer success.

Remember, you are trying to repay your debts, not build up more. So think hard before buying anything else with credit.

Work out how much you need to repay each month in order to clear the debt in time and set up a direct debit.

Beware, pay late or spend beyond your limit and you could have the 0 per cent promotion whipped away.

This is Money has compiled a selection of the best deals currently available in the balance transfer market.

This page is kept updated throughout the year - bookmark it for the very latest developments.

Longest balance transfer credit card deals

LONGEST INTEREST-FREE BALANCE TRANSFER CREDIT CARDS Provider





Interest-free term on balance transfers

Interest-free term on purchases

Transfer fee





APR



Extra info





NatWest 28 months 3 months 2.75% 19.9% Balances must be transferred within the first 90 days. Open only to existing customers. M&S Bank 28 months 6 months 2.85%/5 19.9% Also gives you M&S points for your spending and a 5 voucher when you sign up. MBNA 28 months No 2.9% 20.9%

Bank of Scotland 26 months No 1.4% 19.9% Tesco Bank 26 months - 2.98% 19.9% Also comes with 12 months' 0% interest on money transfers (3.94% fee) Correct as of June 30 2020

THE SMALL PRINT: READ THIS BEFORE YOU APPLY Being approved for a balance transfer card is by no means guaranteed. In theory, those with the best credit ratings are the most likely to be approved for a card as they will have a history of paying off debt on time and have a stable income. It is more probable that those with poor credit ratings will be rejected. Those who are refused should bear in mind that applying for a number of other balance transfer cards in a short space of time will worsen their credit rating. Many card providers will not allow you to transfer balances from another of its own products, so you should identify the best deal for you outside of your existing providers before making an application. Some providers meanwhile may only accept your application if you already hold a current account with them. There are other restrictions you will also have to satisfy, such as having a minimum level of income (generally 10,000- 20,000 ). And to take advantage of introductory 0 per cent offers, you may have to transfer your balance within a specified time-frame. Most credit card providers increase handling fees after the first 60 or 90 days.

Completely 'free' balance transfer deals

For those confident they can pay off their credit card debts in a shorter time frame getting a balance transfer card with a lower handling fee, but lower interest-free period, can limit the extra charges on your debt.

Competition is tight though and there are a handful offering no handling fees at all with 0 per cent promotions just over two years.

Market leaders:

NatWest's Balance Transfer credit card offers 20 months interest-free with no fees, and comes with 0 per cent on purchases for the first three months.

However, balances must be transferred within the first three months of having the card and the 20-month clock starts ticking from the moment the card is issued. It comes with an APR of 19.9 per cent, and is only open to existing NatWest customers.

Santander's Everyday credit card offers 18 months 0 per cent interest with no handling fees, plus it has one advantage over rivals, it doesn't restrict the fee-free transfers to the first 60 or 90 days.

You can transfer a balance from another card free from handling fees for the duration of its 0 per cent interest offer - which lasts 18 months. You also get 3 months free purchases. The standard interest rate is 18.9 per cent.

Best low rate balance transfer credit cards

People who have racked up substantial credit card debt which is unlikely to be paid off within two years or who prefer to sidestep teaser rates can plump for cards which offer lower rates of interest.

Interest rates on these deals have jumped in recent months, however there are still some decent no-frills deals to be found.

Remember depending on how high your debts are you could also consider consolidating debts into a loan, particularly with borrowing rates at record lows at the moment.

If you choose a low rate credit card, you can currently find deals offering rates of 9.9 APR per cent.

Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland all offer cards with an APR of 9.9 per cent offering no-fee balance transfers if you shift your debts to them within the first 90 days.

Remember these deals are reserved for those with tip-top credit ratings and even if you are accepted you could be offered a higher interest rate of 16.9 APR per cent. Try using an eligibility checking tool first before you apply to see what your chances of being accepted are.

Read more about the best low-rate credit cards in our round up here.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Saturday that Turkey would never accept charges the Ottoman Empire committed genocide against Armenians in World War I, saying the accusations were being used as "blackmail" against Ankara.

In his most bitter reaction yet to the vote by the German parliament Thursday to recognise the killings from 1915 as genocide, Erdogan threatened to leave Europe "to its own worries" if such disputes were not resolved.

"The issue here is not the Armenians.... The Armenian issue is used all over the world as a convenient blackmail against Turkey and has even started to be used as a stick," he said in a televised speech.

"I am addressing the whole world. You may like it, you may not. Our attitude on the Armenian issue is clear from the beginning. We will never accept the accusations of genocide."

He said that during World War I, what remained of the Ottoman Empire was "under siege from all sides" and "of course a number of measures were taken to restore order in Anatolia".

The vote in the German parliament added yet another bone of contention to Turkey's troubled relationship with the European Union, which it has sought to join since 1987.

"Either we find solutions to our problems in a fair way. Or Turkey will stop being a barrier in front of the problems of Europe. We will leave you to your own worries," Erdogan added to cheers, without specifying further.

Armenians say some 1.5 million of their people were killed in a genocidal campaign by Ottoman forces -- ordered by Minister of War Enver Pasha and other top officials -- to wipe them from Anatolia.

But Turkey insists similar numbers of Muslims and Armenians were killed during wartime conflict sparked when Armenians joined forces with invading Russian troops in the hope of carving out their own state.

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This month marks the 50th anniversary of the first credit card in the UK. The protection they offer to customers is enshrined in law. But now Laura Shannon exposes a hidden threat to one of the most powerful consumer rights that shoppers have in their financial armoury.

Consumer rights: Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act gives protection but is now under threat

A major review of a 42-year-old law poses a significant threat to shoppers rights of redress when they pay with plastic.

The outcome could spell disaster for millions of consumers who rely on credit cards to pay for anything from flights to TVs  only to find they have been sold a pup.

Nearly 34million Britons have a credit card  spending a combined 150billion a year. Many do so because of the guarantee they have when paying this way.

For example, purchase a holiday flight for more than 100 and if the airline goes bust you can claim the money back from your credit card.

This is because your card provider shares liability with a retailer if the latter collapses, fails to deliver, or if an item is faulty.

Such protection comes under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. But City regulator the Financial Conduct Authority is now tasked with reviewing this safeguard, and consumer groups fear it will be weakened or eradicated entirely.

3 WAYS TO USE PLASTIC 1. INTEREST-FREE SHOPPING Sainsburys Bank Nectar Purchase  0 per cent interest on what you buy for 27 months Post Office Matched Card  similarly 0 per cent interest on what you buy for 27 months Post Office Matched Card 2. SPREADING THE COST MBNA Platinum  40 months to pay off debt with no interest charged. But the initial fee is 2.55 per cent of the sum transferred to the card. Tesco Bank Clubcard  40 months to pay off debt at 0 per cent interest. The fee is 2.69 per cent of the sum transferred. MBNA Platinum 3. TRAVELLING Halifax Clarity MasterCard  no fees for spending or withdrawing cash abroad. However, interest is charged on cash withdrawals until the full balance is repaid. MBNA Everyday Plus American Express  no fees for spending or withdrawing cash. Interest is charged on cash withdrawals until full balance is repaid.

WHY THE REVIEW

Some 82 sections of the Act were abolished and replaced with more up-to-date rules in 2014, when the FCA took over responsibility for consumer credit markets from the Office of Fair Trading.

But 167 other parts, including section 75, were left alone. Now these too are at risk of being modified, updated or replaced by rules or guidance, as stated in FCA documents.

The aim of the review is to simplify the regime and ensure consumers continue to be protected whilst not placing disproportionate burdens on firms.

WHAT IT COULD MEAN

Hannah Maundrell of consumer website Money.co.uk says: The Consumer Credit Act desperately needs to be dragged up to date and written in terms everyone can understand.

But we dont yet know how far the regulator will go in rewriting the rulebook. There is potential to scrap valuable protection  such as section 75  if it deems it too big a drain on the industry. This is a huge worry.

Civil engineer Luke Byrne is a prolific credit card user because of the protection offered. He has three credit cards, which he uses to benefit from a mix of cashback and zero per cent interest on whatever he buys.

The 33-year-old puts as much as he can on plastic and pays off the balance in full each month. Luke, from Cirencester, in Gloucestershire, says: I was aware Im protected by my credit card for purchases, but didnt know the exact amount or terms relating to it.

Should the protection be reduced or completely removed, I would be thoroughly disappointed because it is one of the main reasons I use credit cards whenever possible.

It gives me confidence to spend. If it wasnt in place, I could be in debt for something I never received, was faulty or not fit for purpose.

HOW YOU BENEFIT NOW

Left exposed: Luke Byrne relies on credit card protection

A credit card provider can be tapped for a refund if a company lets you down. Naturally banks and credit card issuers are not keen to highlight this benefit, so many shoppers are unaware of the protection the law offers.

It covers individual items or services with a value of between 100 and 30,000. Alastair Douglas, head of TotallyMoney, a website that compares credit cards, loans and mortgages, says: This law provides an added incentive for people to pay for goods and services by credit card, which is to the benefit of providers.

Estimates of how many people make a claim  successful or not  under section 75 are 2.1million customers over three years, according to Money.co.uk. That is 2 per cent a year of all credit card customers. The same study shows that more than two-fifths of claims were rejected by providers.

The Financial Ombudsman Service, which handles customers money-related gripes, received 8,200 complaints about credit cards in the year to the end of March 2016.Many related to section 75 claims. The Ombudsmans annual report notes: Disappointingly, in a significant number of cases we had to clarify these legal responsibilities to credit card providers.

To make a claim contact your credit card provider and ask for the relevant forms. If the adviser on the phone tries to dissuade you, stand your ground.

It is worth asking the retailer for a refund first, but you can still claim from the credit card provider at the same time, so long as you only receive a refund from one source.

Douglas says: The reason this exists is to protect people from having to pay off a debt on something they never received.

This law is even more important today, when products and services are so easily purchased online, and the relationship between buyer and seller is anonymous.

The FCA closed its initial call for comments on the remaining sections of the Consumer Credit Act last month and is due to publish an update later this year. Any change will not happen at speed, however, as the regulators deadline for reporting to the Treasury is not until April 2019. Maundrell adds: The regulator is unlikely to make a final decision without consultation.

Rest assured, well be watching and, if it comes to it, fighting for the same valuable protection to feature in future rules.

Another way to battle on: Chargeback is a form of protection for shoppers using a debit card

CHARGEBACK

Shoppers using a debit card have a separate, little-known form of protection if things go wrong.

If you pay for a lamp, for instance, from a high street store that goes into liquidation before delivering it, you can ask your bank to make a claim under chargeback. It will attempt to recover the money you have lost from the shops bank, rather than the shop itself.

This is different from section 75 and can be used by both debit and credit card customers if goods fail to turn up, are faulty, or are not as described.
By Marc Shoffman for Thisismoney.co.uk

If you want emerging market funds to add some worldwide flair to your investments, read This is Money's experts' recommendations.

From the bafflingly wide range, they have picked some ideas to use as starting points for what will hopefully be successful investing.

Of course, which fund is best for you depends on your individual circumstances and what investing story you think will unfold. So, always do your own research, choose your investments carefully and hopefully you will make your own good investing luck.

On the up: Emerging markets such as Brazil are where much of the world's growth is expected to be over future years.

How to use our fund and investment trust ideas This is Money asks our panel of experts to suggest investments for a variety of investors. These are people with a long history in the investment field and looking at their choices gives you some pointers. But remember, these are just ideas and whether a particular fund is right for you is your own decision and making that requires deeper research. Their ideas are suitable for investors opting to use an Isa wrapper or not. Go to the bottom of the page to find out why we like investing through an Isa. Read the tips, follow the links to the funds' performance and read This is Money's Investing section to gather ideas. If you have any doubts, talk to an IFA [find an adviser].

Why emerging markets?

Emerging markets is a broad term. It can cover everything from big hitting China and Brazil, to up-and-coming Indonesia and onto the new investing frontiers of Africa.

The lure for investors is greater growth and younger economies than typically found in the developed West and emerging markets have delivered strongly on this over the past decade.

The trade-off for this growth is higher volatility and more risk. Emerging markets investments tend to get punished in the short-term when turbulent times hit, in the long-run though they are tipped to outperform.

Many investors consider emerging markets funds an essential part of their portfolio, but experts say they would be very wise not to stick their house on them.

The case for emerging markets is that these strong growth economies are one of the best long-term bets around, especially for those making regular investments using their annual tax-free Isa allowance.

But remember emerging markets success is not guaranteed and never put all your eggs in one basket. It is also worth remembering that risk varies throughout this broad category, an overall emerging markets fund will be spread across a variety of countries and continents, others are region, country or sector specific.

The expert's emerging markets fund ideas

Damien Fahy of MoneytotheMasses.com recommends: Jupiter India

Ongoing charges: 1.09 per cent

Yield: 0.10 per cent

He explains: While India hasnt been immune to the negative sentiment surrounding emerging market equities it has fared better than many of its peers. In addition, Indian equities are not tightly correlated to either developed or emerging market equities.

This is in part a result of the sweeping changes that have occurred in India's political and financial system over the last 2 years, thanks to Narendra Modis majority pro-growth Government. India's politics have historically been a messy tangle of inter-state politics with each elected State historically putting self interest over national unity

Modi has tackled this by giving individual Indian states more autonomy which has led to states wanting to be more competitive, particularly for foreign investment, rather than being merely obstructive. If you go to any major UK airport, such as Heathrow, you will now see billboards from individual Indian states claiming to be an 'investor's paradise

Reform is never easy, but as the pace of reform accelerated so too did the Indian stock market. Still, the pace of reform has not been fast enough for some.

While other emerging markets have struggled with commodity prices, particularly the fall in the price of oil, India is different. India imports 80% of its oil, so is unlike other emerging markets that are net exporters rather than importers. Analysts estimate that if oil stays below or around $50 a barrel it will boost economic growth by 1% a year (India's economy currently grows at an eye-watering rate of around 7.5% a year).

Clearly investing in India is an indirect bet on a low oil price given its position as a global consumer rather than producer. If you believe the price of oil is about to rocket then clearly you wouldn't necessarily want to be left holding Indian equities.

Investors wanting direct exposure to Indian equities could look at Jupiter India. Those investing must be comfortable with volatility, which is greater than some its peers due to it investing across the market cap spectrum, and also have a long term view.

Adrian Lowcock, head of investing for Axa Wealth, highlights: JPM Emerging Markets Income

Ongoing charges: 0.93 per cent

Yield: 5.6 per cent

This fund invests in shares of emerging market companies. Big regional exposures include Taiwan, South Africa and Hong Kong.

Mr Lowcock says: 'Manager Richard Titheringtons focus is on the future, where earnings and profitability will be in five years time, not currently. He holds between 50 and 80 companies with about 60 per cent invested in companies that yield 3 per cent and can grow their dividends, 20 per cent in low yielding companies with significant potential to grow their dividends and the remaining 20 per cent in high yielding companies with dividends over 6 per cent. This diversification means the fund is able to deliver a combination of an attractive growing dividend and capital growth.

Adrian Lowcock, head of investing for Axa Wealth, also highlights: Fidelity Emerging Markets

Ongoing charges: 1.1 per cent

Yield: 0 per cent

This fund invests in companies listed or operating in a number of emerging markets.

You will find investments in India, South Africa and companies listed in the United States, but conduct business in emerging markets.

Mr Lowcock says: 'This fund is a best of breed portfolio with a concentrated fund. Manager Nick price focuses on investing in good companies at the right price. He is looking for companies able to deliver strong growth and higher return on investment. Price has favoured South Africa and Sub-Sahara where he sees clear growth opportunities as the region develops. This fund is more suitable for investors willing to take on risk as it is likely to be more volatile.

Darius McDermott, of Chelsea Financial Services, highlights Lazard Emerging Markets

Ongoing charges: 1.08 per cent

Yield: 2.1 per cent

This fund looks for the global brands of tomorrow in emerging markets.

It has regional exposure to Asia, Latin America, emerging European markets and Africa.

Mr McDermott says: Many leading global brands are now emerging market companies and this fund uses a 230-strong team of investment analysts to identify the global brands of tomorrow in these developing regions.

The managers take a bottom-up, stock-picking approach to achieve this and use market volatility created by macroeconomic concerns to time entry and exit opportunities. This strong value discipline has led to this being one of the stand-out funds in its sector.

Investment trust emerging markets ideas

John Newlands, of Brewin Dolphin, highlights Genesis Emerging Markets Investment Fund

Ongoing charges: 1.55 per cent

Yield: The trust does not pay dividends.

This investment trusts main regional exposures are to India, China, South Korea and South Africa, followed by Russia, Taiwan and Thailand.

Mr Newlands says:'Genesis Emerging Markets Fund was launched in July 1989. The trust is run by on a team basis by Genesis Asset Managers, a heavily-resourced firm which focuses entirely upon emerging market investment. The largest holdings certainly demonstrate the funds global reach, including as they do SAB Miller, the South African brewer, Taiwan Semiconductor, Samsung Electronics and the Mumbai-based Sun Pharmaceuticals.

This approach accords with our view that though emerging markets have gathered momentum of late, aided by more stable commodity prices and better data out of China, great care is still required. We therefore see these markets as being best accessed via higher quality companies, where the earnings stream is more certain and management are behaving in shareholders interests (rather than those of, for example, state-owned enterprises). Genesis Emerging Markets Fund is one such vehicle. The discount has also widened sharply over the past 12 months, which could represent something of an opportunity, though we would not expect this to close rapidly given the sectors continuing challenges.''
J. W. B. writes: In 1995 my wife and I were told by British Gas that our gas meter was to be moved from inside our home to the outside for easier reading. A new meter was fitted and we were billed for the old meter reading.

During the years since, despite numerous appeals and phone calls, we have still not received a gas bill. I am now 70 and we live on a limited income.

We are not in a position to pay what I am sure would be a huge amount. However, we would like to clear this up and not leave our family with any financial burden. Can you act on our behalf?

Piping up: Customers repeatedly contacted British Gas over their lack of bills (posed by model)

When I first reported last December how an elderly couple had not received a gas bill for more than 20 years, despite repeated attempts to get one, I imagined it was a one-off case that had somehow slipped through the system. I was wrong.

Since then, several families have contacted me with the same worries about not being billed for years  even decades  for gas or electricity that they have used.

In every case, this has happened after they moved into a newly built property or, like you, were given a new meter.

To take just one example, a couple from Cumbria say they moved into their newly built house in 1998 and gave details to British Gas. Despite reminders, nothing happened until three years ago when their meter was replaced  and still no bills followed. Like you, they want this sorted out with the least pain.

I asked British Gas why you had not been charged and officials looked back at what had happened. They told me that National Grid had been upgrading pipework in your area and explained: Mr and Mrs B stopped receiving gas bills as the national database was incorrectly updated in 1995, wrongly showing that they had no gas supply.

Over the past few weeks, British Gas has arranged for you to be given a replacement meter and a new account.

I can say that you will not be billed for any gas used since 1995, right up to the day your new account opens.

In short, you are completely off the hook and you have enjoyed 21 years of free gas.

The wider picture is that I asked British Gas whether it would now declare an amnesty for everyone in your position.

Strictly speaking, if an energy supplier mistakenly fails to bill a customer, then that person can still be held liable for one years charges. But if  like yours  the gas meter is not even registered on the system, then the broad hint from British Gas is that the customer will not be charged for anything until a new account has been set up.

I have no idea how many families are in this boat, but I have a feeling there will be more than a few sighs of relief around the country today at the sympathetic attitude adopted by British Gas.

Betting after the race

F. F. writes: In 2009 I placed a phone order with Halifax to buy 6,000 shares in Taylor Wimpey for my Isa. In April last year I noticed I should have had a total holding of 15,000 shares, but only had 10,878. Halifax agreed it received 1,500, which should have bought 6,000 shares, but it cannot account for how this money was used.

Shares confusion: Our reader's account held only 469, so Halifax bought as many shares as this would allow

I found it odd that it should have taken six years to notice you were missing either the shares or the cash. You said you own many shares and trusted Halifax without checking. Taylor Wimpey shares are worth roughly eight times their price in 2009 and you believe Halifax should compensate you for the lost profit.

But you have already complained to both Halifax and the Financial Ombudsman Service and the full story is rather different. On the day you told Halifax to buy 6,000 shares, your account held only 469, so it bought as many shares as this would allow  1,878.

The same day, you transferred 1,500 from your bank to your share dealing account, but the money did not arrive until two days later, which was too late. Halifax wrote explaining this, but you have said you did not receive the letter.

A few weeks later you invested the same cash in different shares. I think it is reasonable to wonder why you did not notice your cash balance was far higher than it should have been if you had spent the money on 6,000 Taylor Wimpey shares.

Giving you the benefit of the paper gain in those shares now would be like letting you place a bet after the race and without even having to part with the stake. Halifax has offered 300 for any distress and inconvenience. Like the Ombudsman, I suggest you accept.
Makeover: Colin Morton was inspired after visiting his firms California headquarters

Fund boss Colin Morton has just clocked up a quarter of a century in investment management. That is no mean achievement in an industry where turnover is notoriously high.

But the 49-year-old is not stuck in his ways and is still prepared to embrace new methods of making money for investors.

For the past 14 months he has overseen the transformation of Franklin UK Blue Chip, an investment fund he has run since 2000. A fresh investment process has been introduced, and a number of stocks have been jettisoned and new ones bought.

As a result, it has been renamed Franklin UK Rising Dividends, a fund which, as its title implies, strives to increase the dividend income it pays out to investors.

Though the makeover has yet to attract much attention, Morton believes it will come good in time.

Since the new approach was implemented early last year, the fund has generated a positive return  commendable given that the FTSE All-Share Index has fallen over the same period.

Its ability to capture rising dividends has yet to be tested because it has just paid out its first year of income  a touch over 15p per unit  under the new investment mandate. But Morton believes there is no reason why the fund cannot be true to its billing. He says: I am sure we can build on this income distribution.

Based in Leeds with the rest of Franklin Templetons six-strong UK investment team, he says the overhaul was triggered by a visit he made three years ago to the firms California headquarters.

He recalls: Franklin has run a successful rising dividend strategy in the US for years and has tens of billions of dollars invested on this basis.

I liked the idea straight away and thought it was something I could transport back to the UK. Rather than launch a new fund, Morton decided instead to apply the strategy to Franklin UK Blue Chip, which many investors mistakenly thought was a fund tracking the FTSE 100 Index.

It took about 18 months for him to get his head around how the new investment formula would work. But it was finally applied to the fund at the end of January last year.

He explains: The fund will only invest in firms that have grown their dividends in eight of the past 10 years. They must also have not cut their dividend in this time. Finally, they must pay out less than 65 per cent of their earnings in income, thereby indicating an ability to grow future payments.

These parameters mean that there are 350 stocks to choose from and the fund is currently invested in 39.

Choice: The fund is currently invested in 39 stocks

The formula has resulted in some big firms being dropped from the fund, such as Aviva, BP, HSBC, Legal & General and Vodafone. It has also meant the purchase of new stocks, such as Cheltenham-based Spirax-Sarco Engineering and software company Micro Focus.

The result is a fund with an overall yield of 3.4 per cent, a figure that Morton reckons is sustainable.

The biggest obstacle to increasing the funds income year after year, he says, is the propensity of companies to pay one-off special dividends.

While the fund is at the start of its income growth journey, a handful of investment trusts have delivered more than 40 years of consecutive annual dividend rises.
For students and young, cash-strapped holidaymakers, hostels play a central role in their travel experience. Most are pretty grim  peeling paint on the walls, dubious bathroom facilities, lumpy mattresses and cheap bedding.

Larry Lipman, a 58-year-old entrepreneur with a strong record of building businesses, thought that there could be a better way of providing accommodation to bargain hungry holidaymakers and still make money.

Four years ago, he founded Safestay, a hostel chain with a difference. Floated on AIM in May 2014 at 50p, the shares are 59p today, but they should move considerably higher as Lipman rolls out the business nationally and overseas.

Quality: Larry Lipman offers keenly priced accommodation in Londons Holland Park

Bright, welcoming and scrupulously clean, the hostels include cosy bars, 24/7 receptionists, free wi-fi (a must for the young) and top-quality bedding. They are also in grand buildings in central locations, but still cost an average of 20 per bed per night.

So far, the group has just four premises  one each in Edinburgh and York, and two in London, including a property in the middle of Holland Park, one of the most prestigious areas in the capital. Now, the aim is to move fairly rapidly to ten sites, developing a chain in the UK and selected parts of the Continent.

Lipman is an experienced operator. Having established property group Safeland in 1988, he went on to found insurance and auctioneer specialist Hercules Property Services, storage group Safestore and workspace company Bizspace  all of which were built up into firms worth tens of millions of pounds.

Cheap luxury: Entrepreneur Larry Lipman

Now, the plan is to do the same at Safestay, using the contacts and nous acquired during more than three decades in the property sector to find interesting, well priced sites that can be turned into appealing hostels.

Safestays first London venture, for example, was in John Smith House, the 18th Century former Labour Party headquarters transformed into a brightly painted hostel with a courtyard bar.

Like many early-stage businesses, it has not all been plain sailing. Last summer, for example, the company thought it was going to acquire a prize site in Milan, but walked away because the price was not right.

There have also been two share placings  for 3million in 2014 and just over 8million last year, to help fund the Edinburgh outlet. And some followers have grumbled about poor occupancy at new sites.

Last week, the group unveiled results for 2015 showing revenues up from 1.9million to 4million and a doubling in the value of freehold property assets to 28.8million.

There was a 600,000 pre-tax loss after Safestay invested in its hostels, developed its sales and marketing and created a more sophisticated website, capable of offering flexible prices according to demand.

Occupancy rates are rising too, especially as properties become more established. John Smith House, for example, saw occupancy increase from 71.8 per cent to 78.6 per cent between 2013 and 2015, while average revenue per bed was up by 17 per cent. Looking ahead, occupancy rates should continue to increase as the hostels become better known.

Pretty: Safestay's focus is on communal areas where people can meet and socialise with other travellers

An interior view of the Grade I listed hostel in Holland Park, London

The company, previously run almost entirely by Lipman, has also beefed up the board. Lipman is still chairman, but two hotel and leisure veterans have joined  Philip Houghton as chief executive and Mark Beveridge as finance director.

Cheap accommodation is increasingly easy to find, thanks to Airbnb and budget hotel chains such as Travelodge.

Safestay is positioned differently, however, with a focus on communal areas where people can meet and socialise with other travellers in a safe environment.
Investors in top-performing income funds and trusts could suffer a reversal in fortune if the oil price continues to recover because many have low weightings in the sector, a leading analyst has warned.

The price of Brent crude has already nearly doubled from a low of $27 a barrel in January to around $50 now, and could well carry on rising even if big oil nations can't agree to curb production at an Opec meeting in Vienna this week.

'The oil price is important for hundreds of thousands of retail investors because of the prominence in oil stocks in the best-performing equity income funds and investment trusts in the UK,' says Russ Mould, investment director at online service AJ Bell.

Price trends: Leading oil nations could strike a new deal to curb production at an Opec meeting in Vienna this week, which would most likely push the oil price higher

Oil stocks, led by top players Shell and BP, represent around 13 per cent of the FTSE 100s market capitalisation - the total value of shares in the index - as well as 19 per cent of expected dividend payments in 2016.

But Mould says: 'A lot of the top performers in the UK equity income category have low weightings in the oils and their recent outperformance will be based on this to some degree.

'However, if the oil price recovery continues they will lose ground against the funds with exposure to oil, so they have a big decision to take as to whether to jump back in or not.'

Mould explains: 'A number of factors have combined to drag the oil price back towards the $50-a-barrel mark - investment cuts by oil companies, falling drilling activity, a long-awaited decline in US oil inventories, production disruption in Canada, Venezuela, Nigeria, Libya and Iraq, all coupled with relatively steady demand.'

The tables below show recent returns from the top 10 best-performing UK equity income funds and trusts over the past five years, plus how heavily they are invested in the energy sector at present, and whether BP or Shell or both are among their top 10 holdings.

Income funds and trusts are extremely popular with investors because they focus on stocks that generate dividends, which can be reinvested and offer the opportunity for outsized returns through compounding gains.

'Two funds which already have top 10 positions in both BP and Shell are Schroder UK Alpha Income and Royal London UK Equity Income, so they would be logical beneficiaries if oil continued to rally and dragged the share prices of the majors along for the ride,' notes Mould.

Regarding investment trusts, he adds: 'Only one of the top ten performers over five years  James Hendersons Lowland  has a top-10 position in both Shell and BP, so this one could get a boost if oil keeps going or suffer if it slips back.'

Read more about how investment funds and trusts work below.

Top-performing funds: Many do not have BP or Shell among their top 10 holdings (Source: AJ Bell)

Top-performing trusts: Only one has a top-10 holding in both Shell and BP (Source: AJ Bell)

What should you do if your investments might be hit by oil price recovery?

The oil market is notoriously volatile, as demonstrated by the collapse in the price from around 115 in summer 2014 to 27 in early 2016. Read more about what is driving the oil price below.

However, while it's a good idea for investors to keep informed about current price trends, these shouldn't be the main driver of decisions about changing long-term investments in funds and trusts.

Investors pay the managers of 'active' funds and trusts such as those in the tables above to make the big investment calls on their behalf while they attempt to beat their peers and the wider market.

How big a stake to take in oil companies at any particular time is one of the decisions you effectively delegate to a professional manager if you decide you like their strategy and opt to invest with them.

Oil watch: Most financial experts were caught on the hop when the price collapsed from a peak of around $115 in 2014

Those who don't want to place their faith in a fund manager and pay their fees in the hope of outdoing the market can invest in a tracker or 'passive' fund instead.

These simply clone the performance of a market index. If it's the FTSE 100 or All-Share, this will automatically offer exposure to the oil sector because of its heavy weighting in these indices, mainly via the giant firms BP and Shell.

That means tracker funds will reap the benefits and bear the brunt of losses from moves in the oil price. Tracker funds benefit from dividends too.

Go here for tips on investing in income funds, and here to find out how to choose a low-cost tracker fund.

WHAT IS DRIVING THE OIL PRICE? Most financial experts were caught on the hop when the oil price collapsed from a peak of around $115 in 2014. It roughly halved between the summer and the end of that year, and plunged as low as $27 in January this year. The main reason it tanked was Saudi Arabia's decision to keep its oil output high despite signs of softening demand from big buyers like China. The move has been very costly for the Saudis and other top oil producing nations such as Russia and Brazil - and most especially Venezuela, which is currently on the verge of economic collapse. The Saudis are believed to be trying to put US shale oil producers out of business to maintain its market share. Many of these operators can't break even when prices are this low, and have scaled back production as a result. The lifting of sanctions against Iran has led to further flood of oil onto an already well-supplied market. Nonetheless, the price began recovering early this year and Brent crude has hovered around $50 a barrel over the past few weeks. US oil producers are finally scaling back production, and demand is holding up for now.

Crunch meeting: Oil ministers and representatives of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) have gathered in Vienna, Austria, this week
The EU referendum and the US presidential election might be fuelling debate among political, economic and pub pundits, but the deafening war of words is simply a distraction from the day job for many fund managers.

Among them is Gabrielle Boyle, manager of Troy Asset Managements Trojan Global Equity Fund since November 2011. Though personally nervous at the prospect of Donald Trump taking the top US job, she tends to ignore the hullabaloo.

Instead, she concentrates on finding companies for her worldwide fund  50 per cent invested in the US and 37 per cent in the UK and the Continent  that can ride through such storms, whether here or across the pond.

Gabrielle Boyle, manager of Troy Asset Managements Trojan Global Equity Fund since November 2011, is personally nervous at the prospect of Donald Trump taking the top US job

She says: I try not to let all that bother me. The fund is driven by stock selection. I look for strong companies that are well managed, have diversified revenue streams and whose products or services are fundamental to our lives and are likely to be around for a long time. Some in the fund are over 100 years old.

She points to financial giant American Express (established in 1850) and consumer products group Colgate-Palmolive (1806) as fitting this bill perfectly. Boyle says: People will always buy toothpaste and the company is building wonderful market shares in India, Mexico and China.

More modern companies also make the cut in the 32-strong portfolio, including Microsoft and Google owner Alphabet. They fit another of her goals, which is backing technology firms with a strong future.

She says: I also like eBay, which the fund has owned since December 2013. Some people call it a digital flea market thats losing out to Amazon, but it has 160 million active users who are of a different demographic and interested in a bargain. It has plenty of room to grow and a strong balance sheet, which is cash and asset rich.

Ups and downs: But in recent years the fund has shown its mettle against the FTSE All-Share Index as well as global indices

New management is also reorganising its 900 product listings to simplify them. I also like the fact it owns attractive businesses such as StubHub, the worlds largest online ticket exchange.

Boyles strategy is to buy and hold stocks, partly to avoid the damage that trading costs have on performance. Just 10 per cent of the funds holdings have changed in the past year.

She says: I dont trade an awful lot. Most recently I sold pen and razor maker BIC, which had become relatively expensive, and topped up on Novartis. The Switzerland-based healthcare group is now the funds biggest holding.

The funds performance has had its ups and downs, but in recent years has shown its mettle against the FTSE All-Share Index as well as global indices.

Consumer products: The fund invests in products or services that are fundamental to our lives

Patrick Connolly of broker Chase de Vere says: The performance was quite mediocre, but has turned around significantly in the past couple of years. Boyle should take credit for this as she has transformed the fund into one with a much wider remit, with less focus on the UK market.

Boyle believes in her choices enough to have her whole self-invested personal pension in the fund.
Royal Bank of Scotland is being sued for 145million over its role in a huge carbon trading VAT fraud.

The legal action, which dates back to 2009 just months after the bank was bailed out by taxpayers, alleges that two traders at the bank carried out deals which helped fraudsters cheat Revenue & Customs out of millions of pounds in VAT payments.

High Court documents seen by The Mail on Sunday claim that RBS traders were wilfully shutting their eyes to the obvious, which was that there was no legitimate explanation for the trades and that they were connected with VAT fraud.

Sued: RBS allegedly helped fraudsters cheat Revenue & Customs out of millions of pounds in VAT payments

The claim centres on a so-called carousel fraud in which traders buy and sell goods and so register a VAT charge on the trade, but never actually pay the VAT. When the goods are sold the VAT is then reclaimed.

In this instance carbon credits  which are in effect pollution permits issued by the EU  were bought in France, imported into Britain by allegedly sham companies which then sold them on to a series of other allegedly fake firms.

It is claimed that RBS traders bought the carbon credits and then sold them abroad before claiming a VAT rebate from the Revenue to which they were not entitled.

Between June 8 and July 6, 2009, the court papers state, RBS traders bought 43 million carbon credits linked to allegedly fraudulent companies.

The deals were said to have been conducted by Andrew Gygax, 41, and Jonathan Shain, 38, who were employed at the banks commodities trading division RBS Sempra.

The legal action is being brought against RBS by liquidators at accountancy firm Grant Thornton acting for creditors  including the Revenue  who have been left out of pocket by the failure of the allegedly fraudulent companies.

It claims the RBS traders  and therefore the bank as their employer  should have realised the trades they were being asked to carry out were part of a fraud and so are liable to repay the VAT.

Gygax and Shain, who have since left RBS Sempra to work at Freepoint Commodities, are accused in the documents of recklessly failing to make such inquiries as an honest man would.

The claim highlights emails at RBS, including one sent by its Money Laundering Unit warning that RBS was being targeted by carousel trading fraudsters.

Under the scheme countries are allocated the carbon credits which are then bought and sold through a number of carbon markets like any other commodity.

The idea was to create a market in which companies could sell credits they do not use, so creating a financial incentive to reduce their carbon emissions.

In 2013, a report by accountancy giant BDO estimated that VAT fraud  which has been the subject of an ongoing crackdown in the UK  costs Britain more than 3billion a year.
Stephen Butt, one of Londons wealthiest fund managers, has picked up a multi-million pound pay packet after another bumper year at the investment giant he launched.

Butt founded Silchester International Investors in 1994. It focuses exclusively on long-term stock market investments.

He landed a 23million windfall from dividends paid last year to add to his estimated 450million fortune.

Jolly rich: Stephen Butt already has 450m

Silchester is known for building long-term stakes in firms, unlike many hedge funds that take short-term positions to gain from falling share prices. Its investments include Morrisons as well as financial firms Icap and Man Group.

Accounts just filed show that assets under management fell from 24.4billion to 23.6billion in the year to March 31, 2016.

But pre-tax profits climbed 2 per cent to 143.9million. Of that, 92.5million was shared by 17 partners while 51million went to Silchester Partners, which is half owned by Butt and his wife.

As well as income from Silchester International Investors, Silchester Partners received 27million from the other funds it manages, giving a total 74.7million pre-tax profit after various expenses.

Silchester Partners then paid 44.7million in dividends, of which almost 52 per cent, or 23.2million, was paid to Butt.

He is also likely to have been paid the lions share of the 10.7million salary pot to be shared between 16 employees.

The company declined to comment. Silchester and its founder are famously publicity-shy and refuse to talk about how much members are paid.

At least Butts remuneration is in line with his performance, given the group he founded has consistently outperformed its rivals in its 22-year history.

However, savers keen to share in his success must find the 25million minimum sum. Many investors are American institutions, such as pension funds, though the group invests in non-US equities.
The UK is fast becoming a powerhouse for online holiday rental websites such as Airbnb, thanks to two major changes that give homeowners the chance to receive more tax free income.

Since April 6, taxpayers have been able to earn up to 7,500 a year renting out a room in their home without paying tax  a significant increase from the previous 4,250 threshold.

The popularity of these websites is expected to increase further when a new tax break for micro-entrepreneurs applies from April next year. Homeowners will be permitted to earn up to 1,000 a year tax free from renting out a whole property on homesharing websites.

Floating office: Quirky locations include a houseboat in Kings Cross, Central London

The website allows anyone to list rooms or properties online for short or long-term rental, says its UK listings have doubled to 80,000 in the past 12 months and it expects the trend to continue. Hosts pay the website a 3 per cent fee, while renters pay 6 to 12 per cent

A spokesman says: The new tax break is good news for the growing number of hosts in the UK who are sharing their homes, earning a little extra money to pay the bills.

There are pitfalls to consider before taking the plunge. There have been reports of wild parties and police involvement at properties rented out using Airbnb. In what is thought to be the first court case of its kind, a judge recently ruled against the tenant of a flat in Brixton, South-West London, who was renting a home on the website. The neighbours had complained about noisy parties and the tenant was found to have breached his lease agreement.

One host from Forest Hill, in South-East London, claimed his guests caused 12,000 worth of damage to his luxury new-build home during a New Years Eve party to which police were called.

And a host in Fulham, South-West London, found a guest holding a party for 100 people in her flat. She was allegedly assaulted when she tried to shut the party down.

Airbnb says such problems are extremely rare and it points out that hosts are protected by certain guarantees. The spokesman says: When we are made aware of issues, we work fast to put things right.

The company says the guests who held the problem parties have been banned from the website. It adds that it is reimbursing the hosts for the damage.

'Our guests help us pay for holidays' Key location: Joel Lumsden and Alex Hepworth live near the Edinburgh Festival Joel Lumsden, 31, and his girlfriend Alex Hepworth, started renting out the top room in their house using Airbnb during last years Edinburgh Festival. Joel says: It has been pretty consistent since then with a couple of lettings a week. Its a double room in a quiet area with a nice view across the Firth of Forth. The couple are now named as super hosts thanks to the five-star reviews given by their guests. Weve met lots of interesting people and because the website has really grown in the last six months a lot of them have been first-timers. You never know quite what to expect. Some are happy sitting in the living room with us, but others have been more hands off. Joel, who works in internet marketing, and Alex, who is employed at the citys Heriot-Watt University, are saving the money they are making for travelling. It goes straight in to the holiday fund, says Joel. His main criticism is that he feels the company could do more to explain its policies to hosts. He says: There is a lot of confusion about what will happen in bad situations. I think a lot of people go into it without knowing exactly where they stand.

In general the company says it covers hosts for eligible damages up to 600,000. Hosts are also able to add a security deposit to their listing but if they wish to claim on this they must do so within 48 hours of checkout.

Not everyone is convinced that hosts are fully protected. Dan Weber, the founder of website Airbnbhell, is a disgruntled former US host who believes the company allowed guests to take him for a ride.

He initially thought the website was an amazing concept, but he says he was left out of pocket after a British couple who had stayed in his property for almost six months filed a complaint two days before they were due to leave. The pair claimed there were rodents in the property and Airbnb handed them back half of their money.

Weber insists the images provided by the tenants were fraudulent. He says: This couple got back several thousand dollars. His website features tales from disgruntled hosts and guests all over the world  a third from Europe.

Boom: Websites including Airbnb and Vrumi are gaining in popularity

Would-be hosts using Airbnb and other websites such as SpareRoom and mondaytofriday have other issues to consider  such as how their mortgage lender and home insurer will react.

Ray Boulger, mortgage expert from broker John Charcol, warns that such services are a grey area for lenders. He says: Although they do not usually have a problem with lodgers staying in a home, all mortgage contracts contain a clause stating that you cant let a property without the lenders permission.

I would advise anyone planning to do this to contact their lender first. If letting more than one room on a casual basis rather than long term, it gets complicated as it could be argued that one is running a B&B, which is a business and has other implications.

Kevin Pratt, home insurance expert at comparison website MoneySupermarket, says: It is vital to check with your home insurer first as otherwise you could invalidate your insurance. You may need to pay a higher premium.

Landlords need to be vigilant as tenants may be subletting rooms without their permission.

Paul Shamplina, lawyer and founder of legal website Landlord Action, says: I have been receiving a growing number of instructions from landlords whose tenants have sublet their property via Airbnb without their consent.

Landlords can do a postcode search of the website to see if rooms in their property are being offered for rental. Shamplina adds: Airbnb says it asks for tenants to obtain consent from their landlords before subletting, but does not ask to see this consent.
An Iranian-backed Shia Iraqi militia said on Saturday it planned to storm Fallujah, Islamic State (IS) group's stronghold near Baghdad, once civilians left the city, backtracking on earlier statements that it would leave this task to the Iraqi army.

"We will not enter Fallujah as long as there are families inside," said Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the Badr Organization, the largest component of the Shia paramilitary coalition known as Hashid Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization.

"Of course, we will go in and rid the city from the evil of this cancerous gland, with nobody preventing us," he said, when asked what would happen if civilians managed to flee the Sunni city that lies 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad.

Fallujah is the first Iraqi city that IS group captured, in January 2014, and the second largest still under its control after Mosul in the north. Sunni politicians have voiced concern that the presence of Shia militias alongside the army in the battle to retake the city could lead to sectarian violence.

Amiri was speaking to reporters while touring one of the frontlines near Fallujah. Last week he said the militias would take part in encirclement operations but leave the army to storm the city.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on June 1 the offensive to dislodge the ultra-hardline Sunni militants had slowed down in order to protect civilians. About 50,000 are trapped in the city, with limited access to water, food and healthcare, according to the United Nations.

Fallujah is a historic bastion of the insurgency against the US occupation of Iraq and the Shia-led authorities who took over after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003.

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Nick Longman, UK boss of the worlds biggest travel group TUI, has two wishes this weekend and they are both potentially controversial  that Britain stays in the EU and that we get more rain.

Europe and the weather are natural subjects for the man who sends more Brits on holiday than anyone else. More than 5million of us travel each year with TUI  owner of Thomson and First Choice among others  and we spend about 4billion a year with the group. Worldwide its sales are around 20billion.

On Europe, Longman, managing director of the groups UK and Ireland business, has been assessing the risk of a leave vote on June 23. He also has forthright opinions of his own.

Upbeat: Nick Longman says British tourists are returning to destinations such as Greece

The tourism industry in the UK and the millions of British holidaymakers strongly benefit from the common European market and the UK being part of it, he says, and we as a company would like to see the UK remaining a member of the European Union.

In the case of a Brexit vote, he says: If Britain does vote to leave, therell be some things well have to work through, such as aviation permits, staff issues, but weve done a full risk analysis and theres nothing insurmountable that we wouldnt be able to deal with.

But he adds: From a personal point of view, I believe during the last few decades the European Union has become a pillar of stability in an increasingly complex world. While I dont always agree with everything that comes out of Brussels, I would prefer if the UK stayed part of the EU under the terms renegotiated. In a globalised world, the UK will continue to be stronger, safer and better off remaining a member.

However he carefully says that this is a choice for the voters. The decision lies solely with the British people, so from a business perspective we trust in their vote and havent taken a proactive stance.

'Remain': 'In a globalised world, the UK will continue to be stronger, safer and better off remaining a member', says Longman

As to the weather he is rather less careful about upsetting rain-soaked Brits. Im one of the few people who really smiles when its pouring with rain at half-term, he says cheerfully. Its great for sales!

A lot of people will have expected the weather to be better over the May half-term, and when its not, people want to make sure their summer holidays arent ruined too. We often see a pick-up in bookings after a poor half-term. The referendum and the weather are, however, just two of several challenges the travel industry has faced in recent years, including terrorism and the migrant crisis.

Longman has been with TUI for 18 years, but took the helm in the UK almost exactly a year ago. Just three weeks into his role, a gunman opened fire on holidaymakers in a popular resort in Tunisia, killing 38.

It was clearly a terrible tragedy but as an operator you have to learn to react very quickly, says Longman. You have to make sure you have all the systems in place to deal with these kind of events.

Later last year a Russian holiday jet crashed after taking off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh. TUI, like other operators, has reacted by shifting capacity away from Tunisia, Sharm-el-Sheikh and Turkey and towards the more popular destinations of Spain, Portugal, the Canaries and even Greece, which has surprised many by being relatively unaffected.

Greece has been holding up really well, says Longman. It offers a fantastic holiday experience and even on some of the islands which are more focused on the migrant issue theyre doing well too. People arent being put off from going. I think the British tourist is pretty resilient and it doesnt take a long time of there being no news for people to be much more comfortable about things.

The European Union has become a pillar of stability in an increasingly complex world

Weve seen that even with Turkey, he adds. It has been quiet, but since our half-year results [published in May] weve seen bookings pick up every week. Its a big destination for us and were seeing demand coming back. It is now very good value as hoteliers have reduced their prices. Obviously we direct holidaymakers to be aware of Foreign Office advice, but we also let them make up their own minds.

And the group is still investing in Mediterranean holidays. TUI has just confirmed it is buying the cruise ship Legend of the Seas. The 1,800-passenger ship will be renovated and renamed TUI Discovery 2. TUI Discovery 1, another 1,800-passenger ship, launches next week. Both will sail the Med.

Next weeks launch is also a made-over ship, with some adjustments for a predominantly UK market. The casinos half the size it was, but weve put in another bar for the Brits, Longman laughs.

But next year will see the biggest change for the companys UK image in memory. The name Thomson will be dropped in favour of TUI. All 600 High Street shops will be renamed.

Longman admits the Thomson name carries baggage simply because of its age  an association with old-fashioned holidays. Moving to a new brand will help us broaden some of the products we offer under the TUI brand. But we dont want to lose all the things that made Thomson great.

Wider horizons: TUI says it is buying the cruise ship Legend of the Seas

And despite the online revolution there is still a place for the holiday shop in the High Street  a fact that Longman admits he finds surprising. I think everyone thought it was all going to move online, but with the rise in long-haul flights people do still want to have a chat about their booking. Theres difference in pricing between the two, so you are paying for the extra service, but were very upfront about that and you can always book online if thats what you prefer.

Thomas Cook is our direct rival, of course, but so are Booking.com and Hotels.com and the low-cost carriers, and weve been very pleased how were doing against them.

Married with two teenage daughters, Longman spends the week commuting between the family home in Horsham, West Sussex, and TUIs head office in Luton, watching his beloved Crystal Palace at weekends, but managing to fit in a fair amount of travelling too, always on TUI holidays. I dont have to, but I make it a busmans holiday. I do staff meetings and visit other resorts, checking out our rivals.

He also supports last months court ruling saying that parents shouldnt be penalised for taking children out of school in term-time. If it means holidays are staggered and flattens the peaks and troughs then thats to be welcomed, he says.
The Government is neglecting key business decisions because of the EU referendum, a top business leader has warned.

Dr Adam Marshall, acting director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, has hit out at politicians for focusing all their attention on the EU and not getting the economy on a more solid and sustainable footing.

Marshall took over from John Longworth after he gave an incendiary pro-Brexit speech at the groups annual conference in February and subsequently resigned and joined Vote Leave. The BCC is officially neutral on the issue.

Clamour: Adam Marshall took over from John Longworth after he gave an incendiary pro-Brexit speech

Marshall said: Theres a real clamour from companies to basically get back to business. Theres so many things that we need to do to help firms grow and get the economy on a more solid and sustainable footing for the long term.

Last week a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development claimed Brexit would cut three per cent from Britains economic growth by the time of the next General Election in 2020. But even if the country votes to remain in the EU, it believes growth will be just 1.7 per cent, down from its previous forecast of 2.2 per cent.

Marshall said that though the referendum was hugely important, the Government was failing to divide its attention. He said: Unless were careful, we may miss opportunities to take other big decisions that are just as important.

Theres a huge amount of frustration from businesses around things like decisions on airport expansion, around major infrastructure projects  whether thats energy, housing projects, or planning applications that may be delayed. There are questions over the huge skills gap and uncertainty around things like the apprenticeship levy, which isnt entirely clear to many of them yet.

Pro-Brexit: John Longworth

There are questions on business rates, which are such a huge cost for so many firms. The process of reform is still incomplete.

He added: Businesses feel that the referendum has pushed quite a lot of these important issues off to one side and theres a bit of a stasis, a limbo, at the moment.

The BCCs quarterly economic survey, the largest private business survey in the UK, has shown the growth rate slowing since late 2014, some time before the referendum process was even set in stone.

Marshall said: Attention has got to be on: What do you do if we end up in a period of very slow growth? What if our growth rate falls to 1.5 or 1 per cent? Do we know what it is that we need to do to reinforce business confidence, to get companies investing, in order to take us back to a period of higher growth? Thats the sort of thing were being asked.

He said he was no longer in contact with Longworth and added: I know hes out there campaigning hard and doing what he wants, but we as a business organisation have maintained the neutral stance that our businesses asked us to very clearly.

The BCCs final poll of 2,200 top business people published on May 10 found that 54 per cent would vote to remain, while 37 per cent would vote to leave, with 9 per cent undecided  a shift from February, when the figures were 60, 30 and 10 per cent respectively.
An Islamist party in Tunisia condemned an official ban on its scheduled annual congress on Saturday and accused the authorities of seeking a confrontation.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, which was granted legal status in 2012, a year after Tunisia's revolution, was to hold the congress under the slogan of a "Caliphate to save the world" but it was banned by the interior ministry "for security reasons".

"They want to drag us into conflict with the security forces," party official Mohamed Yessine Smida told AFP.

"But our battle is purely political and we have no problem with the security forces," said Smida, whose party wants to establish a caliphate through non-violent means.

Interior Minister Hedi Majdoub, whose country was last year the target of jihadist attacks in Tunis and a beach resort that killed 60 people, said his ministry had the right to deny authorisation for "any event that could disturb public order".

Tunis governor Fakher Gafsi told Shems FM radio he feared "the state could have been targeted" by a congress of Hizb ut-Tahrir on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"I think it's no coincidence that a congress of this kind was organised for two days before Ramadan... which for terrorists is a time for slitting throats and killing," he said.

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Bahraini security forces on Saturday captured 11 inmates who broke out of jail, leaving six others still on the run a day after their escape, the interior ministry said.

The ministry said a total of 17 prisoners had broken out of Al-Hadd jail near the dry dock on the island of Muharraq, east of the capital Manama, late on Friday.

Apart from 11 escapees, five accomplices were also arrested, it said, and a search was still under way for six other inmates aged 20 and 21.

There was no immediate word on whether the prisoners were common criminals or political activists jailed in a sweeping five-year-old crackdown on dissent among the kingdom's Shiite majority.

Bahrain's Akhbar Al-Khaleej newspaper had said earlier that around 20 prisoners escaped.

"They managed to seize a bus and get away after assaulting warders and police and wounding several of them," the paper said.

Police set up roadblocks on the causeways linking Muharraq to Bahrain's main island, where Manama is located, the paper added.

The tiny but strategic Gulf state has been shaken by unrest since its Sunni minority rulers crushed a month-long, Shiite-led uprising demanding reforms in 2011.

Despite the crackdown, protesters still frequently clash with police in Shiite villages outside the capital.

The kingdom, which is connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway, lies across the Gulf from Shiite Iran and is home to the US Fifth Fleet.

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Chinese construction on a South China Sea islet claimed by the Philippines would prompt "actions being taken" by the United States and other nations, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned Saturday.

Speaking at a security summit in Singapore, Carter said Beijing risks building a "Great Wall of self-isolation" with its military expansion in the contested waters, but he also proposed stronger bilateral security cooperation to reduce the risks of a mishap.

"I hope that this development doesn't occur because it will result in actions being taken both by the United States, and actions being taken by others in the region that will have the effect of not only increasing tensions but isolating China," Carter said when asked about Scarborough Shoal in a forum also attended by senior Chinese military officials.

Rear Admiral Guan Youfei, who heads the Chinese office of international military cooperation, quickly attacked the Pentagon chief's remarks, telling journalists they reflected a "Cold War mentality".

He said any sanctions against China will "definitely result in failure".

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post has reported that China plans to establish an outpost on the shoal, located 230 kilometres (140 miles) off the Philippines, which considers it part of its exclusive economic zone.

Beijing claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea and has developed contested reefs into artificial islands, some topped with airstrips.

Manila says China took effective control of Scarborough Shoal in 2012, stationing patrol vessels and shooing away Filipino fishermen, after a two-month stand-off with the Philippine Navy.

Carter declined to elaborate when later pressed on what "actions" Washington might take.

The US warning comes ahead of a ruling from the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague on a case brought by the Philippines against China, which has shunned the proceedings and says it will not recognise any ruling.

In a prepared speech, Carter said the US views the upcoming ruling "as an opportunity for China and the rest of the region to recommit to a principled future, to renewed diplomacy, and to lowering tensions, rather than raising them".

The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam have competing claims in the sea, which encompasses vital global shipping routes and is believed to have significant oil and gas deposits.

Beijing's territorial claims, based on controversial historical records, have also pitted it against the US, which has conducted patrols near Chinese-held islands to press for freedom of navigation.

"Unfortunately, if these (Chinese) actions continue, China could end up erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation," Carter said in his speech.

He suggested the US and China would benefit from better military ties to avoid the risk of mishaps.

Pentagon officials say two Chinese fighters last month conducted an "unsafe" intercept of a US spy plane in international air space over the South China Sea.

Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US Pacific Command, said in Singapore that such incidents were rare, and noted that US and Chinese naval vessels generally have "positive interactions".

Carter's attendance at the summit is part of a broader US diplomatic push, known as the "rebalance", to boost alliances in the Asia-Pacific region.

In a report last month, the Pentagon said China put its land reclamation efforts on hold in the Spratly Islands chain at the end of 2015. Instead, it focused on adding military infrastructure to its reclaimed features.

Another regional security concern at the Singapore forum is North Korea's nuclear program and its so-far unsuccessful missile tests.

Seoul and Washington want to deploy the US' sophisticated Terminal High Altitude Area Defence System (THAAD), that would protect against North Korean missiles, though Beijing worries about the system being deployed on its doorstep.

"It's not about China," Carter said. "It's about the North Korean missile threat, which is a clear threat to South Korea, to our forces there and to our allies in Japan."

Delegates also discussed ways nations could cooperate to counter the threat of Islamic extremism across the region.

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By Madina Toure

A new type of school fair is seeking to encourage both healthy living and reading in Asian and Hispanic communities in Flushing that face a disproportionate concentration of health challenges.

Advocate Community Providers and Get Focused, two local organizations that are working to improve health throughout Queens, hosted the fair at PS 244, The Active Learning Elementary School at 137-20 Franklin Ave. The goal of the fair was to promote healthy minds and bodies through reading, exercise and healthy eating.

The joint campaign, dubbed Get Focused on Reading, is part of a series of community book fairs throughout New Yorks public school system that seek to empower students by letting them buy their favorite books when they complete fitness challenges guided by certified trainers.

Moises Perez-Martinez, Advocate Community Providers director of workforce, community and government relations, said diabetes and obesity are serious illnesses that disproportionately affect underserved communities.

At a time when the city is working to transform health care delivery to achieve improved care, better health outcomes and reduced costs, innovative initiatives and partnerships such as this are critical to our collective success, Perez-Martinez said.

At the event, students can shop from a selection of over 1,000 donated books, while parents can speak directly with local ACP network physicians about any health-related questions.

ACP brings together 2,000 individual, independent physicians with 950 hospital partners and community-based organizations that focus on health, wellness and social services in lower-income, underserved Hispanic, Asian and African-American communities throughout New York City.

Its network of physicians is responsible for the health of more than 200,000 Medicaid recipients in Queens, largely concentrated in Asian communities.

ACP and Get Focused are directing their efforts toward neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of severe health conditions as a way of addresssing the racial and ethnic disparities that afflict low-income and minority communities.

Goldin Martinez, founder of Get Focused, an organization founded in Washington Heights that offers free programs in fitness, education and community service, said the program seeks to demonstrate the importance of reading, exercise and community service to youth as well as catalyzing a movement in New Yorks most unhealthy neighborhoods.

Since our establishment in 2009, Get Focused has completed over two dozen free programs and events, impacting nearly 50,000 youth and we are excited to further our impact with the support of Advocate Community Providers, Martinez said.
Germany's 76-year-old president Joachim Gauck will not run for a second term next year because of health concerns and his age, the Bild newspaper said on Saturday.

The Berlin-based daily did not cite any sources but said the popular former priest -- whom most Germans would want to stand for a second term, a recent poll found -- will inform Chancellor Angela Merkel of his decision on Monday.

"It's his partner Daniela Schadt who has advised him not to stand for a second term, particularly due to his age and his state of health," Bild said.

Contacted by AFP, a spokesman for the presidency refused comment, describing the report as "speculation."

Gauck was named president in 2012 when his conservative predecessor Christian Wulff was forced to quit over corruption allegations.

His recognition of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire as genocide in a speech last year, sparked outrage in Turkey.

This week, the German parliament adopted a resolution to the same effect.

Last year, Gauck also lashed out at xenophobic attacks in Germany on migrants and refugees, describing them as the country's "dark" side.

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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
JMG photo Kids will be bouncing, crafting and hearing Bible stories starting this week, as vacation Bible school season begins at several city churches.

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Beverly Drive United Methodist Church, 813 N. Beverly: The Friendly Kettle free luncheon will be served at 11 a.m. June 8. An Emmaus background training session will be from 10 a.m. to noon June 11. The youth group will serve lunch as a fundraiser June 12. The United Methodist Women will meet at 6 p.m. June 14.

Eastside Baptist Church, 1632 Harding St.: The ninth anniversary honoring Pastor and Mrs. Larry Lewis will be at 3:30 p.m. June 5. Pastor DeShawn Avery, of First Progressive Baptist Church in Lubbock, will be the speaker. Other guests will come from Antioch Baptist Church, Temple of Joy and Fort Worth's House of Prayer and Bethel Tabernacle.

First Baptist Church, 1200 Ninth St.: Vacation Bible school for grades kindergarten through five will be 9 a.m. to noon June 13-17, with arts, snacks, Bible games and stories and inflatables on the closing day.

First Christian Church, 3701 Taft Blvd.: This week's FCC Goes to the Movies presentation will feature the original "Star Wars" at 3 p.m. June 9 and 7 p.m. June 11.

First United Methodist Church, 909 10th: Music and Arts Camp for children who have completed kindergarten through sixth grade will be 9 a.m. to noon June 13-17. Cost is $30. The Kingdom Kids will visit the Wichita County Humane Society and play at Jump for Joy on June 7. Cost is $7.

Floral Heights United Methodist Church, 2214 10th: The evangelism committee will meet at noon June 7.

Friberg-Cooper United Methodist Church, 5511 Old Friberg Church Road: The United Methodist Women will meet at 11:30 a.m. June 4 at Cracker Barrel.

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church of Iowa Park, 801 N. First St.: The monthly family night potluck dinner will be 4:30-6:30 p.m. June 5. The Lutheran Women's Missionary League will meet at 6 p.m. June 7.

Grace Church, 5214 Stone Lake: "Fam Jam" family vacation Bible school will be 6-8 p.m. June 13-15.

Lamar Baptist Church, 1100 Harrison: "Submerged" vacation Bible school for ages 4 through sixth grade will be 6-8:30 p.m. June 6-10, with stories, music, crafts, recreation and snacks.

Legacy Church of God, 1420 Loop 11: "Fun in the Sun" vacation Bible school will be 6-8:30 p.m. June 5-9, with food, prizes for ages 4-12, inflatables, train rides and more. Register at legacyog.com.

Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, 809 Harding: The church's 125th anniversary will be celebrated during the worship hour at 10:15 a.m. June 5. David Wilson, the 30-year pastor of Greater Cornerstone Baptist Church in Dallas, will be the speaker. Call 766-2865 for transportation.

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, 4605 Cypress: The Lutheran Women's Missionary League will meet at 9 a.m. June 4. The Bible class will not meet June 9.

Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 1501 Ninth St.: The altar society garage sale will be 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 4 and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 5 in the parish hall.

St. Marks United Methodist Church, 4319 McNiel: Communion will be celebrated at the 10:45 a.m. service June 5.

University United Methodist Church, 3405 Taft: Volunteers are needed to help with the church music camp June 27-28. Contact the church office if you can help.

Wesley United Methodist Church, 1526 Weeks: The children's music camp will be June 6-10 in Bridgeport, with Robin Parrish as the counselor. The church will partner with High Plains Health Providers this summer to allow HPHP's developmentally disabled residents to use the church gym for activities each Tuesday.
Contributed photo From left, Austin Long, Mike O'Neal, Jim Hughes, W.R. McClure, Bill Black and David Warner work the Scout-O-Rama booth for the woodcarving merit badge in 1951.

SHARE Contributed photo In 1982, Troop 1 Boy Scouts learn to tie knots from their scoutmaster Jim Hughes. From left are Trey McAlister, Hughes, Brett Thompson and Tommy Haywood. Troop 1 will celebrate 100 years of Scouting in Wichita Falls with a reunion June 10-12. Contributed photo The Hughes family boasts three generations of Eagle Scouts from Troop 1. Jim Hughes (left) attained his Eagle Scout in 1952. Hughes looks at the medal of his grandson Tyler, who attained his Eagle Scout in 2015. On the right is Tyler's dad and Hughes' son, James, who attained his Eagle in 1987. Jim Hughes was honored in 2010 during the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts as one of 100 people who had a direct impact on scouting. Dr. David Wilson will be the speaker Sunday as Mount Pleasant Baptist Church celebrates its 125th anniversary.

By Sarah Johnson

Jim Hughes remembers dancing like it was yesterday. The traditional Native American regalia, the headdress made of porcupine hair, the large and colorful feather bustles and the beaded moccasins. The year was 1952. Hughes was 14 years old and a proud Plains Indian Fancy Dancer in Boy Scout Troop 1.

Today, Hughes is still highly involved in Troop 1, which was organized out of Floral Heights United Methodist Church. The troop will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a three-day reunion June 10-12.

"Indian dancing was one of my favorite things in Scouts," Hughes said. "We went to Oklahoma and danced and put on pow wows. Most of the dances portrayed events in everyday Indian life. We had a good relationship with the Indian tribes because we kept their traditions alive."

Hughes has been keeping the traditions of Troop 1 alive most of his life, joining as a Cub Scout when he was 9 years old, attaining the rank of Eagle Scout in 1952, and serving as scoutmaster from 1965 to 1990 and as past president of the Northwest Texas Council.

Hughes is excited to celebrate with his beloved troop, the longest running Boy Scout troop in the city.

"Continuity means more than anything," he said. "And it's due to highly inspired individuals, parents, leaders and youth."

The reunion celebration weekend includes activities at Camp Perkins and a dinner at Luby's with special guest Glen Adams, president of the National Eagle Scout Association. On June 12, guests are invited to a worship service at Floral Heights.

Troop 1 has enjoyed a long history in Wichita Falls. In 1913, the city formed four troops  1, 2, 3 and 4. All four disbanded, but three years later, Troop 1 reorganized with 16 young men. It has been going strong ever since, a century of duty to God and country, helping others and staying strong.

The foundation of scouting  the Scout law  entrusts its participants to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. For Hughes, there are two characteristics that are the keys to its success.

"Citizenship and leadership," Hughes said. "You can hardly be a member without getting a good dose of those. It means that a kid has duty to God, county and self. If he got a lot out of Scouting, then he'll put a lot back. We call that debt to scouting."

Alan Rainey, committee chairman for Troop 1, said the benefits of Scouting can be seen in all areas of life.

"Scouting touches only 5 percent of youth in this country, but as we look at business leaders and city leaders, it has a far and deep reach as far as character and ethics," Rainey said. "A lot of businesses are turning to our Scout law as guidance."

For David Turner, pastor of Floral Heights, the presence of Troop 1 is everywhere. The Scout hut, where Troop 1 meets, is situated across the street from the church on Polk. The Scouts participate in the church's Breakfast at the Heights feeding program as well as other events hosted by the church.

"The Scouts have been linked through local churches by their programing from the beginning," Turner said. "For Troop 1 and Floral Heights, it has been a strong partnership from the very beginning and a great opportunity for both groups."

As the pastor, Turner has taught scouts to attain the "God and Country" award, which was developed by religious groups to encourage members to grow stronger in their faith.

"Back in 1982, we had such a successful program regarding the God and Country award that a team from national headquarters in Dallas came here to film our Scouts and develop a filmstrip on how to involve the program in other Scout troops," Hughes said.

Hughes remembers weekend campouts had a ritual on Sunday morning. The boys performed their assigned tasks, which included cooking breakfast, washing dishes and cleaning up. When the work was finished and all Scouts were dressed, it was time for Sunday school at 9 a.m.

"Our Sunday school was not held in a building or even under a roof," Hughes said. "We usually moved away from the campsite a short distance to have a change of scenery and clear our minds. Usually we studied a parable about Jesus, relating it to our actions as good citizens of our country and good Scouts all around. I remember one campout when we were talking about all the problems in our country and the rest of the world. I posed the question, 'If you had the power to change one thing, what would it be?' After a minute or two, one Scout said he would choose an end to hunger. Another Scout said he would choose to not have any more crime. After another brief pause, there came the best answer ever to all the world's problems. One Scout said he would have Jesus return. He would solve everything. What a beautifully considerate thought. He had figured out a way to solve every problem, not just one."

The passion Hughes has for Scouting runs deep. His family boasts eight Eagle Scouts, including two grandchildren.

"Scouting has given us a foundation for our lives, and I believe that we have all helped those young kids who have passed through our lives to be better people," he said.

For more information about the Troop 1 reunion, visit Troop1centennial.com.

Mount Pleasant to celebrate 125th

Mount Pleasant Baptist Church will celebrate its 125th anniversary Sunday with a memorial service honoring former members during its 10:15 a.m. worship hour.

Speaker for the occasion will be Dr. David E. Wilson, who has served as pastor of Greater Cornerstone Baptist Church for more than three decades.

He also serves as president of GCBC Inc., which has been recognized by the Texas Workforce Commission for work to help residents move from welfare to work.

Wilson is also vice president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and the Dallas Baptist Ministers Union, and as corresponding secretary of the National Baptist Convention of America International.

Wilson and his wife, Vernita Simmons, have two daughters and two grandchildren.
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By The Rev. John D. Payne, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

Isn't it interesting that Luke begins his history of the church in Acts by putting the betrayal of Judas up front? The history of the church includes both apostleship and apostasy. Apostolic succession is not only a matter of carrying on the authority of Jesus, but also of continuing in the betrayal of Jesus. The church meets no failure or deceit in the world that it has not first encountered in itself. If Jesus died for the sins of the world, then Judas died for the sins of the church.

All of the disciples actually betrayed Jesus by abandoning him and leaving him totally alone to confront the mounting terror of his passion. But Peter's denial of Jesus in the courtyard and Judas' betrayal for money seem especially reprehensible. Both Peter and Judas carry out an extraordinary heinous betrayal, and both are consumed by herculean guilt and shame.

Peter denies Jesus in the presence of two male witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:6), which is incontrovertible evidence. Not only is Peter caught flat-footed, but his act is deliberate and purposeful. He is so desperate that he begins to curse and swears an oath. The object of the curse is not stated in the text, but most scholars take it to mean that he cursed himself. In the early second century, the Roman authorities gave Christian an opportunity to avoid arrest and certain death by "cursing" Jesus Christ. It's possible that Peter also cursed Christ.

At face value, it appears that Peter's betrayal is worse than Judas'. But when all is said and done, Judas is seized with great remorse that leads to a dead-end street, while Peter experiences a genuine repentance.

In some versions of Matthew 27:3 the translation reads that Judas "repented" and returned the 30 pieces of silver, but the Greek verb used here is metameo and means "regret" or "remorse"; it must be carefully distinguished from the Greek verb metanoeo, the word regularly used in the New Testament to indicate genuine "repentance," a turning around and change. The New Testament doesn't think that Judas repented. It suggests that he recognizes that he's made a terrible mistake, but fails to throw himself on the mercy of God.

The main difference between Peter and Judas is not so much what they did, but in their reaction to what they did. Peter doesn't allow the hope that is within him be destroyed by despair, whereas Judas' despair collapses his faith in the God of mercy and he takes his own life. I think Judas' great sin is not what he did, but what he failed to do  to wait and see what would happen because the Lord is merciful.

In Mark 16:7 the angel at the tomb tells the women to go tell the disciples and Peter to meet Jesus in Galilee. Peter is mentioned specifically because he denied the Lord. The words carry the message of forgiveness and invitation. If Judas had only waited, then I can imagine that the message would have said, "Go, tell the disciples and Peter and Judas ..."

Jesus would have reached out to embrace Judas, to forgive him, and restore him to the fellowship as he did Peter. You see, God is much more interested in our future than in our past.

Judas' great sin was not so much the betrayal, but the despair that destroyed hope and faith in God.
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By Patrick Johnston, patrick.johnston@timesrecordnews.com

A Wichita Falls man once convicted of stealing a Mane Event horse statue from outside Tangles Salon in Parker Square in 2012 is going back to prison on new gun and forgery charges.

James Gunter May, 27, plead guilty Friday in the 78th District Court to unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, forgery and theft of a firearm. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison, per a plea agreement.

According to court documents:

On Nov. 27, Wichita County Sheriff's deputies were set to the 300 block of Pecanway Drive for a burglary of a residence. Several checks, firearms and knives had been stolen and May was listed as a suspect.

During the investigation, detectives found May had completed one of the checks for $448.18 at Walmart, 3130 Lawrence Rd., and used it to make a purchase and obtain cash back.

They also discovered May attempted to sell firearms and knives at Texas Gun and Knife Works, 4708 K-Mart Dr., and at Gunco Arms, 1002 Central East Fwy.

May was also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm because, as a convicted felon, he is prohibited by state and federal law to possess or handle firearms.

He was previously convicted of theft of property more than $1,500 and less than $20,000  a state jail felony  in connection to the horse statue incident.

May had also been charged with another count of forgery, which was enhanced by an elderly victim, but that charge was dismissed.
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WASHINGTON  If you look at the polls, it is clear who's winning in the 2016 presidential contest: Barack Obama.

There remains the technical impediment that the president is constitutionally barred from a third term. But the longer the campaign goes on, the higher Obama's approval rating rises. This should be bad for Donald Trump and good for the eventual Democratic nominee, almost certainly Hillary Clinton. But it is even better for Obama's legacy.

According to Gallup, which has been charting the nation's assessment of its presidents longer than anyone else, Obama's approval stands at 52 percent, compared with 44 percent disapproval. That may not look impressive but it is actually quite good for a president nearing the end of his second term; Ronald Reagan, by comparison, had 49 percent approval at this point in his tenure.

For most of last year, Obama's numbers were upside-down  more Americans disapproved than approved. So there are two obvious questions: What airport is going to be renamed Obama International? And why the turnaround?

I believe the increasingly warm feelings about the president must have something to do with the contrast between him and his potential successors. Trump and Clinton may be the most widely disliked major-party contenders ever (though Trump is arguably in a class of his own, with nearly two-thirds of Americans saying they would never, under any circumstances, vote for him as president.)

The speculation about when Trump will shift tactics and begin acting "presidential" is laughable. It should be clear by now that Trump is not only unwilling to change but incapable of doing so. Look at the way he continues to lash out at anyone he perceives as having slighted him  New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, for example, a potentially valuable ally whom Trump is determined to make into an enemy. Look at the news conference Tuesday at which he lashed out at a reporter, calling him a "sleaze," for having questioned Trump's record of charitable giving.

Then look at Obama. Whatever you think of his policies, not for a minute has he failed to comport himself with the dignity and gravitas required to serve as president. Never has he given the impression of acting out of pique rather than calculation. Never does he seem a threat to put ego-gratification above what he believes to be the best interests of the nation.

I'm setting a low bar here. The fact that Trump does not clear it has to engender a degree of fondness for Obama  and has to help Clinton, who does the gravitas thing just fine.

Another factor in Obama's rising approval has to be the realization that despite Republican proclamations of doom and gloom, on balance things are going pretty well. Slow but steady economic expansion has not only reduced unemployment to 5 percent but also perhaps begun to move the needle slightly on incomes. Consumer confidence, an important indicator, is up. The effect of the recovery hardly feels like a boom but is nothing like the total bust that Trump and other Republicans describe.

The president has been increasingly forthright in showcasing his administration's record  his remarks in Indiana on the economy this week sounded almost like a vintage Obama campaign speech. He has also demonstrated his intention to do everything he can to ensure that his successor is a Democrat who seeks to build on his achievements, not dismantle them.

Like many presidents in their final months, Obama is spending considerable time and effort on foreign affairs. Here, too, we see contrast and legacy. He has fundamentally changed the U.S.-Cuba relationship in ways that will be hard for anyone to reverse.

He has continued to act with extreme caution in the Middle East, resisting calls for substantial deployment of U.S. combat forces. He made a bold statement against nuclear proliferation by visiting Hiroshima and hugging a survivor of the atomic bombing that turned the city into a smoldering wasteland  confronting the past without apology but with sober reflection.

We tend to appreciate presidents more after they leave office. The inevitable reassessment of the Obama years seems to be starting early  perhaps in apprehension of the years to come. Even Obama's harshest critics have to admit he was a steady hand in the White House. Reflection upon this fact can only increase Clinton's chances against a man who prides himself on being combative, capricious and cocksure.

Eugene Robinson's email address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com.
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Waterford

The union representing 700 workers at the Momentive Performance Materials silicones plant in Waterford will begin contract talks with the company next week in Syracuse.

In advance of the talks, IUE-CWA Local 81359, which represents the majority of those workers, held a rally in front of the massive Momentive factory Friday afternoon as a way to get workers together ahead of the negotiations, which have been contentious in past contracts.

Health care costs are the biggest concern among union members at the plant, Local 81359 President Dom Patrignani said. That is the same central issue in other contract negotiations between companies like Verizon and Honeywell, and their unions, as health care costs nationwide have been increasing.

"The biggest thing that everyone wants is affordable health care," Patrignani said. "All we want to do is have a fair contract."

Local union workers at Momentive signed a three-year contract with the company in July 2013 that expirew soon. It took about a month for the two sides to reach the agreement in 2013.

The Waterford Momentive plant makes silicones used in a variety of products from caulk to cookware, electronics and cars. Workers from a Momentive plant in Willoughby, Ohio, are also included in the negotiations.

Momentive officials said they were aware of Friday's rally and were looking forward to the contract talks.

"We are committed to providing a safe work environment, strong employment opportunities for the region, and a market-competitive compensation and benefits package," Momentive spokeswoman Tina Reiber said. "Our negotiations with the IUE-CWA are scheduled to begin next week and our goal for negotiations is to reach a ratified agreement that promotes a safe work environment, meets the realistic needs of all parties, and allows the business to control costs and be competitive. We want to ensure that Waterford and Willoughby, Ohio, remain places where current employees and future generations want to work."

lrulison@timesunion.com  518-454-5504  @larryrulison
Albany

Nine Pin Ciderworks has plans for growth after obtaining the first state farm cidery license in 2014.

Cidery operators will spend $510,000 to upgrade and expand its production facility in the city's warehouse district. Plans include a 7,000-square-foot expansion of its leased building. Seven new full-time workers will join the existing six employees.

Nine Pin is receiving an additional $100,000 from Empire State Development for the purchase of new equipment.

"When we invest in New York producers and manufacturers, we invest in the continued growth of the craft beverage industry's resurgence here in the Empire State," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. "We are proud to see the state's first farm cidery expand to increase production and create jobs in the Capital Region, and we look forward to growing the industry and supporting local orchards in the process."

Nine Pin's co-founder Alejandro del Peral said the expansion includes the installation of the largest fermentation and aging tanks in the region. Upgrades have already begun with the purchase of seven 6,000-gallon fermentation tanks.

Del Peral said the move adds "further support to the local orchards that grow such high-quality New York apples."

The Farm Cidery Law limits cidery licenses to companies making hard cider exclusively from apples and other "pome fruits" grown in New York state.

Since the State Liquor Authority granted Nine Pin a license, the cidery has taken part in Cuomo's Taste NY initiative encouraging state agriculture in New York.

"Gov. Cuomo has been a tremendous advocate for our growing industry," del Peral said in a statement. "And we look forward to continuing to help make Taste NY competitive on a national and global scale."

mkilgallen@timesunion.com  518-454-5305
Bluegrass lovers convene for weekend in Galway

Whether you're a flat-picker, a claw hammer banjo player, a yodeler or just a fan, you'll want to get yourself to McConchie's Heritage Acres Campground in Galway this weekend, because it's time again for the Adirondack Bluegrass League's Annual Bluegrass Round-Up. The festivities are held from noon to 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday.

More than 20 bands and musical acts will perform throughout the three days, including the Stringdusters, Cedar Ridge, Out of the Bluegrass, Empty Pockets, Al & Kathy Bain, Three Quarter North, Bleecker Mountain, Thirteen Feet of Bluegrass and more. The family festival will also feature food, raffles, a Chinese auction, DJs, an emcee and a guitar giveaway.

Tickets are $12 for Friday, $20 for Saturday ($10 after 5 p.m.), $5 for Sunday, $35 for the weekend (includes two nights of camping) and free for children younger than 16 when accompanied by an adult. For more information, call 221-6231, visit http://www.adirondackbluegrassleague.com or email adirondackbluegrassleague@gmail.com

Open Door employee to read prize-winning essay

The Open Door Bookstore & Gift Gallery on Jay Street in Schenectady is promoting one of their own. At 1 p.m. Saturday, June 11, bookstore employee Esther Willison will be reading and signing "Askew," her essay published in the Bellevue Literary Review collection of prize-winning essays for 2016. The review is a publication of the NYU Department of Medicine.

Willison's essay, the winner of the Felice Buckvar Prize for Non-fiction, is a raw chronicle of her daughter's transformation from a vibrant child into a troubled adult who commits suicide. The author lives in Schenectady and was one of the founders of, and a teacher at, an ungraded alternative public school. Her work has appeared in The Stories We Hold Secret, Small Town Gay and other journals.

Admission is free. For more information, call 346-2719 or visit http://www.opendoor-bookstore.com.

Close Encounters finale could shake you up

Close Encounters with Music closes its 24th season with a gala and finale performance called "Music That Shook the World" at 6 p.m. Saturday, June 11, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle St., Great Barrington, Mass.

The program will feature music by Igor Stravinsky (the near-riot-causing "The Rite of Spring"); George Anthell (an avant-garde and industrial film and television composer); Claude Debussy (groundbreaking impressionist French composer); the immortally beloved Ludwig van Beethoven; and Paul Schoenfield (the modern composer who pulls many other genres of music under the classical umbrella).

Performers include pianist Michael Chertock, violinist Yehonatan Berick and cellist Yehuda Hanani. Comedian and author Alison Larkin is the guest narrator.

Tickets for orchestra and mezzanine seats are $50, balcony seats are $30. For more information or to purchase tickets, call (413) 525-0100 or visit http://www.mahaiwe.org. If you are a Close Encounters with Music patron, preferred patron tickets are available for $150. They include preferred seating and a patron-only, post-performance dinner reception. Get these by calling (800) 843-0778 or visit http://www.cewm.org.

 C.J. Lais Jr.
Thirty-two troops have been killed in a clash with Boko Haram jihadists on Niger's border with Nigeria, Niger's defence ministry said on Saturday.

"Hundreds of assailants" attacked a military post at Bosso on Friday evening, it said in a statement that gave a "provisional toll" of 30 Nigerien and two Nigerian soldiers killed and 67 wounded.

"On the enemy's side, several dead and injured were taken away," the ministry said.

"Our defence and security forces carried out a counter-attack this morning which enabled them to retake all positions in the town of Bosso.

"The situation is under control and calm has returned."

Since February 2015, Niger has been plagued by Boko Haram attacks in its southeast region.

The Islamists frequently stage cross-border raids from their stronghold in neighbouring Nigeria.

The insurgency has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless.

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Washington

An exhausted and ill-equipped Iraqi army faces daunting obstacles on the battlefield that will most likely delay for months a long-planned major offensive on the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, U.S. and allied officials say.

The delay is expected despite U.S. efforts to keep Iraq's creaky war machine on track. Although President Barack Obama vowed to end the United States' role in the war in Iraq, in the last two years the U.S. military has increasingly provided logistics to prop up the Iraqi military, which has struggled to move basics like food, water and ammunition to its troops.

Without the help, U.S. commanders said, the offensive against Mosul would most likely fail.

Americans are ferrying equipment and spare parts directly to the battlefield by cargo plane, helping arrange purchases of ammunition for Soviet-era equipment and pressing the Iraqis to adopt measures to improve a supply chain that would run more than 200 miles from Defense Ministry depots in the Baghdad area to Mosul.

But no matter how hard the Americans push, the Iraqis can go only so fast. The pace of ground operations is likely to become even slower in the summer's searing heat and during the coming holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims often fast during the day. Much of the Iraqis' equipment needs to be repaired or replaced, and many Iraqi units will require additional training before attacking Mosul.

"A lull won't be sexy, but it's the hard and important work that needs to be done to generate combat power," said Col. Steven Warren, who until this month was the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq.

The logistical challenges are far from the only hurdles facing the United States as it struggles to deal with the complexities in Iraq.

Iran is supporting tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers, police officers and Shiite militiamen who are preparing for an assault against the Islamic State in the Sunni city of Fallujah in western Iraq, which has raised fears of a sectarian bloodbath. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq ordered the Fallujah offensive over the objections of American advisers who urged him to focus on the bigger prize of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and the de facto headquarters of the Islamic State in Iraq. But after a series of Islamic State suicide bombings last month killed hundreds in Baghdad, al-Abadi faced growing domestic pressure to stop the threat in Fallujah, which is about 35 miles west of the capital.

The Iraqis have long struggled with their military organization, but the problem worsened in summer 2014 when the Islamic State seized wide swaths of territory in western and northern Iraq and stole much of the military's trucks and other equipment used to move troops and supplies.

Since then, U.S. logisticians have been working directly with the Iraqis to try to improve their supply chain. The Americans have also taken the lead in preparing detailed schedules for moving troops, training them, and delivering ammunition and equipment to the battlefield.

"As the Iraqis move farther away from their depots at places like Taji, they will have to adopt similar sustainment practices," Lt. Gen. Sean B. MacFarland, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said in an email, referring to a city just north of Baghdad. "To do this requires a good deal of reorganization."

"Extending the reach of the Iraqi security forces also requires logistics planning," MacFarland said. "We are doing a great deal of that for the Iraqis because we recognize that Rome wasn't built in a day."

The Iraqis have had some success against the Islamic State since December. This year, for the first time since the fighting against the Islamic State began in August 2014, the terrorist group has not gained any additional territory. The Iraqis have reclaimed the city of Ramadi and several smaller cities in western and northern Iraq.
Catholic bishops guilty of negligence in respect to child abuse cases can now be dismissed from office, Pope Francis said Saturday in a move hiking pressure on the Church's hierarchy.

The move was announced just two weeks after the pope came under fire for meeting a top French cardinal accused of covering up for a paedophile priest in a scandal that has shaken France's Catholic Church.

The decision, which will also apply to other senior Church officials, was unveiled in a papal decree which said such cases would now fall under existing canon law allowing for prelates to be sacked for "serious reasons".

"The Church, like a loving mother, loves all her children, but treats and protects with special affection the smallest and most helpless," the papal decree said.

Pope Francis came to power promising a crackdown on cover-ups and a zero tolerance approach to abuse itself, but victims' groups have expressed discontent with his record on ridding the Church of the taint of paedophilia.

Known as an Apostolic letter, the text stresses the need for "special diligence" in caring for minors and vulnerable adults, with those who demonstrate negligence in tackling cases of abuse facing the threat of dismissal.

That diligence is required even "without grave moral culpability" on the part of the bishop involved, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in an explanatory statement.

"For removal from office, in the case of abuse of minors, it is 'sufficient for the lack of diligence to be grave' while in other cases a 'very grave' lack of diligence must be demonstrated," he added.

A "college of legal experts" -- cardinals and bishops -- has been set up to assist the pope reach a decision arriving at a definitive decision in a particular case.

A string of historic paedophilia cases in North America and Europe has unleashed widespread criticism of the Catholic hierarchy, including allegations that in some cases bishops were aware of sexual predators among the priesthood but failed to curb them.

Last month, Francis held a surprise meeting with French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the under-fire Archbishop of Lyon who is suspected of covering up for a paedophile priest.

The meeting came just days after the pope was quoted as saying it would be "nonsensical and imprudent" to seek Barbarin's resignation at this stage.

It was not immediately clear whether the papal decree would impact on the Barbarin case.

French examining magistrates are currently carrying out two preliminary investigations to decide whether to pursue charges against the archbishop for his handling of the allegations against Bernard Preynat, a priest in his diocese who has been charged with sex abuse.

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Personalized tours to welcome workers

The Center for Economic Growth is offering personalized tours to help local businesses attract recruits to the area.

Luring top workers to the region can be challenging for companies, especially if they are coming from places like San Francisco, Boston, Chicago or Austin, Texas.

But CEG, through its new Talent Connect program, is ready to offer tours by professional guides who will introduce job candidates to the Capital Region's rich history and culture.

Tours will be given in the cities of Albany, Saratoga Springs, Schenectady and Troy.

The tours will visit landmarks like the state Capitol, Proctors, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and EMPAC at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy.

The tours will also include local museums, parks, restaurants and stores.

No two tours will be alike because each itinerary will be custom-made to ensure that participants see what's most important to them, said Mike Hickey, CEG's interim CEO.

CPA group names new president

Michael Zovistoski, a partner at the Albany accounting firm UHY LLP, has been named president of the New York State Society of CPAs.

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Zovistoski, who grew up on a Christmas tree and maple syrup farm in Middle Granville and attended Siena College, is leading the CPA society at a time of great change.

The society voted recently allow non-CPAs, people like bankers, attorneys government officials or nonprofit executives, to become associate members of the organization.

In the past, associate members had to be under the supervision of a CPA.

Now Zovistoski will lead efforts by the society to change the law in New York state to allow non-CPAs to become partners in accounting firms.

New York is in the minority when it comes to allowing the practice.
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Troy

Pictures often tell the story.

And so it was with photos Times Union photographer Skip Dickstein took Friday at the last Mass held for students and teachers at St. Augustine School, which will close for good this month.

They show children and teachers weeping in pews. One particularly moving and beautiful photo shows a young girl deeply in prayer with hands clasped at her face.

More Information Contact Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

The closing of a school is typically sad, but it is especially so when the closure also suggests the decline of a neighborhood. In this case, that neighborhood is Troy's Lansingburgh, which had a bad week, yet again.

The cancellation of the Uncle Sam Birthday Parade, a decades-old tradition, was a shock. For longtime residents, it was a punch in the gut  and another sign of the troubles in a neighborhood that was once as stable as bedrock.

"Lansingburgh is not the same," said parade committee chairman John Rustin as he explained the decision.

The problem at St. Augustine, operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, was financial deficits that resulted largely from declining enrollment. The school opened in 1869.

The problem with the Uncle Sam parade was the difficulty of covering costs amidst sharp declines in attendance.

"We used to see people three or four deep on the side of the road," said longtime neighborhood booster and parade organizer Vito Ciccarelli. "Last year, the crowd was so sparse it was pathetic. Everyone was asking, 'Where are the people?' "

Granted, these are trends that are happening beyond Lansingburgh.

Many parochial schools, particularly in urban neighborhoods, are struggling to attract students. Civic organizations everywhere report a decline in engagement. Increasingly, we're a society of people who would rather not know their neighbors, much less hang out with them.

But the problem in Lansingburgh is also about growing blight and poverty, vacant buildings, streets that feel more dangerous, and an exodus of homeowners, Ciccarelli said.

"I've lived here for 26 years, and it is not the same neighborhood I moved into," he added. "I can't tell you how many people tell me they're putting their house up for sale and getting the heck out of here."

I asked Ciccarelli if he is worried about Lansingburgh's future.

"Very," he said. "I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel."

About a year ago, I wrote that Troy couldn't afford to let Lansingburgh slip away, that the neighborhood was too big, and its tax base too vital, for the city to succeed if it failed.

I also wrote that in a sane world, a neighborhood like Lansingburgh would never have such troubles, given its historic houses, miles of riverfront and committed core of residents. Once a separate city, it has long been a proud place with especially deep traditions.

Yet its struggles seem to be worsening.

The reasons behind neighborhood change are complicated; it's simplistic to cite just one or two causes. Still, many residents believe Lansingburgh, which feels distant from Troy's resurgent downtown, is neglected by City Hall.

"It feels like we're not getting a lot of attention," said Matthew Shepherd, 30, who has been trying to get the city to fix pedestrian signals at the 112th Street and Second Avenue intersection.

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They've been broken for much of the last three years, Shepherd said. They still weren't working on Friday.

Shepherd and his wife came to the area from North Carolina for a job and chose to settle in Lansingburgh. They rented for awhile, then decided they liked the neighborhood enough to buy a house on Fourth Avenue.

The family is exactly the new blood Lansingburgh needs, but Shepherd can't get the city to fix a simple problem that endangers pedestrians.

And we wonder why the neighborhood is declining?

I ran all this by John Salka, spokesman for Mayor Patrick Madden. He objected to the very premise of this column and noted the positive things going on in Lansingburgh, including the planned upgrade of Powers Park, a centerpiece of neighborhood life.

"There are so many good things happening," Salka said. "Why focus on the bad?"

It's a fair question. My best answer is that it would be wrong to ignore the neighborhood's trajectory or pretend that everything is OK.

Like I said, the future of Lansingburgh is too important to the city and even the region, given the neighborhood's historic significance. The people who live there deserve to have attention paid to their problems.

Plus, the closure of a 147-year-old school and the end of a significant civic event are not small changes. Lansingburgh was a better place because of the St. Augustine School and Uncle Sam parade, and it will be poorer without them.

The girl at Friday's Mass probably wasn't praying for the neighborhood, but it needs all the help it can get.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchill
Albany

Jeffrey Conrad curled his hand into the shape of a pistol and pressed a finger against his left temple to demonstrate how he fatally shot an Albany college student 19 years ago.

He recalled that the student, Erik Mitchell, who had cash in his pocket and was known to sell weed, collapsed in a sitting position against a wall inside the door of his basement apartment on Clinton Avenue. Conrad, wearing a mask and alone, abandoned his robbery plan and fled.

"He opened the door, he reached for the gun, I shot him," Conrad said, forcefully slapping his hands together. "It was just that quick and simple."

Mitchell, 23, never regained consciousness after being shot on Feb. 18, 1997. He died later that morning at a city hospital.

Conrad, 45, who claims he's killed at least a dozen people during his crime-filled life, also recounted a key detail not made public after Mitchell's murder: Police never found the .25-caliber silver handgun used in the killing.

"I chopped it up and threw it away. Hacksawed it. You'll never get that," he said.

Albany Detective Christopher Cornell sat at a table inside an Ohio jail two years ago as Conrad, seated across from him, confessed to killing Mitchell in a videotaped interview obtained recently by the Times Union. Conrad, who has mental health problems, said he wasn't clearing his conscience. He wanted to know why two other men, Carl H. Dukes and Lavelle R. Jones, were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a murder he committed.

"You've always known that they didn't do it," Conrad said. "They couldn't tell you what kind of gun it was cause they didn't know. They couldn't tell you how he fell cause they didn't know. They couldn't tell you a (expletive) thing. Nothing. Nothing. ... You guys knew from the beginning, when you sensed it, that they didn't (expletive) do it ... and you went and told his family all that (expletive): 'Yeah, we got the guys.' "

Cornell, 34, an Albany detective-of-the-year in 2014, was in high school when the murder took place. He told Conrad that policing has "evolved" since that time.

"Listen, I wasn't there in the interviews," the detective said, remaining calm as Conrad grew more agitated. "You've got to understand, they confessed. They confessed to a murder."

Conrad's unexpected confession has stirred the ashes of an era when the Albany police regularly built homicide cases in which their key evidence were the signed confessions obtained from suspects after lengthy interrogations. In 1999, the same year Dukes was convicted, a decorated city detective, Kenneth Wilcox, came under scrutiny after he obtained a similar detailed murder confession from a 19-year-old Albany man accused of killing a drug dealer. The suspect, Kevin Cherry, stood trial for murder but a jury deadlocked on his innocence. On the eve of his second trial, Cherry was set free when two other men were identified as the real suspects after an eyewitness came forward.

Wilcox, who died in 2006 in an on-duty car crash, was not the only city detective who gleaned signed confessions from murder suspects, but his knack for getting them was widely known. He also helped the lead detective in the Mitchell homicide, Ronald Matos, obtain the murder confession from Dukes.

Dukes, in jail on an unrelated charge, was brought to the Albany County courthouse on Sept. 8, 1997, seven months after Mitchell's shooting death. He was left alone with Matos and Wilcox while his public defender, Bertrand Gould, left the room, but returned periodically to check on his client and make sure he didn't need legal representation. Court records indicate Gould was unaware the detectives were accusing Dukes of killing Mitchell.

The six-hour interrogation ended with Dukes signing a detailed statement saying he was only a lookout when Jones killed Mitchell. He was charged with first-degree murder and, at the time, faced a potential death penalty.

Jones underwent a similarly grueling interrogation, and signed a similar confession after being in police custody for two days.

For years, Wilcox was regarded as the city's top homicide detective. But at the time of his death, his off-duty business dealings in the city's subprime mortgage industry were under investigation by the FBI. His former business partner, Aaron R. Dare, was later convicted of fraud and conspiracy and sentenced to more than 13 years in prison.

Dukes and Jones were convicted of robbery and murder during separate trials in Albany County Court in 1998 and 1999. They are both serving sentences of more than 30 years to life in prison and claim that city detectives coerced them into giving written statements that included details they didn't know, such as the caliber of the murder weapon. The statements also contained their alleged motive to silence Mitchell, who they admitted targeting in a robbery several months before he was killed.

Jones is from Brooklyn and had alibi witnesses who placed him in New York City on the night of the murder. But his statement admitting to the crime, and implicating Dukes as the triggerman, came after he hadn't slept for 48 hours, according to court records from his trial. Matos, 47, who has since retired as a detective and is an assistant security director for Siena College, declined comment for this story, citing the re-opened investigation of Mitchell's homicide.

Court records indicate that during Jones' interrogation, Matos ripped up two statements Jones began writing in a police interrogation room asserting his innocence. Eventually, after being threatened with the death penalty, Jones signed a statement admitting to the murder that Albany County prosecutors now believe he and Dukes may not have committed.

Attorneys for the Exoneration Initiative in New York City have taken up Jones' case and are seeking to overturn his conviction. They argued in court papers filed recently that there was no physical evidence tying Jones  or Dukes  to the murder, and no eyewitnesses who placed him Albany at the time of the killing. The attorneys cited data from the National Registry of Exonerations indicating 22 percent of the cases in which homicide convictions are overturned, based on new evidence, involve defendants who falsely confessed to the crime.

"The only evidence connecting Jones to the murder was a vague written confession, obtained after more than 30 hours of custody and interrogation throughout which he maintained his innocence," wrote Glenn A. Garber, an attorney for Jones, who is at the maximum-security Elmira Correctional Facility in Chemung County.

Attorneys for Jones said that he is "hopeful" that his conviction will be overturned in the coming months.

"We're optimistic that they're looking at this very closely and we're hopeful that they will concede our motion to the extent that we should be granted at least a new trial, and hopefully they'll ultimately decide to dismiss the case."

Dukes is at the maximum-security Wende Correctional Facility in Erie County. He is in the process of securing a new attorney who is expected to file a motion also seeking to have his conviction vacated, according to Albany County prosecutors.

Conrad, in the jailhouse interview two years ago in Ohio, said that he left New York after Mitchell's murder. He noted that he spent much of his life on the run as a parole absconder, including at the time of the killing, and that he was arrested a year after the homicide when he returned briefly to Albany. He said a "SWAT" team stormed an Arbor Hill residence where he was hiding and recovered a 9 mm handgun, ammunition and drugs. But it wasn't the gun that he used to kill Mitchell, he said, and he was sent back to prison for five years but never questioned about the homicide, even though his name was mentioned in the investigative file.

Looking back, Conrad said he remembered wondering when he was arrested in 1998 if police identified him as a suspect in the murder because the search warrant stated detectives were looking for a "silver-colored automatic handgun," which was the color of the gun he said he used to shoot Mitchell.

As Conrad returned to prison to serve time for parole violations and weapons possession, Dukes and Jones were prosecuted for Mitchell's murder. A third suspect, Pierre Jones, who was charged with Mitchell's killing and admitted taking part in the October 1996 robbery at the apartment, was acquitted of murder but convicted of witness tampering.

"Ultimately everybody wants the truth," Albany police Chief Brendan Cox said. "From what I've seen about this case I think the detectives at that time did their job, but that doesn't mean we're always right. We know historically that you have issues with false confessions."

At the time Dukes and Jones were interrogated, the Albany police did not videotape interviews with suspects. In 2010, under new leadership, the department began videotaping its interviews and now has a policy requiring videotaped interviews in all felony cases.

"I think the videotapes now at least help show the process and show that nobody did anything inappropriately," Cox said. "Unfortunately, even though we have the best justice system in the entire world, it still has flaws in it and nobody wants to see an innocent person get convicted."

At his January 1999 sentencing in Albany County Court, Dukes, then 21, maintained his innocence.

"I'm not the killer and neither is Lavell Jones, and what the police did to me as far as interrogating me, it was wrong," Dukes told Judge Larry Rosen. "I just wanted to go home. I was scared for my life. I didn't know better. ... I put my name on something that I had no business doing and it led to this."

Albany County District Attorney David Soares said his office took immediate action two years ago to help Jones and Dukes obtain new attorneys after Ohio detectives alerted Albany police that Conrad was confessing to Mitchell's murder.

"The moment that this was brought to our attention we brought them into court and it was at our insistence they were appointed lawyers," Soares said. The case is pending before state Supreme Court Justice Thomas A. Breslin, who is reviewing a motion to reopen the case.

If the convictions of Jones and Dukes are overturned, it's unclear whether Conrad will be prosecuted for Mitchell's homicide. He is serving life in prison in Ohio for fatally stabbing an ex-girlfriend. It was following his arrest for that homicide that he confessed to killing Mitchell.

blyons@timesunion.com  518-454-5547  @brendan_lyonstu
"It's a shame a piece of Americana is slipping away."

 Troy Mayor Patrick Madden on the end of the Uncle Sam Birthday Parade.

"Maybe this will brighten it up a little, and people will be less mean."

 Nyasia Williams, a fourth-grader at Arbor Hill Elementary School, on plans for a mural on a building on Orange Street in Albany that 3,000 children are helping to create.

"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."

 Florida Gov. Rick Scott, on delays in federal funding to deal with the Zika virus.

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"I didn't know about what was happening, but I have to, and I willingly do, accept responsibility. The captain goes down with the ship."

 Ken Starr, the former special prosecutor in the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, on his resignation as chancellor of Baylor University over the school's handling of sexual assault complaints.
A militant group that has claimed responsibility for several attacks on Nigeria's oil infrastructure urged other groups on Saturday not to attack soldiers or kidnap people.

The Niger Delta Avengers militant group, which says its attacks have not killed anyone, also urged a group that said it has anti-aircraft missiles not to target any aircraft.

The recent spate of attacks in the Niger Delta, which is Nigeria's oil producing hub, have driven the OPEC member's crude output to a more than 20-year low and prompted President Muhammadu Buhari to send troops to the region.

The Delta is the source of most of the oil that provides 70 percent of national income. The Avengers group wants more of that wealth to be directed to the poor swampland region.

But "the war is on oil installations," it said in a statement which referred to "the daily emergence of new groups" and added: "Avengers will deal with any group that refuses and attacks military (personnel)."

The statement, entitled "Message to Our Brothers in the Struggle", added: "The high command is calling on all groups in Rivers, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom to not indulge in any act of kidnapping and attacking of soldiers."

The Avengers have claimed responsibility for most of the latest attacks, most recently three on Friday, but the insurgency is splintered into factions, with each group listing their demands. It is not clear whether the Avengers wield influence over other groups.

They have said they aim to cut Nigeria's oil production to zero. The oil minister said on Thursday that output was 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), down from around 2 million bpd at the start of the year.

Even if the most recent attacks, which included facilities belonging to Chevron under its Escravos grade, took out all exports of the oil linked to them, June production would remain near 1.2 million bpd.

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The newly-constructed replica of the cupola is suspended in mid air by a crane as work crews guide and line up the structure so it can be fitted onto the roof of the Tarbell House on Friday morning. Titusville area residents lined the 300 block of East Main Street and gave a resounding applause when the cupola was successfully placed on the roof of the historic home.
[June 03, 2016] Inmarsat Government Connects Antarctic Heard Island Expedition

Inmarsat (News - Alert) Government, a leading provider of secure, global, mission-critical telecommunications to the U.S. government, today announced that it has successfully supported the 2016 Heard Island Project, a multidisciplinary expedition to a remote island in the Southern Ocean. The purpose of this three-week expedition, undertaken by Cordell Expeditions, a nonprofit research organization based in northern California, is to provide new information about Heard Island's harsh volcanic environment and to validate satellite communications in severe, and extremely isolated, environments in the Antarctic. The Heard Island Project's goal is to bring technology to challenges of worldwide need and interest. The results from this expedition will help scientists better understand the effects of climate change in polar regions and the ability of models to predict the consequences of actions or inactions in facing this challenge. Other areas of focus included: searching for unknown species that may have been revealed by recent major glacial retreat; confirming the group's recent discovery of subterranean rivers carrying glacial meltwater; documenting plastic debris from sources worldwide; and collecting samples of the environment that are expected to contain cryptobiota - organisms that have the ability to suspend metabolism for years or decades in the face of extreme conditions of cold, heat, desiccation or toxic chemicals. Inmarsat Government provided satellite communication services used to enable radio propagation analysis, TV broadcasts, video secondary school classroom education, video communication and blogging. During the expedition, Inmarsat's reliable and easy-to-use Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service kept worldwide followers updated promptly of expedition activities. Inmarsat Government provided terminals and managed communication services to support the base station and remote scientific teams collecting samples and important documentation of the environment including its unique flora and fauna. Inmarsat's BGAN service played a key role in the expedition's radio science (medium frequency (MF) and higher frequency (HF) propagation experients) as they contacted over 75,000 other stations during unusual solar geomagnetic conditions. It also enabled reliable communications with the science teams when they travelled to a number of areas remote from the base camp to gather samples (that will go to universities for analysis of lava content, biota, glacier stream chemical composition and more) and conduct high resolution ("Gigapan") photography of the many unusual features here.



"Inmarsat Government's support helped advance the use of satellite communications from this extreme, isolated, environment in the sub-Antarctic region. The availability and reliability of Inmarsat's satellite communication services enabled a qualitatively better capability for the expedition to communicate its activities to the general public, ensure safety, and provide for real-time interactive scientific collaboration," said Kenneth Karr, Heard Island Expedition. "In particular, it helped facilitate conferencing for scientific collaboration and emergency response, and the ability to upload archival images and data in the most challenging weather conditions that included high winds, driving snow, sleet and volcanic grit that blows with the wind - at times reaching 80 mph." The group carried out a major amateur radio operation using the call sign VKEK. Unlike any other similar amateur radio operation, the Cordell (News - Alert) Expeditions group developed a unique technology that enables near real-time internet display of the radio operations. The system, called DXA, uploads the radio log data through Inmarsat satellites to an internet server once per minute, providing viewers with an almost real-time graphical interface to the expedition. DXA was first deployed on an expedition to Kure Atoll in the Pacific in 2005 and then on a second expedition to Clipperton Island in 2013; on both expeditions, the DXA website received 40 million hits, attesting to its popularity and the value of real-time data from the expedition. The latest version (DXA3) was deployed on Heard Island; it can be seen on line now at http://dxa.vk0ek.org.

"Supporting this expedition further demonstrates that Inmarsat's services are best-in-class when it comes to delivering dependable 'on-the-move' communications - in any location or weather condition," said Gabe Venturi, Chief Commercial Officer, Inmarsat Government. "No matter where they are on the map, users seek highly available connectivity for reliable access to the information and services essential for mission success. It has been a privilege to support the Heard Island Expedition and do our part in further advancing scientific exploration." For more information about the Heard Island Expedition please contact the expedition Organizer/Leader Dr. Robert Schmieder, at [email protected]. About Inmarsat Government Inmarsat Government is a leading provider of secure, reliable and affordable mission-critical telecommunications to U.S. military, intelligence and civilian organizations. Equipped with the industry's leading satellite and terrestrial infrastructure, it delivers custom, end-to-end networks and solutions that can sustain communications anytime, anywhere. Inmarsat Government, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Inmarsat plc, and an authorized Value Added Reseller (VAR) for Inmarsat Global Xpress, is responsible for Inmarsat's retail U.S. government business. It is headquartered in Reston, VA, with network assets and operations around the globe. About Inmarsat Inmarsat plc is the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services. Since 1979, Inmarsat has been providing reliable voice and high-speed data communications to governments, enterprises and other organizations, with a range of services that can be used on land, at sea or in the air. Inmarsat employs around 1,600 staff in more than 60 locations around the world, with a presence in the major ports and centers of commerce on every continent. Inmarsat is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:ISAT.L). For more information, please visit www.inmarsat.com. The Inmarsat press release newsfeed and corporate updates are on Twitter (News - Alert) @InmarsatGlobal. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160603005923/en/

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[June 04, 2016] Ideal Academy Public Charter School and BDG Renewable Energy Development (BDG) agree to demonstrate DMV's first charter school-hosted microgrid in DC Lamond Riggs Community

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In a historic first of its kind for the DMV region, Ideal Academy Public Charter Academy and DC-startup BDG Renewable Energy Development, LLC., sign memorandum of understanding to transform the Lamond Riggs community toward a more sustainable and equitable energy future for area stakeholders; while saving Ideal Academy thousands of dollars in energy costs and direct more money toward achieving the school's mission. BDG will design, finance, and build a behind-the-meter solution for Ideal Academy that will strengthen the charter school and community energy security, improve reliability and resiliency of the Lamond Riggs aea grid; maintain power and improve vital community services for area residents when service territory experiences widespread outages; increase alternative and renewable energy jobs and business creation that increases and diversifies community participation in the new energy economy; and saves area consumers money through community energy cooperatives.





Ideal Academy spokesperson stated: "This project provides the enabling environment to demonstrate how innovative school-centered partnerships in collaboration with utilities, governments, and education administrations at all levels will focus on training the new energy workforce for sustainable higher paying jobs; creating new science, technology, energy, and advanced manufacturing (STEAM) jobs; as well as spurring new sustainable energy entrepreneurs directly from the local community.



About BDG RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT BDG Renewable Energy Development is a new Special Purpose Entity set up by The Blunt Group, DirectSun Solar Energy and Technology, and Grid Development Partners. The combined group (BDG) markets Solar, Energy Storage, Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, and Microgrid products and services in the DMV and throughout the US east coast. The company also provides Program Management, Energy Security, Advanced Manufacturing, Infrastructure and International Trade and Development support across the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160604/375571 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ideal-academy-public-charter-school-and-bdg-renewable-energy-development-bdg-agree-to-demonstrate-dmvs-first-charter-school-hosted-microgrid-in-dc-lamond-riggs-community-300279797.html SOURCE DirectSun Solar Energy and Technology

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'A true blessing:' Meet the family behind the viral photo from UK's scrimmage

Micheal McGuire didn't know his photo was going to go viral after he rushed to meet his family at the Blue-White Scrimmage in Pikeville on Saturday.
The United States on Saturday warned its citizens in South Africa of possibly imminent terror attacks by Islamic extremists in the country's major cities.

"The US government has received information that terrorist groups are planning to carry out near-term attacks against places where US citizens congregate in South Africa, such as upscale shopping areas and malls in Johannesburg and Cape Town," the local embassy said on its website.

The warning came against the background of the Islamic State group's "public call for its adherents to carry out terrorist attacks globally during the upcoming month of Ramadan," the embassy said.

South Africa's foreign affairs ministry played down the threat.

"The state security agency and other security agencies in this country are very much capable of keeping South Africa safe and everybody in this country, including Americans," spokesman Clayson Monyela was quoted as saying by local media.

"The last time they did this, towards the end of last year, nothing came out of that advisory."

In September last year the US advised its citizens in South Africa to be on heightened alert against attack, saying extremists may target American interests in the country.

The US regularly warns its citizens around the world to beware of terror attacks, but Saturday's note was specific about the targets and the imminence of the threat.

South Africa has so far escaped the militant Islamist attacks seen in several other African countries.

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The blade of a dagger found in Tutankahmuns mummy wrapping has been the subject of debate since it was discovered in 1925. But recent studies carried out by an Italian-Egyptian mission at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square have revealed that it was carved from iron from a meteorite.

We show that the composition of the blade, accurately determined through portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, strongly supports its meteoritic origin, Egyptologist Abdel Rasek Al-Naggar, one of the research team, told Ahram Online.

Al-Naggar went on saying that in agreement with the results of metallographic analysis of ancient iron artifacts from Gerzeh, the Italian-Egyptian study confirms that ancient Egyptians attributed great value to meteoric iron for the production of precious objects.

Al-Naggar asserted that the high manufacturing quality of Tutankhamuns dagger blade, in comparison with other simple-shaped meteoritic iron artifacts, suggests significant mastery in ironworking in Tutankhamuns time.

Mahmoud El-Halwagy, former director of the Egyptian Museum who took part in the study, said he was unable to confirm whether ancient Egyptians knew that the iron came from a meteor.

We don't want to go to other angles, to symbolic or religious issues. These were rocks that were available and were used by humans, El-Halwagy pointed out, adding that it is not unlikely that the daggers had symbolic or religious uses.

According to an article published in Meteoritics and Planetary Science, among several iron objects discovered in Tutankhamuns tomb were 16 miniature iron blades, a miniature head rest, and a bracelet with the Udjat eye of iron. But the dagger is the one that has attracted most interest from archaeologists and historians,

Observed by Carter, the scholars wrote in their article, the iron objects from Tutankhamuns tomb highlight innovative features of the use and trade of iron in the Late Bronze Age. Diplomatic documents from the Egyptian royal archives from the 14th century BCE (the Amarna letters) mention royal gifts made of iron in the period immediately before Tutankhamuns reign. In particular, it is reported that Tushratta, King of Mitanni, sent precious iron objects to Amenhotep III.

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More than 1.5 billion Muslims around the world will start to celebrate Ramadan the first week of June, during which observant Muslims fast from dawn to sunset.

For the latest news, features, arts and culture from Al-Ahram's English language website, click here.
Seems appropriate for the Sabbath and also corresponds with our divorce obsession . . . The mission of this scholar is "to bring awareness to the growing crisis of agunot, Jewish women whose husbands refuse to give them a religious divorce known as a get."Faith life insight from our blog community . . .As with all things, our TKC blog community approves of an amicable parting of the ways and divorced babes armed with more cash along their path of making even more poor choices . . .Checkit: BIAV Scholar in residence addresses plight of agunot
Jackson County Legislator Denny Waits Stays Winning This Week

Working on more than a few things for Saturday but the conclusion of Friday night posting wouldn't be complete without a quick review of some of the movers and shakers for this week in the Kansas City metro.To with, checktonight . . .Behind the scenes, he might be one of the few courthouse legislators who cares about keeping up rules & regs in the Countyhis ongoing dedication to animal rights issues and building a new KCMO shelter is impressive.Other political notables include . . .: Recentlyand continues on his path toward reelection.: Still shaking things up within an effort to lure more jobs to this rising star suburban city.Ready to veto quite a bit from the Missouri GOP agenda in the coming days.: Ramping up his efforts to run for Mayor and touting his Northland connections as of late.Hopefully, more for the morning update . . .
THIS MORNING OUR BLOG COMMUNITY LAMENTS THE DEPARTURE OF HALF-PINT HOTTIE KALEE DIONNE WHO RETURNS TO HER NATIVE BIGGER AND BETTER CHICAGO MEDIA MARKET!!!

"On Instagram Kansas Cities favorite weather lady Kalee Dionne announced she's leaving KC for a job in Chicago. Now you took some heat by some local reporters and commentators about body shaming. But the announcement of a move to a higher market makes so much sense to why Kalee started dressing sexy, became a gym rat and got hair extensions. It was nothing more then a boost in her job resume. Good luck to her. I wish she was a lifer but the sexy ones normally don't stay in KC. How long till Kacie Mcdonell leaves for a bigger market?"

Kalee seyz: "I have some big news to share. I've had a great journey in 9 years and 4 different stations...4 different communities and 4 different weather experiences all that I have loved and will always take with me. Now I'm coming home to you Chicago. I will be joining NBC 5 Chicago's amazing team in the fall. I thank you Kansas City for welcoming me into your home and I love you all, but I'm happy to be going home. I'll still be here for a few more months, but wanted to address the talk."

Exactly

Nowadays the small Kansas City media market is as transient as a Downtown condo that didn't work out for developers  Meaning that it all starts off well-and good with attractive but fickle hipsters who quickly move on but are quickly replaced with more of the same generic clones in an endless cycle of mediocrity.Times have changed and even the best reporters aren't committed to the fate of Kansas City. As with all things, people are either on their way up or down in this cowtown and staying too long seems to doom a "journalism" career for anybody but a few select old school news dudes. Real talk the most powerful news dudes in Kansas City over 50 look like the walking dead but their lady equivalents are all supermodel dopplegangers with the career lifespan of a June bug.. . .We hope it's a step up but the reality is that the half life for news hotties is cruel and it's only about 18 months until she's a grandma by news babe standards.Here's first word from our blog community that accurately sums up the situation . . .The statement from the weather lady hottie:Truth is, we admired Kalee's half pint hotness but because social media is bitchy by nature . . .But I digress . . .Fact is Kalee was beloved in Kansas City and even won a surprising endorsement from sponsored content rag KC Magazine.And so, once again the wheel turns and another news hottie is lost with fresh meat (for lack of a better analogy) is on the way as TV news continues to dominate the dissemination of information around Kansas City but is also clearly a commercial enterprise that needs to attract local viewers by way of hotties . . .Kinda like a blogger.You decide . . .
2016 will be a positive year for Greek tourism, according to a study on "Opportunities, Challenges and Prospects of the Greek tourism industry" presented today at the 1st Conference of Greek Tourism organized under the auspices of Eurobank and S

2016 will be a positive year for Greek tourism, according to a study on "Opportunities, Challenges and Prospects of the Greek tourism industry" presented today at the 1st Conference of Greek Tourism organized under the auspices of Eurobank and SETE in Athens.

The main points of the analysis are summarized below:

-The total contribution of tourism to the Greek economy amounts to 18.5% of GDP according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, and according to SETE estimated 20-25% of GDP. And according to the study, the overall contribution of tourism to the GDP of the country will reach 22.4% in 2025.

-According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, the total contribution of tourism to employment stood at 23.1% in 2015 and is estimated to reach 28% in 2026.

-The traditional tourist product based on the triptych "Sun, Sand and Sea" is necessary to maintain and upgrade. It is after all, the main reason for attracting visitors to Greece. This can be achieved mainly through the quality of service upgrade. However, complacency is not allowed. The increased flow of tourists in recent years can be attributed to the efforts of professionals and the implementation of a series of reforms but mainly to geopolitical turmoil in the region, which considerably affected many of Greece's competitors. But sooner or later competition will intensify again.

-It is necessary to create those conditions that will allow the sale and maintenance of a competitive product while, at the same time, it is necessary to develop other types of tourism products such as nautical, City Break, medical, cultural, religious and professional tourism.

-Strategies that will enable the enrichment of our tourism product to achieve geographical and temporal expansion of season and increase in tourist revenues include, among others:

 Ensuring fiscal stability as a key condition for both the return of Greek economy to a sustainable rate of growth and for the creation of fiscal space that will allow the gradual reduction of tax rates.

 Simplification of the legal framework, directly reducing bureaucracy and legislating strict deadlines for issuing permits.

 Creation of an effective investment law to provide tax and other incentives for a reasonable period of time.

 Acceleration of public property utilization program, upgrading of critical infrastructure such as motorways, regional airports and marinas and enhancement of coastal Athens area and Thessaloniki.

 Attraction of travelers from rapidly growing markets eg. India and China as well as general travelers with high income and propensity to consume.

 Creation of integrated tourism infrastructure eg airport combination with marinas, commercial activities, hotels and holiday leisure homes.

 Further development of the cruise industry.

 Limiting shadow economy (unfair competition, loss of tax revenue ~ 270 mil.

 Effective management of NPLs in the tourism industry which in turn will allow:

 release of resources from non-productive sectors,

 effective restructure of non-viable enterprises,

 enhancing competition,

 further strengthening of new credit to viable firms in the industry,

 accelerating decline in borrowing costs.

 Effective operation of European funds NSRF 2014-2020, program Juncker etc with Eurobank already processing a series of initiatives in this direction.

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
Denmarks birth rate is expected to boom following a series of sex campaigns, including the controversial video called Do it for Mom, released in 2015

Denmarks birth rate is expected to boom following a series of sex campaigns, including the controversial video called Do it for Mom, released in 2015. The Danish government released a set of campaigns aimed at encouraging Danes to have more children and help curb the declining birth rate of the country.

Company Spies Travel, released a video in September 2015 with the slogan Do it for mom, urging young people to have more babies to please their parents and grandparents.

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.

Nearly nine months later reports suggest that Denmark is set to experience a baby boom with 1,200 babies due in summer compared to last year, according to local media in Denmark.

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
Saudi-based King Fahd Security College has signed a collaboration agreement with University of New Haven (UNH), a leading educational institution in the US, to start a new four-year baccalaureate degree program in security studies in capital Riyadh.



The agreement was signed by General Major Saad Abdullah Alkhelawi, the general director of King Fahd Security College, and Steven H. Kaplan, the UNH president under the patronage of Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of the Interior during the King Fahd Security College Annual Commencement this week.



The University of New Haven is a private, top-tier comprehensive institution recognized as a national leader in experiential education. Founded in 1920, the university enrolls 1,800 graduate students and more than 4,600 undergraduates.



The new program will be delivered at King Fahd Security College (KFSC) in Riyadh.



As per the agreement, experts from UNH's Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences will advise their counterparts at KFSC on the creation and accreditation in the kingdom of a baccalaureate degree in security studies with three specialisation tracks: criminal justice, homeland security and intelligence studies.



"We are excited to put the UNH's world-renowned programs in criminal justice, national security, and forensic science studies at the service of Saudi Arabia's next generation of security professionals," remarked Kaplan.



"This agreement deepens longstanding bilateral educational co-operation between the US and Saudi Arabia, and we are honoured to support the further development of security expertise upon which so many in the region and beyond depend," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Oman International Container Terminal (OICT) at Sohar Port in the sultanate has registered solid growth over the past 18 months, said a top official.



It is moving into a new era of automation in Sohar, in line with continued growth in container throughput that has more than doubled during the period, stated Albert Pang.



He was speaking at a function to mark the official completion of Terminal C in the presence of Dr Ahmed Mohammed Salem Al Futaisi, Minister of Transport and Communications, and Sultan bin Salim Al Habsi, the chairman of the board of Sohar Port and Freezone and secretary general of the Supreme Council for Planning.



Both the officials also attended the opening of the new Operations Control Centre (OCC), and the inauguration of a state-of-the-art Remote Control Crane Centre at the port.



The new Terminal C facility allows the remote operation of recently installed quayside cranes that have sufficient reach to load and unload 20,000 TEU ships.



"As a taste of things to come, today saw the first visit of a 13,000 TEU vessel to Sohar Port, the MV MSC Altair at 366 m the largest container vessel ever to visit the Omani logistics hub," observed Pang.



According to him, the OICT's investments have helped to create the world-class facility that can see working at peak efficiency today.



"The OICT is handling more frequent direct calls from mega-vessels at Terminal C, which can handle the latest class of 20,000 TEU container ships," stated Pang.



In addition to faster turnaround times facilitated through automated loading and unloading systems, OICT now boasts an online truck appointment system, he pointed out.



The new communications software schedules container truck arrival times at the terminal through direct contact with the truck operators and drivers, reducing waiting times and minimising environmental impact by avoiding unnecessary fuel wastage, said Pang.



Once the Terminal D gets completed, it will increase the port's annual handling capacity fourfold, to six million TEU. The construction work is likely to start as early as late 2018 or early 2019, he stated.



In addition to the new quayside cranes, OICT has invested heavily in new rubber-tyre gantry cranes (RTGCs) to further increase efficiency in the stack yards, he added.



According to Pang, the old container Terminal B is now being fully reconstructed as Sohar Food Zone, a dedicated agro berth with planned facilities for rice, grain and sugar processing.



Planning work is also progressing on Terminal D, a massive new container terminal that will boast a 1.2 km long jetty once commissioned. Sohar now handles over one million tons of cargo a week and more than 2,500 ships a year.



Welcoming the MV MSC Altair to the port, Sohar chief executive Andre Toet, said: "Its hard to imagine that we only saw our first ship here in Sohar a little over ten years ago."



"The growth in size and efficiency at OICT is phenomenal and we are proud to be able to partner with companies like Hutchison Port Holdings to operate our terminals," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Friday that the basis for any future peace plan between Israelis and Palestinians remained a 2002 Arab offer, and urged Israel to accept it.



"The Arab peace initiative has all the elements for a final settlement," Adel Al Jubeir told reporters after a conference in Paris.



"It is on the table and a solid basis for resolving this long-standing dispute ... we hope that wisdom will prevail in Israel and that they accept this initiative," he added.-Reuters
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, arrived in Doha on Saturday on a two-day visit which is focused on giving a new push to the economic ties, particularly in the hydrocarbon sector, between India and the energy-rich Qatar.

Modi will hold detailed talks with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and address the business community of Qatar, a country which is Indias largest supplier of LNG requirements, accounting for 65 per cent of the countrys total imports last financial year, reported PTI.



On his arrival, Modi was warmly received by Qatars Prime Minister Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani at the airport.



Reached Doha. India attaches great priority to strong ties with Qatar & my visit seeks to expand bilateral ties between our nations, he tweeted on his arrival. I look forward to the various programs that will enhance economic & people-to-people ties between India & Qatar, he said in another tweet.



He also tweeted some messages in Arabic language.



A number of agreements and memoranda of understanding will be signed during the visit in a number of fields.



Modi, who is here on a two-day trip, will also address the Indian workers while visiting a labour camp here.



The Indian diaspora of over 6,30,000 form the largest expatriate community in Qatar and constitutes a substantial percentage of the countrys population. The Prime Minister has been focusing on improving ties with the Gulf region which is crucial for Indias energy security. He has already visited UAE and Saudi Arabia.



Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Qatar in the last eight years. The then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited Doha in 2008.
Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has replaced the oil minister in a minor cabinet reshuffle on Friday that affected two cabinet portfolios, state news agency BNA reported.



Shaikh Mohammed, a member of the ruling family, was appointed the new energy minister, replacing Dr Abdul-Hussain bin Ali Mirza, who has been appointed minister of water and electricity.

Shaikh Mohamed graduated with honors from the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals with a B Sc. degree in Electronics.



He completed his higher education in the United Kingdom with a postgraduate diploma from the University of Cambridge and an Advanced Masters from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine.



He also holds an MBA in Business Management from DePaul Universitys Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, said the BNA report.



Shaikh Mohammed joined the Ministry of Finance in 1999, and became director of Government Shareholdings in 2005. Recently, he was appointed the chief executive of the National Oil and Gas Holding Company (Nogaholding).

He has also been a board member of several companies, including the National Oil and Gas Authority (Noga), the Bahrain Petroleum Company, the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), the Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) and the Lulu Tourism Company.

Bahrain is not a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).-Reuters
Royal Jordanian employees in their uniforms joined the nation to mark the centennial of the Great Arab Revolt, on June 3 at the King Hussein Park in capital Amman. They took part in the royal parade.



A century ago, Sherif Hussein declared war on the Ottoman Empire, then in control of the Middle East, with the backing of Arab Bedouin irregulars in a British-backed guerrilla campaign.



Jordan on Friday celebrated the Great Arab Revolt anniversary with a military parade of troops on camel back, attack helicopters and cannon fire.

At a newly unveiled Martyr's Memorial, military units stood for inspection on June 2 as the monarch walked across parade grounds, saluting troops.



The national carrier's 787 performed during the air show to mark the occasion, flying at low altitudes beside the Royal Jordanian Falcons fleet.



The air show included two tours over Amman, which was witnessed by people from all over the kingdom who came to attend the event.



The RJ 787 carried the logo of the centennial of the Great Arab Revolt on the bottom of its fuselage; it was executed by RJs Engineering and Maintenance Department.



Tens of RJ employees, wearing their uniforms, took part in the parade that was also organised on this occasion. They were preceded by a float of an RJ aircraft and RJ's colors and logo.



Since the beginning of 2016, RJ carried out a broad promotional campaign in celebration of this event. The logo of the Great Arab Revolt was printed on all RJ correspondence, magazines and publications throughout 2016, highlighting the importance of the occasion and the airlines keenness to be a part of the national celebrations of this and other events.



RJ also broadcast a movie in the Crown Lounge at Queen Alia International Airport, in recognition of this historical national event, presenting RJ as the national carrier of the kingdom for over five decades.-TradeArabia News Service
More than 60 years ago, a bicycle thief in Louisville, Kentucky, unknowingly set in motion one of the most amazing sports careers in history and one of the best-known figures of the 20th century, Ali.



An angry 12-year-old Cassius Clay went to a policeman on that day in 1954, vowing he would find the thief who took his bike and have his revenge. The policeman's advice was to learn to box first so Clay, who would later change his name to Muhammad Ali, went to a gym, where he learned quite well.



He would go on to be a record-setting heavyweight champion and also much more. Ali was handsome, bold and outspoken and became a symbol for black liberation as he stood up to the US government by refusing to go into the Army for religious reasons.



As one of the best-known figures of the 20th century, Ali did not believe in modesty and proclaimed himself not only "the greatest" but "the double greatest."



He died on Friday at the age of 74 after suffering for more than three decades with Parkinson's syndrome, which stole his physical grace and killed his loquaciousness.



Americans had never seen an athlete - or perhaps any public figure - like Ali. He was heavyweight champ a record three times between 1964 and 1978, taking part in some of the sport's most epic bouts.



He was cocky and rebellious and psyched himself up by taunting opponents and reciting original poems that predicted the round in which he would knock them out in. The audacity caused many to despise Ali but endeared him to millions.



"He talked, he was handsome, he did wonderful things," said George Foreman, a prominent Ali rival. "If you were 16 years old and wanted to copy somebody, it had to be Ali."



Ali's emergence coincided with the American civil rights movement and his persona offered young blacks something they did not get from Martin Luther King and other leaders of the era.



"I am America. I am the part you won't recognize," Ali said. "But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me."



Ali also had his share of fights outside the ring - against public opinion when he became a Muslim in 1964, against the US government when he refused to be inducted into the Army during the Vietnam War and finally against Parkinson's.



The one-time Christian Baptist became the most famous convert to Islam in American history when he announced he had joined the Black Muslim movement under the guidance of Malcolm X shortly after he first became champion. He eventually rejected his "white" name and became Muhammad Ali but split from Malcolm X during a power struggle within the movement.



The US Army twice rejected Ali for service after measuring his IQ at 78 but eventually declared him fit for service. When he was drafted on April 28, 1967, he refused induction and the next day was stripped of his title by the World Boxing Association.



In June of that year he was found guilty of draft evasion and sentenced to five years in jail. "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me a nigger," Ali said in a famous off-the-cuff statement.



He never went to jail while his case was on appeal and in 1971 the US Supreme Court overturned the conviction. Still, Ali's career had been at a standstill for almost 3-1/2 years because boxing officials would not give him licenses to fight.



'FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY'



He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on January 17, 1942, as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., a name shared with a 19th century slavery abolitionist. His early boxing lessons led to several Golden Gloves titles in his youth and his career took off when he won a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics.



His first professional fight was a six-round decision victory on Oct. 29, 1960, against Tunney Hunsaker, whose day job was police chief in Fayetteville, West Virginia.



Despite an undefeated record, Ali was a decisive underdog 3- 1/2 years later in Miami when he faced Sonny Liston, the glowering ex-convict who was then the heavyweight champion.



Ali's credo in the ring was "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" and his dazzling hand and foot speed confounded Liston, as it would many bigger, more powerful opponents to come. Ali became world champion when Liston did not answer the bell for the seventh round.



Joe Frazier became the heavyweight champion while Ali was dormant appealing against his draft conviction and, after Ali's 1970 return to the ring, the two took part in three classic fights.



The first, billed as the "Fight of the Century" in New York in 1971, was a tremendous battle that showed Ali still possessed his skills. Frazier dropped him with a left hook in the last round and, even though Ali rose quickly, Frazier won the fight on a decision. It was Ali's first defeat after 31 victories.



Frazier lost the title to Foreman in January 1973 but the second Ali-Frazier bout still drew enormous attention in 1974 with a 32-year-old Ali winning a unanimous decision.



Then came the "Rumble in the Jungle" match against Foreman for the heavyweight crown in Kinshasa, Zaire, on Oct. 30, 1974. Ali had a surprise ploy - a passive "rope-a-dope" strategy in which he laid back against the ropes, essentially hiding behind his arms and inviting the larger, stronger Foreman to hit him until he was too tired to hit anymore.



It paid off in the eighth round, when Ali knocked out the weary Foreman with a left-right combination.



It was one of the brightest moments of Ali's career, confirming him as one of the greatest fighters of all time.



Ali defended his title three times in 1975 before meeting Frazier once more in October in the "Thrilla in Manila." The bout was fought in brutal heat and Ali won when Frazier's trainer would not allow him to go out for the final round.



On Feb. 15, 1978, a careless, lethargic Ali lost his title to little-known Leon Spinks in a 15-round decision. Seven months later, he reclaimed the title with a 15-round decision over Spinks. The victory, when Ali was four months shy of 37, came 14 years after he had won his first championship.



However, Ali, whose entourage helped him to spend several fortunes, needed money and refused to leave the sport even when it was apparent that age had sapped his talents.



He retired about a year after beating Spinks but came back in 1980 to fight former sparring mate Larry Holmes, losing a lopsided bout that was stopped after 10 rounds.



A year later, he ignored pleas to retire and lost to journeyman Trevor Berbick in the Bahamas. Then he retired for good with a record of 56 wins, including 37 knockouts, and five losses.



AFTER THE RING



Ali did not have to be in a boxing ring to command the world stage. In 1990, a few months after Iraq invaded Kuwait, Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein held dozens of foreigners hostages in hopes of averting an invasion of his country. Ali flew to Baghdad, met Saddam and left with 14 American hostages.



A nation that once questioned his patriotism cheered loudly in 1996 when he made a surprise appearance at the Atlanta Games, stilling the Parkinson's tremors in his hands enough to light the Olympic flame. He also took part in the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012, looking frail in a wheelchair.



In November 2002 he went to Afghanistan on a goodwill visit after being appointed a U.N. "messenger of peace."



Ali was married four times, most recently to the former Lonnie Williams, who knew him when she was a child in Louisville. He had nine children, including daughter Laila, who became a boxer.



The diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome, which has been linked to head trauma, came about three years after Ali retired from boxing in 1981. He helped establish the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at a hospital in Phoenix.-Reuters
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 4

Contractual employees nurses and paramedical staff at Government Medical College locked the operating theatres of the hospital on the fourth day of their protest against the state government here today.

The administration had to get the locks broken to take back the control of the two operating theatres. As protesting employees had entered inside the operating theatres before locking them, the administration decided not to conduct any surgeries today as a precaution to save patients from any infection.

The administration later arranged a meeting between senior officials of the district administration and the protesting employees so that no such efforts to lock operating theatres were adopted in future. The contractual staff union has promised that they would not resort on any such measures till June 10.

Meanwhile, president of the Punjab Nursing Association, Raj Bedi Anand, today gave a notice to the college administration on behalf of permanent employees stating that the employees would be proceeding on mass casual leave on Tuesday and Wednesday in support of contractual employees.

The permanent employees would sit on a protest along with contractual employees as we support their cause. Initially, we would be taking the leave for two days but if the government is still not moved, we would join them permanently, said Raj Bedi while talking to The Tribune.

The college has around 400 contractual employees working for the past five years. The employees had been demanding regular jobs stating that contractual workers in various other departments were made permanent on completion of three years of their service.
PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 4

With the city police being busy in security arrangements in view of the Operation Bluestar anniversary and because of the VVIP visits of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, the investigations of heinous crimes occurred in the recent past have been hampered.

Though police officials were hesitating to come on record, they admit preferring anonymity that investigations in many cases had got affected due the security duties. The city police is on a high alert as radical Sikh organisations had given a bandh call on June 6 to protest the army attack on the Golden Temple during the Operation Bluestar. Even the Chief Minister appealed to the people to maintain peace and harmony and not disturb the hard-earned peace.

Policemen deputed at various chowks said they were on a 24-hour duty for security reasons in order to thwart any attempt by radicals to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere. They said cops were working in two to three shifts daily and even did not find time for taking food. The Paramilitary forces were also summoned and were deputed at various parts of the city.

An official, wishing not to be named, said frankly speaking we would only find time after the June 6 programme.

Recently, a Chheharta resident, Surinder Singh, was shot dead by unidentified armed assailants outside Mata Kaulan Hospital on 100-feet road while in another incident, armed persons had looted gold worth lakhs of rupees after barging into the residence of a goldsmith. The police was clueless in both the cases. Besides, notorious gangster Bobby Malhotra, who had allegedly shot dead another youth Hariya in broad daylight, was still out of the reach of the police.

Police Commissioner Amar Singh Chahal said maintaining peaceful atmosphere in view of Operation Bluestar anniversary was the top priority of the city police at the moment but it did not mean that the police was indifferent towards the criminal instances occurred in the recent past. He said the culprits would be behind the bars soon.

Blood donation camp

Akal Purakh Ki Fauj, a religious organization, has announced to organise a blood-donation day on June 6 to mark the anniversary of the attack on Golden Temple during Operation Bluestar.

The organisation representatives said the camp would commence at 9:30 am and people were welcome to donate blood to needy patients.

Association director, advocate Jaswinder Singh, said people would be educated about the facts that as per tenants of Sikh religion, a person has to respect all religions. He said the attack on the Golden Temple was wrong and it had hurt the sentiments of the people.

He said that organisation would make this blood-donation camp an annual event.
Syed Ali Ahmed

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 3

With an aim to meet its target for completing the two dedicated freight corridors  Eastern from Ludhiana to Dankuni in West Bengal and Western from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Mumbai  the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) has finalised contracts of major projects. The entire corridor will be free from level crossings for seamless movement of both rail and road traffic.

Adesh Sharma, managing director of DFCCIL, said today his target was to complete the construction work on both the corridors and make them operational by 2019. Fifteen major contracts worth Rs 26,078 crore were finalised during the past two years as against contracts worth Rs 13,200 crore finalised during the previous six years.

He said further contracts worth Rs 9,700 crore would be finalised by July 2016.

Sharma said the estimated cost of the project is Rs 91,459 crore for the construction of total 3,342-km-long track for the exclusive movement of freight in a faster and environment-friendly way in eastern and western freight corridors.

Once both the corridors are operational, the proposed Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and Amritsar-Delhi-Kolkata Industrial Corridor will also get benefits.

The freight corridors will be equipped with modern safety device  Train Protection Warning System (TPWS)  to enhance safety for train operations, at an estimated cost of Rs 1,100 crore, though the maximum permissible speed of goods train is 100 km per hour, Sharma said.

He said, There will be no level crossings in the entire Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and a total of 1,003 level crossings are planned to be eliminated to ensure unhindered movement of traffic. There will be 689 rail over bridges (ROBs) and 314 rail under bridges (RUBs) to eliminate level crossings.

Describing the DFC as game changer, Sharma said, Multi-modal logistic hubs and private freight terminals are expected to come up along the DFC which will help generating jobs and economic growth in the country.
Satinder Pal Singh

Dera Bassi, June 4

Panic gripped residents of Haripur Hinduan village as a fire broke out in the Unit-II of Nectar Lifesciences Limited, a pharmaceutical company, on Friday night. However, no loss of human life was reported in the incident. It has been learnt that goods worth crores, besides a huge stock of pharmaceutical products and chemicals, were destroyed in the fire. The exact cause of the fire could not be ascertained yet, said officials at the factory.

According to eyewitnesses, the fire broke out around 9.15 pm at the solvent recovery plant in the Unit-II of Nectar Lifesciences Limited, located at Haripur Hinduan village on the Dera Bassi-Barwala road.

The magnitude of the fire could be gauged from the fact that the administration had to arrange fire tenders from Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula after which eight fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames, sources said.

The fire reportedly spread to the other section of the unit and destroyed raw material and furnished drugs. Besides the plant and machinery, the fire also damaged the building, the sources said. It took nearly three hours for the eight fire tenders from Dera Bassi, Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali to douse the flames.

Manjeet Singh, Fire Officer, Dera Bassi, claimed to have received the information around 9.30 pm, and subsequently the fire engines were rushed to the spot. The Dera Bassi fire brigade rushed three fire tenders along with a team of firemen to extinguish the flames. After a struggle of nearly three hours, the firefighters could control the blaze.

The rescue work that started around 9.45 pm went on till 12.45 pm. Some fire officials were at the site till late midnight to see that the flames were doused completely, claimed the Fire Officer.

The residents of the area told The Tribune that they saw flames leaping above the height of the compound wall and heard explosions. Soon, the company premises was engulfed in dark smoke and fanned by the winds the smoke spread to the nearby villages.

The residents of Haripur Hinduan village, which is about one-and-half kilometre from the company, were affected the most because of the close proximity. For some time, panic gripped the people of the surrounding village and only when the fire service personnel doused the flames did they heave a sigh of relief.

Dinesh Dua, CEO, Nectar Lifesciences Ltd, said, A special team from Mumbai is still investigating the exact cause of fire and the total estimated loss. He said it was too early to say the exact loss as we still have to get the facts about the machinery and goods that were destroyed. He agreed that the unit had suffered extensive damage in the fire.
Tribune News Service

Mohali, June 4

The Kharar court today issued warrants against Pawandeep Kaur, alias Pam, in the NRI Jaskaran Singh murder case here. Jaskarans wife Pawandeep Kaur lives in Canada. The court has directed the Mohali police to arrest and present the key accused, Pam, before August 22.

Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said now, they would start the process of extradition of Pam, who lives in Toronto with her two children.

According to the Mohali police, Pam had hired her criminal friends to eliminate her landlord husband Jaskaran Singh. Jaskaran Singhs body, which had multiple stab injuries, was found at Swara village in March. The police had already arrested four persons, Lakhvir Singh (32), a resident of Sanawa village (Nawanshahr), Davinder Singh, alias Prince, (25) from Bhagowal Karali village, Bhawanpreet Singh Bhangu (25) from Hussainpur village, Ropar, and Gurpreet Singh alias Soni (25). The police claimed that Lakhvir Singh had murdered the victim at the behest of his wife (Jaskaran), who had offered them around Rs 1crore for the crime.

Bhullar said they would soon issue Interpol red corner notice against Pam. Such a notice was essential for her arrest in Canada and deportation to India.

The case

According to the Mohali police, Pam had hired her criminal friends to eliminate her landlord husband Jaskaran Singh. Jaskaran Singhs body, which had multiple stab injuries, was found at Swara village in March.
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 4

A 23-year-old man has been arrested with 27 semi-automatic pistols. With his arrest, the Special Cell claims to have busted a gang which procured pistols from Madhya Pradesh and sold them to criminal elements in Delhi and NCR.

The accused has been identified as Salamudin, alias Salamu.

"Twenty-seven semi automatic pistols have been recovered from his possession," said P.S. Kushwah, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell).

An in-house study of the Special Cell into the use of sophisticated firearms in commission of robberies, extortions and other heinous crimes in Delhi and NCR over the past few years revealed that in most of the cases, illicit weapons are being smuggled into Delhi NCR, said Kushwah.

On June 3, the police were tipped off that arms supplied from UP would come to ISBT Sarai Kale Khan at about 8.30 pm. The police apprehended Salamuddin and seized 27 pistols from a bag which was allegedly carried by the accused.

His interrogation revealed that he has been working for one Mushtaq of Chhata, Mathura, UP, who is the main receiver of these arms, said the police.

"Mushtaq supplied these illegal weapons to the gangsters and criminals of Delhi and NCR and other parts of country. Nine pistols were to be delivered to one Sonu, a resident of Dwarka and the remaining 18 pistols were to be delivered to someone in UP," said Kushwah.

Earlier, Salamuddin was arrested by the Special Cell in December 2014 with his two accomplices.
Chandigarh, June 4

Ahead of the proposed Jat quota agitation from Sunday, security arrangements in Haryana have been tightened with the deployment of 4,800 paramilitary personnel and the administration is on high alert.

Besides adequate deployment of police personnel, as many as 48 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed at various places in the state keeping in view the stir call from Sunday. We have asked for 15 more companies from the Centre, Haryana Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Ram Niwas said on Saturday.

He said, We are not taking any chances, even though only one group was going ahead with the dharna.

He said police and paramilitary forces had been deployed to guard the Western Yamuna Canal in Sonepat district.

Protesters had disrupted water supply to the national capital by damaging the Carrier-Lined Channel (CLC) of Munak Canal during the earlier Jat agitation in February.

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The administration has specified one spot in each district where people can peacefully hold dharna, officials said.

However, officials said they were wary of the fact that protesters may attempt to block national highways and rail tracks, like in February, and therefore they had put maximum security to prevent a repeat of the situation.

Haryana Police have cancelled leave of all personnel except in emergency cases till further orders.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC have already been imposed in seven sensitive districts of Haryana barring gathering of five or more persons and paramilitary forces have been conducting flag marches during the past few days.

Police are keeping a close watch on anyone trying to spread rumours or make inflammatory statements through social media.

Adequate security measures have been taken. We are fully prepared to deal with the situation, Additional Director General of Police Mohammad Akil said.

The police stations are adequately equipped to deal with any kind of protest, he said.

While khap panchayats have opted out of the proposed agitation and dharnas from June 5, All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) has given a call for the protest.

Jat community leaders, however, have assured the Haryana government that they will maintain peace during the proposed pro-quota protest.

AIJASS Hisar district president Rambhagat Malik said, We are committed to holding dharnas in a peaceful manner.

He said that apart from quota for the Jat community we are demanding withdrawal of cases registered against our leaders and youths during the stir in February.

However, the head of Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, Nafe Singh Nain, on Friday said they would not participate in the protest slated for June 5.

Thirty people were killed and properties worth hundreds of crores of rupees were destroyed during the February quota agitation by Jats.

Sonepat DM bans mobile internet service in the district

Sonepat: Ahead of the proposed Jat agitation from tomorrow, District Magistrate K Makarand Pandurang has issued orders banning mobile internet service in the district with effect from today.

The ban would be effective till further orders.

The District Magistrate said that there were chances that mobile internet services might be used to spread wrong information and rumours.

He said that these services could also be used in illegal activities such as blocking roads, highways and railway tracks, damaging government property and disrupting essential services and supply of food.

Social media such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr, Google Plus and mobile internet could be misused for this purpose, the DM said.

Meanwhile, Rohtak District Administration has issued notices to four persons for violating prohibitory under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code imposed in the district by pitching tents for 'dharna' without permission of the competent authority.

Rohtak Deputy Commissioner Atul Kumar said that notices have been issued to former Sarpanch of village Rithal, Umed Singh, Sombir Singh, resident of Jasiya village, Ashok Balhara of Dev Colony and Vijaydeep of Rohtak, for pitching tents near Kanhi Chowk in village Jasiya, for which permission was not sought from the administration.  PTI
ABC News(NEW YORK) -- A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for a dictatorship.



So said Hillary Clinton Friday night during a rally in San Bernadino, California.



"We are trying to elect a president, not a dictator," the Democratic presidential candidate told supporters during a rally at Cal State San Bernadino.



Clinton made the remark after blasting the presumptive GOP presidential nominee for his recent comments about the judge with Hispanic heritage who is presiding over his Trump University lawsuit.



"I do not understand Donald Trump running a whole campaign based on nothing but denigrating immigrants," she said. "And it turns out that just about every immigrant that you can imagine came here for a reason, including Donald Trumps ancestors. And at some point you have to ask yourself, is this just nothing but a political stunt?



California delegate, Justin Valero, 26, showing pride at Clinton's San Bernardino rally pic.twitter.com/52ZWmZwvAY  Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) June 4, 2016

Local youth mariachi band, Corona de Angeles, waiting to see Clinton pic.twitter.com/AkO4IAPe0r  Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) June 4, 2016

Clinton's use of the word "dictator" to describe Trump comes one day after she questioned Trump's psychological state, and talked about his "fascination" with foreign dictators during her national security speech in San Diego."I have to say, I don't understand Donald's bizarre fascination with dictators and strongmen who have no love for America," she said. "He praised China for the Tiananmen Square massacre. He said it showed strength. He said, youve gotta give Kim Jong-un credit for taking over North Korea, and he said, if he were grading Vladimir Putin as a leader he would give him an 'A.'"She added, "I will leave it to the psychiatrists to explain his affection for tyrants."Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 4

State khaps have formed village-level committees to ensure that no one from their respective villages participate in the June 5 protest for Jat reservation. They have announced to wait for a few more days to see the decision of the state government on reservation.

Khaps and Jat reservation committees have already announced not to participate in the protest. Only the Akhil Bharatiya Jat Aarakshan Samiti (ABJASS) led by Yashpal Malik will organise district-level protests in the state.

We do not want to take any blame and have asked our village-level committees to persuade their residents not to participate in the agitation. All state khaps want peaceful resolution to the reservation demand and we dont want to support any violence, said Tek Ram Kandela, convener, Sarv Khap Panchayat (SKP), a body of khaps.

Some khap leaders said that during their June 2 meeting with Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar and state BJP chief Subhash Barala, they were assured that efforts would be made to give reservation to the Jats. During the meeting, khap and Jat reservation struggle committee members had raised three main issues, including cancellation of FIRs against innocent youths, compensation to the families of the agitators killed during the agitation and effective steps to defend reservation in court.

We have asked our members to keep an eye on anti-social elements who may vitiate the atmosphere my making inflammatory speeches, said Sube Singh Sumain, spokesman, Samast Jat Samaj Sangathan.

Members of the ABJASS said they would organise peaceful protests. They, however, alleged that senior government officers were creating problems for them.

Senior government officers are pressuring our leaders to change the venues of protests and are not issuing mandatory permission. We want to organise peaceful protests, but officers are taking all steps to provoke us, alleged Malik.

Govt trying to weaken stir, says Malik

Jind: The Akhil Bharatiya Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (ABJASS) has alleged the state government was conspiring to dilute its agitation by changing the protest sites. Speaking over the phone from Madhya Pradesh, samiti chief Yashpal Malik (in pic), said while they wanted to stage dharnas in rural areas, attempts were being made to retain them in urban locales. Malik said he would take part in the agitation at the Delhi-Loni border besides planning his visit to the state. He along with associates was booked for sedition recently. He said the samiti members had been asked to maintain peace and keep an eye on anti-social elements. It was unfortunate the state government was terrorising people against their agitation, he added. The samiti will start the agitation in Madhya Pradesh from June 10 continuing till June 30. OC
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 4

In the suicide case of almond trader Daman Jain, his family members, along with residents, held a strong protest against the police here today.

They put the body of Daman on the Mandi road and demanded action against the police officials concerned for allegedly threatening the trader.

Apart from seeking action against the cops, the protesters lambasted the police for failing to nab the accused booked in the case. Due to the protest, traffic remained stuck at the site for over an hour.

It was only after the ACP (Central) DD Sharma reached spot and announced that assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Mewa Singh of the New Baradri police had been suspended that the protesters lifted the dharna.

ACP Sharma confirmed that ASI Mewa Singh was suspended and was sent to the police lines. On the arrest of the accused booked in the case, he said the police had been conducting raids at the suspected hideouts of the accused and they would soon be nabbed.

Before the protest, Deepak Jain, father of the deceased, had also met Police Commissioner Arpit Shukla. He told Shukla that apart from the main accused Ramesh Gupta, the ASI was also threatening him (Daman) with dire consequences, but the police had not booked him in the case.

The almond merchant had committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his residence in the Mandi Fantanganj area on Thursday.
Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 4

In a major disclosure, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said 6,804 Indian citizens are languishing in foreign jails and nearly 42 per cent of them are in the jails of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) alone.

The Ministry shared the information with a Jammu-based activist Raman Sharma who had submitted an online RTI application, seeking the number of Indian prisoners in foreign jails and information on prisoner transfer or exchange treaty.

There are 6,804 Indian nationals currently held in foreign jails. The highest number of them is in Saudi Arabia where 1,696 Indians languish in jails followed by 1,143 in UAE. In Pakistan, there are 230 Indian prisoners, the Director-cum-Public Information officer of the Consular, Passport & Visa (CPV) Division of the MEA said in response to the RTI.

Three other nations that have maximum number of Indians in their jails are Kuwait (434), Malaysia (356) and UK (356). While the USA has jailed 188 Indians, China has 161 Indian citizens in its prisons. Bangladesh, Qatar, Singapore, Oman and Bahrain have detained 137, 129, 115, 113 and 107 Indians respectively. Countries having the least number of Indian prisoners are Japan (7), Denmark (8), Kenya (5), Egypt (3), Portugal (4). Uzbekistan, Armenia, Fiji, Georgia, Hungary, Malta, Niger, Senegal have only one Indian national in their jails.

They have been put in jails for various crimes, including violation of immigration or visa rules like overstay and illegal entry, non-possession of valid travel documents, economic offences, violation of employment contracts, working without visa or permit and consumption of alcohol (in countries which prohibit). A few Indians have also been jailed for some grave offences like drug trafficking, theft and murder, the MEA said.

The MEA also revealed that at least 49 Indians died in prisons of various countries since 2013.

It further said that many western countries did not share any information about the nationality of the jail inmates. Due to strict provisions of their privacy laws, many western countries do not share information about foreign nationals in their jails, reads the reply furnished by the Ministry.

The Ministry, however, denied giving information about number of male, female, adult or minor Indian nationals in foreign jails and advised the applicant to approach the respective Indian missions in various countries to get the information.
Srinagar, June 4

The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Saturday condemned the militant attack on a BSF convoy in Bijbehara area that left three jawans dead and nine others injured.

"This is a genuine concern which the members have raised. The entire House condemns it (the attack)," Speaker Kavinder Gupta said in the Assembly.

The issue was raised by BJP MLA from Naushera, Ravinder Raina, at the start of the Question Hour.

"The House should pass a condemnation resolution against Pakistan for fuelling attacks like the one that took place at Bijbehara yesterday ...Three of our jawans have been martyred," he said.

The BJP MLAs exchanged briefly heated words with independent MLA from Langate, Sheikh Abdul Rashid, who criticised the ruling party members for not raising the issue of Handwara killings.

"Where is the magisterial inquiry report into the killing of five persons in Handwara? You do not talk about it," Rashid said.

Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists attacked a BSF convoy on Friday killing three personnel and injuring nine others near Bijbehara on Srinagar-Jammu national highway.  PTI
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 4

Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF) KK Sharma today said there were intelligence inputs about the possibility of a militant attack on the upcoming Amarnarh yatra.

There are inputs about the possibility of attacks on the Amarnath yatra,

TheBSF DG told reporters in Srinagar after laying a wreath to honour the three BSF jawans killed in a militant attack in the Bijbehara area of south Kashmirs Anantnag district on Friday.

We are ready for the task as we have made full arrangements as in the past. I want to assure you that the yatra will be incident-free, said the BSF Director General.
Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 2

The fate of around 150 students of Delhi Public School hangs in the balance. Though it has been over a week now since the CBSE declared the results of Class X exams, these students are yet to know their results.

The worried parents have been doing the rounds at the school. If there was any lapse on the part of the CBSE, even then the school authorities had to make efforts to get the results declared. But there has been no response from the school authorities, alleged the parents.

We are being penalised for no fault of us. We have been doing the rounds of the school but the school Principal never meets us. The attendants sitting outside send us back, telling us to wait for two or three days. We have failed to meet anyone from the management either. They are not responding to our calls. We are all educated parents and do not want to create a ruckus. Understanding this, the school management should at least tell us what the reality is. Why the result of their school has been withheld by the CBSE? asked one of the parents.

Another parent said at this hour of time when parents desperately needed to know the results of their wards, the school authorities are incommunicado. I think it is the schools responsibility to enquire from the CBSE about the delay in the declaration of the results and update the parents about developments, said the parent.

The parents said this was the first batch of Class X of DPS and there must be some discrepancies on the part of the school authorities because of which the results had been withheld.

When this correspondent tried to contact the authorities on the numbers of the school, 7087019118 and 7087020118, the person who attended to the call said the Principal was out of station. He said he did not have the mobile number of the Principal. However, he provided an e-mail ID: info@dpsludhiana.com. A mail was sent to the given ID at around 11:55 am today, but there was no response from the school authorities till the filing of the report.
Herat (Afghanistan), June 4

Unfazed by terror attacks on its missions and barriers of politics and geography, India will continue to extend cooperation in war-torn Afghanistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted today after dedicating a Rs 1,700 crore dam in strategically vital Herat province.

Modi said other countries may have a "sunset clause" but India's ties with Afghanistan remain "timeless".

"Our resources may be modest, but our will is boundless.

For others, their commitments may have a sunset clause, but our relationship is timeless. We face barriers of geography and politics, but we define our path from the clarity of our purpose," he said in an address after inaugurating the Afghan-India Friendship Dam along with President Ashraf Ghani.

After inaugurating Friendship Dam in Herat, Modi who is on a five-nation reached Doha on a two-day visit which is focused on giving a new push to the economic ties, particularly in the hydrocarbon sector, between India and the energy-rich Qatar.

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In Herat, Modi hailed the people of Afghanistan for denouncing terrorism and said division among them will only help those seeking to "dominate" the nation from outside.

"It was a war not of Afghan making, but it was one that stole the future of an entire generation of Afghans," the Prime Minister said, adding that the brave Afghan people are today sending a message that the forces of "destruction and death, denial and domination" shall not prevail.

When Afghanistan succeeds in defeating terrorism, the world will be "safer and more beautiful", he said.

The dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, has been built by India at a cost of Rs 1,700 crore on river Harirud in Chist-e-Sharif in western Herat neighbouring Iran. It will irrigate 75,000 hectares of land and generate 42 MW of power.

"This dam has not been built by bricks and mortar, but by the faith of our friendship and the valour of Afghans and Indians. And, at this moment of pride, we also stand in grief and gratitude for lives sacrificed so that Afghan people will have a future they so richly deserve and so deeply desire," Modi said.

Resolving to stand by Afghanistan, the Prime Minister said India's cooperation will extend to "every part" of the war-torn country and that the partnership will benefit every section of Afghan society.

"When our people are under attack, the brave Afghans guard us as their own. They put themselves in the line of fire so that their Indian friends are safe. This is the nobility of your heart and the strength of your friendship. I have seen this from the moment I assumed office as Prime Minister.

"For on that day, when terrorists launched a massive attack on our Consulate in this city of Herat, the heroic efforts of Afghan soldiers, and of our personnel, saved many lives and prevented a big tragedy," he said, referring to the 2014 attack on the Indian mission here.

In the past, Indian embassy in Kabul has been attacked twice and its mission in Jalalabad was targeted by a suicide bomber in March this year.

India will remain a trusted partner of Afghanistan because of the time-tested "values that Afghans and Indians seek each other, not because they harbour designs against another", Modi said.

The Prime Minister said there has been "resistance" and "suspicion" of others about India's role in Afghanistan but its resolve was strong that will guide it forward in ensuring the country's prosperity.

"I said then (during the last visit), and I will say it again, your friendship is our honour; your dreams are our duty. India's capacity may be limited, but our commitment is without limits.

Talking about the dam, Modi said the fields that produce the finest fruits and saffron shall once again "come alive" with the clear waters of the river.

In his address, the Prime Minister invoked the Holy Quran to say that "river is central to the image of Paradise" and cited India's ancient scriptures in which "rivers defined our nation and were celebrated as the giver of life".

The Prime Minister also talked about India's investment in Chahbahar port in Iran and said it will give Afghanistan a new route to the world and a new path to prosperity.

"The fruits of our friendship are not confined to Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar and Herat. They will never be. Our cooperation will extend to every part of Afghanistan. Our partnership will benefit every section of Afghan society," he said.

Striking an emotional chord, Modi referred to Herat's great Sufi Poet Hakim Jami, to say whatever happens, in a bright or a dark moment, "we will always experience, the freshness and happiness of the gentle breeze of friendship."

Later, Ghani hosted a lunch for Modi during which the two leaders held "fruitful discussions" on enhancing ties between their countries.

Modi tweeted: "Thank you Afghanistan. This brief visit will go a long way in further cementing India-Afghanistan friendship and benefit our citizens greatly."

He also visited the Indian Consulate in Herat and interacted with personnel during his brief trip before heading to Qatar.  PTI
Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, June 4

Eknath Khadse, Maharashtras Revenue Minister and number two in the Devendra Fadnavis government, today resigned from the Cabinet following charges of graft.

However, a defiant Khadse appeared at the state BJP headquarters here along with Maharashtra BJP president Raosaheb Danve-Patil and blamed the media trial for his decision to resign from the Cabinet.

I am a victim of a media trial. I have done nothing wrong but there has been a long campaign against me in the mainstream media as well as the social media without any concrete evidence against me, Khadse told reporters.

Danve-Patil said the BJP stood behind the beleaguered leader. Khadse is one of the senior leaders of the BJP, who played a crucial role in the partys growth in Maharashtra. We believe he has done nothing wrong. The party supports him totally, Danve-Patil told reporters.

Later, CM Devendra Fadnavis tweeted that an inquiry into allegations against Khadse would be conducted by a retired High Court judge. Sources said Khadses resignation came after more than two days of intense negotiations with the BJP leadership. On Thursday, Fadnavis had presented a report on the allegations against Khadse to BJP president Amit Shah. However, Khadse, who held several important portfolios in addition to revenue, was hoping that he would be allowed to keep the agriculture ministry, sources added.

With the opposition Congress and Aam Aadmi Party raising the pitch against him, the BJP asked Khadse to formally resign. AAP even managed to get veteran social activist Anna Hazare to extend his voice against Khadse. Sources said Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had called Khadse and persuaded him to put in his papers.

Early today, Khadse finally drove to Varsha, the official residence of the Chief Minister and formally put in his papers.

After being accused of links with Pakistan-based gangster Dawood Ibrahim, revelations that he had helped relatives acquired a plot of land reserved for the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation at Bhosari near Pune at a throw-away price finally nailed Khadse. While the market price of the land was reportedly around Rs 40 crore, Khadse is accused of having paid just Rs 3.75 crore for it. The land was purchased in the name of his wife and son-in-law. Khadse said both the allegations against him were far-fetched.

Khadses downfall is being cheered by the Congress-NCP and the Shiv Sena alike. Before the last Assembly election, Khadse led a high-voltage campaign against the alleged corruption of Sharad Pawar and his relatives.
Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 4

If symbols define a relationship, then all the correct signs were on display today when Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the Afghan city of Herat. The inauguration of the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, seemed the perfect occasion to display to the world, and to a particular neighbour, the growing bond between India and Afghanistan.

The dam was inaugurated by Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Modi aptly summed up the mood in his speech, saying "We are reviving a region, restoring hope, renewing life and redefining Afghanistan's future. The dam is a generator not just of electricity but also of optimism and belief in the future of Afghanistan."

Ghani displayed great warmth in his address to the PM as he welcomed Modi to his second home and said a long-standing dream of the country had been realised after 30 years with help from India.

The PM, in his speech, evoked the great Persian poet, Jalaluddin Rumi, when talking about Herat. And the city that once Jalaluddin Rumi held as the finest, will rise again, he said. In the Holy Quran, river is central to the image of paradise. In the ancient scriptures of India, rivers defined our nation and were celebrated as the giver of life. And, an Afghan proverb says, Kabul be zar basha be barf ne (May Kabul be without gold rather than snow), he said.

Ghani, returning the compliment, said, "Today, we come together to make India-Afghan ties and friendship eternal. This dam will chart a new course of cooperation and prosperity." "Contrary to those who spread chaos and destruction, we two countries have taken a joint decision to build and grow," said Ghani.

His veiled reference to Pakistan was loud and clear and may be a relief for many in India who initially perceived Ghani having a pro-Pakistan tilt.

The Afghan-India Friendship Dam will irrigate 75,000 hectares of land and generate 42 MW of power. Modis speech referred to the strategically important Chabahar port deal that was recently signed by India, Iran and Afghanistan. The Chabahar agreement will provide India a greater access to Central Asia and also provide Afghanistan an alternative port to Karachi.

Afghanistan conferred its highest civilian honour, the Amir Amanullah Khan Award, on Modi to underline the importance Afghanistan attaches to India. It was only last December that Modi had inaugurated the new Parliament complex in Kabul built by India at a cost of $90 million.
Mumbai, June 3

Embattled Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse resigned from his position on Saturday.

Considered No 2 in the Cabinet and handling some vital portfolios, Khadsewho has been accused of having been involved in an illegal land deal in Pune and also found his name linked with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, one of Indias most wanted criminals who has been accused of having engineered serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993is believed to have met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the latters official residence in Mumbai.

Later, Khadse said he resigned from his post to uphold moral values in the BJP and that the party was standing firmly behind him over the baseless allegations.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The development comes two days after the latter apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah of the controversy.

Khadse has been accused of having paid sum as low as Rs 3.75 crore for a 3-acre land in Pune that is reported to be valued at Rs 40 crore. The land belongs to Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation.

Khadse has been accused of having received a call from the gangsters Karachi house. He also found his name dragged in when his personal assistant was accused of having demanded a bribe.

An unfazed Khadse maintained until Friday evening that he had yet to receive a directive from the Bharatiya Janata Partys central leadership and denied any wrongdoing.

The central leadership is believed to have pushed him into resigning, reasoning that the accusations were likely to sully the ministrys reputation and make a dent in the BJPs claims of corruption free-governance.

Opposition parties the Congress and the NCP, and even BJPs own ally Shiv Sena had demanded Khadses dismissal.

For the last 40 years, I have been working in politics and the party but have not experienced a media trial like this before, Khadse told reporters at the state BJP office soon after he met CM Devendra Fadnavis to submit his resignation.

There has been an unprecedented media trial against me. I have urged Fadnavis that there should be a probe into the allegations. The BJP is firmly behind me and even tomorrow it will stand behind me. The party has always abided by moral values. The BJP is of the opinion that one should not continue to hold posts in face of allegations, he said.

On the allegations by Pune-based builder Hemant Gawande that he purchased a land in MIDC area of Bhosari near Pune in the name of his wife, the BJP leader said, The revenue department has said that no transaction regarding the MIDC plot purchase is illegal.

Had the land really belonged to MIDC, the corporations name would have been in the documents concerned. I suggested to police to file an FIR against the person who was illegally trying to usurp Pune agricultural college land worth Rs 400 crore.

I issued a GR on taking back Wakf land illegally taken over by some people and they will naturally bear the brunt of that decision, Khadse said, in a veiled reference to allegations that bigwigs affected by that GR may have been behind the campaign to dislodge him.

The allegations levelled by Congress and AAP are baseless. Allegations have been made against senior BJP leaders Advani and Gadkari in the past, he said.

Police have said that no call was made or received on my mobile from Dawood Ibrahim, Khadse said referring to hacker Manish Bhangales claim.

A hacker means a thief and hacking is an offence of treason. If they cant furnish proof, action should be taken against those making such false charges, he said.

On allegations by fishermens associations who accused him of favouring the purse-seine net fishing vessels and claimed that there was a deal of Rs 15 crore to tweak the rules in favour of these purse-seine net fishing vessels, Khadse said he had taken no such decision.

Referring to the state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arresting his personal aide Gajanan Patil for allegedly demanding a Rs 30 crore bribe from a Mumbai-based social entrepreneur over a land allotment matter, the senior BJP leader said, I had rejected the proposal concerned. So, how can one claim that Rs 30 crore was demanded by Gajanan Patil. I have been saying that if there is even an iota of truth in the allegations, I wont stay on the post, Khadse added.

Ex-HC judge to probe charges against Khadse: Fadnavis

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said a retired High Court judge will probe allegations against Eknath Khadse.

"Eknath Khadseji has demanded an inquiry into allegations against him. A retired High Court judge will be appointed to conduct the inquiry," Fadnavis tweeted.

The CM said he has received the resignation from Khadse. "I have accepted it and sent to Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao," he said.  Agencies
TNS & PTI

Mathura, June 4

The Uttar Pradesh Police today said the leader of the Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah, Ram Vriksh Yadav, was among those killed in the Mathura clashes.

The death toll mounted to 27 with three more persons succumbing to injuries, they said.

UP DGP Javed Ahmed said on Twitter that the body of Yadav and some others had been identified by his associates and his family had been intimated for confirmation.

Yadav, 60, was the leader of Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah, an outfit claiming to owe allegiance to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose whose members had encroached on the Jawahar Bagh area for two years and clashed with the police on Thursday when they tried to evict them. Two police officers  Mathura SP (City) Mukul Dwiwedi and SHO Farah Santosh Yadav  have been killed in the violence.

IG (Law and Order) SR Sharma said Yadav was among the 11 charred to death in the fire that was caused by gas cylinder explosions set off by the encroachers. He said the situation is normal in Mathura and the ground has been cleared.

Chief Medical Officer Vivek Mishra said several other bodies had not been identified as yet.

The police said encroachers had set up their own system of administration by establishing "courts and jail barracks" and meted out torture and punishment to inmates for violating their rules as they refused to recognise the Constitution and laws of the country.

UP Govt raises compensation

Lucknow: The UP Government on Saturday raised compensation amount to the next of kin of two slain police officers in the Mathura clash from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav also announced extraordinary pension to the families of two martyred policemen and job to one member from each family, a release said. TNS
New Delhi, June 4

In a first, a teenager, who allegedly ran over a 32-year-old marketing executive while driving his father's Mercedes, will now face trial as an adult after the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) today said the offence allegedly committed by him was heinous.

The presiding officer of the JJB passed the order on the application of Delhi Police which had sought transfer of the case to trial court to try as adult the accused who turned major just four days after the April 4 incident.

It is the first of its kind case since the amendment in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, which allowed the Board to transfer cases of heinous offences by children to sessions court.

As per Section 2(33) of the Act, "heinous offences" include the offences for which minimum punishment under IPC or any other law for the time being in force is imprisonment for seven years or more.

The police had on May 26 chargesheeted the juvenile in the JJB for the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder entails a maximum of 10 years jail.

The JJB had reserved its order yesterday after hearing for over an hour arguments by Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava who had said the boy belongs to the age group of 16-18 years and this offence comes under definition of "heinous crimes" so his case should be transferred to the trial court.

The JJB today accepted the argument and allowed the plea of Delhi Police, Shrivastava said.

Initially, a case under IPCs Sections 304-A (causing death by rash or negligent act) was lodged against the teenager but later on he was booked for the alleged offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sent to the reform home.

Police had said in its charge sheet that the boy had fatally run over victim Siddharth Sharma with his father's Mercedes when Sharma was trying to cross a road near Ludlow Castle School in north Delhi on April 4.

The final report was filed for alleged offences under IPCs Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 279 (driving on a public way so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life) and 337 (causing hurt by an act which endangers human life) against him.

The Board had on April 26 granted bail to the youth who sought the relief to appear in entrance examinations.

Police had said the car was being driven at a speed of at least 80 km per hour and Sharma was flung several feet into the air by the impact of the crash and landed around 15 metres away from where he stood.

Police had said after the incident, a group of youths stepped out of the vehicle and fled from the spot abandoning the car there.

It had said the youth had been penalised four times for violating traffic rules relating to overspeeding, not wearing seat belt and involvement in a minor traffic accident at Maurice Nagar in north Delhi.

The police had earlier arrested a man who claimed to be the actual driver of the Mercedes at the time of incident but he did a volte-face after he got to know the victim was dead.

The driver and the boy's father, who was also arrested earlier, were also granted bail by the court.

The youth had appeared before a Delhi court to surrender and moved a bail plea which was rejected on the ground that it was a matter of JJB. He was then produced before the board.

Shilpa Mittal, the victim's sister, expressed satisfaction over the order passed by the JJB.

"I wish I do not face trouble in court now," she said and voiced hope that the criminal court too would "do justice like the JJB".  PTI
New Delhi, June 4

A 26-year-old Nigerian woman has been arrested in connection with the alleged assault on an Ola cab driver by a group of African people in south Delhi's Rajpur Khurd area earlier this week, the second arrest in the case.

A Rwandan woman, identified as Kefa, was arrested on May 30, the day the incident was reported, police said on Saturday.

The second accused, Janet, who is a native of Nigeria, was arrested in Delhi on Friday, a senior official said.

Both Janet and Kefa were allegedly living here with expired visas. While Kefa was arrested once in Bangalore last year, records pertaining to Janet were being checked, the official said.

From preliminary investigation, it has emerged that Janet and Kefa had booked 51-year-old Nooruddins cab through Ola services for Dwarka. Once he arrived at Rajpur Khurd, the same locality in which African people were allegedly attacked by locals earlier, he saw that six people--four men and two women--were waiting for him.

He had alleged that the group was drunk. As he refused to take more than four passengers, a heated argument broke out and he was allegedly thrashed by them on May 30.

The four accused men have also been identified. Efforts are on to arrest them, the official added. PTI
New Delhi, June 3

The reported statement of the NIA chief that there is no hand of the Pakistan government or its agencies in helping the JeM carry out the Pathankot attack has triggered sparring between India and Pakistan with New Delhi saying that involvement of its nationals is an accepted fact.

Even as the NIA backtracked on its chief Sharad Kumar's statement, Islamabad said his remarks were a "vindication" of its long-standing position in that regard. The row started over a written interview by Kumar to a television channel in which he said, So far, (there is) no evidence to show that the Pakistan government or any Pakistani government agency was helping Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) or Masood Azhar or his aides carry out the Pathankot attack.

Later, the NIA issued a statement saying the observation attributed to the NIA DG is "strongly refuted". It said his statement had been misquoted. Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Vikas Swarup said, "I understand that the DG NIA has issued a clarification that his words are being misinterpreted. Let me clarify the position. The involvement of Pakistan's nationals in the Pathankot air base attack is an accepted fact." He further said "enough information" has also been provided to the Pakistani authorities through two Letters Rogatory to conduct investigation in Pakistan so that "all those associated in Pakistan with planning, support and execution of the attack are brought to justice".  Agencies

What Sharad said on Pathankot attack

So far (there is) no evidence to show that the Pakistan government or any Pakistani government agency was helping Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) or Masood Azhar or his aides carry out the Pathankot attack. - Sharad Kumar, NIA DG

No clean chit to Pak official machinery: Rijiju

There is no question of a clean chit or any clarification in connection with the terror attack on the Pathankot airbase. Investigation is on - Kiren Rijiju, union minister of state for home.
Doha/New Delhi, June 4

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Doha in the evening where he was received by his Qatar counterpart Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani.

Upon his arrival, the PM tweeted: "Reached Doha. India attaches great priority to strong ties with Qatar & my visit seeks to expand bilateral ties between our nations." Modi arrived here today on a two-day visit which is focused on giving a new push to the economic ties, particularly in the hydrocarbon sector, between India and the energy-rich Qatar. The PM met Indian workers in a medical camp at Doha and shared a meal with them. He said he was aware of the issues being faced by Indian workers and the companies that hired them. "I am aware of the issues you are facing. I will talk about it when I meet the authorities," he said.

Modi will hold detailed talks with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and address the business community of Qatar, a country which is Indias largest supplier of LNG requirements, accounting for 65 per cent of the countrys total imports last financial year.

I look forward to the various programs that will enhance economic & people-to-people ties between India & Qatar, he said in another tweet. Modi will hold detailed talks with the Emir of Qatar tomorrow. The discussions are expected to focus on energy but various other aspects of the relationship will also come up during the talks, sources said here today.  TNS & Agencies
Tribune News Service

Guwahati, June 4

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has asked the Border Security Force (BSF) to ensure sealing of India-Bangladesh border in Assam on a war footing to put an end to illegal migrants from the neighbouring country.

Chairing a high-level meeting with the top brass of the BSF led by its Director General KK Sharma, the Chief Minister asked the border sentinels to facilitate erection of fences expeditiously for a safe and foolproof border with the neighbouring country.
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 4

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today expressed concern at ongoing territorial dispute in the South China Sea and sought its peaceful resolution lest any tensions harm economic progress.

Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Parrikar made it clear that more than half of Indias trade passes through these waters and it has good relations with all countries.

China claims the South China Sea in entirety and is locked in a dispute at the UN with Brunei, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The US, Japan and India oppose the claims while China tells the three external powers to remain out of the regional dispute.

While we do not take a position on territorial disputes, which should be resolved peacefully without the threat or use of force, we firmly uphold freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, in particular the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Parrikar said.

He had a word of caution on the dispute spiralling out of control. He said all countries in the region needed to recognise that our shared prosperity and the enviable rates of growth that we enjoyed over the past decades would be put at risk by aggressive behaviour or actions by any one of us. All of us will suffer, irrespective of whether we are big or small states. We need to work towards actions to lower the temperature, and prioritise developmental and growth considerations above all else.

At the heart of dispute are over-lapping claims in the hydrocarbon-rich South China Sea. Last month, China warned that it would not accept a UN-mandated arbitration and demarcation of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the sea.

The US Energy Administration estimates that 11 billion barrels (bbl) of oil reserves and 190 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas reserves lie buried under the South China Sea-bed.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) in 2010 did a world petroleum resources assessment and arrived at as-yet undiscovered estimates of an additional 5-to-22 billion barrels of oil and between 70-to-290 Tcf of gas to be under the South China Sea. India has interest in two oil blocks off the coast off Vietnam.
OLED televisions, which are self-illuminating and eco-friendly, boast high-definition resolution with ultra-slim profiles, as they does not require a separate light source.

"For almost a decade, OLED has been held up as the holy grail of TVs because of the display quality," the daily said. "LG currently stands alone in the OLED market -- even though competitors have demonstrated OLED sets at trade shows -- and hopes the new models help meet retailer and customer demand."

LG is trying to make OLED televisions more accessible to consumers with models that sell for less than US$4,000. They were sold for at least $20,000 when they first hit the market.
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 4

The Rajya Sabha elections for two vacancies from Haryana have confused the Congress about whether it should play a national or a regional role.

The issue at hand is: Should the Congress abstain from June 11 elections giving BJP-backed Independent candidate and media baron Subhash Chandra a walkover or should it vote alongside regional rival INLD to aid the victory of Independent RK Anand whom the Chautalas are backing.

Undecided, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, on June 2, met former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and state legislature party leader Kiran Choudhry to discuss the situation.

The party is also learnt to have spoken to some of its MLAs to gather their views on the subject.

While most central leaders of the Congress favour voting alongside INLD to ensure the defeat of a BJP-backed candidate, many party MLAs are said to be for abstaining from the vote.

The partys central leaders feel that the Congress, being a national party, should do everything it can to prevent the BJP from improving its Rajya Sabha tally. A senior party leader says, The BJP is leaving no stone unturned to stop Congress RS candidates from winning. They have forced elections wherever possible by fielding Independents against our nominees. We should also do what we can to stop them from winning even if it means voting alongside regional rivals like the Chautalas in Haryana.

Haryana Congress stalwarts are arguing for abstention not only because RK Anand is an Independent with nothing to do with the party but also because the INLD has been openly refusing Congress support for the elections.

If the Congress  which has 17 MLAs  abstains, the Assembly strength will fall to 73. In that case, an RS winner would require 23 votes to win as against 31 if all 90 MLAs are voting.

After the BJP ensures the victory of Union minister Birender Singh with its first 31 votes, it will still have a surplus of 21 (BJP has 47 MLAs and five Independents).

In such a scenario, if the Congress abstains, BJP-backed Chandra will need only two extra votes for victory. But if the Congress (17 MLAs) votes with INLD (19 plus one Akali), Anand will win getting 37 votes, assuming cross voting does not happen.

Many state MLAs, however, feel voting with the Chautalas would send wrong signals in Haryana at a time when several disgruntled INLD leaders are joining the Congress or expressing a desire to join it.

Cong backing Independent in Rajasthan

Seeking to play a spoiler for the BJP in Rajasthan, the Congress is backing Independent Kamal Morarka for the June 11 elections. The idea is to give the BJP a taste of its own medicine as the BJP has also challenged many Congress RS nominees with Independents. Three RS seats are being vacated in Rajasthan and five candidates are in the fray.
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, JUNE 3

The US embassy today announced creation of a North India Office that will manage US Government outreach to over 355 million Indian citizens living in the Embassy's New Delhi Consular District.

In view of the growing bilateral relationship, "For the Embassy's work in Northern states  Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP, Uttarakhand, and HP, along with the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Chandigarh UT  the level of contact has grown to the point that this new office within the embassy will be charged with its coordination," said a press release issued by the US embassy today.

During this year, the office will focus on programmes on skill development, smart cities, improving air quality, promoting multicultural societies, boosting economic growth and combating gender-based violence with partners throughout the region.
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 4

Armed men shot dead an army jawan at Ranewali village in this district on Friday night.

Malkit Singh had come to his native village on leave and was on his way to market for buying seeds for the crop.

An old enmity is said to be the reason behind the killing.

Police have booked five people. Police say it was a planned murder as the entire family of the main accused went underground after the murder.
Tribune News Service

Pathankot, June 4

Home Minister Rajnath Singh came down harshly on Pakistan by saying that the decision of not allowing the NIA - the agency probing the Pathankot terror attack - for investigating the January as a great betrayal.

The Minister was addressing a well -attended gathering of intellectuals when he said, Pakistan ne dhokha diya hai. He was in town to address two meetings here today.

Singh, in an unusually aggressive tone, said that while the international community was fighting terrorism, Pakistan was actually playing a cat and mouse game.

When PM Narendra Modi took the decision to allow the Pakistani Joint Investigating Team (JIT) to visit India, he did so keeping in mind that the NIA would be permitted to visit that country on a reciprocal basis.

Despite criticism from several quarters in India, we allowed the Pakistan team but when it was their turn to reciprocate, they backtracked, he alleged.

We are making optimum use of technology  like laser beams- to seal our borders. he added.

The minister said that Kashmir was not an issue and it was never was. Pakistan should know that we are not willing to discus this issue but we are ready to have discussions on Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Rajnath said that the biggest achievement of the ruling dispensation was to boost the GDP to a reasonable 7.6 per cent and to bring in procedural changes in the way the government worked.

We have earned praise from several quarters for doing this. On the economic front, we took several decisions which ensured that the GDP touched 7.6 per cent. The US may have the largest economy in the world while India has the fastest one, he said.
Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 4

Anticipating trouble from a section of Sikh activists, Punjab is on high alert in wake of the Operation Bluestar anniversary on June 6.

Almost 100 top leaders of the United Akali Dal, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) and the Dal Khalsa have been placed under preventive arrest. The police started rounding up these leaders from late last night. They have been arrested to prevent any untoward incident.

Those arrested include Daljit Singh Bittu, Gurdeep Singh Bathinda, Dhian Singh Mand, Jaskaran Singh Kahansinghwala, Manvinder Singh Giaspura, Jaswant Singh Cheema, Sant Jagroop Singh among others.

Official sources told The Tribune that the organisers of events planned on June 6 and activists supporting them have been arrested following intelligence inputs that they could create trouble in the state, especially in Amritsar.

The government has requisitioned 15 companies of central paramilitary forces (the CRPF and the ITBP) and these have been stationed in Amritsar (six companies) two each in Ludhiana and Jalandhar and one each in Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur, Batala, Phagwara and Patiala.

Besides, 3,500 personnel from the states own reserve forces have been requisitioned to maintain law and order.

Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal had held a meeting with some leaders of above mentioned parties, but the latter apparently did not yield to his request and late at night, the police started rounding up these leaders.

Each year, some activists try to create ruckus and clashes often take place in Amritsar. To prevent this, we decided to weaken the strength of these Sikh leaders before June 6 and placed these persons under preventive arrest, said a senior Punjab police officer.

Sources in the security agencies say that trouble is anticipated on June 6, especially since the activists have regrouped after organising a Sarbat Khalsa in November last year. The call given to Sikhs by Dhian Singh Mand (appointed as acting Jathedar of Akal Takht by Sarbat Khalsa) to assemble in Amritsar during the Lalkar rally last week and a similar call given at Bargari on June 1 by these leaders, has raised the hackles of the security agencies. A meeting of top officials of the Punjab Police, Home Department and the national security agencies was held recently and it was decided to make preventive arrests.
Tribune News Service

Tribune News Service

A political party is the principal platform for recruitment to elite positions in public life. In all democratic set-ups, a responsible political party finds itself obliged to appear as if it is an open house, accommodative of all sections of society and hospitable to those with aspirations and ambitions. In India, too, political parties are the primary avenue for anyone wanting a public career.

In a parliamentary system, political parties also have an institutional responsibility: recruit personnel for legislatures, at all levels, from the village councils to the national parliament. A national party like the Indian National Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party has to be always mindful of ensuring selection  and, then, election  of potential ministerial aspirants.

The Rajya Sabha was devised as a chamber to accommodate those who were reluctant to get into rough and tough of electoral politics (like Dr Manmohan Singh) or those who failed to make it in the Lok Sabha battle but were still to be valued for their talent and parliamentary skills (Pranab Mukherjee, till 2004 when he managed to get into the Lok Sabha, or, Jaswant Singh and Arun Jaitley).

Increasingly, political parties find themselves having to attend to what is euphemistically call 'social engineering.' In order to prove its credentials a political party is obliged to nominate a dalit or a Muslim, or an OBC. Such demands deepen the democratic project but also complicate a political partys task. Most political parties are distracted by the demands money bags make on their attention  and, on their legislators loyalties.

All these processes and aberrations are at work in this months selection and election to the Rajya Sabha.

This year is no different. Parties have competed to ensure that their representatives against 57 vacancies not only reflect organisational ideology and persuasion but also bring in a measure of intellectual depth.

Even before the day of polling on June 11, many well-known leaders are assured of reaching the House since the number of candidates and vacancies from some state were equal, making it a non-contest while in a few others an intense tussle is on.

Those already in include Union Ministers Suresh Prabhu and Piyush Goyal (both BJP) and, Y S Chowdhury (TDP) which reflects continuity while the entry of former Union Minister P Chidamabaram indicates the Congress will have an effective speaker to match Arun Jaitley.

Over the years Rajya Sabha has seen legal luminaries adorning its benches. Prominent names in the last two decades are Justice Rangnath Misra of Congress from Odisha, LM Singhvi and Ram Jethmalani. Now Jethmalani is making a comeback from Bihar on the Rashtriya Janata Dal quota.

The BJP list shows it tried to balance competing demands of party loyalty, umbilical linkage to the RSS, maintaining social equilibrium and endorsing some supporters with deep pockets.

For instance, it brought in Vinay Sahasrabuddhe who heads a think-tank Rambhau Prabhodini Mhalge founded in the name of a staunch RSS person and ophthalmologist Vikas Mahatme from Nagpur just as its ally Shiv Sena renominated Sanjay Raut, who edits party mouth piece Samna.

The organisational interest was protected by fielding vice presidents Om Prakash Mathur (Rajasthan) and Purushottam Rupala (Gujarat) while preferring State leaders Gopal Narayan Singh (Bihar) and Ram Vichar Netam (Chhattisgarh).

Aware that the odds would remain stacked against it in the Rajya Sabha even after these polls, the BJP is also attempting to make it difficult for the Congress to have a cakewalk .

The Congress plans to move some heavy artillery into the House. It backs former Union Minister Kapil Sibal to try and garner votes in UP from the Samajwadi Party. The plan is now under test with the lateral entry of businesswoman Preeti Mahapatra.

In Haryana, media baron Subhash Chandra wants to come in as an independent and will test the networking skills of another well-known legal eagle RK Anand, who represented a different party some 15 years ago.

In Karnataka, where Congress brought in former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and BJP Nirmala Sitharaman, the Janata Dal (Secular) is backing real-estate baron BM Farook keeping up its tradition of supporting businessmen and industrialists.

The role of money and Rajya Sabha has often been debated and currently the issue came to the fore following reports of a sting operation by some TV networks alleging that some legislators in Karnataka were seeking money for votes. The Election Commission is seeking a report. Over to the regulator!

(With inputs from KV Prasad)
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, June 4

Abha Bharthwal, chairperson of the Uttar PradeshUttarakhand Reorganisation Coordination Consultation Committee, was arrested along with over 50 supporters of the Samajwadi Party (SP) while taking out the Kaumi Ekta March towards Landhaura. The arrests were made under Section 144. They were released later.

Earlier, party workers from across the district gathered in the morning at Jatwada Pul in Jwalapur. Abha Barthwal, while addressing a gathering, urged all to maintain religious harmony. Lashing out at the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party for using the Landhaura incident for political mileage, Abha said the Samajwadi Party wouldnt allow anyone to take up divisive politics.

The Congress and the BJP have ruled Uttarakhand since its creation in 2000. They have failed to carry out developmental activities. The hill state has seen eight Chief Ministers and hundreds of ministers but all of them have failed to develop Uttarakhand on the lines of the Akhilesh government in Uttar Pradesh, said Abha, wife of former Samajwadi Party state president late Vinod Barthwal.

Among the arrested persons were state party spokesperson Kazi Chand, chief spokesperson Taufiq Ahmed, secretary Sonal Prince, district president Haffiz Irfan Ahmed, Yuvjan Sabha state president Ashish Yadav and more than 50 others. They were freed in the afternoon.
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, June 4

Member of Parliament from Haridwar Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank today blamed the Congress-led state government for plotting the Landhaura violence, which could have turned into communal violence had a community not shown patience.

Speaking to reporters at Damkoti guest house, prior to visiting Landhaura to take stock of the situation, along with three BJP legislators and dozens of party activists, Dr Nishank demanded a probe by a Central agency into the incident.

Urging the minority community to understand the hidden agenda and motive of the Congress behind the Landhaura incident, Dr Nishank said since Independence, the Congress had always resorted to communal politics to gain political mileage whenever it felt threatened by opposition parties.

Citing the communal harmony and mutual brotherhood between all religions in the state, former Chief Minister said never ever a communal riot had occurred in Haridwar district since the creation of the separate hill state, which speaks of the bonding between the people.

But I fear the Congress is trying to create fissures within the society and trying to sow seeds of division only to gain political mileage. Even the police role was suspicious during the whole episode as there was prior information and sufficient time to take preventive action. From 10 am till 4 pm, the violence continued.It was only later in the evening when Inspector General of Police, Garhwal range, arrived, the situation was controlled.

Also, the police didnt deploy adequate personnel at Rang Mahal, residence of BJP leader and Khanpur legislator Kunwar Pranav Singh. Luckily, he was in Mussoorie on a vacation otherwise anything could have happened at Rang Mahal as a mob also vandalised the building, said Nishank.

BJP legislators Swami Yatishwaranand, Sanjay Gupta and Aadesh Chauhan also hit out at the Congress government for working with a biased mindset against rebel Congress leaders, who joined the BJP recently.
Taipei, June 4

On the anniversary of China's bloody crackdown on student-led protests in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square, Taiwan's new president told China on Saturday that democracy is nothing to fear. Tsai Ing-wen said in a Facebook post on the 27th anniversary that Taiwan could serve as an example to China.

Tsai said in the run-up to Taiwan's elections earlier this year she had seen people from from China, as well as the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, mixing with crowds in Taiwan.

These many friends, after experiencing things for themselves can see that in fact theres nothing scary about democracy. Democracy is a good and fine thing, wrote Tsai, who took office last month.

China sent in tanks to break up demonstrations on June 4, 1989. Beijing has never released a death toll but estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand.

The subject remains all but taboo in China, where President Xi Jinping is overseeing a broad crackdown on rights groups and activists. Tsai also said in her Facebook post about the Tiananmen crackdown's anniversary that nobody could deny the material advances China had made under the Communist Party.

However, China would win even more respect internationally if it gave its people even more rights, wrote Tsai, who is from Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.

Taiwan is the only part of the Chinese-speaking world which holds free elections, and Tsai risks upsetting Beijing with her frank remarks on Tiananmen.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring what it views as a wayward province under its control and is deeply suspicious of Tsai. Chinese officials have accused her of pushing the island towards formal independence.

While most state media made no mention of the sensitive anniversary, the English version of popular Beijing-based tabloid the Global Times wrote in a commentary that people in China had put the events of 1989 behind them.  Reuters

Challenging the might of Communist Party of China
Los Angeles, June 4

Mainak Sarkar, the Indian-American techie behind the UCLA murder-suicide, seems to have forced his entry into his estranged wife's home before shooting her dead and boarded a bus to the university to kill his former college professor, authorities said today.

The 38-year-old IIT-Kharagpur alumnus is believed to have intruded into the Brooklyn Park residence in the nearby town where Ashley Hasti, whom he married in 2011, lived.

Officers also found Sarkar's car parked in his old neighbourhood. They also found a broken window they believe he used to enter Hasti's home.

The police had asked for the publics help to find the car and it was spotted parked on a residential street on the city's west side by a bicyclist.

A bomb squad that inspected the vehicle found no explosives but the police say a handgun and cans of gasoline were in the trunk.

Authorities said the fuel was apparently there so that Sarkar did not have to stop on his trip from Minnesota, where he killed 31-year-old Hasti a few days ago.

Initially, there were conflicting reports about the status of their marriage but police today confirmed Hasti was still legally Sarkar's wife when she died of multiple gunshot wounds. Hasti had been separated for some time and lived separately, they said.

According to the Los Angeles police, Sarkar finished his over 3,000 km-long deadly journey by bus as he knew the bus route to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he killed 39-year-old engineering professor William Klug, whom he had accused of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else.  PTI
Beirut, June 4

Russian-backed Syrian troops pushed into the Islamic State groups bastion province Raqqa today, threatening to catch the jihadists in a pincer movement as US-backed Kurdish-led fighters advance from the north.

The lightning advance from the southwest with Russian air support brought the army to within 40 km of the Euphrates Valley town of Tabqa, site of the countrys biggest dam, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said.

The dam, 40 km upstream from the jihadists de facto Syrian capital Raqqa city, is also the target of the Washington-backed offensive which Kurdish-led fighters launched late last month.

It was the first time that government troops had entered Raqqa province since they were ousted by IS fighters in August 2014.

Regular army troops were backed by militia newly trained by the regimes ally Russia, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

He said the twin offensives which threaten to cut off IS-held Raqqa from jihadist-held territory along the Turkish border raised suspicions that Moscow and Washington were covertly coordinating operations by their respective Syrian allies.

It seems there has been an undeclared coordination between Washington and Moscow, he said.

At least 26 jihadists and nine government troops and militia were killed in the armys advance, according to the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on reports from medics and activists on the ground.

Tabqa dam has a huge reservoir named Lake Assad after President Bashar al-Assads late father and predecessor Hafez. When IS overran the area with its garrison and airbase in 2014, it summarily executed 160 captured regime troops.  AFP
SINGAPORE, June 4

The United States stepped up pressure on China on Saturday to rein in its actions in the South China Sea, with top defence officials underlining Washington's military superiority and vowing to remain the main guarantor of Asian security for decades to come.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the US approach to the Asia-Pacific remained "one of commitment, strength and inclusion", but he also warned China against provocative behaviour in the South China Sea.

Any action by China to reclaim land in the Scarborough Shoal, an outcrop in the disputed sea, would have consequences, Carter said.

"I hope that this development doesn't occur, because it will result in actions being taken by the both United States and ... by others in the region which would have the effect of not only increasing tensions but isolating China," Carter told the Shangri-La Dialogue, a regional security forum in Singapore.

"The United States will remain the most powerful military and main underwriter of security in the region for decades to come  and there should be no doubt about that." The top US military commander in the region, Admiral Harry Harris, told reporters at the forum that Washington needed to operate from a position of strength against "all outcomes".

"The bottom line is this: we want to co-operate where we can, but we just have to be ready as a military to confront them if we must," he said.

The South China Sea has become a flashpoint between the United States, which increased its focus on the Asia-Pacific under President Barack Obama's "pivot", and China, which is projecting ever greater economic, political and military power in the region.

Carter however said he would welcome China's participation in a "principled security network" for Asia.

"Forward thinking statesmen and leaders must ... come together to ensure a positive principled future," he said, adding that the network he envisaged could also help protect against "Russia's worrying actions" and the growing strategic impact of climate change.

The deputy head of China's delegation to the forum said any attempts by the United States to isolate China would fail.

"This is a time of cooperation and common security," Rear Admiral Guan Youfei told reporters. "The US action to take sides is not agreed by many countries. We hope the US will also listen to the other countries."

Regional worries

Other Asian leaders said the situation in the South China Sea was viewed with concern across the region.

"All countries in the region need to recognise that our shared prosperities and the enviable rate of growth that this region enjoys over past decades will be put at risk by aggressive behaviour or actions by any one of us," Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told the forum.

Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said his country would help Southeast Asian nations build their security capabilities to deal with what he called unilateral, dangerous and coercive actions in the South China Sea.

"In the South China Sea, we have been witnessing large-scale and rapid land reclamation, building of outposts and utilization of them for military purposes," Nakatani said. "No countries can be an outsider of this issue."

Trillions of dollars of trade a year passes through the South China Sea, which is home to rich oil, gas and fishing resources. Besides China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have claims in the area, and rising tensions have been fuelling increasing security spending in the region.

"The uncertainty of China's future trajectory is arguably the main driving concern about possible military competition now and in the future," Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.

Carter said that for decades some critics had been predicting an impending U.S. withdrawal from the region, but this would not happen.

"That's because this region, which is home to nearly half the world's population and nearly half the global economy, remains the most consequential for America's own security and prosperity."

Trump counter

In an apparent counter to "America-first" policies expounded by prospective Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, including suggestions that US troops should be withdrawn from Asia, Carter stressed bipartisan support for continued engagement.

"Regardless of what else was going on at home or in other parts of the world  during Democratic and Republican administrations, in times of surplus and deficit, war and peace - the United States has remained economically, politically, and militarily engaged, as well as geographically located in the Asia-Pacific," he said.

The Shangri-La Dialogue is being held ahead of a significant ruling expected in coming weeks on a case filed by the Philippines in the International Court of Arbitration challenging China's South China Sea claims, which Beijing has vowed to ignore.

The United States has been lobbying Asian and other countries to back the judges' statement that their ruling must be binding, a call echoed by Japan on Saturday.

China has lobbied on the other side for support for its position that the court lacks jurisdiction in the case.  Reuters
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. 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-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 Britains Parliament.

When Britain votes on whether to withdraw from the EU, 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 EU is unnecessary because Britain has rejected membership in the eurozone currency and is not bound by the EUs 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. Those who favor leaving the EU favor going it alone and isolationism, he says. They respond that Britain out of the EU 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 EU had nothing to do with suppressing this, which fell to NATO.

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 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 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 historys centralizing ratchet has clicked irreversibly too many times, might soon say otherwise.
Meanwhile... the Movement for Social Justice is questioning if the lights from the deyas lit
Tomorrow night SBS premieres the documentary series, Lockerbie: My Brothers Bomber

This 3 part series, in which a man pursues those responsible for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.

For 25 years, Frontline producer Ken Dornstein has been haunted by the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland: a terrorist attack that killed 270 people, including his older brother David.

Now, Ken sets out to find the men responsible for one of the worst attacks on Americans before 9/11.

From the ruins and chaos of post-Qaddafi Libya, Ken hunts for clues to the identities and the whereabouts of the suspects, who he tracks for almost five years across the Middle East and Europe.

Episode One:

In the summer of 2011, as the Arab Spring revolution finally forced Muammar Qaddafi from power, Ken leaves his wife and two young children and heads to Libya in search of the men who murdered his brother.

Monday, 6 June at 9.35pm on SBS.


Aussie actor Dominic Purcell has been injured on the set of Prison Break, in an accident that very nearly cost him his life.

After an iron bar fell on his head, he is now sporting a broken nose, but remains upbeat with filming continuing.

On Instagram he noted:

Had a little accident on set. Haha ! Back at work asap. Pays to have a thick skull when an iron bar falls on your #head!! busting it open severely also broke my nose in two places. Haha. I got a free nose job out of it Stoked to be alive. All good. #chill. Oh. I didnt get knocked out took a knee. Ha!! Doc said I have an unusually tough tissue fiber thats what saved me apparently. Thank god for my #Viking heritage hahaha !!!!

Thank god my love @theannalynnemccord was there when my unfortunate accident occurred on set. She went into raging #momma mode along with #christinanorthup and got me the right care. Show goes on. No worries !!! Oh being airlifted out on a helicopter was another adventure I didnt expect. Thought the bloody thing was going to fall from the sky!!! What a day it was. Grateful to be alive. ??

The Prison Break revival will be coming to TEN.
It remains one of Australias greatest Live TV moments. when a slip by Bert Newton at the Logie Awards in 1979 with Muhammed Ali nearly upset the champion boxer.

I like the boy, Newton had said, without realising the inference to African American history.

Those in the audience immediately sought to placate the visiting boxer, who died yesterday at the age of 74.

It was an honest mistake on my part, Newton told News Corp yesterday.

I thought, I dont think my life is all that secure here.

Ali had been suffering from Parkinsons disease for more than three decades and was as admitted to hospital earlier this week, with a respiratory illness.
HBO drama The Leftovers is set to film its third and final season at the Docklands Studio in Melbourne.

In April it was rumoured the Warner Bros. production would relocate to Australia -both on and off the screen- following recent references to Perth.

The announcement was made jointly by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and HBOs Senior Vice President of West Coast Production Jay Roewe at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles. HBO previously filmed The Pacific in Victoria while Warner Bros. produced feature film Where the Wild Things Are.

Created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, based on Perrottas best-selling novel of the same name, The Leftovers explores a world in shock and the lives that are changed forever, when 140 million people inexplicably vanish. The first two seasons featured Justin Theroux, Carrie Coon, Amy Brenneman, Christopher Eccleston, Liv Tyler, Regina King and Ann Dowd.

Premier Daniel Andrews was buoyed by the project creating more than 250 local jobs and injecting around $20 million into the economy.

When Hollywood heavyweights HBO and Warner Bros. need a spectacular location down under, of course they choose to shoot in Victoria, he said.

From Hollywood to Hanging Rock, this brilliant production wont just attract some of tinsletowns biggest stars, but create local jobs and inject millions into the Victorian economy.

Film Victoria CEO Jenni Tosi said, Were delighted to again be working with Warner Bros. and HBO and we welcome The Leftovers production team to Melbourne.

In choosing Victoria for this impressive series, The Leftovers will reinforce our reputation for expertise, diversity and crew creativity  and see fantastic benefits flow through our world-class facilities and businesses.

Co-Creator and Showrunner Damon Lindelof said, Were immensely grateful for the opportunity to try something that looks and feels different from the preceding seasons and we absolutely cannot wait to bring our story to its conclusion down under.

Filming will begin this month three months with some post-production and visual effects work to also be completed in Victoria.

Meanwhile Docklands Studio has announced economist and strategy expert David Hanna as the new Chair of the Board.

Currently the Director of Business Strategy at Monash University, he has more than 30 years experience in the public sector in Victoria and Canberra. He has been a longstanding committee member for Film Victorias Production Incentive Attraction Fund and is also a member of the Course Advisory Committee for the VCAs School of Film and Television.

Hanna will take over the role from former senior executive Elizabeth Eldridge, who has served as Chair since the Victorian Government took ownership of the studios in 2008.
Presumably its the price of having a hit show.

Paparazzo have snapped upcoming Bachelor Richie Strahan and the lady of his choice in Bali, according to media reports.

The finale moment was snapped despite producers best efforts to keep its mystery under wraps and away from prying photographer lenses. Even the Indonesian military tried to keep helicopters grounded, according to News Corp.

A recent report suggested the show was also pursued by inquisitive media in Thailand.
The second of half of 2016 looks set to be very tempting in Australian Drama -which will surely make up for the lower volume in the first half of the year.

The ABC, Foxtel and Seven have led the way in local Drama titles so far with Nine, TEN and SBS yet to launch any new Drama titles in 2016 -though notably Here Come the Habibs! emerges from Nines Drama department.

2016 so far

ABC

The Doctor Blake Mysteries

Jack Irish

Janet King

Rake

Cleverman

Tomorrow When the War Began

Nowhere Boys: The Book of Shadows (movie)

(Comedy Showroom*)

Seven

Home and Away

Molly

Wanted

Foxtel

Wentworth

Secret City

Nine

(Here Come the Habibs*)

(Wolf Creek -Stan)

TEN

Neighbours

SBS

(The Family Law*)

*denotes comedy

By comparison 2015 had served up much more at the same mid-point of the year.

2015 by June 5:

ABC

Hiding

The Doctor Blake Mysteries

Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries

Redfern Now: Promise Me

(Maximum Choppage*)

(Hipsters*)

(8MM Aboriginal Radio*)

(Top of the Lake UKTV)

Seven

Winter

Home and Away

Catching Milat

(Kinne*)

Nine

Gallipoli

House of Hancock

Love Child

Foxtel

Deadline Gallipoli

Wentworth

(Open Slather*)

TEN

Neighbours

Wonderland

SBS

(Danger 5*)

Its a big contrast to previous years when there were so many Dramas on air at once, some even went head to head. But if were in a Golden Age of Drama, and viewers want local content, are traditional our 8:30 Dramas being elbowed aside by Reality TV?

Matthew Deaner, CEO of Screen Producers Australia says production slates are still high and its a question of network scheduling.

The networks commission a range of content including Drama and while we dont want to see it buried or replaced with cheap foreign content  its ultimately up to these businesses to work out where to schedule and seek audiences. There is a lot of great Australian production that has been commissioned and in the pipeline which will be out later in the year which, given the way audiences are responding to well told local stories, will be great for the broadcasters, he said.

Andy Ryan, Nines co-Head of Drama agreed the status reflected the Programming environment.

Love Child is coming soon and were promoting that at present. House of Bond and Doctor Doctor are also in in production.

In terms of the slate and commitment to drama we have 4 shows in production, or 5 if you count Stans No Activity 2, and the Habibs which is full steam ahead with pre-production in June. So Ive never been busier!

Hand on heart its not representative of any change of direction from our point of view.

Primary channels arent playing as many overseas dramas either, so its probably a bit more conspicuous as well.

A TEN spokesperson said, To suggest local drama has been elbowed aside by other forms of programming is nonsense and misleading.

As usual, Network Ten has broadcast Neighbours  the longest running television show in Australia  five nights a week on ELEVEN in the first half of this year. We have an extremely strong slate of local drama productions in the second half of 2016, starting with the eagerly anticipated return of Offspring. That will be followed by one of the television events of the year  Brock  and the exciting new drama series The Wrong Girl.

Network Ten remains strongly committed to bringing premium local drama content to our viewers. We also note that other networks also have several local drama series and events ready to roll in the second half of 2016.

An SBS spokesperson said, We of course have just finished filming our drama series Deep Water planned to air late this year as part of our multi-platform offering = doc + online offering.

Foxtel advised it would screen more local drama this year than ever before.

Amongst some of the titles still to come this year are Offspring, The Wrong Girl, Brock, Love Child, House Husbands, Hyde + Seek, House of Bond, The Secret Daughter, Winners and Losers, Deep Water, The Kettering Incident, The Code, Barracuda, Seven Types of Ambiguity, Nowhere Boys plus several ABC comedies.

Seven and ABC did not respond.
Stratfor American global intelligence company, which is called "shadow CIA", views passing the constitutional amendments related to judiciary by the Ukrainian Parliament and statement of President Poroshenko about receiving the IMF tranche in the coming months as the signs of "significant progress" and stability in Ukraine.

This is stated in a Stratfors article "Ukraine shows signs of stability."

"Just a few months ago, the Ukrainian government was hampered by political infighting. But there are recent signs of progress that bode well for the country's stability. This week there were several positive signs for the stability of Ukraine's government, which is normally known for its disunity," the article reads.

However, as noted, the situation in Donbas, aggravated in recent weeks, remains a serious challenge for Ukraine. "Though Kyiv appears to be making progress in its domestic politics, it will likely have a much harder time in advancing its agenda in eastern Ukraine," the article says.

ol
Christinne Barbier crowned Miss Seychelles Another World 2016

"To God be the Glory".
Shirly Karvinen Crowned Miss Suomi 2016

"To God be the Glory".
Rochester Institute of Technology is partnering with Synergy Biogas in a venture that aims to use algae to purify waste water used in agricultural procedures and use the dirt sifted to produce biofuels.

An associate professor in Thomas Gosnell School of Life Sciences of RIT named Jeff Lodge will be leading the large-scale initiative which will investigate the role microalgae could have in the process of treating wastewater and producing energy, RIT University News Services reported. Lodge had already made a laboratory-scale experiment which found out that phosphorous levels in wastewater can be reduced by as much as 90 percent.

Lodge will grow the test subjects in a 1,000-gallon tank provided by Synergy Biogas in Covington, New York. He and his team of student researchers will be examining the organisms' ability to eat up ammonia, nitrogen and phosphorous from the wastewater in the hopes that results will replicate those of his laboratory experiment.

Lauren Toretta, president of Synergy's parent company, CH4 Biogas, has welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with the Henrietta, New York-based university in a "game-changer" approach to purifying water.

If the study succeeds, the opportunities it presents to water companies and state governments could very well solve the drought some portions of the country is experiencing.

Drought in California alone has not shown any signs of stopping with average temperatures in the country's third largest state at record highs, official data from National Climatic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has shown.

Snowpacks in the state's mountains are also at a very low level despite Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump claiming that reservoirs in northern California are full of water, Mother Jones reported. Trump also outraged eco-advocates when he suggested that environmentalists only invented the California water shortage after allegedly talking with farmers who insisted otherwise.
A 'Degrees to Jobs Summit' initiated by Gov. Rick Scott has been hit by critics for failing to invite major educational entities in Florida including a major group of 22,000 faculty members.

Despite being praised by University of West Florida President Judy Bense for facilitating a wider network of "connections" for students, graduates and faculty, the conference was criticized for its seemingly dismissive attitude towards the United Faculty of Florida, a major union of faculty members, the Gainesville Sun reported. It has also been hit for its focus on successful corporate businessmen.

Florida State College at Jacksonville, a five-campus college known for being one of the largest, most diverse and strongest community colleges in the country, also had no role at the gathering.

The president of the United Faculty of Florida, Jennifer Proffitt has reiterated that "well-rounded" individuals who can communicate well, think "critically" and solve problems innovatively, should be the ultimate end goal of higher education

In other news, news about Scott's meeting with Donald Trump is rife with speculation that the Republican presidential candidate will offer the governor the other slot in his ticket.

Scott, however, quashed the rumors by saying he'll pass on if offered the position, insisting that he would rather finish his remaining two years in office as the Florida governor than run for higher office, CNN Edition reported.

The 64-year old politician will instead discuss with Trump a possible winning strategy in the Sunshine State. Scott would know how to win elections in his home turf. After all, despite being the "anti-establishment candidate," he won in 2010 and then got re-elected for a second term in 2014. His experience, according to the governor, will help the billionaire businessman win in the perennial swing state. He even boldly predicted that Trump will win in Florida.

"I believe Donald Trump can win big if he does the right things," Scott said.
Manchester is on a roll in the science department after securing the conference hosting rights for the upcoming EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) which will bring together 4,500 prominent and leading professionals and researchers from various fields in the scientific world next month.

The ESOF, organized by the EuroScience, serves as the continent's largest interdisciplinary science conference and will be directed by former deputy chief executive of the city, Vicky Rosin, the Manchester Evening News reported.

Rosin, who was already three weeks into her retirement when she was invited to head the program's main committee, has said that the approaching event made her realize that "science and culture are sides of the same coin."

Rosin was appointed to her current position largely because of her 40 years of experience in local and interior government, including leading a major unit in the 2002 Commonwealth Games held in Manchester.

The second biggest city in England after London, Manchester successfully won the right to host the forum after defeating 350 other proposals. It has been the European City of Science since December 2014 when its victory was first announced.

One hundred fifty sessions have been announced, 17 of which will tackle the intersection of science and business.

It is the United Kingdom's first time to host the prestigious gathering. Previous ESOF conferences have been held in major European cities like Dublin in Ireland and Copenhagen in Denmark. Meanwhile, two vital building constructions have been approved by the Manchester city council, the Building UK reported.

One is a 350 million brand new engineering campus for the University of Manchester in Balfour Beatty, the latest one in a 1 billion campus masterplan. It will accommodate six schools, four of which are engineering schools and two are research institutes. The other one is a redevelopment of the BBC's former Oxford Road studio site.
While rumor mills continue to swirl speculations about the Samsung Galaxy Note 6, nothing concrete in terms of how the device might actually look like had been divulged until now.

Based on a recently-surfaced render, reported by uSwitch, it looks like the Samsung Galaxy Note 6 could boast an array of awe-inspiring features.

If rumors doing rounds online are anything to go by, the device is slated to be renamed as Galaxy Note 7 - the move stems from Samsung's attempt to line up the device with the number of Galaxy S7 in 2016, however this is yet to be confirmed by the South Korean smartphone maker.

If rumors proved true, among other things the Galaxy Note 6 will sport a dual-lens camera setup and Samsung will unveil a Galaxy Note 7 Edge, SamMobile leaked the information. The rumors further hint that the Edge edition of the aforementioned Samsung's purported device will be beyond exclusive - not a mere Lite phone, but a double-lensed camera, something that has earmarks of the LG G5.

This imply, the device's users will have two options for every shot - Standard Angle Lens and Wide Angle Lens, for instance.

Those wondering why the Galaxy S7 does not boast such amazing features, it looks like Samsung could've opted to keep all exclusive features for its Galaxy Note - not at all a surprising move.

But does this hint something much bigger for the Galaxy series smartphones? Something as exclusive as Eye-Scanning technology, microSD card slot or a removable battery? This could alternatively hint at a device that features a 5.8-inch Super AMOLED display, and a mammoth 4,000mAh battery. The device could feature a Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440p) (2K) resolution.

To match these specs, it may come with 6 GB of RAM, and could flaunt a USB-C port in style, and a brand new Gear VR headset that works with the aforementioned USB-C port.

Fans will need to wait until the South Korean tech firm confirm these rumors reported by SlashGear, but for now the Galaxy Note 6 seems to be quite an irresistible upgrade. But until a confirmation from Samsung, its best to take these rumors with a grain of salt.

Are you excited about the purported specifications, rumor mills are churning, and do you think the Samsung Galaxy Note 6 will actually feature a double-lensed camera? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
John Locher/AP Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton poses for a photo with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf on May 27 in Oakland.

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By Megan Diskin of the Ventura County Star

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton aims to fire up an Oxnard crowd when she visits the city Saturday.

Her campaign announced that shell appear during a Get Out the Vote event at Hueneme High School, 500 W. Bard Road. Doors will open at 11:45 a.m. and the event will run until 3 p.m., according to a schedule her campaign posted online.

Police Cmdr. Chris Williams said no road closures are planned as a result of the campaign visit by Clinton.

The former secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady has been campaigning in California ahead of Tuesdays primary election. Her local visit comes on the heels of one by her opponent for the Democratic nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who spoke last week during a rally at Ventura College that drew 9,800 people.

Oxnard Mayor Tim Flynn is proud of Saturdays campaign visit.

I think any time a presidential candidate comes to a persons city, its an exciting event, said the mayor, who is a high school social science and government teacher.

He said its an important part of the American experience to see presidential candidates of all parties. He said its not about the fact that candidates are celebrities but that they are a part of the greatest democracy of the world.

He tells his students and his daughters to try to keep an open mind and to listen to all the candidates before making a choice, he said.

Flynn took one of his daughters to the Sanders rally last week but said he had not yet asked his daughter about going to see Clinton. He heard Thursday there was a chance of Clinton coming to town but only found out about it Friday in an evening email from the National Womens Political Caucus.

Clintons campaign has tapped local band Mariachi Aguilas de Oxnard to perform Arriba Con Hillary at the event, said Miguel Orozco, the songs writer.

The band decided to write a song to support her candidacy as Clinton tries to get the Latino vote in a close race with Sanders.

Now shes going to be in our hometown and were going to perform the song, Orozco said.

The band will perform as Clinton is being introduced, he said.

According to a news release from Orozco, the song expresses Clintons connection to Latino voters and is intended to motivate that community in the highly Latino city.

Orozco said Carlos Ozuna, founder and director of the mariachi band  which created a similar song eight years ago as Barack Obama ran for president  was excited at the opportunity.

The band and Orozco are proud of the recognition for both the Obama and Clinton songs.

Its not a one-time deal, Orozco said.
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By Staff Reports

Two Santa Paula schools were briefly placed on lockdown Friday after a woman entered a preschool classroom and said she was going to kill someone, officials said.

Santa Paula police said they were called about 2:05 p.m. by officials with the preschool at the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation, 1111 E. Santa Paula St.

Authorities were told a 39-year-old Santa Paula woman walked into a classroom and started yelling that she was going to kill someone. She left the school and started walking across a nearby field toward Barbara Webster Elementary School, 1150 Saticoy St., police said.

The woman was detained on the field by school staff until officers arrived, authorities said. She appeared to be suffering from mental health issues and was taken to Santa Paula Hospital for any medical treatment before being taken to Hillmont Psychiatric Center, officials said.

No weapons were found on the woman, who had no connection to either school. The schools were put on lockdown for 30 minutes until the woman was gone, police said.
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We all know Ormond Beach is a special place. The Coastal Conservancy and The Nature Conservancy see it as worthy of conservation and restoration, having acquired land to forestall development.

The city of Oxnard recognized its environmental importance in both its general and local coastal plans and endorsed a restoration plan with "appropriate public access." Oxnard has now taken the important step of initially approving an ordinance regulating activities that harm habitat and wildlife at Ormond Beach. A second reading and final adoption is planned Tuesday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated Ormond Beach as "critical habitat" in its restoration plan for the federally listed western snowy plover.

The National Audubon Society recognizes Ormond Beach as a "Globally Important Bird Area." Important Bird Areas identify habitat critical to the support of sensitive species, including, for Ormond Beach, the western snowy plover, California least tern, Belding's savannah sparrow and light footed clapper rail, as well as many other species that rely on this area as part of their annual migrations.

Many local school groups, including CSU Channel Islands, see Ormond Beach as important for research projects and educational programs. Recently, the Ventura Audubon Society entered into a partnership with the CSUCI Environmental Resource Management Department. Sophomore students receive training and real-life experience working in a conservation program in exchange for 15 hours of public service in Ventura Audubon's Shorebird Recovery Program.

Walter Fuller has devoted 20 years of his life to interpretation and protection of Ormond. As "Steward of Ormond Beach," he has witnessed all of the activities that the Oxnard ordinance seeks to prevent.

Ventura Audubon has worked for more than 20 years to protect Ormond and especially the nesting western snowy plovers and California least terns. First, it was the late Reed Smith. Now, a new biologist leads our Shorebird Recovery Program and serves on the Ormond Beach Scientific Advisory Committee, which will help define the restoration.

Ventura Audubon asked for the Oxnard ordinance after seeing the problems grow at an alarming rate, particularly pet owners allowing dogs to run off leash where birds nest. People have also brought horses to Ormond. Walter tried to explain that during the nesting season especially, horses would create a serious disturbance, but they ignored his plea.

We have seen a couple of pet pigs, even an on-leash rooster that was killed by an off-leash dog in April. On one recent Saturday, there were so many off-leash dogs on the beach that the marine mammal rescue people could not save a seal pup stranded on the beach.

People and wildlife can both enjoy the beach, but we have learned limits are needed to ensure we do not harm wildlife or habitat. In the 1970s, Ormond Beach was crisscrossed with off-road vehicle tracks. There were no dunes. All the vegetation had been destroyed. There was trash everywhere, and no nesting plovers or terns.

No one wants to see that again. It has made a remarkable recovery, and the birds have returned. So have the 200 species of shorebirds that use Ormond Beach as a rest stop on their annual migrations along the Pacific Flyway.

This ordinance provides Oxnard the opportunity to codify the protections Ormond Beach needs before human activities spin further out of control. True, the ordinance will be meaningless unless enforced. That's why landowners must come together to develop a management plan that includes a means to enforce this ordinance as well as others. That effort can begin with adoption of the Memorandum of Understanding between the landowners (Oxnard, Coastal Conservancy, Nature Conservancy) that will also be on the City Council agenda Tuesday.

Yes, Ormond Beach is special  90 percent of our historic wetlands have been lost to development. Some places deserve to be wild for their own sake, as well as to provide undisturbed habitat for wildlife. Ormond Beach is such a place.

Bruce E. Schoppe is president of the Ventura Audubon Society.
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As California's economy underwent a massive evolution over the past few decades, one well-documented effect was that its income disparities became much wider.

The decline of the industrial economy and its well-paying blue-collar jobs and the rise of a postindustrial economy rooted in technology and services have rewarded those at the top handsomely, but left millions of Californians behind  a syndrome most pronounced in technology-heavy regions such as the San Francisco Bay Area.

State government has been, in effect, a partner in the evolution, because its progressive income tax has reaped many billions of dollars in taxes on those in the top tiers.

That's been particularly true in this decade, thanks to a temporary surtax that voters imposed on those in the highest income brackets in 2012. The 1-percenters now provide a third of the state's general fund revenues.

Unions and others with financial stakes in the state budget will press voters in November to extend the surtax for an additional 12 years, and polling indicates it's likely to happen.

There is a downside to the state's increasing reliance on a few hundred thousand taxpayers, because their incomes tend to vary widely, depending on how the stock market and other investments are doing. It's created a feast-or-famine syndrome in state budgeting.

California, however, is likely to continue to rely on the 1-percenters. As Gov. Jerry Brown says, from a political standpoint, "the best tax is one that 99 percent of the voters don't pay."

It's not surprising, therefore, that those in other levels of California government are somewhat envious of the state's income tax monopoly. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted recently to seek permission from the Legislature to impose what its members call a "millionaires' tax"  a county version of the state's surtax, supposedly to finance homeless services.

The proposal is based on polling indicating 76 percent of those surveyed would support such a tax if submitted to voters. Los Angeles officials may seek the Legislature's blessing in one of the so-called "trailer bills" rushed into law with the state budget.

But this is a serious policy issue that merits much more than the cursory examination given to trailer bills. Were Los Angeles to succeed in the Capitol and at the polls, other cities and counties would almost surely follow, and the state could wind up with a dizzying array of income tax rates that would be almost impossible to administer.

Californians who live in one county but work in another could find themselves swamped in paperwork and enmeshed in legal battles between jurisdictions over their tax dollars, just as California jousts with other states.

Local tax-the-rich schemes are probably ill-advised for many reasons. But if politicians want to move that way, they should take a long, hard look at practical effects and not just do something slapdash in the dark of night for one revenue-hungry county.

Dan Walters writes for the Sacramento Bee. Email him at dwalters@sacbee.com.
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If you look at the polls, it is clear who's winning in the 2016 presidential contest: Barack Obama.

There remains the technical impediment that the president is constitutionally barred from a third term. But the longer the campaign goes on, the higher Obama's approval rating rises. This should be bad for Donald Trump and good for the eventual Democratic nominee, almost certainly Hillary Clinton. But it is even better for Obama's legacy.

According to Gallup, Obama's approval rating stands at 52 percent, compared with 44 percent disapproval. That may not look impressive but it is actually good for a president nearing the end of a second term; Reagan had 49 percent approval at this point in his tenure.

For most of last year, more Americans disapproved than approved of Obama. So there are two obvious questions: What airport is going to be renamed Obama International? And why the turnaround?

The increasingly warm feelings about the president must have something to do with the contrast between him and his potential successors. Trump and Clinton may be the most widely disliked major-party contenders ever.

Whatever you think of Obama's policies, not for a minute has he failed to comport himself with the dignity and gravitas required to serve as president. Never has he given the impression of acting out of pique rather than calculation. Never does he seem a threat to put ego-gratification above what he believes to be the best interests of the nation.

Another factor has to be the realization that despite Republican proclamations of doom, on balance things are going pretty well. Slow but steady economic expansion has not only reduced unemployment to 5 percent but also perhaps begun to move the needle slightly on incomes. Consumer confidence, an important indicator, is up. The recovery hardly feels like a boom but is nothing like the total bust that Trump and other Republicans describe.

The president has been increasingly forthright in showcasing his administration's record. He has also demonstrated his intention to do everything he can to ensure that his successor is a Democrat who seeks to build on his achievements, not dismantle them.

Like many presidents in their final months, Obama is spending considerable time and effort on foreign affairs. Here, too, we see contrast and legacy. He has fundamentally changed the U.S.-Cuba relationship. He has continued to act with extreme caution in the Middle East, resisting calls for substantial deployment of U.S. forces. He made a bold statement against nuclear proliferation by visiting Hiroshima and hugging a survivor, confronting the past without apology but with sober reflection.

We tend to appreciate presidents more after they leave office. The inevitable reassessment of the Obama years seems to be starting early  perhaps in apprehension of the years to come.

Even Obama's harshest critics have to admit he was a steady hand in the White House. Reflection upon this fact can only increase Clinton's chances against a man who prides himself on being combative, capricious and cocksure.

Eugene Robinson's email address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com. He writes for The Washington Post Writers Group.
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In this extraordinary presidential election, when the presumptive nominees of both major parties have historically low approval ratings, many Americans are looking for other options. But structural obstacles facing third-party and independent candidates  from campaign-finance regulations to ballot-access rules  prevent viable alternatives.

Add in the common sentiment that a vote for someone other than a Republican or Democrat is "wasted" and it's clear that, assuming they do get their respective parties' nomination, nobody other than Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton has a chance to win, right?

Actually, while it's inconceivable that anyone other than the major-party candidates could win the popular vote, it's possible that nobody wins a majority in the Electoral College. In that case, the 12th Amendment specifies the House of Representatives, voting by state, will choose the president among the top three. It's only happened once  in 1824, when John Quincy Adams won despite Andrew Jackson gaining popular and electoral pluralities  but it's not too much to expect in this bizarre political year.

One could imagine a scenario where former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party nominee, wins his home state and possibly others. He's apparently drawing slightly more support from Clinton than from Trump and has been polling in double-digits in a three-way race. Or maybe Mitt Romney gets into the mix, or someone conjured by Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol (a leader of the #NeverTrump movement). Such candidates could win electoral votes. In 1968, George Wallace won five states and 46 electors.

Moreover, faithless electors who don't vote for the candidate to whom they're pledged have appeared in seven of the 14 elections since 1960. Given the major candidates' (un)favorability ratings, the "faithlessness" probability is high  and it won't take many votes in a close race to deny Trump or Clinton a majority.

So what happens if the election goes to the House? There are currently 33 states with Republican-majority delegations, 14 with Democratic majorities, and three that are tied. Let's say that, come January  it's the "new" House that matters  the Republican-Democratic ratio is 30-20. If even five of those red states refuse to vote for Trump, there's no majority and no president.

But simultaneously, the Senate picks the vice president from the top two finishers. If the Democrats take the upper chamber, House Republicans will have to reach a presidential agreement to prevent Hillary's vice presidential nominee from becoming acting president. And if the Republicans keep the Senate, it could be that they prefer Trump's vice president to The Donald himself.

Oh, and there's one more possibility: If the Senate is tied  or enough senators abstain to again prevent a majority  then we'll have four years of President Paul Ryan, who as House speaker is next in line. Wouldn't that be huge?

Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute. He tweets at @ishapiro.
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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 that 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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Today we are here to help readers who are feeling understandably besieged, beleaguered and beset because they once proudly voted for Republicans for president and now don't know what to do.

We have invented a device that may help them find a way out of their political predicament. It's a task we've had success with in the past.

In the Reagan era, when Democrats were going way overboard in attacking President Ronald Reagan's counselor and later attorney general, Edwin Meese, over rather trivial missteps, I invented a gadget I called the Meese Measuring Stick. I urged Democrats to hold it up to the image of their favorite Democrat and asked them, "What would you be saying if your favorite Democrat did what Meese did?" Answer: nothing.

Today, I'm creating a new political tool: a Political Selfie Stick.

Here's all you need to do: (1) on your smartphone, click onto Donald Trump's latest name-calling attacks on whomever just displeased him; (2) attach your smartphone to the end of a store-bought selfie-stick; (3) stare at videos and tweets of Trump's new crude, vile, slanderous, name-calling attacks  and envision them being made by President Trump.

You'll want to catch Trump's latest. You will see him attacking New Mexico's impressive Republican governor, Susana Martinez, while visiting her state. She is everything the Republican Party needs to embrace to survive  a popular, Hispanic woman. But Martinez didn't come to his event or endorse him, so Trump attacks her competence as governor because New Mexico allowed "large numbers" of Syrian refugees to relocate there (a mere 10).

You will see Trump crudely and cruelly attacking Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton and her husband, Bill Clinton, saying there was something "very fishy" about the gunshot death of the Clintons' friend and former White House deputy counsel, Vince Foster, whose demise was repeatedly investigated and ruled a suicide. Trump bizarrely told The Washington Post that Foster "knew everything that was going on, and then all of a sudden he committed suicide." And: "There are people who continue to bring it up because they think it was absolutely a murder."

Foster's sister, Sheila Foster Anthony, wrote a poignant yet scathing denunciation of Trump's statements. She said her brother had talked to her about his psychological problems, that she'd given him names of three doctors to consult. The note was found in Foster's wallet when his body was discovered.

Trump has made snide comments about a journalist's menstrual cycle and, in maybe his cruelest ever, once launched into a prolonged mimicking of a reporter's physical disability.

Now that you are up to date  and have Trump's latest bullying attacks freshly in mind  let's return to our final instruction so you can use your Political Selfie Stick: (4) tap the camera icon, pose and click. Now stare closely at your expression as you posed with Trump's latest attacks and bullying freshly in mind.

If you are smiling, then you will be perfectly comfortable with the decision you clearly will be making on Election Day  and comfortable with the disaster you will be foisting upon your fellow citizens and the rest of the world. You will have lots of company. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, having been humiliated by Trump as "Little Marco" and having warned us that Trump was a "con artist," now says he'd be "honored" to speak for Trump at the GOP convention.

But Rubio isn't Trump's latest cheerleader. That honor goes to North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un. In an editorial in North Korea's official news organ, DPRK Today, the scholar Han Yong Muk, whose message is being viewed as Pyongyang's official line, urged Americans to vote for Trump for president  and "not that dull Hillary." The writer praised Trump's March comment that he would withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea unless Seoul increases its defense spending. The editorial said: "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?"

And by the way, if you Republicans have a Meese Measuring Stick, use it one last time. Hold it up to the presumed Democratic nominee and ask yourselves: What would you be saying if Clinton just earned those words of praise from North Korea's leader?

Martin Schram, an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, is a veteran Washington journalist. Readers may send him email at martin.schram@gmail.com.
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It seemed like deja vu in April when a panel of the California Board of Prison Terms recommended parole for onetime Charles Manson "Family" member Leslie Van Houten.

Other parole board teams have recommended release several times for less well-known former Manson murder participants, like Bruce Davis and Charles (Tex) Watson, and none has yet been freed.

But some parole panelists believe Van Houten should be different. Denied parole 19 other times during 46 years in prison, she has been an exemplary inmate, organizing women's support groups and earning college degrees.

Parole Commissioner Ali Zarrinnam told Van Houten during a five-hour hearing in Corona this year that her "behavior in prison speaks for itself ... 46 years and not a single serious rule violation."

Gov. Jerry Brown should pay little or no heed to that kind of sentimental talk as he considers whether to accept or veto the parole recommendation. And most likely he won't. When parole officials recommended freedom for Davis last year, Brown wrote a six-page reversal making this salient point: "In rare circumstances, a murder is so heinous that it provides evidence of current dangerousness by itself. This is such a case."

It's rather doubtful that Van Houten, once a rich family's daughter and now a gray-haired 66-year-old, would do much damage to society  the usual standard followed in allowing or denying parole  except in this case, there's the effect on the societal psyche.

For if murderers can eventually go free after behaving as brutally as Van Houten did in 1969  first holding down victim Rosemary La Bianca in her Hollywood Hills home while fellow killers Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel repeatedly stabbed her, and then adding 14 stabs of her own just for emphasis (later, she said she inflicted "about 16 stabs")  what value has society placed on human life? And what effect might that have on others considering brutal killings of their own?

There was also the matter of Van Houten scrawling racist slogans in Mrs. LaBianca's blood on several interior walls of her home. And there was her carving the word WAR into the stomach of Mrs. LaBianca's husband, Leno, murdered with her.

And yet there are plenty of lawyers and prison psychiatrists to whom this is largely irrelevant, because Van Houten has been a model prisoner, just as was her pal, Susan (Sadie) Atkins, who helped kill actress Sharon Tate and others and died of cancer in prison, where some chaplains bemoaned her incarceration because she was such a "deep and noble" person.

None of those Atkins admirers, nor any of the psychiatrists who have evaluated Van Houten, set foot in the crime scene the next day, as this columnist did.

Nor did any of them see Atkins and Van Houten, with a few other Manson followers, repeatedly enter courtrooms with X's carved into their foreheads to mark the degree of their support for their guru and each other  and what they had perpetrated.

Sure, they  like Davis and Watson  have been exemplary convicts. But that did not help Cory LaBianca last year, when her 6-year-old granddaughter asked what happened to her great-grandparents.

Two new factors are at play in this latest parole case.

Brown has only 30 more months in office and will likely be the last governor with personal memories of the Tate-LaBianca murders. He lived nearby in the Hollywood Hills at the time and was an elected Los Angeles community college trustee. Will future governors be more sympathetic to the now-elderly killers?

Another possible factor is Brown's push for a fall ballot initiative that would ease paroles of state convicts, possibly including Davis and Van Houten.

Would he view it as hypocritical to simultaneously push this measure and deny parole to Van Houten, classed as an ideal candidate for freedom by every prison system expert?

One thing is certain: If Brown OKs this parole, it will most likely taint his legacy, perhaps even more than the several forms of corruption that now afflict his administration.

Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com.
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The following editorial appeared May 30 in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

For years we've been told the reason there are so many negative campaign attack ads is simple  because they work. That makes sense when candidates and campaigns spend hundreds of millions of dollars on such ads, mostly 30-second television commercials. If they didn't work, why waste all that money?

But now we're faced with a darker and more sinister explanation, thanks to research conducted by the Ohio Media Project, a consortium of radio and television stations and the largest newspapers in the state, including The Blade of Toledo.

The group, with the help of the Jefferson Center, a Minnesota-based nonpartisan civic engagement group, the Bliss Institute for Applied Politics at the University of Akron and a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, found such ads are designed to suppress voter turnout as much as to persuade voters to support one candidate over another.

Researchers found only about 1 percent of voters, primarily independents, are moved from one camp to another because of negative ads, but in swing states, like Ohio, sometimes elections are decided by 1 percent or less. The researchers also found that, "especially with moderate voters, you get a demobilization effect, where they just kind of turn off, 'This is a nasty campaign, I just want to stay home.' "

That is truly sinister and profoundly anti-democratic.

Equally disturbing as the attack ads and their intent is the answer to this question: Who is paying for this garbage? In the 2012 presidential election, independent spending by groups not connected with either political party came to $424.4 million supporting Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and $145 million supporting Democratic President Barack Obama.

The sources of that money, often called "dark money," are being kept secret, and that is wrong.

Because of the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, and a series of regulations by the FEC and the Internal Revenue Service, millionaires and billionaires can donate as much cash as they want to independent groups such as super political action committees and never worry about their names or a dollar amount being entered on the public record. The court ruled that spending money on a candidate is a form of free speech, so it can't be regulated. But even if you accept the notion that money is speech, there is no justification for the lack of transparency. Secret speech is not speech.

The super PAC Americans for Prosperity is a good example. Look up its 2012 expenditures in opensecrets.org and the only line that comes up is: $33,542,051 spent against President Obama's re-election.

The Center for Responsive Politics identified the PAC's biggest contributor as Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, which is controlled by billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch. But the FEC did not require this disclosure.

In January, Charles Koch held a meeting with 500 supporters at his California estate, telling reporters, "This isn't some secret cabal. We have ideas that will make America better."

It's true Koch has ideas about how America should be run. That's not the point. The tens of millions of dollars he's decided to spend to elect a politician to implement those ideas is the point. That is not a secret he should be allowed to keep from the public.

From the mid-1970s to 2010 there was near total consensus in this nation on at least one principle: full disclosure and transparency. We ought to know where the money is coming from and where it is going.

Democracy needs light. When power is exercised in the shadows, motives and ends are usually being hidden and the common good is usually being betrayed.
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Tuesday is California's primary Election Day. For those of you who have voted by mail, you can go about your day with a clear conscience, just waiting for results to trickle in after the polls close at 8 p.m. The rest of us will have a 13-hour window to go to our polling place and vote.

Democrats have the opportunity to gain a voice in the choice of their presidential candidate in this primary, although the national media is assuming Hillary Clinton will soon have enough delegates to secure the nomination.

If you have registered with no party preference, you, too, can vote in the Democratic presidential primary Tuesday  simply by requesting that ballot at your polling place.

The American Independent and Libertarian parties also have open presidential primaries, which allow votes by those who have no stated party preference (but you only get to pick one party). The Republican, Green and Peace & Freedom parties have presidential primaries only open to their own registered voters.

Although it seems like a fairly quiet primary election, down from the top of the ballot will be several statewide and local primaries that will either elect someone or set the stage for the November election.

In the open-nominating system in California, the top two vote-getters in most of those races move on to the fall election, whether they are Republican or Democratic. So Tuesday's votes will determine the finalists, if you will, for those offices.

Those on the ballot locally include:

n U.S. Senate: A daunting list of 34 candidates are chasing the favorite, Attorney General Kamala Harris, and hoping to snag the second spot.

n U.S. Congress: There are nine candidates in the mix to succeed Lois Capps in the Democratic-heavy 24th District that includes a small slice of west Ventura County. All are from Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo counties. In the 25th District, which includes most of Simi Valley, three candidates are facing incumbent Rep. Steve Knight, a Republican.

n State Senate: The race here is for the open seat in the 27th District, being vacated by Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills. Moorpark Councilman David Pollock is the only Ventura County-based candidate among the six running and is hoping a strong county turnout might give him a spot on the November ballot over two more strongly supported and funded candidates, Janice Kamenir-Reznik and Henry Stern.

n State Assembly: The only contested seat locally is the 38th District, in Simi Valley. Scott Wilk jumped to a state Senate race, opening the seat for a race among four candidates.

n County supervisor, District 1: This is the only race where we are fairly certain a winner will emerge. Incumbent Steve Bennett is being challenged by businessman David Grau, and one is expected to gain more than 50 percent of the vote to win the seat outright and not face a November runoff.

n County supervisor, District 3: With seven candidates competing to succeed the retiring Kathy Long, it is expected no one will top 50 percent, so the top two finishers would square off in November.

n Also, the only local initiative on the ballot is a school bond measure in Santa Paula, Measure P.

There are 412,715 Ventura County residents registered to vote in this primary election. Experts predict a small turnout, which means your vote will count even more.

It is really as simple as that. If you vote, then you will be determining who will make it to the fall ballot, or in the case of supervisorial District 1, who will be elected.


Producer and DJ Superstar ZEDD landed in Las Vegas this week and headed straight to the new Kumi Japanese Restaurant + Bar for dinner (Photo Credit: Joe Janet / The Light Group).

Photo Credit: Joe Janet / The Light Group.

The poolside party at DAYLIGHT Beach Club was electrified when EDMs top performer ZEDD hit the stage. ZEDD greeted the 3,300 person crowd and proclaimed DAYLIGHT and LIGHT are my favorite places in Vegas to play.. its home! The crowd erupted when ZEDD went on to play his smash hit song Spectrum and chanted, We want ZEDD!

Photo Credit: Joe Janet / The Light Group.

Olympic Gold Medalists from the USA Womens Water Polo Team were also in attendance showing off their gold medals.

Photo Credit: Joe Janet / The Light Group.

Photo Credit: Joe Janet / The Light Group.

Photo Credit: Joe Janet / The Light Group.
On May 24, when Telstras management and the Australian ambassador in Vietnam met with Minister of Information and Communication Truong Minh Tuan, Telstra reaffirmed its wish to become a strategic investor in MobiFone.

A MobiFone representative remarked that so far Telenor from Norway, Comvik from Swedena one-time strategic partner of MobiFone in a BCC between 1995 and 2005and Telstra from Australia have shown interest in MobiFone, but Telstra has taken many steps to show particular interest and seems more determined than the other investors. The representative refused to reveal Telstras proposals.

Telstra, which is among the biggest telecom companies in the world with a 2015 revenue of $26.6 billion, was present in Vietnam in the 1980s. In 1988 Telstra signed a business cooperation contract (BCC) with Vietnam National Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), becoming the first foreign company to join the Vietnamese telecom scene. With this BCC, Telstra built VNPTs satellite infrastructure. In 1990 it renewed the contract and raised its investment to $67 million to upgrade this satellite infrastructure. In 2003, after the contract ended, Telstra withdrew from the Vietnamese market. By then it had invested $240 million. Telstra first expressed interest in MobiFone more than a year ago at a meeting with former Minister of Information and Communication Nguyen Bac Son, when the Vietnamese telecom giant restarted its equitisation plan.

MobiFone is going to be equitised in 2016. As of now, there has been no official information on the size of the stake MobiFone can sell to a strategic investor and to the public. Former Minister Le Nam Thang said that based on Vietnams WTO commitments and other trade pacts, foreign investor can hold up to 49 per cent in a state-owned enterprise.

However, even if it is allowed, it is hard for a foreign investor to hold 49 per cent because VNPT, the old parent company of MobiFone, may want to hold a maximum allowed stake in the company. According to the document transferring the right to represent the state stake in MobiFone from VNPT to MIC, dated July 2014, after the equitisation VNPT can hold 20 per cent of MobiFone at most.

This arrangement leaves a relatively small room for a foreign investor, despite their wish to hold a controlling stake. Earlier, at a meeting with leaders of the MIC, Telenor expressed interest in holding a controlling stake. Telstra CEO Han Kotterman, on May 24 also proposed that his company play a critical role in the equitisation of MobiFone.
On June 1, the plants management board convened workers to restart machinery and go through operation regulations.

However, Chu Van Tuan, deputy general director of Vinachem, said that although the plant would restart operations, it would have difficulty maintaining itself because the already high production expenditures are increasing even further, while fertiliser prices are in a continuous plunge on the domestic market.

Besides, Ninh Binh nitrogenous fertiliser plant is fuelled by coal, while other such plants run on gas. While gas fuel prices are on a continuous decrease, coal prices are immobile, leaving the Ninh Binh plants unable to compete with other plants.

Tuan added that farmers in the north usually used phosphate fertilisers instead of nitrogenous fertilisers, thus Ninh Binh nitrogenous fertiliser plant would continuously have difficulty in selling its products.

Thus, Vinachem has submitted 11 separate plans to deal with the above difficulties to the government and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, one of which is closing the plant.

Previously, the plant was forced to call a temporary halt to its operations in late March by its continuous losses. The company temporarily laid off 400 of its 1,100 workers, paying the monthly unemployment allowance of VND3.1 million ($139.37) to each in order to convene them when the plant opens its gates again.

The plants construction was kicked off in May 2008 in Ninh Binhs Khanh Phu industrial zone and came into operation in 2012, after 42 months of construction.

During the nearly four years since then, the plant has been operating at a continuous deficit, accumulating altogether over VND2 trillion ($89.9 million) in losses. Notably, in 2012, the companys losses amounted to VND75 billion ($3.37 million), which increased to VND759 billion ($34.12 million) in 2013, VND500 billion ($22.48 million) in 2014, and VND370 billion ($16.63 million) in 2015.
The voting and awarding of the title, organised by the Central Committee of Vietnam Youth Federation (CCVYF), the Central Committee of the Young Entrepreneurs Association and the Sao Do young entrepreneur club, aim to encourage young Vietnamese entrepreneurs to work hard. Vietnam Investment Review joined in the nominating of entrepreneurs, and is the media sponsor of the whole programme.

In order to receive the award, the young entrepreneurs have to meet requirements such as being not older than 35, are holding key positions, such as chairman, general director and owner of a company or head of a cooperative that is legally registered in Vietnam. The entrepreneurs will be assessed regardless of ethnicity and religion, and whether their companies belong to the private sector or the state-owned sector.

The entrepreneurs should have a remarkable achievement in the management of their companies and be a participant in social welfare activities. The products of the companies have to have high quality, as assessed by customers, are environmentally friendly and not harmful to health.

The organisation board received hundreds of applications from all regions of the country. After the assessment process they have chosen 100 entrepreneurs to receive the Excellent Young Entrepreneur title, and ten entrepreneurs to receive the Excellent Young Startup Entrepreneur title.

The ceremony is going to be held at 8.30 am on June 04, 2016 at the Au Co art centre at no. 8 Huynh Thuc Khang street in Hanoi and will be live broadcast on the VTC1 television channel. On this occasion the organisation board is going to hold a series of activities such as a meeting between the awarded entrepreneurs with leaders of the party and the government, a forum on the topic of the private sector, as well as business matchmaking and promotion of the products and services of awardees companies, and training for young entrepreneurs on corporate governance.
An artist's rendering of a NewVista community is shown on their website. Utah resident David Hall has been buying land in Royalton, Sharon, Strafford and Tunbridge, Vt., hoping to build an intentional community. (Courtesy The NewVista Foundation) Courtesy The NewVista Foundation

David Hall, founder and president of the NewVista Foundation, is buying land in central Vermont to execute his vision of an eco-friendly community of 20,000 residents in Strafford, Sharon, Tunbridge and Royalton. Hall talks with the Valley News Editorial Board in West Lebanon, N.H. June 2, 2016. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. Valley News  James M. Patterson

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Royalton  On Thursday, a man who has been buying hundreds of acres in the Upper Valley revealed new details about his plans to found an eco-friendly community of 20,000 in Strafford, Sharon, Tunbridge and Royalton.

David Halls proposed massive development is notable both for its boldness, and for its unusual pedigree  the communitys design is based on the detailed instructions of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, who said he received them in a spiritual vision 186 years ago.

Hall, an oil industry inventor who has become an environmentalist, has put more than $100 million into NewVista Foundation, and says he hopes that, over the next few decades, it will be the first in a network of 50 such communities, with a total population of a million people.

Hall, 69, said he doesnt intend to purchase any more properties in the near future, and that his activities over the next couple of years will likely consist mostly of maintaining his newly acquired holdings, and working with local farmers to test out a novel new farming method.

Hall said his background has prepared him to withstand criticisms from those who scoff at his ideas.

Remember, Im an innovator, and Im a fourth-generation innovator, Hall said. When youre innovating things, new ideas are tough for people, even when it comes in the sciences. You have to roll with the punches. But Ive also worked on this for so long Im confident in what Im doing. It might not work, but Im confident.

The communities would operate under dramatically different rules from the towns in which they are located  a 1.2-square-mile grid would hold a cluster of three-story eight-unit apartment buildings, centered around 24 centrally located four-story community buildings that would house everything from places of worship to private schools to underground Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The economy would be underpinned by a new form of cubed greenhouses, which would cover the surrounding land.

The whole community is agriculture, every square foot, Hall said. Even the roofs of the houses. So its all agriculture.

Hall discussed the details at the Valley News during a three-day trip to the area during which Kevin Ellis, a lobbyist recently hired by Hall, was scheduled to introduce him to officials from the Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Planning Commission, Vermont Technical College and Vermont Law School.

He might also meet with the Preservation Trust of Vermont and some legislators during this trip, he said.

After the meeting with the Planning Commission, Executive Director Peter Gregory said in an email that members of the Planning Commissions executive committee and representatives from the affected towns appreciated the chance to learn more about the plan.

The questions were good and while some attendees had strong concerns about the possible scale of the proposal, others seemed to take a wait-and-see attitude, Gregory said. Mr. Hall intends to have public meetings in the towns this summer.

Public opinion in the four towns that would host the community has been mostly negative, with a series of social media sites springing up to oppose the project. Hall said that he had not yet met any community residents who expressed enthusiastic support.

Hall was clearly more enthused about the engineering and logistical aspects of the project than the political implications. He answered questions about the design of the apartments with in-depth details about innovative toilet and solid waste systems and geothermal heating.

Other answers were less specific, as when he was asked about what would happen to the land in the event the project was halted short of completion.

It would go back on the market, I guess, he said. Or maybe it would go into conservancy. Who knows?

He said he didnt think the project would create negative impacts on the four towns.

I hope not, he said. If we see that happening, then well figure something out better. We shouldnt be. If we do have a negative impact, thats a problem.

Its supposed to be a positive impact.

Hall said that, while he recognizes a NewVista lifestyle would be much different, the plan calls for setting aside wilderness areas that would allow more of the state to be covered with healthy natural ecosystems.

You kind of consolidate the people, and let the bears have their territory as well, he said.

Hall acknowledged that some people think the project is ambitious to the point of improbability. After 40 years of pursuing this dream, he said, he takes it in stride.

I expect success, and Ive had a lot of success in my life, he said. I expect it will, you know, be successful in at least parts of it. For example, here in Vermont, I think well have a lot of success on the agriculture end, even if we never get to the residential and commercial side. We just forge ahead, and try things.

Since his first property acquisition in the fall, Hall has scooped up about 1,500 acres, nearly a third of the land that falls within his area of interest.

I never intended to do it as fast as has happened. ... People started coming to us, he said. So weve gone over this years budget but picked up some opportunities.

Hall said that, while hes constrained by a land acquisition budget of a couple of million a year, hes loathe to pass up opportunities because if you allow a piece of land to sell onto somebody else, its probably going to be a generation or more before its available again.

In each deal, he said, he has paid the appraised value of the property.

Hall declined to release a full list of the properties because, he said, some of the sellers have faced criticism from neighbors who are opposed to the idea.

Halls holdings include a 10-acre property at 180 Sugar Hill Lane in Royalton, and 450 acres at 1631 Clifford Farm Road that straddle Sharon, Strafford and Tunbridge.

If Hall does succeed, his development would bring 20,000 people to four towns that have a combined population of less than 6,700.

The ultimate goal, he said, is to create a model community that has the power to solve many of the worlds environmental problems.

I would hope that this system scales to the world because its a way to get green, he said. I havent seen any other system thats going to get us there, he said.

Hall said hes working to design the community in a way that would lower the cost of living by half, and lower the environmental impact of its residents by 90 percent compared to those living outside the community.

While NewVista residents would be free to send their children to public schools, the community would have a private school system built into it.

The community would have its own economy, with financial planners loaning community capital to business ventures of its residents. Money generated by those business ventures would come back to reduce the living expenses of residents.

Hall said the model harnesses the power of capitalism without allowing an individual capitalist to dominate the scene for a personal benefit.

The large size of the community, he said, is needed to gain the scale needed to support the developments internal economy.

After Smith and two other people experienced what they called a revelation from God during which they literally saw images of the community, Smith wrote out crude blueprints that specified, for example, half-acre lots and streets of 132 feet in width.

Though hes working from Smiths notes, Hall said the community will in no way promote the Mormon faith; worship spaces will be available in the central buildings to any spiritual group in residence, he said.

For now, Hall said, the houses on the land he owns are being maintained and repaired so that he can lease them out. In the coming two years, he said, he hopes to acquire more land, but the most important milestone will be proof that the innovative cubed greenhouses actually work.

The greenhouses, which he said have been inspired by designs used to grow marijuana in Colorado, can be assembled in large contiguous blocks, with the farmers walking on top of them.

Well be working with successful local farmers and our engineering company and hopefully with the schools to prove out the agricultural end of it, he said.

Hall has been working for 40 years to consolidate land for a similar community in Utah, and has purchased land in India and Bhutan for the same purpose. He said he is actively exploring real estate in other U.S. states, but declined to name them.

He said he has about 150 employees working on the global project, with most of them involved in engineering solutions to its many design obstacles.

He estimated that eight people in Vermont have been hired by him, mostly as contractors, to work toward the local community.

Hall plans to return to the area in July, and again in August.

Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.
Australia has its first Indigenous superhero. Cleverman, a fantasy drama that has had its premiere on Australian television, blends Aboriginal mythology with modern superhuman style and cutting political commentary on racism and identity. It is set in a near-future Australia where ancient creatures have re-emerged.

The international community has accused us of violating human rights but these creatures are not human. We do not share the same DNA. We do not know exactly what they are. It has only reaffirmed this governments commitment to keep these sub-humans within the zone.

The "Hairypeople" are a mythological species struggling to coexist alongside humans, and are forced to live in a sealed-off ghetto. The writers of Cleverman have drawn on the deepest legends and traditions of Aboriginal Australia to create this science-fiction conspiracy thriller.

Its main character is Koen, a young Indigenous man who inherits superhuman powers and fights against terrifying enemies - humans and other worldly spirits. Running through this six-part drama are themes of exclusion, discrimination and identity, real-life issues that lie at the heart of modern Indigenous Australia.

The show is created by Ryan Griffen, a former TV producer who wanted to bring to the screen a superhero based on the Aboriginal concept of creation, known as the Dreaming, that would make his son proud of his First Nation heritage.

Griffen says the "Cleverman" has great mystical powers.

In a way he is the conduit between the Dreaming and the realities, so he is quite a spiritual man," he said. "I often, sort of, simply describe it as like a Pope of the Dreamtime. He is someone who is appointed to be the guidance of spirituality within country. Each country has a different type of Cleverman and often has different roles to lead but essentially it is a teacher or someone to help understand spirituality.

Eighty percent of the cast of Cleverman is Indigenous. The show is a co-production with Sundance TV in the United States and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It will also be shown on British television.

Aborigines make up about three percent of the Australian population but their representation on mainstream television has been limited. The nations first inhabitants also suffer disproportionately high rates of ill-health, unemployment and imprisonment.
The Chicago police force has responded to months of controversy over allegations that the city's police are using excessive force by releasing dashboard-camera videos and other materials from 101 police cases in which civilians were injured at the hands of police officers.

The move by the city's Independent Police Review Authority was a turnaround for the city government that fought for nearly a year not to release a video showing an officer killing a teenager in 2014 by shooting him 16 times while the teen lay on the ground.

The IPRA investigates allegations of police misconduct and excessive force, in hopes of addressing tensions between Chicago's civilian residents and its police. It evolved in the fallout from the Laquan McDonald case, in which the white police officer, Jason Van Dyke, was eventually charged with murder for the death of McDonald, who was black.

The city fought for a year to keep the video private, citing an ongoing investigation. When the video was released last November, violence surged in the city.

Shootings have risen by 50 percent for the year, and some 230 people have been killed. Analysts say civilians have grown to distrust the police, and have become reluctant to provide information that could aid an investigation.

In a radical change from the city's earlier policy not to release materials from ongoing investigations, the head of the IPRA, Chief Administrator Sharon Fairley, said evidence will be provided within 60 to 90 days of an incident.

"Timeliness has plagued this agency" in the past, she said, but also cautioned that videos and other materials released may not necessarily give a full picture of what happened.

Improving transparency

The 101 cases in Friday's release include every open investigation into officer-involved shootings, whether or not anyone was hit, and every case in which a civilian was seriously injured or killed, according to the review board.

Fairley said the release is meant to help restore trust in the police force.

In March, the state's attorney for Cook County, who waited 13 months to prosecute Van Dyke in the Laquan McDonald case, was voted out of office. In April, a mayor-appointed task force investigating the police department said racism has long contributed to a pattern of failures by the department.

The report by the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force said in its April report that police in Chicago have "no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color."

National debate

Chicago's problems put the city at the center of a national debate on whether police officers unfairly target people of color.

A U.S. Justice Department survey found last year that there is no national standard for the way local police departments track use of force, making any data on the subject difficult to use for policy making. Some large cities refused to provide data at all.

Some cities are embracing a trend toward peaceful resolution of conflicts by offering more training to officers. Others reward police for handling violent situations without use of physical force.

In Philadelphia, which has a reputation for street violence and tough officers, more than 40 police officers have received awards in the past six months for defusing conflicts without using maximum force, such as shooting or striking anyone.

In Los Angeles, police can be awarded a Preservation of Life medal for using restraint while resolving dangerous incidents. The U.S. Justice Department plans to institute a community policing award later this year to reward officers who manage to deescalate tense situations without violence.

But the new trend has its critics.

In Chicago, the union Fraternal Order of Police has spoken out against the release of the police records, calling the move "irresponsible." And in L.A., the police union has called the Preservation of Life award "a terrible idea that will put officers in even more danger."
Twenty-seven years is a long time to keep the flame alive for a memorial event, especially one for a massacre that took place more than 1,000 miles away.

This is the situation facing Hong Kongs annual vigil for the June 4, 1989 crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in Beijing, where hundreds of unarmed student protesters were killed.

Each June 4, tens of thousands of mourners turn Hong Kongs Victoria Park into a sea of candlelight. A funeral procession winds its way through the crowd, videos of the bloody crackdown are shown on giant outdoor screens, and political leaders shout slogans through megaphones.

It is only in this city, a former British colony with a high degree of autonomy, that such a mass outpouring could take place within China. On the mainland, Beijing has banned all commemorations, and censors media and online mentions of the event.

WATCH: Hong Kong Marks Tiananmen Crackdown, Divisions Over Vigil

Tens of thousands came out to the venue late Saturday evening. At one entrance to Victoria Park that faces a busy commercial area that is popular with Chinese tourists, activists aimed banners and megaphones at those passing by.

Hong Kongers, some with small children on their shoulders, stopped to sign petitions, donate change or buy t-shirts with 6489 on them.

To the beating of drums, the crowd bowed in the traditional Chinese fashion - three deep bows to honor the dead. An anthem was sung as well as all of the participants raised candles in the air.

Numbers dwindling

The sheer size of the Hong Kong event is still impressive, though numbers have fallen in recent years. Most people under the age of 35 have no direct memories of the 1989 crackdown.

Crowd numbers hit a high of 200,000 during the vigils 20th anniversary in 2009. (The police put it at 100,000). There was also high interest during the 25th anniversary in 2014. Numbers fell to 135,000 last year, and 125,000 this year, according to organizers.

For the first time this year, Hong Kong student groups disagreed on whether to partake, or even criticize the vigil.

The Hong Kong Federation of Students said that instead of participating formally in Victoria Park, they would hold forums on the future of Hong Kong  a subject that many youth feel is more pertinent, especially after the Occupy Central demonstrations of 2014.

Many Hong Kongers who participate in the June 4 vigil every year hold onto the fantasy of a democratic China. They hope that the communist regime will eventually be inspired to recognize democracy, and to admit their responsibility, the Hong Kong University Students' Union said in a Chinese-language Facebook post. This is no longer realistic. After several recent incidents showing the disparity between Hong Kong and China, it is important for us to admit that, so long as the communist regime remains, there will likely not be democracy in China.

Several incidents have alarmed Hong Kongers recently. Ken Tsang, an activist beaten by police during Occupy Central, was sentenced to jail this week. Earlier this year, Hong Kong booksellers carrying publications critical of Beijing and its leaders were reportedly kidnapped before making what seemed to be forced confessions on state television.

Instead of fighting for something unachievable, Hong Kongers should shoulder the responsibility for our generation, the student union statement said. We should look to the future of bringing freedom and democracy to Hong Kong."

Museum memorial

Richard Tsoi, vice-chairman of the Alliance that organizes the vigil, was a university student in 1989 when he heard news of the massacre. He said he was heartbroken that some student groups would not be officially taking part.

"It's important to let Hong Kong's new generation -- and also the Mainland's new generation -- know the truth and also to memorialize it, Tsoi, a lawmaker and activist, said in an earlier interview at the June 4 Museum that the Alliance opened two years ago.

It is important also as part of the process to make the Chinese authorities issue a reverse verdict about June 4, Tsoi added. It is important for the future development of China."

The June 4 Museum encapsulates the larger struggle in educating the public about a tragedy that gets scant attention in school curricula and museums. In 2014, the alliance used a crowdsourcing campaign to buy a modest, upstairs storefront  and filled it with photos, videos, displays and Chinese-language testimony.

About one-third of the tiny museums visitors are from Mainland China, and Tsoi said that some of the older ones wept or became emotional after seeing the exhibits.

The museum scrapes by an existence. According to Tsoi, it is engaged in a costly legal dispute with the building management, which wants the controversial venue to move. Visitors are sometimes stopped and asked for identification in the downstairs lobby  a tactic that sometimes intimidates away Mainland Chinese tourists.

If, after 20-odd years, we dont keep talking about this in Hong Kong, then nobody will talk about it anywhere, Tsoi said. For younger people, there is no primary memory of this. They only know what they are taught.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a dam in Afghanistan's western Herat province Saturday that had been 40 years in the making due to war and upheaval in the country.

The Salma Dam, referred to as the Afghanistan India Friendship Dam by both countries, is built with $300 million of Indian money. Afghan President Ashraf Ghanis office tweeted warm messages for Modi as he landed in Herat.

Most welcome to my dearest friend, @narendramodi to his second home AFG. Look forward to a great conversation, Ghanis tweet said.

The dam is one of 200 projects completed by India in Afghanistan, with more expected in future. I want to give the good news to my people that #AFG-#India #FriendshipDam is prologue to construction of many dams, one of President Ghanis tweets read.



In his inauguration speech, Modi emphasized the strength of his countrys relations with Afghanistan: ...for others, their commitments may have a sunset clause, but our relationship is timeless, he said.

The 107 meter high, 550 meter long earth and rock filled dam will come online next year and start generating around 42 megawatts of electricity for mostly residential and agricultural use.

"The completion of the Afghan-India friendship dam represents the culmination of years of hard work by around 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers and other professionals in very difficult conditions," Vikas Swarup, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters.

This was Modis second visit to Afghanistan in six months. After the inauguration of the dam, he was also awarded Afghanistans highest civilian honor, the Amir Amanullah Khan award.

India is seen in Afghanistan as a strong ally and a partner, unlike its neighbor Pakistan, which is viewed as supporting the Afghan Taliban responsible for violent attacks in the country.

Analysts say Pakistans support of the Taliban stems from concerns that a Delhi-friendly government in Kabul would lead to encirclement. Pakistan shares its eastern border with India and western border with Afghanistan.

Pakistan accuses India of covertly supporting an insurgency in its restive Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan.

In March, Taliban militants fired a barrage of rockets at Afghanistans newly built parliament complex in Kabul.

The complex, built by India at an estimated cost of $90 million, was inaugurated by Modi in December. India and Afghanistan recently signed a transit agreement with Pakistans third neighbor, Iran, to develop a southern port at Chabahar, which will bypass Pakistan to give India and Afghanistan access to Central Asia.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday "constructive" ideas are needed to find a solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Kerry spoke after meeting in Paris with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and before the top American diplomat's departure for Mongolia.

Kerry has been in the French capital with ministers from more than 20 countries who accepted Frances offer to coordinate and work on the prospect of convening an international conference by the end of the year designed to come up with a solution for the ongoing conflict.

Neither Israel nor the Palestinians attended the Paris meeting.

On Friday, Kerry said both Israel and the Palestinians need to take immediate steps to demonstrate the will toward a lasting peace.

We need to find some immediate kinds of steps on the ground that will make a difference, Kerry told reporters. Everybody agreed today that you cant impose a solution from outside and you need to have direct negotiations."

"A negotiated, two-state solution is the only way to achieve an enduring peace, with two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security," conference participants said in a joint communique.

Status quo

Participants underscored that the status quo is not sustainable.

"Actions on the ground, in particular continued acts of violence and ongoing settlement activity, are dangerously imperiling the prospects for a two-state solution," the communique said.

Participants discussed possible ways in which the international community could help advance the prospects for peace, including by providing meaningful incentives to the parties to make peace and end the Israeli occupation that began in 1967.

Hollande approach

French President Francois Hollande called on Israelis and Palestinians to "make the courageous choice of peace," as he opened the peace conference Friday.

"The discussion on the conditions of a lasting agreement between Israelis and Palestinians must take into account the whole of the region," Hollande said.

Hollande went on to say international powers should play a key role in facilitating the peace process, but ultimately it would be up to the two sides to work out their differences.

"The threats and priorities have changed. The changes make it even more urgent to find a solution to the conflict, and this regional upheaval creates new obligations for peace," he said.

"We're not here to propose any kind of specific agenda," a senior U.S. State Department official said. "While the U.S. is open-minded about ideas, we haven't made any decisions about what, if any, our role would be in that initiative going forward."

Despite the recent escalation in violence between Israelis and Palestinians and their absence at the conference, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon with the swearing in Monday of ultranationalist Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who said he supports a two-state solution.
Angolas main opposition party, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) has sharply condemned President Jose Eduardo dos Santos' appointment of his daughter Isabel dos Santos as the new head of the state oil company, Sonangol.

This, after President dos Santos fired all board members of Sonangol in April. Isabel dos Santos, who described herself as a self-made billionaire, is currently Africas richest woman with an estimated worth of $3.3 billion, according to U.S.-based Forbes magazine.

UNITA spokesman Alcides Sakala says the appointment of Isabel dos Santos - the oldest daughter of the president - is yet another demonstration of favoritism and graft perpetuated by the ruling Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).

It is not a surprise for us because the lady was recently appointed by his father as a person who would be restructuring the oil company. So, although we are disappointed, it has not come as a surprise. It was something expected [and] it confirms what we have been saying about the politics of nepotism in our country, said Sakala.

Supporters of the governing MPLA disagreed. They contend Isabel dos Santos is best qualified and competent, who they said would bring her private business acumen to the state-owned oil company to restructure and transform Sonangol to create jobs for the youth.

Supporters also said charges of nepotism and favoritism are unfounded, saying that being the daughter of the president should not preclude her from being considered for any prominent position in the administration, particularly since she is qualified. They said she is a citizen whose talent should be tapped to help the nation when her skills are desperately needed. The supporters say the opposition leaders appear to be showing signs of jealousy and are just opposing the new appointment for the sake of it.

Sakala disagreed. He cited a constitutional provision that prevents parliamentarians from engaging in business activities because they make laws governing the sectors. Sakala says the same rule should apply in the case of the appointment of the daughter of the president to head the state oil company. He says there are other qualified Angolans who could run the affairs of Sonangol.

The president I think is trying to have all his sons [children] and relatives having an important role on the management of the wealth of the country. Isabel is now in the oil sector, his son is dealing with the federal funds as you can see and all his friends now are part of this processes, which are making a small group of Angolans very rich. It is politics that UNITA has been denouncing for the past year, said Sakala.

We are not jealous This is a conflict of interestI think from the ethics point of view, the appointment is wrong and it is also against the law.

Meanwhile, a section of the supporters of the opposition UNITA has called on the partys leaders to seek legal redress at the Constitutional Court to challenge Isabel dos Santos appointment. But, Sakala says the leaders have yet to make a firm decision on the partys next line of action.

We as UNITA, we are going to analyze it in the light of the Angolan law and we are going to take a position on that. I think it is not correct that you as a president to have all of your family dealing with public money for the benefit of the family, said Sakala.

There are so many views within the party [UNITA] and the leadership is going to take them into account to make an assessment as far as these positions are concerned and When you look at the country where poverty is a real national problem. In our country people are starving, facing a lot of difficulties and you take your family as managers of the wealth of the country We would soon make the position of the party known.
Pope Francis has decreed that Roman Catholic bishops who are found to be "negligent" when dealing with priests accused of abusing children can be removed from office.

A new Vatican law the pope issued Saturday appeared to be a response to a long-standing demand by Catholic activists in the United States who have denounced what they saw as the church's failure to take action against pedophile priests.

The papal decree made clear that even bishops who are not personally accused of abusing children can be removed from their posts if they are shown to have failed to protect their congregations from abusive priests.

Bishops already have faced the possibility of losing their jobs if "grave reasons" for their removal are found. The new papal decree streamlined the process of ecclesiastical investigations in abuse cases and stated explicitly that negligence in their official conduct could result in high-ranking clerics' removal.

Victims of sex abuse by priests in the United States and elsewhere have long complained that some bishops cover up such offenses, usually by transferring priests involved to another parish but not reporting their actions to police.

The new procedures call for the Vatican to open an investigation when "serious evidence" of a bishop's negligence is presented. The bishop will be informed and allowed to defend himself and, if he is found guilty, will be allowed to resign rather than be publicly dismissed.

Any decision to terminate a bishop's appointment would have to be ratified by the pope and his legal advisers.

The Roman Catholic Church, estimated to have more than one billion members worldwide, has been rocked for the past 15 years by scandals involving priests who abused children but escaped criminal prosecution. Many cases were reported in the United States, but similar sex-abuse controversies arose in other countries where Catholicism is widely practiced.
As Britain contemplates leaving the European Union with a June 23 referendum, Russia is seen as one of the few countries in Europe favoring a so-called Brexit from the EU.

While pubs in Britain are buzzing with debate over whether to leave the European Union, at those in Russia, many locals support a Brexit.

"I think England is such a distinctive country that they really don't need the European Union, because they are already distanced from those union governments, radio presenter Marina Karpova said while tucking into some traditional pub food at Molly Gwynn's in Moscow. I think they'd get on wonderfully outside the European Union."

Other Muscovites disagree.

"They have support from all of Europe, said amateur athlete Farukh Mukhmadeev, across from the British Queen pub and just around the corner from Moscows Bolshoi Theater. If they exit, then they'll become independent and thus economically vulnerable and maybe more. So I think it's better for them to stay in the EU.

More frequent rhetoric

The Kremlin has taken no official position on the Brexit, or any other possible departures from the EU. But since Western sanctions were enacted over Russias actions in Ukraine, there is more frequent anti-EU rhetoric from Russian politicians and state-controlled media.

Some Russians repeat Kremlin propaganda claims that Britain, as part of the West, aims to weaken Russia, regardless.

"Even if formally England exits the European Union, its connections will remain intact. It will still work and do everything it can to harm Russia, said Nadezhda Stepanova, standing just meters from where a Congolese man dressed as a British ceremonial guardian known as a Yeomen Warder, also called a Beefeater, hands out fliers for the British Queen pub.

Russian support for European politicians and groups who want their countries to break away from the EU, or Brussels-centralized policies, and its Western allies has been evident. Russian state bank loans have gone to the French far-right party of Marine Le Pen, and the Kremlin has courted Euro-skeptics across the political spectrum.

Russia is openly supporting political forces on the radical left and on the radical right that are openly against the idea of the European Union and calling for the abolition of the European Union, said Peter Kreko, director of the Political Capital Institute research institution in Budapest, via Skype.

Political analysts say the Kremlin hopes a British exit will weaken European resolve against a resurgent Russia and lead to the lifting of Western sanctions. Although still marginal, European political voices have grown in France, Germany, Greece and other nations calling for the sanctions to be removed.

Departure of a foe

With a Brexit, the EU would lose one of its strongest opponents of Russian influence in Europe, Kreko said.

So it's partially about disintegrating the European Union as a whole and destabilizing it, he said. On the other hand, this is also about Great Britain, which is one of the fiercest critics of Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Weakening the EU as such, however, is not so much the Kremlins goal, according to Alexander Baunov of the Carnegie Moscow Center.

Despite the sanctions and political tensions, the EU remains Russias largest trading partner. So poorer European Union means poorer Russia, actually, Baunov said. And weaker European Union, economically at least, means weaker Russia.

The Kremlins goal is to quiet those voices in the EU it considers hostile toward Russia. Less hostile mean(s) ... turning some blind eye(s) toward some Russian ambitions, like integration of the post-Soviet space ... around Russia, Baunov said.

An EU without Britain might waver on sanctions against Russia and further embolden Putin's ambitions.
The recent abolition of a long-standing arms embargo on Vietnam is a "largely a symbolic one," Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski told VOA in an exclusive interview Friday.

Following up on last month's historic White House decision to fully lift the half-century-long ban on sales of lethal military equipment to the Southeast Asian country, Malinowski said every weapons purchase by Hanoi will be linked to its progress on human rights.

U.S. President Barack Obama's partial lifting of the ban in 2014 drew sharp criticism from human rights advocates and some U.S. lawmakers, and not everyone has welcomed the president's latest decision to completely end the embargo.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, a Republican, issued a statement noting the administration has now lost leverage to press Vietnam, which is poised to join the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), on its poor human rights record.

"I don't think the decision the president announced changes in any way the amount of leverage we have," Malinowski told VOA. "In fact, you can argue that we have more because we now get to take Vietnam's human rights progress into account every time they ask for a particular weapon purchase."

Before Obama's trip to Vietnam, Human Rights Watch sent the president an open letter arguing against lifting the ban, saying that Vietnam's human rights record remained "dire in all areas," with imprisonments of activists and bloggers, restrictions on free speech and regular police torture.

Describing human rights as a priority in the U.S. relationship with its former enemy, Malinowski said terms of the ambitious trade pact will only increase U.S. influence.

"We've incorporated human rights concerns into TPP and into our discussions with Vietnam on the security relationship," he said. "Before TPP there was no obligation on the part of the government of Vietnam to change its labor code. Now Vietnam has that obligation, it has to meet the obligation in order to get the benefits of the trade agreement."

Although Vietnam-U.S. relations have strengthened in recent years, Malinowski said further progress will "depend on continued progress toward a more open society inside Vietnam."
Just 10 years ago, Cambodians relied on dingy, storefront internet cafes if they wanted to surf the web. Computers were old, power cuts were frequent and overhead fans creaked along in a futile effort to keep customers cool as they paid to send and receive emails by the minute.

Local businessman Sourn Narein recalls a time not so long ago when smartphones were as peculiar as Wi-Fi-enabled laptops. One recent morning in Phnom Penh, as he sipped Italian-style coffee in a trendy air-conditioned cafe  surrounded by fellow smartphone- and tablet-wielding young professionals  he stated the obvious.

Its getting really, like, way more modern.

Even five years ago, he told VOA, Cambodians lacked such technology. Its making life better and more convenient, he added. I can connect better with my customers.

Young middle-class Cambodian urbanites have access to all the latest hardware and software. They follow the news on their smartphones and research school assignments online. For some, economic growth, higher incomes and increased standards of living are only perpetuating the countrys mass embrace of digital technology, particularly in major towns and cities.

Boom in web users

The statistics are compelling. According to the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia, internet users grew from about 320,000 in 2010 to 6.7 million by the end of 2015, while digital marketing firm Geeks In Cambodia reports that the 15 million-strong nation now has 3.4 million individual Facebook users.

Not only has the technological shift made it easier to do business, Cambodia's rapid social media growth also is driving change on the political landscape. Vibrant use of social media platforms and digital devices by Cambodias youth is widely believed to have contributed to the extremely strong performance of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party in the 2013 national election, when the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party lost 22 seats in the National Assembly.

Even Prime Minister Hun Sen appears to have taken note. Adopting Facebook to implement principles of of e-governance, he recently told his cabinet to exploit the platform for fast, responsive, accountable service  most likely because of its popularity among politically conscious Cambodian youth.

Information and communications technology are almost completely changing the way Cambodians live and work these days, said Khov Makara, a spokesman at the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, who discussed a government-backed policy paper that aims to achieve greater connectedness and readiness by 2020.

The Cambodian government categorizes telecom and the ICT [information and communications technology] sector as two fundamental pillars that will push the countrys economic growth, says the document, which speaks of boosting technology's role in driving e-government, e-commerce and technology for development, also known as tech4dev.

Look to people's needs

For Kheng Piseth, who monitors the tech sector for the Open Institute, a Cambodian NGO focused on developing education and access to information technology, there's no need to wait.

We should try to predict the future needs of the people and figure out what they will want to make their living conditions more convenient, before thinking of inventing something new to deal with those needs," he said.

At one middle school in Phnom Penh, Sreyneang On, 13, has already taken up that forward-thinking initiative. By compiling an all-female student team to develop the "ImEx" mobile application, Sreyneang created a marketplace platform designed to connect farmers with potential buyers. Coding under the alias LiGeek team, the middle schoolers aim to help farmers circumvent price-gouging middlemen by selling their produce directly to consumers.

We created this mobile app in the hope that farmers will get paid better prices for their hard work, Sreyneang told VOA Khmer.

The question may be whether the boon of Cambodia's rapidly growing sector can spread beyond the urban centers that are fostering its growth.
Zimbabwean police today attempted, in vain, to disperse civil society activists set to camp for 16 days at Africa Unity Square, to press President Robert Mugabes government to tackle social and economic issues bedeviling the country.

The protesters vowed to stay put at Africa Unity Square for 16 days and 16 nights, saying the countrys constitution allows them to conduct public demonstrations.

This was despite the fact that police were in full riot gear and driving around Africa Unity Square near Parliament of Zimbabwe in armoured vehicles with water cannons.

Section 59 of Zimbabwes constitution clearly stipulates that every person has the right to demonstrate and to present petitions, but these rights must be exercised peacefully.

One of the protesters, Lynettee Mudewe, coordinator and founder of the Zimbabwe Activist Alliance, said they wont allow the police to drive them from the renowned place.

Linda Masarira, leader and founder of Zimbabwe Women in Politics Alliance, added that some Zanu PF activists last night also tried to disrupt their protest.

The protesters today were demanding jobs saying the majority of Zimbabweans are currently struggling to make ends meet due to the harsh economic situation.

Musarira said some Zimbabweans youth dont even know anything about getting a formal job even if they are highly educated.

These sentiments were echoed by Makomborero Haruzivishe, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Students Union, who noted that thousands of young people are being thrown into the job market every year in an economy that does not offer them any work.

The activists have different protest themes every day in an attempt to highlight most problems facing the nation.
A church organization says parliament has rejected its appeal to outlaw Zimbabwes national pledge, which is aimed at having children that are patriotic to their nation.

Reverend Clement Zenda of Christian Voice International Zimbabwe told Studio 7 that parliaments response to their request to have the national pledge scrapped is shocking.

They are saying we did not meet the required standards for the petition to be debated in parliament. They are saying that we should add the prerequisites that they want especially some kind of funders of our organization. They are saying if we give them the background on who is funding CVIZ so that they could consider the petition valid.

We havent reacted because this organization is wholly funded by the Christian community in Zimbabwe.

Rev. Zenda said parliament may have been irked by the tone of the petition as we did not mince our words.

He said the CVIZ views the national pledge as a way of indoctrinating school children with Zanu PF propaganda in an attempt to create a docile society.

We were not consulted when that pledge was introduced or imposed on our children. We want parliament to debate that because we are not sure whether the whole issue went through a parliamentary process.

Some Zimbabweans are against the national pledge with most Zanu PF supporters backing the governments move to introduce it at schools.

Zimbabwes Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku recently dismissed an urgent chamber application by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights to stay the reciting of the national pledge in schools until the court makes a ruling on the case. The Constitutional Court will hear the matter sometime this month.

The pledge reads, Almighty God in whose hands our future lies: I salute the national flag. United in our diversity by our common desire for freedom, justice and equality Respecting the brave fathers and mothers who lost lives in the Chimurenga/Umvukela. We are proud inheritors of the richness of our natural resources. We are proud creators and participants in our vibrant traditions and cultures. I commit to honesty and dignity of hard work.
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This website is exclusively owned and operated under the names:

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Please understand that, despite our best efforts, third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions on the Internet which may compromise your personal information.

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Notice To California Residents  Your California Privacy Rights:

Under California Civil Code Section 1798.83 (known as the "Shine the Light" law), an individual who is a California resident who has provided personal information to us in connection with a business relationship that is primarily for personal, family, or household purposes has certain rights. If we, disclosed such personal information to a third-party within the immediately preceding year and we know or should have known that the third-party used the information for its own direct marketing purposes, then we are obligated to disclose in writing to you what personal information was shared and with whom it was shared.

A business can comply with this California law by having either:

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As you can see above, we have the former: a policy of not sharing your personal information with third parties for direct marketing use (this isnt even a situation where well only do it with your consent  we just dont do it).

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In response to the questions raised by the Mexican, Gerardo Fernandez Casanova, the Leader of the Bolivarian Revolution indicated that Mexico has a key role in building a Latin American community. He pointed out that Mexico fixed its gaze more to the North, and sooner or later, on account of its culture and history, it has to look towards the Southern Cone.

The Empire is Contracting

Ramsay Clark, who worked in the US Attorney General Department during the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations, declared that today the biggest threat for humanity and for the well being of the world is the USs immense power to destroy the planet with the huge quantity of nuclear weapons it has accumulated. And he added: here we have a military power superior to the power possessed by all other nations put together.

According to the speaker nominated to intervene in the workshop A Meeting of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Humanity with President Hugo Chavez, the lawyer who spoke from the belly of the beast assured that the world would be much better-off if the people of the United States had better judgment when they chose their leaders.

Recalling Martin Luther King, he indicated that the principal supplier of violence in the world is my country. He added that the dreamer never imagined how, in the years following his death, violence was going to increase in his country.

The former Attorney General gave a long account of the aggressions that the Bush Administration carried out against other nations and its own citizens. Nations, he declared, had the right to feel free from the threat of a US invasion.

In copious detail, he indicated how his countrys government does not respect UN resolutions; how it wanted to avoid an International Criminal Court being set up; but as it could not, refused to accept its jurisdiction.

Most dramatically, he spoke of how prisoners live in Guantanamo. According to him, the message that the superpower sends to the world with images that account for them, is unambiguous: Who so much dares to challenge us, just look at what we are doing in the military base.

Bushs warlike offensive, he denounced, has resulted in crimes injurious to humanity being committed, the same with the use of smart bombs and enriched uranium. Furthermore, this has resulted in torture being carried out.

Clark was also referred to the invasion and devastation of Iraq and the terrible and symbolic destruction of the city of Fallujah, converted into a tragic symbol at this time in history.

Introducing himself as a lawyer that is not removed from crime and delinquency, he deeply regretted the intervention in Haiti, exactly 200 years after it abolished slavery, to replace the elected government with a puppet. Haitian people  he noted - are the ones that have suffered the most.

From his point of view, the difference between what happened in Haiti in 2004 and the events in Venezuela in 2002 - the year of the coup detat against Hugo Chavez - is that in 2002 what the US wanted to work did not work.

Finally, he qualified the Venezuelan president as a good man, an effective leader, something very difficult to find in other governments and capable of delivering to his people welfare, health and education.

The Hen and the Cook

The workshop, that took place this afternoon, tried to initiate dialogue between those participating at the meeting and the Venezuelan president. It was inaugurated by the writer Luis Brito Garcia, winner of the National Prize for Literature. He gave a detailed account of the tasks necessary to defend humanity today:

 to put an end to the horrors of financial capitalism;

 to recognize the peoples right to determine their destiny;

 to resist the imposition of a single system of values;

 to drive economic freedom;

 to disseminate publish knowledge to everyone;

 to re-establish the principle of popular sovereignty,

 to avoid an information monopoly transforming into a monopoly over political power, and

 to defend history.

He concluded his intervention by recalling that a nightmare lasts only as long as you want it to.

Brito Garcia then read out a letter that Eduardo Galeano sent to the meeting. In it, the Uruguayan writer wrote to the participants:

The culture of dignity is the response to the culture of fear that currently is prescribed in the world.

Galeano was recalled by Adolfo Perez Esquivel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as speakers appointed to intervene in the workshop. To illustrate the serious situation in which humanity is in, the Argentine defender of human rights, related a story to the author of Las venas abiertas de America Latina, during a voyage through Italy: 

A cook has a small assembly in the kitchen. There were there a hen, a duck, and some piglets. And the cook says to them: I have called them to ask them a question: with what sauce do you want to be cooked. The poor little animals were gobsmacked. At that point the hen responds:

I do not want to be cooked. No, no, responded the cook, that is not in discussion. The only thing you can choose is the sauce with which you want to be cooked.

What can prevent them cooking us all, added Perez Esquivel, is resistance to building another possible world, to build a project for life against death, to build new spaces for freedom.

Loyal to the narrative style that he chose for his intervention, the Nobel [Prize Winner] recalled the recommendation of the Council of Elders in one African nation:

If you do not know where you are going to, go back so that you know where you are coming from.

And he concluded asking the participants: Do we know where we are going to? What are our roots?

The last speaker on the list of those that spoke before Hugo Chavez, the journalist and today Argentine MP, Miguel Bonasso, made some practical proposals to follow up the meeting.

So he suggested globalizing resistance in defense of humanity:

 building a network, under the responsibility of the hosts;

 establishing a foundation that produces informational and pedagogical materials;

 publishing a weekly publication;

 appointing an advisory committee; and

 driving the constitution of national chapters of the network.

Concerned by the accusations of US General James Hill, Chief of the Command for Latin America, aimed at uniting the Defence Forces and Security Forces of the nations of the hemisphere to combat drug trafficking, he called for national armies not to be converted into police and not to regress to the times of the doctrine of national security.

Furthermore, he dwelt on a matter discussed at different tables at the meeting:

 to break CNNs information barrier in the area;

 to stand up to media monopolies that do not respect the right to information in the name of freedom of information; and

 to establish a Latin American television channel.

The Uprising is truncated

Rather than plotting the direction of his call to launch an offensive in defense of humanity, President Chavez presented an account of several actions that his government recently carried out. He proudly told the participants about a scholarship programme, granting the equivalent of 100 dollars per month to each beneficiary, to half a million persons in total.

Dressed in a military shirt, he indicated furthermore, that poverty and destitution are the most serious problems in the world and to combat them, we must to empower the poor. They are their own liberators.

He read and analysed in detail the most recent Latinobarometro survey on support for democracy in Latin America. The poll showed full support to the Venezuelan government and to democracy in the country, as well as a rejection of using military solutions. Chavez abstained from commenting on the figures that he read, which shows different attitudes and opinions to those documented in other nations on the continent.

As he is accustomed to doing so in public presentations, he made extensive reference to the life and struggle of Simon Bolivar so as to extract a moral: the revolution that the leader headed almost 200 years ago was still imminent. What is being experienced today in Venezuela and other countries in the hemisphere is the reappearance of this insurgency that had been cut short.

To end the meeting, tens of participants of the 52 countries present at the meeting spoke, in many cases to express their solidarity, with the Venezuelan revolution.

At that point, on behalf of the 39 US citizens present at the event, a delegate read a document in which they requested putting an end to the aggressions the government of his country carried out against the democratically elected authorities in this South American nation, and they showed their solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution.

A part, by no means negligible, of progressive intelligentsia declared its love for a process with which it had several months ago had suspicions or distance. The honeymoon has begun.
The Participants met in Paris on June 3, 2016 to reaffirm their support for a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

They reaffirmed that a negotiated two-state solution is the only way to achieve an enduring peace, with two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security. They are alarmed that actions on the ground, in particular continued acts of violence and ongoing settlement activity, are dangerously imperilling the prospects for a two-state solution.

The Participants underscored that the status quo is not sustainable, and stressed the importance of both sides demonstrating, with policies and actions, a genuine commitment to the two-state solution in order to rebuild trust and create the conditions for fully ending the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 and resolving all permanent status issues through direct negotiations based on resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), and also recalling relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and highlighting the importance of the implementation of the Arab Peace Initiative.

The Participants discussed possible ways in which the international community could help advance the prospects for peace, including by providing meaningful incentives to the parties to make peace. The Participants also highlighted the potential for regional peace and security as envisioned by the Arab Peace Initiative.

The Participants highlighted the key role of the Quartet and key regional stakeholders. They welcomed the interested countries offer to contribute to this effort. They also welcomed Frances offer to coordinate it, and the prospect of convening before the end of the year an international conference.


 First UN report on ISIL, Voltaire Network, 9 February 2016.

Report of the Secretary-General on the threat posed by ISIL (Daesh) to international peace and security and the range of United Nations efforts in support of Member States in countering the threat

I. Introduction

1. In adopting its resolution 2253 (2015) on 17 December 2015, the Security Council expressed its determination to address the threat posed to international peace and security by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as Daesh) and associated individuals and groups, as well as the importance of cutting off its access to funds and preventing it from planning and facilitating attacks. In paragraph 97 of resolution 2253 (2015), the Council requested that I provide an initial strategic-level report, followed by updates every four months thereafter, that demonstrates and reflects the gravity of the aforementioned threat, including the threats posed by foreign terrorist fighters joining ISIL and associated groups and entities; the sources of financing of those groups, including through illicit trade in oil, antiquities and other natural resources; and their planning and facilitation of attacks. The Council also requested that the report reflect the range of United Nations efforts in support of Member States in countering the threat.

2. In my initial report (S/2016/92), issued on 29 January 2016, I addressed the areas identified by the Council and set out recommendations for strengthening the capacities of Member States to mitigate the threat posed by ISIL, as well as the ways in which the United Nations could support those efforts.

3. The present report was prepared with the input of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate and of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team established pursuant to Security Council resolution 1526 (2004) concerning Al-Qaida and the Taliban and associated individuals and entities of the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) regarding the gravity of the threat posed by ISIL and its geographical evolution, and in close collaboration with the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force, the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre and other relevant United Nations actors and international organizations. It provides an update on the gravity of the threat posed by ISIL and associated groups and entities, as well as on ISIL funding sources. It highlights the efforts and progress of Member States in implementing related counter-terrorism measures in a number of thematic areas, and the risks posed by foreign terrorist fighters who return to their home States or travel to other States. It also considers the presence and influence of ISIL outside Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, notably in Afghanistan, Libya and South-East Asia; the use of information and communications technology (ICT) by ISIL; the issue of conflict-related sexual violence; and the range of technical assistance and capacity-building efforts undertaken by the United Nations and its partners.

II. The gravity of the threat

A. The threat posed by ISIL and associated groups and entities

4. The global threat emanating from ISIL remains high and continues to diversify. Since my initial report, the continued military pressure exerted in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic by international coalition forces has led to serious military setbacks for ISIL. However, even though the territorial expansion of ISIL in both States has been halted and, in part reversed over recent months, many Member States have noted that ISIL is not yet strategically and irreversibly weakened. Nevertheless, several Member States report a marked increase in the rate of returnees from Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic. Furthermore, information received from Member States points to recent discussions inside the core ISIL leadership concerning the groups future strategy. Although the discussions do not yet appear to have led to a serious disruption in the internal cohesion of the core leadership, this development should be further monitored.

5. Several Member States have stated that the core leadership of ISIL is seeking to elevate the role of its affiliates. In addition, 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. In the past six months alone, ISIL has carried out, inspired, or claimed responsibility for, terrorist attacks in Bangladesh, Belgium, Egypt, France, Germany, Indonesia, Lebanon, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Turkey and the United States of America. The attacks have killed over 500 individuals and injured hundreds more. The list does not include attacks and fighting in conflict zones inside Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, the Syrian Arab Republic or Yemen. ISIL thus continues to pose a significant global terrorist threat.

6. The attacks in Paris in November 2015 and in Brussels in March 2016 demonstrate the ability of ISIL to mount complex, multi-wave attacks. National law enforcement agencies continue to investigate those attacks, but it is already clear that they were coordinated by foreign terrorist fighters who had returned to Europe from ISIL-held territory in the Syrian Arab Republic. To some extent, these cells received direction from the ISIL leadership and were supported and facilitated by a range of individuals and groups with pre-existing records of involvement in criminality (including Al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist groups). This demonstrates the ability of ISIL returnees to quickly link up and draw on the support of established radical networks and supporters of Al-Qaida and thereby enhance their newly acquired terrorism skills with local knowledge and support.

7. Finally, continuing pressure on ISIL in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic also increases the likelihood that the terrorist group may try to move funds to affiliates outside the immediate current conflict zone. Initial reports received from Member States indicate that this may already be occurring.

8. All of these factors demonstrate the crucial role played by States bordering the territories under ISIL control in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic in efforts to sustainably undermine the terrorist groups capacities. Continued direct access of the terrorist group to international borders remains a major area of concern. Several Member States highlight significant challenges in this regard. A worrying factor is that no Member State has reported that ISIL is short on, or lacks, arms or ammunition. Thus, in addition to risks connected with the outflow of returnees and funds from ISIL through Member States of the region, the potential inflow of arms and ammunition directly or indirectly to ISIL remains a serious concern.

B. ISIL funding sources

9. For the first time since the declaration of its so-called caliphate in June 2014, the ISIL core is under financial pressure. This was notably exemplified by the official announcement of ISIL, in late 2015, of a 50 per cent reduction in the salaries of fighters in Raqqah, Syrian Arab Republic. Although the proportions have changed, the sources of ISIL revenue have not altered significantly since my initial report. ISIL continues to rely on taxation and extortion, as well as on revenue from energy resources. However, according to several Member States, ISIL oil production and refining, and thus its oil revenues, have been diminished as a result of international airstrikes. Furthermore, the decision of the Government of Iraq to cut off salary payments to employees living within ISIL-controlled territory in Iraq has, according to one Member State, cut the flow of funds into ISIL-controlled territory by the equivalent of $2 billion per year, and has therefore significantly curbed ISIL opportunities to levy taxes.

10. Member States estimate that ISIL oil production has fallen by between 30 and 50 per cent as a result of the above-mentioned factors. However, the Monitoring Team notes that there may also be a balloon effect: as pressure is applied to one income stream, ISIL may step up its efforts to identify income from other sources (see S/2015/739). Member States have reported that ISIL has been attempting to compensate for the loss in oil revenues by intensifying efforts at taxation/extortion (for example, increasing the cost of certain permits and escalating the imposition of fines). According to one State, ISIL has been creating new taxes and increasing the rate of existing taxes.

11. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) reports that, because ISIL has not conquered new territory in Iraq for some time, its ability to loot and sell fresh resources, assets or antiquities has been diminished. It is not clear how much revenue ISIL earns from antiquities smuggling, but this practice remains a source of income. Since my initial report, Western European law enforcement agencies have initiated investigations into related smuggling activities, including two specific investigations involving the private sector. International and regional organizations have also highlighted the potential risks to Libyan and Yemeni cultural artefacts and the risk that the looting and selling of such artefacts may become a funding stream for listed terrorist groups.

12. As noted above, owing to the increased pressure on ISIL finances in the Syrian Arab Republic and Iraq, there is an increased risk that ISIL will attempt to exploit additional revenue-generating activities. The international community must therefore remain alert to attempts by ISIL to further diversify its revenue streams or expand relatively minor streams. For example, ISIL may seek outside donations (which have thus far represented a relatively small proportion of the terrorist groups funding) or intensify its efforts to obtain international hostages for ransom. As previously reported by the Monitoring Team, ISIL reaped significant rewards from the ransoming of international hostages in 2014 (see S/2014/770 and S/2014/815). Its income from kidnapping fell in 2015 from 2014 levels. If ISIL once again seeks ransoms for international hostages, instead of cynically using them as propaganda in gruesome execution videos, this would be a further indication of the increasing financial pressure faced by the terrorist group.

13. In view of the ongoing military strikes against ISIL-controlled oil fields and related infrastructure and against the ability of ISIL to refine oil efficiently, there is a heightened risk that it will attempt to obtain the necessary spare parts and equipment to revitalize its ability to profit from hydrocarbon resources. It is therefore crucial that the necessary compliance procedures be put in place to prevent ISIL from obtaining replacement equipment and parts needed to repair destroyed oil field infrastructure and refining equipment (see S/2016/213). Some Member States have been working to identify a list of equipment and spare parts that ISIL may be trying to acquire, with a view to sharing the list with business sector entities so that those entities can more effectively target their compliance procedures.

14. As ISIL comes under continued pressure in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic (including through military measures targeting cash storage sites), it is likely that it will attempt to move funds internationally and to convert local currency into currency or commodities, such as gold, which can be more easily transferred and used internationally. Money-service businesses, hawala exchange houses and other informal transfer systems remain vulnerable to abuse, but further attention should also be given to new payment methods, such as prepaid cards and virtual currencies. ISIL continues, nonetheless, to move funds through cash smuggling. Formal banking channels should also not be overlooked.

15. Member States, including Iraq, have already taken significant measures to limit the ability of ISIL to access the financial sector. However, continued vigilance must be maintained in this area, particularly in Member States bordering ISIL-controlled territory. Vigilance is essential not only to prevent ISIL from being able to maintain funds abroad but also to prevent it from distributing funds to its affiliates and facilitating attacks around the world. As noted in my initial report, the proliferation of ISIL affiliates and of pledges of loyalty to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi over the past two years demonstrates the global reach and ambitions of ISIL.

16. Some ISIL affiliates are purpose-built, but others have been created by the rebranding of existing terrorist groups. Several States have emphasized in their assessments that some of the pledges of loyalty from existing terrorist groups to ISIL represent an opportunistic effort to obtain support, including financial support, from the well-funded ISIL core. According to Member States, ISIL has provided funding, including start-up capital, to its affiliates, including in North Africa and Afghanistan. According to one Member State, the ISIL core is using its province in Libya as a financial hub for the funnelling of money to other terrorist groups. Moreover, at least some of the international attacks carried out by ISIL cells have been funded in part by money raised in the conflict zone. The soft target attacks perpetrated by ISIL internationally are relatively inexpensive and can, in many cases, be funded through local sources, such as the misappropriation of welfare benefits and petty crime. However, the cost of starting up, maintaining and providing long-term support for an affiliate is much higher. The provision of funds by ISIL to its affiliates and networks therefore remains a major concern.

17. Last, ISIL finances in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic cannot be targeted in isolation. Libya, too, is crisscrossed by smuggling routes, and ISIL is also able to tax economic or smuggling activity in Libya (see S/2015/891). Thus, the expansion and consolidation of territory increase opportunities for financing. Thus far, there is no indication that any ISIL affiliate is funding the terrorist groups core. However, this is another area in which vigilance is necessary, lest any ISIL affiliate develops sufficient revenue sources to financially support the core.

C. Foreign terrorist fighters joining ISIL and associated groups and entities: planning and facilitation of attacks

18. Significant numbers of foreign terrorist fighters continue to travel from States around the world to join ISIL in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic. One Member State reported that around 38,000 individuals may have attempted to travel to the region in the past few years. Several Member States estimate that ISIL currently commands a total of around 30,000 fighters in the region (this number includes Syrian and Iraqi citizens in addition to foreign terrorist fighters). Most foreign terrorist fighters currently with ISIL travel from North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Significant numbers have also travelled from Europe and South and South-East Asia. Information provided by Member States indicates that the flow continues. Even though the increase in the number of new foreign terrorist fighters travelling from some regions has slowed, the travel and attempted travel of new foreign terrorist fighters from other regions has increased. Countermeasures taken by States to detect and deter foreign terrorist fighters, and increased controls at the borders of Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, may be affecting the numbers of such fighters able to join ISIL.

19. Determined foreign terrorist fighters who are aware of these controls are skilled at concealing their intention to travel, not least by using closed web forums and encrypted messaging services to engage with those facilitating their travel. They have been reported using forged or stolen identification documents and have also sought to conceal their travel to Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic by taking circuitous routes.

20. The profiles of individuals travelling to join ISIL in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic continue to vary and to suggest a wide range of motivations. Member States thus continue to face challenges in trying to identify potential foreign terrorist fighters. Some such fighters may already have a personal history in conflict zones; some may have ideological reasons for joining ISIL; and others may be motivated primarily by salary. The continued recruitment of women by ISIL and the involvement of children as fighters remain sources of concern.

21. According to some States, there is a renewed risk of terrorist attacks in South-East Asia. Although the numbers of foreign terrorist fighters from South-East Asia travelling to Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic to join ISIL are relatively small, in comparison with those from other regions, they still number in the hundreds. Leaders of several established South-East Asian groups (and some newer groups) have pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (see S/2015/441). The existence of a Malaysian/Indonesian military unit within ISIL, known as the Katibah Nusantara or Archipelago Group, further underscores the threat that South-East Asian veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic may return with new skills.

22. An increasing number of foreign terrorist fighters are also returning to their home States. Some of these returnees leave conflict zones after becoming disillusioned with ISIL practices and with the conflict in which they were engaged. Others remain radicalized and retain the intent and capability, to conduct terrorist attacks in their country of origin or residence. Such fighters have been using practices such as broken travel, using false or stolen travel documents, or hiding among migrant flows, in order to avoid detection. As was demonstrated in Paris and Brussels, these individuals form cells and networks. Many were previously involved in criminality and already have links to criminal organizations that can help provide access to weapons and explosives. They also return with battlefield skills, training in the use of explosives and an understanding of the practices of police and security agencies. As a consequence, they are difficult to detect.

23. Attacks carried out by such cells demonstrate an increased complexity and reflect an intention to attack multiple targets in waves, stretch police and security service resources, and cause civilian panic and high numbers of casualties. Some of these terrorist groups appear to be directed from abroad. Some returnees have also relocated to other areas of conflict in order to join ISIL affiliates; establish new affiliates in accordance with ISIL ideology; or establish funding channels within the framework of the ISIL strategy to expand its global footprint. Most significantly, several hundred foreign terrorist fighters have returned to Libya.

III. Evolving aspects of the threat

24. In the sections below, I highlight the emerging threat posed by ISIL in States other than Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, consider the use of ICT by ISIL and address the issue of conflict-related sexual violence.

A. Geographical evolution of the threat posed by ISIL

25. In view of the elevated presence of ISIL outside Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, the present report provides an examination of the main affiliates of ISIL, as well as regions in which there is an elevated risk that new ISIL affiliates will be established. Subsequent update reports, to be submitted pursuant to paragraph 97 of resolution 2253 (2015), will examine these issues in greater detail.

1. ISIL in Libya

26. After 18 months of presence in Libya, this branch of ISIL continues to be part of a deliberate strategy on the part of the ISIL core to expand outside Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic. Member States note that some within the central ISIL leadership see Libya as a potential alternative theatre in view of the increased difficulties facing ISIL in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic. In addition, ISIL has recognized that a foothold in Libya would enable it to build a hub for possible expansion in the wider Maghreb and Sahel regions and beyond. ISIL thus continues to take advantage of the political and security vacuum in Libya. Its Libyan branch has also benefitted from receiving guidance from the core ISIL leadership and from the extensive experience of ISIL with, and its knowledge of, inter alia, propaganda and the construction of improvised explosive devices.

27. Member States also indicate that ISIL in Libya supports other ISIL cells in the Maghreb (particularly in Tunisia, where this branch of the terrorist group has already provided support to ISIL-affiliated individuals). Continuous recruitment and facilitation activities in the region have also been reported. Several associated Maghreb-based cells have recently been dismantled by Member State security services.

28. ISIL in Libya has benefitted greatly from an inflow of new fighters since its inception. The ISIL core sent a group of around 800 Libyan fighters from Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic back to Libya in order to reinforce ISIL activities in the country (S/2015/891, para. 21) and continues to attract fighters from the Maghreb, the Sahel, the Middle East, East Africa and Western States. Although the total number of foreign terrorist fighters in Libya is significantly lower than that in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, Member States estimate the ISIL fighting force (which is mainly composed of foreign terrorist fighters) to comprise between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters. According to Member States, Libya serves as a waypoint and sanctuary for ISIL returnees on their way back to their home or to third States. However, ISIL in Libya continues to be considered an outsider element by the local population and other Libyan factions (ibid., para. 8).

29. ISIL in Libya has gained control over territory in a relatively short time. Recent attacks have targeted the coastline east of Sirte (including oil facilities) to deny income to other groups and rival factions in the country. ISIL consistently attempts to expand its sphere of influence by attacking security checkpoints, inhabited areas and vital installations. However, it faces difficulties in operating and expanding outside its stronghold in Sirte, which continues to host most of the leadership of ISIL in Libya. According to information provided by Member States, ISIL controls various individual cells in Darnah, Ajdabiya and Benghazi, where military operations have succeeded in dislodging larger groups of ISIL fighters. Tripoli also continues to be home to ISIL cells. Finally, Member States report a small ISIL presence in southern Libya, established to provide logistical support and training to incoming foreign terrorist fighters. On 19 February 2016, in Sabratha, ISIL in Libya suffered a significant setback when more than 40 such fighters, including many Tunisian fighters linked to high-profile attacks in Tunisia, were killed in an airstrike.

30. According to information provided by Member States, ISIL in Libya continues to be largely self-funded through taxation within and in the vicinity of Sirte. However, one Member State also reported the provision of funding from the ISIL core through emissaries. ISIL does not currently appear to earn income directly from exploiting Libyas crude oil resources.

31. The continuing difficulties experienced by ISIL in Libya in consolidating its territory, building alliances and competing with other actors, including transnational smuggling networks in the region, have the potential to hinder the branch from gaining additional momentum in the coming months. Nevertheless, the presence of ISIL in Libya remains a risk factor. It will therefore be necessary to continue to monitor the terrorist groups operational capacities, the expansion of its influence in a local environment that is not necessarily favourable and the reactions of other terrorist groups in the Sahel and West Africa.

2. ISIL in Afghanistan

32. The leadership vacuum in the Talibans Islamic Emirate following the death of Mullah Omar was filled in mid-2015 by the declaration of a new amir al muminin, Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, who implored Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to refrain from extending his domain into Afghanistan. Because the new Taliban leader was contested (owing to his narrow tribal base, involvement in the narcotics trade and lavish lifestyle) a number of factions in the Afghan Taliban movement declared their support for ISIL. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, until that time a loyal affiliate of core Al-Qaida, also identified more with the so-called caliphate of ISIL and resisted the new leadership, despite the pledge of loyalty of Al-Qaida leader Aiman Muhammed Rabi al-Zawahiri to Akhtar Mohammad Mansour in September 2015. Some members of ISIL in Afghanistan are former fighters of Tehrik-e Taliban in Pakistan. Both latter groups had been displaced from their previous sanctuary, in North Waziristan, Pakistan, to border areas inside Afghanistan. Only a handful of individuals with ISIL in Afghanistan have come directly from Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic.

33. The forces of Akhtar Mohammad Mansour defeated these new ISIL factions in South, South-East and West Afghanistan, postponing offensive operations in each territory against the Government of Afghanistan. As a result, the presence of ISIL in those areas went underground, but remains active. In 2015, ISIL was able to take control of the Achin, Deh Bala, Kot and Nazyan districts in Nangarhar Province, along the border with Pakistan. Following its decision to ban poppy cultivation in those districts, ISIL in Afghanistan was also attacked by local elites and strongmen involved in narcotics trafficking. In 2015, international counter-terrorism forces operating in Afghanistan began to target ISIL systematically. In the face of this opposition, ISIL tactically retreated from the main settled areas to the mountainous periphery alongside the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. In autumn 2015, ISIL was estimated to have between 1,400 and 2,000 fighters in Nangarhar Province. By the first quarter of 2016, however, this force was estimated to consist of fewer than 1,000 fighters. Some former Taliban, who in 2014 had aligned themselves with ISIL, returned and pledged allegiance to former Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour.

34. ISIL in Afghanistan has proved its ability to hold limited terrain and to conduct terrorist attacks in major cities beyond its core territory. Attacks using an improvised explosive device in Kabul targeted a Shia mosque, and a complex suicide attack in Jalalabad targeted the Pakistani Consulate. Attacks are also carried out in border areas inside Pakistan.

35. Following the destruction of the terrorist groups fixed FM radio station in February 2016, the terrorist group resumed broadcasts of its Voice of the caliphate from a mobile platform in an effort to avoid detection. The terrorist group has access to the Internet and continues to produce high-quality and frequent propaganda movies.

36. According to one Member State, a significant financial source for ISIL in Afghanistan is funds originating from ISIL in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic. The funds are moved by money transfers routed through third States. These resources were sufficient for ISIL in Afghanistan to acquire a large portion of the opium harvest of the four districts in Nangarhar Province in the first quarter 2015 and are estimated to amount to several million dollars. According to several Member States, ISIL subsequently burned the poppy crop. This demonstrates that the terrorist group has sufficient financial assets in Afghanistan and does not currently need to rely on the narcotics trade to finance its operations in the country.

B. Use of information communications technology

1. Use of information communications technology platforms by ISIL

37. ICT is a key enabler for ISIL and plays an essential role in enabling ISIL and its affiliates to function, recruit and attack. The military and economic squeeze currently being effected on ISIL in the territories it controls, in particular Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, has not yet been translated into a similar reduction of its cyberpresence. The threat in this sector is significant, dynamic and evolving.

38. Although many ISIL accounts have been suspended in recent years, it has maintained a proactive response to sustain control over its propaganda on social networking sites. For instance, in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks at the Brussels airport in Zaventem and the Molenbeek metro station on 22 March 2016, several private pro-ISIL Telegram channels began coordinating an online propaganda campaign on Twitter by exploiting trending Brussels hashtags (for example, #Brussel #Brussels #Bruxelles #Brusselsattacks) and flooding them with ISIL propaganda, including videos. Coordination by ISIL of social media campaigns through the use of proxy disseminators that propagate its virulent narrative  with or without the direction of the ISIL core  marks an evolution in its propaganda campaign.

39. There is continuing evidence of online sharing of instructional videos or materials, such as those on the planning and execution of terrorist attacks or the construction of improvised explosive devices (see S/2014/770, para. 19), and on the use of small arms and light weapons. Although such theoretical instructions usually require practical training and field exercises to be effective, sharing relevant materials online is easy and facilitates such activities. Recent reports suggest that terrorist organizations are also engaged in the online trafficking of weapons via social media and communication platforms in States that are either in or neighbouring the conflict zones in the Middle East.

40. ISIL may currently lack technical capabilities for cyberattacks against critical infrastructures. However, the risk that ISIL will purchase attack tools from the darknet is real and developing. Data (in particular sensitive personal data of law enforcement personnel) is a key target for ISIL and its sympathizers. The so-called caliphate cyber army and other hacker groups that currently appear to be only sympathizers of ISIL could be recruited by ISIL as force multipliers.

2. Enhancing cooperation with private information and communications technology companies

41. Although States bear the primary responsibility for preventing and countering the threat posed by terrorist use of ICT, their success depends upon harnessing the knowledge, expertise and active support of relevant stakeholders such as the private sector and civil society. Online radicalization cannot be tackled by focusing exclusively on attempts to remove content or to restrict access to the Internet. The private sector  particularly the media and the technology sector  possesses a range of tools and resources that could be used to help Governments and civil society build resilience to radicalization. Often, grass-roots organizations lack the technical expertise to maintain and update websites and social media platforms designed to maximize the efficacy of counter-messaging initiatives. There remains considerable scope to develop online counter-narratives by further supporting grass-roots initiatives and working increasingly with the private sector.

42. Many leading ICT companies have measures in place to prevent the abuse of their platforms. Google and Facebook recently announced the launch of anti radicalization campaigns to be conducted together with civil society organizations. In February 2016, Twitter announced that, since mid-2015, it had deleted more than 125,000 accounts linked to terrorists. On 20 May 2016, Microsoft announced that it was revising its approach to terrorist content online and its terms of use and would use the Consolidated United Nations Security Council Sanctions List to take down content. These companies are increasing their capacities to enforce their terms of use and allow users and Governments to flag content while also facilitating the dissemination of counter-messages by credible messengers.

43. Certain companies are recognizing the need to raise awareness of their operational guidelines for law enforcement officials seeking user records, particularly through the use of the emergency disclosure request process, data-preservation requests and requests for basic subscriber information. The creation of a network of trusted and listed points of contact would facilitate cooperation between organizations committed to preventing terrorist use of the Internet.

C. Conflict-related sexual violence

44. Sexual violence continues to be used as a tactic of terrorism to increase the power, revenue and recruitment base of ISIL, as well as to shred the social fabric of targeted communities. As I noted in my recent report on conflict-related sexual violence (S/2016/361) although the threat of sexual violence has been a push factor driving forced displacement of civilians, the offer of wives and sex slaves has been a strategic pull factor for the recruitment of men and boys, inducing both local youths and foreign fighters, to join ISIL ranks (ibid., paras. 19-22). ISIL describes the capture and enslavement of infidel women and children as an inevitable consequence of its conquest of new territory and seeks to regulate and codify sexual slavery. This reinforces the explicit justification of sexual enslavement.

45. The trafficking of women and girls remains a critical component of the financial flows to ISIL and its affiliates, which continue to exploit ICT to extort funds through the trafficking and sale of women. Innovative uses of communication platforms, such as through the use of private messaging applications, have allowed ISIL and its affiliates to secretly communicate through encrypted messaging and sell women and girls through an online bidding process.

46. There is a need to ensure accountability for sexual violence as part of United Nations counter-terrorism strategies. Sexual violence must be prosecuted as vigorously as terrorist acts. At its fifty-fifth session, the Committee Against Torture, adopting its concluding observations on Iraq (A/HRC/28/18), expressed concern that ISIL had instituted a pattern of sexual violence, slavery, abduction and human trafficking targeted at women and girls belonging to religious and ethnic minorities, and recommended that Iraq take measures to promote the protection of women and eliminate the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators. It is therefore important that there is a collective effort to preserve evidence of the violations committed by ISIL, including sexual violence.

47. States should continue to deepen their understanding of sexual violence as a tactic of terrorism and formally recognize victims of sexual violence as victims of terrorism in order to build counter-narratives and counter-strategies and pave the way for reparations and redress. States should also engage with traditional and religious leaders who can help to shift the shame and stigma of sexual violence from the victims to the perpetrators. This is vital to ensuring that extremists do not win the underlying battle of ideas. This includes negating attempts to legitimize rape on religious terms. The efforts of States to counter violent extremism must not compromise womens rights, but rather empower women as part of efforts to foster resilient families and communities, as called for in resolution 2178 (2014) on addressing the terrorist threat. Finally, States should ensure that their national legislation criminalizes the use of social media platforms and messaging applications to sell women and children.

IV. Updates on implementation by Member States of the relevant counter-terrorism resolutions

A. Criminal justice and legislation

48. The need to respond to the rapid evolution and escalation of the current terrorist threat, including the emergence of ISIL and its success in recruiting foreign terrorist fighters, has created additional legal counter-terrorism challenges. Member States continue to work to ensure that their legislation fully meets the requirements of resolution 2178 (2014) and facilitates an effective response to the foreign terrorist fighter phenomenon (including addressing the full range of serious crimes committed during travel (in particular war crimes, crimes against humanity and gender-related crimes)) (A/HRC/28/18).

49. Currently, only around one third of the 77 Member States (see S/2015/975) identified as most affected by the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters have updated their legislation in response to resolution 2178 (2014). In many Member States, existing legislation falls short in several areas, including the need to prevent the travel of such fighters by comprehensively criminalizing preparatory or accessory acts. National legislation also remains overly broad or vague in many Member States and therefore risks providing inadequate protection of international human rights, humanitarian and refugee laws.

50. Member States also continue to work to strengthen their capacities to effectively investigate and prosecute complex terrorism-related cases and, in particular, cases related to foreign terrorist fighters. Collecting evidence in or from foreign terrorist fighter destination areas remains a serious challenge.

51. Several States report that a high proportion of their nationals suspected of returning from foreign terrorist fighter destination areas have either not met the threshold for prosecution or have received short prison sentences. Currently, only around half of the States most affected by the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters have developed and implemented prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration strategies for returnees. The Madrid guiding principles on foreign terrorist fighters (S/2015/939, annex II), in particular guiding principles 30-32, provide useful guidance in this field.

B. International cooperation

52. Because terrorist networks and the travel of foreign terrorist fighters extend beyond one particular region, Member States of different parts of the world rely increasingly on international cooperation with States beyond their traditional bilateral and regional cooperation networks. However, the assessments of the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee show that there are numerous challenges associated with effective international cooperation in stemming the flow of such fighters, including delays in the provision of mutual legal assistance, procedural rigidities and lack of capacity.

53. The assessments of the Counter-Terrorism Committee also show that mutual legal assistance remains underutilized owing to the often lengthy and complicated procedures involved. Some Member States  including some of those most affected by the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters  have not yet designated an effective central authority to handle requests for MLA and extradition. Delays in procedures can result in the total loss of evidence. The guiding principles and the relevant publications of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) provide useful guidance to enable Member States to effectively cooperate in criminal matters in order to bring terrorists to justice and stem the flow of such fighters.

54. The creation of judicial cooperation networks such as Eurojust, the European Judicial Network and the Southeast European Prosecutors Advisory Group has shown the utility of regional mechanisms in enhancing formal and informal cooperation. The designation of a network of contact points that are accessible

24 hours a day/7 days a week for cooperation can be an excellent tool in facilitating timely law enforcement exchange. A regional approach to updating legislation can also improve cooperation between Member States by facilitating legal consistency. The Council of Europe, for instance, recently concluded an Additional Protocol to its Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism, which provides for a harmonized approach to the implementation of resolution 2178 (2014).

C. Counter-financing of terrorism: countering the financing of ISIL and foreign terrorist fighters

55. Even though Member States have continued to make substantial progress in implementing the requirements of the relevant Security Council resolutions to prevent terrorist financing, they continue to face challenges in effectively implementing the new measures set forth in the relevant Council resolutions, which broaden the criminalization of terrorist financing to cover the financing of travel undertaken by foreign terrorist fighters. Several States have proposed that ISIL-linked individuals be designated in the ISIL (Daesh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List, and some have used the asset-freezing provisions of resolution 1373 (2001) to make national designations of individuals and entities linked to ISIL, including foreign terrorist fighters.

56. Member States of the Financial Action Task Force and the Task Force-style regional bodies are engaged in a review of the risks presented by ISIL and its affiliates with regard to terrorism financing, and particularly in identifying operational barriers to the sharing of financial information and to enhancing the contribution of counter-terrorism financing agencies in the prevention and investigation of terrorism cases.

57. States are using existing inter-agency mechanisms to enhance coordination on terrorism and terrorism-financing cases. Some States enable financial institutions to share information on accounts or customers among themselves, but these practices are generally limited. Some States have recently piloted terrorism-financing information-sharing platforms that allow for the exchange of confidential information at operational and policy levels between Government agencies and pre authorized representatives of the private sector. Private-sector entities need also to receive additional information, not only to protect the international financial system but also to help to identify and dismantle terrorist networks through, for instance, the development of financial profiles. States also note that some financial products, such as prepaid cards, have an inherently higher vulnerability to abuse by terrorists. This was demonstrated following recent terrorist attacks connected with ISIL, including the Paris attacks of November 2015.

58. Physical transportation of cash across borders remains one of the preferred methods employed by ISIL for moving funds. States are increasingly aware of the need to strengthen controls on the cross-border movement of funds and goods, and some have recently taken steps to do so. Such steps include the completion of a national terrorism-financing risk assessment that identifies the various threats and risks, as well as countermeasures. For example, Member States of the Middle East and North Africa region neighbouring the conflict zone have identified significant risks associated with potential physical cross-border transportation of cash. However, the number of cases reported from 2014 to 2016 is very low, according to case statistics.

59. ISIL continues to rely on methods of transnational organized crime to circumvent the international counter-terrorism regime. Therefore, in addition to implementing the international counter-terrorism instruments and the United Nations sanctions regime, States are encouraged to utilize other relevant international instruments, such as the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime of 2000 and its Protocols. All these instruments can enhance measures taken by States to disrupt ISIL funding and can also be utilized to facilitate effective international and regional cooperation.

D. Law enforcement and border control

1. Law enforcement

60. Proactive and coordinated investigations are crucial to detecting terrorist recruitment, financing, travel and communications and thus to arresting suspects, deactivating terrorist cells and pre-empting terrorist activity. A number of States have successfully facilitated the collation, tracking and sharing of critical counter-terrorism intelligence with the use of centralized databases to which all counter-terrorism-mandated law enforcement agencies have access. In addition, national databases have been utilized to support regional and international information sharing. In some States, joint terrorism task forces play a lead role in coordinating counter-terrorism investigations and bringing together national and international stakeholders in the process.

61. Bilateral and multilateral agreements continue to enhance the ability of States to counter the threat posed by ISIL and foreign terrorist fighters. States also benefit from participation in existing international and regional law enforcement bodies such as the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), the European Police Office (Europol) and the Association of Heads of Police of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEANAPOL).

62. Because of the success of ISIL and other terrorist organizations in recruiting new members through family and neighbourhood connections, the role played by law enforcement agencies in implementing preventive measures to tackle radicalization has taken on greater significance. Community policing and proactive intelligence work are two of the methods being used by some States to help to deter radicalization and halt the recruitment of foreign terrorist fighters. Although some States have already made good progress in strengthening internal coordination and real-time exchange of information, others are at an initial stage in developing their related counter-terrorism law enforcement systems and capacities. There remain shortfalls in the capacities of many States to create and effectively utilize the range of law enforcement measures and practices required to counter terrorism in general and the travel of foreign terrorist fighters, in particular.

2. Border control

63. The design and implementation of comprehensive border-management strategies continue to be challenging for many Member States, especially in the context of porous borders and the identification of departing or transiting foreign terrorist fighters. However, Member States have recognized that putting in place effective border control remains an essential aspect of countering terrorism and stemming the flow of such fighters. At official entry and exit points, key mechanisms include advance passenger information, passenger name records, biometric technology, and INTERPOL and national databases. Since the adoption of resolution 2178 (2014), the number of States using advance passenger information has increased from 51 to 56. Taking into account the high degree of complexity and resources required to develop a system for advance passenger information, however, it is likely that there will not be any appreciable upsurge in the number of States utilizing such systems for at least another four or five years. The recent recommendation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Facilitation Panel to introduce an amendment to annex 9 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention) to make the use of advance passenger information a binding international standard may speed progress in this area. It should be noted, however, that advance passenger information and/or passenger name records alone cannot prevent the travel of foreign terrorist fighters.

64. Some States have responded to the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters by increasing the number of official border points and/or the number of officials assigned to those points or by strengthening the technological capacity of existing border points. Some employ modern communication and surveillance methods to monitor border sections beyond official crossing points.

65. However, ISIL continues to use evolving, technologically efficient methods to facilitate the travel of foreign terrorist fighters (S/2016/92, para. 32). These include online forums to disseminate information on ways for such fighters to avoid detection while crossing borders, using routes that will not raise suspicion, and to alert them to the particular elements that States look for when screening at borders. To stem the flow of such fighters, States should develop and implement an additional range of flexible, complementary and coordinated border management measures, adapted to local conditions.

E. Countering recruitment and preventing/countering violent extremism



66. Member States continue to express deep concern over the abuse of the Internet and social media by ISIL and affiliates seeking to recruit new members and incite or glorify the commission of terrorist acts. During the thematic debates of the Security Council, held on 14 April 2016 and 11 May 2016 under the presidency of China and Egypt, respectively, Member States stressed the importance of effective measures to prohibit and counter such abuse, including through full implementation of resolution 1624 (2005) on the threat of incitement to commit acts of terrorism, as well as on the need to counter the narrative of terrorists. Member States also noted the need to ensure respect for international human rights obligations in undertaking related actions.

67. Member States are paying increased attention to the development of comprehensive approaches to countering recruitment and preventing and countering violent extremism, including by establishing partnerships with non-governmental actors. There is broad international recognition that effective strategies in this domain require the involvement of governmental actors not traditionally involved in counter-terrorism efforts, such as those concerned with education, social welfare, regional development, human rights and religious affairs. As stated in resolution 2178 (2014), it also requires engagement with relevant local communities and non governmental actors and the empowerment of concerned civil society groups. Progress in this area has been slow. Care should be exercised in defining the respective roles of Governments and civil society actors. In the case of civil society and human rights defenders, emphasis should be placed on safeguarding the ability of non-governmental actors to operate in a secure environment and on fully respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedoms of thought, conscience, expression, religion, peaceful assembly and association.

F. Human rights

68. Measures taken to counter the threat posed by ISIL and other terrorist groups require States to contend with difficult issues with respect to their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights law. One concern is that the recent criminalization of certain conducts may not have been adequately considered and related policies may have been adopted in a reactive or hasty manner; States should therefore continue to ensure that proposed laws, policies and measures aimed at combatting ISIL and other terrorist organizations are subject to public debate and human rights review prior to adoption.

69. Measures taken to criminalize the attempted travel of foreign terrorist fighters to ISIL-controlled territories may also present more specific challenges. It may be problematic in certain cases to impose criminal liability prior to travel that is being undertaken to terrorist-controlled territory for the purpose of engaging in terrorist acts, when evidence of overt acts aimed towards that end may be scant. Prosecutions in some instances rely, in part, on acts of expression on the Internet and social media, and may implicate the rights to freedom of expression and conscience. In all cases, States need to ensure respect for the principle of legality and the presumption of innocence, and penalties attached to intended or attempted acts need to be proportionate.

70. Some States continue to implement measures to revoke travel documents, while others are considering measures such as the deprivation of nationality of suspected foreign terrorist fighters and of returnees. Due process and the goal of reducing statelessness must be taken into account in this regard. Likewise, States need to continue to take steps towards developing clear and objective criteria for the placement of individuals on so-called watch lists or no-fly lists. In assembling such lists, States need to ensure that any personal data is stored and managed in accordance with the purpose behind its initial collection, without unduly interfering with the right to privacy.

71. Some States have shown a strong inclination to take suspected foreign terrorist fighters who are returnees into custody and detain them, including for purposes of prevention. However, the legal basis for such measures may not comply with the relevant human rights obligations. Some have considered alternatives to detention, such as house arrest or targeted surveillance, for those intending to travel, as well as for returnees. These measures, too, must comply with human rights obligations. There is concern that the increase in migrant flows, due in part to the impact of ISIL in conflict areas, has had a negative effect on the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution. States should continue to uphold international refugee laws in their determination of the requests of asylum-seekers and to honour the principle of non-refoulement. States should also carefully consider the possible impact of their laws, policies and measures on the provision of humanitarian assistance to populations in need.

V. Range of United Nations efforts in supporting the efforts of Member States to counter the threat of ISIL

72. Since my initial report, United Nations entities have taken a number of steps, in accordance with their individual mandates and in partnership with the relevant international and regional organizations, to support the efforts of Member States to counter the threat of ISIL. The steps are set out below.

A. Foreign terrorist fighters

73. Acting in close consultation with the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate and the Monitoring Team, the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force has developed a capacity-building implementation plan for countering the flow of foreign terrorist fighters that addresses the priority recommendations of the Counter-Terrorism Committee as contained in its third report on the fighters (S/2015/975). The plan includes 37 project proposals addressing the full life cycle of the foreign terrorist fighter phenomenon, including radicalization, travel and financing (and rehabilitation and reintegration, should they return).

74. On 21 January, the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force/United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre and representatives of the 12 submitting entities of the Task Force met with Council members and other interested Member States to brief them on the plan. The Centre will provide funding for seven of the projects, but significant donor resources will be required to fully implement the programme, as called for by the Council in its presidential statement S/PRST/2015/11. The Centre has further implemented its project to enhance understanding of foreign terrorist fighters, including the motivation of individuals joining terrorist groups in the Middle East, understanding key influences on their thinking and gaining insight into the reasons why they return to their home States.

75. Since my initial report, UNODC has continued to implement its five-year technical assistance programme on strengthening the legal regime against foreign terrorist fighters, which aims to strengthen national legal frameworks, train criminal justice and law enforcement officials through specialized thematic workshops, and enhance international, regional and subregional cooperation, including by setting up information-sharing platforms between certain Middle East States. At the conclusion of the programmes first phase, UNODC issued two detailed reports that provide a useful inventory of the technical assistance needs of States of the region, as well as a compilation of good practices for addressing the threat posed by such fighters.

B. Criminal justice and legislation

76. Prosecutors are increasingly required to collaborate both with private communications service providers, international institutions and the prosecution authorities of other States. In its efforts to assist States to bring terrorists to justice and to support international cooperation in criminal matters, the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate joined forces with the Institute for Security Studies and the International Association of Prosecutors to develop, under the auspices of the Association, a counter-terrorism prosecutors network. The network will bring together prosecutors from 173 jurisdictions and enable them to cooperate with each other and to learn from each others experiences in handling the complexities of counter-terrorism prosecutions.

C. Countering the financing of terrorism

77. Members of the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force Working Group on Countering the Financing of Terrorism have been actively engaged in providing training in asset-freezing and dealing with kidnapping for ransom. On asset-freezing, the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force/United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre has developed a capacity-building project aimed at enhancing the implementation of the provisions contained in resolutions 1373 (2001), 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) through, inter alia, the provision of training and advice to Member States.

78. UNODC has organized workshops in the Middle East and North Africa region on freezing the assets of listed terrorists in accordance with the United Nations sanctions regime. In April 2016, UNODC and the Iraqi authorities reviewed the countrys draft counter-terrorism law (pending in parliament since 2011) and its recent draft law on terrorist asset-freezing. The revisions also follow the priority technical assistance needs identified during the assessment visit of the Counter-Terrorism Committee to Iraq in September 2015.

79. The United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre launched a project on building capacity to prevent terrorists from benefiting from ransom payments by building the capacity of States and relevant non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to achieve the safe return of hostages without granting the payment of ransoms or substantive political concessions in the process. The Centre also organized a regional conference in Nairobi in March, which was attended by NGOs, financial institutions and representatives of the insurance and media sectors, to discuss capacity-building needs in addressing and preventing kidnapping for ransom in Africa.

80. On 14 April 2016, the Counter-Terrorism Committee and the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) concerning Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities, together with the Financial Action Task Force, held a joint open briefing at United Nations Headquarters to highlight tactics and good practices in depriving terrorist groups of funding sources.

D. Law enforcement and border control

81. The Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate and the Swiss non governmental organization ICT4Peace launched a joint project on private sector engagement in responding to the use by terrorists of ICT. The launch event was attended by representatives from the ICT industry and the private sector, United Nations counter-terrorism and human rights entities, European Union Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, the Europol Internet Referral Unit and think tanks.

82. Under this project, the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate and ICT4Peace will work with the private sector and civil society to deepen the understanding of current industry responses to the use by terrorists of their products and services, particularly with regard to content, and identify good practices. The ultimate objective of the project is to establish a forum through which these same practices and experiences can be discussed and shared with a greater number of actors. To attain that objective, a series of workshops will be held over the next few months in Europe, Asia and the Americas with the aim of engaging industry and civil society actors.

83. As part of United Nations efforts to increase the use by States of advance passenger information systems, two of five regional workshops aimed at raising awareness and building capacity on the issue were held in Bangkok in March 2016 for South and South-East Asian States, and in Amman in May 2016 for States of the Middle East and North Africa region. The events were organized by the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force/United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre, in close cooperation with the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, and with the participation of the International Air Transport Association, the International Civil Aviation Organization, INTERPOL and the International Organization for Migration. All invited States recognized the need to implement advance passenger information systems pursuant to resolution 2178 (2014) and that States with low capacities would benefit from United Nations support.

84. The United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre is also working with the Global Counterterrorism Forum on a joint border security initiative (initially focused on the Sahel and the Horn of Africa), which involves the gathering and dissemination of good practices on border security and management and border surveillance; and a determination of the capacity of States to apply them and to stem the flow of foreign terrorist fighters. The first and second regional workshops of the project were held in December 2014 and May 2015, respectively.

E. Countering recruitment and preventing/countering violent extremism



85. Together with the Government of Switzerland, I co-hosted the Geneva Conference on the theme Preventing violent extremism: the way forward on 7 and 8 April 2016. The Conference was attended by 745 participants from 125 Member States, 23 international and regional organizations, 26 United Nations entities, and 67 civil society organizations and private companies.

86. The discussions provided a valuable opportunity for Member States, international and regional organizations and civil society to share perspectives, experience and best practices on key issues related to the prevention of violent extremism. The Conference also provided a valuable forum for further consideration of my Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism (see A/70/674), which the General Assembly will consider in the context of the fifth review of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy to be held on 30 June and 1 July.

F. Addressing conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism



87. The Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force Working Group on Addressing Conditions Conducive to the Spread of Terrorism is working to strengthen capacities and raise awareness in the areas of youth, communications and education. The Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate continued to support the capacity of Member States to address the conditions conducive to terrorism as part of comprehensive national counter-incitement strategies, during workshops and within the framework of its constructive dialogue with Government officials and civil society representatives. UNODC and Hedayah hosted a regional conference in Abu Dhabi to explore the process of developing and implementing an effective preventative criminal justice strategy against radicalization and violent extremism related to the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters, including the development of national strategies for countering and preventing violent extremism.

88. The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations supports youth-led civil society groups impacting hundreds of thousands of people. Media/computer games promoting peace have been developed and distributed. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization organized a conference and follow-up mechanisms on the role of the Internet in radicalization and recruitment. In terms of communications, the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat provided coverage of activities aimed at combating terrorism and violent extremism and disseminated programming in various languages, including through United Nations Radio, United Nations Web TV and social media. In support of refugees and other forcibly displaced people, including children and youth, and in an effort to minimize the risk of extremism and radicalization, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees provides access to resources and services and the realistic prospect of enjoying rights such as education, health care and employment.

G. Protecting human rights while countering terrorism

89. Members of the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force Working Group on Protecting and Promoting Human Rights and the Rule of Law while Countering Terrorism have continued to implement the project focusing on the training and capacity-building of law enforcement officials with regard to human rights, the rule of law and the prevention of terrorism, in coordination with partner Member States in the Middle East and North and West Africa. Partner States are in the process of identifying lessons learned and good practices from the training and are in a better position to adjust their counter-terrorism policies and practices so as to better demonstrate compliance with international human rights law, thus contributing to sustainable and systemic changes in behaviour. The Basic Human Rights Reference Guide series of the Working Group continued to provide Member States with guidance to implement changes in policy and practice on key areas such as detention, fair trials and national counter-terrorism legislation.

H. United Nations bodies and field missions



90. The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has prepared assessment reports on ISIL, which it shares with Member States to support their efforts to counter the threat of ISIL. UNSMIL continues to support the efforts of the Presidency Council in leading Libyas transition and the establishment of the Government of National Accord to curtail further expansion of ISIL.

91. The Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate and UNAMI are working closely together to set up a coordination mechanism to address the priority technical assistance needs identified with Iraq during the Counter-Terrorism Committees September 2015 assessment visit to the country. The priority technical assistance recommendations are intended to enhance the capacities of Iraq in areas related to legislation, finance, law enforcement and border control. Several assistance providers, including Member States and United Nations entities and partner international and regional organizations, are currently being approached by the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate with a view to facilitating the delivery of technical assistance to Iraq.
Photo: Jeff Kravitz/2016 Jeff Kravitz

What? You thought Ennio Morricone was going to stop creating his dolce, dolce music just because hes well into his eighties? Sbagliato! The prolific Italian composer has signed a record deal with Decca, which will release Morricone 60 on October 7. The curated album will comprise new, re-recorded versions of the greatest compositions from his decades-spanning career  such as The Fortress from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Death Theme from The Untouchables  which were conducted by Morricone and recorded with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. After the success of The Hateful Eight score, Im delighted to be returning to Decca with my own record deal  an extraordinary moment in my 60th professional anniversary year, he said in a statement. Its been a wonderful experience to be able to conduct my scores and to record these with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. The quality of their performance of my work is truly outstanding. Were listening to his Oscar-winning The Hateful Eight score once again in celebration.
Dirt Cheap, a Mississippi-based deep discounter, has decided to place a store in Waco in addition to the distribution center it will open to serve its growing Texas presence.

The companys parent, Channel Control Merchants LLC, has secured a lease on 38,000 square feet of space next to Planet Fitness at 300 N. Valley Mills Drive, in the shopping center whose tenants include Tractor Supply and which has a Taco Bell and Case Ole restaurants operating on the parking lot.

Waco real estate agent Pat Farrar, who markets the center, said the arrival of Dirt Cheap means the vacant Wal-Mart building now has been filled. The Wal-Mart that once operated there relocated to Franklin Avenue and New Road, where it became a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Officials with Dirt Cheap said they did not have a timetable for renovating the building and getting the store open, saying they may have an announcement as early as next week. Farrar said he thinks Dirt Cheap can complete remodeling in time for a store opening in the fall, possibly by October.

Dirt Cheap sells name-brand small appliances, housewares, home decor, electronics, furniture, toys and more at discounts of 30 to 90 percent. Its selection of merchandise is constantly changing, as it acquires goods through store closeouts, bankruptcies, overstocks, liquidations and customer returns.

Founded in 1997, it has expanded into eight states, and is making a push into Texas, where it has opened locations in Carrollton, Ennis and Del Rio and plans new stores in Waco, Denton, Sherman, Tyler and White Settlement, according to company officials.

The companys push into Texas prompted Dirt Cheap to select Waco as the site of a distribution center at 401 Precision Drive, where it has acquired a 200,000-square-foot building and will invest $1.05 million in capital improvements. It reportedly will hire about 120 people to staff the center.

A grocery store selling merchandise popular with Hispanics had expressed intentions to take the 38,000-square-foot space, but pulled out of the deal, Farrar said.

Waco City Council recently approved a business grant agreement with Channel Control Merchants, which would receive about $19,000 in tax breaks over seven years.

But Kris Collins, senior vice president for economic development at the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce, said it is her understanding Channel Control Merchants has indicated it does not want to pursue the breaks. She said the company is appreciative, but is questioning the value of incentives in light of conditions it must meet.

As part of the deal, the company had agreed to make a good-faith effort to employ and retain ex-offenders as 30 percent of its workforce.

Collins did not say Channel Control Merchants was questioning that specific obligation, and company officials could not be reached for further comment.

Retailers origin

Dirt Cheap first did business as Treasure Hunt, and in 1997, decided to clear inventory from its warehouse to make room for new merchandise. At the sale, all items were sold at dirt cheap prices, according to the company website, and the Dirt Cheap concept was born. As business progressed, the amount of inventory grew, establishing a need for more than just a warehouse sale. The first Dirt Cheap store opened in 1998, in Petal, Mississippi. The company has since grown to nearly 70 stores and counting.

In 2006, the company created a wholesale division, selling the excess inventory Dirt Cheap stores could not handle. Most of the wholesale goods are clothing, footwear and accessories, which are sold and shipped to more than a dozen countries, including Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean Islands.

In late 2009, Treasure Hunt and Dirt Cheap buyers were approached by a ceramic tile manufacturer filing for bankruptcy. After buying 50 truckloads of ceramic tile and with nowhere to put it, Dirt Cheap Building Supplies opened its doors for the first time on Jan. 1, 2010. Met by great response, buyers began to acquire an assortment of building supplies from other distressed situations. Dirt Cheap Building Supplies now has stores in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Pensacola, Florida.

In Waco, retailers that will compete with Dirt Cheap include Big Lots, 4905 W. Waco Drive, which sells food, furniture, mattresses and home decor at deep discounts.

It has grown to 1,400 stores in 48 states, acquiring merchandise much in the same way as Dirt Cheap.
Lets Gel Inc., which designs and manufactures gel-filled floor mats, has announced it will spend $600,000 and hire 15 more people as it expands operations at its facility at 501 Precision Drive. The moves will increase employment at the production facility to 50, according to the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce.

The Austin-based company entered the Waco market with its purchase of a 64,000-square-foot building in 2014.

Its product line popularity has accelerated company growth plans, creating the need for added production capacity, said Kris Collins, senior vice president of economic development at the Waco chamber.

The floor mats made by Lets Gel Inc. are sold online, and the company targets those who have to work long hours on their feet.

We appreciate the Greater Waco Chamber and, in particular, the Economic Development Committee, which continues to be instrumental in the growth of our manufacturing facility, said Robb McMahan, who founded the company and oversees production at its Waco facility, which the company refers to as Area 51 Manufacturing. Waco has always been a strong, pro-business community, and we are excited at the prospect of continued growth of both business and manufacturing in the area.

He added, We are committed to the ongoing expansion of our employment footprint in Waco, as we begin manufacturing several new product lines this year.

Gas prices climb

Gasoline prices continue to creep upward as summer approaches, with the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded in Waco on Friday hitting $2.097, a 3-cent jump from Thursday.

That represents an increase of 5 cents from a week earlier and 14 cents from a month earlier, when the average had dipped below $2 a gallon to $1.965.

Still, prices a remain a bargain from one year ago, when motorists were shelling out $2.42 a gallon for regular unleaded.

The AAA Texas auto club reported Thursday that the gas price average in Texas had reached $2.12, which was 4 cents higher than the previous week.

Of the major metropolitan areas surveyed in the Lone Star State, drivers in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex are paying the most on average at $2.19, while drivers in Corpus Christi are paying the least at $2.04 per gallon.

Nationwide, drivers are paying an average of $2.33, which is 2 cents higher than the previous week.

Gas prices for the 2016 Memorial Day were the cheapest since 2005, according to AAA, which predicts gasoline demand during the summer driving season could challenge records set in 2007, Still, it says, if refineries can keep pace with Americans yearn to travel, gas prices should remain relatively low.

A wild card for gas prices in the coming months is the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, AAA said. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Climate Prediction Center, this years season likely will be near normal, which means of the 10 to 16 named storms, four to eight could become hurricanes. Should any of these severe storms or hurricanes reach landfall, production, refining and distribution could be impacted.

The Gulf Coast, which includes Texas, is home to more than 45 percent of the U.S.s total petroleum refining capacity.

Grande buys out Centrovision

Texas-based Grande Communications, which opened for business 15 years ago and chose Waco among its first cities to serve with internet, television and phone services, has announced a buyout of Temple-based Centrovision. The deal means an expansion of its customer base in Central Texas.

Cities formerly served by Centrovision include Temple, Belton, Salado, Troy, Morgans Point Resort, Moody, Rogers, Little River-Academy and Pendleton.

Grande is deeply rooted in Texas, so it has been exciting for us to continue expansion throughout our home state and to bring advanced telecommunications services to these growing Texas communities, said Matt Rohre, senior vice president of operations and general manager for Grande Communications.

Larger communities now served by Grande include, besides Waco, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, San Marcos, Corpus Christi, Midland and Odessa.

Christian Brothers honored

Sterling and Leigh Woody, owners of Christian Brothers Automotive on Woodway Drive, recently received the Founders Award from company founder and president Mark Carr, beating out more than 155 locations nationwide. They opened the local Christian Brothers Automotive franchise four years ago.

The couple attribute their success to maintaining high expectations for employees; ensuring that customers feel their product and service is trustworthy; and strong concentration on community initiatives, according to a news release from the company to announce the win by the Woodys.

They also have experienced year-over-year growth, for which the couple credit the thriving Waco economy.

Sterling Woody recently attended a news conference to hear a report on Wacos economic climate prepared by Amarillo-based economist Karr Ingham. He noted during a question-and-answer session that Christian Brothers Automotive has made repairs to about 20,000 vehicles during the past four years and has served 9,000 customers.

Forbes Global 2000 released

Forbes magazine has released its list of the worlds largest public companies, called the Global 2000, and it shows that 587 call the U.S. home and 57 are based in Texas.

Chinas banking giant, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, ranked No. 1 on the list for the fourth consecutive year. China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China remain at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. Berkshire Hathaway, the multinational company founded by Warren Buffett and headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest public company in the United States and ranks No. 4 on the world list. It wholly owns such companies as Dairy Queen, Fruit of the Loom, Helzberg Diamonds and Lubrizol, among others, while holding significant shares of IBM, Apple, Wells Fargo, The Coca-Cola Co. and Kraft/Heinz, to name a few.

Berkshire Hathaway also controls a media group that includes many daily newspapers, including the Waco Tribune-Herald.

The top 10 Texas-based companies are Exxon Mobil Corp. (9), AT&T Inc. (12), Phillips 66 (141), Schlumberger NV (176), Valero Energy Corp. (182), American Airlines Group (209), Southwest Airlines Co. (343), Texas Instruments Inc. (396), Kimberly-Clark Corp. (478) and ConocoPhillips (480).

The Dr Pepper Snapple Group, anchored by the soft drink formulated in Waco, now ranks 1,012 on the list of 2000 largest companies in the world.
The judge presiding over the West explosion litigation granted a defense motion Friday to postpone the next trial on the heels of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announcement last month that the fire that preceded the explosion was a criminal act.

Over objections from plaintiffs attorneys, 170th State District Judge Jim Meyer agreed to postpone the latest trial setting from July 25 to early January.

Meyer denied a defense request to stay the proceedings for at least six months, which would have put all activity in the cases on hold, including the taking of depositions and other trial preparations.

Defense attorneys argued that the May 11 announcement by ATF agents that the cause of the April 17, 2013, fire that triggered the massive explosion that leveled much of West was incendiary, a criminal act could be a game changer for the civil litigation. The attorneys requested more time to continue working with the ATF and U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. in an effort to gain access to more evidence in custody of the ATF.

Some of the defendants sued the ATF last year in an effort to see the results from the ATFs $2 million investigation, thinking the findings could help them  or at least the jury  make decisions in the cases.

Canceled trials

Trial settings in October and January were canceled after the parties reached settlements and partial settlements with a portion of the more than 200 plaintiffs who filed suit after the catastrophic explosion that claimed 15 lives, injured more than 200 and decimated schools, an apartment complex, a nursing home and the citys infrastructure.

The three-year investigation by the ATF and other agencies ruled out all accidental or natural causes for the fire at the West Fertilizer Co.

The only hypothesis that could not be eliminated is incendiary, said Robert Elder, special agent in charge of the Houston ATF office, at the May press conference in West.

Defense attorneys argued at Fridays hearing that there are no guarantees that the ATF will ever conclude its investigation, adding that ATF officials have declined to say whether they have any suspects in the case.

Elder announced last month that the ATF is offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of a person or people who may have started the fire.

The fire at the fertilizer company detonated 30 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that was piled high in a flammable wooden bin. The plant exploded with the force of 20,000 pounds of TNT, officials have said.

Plaintiffs attorney Steve Harrison argued against the trial delay Friday and said the cause of the fire is not that significant because the plaintiffs cases are based on product liability issues.

The defense is going to see what the evidence is, but the case is not about what started this fire, Harrison said. The defense says the ammonium nitrate would not have exploded if there had not been a fire. Well, it also would not have exploded if it had been stored properly and if instructions had been given how to store it properly. It also would not have exploded had it not been sold.

You can run that argument into the ground. The question is, was the product dangerous, who knew it was dangerous and what they did with that knowledge. That is what this case is going to be about.

Defendants in the lawsuits include Adair Grain Co., the local owners of the plant that exploded; CF Industries; El Dorado Chemical Co.; Thermaclime Inc.; and International Chemical Co. The defendants either manufactured or sold fertilizer to West Fertilizer Co.

Peter Rusek, an attorney for CF Industries, told the judge that it is important for the defendants to see what evidence the ATF has because it would be important for the jury to review if agents discovered evidence of an accelerant or some explosive device that contributed to the fire.

Harrison, meanwhile, argued that there is no proof after three years that the ATF is in possession of any evidence that would qualify as what the defense attorneys described as a potential game changer.

Reduce complaining

The judge moved the trial date back, Im thinking, to remove any complaining that the defendants will not have time to see what the ATF has, Harrison said after the hearing. Whether anything comes from that or not is a huge question, but the court has essentially taken any whining about that out of this case.

Those chosen as plaintiffs for the third trial group include Jaquelina Rivera and her family; Michelle Wells, who represents the estate of Joshua Zarecor, who was killed from injuries sustained while he was in a nearby apartment complex; Misty Lambert; Sonja and Lance Moorman; Irma Cruz; Emanuel Mitchel; and Scott and Mary Burgess and Tom Burgess.

Other plaintiffs include West Rest Haven, the nursing home destroyed in the blast; J&B Realty, owners of the apartment complex; and 10 insurance companies who have filed subrogation claims seeking to recoup funds they have paid out.
A Waco community group is advocating a unified message to create a safer local community for all citizens as calls for justice and answers continue in the wake of allegations surrounding injuries suffered by a 12-year-old student while on a Live Oak Classical School field trip.

The incident at Live Oak was definitely the spark, I have had a vision for a while now that we need to be in a better position, said Nelson Hackworth, the founder of People Openly Working for Equality and Reform. We have the power to be able to do that as long as we are all able to work and come together.

Hackworth established POWER as a community organization to rally residents of Waco and speak out against inequalities against all races throughout the region. The group held a community meeting Friday, focused on issues facing the black community after the young black student was reportedly hurt by three white boys while on a overnight school field trip in Blanco County. The victim had rope burns around her neck, and the students mother was not notified until 48 hours after the incident.

We need to pool our resources, come together and lean on each other so that we can get certain things done to put us in a better position, Hackworth said. We need to have the quality of life we deserve as people.

More than 40 residents gathered at the Brazos River Plaza in East Waco and listened to Hackworths vision. The meeting came a week after more than 100 demonstrators  including several from Dallas  staged a civil protest outside Live Oak School in downtown Waco last Friday and chanted for racial equality.

The familys attorney, Levi McCathern, previously told the Tribune-Herald that he planned to file a civil lawsuit against the school for not properly rendering aid to the child. Live Oaks attorney, David Deaconson, said the injury was an accident and the school has since changed protocol in how it addresses injuries to children and when to contact a childs parent.

Authorities in Blanco County said they still are investigating whether the alleged actions of the three juvenile boys were criminal. Phone calls to Blanco County were not returned Friday.

Hackworth said while the group is still demanding more answers from the school as to how the injury happened, he said the entire community needs to stand together to make sure no one gets hurt or racially profiled.

We cannot be all divided among ourselves at our will, and that is taking away what our own values are built on, he said. There is no limit as to what we can accomplish as long as there is unity and we are all working toward a common goal.
Ken Starr, former president and chancellor of Baylor University, said in a statement Friday afternoon that an email with the subject line, I Was Raped at Baylor, sent to him Nov. 3, 2015, was read by an office assistant and immediately forwarded to the correct department.

In an interview with KWTX-TV Wednesday, Starr said he may have seen the email, which came from a student claiming she was raped in 2009 while she was a Baylor student. His public relations representative, Merrie Spaeth, then interrupted the interview and brought Starr into another room before both re-entered. Spaeth asked for the question about the email to be asked again.

Starr then said he has no recollection of seeing the email.

The email was promptly forwarded on the same morning by an office assistant to the appropriate senior officer in the Administration responsible for risk management and compliance, Starr said in the Friday statement.

Starr has faced widespread media criticism for the incident during the Wednesday interview.

No recollection

Still today, I have no recollection of having seen the email either at the time or later, until the matter was brought to my attention two days ago, Starr said. In any event, the victims email was handled promptly by my office and in full accordance with proper protocol.

Starr told the Tribune-Herald in a Wednesday interview that he would remember seeing such an email.

I will say this, Starr said in his Tribune-Herald interview. The office of the president receives a whole lot of emails. I will also say that whoever is president is not going to see all the emails that come. I have no recollection of it, none whatsoever, and I would think I would remember if it was something of that seriousness.
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Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right to terminate your privilege of using all or any portion of the Web site if you breach any of these terms and conditions of use. If Lee BHM Corp. receives notice or otherwise discovers that you have posted material that infringes another party's copyright or trademark rights or violates another party's rights of privacy or publicity, Lee BHM Corp. may terminate your access to the Web site, including all of your privileges or accounts that you may have established in connection with the Web site.

Copyright Infringement

Lee BHM Corp. will not tolerate copyright infringement of any kind. Lee BHM Corp. does not, however, monitor user-submitted materials for copyright infringement. If you believe that any material on the Web site infringes your copyright, you may seek to have the material removed by sending Lee BHM Corp. notice that includes all of the following information:

your full name, address and telephone number

your e-mail address

identification of the copyrighted work(s) that you believe is being infringed

identification of the infringing material and information sufficient for Lee BHM Corp. to locate the material

your statement of good faith belief that (a) the material infringes your copyrights, (b) the information provided in the notice is accurate and (c) under penalty of perjury, you are authorized to act for the copyright owner

your physical or electronic signature

Direct such notice to Lee BHM Corp. designated agent for receiving copyright infringement notices:

Lee BHM Corp.

1314 Douglas Street, Suite 800 Omaha, NE 68102-1811

Contact us via e-mail

Upon receipt of notice complying with the above requirements, Lee BHM Corp. will act to remove infringing materials and, if applicable, send notice to the user that posted such materials on the Web site.

If Lee BHM Corp. removes materials posted by you as a user due to alleged copyright infringement, you may seek to have the materials reinstated by notifying Lee BHM Corp.'s designated agent in writing and including the following information:

your full name, address and telephone number

your e-mail address

identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled, including its location before it was removed or disabled

your statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material

your statement consenting to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the district in which your address is located, or, if you reside outside of the United States, Omaha, Nebraska (where Lee BHM Corp. may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notice of copyright infringement or from such person's agent

your physical or electronic signature

Upon receipt of a notice meeting the above requirements, Lee BHM Corp. will send a copy of the notice to the copyright owner who initially claimed copyright infringement. Within 10 to 14 days following receipt of the notice, Lee BHM Corp. will replace or enable access to the removed material unless Lee BHM Corp. receives notice from the copyright owner who submitted the first notification that it has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain the user that posted the materials from engaging in infringing activity. Please note that parties who misrepresent that materials are infringing or were removed by mistake or misidentification are subject to substantial civil liability to Lee BHM Corp. and/or the copyright owner or Web site user.

User Content

Lee BHM Corp. may allow you to upload, post, transmit or otherwise provide content to Lee BHM Corp. Web sites, including, but not limited to, photos, video, audio, comments, articles, blogs, forums and any other such communication in which you provide content to the Web site ("User Content"). You agree that you are solely responsible for your communications and any content you provide.

Rules Governing User Content: In consideration for being allowed to post or contribute content, you agree that your failure to abide by the following rules in using the Web site shall constitute a material breach of these Terms and Conditions:

Do not disrespect the privacy and views of others, or use the service to stalk or harass another;

Do not use or provide User Content for commercial purposes, including but not limited to the promotion of any specific goods or services;

Do not provide User Content that is harmful to minors in any way;

Do not provide obscene, profane, sexually explicit, libelous, slanderous, defamatory, harmful, threatening, illegal or knowingly false User Content;

Do not provide User Content containing expressions of bigotry, racism or hate;

Do not provide User Content encouraging conduct that may constitute or contribute to a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or violate any national, state or local law, regulation or authority;

Do not impersonate another person, or permit any other person or entity to use your identification to post or view User Content;

Do not provide User Content that infringes on the copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other intellectual property rights of others;

Do not provide User Content that violates the privacy or publicity rights of others;

Do not provide User Content that supports or provides resources to any organization(s) designated by the United States government as a foreign terrorist organization pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act; and

Do not provide User Content containing malicious code, including but not limited to computer viruses, Trojan horses, or other programs designed to disrupt, damage or restrict the use of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment.

Respect the Intellectual Property Rights of Others. You may not post or transmit content belonging to any person or party other than yourself, without the prior written consent of such owner. Simply because material is available on the Internet does not mean it is in the public domain. The vast majority of materials on the Internet are protected by copyright and trademark laws. Lee BHM Corp. shall have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor any User Content areas of the Web site to determine compliance with these Terms and Conditions and any other operating rules that may be established by Lee BHM Corp. from time to time.

Lee BHM Corp.'s Right to Remove User Content. Lee BHM Corp. does not assume any responsibility for the consequences of any user-generated or contributed content on the Lee BHM Corp. site. If notified by a user of communications that are alleged not to conform to the rules set forth in this Section, Lee BHM Corp. may investigate the allegation and determine in its sole discretion to remove or request the removal of the communications. Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right to remove communications that fail to conform to these Terms and Conditions. In addition, Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right (but is not obligated) to delete any User Content posted on the Lee BHM Corp. site, regardless of whether such communications violate these Terms and Conditions.

Lee BHM Corp.'s Right to Use User Content. Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right to record, re-purpose or re-publish User Content on its Web sites, newspapers, broadcast stations or other publishing forums. By posting User Content, you are granting to Lee BHM Corp. and its licensees a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive and irrevocable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display any posting by you (in whole or in part) and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or hereafter developed.

Responsibility for User Content. You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Lee BHM Corp. and its officers, directors, affiliated companies, employees, agents, licensors and suppliers, from and against any and all claims, actions or demands, liabilities and settlements, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees, resulting from, or alleged to result from, your use of any User-generated or Contributed Content or use by others of any User-generated or Contributed Content with respect to you, including, without limitation, any claim of libel, defamation, harassment, violation of rights of privacy or publicity, loss of service or infringement of intellectual property or other rights, or violation of these Terms and Conditions.

NOTE TO USERS. Lee BHM Corp. does not represent or guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy or reliability of any User Content or endorse any opinions expressed by such users. ANY RELIANCE UPON USER CONTENT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Termination of Privileges

Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right to terminate your privilege of using all or any portion of the Web site if you breach any of these terms and conditions of use. If Lee BHM Corp. receives notice or otherwise discovers that you have posted material that infringes another party's copyright or trademark rights or violates another party's rights of privacy or publicity, Lee BHM Corp. may terminate your access to the Web site, including all of your privileges or accounts that you may have established in connection with the Web site.

General

These Terms and Conditions (including the privacy policy attached hereto, which shall be deemed to be a part of these Terms and Conditions) constitute the entire agreement and understanding between you and Lee BHM Corp. with respect to use of the Web site, superseding all prior or contemporaneous communications and/or proposals. These Terms and Conditions also are severable, and in the event any provision is determined to be invalid or unenforceable, such invalidity or unenforceability shall not in any way affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions. Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right to make changes to these Terms and Conditions immediately by posting the changed Terms and Conditions in this location. By continuing to use the Web site, you are agreeing to all changes made by Lee BHM Corp.. A printed version of these Terms and Conditions shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to use of the Web site to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form.

Jurisdiction

The Web site is controlled and operated by Lee BHM Corp. from its principal office at 1314 Douglas Street, Suite 800, Omaha, Nebraska, United States of America. Lee BHM Corp. makes no representation that materials on the Web site are appropriate or available for use in other locations. Those who choose to access the Web site from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable. The Web site is not intended to subject Lee BHM Corp. to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country or territory other than Omaha, Nebraska and the United States of America.

Lee BHM Corp. PRIVACY POLICY

For each visitor to the Web site, Lee BHM Corp.'s servers automatically collect information about which pages are visited and the domain name of visitors. This information is used for internal review, to tailor information to individual visitors and for Web site traffic audits. We also provide this information (as well as information from third-party market researchers) about our users on an aggregated, anonymous basis to our advertisers.

Lee BHM Corp. may place a "cookie" on the browser of your computer. The cookie itself does not contain any personally identifying information. A cookie may be used to tell when your computer has contacted the Web site. Lee BHM Corp. uses the information for editorial purposes and for other purposes such as delivery of features and advertisements, so Lee BHM Corp. can customize delivery of information to you without compromising privacy. For example, cookies may be used to ensure that you will not see the same banner advertisement too often in a single session.

Lee BHM Corp. may, in the course of providing services through its Web sites, ask you to disclose voluntarily certain information about yourself. This could include information that identifies you or your household. Any information in Lee BHM Corp.'s possession solely as a result of your use of the Web site and that is associated with you or your household is considered "Personal Information." It consists of both information supplied by you (e.g. name, address, telephone number and e-mail address) and information collected about how you use the Web site (e.g. the fact that you have bought merchandise through the Web site). 'Personal Information' does not include statistical data about large numbers of users, none of whom are identifiable, nor does it include information that you have posted for public view on the Web site or otherwise publicly disclosed.

Like many other commercial sites, our site may utilize an electronic file called a Web beacon to count users who have visited a page or recognize users by accessing certain cookies. Our site and/or the Web sites of advertisers and merchants with which we have a relationship may use Web beacons (a) for auditing purposes and to collect information from the Web sites of certain advertisers or merchants; (b) to report anonymous individual and/or aggregate information about our users from such advertisers or merchants. Aggregate information may include demographic and usage information. No personally identifiable information about you is shared with such advertisers or merchants. You may choose to opt-out by contacting us in accordance with the information set forth at the bottom of this policy.

In addition, Lee BHM Corp. service providers and third-party advertising service providers may use their own cookies, web beacons and other technologies to collect the information listed above. The data collected in connection with ad serving and ad targeting does not include your name, postal address, email address, telephone number, birthdate or gender unless you affirmatively provide information within the ad. However, it may include device identifying information such as the IP address, MAC address, cookie or other device-specific unique ID. These service providers also may assign an anonymous identifier to the tracking pixel or session cookie.

The collection of information by our service providers and third-party advertising service providers is governed by their relevant privacy notices, for which we have no responsibility or liability, and are not covered by our Privacy Policy. If you have any questions regarding the privacy notice of one of our service providers, you should contact the service provider directly for more information.

If you would like more information about the information collection practices of a particular third-party advertising service provider, or if you would like more information on how to opt out of a third-party advertising service providers information collection practices, go to www.aboutads.info, or for apps, at www.aboutads.info/appchoices.

Additionally, some of our third-party advertising service providers are members of the Network Advertising Initiative ("NAI"). You can obtain more information about these third-party advertising service providers' information collection practices, and opt out of such practices (and at the same time opt out of the collection practices of other, or all, NAI members) by following the opt out instructions on the NAI's website at http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.

Please note that one of our third-party advertising service providers is DoubleClick. You can opt out of the use of cookies by DoubleClick by visiting http://www.google.com/settings/ads.

How does the Web site use the information it gathers?

Information collected on the Web site, including traffic patterns and user behavior, is used primarily for the following purposes:

Internal research. The Web site is continuously assessing how visitors use the site. This data assists us in making decisions about how to improve the site and to better serve our users. Research data are aggregated and do not include data about specific individuals. We may share aggregated research (but not individual user information) with our advertisers or business partners. Additionally, the Web site may use your information to contact you to ask for your participation in a focus group, survey, or some other type of research effort.

To customize your experience on the Web site. As the Web site improves its service, it may offer users more opportunities to customize content and other aspects of the site. Information provided by you may be used to assist in the customization process, if you elect to participate in these features.

To tailor advertising efforts. Most of the information and services available to you at the Web site are free. In order to continue providing services free of charge, the Web site sells advertising. Advertisers prefer to target their communication toward audiences who are most likely to be interested in their products. The information gathered on the Web site helps us advise advertisers in general terms about certain aspects of site visitors (e.g. how visitors use the site, general demographic attributes of visitors, usage patterns on various parts of our site, etc.). This information helps both advertisers and the Web site make better decisions about where to place advertising. This information may also be used to send targeted marketing, such as emails, to users that we think would be interested in such marketing. Visitors who choose to conduct financial transactions with advertisers on the Web site may also provide specific data to those advertisers during the process of their transactions. Additionally, any information provided during the purchase on the Web site of products or services will result in the collection of certain information required to complete the transaction.

To use third party service providers. We provide some services and products through third parties. These third party service providers may perform functions on our behalf, like sending out and distributing promotional emails. We may share your personally identifiable information with such service providers as necessary to allow those service providers to fulfill orders, send mail or email, administer contests or sweepstakes, remove repetitive information on customer lists, analyze data, provide marketing assistance, provide search results and links, process credit card payments, operate the Web site, troubleshoot, or provide customer service. We may also collect personal information from individuals and companies with whom we have business relationships ("Affiliates") and may share your information with service providers to accomplish our administrative tasks. For example, when you order a service, the third party payment processor we use releases your credit card information to the card-issuing bank to confirm payment for the service. The use of your personally identifiable information by these third parties is governed by the privacy policies of these third parties and is not subject to our control.

More specifically, here is how the Web site may use information you provide:

E-mail addresses. If you supply the Web site with your e-mail address, either by registering on the site, by communicating with us via e-mail, or signing up for promotional offers or emails we may, from time to time, send you information that we believe would be of interest to you via e-mail. This information may be from the Web site or sent by us on behalf of one of our quality advertisers. Note: If we send you e-mail on behalf of another company, your personally identifiable information is not disclosed to that company unless you purchase a product or service from that company in which case it may need your information to fulfill your purchase. Rather, the company provides us with the information it wants to send, and we prepare and send the e-mail directly to you. We may use a third party service provider to manage or send emails on our behalf, but that third party is only authorized to use your information as necessary to send our email to you and it is not authorized to sell or transfer your information.

Postal addresses. If you supply the Web site with your postal address, we may send you periodic mailings with information on new products, coming events, surveys or other research materials, or other information we think might be of interest to you.

Telephone numbers. If you provide your telephone number or cell phone number, the Web site may call or text you regarding orders you have placed online, to tell you about new products, services, or coming events, or to offer other information that may interest you. Additionally, the Web site or one of its agents may call you for research purposes.

Sale transaction information. From time to time, we provide offers from our advertisers who, as part of their offer, request information on customers who purchased their offer in order to allow the advertiser to fulfill the purchase. In those cases, we share some of your personally identifiable information with that advertiser. Sharing this Information may allow that advertiser to market directly to you should it choose to do so. However, we will only share personally identifiable information with an advertiser if you provide us that information and enter into a transaction with that advertiser on or through our Web site. We are not responsible or liable for the actions of such advertiser.

Business transfer. We may also share your information in the case our business is sold or transferred. If this occurs, the successor company would acquire the information we maintain, including personally identifiable information.

Except as necessary to process your requests or orders placed with advertisers or merchants featured on the Web site, or as otherwise described above, Lee BHM Corp. does not rent, sell, barter or give away any lists containing Personal Information for use by any outside company. Lee BHM Corp. also respects the privacy of data on your personal computer and does not access, read, upload or store data contained in or derived from your private files without your authorization.

Prohibited Uses

This Site is not intended for use by persons located within the European Economic Area (EEA). We do not request or accept personal information concerning or supplied by persons who are located within the EEA at the time they access this Site. If you have accessed this Site from within the EEA, you should immediately discontinue your use. If you have supplied personal information to us in violation of this provision, whether through the registration of new user accounts or otherwise, please contact us via e-mail.

Facebook Connect

Our Web site may allow users to access Facebook Connect to interact with friends and to share on Facebook through Wall and friends' News Feeds. If you are logged into our Web site and Facebook, when you click on "Connect with Facebook" your profiles will merge if the email addresses match. If the email addresses don't match, we ask you if you want to merge them and you must enter your Web site password to validate that they control that account. If you are already logged into our Web site but not logged into Facebook, when you click on "Connect with Facebook" you will be prompted to enter your Facebook credentials or to "Sign up for Facebook." By proceeding you are allowing the Web site to access your information and you are agreeing to the Facebook Terms of Use in your use of our Web site. Similar access to your information may occur if the Web site allows users to access other social applications similar to Facebook.

Conversely, if you are not currently registered as an the Web site user and you click on "Sign in Using Facebook," you will first be asked to enter your Facebook credentials and then be given the option to register and join the Web site. Once you register on our Web site and Connect with Facebook, you will be able to automatically post recent activity back to Facebook. You have the option to disable Facebook Connect at any time by logging into "My Profile" and clicking on "My Facebook Profile." Further, you can edit privacy settings for the reviews that appear on Facebook or disconnect this service by visiting the Facebook Application Settings page.

Links

The Lee BHM Corp. site contains links to other sites. Lee BHM Corp. is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such Web sites, including any sites that may indicate a special relationship or partnership with Lee BHM Corp. (such as co-branded pages or "powered by" or "in cooperation with" relationships). Lee BHM Corp. does not disclose personally identifiable information or unique identifiers to those responsible for the linked sites. The linked sites, however, may collect personal information from you that is not subject to Lee BHM Corp.'s control. To ensure protection of your privacy, always review the privacy policy of the sites you may visit by linking from the Lee BHM Corp. site.

Opt Out Procedures

You always may opt out of receiving future mailings or other information from Lee BHM Corp.. If the mailing does not have an e-mail cancellation form, send us an e-mail the type of information that you no longer desire to receive.

You may opt out of any or all contacts from the Web site at any time. All e-mails sent to you from the Web site will allow you to opt out of any further e-mail from us. You may e-mail us to opt out of our email programs. You may also write or call us at the following address and phone number to notify us regarding use of your information: 333 Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23219; phone: 804.649.6588.

When you register on the Web site, you will be given the opportunity to opt out of further communication from us.

You may accept certain kinds of contact and decline others. For example, you may choose to accept e-mails, but not postal mail or telephone calls.

If, at any time in the future, the Web site decides to use information provided by you in a way not described here, we will contact you beforehand to explain the use of the information and give you the opportunity to decline that use.

Children's Privacy

The following additional terms, conditions and notices apply to use of the Web site by children under the age of 13 years whenever Lee BHM Corp. becomes aware that a user is in that age range:

Users under 13 years of age may not submit or post information on the Web site without the consent of the user's parent or legal guardian. Prior to collecting any personal information about a child under 13, Lee BHM Corp. makes reasonable efforts to obtain consent from the child's parent after informing the parent about the types of information Lee BHM Corp. will collect, how it will be used, and under what circumstances it will be disclosed.

Although Lee BHM Corp. will apply these children's terms and conditions whenever it becomes aware that a user who submits Personal Information is less than 13 years old, no method is foolproof. Lee BHM Corp. strongly encourages parents and guardians to supervise their children's online activities and consider using parental control tools available from online services and software manufacturers to help provide a child-friendly online environment. These tools also can prevent children from disclosing online their name, address, and other personal information without parental permission.

"Personal information" collected from children may include any of the information defined above as "Personal Information" with respect to general users of the Web site and may be used by Lee BHM Corp. for the same purposes. Except as necessary to process a child's requests or orders placed with advertisers or merchants featured on the Web site, Lee BHM Corp. does not rent, sell, barter or give away any lists containing a child's Personal Information for use by any outside company.

If a child enters a game, contest or other activity sponsored by Lee BHM Corp. on the Web site, the child may be required by Lee BHM Corp. to provide the minimum Personal Information reasonably necessary for the child to participate in such activity.

A child's parent or legal guardian may request Lee BHM Corp. to provide a description of the Personal Information that Lee BHM Corp. has collected from the child, as well as instruct Lee BHM Corp. to cease further use, maintenance and collection of Personal Information from the child.

If a child voluntarily discloses his or her name, e-mail address or other personally-identifying information on chat areas, bulletin boards or other forums or public posting areas, such disclosures may result in unsolicited messages from other parties.

Cancellation

Your subscription will not automatically stop at expiration. To cancel your subscription, please contact customer service. Returning subscribers wishing to opt-out of premium editions must do so when restarting.

Refund Policies

Subscriber refunds will be issued within two weeks of cancellation. Refunds will be issued per the original method of payment. There is a $5 processing fee for all refunds remitted to the customer.

Advertiser refunds will be granted upon cancellation of an entire run schedule if notice of cancellation is received from the advertiser prior to the beginning of the run schedule. Refunds will be issued per the original method of payment and will be processed within 10 business days of the request.

Account Setup Fee

All new subscriptions and restarts of subscriptions stopped for 30 days or more may be charged a one-time account setup fee of $8.95; if not paid in advance, this may shorten your subscription expiration date.

Mailed Subscription Renewal Charge

Your renewal notice now includes a $3.95 charge for mailing it. This fee will defray our cost associated with printing as well as postage and handling. You can avoid the fee by signing up for EasyPay or eBilling.

General

These Terms and Conditions constitute the entire agreement and understanding between you and Lee BHM Corp. with respect to use of the Web site, superseding all prior or contemporaneous communications and/or proposals. Lee BHM Corp. reserves the right to make changes to these Terms and Conditions immediately by posting the changed Terms and Conditions in this location. By continuing to use the Web site, you are agreeing to all changes made by Lee BHM Corp.. A printed version of these Terms and Conditions shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to use of the Web site to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form.

The Web site is controlled and operated by Lee BHM Corp. from its principal office in the Commonwealth of Virginia, USA. Lee BHM Corp. makes no representation that materials on the Web site are appropriate or available for use in other locations. Those who choose to access the Web site from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable. The Web site is not intended to subject Lee BHM Corp. to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country or territory other than the State/Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States of America.

Premium Editions

The Waco Tribune Herald may enhance the newspaper with up to six premium editions annually. These special editions are not included in our standard subscription price, so they require an additional charge that could result in a slightly shortened subscription length. If you prefer to opt out, please contact us at the customer service phone number just above the remittance stub. If you do not wish to receive our premium products, please contact us.

Current Pricing

Your subscription expiration date is based on current pricing and subject to change based on future price adjustments.

Vacation No Credit

We no longer offer vacation credit. All print subscribers are eligible for All Access, which will allow access to all on-line content, including the digital replica of the newspaper.

Contacting Us

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of the Lee BHM Corp. site, or your dealings with Lee BHM Corp., you may contact us at:

Lee BHM Corp.

Contact us via e-mail
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Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells petroleum products in the People's Republic of China. It operates through five segments: Synthetic Fibers, Resins and Plastics, Intermediate Petrochemicals, Petroleum Products, and Trading of Petrochemical Products. The Synthetic Fibers segment produces polyesters, acrylic fibers, and carbon fibers that are primarily used in the textile and apparel industries. The Resins and Plastics segment produces polyester chips that are used to produce polyester fibers, coating, and containers; polyethylene resins and plastics, which are used to produce insulated cables and mulching films, as well as molded products, such as housewares and toys; and polypropylene resins that are used for films and sheets, as well as molded products, such as housewares, toys, consumer electronics, and automobile parts; and PVA granules. The Intermediate Petrochemicals segment produces p-xylene, benzene, and ethylene oxide, which are used as raw materials in the production of other petrochemicals, resins, plastics, and synthetic fibers. The Petroleum Products segment operates crude oil refinery facilities used to produce refined gasoline, fuel, diesel oil, heavy oil, and liquefied petroleum gas. The Trading of Petrochemical Products segment is involved in the import and export of petrochemical products. The company was founded in 1972 and is based in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China. Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Company Limited is a subsidiary of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation.
A destructive scam email that infects computers and holds them hostage has successfully targeted at least 10,000 Australians since it was detected this week, a cybersecurity analyst says.

The email, purporting to be from energy company AGL, sends a fake bill and prompts the recipient to click on a link to download a copy.

The fake AGL webpage that prompts users to download malware.

It then saves a .zip file on the computer which, when extracted, locks the machine down using malware known as "ransomware". The recipient is prompted to pay $US640 ($A880) to unlock it.

Raymond Schippers, a senior analyst at global cybersecurity firm Check Point, said once the file has downloaded ransomware such as Torrentlocker or Cryptolocker  sometimes spelled with 0 in place of o  the only way to get rid of it is to restore from a backup or to wipe the computer and start over again.
When The New York Times factored in a 5 per cent shift in support for Trump in each state, which certainly has already happened in national polling, the New York mogul picked up Florida, North Carolina and Ohio  but he still lost to Clinton in the Electoral College, 285 to 253. Hillary Clinton calling Donald Trump "dangerously incoherent". Credit:Troy Harvey It took the factoring in of a 10 per cent shift to Trump, which currently is within the realms of possibility in national polling but perhaps elusive in the vital swing states, for Trump to win  throwing to Trump five states that Mitt Romney lost in 2012. They would be Iowa, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Colorado and New Hampshire, for a 305 to 233 vote in Trump's favour. Clinton, no doubt, is sick of warnings, dire, salutary or otherwise. But this week Politico magazine had another caution for her and her campaign's seeming obsession with national demographics: "Demographics are not destiny. In fact, they can be a disaster waiting to happen." Protesters against Donald Trump chase a man leaving a Trump campaign rally in California. Credit:AP

Hedging only slightly, Politico goes on: "It's a long way to November and Trump could always self-destruct. But he probably won't, and 2016 is shaping up as a contest that a careful Clinton campaign can easily lose, state by state, even as she piles up the popular vote in California and other sure-win places." This is the context in which a stark contrast in campaign style emerges: Clinton articulates a strategy based almost entirely on demographics, targeting big national constituencies one by one  women, Latinos, African-Americans, millennials. But, as Dan Balz observes in The Washington Post, Trump seems oblivious to this kind of needlepoint nonsense. Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton acknowledges supporters in Columbus, Ohio. Credit:AP/File Sure, says Balz, Trump has a core constituency: white voters who didn't go to college. He writes: "But through the primaries, his appeal was cross-cutting, something that surprised and befuddled his opponents. Trump cut into the evangelical vote in ways no one had predicted. He did well among very conservative republicans, among somewhat conservative Republicans; and among the party's moderate block."

Donald Trump answers questions during a news conference in New York, where he laid into the media. Credit:AP In an exercise of pundit daring, Nate Silver's respected FiveThirtyEight number-crunching site took a punt in mid-May, wagering that the whole multibillion-dollar venture that is Election 2016 could come down to how a handful of people in Pennsylvania feel when they get out of bed on election day  about five months off. In 2012, Obama held Pennsylvania by about 5 per cent  that's about 300,000 votes in a country with a population of about 300 million. Replicate that on Election Day this year, and a tiny one-thousandth of all Americans will anoint either Trump or Clinton. Protesters against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump climb on a car outside campaign rally in San Jose, California. Credit:AP The elevation of Pennsylvania to "tipping point" status - the point at which Trump would secure the presidency as his wins were tallied from states that were most-easy to most-difficult to win - is based on a shift to the right by Pennsylvania in a state-by-state analysis of voting data over 20 years.

Working against Clinton would be: Supporters clamor to shake hands with Hillary Clinton in Salinas. Credit:AP the local economy (economic confidence is lower than the national average and Trump's "jobs, jobs, jobs" pitch appeals to a big blue-collar contingent);

demographics (as sixth-oldest of the states, lots of angry old white men, not overly educated);

and voting laws (other states have become more Clinton-friendly through electoral reform). Setting out what he describes as the "clear path" by which Clinton could lose, Politico analyst David Bernstein writes: "The cold math of a potential Clinton defeat is not to be found in national polls, but in the Electoral College  and within each state's unique demographics and culture. "Trump won't dramatically remake the political map, but he doesn't need to. He just needs to squeeze a little more out of certain voters in certain states, while Clinton draws a little less."

Trump supporters and bikers at a Rolling Thunder rally in Washington, on Sunday. Credit:AP Bernstein's list of Clinton errors that could tweak those local outcomes in Trump's favour includes: Taking Hispanic enthusiasm for granted: Look at Florida, where Democrats are hugely confident, but Hispanic support for Clinton is five points less than it was for Obama in 2012, and while Obama had a 285,600-vote advantage among Hispanics over GOP contender Mitt Romney, Obama carried the state by just 73,000 votes. Use Obama's Florida figures as a template for 2016, and Trump prevails over Clinton.

Look at Florida, where Democrats are hugely confident, but Hispanic support for Clinton is five points less than it was for Obama in 2012, and while Obama had a 285,600-vote advantage among Hispanics over GOP contender Mitt Romney, Obama carried the state by just 73,000 votes. Use Obama's Florida figures as a template for 2016, and Trump prevails over Clinton. Alienating young voters: The big millennial turnout for Obama in 2008 was a one-off and their more recent political indifference could cost Clinton in student-heavy states  including swing states such as Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Virginia. Clinton must win back the young  in the Iowa primary, 84 per cent of under-30s voted for Sanders; and between 2008 and 2012, Obama lost 30,000 young votes and he held Iowa by just 90,000 votes. On that arithmetic, Clinton would be chopped liver. It is the same in North Carolina  in 2008, Obama won 368,000 young votes to hold the state by a nail-biting 14,000 votes; in 2012, he lost one-third of those young votes, and Romney romped home with a 92,000-vote margin.

The big millennial turnout for Obama in 2008 was a one-off and their more recent political indifference could cost Clinton in student-heavy states  including swing states such as Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Virginia. Clinton must win back the young  in the Iowa primary, 84 per cent of under-30s voted for Sanders; and between 2008 and 2012, Obama lost 30,000 young votes and he held Iowa by just 90,000 votes. On that arithmetic, Clinton would be chopped liver. It is the same in North Carolina  in 2008, Obama won 368,000 young votes to hold the state by a nail-biting 14,000 votes; in 2012, he lost one-third of those young votes, and Romney romped home with a 92,000-vote margin. Letting establishment Republicans find another place to go: By going too far left in the primaries, Clinton dampened her appeal to the GOP's "Never Trump" wing  and her likely smaller share of the disaffected Republican vote could be crucial in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and maybe Maine. A poll in Ohio where Trump and Clinton have to contend with competition from Libertarian and Green candidates found that it was Clinton who took the bigger hit, not Trump.

By going too far left in the primaries, Clinton dampened her appeal to the GOP's "Never Trump" wing  and her likely smaller share of the disaffected Republican vote could be crucial in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and maybe Maine. A poll in Ohio where Trump and Clinton have to contend with competition from Libertarian and Green candidates found that it was Clinton who took the bigger hit, not Trump. Fumbling the trade/jobs issue: To the extent that Trump has policies, his "we'll bring the jobs home" rhetoric plays hugely well in the Rust Belt states: Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota. As president, Clinton's husband signed the most hated of the free-trade deals; as a senator, Clinton voted for them; and as secretary of state she championed them. All that is why Sanders defeated Clinton in the Michigan and Wisconsin primaries. Bernstein concludes: "If Clinton pushed away some of her potential supporters; fails to energise others to vote; and fires up Trump's base by pandering to her own  well, she just might be able to make the numbers work out for him. Supporters shake hands with Hillary Clinton in Salinas, California. Credit:AP

"If he does pull off the election of the century, Trump's path to 270 Electoral College votes will begin with 164 practically in the bank, from 21 solid-red states generally considered sure things for the Republican nominee. [But] Clinton could push more than enough additional states onto Trump's side of the ledger  Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Iowa, Virginia, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan  one mistake at a time." Allocating Trump an Electoral College majority of between 274 and 338, he spells out the "Trump can win" reality of this campaign: "Trump survives a Latino surge in the south and west; Clinton fails to bring home young voters in the south-east and Midwest; Libertarians give Trump a foothold in the north-east; the Rust Belt puts a nail in the coffin  and with somewhere between 274 and 338 electoral votes, Donald J. Trump becomes 45th president of the United States." An anti-Trump protester hold a Trump campaign hat that has been set on fire as protesters and Trump supporters clash near in San Diego last month. Credit:San Diego Tribune/AP Clinton will get the Democratic nomination. But when the primaries are done and dusted, what shape will she be in as she embarks on a hard-slog march towards the White House  against this wily opponent who, seemingly, goes unpunished by the electorate for his vague policies that shift with the breeze. Will she get the same consolidation, or bounce, in the polls as Trump did on becoming the presumptive nominee? Will uniting her party be any tougher, or easier for Clinton than it has been for Trump? Can she bring sufficient Sanders supporters on board to make a difference? And does she get an additional lift as an unusually high rate of undecided voters make their call?
by Adrian Gibson

THE STINK of rank hypocrisy engulfs the upcoming constitutional referendum.

Whilst the anti-discrimination principles being espoused by the Bills are noble, many Bahamians fear that they would, by voting yes, sanction an untrustworthy government to yet again engage in political sleight of hand.

Though sweet hearting is a secret, undercover pastime of Bahamian society, we are socially conservative. Bahamians would gamble and then turn around and vote no to legalisation of gambling.

As my father told me some time ago, he felt that some Bahamians feel that they took the moral position to vote no because they felt that gambling is generally wrong but though they do it, that they would soon repent, stop and ask forgiveness and therefore wouldnt want to do so long-term.

We are socially conservative but hypocritical with it. That is the reality of life in Bahamian society. Given that Bahamians are distrusting of this government and seemingly believe that the passage of the Bills would lead to same-sex marriage and society being overrun by foreign nationals  arguments advanced by the No campaign  the Bills are in jeopardy of failing. Again, that failure would in part be due to our fears, social conservatism and hypocrisy!

A constitutional referendum was promised by Prime Minister Perry Christie upon taking office.

Mr Christie initially announced that the constitutional bills would be brought to Parliament before the end of 2013 and passed by February, 2014. At that time, he said the referendum would be held by June 2014. The referendum was initially expected in June 2013, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Independence. The referendum was again delayed to November 2013 and then it was set to take place on November 6, 2014, only to yet again be cancelled. PM Christie then said that he hoped the vote would happen before the end of June 2015. That too didnt happen. And so, here we are with the vote finally scheduled to take place on June 7, 2016.

The four Bills, according to Mr Christie, represented the first round of constitutional reform. He asserted that the Bills are bound by a common thread  the need to institute full equality between men and women in matters of citizenship and, more broadly, to eliminate discrimination in the Bahamas based on sex.

The first bill proposed would enable a child born outside The Bahamas to a Bahamian woman to have automatic Bahamian citizenship at birth. Presently, only those born in another country to a Bahamian father are able to take automatically Bahamian status, but not if the father is non-Bahamian and the mother is Bahamian.

Both PM Christie and Constitutional Commission Chairman Sean McWeeney said the change will not operate retroactively. The government will grant Bahamian citizenship to all applicants born abroad after July 9, 1973 - and before the law changes  to a Bahamian-born mother and non-Bahamian father, subject to the exceptions and in accordance with procedures already prescribed by law.

The second bill enables a Bahamian woman who marries a foreign man to secure for him the same access to Bahamian citizenship that a Bahamian man has always enjoyed under the Constitution in relation to his foreign spouse. The bill contains provisions designed to ensure foreigners, male or female, who enter into bogus marriages with Bahamian citizens, will not be assisted by this constitutional change.

A foreign spouse who wants to acquire Bahamian citizenship based on marriage to a Bahamian will not be eligible for the constitutional change if they are no longer married to a Bahamian, if they are married but have no intention of living with the Bahamian spouse, or if it can be shown that the foreign spouse only married the Bahamian to access Bahamian citizenship. In all these cases, Bahamian citizenship applications will be denied.

The third bill seeks to remediate the one area of the Constitution that discriminates against men based on gender. Presently, an unmarried Bahamian father cannot pass his citizenship to a child born to a foreign woman. The bill will give an unwed Bahamian father the same right to pass citizenship to his child that a Bahamian woman has always had under the Constitution in relation to a child born to her out of wedlock. However, proof of paternity by one of the methods prescribed by law is required.

The final bill will end discrimination based on sex. This involves the insertion of the word sex in Article 26 of the Constitution to make it unconstitutional to discriminate based on whether someone is male or female.

It makes clear that the existing exceptions will continue to apply. In particular, same-sex marriages will remain unlawful as prescribed under the Matrimonial Causes Act.

Whilst I can appreciate that men should not enjoy a right that women do not have, I believe that every right and privilege and every freedom guaranteed by our constitution should be equal between male and females. I do have queries and concerns with respect to two of the bills and I will discuss those issues in my follow-up column on Monday.

The government has been unfair with the campaign. The governing party has overtly shown its hand, openly campaigning themselves and financially supporting the Yes vote campaign without simultaneously providing seed money for the No vote campaign. The issue that presents is that taxpayers money is being used to promote a campaign for fairness whilst the government is itself, hypocritically, being unfair by refusing to sponsor opposing campaigns.

The government and yes vote organisers have gone about this all wrong. The mistake they made was to promote the bills as predominantly beneficial to women as opposed to promoting the bills as seeking to remove constitutional discrimination across the board (which is what, I believe, is intended).

On 27 February, 2002, the Ingraham administration held a referendum to remove discriminatory language from the Constitution.

Among questions of equality were other pertinent questions of national interest. The questions, as proposed then were:

Do you approve of a Teaching Service Commission? Do you approve of the creation of an Independent Boundaries Commission? Do you approve of an Independent Parliamentary Commissioner? Do you approve amending the Constitution to increase the normal retirement age of judges from 67 to 72 for the Supreme Court, and up to 75 for the Court of Appeal justices? Do you approve amending the Constitution to permit foreign spouse of Bahamian citizen to reside and work in The Bahamas for the first five years of marriage, and thereafter entitled to citizenship? Do you agree that all forms of discrimination against women, their children and spouses should be removed from the constitution and that no person should be discriminated against on the grounds of gender?

Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham decided to kill two birds with one stone and originally proposed to hold the referendum on the same day as the election asserting that it would ensure that the maximum number of persons participated in the process. He later decided against that.

In the House of Assembly on December 6, 2001, the former Prime Minister stated that he had the support of then Opposition leader Perry Christie and then third party MP Dr Bernard Nottage. By December 20, 2001, the House voted by a margin overwhelmingly in favour of the amendments to the constitution. Thirty-eight MPs voted that day.

The governing Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), though supportive of the amendments in the House, subsequently launched major campaign against the Bills.

Former Attorney General the late Paul Adderley, who was one of the framers of the constitution, claimed that the former prime minister was getting it all wrong. Perhaps, it was he  along with others  who, I am told, helped to persuade Mr Christie to change his mind.

The electorate voted against the proposed amendments. Resultantly, the PLP held a grand celebration.

Mr Christie then claimed that the referendum results demonstrated that the Bahamian public is not dumb and stupid. He went on to say:

Rather, the Bahamian people demonstrated that they can separate fact from fiction and that they can and will make up their minds intelligently and rationally based on what they honestly believe to be in their own best interests and the best interests of our nation. He claimed that the results demonstrated how sacred the people held their constitution.

Yet, here is the same Perry Christie essentially asking Bahamians to repeat the same process but unwilling to apologise for his commentary and his actions in 2002.

About the 2002 referendum, Mr Christie also said: The clear and unmistakable signal that the Bahamian people telegraphed yesterday is that they do not want any government messing with their things unless they, the people, are fully included in the process of constitutional reform from start to finish  and that the process of constitutional reform must never be rushed.

He clearly rejected change and progress at that time, yet here he is. Unapologetically! In fact, Mr Christie told another daily that he had no intentions of apologising and boldly asserted that the time has gone. The elections from 2002 are over.

And then, of course, there is Attorney General Allyson Maynard Gibson who glibly claimed in the Senate in 2012 that the public rejected the amendments in 2002 because of the former prime minister and further claimed that the PLP was not at fault.

Notably, FNM MPs Tennyson Wells, Algernon Allen and Pierre Dupuch also campaigned against the amendments in 2002.

However, whats of note today is that Bishop Neil Ellis, Archbishop Drexel Gomez and Bishop Samuel Greene  three known PLP pastors  are now campaigning in support of the four Bills when in 2002 they were loudly and fervently against amendments that would have yielded the same outcome. This is bloody hypocrisy!

Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell was, as the old people say, one of the ring leaders who vehemently opposed the amendments. He urged Bahamian women to be very cautious, raised public alarm about the former prime ministers intentions and told voters that they could be stuck with a badly drafted Act that has serious consequences.

Yet, here they all are now campaigning in favour of a vote which would accomplish that which was proposed 14 years ago and doing so unapologetically. There is no wonder that the no campaign has gained so much traction when you take into account how intellectually insulting these men have been to the Bahamian people.

They all did a John Kerry (former US Senator, now Secretary of State), except its in reverse. They were against the bills and now they are for them! They have offered no sincere explanation as to the sudden about face nor have they offered an apology. But, we all know that it is politics! They did it for political gain!

I respect Alfred Sears for being decent and honourable enough to apologise. This is why I sincerely believe that he is the frontrunner to succeeding Mr Christie as leader of the PLP. His sincerity is refreshing.

On Monday, I will discuss each of the Bills and reveal what I intend to vote on June 7th with respect to each Bill.

_________________________________________________________

First published in the The Tribune under the byline, Young Man's View, here

View Adrian Gibson's archive here

____________________________________________________

The views expressed are those of the author, and not necessarily those of WeblogBahamas.com (which has no corporate view) or its Authors.
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KVVP-FM was started by U.S. Army Colonel (Retired) Chaplain John Stannard on Jan. 20, 1977 at a location on Hwy. 28, the Alexandria Highway, with 3,000 watts at 105.5 FM.

Then-Leesville Mayor Boots Sartor turned on the station that day for the original broadcasting hours of 6 a.m.-11 p.m.

In July 1977, the first full-time DJ began broadcasting, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In August 1978, the stations format changed to Country Music with its first song being The Devil Went Down To Georgia by Charlie Daniels -- an interesting selection for a station owned by a retired Army Chaplain.

KROK-FM started broadcasting from DeRidder with 9,000 watts and a new 470-foot tower in 1985.

In January 1988, KVVP-FM's new and current facilities opened just off U.S. 171 near Fort Polk's Entrance Road.

In September 1996, KVVP-FM went to transmitting at 25,000 watts at 105.7 FM and the transmitter moved five miles south onto U.S. 171 and also KROK-FM moved its facilities to the current Pickering area location.

KROK-FM, 95.7 World Class Rock, has a dedicated and diverse listening audience.

KUMX-FM was added in 2002 at 106.7 FM as Mix 106.7, a popular mix station playing everything from classic rock to pop.

In 2012, KVVP-FM was rebranded as Today's Country 105.7, and is a West Central Louisiana country music favorite.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jun. 03, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 03, 2016 | 09:45 PM | PADUCAH, KY

A graduation ceremony for McCracken and Graves County GED recipients will be held at West Kentucky Community and Technical College on Thursday, June 9. Friends and family are invited to attend the ceremony at 6:00 pm in the Crounse Hall.



Michael Bolin of Arlington just celebrated his 37th birthday and recently got married, but he has more to celebrate. Bolin will participate in the GED graduation next week, a milestone that has led to a good paying job to support himself and his new bride.



I very grateful for this program (GED) because it helped me better myself and get a better job, said Bolin.



Now working at Southern Coal Handling Services Calvert City Terminal, Bolin credits the WKCTC Adult Learning Center for encouraging him to also earn the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) in addition to his GED, which he said was the key in being hired.



I actually earned my GED and the NCRC certificate in December 2015 and was hired on Calvert City Terminal at the first of the year. Many companies now require that certification, and that is one reason I got the job.



Bolin is now considering his next move in his educational journey by enrolling at WKCTC this fall to major in either welding or industrial maintenance.



A reception will be held following the June 9 GED graduation when friends and family can celebrate with Michael and the other 53 graduates who are eligible to participate in the ceremony.



For more information about the WKCTC Adult Learning Centers, call 270-534-3451 for the McCracken County program on WKCTCs campus or 270-856-2423 for the Graves County program at the colleges Skilled Craft Training Center in Hickory.



Registration for summer and fall classes at WKCTC is also underway. Call 1-855-GO-WKCTC or visit westkentucky.kctcs.edu for class offerings. Fall classes begin August 15.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jun. 03, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 03, 2016 | 04:59 PM | PADUCAH, KY

Mayor Gayle Kaler and local artist and interior designer Bill Ford are looking for people who have stories to tell about Paducah's City Hall and other local buildings.



According to a city-issued press release, Ford is working on "From Paducah with Love Again," his second book of pen-and-ink drawings that showcases local buildings. A personal story or memory will printed with each landmark.



Mayor Gayle Kaler says, We know the history of City Hall and its famous architect, Edward Durell Stone. What we want to include in Fords book is a touching story or memory that includes the building. These stories make each building that Ford draws come alive. Its another way of preserving our past.



If you have a story to share, please limit the essay to 250 words. Email the story with contact information to Bill Ford at bfordint@bellsouth.net by August and he will select the essays to be included in the book.



Ford expects the new book to be published during the summer of 2017. The first edition of, "From Paducah with Love," and a display of some of his drawings can be found at Ruth Baggett Gallery on 1025 Jefferson Street.



Ford also is looking for personal stories pertaining to the following buildings: Westminster Presbyterian Church, St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, Murray State University Paducah Campus, Paducah Railroad Museum, McCracken County Courthouse, First Baptist Church, Katterjohn Building, Rosary Chapel, Lloyd Tilghman House and Civil War Museum, Locomotive No. 1518, entrance to Bob Noble Park, and Paducah Freight House.
By Joe Jackson Jun. 03, 2016 | 10:55 AM | MAYFIELD, KY

A man authorities called a major supplier of methamphetamine in Graves County has been arrested.

According to the Graves County Sheriff's Office, 27-year-old Jose A. Garcia-Orinio was arrested after a late night search of his home on South 16th Street in Mayfield. Deputies arrived at the home shortly after 9:00 pm Thursday and worked into the early morning hours of Friday.

During the search, over two pounds of methamphetamine was found, which police said had a street value of $89,000. Deputies also seized more than $10,000 in cash and three handguns during the raid.

Garcia-Orinio was charged with trafficking in methamphetamine-firearm enhanced and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was lodged in the Graves County Jail.

Sheriff Dewayne Redmon said the drug division had been investigating several known drug dealers in the area and had been focusing on their supplier. With this arrest, he said several of the small drug dealers have been shut off from their supply.
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Rita Redmond was a true lady who felt that every pupil had something to gift to the world
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This article was published 03/06/2016 (2335 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VERNON, B.C.  British Columbias lakes and rivers remain free of invasive mussel species, but that may be due mainly to the vigilance of the BC Conservation Officer Service.

Since April 1, a team of inspectors has checked 3,200 watercraft and identified six boats confirmed to be carrying invasive mussels.

Conservation Officer Service spokesman Chris Doyle says the inspected vessels arrived in B.C. from 33 different provinces and states across North America.

He says 18 decontamination orders have been issued and 16 boats were quarantined for 30 days to ensure any attached organisms or water in the hulls had completely dried.

Zebra and quagga mussels are not native to Canada and the rapidly multiplying freshwater species have the potential to threaten salmon populations, harm drinking water and destroy infrastructure by plugging pipes or other equipment.

Eight inspection stations were added on major B.C. waterways in March to spot boats contaminated with mussels that have already been identified in Ontario, Quebec and at least 24 American states. (CKIZ)
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TORONTO  Unifor says Canoe.com employees have ratified whats believed to be Canadas first union contract for a standalone online news site.

Employees at Canoe, part of Postmedias Sun Media division, certified a union a year ago and a tentative deal was reached on Monday.

Unifor says the employees voted in favour of the first contract by a wide margin on Thursday.

The deal gives the 15 employees protection from unjustified dismissal, a grievance process, scheduling rules, benefit and pension rights, job protection language and a wage grid to be implemented on May 25, 2017.

Next year, employees will get their first raise in several years.

Unifor Local 87-M represents about 2,500 media workers across southern Ontario, including the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Sun and 13 other Postmedia newspapers.
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This article was published 04/06/2016 (2334 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some American wheat farmers are not only going to lose money on every bushel they harvest this month, many wont have a proper place to store it.

U.S. grain silos still hold surpluses from last year. Combined stockpiles for major crops  corn, soybeans, wheat and sorghum  are the biggest for this time of year since 1988. With demand slowing and output rising, space will get tighter, especially for wheat, which is the first one harvested.

Some growers may dump grain in parking lots or vacant buildings.

DANIEL ACKER / BLOOMBER NEWS A worker stacks bales of straw as they are collected in a field where soft red winter wheat has been harvested in Kirkland, Ill., last summer. This year, with demand slowing and output rising, storage space is at a premium, especially for wheat.

It will be the worst storage crunch in the 30 years I have been trading wheat, said Michael ODea, a risk management consultant at INTL FCStone Inc. in Kansas City, Mo. A lot of grain will end up in ground piles.

While farmers expanded storage in recent years, thats been undermined by global crop surpluses and a strong U.S. dollar. Once the worlds biggest wheat exporter, the U.S. saw its shipments in the year through Tuesday drop to the lowest since 1972. With inventories up 30 per cent and expected to swell further, the price outlook is getting more bearish. Chicago futures tumbled for three straight years and in February touched the lowest level since 2010.

The glut may only get bigger. Global supply, including production and inventories, will exceed consumption by the most ever in the year that ends in June 2017, with the harvest expected to be the second-highest on record, the International Grains Council said May 26.

For many growers, the slump means they are spending more to grow wheat than they can collect when the grain is sold, according to analysts at Societe Generale, which forecast Chicago wheat futures will average US$4.52 a bushel in the third quarter, compared with US$4.8675 now. Kansas State University estimates each bushel costs US$3.90 to US$5.18 to produce. Moneys managers have been betting prices will fall for almost 10 straight months.

Winter wheat harvested in June and July across the Great Plains is among the first crops to arrive each year at grain elevators, with corn and soybeans collected in September and October. While there isnt any co-mingling, most silos can be used to store different crops, depending on need. Piling grain on the farm isnt all that unusual, but without an impervious floor, walls and some kind of covering, there is an increased risk of pest and moisture damage.

But with so much left over from last year, growers from Texas to Nebraska probably will exceed local storage capacity by at least 15 per cent, said Troy Presley, a grain merchandiser for Comark Grain Marketing LLC in Cheney, Kan. The company markets crops for 13 co-operatives with more than 77 locations in Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska.

Storage space is going to be very tough to find this year, Presley said. Farmers have sold the smallest amount of wheat for harvest delivery in at least 10 years, compounding the storage crunch.

Domestic storage capacity for more than a dozen different kinds of grain and oilseed crops has increased 22 per cent in the past decade to 24.21 billion bushels, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. But as of March 1, well before this years harvests, stockpiles of wheat, corn, sorghum and soybeans totaled 10.9 billion bushels, up 5.6 per cent from a year earlier, according to the USDA.

In Kansas, the biggest producer of winter wheat, inventories were 29 per cent bigger than a year earlier, government data show. Even before the harvest, leftover grain is using up 52 per cent of the states storage capacity, compared with 41 percent a year earlier, according to the USDA.

Production of hard red winter wheat, the variety used to make bread, will rise 4.3 per cent this year to 863 million bushels, the USDA said May 10. The crop may be even bigger, topping 900 million bushels, because timely rains in April boosted yields and farmers sprayed fungicides to prevent disease, ODea said.

An extra 40 or 50 million bushels is not going to find a home, he said.

There may be more storage space available outside the Plains, the main growing region, but transporting wheat there adds to the cost. The discount of cash-market grain to futures probably will fall to US$1 a bushel, the most since 2010, ODea said.

The cost of U.S. wheat at export terminals in New Orleans costs at least 50 cents a bushel more for buyers than grain purchased from Russia, Ukraine and Europe, USDA data show. Wheat is so cheap, domestic livestock producers are considering using it in feed rations along with corn and sorghum.

Cash prices could become weaker at local elevators as they are reaching their storage capacity limits, said Dan OBrien, a Kansas State University agricultural economist in Colby.

It will be a sizable crop.

 Bloomberg News
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This article was published 04/06/2016 (2334 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the fourth time in three months, a Manitoban has fallen victim to a high-pressure investment scam purporting to deal in sophisticated trades called binary options.

This time, a 61-year-old Manitoba woman lost $10,000 to a high-pressure, fast-talking operation she was told was a Canadian company called Magnum Options.

But Jason Roy, senior investigator with the Manitoba Securities Commission (MSC), said regardless of where they say theyre from, if a dealer is not registered in Canada, Canadians should stay away.

There are no binary-options dealers registered in Canada, so regardless of how sophisticated they may seem or how professional it sounds, prospective investors should head for the hills if they are contacted.

Roy is part of a national binary-options working group that is trying to combat the rise of binary-options fraud in Canada.

We are concerned on a local and national level, said Roy. My colleagues in other jurisdictions are just as concerned as I am. These fraudsters are relentless. They are definitely targeting Canadians.

Binary options are a sort of wager where investors bet on the performance of an underlying asset, often a currency, stock index or share, usually in a short period of time  sometimes minutes or even seconds. When that period is up, the investor receives a predetermined payout or loses his wager. Its an all-or-nothing proposition.

Some jurisdictions consider such trades gambling, but in any case with no dealers registered in Canada, there is no chance to engage in such a trade that would be sanctioned by any securities commission in the country.

The latest victim, a Winnipeg resident on long-term disability who recently inherited some money, spoke to the Free Press on the condition her name not be used.

I am the most skeptical person in the world, but they were so polished and professional, she said.

But Roy said it is not surprising people can be overwhelmed by these unscrupulous operators.

They have very sophisticated websites and high-pressure, boiler-room sales operations, he said. Their job is to separate you from your money.

Magnum Options said they were from the U.K. and the victim said they had British accents.

She got in touch with the MSC after $5,000 of the $10,000 she had deposited had been drawn down.

Roy advised the woman to try to withdraw the rest, but the fraudsters told her shed agreed to a condition where she was obliged to undertake two more trades.

In a twist that might have been too far-fetched for fiction, Roy himself was the target of a binary-option scam in April from a firm called Central Options.

In light of his profession, Roy had a pre-established alias with an email and phone number already in place and eventually tracked the perpetrators to Israel and informed the authorities there about the operation.

He did not lose any money.

The Winnipeg woman says she feels embarrassed and only spoke about her experience as a warning to others to be skeptical.

Roy said the first thing people should do when considering investing with an operation that has solicited them over the phone or online is to make sure the firm is registered in Canada.

He said people can call the MSC directly or check a firms registration status at www.recognizeinvestmentfraud.com.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 03/06/2016 (2335 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL  Federal Heritage Minister Melanie Joly is inviting all Canadians, including Quebecers, to celebrate Canada Day this year.

Montrealers, Quebecois (and) Canadians are seeing themselves in our government, are seeing themselves in the progressive values we base our actions on, Joly said Friday.

And I think that thats why theres so many reasons to celebrate on July 1.

Many Quebecers give short shrift to Canada Day, with July 1 being just as well-known in the province for being the traditional moving day for thousands of people.

Fete nationale on June 24 is a much bigger celebration, particularly among nationalists.

Joly will be in Ottawa and nearby Gatineau on July 1 but said she would ensure a party is planned in her Montreal riding.

Ill make sure that my team organizes something in Ahunstic-Cartierville, said Joly, who was in Montreal attending an unrelated event.

On Wednesday, Joly unveiled the details of this years Canada Day celebration, which will take place on Parliament Hill and Majors Hill Park in Ottawa and the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau. Canada Day celebrations in the Capital Region are organized by the federal Heritage Department.

Some of the artists playing this year include Metric, Coeur de pirate, Alex Cuba and New Brunswicks Les Hay Babies.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 03/06/2016 (2335 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The House of Commons is becoming so riddled with heckling and nastiness that parents often leave with their children in tow just because of how wild its getting, Status of Women Minister Patty Hajdu told a workshop about attracting more female candidates into politics.

You may have seen many female ministers, when theyre getting heckled to the point where its too loud theyll sit down, Hadju added at the Friday event. This is a new approach. They dont want to yell over insults and I think thats admirable, actually. Its quite noticable.

Hajdu was speaking at the Federation of Canadian Municipalties workshop entitled, Because its 2016: Overcoming Barriers for Women in Municipal Politics.

John Woods / The Canadian Press files MP Patty Hajdu speaks at the Rights and Equality: Social Policy in 2016 workshop.

In Canada, the number of female elected officials in both federal and municipal politics hovers around 25 percent, which ranks our nation 39th out of 138 countries. The goal of the FCM is to have that figure someday reach 30 percent.

Hajdu said one factor in preventing women from entering  or staying  in politics is the discourse both behind-the-scenes and on the legislative floors.

The newly-elected minister said she was shocked when attending her first ever Question Period in the House of Commons.

Not just from us, Hajdu said, but the other side.

Its not okay when my colleagues are attacked on social media, she added. Its not okay when my caucus is being assaultive to a women in the house. Its not okay to yell gender-based slurs at our Prime Minister. And we all have to stand up. It cant just be women who are speaking out.

Hajdu said the Liberal caucus is currently devising strategies to tone down the nastiness, such as eliminating the theatrics of standing ovations for everything we say.

Were really being reflective and I do believe its being driven by women; about how it is were going to interact with our opponents in this most conflicted, theatre-based hour of the day, she said.

Other panelists at the workshop, held at the Winnipeg Convention Centre, included Sheryl Spence, the mayor of Warman, Saskatchewan, Yolaine Kirlew, a councillor in Sioux Lookout, Jeannie Ehaloak, the mayor of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, and Marie-Eve Brunet, a Montreal city councillor.

The event was hosted by Katherine Monk, a former journalist and political affairs strategist.

The discussion focused largely on the systematic barriers keeping women out of the political arena, such as how women are portrayed in both social and mainstream media and the powerful and pervasive patriarchy which Hajdu said still exists.

Spence said only five females have been on Warman council in over 100 years. But she noted that 10 years ago, the local mayor, MLA and MP were all men. Now theyre all women.

I think women are taking a more active role, she said. I think they see a place for them and they know they can do the job. At one time I think we didnt have the confidence that we have now. The message we received was it (politics) was a job for our male counterparts. We know thats just not true. We have lots to add and were doing just that.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @randyturner15
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 04/06/2016 (2334 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It may have been the first time a famous politician chided a journalist for trying to end an interview too early.

This week, Calgarys popular Mayor Naheed Nenshi was kind enough to sit down for a live webcast interview at the Free Press News Cafe. In town for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities national conference, Nenshi agreed to talk about the challenges he faces in Calgary, a dynamic city in the grips of a prolonged petroleum-fuelled recession.

Nenshi had things to say about Winnipeg as well. In fact, when offered a chance to wrap up the webcast, he dared the host (me) to ask him about one of Winnipegs most divisive political issues: the pedestrian barriers at Portage Avenue and Main Street.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, left, with Winnipeg mayor Brian Bowman in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on a tour Wednesday.

Nenshi was staying at the Fairmont Hotel and thus had a front-row view of the ugly concrete barriers that keep pedestrians from crossing one of Canadas most famous intersections. As a preface, he admitted its rarely a good idea to wade into deeply contentious local politics when he visits another city. But then  sporting a wry smile  did so anyway.

That is not only a pedestrian-unfriendly environment. It is, in fact, the most hostile pedestrian environment I have seen in any place in Canada. And boy, oh boy  it is the main intersection of Canada, Portage and Main. Lets get people on it.

And with that, Nenshi crossed wade uninvited into contentious local political issue off his list of things to do in Winnipeg.

Fortunately, that is not the only local issue Nenshi tackled. Although local is a qualified term, given that Nenshi faces many of the same challenges Mayor Brian Bowman faces here in Winnipeg. As a result, he is not afraid to draw parallels between his travails and those of his fellow big-city mayors.

For example, Nenshi and Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson have been fencing with the Alberta government for years to get a new legal and fiscal framework for their cities.

Nenshi said it has been a long and frustrating exercise, complicated in large part by the fact that in his six years in office, there have been five Alberta premiers. However, Albertas NDP government agreed in January to create a cabinet committee to study a new legislative framework for municipalities. Although there is a lot of spadework left to do, Nenshi said he was hopeful some progress would be made in time for municipal elections in the fall of 2017.

What exactly do the mayors of Calgary and Edmonton want? At the top of the list is access to new revenue streams that will reduce the current reliance on property taxes.

Nenshi said this could be done in several different ways. The province could introduce amendments to allow the cities to impose new municipal taxes and levies currently not permitted under founding legislation. Or, it could divert to municipalities a fixed share of sales or income taxes.

How desperate is Nenshi to move away from funding city services and infrastructure through property taxes? He said he would be willing to make significant reductions in property tax rates in exchange for a formal, permanent share of income tax. I would take that deal in a minute, he said.

Its likely Bowman would take that deal in a Winnipeg minute as well.

Bowman has been fighting a nearly identical battle with the province, and to date has achieved about the same level of results. He is, however, still fighting the good fight.

Recently, Bowman announced a task force to study the creation of regulatory growth fees to be charged to developers to cover collateral costs created by new development. However, the new Progressive Conservative government has said unequivocally it will not approve new municipal taxes or fees, and there is some question whether Winnipeg is empowered to proceed on its own.

Nenshi called this situation ridiculous, noting many municipalities across the country are trapped in the same predicament: they need new revenue streams to ease the burden on property owners, but are prevented from creating them by the provinces. That has left municipal leaders such as Bowman facing a delicate political dilemma.

For example, in the wake of the sale of MTS to Bell, Bowman said it was probably time to increase the tax on underground telecommunication infrastructure. The privatized MTS benefited from a law that limited the taxes charged on underground wires. Bowman would like to increase those charges so they are consistent with other cities, but then admitted in the same breath he wasnt going to stomp his feet and hold his breath waiting for Premier Brian Pallister to agree to the necessary legislative changes.

Bowmans politically mature pragmatism should be applauded. It is also, however, an extremely depressing image: a mayor who really wants to modernize his revenue streams being forced to wave the white flag with a premier who, like premiers before him, is brushing aside more progressive solutions for purely selfish political reasons.

It is unlikely that Nenshi, as charismatic and earnest as he is, has much influence with a premier in another province. However, as Nenshi likes to point out, he leads a city that has more people than five provinces, and very nearly equal to the population of Manitoba. That has to count for something.

Nenshi often likes to tell people Canada is facing a pressing need to modernize the ways our cities work. And that a failure to confront and engage on this need may lead to the destruction of cities as we know them.

On behalf of all the Canadians who live in those cities, lets hope the premiers are listening.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
LA CRESCENT, Minn.  Ever since their teens, Mary Jo Mickschl and Mary Lu Frey have been adventurous. With an appetite for the big city, theyll tell you hours of stories from trips theyve taken to places like Chicago and Denver. They even hope to see the Big Apple one day. But now, after almost half a decade of teaching across the hall from each other, theyre preparing to embark on another one of their patented adventures together: retirement.

In the early 1970s, both Frey and Mickshl cooked in a kitchen at Winona Hospital. Frey then got word of a teaching job at Crucifixion School in La Crescent and was hired as an elementary teacher in 1972. That year would prove to be the only after that in which they werent working with each other; by 1973, Frey had recruited Mickschl to join her at Crucifixion.

Fast-forward 44 years, and seemingly, all thats changed between the two is their age. They still converse with the spry energy of those who just met  cracking jokes and sharing smiles. Walking through the halls of Crucifixion with them is like walking alongside local celebrities: students and faculty flock toward the pair as they walk past, giving stories and sharing inside jokes that decades of camaraderie has built.

They know everyone at Crucifixion by first name  students included. As they shuffled their way past swarms of kids running on the schools newly built green and blue playground (which Mickschl played a huge role in helping create), their conversations range from second-grade reading material to how a staff member is overcoming an ailment.

As Lori Datta, a sixth grade teacher, summed it up: Crucifixion is more than just a school, its a family. And Frey and Mickschl, for 44 years, have been that familys matriarchs.

Today, the average worker spends five years at each job, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. To do that almost nine times requires a serious commitment, not just to teaching, but to Crucifixion, which both say is the best-kept secret in La Crescent. Their commitment stems from the desire to help anyone and everyone  sad students, new faculty or just anyone who can use a hug, Frey said.

Crucifixion meets 180 days out of the year. After 43 years, the two teachers and friends have spent 7,740 days working with each other  nearly 62,000 hours. Thats not including the amount of time they spend with each other out of work, which is apparently so much that Mickschl said her children just accept Frey as part of the family now.

My kids think were related, she said.

They insist that they never have, nor will they ever, tire of one anothers company. If anything, those 43 years are just a phase of their lives  a defining one, but not finalizing. In fact, they already have a couple adventures planned after their retirement. Theyre a unit, and retirement will not break their bond.

Weve said for a long time, We came together and were leaving together, Mickschl said, to which Frey agreed.
Back in 1940, Frederick Jones of Mansfield, Ohio, was facing a serious problem. He ran a small company that distributed potato chips, but his suppliers couldnt keep up with demand.

Jones solved the problem the entrepreneurial way: he bought potatoes and oil, along with some basic equipment, and starting making his own chips to sell. He kept right on doing it, making his signature wavy cut chips for more than 40 years before turning the company over to his kids in 1986, when he retired.

Not much has changed in potato chip technology over the years. Its still as simple as peeling, slicing, frying, salting and packaging.

At least it was, until the federal government got involved.

By the end of this year, Jones will stop making their wavy chips because new rules from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has made it impossible to get the type of cooking oil that gives the chips their distinctive flavor. That oil, partially hydrogenated cooking oil, is no longer considered safe for consumption, according to rules the FDA published last June.

It is disappointing that we will have to change a product that we have been making for seventy years; however, we are optimistic that many of our local customers will enjoy our new products and continue to support us, Bob Jones, president of the company, said in a statement announcing the changes to their products.

Jones says they will experiment with different kinds of legal cooking oil and will continue producing chips with soybean oil for now, but the flavor wont be the same. For a small business that doesnt have the same market reach as big chip makers like Lays or Wise, losing that distinct flavor could mean losing customers.

Thats what all, or many, of our local customers have grown to love, and its what they expect, Jones told local television station WMFD. Were doing it because the government is telling us to stop doing it.

The FDA says the new rules for cooking oil are intended to protect Americans from making potentially dangerous decisions about what we eat and demonstrates the agencys commitment to the heart health of all Americans.

But those decisions have real consequences  and the ban isnt necessary to make people healthier.

For starters, if you dont want to eat unhealthy food, maybe just stay away from the potato chip aisle.

And if you still want to eat chips, the good news is the market has provided for you, too. Jones had already started making other varieties of chips using healthier oils  the company has had a line of potato chips with zero grams of trans-fat for about eight years. Thats a sensible thing to do in an age when many consumers are more conscious about their health.

But the federal government decided to decide for everyone, and that means Jones and their customers dont get to decide for themselves anymore.

We dont really have a choice. Some people say dont do it, change back, fight the government,' Jones said. Those are things I cant do.

Few people can.
Teresa and Brian Martens are living alpaca loca on a farm south of Beaver Dam.

The couple started Maple Leaf Alpaca Farm with seven alpacas last year, and are now up to 11 - with one more on the way.

Originally from Alberta, Canada, near Edmonton, the couple moved to Wisconsin when Brian was offered a permanent position here. He works for Trek Bicycle Corporation in Waterloo.

Weve been very happy here, Teresa said.

They lived in Middleton for 12 years and Waterloo for two years, and Teresa said they found themselves getting complacent. She started to think about what they could do together as a team in retirement. Then she spotted a photo of an alpaca online late in the fall of 2014.

And fell in love.

Teresa said as a kid she was always bringing home dogs and cats.

Ive always been an animal lover, she said.

The Martens also are accustomed to owning property with some acreage. Their household included animals and three birds. The more they learned about alpacas, the more raising them seemed like a good fit. Teresa Martens said there are two kinds of alpacas, Huacaya and Suri. She focused her research on Huacayas, which looked warm and fuzzy to her.

We bought our first six alpacas in January 2015, she said.

They planned to board the herd for a year or two. Brian told her they should not be looking for farms yet, but one night they both were looking online, one upstairs, the other downstairs. Both spotted the same property for sale that interested them  a former horse farm.

During a big snowstorm in February 2015, they toured the farm. They made an offer and moved to the farm in April, and worked to ready it for the alpacas. They moved their herd to the farm in July.

Teresa said alpacas are very gentle and easy on the earth. She said they do not like to be touched, but are very curious.

They are very spiritual animals, she said. They have an energy about them that is calming and reassuring. You just fall in love with them.

Maple Leaf Alpaca Farm, named for the Martens' Canadian roots, is now also home to five rabbits, two fainting goats, 34 chickens, 16 ducks, two geese and a miniature pig named Finnegan. A rescued barn cat named Boris and a Maremma livestock guardian dog named Loki complete the menagerie.

The farm was a perfect fit, with several outbuildings already in place.

The infrastructure was perfect, she said. I couldnt leave anything empty.

The Martens hired a professional from New York to shear their adult alpacas. A team of four from Jeffrey Ebel Shearing Services arrived on Thursday. The alpacas were sheared in an organized process, first harvesting the valuable "blanket" fleece around its body. The neck, head, tail and legs are sheared and those fibers are considered seconds and thirds. The alpacas also have their toenails trimmed and their teeth filed. The team shears two alpacas at at time, and other alpacas peered into the garage from an adjacent pen during the process.

Maple Leaf Alpaca Farm will host a special event Sept. 24-25 for National Alpaca Farm Days. She encourages people to pack a picnic lunch. The farm also hosts an open farm day once a month. Teresa said she posts the dates to the farms Facebook page at least a week or two in advance after checking the weather.

Bring the whole family, she said.

Maple Leaf Alpaca Farm will focus on alpaca breeding, sales, fiber and end products. Teresa Martens said she would eventually like to host weekend or day getaways.

To learn more, visit http://mapleleafalpacas.com/. Follow Maple Leaf Alpaca Farm on Facebook for more photos of the alpacas and other farm animals and information about open farm days.
After writing this column for 22 years, I have found that the items I write about my memories of life on the farm generate the most response. Its amazing how many people have some kind of farm background.

It is also true that the columns I write about books are the least popular of my offerings. In fact, some readers have said that I shouldnt bother to write about books at all because nobody cares!

But you know what? Im going to write about some books today which should appeal to all of my farm-background readersbut definitely not only to farm kids. But, first, a little set-up.

My sister Joyce and her housemate Joyce (Yup, two Joyces. Joyce and Re-Joyce.) invited us over to meet some of Joyce Williamsons cousins a couple of weeks ago. These four women, Peggy and Priscilla, and twins Susan and Sara, had come to visit, so we all went out to dinnereight women and me. I sort of stuck out in the dinner crowd!

Well, anyway, I was excited to meet all of them, but especially Sara DeLuca, because Id read a number of her books and loved them. And for all my farm friends out there, I think youd love them, too. But these are works that would have a wider appeal than just to farm people because the writing is terrific. Let me give you a few notes.

Songs from an Inland Sea is a short collection of some very beautiful blank verse poetry about life on a Wisconsin farm. The images Sara creates are gorgeous. She appeals to all of our senses with her lovely word pictures.

Sara grew up on a sheep and dairy farm, so her collection of poems called Shearing Time draws us into her childhood world. Beautiful stuff.

Dancing the Cows Home: A Wisconsin Girlhood is a very personal memoir of how Sara and her twin sister Susan literally and metaphorically danced through their childhood and adolescence on the family farm in Polk County. They had been inspired to take up dancing by a Buick commercial on TV in which some ballerinas sailed over a car. Its a touching, sometimes funny, picture of family life on the farm in the 1950s and 1960s seen from a girls perspective. The book also talks about what its like to be a twin and about their emergence from their twin-identity to become independent individuals. Susan went on to become a concert pianist and teacher.

Saras most recent book is The Crops Look Good: News from a Midwestern Family Farm. The basis of this biography is a huge collection of letters which Saras Aunt Margaret had lovingly saved beginning in the 1920s when she left the farm to go to work in Minneapolis, and which continued for decades. Her mother and sisters wrote to Margaret on a regular basis, filling her in on the day-to-day life on the farm: plowing, planting, cultivating, harvesting, laundry, baking, milking. The book begins with a note to Margaret from her 7-year-old sister, Saras mother.

Sara knits together a family history gleaned from the family letters along with notes about national and international events during the Depression and wartime. Its a wonderful picture of what life was like for Wisconsin farmers during the 1920s, 30s and 40s.

So, for whatever its worth, I recommend Sara DeLucas works to you, whether you have a farm background or not. This is good stuff.

Curtain!
As the great-granddaughter of early Welsh immigrants who arrived in Columbus in 1846, Jan (Griffith) Ulrich has deep roots in the community and a keen interest in local history.

Now shes written a book about the citys early years  Images of America: Columbus  and plans to donate the proceeds of it to the Columbus Historic Landmarks and Preservation Commission, to help ensure that the communitys heritage will live on and its historic buildings will continue to be enjoyed by future generations.

A longtime member of the CHLPC, Ulrich got started writing about the citys history when she was put in charge of assembling the organizations 2015 calendar. Each year, the calendar showcases old photos and serves as a fundraiser for the group.

The 2015 calendar focused on longtime Columbus businesses. While doing research for it, Ulrich interviewed 13 families who had owned and operated local businesses for more than 50 years. Each family also gave her four to eight photographs to use.

It was so much fun interviewing these families, and they were tickled pink to be able to share things with us, Ulrich said.

After she had the calendar done, Ulrich decided to take a creative writing class at MATC in Portage. She took a proof copy of the calendar along with her the night the class met for the first time, and the teacher, who had written a couple of history books about communities in southwestern Wisconsin, took one look at it and told Ulrich she should write a similar book about Columbus.

That was all I needed, Ulrich said.

The teacher gave her the name of the publisher she had worked with  Arcadia Publishing, which is based out of South Carolina and prints a series of history books under the Images of America title  and some advice on how to get started.

When Ulrich got home, she went to the publishers website, filled out an 11-page application and sent off a copy of her calendar and samples of five historical photographs and captions for them.

It wasnt long and I heard back that theyd like me to do a book, Ulrich said.

With the photos from the calendar in hand, Ulrich already had a good start, but she knew shed need more in order to fill a whole book, so she put an article in the newspaper, asking people if they had old pictures theyd be willing to share. She used the photos area residents contributed, as well as ones she dug out of the CHLPCs collection in City Hall and others she found in old newspapers. She also included photos of paintings of historic sites in Columbus that were done by the late Susan Stare.

Ulrich credits Stare and her father, Fred Stare, a local historian and newspaper columnist, and Arnold Weihert, a founding member of the CHLPC and an amateur photographer, for laying the groundwork for her. All three meticulously documented Columbus history during their lifetimes and left a treasure trove of photos and records that Ulrich was able to use as source material.

I really think that without them, I could not have done this book, Ulrich said.

She also credits local photographer John Walcott and his wife Suzanne, who have been longtime friends of hers, for their efforts in restoring a lot of the images that were used in the book. Many of the photos had degraded over time and needed extensive work to make them publishable.

The book is broken up into eight chapters: A City is Born, City Hall, Firemans Park, Area Farms, Monuments and Memorials, Churches and Other Buildings, Columbus Canning Company and Businesses. Each page has just one or two photos on it, with detailed captions.

Ulrich said the chapters came together naturally, based on the photos she had available.

Local readers are sure to recognize familiar names, faces and buildings throughout the book. Among the memorable images are a photo of South Ludington Street that shows the Rudalt Theater where the Columbus Police Department stands today, a shot of the soda fountain inside Sharrows Pharmacy in the 1950s and a Photoshopped picture that meshes together five generations of the Roberts family, who have owned a local metal fabricating business since 1870.

Ulrich tried to choose pictures that were representative of the citys early years and had human interest. She thinks some of them  like one of Dr. Rolf (Chub) Poser administering a vaccination to Wayne Moldscheck at Zion Lutheran School in the 1950s, and another of Walter Bock, chairman of the Board of Public Works in 1946, standing next to a sign saying Columbus bids you welcome. You must drive carefully  will bring a smile to peoples faces. Others, like a more recent photo from 1975-76 showing four women who were refurbishing the City Hall  three of whom have passed away since then  might be be bittersweet.

Ulrich hopes the Columbus Canning Company photos, in particular, will bring back memories  or make younger generations aware  of how vibrant the city and its downtown used to be.

Columbus was a completely different town when the canning factory was operating, which was from 1900 until about 1975, Ulrich said. There was a lot of activity. The stores were open on Friday night, and everybody was uptown.

Unfortunately, Ulrichs publisher limited her to 128 pages, which meant some photos she wanted to include just didnt make the cut. Among them: a whole chapter she wanted to include on the citys historic homes. The photos wont go to waste, though. Ulrich is already planning to write a sequel next summer, which will pick up roughly where the first book left off and will have the same publisher and format.

Readers will have to wait to get their hands on the follow-up book, but the original is available now. People can buy it online on amazon or at a book release party on Thursday, June 9, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Gov. Lewis Mansion.

Local stores will also be stocking the book in the near future.
Sharon Bradish has spent a lifetime traveling and immersing herself in other cultures, but shes always come back home to Columbus, where shes taught high school Spanish classes for 39 years.

She is retiring at the end of the current school year.

Originally from Waukesha, Bradish joined the CHS staff in 1977, where she was welcomed by an inspirational group of veteran teachers. Among her role models in those early days were Rod Coughlin, Ed Zahn, Ev and Mike Dickmann, Kriss and Mike OBrien, Jim Fritchen and Emma Jean Johnson.

As a young teacher, you have a lot to learn, and they were all very nurturing, Bradish said.

The first two years she was on staff, she taught a U.S. History class in addition to Spanish because there werent enough world language students to keep her busy full-time. The department would grow over the years and today has two full-time teachers.

Bradish said she enjoyed working with students and seeing their language skills improve.

Speaking a language is very developmental, she said. You cant do it right away. You need a lot of comprehensible input, so thats what were trying to do.

To get her students comfortable speaking Spanish and to test their knowledge, she would have them do two-minute-long interpersonal interviews at the end of every unit. For the most part, the kids would dread going into the taping room where the interviews took place, but when they came out, they were almost always laughing and smiling. I think they surprise themselves, Bradish said.

For most of the kids, the highlight of her class was Spanish Day, when they would pick a theme, decorate the hall with posters and share the culture with the rest of the school. They also researched authentic recipes and served samples of the dishes they created.

Another highlight was the International Culture Fair, held in November each year. During the fair, any student who had traveled to another country could set up a booth and then other students could come and talk to them to learn more about that country. Sometimes they share food, and they have pictures. I started it in 2002, Bradish said. We just had our 14th annual.

Students today travel a lot more than they used to, Bradish said. Thats been a boon for the International Culture Fair, but its also a great benefit to the students themselves.

Travel is an eye-opening experience, Bradish said.

Over the years, she has taken eight student trips: four to Mexico and four to Spain.

Its a totally different thing from teaching, she said. Its very exciting to see kids experience the culture firsthand and to use their language.

The students have always been a joy to travel with, Bradish said. She doesnt remember ever having any discipline problems  although there was one time in Valencia in 2004 when one of the boys in her group disappeared for about 15 minutes. They were touring a church, and he had decided to go up into the bell tower, where, through no fault of his own, he got locked in. Luckily his mom was my chaperone, Bradish recalled.

During one trip to Mexico the students had a weeklong family stay and were able to attend classes at the school there in the morning. Those kinds of opportunities are the best way for students to learn about a culture, Bradish said.

Just this year, she tried to get an exchange program started with a school in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, the Costa Rican students werent able to come as hoped, but Bradish said they are still interested in pursuing the program, and she would be happy to help her successor at CHS get it started.

As for her personal milestones, Bradish said shes proud to have received National Board Certification in World Languages in 2004. Shes also thrilled to say that three of her former students have gone on to become Spanish teachers themselves.

Bradish plans to continue living in Columbus, and she hopes to use her newfound free time to travel, to get better at her French and to start tutoring for the Literacy Council again.
Items are listed under the day of the event only, running as space permits prior to the event. To submit items, call 745-3511, email jcutsforth@capitalnewspapers.com or visit www.portagedailyregister.com. Include name and phone number.

Saturday

Babysitting Basics, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Divine Savior Healthcare, 2817 New Pinery Road, Portage. Students will learn about the responsibilities of babysitting, child development, first aid and child/infant CPR. For students age 11 and older. Cost is $25. To register, call Community Health and Wellness at 608-745-6289.

The Ice Age Trail Alliance Lodi Valley Chapter hosts the Mammoth Fun Run and Hike on the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. Chose from a 6K or 8K trail run, or a 6K hike. Registration is from 8 to 8:40 a.m. in Doctors Park, 218 S. Main St., Lodi. Last shuttle to the trailhead is at 8:40 a.m. for a 9 a.m. start. Race day registration only. All distances are approximate. For more information visit www.iceagetrail.org/event/lodi-valley-chapter-mammoth-fun-run-and-hike/. Donations are appreciated for this family-oriented event. Prizes, unofficial timing, snacks and free massages. Well-behaved dogs welcomed on leash. Donate $25 or more and receive an Ice Age Trail bandana. Proceeds will be used for corridor protection, trail building and maintenance.

Guided Downtown Portage Walking Tour. The tour is free and leaves at 10 a.m. from the Portage Area Chamber of Commerce office, 104 W. Cook St., Portage.

Portage Womens Civic League hosts tours of the home of Zona Gale, 506 W. Edgewater St., Portage, each Saturday through Aug. 27. Tours will be given from 1 to 3 p.m. and the charge is $5 per person. The Zona Gale home was built by the Pulitzer Prize winning author in 1906 for her parents. The home is not handicapped accessible. This home is the clubhouse for the Civic League. For tours outside of the scheduled times, call 608-742-4625.

Portage World War II Museum, 119 E. Cook St., Portage, offers free tours to all veterans from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The tours take 2 1/2 hours. For information, call 608-697-3690.

Unique Singles Monthly Breakfast, 8:30 a.m. Dinos Restaurant, 2900 New Pinery Road, Portage. All single men and women older than age 50 welcome. The group is strictly social with no dues or officers.

Sunday

Bingo at Portage VFW, 5 to 7 p.m. VFW Hall, 215 W. Collins St., Portage. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. Hard cards are $1 and chips are available. All are welcome. Runs the first and third Sunday of each month.

32nd annual Elks Kids Fisheree, Pauquette Park, Portage. All children age 12 and younger are welcome to participate. Sign in will begin at 9:30 a.m., fishing will start at 10 a.m., and finish at noon.

Zumba Toning, 6 p.m. Rusch Elementary School, Portage. $5 drop in fee. Contact Tami at 608-346-3971 or 4dreamers@frontier.com.

Monday

Columbia County Public Health Walk-In Clinic, 8 a.m. to noon, Columbia County Division of Health, 2652 Murphy Road, Portage. Use door No. 4. Bring childs immunization record. Call the Flu Vaccination Hotline at 608-742-9735 for information about flu vaccine. Visit www.co.columbia.wi.us for more information.

Euchre card party, 6:30 p.m. Bethlehem Lutheran Church, W8267 Highway 33 East, Portage. Public welcome. Contact: Cloe, 429-2363.

Free summer meals for kids and teens, served Monday through Thursday. Free to kids and teens age 18 and younger. Meals served from 11:15 to 11:50 a.m. at Goodyear Park (by the Splash Pad), 1100 MacFarlane Road, Portage, and from 12:05 to 12:40 p.m., followed by a fun food activity from 12:30 to 1 p.m., at the Portage Public Library, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. Meals will be served through Aug. 11.

Portage Public Library Childrens Department will hold Book Buddies every Monday in June and July (except for July 4) from 9:30 to 10:15 a.m. as part of the Summer Library Program. Students going into grades 1 through 5 are encouraged to meet in the Childrens Program Room to pair up with adult and teen volunteers to practice their reading by reading aloud or silently. Volunteers will offer reading assistance and sign reading slips for participants. Juice and donuts will be provided by the Friends of the Library. For more information, please call 742-4959, ext. 211.

Portage Canal Society Inc. meeting, 6:30 p.m. Portage Public Library, Tech Room, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. Anyone wishing to be involved with the renovation of the Portage Canal is invited to attend. Contact Fred Galley at galleystudio@gmail.com or 608-742-6151.

Portage Pedalers Monday night ride, meet at 6:30 p.m. at Portage Public Library, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. Monthly rides meet at: MayPortage Public Library; Junebehind Crawford Oil, Highway 33 East and county Highway EE; July and Augustparking lot across from Hill Auto; and September at 6 p.m. at Portage Public Library. Wear a helmet and bikers under 18 must ride with a parent.

Randolph Red Cross blood drive, 11:30 to 5 p.m. First Reformed Church, 406 S High St., Randolph. Download the American Red Cross Blood Donor app, visit www.redcrossblood.org or call 800-733-2767 to make an appointment or for more information. All blood types are needed. A blood donor card or drivers license or two other forms of identification are required.

Seniors Bowling Social, 1 p.m. Tollys Alleys, East Wisconsin Street, Portage. Cost is $6 and includes three games of bowling and shoe rental.

Zumba Toning, 8:30 a.m. VFW Hall, West Collins St., Portage. $5 drop in fee. Contact Tami at 608-346-3971 or 4dreamers@frontier.com" href="mailto:4dreamers@frontier.com">4dreamers@frontier.com.

Zumba Toning, 6 p.m. Harrisville. $5 drop in fee. Contact Tami at 608-346-3971 or 4dreamers@frontier.com.

Zumba/Zumba Gold, 6:30 p.m. Pardeeville Public Library. This is a four-week session held Mondays through June 27. For information, contact Deb at djmack00001@yahoo.com.

Tuesday

Free summer meals for kids and teens, served Monday through Thursday. Free to kids and teens age 18 and younger. Meals served from 11:15 to 11:50 a.m. at Goodyear Park (by the Splash Pad), 1100 MacFarlane Road, Portage, and from 12:05 to 12:40 p.m., followed by a fun food activity from 12:30 to 1 p.m., at the Portage Public Library, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. Meals will be served through Aug. 11.

Museum at the Portage, 804 MacFarlane Road, Portage. Open from 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday through Saturday in April, May, September and October; and 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday in June, July and August. Admission is free.

Photography Interest Group, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Northwoods Inc., Highway 51 South, Portage. Meet with fellow photographers to share photos and tips, explore new ideas and inspire creativity for upcoming events. Call Fred Baewer with questions at 608-742-4691.

Portage Family Skate Park Public Meeting, 5 to 6:30 p.m. Gerstenkorn Administration Building, 305 E. Slifer St., Portage. All interested people are welcome to attend. If the Portage Schools are closed or released early the PFSP meeting will be canceled and announced on our Facebook page with a new meeting location as soon as possible.

Wednesday

Bingo, 5:30 p.m. 131 Restaurant, North Main Street, Pardeeville. Bingo will be played every Wednesday, except the first one of the month.

Columbia County Public Health Walk-In Clinic, 8 a.m. to noon, Columbia County Division of Health, 2652 Murphy Road, Portage. Use door No. 4. Bring childs immunization record. Call the Flu Vaccination Hotline at 608-742-9735 for information about flu vaccine. Visit www.co.columbia.wi.us for more information.

Concerts at the Portage, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. VFW Hall, 215 W. Collins St., Portage. Featuring Portage Middle and High School Choirs. Desserts provided by Portage Music Boosters. Bring a lawn chair or blanket to enjoy this free concert.

Free summer meals for kids and teens, served Monday through Thursday. Free to kids and teens age 18 and younger. Meals served from 11:15 to 11:50 a.m. at Goodyear Park (by the Splash Pad), 1100 MacFarlane Road, Portage, and from 12:05 to 12:40 p.m., followed by a fun food activity from 12:30 to 1 p.m., at the Portage Public Library, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. Meals will be served through Aug. 11.

Portage Pedalers Wednesday night ride, meet at 6:30 p.m. at Pat and Dougs house, W7956 Douglas Center Road (East of Briggsville on Highway 23 North via 3rd Avenue). Meeting place May through July is Pat and Dougs house; AugustJohn Muir Park; and September at 6 p.m. at Pat and Dougs house. Wear a helmet and bikers under 18 must ride with a parent.

Portage Public Library Childrens Department will begin a special four-week preschool story time session called, Olympics Camp for children up to six years old (siblings welcome), 10 to 10:45 a.m. in the Childrens Program Room, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. Each week there will be stories, songs, finger plays, simple math and science activities, and more. This week special guests will be members of the Portage High School Girls Volleyball Team sharing volleyball skills. Olympics Camp is part of the Summer Library Program and separate registration is not required. For more information, call 742-4959, ext. 211 or visit the Portage Public Library Childrens Department Facebook page.

St. Vincent de Paul free medical clinic, 9 a.m. to noon. Wilz Drugs lower level, 140 E. Cook St., Portage. No appointments needed. Information needed is name, date of birth and a contact number. A chiropractor is available from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesdays. A foot clinic is available every week. The clinic can do exams and prescribe medications. Physical therapist available. Discounted medications are available at Wilz and Wal-Mart. Call Bonny Oestreich, RN, at 608-234-0159 for information.

Photos at Tivoli  Portage Center for the Arts at Tivoli presents an exhibit featuring paintings by Dr. James Foskett, MD. Runs through June. Free and open to the public. Tivoli is located at 2805 Hunters Trail, behind Divine Savior Healthcare in Portage.

Public informational meeting on panfish and largemouth bass management for Mason Lake, Adams/Marquette Counties, 7 to 9 p.m. New Haven Town Hall, 330 Golden Court. The purpose of this meeting is to give a status update about the fisheries of Mason Lake located in Adams and Marquette Counties and elicit public opinions for making potential changes to fishing regulations for largemouth bass and panfish. Presented by Jennifer Bergman, Wisconsin DNR Fisheries Biologist.

Texas Hold em card tournament, VFW Hall, 215 W. Collins St., Portage. Register at 6 p.m. Cards begin at 6:30 p.m. Entry fee is $20. One hundred percent payout. Open to the public. For information, call the VFW Hall at 742-5350.

AMPI retired employees breakfast, 8:30 a.m. Dinos Restaurant, 2900 New Pinery Road, Portage.

Free blood pressure screenings, 1 to 5 p.m. Divine Savior Healthcare, 2817 New Pinery Road, Portage. No appointment necessary. Call 745-6405 for more information. Do not eat, smoke, drink caffeine or exercise for 30 minutes prior.

Zumba Toning, 5 p.m. Diverse Options, Montello. $5 drop in fee. Contact Tami at 608-346-3971 or 4dreamers@frontier.com.

Zumba, 5:30 p.m. 1208 Northport Road (the former Freedom Carpeting building). This is a $5 drop-in class. For more information, contact Deb at DJMACK00001@yahoo.com or Rena at 697-6713.

Thursday

Columbus Red Cross blood drive, 11:30 to 5:30 p.m. Zion Lutheran Church, 812 Western Ave., Columbus. Download the American Red Cross Blood Donor app, visit www.redcrossblood.org or call 800-733-2767 to make an appointment or for more information. All blood types are needed. A blood donor card or drivers license or two other forms of identification are required.

Endeavor Lions Club Bingo, 6:30 p.m. Endeavor-Moundville Fire Department, Endeavor.

Free summer meals for kids and teens, served Monday through Thursday. Free to kids and teens age 18 and younger. Meals served from 11:15 to 11:50 a.m. at Goodyear Park (by the Splash Pad), 1100 MacFarlane Road, Portage, and from 12:05 to 12:40 p.m., followed by a fun food activity from 12:30 to 1 p.m., at the Portage Public Library, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. Meals will be served through Aug. 11.

Open Texas Hold em, 7 p.m. Sport Club 22, Pardeeville. For information, call 566-9655.

Portage Citywide Garage Sales, runs through Saturday.

Portage Public Library Childrens Department Summer Library Program will hold a LEGO Olympics for students going into first through fifth grade only, 10 to 11:30 a.m. in the Childrens Program Room, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. Students will have fun playing a variety of games and activities using LEGOS and participate in team competitions. Separate registration for this program is not required. For more information, call 742-4959, ext. 211 or visit the Portage Public Library Childrens Department Facebook page.

Portage World War II Museum, 119 E. Cook St., Portage, offers free tours to all veterans from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The tours take 2 1/2 hours. For information, call 608-697-3690.
There are some things that can be done, right now, to slow down traffic and make the vicinity of Rusch Elementary School and Goodyear Park safer for children and other pedestrians, the city of Portages Municipal Services and Utilities Commission decided Thursday.

The four commission members present -- Chairman Doug Klapper and Aldermen Mike Charles, William Kutzke and Jeff Monfort -- voted unanimously to recommend installing, sometime this year, edge lines along DeWitt and MacFarlane streets that would narrow the driving lanes from about 20 feet wide to about 11 feet wide.

Public Works Director and City Engineer Aaron Jahncke said this work can be done, by an outside contractor, for even less than the $1,100 that he originally estimated. His estimate was based on a cost of 25 cents per linear foot of pavement marking. However, he said, city officials have received a bid for a price of 15 cents per linear foot -- making the cost of drawing new pavement lines around $750.

The motion that the commission adopted also includes recommending the creation of consistently-designed crosswalks in the area, if the city has money this year to cover the estimated cost of $2,500.

These were two of four potential approaches that Jahncke offered to the commission. All four could be implemented, or any number of the options could be utilized, in any combination, he said.

The other options Jahncke proposed include:

Providing pedestrian delineators -- short signs, placed in the driving lanes -- to provide cues for drivers that there are people walking across the street. There already are two such signs near West Franklin Street, and Jahncke proposed acquiring seven more, at a total estimated cost of $2,240. (Typically, delineators are taken down in the winter, so snow plows wont hit them.)

Installing light-emitting diode (LED) School Zone blinker signs. If the four existing sign poles were retrofitted with permanently-flashing signs, the cost would run about $7,200. But if new signs were put up, and fitted with a system to turn the blinkers on and off (operated by a key that would be issued to the school crossing guards), the cost could run to $10,000.

Kutzke suggested trying at least one option first, if the city can pay for it this year, and then waiting and seeing how much of a difference that action makes.

Marking the pavement to make the driving lanes narrower might make a difference in how drivers perceive the prevailing speed of the area, and in how they drive, Jahncke said.

For example, some drivers apparently perceive that, with driving lanes 20 feet wide, that there is a lot of room for easy maneuvering, he said.

If the lanes are narrower, he said, that would provide a cue to slow down and be more watchful. And, he added, the narrowed driving lanes would not affect on-street parking.

The crosswalks marked on the pavement also provide a cue to motorist -- in this case, an inconsistent cue, Jahncke said.

Some of the crosswalks in the area consist of a pair of parallel lines and nothing else -- what Jahncke called a standard format.

Others have no parallel lines to delineate the crosswalks boundaries, but instead consist of a series of wide-painted lines that are horizontal, from the vantage of the pedestrians crossing the street -- a continental approach.

If the same style of crosswalk is used throughout the area, it might provide a clearer indication to motorists that this is an area of frequent pedestrian traffic, Jahncke said. That consistent style could be standard, continental, a solid painted lane (most common in urban areas), a pair of dashed parallel lines, solid parallel lines with perpendicular striping (ladder) or solid parallel lines with slanted wide stripes (zebra).

What format would be best for the Rusch-Goodyear area would have to be decided later, Jahncke said, and the cost of each format would vary. For a continental crosswalk with stripes 4 feet wide, the cost would run about $7 per linear foot.

Its possible, he added, that city crews could install the crosswalks.

If the LED blinkers are installed eventually, Kutzke asked, could the Portage Community School District be asked to share their cost?

Jahncke said the signs would be the citys property, but it might be possible to ask the school district to share the cost of a keyed system.
The past year has seen the 20th Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing as well as new commitments to gender equality and empowerment from leaders around the globe. The Women of China website has summarized the top 10 significant events reflecting Chinese women's development and achievement during this amazing year.
Applications Invited for The Welsh Church Acts Fund

This article is old - Published: Saturday, Jun 4th, 2016

Applications for grants from the Welsh Church Acts Fund are being invited by Wrexham Council.

In September 2015 Wrexham Council were awarded grants of approximately 14,000.00 from The Welsh Church Acts Fund.

These grants were awarded to 31 organisations seeking assistance for the cost of equipment or specific projects such as renovation work.

The fund is used to provide financial assistance for charitable purposes to organisations operating within the Wrexham County Borough area, with aims fitting the schemes criteria.

Applications for this years awards will be considered in September 2016 and organisations wishing to have an application considered are requested to submit the completed application form by 31st July 2016.

Applicants who have received a grant in the previous two years are asked to note that a subsequent application is unlikely to succeed.

Priority for distribution will be given to Organisations supporting Social and Recreational Facilities, Places of Worship and Burial Grounds and Blind and Elderly Persons.

The maximum amount of award available will be 500.

Application forms and a list of grant criteria can be obtained from the Councils internet site at www.wrexham.gov.uk, by post from the Head of Finance, Wrexham County Borough Council, Lambpit Street Wrexham LL11 1AR or by telephone from Mr K Griffiths (01978) 292724.
Careers Event Gives Wrexham Children Insight Into Working World

This article is old - Published: Saturday, Jun 4th, 2016

Children at a Wrexham primary school had an insight into the world of work during a recent careers event.

Organised by Caia Park and Hightown Communities First, the careers event gave Year 6 children from St Giles School the opportunity to have a glimpse into the world of work through a speed meeting event.

A wide variety of employers from a range of local industries were in attendance, including the North Wales Fire and Rescue Service, Premier Inn, Kelloggs, Caia Park Health Team, Coleg Cambria, Glyndwr University and JobCentrePlus.

The children also had the chance to talk to professionals from each of the organisations represented to discover the range of careers available with the various employers.

Rachel Cupit, Learning Officer for Caia Park and Hightown Communities First, said: We always get fantastic support from local businesses at these events. The professionals always thoroughly enjoy it and are impressed by the standard of questions asked by the pupils.

It is a fantastic opportunity for the pupils to ask them questions about their jobs, what qualifications are needed to do specific jobs and then to have the university there to ask about the range of courses that are available in their field of interest.

Robin Ranson, Health Improvement Practitioner for Caia Park Health Team said We thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon with the Year 6 classes at St Giles. They were all wonderful little ladies and gentlemen, behaving so enthusiastically and politely. The children thanked us for our time, and shook our hands.

It was lovely to be asked about our career paths and what our jobs are like. We particularly liked hearing what they all wished to be when they grow up.

Cllr Michael Williams, Lead Member for Childrens Services and Education, added: Im very pleased to see that these children have been given an insight into the working world and their career options at an early age. Navigating a career ladder is likely to become even more complex as these children grow older, so its very important that they have the right guidance.

Its also very pleasing and encouraging to see the children were as interested as they were in the careers event.
Giants of Aerospace Engineering Landed in Wrexham For Summit On Industrys Future

This article is old - Published: Saturday, Jun 4th, 2016

Giants of international aerospace engineering landed at Wrexham Glyndwr University for a summit on the future of the industry in Wales.

The Welsh institution hosted the Aerospace Wales Forum, which brought together more than 60 top companies, Welsh Government officials and organisations to discuss how best to capitalise on growth in the sector, job opportunities, skills and training, and impact on the economy.

Held at the Catrin Finch Centre at the Wrexham campus, attendees included Airbus, Raytheon, Marshall Group, Tritech, DECA Sealand and Babcock International.

Dickie Davis OBE, Deputy Director for the Welsh Governments Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Sector, praised the University for hosting the inspiring programme.

This was an excellent event organised by the Aerospace Wales Forum  the speakers all enforced the huge potential of the engineering industry in terms of job potential and variety in Wales, and on the world stage, he said.

Academia has a significant role to play in underpinning the sector and getting graduates job ready, so I would like to Wrexham Glyndwr University for hosting such an inspiring event.

Apprentices from Airbus spoke of the importance of intertwining education and industry, followed by presentations by Bob Ditton, Head of Engineering at Raytheon, and Richard Day, Professor of Composites Engineering at Wrexham Glyndwr, amongst others.

John Whalley, Chief Executive of Aerospace Wales, later chaired a discussion on skills, engineering and the aerospace arena going forward.

Professor Maria Hinfelaar, Vice-Chancellor of Wrexham Glyndwr University, paid tribute to the sectors joined-up approach in Wales and said the institution has a key role to play as it looks to further strengthen its engineering offering in the years ahead.

It is an honour for us to have the cream of engineering in Wales and internationally here at the University for such important discussions, said Professor Hinfelaar.

Professor Day, who recently made headlines for his work in developing new methods that will drastically reduce the time taken to manufacture parts for aircraft, praised the work carried out at Wrexham Glyndwr University.

He agreed the University, in partnership with its further education and industry colleagues, should be up front and centre as the sector develops, not just in Wales but globally.

We have a rich tradition and reputation for engineering here at Wrexham Glyndwr, he said.

As we all look to the future together and bring through the next generation of engineers, its important we stand side by side and ensure we are at the forefront when it comes to providing them with the necessary skills to succeed on the world stage.

This event was very encouraging, and it was an honour for us to host it here on our Wrexham campus.
Queenslands state Labor government last month withdrew teachers and shut down the only school in the remote Aboriginal township of Aurukun, blaming violence by local youth, while boosting the number of police in the town from five to 21. It was the second time within weeks that the school was closed, depriving all the local students of the basic right to attend an education.

This repressive approach to the social crisis in Aurukun was backed by the federal Liberal-National government, as well as Noel Pearson, a high-profile Aboriginal figure whose organisation took over the school to operate as the Aurukun Academy in 2010.

Aurukun is in far north Queensland, on the west coast of Cape York, 811 kilometres from the nearest major town, Cairns. Home to about 1,400 people, it is one of the most economically oppressed and impoverished localities in Australia.

Like many other indigenous communities in Queensland, Aurukun was originally a paternalistic church mission. Aboriginal people were relocated from a large surrounding area, many against their will, to the mission settlement. Later it was placed under authoritarian state government control, then handed to a local Aboriginal council in 1978.

Since then, the chief beneficiaries have been a thin layer of indigenous businessmen, bureaucrats and lawyers. The economic and social conditions remained blighted and deprived of basic government funding. Aurukuns power supply is intermittent, blackouts are common and the local sawmill and butcher have long closed.

Joblessness has plagued Aurukun for decades. According to federal Department of Labour statistics, the unemployment rate in December 2015 was 57.6 percent, jumping up from 37.4 percent three months earlier.

Unemployment is nearly back to the level of 69.6 percent in 2010. That was the year in which the then state and federal Labor governments handed school control over to Pearsons right-wing, pro-business Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership, which also runs the areas government-funded employment services.

Since 2010, the community has been turned into a social laboratory for the welfare reform agenda pursued by successive federal Liberal-National and Labor governments. Families are threatened with being cut off payments if their children fail to attend the academy.

The school was halted at Year 7 two years ago. Pearson declared that offering classes to Year 10 was extended child-minding and had no value to students who did not wish to participate. The closest high school is a three-hour drive north to Weipa, a bauxite mining town. The other options are distant education courses operating out of Cairns, or far-away boarding schools.

Media reports have played up the allegations of violence against the academy principal and teachers. On May 8, the staff was evacuated after the principals car was reportedly stolen and he was confronted by a group of teenagers.

Some teachers returned after a week but were withdrawn again after further incidents on May 23 involving reported car thefts, stones being thrown on the roofs of the academy and teachers accommodation and other threats of violence.

In media interviews, Pearson backed the closure and complained that he previously asked the state government to send more police to the town. He contemptuously described Aurukun as the Afghanistan of teaching, where the buildings are dilapidated  and unfit for the teachers that live in them.

Yet, Pearson claimed that Aurukun school inspired a movement here and dozens of schools over the country to adopt the program that we have running in that school. He said the school has never been as good as it has been in these past five years.

In reality, a report by Cape York Academy, released in 2014, showed that Aurukuns student attendance rate had sunk to 58 percent, down from previous years. Aurukun and other Cape York Aboriginal Academy Schools at Hope Vale and Coen became testing grounds for a Direct Instruction (DI) program.

First developed in the United States during the 1960s for teaching disadvantaged students, DI is a strict instructional-type education that follows a step-by-step, lesson-by-lesson approach, placing intense pressure on students through constant assessment. It features repetitive teaching, a narrow curriculum and passive learning. What the teachers say and do is prescribed and scripted.

Participation in this program has been enforced by welfare reform measures, for which Pearson has been a vocal advocate. The Australian explained that Aurukun became a blueprint for quarantining welfare benefits. A Family Responsibility Commission would take control of a persons welfare payments if they were convicted in a magistrates court, breached a public housing tenancy agreement, were the subject of a child notification order or didnt send their child to school.

Pearsons program also directs youth who leave school into low-wage exploitation. The Australian reported that Pearsons scheme has put eight Aurukun young people to work fruit-picking and in a South Australian abattoir. Pearson said the program should be widened to cover the shadow group of youth who were at the centre of the recent security scare.

We just need to scale it up by 10, Pearson told the newspaper. Instead of eight, we need 80. And after six months of fruit-picking or on a harvest trail or in an abattoir  you will then have the basis for entry-level labourers to go on to work in a mine or in a fulltime job.

Pearson is an archetypal representative of a privileged Aboriginal elite, cultivated by the political and corporate establishment over the past few decades. In the name of economic empowerment, his schemes serve to prepare a layer of indigenous people to become business operators, often exploiting Aboriginal youth and workers as cheap labour.

The situation in Aurukun is an acute expression of the broader crisis facing many other remote communities, as well as other working-class areas. Youth in these areas face a lack of decent, well-paid employment, woefully inadequate health, education, housing and recreational services, and incessant police harassment. Among the results are alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence and other endemic social problems.

None of the underlying causes of the social and economic difficulties in Aurukun have been addressed in the corporate media. The truth is that the capitalist system, based on private profit, has nothing to offer most people in these communities except a lifetime of destitution and poverty.

To contact the SEP and get involved, visit our website or Facebook page.

Authorised by James Cogan, Shop 6, 212 South Terrace, Bankstown Plaza, Bankstown, NSW 2200.
The Brexit referendum takes place under conditions of a rising tide of social struggle throughout the world. All over Europe the working class is deserting the old national organisations that have subordinated it to the capitalist order promising reforms that have never been honoured. They are looking for a more radical solution to the capitalist crisis. In Greece, France and Belgium this has taken the form of open mass strikes and protests.

The support for a Brexitboth in the form of the openly right-wing Vote Leave and of the pseudo-left Left Leave campaignis directed against this social movement. It is an attempt to channel the opposition of the working class into the dead end of nationalism and the straightjacket of the capitalist state. The only way to fight the European Union, an instrument of the major banks and corporations, is an active boycott of the referendum and the unification of the European working class on the perspective of the United Socialist States of Europe.

Peter Schwarz, secretary of the International Committee of the Fourth International and a leading member of the Partei fur Soziale Gleichheit in Germany, will speak on this perspective and the historical experience of the German workers movement, which paid a terrible price for the subordination of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) to nationalism in the 1930s. The adaptation of the Stalinist KPD to the nationalism of the Nazis contributed significantly to Hitlers rise to power.

London Tuesday, June 14, 7 p.m.

Student Central, (formerly ULU)

Malet Street

WC1E 7HY (Nearest tube: Euston, Euston Square, Goodge St)
A Canadian Federal Court judge has overturned the latest in a series of National Security Certificates used by successive Liberal and Conservative governments to detain an Egyptian manwithout trial or chargefor close to 15 years on the spurious claim that he is a threat to national security.

Mahmoud Jaballah was accused of being a sympathizer of an al-Qaeda-aligned Egyptian group shortly after he arrived in Canada in 1996 and applied for refugee status. In August 2001, the government issued a National Security Certificate (NSC) against Jaballah, officially designating the father of six a threat to national security. Under NSCs, any non-Canadian citizen, whether landed immigrant, refugee claimant or visitor, can be held indefinitely without charge and without any right to see and challenge the evidence on which the government has declared them a security threat.

Jaballah was imprisoned for more than six years, including much of the time in solitary confinement. More recently, he has been subject to house arrest.

In her May 24 ruling, Federal Court Judge Dolores Hansen found that the government had presented no credible evidence to substantiate its claim that Jaballah is a threat to Canadian security.

While much of Hansens findings remain secret, in conformity with the antidemocratic legislation governing NSCs, the vetted version of her ruling that has been made public trashed the allegations that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has made against Jaballah and the government has invoked to justify detaining him for the past 15 years.

The government, wrote Hansen, had not established that there are reasonable grounds to believe [Jaballah] was or is a member of al-Jihad (AJ). Nor, she continued, have they shown there are reasonable grounds to believe he provided material support to AJ, that he distributed propaganda or other materials, or that he engaged in recruitment on behalf of AJ. Moreover, there is no evidence [he] supported the objectives of global terrorism.

Even more damning were Hansens public comments on the investigation that CSIS, the countrys premier domestic spy agency, had conducted. CSIS agents had failed to take adequate notes from their interviews and misinterpreted information provided through an interpreter. CSIS, for example, cited the fact that Jaballah had been in an Afghan refugee camp as proof he had visited Afghanistan, even though many such camps exist outside the war-torn, impoverished Central Asian country.

According to a Canadian government website, 27 people have been subjected to NSC proceedings since 1991. Since its inception, the system has been heavily criticized by civil liberties groups for breaking with fundamental democratic rights. Especially contentious is the stipulation that the government can deny those held under a security certificate from seeing and challenging the evidence against them.

In 2007 the Supreme Court of Canada declared the NSC system unconstitutional because of its use of secret evidence, but in its ruling suggested a mechanism by which the government could provide a legal fig leaf for violating basic democratic rights. This suggestion was subsequently taken up by the Harper Conservative government, which authorized special advocatesthat is, specially designated, government-vetted lawyersto advocate on behalf of those held under NSC certificates. These advocates can review the secret evidence, but are prohibited from discussing it with their clients, making it impossible to properly interrogate the states allegations.

The fate of Jaballah shows how the government, with the assistance of the courts, has repeatedly rigged the already undemocratic NSC system to perpetuate his detention. He was detained under an NSC that a court struck down, citing a lack of evidence. Soon after, the government issued a second NSC, citing new unspecified secret evidence. That second certificate was voided by the Supreme Court ruling of 2007, but the court gave the government a year to rewrite the rules for NSCs, during which time Jaballah remained under house arrest. In 2008, a third NSCthe certificate thrown out by Hansens ruling last weekwas issued against him.

The NSC system was put in place prior to 9/11, but the states authoritarian powers were vastly augmented in the wake of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Legislation rushed through parliament by the Chretien Liberal government did away with a series of longstanding, core legal norms, including the right to remain silent and the presumption of innocence. Under the Martin Liberal government, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Canadas signals intelligence agency, was authorized to spy on Canadians electronic communications. This week, it was revealed that from 2005 to 2014 CSE illegally passed information on Canadians phone calls and emails to allied intelligence agencies in the Five Eyes, due to what it has rather improbably claimed was a software glitch.

In early 2015, in the aftermath of the twin shootings of armed forces personnel the previous October, the Harper government rushed Bill C-51 into law. With the support of the Liberals, parliament voted to dramatically expand the powers of CSIS by allowing it to disrupt perceived threats and violate virtually any law to do so. Such threats were expanded far beyond terrorism to include anything that endangers public security.

C-51 also expanded the governments powers in relation to NSCs. CSIS was given the power to determine what evidence the special advocates will be allowed to see under a provision that states only relevant evidence need be tabled.

The current Trudeau Liberal government has responded to Hansens ruling striking down the NSC against Jaballah by issuing a statement saying it is reviewing her decision and refusing all further comment.

Nauseating in its hypocrisy, Canadas leading national daily, the Globe and Mail, published an editorial in response to Hansens ruling entitled No Gitmo [Guantanamo] here, please, were Canadians.

Commenting on the history of the NSC process, the Globe complacently declared, Within a few years, the fact that several men were being held under security certificates in cases more or less like Mr. Jaballahs, for indefinite time periods, without knowledge of all the evidence against them, was realized to be a scandal against Canadas values and the rule of law.

This is a flagrantly false narrative. Only in 2007 did the Supreme Court ruling compel the government to make changes to the NSC process, and these changes, as Jaballahs own fate demonstrates, had little effect on those being detained. Moreover, those held under NSCs continue to be denied, with the approval of Canadas highest court, the right to see the evidence that is being used to justify their indefinite detention.

The Globes contrasting of Canadas values and the rule of law to the US constitutional black hole of Guantanamo is meant to obscure the extent to which in Canada, as south of the border, the ruling elite is attacking civil liberties and breaking with democratic forms of rule. This includes carrying out mass surveillance, complicity in the torture and decade-long internment of the Canadian citizen, Omar Khadr, at Guantanamo Bay, and developing a Canadian form of rendition in which CSIS fingered Canadians travelling abroad to be arrested and tortured by despotic regimes in the Middle East and North Africa.

Now under Bill C-51 CSIS and other security agencies that have systematically lied to the courts can act with virtual impunity against vaguely defined security threats.

And while the Globe hails the courts as the guarantor of democratic rights, they have in fact repeatedly issued rulings upholding greater powers for the national security apparatus and the criminalization of worker struggles and popular dissent.

In a 2014 ruling in a case brought by Mohammed Harkat, another security certificate victim, the Supreme Court upheld the NSC system. It declared that the provisions denying him access to the states evidence against him were in conformity with the constitution and the legal process surrounding his prolonged imprisonment and that the subsequent draconian restrictions on his movements had been fair and reasonable.

That decision cleared the way for the government to deport Harkat to Algeria, where he faces the prospect of detention, torture and possibly death. The Supreme Court avoided defending the obvious violation of the constitution his deportation would represent by cynically declaring in its ruling that his expulsion to Algeria is not before us in the present appeal.

Harkat reportedly submitted a last-ditch appeal against his deportation to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale early last month.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by flooding that is hitting southeastern and northwestern Germany and central France, claiming between 12 and 18 lives, according to reports. It is feared that the death toll could climb higher.

With the Seine River having risen nearly 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in Paris, officials are projecting that the river will crest this weekend, which would avert broader flooding of the city. Rain is forecast to continue through to the end of next week in central France, however.

The death toll was highest in Germany, where the states of Bavaria and Rhineland-Palatinate were both hit heavily by the floods. At least nine people have died in the flooding in Germany, and several people are still missing.

About 3,500 homes in Bavaria are without power after storm surges struck numerous towns, forcing authorities to send rescue helicopters to airlift people from the roofs of their homes. In the town of Simbach am Inn, three women in a same family were found drowned together, in the basement of their house. Lower Bavaria police spokesman Michael Emmer said the death toll could still rise.

The speed and intensity of the flooding took authorities by surprise, said Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann: Within a few minutes, the water level rose several meters.

African refugees joined people from nearby towns and Austrian firefighters who came to help German authorities and with rescue and clean-up operations in flood-stricken cities in Bavaria.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, the Ahr River rose nearly 13 feet to an unprecedented level, forcing a number of helicopter rescues of campers and hikers in the area and leaving thousands without power.

The federal government is grieving for those who received help too late, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In France, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said an estimated 20,000 people have been evacuated as floods hit the centre of the country, notably the Loiret area, and the valleys of the Seine and Loire rivers.

At least three people were found dead in France, including one older man on horseback who was swept away by the floodwaters and drowned near Evry-Gregy-sur-Yerre, southeast of Paris. The town of Nemours was flooded and largely evacuated by authorities who sent kayaks and inflatable boats to rescue the citys inhabitants, while hundreds of workers tried to prevent flooding in Orleans, where several major highways have been blocked.

Flooding has overtaken several famous monuments, including Chambord Castle in the Loire valley, which is surrounded by floodwaters.

In Paris, while the Seine is still below the levels of the historic 1910 floods, when the river rose over 8 meters, flooding is already hitting basements in parts of the city and forcing museum staff to scramble to evacuate precious artwork from storage at the Louvre and Orsay museums. Both museums are currently closed until next week.

French President Francois Hollande blamed the flood on global warming. I do not want the bad weather, which is unfortunately very serious, that is affecting my country to make people think we are not affected by this phenomenon, he said When there are climate phenomena of this seriousness, we must all be conscious that we must act on a global scale.

Global warming modifies ocean currents and the jet stream in Europe, according to many scientific forecasts.

Meteorologists blamed the current heavy storms that caused the flooding on a sudden dip in the jet stream, which brings warmer air rising off the earths surface into contact with far colder air in the upper atmosphere, causing unusually fierce and protracted storms.

These have clearly overwhelmed the existing civil engineering structures and dam systems designed to protect central France from flooding.
In a speech delivered Thursday in San Diego, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton advertised herself as the most able representative of US imperialism and a career-long, consistent supporter of the American war machine.

The speech was targeted not at the California voters who go to the polls on June 7, but at the military-intelligence apparatus which will play a more prominent, backstage role in determining the next president. In the speech, Clinton sought to portray herself as the ruling classs best alternative to the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

Adopting the tone of a presumptive nominee, Clinton said that the general election is a choice between a fearful America thats less secure and less engaged in the world, and a strong, confident America that leads to keep our country safe and our economy growing. She criticized Trumps dangerously incoherent lies and said Trump was temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility.

Clinton then indicated that Trump was dangerous because he would not adequately prosecute the interests of Wall Street on an international scale.

Clinton attacked Trump for prais[ing] dictators like Vladimir Putin and explained that he does not understand that countries like Russia and China often work against us, a situation which Clinton claims hurts American workers. Trump would embolden ISIS, she said.

Asserting the principle that the US must dominate in every part of the globe, Clinton said, If America doesnt lead, we leave a vacuumand that will either cause chaos, or other countries will rush in to fill the void. Then theyll be the ones making the decisions about your lives and jobs and safetyand trust me, the choices they make will not be to our benefit.

Now Moscow and Beijing are deeply envious of our alliances around the world, because they have nothing to match them. 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.

She pointed to Trumps calls for arming Saudi Arabia with nuclear weapons and his proposal to abandon our allies in NATOthe countries that work with us to root out terrorists abroad before they strike us at home as examples of his faults.

According to Clinton, what is dangerous about Trump is that he believes he doesnt have to listen to our generals or our admirals, our ambassadors and other high officials.

In this statement, Clinton provides insight into the character of a political establishment dominated by a financial aristocracy and the military-intelligence agencies. Her speech is based on the defense of what has become a fundamental rule of American bourgeois politics: an elected official does not question the authority of the military-intelligence agencies.

In her speech, Clinton sought to appeal to popular hostility to Trumpa hostility so widespread it even outpaces her own negativity ratings. Imagine him deciding whether to send your spouses or children into battle, she said. Do we want his finger anywhere near the button?

The widespread opposition to Clinton in the Democratic primary indicates that very few in the US want her finger anywhere near the nuclear trigger, either. At one point, Clinton denounced Trump for having said he would order our military to carry out torture and the murder of civilians who are related to suspected terroristseven though those are war crimes.

Hillary Clinton is herself a war criminal who has supported every war the United States has conducted in the last 25 years. She was a strong advocate for the US wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya. In the latter case, she was the prime instigator of a war which has left tens of thousands of civilians dead. When she received news that former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi had been murdered, she laughed and said: We came, we saw, he died.

There is an element of desperation in her speech. As her poll numbers continue to slide and she faces an ongoing investigation into her use of a private email server while secretary of state, Clinton is making her case to the forces that really run the country.

Beneath her speech is a definite subtext. The US ruling class faces immense challenges in the coming period as it seeks to reorganize the world and forestall its historic decline. Behind the backs of the American people, new wars are being prepared, new confrontations with Russia and China, and new attacks on democratic rights under the guise of waging a war on terror.

Despite the fact that Trump has pledged his support for US imperialism, his erratic statements are cause enough for concern for a significant section of the ruling class. The blunt terms Clinton used to attack Trumptemperamentally unfit, for example indicate that these divisions are profound.

Then there is the problem of social opposition. Citing Trumps lack of ability to make hard choices, Clinton gave a telling example: A revolution threatens to topple a government in a key regionwhat do you do?

Clinton has answered this question in her tenure as secretary of state, a period which spanned from 2009 to 2013. When tens of millions of Egyptian workers poured into the streets in February 2011, Clinton supported Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, saying he was looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs of the Egyptian people, only to later orchestrate the maintenance of power by the Egyptian military as it killed hundreds of protestors throughout 2012 and 2013.

Clinton and the ruling class are not only concerned about revolution in foreign countries, but in the US as well. For this reason, Clinton has supported the National Security Agencys surveillance programs and supports the jailing of whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

Clintons speech, though explicitly directed against Trump, was also implicitly an attack on her competitor Bernie Sanders, who is a beneficiary of growing social opposition on account of his self-proclaimed support for socialism. Clintons speech was also aimed at convincing growing sections of the Democratic Party establishment that she remains the most reliable candidate in the primaries, and that she should not be moved aside in favor of Sanders or some other candidate.

As the ruling class prepares for an intensification of the drive to war and the attack on democratic rights, Sanders remains silent. His main criticism of Clintons foreign policy program is that she made a mistake in supporting the war in Iraq. Throughout the course of the 2016 presidential campaign, Sanders made clear his support for the war in Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, and once again in Iraq.
Asia

Hong Kong construction workers walk off

More than 100 workers at the West Kowloon high-speed rail construction site in Hong Kong downed tools and occupied the site on Monday to demand six weeks of unpaid wages. A Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions representative said the subcontractor claimed it was unable to pay wages because the project builder, Gammon-Leighton, failed to honour a payment commitment. Workers ended the strike in the afternoon after the company agreed to pay wages on Thursday.

Another mass fainting in a Cambodian garment factory

More than 100 garment workers at the Orient International Enterprise factory in Kampong Speus Samrong Tong district fainted soon after beginning work on Monday, blaming pesticides sprayed by the company on Sunday. All affected workers were rushed to hospital but were too ill to be released until late in the day. A Cambodia Youth Power Union League spokesman said although fans were on and the windows were open in the factory, the fumes were still too strong.

Fainting has become a regular occurrence in garment factories across Cambodia. During 2015, according to the Ministry of Labour, a total of 1,806 workers in 32 factories fainted in the garment and footwear sector. In February, over 30 female workers at a footwear factory in Kandal province collapsed on the job. Poor ventilation was blamed, combined with chemical residue from pesticides sprayed the previous day.

Indian bank employees protest in Tamil Nadu

Members of the Indian Bank Employees Association held a day-long protest in Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu on May 28 to demand job permanency for temporary and sanitation workers, along with the implementation of pension schemes and the filling of all job vacancies.

Workers complained that 3,000 casual workers in the banking sector, who earn just 100 to 200 rupees per day, would continue for years on low wages with no entitlements if their jobs were not made permanent. There are 3,700 vacancies in banks throughout Tamil Nadu, according to the association.

Karnataka steel factory workers on strike

Workers from the steel fabrication manufacturer JSW Structures Limited (JSSL) in Bellari, Karnataka have been on strike and holding a demonstration outside the labour department office in Ballari since April 12. They are protesting the anti-labour policies of management, supported by the Karnataka state government. Workers claimed that five JSSL employees were terminated, 15 employees were placed under suspension and 29 transferred outside the state, in violation of the companys standing orders.

The strikers demands include the reinstatement of the retrenched workers with arrears, the revocation of the transfer orders, the withdrawal of false cases lodged against workers and the convening of tripartite, government-union-employer talks on pay revision. JSSL management has refused to enter negotiations with the government and the Trade Union Centre of India.

Delhi University teachers protest over greater workloads

Scores of Delhi University teachers marched to parliament on Monday. They boycotted the correction of undergraduate exams in protest against the University Grants Commission (UGC) criteria to ascertain their academic performance. The Delhi University Teachers Association members began the protest on May 24.

Teachers said UGC amendments would lead to job cuts of 50 percent and drastically worsen the pupil-teacher ratio. The new UGC norms are based upon the academic results of students, axing teachers jobs if students do not perform well. They also increase workloads. Associate professors direct teaching workloads would rise by eight hours a week.

Pakistan: Punjab nurses strike to demand service structure

Nurses at government hospitals in Punjab province have been on strike since Monday to protest the governments delay in implementing the previously agreed service structure, including a pay scale upgrade and health risk allowance. Members of the Young Nurses Association also want the lifting of the suspension of several colleagues.

Services in Lahore are severely affected, while nurses continue their sit-in protest in the city centre and the Punjab Assembly. The government has threatened to take strict action against those who forced nurses to strike.

Punjab brick kiln union closes down strike without resolution

Leaders of the Bhatta Mazdoor Union called off a two-day strike of brick kiln workers in Toba Tek Singh on May 28 on the mere assurance from a state government official that he would summon the brick kiln owners to discuss their pay demand. The strike was part of a series of struggles by the poorly-paid kiln workers in different districts of Panjab to be paid the meagre increase in minimum pay promulgated by the government last year. The workers demanded they be paid 962 rupees ($US9.18) per 1,000 bricks they make, and that educational facilities be provided for their children, including free uniforms and stationery.

Bangladeshi jute mill workers maintain protest

Workers at privately-owned jute mills in the Khulna industrial belt held a protest march with their families on Monday, making eight immediate demands. It followed a demonstration on the Khulna-Jessore highway when workers demanded the reopening of all closed jute mills before the holy month of Ramadan.

The Private-Owned Jute, Yarn and Textile Mill Workers Federation is also calling for the immediate payment of all outstanding salaries, allocation of funds for ongoing operation of the mills and reinstatement of all retrenched workers.

A federation spokesman said the mills have accumulated tens of millions of rupees in unpaid wages. He set June 4 as the deadline for realising workers demands, and warned they would impose blockades on highways and railways for an indefinite period, beginning on June 5.

Bangladeshi unemployed nurses maintain protests

Hundreds of protesting unemployed nurses blocked the road in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka on Monday and marched to the residence of the health minister to protest changes in recruitment criteria. Nurses began street protests on March 30 after the Public Service Commission published an advertisement to appoint 3,616 senior nurses. The nurses want the positions filled on the basis of seniority and merit, as in the past.

On May 1, the Bangladesh Diploma Bekar (unemployed) Nurses Association and Bangladesh Basic Graduate Nurses Society called off a series of strikes and protests after false promises from the health minister.

Australia and the Pacific

Victorian power workers apply for strike ballot

The union covering workers at the Loy Yang A power generating plant in Victorias Latrobe Valley has lodged another application with the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to ballot members on possible industrial action over a new work agreement. The dispute over wages and conditions for nearly 600 workers has dragged on for the past ten months.

The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) unsuccessfully lodged an application for a strike ballot in March, accusing AGL Energy of not bargaining in good faith after it failed to attend six scheduled negotiation meetings. The FWC rejected the unions application on a minor technical ground.

Workers rejected the companys proposed agreement in December. The CFMEU says AGL Energy wants to reduce superannuation payments, cut long-service leave and other entitlements, remove minimum staffing levels and change restrictions on some work practices. Workers are also concerned that various cost-cutting measures will endanger work safety.

Salaries under the proposed enterprise bargaining deal have already been agreed, with AGL offering a 21.5 percent increase over four years in return for the extensive trade-offs.

New South Wales garbage collectors on strike

Around 70 garbage collection workers on the New South Wales Central Coast, north of Sydney, walked off the job for an indefinite period on Thursday in a dispute over job security. Members of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) decided to take protected industrial action after negotiations with the newly-installed council administrator ended without agreement.

The workers are employed by waste management contractors. They want clauses inserted into the councils waste service tenders that protect local jobs, existing workers and their conditions. The administrator has refused to make a commitment in writing.

French Polynesia airline strike in third week

Following failed negotiations on Sunday, Air Tahiti (domestic) workers threatened to extend for a month their strike that began on May 13 over fears of job and pay cuts due to falls in domestic travel. The unions blamed the airline for the lack in progress, while Air Tahiti has called on the government to intervene.

Airline management wants to reduce domestic flights to some regions from once a week to once a fortnight. This would cut jobs and cause major inconveniences for outlying island residents. As redundancies due to the strike are likely, more employees of related industries have joined the strike, which has affected the entire archipelago of French Polynesia. Unlike in France, there are no unemployment benefits in the countrys Pacific colony.

New Zealand community support workers to hold another strike

More than 200 Community Living Trust workers who provide caregiving services for the elderly and intellectually disabled in Waikato, a region on New Zealands North Island, announced they will strike a second time after their employer offered an improved pay increase of just 15 cents an hour. Members of the Primary Services Association and E Tu unions stopped work for two hours on May 19 after rejecting a 9 cents an hour ($3.60 a week) offer. Workers this week voted to walk off the job for two one-hour strikes on June 9 and 22.

Wellington airport catering workers win fight against youth wages

A catering company at Wellington Airport has withdrawn a proposal to introduce youth wages in a new collective contract. Workers of US contracting company Delaware North last week voted to strike after the company refused in December to negotiate a new work agreement with the E Tu trade union unless it could introduce youth rates.

The Starting-out Wage, also known as youth rates, is legal under certain criteria for workers under 19 and is 80 percent of the adult minimum wage of $15.25, or $12.20 an hour. The catering workers accused the company of wanting to take advantage of its high employee turnover rate (84 of 86 new recruits over the past two years have left) to drive down wages. Delaware said it would restart negotiations without the demand for a youth wage clause.
By every measure, the world economic and political situation is increasingly coming to resemble the 1930sa decade marked by social devastation, economic conflicts and rising geo-political tensions that led to the explosion of war in 1939.

The global economy is moving further into secular stagnation, a term first coined in reference to the Great Depression to characterise a situation where global demand persistently falls below output, leading to glutted markets and over production.

Nearly eight years after the eruption of the global financial crisis, the euro zone economy remains mired in deflation and has only this year returned to the levels of output reached in 2007. The US has experienced the slowest recovery in the post-war period, while productivity is set to fall for the first time in more than three decades.

Japan, the worlds third largest economy, remains mired in low growth and deflation, while China, the second largest, is experiencing a marked slowdown, together with vast job losses and mounting concerns over its level of debt accumulation.

One of the most striking parallels with the conditions of the 1930s is the growth of economic nationalism and the rising trade war tensions as each of the major powers seeks to shove the effects of the global stagnation onto its rivals. The beggar-thy-neighbour policies of that earlier period produced devastating consequences as international trade contracted by more than 50 percent between 1929 and 1932, after which the world divided into currency and trade blocs leading up to World War II.

The intensifying struggle for markets is bringing the return of the kinds of measures that characterised the Great Depression, as seen in the decision by the US International Trade Commission (ITC), acting at the behest of US Steel, to launch an investigation into 40 Chinese companies, with a view to imposing increased tariffs.

As Professor Simon Evenett, the head of Global Trade Alert, an organisation that monitors protectionist measures, has warned, the ITC case should set off alarm bells and is a move towards a nuclear option. His words have more than a metaphorical or rhetorical significance: rather, they point to the inseparable connection between economic nationalism and outright military conflict.

Not only are old forms of protectionism being revived, new ones are being developed. Having virtually scuttled the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks under the World Trade Organisation last year, the US is pursuing its own nationalist agenda through the formation of exclusivist trade blocs under the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIV).

The TPP, which despite its name, excludes China, the worlds second largest economy. Washingtons objectives have been spelled out by President Barack Obama who declared it is aimed at ensuring that America, not China, writes the global rules of trade for the twenty-first century.

Beyond the present administration, the rising tide of US economic nationalism is expressed in the strident America first campaign of the presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump and his pledge to make America great again.

Trumps campaign, however, is only a particularly violent and crude manifestation of deep-rooted tendencies within the entire political establishment, including the trade union bureaucracy. Notably, the statement issued by US Steel welcoming the ITC decision to investigate Chinese companies, pointed to the support for its case from our union brothers and sisters.

It would be a great mistake to think that these tendencies are confined to the United States. The turn to economic nationalism is ever-more visible in the political establishment of every major capitalist power.

In Britain, both sides of the official campaign over Brexitthe referendum of June 23 which is to decide whether the UK leaves or remains in the European Unionare advancing their positions on the basis of what is best for the countrys national interests.

On the European continent, the German political establishment demands the imposition of ever-increasing austerity measures over the whole of Europe, and vehemently opposes any stimulus measures. It fears that such actions would weaken the position of German banks and financial interests in the face of increasing competition from their international rivals, particularly the US finance houses. At the same time it insists Germany cannot confine itself to Europe, but must play an increasing role on the global arena, not least by military means.

Likewise, the Japanese government of Shinzo Abe is seeking to push down the value of the yen in order to boost its exports in a contracting world market. At the same time it has all but scrapped the so-called pacifist post-war constitution as Japan seeks to play an increased military role in world affairs.

The inseparable connection between the rise of economic nationalism and military conflict was the subject of far-reaching analysis by the revolutionary and Marxist theorist Leon Trotsky of the objective conflicts, rooted in the very structure of the capitalist mode of production, that led to the outbreak of World War I.

Pointing to the downturn in the European economy in 1913, he noted that the productive forces had run up against the limits fixed for them by capitalist property and capitalist forms of appropriation.

The market was split up, competition was brought to its intensest pitch, and henceforward capitalist countries could seek to eliminate one another from the market only by mechanical means, Trotsky wrote. It was not the war that put a stop to the development of productive forces in Europe, but rather the war itself arose from the impossibility of the productive forces to develop further in Europe under conditions of capitalist management.

Today it is not only a question of the inability of the productive forces to further develop in Europe, but globally under the regime of private ownership and private profit in the framework of the world economy riven by national-state and great power divisions.

The very phenomenon of overproduction is the expression of these contradictions. There is not overproduction of steel, industrial and agricultural productsall of which confront glutted marketsin relation to human need. All that can be produced by the worlds working class, whether in China, Japan, the US, Europe and elsewhere, could be more than productively employed in a rationally-planned socialist global economy.

Such an economy, however, can only be realised through the overthrow of the capitalist profit and nation-state system, by means of the seizure of power by the working class. This is the foundation of the program of the International Committee of the Fourth International.

This strategy is, of course, dismissed by all the pseudo-lefts and short-sighted opportunists as not practical, unrealisable and so on. But what alternative do they have to offer? Nothing but the descent into war, with potential nuclear consequences, threatening the very future of civilisation itself.

The material force for the realisation of world socialism is emerging with the rising tide of the struggles of the international working class. The crucial task is the building of the world party of socialist revolution, the International Committee of the Fourth International, to provide the necessary guidance in these struggles by imbuing the working class with the conscious understanding of the great historical task it has before it.
Last year saw the launch of the self-proclaimed Scottish Syriza, the RISE (Respect, Independence, Socialism and Environmentalism) coalition. RISE leaders intended to emulate the success of their Greek role-model, which had formed a government pledged to oppose austerity.

No sooner had RISE launched, however, than its components were forced to distance themselves from their Greek role model which, just one month earlier, had betrayed a massive anti-austerity mandate and signed up to all the brutal measures demanded by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Nevertheless, RISE aspired to return eight Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) at the next Scottish general election, calculating that they would need about 16,000 votes per region, 128,000 in total. Colin Fox, co-leader of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), RISEs main component together with the Radical Independence Campaign (RIC), said the Labour Partys existential crisis meant that the task of providing effective opposition to the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) would fall to RISE.

Things turned out differently. The group did not win a single regional list seat and polled 10,911, 0.5 percent of the vote, or less than 10 percent of their target. RISE was even outpolled by former SSP leader Tommy Sheridans crisis-ridden Solidarity Scotland, which won 14,333 list votes across Scotland. Taken together with the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), the fragmented and feuding pseudo-left groups polled 28,864 regional and constituency votes. By contrast, in 2003, a year whose results RISE were hoping to emulate, the SSP alone polled 245,735 regional and constituency votes and elected six MSPs.

Dominant in Scotland for decades, in 2003 the Scottish Labour Party held the vast majority of Westminster seats, formed a minority government in Holyrood and dominated local government. Over the intervening 14 years, in line with the collapse of Labour in Britain and social democratic parties worldwide, Scottish Labour has suffered a rout due to its pro-business and warmongering policies. The main beneficiary has been the Scottish National Party (SNP), however. Today, Labour polls less than half the vote of the SNP and has just one Westminster seat, 24 in the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, less than the Tories, and is likely to lose its remaining local authorities. Although the SNP-led Yes campaign decisively lost the 2014 referendum, SNP membership is now many times that of Labour.

The SNP won all but three of 59 Westminster seats and won the recent Scottish election, albeit with a reduced vote thanks to a low turnout in working class areas due to its imposition of cuts. In power since 2007, the party is forming a minority government, its third government in succession, in order to advance an anti-working class legislative program.

Commenting on RISEs electoral humiliation in the nationalist blog Bella Caledonia, reprinted in the Pabloite International Viewpoint, RISE organiser Jonathan Shafi, of the RIC and formerly of the International Socialist Group and the Socialist Workers Party, complained, By the time [RISE] had launched, the energy of the referendum had been incubated in the SNP.

[W]e convinced ourselves of their being political space for the far left in an election where the SNP, Labour and the Greens were all competing for the radical vote, he continued. In 1999 and 2003 when the SSP broke through, the space for the radical left was much more accessible.

Shafi offered no explanation of the pseudo-lefts decline and the SNPs rise. But the pseudo-left's central achievement has been precisely to ensure that the main beneficiaries from the collapse of the Labour Party in Scotland is the SNPa tax-cutting, neo-liberal, pro-NATO, pro-European Union (EU) party. The SSP, latterly alongside the RIC and Solidarity Scotland, have worked year after year to portray Scottish nationalism as a progressive answer to pro-business, Conservative and Labour, austerity governments in Westminster, which the SNP successfully exploited by judiciously employing a little leftist rhetoric.

RISE is led by an aspiring middle class layer of academics and commentators seeking to build their careers through the creation of a new Scottish capitalist state. To this end they have offered their services as allies of the SNP in presenting its right wing nationalist project, directed towards breaking up the working class and fragmenting the social provision on which it depends, in vaguely socialist-sounding terms.

During the 2014 referendum, the SNP worked with the RIC and SSP, using them and Solidarity to mobilise for a Yes vote in working class areas. Solidarity now calls routinely for an SNP vote, with Sheridan hoping to secure a position for himself in the party.

All three groups hoped for a quid-pro-quo after the referendum, However, the SNP membership ballooned, expanding from less than 25,000 to over 100,000 in a matter of weeks. Presented with tens of thousands of new members, the SNP concluded it had little need of its varied suitors.

An additional consideration is the political unreliability of all three groupsin particular with regard to the SNPs key aim of supporting EU membership in the June 23 Brexit referendum in line with its desire for EU membership for Scotland after any independence referendum. SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon proposed herself as one of the leading lights in the Remain camp.

RISE, however, were unable to come to a unified position, with the SSP determinedly pro-EU while others such as academic Neil Davidson and former SNP leading light Jim Sillars calling for a Leave. Solidarity also supports the Leave camp.

RISEs central election pitch was for a second Scottish independence referendum. Entitled Another Scotland is possible, their manifesto called for a new independence poll within the Lifespan of the Next Holyrood Parliament, with or without Westminsters Permission. This is not currently much use to the SNP either, which wants another independence vote only under more favourable economic and political conditions.

As a consequence, RISE and Solidarity Scotland were both unable to convince the SNP to encourage its supporters to give them their second preference vote.

Their disastrous performance raises the possibility of RISE breaking apart. While its founding meeting was attended by over 700 people, a conference in late May drew a mere 40. There are said to be sharp divisions within the SSP over continuing participation. In the SSPs Scottish Socialist Voice, party leader Colin Fox complained ruefully Our 2nd vote for a 2nd referendum message simply did not resonate with Yes voters in the way we had hoped.

The common conclusion of the RISE leadership is that their main mistake was to be overly critical of the SNP. Writing in the National, Carolyn Leckie, formerly an SSP MSP, declared, I voted RISE, but warned that it really does need to tone down some of the over-the-top rhetoric that some of its activists directed towards the SNP.

RISE official Jamie Maxwell was happy to concur, telling Bella Caledonia, Bluntly accusing the SNP of being rightwing wasnt smart. The Greens struck a more constructive tone and were rewarded for it.

For his part, Shafi called for a RISE to focus on building a new extra-parliamentary movement to build a broad movement for independence again.

Taken together, these positions amount to a call to end all but the most loyal criticism of the SNP and to work alongside it once again as nationalist apologists for austerity, dictatorship and war.
Ninety miles northwest of Chicago sits Rockford, the third largest city in Illinois. Like many former urban industrial centers spanning the upper Midwest of the United States, Rockford belongs to the American Rust Belt. After decades of robust industrial and manufacturing output, the city has seen a large decline in jobs, a decay in infrastructure and a rise in unemployment and poverty.

Officially chartered as a city in 1852, Rockford initially grew on the basis of its connection to Galena, at the time a major manufacturing center in Illinois, and the Chicago Union Railroad. According to an article entitled History of a Rust Belt City published on museumofthecity.org, Swedish furniture collectives in the 1880s marked the beginning of the ascent of Rockford as an industrial center. During the first half of the 20th century, Rockford was transformed into the second largest furniture manufacturing center in the United States. At the same time, thanks to its auspicious location in a highly productive agricultural area and its direct connection to Chicago via rail, Rockford developed a manufacturing base focusing on the production of agricultural machinery.

As the 20th century unfolded, Rockfords industry diversified from agricultural products to machine tools, heavy machinery, automotive products, fasteners, packaging and even aerospace. Its position as a major industrial hub made it attractive to immigrants looking for jobs and economic security. Rockfords mostly Scandinavian settlers were joined by Italians, Eastern Europeans and African-Americans relocating from the South as part of the Great Migration. They would later be followed by Asian, Latino and other ethnic groups.

As World War II ended and America experienced a post-war boom, the countrys infrastructure expanded. Roads and freeways etched their way throughout the country. In Rockford, these roads had a permanent impact on the layout of the city. Divided into eastern and western halves by the Rock River, which bisects it, Rockford had experienced relatively equal growth on both halves up to the 1950s. However, the construction of Interstate 90 just beyond the eastern part of the city shifted the balance and conditioned all future growth and development.

Rockfords western area has seen very little growth in the past few decades and has become racially segregated, with most of the citys African-Americans and Hispanics living there. Abandoned industrial buildings are scattered throughout both halves, but Rockfords southwestern section has seen the most neglect and now comprises the citys most impoverished neighborhoods.

The development of technology and industry led to a more auto-centered lifestyle. As a result, many industrial buildings in the center of the city fell into disuse. Some are still standing today as industrial fossils. Structures such as the 13-story Amerock building, as the History of a Rust Belt City article notes,  became impractical as the central location did not have sufficient surface parking to accommodate employees, meaning, like many companies, they relocated out of the area or to newer facilities on the edges of the city.

As in other parts of the country, especially those regions centered around manufacturing hubs such as Detroit and Chicago, the post-war boom provided a higher standard of living for workers in Rockford. But with the globalization of capitalist production in the latter part of the 20th century, the process of deindustrialization engulfed cities such as Rockford.

More recently, the 2008 housing and financial crash shattered Rockfords housing market. The Wall Street Journal in 2013 described Rockford as the underwater mortgage capital of America.

The 2008 crisis dealt a devastating blow to Rockfords working class. The official unemployment rate in 2010 reached a peak of 19 percent, and nearly 30 percent of the citys population fell below the poverty line at one point.

Today, workers in Rockford confront the many problems generated by the concentrated crisis of capitalism. The barriers to overcoming poverty among Rockford-area workers include rising health care costs, severe housing cost burdens, lack of good quality jobs, high utility costs, high transportation costs and poor public education and job training.

Presently, the poverty rate for African-Americans is 43.3 percent. Part-time workers have a poverty rate of 32.2 percent. For black men between 20 and 24, the unemployment rate is 70 percent. In the absence of stable jobs, many young men turn to drugs, alcohol and crime.

Two residents of the Luther Center housing complex in Rockford spoke to a WSWS reporting team.

A lot of people are out of work, one said. There are a lot of homeless. There arent any jobs here.

Its getting worse. Theres too much crime. We see it all the time on the news. It happens everywhere in Rockford. Not just the West Side. It happens in town as well.

The official unemployment rate dropped to a post-recession low of 6.9 percent in 2015 and has since steadily climbed back up, reaching 7.6 percent in March of 2016. There are currently nearly 12,673 people officially unemployed. As in many other parts of the country, however, the dip in the unemployment rate in Rockford is largely due to a fall in the labor force participation rate: workers are disappearing from the work force (moving away, retiring or no longer looking for work). In 2015, according to Labor Department data, Rockford was one of 20 metropolitan areas in the country where unemployment fell because the work force shrank.

According to one analysis of the last 20 years, Rockfords job growth peaked in 2000 with 165,700 people employed. There has been negative net job growth in the area since then, with 12,200 jobs lost between 2000 and 2009. By 2009, Rockford employment leveled out at 142,200, with only 11,300 jobs added since then.

Greg, a worker who grew up in Rockford, told a WSWS reporting team, I work in Madison even though I live here because there arent any jobs here. I drive 50 miles a day. Nothing is getting better.

I noticed when I was getting a little older how bad things were getting. Its poverty. When I was young, I didnt know that. Things aint the way they use to be. When you have no jobs and no opportunity, what else is there to do? You go down the wrong road.

Some kids turn out good, [but] the majority of them end up in the streets and in jail. And you have to live with those consequences and the decisions you make because of poverty.

Asked about the current presidential candidates and the never-ending wars being waged by the US across the globe, he commented, Theyre all going to do the same thing. I thought it would be good when Obama got into office. He was supposed to make positive change, but it wasn't. Your country cares nothing for you, why are you dying for it?

The WSWS team visited the Shelter Care Community Soup Kitchen in the northwest part of downtown Rockford, where it spoke to two residents, a woman who went by the name of Ms. Megan and her friend Gayle.

The truth is, down here, from the mayor on down, there is so much crime, including the police department, Gayle said. The judges, the attorneys, theyre doing the crime. The community is going to keep being the way it is.

People are living under bridges and in abandoned buildings, she added. Meanwhile, the banks are charging $7 a day for overdraft fees. By the time they take $7 a day, you aint got any income left. They stuck me with a $39 fee. Theyre robbing the disabled and poor. Its highway robbery.

Her friend, Ms. Megan, commented, I went from Chicago to Aurora, back to Chicago, and now Im here in Rockford. Theyre pushing all the homeless people out. Theyre pushing them out here, pushing them out in Milwaukee. Theyre pushing them out in Kenosha, theyre pushing them out everywhere.

Its about the whole community. Its across the nation. All communities, all nations need to be pulling together. It doesnt matter about the culture. Its about us human beings pulling together.
The assassination of Taliban Emir Mullah Akhtar Mansour, carried out Saturday, May 21 by a squadron of American military drones, was an immense provocation. One that should serve as a grave warning to the international working class and oppressed masses as to the incendiary role US imperialism is playing in world geopolitics.

The summary execution of Mansour, which was carried out by no less than four US combat drones, has predictably derailed efforts to promote a peace dialogue between the Taliban and the US puppet government in Kabul.

Even more significantly, it has exacerbated regional tensions under conditions where the USs strategic offensive against China has transformed South and Central Asia into a geopolitical tinderbox, easily comparable to the Balkan Peninsula during the years prior to the First World War.

It is especially ominous that Mansour, the political leader of the Taliban since 2014, was targeted in Pakistans southwestern Baluchistan province. The US had hitherto refrained from including Baluchistan in its AfPak drone-strike war as part of a secret understanding with the Pakistan government, whose close collaboration with the American military stretches back decades.

Mansours demise was met with noisy celebrations from the US establishment, including from US President Barack Obama, who praised the slaying as a milestone in US foreign policy.

The May 21 assassination signaled that the Obama administration is no longer worried about blowing anything up, ex-State Department official Vali Nasr told the New York Times.

As reported by the Times, the Obama administration authorized the strike against Mansour weeks in advance, giving US commanders a general mandate to surveil the Taliban leader and launch assassination strikes against him at their discretion.

It did so even as it publicly claimed to be leading a quadrilateral (US, Afghanistan, China, Pakistan) peace initiative aimed at drawing the Taliban into talks on ending its insurgency and reconstituting the Afghan government. Indeed, a meeting of quad representatives was held just days before the murder of Mansour, who reportedly favoured the Taliban taking up the offer of talks.

Like the intentional targeting by US Special Forces of the Kunduz Doctors Without Borders hospital, the strike on Mansour was launched above all to terrorize and intimidate US adversaries.

By showcasing their contempt for international law and their readiness to violate the red lines of a decades-old strategic partner, the US ruling class and its military machine are making clear that they will meet any challenge to American domination over Eurasia with unrestrained violence and mayhem.

Pressuring Pakistan to shed more blood

Aside from its function as a warning to Washingtons main global rivals, Mansours assassination represents a marked escalation in US efforts to bully Islamabad, which has already turned large parts of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) into killing fields, to do more to eliminate Taliban safe havens in Pakistan.

The May 21 assassination was intended to apprise the Pakistani elite that maintenance of the alliance with Washington that has long served as a central bulwark of its rule is dependent upon it supporting, with both blood and treasure, the expansion of the war on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

US war planners are especially adamant that Pakistan go after the Haqqani Network, a mujahedeen militia that was heavily supported by the CIA and Pakistani intelligence during the 1980s as part of the US drive to ensnare the Soviet Union in war in Afghanistan and has emerged as an ally and leading force within the Taliban. The Haqqani Network has been responsible for some of the most devastating attacks on US forces and the Afghan government, including in Kabul.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official and current-day South Asia expert for the Brookings Institution and mouthpiece for the Democratic Party military-security brain-trust, called Mansours assassination an unprecedented move to decapitate the Taliban leadership in its safe haven of Pakistan.

The strike on Mansour shows the U.S. is willing to disregard an ally [Pakistan], Bloomberg noted in a widely syndicated analysis published June 1.

Signals from both the executive branch and the Congress show that were finally getting to the point where were not going to accept the kind of discussions weve been having with the Pakistanis for the last four years, said James Cunningham, a former US ambassador to Afghanistan.

The signals referred to by Cunningham include the recent Congress decision to scuttle a deal to sell Pakistan F-16 fighters by withdrawing hundreds of millions of dollars in promised financial aid.

The brutal message intended by Mansours killing has not been lost on Pakistani leaders, who already feel increasingly cornered by Washingtons burgeoning strategic alliance with its arch-rival India. In return for India integrating itself ever-more completely into the USs anti-China Pivot, the US has lavished New Delhi with arms deals and programs to co-develop advanced weapon systems and supported it expanding its strategic influence in Afghanistan, becoming an Indian Ocean power and developing military-security ties in East Asia.

Due to popular opposition within Pakistan to the drone strikes, which have terrorized FATAs population, the Pakistan government and military have feigned opposition. However, it is well known that Pakistani authorities have given them a greenlight.

The strike on Mansour was different, however. US officials have publicly boasted that Pakistan was not informed in advance and top Pakistani officials were clearly rattled by the US decision to kill Mansour and do so in Baluchistan, where much of the Talibans political leadership is known to reside.

The day after Mansour was incinerated, Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan denounced the US drone strike that killed him as illegal, unjustified, unacceptable, against Pakistans independence and sovereignty, and completely against the UN Charter and international law. He added it had serious implications for US-Pakistan relations.

On June 1, the head of the Pakistani military, General Raheel Sharif, condemned the strike and called for an end to further US drone operations on Pakistans territory.

In remarks from Rhode Island last week, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter peddled the Obama administrations line that the strike would force Taliban leaders to embrace negotiations. By demonstrating US willingness to carry the war into previously untouched areas of Pakistan, claimed Carter, the strike would convince the Taliban that making peace with the government is their only alternative to certain defeat on the battlefield.

Carters claims notwithstanding, the result of the attack has been to both intensify Taliban opposition and further exacerbate tensions between Kabul and Islamabad.

The Taliban have launched a fresh wave of attacks and chosen as Mansours replacement a more hardline leader, Mullah Haybattulah Akhundzada. According to General Charles Cleveland, who recently retired as head of the US Armys Special Operations Command, Akhundzada is even less inclined than Mansour to participate in US-led negotiations. Clevelands comments came amid re-doubled attacks against the Kabul government. On Tuesday, Taliban fighters killed 10 civilians and kidnapped another 35 after ambushing and seizing hold of some 200 people traveling on a convoy of buses. Taliban ambushes have killed at least 50 Afghan national police officers during clashes in Helmand province this week.

Pakistans killing fields

Whenever the Pentagon has suffered significant reversals during the past 15 years of US war in Afghanistan, there has been a clamor from Washington for Pakistan to shed more Taliban blood. Invariably, these calls have been combined with suggestions from sections of the US military-security establishment that Pakistans military-intelligence apparatus is playing a double game, retaining ties to elements of the Taliban so as to ensure Islamabad has a significant say in any post-war government.

The reality is the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan have been massively dependent on logistical support from Pakistan.

Moreover, in support of the USs Afghan war, all sections of the venal Pakistani bourgeoisie, including the ostensibly left Pakistan Peoples Party, have acquiesced to the US drone strike war in FATA and endorsed Pakistani military counterinsurgency operations that have devastated larger swathes of the countrys tribal regions. In the name of fighting terrorism, the Pakistani military has combined carpet-bombing with disappearances, extra-judicial killings and colonial-style collective punishments.

More than one million tribals have been internally displaced as a result of Islamabads operations in Waziristan alone. At the USs urging, in June 2014 Pakistans military launched a new offensive in North Waziristan that began with three days of intensive bombing, then an order for the entire population to evacuate, with any who chose to remain being warned they would be considered terrorists.

Opposition to the Pakistan governments support for the US invasion of Afghanistan and to its counterinsurgency operations in the traditionally autonomous FATA led by the middle of the last decade to the emergence of an indigenous Islamacist insurgency in FATA, loosely allied with the Talibanthe Pakistan Taliban.

While Washington complains about insufficient Pakistani support for the war it initiated in Afghanistan in 2001 with the aim of establishing a strategic beachhead in Central Asia, the truth is the war has caused untold social dislocation and suffering in Pakistan.

That said, there is some truth to the US claim that Pakistans military-security establishment maintains ties to sections of the Taliban. Those ties arise out of the central role that Pakistan played at the USs behest in mobilizing Islamacist forces in the late 1970s and 1980s to wage war on the Soviet-backed government in Kabul.

With the US encouraging India to play a greater role in Afghanistan, including in training Afghan security forces, as part of its efforts to build up New Delhi as a strategic counterweight to China, Islamabad has been anxious to keep some insurance of future influence in Afghanistan.

Of course, US complaints about Pakistan playing a double-game with Islamicists are utterly hypocritical and cynical. US imperialism created the Talibans predecessors and courted the Taliban after it came to power in the late 1990s. Moreover, time and again, from Kosovo to Libya and Syria, Washington has used Islamacists as proxy forces in its regime change operations.

Explosive tensions between Kabul and Islamabad

There are already clear signs that the May 21 strike is exacerbating longstanding tensions between Kabul and Islamabadtensions that have steadily intensified in recent years.

The assassination of Mansour has precipitated new moves to militarize the Durand line, already among the most dangerous border areas worldwide. This week, Pakistan tightened its border controls in frontier areas around Torkham, as part of plans for a string of military checkpoints stretching from Aranda, Chistral to Ghulam Khan, North Waziristan, according to Pakistan Today. In response, Afghanistan announced the closure of its diplomatic station in Peshawar, Pakistan.

The Afghan and Pakistani governments are trading war rhetoric and explosive accusations, with both sides denouncing the other for supporting insurgent forces on their respective sides of the border.

Afghan President Ashram Ghani declared earlier in May that Pakistan is waging an undeclared war in his country. Pakistan, for its part, has charged that Afghan secret services have provided support to the Pakistani Taliban. This charge was corroborated in a little-noticed New York Times report that said the Afghan stratagem had for a time been supported by elements within the US military-intelligence apparatus.

The immensely dangerous tensions between Kabul and Islamabad are ultimately the responsibility of imperialism. British colonialism divided the Pashtuns, imposing the Durand line that forms the current border between Afghanistan and Pakistana border Kabul has never recognizedand fomented communalism as part of a divide and rule strategy within British India, laying the basis for the partition of the subcontinent into a Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India.

During the Cold War, US imperialism aggressively promoted Pakistani involvement in Afghan affairs, as part of its predatory machinations against the Soviet Union, and encouraged Islamabad in pursuing its reactionary conflict with India, a Soviet ally.

In the halls of power in Washington, still bloodier interventions on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border are now in planning.

In a May 20 comment for the Wall Street Journal, Take the Gloves Off Against the Taliban, former CIA head David Petraeus and Brookings Institution senior fellow Michael OHanlon called for a massive expansion of the US air war in Afghanistan.

The US, they declared, should employ its many dozens of combat aircraft at bases from Helmand and Kandahar provinces, to wage a much larger bombing campaign against Afghanistan similar to those being waged against Iraq and Syria, where US forces have dropped more than 43,000 bombs since 2014.

We continue to handcuff those deploying these jets, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles, Petraeus and OHanlon wrote.

US control over Afghanistan is a lynchpin in Washingtons broader geopolitical and war strategy, the authors argued, noting, Afghanistan is effectively the eastern bulwark in our broader Middle East fight.

Even this blunt characterization does not go far enough. In reality, beyond its significance for US operations in the Middle East, Afghanistan is, from the Pentagons standpoint, the western flank of its strategic offensive against China and a key part of the southern flank of its offensive against Russia.

The Obama administration will likely soon embrace Pentagon demands for the cancellation of plans to reduce the number of US forces from its current level of 9,800, according to unnamed US officials. President Obama remains open to recommendations from his military commanders regarding a much larger, essentially permanent US presence, a White House official told the Wall Street Journal this week.

The 9,800 figure does not include the army of private contractors, Special Forces and commando advisors embedded within Afghan national units deployed alongside regular US forces, who continue to wage and organize war across Afghanistan on a daily basis. Barely one month after Obama proclaimed the official end of the Afghanistan war in December 2014, the US Armys Seventh Infantry Division established new headquarters in the country. The opening months of 2016 have seen hundreds of infantrymen with the Armys elite 10th Mountain Division sent to Helmand Province in support of disintegrating Afghan national units.

Between April 2015 and March 2016, combat operations organized by US advisors killed nearly 2,000 insurgents and wounded 730 more. More than 5,000 Afghan local forces have been killed in the past year while involved in US-led counterinsurgency operations.

For all this, the US-backed Afghan government can be saved only through a generalized escalation of American military and covert involvement.

Expressing a view that is widely shared in US ruling circles, leading US strategist Anthony Cordesman demanded a review of US strategy and the size of the US military commitment in Afghanistan in a recent report published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Without such an overhaul of the US intervention, the Afghan government is  going to lose critical parts of the country, if not the war, Cordesman warned.
May 18 marked the seventh anniversary of the end of the Sri Lankan civil war. In memory of thousands of civilians massacred during the last phase of the military onslaught, various events were organised and thousands of relatives and family members gathered to mourn.

The Northern Province Council (NPC) organised the main event in Mullivaikal lagoon, where civilians and the entire leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were massacred. NPC Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran led the event. His speech centred on praising the Sri Lankan regime, whose top officials play key roles in carrying out the massacre, and providing a political cover for the pro-imperialist politics of the increasingly discredited Tamil nationalist parties.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader Sampanthan and other leaders like Sumanthiran and Mavai Senathirajah refrained from making any statements or participating in the Mullivaikal event.

Wigneswaran began his speech praising Sri Lanka's good governance regime, installed last year in a US-led regime change operation, for allowing the memorial event to be held. Unlike previous governments, he said, the current one, also elected by us does not prohibit Tamils to express our sadness.

The rest of his eight-minute speech promoted anti-Sinhala chauvinism and illusions that the TNA and other Tamil nationalist groupings still want an international inquiry into the war crimes. He said that this government, Sinhala people, and even some among us intend to sacrifice the war crimes inquiry for national reconciliation. Some of the governments supported the war crimes inquiry initially now ask us to forget such inquiry in exchange to federal solution. We cant accept this.

In concluding, he appealed to the imperialist powers, and the Sirisena government that war crimes inquiry must be held. Our good governance government, international governments and United Nations Human Rights Commission must give us justice, he said.

Wigneswaran's comments simply echo the propaganda of the Colombo regime and its US backers, who exploited opposition the massacres at the end of the civil war as part of their campaign to oust the previous president, Mahinda Rajapaksa. This ouster was not, however, motivated by concern for the victims of the civil war, but Washington's concern at Rajapaksa's pro-Chinese geostrategic orientation. Its goal was to turn Sri Lanka into a staging post of the US pivot to Asia and the preparations for war with China.

Once it ousted Rajapaksa and installed a US-backed regime in Colombo, Washington abandoned the issue of the war crimes committed during the civil war.

As long as Rajapaksa was in power, Washington insisted on an international inquiry. After the regime change operation, it passed a UN resolution in September 2015 calling for a local mechanism, controlled by the Sri Lankan government itself, to investigate the war crimes. Since then, nothing has been undertaken even to establish a local court.

Wigneswarans claims to oppose bargaining away a war crimes inquiry in exchange for greater local powers under the terms of a federal solution is a cynical fraud. By promoting the current regime, which is drenched in the blood of the civil war's victims, Wigneswaran and the TNA have made clear they do not intend to investigate the war crimes, but to enjoy the positions and influence they have obtained inside the regime of President Maithiripala Sirisena.

The pro-imperialist Tamil nationalists are an integral part of the government and have no interest in punishing war criminals. Their political perspective is driven by the sole purpose of working out a deal with the imperialist powers to defend the interests of a tiny Tamil bourgeoisie in the Tamil-dominated northern provinces of Sri Lanka.

Sampanthan's refusal to even issue a formal statement on the massacres underscore that the TNA is in the front lines in helping the government whitewash the war crimes. Leaders of the present government, opposition and military establishment are responsible for the carnage. Sirisena was in charge of the defence ministry during the last two weeks of the war, when most of the crimes were committed.

The TNA won last year's parliamentary elections promising an international war crimes inquiry, the withdrawal of soldiers occupying northern Sri Lanka, and the resettlement of displaced people. These promises were political frauds. None were realized, while the TNA functioned as a tool of the government in implementing its agenda, including IMF austerity measures.

The TNA has also remained silent on a series of arrests and abductions of Tamil civilians. Sampanthan cynically stated in a recent press meeting in Jaffna that he doesnt have the prison keys to release Tamil political prisoners.

The media reported the Sri Lankan government scrapped the annual victory day celebrations and military parade organised by the Rajapaksa regime, as a commitment to healing ethnic wounds.

Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi said, We are having a cultural show instead of the military victory parade that was practised in the past six years.

In fact, a military victory parade did proceed. Contrary to Hettiarachchis statement, the Ministry of Defence web site reports, The annual War Hero remembrance ceremony was held under the patronage of the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, President Maithripala Sirisena, at the War Hero Cenotaph in Sri Jayewardenepura, Kotte this evening.

The report says Prime Minister Wickramasinghe, Hettiarachchi and former military commander Sarath Fonseka, who led the war in 2009, were among the distinguished guests.

Sirisena may have avoided pompously celebrating the victory day, but none of Sri Lanka's ethnic tensions have been resolved over the last seven years. Military harassment in the Tamil provinces is reaching the levels that were seen under the previous government. During the remembrance day ceremonies in the North and East, military intelligence personnel intimidated and videotaped the participants. Military intelligence forcibly entered the office of the pro-TNA Tamil daily Uthayan and videotaped the staff.

Taylor Dibbert, a Washington-based freelance writer who recently visited the Tamil provinces wrote that the government tolerates certain criticisms, has returned some land to the civilians. He continues, However, these positive changes pale in comparison to the longstanding problems that permeate daily life in these locations: unresolved disappearances, the militarys continued occupation of civilian land, the governments refusal to release Tamil political prisoners, sexual violence, sustained militarization, widespread surveillance, livelihood issues.
A group led by South Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon is currently the most high-profile of the third parties in the campaign for the July 2 double dissolution federal election. All of them are hoping to exploit public hostility toward both the Liberal-National Coalition government and the opposition Labor Party, as well as growing distrust in the Greens.

By presenting himself as an anti-politician, Xenophon picked up almost 25 percent of the vote for the Senate in South Australia at the last federal election in 2013. This year, his recently-formed Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), is reportedly planning to run for the Senate in every state and in 18 lower house seats.

Like other such candidates, Xenophon is trying to channel the widespread social discontent being produced by massive job losses, declining wages and conditions and the slashing of social services back into the dead-end of the parliamentary system on the basis of nationalism and militarism. Above all, NXT is seeking to head off a movement of the working class against the corporate elite.

Given the disintegration of support for the two main ruling parties, NXT could hold the balance of power in the next parliamentmeaning that whichever party forms government could depend on its votes in the Senate, or even the House of Representatives. In the event of another hung parliament, with no party holding a majority in the lower house, NXT could even become a coalition partner in either a Liberal-National- or Labor-led government.

According to media polling, NXT might win three or four Senate seats in South Australia and perhaps a Senate seat in some other states. Because this is a rare double dissolution election, with all 12 senators, rather than half, to be elected in each state, each seat can be won with just 7.7 percent of the statewide vote.

Despite nearly 20 years in the South Australian parliament and the federal Senate, Xenophon still portrays himself as a critic of the political establishment. A former suburban lawyer, he was originally elected at the state level in 1997 as a single-issue candidate, opposing poker machines and online gambling. Over time, he positioned himself as a man of the so-called common sense middle, attempting to draw on the disaffection from both the Coalition and Labor, particularly in South Australia, where the closure of car plants and other basic industries and the collapse of the mining boom has produced the highest jobless rate in the country.

What is less understood is that his policies, as well as being unashamedly parochial, are virulently nationalist and militarist. Xenophon has been one of the most zealous advocates of assembling Australias planned new fleet of 12 submarines in the South Australian capital of Adelaide, not just because the $50 billion project would supposedly generate local employment, but also to assist the US to confront China.

Last October, Xenophon wrote a column in the Adelaide Advertiser, the citys Murdoch tabloid, insisting that any reduction in the proposed number of subs would compromise our national security in an increasingly volatile region. He declared the need to prepare for war, saying:

In wartime, simply sending subs to sea causes chaos for our enemies. Not knowing where our subs are means our enemies have to assume theyre everywhere, stretching and weakening the enemys forces. Submarines can secretly insert Special Forces troops and take them out again, covertly lay sea mines in and around enemy ports, and launch surprise attacks.

Xenophon provided a list of incidents in our region that had the potential to ignite conflict. It included a North Korean submarine sank a South Korean navy ship; Japan and China are facing off over disputed islands; China declared an Air Defence Identification Zone over the East China Sea; and China has had a naval stand-off with Vietnam over oil drilling rights.

Then Xenophon turned to the ongoing tension between China and the US over Chinese man-made islands in the South China Sea. He emphasised that the US government had asked Australia to assist the US navy with patrols in the South China Seathat is, to join the provocations against China by staging supposed freedom of navigation incursions into Chinese-claimed territorial waters. This would be a big step and makes one thing clear: we have to be able to deploy with our allies far from Australia. To do that, we cant have a part-time submarine force.

Earlier this year, Xenophon joined the clamour against the leasing of Darwins civilian port to a Chinese company, echoing objections by US President Barack Obama. I cant believe Defence, and even ASIO [the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation], waved this through, Xenophon told journalists.

Xenophon has tried to whip up anti-Chinese sentiment over the sale of Australian land to Chinese companies. In February, he described Treasurer Scott Morrisons decision to approve the sale of Van Diemens Land dairy in Tasmania to a Chinese company as wrong, wrong, wrong. In April, Xenophon declared that the proposed sale of Australias biggest cattle station to a Chinese firm was an election battle line. He said his potential support for one of the major parties to form the next government could absolutely be contingent on blocking the deal. Morrison subsequently banned the sale under foreign investment laws.

Xenophon opposed last years Australia-China Free Trade Agreement, aligning with the nationalist and chauvinist objections raised by the trade union movement. He also criticised Australias illegal bugging of East Timors government during negotiations over the lucrative Timor Sea oil and gas fields, warning that Canberras attitude toward East Timor could push the tiny country into the arms of China. In recent years, China has built East Timors presidential palace, its foreign ministry buildings and its army barracks, Xenophon wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald last August.

This East Timor concern also illustrates the national-based business constituency on which Xenophon rests. NXTs main corporate backer is wealthy spectacles retailer Ian Melrose, who donated $175,000 to help launch Xenophons party in December 2014. Melrose, who sponsored advertisements opposing Australias bullying of East Timor, also ran ads condemning a Defence Department decision to award his competitor, multinational Specsavers, a $33.5 million contract.

In the past, Xenophon condemned corporate political donations, declaring that a political party would be owned by a donor that contributed more than $100,000 to a campaign. When the Melrose donation came to public attention last month, Xenophon changed his tune, saying he had been too clever by half to oppose such donations.

Likewise, reflecting definite business interests, Xenophon previously called for the cutting of penalty wage rates for working on Sundays, saying they were killing small business. He supports the Coalition governments promised corporate tax cuts, at least for companies turning over up to $10 million a year, and opposes any reduction in negative gearing tax subsidies for landlords.

Behind Xenophons sometimes progressive social facadehe claims to oppose cuts to education, foreign aid and pensionsNXT backs measures that overturn basic legal and democratic rights. It supports the bipartisan offshore processing regime that incarcerates refugees on remote islands and calls for the government to lock away terrorists and extremists.

Xenophon dresses up his nationalist program with references to defending Australian jobs, but this only serves to tie workers to the profit requirements of national employers, and pit them against their fellow workers in China, across the Asia Pacific and internationally. In response to the imminent closure of the General Motors car plant in Adelaide and the destruction of hundreds more jobs from the Arrium steelworks and iron ore mine near Whyalla, west of Adelaide, Xenophon calls for government and military procurement programs to favour national-based companies and for stronger anti-dumping laws to block imports, especially from China.

In its election statement, the Socialist Equality Party urges workers and youth not to be fooled by formations like NXT. Instead, they should draw conclusions from the role already played by outfits such as Pauline Hansons One Nation and mining magnate Clive Palmers Palmer United Party. Far from opposing the agenda of austerity and war, they serve as agents of the corporate elite, no less than the major parties. They all promote nationalism, defend Australian capitalism and act to protect it against its international rivals and against the working class at home. That is precisely the aim of Xenophons NXT.



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The WSWS is the online publication of the world Trotskyist movement, the International Committee of the Fourth International, and its affiliated sections in the Socialist Equality Parties around the world. It launched publication in February 1998, and has been publishing continuously for the past 23 years.

The WSWS aims to meet the need, felt widely today, for an intelligent appraisal of the problems of contemporary society. It addresses itself to the masses of people who are dissatisfied with the present state of social life, as well as its cynical and reactionary treatment by the establishment media.

Our website provides a source of political perspective to those troubled by the monstrous level of social inequality, which has produced an ever-widening chasm between the wealthy few and the mass of the worlds people. As great events, from financial crises to eruptions of militarism and war, break up the present state of class relations, the WSWS will provide a political orientation for the growing ranks of working people thrown into struggle.

We anticipate enormous battles in every country against unemployment, low wages, austerity policies and violations of democratic rights. The World Socialist Web Site insists, however, that the success of these struggles is inseparable from the growth in the influence of a socialist political movement guided by a Marxist world outlook.

The standpoint of this website is one of revolutionary opposition to the capitalist market system. Its aim is the establishment of world socialism. It maintains that the vehicle for this transformation is the international working class, and that in the 21st century the fate of working people, and ultimately mankind as a whole, depends upon the success of the socialist revolution.

The partisanship of the World Socialist Web Site by no means excludes objectivity or honest debate. We welcome a broad exchange of viewpoints with workers, students and intellectuals who are seeking an alternative to bourgeois politics and capitalist economics. Polemics and debate, the dialectical means by which knowledge and truth are established, are an integral component of the WSWS. Only intellectual integrity and commitment to historical truth are required of those who wish to contribute to the site.

During the course of its more than 20 years of publication, the WSWS has been the authoritative voice of international revolutionary socialism. It has served as the indispensable political and intellectual guide for workers, students and youth all over the world who are seeking to make sense of events in a time of great crisis and human suffering, and to find a genuinely progressiveand, therefore, revolutionaryalternative to a dysfunctional capitalist world that is collapsing into barbarism.
The World Socialist Web Site is published by the International Committee of the Fourth International, the World Party of Socialist Revolution founded by Leon Trotsky. Its aim is to unite the international working class, on the basis of a socialist and internationalist program, to put an end to the capitalist system and establish socialism on a world scale.

The International Committee of the Fourth International is the sole representative of the historical continuity of the struggle waged by Trotsky, dating back to 1923, to defend the principles, program and heritage of the 1917 October Revolution.

The Fourth International was founded in 1938 in response to catastrophic defeats of the working class caused by the crimes and betrayals of the Stalinist and social democratic parties and organizations. In the founding document of the Fourth International, Trotsky declared that the crisis of mankind is the crisis of revolutionary leadership. The International Committee was founded 15 years later, in November 1953, to defend the Fourth International against an opportunist and revisionist current, known as Pabloism, that sought to liquidate the Fourth International into the parties and organizations controlled by Stalinism, social democracy and bourgeois nationalism. The struggle against Pabloism within the Fourth International spanned more than three decades. It was brought to a conclusion in 1986 with the defeat of the opportunists by the orthodox Trotskyists of the International Committee.

Still, the resolution of the crisis of revolutionary leadership remains the central task that must be overcome by the International Committee of the Fourth International through the building of sections of the world party in every region and country.

The documents, lectures, political reports, essays, statements and videos posted below will introduce readers to this history, program, present-day policies and activities of the International Committee.
Art dealer adorns home with vast collection

VietNamNet Bridge  An art collector set out to bring back hundreds of early- to mid-20th century paintings by Vietnamese artists. To do so, he has spent years travelling the world and attended prestigious auctions. Van Dat reports.





All that glitters: Le Phos Cho hoa (Flower Market) in a gold-plated frame, which Nguyen Minh bought from the Walley Findlay Galleries in New York, at an auction held by Leslie Hindman Auctioneers in 2014. Photos: Van Dat

Some would say the three-storey house of Hanoian Nguyen Minh is a mess  every wall, including those in the bathrooms, bedrooms and kitchen, are covered with artworks.

However, these arent your ordinary artworks.

The collection, amassed over many years for a rather large sum, bought from individuals and at auctions, includes works by renowned artists and other former students at the former Indochina College of Fine Arts.

At the house on Phan Dinh Phung Street in Ha Noi, more than 200 rare paintings line the walls.

Le Pho, Vu Cao Dam, Mai Trung Thu, Bui Xuan Phai, Nguyen Cao Thuong, Pham Hau are among the artists whose works were heavily influenced by French impressionism and other styles at the time.

Many of the Vietnamese students were from wealthy families and had the spare time to study and pursue a career devoted to art.

Minh, 62, has spent more years buying the works, mostly at international art auctions.

Not having enough space, he built a warehouse attic of sorts near his ceiling, a separate space where many of the paintings are stored.

Only close friends and distinguished guests are invited to see the works.

Minh so loved the paintings that he mounted them in gold-plated frames.

During a recent meeting in Ha Noi with his friend Tira Vanichtheeranont, a Thai collector, who has bought hundreds of Vietnamese paintings, Minh spoke excitedly about the artworks that he has purchased, including 60 pieces from Tira. Both share the same love of collecting, but for different reasons.

Minh is mostly motivated by his desire to bring back to Viet Nam the works of his fellow citizens. Tira just loves art, and especially, Vietnamese art.

Asked why he did invest money to buy art instead of luxury cars and houses, Minh said he was uncomfortable when he saw a Vietnamese painting at auctions in other countries.

I felt strange emotions in my heart at the time. I was determined to buy them to bring them back to the place they were created, said Minh. I could only see them through magazine and books.

I often visited Hong Kong and Singapore to buy antiques. In April 2013, while at an auction at Sothebys in Hong Kong, I saw the Vietnamese paintings Cho ben bo bien by Nguyen Tuong Lan, Co gai ben binh hoa lay on by Le Pho and Hai chi em by Vu Cao Dam, he added.

Some of the prices were too steep, and Minh had to walk away, disconsolate that he could not buy the pieces.

I decided to terminate my plan to buy another house, and use my money to collect paintings. When I cannot buy a favourite painting, I have sleepless nights, he said.

Minh was born to a family that has long traded and collected antiques.

He continued in that career and then began buying dozens of rare paintings from well-known Vietnamese art collector Bui Dinh Than.

Tira, the Thai art collector, said in 2008 during a meeting in Bangkok that Minh showed him 200 paintings by painters Mai Van Nam, Phan Thong and other artists.

After persuading Minh to sell some of the paintings, Tira began collecting Vietnamese paintings for his gallery in Thailand.

Covered: Minh stands beside Le Phos Diem Tam (Dessert), which he bought in May last year at Freemans Auction in the US. Information exchange: Art collectors Nguyen Minh and Tira Vanichtheeranont meet in Ha Noi at Minhs house, lined with valuable artwork by Vietnamese painters, many of whom studied at the Indochina School of Fine Arts.

In 2012, the Thai collector used his relationship to help Minh bring back to Viet Nam two valuable paintings that had been bought in Thailand.

He also helped Minh to buy the painting Den cua Han, luoi cua Hoi by Nguyen Van Ty and Den Ngoc Son by Dinh Minh from private collector Peter Paris, who had bought them while working as a trade counselor at the Embassy of Italy in Ha Noi.

After retiring in Bangkok, Pariss wife Nilkamhaeng Passama decided to sell their art collection.

Upon hearing the news, Tira bought the paintings and then helped Minh bring two of them back to Viet Nam.

With Minhs effort, artworks by Le Pho, Vu Cao Dam, Mai Trung Thu and Le Thi Luu representing the Vietnamese spirit have returned to their rightful place after a half century of being kept in other countries.

Where will the paintings go after Minh dies?

Minh said he would sell his paintings to respected Vietnamese collectors because his son has little interest in carrying on the family business.

I will try to prevent the paintings from being sold to people in foreign countries again, he said.

Thai collector Tira, who still owns many Vietnamese paintings, said he hoped Minh would buy his Vietnamese art collection after he passes away, as his children are also not interested in antique or art collection.

VNS
BAINBRIDGE, Ga. (WTXL)--A former investigator with the Decatur County is now out of jail on bond after being arrested for obstructing an ongoing investigation.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation charged 56-year-old Robert Humphrey with one count of violation of oath by a public officer and misdemeanor obstruction. Agents say he turned himself in on Thursday.

On May 3, the South Georgia Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office requested the GBI Thomasville Office to investigate Humphrey on allegations he obstructed an investigation.

Humphrey has been released from the Decatur County Jail on a $3,500 bond.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.  Governor Rick Scott is urging Floridians to prepare for heavy rain and flooding as the National Weather Service monitors a developing tropical system.

Forecasters say the system could impact Florida's gulf coast as early as Monday morning. Scott made an announcement saying, "while first responders and national guard stand ready to respond to any need, it is crucial that Floridians use every resource to make sure their homes and families are immediately and thoroughly prepared."

Potential impacts include:
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The Yakima Valley is an agricultural powerhouse that adds billions of dollars of value to this states economy. The Washington apple stands with Boeing airplanes, Microsoft products and Amazon.com innovation as a world-recognized icon that exemplifies this states business achievement, and products such as Yakima Valley wine, hops, cherries and many others consistently win worldwide acclaim. The increasingly important export trade through Western Washington ports inextricably connects Central Washington with business interests west of the Cascade Mountains and helps part the so-called Cascade Curtain.

A drawback to the Valleys agriculture reliance historically has been an economy with an outsized share of low-wage, part-time and seasonal jobs that lead to high rates of unemployment, underemployment and poverty. In recent decades, workers with deep connections to Mexico have filled the bulk of these jobs, bringing language and cultural differences to the forefront. These conditions result in a population with many challenges, especially in education outcomes, public health, public safety, civic engagement and homelessness.
GRANDVIEW, Wash. -- A two-year-old mare in Grandview is the first horse in the state to fall ill from West Nile virus this summer, the state D
MOSIER, Ore.  The fire had been out for hours, but a sheen of oil could be seen in the confluence of a creek and the Columbia River on Saturd
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Letters reflect the opinion of the writer. The Yakima Herald-Republic cannot verify the accuracy of all statements made in letters.

Writers are limited to one published letter per calendar month.
BEIRUT- The Syrian army backed by Russian air strikes has opened a major new front against ISIS, the third big assault on the self-proclaimed caliphate this week after Iraqi forces attempted to storm a city and a Syrian militia advanced with US support.

The week's three big offensives are some of the most aggressive campaigns against ISIS since it declared its aim to rule over all Muslims from parts of Iraq and Syria two years ago. They signal apparent new resolve by the group's disparate foes on a range of fronts.

Heavy Russian air strikes hit ISIS-held territory in eastern areas of Syria's Hama province, near the boundary of Raqqa province on Friday. Raqqa city, further east, is ISIS's de facto capital in Syria and, along with Mosul in Iraq, the ultimate goal of those seeking to destroy the group's self-declared caliphate.
A stolen vehicle and a truck managed to break through a Border Police checkpoint and enter the West Bank on Saturday morning.

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The vehicle arrived at the Mizmoriya checkpoint near Jerusalem's Har Homa neighborhood, where it was identified as stolen by the Border Police officer in command of the checkpoint.

The commander ordered the car to stop for inspection, but it kept driving, resulting in the officer firing warning shots into the air.

IDF soldiers inspecting Palestinian vehicles at a Ramallah checkpoint (Photo: AFP/File)

A civilian security guard at the checkpoint noticed a truck following the vehicle and veering from the road. He opened fire at the truck's wheels, failing to stop it.

The checkpoint commander was moderately injured in his back, apparently from ricochets from the security guard's fire, and taken to hospital for treatment.

The Border Police is investigating the incident, which is believed to be criminal in nature, and has been searching the area for the two vehicles. It is also unclear whether there was any connection between the truck and the stolen car.
The international conference held in Paris on Friday seeking to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has concluded with a call from Saudi Arabia to adopt the 2002 Arab peace initiative, which would lead to normalization of ties between Israel and Arab states.

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"The Arab initiative from 2002 is the best proposal for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," said Adel al-Jubeir, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, which is considered one of the more pragmatic Arab nations.

The Arab peace initiative, also known as the "Saudi initiative," called on Israel in 2002 to withdraw from the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It also called for an independent Palestinian state to be established with East Jerusalem as its capital and for a "just solution for the refugee issue." In return, all Arab states will normalize their relations with Israel and declare the end of their conflict with it.

Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir (Photo: Reuters)

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Arab initiative was an option Israel was willing to consider, but only if changes are made to it.

"We're willing to negotiate with Arab states on the updating of the initiative so it reflects the dramatic changes that happened in our region since 2002, while still maintaining the agreed goal of two states for two peoples," Netanyahu said.

Al-Jubeir said that changes could be made to the initiative and called on Israel to declare it accepts the initiative, adding that "I hope wisdom prevails in Israel."

"The Arab peace initiative has all the elements for a final settlement. It is on the table and a solid basis for resolving this long-standing dispute. It provides Israel with a lot of incentives and it's incumbent on the Israelis to accept that," he added.

The Paris conference was attended by diplomats from all over the world, include foreign ministers from the European Union, US Secretary of State John Kerry, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and representatives from Arab nations.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the objective was to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table by the end of 2016.

French President Hollande, right, arriving to the conference accompanied by French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault (Photo: Reuters)

"The two-state solution is in serious danger. We are reaching a point of no return where this solution will not be possible," Ayrault told reporters following the conference.

Ayrault said the powers wanted work to begin by the end of June on a set of economic incentives and security guarantees to encourage the two sides to resurrect peace talks.

A final communique released after the conference said all countries present had reaffirmed the need for a negotiated two-state solution and that direct negotiations between the two sides should be based on existing UN Security Council resolutions.

It warned that the status quo - a lack of headway toward a Palestinian state - was not sustainable.

The French foreign minister called Abbas on Friday evening to give him an update on the conference. Ayrault, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, told Abbas that the French envoy to the peace process will arrive in the region soon to promote the French initiative.

According to the Wafa report, Abbas told Ayrault that the Palestinian leadership is committed to the two-state solution and was willing to cooperate with the international community on the issue.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki claimed that "some countries interfered to ensure the Paris conference's final communique will not include clear positions on the peace process, not even a timetable."

He also criticized the fact the final communique did not include any mention of Israeli construction in the settlements, which he said threatened the two-state solution.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said the parties had discussed the possibility of convening an international conference by the end of this year, but that direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians would be the only way to achieve a solution.

US Secretary of State John Kerry arriving to the Paris conference (Photo: Reuters)

"What today emphasized is we need to find some immediate kinds of steps on the ground that will make a difference," Kerry told reporters. "We need to work with the parties. Everybody agreed today that you can't impose a solution from outside."

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said it was the duty of international and regional players to find a breakthrough since the two sides appeared incapable of doing so alone.

"The policy of settlement expansion and demolitions, violence, and incitement tells us very clearly that the perspective that (the 1993 Oslo Accords) opened up is seriously at risk of fading away," Mogherini told reporters.

She said the Middle East Quartet of the EU, Russia, United States and United Nations was finalizing recommendations on what should be done for the two sides to negotiate in good faith.

Israel, which opposed the French initiative from its conception, called the conference a "missed opportunity," arguing that instead of urging Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to immediately start direct negotiations with no preconditions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the international community has "given into Abbas's demands and is enabling him to avoid bilateral direct negotiations."

Diplomats from all over the world convene for the Paris conference (Photo: MCT)

"The pages of history will mark this Paris conference as a conference which enables the Palestinians to toughen their position and push peace further away," Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, meanwhile, said that "the Paris Meeting is a very significant step and its message is clear: If Israel is allowed to continue its colonization and Apartheid policies in Occupied Palestine, the future will be for more extremism and bloodshed rather than for coexistence and peace."

"What is required," he went on to say, "is a genuine mechanism to fully end the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 and to solve all final status issues based on international law; including a clear and limited timeframe for its implementation."

"We negotiated bilaterally with Israel, the occupying power, for over two decades, but they continue to violate all the agreements that we had signed. In fact the number of illegal Israeli settlers in Occupied Palestine has grown from nearly 200,000 to over 600,000 during the past 20 years of bilateral talks," Erekat added.

French president Francois Hollande, who opened the conference, said regional changes should be taken into the account when discussing the conditions for an Israeli-Palestinian resolution.

"The threats and priorities have changed. The changes make it even more urgent to find a solution to the conflict, and this regional upheaval creates new obligations for peace. We must prove it to the international community," he said.
Newly-appointed Defense Minister Avidgor Lieberman has issued an order easing some restrictions imposed on the Palestinians ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, which begins on Monday.

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The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Unit (COGAT) said Friday that the easing of restrictions was approved based on the recommendation of IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot.

The measures include allowing Palestinian residents of the West Bank to visit their families in Israel during the month-long holiday, while those who wish to visit family in the Gaza Strip could do so if they're first-degree relatives.

Muslim worshipers pray on the Temple Mount at the end of Ramadan (Photo: Reuters)

In addition, Israel will allow Muslim worshipers from the West Bank to enter the al-Aqsa mosque complex on the Temple Mount to pray on Fridays and during Laylat al-Qadr (the night when the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the prophet Muhammad, according to Islamic belief).

Residents of the Gaza Strip could also visit family in Israel and in the West Bank during Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr (the holiday marking the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan), so long as they're first-degree relatives.

Gazans will also be able to enter the al-Aqsa mosque compound and pray there on Fridays, during Laylat al-Qadr and during Eid al-Fitr.

To facilitate those measures, Israel will extend hours of operations at the border crossings.

COGAT dubbed the moves "gestures of goodwill," saying they're done to promote the freedom of religion and worship. These are gestures Israel makes every year for Ramadan.
Two recent political developments in Turkey could mark the successful end of Ankara's reconciliation talks with Israel.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently decided to remove the head of Turkish intelligence, Hakan Fidan, from his post, and make him Anakara's ambassador to Japan instead. At the same time, the Turkish president also decided that Turkey's Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Feridun Hadi Sinirlioglu, would be be appointed Ankara's ambassador to the UN.

Israel and Turkey have been holding talks on normalizing ties after a 2010 IDF raid on the Mavi Marmara, part of a flotilla trying to break the blockade on Gaza, left 10 Turkish citizens dead.

Turkish President Erdogan (Photo: AP)

For Israel, Fidan's removal from Turkish intelligence agency MiT after six years is a positive development, while the removal of Sinirlioglu, the chief negotiator for reconciliation talks with Israel, from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a negative one.

Fidan, a shadow figure, is Erdogan's close confidant. Israeli officials view him as an "agent" working on behalf of Iran and quite a few of them considered him the main obstacle to normalizing ties with Turkey.

In June 2013, it was reported that Fidan met with his counterpart, then-Mossad head Tamir Pardo, in Ankara to discuss the threats posed by Iran and ISIS. In October 2013, meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that Fidan passed on information to the Iranians about an Israeli spy network operating inside the Islamic Republic.

Hakan Fidan (Photo: AFP)

Diplomatic officials who are involved with the Israel-Turkey reconciliation talks said that Fidan's removal from the key post is a positive sign that could indicate Erdogan's desire to normalize ties with Israel.

Turkish media reported that Erdogan is planning on replacing Fidan with former colonel Mustafa Levent Goktas, a surprising appointment as Goktas spent five years in prison following a wave of arrests of senior Turkish military officers, led by Erdogan himself.

Goktas took part in the 1999 operation to capture Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan and has recently said in a TV interview that if he is made the head of Turkish intelligence, he will eliminate the Kurdish and ISIS columns in the country within a year.

The removal of Turkey's token moderate, Feridun Hadi Sinirlioglu, from the Foreign Ministry is just as surprising. Sinirlioglu is the most senior Turkish diplomat, who served in the past as an ambassador to Israel, which made him a natural choice to lead reconciliation talks with Jerusalem. Sinirlioglu also recently served as acting-foreign minister during the recent cabinet shuffle in Turkey.

Some commentators noted that the decision to send Sinirlioglu to the UN could mark the end of reconciliation talks between Turkey and Israel. These negotiations were Sinirlioglu's "baby" and it is likely that Erdogan, who recently expressed his desire to normalize ties with Israel on several occasions , would not remove the man who led the talks with Jerusalem from his post without being certain these negotiations have been completed.

The two's removal from their posts could also have to do with the fact they were seen as affiliated with former Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who had to resign after clashing with Erdogan.
A Jerusalem court has ruled that a former Australian school principal accused of more than 70 counts of sexual assault was mentally unfit to face extradition and could be freed from house arrest, officials said on Friday.

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For nearly three years, Australia has been pushing Israel to extradite Malka Leifer, who fled Australia in 2008, with what Australian authorities believe was the assistance of the insular Adass Jewish community, after accusations against her surfaced.

Leifer, who has Israeli citizenship, is the former principal of the Adass Israel School, an ultra-orthodox Jewish girls' school in Melbourne. She is wanted by police in the surrounding Australian state of Victoria on charges of indecent assault and rape involving girls at the school.

Malka Leifer

Thursday's court decision angered former students who say they were abused by her and could raise diplomatic tensions between Australia and Israel.

Copies of the court ruling were not immediately available and spokespeople from the Ministry of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Australia's ambassador to Israel said he would pursue efforts to have Leifer extradited to face justice.

"We retain a strong interest in seeing Ms. Leifer extradited. She is wanted to face prosecution in Australia for criminal conduct relating to 74 separate sexual assault offenses," Dave Sharma told Reuters.

"We are working closely with Israeli authorities regarding the next steps in the extradition proceedings. And we will remain patient and determined in pursuing justice in this case."

Leifer's lawyer in Israel, Yehuda Fried, said the court in Jerusalem had 72 hours to decide whether she would be released from house arrest.

"My client is a very sick woman," he told Reuters, adding that she had been examined under court order at a public hospital and that a commission headed by the chief district psychiatrist determined she was unfit to stand trial.

"According to Israeli law, in this situation she cannot be prosecuted, and therefore her extradition proceedings were halted," he said.

Since 2013, an Australian commission on tackling child sexual abuse has shed light on offenses and cover-ups, including within ultra-orthodox Jewish communities in Sydney and Melbourne, triggering the resignations of some senior figures.
A 25-year-old Tel Aviv resident who was leaving his home late Saturday afternoon was stabbed in his upper body. Magen David Adom paramedics have provided first aid at the scene, and the injured man has been taken to Ichilov Medical Center.

Police are searching for the attacker; the motive for the attack appears to be criminal.
Egypt opened the Rafah crossing for three days this week and announced that it will remain open on Sunday, as well. Egypt has opened the crossing only a handful of times since the overthrow of former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, leaving many Gazans unable to travel outside the small coastal enclave.

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Rafah crossing (Photo: Reuters)

According to the Ma'an News Agency, 499 travelers crossed the Rafah Crossing on Thursday, 1,136 travelers crossed on Friday and 900 crossed on Saturday. The travelers included humanitarian cases, stranded travelers, students studying abroad and others.

Hamas authorities canceled the border crossing workers' vacations to provide the best possible service to travelers. Approximately 30,000 people would like to cross out of Gaza into Egypt, according to Safa News Agency.

Egyptian authorities also allowed the passage of cement and other building materials into Rafah.

Director of Operations at the Rafah Crossing Hisham Adwan revealed that there are efforts to extend the opening of the crossing for additional days. Howver, Safa News Agency reported that no agreement has yet to have been reached.
The Breaking Point

Minister of Education Naftali Bennett and his buddies at Bayit Yehudi have no idea how close they were from being ousted from the government. Behind closed doors, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed a growing impatience and sense of disdain for Bennett, saying that he will crush him the first chance he gets.

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This weeks events were no doubt a turning point in their relationship. Netanyahu has never gone this far with anything as he has this time. He was hoping Bennett would make the mistake of resigning, which would have allowed the Zionist Union to enter the government. Even the Labor Partys hardcore opposition would find it hard to refuse with Bennett out of the Coalition and both the prime minister and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman talking about a two-state solution.

But Bennetts only focus is on the bottom line, which for him means getting what he had wanted all along. He may not have managed to create a military secretary position for the Security Cabinet, but he did secure the ongoing advice of Chairperson of the National Security Council Brigadier General (ret.) Yaakov Nagel. As Bennett himself had stated this week, his demands did not change. Bibi may have refused them last week or even earlier this week, but he acquiesced when the clock struck midnight on Thursday.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

Bennett had explained to his people that they are indeed witnessing a turning point: for the first time in three years, the chairperson of the Security Council along with his deputy sat down to a special meeting with him. And for the first time in three years, daily updates are in fact being delivered daily, instead of at the end of the month or not at all. This is because the turning point has taken place within the Security Cabinet itself. The disrespect and mediocrity that had defined this important government body have come to an end. The tide is changing. From here on out, the public will no longer forgive anyone withholding information from cabinet members. The hand of a cabinet member that sends a soldier to battle will be a hand that knows the true meaning of that decision. The public will be scrupulously examining everyones behavior; Bennett, for his part, will go on challenging axioms and examining them using his common sense.

Bennett continued by telling his people that he has reached a point where he no longer trusts the government, which is why he now wishes to double down on his security and political wherewithal. No more will he follow him blindly, not after Operation Protective Edge, when he realized that he could not assume that all the relevant information will be passed on. He is now prepared to present the Security Cabinet with raw data, to challenge its members and raise tough questions. He understands that he cannot simply rely on the prime minister. He respects him, but when it comes to security matters, he is also wary of him.

The break in trust, Bennett told them, occurred after the state comptrollers report found that Netanyahu did, in fact, know about the tunnels coming out Gaza, but that he chose to keep this information from the Security Cabinet. Thats all over now. A new chapter has begun. From now on, Bennett has his own National Security Council and his own sources of information.

The Hypocritical Right

This week we were also treated to a lesson in etiquette. MK Benjamin Begin (Likud), or Benny as the famously modest man likes to be called, expressed his emphatic opposition to the dismissal of former defense minister Yaakov Bogey Yaalon (Likud). I was astounded to see the jubilation spreading through the right, he said during a radio interview. Apparently, those in the right can be divided into three categories  moderates, extremists and dumb. He forgot, however, to mention the fourth category: the hypocritical.

No one doubts Begins wit. A few months ago, during a meeting held by the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, Begin referred to the proposed Suspension Bill by saying, This is a very, very problematic bill. In the 50s, one MK was suspended from the Knesset for months. Menachem Begin. And the reason for doing this? Because they could. With one pithy sentence, he managed to express his unwavering opposition to the bill, showcase his comprehensive knowledge of history and hinte, with a thunderous modesty, at his own princely status. A few days later, though, MK Begin found himself voting, together with the dumb right, in support of the bill both on the committee and at the general assembly.

At present, the law might be up for a name change, to the Impeachment Law. A lot of discussions and words have been thrown around in the committee, all the while MK Begin continues to oppose its spirit and phrasing, suggesting improvements, offering ways to tone it down and generally voicing his objection to it. Willing to bet that by the time it comes up for a vote in the committee and assembly, Begin will once again vote with the dumb right?

Generally speaking, Begin has managed to perfect this system to an art form: first you must vehemently and very publicly express your objections to the proposed abomination, while discretely checking to see whether your vote might hinder the proposal. If it might, vote for it and apologetically explain that coalition agreements prevent are forcing your hand. If it wont matter either way, abstain from the vote. Just as long as you dont actually vote against the atrocity.

And so it was with Yaalons impeachment and Liebermans appointment: Begin tested the waters before allowing himself to abstain. If he had wanted, he could have prevented both the impeachment and the appointment, or at least he could have tried. All it would have taken was for him to tell Netanyahu that he objects to the move and plans to vote against it.

Begins words could have similarly thwarted the Impeachment Law. The same goes for the Norwegian Law. Several months earlier, he had passionately and eloquently described on the Norwegian Laws many defects, wittily mocked northern Europeans and listed its each and every flaw before finallyinevitablyvoting in favor of it. This despite the fact that it was within his power to stop it, or at a minimum work to have it changed.

These days, Begin is opposing the Transparency Law as presented by the great leader of the dumb right, MK Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi). Anyone willing to bet on whether Begin might kill the law, support it or abstain? And what of the bill looking to increase taxes, which Begin also supremely opposes? Will he end up killing it or supporting it? His modesty is, after all, quite thunderous. The whole country knows that he only relies on buses to get around, and he probably pays for his monthly pass out of pocket, perhaps even insisting on an old-fashioned punch card out of a historical resistance to the modern-day electronic bus pass.

And yet, can anyone point to one instance, since the formation of the State of Israel, in which Begin had managed to tip the scale from bad to good all by himself? Just one time during his long career in which he alone had used his power and stature to fight the dumb right and assist in the triumph of wisdom?

What about the Bedouin settlement project in the Negev? Begin had invested a great of effort in it, and had performed this national mission with commendable faith and perseverance, as Netanyahu had stated at the time. And yet it was Begin who eventually recommended that the plan be shelved due to the resistance it faced, explaining that We did our best, but we also need to face reality.

Begin had passionately come out against Im Tirtzus campaign against so-called traitors, demanding that the organizations benefactors be revealed. Did anything happen with that?

Will we ever get to hear Begin quote his father by saying, I cannot go on any further, or will he forever explain his avoiding to take a stand by using the same words he had once said during an interview with Aryeh Golan, stating, Why should I burn myself as a Buddhist monk?
Arizona News

Phoenix, Arizona - Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced a State Grand Jury indicted Keith Edward Benevento on three felony charges. The Phoenix Police Department arrested Benevento on Thursday after a warrant was issued for his arrest. Benevento is accused of stealing more than $15,000 dollars from an Arizona family while performing unlicensed construction work. The indictment arises from an investigation by the Arizona Registrar of Contractors.

According to investigators with the Arizona Registrar of Contractors, Benevento was hired in January 2011 to perform various repairs at a home in Surprise, AZ. Benevento allegedly represented himself as a licensed contractor. The victims were a husband and wife in their 80s at the time of the alleged events; one of the victims also suffered from dementia. Benevento presented the victims with invoices supporting his work, and the victims paid him a total of $15,916.26. Benevento is accused of misleading the victims regarding the extent of his work and how long certain jobs took to complete. According to ROC investigators, the cost of the work should have been less than $4,000. Due to alleged poor workmanship, investigators determined it would cost an additional $2,000 to $3,000 to correct Beneventos reportedly defective work.



Benevento is charged with Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices, Fraudulent Schemes and Practices, and Theft.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Andy Kvesic.



All defendants are presumed innocent until convicted in a court of law.
Latest News

Norfolk, Virginia - About 7,000 Sailors attached to Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 10 departed Naval Station Norfolk Wednesday, June 1, on a regularly-scheduled deployment. The IKE CSG is deploying to relieve the Harry S. Truman Strike Group supporting air strikes against ISIL and conducting maritime security cooperation operations in the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of operations.

As a part of the Great Green Fleet initiative, IKE CSG ships and aircraft will employ operational procedures and energy conservation measures in order to enhance operational capabilities.



In front of USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) and USS Nitze (DDG 94), Adm. Phil Davidson, Commander U.S. Fleet Forces Command, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Energy) Joe Bryan addressed guests and family members, focusing on the historic nature of the CSG's deployment.



"IKE's employment of innovative new energy operational procedures, new energy efficient systems and alternative fuel put us on a path of improved savings, and more importantly, a more effective fighting force," Davidson said. "From Short-cycle Mission and Recovery Tanking - SMART - and configuration management for our Air Wing onboard IKE, to the stern flaps you see on our destroyers and cruisers, LED lighting, the use of energy dashboards and a thermal management control system in Nitze behind me, our Sailors are incorporating technologies and operational procedures that maximize our fuel usage.



"This enables the Fleet to go farther, stay on station longer, and deliver more sustained firepower while reducing time and vulnerability of Sailors and Marines transporting or escorting fuel to the fight and time off station."



Bryan also highlighted the operational benefits of employing energy efficient procedures and technologies.



"The ships you see behind me, and others in the strike group, may look no different than any other U.S. Navy ship," he said. "And that is the idea. Yet the combination of technologies they include and operational procedures that the fleet is putting in place are helping us squeeze more fight out of every gallon of fuel."



"When he announced the Department of the Navy's energy goals in 2009, Secretary Mabus said 'Leading change is not new for the Department of the Navy. We have led the world in the adoption of new energy strategies in the past. This is our legacy.' Thank you for helping to make it part of our future," Bryan added.



This deployment will also mark the first full work-up cycle involving all strike group ships training and certifying together in accordance with the Optimized Fleet Response Plan (OFRP). OFRP is the Navy's force generation process designed to ready the fleet to fight and win, delivering rotational forces for routine deployments, surging forces in times of war or significant crisis, while enabling maintenance & modernization to achieve the planned service lives of our platforms. OFRP balances fiscal realities and Combatant Commanders requests, while enhancing stability and predictability, and improving quality of life for our Sailors.



CSG 10, commanded by Rear Adm. Jesse A. Wilson, Jr., is comprised of the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), the nine squadrons of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 3, Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 26 staff, the guided missile cruisers USS San Jacinto (CG 56) and USS Monterey (CG 61), and the guided-missile destroyers USS Stout (DDG 55), USS Roosevelt (DDG 80), USS Mason (DDG 87) and USS Nitze (DDG 94).



USS Roosevelt (DDG 80) departed Naval Station Mayport.



USS Stout (DDG 55) departed Naval Station Norfolk May 14.



The squadrons of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 3 departed bases including NAS Oceana, NAS Whidbey Island, NAS Jacksonville, NAS Lemoore and Naval Station Norfolk. CVW-3 includes strike fighter squadrons VFA 32 "Swordsmen," VFA 86 "Sidewinders," VFA 105 "Gunslingers," and VFA 131 "Wildcats;" tactical electronics warfare squadron VAQ 130 "Zappers;" carrier airborne early warning squadron VAW 123 "Screwtops;" Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 40 "Rawhides;" helicopter maritime strike squadron HSM 74 "Swamp Foxes;" and helicopter sea combat squadron HSC 7 "Dusty Dogs."
Latest News

Washington, DC - To promote the progress and promise of collaborative robotics (co-robot) research, the Congressional Robotics Caucus will host an expo on Thursday, June 9, 2016, in Washington, D.C.

The event will mark the five-year anniversary of the National Robotics Initiative, a multi-agency effort among the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, the National Institutes for Health (NIH), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Energy (DOE) to accelerate the development and use of robots that work beside or cooperatively with people and solve problems in areas of national priority.

The event, hosted by Congressional Robotics Caucus Co-Chairs Congressman Rob Woodall and Congressman Mike Doyle, will feature the latest in robotic technologies, as well as a discussion among leading scientists, educators and thought-leaders, and will promote improved public understanding of development of co-robots in the modern world.

Event details:

What An expo event for legislators, congressional staffers, agency representatives, media and the public demonstrating advances in the field of robotics. When 12:30  6 p.m. ET on June 9, 2016 Where All events at the B339 Rayburn House Office Building Who All are welcome; RSVP requested: email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Schedule:

12:30  2 p.m.

A lunchtime discussion about the impact of the National Robotics Initiative among leaders from industry, academia and government

The panel will feature:

Moderator Martial Hebert, The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

Lynne Parker, co-chair, NITRD Interagency Working Group on Robotics and Intelligent Systems

Robert Atkinson, president, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Henrik Christensen, Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, Georgia Tech University; fellow, IEEE Robotics & Automation Society

2  4 p.m.

Open house: Meet the NRI recipients

4  6:30 p.m.

A room full of robots in action: Demonstrations of diverse, representative research supported by the National Robotics Initiative

The exhibition will feature researchers leading NRI-funded projects and agencies, including:
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.
Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has asked the Border Security Force (BSF) to ensure sealing of the Indo-Bangladesh border on a war footing.

Chairing a high level meeting with the top brass of the BSF led by its Director General KK Sharma yesterday, Sonowal asked the border sentinels to ensure erection of fencing expeditiously for a safe and fool-proof border with the neighbouring country.

According to a release issued by the Chief Minister's Office today, Sonowal asked BSF to make use of 'smart technological solutions' like laser walls and surveillance gadgets to keep security at the frontiers at all times.

The Chief Minister also asked the BSF to remove all challenges coming in the way of ensuring a secured border at the earliest.

Erection of fencing along the border including 'riverine' areas has to be dealt with resolutely "if we want to make our borders safe," he added.

Sonowal further said, "It is a part of our pledge that we will completely seal international border with Bangladesh in order to keep infiltration and smuggling from across the border at bay."

Referring to BSF's observation that 42 km stretch in Dhubri sector is challenging, he assured all help from the state government to seal the border and keep the state free from infiltration.
Patna: Laddan Mian, suspected to be the main conspirator in the killing of journalist Rajdeo Ranjan in Bihar's Siwan district, was taken on a three day police remand on Saturday for interrogation, police officials said.

A day after a court in Siwan allowed police to question Laddan, police have taken him on three day remand, said Siwan Superintendent of Police Saurabh Kumar.

Laddan, who is also considered close to jailed former Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, on Thursday, surrendered before the chief judicial magistrate in Siwan and was sent to judicial custody. He was lodged in Siwan jail.

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 Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the journalist's killing.
Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: In a miraculous incident, a Chinese giant panda Hao Hao, has given birth to a rare male panda cub in the early hours of Thursday morning at the Paira Daiza wildlife park, Belgium, according to Reuters reports.

As per zoo officials this is an extremely rare event as pandas normally loose sexual appetite in captivity and therefore do not find it comfortable to mate inside the cage.

The birth took place after six-year-old Hao Hao got artificially inseminated from her mate Xing Hui under the supervision of Chinese and local experts.

Environmentalists think that the birth of new panda will help in boosting the population of this endangered species as barely 2,000 are left worldwide.

Watch the phenomenal birth-story of the panda cub here:

(Video credits: CCTV News)
Gurgaon: A drone of Indian Air Force (IAF) on Saturday crashed on a piece of vacant land about 1000 metres away from the Force's ammunition depot in Sector 14 here, police said.

The drone crashed following an exercise carried out by IAF ammunition depot officials at around 7.30am, said SHO Sudeep Singh.

Local residents who witnessed the crash informed the police about it, after which an FIR was registered in Palam Vihar police station, he said.

Locals said the drone crashed on a vacant plot near Om Vihar Colony.

According to sources, IAF officials have been carrying out regular ground and aerial exercises in the wake of the Pathankot terror attack and fire in Asia's biggest ammunition depot in Maharashtra.

Thousands of structures illegally built are scattered over a 900-metre radius from the ammunition depot.
Chandigarh: Ahead of the proposed Jat quota agitation from Saturday, security arrangements in Haryana have been tightened with the deployment of 4,800 paramilitary personnel and the administration is on high alert.

"Besides adequate deployment of police personnel, as many as 48 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed at various places in the state keeping in view the stir call from tomorrow. We have asked for 15 more companies from the Centre," Haryana Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Ram Niwas said today.

He said, "we are not taking any chance," even though only one group was going ahead with the dharna.

He also said that police and paramilitary forces have been deployed to guard the Western Yamuna Canal in Sonipat district.

Protesters had disrupted water supply to the national capital by damaging the Carrier-Lined Channel (CLC) of Munak Canal during the earlier Jat agitation in February.

The administration has specified one spot in each district where people can peacefully hold dharna, officials said.

However, officials said they were wary of the fact that protesters may attempt to block national highways and rail tracks, like in February, and therefore they have put maximum security to prevent a repeat of the situation.

Haryana Police has cancelled leave of all personnel except in emergency cases till further orders.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPc have already been imposed in seven sensitive districts of Haryana barring gathering of five or more persons and paramilitary forces have been conducting flag marches during the past few days .

Police are keeping a close watch on anyone trying to spread rumours or make inflammatory statements through social media.

"Adequate security measures have been taken. We are fully prepared to deal with the situation," Additional Director General of Police Mohammad Akil said.

"The police stations are stocked adequately equipped to dead with any kind of protest," he said.
New Delhi: A window of opportunity and goodwill opened by India for Pakistan is closing as doubts over Islamabad's sincerity in tackling terrorism still persists, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said.

Parrikar made the comments at an inter-governmental forum Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore and were also backed by BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav, NDTV reported on Saturday.

"Prime Minister Modi opened a window of opportunities when he visited (the) Pakistan Prime Minister. I think that window is slowly closing. Before it closes, Pakistan needs to develop that trust with India on its sincerity on the approach," the channel quoted the minister as saying.

"Pakistan separates terrorists between good ones and bad ones. They are after bad ones but the good ones are promoted to operate in Afghanistan and India. I think that needs to be tackled at a diplomatic level," Parrikar reportedly said.

Relations between India and Pakistan are strained over the repeated attacks on the Indian soil by militants based in Pakistan. This year alone, there have been many attacks, including the one on Pathankot air force in Punjab.

Islamabad is yet to clear a request from India's premier investigation agency NIA to visit Pakistan as part of its probe into the deadly Pathankot attack.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday said that the role of Pakistani nationals in the Pathankot air base attack "is an accepted fact".

The Shangri-La Dialogue, being held from June 3-5 this year, is hosted annually by independent think-tank International Institute for Strategic Studies.

It is attended by defence ministers and military chiefs of more than 28 countries.
Doha: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday arrived in Doha for the second leg of his five-nation tour, after concluding the first leg of his trip in Afghanistan.

The Indian Prime Minister was greeted by his Qatar's counterpart Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al Thani at the airport.

Upon landing in Qatar, Prime Minister Modi tweeted in Arabic saying that he was looking forward to the various programmes that will enhance the economy and relations between India and Qatar.

Reached Doha. India attaches great priority to strong ties with Qatar & my visit seeks to expand bilateral ties between our nations: PM  PMO India (@PMOIndia) June 4, 2016

Asserting that India gave high priority to Qatar, he added that through his visit, he would be looking to expand the bilateral cooperation between the two nations.

"Namaste Qatar! Its wheels down in Doha as PM Narendra Modi arrives for the second leg of his journey," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted shortly after PM Modi's tweet.

This is the second prime ministerial visit from India to Qatar in eight years after then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit in 2008.

Shortly after reaching here, PM Modi visited to Indian workers at a medical camp in Downtown Doha.

Supporting our ciitzens abroad. Qatar engagements begin with visit to a Workers medical camp in Downtown Doha. pic.twitter.com/WbZUOudxhk  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 4, 2016

Addressing the workers, PM said, "I came to Doha in the evening and the first programme on my schedule was to meet you all."

He further said, "When someone from your land, speaking your language comes, I am sure that would make you very happy. Want to congratulate doctor friends for the good work they are doing. Happy to see regular health check-ups being conducted here. Am aware of the issues you are facing. I do talk about it when I meet the authorities."

"The work that you have done is why the world praises of India. I thank you all for this. When I met Emir of Qatar, he was praising the people who work here. He said the people of India are very gracious," he added.

Shoulder to shoulder with Indian workers abroad. PM @narendramodi interacts with the workers pic.twitter.com/z4GQJLueCX  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 4, 2016

During his stay in Qatar, Prime Minister Modi is expected to sign a number of agreements with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

PM: I believe that the leadership in the Gulf has a lot of love and belief in the Indian community here pic.twitter.com/EhtLSwe8Nw  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 4, 2016

The Prime Minister will also interact with the Indian community in country. Around 630,000 Indians are currently residing in Qatar.

Modi flew in from Afghanistan, where earlier on Saturday, he, along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, also known as Salma Dam, in the western province of Herat.

On Sunday, he will begin his engagements in Qatar with a meeting with business leaders following which he will hold a restricted meeting with Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.

Bilateral trade between India and Qatar stands at $10 billion.

"It (Qatar) can also be a large economic partner as it has a large sovereign wealth fund," Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said on Friday ina pre-departure media briefing.

After Qatar, PM Modi will also visit Switzerland, the US and Mexico.
Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming visit to the American capital will highlight the "deepening of the US-India relationship", the White House has said.

"The visit will highlight the deepening of the US-India relationship in key areas since the President's visit to New Delhi in January 2015," White House Deputy Press Secretary Jennifer Friedman told reporters abroad Air Force One while travelling with US President Barack Obama to Miami, Florida.

"Among the issues that the President looks forward to discussing are progress made on climate change and clean energy partnership, security and defence cooperation, and economic growth priorities," Friedman said.

"There is a whole host of issues where our relationship and partnership is robust and important -- everything ranging from climate to military steps we're taking, to a whole host of economic steps that we're working on together," she said.

Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to arrive in Washington DC on June 6 on a three-day visit.

This will be his fourth visit to the US.

Soon after his arrival, he is scheduled to lay a wreath at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery where he will be accompanied by US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter, Pentagon said yesterday.

He is scheduled to meet President Obama at the White House on June 7 and address a joint meeting of the US Congress on June 8.

He will only be the fifth Indian Prime Minister to address a joint session of Congress.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday jointly inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam.

The dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, has been built with Indian aid.

In an address after inaugurating the Afghan-India Friendship Dam along with President Ashraf Ghani, PM Modi said, "We are reviving a region, renewing life, restoring hope and redefining Afghanistan's future."

Modi hailed the people of Afghanistan for denouncing terrorism and said division among them will only help those seeking to "dominate" the nation from outside.

"I am honoured to be among people who have set the standard of courage." he said.

"It was a war not of Afghan making, but it was one that stole the future of an entire generation of Afghans," the Prime Minister said, adding that the brave Afghan people are today sending a message that the forces of "destruction and death, denial and domination" shall not prevail.

"Today we come together to honour and celebrate Afghan determination to build a future of prosperity," PM Modi asserted.

"The dam has not been built by bricks and mortar, but by faith of our friendship and valour of Afghans and Indians," the PM exhorted.

PM Modi was conferred with Afghanistan's highest civilian honour, the Amir Amanullah Khan Award.

Earlier, addressing a joint press conference along with the Indian Prime Minister, Ghani said, "Today we come together to make eternal India Afghan ties and friendship."

Ghani welcomed PM Modi saying, "Welcome to your second home Afghanistan".

"Today with your help a long standing dream of Afghanistan has been realised after 30 years," Ghani further said.

Praising India's efforts the Afghan President said, "Salma Dam will chart a new course of cooperation and prosperity," adding that "our people identify India with roads, dams and over 200 small development projects."

In an apparent reference to Pakistan, Ghani asserted, "Contrary to those who spread chaos and destruction, we two countries (India, Afghanistan) have taken the joint decision to build and grow."

The multipurpose project, undertaken by Indian Government on river Chist-e-Sharif in the province concerned, is expected to irrigate 75,000 hectares of land and generate 42 mega watt power, besides ensuring water supply and other benefits to local people.Click and drag to move

After attending a lunch hosted in his honour by President Ghani, Modi will proceed to Doha, Qatar, where he will meet Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al Thani .

He will also visit an Indian workers' camp in Doha today.

PM Modi is on a five-nation visit to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico during which the focus will be to broaden bilateral trade, energy and security cooperation and push for India's bid to become a member of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

PM Modi is likely to seek support of Switzerland and Mexico for India's membership of the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group as both these countries are key members of the elite grouping. The issue is likely to figure during Modi's meeting with Obama in Washington on June 7. India has formally applied for membership of the NSG on May 12.
New Delhi: As Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse on Saturday submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over several charges of corruption, Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal took it as an opportunity to launch a scathing attack on the other BJP leaders, facing heat over alleged scams.

The Delhi CM took to Twitter and wrote, Now when will Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje resign? That would be a real test.

Now when will shivraj singh chauhan n vasundhara raje resign? That wud be real test https://t.co/CsyfJKpbT0  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) June 4, 2016

While Chouhan faces flak over mishandling of infamous Vyapam scam, Raje's involvement in Lalit Modi controversy had caused stir .

Khadse has become first casualty in BJP after Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combine took over the party pledging zero-tolerance to corruption.

With his options running out and the central leadership sending a clear and stern message to him, the 64-year-old veteran from north Maharashtra drove to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's official residence here this morning and offered his resignation.

The fate of Khadse was sealed two days back after Fadnavis briefed Modi and Shah in Delhi over the allegations against him, which were not only leveraged by Congress, NCP and AAP to embarrass the first BJP-led government in the state but even made ally Shiv Sena to come out seeking his ouster.

Considered "number two" in the Cabinet handling vital portfolios of Revenue and Agriculture, Khadse has been facing heat over a series of allegations including irregularities in a land deal in Pune and getting calls allegedly from fugitive Dawood Ibrahim's residence in Karachi on his mobile phone besides the alleged bribe sought by a personal aide.

He is in a spot over the purchase of a three-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) land in Pune 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.

Rubbishing the allegations, Khadse said he has been a victim of an "unprecedented media trial."

Addressing a press meet with the state party chief Raosaheb Danve after his meeting with Chief Minister, Khadse, seen as the OBC face of the party with a massive following in northern districts, said, "For the last 40 years, I have been in politics and the party but had not experienced a media trial like this."

"There has been an unprecedented media trial against me," he said, adding, "I have demanded Fadnavis that an inquiry be ordered into the allegations."

Stating Khadse was forced to quit as charges against him were "serious", Congress demanded a high level investigation into the matter.

"Only resignation will not do. We want a high level judicial inquiry into the scams involving Khadse. We don't trust this government, which may sabotage the investigation," Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan told PTI.

Former AAP leader Anjali Damania, who was on a hunger strike demanding Khadse's resignation for the last three days, said this was the initial victory for her after exposing Khadse's wrongdoings.

AAP national spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon said, "We are relieved that finally, after he was totally exposed in past few weeks, BJP removed Khadse from office."

(With PTI inputs)
Srinagar: A top Border Security Force (BSF) officer said on Saturday that there are intelligence reports about militants planning to attack the forthcoming Amarnarh Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir.

At the wreath laying ceremony in Srinagar to honour three BSF troopers martyred in an attack by guerrilla's at Bijbehara on Friday, BSF Director General K.K. Sharma told reporters: "Yesterday's attack on our convoy was sudden and unexpected. That is why we suffered casualties."

"There are intelligence reports that militants have plans to attack the forthcoming Amarnath Yatra but we have made adequate arrangements to ensure an incident free Yatra this year also."

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti also laid wreath at the coffins of the martyred troopers.
Srinagar: Militants on Saturday shot dead two policemen, including an officer, in poll-bound Anantnag town of south Kashmir, police said.

Militants opened fire on a police party at General Bus Stand in Anantnag town, 52 kms from here, at around 11:20 AM, resulting in injuries to the two policemen, a police official said.

He said the injured policemen were rushed to a hospital where both of them succumbed.

The deceased have been identified as Assistant Sub Inspector Bashir Ahmad and Constable Reyaz Ahmad.

The attack comes ahead of the June 22 polling for by-election to Anantnag Assembly seat where Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is one of the nine candidates in the fray.

The by-poll for the seat was necessitated due to death of then chief minister and incumbent MLA Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on January 7 this year.

This is second attack in less than 24 hours in the district.

Three BSF jawans were killed and nine others injured last evening as militants ambushed their convoy at Goriwan in Bijbehara town.

Security forces have been put on an alert to track down the assailants, the official said.
Srinagar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs on Saturday protested the killing of Border Security Force (BSF) troopers by the militants and demanded the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly to pass a resolution condemning Pakistan and terrorists.

Led by MLA Ravinder Raina, the BJP MLAs staged a protest inside state legislative assembly demanding condemnation of Pakistan and terrorists by the house.

Speaker Kavinder Gupta told the BJP MLAs that the house shares the grief of the bereaved families and expresses sympathy with them.

Independent MLA from Langate constituency Engineer Rashid said the condemnation should not be restricted to acts of terrorism by non-state actors only and when security forces violate human rights, condemnation should be universal.

Three BSF troopers were killed and seven injured when militants attacked a BSF convoy in Bijbehara town of Anantnag district on Friday.
Mumbai: In the eye of a storm over allegations of corruption including irregularities in a land deal and link with underworld kingpin Dawood Ibrahim, Eknath Khadse on Saturday termed the charges against him as 'nothing but political conspiracy by opponents'.

Khadse, who earlier today, resigned from the post of Maharashtra Revenue Minister after meeting state Chief Minister Devndra Fadnavis at his official residence 'Varsha' here, was adressing a press conference as he said, "Have fought political battles for last 40 years. This is the first time in my life, I am facing a media trial."

Khadse, who has been facing heat over a series of allegations including irregularities in a land deal in Pune, defended himself on the controversy, and said, "Decision taken in people's favour hurt some selfish people. I did everything necessary to do the right thing. Whatever allegations you make, prove it with valid papers. No one has been able to produce concrete proof against me. I've given all info over my accounts in my affidavit with election documents.."

To a question, Khadse said that he has ''worked for expansion of BJP for the last 40 years and will quit politics if anyone can produce concrete proof against him".

Not stopping here, Khadse also defended himself over controversy around his alleged link-up with underworld don and blamed hackers on receiving calls from Dawood's mobile. "I did not make any international calls, my phone was hacked. This is a conspiracy to defame BJP," he said.

Meanwhile, the Congress demanded the state government to order a high level investigation into the allegations against Khadse, stating that 'resignation alone is not enough for the tainted BJP leader'.

"Only resignation will not do. We want a high level judicial inquiry into the scams involving Khadse. We don't trust this government, which may sabotage the investigation," Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan told PTI.

"It is good that he has resigned. But it is a delayed decision. The BJP had no option since the charges against Khadse like the MIDC land deal and Dawood call allegation are very serious in nature," Chavan, a former chief minister, said.
Mumbai: Dogged by several allegations of graft against him, Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse on Saturday resigned from his post. The BJP leader handed over resignation to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis after meeting him at his official residence in 'Varsha' in the city today morning.

Khadse resigned from all his ministerial portfolios after he simultaneously got embroiled in multiple controversies.

We take a look at the allegations and controversies that surrounded Khadse, once the senior most minister in Fadnavis' Cabinet.

Controversy around land deal:

A Pune-based realtor, Hemant Gavande made serious charges of land grabbing against Khadse. According to Gavande, Khadse had misused his position as the state revenue minister to illegally execute sales deeds for a three-acre industrial plot at Bhosari in Pune district in the name of his wife and son-in-law. Gavande accused the minister of grabbing the industrial plot of MIDC at a very low price of around Rs 3.75 crore misusing his position when the market value of the land was to the tune of Rs 40 crore.

Alleged link with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim:

Apart from the doubtful real estate transaction, Khadse came under the scanner after his mobile number reportedly appeared in the call records of fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim. Though, Khadse accepted that the telephone number in question was indeed registered in his name, he denied speaking to Dawood or any of his family members.

Khadse's aide arrested for seeking Rs 30 crore bribe over a land deal

Khadse was mired with another controversy after the Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested his aide Gajanan Patil over bribery charges in a land deal. According to reports, Patil was arrested for allegedly seeking Rs 30 crore as bribe over a land deal from economist Ramesh Jadhav.

Khadse's son-in-law arrested for driving illegally

The BJP leader was in news when Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested his son-in-law in March 2016 for allegedly possessing a modified limousine. Khadse's son-in-law Manish Khevalkar owned a Hyundai Sonata, registered with Jalgaon RTO, which was converted into a limousine.

As per the Maharashtra Motor Vehicles Act Section 52, modification into a limousine is not permitted. Khevalkar, was accused of modifying the car without seeking permission from the RTO.
Mumbai: Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, who has been under the attack for alleged dubious land deal and suspected underworld links, on Saturday tendered his resignation to state Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Khadse handed over his resignation to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis whom he met at his official residence 'Varsha' here early today, two days after the latter briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah over the issue.

An unfazed Khadse had till last evening said that he has not received any directive from the BJP central leadership on the charges against him which he dubbed as "baseless".

According to PTI reports, Khadse was asked to quit from his post by BJP high command.

Reportedly, the central leadership of the BJP sent him a clear and stern signal that he had no option but to quit since his continuance would damage the image of the ministry led by the party.

As per the reports, the party also indicated that the row over allegations that he received phone calls from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim too was not handled responsibly.

Meanwhile, National Congress Party has demanded a 'free and fair' probe into the matter.

On Thursday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Fadnavis had met BJP president Amit Shah and submitted a report on the twin charges against 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 had quoted then.

Reports also stated that Fadnavis would also be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the 'Khadse' 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.

Considered 'Number 2' in the Cabinet handling some vital portfolios, 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.

He is in a spot over the purchase of a three-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corp land in Pune 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.

Khadse is also facing allegations that mafia don Dawood Ibrahim had made multiple calls to him from his landline number in Karachi, where he is believed to be living as a fugitive.

The BJP's ally Shiv Sena and social worker Anna Hazare have been mounting pressure for Khadse's resignation.
Mumbai: Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, once considered the No.2 in the state government, was forced to step down on Saturday after multiple allegations, including corruption in a land deal and supposed links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, were labelled against him.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis accepted his resignation after their meeting at his residence on Saturday morning.

Received the resignation from Eknath Khadse ji. I've accepted it and sent it to Hon'ble Governor, Fadnavis tweeted. Fadnavis said that a retired high court judge would be appointed to conduct an inquiry into the allegations.

Later, a Raj Bhavan official said following the chief minister's recommendation, Khadse's resignation was accepted.

Khadse, 63, a senior minister in the Maharashtra government, had in the recent past held nearly a dozen major portfolios including revenue, minorities development and wakf, relief and rehabilitation, excise, agriculture and horticulture, animal husbandry, and fisheries.

Amid apprehensions of a potential sabotage bid by Khadse's substantial support among the BJP legislators, the development came after the biennial elections to six Rajya Sabha and 10 Legislative Council seats were completed on Friday with all candidates of different parties elected unopposed.

Bharatiya Janata Party state president Raosaheb Danve told the media that Khadse has quit on "moral grounds" but the party stood solidly behind him and lauded the contribution of the OBC leader from north Maharashtra for building up the party in the state since four decades.

On his part, Khadse defended himself saying he had "committed no wrong" nor "misused his official position". He said he was a victim of "trial by the media" in the past few weeks.

"I have done nothing wrong...when the allegations were made against me, I asked them (those levelling the charges) to provide evidence, which they did not give. I request the chief minister to conduct a thorough probe into the allegations and those making them," he said.

Defending himself against the controversy over his alleged links with Dawood Ibrahim, Khadse said: "I did not make any international calls, my phone was hacked. This is a conspiracy to defame BJP."

Hitting out at his detractors within and outside the party, Khadse said this was "an attack on the BJP", even as some other worried ministers with different types of allegations against them went to meet Fadnavis.

Khadse's resignation followed after Fadnavis met BJP president Amit Shah in New Delhi and submitted a detailed report on the issues confronting Khadse.

He then met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and apprised him of the row that was denting the BJP's "clean image" .

Khadse had been under fire for the past few weeks from the ruling alliance partner Shiv Sena, as also the opposition Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, the Aam Aadmi Party and activists like Anna Hazre and Anjalai Damania for various alleged acts of commission and omission.

Among the major accusations against him was allotting a prime industrial plot in Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) complex in Pune at a throwaway price to family members and an allegation by an "ethical hacker" that his name figured on the regular call lists of absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar from his Karachi home.

The other charges against the minister related to his aide, Gajanan Patil, demanding a bribe of Rs 30 crore in connection with a land proposal file in Thane.

Former AAP activist Damania's allegations linked him to the multi-crore rupee irrigation scam. The latest were graft charges levelled by a fishermen's society.

The opposition Congress and NCP leaders welcomed the resignation and demanded that other scam-tainted ministers should also be sacked.

"Khase should be arrested immediately and booked," Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam said, while state Congress President Ashok Chavan demanded a judicial enquiry against Khadse.

State Congress general secretary Sanjay Dutt termed the resignation as "a cover-up drama by Fadnavis" and demanded a probe, while senior leader and newly-elected legislator Narayan Rane said the chief minister was playing games and "eliminating all backward classes leaders in the party and doing grave injustice to them".

"First the BJP ruined Khadse's image and after so many days of delay, they forced him to resign. Then, why did the state BJP chief Danve give him a clean chit only yesterday? Khadse is a victim of the internal strife and conspiracy between BJP-Shiv Sena. He should have immediately resigned after the charges were levelled against him."

Leader of Opposition in the Council Dhananjay Munde (NCP) said the MIDC scam was a serious issue and said it would be important to see whether the government would take action against other tainted ministers.

Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar meanwhile said if the resignation was on "moral grounds", why did he delay it for so long, while the party's Jitendra Awhad said it was shameful that a minister with "connections to Dawood Ibrahim" was in the cabinet.

(With IANS inputs)
Chandigarh: The Punjab Police has detained several radical Sikh leaders ahead of the 32nd anniversary of `Operation Bluestar`, the Army`s action on Amritsar`s Golden Temple complex in June 1984 to flush out armed extremists, police officials said on Saturday.

The detention of the hardliners leaders has been done as a preventive measure ahead of the Bluestar anniversary on (Monday) June 6.

Most of the radical leaders have been taken into custody in the past 24 hours, a senior police officer told IANS here.

In Ludhiana, hardliner Sikh leaders Daljit Singh Bittu, Manvinder Singh Giaspura and Jaswant Singh Cheema were detained.

Radical leader Dhian Singh Mand, who was last year appointed as interim jathedar (chief) of the Akal Takht by Sikh hardliners at a congregation near Amritsar, was also taken into custody by Amritsar police on Thursday.

Mand was detained to prevent him from reaching the Akal Takht, which is situated inside the Golden Temple complex, to address people during functions to mark the Operation Bluestar anniversary.

In Bathinda, the police detained hardline leader Gurdip Singh and Hardeep Mehraj.

Radical Sikh organization Dal Khalsa has called for an `Amritsar Bandh` on Monday.
Quetta: Pakistani forces have shot four suspected militants dead during a skirmish in a Hazara Shiite area in the southwestern city of Quetta, authorities said.

Officials in Balochistan province, of which Quetta is capital, said the incident erupted yesterday when policemen tried to signal to a group of men on motorbikes to stop in the Hazarganji area of the city.

"Six suspected persons riding on three motorcycles were spotted by police in the Hazarganji area on the outskirts of Quetta. Police officials signalled to them but they opened fire, four militants were killed after police retaliated," Akbar Harifal, home secretary of the province, told AFP.

"Two of the militants managed to flee in the dark of night. Two policemen also sustained injuries during the clash," he added.

Police identified the militants as belonging to a group with ties to the militant wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

"The killed militants belonged to the sub group of LeJ Jaish-e-Islam (JI)," said Wasey Khan, spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC).

"One of the killed militants Doctor Humair was chief of the Quetta chapter of JI," said Harifal.

LeJ has claimed responsibility for some of the most brazen attacks on Shiites in Pakistan's recent history, including a January 2013 bombing in Quetta that killed over a hundred members of the Shiite Hazara minority group.

Sectarian violence -- in particular that carried out by Sunni militants against Shiites, who make up roughly 20 percent of Pakistan's population of 200 million -- has claimed thousands of lives in the country over the past decade.
Mathura: Bollywood actress and politician Hema Malini, who found herself under severe attack on Friday after she posted few pictures of herself from an ongoing film shoot when her Parliamentary constituency Mathura was hit by violence, later attempted to deflect her blame by hitting out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

"Within 24 hours, I reached Mathura, but where is Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav?" actor-turned politician Hema Malini said.

"The state government should have taken proper action to eradicate this encroachment. It was only after high Court order, government tried to bring the situation under control. However, there were severe lapses on the part of administration and intelligence network in handling Mathura incident. The administration was aware of 3000 people with weapons there, but could not handle them" the BJP MP from Mathura told media.

On Friday, the BJP MP had to face staunch criticism for posting pictures of her movie shoot when her Parliamentary constituency Mathura was hit by violence, yesterday evening. However, soon after, she was trolled on Twitter for sharing the images in the wake of the clashes, she deleted her tweets and said she was unaware of the happenings as she was busy with her shooting.

"So so upset by the news from a place which is so dear to me, Will go there again if my presence is required. My heart goes out to the bereaved (sic),'' she tweeted.

Malini also sent out her ''heartfelt condolences' to families of police officers 'who laid down their lives in the line of duty.'

The actress also appealed to the people of the district to 'remain calm' and not get 'misguided by violent elements'.

The BJP said Malini is 'extremely sensitive' to the situation and will reach Mathura soon but insisted that the issue should not be used as a 'diversion' as law and order is the state governments responsibility and not that of the local MP.

The BJP came out in defence of its MP saying 'she has already expressed grief over the incident.' I am sure Hema Malini ji will go to Mathura, she has expressed her grief over what has happened. Let's not divert from the issue, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told media.

On Thursday, a mob went on rampage after police took action against them for encroaching upon a major part of a government land. The situation got out of control after the Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena (SBSS) activists opened fire at the police party that attempted to evict the Jawahar Park.

By Friday evening, the toll in the Mathura violence had gone up to 24. Those killed include Mathura Superintendent of Police (City) Mukul Dwivedi, Farah Police Station SHO Santosh Yadav and 20 protesters. Among the dead were superintendent of police, Mukul Dwivedi, and Farah station house officer, Santosh Yadav. More than 40 people were left injured in the incident.

While 250 people have been detained for their involvement in the incident, the city continues to be tense even as heavy police reinforcements have been deployed in the violence-hit region.
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday raised compensation amount to the next of kin of two slain police officers in Mathura clash from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav also announced extraordinary pension to the families of two martyred policemen and job to one member from each family, an official release said.

The Chief Minister, who is in the eye of a storm over the violence that claimed 24 lives, said in Mahoba in Bundelkhand, "the government is with the bereaved families of two slain police officers -- SP (City) Mukul Dwivedi and Station House Officer Santosh Kumar in this time of sorrow."

He said the state government would extend all help in rehabilitation of their dependents.

"It is a terrible loss. It is a matter of great sorrow. Their family members are facing troubled times," Yadav said.

Earlier in the day, BSP supremo Mayawati charged the chief minister with not taking the Mathura violence seriously.

"Rather than touring Bundelkhand, he should have been visiting Mathura today," she said, and demanded a judicial or Supreme Court-monitored or CBI probe into the incident.

BJP President Amit Shah demanded resignation of Cabinet Minister Shivpal Yadav, who is also uncle of the chief minister and is highly influential in the Samajwadi Party.

Addressing a public function in Kanpur today, Shah indirectly held Shivpal responsible for the Mathura incident.
Mathura: As Mathura, the 'temple town' witnessed massive violence that claimed 24 lives, including an SP and SHO, questions galore about Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, an outfit claiming to owe allegiance to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, which had illegally set its camp in Jawahar Bagh.

The obscure group led by Ram Vraksha Yadav, which forcefully encroached on 260-acre government land, been making demands like cancellation of election of President and Prime Minister of India.

The agitators describe themselves as 'Satyagrahis', had been making unrealistic demands which include:

Diesel and petrol be made available to public at the rate of 60 litres and and 40 litres for Re 1 respectively.

Discontinuation of the Indian currency and introduction of Azad Hind Fauj's currency.

The 270 acre Jawahar Bagh be handed over to te outfit.

No police action to be taken on the 'Satyagrahis'.

Banning non-vegetarian food across the country and thereby, punishing people who consume non-veg food.

Ram Vraksha Yadav, who has been termed as the main accused in Mathura violence by the Uttar Pradesh Police, was once associated with Jai Gurudev.

A report published in 'Times of India' said, Yadav formed his own group later and once told the Supreme Court that he would produce Netaji (Subhas Chandra Bose) in public and to be hanged if he failed to do so."

However, a year later, Yadav told his followers that he was 'Subhas Chandra Bose' himself.

The group, which calls itself 'Satyagrahis' or revolutionaries, started its 'Sandesh yatra' from Sagar district in Madhya Pradesh in 2015, travelled through many states before finally occupying the 270-acre government land in Mathura over which massive clashes took place on Thursday.

The Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi and Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena are the two groups that have been protesting at Jawahar Bagh for a very long time.

Police said the group includes people from different parts of Uttar Pradesh including Ghazipur and Badayun as well as from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh and few from Nepal.

It all started when on April 15, the Mathura administration gave a 48-hour ultimatum to evict the land to the outfit, but no one paid any heed to it. On May 25, the administration once again made an attempt to evict them but failed.

The violence started on Thursday after a mob went on rampage over police took action against them for encroaching upon a major part of a government land. The situation got out of control after the Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena (SBSS) activists opened fire at the police party that attempted to evict the Jawahar Park. The toll in the Mathura violence reached up to 24 by Friday.

Mathura District Magistrate Rajesh Kumar said the activists were followers of Baba Jai Gurudeo and have named their outfit as 'Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrahi.

Police recovered 58 weapons and 184 used and live cartridges from the violence-hit region.

While around 300 people have been detained for their involvement in the clash, the city continues to be tense even as heavy police reinforcement has been deployed.
Lucknow: Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Saturday said that the ruling Samajwadi Party government isnt taking the Mathura incident seriously and demanded a CBI probe into the violence.

"The Chief Minister is touring Bundelkhand and not visiting Mathura. The Samajwadi Party government is not taking this incident seriously," Mayawati said.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief today demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or court-monitored investigation into deaths of 24 people who died during an anti- encroachment drive on Thursday in Jawahar bagh in Mathura. Those killed include Superintendent of Police Mukul Dwivedi.

Other opposition parties, especially the BJP, has targetted the ruling party as well over 'complete breakdown' of the administration and law and order in the state.

While, Yadav has ordered a commissioner-level inquiry into the violence, the Centre has sought a report from the state government as well.

24 people, including an SP and SHO, were killed in clashes between police and members of a sect who had encroached on government land in Mathura on Thursday.

Mayawati also criticised BJP President Amit Shah for sharing food with Dalits in Varanasi and said such 'gimmicks' do not work or get translated into votes. "BJP should dimnish such ideas from its mind," she said.

The BSP supremo claimed that atrocities on Dalits were increasing in Uttar Pradesh as well as all over the country and cited the Rohit Vemula case where, she said, justice has not been given to the family so far.
Washington: US President Barack Obama has condemned the violence at a California rally of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying "that is not what our democracy is about".

"It is very important for us to remind ourselves of who we are and what is best about American democracy and not slip into some of the bad habits that currently manifest themselves in the other party," Obama said at a fundraiser in Florida.

"We saw in San Jose these protesters starting to pelt stuff on Trump supporters. That is not what our democracy is about. That is not what you do. There is no room for violence.

"There is no place for shouting. There is no room for a politics that fails to at least listen to the other side even if you vehemently disagree because I believe if you have got the better argument, you do not need to do that. Just go out there and organise and persuade," Obama said referring to the violence against Trump supporters at a California rally.

Trump, 69, has denounced the protesters as "thugs" a day after another demonstration outside one of his rallies turned violent ahead of the state's presidential primary.

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, 68, also condemned the violence, saying this does not help anybody.

"I condemn all violence in our political arena. I condemned it when Donald Trump was inciting it and congratulating people who were engaging in it, I condemn it by those who are taking violent protest to physical assault against Donald Trump. This has to end," she told the CNN as she blamed trump for creating such an environment.

"He set a very bad example. He created an environment in which it seemed to be acceptable for someone running for president to be inciting violence, to be encouraging his supporters. Now we are seeing people who are against him responding in kind - it should all stop. It is not acceptable.

"I do not think any of this helps anybody. I do not think his protests that were led by his supporters, beating up people who were peacefully protesting against Trump, helped Trump and I do not think that people who are protesting and using physical violence against people supporting Trump are helping anybody, so I want it to just end," she said.

"I do not want to parse it, I do not want to talk bout the political implications. I want it to end. The police have a hard enough job trying to make sure that we are able to gather and talk about the issues facing our country and Trump has lowered the bar and now, is it a surprise that people who do not like him are stepping over that low bar? I do not think it is. He needs to condemn all violence by everyone. I already have, I will continue to do so," Clinton added.
New York: A British man was sentenced to 15 years in a US prison for conspiring to import 100 kilos (220 pounds) of North Korean methamphetamines into the United States.

Scott Stammers, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in August 2015, will be deported after serving his 181-month sentence.

Dressed in khaki pants and an olive top, Stammers declined an opportunity to address the New York court.

"No. I'm fine, thank you very much sir," he told US Federal Judge Andrew Carter yesterday.

Stammers had faced a sentence of up to 30 years, but the judge cited mitigating factors that included the fact that he has two children and was held in harsh conditions in Thailand before being extradited.

He said the defendant's "somewhat difficult upbringing" was another reason, as was his past use of alcohol, cocaine and methamphetamine, which "may have contributed to his involvement in this offense."

"Mr Stammers I wish you the best of luck. I hope you can get your life back on track," said Carter, expressing hope that the defendant can be the father that "your children need you to be."

He was one of five defendants arrested in Thailand in September 2013 on suspicion of preparing to ship the drugs by boat.

Two of his co-defendants belonged to a criminal gang, which claimed to have stockpiled a ton of North Korean methamphetamines in the Philippines for storage, according to US court documents.

Stammers lived in the Philippines prior to his arrest and was involved in operational details of criminal activity in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, US prosecutors said.

Court documents described him as a poor student and said he got first job in private security at 18.

Within a year he was stabbed on the job, but went onto make "a good living" handling security matters across Southeast Asia, according to court filings.

Despite difficulties at school, he developed a working knowledge of Tagalog, spoken in the Philippines, Thai and Cantonese, they added.
Singapore: China on Saturday said that it will ignore the decision of an international arbitration panel in a Philippine lawsuit against Beijing's sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea.

"To put it simply, the arbitration case actually has gone beyond the jurisdiction" of a UN arbitration panel, said Rear Adm. Guan Youfei, director of the foreign affairs office of China's National Defence Ministry.

The Philippines has filed a case in the United Nations under the UN Convention on Law of the Sea, questioning China's territorial claim in the South China Sea.

An arbitration panel is expected to rule on the case soon. The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled last year that it has jurisdiction over the case despite China's rejection. "Because the territorial and sovereignty disputes have not been subjected to the arbitration, we think the arbitration is illegal," Guan told reporters on the sidelines of an international security conference here.

"Therefore, we do not participate in it not accept it." Guan's statement is a reiteration of China's longstanding position that it wants to settle its disputes with various countries on a bilateral basis and that it will not accept international mediation.

Still, it gains significance because of the overtures made by Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, who said recently that he is open to bilateral negotiations with China.

This has given Beijing an opening that it hopes to leverage in the event the panel rules in favour of the Philippines.

China also has conflicting claims in the sea with Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam and Brunei, who all are looking for US help, much to Beijing's chagrin.

"The new Philippine leader also said that the Philippines hopes to conduct a dialogue with China," Guan said. "We hope the Philippines could get back on to the track of dialogue. The door to dialogue is always open."
Paris: The death toll from the flooding in France has risen to four, officials said today, as the water level of the Seine river in Paris slowly started to decrease after reaching its peak overnight.

But authorities warned it could take up to ten days for the river to return to normal after swelling to its highest level in nearly 35 years, about 4.5 meters above average.

The death toll from the flooding across the country has risen to four while 24 people have been injured, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said after a meeting at a government crisis centre today.

He didn't give any more details about the additional death, which brings the total death toll across Europe from the flooding in recent days to 17.

Valls said the water level of the Seine is now decreasing "slowly but steadily" in Paris and that several ministerial meetings will be held next week to ensure quick financial help to the people affected.

He also urged Paris visitors and residents to "take care to observe safety precautions" since many have been walking along the river banks to observe the rare phenomena.

Nearly a week of heavy rain led to serious flooding across parts of France, Germany, Romania and Belgium.

French energy company Enedis said over 17,000 homes were still without electricity Saturday in the Paris region and central France.

Authorities have shut the Louvre museum, the national library, the Orsay museum and the Grand Palais, Paris' striking glass-and-steel topped exhibition center.

The Louvre, home to Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," said it won't reopen until Wednesday. Curators were scrambling to move some 250,000 artworks from basement storage areas at risk of flooding to safer areas upstairs.

The Orsay Museum, known for its impressionist art, closed through the weekend.

Several railway and subway stations shut down in Paris city center and drivers experienced traffic problems in and around the French capital because of flooded roads.

Valls said authorities have "no major concern" any more regarding other rail and subway services, yet boats and barges docked in the capital were being carefully watched to ensure none would cast off their moorings.

Nicolas Hainsohn, resident of a boathouse on the Seine, said the situation was exceptional but added that "it's just water."

"We are used to this. We've seen it once or twice," he told The Associated Press. "It's tricky to dock, because you need to follow the water flow, you have to be careful, otherwise you can hit the river bank."

France's meteorological service said today that high flood alerts remained in effect in 14 regions, mostly in central and western France, including Paris.

Although the rain has tapered off in some areas, possible floods were expected over the weekend downstream along the Seine river, in the region of Normandy.
Brasilia: The suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Friday categorically rejected allegations that some of the funds embezzled by the Petrobras corruption ring were used to pay for her personal expenses.

None of Rousseff's personal costs "were paid through illegal schemes or through corruption," Rousseff's office said in a press release, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Once again, there is an attempt to impugn the president's honour in order to manipulate public opinion and make the impeachment process easier. While attempting a coup, they resort to lies," it said.

According to an article published in O Globo, funds embezzled from Petrobas, Brazil's state-owned oil company, in particular from the purchase of a refinery in Pasadena, California, were used to pay bills with Rousseff's personal hair stylist, Celso Kamura.

However, Rousseff's press release detailed all services and payments made to Kamura, saying that none were paid illegally.

"All the personal costs of the president have a proven origin," it read.

Rousseff will seek reparations in the court "for all the defamatory accusations made against her," it said.

Rousseff was temporarily removed from office in May for up to 180 days after the Senate agreed to impeach her, and Vice President Michel Temer from the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party took up the presidency on a temporary basis.

With no charges of corruption weighing against her, Rousseff is being judged for administrative misconduct and disregard for the federal budget as well as delaying payments to public banks, which is known as "fiscal pedaling".
Redding, US: Donald Trump singled out a black supporter at a rally in California as he sought to demonstrate his support among African-Americans, saying, "Look at my African-American over here!"

At the yesterday rally, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was in the middle of describing a past campaign event, at which he said a black supporter "slugged" protesters who were dressed in a "Ku Klux Klan outfit."

"I want to find out what's going on with him," Trump said of the supporter at the previous rally. He then appeared to spot a black person in the audience of Friday's event in northern California.

"Oh, look at my African-American over here," an excited Trump said, while pointing into the crowd. "Look at him. Are you the greatest? You know what I'm talking about? OK!" Polls have consistently shown that when it comes to support among African-American voters, Trump trails his likely general election opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

After pointing out the audience member, Trump then went on with his story, which appeared to match the events of a March rally that took place in Arizona.

"We had an African-American guy at one of the rallies a month ago, and he was sitting there behaving," Trump said.

"And we had protesters inside the arena. And they were dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit, OK?

"This African-American gets up and, man, he slugged these guys. He slugged them."

Trump said many people thought the black supporter at the earlier rally was an opponent of his campaign.

"He was like this great guy, military guy, we have tremendous African-American support," he said. "The reason is I'm going to bring jobs back to our country."

Trump spent much of the Redding rally bashing Clinton. He also pledged to "play heavy in California" in an effort to capture the Electoral College's biggest prize in November.
California: Hillary Clinton doubled down Friday in attacking Donald Trump, branding her likely Republican presidential opponent a peddler of "lies" and proclaiming she will be the Democratic flagbearer once California votes next week.

"We need everybody to show up on June 7," Clinton told a few hundred supporters at a college in Culver City, California.

"If all goes well, I will have the great honor as of Tuesday to be the Democratic nominee for president," she said to loud cheers.

Clinton was spending a full day campaigning in the Los Angeles area, wooing primary voters as she aims to thwart rival Bernie Sanders once and for all and fully turn toward a likely bruising battle against Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Democrats in six states vote Tuesday, including California and New Jersey. Clinton is already on the cusp of securing enough delegates to win the nomination and she is certain to surpass the threshold on June 7.

Sanders has been barnstorming California, hoping for a miracle in which he wins the remaining contests and many so-called super-delegates, senior party figures who can vote at the party convention for whomever they choose, switch alliances and support him.

Clinton supporters were having none of it.

"Spoiler alert: Hillary wins," read several T-shirts at the Culver City event.For a second straight day Clinton leveled withering criticism at Trump over his character, stream of insults and lack of coherent foreign policies.

She labeled Trump "temperamentally unfit" and otherwise unprepared to lead the United States.

"He just engages in rants and personal feuds and outright lies, something our nation cannot afford in our commander in chief," the former secretary of state said.

More than a dozen women -- actresses, members of Congress, and civil servants -- joined her on stage in Culver City to offer their support.

"She is bad-ass, and she is ready to lead," US House Democrat Linda Sanchez boomed.

While Clinton has upped her attacks on Trump as a "fraud," Trump has drilled into Clinton as dishonest and "crooked."Trump on Friday also hit out at the protesters -- "thugs" -- who clashed with his supporters in California the previous evening, the latest in a string of his rallies to be marred by violence.

"Rally last night in San Jose was great. Tremendous love and enthusiasm in the hall. Big crowd. Outside, small group of thugs burned Am flag!" the candidate tweeted.

Hundreds of demonstrators insulted Trump supporters as they tried to leave the event in San Jose. One supporter was hit with an egg, and according to the Los Angeles Times a dozen or more people were punched.

Crowds had earlier chanted "No hate in our state" and carried signs that read "Dump Trump" as they marched near the convention center.

Hispanics outnumber whites in California, the most populous state in the country, and many have been deeply shocked by Trump`s characterization of Mexican immigrants as "rapists" and his pledge to build a wall along the southern US border.

Trump stepped up attacks Friday against the judge handling a class action lawsuit by former students of Trump University who paint the entrepreneur program as a scam -- insisting the jurist`s Mexican heritage prevents him from being impartial.

The tycoon told the Wall Street Journal there was "an inherent conflict of interest" for Gonzalo Curiel to rule on the case. The judge was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants.

Trump`s attack on the judge earned swift condemnation from House Speaker Paul Ryan, the nation`s top elected Republican, who only a day earlier said he would vote for the billionaire in November after weeks of hesitation.

"It`s reasoning I don`t relate to. I completely disagree with the thinking behind that," Ryan said in a radio interview.
London: The machine Hitler used to send coded messages to his generals met the supercomputer that revealed its secrets today, watched on by veteran operatives whose painstaking work helped bring World War II to an end.

Scientists at Bletchley Park in southern England, the WWII code breaking headquarters, fired up the valves, whirring wheels and spinning tors of the two machines to recreate how German military chiefs sent secret messages and how they were deciphered.

Hitler's Lorenz machine boasted 1.6 million billion possible coding combinations thanks to a series of twelve rotors, a million times more complex than the more feted Enigma machine.

Through luck and the ingenuity of engineer Tommy Flowers, scientists were able to deduce how the machine operated and then build a machine to work out the settings of Lorenz's rotors.

"Colossus" is regarded as the world's first programmable, electronic digital computer, but received little attention as the project was kept secret for decades, depriving those responsible of due accolades.

Among those watching at the National Museum of Computing were Margaret Bullen, who helped build Colossus, and some of the remaining operatives who fed encrypted German messages into the machine, including Irene Dixon, now in her nineties.

It was only decades after the war that Dixon discovered she had been processing the most sensitive of information.

"We found out we were intercepting coded messages sent by Hitler to his generals," she told AFP.

"Hitler would've been furious if he had known, we were decrypting the messages even before his generals were".

Information gleaned using Colossus helped the Allies confirm that Hitler mistakenly believed the D-Day landings would target Calais, and experts believe the supercomputer may have shortened the war by two years.

Dixon and other "Wrens" from the women's branch of the Royal Navy were sworn to secrecy, and even other workers at Bletchley Park were unaware of the existence of the massive computer, which took up a whole room.

"Some of the Wrens did ask why it was so hot (close to the Colossus room), and some used to dry their washing next door," recalled Dixon.

The main Lorenz cypher machine is on loan from the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo, but the special keyboard used to send the message to the rotors is a recent discovery.
Baghdad: Iraqi security forces on Saturday liberated Saqlawiyah town from Islamic State (IS) militants near the IS-held city of Fallujah in the western province of Anbar, a provincial security source said.

Around noon, the forces and allied paramilitary Shia and Sunni units, known as Hashd Shaabi, entered the town in the northwest of Fallujah, and recaptured the central part of it, Xinhua cited the source as saying.

The troops took control of the government building and raised the Iraqi flag while continuing to drive out IS militants from the town, the source said.

The advance in Saqlawiyah came after several days of clashes with the militants.

The troops are fighting to enter Fallujah, but were slowed down by heavy resistance from IS militants inside the city, in addition to hundreds of hidden bombs believed to be planted by the terrorists.

The forces also wanted to avoid heavy casualties among tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside Fallujah.

On May 23, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the launch of the offensive to claim Fallujah.

Government troops and allied militias have 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.
The Hague: Initial results from a criminal inquiry into the downing of a Malaysia Airlines flight over war-torn eastern Ukraine nearly two years ago will be available within months, Dutch prosecutors have said.

The results are expected to shed light on the exact type of missile used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board, and exactly where it was fired from.

"After this summer, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) will present the first results of the criminal investigation into the crash of flight MH17," the public prosecutor said in a statement released late yesterday.

"It concerns the weapon which was used to shoot down the aircraft and the exact launch site of the weapon," it said, noting that the inquiry was at "a very advanced stage".

However, investigators on the Dutch-led team, which includes experts from Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine, were still awaiting information from Moscow about BUK missile installations, it said, noting that they were expecting an answer "within two months".

In October, an international inquiry concluded that the Boeing 777, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down by a Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile fired from a zone held by pro-Russian separatists, but stopped short of saying who was responsible.

Results of the latest investigation will not be published in a report, however, but will be included in a criminal file "which is intended for the hearing of the case in a court or a tribunal," the prosecutor said, indicating this was normal procedure in criminal cases.

Earlier this week, families of six Malaysian crew members filed suit against the airline for negligence and breach of contract, their lawyer said, and the carrier could also face similar action from more MH17 next-of-kin over loss of earnings as well as compensation for the "psychological" trauma of losing loved ones.

Last month, relatives of victims from Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia launched legal action against Russia and its President Vladimir Putin in the European Court of Human Rights, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Documents filed by their lawyers allege that Moscow has worked to keep its involvement in the plane disaster hidden.
Lagos: Nigerian troops killed 19 Boko Haram militants during clashes in northeast Borno state, while two soldiers suffered gunshot wounds, the army said Saturday.

Acting upon an intelligence report on the presence of Boko Haram fighters in the militants` Chukungudu camp, troops and civilian JTF (joint task force) members, launched the attack on Friday.

"During the encounter at the camp, the troops killed 19 Boko Haram terrorists including their notorious leader in the area, called Ameer Abubakar Gana," the statement said.

There was no independent confirmation of the army statement.

The two soldiers who suffered gunshot wounds were said to be responding to treatment.

The troops destroyed an improvised explosive devices (IED) making factory, detonated four primed IEDs, recovered two anti-aircraft guns and other weapons and vehicles.

Boko Haram`s seven-year insurgency has devastated infrastructure in the impoverished northeast region and forced some 2.1 million people in Nigeria to flee their homes, according to the UN`s refugee agency.
Butig: Philippine troops captured an Islamic militant training camp after a 10-day battle, officials said, as part of operations to clear insurgents from a remote jungle region.

The offensive against the Maute group, one of several Filipino Muslim armed organisations which have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, left four soldiers dead and 15 others wounded, a Philippine military commander told an AFP photographer at the scene.

Surrounded by swamps and a lowland tropical rainforest in the small, Muslim-populated farming town of Butig, more than 800 kilometres (500 miles) south of Manila, the camp`s structures were riddled with large bullet holes that soldiers said were caused by machine gun fire used to flush out the militants.

Soldiers said they killed dozens of militants, but there was no sign of dead bodies when the military allowed journalists into the area on Friday.

Unexploded improvised explosive devices, a grenade launcher, a rebel uniform and a black Islamic State flag were all that were left in the wooden huts and concrete-reinforced trenches, which were used by the gunmen, army Colonel Roseller Murillo said.

"The Maute group is believed to be on the run and in hiding, (but) the military will fully enforce the law if they initiate other terrorist activities in the area," he told AFP.

The offensive was launched after the militants moved back into territory that the military secured during clashes in February, they said.

Once described by the military as a small-time extortion gang, the Maute group attacked a remote army outpost in Butig in February, triggering a week of fighting that the military said left six soldiers and at least 12 militants dead.

The group, believed to have fewer than 100 fighters, blew up power transmission towers and abducted and beheaded two employees of a local sawmill in April.

Murillo said the latest military offensive began on May 24. The fighting displaced about 2,000 residents, according to the military.

The southern Philippines has been plagued by a Muslim separatist insurgency for over four decades, with the conflict leaving more than 120,000 dead.
Vatican City: Pope Francis has established legal procedures to remove bishops who botch handling sex abuse cases, saying they can be kicked out of office if the Vatican finds they were negligent in doing their jobs.

In a law published on Saturday, Francis answered a long-running demand by victims of abuse and their advocates to hold bishops accountable for failing to protect their flocks from pedophiles. Victims have long accused bishops of covering up for abuse, moving rapists from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police.

In the law, Francis acknowledged that the church's canonical code already allows for a bishop to be removed for "grave reasons."



But he said he wanted to precisely state that negligence, especially negligence in handling abuse cases, can cost a bishop his job.

Bishops "must undertake a particular diligence in protecting those who are the weakest among their flock," Francis wrote in the law, called a motu proprio.

The statute alters the original proposal approved by Francis last year to establish a tribunal inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to hear negligence cases.

Francis' sex abuse advisory board had recommended that the Congregation prosecute negligent bishops because it is already responsible for overseeing actual sex abuse cases against clergy.

But amid a host of legal and bureaucratic questions posed by that original proposal, Francis decided to streamline the procedure and task the Vatican offices that are already in charge of handling bishop issues to investigate and punish negligence cases.

In the law, Francis said a bishop can be removed if his actions or omissions cause "grave harm," either physical, moral, spiritual or financial, to individuals or communities.

The bishop himself doesn't need to be morally guilty: It's enough if he is purely lacking in the diligence required of his office. When the cases concern abuse, it's enough that the negligence is "serious," the law says.

The procedures call for the Vatican to start an investigation when "serious evidence" is provided that a bishop was negligent. The bishop will be informed and allowed to defend himself.

At the end of the investigation, the Vatican can prepare a decree removing the bishop or ask him to resign within 15 days.

If he doesn't, the Vatican can go ahead with issuing a resignation decree.

Any decision to remove the bishop must first be approved by the pope, who will be assisted by a group of legal advisers, the law says.
Beirut: Russian-backed Syrian troops pushed into the Islamic State group`s bastion province Raqa Saturday, threatening to catch the jihadists in a pincer movement as US-backed Kurdish-led fighters advance from the north.

The lightning advance from the southwest with Russian air support brought the army to within 40 kilometres (25 miles) of the Euphrates Valley town of Tabqa, site of the country`s biggest dam, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said.

The dam, 40 kilometres (25 miles) upstream from the jihadists` de facto Syrian capital Raqa city, is also the target of the Washington-backed offensive which Kurdish-led fighters launched late last month.

It was the first time that government troops had entered Raqa province since they were ousted by IS fighters in August 2014.

Regular army troops were backed by militia newly trained by the regime`s ally Russia, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

He said that the twin offensives which threaten to cut off IS-held Raqa from jihadist-held territory along the Turkish border raised suspicions that Moscow and Washington were covertly coordinating operations by their respective Syrian allies.

"It seems there has been an undeclared coordination between Washington and Moscow," he said.

At least 26 jihadists and nine government troops and militia were killed in the army`s advance, according to the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on reports from medics and activists on the ground.

Tabqa dam has a huge reservoir named Lake Assad after President Bashar al-Assad`s late father and predecessor Hafez.

When IS overran the area with its garrison and airbase in 2014, it summarily executed 160 captured regime troops.The jihadists are facing counter-attacks on multiple fronts.

Arab and Kurdish fighters backed by Washington have launched an assault on the strategic Manbij pocket further up the Euphrates on the Turkish border, regarded as a key entry point for foreign jihadists.

Hundreds of kilometres (miles) downstream in neighbouring Iraq, elite Iraq troops have launched an assault on the emblematic IS bastion of Fallujah.

Washington has deployed more than 200 special forces troops in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which it regards as the most effective fighting force on the ground against IS in Syria.

The SDF controls a large swathe of northeastern Syria along the Turkish border and another border enclave in the northwest.

The SDF`s offensive against the Manbij pocket is aimed at seizing the last stretch of border still under IS control and denying the jihadists any opportunity to smuggle in recruits and funds.

The US military said the assault had captured more than 100 square kilometres (40 square miles) of territory from IS this week.

IS has hit back with an offensive against two towns held by non-jihadist rebels further west in a bid to enlarge the territory it holds on the border.

Washington has dropped ammunition to the rebels defending the town of Marea in a bid to stop jihadists overrunning it, a US official confirmed.

The supply lines from neighbouring Turkey have made the northern border region one of the most contested battlegrounds of Syria`s five-year-civil war.

The region is now controlled by a myriad of rival armed groups, although IS and the SDF have put other rebel groups on the back foot.

Washington`s support for the SDF has strained relations with NATO ally Ankara as its largest component is the Kurdish People`s Protection Units (YPG).

Ankara regards the YPG as an arm of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

To allay Turkish concerns, Washington has sought to boost the Arab element in the SDF particularly as it advances into non-Kurdish areas.

The increasingly complex front lines have left hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped by fighting or living under siege.

Damascus said on Friday that it was ready to allow desperately needed relief convoys into 12 besieged areas but the United Nations said it was preparing to seek the government`s permission to organise air drops.

ram/kir/dr
Beirut: Syrian troops pushed into the Islamic State group`s bastion province Raqa on Saturday for the first time since 2014, in an advance towards the country`s largest dam, a monitor said.

The Tabqa dam on the Euphrates River, 40 kilometres (25 miles) upstream from Raqa city, is also the target of a separate offensive launched by US-backed Kurdish-led forces advancing from the north late last month.

"Regime troops backed by Russian air strikes and Russian-trained militia entered Raqa province on Saturday morning for the first time since August 2014,", Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Washington: Syrian rebels advancing on Islamic State group fighters in the strategic northern city of Manbij have seized more than 100 square kilometers this week, the US military has said.

US Central Command spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder said yesterday that more than 55 air strikes have been conducted since the offensive began on Monday, and that the rebel forces had secured areas on the western bank of the Euphrates River.

"They are facing some heavy resistance from ISIL, which was expected" but "are continuing to move forward," he added, using an acronym for the IS group.

Manbij is located along a route connecting Raqa -- the IS group's de facto capital -- to the Turkish border, a vital conduit for supplies.

A rebel victory would inflict one of the largest strategic defeats on the IS group since it proclaimed its rule over territory in Iraq and Syria two years ago.

Retaking Manbij would "cut this key route to prevent ISIL from using it to move fighters, weapons, finances, supplies into and out of Syria and Iraq," Ryder said.

Some 3,000 local Arab fighters are taking part in the offensive, backed by around 500 Kurdish militia members.

"They are from this area, they are liberating their hometown," Ryder said.

US special forces are also working "at the command and control level" in the operation, he added.

The United States has sought to mobilize Arab groups in the ground offensive against the IS group since the launch of the US-led coalition campaign in September 2014.

With little success so far, a victory for Arab rebels in Manbij would provide welcome news for the White House.
Beijing: Security was tightened around Tiananmen Square on the 27th anniversary on Saturday of China's bloody military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests, pointing to the enduring sensitivity over the events with the Chinese leadership.

Police checked IDs and searched the bags of anyone seeking to enter the environs of the vast public space in the centre of the capital where thousands of students, workers and ordinary citizens gathered in 1989 to demand political reforms.

Journalists from The Associated Press were stopped, filmed and ultimately forced to leave the area, ostensibly for lacking proper permission.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people were killed as tanks and troops converged on Beijing on the night of June 3-4, 1989.

The topic remains taboo in China and any form of commemoration, whether public or private, is banned.

Memorials were planned in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong and in self-governing Taiwan, where some former student leaders have found refuge.

Ahead of the anniversary, family members of those killed in the crackdown were placed under additional restrictions, either confined to their homes or forced to leave the capital.

China's government has rejected their calls for an independent accounting of the events and those killed and maimed by soldiers.

At least half a dozen people have reportedly been detained in recent days for attempting to commemorate the events, although a small group wearing T-shirts condemning the crackdown converged on the square last Sunday.

Among them was former house painter Qi Zhiyong, who had both of his legs amputated after being shot by troops.

In Washington, the US State Department called for a "full public accounting of those killed, detained, or missing and for an end to censorship of discussions about the events of June 4, 1989, as well as an end to harassment and detention of those who wish to peacefully commemorate the anniversary."

In a statement, it also urged the Chinese government to respect the rights and freedoms of all its citizens.

Asked yesterday about the anniversary, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China had "long ago reached a clear conclusion about the political turmoil at the end of 1980s and other related issues."

China's explosive economic growth in the years that followed "proves that the path of socialism with Chinese characters we chose to follow ... Is in line with the fundamental interests of the Chinese people, and it represents a wish shared by them all," Hua told reporters at a daily news briefing.
Singapore: Chinese construction on a South China Sea islet claimed by the Philippines would prompt "actions being taken" by the United States and other nations, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned Saturday.

Speaking at a security summit in Singapore, Carter said Beijing risks building a "Great Wall of self-isolation" with its military expansion in the contested waters, but he also proposed stronger bilateral security cooperation to reduce the risks of a mishap.

"I hope that this development doesn't occur because it will result in actions being taken both by the United States, and actions being taken by others in the region that will have the effect of not only increasing tensions but isolating China," Carter said when asked about Scarborough Shoal in a forum also attended by senior Chinese military officials.

Rear Admiral Guan Youfei, who heads the Chinese office of international military cooperation, quickly attacked the Pentagon chief`s remarks, telling journalists they reflected a "Cold War mentality".

He said any sanctions against China will "definitely result in failure".

Hong Kong`s South China Morning Post has reported that China plans to establish an outpost on the shoal, located 230 kilometres (140 miles) off the Philippines, which considers it part of its exclusive economic zone.

Beijing claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea and has developed contested reefs into artificial islands, some topped with airstrips.

Manila says China took effective control of Scarborough Shoal in 2012, stationing patrol vessels and shooing away Filipino fishermen, after a two-month stand-off with the Philippine Navy.

Carter declined to elaborate when later pressed on what "actions" Washington might take.

The US warning comes ahead of a ruling from the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague on a case brought by the Philippines against China, which has shunned the proceedings and says it will not recognise any ruling.

In a prepared speech, Carter said the US views the upcoming ruling "as an opportunity for China and the rest of the region to recommit to a principled future, to renewed diplomacy, and to lowering tensions, rather than raising them".The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam have competing claims in the sea, which encompasses vital global shipping routes and is believed to have significant oil and gas deposits.

Beijing`s territorial claims, based on controversial historical records, have also pitted it against the US, which has conducted patrols near Chinese-held islands to press for freedom of navigation.

"Unfortunately, if these (Chinese) actions continue, China could end up erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation," Carter said in his speech.

He suggested the US and China would benefit from better military ties to avoid the risk of mishaps.

Pentagon officials say two Chinese fighters last month conducted an "unsafe" intercept of a US spy plane in international air space over the South China Sea.

Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US Pacific Command, said in Singapore that such incidents were rare, and noted that US and Chinese naval vessels generally have "positive interactions".

Carter`s attendance at the summit is part of a broader US diplomatic push, known as the "rebalance", to boost alliances in the Asia-Pacific region.

In a report last month, the Pentagon said China put its land reclamation efforts on hold in the Spratly Islands chain at the end of 2015. Instead, it focused on adding military infrastructure to its reclaimed features.

Another regional security concern at the Singapore forum is North Korea`s nuclear program and its so-far unsuccessful missile tests.

Seoul and Washington want to deploy the US` sophisticated Terminal High Altitude Area Defence System (THAAD), that would protect against North Korean missiles, though Beijing worries about the system being deployed on its doorstep.

"It`s not about China," Carter said. "It`s about the North Korean missile threat, which is a clear threat to South Korea, to our forces there and to our allies in Japan."

Delegates also discussed ways nations could cooperate to counter the threat of Islamic extremism across the region.
Washington: China risks further alienating regional neighbours and building a "Great Wall of self-isolation" as it pursues its military expansion across the South China Sea, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned Saturday.

Speaking at a security summit in Singapore, Carter said countries across the Asia-Pacific region continue to fret over China`s sweeping claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea, and its attempts to bolster these by creating military bases on reclaimed islets and increasing maritime patrols.

"China`s actions in the South China Sea are isolating it, at a time when the entire region is coming together and networking," Carter said in a speech at an annual forum known as the Shangri-La Dialogue.

"Unfortunately, if these actions continue, China could end up erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation."

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. The contested waters encompass 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.

The Philippines has filed a case against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and a decision is expected in the coming weeks but China has said it will not recognise any ruling.

"The United States views the upcoming ruling ... as an opportunity for China and the rest of the region to recommit to a principled future, to renewed diplomacy, and to lowering tensions, rather than raising them," Carter said. The key to regional security, Carter said, was enhanced military cooperation across the region and the observance of "core principles" such as the peaceful resolution of disputes through legal means and the development of a "principled security network."

"Only when everyone plays by the same rules can we avoid the mistakes of the past, like when countries challenged one another in contests of strength and will, with disastrous consequences for the region," Carter said.

He also suggested the United States and China would benefit from better military ties -- both to build understanding and to avoid the risk of mishaps.

According to the Pentagon, two Chinese fighters last month conducted an "unsafe" intercept of a US spy plane in international air space over the South China Sea, further heightening tensions in the strategically vital waters.

"America wants to expand military-to-military agreements with China to focus not only on risk reduction, but also on practical cooperation," Carter said.

His attendance at the summit is part of a broader US diplomatic push, known as the Asia "rebalance", to build and maintain alliances in the Asia-Pacific region, which America sees as key to its own long-term economic and security interests.

According to a Pentagon report last month, China put its land reclamation efforts on hold in the Spratly Islands chain at the end of 2015. Instead, it focused on adding military infrastructure to its reclaimed features.

In all, China has added more than 3,200 acres (1,295 hectares) of land to the seven features it occupies in the Spratlys, the report found, and it has added lengthy runways to three of these.

The Shangri-La Dialogue is organised by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
YEREVAN, JUNE 3, ARMENPRESS. On the occasion of Bundestags adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolution, Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Galust Sahakyan sent a letter to Bundestag President Norbert Lammert.

The message reads:

Your Excellency,

In the name of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and personally me I express my deep gratitude to you and our colleagues of the Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany for truthfully and with dignity looking at one of the gravest crimes which occurred against humanity, the Armenian Genocide perpetrated in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, and adopting the Resolution recognizing and condemning it.

That document is not only a tribute to the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide, but also a weighty contribution to the international processes in the restoration of the historical truth and prevention of the repetition of similar crimes in the world.

Germany once again proved that it is faithful to the all-human values, truth and morality, which are of prior condition for the peoples peaceful co-existence. The adopted Resolution will be a serious impetus for Turkey to have courage facing its own past.

Your Excellency, accept, please, assurances of my highest consideration.
YEREVAN, JUNE 3, ARMENPRESS. Ombudsman of Armenia Arman Tatoyan on June 3 held a working meeting with the head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, Ambassador Argo Avakov.

Politico-Military Officer at the OSCE Office in Yerevan Bernhard Frankl and National Legal Adviser at the OSCE Office in Yerevan Maria Silvanyan took part in the meeting.

Issues related to strengthening legislative and practical guarantees for human rights protection, as well as the development of capabilities of the Ombudsmans staff, in particular, provincial divisions were discussed.

The sides expressed their willingness to strengthen and expand the mutual cooperation on the protection of human rights and a number of fields of mutual priority.

Ambassador Avakov expressed his willingness to discuss issues of bilateral cooperation.

Ombudsman Tatoyan stressed the important role of the OSCE Office in strengthening the capabilities of the Human Rights Defenders institute in Armenia, as well as he affirmed his readiness to implement joint programs in the field of human rights protection.
YEREVAN, JUNE 3, ARMENPRESS. The world must face the historical reality and recognize the Armenian Genocide. It also should not wait for a century for reacting to what is going on in Artsakh. The world must do it immediately, Spanish writer and author of 4 books on Armenian themes Gonzalo Guarch told the reporters.

I saw the happiness among Armenians over the Bundestag adoption of the resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. The recognition of 1915 events as genocide by Germany is of key importance. It should be regarded as a progress, as nothing could have happened. But here I would like to add something else: if after years Germany remains a country that has merely recognized the genocide I will say that it is too little, Armenpress reports Gonzalo Guarch saying.

Germany accepts its part of guilt 101 years later. Is that enough to face only historical realities? Isnt there a necessity to give real assessments to what is happening in Karabakh? For example for the murder of civilians in Talish. Or 100 years is necessary for that? To this remark of the journalist the Spanish writer noted that the reality is always unjust.

Not only Germany but the entire Europe must react to all that is happening in Artsakh. We know that young people are killed on the border and we all know that Azerbaijan does not respect the ceasefire and many know about the deep ties between Turkey and Azerbaijan. When one understands and does not initiate anything, it is called inaction. Today the European politics is in the phase of inaction, Gonzalo Guarch said.

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan awarded him with the Movses Khorenatsi medal in 2013. He has written 4 books on Armenian theme and has advocated the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Tony Fadell (pictured) founded Nest with Matt Rogers six years ago, launching with a thermostat that synchs to the Internet and learns from use patterns

Nest co-founder Tony Fadell said Friday he was stepping down as head of the Alphabet-owned company to become an advisor to chief executive Larry Page.

Former Apple engineers Fadell and Matt Rogers founded Nest six years ago, launching with a thermostat that synchs to the Internet and learns from use patterns.

Google acquired Nest in early 2014 in a deal valued at $3.2 billion, and it later became a unit of a freshly-formed parent company called Alphabet.

Nest offerings have expanded to include smart home security cameras along with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Nest has also become part of Alphabet's strategy to be a platform for devices to be connected and controlled in smart homes.

"Under Tony's leadership, Nest has catapulted the connected home into the mainstream, secured leadership positions for each of its products, and grown its revenue in excess of 50 percent year-over-year since they began shipping products," Alphabet chief Page said in a statement.

Page hailed Fadell as a "visionary."

The new boss of Nest will be Marwan Fawaz, an industry veteran who has done stints as an executive at Motorola Mobility and Charter Communications.

Cadell said that discussions about him stepping down as Nest chief began last year, and that he felt the company was being put into strong hands with Fawaz at the helm.

"I have decided that the time is right to 'leave the Nest,'" Fadell said in an online post.

He added that his new role as an Alphabet advisor should provide "more time and flexibility to pursue new opportunities to create and disrupt other industries."
The Pfizer logo is seen at their world headquarters in New York April 28, 2014. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File photo (Reuters)

By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former Oppenheimer & Co Inc investment adviser was arrested on Friday on charges he traded on inside information supplied by a childhood friend working at Pfizer Inc <PFE.N> about deals that drugmaker was considering.

David Hobson, who during the alleged scheme also worked for RBC Capital Markets, was charged in an indictment filed in Manhattan federal court for making illegal trades that earned him over $187,000 and about $145,000 for his customers.

His friend, Michael Maciocio, secretly pleaded guilty on May 20 to charges related to the scheme, which ran from 2008 to 2014 and which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a lawsuit said earned him $116,000 from his own insider trading.

Hobson, 47, was arrested at his home in Providence, Rhode Island on charges of conspiracy and securities fraud. He was released later in the day following a court hearing. His lawyer declined comment.

Maciocio, 46, has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors pursuing the case, according to his plea agreement. His lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.

The charges were brought by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who since 2009 has overseen an insider trading crackdown that has resulted in charges against 104 and the conviction of 79.

According to authorities, Maciocio in his role at Pfizer as director of chemical research and development, received information about potential deals relevant to his tasks evaluating manufacturing demands and capacity.

While Maciocio was not typically given the identity of the company in a potential deal, he used the information to perform research to discern its identity, sometimes with Hobson's help, authorities said.

After identifying the company, Maciocio then passed the information to Hobson, who executed trades in accounts belonging to himself, Maciocio, and clients of Oppenheimer and RBC, charging documents said.

The tips enabled Hobson to illegally trade in the stocks of Medivation Inc <MDVN.O>, Ardea Biosciences Inc and Furiex Pharmaceuticals Inc, the indictment said.

Story continues

The former employers of Hobson and Maciocio were not named in the court papers, but Pfizer, Oppenheimer, a unit of Oppenheimer Holdings Inc <OPY.N>, and RBC, a unit of Royal Bank of Canada <RY.TO>, confirmed their employment.

Oppenheimer said it has "cooperated extensively" with authorities. Pfizer said it "takes these allegations seriously and is cooperating fully with the authorities."

The cases in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, are U.S. v. Hobson, No. 16-cr-351, and Securities and Exchange Commission v. Maciocio, No. 16-cv-4139.

(Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Alistair Bell)
FILE PHOTO: Sumner Redstone, executive chairman of CBS Corp. and Viacom, arrives at the premiere of 'The Guilt Trip' in Los Angeles December 11, 2012. REUTERS/Fred Prouser/File Photo (Reuters)

By Jessica Toonkel

(Reuters) - Attorneys for media mogul Sumner Redstone filed a motion on Friday opposing the request by Viacom Inc <VIAB.O> Chief Executive Philippe Dauman to move up the trial over his removal from Redstone's trust, Massachusetts state court papers showed.

In the filing, Redstone's lawyers said the claims by Dauman and Viacom board member George Abrams were motivated by "self interest."

A spokesman for Viacom was not immediately available for comment.

Last month, Redstone removed Dauman and Abrams from the trust that would determine the future of CBS and Viacom after controlling shareholder Redstone, 93, dies or is declared mentally incapacitated.

Dauman fired back with a lawsuit questioning Redstone's mental capacity. He argued that the moves to replace him and Abrams on the trust and the National Amusements Inc board would lead to an unlawful corporate takeover by Sumner's daughter, Shari Redstone.

Dauman has asked the court to hold a trial by the end of September. A hearing on that request is scheduled for Tuesday in Massachusetts. Shari Redstone has said her father made his own decisions.

In Friday's motion, Sumner Redstone's attorneys argued that Dauman and Abrams were enacting "an acutely self-interested legal strategy that they began plotting months earlier to secure their tenuous positions with Viacom."

They also said a majority of the other trustees had ratified the removal of Abrams and Dauman. "Plaintiffs are therefore off the trust, and off the board, even if they could somehow prove the allegations in their complaint," the motion said.

Sumner Redstone's privately held movie theater chain National Amusements holds 80 percent of the voting stock in both Viacom and CBS.

The mogul's attorneys also asked the Massachusetts court to let the case be handled in California, where Sumner Redstone is seeking an order validating Dauman and Abrams' removal. That request was assigned to Judge David Cowan, who in May dismissed a lawsuit by an ex-girlfriend who claimed Sumner Redstone was mentally incompetent.

The outcome of the court cases, and who ends up controlling the trust and the National Amusements board, will have wide-ranging implications for Viacom and CBS shareholders and could result in changes at the top of both companies, possibly through mergers and acquisitions.

(Reporting by Jessica Toonkel in New York; Additional reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Richard Chang)
SATURDAY, June 4, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Biopsies can be arduous and painful for cancer patients, but necessary to accurately diagnose the disease and determine the best course of treatment.

Now, researchers report that a new blood-based "liquid biopsy" could be a groundbreaking alternative.

Doctors used blood drawn from a patient's arm to analyze DNA that tumors typically shed into the bloodstream, explained lead researcher Philip Mack. He is director of molecular pharmacology at the University of California, Davis, Comprehensive Cancer Center.

A study of more than 15,000 patients with 50 different tumor types determined that liquid biopsy can accurately detect mutations in cancer DNA, Mack said.

"If we saw a mutation in the plasma, that meant it was in the tumor," said Mack, who was to present the findings this weekend at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, in Chicago.

Dr. Joshua Brody, director of the Lymphoma Immunotherapy Program at Mount Sinai's Tisch Cancer Institute in New York City, called the research "a big deal. This will be practice-changing."

"This is not quite a Star Trek medical magic wand, but it's getting towards there," Brody said.

However, ASCO Chief Medical Officer Dr. Richard Schilsky noted the study results are encouraging, but do not prove that using a liquid biopsy will result in better patient outcomes.

The research "provides important evidence on the road to proving the clinical utility of liquid biopsies," Schilsky said.

In the study, the researchers used a new genetic scan called Guardant360 that analyzes cancer DNA in patients' blood, looking for mutations in 70 different cancer-related genes. The study received funding from Guardant Health Inc., which produces the test used in the study.

Liquid biopsies provide valuable information for doctors using targeted therapies to treat cancer, Mack said, because they detect when tumors are developing resistance to a particular therapy.

Tumors develop resistance "through the acquisition of new mutations that allow it to circumvent or otherwise ignore a therapeutic option," Mack said. "If we identify what that mutation is, we can treat with a different therapy."

In the study, the most common types of cancer were advanced lung cancer (37 percent), breast cancer (14 percent) and colorectal cancer (10 percent).

It's been known for decades that tumors release their DNA into the bloodstream, particularly in advanced cases where cancer has spread to other parts of the body, Mack said.

"The question has always been whether this can serve as an alternative to a biopsy for diagnosis and for the assignment of appropriate targeted therapy," Mack said.

Mack and his colleagues found that genetic analysis of blood-borne cancer DNA very accurately detected cancer-causing mutations that were also found in tumor tissue samples.

Researchers compared the liquid biopsy results to genetic tests performed on biopsied cancer tissue for 398 of the patients, and found that blood samples contained the same mutations as tissue 94 percent to 100 percent of the time, Mack said.

They also found that the test could detect genetic changes in a cancer that occur as tumors gain resistance to targeted cancer drugs.

Overall, the liquid biopsy revealed possible treatment options for more than 63 percent of patients tested, including FDA-approved drugs as well as eligibility for clinical trials.

Mack expects the cost of a liquid biopsy to be competitive with that of a traditional tissue biopsy, since a blood draw costs less than the cost of an invasive procedure and subsequent processing of dissected tissue.

However, at this point Mack believes a liquid biopsy cannot replace a tissue biopsy when it comes to an initial diagnosis of cancer.

"At this point, we cannot dispense with that initial tumor biopsy," he said. "The initial biopsy and subsequent pathology are what allow us to determine what type of cancer it is and whether it is even cancer at all. That will still be necessary."

"A trained medical pathologist can tell you most of the time what kind of tumor it is based on how the cells look and behave in a tissue sample," Mack continued. "They can say, 'Even though we pulled this from a lesion on your liver, it's actually lung cancer.' "

Mack believes the real value of liquid biopsy will show itself as a patient's cancer treatment proceeds.

Most patients never undergo a second tissue biopsy during treatment to check their progress, "unless there's a compelling therapeutic option available," he said.

Liquid biopsy provides an easier way to keep track of treatment. "You can get a blood draw basically at any time, so you can really monitor the progression of a patient's tumor over time," Mack said.

Brody believes liquid biopsy can also serve as a valuable alternative to tissue biopsy for cancer diagnosis in particular patients.

"We have lots of older or less healthy patients who simply are not great candidates for surgery," Brody said. "For them, it's not this [liquid biopsy] versus tissue biopsy. It's this versus nothing."

Dr. Sumanta Pal, a medical oncologist with City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., agreed with Brody, noting that tissue biopsies can be very difficult to perform in cancers that have spread to the brain or the bone.

"These are very precarious sites to biopsy," Pal said, adding that some patients also might have a bleeding risk that makes tissue biopsy a dangerous option.

"There are many different scenarios where I can imagine this [liquid biopsy] test would be clinically meaningful for diagnosis," Pal said.

Several competing liquid biopsy tests are currently available or under development, Pal added.

While this study focused on gene-based cancer treatment, Brody believes a liquid biopsy also will prove valuable for therapies that use the body's immune system to target cancer cells.

"We will be able to develop similar tests to predict patients' response to immunotherapies," he said.

More information

Visit the American Cancer Society for more on cancer biopsy.
Venezuela protests Caracas

Social unrest has simmered in Venezuela for the last few years, at times breaking out in widespread protests, and tensions have mounted this year, as an opposition-led legislature leads an effort to recall President Nicolas Maduro.

But a protest that broke out near the presidential palace in Caracas on Thursday indicates that the strife has reached a segment of the country critical to the government's popular support.

A group of Venezuelans waiting in line at a supermarket in Caracas made a run for Miraflores, the presidential palace, after they saw what appeared to be people affiliated with the government taking food they had been waiting for hours in the heat to buy.

According to The Associated Press, over 100 people ran down the city's main street, chanting "No more talk. We want food," before encountering riot police less than six blocks from Miraflores.

The protesters clashed with the police, striking their shields, as other Venezuelans leaned out of windows to yell insults at police and bang pots. Police eventually deployed tear gas against the demonstrators.

"We have needs, too. We all need to eat," Jose Lopez, a 23-year-old, told the AP. Lopez said he and other demonstrators were neither supporters nor opponents of the government, "just people trying to feed themselves."

Downtown Caracas, the area around the presidential palace, is "territorio chavista," or government-supporter territory, the government has said. Antigovernment protests are rare in that area, the Latin America Herald Tribune noted. The AP called the demonstration a "rare, apparently spontaneous outburst of anger."

DISTURBIOS CARACAS | Reportan intentos de saqueo en la Av Urdaneta, San Jose y La Candelaria. #QueremosComida pic.twitter.com/0XLFLDtGDt  Saverio Vivas (@saveriovivas) June 2, 2016

"CARACAS DISTURBANCES | Looting attempts reported at [Avenue] Urdaneta, San Jose and La Candelaria. #WeWantFood," this tweet reads in English.

Weiterlesen

"I'm protesting because we're tired of the lines, of not finding products," another protester, 21-year-old Francis Marcano, told AFP.

Jorge Rodriguez, the mayor of Caracas and ally of President Maduro, said the protests was initiated by black-market vendors, who resell scarce goods at what he called "blood prices." He said the government was working to put them out of business. Chuo Torrealba, the opposition leader of the National Assembly, said the protests were "a country acting in self defense."

Venezuela police riot protest Caracas

Venezuela  which has suffered under rolling power blackouts, rampant shortages of food and medicine, widespread violence, and lacking access to running water  has seen "near-daily spontaneous" protests over the last few weeks, according to the AP.

Looting and attempted looting incidents have also risen this year, from about 20 incidents in January to more than 70 in May, according to a local nongovernment organization.

But Thursday's protests seem to indicate that the government is losing support among poor residents in and around the capital  people it has long relied on for support. The opposition's formal, organized marches tend to attract middle-class Venezuelans, and tend to take place in middle-class areas of the city.

Venezuela police protest Caracas riot

Thursday's protests in the streets near Miraflores appeared to be driven by a different group  poor Caraquenos, generally considered to be governments supporters, who had spent hours waiting to buy food at subsidized prices.

The lines, which have become commonplace in Venezuela in recent years as the country's economic crisis inhibits the government's ability to import food, exposes poor Venezuelans not only to heat and hunger, but also makes them "easier targets for violence," Alejandro Velasco, a professor at New York University, told Business Insider in an interview earlier this year about violence in Caracas.

Shops closed in the capital Thursday as police clashed with protesters, and opposition leaders, who are waiting on the National Electoral Commission (CNE) to rule on signatures gathered in support of a presidential recall referendum, have warned that Venezuela "faces an explosion of unrest" if the referendum doesn't happen this year.

Venezuela police protest riot Caracas

Recall-referendum backers gathered nearly 2 million signatures, well more than the roughly 200,000 needed to initiate the process. Despite that response, the opposition has had trouble rallying its supporters, and its legislative efforts have been stymied by government resistance.

Moreover, the referendum-approval process is complex, and political analysts have told AFP that the CNE could delay a referendum until next year. At that point, if Maduro lost, he would be replaced by his vice president.

Amid the partisan political wrangling, tensions in the streets have stirred memories of the weeks long riots and protests in spring 2014 that left 43 dead, as well as to the Caracazo  a week of protests in the capital city in 1989 that left hundreds, thousands by some accounts, dead.

Venezuela protests Caracas police

The head of the Organization of American States  alleging "graver alterations of democratic order"  has called for an emergency meeting to considered suspending Venezuelan from the regional body, something the government has condemned as a possible prelude to an "intervention."

The government and the opposition took the rare step of meeting through proxies last week in order to mediate the political crisis, but it's not clear how much patience many Venezuelans  about 70% of whom want Maduro out this year  have left.

"Everyday people [are getting] closer to Miraflores demanding food, soon they will be at the door of the palace Nicolas Maduro!" opposition leader Henrique Capriles tweeted on Thursday.

NOW WATCH: Watch legislators in Brazil scuffle during a vote to impeach their president





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By Neil Jerome Morales DAVAO, Philippines (Reuters) - Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte warned mining companies to "shape up", as he signalled he would prefer ownership of mining assets to be left to local investors. He also said the incoming government may rewrite rules to limit environmental degradation in the sector. Duterte, who assumes office on June 30, has named nearly all his cabinet members this week but has yet to appoint a new minister that will oversee the Southeast Asian country's mining sector. The country has among the largest untapped mineral resources in the region but years of opposition from the Catholic Church and a strong anti-mining lobby, as well as insurgency and widespread corruption, have stalled many projects including the $5.9 billion gold-copper Tampakan project in the southern Mindanao island discovered in 1991. "I have a big problem with mining companies. They are destroying the soil of our country," Duterte told a crowd of more than 100,000 in Davao celebrating his May 9 election victory. "The mining people must shape up. It has to stop. The spoiling of the land, the destroying of Mindanao." Swiss giant Glencore quit the Tampakan project in 2015, with the venture halted by a ban on open-pit mining in Mindanao's South Cotabato province imposed from 2010. A local company has taken over the project. Duterte signalled that ownership of mining companies may be best be left to locals. "I want it to be a cooperative of all Filipinos. We will support them and give them instructions how not to end up spoiling the land, he said. (Writing by Manolo Serapio Jr.; Editing by Alison Williams)
Dublin, June 01, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Pea Proteins Market Analysis & Trends - Industry Forecast to 2025" report to their offering.



The Global Pea Proteins Market is poised to grow at a CAGR of around 7.3% over the next decade to reach approximately $47 million by 2025.



This industry report analyzes the global markets for Pea Proteins across all the given segments on global as well as regional levels presented in the research scope. It presents historical market data for 2013, 2014 revenue estimations are presented for 2015 and forecasts from 2016 till 2025. The study focuses on market trends, leading players, supply chain trends, technological innovations, key developments, and future strategies. The report provides comprehensive market assessment across the major geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Latin America and Rest of the world.



The study presents detailed market analysis with inputs derived from industry professionals across the value chain. A special focus has been made on 23 countries such as U.S., Canada, Mexico, U.K., Germany, Spain, France, Italy, China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, etc. The market data is gathered from extensive primary interviews and secondary research. The market size is calculated based on the revenue generated through sales from all the given segments and sub segments in the research scope. The market sizing analysis includes both top-down and bottom-up approaches for data validation and accuracy measures.



Key Topics Covered:



1 Market Outline

1.1 Market Trends

1.2 Regulatory Factors

1.3 Application Analysis

1.4 Product Analysis

1.5 Strategic Benchmarking

1.6 Opportunity Analysis



2 Executive Summary



3 Market Overview

3.1 Current Trends

3.1.1 Pea proteins are emerging, but the volume is presently almost statistically insignificant

3.1.2 United States and Canada are the main markets for pea protein so far, with Oceania and India also catching on

3.1.3 Partnerships is regarded as the succesful strategy by key players to gain a larger share in the Pea Proteins market

3.1.4 Growth Opportunities/Investment Opportunities

3.2 Drivers

3.3 Constraints

3.4 Industry Attractiveness

3.4.1 Bargaining power of suppliers

3.4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

3.4.3 Threat of substitutes

3.4.4 Threat of new entrants

3.4.5 Competitive rivalry



4 Pea Proteins Market, By Form

4.1 Wet textured

4.1.1 Wet textured Market Forecast to 2025 (US$ MN)

4.2 Dry textured

4.2.1 Dry textured Market Forecast to 2025 (US$ MN)



5 Pea Proteins Market, By Application

5.1 Nutritional supplements

5.1.1 Nutritional supplements Market Forecast to 2025 (US$ MN)

5.2 Meat Substitutes

5.2.1 Meat Substitutes Market Forecast to 2025 (US$ MN)

5.3 Beverages

5.3.1 Beverages Market Forecast to 2025 (US$ MN)

5.4 Snacks & bakery products

5.4.1 Snacks & bakery products Market Forecast to 2025 (US$ MN)

5.5 Other Applications

5.5.1 Other Applications Market Forecast to 2025 (US$ MN)



6 Pea Proteins Market, By Product

6.1 Textured

6.1.1 Textured Market Forecast to 2025 (US$ MN)

6.2 Isolates

6.2.1 Isolates Market Forecast to 2025 (US$ MN)

6.3 Concentrates

6.3.1 Concentrates Market Forecast to 2025 (US$ MN)



7 Pea Proteins Market, By Geography



8 Leading Companies

8.1 Burcon Nutrascience Corporation

8.2 Prinova Holdings LLC

8.3 Shandong Jianyuan Foods Co., Ltd.

8.4 A&B Ingredients

8.5 Yantai Shuangta Food Co., Ltd.

8.6 Martin& Pleasance

8.7 Sotexpro

8.8 Consucra-Groupe Warcoing

8.9 Axiom Foods, Inc

8.10 Farbest Brands

8.11 Roquette Frerers

8.12 Yantai Oriental Protein Tech Co., Ltd

8.13 The Scoular Company

8.14 Fenchem

8.15 Nutri-Pea Limited



For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/jfxcgp/global_pea






As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ
Um, no?

Donald Trump is the Republican presidential nominee. As such, he is the de facto head of the Republican party.

When he makes controversial comments then, it is the job of journalists to see whether those views are broadly held within his party (or not).

That's not bias. That's doing your job.
Google Play Terms of Service

October 12, 2020 (View archived version)

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(Bloomberg) -- China should explain its island building program in the South China Sea or it will continue to fuel insecurity among countries whose economies depend on free trade, including smaller nations many miles away, New Zealand Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee said.

What we are looking to see from the Chinese is some better understanding about what it is about, Brownlee said, referring to islands China has created that now cover more than 3,000 acres of land. It is extremely important for the whole worlds economies that that remains a peaceable area and that open sea lanes and skies are available, he said in an interview on Friday on the sidelines of the Shangri-La security forum in Singapore.

Chinas land reclamation, along with its claims to more than 80 percent of the South China Sea, has spooked nations that rely on the $5.3 trillion of seaborne trade that passes through its waters each year. China bases its assertion on a vague line drawn on a 1940s map and has said its primary reasons for building the islands is for civilian purposes like maritime search and rescue.

Despite its rhetoric, China actions contradicts its assertions that the primary purpose for building the islands was peaceful, Brownlee said. There was concern, he said, that China may turn more reefs into islands that could be capable of supporting communities, and then claim territorial or even exclusive economic zones around them.

For a QuickTake explainer on the South China Sea disputes, click here.

In that part of the world, the proximity of those countries would mean that it is a very difficult circumstance to resolve, he said. About 80 percent of New Zealands annual trade passes through the South China Sea.

At Shangri-La last year, Brownlee said he was told by a Chinese general that the tensions were not an issue for New Zealand. So I said, well, from the point of view of being a small trading nation we do have these concerns, and outlined them.

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More broadly, the pace of Chinas land reclamation presents a whole new circumstance for any particular law of the sea, territorial laws to deal with, Brownlee said. That is the concern, that there is no particular rules around this.

Surveillance Aircraft

Theres no doubt theres a degree of asserting what are believed to be long-held rights, but I think youve also got to see that some of those claims are, in history, no greater than the claims that Britain might have had over all of Australia, or all of New Zealand, he said. Its hard to imagine, though, that China will want to have any particular conflict over this issue.

New Zealand sends surveillance aircraft regularly over the South China Sea, and they have never been directly hailed or asked to leave the area by the Chinese, Brownlee said. U.S. aircraft and ships have been told on multiple occasions to leave territory China claims.

Brownlee said passing the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact was essential to maintaining U.S. influence in Asia. All three contenders for the U.S. presidential election have said they are opposed to the 12-nation pact, which needs to be passed by Congress.

It would be regrettable if TPP fell over on the back of what would be essentially a U.S. nationalistic policy that might in effect lead to a weakening of U.S. influence in the world, he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: David Tweed in Hong Kong at dtweed@bloomberg.net, Rosalind Mathieson in Singapore at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net, Andrew Davis

2016 Bloomberg L.P.
A semi-detached house on Taman Kembangan in District 14 was sold for a $1.9 million profit

Thirteen is not an unlucky number after all. Three condominium units and two landed homes were sold at a profit exceeding $1 million on May 13, which also happened to fall on a Friday.

Of the three condo units, the most profitable sold accrued to a 3,165 sq ft, four-bedroom penthouse at The Azure in Sentosa Cove, which netted a $1.2 million profit, or an annualised gain of 3%.

The seller had purchased the unit direct from the developer for $3.4 million ($1,072 psf) in October 2005 and resold it for $4.6 million ($1,438 psf) this year. This marked the first transaction in the project since 2014.

The second million-dollar deal was traced to a 1,668 sq ft, three-bedroom unit at Pinewood Gardens on Balmoral Park, a freehold condo in District 10. The home fetched $2.4 million ($1,438 psf) in May, resulting in a profit of $1.1 million, or an annualised gain of 4%. The seller purchased the unit in April 1999 for $1.3 million ($749 psf).

Also from District 10, a 1,399 sq ft, three bedroom unit at The Marbella on Mount Sinai Rise yielded a $1 million profit for the seller, who had held the unit for more than 11 years. He had purchased the unit direct from the developer for $943,000 ($674 psf) in January 2005 and offloaded it for $2 million ($1,394 psf) in May this year. The transaction reflects an annualised gain of 7%.

In the landed home segment, a semi-detached house on Taman Kembangan in District 14 fetched a $1.9 million profit on May 13. The annualised gain works out to 9%. On the same day, a terrace house on Jalan Waringin, also in district 14, was sold for $1.4 million profit, or an annualised gain of 9%.

A semi-detached house on Taman Kembangan in District 14 was sold for a $1.9 million profit

Conversely, only two properties were sold at a loss on May 13. A 1,195 sq ft unit at Fernwood Towers was sold at a $20,000 loss and a 689 sq ft unit at Regent Residences was sold at an $89,000 loss.

Besides the May 13 deals, a detached house on Chartwell Drive in District 19 fetched a $2.4 million profit on May 16, reflecting an annualised gain of 11%. The house sits on a 4,198 sq ft, 999-year leasehold site. It was purchased in 2005 at $307 psf of its land area and resold this year at $881 psf.

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Meanwhile, St Regis Residences Singapore saw another deal in the red. A 3,757 sq ft unit changed hands at $2,223 psf on May 12, resulting in a $393,950 loss to the seller. The unit was purchased in June 2006 at $2,328 psf.

This article appeared in The Edge Property Pullout, Issue 731 (June 6, 2016) of The Edge Singapore.

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College prep

California School District Adopts Essay Building Platform

The Perris Union School District in Riverside County, CA, is partnering with Story2, a New York-based ed tech company, to help students write authentic college admission essays.

Story2s Essay Builder Plus platform gives administrators, teachers and counselors a dashboard to track and monitor student progress. This allows them to intervene where necessary. The platform also gives students the ability to plan and organize admission, scholarship and honors program essays through its College Essay Planner. With Essay Builder Plus, students can learn how to complete eight specific types of essay questions, as well as research admission requirements and deadlines.

In 2015, 90 percent of Story2 students reported admission to one or more of their top three college choices, according to Story2. Furthermore, 83 percent received scholarships.

Currently, one school, Perris High School, is adopting the program, a spokesman said. More than 2,100 students and 40 faculty members have access to Essay Builder Plus. Next year, four schools are expected to be added, the spokesman said.
By Joe Bavier

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will withhold future payments under its programme with Guinea-Bissau unless the government backtracks on loan bailouts for two private banks, the institution's country representative said.

Donors have also suspended budget support equal to 2.1 percent of GDP for this year, Oscar Melhado told Reuters by email. Total donor contributions, including direct budget support and financing for targeted sectors and projects, typically make up around 80 percent of the budget.

The tiny West African nation, which has been mired in a months-long political crisis, must submit a new 2016 budget factoring in this lost budget support before IMF payments resume.

"The IMF will not disburse any outstanding credit tranches as previously envisaged," Melhado said.

The IMF agreed a programme with Guinea-Bissau last July to help the frequently unstable state get back onto its feet after 2014 polls drew a line under a military coup two years earlier.

The former Portuguese colony has seen nine coups or attempts since 1980. Political turmoil has helped make it a major transit point for South American cocaine heading to Europe.

Last year the government rejected IMF advice and paid 34 billion CFA francs ($57.81 million), 5.5 percent of GDP, for bad loans off Banco da Africa Ocidental and Banco da Uniao.

A former prime minister who oversaw the deal told Reuters it was necessary to avoid bankrupting the private sector.

"The costly bank bailouts benefit the wealthiest people in the country and wealthy foreign shareholders, and come at the expense of urgently needed projects to improve the infrastructure and to reduce poverty," Melhado said.

"OUR REASONING WAS LOGICAL"

The public prosecutor's office launched an investigation into the bailouts last month.

"The State has asked the courts to cancel the contracts," Bakari Biaii, the magistrate handled the investigation, told Reuters. "We are awaiting the response."

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The bailouts occurred under former prime ministers Domingos Simoes Pereira and Carlos Correia. Pereira told Reuters they had been proposed by a previous transitional government and had been approved with a view to helping Guinea-Bissau's fragile recovery.

"We cannot allow the private sector as a whole to go into bankruptcy," he said. "Our reasoning was logical, but, yes, it goes against the agreement that was set out by the IMF."

Correia could not immediately be reached for comment.

The move by the IMF comes amid a deeping crisis caused by a power struggle within the ruling PAIGC party between a faction led by Pereira and one led by President Jose Mario Vaz.

Vaz's dismissal of Pereira as prime minister last August led to weeks of political instability until Correia was named to head the government as part of a compromise in October.

Vaz also sacked Correia last month and replaced him with political ally Baciro Dja. Dja named a new cabinet on Thursday but Correia's ministers have refused to leave their offices.

Without the IMF payments, this year's budgetary shortfall will climb to 3.1 percent of GDP, the IMF's Melhado said.

(Additional reporting by Alberto Dabo in Bissau; Editing by Tim Cocks and Richard Balmforth)
Zurich Insurance Chief Executive Martin Senn attends the company's annual news conference in Zurich, Switzerland February 12, 2015. Senn has died after committing suicide, the company said May 30, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

By John Miller and John O'Donnell

ZURICH/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - An unusual number of suicides by top executives in Switzerland has prompted introspection in its business community over how senior managers are dealing with stress as its companies struggle to retain their status in the global economy.

The death last week of the former chief executive of Zurich Insurance, Martin Senn, came less than three years after the insurer's finance chief, Pierre Wauthier, took his own life.

Wauthier had blamed pressure from the company's then chairman Josef Ackermann in a suicide note, although Ackermann was cleared in a subsequent investigation.

Acquaintances of Senn, 59, said he had been withdrawn since he was ousted from the company late last year, though few details of the circumstances that led to him shooting himself at his family home in the upmarket Alpine resort of Klosters have emerged.

Martin Naville, chief executive of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce, said the business circles where Senn and Wauthier once moved had been left shocked, pondering what could have been done to prevent the tragedies.

"The only thing you can do is to be more attentive to signs," Naville said.

He knew Senn, who was president of the chamber, as well as Wauthier, who had British-French dual citizenship. He also knew Carsten Schloter, the German-born head of telecoms group Swisscom, who took his life in 2013, and Alex Widmer, head of bank Julius Baer, who committed suicide in 2008.

Their deaths contrast with the picture postcard image of Switzerland as one of the world's wealthiest and most stable countries.

Switzerland's overall suicide rate is below the global average, roughly in line with countries such as Germany, according to the World Health Organisation.

Naville said he saw nothing in Swiss executive culture to explain the deaths. "Every case can be very different," he said. "Human beings are so complicated."

But others describe a generation of managers caught between highly demanding international investors and Switzerland's conservative traditions.

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"If you fail, you are expected to excuse yourself from the conversation and drop any further ambitions. You're not expected to show your face again," said Susan Kish, a former UBS banker who has started a number of businesses, including an entrepreneurship network in Zurich.

PROXY FOR SWISS ECONOMY

Switzerland has been hit in the past few years by a slowing global economy and a strong franc currency that has hurt vital exports.

Zurich Insurance mirrors many of the challenges and is now in the throes of restructuring as it slashes thousands of jobs.

"Zurich (Insurance) is a proxy for the Swiss economy," said Stefan Michel of Swiss business school IMD.

"Switzerland is no longer an island," he said. "The pressure from global shareholders and regulators is increasing. Whenever I ask people in the financial sector how they feel, they answer: 'I am tired'."

Staid for most of its nearly 150 years, Zurich Insurance rose to prominence in the 1990s with a series of takeovers. But its fortunes turned in 2001, when the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States left it with heavy losses, while runaway expenses at its headquarters hit the bottom line  and shareholder trust.

It underwent an overhaul before Senn was appointed CEO of Zurich in 2010.

Its chairman from 2012, Josef Ackermann, formerly Deutsche Bank's CEO, was pushing management to abandon its conservative course, people familiar with the matter have told Reuters, and take more risks on its investments to bolster returns.

Ackermann resigned after Wauthier's suicide note suggested he had been driven into a corner by the chairman, who was later exonerated in an investigation.

Senn is remembered fondly by employees who spoke to Reuters as someone who knew staff by name and shook hands with everyone at meetings, regardless of rank.

But after a series of profit warnings and an aborted takeover attempt for British rival RSA (RSA.L), he was pressured out by the company's Dutch chairman Tom de Swaan last year.

Reinhard Sprenger, an author and management consultant who has advised top Swiss firms, said corporate setbacks, with the near collapse of bank UBS during the financial crisis and the bankruptcy of airline Swissair, have jolted the country.

"The Swiss were once supremely self confident ... that has changed and they have come back to earth."

The annual economic conference in the Swiss resort of Davos, one of the top gatherings for the world's policymakers and business leaders, has become shorthand for a new generation of driven managers who put their corporations above national interests, said James Breiding, author of a book on how Switzerland became successful.

"Like Japan, Switzerland had a strong sense of community and egalitarianism. In the last 20 years, we've seen the emergence, however, of the 'Davos man,'" he said.

"Those men that embraced the Davos scepter found themselves in an increasingly lonely club."

(Additional reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Susan Fenton)
By Agnieszka Barteczko, David Mardiste and Andrius Sytas

WARSAW/VILNIUS/TALLINN (Reuters) - Energy market regulators in Poland and Lithuania are investigating whether Polish electricity grid operator PSE is breaking European Union rules by limiting Lithuanian imports.

The restrictions, which are adding to tensions between the Warsaw's eurosceptic government and the European Commission, could be in breach of EU market rules, legal experts said.

"The Commission and the Polish regulator have received a request from a market participant regarding the situation when transmission capacity from the Polish side is limited to zero during night hours," Lithuania's National Commission for Energy Control and Prices, said in an email.

Lithuania and Poland started power transactions on their first 500-megawatt link last December.

The investigation was initiated after Estonia's state-owned power group Eesti Energia filed a request in April asking if the restrictions comply with EU regulations.

"The situation is definitely problematic as the Polish TSO (transmission system operator) clearly is not acting in accordance with its previously made statements and officially submitted information," Hando Sutter, the company's chief executive, told Reuters in an email.

Import restrictions raise a question about achieving the EU's goal of creating an energy union, Sutter said.

The EU wants to see electricity flowing freely across the bloc without technical or regulatory barriers, helping to reduce prices for consumers and ensure security of supply.

Meanwhile, Poland has called for greater energy union to help it reduce EU reliance on Russian gas.

PSE said unregulated power imports "can destabilise the system" at night, when demand is low and government officials said it was a necessary step to protect its coal power plants, a source of 80 percent of electricity, from imports of "cheap, subsidised electricity".

"The day and night fluctuations, which could be caused by the excess of electricity coming from the Baltic states to Poland, are a threat to our power stations...," Piotr Naimski, a senior government official in charge of energy infrastructure, told Reuters.

Story continues

Christian Schnell, a partner at the Warsaw-based law firm Solivan said import restrictions could violate article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which prohibits unfair trading conditions.

Asked whether Warsaw was discussing the issue of power import restrictions with the European Commission, Naimski said: "We are trying to explain this situation and we are looking for some understanding for (the) Polish energy system."

The European Commission declined to comment.

(Additional reporting by Barbara Lewis in Brussels; Writing by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Alexander Smith)
Portugal fans

Reuters/Jose Manuel Ribeiro

Earlier this week, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that Portugal's largest bank, Caixa Geral de Depositos (CGD), an institution that holds nearly one-third of all deposits in the country, is on the brink of destruction following a horrendous first quarter of the year.

The bank is thought to need a cash injection of as much as 4 billion (3.04 billion, $4.45 billion) to rescue it from serious difficulties. That number amounts to roughly 2.5% of Portugal's GDP.

Portugal's socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa confirmed last Saturday that the government is ready to approve the recapitalisation of CGD, although he didn't know how much that recapitalisation would cost.

Regardless of how much it is worth, a country's largest bank needing a recapitalisation is never going to be a good thing. However, as a recent note from HSBC economist Fabio Balboni points out, even if Portugal's socialist government manages to find a way to carry out the cash injection without breaking EU rules surrounding state aid and injections of funds, the consequences for Portugal's already shaky economy could be dire.

Here's Balboni's neat summary of exactly what could happen in Portugal by the end of 2016 (emphasis ours):

It is still unclear how the government will be able to circumnavigate EU state aid rules and the new regulation that imposes the bail-in of certain creditors before an injection of funds can take place.

However  even if it is possible  in our view this is still bad news for Portugal: it highlights once more the fragility of the banking system; it would make it harder for Portugal to exit the EU excessive deficit procedure this year; and it would mean that public debt would resume rising (130% of GDP at the end of 2015).

This could spark renewed market concerns on the state of the Portuguese economy and its public finances, leading to a further rise in credit risk and borrowing costs. Portugal could therefore be in a more difficult position for the next rating review by DBRS, in October. There, a possible downgrade would mean losing access to QE, which in our view would make a request for a new programme of financial assistance almost inevitable.

Story continues

Balboni includes three key charts to show just how things might go down after CGD's recapitalisation. Here's how the government's debt to GDP ratio could change:

Portugal GDP May 2016

Reuters/Jose Manuel Ribeiro

Despite current muted market movements, things could get worse. As Fabio Balboni puts it: "As this issue gets more visibility it could spark renewed concerns among investors."

Portugal Market reaction

Reuters/Jose Manuel Ribeiro

Finally, while Portugal is fully funded (e.g. has enough cash) for the rest of year, in the event of a credit downgrade, it would have to run down its cash reserves:

Portugal Cash reserves

Reuters/Jose Manuel RibeiroAll of these considerations do not include another potentially damaging event for the Portuguese economy  a possible fine from the European Commission.

Both Portugal and Spain dodged fines for breaking EU-mandated targets for deficit reduction after Jean-Claude Juncker intervened to delay any fines, at least until after the elections in Spain in June are over.

However, after that, Portugal could get slapped with a hefty fine for running a 4.4% budget deficit in 2015. The EU target set for the country was just 2.7%. Any fine would be another huge blow to the delicate state of Portugal's finances.

Clearly, Portugal isn't the only European nation in financial difficulty  Greece is barely scraping through continued talks with its creditors, Italy has huge problems in its banking sector and massive political issues, and France's striking workers highlight systemic problems with its labour market  but Portugal appears the closest to a new economic crisis.

NOW WATCH: YANIS VAROUFAKIS: Brexit won't help Britain regain sovereignty

See Also:

SEE ALSO: Spain and Portugal just sidestepped huge fines  at least for now
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YEREVAN, JUNE 3, ARMENPRESS. The Standing Committee of Foreign Relations of the Parliament endorsed to include the Establishment of joint air defense system in Collective security Caucasian region between Armenia and Russia agreement.

The aim of this agreement is the establishment of a joint air defense system in the Caucasian region of the collective security, for improving the regional air defense, Deputy Defense Minister A. Nazaryan said.

The agreement defines the authorized parties to plan and implement the air defense system, cooperation, and joint training.

The agreement was signed in December of 2015 by the Defense Ministers of Armenia and Russia.

Russia is also in the process of ratifying the agreement.

Chairman of the Parliaments Standing Committee of Foreign Relations Artak Zakaryan said the agreement has been endorsed to be included in the agenda of the Parliamentary session.

According to Deputy Defense Minister A. Nazaryan, the agreement does not limit Armenia to develop the air defense system on its own.

We solve our own issues, we dont count on anyone else to defend us. I think this agreement should be viewed from a perspective of interests, and indeed it is in our interest, he said.
YEREVAN, JUNE 3, ARMENPRESS. Preliminary investigation of criminal cases initiated on abuses recorded in the process of purchase of different articles for needs of the armed forces is ongoing in the Department of Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of General Military Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia.

Based on the evidence obtained through investigation on June 2 charges were pressed against Major-general Melsik Chilingaryan, Colonels Armen Margaryan and Mher Papyan for abusing power which caused grave consequences. On the same day the investigator submitted a motion to the court to use detention as a pretrial measure against the defendants.

Particularly, M. Chilingaryan and A. Margaryan were charged according to the Part 2 of the Article 375 of Republic of Armenia Criminal Code, M. Papyan was charged according to the Part 3 of the Article 375 of Republic of Armenia Criminal Code. There are sufficient evidences that a 145 million AMD worth contract was signed with a private company on the supply of spare parts with artificially high prices.

Preliminary investigation is ongoing, large-scale investigatory actions of are conducted to provide the comprehensive, objective and complete investigation of the case.
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.
Since being selected as president in 2012, Pena Nieto has attempted to privatize and standardize the Mexican education system, along with instituting policies to disempower Latin Americas largest union, the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE), and its dissident and more radical faction, the CNTE.

Originally posted to Its Going Down May 30, 2016 By Scott Campbell

The last edition of Insumision started with news of the national teachers strike in Mexico and thats where well kick things off here. Its been an intense fifteen days since the National Coordinating Body of Education Workers (CNTE) began an indefinite strike on May 15, primarily against plans by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to implement neoliberal reforms to the countrys education system.

Since being selected as president in 2012, Pena Nieto has attempted to privatize and standardize the Mexican education system, along with instituting policies to disempower Latin Americas largest union, the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE), and its dissident and more radical faction, the CNTE. In 2013, the CNTE mobilized its base to fight back against similar reform efforts. An article I wrote then gives some context to the developments occurring now, as well as clarifying the distinctions between the SNTE, the CNTE, and their relationships to the state.

The current strike is strongest in Mexico City, Oaxaca and Chiapas. On May 15, which is Teachers Day in Mexico, 20,000 teachers marched to the Interior Ministry (SEGOB) in Mexico City and several hundred installed a planton, a massive encampment, on its doorstep. Ever since, the union and the federal police have been playing an elaborate and slow-motion game of cat and mouse in Mexico City. At 2am on May 20, hundreds of federal police rousted the teachers, demanding they leave. Outnumbered, the teachers moved their planton to Santo Domingo Plaza, where a day later police showed up again at 2am, this time with buses, and notifying the teachers that many of them had arrest warrants out against them, they invited them to remove the planton and get on the bus with the name of their state to be driven home. The teachers said thanks, but no thanks, to the ride and instead moved the planton to Ciudadela Plaza, then for a day back to the SEGOB, then back to Ciudadela, where it is currently located.

At the moment, the conflict is in a holding pattern of sorts, with each side remaining firmly entrenched in their positions while making limited shows of force, hoping that eventually the opponent will blink first. The CNTE operates under the framework that at some point it will have to negotiate with the state, if not during this strike then in future years, and wants to ensure it maintains enough clout and respectability to do so effectively. For its part, the government is aware that it has the military capability to physically remove the teachers from public spaces, but also that it is under increased scrutiny internationally and domestically since the Ayotzinapa disappearances and the universal condemnation of its handling of that act of state terror. And ten years ago, when one state government tried to crush a teachers strike, it led to a five-month uprising known as the Oaxaca Commune. The fallout of conducting a multi-state operation along those same lines is more than the government is willing to risk at this stage. (For a look back at the Oaxaca Commune and an excellent interview with a striking teacher from Oaxaca, check out subMedias latest episode.) That could all change quickly, however, as the only negotiations the Mexican state knows how to conduct, in particular the government of Pena Nieto, is through the barrel of a gun  a reality I examined in an article back in February.

In lieu of outright confrontation (with the exception of Chiapas), the state has refused to even meet with the teachers. The Interior Minister and Education Minister both say there is nothing to discuss, while Pena Nieto said hell sit down for negotiations only after the teachers accept the educational reform. The government has frozen the CNTEs bank accounts, meaning teachers are not getting paid and loans, which many teachers acquire through their union, are not being processed or disbursed. Aurelio Nuno, the Education Minister, announced that any teacher missing three days in a row of work will be fired, and so far has announced the dismissal of 3,119 teachers from Oaxaca, Guerrero and Michoacan. Along with harassing and threatening teachers in Mexico City, police have also been blocking and turning back buses of teachers attempting to enter the city to join their comrades. In Chiapas, teachers marches on May 19 and May 25 were attacked by police firing tear gas and rubber bullets from the ground and helicopters.

While the state has the guns, the teachers have the numbers, and theyve been using them. Massive marches have been held in Mexico City, Oaxaca and Chiapas. Following the May 19 repression, as well as earlier repression in April, 200,000 came out to protest in Chiapas on May 23. This was followed up by a megamarch in the state capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez on May 27, with coinciding marches in 30 municipalities. During the march in the capital, teachers briefly took over eight different media outlets, getting on the air to directly communicate with the people. As well, parents committees from 82 of Chiapas 122 municipalities announced they are joining forces with the teachers. This is up from the parents in 60 municipalities who last week pledged to shut down any school that attempts to open with scab teachers. When the strike started, a spokesperson for the CNTE in Chiapas vowed that for each teacher arrested, the union would detain a government official and hold them in the central plaza of Tuxtla Gutierrez. Eight protesters were arrested during clashes on May 25 and charged with a litany of serious offenses, only to be promptly released before the marches on May 27.

In Oaxaca, Governor Gabino Cue said he had hundreds of police at the ready to remove any planton or blockade installed by the teachers. The CNTE went ahead an installed them anyway, calling Cues bluff (for now). On May 27, they blockaded access to the states international airport for eight hours, as well as the highway connecting the city of Oaxaca with the tourist destination of Puerto Escondido. After the federal police showed up at the airport and ordered them to disperse, a group of teachers managed to sneak around police lines and encircle a bus carrying police reinforcements. The teachers refused to let them go until the police stood down. Meanwhile, the head of the CNTE in Oaxaca, Ruben Nunez, warned the governor that, If there is no dialog, there will be no elections. Elections are slated for June 5.

A key to the success of the strike will not only be the ability of the CNTE to sustain its momentum, but to expand its base of support. Despite the mainstream medias abject loyalty to the Mexican state and its narrative, the CNTE has been able to do just that. In part, this is due to the fact that the CNTEs demands extend beyond wages and reforms and encompass broader social, economic and political issues, such as freedom for all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, increased investment in education, truth and justice for Ayotzinapa and against neoliberal reforms in general. The strike has spread from Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Mexico City, to Guerrero, Veracruz, Mexico State, and Michoacan. Like in Chiapas, 300 representatives of parents organizations came out in support of striking teachers in Guerrero on Friday. Commemorating 20 months since the disappearance of their children, the families of the students from Ayotzinapa marched in support of the teachers in Mexico City on May 26. On May 27, the Peoples Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) from Atenco announced their backing of the CNTE strike. While on May 16, students from Chapingo Autonomous University in Texcoco, Mexico State, borrowed some buses and tractor-trailers and blockaded a main road in support of the strike, the ongoing student struggle at the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), and against the recent incursion of hundreds of police into Atenco to facilitate the construction of a new international airport. Even the Autonomous University of Mexico Citys University Council proclaimed all striking teachers will be accorded the status of Distinguished Guest should they visit the school.

As for what comes next, the teachers have promised more protests and mobilizations, including a plan to march on Mexico Citys International Airport on Friday, June 3. The state is likely planning to hold off on any major move against the teachers until after the June 5 elections. Regardless, even a small spark could elevate an already tense situation to another level.

While most of this edition has been focused on the strike, there is of course a lot more happening in Mexico, some of which Ill cover briefly here. Mexico lost its sixth journalist of the year when Manuel Torres was killed in his home in Veracruz on May 14. Torres is the 18th journalist to be murdered in Veracruz during the rule of Governor Javier Duarte. Also in Veracruz, students and staff at Veracruz University are considering a general strike to force the Duarte regime to pay the 2.5 billion pesos it owes the school. May 18-30 saw events nationwide as part of the International Week of the Detained-Disappeared. Yesterday in Toluca, Mexico State, the Fire of Dignified Resistance hosted the First Popular Encounter against the Eruviel Law  the recently passed legislation allowing Mexico State Police to use live ammunition against gatherings and protests. And around Mexico, 215 communities from 17 states have signed onto the National Campaign in Defense of Mother Earth and Territory. One of those communities is Coyotepec, in Mexico State, which for years has autonomously administered its water supply and resisted efforts to privatize it. Last week, six of its members were detained and the community was besieged by 600 riot police. In response, thousands came out to demand their release and the removal of the police. A day later the police left, but the six remain in state custody.

In southern Mexico, indigenous communities continue to be attacked and continue to resist. The Juba Waijin community in Guerrero won a victory when the courts blocked two mining projects from moving forward. After being displaced from their reclaimed land by police and paramilitaries in Chiapas, the autonomous community of San Isidro Los Laureles is not giving up. Meanwhile, in Oaxaca, the autonomous community of Eloxochitlan de Flores Magon mobilized to demand freedom for its eleven political prisoners. Also in Oaxaca, the Zapatistas and the National Indigenous Congress released a statement condemning the police attack on the autonomous community of Alvaro Obregon. One municipal police officer was killed after community police intervened to defend the community members under attack, leaving many to fear an attempt by the government to crush the entire autonomous project.

Lastly, in memory of Chilean anarchist Mauricio Morales, vehicles belonging to the National Migration Institute were torched in Cancun and a squatted social center bearing Mauricios name opened its doors in Tijuana.
Major Coastal Commission Reforms In Play in Legislature by Amy Trainer

The 2016 legislative session started off with an impressive slate of eight bills aimed at reforming the California Coastal Commission, some of those proposing to weaken the California Coastal Act. The Legislative session reached its halfway point on June 3rd, with the deadline for all bills to pass out of their house of origin. Of the eight original Coastal Commission bills, only three are still alive.

Of the three remaining coastal reform bills, all three could directly strengthen coastal protection, two by addressing ex parte communications and lobbying between Commissioners and permit applicants and their agents, and the third by incorporating environmental justice considerations into the Coastal Act.



SB 1190 (Jackson) would prohibit Commissioners from engaging in ex parte communications on quasi-judicial [i.e., those in which the Commission acts as a judge deciding on a proposed development permit] or enforcement matters. This bill also clarify that commissioners may not attempt to influence commission staff findings or recommendations on matters before the commission prior to a public hearing. SB 1190 passed out of the Senate on May 22nd.



AB 2002 (Atkins/Stone/Levine) aims to improve transparency and accountability at the Coastal Commission by requiring that paid agents who lobby on behalf of projects before the Coastal Commission  some estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars - register as lobbyists and adhere to associated public disclosure requirements, such as stating where their funding comes from. For four decades, our beautiful, iconic coastline has been viewed as a democratic commons, thus many feel that it is imperative that those paid to lobby the Coastal Commission are subject to the same lobbying reporting and public disclosure laws to ensure integrity, transparency and accountability in all its actions. AB 2002 passed the Assembly with a 2/3 majority vote on June 2nd.



Together, SB 1190 and AB 2002 will dramatically improve transparency and accountability, as well as begin to restore the public's trust in the Commission.



AB 2616 (Burke) would amend the Coastal Act to require consideration of environmental justice, as that term is defined in state law, in the course of all Commission decisions and appeals. A provision of the bill that would have required affordable housing in the coastal zone was removed in the Assemblys Appropriations Committee. AB 2616 bill passed the Assembly on June 2nd.



AB 2185 (Gonzalez) unfortunately failed to pass out of the Appropriations Committee. The bill aimed to address the lack of affordable overnight coastal accommodations in the coastal zone by guiding the development of new accommodations projects statewide. CCPN and other organizations are very committed to ensuring that all Californians, particularly lower income communities and communities of color, have an opportunity to access and recreate along Californias magnificent coastline.



A total of four bills proposed to weaken the Coastal Act and hamstring the effective functioning of the Commissions staff failed to pass out of committee. The first bill, AB 2171 (Jones), proposed to bypass the Coastal Commissions statutory authority to hear appeals of certain local permit decisions and allow permit applicants to file an appeal directly to superior court in lieu of filing an appeal with the Commission. Advocates opposed this bill because the Coastal Commissions appeal process is critically important for protecting public access and coastal resources, promoting consistent application of the Coastal Act statewide, and ensuring effective use of judicial resources by weeding out meritless appeals.



A second bill by Assemblymember Jones, AB 2648, would have enabled counties to assume authority state and federal coastal zone management within their boundaries, effectively gutting the Coastal Acts system of statewide coastal management. AB 2658 (Maienschein) would have newly categorized any communication between Commission staff and a permit applicant, appellant, other interested party, or member of the public about a matter within the Commissions jurisdiction as an ex parte communication. This would have imposed significant inefficiencies and costs on the agency, effectively grinding day-to-day coastal permitting and planning to a crawl. Finally, AB 1871 (Waldron) would have eliminated the Commissions ability to consider or analyze the growth-inducing impacts of a proposed water supply projects.



These four bills would have had significant deleterious effects on the Coastal Act and the functioning of the Californias highly regarded coastal management program. Thankfully, all of them failed to pass out of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.



For the three coastal bills that are still in play, they will be heard in the appropriate policy committees in the coming weeks. Assuming they pass, they will go to Appropriations Committees most likely in August after the Legislature returns from its summer recess.



In the end, both the Assembly and Senate apparently agree that significant reforms are needed at the Coastal Commission and how Commissioners communicate with developers' agents, as evidenced by the passage of both SB 1190 and AB 2002. What remains to be seen is the level of reform that the Governor is willing to support.
The situation in Mexico has been intense since the National Coordinating Body of Education Workers (CNTE) began an indefinite strike on May 15, primarily against plans by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to implement neoliberal reforms to the countrys education system.Since being selected as president in 2012, Pena Nieto has attempted to privatize and standardize the Mexican education system, along with instituting policies to disempower Latin Americas largest union, the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE), and its dissident and more radical faction, the CNTE. In 2013, the CNTE mobilized its base to fight back against similar reform efforts.A key to the success of the strike will not only be the ability of the CNTE to sustain its momentum, but to expand its base of support. Despite the mainstream medias abject loyalty to the Mexican state and its narrative, the CNTE has been able to do just that. In part, this is due to the fact that the CNTEs demands extend beyond wages and reforms and encompass broader social, economic and political issues, such as freedom for all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, increased investment in education, truth and justice for Ayotzinapa and against neoliberal reforms in general. The strike has spread from Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Mexico City, to Guerrero, Veracruz, Mexico State, and Michoacan.
PORTLAND, Ore., June 3, 2016  The derailment today of multiple oil tanker cars and resulting fire in the Columbia River Gorge reaffirms the danger that transporting oil by rail still poses to people and the environment  despite new safety rules meant to prevent such accidents.

Unfortunately well continue to see these fiery derailments even with the new regulations in place, said Jared Margolis, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, which has petitioned for stronger protections against oil trains. Just as safety experts predicted, the new rules are insufficient, and people, wildlife, rivers and lakes will continue to pay a huge price for the governments failure to take steps to adequately protect us from oil trains.The new federal regulations fail to protect the public by allowing dangerous, puncture-prone tank cars to remain in service for up to 10 years and allowing oil trains to move at speeds well in excess of the puncture resistance of even the newer tank cars. The new rules also fail to limit the weight and length of high-hazard flammable trains to prevent derailments.The latest derailment and fire occurred Friday shortly after noon in the Columbia River Gorge near the town of Mosier, Ore., and state forest lands. According to witnesses, multiple cars derailed and smoke and flames could be seen in downtown Mosier near the Rock Creek overpass. The accident led to the closure of Interstate 84, and students at Mosier Elementary School were evacuated.BackgroundThere has been a dramatic rise in oil-by-rail derailments in recent years. The amount of crude oil spilled from trains in 2013 was equal to all the crude oil spilled from rail transport in the previous 40 years. One fiery train wreck at Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in July 2013, killed 47 people and burned up a large proportion of the small towns business district. In 2015 alone, at least five oil trains derailed and exploded  in Fayette County, W.V.; in northwest Illinois near the Mississippi River; two near Gogama, Ontario; and in the small North Dakota town of Heimdal. Several of these resulted in fires that burned out of control for days.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.Center for Biological Diversity
This Week in Palestine, June 3rd, 2016 by IMEMC

Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, http://www.imemc.org , for May 28, to June 3, 2016.

Listen now: Copy the code below to embed this audio into a web page: <audio preload="none" src="https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2016/06/04/this_week_in_palestine_week_22_2016_.mp3" controls="controls"></audio>

Israeli troops kill a Palestinian woman in the Wets Bank and attack farmers and fishers in Gaza, in the meantime Israels government objects the Paris Conference for peace. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.





The Nonviolence Report



Lets begin our weekly report as usual with the nonviolent activities organized in the West Bank. Many residents and their international and Israeli supporters were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation when soldiers attacked the weekly protest in the central West Bank village of al Nabi Saleh on Friday.



Troops attacked the protest at the village entrance using live rounds, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Later troops stormed and fired tear gas at residents homes, many residents were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation as a result.



At the nearby villages of Bilin and Nilin, Israeli soldiers attacked the protesters as soon as they reached the gate in the wall that separates local farmers from their lands. Many protesters suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation and were treated by field medics at both locations. In Bilin some olive trees caught fire that was caused by tear gas bombs fired by Israeli troops.



In the meantime, many civilians also were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation as Israeli troops attacked the weekly protest organized by the villagers of Kufer Kadum in northern West Bank.



Also on Friday, in Bethlehem, at least 400 Palestinian and Israeli activists marched at the settlers road 60 against the Israeli occupation and the violence in creates. Combatants for peace organized the protest. Leftwing Israeli lawmakers also joined the protest.





The Political Report



This week Paris Conference is opened, amidst Israeli government objections. IMEMCs Rami Al Meghari has more:



On Friday, Paris international conference opened in the French capital with the participation of key international players, including Washington, European Union and some other Arab countries, including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.



France says that conference is an attempt to revive the stalled Middle East peace and make sure negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians would resume.



Both Israel and Palestine have not taken part in the conference. Meanwhile, Israel had earlier refused the conference , saying that only unilateral unconditional negotiations with Palestinians is the way to revive peace.



The Palestinian Authority, welcomed the conference, while a number of Palestinian political factions, including the Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Popular front for the liberation of Palestine and the Democratic front for the Liberation of Palestine, had rejected the conference.



The factions contend that any peace initiative that revives futile peace negotiations, would undermine basic Palestinian legitimate rights, including right of return to historical Palestine.



In the meantime, European Union, warned of the possibility that the Oslo peace accords of 1993, would collapse , once and for all , unless there is genuine intervention by key international players.



For IMEMC News, I am Rami Almeghari in Gaza.





The West Bank and Gaza Report



This week Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian woman at a West Bank checkpoint, in the meantime Israels navy increased attacks targeting fishers in Gaza. IMEMCs Ghassan Bannoura Reports:



On Thursday of this week, Ansar Harsha, 25, was killed by Isralei soldiers at a military checkpoint near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem. The Israeli military claimed that the slain woman attempted to stab a soldier, before she was shot and seriously wounded.



An eyewitness told local media that an army officer opened fire on the woman while she was more than three meters (approximately 10 feet) away from the soldiers. The Israeli army said there were no injuries among its soldiers.



Moreover, Israeli soldiers invaded, on Friday at dawn, the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and clashed with many local youths, wounding two Palestinians with live fire, while one of them suffered a life-threatening head injury. At another invasion, Israeli soldiers shot and injured, on Tuesday at night, two Palestinians in Qalqilia, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.



At least 99 Palestinians were kidnapped this week by Israeli troops during invasions targeting West Bank communities and occupied Jerusalem. Among those kidnapped, there were 19 children.



In the Gaza Strip, one fisher was shot and injured by Israeli navy fire, Tuesday, and four others were kidnapped, after the navy ships attacked them in Gaza waters, near the shore of Wadi Gaza area, southwest of Gaza city.



Another navy attacks were also reported on Tuesday and Thursday of this week. Forcing fishers to go back to shore. The attack escalated shortly after Israel, unilaterally, reduced the fishing zone in Gaza territorial waters to only six nautical miles, in all of Gazas waters, from the northern to the southern parts of the coastal region.



Last March, Israel decided to increase the fishing zone in the area extending from Gaza Valley to the southern part of the coastal region, to nine nautical miles, but kept the zone in northern Gaza at six nautical miles.



Also in Gaza this week, Israeli soldiers stationed near the southern and northern borders of the coastal region have opened fire at Palestinian farmers forcing them to leave their farmlands. Such attacks wee reported on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week.



For IMEMC News this is Ghassan Bannoura.





Conclusion



And thats all for today from This Week in Palestine. This was the Weekly report for for May 28, to June 3, 2016. From the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www-dot-imemc-dot-org, This weeks report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi and me Eman Abedraboo-Bannoura.
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A new study shows that male sparrows can judge if a spouse is prone to infidelity, providing less food for their brood if their partner is unfaithful.

Sparrows form pair bonds that are normally monogamous, but many females are unfaithful to their partner and have offspring with other males. Biologists believe that the male birds are unfaithful to ensure that they father as many chicks as they can, while females are unfaithful with males of better 'genetic quality' -- ones that are fitter and could produce stronger offspring.

However, cheating comes with a cost -- the cheating female's partner will provide less food for their nest of young. It has long been suspected that males know that not all the chicks in their nest are theirs, and so make a decision to provide less. But an alternative explanation is that cheating females and lazy males tend to pair up naturally.

Researchers from the UK, Germany, and Australia have now revealed that males make the decision of how much to provide for their chicks based on the tendency of their partner to cheat. The study, published today in The American Naturalist, followed the entire sparrow population of the island of Lundy in the Bristol Channel for 12 years.

Lead researcher Dr Julia Schroeder of the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London said: "Males changed their behaviour based on their partner. When they switched from a faithful partner to one prone to infidelity, they provided less food for their brood." Females might also change their behaviour when paired with a less lazy male, cheating less with a more attentive father.

The research showed that males cannot actually identify whether all the chicks in their nest are theirs or not, and instead base their feeding decisions on who their female partner is.

"If chicks were switched into a nest where the female was faithful, then the father at that nest kept up his hard work providing for the chicks, suggesting they have no mechanism, such as smell, to determine which chicks are theirs," said Dr Schroeder. "Instead, the males may use cues from the female's behaviour during her fertile period -- for example how long she spends away from the nest."

The study followed 200 males and 194 females as they formed 313 unique monogamous pairs and hatched 863 broods on Lundy. Some sparrow 'divorces' occurred -- but most changes of life partner were due to a death.

The team DNA genotyped every sparrow, allowing them to build up precise family trees, and find out which females were most unfaithful and who their cheating males were. "Lundy is a unique natural laboratory because it is almost a closed system -- very few birds leave the island or arrive from the mainland. In the entire 12 years only four birds immigrated to Lundy, possibly carried by boat."

Dr Schroeder and her team are continuing to study the Lundy sparrows to uncover how and why social behaviours like monogamy arose. Being unfaithful may be a costly behaviour for females because they only lay a limited number of eggs, and it may be a hangover from when their ancestors were not monogamous, rather than a useful strategy for getting the strongest offspring.
Scientists have successfully installed the first wave of low-cost weather stations that are designed to provide critically needed information to farmers and other residents in developing countries.

The stations are built largely with 3D-printed parts that can be easily replaced if they wear out in the field. They were created by weather experts at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and its managing entity, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).

The first five stations, newly installed in Zambia, are beginning to transmit information about temperature, rainfall, winds, and other weather parameters. These measurements and the resulting forecasts can provide weather information for local subsistence farmers deciding when to plant and fertilize crops. They can also alert communities about floods and other potential disasters.

"It's a major opportunity to provide weather information that farmers have never had before," said NCAR scientist Paul Kucera, one of the project leaders. "This can literally make the difference when it comes to being able to feed their families."

The scientists will next explore the need for low-cost weather stations in other developing countries. The project is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the U.S. National Weather Service.

"The bottom line is that 3D-printing will help to save lives," said Sezin Tokar, a hydrometeorologist with U.S. AID. "Not only can they provide countries with the ability to more accurately monitor for weather-related disasters, the data they produce can also help reduce the economic impact of disasters."

Lack of observations

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Like many developing countries, Zambia does not have detailed forecasts, partly because weather stations are scarce. The density of stations in Africa is eight times lower than recommended by the World Meteorological Organization. Building out a network can be prohibitively expensive, with a single commercial weather station often costing $10,000 to $20,000, plus ongoing funding for maintenance and replacing worn-out parts.

To fill this need, UCAR and NCAR scientists have worked for years to come up with a weather station that is cheap and easy to fix, and can be adapted to the needs of the host country. The resulting stations are constructed out of plastic parts that are custom designed and can be run off a 3D printer, along with off-the-shelf sensors and a basic, credit card-sized computer developed for schoolchildren.

Total cost: about $300 per station. Best of all, the host country can easily print replacement parts.

"If you want a different kind of wind direction gauge or anemometer, or you just need to replace a broken part, you can just print it out yourself," said project co-lead Martin Steinson of UCAR. "Our role is to make this as accessible as possible. This is entirely conceived as an open-source project."

Building out a network

Working with the Zambian Meteorological Department and other agencies, Kucera and Steinson installed the first stations earlier this year -- three next to radio stations that will broadcast the information to local communities, one by a rural hospital, and one by the headquarters of the meteorological department.

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The meteorological office will take over the project later this year, with a goal of building out a network of 100 weather stations across Zambia. They will also have the 3D printers, materials, and training to maintain or upgrade the network.

The weather station measurements are accessible to local meteorologists and also transmitted over wireless networks in real time to NCAR. After all the weather stations have been installed, scientists will develop a system of one- to three-day regional forecasts for Zambia using the NCAR-based Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) computer model. The forecasts, in addition to helping farmers and other residents, can also alert the country to the threat of impending floods or other weather-related disasters.

The system will ultimately be transferred to the Zambian Meteorological Department to run the forecasts.

"The objective of the project is to transfer the technology so this will be run by Zambia," Kucera said.

Once the technology has been established in Zambia, Kucera and Steinson will turn to other nations that need additional weather stations, such as in Africa or the Caribbean. In addition to improving local forecasts, the additional observations can eventually make a difference for forecasts globally because computer models everywhere will have additional information about the atmosphere.

"We're hearing a lot of interest in using this technology in other countries," Kucera said. "It's really quite a return on investment."
Transplant surgeons at UT Southwestern Medical Center have performed the first lung transplant in Texas using donated lungs treated with new technology known as ex-vivo lung perfusion.

Ex-vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) allows physicians to evaluate and recondition lungs, making lungs that would have been unsuitable for transplantation potentially viable. UT Southwestern is one of 16 medical centers across the country -- and the only one in Texas -- participating in a national clinical trial of the technology, which, if effective, could significantly expand the number of donor lungs available for transplantation.

"Currently, more than 70 percent of potential donor lungs are deemed unusable," said Dr. Fernando Torres, Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Director of the Lung Transplantation Program at UT Southwestern. "EVLP technology is an assessment tool that will allow us to evaluate organs that are marginal over an extended period of time. We can see how well these lungs inflate and deflate, see how well gas exchange is happening, and some of these lungs will be found to be suitable for transplant."

In 2015, 2,075 lung transplants were performed in the U.S., but more than 200 people died while awaiting a lung transplant, including 22 Texans, according to data from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the non-profit organization that manages the nation's organ transplant system. UT Southwestern, one of the leading medical centers in the country in lung transplants, has performed more than 60 lung transplants each year for the last three years, and more than 500 lung transplants overall, ranking the medical center No. 8 among all the centers in the country that are currently performing lung transplants, according to UNOS.

"Some of the lungs we see are clearly not usable because of infections, bad contusions, and so on, but with others, it's simply not clear," said Dr. Pietro Bajona, Assistant Professor of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery and Director of the EVLP Program. "We can put the questionable lungs in the machine, ventilate them, perfuse them with a special solution, and then after a few hours test them.

"There are many people who are waiting for a transplant who are very sick, and even though the number of donors is increasing, there are still not enough lungs available to meet demand," Dr. Bajona said.

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EVLP is expected to increase the number of lungs available for transplant by 10 to 15 percent.

John Herzig became the first patient in Texas to be transplanted with lungs that were evaluated with EVLP technology. The 58-year-old former Oklahoma school superintendent was forced to retire early because of deteriorating health due to pulmonary fibrosis, a scarring of the lungs that leads to severe breathing problems. He was so weak before the transplant, he couldn't play with his grandson.

"Before the transplant, I could ride on the tractor with my grandson, but I couldn't do anything else with him. I was just too weak," said Mr. Herzig, who led a robust life before being sidelined. "So when they called it was not a hard choice. I trusted my care to these doctors and I didn't want to turn down an opportunity."

Mr. Herzig had been on the waiting list for a week, when a potentially viable set of lungs was donated. In April, Mr. Herzig waited in a hospital room as Dr. Bajona removed the lungs from the donor to test them in the dome-shaped technology. The XVIVO device, created by a Swedish company, has already been approved for use in Europe and Canada, and the current study will help determine whether it is approved for general use in the United States.

After examining the inside of the lungs with a bronchoscope, the EVLP team began running a fluid that provides nutrients and removes waste products through the blood vessels of the lungs. Pulmonologist Dr. Amit Banga, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, along with the rest of the EVLP team assessed the lungs, paying particular attention to three measures: the transfer of oxygen; pressure in the blood vessels; and compliance, which is a measure of the ability of the lung tissue to stretch and expand.

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"The basic job of the lungs is to get oxygen into the blood and that's something that we can assess and maybe even improve with this technology," Dr. Banga said. "If the pressure in the blood vessels of the lungs is too high, that's a sign of worsening, so we pay close attention to that. And we like the lungs to be like a nice balloon that expands appropriately and then goes back to its regular size."

The EVLP not only allows for careful assessment of the lungs but even improves the condition of the lungs by providing an opportunity for excess fluid that has accumulated in the lungs to dissipate.

"EVLP means we can save people like Mr. Herzig, which is very rewarding," said Dr. Bajona.

After about three hours, the team of physicians determined the lungs were usable and Dr. Matthias Peltz, Surgical Director of Cardiac Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support, led the surgical team that performed the transplant.

"There are more lungs declined in the operating room than any other organ," said Dr. Peltz, Associate Professor of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. "Ex-vivo perfusion technology allows us to evaluate organs for transplantation that we either would not previously have considered for transplantation or would have declined in the operating room. If the ex-vivo evaluation is favorable, we can then implant the perfused lungs, significantly increasing the number of available organs for our patients."

"This new technology, which improves the physical status of lungs while outside the human body, is a great example of how technology is expanding our existing donor pool so that we may save more lives," said Patti Niles, CEO of Southwest Transplant Alliance, the federally designated organ procurement organization serving much of Texas.

Though it will be some months before he can return to his Oklahoma farm, Mr. Herzig is especially looking forward to playing a bigger role in the life of his 4-year-old grandson, Harrison. While recovering in the ICU, Mr. Herzig's daughter, Abbie, decorated a T-shirt with a drawing of his new "super lungs," which many of the physicians and nurses signed. He plans to wear it for his first game of catch with Harrison.

"I'm so grateful to the family who agreed to donate these lungs," said Mr. Herzig, "and thankful for the new technology that helped make them available, so now I'll have that opportunity to play with my grandson and watch him grow."
More precise dosing methods and cellular engineering techniques show promise in the effort to improve treatment of aggressive cancers with personalized cellular therapies, according to new studies from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Those findings are among results of six studies of investigational chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells for both adult and pediatric leukemias, adult lymphomas, and ovarian cancer which will be presented during the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.

Results from two clinical trials detail efforts to determine the most effective, safest dosing regimen of modified CAR T cells -- which are engineered in a laboratory from patients' own T cells to hunt and potentially kill cancer cells -- for adults with leukemia. Noelle Frey, MD, an assistant professor of Hematology-Oncology, will present results in 27 adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), identifying an optimal dose and infusion regimen that should improve treatment response while reducing potential for side effects.

The study's first six patients received 5 x 108 cells -- more than 500 million of the modified cells -- as a fractionated dose given over the course of three days, and five patients achieved a complete remission and one patient had a partial response to the therapy. All six had cytokine release syndrome (CRS), from which they recovered after treatment with tocilizumab, an immunosuppressant drug that blocks the effects of the inflammatory cytokine IL-6. CRS can include varying degrees of flu-like symptoms, with high fevers, nausea, and muscle pain, and temporary neurologic symptoms, including delirium, and in more severe cases, low blood pressure and breathing difficulties which may require treatment in an intensive care unit.

The next six patients received the same cell dose as a one-time infusion. Three patients in that group died of refractory CRS and sepsis, and three patients experienced complete remissions. The research team then treated 9 patients with a lower cell dose (5 x 107 cells), as either a one-time or a split-dose infusion. This dose was found to be safe with no treatment-related deaths, and three patients achieved a complete remission. Next, the team treated an additional 6 patients at the original higher dose split into multiple parts to closely monitor for early signs of CRS. The overall complete remission rate for patients who received this dose and schedule was 86 percent, with no treatment-related deaths. Nine of the 12 patients in those two groups experienced CRS and recovered after treatment with tocilizumab and/or steroids. The researchers say the results suggest that both the dose of T cells administered and the infusion regimen (one large dose vs several smaller doses) are important to maximize both response and safety.

In a dose-optimization study of 35 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), researchers examined two different doses of CTL019 -- a lower dose (5 x 107 cells) and a higher dose (5 x 108 cells). Among 30 patients who were evaluable for response, 4 of 13 responded at the lower dose (one complete remission and three partial responses, ORR = 31 percent) and nine of 17 responded at the higher dose (six complete remissions and three partial responses, ORR = 53 percent). Five patients remain in complete remission after a median follow-up of 26 months. One patient's cancer returned with CD19-negative cells, which are not amenable to targeting with CTL019. All 35 patients were evaluable for toxicity, with 19 experiencing varying degrees of CRS, four of who were treated with tocilizumab. There was no association found between cell dose and CRS development or severity. Results of this study will be presented by David Porter, MD, a professor of Hematology-Oncology and director of Blood and Marrow Transplantation in Penn's Abramson Cancer Center.

Two studies detailing the latest results of pediatric trials of CTL019 for ALL will be presented by Shannon Maude, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of Pediatrics and a pediatric oncologist at CHOP. In a first-of-its-kind study, children who relapsed after receiving CAR T cells were re-treated with a new type of CAR engineered with a "humanized" CAR protein more closely related to human proteins than the mouse protein used in other investigational Penn and CHOP CAR T cells, in hopes of improving the modified cells' persistence in the body. The new CAR T cells, called CTL119 cells, produced complete responses in four of eight children, including one ongoing remission at seven months. Four of the eight children experienced cytokine release syndrome.

Maude will also detail updated data on pediatric ALL patients who received CTL019, expanding on results in 59 patients presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology in December 2015. Those data showed a sustained overall response rate of 79 percent at 12 months after treatment.

In a study of 30 patients who received CTL019 for three different types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the researchers found that 59 percent of patients responded to the therapy (17 of 29, 15 of who experienced complete remissions of their disease). After a median follow-up of 14 months, no patients in complete remission had relapsed. These findings update results presented at December's Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology, with additional analysis examining the speed of patients' humoral immunity recovery following therapy. They found that over 18 months after their CTL019 treatment, counts of most patients' immunoglobulin levels (IG) -a measure of antibodies that help fight off viruses and bacteria -- recovered to levels which did not require treatment with IG replacement therapy to maintain healthy immune function. The findings will be presented by Stephen Schuster, MD, the Robert and Margarita Louis-Dreyfus Associate Professor in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Lymphoma Clinical Care and Research in the Abramson Cancer Center.

In a phase I study examining the role of CAR T cells in the treatment of solid tumors, six patients with recurrent ovarian cancer received a CAR therapy directed against mesothelin (CART-meso). All six patients showed stable disease on imaging (per RECIST criteria) at one month after treatment. Tests over time showed expansion of the modified cells in the body that peaked between days seven and 10. By day 26, tests showed that cancer cells in one patient's pleural fluid had been eradicated. The CART-meso cells trafficked to tumor sites in three of four patients with available tumor samples. There were no acute adverse events related to the infusion, and no patients experienced CRS. Other symptoms observed, which may not have been related to the CART-meso infusions, included pleural effusion, breathing difficulties, abdominal pain, ascites, and constipation. These results will be presented by Janos Tanyi, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Giving chemotherapy after radiotherapy delays further growth of a rare type of brain tumour, increasing the number of patients alive at five years from 44 per cent to 56 per cent.

These results -- from a clinical trial for patients with anaplastic glioma run by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and funded in UK by Cancer Research UK -- were presented at the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago today.

The phase III clinical trial compared survival for patients whose tumours were thought to be less likely to respond to chemotherapy because they did not have mutations in two genes called 1p and 19q.

750 patients from institutes around the world were split into four groups and either given:

1. Radiotherapy alone 2. Radiotherapy at the same time as chemotherapy 3. Radiotherapy then chemotherapy 4. Radiotherapy at the same time as and followed by chemotherapy.

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Giving chemotherapy after radiotherapy (groups three and four) halted tumour growth for 43 months after treatment, compared with 19 months for those who only had radiotherapy (groups one and two).

This improvement resulted in 56 per cent of patients given radiotherapy then chemotherapy surviving for five years, compared with only 44 per cent of those who did not.

While giving chemotherapy after radiotherapy has improved survival and is now standard care for these patients, the benefits of chemotherapy at the same time as radiotherapy are still unclear and need further follow-up.

Around 280 people are diagnosed with anaplastic gliomas each year in England.

UK trial lead Dr Sara Erridge, consultant oncologist at the Edinburgh Cancer Centre, said: "Our important study showed that giving temozolomide chemotherapy after radiotherapy delays progression and significantly improves survival for this group of patients. This trial has changed the way we manage patients with this type of tumour with radiotherapy followed by temozolomide chemotherapy now being the standard of care."

Martin van den Bent, member of the EORTC Board and study coordinator, said: "This study demonstrates the value of collaborative academic research in improving the standard of care for rare cancers. Through this partnership between EORTC, Cancer Research UK, North American and Australian study groups we were able to involve a large enough group of patients with this rare tumor type, allowing us to draw definitive conclusions that guide future treatment decisions in this disease."

Cancer Research UK scientists led the development of temozolomide chemotherapy, including its discovery in the lab and the development and first clinical trials of the drug in cancer patients**. The treatment is used worldwide to treat glioblastoma -- the most common type of adult primary brain tumour.

Dr Ian Walker, Cancer Research UK's director of clinical research, said: "The data from this trial is an important step forward for patients with anaplastic glioma. Many types of brain cancer are difficult to treat which is why we have committed to investing in more research in these hard-to-treat cancers. It wouldn't have been possible for our researchers to discover and develop temozolomide without the generous donations of our supporters. And thanks to research like this we hope to be able to increase survival for more patients in the future."
The arrival of a thin and lightweight computer that even rolls up like a piece of paper will not be in the far distant future. Flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), built upon a plastic substrate, have received greater attention lately for their use in next-generation displays that can be bent or rolled while still operating.

A Korean research team led by Professor Seunghyup Yoo from the School of Electrical Engineering, KAIST and Professor Tae-Woo Lee from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) has developed highly flexible OLEDs with excellent efficiency by using graphene as a transparent electrode (TE) which is placed in between titanium dioxide (TiO2) and conducting polymer layers. The research results were published online on June 2, 2016 in Nature Communications.

OLEDs are stacked in several ultra-thin layers on glass, foil, or plastic substrates, in which multi-layers of organic compounds are sandwiched between two electrodes (cathode and anode). When voltage is applied across the electrodes, electrons from the cathode and holes (positive charges) from the anode draw toward each other and meet in the emissive layer. OLEDs emit light as an electron recombines with a positive hole, releasing energy in the form of a photon. One of the electrodes in OLEDs is usually transparent, and depending on which electrode is transparent, OLEDs can either emit from the top or bottom.

In conventional bottom-emission OLEDs, an anode is transparent in order for the emitted photons to exit the device through its substrate. Indium-tin-oxide (ITO) is commonly used as a transparent anode because of its high transparency, low sheet resistance, and well-established manufacturing process. However, ITO can potentially be expensive, and moreover, is brittle, being susceptible to bending-induced formation of cracks.

Graphene, a two-dimensional thin layer of carbon atoms tightly bonded together in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice, has recently emerged as an alternative to ITO. With outstanding electrical, physical, and chemical properties, its atomic thinness leading to a high degree of flexibility and transparency makes it an ideal candidate for TEs. Nonetheless, the efficiency of graphene-based OLEDs reported to date has been, at best, about the same level of ITO-based OLEDs.

As a solution, the Korean research team, which further includes Professors Sung-Yool Choi (Electrical Engineering) and Taek-Soo Kim (Mechanical Engineering) of KAIST and their students, proposed a new device architecture that can maximize the efficiency of graphene-based OLEDs. They fabricated a transparent anode in a composite structure in which a TiO2 layer with a high refractive index (high-n) and a hole-injection layer (HIL) of conducting polymers with a low refractive index (low-n) sandwich graphene electrodes. This is an optical design that induces a synergistic collaboration between the high-n and low-n layers to increase the effective reflectance of TEs. As a result, the enhancement of the optical cavity resonance is maximized. The optical cavity resonance is related to the improvement of efficiency and color gamut in OLEDs. At the same time, the loss from surface plasmon polariton (SPP), a major cause for weak photon emissions in OLEDs, is also reduced due to the presence of the low-n conducting polymers.

Under this approach, graphene-based OLEDs exhibit 40.8% of ultrahigh external quantum efficiency (EQE) and 160.3 lm/W of power efficiency, which is unprecedented in those using graphene as a TE. Furthermore, these devices remain intact and operate well even after 1,000 bending cycles at a radius of curvature as small as 2.3 mm. This is a remarkable result for OLEDs containing oxide layers such as TiO2 because oxides are typically brittle and prone to bending-induced fractures even at a relatively low strain. The research team discovered that TiO2 has a crack-deflection toughening mechanism that tends to prevent bending-induced cracks from being formed easily.

Professor Yoo said, "What's unique and advanced about this technology, compared with previous graphene-based OLEDs, is the synergistic collaboration of high- and low-index layers that enables optical management of both resonance effect and SPP loss, leading to significant enhancement in efficiency, all with little compromise in flexibility." He added, "Our work was the achievement of collaborative research, transcending the boundaries of different fields, through which we have often found meaningful breakthroughs."

Professor Lee said, "We expect that our technology will pave the way to develop an OLED light source for highly flexible and wearable displays, or flexible sensors that can be attached to the human body for health monitoring, for instance."
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and partners Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Wisconsin-based Eck Industries have developed aluminum alloys that are both easier to work with and more heat tolerant than existing products.

What may be more important, however, is that the alloys -- which contain cerium -- have the potential to jump-start the United States' production of rare earth elements.

ORNL scientists Zach Sims, Michael McGuire and Orlando Rios, along with colleagues from Eck, LLNL and Ames Laboratory in Iowa, discuss the technical and economic possibilities for aluminum-cerium alloys in an article in JOM, a publication of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.

The team is working as part of the Critical Materials Institute, an Energy Innovation Hub created by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and managed out of DOE's Advanced Manufacturing Office. Based at Ames, the institute works to increase the availability of rare earth metals and other materials critical for U.S. energy security.

Rare earths are a group of elements critical to electronics, alternative energy and other modern technologies. Modern windmills and hybrid autos, for example, rely on strong permanent magnets made with the rare earth elements neodymium and dysprosium. Yet there is no production occurring in North America at this time.

One problem is that cerium accounts for up to half of the rare earth content of many rare earth ores, including those in the United States, and it has been difficult for rare earth producers to find a market for all of the cerium mined. The United States' most common rare earth ore, in fact, contains three times more cerium than neodymium and 500 times more cerium than dysprosium.

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Aluminum-cerium alloys promise to boost domestic rare earth mining by increasing the demand and, eventually, the value of cerium.

"We have these rare earths that we need for energy technologies," said Rios, "but when you go to extract rare earths, the majority is cerium and lanthanum, which have limited large-volume uses."

If, for example, the new alloys find a place in internal combustion engines, they could quickly transform cerium from an inconvenient byproduct of rare earth mining to a valuable product in itself.

"The aluminum industry is huge," Rios explained. "A lot of aluminum is used in the auto industry, so even a very small implementation into that market would use an enormous amount of cerium." A 1 percent penetration into the market for aluminum alloys would translate to 3,000 tons of cerium, he added.

Rios said components made with aluminum-cerium alloys offer several advantages over those made from existing aluminum alloys, including low cost, high castability, reduced heat-treatment requirements and exceptional high-temperature stability.

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"Most alloys with exceptional properties are more difficult to cast," said David Weiss, vice president for engineering and research and development at Eck Industries, "but the aluminum-cerium system has equivalent casting characteristics to the aluminum-silicon alloys."

The key to the alloys' high-temperature performance is a specific aluminum-cerium compound, or intermetallic, which forms inside the alloys as they are melted and cast. This intermetallic melts only at temperatures above 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

That heat tolerance makes aluminum-cerium alloys very attractive for use in internal combustion engines, Rios noted. Tests have shown the new alloys to be stable at 300 degrees Celsius (572 degrees Fahrenheit), a temperature that would cause traditional alloys to begin disintegrating. In addition, the stability of this intermetallic sometimes eliminates the need for heat treatments typically needed for aluminum alloys.

Not only would aluminum-cerium alloys allow engines to increase fuel efficiency directly by running hotter, they may also increase fuel efficiency indirectly, by paving the way for lighter engines that use small aluminum-based components or use aluminum alloys to replace cast iron components such as cylinder blocks, transmission cases and cylinder heads.

The team has already cast prototype aircraft cylinder heads in conventional sand molds. The team also cast a fully functional cylinder head for a fossil fuel-powered electric generator in 3D-printed sand molds. This first-of-a-kind demonstration led to a successful engine test performed at ORNL's National Transportation Research Center. The engine was shown to handle exhaust temperatures of over 600 degrees Celsius.

"Three-dimensional printed molds are typically very hard to fill," said ORNL physicist Zachary Sims, "but aluminum-cerium alloys can completely fill the mold thanks to their exceptional castability."

The alloys were jointly invented by researchers at ORNL and Eck Industries. Colleagues at Eck Industries contributed expertise in aluminum casting, and LLNL researchers analyzed the aluminum-cerium castings using synchrotron source X-ray computed tomography.
Winky and Wanda, two Asian elephants, were lucky enough to live at one of the best zoos in the U.S. But people at the zoo decided it still wasn't good enough. "We had been working for years constantly increasing the size of the elephants' area," Ron L. Kagan, executive director and chief executive officer of The Detroit Zoo, a leading institution for animal welfare, told The Dodo. "Every time we made those improvements that we thought were important, we then thought, from an elephant's point of view, it was not."

Elephants need room. If they don't walk and maintain a healthy level of activity, it can cause serious health problems. "We thought this was ridiculous," Kagan said. "We just weren't able to give the elephants enough room." Also, they needed a warmer climate. It wasn't natural for Winky and Wanda to endure the frigid Michigan winters at the zoo. Despite the zoo's best efforts, both elephants suffered from arthritis. They needed freedom. In 2005, after over a decade of living at the zoo, The Detroit Zoo let Winky and Wanda go. The decision didn't go unnoticed: The Detroit Zoo was the first major zoo in the U.S. to decide on ethical grounds to no longer keep elephants at all.

Dodo Shows Little But Fierce Pocket-Sized Kitten Grows Up To Be A Wild Woman

Winky and Wanda retired to the Performing Animal Welfare Society's (PAWS) ARK 2000 Sanctuary in California, a home 30 times the size of what The Detroit Zoo could offer them. Winky and Wanda also had the opportunity to form strong social bonds with the other rescued elephants there, something these emotionally complex animals desperately need.

"We want animals to thrive, not simply survive," Kagan said.

But according to Kagan, who recently traveled to Antarctica to see the penguins there, some animals do thrive at zoos. "A penguin's life is one of constant attack," Kagan said. "Penguins are brutally attacked by seals, the elements - even their own children are attacking them for food and care. Life is incredibly hard for a penguin in the wild." In contrast, the penguins at The Detroit Zoo live an "incredible life," Kagan said. "That's not a justification for taking animals out of the wild, of course, and we don't do that." Put simply: "Life is not perfect for animals outside zoos. It's not perfect for animals inside zoos."

For Kagan, Winky and Wanda are just one chapter in a long fight to improve conservation efforts for endangered species. "We're always trying to find out how to improve the zoo for animal welfare," Kagan said. "We have about 300 different species here. And the challenge is for them to thrive." Kagan said that if zoo animals aren't thriving in the zoo, they need to be able to go live somewhere they can. Amid the recent controversy about the gorilla named Harambe who was killed at the Cincinnati Zoo, The Dodo asked Kagan if he could see zoos moving toward not having great apes at all. "I think that in the future zoos will hold fewer different kinds of species," Kagan said. "A zoo that might now have orangutans, chimps and gorillas, might just end up having one of those, and giving them more space and more tailored environments to their needs."

As for Winky and Wanda, they spent the last years of their lives at the sanctuary. Winky died three years after she arrived there, at age 56. Wanda, who enjoyed a decade of the sanctuary, finally passed away in 2015, at age 57. About the decision to retire Winky and Wanda, there's only one thing that Kagan would have done differently. "I would have done it sooner," he said.
Shes the perfect woman: 34-24-34, compliant and agreeable, an enjoyable conversationalist and lacking any traits that could be considered a flaw  including rejection.

Thats because shes a machine.

Robots designed to satisfy sexual desires are close to transcending fantasy to become reality thanks to rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, computing that allows machines to mimic human affects and high-tech sensors and materials.

The technology has so far yet to cross the uncanny valley  the wide gulf from creepy to sexy sparked by almost-but-not-quite real humanoid robots.

Theyre essentially rubber bodies with motors and some software; more like the love doll Bianca from Lars and The Real Girl than emotionally intelligent gynoid Ava from Ex Machina.

But sex robots are already raising ethical, legal and moral questions of consent, sexism, human biases and what our desire for them says about human psychology.

The debate over them highlights one of the more controversial aspects of the increasingly social nature of our interactions with robots as they move from factories into our homes and someday, our bedrooms.

How we treat robots  its a mirror of our own psychology in a way, said Kate Darling, an expert in robot ethics at MITs Media Lab.

Darling is fascinated by our strange desire to anthropomorphize, or attribute human agency to machines, and engage with them in a social way. She studies human empathy for robots through the lens of violence toward them.

She cites the outpouring of sympathy for Hitchbot, a hitchhiking robot that was vandalized (or killed according to Twitter reactions), and calls to PETA about a four-legged Boston Dynamics robot who was kicked in a promotional video as examples of how our treatment of robots offer insights into the human psyche.

The interesting thing is not the robots, its how robots reveal things about our own behaviour and psychology that were only just learning  including the question of whether sex robots are going to be a healthy thing or unhealthy thing for people.

The questions being raised about sex robots are similar to the conversations about the link between violence in video games or pornography. However, the physicality of a robot brings such questions to a new level as the line between fantasy or reality becomes even more muddled in the subconscious, Darling said.

And even though we know they are machines, it doesnt take much for us to treat robots as if they are people.

Participants in one study even reported becoming more aroused by touching the private parts region of a humanoid robot, than when touching, say, the machines hand or eye. Others felt uncomfortable touching the machine in that way, a recent study by Stanford University found.

With an increasing amount of money being pumped into artificial intelligence and robotics and our growing comfort levels with robot interaction, its only a matter of time before we will love, marry and have sex with robots, believes David Levy, an artificial intelligence expert.

Human-robot intercourse is the next sexual revolution and will be normalized by 2050, Levy predicted in his 2007 book Love and Sex with Robots.

Once they move and speak and they feel warm, I dont think there will be any problem for people to relate to them, he said.

I think once one or two companies are actually producing these, I think the field will suddenly become very full.

Sex robot company True Companion says thousands of people have paid upwards of $7,000 for pre-orders of Roxxxy, the worlds first sex robot, programmed to learn an owners preferences. However, it remains unclear whether any have actually been produced.

Elsewhere in the race to be first to market, Real Doll is developing Realbotix, a high-end silicone doll with artificial intelligence. It plans to release prototypes this year with sales slated for 2017.

It is possible to develop an emotional connection to a life-like doll, and it is our goal to take that connection to a higher level using user-customizable artificial intelligence to create unique personalities, the Realbotix website says.

Levy believes sex robots can offer solutions for a number of sexual issues: from curbing cheating in long-distance relationships to a safer outlet for violent sex or pedophilia to offering companionship to those who cant form relationships with humans either because of mental health, disabilities or anti-social behaviour.

However he does worry that once robots are regarded as wonderful lovers it could be difficult for someone to have a relationship with a human without having performance anxiety.

As for sex criminals, robots, equipped with therapeutic functions, could be an outlet that could wean people off unfortunate sexual leanings.

Not everyone agrees with Levys progressive stance. An academic conference he organized on robot love and sex was deemed illegal in Malaysia, with the police chief threatening to throw Levy in prison if it went ahead.

Theres also an organized campaign to ban sex robots over a lack of critical examination of questions about the potential harms and inequalities exacerbated by the new sex objects.

Sinziana Gutiu, a lawyer who authored a chapter in Robot Law on ethics and sexbots called The Roboticization of Consent believes users could be alienated by rendering them less able to form human relationships and that they could erode the need for consent in male-female sex.

The lack of consent and heightened control in robots is problematic, she said, and could further objectify and dehumanize real women and children.

A persons desire to own a sex robot implicitly brings with it a desire to control something thats essentially indistinguishable from a woman

Putting those violent misogynistic actions and beliefs behind closed doors and pretending that theres no effects on society and on women is a bit naive.

The concern that users may apply the anti-social interactions they have with sexbots to women and society is reinforced by the phenomenon of anthropomorphism, Gutiu said.

To the user, the sexbot is a woman.

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PASADENA, CALIF.Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins admits he has a weakness when it comes to acting: William Shakespeare.

During his long and acclaimed career, Hopkins has appeared in productions of Othello, Antony and Cleopatra and King Lear, yet hes always had what he calls and uneasy relationship with the Bard.

Hopkins had to face his qualms again for the production of The Dresser for Starz, which debuts Friday at 9 p.m. on Super Channel. He plays a legendary stage actor in a performance of King Lear in a small English regional theatre during the Second World War that must endure bombs falling, sirens wailing and a missing star. His dresser, Norman (Ian McKellen), must scramble to keep the production alive until the actor returns.

The movie is based on Ronald Harwoods classic play that hasnt been adapted for TV in more than 30 years. Emily Watson, Sarah Lancashire and Edward Fox round out the cast.

Although it is being presented in the same format as a made-for-TV movie, executive producer Colin Callender says it is more like the classic days of television when programs like GE Theater and Playhouse 90 were made to present a play in as close a manner to a stage production as possible.

I think that when we went to Ronald Harwood and said we wanted to do this, we said, We dont want to adapt it for the screen. We actually want to do your play and make it for television. And that is indeed a very rare thing to do these days, Callender says. Its just a way of bringing extraordinary writing to the screen, because it gives actors of the stature of Ian and Tony the chance to play roles that frankly arent available in the movies anymore.

The viewer gets to watch as the action, from the backstage chaos to the stage presentation of Shakespeares play.

Hopkins was never comfortable doing full productions of any of Shakespeares work because he never felt like he had the skills to play the roles properly.

I came into this profession by accident, really. I wanted to be a musician. So I came into this as an outsider, Hopkins says. I think it may be a streak in most actors, I can only speak for myself, of deep insecurity and insecurity, fear, anxiety, thinking Im not up to it.

I couldnt do it and I lost my nerve. And I should have gone back, I suppose, but I thought, enough. I cant do this. There was something in my nature, something made me restless. I left the national theatre as a dark cloud. I said, To hell with you all. That was my nature then. Its not like it today. Its mellowed a lot.

One of the reasons Hopkins was willing to take another chance was the casting of McKellen. McKellen already had a slight edge on playing the character of Norman since he had appeared in King Lear onstage. The dresser is supposed to have an intimate knowledge of the production.

Just to feel that Lear had seeped into me and controlled me for a year of my life is a good preparation, McKellen says. Like Anthony, I wasnt best pleased with my own Lear, although it made it to a film for TV and thats not too bad.

But it is a play I would like to revisit. I noticed a number of actors have returned to Lear, particularly those who played it when they felt they were too young.

McKellen tells Hopkins that maybe his return to Lear is through The Dresser. Hopkins smiles and says it may just be that hes now the age of Lear and that makes the work easier.

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When is a table more than just a table? Perhaps when it is meant to evoke the experience of walking down a London street. Or when the making of said table involves a little known, yet ancient plasterwork technique called scagliola. Or maybe when its design has been selected from more than 826 entries for this months AZ Peoples Choice awards by Azure magazine.

All of the above apply to Deborah Mosss new W1 collection of three easy-on-the-eye pieces notable for their cool, sculptural curves and elegant marbled finishes. But most importantly, perhaps, for Moss, the co-founder of Torontos globally revered studio Moss & Lam, who lost her partner in work and life, Edward Lam, in 2013, the tables represent a new start.

The first year after Edwards death I thought maybe I should just close it down, says Moss. After almost 30 years of working with top designers on projects all over the world, there was this sense that we had done it all, already. But then I gradually got back to the idea that Im an artist  I like making things. And the tables are the first taste of what is going to be my new focus and direction.

Personally, this new step means a return to Mosss own inspirational font; having spent her formative years living abroad with her family, Moss has named her tables Dean, Dover and Mount, after the fine-boned streets of central Londons W1 postcode that she wandered, awestruck, as a young girl. When I think back on it now, I realize that it was during my time in London that I learned to really see, says Moss.

Professionally, it also represents a departure. Pioneering creatives back in 87 in the Torontos now gentrified Junction district, Moss & Lams iconic studio has now been put on the market, with plans to relocate to a larger space in significantly less cool Etobicoke.

But then Moss & Lam has always preferred to operate under the radar. Who knew that behind the quiet deco brick building in west-end Toronto was the powerhouse studio that came up with the exquisite, bespoke finishes, mobiles and installations for the likes of Louis Vuitton, Four Seasons and Tiffany & Co in flagships from New York to Hong Kong?

A teacher at OCAD once told me that my artwork had a worrying attention to surfaces,  Moss laughs. Back in the 80s, we were considered so bourgeois by our classmates for being decorative painters. But we wanted to have a nice life, with a house and a family and a decent car, which is why we decided to stay here in Toronto.

After three decades of fruitful collaboration with design gurus such as Yabu Pushelberg and Rockwell Group, Moss has few regrets about having taken the applied, decorative route. What I learned is that life is short, do what makes you happy.

Having pulled it off with aplomb, Moss is now perhaps less leery of the limelight. This may be incorrect to say, but I want to win that Azure award, says Moss. Im really proud of these tables.

Karen von Hahn is a Toronto-based writer, trend observer and style commentator. Contact her at kvh@karenvonhahn.com .

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Whats a swizzle? Turns out its more than a plastic stick that holds your olive in place.

Swizzle is also the name of a specific bar tool, a cocktail-making technique and a family of drinks. And, if you order one at Torontos Bar Begonia, youll be served the bars own take on the genre, the Wychwood Park Swizzle, an ice-cold, super-refreshing drink with a bitter finish that just might be the citys tastiest way to beat the summer heat.

Hailing from the Caribbean, swizzled cocktails (as opposed to shaken or stirred) are traditionally tall, rum-based drinks made with a bar tool called . . . well, a swizzle stick. This blueprint for icy deliciousness has recently been rediscovered and reinvented by craft bartenders who have applied the swizzle method to everything from port wine to green chartreuse. At Begonia, their version is made with apricot liqueur, Fernet-Branca (a bitter liqueur), lime, mint and, instead of the usual rum, tequila.

I wanted to make it with tequila because so many people at my bar tell me theyll drink anything but tequila, says bar manager Veronica Saye, who perfected the cocktail recipe with Oliver Stern, Bar Begonias general manager (the pair work together on all of the drinks). So we really wanted to make an approachable and attractive tequila cocktail, to show people how versatile the spirit can be.

The original inspiration for the cocktail was Sayes love/hate relationship with the Queens Park Swizzle, a cocktail invented in Trinidad almost a century ago that she had to master for a bartending competition called Speed Rack, a womens-only match that measures contestants speed and accuracy and raises money for breast cancer research.

When I was preparing for Speed Rack, the Swizzle became my white whale, says Saye. I was terrified I would get that drink, since there are so many steps involved in making it. And then I got it on the final round. And I won.

Lucky break. For Bar Begonia as well as Saye, since the Wychwood Park Swizzle is the restaurant/bars most popular drink, by far. We just re-did our entire cocktail menu and the Wychwood Park Swizzle is the only one we kept, says Saye. We had to, really, since its not just the most popular, its also the most photographed.

Which is yet another of the swizzles virtues  pretty to look at and totally Instagram-worthy.

Wychwood Park Swizzle

1 oz blanco tequila

1/2 oz apricot liqueur

1/2 oz lime juice

1/4 oz simple syrup

2 sprigs of mint

1/2 oz Fernet-Branca

In a tall glass filled with crushed ice, add apricot liqueur, tequila, lime juice, simple syrup and the leaves from one sprig of mint. Insert your swizzle stick and rub the stick between your two palms until cocktail is thoroughly mixed and frothy. Then add more crushed ice. Pour the Fernet-Branca gently over the ice and garnish with a sprig of mint.

The swizzle stick

The swizzle stick is, literally, a wooden twig, that has been snapped off the swizzlestick tree (also known as the lele tree, or, formally, Quararibea turbinate) at the joint where the twig was jutting out to form four or five new mini-branches. The branched and the twig are trimmed and used as a rustic cocktail whisk. Although theyre plentiful and cheap in the Caribbean where theyre sold as souvenirs, they can be hard to track down elsewhere. Here in Toronto, BYOB (972 Queen St. W.) has a $30 authentic wooden swizzle stick, which can be picked up in person or ordered online at Cocktail Emporium.

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Christine Loughead saved her first being at the age of 10, a small, bothersome bug she had prepared to smack very dead  but couldnt.

In that moment, with just a decade of life behind her, the small girl from Canada lowered her hand.

Then she became a vegetarian.

In the 33 years since, Loughead has evolved to veganism and launched a host of other animal rescues: the small mouse she spent two hours saving from a trap; the fox, sick with mange, that she nursed back to health; and the curious skunk whose head she pried from a disposable coffee cup.

Each save took dedicated time and effort, but nothing compared to the great lengths to which she went last month when she used $300, a UPS plane and a vegan Facebook group to accomplish her latest pet project: the rescue of a grocery store lobster destined for someones plate in Red Lake, Ont.

The saga began May 15, about seven months after Loughead pledged herself to the vegan lifestyle. The 43-year-old house painter was drifting through her local supermarket when she came upon a large fish tank holding a solitary lobster.

She decided shed fork over the $15 he cost if it meant securing his fate.

She and her boyfriend, Dean Neniska, 46, filled a plastic bucket with salt water from the lobsters tank and lowered the creature inside. Loughead feared the supermarket would refuse to sell her the lobster if they learned her intentions, so she kept a low profile until they made it into the parking lot.

There, she whispered: You are now not dinner.

Then she named the sea creature Lobby Joe.

He wouldnt make a good pet, Loughead decided. He really should just go home, she said she thought.

But the drive to Halifax and the Atlantic Ocean, where Joe likely came from, would take 37 hours so she turned to a Facebook group for the vegan community, where she found Beth Kent.

Kent agreed to help, but Loughead still had to get Lobby Joe there  about a 3,200-km journey.

She eventually found a UPS store in Winnipeg that would ship animals.

During the lobsters 24-hour journey to Halifax, she was anxious. Then her phone buzzed May 26 with a new text message from Kent, a video of her greeting Lobby Joe in the Halifax UPS parking lot.

Hi, honey! Kent can be heard saying to the lobster as she pulls him from a box labelled PET. Lifes going to get better, okay?

When she watched the video, Loughead said, she cried. It just put me over the moon.

Kent drove to the coast, Loughead said, where shed scouted out a nice release point for Lobby Joe. But when she arrived, fishermen lurked nearby. Kent finally decided upon a quiet spot where kayaks launch into the sea.

Kent later released Lobby Joe into the Atlantic.

A video of the release shows Kent leaning over the water and dropping the lobster between patches of seaweed. The creature hesitates for a moment on the surface, then dives down deep.

There he goes! There he goes! Kent cheers. Woo! Good boy.

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OTTAWAThe government of Canada would be on the hook for a multibillion-dollar cancellation penalty if it were to break a controversial deal to sell light-armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia under the contract signed by the previous Conservative government, the Star has learned.

The onerous price tag for cancelling might help explain the resistance of the Liberal government to growing calls by critics to cancel the $14.8-billion contract reached by the Tories.

However, it also raises questions about whether such a heavy penalty effectively guts the ability of any future government to oversee any human rights violations that could result from deployment of the weaponized vehicles known as LAVs.

Im not going to comment on the details of the contract. Thats for the current Liberal government to respond to, said former Conservative international trade minister Ed Fast, who worked on the deal along with Stephen Harpers foreign affairs minister, John Baird.

All I will say is it is a very significant-sized contract. It has very significant benefits to Canadas economy and I will certainly acknowledge that a termination of the contact unilaterally by one party will have very significant consequences, Fast said in an interview with the Star.

Fast said he would not discuss what the actual damages might be for termination of the contract, adding there is a process within government that provides for a review under our export/imports regime to ensure that exports serve not only the national interest, but more specifically Canadas stand on defending human rights.

Fast said the Canadian government gave the 14-year deal a sovereign guarantee through the Canada Commercial Corp., a Crown corporation that acted as not only a broker but the contracting party for General Dynamics Land Systems with Saudi Arabia.

A source who spoke to the Star on condition of anonymity said the cancellation penalty is part of the contract reached after Harper personally sought support from Saudi Arabias ambassador to Canada to secure the 14-year deal to deliver weaponized vehicles  a deal that was otherwise looking certain to go to Germany.

Since the contract was first announced in 2014, secrecy has surrounded many details of the contract, such as the number of LAVs to be delivered.

Fast acknowledged previous reports that Harper had written a letter to the Saudi king.

I can say that the Canadian Commercial Corporation was a key player in concluding that contract and we won that contract over competing bids from Germany and France, Fast said. Asked if Germany was the preferred bidder at the time, Fast would say only that it went to Canada.

The Star requested an interview with the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Ottawa but had not yet received a reply.

Jason Hann, a spokesman for the Canada Commercial Corp., declined the Stars request for an interview, saying in an email response to specific questions that details related to all provisions of the contract to which youre referring are commercially confidential and cannot be released.

Global Affairs spokesperson Rachna Mishra replied to questions sent to Stephane Dions office, saying For reasons of commercial confidentiality, the department does not comment on ongoing contracts between Canadian companies and other countries.

Baird, reached in Europe, declined to discuss any details about the deal, any cancellation penalty or about Harpers personal interventions to secure the contract.

Baird said he and Fast worked very hard to make this contract happen, and said the Liberals should absolutely not halt it.

This is good for the economy of Canada, but it is also good for the security of Canada because we dont want ISIS moving into Saudi Arabia, Baird said.

In fairness to the Liberals, Baird said, this was successfully negotiated by General Dynamics Land Systems under the previous Conservative government and you shouldnt blame the Liberal government for that. Contracts should be sacrosanct, and the new government is honouring that and its the right thing to do.

Fasts and Bairds views are in sharp contrast to the position taken by the Conservatives current foreign affairs critic, Tony Clement, who said information now available about Saudi Arabias actions in Yemen wasnt available at the time the deal was struck. He said the deal should be shelved.

When Harper announced the $14.8-billion sale in 2014, he and land systems officials touted the 3,000 jobs to be created  mostly in London, Ont.  and the importance of Canada working with Saudi Arabia, a key regional security ally in the Middle East.

The Liberals did not oppose the sale during last years federal election, with a campaigning Trudeau at one point calling it a commercial contract for a bunch of jeeps.

Once in power, foreign affairs minister Dion signed off on export permits in April to approve the shipment of the LAVs based on an assessment the Saudis would not use them against its civilian population but would use them to defend Canadas common security interests with the desert kingdom.

But the Liberals have come under increasing pressure to respond to concerns about the abysmal human rights record of the Saudi regime which quashes civil dissent within its own borders, denies basic rights to women, authorized a mass beheading of 47 people last January, and moved beyond its own borders to quash an uprising in nearby Yemen, led by Houthi rebels allied with Saudi Arabias regional rival, Iran.

On Thursday in the Commons the NDP demanded to know why the government would not create a committee to oversee arms exports to guard against human rights abuses. Pam Goldsmith-Jones, Dions parliamentary secretary, said the government takes every opportunity to raise critical issues with senior Saudi officials with respect to humanitarian issues, consular issues, and human rights, as the minister did in his visit to the region last week.

Asked later how the government intends to monitor whether the LAVs would end up being used by Yemeni military forces against civilians, she said, Were watching that situation very closely. Of course, as you know, with regard to our permit process, monitoring the human rights situation is of utmost importance, so thats all I can tell you at this time.

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ONBOARD HMCS WINDSOROn the surface, the submarine seems restless, out of its natural domain. It rolls in the waves, its black mass seeming vulnerable.

Eyes glued to the periscope, Lt.-Cmdr. Peter Chu gives a sweep of the view outside and then gives the order. Diving now, diving now.

Vents are opened, water floods ballast tanks and the sub settles below the waves. A gauge ticks off the depth  10, 20, 30, 50 metres. Down here, the ride becomes silky smooth. A hush seems to take over the boat.

Normally we like to be dived  where we feel more comfortable in our natural environment, Chu said.

The Toronto Star recently joined the crew of HMCS Windsor for 24 hours as it sailed submerged in the Atlantic Ocean off the Nova Scotia coast. It gave a window into the life of Canadas submariners and the work of the complex machines they operate.

The control room is the crowded hub where crew members navigate the diesel-electric sub, steer it through the water, work the sonar and operate the weapons stations. Overseeing it all is Chu, the 42-year-old commander. Its the reason I joined the military, to be a submarine captain, he said.

But its not a life for everyone. Theres a reason submariners get paid more than sailors serving on surface ships, which they jokingly deride as skimmers and hotels.

Subs are all utility. Theres no laundry, no email access, no Internet, no satellite television and precious little space.

The 48 crew members quickly get used to squeezing past each other in cramped wardrooms, narrow passageways and the small sleeping quarters, where bunks are stacked three high. Visitors sleep in the weapons bay, sharing space with the torpedoes.

Life on a submarine . . . its definitely an acquired taste. Once we go deep, theres very little contact with the outside world, said navy Lt. Devin Matthews, the boats executive officer.

Me, I find that a bit of a blessing  Without that outside interference, it lets you focus on the mission, he said.

The hardships are eased by the efforts of chief chef Tony Cooper and his two assistants who serve up morale-boosting meals from a cramped galley about the size of a small walk-in closet. Theres no shortage of eating. Thats all you got down here, Cooper says.

Black-hulled submarines, the oceans silent stalkers, are menacing by their look, their history and their role, from the Nazi U-boats that hunted Allied convoys to the nuclear ballistic missile subs that today remain hidden in the ocean depths.

Canadas current subs  purchased second-hand between 2000 and 2004 from the British navy, which had mothballed the boats suffered a tough first decade, raising questions whether Ottawa had been sold a bill of goods.

Concerns over the state of the fleet were driven home in October 2004, when HMCS Chicoutimi suffered a fire during its maiden voyage to Canada, killing navy Lt. Chris Saunders.

Other problems over the years  fires, floods, a seafloor collision and, more recently, faulty welds  have kept subs in dock and out of service. Today, only HMCS Windsor is at sea. The three other subs  Corner Brook, Chicoutimi and Victoria  are in various stages of maintenance work.

Yet those on Windsor insist that subs are a vital part of Canadas maritime defence. Chu, for example, says the mere possibility that a sub might be operating unseen in an area of ocean has a huge deterrent effect. And he said the subs excel at intelligence gathering, thanks in large part to their stealth capabilities.

George Smith, petty officer, 2nd class, leads the team of sonar operators who are the ears  and eyes  of the submarine, especially when its cruising submerged.

HMCS Windsor was the first of the fleet to be equipped with a sophisticated sonar of the same type used by the U.S. Virginia-class nuclear submarines.

Ocean noise  ships, dolphins, whales and persistent crackling of shrimp  appear on the sonar displays. Still, as with the movie Hunt for Red October, it comes down to the ability of the operator to read the sensors and pick out the telltale noises that betray a ships location and identity.

You can hear whether or not they have serviced their equipment, whether their engines are bad, whether their engines have bad bearings  how many propeller blades are on the shaft, how fast the shaft is turning, Smith said.

Smith has heard the cries of dolphins as they ride in the subs bow wave. I could hear the joy in their voices, he said.

HMCS Windsor packs a wallop with its load of up to 18 Mark 48 torpedoes  each with almost 300 kg of explosives  that can speed towards a target at more than 50 km/h and break the back of a ship with their devastating blast.

Chu was the combat officer onboard HMCS Victoria when it fired a live torpedo at a decommissioned U.S. ship during a 2012 Pacific exercise. The bang when it exploded was like nothing like I experienced. Chu said.

So, too, were the tortured sounds as the crippled ship turned up on its bow and sank. It really brought home the significance of what we do, the commander said.

The crew wear the coveted dolphins on the uniforms, the mark of a submariner and a testament they have passed the training demanded of those who live below the waves, much of it devoted to emergency drills.

Its a lot of stuff to remember  Once you get dolphins, theres a lot of respect, said Leading Seaman Robert Boutette, of Windsor, Ont.

The crew are relaxed in their duties. But reminders of the dangers are all around. Air masks connected to an emergency air supply hang ready to be grabbed in the event of fire. Hoses and firefighting gear are stowed along the passageways. Receptacles for oxygen-generating candles are found throughout the sub.

If you understand the boat, you dont worry, said Petty Officer Nick Dubasouf as he tended the machinery control console, the complex board that oversees the subs propulsion.

Back in the galley, Cooper is in the middle of the lunch rush, pushing out orders of pork stir fry and stuffed peppers.

They refer to us as a special breed to come down here and do it, he said of submariners. You either love it or hate it. And the guys here all love it.

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Maintenance bill for sub fleet jumps by $900 million

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OTTAWAThe federal government has quietly earmarked almost $1 billion more to keep Canadas fleet of four submarines operational over the next seven years, the Star has learned.

With maintenance costs running higher than expected, the federal government has set aside additional funding to ensure the subs can remain in service.

The support contract to maintain the Victoria-class submarines through to 2023 has been boosted to $2.6 billion, up from $1.7 billion, a spokesperson with Public Services and Procurement Canada confirmed.

Thats because the previous amount, set in 2008, provided inadequate funding to cover the expected bills now that the extended maintenance work has begun on the submarines.

This increase is a result of maintenance costs being higher than originally estimated over the 15-year contract. Initial estimates were premature, and Canada now has the data from recent submarine in-service support activity to better predict future work requirements, Nicolas Boucher said in an email.

He said the revised allowance will be enough to ensure maintenance of the navys four submarines until 2023.

The higher funding ceiling was approved on May 19.

The rising repair bills are sure to raise fresh questions about the subs  already two decades old  which have struggled with maintenance woes and costly upkeep that have hampered their time in service.

Theres a real question as to how long we can continue to maintain the submarines we have, said NDP MP and defence critic Randall Garrison, who represents the B.C. riding of Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke, home to the navys Pacific fleet.

If they are going to cost an inordinate amount to maintain, we may have to start looking at replacing them, said Garrison, whose party supports having submarines as part of the navy.

The current subs were bought used for $750 million more than a decade ago from Britain, which had mothballed the boats. Problems were evident from the start. During its maiden voyage to Canada, HMCS Chicoutimi suffered a devastating fire that killed an officer onboard.

Did we buy lemons? I think its obvious the cost of what looked like a cheap and good deal were much higher ... Was it the right decision? I dont think theres much point in us revisiting that, Garrison said.

Today, only Halifax-based HMCS Windsor is operational. HMCS Corner Brook is undergoing heavy maintenance, which is expected to take until 2018. This will include repairs to damage suffered when it ran into the sea floor in 2011.

Faulty welds will keep HMCS Chicoutimi and Victoria, both based in Esquimalt, out of operation for the foreseeable future. Repair work on Chicoutimi is being done now under warranty by Babcock Canada, the company that holds the in-service support contract.

Repairs on Victoria will start this year, but there is no timeline for when that sub will be ready for operations.

Despite the maintenance challenges, navy commanders have been unshaken in their support of the sub fleet.

I think as long as Canada needs a navy, it needs submarines, Rear Admiral John Newton, commander of Maritime Forces Atlantic, told the Star during a recent interview onboard HMCS Windsor.

The most important role of a submarine is it deters other people from coming into the waters you claim as your own, Newton said. Submarines are phenomenal at covert surveillance and intelligence gathering, he said.

As long as they know we have these diesel boats operating in our waters or our ocean areas of interest, they have to approach us with a great deal of caution and thats the idea, Newton said.

The only way to own that ocean space is to put a submarine in it, he said.

That view is reinforced by the Royal Canadian Navys own vision of its future, which makes the case for keeping subs as one of its capabilities.

They are the RCNs ultimate war-fighting capability, a platform through which Canada can control a substantial ocean space or deny it to others, says the document, titled Leadmark 2050: Canada in a New Maritime World.

Subs such as Canadas fleet of Victoria-class boats have unrivalled stealth, persistence and lethality and excel in intelligence gathering, the document states.

And it says that subs can complete missions without being visible to other nations or the Canadian people  an invaluable asset when discretion in military action is needed.

Canadas navy is already looking ahead to the next generation of submarines. The document notes that plans to extend the life of the Victoria-class subs into mid-2030 are being examined as a bridge toward a new submarine capability.

Submarines are likely to remain the dominant naval platform for the foreseeable future, the vision document states.

More on thestar.com

Life on a submarine: 'You either love it or hate it'

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A man in his mid-twenties was pronounced dead by paramedics Friday evening, after being shot multiple times in the parking lot of an apartment building on Weston Rd. in the Emery neighbourhood the second shooting in the city within an hour.

Toronto Police Const. Craig Brister said a call came in at about 6:30 p.m. regarding a shooting near Weston Rd. and Imogene Ave.

Over a dozen shell casings  between 12 and 16  have been found by officers so far, Sgt. Rick Rowsone told reporters at the scene.

He confirmed that the victim lived in the building.

Our forensic team is on-scene at the moment, and that investigation is still ongoing, Rowsone said. A heavy police presence, including officers armed with carbines, could be seen in live footage at the scene.

Friday afternoon also saw paramedics rush a victim (also a man in his 20s) to hospital, following a shooting in Etobicoke. Initially, Toronto Police said they got several calls around 5:30 p.m. including one that an injured person was inside a vehicle near Aukland Rd. and Bloor St. W.

Police later confirmed the man had been shot, but not whether it happened while he was inside his vehicle or elsewhere.

Brister said shortly after 10 p.m. Friday that the victim was still alive and undergoing surgery.

Contrary to reports by local news outlets, Brister said he couldnt confirm whether a second person was wounded during the shooting.

Theres no evidence so far to suggest the two shootings are linked.

Rowsone bristled when asked for his take on the Weston Rd. shooting, which happened shortly before dusk on a Friday.

What do you make of it? Its crazy, right? The level of indifference is astonishing, Rowsone said.

No concrete suspect information is currently available.

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Everybody seems to be talking about marijuana these days. Impending legalization has prompted a many-faceted debate about how our society should incorporate the greenery, even as dispensaries selling cannabis and related goods are popping up like, well, weeds.

The sprouting conversation involves people with divergent perspectives and interests in the marijuana regime of tomorrow. Lets listen to some of them.

The angry neighbour

Olga Fowell doesnt want to be a buzz kill, but this is just getting ridiculous. The Forest Hill denizen said shes watched with dismay and disgust as shops selling pot have opened along Eglinton Ave. W.

This is basically glorified drug dealers with store fronts, said Fowell, a real estate agent. Who wouldve thought that Forest Hill would have four pot shops?

She said the neighbourhood sucked it up when a weed paraphernalia shop opened a few years ago, but this is too much. Its like slamming it right in your face, she said.

Right now, her kids have to walk by a dispensary to get to tutoring class, and Fowell wont stand for it. She commends the police for their crackdown last month, when 43 dispensaries were raided, drugs were seized and dozens were arrested.

Im not saying no to drugs for medicinal purposes, but Im saying no to having illegal shops selling drugs, she said. And we dont need four.

The licensed producer

With his warehouse lined with lush cannabis, Neil Closner might be an unlikely voice of restraint in Torontos budding marijuana market. But the CEO of Markham-based medical weed producer MedReleaf, which has thousands of medicinal patients across the country, says things have gotten a little out of hand.

He wants the same rules for everyone.

Theyre jumping the gun, he said of the dozens of dispensaries that are selling marijuana in Toronto, which are not subject to the onerous regulations and Health Canada inspections attached to his operation.

It is an issue from a competition standpoint, but only to some degree, he said. The product that we produce is truly a medical-grade product; the product that the dispensaries sell is quite simply not. No one knows who grows it, where its grown, under what conditions, whats going into it that shouldnt be in it.

Closner added that because the authorities allowed the new storefront shops to proliferate, marijuana consumers are confused about where to find legitimate medical marijuana. As it stands, the only legal way to obtain medicinal weed is through the mail from a licensed producer like MedReleaf. (A court decision in B.C. has challenged this by arguing that patients should be allowed to grow some pot themselves, while a new regime remains in the offing thanks to a Liberal campaign promise from the last federal election.)

Though hes not entirely against storefront dispensaries, Closner said the important thing is robust regulation, just like with alcohol and tobacco. The government has a role to make sure products in this country are safe, he said.

The rebellious purveyor

The day after police raids drove fear into the citys burgeoning dispensary scene, a pot shop at 801 Queen St. W. opened its doors in abject defiance. Erin Goodwin, co-manager of the Cannabis Culture shop, did the media rounds in the wake of the raids, proudly announcing her store would sell weed to anyone 19 or older. It was a proclamation from the more radical, laissez-faire end of the marijuana legalization spectrum.

The people have voted with their dollars, and just the amount of people that have benefitted from the dispensaries  we cant understand what the police agenda is, Goodwin, 30, told the Star.

Were the ones who are checking the product to make sure its clean and reputable, she said. Were happy to be there to provide it for people.

In terms of selling weed for recreational use, Goodwin said employees prefer not to invade on peoples privacy by asking them why theyre looking to buy marijuana. The idea is that it is a product, soon to be legal, that people should be able to use however they see fit.

But that doesnt mean Goodwin and her colleagues at Cannabis Culture arent scared. She said there is a sense of fear, especially after the raids, that they could be arrested and charged with drug trafficking  a charge that could result in jail time, even as there are signals of an imminent change in the legal framework for weed.

Asked why shes willing to stick her neck out to sell weed, Goodwin said shes fighting for something bigger than that. She wants to change the perception of marijuana users, often derided as lazy or unintelligent, and show that many people from all walks of life consume cannabis and incorporate the substance as an element of their lifestyles.

These are historic times, so a lot of us are really proud to be a part of it, she said. Were not just going to lie down.

The medicinal user

Lisa Campbell loves weed. Shes smoked it since she was a teenager. She eats it. She rubs it on her skin. She soaks it in alcohol and absorbs it under her tongue.

And since 2013, shes been a prescribed medicinal marijuana user, treating chronic wrist pain and other ailments. And though shes legally allowed to purchase weed from licensed producers, and grow some for herself, she feels the current system is too restrictive for people who want to benefit from the virtues of cannabis.

Theres no reason why corporations should be the only ones to produce this medicine, said Campbell, 32, referring to rules brought in under the previous Conservative government that restricted the growing of medicinal weed to Health Canada-approved companies. We can create a system where theres room in the market for everybody.

One big flaw in the system for Campbell is the fact that many cannabis-based products she believes can benefit sick people are currently outlawed. Tinctures and cannabis suppositories, for example, can provide pain relief in ways that are different from the effects of smoking, she said. The system as it stands also doesnt allow for the legal production of marijuana edibles, which can range from gummy bears and brownies to lollipops and butter.

All the products that dispensaries carry in Toronto, not one licensed producer has the variety or is able to service that market, so it is filling a gap in the system for patients like myself, she said.

Campbell also sees economic opportunity if the government were to open up the craft marijuana market, not unlike the explosion of breweries in the province in recent years.

Im scared at the future of dispensaries, especially all these small independent businesses which are patient-driven, she said. This is what Toronto is all about: social innovation and coming up with creative new ways of doing things.

The casual toker

Marc Smith wants to believe. At 27, he owns his own roofing business, and when he comes home after a long day at work, he savours his ritual: lighting up a big bowl of weed and getting baked.

With the emergence of so much easy-to-get weed from dispensaries in Toronto, Smith has been able to enjoy his marijuana much more conveniently than before. He yearns to trust that this can be the new reality, with Justin Trudeaus Liberals promising to legalize recreational weed use. But hes not quite ready to trust the government, given the recent slew of arrests and charges on the marijuana businesses in Toronto.

Its an escape for the bulls---, Smith said of his passion for toking up. Some people like to go home and have a couple beers; some people go home and puff a joint. Its definitely on par with that.

I want to believe this is going to happen.

The legal defender

Things have been busy lately for Kendra Stanyon. The Toronto barrister is representing so many dispensaries these days that she cant count them off the top of her head. Maybe over 10, she said.

She acknowledges that there are legitimate worries about the proliferation of such businesses without regulation  and admits most dispensaries are operating outside the law  but blames the government for creating the vacuum in which they operate. She added that many medical patients dont have legal options for the cannabis they feel best treats their ailments, such as edibles and ointments.

Courts in the country have recognized this, as well as the anecdotal evidence that marijuana can help remedy health concerns, Stanyon noted.

Certainly its been confusingly inconsistent, she said. There are real concerns (about dispensaries), but I think there are ways to address them without raids.

The legalize it politician

The war on drugs is an abject failure, and the time has come to try something new; downtown Toronto Councillor Joe Cressy has been saying that for a long time. He argues weve arrived at a point where its clear criminalization doesnt work, while recreational use of marijuana isnt entirely safe.

The answer, in his mind, is reasonable government regulation for the legal sale of marijuana. In a nutshell, its all about public health.

We need consistency, right across the country, Cressy told the Star, adding that a too-strict regulatory regime will drive people to the black market, while one thats too liberal would normalize the harms of recreational pot use. While the federal government needs time to draft its new rules, there needs to be clear guidance for cities like Toronto, so that there isnt a vacuum in which dispensaries can operate without any rules.

It needs to be very clear, just like weve done with alcohol and tobacco, he said.

The Crack Down politician

In Jon Burnsides eyes, the pot dispensaries in Toronto are indistinguishable from drug dealers on the street. They just have fancier wallpaper.

Its a bunch of people trying to make a buck, and in my opinion theyre doing it illegally, said Burnside, the councillor for Ward 26, Don Valley West, who was elected for the first time in 2014. Essentially theyre dealing drugs.

Burnside is a vocal supporter of the police decision to raid dispensaries across the city, arguing that just because laws surrounding weed are going to change doesnt give new businesses carte blanche to open up a cannabis dispensary.

He added that he has concerns about youth smoking marijuana, and that any legalization regime will need to have strong regulations for any businesses that sell the stuff.

Its not like theyre baking bread here. Well, maybe they are with pot in it, but you get my point.

The Doctor

Doctors orders: dont smoke weed before youre 25.

Bernard Le Foll, a University of Toronto professor and researcher at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, said people who start using marijuana in their youth are more likely to develop a dependency later in life. There is also the risk of damaging ones intelligence quotient and mucking up the cognitive processes of the developing brain, he said.

Le Folls advice bears consideration as the debate rages over how to accommodate legalization of the drug.

Asked about the risks of cannabis use, Le Foll said that, unlike alcohol, cocaine or even nicotine, theres no way to die from an overdose. Cannabis is much safer, he said.

But that doesnt mean weed is harmless. Smoking weed generates toxic components, not unlike cigarettes, he said, while research has shown a correlation between heavy marijuana use and the presence of mental illnesses like schizophrenia. He added, however, that it isnt clear what causes the association.

At the end of the day, Le Foll says any cannabis consumption should be done with caution and care.

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Dr. Robert Sutton weeps in his office, but its not for the same reason as all his patients, and the children of his patients who are now patients themselves, who have held a cry fest all week.

Goodbyes are hard, particularly to the man who met you at desperations door and calmly ushered your sick child back to health.

Sutton is a pediatrician. He retired this week, more than 45 years after he joined a practice at Coxwell and Danforth Aves. He is also a pioneer, the first black doctor hired by the Hospital for Sick Children.

Sutton is weeping because another doctor saved his eyesight six years ago. Hed had routine cataract surgery, but an infection set in. He returned to the clinic at Toronto Western Hospital, but was sent home by the doctor. Betty and I arrived home, he says. (Betty is his wife and office manager of the past 44 years.) As soon as we walked in the door, the phone rang. On the phone was the ophthalmology resident who had seen him in the clinic, calling to say hed found someone to treat his eye that night.

He got his friend  a fellow to get out of bed (to do the procedure) and the pharmacist out of bed to prepare the meds... Everyone agrees if Id waited till the next morning, I would have lost the eye, says Sutton, 77, removing his glasses and dropping his face into his hands. I feel so grateful.

The irony, of course, is that so many of his patients are in tears this week because of the kindness Sutton showed them when they, too, were nakedly vulnerable.

He played a very, very pivotal role in my son Gavins life, Diane Gomes says, her voice breaking. Gavin is 25. When he was 2 months old, he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Sutton flagged it and called Gomes with the news. Years later, after hed had three brain surgeries, and was so listless she rushed him back to the ER, she heard Sutton in the hallway. (He worked mornings in the hospital until 12 years ago.) He reassured her that her instincts were right. That was his lesson to me  you know your son best. Stick to your guns.

Sutton was my childrens pediatrician for 10 years. A friend recommended him as a brilliant diagnostician.

Katherine Plumleys son Dylan had seen more than five doctors in Beijing, where they live, when they flew back to Toronto last summer and went almost immediately to Suttons office. Dylan, then 6, had already been on two rounds of antibiotics, but he still had a fever, was peeing blood and his hands had started to peel. Her voice cracks over the line from China, describing how Sutton asked about their summer cottage plans while slowly examining him.

He said, You might want to change your plans. I think it might be Kawasaki disease, a diagnosis that is very hard to catch. I think you should go to Sick Kids... you probably should go now.

His calmness contradicted the frantic seriousness of the diagnosis: doctors say Kawasaki disease must be treated within 10 days. Otherwise, many die later of coronary aneurisms.

Dylan was treated, and has had clear echocardiograms since, Plumley says. He wouldnt have gotten the care without Sutton.

My kids and I were relatively lucky. Sutton only diagnosed multiple ear infections and a speech impediment. But I appreciated his unflappable nature and patience. He never rushed us, despite the restless crowd in his waiting room. I loved his old-school dignity. He wore a lab coat and tie and shook my kids hands at the end of every visit.

He grew up humbly in St. Vincent. When he was named top male student on the Caribbean island and sent to medical school in Jamaica on full scholarship, he became the first person in his family to go to university.

He came to Toronto in 1965, with his young wife, to start a five-year residency at the Hospital for Sick Children.

If you met another black person on the street, you said 'hi' because there werent many of us, he recalls.

Back then, residents did reside in the hospital, getting only every second weekend off, which meant Betty raised their two young children alone.

Once he finished his residency, he accepted a part-time position at the hospital and an offer to slowly take over the community practice of a retiring pediatrician.

Gomes, now 49, remembers meeting him when she was 4. He treated her until she was 18, and then when she had a baby at 20, he became her pediatrician. Until this week, he still treated her 17-year-old. So shes been with him for 44 of his almost 46 years. And get this: all her siblings have a similar story. The goodbye card the family gave him filled eight pages. There are 18 signatures.

To think that we cant call Dr. Sutton, she says. An umbilical cord is being cut.

Sutton finds all the fuss amusing. All hes done, he says, is the ordinary job of an ordinary pediatrician. Hes accepted hugs and offered tissues, mostly clear-eyed.

Except for the memory of that resident  the only reason he got to practise these past six years, he says. And he never said thank you personally, worried hed land him in trouble with supervisors. But he found out his name: Dr. Talal Alabduljalil.

Four years ago, on a visit to the Blue Mosque of Istanbul, Sutton made a sizable donation in honour of the Muslim resident.

I tracked Alabduljalil down in Oregon, where he is finishing a fellowship in gene therapy for retinal diseases. He remembers Sutton and confirms the story, except the part about enlisting his friend. I cant comment on that, he says.

He, too, is humble. He was just doing his job, he says, and hes sure Sutton has helped many more people in his career than he has. Hes only 35.

Please wish him a happy retirement for me.

Catherine Porters column usually appears on Fridays. She can be reached at cporter@thestar.ca

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When Aretha Reid arrives at the airport in the middle of the night, its not because shes there to catch a plane.

The 24-year-old works 20 hours a week at Pearson as a passenger service agent, a precarious job that earns her $12.75 an hour. The commute from her Brampton home requires two buses and can take more than an hour and a half. Because on some days buses stop running before midnight, she sometimes has to leave at 10:30 p.m. to make a shift that starts at 2 a.m.

Im there probably an hour or two hours before my shift starts. I just have to sit, she said, adding that her shifts are usually only four to five hours long.

The mother of two, who came to Toronto from Jamaica about seven years ago, said her inefficient commute means she doesnt get enough sleep, and it taxes her time and well-being. Youre so miserable, the passengers come and you want to smile, but you dont have the strength, she said.

New research conducted by Stephanie Premji, an assistant professor at McMaster Universitys School of Labour Studies, is shedding light on the link between precarious work and long, inefficient and costly public transit commutes.

The study, done in collaboration with Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services, found that not only do precariously employed workers endure complex commutes that drain their time and money, their travel patterns may contribute to their inability to find better work.

Premji said the findings reflect the fact that transit hasnt adapted to reflect the rise of precarious part-time, temporary or contract employment, which now makes up more than half of all work in Toronto.

Society is set up for the standard 9-to-5 jobs, said Premji. The system is just not set up for this new reality of employment.

Premji interviewed 27 immigrants living in Toronto about their commuting experiences. The participants predominantly worked in low-skill positions as general labourers, housekeepers, gas station attendants and retail workers, in jobs that were involuntarily part-time, casual, seasonal or on-call.

Most reported they werent able to live close to where they worked because there were no jobs in their neighbourhoods, and housing in areas where there was employment was too expensive.

In this kind of housing market, theyre being pushed away from the centre of the city, away from public transportation like subways . . . to places where they have to rely on buses that are less frequent, Premji said.

Participants reported spending between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of their household income on commutes, which could take anywhere between three and six hours each day as they travelled to points across the GTA, often darting between multiple part-time jobs.

Although the location of jobs posed a challenge, the type of work also increased the burden of commutes.

Shift work required participants to wake up in the middle of the night to catch transit service that ran infrequently outside of peak periods. And unpredictable hours meant that workers could end up being sent home early, having spent more time commuting than on the job.

Participants sometimes found it difficult to decide whether the number of hours worked on a particular day would make the commute worthwhile, since the work hours were unpredictable, the study found.

Premjis research also suggested that burdensome commutes make it difficult for precarious workers to access stable employment, because theyre sometimes forced to turn down jobs if the commute is too onerous.

According to Surranna Sandy, CEO of Skills For Change, a provincially funded organization that provides job training for immigrants, long transit trips can also prevent workers from accessing employment help.

We find that with our clients, they say, I cant come and meet with the employment counsellor because its too far for me. But I know I need a job, Sandy said.

She argued that lack of access to efficient transit is a significant economic hindrance for people who are already precariously economically placed.

According to TTC spokesman Brad Ross, the commission has adjusted service as employment patterns have changed.

Last year the agency added service to 43 bus routes outside of rush hour and expanded the after-hours Blue Night network of 31 bus and streetcar routes. In January it began opening the subway system one hour earlier on Sundays, at 8 a.m. There are now 125 bus and streetcar routes that run all day, every day.

The service changes are a recognition of a workforce and of a world that is not 9-to-5, said Ross. This is a 24/7 city, and a lot of people do need to get to work at different hours.

Aside from service improvements, Premjis study recommended incorporating transit costs in social assistance rates, instituting discount fares for low-income riders or during off-peak periods, switching to a time-based transfer system, and providing transit orientation workshops to new immigrants.

Premji said society needs to acknowledge the deeply intertwined relationship between commuting and upward mobility.

It always seems like, well, thats the workers responsibility to get to work and to get home, she said. But what we have to realize is its a central part of work, even though its not paid, and its both affected by work and also impacts peoples ability to have jobs.

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The Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) is the oldest intercity divided highway in North America and perhaps the most prominent highway development in Ontario's history.

It dates to the Great Depression, when the Ontario government financed its building to help stimulate the economy. Traffic volumes between Toronto and Hamilton had begun to overwhelm Kings Highway 2 and Kings Highway 5. The initial plan was to expand Highway 2 to bring some relief, but eventually a whole new highway corridor was planned.

The Middle Rd., a minor rural road running about two kilometres north of Highway 2 (now known for much of its route as Lakeshore Rd.) was widened starting in 1931 to become the new highway route.

On their official visit to Canada in June 1939, King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, officially opened the new highway named in her honour.

In the beginning, the route  which featured a wide green median landscaped with trees  wasnt yet a fully controlled-access highway, but over the years it has been upgraded, modernized and widened many times, reaching eight to 10 lanes wide in some portions.

In 1997, responsibility for the section of the QEW between Highway 427 and the Humber River was handed over to the City of Toronto.

Today, the once 65-kilometre, two-lane slab of concrete called the Middle Rd. has become a 400-series highway connecting Toronto with the Niagara Peninsula and the border at Buffalo. It stretches from the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie to the junction with Highway 427, a total of 139.1 kilometres, around the western shore of Lake Ontario. The highway continues as the Gardiner Expressway into downtown Toronto.

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When Stanford University archeologist Anne Austin began her inspection of the 3,000-year-old body, it was immediately apparent something unusual had happened to the long-deceased woman. The skin across the ancient Egyptians neck was marked in bruise-blue lines, as though someone had doodled across the corpses throat in lieu of placing the traditional burial amulets Austin had expected to see.

Upon closer examination, however, Austin and her colleagues realized the designs were permanent, having withered and warped by time but also the act of post-mortem preservation. The woman had been tattooed, the scientists determined, when she was alive.

The markings at the neck were the clearest, and the symbols for them were instantly visible, the archeologist wrote in an email to the Washington Post. However, it was only after looking more closely at the markings on the arms that we realized they had become distorted from the mummification process.

Austin, along with researchers from the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, had been examining a body uncovered at Deir el-Medina, Egypt, a village near the Nile River that once housed the workers who designed and constructed the pharaohs tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

During Deir el-Medinas peak  which would have been between 1292 and 1077 BC, according to Stanford University  its residents were both literate and prolific, leaving behind the remnants of thousands of prayer notes, lawsuits and letters that researchers would find much later.

Austin also believes the town practiced a precursor, of sorts, to modern medical coverage; in 2014, she said artifacts from Deir el-Medina show evidence of the earliest documented governmental health care plan.

The residents of Deir el-Medina, it seems, also knew their way around a tattooing needle. Austin documented the mummys blue lines with infrared photographs and other advanced imaging equipment, and identified about 30 different tattoos etched into the womans arms, shoulders, back and neck. She was dotted with cow figures, snakes, lotus blossoms and symbolic eyes.

Many of the tattoos are linked with the goddess Hathor, including two cows wearing Menat necklaces on her arm, Austin said. (Menat necklaces were heavy, beaded adornments closely associated with Hathor.) The deeply religious imagery of the tattoos suggests that this woman had an important and unique religious role. Austin believes the womans religious position was likely both permanent and public, as her tattoos were inked in visible areas of her body.

Though an unexpected find, the womans tattoos are not the oldest in human history. That claim, as far as the archeological record shows, is thought to belong to Otzi the Iceman, who lived some two millennia before the woman with the bovine tattoos. Otzis 5,000-year-old body shows preserved ink marks, mostly groups of lines, in 61 places across his chest, legs and arms.

What makes the tattoos Austin found noteworthy is the fact they show identifiable representations of animals, plants and other objects. Austin told the Post that previous research had found Egyptians with tattoos in the Nubian tradition, that is, geometric patterns of dots and lines. The complex designs seen on this woman are, Austin said, unprecedented.

The Egyptians who lived thousands of years ago had a surprising wealth of knowledge about the human body, even applying honey to wounds as an antibacterial salve. But the inner workings of whatever passed for a 3,000-year-old tattoo parlour remain a mystery.

It is difficult to determine how tattoos were made in the past, and given the scant evidence so far, we cant say how her tattoos were applied, Austin said. It is interesting, however, to see that some of the tattoos are placed in incredibly sensitive areas of the body, such as the neck, where tattooing would be comparatively painful.

Austin presented her findings in April at an anthropology conference. The purposeful placement of divine imagery along the arms and neck enabled the tattoos to be ritually active during religious cult activities, she noted in the conference abstract, thereby embodying the divine.

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Canadian archeologist Genevieve von Petzinger is interested in the geometric signs  abstract symbols such as spirals, asterisks and hands  found with remarkable consistency in caves across Europe. Shes assembled a database of more than 5,000 signs from hundreds of sites  some of which shes explored herself. The patterns in the ice age markings offer tantalizing clues to the development of abstract human thought and graphic communication.

My work allows me to visit places that most people will never have the chance to see, she writes, to spend time communing in the dark with the silent images that bear witness to our ancestors dawning awareness of their own humanity.

Von Petzingers TED talk, entitled Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves all over Europe? has been viewed more than two million times. In this excerpt from her new book, The First Signs, she ventures deep into a particularly inhospitable Spanish cave in search of two red dots.

I am standing on the Camino de Santiago, the ancient pilgrimage route in northern Spain. This part of the Camino winds its way along the coast, passing through medieval villages on its way west. In the distance I can see the town of Comillas with its ancient yellow-grey stone buildings, their facades punctuated with vibrant splashes of red from the geraniums in their window boxes.

Two people stride towards me, walking sticks swinging purposefully, their backs slightly bent under the weight of their backpacks. A white scallop shell  the symbol of their sacred quest  hangs from each of their packs, marking them as pilgrims. For over a millennium, people have made this spiritual journey to visit what many believe is the final resting place in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, of St. James from the New Testament.

But I am here on a different kind of pilgrimage. Im with my husband and project photographer, Dillon, and we have just met up with Gustavo, an archeologist with the Cantabrian government. We are here to explore a cave in the hillside behind us which is supposed to contain ice age paintings.

Long before this country was called Spain, people lived in this land. They survived the challenges of an ice age world in the relative stability of this region. With its protected river valleys and abundant marine resources, this landscape provided ancient humans with a suitable environment in which to live and thrive. They first settled here over 40,000 years ago and occupied this territory almost continuously until the end of the ice age 30,000 years later.

We know they were here from the evidence they left behind: habitation sites scattered with stone tools and animal bones; human burials including grave goods and personal ornaments; and then, of course, there are the caves throughout this region that they decorated with the engravings and paintings that are, in many ways, their greatest legacy.

Art presents us with a window into the minds of these people that other types of artifacts just cant provide. It offers us glimpses into their world, their culture and their belief systems; intriguing hints about their level of sophistication in thinking in the abstract and manipulating symbols; and insight into how far along they may have been in the development of graphic communication. While all of the art has this potential, the geometric imagery in particular seems to indicate a high degree of mastery of many of these uniquely human traits. This category of geometric signs is my passion. Sometimes they accompany the other imagery, and at other times stand on their own. The signs are what Im here to study.

Dillon and I have spent the last month and a half in France documenting the art at 11 different cave sites, so in some ways todays excursion feels almost like another day at the office, albeit a pretty interesting and ever-changing office. Weve worked in massive caves with high, curved ceilings that feel like being in an underground cathedral; weve worked in others so narrow in width that photographing the art required contorting ourselves into some very awkward positions; weve worked in caves with collapsing floors and caves with steep muddy sections that required very careful manoeuvring.

But as I stand there in my hoodie, jeans and hiking boots watching Gustavo pull on a full-body waterproof suit and boots, I start to get the impression that my French caving clothes may not be entirely appropriate for this situation.

I really hate this cave, Gustavo tells us as hes getting ready. Dillon and I glance at each other; these are definitely not the words you want to hear before youve even entered a site  especially when your guide is getting seriously geared up!

Oh, I say. Whats so bad about it?

Deep mud and very small, Gustavo replies with a grimace. He speaks excellent English but Im hoping in this case that something is being lost in the translation.

We turn our backs on the Camino and the sea to face a lush, overgrown green hillside. As we start to hike up a gravel path, I quickly spot the entrance to La Cueva de El Portillo on our left. The entrance doesnt seem too bad: a dark split in the hillside thats about eight feet high, with enough width for us to walk through comfortably. We step over the threshold into a roundish chamber with an even higher ceiling. The chamber is about 20 feet across at its widest point. The floor is pretty muddy, but my hiking boots have seen as much in French caves and survived.

Maybe this isnt going to be as bad as I thought.

I look around the chamber, my vision adjusting to the gloomy interior. The floor plan I was studying for this cave earlier in the day showed a passageway continuing quite a bit farther into the hillside, but I dont see any exit from the chamber other than the way we came in. Then, as I scan the solid grey walls, my eyes are drawn to a small opening low down on the back wall. It doesnt even quite come up to my knees. Oh 

Gustavo, is this where were going?

Yes, he replies, much of the cave is like that. This is why I hate it.

Excerpted from The First Signs: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Worlds Oldest Symbols by Genevieve von Petzinger. Copyright  2016 by Genevieve von Petzinger. Reprinted by permission of Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Watch von Petzingers TED Talk here.

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On Thursday night, Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal that the Mexican heritage of the judge overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University was an absolute conflict because of the real estate moguls proposal to build a wall along the border.

Where to start? That trying to disqualify judges based on heritage  the judge in question, Gonzalo Curiel, was born in Indiana to parents of Mexican descent  would effectively disqualify scores of jurists across the country from the bench? Or that the very idea of ethnicity, religion or some other characteristic being considered when discussing how a federal judge does his job is anathema to the foundational principles of our judicial system?

At this point, conversations about Trumps ability and willingness to offend are almost pointless. Trump does and says things that not only would be poison for any other politician  of either party  but also that play dangerously with racial and ethnic politics.

What is important is that the idea that Trump would adjust his rhetoric or his issue positions once he became the Republican nominee is totally and completely false. There is no Trump 2.0, no reinvention of Trump as more inclusive or less combative. This is it.

Trump has said as much.

You think Im going to change? he asked rhetorically during a news conference Tuesday at Trump Tower. Im not changing.

He has said some version of Trump gonna Trump for weeks now  even while occasionally promising to maybe be a little bit nicer and amid promises from chief campaign strategist Paul Manafort that the new Trump was coming soon. A placid debate here. A nice comment about a former rival there. But, generally, Trump cant escape  and doesnt seem to want to escape  from being exactly, unapologetically who he is.

Think about it from Trumps perspective. Everyone  and I do mean everyone  laughed at him when he got into the presidential race almost a year ago. They said he was nothing more than a reality TV star. A loud-talking know-nothing who wouldnt go anywhere. Then Trump won the GOP nomination. Convincingly.

What possible lesson could he draw from that? This one: That the people who say they know what works in politics have no clue. And that the people who matter  voters  love his over-the-top rhetoric and willingness to be controversial all the time.

Plus, remember that Trump is 69 years old. How many people of that age  particularly those who have lived as public and successful a life as Trump  make major changes in who they are and how they approach the world? The answer is very, very few.

If you are a Republican elected official  cough House Speaker Paul Ryan cough  desperately hoping that a more cerebral, more serious, less I-will-say-whatever-is-on-my-mind-at-this-exact-second Trump is just about to emerge, I have some news for you: Youre out of luck.

Trump is who he is. Republican voters  or at least a decent chunk of them  liked that person enough to hand him the partys presidential nomination. And thats the person Trump will be between now and Nov. 8  and the one the GOP has pinned its hopes on. Gulp.

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MINNEAPOLISShe was fuelled by curiosity. She studied Asian languages and took classes in four different countries. She tried her hand at standup and improv comedy.

Her knack for trivia dazzled. So did her ability to rouse a crowd into a singalong. Acquaintances were charmed by what they saw as an odd but engaging spirit.

Landing at medical school seemed yet another way to display her talents.

But then things turned dark for Ashley Hasti. The kind of dark that would leave friends and family to grieve. And question. And remember.

Her body was discovered early Thursday inside her home in a Minneapolis suburb. Hasti had been shot multiple times, according to a statement from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner. A family member said a window on the split-level house had been broken.

Investigators said the 31-year-old appeared to have been dead for a couple of days. Police sources told the Los Angeles Times that the wounds and decomposition of the body complicated the identification process.

Hasti is believed to have been killed by her 38-year-old estranged husband, Mainak Sarkar, the former doctoral student who killed himself Wednesday after fatally shooting a University of California, Los Angeles professor and sending a frenzied campus into lockdown.

Beside the bodies was a note Sarkar left behind with his home address in St. Paul, Minn. That led authorities to a kill list that bore Hastis name, which led them to her body.

The couple had been dating in 2009 when Hasti was attending a post-baccalaureate pre-med program at Scripps College in Claremont, Calif. They married in 2011 and resided in Brooklyn Park, a city nestled along the west bank of the Mississippi River.

They didnt live together long  maybe a year, recalled Charlane Bertsch, Hastis great-aunt.

Bertsch said the couple never seemed overly committed to the marriage and that Hasti didnt bring up her husband during conversations. Still, she didnt recall any great disputes between the two.

He did his thing. She did hers, Bertsch said. Hasti, whose mother died in 2011, remained close with her father and sister.

When Hasti began medical school, her heart was happy, Bertsch said. She described her grand-niece as amusing and kind, at ease with many. During family reunions, Hasti was known to sing and entertain.

Well miss her very much, Bertsch said.

Hastis sister, Alex, took to Facebook to pay tribute. Hasti, she wrote, had been the coolest. The smartest. The funniest. The bravest.

I always looked up to her because she did everything I wanted to do, but was too shy to even try.

Among Hastis endeavours was overcoming stage fright at the Brave New Workshop, a comedy theatre in Minneapolis where she took classes.

She was so friendly and loved by everyone for her positive outlook and somewhat oddball personality, said Erin Anderson, who performed with Hasti. She was just so curious about everything and hungry to learn.

Anderson said Hasti had been excited for Sarkar to move into her home because they had lived apart for a while. Neighbours recalled seeing Sarkar around the house but didnt have much interaction with him.

Hasti posted photos of herself with Sarkar in a May 2011 Facebook album titled Last Days in LA. Several of the pictures were taken at UCLA; one shows a photo of the Engineering 4 building where Sarkar shot his former mentor. She and Sarkar married the following month.

In 2012, Hasti enrolled at the University of Minnesota Medical School. She spoke openly to friends about her love for medicine and the medical school experience.

Second year med school is great and all, but I keep having dreams where Im being diagnosed in the doctors office with the disease Im studying, she wrote on Facebook in September 2013.

At some point and for reasons that are unclear, the couple parted ways. Sarkar began living in a small, three-story apartment building in St. Paul. He worked remotely as an engineering analyst for an Ohio-based rubber company.

News of the deaths made tenants uneasy.

It was scary for a lot of people, that someone like that would kill, Todd Sorenson, 49, said. Were regular folk around here.

Detectives believe that after Sarkar killed Hasti, he drove to Los Angeles to carry out his plan to shoot professor William Klug. Sarkars grey, 2003 Nissan Sentra was discovered Friday afternoon in Culver City.

Los Angeles Police Department Capt. William Hayes said late Friday that police found a handgun in the trunk, and that shell casings from the UCLA shooting appeared to match those found at the Minnesota shooting scene.

In recent months, Sarkar had lashed out on his blog at the professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Police said there was little merit to a claim that Klug had stolen Sarkars computer code and given it to someone else.

Armed with two semi-automatic guns, additional magazines and a backpack, Sarkar stormed into Klugs fourth-floor office in Engineering Building 4 and fired multiple shots at the 39-year-old father of two. Then he turned the gun on himself.

The final person on Sarkars kill list was a UCLA professor who is safe.

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To people in the West, the war in Yemen is a small, obscure conflict. But in the past year it has spiralled into a vicious regional and international war that has driven more than 2 million people from their homes, killed more than 3,200 civilians and left millions of others hungry and destitute.

The scale of the emergency is tremendous, the UNs Yemen co-ordinator, Jamie McGoldrick, said on Thursday. The scale of the needs is massive and the depth of the crisis is immeasurable.

Belkis Wille of Human Rights Watch has witnessed the descent of the small Middle Eastern country into lower and lower circles of hell, beginning with a post-election breakdown of a power-sharing agreement between factions, and accelerated by separatism and a coup by Shiite Houthi rebels.

But when Saudi Arabia entered the war in March 2015, alarmed by what it saw as a power grab by Shiite Iran  backing the Houthis  a relentless bombing campaign began, supported by a group of Arab countries, the U.S., Britain and France. The military operation is to reinstate ousted president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled to Saudi Arabia.

There were several raging conflicts before this war, says Wille, who lived and worked in Yemen beginning in 2013. But until the Saudis started bombing, in coalition with other countries, there wasnt mass destruction of the infrastructure and crippling of the country.

Human Rights Watch has documented the wars devastating effects on civilians. There are unlawful airstrikes we think amounted to war crimes. The Houthis may also be guilty of war crimes, she adds. Katyusha rockets and shells are fired into the middle of civilian areas in Yemen and across the border in Saudi Arabia.

Although the U.S. has not joined in the Saudi-led bombings directly, it has reportedly provided targeting advice as well as refuelling for war planes. There have been international calls for Washington to cease its arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

The UN says that more than 500 children were killed in airstrikes in the past year, and about 10,000 children under the age of 5 died from totally avoidable and preventable diseases. It has listed the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels among groups that have committed grave violations against children last year.

An air and sea blockade on Yemen, which relies on imports for 90 per cent of its goods, has also had a dramatic effect on the ordinary person who is buying food and medicine and just cant afford it any more, Wille says.

Fuel shortages have made it increasingly difficult to live, and medical clinics have closed because of lack of fuel and medicine. Sick and disabled people cannot afford to hire taxis, which pay black market prices for gas, to take them to distant hospitals.

According to the UN, Yemens 22 million citizens are in an increasingly dire situation, and close to 8 million are considered most vulnerable and in need of urgent aid. Only 17 per cent of $1.8 billion in funds requested by the world body last year has arrived.

Yemens plight has been worsened by the entry of armed groups, including Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Daesh. As the Houthis, allied with former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have been pushed from southern areas, they have filled the gap.

Al Qaeda was always an element of Yemeni history, says Wille. But in the power vacuum we saw it take a huge amount of territory in the south, more than ever before. They have become a power broker and a political player.

Meanwhile, she says, a struggle between Al Qaeda and newly emerged Daesh has added to the violence. They are carrying out nasty attacks on civilians and theres no real law enforcement structure in control. Daesh affiliates are using recruitment to leech members away from Al Qaeda. Theyre offering a higher daily wage.

The spreading influence of terrorist groups has made peace an even more distant prospect for Yemen.

Its hard to see what could be done now to turn things around, Wille says. First and foremost, its crucial for the aerial campaign to stop before there is any improvement in the ground. But with these different groups fighting, even if the bombing ends, I dont see any reason why the conflict would stop anytime soon.

Peace talks between representatives of the ousted Hadi government and Houthi rebels have continued for weeks amid accusations of ceasefire violations, although UN officials have welcomed some progress. The U.S. is also continuing its campaign of drone strikes against Al Qaeda.

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HONG KONGWhile Hong Kongers crammed into a park Saturday to remember the victims of Chinas bloody crackdown on protesters in Beijings Tiananmen Square 27 years ago, many student groups held rival events in a sign of the widening rift in the citys pro-democracy movement.

The annual evening vigil at Victoria Park is the only large-scale public commemoration of Beijings brutal crackdown held on Chinese soil. About the only sign in Beijing that it was the anniversary of the crackdown was the tightened security around Tiananmen Square.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people were killed as tanks and troops converged on Beijing on the night of June 3-4, 1989. The topic remains taboo in China and any form of commemoration, whether public or private, is banned.

Organizers in Hong Kong said 125,000 people attended Saturdays vigil, but the crowd appeared to be smaller. Police gave an estimate of 21,800.

Missing from the crowd were the student groups that had been long-standing supporters of the vigil. Instead, a dozen student organizations held discussion forums on the citys future. The move underscores the split that emerged between younger and older generations of pro-democracy activists over the idea of Hong Kongs identity following 2014 protests over the Chinese governments decision to restrict elections in the semi-autonomous city.

It follows the decision in April by student leaders to quit the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China  the vigils organizer  because they believe one of its main aims, fighting for democracy in mainland China, is no longer realistic. They also think the vigils formulaic format fails to appeal to the younger generation.

Lily Wong, a 21-year-old legal assistant, attended Saturdays vigil with her friend Cecilia Ng, 19, a recent high school graduate. They didnt disagree with some of the criticisms levelled by the student groups, such as the vigils repetitive format and that it was dominated by Hong Kongs main pro-democracy group, but said it remained important.

This is not a perfect event, but there are some meaningful things for us, Wong said. It is very important for Hong Kong.

In Taiwans capital, Taipei, Wuer Kaixi, one of the student leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, was among about 200 people who gathered at Liberty Square for a memorial event.

The spirit of June 4 is an act of courageous humans pursuing the universal value of freedom, Wuer said. This spirit will not be crushed under machine-guns and tanks. It will not die because of (the Chinese governments) suppression.

In Beijing, police checked IDs and searched the bags of anyone seeking to enter the environs of Tiananmen Square, where thousands of students, workers and ordinary citizens gathered in 1989 to demand political reforms. Journalists from The Associated Press were stopped, filmed and ultimately forced to leave the area, ostensibly for lacking proper permission.

Ahead of the anniversary in China, family members of those killed in the crackdown were placed under additional restrictions. At least half a dozen people were reportedly detained in recent days for attempting to commemorate the events.

The U.S. State Department called for a full public accounting of those killed, detained, or missing and for an end to censorship of discussions about the events of June 4, 1989, as well as an end to harassment and detention of those who wish to peacefully commemorate the anniversary.

Asked Friday about the anniversary, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China had long ago reached a clear conclusion about the political turmoil at the end of 1980s and other related issues.

Chinas explosive economic growth in the years that followed proves that the path of socialism with Chinese characters we chose to follow ... is in line with the fundamental interests of the Chinese people, and it represents a wish shared by them all, Hua told reporters at a daily news briefing.

AP journalists Christopher Bodeen and Johnson Lai contributed to this report.

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BEIRUTSyrian troops reached the edge of the northern province of Raqqa on Saturday, home to the de facto capital of the Islamic State groups self-styled caliphate, in a push that leaves the extremists fighting fierce battles on four fronts in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

Daesh, also known as ISIS or the Islamic State, which controls large swaths of territory in both countries, is fighting Syrian troops, U.S.-backed fighters and opposition militants in northern Syria and is facing an offensive by Iraqi government forces on their stronghold of Fallujah.

The Syrian government has had no presence in Raqqa since August 2014, when Daesh captured the Tabqa airbase and killed scores of government soldiers. The provincial capital, Raqqa, became the militants first city.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian troops reached the administrative border of Raqqa province under the cover of Russian airstrikes. It said that during three days of fighting 26 Daesh fighters and nine troops and pro-government gunmen were killed.

The media arm of Lebanons Hezbollah group, which is fighting alongside government forces, said Syrian troops reached the border of Raqqa province after advancing about six kilometres on Saturday afternoon.

The front line is around 80 kilometres from the city of Raqqa.

Syrian troops began their advance toward the province Wednesday, the same day that U.S.-backed forces launched an attack on the Daesh-stronghold of Manbij, some 115 kilometres to the northwest of Raqqa. It is unclear if the attacks were co-ordinated.

The U.S.-backed predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces advanced closer to Manbij, which lies on a key supply route linking the Turkish border to the city of Raqqa, Saturday.

The Observatory said SDF fighters had captured 34 villages near Manbij. Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, said the fighting is now concentrated on the south of the town.

Daesh fighters are also engaged in fierce battles for the rebel-held stronghold of Marea, a town some 70 kilometres west of Manbij. Daesh has surrounded Marea on three sides but has failed to capture the city, which is under control of rebels and fighters from the Al Qaeda affiliated Nusra Front.

The fighting is very intense on three fronts in Marea, said opposition activist Baraa al-Halaby, who is based in northern Syria.

While battles rage in Raqqa province, Manbij and Marea, Daesh fighters are also coming under fire in their Iraqi stronghold of Fallujah. Iraqi forces launched their offensive on the city almost two weeks ago, and say they are on the edge of the town.

Violence in and around the contested northern city of Aleppo, Syrias largest and once commercial centre, claimed more lives Saturday. The city has been the scene of fierce fighting, even during a truce brokered by the U.S. and Russia that went into effect in late February and collapsed weeks later.

The Russian militarys Reconciliation Center in Syria said in a statement that the Nusra Front heavily shelled several government-held neighbourhoods of the city.

Syrian state TV said the shelling of government-held parts of contested Aleppo killed 22 and wounded 23 people, while opposition activists said dozens were killed or wounded in rebel-held neighbourhoods.

Intense fighting also took place south of Aleppo, where insurgents led by the Nusra Front attacked Syrian army position near the Khan Touman area, according to the Observatory and the activist, al-Halaby.

The aim of the attack south of Aleppo is to reduce pressure on the city by government forces, al-Halaby said.

AP writers Vladimir Isachenkov, Jim Heintz and Albert Aji contributed to this report.

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Muslim Conservative Uruzurum Heer made headlines recently for castigating the Islamophobic campaign run by her party in the last election. This party worked actively and aggressively against my people, Heer said, at the Conservative convention. It didnt differentiate who Muslims were versus the enemies.

The Harper-headed Conservatives certainly deployed a particularly crude form of anti-Muslim animus during the election: a continuation of their governing modus operandi. However, Islamophobia did not begin with Stephen Harper, and it will not end with his exit from power.

It is very tempting to relegate Islamophobia to a past we have overcome or to a future we have avoided. It is too easy to project racism onto other times or onto other people: onto those like Stephen Harper or Donald Trump, who ostentatiously brandish anti-Muslim stereotypes as political weapons. It is far more difficult to confront the normalized Islamophobia that has permeated Canadian national security law and policy since the initiation of the War on Terror, under both Liberal and Conservative governments.

Islamophobia is about more than microaggressions, writes Professor Deepa Kumar. Daily acts of hostility, hate crimes and even job discrimination, are the outward manifestations of a system that is fundamentally racist ... Islamophobia is an ideology that has come to be accepted as normal, as common sense, in the War on Terror era. In this sense, it is not just an individual bias but a systematic body of ideas which make certain constructions of Muslims  that they are prone to violence, that they are misogynistic, that they are driven by rage and lack rationality  appear natural.

Stereotypes about Muslim violence have sustained the War on Terrors project of violence since its birth. The Wars dangerous excesses in Canada  an extra $92 billion allocated to national security spending in the decade after 9/11; expansion of state powers of surveillance, which have been used to monitor and stifle activists and dissenters; the proliferation and broadening of terrorism offences, to now include such vague crimes as promoting or advocating the commission of terrorism offences in general  have been justified by citing the supposedly excessive danger posed to Canadians by Muslim terrorists.

This fear of irrational Muslim terror has itself proven remarkably impervious to rational analysis. Indeed, according to the Global Terrorism Index 2015, Islamic fundamentalism was not the primary driver of lone wolf attacks [the predominant source of deaths from terrorism in the West since 2006], with 80 per cent of deaths in the West from lone wolf attacks being attributed to a mixture of right wing extremists, nationalists, anti-government elements, other types of political extremism and supremacism.

And yet, Muslims in Canada have been made to bear the brunt of the states suspicion, have been made profoundly insecure in the name of protecting the security of the nation.

There are Maher Arar, Ahmad Abou El-Maati, Abdullah Almalki, and Muayyed Nureddin, who were secretly imprisoned and tortured in Syrian detention chambers, with what the United Nations Committee Against Torture has condemned as complicity by Canadian governmental agencies. While Maher Arar has received compensation, the rest have been forced to fight tortuous legal battles for recompense: battles which the new Liberal government has persisted in opposing.

There is Abousfian Abdelrazik, who was stranded in Sudan for six years  where he was incarcerated and tortured  while successive Liberal and Conservative governments actively thwarted his efforts to return home to Canada.

There are the Secret Trial Five  Mohammad Mahjoub, Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohamed Harkat, Hassan Almrei, and Adil Charkaoui  who were indefinitely detained as threats to national security without charge, and on the strength of secret evidence they were not permitted to see, under Canadas security certificate regime. Their ordeal began under the last Liberal government, and continues for Mohammad Mahjoub and Mohamed Harkat, who are currently facing deportation to torture. Mahmoud Jaballahs certificate was overturned as unreasonable last week, more than 16 years after the state first branded him a security threat.

These abuses, and others, all originated under Liberal rule. At their convention, the Liberals adopted a resolution condemning all forms of Islamophobia  but will they confront the systematic biases of the national security apparatus they are so deeply implicated in constructing?

Azeezah Kanji is a legal analyst and writer based in Toronto.

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Search Jim Cramer's "Mad Money" trading recommendations using our exclusive "Mad Money" Stock Screener.

Here's what Jim Cramer had to say about some of the stocks during the Mad Money Lightning Round Friday evening:

VF Corp (VFC) : "I think they're doing a terrific job."

Allegiant Travel (ALGT) : "Even Southwest Airlines (LUV) is not working here, but I do like Southwest."

China Mobile (CHL) : "I'm not recommending any Chinese stocks."

Novavax (NVAX) : "This is speculative and they are not working right now."

Carlyle Group (CG) : "They need a robust IPO market and we don't have it."

Kellogg (K) : "I like General Mills (GIS) more."

Caterpillar (CAT) : "I think that Caterpillar makes great machinery and the bears are wrong."

VCA (WOOF) : "I think this segment is terrific."

Bank of America (BAC) : "I do not care for Bank of America."

To read a full recap of "Mad Money" on CNBC, click here.

To watch replays of Cramer's video segments, visit the Mad Money page on CNBC.

To sign up for Jim Cramer's free Booyah! newsletter with all of his latest articles and videos please click here.

At the time of publication, Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS had no position in stocks mentioned.
Retail sales and the Michigan sentiment data may be important, but there are more ways to assess the health of the American consumer.

Perhaps economists should try sniffing around the perfume aisle in the local department store, says Achim Daub, president of Scent and Care at Symrise (SYIEY) .



"It is absolutely consumption driven," says Daub. "Some of the fragrances relate very much to discretionary income, so if people have more money, they will spend more to look healthy and beautiful."



Holzminden, Germany-based Symrise is a global supplier of fragrances, flavors and cosmetic active ingredients. Its clients include manufacturers of perfumes, cosmetics, food and beverages, the pharmaceutical industry and producers of nutritional supplements and pet food.

Last month, Symrise reported a 10% increase in sales in its first-quarter results to 731.8 million, up from 668 million the prior year. Symrise said it benefited especially from double-digit growth rates in fragrances and strong demand for beverage and savory applications. Net income, normalized for one-time expenses, showed a 4% year-on-year increase to 70.8 million, up from 68 million in the first quarter of 2015.

At the regional level, Symrise experienced the strongest first-quarter growth in Latin America, where sales were up by 31% in local currency. The second-strongest region was North America, with a 30% increase, followed by Asia/Pacific and EAME, or Europe, Africa and the Middle East, at 11% and 4% respectively. The company's emerging markets sales jumped 15%.

Sales in the Scent & Care segment rose by 22%, to 344.3 million. The growth was driven in particular by strong demand for cosmetic ingredients and menthol. Flavor & Nutrition increased sales by 1% to 387.5 million with beverage, savory applications and pet food being the growth drivers.

Daub also said the trend toward a more sustainable lifestyle is also being felt in the cosmetics industry.

"People want to know what is in the bottle and where it comes from," says Daub.
Exceptional Excellent Very Good



(Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

Two roses and two whites, perfect for patio sipping and light meals, highlight this weeks list. For good measure, we add a stellar Lodi zinfandel for those burgers and steaks off the grill.

 Dave McIntyre

GREAT VALUE

Victor Vineyards Old Vine Zinfandel 2013

  

Lodi, Calif., $20

Zinfandel has become so risky in recent years that I often shy away from it: Too many examples are hot with excessive alcohol and ripeness, with sheer power masquerading as quality. This fine example reminds me why I love zin: raspberry and cranberry flavors, with hints of smoke and earth. It carries its high alcohol well (and 14.8 percent is moderate compared to some zins that crack 15.5 percent or higher). Best of all, if you dont finish the bottle, you might be rewarded the next night with even more-vibrant fruit flavors. Alcohol by volume: 14.8 percent.

Distributed by G&B: Available in the District at Dixie Liquor, Magruders, Pauls of Chevy Chase, S&R Liquors. Available in Maryland at Finewine.com in Gaithersburg, Old Farm Liquors in Frederick, Wine Harvest (Gaithersburg, Potomac); on the list at Grapeseed in Bethesda, 7 West Bistro Grille in Towson. Available in Virginia at Abyssinia Mart and Planet Wine & Gourmet in Alexandria.

Bedell Cellars Taste Rose 2015

 

North Fork of Long Island, N.Y., $18

Bedell Cellars was one of Long Islands pioneer wineries, and it remains a leader in terms of both quality and promoting sustainable viticulture in the region. This rose is an eclectic blend of cabernet franc, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, malbec and syrah. Its rich, ripe and sappy, with just enough acidity to match the fruit and keep the wine refreshing. ABV: 11 percent.

Distributed by Siema: Available in the District at Cleveland Park Wine and Spirits; on the list at Provision No. 14. Available in Maryland at Chesapeake Wine Co. in Baltimore, Fenwick Beer & Wine in Silver Spring, New Market Beer & Wine in New Market. Available in Virginia at Little Washington Winery Tasting Room in Washington, the Whole Ox in Marshall.

Domaine Marc Portaz Apremont 2015

 

Savoie, France, $14

Apremont hails from Savoie in eastern France, nestled in the Alps near Switzerland and Italy. The grape is called Jacquere, for those who are keeping track of what grapes they have tried. The wines are light in body and alcohol, great to accompany a first course or just a nosh, and easy to drink for lunch without needing a nap afterward. This example from Marc Portaz is riper than some, offering generous fruit once the chill of the refrigerator begins to fade. ABV: 11.5 percent.

Distributed by Dionysus: Available in the District at Hop, Cask & Barrel; Rodmans; Whole Foods Market (Foggy Bottom, P Street, Tenleytown). On the list at Hanks Oyster Bar. Available in Maryland at Balduccis and Bradley Food & Beverage in Bethesda. Available in Virginia at Arrowine and Cheese in Arlington; Barrel Thief Wine Shop & Cafe, Ellwood Thompsons Local Market and J. Emerson Fine Wines & Cheese in Richmond; Chain Bridge Cellars in McLean; Whole Foods Market (Ashburn, Fair Lakes, Tysons, Vienna).

GREAT VALUE

Domaine Pelaquie Rose 2015

 

Cotes-du-Rhone, France, $13

Domaine Pelaquie is perennially one of my favorite roses, and it doesnt disappoint with this charming version from the warm 2015 vintage. Light and delicate, its floral aromas and melon flavors echo on the palate like a sultry whisper. ABV: 13.5 percent.

Distributed by Oslo: Available in the District at Ace Beverage, Eye Street Cellars, Rodmans, Sheffield Wine & Liquor Shoppe, Tunnel Wines & Spirits; on the menu at the Pursuit Wine Bar. Available in Maryland at Annebeths in Annapolis; Decanter Fine Wines in Columbia; Edgewater Liquors in Edgewater; Fishpaws Marketplace in Arnold; Frederick Wine House; Goskas Liquors in Severna Park; Hair o the Dog in Easton; Old Line Fine Wine, Spirits & Bistro in Beltsville; Spirits of Mt. Vernon and Wine Source in Baltimore; State Line Liquors in Elkton; the Wine Bin in Ellicott City.

GREAT VALUE

Patrizi Gavi 2015

 

Piedmont, Italy, $10

This delightful bargain white offers floral and talc aromas, apricot and peach flavors and a refreshingly tart acidity. ABV: 12 percent.

Distributed by M. Touton: Available in the District at Bloomingdale Liquor, Capital City Wine & Spirits, Cleveland Park Wine and Spirits, Harrys Reserve Fine Wine & Spirits; on the list at Arucola. Available in Maryland at Edgewater Liquors in Edgewater, Old Farm Liquors and Riverside Liquors in Frederick, Port of Call Liquors in Solomons, Rosewick Wine & Spirits in La Plata, Silesia Liquors in Fort Washington, the Towne Tavern & Spirits in Cockeysville, Trinacria in Baltimore; on the list at Osteria Da Amedeo.

Availability information is based on distributor records. Wines might not be in stock at every listed store and might be sold at additional stores. Prices are approximate. Check Winesearcher.com to verify availability, or ask a favorite wine store to order through a distributor.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a United Food and Commercial Workers International union Legislative and Political Affairs conference May 26, 2016, in Las Vegas. (John Locher/AP)

A federal judge Friday postponed a deposition of a former State Department staffer who helped set up Hillary Clintons private email server, seeking more information about the aides immunity agreement with federal prosecutors and his claim to a Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in a civil lawsuit.

Attorneys for technology specialist Bryan Pagliano had also asked U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the District to bar audio or video recording of the deposition, originally planned for Monday before lawyers with the conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch. The group is seeking to have Pagliano answer questions under oath as part of its lawsuit probing whether Clintons email arrangement when she was secretary of state thwarted the Freedom of Information Act and the release of public records.

Sullivan did not rule on that request to bar recording Paglianos deposition session. Instead, Sullivan directed both sides to address by June 13 the legal authority for Paglianos constitutional claim against self-incrimination.

Counsel for Mr. Pagliano shall file a Memorandum of Law addressing the legal authority upon which Mr. Pagliano relies to assert his Fifth Amendment rights in this civil proceeding, Sullivan ordered in a brief note in the court docket Friday afternoon.

Sullivan also told Paglianos lawyers to include requisite details pertaining to the scope of an immunity agreement reported by The Washington Post in March, reached between him and the Justice Department in an FBI criminal investigation of the handling of classified information in Clintons email setup.

In a statement Friday, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said, The courts order is an important step to getting more answers from Mr. Pagliano about Hillary Clintons email system.

Paglianos attorneys, Mark Joseph MacDougall and Connor Mullin did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

Pagliano last summer declined to appear before a House panel investigating the 2012 attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, citing the FBI investigation and quoting a Supreme Court ruling that described the Fifth Amendment as protecting innocent men . . . who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances. 

Earlier this week, Paglianos lawyers disclosed his intent to make a similar claim in asking Sullivan to bar video recording of the deposition, citing the absence of any proper purpose for [it], and the considerable risk of abuse in a lawsuit with an undisputed political agenda. A recording could be leaked, they said, quoting past court rulings stating that individuals asserting their rights should not be made the subject of misleading sound bites.

[Clinton staffer who set up private email server invokes Fifth Amendment]

Judicial Watch opposed the request, saying an existing court order seals video records and that recording the deposition would help Sullivan assess Paglianos demeanor and credibility.

These attempts to impugn [Judicial Watchs] integrity are unwarranted and inappropriate, the group said in a court filing. As the Court has stated, this case is about the publics right to know details related to the creation, purpose and use of the clintonemail.com system. 

[State Dept. inspector general report criticizes Clintons email practices]

Pagliano is one of half a dozen former State Department and Clinton aides ordered by Sullivan to give sworn testimony in a lawsuit concerning Judicial Watchs 2013 public-records request for information concerning Clinton aide Huma C. Abedins employment arrangement.
Kindergarten students in a physical education class at Guilford Elementary School in Sterling, Va. in 2015. Nearly 80 percent of Guilford students are economically disadvantaged. A report by the Commonwealth Institute is calling on lawmakers to boost funding for poor students. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post)

Students who come from low-income households face many challenges that can hinder their learning  hunger, housing instability and less access to enriching extracurriculars  and the federal government and states have worked to bridge that gap by providing additional funding for disadvantaged students.

But Virginia is providing far less funding for low-income students than other states, according to a report from the Commonwealth Institute, a liberal think tank based in Richmond. The report, Weighing Support for Virginias Students, calls on lawmakers to study the issue and to boost such funding.

[Read the Commonwealth Institutes report here]

Among 37 states that provide schools with extra money to help students in poverty, the average boost is 29 percent above standard student funding, according to the report. Virginia  which provides education funding on a per-student basis  gives roughly 14 percent to 19 percent in extra money for each student who qualifies for free school meals, a rough proxy for poverty.

Some states nearly double the standard funding for each low-income student; Maryland provides 97 percent more per low-income student, according to the Commonwealth Institute.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who has made boosting education spending a priority, wants to target more resources in schools with high concentrations of low-income students, said his spokesman Brian Coy.

If the economy continues to grow and revenues allow us, well continue to make further investments, Coy said. Theres more work to be done in all of our schools, but theres no denying that theres been a disparate need in a lot of these communities that were talking about.

The report comes as the population of needy students is on the rise nationally. More than half of the public school population qualifies for free- and reduced-price meals, an analysis of 2013 data found.

[Majority of U.S. public school students are in poverty]

The number of economically disadvantaged students in Virginia has risen by about 146,000 since 2008, according to the Virginia Department of Education. Four in 10 are now considered economically disadvantaged, meaning they qualify for free- and reduced-price meals or are on public benefits. Even counties that were considered traditionally wealthy have seen a massive uptick. In Loudoun County, by some measures the wealthiest in the nation, more than one in six students qualify for free- or reduced price meals, according to state data.

But even as state funding for low-income students has risen, the formula has remained the same, and it is falling short of what schools need to educate poor students, said Michael Cassidy, president and chief executive of the Commonwealth Institute.

We have school divisions that are struggling with significant increases of the enrollment of students with real need and the state funding formula doesnt address that adequately, Cassidy said.

The report does not take into account the wide variation of state support for local education and instead looks at how much states invest in low-income students compared with other students. Virginia provides local school districts with an average of about $4,400 per student, 41st in the nation. That money supplements local funding.

Virginia distributes additional funding for students who qualify for free meals based on annual household income  which means that in a family of three, total earnings are less than $26,100 a year. The state uses a formula that takes into account a school districts number of low-income students, their geographic concentration and the relative affluence of the district.

The formula, called the At-Risk Add-On, in the next two years will provide $11 million in extra school funding for Norfolk, where 60 percent of students qualify for free lunch, while some affluent districts will receive far less. (Falls Church, for example, gets almost nothing  the formula provides for a total of $12 in additional funding for the small, wealthy district.) The report recommends changing the formula in a way that would require the state to provide far more funding to districts with the highest concentrations of poverty.

The state also gives extra money to districts with low test scores and high poverty rates to reduce class sizes. Virginia also provides funding for free preschool for poor families.

Chris Duncombe, a policy analyst with the institute, said state funding is not enough to compensate for the challenges students in poverty face in school. Poor students pass standardized tests at far lower rates than do students who do not fall in that category. In the 2014-2015 school year, passage rates for poor students lagged 16 points to 22 points behind more affluent students, depending on the test subject.

A lot of these students are dealing with outside challenges, such as moving frequently, Duncombe said. They have these additional challenges and that impacts their learning.

State Del. Thomas A. Tag Greason (R-Loudoun) said he would like to boost funding for low-income students but believes the state should more broadly examine how it allocates money for schools, perhaps shifting funds toward poor students by cutting other funding streams.

I think we should do that in the spirit of looking at the whole funding formula, Greason said.
A makeshift memorial is seen at the scene of a fatal crash in June 2015 in Montgomery County, Md. (Donna St. George /The Washington Post)

When seniors at Walt Whitman High School cross the stage during graduation ceremonies Wednesday, at least one student will be missing. Principal Alan Goodwin has taken a tough stance on underage drinking, and one teenager who broke the rules will be sitting out.

The message is out there that there will be consequences, Goodwin said. If they drink at prom or post-prom, they dont walk at graduation.

Such hard-line approaches at Montgomery Countys public schools have prompted heated debate this graduation season after the superintendents decision to overrule another principal who took a similar position.

Donna Redmond Jones, principal at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High, had told students for months that if they drank or used drugs on prom night they would lose their chance to participate in commencement. Jones disciplined six seniors who drank on prom night, May 6.

But as the June 1 graduation day approached, interim superintendent Larry A. Bowers overturned Joness decision to bar them from graduation ceremonies.

I did not reach this decision lightly, Bowers said in a letter to school families, noting that the students received other consequences and that he looked at circumstances and board policy as he considered the cases.

In a county that has struggled with underage drinking parties and fatal alcohol-related crashes, there was a wave of shock and anger. For many, it is less about a graduation ban than about frustration with a culture of teen drinking  and the thwarted efforts of a principal who tried to draw a line.

[Montgomery principals penalty for those caught drinking at prom is rescinded]

Many parents say they believe that Jones was trying to set clear expectations  and enforce the rules with clear penalties  while working to deter potentially dangerous behavior.

It was just a year ago that nearby Wootton High lost two Class of 2015 graduates in an alcohol-related crash that followed an underage drinking party. The driver in the Wootton crash faces sentencing this week after pleading guilty in April to two counts of vehicular manslaughter.

[Teen driver in deadly Maryland crash pleads guilty]

B-CCs PTSA voted Thursday night to send a petition to the school board asking that it provide greater clarity on its policy and how it is implemented to provide consistency across the county. The organization wrote that it supports Joness year-long effort to educate students about substance abuse and her move to enforce consequences when students use drugs or alcohol at school events.

We dont understand why certain principals are allowed to exclude students from commencement ceremonies while others are not, PTSA President Deb Ford said.

Many community members and school staffers think that the principal was undermined in her efforts to protect students, Ford said.

In his letter, Bowers said that district policy generally prohibits schools from using exclusion from graduation in disciplinary procedures. But he said that principals have authority to exclude students from commencements for cause, on a case-by-case basis.

Maryland education officials have in recent years taken steps against zero-tolerance policies in student discipline, saying that school officials should consider offenses individually. But Ford said parents find it hard to understand the reasoning that led to Bowerss ruling.

We want clarity on this, Ford said. Were in the dark. Why didnt he give Dr. Jones an opportunity to provide a case-by-case rationale?

Montgomery officials said they could not discuss the B-CC cases, citing privacy rules. But discipline needs to be applied according to individual circumstances, said Derek Turner, a Montgomery schools spokesman. At B-CC, there was an inadvertent breach by not doing so, he said. Bowers and Jones declined to comment.

Each incident is taken on a case-by-case basis, and we have to look at the totality of the circumstances, including students past behavior, interest in restorative justice and other factors, Turner said.

A majority of the six students families appealed the punishment, Turner said, which may not be true in similar cases at other schools. The school system supports Joness efforts and will stand with her as she continues to deal with the issue of alcohol use in her community, Turner said.

I think what we all want to do is move forward, learn the lessons from this incident, and address a culture of alcohol use and substance abuse connected to school events, Turner said.

Board of Education President Michael Durso posted a statement Friday night on the systems website saying the B-CC decision in no way sends a message that we are not serious about combatting the issue of alcohol use.

The school system supports national and state efforts to move away from zero-tolerance discipline, he said, but school leaders also understand that consequences are needed to send a strong message about the dangers of underage drinking.

We believe we can tackle both underage drinking and remain true to our beliefs about appropriate and progressive discipline, Durso said.

Ford and others say the county needs to have a larger conversation.

I think this incident should be used as an impetus to have a countywide discussion about what to do to keep kids safe  both education and consequences, said Goodwin, the principal at Whitman, who has held the post for 12 years and drew wide notice last fall for imploring the parents in his high-performing school to stop hosting drinking parties.

[This must stop: Principal implores parents not to host teen drinking parties]

Goodwin said there are at least six high schools in Montgomery where principals bar students from participating in commencement as a consequence for drinking at prom.

He said he has done so at Whitman for about a decade, restricting about a dozen students from commencement. Many cases resulted in appeals to district officials but were not overturned, he said. This year, the student did not appeal.

Sharon Agranov, president of the PTSA at Sherwood High, said 12 students at the Sandy Spring, Md., school were disciplined for being under the influence of alcohol on prom night. She said missing graduation had not been presented as a possible consequence.

Agranov posted a story about the B-CC incident on her Facebook page and got passionate reactions from other parents who did not like the idea that the school district went back on actions the principal had repeatedly emphasized would be the penalty for breaking the rules.

How are they going to learn what consequences mean? she asked.
THE DISTRICT

Man, 19, arrested in burglaries at 2 schools

A man on probation for a gun conviction was arrested this week and charged with burglarizing two schools in Northwest and Northeast Washington, according to D.C. police and court documents.

Police said they arrested the suspect after finding a stolen van containing some stolen property and a gun, and after tracking the suspect from his GPS ankle bracelet used to monitor him while on court supervision.

Tyree Irving, 19, of Northwest, was charged with two counts of burglary.

He had been sentenced in February to an eight month suspended prison term on the gun conviction. He was on 18 months supervised probation that included a 9 p.m. curfew, court records show.

D.C. police said that Irving, and three others who are being sought smashed a glass door at Barnard Elementary School shortly after 1:30 a.m. on April 2 and stole 14 iPads and two computers. The school is in the 400 block of Decatur Street NW.

Police said the group also broke into Houston Elementary School in the 1100 block of 50th Place NE about 2:50 a.m. on April 2 and stole a black H-P computer, a black Dell laptop computer and an iPad.

 Peter Hermann

Suspect arrested in shooting outside shop

It had been one in a string of daylight shootings across the District  a man wounded coming out of a liquor store just off Rhode Island Avenue in Northeast Washington.

On Friday, D.C. police announced they had made an arrest. Leroy Robinson, 32, of Northeast, was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. A D.C. Superior Court judge ordered Robinson detained until a preliminary hearing on Monday.

Police said the wounded man was not the intended target.

The victim was making a delivery when he was caught in the middle of an argument between two groups of males, police said in a statement. The man and his car were struck by gunfire.

The shooting occurred about 9:50 a.m. Wednesday in front of Woodridge Vets Liquor in the 1300 block of Brentwood Road NE, in a small strip of worn shops along the Rhode Island Avenue corridor.

 Peter Hermann

VIRGINIA

Manassas man drowns in Rappahannock

A Manassas man drowned Friday while attempting to swim across the Rappahannock River at a recreation area in Falmouth, Va., the Stafford County Sheriffs Office said.

Emilio Francisco Velasco Cedillo, 21, was pulled from the water and taken to Mary Washington Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The sheriffs office said Velasco Cedillo entered the water at the Historic Port of Falmouth, where he was hanging out with several friends, and swam across the river to Old Mill Park. When he attempted to swim back, he slipped beneath the water. He was last seen about 15 feet away from the river bank.

A parks and recreation employee alerted emergency services about 6:15 p.m. Stafford Fire and Rescue sent rescue swimmers into the river five minutes later to attempt to save the man. A diver from Fredericksburg Fire pulled him from the water.

 Moriah Balingit
Montgomery County announced Friday that it has reached agreement with a private developer to create a life sciences town center in its economically moribund eastern sector.

It took the county and developer Percontee, owners of adjoining land, more than a year to settle their differences over Viva White Oak, envisioned as a 300-acre hub of medical and science companies, housing and retail businesses adjacent to the Food and Drug Administration campus near Route 29 and New Hampshire Avenue.

County officials and community advocates hope the project will generate jobs and growth for a region of the county that has seen little of either. They see Viva White Oak as the third piece of a potential economic development engine that includes the FDA  which could expand onto the county property  and the new Washington Adventist Hospital that recently broke ground nearby. Supporters say the three ventures could generate as many as 10,000 new jobs as the project is built out over the next 25 years.

[Plans for White Oak science development near collapse]

Viva White Oak represents a significant leap forward for the East County, County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) said in a statement Friday. It will not only create a new community with homes, shopping and dining opportunities, but it will facilitate world-class research and development efforts right at the front door of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in White Oak and boost cooperation with that agency.

Leggett finalized the agreement with representatives of the Gudelsky family, owner of Percontee, on Tuesday, just hours after undergoing back surgery at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital to relieve pain from spinal stenosis. It was his second surgery in the past six months.

The shape of the agreement has changed considerably over the past year, morphing from a partnership, in which both parties would share profits and risks, into a land sale. The details are certain to be closely scrutinized by the County Council as it reviews the plan starting this week. The council will have to decide whether to approve $47 million in bond funding to finance roads and intersection improvements around the site. Aspects of the deal will be reviewed by the Montgomery Planning Board.

The deal nearly collapsed in late April over legal and environmental concerns surrounding Percontees 180-acre site, currently a sand and gravel quarry.

Half-century-old covenants on the property, sought by neighboring landowners to limit industrial uses on the property, bar Percontee from building on more than 40 percent of the land.

Percontees executive vice president, Jonathan Genn, who did not return phone calls Friday, said in April that the covenants were no longer a factor because the land has been rezoned.

[Leggett, council clash over details of White Oak Science Gateway]

But Montgomery attorneys warned Leggett that the county could face lawsuits from property owners adjacent to and near the site who want enforcement of the covenants to continue. The covenants, which were discovered by county attorneys through their own due diligence, also raise questions about the value of Percontees land.

Leggett said in an interview Friday that the agreement was revised so that the county does not have any ownership interest in Percontees land. Instead, the county will eventually sell its property to the developer for $42 million  the appraised value of the land. Leggett said it will be Percontees responsibility to dispose of the covenants, and that the company will pay the county for any legal costs or damages that may arise.

I did not want the county dragged into being a part of that, Leggett said. Theyre going to have to figure that part out.

County attorneys also raised objections about industrial contaminants on the Percontee land that will have to be removed before construction can begin. The countys land has already been cleaned up.

Leggett said the county and Percontee agreed that the company would remediate the land in phases, as construction goes forward.

The deal remains a good one for the county, Leggett said. Montgomery purchased its 115-acre site from the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission for $11 million about 10 years ago.

The document that outlines the deal, known as a general development agreement, went through more than 20 drafts, according to county officials. Friction between Genn and some senior county officials prolonged the talks, which blew past multiple deadlines set by the Percontee executive.

Leggett said he negotiated key parts of the deal personally with Percontee president and chief executive John Gudelsky. Leggett has a long history with the Gudelsky family, a major player in regional real estate with interests in Tysons Corner, Wheaton Plaza and numerous other projects.

Leggett and Gudelskys mother, Martha Gudelsky, served together on a nonprofit board in the mid-1980s, shortly before Leggett made his first run for the County Council.

She was not a big contributor, but she introduced me to people, he said.

Family members have contributed thousands of dollars to Leggetts campaigns over the years, campaign finance records show.
Mark H. Long leaves D.C. Superior Court after a hearing in 2014. Long admitted in a plea deal that he worked with others to violate campaign finance laws during the 2010 D.C. mayors race. (Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post)

A D.C. Superior Court judge ruled Friday that the campaign chauffeur for Vincent C. Grays 2010 mayoral bid could not pull out of his plea agreement and found that not only did the driver understand the plea when he made it but that he also understood he had taken part in illicit activity.

In September 2014, Mark H. Long pleaded guilty to conspiring with D.C. businessman Jeffrey E. Thompson and others to conceal campaign donations that exceeded legal limits and to participating in a scheme to pay off another mayoral candidate to exit the race. Longs salary and the Lincoln Navigator he used to shuttle Gray to campaign events were paid for, but not reported, by Thompson, according to the plea.

But as Long, who ran unsuccessfully for D.C. Council in 2008, was preparing for sentencing, he fired the attorney who had negotiated his plea.

Through a new lawyer, Long claimed that he did not know the funds were from an illegal source and that he had not been competently represented when the terms of the plea deal were laid out for him after negotiations that took more than 18 months.

Charles E. Wagner said his client should be able to tear up the deal because Longs prior attorney had not fully investigated more-favorable sentencing deals cut by others in the scheme.

After a nearly two-hour hearing Friday, Judge Anita Josey-Herring ruled that Longs plea deal would stand and scheduled sentencing for July 15.

[How case against ex-D.C. mayor Vincent Gray stalled over claims against key witness]

In trying to pull out of his plea deal, Long, 49, specifically objected to the potential sentence of up to six months for Thompson, who admitted funneling $653,000 to a get-out-the-vote effort on Grays behalf and is scheduled to be sentenced in August. In contrast, Long faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, although federal guidelines suggest a sentence ranging from probation to six months.

Long also noted that Gray, the focus of the investigation, was not charged in the case. Gray has denied having any knowledge of the shadow campaign.

At Fridays hearing, Wagner argued that his client signed the plea deal after his prior attorney, high-profile defense lawyer Billy Martin, wrongly encouraged him to do so.

Wagner said Long believed that his salary was paid for by Thompson business associate and friend Jeanne Clarke Harris, a public relations consultant, through her own private corporation. Long was paid to drive Gray between May and October 2010.

Mr. Long is innocent. He worked for Ms. Harris, Wagner argued. His salary was not caught up in the notion of this conspiracy. There is no crime committed by him.

Like Thompson, Harris has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to her role in the shadow campaign and is awaiting sentencing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan P. Hooks repeatedly objected to Wagners assertion of Longs innocence.

Hooks said prosecutors had originally considered bringing federal charges against Long in U.S. District Court. The charges, he said, might have included obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to prosecutors and FBI agents during the investigation, as well as tax evasion allegedly involving more than $200,000 for 2008 through 2010.

Wagner said Hooks was just blowing smoke at the court.

Hooks said Long had a long history of concealing campaign contributions with Harris and Thompson. Hooks said Long, Harris and Thompson had an ongoing criminal enterprise.

After the arguments, Josey-Herring ruled that Long had conspired to conceal the funds. The conspiracy to what Mr. Long pled to is not narrowly limited to what the defense argued. Its much broader. He was aware Ms. Harris was paying him to drive [Gray] around and that Harris and Thompson were going to conceal that, even though he never agreed to participate in that conspiracy. Conspiracy doesnt have to be articulated, she ruled.

Josey-Herring also ruled that Martin, Longs previous attorney, had acted properly and had acted effectively on behalf of Long by persuading prosecutors not to charge Long with the much harsher federal charges but to charge him instead under D.C. statutes in exchange for his guilty plea.

Longs allegations were without merit, the judge ruled, and she added that Martins work for Long had been competent and that he had advocated on Longs behalf under the code of conduct.
It had been one in a string of daylight shootings across the District  a man wounded coming out of a liquor store just off Rhode Island Avenue in Northeast Washington.

On Friday, D.C. police announced they had made an arrest. Leroy Robinson, 32, of Northeast, was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. A D.C. Superior Court judge ordered Robinson detained until a preliminary hearing on Monday.

Police said the wounded man was not the intended target.

The victim was making a delivery when he was caught in the middle of an argument between two groups of males, police said in a statement. The man and his car were struck by gunfire.

The shooting on Wednesdayoccurred about 9:50 a.m. in front of Woodridge Vets Liquor in the 1300 block of Brentwood Road NE, in a small strip of worn shops along the Rhode Island Avenue corridor.

[Its not even 10 in the morning and already a man is running from bullets]

Although the victim suffered a minor wound, the shooting stood out because it appeared so routine. Commuters sped by on Rhode Island Avenue, barely slowing for the police, who had taped off the shopping center and a small adjacent park. Two witnesses who described what they saw to a newspaper reporter refused to talk to detectives. The only people lingering were in a group whose car was trapped by the crime scene tape.

One woman explained the mid-morning gunfire this way: There are a lot of kids with guns out here. If they see someone theyre after, they go after him no matter what time of day it is.

That woman and a man said it appeared that the victim had been targeted by one or two men who were standing in an alley and opened fire as soon as he walked out of the store.

But police said on Friday that the victim simply got caught up in someone elses argument, and that he ended up getting shot and losing the rear window of his car.
Three years ago, Eric Noe Araujo Flores asked his former nanny to help him find friends in his home country of El Salvador. She connected him with her niece, a 14-year-old who was being threatened by local street gangs. He offered to protect her and her family  if she had sex with him.

Flores, who lives in Loudoun County, visited El Salvador three times in 2013 and 2014 to have sex with the girl, paying her mother and telling her he was the only thing standing between her and violent gangs. Prosecutors said he probably would never have been caught had he not then decided  after the girl tried to commit suicide  to smuggle her and her mother into the United States in June 2014. There, he continued to force himself on her repeatedly for another eight months.

On Friday, the 34-year-old was sentenced at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to 25 years in prison on sex trafficking and sex tourism charges. Once he completes his sentence, he could face deportation proceedings, officials said. Prosecutors said the case highlights a crime that is often difficult to uncover, and authorities would not comment on how this case was first investigated.

Sex trafficking and sex tourism are hidden crimes, and thats what the defendant was counting on in this case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Frank said at the sentencing. Although sex tourism was made easier to prosecute in 2003 and has been targeted by a special FBI initiative since 2008, the cases are still difficult to prosecute because the victims are out of reach. Flores was found guilty in February; police interviewed the girl last year.

After bringing the girl  then 15 years old  and her mother through Texas, Flores put them up in an apartment not far from the home he shared with his wife and two daughters. He repeatedly forced himself on the girl, telling her that she would be evicted and deported if she did not give in, prosecutors said. He also said he would stop paying for rent and food for her and her mother.

Unlike most mothers, [the girls] mother did not protect her, Frank wrote in a court document.

Since Floress arrest, prosecutors said, the girl continues to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. The trial was nearly derailed, Frank said, because the victim was struggling so much that prosecutors were not sure she could testify.

Frankly, her life is a mess, Frank said in court.

Through an interpreter, Flores on Friday said only this: What has been said is not fair. At trial, he maintained his innocence, claiming he was actually working undercover to protect his own children from predators. In early conversations with police, according to court records, he said he thought that the girl was 18. However, several people told investigators that he was aware of her age before he met her.

Defense attorney Joseph Conte said that his client did not act in a vacuum, pointing to the relatives of the girl who aided in the exploitation.

Theres been some help putting the victim in this situation from the victims mother, from the victims aunt, Conte said.

U.S. District Judge Liam OGrady said that the actions of others were irrelevant, as was the fact that Flores had only finished second grade. His defense attorney acknowledged that Flores had actually been very successful in the United States despite his limited education and English skills; his home in Ashburn is valued at $600,000.

You took it upon yourself to violate every fundamental right the victim in this case had, OGrady told Flores. The opportunity to get up in the morning and see the day as any other teenager would like to.

In addition to his prison time and five years of supervised release, Flores was ordered to pay $40,370 in restitution to the victim.

Officials in Virginia could not comment on the legal status of the victim and her mother. But victims and family members of victims of human trafficking are eligible for immigration benefits. Flores initially entered the United States legally, and later obtained permanent resident status by using a fake name, authorities said.

Flores plans to appeal the verdict, his attorney said.
A young man out on probation for a gun conviction was arrested this week and charged with burglarizing two schools in Northwest and Northeast Washington, according to D.C. police and court documents.

Police said they arrested the suspect after finding a stolen van containing stolen property and a gun, and after tracking the suspect via the GPS ankle bracelet used to monitor him while on court supervision.

Tyree Irving, 19, of Northwest, was charged with two counts of burglary.

He was sentenced in February to an eight-month suspended prison term on the gun conviction. He was on 18 months supervised probation that included a 9 p.m. curfew, court records show.

D.C. police said that Irving and three others who are being sought smashed a glass door at Barnard Elementary School shortly after 1:30 a.m. on April 2 and stole 14 iPads and two other computers. The school is located in the 400 block of Decatur Street NW.

Police said the group also broke into Houston Elementary School, in the 1100 block of 50th Place NE, about 2:50 a.m. on April 2 and stole a black HP computer, a black Dell laptop computer and an iPad. Police said entry to the school was gained by breaking a side window.

Authorities said in an arrest affidavit filed in court that officers later found the stolen van, and that surveillance video in the schools led them to Irving.

During an interview with police, Irving told detectives that he didnt recall where he was on April 2.

Im all over the place, he said, according to the affidavit.
Southeast Washington residents call for an end to violence in their neighborhoods during a two-mile march. We need to address this problem, says Veda Rasheed, who organized the Saturday event. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)

Veda Rasheed has not lost a son to the Districts streets, but shes worried enough about the danger that her two boys might encounter that on Saturday she organized an anti-violence march that cut through a deadly stretch of the city.

It attracted parents and grandparents seeking to keep their kids safe, children from various boys and girls clubs holding banners calling for peace, organizers of summer youth programs hoping to figure out what they might do to help. And then there were the mothers who have lost children to gunfire, hoping for answers to a problem that goes far beyond their own sorrow.

They all locked arms as they walked two miles under police escort from Benning Ridge in Southeast to River Terrace in Northeast, shouting, Stop the violence, increase the peace.

Rasheed, a 31-year-old single parent raising two boys, ages 8 and 11, said she does not want to be a mother in mourning. She didnt realize until recently that daytime offers no promise of safety.

In March last year, her oldest son bounded home from KIPP DC charter school on Benning Road in Southeast and said the building had been in lockdown. He told me there was a homicide in front of the school, Rasheed said. Police said a 16-year-old girl fatally stabbed an 18-year-old woman during an argument at a bus stop.

[Homicides in Ward 7 increase threefold]

Its happening too often, said Rasheed, who lives near the school in the 4800 block of Benning Road SE and is a third-year law student at Catholic University. Its happening too close to school. We need to address this problem.

Violence in and around Rasheeds neighborhood has only gotten worse since that day in 2015.

She grew up in River Terrace. A man killed on Benning Road in March was someone she had known since childhood. Two people were fatally shot near the intersection of Benning Road and East Capitol Street, three blocks from KIPP, hours apart last month. The school her children attend is in Ward 7, where homicides have increased markedly this year, from seven at this time in 2015 to 22 so far in 2016.

The march began at KIPP and headed down Benning Road. They passed East Capitol, near the two killings from last month. They passed a library where early voting was underway, with dueling candidates for the Ward 7 Council seat  Yvette Alexander (D) and former mayor Vincent C. Gray (D)  watching the procession. They ended at a park in River Terrace.

Children held banners reading peace, and some wore T-shirts honoring slain relatives. R.I.P. Uncle Malek read one on a girl about 5 years old. People talked about their loss and about the future, about engaging youth and families, about teaching respect, about pain.

Victor Leonard came with an entourage of family mourning the shooting death of his 15-year-old grandson, Davonte Washington, who was shot in March on the platform of the Deanwood Metro station over what police described as a glance the gunman perceived as disrespectful.

[Teen fatally shot at Deanwood Metro over glance deemed disrespectful]

Its still fresh, said Leonard, who, when he attended the court hearing for the 17-year-old suspect, had been taken aback by the youthful appearance of the alleged gunman. He came Saturday, a picture of his grandson on the front of his T-shirt.

We have to do this, Leonard said. Its important that people see us, that they know there are people who care about the violence in D.C. They have to know that we are here.

Sharon Becks, 43, lost her youngest son to a shooting in June 2015, moments after he climbed off a Metro bus at Naylor Road and 28th Street in Southeast. Police said 15-year-old Malek Mercer was shot after he refused to give up his designer belt in a robbery.

[Teenager fatally shot over designer belt]

The march, Becks hoped, would get people to see that violence isnt solving anything. . . . Something has to change.

But she and others didnt know quite what. Parents more involved with children. Jobs. Educating people about programs already available. More youth activities.

Rasheed, the marchs organizer, went down the list, most of the ideas sounding familiar. She is nearing graduation day from law school, and with her degree in hand, she plans to stay in Benning Ridge.

Usually, when people are successful, they leave the neighborhood, Rasheed said. The accomplished and the dead depart.

We just keep losing our friends and our family, she said.
A memory chain made by fellow Gaithersburg High School students to memorialize Santos Escobar Villatoro, 16. Escobar was killed June 2 when he fell into the road while bicycling along a sidewalk. ( Arelis R. Hernandez/The Washington Post)

When Santos Escobar Villatoro did not arrive to their Montgomery Village apartment by 2:45 p.m. Thursday, the way he had every day in the past year, his father was bewildered.

The prompt 16-year-old never deviated from routine: Dismissal from Gaithersburg High School at 2:30 p.m., north on South Frederick Avenue, right on Odendhal Avenue, and after several minutes, Santos was carrying his bicycle up the three flights of their building.

So as the seconds ticked by and his son didnt answer his phone or come through that door, a frantic Francisco Escobar went looking for him.

He boarded a bus to trace his sons path. But the ride was short.

Up ahead, Montgomery County police were blocking the road.

An impromptu memorial at the spot where Escobar was killed in Gaithersburg, Md. (Arelis R. Hernandez/The Washington Post)

When I saw the flares, I knew. They only put those out when its serious, Escobar said. By then off the bus, he inched forward and there was Santos thrown on the ground. I thought he might be hurt, but I never imagined he would be dead on the street.

Emergency personnel found Santos at 2:34 p.m., pinned beneath the front of an SUV that police said was driven by 18-year-old Atiana Shalise Sarkis of Pennsylvania on a busy stretch of Route 355  about a half-mile from his school. He died at the scene.

Crash investigators said the teenager was riding his bike on the narrow sidewalk when he hit a folding sandwich board advertising services for a nearby business and fell into the roadway at South Frederick and Fulks Corner avenues. He fell into the road just as Sarkiss vehicle came by, police said.

Workers inside a nearby dental office, which has large windows facing the road, were having lunch when they noticed the stopped SUV. Peering out, they saw the boy and called 911. By then, the emergency dispatcher was fielding calls from witnesses to the crash, the workers learned.

The driver stayed at the crash site, police said. The crash remained under investigation Saturday and no charges had been filed, said Capt. Paul Starks, a spokesman for the Montgomery County police.

Attempts by The Washington Post to reach the driver were not successful.

The impact of Santoss death was immediate not just for the family that had brought him to this country but also the community that embraced the young immigrant.

A little more than a year ago, Santos joined his father in the United States from their native El Salvador in one of the later waves of young people traveling north to escape violence in Central America. He was detained at the U.S. border and was in and out of immigration court, his father said.

Santos wanted to study, graduate and be a police officer, Escobar said. I told him he could be anything but he needed citizenship or residency to be a cop. He was such a positive kid that he would tell me not to worry: Im going to get my papers. 

The father and son worked together at Sardis restaurant, a Peruvian-style rotisserie chicken place in Gaithersburg, where Escobar sliced whole chickens and Santos was the best dish-washer Ive ever seen, said manager Marvin Hernandez. The dish-washing pay helped purchase his gray bike.

On Tuesday, a proud Santos had rushed to Sardis to show his father his report card of As and Bs. His bosses gave the part-timer a 25-cent raise for his good grades. The boy was so loved by his coworkers that they asked if they could collect donations to help with funeral costs. Now, all 10 restaurants in the metropolitan region are collecting money to send Santoss body home.

He was just an exemplary kid. Humble, hardworking, studious and well-mannered, said Ines Reed, who previously rented a room to the father and son. She owns a hair salon Santos often visited. Inside on Friday, Reed and two other women were mourning: If you had known him, he wouldve robbed your heart.

Shortly after arriving in Maryland, Santos enrolled at Gaithersburg High School, where he attended ESOL  or English for Speakers of Other Languages  classes. The school is about 50 percent Hispanic, with more and more immigrants from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean arriving.

Teresa Timmons Parrott teaches one of the programs first classes, introducing students to American culture, history and society: Its basically taking what we had in 12 years and scrunching it into three months.

Santos stood out, his teachers said. He was always on time for class, smartly dressed and readied his desk with all the books and materials he needed for that day, eager to learn. Though his English was limited, he was ravenous for knowledge.

He loved history and music, so his teachers would print articles and essays from open source websites for Santos to take home and read. When he grew more comfortable, the teenager stepped into the role of big brother to mentor the more-recent immigrant arrivals.

Whether they were from Bangladesh or Guatemala, Santos tried to help them navigate their new American life by showing them what page to turn to in class, explaining instructions from their English-speaking teachers or showing them how to open a locker and motivating them to participate in class.

In Spanish, Santos means saint, Parrott said. He was getting pretty close.

Teacher Elena Morozova said the teenager was a leader who took care of the underdog because he had been one: That kind of compassion doesnt come out naturally from teenage boys. But he had somehow learned it, Morozova said.

His teachers talked to Santos about college, which had only recently become something to consider. Now that they are safe, they are free to dream, its safe to dream, Morozova said. I had big plans for Santos.

His death stunned his classmates, school officials said. Many of the Central American immigrants have been hardened to death because of what they had witnessed back home, and yet Santoss accident ripped them open, said ESOL teacher Tami Henneman.

My fourth period was a wreck, said social studies teacher Jim Barse about his ESOL students. Several of them saw the kids body in the street, and it was upsetting for them.

Throughout the day Friday, Gaithersburg principal Christine Handy-Collins opened up a room for students to grieve, write down their feelings or talk to a counselor. Morozova said she did most of her crying Thursday night to be strong for her students Friday.

She placed a small pot of miniature red roses on what had been Santoss desk. When students arrived, Morozova sat them in a circle. They passed around a rock one by one to talk about Santos and put small cards in a red tin box on his desk.

They colored mandalas and wrote notes to the boys family that they eventually gave to his father, who came by the school Friday afternoon. They hope to send the rest of the notes to Santoss mother.

A student like this comes along once in a blue moon, Parrott said. When you have a student like Santos, you cant help but think, What if? 
In 1953, a surgeon in Hartford, Conn., was searching for a way to ease the debilitating epileptic seizures of one of his patients, a young man named Henry Molaison. The surgeon, William Beecher Scoville, extracted two finger-sized portions from the temporal lobe on each side of the brain.

The surgery helped ease the seizures, but it brought on an unforeseen complication: Molaison lost the ability to develop new memories or to remember anything for more than a few seconds.

During the next 50 years, more than 100 scientists would study Molaison  or H.M., as he was invariably called in scientific journals  making him the most celebrated case study in the annals of neuroscience. No researcher spent more time with him than Suzanne Corkin, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who died May 24 in Danvers, Mass. She was 79 and had liver cancer, MIT said in a statement.

During her five-decade career at MIT, Dr. Corkin made significant contributions to the study of Alzheimers disease and Parkinsons disease, and helped identify regions of the brain affected by degenerative disorders. She also studied the long-term consequences of head injuries among veterans of World War II and the Korean War.

But she was best known for her many years of work with H.M. She met him in 1962, when she was a graduate student at Montreals McGill University, and continued to work with him until his death at 82 in 2008. She wrote about her 46 years of experiments and her sometimes touching experiences with him in a 2013 book, Permanent Present Tense: The Unforgettable Life of the Amnesic Patient, H.M.

His case launched the modern era of memory research, she told NPRs Fresh Air in 2013.

Dr. Corkin forged a connection with the man without a memory through patience and persistence and a shared past in Hartford.

He thinks we went to high school together, she said.

In fact, they grew up a few miles apart, and Dr. Corkin lived on the same street as Scoville, the doctor who performed the operation on H.M. in 1953. Scoville later renounced experimental brain surgery and suggested H.M. as a possible research subject to Brenda Milner, a neuroscientist who became Dr. Corkins mentor at McGill.

Milner published the first major study on H.M. in 1957. One thing she and other researchers discovered was that Scoville had excised portions of H.M.s hippocampus and amygdala, in addition to much of the temporal lobes.

H.M. still had a hazy recollection of events that occurred before his surgery, but he could not form new memories. Throughout the decades of experiments, H.M. remained friendly and often made witty comments to Dr. Corkin and others. He spoke well, had a high IQ and loved to do crossword puzzles.

But the memory of any new experience vanished within 30 seconds.

Suzanne Corkin made significant contributions to the study of Alzheimers disease and Parkinsons disease. (Louis Bachrach via the Corkin family)

Do you remember what you did yesterday? Dr. Corkin asked in one interview, made public after H.M.s death.

H.M.: No, I dont.

Dr. Corkin: How about this morning?

H.M.: I dont even remember that.

Dr. Corkin: Could you tell me what you had for lunch today?

H.M.: I dont know, to tell you the truth.

Dr. Corkin and other researchers came to recognize that the hippocampus  largely absent in H.M.  was crucial in forming what scientists call declarative memory, or the recollection of names, faces and experiences.

Another surprising discovery was that different kinds of memory reside in separate parts of the brain. H.M. could not recall a face, yet he had the ability to develop new skills through muscle memory and repetition.

He learned to use a walker, could draw geometric shapes and could sketch the layout of a house, suggesting that motor skills are lodged in a different part of the brain from visual and verbal memories.

He was never sad or depressed, Dr. Corkin told Britains Guardian newspaper in 2013, though I dont think any of us would want to change places with Henry. He had a tragic life and he made the best of it. He showed the world you could be saddled with a tremendous handicap and still make an enormous contribution to life. I found his resilience inspirational.

Suzanne Janet Hammond was born May 18, 1937, in Hartford. Her father worked in sales.

She graduated from Smith College in Northampton, Mass., in 1959, then went to McGill, receiving masters and doctoral degrees in psychology in 1961 and 1964, respectively.

She became a researcher and faculty member at MIT in 1964 and eventually directed its Corkin Laboratory, which studies the biological and genetic basis of human memory. In addition to her book about H.M., Dr. Corkin wrote more than 100 scholarly articles and was a co-author or editor of about a dozen books on Alzheimers disease and brain research.

Her marriage to Charles Corkin ended in divorce. Survivors include three children and seven grandchildren.

As H.M. entered his mid-50s, he moved to a Hartford nursing home, where he spent the rest of his life. Dr. Corkin visited him often and arranged to have his brain preserved for science. After his death in 2008, H.M.s brain was placed in a solution, frozen and cut into 2,401 slices, each the width of a human hair, for future study. It resides in a laboratory at the University of California at San Diego.

Hundreds of researchers have examined H.M.s life, his brain and his fleeting memory, making him perhaps the most important patient in the history of neuroscience.

In her book, Dr. Corkin wrote that H.M. sometimes had a vague awareness that he had become the subject of scientific curiosity.

Its a funny thing  you just live and learn, he once told Dr. Corkin. Im living and youre learning.
Passengers exit a Metro train at the L'Enfant Plaza station in Washington on May 24. (Nicholas Kamm/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

The June 2 editorial Secrecy is not safe called for transparency from the new Metrorail Safety Commission. My 30 years of aviation experience says that full transparency is the enemy of safety. I am a former executive of Airlines for America, the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association and the Regional Airline Association who, as president of the RAA, oversaw the industry safety initiatives after the most recent fatal U.S. airline accident in the United States, in 2009.

Confidentiality is the foundation for safety-management systems, a just culture in which all parties  employees, front-line managers, senior executives and government regulators  can freely share information, potential risks and even near-misses without reprisal.

Commercial aviation is safe and getting safer because labor, management and government are encouraged to self-report within the system potential hazards and unintentional screw-ups.

District, Maryland and Virginia officials are taking the right first step in creating the Metrorail Safety Commission under this guiding principle.

By allowing the safety professionals to do their jobs, the media will have plenty to report about  notably how much safer it will be riding on Metro.

Roger Cohen, Vienna
Misery loves company, so refugees from Americas Republican Party should understand that theirs is not the only party that has chosen a leader who confirms caricatures of it while repudiating its purposes. Jeremy Corbyn, the silliest leader in the British Labour Partys 116-year history, might kill satire as well as whatever remains of socialism.

Labour was founded in 1900 to demonstrate that a 19th-century political prophet was mistaken. Karl Marx had proclaimed that meaningful amelioration of working-class conditions could not be achieved by non-revolutionary, parliamentary means. Labour helped make modern Britain into a mostly middle-class, generally temperate nation impervious to exotic politics.

In the 1983 election, the last time Labour flirted with serious socialism, its manifesto (platform) was described as the longest suicide note in history, and a party activist advocated no compromise with the electorate. The electorate was not amused, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher continued residing at 10 Downing Street.

That year, Corbyn was elected to the House of Commons. He spent his next 32 years opposing the monarchy; writing columns for a communist newspaper; expressing admiration for Hugo Chavez, whose socialism propelled Venezuela toward todays chaos; proposing that taxpayers should be permitted to opt out of paying for Britains army; advocating that Britain leave NATO and unilaterally scrap its nuclear deterrent; blaming NATO, meaning the United States, for Vladimir Putins war against Ukraine; calling the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah friends; appearing with and funding Holocaust deniers and other anti-Semites; criticizing Chinas Communist regime for deviationism in accepting some free markets; demanding that Tony Blair, the only Labour leader since 1976 to win a general election (three of them), be tried as a war criminal (for supporting the Iraq War); praising Iraqi insurgents killing Americans; and calling the killing of Osama bin Laden a tragedy. Along the way, Corbyn got divorced because his wife insisted on sending their eldest son to a selective school whose admissions policy recognized merit.

Last September, in a Labour Party process in which an intense fraction of 1 percent of the British electorate participated  a cohort intensely interested in things other than winning the next election  Corbyn was elected party leader with 59.5 percent of the vote in a four-way contest. He promptly named as shadow chancellor of the exchequer a former union official who lists in Whos Who his hobby as fomenting the overthrow of capitalism, who says he was joking when he said that if he could relive the 1980s he would have assassinated Thatcher but who was serious when he praised IRA terrorist bombers. Corbyns shadow farming minister, a vegan, says, Meat should be treated in exactly the same way as tobacco, with public campaigns to stop people eating it. Corbyn, appearing with unmatched jacket and trousers and with his tie loosened at a St. Pauls Cathedral service commemorating the Royal Air Forces heroism in the Battle of Britain, refused to sing the national anthem.

In 1937, George Orwell, a socialist disgusted with many socialists, published The Road to Wigan Pier, half of which consisted of reportage about working-class privations in Englands industrial north. In the other half, which the publisher of the Left Book Club wanted to omit from the clubs edition, Orwell decried the socialist movements smell of crankishness, the sandals and the pistachio-colored shirts of every vegetarian, teetotaler and other exemplars of priggishness and half-baked progressivism. 

Corbyn is an apple that did not fall far from the tree: His parents met at a rally advocating peace in the Spanish Civil War. They got their wish. Peace came. When Gen. Francisco Franco came to Madrid. Corbyn is a vegetarian who does not own a car. He does own  perhaps Al Gore knows why; Gore went through an earth tones phase  many beige clothes bought from street vendors.

With his Greek fishermans cap, Corbyn is a reactionary dressed as a revolutionary whose slogan could be Onward to 1945! Nostalgic for Labours commitment (long dead when interred by Blair in 1995) to common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, Corbyn favors re-nationalizing the railroads and some energy companies.

Financial Times columnist Janan Ganesh sees Corbyn as a symptom of broad social contentment. Corbynism is the persuasion of people who can afford to treat politics as a source of gaiety and affirmation. . . . They are in politics for the dopamine squirt that comes with total belief and immersion in like-minded company. So, they are not unlike Americas Sandernistas and Trumpkins.

Read more from George F. Wills archive or follow him on Facebook.
A FAILURE to notice is at the core of the staggering sex abuse scandal at an elementary school in Prince Georges County, where a former volunteer stands accused of sexually abusing at least 17 children, some of them on school grounds. There were signs aplenty that something was amiss in Deonte Carraways dealings with pupils at Judge Sylvania W. Woods Elementary School, yet some teachers and staff seemed blind to them. That was a form of negligence, and the results were scarring and horrific.

Kevin Maxwell, chief executive of the Prince Georges schools, suggested in the scandals wake that the allegations of abuse, notwithstanding the scale on which they allegedly occurred at Sylvania Woods, were not an indictment of the systems policies and procedures. Now a task force to examine those policies and procedures, established by Mr. Maxwell, has called into question his initial view. The failure to notice what was going on at Sylvania Woods, the task force concluded in a report this week, arose from antiquated, inadequate and slipshod safeguards, and improvements are urgently needed.

Broadly speaking, the task force concluded that the Prince Georges school district  with 129,000 students, one of the nations 25 biggest systems  was nodding off at the wheel, if not sleeping soundly. Teachers, staff and students did not receive effective instruction or training to recognize and report abuse. Because they didnt know how to see something, they didnt think to say something.

In the case of Mr. Carraway, who had worked as a paid teachers aide and, after being laid off amid budget cuts, as a volunteer in the school library, there were signs that went unseen, according to court filings. He is alleged to have groomed and directed children as young as 9 to commit sex acts and to have video-recorded them. In some cases, he was alone with children at school, behind closed doors  unacceptable conduct for which there was no explicit prohibition in school-system-wide policies.

Mr. Maxwell has taken steps, putting the principal at Sylvania Woods on paid leave, removing a teacher and installing an interim principal as well as a new counselor and school resource officer. He also has ordered retraining for all 20,000 employees in the system. Those are sensible measures as far as they go, but the task force report makes clear they do not go far enough.

In particular, the task forces report concluded that the training itself is flawed and inconsistent  employees say it varies from school to school  and that follow-up is lacking to determine who has or hasnt been adequately trained. Moreover, bus drivers, vendors and contractors, some of whom have extensive regular contact with pupils, are omitted. In other words, the systems training program is Swiss cheese.

The report leaves the impression that principals, teachers and other adults who work in the system remain cloudy on how to spot the danger signs of abuse and on their duties to prepare themselves and their schools to act to prevent it. Theres a lot of work to be done; Mr. Maxwell has only started it.
Regarding the May 29 front-page article Support for ISIS a risk in Fallujah:

The people of Fallujah, Iraq, are ready to unite against the Islamic State thugs to take back their city. I know this because I convened leaders from Fallujah and elsewhere in Paris this past weekend. On May 28 and 29, at the Iraqi National Project-Together for Rescuing Iraq event , tribal leaders and civil society members from outside the government structure met under the leadership of my organization, Peace Ambassadors for Iraq, to discuss issues facing my country.

Iraqi leaders from the Sunni community tell of the grim choice Fallujans face: terror at the hand of the Islamic State or terror at the hand of the Tehran-backed militias. Time and again, government security forces have allowed or have been complicit in sectarian militias pillaging, enslaving and killing the inhabitants of reclaimed cities. The people of Fallujah know this fact well. Of course they desire the destruction of the Islamic State: They are held prisoners while starving and dying. But to go from one captor to the next, probably under even worse conditions, is no choice at all.

While the people of Fallujah are ready to expel the Islamic State and rid themselves of those criminals, they are not ready to accept a harsher regime in its place. One cannot fight terrorism with more terror.

Jamal al-Dhari, Amman, Jordan

The writer is president of the Iraqi National Project and founder of Peace Ambassadors for Iraq.
A SMALL court in Senegal just sent a big message to African dictators. Last Monday, the Extraordinary African Chambers court sentenced former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre to life in prison for crimes against humanity. His regime carried out unspeakable brutalities during his reign from 1982 to 1990, including torture, arbitrary arrests and forced disappearances of political opponents. According to a Chadian Truth Commission report, some 40,000 people were killed by the dictator, dubbed Africas Pinochet.

Mr. Habre was tried in Senegal because he fled there after he was deposed; the special court was created through an agreement with the African Union. The conviction by the panel of three judges in Dakar consequently sent a powerful warning to human rights abusers on the African continent: Impunity for heinous crimes against humanity is no longer guaranteed outside the country where they occur. The ruling represents the first time that an African Union-backed domestic court has tried and convicted a former leader of another African country. Its a vindication of the efforts of the survivors of Mr. Habres violence, who campaigned tirelessly for almost 25 years for justice, with the support of Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups. Their courage and tenacity should inspire other victims of human rights abuses to seek justice.

The United States has reason to be embarrassed by the Habre saga. The former dictator was a U.S. ally against Moammar Gaddafis Libya, and his regime received millions of dollars in aid. Secretary of State John F. Kerry acknowledged the United States checkered past with Chad in a statement, saying that the case provides an opportunity for the United States to reflect and learn. Thats true, and there are places in Africa where Mr. Kerry could immediately apply the lessons  the oppressive U.S.-backed regimes of Ethiopia and Egypt, for example.

The completion of the Senegal trial comes as the International Criminal Court continues to face criticism from African governments and the African Union, which accuse it of unfairly targeting African states for prosecution. But the successful prosecution of Mr. Habre far from negates the need for the International Criminal Court. Instead, it highlights the importance of the principle of universal jurisdiction  under which war criminals can be held accountable anywhere.

African states still need to strengthen domestic legal mechanisms that would serve to hold human rights abusers accountable for their crimes. The Special Criminal Court in the Central African Republic is one positive example; created last year by interim president Catherine Samba-Panza, the court aims to investigate and prosecute human rights violations. Such efforts deserve financial and logistical support from the African Union, the United States and the United Nations.

The 73-year-old Mr. Habre, who was dragged into court kicking and screaming at the beginning of the proceedings, eventually fell silent as he was forced to listen to the narrative testimonies of the survivors of his brutality. That he will spend the rest of his years in a jail cell instead of cozy exile is a victory not just for Africa but also for the cause of justice around the world.
Nicholas Burns, a professor at Harvard University, was U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs from 2005 to 2008. He is also an adviser to Hillary Clintons presidential campaign.

When this bitter, divisive presidential campaign mercifully comes to an end in November, the victor will face the Olympian task of restoring flagging public and congressional support for strong U.S. leadership in the world.

A truth once undisputed in American politics  that U.S. global primacy is beneficial for our country  is now under assault. Bernie Sanderss narrow, pessimistic view of the United States great-power future has encouraged twin scourges of protectionism and isolationism on the left. Donald Trumps fearful, fact-free campaign has been infinitely more damaging in stoking isolation and nativism on the right. Hillary Clinton alone has held up the banner that all post-World War II presidents have carried  one of U.S. engagement and global leadership.

When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the White House on June 7, Republicans and Democrats will have a chance for redemption by lending bipartisan support for such leadership  in the form of an ambitious strategic partnership with India and its 1.25 billion people.

This project, carefully engineered by the past three presidents, is arguably one of the most important U.S. foreign policy advances in decades. Bill Clinton broke the ice by suggesting the United States 21st-century global interests were in alignment with Indias. George W. Bush made the major push forward by negotiating a civil nuclear agreement between the two countries and persuading both parties in Congress to remove sanctions. Barack Obama became the first president to support India for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.

This rare, long-term strategic initiative by three administrations in an increasingly fractious Washington is a testimony to what can be accomplished when Republicans and Democrats act in unison to serve the national interest.

When Modi and Obama meet in the Oval Office, the glue that will bind them together is their mutual concern about a newly assertive China in Asia. Both face the same dilemma. They have no choice but to engage China on trade, global economic stability and climate change given Beijings vast international weight and influence. At the same time, Washington and New Delhi understand the necessity of standing up to Chinas bullying of Vietnam, the Philippines and other claimants to the Spratly and Paracel islands in the South China Sea.

This is one reason Americas emerging triangular military partnership with India and Japan is so important. While not designed to contain China in a conventional sense, growing air and sea cooperation among the three democracies can help to prevent a strengthening Peoples Liberation Army from dominating the Asia-Pacific region in this century. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter has been particularly effective in laying the groundwork for a more integrated U.S. military future with India.

On a recent visit to New Delhi, I was struck by a change of attitude among senior Indians who have long debated how much they should strengthen ties to the United States given Indias traditional non-alignment. That debate is clearly shifting. Modi is seeking stronger strategic links to Obama and his successor. In fact, this foreign policy prime minister, as many call him, aims to transform India itself from the dominant country in South Asia to a true world power. That goal mirrors Obama and Bushs calculation that a strong India is in our interest. Republican and Democratic leaders should continue to support it.

Our relationship with New Delhi is far from untroubled. The civil nuclear deal has still not been implemented due to unfair legislative barriers in New Delhi. Washington is wary of Indias rapidly warming ties to Iran, while New Delhi wants the United States to consult more actively on Afghanistan. The two governments remain uneasy partners on climate change. Modis much-heralded economic reforms have been fitful, at best. And we remain far apart on global trade due to Indias austere protectionism, which excluded it from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.

Still, long-term trend lines are auspicious. India and the United States have the two youngest populations of all the great powers. By virtue of their solid democratic foundations, they may be best positioned for global influence far into this century. The next U.S. president and Congress should push joint efforts in cyber and homeland security, clean energy, the digital revolution and the emerging global strategic health campaign.

Trump has been wrong about many things in this campaign, most notably in insisting that the United States doesnt win anymore. Our strengthening partnership with India is a striking success. It has been built by the internationalist center in both parties that can still unite them on important foreign policy issues. The next U.S. president will have the opportunity to work with Republicans and Democrats in writing the next chapter with India. She should take it.
Protesters outside of the National Republican Senatorial Committee office, where Donald Trump met with Senate GOP leadership May 12. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

With the surrender of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) to the Trump crusade, it is fair to wonder what the Republican Party stands for.

Ryans endorsement of Trump, which appeared in an op-ed the speaker wrote for his hometown paper  rather than before a gaggle of reporters and newscasters with his arm draped around Trumps shoulders  was a white flag from the establishment opposition.

In his op-ed, Ryan explained that though he doesnt support all of Trumps ideas (brave!), hes confident that a President Trump would support the House agenda. Moreover, Ryan felt that his endorsement was needed to maintain a Republican majority in the House.

In other words, he caved, as most everyone knew he would after a respectable period of resistance.

The party has to stand united, after all. Because, as the Geico guy would remind us, thats what they do.

Next likely to fall will be evangelical Christian leaders, who are scheduled to meet with Trump on June 21. The expectation is that Trump will promise to pick conservative Supreme Court justices who would restore the nations social order to a pre-Roe v. Wade, pre-gay-rights version.

If the purportedly devout can accept the ungodly Trump as the nations leader, then there really is nothing sacred. But, by God, hes better than Hillary Clinton, clamors the crowd.

To Trumps supporters, a billionaire with no governing experience, questionable business practices and secret tax returns would be vastly better than Clinton on no substantive basis whatsoever. Most compelling of all is the belief that Trump would nominate conservative justices.

But this assumption is as conjectural as the belief in Trumps conservatism is wishful.

Theres no knowing whom Trump would nominate, notwithstanding the list of 11 judges he released last month, indicating the sorts of jurists hed select. The list was merely a guide Trump said he would use in making his selections.

In other words, what you see may not be what you get.

This applies as well to Trump, about whose policies we still know next to nothing. What we do know is that Trump is a chameleon who changes his positions with the same conviction he takes to the wedding chapel. More hummingbird than flip-flopper, he flits from one position to another, rarely alighting anywhere for long. Oh, yes, I like this one! No, that one.

Is Trumps flexibility owing to a low threshold for boredom? Or does he perhaps suffer severe attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder? Suffice it to say, if he were a Democrat, Republicans would be blitzing the airwaves with cartoonish ads featuring Trumps head on a hummingbird, his nectar-straw Pinocchio-esque. The possibilities are delicious.

This is not to minimize his appeal or to denigrate his fans, some of whom probably figure that underneath all the bluster is a solid chap who will hire the best people to figure things out. Others dont much care for policy-talk, anyway, and whatevers good enough for Trump is good enough for them.

Millions of others, contrarily, cant ignore Trumps tendency to be crude, rude and impetuous, not to mention disingenuous, contentious, simplistic  I hate [nuclear] proliferation!  and irresponsibly ignorant. And yet party leaders against their better instincts have circled the wagons around a movie character, not Chauncey Gardiner in Being There, as I once suggested, but Tom Hankss character in Big.

As youll recall, Hanks acts the part of a boy, who, having been granted his wish to be all grown up, suddenly inhabits the body of an adult. But still a child, he behaves as one. Fortunately, the worst thing Hankss character does is to behave so adorably that a grown woman falls for him.

Now imagine that the boy hadnt been a sweet child but was a spoiled brat and a bully. What sort of child-inhabited man might Hanks have been then? Kim Jong Un, North Koreas tantrum-throwing nuke-slinger, comes to mind.

So does Trump, not that Im comparing the two, but you get the gist. Of all the carefully examined flaws in Trumps persona, the most concerning and potentially dangerous is his immaturity.

Like a child used to getting his way, he shouts, pokes, bullies, berates, pouts and parades. And thanks to him, the GOPs big tent has become a tough-kids idea of a party  peopled with hot dames, swindlers, gamblers, bosses, bouncers and thugs  and some, I assume, are good people.

At least now, Ronald Reagan can finally get some rest. The Republican Party has left him.

Read more from Kathleen Parkers archive, follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook.
THE INTERNET has enabled billions of people to share opinions freely, providing personal communication as never before. But it also is a hunting ground for tyrants who cannot tolerate freedom of expression. Dictators have long sought to silence dissidents and journalists, and now they muzzle anyone who tweets or posts what they regard as an affront. Todays road to repression runs through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Take the case of Merve Buyuksarac, who was Miss Turkey in 2006. On May 31, she was handed a 14-month suspended prison sentence for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan through a poem she shared on Instagram referring to a high-level corruption scandal. Insulting the president is a crime punishable by up to four years in jail in Turkey, a law rarely used until Mr. Erdogan was elected president in 2014. Prosecutors have opened more than 1,800 cases against people for insulting him.

Or consider Andrei Bubeyev of Russia, sentenced to two years and three months in prison on May 6 for calling for acts of extremism and actions undermining Russias territorial integrity. He had shared on VKontakte, a Russian social media platform, a picture of a toothpaste tube with the caption, Squeeze Russia out of yourself! and a post by a controversial blogger with the headline Crimea is Ukraine. He was prosecuted under a law signed by President Vladimir Putin in 2014 making it a criminal offense, punishable by up to five years in prison, to call for anyone to destroy Russias territorial integrity, including Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine. Mr. Bubeyevs wife said he had only 12 friends on VKontakte and could not have coerced anyone to destroy anything. According to the Associated Press, at least 54 people were sent to prison in Russia for hate speech last year, most of them for sharing and posting things online, nearly five times as many as five years ago.

Maung Saungkha, a poet in Burma, wrote in a Facebook post in October that he had a tattoo of the countrys president on his penis. On May 24, he was found guilty of defamation and sentenced to a six-month jail term, and released for time served. He actually didnt have such a tattoo, he said, but suggesting it in an off-color poem apparently about Thein Sein  president until the end of March  was enough to bring the wrath of the state to his door. Equally absurd were charges brought in Thailand against a factory worker, Thanakorn Siripaiboon, for spreading Facebook images and comments that were deemed to mock the kings dog. Thailand, where insulting the monarchy is a crime, is entering its third year under a military dictatorship. The precise insult to the royal dog was not disclosed.

For a long time, it was assumed that the digital age would be a powerful accelerant to free speech, but these and many other examples show it can go in both directions. Its no longer acceptable to take for granted that the Internet will be a force for freedom. Democracies and the innovative companies that gave rise to the digital revolution  and anyone else who cares about liberty and unfettered expression  must work to keep the Internet free and not a graveyard of dissent.
ITS BEEN said that Washington is where good ideas go to die. We dont know about that, but some bad ideas are certainly hard to get rid of.

Consider the persistent non-solution to the zombie-like status of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac known as recap and release. The plan is to return the two mortgage-finance giants to their pre-financial-crisis status as privately owned but government-sponsored enterprises. That is to say, to recreate the private-gain, public-risk conflict that helped sink them in the first place. Their income would recapitalize the entities, rather than be funneled to the treasury, as is currently the case. Then they could exit the regulatory control known as conservatorship that has constrained them since 2008  and resume bundling home loans and selling them, as if it had never been necessary to bail them out to the tune of $187 billion in the first place.

Congress last year effectively barred recap and release, at least for the next two years. Coupled with the Obama administrations firm opposition, youd think that would put a stake through its heart. But no is not an acceptable answer for the handful of Wall Street hedge funds that scooped up Fannie and Freddies beaten-down common stock for pennies a share after the bailout  and would realize a massive windfall if the government suddenly decided to let shareholders have access to company profits again.

With megabillions on the line, the hedge funds have been arguing high-mindedly that their true concerns are property rights and the rule of law; they have also made common cause with certain low-income-housing advocates who see a resurrected Fan-Fred as a potential source of funds for their programs. Left unexplained, because its inexplicable, is how the hedge funds arguments square with the fact that there wouldnt even be a pair of corporate carcasses to fight over but for the massive infusion of taxpayer dollars and the public risk that represented.

The latest iteration of recap and release is a hedge-fund-backed bill sponsored by Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), which would set Fannie and Freddie, unreformed, loose on the marketplace again and do so under terms wildly favorable to the hedge funds. Specifically, shareholders would be charged nothing for the government backing the entities would retain, supposedly to save scarce resources for the capital cushion. But as the Wall Street Journal recently noted, capital could be risk-weighted so forgivingly that the actual cushion required might be considerably less than headline numbers suggest. Its true, as the bills backers say, that this could be tweaked in committee, but that would still mean expending precious political time and energy on resurrecting the old, failed business model.

This bad ideas undeadness illustrates the risks inherent in perpetuating the institutional limbo around the U.S. housing finance system, which is, unfortunately, what Congress and the administration have done so far. Fundamental reform would be a good idea, but you already know what happens to that.
The complete independence of the courts of justice is peculiarly essential in a limited Constitution.

 Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 78

Somewhere, Hamilton  West Indian, not Mexican  is weeping over Donald Trump and his alarming, ignorant conception of the role of the judiciary.

The latest, scariest manifestation of Trumps attitude involves his now doubled-down attack on the federal judge  Indiana-born, but Mexican for Trumps repellent purposes  hearing the Trump University cases.

U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater, in Trumps view, a total disgrace, because he has allowed the class-action fraud lawsuit to proceed and, most recently, had the gall to unseal documents detailing Trump Universitys operations.

In Trumps universe  governed by the rule of self-interest, not the rule of law  Curiels actions can be explained only by his ethnicity: Mexican, which is great, but also, Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, an absolute conflict of interest because Im building a wall.

The racism infecting Trumps assessment  in a Trump presidency, under this cynical assessment, no Hispanic judge could rule on any executive initiative  demands notice and rejection. But Trumps comments also highlight his disturbing attitude toward the role of the courts.

Reasonable people can differ over the feasibility of judges as neutral umpires, unburdened by ideology, dispassionately deducing the correct legal answer. Still, few would disagree that this conception represents the ideal to which most judges  liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat, Mexican and Polish  aspire.

This is, for Trump, unimaginable. His world is not one of guiding principles but of gut emotions. If you cross him, oppose him, criticize him, you are a nasty guy or a dummy or a loser, whether you are a reporter or governor or federal judge with lifetime tenure. Trump uses his megaphone to seek to intimidate you as you do your job.

For Trump, litigation is deal-making by other means. The courts exist to hear his lawsuits, bless his bankruptcies, help crush his enemies. He sues willy-nilly, to intimidate critics (defamation suits are a specialty) and gain economic advantage. A USA Today analysis found that Trump and his businesses have been involved in an astonishing 3,500 legal actions in federal and state courts over the past 30 years.

Trump does not settle, or so he claims, because that would signal weakness. When he is losing, or faces the prospect of losing, that is because the legal system  just as the Republican nominating process  is somehow rigged against him.

I am getting railroaded by a legal system . . . and frankly, they should be ashamed, he complained of the Trump University lawsuits. Imagine  and shudder  a sitting president crusading like that against a court decision that failed to go his way. President Obamas in-the-justices-face criticism of the Citizens United ruling pales by comparison. Trump views judges as just another target for his bullying, like corporate executives who ship jobs overseas or the PGA tour.

For a businessman with such extensive court experience, not to mention a sister who is a federal appeals court judge, Trump demonstrates shocking ignorance. Hes been criticizing my sister for signing a certain bill, Trump said of Ted Cruz at a February debate. You know who else signed that bill? Justice Samuel Alito . . . signed that bill.

Bill, opinion, whatever. Actually, Alito didnt sign that bill. He filed a separate concurrence on partial-birth abortion.

Ignorance is one thing; disdaining the role of the courts and indicating willingness to misuse them is quite another.

The disdain was illustrated by Trumps half-cocked, scarcely vetted list of potential Supreme Court nominees. Selecting justices is one of a presidents weightiest decisions, but Trump seemed to give this one less attention than what marble to use in a hotel. Meantime, Trump put these judges in the uncomfortable position of seeming to audition for the job in future rulings.

As to the misuse, listen to Trump on Thursday, about how he would proceed against Hillary Clinton if elected. Hillary Clinton has to go to jail. Shes guilty as hell, Trump said. Five years statute of limitations, if I win. Now, everything is going to be fair but Im sure the attorney general will take a very good look at it.

So much for presumption of innocence, or the notion that the White House should not use prosecutorial power to go after its enemies. Hell have a White House counsel, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told radio host Hugh Hewitt.

To listen to Trump is to understand: This is scant assurance.

Read more from Ruth Marcuss archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook.
THERE IS only one acceptable response to Thursdays violent outburst outside a San Jose Donald Trump rally: unreserved condemnation. Anti-Trump demonstrators chased peaceful Trump supporters, threw eggs, jumped on cars and even hit people leaving the campaign event. John Podesta, Hillary Clintons campaign chairman, quickly and rightly repudiated the episode, tweeting, Violence against supporters of any candidate has no place in this election. Unfortunately, others had trouble leaving it at that.

The violence was not, as some left-leaning politicians and commentators have argued, contextualized and therefore somewhat justified by Mr. Trumps near-constant racial provocations. Nor was it the reflection of some new illiberalism on the left, as some right-leaning observers have claimed. They pointed the finger at out-of-control PC culture  as if there were no such thing as political riots before the invention of trigger warnings.

No, this was nothing more than run-of-the-mill thuggery. Journalists on the ground reported that some of it may have been the work of gang members or self-proclaimed anarchists. Some of it was undoubtedly perpetrated by people who were simply very angry at Mr. Trump but who, unlike nearly all Americans disgusted with the presumptive GOP nominee, were unable to control themselves.

Even some of those who criticized the protesters got the ethics of the situation wrong, stressing that anti-Trump violence is politically counterproductive. To be sure, the protesters diverted attention from the awful things Mr. Trump himself has said over the past several days. The candidate will now accuse his opponents of intimidation for the rest of the election season, ginning up support among those sympathetic to his message and encouraging a violent backlash against the protesters.

However, these arguments miss a more fundamental point: In a free society, political violence is inherently wrong.

Even if you think Mr. Trump is a threat, the United States is not Nazi Germany. It is a country with a functioning liberal order guaranteeing basic civil protections. It is a democracy with institutions that check the power of each branch of government and allow for extreme differences in political views to be expressed through an orderly, representative process that demands compromise. In this context, argument, activism and organization are the legitimate tools of political action. Violence is not and cannot be.
Hillary Clinton is seen aboard the campaign bus in Cleveland on the third day of a bus tour through Pennsylvania and Ohio.

July 31, 2016 Hillary Clinton is seen aboard the campaign bus in Cleveland on the third day of a bus tour through Pennsylvania and Ohio. Melina Mara/The Washington Post

The former secretary of state, senator and first lady is the Democratic nominee for president.

The former secretary of state visits key states in her quest to become the Democratic nominee for president.

The former secretary of state visits key states in her quest to become the Democratic nominee for president.

Hillary Clinton is widely expected to clinch the Democratic nomination on Tuesday, when voters in six states, including New Jersey and California, go the polls.

But could it happen even sooner?

It may be far-fetched, but two lesser-watched contests this weekend, in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, could put Clinton over the top  if she wins very lopsided victories over Bernie Sanders and picks up the remaining superdelegates from the two territories along the way.

Clinton needs 70 more delegates to reach the threshold of 2,383, after which she and much of the news media will consider her the Democratic Partys presumptive nominee.

There are seven unpledged delegates at stake in Saturdays caucuses in the U.S. Virgin Islands and an additional 60 up for grabs Sunday in the primary in Puerto Rico. There are also three superdelegates from the two territories who have yet to announce their support for Clinton or Sanders.

In other words, exactly the number she needs to clinch the nomination.

Speaking of superdelegates  the Democratic elected officials and other party insiders whose votes for the nomination are not tied to their states results  there are still more than 125 elsewhere who have not come out for either candidate. They could do so at any time, including this weekend, if theyre so inclined.

So mathematically, at least, its possible that Clinton could clinch by Sunday night.

Sanders, it should be noted, says such calculations are premature because he thinks the votes of superdelegates shouldnt be counted until they are cast at the Democratic convention in July. In a last-ditch bid to win the nomination, he is trying to persuade scores of superdelegates who support Clinton to swing his way.

So how likely is it that Clinton could dominate in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico?

She is favored to win in both places, but in order to shut out Sanders in the delegate count, she would need to keep him from reaching 15 percent support in both contests. Both campaigns say they dont think thats likely.

The senator will pick up delegates this weekend in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said. He campaigned in San Juan and has taken a leadership role in blocking a bill in Congress that would treat the island like a colony.

View Graphic Tracking the race to the Democratic nomination

Theres not much polling to speak of in either territory.

Sanders made a campaign trip to Puerto Rico last month and has been airing television ads there.

But the Clintons are far more familiar figures to Puerto Ricans  as former president Bill Clinton reminded them frequently last month on a day that saw him making six stops there, from the northern coast of the island to the southern one.

He recalled that his wife has been a presence in Puerto Rico since she was first lady doing hurricane relief in 1998, that she sided with the commonwealth in its campaign to get the Navy to discontinue its use of the island of Vieques as a bombing range, and that when she was a senator from New York, many of her constituents were Puerto Rican.

But the most important thing is, what are we going to do tomorrow? How can we make tomorrow better than today? Bill Clinton said at a rally in Cayey, in the central part of the island. If you make her the president, it will not end there. She will be your friend from her first day in office until she leaves.

Clinton won Puerto Rico against then-Sen. Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary  claiming nearly 68 percent of the vote  and she has outperformed Sanders this year among Hispanic voters. She has the endorsement of the territorys governor, Alejandro Garcia Padilla.

The politics of a pending bailout of the cash-strapped island could also factor into the primary results.

Sanders said this past week that he plans to introduce his own bill dealing with the Puerto Rico debt crisis after having slammed one supported by Obama and House leaders that Sanders said would make a terrible situation even worse.

The House bill has drawn criticism from some other quarters as well.

Clinton has expressed concerns but said she wants to see the bill move forward to stop Puerto Ricos problems from worsening.

Neither campaign has invested heavily in the Virgin Islands. Bill Clinton campaigned there, but his wife did not. Neither Sanders nor his wife, Jane, made an appearance, although the Sanders campaign has aired a radio ad.

Despite her expectation that she will clinch the nomination on Tuesday, Clinton has been campaigning hard in advance of the California primary in hopes of avoiding what could be an embarrassing loss to Sanders as the nomination fight wraps up.

She told an enthusiastic crowd Friday in Culver City, Calif., that if all goes well, she would emerge Tuesday as the first woman to be selected as a major-party standard-bearer.

Clinton is expected to reach the 2,383-delegate threshold after the polls close in New Jersey  three hours ahead of California.

Karen Tumulty contributed to this report.
Torn campaign signs litter the ground behind a police skirmish line on June 2 during a protest near where Donald Trump held a rally in San Jose, Calif. (JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Donald Trump, whose campaign for president has crashed through one barrier after another, has again moved his candidacy into highly questionable territory, threatening to stir more racial animosity in an already divided country and putting at risk his partys relationship with the nations fastest-growing minority group.

Over the past week, Trump has repeatedly cited the Mexican heritage of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing a lawsuit brought by former students of Trump University alleging fraud against the institution. Trump accused Curiel of a conflict of interest in hearing the case because, according to his reasoning, the judges Mexican heritage puts him at odds with Trumps proposal to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.

When challenged to explain why he believed the judge was biased, Trump said, among other things, Hes a Mexican.

Curiel is an American, born in 1953 in Indiana to parents who were Mexican immigrants. The judge has not publicly expressed an opinion about Trumps proposed wall.

Politicians and others across the ideological spectrum have rebuked Trump in the past for dog whistle politics, or worse. In this case, the condemnations have been swift and cutting, as Republican leaders scramble to protect their party against charges that their presumptive presidential nominee is engaging in a racist attack against a sitting judge.

The campaign of the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, is sparking a surge in the number of citizenship applications and voter registrations among Hispanics fearful of his immigration policies. Since January, California alone has seen a boost of 218 percent in Democratic registration and among Hispanics, registration is up 123 percent. (Alice Li/The Washington Post)

I dont know what Trumps reasoning was, and I dont care, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who has been supportive of Trump, said in an email. His description of the judge in terms of his parentage is completely unacceptable.

Throughout the campaign, Trump has seemed immune from the typical effects of this kind of rhetoric and behavior. He has repeatedly survived, even thrived, after making controversial statements, whether attacking former president George W. Bush as a liar who took the country to war in Iraq under false pretenses or claiming that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a prisoner in the Vietnam War who was tortured repeatedly, was not a hero because he had been shot down and captured.

Those are just two of a number of instances in which Trump has insulted politicians, private citizens or entire groups of people. Based on the record, it is premature to draw conclusions about how his attacks on Curiel will affect him politically. But they have prompted deepening concern among others in the Republican Party that he is pursuing a strategy  if it actually is a strategy  with worrisome longer-term consequences for the country and the GOP.

The 2016 presidential campaign is playing out against a backdrop of heightened racial, ethnic and cultural tensions. Violence at Trump rallies, which flared again Thursday in San Jose, has sometimes pitted angry anti-Trump demonstrators, many of them Hispanics, against the candidates equally passionate, predominantly white supporters. At one time or another, each side has been responsible for inciting the violence that ensued.

One issue that has inflamed the national debate is police shootings of unarmed African Americans and the relationship between police departments and the black community. Another is the question of how the country should deal with threats of domestic terrorism from Islamic radicals and whether there should be new restrictions on those seeking entry into the United States from countries in the Middle East.

Trumps candidacy has been fueled by anger over illegal immigration and by rhetoric that began with the opening days of his candidacy, when he said many of those coming to the United States from Mexico illegally were rapists, . . . murderers and criminals. Later, after the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., Trump called for a ban on all Muslims seeking to enter the country until the federal government could put in place a more effective system for background screening.

In this latest instance, Trump vehemently denied a charge from Hillary Clinton that he had launched a racist attack against the judge. But his behavior was enough to prompt some of the most prominent members of his party to call him out.

1 of 19 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  In photos, disruptions and protests during the Trump campaign View Photos Protesters and supporters of Donald Trump clash during his campaign. Caption Protesters and supporters of Donald Trump clash during his campaign. June 2, 2016 A woman wearing a Trump shirt is pelted with eggs by protesters while pinned against a door near where the candidate was holding a rally in San Jose, Calif. Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images Wait 1 second to continue.

On Friday, just one day after announcing his support for Trump, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) denounced the New York billionaire during an interview with WISN radio in Wisconsin. He said Trumps accusations against the judge had come completely out of left field, adding, Its reasoning I dont relate to. I completely disagree with the thinking behind that.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) criticized Trump for an earlier attack on New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, and expressed his concern that Trumps language and behavior could permanently alienate Hispanics from the Republican Party in much the same way that 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwaters opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 helped turn African Americans into the most loyal voting block in the Democratic coalition.

Gingrich issued a warning to the presumptive GOP nominee to stop freelancing and begin listening to advisers and others about how to run his general-election campaign. If Trump doesnt start consulting and coordinating with his allies, he will not have any, Gingrich wrote in the email.

Bruce Buchanan, a professor of government at the University of Texas, emailed: There is a long history of race-based unhappiness with court decisions (e.g. George Wallaces tirades against desegregation orders). But Trumps rhetoric amounts to a uniquely personal attack on a federal judge that signals a decidedly un-presidential disrespect for the legal process. This cannot help his candidacy.

John Weaver, who served as chief strategist to the unsuccessful presidential campaign of Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), said in an email, Trumps unwarranted and unhinged attacks on a fine American public servant are echoes from this nations demagogic past. . . . There is no stopping him from being our nominee, sadly, but this type of racially charged rhetoric will ensure he is adrift and alone before he is defeated in November.

There have been other episodes in which Trump has veered into the controversy over issues involving race. Last winter, ahead of a crucial round of Southern primary contests, he refused, in an interview on CNN, to denounce former Ku Klux Klan leader and one-time Louisiana politician David Duke or to disavow any expressions of support from Duke or white supremacist organizations.

Trumps hesitation to speak out forcefully in that interview prompted a parade of Republican elected officials to publicly criticize him in an effort to insulate the party from any fallout. Trump defended himself, pointing to an earlier statement disavowing Dukes support, but he could not explain satisfactorily why he had not repeated that disavowal during the CNN interview.

When he was exploring a possible 2012 presidential campaign, Trump raised the issue of whether President Obama was born in the United States, a discredited charge that nonetheless was accepted as true by a fifth of the population nationally and by a somewhat higher percentage of Republicans.

Asked in 2013 whether he believed he had carried the birther issue too far, Trump said in an interview with ABCs Jonathan Karl, I dont think I went overboard. Actually, I think it made me very popular. . . . I do think I know what Im doing.

In his race this year, Trump repeatedly raised the issue of whether Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) was ineligible to serve as president because he had been born in Canada to a Cuban-born father and American mother.

Trump has brushed aside criticism that he could so alienate Hispanic voters that he would have no chance of winning in November. He has boasted throughout the campaign that he will do far better among Hispanics and African Americans than current polling suggests and better than Mitt Romney did with those voters four years ago.

Exit polls showed that Romney got 27 percent of the Latino vote and 6 percent among African Americans. Current polling shows Trump getting anywhere from 10 or 12 percent of the Hispanic vote to about 30 percent.

This is hardly the first time Trump has found himself the target of criticism for crude and insensitive language. Campaigning Friday in California, he pointed at one person in the audience and said, Look at my African American over here.

Early in the campaign, he was taken to task for retweeting from his official Twitter account a racially tinged comment about Jeb Bushs wife, Columba, who was born in Mexico. The original tweet said, #JebBush has to like the Mexican Illegals because of his wife. Trump said he had not personally done the retweeting. The retweet was soon removed from Trumps feed.

The unfolding case of Trump challenging Curiel began at a rally a week ago when he delivered a lengthy commentary about the Trump University case. He called Curiel a hater of Donald Trump and also said that the judge happens to be, we believe, Mexican. On Thursday, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he charged that Curiel should not be handling the case because of obvious bias. Im building a wall, Trump said. Its an absolute conflict of interest.

On Friday, Trump was pressed repeatedly by CNNs Jake Tapper to explain the link between the fact that Curiels parents were Mexican immigrants and the judges ability to handle the case involving Trump University. Ive been treated very unfairly by this judge, Trump said. Now, this judge is of Mexican heritage. Im building a wall, okay? Im building a wall.

Trump continued to spar with Tapper, who eventually said, If you are saying he cant do his job because of his race, is that not the definition of racism? Trump replied, No, I dont think so at all.

The question and the response were reminders that Trump continues to go where no major-party nominee in recent history has gone.
Its been almost five weeks since Donald Trumps victory in Indiana made him the presumptive Republican nominee.

Heres whats happened since: Hes wasted time, proved to be a sore winner and veered sharply off message. Hes put a higher premium on settling scores than finding a script that will appeal to a wider, general-election audience. Will it cost him?

Trump no doubt takes comfort in national polls that show a close contest against Hillary Clinton. Over the past month, her lead has shrunk dramatically. Bernie Sanders runs better against Trump than she does, although the senator from Vermont has no easy way of becoming the Democratic nominee. Trump, who consumes polls like candy, must like what he sees, but he should still be asking how he gets to an electoral college majority.

For Trump, this could have been a time for magnanimity and for beginning to show that he wants to reach beyond the loyal and passionate base of supporters that sustained him through the primaries. The electorate in the general election will be different and decidedly more diverse than the one that made him the GOP standard-bearer. So far, hes shown no willingness to acknowledge that.

Trump cant seem to let go of any perceived slight or grievance. He cant accept the idea of winning graciously. He still feels disrespected, by fellow Republicans and especially the media. He feels he hasnt gotten all the credit he deserves. He thinks that even some of his losses during the nomination battle were worthy of more praise than he got at the time.

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)

Every nominee goes through bad stretches. Its in the nature of the business. Clinton has had hers and will have more. But its hard to think of any previous presumptive nominee who has suffered through such a rocky period in the weeks after claiming the nomination. In the aftermath of a remarkable achievement, he has seemed as angry as ever and at times off stride.

Over the past five weeks, Trump has come under ever-closer scrutiny, as is customary for the nominee of a major political party. Close inspection of past decisions, actions and records is part of the process of helping voters understand who might become the next president. Trump has recoiled at what is normal and necessary.

[Trump attacks media over veterans fundraising questions]

The run of stories about Trump has been unrelenting, raising questions about his business acumen, which hit especially close to home for someone who has been celebrated as the embodiment of success. One article described him as a celebrity businessman who posed secretly as his own PR agent. Another revealed that the candidate who refuses to release his tax returns paid no taxes years ago, according to a 1981 New Jersey gambling regulatory report.

Trump also was hit with tough questions, many from The Washington Posts David A. Fahrenthold, about whether he had lived up to his claim of raising $6 million for veterans at an event in Iowa this past January. It turned out that one missing million-dollar donation was his own. Pressed on the fundraising pledge to veterans, he held a news conference to provide details and then used most of the time to vilify the media.

Newly released documents from a lawsuit alleging fraud by Trump University raised other troubling questions about the practices of officials at that institution. Trump insists he will win that suit. But he opened a new avenue of attacks by going after the Mexican heritage of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is based in San Diego and is overseeing the case.

Under fire for doing so, he ramped up his attacks, first in an interview with the Wall Street Journal and then in another with CNNs Jake Tapper. He accused Curiel, who was born in the United States, of bias against him because, he said, the judges heritage conflicts with Trumps proposal to build a wall on the Mexican border. He rejected assertions that what he was doing was the very definition of racism.

View Graphic Many in the GOP were wary of Trump. Theyre coming around.

As he has engaged in these battles, he has begun to feel the full force of the Clinton campaign and its allies. On Thursday, Clinton delivered what was billed as a major foreign policy address. It was actually a purely political attack against Trump, albeit one effectively crafted and delivered for maximum impact.

He and his supporters believe that Clinton has gotten a free pass in comparison to the scrutiny hes now receiving. Clinton has drawn considerable scrutiny over the course of her campaign, with some questions still to be addressed. She has been the focus of a series of damaging stories in the media about her private email server, has been criticized by a State Department inspector generals report, and is still under FBI investigation. Trump has reached his own verdict. Clinton, he said, has to go to jail.

[Democrats fear violence at Trump rallies will help him]

Trump has had success in bringing more and more Republican elected officials to his side, if not exactly uniting the party. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) finally said Thursday that he would vote for Trump in November. Then on Friday, Ryan had to disavow what Trump had said about Curiel. He said he would continue to take issue with Trump as necessary but added that he hopes that wont be often. The evidence suggests otherwise.

Trump cant resist airing his frustration with those still outside the tent. He needlessly attacked New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R), who admittedly has not said good things about him. Now hes done a 180-degree turn, telling the Santa Fe New Mexican that he wants her support and has always respected her.

Trump has allowed himself to become mired in these petty battles rather than pivoting to a general-election message and strategy. Hes spent needless time in California ahead of the states Tuesday primary, which will have no bearing on the GOP nomination, rather than concentrating on swing states he must convert in order to be competitive in the electoral college.

He claims he will put California in play in November. California hasnt voted for a Republican presidential nominee since 1988. In the past six elections, Republicans have lost California by 13, 13, 12, 10, 24 and 23 points.

The latest Field Poll shows him losing California to Clinton by 19 points and to Sanders by 29 points. Yet the most significant thing Trump has done campaigning in the state is to attack Curiel, risking further backlash from a Hispanic community whose power in elections continues to rise.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said several times in recent days that he worries that Trump could do to Hispanics what Barry Goldwaters 1964 campaign did to African Americans. Goldwaters opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 turned African Americans into the most solid bloc of voters in the Democratic coalition.

Everyone says its early, that the general election is still months away, that Clinton cant even shake off Sanders, that Democrats could have a tumultuous convention, that fear of Clinton will unify all Republicans and that will be enough to win. Maybe. What if the period between now and the conventions turns out to be the decisive phase in shaping and defining the choice for November? If thats the case, Trump has done little to help himself in the first weeks of that competition.
The Posts Hugh Naylor reports from the front lines of the fight to remove the Islamic State from the Iraqi city of Fallujah. The assault is being led by the military, police and elite counterterrorism forces, but powerful Shiite militias are eager to be involved, as well. (Hugh Naylor/The Washington Post)

The Posts Hugh Naylor reports from the front lines of the fight to remove the Islamic State from the Iraqi city of Fallujah. The assault is being led by the military, police and elite counterterrorism forces, but powerful Shiite militias are eager to be involved, as well. (Hugh Naylor/The Washington Post)

Only a few days ago, the Islamic State ruled this verdant Iraqi farmland. By Saturday, the area was firmly controlled by powerful Shiite militias, which delivered swift blows to the Sunni extremists and severed their supply lines to nearby Fallujah.

Iraqs government has ordered the militiamen to stay away from the battle to drive the Islamic State out of Fallujah, fearing further sectarian unrest from their presence inside the Sunni stronghold.

The assault on the city  a key test in the U.S.-supported campaign to oust the Islamic State from Iraq  is being led by the military, police and elite counterterrorism forces. But their progress has slowed, and Shiite militia leaders on the outskirts here, such as Hadi al-Amiri, appear antsy.

He wants to send in the Iranian-backed fighters of his Badr Organization, which he commands.

No one can stop us from going there, Amiri said Saturday at a commandeered farmhouse about a mile west of Fallujah.

Such a move into Fallujah could cause serious problems. In early 2014, the Islamic State easily took control of the city by exploiting the anger of its residents against the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad.

And Sunni leaders from the area, in Iraqs western Anbar province, have expressed extreme discomfort with the presence of the militias. Human rights groups have accused Shiite militiamen of brutal treatment of Sunnis suspected of ties to the Islamic State.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has vowed to address Sunni grievances, which include allegations of neglect and discrimination by authorities. And the Iraqi military has ordered most of the militias  formally called the popular mobilization units  to keep out of Fallujah. The units are mostly Shiite groups, some of them backed by Iran, but they also include smaller outfits of Sunnis, Christians and other religions.

But soldiers and police say they have struggled to fight their way into Fallujah. The Islamic State has used the estimated 50,000 or more civilians still trapped there in dire conditions as human shields, and a sudden advance could inflict many casualties.

In this battle, Daesh has really focused on using human shields as a tactic because we have adapted to their other tactics, said Maj. Gen. Thamir Ismael, the area commander for the SWAT police force. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, also known as ISIL and ISIS.

Amiris men have momentum, though, and they appear eager to join the assault on the city. In an interview, the 61-year-old Amiri gave a 10-day deadline for civilians to leave Fallujah. Then the militiamen, along with pro-government tribal militants, federal police and soldiers, would prepare to storm it, he said.

Right now, the only thing that is stopping us from going there are civilians, he said.

Wearing a hat and khaki pants, he directed operations against the few pockets of Islamic State fighters still left in the Fallujah suburb of Saqlawiyah. His fighters and Iraqi police watched in deference as he ordered a bulldozer to drive ahead of fighters to protect them from possible Islamic State suicide bombers.

Hurry up so we can finish our job here, he said over a two-way radio.

As he spoke, the thuds of exploding artillery and the cackle of machine-gun fire could be heard in the background. Militiamen, unfazed by the sounds of war around them, took smoke breaks and feasted on rice and lamb.

In nearby fields, the fighters fired mortars and Katyusha rockets at Saqlawiyah, where an unknown number of civilians are thought to be residing. Dozens of families fled the area on Saturday. Officials in the area planned to house them in a nearby camp for displaced people.

Amiris tough statements underscore the strength that the militias have in Iraq. And Amiri has become one of the most powerful men in that country.

After the military collapsed during the Islamic State offensive in June 2014, the militias stepped in, blunting the extremist groups advance. As a result, many Iraqis view them as heroes.

But their rising power has alarmed many others in Iraq and officials in the United States, who fear that they have undermined Abadis authority. U.S. coalition aircraft refuse to provide air cover for militias such as Amiris. They limit airstrikes to operations that involve Iraqi soldiers and counterterror forces.

At the moment, Amiris fighters appear to have little need for U.S air cover. Scores of vehicles rumbled down dirt roads that the Badr fighters and other militiamen cleared in recent days, sometimes using hand-to-hand combat.

Despite facing intense resistance, including snipers and suicide attacks, they rapidly drove Islamic State militants out of areas west of Fallujah. The attack cut the city off from Saqlawiyah, depriving the Islamic State of supplies of food, water and weapons.

They used tunnels to mount surprise attacks on us, said a media relations officer with the Badr Organization as he drove through what had until recently been a battlefield.

He pointed to burned-out tanks and several destroyed farmhouses, which Islamic State militants had rigged with explosives. The roofs of those buildings had neatly pancaked atop the rubble.

It took time to clear these areas, but we have gained much experience and we are moving fast.

Mustafa Salim contributed to this report.

Read more

In fighting ISIS, Iraqs Shiite militias could ignite a sectarian mess

U.S. commander warns that Iraqi forces may face resistance in key urban fight

Operation to retake Fallujah has begun, Iraqi prime minister says

Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Thomas E. Schaefer, second from left, in 1980 with other U.S. hostages in Iran. From left, William Belk, Donald Hohman and John Craves. (AP/AP)

Thomas E. Schaefer, a retired Air Force colonel who was the ranking military officer among the 52 Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 days before being released in 1981, died May 31 at a hospice in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 85.

The cause was congestive heart failure, said his son David Schaefer.

Col. Schaefer was a military attache at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran when militants seized the compound on Nov. 4, 1979, and 66 people were taken hostage.

From the first day of the takeover, Col. Schaefer was singled out for special attention. As the ranking U.S. military officer in the embassy, he was accused of running a nest of spies.

His captors paraded him blindfolded in front of television cameras and repeatedly threatened to put him on trial and execute him.

Thomas E. Schaefer, who was a hostage in Iran for 444 days from 1979 to 1981, in 2013. (Brian Skoloff/AP)

He spent 150 days in solitary confinement and began his captivity by enduring 14 days of relentless interrogation in a cold prison cell with damp floors and only a thin blanket for warmth.

I could see my breath the entire time, Col. Schaefer said in a 2004 interview. They were breaking me down both physically and mentally. I could feel myself losing it.

He said he used a pin each day to punch a code into his Bible to get through the hostage ordeal.

Col. Schaefer was among the last hostages released on Jan. 20, 1981. Just before the aircraft bringing the hostages home entered U.S. airspace, the co-pilot invited Col. Schaefer to take his seat in the cockpit.

Col. Schaefer retired from the Air Force less than two years later and was a professional speaker for decades. His family said he spoke to more than 250,000 students and adults about facing adversity.

Really, he was a positive guy, David Schaefer said Friday. He tried to educate and help people deal with really bad situations in their lives.

In 1998, Col. Schaefer said the United States should reestablish relations with Iran for strategic reasons. But in 2013 he denounced as foolishness the Iran nuclear deal, then under discussion, saying he didnt know of any Iranian leaders who could be trusted.

Born in Rochester, N.Y., Col. Schaefer was a bomber pilot for the Air Force  first flying B-47s and then B-52s before he switched to administrative positions.

In retirement, he and his wife lived in Arizona for the past 30 years, first in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria and then in Scottsdale since 2013.

Survivors include his wife of 63 years, Anita; two sons; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Indiana rapper Freddie Gibbs was arrested in Toulouse, France, Thursday (June 2) in connection to an alleged rape that took place in Austria in 2015.

Gibbs, whose real name is Fredrick Tipton, was taken into custody before a scheduled concert at Le Rex in Toulouse, French news outlet La Depeche reports. Gibbs' representatives have denied the allegations.

"Freddie Gibbs adamantly denies the allegations that have been levied against by Austrian authorities," his lawyer Scott Leemon wrote statement obtained by Billboard. "It makes you wonder why it took almost a year for Austrian officials to bring these charges."

Gibbs reportedly stood before a judge in France on Friday and plans to fight extradition to Austria. "Freddie will be fighting the extradition request as these are nothing more than trumped up charges," Leemon said.

The rapper is still scheduled to perform in London, France, Portugal and Toronto in the coming days, according to his website.
From Delish

The donut is a classic American confection that's transformed into a foodie favorite. Gone are the days when basic glazed donuts reigned supreme-with places like Dough, Doughnut Plant and Montclair Bread Co. cranking out crazy rounds in irresistible flavors like Tres Leches and Peanut Butter and Jelly, there's always something new happening in the donut sphere. Here, we take a moment to look back on how the treat first came to be, and other surprising things you might not have known-until now.

1.They were originally called "oily cakes."

Fried dough was introduced to New York back when the area was known as New Amsterdam and Dutch was the predominant language. The early Americans took the fact that the treats were fried in oil quite literally, naming them olykoeks, translating to "oily cakes." The word 'donut' came soon after when a woman is said to have put nuts in the dough before frying it. Today's biggest debate is whether the word is spelled 'donut' or 'doughnut.' Which one is technically correct? No one really knows!

2. A sailor invented the modern day shape.

As the story goes, a New England woman named Elizabeth Gregory fried some dough to send with her son for his voyage at sea during the 19th century. Elizabeth was the one who fried the dough with nuts, leading to the name 'donut,' but her son was the one who put a hole in the center, giving us the classic donut shape. The young sailor is said to have skewered the donut through one of the spokes on the ship's wheel to hold the donut while using both hands to steer the ship.

3. The modern-day donut has ties to World War I.

We owe our addiction to donuts to a Russian man named Adolph Levitt, the inventor of the donut machine. The contraption launched donut production from local bakeries to mass production facilities, leading to a boom in donut popularity and sales. The Salvation Army caught wind of the trend and decided to use donuts as a part of their promotion to honor soldiers fighting in World War I. "Donut lassies" fried up the treats and served them to members of the U.S. military in France and Germany.

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4. Krispy Kreme was the first national chain.

Vernon Rudolph bought the secret recipe for the Krispy Kreme donut from a frenchmen in New Orleans and brought back the recipe to North Carolina where Krispy Kreme Donuts was born. The cult-classic donut shop first opened its doors on July 13, 1937 in Winston-Salem and has been booming in business ever since. The company recently celebrated 75 years in 2012 and its 1,000th store in 2015!

5. Americans are donut crazy.

Over 10 billion donuts are made in the US every year, and 17 million of those are produced at one single donut chain! (Lamar's Donuts, in case you're curious.)

6. They can get pretty pricey.

The most expensive donut in the world was made by Krispy Kreme and sold for more than $1,000. The 23-carat, gold-dusted donut was filled with Dom Perignon Champagne jelly, sprinkled with 24-carat gold leaf and edible diamonds. Now that's one rich dessert.

7. And they can be quite the mouthful.

The biggest donut ever made was an American-style jelly donut, weighing in at 1.7 tons and measuring 1 foot tall.

8. They're great for getting into character.

Renee Zellweger ate 20 donuts every day to gain weight for her role in Bridget Jones' Diary, according to the Daily Mail. She claims, "one doughnut doesn't do a thing. You've got to eat 20 a day for five weeks before you get results." Where do we sign up?

9. You can burn one off with a bike ride.

Half an hour of vigorous biking burns an average of 200 calories-the equivalent on one glazed donut. Does it count if we eat as we peddle?

10. You can get them for free!

Chains across the country offer promotions throughout the year, but National Donut Day is time time to get your fix without dropping a dime. Check out our roundup of National Donut Day deals to find out where you can get a free donut to celebrate!

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From House Beautiful

Whether you're booking a flight for a spontaneous summer adventure or you're jetting across several states for a family wedding, there's no denying it: Airfare is expensive. But if you follow these strategies, you might save yourself a few bucks ... ones that you can spend on your trip instead of en route.

1. Sign up for airfare price alerts.

Major travel search engines, like Expedia and Travelocity, allow you to sign up for alerts so you are notified when prices drop. If you're flexible, you can even select a range of dates to find the best deal possible. It's almost too easy, right?

2. Book your flights 47 days out.

According to CheapAir, that's when domestic tickets are at their cheapest. And since this research is based on numbers crunched from five million flights, we believe 'em.

3. Clear your browser's cookies.

Apparently, refreshing your browser to see if your flight price drops doesn't work - it might actually make the price go up! Min-Jee Hwang of Wiser, a firm that analyzes pricing strategies, told Thrillist that airline websites use browser cookies to track your search habits. To avoid this, clear your search history and your cookies before booking, or go incognito.

4. Choose two different airlines.

It takes a little research, but sometimes booking two one-way tickets will cost less than a round-trip. Plus, it might make scoring better departure times easier. Some online booking engines mix-and-match already, but by doing a quick scan of each airline's site on your own, you could end up scoring the very best deal.

5. Fly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Generally, these are the least expensive travel days for domestic flights - with Friday and Sunday being the most expensive. On average, the difference can be up to $58 round trip. So if you're flexible, you can save enough money to treat yourself to a fancy lobster dinner once you arrive at your destination.

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6. Use a travel agent.

Apparently, these professionals have access to special rates that we normal folk do not. To make sure you're not duped, do your own research first, then see if they can match or beat your findings.

7. Break up family purchases.

Since airlines limit the number of seats per flight they sell at the lowest rate, you might end up pricing yourself out of the deal if you try to book too many people at one time. But don't worry: You can still fly together. Just check what a solo ticket costs compared to the full group rate. If it's way lower, buy seats in smaller groups on the same flight.

8. Follow your flight afterwards.

Who knew most American airlines let you claim a refund if the price of your flight drops? Jeff Pecor, communications director at Yapta.com, an airfare tracking service, told Fly.com: "Not many people know the policy even exists - nor do they bother to check the price of their ticket after purchasing it." To track this, enter your flight into Yapta after booking your trip.

9. Use the 24-hour refund policy.

In the fine print on most airline tickets, you'll see that you can cancel your flight up to 24 hours after booking it - after that, you're out of luck. During that fleeting time, keep an eye on prices. If they drop, act fast if you want to save without penalty.

10. Change your departure on the day-of.

Doesn't it drive you crazy that the most affordable flights are always the most inconvenient? If you're feeling risky, go ahead and book the cheaper option if you're flying JetBlue or American. They charge lower fees for same-day changes, so if there are still seats on the better flight you can make the switch.
Niamey (AFP) - Thirty-two troops have been killed in a clash with Boko Haram fighters on Niger's border with Nigeria, Niger's defence ministry said on Saturday, one of deadliest tolls inflicted by the jihadists.

In neighbouring Nigeria, the army meanwhile said it had killed 19 Boko Haram militants in separate fighting in northeast Borno state, while two soldiers suffered gunshot wounds.

In the Niger fighting, "hundreds of assailants" attacked a military post in the town of Bosso on Friday evening, the defence ministry said in a statement that gave a "provisional toll" of 30 Nigerien and two Nigerian soldiers killed and 67 wounded.

"On the enemy's side, several dead and injured were taken away," the ministry said.

"Boko Haram elements effectively took control of the town temporarily, but now they were dislodged," a security source said.

Local resident and former MP Elhaj Aboubacar said: "They drove up at twilight, shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Great), they fired a lot of shots and torched many places in Bosso."

"We don't know where our military went, but one thing is for sure, Boko Haram were able to do what they liked until dawn," Aboubacar said.

"The situation is under control and calm has returned," the defence ministry said, adding that a "mopping up" operation was underway by land and air.

- 19 Boko Haram fighters killed -

Since February 2015, Niger has been plagued by Boko Haram attacks in its southeast region.

The Islamists frequently stage cross-border raids from their stronghold in neighbouring Nigeria.

Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency has devastated infrastructure in Nigeria's impoverished northeast region and forced around 2.1 million people in Nigeria to flee their homes, according to the UN's refugee agency.

The unrest has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless.

In the latest clashes there 19 Boko Haram militants were killed in Borno, according to the military.

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Acting upon an intelligence report on the presence of Boko Haram fighters in the militants' Chukungudu camp, Nigerian troops and civilian JTF (joint task force) members launched the attack on Friday.

"During the encounter at the camp, the troops killed 19 Boko Haram terrorists including their notorious leader in the area, called Ameer Abubakar Gana," the army said in a statement.

The two soldiers who suffered gunshot wounds were said to be responding to treatment.

The troops destroyed an improvised explosive devices (IED) making factory, detonated four primed IEDs, recovered two anti-aircraft guns and other weapons and vehicles.

There was no independent confirmation of the army statement.

The latest clashes came as a multinational force from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon prepared to launch a major offensive on Boko Haram around Lake Chad.

Nigeria has struggled to acquire military hardware for troops fighting Boko Haram, with Western governments reluctant to provide weapons partly because of its army's human rights record.

- ECOWAS and jihadist threat -

In the Senegalese capital of Dakar, a summit of the 15-nation regional grouping ECOWAS -- the Economic Community of West African States -- spelt out its determination to aid states fighting the jihadist threat.

Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad and Ivory Coast have also seen bloody attacks.

"The multiplication of numerous terrorist hotbeds in our region compels us to share information on their activities, to communicate, co-ordinate and harmonise our efforts," said the new president of the ECOWAS commission, Benin's Marcel Alain de Souza.

"This naturally makes us think harder about the creation of a regional intervention force against terrorism," he said in remarks released by the Senegalese news agency APS.

"The threat of terrorism remains a source of concern for our sub-region," said Senegalese President Macky Sall, current ECOWAS chairman.

"We must at the same time remove any confusion in the terminology: there is no Islamic state in west Africa that has the same terrorist aims of Boko Haram. Islam has nothing to do with terrorism and its murderous insanity."
From Cosmopolitan

Firearm deaths in the United States are almost as common as death in car accidents, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, and every day five women are murdered by guns. U.S. women are 11 times more likely to be victims of homicide by gun than women who live in other developed countries, and in states that require background checks, 38 percent fewer women are shot to death by intimate partners. Meanwhile, presumptive Republican party presidential nominee Donald Trump says he is eager to see gun access expanded.

Trump, whose campaign was recently endorsed by the National Rifle Association, is making gun rights a center point of his 2016 White House run. But how much of what he's saying about guns is actually true? Not much.

1. Likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton will abolish the Second Amendment and then there will be no guns for anyone. "Crooked HillaryClinton is the most anti-gun, anti-Second-Amendment candidate ever to run for office," Trump told the NRA during their national conference. "And as I said before she wants to abolish the Second Amendment. She wants to take your guns away."

That's a statement that FactCheck.org considers a far cry from Clinton's actual policy position. "Clinton has a gun violence prevention proposal on her website, which would deny gun owners from buying certain guns and block or delay the ability of some to purchase guns. But it does not call for taking any guns away," the fact-checking website reported in response to Trump's accusations. After detailing her proposal, they summarized, "Trump may choose not to believe what Clinton says, but the fact is there is no evidence that Clinton wants to 'take your guns away' or 'abolish the Second Amendment.' She hasn't said that, and her gun proposals would not do that."

2. More guns would protect us from terrorist attacks. The November 13, 2015, terrorist attack in Paris, France, left more than 100 people dead and hundreds more wounded, but according to Trump, the number could have been much lower if only more Parisians had been armed themselves. "Voicing his support for the Second Amendment, Trump argued that the recent massacre in Paris would have 'would have played out differently with the bullets flying in the other direction,'" a North Carolina news outlet reported during a local March Trump campaign appearance. "'Paris has some of the toughest gun laws in the world, folks,' he said. 'We have a mental health problem and we have to solve the mental health problem, but we need to protect the Second Amendment.'"

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In reality, armed citizens attempting to take down active shooters is more likely to increase  not decrease  violence. "There is also little evidence that more guns - especially in the possession of regular citizens - would do much to change the outcome when gun-bearing terrorists, bombs strapped to their chests, barrel through concert halls, sporting events, restaurants, and other public spaces," the Washington Post reported. "In the United States, where the National Rifle Association has capitalized on an uptick in mass shootings to argue for putting guns in the hands of as many people as possible, most evidence suggests just the opposite: armed citizens either don't try to stop shooters, or fail when they do. Guns have also been shown to lead to more violence. And they're rarely used in self-defense."

3. Expanding background checks wouldn't impact gun violence. According to Trump, "Every time a person buys a gun from a federally licensed gun dealer  which is the overwhelming majority of all gun purchases  they go through a federal background check. Study after study has shown that very few criminals are stupid enough to try and pass a background check  they get their guns from friends/family members or by stealing them." Everytown for Gun Safety, an anti-gun violence policy group that has endorsed Clinton for president, disagrees.

The organization states that guns are bought online, at gun shows, or through other private sellers all fall into a "loophole" that allows those who would fail a check to still access a weapon, and in states where there are background checks on every sale, there are fewer instances of gun violence. "The single most important thing we can do to reduce gun violence is to require a criminal background check for every gun sale," they write. "Eighteen states and Washington, D.C., already do this for all handgun sales. In these states, 46 percent fewer women are shot to death by their partners, 48 percent fewer on-duty police officers are shot and killed, 48 percent fewer people commit suicide with guns, and there is 48 percent less gun trafficking."

4. Schools would be safer if everyone  including teachers  could carry. During an early Vermont campaign stop Trump promised voters that if he were elected president, the very first day he was in office the first thing he would do is repeal gun free zones, even around schools. "I will get rid of gun-free zones on schools, and - you have to - and on military bases," Trump said. "My first day, it gets signed, okay? My first day. There's no more gun-free zones." Trump calls gun-free zones "targets for sickos and for the mentally ill," arguing that allowing guns would stop those potential shooters from choosing them. When asked if he meant teachers should have guns in their classrooms, his answer was a resounding "in some cases."

Eliminating gun-free zones won't keep anyone safer, though, because school shooters pick them for other reasons, and often have no illusions that they will survive the attack. "Proponents of this argument also ignore that the majority of mass shootings are murder-suicides," explains Mother Jones, which did an extensive study on mass shootings in 2013. "Thirty-six of the killers we studied took their own lives at or near the crime scene, while seven others died in police shootouts they had no hope of surviving (a.k.a. 'suicide by cop'). These were not people whose priority was identifying the safest place to attack."

5. Gun restrictions actually increase violence in cities. When asked to prove that gun control is a bad idea, Trump points to the high crime rates in cities that do in fact have gun control laws on the books already. "You look at Chicago," Trump said on ABC's This Week. "It's got the toughest gun laws in the United States. You look at other places where they have gun laws that are very tough, they do generally speaking worse than anybody else."

But researchers told Bloomberg Politics that the issue wasn't that Chicago bans guns. Instead, it was the fact that so many surrounding communities outside Illinois didn't do the same, allowing criminals to access weapons nearby and bring them into the city, including gang members getting guns through unregulated channels. "I think that it's more likely that if Chicago did not have tough gun laws they would have higher rates of gun violence than they do have," Philip Cook, a Duke professor and economist working with the University of Chicago Crime Lab, told the news outlet.

6. Trump sincerely believes everything he is saying about the unlimited right to bear arms. Perhaps the biggest lie Trump is telling on the campaign trail is how much he supports gun rights in the first place. While he may now be cozying up to the NRA and declaring there should never be any restriction on what type of gun a person can carry, what sort of bullets are loaded into it, and what buildings, schools, or military areas these weapons can be carried at, his positions were far different in 2000.

According to Buzzfeed, Trump wrote in his book, The America We Deserve that his stance on guns was one of reasonable restrictions. "I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons and I also support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun. With today's internet technology we should be able to tell within 72 hours if a potential gun owner has a record," he wrote. He also told Larry King in an interview that, "Look, there's nothing I like better than nobody has them, but that's not going to happen, Larry. So, as long as that's not going to happen, I say you have to be allowed to have a gun."

Follow Robin on Twitter.
Bernie Sanders at a campaign rally on May 28, 2016, in Santa Maria, Calif. (Photo: Mark J. Terrill/AP)

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wont be getting to the Greek during his presidential campaigns final swing through California.

Sanders was scheduled to hold a Saturday concert at Los Angeles famed Greek Theater, but on the day before the event, his campaign sent an email to supporters saying they were forced to change venues. The Sanders campaigns email attributed the switch to intervention from a local politician.

Unfortunately, after reaching terms with the professional staff at the Greek to host our rally, interference from a local Los Angeles City Council member forced us to move from this iconic venue, the email said.

The council member was not named in the message, but a Sanders campaign source said it was David Ryu, a Democrat whose district includes the theater. Ryu is a supporter of Sanders Democratic primary rival, Hillary Clinton. In the email announcing the venue change, the Sanders campaign noted that Clinton had scheduled an identical event at the Greek Theater next week and no objection has been raised.

Sanders Saturday evening event will now be held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. His get-out-the-vote rally is set to feature performances by Ozomatli, Mark Foster, Best Coast, and Local Natives. Clinton is holding a star-studded Monday concert at the Greek Theater with Christina Aguilera, Andra Day, John Legend, Ricky Martin and Stevie Wonder scheduled to perform.

Both candidates are currently barnstorming California ahead of the Tuesday primary. Polls show a tight race in the delegate-rich state, but even if Sanders wins the Golden State, Clinton holds a dominating position in the primary.

Estevan Montemayor, a spokesman for Ryu, said the Sanders campaigns claim about the councilman is inaccurate, in a conversation with Yahoo News.

The Greek Theater is operated by the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks and managed by a company called SMG. Montemayor said the councilman found out about the planned Sanders event on Thursday evening and stepped in because they had deep concerns about potential crowds.

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As the council office, overall, we oversee everything thats in our district, Montemayor said, adding, We were made aware of this in the last 24 hours, and we asked if there was a traffic mitigation plan and a ticketing system. We were told no, and we had deep concerns. Sen. Sanders has proved he draws thousands of people.

Though Ryu did step in, Montemayor said he made the same requests of the Sanders campaign and the Clinton team.

The campaigns portrayal is an inaccurate depiction of the last 24 hours. Any person, group or organization that chooses to have an event at the Greek Theater needs to follow the same guidelines, Montemayor said. We asked them to work with L.A. city staff to work on a traffic mitigation plan and a ticketing system. This is the same request that was made of the Clinton campaign, nothing more nothing less.

Montemayor claimed that the Sanders campaign came to the city 24 hours in advance while the Clinton campaign came to us weeks in advance. He said city staff waited for hours to get details on traffic mitigation and ticketing plans from the Sanders campaign. Instead, Montemayor said, Sanders team simply responded that it would choose a different venue.

Sanders and his team have made several accusations of bias against Democratic Party leadership and officials during the primary. Sanders has cast Clinton, a former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state, as the establishments candidate. Last Tuesday, after California Gov. Jerry Brown endorsed Clinton, Sanders described the governors endorsement as evidence of the opposition he faces from party leaders.

I will tell you that in every state that we have gone into, we have taken on the entire Democratic establishment, Sanders said. Its not surprising to me that, you know, we will have the Democratic establishment supporting Hillary Clinton.
(FORT HOOD, Texas)  Nine Fort Hood soldiers who died when a rain-swollen creek swept their vehicle into rushing waters were in the right place for their intended training, according to the U.S. Army.

Yet the tragedy is prompting multiple investigations into the circumstances of the deaths and how the military may handle risky training conditions in the future.

The lead Army agency on safety and occupational health dispatched a team to Fort Hood on Friday to investigate the circumstances of the Thursday training exercise on the sprawling Army base.

In this case, we see that there can be something learned in the way of future prevention, said Michael Negard, spokesman for the Armys Combat Readiness Center.

The center has previously produced reports with recommendations on how soldiers should approach inclement weather. However, Negard would not immediately release them and would not elaborate on whether the Army followed proper protocol when it continued with the training exercise, which turned deadly after days of heavy rain flooded a creek that Army officials said is not prone to flooding.

Speaking Friday in Singapore, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter expressed condolences to the families of those killed at Fort Hood as well as a pilot who died Thursday when his Blue Angels fighter jet crashed near Nashville, Tennessee. He said once investigations into those deaths are complete the military will take actions designed to prevent such incidents.

The Combat Readiness Centers experts will examine the scene of the Fort Hood accident, collecting evidence on environmental, human and material factors and interviewing survivors and others involved with the fatal training. They will then compile a report and send it to the commanding unit. After 90 days, the report becomes public record.

The agencys investigation may take at least several months. Last November four soldiers at Fort Hood were killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash during a routine training exercise, an incident the agency is still investigating. It is common for investigations to take between six and nine months, Negard said.

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Fort Hood spokesman Tyler Broadway said that 12 Fort Hood soldiers were on Thursdays convoy training exercise on a dirt road parallel to a paved road that the base had closed because of the risk of flooding. A rush of water overturned the 2-ton Light Medium Tactical Vehicle. Two bodies were found in the vehicle and three others were found downstream from it hours later. The last four missing soldiers were found dead downstream Friday, said Maj. Gen. John Uberti, deputy Fort Hood commander.

Three others pulled from the water were released Friday from Fort Hoods hospital, Uberti said at a Friday evening briefing.

Broadway said the decision of whether to conduct training in dangerous conditions is left to the commanders discretion.

The Army added a policy to its safety training manual in 2013 for providing water survival training, dictating that commanders identify weak swimmers and provide water survival techniques. But it wasnt immediately clear whether the policy was followed in Thursdays training exercise.

Broadway did not respond to questions about whether the soldiers were wearing vests or packs that may have weighed them down.

The dirt road near Owl Creek was not known to have been overrun with water before, according to Fort Hood spokesman Chris Haug, who added that the soldiers regularly pass through weather conditions like this.

Personnel from the Armys Criminal Investigation Division, the lead investigators of deaths on military installations, are also reviewing the Fort Hood deaths, although spokesman Christopher Grey said there is no evidence yet of criminal activity.

The military is inherently dangerous business and training incidents do happen, Grey said.
Abandoned asylums in Europe An abandoned asylum in Italy. (Roman Robroek/Caters News)

A fearless photographer has shot a haunting series that is not for the fainthearted a visiting a number of abandoned asylums. Roman Robroeks images include decaying buildings, which still feature elements of the past a such as treatment chairs, prayer rooms, mailboxes and sleeping quarters.

Visiting such locations comes with an air of sadness for Robroek, and occasionally he gets the feeling he simply should not be in a certain room in the asylum and decides to leave. Based in the Netherlands, Robroek has visited the likes of Italy, Germany and Poland to shoot asylums.

The photographer a who also visits abandoned castles, churches, factories and theaters, among other buildings a revealed asylums are one of his favorite locations to shoot. (Caters News)

Photography by Roman Robroek

Find more news-related photo galleries on the Yahoo News Photo Tumblr!
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Indian conglomerate Adani Enterprise Ltd may walk away from its proposal to build one of the world's biggest coal mines in Australia, citing long delays caused by legal challenges to the project by groups concerned about the environment.

Adani is battling multiple legal challenges from green groups opposed to its $10-billion Carmichael mine, rail and port project.

The Australian on Saturday reported that the company's founder and chairman, Gautam Adani had told the newspaper the company may abandon the project because of long delays due to legal challenges.

"You can't continue just holding. I have been really disappointed that things have got too delayed," Adani told The Australian.

Australia's Queensland state government in April gave Adani permission to mine coal reserves estimated at 11 billion tonnes and to build roads, workshops, power lines and pipelines associated with the mine.

Environmentalists, however, are still fighting the approval on numerous fronts, including lobbying banks not to provide loans. They cite potential damage from port dredging, shipping and climate change stoked by coal from the mine.

Environmental groups in late April asked the Supreme Court of Queensland to review the state government's environmental approval of the mine.

With coal prices stuck near nine-year lows and demand growth uncertain as governments have committed to curb carbon emissions, analysts have said lenders will be reluctant to back Adani's mega coal project.

Adani, which aims to start building the Carmichael mine in 2017, expects to be able to go ahead eventually as most of the coal is slated to go to its own power stations in India.

(Reporting by Jarni Blakkarly; Editing by Tom Hogue)
(Adds more comments from Swiss CEO)

ZURICH, June 4 (Reuters) - Airline Swiss, part of Lufthansa , has decided to upgrade another five of its Bombardier CS100 jets on order to the larger variant and will likely do the same for another five, the carrier's CEO said on Saturday.

Swiss, the launch customer for the new plane, had placed a firm order for 30 CS100 jets and last year already converted 10 of those to the larger CS300 variant.

Saturday's announcement means Swiss now has 15 CS300 jets on order. With 10 fixed as the CS100 variant, it can still decide to upgrade the final five in the order.

"There are certain routes and markets for the larger version ... especially for Geneva and Zurich routes," Thomas Kluehr, chief executive of Swiss, said at a Star Alliance airlines event in Zurich.

Kluehr said Swiss would decide "relatively soon" whether to upgrade the other five. That would give Swiss 10 125-seater CS100s and 20 145-seater CS300s.

Bombardier flew executives from the Star Alliance member airlines to the event in Zurich on a CS100 plane, stepping up efforts to win new customers.

Kluehr declined to comment on prices paid, saying only that the original contract allowed for an upgrade on the size of the jets.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
Amber Heard's defamation lawsuit against comedian Doug Stanhope includes a litany of shocking accusations against Depp and his publicity team.



In the court filing obtained by PEOPLE, she claims that Stanhope and other unnamed defendants "orchestrated a plot to write an article, which was published at TheWrap.com, which falsely accuses plaintiff Amber Heard of 'blackmail' and other criminal behavior towards her husband, Johnny Depp, from whom she is seeking a divorce."



The actress calls the claims "completely false and defamatory" and says that they have caused her "tremendous harm."



In a statement to PEOPLE, Heard says she plans to donate all of the proceeds of the lawsuit to a domestic violence charity in Arizona  the state where Stanhope resides and where the documents were filed.







The following are the three biggest bombshells Heard alleges in her lawsuit:





Johnny's Alleged Cycle of Abuse



The court documents give a detailed account of Depp's allegedly violent behavior, which Heard claims was fueled by drugs and alcohol.



"During the course of his relationship with Heard, Depp has repeatedly been physically and verbally abusive towards her," the documents read.



"Depp has hit and kicked Heard on numerous occasions, has thrown objects at her, at one point nearly suffocated her to the point where she feared for her life.





She Says Depp Is 'An Alcoholic and Drug Addict'



"Depp is an alcoholic and drug addict, and these violent episodes occurred mostly after Depp had relapsed into a cycle of substance abuse. His drug and alcohol abuse has increased dramatically in recent years, as has his violent behavior."





Amber Heard Says Johnny Depp 'Nearly Suffocated' Her  Plus More Bombshells from Her Court Filing| Couples, Divorced, Movie News, Amber Heard, Johnny Depp





She Says She Loved Him and Repeatedly Tried to Save the Relationship



Throughout their relationship, Heard claims she left Depp due to his alleged problems with violence and addiction on numerous occasions, only to return in hope of salvaging the relationship.



"Heard repeatedly returned to Depp, despite his verbal and physical mistreatment of her, hoping optimistically that the man she married would change his behavior," the documents state. "Each time Heard returned, however, within months, the cycle of substance abuse and violence repeated."



Later, the documents reiterate her commitment to working things out. "[Heard] gave him numerous chances to change his behavior, and end the cycle of alcoholism, drug abuse, and physical and verbal abuse of her," the document states. "Yet Depp would not and has not changed his behavior, precipitating Heard to file for divorce and seek a restraining order."





A 'Coordinated, Malicious' Publicity Campaign



Heard alleges that since she filed for divorce, Depp has gone to great lengths to publicly discredit her. In the documents, she claims that a "publicity tour" coordinated by Depp and "his powerful representatives" have spread numerous false statements about her to the press.



"As a result of this coordinated, malicious campaign, a number of news organizations have repeated these false statements, disparaging Heard and harming her public reputation and career."



She goes on to claim that Depp's team, including Stanhope, knew that the information they disseminated was false, and "did not care, because their only concern was helping Depp by trashing the reputation of his wife, who loved Depp, even though she had been repeatedly physically and verbally abused by him."



In court documents responding to Heard's initial court filing for a temporary restraining order, Depp's attorney, Laura Wasser, alleged that Heard "is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse."
Amber Heard has filed a lawsuit against Doug Stanhope over a guest column that the comic published on TheWrap on May 29, in which Stanhope said that Heard was blackmailing her estranged husband Johnny Depp.

Heards attorney later told TheWrap that the blackmailing claim was unequivocally false.

The suit, alleging defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and interference with business relationships, was filed Friday in an Arizona state court.

Also Read: Amber Heard Lawsuit Claims 'Drug Addict' Johnny Depp Tried to Suffocate Her

Heard filed for divorce from Depp, to whom she had been married for 15 months, on May 23, citing irreconcilable differences.

On May 27, she was granted a restraining order against Depp, whom she alleged had been physically abusive toward her.

Stanhopes May 29 column followed. The comic, a longtime friend of Depps, disputed Heards allegations and claimed that Heard had threatened to lie about [Depp] publicly in any and every possible duplicitous way if he didnt agree to her terms. Blackmail is what I would imagine other people might put it, including the manner in which he is now being vilified.

Also Read: Johnny Depp Is Being Blackmailed by Amber Heard - Here's How I Know (Guest Column)

Heards lawsuit against Stanhope says, The allegations about Heard in the article are completely false and defamatory, and have caused and will continue to cause her tremendous harm. Defendants engaged in this scheme to try to divert public attention away from the true facts regarding Depp which caused their marriage to fail, namely, that Depp repeatedly abused Heard throughout their marriage, at times to the point of her fearing for her life.

Related stories from TheWrap:

Amber Heard Lawsuit Claims 'Drug Addict' Johnny Depp Tried to Suffocate Her

Amber Heard Could Get $10 Million in Johnny Depp Divorce, Expert Says

Johnny Depp Is Being Blackmailed by Amber Heard  Here's How I Know (Guest Column)
Amber Heard filed a defamation lawsuit against comedian Doug Stanhope on Friday in Arizona, ET has learned.

The Magic Mike XXL actress alleges that Stanhope accused her of blackmailing her estranged husband, Johnny Depp, in a "completely false and defamatory" guest column, titled "Johnny Depp Is Being Blackmailed by Amber Heard -- Here's How I Know," which was published on TheWrap.com on May 29.

WATCH: Johnny Depp & Amber Heard: A Timeline of Their Relationship, Divorce and Domestic Abuse Allegations

According to court documents obtained by ET, Heard, 30, claims that Stanhope "orchestrated a plot to write an article, which was published at TheWrap.com, which falsely accuses plaintiff Amber Heard of 'blackmail' and other criminal behavior towards her husband, Johnny Depp, from whom she is seeking a divorce."

In the papers, Heard adds that the allegations in the article "have caused and will continue to cause her tremendous harm."

Following news of the lawsuit, Charles J. Harder, Heard's lawyer, released the following statement to ET:

"Amber Heard filed a lawsuit today in the Arizona Superior Court for the County of Cochise. The defendant is Doug Stanhope, a resident of that county. The Complaint alleges that Stanhope is a close friend of Johnny Depp and, as part of a coordinated effort, wrote a highly defamatory article about Ms. Heard, filled with completely false, highly defamatory and very hurtful statements."

"Ms. Heard seeks the maximum possible jury award, and will donate 100% of the proceeds from the lawsuit to Chrysalis, a domestic violence shelter in Arizona, in an effort to counter the setback made to women by the defendants' defamatory article and related wrongful acts."

WATCH: Judge Grants Amber Heard Temporary Restraining Order Against Johnny Depp

On May 27, less than a week after filing for divorce from the 52-year-old actor, Heard was granted a temporary restraining order by a Los Angeles judge against Depp, alleging he had been abusive to her over the course of their one-year marriage.

Story continues

The new court filing details another incident in which Heard alleges Depp "hit and kicked" her.

"During the course of his relationship with Heard, Depp has repeatedly been physically and verbally abusive towards her. Depp has hit and kicked Heard on numerous occasions, has thrown objects at her, at one point suffocated her to the point where she feared for her life," the documents claim. "Depp is an alcoholic and drug addict, and these violent episodes occurred mostly after Depp had relapsed into a cycle of substance abuse. His drug and alcohol abuse has increased dramatically in recent years, as has his violent behavior."

WATCH: New Photos of Amber Heard Detail Another Alleged 'Violent' Incident With Johnny Depp

Heard also accuses 20 other unnamed defendants -- referred to as "DOES 1-20"-- for defaming her by "repeatedly making false public allegations about Heard to the press, accusing her of being manipulative, a blackmailer, and blaming her for the breakup of the marriage."

"After the May 2016 domestic violence incident," the documents continue, "Depp commenced a publicity tour for his new film, and his representatives contacted numerous members of the press to discredit Heard and subvert her truthful allegations."

Heard claims the "publicity tour" was "coordinated by Depp and his powerful representatives, who surreptitiously disseminated numerous false statements" about her, damaging both her reputation and career.

ET has reached out to Stanhope and Depp for comment.

WATCH: Amber Heard's Texts From 2014 Detail Alleged Assault by Johnny Depp

Earlier this week, ET exclusively obtained never-before-seen text messages that a source says are between Heard and a man purported to be Depp's assistant, Stephen Deuters. The text messages, which a source says are from May 2014, detail alleged assault by Depp.

ET was not able to independently verify the recipients of the messages or whether they had been edited, and Deuters and Depp declined to comment to ET. Deuters later said the texts were "heavily doctored," according to TMZ, and denied Depp had assaulted Heard. Watch the video below to hear more.

Related Articles
Cook and Kalanick

Calling Uber a Silicon Valley unicorn is passe. Uber is a $62.5 billion monster that's threatening to take down a nervous tech market.

The latest news is that Uber last week accepted a $3.5 billion investment from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.

That means Uber now has $11 billion to fuel its growth. But what's conspicuously lacking from that assumed growth is some type of exit strategy for Uber's earlier investors.

Will there ever be an IPO? Not anytime soon, if CEO Travis Kalanick has his way.

There is another option of course: acquisition.

Conservatively, Uber's acquisition value would be something like $80 billion. That's a big bite. Tesla has a market cap of about $30 billion. General Motors is $46 billion. Ford is $52 billion.

None of those companies, nor many others, have enough cash to acquire Uber outright.

But one company that does is Apple.

Apple has more than $200 billion in cash and marketable securities. And while not all of it is immediately accessible without a huge tax hit, Apple could also use its stock to buy Uber.

So why would Apple want to buy Uber?

Apple is way behind on transforming transportation

Maybe Apple is building a car; maybe it isn't. But Apple is definitely doing something on the mobility front. Unfortunately, it's only a provider of a small piece of software to car companies: Apple CarPlay. CarPlay is excellent  I've only become a bigger fan as I've used it in various cars  but Apple has to want more.

Uber proposes to redefine mobility along the "de-ownership" model. Who needs a car when you can hail a ride using your iPhone? Others are jumping into this new space, including traditional automakers, such as GM and VW. Apple also lags behind Google on the self-driving front. And of course Tesla has been building cars for years now.

Apple just invested $1 billion in a Chinese competitor to Uber, Didi Chuxing, so the company is clearly interested in getting in on this action.

Story continues

But buying Uber would allow it to catch up rapidly  and not incidentally, have a huge customer and user base for the Apple Car, if and when it arrives.

CarPlay 1

Stabilize the unicorn economy

Is Uber in trouble?

Not all signs are good. The company is burning through money at an alarming rate and relying on apparently insatiable funders to keep it going. It's not having an easy go of it in Europe, its US rivals are hooking up with big carmakers  GM invested $500 million in Lyft  and it's anybody's guess how it will fare in China.

Uber is the most impressive Silicon Valley startup since Facebook, but unlike Facebook, Uber operates in the rough-and-tumble real world of human drivers, passengers, unions, unfriendly governments, and machines that can kill people.

Uber's recent Saudi raise reminds me of a completely amped-up, unicornized version of Tesla, circa 2008. Tesla hadn't yet gone public, but it had captivated the world. However, it was rapidly running out of money. It secured additional investment and received a loan from the US government, but it also sold chunks of itself to Toyota and Daimler (both later sold their stakes for a tasty profit after Tesla's 2010 IPO).

We now know how desperate Tesla was. Bankruptcy was only a few weeks away in 2008, and only a new influx in investment at the end of December  Christmas Eve!  kept the lights on.

Uber doesn't seem desperate, but we do know that it's nowhere near making money. The goal is to get huge, to become utterly dominant around the world. But Uber is already dominant in the US, and that hasn't been enough.

If Uber runs out of investors, it will either have to withdraw from certain areas of business, like China, or take a big cut in its valuation. That could spark a flight from tech investments like we haven't seen since the recession of 2008.

Apple could become a Silicon Valley hero by making the Uber unicorn problem go away.

Uber

The investor of last resort

Does it make sense for users, who are Apple's most important constituents? Kind of.

The Uber experience is frequently an iPhone experience, so there's already an affinity. If Apple is building a car, and if ride hailing's destiny involves fleets of self-driving vehicles, then Apple-plus-Uber is a juggernaut.

From a business perspective, Apple is also groping for its Next Big Thing. The Apple Watch hasn't lit the world on fire yet. Rumored plans for a TV or TV service haven't taken shape in the form of a great service people can actually buy. The car plans are going to take a while to get there.

I'll admit that an $80 billion unicorn rescue strategy is pretty out there.

But the more money Uber inhales, the harder its fall could be. If the tech sector collapses as a result, the mothers of all chills sweeps through Silicon Valley. Sure, Apple is insulted. Sure, it might not care if the unicorns all die, as long as iPhone sales live on.

But an Uber doesn't come along every day. Or even every century. You could make the argument that it has done for transportation what Apple did for personal computing and, later, the smartphone revolution. If it survives, it could change everything. So Apple could buy that. Or it could fritter away its cash with smaller acquisitions here and there, or it could seek another moonshot product.

And then there's the notion that Apple is the godfather of Silicon Valley, with a higher purpose, one that goes beyond simply making money, and lots of it, every year.

So why not? You can save the unicorns, Apple. You can save all of them.

NOW WATCH: We tried the 'Uber-killer' that just landed a $300 million investment from Volkswagen





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BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine President Mauricio Macri was taken to hospital on Friday to be evaluated by doctors after he suffered a "mild arrhythmia", or irregular heartbeats, the government said. The 57-year-old, who took office in December, experienced the arrhythmia mid-afternoon, but "it did not prevent him from continuing work and keeping the agenda of planned activities," the president's office said in a statement late on Friday. After Macri concluded his schedule in the evening, his medical team recommended a check-up at the Olivos Clinic hospital in Buenos Aires. "Tests are concluded and it is verified that the arrhythmia has reverted. The president will stay a few more hours before returning home," the president's office said. An arrhythmia is the irregular beating of the heart. Some patients experience no symptoms, while others feel dizziness or chest pain. (Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Bill Rigby)
The Daily Beast

Kremlin via ReutersThe cracks in Vladimir Putins war machine appear to be growing as two of his biggest allies in the senseless slaughter of Ukrainians blast the countrys weak military.Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov went public with his complaints late Monday on Telegram, where he said he was very unhappy with the current state of the war.Earlier we used to say that we were conducting a special military operation on the territory of Ukraine, but the war is already happening on our territor
Australian fairy bread NEEDS to be a trend

Australian fairy bread NEEDS to be a trend

Our friends over at Pop Sugar have introduced us to the Australian food staple known as fairy bread, and we wants it  we wants it now!

The writers at Vices food blog Munchies describe this wonderful phenomenon perfectly: To the non-initiated i.e. the rest of the world, Fairy Bread is triangles of white bread covered with butter and topped with multi-coloured hundreds and thousandsthe Australian term for sprinkles.

Yes  thats right. Buttered bread with sprinkles. It doesnt get any better than that. Also hundreds and thousands? What a great phrase for sprinkles.

 fairy bread  #home #kids #fairybread #heart #sprinkles #100sand1000s #yummy #party A photo posted by Paper Daisy (@paper__daisy) on Jan 19, 2016 at 2:41pm PST

And it seems that people in Australia are still enjoying this tasty snack. Hugh Jackman has admitted that he still serves it to his daughter, and a quick search on YouTube finds a video of Russell Crowe enjoying fairy bread with Jimmy Fallon. Apparently, fairy bread is sort of a national treasure for Australia, one that is often enjoyed at childrens birthday parties.

Well, we may no longer be children, but we want to try this delicious treat! It just looks so darn tasty, regardless of the eaters age.

Champagne and fairy bread #classy #happybirthday @aliens_at_earth56789 #fairybread A photo posted by @nancy_on_ig on Jan 29, 2016 at 10:24pm PST

Breakfast of champions. #FairyBread : Activations Assistant @ajparker179 A photo posted by mamamiaaus (@mamamiaaus) on Mar 10, 2016 at 12:31pm PST

Made some#fairybread #hearts Throwback to childhood before my job interview School was but now I'm home Tackled #fearfood Of #bread marge and #sprinkles hopefully I'll crush it A photo posted by Lily (@wandering_lil) on May 29, 2016 at 10:12pm PDT

Lucky for us, there are plenty of recipes for fairy bread on the internet. Though, honestly, white bread + butter + rainbow sprinkles  how can you go wrong? What a perfect staple to add to tea parties, pity parties, days when you just want to watch Sleeping Beauty and feel like a princess, or just a Tuesday morning breakfast. Lets get on this one and get it trending so sprinkle-toast is the newest thing on the menu at any restaurant!

The post Australian fairy bread NEEDS to be a trend appeared first on HelloGiggles.
ZURICH, June 4 (Reuters) - South American airlines group Avianca's doors are open to any opportunities presented by interested partners to help it grow when economic conditions in its region improve, the head of Avianca Brasil said on Saturday.

Avianca said in a filing on Friday it was taking advice from investment banks after Reuters reported HNA, Delta Air Lines and United Continental Holdings were among parties interested in making an acquisition.

"This is a very capital-intensive business. We are going to be open for opportunities," said Jose Efromovich, chief executive of Avianca Brasil, at an event in Zurich hosted by the Star Alliance grouping of international airlines.

Avianca Holdings SA and Avianca Brasil are controlled by his brother German Efromovich's Synergy Group.

Jose Efromovich said Avianca Colombia was not necessarily for sale but that the door was open to everyone for the two airlines, whether airline partners or others.

"It's not like somebody knocked on the door, it is the opposite. We opened up the door, we are waiting, there is no hurry," he told reporters.

"We always want to see which are the alternatives when we decide to go back and grow, when the region will allow us to go back into growing mode," he said.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
Bill Clinton

Former US President Bill Clinton criticized Republicans on Friday for changing their tune on Hillary Clinton now that she's running for president.

During a Southern California campaign stop in support of his wife's 2016 run for the White House, Clinton acknowledged that there has been "road rage" during both the Democratic and Republican primaries, but he said Republicans have turned an especially cold shoulder to Hillary.

The former president slammed the GOP for attempting to brand the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee as the "wicked witch of the West"

Republicans "slobbered all over" Hillary while she was at the State Department, Clinton said to supporters gathered at an art venue in Santa Monica.

He knocked the GOP for its sharp rebukes of Hillary, likening the attacks to mudslinging and adding that "the problem with this kind of stuff is it works until it doesn't," he said.

Hillary Clinton's campaign has, at times, used her GOP rivals' own words to counter their criticism.

An online posting last year featured a picture of Donald Trump with a comment he made about Hillary in 2012.

"Hillary Clinton I think is a terrific woman ... I think she really works hard and I think she does a good job. I like her," the posting read.

Both Bill and Hillary made the rounds in Southern California on Friday, ahead of Tuesday's big primary in the state.

donald trump 1

The frontrunner sharpened her attacks on Trump in San Bernardino, accusing him of fundamentally misunderstanding the role of a US president.

"We are trying to elect a president, not a dictator," she said, according to Politico writer Gabriel Debenedetti.

That follows a bruising offensive Clinton aimed at Trump on Thursday during a foreign-policy speech in San Diego where she said putting the real-estate mogul in the White House would be a "historic mistake."

Story continues

The Clintons did not appear to acknowledge Hillary's Democratic primary challenger, Bernie Sanders, during their campaign stops, pushing instead for unity among Democrats, while also focusing on Trump, Hillary's likely general-election opponent.

The California primary, where Clinton and Sanders remain in a dead heat, kicks off Tuesday, June 7.

NOW WATCH: Donald Trump claims he never said these things  lets look at the footage





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john paul dejoria

In a recent interview with Joe Polish, creator of the Genius Network Internet Series, billionaire John Paul DeJoria revealed a curious statistic.

Since DeJoria cofounded John Paul Mitchell Systems nearly four decades ago, he said only 70 employees have left the company.

To be clear, we're not talking about an organization with tens of thousands of people  DeJoria said John Paul Mitchell Systems has 300 full-time and about 800 part-time workers. But 70 people in four decades is still pretty impressive.

At the end of the interview, which was highlighted by Ramit Sethi, DeJoria fielded a question from an audience member who wanted to know how he had achieved such low turnover. Here's how DeJoria responded:

I look for people in the position that is going to be filled that have a better skill than I could have in that, or have the ability to have that skill better than I could have, whether it's a receptionist or the president of my company. 

Whenever you have somebody that you're hiring or you're putting in a management position, make sure you train them or they have the ability to do what you do better than you. Now you're a leader.

Presumably, this hiring strategy makes it less likely that DeJoria will have to replace people  or that they'll get frustrated and leave.

That said, it's never easy to manage someone "smarter" or more skilled than you in some capacity.

If you're worried about it, The Harvard Business Review consulted a leadership expert who recommends talking to other managers who may have faced similar challenges. You may also want to talk to your boss about why he or she chose you for the leadership role, which can bolster your confidence in a moment of self-doubt.

You can listen to the full interview on Sethi's website.

NOW WATCH: This Billionaire's Definition Of Success Will Surprise You





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Moviegoers have plenty of thrills in store this summer, with blockbusters such as "Suicide Squad," "Independence Day: Resurgence," "Jason Bourne" and "The Legend of Tarzan" all set to land on the big screen.

Scheduled for release August 5, "Suicide Squad" is without a doubt the most eagerly awaited blockbuster heading to theaters over the next three months. Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie and Cara Delevingne are all set to star in this superhero movie. Based on the DC Comics antihero squad of the same name, the movie follows supervillains recruited by the US government to carry out dangerous black ops missions.

Currently hot property in Hollywood, the Australian actress, Margot Robbie, has a busy summer in store. Before landing on screens in "Suicide Squad," she'll be starring alongside Alexander Skarsgard ("True Blood") and Christoph Waltz ("Spectre") in "The Legend of Tarzan." This new adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs book is directed by David Yates -- who directed the four final "Harry Potter" films -- and is due out July 1.

Summer of sequels

Hot on the heels of 2015's "Jurassic World" and "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation," summer 2016 will see its share of blockbuster follow-ups. Twenty years after the original "Independence Day," aliens will once again be trying to invade Earth, June 24, in "Independence Day: Resurgence." But Will Smith won't be saving the planet this time around, leaving the job to new recruits Liam Hemsworth and Jessie Usher. Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman and Vivica A. Fox will, however, be back for this latest instalment, once again directed by Roland Emmerich.

After almost ten years since his last appearance as Jason Bourne, Matt Damon is to return to his role as the amnesiac American spy, July 29, for a fifth movie going by the title "Jason Bourne." The director of the second and third films, "The Bourne Supremacy" (2004) and "The Bourne Ultimatum" (2007), Paul Greengrass, has stepped back behind the camera to film Bourne's latest adventure, also starring Alicia Vikander, Tommy Lee Jones and Vincent Cassel.

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Plus, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto will be getting into character as Kirk and Spock for a third time in "Star Trek Beyond," out July 22.

Don't go in the water ...

Sony will be hoping to score success with a new shark movie, 40 years after Steven Spielberg's unforgettable "Jaws" landed in theaters. In "The Shallows," due out June 29, Blake Lively plays a young surfer who gets attacked by a shark. After becoming stranded on a rock, she has to overcome her injuries and find a way back to the shore without being attacked again.
By Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - When Nigel Farage rolls into town in a purple double-decker bus to campaign for Britain to leave the EU, the music blaring from the loudspeakers is from the classic World War Two movie "The Great Escape". "That's what we need, isn't it? A great escape from this European Union!" Farage told cheering supporters as his bus arrived at a recent campaign stop, a typical scene as he tours Britain ahead of its June 23 referendum on EU membership. Critics say it is outrageous to suggest a parallel between a tale of British and allied prisoners of war escaping from a Nazi camp and the prospect of the United Kingdom leaving the EU, but supporters of Farage's UK Independence Party love it. "This has to be the best campaign tour! The 'Great escape' theme :) what a brilliant choice. Makes you proud to be British!" wrote user @Mat_Griffin on Twitter. Memories of World War Two are central to many Britons' self-image as an indomitable island people. Historians say the contrast with fellow EU member nations which experienced fascist rule and foreign occupation is a main reason why Britain has struggled to find its place in the bloc. Talking about the war is a reliable way to tug at patriotic heartstrings, and both sides in the EU debate have been doing it. Prime Minister David Cameron, campaigning to keep Britain in the bloc, recounted in a speech last month that when he departs for EU summits from a Royal Air Force base, he passes a Spitfire, the fighter plane that helped to repel Adolf Hitler's Luftwaffe. "Like any Brit, my heart swells with pride at the sight of that aircraft," he said. Cameron went on to argue that it was not by choice that Britain stood alone against the Nazis in 1940, after the fall of France and before the United States entered the war, and that wartime leader Winston Churchill had never wanted isolation. "In the post-war period he argued passionately for Western Europe to come together ... so that our continent would never again see such bloodshed," Cameron said. CHURCHILL, HITLER AND THE EU Churchill's grandson Nicholas Soames, a member of parliament, has said Churchill would have voted "Remain". But the "Leave" camp argues that he did not want his country to be fully involved in European integration and would therefore have backed a British exit. "All of the evidence about Churchill's view on the matter says he wanted Britain to be a separate sponsor and friend to the developing union in Europe," said Julian Thompson, a retired major general who chairs pro-Brexit group Veterans for Britain. Treading into even trickier territory, "Leave" campaigner and former London mayor Boris Johnson argued that the EU and Hitler were part of the same long history of doomed attempts to dominate Europe. "Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods," he said in a newspaper interview. The comments by Johnson - a senior member of Cameron's Conservative party which is divided on the issue - caused a row that dominated the campaign for days on end. The shadow of Hitler was also present on the front page of The Sun, Britain's top-selling newspaper, when it mocked a package of reforms obtained by Cameron that he said gave Britain "special status" within the EU. Referring to "Dad's Army", a hugely popular BBC TV comedy about a group of hapless older men volunteering to defend Britain against Nazi invasion, the Sun asked: "Who do you think you are kidding Mr Cameron?" This was the first line of the Dad's Army theme tune, except that in the original, the question was addressed to "Mr Hitler". (editing by David Stamp)
Bruce Hornsby and his collaborators in the musical SCKBSTD may have knocked their song about Donald Trump -- "The Don of Dons" -- out of the production, but it's experienced a rejuvenation during the past year since Trump announced his presidential campaign. Now, fans in the know have started calling for it at Hornsby's concerts.

"I get requests to sing it quite often from people who really follow me and know the song," says Hornsby, who releases Rehab Reunion, his first piano-less album, on June 17. But not everybody has been amused: Hornsby recalls a show in Wichita, Kansas, after which he received Facebook messages from fans put off by the tune.

"I got these two nasty letters from people who said, 'I just walked out when you started bad-mouthing Donald Trump,'" recalls Hornsby, who felt moved to reply. "I said to them, 'Dear sir and madam, I ran into Donald Trump at a Knicks game a few years ago and sang this song to him, and he quite liked it and he reached into his wallet and gave me not one, but two business cards and said "When [the musical] gets to New York, give me a call. This I've got to see!" You've mistaken this song to be negative towards Mr. Trump. It is not.'" The writers subsequently apologized for misinterpreting it.

Bruce Hornsby Reunites With Ricky Skaggs for 'Cluck Ol' Hen'

In initial versions of SCKBSTD (aka "Sick Bastard") -- with music and lyrics by Hornsby and his childhood friend Chip deMatteo and a book by Clay McLeod Champman -- "The Don of Dons" was certainly played for comic effect. With lines such as "Television has added to Trump's fame and power/ You can watch his ministrations coming from Trump Tower/ Watch until you're tired/ Or at least until you're fired/ It's a glorious, wonderful way to spend a surplus hour," the song related to an addled grandfather who thought he was Trump. In the current version, however, Trump has been swapped for 13th U.S. President Millard Fillmore. Nevertheless, Trump says he and deMatteo "are on the case" in writing updated lyrics to reflect Trump's candidacy.

But don't expect to hear Hornsby (not a Trump supporter) performing "The Don of Dons" at the Republican National Convention next month in Cleveland or at Trump campaign rallies. "For a long time to me, it was just comedy," Hornsby says, "because I tend to look at things in that way ... and he would just become so apoplectic in those debates. Of course it was abhorrent, but to me it was also comedic. But at this point, it's a little dark. ... Winston Churchill had the greatest quote to me that just sums all this up: 'The best case against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.' That to me says it all. That's the only way I can explain this Trump craziness."

SCKBSTD premiered in January 2011, performed by the Virginia Stage Company in Norfolk, Virginia. A table read of the latest version of the musical will take place during late July in New York. Hornsby, meanwhile, returns to the road June 21 for a show with Ricky Skaggs and his Kentucky Thunder, then hits the road to support Rehab Reunion with his band the Noisemakers.
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Police in Burundi shot and wounded a student and a taxi-driver on Friday during a protest by schoolchildren against the arrest of their colleagues for defacing President Pierre Nkurunziza's portrait, students and residents said. The incident took place in Muramvya province, about 50 km (30 miles) east of the capital Bujumbura. The schoolchildren, aged between 12 and 17 years old, were marching on the highway between Bujumbura and Gitega. "We were in the streets to ask for the release of our colleagues who were unjustly arrested, then some police officers who were in a pick-up vehicle of the intelligence office opened fire on us, a colleague was hurt by one bullet and was taken to hospital for treatment," one student told Reuters. A police officer, who did not wish to be named, confirmed the student and the taxi driver had been shot. The five students had spoiled Nkurunzizas photo in a book, a school administrator said. Burundi has been mired in a year-long crisis in which more than 450 people have been killed since Nkurunziza pursued and won a third term. Opponents said his move violated the constitution and a deal that ended a civil war in 2005. Nkurunziza's camp says a court ruling had declared the former rebel-turned-president eligible to seek another term. Two weeks ago, more than 300 students of a school in the capital's Ruziba neighborhood were sent home for the same reason. Due to concerns about the behavior of Burundian security forces at home, the United Nations in February said its peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic would repatriate three military officers on suspicion they committed human rights violations during political unrest back in Burundi. The world body went further on Friday, announcing that the country's police units would no longer serve in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic once their current tour is completed. "In light of the current situation in Burundi, a decision has been taken at U.N. headquarters not to replace the units serving in the country when their tour of duty ends," U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in New York. Senior U.N. police adviser Stefan Feller of Germany later told reporters in New York that the decision had been a result of allegations of serious human rights violations by the police back home in Burundi. (Additional reporting by Patrick Nduwimana in Kigali and Louis Charbonneau in New York; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Matthew Lewis)
By Andrew M. Seaman (Reuters Health) - - The safety and effectiveness of a new cancer treatment known as immunotherapy is largely unknown in patients with autoimmune diseases, researchers say - and that might account for up to a quarter of individuals with lung cancer. In autoimmune diseases - such as rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis or psoriasis, for example - the immune system attacks the body. Patients with autoimmune diseases have been mostly excluded from clinical trials testing immunotherapies over fears that the treatments will worsen the conditions or cause new ones to appear, because immunotherapy uses the body's own immune system to fight cancer. As a result, the effectiveness and potential side effects of immunotherapy are largely unknown for these patients, said senior author Dr. David Gerber, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. To estimate how many people with lung cancer in the U.S. may have autoimmune conditions, the researchers matched government insurance data from 1991 to 2011 with national cancer data from 1992 to 2009. Overall, there were 210,509 patients with lung cancer, of whom 28,453, or about 14 percent, had been hospitalized at least once for an autoimmune disease or had at least two insurance claims for autoimmune conditions. Using more liberal criteria - just one insurance claim for an autoimmune condition - the proportion with one of these diseases went up to nearly 25 percent. Gerber said doctors can generally speculate about the possible effects immunotherapy will have among people with autoimmune diseases since it's largely untested in that group. "Its because immunotherapy has demonstrated such effectiveness and promise that these questions are worth asking," he said. "I dont think the concern is that effectiveness of treatment against the cancer is going to be less," Gerber said. "I think the concern is that toxicity would be more." There may, however, be concern over the effectiveness of immunotherapy if the person is also on drugs that suppress the immune system, Gerber said. The results were presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago and published online in JAMA Oncology. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1GlODK3 JAMA Oncology, online June 4, 2016.
nextiva tomas gorny

Tomas Gornys life is a true rags-to-riches story that should serve as an inspiration for any budding entrepreneur.

He arrived in the US from Poland in the 90s when he was only 20. Barely speaking any English, Gorny had to work part-time valet-parking and carpet-cleaning jobs during his first couple of years in the US.

Today, hes a successful serial entrepreneur running three different companies, including Nextiva, a cloud business-phone service that's on track to hit $100 million in revenue this year.

Hes sold his two previous startups, including Endurance International, which was bought by Warburg Pincus and Goldman Sachs for nearly $1 billion.

Gorny may not be a household name in Silicon Valley. But theres a lot to be learned from his life story.

What Ive learned so far is what enables me to do what I do now, Gorny tells Business Insider.

22-year-old millionaire to near bankruptcy

From a young age, Gorny always wanted to run his own business. At 17, he ran a PC-distribution service in Europe, and once he moved to the US, he joined a web-hosting company called Internet Communications as one of its early members.

During his time at Internet Communications, Gorny says he had to work multiple part-time jobs to make money for all the prepayments on his car and rent. But only two years later, Internet Communications got acquired by a public company called Interliant, instantly making him a 22-year-old millionaire.

Flush with cash, Gorny started investing in other companies in order to further boost his net worth. The only problem: The dot-com crash and 9/11 shortly followed, wiping out most of the wealth he'd built. He was left with a car and less than $10,000 in the bank. His wife had to start working an hourly job.

"I set my goals around my net worth and that was a mistake. Everything suddenly collapsed," he said.

Making a comeback

tomas gorny 2

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Gorny was still technically savvy and had a lot of experience in the web-hosting space that he was able to start a new startup called IPOWER in late 2001.

It was a web-hosting service catering to small businesses, and because it made it cheap and easy to launch websites, IPOWER quickly took off.

"Immediately after I failed in 2001, I was building companies. Thats the only thing I knew how to do," Gorny says.

By 2007, IPOWER became one of the bigger web-hosting companies in the US and merged with Endurance International. Four years later, that company was sold for nearly $1 billion to Warburg Pincus and Goldman Sachs. Gorny was one of the largest individual shareholders at the time of the sale.

Gorny is now wealthy and successful. He's been able to launch three new companies since the sale of Endurance, including Nextiva, a startup incubator called United Web, and a web-security company called Site Lock. None of the three companies have any external investors, as he's been able to bootstrap them.

"I do believe I have an interesting story. But I feel havent done anything yet compared to what my companies will do in the future," Gorny says.

Lessons learned

Through all the ups and downs, Gorny says he was able to learn valuable life lessons that would apply to any business. Gorny narrowed it down the following six points:

Dont have an exit strategy: You shouldn't start a business with the goal of selling the company. Instead, focus on creating real value for others. That doesn't mean you shouldn't think about selling at some point, but that should never be the focus of your business. "When I lost all my money in 2001, I completely abandoned the view of focusing on net worth. The success of a business really lies on the value it provides," he says.

Enjoy being underestimated: Gorny started his business at a very young age, and always had a thick Eastern European accent, which made some people not take him too seriously. He says that played to his advantage and he was able to outmaneuver the people who underestimated him. "It brings a lot of advantages to businesses when people underestimate you, and in some ways, that can be a big power that can be leveraged," he says.

Work with good people: You already have enough on your plate when you're running a business. Don't waste your time being stressed working with people you don't like. "I just want to deal with the stress of the business, I dont want to stress out over the relationship in the business," Gorny says.

The best investment to make is in yourself: After experiencing big losses investing in other startups during the first dot-com crash, Gorny says he's become almost "overly conservative" investing in others. Instead, he spends more time finding ways to invest in himself. It's why none of his companies have external investors.

It helps to have skin in the game: Not having external investors means Gorny put a lot of his own money into starting his businesses. Gorny believes that often helps him make better decisions, since you tend to treat your own money differently. "I make much more prudent decisions because I want to protect the downside," he says.

Failures like free tuition: For all the success he's enjoyed, Gorny's faced a lot of failures through his career. And he believes the failures that taught him the most lessons, which is why he tends not to celebrate his successes all too much. "You can reflect and analyze not to repeat mistakes. It's much harder to break down successes to learn how to improve," he says.

NOW WATCH: Facebook tracks you, even if you're not on the site  here's how to stop it





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Check out the unbelievable detail we never noticed in The Little Engine That Could

Check out the unbelievable detail we never noticed in The Little Engine That Could

Growing up, The Little Engine That Could was a source of childhood inspiration. That tiny blue engine defied all odds and pulled her fellow toy trains up and over the mountain to the boys and girls waiting for them.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can became my life mantra. And now the tale is even better because weve confirmed that the engine in the popular childrens book written by Watty Piper is a lady.

Thats right, a girl. What makes it even better is the fact that she prevailed, even after three male trains all passed by and refused to help her up the mountain.

The revelation was shared by Roy Plotnick, a paleontologist at the University of Illinois of Chicago, who has been studying the storied history of the tale for the past decade, in an attempt to glean insight into its meaning.

In an interview with NPR in 2014, Plotnick elucidated the hidden feminist allegory in the story, noting that the engine expressed a barrage of self-deprecation and doubt before rising to the occasion, reflecting gender mores of the time.

The confusion lies in the number of alternative versions that depict the original female engine as a male. Others have speculated that there was a gender change to make the story more politically correct, but Plotnick affirms she was always a girl.

Francesco Sedita, president of the Penguin division, told NPR that the engine was truly an early 20th century feminist hero .

She was literally the first to lean in! She really is the poster engine of the can-do attitude, Sedita said.

The post Check out the unbelievable detail we never noticed in The Little Engine That Could appeared first on HelloGiggles.
This was originally published on Money.com.

If you haven't heard of "Chewbacca Mom," you're probably not on Facebook--and don't watch morning or late-night talk shows. Or leave the house much. "Chewbacca Mom" is of courseCandace Payne, the Wookie-loving stay-at-home mom from Grand Prairie, Texas, whose claim to fame is the posting of a Facebook Live video in which she giggles joyfully and infectiously while wearing her new Chewbacca mask.

The video, posted on May 19, quickly became the most-watched Facebook Live video ever, and has been viewed more than 150 million times and counting. It's also been shared more than 3 million times.

The mask she wore was sold out in stores almost immediately, and Payne has been heralded as a hero for her celebration of simple joys. She's also been honored around the country as the IT MOM of the moment, with visits to talk shows and theme parks and free shwag almost everywhere she goes.

The benefits of being Chewbacca Mom and enjoying life to the fullest are "priceless," to quote the American Express ads. But we were curious and did some back-of-the-envelope math anyway, to come up with ballpark estimates for all the money that's been spent on Payne and her family during their moment in the spotlight. For a little perspective, let's pause and consider that everything below came as a result of mom making an impulse-shopping purchase and then posting a silly video about it on a whim.

Gifts from Kohl's: $3,000

Kohl's got plenty of free publicity thanks to Payne mentioning in her video that she purchased her Chewbacca mask there. And Kohl's returned the favor by showing up at Payne's home with a collection of gifts, including dozens of toys, $2,500 in gift cards, and (of course) Chewbacca masks for her whole family so no one has to share.

Travel, Talk Show Visits: $7,500

Last week Payne traipsed around the country on a whirlwind tour in which she hit New York City for an appearance on "Good Morning America," out to Los Angeles to hang out with J.J. Abrams and James Corden on "The Late Late Show," and onward to San Francisco for visits to Lucasfilm Studios and Facebook headquarters. Adding up rough estimates for all of flights, hotels, and VIP tours involved, plus assorted gifts along the way (Hasbro chipped in with a $2,500 gift certificate and more toys), and it comes to about $7,500.

Story continues

Read Next: 8 Lessons 'Star Wars' Taught Us About Money

Walt Disney World Vacation: $7,500

Payne's whole family was treated to a free vacation to Walt Disney World over Memorial Day weekend, highlighted by a visit to Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park and an up-close meet-and-greet with Chewbacca himself, complete with prerequisite selfies. Our ballpark estimate for the trip, based on last-minute bookings for flights and hotels over the holiday weekend, plus food and theme park passes for a family of four, is $7,500.

Fan Expo Dallas VIP Treatment: $2,000

During one of Payne's talk show appearances, host James Corden told Chewbacca Mom that she would soon get to meet the "real" Chewbacca. Peter Mayhew, the actor inside the Chewbacca costume in the original Star Wars films, invited Payne and her family to attend the Fan Expo Dallasconvention on June 3 to 5, with VIP passes for everyone (they normally cost $419 apiece plus fees). According to the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, Payne will be posing for selfies at the convention with anyone who pays $20, and a portion of the proceeds goes to the Oaks Fellowship "All-In," a Christian ministry initiative.

College Scholarships: $400,000

The strangest of the gifts (so far) handed over to Payne must be the full college scholarships provided to her and her family from Southeastern University, "a Christ-centered institution of higher learning" in central Florida. "Candace has inspired us and others with her joy, and we want her and her family to experience some of that same joy through this gift," Dr. Kent Ingle, president of the college, said.

Tuition and fees cost about $12,000 per semester right now, and if all four members of Payne's family attended and completed degrees in eight semesters, it would come to $96,000 per person, or $384,000 total. We're rounding that up to $400,000, assuming that tuition will be more expensive by the time Payne's kids are old enough for college.

See original article on Fortune.com

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By Justin Madden and Fiona Ortiz

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A graphic 2012 video of Chicago police shooting dead an unarmed black man who charged toward them was among hundreds of audio and video recordings released on Friday by Chicago's police oversight body.

The Independent Police Review Authority, or IPRA, said information about 101 incidents involving the use of force by police from January 2011 to March 2016 showed its commitment to transparency in the wake of public uproar over Chicago police shootings, mostly of black men.

The Authority said that in the future it would make public video and audio recordings of incidents involving the use of force by police and misconduct, along with police reports, within 60 days of an event.

"These past few months, as this city has struggled with so many questions about policing and about police accountability, it has been clear that we all agree that there's a lack of trust and that increased transparency is essential to rebuilding that trust," IPRA head Sharon Fairley told a news conference.

The Authority's investigations used to be largely secret. The change in operating style came after Mayor Rahm Emanuel pledged to abolish and replace the agency, blasting its investigations of police misconduct as ineffective.

All of the incidents in the videos are under investigation by IPRA as to whether the police action was justified. Some of them have already resulted in civil settlements between the city and the person claiming mistreatment by the police. Some of the 101 cases have multiple audio, video and document files that have been made public.

In the graphic video of the 2012 incident, a number of police are seen confronting, then tasering and shooting 28-year-old Ismael Jamison, who was agitated and was approached by police after they received reports he had assaulted a bus driver.

The union for Chicago police officers decried the release of the videos, saying on its website that the images could put officers in danger and violate terms of their collective bargaining agreement with the city.

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IPRA was formed in 2007 to investigate problems at Chicago's police force, which has a history of complaints of abuse. But the agency has been plagued by budget and staffing shortages.

Emanuel fired his police chief when protests erupted in November after the city released a video of a white police officer fatally shooting a black teenager in October 2014.

It was one of a number of U.S. police killings that have sparked a national movement over policing and race. The officer, Jason Van Dyke, has been charged with murder in the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, and his trial is pending.

Federal investigators are looking at the Chicago Police Department's history of use of force.

(Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Beijing (AFP) - Chinese police have detained several activists while others were placed under surveillance for the anniversary of the bloody 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square, which was heavily policed on Saturday.

On June 4 1989 military tanks rolled into the square in the centre of Beijing to crush pro-democracy protests, killing hundreds of unarmed civilians -- by some estimates thousands.

Nearly three decades after the crackdown, the communist regime continues to forbid any debate on the subject, mention of which is banned from textbooks and the media, and censored on the Internet.

Six human rights activists, including the poet Liang Taiping, have been held by Beijing police since Thursday after holding a private ceremony commemorating June 4, the Chinese NGO Weiquanwang said.

The detained activists were suspected of "provoking quarrels and fomenting unrest", the group said, adding another activist had "disappeared" in recent days in the capital.

As in previous years, the "Tiananmen Mothers", an association of parents who lost children during the violence, were placed under heavy surveillance in the lead up to the anniversary.

Tiananmen square in the centre of Beijing was also under tight security on Saturday, with guards at the entry points into the iconic tourist spot checking the IDs and passports of visitors more closely than usual, an AFP photographer at the scene said.

Around a dozen parents from the Tiananmen Mothers visited a Beijing cemetery on Saturday where many of those killed in the crackdown are buried.

They said they were outnumbered by security forces as they paid their respects at the graves of their children.

"We have been under surveillance since last week... 30 (plainclothes policemen) were at the cemetery," said Zhang Xianling, whose 19-year-old son was killed in 1989.

A resident of Sichuan was also arrested this week for selling alcohol with labels that read "89-4 June" and images of tanks, according to Hong Kong-based media.

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- '27 years of white terror' -

The Tiananmen Mothers penned an open letter slamming the "27 years of white terror and suffocation" they have been subjected to by the authorities.

"We the victims' families are eavesdropped upon and surveilled by the police; we are followed or even detained, and our computers searched and confiscated," read the letter signed by the group's members and released the NGO Human Rights in China.

The letter also said they had been warned that all visits to the home of the group's founder Ding Zilin, who is now 79-years-old and in poor health, would be restricted from April 22 to June 4.

Ding was under increased surveillance at her home and the police had cut the household telephone line, Hong Kong-based media reported.

Calls to Ding's telephone number on Saturday were met with a recorded message: "The user you have contacted does not have the right to receive calls."

Meanwhile, the state-run Global Times newspaper ran an editorial in its print edition describing June 4 as "a normal day".

"This does not mean Chinese people have all forgotten about the turmoil. It is simply that most Chinese people tend to agree that no more debate is necessary over that incident," the editorial read.

The piece pointed to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the unrest in the Middle East that followed the Arab Spring as evidence that China is "lucky that the rioters did not succeed at that time".

In Hong Kong, a planned vigil for those killed in the 1989 crackdown -- which is held annually and usually draws tens of thousands of people -- has exposed a rift within the city's own pro-democracy camp.

Young activists from the new "localist" movement, which grew out of failed pro-democracy rallies in 2014, boycotted the vigil, saying Hong Kong should push for its own autonomy, even independence, rather than the democratisation of the mainland, which is part of the event's main message.

The Hong Kong Federation of Students -- a founding member of the alliance that organises the vigil -- also stayed away this year, saying the event had "lost touch" with Hong Kongers.

Taiwan's new Beijing-sceptic president Tsai Ing-wen used the anniversary to urge China to "heal the past wounds and pain of the Chinese people".

"Do not let June 4 forever be unspoken between the two sides," Tsai said on her Facebook page, in her first public comments on Tiananmen as Taiwan's leader.

There were mass rallies in Taiwan in 1989 to support the pro-democracy movement in China, and Taiwanese civil groups will commemorate the 27th anniversary with a candlelight vigil in downtown Taipei later Saturday.
By Rory Carroll SANTA CLARA, California (Reuters) - Colombia scored two first half goals to tame hosts the United States and open the Copa America tournament with a convincing 2-0 victory in front of a big crowd on Friday. The South Americans did not take long to strike with Cristian Zapata delivering the first goal in the eighth minute, the defender seizing on a corner kick from the left and volleying the ball into the back of the net. James Rodriguez scored the second from a penalty in the 42nd minute after DeAndre Yedlin had been penalized for handball, a call the Americans hotly contested. "The hand ball was not a hand ball," defender Geoff Cameron told reporters. "Were disappointed, obviously. But I thought we were the better team." Rodriguez, the Real Madrid playmaker, made no mistake with the spot kick and the two-goal cushion proved enough to give Colombia the early leg up in Group A, which also includes Costa Rica and Paraguay. The United States, hosting the tournament for the first time and looking for some consistency after a difficult year, showed fight late in the second half but were unable to finish what chances they created. Still, they tried to put a positive spin on their efforts and said they were happy with how they successfully controlled possession against the 2014 World Cup quarter-finalists. "We were okay with the team performance. Against a quality team, if you dont score a goal to get back in the game and equalize it's tough," said U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann. "But overall we were totally even and we didnt give them anything." Clint Dempsey produced the best scoring opportunity for the Americans with a 63rd minute free kick that Colombia goalkeeper David Ospina saved at full stretch. Ultimately, though, the end result was the hosts' sixth straight defeat in Copa America matches. It was in line with U.S. form over the last year. The Americans finished just fourth in last years Gold Cup and suffered a deflating defeat to Guatemala in March that led to calls for German Klinsmann to be dismissed. The U.S. next face Costa Rica in Chicago on Tuesday, while Colombia remain in California to take on Paraguay at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena later that same evening. (Writing by Jahmal Corner, editing by Nick Mulvenney)
In the tradition of commencement speeches, repetition is inevitable. Year after year, influential speakers offer graduates a relatively familiar message, telling them to change the world while seizing opportunities and overcoming fears of failure. This year, many speakers have added a new topical piece of advice to the rotation: dont behave like Donald Trump.

Several 2016 commencement speakersfrom actors to politicianshave admonished the Republican presidential nominee, mentioning him either directly by name or with references to his policies. With their speeches on Friday, both Michelle Obama and Matt Damon joined the mix.

Some speakers have made reference to Trumps repeated promise to build a border wall and get Mexico to pay for it, while others have referenced his call for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. and his tendency to resort to name-calling tactics with rivals. (Notably, some of the same speakers also took shots at Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, by mentioning his promises of free college and Wall Street reform.)

Heres what they had to say:

Barack Obama

The President of the United States addressed graduates at Rutgers University on May 15.

Building walls wont do that. It wont boost our economy, and it wont enhance our security either. Isolating or disparaging Muslims, suggesting that they should be treated differently when it comes to entering this country that is not just a betrayal of our values. Thats not just a betrayal of who we are, it would alienate the very communities at home and abroad who are our most important partners in the fight against violent extremism. Suggesting that we can build an endless wall along our borders, and blame our challenges on immigrants  that doesnt just run counter to our history as the worlds melting pot; it contradicts the evidence that our growth and our innovation and our dynamism has always been spurred by our ability to attract strivers from every corner of the globe. Thats how we became America. Why would we want to stop it now?  In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue. Its not cool to not know what youre talking about. Thats not keeping it real, or telling it like it is. Thats not challenging political correctness. Thats just not knowing what youre talking about.

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Read more: Watch Barack Obama Use Commencement Speeches to Talk to Young Voters Over the Years

Michelle Obama

The First Lady spoke to spoke at City College of New York on June 3.

But unfortunately, graduates, despite the lessons of our history and the truth of your experience here at City College, some folks out there today seem to have a very different perspective. They seem to view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to be tapped. They tell us to be afraid of those who are different, to be suspicious of those with whom we disagree. They act as if name-calling is an acceptable substitute for thoughtful debate, as if anger and intolerance should be our default state rather than the optimism and openness that have always been the engine of our progress And here in America, we dont give in to our fears. We dont build up walls to keep people out because we know that our greatness has always depended on contributions from people who were born elsewhere but sought out this country and made it their home.

Matt Damon

The Good Will Hunting actor spoke at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on June 3, mentioning the idea that reality could actually be a computer-generated simulation.

If there are multiple simulations, how come we have to be in the one where Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee for president? Can we like transfer to a different one?

Arianna Huffington

The Huffington Post editor-in-chief spoke at Colby College on May 22:

There is, for example the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who brags about how little sleep he gets, and how he sleeps with his phone beside him. What effects does that have? Well, theres the inability to process even basic information, mood swings, anger outbursts, false memories, lack of impulse control, belligerence, paranoid tendencies to spout conspiracy theories, and things like retweeting Mussolini. Those are all, as it happens, symptoms of chronic sleep deprivation. Except possibly the Mussolini bit  thats probably just Trump.

Huffington also gave the address at Hunter College on June 2.

Hunter is a living testament to the power of diversity, tolerance, and progress. But as much as we would like to think otherwise, these values cannot be taken for granted. They have to be safeguarded, protected and defended every day. You dont have to follow the news particularly closely to realize theyre under assault right now. We have a presidential nominee who smears Mexicans as rapists, who wants to institute a religious test to enter a country founded on religious freedom, who wants to erect barriers and walls. But this is an institution based on breaking down barriers and walls, on proving the value of opportunity, openness and diversity. So all of you have a special role to play in upholding Hunters rich legacy at a time when it is threatened like never before in our lifetime.

John Kerry

The Secretary of State addressed graduates at Northeastern University on May 6.

You are the most diverse class in Northeasterns history  in other words, you are Donald Trumps worst nightmare I think that everything that weve lived and learned tells us that we will never come out on top if we accept advice from soundbite salesmen and carnival barkers who pretend the most powerful country on Earth can remain great by looking inward and hiding behind walls at a time that technology has made that impossible to do and unwise to even attempt. The future demands from us something more than a nostalgia for some rose-tinted version of a past that did not really exist in any case.

Elizabeth Warren

The Democratic Massachusetts Senator spoke at Suffolk University on May 22.

Hows this speech polling so far? Higher or lower than Donald Trumps unfavorable numbers with women?

Earlier, speaking at Bridgewater State Universitys commencement on May 14, she mentioned her ongoing feud with Trump.

I never imagined I would be a commencement speaker. I never imagined I would get into a Twitter war with Donald Trump.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

The creator and star of Broadway hit Hamilton addressed graduates at the University of Pennsylvania, where Trumps daughter graduated this year.

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.

Michael Bloomberg

The former New York City mayor, who considered a presidential run as an Independent, gave the University of Michigans commencement address on April 30.

Every generation has had to confront its own demagogues and every generation has stood up and kept them away from the White House, at least so far. Now, its your turn. In this years presidential election, weve seen more demagoguery from both parties than I can remember in my lifetime. Our country is facing serious and difficult challenges, but rather than offering realistic solutions, candidates in both parties are blaming our problems on easy targets who breed resentment. For Republicans, its Mexicans here illegally and Muslims, and for Democrats, its the wealthy and Wall Street. The truth is: We cannot solve the problems we face by blaming anyone. We are all in this together, and we all must be part of the solution. Americas power in the world comes not from the walls we build, but the doors we open, and it comes not from tearing down success, but building up opportunity.

Mitt Romney

The 2012 Republican presidential nominee spoke at Trine University on May 7.

We live in tumultuous times. Demagogues on the right and the left draw upon our darker angels, scapegoating immigrants and Muslims or bankers and business people.

Maria Elena Salinas

The Univision anchor said journalists were often unfairly vilified by politicians, mentioning Trump, and was met with boos from the audience at California State University, Fullerton on May 22.

Imagine: They blame us so much for so many things that now they even blame us, the media, for creating Donald Trump. Imagine that! she said, as some in the crowd started to boo her. Isnt that terrible? But we didnt, right? We didnt. Who did? I dont know. But they are to blame.

Jerry Moran

The Republican Kansas Senator spoke at Friends University on May 7.
KABUL (Reuters) - India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Afghanistan on Saturday to mark the completion of a nearly $300 million hydroelectric dam project, the latest symbol of Indian investment in its South Asian neighbor. The dam, originally built in western Herat province in 1976 before being damaged during the civil wars of the 1990s, was rebuilt by some 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers, according to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. "It is symbol of our friendship and would usher in hope, light up homes, nourish the fertile fields of Heart and bring prosperity to the people of the region," Modi said in a social media post as he departed for Afghanistan, the first stop on a five-country trip. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has nurtured closer ties with India in the past year as relations with Pakistan have deteriorated in the face of continued insurgent attacks and border tensions. Afghanistan has walked a fine line as it accepts Indian aid, with Pakistan historically wary of any Indian influence in Afghanistan. "Salma Dam is another big step in deepening and broadening the relationship between Afghanistan and India," Ghani said in a post on Twitter. At more than 100 meters (330 feet) high and 540 meters (1,770 feet) wide, the dam is designed to generate 42 megawatts of power and help irrigate 75,000 hectares of land, according to Modi. India has poured more than $1 billion into Afghanistan reconstruction projects and humanitarian aid, making it one of the largest donors to the war-torn country. A new national assembly building in Kabul and major power line and road construction have been among the main projects funded by India. (Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Paul Tait)
From ELLE

As a storyteller I often find myself asking: Whats the worst-case scenario? Its thrilling to imagine what it takes for a character to climb out of her own personal depths, but without actually having to feel the shame and despair, or reap any real-world consequences. But what happens when youre living your own inescapable rock bottom-only to discover: it can, in fact, get worse?

As a recent survivor of a rare bone cancer, chondrosarcoma, I presumed I knew from worst-case scenarios. I spent the last four years chasing experimental treatments and brutal clinical trials in order to eliminate a deadly, inoperable cancer. I allowed chemotherapy into my veins and radiation through nearly every inch of my body. It worked. It was necessary. But not without repercussions. I wasnt the miracle TV cancer survivor, emerging unscathed with perfect skin, hair, and health after commercial break. My immune system was obliterated, my scalp was completely bald, my lungs were shredded, my right kidney and left eye stopped functioning all together. And while some of that slowly returned, I still continue to receive monthly chemo, daily toxic oral medication, and frequent scans (x-rays, CTspick your literal poison) in order to keep cancer at bay.

Before I began any treatment, my oncologists asked if I wanted to preserve my fertility. I immediately said no. Adoption? Maybe. But I never felt the biological imperative to birth my own child. After I completed my first clinical trial, my team of brilliant, life-changing, genius doctors sat me down in a taupe-walled conference room to inform me that the cancer and subsequent chemotherapy and radiation treatments rendered me sterile. They assured me I could never, would never get pregnant.

They were wrong. Several months ago, I was in the on part of a years-long on-again-off-again relationship. I was in love (then). I was careful (always, because sterility didnt make me any less susceptible to STDs). I became pregnant anyway.

Story continues

For nearly eight weeks, I didnt know. I didnt know as I had countless scans shot directly at my abdomen for my yearly check-up. I didnt have a clue as I took daily doses of oral chemotherapy agents classified under Category X. (As in: Do not take while pregnant because it causes significant birth defects, if not miscarriage.) I didnt know because my period was as on-and-off-again as the relationship that got me pregnant in the first place. Because I was careful. Because I was told it was impossible.

There wasnt any squealing or crying from all the improbable miracle joybecause it was anything but a miracle. I was suddenly living my worst-case scenario, after years of believing I already was. I was pregnant. But I couldnt be.

I stared blankly at the Genius Team as they quietly, painfully laid out my reality: With my decimated immune system and limited kidney function, my body wasnt strong enough to sustain nine straight months of compromise. I couldnt stop my monthly cancer treatments and daily medication, or they believed my tumors would returnwith no guarantee I would survive the cancer (or treatments) yet again. And if I continued with the medication, there was a high likelihood the fetus wouldnt survive, or if it did, it would likely have severe intellectual and physical deficits. An interminable silence hung in the room, until I finally asked the Head Doctor Genius, point blank, what hed tell his own wife if she were in the same position. I cant tell you what to do here, he finally managed to admit. Ijust cant tell you what to do.

It was the first and only time in four years hed said those words. At every other medical crossroads, Doctor Genius knew me well enough to leave me alone for a day with a pile of statistics and case studies. (Its how I made every tough decision about my medical care: one day, one pile, and two shots of whiskey.) Except this time they added, by law, a slick, carefully worded pamphlet about options. After 12 excruciating days, I was still strugglingsometimes with the man I loved, mostly withoutimagining what my options truly were.

From the moment I understood, as a young adult, what choice meant, I believed in my guts, bones, and heart in a womans right to it. Under any circumstances. Now that the theoretical was my reality, I felt exactly the same. Despite the fact that too many old men, bible-thumping on the Congress floor, would insist I unequivocally choose my fetuss life over mine, I was certain of my right to my own body. My own life. And, yet, I still spent countless, bleak hours staring at my ceilingwondering if it was possible for this scenario to somehow produce both a healthy mother and child.

Several days later, Doctor Genius left a voicemail on my phone, gently reminding me I was nearing my second trimester. Id like to hear from yousooner than later, he said so cleanly and methodically Im still convinced he read directly from a script. After three more sleepless nights, near delirious with misery and nausea, one thing was clear to me: In order to stay alive, I needed to end the pregnancy.

At the same time, I recognized worst-case scenarios can always be worse. In all my research and soul-searching, I never had to consider if I could afford my choices. I didnt have to beg a reluctant boyfriend or my financially strapped family for helpI was solvent enough to afford the appointments with experts, along with any medications or procedures they laid out as options (even if my insurance refused to pay outright, which they too often do). I never once wondered if I would legally be permitted to make whatever choice I wanted or needed. I lived in California, where the rights to my own body were unequivocally protected up until viabilityno mandating waiting periods or limitationsboth with and without proof that my health may be in danger. I never once feared for my safety as I slipped in and out of the private offices and closed doors of brilliant, capable, trained physicians who were willing to do whatever I decided was in my own best interest. I wasnt sneaking into clinics that had become targets, simply by exercising their own legal right to perform safe, legal, and necessary medical procedures. I didnt have to fear, worry, or wonder. (Except, perhaps, for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trumps threats that women seeking abortions be punished.)

I became instantly, excruciatingly aware that my unfettered access to a safe, legal, necessary procedure was a matter of only two things: luck and money. And my privilege made me as nauseated as the around-the-clock morning sickness that took over my body. I began to imagine myself in my exact same circumstances, in any other state but mine.

If I lived in New York, I would be able to obtain an abortion up until 24 weeks. However, if my pregnancy was discovered after 24 weeks, or if cancer resurfaced, I would only be able to obtain an abortion if my life was endangered. Not just my health. My life. (And in my specific case, it would be left up to my physician to determine if my health was considered endangered at all. My scans and medical history all but proved my cancer would return if I stopped taking medication; however, as Genius Doctor pointed out, The threat of cancer is just that. A threat. Not a promise.)

The risk of cancer recurring would matter very little if I lived in Oklahoma, were it not for a down-to-the-wire veto of a bill designed to make any form of abortion a felony. Of course, I may not have even considered abortion in the first place, if the bill to require anti-abortion lessons in all public high schools had been passed and I was subjected to skewed, punishing rhetoric in my most vulnerable, formative years. As the laws stand now, under 20 weeks, I would only be required to attend mandated counseling. If past 20 weeks, I would be supplied with additional information on fetal pain. If I were a minor, I would need both consent and a notice of permission from my parent.

In Indiana, after July 1, I would be forbidden to seek an abortion based on genetic anomaly, including the fetus having Down Syndrome or any other disability. (Planned Parenthood and the ACLU filed a lawsuit, results pending.) I would also be subjected to a unique form of cruelty. Whether I chose an abortion or suffered a miscarriage, at any point in my pregnancy-I would be required, by Indiana law, to bury or cremate my fetus.

The list of state restrictions and looming bills across the United States are a mile long. The mandatory ultrasounds. The waiting periods that would require multiple trips to the medical facility, running the gauntlet of protestors so daunting, volunteer escorts are needed to protect women from so-called-activists aggression. The threats to medical professionals licenses. The demands for financial disclosures of abortion-related procedures. The gag rules and increasingly manipulative information health care providers are required to give their patients. (Then again, compared to El Salvador, where women face imprisonment and death due to unwanted or unviable pregnancies, including the rising cases of Zika virus across Latin America-the United States seems like an abortion haven.)

It shouldnt be a matter of luck and circumstance to obtain safe, legal, necessary abortions, any more than it should be a matter of luck or finance that I am alive and successfully managing my cancer. Right now, I am alive because my privilege protects me. And as long as money or geography is what separates me from any other woman being stripped of her rights, its unacceptable.

Yes, I had a complicated, life-threatening reason behind my decision. But I shouldnt need one. I shouldnt have to justify my choice based on PET scans or looming cancer threats. I shouldnt be asked why by anyone and cross my fingers they approve of my answers. I shouldnt need to prove a damn thing. I should-like every single woman in the world-be able to choose for myself. To answer to no one but myself. My worst-case scenario doesnt have to look like anyone elses in order to have access to medical care.

Unlike television, there were no eleventh-hour convenient plot twists. No miracle cures. No TV-network-exec-sanctioned falls down the stairs. My reality only changed because I chose to change it.

Once its over, once I walk in the doctors office, with its muted colors and subdued tones and walk out, no longer pregnant, I thank Doctor Genius. He wasnt medically qualified to perform the procedure, but he sat beside me the entire time. We walk out into the parking lot. He puts a hand on my shoulder, and we just stand there a few moments in silence before my cab picks me up and takes me home.

I throw on my sick pajamas and call my off-again boyfriend. Neither of us knows what to say. Theres nothing left to discuss, nothing to consider. He tells me hes glad Im alive. He knew he couldnt choose for me. He didnt want to ask anything of me. Im justglad youre alive. He doesnt offer to come over and keep me company. He knows better than to ask how Im feeling. Part of him already knows; the other part of him understands that he never will. We both flip on our favorite season of The West Wing from our respective couches, timed out perfectly, and watch for hours on the phone until I finally drift off to sleep.

Years of chemo didnt break me. Radiation didnt break me. The crippling pain and mounting insurance bills and tumors snaking up my spine and around my organs did not break me. This nearly did. But in my guts, bones, and heart, I do not regret my choice-only that every single woman in the world is not able to make the same one.

Elisabeth R. Finch is a television writer, playwright, and essayist. She currently writes on Greys Anatomy. Past television credits include: True Blood and The Vampire Diaries.
If your formative years were in the late '90s and early '00s, Jerry Springer will hold a dear place in your heart.

His outrageously hilarious show might have become somewhat eclipsed by Maury and Jeremy kyle, but it was Jerry Springer who blazed the trail for ridiculously bad day-time chat shows. Since retiring, Springer's been doing a podcast and, it seems, putting fools in their place whenever necessary.

He doesn't even need Steve Wilkos to sort them out, either.

As we know, absolutely batshit insane US Republican nominee Donald Trump has been using Twitter to deal out his unique brand of commentary on his opponents, the latest of which is presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

In a tweet, Trump called out Clinton's temperament and decision-making ability in a fairly standard tweet. Former Mayor of Cincinnati and television icon Jerry Springer wasn't going to stand for it.

C'mon Donald... you complaining about Hillary's temperament is like me complaining about the quality of television! https://t.co/IKi5G55IG2  Jerry Springer (@jerryspringer) June 2, 2016

If this was on Jerry Springer, the crowd would have gone wild and you'd be hearing chants of "JERRY, JERRY, JERRY, JERRY, JERRY" for the rest of the show. Speaking of, we need to start a petition to get Jerry Springer back on television. The man was a friggin' legend and we're all the lesser in his absence.

Here's Jerry's thought for the day: Talk Sh*t, Get Hit. Take care of yourselves, and each other.

Via Twitter
By J.R. Wu TAIPEI (Reuters) - On the anniversary of China's bloody crackdown on student-led protests in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square, Taiwan's new president told China on Saturday that democracy is nothing to fear. Tsai Ing-wen said in a Facebook post on the 27th anniversary that Taiwan could serve as an example to China. Tsai said in the run-up to Taiwan's elections earlier this year that she had seen people from China, as well as the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, mixing with crowds in Taiwan. "These many friends, after experiencing things for themselves can see that in fact there's nothing scary about democracy. Democracy is a good and fine thing," wrote Tsai, who took office last month. China sent in tanks to break up the demonstrations on June 4, 1989. Beijing has never released a death toll but estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand. The subject remains all but taboo in China, where President Xi Jinping is overseeing a broad crackdown on rights groups and activists. Tsai also said in her Facebook post about the Tiananmen crackdown's anniversary that nobody could deny the material advances China had made under the Communist Party. However, China would win even more respect internationally if it gave its people even more rights, wrote Tsai, who is from Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party. Taiwan is the only part of the Chinese-speaking world which holds free elections, and Tsai risks upsetting Beijing with her frank remarks on Tiananmen. China has never renounced the use of force to bring what it views as a wayward province under its control and is deeply suspicious of Tsai. Chinese officials have accused her of pushing the island toward formal independence. In Beijing, security was tight at Tiananmen Square, with long lines at bag and identity checks. The square itself was peaceful, with hundreds of tourists stopping to take photos in the early summer sun. While most state media made no mention of the sensitive anniversary, the English version of popular Beijing-based tabloid the Global Times wrote in a commentary that people in China had put the events of 1989 behind them. "The annual hubbub around the June 4 incident is nothing but bubbles that are doomed to burst." China dismissed a statement by the U.S. Department of State on the political turbulence in 1989, urging the United States not to harm bilateral ties, the official Xinhua news service reported. Tsai said Taiwan understood the pain caused by Tiananmen because Taiwan had similar experiences in its struggle for democracy, referring to repression under the martial law enforced by the Nationalists over the island from 1949 to 1987. "I'm not here to give advice about the political system on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, but am willing to sincerely share Taiwan's democratic experience," she said. In Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 and is the only place on Chinese soil where June 4 commemorations are tolerated, around 125,000 people attended the main candlelight vigil in Victoria Park, according to organizers' estimates, which local broadcaster RTHK said was the lowest attendance since 2008. The police estimated attendance at 21,800. In a sign of persistent tensions around Hong Kong's future and its relationship to mainland China, an activist shouting for Hong Kong independence tried to rush the stage at the vigil. A number of university students boycotted the main vigil and instead held separate on-campus events discussing the city's current political situation instead of just commemorating the events of 1989. Reuters estimated about 2,000 people attended events at local universities. Pro-Beijing groups cordoned off areas near Victoria Park where they set up mainland Chinese flags and shredded yellow umbrellas to symbolize Hong Kong's 2014 street protests that called for democratic reforms but failed to achieve them. (Additional reporting by Faith Hung, and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING, Venus Wu, Teenie Ho, Tris Pan, Sue-Lin Wong, Hera Poon, Joyce Zhou and Clare Baldwin in HONG KONG; Editing by Paul Tait and Hugh Lawson)
Athens (AFP) - Chinese lawyer Wang Yu, facing a possible life sentence in China, was on Saturday awarded the prestigious Ludovic Trarieux Prize for her work defending human rights, organisers announced in Athens on Saturday.

Wang, arrested in July 2015, is one of an estimated 250 lawyers and activists detained in a crackdown since then. She is charged with "state subversion" and could receive a life sentence.

China accuses Wang and others of using a Beijing law firm as a front to organise criminal activity. Her husband, a lawyer, is also in custody while her 16-year-old son is under police surveillance.

In choosing Wang, the jury wanted to "hail the courage" of a woman who "decided that she could no longer keep her mouth shut" despite the danger of speaking out, the prize's founder Bernard Favreau told AFP.

"She chose to expose herself to dangers in order to defend the rights of women, children and persecuted minorities," he said.

In February, UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein called for the immediate release of rights lawyers and activists detained in the country, warning that China appeared to be locking up government critics regardless of whether they had committed a crime.

Beijing rejected the comments as "irresponsible", adding in a statement that Zeid had a "biased, subjective and selective" view of the country.

The first Ludovic Trarieux Prize was presented in 1985 to Nelson Mandela's daughter Zenani, who received the award on behalf of her lawyer-turned-activist father -- who was still languishing in jail at the time.

The prize -- named after the 19th-century French lawyer Ludovic Trarieux, a staunch defender of Alfred Dreyfus, who was falsely accused of treason in France -- has been awarded 20 times over the last three decades.
While the new romantic drama Me Before You has faced backlash, and even a protest, from some disability advocates, director Thea Sharrock said they have a "fundamental misunderstanding" of the film's message.



Sharrock, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, said she "didn't quite anticipate" the reaction, which focuses on a crucial plot point in the film. (Warning: Spoilers ahead.)



Some disability advocates have taken umbrage with the film's depiction of one of its main characters, who is quadriplegic (played by The Hunger Games' Sam Claflin)  and who, despite a romance with his caregiver, played by Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke, decides to kill himself at the end of the film.



That decision, advocates say, suggests Claflin's character kills himself because he has become disabled and his life has less value or meaning than an able-bodied person. Members of the disability activism group Not Dead Yet organized a red carpet protest of the film's premiere, according to The Telegraph.







"The message of the film is that disability is tragedy and disabled people are better off dead," Ellen Clifford told BuzzFeed. "It comes from a dominant narrative carried by society and the mainstream media that says it is a terrible thing to be disabled."



Not so, Sharrock told THR.



"It's a fundamental misunderstanding of what the message is," she said. "I was attracted to this because I love the almost traditional love story that lies behind it. It reminds me of films that I don't think have been made for a while that used to be made quite a lot.



"And I love the bravery of the studios wanting to produce such a film. It's a fictional story about how important the right to choose is. The message of the film is to live boldly, push yourself, don't settle."





Me Before You Director Responds to Criticism from Disability Advocates: 'It's a Fundamental Misunderstanding of What the Message Is'" data-ad-channel="Brightcove" data-ad-subchannel="" data-auto-play="no">





Sharrock also told THR she was disappointed by protests from anyone who has not read the book upon which the film is based, or seen the film itself.



"I have no problem with people seeing this film and not liking it for 101 different reasons. You go into every project with that as a possibility," she said.



But the reaction to Me Before You is more nuanced than a backlash. Sarah-Jane, a blogger who is disabled, told The Telegraph, "It's good that Me Before You has provoked such conversation about disability, because I do think we need to tell more disabled stories, especially in films."



"When I read the book, I didn't see [Claflin's character] Will as a plot device, as a 'pity party' or as an inspiration for the able bodied," Sarah-Jane said. "I saw him as a layered, complex character with so much depth, and his decision to end his life doesn't change that.



"Fiction isn't always about telling stories that represent everyone; it's about telling stories about complex individuals."



Sharrock said she knew all along the film's plot would likely elicit some strong feelings.



"I understood going into it how vulnerable a topic it is and susceptible to very strong opinions," she said. "It has big themes in it that are very easy to make quick judgments on."
Paris (AFP) - Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray meet in a seventh Grand Slam final on Sunday with the clock ticking on their French Open title aspirations.

World number one Djokovic, the winner of 11 majors, is bidding for a first French Open to become just the eighth man to complete the career Grand Slam.

Victory on Sunday would also give him the 'Novak Slam' as he already holds the Wimbledon, US and Australian Open titles.

But the 29-year-old has lost all three finals he has made in Paris.

Murray, also 29 and a rival of Djokovic since their junior days, has previously fallen three times at the semi-final stages.

The last British man to win in Paris was Fred Perry in 1935 while Bunny Austin was the last finalist from his country in 1937.

"It's obviously a very big match for both of us. Novak trying to win the career slam and me trying to win my first French Open," said Murray, aware that even Roger Federer needed 11 visits to Paris to win his first and only French Open.

When Federer finally broke through -- and completed the career Grand Slam in 2009 -- he was already 27.

"Neither of us know how many more chances we'll have to win here. It took obviously Roger a long time to win this one.

"It's a very tough event to win. There is a lot riding on the match for both of us."

Djokovic was runner-up to nine-time winner Rafael Nadal in 2012 and 2014 and was stunned by big-hitting Stan Wawrinka 12 months ago.

He will be playing in his 20th Grand Slam final and seventh against Murray having won four times against the Scot in Australia but losing at the US Open in 2012 and Wimbledon in 2013.

- 'High priority' -

If he does finally break his drought in Paris, he will be the second oldest to complete the career Slam after Andre Agassi who managed the feat in Paris in 1999.

"I put myself in a position in which I wanted to be in of course ever since last year's final," said Djokovic, who has already set one impressive benchmark in Paris by reaching the $100 million prize money barrier.

Story continues

"It's always high on the priority list when I start a season thinking about Roland Garros."

Djokovic has dropped just one set at the French Open this year and he shrugged off having to play four days in succession by blitzing young Austrian Dominic Thiem 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 in Friday's semi-final.

Murray, who lost in five sets to Djokovic in last year's semi-finals, also came off worse in straight sets against Nadal in 2011 and 2014.

His path to Sunday's final, his 10th at a Grand Slam, has been more tortuous than the Serb's.

He had to come from two sets down to beat 37-year-old Radek Stepanek in the first round and needed another five sets to beat French wildcard Mathias Bourgue in the second.

Two four-setters followed to see off Richard Gasquet in the last-eight and Wawrinka in the semi-finals.

Murray has spent close to 18 hours on court to get to Sunday's final.

Despite trailing 23-10 in career meetings with Djokovic, the Scot enjoyed a morale-boosting win on clay in the Rome final last month.

Djokovic had come out on top in the Madrid final, also on clay, the previous week after the Serb had also swept to victory in the Australian Open final in January.

"Novak obviously plays great on all of the surfaces. But this is a new experience for both of us," said Murray, the 10th man to have reached all Grand Slam finals.

"We only played once here before. It was a pretty tight match last year in the semis. So I expect a very, very tough match on Sunday."
GettyImages-818575

Getty Image / George De Sota/Newsmakers

Theres been no shortage of reflection and celebration when it comes to the remarkable life of Muhammad Ali. Thats essentially the deal when youre one of the most beloved figures in American sport and American culture in general. He was the champ, he stood for his beliefs and ranks as a true one-off.

Among the tributes pouring in as the public remembers The Greatest is one from presidential candidate and its 2016 and everything seems to come back to this guy press magnet Donald Trump. The current GOP hope for the White House marked Alis passing with a tweet very much in the voice of The Donald.

Muhammad Ali is dead at 74! A truly great champion and a wonderful guy. He will be missed by all!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2016

Naturally, the internet went wait, isnt that the dude thats been making incredibly controversial remarks about Muslims? To which a healthy stockpile of receipts replied, YUP! It was pretty much instantaneous that a certain infamous tweet was placed in the spotlight to dispute Trump having a pro-Ali stance.

Trump cant be too surprised that his tweet got this response. After all, his comments about Muslims have been much more inflammatory than theyve been diplomatic. Its an issue that Muhammad Ali even spoke out about and was swiftly recirculating on the internet once again.

Statement from Muhammad Ali on the proposed Muslim ban (from 12/9/15)pic.twitter.com/VxH7Sj0NPh  Matt Mackowiak (@MattMackowiak) June 4, 2016

If theres a single tweet that sums up a healthy chunk of Twitters reaction to Trumps comments on Ali, its this one.

.@realDonaldTrump you are the epitome of everything he despised  Brian Gaar (@briangaar) June 4, 2016

(via BroBible)
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank has urged German state-owned lender Bremer Landesbank to shore up its capital resources against non-performing loans in shipping, three sources familiar with the matter said.

Bremer (BLB) needs another 700 million euros (551 million pounds) in equity, weekly magazine Focus reported earlier on Saturday, citing talks between the city-state's finance chief and parliamentary leaders.

"There are close discussions with the ECB," one of the sources told Reuters. Strengthening BLB's capital is a "matter of intense talks," a second source said.

Germany was one of the world's main centres of global ship finance before the 2008 financial crisis, and the five German banks with the closest links to the shipping industry still have around 80 billion euros on loan to the sector.

NordLB, BLB's majority owner, and BLB itself are bracing for losses this year due to their exposure to shipping.

NordLB's rivals such as HSH (HSH.UL), Commerzbank (CBKG.DE), DVB (DVBG.F) and KFW (KFW.UL) have also taken writedowns and boosted capital buffers against the risk of shipping loans turning bad.

The ECB and BLB both declined comment while Bremen's finance chief, Karoline Linnert, didn't return calls seeking comment.

"NordLB is sufficiently capitalised and fulfils all supervisory capital quotas," a spokesman for NordLB said, declining to elaborate.

Focus reported that BLB could provide 300 million euros by itself with shareholders accounting for 400 million euros.

($1 = 0.8795 euros)

(Reporting by Andreas Kroener and Frank Siebelt; Writing by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
What Were Following: An Absolute Conflict

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump escalated his attacks on federal judge Gonzalo Curiel, calling on the judge to recuse himself because he is of Mexican heritage, Trump said Thursday night. Curiel is presiding over the Trump University class-action lawsuits; he is from Indiana.

May Day: The U.S. economy added a disappointing 38,000 jobs in May, the Labor Department announced Friday. The numbers fell far short of economists estimates of 158,000 jobs. Labor Department estimates also revised the number of jobs added in March and April downward.

FIFAs Funds: A group of top leaders in FIFA paid themselves tens of millions of dollars in secret bonuses and salary increases, investigators revealed Friday. Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and two other executives allegedly approved up to $80 million in bonuses for each other. All three men have either been suspended or fired from the organization.

Snapshot

The Thunderbirds perform a fly-over as graduates from the U.S. Air Force Academy toss their hats in the air on June 2, 2016. See more photos from the weeks news here. (Kevin Lamarque / Reuters)

Quoted

Maybe it's producing some kind of weapon. what Tradd Cotter, a mushroom farmer, thought when he noticed an unusual pattern of fungus growth

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How do you talk about bullying, empathy, active listening in a way that's not preachy and not corny? I wrote it like I was writing for my peers. Ike Ramos, who writes educational rap songs for kids

When you put your fingerprint on the phone, youre actually communicating something. Youre saying, Hi, its me. Please open up. Al Gidari, a lawyer who specializes in technology

Evening Read

Doualy Xaykaothao on what its like to be both Midwestern and Hmong:

Nou Vang Thao, now in his mid-50s, was a young guerrilla foot soldier for the CIA, along with his father, uncles, and relatives. They risked their lives for a U.S. cause and allowed many American soldiers to return home to their families.  Forty years ago this year, Thao and his relatives were the first Hmong family to be sponsored by a Lutheran church in Wausau, Wisconsin. Tens of thousands of Hmong followed, direct from Thai refugee camps. Thao embraced the small, scenic city of Wausau as his new home. The area was mainly a dairy-farm community that was also known nationally for its paper mills and insurance company. Thao loved the Wisconsin River, which split the city in half. He wanted to love the people, too, but the locals didnt exactly welcome him. Despite being a war veteran, many people confused him with the enemyassuming he was Vietnamese or, worse, Viet Cong. Thao says he sometimes had to remind people he fought for freedom, not communism. Even today, he said. People dont know why the Hmong are in Wisconsin, and coworkers, they dont care to know why we are here. We couldnt stay in our country because of our involvement with the white man. Weve given Americans 100 percent of our heart, but theyve only given us 20 percent.

Story continues

Continue reading here.

News Quiz

1. Ten ____________ will compete on their own team at the Rio Olympics this year.

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(Click here or scroll down for the answer.)

2. Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis predicted the ______________ of 1929.

(Click here or scroll down for the answer.)

3. Deaths from _____________ have risen 137 percent since 2000.

(Click here or scroll down for the answer.)

Reader Response

Whats been your greatest financial struggle? One reader writes:

Supposedly I did everything right. I worked hard to be the first person in my family to graduate from college. I did so with only $3,000 in student loans. I took several internships and kept a part-time job all while going to school full time. I got a job at a hip company right out of college. Everything went right. Except the pay isnt great, because, hey, I dont have any experience. So I answered an ad on Craigslist for a roommate to save money. By the end, there had been people on my couch running from the cops, multiple cockroaches on my pillow, and my landlord saying it wasnt her problem that I didnt like bugs. So I moved out. Except the rent and utilities to go to this job cost me half my income. I end up just making ends meet. And its like, why did I work so hard then? Wasnt college and working hard supposed to get me somewhere? Im just as broke now as my family was when I was a kid.

Read more here.

Verbs

Microbial civilization discovered, Paris flooded, cosmic expansion hastened.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
The ball is in your court, Marvel!

ET caught up with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows star Brian Tee for a Facebook Live chat in support of the film's opening weekend, where the actor revealed he's already thought about which Marvel character he'd like to play in a movie.

"Marvel Studios just picked up the rights to Namor who is the Sub-Mariner, and I would love to play the Sub-Mariner," the 39-year-old actor said on Friday. "I grew up as a comic geek and the Sub-Mariner has been one of my childhood, fondest, fondest superheros, and I feel like I could play him."

EXCLUSIVE: Stephen Amell Dishes on 'TMNT 2', Olicity and Why Being a Dad is His Favorite Role Yet

We'd watch that!

Either way, Tee hopes that the spotlight on diversity in Hollywood will lead to more starring roles for actors of color.

"I feel like it's very few and far between Asian Americans and people of color are given these opportunities to be kind of leads in films," he explains. "I would love to see more of that. It doesn't necessarily have to be me, but I think the time has come for us to allow those situations to happen."

Meanwhile, a big moment for Tee -- who plays Shredder in TMNT 2 -- was seeing the villain's lair for the first time.

WATCH: A Comprehensive List of Celebrities Who Have Spoken Out About the Lack of Diversity at the Oscars

"When I was in full costume and actually in Shredder's lair, there was this shiny combustion thing or something like that, but it was so shiny it had a reflection and I walked past and it was like, 'Oh. That's me. I'm actually shredder in this movie. This is happening,'" the actor explains. "It's huge shoes to fill, a huge responsibility. So I kind of took that to heart."

Check out more of our live chat with Tee below.

WATCH: New 'TMNT 2' Trailer Features Purple Ooze, Sky Surfing and Master Splinter!

Story continues

So much fun!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is currently in theaters.

Watch a trailer for the new movie below.

Related Articles
By Ned Parker and Jonathan Landay (Reuters) - A 17-month U.S. effort to retrain and reunify Iraq's regular army has failed to create a large number of effective Iraqi combat units or limit the power of sectarian militias, according to current and former U.S. military and civilian officials. Concern about the shortcomings of the American attempt to strengthen the Iraqi military comes as Iraqi government forces and Shiite militias have launched an offensive to retake the city of Falluja from Islamic State. Aid groups fear the campaign could spark a humanitarian catastrophe, as an estimated 50,000 Sunni civilians remain trapped in the besieged town. The continued weakness of regular Iraqi army units and reliance on Shiite militias, current and former U.S. military officials said, could impede Prime Minister Haider al-Abadis broader effort to defeat Islamic State and win the long-term support of Iraqi Sunnis. The sectarian divide between the majority Shi'ite and minority Sunni communities threatens to split the country for good. Critics agree that there have been some military successes, citing the continued victories of American-trained Iraqi Special Forces, who have been fighting Islamic State for two years. But the presence of 4,000 American troops has failed to change the underlying Iraqi political dynamics that fuel the rise and growing power of sectarian militias. Retired U.S. Lieutenant General Mick Bednarek, who commanded the U.S. military training effort in Iraq from 2013 to 2015, said the Iraqi army has not improved dramatically in the past eight months. He blamed a variety of problems, from a lack of Iraqis wanting to join the military to the resistance of some lower-level Iraqi officers to sending units to American training. The Iraqi militarys capacity hasnt improved that much - part of that is the continuing challenge of recruitment and retention, said Bednarek. Our (officers) train who shows up, and the issue is we are not sure who is going to show up. Two senior U.S. military officers and Bednarek said that with few exceptions, the most effective and only truly non-sectarian Iraqi government fighting force is the Iraqi Special Forces, sometimes called the Counter-Terrorism Service. American officials expressed worry that the Special Forces units may burn out after nearly two years of continuous combat. MILITIA INFLUENCE Across Iraq, regular Iraqi army units have largely watched from the sidelines as Iraqi Special Forces and Shi'ite militias have reclaimed land from Islamic State, current and former U.S. military officials said. Militias have repeatedly taken advantage of the power vacuums that have emerged after Islamic State defeats. The Iraqi military operations command of Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad, is dominated by a Shi'ite militia leader, Abu Mehdi Mohandis, according to a current U.S. military officer, an Iraqi security official and three Iraqi officials who monitor the province. Mohandis serves as the chief state administrator for Shiite paramilitary forces. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned him in 2009 for allegedly attacking U.S. forces in Iraq. He was also convicted in absentia by Kuwaiti courts for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait. The Fifth Iraqi Army Division in eastern Diyala province is considered to be under the command of the Badr group, a powerful Shiite militia and political party with strong ties to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, according to four current and former U.S. military officers. In Baghdad, U.S. military officers estimate that 10 percent to 20 percent of the 300 officers who run the Iraqi military's Operations Command have an affinity or association with either the Badr militia or the Shiite religious leader Muqtada al Sadr. And after Iraqi Special Forces, aided by U.S. air strikes, captured a strategic oil refinery in the town of Baiji in October, Shiite militias looted all of its salvageable equipment, according to a senior U.S. military official and three Iraqi government officials. Over the past year, U.S. military officers have struggled to ensure that militias do not seize American weaponry delivered to the main Iraqi army supply depot in Taji and to a brigade in the Saqlawiya region. We would transfer arms to units in those areas - and either because of corrupt commanders or outright robbery - they would end up in the hands of the militia groups, said one U.S. officer. The officer noted, however, that controls have been tightened and the number of cases was small. "You can't eliminate it entirely. It's just not realistic." "AN OFFICIAL BODY" Iraqi government and senior paramilitary leaders said the reports of poor training and Shi'ite militia dominance in the military are false. They said the militias follow the orders of the prime minister and his military commanders. Iraqi defense ministry spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool called the militias an official body connected with the office of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces." He said they take their orders only from government officials and "have a great role in supporting the army forces and the federal police. Mohammed Bayati, a former human rights minister and senior Badr group leader, now commands forces in northern Salahuddin Province. He said the Shiite paramilitaries fall under the army, police and regular military chain-of-command. Bayati told Reuters that any reports of militias operating on their own were false. Yesterday, I was in the Salahuddin Operations Command, he said. "All orders are coming from the police and army leadership." The Shi'ite militias "are supporting the army and police. The spokesman for the government umbrella body that oversees the militias, Ahmed Al-Asadi, said the Shi'ite forces did not loot the Baiji refinery. "I deny totally such allegations," he said. Islamic State, he said, stole and destroyed equipment. The office of Prime Minister Abadi and the Iraqi Embassy in Washington didn't respond to requests for comment. AMERICAN CONCERNS But current and former U.S. military officials and local Sunni leaders say the militias continue to take advantage of the vacuums that emerge in predominantly Sunni areas after Islamic State forces are defeated. A lack of strong regular army units allows the militias to remain the dominant players. Norman Ricklefs, a former U.S. government adviser to the Iraqi interior and defense ministries, said the state has still not filled the void in most areas retaken from ISIS. He said militias are the most powerful they have been since Iraqi government forces defeated them in a series of battles across Iraq in 2008. Ricklefs regularly visits Iraq and maintains ties with the Iraqi security apparatus and Shiite and Sunni politicians. In the cities the militias occupy - Samarra and Tikrit and significant parts of eastern Baghdad - they are the most powerful force, Ricklefs said. "For the first time since 2008, the government has lost control of large parts of cities" to Shiite militias. One senior U.S military official said the setbacks call into question the Obama administration's overall strategy in Iraq. He said any military training effort would fail until the U.S. put more pressure on Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni political leaders to strike a genuine power-sharing agreement. "We need to accelerate the reconciliation piece to make Sunnis feel they are part of the government, said the official, who asked not to be named. Are we really in any way focused on that?" Obama administration officials said the U.S. strategy is succeeding and Iraqi forces have steadily grown stronger with American support. U.S. advisers have helped train existing units and set up two new Iraqi divisions, according to American and Iraqi officials. They achieved this despite struggling with shortfalls in Iraqi funding to hire new soldiers and a shortage of Iraqi Shiite volunteers. But there has been little improvement in overall Iraqi army combat readiness, according to a U.S. civilian official, one ex-official, a former general and three current senior U.S. military officers. Last October, American military officials estimated that only five Iraqi army divisions were ready for battle and put their combat readiness at only 60 to 65 percent. Today, those figures have increased only marginally, the officials said. 'LION'S SHARE' OF PROGRESS The U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Colonel Chris Garver, said that despite the difficulties, U.S. forces have seen Iraqi army units improve after training. He also cited advances by army brigades in areas around Falluja as signs of success. But Garver acknowledged that the lions share of military offensives has been spearheaded by the Special Forces, and that two years of battle are taking a toll on Iraqs elite soldiers. The Government of Iraq has relied heavily on the Iraqi special operations forces and the potential for these forces being depleted into combat ineffectiveness is a real concern, he said. Garver said the regular Iraqi army continues to struggle with increasing its ranks. Recruiting and funding have both been well-documented challenges for the GOI," or Government of Iraq. "These are areas the GOI must address. Brigadier Rasool, the Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman, rejected any suggestion that the regular Iraqi army was not an equal partner to the Iraqi Special Forces. We have troops who were able to retake land from Daesh, Rasool said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. After the fall of Mosul, the Ministry of Defenses joint command has resupplied and retrained the Iraqi security forces. The current and former U.S. officials contended that the Falluja offensive is again exposing the weakness of regular army units. "The regular army does not seem to have been rebuilt," Ricklefs said, "and its a real pity. (Reported by Ned Parker in New York and Jonathan Landay in Washington. Warren Strobel and Yara Bayoumy contributed reporting from Washington; Edited by David Rohde and John Walcott)
When Donald Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee in May, those within the party who had resisted him began to line up behind him. They may have had their misgivings, but their constituents had spoken, and they would listen.

One man, however, was not so eager to get with the program - House Speaker Paul Ryan.

"I am not there right now," he told Jake Tapper of CNN in May, and he wasn't alone. In a speech at the University of Utah, 2012 Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney offered harsh criticism of the real estate mogul turned politician, saying dishonesty is Trumps hallmark.

On Thursday, however, Ryan announced that he would endorse Trump in the Janesville Gazette.

"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..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."

Speaker Ryan is not alone in his party as one who once spoke out against Trump, only to endorse him. In fact, its not unheard of for a politician to sharply criticize an opponent, then turn around and endorse, or even work for, the very person they had just lambasted.

In 1980, George Bush, Sr. called Ronald Reagans supply-side economic proposals voodoo economics, then became his vice president. In 2008, Hillary Clinton ran the infamous 3am ad, which implied that a vote for then-Senator Barack Obama was tantamount to a vote for a nuclear holocaust. Despite the implication that her opponent was too much of a rookie to be trusted with national security matters, she still became his Secretary of State.

Still, the ferocity of the attacks leveled against Trump by Republicans at the local, state and national levels has been downright ugly, and has at times featured invective so hostile that the idea of an endorsement afterwards seemed almost laughable.

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Be that as it may, many of these same people put on their best public relations smiles and boarded the Trump train.

Fortune presents a rundown of some of his detractors' most withering criticisms, followed by their eventual endorsements.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

January 4, 2016: Showtime is over. We are not electing an entertainer-in-chief. Showmanship is fun, but it is not the kind of leadership that will truly change America.

February 26, 2016: "There is no one better prepared to provide America with the strong leadership that it needs both at home and around the world than Donald Trump."

Texas Senator John Cornyn

February 29, 2016: "We cant have a nominee be an albatross around the down-ballot races I think we need someone who can unify the party, as opposed to divide the party."

April 28, 2016: "I think it will be OK."

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley

December 8, 2015: "[Trump's proposed Muslim travel ban is] just an embarrassment to the Republican Party... It's absolutely un-American. It's unconstitutional. It defies everything this country was based on, and it's just wrong."

May 4, 2016: "I will support the Republican nominee for president."

California Representative Darrell Issa

February 23, 2016: "[Todd Akin] was the wrong candidate and it wasn't until later that they realized that somebody who wasn't thinking about what they said, who was saying things that were off the wall brought down the party... Donald Trump could be a national Todd Akin if our party doesn't coalesce behind a single candidate."

May 5, 2016: Donald Trump is the obvious choice for every American.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal

September 15, 2015: Donald Trump is a madman who must be stopped."

May 8, 2016: "I am planning to vote for Donald Trump."

New York Representative Peter King

February 19, 2016: America needs a President with the strength and quiet dignity of George W. Bush, not a feckless pretender like Donald Trump, who has descended into a poor mans imitation of Michael Moore.

May 4, 2016: "I will vote for him and I will endorse him."

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul

January 25, 2016: "Donald Trump is a delusional narcissist and an orange-faced windbag. A speck of dirt is way more qualified to be president."

May 5, 2016: "You know, I've always said I'll endorse the nominee."

Indiana Governor Mike Pence

December 8, 2015: "Calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional."

May 7, 2016: I look forward to supporting our presumptive nominee."

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry

July 22, 2015: "Let no one be mistaken - Donald Trump's candidacy is a cancer on conservatism, and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded."

May 5, 2016: "He's not a perfect man, but what I do believe is that he loves this country and that he will surround himself with capable, experienced people and that he will listen to them."

Florida Senator Marco Rubio

March 4, 2016: Donald Trump has been perhaps the most vulgar  no I dont think perhaps  the most vulgar person to ever aspire to the presidency in terms of how hes carried out his candidacy.

Donald Trump is a con artist -- and he cannot be our nominee. #NeverTrump https://t.co/3ZYQZraCfNhttps://t.co/8wm9ToY7El  Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 27, 2016

May 10, 2016: "I signed a pledge, put my name on it, and said I would support the Republican nominee and thats what I intend to do.

Utah Representative Chris Stewart

March 7, 2016: Hes our Mussolini... As a Republican, Im telling you: Donald Trump does not represent Republican ideals.

May 7, 2016: "While Mr. Trump wasn't my first choice, we must move forward and unite to defeat Hillary Clinton."

Daniel Bukszpan is a New York-based freelance writer.

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.com
Donald Trump

A longtime US diplomat is worried that Donald Trump's "America-first" foreign policy strategy could jeopardize the world order if it's put into practice.

Ryan Crocker, a career US ambassador who has worked across the Middle East including as the ambassador to Syria, told Business Insider last week that an isolationist worldview could harm the US in the long run and "lead to a reordering or disordering of the rest of the world."

"The entire post-World War II order is predicated on US global leadership," Crocker said.

He added: "Can we fix everything in the world? Of course not. But unless youre prepared to talk about a fundamental shift in the architecture of the international arena for the last 70 years, the US needs to lead."

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has said that an "America-first" strategy would be "the major and overriding theme" of his administration.

"My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people, and American security, above all else," Trump said in an April speech. "That will be the foundation of every decision that I will make."

Crocker, who worked for both Democratic and Republican administrations spanning nearly 40 years, acknowledged that this could be "dangerous."

"We are seeing the unraveling of the Middle East, with the US widely considered simply checked out," Crocker said. "And you see it in Europe where the Europeans are reeling under the weight of the refugee crisis [and] are more badly divided than at any point since World War II  the Russians love it."

Leaders within Russia, which has had frosty relations with the US under President Barack Obama, and North Korea, with which the US has no diplomatic relationship, have both praised Trump to varying degrees as he has indicated that he would shy away from America's traditional alliances as president.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Trump is "a brighter person, talented without a doubt." Trump, in turn, has said "an easing of tensions and improved relations with Russia, from a position of strength only, is possible."

North Korean state media has praised Trump as "wise politician and presidential candidate with foresight," noting that he would "solve problems by directly talking with North Korea." Trump had said in a recent interview with Reuters that he would have "no problem" speaking to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

Trump has also said the NATO alliance is "obsolete," insisted that US allies should contribute more to their own defense, and suggested that South Korea and Japan should be able to obtain their own nuclear weapons to defend themselves from threats.

"We have spent trillions of dollars over time  on planes, missiles, ships, equipment  building up our military to provide a strong defense for Europe and Asia," Trump said in his April foreign-policy address outlining his worldview.

"The countries we are defending must pay for the cost of this defense  and, if not, the US must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves."

While Trump has praised US involvement in World War II, saying that America "saved the world" in the 1940s by helping beat back the Nazis, his public pronouncements about America's role in the world have had an isolationist tilt.

Crocker warned that such a worldview from an American leader could have long-term implications.

"America first? Well, there'd better be a serious conversation about what that entails," Crocker said. "Because it's going to lead to a reordering or disordering of the rest of the world. And the consequences of that may not be conducive to keeping America first in the long run."

NOW WATCH: Greg Norman reveals the truth behind President Clintons late-night 1997 injury





More From Business Insider


Paris (AFP) - France has disciplined five soldiers accused of physical abuse in Central African Republic, where Paris had sent peacekeepers to quell bloody sectarian violence, the defence ministry said on Saturday.

There are currently three investigations under way into allegations that French troops in the country sexually abused children, but the latest case does not relate to sexual acts, a ministry source said, without giving further details.

The five are accused of physically abusing two Central Africans at a military outpost in the capital Bangui in 2014, according to the Ouest-France newspaper.

"In view of the gravity of the facts, the five soldiers have been suspended," the ministry said, adding: "Simultaneously disciplinary action has been launched... as a precursor to their eviction from the military."

France launched the Sangaris military operation in 2013 in its desperately poor and chronically restive former colony after the outbreak of inter-communal violence between Muslim and Christian militias that has killed thousands.

The mission is due to end in December this year, after a progressive draw-down.
Freddie Gibbs was arrested Thursday night in Toulouse, France on charges stemming from an alleged rape that occurred in Austria in August 2015. The Shadow of a Doubt rapper was scheduled to perform at Toulouse's Le Rex Friday night when he was detained, forcing the cancellation of the concert.

Freddie Gibbs on Why He's Not in the NBA, and King MJ

A European warrant was issued for the rapper's arrest, Le Depeche reports. Austrian authorities are now seeking extradition for the rapper to face questions regarding the investigation in Austria. A decision on Gibbs' status could come in several days.

"Freddie Gibbs adamantly denies the allegations that have been levied against by Austrian authorities," Gibbs' lawyer told Rolling Stone in a statement. "It makes you wonder why it took almost a year for Austrian officials to bring these charges. Freddie will be fighting the extradition request as these are nothing more than trumped up charges."

Gibbs' set at Primavera Friday was also canceled "due to unforeseen circumstances beyond the festivals control," the fest tweeted Friday.

Gibbs had a Vienna, Austria concert scheduled for May 26th, but that show was abruptly canceled. "Apologies to my fans in Vienna, Austria. Had some transportation issues. Will be back soon," Gibbs tweeted at the time without mentioning that a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

The status of Gibbs' remaining European shows  including stops in London, Marseilles, and Porto, Portugal  is unclear. The rapper's next North American concert is scheduled for June 17th in Toronto. Recently, Gibbs revealed that he and Madlib were reteaming for their follow-up to Pinata, one of Rolling Stone's 40 Best Rap Albums of 2014.

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Image via Hot New Hip Hop

Image via Hot New Hip Hop

On Thursday, Freddie Gibbs was scheduled to perform a show in Toulouse, France, but moments before he was to take the stage at Toulouse venue the Rex, he was arrested by French police. The arrest stems from an alleged rape that took place in Austria in 2015.

A hearing took place yesterday afternoon at the commissariat central in Toulouse, and then Gibbs was taken to prison while waiting to be extradited to Austria, to be questioned by local detectives. Gibbs plans to fight the extradition, according to his lawyer Scott Leemon. On May 26, Gibbs was scheduled to perform in Austria, but tweeted that he wouldnt be able to make it due to transportation issues.

Leemon provided a statement to AllHipHop.com that questioned the validity of the charges, saying, Freddie Gibbs adamantly denies the allegations that have been levied against by Austrian authorities. It makes you wonder why it took almost a year for Austrian officials to bring these charges. Freddie will be fighting the extradition request as these are nothing more than trumped up charges.

In 2012, Gibbs told Noisey that he aint never assaulted no woman, saying, Yeah, Ive gotten arrested for gun possession, drug possession, shit like that. Never no rape, no assault or battery, I aint like that, I aint never assaulted no woman, no petty shit, none of that. Just basically protecting myself.

More from Pigeons & Planes
Freddie Gibbs lawyer has come forward to deny charges of rape after the rappers arrest in France.

Before the rapper was set to perform at Le Rex in Toulouse on Thursday (June 2), he was arrested by authorities for the alleged incident that happened a year prior in Austria, La Depeche reports.

In a statement to VIBE via email, Scott E. Leemon described the charges as trumped up and questioned the timing of the arrest. Currently, the rapper is on an international tour spanning from Switzerland, Germany and Isreal.

Gibbs adamantly denies the allegations that have been levied against by Austrian authorities, Leemon said. It makes you wonder why it took almost a year for Austrian officials to bring these charges. [Freddie] will be fighting the extradition request as these are nothing more than trumped up charges.

Billboard reports the 33-year-old was present before a judge in France on Friday to fight extradition to Austria. The rapper himself has yet to publically comment on the charges. Aside from his tour, Gibbs recently announced plans to reunite with Madlib for a new project called Bandana. It would be a follow-up to their widely received 2015 EP, Pinata.

So far, his upcoming shows in France, Toronto and Portugal have not been canceled.
3rd Annual Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival

Getty Image

Freddie Gibbs remains behind bars after being accused of raping a woman in 2015, per reports. French publication La Depeche broke the story and reports the 33-year-old rapper was picked up and arrested in Toulouse, France, Thursday, June 2nd, just before the rapper was to perform at Rex as part of his Shadow of a Doubt European Tour.

Gibbs, real name Fredrick Tipton, was arrested on an Austrian warrant that had been issued when a woman claimed she was raped in Austria by the rapper in 2015, allegations Gibbs and his attorney vehemently deny. In a statement released to several publications, Gibbs attorney says the womans claims are nothing more than trumped up charges.

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Freddie Gibbs adamantly denies the allegations that have been levied against by Austrian authorities. It makes you wonder why it took almost a year for Austrian officials to bring these charges. Freddie will be fighting the extradition request as these are nothing more than trumped up charges.

While Depeche claims a hearing took place on Friday, Gibbs reps say the rapper only met with the French prosecutor general and that a hearing is still pending.

(via HHDX)
It wasnt just the pressure of breaking the Open Era record of most number of Grand Slams wins that made Serena Williams stumble once again in the finals of a Major this season. Garbine Muguruza proved to be too good for the legendary American at the French Open today, as she routed the latter 7-5, 6-4, in a battle of youth vs. experience.



The 22-year-old Spaniard dominated the 21-Grand Slam champion on clay  a surface where the American had won the least number of Slams in her otherwise illustrious career. Incidentally, this was Muguruzas second straight win over Williams on the red dirt in Roland Garros; her first win happened in 2014, in the third round, which as well, was in straight sets.

The crowd at Philippe Chatrier court supported the young girl, even as they cheered for the defending champion. Muguruza managed to put pressure on Williams throughout the match, maintaining her lead all the while. The Spaniard broke her opponents serve in the fifth game of the first set. However, she failed to capitalise on that lead and let Williams broke her back in the eighth game.

Tied at 5-5, Muguruza peaked at the pivotal moment, breaking Williams serve once again in the 11th game, putting herself in a position to win the first set, and she managed to do that, with a brilliant backhand winner that Williams could barely retrieve.

Muguruza started the second set in a remarkable fashion by breaking Williams serve in the first game itself. The nonchalant youngster, who had been to the Wimbledon final last year, seemed to be determined to not let another Slam slip from her hands once again. Williams, on the other hand, who is also known for her many comebacks from the brink of defeats, failed to find her rhythm. Her frustrations were obvious, shouting come on, time and again.

Muguruza lost her focus, and made repeated faults, giving away her lead. Nevertheless, she compensated quickly by breaking Williams once again. In no time, the lead moved to 4-2. Muguruza had her chances to close the match in the ninth game, but she missed her three match point opportunities as her opponent survived that scare.

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Serving for match at 5-4, the stoic Spaniard made no mistakes. It was a love game, and she couldnt believe that everything got over so fast. Garbine Muguruza has become a Grand Slam champion!

It was really weird. Serena was in front of the ball so I didnt know if it was in or out. I looked at the chair umpire and chair umpire didnt want to say anything, the line judge didnt want to say anything, Muguruza later described at the press conference why it took her a moment to realize she had actually won that point.



Williams, who leaves no stone unturned to fight her way back, had to be contended with a runners-up trophy this time, as her wait to break Steffi Grafs all-time record continues.
Theres Hyundai, and then theres Genesis. The two brands there were once one in the same, have now parted ways to attack the market in both the mainstream and luxury segments. And Genesis isnt holding back.

On top of the introduction of the stunningly beautiful, poorly named New York Concept we saw earlier in the year, execs are planning an electric luxury vehicle to take on the likes of Tesla. At least, thats according to a new report from Automotive News. Senior Vice President Manfred Fitzgerald had this to say:

We will definitely go as Genesis brand down the road of alternative propulsions and it is very, very obvious that EV is definitely on the map. I think full electric cars will be the future in the auto industry.

RELATED: See More of the Stunning Genesis New York Concept

That promising future is still murky at this point, as Fitzgerald neglected to give any other information about the upcoming project. Even more interesting, though, alongside a luxurious, electric sedan, Genesis plans to roll out performance-oriented versions of its vehicles courtesy of Hyundais N department.

The Genesis cars wont carry the N moniker, though, according to the performance divisions head, Albert Biermann. The first two models expected to get the hotted-up treatment should be the G70 and G80.

Expect more details on both reports closer to the end of the year.

RELATED: See Photos of the 2015 Hyundai Genesis




Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are now looking toward the general election, criticizing each other with more vigor than ever now that they have all but dispatched of their primary challengers.

But while Trump has benefited from his tough-talking mudslinging, his opponents have had a hard time matching his bombastic style without getting dragged down into the mud themselves.

"It's important that Clinton lays out a contrast that shows why you shouldn't vote for her opponent," Ben LaBolt, a veteran Democratic strategist who worked on President Barack Obama's two presidential campaigns, told Business Insider.

"The trap is to jump at the tabloid headlines that Donald Trump is trying to drive every day," he added.

To that end, Clinton on Thursday delivered a blistering national-security speech in California, attacking Trump's competency to serve as the nation's commander in chief and blasting his foreign-policy positions. It was the latest in a line of policy-focused critiques of the Republican presidential nominee.

"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 after Clinton's Thursday address.

"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."

Clinton tried to rectify that on Thursday  she went after Trump harder than ever before with zingers like this one: "He says he has foreign-policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia." But it remains to be seen whether she can command the kind of attention that Trump gets with his no-holds-barred attacks on his opponents.

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Trump packed rallies during primary season and locked down the Republican nomination while mounting vicious attacks on other candidates. He came up with simplistic nicknames for those running against him, like Sens. Ted Cruz ("Lyin' Ted") and Marco Rubio ("Little Marco"). And he dominated news coverage with at-times outrageous pronouncements.

When one of his targets, Rubio, tried to beat Trump at his own game, he damaged his candidacy beyond repair. After weathering repeated personal attacks from Trump, Rubio went on the offensive, insulting Trump's "spray tan" and "small hands" during a rally in February. But it didn't help him at the polls  he lost even his home state of Florida weeks later  and he has since admitted that he regrets the attacks.

Stephanie Cutter, a political consultant who was Obama's deputy campaign manager in 2012, advised hitting back at Trump, but carefully.

"I don't think it's possible to stay out of the fray," Cutter said at a panel discussion at The Common Good Forum in New York recently. "... I don't think you have to bite back in the same way, but I think that there's a lot of ground that hasn't been covered on Donald Trump."

Clinton has acknowledged that while she's looking forward to running against Trump in the general election, she can't sink to his level.

"See, I don't think it's as fraught with complexity as some people are suggesting," she told New York magazine in a recent interview. "I think the trap is not to get drawn in on his terms. We saw what happened to those Republicans who tried."

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to a member of the media following a news conference at Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., May 31, 2016 REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

Cutter said the differences between Trump and Clinton will become apparent during the general election.

"We're in a general election," Cutter said. "We're talking about a different set of voters" compared to the primary contests that help decide the party nominees.

"Now you're talking about roughly 6% of the vote you're going after, what we call 'persuadables.' Do they want to be hearing about Vince Foster?" she continued, referring to the former White House counsel in then-President Bill Clinton's administration.

Trump has recently mounted attacks centered on Foster, who committed suicide in 1993 and whose death has been the subject of numerous internet conspiracy theories.

Clinton's strategy to tear down Trump will likely be centered largely on economic issues, considering that the real-estate mogul emphasizes his business background as proof he'd be a tough negotiator for the US. And economic issues are likely to be especially relevant this election cycle  a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed that economic growth is the top issue voters think the federal government should address.

"Donald Trump is running on his record as what he says is a successful businessman, so the Clinton campaign is actually taking a look at that record and the findings are surprising," LaBolt said. "I think one thing they found is rampant fraud."

trump university

"This is somebody who ran what he called a 'university' that handed out nothing more than PowerPoint presentations and a participation certificate that didn't look anything like a degree after a couple of days in a conference room," LaBolt said of the controversial, for-profit school known as Trump University.

Clinton took aim at Trump University on Wednesday, accusing Trump of "trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump U."

And her campaign press secretary, Brian Fallon, said on Twitter that Trump University was "devastating" because it's a "metaphor for his whole campaign: promising hardworking Americans [a] way to get ahead, but all based on lies."

Cutter detailed other issues surrounding Trump's business background that she thinks should be investigated:

Republicans were abysmal during the primary season for raising really important issues about Donald Trump. And not, you know, the size of his hands. I'm talking about  what are the consequences of shutting down all trade to the United States? What exactly is his business background? Why won't he release his tax returns? Is he really as rich as he says? Or how really did he make his money?  Those are very important issues because it goes to an overarching trust, who can actually deliver the change.

Democrats seem to be rallying behind Clinton in her attacks on Trump's business record.

Obama on Wednesday delivered a speech in Indiana that served as his first foray into the 2016 presidential race. Obama excoriated Trump's proposals and focused on the economic recovery in Indiana, making the case that a Democrat in the White House will keep the country on a path to prosperity.

And the Democratic National Committee just launched a new micro website called "taxesbytrump.com," which plays on the fact that Trump hasn't yet released his tax returns. Whenever users attempt to click on a large red "see returns" box, it zips away from the cursor.

"This is somebody who multiple times paid a 0% tax rate and still won't release his returns," LaBolt said of Trump. "... So obviously that suggests he'd set up an economic system that would be rigged for him."

Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has argued that Trump seeks to "pay the smallest amount of taxes possible," arguing that "that's the mindset you want to bring to the government." And for his part, Trump has suggested a 0% tax rate for low-income people.

Clinton is also likely to continue to hit Trump on national security and foreign policy, with her speech Thursday serving as the latest salvo in her argument that she's more suited to the job of commander in chief.

Trump, in contrast, spent much of a Thursday-night rally raising the bar of his attacks on Clinton. The former secretary of state, he suggested, has to "go to jail" because of the scandal involving her use of a private email server.

"All right, I said it," he said. "She has to go to jail."

NOW WATCH: Donald Trump claims he never said these things  lets look at the footage





More From Business Insider


Tens of thousands of flickering candles lit up Hong Kongs Victoria Park on Saturday night local time as people gathered to commemorate the 27th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.

The vigil is held every year to memorialize the thousands of pro-democracy students who were brutally gunned down by Chinese soldiers on June 4, 1989. China has suppressed all mention of the massacre on the mainland, but Hong Kongs unique status as a special administrative region governed under the one country, two systems principle exempts it from the communist governments censorship. It is the only Tiananmen vigil permitted on Chinese soil, and the largest memorial of the massacre in the world.

Despite concerns of a lower turnout this year, organizers estimated 125,000 people attended. A somber minutes silence was followed by eruptions of applause that echoed through the Causeway Bay cityscape as the crowd watched videos, eulogies, songs and speeches.

We come here because of our conscience, Y.K. Lau, a 50-year-old doctor, explains as he walks through Victoria Park under a yellow umbrella  a symbol of the 2014 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, known as the Umbrella Revolution. By holding our candlelight, we send a signal to those being suppressed in China and warm their hearts.

But Hong Kongs fractured democracy movement has deeply politicized the event. Build a democratic China is one of the founding principles of the event organizer, Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China  a heavily contested goal that has caused several student activist groups not only to resign from the alliance, but also to host alternative events that prioritize a democratic Hong Kong that is separate from mainland China. We are against their vision that they want to be a democratic China, says Althea Suen, president of the Hong Kong University Students Union (HKUSU), the most recent group to splinter off.

Story continues

Many democracy activists see Hong Kong as being culturally and linguistically distinct from mainland China and are fighting for greater democratic freedoms in the territory, with some hard-line localist groups even advocating independence.

Some people dont believe in this ceremony because they cannot see rapid progress. They want something to change immediately, Alex, a 26-year-old-nurse who has attended the vigil for the past five years, told TIME above the music.

In a parallel event, the HKUSU organized a 90-minute academic forum at the University of Hong Kong, where several generations of Hong Kong academics were invited to discuss the future of the city. The intent was not to boycott, Suen emphasizes, but to channel the memory of those killed in the massacre and look at these June 4 issues based on our Hong Kong identity.

But the dozens of political groups clamoring over loudspeakers along Great George Street didnt stop thousands from flocking to the park to commemorate the bloody crackdown. The message from Saturdays vigil, which was attended by people of all ages, was first and foremost about unity. On stage, Professor Ivan Choy of the Chinese University of Hong Kong called on every young person in the crowd to stand. Throngs of students stood and cheered.

It doesnt matter if people join the assembly in Victoria Park or at the university, the most important thing is that we share a common goal, says student activist Joshua Wong, who led the pro-democracy protests two years ago and is now secretary general of nascent political party Demosisto. Its that we will never forget the June 4 incident.
Police in Houston, Texas, claim they've made an arrest in the May 17 stabbing death of an 11-year-old who was walking home from school, PEOPLE confirms.



Reached by phone Saturday morning, a spokesman for Houston's police force tells PEOPLE that Andre Jackson, who is 27, was detained and arrested for allegedly murdering Josue Flores.



Jail records indicate Jackson is being held on $100,000 bail. Court filings do not indicate whether Jackson has legal representation who could comment on his behalf.



Jackson's arrest comes less than 24 hours after police released surveillance video showing a man running near the site of the stabbing, PEOPLE learns.



 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 attack occurred at around 4:40 p.m. the afternoon of May 17 as Flores was headed home from Marshall Middle School, according to investigators.



Court files accessed by PEOPLE show Jackson has two previous convictions on his record: one from this March for criminal trespassing and another from 2015 for unlawfully carrying of a weapon.



PEOPLE was unable to ascertain information regarding the sentences Jackson received for either conviction.



The arrest is the second in the Flores case. Initially, police had charged Che Calhoun with Josue's slaying. Days later, the charges were dismissed.
Houston police arrested a suspect in the stabbing death of an 11-year-old boy one day after the release of photos and videos of the man as a person of interest in the case.

Police arrested Andre Timothy Jackson Jr., 27, on Friday, June 3 and charged him with murder. Police released surveillance video of the suspect in the case on Thursday and said in a press release Jackson is the man in the video. Local reports state Jackson was living in a homeless shelter.

Josue Flores, 11, was stabbed multiple times on May 17 while walking home from Marshall Middle School after staying late for a Science Club party. There is no connection between Jackson and the sixth grader, according to reports. Police had previously arrested and then released a different homeless man for the crime the day after the killing.

Police said in a press release Flores was walking home from school when he was approached by the suspect. Several witnesses reported they heard loud screaming and saw Flores and the suspect struggling with each other. Flores then collapsed on the grass near the sidewalk before the suspect fled. Flores was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital to be treated with multiple stab wounds, but was pronounced dead a short time later. Credit: YouTube/Houston Police Department
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Afghanistan on Saturday to inaugurate a $290 million hydroelectric dam with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the latest Indian investment which highlights strengthening ties between the two countries.

The 42 megawatt Salma dam in western Herat province, bordering Iran, is the second major Indian project after a new parliament complex built under New Delhi's robust development partnership with Afghanistan.

Modi and Ghani jointly pressed the button on a remote-controlled console, sending torrents of water gushing down the dam as celebrations erupted with balloons released in the colours of the Indian flag.

"I want to give the good news to my people that 'Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam' is the prologue to construction of a series of dams that we have undertaken so that our provinces have access to electricity, water, food and work," Ghani said at the ceremony.

Construction on Salma dam, which will boost Afghanistan's power capacity and help irrigate thousands of hectares of farm land in a parched landscape, had been stalled by decades of conflict.

"Afghans and Indians dreamt of this project in the 1970s," Modi said.

"Today the brave Afghan people are sending a message that the forces of destruction, death, denial and domination shall not prevail. It is a historic moment of emotion and pride in the relations between Afghanistan and India."

India, the fifth largest bilateral donor in Afghanistan, has been a key supporter of Kabul's government and has poured more than $2 billion into the country since the Taliban was toppled from power in 2001.

- 'Building prosperity' -

New Delhi's active engagement has led analysts to point to the threat of a "proxy war" in Afghanistan between India and its nuclear-armed arch-rival Pakistan.

Pakistan -- the historic backer of the Taliban -- has long been accused of supporting the insurgents in Afghanistan, especially with attacks on Indian targets in the country.

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In December, Modi inaugurated Afghanistan's new parliament complex in Kabul, built by India at an estimated cost of $90 million.

A few days after his visit militants launched a 25-hour gun and bomb siege near the Indian consulate in Afghanistan's Mazar-i-Sharif city.

And in March, Taliban militants fired a barrage of rockets at the parliament complex.

"Destroying is easy and building is difficult. Contrary to those whose main art is destroying and sending messages of destruction, we have taken the difficult responsibility of building prosperity," Ghani said in a veiled reference to the Taliban.

"We resolutely believe that... prosperity triumphs over destruction. Hope is right and hopelessness is wrong; seeking peace is right and seeking war is wrong."

Diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Kabul have grown despite a series of attacks on Indian installations in Afghanistan.

The two countries recently signed a three-way transit agreement with Iran to develop its southern port of Chabahar, as Modi visited Tehran last month.

The deal, bypassing Pakistan to connect Iran, India, and Afghanistan to central Asia, would boost economic growth in the region, Modi said at the time.
TRENTO, Italy (Reuters) - Excessive capital requirements can backfire, Italy's economy minister said on Saturday, defending a joint French-Italian proposal to cap the amount of reserves that euro zone banks should have to wipe out before they can be rescued.

Rules in force since the beginning of this year require euro zone banks to respect a minimum requirement for their own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) in order to qualify for access to a bank-financed rescue fund in case of failure, and avoid full liquidation.

In a joint paper, seen by Reuters, Paris and Rome raised doubts on the rationale of introducing a floor for MREL and urged instead a cap that should not exceed 8 percent of banks' debt.

Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan told an economic conference on Saturday there was a risk banks could be asked to raise too much capital too quickly, which would leave them vulnerable if tough markets made it hard to raise funds.

"Instead of stronger banks we end up with weaker ones," he said.

"The French-Italian initiative at this very delicate stage of the creation of a banking union is a voice calling for caution. We're all going in the same direction, a stronger banking system, let's do so at the right pace, let's not exaggerate please."

Following the euro zone debt and banking crisis, EU countries have designed a banking union meant to strengthen lenders' financial stability, but have not yet brought the plan to completion.

Germany, the dominant power in the euro zone, is dragging its feet on a European bank deposit guarantee scheme, widely regarded as a missing link in the project.

"If we don't accept risk-sharing why are we wasting our time with the euro?," Padoan said.

Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco on Tuesday warned that incomplete progress in establishing a banking union risked making the euro zone more vulnerable because authorities may be unable to stop contagion in a crisis.

Padoan also saw potential contagion risks from 'bail in' rules hitting bank investors and large depositors before public money can be tapped to rescue a bank.

"We're building a banking union, let's try not to get hurt in the process. This, I think, was the message from the (Bank of Italy) governor whom I tend to agree with," Padoan said.

(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
By Jake Spring

BEIJING (Reuters) - Jaguar Land Rover is suing Chinese automaker Jiangling Motor for allegedly copying the British firm's Range Rover Evoque, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said - a rare move by a foreign automaker to fight copycats in the world's biggest autos market.

A spokesman for JLR, owned by India's Tata Motors (TAMO.NS), said in brief emailed comments to Reuters that a court in Beijing's eastern Chaoyang district "served Jiangling with newly filed actions surrounding copyright and unfair competition." He declined to elaborate.

The suit relates to Jiangling's Landwind X7 sport utility vehicle copying the design of the Evoque, JLR's first China-made model that went on sale last year, said the person with knowledge of the legal proceedings, who is not authorised to talk to the media and didn't want to be named.

A spokesman for Landwind declined to comment.

Despite widespread and often blatant copying, global automakers generally don't take legal action in China as they feel the odds of winning against local firms are low. Also, a lawsuit can be bad for branding if the Chinese public think a foreign company is bullying domestic competitors.

If JLR wins its case, it could prompt other automakers to also take legal action, said Chen Jihong, a Beijing-based lawyer at Zhong Lun Law Firm, speeding up a shift to stronger enforcement of intellectual property rights.

CLOSE RESEMBLANCE

Landwind unveiled a new version of its X7 SUV in November 2014, drawing criticism for its striking likeness to the Evoque, an imported version of which was already on sale in China.

The two SUVs have a similar shape, with the roof and windows tapering from front to back, and near identical tail lights and character lines on the side panelling. The X7's front grille is slightly more rounded than the hard edges of the Evoque.

The slight differences between the two cars can be virtually eliminated using widely available kits that allow a Range Rover grille, logo and Land Rover badges to be put on an X7. Kits on Alibaba's (BABA.N) Taobao shopping website cost around 128 yuan ($19.43).

Story continues

The X7 costs around a third of the price of an Evoque, and is some way behind in technology and performance, said Yale Zhang, managing director of Automotive Foresight.

The JLR spokesman said Jiangling has been barred by injunction from selling the X7 in Brazil, where it recently appointed an importer.

Separately, the source said with knowledge of the newly filed suit said the two automakers are also discussing what Landwind can and can't do in any X7 design update.

JLR sales fell by a fifth in China in January-March of last year - when it launched its China-made Evoque - after rising 36 percent in the same 2014 period. In the same period this year, JLR's China sales rose 19 percent.

A lawsuit could be a long and gruelling process.

It took Honda Motor , for example, 12 years to win a case in China against a little-known local automaker - for copying its best-selling CR-V SUV - according to a report by the official Xinhua news agency, confirmed by a Honda spokesman.

Even then, the Japanese firm was awarded only 16 million yuan ($2.43 million) in compensation. It had sought 300 million yuan.

(This story corrects to make clear sale of X7 in Brazil prevented by injunction, not agreement, paragraph 11)

(Reporting by Jake Spring, with additional reporting by Michael Martina and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
By Jake Spring

BEIJING (Reuters) - Jaguar Land Rover is suing Chinese automaker Jiangling Motor for allegedly copying the British firm's Range Rover Evoque, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said - a rare move by a foreign automaker to fight copycats in the world's biggest autos market.

A spokesman for JLR, owned by India's Tata Motors, said in brief emailed comments to Reuters that a court in Beijing's eastern Chaoyang district "served Jiangling with newly filed actions surrounding copyright and unfair competition." He declined to elaborate.

The suit relates to Jiangling's Landwind X7 sport utility vehicle copying the design of the Evoque, JLR's first China-made model that went on sale last year, said the person with knowledge of the legal proceedings, who is not authorized to talk to the media and didn't want to be named.

A spokesman for Landwind declined to comment.

Despite widespread and often blatant copying, global automakers generally don't take legal action in China as they feel the odds of winning against local firms are low. Also, a lawsuit can be bad for branding if the Chinese public think a foreign company is bullying domestic competitors.

If JLR wins its case, it could prompt other automakers to also take legal action, said Chen Jihong, a Beijing-based lawyer at Zhong Lun Law Firm, speeding up a shift to stronger enforcement of intellectual property rights.

CLOSE RESEMBLANCE

Landwind unveiled a new version of its X7 SUV in November 2014, drawing criticism for its striking likeness to the Evoque, an imported version of which was already on sale in China.

The two SUVs have a similar shape, with the roof and windows tapering from front to back, and near identical tail lights and character lines on the side paneling. The X7's front grille is slightly more rounded than the hard edges of the Evoque.

The slight differences between the two cars can be virtually eliminated using widely available kits that allow a Range Rover grille, logo and Land Rover badges to be put on an X7. Kits on Alibaba's Taobao shopping website cost around 128 yuan ($19.43).

Story continues

The X7 costs around a third of the price of an Evoque, and is some way behind in technology and performance, said Yale Zhang, managing director of Automotive Foresight.

The JLR spokesman said Jiangling has been barred by injunction from selling the X7 in Brazil, where it recently appointed an importer.

Separately, the source said with knowledge of the newly filed suit said the two automakers are also discussing what Landwind can and can't do in any X7 design update.

JLR sales fell by a fifth in China in January-March of last year - when it launched its China-made Evoque - after rising 36 percent in the same 2014 period. In the same period this year, JLR's China sales rose 19 percent.

A lawsuit could be a long and grueling process.

It took Honda Motor, for example, 12 years to win a case in China against a little-known local automaker - for copying its best-selling CR-V SUV - according to a report by the official Xinhua news agency, confirmed by a Honda spokesman.

Even then, the Japanese firm was awarded only 16 million yuan ($2.43 million) in compensation. It had sought 300 million yuan.

(This story corrects to make clear sale of X7 in Brazil prevented by injunction, not agreement, paragraph 11)

(Reporting by Jake Spring, with additional reporting by Michael Martina and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Japan will help Southeast Asian nations build their security capabilities to deal with unilateral, dangerous and coercive actions in the South China Sea, Japan's defense minister said on Saturday, in pointed remarks directed at Beijing. "In the South China Sea we have been witnessing large-scale and rapid land reclamation, building of outposts and utilization of them for military purposes," Japanese Minister of Defence Gen Nakatani said during a speech at a regional security conference in Singapore on Saturday, without mentioning China directly. "No countries can be an outsider of this issue," he added. Tokyo is worried that Chinese control of a waterway through which some $5 trillion of global trade passes a year would threaten Japan's national security and take Beijing one step closer to extending its influence into the East China Sea and Western Pacific. China claims most of the South China Sea, a resource-rich region scattered with hundreds of reefs and small islands, and says it is entitled to build "defensive facilities" on its territory. To help the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations deal with China's expansion, Japan is helping them improve surveillance capabilities, conducting joint training exercises and cooperating in developing new equipment, Nakatani said. "I think it is important to improve regional countries' capabilities by...combining joint training, capacity building assistance and defense equipment and technology cooperation," Nakatani said at the Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) gathering. In May, Japan announced its first ever direct overseas military aid with a provisional agreement to lease five TC-90 King Air planes to the Philippines to be used as patrol planes. Manila also wants used Japanese Lockheed Martin P3-C patrol planes to track Chinese submarines near its waters. Japan, emerging from a decades-long period of pacifism, is seeking closer military ties with Vietnam, Indonesia and other nations surrounding the South China Sea. Nakatani also described China's recent air interception of a U.S. military reconnaissance plane as "extremely dangerous," and reiterated Japan's support for Washington's challenges to China's territorial claims in the South China Sea by sending naval vessels close to reclaimed islands being built by Beijing. The U.S. last month said two Chinese J-11 fighter jets flew within 50 feet (15 meters) of the U.S. EP-3 aircraft east of Hainan island. Nakatani called on all South China Sea claimants to submit to what is expected to be landmark legal ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague where the Philippines is challenging Beijing's claim to territory stretching deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia. "Every judgment or decision made by related courts must be fully observed by all claimants in accordance with relevant international law," the Japanese minister said. China has argued the court does not have jurisdiction in the dispute and says it will not abide by any ruling. (Reporting by Tim Kelly and Masayuki Kitano; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said on Saturday that Japan and South Korea agreed to expand an emergency communication system between their defense ministries, including adding a new direct line between defense ministers. Tensions have been high in the region since early January when North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test. It has followed that with a satellite launch and tests of various missiles, most recently a failed launch on Tuesday. "What it means is that we will make use of phones for emergency communication, when security-related emergencies such as a missile launch occur, and communication and coordination between the defense authorities of the two countries are needed," Nakatani told reporters at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a regional security forum in Singapore. He said such emergency phone lines would be expanded to include a new direct link between the two countries' defense ministers. Nakatani said talks would continue on sharing and safeguarding sensitive information on Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs. Under the framework, South Korea would pass relevant information to the United States, with which Seoul already has a legally-binding pact to share and safeguard intelligence called General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA). The United States would then pass the information on to Japan. It would work similarly the other way around since the United States has also signed a GSOMIA with Japan. Some South Koreans have voiced concerns about signing a security pact with Japan, their one-time colonial ruler. Besides historical issues stemming from Japan's annexation of the Korean peninsula that ended in 1945, ties have been chilled by a long-running territorial dispute over a group of tiny islets. (Reporting by Masayuki Kitano in SINGAPORE; Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Tom Hogue)
Johnny Depp continued his Romanian travels on Saturday, traveling with his band Hollywood Vampires to visit the home of the first vampire: Dracula.



Depp, Alice Cooper and Joe Perry made a trip to Bran Castle, located in the Carpathian Mountains on the boarder of Transylvania  about 150 miles north of Bucharest.



The castle is known worldwide as "Dracula's Castle" after being the only castle that fits the description of the home of the popular vampire in Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel.



It is more precisely the believed home of Vlad Tepes, the inspiration for the character. Vlad was depicted by some historians of that time as "Vlad the Impaler"  a blood-thirsty ruthless despot with murderous political aspirations.







The castle is now a museum  the first private museum of the country. Depp and his bandmates posed for a photo in front of the castle, shared on the band's official Instagram account.





The Vampires at Bran Castle Photo by: John Bionelli #HollywoodVampires #AliceCooper #JoePerry #JohnnyDepp #Dracula #BranCastle A photo posted by Hollywood Vampires (@hollywoodvampires) on Jun 4, 2016 at 10:29am PDT



The Hollywood Vampires are currently on the final leg of their European tour, which concludes in Bucharest on Monday. They previously visited Sweden and Denmark.



Depp is in the midst of an ugly divorce from estranged wife Amber Heard after the 30-year-old actress revealed domestic violence allegations against her husband of 15 months in court filings on March 27 and on Friday.



On Thursday, the actor and musician appeared to be in good spirits, dining at an Italian restaurant in the Herastrau Park district of Bucharest, alongside Romanian actors, athletes, and models.



One model, Alexandra Enachescu, even snapped a picture with Depp, sharing it on her Instagram page. She captioned the photo with a quote by Depp's Pirates of the Caribbean character Captain Jack Sparrow: "Life's pretty good, and why wouldn't it be? I'm a pirate after all."





A photo posted by Alexandra Enachescu (@alexandra_enachescu) on Jun 3, 2016 at 1:13am PDT



"The concerts and the tour are good for him," a source close to Depp recently told PEOPLE. "He doesn't want to let his fans down. It's the best distraction."



On Friday, Heard revealed new claims of abuse in a defamation lawsuit she filed against comedian Doug Stanhope.



Stanhope had claimed in an online essay that the actress was blackmailing Depp and lying about the actor's alleged abuse.



In court papers, Heard's lawyers called Stanhope's accusations "completely false and defamatory" and gave a detailed account of Depp's allegedly violent behavior, which she claims was fueled by drugs and alcohol. (Stanhope has not responded to requests for comment.)



"Depp has hit and kicked Heard on numerous occasions, has thrown objects at her, at one point nearly suffocated her to the point where she feared for her life," Heard's lawyers said in court documents.



"Depp is an alcoholic and drug addict, and these violent episodes occurred mostly after Depp had relapsed into a cycle of substance abuse," the lawyers said in court documents. "His drug and alcohol abuse has increased dramatically in recent years, as has his violent behavior."



Last week, Depp's attorney, Laura Wasser, claimed that Heard "is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse" in court documents responding to her initial court filing for a temporary restraining order on May 27.



 Reporting by PETER MIKELBANK
Amid the turmoil with his marriage to Amber Heard, there's been one man Johnny Depp can count on one man above all for support.



The actor's longtime bodyguard, Jerry Judge, has worked with Depp, 52, for more than 15 years and has been by his side as he tours Europe with his band the Hollywood Vampires.



"It's definitely not your typical bodyguard and celebrity client relationship," says a source. "Jerry is Johnny's closest confidant."



The very private British security specialist has been thrust into the spotlight following Heard's statement in court papers that he entered their apartment after Depp allegedly hit her with a phone on May 21. "I yelled to Jerry to please help me and told him that if Johnny hit me one more time I was going to call the police," Heard said in her filing for a temporary restraining order against Depp. "I heard Jerry say, 'Boss, please.' But Johnny continued screaming and breaking things, finally leaving the condominium." According to a report, Judge disputes some of the domestic abuse charges Heard has made against Depp.







Judge has plenty of experience protecting Hollywood's top stars and Depp is not the first celebrity to be under his watchful eye. The veteran bodyguard has worked for Paul McCartney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Antonio Banderas and Julia Roberts.



Judge's views on protecting famous faces can be heard in Lorne Townend's 1999 documentary The Bullet Catcher. The TV series investigates the training and motivation of professional bodyguards and follows Judge while he is working for Roberts as she does press for her film Notting Hill.



The burly grey-haired guard can often be spotted on the red carpet at premieres with Depp and has also protected him on the set of several films including 2011's The Rum Diary where Depp and Heard first met.



If you look closely, you can also see Judge make a cameo in Depp's 2007 musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street where he plays a pie customer.



Depp's loyal right-hand-man will remain with him as the Hollywood Vampires perform on Sunday in Bucharest before returning stateside for the rest of their summer tour dates.



"Jerry basically always works. He has a team of guys that help him, but he is always with Johnny," says a source. "Protecting Johnny is his life."
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's main opposition coalition said on Friday it will resume protests next week against alleged bias in the country's election commission, ending a one-week break for a dialogue that did not happen. The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) wants the commission to be scrapped. Its electronic vote results transmission system collapsed during the 2013 election that brought President Uhuru Kenyatta to power. The next elections are not due until August 2017 but politicians are already trying to rally supporters in a country prone to political strife during elections. Violence erupted after the 2007 vote and the opposition disputed the outcome in 2013. "The #CORDdemos will be on this Monday, following breached dialogue agreements," CORD said on its Twitter feed. The opposition had hoped to speak with lawmakers allied to the government and election commission officials. "#IEBCMustGo & we shall take nothing less for an answer," it said, referring to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto urged the opposition on Wednesday to end demonstrations over the IEBC. IEBC officials have dismissed the allegations of bias and say they will stay. On Friday, Kenyatta reiterated his call for CORD to follow the law, saying parliament's legal committee was ready to start sittings to hear public views on how to reform the IEBC. "We want dialogue like yesterday but it must be held within the confines of the law. Dialogue is not about going to the streets or meeting in tea rooms, his office quoted him saying in a statement after a meeting with religious leaders. Three people were killed in clashes on May 23 between demonstrators and police in Nairobi and other cities during marches against the IEBC led by opposition leader Raila Odinga's CORD coalition. Clashes also flared during three other protests. Odinga lost the 2013 vote and unsuccessfully challenged the result in court. A court declared the result valid and Odinga accepted the ruling. (Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
Kinshasa (AFP) - Thousands of supporters celebrated Congolese leader Joseph Kabila's birthday with a rally in Kinshasa Saturday, at which a party supremo floated the idea of holding a referendum to extend the president's rule.

The suggestion is likely to fuel opposition suspicion that Kabila, in power since his father's assassination in 2001, is preparing to remain in office beyond his two-term limit which ends in December.

In a show of support for Kabila, some 5,000 people marched through the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo in a carnival-like atmosphere before gathering at a stadium to mark the leader's 45th birthday, an AFP reporter saw.

"Happy birthday, comrade president, founder of the party," read a giant banner next to a portrait of Kabila.

Political unrest has plagued DR Congo for months over fears that Kabila will postpone elections due to be held late this year.

His supporters have said they want the polls to be delayed for at least two years because of logistical and financial difficulties, despite Western pressure to stick to the schedule.

Tensions rose further when the country's Constitutional Court ruled in May that Kabila could remain in a caretaker capacity beyond December until elections are held.

Addressing the crowd at the birthday rally, Henri Mova, the secretary general of the ruling PPRD party, accused Kabila's opponents of seeking "to destabilise" the country.

He also raised the prospect of a referendum to allow the Congolese to have their say on presidential term limits.

"The Congolese people are sovereign and their will shall not be questioned," he said.

"If the people decide on a referendum, they will do it," he said. "The people of Congo-Brazzaville did it, the people of Rwanda did it," he added.

President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo won re-election this year after a constitutional referendum ended a two-term limit.

In Rwanda, a referendum last year led to constitutional changes that could see President Paul Kagame rule until 2034.

Both leaders faced criticised at home and abroad over their legal manoeuvres to cling to power.
On June 5, fifty two women will take the stage to compete in the Miss USA beauty pageant  but only one will walk away with the competition's top crown.

The stakes are high: whoever wins in Las Vegas on Sunday will advance to the international Miss Universe pageant, where they will represent the United States.

Here's everything you need to know about the 64-year old pageant, which airs Sunday night at 7/6c on FOX.

Source: Josh Brasted/Getty Images

You can help decide the winner.

You can cast your vote for your favorite contestant in three different ways anytime between 12 p.m. EST on Tuesday, May 31 to 9 p.m. EST.

1. Miss U App

Download the pageant's official app from via iTunes or Google Play and vote up to ten times a day for your pick.

2. Website

Head over to Miss USA's official website to cast another 10 votes per day via desktop.

3. Twitter

If your Twitter account is public, you can also vote by tweeting or retweeting with the official #MissUSA hashtag, paired with the hashtag specific to the contestant of your choosing.

What does it actually mean to take home the crown?

After all an exhausting night spent competing and strutting around in evening gowns, what is the real prize that the pageant's contestants stand to potentially walk away with?

In addition to representing the United States in the Miss Universe pageant later this year, the winning woman will presumably enjoy a considerable slice of the limelight during her tenure as Miss USA.

Last year's reigning queen, Olivia Jordan, went on to become a vocal mouthpiece for Children of the Night, an organization devoted to removing children from prostitution in the United States. She also lobbied on Capitol Hill for funding for Alzheimer's Disease research, and had a cameo appearance in Hot Tub Time Machine 2.

Vegas I'm coming (back) for you! Grateful to celebrate my last few days representing the USA! ???????? It has been an... http://fb.me/310rSpxCk

This year, for the first time in its history, Miss USA will feature a 52nd contestant.

The pageant conducted an unprecedented nationwide search for a 52nd contestant online, and Alexandra Miller was selected as the winner. Miller hails from Oklahome  the home state of last year's winner, Olivia Jordan  so she'll have big shoes to fill during Sunday night's contest.
Lima (AFP) - One candidate is known as "La China," though she is really of Japanese descent. The other is "El Gringo" -- years in the United States left him with a "yanqui" accent.

Here are some facts about the colorful foreign links of the contenders in Peru's presidential election, Keiko Fujimori and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

- Land of immigrants -

Like most of the Americas, Peru's history is marked by immigration.

The Spanish conquest in the 16th century brought down the ancient Inca civilization.

African slaves were trafficked to Peru in the colonial era. Chinese and Japanese economic migrants started to arrive in the 19th century.

- 'La China' -

The frontrunner in the polls, Keiko Fujimori, is the granddaughter of Japanese immigrants.

Her father Alberto Fujimori was the son of a couple who are said to have come from Japan's Kumamoto prefecture in the 1930s.

He served as president from 1990-2000. He is now in jail for corruption and human rights abuses.

Known in Peru as the "nikkei," the Japanese came to work as laborers and many ended up running businesses.

"It is a community that is open and integrated in the country," said Harumi Nako, a spokeswoman for the Peruvian-Japanese Association.

The Peruvian nikkei community is the second biggest in Latin America after that of Brazil, Nako told AFP.

The association estimates there are between 80,000 and 90,000 people, including about 30,000 in Japan, she said.

- 'El gringo' -

Kuczynski is known as "El Gringo" because he lived for years in the United States, working for banks and businesses.

But his father was German and his mother Franco-Swiss.

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski or "PPK" is a cousin of filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. Kuczynski's American wife Nancy is a cousin of the Hollywood actress Jessica Lange.

His father, a doctor, was an officer in the German army in World War One but fled when Hitler came to power. In Peru, he worked treating lepers in the Amazon jungle.

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PPK was educated in England and the United States. He returned to Peru various times, serving as a minister.

He acquired US citizenship but last year appeared on television to announce he had given it up.

But many voters still see him as a foreign curiosity -- more so than the populist "Keiko."

"He is North American," said one voter, Lima taxi driver Mario Armando Callupe, 27.

"Keiko isn't seen as foreign, but PPK is because of the way he behaves."
By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - At least 16 people in Texas, including four soldiers who went missing when their vehicle overturned in flood waters, have died due to torrential rains in the past week that have deluged hundreds of homes and led to prison evacuations, officials said on Friday. The bodies of five other soldiers were found a day earlier, bringing the death toll to nine after their military vehicle flipped over in a flood-swollen creek on Thursday at Fort Hood Army post in central Texas. Three survivors were released from a hospital on Friday, Major General John Uberti told a news conference. "This tragedy extends well beyond Fort Hood and the outpouring of support from around the country is sincerely appreciated," he said. The vehicle overturned at a low-water crossing, and military officials have not said why the convoy was training near a swollen waterway. The sprawling army post covering an area about 15 times larger than Manhattan was closing flood-hit roads when the accident took place. The military plans to release the names of those killed after it has notified their relatives, Uberti said. One more flood-related death in the state was likely, San Antonio police said on Friday, after recovering the body of a man caught in metal bars at a river drainage. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice began evacuating on Friday about 1,700 inmates at its Ramsey Unit in Rosharon, about 30 miles (50 km) south of Houston, due to flooding along the Brazos River. It evacuated about 2,600 inmates from two other facilities this week due to flooding on the same river. Many inmates were sent to other units with available beds, it said. The National Weather Service has placed large parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi on a flash flood watch. Parts of Texas saw record rain for May, including Brenham, about 70 miles northwest of Houston, which received 29.49 inches (74.9 cm), it said. Heavy rains are forecast to hit Houston and eastern Texas through the weekend, likely causing more flooding, it said. Governor Greg Abbott toured flooded areas south of Houston and said he had started the process for emergency aid. "I saw some neighborhoods that were literally islands, completely surrounded by water," he told reporters. More than 160 flights have been canceled at airports in Dallas and Houston as of 8 p.m. on Friday (0100 GMT) due to the weather, according to tracking service FlightAware.com. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Additional reporting by Jim Forsyth in San Antonio; Editing by James Dalgleish and Richard Chang)
MENDIG, Germany (Reuters) - A rock music festival in Germany was halted for five hours on Saturday with organizers urging more than 90,000 fans to seek shelter in cars and tents as another thunderstorm approached hours after lightning strikes injured 71 people. The sell-out "Rock am Ring" festival, now in its 31st year and with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Black Sabbath at the top of the billing this year, takes place at the airport in Mendig, near the Nuerburgring motor racing track. Festival organizers told a news conference that performances would resume after the storm blew over, and said they had warned some 92,500 participants before arriving to be prepared for bad weather. "We are not considering cancelling the festival," said spokeswoman Katharina Wenisch. A spokesman for the German Red Cross said 71 people were injured during lightning strikes on Friday, including eight who had to be hospitalized. Most were now in good condition, except one man who had to be resuscitated at the scene and remained in hospital, he said. "The festival will continue as planned on Saturday. Cancellation ... was never an issue," Marek Lieberberg, who runs the festival, told fans on the event website. He said the festival would continue to issue weather warnings via Facebook, Twitter and the event website. Organizers warned fans more severe thunderstorms were expected. The event website had reported early Saturday morning that at least 42 people were injured, eight seriously. But the numbers rose as more fans reported injuries in the early morning hours, according to a police spokesman. Thirty-three people were injured at the festival last year by lightning strikes, according to German media. Wenisch said the festival had been sold out for months. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Christian Goetz in Berlin, and Michael Serr and Hakan Erdem in Mendig; Editing by Clelia Oziel)
By Andrea Shalal

BERLIN (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp, the largest U.S. arms maker and parent of Sikorsky, has begun to study the possibility of selling commercial helicopters to Iran, but said the market may be small and the company still needed guidance from the U.S. government.

Lockheed, along with Boeing Co , is one of the first major U.S. aerospace companies looking into selling to Iran for the first time since U.S. sanctions were imposed following Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979.

European aircraft manufacturers already are starting to get orders from Iran after sanctions were lifted on Jan. 16.

Nathalie Previte, vice-president of sales and marketing for Sikorsky, said the company had received numerous inquiries from existing customers, including leasing companies and operators, interested in possible helicopter operations in Iran.Sikorsky's S-76 and longer-range S-92 commercial helicopters could be options for Iran, Previte said, although she added that the country has little of the offshore drilling activity that drives helicopter demand in the oil and gas sector.

"I want to understand the U.S. governments policy about what can be done and what can we not do, and really clear everything with the U.S. government even before we start completing the analysis," Previte told Reuters at the Berlin Air Show.

Previte's comments marked the first time Lockheed has acknowledged looking into possible sales to Iran. The company is mainly a government and defense contractor, but entered into the commercial market with its purchase of helicopter maker Sikorsky from United Technologies Corp last year.

Sikorsky is studying which of its products could be sold in Iran but is still working through the regulatory and compliance issues with the U.S. government, Previte said. She added it was unclear how big the market could be.

Boeing Co Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg on Thursday said Iran's demand for airliners was real, and the prospect of a major order there was moving closer.

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Airbus in January agreed to sell Iran 118 planes worth about $27 billion at list prices, and says it also sees Iranian demand for helicopters. [L8N15C55Y]

AgustaWestland, a unit of Italy's Leonardo Finmeccanica SpA, also has seen interest in its helicopters from operators looking to do business in Iran, industry sources said.

Even if the U.S. government agrees to allow Lockheed, Boeing and other U.S. manufacturers to sell aircraft to Iran, analysts said the companies still face obstacles, including a potential lack of funds and lingering skepticism from financial backers.

Steve O'Bryan, who heads business development for Lockheed's mission systems and training business - which includes Sikorsky - cautioned against overplaying the potential sales.

"We're looking at it, of course, but were going to take a very conservative approach on this," he said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by John Walcott and Bill Rigby)
By Alex Dobuzinskis (Reuters) - Torrential rains in Texas which caused flooding that killed 16 people this week have spread to southern Louisiana, leaving parts of that state and Mississippi under a flash flood watch through Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service. Heavy rains could strike the Florida panhandle early next week, but not as intensely as in Texas, Daniel Petersen, a meteorologist at the Weather Prediction Center in Maryland, said in a phone interview on Saturday. Small streams in southern Louisiana have overflowed their banks, causing localized flooding, he added. At least 16 people have died in Texas in the past week as some rivers swelled to levels not seen in more than 100 years, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes in low-lying areas. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has declared a state of disaster in more than 30 counties, the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement on Saturday. In Bastrop County, southwest of the state capital of Austin, flooding damaged nearly 300 homes, it added. Heavy rainfall was forecast to continue on Saturday along the Texas coast and potentially trigger more flooding there, state and federal officials said. National Weather Service hydrologist Gregory Waller said in a phone interview on Saturday that the Brazos River was expected to crest this weekend near Rosharon, a community south of Houston that is home to more than 1,500 people. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice began evacuating on Friday about 1,700 inmates at its Ramsey Unit in Rosharon, due to flooding along the Brazos. Flooding struck Richmond, upriver from Rosharon, earlier this week when the Brazos overflowed its banks and according to state officials damaged nearly 80 homes. Forecasters said that on Sunday the threat of flash floods in Texas would decrease as rains become less intense. "We think that tomorrow, the lower rain totals are going to give them a chance to dry out," Petersen said. Even after the rains stop, parts of the state are likely to have a challenging path to recovery. Gov. Abbott on Friday toured flooded areas south of Houston and told reporters some neighborhoods were "literally islands, completely surrounded by water." Nine soldiers died on Thursday when their troop carrier overturned during a training exercise at the U.S. Army base of Food Hood in the central part of the state, in a region where torrential rains caused flash flooding. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Richard Chang)
MIAMI (AP) -- The Miami Marlins displayed a photo of Muhammad Ali on their video board Friday night indicating the heavyweight champion had died, although there had been no confirmation of his passing.

Ali's family announced his death in Phoenix more than two hours later.

Marlins President David Samson explained the premature tribute by saying he was told shortly before their game against the Mets ended that Ali had died.

''We were informed he passed away,'' said Samson, who declined to disclose the source of his information. ''We wanted to honor him. I was informed and did what felt natural. I was not aware it had not been made public yet.''

Moments after the game's final out, a photo was displayed on the video board at Marlins Park showing a triumphant Ali standing over Sonny Liston at the end of their 1965 fight. Shown in the corner were these dates: ''1942-2016.''

Spectators departing the ballpark applauded Ali in tribute.

Ali threw out the ceremonial first pitch in the first game at Marlins Park four years ago. At the time, team owner Jeffrey Loria called him ''the most famous person on the face of the earth.''
Like his longtime BFF Ben Affleck, Matt Damon is one of Bostons own. After writing and starring in Good Will Hunting, Damon cemented himself into the Boston mythos, and recently returned to the scene of Will Huntings genius, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. On Friday, Damon gave MITs graduation speech, and the Cambridge native was passionate and eloquent, taking on everything from corrupt banking systems to Donald Trump.

While addressing the latest crop of graduates, Damon opened up about his time at the university as a not-quite-student while making Good Will Hunting and how his time on campus changed his perspective on the establishment (Damon, its worth noting, dropped out of Harvards English program 12 credits shy of a diploma).

You can imagine how excited I was when President Reif wanted me to speak at the MIT commencement, and how sorry I was to learn that the MIT commencement speaker does not get to go home with a degree. So, yes, for the second time in my life, Im fake graduating from a college in my hometown. To us, MIT was kind of like The Man, this big, impressive, impersonal force. At least, that was our provincial, knee-jerk teenage reaction. And then Ben and I shot a movie here.

His ultimate message was one of continued learning, encouraging all present to remain curious despite the apparent end of their education.

Your education should never be over, even outside of your work I hope youll turn toward the problem of your choosing. And I hope youll drop everything, and I hope youll solve it. This is your life, class of 2016. This your moment. It is all down to you. Ready, player one; your game begins now.

If youre looking for a little inspiration on a Friday night, the entire speech is worth a gander. Jason Bourne knows how to inspire. Missed opportunity for a solid reference to The Martian, though.

the martian gif

20th Century Fox
The Hague (AFP) - Initial results from a criminal inquiry into the downing of a Malaysia Airlines flight over war-torn eastern Ukraine nearly two years ago will be available within months, Dutch prosecutors have said.

The results are expected to shed light on the exact type of missile used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board, and exactly where it was fired from.

"After this summer, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) will present the first results of the criminal investigation into the crash of flight MH17," the public prosecutor said in a statement released late Friday.

"It concerns the weapon which was used to shoot down the aircraft and the exact launch site of the weapon," it said, noting that the inquiry was at "a very advanced stage".

However, investigators on the Dutch-led team, which includes experts from Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine, were still awaiting information from Moscow about BUK missile installations, it said, noting that they were expecting an answer "within two months".

In October, an international inquiry concluded that the Boeing 777, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down by a Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile fired from a zone held by pro-Russian separatists, but stopped short of saying who was responsible.

Results of the latest investigation will not be published in a report, however, but will be included in a criminal file "which is intended for the hearing of the case in a court or a tribunal," the prosecutor said, indicating this was normal procedure in criminal cases.

Earlier this week, families of six Malaysian crew members filed suit against the airline for negligence and breach of contract, their lawyer said, and the carrier could also face similar action from more MH17 next-of-kin over loss of earnings as well as compensation for the "psychological" trauma of losing loved ones.

Last month, relatives of victims from Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia launched legal action against Russia and its President Vladimir Putin in the European Court of Human Rights, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Documents filed by their lawyers allege that Moscow has worked to keep its involvement in the plane disaster hidden.
NEW YORK (AP) - Michelle Obama praised the diverse graduates of New York City's oldest public institution of higher learning as she delivered the last commencement address of her tenure as first lady on Friday.

"I really want you all to know that there is a reason why, of all of the colleges and universities in this country, I chose this particular school in this particular city for this special moment," the first lady told the graduates of the City College of New York.

Noting that students at the 169-year-old college come from 150 countries and speak more than 100 languages, she said, "You represent just about every possible background - every color and culture, every faith and walk of life."

Founded as the Free Academy of the City of New York in 1847, City College gained a reputation as the poor man's Harvard in the 1930s when it educated a generation of Jewish intellectuals who were shut out of elite private colleges.

City College alumni include 10 Nobel Prize winners and many renowned authors, scientists, business leaders and artists. More than 40 percent of City College's current students are first-generation college students, and half are from low-income households.

Obama told the graduates that "with your glorious diversity, with your remarkable accomplishments and your deep commitment to your communities, you all embody the very purpose of this school's founding."

Read More: 'Hamilton' Creator Takes Jab at Donald Trump in Commencement Address: "Immigrants Get the Job Done"

She also made a thinly veiled reference to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump by saying that "some folks" don't value the diversity that City College embodies. Trump has promised to build a wall at the border between the United States and Mexico and has proposed banning Muslims from entering the U.S.

"They seem to view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to be tapped. They tell us to be afraid of those who are different, to be suspicious of those with whom we disagree," she said.

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"They act as if name-calling is an acceptable substitute for thoughtful debate, as if anger and intolerance should be our default state rather than the optimism and openness that have always been the engine of our progress."

She added that "here in America, we don't give in to our fears. We don't build up walls to keep people out because we know that our greatness has always depended on contributions from people who were born elsewhere but sought out this country and made it their home."

More than 3,000 graduates and their families cheered the first lady's speech under drizzly skies at the City College campus in Harlem. Watch the speech below.
Mindy Kalings college throwback pic is giving us life

Mindy Kalings college throwback pic is giving us life

Weve all had our crazy college moments, so when a big celeb shares one of theirs, we soak up the glimpse into their not-so-famous pasts.

Mindy Kaling did just that a couple days ago on Instagram, posting a photo of herself from the year 2000  in a purple wig, gold sequins, and pink-and-green plaid, natch  at age 20, at place where she used to work called Moosilauke Ravine Lodge.

As part of the Lodge Crew, she and her goofily dressed pals welcomed freshmen to Dartmouth College (her alma mater) after outdoor excursions.

Its one of my favorite places in the world, she writes of the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, which is located in the White Mountains region of New Hampshire. As you know, Im not the most outdoorsy person but this is such a magical place. Its open to the public, so please visit, have dinner there, hike, and spend the night!

If Mindy thinks its cool (and handily provided us with a link to conduct further research), then were practically on our way! Will Mindy be there to welcome us with rainbow hair though?

The post Mindy Kalings college throwback pic is giving us life appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Photo credit: Seventeen

From Seventeen

I was 6 years old when my two older sisters went to Palestine to "visit family." At least that's what my mom told me.



I was born in Chicago, like my sisters, but our parents are Palestinian, born in Jerusalem. I was four-months-old when our father died - he worked at a gas station and was shot during a robbery. After that, the four of us moved into the basement apartment of my mom's mother's house, where my sisters and I shared a room.

I worshipped my oldest sister growing up. She was rebellious and loved pop music and makeup, which my grandmother and mother couldn't stand. We were raised Muslim, and while my mom didn't make us wear hijabs - headscarves - to school, we did when we went to mosque on the high holidays. Every other day, we wore long-sleeve shirts and pants or knee-length skirts.

I don't have too many memories of my sisters, but I do remember how much my oldest sister loved Usher. She was 13 and she'd sing along to his music on the radio in our room. She bought a poster of him, shirtless, and pinned it to the wall next to our bed.

He didn't last long. My grandmother saw the poster one day and ripped it off the wall. She was screaming at my sister, and my sister yelled right back - she was feisty! But it didn't matter; Usher was gone. And a year later, so were my sisters.

My mom said they were "going on a trip" to Palestine, but even as a 6-year-old, I'd heard rumors about a diary entry. Something about my sister kissing a boy behind a tree, or writing that she wanted to. I remember large suitcases and both of my sisters weeping as we said goodbye. I cried too, but I was more mad at them for leaving me. Who would I listen to the radio with late at night?

Still, I assumed they were coming back. So when my mother told me that they wanted to stay in Palestine, I got really upset. I missed them so much.

The only time I got to see my friends was at school.

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In 8th grade, our class took a field trip to tour the high school. No one wore uniforms, like we did in middle school! I could even wear my skinny jeans there. Yep, as strict as my mom was, she did buy me skinny jeans that were super popular then. I remember being in the store and pointing them out and being stunned when she nodded yes, then paid for three pairs at the register. They were the only things I owned that made me feel like a normal kid.

But right before middle school graduation, I came home from school one afternoon to find my mother and grandmother rummaging through my closet.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

My mother was holding a garbage bag and my grandmother had scissors. They were cutting my skinny jeans into pieces and throwing them away.

I was so confused - she'd bought them for me! When I asked my mom why, she said, "They're inappropriate and revealing. You're too old to dress like this now!"

I was furious. All I had left were one pair of baggy jeans, which I hated. For the first time in middle school, I was relieved to have a uniform.

As soon as I graduated 8th grade, I started pestering my mom about enrolling me in high school. Every time I asked if she'd done it, she'd say, "Not yet." In July, she said, "I'm signing you up for an all girls' school." But there was a wait list, so then it was going to be online school. I even did my own research and had pamphlets sent to the house, but nothing happened.

By September, all of my friends had started school but me. I woke up every day at 10am and watched TV, cleaned the house, and helped make dinner. I was beyond bored. Meanwhile my mom loved having me around. She didn't work, and always said that it was important for me to learn how to be a good housewife. I cringed every time she said that - that was the last thing I wanted to be.

In fact, I really wanted a job, even if it was just working at my step-dad's gas station. Anything to get out of the house. I even asked my step-dad if I could get a workers' permit, which you can get at 15 in Chicago, and he said, "Sure!" But just like with high school, nothing ever happened. It was another empty promise.

My laptop was my refuge.

Facebook was the only way for me to stay in touch with my friends. I made up a random name that my parents could never guess and chatted with friends throughout the day. If my mom walked into the room, I'd switch the screen to a video game. She had no idea. Earlier that year, when I told friends why I wasn't in school, more than one told me, "That's illegal!" I kind of knew I had the legal right to be in school, but wasn't sure who to tell. My parents didn't care - it's what they wanted!

A year passed, and the following summer, I was chatting on Facebook with a guy I knew from middle school.

When he wrote, "Want to go to Chipotle this Friday?" my heart skipped a beat.

I was super excited and typed back, "Sure."

I told my parents that I was going to see my 24-year-old cousin. She was the only person I was ever allowed to visit. She's also incredibly cool and promised to cover for me. I met her at her house, and then she dropped me off at the mall and told me to have a great time.

I did! He was cute, and super nice. I told him that my parents were strict and didn't even know where I was. He was like, "No worries!"

It was the most fun I'd had in over a year. At the end of our date, I told him that I'd be in touch over Facebook, and floated home.

The next night, I was in the living room watching TV when the doorbell rang. My mom answered, and I heard his voice ask, "Is Yasmine home?"

I froze.

My mother started screaming, "Who are you and why are you at this house?"

He said, "I'm Yasmine's boyfriend."

I could see him standing in front of my mom, her back to me, and was trying to wave to him, like, "Go away! This is a terrible idea!"

She threatened to call the police, slammed the door, and then screamed at me: "Go to your room. You're grounded!"

The next day, my mom went grocery shopping without me and locked the glass storm door from the outside, which meant I was trapped. For the next two weeks, I was literally kept under lock and key when she left.

And then one day, my mother said, "Pack your bags. We're going to Palestine to visit your sisters."

I'd only been there once when I was 10; I don't even remember seeing my sisters then - all I remember is that it was dusty and dry. No green at all. I hated it. Plus, I speak only very basic Arabic, which is what they speak there.

I was dreading the trip. Saying goodbye to my little sister was painful - she was 8 by then. She was the only other person who knew, besides my cousin, about my date. I fought back tears and promised I'd be back soon.

My mom said we'd be gone for a month, but I didn't trust her. On the way to the airport, I asked to see my return ticket. I wanted proof that it existed. She was indignant as she showed me the ticket, but it made me feel better.

My mother and grandmother and I landed in Tel Aviv, which was as hot and dusty as I remembered. I felt claustrophobic in the cab, which we took to Ramallah, the Palestinian capital. My grandmother has a house there, and both of my sisters lived nearby.

I was so angry about being there that I wasn't even excited to see my sisters. I couldn't believe that they'd left me all those years before. Now, they were both married with kids. But by the end of that first evening, I relaxed with them. I even told them what happened with my Chipotle date, and they started teasing me, like, "You're such an idiot! With a white guy? Really?"

They thought that if he'd been Muslim, I wouldn't have gotten into so much trouble. I wasn't so sure, but it still felt good to laugh with them about it.

About two weeks into our stay, my sisters sat me down and started doing my hair and makeup. I was never allowed to wear makeup at home, so I thought it was cool. When I asked why, they said they wanted me to meet a friend of theirs.

Their friend was in his twenties but still lived with his mom, which my sister called "a problem." I didn't understand what she meant by that.

He arrived with his mom and uncle and started speaking to me in Arabic. I barely understood anything except for his asking me how old I was.

I said, "I'm 15. I just finished 8th grade."

He looked perplexed. So was I.

After he left, I asked my sisters what the meeting was about. They explained that the way to meet suitors is through families. When a family thinks a girl is ready to be married - usually she's part of that decision - they pass word along to other families that they're looking for a husband. The couple then meets through the parents, and if it is a good match, an arrangement is made.

A week passed, and once again my sisters sat me down and started putting makeup on me. They said that another guy was coming to meet me. When I asked, "Who?"

They said, "Don't worry about it. Just have fun."

The doorbell rang and in walked a guy with his parents. I'm 5'8" and he was 5'4", nine years older, and missing half of his front left tooth. Everyone seemed very eager. I was repulsed.

I sat stone-faced the entire time they were there. As soon as he and his family left, my mom and grandmother said that they thought I should marry him. They said, "He has a job and a house." That's all it took.

I was furious. By then, I realized that they'd brought me to Palestine to get married and planned to leave me there. Instead of berating them, I immediately started thinking of ways to return home on my own. I had watched SVU. I knew this was totally illegal. I just needed to figure out a way to reach a detective in Illinois who could help me escape.

I also knew then that I couldn't trust my sisters - anytime I complained to them, they'd just say, "It's not so bad! You'll learn to love him!"

He and I met two more times that week and each time, I hoped he'd figure out that I was being coerced. But then, during that third visit, all the men went into one room while the women stayed in another.

My sister, mother, and grandmother were chatting with his mother and sisters when I heard the men read the engagement passage from the Koran, which announces a marriage.

Startled, I said to my sisters, "What are they doing?"

My oldest sister said, "They're reading the passage."

I shouted, "No!" and fought back tears.

My worst nightmare was becoming a terrifying reality. I ran into the bathroom, curled into a ball, and dissolved into tears. How could my family do this to me? I thought about running away, but how? My mother had my passport. I had no money. I was stuck. I started thinking about different ways to die. Anything was better than this.

After his family left, I could no longer contain my rage at my mother. "How could you do this to me? I am your daughter!" I shouted. Tears were streaming down my face. I could see my mom was upset, too - she was crying, shaking her head. I think she felt bad about it, but she also felt like it was the best option. I felt so betrayed.

And just then, my grandmother marched into the room and slapped me. "Don't disrespect your mother!" she said, before turning to my mother and saying, "See? She needs this. How else will she learn to be respectful?'

That's when I learned that my grandmother had set the whole thing up. She'd met this man's family at a mall the same week I met him! His parents owned a restaurant and spotted us shopping. They approached her to see if I was an eligible bride for their son. She told them yes, but that I had to be married before she flew back to the States. He had no other prospects, so they were excited I was one.

I never liked my grandmother, but I didn't hate her until that moment.

The wedding was planned for September 30th, a week and a half away. I was still desperately trying to figure a way out of it. I told my mom, "I'll find a way to leave." She replied, "Either you marry him or someone way older who won't be as nice."

My sisters said the same. "You're lucky." As much as I dreaded what was happening, they made the alternative sound even worse.

A few days before the wedding, my oldest sister finally revealed that she was also married against her will. "I was kicking and screaming the whole way," she told me. "But I learned to love him. You will too."

I don't remember the ceremony - everything is such a blur - but I do remember pulling away when he tried to kiss my cheek and my mother hissing, "Kiss his cheek!" I refused.

At the end of the wedding party, both of my sisters were so excited about my first night with him. They even said, "Text us afterwards!"

I hated them.

The first night was awful. The only thing I'm thankful for is that my husband was not a violent or aggressive man. It could have been so much worse. I get terrible migraine headaches brought on by stress, and I used them to my advantage in the weeks that followed.

He took that first week off of work and we spent most of it with his family. I did the best I could to tolerate being around him and his family while I tried to figure a way out of this mess. To do that, I needed to get on the internet.

When he went back to his job as a mechanic, he'd be gone by 9am. I'd get up, have breakfast and go to his mom's house to help her clean and make dinner. She had a computer, so one day, I asked if I could use it to talk to my mother and she agreed. Instead, I logged onto Facebook and messaged a friend from 3rd grade and told her where I was and what had happened.

She wrote back immediately, "That's illegal!"

Once again, I knew that, but I didn't know what to do.

I had another friend I met through Facebook who lived in Texas. He was Muslim. I told him what happened, and he wrote, 'You need to call the embassy!' He even sent the number.

My heart was pounding as I wrote it in a piece of paper and shoved it into my pocket.

On October 14th, I was in our apartment in the afternoon when I finally worked up the nerve to call. I used the Nokia flip phone my husband gave me to talk to him and my sisters.

An American-sounding man answered the phone and I blurted, "I'm a U.S. citizen. My parents brought me here against my will to marry a man. I want to go home."

After a moment of silence, he said, "Wow, this is a first. Hold for a moment." He connected me to a man named Mohammed, who asked me for my parents' names and address in the states.

I gave him all the proof I could think of that I was a US citizen. I didn't know my social security number and didn't have my passport. He said that was okay, but he needed proof that I was actually married. He asked for the marriage certificate. I had no idea where it was. Then he asked me for my husband's last name, and I realized, I had no idea what that was either.

Mohammed told me he'd be in touch once he verified all my information. He called me several times over the next two months. During that time, I learned my husband's last name, which was legally mine as well.

As I waited for news, I got lots of migraines.

On December 3rd, Mohammed called with the number for a taxi service and the address of a hotel. He told me to be there the next morning at 11am.

The next morning, I waited for my husband to leave and shoved all of my belongings - including the traditional wedding gold my husband's family gave me - into my suitcase and called the number. That's when I realized that I didn't even know my address. I told the driver the name of the closest big store and then stayed on the phone with him, telling him when to turn right or left. He still couldn't find me, so I ran down to the main street to flag him down praying no one would see me.

I held my breath for the entire 30-minute ride to the hotel. There, in the parking lot, I spotted a blond woman sitting with a guy in a black van.

"Are you with the US embassy?" I asked.

They said yes, and then she patted me down, explaining it was for security purposes, to make sure I was not strapped with any bombs.

I said, "Do whatever you need to do!" I didn't care - I was so close to freedom.

When they put me in the back seat, I pulled off my headscarf and fought back happy tears: There, with these two strangers, I felt safe for the first time in forever.

We went to the US Embassy in Jerusalem where I spent the day filling out paperwork in order to enter into the foster care system back in the States. I had no idea what that meant other than from this one cartoon show called Foster Home for Imaginary Friends, but agreeing to enter foster care wasn't hard - at least it was a new start.

That night, a diplomat accompanied me to the airport with two bodyguards, and I was placed on a plane to Philadelphia.

On my next flight, I flew from Philadelphia to Chicago O'Hare and sat next to a 20-something guy on his way to his friend's bachelor party who asked me how old I was.

I said, "15."

He said, "You're too young to be on a plane by yourself!"

If he only knew.

At O'Hare, I had twenty minutes to kill before I was supposed to meet two state officials in the food court, so I went to a computer terminal and logged onto Facebook. I had two accounts at the time: one for friends and one for family. I wanted to see what my family was saying.

A three-page letter from my second oldest sister was the first thing I read. She said she never wanted to see me again, that she hated me, and that if anyone asked her how many sisters she had, she'd say two instead of three. I was devastated.

Then I read a group chat between my two sisters, my mom, and my mom's sister.

It started, "Yasmine ran away." "What? Where?" And then someone wrote, "She's ruining our reputation!" Not one of them wondered if I was okay.

My aunt asked if I had taken my gold. When my sister said yes, my aunt replied, "She could have gotten kidnapped or robbed!"

That was the only mention of concern for my wellbeing.

As painful as it was to read those words, it made me realize that I had made the right choice.

The people I then met in the airport food court introduced me to a woman from Illinois' Child Protective Services, who took me under her wing. It was 11am, 24 hours after I ran for my life into the streets of Ramallah to escape my forced marriage.

I first moved in with a woman who fostered several kids, and stayed there for six months. It wasn't ideal - she was very religious and made us go to her Baptist church with her on Saturday and Sunday. But it was still better than what I'd left. This was confirmed when I had to face my mother in court to establish that I should remain a ward of the state, which is what they call kids whose parents aren't fit to take care of them.

The first court date was two weeks after I arrived. When I saw my mom, I froze. She was sitting in the waiting room and refused to acknowledge me. She didn't make eye contact; it was as if I didn't exist. I felt an awful mix of hurt and rage.

A few months later, I had to testify in a courtroom. My mom was there with her lawyer. He showed photos from my wedding and said, "You look happy! And your mom said that you wanted to be married."

I had to explain to a room full of strangers that I was faking that smile to survive and that my mom knew the entire time that I didn't want to marry that man. On the stand, I said, "My mom is lying." That was so painful to have to say - I wept in front of everyone. All the feelings I'd kept inside just poured out.

After that hearing, I officially became a ward of the state of Illinois.

By then, I'd already started ninth grade. I didn't like my foster mom much. I stopped going to church on the weekends, but she wouldn't let me or my foster brother stay in the house alone so we were locked out until she got home every weekend and weekdays too. It was hard in the Chicago winter, but the agency didn't think I was in immediate danger, so I stayed put. Teens are hard to place.

By January 2014, at 16-years-old, I'd been in and out of three foster homes. My strategy was just to survive foster care until I was 18, when I would finally be on my own. So when a couple called Carrie and Marvin came to meet me one weekend, I didn't hold out any hope.

Carrie and Marvin had two biological teenagers, both with developmental delays. They understood kids and were super warm, but it still took me a while to open up. I really wanted to make it to 18 living with them, but I never dreamed what actually happened next.

When I hit my one-year anniversary with them, they asked me if I wanted to be adopted. I was shocked! I figured I'd leave at 18 and just be on my own - I never thought there was an alternative. But they told me that they wanted me around forever. I cannot tell you how good that felt - to be wanted, by an actual family. I said yes.

No more waking up at 6am to someone saying, "Pack your bags - you're out!" For the first time in my life, I could put things up in my room and it was okay. It was the first time since being in that van with the people from the embassy that I felt safe.

I saw my mother one last time in court, at the final termination of parental rights. Carrie had asked her for childhood photos of me, and amazingly, my mom handed them to me there.

It was a cold exchange. She was expressionless. At first, I was insulted. It all seemed so easy, her giving me up. But it was really nice to get the photos. She didn't have to do that.

Now Carrie has them around the house. It makes me feel like I'm really part of her family, like I'm her kid.

I finally reconnected on Facebook with my sister a few months ago, the one who'd said she hated me. She admitted that she wished she'd had the nerve to do what I had done. Now I understand why she was so upset: I got away. She didn't.

I just graduated from high school - the first in my biological family to do so! In September, I'm going to Illinois State University and just learned that I won a full scholarship, which means my tuition will be waived for the next five years. I plan to study mass communications, and may want to do something with computers, considering they are literally what saved me.

Regardless of what I end up doing for a living, the thing that makes me the most excited is that I get to choose - what I want to wear, who I want to date, or even marry, and ultimately, who I want to be.



Yasmine Koenig initially shared her story with Children's Rights for inclusion in their annual Fostering the Future campaign. Read more about Yasmine and others who have experienced foster care.



('You Might Also Like',)
By Liana B. Baker

June 3 (Reuters) - Longtime Credit Suisse Group AG investment banker David DeNunzio is leaving the Swiss bank to become global head of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) at Wells Fargo & Co, according to people familiar with the matter.

DeNunzio was formerly the global chairman of M&A at Credit Suisse.

At Wells Fargo, DeNunzio will partner with Sam Farnham, an investment banker who will be promoted to become head of M&A in the Americas, the people added, requesting not to be named because the moves have not yet been announced.

Farnham was formerly head of middle market investment banking. John Laughlin, the former head of M&A, will become a vice chairman of M&A, according to the people.

Representatives from Wells Fargo and Credit Suisse declined to comment. Bloomberg first reported the news on Friday.

DeNunzio worked at Credit Suisse for more than 25 years and had been global chairman of M&A since 2012. He joined the M&A group of the First Boston Corp in 1989, a year before it was merged into Credit Suisse, after nine years at Kidder, Peabody & Co.

Wells Fargo, a San Francisco-based lender known for its retail banking business, is a relatively small player in investment banking compared to other U.S. giants JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp.

It is bulking up its practice, however, and has started to land larger deals. In March, Wells Fargo was named sole adviser to TransCanada Corp on its acquisition of Columbia Pipeline Group, a deal worth $13 billion including debt, putting it on track for its biggest fees from a single deal since at least 2000, according to data from Thomson Reuters and Freeman Consulting Services.

Credit Suisse has seen several bankers depart in recent months. Last month it lost a managing director in New York who went to Goldman Sachs Group Inc, five bankers in San Francisco who joined Jefferies LLC and two in Chicago who were hired at Macquarie Group Ltd.

Credit Suisse has also hired three bankers this year, including Marco Chisari and Haidee Lee, who start in July. Chisari will focus on technology M&A while Lee will be head of sellside M&A Americas. Jason Truman, a healthcare banker, started at Credit Suisse in February.

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker in San Francisco; Editing by Bill Rigby)
Paris (AFP) - Garbine Muguruza won her first Grand Slam title at the French Open on Saturday defeating top seed and defending champion Serena Williams in the final.

Twelve years younger than the American at 22, and playing in the first clay court final of her career, the Venezuelan-born Spaniard upset the odds to win 7-5, 6-4.

She is the first Spanish woman to win a Grand Slam title since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in Paris in 1998 and she is the third straight first time Grand Slam winner after Flavia Pennetta at last year's US Open and Angelique Kerber at the Australian Open.

"I am so excited to play the final of a Grand Slam against one of the best ever players. It's the perfect final and I am so happy," she said.

"I grew up on clay so for Spain and me this is just amazing.

"Serena is a very powerful player and I just tried to fight as hard as I can."

For Williams it was a second straight loss in a Grand Slam final and it wrecked her hopes once again of winning a 22nd Grand Slam title to draw level with Steffi Graf for most wins in the Open era, since 1968.

She will now turn her focus on Wimbledon where she will be the defending champion and a six-time former winner.

"Congratulations to Garbine, she played really well today," said Williams, who confirmed that she had been slightly troubled by an adductor problem.

"I could have served better, made a lot of errors on return, but I did try hard out there."

The players took contrasting routes to get to the final.

Fourth seed Muguruza breezed through, losing just the one set, in her opening match, while Williams struggled past the quarter- and semi-finals amid talk of an injury or illness.

But with weather conditions improving after one of the rainiest Roland Garros tournaments on record, it was a different, more focussed Williams that got the final underway with a love service game.

Muguruza replied in kind as two of the biggest and best servers in the women's game went head to head.

Story continues

The 22-year-old Spaniard had to battle hard to level at 2-2, saving two break points along the way, but she then grabbed the first break of the final thanks to a loose game from the American culminating in a double fault.

Muguruza, who lost to Williams in the Wimbledon final last year, moved 4-2 ahead, but she lost her range two games later to allow the American to level the score.

The tall Spaniard was matching Williams for power and when the title-holder opened the 11th game with a double fault she seized the opportunity to apply some added pressure on her opponent.

Her tactics paid off with Williams failing to cope with a series of explosive baseline groundstrokes.

Muguruza's second break of the final allowed her to serve for the set and she duly managed that staving off two break-back points along the way.

A top quality first set had taken 56 minutes with Muguruza winning 41 points to 40 for Williams underlining the closeness of the contest.

Muguruza maintained her level of play and composure to start the second set with a third break of serve, but she then struggled on her own serve, coughing up a seventh double fault to hand back the advantage.

- Scream of defiance -

Williams though was struggling and this time it was the quality of her opponent's play rather than her own misgivings that were responsible for her struggles.

Muguruza made it three straight breaks of serve in the next game and moved out into a 3-1 lead.

Williams dug deep to get back to 3-2 sparking a scream of defiance from a player who had been in 26 Grand Slam finals dating back to 1999 and lost just five of them.

But Muguruza was solid on her serve despite the occasional double fault and the Spaniard went 4-2 and then 5-3 up.

Williams saved four match points in the next game to stay alive, but Muguruza stayed calm to serve out for the biggest win of her fledgling career, clinching it with a lob that landed smack on the baseline.
ali_torch

Getty Image

Fellow traveler Muhammad Ali passed yesterday. The man lived a great life. Some would say the greatest life. Now its time to reflect and put Ali where he belongs  in the pantheon of the giants.

One such reason he deserves to be there is a story that has emerged about Ali almost not being allowed to be the final torch bearer for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. The head of the organizing committee, Billy Payne, expressed concern with going with someone he perceived as a Vietnam War draft dodger. NBC executive Dick Ebersol had to step in.

Muhammad Ali may be, outside of perhaps the Pope, the most beloved figure in the world. In the third world, hes a hero. In the Muslim world, hes a hero and fellow traveler. To anybody young  just about  in the United States, hes a man of great moral principle who was willing to go to prison.

Ebersol carried the day and Ali was back in. It gave us this moment, a moment of triumph for the ailing Ali:

I still remember watching that moment on TV. It brought a tear to my eye then, and it does now.

Ali had refused to fight in Viet Nam in 1967 when he was drafted. This led the state of New York to find him guilty of draft dodging. He was stripped of his title and denied travel visas. Ali didnt run away. He fought for his constitutional right to abstain from being a soldier on moral grounds. Ali was willing to go to prison for 3 years instead of die in Vietnam. Eventually the US Supreme Court overturned the conviction and Ali had another victory under his belt. The Supreme Court ruling was unanimous in Alis favor  8-0.

Ali lost 3 years of income due to his moral stance. But it set the stage for a hell of a comeback when he fought Frazier in the Fight of the Century in 1971. It was a great one.

Via the Washington Post
Yangon (AFP) - Over a thousand hardline Buddhists gathered on the outskirts of Yangon for the annual summit of their ulta-nationalist group Saturday, as the anti-Muslim network looks to stay relevant under Myanmar's new civilian leadership.

Maroon-robed monks, nuns and other followers filled the monastery in northern Yangon to mark the third anniversary of the founding of Ma Ba Tha, which has been at the forefront of anti-Muslim sentiment in Myanmar in recent years.

The group proved a potent political force under the former military-backed government, who they successfully lobbied to pass a series of controversial laws that rights groups say discriminate against women and religious minorities.

But the organisation ultimately lost out in November elections that saw their allies in the incumbent party trounced by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), which is now leading the former junta-run country's first civilian administration in half a century.

Ma Ba Tha representatives from around the country took the microphone at the start of the two-day conference to review their achievements over the past year and outline plans for the future.

"Our principles are very simple: to protect our people and our religion," U Ottama, a monk attending the conference, told AFP.

Much of the anti-Muslim rhetoric espoused by group's leaders has targeted the Rohingya -- a ethnic minority denied citizenship in Myanmar and relegated to apartheid-like conditions ever since deadly riots tore through western Rakhine state in 2012.

One of Suu Kyi's biggest challenges will be carving out a solution for the Rohingya -- who Buddhist nationalists have branded illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite the fact that many have lived in Myanmar for generations.

The Nobel peace prize winner has faced international criticism for not taking a stronger stance on the Rohingya, and for failing to field any Muslim candidates in November's polls -- a move observers say was a concession to groups like Ma Ba Tha.

Story continues

While hosting US Secretary of State John Kerry last month, Suu Kyi asked for "space" as her administration seeks to build trust and ease secretarian tensions.

Some Buddhists' strident rejection of the term Rohingya has made simply uttering the word an act fraught with controversy.

In recent weeks Ma Ba Tha and other nationalist groups have held a series of demonstrations to protest the US Embassy's reference to Rohingya in a press release.
Qatar Airbus A380 Atlanta

Qatar Airways' inaugural flight to Atlanta this week wasn't just the airline's first trip to the world's busiest airport.



It was a foray right into the backyard of its most vocal critic.

For the past two years, Qatar Airways and Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines have been engaged in a very public feud over allegations that Middle Eastern carriers  which are a major threat to the US carriers' international business  are violating international agreements.



The complaint, which Delta has championed, is that Qatar, Emirates, and Etihad are unfairly supported by subsidies in violation of the US's Open Skies agreements with their governments.

In Atlanta, the feud has taken on soap-opera-like characteristics, including name-calling and collateral damage, including funding for a landmark theater in Atlanta.

On Tuesday, 517 passengers on board Qatar Airways Flight 755 were caught in the middle.

After a 14-hour flight from Doha, the Qatari Airbus A380 superjumbo landed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Once there it did not have a gate available for the passengers to deplane.

Even though Atlanta's airport hosts more than 100 million passengers a year, few travel using the double-decker Airbus jet, and the airport has only one gate capable of handling the gargantuan airplane. And the gate just so happened to be occupied by Delta Air Lines at the time.



So the Qatari jet was eventually towed to a remote parking area where passengers were offloaded onto buses. It's a procedure rarely undertaken at the vast airport in nonemergency situations.

But there's more

This story isn't just as straightforward as that. Yes, Delta was occupying the only gate Qatar could use. And Delta  which has been feuding publicly with Qatar  wasn't going to give it up.



But it turns out that Qatar knew perfectly well in advance of the flight's departure that it wasn't going to get the gate.





Story continues

Qatar Airways Airbus A380

Qatar has no intention to fly the massive A380 to Atlanta on a regular basis. And in fact, the Atlanta flight was originally scheduled to be operated by a 259-seat Boeing 777, which is the aircraft that'll make that flight on a regular basis, and can fit at any number of gates in Atlanta.

But Qatar decided in April that it was going to fly the A380 for the inaugural flight, no doubt a way to make a dramatic entrance.



Although Qatar alerted the airport almost six weeks ahead of the flight, it was less than the 60-day notice period required to change an A380's gate allocations.

"Due to the sheer size of the aircraft, time needed to service and short advance notice the Airport was given, aircraft operations would have been significantly disrupted and would have displaced four or five other aircraft," Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport spokesman Reese McCranie told Business Insider.

And, in a letter sent to Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker the day before the flight, Atlanta airport's interim general manager, Roosevelt Council, warned the airline that a gate would not be available between the hours of 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Flight 755 landed a 4:03pm.

So Qatar was prepared.

"We knew before the flight that we did not have a gate available," vice president for the Americas Gunter Saurwein told Business Insider. "So we flew in our best people from around the country to help manage the turnaround of the plane."

Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport

Still, on Friday, Al Baker, the Qatar Airways CEO, called Delta "wicked" and its actions an "absolute violation of the air services agreement," Bloomberg reported. In addition, Al Baker accused Delta of obstructing his airline's handicapped and elderly passengers as well as its general check-in process.

Open Skies

"Delta in no way acted to obstruct Qatars ability to park its aircraft at an Atlanta gate," the airline said in an emailed statement. "Delta offered solutions to allow Qatar to use the gates while ensuring our own schedule remained accommodated during a heavy traffic period at the international terminal."



As messy as the spat may seem, it was simply the latest salvo in the dispute between two of the world's leading airlines.

While Qatar has been crowned the best airline in the world three of the last five years, few airlines have been as profitable and well managed as Delta has been over that same time.

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker

Over the past few years, Delta  along with American and United  has lobbied the US government to reexamine and potentially renegotiate the bilateral agreements that allow airlines to fly freely between the US and the Middle Eastern nations of Qatar and the UAE.

Of the three US carriers, Delta and its management have been the most outspoken on the issue. In April, Delta's newly minted CEO, Ed Bastian, reaffirmed the airline's stance that Qatar and its fellow Middle Eastern Airlines have received more than $42 billion in illegal subsidies over the past decade.

Delta's attempt to curtail Qatar's growth in the US obviously does not sit well with Al Baker.

Earlier this year, the Qatari CEO said that his airline's move into the Atlanta was designed to "rub salt into Delta's wounds" Reuters reported.

Collateral damage

And in May, Qatar celebrated the launch of the Atlanta route at the city's historic Fox Theater with a party headlined by Jennifer Lopez.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian

In response, Delta Air Lines announced that it will no longer sponsor the Atlanta landmark.

"When the CEO of Qatar first told the world that they would be flying to Atlanta, what he told the world was that he was going to start a flight from Doha to Atlanta  to rub salt in the wounds of Delta," the airline's chief legal officer told the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Kelly Yamanouchi. "So we were very surprised and disappointed when we learned that the Fox Theatre ... were hosting the coming out party for Qatar."

With Qatar now making daily flights to Atlanta, grab some popcorn. There's bound to be more fireworks.



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After nearly two weeks on the run, the four people wanted by authorities in Vermont for their alleged roles in the fatal beating of a transgender man were apprehended in San Diego, California, Thursday night, PEOPLE confirms.



Police say Erik Averill, 21, Myia Barber, 22, Allison Gee, 25, and Jordan Paul, 21, all face murder charges after they allegedly attacked Amos Beede at a Burlington-based homeless encampment.



According to police, Beede was not homeless, but was at the camping site visiting friends the night he was assaulted.



A statement from police claims Beede died seven days after the May 22 beating in which he sustained blunt force trauma to the brain along with other injuries.



Investigators have yet to entirely rule out the possibility the beating was, in fact, a bias attack, a police spokesman tells PEOPLE.



Police in three states participated in a manhunt for Averill, Barber, Gee, and Paul, who fled Vermont following the assault.



 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.



After a stop in Roswell, New Mexico, where local police detained Averill for an alleged domestic incident involving Barber, who is his girlfriend, the four headed for California, a police statement explains.



A police spokesmen claims the alleged beating was fueled by a dispute involving Beede and Averill, who allegedly recruited the three other defendants for the eventual onslaught.



Police claim the friction involved the vandalism of two tents  one, located at the encampment's south side, was besmeared with feces while the other, near the northern side of the site, was befouled with urine.



Averill, Barber, Gee, and Paul are being held by Californian authorities on second-degree murder counts. Bail amounts for all four were unavailable Saturday as was information regarding the suspects' defense attorneys.
Marwan Fawaz

Nest named Marwan Fawaz as its new CEO on Friday, after Tony Fadell announced that he was stepping down.

Fawaz is a cable-industry veteran who is not nearly as well-known of a name in Silicon Valley as Fadell, a former Apple executive.

In fact, he doesn't live in Silicon Valley. Fawaz currently lives in Denver, Colorado.

And according to a Nest spokesperson, the company's new CEO will continue to live in Denver.

"Marwan currently lives in Denver and will be commuting to the Nest Palo Alto office for now," a Nest spokesperson told Business Insider, adding "we don't have any information beyond that."

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By YKA Staff:

Whats the latest around the world today? Curated for you from the interwebz, heres a quick morning fix to keep you updated. In 140 characters at that! Presenting, #NewsInTweets:

1. 24 die as police attempt to evict squatters occupying Mathuras largest public park for the past two years. Over 3000 protesters had gathered to thwart the attempts of the police to clear the area. Two senior police officers also died as the protesters shot at them without prior warning.

India needs $100 billion+ to upgrade last-mile police station  24 dead in Mathura as if in a sudden weather stormhttps://t.co/qWBpwN2zgt  Tufail Ahmad (@tufailelif) June 4, 2016

2. Delhi Police arrested 5 and detained 1 in connection with an illegal organ donation racket in Delhis Apollo Hospital.

Delhi Police busts kidney racket in Delhi hospital https://t.co/jMTEt57iuu  dna (@dna) June 4, 2016

3. Legendary boxer Muhammad Ali dies at 74 after he was hospitalised for respiratory problems.

Breaking: Boxing legend Muhammad Ali dies at age 74 https://t.co/0pAJSEeWYF  Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 4, 2016

4. Train stationed at Jharkhands Hazaribagh stop catches fire. The spark started at the food preparing coach.

#Alert | A train stationed at Jharkhand's Hazaribagh road railway station catches fire pic.twitter.com/gHgIqR1Zq4 (ANI)  Times of India (@timesofindia) June 4, 2016

5. The Art of Living Foundation directed to pay Rs. 4.75 cr as environmental compensation by NGT. The amount is to make up for the damage caused to the Yamuna floodplains during preparations for the World Culture Festival held in March.

#BreakingNews NGT orders Art Of Living foundation: Deposit balance Rs 4.75 cr compensation with DDA today https://t.co/hDRqnQRKpp  LiveNews24x7 (@LiveNews24x7) June 4, 2016

Nita Ambani nominated for membership to International Olympic Committee https://t.co/Af7X2PSvkh pic.twitter.com/C9NkNGiE9T  dna (@dna) June 3, 2016

7. Pakistani nationals Fidra Mehtab and Mohammed Umar Anjum to get their son Aayan treated for hearing loss in Delhi. The couple had not received positive response from other hospitals.

The post #NewsInTweets: 24 Killed In Violence In Mathura; Over 300 Arrested appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.
By Libby George and Ulf Laessing LONDON/ABUJA (Reuters) - The Niger Delta Avengers militant group has claimed responsibility for three new attacks on Nigeria's oil infrastructure, promising to cut production to zero. The attacks are the latest in a Delta region conflict that a major local youth group said is "rapidly deteriorating and getting out of control", putting intense pressure on Nigeria's stretched finances. The Nigerian Air Force, in a statement issued late on Friday, said it had deployed additional "fighter aircraft, helicopter gunship and surveillance aircraft" in troubled oil-producing areas to conduct "offensive air operations and intelligence gathering". The army has moved reinforcements to the swamps in the last few weeks. Early on Friday, the Niger Delta Avengers group said via its Twitter account it had blown up a pipeline in Nigeria's Bayelsa state owned by Italy's ENI, hours after attacks on another ENI pipeline as well as one belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC). "At about 3:30am our (@NDAvengers) strike team blew up the Brass to Tebidaba Crude oil line in Bayelsa," the group said on a Twitter feed it uses to claim attacks. Shell confirmed its 250,000 barrels a day Forcados pipeline had been hit again and was leaking. "We have ... mobilized appropriate oil spill response measures," SPDC said in a statement. The pipe had been shut in February after a seawater attack but a new strike might complicate three-month long repairs, for which the firm has brought in experts from abroad. Force majeur has been in place for Forcados crude since then. The Niger Delta Avengers say oil firms are responsible for pollution and say the poor swampland region fails to reap any benefit from its reserves. It said its attacks had brought Nigeria's oil production to just 800,000 barrels per day (bpd), from 2 million bpd, without killing anyone, though they hit infrastructure feeding crude grades already under force majeure. The ENI pipeline is used to transport Brass River crude. The group also hit ENI's Ogboinbiri-Tebidaba and Clough Creek-Tebidaba pipelines in Bayelsa and warned ENI not to start repairs or "we will make you regrets it". ENI did not respond to a request for comment. LOUD SOUND Ayiri Appah, a resident of Ogboinbiri, where the ENI pipelines are located, said he "heard a loud sound" from the area between 2 and 4 am local time. Three grades of Nigeria's oil - Forcados, Brass River and Bonny Light - are under force majeure, while Exxon Mobil lifted force majeure on Qua Iboe, the country's largest export stream, on Friday. Nigeria's oil minister said on Thursday that output was 1.6 million bpd. Even if the most recent attacks, which also included facilities belonging to Chevron under its Escravos grade, took out all exports of the oil linked to them, June production would remain near 1.2 million bpd. Experts said the violence showed little sign of abating, and would keep pressure on the Nigeria's oil production and finances. President Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim from the north, on Thursday canceled what would have been his first visit to the Delta region since taking office. The Avengers have accused Buhari of ignoring local problems by having never visited the Christian region in the south. The Ijaw Youth Council, which represents one of the largest ethnic groups, called on Buhari to "urgently and personally take charge ... to return peace and normalcy to the region." (Additional reporting by Seng Li Peng and Florence Tan in Singapore, Ulf Laessing in Abuja, Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsah, Tife Owolabi in Yenogoa, Alexis Akwagyiram in Lagos and Julia Payne in London; Editing by William Hardy and David Holmes)
Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday strongly condemned the mob killing of a Christian woman trader in the country's Muslim-dominated north and pleaded for more religious tolerance.

Bridget Abahime, 74, an ethnic Igbo trader and wife of a pastor, was "mobbed and extra-judicially murdered" on Thursday at a market in Kano, Nigeria's largest northern city, police said.

Two key suspects have been arrested, according to Nigeria's police chief Solomon Arase.

Buhari in a statement called the killing "utterly condemnable".

He vowed that the perpetrators would be brought to justice and urged people not to take matters into their own hands.

"Let us ensure that we keep the peace, as justice will be done," he said.

"Let us learn to respect each other's faith, so that we can know each other and live together in peace."

Kano state governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and prominent community and religious leaders on Friday held a meeting over the incident and issued a joint statement condemning the killing.

Kano city has been blighted by religious violence in the past.

In one notorious case in 1996 an Igbo Christian trader, Gideon Akaluka, was beheaded by suspected Muslims youths who accused him of desecrating the Koran. His severed head was then hoisted on a spike and paraded around the city.
By Eric M. Johnson

(Reuters) - A Union Pacific train carrying crude oil derailed and caught fire along Oregon's scenic Columbia River gorge on Friday, forcing the closure of an interstate highway and the evacuation of a school in the first major rail accident involving crude in a year.

Union Pacific Corp, which owns the line, said 11 rail cars from a 96-car train carrying Bakken crude oil derailed about 70 miles (110 km) east of Portland, near the tiny town of Mosier. It said oil spilled from at least one rail car. There were no injuries.

The crude from North Dakota was purchased by TrailStone Inc's U.S. Oil & Refining Co, bound for its refinery in Tacoma,Washington, about 200 miles northwest of the derailment, the company said.

Television footage showed smoke and flames along with overturned black tanker cars snaking across the tracks, which weave through the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.

"I looked outside and there was black and white smoke blowing across the sky, and I could hear the flames," said Mosier resident Dan Hoffman, 32, whose house is about 100 meters from the derailment site. "A sheriff's official in an SUV told me to get the hell out."

While rail shipments have dipped from more than 1 million barrels per day in 2014 as a result of the lengthy slump in oil prices, the first such crash in a year will likely reignite the debate over safety concerns surrounding transporting crude over rail.

Seeing our beautiful Columbia River Gorge on fire today should be a wake-up call for federal and state agencies  underscoring the need to complete comprehensive environmental reviews of oil-by-rail in the Pacific Northwest," said U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon.

Officials from the Washington state Department of Ecology said there was no sign of oil in the Columbia River or Rock Creek.

SAFETY MEASURES DELAYED

Since 2008, there have been at least 10 major oil-train derailments across the United States and Canada, including a disaster that killed 47 people in a Quebec town in July 2013.

Story continues

The incident comes eight months after lawmakers extended a deadline until the end of 2018 for rail operators to implement advanced safety technology, known as positive train control, or PTC, which safety experts say can avoid derailments and other major accidents.

The measures included phasing out older tank cars, adding electronic braking systems and imposing speed limits, all meant to reduce the frequency and severity of oil train crashes.

The tank cars involved in Friday's crash were CPC-1232 models, which elected officials have raised concerns about in the past even though they are an upgrade from older models considered less safe. U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon last year asked federal officials to look into whether the newer cars were safe enough.

Rail operators such as Union Pacific are required under federal law to disclose crude rail movements to state officials to help prepare for emergencies. The rule was put in place after a string of fiery derailments.

In its latest disclosure with the state, Union Pacific said it moved light volumes of Bakken crude oil along its state network, which includes the Oregon line. In March, it transported six unit trains, which generally carry about 75,000 barrels each.

In Oregon, Union Pacific hazardous materials workers responded to the scene along with contractors packing firefighting foam and a boom for oil spill containment.

As emergency responders descended on the crash site, Interstate 84 was closed, students were evacuated from the nearby Mosier Community School, and residents were ordered to leave the area.

Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director of the Columbia Riverkeeper advocacy group, said the crash should raise concerns about Tesoro Corp's proposed 360,000 barrels-per-day railport in Vancouver, Washington, which would be the country's largest.

"We are very concerned about additional oil trains passing through our community because of their safety record, the risk of fires, of explosions, the risks of spills," he said.

(Reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault, Jarrett Renshaw amd Devika Krishna Kumar in New York, Erwin Seba in Houston, Curtis Skinner in San Francisco and Eric M. Johnson in Calgary, Alberta; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Leslie Adler)
A Union Pacific oil train derailed in Columbia River Gorge near Mosier, Oregon, on Friday, June 3, catching fire and sending a plume of black smoke into the sky. Union Pacific spokesman Aaron Hunt said 11 cars in the 96-car freight train, which was heading to Tacoma, Washington, from Eastport, Idaho, derailed around 70 miles east of Portland.

Authorities evacuated residents living within a quarter mile of the site and shut down parts of Interstate 84. Credit: Twitter/JohnLGC
Today marks the 88th anniversary of the landmark Olmstead v. United States wiretapping case decided by the Supreme Court, which had a far-reaching impact still felt today.

The decision centered on the ability of federal investigators to wiretap private conversations without judicial approval, and the ability to use evidence from these intrusions in court.

Roy Olmstead was a lieutenant on the Seattle police force who like other officers, had a side job. In his case, Olmsteads part-time job was as the most successful bootlegger in the Pacific Northwest during Prohibition.

And it wasnt a small-scale operation. Olmstead brought in millions of dollars each year using a combination of modern-office management and his connections within the police force.

Olmsteads empire was ferreted out by a federal investigation that became a landmark in the annals of American law. A team spent months listening and noting his business calls, using a wiretapping system outside of his offices.

After his conviction, Olmsteads appeal made it to the Supreme Court on the grounds that the wiretapping act was a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights relating to unreasonable search and seizure

In a 5-4 verdict, the Supreme Court decided on June 4, 1928 that the unapproved wiretapping was permissible. Speaking for the majority, Chief Justice William Howard Taft said private telephone communications were no different from casual conversations overheard in a public place.

That decision was overturned in 1967 in Katz v. The United States, which made wiretapping by state and federal investigators subject to warrant requirements.

The more-enduring law was made by Justice Louis D. Brandeiss dissent in Olmstead. Brandeis said the since wiretapping was illegal in the state of Washington, it was illegal when done by federal authorities outside of the legal guidelines.

In his statement, Brandeis also articulated a constitutional right to be let alone  words invoked by the majority nearly half a century later in Roe v. Wade.

After losing his appeal, Olmstead did a few years in prison, was later pardoned, and spent part of his remaining years as a Christian Science practitioner, working on programs about alcohol abstinence.
From Esquire

Back when I was just starting out at The Boston Phoenix, William Weld was the United States Attorney in Boston. He was tasked with cleaning out the traditional rat's nest of corruption in city and state government, and he was very enthusiastic about his job. He was just the strangest combination of joviality and implacability that I ever encountered.

Once, in 1981, his office brought an extortion case against the president of the Massachusetts Senate, whom Weld charged with shaking down a contractor who'd been consensually paying off the senator for over a decade. (The government's case depended on some arcane point of the extortion statute that I still don't understand.) I sat through the entire trial; I was in the courtroom the day that Ronald Reagan was shot. The judge on the case was as hostile to the government's case as it was possible to be. He did everything but throw rocks from the bench at the prosecutor's table. The jury, which was as baffled as the rest of us were, couldn't come to a verdict. I spoke to Weld in the aftermath and we had a good laugh at the antics of the judge and of some of the witnesses.

Then he tried the guy again and convicted him.

I headed into fulltime sportswriting just as his political star was rising nationally and, when he ran for governor, I voted for him. Twice. I believe he may be the last Republican for whom I ever voted. He was the last of the WASP scions-the descendants of those grim-faced gombeens who scratched a society out of some of the most unforgiving terrain on the continent, the ones who gave up the power in Boston only grudgingly to the immigrant populations that came flooding in during the 19th century, in part because, sooner or later, Trey Eliot Cabot IV fell in love with Maureen, the downstairs maid.

He was the last of the WASP scions-the descendants of those grim-faced gombeens who scratched a society out of some of the most unforgiving terrain on the continent.

Story continues

An uneasy peace was struck that mellowed over the years into a culture of friendly insult. Once, at an annual St. Patrick's Day breakfast, the local Hibernian wiseguys jibed at Weld about his family's having come over on the Mayflower. No, Weld told them, his family hadn't made the trip, but they had sent the servants over to make sure the summer cottage was ready.

The last time we ran into each other was at the 2012 Republican convention in Tampa. He reached out and grabbed my arm and we spoke for quite some time. He had long ago fallen out of favor with what the Republican Party had become, and it had fallen out of favor with him. (The last straw was when Jesse Helms, that nasty old bigot, blocked Weld's appointment to be ambassador to Mexico.)

Now, though, he's back, improbably, as Gary Johnson's running mate on the Libertarian ticket. They were on with Lawrence O'Donnell on Tuesday night, and O'Donnell and Weld fell into that old-school Irish-WASP pol-patter in which anyone who's been around Massachusetts politics is fluent.

There always has been a temptation not to take Weld too seriously, because he doesn't take himself too seriously. This is a capital mistake, as is made clear by a little-remembered episode in Weld's career.

In 1988, as Ronald Reagan's term of office was winding down, Attorney General Edwin Meese, a career authoritarian and Reagan's bulldog dating back to their days in California, was caught in a corruption scandal involving his investment adviser and one of his closest friends. (One of the allegations involved the construction of an oil pipeline in Iraq. Plus ca change and all that.) This was one of the last scandals of the Reagan Administration, which had a record of corruption unmatched since the sudden death of Warren Harding.

On March 29, 1988, Weld, who then headed up the DOJ's criminal division, and Deputy Attorney General Arnold Burns marched themselves to the White House and handed their resignations to Howard Baker, then Reagan's chief of staff. No muss. No fuss. Gone.

As The Los Angeles Times wrote at the time:

Burns, who built a thriving New York law practice and joined the department only 18 months ago, first began discussing the possibility of resigning in January, according to department officials. He was said to have become increasingly fearful that he would be tarnished by criticism of Meese's conduct. "He came here with a reputation, and he wants to leave with it intact," one official said of Burns, who has no immediate job plans. As for Weld, he was convinced that "the top guy had to go, and when the top guy didn't, he did," one source said.

Beneath the lopsided grins and the self-deprecation and the occasional glass of what he always called "the amber-colored liquids," Bill Weld is a man of considerable conscience and considerable substance. But he does not brag about any of that because, my dear young man, it simply isnotdone. Both qualities are more than welcome in this particular election year and, if this is really Bill Weld's last hurrah-a reference, I suspect, that would delight him-then I hope he makes the most of it. It's good to have him back.

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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.

Gheit believes U.S. exploration and production companies will be the best-performing stocks going forward. That's because when oil prices crashed, they got creative in cutting costs and improving operating efficiency. Therefore, the break-even point for those companies has gone down.

Story continues

"Higher oil prices will create [a] profitable environment at $60-$65 oil," he said. "Only two years ago, you needed $80, $85 to $90 oil."

 CNBC's Jackie O'Sullivan, Patti Domm and Reuters contributed to this report.





More From CNBC


By Eric M. Johnson REUTERS - A Union Pacific train carrying crude oil derailed and burst into flames along Oregon's scenic Columbia River gorge on Friday in the first major rail accident involving crude in a year. While no injuries were reported, the train remained engulfed in flames six hours after the derailment, officials said. The accident has already renewed calls for stronger regulation to guard communities against crude-by-rail accidents. Union Pacific Corp, owner of the line, said 11 rail cars from a 96-car train carrying crude oil derailed about 70 miles (110 km) east of Portland, near the tiny town of Mosier. Oil spilled from one car, but multiple cars of Bakken crude caught fire, said Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman Tom Fuller. Firefighters were still fighting the flames several hours later. The crude was bought by TrailStone Inc's U.S. Oil & Refining Co and bound for its refinery in Tacoma, Washington, some 200 miles (322 km) northwest of the derailment, the company said. Television footage showed smoke and flames along with overturned black tanker cars snaking across the tracks, which weave through the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. "I looked outside and there was black and white smoke blowing across the sky, and I could hear the flames," said Mosier resident Dan Hoffman, 32, whose house is about 100 meters (328 ft) from the derailment. "A sheriff's official in an SUV told me to get the hell out." While rail shipments have dipped from more than 1 million barrels per day in 2014 as a result of the lengthy slump in oil prices, the first such crash in a year will likely reignite the debate over safety concerns surrounding transporting crude by rail. "Seeing our beautiful Columbia River Gorge on fire today should be a wake-up call for federal and state agencies  underscoring the need to complete comprehensive environmental reviews of oil-by-rail in the Pacific Northwest," said U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon. Ecology officials from Washington state said there was no sign of oil in the Columbia River or Rock Creek. SAFETY MEASURES DELAYED Since 2008, there have been at least 10 major oil-train derailments across the United States and Canada, including a disaster that killed 47 people in a Quebec town in July 2013. The incident comes eight months after lawmakers extended a deadline until the end of 2018 for rail operators to implement advanced safety technology, known as positive train control, or PTC, which safety experts say can avoid derailments and other major accidents. The measures included phasing out older tank cars, adding electronic braking systems and imposing speed limits, all meant to reduce the frequency and severity of oil train crashes. The tank cars involved in Friday's crash were CPC-1232 models, which elected officials have raised concerns about in the past even though they are an upgrade from older models considered less safe. On Friday, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon repeated his call from last year for federal officials to look into whether the newer cars were safe enough. "It's clear with this crash - as it has been for years - that more must be done to protect our communities," Wyden said. Rail operators such as Union Pacific are required under federal law to disclose crude rail movements to state officials to help prepare for emergencies. The rule was put in place after a string of fiery derailments. EVACUATIONS Union Pacific hazardous materials workers responded to the scene along with contractors packing firefighting foam and a boom for oil spill containment. In its latest disclosure with the state, Union Pacific said it moved light volumes of Bakken crude oil along its state network, which includes the Oregon line. In March, it transported six unit trains, which generally carry about 75,000 barrels each. As emergency responders descended on the crash site, Interstate 84 was closed and residents were ordered to leave the area. Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director of the Columbia Riverkeeper advocacy group, said the crash should raise concerns about Tesoro Corp's proposed 360,000 barrels-per-day railport in Vancouver, Washington, which would be the country's largest. "We are very concerned about additional oil trains passing through our community because of their safety record, the risk of fires, of explosions, the risks of spills," he said. (Reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault, Jarrett Renshaw, Devika Krishna Kumar, and Catherine Ngai in New York, Erwin Seba in Houston, Curtis Skinner in San Francisco and Eric M. Johnson in Calgary, Alberta; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Leslie Adler and Tom Hogue)
Bogota (AFP) - American photographer Spencer Tunick, famous for his pictures of huge crowds of naked people, is not a fan of Donald Trump.

In fact, when the presumptive Republican presidential nominee travels to Cleveland next month for the party's convention, Tunick plans to greet him with 100 nude women holding up mirrors in a form of art photography-turned-protest.

"There shouldn't be a rhetoric of hate in a presidential election," Tunick, 49, said of the billionaire tycoon's campaign, which has featured virulent diatribes against Mexicans, Arabs and women journalists, among others.

Speaking in Colombia, where he plans to assemble 4,000 naked people Sunday in what he calls a message of "peace and unity," Tunick said he felt a duty as a husband and father of two daughters to speak out against Trump.

"I can't just vote. I have to do something," he told AFP.

"I think every artist in the US should make an artwork before the election and get it out there."

His plan is to line up 100 nude women at sunrise on July 17, the day before the Republican national convention starts, wielding mirrored discs to capture the blinding light of the sun -- and expose what he calls The Donald's misguided policies.

Volunteers can sign up online at spencertunickcleveland.com to pose for the shoot, which the artist says will take place on private property near the arena.

"Republicans, Democrats and all other political parties are welcome to take part," says the website.

"It's an artwork, not so much a protest but an action to heat up the city... (and) show that women have power," Tunick said.

"Women in the city should look themselves in the mirror, and mirrors should shine back at them and they should see the language of hate that is coming from the Republican party."

Tunick accused the GOP, whose leadership long resisted the seemingly unstoppable Trump nomination, of "heading backwards" on women's and minority rights.

Story continues

- 'Body as art object' -

The New York-based photographer, who has completed major installations around the world, is in Colombia as the conflict-torn country closes in on a peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

"It's an honor to be here at this moment when life is changing and hopefully a peace agreement will be signed," he said.

Tunick said his Bogota installation -- the largest he has done in six years -- would feature unclothed Colombians sprawled out across a government square at different elevations.

He said the aim was "to work with the body as an art object as opposed to an object of crime or violence, just show the body as a beautiful organic entity that transforms the space, the governmental space of the square."

The Colombia conflict, which began in the aftermath of a peasant uprising in the 1960s, has killed 260,000 people and uprooted 6.6 million over more than half a century.

In this diverse country with deep inequalities and roots in Europe, Africa and the Americas, Tunick said he was hoping his photo shoot would attract "an alphabet soup of skin tonalities, ethnicities, people from all walks of life."
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Bishops found to be "negligent" when dealing with cases of sexual abuse will be investigated and could be removed from office, a papal decree said on Saturday. Pope Francis has pledged zero tolerance for anyone in the church who abuses children and likened such abuse to a "satanic mass". In 2014 he established a Vatican commission intended to set best practices to root out abuse in parishes. With the decree, he puts into action what he promised last year when he approved a Vatican tribunal to judge bishops accused of covering up or failing to prevent abuse of minors. Victims' groups have repeatedly demanded that the Catholic Church do more to make bishops accountable for abuse in their dioceses, even if they were not directly responsible for it. David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, remained skeptical about the Church's response. "Instead of just sacking bad bishops, or turning over abuse records to law enforcement, the Vatican is setting up yet another untested, internal church 'process' to purportedly deal with bishops who ignore or conceal child sex crimes," he said in a statement. "A 'process' is helpful only if it's used often enough to deter wrongdoing. We doubt this one will be." The Roman Catholic Church has been rocked over the past 15 years by scandals over priests who sexually abused children and were transferred from parish to parish instead of being turned over to authorities and being defrocked. In some developed countries, particularly in the United States, the Church has paid tens of millions of dollars in settlements. While a bishop can already lose his job under the existing canonical code for any "grave reasons", the Pope said he wanted to specify with the decree that such reasons included instances where bishops fail to tackle abuse cases adequately. Bishops "must be particularly diligent in protecting those who are the weakest among the people entrusted to them," the Pope said in the decree. He said a bishop can be removed from office if he has "through negligence, executed or omitted acts that caused serious harm to others", be it physical, moral, spiritual or financial. The decree requires the Vatican to launch an investigation if "serious evidence" of negligence is found. The bishop will be given the opportunity to defend himself. Ultimately, the Vatican can issue a decree to remove him or ask him to resign within 15 days. Any removal decision has to be approved by the Pope, who will be assisted by a group of legal advisers. (Reporting by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Alison Williams/Ruth Pitchford)
By Abdi Sheikh MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia will choose a new parliament as planned later this year and the president and regional leaders will meet on June 20 to discuss how future lawmakers will be selected as there will not be a popular vote, the president's office said. Somalia abandoned its plan to hold a popular vote in 2016 last July. The current government and parliament's term ends in August and new lawmakers are due to be chosen in the same month. In its last elections, in 2012, members of parliament were chosen by elders and then those lawmakers chose Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as president. It was Somalia's first vote since 1991, when warlords ousted president Mohamed Siad Barre, plunging the country into years of war and chaos. Last month parliament failed to approve a plan on how to run the next elections, forcing the president to issue a decree for indirect elections - elections other than by public vote - which was approved by a conference of regional leaders. "The conference repeats the previous promise that there will be no extension term and the election will take place at the planned time," the president's office said in a statement late on Friday. Procedural details would be discussed at another conference of regional leaders and the president on June 20 in Baidoa, the statement added. Somalia's government has been under international pressure to ensure an election is held on time to avoid a situation where the current parliament and government extend their stay. Diplomats have long said that delays in writing a new constitution, registering voters and other groundwork have meant the goal of holding a one person one vote poll is unrealistic. "The leaders agreed to make an explicit political roadmap for 2016-2020 to ensure an international model of elections (one man one vote) by 2020," the statement said. This year's electoral process is expected to expand the number of people picking the lawmakers. In 2012, just 135 elders selected members of the lower house. Under new plans, 13,750 people from across federal states will chose 275 members of the lower house. A new 54-seat upper house will also be created to represent the states. Somalia's government still faces a threat from al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, which wants to topple it and impose its strict interpretation of Islam on Somalia. The group has been driven out of major strongholds by the African and Somali forces but continues to launch bomb and gun attacks against officials, politicians and others. (Editing by George Obulutsa and Alexandra Hudson)
By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - Puerto Rico has taken the first steps toward opening a commercial office in Cuba, Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said on Saturday, on the sidelines of a Caribbean summit in Havana. Garcia Padilla is the first sitting Puerto Rican governor in history to visit Cuba, a "privilege" he said, telling journalist that local officials and the public had treated him warmly. Garcia Padilla arrived in Havana on Thursday to attend as an observer Saturdays summit of the Association of Caribbean States, which includes as members and associate members virtually all Caribbean Basin nations, as well as a number of islands that are not independent. "We have had meetings with various ministers, and last night I had the opportunity to share some words with President Raul Castro," Garcia Padilla said. "We had on the agenda and achieved taking the first steps to open an office of Puerto Rico in Havana. What these offices do is promote trade and cultural exchanges," he said. Puerto Rico has experienced a decline in tourism due to the Zika epidemic. It is expected to suffer further when U.S. tourism opens up with Cuba. Garcia Padilla said while Zika was a threat to pregnant women and those planning to become pregnant, it otherwise represented no danger for visitors, Public health, and in particular efforts in both countries to stem the spread of the Zika virus, was nevertheless on the governors agenda. "We had some initial discussions about how we can help each other  as we always do with Caribbean countries to deal with natural disasters," Garcia Padilla said. Although a number of U.S. governors have visited Cuba since the two countries announced detente in December 2014, restored diplomatic relations six months later and began talks on a multiple of issues, Puerto Rico has a special significance for both countries. The two Caribbean islands were Spanish colonies until the Spanish-American war of 1898, when they passed over to the United States. Cuba was quickly granted independence, while Puerto Rico remained an unincorporated territory and in 1952 became a commonwealth of the United States. Since the 1959 Revolution, Cuba has made support for Puerto Rican independence a key part of its foreign policy despite repeated votes in Puerto Rico to maintain its status. "The future of Puerto Rico depends on Puerto Ricans, just like Cubas future depends on what the Cubans decide," said Garcia Padilla, who does not favor independence. (Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by Leslie Adler)
First-time feature director Thea Sharrock admits she "didn't quite anticipate" the controversy surrounding her movie Me Before You, which some disability advocates have knocked for its depiction of assisted suicide.

The picture, released by Warner Bros., opens today. Based on Jojo Moyes' 2012 best-seller, it stars Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke as a small-town woman who forms an unlikely bond with a recently paralyzed man (Sam Claflin).

Sharrock, a longtime theater and TV director who hails from England, got the job on Me despite competition from some "very successful and established male directors," helped by stellar theater credits including the award-winning Top Girls by Caryl Churchill and the BBC mini-series The Hollow Crown.

The married mother of two sons, ages 8 and 10, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter from her home in London about the challenges of Me; who she'd pick to play James Bond (hint: His first name is Tom); and why director John Carney was dead wrong when he recently slammed Keira Knightley's acting ability.

Read More: 'Me Before You' Team on Understanding Will's "Extreme" Decision

Some disability advocates are rankled by this film. Did you expect that?

I didn't quite anticipate this. The disappointing thing is when people make a protest, when they haven't either read the book or seen the film. I have no problem with people seeing this film and not liking it for 101 different reasons; you go into every project with that as a possibility. I understood going into it how vulnerable a topic it is and susceptible to very strong opinions. It has big themes in it that are very easy to make quick judgments on.

What do you say to the critics who object that the movie's message is offensive to those with disabilities?

It's a fundamental misunderstanding of what the message is. I was attracted to this because I love the almost traditional love story that lies behind it. It reminds me of films that I don't think have been made for while, that used to be made quite a lot. And I love the bravery of the studios wanting to produce such a film. It's a fictional story about how important the right to choose is. The message of the film is to live boldly, push yourself, don't settle.

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You worked with Keira onstage. What was your experience with her?

Completely the opposite [of Carney's]. I was pretty shocked, I have to say, because even if you feel things like that, you don't say [them] and you certainly don't say [them] publicly. Keira and I are great friends, and we wouldn't be if we hadn't got on well in a working environment. She is funny, smart and probably the most prepared actor I've ever worked with, and I've been absolutely blessed to work with a huge number of film stars. She's incredibly flexible, incredibly disciplined and fun to be with and willing to try anything. She is meticulous and reads around everything [to prepare for a role]. That's how much she cares about her job. Also, that's what gives her range. That's why she's willing to try a surprising amount of stuff because she's got the background on it. I think her career speaks for herself.

Read More: John Carney on Keira Knightley Criticism: "I'm Ashamed of Myself"

What career would you do if not this?

I'd probably be a shrink. It's a major part of the job that I love - the psychology of working out why people behave the way they do.

Why did you make the switch from theater to film?

I did one of The Hollow Crown [episodes] for Sam Mendes and his production team a couple of years ago. Tom Hiddleston played Henry V. I had a great time doing it [and] got an American agent [CAA's Carin Sage], and we have been reading film scripts ever since. When this came along, she kind of knew. She sent me the script and said, "I've got a feeling that this might be the one we really want to go for."

Dream project?

Some undiscovered Arthur Miller play that's unearthed from a pile of papers that nobody's ever seen or done.

If you were given the next Bond movie to direct, who would you cast?

Tom [Hiddleston]. He would make a fine Bond. He has a huge number of qualities that Bond needs. He has such a classical feel to him that it would be like going back to the kind of Sean Connery, cool, stylized, classical figure. My outside choice would by James Norton.

Favorite movie?

[Anthony Minghella's] Truly Madly Deeply. Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation. And by the way, I'm only not saying E.T. because everybody says that.

What are you currently reading?

I'm on the third book of the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan Novels. I have a friend who's from Naples, and she's utterly convinced she knows who [Ferrante] is. [Ferrante is a pseudonymous Italian novelist whose true identity is not publicly known.] It's incredibly impressive that the author has maintained the mystery.

Daniel Radcliffe is godfather to one of your children. Who else is in your Hollywood "family"?

Kevin [Spacey] I absolutely adore. I'd do anything for him and to work with him again. Tom [Hiddleston], Keira, Sam Mendes, Benedict Cumberbatch. There's a really nice group of us who come from theater or I've had a theater experience with. Danny DeVito. He hadn't been on stage for 40 years when he came over here to do Sunshine Boys. And Lawrence Kasdan.

What are you doing next?

I have a two-hander play that I really hope I can do next year in London. I've just been approached about doing a new musical. I did a musical a couple of years ago, a [stage] adaption of The Bodyguard, which had only Whitney Houston's music in it. I'm very excited to be starting on a new musical from scratch [which Sharrock declines to name].

Is it In the Heights?

[laugh] Give them my phone number, please!

What's the strangest dream you've had?

Last Monday morning, I was in New York for our New York premiere. I had this dream that I was in the car with Alan Rickman and his wife Rima [Horton], both of whom I've known for years. They were driving me to the premiere, and we were in an open top car. It was my way of feeling that the two of them were completely supporting me on the way to such a big event.

You're one of two female directors with studio movies this summer, along with Jodie Foster (Money Monster). How do you explain that?

Hollywood is surprisingly old-fashioned [and its] history has always been this way. Maybe it's just a little slower than the rest of the world in catching up. On a positive note, I do feel strongly that it's about to change. The figures are so low. It can only go one way.

Read More: 'Me Before You': Film Review
Rapper Freddie Gibbs was arrested shortly before a concert at Le Rex in Toulouse, France, on Thursday in connection with an alleged rape that occurred in Austria last year, French news source La Depeche reports.



According to La Depeche, 33-year-old Gibbs, who was born Frederick Tipton in Gary, Indiana, attended a hearing on Friday and is being held in custody "pending his extradition to Austria." (PEOPLE was unable to reach Toulouse authorities for comment.)



Austrian news source Vienna Online confirmed that Austrian authorities had called for Gibbs' extradition.



"We have requested his transfer," Nina Bussek, spokeswoman for the Vienna prosecutor's office, told the publication.



In a statement to PEOPLE, Gibbs' attorney Scott Leemon denied the charges against Gibbs.



"Freddie Gibbs adamantly denies the allegations that have been levied against by Austrian authorities," Leemon said. "It makes you wonder why it took almost a year for Austrian officials to bring these charges. Freddie will be fighting the extradition request as these are nothing more than trumped up charges."



The rapper is still scheduled to perform in London, France, Portugal and Toronto in the coming days, according to his website.



 With reporting by CHRIS HARRIS and PETER MIKELBANK
The Real World alums Sean Duffy and Rachel-Campos Duffy are celebrating the birth of their eighth child!

EXCLUSIVE: Real World Creator Jonathon Murray On Shows Changes

Patrick Miguel Duffy was born on May 29, weighing in at just over 5 pounds. The proud parents shared images of the newborn via Facebook. I know he is baby #8, but this new life thing never gets old!!! And the kids cant get enough of him, Rachel wrote.

NEWS: From Reality Star To Actress Who Took The Leap

She also gave a shout-out to the awesome nurses at the hospital where she gave birth, along with a sweet message for the baby: Welcome to the family baby Patrick. Its gonna be wonderful life!

News: Are Reality Show Safe For Kids?

Our family is so blessed! Sean wrote on his Facebook page. Happy and healthy, and his siblings cant get enough of him!

Needless to say, a lot has changed since the couples days on reality T.V. Sean, who starred on Real World: Seattle in 1997, is now a Wisconsin Congressman. Rachel was on the San Francisco edition in 1994, and has appeared on Fox & Friends and The View.

The lovebirds met on Road Rules: All Stars in 1998, and tied the knot the following year.

Check the video below to catch up with the cast of MTVs The Hills.

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(Adds comments from Dauman's attorney, Shari Redstone's court filing)

By Jessica Toonkel

June 3 (Reuters) - Attorneys for Sumner Redstone and his daughter asked a court to reject Viacom Inc Chief Executive Philippe Dauman's request to move up the trial over Dauman's removal from the media mogul's trust, according to court filings on Friday.

Sumner Redstone's lawyers said the claims by Dauman and Viacom board member George Abrams were motivated by "self interest." Attorneys for daughter Shari Redstone said they would file by June 16 a motion to dismiss Dauman's case.

Last month, Redstone removed Dauman and Abrams from the trust that would determine the future of CBS Corp and Viacom after controlling shareholder Redstone, 93, dies or is declared mentally incapacitated.

Dauman fired back with a lawsuit questioning Redstone's mental competence. He argued that replacing him and Abrams on the trust and the National Amusements Inc board would lead to an unlawful corporate takeover by Shari Redstone.

Les Fagen, an attorney for Dauman and Abrams, said on Friday in a statement: "There are many undisclosed facts that will emerge concerning the conduct of Shari and her representatives."

Dauman has asked a Massachusetts court to hold a trial by the end of September. A hearing on that request is scheduled for Tuesday.

In a legal motion on Friday, Sumner Redstone's attorneys argued that Dauman and Abrams were enacting "an acutely self-interested legal strategy that they began plotting months earlier to secure their tenuous positions with Viacom."

They also said a majority of the other trustees had ratified Abrams' and Dauman's removal. "Plaintiffs are therefore off the trust, and off the board, even if they could somehow prove the allegations in their complaint," the motion said.

Shari Redstone has said her father made his own decisions. Her attorneys, in a separate filing to the Massachusetts court on Friday, said Dauman and Abrams apparently had no concerns as to Sumner's competence until he took them off the trust.

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Attorneys for the Redstones also asked the court to let the case be handled in California, where Sumner Redstone is seeking an order validating Dauman and Abrams' removal. That request was assigned to Judge David Cowan, who in May dismissed a lawsuit by an ex-girlfriend who claimed Sumner Redstone was mentally incompetent.

The outcome of the cases, and who ends up controlling the trust and the National Amusements board, will have wide-ranging implications for Viacom and CBS and could result in changes at the top of both companies, possibly through mergers and acquisitions.

(Reporting by Jessica Toonkel in New York; Additional reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Richard Chang)
Macy's shoes clearance

The retail industry is struggling.

Last month, many companies, from Gap Inc. to Macy's to Nordstrom reported dismal earnings.

One reason is that they've trained consumers to shop on sale.

Macy's has blamed many reasons for its nosediving sales, from unseasonal weather to a drop in tourist traffic. Both may be true, but a walk around the store's flagship in Herald Square in New York City proved that the company may be trapped in a vicious cycle.

The store was a mess, which detracts from any level of luxury the company may have had. It's difficult for consumers to want to throw down lots of cash for a Gucci bag when the experience unsettling.

Macy's

But everything is on sale, which has conditioned people to shop to do exactly that. (It's a losing game  the store is in disarray and putting everything on sale because fewer people are shopping there, which only in turn makes a company lose even more customers.)

Perhaps most notable is its huge "Last Act" clearance section, which renders the store an off-price bargain bin.

Macy's

J. Crew is yet another store fighting to retain its prestige amongst consumers. It has also been struggling to figure out how to get consumers to pay a premium.

j crew may 27

j crew may 27

Quality complaints and fashion misfires have hurt J. Crew more than anything, though it has been working on both. Fortunately, the excess inventory that it's trying to clear is making room for something promising: the forthcoming line from former Madewell designer Somsack Sikhounmuong which will launch this fall. It was met with adulation from critics at New York Fashion Week in February.

But will shoppers pay full price since they've come to know J. Crew as a discount retailer?

Banana Republic knows this all too well.

Gap Inc. CEO Art Peck has explained just how hard it is to wean people off of promotions.

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Banana Republic May 23

"Same is really true on Banana, where we have backed off" on promotions, Peck said, adding: "And I will be the first to say that when you start tightening up in promotion, you are playing a game of chicken with your customers ... And so we've been playing that now for really the last quarter. And we've seen more effects on this quite honestly."

In other words: it's hard to get them to do something other than shop on sale.

"It starts to train the customer to expect 30% off or 40% off going forward, and the only way to untrain her is to have a big fashion hit that they happen to buy very little of, and train her to start [shopping] more like [the store was] a fast fashion retailer," Mizuho Securities Managing Director, Betty Chen, told Business Insider.

The problem, though, is simply the way these companies were built: they do not operate like fast fashion brands  like Zara  which has the supply chain (and an internal data center) that permits it to react to what customers like and dislike, permitting it to not have to resort to incessant discounting all of the time. Zara can adapt rapidly to fickle consumers, helping keeping it immune from the current bloodbath that is the retail industry.

"If I had to condense the foundations for Zara's success, I would say it comes down to agility and flexibility," Neil Saunders, CEO of retail consulting firm Conlumino, said in an e-mail to Business Insider in December.

This has been troubling for traditional retailers who haven't been able to adapt so easily. Worse, the onslaught of discounting has put Nordstrom in a tricky spot: it's been forced to resort to lots of discounting  in hopes of stimulating sales and also to rid itself of excess inventory  but even the sales are misfiring at Nordstrom, arguably because there are so many sales out there already.

"Where we're seeing a big miss is in our clearance and promo  promotional business. So what we take away from that is, number one, the clearance and promotional environment is really noisy," Nordstrom copresident Erik Nordstrom said on a recent earnings call. "There's a lot of excess product out in the marketplace. It's certainly easy to shop online. There's some heavy, heavy discounting going on. And we're seeing that effect in our business."

There was arguably a time when there was a reason to shop at a premiere, traditional retailer versus a fast fashion store. It may have cost more, but the experience and quality gave people a reason to shop there. With companies competing to bottom out the next with sales  and clearance prices rivaling those of dirt cheap fast fashion retailers, which can churn out on-trend clothing much more quickly than traditional retailers can  consumers need more reasons than ever to purchase clothes at a premium price.

NOW WATCH: The one reason Zara is dominating the fashion industry right now





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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:
From ELLE DECOR

If you think tourists are the worst thing to happen to historic landmarks, you probably haven't read the latest environmental report on global warming. (C'mon, what else do you do with your free time?)

According to a new 108-page paper from UNESCO, the United Nations Environment Program, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, global climate change is a problem for landmarks including the Statue of Liberty, Stonehenge, and the Galapagos Islands. A very, very big problem.

The paper, titled "World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate," examined 31 at-risk World Heritage sites in nearly 30 countries. The predictions? A bit dire. The report mentions that $100 million has been allocated to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island for repairs from Hurricane Sandy damages, and that only more damaging storm surges caused by sea-level rises are to be expected.

Over in Venice, more than $6 billion is being spent to build gates to prevent flooding. "The city's extraordinary assemblage of Byzantine, gothic, renaissance and baroque architecture is under immediate threat from rising sea levels," the report states. The city has experienced increasingly frequent flooding events in the last 60 years.

The list goes on: Stonehenge will be sensitive to more and more extreme weather, including storms and flooding. The Galapagos Islands will be affected by particularly severe El Nino events that affect the entire food web, causing small fish and invertebrates to migrate away and reducing the growth of algae that many species rely on. Extreme El Nino events in the 80s and 90s caused declines of up to 90 percent in marine iguana populations, 75 percent in Galapagos penguins, and 50 percent in sea lions.

Meanwhile, Easter Island statues are at risk of being lost and coral reefs along the islands of New Caledonia are suffering unprecedented coral bleaching. Yikes.

However, one site that's missing from the report is causing a few raised eyebrows: The Great Barrier reef, which is experiencing its worst recorded case of mass coral bleaching, was highlighted in the draft report, reports The Guardian. But then, the popular tourist attraction disappeared from the paper. (Keep in mind that tourism brings in big bucks for Australia.)

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Instead, this sentence appeared in a press release: "At the request of the government of Australia, references to Australian sites were removed from the Report (recent information about the state of conservation of the Great Barrier Reef is available on Unesco's website here)," according to The Guardian. Cue the hmm.

In any case, we can all probably agree that now may be the right time to experience these destinations - in the most conscientious, respectful way possible, of course.

h/t: Travel + Leisure
Selena Gomez will donate proceeds from her upcoming North Carolina concert to charity. She said she hopes "there will be a day soon when laws like HB2 won't be a consideration."

The Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act (HB2) - often referred to as the "bathroom bill" - is widely perceived as being anti-LGBT. It requires transgender people to only use bathrooms that correspond with their sex at birth.

"I am very fortunate to have grown up in a home where I learned from an early age that everyone should be treated equally," said Gomez in a statement, ahead of her June 7 concert at Charlotte's Time Warner Cable Arena. "I went back and forth on whether I should cancel my concert in North Carolina and ultimately I think what is right for me is to move forward with my show and donate a portion of the proceeds to Equality North Carolina and their effort to defeat this act of discrimination. I've been reassured the venue I will be performing in has gender neutral bathrooms as I want everyone coming to my show to be welcomed. I feel like my generation is the most progressive one yet and believe there will be a day soon when laws like HB2 won't even be a consideration."

Gomez's Revival Tour launched in Las Vegas on May 6 and continues through December, with dates scheduled in North America, Europe and Asia. Proceeds from each ticket sold for the tour will benefit the Alliance for Lupus Research, a national voluntary health organization whose mission is to find better treatments for and ultimately prevent lupus.

The pop princess' latest single, "Kill Em With Kindness," rose from spot 22 to 19 on the Billboard Pop Songs airplay chart dated June 11. It follows three No. 1 hits from Gomez's Revival album: "Good for You," "Same Old Love" and "Hands to Myself."

This story originally appeared on Billboard.com.

Read More: Dave Matthews Band to Donate North Carolina Concert Proceeds to Equality Groups
Irene Kim doesnt compromise. Offered a dream modeling job aged 15, the Korean-American walked out of the contract signing when the agency insisted she undergo minor plastic surgery, preferring to work her way up through the grueling fashion industry on her own terms. Told that dying her hair would ruin her career, Kim did it anyway, and her scarlet locks became her trademark, inspiring a swarm of imitators.

My mom always said if youre happy, youre confident, and if youre confident, youre beautiful, says Kim, who grew up in Seattle but moved to South Korea in her teens. Ive always just had this mindset of being positive and confident in whatever I do.

Today that means modeling for the likes of Chanel and Calvin Klein, hosting popular South Korean fashion television shows and since last year working as an Estee Lauder consultant alongside Kendall Jenner. Its a meteoric rise for a 28-year-old who only started gracing catwalks three years ago, but has now broken new ground for Asian women in fashion.

Irenes individuality, combined with her positive energy, incredible work ethic and ability to communicate beauty in an engaging way across social media has made her an influential member of the global beauty community, says Sarah Creal, head of global partnership initiatives for Estee Lauder.

Key to Kims success is her shrewd social media presence. A graduate of New Yorks prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology, she has 755,000 followers on Instagram. Eva Chen, head of fashion partnerships for Instagram, says Kim is part of a new generation of fashion personalities. Rather than have a you cant sit with us mentality, they invite their millions of fans to sit with them through fittings, front rows and more, Chen says.

Peeling back the industrys gloss is especially pertinent in South Korea, which has the unfortunate distinction of being both the cosmetic surgery and teen suicide capital of the world. Being bombarded with images of perfectly coiffured, stick-thin K-pop stars can be crippling for adolescent self-esteem, and Kim hopes her light-hearted and honest snapshots help young people keep beauty in perspective.

Its about being yourself and loving yourself, she says. There were several times when people said I couldnt be what I am nowI was either too old, or didnt have the typical, traditional Asian face structure. But I did whatever I wanted to do.

Kim is now using all these qualities to develop a digital content platform for creative types, and may even launch her own clothing line. Whatever comes next, you can bet it will be purely, uncompromisingly, Irene.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iranian-backed Sh'ite Iraqi militia said on Saturday it planned to storm Falluja, Islamic State's stronghold near Baghdad, once civilians left the city, backtracking on earlier statements that it would leave this task to the Iraqi army. "We will not enter Falluja as long as there are families inside," said Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the Badr Organization, the largest component of the Shi'ite paramilitary coalition known as Hashid Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization. "Of course, we will go in and rid the city from the evil of this cancerous gland, with nobody preventing us," he said, when asked what would happen if civilians managed to flee the Sunni city that lies 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad. Falluja is the first Iraqi city that Islamic State captured, in January 2014, and the second largest still under its control after Mosul in the north. Sunni politicians have voiced concern that the presence of Shi'ite militias alongside the army in the battle to retake the city could lead to sectarian violence. Amiri was speaking to reporters while touring one of the frontlines near Falluja. Last week he said the militias would take part in encirclement operations but leave the army to storm the city. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on June 1 the offensive to dislodge the ultra-hardline Sunni militants had slowed down in order to protect civilians. About 50,000 are trapped in the city, with limited access to water, food and healthcare, according to the United Nations. Falluja is a historic bastion of the insurgency against the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Shi'ite-led authorities who took over after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003. (Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Illustrated by Mallory Heyer.

Growing up as Chinese-Americans in the predominately white Bay Area of northern California in the '90s, Jenny and Willa Jin knew their eyelids were different. "If only you had double eyelids, it would make your eyes look bigger and you'd look better," Willa, now 21, recalls hearing her parents and family members remark.

Double-eyelid surgery, or blepharoplasty, was an oft-discussed subject in the Jin household. Both sisters were born with monolids  an eye shape characterized by a lack of crease. When Jenny, who is now 28, was 18, their mother offered to pay for double-eyelid surgery. "I definitely didn't feel like she was pressuring me," says Jenny. "It was more giving me the option and letting me know it would be okay if I wanted to."

So, in the summer of 2006, a few months before Jenny started her freshman year of college, she flew to China, where the procedure is less expensive. (Willa, then 11, came along for moral support.) The two sisters, who once had nearly identical eyes, are now set apart by a subtle piece of skin. Yet Willa, who has often been asked if she wants to get the surgery, too, has never taken the leap. Willa and Jenny's story highlights the grey area of family, physical alteration, and cultural pressure.

Illustrated by Mallory Heyer.

According to the sisters, double-eyelid surgery is fully accepted in Asia. "There's less stigma around plastic surgery and almost none around double-eyelid surgery," says Willa. "It was encouraged by my Chinese mother and grandmother." Things may be shifting elsewhere, too: According to a study conducted by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, blepharoplasty is the second most popular plastic surgery procedure following rhinoplasty (nose surgery) in the U.S.

Jenny's blepharoplasty lasted no more than an hour and only local anaesthesia was used. "It was really freaky," she recalls. "Imagine being fully conscious and having your eye region numbed, but being fully aware that surgeons were essentially sewing up your eyelids." She went home that same day, swollen lids and all. "It looked like someone punched both of my eyes," she says. After a week of healing, her stitches were removed and her new double lids were revealed. "I was super excited! I could do so much more with my makeup," she recalls. "I still felt like I looked the same, just with a subtle alteration."

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Although monolids are most commonly associated with those of Asian descent, the trait is seen on European and African faces, too. Many critics view double-eyelid surgery as a desire to conform to Western beauty ideals. "I don't think my mindset was that I wanted to look less Asian or more white," Jenny says. "It was more that I thought double eyelids would enhance my face."

Still, it's hard to ignore the cultural aspect. Like natural hair, stereotypically Asian features, like monolids, aren't considered conventionally beautiful by today's standards, says Willa: "It plays into the Western dominance over the rest of the world, not just in beauty standards but in other ways, too. No matter what, even subconsciously, it's still an influence."

Illustrated by Mallory Heyer.

An awareness of sociocultural pressures have not insulated Willa against them. "I have felt a certain level of shame in my life. Everyone around me was telling me I needed to look a certain way to be beautiful," she says. In high school, when she was first beginning to dip her toes into the makeup world, she was frustrated by the number of YouTube tutorials that catered to double eyelids. "I always felt like I wasn't the norm," she says. Today, age and wisdom have informed her decision to abstain from the surgery. "Over the past couple of years, I've become a lot more comfortable with myself," she says. "I was born this way, so why should I try to change it?"

For her part, Jenny never regrets her own decision to go under the knife. "I had something done to positively enhance my features and it's made me more confident," she says. She makes the distinction, though, that surgery is not a panacea for low self-worth. "For people who feel like there's something wrong with them, plastic surgery is not going to completely solve your problems," she says. "It's more beneficial to people who are already comfortable with themselves, but just want that extra boost."

The question remains: How does Willa feel staring into her own sister's double-lidded eyes from her own unaltered monolids? "At this point, I can't remember what Jenny looked like before. I was young, I just accepted it." At the end of the day, she continues, "It's a personal choice. If getting double-eyelid surgery makes someone feel more confident, I don't feel like there's anything wrong with that. Who am I to shame someone else for doing something for themselves?"

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A trio of newbie distribution outfits  Bleecker Street, Broad Green Pictures and Saban Films  remain upbeat amid the profound changes percolating through Hollywood.

Execs with each, plus Sicario producer Molly Smith, appeared Saturday at the Produced By conference at the Sony lot on the panel alarmingly titled Is the Sky Falling? The Challenges and Opportunities Facing Independent Film Producers.

I dont think the sky is falling, said Bleecker Streetss Andrew Karpen. Theres clearly a market for over-35 audiences in theatrical releases.

Bleecker Streets successes so far include Eye in the Sky with $18 million, Ill See You in My Dreams and Trumbo  the latter two with over $7 million each, despite limited theatrical release. Karpen noted that its crucial to not overreach with more screens than needed, and to recognize where the audience is going to be.

If we cant determine who that core audience is, were probably not going to get involved, he added.

Daniel Hammond, chief operating officer for Broad Green, noted that the new studio decided that A Walk in the Woods had enough broad appeal to merit a wide release of nearly 2,000 screens, taking in nearly $30 million  despite mixed reviews.

On a wide release, reviews are less important, a bemused Hammond noted.

He added that Broad Green sees a focus on wide release as the sensible approach, underlined by making Straight Outta Compton producer Matt Alvarez its president of production as the majors focus most of their resources on tentpoles and franchises.

Were pushing in-house development, he added. Were strongest in wide release.

Smith said a similar approach worked with drug war drama Sicario, financed by her Black Label Media which found plenty of traction and wound up grossing $46 million domestically via Lionsgate. You have be nimble today, disciplined and conservative, she noted.

Jonathan Saba of Saban Films noted that his label has often opted to go the VOD route rather than theatrical. Saban released 2014s The Homesman, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank, and generated $2.4 million theatrically, a move it will make perhaps once a year.

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Were agnostic to the medium of distribution, Saba said. We have not lost money on a film yet.

The hour-long panel, moderated by Landmark Theaters Ted Mundorff, lacked any bashing of the new giant players Amazon and Netflix. For an independent producer, Amazon and Netflix are great partners, Hammond said.

Broad Green signed a TV output deal in April with Amazon Prime.

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A Union Pacific oil train derailed in Columbia River Gorge near Mosier, Oregon, on Friday, June 3, catching fire and sending a plume of black smoke into the sky. Union Pacific spokesman Aaron Hunt said 11 cars of the 96-car freight train, which was heading from Eastport, Idaho, to Tacoma, Washington, derailed around 70 miles east of Portland.

Authorities evacuated residents living within a quarter mile from the site and shut down parts of Interstate 84. This video shows smoke billowing from the derailed train. Credit: Derek Hiser
Lyft founders Logan green gm president daniel ammann John Zimmer

In 2016, automakers have been quick to pair up with the ride-hailing industry.

General Motors kicked things off with a $500 million investment and partnership with Lyft in January.

Then in May, the dominoes started falling. Apple  who many are already counting as an automaker given rumors of an Apple Car  invested $1 billion in Chinese company Didi Chuxing.

Two weeks later, Volkswagen plunked down $300 million to invest in Gett. And just a few hours after the VW news, Uber made public a partnership with Toyota in which the Japanese automaker is making an unspecified investment in Uber.

The newfound buddy system between automakers and ride-hailing companies shouldn't be taken as a sign of weakness or desperation from the auto industry though. At least, that's how Anthony Tan, the CEO of Asian ride-hailing service Grab sees it.

He says the partnerships are an endorsement of what many believe could be the future of transportation.

"I think it's a great thing. If you look at all the deals, all the partnerships that are happening, they are a real commitment from the extremely established," Tan told Business Insider. "The past two weeks was like a clear endorsement that it is going mainstream."

Grab, which operates throughout Southeast Asia, hasn't formally announced its own partnership yet. Its cofounder, Tan, though was the one to leave his family's prosperous auto business to start Grab so he jokes that there's obviously ties by blood. However, the startup is "actively engaged" with industry partners and the government in Singapore to work on self-driving cars.

The pairing up of automakers and startups at the start of the year wasn't a fluke says Tan, who predicts more of these partnerships will pop up  not only between automakers and ride-hailing companies, but with other entities too.

"This space will continue to grow," Tan said. "More automakers, more parts makers, more of the established industries getting involved is a good thing. It shows not only an endorsement, but the whole ecosystem getting involved."

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Tan likened it to the rise of e-commerce. There was not only the online website, but there needed to be support from the distribution channels all the way down to the manufacturers. E-commerce companies, like Amazon, took off when there was buy in from all parties. He thinks the same thing is happening to ride-hailing now.

"I can't speak from all automakers, but from the little I know, these guys are financially decent," Tan said. "I don't think it's a desperate move in any way."

NOW WATCH: We tried the 'Uber-killer' that just landed a $300 million investment from Volkswagen





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Anthony Tan Grab

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has tried to debunk the threat to his company that stems from the alliance of his rivals.

Either he's bluffing or he's wrong.

In the last year, Uber's rival Lyft formed a global partnership with Chinese company Didi Kuaidi, Southeast Asia's Grab, and India's Ola.

Lyft users visiting China could use the Lyft app to hail a car from Didi Kuaidi, and vice versa for Chinese visitors in the US. The same now goes for Grab.

In a January interview, Kalanick disputed that the alliance meant anything substantial.

"The anti-Uber alliance is not a corporation or identity, it's an idea. They can have coffee together on Sundays, I guess," Kalanick told the Times of India.

Grab's CEO Anthony Tan, though, says the alliance is much more than just a brunch club.

"Do we sit down for coffee? We do. We sit down for dinners together all the time," Tan joked with Business Insider. "But do we do business together? We do a lot of business together."

One part has just been working to make the apps integrate with each other. If you're a Lyft user in the US, you can visit China or Singapore and open the Lyft app.

But that's just a slice of what the partnership has done, Tan argues.

Much of the technology shared between the companies has been how to better track rides and improve the safety of customers, he said. He's also asked advice for things like how to make sure bad drivers are kept off the platform or how ratings should work.

There are some shortcomings to the partnership  map data, for instance, isn't easily transferable  but to Tan, the global alliance has been much more than a simple idea. It's a benefit to the customers, he said.

"If you look at the global roaming product, soon a US Lyft customer will have access to the worlds largest transportation network of cars and bikes," Tan said.

NOW WATCH: Uber is making customers pay for having drivers wait





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By James Macharia JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa held on to its investment-grade credit rating from S&P Global Ratings on Friday, but the rating agency also maintained its negative outlook, citing low GDP growth. S&P left its rating BBB- but warned in a statement that its negative outlook reflects "the potential adverse consequences of low GDP growth" and signals "that we could lower our ratings on South Africa this year or next if policy measures do not turn the economy around. South Africa risked losing investment-grade status because of weak growth, large deficits and scandals surrounding President Jacob Zuma. "Rising political tensions are accentuating vulnerabilities in the country's sovereign credit profile," S&P warned, but it said Pretoria had shown resolve to reduce fiscal deficits. The rand extended earlier gains to trade at 15.0600 at its strongest levels, up more than 3 percent on the day. South Africa's Treasury said S&P's decision gave it more time to implement economic reforms before another review in December and to expand growth, which it has forecast at 0.9 percent in 2016, compared with 1.3 percent last year. A cut to "junk" status would have pushed up Pretoria's borrowing costs, making it harder to plug a budget deficit estimated at 3.2 percent of GDP in the 2016/17 financial year. A review by Fitch, which also rates South Africa one step above non-investment grade, is expected next week, according to the Treasury. Last month Moody's held its rating at Baa2. "NEGATIVE NOISES" S&P's decision was also seen by analysts as a sign of confidence in Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, who was re-appointed in December after Zuma removed two other finance ministers within five days. Following his appointment, the minister set out to reassure ratings agencies and investors that he was committed to stabilising public debt at below 50 percent of national output. "We are indeed a resilient nation and we have many things going for us," Gordhan told Talk Radio 702 after S&P's decision. On eNCA television, he called for an end to "negative noises which harm us in the eyes of global investors." South Africa has been gripped by political upheaval ranging from a failed impeachment attempt against Zuma to widespread media reports that the president is at "war" with Gordhan. Zuma has denied the claims. Analysts say Zuma's ruling party faces a strong challenge at local government elections in August from opponents seeking to capitalize on his troubles. South Africa "had turned the corner," said ANC's spokesman Zizi Kodwa. BNP Paribas Cadiz Securities economist Jeffrey Schultz said apart from growth, S&P wanted to see less political instability. "If we don't see that come December, then I still think that a downgrade into sub-investment-grade territory for our foreign currency rating is very much still on the cards." (Additional reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo, Mfuneko Toyana, Joe Brock, Nqobile Dludla and Tanisha Heiberg; Writing by James Macharia; Editing by Larry King)
From Esquire

One of the most refreshing pieces of real journalism I've read in a while comes from The State, the flagship newspaper of the home office of American sedition. During our recent holiday blogging hiatus, the paper took a deep dive into the state of South Carolina's public services over the past decade. (Judging from the art that accompanied the piece, one can take a fairly deep dive in the middle of a state road these days.)

The state of the state, one can fairly say, is pretty damn sorry.

They are underfunded. They can't fill vacancies. The salaries they pay are not competitive. Work loads are oppressive, causing workers to quit, and threats to the public to go undiscovered until there is a crisis. South Carolinians are suffering as a result. Rural schools fail their students. Children die while in the care of the state Department of Social Services. Crumbling roads cost some S.C. drivers their lives and, according to a national research group, other residents about $3 billion a year. Dams collapse, causing hundreds of millions in damages. Violent youths riot, torching part of a state facility.

The dams are a good prism through which to observe the slow motion catastrophe that is state government in the home office of American sedition.

Last October, 31 state-regulated dams failed in a historic rain storm, causing tens of millions of dollars in damage. The collapses followed shrinking spending on dam inspections by the Department of Health and Environmental Control. For years, that program's budget-one of the most poorly funded in the country, according to the Association of State Dam Safety Officials-hovered around $200,000 or less. After October's dam-busting rains, DHEC asked for $595,000 more to increase its dam-safety staffing.

Thirty-one dams failed in a single rainstorm. I believe I've spied something of a trend. So did The State and, mirabile dictu, the paper hung the responsibility right where it belongs, without equivocation or mock fairness.

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The recession took its toll. But so, too, has a one-party political system controlled by a small fraction of the state's residents, GOP primary voters who focus on lower taxes.

Even when the Republican bosses of South Carolina agree taxes must be increased to fix a problem-the state's crumbling roads, for example-they are unable to act. To OK a gas-tax hike, the state's GOP governor demands a larger income-tax cut. The GOP-controlled House and Senate debate the structure of roads agencies for more than a year and, finally, facing re-election, legislators agree to spend money from the state's general fund. That money, they agree, won't be enough to fix the roads problem but will come at the expense of other troubled state agencies. That is state government today, licking its financial losses after the recession and paralyzed by politics.

Holy reality, Batman. It turns out that Both Sides haven't done it.

Like almost all elements of the Republican Party, the S.C. GOP has been struck down by the prion disease because a sizable portion of its members ate the monkeybrains long ago, and the state is pretty much falling apart.

Here are a few things to keep in mind: One, Governor Nikki Haley is still considered in many places a viable candidate for some future spot on a natural ticket. Two, what's happening in South Carolina is what's happening in a lot of places blessed with one-party Republican government. And three, what's happening in South Carolina is exactly what the national Republican Party would like to do to the whole country.

This is what "devolving power" back to the states comes down to-a river in the middle of the road.

Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.
A Dutch photographer who has shot portraits of many prominent musicians from Prince to Tupac Shakur has raised an issue over the way that Spotify adorns its artist pages with images.

"Not content to solely rip off the musicians on whose backs Spotify has built an 8 billion dollar company, Spotify has expanded its efforts to also include ripping off photographers," states a complaint filed on Friday in California federal court by Dana Lixenberg, whose work was profiled last year by Time magazine.

Lixenberg says that Spotify has committed copyright infringement by using her photograph of the late hip-hop star Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace. According to the complaint, the image was supplied by All Media Network, which is named as a co-defendant in this action.

"A comparison of the Subject Photograph with the Accused Image reveals that the elements, composition, colors, arrangement, subject, lighting, angle, and overall appearance of the images are identical or at least substantially similar," she adds.

Represented by attorney Scott Burroughs, Lixenberg is demanding profits, statutory damages, costs and attorneys' fees.

We've reached out to Spotify for comment.

Here's a look from the court filing:
BRYCE, Utah  Here at the annual Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival, daytime is just as entertaining as night.

On the lawn of the Bryce Canyon National Park Visitor Center, kids stomped on 2-liter soda bottles, which rapidly pumped air through plastic tubes that then sent paper rockets flying sky-high. Well, not quite sky-high, but high enough that the kids cheered. This was one of a handful of daytime activities the park put on as part of its annual astronomy festival.

Despite its remote location, Bryce Canyon National Park is a somewhat bustling locale  it features a visitor center, a lodge, a restaurant, a general store, a horse corral, multiple picnic areas, cabins and campgrounds. All of this lies within about the first 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) of the park's main road. So it wasn't strange, then, to see a crowd of people stopped outside the visitor center, looking through telescopes and launching paper rockets. [Best Night Sky Events of May 2016 (Stargazing Maps)]

During the nighttime stargazing parties at the four-day festival, volunteers from the Salt Lake Astronomical Society (SLAS) set up telescopes for visitors to view planets, galaxies and nebula  on top of the already-stunning view available to the naked eye. But a few volunteers also showed up during the day to set up sun-viewing scopes  telescopes with filters that show a limited amount of light from the sun, making it possible to see sunspots and other details on the surface.

On Thursday (June 2), the paper rockets and solar scopes were provided by members of an astronomy outreach group called the AstronomUrs. ("The U" is the common nickname for the University of Utah.)

Bryce Canyon National Park is located more than 200 miles (320 km) from Las Vegas to the south, or Salt Lake City to the north. Its isolation from city lights, high altitude and low humidity make it an ideal place to see the stars. (On my first night here, I was struck not only by how many stars I could see, but how large the planets and stars appeared, and how vivid their colors were.)

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Each evening, there are three concurrent astronomy-related talks. One of the venues is an outdoor amphitheater by one of the campgrounds. As the presenters reference specific stars and constellations, they can point them out to the audience.

The star parties begin around 10:30 p.m. each night in a dirt parking lot a mile from the main road, right next to the rim of Bryce Canyon. Despite the veil of complete darkness, the bustling vibe continues. About 25 telescopes were set up by SLAS volunteers, and every half-hour, a presenter gives a short tour of the visible constellations. Don Colton, the SLAS volunteer coordinator for the festival, told Space.com that at past festivals, the star parties have drawn about 600 to 800 people per night.

On Thursday, the crowds began arriving before 10 p.m., and there were easily 600 people there by 11 p.m. Shuttle buses to the star field arrived every 15 minutes, packed to the brim with visitors. The new arrivals would then wander among the telescopes, stopping to peer at some celestial object and hear a bit of astronomy trivia from the volunteers. Jupiter was an early target because it was high in the sky; Mars and Saturn gradually rose up to good altitudes for observation. The Milky Way appeared to the east, lying horizontally across the sky and along the rim of Bryce Canyon. The crowd buzzed, but the surrounding wilderness swallowed up the sound, and the sky took center stage.

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Its an established fact that minority schoolchildren in struggling districts tend to get suspended or expelled at a significantly higher rate than white students. The practice retards academic development, boosts school dropout rates, and is a major conduit in the school-to-prison pipeline.

Now, a new study from a University of California, Los Angeles, think tank lays out a powerful argument for why the rest of us should care: School suspensions are costing American taxpayers $35 billion each year in lost tax revenue and higher costs for publicly funded services.

RELATED: Go Directly to Jail: Typical Teens Face Police Instead of Principals

Produced by UCLAs Civil Rights Project, the study, The High Cost of Harsh Discipline and Its Disparate Impact, found the jaw-dropping economic impact after a limited study examining suspension rates at the 10th-grade level alone.

Other studies have proved that suspended students are at high risk of dropping out of school and that people without a high school diploma earn less, have more health problems, and are more likely to get into trouble with the law, Russell W. Rumberger, coauthor of the study and professor of education at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said in a statement. That means less tax revenue and higher health care and criminal justice costs for all of us.

Reducing the racial discipline gap makes good economic sense and will reduce social costs that hit communities of color the hardest, Daniel J. Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA, said in the statement. Schools dont need to rely on suspension. There are many alternatives that teach good behavior and hold students accountable for their conduct while keeping them in school.

The $35 billion price tag seems like a huge number, but its actually a very conservative estimate, said Losen. We looked at data from just one cohort of 10th-grade students. Multiply that with 10th-grade cohorts from additional years, and costs will easily exceed $100 billion.

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RELATED: Suspended Six Times More Often? Nope, Some Kids Arent All Right

Jeff Bryant, director of the Education Opportunity Network, a public-school policy center, told TakePart that the studys groundbreaking findings are likely the tip of the iceberg.

While the effects of suspension on students are known, few have tackled the problem in economic terms as a cost to the greater society, Bryant wrote in an email to TakePart. The samples in the study are limited both in terms of grade levels and geography. So the studys findings should prompt further inquiry and are likely to reveal a wider, costlier price tag.

Using longitudinal data that tracked a cohort of 10th graders, researchers calculated that suspensions of students in that grade would lead to more than 67,000 high school dropouts across the country. To support the conclusion, the study says, researchers analyzed school-suspension data in Florida and California and came up with similar results.

The cause-effect equation, according to the study, is fairly straightforward: Suspending students makes it more likely theyll drop out of school, increasing the odds theyll have a low-paying job or run afoul of the law. In addition to lost income-tax revenue from the underemployed, according to the study, high school dropouts are more likely to need taxpayer-subsidized health care and social-welfare services or enter the criminal justice system.

These estimates show that over the course of a lifetime, each additional dropout is responsible for $163,000 in lost tax revenue and $364,000 in other social costs, such as health care and criminal justice expenses, reads the study. Cumulatively, the total cost of the 67,000 additional dropouts caused by school suspensions nationally exceeds $35 billion.

Bryant wrote that the study should be a wake-up call to education officials and ed-reform policy makers to reconsider the rapid expansions of no excuse charter schools that are occurring in most states. Those schools, he wrote, often get waivers from state or district school discipline policies so they can employ harsher discipline methods, which typically result in higher rates of suspensions for black and Latino students.

RELATED: Black and Latino Parents: Our Kids Aren't DumbThey're Bored

At the same time, many schools are showing positive results of using restorative justice practices as alternatives to harsh discipline, Bryant wrote. The study concurs, noting that California has reduced suspensions by nearly 40 percent since the 20112012 academic year by virtually eliminating suspensions for the minor infraction of disruption or defiance. 

Alternative discipline methods show some evidence of both reducing suspensions and days lost to instruction, Bryant wrote. There is a cost in terms of more time and resources to implement these programs, but theres growing evidence its worth itincluding the $35 billion U.S. taxpayers lose each year because of unequal suspension-based discipline.

The outcomes produced by these more positive approaches, he wrote, could be well worth the expenditure in the long run.

Take the Pledge: If We Dont Act Now, Who Will Teach Our Kids?

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Original article from TakePart
Princess Leonore of Sweden performed her first official duty on Friday, visiting the Swedish island of Gotland, of which she is the duchess.



The 2-year-old princess is usually based in London, where she lives with her younger brother Prince Nicolas, their financier father Chris O'Neill and mom Princess Madeleine of Sweden.



But after the family attended the May 27 christening of the third-in-line to the throne Prince Oscar, Duke of Skane, they decided to postpone returning to England.



The program for the young duchess's visit to Sweden's largest island seemed perfect: She'd be photographed on Haidi (the 2-year-old roan filly that was the islanders' christening gift to the princess), then have lunch and meet local people during a walk around town before going home.







At noon, along with the island's governor and her groom, Haidi waited calmly in the field for her royal visitor.





Sweden's Princess Leonore, 2, Runs Away During Her First Royal Engagement| The Royals, Princess Madeleine

The princess saw the pony. The pony saw the princess. And what the pony saw next was the princess running away.



And she kept on running.



Despite the pleas of her parents, the young Duchess of Gotland was enjoying her romp in the pasture too much to care.



Eventually, nanny Louise Blomqvist was able to persuade the toddler, whose shoes and socks vanished during the melee, to return and meet face-to-face with Haidi.



But back at the paddock, Princess Leonore seemed more interested in the grooming brush than the pony, giving its flanks a couple of cursory strokes before turning her attention to splashing the animal's drinking water.



 Want to keep up with the latest royals coverage? Click here to subscribe to the Royals Newsletter.



The princess, looking adorable in a light blue dress and matching bow in her hair, then began to nibble on the carrot she was to supposed to feed Haidi.



As the royal's dress had become rather muddy, it seemed the right moment for a change of outfit before lunch.





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Sweden's Princess Leonore, 2, Runs Away During Her First Royal Engagement| The Royals, Princess Madeleine

"Now you know what we're dealing with," her mother Princess Madeleine, 33, told reporters.



"She's herself, that's how it is. Seeing her happy is fun," she said. "She and Haidi will probably become good friends one day. It takes some time to get to know a horse."











Related Video: Why Prince Harry Would Be a 'Great Dad'





"She's a wild monkey," her father Chris O'Neill, 41, was quoted as saying in the Swedish journal Aftonbladet. She's like this every day.



During last week's christening, O'Neill managed to pacify the princess's brother Prince Nicolas, who celebrates his first birthday later this month, with a flashing electric toothbrush.
Beirut (AFP) - Russian-backed Syrian troops pushed into the Islamic State group's bastion province Raqa Saturday, threatening to catch the jihadists in a pincer movement as US-backed Kurdish-led fighters advance from the north.

The lightning advance from the southwest with Russian air support brought the army to within dozens of kilometres (miles) of the Euphrates Valley town of Tabqa, site of the country's biggest dam, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said.

The dam, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) upstream from the jihadists' de facto Syrian capital Raqa city, is also the target of the Washington-backed offensive which Kurdish-led fighters launched late last month.

It was the first time that government troops had entered Raqa province since they were ousted by IS in August 2014.

Regular army troops were backed by militia newly trained by the regime's ally Russia, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

He said the twin offensives which threaten to cut off IS-held Raqa from jihadist-held territory along the Turkish border raised suspicions that Moscow and Washington were covertly coordinating operations by their respective Syrian allies.

"It seems there has been an undeclared coordination between Washington and Moscow," he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed Syria with US Secretary of State John Kerry in a telephone call on Saturday, the foreign ministry in Moscow said, without giving details.

The "main priority" for Moscow, Lavrov said in an interview this week, was "more direct, effective and forceful measures" against IS and Al-Nusra Front, whereas Western powers were opposed to the jihadist Nusra being targeted because of its alliances with "moderate" rebels.

At least 26 jihadists and nine government troops and militia were killed in the army's advance, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on reports from medics and activists on the ground.

Story continues

Tabqa dam has a huge reservoir named Lake Assad after President Bashar al-Assad's late father and predecessor Hafez.

When IS overran the area with its garrison and airbase in 2014, it summarily executed 160 captured regime troops.

- IS under multiple attack -

The jihadists are facing counter-attacks on multiple fronts.

Arab and Kurdish fighters backed by Washington have launched an assault on the strategic Manbij pocket further up the Euphrates on the Turkish border, regarded as a key entry point for foreign jihadists.

Hundreds of kilometres downstream in neighbouring Iraq, elite troops have begun an assault on the emblematic IS bastion of Fallujah.

Iraqi security sources said army, police and Shiite militia forces gained new ground from IS on Saturday in the Saqlawiya area west of Fallujah.

In Syria, Washington has deployed more than 200 special forces troops in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which it regards as the most effective fighting force on the ground against IS in Syria.

The SDF controls a large swathe of northeastern Syria along the Turkish border and another border enclave in the northwest.

The SDF's offensive against the Manbij pocket is aimed at seizing the last stretch of border still under IS control and denying the jihadists any opportunity to smuggle in recruits and funds.

The US military said the assault had captured more than 100 square kilometres (40 square miles) of territory from IS this week.

IS has hit back with an offensive against two towns held by non-jihadist rebels further west in a bid to enlarge the territory it holds on the border.

Washington has dropped ammunition to the rebels defending the town of Marea in a bid to stop jihadists overrunning it, a US official confirmed.

The supply lines from neighbouring Turkey have made the northern border region one of the most contested battlegrounds of Syria's five-year civil war.

The region is now controlled by a myriad of rival armed groups, although IS and the SDF have put other rebel groups on the back foot.

Washington's support for the SDF has strained relations with NATO ally Ankara as its largest component is the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

Ankara regards the YPG as an arm of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

The increasingly complex front lines have left hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped by fighting or living under siege.

Damascus said on Friday that it was ready to allow desperately needed relief convoys into 12 besieged areas, but the United Nations said it was preparing to seek the government's permission to organise air drops.
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - The Syrian army pushed into Raqqa province, home to the de facto capital of Islamic State, after a major Russian-backed offensive against the militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday. The offensive is the third big assault on the self-proclaimed caliphate in recent days after Iraqi forces attempted to storm Falluja in central Syria and a Syrian militia advanced with U.S. support towards Manbij in the north near the Turkish border. The offensives are some of the most aggressive campaigns against Islamic State since it declared its aim to rule over all Muslims from parts of Iraq and Syria two years ago. Friday's assault saw the army reach the edge of Syria's Raqqa province after heavy Russian air strikes hit Islamic State-held territory in eastern areas of neighboring Hama province. Raqqa city, further east, is Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria and, along with Mosul in Iraq, the ultimate target of those seeking to destroy the group. State media said on Friday the army had made territorial gains and inflicted heavy casualties on the militants. Syrian army spokesmen were not immediately available for comment. State media has given no indication of how many troops are involved in the offensive, or what weaponry they might be using. The Observatory also had no comment about numbers or weapons, but said at least 26 Islamic States militants had been killed along with nine from the Syrian and allied forces. The war monitor said the army advance meant it was now almost 40 km from an area in which U.S. backed rebels were also waging an offensive to isolate the militants' strongholds in northern Aleppo from their territories east of the Euphrates river, where Raqqa city is located. Should the army be able to reach the area where the rebels are also fighting Islamic State, that would leave the ultra hard line group hemmed in, albeit by forces highly unlikely to work together as they are on opposing sides in the multi-faceted conflict. ALEPPO OFFENSIVE The U.S.-backed rebels also continued to make rapid advances in an offensive against IS-held areas in Aleppo province, beginning with the Manbij area where they continued to seize more territory, according to Kurdish sources and the monitor. That thrust, supported by U.S. special forces, aims to deny Islamic State any access to the Turkish frontier, which is crucial for supplies of arms and food. The Observatory said that these forces were able to reach nearly 5 to 6 km from Manbij town, further tightening the noose around the militants by cutting the town's main supply routes with Raqqa and laying siege to their fighters dug in the city. "We made big progress and we are trying to ensure the safety of civilians before we begin our assault on the town," Sharfan Darweesh, a spokesman for the Military Council for Manbij, a tribal group affiliated with the U.S. backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) was quoted as saying. The influential pro-Damascus Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar said on Friday the army operation did not aim to reach Raqqa city within the coming weeks, but was to reach Tabqa city and Lake Assad, which Taqba overlooks. Islamic State captured Tabqa in 2014 at the height of its rapid expansion in Syria and Iraq. Tabqa, the location of an air base, is some 50 km (30 miles) west of Raqqa city. The town is on a key route that links Raqqa with areas the ultra hardline militants control in northern Aleppo. Separately, militants from radical Islamic groups led by al-Qaeda offshoot Nusra Front consolidated gains in the last 24 hours in southern Aleppo, according to rebel groups. More than 1,000 militants have begun an offensive against Syrian army positions southwest of Aleppo, the Russian ceasefire monitoring center in Syria said in a statement on Saturday. The center also reported civilians in Aleppo as saying armed groups partly made up of Turkish soldiers had appeared north of the city. The insurgent advance will make it more difficult for the army and its allies to encircle rebel-held parts of Aleppo city where intensified bombing in the last 24 hours has killed scores of civilians mainly by barrel bombing of residential areas. An attack last month by Nusra Front in southern Aleppo delivered one of the biggest battlefield setbacks yet to a coalition of foreign Shi'ite fighters, including Iranians and the Lebanese Hezbollah fighting in support of Syrian government forces. It was a major success in recent months for rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad. (Reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi; Additonal reporting by Rodi Said; Editing by Clelia Oziel and Bernard Orr)
Taipei (AFP) - Taiwan's new president Tsai Ing-wen urged China to give its people more rights and "heal past wounds and pain" on the 27th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown Saturday.

Her remarks came after the island's first ever Tiananmen commemoration in parliament on Friday, as lawmakers urged the government to address human rights issues in its dealings with China.

Ties with China have rapidly cooled since Tsai won the presidency in January, with Beijing highly distrustful of her traditionally independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Although Taiwan has been self-ruling since a split with the mainland in 1949 after a civil war, China still sees it as part of its territory.

In her first comments on Tiananmen as Taiwan's leader, Tsai said China must be open about the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing, which by some estimates left more than 1,000 dead.

The protests are branded a "counter-revolutionary rebellion" by Chinese authorities and many on the mainland remain unaware of what happened.

"Do not let June 4 forever be unspoken between the two sides. Only the ruling party on the other side can heal the past wounds and pain of the Chinese people," Tsai said in a post on her Facebook page.

Tsai said she was not pointing fingers at China and wanted to maintain cross-strait peace and stability.

"I'm sincerely willing to share Taiwan's experience of democratisation with the other side," she added and urged China to listen to different views.

By improving rights China would win international respect, Tsai added.

She also pledged to ensure Taiwanese people's identity as "democratic and free people".

"Hopefully one day the two sides will have the same views on democracy and human rights," she said.

- Dissident criticism -

But one former protest leader criticised Tsai as hundreds gathered in Taipei Saturday evening to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown.

Story continues

Chinese dissident Wu'er Kaixi, a prominent student leader in 1989 now living in exile in Taiwan, said Tsai should have used the word "massacre" rather than the more diplomatic "incident" in her June 4 statement.

"If June 4 is not a massacre, there is no massacre in the world...however, I understand the heavy political pressure she is under," he told reporters.

There were mass rallies in Taiwan to support the protests in 1989 and the government has routinely urged Beijing to heed lessons.

On last year's anniversary, Taiwan's former president Ma Ying-jeou of the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang party called for China to "redress the wrongs" of June 4.

Tsai came to power after voters turned against Ma over his rapprochement with Beijing. She won the presidency by a landslide, promising to restore Taiwanese pride.

Beijing has since been pushing her to adhere to its "one China" concept.

She has never endorsed the ideology accepted by Ma that there is only one China, with each side allowed its own interpretation of exactly what that means.

Tsai's government this week dropped what were criticised as "China-centric" changes to the high school curriculum which triggered protests last year.

Beijing hit back, saying Taipei would "shoulder the consequences" of provoking tensions.

Tsai visited a naval base in the north of Taiwan Saturday where she boarded a warship and honoured hundreds of naval officers and soldiers.

The ship is named after one of four Taiwanese gunboats involved in a bloody sea battle with Chinese forces off the southern mainland in 1958.
From Town & Country

Martin Riese is used to skeptics.

As the "water sommelier" for Los Angeles's Patina Restaurant Group, he's in the business of convincing customers that they should pay a premium for a beverage that most people think should taste like nothing.

Riese says he can convert anyone into believing that we should all be drinking mineral water-each type of which has its own distinct flavor profile.

To demonstrate, Riese recently took me through a tasting of four different waters, set up from mild to robust, like a wine tasting. Riese gives me the breakdown on "the three biggest letters in my life:" TDS, which stands for Total Dissolved Solids. These dissolved minerals and salts give the water its terroir, so to speak (the type of solids depends on where the water is from) and the more there are, the stronger the taste of the water.

Taste Test: Fiji

We start with supermarket staple Fiji (a brand that Riese represents). I take a sip and he asks me what I think. What I'm thinking to myself is well . it's watery, and don't say much. He jumps in to help me out, asking if it's salty or smooth, bitter or fruity. I tell him it's smooth and definitely not bitter, but I can't detect any fruit notes.

"I think the cool thing about Fiji water is it has texture in my mouth," Riese says, comparing it to the silky mouth feel of olive oil or whole milk. That comes from the high silica content in the water, which give it a particular mouth feel. He says it pairs well with spicy food because it suppresses some of the heat while letting flavor shine through.

Fiji has a TDS level of 222. Riese compares that to the TDS of purified water, which hovers around 20 to 30. He thinks companies that sell purified water, which is tap water that's filtered and then has some electrolytes added for taste, is "the biggest scam on planet Earth," a sort of processed food equivalent of water that strips out beneficial nutrients and minerals that add character.

Story continues

Taste Test: Iskilde

We move next to Iskilde, a water from a spring in Denmark, which has a TDS of 400, but is notable for its high oxygen content. When Riese shakes the bottle, it takes on a milky appearance from bubbles. There aren't any health benefits, because humans can't absorb the oxygen, but Riese says the bubbles scrub the palate between bites much like a carbonated water would do, in a still form. He thinks the water has an earthy, mushroomy taste and would go well with a truffle dish or a cheese pizza with mushrooms. Riese, who was trained in wine in his native Germany, thinks it would also pair nicely with a Burgundy wine, which would have a similar "earthiness."

Riese started making these sort of recommendations back in Berlin in 2005, when a customer told him he didn't like the way water tasted. It reminded Riese of when he was a child and he used to compare all the tap water from cities he would visit. He created a water list for his restaurant in Berlin, which was met with a sort of "Oh geez, only in Berlin" attitude, but people were fascinated. In 2008, he wrote a book on water, and in 2011, he was certified as a water expert by the German Mineral Water Association. He obtained a 0-1 Visa to the United States, based on his unique knowledge and expertise of water. He remains the only certified water expert in the United States, but says hundreds in Germany and Asia are now going through the process.

Taste Test: Vichy Catalan

We move on to Vichy Catalan, a top-selling brand of bottled mineral water in Spain. It's very bubbly, and very salty, and Riese says when he brought the water on Conan, Conan O'Brien spit it out.

"It's quite something," Riese said, and added that if I kept in mind the richness of Spanish sausages and paella, the water would stand up to it.

Taste Test: ROI

Our final water is one that you can't even buy in the United States and which Riese gets from Slovenia for tastings. ROI, which at a whopping 7,400 TDS, is no longer considered a "hydration product" but a medication, has a strong metallic smell and tastes of magnesium. Riese shies away from making any outright health claims, but says he drinks it after a night out to prevent hangovers, calling it Mother Nature's Red Bull. I can't imagine anyone swigging down this water for fun.

While I could certainly tell the difference between those four waters, even if I wasn't picking up on any fruit notes, it's pretty easy to be swayed by the gregarious Riese, who is so enthusiastic about getting Americans to expand their water palate that you want to become a believer.

And while water lists have existed at a few restaurants around the globe for several years without catching on, it's worth noting that most people have a favorite brand of water. Mark Dubois, a natural resource manager for Poland Spring, tells me that people's preferred "taste" for water usually depends on where they grew up or what their parents bought, which can determine if you, say, love or hate Evian or Zephyrhills. Poland Spring employs several water tasters, who make sure the taste of their spring water remains consistent and up to snuff.

Riese just wants to take that experience to the next level, and hopes by drawing attention to the world of high-end waters he can help boost respect for the natural resource.

"Every single person in America should have access to clean and safe drinking water," he says (T&C cover star Matt Damon, a co-founder of Water.org, agrees). "When we understand water as taste it will help everybody. We're living on the same planet and we all have to save water. It's extremely important."

For more of T&C's tasting with Riese, watch our live video:
This teens message in a bottle was just found 3,000 miles away

This teens message in a bottle was just found 3,000 miles away

Theres something so inherently hopeful about the sea: its incessantly rolling waves, their peaceful and repetitive murmurings. With the sea, anything can happen  and your message in a bottle, a romantic conceit if weve ever heard one  can find a home.

This is exactly what happened for 14-year-old Terra Gallo. Three years ago Terra was visiting her aunt in Monhegan Island, Maine, when she decided to send ten messages in a bottle out to sea.

We thought there was slight possibility that someone would find them, but it was just a fun little experiment, Terra told ABC News. I dont think we were expecting something this big to come out of it.

And this past week, the sea answered. A fisherman in Spain  thousands of miles away from Maine  found one of her messages in a bottle, and decided to write back!

Hello Terra, the fishermans reply begins:

My name is Iuaki. Im from Spain and last year I found the bottle you threw in the sea when I was fishing for hake with my brother Mitael and friends in the Gulf of Baiscay to the north of the fishing port of Armintza (Basque Country). In the bottle was your letter. It travel from Monhegan Island to our hands, a distance of 5,200 km more or less. But the bottle didnt travel alone, a bunch of barnacles hung from it.

The note continues with his promise to add to the message in the bottle, with the hopes of them both hearing from someone else: I hope you are as thrilled to receive this letter as I was when I found your bottle and I hope well receive more answers when I return the bottle to the sea.

Terra was, unsurprisingly, thrilled to have found a new way to communicate with people around the world  even if it is undoubtedly slow and not always reliable.

We all rely on internet and phones to communicate, but there are really cool ways you can reach to talk people and communicate with people, she said.

Well, time for us to dry out that bottle of San Pellegrino and cast our own notes into the sea. Maybe someday well get a reply!

The post This teens message in a bottle was just found 3,000 miles away appeared first on HelloGiggles.
By Julia Love REDDING, Calif. (Reuters) - Presumptive Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump on Friday denounced protesters in California as "thugs" a day after another demonstration outside one of his political rallies turned violent ahead of the state's presidential primary. Demonstrators traded blows on Thursday evening in the street outside the San Jose Convention Center, videos posted to Twitter and online by media showed. Hundreds of protesters waved Mexican flags, chanted anti-Trump slogans and burned Trump hats and at least one U.S. flag. Speaking before a packed crowd in the northern California city of Redding on Friday, Trump described the previous night's rally as "a love fest inside. No problems whatsoever." But then his supporters "walked out and they got accosted by a bunch of thugs," he said. The protesters, many angry over Trump's rhetoric against illegal immigration, have gathered at Trump rallies for months. Trump, now the Republican Party's likely presidential nominee for the Nov. 8 election, canceled a rally in Chicago in March after clashes broke out between his supporters and protesters. The San Jose Police Department reported 300 to 400 protesters had gathered outside the Trump rally on Thursday, where police formed lines to protect attendants exiting the convention center. A number of the skirmishes occurred beyond police lines on nearby streets and at a parking garage, a Reuters photographer said. One sergeant suffered minor injuries after a protester struck him with a metal object. Police reported four arrests. Over 250 officers staffed the "all-hands on deck event," said San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia. "In hindsight, we'd say that wasn't enough," said Garcia. For future events of that scope, "we would need more officers with an absolute, number one goal of keeping both parties separate as much as we can." San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, a Democrat, told the Associated Press that Trump needs to take responsibility for his supporters' conduct at the rallies. But Trump, speaking in Redding on Friday, made light of the mayor's concerns. "You know what I say when we have a protestor, which isn't very often, I say, 'Be very gentle, please don't hurt him ... If he punches you in the face, smile,'" Trump said. Violence has peppered Trump's recent rallies in New Mexico and California, the U.S. state with the largest immigrant population, in advance of primary elections there on Tuesday. The latest violence followed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton's scorching critique of Trump in a speech on Thursday in which she derided the real estate developer as a dangerous man with an angry, fearful world view. Clinton told CNN on Friday that Trump had set a "low bar" regarding violence at political events. "Now is it a surprise that people who don't like him are stepping over that bar? I don't think it is," Clinton said. But Friday afternoon's rally was peaceful as supporters from Redding and neighboring towns gathered as early as 8 a.m. local time (1500 GMT) to catch a glimpse of the candidate, many wearing hats emblazoned with Trump's signature slogan: "Make America Great Again." Despite the unrest in San Jose, attendees said they felt at ease at Friday's event. "We're both retired law enforcement," Heather Jimenez, a 45-year-old Cottonwood resident, said of herself and her husband. "No worries." Although no formal protests broke out in Redding, the event attracted some who disapprove of Trump, but wanted to witness his high-flying campaign style in person. "We've been hearing his nonsense," said Rachel Ochoa, a 57-year-old Redding resident who teaches English as a second language. "All we hear is him attacking the opponents and others." Trump has accused Mexico of sending drug dealers and rapists across the U.S. border and has promised to build a wall between the two neighboring countries and make Mexico pay for it. "We're gonna build that wall, folks," Trump said on Friday as the crowd chanted its support. Trump also lamented the loss of American jobs to other countries, a key theme in his campaign. The message resonated in Redding, which residents say has been hit hard by the economic downturn. "We've got a lot of people here out of work," said Joyce Tausch, a 78-year-old retiree who lives in Redding. "Trump is gonna do things for us." (Additional reporting by Amanda Becker, Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey, Ginger Gibson, Robin Respaut and Curtis Skinner, writing by Doina Chiacu; editing by Alistair Bell and G Crosse)
Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump, who has faced repeated accusations of racism and xenophobia over race-tinged comments and inflammatory rhetoric, drew more criticism after praising a black supporter as "my African American."

"Oh, look at my African American over here. Look at him," Trump said during a rally in California. "Are you the greatest?"

There was no obvious reaction from the crowd, and Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said the presumptive Republican White House nominee was "just referring to a supporter in the crowd. There's no ill will intended, obviously."

Trump was "grateful for this person's support," she added, speaking to CNN.

Hicks also rejected as "ridiculous" criticism that in using the possessive "my," Trump was making a racist comment.

Some media commentators disagreed, and "African American" was a trending term Friday night on Twitter.

"'He's a Mexican' yesterday, 'look at my African-American' today. If you think Trumps not racist you live in an alternate reality void of logic," user @el_turko13 said.

The fallout comes amid growing uproar over Trump's disparaging remarks about the judge handling a pair of lawsuits over his defunct online university, with the candidate saying Gonzalo Curiel's Mexican heritage makes him biased.

The developer and reality television host has energized supporters and enraged many others with his calls for building a wall on the US-Mexican border and alleging that Mexico sends "rapists" and other criminals to the United States.

He has also called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States."
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey declared a round-the-clock curfew in rural areas near the city of Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey on Saturday, ahead of a planned military operation targeting Kurdish militants, the provincial governor's office said. The move came a day after Turkish security forces called an end to operations targeting Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters in the town of Nusaybin near the Syrian border and in Sirnak near the border with Iraq. More than 1,000 people, mostly PKK fighters, have been killed in three months of clashes in those areas, security sources say. The fighting resumed in the largely Kurdish southeast last July after the collapse of a two-year-old ceasefire. The latest curfew was declared at 10:30 am (0730 GMT) in 10 areas of Lice, in Diyarbakir province, where PKK militants including senior operatives were believed to be active, the statement said. The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, launched its insurgency in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, now at its most intense level in two decades. (Reporting by Seyhmus Cakan; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Red Bull Athlete Daigo The Beast Umehara (Maruo Kono/Red Bull Content Pool)

Daigo The Beast Umehara continues to add to his global appeal as he is set to become Twitchs first Global Brand Ambassador, the fighting game star announced on his live stream late Friday.

The Red Bull Athlete will continue his live stream on Twitch every week, and use it as a platform to communicate and interact with his fanbase as well as share his skills and knowledge to help the fighting game community grow.

Daigo The Beast Umehara (Twitch)

I want to engage with my fans and the players all over the world, Daigo said in a statement. Twitch has long been a supporter of the FGC, and I could not find any better platform to engage with the players at the global level.

Daigo also announced he will be attending Twitch Con, which takes place in San Diego from Sept. 30  Oct. 2.

As Twitchs Global Ambassador, I will continue creating entertaining moments with viewers. I hope to be their inspiration as much as they are a big inspiration to me, Daigo said.

Daigo recently signed on with Red Bull, choosing to end his sponsorship deal with Mad Catz. He remains an alliance partner with the beleaguered peripheral manufacturer.

The Street Fighter legend made his return to the Capcom Pro Tour at Stunfest 2016, where he finished in seventh place after a loss to Team Razers Ai Fuudo Keita. Daigo will make his first North American appearance on the Capcom Pro Tour at CEO 2016, which takes place June 24-26.

Michael Martin covers all things related to Street Fighter V and the FGC. Follow him on Twitter @Bizarro_Mike.
TOKYO, June 4 (Reuters) - The United States has agreed to waive restrictions on Japanese components used in military equipment, making it easier for Japanese firms to supply U.S. arms contractors and tap the world's most lucrative military market.

U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter and Japanese Minister of Defence Gen Nakatani signed the Reciprocal Defence Procurement Memorandum of Understanding during a meeting Saturday on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) gathering in Singapore.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2014 lifted a decades-old ban on arms exports. While Japanese off-the-shelf components have been used in defence equipment for years, the removal of the arms export ban meant companies could for the first time supply parts designed specifically for military projects.

It has also opened the way for U.S. defence contractors such as Lockheed Martin Corp, Raytheon Co to directly tap Japanese technology companies as suppliers.

When procuring military equipment, the United States typically restricts the use of materials from overseas, such as titanium and other metals, imposes a "Buy American" policy and adds tariffs and other duties on foreign parts.

The new agreement applies a blanket waiver to those restrictions, easing access to the U.S. defence market. With an annual budget of close to $600 billion, the United States accounts for about a third of global military outlays, outspending its nearest rival China by as much as four times.

The United States has inked reciprocal defence procurement pacts with 23 other countries, mostly European North Atlantic Treaty Organization partners. Its Japanese ally is the first Asian country to join that list.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
PARIS (Reuters) - French state-controlled utility EDF plans to create a holding company through which it could sell a 50 percent stake in RTE, operator of Europe's biggest high-voltage electricity transmission grid, Le Figaro said on Saturday. Heavily indebted EDF wants to sell off non-core assets in order to invest tens of billions of euros in its nuclear power business over the next decade, including in the UK nuclear reactor project at Hinkley Point. EDF owns all of RTE, which operates independently of the parent company under EU unbundling rules that do not allow utilities control over their electricity networks. The company's chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy has said EDF plans to sell 50 percent of RTE, which is valued at 6 to 7 billion euros (5 billion pounds) and runs a 100,000 km high-voltage network. Quoting unnamed sources, Le Figaro reported that EDF and the French government were examining two options for a holding company: one controlled by EDF in which the 50 percent stake will be lodged, and another held by French state-owned bank Caisse des Depots (CDC). Under a 2004 law, RTE's capital must be held by EDF or other public entities, which means EDF can only sell to state-owned investors such as CDC. French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said in February that CDC could buy into the EDF unit. The paper also reported that EDF had picked Messier Maris and Associates and Goldman Sachs as advisers, while Citigroup and Barber Hauler were advising RTE. It said BNP Paribas and Compagnie Financiere du Lion were advising CDC. The companies could not be reached for comment. EDF said on Friday that it will hold an extraordinary shareholders meeting on July 26 to discuss a government-backed multibillion-euro financing package. ($1 = 0.8795 euros) (Reporting by Bate Felix; Editing by Clelia Oziel)
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The United States warned its citizens on Saturday of possible attacks by Islamist militants on U.S. facilities or shopping malls in South Africa during the upcoming month of Ramadan, but the South African government said the country was safe. It was the second such warning in under a year from the embassy, which issued a similar alert in September in a country that has a significant expatriate and tourist population but has seldom been associated with Islamist militancy. The U.S. embassy said up-market shopping areas and malls in the commercial hub of Johannesburg and Cape Town, widely regarded as South Africa's tourism capital, were the main target areas in the suspected planned attacks. "This information comes against the backdrop of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's public call for its adherents to carry out terrorist attacks globally during the upcoming month of Ramadan," it said in a statement posted on its website. http://1.usa.gov/1UkdY8R Last month, a new message purporting to come from the spokesman of Islamic State called on followers to launch attacks on the West during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins in early June. South Africa's foreign affairs department said the country's security agencies were capable of ensuring the safety of its residents, noting that no incident or attack had taken place after the previous warning by the U.S. embassy last year. "The state security agency and other security agencies in this country are very much capable of keeping South Africa safe and everybody in this country, including Americans," foreign affair's ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela said. "The last time they did this, towards the end of last year, nothing came out of that advisory," he added. South African police were not available to comment. Following a similar warning in 2009, the U.S. closed its embassy and consulates in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town for several days. On Saturday, the embassy said it would remain open. "This will not affect operations at the U.S. embassy Pretoria or our Consulates in Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban," U.S. embassy spokeswoman Cynthia Harvey said. "We are cooperating with local authorities, as we do in any investigation into terrorist threats around the world." (Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa and James Macharia; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The latest disappointing U.S. jobs number has not changed the overall economic picture, and gradual rate hikes remain appropriate, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said in the Swedish capital on Saturday.

"I still believe that in order to achieve our monetary policy goals, a gradual upward pace of the funds rate is appropriate," Mester told reporters.

"The timing of actually when the rate hikes would occur and the slope of that gradual path is data-dependent."

The U.S. economy added just 38,000 jobs in May, well below the consensus estimate of 164,000 and the smallest gain since September 2010.

(Reporting by Simon Johnson; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
(Reuters) - U.S. fighter jets on Saturday launched a second day of air strikes against Islamic State targets from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, according to a U.S. Navy official. No details were immediately available about the targets of the latest combat missions. Four strikes executed by the jets on Friday targeted a building in Syria and a cave that was hit three times, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. No strikes were directed against targets in Iraq, the official said. The raids were the first launched from a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea since the start of the two-year campaign against the militant group. They were also the first air strikes conducted by a carrier group in that region since the Iraq war began in 2003, Navy officials said. Previous bombing raids were launched solely by U.S. and allied pilots from carriers in the Gulf or from land bases in Bahrain, Turkey and other countries. The Navy official said Friday's strikes did not hit high-value targets, but further, more complex missions were planned in coming days. The official gave no details on the flight routes taken by the Navy jets. The air strikes came as the Syrian army pushed into Raqqa province, home to the de facto capital of Islamic State, after a major Russian-backed offensive against the militants, and a Syrian militia advanced with U.S. support towards Manbij in the north near the Turkish border. The actions are among the most aggressive campaigns against Islamic State since it declared its aim to rule over all Muslims from parts of Iraq and Syria two years ago. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Berlin; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
By Amy Tennery (Reuters) - The Minnesota woman shot to death by a one-time UCLA graduate student was married to her killer, but her online presence shed little light on their life together. Ashley Hasti was a medical student with a penchant for selfies with her cat and goofy science jokes. She once composed a rap about med school stresses and posted it to YouTube. She was killed in her Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, home by her estranged husband, Mainak Sarkar, before he drove to Los Angeles to shoot a former professor, then take his own life. In a Facebook post early Friday morning, Alex Hasti called her sister "the smartest, coolest, and funniest person." "She could do anything she dreamed of," the sister wrote. "Her life was cut short much too soon by her estranged husband." Minnesota records show she married Sarkar in June 2011, and images from social media indicate they knew each other as far back as August 2008. Neighbors on her block in suburban Minneapolis said Sarkar had lived with her in the past but they had not seen him for some time. State records did not show there had been a divorce. Hasti earned an undergraduate degree in Asian languages and literature at the University of Minnesota before enrolling in a post-baccalaureate, premedical program at Scripps College in Claremont, California. She began medical school at the University of Minnesota in 2012. She was going to begin a summer semester next week. Prezi, an online education platform, showed academic presentations written by Hasti on pregnancy and prenatal care. Hasti lived in Brooklyn Park, a Twin Cities suburb with curling, tree-lined streets. Her house had a tuck-under garage with a long, unkempt lawn. Hasti's neighbor, Terry Andrew, 68, said she seemed to fit in the community, but added he did not know her well. "I have daughters so the idea of a young person losing their life like that, its tragic," he said. On social media, Hasti appeared vibrant and gregarious. She peppered her Facebook page with science-related jokes and selfies taken with a black-and-white short hair cat. A month earlier she added an image of American painter and television host Bob Ross photo-shopped to look as though he was painting a white blood cell that appeared to be smiling. "I'm studying, I swear," Hasti wrote in a caption. "But one needs a break sometimes." Photos posted on another woman's Facebook page showed her meeting celebrities like actor Kumail Nanjiani from the HBO comedy "Silicon Valley" and comedian Ari Shaffir. Then there are the photos of her with Sarkar. Her sister's Facebook profile contained images of Ashley Hasti and Sarkar. The pictures show the couple at a theme park and on a beach. One image, posted on the social media site on Aug. 25, 2008, shows Hasti and Sarkar forming a heart with their arms. (Reporting by Amy Tennery; Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York, Curtis Skinner in San Francisco, David Bailey in Minneapolis and Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Dan Burns and Jeffrey Benkoe)
Pungent cheese curds and near-naked wrestlers greeted US Secretary of State John Kerry during his flying visit to Mongolia Sunday, with the envoy hailing it as an "oasis of democracy" sandwiched between China and Russia.

Kerry was following in the footsteps of his predecessor and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden as part of the US pivot to Asia.

He spent several hours in the homeland of the legendary and brutal conqueror Genghis Khan, taking in the delights of Mongolian culture in the capital Ulan Bator.

Under clear blue skies and on rugged plains Kerry enjoyed a festival featuring traditional nomadic pursuits. He even tried his hand at archery but missed his target.

America's top diplomat praised the country's decision to embrace democracy a little more than a quarter of a century ago.

"The bottom line is very simple: Mongolia has made remarkable progress for a young democracy even as it strives to strengthen its institutions and to keep up with the hopes of its people," he said.

"You got China on one side of you and Russia on the other side of you, and there are always a lot of pressures. And here you are in this oasis of democracy, fighting for your own identity even as you hold on to great traditions."

Kerry was also treated to musical performances native to Mongolia, enjoying a break from crisscrossing the globe as a peacemaker in international hotspots.

- Mineral wealth -

The former communist nation of about three million people, once a close ally of the Soviet Union, was "reaching out in a significant way" in its relationships with other countries including Afghanistan, Burma and Myanmar, he said.

Kerry added: "I understand with your geography you have automatically significant relationships with both China and Russia. But you've chosen actively to be a democracy and you're pursuing that with vigour.

Mongolia, which says the US is its "most important third neighbour", depends on China for more than 60 percent of its trade.

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China receives around 90 percent of Mongolia's exports, also supplying it with more than one-third of its imports. Mongolia also relies on Russia for 90 percent of its energy supplies, according to US State Department information.

It possesses enormous mineral resources including deposits of gold, copper and uranium, still largely untapped.

Its mineral resources saw the country achieve over 17 percent growth in 2011, but that has since drastically fallen to under three percent last year along with plummeting metal prices and capital flight.

Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, one of the country's key investors, has been hit by rising nationalist sentiment among Mongolians concerned about the growth of foreign firms as well as environmental damage from mining.

In 2012 the country passed a strict law on investment in "strategic" sectors and foreign direct investment collapsed. Parliament has since cancelled the controversial law.

In May Rio Tinto announced it would start work on an expansion of its giant gold and copper Oyu Tolgoi mine after years of gridlock, a huge project requiring a $5.3 billion investment.
Cape Town (AFP) - The United States on Saturday warned its citizens in South Africa of possibly imminent terror attacks by Islamic extremists in the country's major cities.

"The US government has received information that terrorist groups are planning to carry out near-term attacks against places where US citizens congregate in South Africa, such as upscale shopping areas and malls in Johannesburg and Cape Town," the local embassy said on its website.

The warning came against the background of the Islamic State group's "public call for its adherents to carry out terrorist attacks globally during the upcoming month of Ramadan," the embassy said.

South Africa's foreign affairs ministry played down the threat.

"The state security agency and other security agencies in this country are very much capable of keeping South Africa safe and everybody in this country, including Americans," spokesman Clayson Monyela was quoted as saying by local media.

"The last time they did this, towards the end of last year, nothing came out of that advisory."

In September last year the US advised its citizens in South Africa to be on heightened alert against attack, saying extremists may target American interests in the country.

The US regularly warns its citizens around the world to beware of terror attacks, but Saturday's note was specific about the targets and the imminence of the threat.

South Africa has so far escaped the militant Islamist attacks seen in several other African countries.
Venezuela protests Caracas

Social unrest has simmered in Venezuela for the last few years, at times breaking out in widespread protests, and tensions have mounted this year, as an opposition-led legislature leads an effort to recall President Nicolas Maduro.

But a protest that broke out near the presidential palace in Caracas on Thursday indicates that the strife has reached a segment of the country critical to the government's popular support.

A group of Venezuelans waiting in line at a supermarket in Caracas made a run for Miraflores, the presidential palace, after they saw what appeared to be people affiliated with the government taking food they had been waiting for hours in the heat to buy.

According to The Associated Press, over 100 people ran down the city's main street, chanting "No more talk. We want food," before encountering riot police less than six blocks from Miraflores.

The protesters clashed with the police, striking their shields, as other Venezuelans leaned out of windows to yell insults at police and bang pots. Police eventually deployed tear gas against the demonstrators.

"We have needs, too. We all need to eat," Jose Lopez, a 23-year-old, told the AP. Lopez said he and other demonstrators were neither supporters nor opponents of the government, "just people trying to feed themselves."

Downtown Caracas, the area around the presidential palace, is "territorio chavista," or government-supporter territory, the government has said. Antigovernment protests are rare in that area, the Latin America Herald Tribune noted. The AP called the demonstration a "rare, apparently spontaneous outburst of anger."

DISTURBIOS CARACAS | Reportan intentos de saqueo en la Av Urdaneta, San Jose y La Candelaria. #QueremosComida pic.twitter.com/0XLFLDtGDt  Saverio Vivas (@saveriovivas) June 2, 2016

"CARACAS DISTURBANCES | Looting attempts reported at [Avenue] Urdaneta, San Jose and La Candelaria. #WeWantFood," this tweet reads in English.

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"I'm protesting because we're tired of the lines, of not finding products," another protester, 21-year-old Francis Marcano, told AFP.

Jorge Rodriguez, the mayor of Caracas and ally of President Maduro, said the protests was initiated by black-market vendors, who resell scarce goods at what he called "blood prices." He said the government was working to put them out of business. Chuo Torrealba, the opposition leader of the National Assembly, said the protests were "a country acting in self defense."

Venezuela police riot protest Caracas

Venezuela  which has suffered under rolling power blackouts, rampant shortages of food and medicine, widespread violence, and lacking access to running water  has seen "near-daily spontaneous" protests over the last few weeks, according to the AP.

Looting and attempted looting incidents have also risen this year, from about 20 incidents in January to more than 70 in May, according to a local nongovernment organization.

But Thursday's protests seem to indicate that the government is losing support among poor residents in and around the capital  people it has long relied on for support. The opposition's formal, organized marches tend to attract middle-class Venezuelans, and tend to take place in middle-class areas of the city.

Venezuela police protest Caracas riot

Thursday's protests in the streets near Miraflores appeared to be driven by a different group  poor Caraquenos, generally considered to be governments supporters, who had spent hours waiting to buy food at subsidized prices.

The lines, which have become commonplace in Venezuela in recent years as the country's economic crisis inhibits the government's ability to import food, exposes poor Venezuelans not only to heat and hunger, but also makes them "easier targets for violence," Alejandro Velasco, a professor at New York University, told Business Insider in an interview earlier this year about violence in Caracas.

Shops closed in the capital Thursday as police clashed with protesters, and opposition leaders, who are waiting on the National Electoral Commission (CNE) to rule on signatures gathered in support of a presidential recall referendum, have warned that Venezuela "faces an explosion of unrest" if the referendum doesn't happen this year.

Venezuela police protest riot Caracas

Recall-referendum backers gathered nearly 2 million signatures, well more than the roughly 200,000 needed to initiate the process. Despite that response, the opposition has had trouble rallying its supporters, and its legislative efforts have been stymied by government resistance.

Moreover, the referendum-approval process is complex, and political analysts have told AFP that the CNE could delay a referendum until next year. At that point, if Maduro lost, he would be replaced by his vice president.

Amid the partisan political wrangling, tensions in the streets have stirred memories of the weeks long riots and protests in spring 2014 that left 43 dead, as well as to the Caracazo  a week of protests in the capital city in 1989 that left hundreds, thousands by some accounts, dead.

Venezuela protests Caracas police

The head of the Organization of American States  alleging "graver alterations of democratic order"  has called for an emergency meeting to considered suspending Venezuelan from the regional body, something the government has condemned as a possible prelude to an "intervention."

The government and the opposition took the rare step of meeting through proxies last week in order to mediate the political crisis, but it's not clear how much patience many Venezuelans  about 70% of whom want Maduro out this year  have left.

"Everyday people [are getting] closer to Miraflores demanding food, soon they will be at the door of the palace Nicolas Maduro!" opposition leader Henrique Capriles tweeted on Thursday.

NOW WATCH: Watch legislators in Brazil scuffle during a vote to impeach their president





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It's cold in the North, but the stories percolating throughout the frozen wasteland beyond the Wall are red hot.

Over the past week of Game of Thrones, virtually every conversation centered on Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) and his revelations following the raid on the Three-Eyed Raven's lair. Indeed, even the Hodor of it all remains a central topic of conversation, still traumatic in its emotional horror and still confounding in its time-travel nature.

Here are the main topics from the past week of Thrones, stemming from episode six, "Blood of My Blood."

Read More: 'Game of Thrones': The Mad Truth About Targaryens and Time Travel

Visions in the Night

Just because the Three-Eyed Raven (Max von Sydow) is dead doesn't mean the visions died with him. Bran Stark continues to see images of the past as Meera Reed (Ellie Kendrick) drags him through the snow, glimpsing things like the Mad King Aerys Targaryen and perhaps even hints at the birth of Jon Snow (Kit Harington).

Read More: 'Game of Thrones' Just Confirmed One Popular Stark Theory

Return of the Stark

Season six's Stark reunion tour continues, as Bran joins forces with long lost uncle Benjen (Joseph Mawle) in the cold of the night. The character, taking on the form of the beloved book character Coldhands, claims to fight on behalf of the Three-Eyed Raven, but Bran's companion, Meera, remains skeptical.

"She's skeptical in a way that's quite logical," Kendrick told THR this week. "Her first concern is always, 'Is this safe for Bran? Can I entrust this young boy's life - and her own life, which is a secondary consideration - to this stranger wielding a fireball and a horse?' She's naturally suspicious."

Read More: 'Game of Thrones' Star Breaks Down Meera Reed's Actions: "Her Job Is to Protect Bran at All Costs"

Holding Down the Door

Looking further back in the past, Game of Thrones director Jack Bender joined THR for a deep dive into the death of Hodor (Kristian Nairn), easily one of the most impactful moments in the show's history, let alone this past season.

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"My most intimidating night of shooting was with Kristian and doing all the shots of him at the door," Bender said. "In order to get enough of the stunt guys arms around him, but not to the point where he's dead, and get him to act both the goodbye and the horror of what was happening to him, is what it all came down to. He really delivered, and camera really delivered, and stunts really delivered, and I really thought we had it. And it seems like it was good. That really is the payoff of the sequence. It doesn't matter how much everything before it was. If we didn't deliver that 'emotional Hiroshima,' with that beloved character sacrificing himself in the way he did for his friends, it would not have worked."

Read More: 'Game of Thrones' Director Jack Bender Goes Behind the Scenes on "Hold the Door"

Playing the Game

Bender also spoke about the weeks of rehearsal that went into crafting the Braavosi theater sequence that extended across "The Door" and "Blood of My Blood," mocking some of the most traumatic events in Game of Thrones history - so much so that Bender was worried that the mocking went too far.

"The audience has lived through so many of those things. They were so brilliantly done, that the idea of thumbing your nose or mocking that  I was concerned about it," he said. "When I turned to [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] after the rehearsal, they had some notes - tighten this, do this, do that - but they really loved where it was going and what it was. And I told them that I was concerned we might be going too far in mocking the show. But they said, 'No. We love it. Go further.' So much for taking it seriously!"

Read More: 'Game of Thrones' Star on Tormund's Crush on Brienne and War in the North

Looking Forward

Kristofer Hivju, who plays Tormund Giantsbane on the series, spoke with THR about his character's giant crush on Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie), and also previewed what's ahead for the leader of the Free Folk - and the answer is a whole lot of hardship.

"The Free Folk are the hardest people in the world to lead - or at least in this world," he said. "It's in the definition of who they are. They're the Free Folk. So I can say this: Mance Rayder spent how long, 19 years to gather them all? I don't have 19 years."

The difficulty is reflected in the preview for episode seven, "The Broken Man," which also features Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) fielding his new assignment in Riverrun, alongside friend and companion Bronn of the Blackwater (Jerome Flynn). Brienne is headed toward the Riverlands as well, and it's anyone's guess how that reunion will play out.

Read More: 'Game of Thrones' Season 6: A Closer Look at the Trailer for Episode 7

Learn more about Bran's visions in the video below:

Follow THR's Game of Thrones coverage for more news, interviews and analysis.
Dakar (AFP) - West Africa should "think harder" about developing a new anti-terror force, a top regional official said Saturday, as Niger announced the latest deaths among its troops battling Boko Haram jihadists.

Over the past year West Africa has suffered terror attacks on nations previously untouched by jihadists, as well as confronting an Islamist insurgency that began in northeast Nigeria but has spread to several neighbouring countries.

That meant greater intelligence sharing and military co-operation is required, said the incoming head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) commission, which implements policy decisions agreed by its 15 members.

"The multiplication of terrorist hotbeds in our region compels us to share information on their activities, to communicate, co-ordinate and harmonise our efforts," said Benin's Marcel Alain de Souza at an ECOWAS summit in Dakar.

"This naturally makes us think harder about the creation of a regional intervention force against terrorism," he added, according to comments released by Senegal's state news agency APS.

He was speaking after 32 troops were killed in a clash with Boko Haram fighters on Niger's border with Nigeria, one of deadliest tolls inflicted by the jihadists.

A multinational force from Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Benin and Cameroon already exists and is due to launch a major offensive on Boko Haram around Lake Chad.

But Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless, leading to calls for more support within the region.

Senegal's President Macky Sall, outgoing chairman of ECOWAS, said Muslim-majority states such as his own had nothing in common with Boko Haram, describing terrorism as an ongoing "source of concern".

As expected during the session, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was named the new chairman of ECOWAS, the APS agency reported, for what is also expected to be her final year as Liberia's president.

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Gambian President Yahya Jammeh did not appear at the meeting, after months of harsh words for hosts Senegal due to a border dispute.

There was also a palpable nervousness at the regional gathering with the news that Guinea Bissau's sacked prime minister Domingos Simoes Pereira might attempt to make an appearance along with his recently appointed replacement.

Although the new premier Baciro Dja appeared alone, a group of around 40 protesters appeared to denounce his presence, which is viewed as unconstitutional by some lawmakers in his own PAIGC party as he was named by the president.

"We are here to show we don't agree with the president's decision," said Badile Domingos Sami, a youth leader of the faction-ridden PAIGC.

Sall called on Guinea Bissau to "preserve the democratic achievements" of the country, which has been plagued by coups and instability since its independence from Portugal.
I thought my college years were behind me. But Im seriously reconsidering the dorm life since visiting Manhattan's first-ever location of communal living startup WeLive.

WeWork, the $16 billion company thats disrupted office life, is trying to do the the same for your apartment in two locations so far: downtown Manhattan and Crystal City, Virginia.

Of course, the concept of communal housing isnt novel. But WeLive aims to combine the best aspects of dorms, boutique hotels and apartments, and it charges up to $2,800 a month for this unique living situation. If youve ever stepped into a WeWork, theres an inviting, modern, minimalist aesthetic thats been infused into WeLive, too.

When I first heard about WeLive, the image in my mind was far from glamorous. I imagined tenants living on top of each other, fighting to use communal bathrooms and kitchens. But this isnt your typical dorm situation: You have your own apartment but get access to a chefs kitchen, yoga studio, conference room, laundry/arcade room, and neighbors who actually want to talk to you.

After seeing the space and all of these amenities, I must admit: Ive had a change of heart. Most importantly, each apartment unit has its own bathroom and kitchen  so you can be by yourself whenever you want. This is a huge thing for me because I enjoy my alone time and need a break from people (who doesn't?). And they dont check your credit or charge a brokers fee.

The layouts in WeLives 400 units range from small studios to four-bedrooms, and all apartments come fully furnished. Per-tenant pricing begins at $1,375 but if you want a bit more privacy, youll have to dole out at least $2,000 per month. The most common setup is the studio plus, which comes with two beds (one is a Murphy hidden in the wall); these range from $2,500 to $2,800. A flat monthly utilities payment of $125 covers electric, water, cable, wifi and cleaning costs (yes, housekeeping is included).

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When I visited WeLive, I spoke with 26-year-old entrepreneur Tiffany Tibbot who moved there in March and finds the community enriching and inspiring. Despite having lived alone for the past five years, she opted for a four-bedroom at WeLive in order to save money and meet new people. The community building reminds me of college, she said. Its like a safety net.

Despite the many communal offerings, she says theres no pressure to constantly mingle and network. I can still be independent and in my room, she said. But if I want to experience the community, then I can engage freely at any time.

Theres a laundry room with ping pong and pool tables, arcade games and beer on tap. Members do have to pay for laundry  $2 for a wash, $2 for a dry. And theres an unmanned honesty corner with toiletries for sale. Members use their WeLive app to pick up a bottle of shampoo or a tube of toothpaste if theyre running low and are feeling too lazy to run to Walgreens (WBA). Essentially, WeLive wants to be your one-stop shop for anything you need.

Our goal is to be on par with other things in this area but to offer a higher level of service, says Miguel McKelvey, co-founder of WeWork.

You can rent out apartments for a few days, a month-to-month basis or commit to a year-long lease. So despite the suggestion that youll be a part of a larger community, youll be rubbing elbows with a fair share of transient travelers.

The WeWork phenomenon

Founded in 2010, WeWork started with the mission to disrupt the office space by renting out desks and full offices in hotspots around the world. This office 2.0 provides not only a place for freelancers, entrepreneurs and small businesses to set up shop but also tries to create a community by organizing events like rooftop parties, entrepreneur talks and powerpoint karaokes. There are 101 WeWorks in 29 cities, with 30 locations in New York alone.

Unlike other fledgling startups, WeWork is actually profitable. Although it doesnt disclose financials, tech news site The Information obtained internal documents and found that WeWork had $75 million in revenue in 2014, with $4.2 million in profits.

The company raised its latest $430 million round of funding from Chinese investors and has been plotting aggressive expansion into Asia. WeWork plans to open three locations in Shanghai next month and will enter Hong Kong, Seoul and Sydney later this year.

With only two locations so far, its hard to consider WeLive a needle-mover in the larger context of WeWorks business model. Regardless, McKelvey emphasizes that its not a side project and hopes the two will become more equal in the long run.

Were deeply invested in WeLive because we know theres something special that weve created. But from a business perspective, its hard to ignore the fact that WeWork is incredibly successful, he says. We have a machine that is incredibly efficient at developing those projects.

In fact, the first six floors of WeLives Manhattan location, 110 Wall Street, are actually WeWork space, while floors seven through 27 are all WeLive apartment units.

When asked where the next WeLive location will be developed, McKelvey suggests hes in no hurry because of the complicated nature of leasing an entire building (WeWork does not own any of its properties): Nothing is specifically pending but were literally looking in all parts of the world.

Operationally, its much easier to stay domestic, but hes looking at Israel and major European cities like London that are going through a housing crunch, he says. The opportunities are there but it takes just the right moment and the right building.

Of course, WeLive could just end up being filled up with WeWorkers who want to sleep where they work and vice versa. It's certainly not for everyone, but it could potentially be the best of both worlds  having the convenience of community but only when you want it.

Would you live in a dorm for adults? Tell me in the comments or tweet me @melodyhahm.

Read more from Melody:

The incredible commercial power of Snapchat summed up in one slide

Europe has a huge problem with America tech giants

My Instagram feed has been taken over by an algorithm, and yours will be next
If you've ever wondered what exactly " floating like a butterfly" looks like, here's your chance.



In this throwback video posted by a YouTube user last year, the late Muhammad Ali is seen fighting Michael Dokes in a 1977 exhibition and shows off his unbelievable skills in the ring.



At the 1:56 mark, Ali gets backed into a corner and begins dodging all of Dokes' punches with incredible speed and agility. Over the course of 10 seconds, he dodges 21 punches and then moves away from the corner with a good amount of swagger, taunting Dokes with a little dance.













Ali, who often declared himself "the greatest" and the "King of the World," died Friday at the age of 74 in a Phoenix-area hospital, where he had spent the preceding few days being treated for respiratory complications.



"After a 32-year battle with Parkinson's disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74. The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening. The Ali family would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and support and asks for privacy at this time," spokesman Bob Gunnell said in a statement.
Friday's May jobs report was a dumpster fire any way you look at it. And it cannot have made Hillary Clinton 's Brooklyn, New York, campaign staff very happy.

The economy created just 38,000 jobs last month, more than 100,000 off the consensus expectation of 160,000. But that was far from the worst part.

The size of the labor force shrank by 458,000, driving the participation rate down to an abysmal 62.6 percent. The decline pushed the unemployment rate down to 4.7 percent, the lowest since November of 2007, but for all the wrong reasons.

There was no good news to be found anywhere in the report. March and April jobs gains were revised down by 59,000. The three-month average is now down to 116,000 per month. As the economy approaches full employment the jobs engine is clearly slowing. And that is not good news for a Democrat hoping to hold onto the White House.

Clinton's likely Republican challenger, New York brand manager Donald Trump , wasted no time jumping on the awful report. "Terrible jobs report just reported. Only 38,000 jobs added. Bombshell!," the presumptive GOP nominee Tweeted before moving on to comment about how he no longer watches MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

If there is any silver lining for Clinton, the report likely means the Federal Reserve will hold off on another rate hike at its meeting later this month. But that just means it will try and hike later this year assuming the June and July jobs reports aren't so crummy. The July meeting has no news conference so a hike then is unlikely, though not impossible.





The report underscores the tenuous nature of Clinton's efforts to convince Americans to entrust the White House to Democrats for another four or eight years. The economy is obviously dramatically better than it was when President Barack Obama took office in the midst of the devastating financial crisis. But it's not great and it appears to be deteriorating. Growth and wages remain sluggish (though the pace of wage increases is rising) and the labor force is moving in the wrong direction.

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Clinton's campaign may hope this is just a one-off report, driven down by the Verizon (NYSE: VZ) strike subtracting 34,000 jobs. And they may be right. An economy approaching full employment will not create 200,000 jobs a month. But it should do better than this.

"Is the paltry 38K gain real? Well we hope not," MUFG Union Bank's Chris Rupkey wrote in a note to clients. "We were thinking the speed would be 150-170K on average for this point forward."





Other data also suggest that May's weakness was exaggerated and June should look a bit better. "The pattern will naturally be read as evidence of slowing, although the data can be volatile and a significant change in the trend is not being signaled by [jobless] claims," HFE's Jim O'Sullivan wrote in a client note.

Still, Clinton may have a hard time running on the economy as a big selling point. But given the nature of her opponent, she may not really have to. Trump sparked widespread outrage on Thursday when he told The Wall Street Journal that the judge in the lawsuit against Trump University could not be fair because of his Mexican heritage. This kind of rhetoric worked well in the GOP primaries for Trump but it's not likely to endear him to the broader electorate he will need to have a chance against Clinton.

And Clinton roasted Trump on Thursday in a foreign policy speech in which she cast the GOP front-runner as a danger to the world who can never be trusted with nuclear weapons. "This is not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes," Clinton said. "It's not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because somebody got under his very thin skin."

This could wind up being Clinton's biggest weapon much as it was for Lyndon Johnson against Barry Goldwater in 1964. Johnson's famous "Daisy" ad, which only aired once, portrayed Goldwater, without ever mentioning his name, as a dangerous extremist who could drive the nation to nuclear war. If Clinton can disqualify Trump as a wild-eyed madman who could risk America's national security, a couple of crummy jobs reports won't matter.

 Ben White is Politico's chief economic correspondent and a CNBC contributor. He also authors the daily tip sheet Politico Morning Money [politico.com/morningmoney]. Follow him on Twitter @morningmoneyben.







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Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, escalated his unprecedented verbal attacks on Federal District Judge Gonzalo Curiel on Thursday night. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump claimed the judge could not fairly preside over the Trump University cases because of Curiels Mexican heritage. (Curiel is from Indiana; his parents are Mexican immigrants.) Im building a wall, its an inherent conflict of interest, he added.

Read Follow-Up Notes

As my colleague David Graham noted, theres no precedent for judges to recuse themselves from a case because of their race, gender, faith, or sexual orientation. Trumps racist remarks follow speeches in which the candidate said he was being railroaded by a rigged legal system. He simultaneously singled out Curiel as hater of Donald Trump, called him a disgrace, said he should be ashamed of himself, and said other federal judges ought to look into Judge Curiel.

Corrosive personal attacks arent new behavior for the presumptive Republican nominee. But unlike other targets of Trumps ire, Curiel cannot defend himself in any forum. He acknowledged in an order last Friday that Trump had placed the integrity of these court proceedings at issue, but will almost certainly go no further than that observation. Curiel is bound by the judicial code of ethics, which says that federal judges should not make public comment on the merits of a matter pending or impending in any court, including their own. The code also says judges should not be swayed by partisan interests, public clamor, or fear of criticism.

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That would suffice in almost any other circumstance. A judges orders and rulings are in the public record; those writings can speak for themselves. But Trump is more than the typical scorned defendant. His accusations against Curiels integrity are serious, the platform from which he hurls them is massive, and he seems unwilling to relent in making them. A growing chorus of American legal scholars from the left, right, and beyond says his remarks threaten the rule of law.

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The real-estate businessman also has another problem: Theres no evidence whatsoever in the public record to support Trumps claims about Curiel.

Well start at the beginning. Curiel is presiding over two separate class-action lawsuits about Trump University. One of them, Low v. Trump University, was filed in April 2010 under the name Markaeff v. Trump University. The other, Cohen v. Trump, was filed in October 2013. (A third case brought by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in 2013 is also under way in that state.) Trump is named as a defendant in both cases.

The plaintiffs in Low and Cohen portray Trump University as a basically fraudulent endeavor, one that promised Trumps secrets to real-estate success but instead dispensed generic advice for tens of thousands of dollars. Theyve amassed a collection of evidence and testimony that seems to support their claims. Trump strongly denies the allegations and often cities numerous positive testimonials the seminars received from former customers of Trump University.

Recommended: Gaffe Track: The 2016 Presidential Election in Blunders

In his public remarks, Trump appears to make no distinction between Low and Cohen. But there are crucial differences between the two civil class-action lawsuits. The Low plaintiffs sued Trump University and Trump himself under various consumer-protection laws in California, Florida, and New Yorka relatively standard class-action lawsuit.

Cohen, on the other hand, targets Trump through a provision of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, more commonly known as the RICO Actthe same statute federal prosecutors use to bring down mob bosses. In essence, Low accuses Trump University of engaging in fraudulent business practices, while Cohen frames Trump University itself as a criminal enterprise with Trump as the orchestrator of a racketeering scheme.

As you can imagine, Trump strongly opposes that characterization. In a motion for summary judgment in Cohen filed in March, he condemned the pervasive abuse of civil RICO that he says the case represents. Indeed, if this case is allowed to proceed, it would represent an unprecedented and unprincipled expansion of civil RICO and transform virtually every alleged violation of consumer protection laws into a civil RICO claim, Trump argued.

Beyond Curiels ethnicity, Trumps most specific grievance against the judge is that he wrongly denied summary judgment in Trumps favor. This assertion is only partially accurate. Trump asked Curiel for it separately in each case, filing the motion for Low in February 2015 and for Cohen in March 2016. The Cohen motion is still pending, with a hearing scheduled for July 18. Trumps frustration likely springs from Curiels ruling against him last November on most of the Low summary-judgment motion.

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Summary judgment is granted when both sides in a case agree on the facts. Under those circumstances, a jury trial becomes pointless since there arent any factual disputes for jurors to deliberate and resolve. The judges role when addressing a summary-judgment motion is to determine whether there are any factual disputes.

In Low, the plaintiffs case centers on three misrepresentations allegedly made to them by Trump and Trump University: (1) Trump University was an accredited university; (2) students would be taught by real estate experts, professors and mentors hand-selected by Mr. Trump; and (3) students would receive one year of expert support and mentoring.

When asking for summary judgment, Trump said he did not personally make these claims to the customers and never entered into any contracts with them. Therefore, he argues, he isnt liable for them under state consumer-protection laws. The plaintiffs countered they were persuaded to purchase Trump University products by promotional videos featuring Trump and by print advertisements bearing his image and assertions about the programs quality. Curiel denied the motion.

Based on the foregoing, the Court concludes that Plaintiffs have raised a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether Mr. Trump can be personally liable for the alleged misrepresentations and misconduct, Curiel wrote about one of Trumps assertions. For example, Plaintiffs have provided evidence that Mr. Trump reviewed and approved all advertisements. These advertisements included the alleged core misrepresentations, such as that Mr. Trump hand-picked the instructors and mentors.

This doesnt mean Curiel sided with the plaintiffs on the facts of the case. It means that Curiel determined a factual dispute existed between Trump and the plaintiffsnothing more, nothing less. He therefore denied summary judgment so a jury could weigh the evidence offered by each side and determine the facts of the case from it. Trump may not like Curiels decision, but its neither a surprising nor an egregious one.

Some Trump supporters have also criticized Curiels May 27 order to unseal some of the Trump University internal documents in the case. Those criticisms also seem to lack merit. Curiels order came in response to a public-interest motion filed in April by the Washington Post. The public is presumed to have the right to access court documents barring compelling reasons to keep them sealed, but Trump argued against their release by citing the existence of trade secrets within the internal playbooks.

After a line-by-line review, federal magistrate judge William Gallo found that in isolation, nothing appears to be unique, proprietary, or revolutionary about the documents. He also noted that the 2010 Trump University Playbook, which shared a large portion of its contents with the other documents, had already been made public two years ago. (The Atlantic even wrote at length about their contents in 2014.) Curiel agreed with Gallos findings and ordered the documents released with some redactions at around 12:40 p.m. local time. Trump launched a verbal tirade against Curiel at a rally across town later that night.

In short, if Curiel is a hater of Donald Trump, there is no evidence of it in this case. Theres nothing unusual or suspicious about his rulings so far in the lawsuits. While Curiel has allowed the case to proceed to trial, he has granted Trump some partial victories along the way on the size and scope of the cases. And instead of letting the trial unfold alongside Trumps bid for the White House, Curiel delayed its start until after the election.

Indeed, whats not in the public record is telling. Trump has publicly complained about Curiel since at least 2014, when one of his lawyers claimed Trump would ask Curiel to recuse himself based on his alleged (and unspecified) animosity toward Mr. Trump and his views after Curiel rejected his motion for dismissal. Almost two years later, no motion for recusal can be found on the docket of either case, then or now.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Lynette Taylor, wife of former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor, was recently arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and accused of domestic violence after allegedly throwing an object at her husband that left a 3-inch cut across his head, the Associated Press reports.



Lynette, 42, allegedly resisted being placed into custody, though she admitted to throwing the object at the couple's home in south Florida, according to CBS Sports, citing a Pembroke Pines police report released Friday.



Lawrence does not want to prosecute his wife, according to the AP, citing the police report. Lynette is charged with two misdemeanors: battery and resisting an officer without violence, according to the AP.



No attorney was listed for Lynette in court or jail records, according to the AP. But in a video obtained by TMZ, Lynette told Broward County Judge John Hurley that her husband lied to police.



"My husband is a 300-pound linebacker," she said in the video. "I didn't hit him in the head. He lied. We had an argument, and he lied to the police."



 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.



According to documents from the Broward County Sheriff's Department obtained by NJ.com, Lynette was booked Thursday for the misdemeanors after being arrested by Pembroke Pines police, with a bond set of $2,500.



(PEOPLE was not immediately able to reach either Pembroke Pines police or the Broward County Sheriff's Department for comment.)



Lynette's arrest is another mark in a turbulent personal history of her husband.



In 2011, the Hall of Famer known as "L.T." was sentenced to six years probation after he plead guilty to sexual misconduct and patronizing a 16-year-old prostitute. (Taylor maintained the prostitute told him she was 19, according to NJ.com.)



And in 2015 Taylor's son Lawrence Taylor Jr. pleaded guilty to charges of statutory rape and child molestation, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was sentenced to 30 years, with 10 to be served behind bars.
From Good Housekeeping

After my son was born, I lay flat on the delivery table, staring up at the dotted ceiling tiles. I could hear the clinking of the doctor's instruments down below, repairing what I would later learn was a third-degree tear. I noticed a window, and the darkness outside. I heard rain beating against the glass.

For the first time in twenty hours, I formed a coherent thought: That was it? That was the birth experience I had been waiting for? I wished, already, that I could go back in time and do the whole thing over - no screaming, no begging, no pain relief, no forceps-assist at the end. I was overcome by the feeling that I had failed, in some primal way. That there had been a transcendent experience to be had but I had missed it.

"You know," the doctor said, her hands tugging at the thread she was using to sew me back together, "Sometimes the first baby sort of clears a path for the second one."

She was right, I eventually discovered, though not in a clinical sense. In the years that followed, I replayed my birth story thousands of times. If I had white-knuckled through it without the epidural, maybe I would've been able to push more effectively, and the doctor wouldn't have resorted to the forceps. Or maybe if I had been quieter, or had maintained some type of calm. If only I had been stronger, tried harder, focused more.

My biggest mistake, I concluded, was not hiring a doula. I had wanted one, but it was hard to justify spending the substantial going rate in New York City after two rounds of IVF had obliterated our savings and stretched our credit cards to the max.

What I couldn't see that first time was that I just needed someone in the room who truly believed in me. There were things about that first labor that I couldn't have changed. My son, who had spent most of the pregnancy turned breech, hadn't yet dropped in my pelvis when labor began, which made the contractions less effective. He was in a posterior position, which made pushing difficult. Even if I hadn't caved and gone for the epidural, I might've needed help getting him out at the end. But what if there had been someone there to counter my every cry of "I can't do it," with "you can, and you are"? Would those feelings of failure have weighed so heavily, for so long?

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When the second time came, four years later, we did hire a doula. Again, the pain was beyond belief. I screamed and I cursed. At one point I ripped a hospital bed sheet in two. Again, the baby was posterior, and after hours of pushing, this baby required a mechanical assist to finally emerge (a vacuum this time, with much less tearing as a result).

Again, I experienced no after-birth high, just the ringing agony of exhaustion coupled with significant blood loss. But I had done it - no epidural. I might not have felt like superwoman, but I also didn't feel like a failure.

Looking back to compare, as of course I immediately did, it was clear that the poor positioning of my babies' heads, not my own weakness, had been the defining characteristic of my labors. The second labor was much shorter.

The first had cleared the path, just like my doctor had promised. But it was the experience of that second labor that gave me a new way to understand the first. I looked back at the memory of that first-time mom, shell-shocked and full of regret. I tell her it's okay. Labors are tricky, and she shouldn't be so hard on herself.
Never-before-seen treasures held inside the New York Public Library's safe were put on display at a glamorous dinner hosted by Chanel Fine Jewelry last night. Scheduled to be on permanent exhibition in 2017, the New York Public Library's research collection includes over 45 million items; think rare books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, prints, ephemera and more. The Library displayed a sampling of these treasures, including the notable Gutenberg Bible; Vladimir Nabokov's teaching copy of Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert; and an engraved silver and brass friendship ring presented to Irish novelist, poet, and playwright Oliver Goldsmith by dictionary compiler Samuel Johnson in 1767. But of course, all eyes were on the head-to-toe Chanel 2016 looks worn by the those lucky enough to attend. Click through for some of the evening's best outfits.

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Tens of thousands gathered Saturday for Hong Kong's commemoration of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown despite many young activists turning their backs on the candlelit vigil as calls grow for greater autonomy from China.

The vigil, which each year draws huge crowds to the city's Victoria Park, has caused a widening rift in Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp between those who believe the victims of the crackdown should be remembered and those who see the event's message as increasingly irrelevant.

Semi-autonomous Hong Kong is the only location on Chinese soil to see a major commemoration to mark the military's brutal crushing of pro-democracy protests in central Beijing in 1989.

But young activists from the new "localist" movement say Hong Kong should push for its own autonomy, even independence, rather than the democratisation of the mainland, which is part of the vigil's main message.

Localism grew out of the failure of the 2014 student-led pro-democracy rallies to gain concessions from China on political reform for Hong Kong, and a growing number of student groups are now boycotting the vigil to hold alternative gatherings.

A small group of pro-independence activists ran onto the main stage in Victoria Park before the vigil began, demanding Hong Kong break away.

But the park still became a sea of candles as residents paid tribute to the Tiananmen victims -- organisers estimated 125,000 had attended, down from last year's 135,000.

They sang protest songs and chanted "Fight to the end" as footage of the bloody crackdown was shown on big screens.

One young student who took the stage said those boycotting the event did not represent the entire younger generation, to loud applause.

"This is a question of righteousness, so we persevere in coming here," a tearful Tong Hiu-yan, 21, told the crowds.

However, students at a forum at Hong Kong University said they felt little connection with the traditional commemoration.

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"We're the new generation -- it is more meaningful for us to do this. We have to stand against the Chinese regime, but we also have to think about Hong Kong's future," said student Raven Kwok, 20, among hundreds who had gathered for the forum.

The president of HKU's student union, Althea Suen, said the fight was now about democracy for Hong Kong.

Building a democratic China was "not our responsibility", she said.

The Hong Kong Federation of Students -- a founding member of the alliance that organises the vigil -- also stayed away this year, saying the event had "lost touch".

- 'Never forget' -

Some in the park said the event could be improved by seeking more discussion with newly emerged groups, but that without it the memory of Tiananmen could die.

"I feel really sad about this, even though I wasn't born (then)," Cecilia Ng, 19, told AFP. "Many of my classmates don't know or understand what happened."

Despite lower numbers than last year, organiser Albert Ho said there was no such regular protest gathering "in the history of mankind".

After the vigil, scuffles broke out as around 300 protesters marched to China's Hong Kong liaison office.

The confrontation happened when police tried to prevent the group walking in the road, but the march resumed peacefully.

They threw a placard demanding China free all prisoners of conscience over the wall of the liaison office compound and burned paper effigies of former mainland officials blamed for the Tiananmen crackdown.

Hundreds -- by some estimates more than a thousand -- died after the Communist Party sent tanks to crush demonstrations in the square in the heart of Beijing, where student-led protesters had staged a peaceful seven-week sit-in to demand democratic reforms.

The protests are branded a "counter-revolutionary rebellion" by Chinese authorities and many on the mainland remain unaware of the crackdown.

On the mainland, police detained several activists linked to commemoration events while "Tiananmen Mothers" -- an association of parents who lost children during the violence -- were surrounded by security forces as they visited the graves of their loved ones on Saturday.

Tiananmen Square itself was also heavily policed.
The storm that drenched Texas on Saturday, June 4, triggering more flash flooding, moved into south-central Louisiana later in the day. A flash flood warning was issued for the area, according to local reports. Two to four inches of rain were expected, but up to eight inches could fall in some places, the report stated.

This video shows a flooded Lafayette neighborhood where one youngster decided to row and retrieve her neighbors mail for them. Credit: Facebook/Stacy Miller
DailyFX.com -

Yuan Runs Both Ways on US-China Meeting, MSCI Inclusion

Fundamental Forecast for the Yuan: Neutral

The onshore Yuan pairing (USD/CNY) touched 6.5934 on Wednesday, the first time since the plunges in January. This was mainly led by the PBOC, which set the daily fix its weakest level since February 2011 at 6.5889 on the day. The offshore rate (USD/CNH) hit 6.5991 following the PBOCs move; and both Yuan rates extended losses on Thursday while correcting on Friday after a weak US jobs report. The Yuans plunge this week was driven by an entirely different reason from what we saw in January: The PBOC devalued the currency this time in the effort of preparing against the risk of a rate hike from the Fed in June. The markets reaction was considerably different as well as Chinese stocks remained relative stable. In fact, foreign capital inflows saw significant increases over the past six days led by the growing expectation of MSCI inclusion. In the coming week, MSCI inclusion will continue to be a major theme for Chinese financial markets. Also, the Secretary of the US Treasury will attend the annual China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue meetings from June 5th to 7th. Chinas foreign exchange rate regime will be one of the most important topics at these meetings.

The PBOC has been actively preparing the Yuan ahead of Fed rate hike, not just during the past week but during the entire month of May. This has two purposes: A) to reduce the shock of impact (if Fed raises rates) and B) to train market participants to tolerate higher volatility in a global environment. Before March, a 200-pip move in the daily fix was rare. Yet, over the past few weeks, weve can see such moves at least once a week. A more market-based Yuan rate does not only require continued government reforms but also qualified participants. Chinese investors, including many institutional investors were used to protection from the Central Bank. As China takes on a larger role in the global economy, this type of protection is likely to change. The key level for the Yuan is at 6.6000; and should this level become eclipsed, that could bring additional pressure to Chinese markets.

Story continues

Another pertinent theme for Chinese markets in the coming weeks is A-shares MSCI inclusion. In order to increase the odds of MSCI inclusion, Chinas two stock exchanges issued new rules restricting trading halts on May 27 which removes a major obstacle from inclusion in the global Index. Goldman Sachs increased the probability of acceptance to 70% from 60% on Tuesday. In the coming week, the Chinese government may take even more actions to boost these odds, such as launching additional capital flow channel, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect. A positive decision itself is expected to attract a significant amount of overseas funds into China. More importantly, Chinas moves to increase the probability of inclusion could encourage funds to flow into China before the decision. This increased capital inflow could remove a considerable amount of pressure from Yuan rates. This does not ensure of appreciation in Yuan spot rates, as the PBOC may continue to guide the currency to move in both directions as they did on Thursday/Friday of this week.

Next week, top US and Chinese officials will meet in Beijing and exchange opinions on Chinas exchange rate regime, as well as central banks communication to the public for foreign exchange policies. The US Treasury will press China to move forward with a market-determined exchange rate, said by a senior US Treasure official on Wednesday. During the meeting, the PBOC is less likely to make extreme one-side moves to the currency. Yuan rates are likely to float in both directions over the next week. Also, the two parties may issue announcements regarding Chinas foreign exchange rate regime after the meeting, and this is certainly worth keeping a close eye on.



original source

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Donald Trump

Donald Trump doubled down on his attacks against a Latino judge presiding over lawsuits related to Trump University during a Friday interview with CNN's Jake Tapper.

Insisting on eight separate occasions that because he's "building a wall" along the US-Mexico border that he is being treated unfairly, Trump unleashed a tirade against US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel.

"Now, this judge is of Mexican heritage," Trump said. "I'm building a wall, OK? I'm building a wall. I am going to do very well with the Hispanics, the Mexicans."

Tapper pressed Trump a number of times as to whether the attack was racist because he insists on calling Curiel's heritage as a reason why he cannot preside fairly over the case.

"If you are saying he cannot do his job because of his race, is that not the definition of racism?" Tapper asked.

Trump said that it was not.

"So no Mexican judge could ever be involved in a case that involves you?" Tapper pressed.

donald trump

"Jake, I'm building a wall," Trump said. "I'm building a wall. I'm trying to keep business out of Mexico. Mexico's fine. ... He's of Mexican heritage, and he's very proud of it, as I am of where I come from."

But Tapper was quick to point out that Curiel is from Indiana and is American. When Tapper mentioned how Hillary Clinton called the attack racist and how House Speaker Paul Ryan said that he disagreed with Trump's sentiment, Trump called Clinton a "stiff" and said that Ryan "doesn't know the case."

"Look, he's proud of his heritage," Trump said. "I'm building a wall. Now, I think I'm going to do very well."

"I'm going to do very well with Hispanics because I'm going to bring back jobs and they're going to get jobs right now," he continued. "I think I'm going to do very well with Hispanics, but we're building a wall. He's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico. The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings  rulings that people can't even believe.

Story continues

"Well, I'm building a wall, OK?" Trump went on. "And it's a wall between Mexico, not another country."

Trump ramped up his attacks on Curiel during a recent interview with the The Wall Street Journal.

The Manhattan businessman said that Curiel had "an absolute conflict" in presiding over the civil cases against Trump University because Curiel was "of Mexican heritage," as Trump put it, and belonged to a Latino lawyers association.

He added that Curiel's ethnic background was relevant because of his campaign promises to build a wall along the US-Mexico border and deport immigrants living in the country illegally.

"I'm building a wall," Trump told The Journal. "It's an inherent conflict of interest."

Watch the exchange below:

Donald Trump defends invoking a judges Mexican heritage: Ive been treated very unfairly https://t.co/NV7gPiJzUj https://t.co/1CaspahY0R  CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 3, 2016





More From Business Insider


Princess Kate isn't the only royal with second-hand shop connections.



A tartan wool dress coat by Elizabeth Emmanuel that belonged to Princess Diana is one of two garments worn by the late princess that will be up for auction on June 14.



After receiving less-than-positive reviews when Diana wore it on an official trip to Venice in 1985, the sailor-collared dress coat ended up at a high-end second hand shop  dropped off in a bundle of unwanted clothing by Sarah Ferguson's mother, Susan Barrantes. Purchased by a lucky customer in 1990, the one-off piece is now expected to reach up to $21,641.



 Want to keep up with the latest royals coverage? Click here to subscribe to the Royals Newsletter.









Princess Diana's Totally '80s Favorite Dress Is Up for Auction  Plus Another Found at a Second-Hand Shop!| The British Royals, The Royals, Princess Diana



Also up for auction: a 1980s teal sequined dress designed by Catherine Walker, which is expected to reach approximately $144,340 at Kerry Taylor Auctions.



Diana loved the look so much she wore it three times. "It's a real razzle- dazzle number and it was unlike any other piece in her wardrobe," auctioneer Taylor tells PEOPLE, adding that the puff-sleeved creation was "really stylish and quite cutting edge at the time."





Princess Diana's Totally '80s Favorite Dress Is Up for Auction  Plus Another Found at a Second-Hand Shop!| The British Royals, The Royals, Princess Diana



Commissioned by Diana shortly before an official State visit to Austria with Prince Charles, the figure-hugging design debuted on a night out with her husband at the Burgtheater in Vienna on April 14, 1986. Such was the close relationship between Walker and the princess that Diana didn't even see sketches of the dress, let alone try it on, before her trip. She later wore it to a charity ball in 1989 and again for a film premiere in 1993.



Thirty years later, the piece is being sold for a third time, after the death of the current owner, a private collector from Austria who "loved Princess Diana" and wanted the dress to return to the country in which it was first worn, says Taylor.





Princess Diana's Totally '80s Favorite Dress Is Up for Auction  Plus Another Found at a Second-Hand Shop!| The British Royals, The Royals, Princess Diana



It originally sold for $43,800 at Christie's in 1997 and later to the Austrian buyer for $108,206 in 2013, making the dress an impressive investment.





Prince Harry Opens Up About the Influence His Mother Diana Had on His Work





"More and more people are seeing that you are better off putting your money into something like this," says Taylor, noting, "They are unique one-off pieces and after all, there was only one Princess Diana."



An expert in high-end vintage fashion, Taylor has sold several of Diana's dresses over the years and says that interest is far from waning. "Diana was a style icon and whatever she wore one day, the rest of the world copied the next."
By Nate Raymond (Reuters) - A Washington state man was sentenced on Friday to eight years in prison for his role in helping the management of the successor website to Silk Road, an online black market where illegal drugs and other goods were sold. Brian Farrell, who prosecutors say was a staff member for Silk Road 2.0, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle after pleading guilty in March to a charge of conspiracy to distribute heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. Farrell, 27, was arrested in January 2015 as trial was under way in the case of Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the original Silk Road, which authorities say Ulbricht ran under the alias "Dread Pirate Roberts." Ulbricht, 32, was sentenced in May 2015 to life in prison after a federal jury in Manhattan found him guilty on charges including distributing narcotics. Silk Road 2.0 was launched late in 2013, weeks after authorities had shuttered the original Silk Road website and arrested Ulbricht. Like the original website, Silk Road 2.0 allowed users to anonymously buy and sell drugs, computer hacking tools and other illicit items, using the digital currency bitcoin, authorities said. In November 2014, federal authorities in Manhattan announced they had shut down Silk Road 2.0 and arrested its alleged operator, Blake Benthall, who prosecutors say operated the website under the name "Defcon." Prosecutors say Farrell was a key assistant to Benthall and was part of a small staff of online administrators and forum moderators, using the moniker "DoctorClu." In court papers, prosecutors said that during a search of his residence in Bellevue, Washington, in January 2015, Farrell said he worked as Defcon's righthand man. A lawyer for Farrell did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The case is U.S. v. Farrell, U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington, No. 15-mj-00016. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Tony Fadell (pictured) founded Nest with Matt Rogers six years ago, launching with a thermostat that synchs to the Internet and learns from use patterns (AFP Photo/Eric Piermont) (AFP/File)

San Francisco (AFP) - Nest co-founder Tony Fadell said Friday he was stepping down as head of the Alphabet-owned company to become an advisor to chief executive Larry Page.

Former Apple engineers Fadell and Matt Rogers founded Nest six years ago, launching with a thermostat that synchs to the Internet and learns from use patterns.

Google acquired Nest in early 2014 in a deal valued at $3.2 billion, and it later became a unit of a freshly-formed parent company called Alphabet.

Nest offerings have expanded to include smart home security cameras along with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Nest has also become part of Alphabet's strategy to be a platform for devices to be connected and controlled in smart homes.

"Under Tony's leadership, Nest has catapulted the connected home into the mainstream, secured leadership positions for each of its products, and grown its revenue in excess of 50 percent year-over-year since they began shipping products," Alphabet chief Page said in a statement.

Page hailed Fadell as a "visionary."

The new boss of Nest will be Marwan Fawaz, an industry veteran who has done stints as an executive at Motorola Mobility and Charter Communications.

Cadell said that discussions about him stepping down as Nest chief began last year, and that he felt the company was being put into strong hands with Fawaz at the helm.

"I have decided that the time is right to 'leave the Nest,'" Fadell said in an online post.

He added that his new role as an Alphabet advisor should provide "more time and flexibility to pursue new opportunities to create and disrupt other industries."
As the Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague ponders its ruling on the South China Sea arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines, the region and indeed much of the world will be wondering how it may affect the already strained relations between China and the Philippines and the larger picture in the South China Sea.

It is often easy to forget that China and the Philippines have been friendly neighbors for centuries. Many Filipinos have Chinese ancestry, including former President Corazon Aquino and her son, outgoing President Benigno Aquino III.

Since the 1970s when the Philippines illegally occupied eight of China's Nansha Islands and reefs, the South China Sea has become a source of friction between the two countries.

Yet, previous Philippine governments opted for dialogue and consultation with China, and each flare-up ended with reaffirmations of the two countries' joint commitment to addressing disputes through consultation and negotiation.

For example, in 1999, President Joseph Estrada ordered the vessel the Philippines stranded on Huangyan Island to be towed away. And in 2004, President Gloria Arroyo approved a joint marine seismic undertaking in the South China Sea between the two countries, which, upon the consent of both China and the Philippines became a tripartite one with Vietnam's participation the following year.

Bilateral relations flourished despite the disputes and trade grew threefold between 1995 and 2007.

However, things quickly slid into a downward spiral when President Aquino III presided over a serious confrontation with China over Huangyan Island in 2012, which culminated in the initiation of arbitration without prior consultation with China in January 2013.

The Philippines knows well that its submissions, which concern territorial sovereignty, are beyond the scope of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. As for maritime delimitation, the Chinese government made a declaration in accordance with UNCLOS in 2006, excluding disputes concerning, among others, maritime delimitation from the compulsory dispute settlement procedures of UNCLOS.

Furthermore, the arbitration move both breached the Philippines' bilateral agreement with China and its obligations under the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, which calls for negotiated settlement of disputes among the sovereign states directly concerned.

The Philippines' real motive is to challenge China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea and seek legal cover for its illegal occupation of Chinese territory. It is entirely lawful for China to take the position of not accepting or participating in the arbitration. As a matter of fact, the ruling has neither legal force nor binding effect.

The arbitration drama has much to do with the United States. Sometimes seen as an outsider, the US has loomed large in the South China Sea issue from the very beginning. After Japan's defeat in World War II, it was the US which provided military vessels for Chinese troops to take back the South China Sea islands pursuant to international legal instruments, including the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation. The US did not challenge the Dotted Line when it was publicized by the Chinese government in 1948.

Over the recent years, however, the US' stance has changed from somewhat tacit recognition of Chinese sovereignty to neutrality, and then to instigating trouble by proxy. Now it has become a protagonist itself by flexing its military muscles and challenging China's sovereignty.

Clearly, the US sees the South China Sea as an emerging frontline for geostrategic rivalry with China. Such a grim view only exposes the US' own strategic anxiety and risks evolving into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

China remains committed to upholding peace and stability and addressing disputes through consultation and negotiation. But for China, there is very little room for compromise on issues of territory and sovereignty. The US provocations will only create a real danger of a head-on collision with China.

Having said that, for all the saber-rattling by defense hawks in Washington, there is little appetite in the US for conflict with China over a few rocks in the faraway West Pacific. And China, which is pursuing a policy of good-neighborliness, has little interest in seeing relations further strained. The best way out for all sides would be to work toward an easing of the situation.

First, China should seek ways to work with the incoming Rodrigo Duturte administration to minimize the negative impact of the arbitration and achieve a turnaround in relations with the Philippines, especially when Duturte has indicated a willingness to engage China on the South China Sea issue.

Second, China should solidify mutual trust and cooperation with its neighbors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which will provide an anchor of stability in the South China Sea. We should promote the early conclusion of the code of conduct for the South China Sea with ASEAN countries based on consensus and work toward a rules-based regional order.

Third, China and the US should find a way out of their security conundrum. They should enhance crisis management mechanisms to avoid accidents, and engage in more candid dialogue at the strategic level to avoid misjudgment and build trust through cooperation.

Both US President Barack Obama and his successor should share the vision of Chinese President Xi Jinping: There is no such thing as the Thucydides trap, but should major countries repeatedly make the mistake of strategic miscalculation, they may create such traps for themselves.

The author is a Beijing-based observer of international studies.

(China Daily 06/04/2016 page5)
(Adds comment from Pratt & Whitney)

DUBLIN, June 3 (Reuters) - Qatar Airways has cancelled its first Airbus AIR.PA A320neo jet and remains at an impasse with the European planemaker over delays in deliveries caused by engine problems, its chief executive said on Friday.

Akbar Al Baker said the carrier would soon start talks with alternative engine supplier CFM, a joint venture between General Electric Co and Safran SA of France. It has held talks with rival planemaker Boeing over switching to 737s but was not yet walking away from Airbus, he said.

"We will switch to the MAX if we cannot resolve our issue. We will go to current option 737s and convert it to MAX," he said, adding he was sure Boeing could find production slots.

Al Baker has refused to accept planes with engines made by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp, because the engines required additional time to start under certain conditions.

The airline said in May it was reducing the frequency of more than a dozen regular routes from Doha because of hold-ups in the delivery of new planes from Airbus.

The delays are affecting Qatar Airways' profit, but the carrier is not seeking compensation, Al Baker told reporters on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association annual meeting in Dublin.

"We are five aircraft down this summer. This is why we are screaming because it is making a huge impact on my bottom line," Al Baker told journalists.

"We are still at an impasse. We have walked away from our first A320neo because it is more than a certain number of days late, so exercised a walk-away clause," Al Baker said, adding the carrier would exercise walk-away clauses on the other four delayed planes when they reach the time limit.

He added he is also still waiting for deliveries of three A350 planes, which have been held up since February due to issues with cabin equipment.

He said he expects Airbus to deliver 10 of the planes as promised this year and that he had met with the CEO of Airbus's planemaking unit, Fabrice Bregier, and programme executive Didier Evrard on Thursday to "iron out the issues".

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"The ball is in court of Airbus. We will start delivery of the airplane delayed from February imminently, provided the issues we have are resolved," he said, adding the A350 problems were likely to be resolved before the A320neo issues.

Pratt & Whitney in a statement said Al Baker's remarks were "inaccurate and mischaracterize the performance of the engine."

Pratt's PW1100G-JM engine has been certified, has been delivered to three other airlines and meets performance and contract specifications, including a 16 percent improvement in fuel efficiency, the company said.

"We have resolved the very few initial teething items airlines have experienced," Pratt said. "Production engines shipping today to Airbus already include hardware and software improvements. In fact, solutions for the items are well known and have been extensively covered in detail by the media." (Reporting by Victoria Bryan and Alwyn Scott; Editing by Conor Humphries and Cynthia Osterman)
DUBLIN, June 3 (Reuters) - Qatar Airways has cancelled its first Airbus A320neo jet and remains at an impasse with the European planemaker over delays in deliveries caused by engine problems, its chief executive said on Friday.

The delays are having an impact on Qatar Airways' bottom line, but the carrier said it is not seeking compensation, Akbar Al Baker told reporters.

The airline announced in May it was reducing the frequency of more than a dozen regular routes from Doha because of hold-ups in the delivery of new planes from European manufacturer Airbus.

"We are 5 aircraft down this summer. This is why we are screaming because it is making a huge impact on my bottom line," Al Baker said at the International Air Transport Association annual meeting in Dublin.

"We are still at an impasse. We have walked away from our first A320neo because more than a certain number of days late, so exercised a walk away clause," Al Baker said.

He said he still expects Airbus will be able to deliver 10 of the larger A350 planes as promised this year.

"We will have no alternative but to lease. We awaiting final response from airbus," he said. We are "not talking about compensation. It is about us getting aeroplanes so we can meet network requirement." (Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Writing by Conor Humphries)
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

By Vladimir Soldatkin and Olesya Astakhova

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia, the world's top oil producer, plans to continue its consultations with OPEC and may hold a meeting with the group this autumn, Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, of which Russia is not a member, failed to agree on output targets on Thursday, at its first meeting since April when Saudi Arabia refused to sign up to an oil output freeze without Iran - which is trying to recover market share after the lifting of sanctions - ruining a wider global agreement.

"We will continue our relations with OPEC... We have an energy dialogue format which we will continue. We will for sure do a related meeting this year," Novak said, referring to consultations on the market situation between Moscow and OPEC.

Brent oil prices held at around $50 (34) a barrel on Friday although OPEC did not agree on output targets, supported by Saudi Arabia's pledge not to flood the market with more fuel.

Novak said Saudi Arabia had the capacity to increase output but he thought that Riyadh would stick to a "balanced" oil production policy.

Saudi Arabia was pumping at an average of 10.25 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) in May, slightly up from 10.15 million bpd in April, a Reuters survey showed. Russian output was slightly down to 10.83 million bpd in May.

REBALANCING

Having been pessimistic over the timing of the market's imbalance receding, energy ministers, including Novak, have started to note signs of it heading back towards rebalancing.

The International Energy Agency said in May that unplanned disruption to output in Canada, Nigeria and Libya could help run down a global overhang of unused crude this year, while demand will benefit from growing gasoline usage.

"It was a successful meeting, it was full harmony among members. We reviewed thoroughly market's status of oil supply and demand. The worst was over," Qatari Energy Minister Mohammed Al-Sada told reporters in Moscow, referring to the OPEC meeting.

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"The market is heading towards rebalancing."

Al-Sada said he saw "huge shrinkage in investments" in the oil industry because of the recent price weakness - down to as low as $27 per barrel in January - "which can lead to shortage down the road."

"Investment is needed to come back so that we can sustain production and satisfy the market medium to long term," he said.

On Thursday, OPEC decided unanimously to appoint Nigeria's Mohammed Barkindo as its new secretary-general after years of friction over the issue.

Novak, who was meeting al-Sada on Friday in Moscow as a part of a regular inter-governmental commission, told reporters that he saw the appointment of a new secretary general as a key OPEC decision.

He reiterated that Russia did not expect any new actions from the cartel and said he kept his forecast of an average oil price for 2016 at between $40 and $50 per barrel.

(Writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Adrian Croft and David Evans)
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Taipei, June 4 (CNA) Former President Chen Shui-bian () travelled to Taipei Saturday to attend a dinner to be held by the Ketagalan Foundation, despite warnings that he might have to face the consequence of returning to jail if he is found to have violated the conditions of his medical parole.
Beijings foreign minister Wang Yi is a perfect representative of the regime.Arrogant. Prickly. Disdainful. Contemptuous. Dismissive. Belligerent. And darkly menacing, despite the impeccable tailoring.If nothing else, Wangs nasty outburst against iPolitics reporter Amanda Connolly over her question at Wednesdays press conference in Ottawa about civil rights in China has clearly shown what sort of government foreigners must now deal with in Beijing.You have to hope the nature of Wangs performance seeped into the consciousness of Foreign Minister Stephane Dion and the Liberal government. There are signs already that the Liberals are feeling a little queasy about their election campaign promise to boost economic ties with China through  among other things  a free trade pact.Polls show that Canadians are a good deal more realistic than the Liberals about the implications of closer economic ties with Beijing; theyre apprehensive, in fact. Last year Canada sold just under $20 billion in goods to China  most of it food and natural resources  and bought nearly $66 billion in Chinese product, mostly manufactured goods. A free trade agreement would boost those numbers, but the overall effect would be to increase the trade deficit in Chinas favour.It may be because of the Liberals awareness of Canadians skepticism that Wangs visit was not announced until a mere 24 hours before he arrived. He was in Ottawa for what were told was the inaugural Canada-China Foreign Affairs Ministers Dialogue, the first of planned future annual meetings between the two nations. Historically, these formal annual bilateral meetings are widely and joyously publicized as evidence of close diplomatic ties. But not in this case. There was no prior publicity for this new arrangement.The Liberals have good reasons for feeling anxious. This is not the Beijing of 1970, the country that was looking beyond the murderous, isolationist rule of Mao Zedong and welcoming diplomatic recognition through Prime Minister Pierre Trudeaus Canada.Nor is it the Beijing of 1994, when Jean Chretien  fronting for the Canada-China business community led by his son-in-law, Andre Desmarais  led the first of his Team Canada armadas to China. There still seemed the possibility then that trade and economic advancement in China would lead to political reform.Thats no longer the case. Wang on Wednesday faithfully portrayed the attitudes of his boss, President and Communist Party boss Xi Jinping. Xi is overseeing a return to levels of repression in China not seen since the days of Mao.Indeed, many old China hands contend that Xi has amassed more personal power than Maohad, partly because trade with countries like Canada has made the regime massively rich. It can afford the modern toys and tools of authoritarianism and rampant, expansionist nationalism that Mao never could.Censorship in China is now more pervasive and efficient than it has been for more than three decades. Any organization that might challenge the authority of the Communist Party is slaughtered at birth. The prospects for the advent of the rule of law are also stillborn. In recent months, lawyers who have had the temerity to defend people the Communist Party wants to lock up have found themselves the targets of fabricated charges and imprisonment.And the suppression of dissent  or even contrary views  doesnt stop at Chinas borders. Wangs outburst in Ottawa on Wednesday is representative of Beijings attitude towards the international media these days. His ranting claim that the question asked about human rights  specifically about the detention since August 2014 of Canadian Kevin Garratt on unspecified espionage charges  was full of prejudice against China is typical of the myth Beijing tries to peddle these days. This story the regime constantly feeds its citizens  that the world is against China and wants to hold it back  is meant to foster intense nationalism and patriotism, and to divert attention from the regimes many failings.In Canada, Beijing has made it clear that a free trade deal depends on Ottawa pushing through an oil pipeline from Alberta to the British Columbia coast. And if that means Ottawa must override existing planning and environmental assessments, and thumb its nose at what Canadians themselves think about such a project, so be it. You want Beijings trade? Adopt Beijings values.regime is to be avoided when possible  and approached with extreme caution when necessary.
The government is on the attack of families in Canada who heat their homes with wood. The announcement is made in an attitude that implies they are criminals, a paria group. On the face of it, we can say why not implement it.? It's a primitive method of heating, so why not ban it?. Already, when the family is reeling from the announcement, it is sucker-punched by having to deal with an automatic devalue of his home at the same time. No compensation plan could be found to help them out that would soften the blow of the legislation effect. The threat alone casts aspersions on any unfortunate family who manages to augment his heating expenses in this way, and by owning such a home, it is immediately devalued by it.



I would suggest the people should start to lobby now on this attack on our basic common British law, that states we have a right to heat our homes and have shelter and feed our familiies using the resources that are available around us. This scene is reminise of the treatment of the Irish by the British and their trying to sustain a living is similar freezing conditions. But if we dig deeper past this travesty on our foundational rights that protect us and keep our children and families warm and alive, lets study this case a bit closer.



The pollution is one factor for implementing the law. But then we recall that Ontario was pretty well all forest before there was any farming. Nature replenished the forest allowing differing species to grow by burning off the higher canopy by lightning storms, which allowed the sun to shine in to the ground flora. Vast areas were consumed at once, with polution gaining higher than 11% at times. We can see immediately that wood burn particles in the atmosphere is a natural occurance in nature. At no time in history did nature by the use of lightning strikes, ignite #1 or #2 furnace oil so that it's burning byproducts would enter the atmosphere as a plan for the regeneration of the forest.



So if we know there is some natural level of wood particles in the air, what is the real contributor that is the alien hiding in that atmospheric mix? It's the coal and oil burning, and carbon contributors. It makes sense to the policy makers. If they can get rid of the wood burning, that will give them an additional 11% edge in points to meet their international commitments. That will buy them time and get the watchdogs off their backs while they keep burning carbon fuels at current volumes.



But can we believe what is said to us on face value? Quebec is one of the major proponents of this new policy. How does that explain the kneejerk implementation of measures to introduce artificial forest burning in the Montmorency region in order to help out the suffering plant species in the park. It would seem plants have higher priority than keeping babies and families warm. Now you have one fact, there are others.



Finally, we need to forensically weed out the possibility that those who have the most to gain out of it, aren't hypocritically lobbying to pad their pockets by lessening the odds of payouts to homeowners of wood stove owners, yes, I'm talking about the insurance companies, oil companies and their distributors.



We as citizens have a duty to watch out for our neighbour, and insure he is being dealt fairly. We need to examine all the facts. This is a time for fact gathering, not a lynch mob mentality. We need to ensure that a specific case follows with a reasonable transition period for those affected. It does not call for a threat at this stage.



These are not criminals as the government implies by the threats, they are families tring to keep warm using the same age old methods that nature intended for them to use, and helped to give birth to our very species. It is not their fault that mankind as changed the planet to a point where this method cannot be used.



Don't fall for the hype, question your member of parliament, get real facts, and ensure that your fellow citizens are fairly treated in any new legislation implemented.
Tera Kucera loves success stories.

And she sees many of them at Care Corps Family Services in Fremont.

Kucera has been the interim executive director at Care Corps since December and was a volunteer before then. In this job, she leads an agency that last year served more than 500 people. Her time at the local agency has given her the chance to see many people rebuild their lives.

One of those is a chronically homeless man with severe mental illness. The man had been at Care Corps, twice a year, for the last eight years. He never stayed long enough for case management workers to address his issues.

The last time he was here, we were able to get him set up on disability and got him into a mental health therapist, Kucera said.

He got help managing his medication and is in a supportive housing program.

It is the first time hes been housed in his own apartment in his life, Kucera said, adding, The most rewarding part is how our community came together afterward and helped with furniture and everything for his home.

The community came together to help the man  who now plans to volunteer at the shelterbecome successful.

That was pretty awesome, Kucera said.

Such successes bring reward to Kuceras job and are part of why she enjoys being at Care Corps.

Originally from Texas, Kucera moved to Nebraska when she was 17.

Shes been in retail management for the past 20 years. She has worked for Blockbuster, Direct Buy, Famous Footwear and Bath and Body Works.

After her mother died three years ago, Kucera made a change in her life path. She went back to school and was taking classes when she came to Care Corps in March 2014 as a volunteer through the AmeriCorps program.

As a volunteer, she did intake work, helping assess clients needs. She managed the shelter on weekends.

She was hired as a case manager in 2015 and then became interim executive director. She replaced Michael Wehling, who had resigned after five years at the nonprofit to serve at the Stephen Center in Omaha.

When I was asked to step into the interim position, I felt I could use my many years of management and leadership skills to help transition Care Corps into the future, she said.

Kucera and her husband, Tom Barr, were married on May 1. She has two daughters, Taylor, 25, and Tyler, 20, and a granddaughter, Izzabell, 3.

She has enjoyed her work at Care Corps.

Every day is a new adventure, Kucera said. Every day, I am able to see individuals and families that are getting back on track and being sustainable in their own community.

She also likes seeing her staff grow. There are 14 paid employees, four of whom are part time.

One new staff member is Lindsey Valla, development and public relations director.

Born in Nebraska City and raised in Johnson, Valla graduated with a degree in communications and public relations from Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo., in 2007. She began working while in college.

She worked at a Feeding America food bank in Missouri. She left the food bank in 2008 and worked for a national food service advertising agency based in Chicago. Accounts included Tyson Foods, Smuckers and M&Ms. She missed the food bank and returned there in 2009.

We worked on a Capital Campaign at the food bank to raise $5 million to build a new facility, Valla said.

The 50,000-square-foot warehouse distributes food and supplies to more than 200 nonprofit organizations and provided major support after the Joplin tornado disaster.

Valla would work for the Missouri food bank for a total of 10 years and was involved in development and public relations.

I loved my job there, but I met my husband, Paul. Our families both live in Nebraska so it made sense for me to move here, she said.

The two met in 2013 and married in 2015.

Lindsey Valla began doing contract grant writing in January 2016 and officially joined Care Corps on March 1. She has enjoyed seeing the passion people have for Care Corps. She appreciates the knowledge that case managers possess and the people who are getting back on their feet or already have done so.

Hearing the personal stories of people who were once homeless and now are succeeding made a big impression on me, Valla said.

Valla was surprised when talking with a community member who didnt realize that there are homeless people in Fremont.

We have unveiled new quarterly newsletter, Care Corps Chronicles, and are gearing up to work on a new website, Valla said.

Im excited about that, Kucera said.

Kucera noted something else.

In the past six months, weve really started going a lot more in-depth with our case management, focusing on uncovering peoples barriers and helping them to create goals and action steps to overcome those barriers, Kucera said.

The goal is to help people become successful so they wont need to return to the shelter.

Some do return, however, to volunteer. And volunteers are needed. Thats what the formerly homeless man, who now is in his own apartment plans to do. Kucera said the man intends to provide outdoor maintenance at the shelter.

Hes so excited to be able to do that, Kucera said.

The man now has hope and a future.

This is exactly why we do what we do every day, Kucera said. Hes just one of the many success stories weve had.
Food is controversial. The recent kerfuffle over the proposed Costco poultry processing plant in the Fremont area shows evidence of that community wrangle.

And the folks at We Support Ag, an organization devoted to the support of livestock agriculture practices and producers, knows that controversy better than most.

In Kearney, NE., June 14, We Support Ag will host a daylong seminar titled Livestock Crisis Management Seminar which plans to address important issues pertaining to the management of the consequences of controversy that can, as recent news stories have shown, directly impact a farmer, his work and his family.

In late 2015, news reports began to surface of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) skimming the skies over rural Nebraska. The remotely controlled drones, piloted by animal activists overflew Nebraska feedlots, pastures and family farms, raising concerns of spooked animals, privacy issues and radical activist behavior. Some news reports suggested the drones might have been the result of a New York Times article form earlier in 2015 that cultivated objections over the treatment of animals at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) in Clay Center, NE.

The Crisis Management Seminar plans to address preparation farmers and producers can implement to protect their farm and families from the expected or unexpected site visits from individuals and organizations with agendas that sometimes border on the extreme, especially where animal rights are concerned.

Not everyone appreciates about how much of a misunderstanding there is about rural America, said Executive Director of We Support Ag Ansley Mick.

It doesnt take much to find the anecdotal evidence about the illiteracy people have when it comes to from where their food originates. Only a few quick search words typed into Google search will turn up a plethora of stories, quotes and humorous examples about children who think carrots are little orange things that come in a plastic bag or that peaches come from a can or that chicken nuggets come from a Happy Meal.

Controversies over livestock management practices represent emotional issues for many people. Mick emphasized that farmers, producers and agricultural workers care about their animals just as much, if not more than a lot of people. And because they support their families through work in the food production industry, bringing those livestock products to the kitchen table  or the Happy Meal  they want to maintain quality care of their animals and environment. Their livelihood relies on it, Mick explained.

Their primary goal is to have something to leave the next generation, Mick said, In order to do that (they) have to be good stewards to the land ... and (they) have to have healthy and comfortable animals ... comfortable and healthy animals are more profitable.

The genesis of the Kearney Livestock Crisis Management Seminar grew from conversations between livestock producers and officials with We Support Ag. Producers expressed trepidations about the drone flyovers of 2015, as well as worry over animal rights protests regarding issues of animal welfare at USMARC. Producers wondered how to address those types of unexpected visits. They worried about property damage as well as damage to their business due to lost work time or buyers and sellers who pull out of contracts because of misinformation. That misinformation can sometimes be spread by extreme activists, Mick pointed out.

One side has the luxury of misinformation, she said, citing other examples of undercover of alleged animal abuse videos that often emerge online through social media websites like YouTube.

Mick explained that such videos are often taken out of context leading to fallout that can damage reputations and economic vitality of family farms.

She admitted, that farmers and agricultural producers are human, and humans make mistakes.

So when (animal abuse) truly does happen  those are isolated incidents  It happens in every industry, she said.

Through the seminar Kearney, Mick explained the We Support Ag just wants family farms and other producers to have a plan of action.

We want people to be ready if something on their property, or on their operation does happen, Mick said.

Growing up in rural Nebraska, with a background in agriculture, Mick carries a lot of compassion for those working in the business. As executive director of We Support Ag, she works to provide education about the agricultural world to producers, businesses and the public. The organization combats legislative ballots in Nebraska that could hurt the states livestock producers and it also employs the use of social media to disseminate facts that can help curb misinformation.

The Livestock Crisis Management Seminar takes place June 14 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Kearney Holiday Inn. Tickets are free and lunch will be served. Mick encourages those interested to RSVP by emailing ANSLEY@WESUPPORTAG.ORG.

Ive already received a lot of interest from the University of Nebraska Extension and agricultural organizations, Mick said. We want to encourage growers to come out and interact.
The Taliban spring offensive is well under way in northern Afghanistan. Barely three years ago, northern Afghanistan was a relatively peaceful part of the country. It was a welcome situation for the governments of the Central Asian states, who fear Afghanistan's problems could create instability among its neighbors.

This year there is fighting in all eight of the Afghan provinces that border Central Asia. It's been close to two decades since there was such widespread violence along Central Asia's southern border.

RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk, spoke with officials in Faryab Province, one the Afghan provinces bordering Turkmenistan, to try to get a picture of the situation there.

Colonel Reza Rezai is the spokesman for the Afghan National Army's 209th Brigade, which is stationed in northern Afghanistan. "As of June 1, there is heavy fighting in the Gormach district, several militants were killed and security forces had casualties also," Rezai said. "The districts of Qaysar, Dowlatebad, and Khoja Sebiz Posh came under attack and traffic on the Ankhoi-Maymana highway is suspended."

The Gormach and Dowlatebad districts border Turkmenistan. Ankhoi is where the planned Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan railway is supposed to enter Afghanistan from Turkmenistan.

Rezai said that "the security post in Khoja Sebiz Posh has been overrun by militants," as have two villages in the district. "Eighteen villages in Qaysar district are currently under the control of militants, and the Taliban also has an overwhelming presence in the Pashtun Kot district."

The chief of the Faryab provincial council, Tahir Rahmani, echoed Rezai's assessment. Rahmani said there was "fierce fighting" going on in Pashtun Kot district and also that militants were getting closer to the provincial capital, Maymana.

Jawid Bedar, the spokesman for the Faryab governor, said fighting was nearing Maymana and that without reinforcements the city could fall. Bedar said the militants had blocked the highway leading east from Maymana to Sheberghan, capital of Jowzjan Province.

Local officials told Azatlyk that most of the militants in Faryab are from Central Asia -- Turkmen, Uzbeks, and some Tajiks. These officials also said the militants had control of some areas adjacent to the Turkmen border.

The security problems in northwest Afghanistan continue despite several trips to the region by Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former general who comes from the region. Dostum has led at last four offensives against militants in northwest Afghanistan since the summer of 2015. His forces have chased the militants from many regions, but when Dostum departs the militants return.

Azatlyk director Muhammad Tahir contributed to this report
HAMPTON  Samuel Showalter of Hampton is one of 10 U.S. soybean farmers from soybean-growing states across the nation who will take part in an educational program this summer with stops in St. Louis, Panama and Costa Rica as part of the United Soybean Boards (USB) See for Yourself program.

Theres no better way to show someone the value of their checkoff investment than to show them the results first-hand, says Keith Tapp, a soybean farmer from Sebree, Kentucky, and chair of USBs Audit and Evaluation Committee which sponsors See for Yourself. Its important for U.S. soybean farmers to see customers around the world who rely on their hard work to grow the best soybeans in the world.

Showalter is the only Iowan in the contingent, which from Aug. 4-12 will get the opportunity to see how the soy checkoff increases demand for their soybeans.

The See for Yourself program gives participants a first-hand look at how and where their soybeans are being used both domestically and internationally. It also offers farmer-participants an opportunity to evaluate specific, checkoff-funded research and promotional activities.

This years program includes a tour of the Panama Canal, where work continues to expand the waterway used to ship almost half of all U.S. soy exports. In Costa Rica, participants will learn about one of U.S. soys biggest oil customers.

For more information on the United Soybean Board, visit www.unitedsoybean.org.
BOONE  The 2016 Hay & Forage Expo, the industrys only two-day event, will include educational seminars on high-interest drone and weather topics for this years event to be held June 22 and 23 at the Central Iowa Expo site near Boone.

The site also will be host for the 2016 Farm Progress Show which will be held in late August.

Farmers who attend the Hay & Forage Expo love the demonstrations and enjoy watching the equipment in action. We wanted to expand on that and offer educational programs as well, says Matt Jungmann, events manager for Penton Agriculture. Two of our education programs are hot topics in agriculture, drones and the weather.

Producers want to use drones to improve field scouting and we want to help them understand the regulations and restrictions of this type of technology. And weather is always a crucial subject for farmers and they want to learn about weather trends and how they will affect the growing season.

A hay auction will be held Wednesday, conducted by the American Ag Video Auction.

All presentations will be held at the show site in the Morton Building located at Sixth Street and Central Avenue.

The educational program and auction schedule:

11:15  Weather Outlook for Crops 2016 and Beyond presented by Elwynn Taylor, Iowa State University. A very strong El Nino that reminds us of 1983 and 1988 has folks in the Corn Belt a bit on edge in 2016. But the El Nino event of 1998 was a good crop event. Weather records and forecasts are giving us ever-better ways to anticipate how our crops will turn out.

12:15  The Future of Commercial Drone Operations presented by Philip A.K. Stiles. The use of drones in the agriculture industry has exploded over the last five years. Now with the FAA catching up on regulating drone use, Stiles will explain current regulations, what you need to know if you are using a drone service or flying your own drone and talk about the future of drone use in the ag industry.

3  Hay auction (Wednesday only).

New Products

and Equipment

The Hay & Forage Expo provides easy access to the new hay and forage technology with an extensive exhibit area and working field demonstrations conducted throughout each show day.

The two-day event showcases mowing, conditioning, baling and hay handling demonstrations on prime alfalfa acres. Visitors have multiple opportunities to compare the most popular equipment brands operating side by side under actual field conditions.

The shows website features a map and detailed driving directions. Admission is free; parking is $10 per vehicle. For more information visit HayExpo.com or call 866-264-7469. The public is welcome.
JOHNSTON  Gov. Terry Branstad on Friday defended his meeting with a new appointee to the state board that governs Iowas three public universities before the opening was official.

Branstad discussed the issue with reporters Friday after taping an episode of Iowa Press that will appear on Iowa Public Television on Friday, June 10, and Sunday, June 12.

Mary Andringa on April 27 announced her resignation from the state Board of Regents, and on May 6, Branstad announced the appointment of Mike Richards, a longtime friend and political ally of the governor, to replace Andringa.

Branstad met with Richards on April 22, five days before Andringas resignation, according to a report Thursday by The (Cedar Rapids) Gazette.

Branstad said Friday that he did not ask Andringa to resign, and he defended his meeting with Richards before the public was aware of a pending opening on the Board of Regents.

When I heard from Mary Andringa that she was intending to resign at the end of the month, I started thinking, Who would be really good? And I wanted somebody that I felt that the universities would respect and that would be able to represent the people of Iowa and had the right kind of temperament, could work with the other members of the board, Branstad said. I just felt that he would be a good choice. Thats why I invited him in for an interview.

Branstad said he was not concerned by the optics of meeting with a potential appointee before the opening was public, even after the regents last year were criticized for holding private meetings with businessman Bruce Harreld before naming him president of the University of Iowa.

Branstad also does not think his early meeting with Richards will jeopardize his confirmation by the Iowa Senate, the governor said.

No, I dont see a problem because I know Mike Richards so well, Branstad said. I know what a great temperament he has and what a great commitment hes got to public service.

Branstad called Richards a good friend who is the godfather to the governors son Marcus. Branstad said he likes Richards experience in medicine and business; Richards is a retired physician who also worked with the Iowa Health System and now is a partner in a manufacturing business in Orange City.

I just think the fact hes got this medical background, got this business experience, hes got this really good temperament, Branstad said. And hes also a very dedicated individual thats willing to put in the time that it takes.

During taping of Iowa Press, Branstad said he did not ask Andringa to resign.

She informed me before it was announced publicly that she intended to resign, Branstad said. She just felt it was a bigger undertaking than she wanted.
MASON CITY  Police in Mason City are reviewing a complaint alleging an off-duty officer hit a parked car last month and didnt make good on her promises to pay for damages.

In a 12-page complaint sent to city officials this week, Barbara Larson, of Mason City, said Officer Jennifer Barr hit Larsons parked Toyota about 1:45 a.m. Saturday, May 7, at 1529 S. Virginia Ave.

Larson alleges that Barr tried to hide the fact that she was a police officer. As a result, Larson didnt report the crash for several hours.

She took an oath of office to serve and protect, Larson said.

Larson claims Barr has not fulfilled her promise to pay for all out-of-pocket damages not covered by the officers insurance company.

Barr, who has been an officer since 2009, had no comment when reached Thursday at her home in Mason City.

She has not been charged with a crime or faced department sanctions and remains on duty.

The citizens complaint calls for Barr and Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley to be fired. It also asks that other officers be investigated for possible wrongdoing.

Brinkley said the department is reviewing some aspects of the complaint, but the crash itself will not be investigated due to the delay in reporting it.

The review will focus on Barrs actions after the fact, including whether Larsons allegations that Barr smelled of alcohol and was driving home from a bonfire at a police officers home have any merit, Brinkley said.

I think that that would be something that we would work on trying to figure out, he said.

The results of the review will determine if an internal investigation is warranted, Brinkley said.

Barr didnt undergo any sobriety testing the night of the crash, because the incident wasnt immediately reported to police.

Iowa law requires that vehicle accidents involving an injury or more than $1,500 in damage be reported on a state form within 72 hours of the accident, but there is no requirement that a police officer be called to investigate.

Had the accident been reported at the time, Brinkley said, state troopers would have been called in to investigate.

Larson and her boyfriend, Brad Brosdahl, say they didnt call police right away because they felt sorry for Barr.

They say its a mistake they will not make again.

There is no state law or policy requirement for Mason City police officers involved in off-duty accidents to disclose they are in law enforcement.

I dont want the officer to be treated worse because theyre a cop. I dont want them to get treated better, Brinkley said. I want them to be treated like anybody else would thats in the same set of circumstances.

Larsons boyfriend, Brad Brosdahl, says Barrs alleged failure to disclose her position did make a difference on May 7.

She didnt give us enough information for us to make the best decision as to the circumstances, said Brosdahl, a retired military officer. And, she took an oath of office. When she took that she knew she had to hold herself to a different standard.
OSAGE  It was 50 years ago when Margaret Christiansen became the first female letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Office in Osage.

She was the second female to be employed at the Osage office. Prior to Christiansen being hired on May 31, 1966, Olive Ormsby served as a postmaster. Two other women had worked as short-term fill-ins.

Christiansen said she got the idea to become a letter carrier one day when she was looking out the window at the male letter carrier.

I said to myself, I can do that, she said.

Christiansen was the only female of five potential employees taking the test, scoring lower than the men, but none of them wanted the job because it was advertised as two hours every two weeks, plus 24-hour on-call.

Christiansen thought the men who qualified didnt want the job because of the uncertain times to work, especially since they were all farmers.

At the time she was a housewife and a checker at a local grocery store.

Christiansen said she never got called in during the night and ended up working 20 to 40 hours each week, quite different from the one hour a week advertised.

As a postal employee, she was required to wear a maroon beret and a postal blue jacket along with blue jeans.

I didnt have the money for a jacket so a guy loaned me his jacket so I would have one to wear, she said.

During her 25 years with the postal service she walked a mail route, unloaded the mail truck, sorted mail and worked the window.

There were about 20 men working at the post office and only two of them would talk with me, said Christiansen. I never was certain why. I dont believe they were too crazy about having a female around. It took some time for them to come around.

Christiansen said she most enjoyed helping people get their mail when it was not addressed correctly.

She recalled a time about a postcard being delivered to the post office addressed to Myrtle from Dr. Bill of Arizona. After a few minutes, she recognized the name and was able to deliver the postcard.

After the automation system came, you were no longer able to provide that personal service, she said. I retired right before computers came into the post office. No one knew how to run them, and it was a great time to leave.
FOREST CITY  Dogs dont just know how to apprehend a suspect or find drugs. Someone has to teach them.

Police dogs and their partners from law enforcement departments across the state trained in the former Spahn and Rose Lumberyard outside of Forest City recently.

Trainers taught dogs and their human partners various skills in the multi-day session, organized by Andy Klein of the Hancock County Sheriffs Office.

During one training day, Klein was inside an empty building working on a drug identifying drill while instructor Matt Harris of Black Hawk County was working on a suspect apprehension drill.

Klein watched as Chico, the Winnebago Industries Security K-9, and his partner, Caleb Blocker, walked around the empty building. Klein had placed methamphetamine in a closed box in the building.

Drug dealers will often use sheetrock, coffee and other materials to mask the drug odor and distract the dog, Klein said.

When the dogs found the drugs, the partners praised them and gave them a favorite toy. The praise and the toy are motivators and a key part of training and everyday work.

Blocker, who is in his first year of being a handler, appreciated the training and meeting other police dog partners.

Klein said the K-9s  some 10 years old; others new  were a good mix. Four trainers and 15 K-9 teams participated.

All can learn, he said.

A suspect apprehension drill one morning involving a woman differed from other drills.

Harris said dogs need to hear a female voice and response in the drill.

We dont want them to get startled when they hear the voice or a high-pitched yell, Harris said. We dont want to put a dog in situation on the street that they havent been in before.

Heather Duenow, an agent with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, was the volunteer suspect who was chased and caught by the dogs.

Its amazing what these dogs are capable of, Duenow said. She was dressed in protective gear so she was safe when the dogs grabbed her shoulder, backside or leg.
MASON CITY  When they met in junior year, Meeghan Rodamaker and Katelyn Miller discovered they had a common goal  entering a military academy.

It was an unusual passion for two best friends now set to graduate from Mason City High School on Sunday.

After voluminous paperwork and initial medical roadblocks, both will report to their service academies on June 30  Rodamaker to the Naval Academy and Miller to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

I think theres a lot of mixed emotions for both of us, said Miller.

They are among a group of seven from Mason City set to join the military after graduation. They are also among 10 students this year entering the schools Academic Hall of Fame with a perfect 4.0 grade point over four years.

At Annapolis, Rodamaker plans to become a surface warfare officer after studying political science and psychology. Miller hopes to become a pilot, but her major is undecided.

Both are entering the military as it begins to officially recruit women for combat jobs, including as Navy SEALs, which could see women serving in previously male-only Army and Marine Corps infantry units by this fall.

The top Army and Marine Corps generals told U.S. senators in February that it will take up to three years to fully integrate women into all combat jobs. And they have insisted they will not lower standards for the combat posts or bow to pressure or quotas to get more women into the grueling frontline jobs.

I think it goes to show anyone can do what they want to do, Rodamaker said. If you have those qualifications it should be open to you.

During her year-long application process, medical screeners found Rodamaker carried a mutation for Factor V Leiden  a rare condition that could make her more prone to abnormal blood clots if she would become pregnant.

She was accepted on appeal after Congressman Steve Kings office intervened.

Both application processes made them question whether this is what both of us want, said Miller.

Since eighth-grade, Miller had watched two older siblings leave and graduate from West Point. Entering the Air Force Academy was her first goal, even if it means going into combat one day.

Whatever they need me to do, Ill do and thats how I look at it, Rodamaker said.

My moms very supportive of the four years, she said. I think she struggles a lot with the fact that her baby girl could be in danger. I dont know anyone that wouldnt have struggled with that.

Others MCHS graduates headed for the service are Madeline Kruse, Iowa National Guard; Devan Rindels, Army; Kari Siefken, Air Force; Matthew Stephens, Marines; and Jazzlynn Thompson, Marines.

Its a hard decision to make, especially when you are 18, Rodamaker said. Its a huge commitment. You are signing away a lot.

Throughout basic training and their careers, both plan to keep in touch.

Well be writing to each other, Rodamaker said. Well have some good stories.
Warren B. Bud Roath

MASON CITY  Warren B. Bud Roath, 80, of Mason City, Iowa, died Thursday, June 2, 2016, at the Rockwell Community Nursing Home in Rockwell.

Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, June 7, at the First Covenant Church, with the Rev. Steve Johnson officiating. Interment will take place in Memorial Park Cemetery with Military Honors conducted by the Mason City Veterans Association.

Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m. on Monday, June 6, at Major Erickson Funeral Home, Mason City.

Memorials may be directed to the Warren Roath memorial fund in care of the family.

Arrangements are with Major Erickson Funeral Home & Crematory, Mason City.
NEW YORK, June 03, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of shareholders of Deutsche Bank AG (Deutsche Bank or the Company) (NYSE:DB) and against certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and docketed under 16-cv-03539, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired Deutsche Bank securities between April 15, 2013 and April 29, 2016 inclusive (the Class Period). This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act).



If you are a shareholder who purchased Deutsche Bank securities during the Class Period, you have until July 11, 2016 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased. Click here to join this action.

Deutsche Bank provides investment, financial, and related products and services worldwide.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Companys business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Deutsche Bank has serious and systemic failings in its controls against financing terrorism, money laundering, aiding against international sanctions, and committing financial crimes; (2) Deutsche Banks internal control over financial reporting and its disclosure controls and procedures were not effective; and (3) as a result, Deutsche Banks public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On July 22, 2014, The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled Deutsche Bank Suffers From Litany of Reporting Problems, Regulators Said, stating that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that the Companys U.S. operations suffered from a litany of serious financial-reporting problems that the Company had known about for years but not fixed.

On this news, shares of Deutsche Bank fell $1.05 per share or approximately 3% from its previous closing price to close at $34.80 per share on July 22, 2014, damaging investors.

Over the next two years, more compliance issues at Deutsche Bank came to light, as media outlets and the Company reported investigations by regulators and an internal probe by Deutsche Bank into possible money laundering by Russian clients, causing Deutsche Banks share price to fall and damaging investors. Finally, on May 1, 2016, The Financial Times published an article entitled FCA warns Deutsche on serious financial crime control issues, stating that the United Kingdoms Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) sent a letter to Deutsche Bank on March 2, 2015, accusing it of having serious and systemic failings in its controls against financing terrorism, money laundering, aiding against international sanctions, and committing financial crimes. The FCA stated that its investigation uncovered, among other things, incomplete documentations, lack of monitoring, and influencing staff to take actions related to specific clients, which all amounted to a serious and systemic controls failure. On May 1, 2016, Bloomberg published a similar article entitled Deutsche Bank Said to Be Faulted by FCA Over Lax Client Vetting, stating that the FCA faulted the Company for serious lapses in efforts to thwart money laundering and criticized the Companys ability to verify clients abilities and goals, or ensure that it wasnt aiding organizations subject to international sanctions.

On this news, shares of Deutsche Bank fell $1.62 per share or approximately 9% over the next two trading days to close at $17.34 per share on May 3, 2016, damaging investors.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com




NEW YORK, June 03, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against LendingClub Corporation (LendingClub or the Company) (NYSE:LC) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Northern District of California, and docketed under 16-cv-02627, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired LendingClub securities: (1) pursuant and/or traceable to LendingClubs false and misleading Registration Statement and Prospectus issued in connection with the Companys initial public offering on or about December 11, 2014 (the IPO or the Offering); and/or (2) on the open market between December 11, 2014 and May 6, 2016, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to recover compensable damages caused by Defendants violations of the Securities Act of 1933 (the Securities Act) and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) (the Class).

If you are a shareholder who purchased LendingClub securities during the Class Period, you have until July 15, 2016 to seek appointment as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

LendingClub, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an online marketplace that connects borrowers and investors in the United States.

The Complaint alleges that in connection with the IPO and throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the LendingClubs business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) LendingClubs internal controls were inadequate to ensure that LendingClubs loans conformed to its customers criteria; (ii) LendingClubs internal controls were inadequate to ensure that relevant interests in third-party transactions were fully and timely disclosed; and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, LendingClubs public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On May 9, 2016, LendingClub disclosed in an SEC filing that on May 6, 2016, the Companys Board of Directors had accepted the resignation of Defendant Renaud Laplanche (Laplanche) as the Companys Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The Company reported that Laplanches resignation was precipitated by an internal review that found that the Company had sold $22 million in loans, made to consumers with low credit scores, to a single investor (later reported to be Jefferies LLC (Jefferies)), in violation of the investors express instructions.

In the same filing, the Company also disclosed a failure to inform the boards Risk Committee of personal interests held in a third party fund while the Company was contemplating an investment in the same fund. Media outlets subsequently reported that Laplanche had failed to fully disclose a personal interest he held in Cirrix Capital while the Company was contemplating investing in the fundan investment that Laplanche had himself proposed to LendingClubs risk-management committeeand that LendingClub Board Member John Mack also held an undisclosed interest in Cirrix Capital.

On this news, LendingClubs stock fell $2.48 per share, or nearly 35%, to close at $4.62 per share on May 9, 2016.

On May 9, 2016, post-market, news outlets reported that the SEC was investigating LendingClubs disclosures.

On May 10, 2016, Bloomberg and other news outlets reported that Goldman Sachs and Jefferies had halted their purchases of LendingClub loans. That same day, the U.S. Treasury Department issued a White Paper describing the online lending industry as untested and calling for more regulation.

On this news, LendingClub stock fell $0.52 per share, or 11.3%, to close at $4.10 per share on May 10, 2016.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com
CHICAGO, June 3, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stir Crazy Fresh Asian Grill Restaurants Inc. today announced its plans to "...show our appreciation for Dads everywhere" with a special "Dads Eat Free" offer on Father's Day - for lunch or dinner on Sunday, June 19th - treating them to their choice of either the Chicken or Steak Fresh Market Bar - and its free.

"Stir Crazy is inviting everyone to join us and honor your Dad, your Father or your "Pop"...bring the whole family and we'll treat him to a free lunch or dinner with his choice of either our Chicken or Steak Fresh Market Bar," said Rich Lee, executive chef, Stir Crazy Fresh Asian Grill Restaurants Inc.

The offer is good on Sunday, June 19th at all five Stir Crazy locations in Illinois, Florida, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. For more information, including their 20th anniversary menu, visit the Stir Crazy website at: www.StirCrazy.com, or via Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/stircrazyfresh.

"At Stir Crazy, with our Fresh Market Bar Creations, we give you the freedom to create your own sizzling wok tossed stir fry with the freshest ingredients and your choice of our housemade sauces," explained Lee, adding that "Dad" is welcome is to choose from either our Chicken or Steak as their protein with their Fresh Market Bar.

In addition to a wide variety of popular Asian-inspired entrees, tapas and desserts, the Fresh Market Bar is a popular choice with guests, who enjoy being able to create their own unique dish - consisting of their choice of rice or noodles, fresh vegetables and protein and have it prepared to order by our chef.

Guests are also welcome to enjoy Stir Crazy's popular Sushi Rolls or the new Chef's California Roll, as well as a variety of items from Stir Crazy's 20th anniversary menu - including a great selection of handcrafted cocktails.

A photo accompanying this release is available at:

http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=40485
BOSTON, June 04, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Excitement abounds at Abrams Hospitality Marketing according to President and CEO Stephanie Abrams, executive producer and host of two nationally syndicated radio shows, Travel WITH Stephanie Abrams and Travelers411. Spring 2016 has brought awards, recognitions, and growth of Stephanie Abrams Travel Fairy Godmother philanthropic mission to help people travel for special reasons! Abrams Q2 achievements include reaching 3000 broadcast hours, taking the Bronze Award for Best Website from the League of American Communications Professionals (LACP), welcoming new sponsor UK National Trust/North Coast, Northern Ireland, and rejoicing at being the catalyst to bring Irelands acclaimed teenaged operatic soprano, Galways Aimee Banks, together with a major US orchestra and internationally acclaimed opera soprano Maureen OFlynn. Spring has truly sprung! Abrams declares.



Winning the Bronze Best Website Award from LACP is the result of a compelling collaboration of Abrams broadcasting and tech teams and Persistent Visions, the agency which powers the sites. Abrams notes, Abrams Hospitality Marketing Online took 96 out of 100 points coming in 3 points behind the Platinum winner, MasterCard! My hilarious friend, Mark Leslie, CEO of Martello Media, a company accustomed to winning awards for visitor center experiences they create globally, said to me, Youre obviously slipping to let MasterCard get three points ahead of you! Our budget and staff cant compare to the Goliaths who won Silver, Gold and Platinum earning 1-2-3 points more than we did. Clearly, we are passionate about excellence.

Confirming the websites evaluation is LACP Managing Director Christine Kennedy: The first impression presented by this entry is excellent while the overall artwork is outstanding. The readability presented by Abrams Hospitality Marketing Online is exceptional, tied with creativity that is truly outstanding and outstanding excellent clarity.

Abrams response is a simple, Wow!

Abrams Travel Fairy Godmother mission has embraced Irelands teenaged award-winning soprano, Aimee Banks, facilitating an audition with a major US orchestra, hosting her US visit where she performed at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA and the Whitney Center for the Arts in Pittsfield, MA. Abrams invited vacationing acclaimed international opera soprano Maureen OFlynn to meet her and Aimee at Killarney Plaza Hotel in Co. Kerry, Ireland. Maureen listened to Aimee sing and said, I dont encourage most people to pursue singing careers but you, darling, are the real deal! Aimee represented Ireland in the 2015 Jr. Eurovision Song Competition and continues winning singing competition awards. She is charming and amazingly talented. She dreams of singing with Andrea Bocelli and Josh Groban.That would be incredibly powerful! Abrams states.

Asked what she does in her spare time, Abrams replies, Im working diligently on finishing my first travel guide, 1001 Reasons to Visit Ireland. Then Ill start the sequel to my critically acclaimed novel, RUMORS!
VeritasPrepBrian wrote:

Hey mundasingh123:



Interesting question - and, honestly, I don't think that this is anything they'll test specifically so I'm not too worried about it either way. I've reluctantly learned what "participle" and "gerund" mean over the years, but I could still answer these questions correct 99% of the time without knowing those terms/concepts 5-6 years ago because I focused on the bigger-picture errors that they explicitly do test.



In this case, I actually think that the second one is wrong and the first one is right. "Peter's winning the marathon" gives you two nouns in a row which you really can't have without a transition. You'd probably have to say that "I heard about Peter's winning OF the marathon", which is also really awkward and probably wrong, too, but you need a way to separate those two nouns.



Sentence 1...you know, if I had a choice between:



I heard about Peter winning the marathon



and



I heard that Peter won the marathon



I'd pick #2 every time. In that comparison, the first may actually be wrong because the modifier "winning the marathon" could refer to both "I" and "Peter". Did I hear about him while I was winning the marathon? Or did I hear that he won the marathon? If I had a choice that left this potential ambiguity out of the mix (like my proposed #2), I'd definitely take #2.



________________________________________________________________________



Now, hopefully that explanation doesn't confuse more than it clarifies, but even if it does, I think it brings up an important point about GMAT sentence correction: even the editors at the New York Times struggle with some of this nitty-gritty grammar stuff, and usually if they get to that point they'll just rewrite the sentence entirely. Simply put, it's impossible for a pre-MBA student to become perfect at "all things grammar". The best you can do is:



1) Do the things that you can get good at - the major error categories like S-V agreement, Modifiers, etc. - extremely well, and look for opportunities to use those first.



2) When you're down to a few remaining choices and it seems as though you can't use the major categories, then look at Logical Meaning and Clarity of Meaning - does the sentence make logical sense? Is there room for ambiguity and/or confusion? More often than not thinking logically is much more effective than is trying to break down sentences on a purely grammatical basis. I'd argue that using the words "gerund" or "participle" in your thought process on the verbal section is akin to multiplying a series of 3-digit numbers on the quant section - you could do it, but you're probably working too hard and overlooking an easier way (logic on the verbal; number properties on the quant).



I hope that helps...



Try to give back something to the Forum.I want your explanations, right now !

Please let me know your opinion about the Chandigarh Gmat Centre My Post Invites Discussions not answersTry to give back something to the Forum.I want your explanations, right now !Please let me know your opinion about the Chandigarh Gmat Centre http://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-experience-at-chandigarh-india-centre-111830.html Signature Read More

Hi Brian, I am concentrating on the areas that you mentioned but every now and then i face a deadend when i come across a 700 level (or anything that is tough for me ) question on the gmat club/BTG. Most of the time i am not able to bracket such questions under any of the sections that you highlighted._________________